Miguel Díaz-Canel celebrated on his X account this Tuesday the university graduations taking place in Cuba under the slogan "Century of Fidel," describing them as "great news," while the Cuban educational system is experiencing one of its worst crises in decades.
"A great piece of news is flooding the networks: despite the energy blockade, punishments, and threats, our universities are celebrating their graduations for the Centenary of Fidel with the beauty and emotions as always. Congratulations graduates, the Homeland counts on you to break the siege," wrote the leader.
He accompanied his message with images of ceremonies at various universities across the country, where students proudly displayed their graduation diplomas.
What the tweet omits is the real context in which this 2025-2026 course took place: a year marked by power outages of up to 50 consecutive hours, massive class suspensions, and emergency decisions that reveal the collapse of the sector.
The government had to cancel the university entrance exams for the 2026-2027 academic year, announced on May 20, replacing them with the cumulative academic average from pre-university due to the inability to ensure minimum conditions for the exams.
Shortly after, the authorities announced an early end to the school year to take place from June 15 to June 30, also due to the energy crisis and the lack of fuel.
The University of Holguín completely suspended classes from February 6 until March 2026. The University of Oriente held its provincial graduation on June 15 and 16, but was unable to transport students from Granma, Holguín, and Guantánamo to the central campus due to a lack of fuel, delivering their diplomas in their own territories.
On March 5, classes were suspended at all levels in Havana, including preschool circles, due to a massive blackout caused by a fault at the Antonio Guiteras power plant.
This picture is compounded by a deficit of 24,000 teachers —12.5% of the vacant positions— with salaries ranging from eight to twenty dollars per month at the informal exchange rate.
The reaction of Cubans to Díaz-Canel's tweet was predominantly critical. "Do you know how many graduates are surviving on the streets? Doing anything that brings them more money than their profession. Our professionals are frustrated, unless they are in leadership positions," replied a user.
Other comments pointed in the same direction: "And then they don't have jobs, what irony."
Another person emphasized the brain drain the country has been experiencing for decades: "More than half of those graduates will leave Cuba."
The reality behind Díaz-Canel's words is backed by concrete figures: Cuba lost more than 30,000 doctors between 2021 and 2024, and it is estimated that 545,000 Cubans emigrated in 2025 alone, primarily between the ages of 20 to 40, which is exactly a part of the generation that is receiving diplomas today.
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