Sandro Castro, grandson of late Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro, mocked Elián González, a former refugee turned regime mascot and lawmaker, this week in a “recap” video of his most recent party.
Castro’s latest Instagram “content,” published on Monday evening, comes hours after the self-described “influencer” reportedly hosted a weekend-long party at Varadero beach, one of the island’s most beautiful natural sites. The Cuban independent outlet Cibercuba reported that Castro’s party coincided with a separate three-day-long festivity hosted by a Cuban regime-run hotel in Varadero celebrating the start of this year’s summer season.
Much like Castro’s life, the Varadero parties did not appear to be affected by the abject misery, hunger, and poverty that the communist regime forces Cubans to endure every day.
According to Cibercuba, Castro used his Instagram account to promote “The path of Vampirach,” a series of activities named after the “Vampirach” character that Castro has adopted as a comedy alter ego in some of his past “comedy” sketches.
On Monday, Castro published a “recap” of “Summer Kickoff 2K26” festivities in Varadero. The clip begins with Castro asking, “Do you know that place?” before pointing at a sign in Spanish that reads, “Welcome to Varadero.”
“Hi, do you remember the start of summer in Varadero? Follow me to see what happened,” Castro, sitting on a beach and drinking a beer from a brand seized by his family’s communist regime, says in the video.
The video then shows Castro pointing with his two hands towards a sign from the Cuban Tourism Ministry that reads, “What is collected here is for the people.” He appears to express his rejection of the Ministry’s claims by shrugging towards the camera.
Castro’s apparent criticism of his family’s communist regime continued with him pointing at a rundown toll station in Varadero while speaking to the camera with “Magnolia,” a plastic hand resembling The Thing from the Addams Family franchise. The object is a recurring “character” in Castro’s content.
The footage cuts to Castro and “Magnolia” next to a camel. Castro, in an apparent reference to the extreme water shortages in Cuba, says, “And do you remember that camel? There are plenty of them around at the start of summer.”
“This creature didn’t let us down — it learned to survive without water,” Castro says. “The people of Egypt are looking out for us.”
The video continues with Castro crouching next to a pair of dolphins before referring to the case of Elián González. Castro presents the two marine mammals as “the magical dolphins, the ones who brought Elián to us” before claiming that they “are now transporting people from Miami to our start” of the party.
Elián González, a 32-year-old lawmaker in the Cuban National Assembly, is widely known in America and around the world as a child refugee who the Democrat administration of former President Bill Clinton violently deported. In November 1999, at the age of five, González fled communist Cuba alongside his mother Elizabeth Brotons Rodríguez and other Cuban refugees on a boat.
While González was successfully rescued some three miles off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Brotons Rodríguez died on the journey after the boat sank. González later told reporters that he survived by clinging to an inner tube and relying on the aid of dolphins, who brought him to rescue. Contrary to Castro’s mockery of González, the child had said that the dolphins helped him reach the United States, not Cuba.
The child Elián González was placed in the custody of his uncle, Lázaro González, and other relatives living in Miami. However, following a legal battle involving his father, Juan Miguel González, U.S., and Cuban authorities, he was violently torn out of his family’s hands and deported back to Cuba in 2000 during the administration of former President Bill Clinton.
Since then, González has lived his life as a “mascot” of the Cuban regime, which has repeatedly featured him in propaganda videos exalting the image of late murderous dictator Fidel Castro — the same dictator who Elián’s mother desperately tried to flee. Elián González has served as a lawmaker in the Cuban regime’s sham parliament since 2023. Last week, the legislator praised nonagenarian dictator Raúl Castro and described him as a “hero” after Castro was indicted in the United States for his role in the murder of four Cuban-American men in 1996.
The last part of Sandro Castro’s “recap” shows him and “Magnolia” riding a jet sky resting on a metal stand before saying, “Whoom! I’m catching up to them now. I’m catching up to that aircraft carrier because they’re invited to that party, too.” The comment appears to be in reference to the USS Nimitz, which is reportedly deployed in Caribbean waters.
“But as always, the beginning is just the beginning,” Castro, now seen in a nighttime party, concludes.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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