The jurist and academic René Fidel González García published this Sunday, from Santiago de Cuba, a new political reflection on his Facebook profile in which he calls for the construction of a "new policy" for Cuba, based on dignity, respect, and the full exercise of rights and freedoms.
In the text, the Doctor of Legal Sciences and former tenured professor at the University of Oriente argues that Cuban politics must be fundamentally transformed. "To be new, [...] politics in Cuba must stop normalizing catharsis and vulgarity as discourse [...] and should, with serenity and coherence, be a proposal directed at Cubans to dismiss and de-emphasize the use of contempt, rudeness, and fallacies as reactions or political arguments," the essayist wrote.
González García clarified that his criticisms are not aimed at the policies implemented by the Cuban government, but rather at those practiced outside of it. "I am not referring to what is done by the government. I am referring to what is done and legitimized outside of it, to what is consumed and stereotyped with our practices, to its form," he specified.
González García argues that change is not optional: "It is impossible to claim to be different without changing. This is what being a true alternative to what we oppose is about—offering a political standard so that we have a chance to forever eliminate exclusion among us, to escape underdevelopment, and to ensure that the exercise of rights and freedoms leads us to dignity, happiness, and respect."
It also warns that without genuine renewal, any political proposal will simply be another form of degradation: "The new politics will have to be new or it will be yet another— not even the last— degradation of what humiliates and disdains us, of what denigrates and excludes us in the same way." The project, he adds, requires a different type of actor: "The new politics needs new politicians— neither angels nor sanctimonious individuals, and even less hypocrites— just people who know how to practice what they claim to believe."
The publication this Sunday is part of a sustained series of critical statements throughout 2026. In July, the jurist stated that Cubans today have fewer rights and freedoms than in 1953, under the dictatorship of Batista. In August, he introduced the concept of "political indigence" to describe the exclusion suffered by the majority of Cubans, and warned that "political indigence inevitably leads to economic and social indigence."
During the past month of September, the academic diagnosed a "structural and irreversible disconnection" between the regime and the citizens, and at the beginning of October, described Cuba as a society "paralyzed by political underdevelopment".
González García was removed from his teaching position at the University of Oriente in 2016 after publishing critical articles in independent media. The institution claimed that his texts lacked scientific merit; he and human rights organizations described it as a political reprisal.
Their reflections come at a moment of unprecedented structural crisis. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimated in August 2026 that 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty —nine percentage points more than in 2025— based on 1,318 interviews in 79 municipalities. A study by economist Javier Pérez Capdevila calculated that a person needs at least 96,060 Cuban pesos per month to cover basic needs, about 13 times the average salary.
In terms of repression, Prisoners Defenders documented 1,351 political prisoners by the end of September 2026, a record number according to their report published on October 15.
In this context, González García's commitment to a "new policy" that moves away from exclusion takes on a significance that transcends theoretical debate and becomes particularly relevant in light of the reality experienced by millions of Cubans every day.
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