Balanced political analyses of the Cuban present are rare. Many of them are external to Cuba itself and embody narratives that present the Cuban regime either as a corrupted cruel dictatorship or as the persistent and flawless embodiment of the 1959 Revolution. Meanwhile, a large majority of Cuban people lack access to basic food and resources. This text by Lisbeth Moya González articulates a sharp critique of the Cuban state while also centering the massive economic impact of the US embargo, as well as the society-wide achievements of the Revolution.
A specter haunts Cuba, and it is not that of communism, but of polarization. For many, the island remains either “the Dictatorship” or “the Revolution.” Among the government’s critics are those who deny the impact of the United States’ economic embargo, or even the triumph of the revolution in 1959, in particular the many Cubans who then fled to the United States and remain a strong lobby against the Cuban Revolution. On the other end of the spectrum, some leftist sectors justify the Cuban state’s actions under the argument of an imperialist siege, labeling as “mercenaries” those who, from an anti-imperialist leftist perspective, denounce the authoritarian turn of the Cuban state and call for democratic socialism.
The debate over whether the Cuban Revolution died or was never truly a revolution has been constant in Cuban intellectual circles since 1959, though it remains entrenched in extremes. Recently, El Toque published an article titled “Did the Cuban Revolution Die? Signs of the End of a Myth” (November 27, 2024), which questions what constitutes a revolution and when Cuba ceased to be part of a revolutionary process.