The other side of socialist paradise
What was once an example for the WHO is today a shadow. In offices like Dr. Omitsa Valdés’, patients arrive with their own medicines and syringes. Basic exams are impossible due to lack of reagents.
Constant blackouts complete the picture of a health system on the brink of the abyss. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
When everything fails at once
Education also creaks. Universities temporarily closed, scholarships cut, schools without electricity. Public transportation is a memory on many streets.
The figures hurt: seven out of every ten Cubans live in extreme poverty. Salaries are not enough. Between 2022 and 2024, the population fell from 11 to 8.5 million.
Meanwhile, the machinery of control continues to function. Activists such as Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina have been arrested for denouncing irregularities.
Neighbors like Yanet Rodríguez Sánchez live under constant surveillance. The police have limited resources for citizen security, but they always find patrols to repress dissidents.
Even tourism – that economic pillar – is faltering. In Varadero, half-empty hotels and businesses desperate for fuel. Airlines cancel flights, internal transportation is a lottery.
Gasoline is so scarce that it limits all economic activity. People survive on minimal rations and subsidized products that are never enough.
“Patients should bring their own medications and syringes”
“Seven out of ten Cubans live in extreme poverty”
The result is a toxic cocktail: health collapse + blackouts + repression + shortages = generalized hopelessness.
Endless lines for food, electricity that goes out without warning, growing insecurity and a future that gets darker every day. The government prioritizes control over solutions.
And so, while the official narratives speak of resistance and victories, more than garbage accumulates on the streets of Havana.
