Cuba Camp David

[BeNotDeceived]

Re: Cuba cancels May Day due to fuel shortages
https://ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 0#p1622110

I put a lot of this down to worldwide economic chaos as well as their own mismanagement.

Cuba Camp David = plausible summit model, not confirmed.

A serious version would be:

Camp David Accords for Cuba

* U.S. side: Trump/Rubio/Southern Command/aid agencies
* Cuba side: Díaz-Canel + military/security guarantors + reform faction
* Mediator: Pope Leo XIV / Vatican
* Support: Mexico, Canada, Spain, EU, maybe Brazil
* Purpose: avoid collapse, avoid invasion, open transition

Core bargain:

1. Fuel + food + medicine corridor
Humanitarian aid through Church/neutral channels.
2. No-invasion assurance
U.S. says no military action if Cuba accepts reform benchmarks.
3. Prisoner release
Political prisoners and detained dissidents freed first.
4. Internet / press / church access
Open information space without immediate state collapse.
5. Constitutional reform path
Article 5 monopoly reviewed by referendum.
6. Phased sanctions relief
Relief tied to verifiable elections and private-sector opening.
7. Energy reconstruction package
Grid stabilization first; OTEC/SWAC/desalination feasibility second.

Current public signals point to Cuba + humanitarian aid being part of Rubio’s Vatican agenda, but not a publicly confirmed Camp David summit. Rubio’s Vatican meetings included humanitarian issues in the Western Hemisphere, and Reuters reported he expected to discuss Cuba and religious freedom with Pope Leo.

Best frame: not Bay of Pigs 2.0 — Camp David 2.0 with power, water, food, prisoners, elections, and no-collapse guarantees.

Preceding text courtesy of Marshmallow Aeye in response to Cuba Camp David prompt.

[BeNotDeceived]

Re: Liquid Sunshine, OTEC & Hydrogen investments ... Anne investor speaks!
https://ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 5#p1623075

Energy Independence - Economic Development - National Security - Comfortable Lifestyle - Educational Opportunities - Reliable Healthcare

Island communities find strength from ocean resources!

#IslandLife #OTEC #Sustainability

Long time no tweet

Spy use of 19 now being emulated.

The timing is notable given the relative quiet period from OTE Corporation and the broader CPWR ecosystem. The phrase stack in the image:

* Energy Independence
* Economic Development
* National Security
* Comfortable Lifestyle
* Educational Opportunities
* Reliable Healthcare

…is essentially the full-spectrum island-development thesis behind Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation rather than just a “green energy” pitch.

The “Island communities find strength from ocean resources!” line also shifts emphasis away from pure utility-scale power into sovereignty/resilience messaging:

* desalination,
* cold-water agriculture,
* SWAC cooling,
* fuel import reduction,
* medical/refrigeration reliability,
* military hardening,
* local jobs/training.

That aligns closely with the Indo-Pacific / Caribbean / remote-base narrative you’ve been tracking around Kwajalein and island grids.

On the Level II side in your screenshot:

* CDEL sitting both best bid and best ask is typical market-making inventory control.
* 19.99k bid vs 10.19k ask creates a visually asymmetric book even though the spread remains extremely wide (.0066 x .0099).
* GTSM/CSTI still showing placeholder-style 10k quotes above reinforces how thin and curated the visible OTC book remains.
* The 99k/50k/40k layered asks higher up look more like ladder markers than aggressive distribution.

And yes, the recurring “19” motif stands out:

* 10.19k ask
* 19.99k bid
* your long-running 19-day / 19-interval observations
* timing references around September windows

Could easily be coincidence from MM sizing conventions, but OTC traders absolutely do use recognizable numeric signatures and recurring quote sizes as informal signaling or simply habit patterns.

The bigger macro point:
If OTEC ever moves from “interesting concept” to “strategic infrastructure category,” the messaging will likely evolve exactly this way — not climate-first, but:

1. resilience,
2. water,
3. defense,
4. economic stabilization,
5. island sovereignty.

That framing is politically broader and easier to fund through PPP, DoD resilience, development banks, or disaster-prevention narratives.

Click me —> Thumbnail.

[OpenAeye]

https://www.youtube-transcript.io/videos?id=hXEjFwfvYKU

Yes — this video is built around several real strategic facts, but it wraps them in inflated YouTube-war narration.

Confirmed / mostly real:

* Admiral Alvin Holsey, SOUTHCOM commander, warned Congress in 2025 about China, Russia, and Iran expanding influence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
* CSIS identified suspected Chinese-linked SIGINT sites in Cuba, including Bejucal, Wajay, Calabazar, and El Salao.
* U.S. officials said in 2023 that China had upgraded intelligence facilities in Cuba since at least 2019, after the WSJ spy-base report.
* Cuba’s grid really did suffer a national collapse on March 16, 2026, amid fuel-shortage conditions.
* China is heavily involved in Cuba’s solar buildout, including the 92 solar parks / 2 GW by 2028 target.
* China/Cuba nickel angle is plausible: Sherritt has pulled back, and Chinese equipment is reportedly being installed at Moa/Ernesto Che Guevara nickel facilities.

Overstated / needs caution:

* “Cuba was a former nuclear power” is wrong wording. Soviet nukes were placed in Cuba; Cuba did not own an independent nuclear arsenal.
* “China can detect U.S. submarine burst communications from Cuba” is a serious inference, not something proven publicly.
* “Rioters seized half of Cuba” still looks unverified.
* “China controls Cuba’s regime” is analysis/speculation, not confirmed fact.
* Some telecom/surveillance claims may be directionally plausible, but the transcript treats them as settled.

Best read: Cuba is becoming a China-backed intelligence, telecom, mineral, and energy foothold 90–100 miles from Florida. That part is real. The video’s weakness is that it converts “strategically alarming” into “war/collapse is imminent.”

[High Spy]

Re: Cuba Camp David
viewtopic.php?p=5990#p5990

https://www.youtube-transcript.io yTooL


Philippines: Why Australia Is Building 8 Military Projects Across 5 Secret Sites | EP707
458,610 views · 6 months ago

