Faced with widespread and growing desperation, the , increasingly hopeful that a pressure campaign will lead to change on the island, at the same time as the communist government displays intransigence.
Many see an opportunity for greater freedom and economic change, while others say they will resist any US military intervention. At the same time, those living in the dark due to widespread power outages following the oil embargo imposed by the Trump administration are desperate for electricity and water to be restored.
“It’s true that there is an embargo against Cuba, but something good should come out of it all,” said Iraida Avila, who lives on the outskirts of Havana with her daughter, who has cystic fibrosis.
What are Cubans saying about the situation?
As the US hints at increasing pressure on the Cuban government, some see an opportunity for deep changes in the island’s economy and political system.
“Many believe that we are at the end of the tunnel and that Cuba will soon find itself and its freedom again. This is the last bitter glass we have to drink,” said Manuel Cuesta Morua, a longtime political activist. He said that many are in a state of “hopeful anxiety” as they believe that the current situation cannot continue much longer.
Avila and many other Cubans are surviving the crisis with help from abroad — from friends and family, churches or donations. They face high prices of basic food, as well as shortages of fuel and electricity. In many cases this also means a lack of running water, which often depends on pumps that run on electricity.
“We are an island that has been left adrift,” said Yasser Sosa Tamayo, who runs a charity in Santiago de Cuba that supplies food and medicine — bought with donations from abroad — to more than 100 children and 400 adults.
Sosa said his job is to find ways to feed the city’s most vulnerable residents, including doctors and professionals who now live on meager pensions. Until recently, it received supplies from the Cuban community in the US through local shipping companies, but those shipments were halted due to fuel shortages. He recently published the book “Chronicles of a Castaway”, in which he describes the broken and exhausted lives of Cubans through his experiences on the streets of Santiago, on the southeastern tip of the island. “We are imprisoned without bars,” he said.
Serious shortages, but also a “black market”
In Camaguey, in central Cuba, Irina Fals, a hairdresser, joins a WhatsApp group with Avila for mothers of children with cystic fibrosis, where they share advice and experiences.
Due to constant power outages and fuel shortages, the residents of Kamaway only have electricity for two or three hours a day, which puts Fals and her son in a dangerous situation. She cannot use nebulizers when her child is severely congested.
“My child is dehydrated from sweating, now with the coming of heat he has lost weight and has dark circles under his eyes,” Fals said. “We need a change. For us and for our son, for a better quality of life.”
Some entrepreneurial Cubans with access to US dollars are profiting from the volatility. A young restaurant owner in Havana buys used electric cars in the US for $20,000 and resells them in Cuba for twice that price. Others have developed ways to import diesel and gasoline from the US to sell to the island’s private sector.
Prosecution of Raul Castro by the USA
The regime, however, appears to be under increasing pressure from Washington. CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana on Thursday, where he told Cuban officials they have limited time to stabilize the economy and reach out to the Trump administration. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US now intends to prosecute Raul Castro, the historic revolutionary and former president of Cuba.
“Cuba is calling us,” President Trump said Tuesday. “They need help, but Cuba is a failed state.”
Castro and his inner circle have recently suspended their daily activities — for the first time since Washington stepped up its pressure campaign, according to a person close to the family.
A military intervention would cause a “bloodbath with incalculable consequences,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Platform X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. Some Cubans have indicated that they are prepared to die for their country if there is US military action. Even with slingshots, they could inflict heavy casualties on the Americans, joked one former intelligence officer. He vowed to defend Castro and that thousands more would join him in supporting the aging Cuban leader.
In Havana, teenage soldiers on the rooftops of military buildings scan the sky with binoculars for US drones. The mother of one of them takes him food at night so he doesn’t go hungry. The young man left his home last year and was conscripted into the army, according to Catia Guerra, who sends money to the family from Miami.
“No young person wants to be there, everyone is forced. They are told they are there to protect and defend the president,” Guerra said. “His mother is desperate.”
