The Cuban historian Aries Cañellas stated that the current situation in Cuba is "much worse" than it was at the end of the War of Independence in 1898, a comparison he makes in an interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba regarding the historical manipulation by the Castro regime.
"Now we can't even say that there has been a war, and we have the same unsanitary conditions, the same poor state of the roads, the same problems with education," Cañellas emphasized, highlighting that the current crisis lacks even the justification that would come from a military conflict.
The element that worsens the comparison is the destruction of the infrastructure. According to the historian, in 1898 there was a material base that could be reactivated in just four years: “The infrastructure that was operational in '98 was already destroyed. In other words, it’s worse now; it’s currently worse than in '98.”
To illustrate the decline, Cañellas cited the economist Elías Amor, who warned that sugar production in Cuba has fallen back to levels seen in 1898. The 2022-2023 harvest produced only 350,000 tons, the worst yield since that year, and the 2024-2025 harvest dropped below 150,000 tons, marking the worst result in over a century according to the EFE agency.
The historian also points to the absence of an economic class capable of leading the reconstruction as the factor that makes the current situation structurally more severe. "If in 1898, in four years, the country became functional and by 1902 it was already operational, it was primarily because there was an economic class that had money, that had assets, that had investments, and that was willing to invest in the country," he explained.
It was precisely that wealthy class that negotiated the Treaty of Commercial Reciprocity with the United States even before the signing of the Platt Amendment, in order to revive the island's commercial infrastructure. "Now we can't do that, Tania. Now we don't even have that," Cañellas lamented.
The historian acknowledges that the Cuban diaspora in Miami and around the world could play a similar role, but warns that reconstruction will not be immediate: "The Miami diaspora of Cubans out there can do it, but it won't be tomorrow. It won't be the day after, because first the incoming government needs to create the law."
Cañellas emphasizes that there is currently no legal framework that allows for this process, and that a transitional government will need to build it from scratch before the investment from the diaspora can materialize.
At the same time, the historian denounces how the regime systematically manipulated history to maintain its hold on power. "The most shocking thing is how they have tailored national history to their interests in order to remain in power and how they have entirely subverted the entire national history in accordance with their interests," he stated.
One of the most revealing mechanisms was the recodification of political language. According to Cañellas, the regime started from a premise: the Revolution of January 1, 1959, was "the greatest aspiration of all Cubans," and therefore any opponent was automatically excluded from cubanity and labeled as a "worm" or "stateless."
That logic allowed the very men of the July 26 Movement and the Revolutionary Directorate who were called "revolutionaries" before the victory to be labeled "bandits and mercenaries" just two months later: "Guerrilla fighters became bandits," summarized the historian.
The manipulation also operated visually: Cuban textbooks post-1959 lacked images from the previous republican period, obscuring the prosperity of Havana and presenting only depictions of misery to justify the regime's narrative. "It was neither the Republic that communism described nor the Republic where everyone was a millionaire. The Republic had its lights and shadows," concluded Cañellas.
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