US blockade of Cuba

[dudalb]

And some people have no problem with oppresive regimes if they are Left Wing.

 

[dudalb]

So


So in other words, no corroboration. What about the concert claim? Any evidence of that?

Have to agree with Vixen, you are reaching pretty far here. The fact that foreigners are providing solar panels in an energy crisis is hardly indicative of a larger energy transition and "communist rats who came to Cuba" isn't specific enough to conclude that it is in reference to the flotilla.

If that poster is indeed talking about it, he seems to be utterly confused about who his tormentors are considering its the US that is blockading the island and the foreign aid is coming from NGOs and mostly non-american countries. Beyond that, the fact that one rando makes an angry tweet is hardly indicative of a wider Cuban backlash against the foreign aid.

Your assertions seem to be cynicism masquerading as skepticism.

Your claim, your burden of proof. But in any event it really doesn't matter. The fact that you are trying to pin Cuba's problems on an aid flotilla just because it may be less than perfect while simultaneously ignoring the role of your own government in the suffering of millions on the island speaks volumes.

You may not be a trumper but you sure do go out of your way to sound exactly like one with your cruel indifference to the suffering of people who aren't ideologically aligned with you.

The diea that the failed ecnomy of the Castro regime might be a good part of the reason for Cuba's suffering seems to be something you want to ignore.
And tell me again, why is Marxism such a great, wonderful system?

If it were me, I'd be pinning the blame on Cuba's dictatorial regime, and calling out Code Pink as useful idiots for the regime.

Left wing regimes can do no wrong. Get with the program.

 

[Planigale]

The diea that the failed ecnomy of the Castro regime might be a good part of the reason for Cuba's suffering seems to be something you want to ignore.
And tell me again, why is Marxism such a great, wonderful system?


Left wing regimes can do no wrong. Get with the program.

All political systems have their failings, right wing policies aren't notably more successful than left wing.

Prior to the extreme sanctions on Cuba, the regime did have a successful health care system with outcomes better than the US on most objective measures and a highly regarded (other than by the US) overseas aid delivered by their medical teams. Their biosciences and vaccine industries were a success. (until they were crippled by sanctions).

No other country in the world thinks that the US sanctions on Cuba are reasonable or necessary.

 

[LiteBright]

The diea that the failed ecnomy of the Castro regime might be a good part of the reason for Cuba's suffering seems to be something you want to ignore.
And tell me again, why is Marxism such a great, wonderful system?


Left wing regimes can do no wrong. Get with the program.

Absolute lies. I never said anything even close. My posts earlier in this thread were questioning the veracity of Brainster's claim that a particular tweet was in protest to this particular aid flotilla. I never said word one in praise of Cuba's regime nor did I suggest in any way that they bear no responsibility for the living conditions on the island up until america decided to make them so much worse.

Lets be clear...Cuba's situation was already dire and the Castro regime bears a lot of responsibility for that but the trump admin's approach is barbaric and cruel and that, after all, is the subject of this thread. You're free to disagree with me but do not put words in my mouth.

I'm not sure why you have this obsession with trying to demonize people you disagree with but its very ugly. Criticizing the US is not the same as supporting dictators. Criticizing the prosecution of the war in Iran is not the same as supporting the ayatollahs. Grow up.

 

[Planigale]

Absolute lies. I never said anything even close. My posts earlier in this thread were questioning the veracity of Brainster's claim that a particular tweet was in protest to this particular aid flotilla. I never said word one in praise of Cuba's regime nor did I suggest in any way that they bear no responsibility for the living conditions on the island up until america decided to make them so much worse.

Lets be clear...Cuba's situation was already dire and the Castro regime bears a lot of responsibility for that but the trump admin's approach is barbaric and cruel and that, after all, is the subject of this thread. You're free to disagree with me but do not put words in my mouth.

I'm not sure why you have this obsession with trying to demonize people you disagree with but its very ugly. Criticizing the US is not the same as supporting dictators. Criticizing the prosecution of the war in Iran is not the same as supporting the ayatollahs. Grow up.

