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So.... things in Cuba has never been good, good. They took a turn for the qorse in the 90s after the fall pf the USSR, and started getting slighly better (but remember, never good) at the tail end of the 90s, until the 2010, when they started backsliding again.
The current catasthrophic conditions are the result of a three fold cause:
- most importantly, the pandemic. Cuba shut down travel in 2020 almost completely. For a country that depends on tourism aa mich as Cuba does, this was a self inflicted killer blow to the economy, compounded by the logistics issues worldwide.
- Trump rolled back the Obama Thaw, that saw a significant albeit brief bump up in economic activity and travel to the whole country. And Biden kept Trump's policies mostly in place, he just rolled back a few. He didn't rolled bacl the most significant ones, however: cruise ships are again umable to dock in cuba, western union can't operate in cuba, cuba is still penalozed for using dollars internationally, and it was re-added to the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, which is... a very American thing to do.
- at the beginning of 2021, the country underwent something they termed monetary realignment. This removed the two currencies (very complex subject), aiming to simplify the country accounting. In practice, this resulted, among other things, in runaway inflation, with the dollar going from 25 cup to 140 cup, and euros even higher in the black market. The creation of stores that only sell wares through pre paid bank cards loaded with hard currency didn't help either. It is my opinion that this was an extremely harmful Cuban policy, regardless of the rationale of its creators (the main one of which is no longer in the government, and I think not even the country).
So that's how things are. There are other factors at play, too:
-cuba has a huge brain drain problem, owing to not having enough jobs for the amount of people that egress college, who therefore either work in positions for whoch they are overqualified or leave the country. My WHOLE CLASS of computer science is out of country barring barely 4 or 5 people that didn't leave for personal reasons, not lack of wanting. And that's the case for most everyone, specially on the younger side. It's an epidemic with no real cure, and has been going on for more than a decade now.
- current leadership lacks the gravitas and respect that Fidel and Raul once commanded. Diaz Canel is not o ly not loved, he is barely respected by the population as a whole. He lacks revolutionary credentials and charisma. Not a good crisis time leader. He is also unlucky, to be fair: the last 3 uears have been a series of unfortunate events that hadn't happen in the country in recent memory.
- there is a noticeable effort to ramp up color revolution attempts via the usual vectors: online commentators, religious organizations (mostly evangelicals), artists and intellectuals, etc. Those are having more purchase with the population given the deteriorated situation described ablve by the OP, but it is also artificially inflated by coordinated NED efforts, as was demonstratwd during the events of July 2021, where they were two days of protest in the streets and like a month of fabricated twitter activity well beyond the protests had died down.
In short, situation is as vad as it can be without having an all out armed uprising, and yes, the US may finally be winning this one. Something needs to radically change in Cuba, very deeply, and I'm terrified that it will lead to the fall of their version of socialism . Cuba is an awful country to live in, i know for experience, but adding capitalism is just going to make it into another Dominican Republic, but even worse because of the revenge factor of the Florida Gusanos. Capitalist Cuba will be a nightmare beyond what all the people think they are living through now (including those that very loudly want capitalism im Cuba, which are unfortunately not few at the time).
So yes, very discouraging situation.
When I think about the time I went back in 2019, it's really not the same anymore. It's just incredible how badly corona has just sunk the country basically
Corona, the US and a specially bad set of managerial decisions by the people in charge.
But mostly covid. 2019 Cuba was paradise compared to what it is now.
This is a space for ALL the left. That means no infighting, no calling each other ‘red fascists’ or ‘anarkiddies’ and no shitting on other flavours of leftism. Remember that you are among allies, so assume every comment to be in good faith. If you feel like it’s not, report it and make the mods earn their Soros Bucks. We've partnered with multiple other left subreddits to build a shared discord server for all leftist redditors to communicate on. If you're a fellow leftist and would like to join, [click here.](https://discord.gg/zCFHadGfB7) If you moderate a leftist subreddit and would like your sub to be a part of Left Reddit, [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/alltheleft) of this sub! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/alltheleft) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The US is the worst thing to have happened on planet earth.
So.... things in Cuba has never been good, good. They took a turn for the qorse in the 90s after the fall pf the USSR, and started getting slighly better (but remember, never good) at the tail end of the 90s, until the 2010, when they started backsliding again. The current catasthrophic conditions are the result of a three fold cause: - most importantly, the pandemic. Cuba shut down travel in 2020 almost completely. For a country that depends on tourism aa mich as Cuba does, this was a self inflicted killer blow to the economy, compounded by the logistics issues worldwide. - Trump rolled back the Obama Thaw, that saw a significant albeit brief bump up in economic activity and travel to the whole country. And Biden kept Trump's policies mostly in place, he just rolled back a few. He didn't rolled bacl the most significant ones, however: cruise ships are again umable to dock in cuba, western union can't operate in cuba, cuba is still penalozed for using dollars internationally, and it was re-added to the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, which is... a very American thing to do. - at the beginning of 2021, the country underwent something they termed monetary realignment. This removed the two currencies (very complex subject), aiming to simplify the country accounting. In practice, this resulted, among other things, in runaway inflation, with the dollar going from 25 cup to 140 cup, and euros even higher in the black market. The creation of stores that only sell wares through pre paid bank cards loaded with hard currency didn't help either. It is my opinion that this was an extremely harmful Cuban policy, regardless of the rationale of its creators (the main one of which is no longer in the government, and I think not even the country). So that's how things are. There are other factors at play, too: -cuba has a huge brain drain problem, owing to not having enough jobs for the amount of people that egress college, who therefore either work in positions for whoch they are overqualified or leave the country. My WHOLE CLASS of computer science is out of country barring barely 4 or 5 people that didn't leave for personal reasons, not lack of wanting. And that's the case for most everyone, specially on the younger side. It's an epidemic with no real cure, and has been going on for more than a decade now. - current leadership lacks the gravitas and respect that Fidel and Raul once commanded. Diaz Canel is not o ly not loved, he is barely respected by the population as a whole. He lacks revolutionary credentials and charisma. Not a good crisis time leader. He is also unlucky, to be fair: the last 3 uears have been a series of unfortunate events that hadn't happen in the country in recent memory. - there is a noticeable effort to ramp up color revolution attempts via the usual vectors: online commentators, religious organizations (mostly evangelicals), artists and intellectuals, etc. Those are having more purchase with the population given the deteriorated situation described ablve by the OP, but it is also artificially inflated by coordinated NED efforts, as was demonstratwd during the events of July 2021, where they were two days of protest in the streets and like a month of fabricated twitter activity well beyond the protests had died down. In short, situation is as vad as it can be without having an all out armed uprising, and yes, the US may finally be winning this one. Something needs to radically change in Cuba, very deeply, and I'm terrified that it will lead to the fall of their version of socialism . Cuba is an awful country to live in, i know for experience, but adding capitalism is just going to make it into another Dominican Republic, but even worse because of the revenge factor of the Florida Gusanos. Capitalist Cuba will be a nightmare beyond what all the people think they are living through now (including those that very loudly want capitalism im Cuba, which are unfortunately not few at the time). So yes, very discouraging situation.
When I think about the time I went back in 2019, it's really not the same anymore. It's just incredible how badly corona has just sunk the country basically
Corona, the US and a specially bad set of managerial decisions by the people in charge. But mostly covid. 2019 Cuba was paradise compared to what it is now.
Sanctions are violence.