René Fidel González: Advocating for a New Political Era Rooted in Dignity and Rights

On Sunday, renowned legal scholar and academic René Fidel González García shared a profound political reflection from Santiago de Cuba on his Facebook profile. In his message, he urged the creation of a "new political landscape" for Cuba, emphasizing dignity, respect, and the full exercise of rights and freedoms as its foundation.

In his commentary, the Doctor of Juridical Sciences and former professor at the University of Oriente argued that a fundamental transformation is necessary for Cuban politics. "To be truly new, politics in Cuba must cease to normalize catharsis and vulgarity as discourse [...] and instead, with calmness and coherence, present a proposition to Cubans that diminishes and deconstructs the use of contempt, crudeness, and fallacies as political responses or arguments," the essayist expressed.

González García insists that change is imperative, stating, "It's impossible to aspire to be different without undergoing change. This is what being a true alternative to what we oppose is about: offering a political framework that gives us the chance to permanently eliminate exclusion among us, to overcome underdevelopment, and to ensure that exercising our rights and freedoms leads us to dignity, happiness, and respect."

He warns that without genuine renewal, any political proposal will be merely another form of degradation: "The new politics must genuinely be new, or else it will become yet another degradation of what humiliates, disregards, and excludes us in the same way." This endeavor, he notes, demands a different kind of leader: "New politics require new politicians—not angels or moralists, nor hypocrites—just individuals capable of practicing what they preach."

This recent publication is part of a sustained series of critical statements throughout 2026. In July, he remarked that Cubans today have fewer rights and freedoms than they did in 1953 under Batista's dictatorship. In August, he introduced the concept of "political indigence" to describe the exclusion experienced by most Cubans, warning that "political indigence inevitably leads to economic and social indigence."

By September, the academic diagnosed an "irreversible structural disconnection" between the regime and the citizens, and by early October, he described Cuba as a society "paralyzed by political underdevelopment."

González García's teaching career at the University of Oriente was cut short in 2016 after he published critical articles in independent media. The institution claimed his writings lacked scientific merit, which he and human rights organizations condemned as political retaliation.

His reflections come at a time of unprecedented structural crisis. The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights estimated in August 2026 that 94% of Cubans live in extreme poverty, an increase of nine percentage points from 2025, based on 1,318 interviews across 79 municipalities. Economist Javier Pérez Capdevila's study calculated that an individual requires at least 96,060 Cuban pesos monthly to cover basic needs, which is approximately 13 times the average salary.

On the repression front, Prisoners Defenders documented 1,372 political prisoners as of October 1, 2026—a historic record.

In this context, González García's call for a "new political era" that moves beyond exclusion is not just a theoretical debate; it is a direct response to the harsh realities faced by millions of Cubans daily.