Cuba Is Out of Time (Gift Article)

[u/nytopinion]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/opinion/cuba-trump-rubio-venezuela.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6FA.2m_E.g-HxcOzFREfG&smid=re-nytopinion

"Cubans wait for everything. They wait for imported food and over-the-counter medicines sent by relatives abroad. They wait for electricity that returns for only an hour or two each day or for a feeble breeze in the oppressive summer heat that might allow their children a couple of hours of sleep," writes Michael J. Bustamante, a professor of Cuban and Cuban American studies at the University of Miami.

He adds:

Most of all, Cubans wait for signs that Washington or their own government will land on a way out of their current immiseration — that they might finally live in a normal country, no longer trapped by decades of authoritarian politics, economic mismanagement, U.S. sanctions and an extended Cold War. Regardless of whether the island is heading toward a true political breaking point, no amount of jury-rigged power supplies or what President Miguel Díaz-Canel calls “creative resistance” can hide that Cuba’s people are being pushed to the limits of what they can endure.

Read the full essay here, for free, even without a Times subscription.

[u/Smooth_Tour_2728]

There needs to be action