Havana/Viruses dominated October talks in Cuba. Between dengue, chikungunya and oropouche, health became the epicenter of speculation, fueled by the secrecy of the Ministry of Public Health. Social networks were filled with names, photos and messages of mourning for alleged victims of these diseases, while reports of collapsed hospitals grew.
The lack of institutional transparency – without epidemiological reports or clear numbers of deaths – gave strength to the idea that the outbreak is more serious than admitted. Opacity, a constant in times of health crisis, revived comparisons with the Covid-19 pandemic and left a certainty floating: in Cuba misinformation is also contagious.
The passage of Hurricane Melissa has added to this health anxiety in recent days. Stories have multiplied on social media of communities devastated by sudden river flooding, of families cut off from communication and land flooded by the spillway of dams that opened without warning. With these publications, a parallel map of the disaster has been woven that contrasts with the triumphalist tone of the official reports.
With these publications, a parallel map of the disaster has been woven that contrasts with the triumphalist tone of the official reports.
In the political field, attention fell on Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fragagreat-nephew of the Castros, after his sudden promotion to deputy prime minister. His promotion revived comments about a possible internal succession in power, with Miguel Díaz-Canel already worn down by the economic crisis and unpopularity. In WhatsApp and Telegram groups, his name circulated along with the word “replacement” and the statement that “the family is always the family”, in reference to the nepotism that Castroism has frequently used.
Social tensions were not left out of the discussions either. There were numerous reports of protests and banging pots and pans. Yes in Baire, Santiago de Cubathe story was confirmed by videos filmed by the protesters themselves shouting “Freedom!” and “We want food!”, in other cases only short texts remain, without images, but enough to keep alive the idea that discontent is growing and being expressed more and more frequently.
Some rumors, however, went from the realm of speculation to proven news. This was the case of the shelters of Medical students in Matanzasused as improvised rooms to accommodate children due to the collapse of the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Pediatric Hospital. What started as a ball on Facebook ended up confirmed by 14ymediowhich shows that, many times, in Cuba the rumor is just an advanced truth.
In a country where the economy is a state secret, there was no shortage of geopolitical theories either. The most widespread claimed that Nicolás Maduro had “sacrificed” Cuba so as not to irritate Donald Trump, reducing oil shipments to the island in exchange for an informal truce with Washington. In parallel, the videos of American ships in the Caribbean fueled fantasies about the flight of the Chavista leadership towards Havana, the last-minute pacts and the maneuvers to evacuate the wealth from Miraflores to the Island, all unconfirmed, but irresistible for a population that has spent decades interpreting the silence of power as a coded language.
The most widespread claimed that Nicolás Maduro had “sacrificed” Cuba so as not to irritate Donald Trump, reducing oil shipments to the Island.
The fire also had its share of mystery. The fire at the La Coloma Industrial Fishing Company, in Pinar del Río, was officially presented as an accident, but it did not take long for versions to emerge that spoke of sabotage, fueled by the rejection of foreign currency income for the regime, which annually exports tons of lobsters, while Cubans have seen seafood disappear from their tables.
What started as a ball very worrying ended up being pure certainty: the case of a police officer in Camagüey who shot a 13 year old boy. At first, it seemed like just another story inflated by popular discontent, until the Ministry of the Interior confirmed the fact with a brief note, without offering details of the agent involved. It was the last proof in October that, in Cuba, speculation is not just gossip: it is the substitute for information, the natural response of a society that has learned to suspect rather than believe.
