Cuba awakens! Is this the beginning of the end of Communist rule in Cuba?

Hi, I'm Sonia Briskeen and welcome back to the Snapshot Channel. Like and subscribe our channel if you haven't done so already. Today's topic, Cuba. You probably haven't heard much about what's been going on in Cuba and surprisingly or not, our mainstream media haven't really given it much coverage. However, since the 11th of July, unprecedented protests have occurred all over Cuba in over 40 different cities with people taking to the streets. Videos have surfaced with people singing slogans such as down with communism, freedom, we are not afraid. These videos have been plastered all over social media. Cuba is located close to the United States and is known as the fertile land with its sugar cane crops and tobacco. The United States invested heavily to build up Cuba. However, after Castro seized power in 1958 during the revolution, American businesses and trades were expropriated. As a result, the US sanctions and embargo were imposed and have lasted for more than half a century. So what's been happening in Cuba? Just a little snapshot of history. Fidel Castro came to power in 1956 after the revolution. He died recently in 2016 after being the one and sole non-elected leader of the Cuban people for over 50 years. His brother Raul Castro, who's now 90, assumed the so-called presidency of Cuba. However, in April this year, he gave up his title of the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party. And now what we see are huge protests erupting all over the country. The biggest question, of course, that everyone's been asking is, can the Cuban dictatorship survive without the Castros? We've seen what happened in the Soviet Union. The Soviet dictatorship survived Lenin and the communist rule lasted for 74 years. The Chinese dictatorship survived Mao. That's now so far been lasting 72 years. North Korea, the Three Kims have so far been in power, the father, the son and the grandson. And the same goes for the Assad regime where the father and son have been on the throne for 51 years. But now in July 2021, the Cuban people have spontaneously set off anti-government protests calling for freedom and an end to their dictatorship. This of course sent shockwaves throughout the country of Cuba and also internationally. Well, grievances against the government in Cuba run deep and have gone on for decades. However, some analysts at the BBC recently outlined three reasons for what has perhaps been the turning point for the Cuban people recently. Number one, it's the coronavirus crisis. Two, the economic situation. And three, the opening of communication through the internet. Although Cuba controlled the COVID outbreak fairly well in the early days in 2020, recently in the last few months, the infections have skyrocketed with reporting of up to 7,000 cases a day. So the pandemic and the economic response of the government has certainly made life very, very difficult for Cuban people. The second point, the economy. So the economic situation in Cuba is worsening. And of course tourism being the main industry of revenue for Cuba is all but have collapsed in recent 12 months. And this has been made worse by the skyrocketing inflation and increasing shortages of food, medicine, and other basic products for the people. And at the beginning of the year, the government did propose some economic reforms. However, while the wages did go up, there was a massive spike in prices. And economist Sacha Pavel Vidal from a university in Colombia is currently predicting that prices in Cuba are going to rise between 500% to 900% over the next few months. And finally, number three, internet connectivity. So under the presidency of Raul Castro, there have been a lot of steps taken to in fact open up people's access to the internet and to information on the island of Cuba. So previously, the last protest that was actually able to take off in Cuba was 30 years ago in 1994 in Havana. However, back then, there was so little information and so little connection between the people that basically nobody knew really what was going on. However, now, 30 years later, the situation is markedly different. People have been using internet and particularly social networks to communicate. And that is particularly so for the younger people who have access to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. So what has been the response of the Cuban government to all these protesting? So as expected, of course, there has been a massive crackdown and over 400 arrests are reported to have taken place so far. The Cuban authorities have also largely blamed the US for the eruption of all these protesting, saying that the decade old embargoes and economic sanctions have been significantly worsening the economic situation in Cuba. They have also organised counter protests, and we have heard of those happening over the years by various similar regimes, where basically the government sends protestors to protest against the protestors. Again, protestors against the protestors. Makes sense, I suppose, maybe. But so far we've seen that the ones who've been on the streets calling for freedom are mainly the young people who've been a bit more liberated in their thinking and having their internet access and exchange over social media, whereas the counter protests have been mainly of the older generations. Now let's look at the responses from the international community. US President Biden's initial response was to say that the