“Ignorance Kills Nations” José Martí
Hi, I am Dr. Toledo
I was born in Havana, Cuba, 1986. I have lived in the U.S. since 2006.
The main purpose of this blog is to help people in Cuba advocate for human rights and fight for political freedom. Also, to educate Americans and people from other countries about the complex situation in the country.
There are contrasting views on Cuba around the world. Some see Cuba as a touristic paradise, others as a thriving socialist society able to create free vaccines and send doctors on humanitarian missions, while some people say Cuba is under a totalitarian regime that limits all human rights and jails the opposition. This diversity of viewpoints and the fact that very little information leaves the country could explain why the world is confused about Cuba. In an attempt to paint a clearer picture, I will offer my insight as somebody that spent half of my life in Cuba and the other half in the USA.
The lives of Cubans are marked by fear of the consequences for speaking the truth about their day-to-day struggles. When you are born in an environment where all you see, hear, or talk about is controlled, it is easy to become programmed on what to say so you don’t get yourself or your family in trouble. In Cuba, people are only allowed to discuss favorable facts about the country. No news in Cuba is ever negative on the papers or the tv. For example, according to the government-controlled media, there are never shortages of any products or any crime. According to the official news outlets, there are always surpluses in the markets and people are always happy. The reality is the complete opposite to what they claim. There is never enough food, medicines, or school materials. The consequences for speaking openly about these problems ranges from getting in trouble at school to going to prison for political dissidence. The Cuban public knows it is best to keep quiet about these issues than to speak and suffer the consequences.
For all the years since the current regime has been in power (Castro regime:1959-present), the Cuban government has maintained a monopoly over the information that leaves Cuba. It controls the press and manipulates its message. Similarly, the government controls the internet and all the online news coming out of Cuba to the international community. When I was in Cuba, there was no access to the internet for the regular public. To nobody’s surprise, the news published online by the Cuban government are very positive and paint Cuba as a great nation where the communist system flourishes, and people are very content.
To maintain its image, the Cuban government invites foreign reporters to tour hospitals and schools. These government-sponsored visits show them the Cuba the government wants them to write about. They visit hospital rooms specially prepared to not show scarcity, and schools with freshly painted walls and well-behaved children dressed in brand-new school uniforms for the occasion. As you can probably guess, the real schools and hospitals in Cuba that people visit every day look very different. The allure to film in Cuba is strong for many international filmmakers. Sadly, many end up romanticizing Cuba in their films. Since the government controls the filmmaker’s interactions with local Cubans, movie makers will encounter poor but smiley people, inadvertently creating a propaganda film for the Cuban regime. Examples: “Sicho” (American documentary featuring a government-sponsored visit to a Cuban hospital), “Cuba and the Cameraman” (American is invited by Fidel to film the Cuba Fidel allows him to see).
The principal industry in Cuba is tourism. You can go to Cuba as a tourist (not if you are American), spend a week or two, yet never get to see the real Cuba. Since tourists are the government’s cash cows, the regime has created a system where tourists are treated like royalty, and they get to experience a side of Cuba that the average Cuban does not have access to. Beach resorts and fancy hotels are located at specific areas to keep tourism away from the public. Tourists only interact with highly vetted resort staff that are not only friendly, but also must answer questions about life in Cuba in a scripted way. When tourists go on tours around the city, efforts are put in place to keep them physically separated from the average people. Tourists are driven around in busses just for them, eat at tourist-friendly restaurants, and they listen to live music in the few streets in old Havana that have been remodeled just for their enjoyment.
At the beach towns, the exclusivity tourists enjoy in Cuba is off-the-charts. I remember being a child and going on summer vacation with my family to a popular beach town. A large section of this beach town was inaccessible to Cuban citizens. The very best beaches were reserved for the cash cows, so were all the beaches at the Cuban keys. When I was in Cuba, regular Cubans could not visit the Cuban keys. The keys were exclusive territory for tourism. Tourists shop in grocery stores for tourists, and they go to hospitals and pharmacy stores catered for tourists. As you can imagine, there is a big difference between groceries and pharmacies for tourists and the ones for normal Cuban people. The pharmacy for tourists looks like a small version of CVS, and the one for Cubans is mostly empty shelves.
Unless a foreigner that visits Cuba ventures off the tourist’s path to meet average Cubans, he/she might never find out the following facts about Cuba:
-Most Cubans have never tried a real Habano, these are fancy cigars for export, not affordable by Cubans.
