Pro-communist social media users have spent much of the past week attacking Cuban-American pop star Camila Cabello after the artist published a statement condemning the Castro regime for the devastating humanitarian crisis her family in her home country are facing.
Cabello, who rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony and has made political statements in support of leftist politicians and causes, nonetheless lamented in a social media post sharing photos of her childhood last week the sad state of the Cuban people. While offering a veiled dig at President Donald Trump, claiming that immigrants in the United States are facing “heartbreaking things,” she added that she could not ignore the extreme shortages of food, fuel, medicine, and other basic needs that the Communist Party has imposed on the Cuban people. Cabello also added a link to Catholic charities that are aiding in the distribution of humanitarian aid, much of it provided by the United States.
Cabello was born in Cuba to Mexican and Cuban parents and entered the United States through the southern border when she was about 7 years old, prior to President Barack Obama’s decision during his last days in office to rescind the legal protections for Cubans fleeing communism that had been in place for decades.
While many Spanish-language posts from fellow Cubans and allied Venezuelans thanked Cabello for raising awareness of the communist disaster in Cuba, Anglophone leftists insulted her for failing to blame the United States, which is offering millions in humanitarian aid to Cuba, for the Communist Party’s failures. Some referred to her by the epithet gusana (“maggot”), which mass murderer Fidel Castro adopted for Cubans who oppose communism. At least one relatively well-known leftist online personality referred to Cabello as “gross.”
The singer’s post, published on February 20, was accompanied by harrowing photos of collapsed buildings in Cuba, people digging through dumpsters for food, and pictures of her as a child wearing the “young pioneer” uniform that marks a child as a member of the Communist Party’s special indoctrination program for stand-out students.
“There is so much going on here at home and so much I can say about the heartbreaking things the immigrant community is experiencing here in the US,” she wrote. “I also feel a personal responsibility to speak about what’s happening in Cuba, I still have family on the island that we speak to and send medicine, food and clothes to.”
“It has been 67 years of a failing dictatorship and an oppressive regime. The Cuban people are suffering in an echo chamber where no one can hear them because to speak is to risk your life,” her post continued. “Many people are starving, looking for food in trash heaps, and the only way to survive is having relatives ship you boxes of medicine because not even the hospitals have medicine. The power is gone for so long that food spoils and water becomes scarce.”
“The Cuban people have lived without dignity and without hope for too long. It’s no wonder so many Cubans have thrown themselves into shark infested waters, making boats out of tires and sticks and risking their lives for freedom,” she lamented. “They are now in the midst of a profound humanitarian crisis. If you want to help and don’t know how, check the link in my story to support Caritas Cuba and their work.”
The vast majority of Cubans – those without ties to the Castro family – have lived in a fabricated state of poverty since Fidel Castro took over the country in a coup in 1959. The regime has dramatically escalated repression against its own citizens in the current decade, however, initially in response to the July 11, 2021, protests that emerged in nearly every city in the country demanding an end to the regime. Communist leaders have since tightened the screws in response to the return of President Donald Trump to power. Most recently, Trump’s decision to approve the arrest of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro on narco-terrorism charges resulted in an abrupt halt to the free or extremely discounted oil that Cuba received from that regime. Trump also passed an executive order threatening third-party countries that provide oil with tariffs, leading the country without fuel and pausing its regime-controlled tourism industry.
In response to Cabello’s recognition of the situation in her home country, online leftists bombarded her social media pages with hateful statements condemning both her and the United States.
“We’re literally causing all of this it’s not because of communism… educate yourself on your own country,” one English-language user wrote on Instagram.
“So, you’re just going to sell out Cuba for AmeriKKKa without mentioning the years upon years of sanctions by your beloved AmeriKKKa on Cuba?” wrote another user on Twitter with the hashtag “fuckAmeriKKKa” in their profile.
“Not mentioning the blocade [sic] makes you complicit in the genocidal measures of the US government. Shame on you,” another user wrote, referring to the alleged American “embargo” on Cuba, which has never prevented the shipments of medicine, food, or other necessary goods to the island. In reality, the Castro regime heavily embargos its own people, limiting what Americans can send into the island.
Another user wrote that Cabello’s biggest hit, the song “Havana,” was “cultural appropriation,” despite the fact that Cabello was born and raised in Cuba.
On the left-wing message board site Reddit, users pilloried Cabello for standing up for her oppressed family. Many users used the gusano epithet, echoing communist propaganda, and again condemned the United States.
“The blame is almost entirely at the hands of the United States yet she blames Cubas government? Disgusting,” one user wrote.
Another leftist described Cabello as an “ignorant ass” for her “white-washed stupid-ass take.”
“Argh that’s such a MAGA take,” another lamented.
The most high-profile leftist to attack Cabello was the Youtube personality Hasan Piker, famous for stating that “America deserved 9/11” and, more recently, for being accused of using an electric shock collar on his dog during a livestream (Piker has denied the accusation, which elicited a response from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)).
“It’s disgusting,” Piker lamented on his livestream, mispronouncing Cabello’s name. “I can’t stand people that say something like this when it’s very clearly defending America’s unimaginable and unyielding cruelty.”
In sharp contrast, the Spanish-language messages celebrated the singer. Among those posting on her Instagram page in gratitude was Cuban rapper Yotuel, who once received the favor of the Communist Party as part of the group Orishas but later became the face of the artistic resistance with the anti-communist anthem “Patria y Vida.”
“Thank you, little sister,” Yotuel wrote.
Other users wrote similar messages in Spanish in gratitude.
“We love you so much Camilita,” one user wrote.
“Finalllyyyyy someone famous and coherent,” anohher wrote. “Free Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, and Venezuela.”
Cabello does not have a record of supporting right-wing causes; on the contrary, the singer has expressed support for abortion and celebrated Obama’s disastrous Cuba policy at the time. By 2021, however, when the July protests erupted, Cabello became more vocal in supporting the people of her country.
“For 62 years, Cuban people have been living under oppression,” she said in a statement at the time. “What started out as a socialist ideal of free healthcare, free education and food for all turned into present-day Cuban people have to wait hours in line at the grocery store to come in and find that basic staples like beans and rice are ten times more than what the average even medical doctor in Cuba can afford.”
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