Sandro Castro, the “influencer” grandson of late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, released a new video this week criticizing the worsening shortages of fuel and water in Cuba — two of the many consequences of the disastrous communist regime forcefully imposed by his family.
The younger Castro proclaimed, “We live in a circus,” and said that his car is like Cuba, “it won’t move forward.”
Sandro Castro is a self-described “filmmaker,” “digital creator,” and “influencer” with about 160,000 followers on his Instagram account. Castro has repeatedly claimed in interviews with international outlets that he lives a life “without privileges” and that his position as a member of the Castro communist dynasty does not confer him any “special status” in Cuba. Despite this claim, Sandro — who owns the elite-only EFE Bar nightclub in Havana — is widely known for showcasing his lavish lifestyle, which is devoid of the abject poverty and misery that regular Cubans must live through as a result of more than 67 years of disastrous communism policies from the Castro regime.
In recent months, his social media “content” has contained vague criticism of his family’s regime and the current state of Cuba, some of which includes complaining through “comedy” about gasoline shortages and lack of functional garbage collection logistics in Havana, and filming sketches featuring him as an individual linked to the communist regime impersonating President Donald Trump, who visits Sandro to present him an offer to “buy Cuba.”
On Monday, Castro published a new video with the caption, “The Circus is Fresh,” which begins with him and an unidentified woman inside a vehicle. Castro tells the lady, “mami, listen to this banger” before a brief snippet plays from Bad Bunny’s 2022 song “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”), whose lyrics contain criticism about blackouts in Puerto Rico.
The woman tells Castro, “I don’t see your car moving,” to which he responds, “Mami, my car is like the country, it won’t move forward.”
Castro then tells the woman that he has the ideal solution, to put “two little animals in it,” as the car is “a Hyundai model without gas.”
“Mami, look, I even wrote a song for the little animals to honor them,” Castro says, before humming the chorus of The Tokens’ 1961 song The Lion Sleeps Tonight. After asking the woman if she is “all worked up,” Castro tells her, “Let’s head to the trunk — I’m going to give you a real good time.”
“Oh, that’s so good, girl. Life itself. Mami, I’ve let you destroyed — you’re like the national power grid,” Castro says, referring the ruined, near completely collapsed state of Cuba’s power grid.
Following an intermission taken from the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon, Castro and the woman get out of the vehicle’s trunk, suggesting that the pair “engaged” in sexual intercourse.
The woman, after complaining about the “lack of a fan” in the vehicle’s trunk, asks Castro for water. The video then cuts to the pair in front of the remains of an empty and non-functional fountain. The woman, after complaining to Castro, “I told you there would be no water here” is told by Castro to “relax.”
“Either way, don’t start a fight — this place is a circus,” Castro tells her, and added, “blessings to everyone.”
The video continues with a brief clip from the 2005 children’s comedy film Madagascar, where one of the film’s penguin characters says, “You didn’t see anything,” before it cuts to footage of the outside of a ruined circus in Cuba.
At press time, the bizarre video is the latest one published by Castro that contains vague criticisms of the Castro regime.
CNN aired a favorable interview this month with Castro by its Havana-based correspondent Patrick Oppmann in which the younger Castro claimed that his videos had allegedly led to Cuban state security officials “questioning” him over the nature of his content. He further claimed that he was let go not because of his last name, but because he has never “called for violence or regime change.” In reality, 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.
Hours after the CNN interview aired, Castro held another interview with the Colombian news channel Red más in which he insisted that his content is of a comedic entertainment nature, but asserted that he sometimes “uses messages” to criticize the communist regime and the current situation in Cuba. He once again denied that he has any “privileges” or “immunities” in Cuba for being a member of the Castro family.
“But there’s no immunity. As I told you, my content isn’t about politics anymore. I’ll say it again because, as you can see, of course, when you visit my profile,” Castro claimed. “And I offer a subliminal critique, a very subtle one, you know? I don’t engage in any acts of violence or aggression. I respect the government because it’s a reality on the island.”
“I consider myself a small-town resident, and I’m very proud of it. One hundred percent Cuban,” he continued.
Despite Castro’s claims refuting any privileges conferred by his family name, the Cuban communist regime’s censorship appears to also cover any criticisms of Sandro Castro and his recent actions. In early April, Michel Torres Corona, one of the Cuban regime’s most infamous state television propagandists, denounced that Cuban officials allegedly censored his communist propaganda show Con Filo (“Sharp-Edged”), preventing him from airing a scathing condemnation he filmed against Castro.
In the allegedly censored clip, which Torres Corona published on social media, the propagandist lashed out against Sandro Castro, and, referring to him, said that he found it “upsetting to see people — whose only achievement in life is having been the fastest sperm — casually criticize the Cuban government and reject our socialist Constitution.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.