The jurist and academic René Fidel González García published a lengthy reflection on Facebook this Sunday, from Santiago de Cuba, in which he calls for the construction of a "new political thought in Cuba" and urgently warns: "We no longer have time to waste."
Doctor in Legal Sciences and former tenured professor at the Universidad de Oriente, González García has developed a series of critical statements in recent years, with increasing emphasis throughout 2026, leading to a more pressing political diagnosis of the Cuban reality. This Sunday’s text is the most recent link in that chain.
In his publication, the scholar places political equality at the center of his argument: “It is essential to begin to understand the need to aspire to and demand the right to political equality for Cubans, for each one of us,” he writes, defining it as “the most important and fundamental demand of our time.”
González García draws a distinction that he considers crucial: the difference between being active citizens and being mere consumers of content. "We need politicians who do not create content; we need to be citizens, not consumers of content," he states, calling for a view of politics "as an individual and collective practice, not politics reduced to cultural consumption, as a product."
The scholar describes the Cuban political system as one "based on the denial of the political equality of all citizens" and warns that its decay could lead to "the ultimate and disastrous ruin of our common home."
The Santiago professor demands a political thought that "opens a path and embodies itself in daily life, in our neighborhoods and communities ravaged by poverty, in our institutions paralyzed and rendered obsolete by despotism and arbitrariness, by exalted mediocrity." He raises a strong call for unity: "We need to be, and we cannot do it without uniting those of us who believe in the same thing."
The publication this Sunday joins other reflections that González García has expressed over the months. In July, he stated that Cubans today have fewer rights and political freedoms than they did in 1953, during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In August, he coined the term "political indigence" to describe the exclusion experienced by the majority, and asserted that "political indigence inevitably leads to economic and social indigence."
In September, he diagnosed a “structural and irreversible disconnection” between the regime and the citizens. At the beginning of October, he described Cuba as “a society paralyzed by political underdevelopment,” basing this on the 876,522 people in the most vulnerable situations recognized by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero. Just a week ago, he stated that a “new policy” requires “new politicians,” capable of practicing what they claim to defend.
The context in which González García writes is one of unprecedented structural crisis. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimated, in August 2026, that 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty, according to a study based on 1,318 interviews conducted in 79 municipalities across 15 provinces. ECLAC projects a contraction of the Cuban GDP by 10.3% in 2026, the worst in Latin America.
Prisoners Defenders has documented 1,372 political prisoners as of October 1st, a record number in the history of the island, among them, dozens of women and individuals who were detained while they were minors.
González García himself knows firsthand the cost of dissent. He was removed from his position at the University of Oriente in November 2016 after publishing critical articles in independent media; the institution claimed that his writings lacked scientific merit and negatively influenced the students' education.
He and human rights organizations denounced that it was a political reprisal. In October 2025, he filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Court against Miguel Díaz-Canel and Attorney General Yamila Peña Ojeda for alleged constitutional violations.
This Sunday’s text concludes with a phrase that encapsulates the aspiration present in many of its statements: that it should "never again be the hope of the Cuban to find in other parts of the world what is denied to them here out of love for power, disdain for freedom, and fear of the rights to happiness."
Related videos:
Filed under: