Andy Vázquez Criticizes Mijaín López: "I Couldn't Celebrate Your Feat Remembering How You Attacked a Young Man for Demanding Freedom"

Comedian Andy Vázquez acknowledged the remarkable achievement of Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijaín López, a five-time Olympic champion in his discipline, but stated he couldn't rejoice over the news considering the athlete's off-field history. "My recognition as an athlete. It's a shame I couldn't celebrate your feat remembering how you attacked a young man for demanding freedom for our Cuba," Vázquez said on the Facebook page 'Facundo Vivir del cuento'.

The popular Miami-based actor, known for his portrayal of the character Facundo in Cuban television's comedy show, expressed the sentiment of many Cubans who regret the propagandistic use the Cuban regime makes of sports and its champions.

The Use of Athletes for Propaganda

Beyond the purely sporting realm, Mijaín's case is one of the most media-driven, as his accolades and physique are highly noticeable and have been exploited by the regime's propaganda. The totalitarian regime has turned the Giant of Herradura into a symbol of that violent and ideologized Cuban identity constructed by the Communist Party's discourse.

Associated with the so-called “revolution” and patriotism understood as loyalty to a project of social domination, the Cuban identity defined by the PCC's Ideological Department and promoted by leaders and official media is an outdated, chauvinistic, and exclusionary term. Those who lend their names for this purpose are rewarded, like Mijaín, who received a Mercedes Benz in January 2022.

In their slogans declaring "Mijaín is Cuba," the communication experts at Palacio aim to highlight the athlete's adherence to the "revolution," its principles, his patriotism, and his willingness to stay in Cuba at a time when the so-called "revolutionary sport" has suffered the greatest exodus of athletes in its history.

Big, strong, unbeatable, loyal, a member of the PCC (the only legal party on the island), and a deputy of the National Assembly of People's Power, Mijaín embodies the archetype of the ardent supporter that the Cuban regime values above all in athletes. Those who don't fit this mold disappear from history, and he becomes a symbol of that sovereign and victorious Cuba that the officialdom uses in its totalitarian indoctrination.

To add insult to injury, the wrestler has been seen engaging in violent behavior against Cubans who have had the courage to deliver a message of freedom and opposition to the dictatorship in his imposing presence. This was the case with Damián Montes de Oca Iglesias, the young Cuban assaulted by Mijaín and other members of the Cuban delegation at the Pan American Games in Santiago 2023.

This incident occurred at the end of October 2023, when Montes de Oca Iglesias displayed a Cuban flag with the phrase "Freedom for Cuba" at the baseball stadium where the Cuban team had just lost to Brazil. "I respected him until today," said the stellar pitcher from Pinar del Río, José Ariel Contreras, upon witnessing his compatriot's aggression against a peaceful Cuban who was merely protesting for freedom.

This is precisely the event Vázquez recalled in his post, and what many other Cubans remember, along with other "details" that have turned the Giant of Herradura into a fetish object of the regime's propaganda, its standard-bearer, and champion in its symbolic war against the "haters."

"INDER is full of repressors. Mijaín López is just one more of them. And on top of that, a giant one, making his repressive condition even more terrible," denounced activist Sayli González Velázquez on her social media, one of the many voices from Cuban civil society who refuse to separate sports from politics. In the case of the Cuban dictatorship, it is an inseparable duo used by the regime to divide Cubans and impose its vision of the homeland through the ideological "revolutionary" prism.