Yahily Hernández Porto, correspondent for the state newspaper Juventud Rebelde in Camagüey, posted a direct mockery of Cubans protesting against the regime on her Facebook account, taking advantage of the July 26 celebrations to ridicule those demanding change from the streets.
"Let the Apátridas suffer! For the couch liberators, the pro-Yankees, the apátridas, and the scrawny imperialists: Here I am in a revolt for the 26th of July," wrote the journalist, accompanied by four laughing emojis.
Hernández Porto attended the provincial event held at the Casino Campestre in Camagüey, which she described as "the largest urban park in Cuba," where the regime commemorated the 73rd anniversary of the assault on Moncada and paid tribute to the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth.
"The gathering becomes fraternal and rebellious, historic and moving, Cuban and mambi. We love you! Homeland or Death! We will overcome!" he emphasized.
The publication is not an isolated incident for this journalist.
In March 2026, Hernández Porto had already generated criticism for presenting the reverbero —an improvised emergency kitchen— as a "symbol of domestic resistance," instead of acknowledging it as evidence of the energy crisis affecting the population.
The sarcasm of the official correspondent contrasts with a reality that the regime itself cannot completely hide: Cuba is going through its worst crisis since the Special Period, with an electrical system operating at a deficit of between 1,780 and 2,215 MW and outages exceeding 30 consecutive hours in some areas, simultaneously affecting more than 70% of the country.
In that context, popular protests have reached unprecedented levels.
The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 107 street protests in June, a historical record, while Cubalex raised the count to 253 protests and 319 repressive events during that same month.
The slogans have evolved from asking for electricity to demanding freedom and the end of the dictatorship, while the regime's response has included militarization, arrests, and internet disruptions.
Hernández Porto's mockery fits into a broader pattern of official propaganda that clashes directly with reality.
The national central event of July 26 was assigned to Pinar del Río, a decision that generated massive outrage on social media because the province is facing power outages of over 20 hours daily, more than 40,000 families without housing, and only 63% of the damage caused by Hurricane Ian resolved.
In Matanzas, the first secretary of the PCC, Mario Sabines Lorenzo, celebrated that his province was declared "Outstanding" in the Moncada emulation while admitting in his own speech that "sometimes there are 50, 60 hours in some circuits of our province" without electricity. The response on social media was immediate: "Outstanding Matanzas, in the blackouts!", users mocked.
The municipality of Holguín, designated as the provincial seat for July 26 despite its residents receiving only three hours of electricity for every 39 or 40 hours of blackout, generated a similar reaction: "What are the achievements? No electricity, no water, they don’t collect the trash, for these reasons we earned the seat," wrote a user on social media.
While the state press celebrates events and hurls slogans of "Homeland or Death! We Will Overcome!", the Cuban economy has contracted between 15% and 23% since 2019, the dollar exceeds 600 pesos in the informal market, and more than a million Cubans have left the Island since 2021.
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