Just as reminder the US sanctions on Cuba impacting its economy started in 1960, they have been present for over sixty years and have been tightened recently. We have no idea how wealthy the population of Cuba might have been if US sanctions had never been in place, or if they had been dropped when they should have been; at the end of the USSR, in 1990, thirty six years ago.

 

[LiteBright]

Just as reminder the US sanctions on Cuba impacting its economy started in 1960, they have been present for over sixty years and have been tightened recently. We have no idea how wealthy the population of Cuba might have been if US sanctions had never been in place, or if they had been dropped when they should have been; at the end of the USSR, in 1990, thirty six years ago.

Agreed. That's why I said the Castro regime bears most of the responsibility. Not all.

If the US had historically treated Cuba with the same respect and deference (especially in the dump admin) it treats other countries with dictatorial regimes, its entirely possible that Cuba's trajectory would have been quite different.

Having said that, the Castro's were still dictators who, despite delivering some level of service to the populace, still ran a very oppressive regime that held back their country from progressing.

Much like gaza, this is a story with no good guys. Just innocents caught in the middle.

 

[dann]

I think the US should drop the blockade and all sanctions against Cuba. and one reason is that I want to take that excuse away from the Castroite regime for their miserable failure.

And yet you are grateful for the corrupt U.S. regime's blockade of Cuba whenever you can use its results to blame Cuba's government:

The diea that the failed ecnomy of the Castro regime might be a good part of the reason for Cuba's suffering seems to be something you want to ignore.

And then there is this:

And tell me again, why is Marxism such a great, wonderful system?

I have told you again and again with several specific examples what makes Cuba such a great, wonderful country – in spite of the U.S. blockade – but you always ignore those posts. There's a whole thread of examples where you and the prestige only popped up occasionally to post your repetitive as well as unfounded claims about Cuba being a "dictatorial regime."
There is also this thread.
You have also ignored all arguments against right-wing propaganda about Cuba. And those arguments have usually been accompanied by receipts – unlike yours. So much more reason for you to ignore them, I guess.

 

[dann]

Agreed. That's why I said the Castro regime bears most of the responsibility. Not all.
If the US had historically treated Cuba with the same respect and deference (especially in the dump admin) it treats other countries with dictatorial regimes, its entirely possible that Cuba's trajectory would have been quite different.
Having said that, the Castro's were still dictators who, despite delivering some level of service to the populace, still ran a very oppressive regime that held back their country from progressing.
Much like gaza, this is a story with no good guys. Just innocents caught in the middle.

Bold claims with no receipts whatsoever.
Name just one of those very many "other countries with dictatorial regimes" where the process of constitutional changes takes place like this: Constitution of Cuba: 2019 Constitution (Wikipedia)
I didn't see any of this, but I happened to be in Havana on the day when this referendum took place. No sign of policemen or soldiers anywhere near the places where people were casting their votes, but two school-age kids were guarding the ballot box, an old tradition in Cuba:

Children Guard the Ballot Boxes in Cuban Elections | Cubadebate (English)

en.cubadebate.cu

And an extremely suspicious one, according to anti-Castro propaganda:

Why are the ballot boxes in Cuba guarded by children and not by security forces? (Diario de Cuba, Dec 13, 2022)
'The clearest proof of the banality and theatricality of the Cuban electoral system.'The clearest proof of the banality and theatricality of the Cuban electoral system is the guarding of the ballot boxes. Instead of specialized security forces, the police, or the military, as in any other country, in Cuba it is children who look after them. Of course, they are only a symbolic ornament that aims to project a sense of innocence, tranquility, and the purity of Cuba's electoral process and political system. And this is an important part of the propaganda.

If only "specialized security forces, the police, or the military, as in any other country," had been assigned to do this job, I guess it would have been accepted as proof positive that Cuba is a true democracy – like "any other country," allegedly.

