Faced with rolling blackouts because of its dilapidate electrical grid, Cuba sees protests around the Communist island, whose former leader the late Fidel Castor touted the superiority of Communism over capitalism seen 90 miles away in the United States. Cuba’s 11.2 million population are fed up with all the broken promises started in 1959 when Castro’s Communist Revolution against the U.S.-friendly dictator Fulgencio Batista offered utopian promises of a better, more equitable life under Communist rule. Castro, whose coup helped make Latin American Revolutionaries like Ernesto “Che” Guevara famous, spewed the anti-capitalistic, anti-U.S. rhetoric better than most Communist leaders certainly in Latin America. Cuba stands today as a rotting failed experiment in Communism, where the people on the Island prison now suffer the false promises of the Communist system.
Looking at rolling blackouts for the foreseeable future, the Cuban government can only say “Viva La Cuba,” while they live in darkness with their food rotting in refrigerators unable to get power. Havana was spared blackouts until recently when the Cuban government announced that they’ll cut electricity to the capital every three days during midday peak usage times, according to Tibuna de la Habana, the main Communist Party daily. Biden’s war in Ukraine, with its Russian oil boycott, ht Cuba hard with shortages and skyrocketing prices, all worsened by the global Covid-19 pandemic that took an economic toll on the island. Over 150,000 Cubans fled to the U.S., fed up with what becomes undeniable, the collapse of the Cuban economy. Cuba’s Gross Domestic Product [GDP] declined in 2020 by 9%, recovering only 1.3% in 2021, giving most citizens no reason for hope.
No where is the contrast between capitalism and socialism more glaring than between Miami Beach and Havana. When the Castro brothers and their band of Communist revolutionaries ousted Batista, it was a shock to President Dwight D. Eisenhower whose Vice President Richard Nixon had a tough sell to the American public running against President John Kennedy in 1960. Castro’s Communist Revolution gave Kennedy a wind at his back talking about the failures to Eisenhower-Nixon. Cubans have lived with food, energy and medicine shortages for over two years, now rolling blackouts drive the point home about Cuba’s decaying infrastructure under Communist rule. Just as Castro sold Cubans the benefits of Communist in 1949, the Communist Havana government is long overdue in accepting failure. Younger Cubans now question government propaganda about Cuba’s education and healthcare.
Cuba’s Communist leaders and press ask Cuban to sacrifice more for the Communist cause. “This is the moment to show solidarity and contribute so that the rest of Cuba suffers less from the undesirable blackouts,” s Havana Communist Party leader Luis Antionio Torres said in Tribuna. Torres spews the same Casto-like propaganda that tells Cuban citizens to give the government more time. After all, it’s only been 63-years since the Cuban Revolution. Torres announced that the government would shut down mass vacations to shutter state-run companies, working from home and 20% cut of energy allocations to Cuban businesses. Torres announced that the government would shut down its annual carnival August due to the energy crisis. Cuba’s Communist Party exercises total control over Cuba’s population, charging and making traitors out of anyone who protests.
University of Texas, Austin, Jorge Pinon, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Energy and Environmental program, laid the facts bare for all to see about Cuba’s crumbling infrastructure, with two out of Cuba’s 20 coal-fired power plants destroyed by fire. Pinon contends that Cuba’s rotting infrastructure has robbed citizens of any standard of living, leaving most citizens plagued by high unemployment, with the government continuing to make empty promises. Havana puts on a good act for American tourists who, over the last 10 years, have visited Havana with the idea of seeing a thriving Communist society. Castro made sure that American knew how advanced Cuba’s education and health care, something socialized like it is in Russia, Canada and other socialist countries. What some Americans don’t see is the abysmal failure of the Communist system.
Some analysts, like Pinon, think it’s a matter of time before larger numbers of people rebel against their Communist masters. With a totalitarian state, Cuba’s policing authority knows how to squelch dissent with mass arrests and incarcerations. So when it comes to the public rising up because of widespread hardships, they’ve been brainwashed by the government for too long to rebel. “When you keep running the equipment past its capital maintenance schedule, it falls into a downward spiral with no short term solution,” Pinon said. Pinon believes that the current blackouts are the government’s way to keeping the dilapidated system running longer. “They announced scheduled blackouts are not in solidarity but rather a necessity to avoid a possible today collape of the system.” Pinon said. At some point, you’d think it was inevitable that the government’s fluffy propaganda will also collapse with it electrical grid.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma
