A young Cuban woman from Holguín unexpectedly became the center of attention at the XXV Central American and Caribbean Games this Saturday by raising a protest sign during the opening ceremony held at the Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Katherin, known on social media as "Aprendedora," posted a photo on Instagram where she stands among the audience, holding with both hands a cardboard sign that reads: "PONME LA CORRIENTE PING***," with the last word written in red, and the phrase "Cuba Libre" in the upper right corner. The post description was: "Supporting Cuba at the Central Americans."
The image garnered over 7,300 likes and 154 comments in just a few hours, with reactions from Cubans both on the island and abroad who recognized in the poster a protest against a crisis that has been suffocating the country for months.
The message directly addresses the electrical catastrophe that Cuba is experiencing in 2026. The National Electric System collapsed for the fourth time this year on July 10, and the generation deficit reached 2,174 MW on May 14, leaving nearly 70% of the island without electricity simultaneously. In Matanzas, up to 87 consecutive hours without power were recorded; in Havana, average daily outages lasted 15 hours.
Katherin emigrated from Holguín to the Dominican Republic in 2026 after multiple failed attempts. She has been in Santo Domingo for approximately 121 days and documents her migration process on her YouTube channel, where her video "This was my last attempt to leave Cuba" surpassed 1.1 million views. In that material, she described the cost of emigrating — selling all her belongings for less than 500 dollars — and the weakness of the Cuban passport in the world.
In a video published on July 12, the young woman spoke about the emotional impact of following news from Cuba while living abroad: "It is very painful to see what they’re doing from your country. A circus. A circus. While my family has been without electricity for two days, while there are people who don’t even have enough to eat."
His protest takes place at an event that the Cuban regime uses as a sporting showcase. Cuba registered 504 athletes for Santo Domingo 2026, its largest delegation in recent years, with the official goal of finishing among the top three in the medal tally with at least 67 golds.
However, the Games began overshadowed by defections. On July 24, field hockey goalkeeper Moisés David Torres Puig became the first Cuban athlete to leave the delegation during these Games. Weeks earlier, nine of the 12 members of the canoeing team had defected in Montreal between July 15 and 18.
Katherin's gesture connects the personal experience of exile with the collective denunciation of a crisis that, as she pointed out in March, has emptied millions of Cuban homes: "Since 1959, more than 2 million Cubans have emigrated. In Cuba, there is hardly a family today that doesn't have an empty chair, and that is unforgivable."
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