Lis Cuesta Acknowledges Cuban Doctors Are "Performing Miracles" to Care for Patients

Lis Cuesta Peraza, the spouse of Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel—who maintains she is not the First Lady despite enjoying similar privileges—publicly acknowledged on social media this Tuesday that Cuban doctors are "performing miracles" to care for patients. In celebration of Latin American Medicine Day, Cuesta posted on social media platform X, sending a "special kiss for my brother David and my sister-in-law Saray and the biggest hug to all our doctors, heroes who are even magicians."

However, her message starkly contrasts the harsh reality faced by medical personnel in Cuba, who are compelled to work under dire conditions with a severe shortage of medicines and supplies, jeopardizing both patients and healthcare professionals. The "magic" Cuesta refers to is more accurately a portrayal of the improvisation and extreme sacrifices these heroes make in an overburdened system.

Cuesta's statement aligns with the official narrative propagated by the Cuban regime, led by Díaz-Canel himself. He also acknowledged on X that the doctors work "amid shortages," attributing the healthcare system's collapse to the "difficulties imposed by the blockade."

A doctor from Santiago de Cuba, worn out from witnessing patients die due to the lack of medications and supplies and the regime's inability to find effective solutions, compared the healthcare system's precarious state—long touted as a government hallmark—to the death of the nation itself. "Our nation has died, damn it, and there's nothing left to do about it," concluded a doctor from the eastern province in a series of reflections shared with the news outlet CiberCuba.