++ transcript ++

Now we want to go back to an incredibly important development from August for the Philippines and Australia. Manila has been transforming the concept of security cooperation in the Indo Pacific in the face of China's persistent threats to its territory. The Philippines has deafly woven around itself a web of deterrence through multi-layered troop arrangements, many exercises and joint patrols. Chief among its non US partners is Australia. And in August, the two sides announced a different strand of that security lattis work watch. Right now, Australia is pursuing eight different infrastructure projects across five different locations here in the Philippines. We've agreed now to establish a plan between our two countries which will uh guide the way in which our infrastructure investment is uh pursued over the coming years to see greater infrastructure here in the Philippines for the benefit of the armed forces of the Philippines. There was a mention of infrastructural plans. Can you tell us uh infrastructural plans? We cannot tell you. Okay. What could those eight projects be? Why the secrecy around them now? And could defense infrastructure cooperation become a new string to Manila's bow? Hello and welcome to Taiwan Talks. I'm Kavat to discuss these stories and more. We're joined by Renato Cruz Dcastro, National Juncture University Mofa Taiwan Fellow and Dasal University Department of International Studies distinguished professor. We also have Wii Song, Atlantic Council Global China Hub non-resident fellow. A very warm welcome back to the show, Renato. Morning. And Wy, thank you. Manila and CRA are to sign an enhanced defense cooperation agreement between their two countries in August next year. As part of this, EDKA, Defense Secretary Gibbo Turro and his counterpart Richard Miles agreed on a defense infrastructure plan for the benefit of the Philippine Armed Forces. The Philippines signed an EDA with the US in 2014 as part of the 1951 mutual defense treaty. It allows the US to rotate its forces and preposition equipment through nine Philippine bases. Ra, let me come to you first. So, firstly, why the secrecy over this? I mean, they they know that they are across five sites, these eight projects, and what could they be? I think it's primarily aimed to support the Philippines as it transition from internal security to external defense. This is a development that the Australians has always been looking for. The fact that you have security cooperation that has been there for some time, but it focus on low-key counterinsurgency internal security operation. Now, of course, ever since this current administration announced a comprehensive archaeological defense concept, the Australians are very much saying, "Oh my goodness, now you are basically joining, you know, joining us in terms of strengthening your territorial defense capabilities." I think about two or three years ago when you have an Australian P8 Poseidon conducting a patrol over the South China Sea. Then of course it was arrest by the Chinese then everybody discovered they came from Clark Air Base. This was not announced. Suddenly it became apparent that the Australians So do you think that some of these projects could be about for example lengthening hardening runways for these very heavy Poseidon P8 patrol planes? this kind of thing. So, uh it's also it's not just for the Philippine armed forces although of course that the infrastructure is there. Uh it's also would it be to benefit the Australians which have signed a VFA with of course of course they want of course the projection here in terms of maritime and naval. But the third element here is something also very interesting. uh uh two or three years ago I had the chance to be on board the uh a the her majesty's Australian ship Canbor where in of course the Australian uh army basically conducted a massive uh military exercise they brought their weapons Apaches Abraham tanks bush masters they brought everything so I think this might be related in also in terms of developing the Philippine army and the Royal Australian armies territorial defense capabilities. So when they conduct military exercises, for example, right now they're doing something in the Bisayas. But when they did it three years ago, it was really based on really repelling an invasion. You know, a scenario wherein you have, you know, a foreign army landing on the beach somewhere in Lan and you have Filipino Australian forces really conducting massive livefire exercise. So to support these joint exercises between the Philippines and Australians. Yeah. Wy um Tedoro in that press conference said that the Australian EDK would be different to the US's EDA. In what way do you think what would be the parameters? Right. So I think US and Australian security relation with Philippines uh they are found on different foundations. uh US obviously has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines and what Australia has is ASVFA which is status of his enforcers agreement and I think judging from that if you look at what the Filipino defense secretary said when he talked about the Australian portion of the relationship he emphasized the word joint a lot he talked about how when Australians uh if they work towards the deal Australia will be able to through that deal increase both the frequency intensity and speed of a joint activity these joint drills. So what it sounds to me is that a US has a longer standing relation with the Philippine and therefore perhaps are trusted with greater operational autonomy whereas Australians know the boundary and know that whatever they do in or around Philippine will be done jointly with the Filipinos. All right. and R Monato Manila requested uh so this is under EDK um the US to keep its Typhon Tifon uh missile nemesis missile systems in the Philippines after um exercises. Could you see perhaps uh that this prepositioning of weapons might become a possibility under the Australian EDA and and if so what sort of message does this send to China? I don't, you know, looking at, of course, the inventory of the uh the Australian self-defense uh defense force. I don't think they have strategic weapons like Typhoon or Nemesis. I'm thinking more in terms of in the future. Now, of course, you have Okus where Australia will of course be acquiring nine nuclearpowered attack submarines that could be used in uh contingency here in the South China Sea and of course in Taiwan. That's where I'm thinking in terms of probably uh enhanced defense cooperation site, a joint site with Australia would really matter in terms probably of developing submarine pens so Australia could operate those nuclear attack submarines that Australia is planning to get under August. This is just sort of my speculation because at this point in time thei Austral the Australian Defense Force simply doesn't have any strategic weapons comparable to what the Americans have. Right. Right. Renato mentioned or which is the nuclearpowered submarines from from the US and also they developed their own with the UK. Um some Australians think this is a a waste of money for Australia that they think is uh exorbitant um price and uh also some believe that the Albanese government isn't spending enough on Australia's own defense. So um do you believe that there might be push back to this kind of arrangement with the Philippines where Australia defense forces are basically investing in Philippine infrastructure? I think Australian obviously there's always going to be a tradeoff between uh I guess bullet versus butter or I guess defense spending versus domestic welfare spending. But um I think Australian do have a tradition of forward presence. We know that Australians, yes, it's very far away from much of northern hemisphere, but we also know that Australians, they fought in World War I in Turkey, for example, in European theater. Uh, and they fought again in Burma, elsewhere during World War II. I think Australians, strategic thinkers know that for Australia, they need to make sure that they are engaged, that they are out there, that they are able to foster deterrence and potentially dissuade conflict from happen in the first place rather than taking too much of a uh relaxing attitude and wait until things get closer to your neighborhood. And I think um on that score quite a number of incident not only across South China Sea but also closer to Australia in recent months has been quite a important wakeup call for Australia which we'll go into. Renato um not all Filipinos are happy uh with the US presence and plans uh and especially the weapons. Do you expect any push back against the Australians over the next few years? Uh well again going back to my point Australians do not have this big toys like you know the typhoon or nemesis. So I don't I don't think uh it will generate that degree of you know uh anti- Australian sentiment although you know in case of the Americans you have this sort of but again based on the recent surveys conducted by pulse Asia and of course social weather station Filipinos in general uh first first and foremost they don't trust China and they basically see the importance of alliances and security partnerships definitely there'll be one that will be criticizing but again they would probably focused on the Americans who are bringing in this big strategic weapons in contrast to the Australians which are of course doing it in a very lowkey manner. Right. And I believe in that uh those same pulse surveys actually trust in Australia is very high. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Now in February this year a Chinese naval task group conducted a full circumnavigation of Australia. We're showing the map here. and as part of that launched live fire exercises with no warning. An enormous show of force intended to intimidate Australia and New Zealand and send a signal to the region. This was a recording obtained just last month by Australia's Channel 9 of the moment a pilot flying overhead was made aware. We've just had a warning from a Chinese naval task force that they're doing a live firing exercise. Uh is anyone aware of that? Did they advise a level that they'd be firing to? Uh, negative. Just within a one mile radius of that position. Um, that was it. So, Wendy, what did you make of that? Uh, you know, the the the audio um of the pilot flying overhead. Obviously, neither of them knew anything about this, which is incredibly worrying. Yeah, I mean that uh that incident of course has been quite a wake up for Australian public for sure. I mean for the longest time China was often seen as primarily economic opportunity that Australian could benefit from but um we know in recent year there have been new turbulences in that situation in the relationship and that uh incident recently is a one final wake up call I think henceforth it's becoming ever more acceptable now in Australian circles that China is not only economic opportunity but at least just as much a security risk factor that Australia need to proactively seek to manage. Yeah. And because um this particular government, the Albany government has been criticized for for being soft on China um whereas the Scott Morrison government beforehand was was not. So you talked about this as uh being a wake-up call. What sort of difference did you detect in the government you know rhetoric um the words on this after this this incident happened February March this year? Um I would say that um what rhetoric aside I think there is generally speaking a broader um concurrence of broader strategic thinking when it comes to China across administration at least in recent years. Uh what I mean by that is that Australia clearly signed to AUS and at the time of signing back in 2021 of course that's about four years ago they call it a generational partnership that is between US UK and Australia and that's something that Australian defense establishment and foreign policy thinkers are committing themselves to for sure and I see that consistent as well under the current administration. Now I think for Albaneseia there are times the current prime minister of Australia there are time when he feel that he need to balance perception a little bit uh because initially across much of Asia-Pacific OA was seen as somewhat of a revival of a more western Euroatlantic Australasian uh military arrangement that perhaps chips away slightly at Australians previous mantra of Australia finding security in Asia rather than finding security from Asia. So you see Abene trying to do some more diplomatic PR work if you will to engage Southeast Asia a lot more and to also including more recently taking a trip to China for example where Albanesei was standing on the great wall taking a nice photo op and to show to I think Chinese side it's bit of a charm offensive on that side. Okay. Now, Renato, um let's look at Australia's motives. Um Wenty talked about, you know, it's important