Anti-Cuban propaganda is so puerile that it ought to be obvious all people who use their brains to actually think, but most people don't.


ETA Need I mention that I have never ever seen "specialized security forces, the police, or the military, as in any other country" anywhere near a voting place in my own country? And yet, you guys fall for this kind of propaganda again and again.

 

[dann]

Back to the U.S. blockade of Cuba:

Inside Cuba’s Fuel Lines: Taxi Drivers Struggle Under U.S. Oil Blockade (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, July 28, 2026 - 3 min.)
Since January, the U.S. oil blockade has worsened the living conditions of the Cuban people.
Lines of taxis stretch for hours outside Cuba’s gas stations — when fuel is even available.
Even when it is, they struggle to find clients due to the lack of tourists.

I was going to Cuba with a group from the Danish-Cuban friendship organization in September, but the trip was cancelled because it's extremely complicated in the current circumstances. We would have had to check our luggage out and in again in transit in Madrid, and if anything didn't go according to plan, e.g. if we didn't manage to catch the plane from Madrid to Havana, we might have been stuck there trying to find (and pay) for another flight to Cuba or back to Copenhagen and the money paid for the first ticket lost.
Travel agencies are exasperated with the unpredictability of the current situation:
“I’m tired of advisors being the punching bag”: Cuba flight suspensions reignite calls for commission protection (paxnews, Feb 2, 2026)

 

[dann]

On the bright side ...

David Ramírez Álvarez on X, July 31, 2026
I[n] the midst of an aggravated fuel siege by the U.S. regime, the people of Cuba still find ways to entertain and teach our children.
The main threat we pose is the example we set.
#LetCubaLive

Left I on the News on X, July 31, 2026
There is literally no other explanation for why, eg, the US continues to characterize Cuba as a “threat to national security”, & why it tries to prevent Americans from traveling there. The “threat” is the threat of a successful socialist experiment serving as an example.

 

[Blue Mountain]

(snip)
... examples where you and the prestige only popped up occasionally to post your repetitive as well as unfounded claims about Cuba being a "dictatorial regime."

Cuba may not be downright dictatorial, but it's nowhere near free.

9/100 - Not Free Cuba’s one-party communist state outlaws political pluralism, bans independent media, suppresses dissent, and severely restricts basic civil liberties. The government continues to dominate the economy despite recent reforms that permit private-sector activity and foreign investment. The regime’s undemocratic character has not changed since a generational transition in political leadership that started in 2018 and included the introduction of a new constitution and the gradual passage of complementary new legislation.

Cuba: Freedom in the World 2026 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2026 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Cuba.

freedomhouse.org

For comparison, Freedom House has ratings for the following countries:

• Canada: 97/100
• Denmark: 97/100
• The Netherlands: 97/100
• United States: 81/100

 

[LiteBright]

Bold claims with no receipts whatsoever.
Name just one of those very many "other countries with dictatorial regimes" where the process of constitutional changes takes place like this: Constitution of Cuba: 2019 Constitution (Wikipedia)
I didn't see any of this, but I happened to be in Havana on the day when this referendum took place. No sign of policemen or soldiers anywhere near the places where people were casting their votes, but two school-age kids were guarding the ballot box, an old tradition in Cuba:


And an extremely suspicious one, according to anti-Castro propaganda:

If only "specialized security forces, the police, or the military, as in any other country," had been assigned to do this job, I guess it would have been accepted as proof positive that Cuba is a true democracy – like "any other country," allegedly.

Anti-Cuban propaganda is so puerile that it ought to be obvious all people who use their brains to actually think, but most people don't.


ETA Need I mention that I have never ever seen "specialized security forces, the police, or the military, as in any other country" anywhere near a voting place in my own country? And yet, you guys fall for this kind of propaganda again and again.

Wow you really read more into what I said than what was there.

I'm curious, how many times have you been to Cuba?

 

[LiteBright]

Cuba may not be downright dictatorial, but it's nowhere near free.

