The Echoes of July 11: A Call for Change in Cuba

On July 11, 2021, I wasn't physically present in Cuba. By that year, I had been away from the beautiful island of my birth for twenty-six years. Yet, on that day, my heart was in Havana, the charming city of my upbringing. While my body was elsewhere, my spirit stood alongside thousands of courageous Cubans who, weary of relentless oppression, took to the streets demanding the freedom stolen from our parents and grandparents on January 1, 1959, by a band of tyrants.

By then, the hope that once sprang from the United States' capitulation to the Cuban dictatorship, spurred by Barack Hussein Obama six years earlier, had dissipated. The regime, rather than seizing an opportunity for change, entrenched itself deeper into its ruinous totalitarianism. On that July day, the island's residents continued to suffer the consequences of the regime's disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The populace endured shortages of basic necessities such as food, medicine, and essential services, while the dictatorial elite spouted hollow promises amidst their own opulence. The harsh reality starkly contrasted with the wealth of those in Gaesa.

Thousands of Cubans boldly took to the streets on July 11, 2021, challenging the oppressive regime for hours. It was a momentous occasion for all who dream of a free and prosperous Cuba. For those brave souls who, for the first time, seized their own destinies, those hours were undoubtedly glorious. It was not the people who failed; it was us, failing to exert more pressure on foreign governments to act against the repressive assassins who faced nothing more than the basic demand for freedom, a norm in any democratic society, and even in many authoritarian regimes.

We faltered in 2021 and continue to do so in 2026. Despite an executive order from late January, we have not succeeded in compelling the Trump Administration to take decisive action against a dictatorship whose military defenses are laughable, but whose media and diplomatic skills remain formidable.

The suppression of the July 11, 2021 protests serves as a vital lesson for all Cubans, both those trapped on the island and those living freely abroad. The Cuban dictatorship has consistently demonstrated its survival instincts throughout its grim history, even now, after being declared an "unusual threat to the national security of the United States" on January 29. This threat is anything but unusual, as the totalitarian regime has been a global menace since its inception.

On that fateful July 11, 2021, the courageous were met with brutal suppression across the island. For a brief moment, the fear shifted to the inept dictators, but decades of experience in repression and murder could not be overcome by mere thousands of brave souls taking to the streets. "The combat order is given," declared the fearful "handpicked" figurehead, as his cronies unleashed the worst of our beautiful island. It is inhuman to suppress youths, women, the elderly, and teenagers simply for demanding freedom.

The regime's repression knew no bounds, aware that their violent injustice would bring no more repercussions than a dirty medal or diploma from their masters. They oppressed without limit, knowing that contempt and condemnation from within and outside Cuba would hold no consequence for their crimes. It was yet another crime in their long history of impunity.

These atrocities are merely snapshots of sixty-seven years of such acts, both in Cuba and abroad. The Cuban dictatorship has not only destroyed a once-prosperous and self-sufficient nation but has also twisted the trunk of the Cuban Nation, expelled millions of its finest children, murdered thousands of its bravest offspring, and imprisoned tens of thousands who refused to conform to its horrific ideology and actions. It continues this destruction today, nearly six months after its governance was declared a "unusual threat."

While the regime continues to misgovern what remains of Cuba, it still controls much of the narrative in global politics and media. Despite our daily efforts, we, the free, are being outmaneuvered. We must be prepared to support the brave individuals who will, inevitably, reclaim the streets that were so brutally stripped from them in July 2021.

By July 2021, Cuba had already become an unproductive wasteland, with widespread blackouts suffocating the island's captives, and shortages of food, medicine, and basic services were rampant. Many believed that this failed state couldn't sink any lower. On this July 11, 2026, we are somber witnesses to the fact that this failed state descends ever lower, both in its immorality and its imposition of misery on the oppressed. It has fallen so far that it has effectively removed Cubans from what we consider civilized life.

Five years have passed since those brave individuals seized the streets for a few hours. In the years that followed, instead of even a slight improvement, their lives have spiraled into a continuous descent into misery and disgrace. Each day that the regime of incompetent rulers survives means months added to the time needed to rebuild our island. Each day they remain in power, sitting on their cushioned white thrones, means another day of blackouts, hunger, suffering, and death for millions of unfortunate souls.

Five years later, the misery has deepened, and we all know, both those there and those here, that under this dictatorship, there is no possible solution to the catastrophe caused by obtuse communist totalitarianism. There is none. Inevitably, weary of relentless humiliation and desperate in their misery, the moment must come when those who once feared will have no choice but to join the valiant souls who never did. More and more are taking to the streets each day, their pots empty of food but filled with dignity.

Weeks ago, they emerged only at night, isolated. Now, they protest both day and night, less isolated with each passing day. The regime's repression is not only physical but also logistical. Blackouts prevent them from charging their mobile phones or accessing wireless connections. These blackouts serve the regime by cutting off communication, and when protests escalate, the service is completely severed. This tactic was employed on July 11, 2021, and it will be used again when the brave rise once more to recreate, and surpass, the epic of that memorable day.

Cubans will return to the streets, for they have no other choice unless they resign themselves to living in the Stone Age under constant oppression. When they rise, we must be ready. We must ensure our denunciations echo in the halls of world governments, both those aligned with freedom and those complicit with evil. We must expose not only the physical repression but also the criminal silencing, appealing not just to governments, which are often slow to react, but also to media outlets, civil society organizations, and social media influencers.

We must ensure that the spark, violently extinguished five years ago on July 11, is not deprived of fuel this time. We must ensure that those brave souls are not left to face the anticipated onslaught of repressive and murderous hordes alone. We must make it clear to those oppressors and murderers that times have changed, and this time, their abuses and injustices will indeed have consequences, that their impunity has ended.

We must stand with them when they rise, for they will. They will, unless those on this side also abandon us, those who promised solutions yet seek to negotiate with the very regime that prompted the protests on July 11, 2021. Those who wish to negotiate with the same people who ordered and carried out the oppression of brave souls demanding only freedom.

They will rise again, and we must stand with them, with the Cubans on the island, at that decisive hour. At that moment when they will strive to breathe life into a homeland where death was imposed. We must assure the island's brave souls and those who seem hesitant on our side that the Cubans are not alone. Their fight to reclaim their human dignity and material well-being, their struggle for freedom, prosperity, and the pursuit of happiness, is ours as well. They are not alone.