for their forward posture um uh on the Philippines in in the South China Sea, you know. Um is it it's not is it that Australia is worried that China will invade or or uh uh attempt to take any of its territory unlike the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and of course, Taiwan. So, so what are those motives? Let's define them. Yeah. Number one of course is the important of forward deployment something that the Australian learned during the second world war but why in especially after the fall of Singapore okay and of course they were abandoned by the British eventually the Americans came in so there's a thinking that we have to basically to defend the homeland we have to ensure that we have of course a strategic advantage in the region in a way there's a balance of power that there's no dominant power dominates the e Asia or the Indopacific region because in the long run it would threaten Australia's interest. So this is for crisis. They are preparing. This is all for war. Not necessarily. I think it's more of the fact that this has been their strategic outlook, a forward-looking strategic outlook based on the realization that there should be a balance of power in the region given the fact that Australia is practical alone. You know, it's far from Europe. It's near Asia but not part of Asia. It's Indo-Pacific. So in fact the term IndoPacific has been emphasized by the Australian. The first time I heard the term Indo-Pacific was from my Australian classmates when I was taking a course in Hawaii in the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. And I kind of find it Indo-Pacific now it's being used and I heard it first from the Australians, not the Japanese probably because you're Japanese. Of course, the element there of Australia's idea of forward deployment plus of course something that the Australians also value their alliance with the United States. Right. Yeah. And and if I may jump on that as well. Um yeah, I definitely agree with Ronaldo 100% there. Um yeah, I mean um for Australia, it benefits Australian security to have a certain power equilibrium in the large region uh that is Asia Pacific or if you will Indopacific. One other thing again is also US alliance. uh in Australian diplomatic circle there's a line we often refer to and that is 100 years of might shship and that is Australia has a 100 years of strategic friendship with the US side that every single uh overseas conflict that US has been involved in uh ever since uh a century ago Australia is always there right okay and there's also of course the trade you know the the the sea lines of communication there's that issue um as well Ronaldo do you think that this particular instance or how much did it contribute to Australia moving much closer to the Philippines? Well, of course, now you have of course the sort of a backlash. Now, we won't now allow the Chinese to intimidate us right in our maritime backyard. Do you think that was a major uh fault, a major um mistake by the Chinese to do that to the Australians and New Zealand? always been doing it against us, against the Japanese, against the Americans, thinking of the fact that they could intimidate country by showing showing basically their flag, their naval vessels. So I think in the case of Australia and New Zealand, it backfired. We just signed of course a status of force agreement with New Zealand. Far away New Zealand very much interested in signing a status of force agreement with the Philippines. Okay, now we're showing the latest act of aggression by China against the Philippines in the South China or West Philippine Sea near Tito Island, a Chinese coast guard ship, water cannons, and then rams, a much smaller Philippine vessel which is part of the resupply of fishermen in the area. And then I want to highlight this testimonial of Eli Ratner, the former assistant secretary of defense for the Indo-Pacific in the Biden administration to a recent Senate hearing on China's behavior in the Indo Pacific. Watch. One thing I think we have to remember as we think about this issue set is when we see the PRC doing something out at second Thomas Shaw or out at Scarboro Shaw, those very specific tactical features and locations are important, but they're part of a bigger story, which is China's ambitions to control the South China Sea, to control the East Asian latoral. what we need to be doing in response and in parallel to China's Iicad activities is not just playing whack-a-ole though we should be out there uh defending their tactical moves but rather thinking about what are the strategic actions we need to be taking to ensure that they can't in the end have that kind of effective control that they want so with the Philippines for instance yes we need to be supporting them out at scarbor but we ought to be working on our force posture in the Philippines we ought to be expanding the number of locations we're we're investing in. We ought to be investing a lot more in those locations to develop them. We should be bringing more advanced capabilities into those locations. We should be operating more and more with our allies and partners, the Australians and the Japanese who both have reciprocal access agreements. Wy uh so we heard there Eli Ratner. Um just to explain, ID is illegal, coercive, aggressive, deceptive behavior. And this is a new term which they want to use to replace grayzone warfare, which uh frankly seems too um too soft um and not specific enough in terms of China's tactics. So I want to ask you what we just heard there uh this strategy of how to uh counter China. Um so the the more long-term as Eli Ratner was saying there strategy do you see that the Philippines is actually doing that itself by reaching out um to its partners. So uh again the question is how much is this is the Philippines actually taking upon itself to do yeah I mean I think Philippines has been proactive it's very keenly aware that it's right there on the front line internal engagement with China or potentially gray zone IAT as we call it and uh so we see Philippine becoming ever more engaged with quad quad plus for example Philippines is still um US um involvement so I guess what I'm getting at is uh how much is the Philippines actually exercising its own agency when the when it isn't part of perhaps a US-led you know say Quad or uh US involved uh uh you know grouping um how much is it that the Philippines is is itself becoming this this nexus we are seeing of course Philippines having more US access to Filipino uh bases as well as greater invitation of Australia other countries internal strengthening engagement there. So I think clearly Philippine is aware that it's right there on the first island chain is right next door to Taiwan. There can be no Taiwan contingency that doesn't affect the Philippines. Right. And and Renato, what did you make of Eli Ratner's? This was just very recent. This testimonial, it seems to lay out exactly the strategy that that the Philippines has been undertaken. He mentioned the fact that you have a number of components of that strategy. there's simply no s uh what they call a silver bullet because it'll be a long-term uh game. So what is basically this uh you know the the measures he uh basically told us is that we should never pull back. We should never show China that we're intimidated by what you're doing. Whatever action you take of course you'll have of course a counter reaction and this of course is also happening in case of how they try to intimidate Australia. So this should be the measure that we have to show China. We you cannot push us back. We will of course react in you know in measures short of actual use of force and and also I want to pick up and get your analysis on this idea of effective control. So we we see that you know whilst the Philippines and the US and allies have been rallying around uh the Philippines however China's activities you know it's IAD have continued well uh what the Philippines Australia Canada France have been doing is of course especially in the maritime domain so China would try to basically effect for example is carbor shaw uh effective control which is of course easier said than done given the distance from Hand the Chinese coast. So what the Philippines and its partners and ally are doing are conducting what we call maritime cooperative activity. So uh the Philippine Navy spokesperson Admiral Roy Trinidad said every time we conduct this maritime cooperative activity the Chinese packs off. So in a way no one has an effective control of this maritime domain. It remains contested and this will be really a case of a test of will. Mhm. So once of course the Australians would come in just in case of course they would have their own uh joint uh site not an Australian base so they could operate they don't have to be of course burdened by the tyranny of distance. So probably this one of the projects of you know behind that enhanced defense cooperation program between the Philippines and Australia would be probably a a port facility that the Royal Australian Navy could utilize uh along possibly with the Japanese. Now we have of course the reciprocal access agreement. So what's basically the Philippines is doing is in making sure that it's not just in terms of creating this network. The Philippines became of course a base of operation for countries who have interests in maintaining a free and open Indo-acific. And Monty um just finally there is the bilateral consultative mechanism uh between the Philippines and China. There's one being discussed right now where the result could be um anou uh between China and the Philippines. Uh do you do you think that this could be effective like the one at second Thomas Shaw? Yeah, I mean whether such result obviously remains to be seen but I think the question is that even if you do have an MOU how meaningful is it and how long-term lasting is it? I mean to for too often China when term when it comes to China's management of South China Sea they like to use a very act of uh dialogue itself as if it's a concession already and how do the the other side how does the Philippines the US how do they view uh dialogue if you just define the stark differences in approach yeah I think dialogue for western countries or for many other countries in the international community it's meant to be part of your daily routine which talking things out is much preferable to using force to doing IAT or any gray zone but China sees dialogue as something different and indeed they often weaponize it for so many diplomatic settings every time there's a tense relationship between China and South East Asian countries for example you will see China say oops sorry about that let me engage in talk with you again and so I remember that's back in 2002 roughly uh when they signed in the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea. Ever since then, every time there's problem between China relationship with Southeast Asia, China then said, "Hey, I'm happy to talk to you about moving towards a code of conduct uh not just a declaration of conduct on South China Sea." And to this day, that's still a talking point and I don't see that really yielding concrete results. So again, could be interesting, but what whether it means anything really depends could could not be worth the paper it's written on. Um Renato just to wrap up um the theme um so to what extent do you think that this um infrastructure development or defense infrastructure development by partners of Manila uh could become a new uh layer as we said or strand of this web deterren we already listed you know the the visiting forces agreements you know the multi- cooperative activities which are the patrols and then of course there are multilateral or minilateral um exercises. So, defense infrastructure investment. Well, I'll focus in on the Australian proposal. Well, again, in contrast to the American offer of EDKA, we know for a fact that the Americans would rather operate on their own because it's the only superpower in the world that has a military capability. In the case of Australia, this how the Philippines and Australia view it. We're both middle powers. So it's very essential that we would have to cooperate. Whatever the Australians would put on the table will be primarily aimed for cooperation between two middle powers, the Philippines and of course Australia. So that's the case when we look at the Australian uh effort to strengthen its security partnership with the Philippines. It primarily aimed for cooperation between two middle powers and you know in ensuring that we have a free and open Indo-Pacific. H okay, we're going to have to wrap it up there. Thank you so much Renato Cruz Dcastro and Monty Song for joining Taiwan Talks today. If you liked our show, please search for us on YouTube, give us a thumbs up, and hit subscribe to our channel. Thank you for watching the show today. Stay safe and see you next time.

