A Cuban who posts on Facebook under the name LaSai Dela Vida triggered a wave of reactions on Friday night with an ironic and scathing text about the reality of the island: power outages, water shortages, skyrocketing prices, and a dollar that just keeps rising, all while the regime's delegation traveled to New York to put on a show at the UN.
The post begins with an irony that serves as a perfect hook: "Don't believe everything you hear on social media about Cuba; we're doing fine here, we're all happy because our 'leaders' use the 'little' monetary fund to make a quick trip to the UN to represent the people, because that's why we 'elected' them."
The author directly points to the incident that shook the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, October 27, when the foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla physically advanced toward the podium where U.S. Ambassador Michael Waltz was speaking during the annual debate on the embargo. LaSai Dela Vida refers to it as "that farce at the UN" and adds, with a mix of humor and anger, that the island's leaders "have also had to invest a good sum of money in buying Ecoflow to resell [...] My God, forgive me, I'm feeling a bit clumsy with words today."
The paragraph that encapsulates the spirit of the text links the energy crisis with the devaluation of the peso: "This year they couldn't even change the time because here the only thing that can easily change is the price of the dollar, $5 every 8 hours, because we don't want to cure the illness you have, but rather let it reach its terminal phase."
The reference is not coincidental: on the 24th, the government suspended the scheduled time change for November 1 and decided to maintain daylight saving time until November 2027, claiming it would prevent an increase in blackouts estimated at 126 MW during peak consumption hours, due to the utilization of sunlight.
Meanwhile, the dollar in the informal market was trading at 883 Cuban pesos on the morning of this Saturday, 120 pesos more than a month ago. The official exchange rate from the Central Bank remains at 768 CUP, creating a gap of over 115 pesos compared to the reality of the market.
The official year-on-year inflation rate in Cuba reached 28.44% in September 2026, while prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages recorded an increase of 42.66% compared to the same month the previous year, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
LaSai Dela Vida translates these numbers into daily life with a brutal honesty that her followers acknowledge: "We raised the food prices because you can't keep anything in the refrigerator, so why do you want to eat? [...] do you have water to flush?" More than 2.7 million Cubans experienced water supply interruptions in early October, according to authorities in the water sector cited by media outlets. In some neighborhoods in Havana and other provinces, outages lasted more than weeks, even months.
The auction turns the guavas —at 300 pesos per pound— into a metaphor for voting in the UN: “How beautiful the guavas at $300 a pound!, how lovely to vote against… if only we could vote!… One hundred and fifty-some rotten guavas in favor… One guava in favor of my not losing hope of one day having powdered milk, running water, and the ability to make a smoothie!”
Sarcasm has a real basis: the anti-embargo resolution was approved on October 28 with only 130 votes, the lowest since 1992, compared to 165 in 2025 and 187 in 2024.
The comments on the post range from laughter to tears. “A lot of irony and a lot of truth... keep writing,” noted one user. Another summed up the collective mood in four words: “I laugh, but it’s worth crying.” A third was more straightforward: “It’s a hard reflection, but true. You can't cover the sun with your finger.”
The closing from LaSai Dela Vida regarding the blackouts as a supposed diplomatic punishment says it all: "Now, because of the suffering they caused, they came and cut off the power for everyone because they have to save to go back to the UN and settle the score because no one here surrenders."
As they say, laugh to avoid crying.
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