While millions of Cubans face blackouts, shortages, and rampant inflation, Miguel Díaz-Canel and his wife, Lis Cuesta, enjoyed a luxurious banquet at the Kremlin on Thursday, courtesy of Vladimir Putin, as part of the celebrations for Victory Day in Moscow.
The table featured venison medallions, halibut fillet, select wines, and even a mousse cake decorated with golden berries, according to reports from the Russian press.
Putin toasted for "peace and prosperity" while the attending leaders, including the Cuban dictator, raised their glasses with enthusiasm.
Lis Cuesta was seen smiling broadly during dinner, wearing what appeared to be a fur coat or a fine imitation, a symbol of that "creative resistance" that is now so highly touted from Moscow.
All this is happening while, on the island that Díaz-Canel claims to "represent," Cubans are facing an extreme bread rationing in provinces like Guantánamo, where only one loaf of bread is now guaranteed for children under 13 years old. There’s no turning back: in many homes, breakfast has become a symbolic act.
And if one prefers to cook, it will have to be done with creativity, because in Sancti Spíritus the local government acknowledged the shortage of liquefied gas, without providing a solution or date for restoring the service.
From the deer medallions in Moscow to the rationed bread in Guantánamo, the distance between the elite and the Cuban people is no longer measured in kilometers, but in levels of cynicism.
But of course, for the regime, these images are not a scandal: they are "diplomacy." And if they need to smile for a photo next to a warring autocrat, or toast with leaders who do not face elections, scarcity, or power outages, they do so with pleasure and dessert.
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