«Let them invade us now! What could be worse than this? »: a Cuban woman’s desperation goes viral on Facebook

MIAMI, United States. – Cuban blogger Julia Elena Jareño Varcárcel denounced on Facebook the serious crisis suffered by Cubans residing on the Island. In a key of irony and desperation, wrote this Sunday: “Let them invade us now (…)! What could be worse than this?”

In general, the author suggests that, in the face of daily misery, any solution seems preferable. “This is not life: it is a daily agony to guarantee a breakfast or a snack,” he maintains. “It’s worse than this to be dead, and sometimes that doesn’t even seem like an exaggeration.”

The ironic charge appears reinforced by passages that parody common arguments of the official discourse: “Perhaps it is also the fault of the ‘blockade’ that the cows do not give milk, or of cruel and brutal imperialism that misery is milked while the discourse remains fat and well fed,” affirms the postbefore finishing off against the government narrative: “From air-conditioned offices, they explain to us that this is resistance, dignity and sovereignty. They ask us for patience with an empty stomach and full slogans.”

That tone – more than a literal request for intervention – coincides with a parallel phenomenon that is growing on the internet: petitions on the platform. Change.org that promote the annexation of Cuba to the United States. The most numerous, titled “Annexation of Cuba to the United States”registered 4,456 verified signatures at 12:00 noon this Monday. In another campaign, “Get Cuba annexed to the United States”, Change.org reported 97 verified signatures. A third request, “Annex Cuba to the United States”had 54 verified signatures.

Although the three campaigns are different, they share annexation as a “structural” or “permanent” solution to the Cuban crisis and as a way to access the institutional, economic and freedoms framework of the United States, according to the texts of the petitions.

Jareño Varcárcel’s publication fits into this climate of boredom, but he does so from a formulation that highlights the moral and material wear and tear of daily life: “There is no lack of sacrifice here: there is plenty of cynicism. It is not a natural catastrophe or a war; it is a country administered against its people.”

In the same ecosystem of Change.org In addition, initiatives are circulating that call for a “military intervention” in Cuba, a label that the platform itself groups under the theme “Cuba Intervention.” In that page, Change.org indicated that 453,015 signatories were “taking action on this issue.”

The serious food crisis to which Jareño Varcárcel alludes has been recognized at different times by authorities and the media, in the midst of the contraction of supply and inflation; and denounced by citizens and activists. In February 2024, the Minister of Internal Trade herself, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, admitted problems in guaranteeing milk for children and delays in deliveries.

Food insecurity has worsened at least during the last five years on the Island to the point that Cubans have begun to eliminate one of the three fundamental meals of the day as a way of survival.