A Cuban diplomat accredited in Washington took to social media this Monday to showcase an electric tricycle with foldable solar panels as proof of Cuba's "capacity for innovation" in the face of adversity, while simultaneously challenging the United States. The author of the message is David Ramírez Álvarez, the Second Secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Washington D.C. responsible for Cultural Affairs, who posted on his X account a 29-second video showing, filmed from above, a white tuk-tuk vehicle with foldable solar panels on either side, like wings, traveling down a Cuban street.
"The ability of Cubans to innovate in the face of adversity is impressive. And the U.S. still believes it can defeat Cuba. Washington simply does not understand us," wrote the official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX), adding the hashtag CubaIsNotAThreat and blaming the "blockade."
What the diplomat presents as popular ingenuity, however, has a more complex interpretation. The tricycle in the video does not appear to be just any artisanal adaptation: its foldable solar panels bring it closer to the models that VEDCA (Electric Vehicles of the Caribbean) is beginning to assemble, a mixed Chinese-Cuban company established in 2019 between the Chinese firm Tianjin Dongxing Industrial Group and the Cuban company Minerva. The company announced that "all tricycles coming from now on will be equipped with photovoltaic panels," and projected to produce more than 20,000 units by 2026.
In Cuba, there is indeed a wave of artisanal adaptations of Chinese electric tricycles with solar panels, driven by the devastating energy crisis. Entrepreneurs like the young Yadán Pablo Espinosa, 21 years old, have installed panels ranging from 550 to 650 watts on handmade iron supports on more than 15 vehicles, with an installation cost of between 500 and 800 dollars.
The context in which the official claims this "innovation" is revealing: just one day before its publication, Cuba had only 1,040 MW available against a demand of 2,317 MW, with neighborhoods in Havana experiencing more than 52 consecutive hours without electricity. By the end of October, the deficit exceeded 2,000 MW for three consecutive days. The National Electric System barely meets between 38% and 45% of demand, with blackouts exceeding twenty hours a day in several provinces.
Ramírez Álvarez is not a diplomat unfamiliar with controversy. Since May 2026, U.S. federal authorities have been investigating him for allegedly coordinating a foreign influence campaign on U.S. soil, possibly in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). A video obtained by Fox News shows him during an evening session in a union hall in California, briefing activists on Congressional legislation and lobbying goals in favor of Havana.
The investigation is part of a broader legal offensive by the Department of Justice that examines 145 organizations pro-Cuba with combined annual revenues of approximately 1 billion dollars. The Embassy of Cuba rejected the accusations citing the Vienna Convention.
While the diplomat garners followers on X with messages of anti-imperialist resistance, millions of Cubans on the island are seeking real solutions to survive the blackouts, turning to solar panels, adapted tricycles, and any alternative that allows them to maintain some light and mobility amid the energy collapse that the regime has failed to resolve for decades.
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