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The Cuban writer Daína Chaviano published a powerful text this week on her Facebook profile, in which she denounces the complete collapse of Cuba and questions the legitimacy of the regime to speak on behalf of the Cuban people. Her statements were motivated by the interview granted to USA Today by Colonel Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro (El Cangrejo), grandson of Raúl Castro.
In his Facebook post, Chaviano describes the grandson of the nonagenarian general as "a bodyguard —whose only merit is carrying the blood of the family that governs Cuba through repression and imprisonment— who has given an interview where he claims he is willing to negotiate with another country to alleviate the economic crisis of the island, as if he were the representative of a people that never elected him to speak on their behalf."
The author, exiled in Miami since 1991, points out that the interview revealed that neither he nor those around him have any intention of renouncing the wealth and power that the ruling family has accumulated for three generations.
“They continue to be intent on perpetuating themselves, while blaming others for the catastrophe they have caused,” wrote Chaviano, who also directed his criticism at the UN for giving a platform to spokespersons of a regime that, in his words, imprisons and tortures women and minors whose only crime is to ask for food and freedom.
"What is most terrible is that organizations like the UN—created to uphold peace, justice, and to condemn dictatorial and fascist regimes—give a platform to the representatives of those executioners," stated the writer, who does not hesitate to label those who impose repression on the island in this way.
Chaviano paints a devastating picture of the Cuban reality: he refers to the millions of Cubans who have managed to escape the island, while more than eight million who remain in its territory survive in extreme poverty, with elderly people dying of hunger in the streets and children rummaging through trash in search of something to eat.
These figures align with the reality documented by independent economists: Cuba is facing, in 2026, an estimated GDP contraction between 6.5% and 15%, blackouts lasting between 20 and 40 consecutive hours in some areas, a real inflation rate close to 70%, and a minimum wage equivalent to 4.65 dollars per month, while about 96,060 pesos are needed to meet basic needs.
The writer describes the situation as a "silent and insidious genocide that the international community prefers to ignore, because many make distinctions between types of extermination depending on who commits them. Some are condemned; for others, like the one suffering in Cuba, they are not even acknowledged."
The text by Chaviano is also published in the context of the fifth anniversary of 11J, the historic protests of July 11, 2021. This Sunday, that date was commemorated with new pots and pans protests in Old Havana and a strong pots and pans protest in Guanabacoa, while 1,281 political prisoners remain incarcerated, 338 of whom participated in those demonstrations.
In April 2026, Chaviano had already pointed out that the current crisis surpasses even the Special Period of the 90s, noting that the population has returned to cooking with charcoal, something that hadn't happened before. She also revealed then that Cuban military officials in high positions are quietly opposing the regime, according to information from a confidential source.
The writer's followers responded en masse to her post, sharing testimonies from family members on the island and expressing their agreement with the diagnosis she outlines. Several commented that the depiction of elderly people dying of hunger and children searching for food in the garbage reflects scenes that have become commonplace in many Cuban municipalities.
Chaviano concludes his text with a statement that encapsulates the abandonment felt by the Cuban people in the face of the world's indifference: "From that paradisiacal island, only a land steeped in misery remains: the anteroom of a hell from which it will never escape, unless its inhabitants manage to do so on their own, for the world does not seem willing to help."
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