Cuba: Freedom in the World 2026 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2026 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Cuba.

freedomhouse.org

For comparison, Freedom House has ratings for the following countries:

• Canada: 97/100
• Denmark: 97/100
• The Netherlands: 97/100
• United States: 81/100

Exactly. While the Castro's were never the worst of the worst, let's not pretend Cuba is a free society or a democracy.

Credit where credit is due: they have at least provided a basic level of care for their populace and their achievements in, for example, healthcare are laudable considering the sanctions they have operated under for decades. But it is a dictatorship and the people live under fairly severe repression.

 

[dann]

Cuba may not be downright dictatorial, but it's nowhere near free.

Cuba: Freedom in the World 2026 Country Report | Freedom House

See the Freedom in the World 2026 score and learn about democracy and freedom in Cuba.

freedomhouse.org

For comparison, Freedom House has ratings for the following countries:

• Canada: 97/100
• Denmark: 97/100
• The Netherlands: 97/100
• United States: 81/100

Google AI:

Freedom House receives funding from a mix of U.S. government agencies, foreign governments, foundations, and corporate partners, including the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Department of State, and Open Society Foundations. [1, 2]

Wow you really read more into what I said than what was there.
I'm curious, how many times have you been to Cuba?

About 20, I think.

Exactly. While the Castro's were never the worst of the worst, let's not pretend Cuba is a free society or a democracy.
Credit where credit is due: they have at least provided a basic level of care for their populace and their achievements in, for example, healthcare are laudable considering the sanctions they have operated under for decades. But it is a dictatorship and the people live under fairly severe repression.

You're right, let's not pretend Cuba is a representative (!) democracy. I never did!

Representative democracy (Wikipedia)
The empirical research shows that representative systems tend to be biased towards the representation of more affluent classes to the detriment of the population at large.[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][excessive citations]
(...)
A drawback to this type of government is that elected officials are not required to fulfill promises made before their election and are able to promote theirown self-interests once elected, providing an incohesive system of governance.[48] Legislators are also under scrutiny as the system of majority-won legislators voting for issues for the large group of people fosters inequality among the marginalized.[49]
Proponents of direct democracy criticize representative democracy due to its inherent structure. As the fundamental basis of representative democracy is non inclusive system, in which representatives turn into an elite class that works behind closed doors, as well as the criticizing the elector system as being driven by a capitalistic and authoritarian system.[50][51]

But I assume that's not what you meant.

 

[Blue Mountain]

Google AI:

It's notable that you went straight to Google for that, even though it's a huge American advertising company that hates people, and you used its AI on top of that.

But your point stands: Freedom House is largely American controlled and might have an American bias. I recommend you look at its reports of other countries you're familiar with and see if you agree with its assessment. If you do, it stands to reason you should agree with its assessment of Cuba as well.

This is my claim, so I need to supply some evidence.

World Press Freedom Index (Reporters sans frontières, France) rates Netherlands at 88.9 out of 100, Denmark 88.4, Sweden 87.1, Canada 78.8, USA 62.6, and Cuba last on this list at 29.2, ranking near the bottom at 159 out of 180. [Wikipedia]

The Economist Democracy Index (The Economist, UK) rates Sweden 9.4 out of 10, Denmark 9.4, Canada 9.1, Netherlands 8.9, USA 7.7, and Cuba last on this list at 2.6, ranking near the bottom at 135 out of 167 countries. [Wikipedia]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (V-Dem Institute, Sweden): This one required a lot of work to locate, download, and analyze a bunch of data.

• V-Dem Institute, original ordinal scale (0–4 range) for three indicators:
  • CSO Freedom (v2csreprss) — higher = less repression
  • Multiparty Elections (v2elmulpar) — higher = more competition
  • Critical Media (v2mmmedia) — higher = more media pluralism
• Calculation:
  • Normalized each indicator by dividing by 4.0 (max value), converting to 0–1 scale
  • Averaged the three indicators equally for each country-year combination
  • Combined 2024 and 2025 into a single 2-year average (simple mean)
• All three indicators were aligned: higher scores = stronger civil liberties. No inversion was needed.

