Note: This article is a collaboration between Arturo Dominguez and photojournalist Francisco Lozano, who recently spent two weeks in Cuba.
Cuba is suffering through multiple crises. From medicine shortages to power outages, all or most are directly or indirectly related to the U.S. unilateral embargo of the island. Most people around the world know this to be true. Even when the government takes blame for some failures in addressing the needs of its people, it’s impossible to ignore how the commercial and financial blockade of Cuba impacts those failures.
Banning Cuba’s access to international banks, global markets, and resources further complicates proposed solutions to those problems, tying the government’s hands in almost every aspect of Cuban society. For example, the power outages in Cuba don’t just impact Cubans at home; they also affect government-owned businesses, such as resorts and restaurants, and the private sector, which struggles to thrive, leaving entrepreneurs more than frustrated.
The day Francisco Lozano arrived in Cuba, the power went out at the airport three times as he waited for his luggage. “Bienvenidos a Cuba,” someone yelled. The people applauded, accepting the new normal. That night, the power went out in a well-off area of Havana, Vedado, from before midnight until 9 AM the next day. The owner of the rental where Lozano was staying told him the next morning, “I’m sorry for the night without electricity, in Vedado, the power used to not go out.”
“If you want to look for another place that has an electric plant, I will reimburse your money,” the owner offered.
Francisco decided to stay, telling the man that he was working on a story that included the power crisis and that to write about it, he needed to experience it. The next morning, there was no running water, and the owner had to cancel upcoming weekend reservations. Needless to say, he was more than frustrated with the government. Francisco hailed a taxi.
Visible Impacts
As they drove through Havana, piles of trash could be seen on the street corners. “We have two kinds of blockades, the one from the U.S., and the one from our government,” the driver told Lozano, repeating the common refrain heard in Miami about an “internal blockade” which is now omnipresent. Recently, Cuba’s prime minister acknowledged that the government can’t blame everything about the current crisis on the embargo, and it’s not the first time Cuban government officials have spoken out, a relatively common occurrence in recent years.
The Cuban Ministry of Labor, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, was recently reprimanded for denying that there are Cubans on the streets begging for money, an issue the National Assembly was addressing. Even Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez took to social media to denounce those ignoring the country’s internal problems. Cabrera ultimately resigned.
“None of us can act arrogantly,” said Diaz-Canel. Arrogantly, disconnected from the realities we live, we have to act sensibly, seriously in addressing the problems that exist.”
Many Cubans are voicing their frustration, unafraid to speak up, and the current electricity crisis has exacerbated sentiments caused by the scarcity of medicine and jobs that don’t pay well. “Esto ya no se aguanta” (we can’t take it anymore) said a resort worker complaining about ‘los apagones’ (power outages). In cities and towns like Matanzas and Sangua La Grande in the province of Villa Clara, where power is already rationed by turning it on for an hour or two a day, outages sometimes last for days.
Perhaps, what is seen as neglect on the Cuban government’s part regarding issues that impact the people the most, combined with the effects of the U.S.’s unilateral embargo, is causing what the United States intended it to do over 60 years ago: make the people suffer and starve, thus leading to the overthrow of the government. These issues have led many Cubans to speak of a lack of government leadership and how they miss Fidel Castro.
In 1960, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester Mallory, authored a memo titled “The Decline and Fall of Castro,” arguing that the only way to alienate the Cuban population from Fidel Castro, whom he stated “the majority of Cubans support,” was to create “economic dissatisfaction and hardship” by denying “money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government”.
“If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government,” reads Mallory’s memo.
Later that year, the Eisenhower administration initiated the embargo, starting with the energy and agricultural industries. The embargo we know today came in 1962 under Kennedy.
It doesn’t end there. Perusing social media decades later exposes how the aims to aggravate tensions on the island against Cuba have not changed, and are equally manipulative if not more so. Most social media posts follow what U.S.-funded news media broadcasts on the island have been doing for decades: propagandizing issues that weigh Cubans down the most, such as the lack of public transportation, medicine shortages, the power crisis, and trash collection.
The posts intentionally overlook the impacts the unilateral embargo has on many of the most pressing issues. By limiting access to markets and materials that would help alleviate those problems, the U.S. is leaving Cuba with very few options.
Placing Cuba on the State Sponsor of Terror List is one example of how the embargo has intensified in recent years and has had an even greater impact. Cuba’s designation by the State Department means that international banks stay clear of transactions related to the island. This complicates Cuba’s ability to import raw materials for the manufacturing of much-needed medicine. Even trying to make donations to the island is problematic.
Calling Cuba a “sponsor of terrorism” is duplicitous for obvious reasons. Cuba has survived many terrorist attacks against it, either backed by the U.S. government or conducted from U.S. soil. From Operation Mongoose and the support for extremist anti-Castro exile groups to a CIA agent being implicated in the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, killing all 73 people on board, those attacks are ongoing. Cuba thwarted two terrorist plots last year.
For more on the impact and duplicity of Cuba’s designation as an alleged state sponsor of terror, check out the documentaries from independent award-winning media outlet Belly of the Beast: Uphill on the Hill and Hardliner on the Hudson. Belly of the Beast is composed of U.S. and Cuban reporters and filmmakers.
Invisible Impacts
Yarianna is a 23-year-old single mom with three boys, ages 2, 5, and 6. She lives with her father in a somewhat rural barrio called Caminar in Matanzas. Her oldest son suffers from anxiety and depression and has lost all his hair. The mom explains that the child’s psychologist says that it is because his dad is not around.
“We have free access to medical care, but oftentimes, the hospital doesn’t have medications and we have to buy them,” Yarianna told Lozano. “How can I buy it when I don’t work because I have to take care of my three kids. My father tries to provide to buy my son’s meds and food by going to the countryside and fetching some kind of berries that he sells as pig feed. Most of the time, we can’t buy the medicine,” she declared.
They live in a small house that is more like a shack with dirt floors. In Caminar, there is no running water; never has been. People have to buy water delivered by horse, known as ‘carretas’ (trucks), even for showers. When asked if things would be better without the embargo, she didn’t know what it was, but when mentioning “el bloqueo” (the blockade), she knew and said, “I think that with blockade or no blockade, we would be in the same situation.”
Yarianna echoes what many Cubans think: that the crisis caused by the embargo is solely the Cuban government’s fault. Most seem to blame both the embargo and the government – a common refrain argues that the Cuban leadership blames all the island’s problems on the myriad sanctions and refuses to acknowledge that many issues are not a direct result of or related to the embargo. But any time a Cuban leader, such as the Prime Minister, admits that they neglected some issues, it seems the Cuban people’s perception is not very far off.
Dalisay is in her 30s. She works the night shift at a food stand in Varadero, 7 pm to 7 am, three to four days a week, but by the time she turns in the cash and inventory, her 12-hour shift turns into a 14-hour one. She spoke to Francisco about life growing up in a well-off family under the embargo and how much more difficult it is now.
“Growing up, I didn’t feel the effects of the embargo; my family was well-off, my mother was a director of a center (did not want to mention the name), and my father was part of the security team for Fidel,” Dalisay told Lozano. “All I remember is that at school they would say, ‘We don’t have pencils because of the blockade.’ Now that I’m on my own, I definitely feel like the rest of the people,” she continued. “The other day, there was a blackout. I got home after my 14-hour shift to find that my freezer had melted and there was water everywhere; whatever little food I had in the fridge had spoiled. That’s what daily life is for most of us.”
When asked what she would tell President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, a 59-year-old ‘costumbrista’ in Old Havana, dressed colorfully with a cigar in her mouth to make extra money by representing old customs, she spoke positively about the current Cuban president while proclaiming the embargo is oppressive and how much she, too, missed Castro.
“He is a good man, he is not a bad man,” the woman told Lozano. But he would have to have good ideas, such as the ones Fidel had, to make changes to improve the country. We have a blockade that has been beating us for years; it affects our daily life,” she continued, speaking eloquently and unafraid. “We don’t deserve to have that blockade; it is unjust, it should be lifted so that we can live better, Cuba would be even ‘mas bonita.’”
Lozano first visited Havana in 2020, right before the pandemic. “I never saw people begging for a handout,” he said. “Now, kids and the elderly ask people for money or even candy.”