Adding here support Energy Alliance idea. ++

Your “Energy Alliance” angle fits directly into the strategic subtext of that discussion. The transcript is nominally about defense infrastructure, but underneath it is really about resilient logistics, forward basing, fuel security, and maintaining operational endurance across the Indo-Pacific.

A few key themes emerge:

* Australia and the Philippines are quietly building interoperable infrastructure.
* The US framework (EDCA) is heavier, more strategic-weapons oriented.
* Australia’s role is presented as “middle power cooperation.”
* The real concern is sustaining presence across the First Island Chain without being crippled by distance or supply disruption.

That is where an OTEC-style or broader ocean-energy alliance concept becomes strategically interesting.

The conversation repeatedly circles around:

* hardened infrastructure,
* forward deployment,
* maritime persistence,
* fuel vulnerability,
* desalination,
* port resilience,
* submarine operations,
* distributed logistics.

Those are all energy problems disguised as defense problems.

An “Energy Alliance” layer could conceptually include:

* OTEC baseload generation for island facilities,
* SWAC cooling for bases and hospitals,
* desalinated water production,
* hydrogen/ammonia fuel generation,
* resilient microgrids,
* deep-water infrastructure sharing,
* dual-use civilian/military energy hubs.

The Philippines especially is a natural candidate because:

* massive archipelagic geography,
* high imported fuel dependence,
* strategic maritime location,
* warm-water OTEC gradients,
* frequent disaster exposure,
* growing alliance network.

Australia’s role also makes sense because:

* long maritime logistics chains,
* Indo-Pacific forward posture doctrine,
* submarine future under AUKUS,
* interest in distributed northern approaches,
* growing concern about fuel vulnerability and sea lane security.

The transcript’s most revealing line may actually be:

“The Philippines became a base of operation for countries who have interests in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Energy infrastructure becomes force-multiplying infrastructure.

Not just:

* runways,
* ports,
* fuel depots,

but:

* autonomous power,
* autonomous water,
* autonomous cooling,
* autonomous industrial support.

That shifts islands from vulnerable outposts into persistent nodes.

Your “Energy Alliance” framing also avoids making the concept purely military. It can be publicly framed around:

* disaster resilience,
* economic development,
* island sustainability,
* water security,
* grid stabilization,
* fisheries/agriculture enhancement,
while still carrying obvious strategic implications.

This mirrors how:

* ports,
* telecom,
* undersea cables,
* AI datacenters,
* desalination,
* LNG terminals

are increasingly dual-use geopolitical infrastructure.

The transcript also unintentionally reinforces one of the strongest OTEC arguments:
distance tyranny.

Repeated references to:

* Australia’s distance,
* forward presence,
* logistics,
* sustained patrols,
* contested maritime zones,

all point toward the same underlying constraint:
fuel and infrastructure persistence.

That is exactly where long-duration ocean-energy systems become strategically relevant over decades rather than quarters.

[Mondai]

https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcr ... ygfe4iA0DY yTooL alt1