-Cubans make 25- 60$ /month regardless of skill level or education.
-Cubans cannot own businesses.
-Cubans lack basic freedom of speech, assembly, or religion.
-The government can decide the fate of people, property, and institutions.
-Cubans cannot travel out of Cuba. (The amount of paperwork involved, permits and fees make it nearly impossible for the majority).
-Many foreign countries do not easily welcome Cubans because they represent a high risk of immigration.
– The Cuban government receives food and drug donations from many countries; these donations are sold to the people or are funneled into the tourism industry.
– All businesses in Cuba are owned by government officials, Castro family members, and a few top military officers.
-The government-subsidized food is low in nutrition and quality and only lasts one week if you buy rations for a full month.
-Most Cubans rely on remittance from the USA and Europe to survive.
-Everyone in Cuba is literate. However, the quality of education has decreased significantly under communism. Education only comes from dilapidated institutions, staffed with underpaid educators that have very limited access to modern information or teaching materials. If underfunding can really hurt the quality of education in American schools, why would Cuban schools be an exception to this rule?
-Education is not entirely free in Cuba, is repaid with child labor. From grades 10th-12th, students have to attend boarding schools where they live away from home. In the morning students go to the classrooms, in the afternoon they go to work the crop fields. This practice was maintained throughout most of the regime, my mom did it when she was in school, and it was also my high school experience. It ended in 2012. College tuition is also not free. Once you graduate college, the government assigns you a job position in repayment for “free” tuition. During this time (usually 2 years), you get a stipend, lower than actual wages.
-If you are a doctor, you practically belong to the government as the regime’s overseas medical missions are key to expanding Cuba’s influence abroad and raising revenue to support a failed economic system. These programs exploit tens of thousands of Cuban doctors abroad who are forced to live under strict surveillance and work in hazardous conditions, while the Cuban government confiscates upwards of 75 percent of their salaries.
-The myth that Cuba’s healthcare system is great is not only false but offensive due to the untold number of casualties as a result of medical negligence and unsanitary conditions in hospitals and clinics available to the average citizens. The stats are impossible to know because the government does not release damaging information.
Here is a website where people denounce cases of medical negligence in Cuba.
https://www.cibercuba.com/tags/negligencia-medica-cuba
-Cuban people may seem happy on the surface, but their society is plagued by problems: young people feeling frustrated at their life prospects, epidemic levels of prostitution as a means of survival, massive exodus of the population to other countries by any means possible, just to mention some. It is estimated that thousands of desperate Cubans have died in the Florida strait trying to reach American land in makeshift boats and rafts.
In Cuba, it is commonplace for people to resort to prostitution to relieve the financial situation in their households. It is no secret that a percentage of tourists from Europe and Canada are attracted to Cuba because tourists can get away with a lot in the island. Cuba has had a serious child prostitution problem for decades, which the government completely ignores. As long as tourists are happy, all is well. The degradation of Cuban society is the product of poverty, of three generations being affected by malnutrition, of low-quality education, and of a lack of understanding about what a democratic society should look like. In Cuba, people become desperate. Some jump on inflated inner tubes of truck tires and let the Gulf Stream take them away from Cuba in the hopes of reaching American soil. My father was one of these desperate people. He attempted to escape the prison island that is Cuba on several occasions via the ocean but was caught by Cuban authorities and was sent to political jail where he was left in the dark for weeks with almost no food or water. These mistreatments cemented his desire to leave, and he finally succeeded in escaping the regime on a boat of his invention. My father is what is termed a “rafter”. A refugee that came to America from the sea.
Cuba is a closed-off island, a perfect prison country, where prisoner citizens are kept under strict vigilance, and where imaginary shackles are created from conditioning and programming since birth. Some Cubans believe the propaganda and ignore what does not make sense around them. Most just never question the power of the big brother, the all-seeing eye that makes all the decisions, so they swallow their words of discontent and lower their heads. Cubans act out of fear when attending compulsory pro-government rallies, when they tell tourists how great education and hospitals are in Cuba, when they blame Cuba’s problems solely on the US embargo, when they throw eggs at the homes of dissidents. Cubans have been brave when speaking out about the problems of communism and when denouncing the lack of basic freedoms in Cuba. Some have even tried to start political movements in Cuba to vote for a new president and to start new parties. All these brave people have had all sorts of unfortunate fates like beatings by the secret police, jail sentences, and mysterious deadly accidents.
