The leftist American news outlet CNN aired a favorable interview on Monday night with Sandro Castro, the grandson of late Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro and one of the few people in communist Cuba wealthy enough to enjoy marginal fame as an Instagram influencer.
Castro claimed that he knows the majority of Cubans want to live under capitalism but called hatred against his grandfather, a mass murderer who enthusiastically eliminated thousands with firing squads, “unproductive.”
Castro claimed to support President Donald Trump’s calls for the rogue communist regime to reach a deal with the U.S. and the Cuban economy, “but not his threats” against the island nation.
Sandro Castro is widely known as the most “eccentric” of Fidel Castro’s several grandsons – an “influencer” who, for years, has showcased snippets of his lavish lifestyle on social media. The younger Castro can commonly be seen driving his “toy” luxury Mercedes Benz around Cuba and throwing extravagant birthday parties at his Havana nightclub, EFE, while the rest of the country endures abject misery at the hands of the government that subsidizes his lifestyle. Great-uncle Raúl Castro, 94, remains the dictator and supreme authority of the country, despite the creation of a figurehead “president” role for puppet Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Castro’s social media presence is mainly on Instagram, where he maintains an account with over 158,000 followers in which he posts content ranging from self-promotional videos, “comedy” sketches, dancing in protest of President Donald Trump’s illegal migrant crackdown policies, to even celebrating the Fourth of July.
In recent months, Castro’s content has seen him publish videos superficially critical of the Cuban communist regime, such as complaining about gasoline shortages and the Cuban regime’s inability to properly conduct garbage collection in Havana. Castro has lamented, in a country that has endured decades of pervasive malnourishment as a result of his family, that there is no Coca-Cola in the country to drink a Cuba libre cocktail. Castro published a “comedy sketch” this month in which a man impersonating President Trump reached out to Castro to “buy Cuba.” The Trump impersonator was identified by Cuba-focused outlets as Italian music producer Roberto Ferrante, who is known to have deep ties with the Cuban regime.
On Monday, CNN published an interview its Havana-based correspondent Patrick Oppmann held with Castro, during which the “influencer” presented himself as a “sign of the changing times” in the communist-ruled nation. Oppmann noted that Havana had been plunged into yet another blackout when he arrived at Castro’s apartment, but that Castro was unaffected by this, as his home was powered by means of a backup generator.
According to the outlet CiberCuba, the interview was held in Castro’s apartment in Kohly, an exclusive Havana neighborhood where Cuban military personnel and intelligence officials reportedly reside. The younger Castro promoted his interview on social media with a clip inside a vehicle in which he said, “CNN International is getting good.”
Asked by Oppmann what Fidel Castro — widely known for being a murderous dictator in life — would say of him since he is “more capitalist than communist,” the younger Castro falsely claimed that his grandfather “was a person who had his principles like everyone else. But he also respected others’ opinions.”
In reality, Castro tortured and killed thousands of people who held opinions differing from his own.
“There are many people in Cuba that think in a capitalistic way. There are many people here who want to do capitalism with sovereignty,” Castro said.
“I think the majority of Cubans want to be capitalist, not communist,” he continued.
Oppmann asked Castro what he thought of figurehead “President” Díaz-Canel. Castro answered that he does not think Díaz-Canel is doing a good job — stressing that, in his opinion, “he isn’t doing it [a good job] because there are so many things he should have done a long time ago, so many things that weren’t done properly, and those things are now coming back to haunt us.”
The interview does not address that Díaz-Canel is a subordinate to Raúl Castro and cannot act independently of the Party leadership.
Sandro Castro claimed to CNN that his social media videos allegedly criticizing the Cuban communist regime have prompted Cuban state security officials to call him for questioning — asserting that he was let go not because of his last name, but because he has never “called for violence or regime change.” The Cuban communist regime is widely known for fiercely punishing dissidents who dare to publish content on social media critical of the country’s communist rulers.
Oppmann asked Castro, “Why do you think some people hate your family so much?” Castro, without mentioning that the authoritarian Castro regime has an extensive, 67-year-long track record of repressing Cubans and forcing them to live under misery and poverty through communism, answered, “It’s complicated.”
“Because, as I mentioned earlier, many Cubans would have preferred to be more capitalist. I even think that most Cubans want capitalism, not communism, and perhaps that has created a rift and a hatred that, sadly, isn’t constructive,” Castro said.
Oppmann did not challenge any of Castro’s false premises.
A significant percentage of Castro’s social media “content” revolves around the promotion and consumption of Cristal beer, a once world-renowned Cuban beer seized by the Cuban communist regime decades ago. As is the case with every facet of Cuba, decades of disastrous communist mismanagement have turned Cristal beer into one of the worst-valued beer brands in the world.
According to CNN, Castro said that he wants to “produce his own beer and buy more nightclubs and cars” but is “frustrated” over the communist restrictions imposed by his family’s regime.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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