The Ybor City Stogie

In 1989, the Soviet Union and its eastern bloc fell apart, literally overnight. The impact in Cuba was immediate and dramatic. Within six months, Cuba lost more than 70% of its international trade. Over the next five years, the island’s economy shrank by half. (In comparison, at the height of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933, the US economy shrank by 30%.) The “special period in times of peace” took a toll across the island. Food and fuel shortages, electrical blackouts, lack of medicines – every aspect of Cuban life was affected.

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Miami Interference

Allied with Miami’s Cuban-American mafia and its proliferating NGGOs (non-governmental ‘governmental’ organizations), social media is playing a new role largely unknown in the early 1990s. One particularly public group stands out. Cuba Decide (spelled the same in English and Spanish) is front and center. Their easily recognizable blue and white graphics were present at several demonstrations across the island on July 11. MORE