Cubans Don’t Want Regime Change
The US hoped the protests in Cuba would overthrow Cuba’s government. That didn’t happen. Talking to average Cubans on the island reveals why: Despite criticisms of the government, many Cubans want to further the revolution, not scrap it.
Pro-government supporters demonstrate with Cuban flags in Havana, Cuba, on November 14, 2021. (Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images)
“If you build it, they will come,” said Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. In Cuba, they didn’t come.
Dissidents on the island, with their US backers, worked feverishly for months to turn the unprecedented July 11 protests into a crescendo of government opposition on November 15. They built a formidable structure, with sophisticated social media (including an abundance of fake news), piles of cash from Cuban Americans and the US government, and declarations of support from a bipartisan Congress all the way up to the White House.
Even after the Cuban government denied the protesters a permit on the grounds that they were part of a destabilization campaign led by the United States, anti-government forces insisted that they were undeterred and ready to take the risks. But in the end, their Field of Dreams turned out to be an illusion. The Cuban masses never rose up. What happened?
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