Several Cubans who recently returned from the island shared their impressions upon arriving at Miami International Airport, in testimonies collected by journalist Javier Díaz in interviews conducted at the airport terminal. The exchange included three different individuals: a young man, a woman, and a man, whose opinions depict an atmosphere marked by poverty, stress, and fear amid the uncertainty experienced in Cuba.
The young man, who had visited both the Isle of Youth and Havana, described what he found during his stay: “a lot of poverty, so much, a lot of stress that people live with, everything looks sad, the streets are pitiful.”
For her part, a woman spoke about the atmosphere on the island amid the tensions between the United States and Cuba. "It's an alarming situation because we don't know what will happen; it's unpredictable. Everyone is scared, most people are scared," she explained. She reported that there is concern among her peers for their children and possible scenarios of violence: "They think there could be an invasion, and they fear for that and for people's lives."
When talking about what the country needs, the interviewee was clear: “There has to be a change, because we cannot continue living like this, this is not a quality of life, we are in hell just surviving.”
The young man also mentioned that during his visit, conversations with his family were filled with constant complaints: “nothing, everyone complaining about the situation, about everything, always complaining.” Regarding the blackouts, he specified: “in Havana, it lasted about four hours, three hours, but in Havana it was a little longer.”
The lack of fuel and its impact on transportation was mentioned by a man interviewed at the airport, who commented on the reduction of ferries to the Isle of Youth: “they don’t have fuel for the planes, and not for the cars either, I don’t know, just imagine.”
The same man described the general mood of the population: “people are anxious because they are going through this, they have little food, they have no electricity, they have no water...”
When asked if he perceived a desire for change among the population, the young man affirmed, "yes, they want change, they want a change." At the end of the conversation, when expressing what he desires for the future of the country, he summarized, "freedom, for them to be free, nothing more."
These testimonies align with other recent accounts from Cubans arriving in Miami, describing a rapid deterioration of living conditions on the island, as highlighted by recent reports about Cubans arriving from Cuba, in a context marked by prolonged blackouts, shortages of food and fuel, and an increasing sense of uncertainty.
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