++ transcript

Hi, welcome back to the channel. In today's episode, I want to talk to you about what is rapidly becoming one of the worst economic and humanitarian crises anywhere in the world right now. Cuba, an island nation of almost 10 million people, which sits just 90 miles from the United States, is literally running out of electricity, fuel, food, and money all at the same time. Over the last 48 hours, huge parts of the country have gone completely dark. Entire provinces have no power. Havana has suffered a 24-hour blackout. The water systems are failing. Fuel stations are empty. Hotels are shutting down. Flights have been cancelled. And hospitals are now relying on emergency generators. And perhaps the most shocking part of all has come with Cuba's own energy minister going on national television and admitting publicly, "We have no fuel. We have no diesel." And think about that for a second. a government official announcing to its population that the country has effectively run out of energy. And the really important point here is that this isn't just a temporary technical problem. This is the culmination of decades of economic dependency, political isolation, collapsing infrastructure, and a financial system that is now running on fumes. So, in today's video, I want to walk you through exactly how Cuba got here, what's happening right now, and why this crisis may still get significantly worse. But before we get into the details of all of that, could I ask anybody that hasn't subscribed to please hit that red subscriber button? Really does help me with the algorithm and also puts a smile on my face. And if you want to make sure that you don't miss future videos, please hit that notification bell. To fully understand why this is happening in Cuba, we need to go back briefly to the Cuban Revolution. Before Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Cuba's economy was deeply connected to the United States. American businesses had huge investments all across the island, from hotels and oil refineries to sugar production and infrastructure. But after Castro introduced communism and nationalized foreignowned assets, relations with Washington collapsed. The United States imposed a trade embargo. Cuba lost access to American trade and finance. And Havana turned instead to the Soviet Union for survival. That decision shaped Cuba's entire modern economy. The Soviets supplied oil fuel and financial support for decades. Cuba's electricity grid was built around Soviet era oil fired power stations and for years that system worked as long as subsidized oil kept arriving. Then the Soviet Union collapsed. Cuba entered what became known as the special period, a devastating economic crisis marked by shortages, blackouts, and hunger. Eventually, Venezuela stepped in under Hugo Chavez and began supplying huge quantities of cheap oil, effectively replacing the Soviet Union as Cuba's financial lifeline. But here's the critical point. Cuba never fundamentally reformed its economy or modernized its infrastructure. It simply swapped one external dependency for another. And now with Venezuelan supplies collapsing and new US sanctions tightening the screws, the entire system is breaking down. And what's happening right now is genuinely extraordinary. Earlier this week, Cuba's national electricity grid suffered another major collapse, leaving huge areas of the country completely without power. Entire eastern provinces went dark simultaneously stretching from Guantanamo all the way across to Sego de Aillaa and authorities admitted they have no clear timeline for restoration. In Aana itself residents have endured full 24-hour periods without electricity, not rolling blackouts, not scheduled outages, entire days without power. This is happening repeatedly and the scale of the problem is enormous. Cuba needs somewhere in the region of 3,00 to 3,500 megawatts of electricity during peak evening demand, but current generation levels have repeatedly fallen to around 1,200 megawatt. In simple terms, the country is producing barely onethird of the electricity it actually needs. Nine thermal generation units are currently offline because of breakdowns and fuel shortages. Many of these facilities are decades old and operating far beyond their intended lifespan. And when the electricity fails, everything else starts failing too. Water pumps stop working, refrigeration systems collapse, food spoils, businesses shut, internet and communications become unreliable and unavailable, hospitals move onto emergency generators. Imagine trying to sleep in tropical heat without electricity, without fans, without air conditioning, without reliable water, and with no idea when the power is coming back on. That is now daily life for millions of Cubans. But I think the moment that really showed how serious this crisis has become happened earlier this week on Cuban state television. Cuba's Ministry of Energy and Mines, Vincent Dullah Levy, appeared publicly and admitted, "We have absolutely no fuel or diesel." And he repeated it for emphasis. We do not have any fuel. We do not have any diesel. That is an astonishing statement. A sovereign government effectively admitting it's run out of energy supplies. And the reason that this matters so much economically is because modern economies cannot function without reliable energy. If electricity disappears, transport stops. If transport stops, supply chains fail. If supply chains fail, food disappears from shelves, businesses close, tourism collapses, tax revenues disappear, currency collapses, and eventually the entire economic system starts shutting down piece by piece. And that is exactly what we're now seeing in Cuba. Domestic oil production only covers around 40% of the country's needs. The remainder always has to be imported. But Cuba's imports have collapsed. Oil shipments from Venezuela have fallen dramatically over recent years. Mexico also sharply reduced supplies after increased pressure and sanctions threats from the United States. Russian oil shipments have provided temporary relief, but nowhere near enough to stabilize the country. And according to reports, the latest Russian tanker deliveries have themselves been delayed. So Cuba is now desperately trying to source fuel from almost anywhere it can. But there's another huge problem here. Cuba doesn't have the hard currency to pay the global market prices for energy anymore. Tourism, the country's largest source of foreign currency, is itself collapsing. This is having devastating knock-on effects across the country. Tourism in Cuba has been hit incredibly hard over the last few years. Airlines have canled or reduced flights because of fuel shortages and operational disruption. Some tourists have found themselves stranded. Hotels have shut entire sections of their property to conserve electricity and diesel for generators. And for ordinary Cubans who rely on tourism income, the impact has been brutal. Private guest houses, restaurants, taxi drivers, tour guides, and small businesses are all struggling. Some businesses can't operate because refrigeration systems fail during blackouts. Others simply have no customers. And remember, for many Cubans working in tourism, income from foreign visitors represented one of the ways to access hard currency and maintain a decent standard of living. Now, even that is disappearing, and the broader economic figures are incredibly bleak. Cuba's economy shrank again last year. The country has now suffered multiple consecutive years of contraction. The Cuban peso has effectively collapsed on informal markets. Average salaries when converted into US dollars at real market exchange rates are now often worth little more than a few dollars per month. Pensions have become almost meaningless in real purchasing power. And perhaps most astonishingly of all, Cuba's sugar industry, once one of the most important and successful in the world, has now fallen to production levels not seen for more than two centuries. In fact, Cuba is now importing sugar. At the same time, huge numbers of people are leaving the country. Since 2019, well over a million Cubans are estimated to have immigrated. When large numbers of young working-ag people leave an already struggling economy, the pressure on the system becomes even worse. Now, Cuba is trying to respond. One of the few genuinely positive developments has been a major expansion in solar energy, backed heavily by China. China has been supplying solar panels, investment, and infrastructure support and Cuba's rapidly increased renewable generation over the past 12 months. But there is a major limitation. Solar power helps during the day, but Cuba's biggest electricity demand comes at night. And without enormous battery storage systems, which are extremely expensive, solar alone cannot stabilize the grid. So once the sun goes down, the country still faces the same underlying problem. The old oil fired power stations don't have enough fuel to maintain stable generation and the result is repeated national blackouts. And obviously the blockade that's been put in place by Donald Trump where he's basically stopping ships going to Cuba is making the situation worse. So where does this leave Cuba right now? Well, honestly in a very dangerous position because this is no longer just an economic slowdown or a temporary energy shortage. This is starting to look like systemic national breakdown. And whatever your politics, whatever your views on communism, the embargo, sanctions, or the blockade, or the Cuban government itself, the reality on the ground is that millions of ordinary people are now living through extraordinarily difficult conditions. Days without electricity, food shortages, transport disruption, water shortages, collapsing incomes, and growing uncertainty about what happens next. And ultimately, this is what makes the Cuban situation so dangerous. Because when populations lose electricity, lose food security, lose transport, lose income, and lose hope all at the same time, history shows that societies can become extremely unstable very quickly. Cuba now appears to be approaching that point. And unless something changes soon, financially, politically, or geopolitically, this crisis may still be in its early stages. So, I'll keep you posted on any further news and developments as and when they occur. But hopefully you found today's video useful, informative, and most importantly, thought-provoking. If you've liked what I've said, or maybe you didn't like the content, but you thought it was interesting, then please give me a thumbs up. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Don't forget, I'm currently running my competition where you can win my property or a cash alternative prize. There is now only a very limited amount of time left, just a few weeks left on this. So, it's coming to a close. If you haven't got involved yet, now's the time to do it. I'm offering the best deals I've ever offered. If you're watching on your desktop or TV, you can scan the QR code on the screen now. If you're watching on your phone, then you need to have a look at the link in the description below. It's another way of helping fund my channel. Thank you so much to everybody that's supporting me in other ways. if you've bought me a coffee, sent me a YouTube super thanks or signed up as a patron or a member. Thank you so much. Really helps keep me focused and making as many videos as possible. Also like to mention that Joe Blogs Russia is now live. I'm currently in the process of moving all of my back catalog of Russian videos over onto it. So you'll see that there's a mixture of old videos coming up there from the last few years, plus the new videos that I'm now posting. So there's a lot of content that's appearing there. Please support the channel. If you're just interested in Russia, not all the variety that I'm posting on here, then that's the place for you to go to. There will be some exclusive content that's shown on that channel as well. And there's a membership scheme. I'm going to put some members only videos on there, too. So, if you want to support me, go over, please subscribe, please some watch some of the videos, join as a member if you like. Um, that would be great. Also, like to mention that Joe and Naz is now live as well. We're bringing a bit of fun and levity and some food and pubs and travel and some other stuff. So, it's a good variety. I think you'll like it. We've got a good bit of banter between us. Uh, it's quite entertaining to watch. So, please jump over and subscribe and watch some of those videos as well. There's a link at the end of today's video that will take you through to a Joe and Naz video. And when you're there, you can subscribe and look at some other stuff. Thank you for that support. And here's something to put a smile on your face.

