Marino Murillo Jorge, the official who designed the Tarea Ordenamiento and currently heads Tabacuba, was spotted last Saturday leisurely strolling through the Plaza de España in Madrid, according to images sent to the editorial team of Diario de Cuba.
In the photographs, Murillo—recognizable by his salmon-colored polo shirt, robust build, and gray hair—walks through commercial streets in the heart of the Spanish capital with the same calm that is lacking on the island he left in a dire economic crisis.
In one of the images, he is accompanied by Carlos Luis Jorge Méndez, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, who walks in front of the group. He is the same official who stood beside Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro —known as "El Cangrejo"— during his first public media appearance in June of this year before the outlet The National.
Diario de Cuba pointed out with irony that the "relaxed presence in Spain contrasts with the deep crisis left by its economic reforms in Cuba," and wondered if Murillo had attended the concert of Silvio Rodríguez at the Madrid Arena, held on those same dates.
Murillo was the chief architect of the monetary reform in January 2021, which unified the dual currency, eliminated subsidies, and reformed prices and wages. The result was rampant inflation that shattered the purchasing power of Cubans.
In October of that year, Murillo acknowledged before the National Assembly that one of the main deviations of the reform was the excessive increase in the prices of the basic basket.
Just before, in April 2021, he had been removed from the Politburo of the Communist Party. Months later, the regime "recycled" him as president of Tabacuba, a position he still holds today.
The Madrid promenade of Murillo comes at a particularly delicate moment for the sector it oversees. The Habano Festival —an annual luxury event organized by Habanos S.A. and Tabacuba— was canceled in February 2026 due to the energy crisis, with no new date announced. It had already been postponed in 2024 for the same reason.
The 2025 edition, which did take place, triggered a wave of outrage due to the stark contrast between luxury humidor auctions, exclusive dinners, and the so-called "Midnight Night" at the Capitol in Havana, while the population endured blackouts of up to 20 hours a day.
Díaz-Canel was spotted smoking tobacco at the luxurious auction of the event, and Silvio Rodríguez himself publicly denounced the loss of national dignity in reference to the ostentation of the festival.
The problems facing the sector are compounded by the recent exit of British American Tobacco from Cuba, announced this week, which further worsens the situation of an industry that is already burdened with machinery that is 70 to 85 years old, a shortage of supplies, and the aftermath of Hurricane Ian on the plantations in Pinar del Río.
Madrid has become a frequent destination for figures associated with the Cuban regime, who visit the Spanish capital while the population on the island faces shortages, blackouts, and an unprecedented mass exodus.
The images of Murillo and Jorge Méndez wandering the streets of central Madrid add a new chapter to the pattern of privileges that the Cuban nomenclature exercises away from cameras— and away from Cuba.
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