Omar López Montenegro, a Cuban activist and analyst, recently shared an essay on the platform Cuba x Cuba, highlighting a central paradox: the "new man" promised by the revolution over the decades is now the one most vocally opposing the system that created him.
The essay begins with the death of Juan Carlos González Marcos, known as Pánfilo, who passed away in Havana on March 26. Pánfilo became a popular figure in 2009 after interrupting a street recording to shout, "What we need here is food!" This truth, according to López Montenegro, represents "the backbone of any human order."
To López Montenegro, who also leads the Latin American Center for Nonviolence, Pánfilo's moment was more than just colorful; it was symptomatic, an allegory of Cuban society under Castroism: an ordinary Cuban, in a burst of spontaneous honesty, shattered a facade repeated at all levels.
The Illusion of Popular Support
The essay dismantles the official narrative of popular support with hard numbers. President Miguel Díaz-Canel's campaign for "commitment to peace" presented 6,230,973 signatures, representing only 64% of Cuba's population according to the National Office of Statistics and Information, far from the historic 99.9% approval the regime once claimed. Numerous irregularities have been documented, including individuals signing multiple times and signatures with incomplete identification numbers.
Data from the Cuban Conflict Observatory supports the argument. In 2025, the organization recorded 11,268 protests, complaints, and critical statements on the island, over 25% more than the 8,443 documented in 2024. The first quarter of 2026 alone saw 3,383 such actions, with a continued upward trend.
Voices of Dissent Rise
López Montenegro highlights recent examples, such as protests in Morón, where hundreds took to the streets with pots and pans, chanting "Freedom" and "Homeland and Life," prompting regime representatives to flee from public anger. He also notes the six-day protest by the so-called "Cuban Spiderman" and an incident where the First Secretary of the Party in Santiago de Cuba had to climb onto a roof to escape a crowd.
The political analyst warns that in the vast majority of analyses on Cuba, the "people" are often considered, as in mathematics, a null or empty set. Yet, the cries in the streets—for "electricity," "food," and "freedom"—prove otherwise: "The people know what they want, and they are shouting it at the top of their lungs."
Historical Parallels and the "New Man"
To illustrate the underlying dynamics of communist systems, the essay cites Václav Havel: "Communist systems give the appearance of a frozen lake, but beneath the uniformity of the ice, there is a whole life going on, fish moving."
López Montenegro draws historical parallels with the fall of the European communist bloc: the Solidarity union in Poland, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of Nicolae Ceaușescu in Romania, who was re-elected on November 24, 1989— the same day communism ended in Czechoslovakia—and was booed by more than 100,000 people in Bucharest before his escape and execution. None of these changes, he emphasizes, resulted from elite schemes or foreign powers.
The concept of the "new man" was formulated by Ernesto "Che" Guevara in his essay "Socialism and Man in Cuba" (1965), where he argued that the revolution should create a being who acts out of solidarity and collective duty, not individual interest. This ideal was used for decades to justify the material sacrifices of the Cuban people.
"The great paradox of the 'new man' is that he is precisely the one who expresses himself most directly against the regime of political exclusion," concludes López Montenegro. His central argument is that real change cannot occur without concrete citizen action: the voice of the Cuban people has been speaking for some time, and it just needs to be heard.
Insights into Cuba's Social Dynamics
What is the significance of Pánfilo in Cuban society?
Pánfilo became a symbol of the Cuban people's struggle when he famously interrupted a recording to demand food, highlighting the basic needs and frustrations of ordinary Cubans under the regime.
How does López Montenegro view the "new man" concept?
López Montenegro sees the "new man," originally envisioned by Che Guevara, as a paradox; instead of supporting the regime, this figure is now among the loudest voices against it, demanding change and freedom.