Locals repaint a revolutionary mural in Havana. Photo by Carsten ten Brink/Flickr.

The following article is adapted from a presentation given by the author at the 2025 annual general meeting of the Manitoba-Cuba Solidarity Committee.

“The Special Period never ended.”

As I read news from Cuba today, I think about these words, spoken by one of our guides during the 2022 Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade. The “Special Period” began in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s largest trading partner, and it was worsened by the tightening of the US blockade through measures like the Helms-Burton Act. The effects of the Special Period were catastrophic for the country’s trade, infrastructure, energy system, and food production, with the average Cuban’s caloric intake falling by 30 percent according to some studies.

Now, as the Cuban Revolution enters its 66th year, the country is still in a difficult position, perhaps its most difficult since the overthrow of the Fulgencio Batista government in 1959. Many of the struggles of the Special Period remain, not to mention a massive migration crisis, hundreds of thousands of Cubans having left recently and more attempting to leave through various channels, some dangerous. Most have left to help support their families back home by sending foreign currency.

In the meantime, the second Trump administration looms over Latin America. During his first term, Trump snapped Obama’s olive branch and imposed 243 new sanctions on Cuba, limited remittances from families living abroad, and added Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list. These impositions, maintained under the Biden administration, have contributed to worsening shortages of food and fuel, a massive decrease in purchasing power, and........

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