The results:

Rank	Country	2024 Score	2025 Score	2-Year Avg
1	Denmark	0.897	0.897	0.897
2	Sweden	0.886	0.886	0.886
3	Canada	0.868	0.867	0.868
4	Netherlands	0.842	0.840	0.841
5	USA	0.891	0.797	0.844
6	Cuba	0.126	0.126	0.126

Note that Cuba once again is at the bottom of this list, and by a very considerable margin.

My conclusion: Cuba is likely a very nice country for visiting tourists, but I wouldn't want to live there.

 

[dann]

It's notable that you went straight to Google for that, even though it's a huge American advertising company that hates people, and you used its AI on top of that.

Yes, I did! It's one of the things Google AI is good at: a very specific finding, and it comes with receipts. Did you bother to look at those receipts? This is from #2:

Funding:
Freedom House’s primary funding came through United States Agency for International Development (USAID) prior to its dissolving in 2025, and the U.S. Department of State. 7

You know, this USAID:

USAID Censorship and Disinformation Operations Aimed at the American People (HSGAC.senate.gov, Feb 13, 2025)
"under President Barack Obama’s administration, USAID was caught using an HIV program to foment rebellion in Cuba. (...) In 2014, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration “secretly dispatched young Latin Americans to Cuba using the cover of health and civic programs to provoke political change, a clandestine operation that put those foreigners in danger even after a U.S. contractor was hauled away to a Cuban jail."

I assume Marco Rubio would have deleted this if he had seen it before it was made public!

But your point stands: Freedom House is largely American controlled and might have an American bias. I recommend you look at its reports of other countries you're familiar with and see if you agree with its assessment. If you do, it stands to reason you should agree with its assessment of Cuba as well.

No, it doesn't stand to reason at all.

This is my claim, so I need to supply some evidence.

World Press Freedom Index (Reporters sans frontières, France) rates Netherlands at 88.9 out of 100, Denmark 88.4, Sweden 87.1, Canada 78.8, USA 62.6, and Cuba last on this list at 29.2, ranking near the bottom at 159 out of 180. [Wikipedia]

The Economist Democracy Index (The Economist, UK) rates Sweden 9.4 out of 10, Denmark 9.4, Canada 9.1, Netherlands 8.9, USA 7.7, and Cuba last on this list at 2.6, ranking near the bottom at 135 out of 167 countries. [Wikipedia]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (V-Dem Institute, Sweden): This one required a lot of work to locate, download, and analyze a bunch of data.

• V-Dem Institute, original ordinal scale (0–4 range) for three indicators:
  • CSO Freedom (v2csreprss) — higher = less repression
  • Multiparty Elections (v2elmulpar) — higher = more competition
  • Critical Media (v2mmmedia) — higher = more media pluralism
• Calculation:
  • Normalized each indicator by dividing by 4.0 (max value), converting to 0–1 scale
  • Averaged the three indicators equally for each country-year combination
  • Combined 2024 and 2025 into a single 2-year average (simple mean)
• All three indicators were aligned: higher scores = stronger civil liberties. No inversion was needed.

The results:

Rank	Country	2024 Score	2025 Score	2-Year Avg
1	Denmark	0.897	0.897	0.897
2	Sweden	0.886	0.886	0.886
3	Canada	0.868	0.867	0.868
4	Netherlands	0.842	0.840	0.841
5	USA	0.891	0.797	0.844
6	Cuba	0.126	0.126	0.126

