Cuban Jurist Condemns Government: "How Can You Act in Our Name, Scoundrels?"

René Fidel González García, a Cuban jurist and former university professor, released a politically and morally charged statement on Friday. He denounces what he describes as historical betrayal against the Cuban people, sharply criticizing the island's rulers amid images of starving children, hopeless elders, and families torn apart by migration.

In his Facebook post, González García begins with a striking assertion that sets the tone for his entire message: "When everything ends, the feeling of betrayal will remain. Betrayal, like all betrayals, always costs someone their trust, someone's hope, but this one is different due to its scale and its intentions."

The jurist clarifies that this betrayal goes beyond loyalty to a doctrine, arguing it's more far-reaching: "The betrayal is not against the followers of an idea... not exactly, not entirely: it's a betrayal of an entire society—or several—because each generation that lived in Cuba contributed and felt part of their own community."

In the most raw segment of his text, González García paints a picture of collective defeat: "When it all ends, what will remain on the vast and terrible field of defeat... are the scavengers, now clean, with their spoils, but above all, the defeated will remain—their bodies and lives, their aspirations scattered and broken, their helplessness."

Images of Despair

He proceeds to list, with a rhythm that serves as an accusation, the images that render the official narrative unsustainable: "Children sleeping hungry, emaciated. Elders sleeping without dreams, emaciated. Parents sleeping without their own parents, without their children, emaciated, utterly emaciated." He concludes with a question that serves as a direct insult to those in power: "How can you act in our name, scoundrels?"

Accompanying his post is the iconic photo of a girl clutching a stick as if it were a doll, taken by Alberto Korda in 1959. This image has been frequently used by Cuban official propaganda to depict the pre-revolutionary state of the nation. However, juxtaposed with González García’s fiercely accusatory text, it suggests that the revolution that promised to eliminate such ills has ultimately betrayed the people.

Grim Realities

The harsh realities González García evokes are not mere empty metaphors. According to data from the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights published in August 2026, extreme poverty affects 94% of Cubans, with a daily threshold of $1.90 per person.

This statement is part of a series of declarations González García has made throughout 2026. In late July, he asserted that Cubans today have less political freedom than they did in 1953 under Batista's dictatorship. On August 2, he directly addressed the Cuban Communist Party, questioning whether its officials would politically support the restoration of capitalism, privatization, and the commodification of socio-economic and cultural rights, all contributing to the Cuban population's impoverishment. In that same post, he declared: "They can no longer even invoke the definition of a dictatorship of the proletariat. It is against the proletarians, at their expense, without the proletarians."

On August 16, he introduced the concept of "political indigence" to describe the exclusion faced by most Cubans, arguing that this condition "inevitably leads to economic and social indigence."

González García, who holds a Doctorate in Legal Sciences, was a full professor at the University of Oriente in Santiago de Cuba until November 2016, when he was dismissed for publishing critical articles in independent media. The institution claimed his writings "lacked scientific character" and "negatively influenced the comprehensive training of professionals," but he and human rights organizations denounced it as political retaliation.

Prisoners Defenders documented 1,327 political prisoners in Cuba by the end of July 2026, a record number for the organization. Additionally, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights recorded at least 1,949 repressive actions in the first half of the year. This is compounded by the migration crisis: according to official data from the National Office of Statistics and Information, Cuba saw a negative migration balance of 245,264 people in 2025, exacerbating the separation of families between the island and abroad.

González García's inquiry in his post—"What will those, now greedy and arrogant, say when they tell us everything that happens is in our name?"—encapsulates the core accusation of a jurist who has spent a decade paying the price for speaking the truth aloud.