Cubans for decades have been buffeted by great powers, repressed by their own government, crushed by economic crises, and paraded as the victims of a succession of sanctions imposed by the White House. Glimmers of a better life came and went, either because the regime in Havana briefly allowed a sliver of greater liberty or the U.S. government tried a new tack to overthrow the communist ideology that has reigned over the island for almost 70 years. So it is perhaps not surprising that Cubanos by now have had it up to here with pretty much everyone.Consider the reaction when a boat from the international activist group Nuestra América Convoy approached Havana’s port last month.
The Trump administration had recently imposed new sanctions on countries providing oil to Cuba, pushing an already shaky economy to the brink of collapse. The boat’s crew of 20 or so young campaigners carried about 14 tons of humanitarian aid, flew the Cuban flag, held a LET CUBA LIVE sign, and protested against the U.S. oil sanctions. “We are all shouting, ‘Cuba yes!
Blockade no!’” one crew member told Cuban state media in a phone call.The chorus of Cuban condemnation online was immediate. Yoani Sánchez, a writer in Havana, told the activists to take their “ideological tourism” elsewhere. The editorial board of El Estornudo, a Cuban magazine known for its criticism of the government, excoriated the whole effort as a “safari.” One social-media user mocked the decrepit state of the boat and the untidy appearance of its crew: “Those people on that ship seem to need more help than we do.”The Nuestra América delegation did itself few favors in seeking to connect with ordinary Habaneros.
Jeremy Corbyn, the septuagenarian British leftist, who had already arrived in Havana by plane, met with high-ranking Communist Party officials in the presidential palace. Pablo Iglesias, the founder of Spain’s Podemos party, stayed at the luxury Gran Hotel Bristol in Havana (“Four unique gastronomic experiences offer vibrant cuisine and entertainment,” its website says), from whence he remarked that the situation in the country was not as bad as it’s depicted abroad.The backlash to their mission stemmed from Cubans’ frustration that, once again, foreigners were making theater from their pain and appeared more interested in siding with the Cuban regime against Donald Trump than in actually helping Cubans.
That put the activists on the citizens’ grievance list—along with many others who have been there for much longer.Cubans, of course, are first and foremost furious at their own government. The ruling Communist Party rarely permits freedoms such as independent public polling, so approval ratings don’t tell the tale. But the loudness and frequency of cacerolazos—protests where people bang pots—across the island attest to the rage.
Father Alberto Reyes Pías, a Catholic priest who serves 13 towns in the Camagüey province, in the island’s center, told me that the government had lost the people long ago. “We have lived so many decades of agony, and it never stops,” he said by telephone. “It just goes on.”In 2021, Cubans’ anger found some release.
On July 11 of that year, people in the city of San Antonio de los Baños began marching and singing “Patria y Vida” (“Fatherland and Life”), an opposition anthem designed to counter the revolutionary motto “Patria o Muerte.” The news spread on social media, and protests sprang up in cities across the country for a few days, creating the biggest anti-government demonstration since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government described the protesters as mercenaries and counterrevolutionaries and called on the regime’s own supporters to fight them.
The government shut off the internet, and the military and police cracked down, eventually extinguishing the protests and jailing more than 1,400.[Read: I watched Cuba crumble from the inside]Think tanks and scholars seeking to explain this moment of collective catharsis searched for causes outside Cuba. The Obama-era tourism boom had receded because of sanctions imposed during Trump’s first term, and then had disappeared in the pandemic. The Trump administration also choked off European tourism to Cuba.
Venezuela, Cuba’s main benefactor since the 2000s, was dealing with its own economic crisis. And countries in Latin America stopped hiring Cuban medical brigades, an export tainted by reports of forced labor, depriving the government of a key source of income.External factors have contributed to the discontent, along with an anger that’s more homegrown: Cubans’ hatred for the regime. Consider the signs they carried—DOWN WITH THE DICTATORSHIP—and the song they were singing.
The lyrics of “Patria y Vida” made clear that protesters were ready to ditch members of the revolutionary pantheon, such as Che Guevara and José Martí, for a bit of foreign currency. In the song, the protesters also scolded the government for selling Cuba to f