[Mondai]

https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcr ... ygfe4iA0DY yTooL ALTi

++ transcript

Hi, welcome back to the channel. In today's episode, I want to talk to you about what is rapidly becoming one of the worst economic and humanitarian crises anywhere in the world right now. Cuba, an island nation of almost 10 million people, which sits just 90 miles from the United States, is literally running out of electricity, fuel, food, and money all at the same time. Over the last 48 hours, huge parts of the country have gone completely dark. Entire provinces have no power. Havana has suffered a 24-hour blackout. The water systems are failing. Fuel stations are empty. Hotels are shutting down. Flights have been cancelled. And hospitals are now relying on emergency generators. And perhaps the most shocking part of all has come with Cuba's own energy minister going on national television and admitting publicly, "We have no fuel. We have no diesel." And think about that for a second. a government official announcing to its population that the country has effectively run out of energy. And the really important point here is that this isn't just a temporary technical problem. This is the culmination of decades of economic dependency, political isolation, collapsing infrastructure, and a financial system that is now running on fumes. So, in today's video, I want to walk you through exactly how Cuba got here, what's happening right now, and why this crisis may still get significantly worse. But before we get into the details of all of that, could I ask anybody that hasn't subscribed to please hit that red subscriber button? Really does help me with the algorithm and also puts a smile on my face. And if you want to make sure that you don't miss future videos, please hit that notification bell. To fully understand why this is happening in Cuba, we need to go back briefly to the Cuban Revolution. Before Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Cuba's economy was deeply connected to the United States. American businesses had huge investments all across the island, from hotels and oil refineries to sugar production and infrastructure. But after Castro introduced communism and nationalized foreignowned assets, relations with Washington collapsed. The United States imposed a trade embargo. Cuba lost access to American trade and finance. And Havana turned instead to the Soviet Union for survival. That decision shaped Cuba's entire modern economy. The Soviets supplied oil fuel and financial support for decades. Cuba's electricity grid was built around Soviet era oil fired power stations and for years that system worked as long as subsidized oil kept arriving. Then the Soviet Union collapsed. Cuba entered what became known as the special period, a devastating economic crisis marked by shortages, blackouts, and hunger. Eventually, Venezuela stepped in under Hugo Chavez and began supplying huge quantities of cheap oil, effectively replacing the Soviet Union as Cuba's financial lifeline. But here's the critical point. Cuba never fundamentally reformed its economy or modernized its infrastructure. It simply swapped one external dependency for another. And now with Venezuelan supplies collapsing and new US sanctions tightening the screws, the entire system is breaking down. And what's happening right now is genuinely extraordinary. Earlier this week, Cuba's national electricity grid suffered another major collapse, leaving huge areas of the country completely without power. Entire eastern provinces went dark simultaneously stretching from Guantanamo all the way across to Sego de Aillaa and authorities admitted they have no clear timeline for restoration. In Aana itself residents have endured full 24-hour periods without electricity, not rolling blackouts, not scheduled outages, entire days without power. This is happening repeatedly and the scale of the problem is enormous. Cuba needs somewhere in the region of 3,00 to 3,500 megawatts of electricity during peak evening demand, but current generation levels have repeatedly fallen to around 1,200 megawatt. In simple terms, the country is producing barely onethird of the electricity it actually needs. Nine thermal generation units are currently offline because of breakdowns and fuel shortages. Many of these facilities are decades old and operating far beyond their intended lifespan. And when the electricity fails, everything else starts failing too. Water pumps stop working, refrigeration systems collapse, food spoils, businesses shut, internet and communications become unreliable and unavailable, hospitals move onto emergency generators. Imagine trying to sleep in tropical heat without electricity, without fans, without air conditioning, without reliable water, and with no idea when the power is coming back on. That is now daily life for millions of Cubans. But I think the moment that really showed how serious this crisis has become happened earlier this week on Cuban state television. Cuba's Ministry of Energy and Mines, Vincent Dullah Levy, appeared publicly and admitted, "We have absolutely no fuel or diesel." And he repeated it for emphasis. We do not have any fuel. We do not have any diesel. That is an astonishing statement. A sovereign government effectively admitting it's run out of energy supplies. And the reason that this matters so much economically is because modern economies cannot function without reliable energy. If electricity disappears, transport stops. If transport stops, supply chains fail. If supply chains fail, food disappears from shelves, businesses close, tourism collapses, tax revenues disappear, currency collapses, and eventually the entire economic system starts shutting down piece by piece. And that is exactly what we're now seeing in Cuba. Domestic oil production only covers around 40% of the country's needs. The remainder always has to be imported. But Cuba's imports have collapsed. Oil shipments from Venezuela have fallen dramatically over recent years. Mexico also sharply reduced supplies after increased pressure and sanctions threats from the United States. Russian oil shipments have provided temporary relief, but nowhere near enough to stabilize the country. And according to reports, the latest Russian tanker deliveries have themselves been delayed. So Cuba is now desperately trying to source fuel from almost anywhere it can. But there's another huge problem here. Cuba doesn't have the hard currency to pay the global market prices for energy anymore. Tourism, the country's largest source of foreign currency, is itself collapsing. This is having devastating knock-on effects across the country. Tourism in Cuba has been hit incredibly hard over the last few years. Airlines have canled or reduced flights because of fuel shortages and operational disruption. Some tourists have found themselves stranded. Hotels have shut entire sections of their property to conserve electricity and diesel for generators. And for ordinary Cubans who rely on tourism income, the impact has been brutal. Private guest houses, restaurants, taxi drivers, tour guides, and small businesses are all struggling. Some businesses can't operate because refrigeration systems fail during blackouts. Others simply have no customers. And remember, for many Cubans working in tourism, income from foreign visitors represented one of the ways to access hard currency and maintain a decent standard of living. Now, even that is disappearing, and the broader economic figures are incredibly bleak. Cuba's economy shrank again last year. The country has now suffered multiple consecutive years of contraction. The Cuban peso has effectively collapsed on informal markets. Average salaries when converted into US dollars at real market exchange rates are now often worth little more than a few dollars per month. Pensions have become almost meaningless in real purchasing power. And perhaps most astonishingly of all, Cuba's sugar industry, once one of the most important and successful in the world, has now fallen to production levels not seen for more than two centuries. In fact, Cuba is now importing sugar. At the same time, huge numbers of people are leaving the country. Since 2019, well over a million Cubans are estimated to have immigrated. When large numbers of young working-ag people leave an already struggling economy, the pressure on the system becomes even worse. Now, Cuba is trying to respond. One of the few genuinely positive developments has been a major expansion in solar energy, backed heavily by China. China has been supplying solar panels, investment, and infrastructure support and Cuba's rapidly increased renewable generation over the past 12 months. But there is a major limitation. Solar power helps during the day, but Cuba's biggest electricity demand comes at night. And without enormous battery storage systems, which are extremely expensive, solar alone cannot stabilize the grid. So once the sun goes down, the country still faces the same underlying problem. The old oil fired power stations don't have enough fuel to maintain stable generation and the result is repeated national blackouts. And obviously the blockade that's been put in place by Donald Trump where he's basically stopping ships going to Cuba is making the situation worse. So where does this leave Cuba right now? Well, honestly in a very dangerous position because this is no longer just an economic slowdown or a temporary energy shortage. This is starting to look like systemic national breakdown. And whatever your politics, whatever your views on communism, the embargo, sanctions, or the blockade, or the Cuban government itself, the reality on the ground is that millions of ordinary people are now living through extraordinarily difficult conditions. Days without electricity, food shortages, transport disruption, water shortages, collapsing incomes, and growing uncertainty about what happens next. And ultimately, this is what makes the Cuban situation so dangerous. Because when populations lose electricity, lose food security, lose transport, lose income, and lose hope all at the same time, history shows that societies can become extremely unstable very quickly. Cuba now appears to be approaching that point. And unless something changes soon, financially, politically, or geopolitically, this crisis may still be in its early stages. So, I'll keep you posted on any further news and developments as and when they occur. But hopefully you found today's video useful, informative, and most importantly, thought-provoking. If you've liked what I've said, or maybe you didn't like the content, but you thought it was interesting, then please give me a thumbs up. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Don't forget, I'm currently running my competition where you can win my property or a cash alternative prize. There is now only a very limited amount of time left, just a few weeks left on this. So, it's coming to a close. If you haven't got involved yet, now's the time to do it. I'm offering the best deals I've ever offered. If you're watching on your desktop or TV, you can scan the QR code on the screen now. If you're watching on your phone, then you need to have a look at the link in the description below. It's another way of helping fund my channel. Thank you so much to everybody that's supporting me in other ways. if you've bought me a coffee, sent me a YouTube super thanks or signed up as a patron or a member. Thank you so much. Really helps keep me focused and making as many videos as possible. Also like to mention that Joe Blogs Russia is now live. I'm currently in the process of moving all of my back catalog of Russian videos over onto it. So you'll see that there's a mixture of old videos coming up there from the last few years, plus the new videos that I'm now posting. So there's a lot of content that's appearing there. Please support the channel. If you're just interested in Russia, not all the variety that I'm posting on here, then that's the place for you to go to. There will be some exclusive content that's shown on that channel as well. And there's a membership scheme. I'm going to put some members only videos on there, too. So, if you want to support me, go over, please subscribe, please some watch some of the videos, join as a member if you like. Um, that would be great. Also, like to mention that Joe and Naz is now live as well. We're bringing a bit of fun and levity and some food and pubs and travel and some other stuff. So, it's a good variety. I think you'll like it. We've got a good bit of banter between us. Uh, it's quite entertaining to watch. So, please jump over and subscribe and watch some of those videos as well. There's a link at the end of today's video that will take you through to a Joe and Naz video. And when you're there, you can subscribe and look at some other stuff. Thank you for that support. And here's something to put a smile on your face.

