Trump’s Disastrous Imprint upon Cuba
A recent article from El Pais details the mass migration of Cubans off the island:
Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos has announced that between 2022 and 2023, the island’s population fell by 18%… His study also references the 738,680 Cubans who arrived in the United States between October 2021 and April 2024 after receiving immigrant visas… The economy had been moving towards collapse since 2019, there were the economic sanctions of the Trump administration, economic and political measures that sank the country even further”
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-07-23/from-a-population-of-11-million-to-little-more-than-85-million-the-real-toll-of-cubas-migratory-crisis.html
The first time that I was in Cuba in 2017, the island was in the midst of positive transformation. Tourism was thriving, there was construction throughout the streets of Havana and Camaguey. And the centers of both cities were bustling. Whether it was the curators of the video festival I participated in or the students working the festival or the owner of the home that hosted me, people appeared happy, friendly and eager for conversation and exchange. By my second visit, in 2019, the island seemed very transformed. Everyone I spoke with wanted off the island. Construction and renovation sites seemed abandoned. Tourism had radically declined. It was striking to see the negative change. I entirely blame Trump and his administration’s short-sighted isolationism.
As an extremely near neighbor of the United States, our empire has the power to quickly transform this island. Obama saw that possibility and even our responsibility to help the Cuban people. The Obama administration opened up travel to Cuba and Americans immediately embraced the island as a vacation destination for so many great reasons – quick and easy travel, inexpensive, and a taste of unique unAmericanized culture without McDonald’s or Starbucks on every corner. Everyone felt it was the moment to visit Cuba before McDonald’s, Starbucks, Target, Americanization took over… Trump’s moronic and selfish isolationism put a halt to the economic upswing of Cuba and rather than stopping the immigration of Cubans to the United States, his policies have brought the numbers up because hungry and desperate people will migrate.