The Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz published a video on his Facebook account this Tuesday titled "Cuban's Release," in which for nearly eight minutes he expresses with rawness his pain over the situation the island is experiencing. In just seven hours, the recording amassed over 25,000 views, more than a thousand reactions, and over 220 comments.
The singer, known as "The Salsa Sweetheart," acknowledged that he rehearsed the video three or four times before recording it and admitted he hesitated until the last moment about whether to make it public: "I don't know if I will post it or not, but I'm talking about it to vent."
A Cuban who has been exploring the world for 30 years
Rey Ruiz has been living outside of Cuba for over three decades, based in Miami, and he asserts that this perspective gives him the moral authority to speak.
After traveling throughout Latin America and the rest of the world, his conclusion is clear: “I visit all of Latin America, the whole world, every place, and there is no place worse than my country. And it makes me so sad, I feel so ashamed.”
The salsa singer, who left Cuba in 1991 in search of "money and democracy", did not hold back in his remarks about those within the island who support the regime.
"Impossible, you must be blind, deaf, and mute to agree with that, because there is nothing worse. I don't understand it, I truly don't understand it," he asserted
"67 years of poverty, of bad things."
One of the most poignant moments in the video came when Rey Ruiz spoke about the Cuban tragedy: "You have to agree that what exists there is 67 years of poverty, of bad things. I was born into that, I lived for almost 25 years, and I know exactly what it's like."
The singer identified two major damages caused by the regime.
First, the cultural deterioration: "Culture has completely collapsed. This is not a critique, it's an observation."
Secondly, the isolation of knowledge: "The knowledge of the world. They know nothing."
His diagnosis about the future was no less bleak: "I hope that some miracle saves us, that something saves us, because if we continue like this, we're going nowhere."
The call for unity
In response to the implied question of what to do, Rey Ruiz acknowledged his limits.
"We are sure that we cannot do anything, only resist, resist, and resist until someone with a heart has the possibility to save us, whether it be the United States or another country, or someone who says enough is enough to those people," he stated.
He also reached out to the Cubans on the island, asking them to put an end to the mutual blame.
"I can't provide any solutions, but I want to say from here that every Cuban who is here thinks of the Cuban who is there. If no one else is doing it, we have to do it ourselves, I don't know how,” he pointed out.
"I am just another citizen of Cuba."
Anticipating criticism from those who believe that artists should not express opinions on politics, Rey Ruiz was emphatic: “I am a musician; I don’t have to get involved in this, but I like to bring people together. I am just another citizen of Cuba, and I have the right to speak about politics as much as any Cuban citizen, wherever I may be.”
Rey Ruiz concluded his message with a blunt warning directed at Cubans who remain on the island: "It has to be resolved. If someone doesn't resolve it, they'll continue like this. Without water, without electricity, without food. Without dignity. Without anything. From here, from the other shore."
The video adds to a wave of voices from the exile that, in 2026, have intensified their criticism of the regime.
In recent months, Manolín "the Doctor of Salsa" referred to the regime as "a disaster," while Gente de Zona described Cuba as being in "the worst moment in its history."
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