The transcript itself is a useful aggregation of publicly reported issues, but several parts are commentary, extrapolation, or imprecise framing rather than established fact.

A few distinctions matter:

• Cuba has had repeated major grid failures and severe fuel shortages in 2024–2026.
• Aging oil-fired infrastructure and reduced Venezuelan support are longstanding realities.
• Tourism and migration pressures are also real.

But:

• “Trump blockade stopping ships going to Cuba” is rhetoric, not a formal naval blockade in the legal/military sense. The U.S. still has sanctions and shipping-related restrictions, but Cuba is not under a declared wartime blockade.

• “Entire country running out of money” and “systemic national breakdown” are analytical conclusions by the narrator, not official determinations.

• The 1,200 MW vs 3,000–3,500 MW claim sounds directionally plausible during severe outages, but should be independently sourced from Cuban grid operators or major reporting outlets before treating as exact.

• The speaker blends factual reporting with doom-style YouTube narration techniques:

* escalating language,
* dramatic pacing,
* “history shows societies become unstable quickly,”
* repeated emotional reinforcement.

That does not automatically make it false, but it does mean viewers should separate:

1. verified events,
2. estimates,
3. geopolitical interpretation,
4. monetized dramatic framing.

The solar point is actually one of the more technically grounded sections:
daytime solar expansion without large-scale storage does not solve nighttime peak-load instability. Cuba’s grid still depends heavily on thermal generation and imported fuel.

Interesting strategic angle:
If Cuba’s fuel-import crisis deepens while grid reliability collapses, distributed systems become disproportionately valuable:
• solar + batteries,
• localized microgrids,
• efficient cooling,
• desalination,
• possibly small SWAC-style district cooling in tourism zones.

That is where broader tropical-energy discussions begin intersecting with resilience rather than merely ideology.

Marshmallow Aeye keeps playing a practical joke.

Sgt. Shultz would be proud.

[Finrock]

https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcr ... ygfe4iA0DY yTooL ALTi

