Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged this Wednesday that the Cuban state's response to citizens' problems cannot be conditioned on whether a person appears on a radio program. "Attention to a case and its resolution cannot depend on a person's media visibility," he stated during the fourth broadcast of Criterio Compartido, transmitted by Radio Rebelde, which focused exclusively on the water supply crisis in Cuba.
The statement amounts to an implicit admission that the radial space—launched in September as a channel for "citizen participation"—has become the only real resource for many Cubans to receive a response from the State, in light of the systematic silence from the institutions.
The case that illustrated this failure was that of a neighbor from Mantilla, in Arroyo Naranjo, who had gone over six months without receiving water and had received no explanation from any authority she turned to. When the problem was investigated, it turned out to be a failure in the valves, with a technical solution that could be implemented in a matter of hours. Díaz-Canel stated it bluntly: "Six months of silence cannot be justified by any technical complexity. There may be technical complexity, but the silence is unjustifiable."
The leader acknowledged that the water issue "is real, serious, and complex," but insisted that material difficulties cannot serve as an excuse for inaction. "We will also not dwell on external causes to justify a lack of institutional response," he pointed out, in a statement that, without naming it, dismisses the embargo as an excuse for abandoning the population.
The figures accompanying the program reveal the magnitude of the crisis. According to the president of the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos, Antonio Rodríguez, by dawn on Tuesday, there were 2,681,770 inhabitants experiencing supply issues through networks across the country. Sixty-six percent of these deficiencies were related to a lack of electricity, while twenty-five percent were due to malfunctions in pumping equipment. In Havana alone, the number reached 536,000 people.
The dependence on water regarding the electrical system —which in 2026 has experienced at least eight total collapses— is the core of the problem. Just two days before the program, the electric availability was only 740 megawatts compared to a demand of 2,900. Díaz-Canel acknowledged the limitations of water trucks as an alternative: "With water trucks, we are not going to solve the problem; the truck helps us mitigate it."
As a structural solution, the INRH announced the construction of 10 solar parks with 200 megawatts and storage, intended for three fundamental sources in Havana, with completion scheduled for August 2027. It also reported 853 pumping units in operation as part of the energy matrix transition and the expected arrival of another 446 before the end of December.
The program also reviewed the previous episode: of the 29 calls received, all 29 individuals were visited. Out of 23 complaints, nine had already been resolved, and 12 required more resources and time. Díaz-Canel announced that the new communications would be monitored for the next 15 days, until the next broadcast.
The space premiered on September 23 with a bi-weekly frequency. In that first broadcast, a listener from Contramaestre summed up the situation with a phrase that the regime could not refute: "Salaries and the paycheck are not enough to live." Since then, each episode has accumulated complaints about inflation, unpaid pensions, and now the lack of water, with structural solutions not keeping pace with the problems.
Díaz-Canel closed the program with a definition of his purposes that, read in reverse, accurately describes what the Cuban State has been doing for decades: "This program is not a space to promise what we cannot fulfill, but to speak the truth and demand accountability."
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