The Christian activist and young father David Espinosa reported this Thursday that the official 10th-grade Political Culture textbook includes a chapter aimed at presenting international coverage of the July 11, 2021 protests as "fake news", turning the repression of that social outbreak into indoctrination material for Cuban teenagers.
Espinosa posted images of the book on his Facebook profile, where it can be seen that the text reproduces a dialogue, apparently from the government-backed program Mesa Redonda, between its host, Randy Alonso, and then-president Miguel Díaz-Canel, accompanied by screenshots of international news marked in red with the words "FAKE NEWS" and "BULO".
"Perhaps there are no scientific or economic advancements in Cuba... but our children will certainly be well-educated in the ideological matters that our government desires," wrote the activist with evident irony.
Among the contents that the book presents as misinformation is a headline from the newspaper ABC Internacional—described by Alonso in the text as "a Spanish Francoist newspaper"—reporting on the alleged resignation of the Deputy Minister of the Interior for disagreeing with the excessive use of force against the protesters.
The material also reproduces statements from Díaz-Canel in which he denies the extent of the repression: "Where are the thousands of dead? Where are the cases of deaths in Cuba? We acknowledge that there was one deceased, and we are conducting a thorough investigation."
However, independent human rights organizations documented more than 1,400 people detained in connection with the protests of July 11. Human Rights Watch reported this figure, sourced from Cuban organizations like Cubalex, in its report on repression published a year after the demonstrations. By that time, at least 701 people remained deprived of liberty, according to Amnesty International, figures that starkly contrast with the official version reproduced in the schoolbook.
The text also accuses international media of circulating false images: according to Díaz-Canel, a photo presented as the Malecón of Havana actually corresponded to the Malecón of Alexandria, Egypt, and another showed Argentine celebrations for the Copa América.
Espinosa framed the finding within a systematic pattern that, in his view, permeates all of Cuban life: "Political indoctrination in Cuba starts from the moment you are born until you die: on TV, in hospitals, on street posters, in schools, in state workplaces."
While it is true that, following the massive outburst on July 11 and the days that followed, some images and news containing false or inaccurate information circulated, undoubtedly fueled by the lack of transparency with which the regime has always handled public interest data in the country, the reality documented in dozens of citizen videos and various reports is far from the narrative of the Cuban dictatorship, according to which what occurred was merely slight disturbances.
The book on Political Culture is part of a mandatory subject in the Cuban pre-university system, published by the Pueblo y Educación Editorial under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. The Observatory of Academic Freedom had already alerted in September 2024 that the so-called Third Improvement of Education redesigned 506 textbooks with a strong doctrinal emphasis, including the exaltation of figures like Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Díaz-Canel himself.
Espinosa is not an outsider to the repression he denounces. The regime has attempted to silence him multiple times: he has been summoned several times by the MININT, State Security agents tried to recruit him as an informant, and ETECSA cut off his phone lines in a coordinated manner along with his wife Laidy García and other activists.
Despite this, the activist continues to post on social media, making his Christian faith the cornerstone of his resistance, something he also addressed in his statement.
The protests of 11J, the largest social uprising in Cuba in decades, began in San Antonio de los Baños due to power outages and shortages of food and medicines, spreading to more than forty cities and towns across the Island. Five years later, the regime not only continues to imprison hundreds of protesters but has also transformed its own version of events into mandatory curriculum content for young Cubans.
The protests of July 11, 2021 (11J), the largest anti-government demonstrations of national reach recorded in Cuba since 1959, began in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa, amid prolonged blackouts, shortages of food and medicine, a severe economic and health crisis, and growing discontent over the lack of freedoms. The outbreak quickly spread across dozens of cities and towns on the Island, from Havana to Santiago de Cuba.
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