Journalist from State Media Launches Verbal Attack on Mike Hammer, Labeling Him "Executioner with the Face of a Friend"

Oliver Zamora Oria, a journalist aligned with the Cuban government, took to Canal Caribe to launch a verbal assault on Mike Hammer, the Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. In his broadcast, Zamora Oria labeled Hammer as "the executioner with the face of a friend" after Hammer criticized the Cuban revolution as a failure during a recent press conference in Miami. Hammer pointed to power outages, food and fuel shortages, and the declining living conditions in Cuba as evidence of this failure.

Zamora Oria argued that these statements are part of what he describes as a "cruel" and "sadistic" U.S. strategy aimed at deliberately suffocating Cuba. He suggested that U.S. policymakers face a contradiction: they blame the socialist system for the economic collapse while simultaneously acknowledging the measures taken to throttle Cuba's economy. "With morbid pleasure and cruelty, they explain and detail the steps they take to strangle this country's economy," Zamora Oria declared.

Instead of countering Hammer's analysis of Cuba's structural crisis with facts or arguments, Zamora Oria focused entirely on blaming U.S. sanctions. He lamented that no journalist at the Miami conference challenged Hammer about sanctions on shipping companies transporting fuel to Cuba, financial difficulties stemming from over 1,000 blocked banking operations, or obstacles to purchasing parts for aging thermoelectric plants.

Furthermore, Zamora Oria mocked Hammer's travels across Cuba, noting that Hammer enjoys freedoms denied to his fellow Americans by the government he represents. "In his tours with the face of a friend, he hasn't had to explain to a mother why her son in the U.S. can't send her aid or why travel is impossible due to the immigration terror unleashed by the Trump administration," Zamora Oria quipped.

While Zamora Oria's speech aimed to express outrage at U.S. policies, it notably avoided addressing the Cuban state's role in the nation's economic disintegration, lack of structural reforms, and repression—key factors in the country's ongoing crisis. He concluded his remarks by saying, "The most outrageous thing isn't that the executioner comes with the face of a friend. The most outrageous thing is that they aim to mock our suffering, underestimate our intelligence, and our ability to think."

This rhetoric echoes other responses from the Cuban regime. Recently, Johana Tablada, Deputy Director General of the U.S. Division at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused Hammer of lying about the revolution's failure, attributing the crisis to U.S. coercive measures and denying any responsibility for the island's economic woes.

Despite the criticism, Hammer has stood firm, stating that his mission is to hear directly from the Cuban people and that the newly announced sanctions are just the beginning of a more resolute U.S. stance against the Cuban regime.