Diaz-Canel tries reforms: ‘These are times in which we must change’

Surveys, more or less independent, show that a large part of the population is demanding changes, especially economic ones, while wanting to preserve sovereignty and independence as a precious asset.

Jorge Piñon, the leading oil expert at the University of Texas, warns that Cuba has reached “zero hour” for its oil reserves. In the city of Holguin, the local power company confirmed the situation: no power left for the civilian sector. The result is three hours of electricity followed by 40 hours of blackouts. Efforts to maximize the use of the crude oil produced on the island – which is heavy and has a high sulfur content – have yielded some results, but they are insufficient to fuel the electricity generation system in a way that meets the country’s needs.

Given these prospects, resistance is becoming increasingly difficult for the population. A large part of it lives in dramatic conditions bordering on despair: no solution is in sight, while from the outside comes a mix of threats and promises of change – which are all, however, linked to the government’s surrender and, with it, to the abdication of any claim to national sovereignty.

For weeks now, both President Donald Trump and first and foremost his Secretary of State Marco Rubio have felt entitled to speak on behalf of the Cuban people. This is the novel element brought........

© Il Manifesto Global