Host Mario Pentón says Cuba’s leadership is asking for sacrifices while officials' families avoid hardship

Mario Pentón, host of the radio program Cuba al Día, accused Cuba’s leadership on air of urging fresh sacrifices from an "exhausted" population while officials’ relatives live abroad and avoid the hardship they prescribe.

Pentón opened by saying the government is again "betting on dying while killing" and called for "more sacrifices, more austerity, more creative resistance," arguing those demands will fall on ordinary Cubans rather than on the families of the ruling elite. He cited remarks by Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cosío to news agency F, saying Fernández de Cosío made clear there would be "no real dialogue with the United States about political prisoners, no democratic opening, no reforms," and used that position to question the government's intentions.

"Ellos no se van a sacrificar. Ellos no van a pasar apagones. Ellos no van a hacer las colas," Pentón said, accusing senior officials of arranging privileges for their relatives while the population bears austerity. He named specific figures and families in his critique, saying relatives of Manuel Marrero live in Florida, that Miguel Díaz-Canel’s stepson studied in Madrid and never returned, and alleging Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro uses a private jet for international travel. Pentón also referenced business ties involving the Laje family and the traveling children and grandchildren of Ulises Rosales del Toro as examples of an elite life he calls a different "Cuba of the dollar."

Pentón framed those assertions as evidence of hypocrisy: "They are not going to sacrifice; they are not going to resist," he said, and asked whether the regime truly intends to "immolate" itself, questioning how far it could press repression before provoking a rupture. "Están jugando con fuego," he warned, and suggested prolonged deprivation risks eroding the population’s fear of state repression.

The assertions of privilege and international travel were made by Pentón in his commentary and are presented here as his claims; the broadcast did not record a response from the officials named or independent verification of the specific family movements and private travel mentioned. Pentón closed the segment by identifying himself: "Soy Mario Pentón, bienvenidos a Cuba al Día."