The Cuban actor Armando Tomey dedicated one of the most emotional moments of Tuesday night to publicly acknowledge the courage of his colleague Luis Alberto García, during the premiere of the second season of Maldita Raíz, the series from the platform Pronyr TV, which was launched at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami.
Before that recognition, Tomey sent a direct and straightforward message to the Cuban artists who remain on the island. His words, captured on video and shared by content creator Leo Brito on Instagram, gathered over 412,000 views, more than 16,000 likes, and nearly 2,500 comments within just a few hours.
"To those who take photos in nice restaurants, announcing things, enjoying a beer with tremendous glamour while the world around them is falling apart and is filled with the stench of waste, and they live beautifully, charmingly," Tomey shot his sharp opinions at the audience gathered in the Artime. The actor, who emigrated to the United States in 2013 after a long career in Cuban television, demanded a different stance from his peers: "To those artists, I say that they must assume their role in this historical moment and be more critical of that disgusting communist system."
It was then that the praise for García arrived, delivered with a mix of admiration and emotion: "One of the greatest actors in Cuba [...], and he is in Cuba [...] and has the courage to speak out every day and criticize the atrocities of this regime."
The contrast drawn by Tomey is eloquent: he himself, from exile in Port St. Lucie, Florida, can speak without consequences. García, on the other hand, does so from within the island, where the risk is real. By the end of 2025, 17 Cuban artists remained imprisoned and another 10 were serving restrictive sentences, according to data from cultural rights organizations.
Luis Alberto García, born in Havana in 1961 and a graduate of the Higher Institute of Art in 1984, is one of the most respected names in Cuban cinema, with titles such as Clandestinos, Plaff, Guantanamera, and La vida es silbar in his career. Since late 2025, he has transformed his social media into a platform for sustained denunciation against the regime, without self-censorship and without emigrating.
In June 2026, after 48 consecutive hours without electricity or water in his building, García warned without ambiguity: “I will not be silent. Let it be known.” His critiques encompass the energy crisis —with frequent daily deficits exceeding 2,000 MW—, the repression of protesters, and the corruption of leaders. On July 31, he referred to it as “unconstitutional and very undemocratic” to repress those who protest peacefully.
Tomey also took the opportunity that night to recall, amid laughter and applause, the time he shouted "Down with Fidel!" at the Comodoro Hotel in Havana during the period of his life when he was filming the soap opera El naranjo del patio. He was recognized by a hotel security guard and arrested by the police, but he ended up being released thanks to his fame. "They let me go because I was a famous artist, supposedly," he recounted. He added with irony, "If I were a nobody, I would still be in prison."
About Cuba in general, Tomey was equally emphatic: "That abducted country [...] is the only country in the world that has been held captive for 67 years and no one does anything at all."
In another reel published this week, Tomey called Miguel Díaz-Canel "a donkey with fangs", referring to the leader's statements about the supposed willingness of the Cuban people to defend the system. The image, which evokes the phrase with which poet Rubén Martínez Villena described dictator Gerardo Machado, nicely summarizes the tone that Tomey has adopted in 2026: unfiltered and without turning back.
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