The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, took the opportunity this Saturday on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty to denounce the stagnation of global efforts against misery, without dedicating a single word to the situation faced by Cubans on the island.
In a message published on X, the Minister of Foreign Affairs referenced the UN's 2026 Report on the Sustainable Development Goals, which estimates that 826 million people —10% of the global population— are living in extreme poverty this year.
Rodríguez also noted that global military spending reached $2.887 trillion in 2025, the eleventh consecutive year of growth according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and that the 12 richest billionaires on the planet hold more wealth than the poorest half of humanity, a figure attributed to Oxfam.
Efforts to end extreme poverty worldwide have stalled, according to the @ONU_es 2026 Report on the Sustainable Development Goals. This year, around 826 million people, or 10% of the global population, are living in extreme poverty. "On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we urgently call for the creation of a new international order that is fair, equitable, and democratic, providing the common good and prosperity for all people," wrote the chancellor.
Rodríguez's citation is revealing: while he denounces that 10% of humanity falls below the United Nations' extreme poverty threshold—set at three dollars a day—in Cuba, nine out of ten people do not even reach the lowest threshold of 1.90 dollars.
The same report from the Observatory notes that 68% of Cuban households declare incomes of less than 20,001 pesos per month, far below the 87,210 pesos that a household of three would need to surpass that threshold.
Eight out of ten Cubans acknowledged that they have skipped a meal due to lack of money or food, and 63% of households are struggling to acquire essential products.
This scenario is compounded by the projection from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which estimates a contraction of the Cuban GDP of 10.3% in 2026, the worst forecast among all economies in the region.
The chancellor's pattern is not new. In November and December of 2025, Rodríguez had already posted messages criticizing poverty and inequality in the United States, which sparked accusations of hypocrisy on social media.
This Saturday, Cubans responded to recent messages from the chancellor with a phrase that sums up the public's frustration with the official narrative: "You are the internal blockade."
The irony is not lost: the regime that has spent decades attributing the Cuban crisis to the U.S. embargo has its chancellor citing international reports on poverty around the world on the very day when thousands of families on the island do not know what they will put on the table.
Related videos:
Filed under: