only the 5 star hotel gets electricity

Y como es de esperar, la persona al frente de esto, no es Cubana, nunca ha vivido en Cuba, disfruta de los beneficios de New York [food stamp and rent support] y vendiendo articulos

With flights suspended, Luis Escalona is effectively cut off from his family in Holguin, a city in the island's southeast. He's lived in Winnipeg with his wife and son since 2015, but typically returns to Cuba several times each year.

Escalona is the only person in his family who lives in Canada, and he says they rely on him. Now, he will be unable to take his mother to the hospital during his visit next month, which he's been forced to postpone...

*Life is hard for his family right now, Escalona said.

There's limited access to water and without power, they can't cook, he said. But without transportation, they can't get to work to earn money for food, anyway, and when there's no power, there's no phones.*

"It is very hard waiting days for an update from all my loved ones back home," he said.

Cubans were only able to visit resorts in their own country starting in March of 2008 (source: BBC NEWS | Americas | Cuba loosens controls on hotels ) though for most people it always, even now, would have been too expensive to do so.

Resorts in Cuba were created as a way for the Cuban Regime to get hard currency and never meant for Cubans in the first place but rather foreign tourists, especially from Canada, Euruopean countries, and Russia. In general, the vast majority of resorts were always built quite a distance away from cities in order to make a clear separation of tourists and Cubans. (Source: Dual economy of Cuba - Wikipedia ) Tourists were never meant to interact with Cubans or see how they live. Some call this a system of "tourist apartheid."

Source for the arrest of Cubans for interacting with tourists: Between Love and Money: Sex, Tourism, and Citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic | Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society: Vol 29, No 4 In particular, Black women have always been specific targets of police.

https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-02-09-u1-e135253-s27061-nid320448-diputada-mexicana-estalla-contra-sheinbaum-ayuda

What are common Cubans thoughts on this?

I wanted to share this as I did not see a single post related to the 11J recently. I am also anticipating most people who support the Cuban Regime to use the logical fallacy of whataboutism to compare these actions to ICE in the United States and thereby dismiss and silence the voices of the Cuban People.

Like this year has been historically uncivilized for Cuba with shortages of electricity and blackouts that everyone knows but like what's the endgame? Why is nothing happening?

Most importantly is anything going on on the political level?

In regard to the protest last night, I wanted to share this as well.

This 1967 photograph shows gay men and political dissidents interned in Cuba’s Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción (UMAP), or Military Units to Aid Production. These were forced‑labor camps operated from 1965–1968 in Camagüey. Up to 35,000 Cubans deemed “anti‑social” or “counter‑revolutionary” were sent here: homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, conscientious objectors, intellectuals, and others who did not fit the revolutionary mold. Maybe you could have simply been caught listening to the Beatles or having the "wrong" hair cut and ended up in here.

On paper, the UMAPs were intended to forge Che Guevara’s vision of the “New Man,” a selfless and disciplined socialist (basically, a sheep hardened into submission). In reality, they became a moral and political failure around the time of the failed Revolutionary Offensive and we can interpret more adequately it was about control, punishment, humiliation, forced labor, etc. Prisoners, including famous Cubans such as the beloved singer‑songwriter Pablo Milanés, endured 12–16 hour days cutting sugarcane under brutal conditions, ideological indoctrination, and humiliation, simply for being gay, religious, or dissenting.

I would argue the UMAPs exposed a central contradiction of the revolution: virtue cannot be forced, and dignity cannot be stripped away without lasting damage. You’d think a ‘Revolutionary’ society could do better, but it didn’t. The Revolution promised to be better, and UMAP proved it wasn’t.

The video says it clearly: they informed Clinton (the U.S. president at the time), and nothing was done because, in practice, they were allowing it to happen. International law states that you cannot shoot down a civilian aircraft without prior warning, yet the Cuban government did, and the U.S. government also knew it had the responsibility to warn its citizens about areas where they should not be. Failing to do so is also a serious issue, and they never warned them.

My point is that indicting a 95-year-old former Cuban president feels more like a political show. The CIA has gone to Havana multiple times trying to pressure political change; when Cuba did not comply, they turned to strategies they have used before (Maduro, 9/11 narratives, Bin Laden, etc.).

We need to be clear with the evidence and avoid acting purely on emotions.

Open to hear others points of view..

What's your views on this statement?

Se pasan la vida criticando al "bloqueo" y usándolo como justificación para todo, pero resulta que nos estamos comiendo la comida suministrada por el "enemigo" (la cual no ha dejado de llegar a pesar de que según la narrativa de los delincuentes que gobiernan Cuba, a los que no les falta la comida, el "bloqueo" lo impide), porque el estado socialista es totalmente incapaz de producir alimentos.

(De hecho, Estados Unidos, el "enemigo", es el principal exportador de alimentos y medicinas hacia la isla, mucho más que China, Rusia, Venezuela o cualquier otro compinche del régimen tras la caída de la URSS)

La gente se está muriendo de hambre, ¡por el amor de Dios!

I am not Cuban so my understanding might not be great but after 67 years and communism not working why does the US still have the embargo on Cuba? Like just sanction the government if you want but not the country. Doesn't the embargo give them a strong propaganda tool? Plus it seems to hurt the average cuban much more than a Communist Party elite.

It appears that without other countries such as Russia, China, Venezuela and Canada propping it up, Cuba is unable to sustain itself. Is this wrong? Why are they unable to grow enough food for themselves? Why haven't they put in solar farms and gone to electric cars? Solar should have taken off there as it has in Brazil. There's ample sunlight. Is the regime clueless?

This has already turned into an interesting discussion, so I expect the Reddit Thought Police to remove this post. It doesn't fit with their propaganda to allow a free and open discussion. Note: I have only asked questions.

I've debated with some americans about Cuba, and many wonder why most of us hold the opinions we do and blame the government so much for the current situation rather than the embargo. So I decided to write this wall of text to explain it in detail, but many said it was just pointless propaganda. So I thought I'd make a post here so that "real" Cubans can verify it and so that others can understand us better. Que por supuesto hablo cubano perfectamente, porque tambien me han dicho que por mi forma de escribir soy yuma, candela. Si alguien de esa epoca me puede dar mas detalles se lo agradeceria un montón, esto es solo lo que me conto mis padres, abuelos y algo de google para los detalles xD. To understand the hate that most Cubans have for our government (and because I blame it for almost everything and say anything is better than it, including an invasion), it's necessary to go back to the beginnings of the "revolution." I'll divide this into two sections: social and economic issues.1- Fidel and the revolutionaries were, literally, terrorists before the revolution. People seem to forget "revolutionaries" like "el curita" who blew himself in a movie theater with hundreds of civilians and here is remember like a hero for that.The government has blatantly manipulated our history. One example of this is that most people think the US was helping Batista (the previous dictator) when Fidel took power. If you investigate this, you discover that one of the strongest reasons Fidel was able to win was because the US had withdrawn its support for Batista. The clearest example of this is that they refused to sell him weapons, which undoubtedly greatly influenced his flight and Fidel's eventual rise to power. Another of my favorite "historical events" is the "Bahía de cochinos" invasion. Our government loudly proclaimed it to be "The first defeat of Yankee imperialism in America," when in reality, the invaders were Cubans who had self exiled to Miami, trying to reclaim their country's sovereignty.In Cuba during the firts years of revolution they created what were literally concentration camps for gay people, people with long hair, and anyone who like/hear english music. According to Fidel, "Work will make them 'men.'" Except in recent decades, where there has been more acceptance, Cuba has always been an extremely homophobic country (same-sex marriage was legalized here in 2022). And we all know that ten years ago, you were a disgrace to your family if you weren't straight, although of course, none of this applied to wealthy foreigners. You also have cases like Ana Lasalle, a theater actress who, along with the police, stood guard in front of Coppelia (one of Fidel's whims, which I plan to explain later). They would go around, grab any boy with long hair and forcibly cut his hair with scissors, then naked him as a form of "shame and "example" Remember, all of this was supported by the government.Do you have any idea how the internet works in Cuba? ETECSA (the state owned telecommunications company) limits the amount of mobile credit you can buy per month (360 Cuban pesos) with your salary. With that, you can buy 6GB of internet. So yes, almost everyone is limited to 6GB of internet per month. Do you know how you can get more? Either by paying ridiculous prices or by having a family member or friend in another country that recharge your phone with $30 (there are usually promotions offering 5x the credit received and unlimited data from 12 to 7 AM). The problem is, do you know why they give that (x5) to 25 pesos for every dollar? Do you know what the dollar is worth on the informal market? 515 pesos. What's more, do we know what the bank buys dollars for? 400. ETECSA have that change because idk, they can. So, you receive 3750 pesos in mobile credit, while if you sold that same amount in dolara, you'd have 15450. I think every normal person uses more than 6GB of data a month, so how do Cubans manage to get more? Since the difference between what you receive in mobile credit and what you normally receive is so large, people sell their credit for at least three times its value. Of course, this is illegal, and if you get caught, you can go to jail. And do you know why all this happens? Because the government wanted to generate more revenue from international recharges. Years ago, you could buy as much mobile credit as you wanted with Cuban currency.When Cuba opened up to foreign investment (which is basically a legal scam because the government can legally expropriate any business, and it already has), foreigners couldn't hire Cubans directly, so the government created employment agencies for this purpose. The catch? These agencies kept more than 96% of what foreigners paid for Cubans, giving us crumbs in return. The same thing happened with the doctors. Remember all the Cuban medical internationalism? The only motive behind it is greed. Those doctors are very well paid by the countries they go to (for cuban standard). The government keeps all that money, giving less than 10% directly to the doctors. If I remember correctly, Bahamas (a country) opposed this and decided to give their salaries to the doctors instead of the government. Do you know what our goverment did? They denied them all entry to the country until they "donate" 50% of their salaries. Another big lie is the military internationalism in Angola, to give just one example. Here they always tell us we went to "help" them, but when you investigate the matter, the Angolan government was paying the Cubans $1,000 a month for each soldier and $1,500 per general. Guess what? The people from the army never saw any of this. Speaking of the army, do you know who old the members were? Teenagers, 18 or 19 years. Yes, the government decided it was a good idea to force teenagers to die for a foreign country, just because they paid in dollars. (If you're wondering if they signed up voluntarily, no, in Cuba we've always had mandatory military service, where they can basically order you around and do whatever they want with you. If you refuse to go or u negate to an order, you're considered a traitor to the country and go to jail) Now let's talk about what I believe is one of the worst actions committed by the government. Here we have a group of women called "Damas de Blanco," something like "ladies of white." This group of women are generally the mothers and sisters of political prisoners (prisoners for protesting). All Cubans know that for years the police dressed in civilian clothes to repress (beat and punch) these women when they encountered them. Another thing is when someone says, "The reason there's no food in Cuba is because of the embargo," when Cubans can import all the food they want for "humanitarian reasons" (you can Google this). The US is literally Cuba's fourth largest trading partner. You want to know why there's no food here? The government prohibits Cubans from importing anything, including food. Only their approved partners can do this, this way they maintaining a strict monopoly. Until a few years ago, the only place you could buy food was in government stores, and only in dollars, dollars that the average person here doesn't have. Now, how did Cubans survive then? Since wages here have always been terrible, people have stolen (from the government) at their jobs and then resold the stolen food to ordinary people, of course, at exorbitant prices, since it was illegal and they could go to jail at any time. Now there are government-affiliated (MIPYMES) that resell anything and everything (yes, to open any business here, you have to be associated with the government in some way). The government also has websites where relatives can buy food from Cubans here, at highly inflated prices and, again, in dollars (Supermarket 24, for example). So, to recap, the government is deliberately starving Cubans to force their families in other countries to send them dollars so they can buy food, or to buy it directly from they associed website, food that is ridiculously expensive compared to other countries. I'm going to try to explain how the hospitals and the healthcare system in general work. First, yes, it's completely free; you don't have to pay anything. Second, precisely because it's free, the government doesn't pay the slightest attention to it (except for the doctors sent to other countries so they can steal their salaries, as I already explained). The embargo doesn't prevent the government from importing medical supplies (pills, anesthesia, and everything related to it). They don't do it because it's a field that doesn't generate money, so, again, they don't pay attention to it. By "don't pay attention," I mean that in any hospital you go to (except one exclusively for the military), they won't have any supplies whatsoever: no syringes, no X-ray plates, no anesthesia, no NOTHING, no matter how basic is. My father knows someone who was a doctor at one of the most important hospitals in the country (Frank País). One day, he was operating on a patient, and "mysteriously," shit started pouring out of the ceiling and walls. Do you know what that man had to do? Endure it all and finish the operation. But that's not the point. The point is that he had to do that for three days because the hospital didn't have the budget to repair his operating room. He resigned. Now, how can someone receive treatment in hospitals? Money. With money, you can buy whatever you need on the black market (yes, we have a black market for everything you need (with clearly inflated prices), you just have to go on Facebook) and then with a "gift" to the doctor, you can get what you need. Honestly, I could go on with examples like these all day, but I think it's time to move on to purely economic issues. (The previous point is why I hated the government; this one is about the reasons for the current situation). First, let's start with what I believe is one of the three main reasons behind Cuba's current (and ever-present) crisis.Fidel's failed plans: Fidel had dozens of "projects" on the island, projects on which he spent the entire national budget, disregarding the lives of all of us because of his complex about trying to be the "savior" with his idiotic ideas, treating us like his testing lab. I think the most "famous" of them is Ubre Blanca. To give you some context, in Cuba cows are heat resistant and have good meat, but very low milk production. Fidel wanted the cows to produce milk, but at the same time retain their previous qualities, so he decided to import Holstein cows from Canana to "cross" them with Cuban genetics. These cows couldn't resist the Cuban heat and ended up dying. What did Fidel do, give up? Noooo, he went and ordered the construction of a kind of giant barn, with air conditioning for his cows, wasting tens of millions of dollars in the process. With that money, he could have tried to modernize some industry, but no, satisfying his ideas was the priority. Although, to his credit, from all this came Ubre Blanca, the "perfect cow." A cow that fulfilled Fidel's dreams, she even produced more than 100 liters of milk in a day. (You don't have to believe me, use Google.) There was even an article in a newspaper, reporting everything about the cow. Unfortunately, Ubre Blanca never had descendents and died. To commemorate her death, Fidel even ordered the