The Cuban actor Armando Tomey published a reel on his Instagram account in which he dismantles the rhetoric of Miguel Díaz-Canel about the "Cuban utopia" using everyday analogies, in direct response to a statement made by the leader during an interview with RT en Español on July 20, 2026.
In that interview, Díaz-Canel quoted the metaphor popularized by Eduardo Galeano and originally attributed to filmmaker Fernando Birri: "The utopia is on the horizon. When we walk two steps, the utopia retreats two steps. And the horizon moves forward ten steps. What is the purpose of utopia? To keep walking. I would say that hope is the same."
The statement was widely received as an evasion in light of the lack of concrete solutions to the crisis facing the island.
Tomey responded with a series of comparisons that illustrate the gap between official rhetoric and Cuban reality: "It's like I live in front of a canal and want to make you believe that I live in front of a wide river like the Mississippi."
Analogies are linked with surgical precision. "It's like I'm walking backward and I want to make you believe that I'm walking forward," says the actor. He then adds, "It's as if I have the mud here up to my neck and I want to make you believe that I'm bathing in the luxurious waters of Varadero."
The most direct statement points to political repression: "It's like if I were to imprison people for thinking differently than I do, and then I say that I don't have political prisoners."
The closing of the video is directed at Díaz-Canel himself: "It's like I believe I'm the president of a country when I'm actually just a puppet, a clown, and an abuser. It's believing I'm intelligent when in reality what I'm talking about is nonsense, nonsense, and more nonsense."
In the description of the reel, Tomey was even more emphatic: "THE CUBAN UTOPIA is more than a Machiavellian joke; it is a deadly cancer that has destroyed a nation, subjecting it to hunger, repression, and hopelessness."
Tomey was not the only one to react. The comedian Ulises Toirac published a parody mocking the metaphor with references to blackouts and the failure of the "utopian journey," while the actor Luis Alberto García demanded "facts, not promises" on July 22.
The context surrounding Díaz-Canel's interview intensifies the weight of the criticisms: in that same conversation with RT, the leader acknowledged that no fuel ship has arrived in Cuba for six months—except for one from Russia— in a country that requires between 90,000 and 110,000 barrels daily and produces barely about 40,000. Additionally, he promised to implement 121 of more than 170 economic transformations before the end of July 2026.
Tomey, born in Camagüey and a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1981, emigrated to the United States in 2013 and currently resides in Port St. Lucie, Florida. From exile, he maintains a consistent critical stance towards the Cuban regime. This is not his first recent statement: on July 4th, he had already published the message "So when is Cuba?", questioning the direction of the island.
The reel garnered 5,598 likes and 383 comments, a response that reflects the frustration of thousands of Cubans in the face of an official discourse that, rather than offering solutions, presents horizons that always recede.
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