Lis Cuesta, the wife of Castro regime figurehead Miguel Díaz-Canel, outraged and disgusted Cubans this week with a bizarre post celebrating her husband as the “dictator of [her] heart.”
Cuesta posted a photo of Díaz-Canel – who holds the title of “president” but largely serves as the face of the ruling Castro family and its leader, Raúl – apparently giving a speech in front of the flag of the Communist Party of Cuba on Sunday. Cubans have spent much of the week mocking and condemning her for the post, publishing memes accusing her and her family of shamelessness in the face of growing brutality by the Cuban state against pro-democracy dissidents.
An estimated 187,000 Cubans took the streets of nearly every municipality in the country on July 11, 2021, to call for the end of the Castro regime and communist ideology on the island. The 62-year-old regime responded with widespread arrests – not only of protesters but of individuals near the vicinity of protests with no history of dissident activity – and with disproportionate violence. In the days following the protests, allegedly China-trained “black beret” forces conducted door-to-door raids to find anyone accused of participating in peaceful protests. In one particularly violent incident, uniformed state repressors shot a man in his living room while his twin toddlers watched.
Having arrested hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of civilians for expressing unapproved political opinions in public, the regime that Díaz-Canel represents then processed them through mass sham trials, sentencing many to ten-, 20-, and 30-year terms in prison. Many of the mass trials reportedly processed as many as 30 people at once, including children and people with known mental disabilities.
In this context, Cuesta chose to praise her husband as a handsome tyrant.
“He who is cute is cute! And, besides, inside and out: the dictator of my heart,” Cuesta wrote on Twitter, accompanied by heart emojis.
Díaz-Canel used his verified account to reply with romantic lyrics by pro-regime Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, which observers took as confirmation that Cuesta had not been hacked and had, indeed, intended to publish the post from her official account.
Cuesta’s post appeared to be an attempt to mock pro-democracy protesters. Nonetheless, the use of the word “dictator” – particularly as the Cuban regime continues its campaign of sentencing hundreds of people, including children, to years in prison over participating in the July 2021 anti-communist protests – outraged Cubans on and off the island. Many noted that, had Cuesta been a normal Cuban with no ties to the Castro regime, police could arrest her for using “dictator” to refer to her husband.
“Me watching how easy it is for [Cuesta] to call him a dictator without getting arrested,” one user wrote, adding a sad puppet meme photo.
Another post read:
Dias [sic] Canel’s wife: the dictator of my heart
All Cubans: [ah, ah, she said it! she said it!]
“This must be the first time in 60 years that you guys say something that represents the thinking of the Cuban people,” another Cuban wrote. “We are all in agreement, he is your dictator and that of another 11 million Cubans.”
Others warned Díaz-Canel that the Cuban people would soon stop tolerating the Communist Party.
“You have little time left in power,” one user wrote. “Enjoy your mansion and the money from the corruption because you are going to find yourselves with one hand covering your front and another at your back.”
Miami’s AmericaTeVe network chronicled growing activity on Twitter and other social media outlets mocking the couple and referencing the Communist Party’s silencing of dissidents.
Cuesta opened her account on Twitter on March 31 (Twitter openly allows tyrants and their families to use the outlet, despite having banned the president of the United States from the platform) and has largely used it to antagonize the Cuban people with posts like the one praising her husband. More recently, she condemned anti-government remarks from users citing Rodríguez, the singer-songwriter, who had mildly critiqued the imposition of extended prison sentences on artists arrested over the July 11 protests.
“Do you guys really believe the cheap manipulators who are experts? That they can use Silvio’s words against the Revolution?” she asked. “Please, a big respect [sic],” she demanded, followed by an angry cursing emoji.
The Spain-based Diario de Cuba observed when Cuesta opened her account that she has been making moves to become a more prominent figure in Cuban politics. While technically the first lady of Cuba, women have traditionally not been allowed to play any significant public roles in the Castro regime. Fidel Castro, brother Raúl, mass murderer Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos (who Cubans have long suspected Fidel Castro of killing) have maintained a stranglehold on the Communist Party’s cult of personality, with only minimal roles left to figures like Vilma Espín, Raúl Castro’s wife.
“Cuesta Peraza increasingly appears to want to assume an official role, perhaps with the goal of distancing herself from the role of companion to the head of government,” Diario de Cuba noted. “But luck does not appear to be with her. Many Cubans tend to make fun of her and criticize her, reminder her among other things of her function as an organizer of culinary events at luxury hotels in a country where the biggest problem is finding something to eat.”