"They force you to go . . . You can't say no."

29 mayo 2026

Hola y welcome back to CubaCurious.

Thanks for being here.

I thought I’d share news from Cuba this week that counters the narrative that Cuban officials are conveying in interviews with the foreign press: Cubans passionately support their government; Look at the six million signatures we collected in recent weeks; Look at the crowds paying tribute to Raul Castro across the country; Citizens are protesting—understandably—the hardships caused by U.S. sanctions but they will defend their revolution till the end.

Yet across social media and in the independent press, Cubans have been expressing their outrage not over the outages but the forced attendance at tributes for Raul Castro, which are taking place around the country, and the recent campaign to collect signatures in support of the regime. “They force you to go, take you out of work,” one Facebook user complained “You can’t say no.”

“The regime never skimps on its political circus,” Yoani Sánchez said in her podcast this Tuesday. “Imagine all those resources spent on transporting people . . . corralling workers . . . the lost productivity, the expense . . . As soon as they [workers] can they sneak away they go home.”

Hopes of a peaceful democratic transition on the island dwindled this week when Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that likelihood is “not high.” Meanwhile, reports from diverse sources suggested the U.S. is ramping up plans for a military operation on the island.

The regime’s foxhole mentality and refusal to budge doesn’t surprise the average Cubans I’ve spoken or emailed with lately. The consensus is the regime is willing to sacrifice the last Cuban in its battle to stay in power.

“You lost, man,” one Havana resident told me, describing Raul Castro, and the regime in general. “You lost because you’re an idiot and inept. You were intransigent. You wanted it all.” He told me he doesn’t care who comes “to take the people they need to take out of here.”

His barrio had power for just a few hours over the last few days. “I’ve lost the sense of space-time . . . Something happens to you when there is no light. When you don’t know when it will come back. And you can’t sleep. The heat, the mosquitoes.”

He was angry about the international leftist brigades that have arrived in Cuba in solidarity with the regime. “There are Cubans in there . . . you should see the passion they have [for the revolution]. I want to say to them, ‘So why don’t you come live here? No light. No food. It’s easy to say what you say when you’re in five star hotels and can go home.’”

He railed at Cuba’s leaders, the “potbellied liars” who talk about “defending our conquests . . . What conquests are they talking about?”

Many people, he said, believe that when the brutal summer heat arrives, everyone will be in the streets. “We’ve known for years this doesn’t work. No one trusts them [Cuba’s leaders]. Empty hotels. Now deserted streets. Everything the same. Nothing changes. Let me breathe. People are so fucking pissed at them. You go walking and that’s all you hear. El comunismo es una mierda. Communism is shit.

He laughed when I asked him about the six million signatures the regime said it had collected to show the vast support for Cuba’s leaders. “Those people sign because they’re getting something from them. Food, maybe a car. A little gasoline . . .They make up the numbers.”

I heard the same sentiment in a social media clip of a woman at a recent protest, a cazerolazo, (pot banging protest). “Women can’t take this anymore. Nothing to give your kids. The men home. Not working. We’ll all have to go out at once. We have to. They’ll probably kill half of us, but the other half will be able to live free, be tranquil. That’s what we have to do.”

If this is what “free” Cubans are facing, what hell are political prisoners and their families living in?

There’s no sign of the regime budging on that front either. Last week the government issued a list of the prisoners it pardoned—to great fanfare—on 3 April. However, NGOs tracking Cuba’s 1000+ political prisoners confirmed this week that all but two of the pardoned prisoners were common criminals.

I’m happy for Iván Leydis Acosta Matos, 25 years old, and Kevin Lay Laureido Rojas, the two “freed” political prisoners, and their families. Of course the restrictions they’ll be under render their freedom a farce, but they’re with their loved ones, for now.

But I am disgusted by the regime’s slap—or is it laugh?—at the families and NGOS who have not stopped pleading for the release of unjustly imprisoned Cubans. Two? I see freeing only two political prisoners as the regime’s way of giving international human rights the finger. Yet, somehow, the regime reaped the reward of appearing lenient, reformist, humanitarian. They’ll remember the headline, the announcement, not the offensive and revealing result.

Cubans are not surprised by such manipulation or the undue praise the regime earned with it. Their lives have been shaped by both phenomena.

Cubans are living in a suspended state of misery. Waiting. Seething—not just about their colossal problems, but at being forced to pledge allegiance to a corrupt and oppressive system and the dictatorship that created their misery.

I hope you appreciated this post. If you did, please share, re-stack, or click the heart to help other readers find CubaCurious. As always, I welcome your comments and questions. Thanks for caring about this with me.

Hasta la semana que viene.

Ana

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This is a different kind of treat. Alina Castro, Fidel’s estranged daughter, sharing a unique view of the situation in Cuba in a recent seven-minute interview. If you stick with it to the end, you’ll hear her not refute the rumor that she has a famous half-brother in Canada.

Sorry about the ad.