The Cuban religious figure Sor Nadieska Almeida, superior of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Cuba, published a text this Friday in which she denounces the staged event held in Bejucal on the occasion of President Miguel Díaz-Canel's visit to that city in the province of Mayabeque.
The leader visited the area on Thursday to preside over the reopening of the National Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a facility originally inaugurated by Fidel Castro in 1990. In the guestbook, Díaz-Canel wrote that the reopening "is a commitment, a continuity, and a permanent defense of social justice."
But what Sister Nadieska observed was not an achievement, but a fiction. "Since the day before yesterday in my beloved city of Bejucal, many of us have been impressed by having electricity for more than 24 hours, and the explanation is the president's visit to inaugurate a center that already existed," she stated.
"As preparation for that visit, streets have been fixed, weeds have been cleaned up, garbage has been collected, and painting has been done... in short, all the lies we use to mask the reality we live in," wrote the religious sister in the text shared through the Facebook profile of Father Alberto Reyes.
The report gains greater significance when contrasted with the everyday life it describes. Sister Nadieska points out that there are neighborhoods in Bejucal that have gone through more than 40 days without electricity because the transformers have blown and there are no spare parts. The crisis is not an exception: communities throughout the country are reporting power outages that last from 16 to 20 hours a day and weeks without service due to local breakdowns.
Power outages are compounded by other shortages that the religious leader enumerates precisely. "Workers can’t withdraw their full salary from the bank due to a lack of cash, and each month they endure the humiliating experience of receiving only a portion of it; and when they are given low-denomination bills, many businesses refuse to accept them," she warns. She also reports that retirees wait in long lines to collect their pensions and that entire families are going hungry.
The Rosa Elena Simeón Negrín Comprehensive Teaching Polyclinic, also in Bejucal, was maintaining its containers filled with dangerous waste, according to a complaint made on Facebook by Pedro Luis González Acevedo this Friday, who posted an image of two containers from the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) that appeared to be overflowing with trash.
In the field of education, Sister Nadieska points out that "our children, adolescents, and young people are wasting their precious time due to the lack of teachers, resulting in significant ignorance from an early age." The data supports her assertion: the 2026-2027 school year began with more than 20,000 vacant teaching positions and teachers generally earn salaries equivalent to less than 12 dollars per month in the informal exchange rate.
In light of that contrast, Sister Nadieska poses a question that encapsulates her entire complaint: “In these more than 24 hours, the municipal and provincial governments have revealed that whatever is desired can be achieved whenever you decide. So, is it possible or not?” She further predicts what will ensue after the official delegation departs: “The worst part is that when the visit ends, we will return to darkness and continue with the same situations.”
This statement adds to a history of sustained public criticism. Last June, Sister Nadieska rejected the package of 176 economic measures from the Cuban government; in August, she spoke of her “dreams of a Cuba free from dictatorship”, and in September, she described the “fallen hands syndrome” that, in her opinion, has taken hold of a population exhausted by scarcity.
The text concludes with an invitation to dialogue and a statement of faith: "I hope permission is granted to hear the truth, to listen to those who suffer [...] I continue to wait with confidence; God is greater than all the governments of the earth, and I trust in Him. I know that His providence for this people rises before the sun and will continue to sustain and care for us until we become true craftsmen of our freedom."
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