# Notable Loss of Announcers and Journalists in the Cuban Television News System

**Date:** 03/13/2022

The first months of 2022 have produced a substantial change in the usual faces of the Cuban television news system. The first to say goodbye by taking retirement was Rafael Serrano, to whom a heartfelt farewell was given, especially by his longtime partner Agnes Becerra.

Then in February it was Agnes Becerra's turn to say goodbye, which she did after working 30 years as a presenter and 16 years as the main news anchor and nine in the closing segment.

Subsequently, the absence was noted in the Sunday News of her usual presenter, the very first voice of Isabel Fernández, who withdrew from her usual position after many years without her retirement being announced as it was done with Serrano and Agnes.

Another announcer who also appears to have retired was Rodobaldo García, whose face was common in the newscasts of Cuban television in the past decade. In these months the absence has also been felt due to illness of journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso, who in recent days made a fleeting appearance in the program Palabra Precisa.

But the most important news of this week was the news of the couple formed by Boris Fuentes and Isabel Fernández in Buenos Aires. The journalist from Villa Clara, Boris Fuentes, and his wife Isabel Fernández, former announcer of the Sunday News, abandoned Cuba, apparently with no intention of returning. They are currently living in Argentina.

Among the reasons that led Cuban journalists to decide to leave the island was the fact that Boris was removed from the presidential press team after including in a report the Cuban ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, saying "Lemonade is the basis of everything".

This phrase became the subject of countless memes and mockery against the Cuban president and presumably brought with it his suspension from his job.

The communicators, deeply hurt, traveled to the province of Villa Clara to say goodbye to their respective families in Sagua la Grande and Santa Clara.

"The goodbye was sad, many tears and hugs. Everyone is old, it was one of those goodbyes where you think you will never see the person leaving again".

Boris Fuentes and Isabel Fernández chose Argentina because a son of the journalist lives there, Ernesto Fuentes, from a relationship with dance teacher María Caridad Machado Toledo, who now has her residence in Colombia.

Another of the faces that have disappeared is that of journalist Yunior Smith, who was another of the frequent faces of the newscast, revealed on social media that he had left Cuba on "the path to freedom". With an American wife and daughter, Smith decided to undertake the journey crossing borders from Nicaragua, a country that offers free visas to Cubans.

The young man made an extensive post on Facebook to expose the reasons that drove him and harshly criticized the inner workings of the so-called television news system.

"I was deeply disappointed by the stores in MLC, with the lies with which they embellished the decision and the lies with which they justified it," he wrote