Cuba Protests Over Food, Energy Crisis, and the Economy

Written by Jose Aguilar | March 25, 2024

Cuban Protestors

Protests have taken place in at least four cities across different provinces. The protests are due to Cuba’s unprecedented inflation and prolonged energy outages. This year’s protests are similar to those in 2021. Multiple reasons explain the island’s economic crisis. The state-controlled economy in communist Cuba has failed to take the steps to prevent a crisis of this magnitude. Government officials have failed to diversify the economy by refusing to lose restrictions on the island. Reforms to the currency and removing price controls have led Cubans to be unable to afford groceries within the limited options they have on the island. This adds on top of warm temperatures that have strained the electric grid, which caused significant power outages. The power outages are likely to get worse during the summer.

Cubans have started to demand more from their government officials; this represents a shift from just blaming Washington for the current state of the island. The internet has become a valuable tool for spreading the news about protests; demonstrators have reported mass internet outages at these locations. This also happened in 2021 in an attempt to suppress demonstrations on the island. The Biden administration has also failed to fulfill its campaign promise to reverse the Trump-Era policies that worsened sanctions on the island. In the last couple of years, there has been a significant increase in migration from Cuba, which is reported to be 4% of its population. The Biden administration needs to lift sanctions and reverse the Trump-Era policies, the same way they did it with Venezuela. If not, this crisis is projected to worsen in the coming