On the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth, his grandson Fidel Antonio Castro Smirnov visited the dictator's grave at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba at night and published a message on X pledging eternal loyalty, which triggered a wave of criticism from Cubans who juxtaposed that tribute with decades of suffering.
"As always, here I am close to you to give you affection, celebrate your life, and to tell you: Congratulations, grandfather! And let there be no doubt: Commander in Chief, ORDER, this generation of the centenary will not let you die!" wrote Castro Smirnov under the hashtag #100YearsWithFidel, accompanying the text with a collage of three photographs in which he is seen laying flowers at the granite rock inscribed with "FIDEL."
The response from numerous Cubans was immediate and outraged: in the face of the promise to "not let him die," hundreds of users pointed out that there are millions of lives shattered by the legacy of the regime that Castro founded, and they linked that supposed eternity with prolonged blackouts, shortages of food, water and medicine, and the poverty that the island suffers in 2026.
"The family are the only ones who can be grateful; the people are thankful that it's in hell," commented a user.
Another pointed out that it is "contradictory for the communist model to be a horse that destroys an entire country, leaving people without electricity and starving so that his family can inherit a private company that moreover cannot be audited."
"It takes a real piece of work to celebrate a grandfather who was a murderous dictator; there's a difference between family environments and public expressions. The grandchildren of Hitler, Trujillo, Duvalier, Somoza, Idi Amin, Franco, Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, Stalin, Mao, and Stroessner remain silent," emphasized a third party.
A netizen concluded: "There is an entire country sinking in misery while you enjoy luxuries. Just leave #Cuba already. The people are demanding change."
This Thursday marks100 years since the birth of Fidel Castro, who was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, Holguín, and passed away on November 25, 2016, after ruling Cuba for nearly five decades.
The regime declared 2026 as the "Year of the Centenary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz" and organized events that included an international colloquium with more than 1,500 delegates from 63 countries and a central event in Birán, attended by Raúl Castro.
The dynamic of official tributes turning into subjects of criticism is not new. When the Communist Party launched the campaign "Fidel is eternal", the comment section was filled with mockery linking that "eternity" to everyday misery. Shortly after, a contest by Cubadebate on "the values of Fidel" was met with irony and denunciations instead of praise.
Castro Smirnov is the son of Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart, known as "Fidelito" —the firstborn of Fidel Castro with his first wife Mirta Díaz-Balart— who took his own life in February 2018. His mother is the Russian citizen Olga Smirnova. A Doctor of Science with training in Biology and Nuclear Physics, the grandson engaged in intense international public activities in 2026 as a symbolic spokesperson for the revolutionary legacy.
In February, he spoke in London warning that "the danger has never been so close" and that Cuba "will not kneel."
In April, he participated in Moscow in a conference on "21st Century Socialism." In July, during a talk at the Semana Negra in Gijón, he stated that "Cuba represents the physics of dignity" and compared Cuban vaccines to "warheads" designed to save lives, remarks that also drew ridicule.
The centenary coincides with one of the worst economic crises in Cuban history, which has intensified the contradiction between the extravagant official tributes and the reality faced by the Cuban people, a tension that has characterized the entire year and that the grandson's message highlighted again this Thursday.
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