A Cuban resident in Havana reported on Facebook that the main obstacle to the country's well-being lies within the island, amid the worst crisis that society has faced in recent decades.
“The problem in Cuba is here inside, it’s us,” stated Yisell Boutros Guerrero, whose video garnered nearly 73,000 views with its message.
In the seven-minute clip labeled #abajotodo, the young woman summarizes the conviction that no external actor will resolve what the Cubans themselves are not willing to confront.
The trigger was an episode that she describes as hypocritical: some friends installed a private power plant in her neighborhood, and the neighbors started gathering signatures to report them.
Boutros Guerrero describes these neighbors as government officials who "live in mansions," have "modern B-license cars," solar panels, and heaters in their homes, while the rest of the population has been without stable electricity for months.
"Here we have the right to everything, to live as human beings, and yet we do not live as human beings," he says in the video, before pointing out the contradiction of those who complain about the noise from a foreign plant while enjoying energy privileges that most cannot afford.
The video was produced during the worst moment of the Cuban electric crisis in decades. In July 2026, the generation deficit reached 2,341 MW, with blackouts lasting up to 72 hours in some provinces.
That situation has sparked a wave of pot-banging protests in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Cienfuegos, with neighborhoods such as Lawton, El Vedado, Centro Habana, Guanabacoa, and Old Havana serving as the epicenters of the protest.
Boutros Guerrero had already been identified on July 22 for sharing images of protests featuring pot-banging, bonfires in public spaces, and demonstrations in La Cumbre and Colón.
This Saturday, while she was posting her video, neighbors in Lawton returned to the streets with pots and extinguishers during another night of blackouts, coinciding with a call for a national pot-banging protest.
The author is emphatic about disassociating herself from any external organization or funding.
"Nobody motivates me; my life motivates me, the work I go through. I don’t need anyone from the United States sending me toothpaste or soap," she states, emphasizing that her only reason for speaking out is her indignation about what she experiences daily.
His criticism is not limited to the government. Boutros Guerrero also points to the passivity of many Cubans: "I don't understand why people prefer to go to a political event, to attend an event to receive a worthless diploma, or to go to an event just to keep a job or a salary that doesn’t even reach 3,000 Cuban pesos, which doesn't even provide enough for a carton of eggs."
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded a record of 107 street protests in June 2026, with 82 of them occurring in Havana. In May, the national figure reached 1,311 protest actions, the highest ever documented in a single month.
Boutros Guerrero is part of a growing trend of Cubans who use social media as a platform for denunciation from within the island, but with a distinctive nuance: his message does not absolve society of its responsibility.
"There is a very significant issue of conscience and an even greater problem of inequality," he concludes, before ending with a warning that is also a promise: "I won't keep that poison inside me."
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