Cuba: or the Rocky Horror Show

By: Beatrice E. Rangel - 07/09/2026

For anyone who intends to fully understand the Cuban tragedy, one of the biggest challenges is identifying who makes up the main cast, what each one's contribution to the show is, and, above all, what the behavior of the spectators should be while the performance continues.

Indeed, just like in the acclaimed Rocky Horror Show of the seventies, the latest events in Cuba produce horror, bewilderment, and frustration.

Horror at the grave humanitarian crisis that has left a large part of the population destitute. Bewilderment at the news of a possible agreement between the Cuban regime and the United States government that would replicate the formula applied to the Venezuelan regime. And frustration at the evident stagnation of a situation that is bleeding the Cuban people dry without bringing them any closer to their true destiny: to live in freedom.

Cuba seems trapped in a labyrinth whose exits lead, one after another, to the weakening of civil society and, consequently, to the postponement of democratic development. As long as this continues, the island will remain a prisoner of strongmen and opportunists more interested in preserving their power and wealth than in ensuring the well-being of Cubans.

Just like in The Rocky Horror Show, in the Cuban tragedy we find three protagonists.

The first is the Cuban people, neutralized for decades through sophisticated mechanisms of repression and through the escape valve of emigration—primarily to Miami and, to a lesser extent, to other destinations—which has served to periodically reduce internal tensions. In our analogy, the unsuspecting Brad and Janet represent the Cuban people.

The second protagonist is the United States, which plays a role similar to that of Dr. Frank-N-Furter: the eccentric scientist obsessed with conducting experiments whose results he can hardly control. His creation is Rocky, a humanoid with perfect musculature who soon develops a will of his own.

In our tragedy, Rocky is the Cuban regime.

The drama unfolds through the interaction of these three characters. Brad and Janet endure the delusions, extravagances, and torments of a universe populated by unsettling beings. Frank-N-Furter revels in his experiments, convinced he can control what he has helped to create. And Rocky quickly discovers he can also manipulate those around him.

Something similar has happened for decades with Cuba. The United States has successively tried isolation, sanctions, negotiation, openness, and pressure, always seeking a formula capable of leading to a democratic transition. But that transition is extraordinarily difficult in a nation whose civil society has been systematically weakened for almost seventy years.

Meanwhile, its rulers have perfected a particular talent: extracting rents first within their own borders and then beyond them, justifying it all with the narrative of building a new order, supposedly free of exploiters and exploited. With that promise, they subjugated the Cuban people for almost seven decades.

But every show eventually reaches its final act.

Just as Brad and Janet finally manage to escape the delirious universe of Frank-N-Furter, the Cuban people begin to understand that no foreign power can replace them in the fundamental task: regaining their freedom.

The United States can facilitate, pressure, negotiate, or make mistakes. The regime can try to prolong the situation indefinitely. But the outcome will ultimately depend on the Cuban people themselves.

Because to end the Cuban Rocky Horror Show, it's not enough to change the script. Rocky has to leave the stage for good.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».