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The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

Is the revolution in Cuba over?

·24 min·1 clip
Third of Cubans left
Cuba is already under strain. The host starts with the island's closeness to Florida, then the long effort to stand apart from its more powerful neighbour. The economy then starts to squeeze. Tourism, once part of daily life in many towns and a useful piece of family income, collapses when international arrivals fall sharply in 2020. The bounce back does not arrive. There is some growth in 2022 and 2023, but the witness says the numbers drop again in 2024 and 2025. Families feel that quickly. Small businesses that sold goods and services to visitors lose money they had come to rely on. The pandemic hurts more than travel. Cuba is an island, and most imports come by sea, so rising shipping costs make ordinary life harder. Then policy makes things worse. The government tries to dismantle the dual currency system at what the witness calls the worst possible time. He says the plan fails. An unrealistic exchange rate, already too high, pushes prices up. State workers, pensioners, and others on fixed incomes are hit hard as inflation rises and food prices jump. Shortages spread. By early 2025, Cuba comes across as trapped between outside pressure, pandemic aftershocks, and a damaging reform. The revolution's promises are being tested in queues, wages, prices, and empty shelves.

As heard by us

Cuba's crisis is traced from fuel pressure and currency reform to migration.

Cuba's humanitarian crisis is framed through an economy with very little slack left. Pressure from the United States is tightening fuel shipments, reliance on Venezuelan oil limits the island's room to maneuver, and tourism still has not returned to its pre-pandemic footing.

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Why you'd press play

You want to hear how pressure on Cuba's fuel shipments becomes part of a wider crisis felt at kitchen-table level.

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