The Year 2024: One of Darkness in Cuba

Castroism has lost a good part of the little popular support it had left and will limp into January. Unfortunately, so will Cubans.

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – The year 2024 has been the most difficult year that Cubans have lived in this century. Everything that could go wrong became worse in these last twelve months. The economic crisis, inflation, the deterioration of basic services, insecurity and the migratory exodus have marked the passage of days on the Island. This has been a time of darkness, not only because of the constant blackouts and the three total collapses of the national energy system, but also because not a single ray of hope has shone.

While in the streets there was talk of collapse, the official discourse defined the situation as a “complex” scenario. As the number and volume of voices calling for economic openness grew, regulations were raining down from the Government to put rigid limits on the private sector and stop the development of private companies. While on social networks, in the long lines in front of ATMs and at family tables consensus was reached on the urgency of a political change, official propaganda insisted on continuity.

As the months went by, the faces of the Cubans became longer, their cheekbones more prominent and the circles under their eyes darker, but before the news cameras the Communist Party leaders became plumper and pinker, their necks thicker and their waists more difficult to contain by belts and buttons. The divorce between Cuban reality and the group in power became impossible to hide. That pronounced fracture was evidenced not only through body weight, but, especially, through words.

At the plummet of the rationed market, countless statements from ministers and officials came out claiming that no one would be left helpless. While the streets were filled with beggars and children asking for money or food, propaganda directed its spotlights towards poverty in liberal democracies. When the doors and windows were opened to the Kremlin’s interference on the Island, the tone on the supposed sovereignty of the country was raised. Instead of listening to the crying of mothers watching their children leave through Central America, the official press preferred to place the microphone on the voice of others displaced by distant conflicts. Faced with the increase in crime, the regime’s spokesmen pointed out incidents on American and European streets.

Two diametrically different countries lived in Cuba this year. On the one hand, the empty pharmacies and hospitals with hardly any medical staff; on the other, the one that exports health workers anywhere in the world and boasts of its novel drugs. The number of femicides exceeded 50 murders throughout 2024, but the Federation of Cuban Women boasted of the low incidence of sexist violence on the Island.

Despite the hundreds of political prisoners who are still locked up in prisons, Havana pretended to show respect for human rights before international organizations, judged other countries that did not pay it ideological homage and gave a lecture on the benefits of its prison system. In November alone, seven prisoners died behind bars for situations that point to the responsibility or complicity of their jailers.

The economic projection was not accomplished by even one decimal point. If there was something that was planned to improve, this year it was ruined even more. Food production continued to collapse, and farmers responded with fewer deliveries despite the pressures of the state monopoly Acopio. The fields became unsafe spaces where animal slaughterers and thieves didn’t let the rural population sleep. The industry almost disappeared, and the numbers of tourists fell below those of the previous year, for the first time since the pandemic.

If the previous Christmas we thought we had hit rock bottom, this shows that our assessment was naive. This December it seems that there is absolutely nothing to celebrate, but there are reasons to harbor a modest optimism: the Cuban dictatorship will enter 2025 very weakened. To the financial and productive crisis must be added the galloping decrease in support within the sectors that, until recently, blindly defended it. This year that ends, Castroism has lost a good part of the little popular support it had left and will limp into January. Unfortunately, so will Cubans.

Translated by Translating Cuba.

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