The Cuban rapper Yotuel Romero posted a video on Instagram from a shopping center in Slovakia, showcasing the development of that country and using it as a mirror of hope for Cuba, highlighting what a nation can achieve when it abandons communism.
As he walked through the venue, the artist expressed, visibly moved: "This is incredible, my people. I'm in Slovakia, in a shopping mall. A country that came out of communism just 37 years ago. What greatness, this country, how it has developed. It's astonishing, my people. This gives me hope and enthusiasm for my Cuba."
The message went beyond mere admiration. Yotuel closed the video with a direct statement: "What we are missing, because it is wonderful in Cuba, is when that damn communism falls."
In the text accompanying the publication, the musician elaborated: "Seeing what a country can become when it regains its freedom fills me with hope. I hope that very soon our Cuba will also see that day: to leave behind so many years of dictatorship and begin to build, in freedom, the country that so many generations have dreamed of. Because when a people regains their freedom, they also reclaim their future."
The video from Slovakia garnered almost 6,000 reactions and succinctly summarizes the position that Yotuel has consistently maintained: the end of communism in Cuba is not a utopia, but a real possibility that other countries have already demonstrated.
Slovakia abandoned communism in 1989 with the so-called Velvet Revolution, a peaceful process that, between November 17 and December 29 of that year, ended over four decades of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Since then, the country joined the European Union in 2004, adopted the euro in 2009, and achieved a gross domestic product of over 130 billion euros in 2024, with a per capita income close to 24,000 euros.
The video features the hashtag #patriayvida, which links the message to the protest song co-written by Yotuel in 2021, which became the anthem of the protests on July 11 of that year in Cuba.
Throughout this year, Yotuel has intensified his political activism. In January, he lashed out at Díaz-Canel and stated that in Cuba "there is no governance, there is abuse of the people." In February, he maintained that "the only option is the street" and called for "system change."
In March, he participated in the launch of "Puente Libertad" alongside Jacob Forever and El Chacal, a song that imagines a symbolic bridge between Miami and Havana. And in early August, Orishas performed at the Concert of Hope VII in Bogotá.
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