construction of a statue that still stands today. Priorities, I suppose. Another of his projects was the micro-jet irrigation system for bananas This consisted of giant hoses with small holes for the water to flow out, automatically irrigating the bananas and eliminating the need for manual labor. What happened? All the bananas that came out of this system were waterlogged, incredibly soggy from the excess of water. They were gigantic and very easy to break, making transportation impossible and almost inedible due to their watery state.Now let's talk about the "Cinturón de la Habana" Fidel wanted to plant coffee in the calcareous, rocky, unproductive soils around Havana, without sufficient water and without agronomic studies. This way, he would save the costs of bringing it from the west and perhaps even exporting it. What happened? Alongside these trees, a species called "Gandul" was planted. The Gandul was intended to provide shade for the plantation, but it was an extremely fast-growing plant, so it absorbed all the soil nutrients before the coffee, causing more than 30 million planted coffee plants to die and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. Another horrific plan was the "Plan de los 10 millones", where Fidel wanted to break the record for maximum sugar production on the island. Nearly 350,000 people participated in the sugarcane cutting. About 100,000 were members of the army, and 50,000 were professionals, called "macheteros". The rest were a mix of people who joined out of "spirit", workers for other industrys send there, and young people from schools forced to work there, because yes, education was "free" in monetary terms, but it was paid for with labor. All these people, who had no experience cutting sugarcane, destroyed the crops. This, combined with the excessive exploitation of centuries old sugar mills and their lack of maintenance, ruined one of the country's best sources of income. Do you know what's most ironic about all this? Thanks to the emphasis on sugarcane, all the other industries in the country were neglected, and to top it all the sugar consumption was reduced to two pounds of sugar per month for the export obligations to the USSR. We also have things like the water buffalo issue, Fidel imported buffalos with the idea of them living where cows couldn't, generally rivers or swamps. These buffalo devastated the tobacco plantations and crops in general, again generating losses of millions. I could literally go on about this; there are dozens of failed projects, all crazy, even a nuclear power plant, but I feel like this is getting too long. My point is, billions of dollars were wasted on all these idiotic projects, money that could have been invested in something logical, like modernizing the country, buying machinery, SOMETHING. But no, Fidel's ideas came first.The second point I think affects our daily lives is the government's love for foreigners. Let me explain: when the USSR fell, which was literally the one keeping Cuba's "economy" afloat, tourists became Fidel's main focus. Millions of dollars were allocated again to build Varadero. The problem here is that when these tourists came, they only saw what the government wanted them to see. They were given the best the country had to offer, while Cubans didn't even see crumbs. These tourists, coming here and living the good life, got the idea that Cuba is spectacular, without knowing the reality of the people. But don't take my word for it; in Spain there's a man named Roberto Vaquero, currently the leader of the Communist Workers' Party, a real communist not like our liders. Look up his story from when he came to Cuba to see "the last bastion of communism." Spoiler alert: Upon leaving, he questioned all his ideas and had an identity/thought crisis. My point about the tourists is that the government allocated most of the "budget" to satisfying them, neglecting a population that was dying more and more each day. Then, what did they do with the profits from those hotels? Build more hotels. Recently, and in the midst of the crisis. Recently, in the midst of the COVID crisis, they decided to build the Torre K, a luxury hotel in Vedado, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the process while the country faced crises on all fronts. And this has always been the case; our leaders forget all the country's problems to "invest" in tourism again and again, forgetting that its they purpose improve our lives. I know this sounds idiotic, but it's what has always happened.And I think the most important reason why our economy is a mess is undoubtedly that our leaders are, at best, idiots. For example, our former Minister of Economy decided that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was going to change our monetary system, eliminating the CUC (a special currency in Cuba that was equivalent to one dollar, with an exchange rate of 25 Cuban pesos) and increasing everyone's salary to overcome the crisis. In Cuba in 2019, the average salary was 300 or 400 Cuban pesos; now it's around 6,000. Before, one dollar was worth 25 Cuban pesos; now it's 600. So yes, thanks to him, we're suffering hyperinflation. Prices are now insane in everything and no, the salary increase doesn't cover them. Another example of this is that a minister said months ago that the homeless who look the garbage for find anything to eat, and pray for money, were "actors paid by imperialism" it became a huge meme at the time. Another example is that in 2017 the food minister said that we were going to start raising ostriches, because an ostrich "produce" more than a cow and again, there's houndreds of examples like that.