On the historic day of July 11th, 2021, thousands of Cubans all over the island spontaneously rose-up to demand their freedom from the oppressive government in an unprecedented moment of bravery. The movement was not organized and had no leader. People showed up to protest in massive numbers. The Cuban regime blamed the uprising on the US economic embargo on Cuba. However, it was clear people were not protesting the embargo. They were very clear in their demands. They wanted the regime to end finally. They claimed: LIBERTAD! FREEDOM!
The repressive police met the protesters with violence. Clashes with police would usually scare Cubans, but this time the injustices enraged and emboldened people who kept coming out day after day and screamed at the top of their lungs the things they had never dared to say out loud. Unarmed citizens fought the police to keep them from beating and arresting protesters. Cubans rebelled. They were fed up. They chanted: WE ARE NOT SCARED!
The cuban government has always demanded an end to the U.S. embargo; the government is the only body that accrues wealth in the country and that would benefit the most from the sanctions being lifted. Don’t get me wrong, the embargo does hurt Cuba and especially the people. It is a failed policy that should have ended years ago. Many Americans don’t approve of it. Also, many Americans don’t know that the U.S. embargo has been the Cuban government’s scapegoat and excuse for all economic problems in the country. In a way, the embargo fueled the regime’s anti-American ideological battle. A battle which, in reality, is a battle against the people since it serves as a tool of communist indoctrination. When Cuban people hear that all problems will be solved once the embargo is lifted, they are hearing the same excuse given by their oppressors. A solution that leaves out the government’s role in the mismanagement of the country. As terrible as the US embargo is for Cuba’s economy, it cannot be blamed for restricting private enterprise in Cuba or the funneling of recourses from the public sector into tourism businesses that enrich the Castro family and other government officials. The bottom line is that people in Cuba are tired of being told that the U.S. embargo is responsible for all that is wrong in Cuba when clearly corruption and repression are the main problems that plague the country.
When the American/international media place the focus on the U.S. embargo to explain the causes of the protests of July 11th, naively, they are justifying an oppressive regime by echoing the Cuban government’s argument of blaming the U.S, for Cuba’s problems. Yes! Record COVID deaths and months of the worse economic recession Cuba has ever seen made the conditions ripe for the protests. However, it is NOT economic problems that people are protesting; people would not risk their lives to protest being hungry. They risked their lives and freedom protesting because they wanted a permanent change in the leadership of Cuba. The people are demanding the regime to END once and for all.
Most non-Cubans are unaware of the “internal blockade” imposed by the Cuban government on Cuba’s economic growth. This internal blockade are measures and laws aimed at keeping Cuban people in poverty. For example, Cubans cannot open businesses. However, there are some exceptions where it is ok to be self-employed to offer 19th-century services like shoe-repair or a knife sharpening ( the business of going door-to-door sharpening knives). Self-employed people cannot get permits to grow their businesses or hire employees. That would make them bourgeois capitalists and that is bad according to the government. Cubans that have a license to grow vegetables for sell, cannot grow more than they are allowed under penalty of jail. All the cattle in Cuba belong to the government, it is not only illegal but a serious crime to slaughter a cow in Cuba. Beef is only for government officials and tourists. The only times I ate beef when I was in Cuba was in the form of ground beef obtained illegally from Cubans risking their freedom selling this highly forbidden product.
The government imposes a great variety of restrictions on the types and amounts of articles of food, medicine, and electronics that can be brought into the country. The bottom line is that the government wants to keep everybody in Cuba needy and hungry so that they require relief from other countries. This is the regime’s current business model. The Cuban regime has created a system where they rely mostly on two sources of income: tourism and family remittance. When a family member from the U.S. sends dollars to Cuba, the government makes the people in Cuba exchange the dollars for another currency. The exchange rate favors the Cuban government that automatically keeps 20% of remittance money. Then, Cuban people must use their remaining 80% to buy food with highly inflated prices; a lot of this food was donated to Cubans from European nations, but the government sells the donations to the people. Americans and other people around the world need to understand that the main issue in Cuba is not the U.S. blockade, it is the Cuban regime which stifles economic growth in order to remain in power. Cuba is not self-reliant in almost any industry currently. Communism has destroyed manufacturing and agriculture in the country. Cuba remained unchallenged as the world’s largest sugar producer until it became a communist nation in the early 60’s, now Cuba imports its sugar.
