Lucía Céspedes Ocampo, the Cuban who weeks ago appeared on the National News of Cuban Television thanking Miguel Díaz-Canel during a visit by the leader to the Havana neighborhood of La Timba, confessed this Sunday in a video that she is the owner of a private clinic in France, from where she claims to shout "long live socialism, long live communism, and long live Fidel."
The revelation sparked immediate controversy due to the contradiction it represents: a public defender of the Cuban regime practicing private medicine in a capitalist French territory while preaching the virtues of communism.
In the video, Céspedes attempts to justify the apparent paradox with the following argument: "Regarding why I have a private clinic in France, oh, a great sin for a communist! Well, because I realized that I, being my own boss, in France or anywhere else, could practice medicine in a more humane way than if I did so from an establishment where interests other than those of a doctor prevail."
The cardiologist, who resides in Guadalupe —an overseas department and region of France— added that she practices "with a Cuban heart" from her office, just as she learned during the six months she studied medicine in Cuba.
Immediately after, though not appearing very convinced, she made her proclamation: "From my private clinic, wherever it may be, I tell you, long live socialism, long live communism, long live the Cuban revolution, and long live Fidel and all the men and women who strive for a better world."
The "human medicine" practiced in French capitalism
Céspedes' argument also raises several uncomfortable questions. By presenting her private clinic as the space from which she can practice a "more humane medicine," the cardiologist suggests, without stating it openly, that the French healthcare system—where she lives, works, and thrives—would be less humane or dominated by interests that are not aligned with the patient's well-being.
However, France is not a healthcare jungle of private clinics driven solely by profit: its system combines public hospitals, private clinics, mandatory insurance, state regulations, and patient choice.
According to official French data, in 2024 the country had 2,962 hospitals and clinics, 367,100 full hospital beds, and 91,000 partial hospitalization spots; furthermore, access to public hospital services is guaranteed even for the most vulnerable individuals in urgent cases.
The comparison with Cuba is even more revealing. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that in France the entire population is covered for a basic set of services, that 84% of healthcare spending is covered by mandatory schemes, and that the country spends $7,367 PPP per capita on health, above the OECD average.
In Cuba, on the other hand, the very deterioration of the system that the regime promotes as "humane" forces patients and their families to search for medications, supplies, appointments, transportation, and even basic materials outside of state institutions.
Human Rights Watch documented in 2026 almost empty pharmacies, hospitals with limited resources, and patients forced to bring their own sheets, pillows, fans, or medical supplies. Díaz-Canel acknowledged the lack of resources to operate surgical rooms and the thousands of patients awaiting surgeries, cancer treatments, prenatal ultrasounds, and immunizations.
His account becomes even weaker when he claims that he learned this supposed medicine "with a Cuban heart" during just six months of studies on the Island. If he only studied for that period in Cuba, a fundamental question remains: where did he truly complete his medical training, and under what system did he obtain the credentials that allow him to practice as a specialist in France?
What it presents as a lesson from Cuban socialism seems, in practice, to depend on the professional, legal, and economic guarantees of a capitalist country with a public, regulated, and comprehensive healthcare system.
A regime propagandist embedded in capitalism
Céspedes is registered as a cardiologist in the French healthcare system with the RPPS number 10100518124, with an office in Sainte-Rose, Guadeloupe. Her activity as a specialist physician in private practice—equivalent to the legal status of independent private practice—has been registered since January 16, 2016, according to data from Société.com.
In the same video, Céspedes stated that "very soon" Cubans on the Island will be able to "have the same as in a capitalist country, but with a more equitable redistribution of wealth," and she attributed the country's problems to the U.S. embargo, which she believes "will come to an end."
This is not the first time the cardiologist has sparked controversy for defending Cuban socialism from abroad. In April, she went viral from Tenerife shouting "Long live Cuba! Long live my president Díaz-Canel!" and insulting the exile community as "traitors, miserable worms, bomb throwers, and gringo lovers." In June, she defended the 176 economic transformation measures approved by the regime.
On September 25, Céspedes reappeared on the National News during Díaz-Canel's visit to La Timba, where she stated on camera: "Thank you for what you are doing. I live in France, in Guadeloupe." The state media only referred to her as a "young Cuban residing abroad," without disclosing her name or that she owns a private capitalist clinic.
The contradiction pointed out by the critics is manifold: Céspedes advocates for communism while practicing private medicine in a capitalist system, insults the "worm exile" while she herself lives outside Cuba, and from Tenerife organized the shipment of rice, beans, and hygiene products to elderly Cubans, implicitly acknowledging that the state she defends cannot guarantee basic necessities to its population.
All of this is happening while Cuba is facing its worst economic crisis in decades: inflation reached 31.9% in the first quarter of 2026, the peso has devalued to 785 per dollar, and CEPAL projects a GDP contraction of 6.5% for this year, which would make the Island the worst-performing economy in Latin America for the second consecutive year.
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