The Cuban Women's Federation (FMC) celebrated its 66th anniversary this Sunday with a national ceremony in the Hermanos Cruz popular council in Pinar del Río, where the official apparatus showcased its most colorful arsenal of euphemisms: Cuban women are a "trench of love, an example of dignity, and a constant inspiration for the entire Homeland," proclaimed the Electric Company of the province —the same entity responsible for administering the blackouts that plague the province— with the hashtag #PinarXNuevasVictorias.
The irony did not go unnoticed. An internet user replied to the official message, parodying the title the company used — "The strength and heart of Cuba have a woman's face!" — with a statement that better summarizes the reality: "The strength and heart of Cuba have the face of a blackout." Another person described the post as "ridiculousness made real."
The event, reported by the government newspaper Periódico Guerrillero, was presided over by Teresa Amarelle Boué, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and the General Secretary of the FMC, who invoked the legacy of women from Pinar del Río like Isabel Rubio, Adela Azcuy, and Magdalena Peñarredondo to declare that these 66 years mean for Cuban women “to stop being spectators and become the protagonists of their own story.”
Protagonists, yes, although without water, without medication, and in the dark.
Amarelle Boué emphasized that women are the majority in sectors such as Education, Health, and Science. What she did not mention at the podium—but acknowledged that same day in an interview with the official agency Prensa Latina—is that some proposals to support vulnerable women "have not been able to be fulfilled because they require budgets and resources that are not currently available," and that specialized counseling services for gender-based violence are not functioning properly in several municipalities.
He also admitted, with an unusual frankness for the triumphalist tone of the anniversary, that "it’s not just the blackout; when there’s a blackout, there is also no water." The solution proposed by the organization is to teach women how to "escape" vulnerability through family farming, sewing brigades, and food preservation.
What the regime failed to mention at the official event is that approximately 70% of the essential medications from the national list are missing from pharmacies in 2026, as a result of a crisis rooted in decades of state neglect and a lack of investments in the health sector.
Pinar del Río received the title of "National Vanguard" Province in the FMC emulation, with the standout provinces being Artemisa, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, and Villa Clara. Last Thursday, the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel presided over a ceremony in which honors were awarded to outstanding women based on the parameters set by the regime—among them the title of Heroine of Labor and the Mariana Grajales Order for several members—an event that also drew mockery on social media.
The reality faced by Cuban women amidst blackouts and water shortages contrasts sharply with the official discourse: as of 2026, Cuba has experienced seven total collapses of the National Electric System, amid a crisis that has led to frequent outages exceeding 2,000 MW and blackouts that regularly last over 20 hours a day, with some provinces seeing interruptions extend for more than two consecutive days.
The Gender Observatory of Alas Tensas documented 44 femicides by July 27, 2026, compared to 18 in the equivalent period of 2025, leading to a total of 359 cases since 2019: a figure that no diploma from the FMC can disguise.
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