On X, the Undersecretary of State criticized the “ideological fanaticism” of those who defend the Cuban regime.
14ymedio, Havana, August 14,2025 — It is hard to believe that, after decades of repression, lack of freedoms and a rampant economic crisis, there are those who still see in Cuba a “socialist paradise.” However, on August 13, 99 years after the birth of Fidel Castro, congratulations to the island came not only from allied regimes but also from related sectors around the world. That “ideological fanaticism” was precisely what U.S. Undersecretary Christopher Landau criticized this Wednesday on X. Beyond the “myths,” he wrote, “any fair and honest person who approaches these issues should recognize that Cuba has been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.”
In the antipodes of the displays of tributes and celebrations that Havana has orchestrated for Castro’s birthday, Landau did not just point to the cult of personality around the dictator, but he also set out to dismantle revolutionary mythology. The brief text, in which he calls Castro a “ruthless thug,” was circulated by the U.S. Embassy on the island, which will surely bring an official response from Havana, currently engaged in criticizing the White House’s sanctions on officials from several countries involved in hiring medical missions.
“Anyone on the face of the earth younger than 67 years old, including me, has not known a single day in which Cuba has not been under the dictatorial regime of the communist party. Nevertheless, myths persist that the communist leaders of Cuba are ’the good ones’ and that the Cuban people are happy,” Landau began his message before giving way to an enumeration of four major myths held about the Cuban system.
The first myth revolves around the idea that in Cuba there is a high quality of life, especially when it comes to health and education.
The first myth revolves around the idea that in Cuba there is a high quality of life, especially when it comes to health and education. Citing data that reflect the mass migration of recent years, the critical state of the electricity system and the average wage on the island, Landau argues that the standard of living is not only “terrible,” but that it “continues to worsen” while Cubans are “fleeing en masse” from the country.
“Cuba, once the world’s largest sugar exporter, now imports more sugar than it produces, and the recent harvest was the worst since the nineteenth century. The access to basic food and medical supplies (aspirin, bandages) for the average Cuban is, at best, precarious,” he stressed, while contrasting the data with the large amounts of money that the country receives for each medical contingent it dispatches in the world. “The Cuban regime and its apologists love to talk about Cuban doctors deployed in other countries, but these doctors are not doing it for charity, (…) and it is the regime itself that keeps the payments.”
The Cuban rulers are also not “progressive leaders,” continues Landau, who says that “rarely have myth and reality been so far apart.” According to him, both Castro and his followers consolidated their “absolute and perpetual” power through violent methods and, for decades, “have given refuge to fugitives from U.S. justice.”
The former U.S. ambassador also reserved a few words for Ernesto Che Guevara, who openly boasted before the United Nations that “firing squads were a tool of the government to eradicate ’worms’.” The situation that Landau recalls occurred during an assembly of the organization in 1964, at which the Argentine said, on behalf of Cuba: “We have shot, are killing and will continue to execute as long as necessary.”
Landau also did not overlook the repression unleashed by the regime following the massive Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’). At that time, he recalled, more than 1,000 people were arrested for fabricated crimes such as “sedition,” and many of them are still in prison.
The third great myth of revolutionary rhetoric, explains Landau, is that “the leaders of the Cuban dictatorship care about the welfare of the people, not their own.”
The third great myth of revolutionary rhetoric, explains Landau, is that “the leaders of the Cuban dictatorship care about the welfare of the people, not their own.” Nothing could be further from the truth, he argues. “The Castro family and other members of the regime’s elite (especially military and intelligence leaders) live in luxury, with access to food, housing, cars and tourist destinations, and have accumulated billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts while the people are desperately looking for food and electricity.”
To prove it, he adds, just look at the profiles on social networks of the grandson of Fidel Castro, Sandro, who has declared himself an influencer and boasts about the “luxurious lifestyle of his family, with designer clothes and a life of leisure.”
To top it off, he points out, if any of these myths turn out to be false, Havana immediately blames the U.S. embargo for its problems. “But there is no such ’blockade’: Cuba is free to trade with other countries and, in fact, receives economic lifelines from abroad, such as oil from Venezuela and Mexico, and tourists from Canada, Europe and elsewhere. U.S.law explicitly allows the export of food and medicine to Cuba, and the humanitarian situation there would be much worse without these exports,” he says.
If the island was ever “blockaded” by the U.S., he adds, it was during the 1962 Missile Crisis, a situation of great tension between Washington and Moscow that lasted only a short time. “After more than sixty years, it is pathetic that the regime continues to blame the U.S. for the Cuban economic collapse instead of assuming responsibility for its own grotesque economic mismanagement and political repression.”
“The Cuban people deserve a bright future, and the regime cannot even offer them a decent present. I hope to set foot one day on a free and prosperous Cuba, and I am confident that I will,” said Landau, aware that ideological fanatics will continue to believe the myths of Castroism. However, he added, the faithful of the Revolution “are free to also believe in unicorns.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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