Why Cuban immigrant prefers wartime Kyiv to Havana
Cuba, amid a plunging humanitarian crisis, went dark for the second time in a week following Trump’s oil blockade. Adrian feels better in wartime Ukraine than returning to poverty in Cuba.
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OUR LEAD STORY:
Adrian Licea was ten years old when he decided that when he finally grew up, he would leave Cuba. It was 2003, and while wandering through a store in his hometown of Santiago de Cuba, the second-largest city on the island, he spotted a toy car he desperately wanted. But the price tag read $300. He knew for sure his family could never afford it.
“At that moment, I understood that when I grew up, I would earn enough money and help my family,” Adrian said.
Cuba’s economy has been mired in stagnation for years, crippled by the communist government’s failed economic model and domestic policies, while also strained by decades of U.S. sanctions. However, conditions in Cuba have deteriorated since January, after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new fuel restrictions on the island, exacerbating an already chronic shortage.
On July 14, Cuba suffered its third nation-wide power blackout in two weeks, something previously unseen. Notably, however, most of the country, including Havana, experiences near-daily blackouts amid Cuba’s worst humanitarian crisis since the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s.
Now, across Cuba, surgeries are halted due to a lack of light, scarce food supplies spoil quickly without refrigeration, and cities stumble without communication. An acute shortage of fuel and supplies has pushed Cubans to the brink of surviva.
Though Kyiv was recently ranked among the 10 least livable cities in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, despite the constant danger, Adrian has chosen to stay in Ukraine, preferring war-torn Ukraine to a depleted Cuba.
While political debates over the embargo continue on the international stage, the real cost of Cuba’s geopolitical isolation falls on ordinary families.
Washington has faced criticism over whether tightening sanctions on an already struggling economy can effectively pressure the Cuban authoritarian regime to change. But Cuban authorities blame years of U.S. sanctions for the crisis, and experts point to decades of economic mismanagement and institutional weakness for the current state of the country.
After the paywall:
The harsh reality of everyday survival during Сuban blackouts;
Why Adrian chose to build his home in Ukraine, refusing to leave even after the full-scale invasion;
How the Kremlin exploits Cuba’s extreme poverty to recruit thousands of desperate men for its war against Ukraine.
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