Ana de Armas and Manuel Anido Cuesta put on a united front amid backlash over controversial romance

Ana de Armas and boyfriend Manuel Anido Cuesta are not letting public outrage over their relationship stop them from stepping out together for a loved-up stroll in Madrid. 

Despite receiving massive backlash over her new relationship with the stepson of  Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, the actress, who fled Communist Cuba at age 18, did not shy away from engaging in some PDA with her new man. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the couple held hands looked perfectly in sync in similar outfits as they walked down the street as the Blonde star, 36, chatted on her phone. 

For their laid-back outing, de Armas wore a cropped black leather jacket over an off-white sweater, baggy trousers, sneakers and a $5,900 Louis Vuitton handbag. 

Since going public with their romance, the Oscar nominee has been criticized by her compatriots and others who accuse her of dating the son of a dictatorship that she fled from.

Díaz-Canel Bermúdez was handpicked by Raul Castro and 'chosen' in an election in which there were no opposition challengers allowed.

Diaz Canel has overseen the collapse of Cuba's economy and continued the Castro doctrine that allows no opposition parties or protests against the ruling party. Like the Castros before him, he has been accused of overseeing massive human rights abuses.

He is Cuba's first leader in six decades not surnamed Castro, after Raul Castro went into semi-retirement following his stint as president. He had taken over from his brother, Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, in 2016.

This marks the first relationship since her split from Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis.

After she and Manuel were first spotted together in November, social media users were quick to express their puzzled reactions. 

One X user 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 said: 'ana de armas is dating the stepson of the tyrant that runs the dictatorship she ran away from? this bad this is bad this is very bad.'

Agustin Antonetti wrote: 'These images must travel the world, people must not have a mercy.

'The famous actress Ana de Armas was photographed in Madrid with the Cuban genocidal Manuel Anido Cuesta, stepson of the dictator Díaz Canel and possible successor.

'They are a couple. Murderers. Enjoying Madrid as if nothing was happening.'

Anido Cuesta, a lawyer, is the son of Diaz Canel's wife Lis Cuesta from a previous relationship.

He is a close advisor to the authoritarian leader and is often seen at official events and trips with him, including to the Vatican and the UAE.

Anido Cuesta has been accused of living a luxurious lifestyle abroad while the majority of Cubans on the island live in poverty.  

Ana's own brother, photographer Javier Caso, is an activist against the Cuban regime. In 2020, he was interrogated on the island for his connections with opposition artists and activists.

In 2021, Caso was part of a hunger strike with artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara against what they have called a dictatorship in Cuba.

Cuba is currently undergoing another 'special period,' as is struggles with one of the worst economic and energy crises in its history.

Besides waves of blackouts, citizens are frustrated over food shortages and inflation. Hundreds of thousands have migrated, many headed to the United States.

Large-scale blackouts left 10 million people — already reeling from a deepening economic crisis — without power for days in October.

Cuba's government has faced simmering frustrations and rare protests after it sharply hiked gas prices, further squeezing the pocketbooks of Cubans, who struggle to pay for the most basic food items, like eggs and chicken.

The Cuban government blames the U.S. economic embargo for its woes, but Cuba's power grid has been left in disrepair and the government has long failed to invest in alternative energies like solar power, despite a plethora of sunshine.

As a result, Cuba's main source of power has been fossil fuels. It long depended on its regional ally Venezuela until aid disappeared as the oil-rich nation fell into crisis.

In recent years, Cuba leaned on Russia, which was sending hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel just two years ago. That helped to alleviate a massive shortfall in Cuba's supplies while simultaneously helping to ease the weight of international sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.