The Sad Story of Edmundo Garcia
His mission to take down the most recalcitrant anti-regime YouTubers not only failed, but he was completely trampled.
HAVANA TIMES – From a young age we are taught that it is not good to wish harm upon anyone, but as one grows older, one realizes that many people—more than we would like, unfortunately—deserve to live in misery.
When someone dedicates their life to doing evil, to selling their soul to the devil without hesitation and trampling over anyone in their way, that person should not be regarded the same as the rest of humanity.
This week, the controversial Cuban presenter Edmundo García went viral again. A fervent defender of the Castro regime from Miami, he surprised many by revealing on his YouTube program that he has just 22 dollars in his bank account.
Before going on, it is worth pointing out that these kinds of announcements, which I find all too common, often have the not-so-hidden purpose of encouraging charitable souls to send money to the account in question.
Returning to the subject, Edmundo is still going through a severe economic crisis. According to him, he survives on a single meal a day, which he showed on his livestream, and he claims he is in danger of ending up on the street.
In his pitiful plea, he said he suffers from hypoglycemia symptoms due to hunger, but remains loyal to his ideals, defending the policies of the Cuban Revolution and criticizing the US embargo against the Caribbean nation.
He admitted that Cuba is no longer what he once defended in his early years but insisted he would not be a coward who denies what he has always believed.
It is not the first time he has publicly spoken of his miseries. Back in 2023, he faced eviction when his landlord decided to sell the house. At the time, he accused the group Puentes de Amor and its leader Carlos Lazo of influencing his expulsion, claiming that Lazo had taken his place as the champion of the Cuban government in the United States.
According to García, the sponsors of his program (companies tied to the dictatorship) went with Lazo at Havana’s command, and he also dragged into the stew singer-songwriter Israel Rojas, leader of the band Buena Fe, whom I recently discussed as well.
On that occasion, however, he did directly blame Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel for the state of abandonment in which he found himself, accusing him and other high officials of leaving him to his fate after using him for their purposes.
Not long before, the former host of the TV show De la Gran Escena (still broadcast on Cuban state television) had returned to Miami, supposedly with the mission of taking down the media careers of the most prominent anti-Revolution influencers.
I don’t know if pity can be extended to someone who admitted to having worked for Cuba’s sinister State Security, in “missions” that included interviewing dissidents and later using that material against them.
Since 2000, when he settled in the United States thanks to a State Security cover story that opened many doors for him in exile, Garcia dedicated himself to dividing the opposition. He did so after reinforcing his “rebel legend” as a reporter at America TV’s Channel 41, and seemingly returning to his natural habitat—culture—through the radio program Extraños en la noche on WQBA 1140, part of the Univision network.
However, he made a radical shift when he created La tarde se mueve, a program initially devoted to the arts that then became fully politicized. He later moved it to YouTube to adapt to new digital platforms and try to maintain ties with a younger audience.
Let’s begin by noting that 22 dollars is more than what a Cuban journalist makes in a month. But why suggest he return to Cuba, if there too he could not survive with his tiresome patriotic rhetoric, his lack of education and manners, and could even become an uncomfortable obstacle for the dictatorship due to his controversial sexual conduct—completely unacceptable in a country where he is supposed to be a symbol of the system.
He already tried, and it didn’t last long. His handlers made him understand—whether gently or harshly, I’m not sure—that the only thing they wanted him for was counter-guerilla work in Miami. They sent him there with promises of program funding, but the promises did not last long.
His mission to take down the most recalcitrant anti-regime YouTubers not only failed, but he was completely trampled, as we say in Cuba. Once his patrons realized that they turned their backs on him.
Without sponsorship for his rants, he has no funds to support himself, which is why he now says he is again in danger of eviction.
Those who have suffered the abuses of the dictatorship—which has endured for decades partly thanks to the work of several Edmundos—have no qualms about watching him search for food in a garbage bin as a reward for his despicable career.
Still floating around the web is a face-off he had with Jose Daniel Ferrer nine years ago on a program hosted by now-senator Maria Elvira Salazar, where García had the nerve to accuse the opposition in general of being financed by the United States, while he himself was being bankrolled by Havana.
These are grains of sand that fortify the dictatorship’s walls and choke the ordinary Cuban more each day. That is why dismissing this kind of work—even if it is not violent or directly aggressive—is dangerous, because it contributes to strengthening a regime that does use violence and aggression directly. In fact, this Garcia publicly stated on July 11, 2021, that the Cuban police were not beating protesters enough.
For that reason, there is and can be no compassion for the sad story of Edmundo García.