The artist and former political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara asserted that the perception of Cubans regarding the causes of the national crisis has changed, and that the majority directly blames the regime for the economic and social situation in the country, rather than attributing it to the sanctions from the United States.
In an interview granted to Fox News, the co-founder of the San Isidro Movement was asked about the feelings of the population within the Island regarding the pressure exerted by the U.S. administration on the Cuban regime. In his response, he stated that citizens increasingly identify the government as the main responsible party for the deterioration of their living conditions.
The Cuban today blames the dictatorship for the problems in Cuba; they do not blame the sanctions; the Cuban today knows that the total blame for human misery, repression, and everything that happens in Cuba lies with the dictatorship, he stated.
According to Otero Alcántara, this change in perception has become more pronounced following the protests on July 11, 2021, and the subsequent wave of repression, which left hundreds of demonstrators imprisoned. The artist stated that currently more than a thousand political prisoners remain in jail and emphasized that many of them were not known opponents before the protests.
"Today, there are over a thousand political prisoners (...). Twenty years ago, a politician or an activist would go to prison; today, those who are imprisoned are children, young people (...) who took to the streets to demand their right to live in a dignified country," he noted.
Otero Alcántara's statements align with the results of the Survey on Cuba, a consultation initiated in April by a coalition of over 20 independent media outlets —including CiberCuba— that gathered more than 41,000 responses from Cubans both on and off the Island.
One of the sections dedicated to international politics showed that a majority of participants supported maintaining or even increasing pressure measures on the regime, including sanctions aimed at officials and greater diplomatic pressure, while only a small minority believed that the crisis should be resolved without any external pressure.
The perception reflected in that survey aligns with other recent studies. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) stated in November 2025 that only 3% of Cubans attributed their problems to the U.S. embargo, in contrast to a widespread disapproval of the government's economic and social management.
Both this research and the Survey on Cuba point to a similar trend: an increasing number of citizens identify the regime's policies, rather than international sanctions, as the main cause of the economic deterioration, shortages, and the collapse of basic services that the country is experiencing.
During the same interview, Otero Alcántara stated that this change is also reflected in the expectations of Cubans regarding the immediate future of the Island.
«The Cuban is waiting for the dictatorship to fall at any moment, for intervention, for foreign powers to help us», he stated while describing the atmosphere he perceived before leaving Cuba. In his opinion, social frustration has led a significant portion of the population to expect an outcome that will put an end to the current political and economic situation.
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