Cristina Escobar, a Cuban pro-government journalist and partner of the singer Israel Rojas, leader of the duo Buena Fe, published a powerful post on Facebook in which she directly held the Cuban government responsible for the water crisis, describing the internal situation on the island as a “sovereign disorder” that goes far beyond the U.S. embargo.
Escobar, who uses the name "Cris Acosta" on social media and has dedicated his career to defending the Cuban political system, noted that the shortage of water has replaced power outages as the main daily struggle for Cubans: "Light is no longer the main drama. It is water".
The journalist, who published her unusual complaint on September 23, did not attribute the crisis to a real shortage of resources but rather to institutional disorganization: areas without water for 20 consecutive days while the street across receives service, tanker trucks circulating with fuel not reaching the affected neighborhoods, and public companies unable to coordinate with each other.
“Because at the very least there is a sovereign disorder,” he wrote, adding that the disconnection between the pumping service and the electrical supply represents “another level of disorder and irresponsibility.”
Escobar revealed that the president of the country himself had to meet with those in charge of water and electricity supply to coordinate both services "like in a Venn diagram," referring directly to the meeting that Díaz-Canel led on September 1 at the Palace of the Revolution. His verdict was emphatic: "However: it doesn’t happen."
The journalist demanded that the pumping stations be at the top of all electric priority lists and called to remove the word "effort" from the official discourse: «The government and the state owe themselves to the people. That is their only purpose. They do not make sacrifices. The people make sacrifices to support you and endure your inability to operate with transparency and responsibility.»
His final warning was clear: “A government that fails to provide water and electricity when the minimum conditions are met, because it cannot organize itself, does not function. It must change or be changed.”
Before publishing the text, Escobar tried to contact two officials from Aguas de La Habana. One admitted he had no response; the other said he "would pass it on to the operators," with disdain.
The post arrives at a time of acute water crisis: the regime itself admitted last week that 2.7 million people —around 35% of those who receive water through the network— have their access fully or partially affected.
The news agency Reuters reported that power outages in Havana often exceeded 24 hours and that around 3.5 million people were suffering from water shortages, with almost 90% of the water infrastructure relying on electric pumps.
The Ministry of Public Health acknowledged in September a simultaneous increase in arboviral diseases, diarrheal diseases, hepatitis, and respiratory infections, linking it directly to sanitation failures. The incidence of dengue was 7.4 times higher than the expected level for this time of year.
The text by Escobar adds to critical analyses from figures aligned with the government who, in 2026, have begun to question the narrative that places all the blame on the embargo. The journalist had already issued harsh critiques of the state media in August 2025 for its inability to report accurately.
Israel Rojas confirmed in March that Escobar is his partner, in a video published on his social media after images of both circulated in Madrid. Buena Fe is a group that has historically been close to the Cuban government.
Be very careful about treating the people with disdain, because the people will in turn treat you with disdain, concluded Escobar in his post.
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