The comedian Ulises Toirac issued a direct challenge this Friday to the Cuban government leadership, urging them to abandon their privileges, move into ordinary homes in impoverished neighborhoods like Palo Cagao or Old Havana, and travel in riquimbili just like the rest of the people, without shortcuts or special benefits.
"It occurs to me that, as a way to show solidarity (and to represent with knowledge of the situation) with the people, the leaders should leave their homes and move into a regular living space... I don't know, maybe in Palo Cagao, in Old Havana, in La Lisa, in a normal residence," proposed Toirac on his Facebook account.
The comedian went further and specified the means of transportation: "Leave your cars behind too, so you can get around like we all do in Cuba. A riquimbili that organizes your thoughts with the potholes from San Isidro to the Plaza can be very good for structuring your thinking. There, squeezed to the side and jumping in and out."
Toirac included a condition that leaves no room for escape: "Note: it's not like they're going to regular homes and then connect them to prioritized electricity and water circuits or provide them with solar panels or bring them free food bills... right?"
To support his argument, the comedian invoked the very Marxism that the regime espouses: "Take your medicine: Marxism: social being determines social consciousness... Because their social consciousness (according to the classics) is not ours. We live in two different countries."
Toirac's challenge is not a rhetorical exercise, but a demand for coherence. "The point is that they share the living conditions in which they all claim it is possible to live and resist," he wrote.
The publication arrives on the same day that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa visited the Güinera Defense Zone to, according to the regime, emphasize food production and water supply.
The images of the officials sparked a deluge of mockery on social media. "All very fat, while asking the people for sacrifices. They have never solved anything in 67 years, and they won't do it now," wrote a user.
Toirac's text is the most concrete expression of a critical movement that has grown among Cuban cultural figures in recent weeks.
Days ago, the singer-songwriter Raúl Torres called on leaders to get down from their air conditioning and step onto the streets. At the end of May, the reporter Cesario Navas denounced that the elite walk around with blinders in luxury cars, oblivious to the country’s collapse.
Toirac himself has been intensifying his critique for months. At the end of June, helashed out at those who speak about Cuban suffering "from the always bright home, from a full pantry, from a chosen temperature." In another reflection, he stated that Cuba is in a maze without a solution.
The backdrop is an unprecedented structural crisis, marked by record electrical deficits, widespread food shortages, and a country that imports between 70% and 80% of what it consumes, with a drop of 81% in rice production and 61% in egg production.
In January 2024, the regime approved a Code of Ethics that requires leaders to "reject privileges and favoritism." The images from this Friday show that this rule has left no visible mark.
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