US stood with the Cuban people and he urged the Cuban regime to hear its people and to serve their needs at this vital moment rather than reaching themselves. The protests posed an unexpected challenge for Biden as he risks losing voters in places like Florida if he's seen as anything but hardline against its communist neighbour. On July 22nd he issued a statement saying that, and I'll read this one, the United States stands with the brave Cubans who have taken to the streets to oppose 62 years of repression under a communist regime and opposed new sanctions against the Cuban security minister and an interior ministry special forces unit over alleged human rights abuses during protests on the island. The foreign minister of the European Union, Joseph Burrell, urged the Cuban government to listen to these protests of discontent. However, Mexico's President López Obrado said that he hoped a peaceful resolution could be reached and that there must be no interventionism. What does that mean? Basically everybody stay out of it and don't get involved. A spokesperson for Russia's foreign ministry also cautioned against outside interference and that sought to encourage the destabilisation on the communist island. So what have been the impact of these US sanctions on Cuba? So essentially the United States trade embargo prevents an American business or a business with commercial activities in the United States from conducting any formal trade with Cuba and this has been the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. And so early on in the 1960s there the US Eisenhower administration was particularly worried after Castro signed a trade treaty with the Soviet Union. The US were also worried about the eastern communist bloc in general. So what the Eisenhower administration did back then was that they sort of set up and financed a group of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. So naturally Castro responded by increasing its program of seizing US property and companies. This led to a complete cut of US-Cuban diplomatic ties in 1961. So now fast forward to the 90s when the collapse of the Soviet Union has also led to a complete plummeting of the Cuban economy and the international community has repeatedly pleaded for the embargo to be lifted. They have argued that the embargo has led to a total shortage of food, of medicine and other vital supplies for the Cuban people. However the pro-embargo argument is that even if the supplies are made available they will simply be taken by the regime and would not reach the people. They have also argued that Cuba has taken very few steps to have a more open and democratic society and respect for human rights. So it was not until Fidel Castro actually stepped down and Obama become the President of the United States that the US-Cuban relations began to normalize. So Obama removed Cuba as a country that supported terrorism and also on July 20, 2015 an agreement was formally signed that resumed diplomatic relationships between US and Cuba. However not all sanctions were actually removed. So after Trump won the US presidential election the relationship between Cuba and the United States fell into a deadlock yet again and some analysts in fact did argue that the Cuban regime didn't really make enough use of the ease of restrictions during the Obama era to move forward towards more economic and civil liberty freedoms. Michael Shifter of the President of the Inter-American Dialogue said that instead they hardened their position, they closed more, they became more repressive because their left felt threatened. After taking office Trump repeatedly criticized Cuba as tightened its sanctions against Cuba on the grounds of human rights abuses and its support for the Venezuelan socialist government. In June 2019 President Trump issued a strict embargo as a punishment for Cuba and the Cuban economy took yet another hit. Then the outgoing President imposed new sanctions on Cuba in the last few days of his presidency releasing Cuba as a country that supports terrorism. And while there have been a lot of criticism of the embargoes and sanctions a lot of people in Cuba do blame their own government for all the problems. The Cuban artisan dissident Tania Bruguera said to Politico, yes of course the embargo has had its impact but the situation we're in today is caused by the Cuban government. The world has to stop seeing the Cuban government as the victim. The Cuban government is the aggressor. So where to from now? What will happen in Cuba? Many analysts concur that perhaps no immediate changes will be seen in Cuba currently and it remains to be seen whether the current protests would simply be squashed by the authoritarian regime or if they're going to mold and form a meaningful movement. Cuba's government exercises very very tight control over its population but Cuban's patience has severely been tested particularly recently during the coronavirus epidemic that has certainly added to the existing economic troubles. And it can be said that these the coronavirus epidemic as well as the increased sanctions have all put more pressure. It could be a watershed moment that would force the government to finally open up and have more reforms. So what do you think? Will the communist regime in Cuba finally fall and will people see a taste of democratic freedom which they haven't had in over 50 years? Leave us your comment, like and subscribe our channel and we'll see you soon with the next episode. Take care and stay safe.