Ana de Armas has restricted her comments on Instagram as she faces massive backlash for dating the stepson of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is widely regarded as an authoritarian leader, overseeing a repressive regime in the communist island nation.
The Cuban actor, 36, is being savaged online by other Cubans and Cuban Americans for dating a representative of the dictatorship that she herself escaped, the Daily Mail reported .
De Armas, whose last high profile relationship was with Ben Affleck, was photographed last week on a romantic stroll in Madrid with Manuel Anido Cuesta, the 26-year-old stepson of Diaz-Canal.
The “Knives Out” star and “Bond girl” left Cuba and moved to Spain at the age of 18. She previously dated Tinder vice-president Paul Boukadakis, after dating Affleck. He was her co-star in the erotic thriller “Dark Water,” and they dated through 2021, becoming paparazzi favorites while they lived together in Los Angeles during COVID-19 lockdown.
The photos of de Armas and Anido Cuesta, first published in Hola! magazine, show the lovebirds walking a dog around Madrid and smiling, laughing and kissing. But the photos have rubbed many Cubans and Cuban Americans the wrong way, reports say. That’s due to Anido Cuesta’s connection to the current Cuban regime.
Anido Cuesta is the son of Díaz-Canel’s second wife, Liz Cuesta, and is considered to be a “close advisor” to the president. Diaz-Canal himself was a long-time Community Party official who was handpicked by Raul Castro and “chosen” to be his successor in “an election” in 2018 in which no opposition challengers were allowed, the Daily Mail and the BBC reported.
Diaz-Canal has often brought his stepson along on official events and on trips to places like the Vatican and the United Arab Emirates, the Daily Mail and other outlets reported.
It appears that the president and his wife are fine with Anido Cuesta’s reputation for enjoying a luxurious lifestyle — even while the majority of Cubans live in poverty in a collapsed economy and face arrest or imprisonment for protest and dissent.
“While Cuba is experiencing one of its worst crises in decades, marked by daily blackouts, rampant inflation, and a massive exodus that drains the nation, this official regime strolls comfortably through Madrid, the capital of capitalism, enjoying a romance with a Hollywood star like Ana de Armas,” wrote Luis Flores, a columnist for the English-language digital news outlet CiberCuba.
“From Ben Affleck to a dictator’s son, what a crazy life,” someone wrote on the FauxMoi reddit thread. “Filled with choices, some bad choices, and some choices where you have to question your humanity.”
Ana’s own brother, photographer Javier Caso, is a longtime activist against the Cuban regime, the Daily Mail reported. In 2020, he faced interrogation for his connections to opposition artists and activists.
CiberCuba also reported that de Armas has long been silent on governmental dysfunction and alleged human rights abuses in Cuba, including when his own brother was interrogated. She has said she grew up with food rationing, fuel shortages and electricity blackouts, but has described her early life as happy. CiberCuba said that the strongest thing she has ever said about Cuba is that she felt she had to leave the Island to grow professionally, which did happen for her in Hollywood, leading her to roles in “Knives Out,” “No Time to Die, ” and the Marilyn Monroe biopic “Blonde” in 2002, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress.
“However, Ana de Armas’ years of silence regarding Cuba are now eloquent, following the publication of images that confirm the actress’ romance with Manuel Anido Cuesta,” CiberCuba also said.
While de Armas has restricted comments on some of her Instagram posts, some criticism was allowed on her other posts, including one where she promoted her role as a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton jewelry.
One person directed their comment to the luxury design company: “You need to choose better next time, a woman who supports the Cuban dictatorship doesn’t deserve to be the image of an international brand #vivacuba#vivacubalibre.”
A self-described Cuban also wrote: “It deeply hurts me to see someone with your platform align themselves with a regime that has brought so much suffering to our people. As a Cuban, I know firsthand what it means to live under a system that oppresses, divides families, and destroys dreams. Your support for that dictatorship is a betrayal to all of us who have suffered and to those who are still fighting for freedom in our homeland.”
“I expected more from you, but it’s clear you’ve chosen to ignore the pain of your own people,” the person continued.
The Daily Mail also quoted some comments from X. One person wrote, “Ana de Armas left Cuba to pursue a career and life in America… just to end up dating the Cuban dictator’s son… wtf?”
Another person said, “Ana de Armas is dating the stepson of the tyrant that runs the dictatorship she ran away from? This is bad this is bad this is very bad.”
In a gallows humor way, one person expressed sympathy for her publicist on Reddit, saying her “whole damn PR team must be on suicide watch right now.”
