The Cuban visual artist and writer Hermes Entenza published a heated critique on Facebook this Friday against the statements made by Cuba's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, who told the New York Times that the island would not exclude Donald Trump or his companies from investing in the country.
The Deputy Foreign Minister stated to the American newspaper last Friday: "If you wish to invest peacefully, we have no particular reason to exclude you," adding that the real obstacle is the laws of the United States, not those of Cuba. Entenza, originally from Sancti Spíritus and residing in Germany, reacted with fury to the regime's hypocrisy.
"What angers me is that, after so many years inciting hatred towards the north; after parades, horns, pamphlets, and young pioneers shouting slogans without even knowing who those they hate are; after so much bottled garbage with imported and recycled political byproducts where it was shouted that 'anyone who doesn’t jump is a Yankee,' this guy comes along to rub in our faces that longing (because it is longing) for the fiercest enemy — according to them — to set up little businesses in that 'triumphant' socialism they proclaim," wrote the artist.
The core of their outrage is not the potential investment from Trump itself, but rather the contradiction that this opening reveals in light of specific instances of repression.
The most emblematic case is that of the rapper and activist Maykel «Osorbo» Castillo Pérez, co-author of the opposition anthem "Patria y Vida," transferred in July to the maximum-security prison in Guanajay after being sentenced in June 2022 to nine years in prison.
"One of the reasons why the artist Maykel 'Osorbo' Castillo Pérez is in prison is because he stated, in front of a snitch, that he was a Trump supporter. Saying that is not a crime anywhere in the world; only in Cuba," Entenza pointed out, and posed the question that sums up the paradox: "Will they release Maykel 'Osorbo' today? Don't they find it ridiculous that Donald Trump chooses to invest in the island while an artist is imprisoned for believing in him?"
In prison since May 2021, Castillo was sentenced in June 2022 to nine years for charges of outrage against national symbols, contempt, assault, public disorder, and defamation. His imprisonment is considered arbitrary and politicized by human rights organizations.
The writer also recalled the case of the youth group Fuera de la Caja, censored in February 2026 by the government program Con Filo for wearing caps with the slogan "Make Cuba Great Again," accused of promoting Trumpism.
"Will MAGA hats be legalized in Cuba now, or will only the wealthy in power be part of this new love?" he asked ironically.
Entenza turned to Cuban political language to illustrate the magnitude of the shift: the term "gusano" was officially created to refer to those who admired or thought in a Yankee style, and the nickname "Yuma" was coined to describe that north which the regime presented for decades as the enemy, but which became the true utopia for millions of Cubans.
"Now, the foreigners can invest, go for a stroll, have mojitos at El Floridita, [...] enjoy life, while the islanders, stunned, without a penny, hungry, sad, or imprisoned for being traitors, watch them enjoy the new socialism where capitalism is in charge and calls the shots," he wrote.
Fernández de Cossío's statements come in the context of an economic opening promoted by the regime in light of the deep crisis facing the island: in June 2026, the government approved a package of 176 measures to relax foreign investment, and in July Decree 153/2026 came into effect, which modifies the regulations of the Foreign Investment Law of 2014.
Among the comments on social media, several internet users agreed that the openness to foreign capital exclusively benefits the power elite, while the average Cuban still lacks access to foreign currency, food, and freedom of expression.
Entenza concluded his text with a direct condemnation of the nomenclature: "Figures like this Carlos Fernández de Cossío and all the satraps of power and the PCC, along with those who applaud and raise their hands in a show of adherence to everything said from the podium, should be imprisoned in those very jails where so many youths suffer for being accused of being worms."
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