In March, massive protests broke out in Santiago, Bayamo, El Cobre and other towns in Cuba. The people demanded electricity and food, homeland and life and of course the end of 65 years of corrupt, inept and criminal dictatorship.
As usual, the Cuban dictatorship blames the U.S. embargo against it. But the problem is not the false embargo.
The so-called embargo against Cuba ended a long time ago. Cuba receives thousands of goods from Canada, China, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and an endless list of other nations. The chicken most often consumed on the island comes from the U.S., from which it purchases up to $300 million in poultry products.
The Cuban regime manages the island’s entire economy and manages it poorly. Inflation is 30 percent, with the price of gasoline increasing 400 percent. Milk is a luxury product for the vast majority of Cubans. In just three years, the value of the Cuban peso on the street has plummeted from about 50 per U.S. dollar to 325.
The Cuban dictatorship has done everything it can to camouflage the crisis. It has fired officials, reformed economic plans and blamed the empire. Nothing works. The people are fed up with lies and deceit. There are no arguments that hide reality.
The priest Pedro Reyes describes post-Castro Cuba as “a revolution of ruins, dirt and misery.” This brave religious man assures that no one believes anymore in the tyrants’ constant speeches about how every day demands new and greater sacrifices from the people.
For the first time in history, the Cuban dictatorship has asked for milk donations from the UN World Food Program, a confession of the regime’s scandalous failure.
The regime is promoting modern slavery. Finding a medical specialist in Cuba, a country without doctors and without medicines, is like finding a needle in a haystack because all or almost all are being used abroad to raise money for the dictatorship. They are slaves, earning millions for the regime with their work overseas, for which they receive mere crumbs as compensation.
Castro’s dictatorship destroyed agricultural and livestock production in Cuba. A country that once exported food today begs for it. The regime buys 2 billion dollars in basic products, but corruption and mismanagement generate poverty and shortages of goods.
Communism never produces wealth, it only creates unemployment, hunger and misery. It also produces political repression. Amid the fraudulent elections and atrocious shortages, Cuba continues to maintain the death penalty and torture, as it currently holds more than 1,000 political prisoners.
In the first months of this year, Cuba’s dictatorship has perpetrated 600 violations against civil liberties. The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 280 violations in February alone.
The bravery of the Cuban people is impressive. Protesting on the island requires an extra dose of courage and desperation. Those who take to the streets literally risk their lives against a regime that does not hesitate to kill in cold blood.
Cuba, the mother of Latin American dictatorships, reportedly registered almost 1,000 attacks on religious freedom in 2023. Espionage, harassment, summons and forced exile have not managed to break faith.
This Holy Week, many religious activities were prohibited due to fear of new protests. The regime’s leaders know that the people hate them and are tired of living under their brutal tyranny.
The United Nations, meanwhile, has failed to the Cuban people. In October of 2023 the regime was elected to be part of the UN Human Rights Council, despite the more than 1,000 political prisoners in the island. This is another example of the success of the false narrative of the regime, that portraits itself as a victim when in reality it is the victimizer.
The world must know that the Cuban embargo is a lie, but the repression, extrajudicial killings, corruption and failed economic policies of the Cuban regime are all very real.
Arturo McFields Yescas is an exiled journalist, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States and a former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps.
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