Note that Cuba once again is at the bottom of this list, and by a very considerable margin.
My conclusion: Cuba is likely a very nice country for visiting tourists, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Nobody is asking you to live there, and I doubt they'd let you if you wanted to.
You seem to have been particularly taken in by V-Dem, so I'll focus on them.
At first, I was actually impressed by them, i.e. even taking something like this into account:
Pandemic Backsliding: Democracy During COVID-19 (March 2020 to June 2021)
I happened to be following the pandemic measures of both Cuba and Sweden as closely as I possibly could from March 2020 to June 2021 and beyond, and the ways they tackled the virus were very different.
And so were the outcomes – both until June 2021 and after that –>:
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people, Jan 4, 2020 to Jun 29, 2021
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people, July 3, 2021 to Dec 29, 2022

And yet, when I look at the Pandemic Violations of Democratic Standards Index, I get this:
: dark brown = "Major Violations (0.35-1.00)"
: light brown = "Moderate Violation (0.20-0.30)"

Now, unlike in the case of Sweden, I didn't have access to the daily press briefings in Cuba, so I can't claim to know if the Cuban government ever lied about the pandemic, but I do know that I never saw any pandemic lies from Cuban authorities in what I did have access to: I translated articles about this. And in the case of Sweden I watched the country's state epidemiologist telling abject lies on tv from day one. With very few exceptions, politicians and the media were in on it, also from day one, which is why a German reporter was the only one to ask the tough questions and sow doubt about the lies at those press briefings.
Politicians, the media and health authorities were more or less gleichgeschaltet (there's no good word for this in English) and the opposition spreading pandemic truths were treated as traitors – much like how Fauci is treated nowadays in the USA but not quite as draconian.

- - - - -

Now, I know that this does not seem to be important to you. After all, lying is not only allowed but even encouraged in representative democracies, which doesn't seem to bother any of the 'democracy-watch' officials. Representatives can go back on any and all of their promises once elected. Otherwise Denmark wouldn't be ranked as #1 in the list above.
What counts is the freedom of the representatives to only care about their constituents' willingness to elect them, so that is usually as far as their concern for them goes: coming up with good excuses for why they didn't do what they promised to do.

So Cuba commmits the one crime that counts more than any other, i.e. having an electoral system that doesn't enable the purchase of parties and politicians by oligarchs: "Multiparty Elections (v2elmulpar) — higher = more competition"
Freedom for Musk to buy politicians, parties and elections Is the definition of democracy is defined nowadays.
In Cuba, it isn't.

This is your democracy, not Cuba's:

Edmund Burke stated that the duty of a representative is not necessarily to simply follow the wishes of the electorate but also to use their own judgment in the exercise of their powers, even if their views are not reflective of the voters. (...) The empirical research shows that representative systems tend to be biased towards the representation of more affluent classes to the detriment of the population at large.[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] (...) Robert Michels argues that most representative systems deteriorate towards an oligarchy or particracy. This is known as the iron law of oligarchy. (...) A drawback to this type of government is that elected officials are not required to fulfill promises made before their election and are able to promote their own self-interests once elected, providing an incohesive system of governance.[48]

"most representative systems deteriorate towards an oligarchy or particracy." No, that's impossible! Isn't it supposed to be what protects us from oligarchies?

List of V-Dem funders
Interesting to see USAID again as well as PADF, which is funded by USAID and the Department of State.
There is also the International Republican Institute funded by, again, USAID and the Department of State.

I'll stop now! I don't want to go through the whole list. The Kellogg Institute? Volkswagen Stiftung?
I have not idea who funds them or who funds the funds that funds them.
Which ones have spoken out against the oligarchization of the USA? (I actually think at least some of them might!)
Enquiring minds want to know!

 

[Blue Mountain]

Responding to dann:

Certainly Cuba had an excellent response to the pandemic compared to much of the world, which can be attributed to three things:

1. Their authoritarian government could impose tighter restrictions on tourism, travel, and the general public, all of which would contribute to a better outcome. Also, Cuba is an island, which makes for much easier border control.
2. Their authoritarian government could also lowball the numbers by ignoring some deaths.
3. They have an excellent health care system, which certainly helped.

