During her recent appearance at the Derecha Fest in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Cuban author Zoe Valdés stirred up controversy by labeling fellow Cuban writer Leonardo Padura as a "regime's enforcer" and harshly criticizing his literary work. Residing in France, Valdés was unreserved in her condemnation of Padura, whom she described as a "petty writer" whose work, in her view, "glosses over the atrocities of the Island." In an interview with Infobae, Valdés argued that Padura has been instrumental to the regime's efforts to distort the history of authors like herself, Reinaldo Arenas, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante, ultimately silencing their voices. The intellectual stressed that Padura acts as the regime's enforcer, claiming he is "the alter ego, not the reverse, of the detective character in his novels." "What's intriguing is that I'm always asked about Leonardo Padura, yet no one questions him about me," she challenged.