Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the unprecedented anti-government protests that shook Cuba in 2021 — but the political and economic conditions that sparked the island-wide demonstrations may be only worse today.
Cuba’s communist government had never seen the kind of street protests that erupted across the nation last July 11 against the island’s political repression and economic collapse. And the regime responded severely: more than a thousand protesters are in prison, many with sentences of 20 years or more.
Among those locked up are artist Luis Manuel Alcántara and rapper Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo. who co-composed the Cuban protest anthem Patria y Vida ("Homeland and Life," a sardonic swipe at the regime motto "Patria o Muerte," or "Homeland or Death"). The song, along with spontaneous social media alerts, helped fuel the 2021 protests and won the Latin Grammy Award that year for best song.
READ MORE: Cuba's historic protests shook the regime — but its response has shaken human rights observers
Cuban-Americans were due to hold a vigil Tuesday evening in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., to condemn that crackdown. On Monday, South Florida Congress members from both parties held a roundtable in Miami to discuss how the U.S. can further pressure Cuba to release those prisoners.
Miami Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, said he expects Congress to raise funding for democracy programs in Cuba to $30 million, especially for increased internet access.
But the regime appears to be using the protester prisoners as leverage to get the U.S. to loosen sanctions like its economic embargo against Cuba. Meanwhile, the island’s economic catastrophe has only deepened the past two years — and Cuba is turning more to U.S. adversaries like Russia and China for help.
China, in fact, was a key topic at Monday's roundtable, especially recent reports that Cuba has agreed to let Beijing augment its electronic spying capabilities there.
"To allow the encroachment of China and Russia and Iran, as close as [Cuba is] to our shores, is absolutely unacceptable,” said South Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
“We have to make sure that the [Cuban] regime understands that the only pathway to relief is to join the family and community of democratic nations and allow free and fair elections for their people.”
The only sign of the regime loosening its grip is the recent growth of Cuba's private sector — which communist officials are reluctantly allowing in order to help prop up the economy.
For its part, Cuba's government said this week it holds the U.S. "directly responsible" for the 2021 unrest because it insists the island's economic woes are caused by the embargo. Either way, Cubans continue to leave the island in record numbers today.