Your criticism of democracy have a good foundation. However, as a European you too live in a democracy and enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of the press—all three of which currently repressed in Cuba. Would you be willing to live under such a regime? If yes, it is because you would agree with the government and prefer the dissidents be kept in their place?

As for your criticisms of the various indices, I won't try to delve much deeper into them or their funding. Usually the people who put them together value civil liberties and prefer not to live in countries where the secret police can drag you off to prison and kill you, like Soviet Russia, Iran, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Argentina from 1974 to 1983. Cuba more than likely isn't that bad, but these indices give Cuba poor marks on their civil liberties due to its government.

Cuba's effective government comes at a cost: the people have to stay quiet. Maybe that doesn't bother you, but I find it uncomfortable.

 

[dann]

Responding to dann:
Certainly Cuba had an excellent response to the pandemic compared to much of the world, which can be attributed to three things:

1. Their authoritarian government could impose tighter restrictions on tourism, travel, and the general public, all of which would contribute to a better outcome. Also, Cuba is an island, which makes for much easier border control.
2. Their authoritarian government could also lowball the numbers by ignoring some deaths.
3. They have an excellent health care system, which certainly helped.

You know absolutely nothing about Cuba, and you know absolutely nothing about Cuba's response to the pandemic. If you did, you'd have known that the Cuban economy was hit harder by the pandemic than most countries because it depends as much on tourism as it does. If Cuba had actually imposed "tighter restrictions on tourism," i.e. something like what New Zealand (another island!) did, it wouldn't have been hit as hard as it was by the Delta variant, which hit Cuba so much harder thanks to the U.S. blockade: no vaccines yet because Cuba didn't have access to some of the raw materials needed or even to enough syringes. (I donated to efforts to get hold of the necessary syringes for Cuba at the time.)
A whole ISF thread about this appeared at the time – starting with a wrong premise in the OP:
Protests Erupt in Cuba (July 17, 2021)
If you have any interest at all in Cuba's pandemic response – and not least its vaccination campaign – that would be a good place to start, but as it is, you post claims with no receipts. #2 is particularly stupid.
This graph shows three things: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people
1) What it looked like with Delta when pandemic restrictions were no longer enough to hold the virus at bay without vaccines.
2) The number of Cubans killed by Delta because of the U.S. blockade.
3) What vaccinations were able to accomplish in a country where people trusted their government's (or should we call it 'regime's' again?) health-care system enough to ward off anti-vaxxer lies.
And as an aside: Does the graph really make it seem as if "their authoritarian regime" lowballed "the numbers by ignoring some deaths"?
You are making up stories based on nothing but ignorance and prejudice!
And I think you are probably aware of that, which should be enough for you to change course.

Your criticism of democracy have a good foundation. However, as a European you too live in a democracy and enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of the press—all three of which currently repressed in Cuba. Would you be willing to live under such a regime? If yes, it is because you would agree with the government and prefer the dissidents be kept in their place?

Cubans speak, Cubans associate and Cubans not only have access to a press that isn't full of lies but also to informal distribution of information of any and all kinds – not least thanks to USB memory. (I have donated at least 50 USB memory sticks to friends and government institutions and even about 10 new laptops. ETA: I forgot about the 20 used and outdated for school use in Denmark but fully functional laptops.)
Let me see your receipts for the claim about "all three of which currently repressed in Cuba."
Cubans tend to be much better informed than people in the rest of the world and know much more about an insignificant nation like my own than Danes know about Cuba, which is mostly lies. Think of Cuban media as something akin to NPR and PBS. For lies like the ones from Fox News and Newmax, you'll have to resort to USB. (However, I have occasionally seen lies on NPR or PBS. Cuban media sticks to the facts.)

An anectote I have told before:
Back in the early 2000s, I met Cubans, who knew about Denmark's participation on the side of the USA in the Coalition of the willing, but one thing they didn't understand and wanted me to explain to them was: "Why did you vote for that?"
I told them that we didn't! That Danes were never asked! I assume they had heard Danish tourists praise Danish democracy (the same way you do!), and it didn't make sense to them that a big decision like going to war in Iraq would have been made without consulting the people!
As it was, the war was justified in Denmark with the same lie as in the UK and the USA: the imaginary WMDs.
That's representative democracy for ya, but you prefer not to acknowledge that.

