Governing means creating the conditions for people to live better and to work, produce, and prosper without hesitation or unnecessary obstacles. When daily life becomes a struggle for the basics, asking for more effort without offering concrete solutions reveals a disconnect from present-day reality.
Saying this does not imply breaking with anyone or anything. Nor is it a rhetorical shift or a tactical repositioning. It is a stance I have upheld for many years, publicly and consistently.
I do not agree with the recent speech of the Cuban president. The repeated call for sacrifice from a people already living at the limit, however brave, resilient, and understanding they may be, is insufficient for the moment the country is going through. The narrative of permanent sacrifice no longer holds when it is not accompanied by real, measurable, and visible change.
Criticism does not amount to renouncing the country or betraying one’s convictions.
Renouncing would mean accepting that Cuba cannot be better. My convictions are not rooted in ideologies or political loyalties, nor in the defense of any system of government. They are rooted in the aspiration for a better and more prosperous Cuba, for a country that is more open, more plural, more inclusive, and more democratic; in the conviction of reconciliation, at least through a substantial improvement in relations between my adoptive country and my country of birth, one that includes the reintegration of the diaspora and a real possibility to return, contribute, and rebuild. Not renouncing the country means not renouncing that vision: a Cuba where people can live with dignity, work, produce, and prosper without fear or unnecessary obstacles, and where the future is no longer a promise endlessly postponed.
In my case, this position is more complex because I dissent both from internal decisions I consider unjust or ineffective and from external policies that have contributed to deepening everyday hardship. I have done so many times, directly and in public settings.
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Economic pressure, as it is applied today, does not punish an abstract system; it punishes people. Concrete families. Mothers, siblings, children, grandparents, and friends who endure constant precariousness. And it also affects those of us who live abroad, because even if we do not experience daily scarcity, we feel it. We carry it. It weighs on us.
How much longer?
This will not be stopped by more sacrifice, repeated ideologies, or speeches. It is stopped by concrete actions and difficult decisions. In this context, there is one element that deserves to be examined without prejudice. Unlike other U.S. presidents, President Trump has shown greater resolve and courage on the issue of Cuba than any of his predecessors.
Obama could have managed an opening much earlier and taken it further. Biden did nothing, both constrained by fear of political backlash. Trump, by contrast, is willing to pay the price of negotiating with a government that, according to his own administration, is harmful to U.S. national security. That is admirable and, more importantly, an opportunity that should not be wasted.
Dialogue is not surrender. It is recognizing that there are people we all claim to love who cannot wait any longer.
There are people who may not want to give up but who cannot continue to sacrifice themselves.