Unfortunately, sending any kind of relief to Cuba serves to enrich the pockets of the oppressive regime. It has become clear they spend the money of the country on anti-mutiny gear for their repressive police and to create propaganda campaigns such as the making of the Cuban COVID vaccine. The cost of developing this vaccine was subtracted from the budget necessary to manufacture any other medicine in Cuba. The already half-empty shelves of pharmacy stores for the people became emptier. During the times of COVID, Cubans did not have access to simple pain killers, let alone, blood-pressure medication. A Cuban man suffering from a mental disorder, in the absence of medication, killed several people and himself in a psychotic episode. Some of my family members that live in Cuba needed surgeries during this time and they suffered greatly as they had no medication to deal with post-surgery pain . Similarly, a friend that lives in Cuba suffered a bone fracture and she was told to go home and not to move the arm; there were no materials at the clinic to immobilize her broken limb. The U.S. blockade was not responsible for any of this, it was the totalitarian regime.
I don’t want to give the impression that I support the U.S. embargo. It is my personal opinion that it should be lifted. This opinion is not popular among many Cuban exiles that fervently support the embargo. My objective is to illuminate Americans about the complex realities of Cuba from my perspective, my life experiences, and the stories from people I know in Cuba. People that understand the nitty-gritty of what is happening in Cuba are starting a campaign to shift the focus from the U.S. embargo to what matters which is: to get people in Cuba freedom from an unjust bloody regime. When the international conversation about Cuba revolves around the U.S. embargo, the people of Cuba are losing a battle. The conversation should be about getting Cubans the right to vote, the right to speak their minds, and the right to live decent lives in their own country.
What does Cuba need from Americans and people from other nations?
The image of Cuba has been extensively politicized by other countries. The communist propaganda has succeeded in spreading a favorable image of a thriving socialist nation. The main accomplishments being free healthcare and free education. They go beyond in their propaganda, sending medical missions around the world to promote Cuban healthcare. There is a plethora of information and videos made available by the Cuban government that promote a false image of Cuba, one that is favorable in the economic, healthcare, and education sectors. All this misinformation has been used by people with socialist-leaning ideas as examples of how socialism is good for societies. In reality, it would be foolish to trust statistics and reports coming from a totalitarian government that does not allows free press and that is not accountable to the people it serves. Free does not always mean good. You do not want a free car with a defective engine; you might get killed driving on the highway. Cuba’s free healthcare is so underfunded that it is risky to step into a Cuban hospital if you are a regular citizen.
I am not here to have a political opinion! If you like socialism, and you are mostly attracted to it because you like the idea of having free social programs in your country, please learn the difference between Democratic Socialism and Communism. Find democratic countries that have free healthcare systems that actually work and use those for your examples. Make an effort to understand exactly the political system you are advocating for. In Communist regimes such as Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and others, economies are destroyed, human rights are violated, and there is no democracy. You do not want to defend a country that commits genocide against peaceful protesters. Many Cubans in the US that feel very hurt about being forced into exile by the regime adopt extremist anti-socialist conservative ideologies that falsely accuse politicians on the left of being communist sympathizers or simply communists in disguise. These ideas are usually the product of group-specific political propaganda and fake news. Make an effort to find unbiased information about the issues dear to you.
During the period of protests that sprung on July 11th (lasted 10 days), the Cuban government shut-down internet access in Cuba so that protesters could not get organized and could not share any information with the world about what was happening. Very little coverage of the protests was received out of Cuba, but the videos that leaked out evidenced clear acts of violence against the protesters. Some videos depicted unarmed people being shot by the police. The delay of news outlets and of free nations to denounce the Cuban government concerning the genocide committed against protesters may stem from long-standing misconceptions surrounding Cuba. We are used to demonizing North Korea, but many Americans and other nations around the world idealize Cuba as the island of cigars, old cars, and Ché Guevara. Very few suspect Cuba is more like North Korea on a tropical island. In Cuba, we might not have big bronze statues of the great leader, but we do hear about him on the radio and on the tv all day long. We have posters and billboards depicting Fidel Castro and his brother all over the country. His presence is inescapable. As a child, I had to learn songs about how great Fidel was.
