The passage of two hurricanes over Cuba within weeks of each other has plunged the Cuban people further into despair. The destruction of the storms along with the lack of food and water, electricity and fuel, and most of all freedom, has the Cuban people suffering through the worst crisis in the country’s history. And with a totalitarian dictatorship denying them any way out of this crisis on their own, the situation in Cuba has become “unlivable,” according to Cubans.
Via Marti Noticias (my translation):
Members of Cuban civil society claim the current crisis surpasses that of the so-called Special Period, asserting that the State lacks the capacity to manage it.
“I’ve been saying for a while that this is worse than the Special Period,” said journalist Miriam Leiva, referring to the difficult situation the Cuban people are going through and the profound economic crisis of the 1990s that impacted the island following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Leiva highlighted the critical situation in the country. Hurricane Rafael, a Category 3 storm, struck the western part of the island this week, leaving massive destruction in its wake. Previously, Hurricane Oscar had hit the province of Guantánamo, leaving at least eight dead and a trail of devastation.
Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that priorities are “restoring electricity, water pumping, sanitation, distributing basic food supplies, harvesting crops, and continuing a precise assessment of the damage.”
“No one is exaggerating… what’s really terrible is that they don’t know how they’re going to resolve it because they lack resources, they have no money, they’ve exhausted external financing because no one will lend them credit knowing they won’t pay it back,” the journalist warned regarding the authorities’ management.
Journalist José Luis Tan Estrada told Martí Noticias that Cuba is going through an extremely difficult situation, describing it as a multisystemic crisis.
“The situation has become unlivable, as many say around here. I always believe that when regime authorities come out saying the situation is bad, it’s because it’s actually twice as bad or about to get three times worse, and that’s what’s happened these days,” added the journalist based in Camagüey.
Cuban authorities admit their inability to meet the basic needs of the population, justifying the situation with the U.S. embargo, Leiva noted.
While Cubans must suffer natural disasters along with empty store shelves, a collapsed electrical grid, the corrupt and oppressive communist Castro dictatorship gives them no choice but to remain silent in their suffering or be imprisoned for speaking out. Communist Cuba has not escaped the eventual outcome of socialism, which throughout history always ends in misery, destruction, and oppression. If fact, Cuba personifies socialism, a perfect example of its destructive force.