Ando bastante cansada q la gente del exterior únicamente note Cuba cuando es USA quién hace algo. El gobierno cubano podría mañana asesinar a todos los cubanos en la isla y nadie dirá nada, pero Trump se mueve y es noticia mundial. Ni siquiera soy pro Trump pero es una situación horrible. ¿Esta gente sabe q Cuba y su gobierno tienen su propia autonomía y agencia? Dios muy antiimperialistas y anti USA pero los países del Tercer Mundo únicamente existen en relación a USA para ellos. Ni siquiera intentan conocer a Cuba y su historia fuera de lo poco q conocen sobre la Revolución, solamente repiten como papagallos la misma mierda de q sí USA quiere destruir Cuba o no sé

Honest question because I lived in Cuba for over half of my life and I am now in a different country living paycheck to paycheck and studying to be able to bring my family over. I do not support Trump or ICE. Yet, I still firmly believe them taking over and doing everything the other sides say they will do (use Cuba for vacation homes and tourism and strip resources) would still be better than what they have now.

I fail to see why people would think Cubans could liberate themselves or why they blame the USA for everything happening in Cuba. The embargo doesn’t make a government not let farmers kill their own cows or the population fish to feed themselves (or let the population starve while the government owns mansions and eat like the rich) so I don’t want to hear that. That being said what makes some people be against an invasion? I know cubans themselves in and out of the island want this so I want to hear the reasons

I've seen testimonies that Caritas does help Cubans in need and is not affiliated with the dictatorship. I thought this information could be helpful to many people from other countries, as well as to Cubans living outside the island who no longer have family members there but still want to support those facing hardship in Cuba.

If your goal is to help ordinary Cubans while minimizing the risk that your assistance benefits government institutions, consider donating to Friends of Caritas Cubana, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Catholic Church that provides social services and humanitarian aid on the island.

Also, I found a Cuban priest: Padre Leandro Naun Hung that distributes Caritas' help in the mountains of Santiago de Cuba, and I was inspired by his videos, so you can also donate directly to his channel with a $2 Thank You Heart, I guess.

​

Evidence that engineers have no work or future here despite the communist education system churning out engineers. **Proof that nothing about Castro felt especially intelligent**, it was all surface-level recycled pretending at communism lacking any vision.

Castro's ridiculous trash-talking of the US worked  as if that were an actual plan. Believing in systems that were never meant to work for running a country into future building is the mistake here.

The Castro brand always intended to let the walls fall down around them.  Castro's creation of "this" communism is .... _nothing particularly intelligent..._

Since Cuba is communist? Why would they have been bothered with Homosexuality?

En realidad, el único país que puede poner fin al embargo es Cuba.

La ley estadounidense que regula el embargo establece requisitos que, de cumplirse, llevarían a su levantamiento.
Esos requisitos cuentan con el respaldo del pueblo cubano.

los requisitos son

Ha legalizado toda actividad política.
Ha liberado a todos los presos políticos.
Ha disuelto el actual aparato de seguridad del Estado.
Ha asumido el compromiso público de celebrar elecciones libres y justas.
Se ha comprometido a respetar los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales reconocidos internacionalmente.
No está liderado por Fidel ni por Raúl Castro

La responsabilidad del embargo recae exclusivamente en la dictadura.

Nuestra America Convoy is completely out touch with the reality in Cuba. I would have liked to feel grateful and positive that Cuba was getting attention and needed assistance, but I can't bring myself to feel that way. It all feels like a horse and pony show. I'd like to know what the Cubans here on Reddit think about this, whether you're on the island or not.

I've been following the posts about the convoy and while I'm against Trump and the embargo, this is not solidarity with the Cuban people. There are Cuban-Americans from Cubans4Cuba at the Palacio de Convenciones cheering on a dictator. I'm usually angry with maga Cubans but this week I'm angrier with these cubans. Some of them were born in Cuba and some, like me, were born in Miami and I'm disgusted by them. All I could think about when seeing these posts is the amount electricity their using, the air conditioner, and all the bottles of water on the tables. Even the cafecito cups annoyed me. I just kept thinking of the videos I saw this week of Cubans blocking the trucks of potable water in order to get water for themselves, and then seeing hundreds of these tourists get free bottles of cold water feels insulting.

Having to see these people go on curated trips around Havana and say on posts that Cuba has the right to protest peacefully is infuriating. When all these people go home this area of Havana will go back to being dark again. There is a lot disconnect going on here.

Sobreviviendo la crisis

P.S. yo no tome las fotos, me las mando alguien