As someone born outside the island, I hope to one day see a Cuba where its citizens can thrive and no longer feel the need to leave.
By Victor Vigas Alvarez* (The Globe and Mail)
HAVANA TIMES – Canadians have long enjoyed vacations on Cuba’s pristine beaches and at its all-inclusive resorts. And why not? The country has warm weather that’s not far away, at an affordable cost. That’s why Canada is consistently the top source country for tourism to Cuba.
Things have gotten much more complicated. In January, the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela – which has supported Cuba for more than two decades – and effectively implemented an oil blockade on Cuba. As a result, many Canadians have been shocked to see their tropical winter escapes filled with turmoil, cut short or cancelled altogether as resorts and airlines grapple with shortages of jet fuel and oil for generating electricity. Donald Trump’s continued comments about Cuba – including musing about a “friendly takeover” after launching a war with Iran – create a feeling of risk, too.
But Cubans in the diaspora would have suggested avoiding the island well before airlines and Ottawa chimed in. Those who have lived under the repressive Communist Party regime – including my parents, who defected in 2001, before I was born – have long avoided Cuba unless absolutely necessary. They’ve known about the blackouts, the rampant dengue and chikungunya viruses, and the lack of basic necessities on the island for its people. For us, Cuba is not a place for fun or beachside relaxation: It is a symbol of decay and misery at the hands of one-party rule after Fidel Castro’s rebels overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
While a revolt against foreign domination made sense in the 1950s, the decades that followed have been marked by social decline, marginalization on the world stage and mass exodus. Where other hardline communist states have selectively liberalized or pivoted to meet global markets, Cuba has doubled down on its authoritarian market and governance systems.
Over the past 67 years, the Cuban regime has also engaged in swaths of human and civil rights abuses. After nationwide protests in 2021, more than 1,500 Cubans, including journalists and minors, were taken as political prisoners; hundreds remain in jail. Since then, between 1 and 2 million Cubans have fled – a record-breaking number that could comprise as much as 18 per cent of the population.
Yet this is the same country that hundreds of thousands of Canadians choose to vacation in every year.
Make no mistake, Canadian tips and supplies are always welcome for resort workers. Many tourists bring extra items, such as medicine, hygienic products and food, to leave behind. But as Cuban-Canadian activist Kirenia Carbonell told me after Cuba’s power grid collapsed in 2024, “Freedom does not fit in a suitcase.”
Canadian public discourse tends to spotlight abuses and repression among Cuba’s allies, like Iran, North Korea and Russia. Yet Cuba itself, which is right under our noses, is rarely mentioned. This perceptual difference of Cuba is the reason why many Canadians today are feeling so shocked that their Cuban getaways are being interrupted.
To say that tourism is a crucial industry for Cuba is an understatement. At its pre-pandemic peak, it represented 10 per cent of Cuba’s GDP, and more than half a million jobs relied on the sector. But most resorts in Cuba are owned and operated by GAESA, a Cuban military-controlled corporation that administers large sections of Cuba’s small and mostly unproductive economy. As such, tourism dollars, which Canadians contribute the most to, enrich Cuba’s old guard.
If Mr. Trump’s oil blockade proves to be the tipping point for the Cuban regime, Canadians should know that many Cubans will be in support. This may surprise outsiders, just as when the reeling world watched as many Venezuelans worldwide celebrated Mr. Maduro’s capture, and many Iranians, the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
This is not to cheer or encourage more of the U.S.’s destructive history of intervention in Latin America, nor the misery that it is now causing through its policies. It would be to celebrate a sliver of hope, because any change is better than the past few decades of decay and inertia. The source of change, to many of us, matters less than the change itself; it would be welcome if it came from Mars.
Above anything else, the Cuban people need freedom and self-determination.
Cuba’s beaches, rum, people and food (and I’m not talking resort buffets, but real ropa vieja con arroz, frijoles and platanos maduros fritos) are things that I wish everyone could get to know. But at what cost? As someone born outside the island, I hope to one day see a Cuba where its citizens can thrive and no longer feel the need to leave. That may require a Canada that no longer feels it’s wise to travel to Cuba.
*Victor Vigas Alvarez is a Cuban-Canadian journalist and writer based in Prague.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.