The singer-songwriter and officialist deputy Raúl Torres published an extensive text on his Facebook (Raulito Torres Candil) in which he blames those he accuses of calling for invasions, betting against Cuba, and promoting disdain for Cubans on the island for contributing to the country's crisis, without mentioning the Communist Party or the government as factors in that situation.
Torres, author of "Riding with Fidel" and of "Homeland or Death for Life" —the official response song to "Homeland and Life" that accumulated over 48,000 dislikes compared to about 4,500 likes on YouTube in 2021— directs his tirade against those who "have scorned the land where they were born, who have called for invasions against their homeland, who instead of having a heart have a cold monolith in their chest."
The troubadour's verdict is decisive: "Here is your reward: an elderly, weak, impoverished Cuba, suffering great pains."
Torres's thesis shifts the responsibility for the country's deterioration onto those "haters," while omitting any reference to the responsibility of the Cuban government or the Communist Party. According to him, that ailing Cuba "suffers for its sick children due to the lack of medicines and resources, due to the lack of food, due to the lack of empathy from a large part of the world, whom you, the haters, have helped to breed contempt."
Torres mentions the blockade, the lies, and the disdain, as well as the lack of resources, medicines, and food, but does not assign any responsibility to the Cuban regime. Not a single mention of the Communist Party, the ministers, or the generals.
To round off the epic, Torres makes a philosophical distinction between the one who "denounces injustices so that the people heal" — that one loves — and the one who "calls for chains so that the people remain silent" — that one hates. He concludes with one of his well-known maxims: "You cannot kiss the fruit and curse the root; you cannot call the fire that devours the house freedom." Beautiful. It's a pity that the house has been burning from within for decades, with or without external arsonists.
The reality that Torres omits with such poetic elegance is the following: in 2026, hundreds of essential medications are out of stock in Cuba; around 1.3 million retirees who received up to 4,000 pesos monthly were included in the pension adjustment announced by the regime, amounts that remain insufficient given the high cost of living.
Internet users were not swayed by the flowery prose of the troubadour. One person bluntly said to him, "All you've done in your submissive life is make songs to please the leaders; you've never sung for your people […] Work and stop with the nonsense, you're not fooling anyone anymore." Another posed a question that no poem can evade: "The elderly collecting a miserable pension and standing in line at banks without having breakfast, fainting from hunger and exhaustion... Tell me... whose fault is it?"
A third comment, more succinct and urgent than the entire post by Torres, simply demanded: "Freedom for Ana Sofía and her mother Caridad Silvente," referring to the young influencer Christian Anna Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente, sentenced last Thursday by the People's Municipal Court of East Havana to two years of restricted freedom.
It is not the first time that Torres oscillates between defending the regime and offering half-hearted recognition of the crisis. In August 2026, he proposed jicoteas as a solution to hunger and acknowledged that “the people are there giving their last breath”, although he never pointed to the government as responsible.
Now, with his post about the "haters," the troubadour deputy has taken a further step: he not only absolves the regime but also makes its critics the true executioners of Cuba. The homeland, according to Torres, "is the house that still smells of bread even when it lacks flour." What he does not say is who emptied the pantry.
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