Cuban exiles get really hurt when somebody from another country defends communism and especially Cuba’s communism. Only Cubans living under the status of regular citizens in Cuba can truly appreciate what life in Cuba is like. Not even foreigners that reside in Cuba are able to fully grasp life as a Cuban citizen because they enjoy more rights than average Cubans. For example, foreigners living in Cuba can own businesses, properties, and travel at their leisure. Therefore, it is traumatic for Cubans who lived under the regime to listen to people from other countries argue in favor of the “achievements” of Fidel’s revolution. If someone from Cuban origin gets offended when they see you wearing a Ché Guevara’s T-shirt, understand you are promoting an image that was used to oppress people in Cuba. It is believed that Ché himself was a victim of the regime. Regardless, Ché’s role in the construction of the communist dictatorship in Cuba is unquestionable and his image is as prominent as the image of Fidel around Cuba, which reminds Cubans of hardship and injustice.
The protests of July 11th did not result in Cuba’s freedom from the Castro regime (longest-standing military dictatorship in Latin America). These acts of rebellion only marked the beginning of a struggle, the beginning of the end for a crumbling tyranny. The fight will not be easy or fair as the people have no weapons other than rocks and sticks. Presently, the main hope would be for the military commanders to begin deserting the government in favor of the people. There is evidence that this has begun to occur. During the protests, people were killed, people were beaten, and there were massive arrests and kidnappings. The police went into people’s homes to drag them out on suspicion of participating in the uprisings. The fates of the people arrested are unknown. From this tragedy, a silver lining emerges: the dictatorship showed its true colors, and the world watched. Cuba can no longer pretend to be a great paradise society where people are happy. The Castro family created a power-thirsty regime that will cling to power by all means possible; it will kill its citizens if necessary.
Take-Home Message of my Rant:
Cuba needs Help. The people of Cuba need all the Help you can give it to shake off a dusty repressive regime.
You can Help by:
Talking to real Cubans about what it is like to live in Cuba, and by questioning the propaganda that the Cuban government sells the world about Cuba.
Leave Cuba out of your examples of socialist utopias.
If you will openly express opinions about that is wrong in Cuba, try to shift the focus away from the U.S. embargo and bring the focus to restoring democracy in Cuba.
Do not wear Ché Guevara t-shirts.
Educate yourself about the different kinds of political systems: Capitalism, Socialism, Democratic Socialism, and Communism. Try to get your education from unbiased sources; sources that will give you the information without favoring one side of the spectrum over the other.
Think with your own head and avoid fake news. Remember Facebook and YouTube are not good places to get educated about issues; they are good places to get radicalized in your way of thinking.
Finally: If you are moved by the situation in Cuba and would like to help out, keep up with the news about Cuba and contact your representatives to let them know you oppose the regime in Cuba. Tell them the U.S. should support the PEOPLE’s fight against the repressive government. The way to learn about the fight in Cuba on social media is to follow #soscuba and #patriayvida .
The videos bellow show how the Cuban police, the military, the special repressive forces: red berets and black berets, and members of the revolutionary police dressed as civilians repressed protesters in Cuba.
People missing after the protests of July 11th
https://www.facebook.com/groups/243016724042825/
This video contrasts the events that took place in Cuba during the protests and the way the Cuban government falsely portrayed the same events on the media. The official lie reported on the government-controlled media was the following: a few incidents of “vandals” and “delinquents” went out on the streets to cause trouble. In response, the revolutionary “citizens” decided (of their own volition) to repress the protester’s actions.
The real Cuba. 82 year old man lives in extreme poverty in Cuba because he has no family inside or outside of Cuba that can send him relief. The government does not take care of the elderly.
Young Cuban gives a tour of her home. Single mother and medal winner athlete cannot afford basic necessities.
Tourism in Cuba
Healthcare in Cuba. The following are youtube videos I have curated, I picked them because I think they are close to the truth I know and lived through.
The next videos were filmed illegally inside hospitals in Cuba. The videos are in Spanish. People would get in big trouble for filming inside hospitals, schools or stores in Cuba without official permits.
The video bellow shows a hospital in Cuba for tourists and government people only. Notice the difference. It is called International Clinic Siboney
The truth about Cuba.
Why Are Americans So Confused About The Meaning Of ‘Democratic Socialism’? Article.
Why Democratic Socialism Is Gaining Popularity In The United States
Cuba-Libre-Blog 