As for your criticisms of the various indices, I won't try to delve much deeper into them or their funding. Usually the people who put them together value civil liberties and prefer not to live in countries where the secret police can drag you off to prison and kill you, like Soviet Russia, Iran, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Argentina from 1974 to 1983. Cuba more than likely isn't that bad, but these indices give Cuba poor marks on their civil liberties due to its government.

No, Cuba more than likely, i.e. actually, isn't like that. And you choose to believe those indices and marks even when I show you who pays for them, which you obviously didn't know when you fell for them.

Cuba's effective government comes at a cost: the people have to stay quiet. Maybe that doesn't bother you, but I find it uncomfortable.

No, Cubans don't have to stay quiet, and they actually don't stay quiet. Unlike in representative democracies, Cubans, all Cubans, are actually involved in making decisions unless they decide not to.
You are willing to believe any lie told about Cuba's participatory democracy without any actual knowledge about it. That's the kind of attitude I find unsettling – especially in skeptics.

I always wonder about that attitude – yours as well as steenkh's: I know about the kind of propaganda you're been exposed to and the kind of lies about Cuba you've been told by the media and politicians. Me too!!! But you also know that Cuba in so many ways differs from what authoritarian regimes (you're always so fond of that word without really knowing what it means). Why do you think that is? Why is Cuba so good at educating people? Why is Cuba so good at keeping people healthy – without the exorbitant wealth that is usually required to do so? Why is Cuba so much better at providing the LGBTQ+ community with the same rights as everybody else? Which other 'regime' would do so? And why do the examples of Cuba's alleged brutality against its own population usually dissolve into nothing when you take the time to take a closer look at them?
When I have the time, I like to dive into those examples. You should do so, too! Here is a fairly recent example that you have access to thanks to ISF and me: post 171.
Most people never get a glimpse outside of the (dis)information bubble:
Teenager arrested for protesting. Sick in jail without his medicine!
You do if you are willling to take it in: post 14.
Don't fall for that crap!
And why are people in Western countries generally so ignorant of what the USA has been doing to Cubans for the past 60 years? – going on 70 – and I'm not just talking about the blockade!

 

[dann]

US sends more intel assets to Cuba (Politica, Aug 4, 2026)
The first person described the upped intelligence presence as a key tactical step that could pave the way for a U.S. military incursion.
(...)
The first person said “Iran doesn’t need to be solved before we go there.” They added that Cuba is a “huge priority of Rubio’s,” referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
(...)
In a late July email to staffers obtained by POLITICO, a senior State Department official accused Cuba of “exporting the anti-colonial, Third Worldist resentment now taking root within our own institutions.”

If anybody doubted that the Trump administration has gone full pro-colonial ...

 

[Blue Mountain]

You know absolutely nothing about Cuba, and you know absolutely nothing about Cuba's response to the pandemic.

I certainly know a lot less than you do, given your long association with the country and first hand knowledge from many visits. You're filling in a lot of gaps.

The conversation regarding various indices isn't productive, so I won't bother you with them any further.

One thing I find interesting is your contention Cuban media is essentially honest. What metrics are you using to determine that?

Judging almost any news outlet by the standards of Fox News and Newsmax is preposterous, and I doubt Cuban media is at the level of Putin's Russia or the former Soviet Union. PBS, CBC, BBC (to a degree; I understand they have their moments) and Al-Jazeera are much better sources of information than the first two.

Regarding your donation of used laptops and USBs, what was their purpose? If it was for the reason "lies like the ones from Fox News and Newmax, you'll have to resort to USB," that's a very curious turn of phrase. It doesn't seem to fit with your earlier comment that they're a way to move information of all kinds.