Economic Impact
Cuba’s economy never recovered from the pandemic, in large part because tourism sharply decreased. The current situation shows how vulnerable Cuba is due to being cut off from international trade, credit, and economic development opportunities. When Obama tried to improve conditions and normalize the relationship with Cuba, President Trump reversed those and imposed more restrictions. After that, the Biden administration lifted some of them just six days before Trump took over and began imposing even more sanctions. This duplicity has also played a role in worsening things, as intended by hardliners in the White House.
“Old Havana thrived with tourists, was clean, and had lots of restaurants and shops,” declared Lozano. “Now, Old Havana seems more like a ghost town. Most of the businesses are closed, and one can see only a few tourists.”
There’s no question the Cuban people are resilient; they have survived an inhumane blockade for over 60 years. But due to the most recent Trump administration sanctions, the Cuban government has limited resources to navigate them as effectively as they’d like. As the National Assembly and the Council of State work to confront the most pressing issues, how they try to address them is front and center.
Meanwhile, on a hot, humid mid-summer night, hundreds of people show up at “El Malecón” (Havana’s seawall) to cool off with the ocean’s breeze. They bring snacks and drinks because they can’t always afford to buy them when they go out. The strength, ingenuity, and resilience of the Cuban people are often highlighted. That enduring strength is more visible now than in recent years as Cubans launch improvised, informal businesses.
“Across the street from the Malecón, people set out juices, soda, water, and snacks on their porches for people to buy,” said Lozano. “That survival spirit is seen throughout the city. More and more, these informal and somewhat private businesses are popping up all over the island.”
Propaganda in the U.S. tells people that Cubans aren’t allowed to speak out against the failures of their government. But the fact that people are unafraid to speak out seemingly suggests otherwise. Francisco took a taxi to Old Havana, and as he was getting out, a man who appeared to be in his 50s approached and opened the door for him. “Señor, I’ll show you around,” he said. Lozano took the offer because he, of course, wanted to hear what people had to say. “I’ll buy lunch,” Lozano said.
When he ordered his sandwich, he ordered it to go. Francisco asked why he had ordered it to go. He said, “I’ll take it to my young daughter, who hasn’t eaten much.” When asked if he was willing to talk about the current situation, he said, “I’ll tell you everything,” again, showing that people are unafraid to make their voices heard. He voiced the same concerns and uneasiness as the rest of the Cubans Lozano spoke with.
In the United States, people are also often told that there is no freedom to worship. Lozano visited two churches. One was in a somewhat precarious state. The other one is well off and does a lot of outreach. “We get donations from churches and organizations from the U.S., which is what helps us hand out food to people,” a young woman told Lozano.
There’s no question that sanctions on Cuba disproportionately harm the Cuban people, which many argue justifies classifying the sanctions as collective punishment. While it’s hard to pin down the exact number because the embargo involves multiple laws, regulations, and executive orders, Cuba is arguably one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world.
The economic, commercial, and financial embargo against Cuba is one of the most extensive and longest-standing sanction policies in the world. While other countries may have more targeted sanctions against them than Cuba, the broad scope of the Cuban embargo restricts its ability to operate in global markets more than others. With no access to world banking systems, Cuba has had to operate on a cash basis, thus stunting most growth opportunities since 1962.
Sanctions on Cuba
To get an idea of just how in-depth and crippling the sanctions on Cuba are, below are lists of sanctions by agency, legislation, and executive order. Note that the lists are extensive and daunting to look at. It’s not hard to see just how broad the impacts of them are.
- Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
- Department of State Restricted Entities List
- Department of Commerce Export Controls
- Trade Sanctions and Export Enhancement Act of 2000
- Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996
- Cuban Democracy Act of 1992
- Sections 5 and 16 of the Trading With the Enemy Act
- Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2370(a)(1)-(a)(2))
- National Security Presidential Memorandum (2025)
Support Francisco Lozano
Francisco Lozano is an independent photojournalist and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. He was born in El Salvador and emigrated to the U.S. when he was 17 during the Salvadoran civil war. Francisco studied photojournalism at the Los Angeles Community College and has covered Latino issues, immigration, and the Cuban crisis. He is a contributor to The Antagonist Magazine, The Latino Newsletter, HispanicLA, Latino Rebels, and El Faro English. His photos have been published in The Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram, or you can view his portfolio here.
If you’d like to contribute to help Francisco offset the cost of the trip to Cuba to bring us this amazing context, use the QR code below.
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