Eight pearls by Arleen Rodríguez Derivet

‘CubaNet’ remembers eight controversial moments of the Cuban official spokesperson Arleen Rodríguez Derivet.

MIAMI, United States. – The Cuban official journalist Arleen Rodríguez Derivet has been at the center of several public controversies for statements issued in spaces of the state media system and in her podcast Chapping softlyas well as by comments that have circulated massively on networks.

The most recent wave of criticism broke out just this week, when the fragment of an interview from November 2025 in which he tried to relativize the impact of the blackouts in Cuba with a reference to José Martí. In the program Conversa con Correa, about the former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa for Russia Today, Rodríguez Derivet stated: “Someone told me: ‘The blackout is terrible’. I said: ‘Look, José Martí did not know electric light and he was a genius, he wrote like the gods; I wish I could write a line like Martí with the light on.” Even former Ecuadorian president Correa reacted: “But Arleen, we are in the 21st century.”

The phrase was also questioned for its historical inaccuracy, since Martí himself wrote about electric lighting. In a chronicle published in The Nation of Buenos Aires on August 15, 1883, he wrote: “Beautiful electric light! They do well, since it is the law that analogous symbols go together, to illuminate the Brooklyn Bridge with the light of the stars! Enter those aerial avenues, when everything rests, and with the soft light of the stars the electric lamps shine on the subtle wire ropes.”

But it is not the only controversy unleashed by the spokesperson: that episode joins a series of previous interventions for which the host and commentator—deputy director of the Round Table and personal friend of the Cuban ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as she herself has declared—has been accused of justifying repressive measures, publicly disqualifying critics of the Government or attributing internal crises to external enemies with formulations that provoked rejection and ridicule.

1) July 30, 2017: Without fear of jail for being a “journalist” in Cuba

In an interview reproduced on the web Cubajournalists (official site of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, UPEC), Rodríguez Derivet defended the official media system and described the program Round Table as a space aligned with the political line of “the Revolution”, in addition to presenting its vision of “freedom” in Cuban journalism. On that occasion he dropped at least two pearls:

“We are free from the market, which is the most important freedom in the world today.”

“What I have as a journalist in Cuba that I would not have in another country is the possibility of living without fear of being imprisoned or murdered for saying what I think.”

2) July 2021, after 11J – Cut off the internet

Following the protests of July 11, 2021 (11J), Rodríguez Derivet validated the internet/telephony cutoff applied by the State. that time he said, in the Round Table:

“I understand as a journalist, although it hurts me, the measure of the cut off of social networks, because it is the area where the war against Cuba is being organized, but it is also a shame because they miss out on reading some things that people are writing, extraordinary, of courage, of rebellion.”

3) November 17, 2021 – “Do not be scared when there are acts of repudiation”

In the context of the Civic March for Change (15N) and the acts of repudiation against activists, Rodríguez Derivet justified these actions in a television intervention. Said:

“Don’t be scared when there are acts of repudiation. When people see what they have at risk and know which side they are on, logically these things are going to happen.”

And then he added:

“You carry out your acts of repudiation on the networks: you lynch, humiliate, offend, try to demoralize and ideologically decapitalize people. Well, you will have to accept what people respond to you. And I repeat, I am not one of those who believe that acts of repudiation are good.”

4) October 2022: Against actor Ulyk Anello

During the massive blackout associated with Hurricane Ian, the journalist attacked the actor Ulyk Anello after his criticism of the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel. On his podcast Chapping softly said:

“Like that of the actor who screamed, insulted, asked that the president resign, that he be arrested and expelled from the country and, since no one did, he went to the airport and from there who knows where.”

5) February 2024 – Ministers with empty portfolios

Rodríguez Derivet came out in defense of the recently dismissed ministers and particularly of Alejandro Gil Fernandez. In an article by Cubadebate wrote:

«The relieved ministers do not leave, as in other countries, with a full portfolio. They are colleagues who finish a really hard and demanding task that has required effort and dedication.”

6) March 2024 – Poor Díaz-Canel

In an interview with Rebel Youththe “journalist” claimed her closeness to Miguel Díaz-Canel and praised his character. Said:

“He is one of the best of my generation, in terms of dedication, cleanliness of soul. The insults and rudeness towards him hurt me a lot, because I know him and I know how much he gives himself to Cuba and reveals himself.”

7) March 2024 – “There are people who have enough to eat several times and give as gifts”

Rodríguez Derivet surpassed herself in a Round Table March 2024:

“This country that has a strong State, that has as its priority the feeding of the people, that of the children, that of the elderly, that of the sick. (…) And some people say, There is no food. At some point we were talking [que] There are people who have enough to eat several times and give as gifts.”

“A quota. In what other country is there a quota? Suppose it is the minimum that people can have to feed themselves for a few days of the month. (…) It is given to everyone, which is something that will have to be resolved shortly and it is proposed like this.”

8) March 2024 – Guaranteed milk… up to seven years old

The Cuban official spokesperson once again generated controversy for comments linked to the milk shortage and the Cuban Government’s request for help from the World Food Program. Also on his podcast Chapping softlyRodríguez Derivet said:

“Why is it always said that they take away milk from children at the age of seven? Wouldn’t it be more fair to say that milk is guaranteed, at subsidized prices, to all children up to the age of seven? Taking away a right is not the same as guaranteeing it.”