No water or electricity, and children begging in streets filled with rubbish but this is why I won't leave Cuba

"Felix Valdes Garcia was nine years old when the revolutionaries came to blow up his trees. It was the verge of the 1970s and his father, Felin, was losing the family farm to Cuba's 10-year-old communist regime. A push called the Revolutionary Offensive was under way, mobilising the people to sow, clean and harvest 10m tonnes of sugar cane in an effort to make Cuba financially independent. The land needed to be cleared."

"The sappers arrived, Felix writes in his family memoir. A gang of agile men who opened holes in the roots and placed charges of dynamite. There was a terrible roar and the trees flew into the sky, defying gravity, then fell shuddering with broken branches. Felix is my father-in-law, and I recall this moment when I think about Cuba's revolution, which is often as the country spirals into tragedy around me."

"A vast human experiment is coming to an end. Fidel and Raul Castro's communist revolution is crumbling, to be replaced by we know not what. The US government, after six decades of aggression, is seeking the endgame. The Trump administration, newly energised from decapitating Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution, is looking for assets within the Cuban government, and briefing of warships enforcing a total oil blockade. Make a deal before it's too late, President Donald Trump told Cuba's leaders."

A Revolutionary Offensive forced rural families to clear farmland and destroy longstanding trees to meet sugar production quotas. Dynamited trees and lost family farms exemplify aggressive agrarian policies. The Castro-led communist project now appears to be unraveling amid internal failures and external pressure. The United States is intensifying efforts to exploit weaknesses, including threats of an oil blockade and demands for deals. The economy contracted sharply—11% between 2019 and 2024 and another estimated 5% decline through September 2025—leaving streets strewn with rubbish and growing numbers of beggars. Tourism's "See it before it changes" no longer applies.

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