Deprivation and depopulation: inside Cuba under US siege

Danny Shaw, a scholar of Latin American and Caribbean studies and longtime supporter of the Cuban revolution, documents harrowing conditions across Cuba following the Trump administration's imposition of a blockade on fuel to the island. A humanitarian crisis has been manufactured by Washington to unravel the last vestiges of Cuba's revolutionary structure.Traveling from Holguin to Banes to Santiago this February, Shaw finds a population increasingly deprived of nutrition, with dwindling transportation options as gas runs low, schools are shuttered, and surging inflation makes life unaffordable. The US embargo has hollowed out once-thriving areas, pushing young people to migrate. Shaw explains how concessions imposed on the Cuban government have created a new class of crypto-capitalists which forms an economic bridge to Miami, and a base for Trump's promised "takeover" of the country. After spending weeks among average Cuban people throughout the humanitarian crisis imposed by Washington, Shaw delivers an unflinching chronicle of their painful experience under siege. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe