The Cuban priest Alberto Reyes, parish priest of Esmeralda, in Camagüey, pointed out in an interview with Tania Costa two hypotheses to answer one of the questions that many Cubans ask: why doesn't the regime relinquish power despite the total collapse of the country?
The first explanation that the priest considers is pride. "It could be the absurd pride, the absurdity of thinking that nobody can take me out of here. That stupid pride, because the world remains around you but you are there holding on as if that made any sense," he asserts.
The second hypothesis, which Father Alberto Reyes himself considers perhaps the most troubling, is that the rulers simply do not know how to get out. "Sometimes I wonder if they don’t know how to do it. They are so stuck in their own trap, so entangled in their own web that they don’t know how to say, 'this is over'," he notes.
In statements to CiberCuba, the priest acknowledges that giving up would require an act of humility that would be very difficult for them, but he insists that clinging to power makes no sense. To illustrate this, he uses a straightforward image: "They have taken the wrong train, and the longer you stay on the wrong train, the worse it’s going to be."
Neither, in the opinion of Father Alberto Reyes it is difficult to dismantle the economic rationale of the regime. In response to the journalist's questions, he recalled that for decades the ruling elite reaped tangible benefits —hotels, medical missions, support from China, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Venezuela— but by 2026 those sources have either dried up or drastically decreased. "They don’t have any new lifeline to cling to because right now they don’t have any savior,” he states bluntly, and concludes that the smartest thing would be to negotiate a way out. “We make a transition, hand over power, and that's it.”
However, the priest identifies the element that best explains the regime's resistance: impunity. "In communism, they are like God, untouchable. No matter what they do, regardless of what happens, they are untouchable, they are beyond question. The communist system grants you power with impunity," he asserts. Unlike what occurs in democracies, where no leader is above the law, the totalitarian system ensures that its leaders never have to answer for their actions.
But even that incentive, Reyes warns, has stopped being enough: "At this moment, not even that compensates."
The interview took place a day after Donald Trump stated before the UN General Assembly that Cuba is an "absolutely failed state" that "will fall," and that "freedom will come to Cuba", according to Reuters. The Cuban delegation left the room during that part of the speech.
The context in which Father Alberto Reyes Reyes formulates his analysis is that of a Cuba in free fall. CEPAL projects a contraction of the GDP of 6.5% for 2026. There are other estimates that reach as high as 10.3%. The inflation rate is not any better, reaching 25% year-on-year in August, and on top of that, the country records a new high of 1,339 political prisoners.
Father Reyes, who in August published that the cry of Cubans “is not about assistance, it is about change”, has faced direct pressure from the regime: in January 2026, State Security summoned him and subjected him to a warning act in Camagüey. This has not prevented him from continuing his weekly column “I’ve been thinking,” the 175th installment of which, published days ago, was titled precisely “No evil is eternal.”
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