Alejandro Delgado Cabrera, the only son of the late Cuban actress Gina Cabrera, reported this Monday on Facebook that he has been without landline service or Nauta Hogar for more than two months, and that ETECSA closed the case with a single response: there is no cable and there will be none.
"It's hours of waiting in lines and dealing with processes that yield no results. Meetings with officials who are only there to save face and justify themselves, without offering solutions," Delgado wrote.
This weekend, he thought the situation would change. "I finally felt lucky after more than two months without landline service and Nauta Hogar when I saw a repair truck arrive at the building where I live this Saturday," he recounted. Two technicians arrived, then three, but the most experienced one left before finishing.
After inspecting the outdoor installation, the workers informed him that the line was active at the pole, but the connection cable to his home was damaged. "They ultimately summarized that they had found my live line at the pole in front of the building, but the simple cable that leads to the connection at my house is damaged," explained Delgado Cabrera. The conclusion was harsh: "They stated that there was still a cable pending and that there is none nor will there be."
As an electrical engineer, Delgado questioned the assessment that was conducted. He pointed out that the technicians did not properly clean the contacts before measuring the continuity of the cable, a basic step that, according to him, could have saved the line. He also described the condition of the distribution cabinet as "a complete disaster of connections, with no order whatsoever, mistreated a thousand times by the same technicians over and over again."
"That same day, during the move, they left one of our neighbors without service. The opposite had happened months earlier with him and us. It's the never-ending story," he lamented.
Delgado Cabrera accompanied his complaint with photographs of the cabinet —filled with tangled cables— and an institutional poster from ETECSA bearing the slogan "Values that Unite Us." His conclusion was straightforward: "Service culture, professionalism, cohesion, transparency, and a sense of belonging... cables, spare parts, experience, interest, all of that and more, ABSENT!"
In the comments of the post, other Cubans confirmed experiencing similar situations. "Being on hold for a call is the most common thing; this is terrible, my friend, what price are we paying!" "What ETECSA is doing is a mockery of its customers; no one cares," and "I thought this was only happening to me. Now I see it's widespread."
The problems with the state monopoly on telecommunications are recurring throughout Cuba. ETECSA executives in Camagüey acknowledged last week that more than 2,000 meters of drop cable were missing, a material that is neither manufactured in Cuba nor entering the country, prompting technicians to recover cables from decommissioned services. In September, the company admitted to having around 77,000 reports of interrupted fixed services nationwide. And in October, residents of the Casino Deportivo in Havana reported being cut off for nearly a month for the same reason: ETECSA did not have cables to repair the damage from a fire.
It is not the first time that Delgado Cabrera has raised his voice about the situation in Cuba. In August 2026, he published the heart-wrenching testimony "The Cuban Hell", in three parts, describing decades of shortages, repression, and indoctrination. In September, he paid tribute to his mother Gina Cabrera, whom he described as "a Cuban who did not know how to lie," denouncing the institutional abandonment she suffered in her later years.
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