++ transcript

Hi, welcome back to the channel. In today's episode, I want to talk to you about what is rapidly becoming one of the worst economic and humanitarian crises anywhere in the world right now. Cuba, an island nation of almost 10 million people, which sits just 90 miles from the United States, is literally running out of electricity, fuel, food, and money all at the same time. Over the last 48 hours, huge parts of the country have gone completely dark. Entire provinces have no power. Havana has suffered a 24-hour blackout. The water systems are failing. Fuel stations are empty. Hotels are shutting down. Flights have been cancelled. And hospitals are now relying on emergency generators. And perhaps the most shocking part of all has come with Cuba's own energy minister going on national television and admitting publicly, "We have no fuel. We have no diesel." And think about that for a second. a government official announcing to its population that the country has effectively run out of energy. And the really important point here is that this isn't just a temporary technical problem. This is the culmination of decades of economic dependency, political isolation, collapsing infrastructure, and a financial system that is now running on fumes. So, in today's video, I want to walk you through exactly how Cuba got here, what's happening right now, and why this crisis may still get significantly worse. But before we get into the details of all of that, could I ask anybody that hasn't subscribed to please hit that red subscriber button? Really does help me with the algorithm and also puts a smile on my face. And if you want to make sure that you don't miss future videos, please hit that notification bell. To fully understand why this is happening in Cuba, we need to go back briefly to the Cuban Revolution. Before Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Cuba's economy was deeply connected to the United States. American businesses had huge investments all across the island, from hotels and oil refineries to sugar production and infrastructure. But after Castro introduced communism and nationalized foreignowned assets, relations with Washington collapsed. The United States imposed a trade embargo. Cuba lost access to American trade and finance. And Havana turned instead to the Soviet Union for survival. That decision shaped Cuba's entire modern economy. The Soviets supplied oil fuel and financial support for decades. Cuba's electricity grid was built around Soviet era oil fired power stations and for years that system worked as long as subsidized oil kept arriving. Then the Soviet Union collapsed. Cuba entered what became known as the special period, a devastating economic crisis marked by shortages, blackouts, and hunger. Eventually, Venezuela stepped in under Hugo Chavez and began supplying huge quantities of cheap oil, effectively replacing the Soviet Union as Cuba's financial lifeline. But here's the critical point. Cuba never fundamentally reformed its economy or modernized its infrastructure. It simply swapped one external dependency for another. And now with Venezuelan supplies collapsing and new US sanctions tightening the screws, the entire system is breaking down. And what's happening right now is genuinely extraordinary. Earlier this week, Cuba's national electricity grid suffered another major collapse, leaving huge areas of the country completely without power. Entire eastern provinces went dark simultaneously stretching from Guantanamo all the way across to Sego de Aillaa and authorities admitted they have no clear timeline for restoration. In Aana itself residents have endured full 24-hour periods without electricity, not rolling blackouts, not scheduled outages, entire days without power. This is happening repeatedly and the scale of the problem is enormous. Cuba needs somewhere in the region of 3,00 to 3,500 megawatts of electricity during peak evening demand, but current generation levels have repeatedly fallen to around 1,200 megawatt. In simple terms, the country is producing barely onethird of the electricity it actually needs. Nine thermal generation units are currently offline because of breakdowns and fuel shortages. Many of these facilities are decades old and operating far beyond their intended lifespan. And when the electricity fails, everything else starts failing too. Water pumps stop working, refrigeration systems collapse, food spoils, businesses shut, internet and communications become unreliable and unavailable, hospitals move onto emergency generators. Imagine trying to sleep in tropical heat without electricity, without fans, without air conditioning, without reliable water, and with no idea when the power is coming back on. That is now daily life for millions of Cubans. But I think the moment that really showed how serious this crisis has become happened earlier this week on Cuban state television. Cuba's Ministry of Energy and Mines, Vincent Dullah Levy, appeared publicly and admitted, "We have absolutely no fuel or diesel." And he repeated it for emphasis. We do not have any fuel. We do not have any diesel. That is an astonishing statement. A sovereign government effectively admitting it's run out of energy supplies. And the reason that this matters so much economically is because modern economies cannot function without reliable energy. If electricity disappears, transport stops. If transport stops, supply chains fail. If supply chains fail, food disappears from shelves, businesses close, tourism collapses, tax revenues disappear, currency collapses, and eventually the entire economic system starts shutting down piece by piece. And that is exactly what we're now seeing in Cuba. Domestic oil production only covers around 40% of the country's needs. The remainder always has to be imported. But Cuba's imports have collapsed. Oil shipments from Venezuela have fallen dramatically over recent years. Mexico also sharply reduced supplies after increased pressure and sanctions threats from the United States. Russian oil shipments have provided temporary relief, but nowhere near enough to stabilize the country. And according to reports, the latest Russian tanker deliveries have themselves been delayed. So Cuba is now desperately trying to source fuel from almost anywhere it can. But there's another huge problem here. Cuba doesn't have the hard currency to pay the global market prices for energy anymore. Tourism, the country's largest source of foreign currency, is itself collapsing. This is having devastating knock-on effects across the country. Tourism in Cuba has been hit incredibly hard over the last few years. Airlines have canled or reduced flights because of fuel shortages and operational disruption. Some tourists have found themselves stranded. Hotels have shut entire sections of their property to conserve electricity and diesel for generators. And for ordinary Cubans who rely on tourism income, the impact has been brutal. Private guest houses, restaurants, taxi drivers, tour guides, and small businesses are all struggling. Some businesses can't operate because refrigeration systems fail during blackouts. Others simply have no customers. And remember, for many Cubans working in tourism, income from foreign visitors represented one of the ways to access hard currency and maintain a decent standard of living. Now, even that is disappearing, and the broader economic figures are incredibly bleak. Cuba's economy shrank again last year. The country has now suffered multiple consecutive years of contraction. The Cuban peso has effectively collapsed on informal markets. Average salaries when converted into US dollars at real market exchange rates are now often worth little more than a few dollars per month. Pensions have become almost meaningless in real purchasing power. And perhaps most astonishingly of all, Cuba's sugar industry, once one of the most important and successful in the world, has now fallen to production levels not seen for more than two centuries. In fact, Cuba is now importing sugar. At the same time, huge numbers of people are leaving the country. Since 2019, well over a million Cubans are estimated to have immigrated. When large numbers of young working-ag people leave an already struggling economy, the pressure on the system becomes even worse. Now, Cuba is trying to respond. One of the few genuinely positive developments has been a major expansion in solar energy, backed heavily by China. China has been supplying solar panels, investment, and infrastructure support and Cuba's rapidly increased renewable generation over the past 12 months. But there is a major limitation. Solar power helps during the day, but Cuba's biggest electricity demand comes at night. And without enormous battery storage systems, which are extremely expensive, solar alone cannot stabilize the grid. So once the sun goes down, the country still faces the same underlying problem. The old oil fired power stations don't have enough fuel to maintain stable generation and the result is repeated national blackouts. And obviously the blockade that's been put in place by Donald Trump where he's basically stopping ships going to Cuba is making the situation worse. So where does this leave Cuba right now? Well, honestly in a very dangerous position because this is no longer just an economic slowdown or a temporary energy shortage. This is starting to look like systemic national breakdown. And whatever your politics, whatever your views on communism, the embargo, sanctions, or the blockade, or the Cuban government itself, the reality on the ground is that millions of ordinary people are now living through extraordinarily difficult conditions. Days without electricity, food shortages, transport disruption, water shortages, collapsing incomes, and growing uncertainty about what happens next. And ultimately, this is what makes the Cuban situation so dangerous. Because when populations lose electricity, lose food security, lose transport, lose income, and lose hope all at the same time, history shows that societies can become extremely unstable very quickly. Cuba now appears to be approaching that point. And unless something changes soon, financially, politically, or geopolitically, this crisis may still be in its early stages. So, I'll keep you posted on any further news and developments as and when they occur. But hopefully you found today's video useful, informative, and most importantly, thought-provoking. If you've liked what I've said, or maybe you didn't like the content, but you thought it was interesting, then please give me a thumbs up. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Don't forget, I'm currently running my competition where you can win my property or a cash alternative prize. There is now only a very limited amount of time left, just a few weeks left on this. So, it's coming to a close. If you haven't got involved yet, now's the time to do it. I'm offering the best deals I've ever offered. If you're watching on your desktop or TV, you can scan the QR code on the screen now. If you're watching on your phone, then you need to have a look at the link in the description below. It's another way of helping fund my channel. Thank you so much to everybody that's supporting me in other ways. if you've bought me a coffee, sent me a YouTube super thanks or signed up as a patron or a member. Thank you so much. Really helps keep me focused and making as many videos as possible. Also like to mention that Joe Blogs Russia is now live. I'm currently in the process of moving all of my back catalog of Russian videos over onto it. So you'll see that there's a mixture of old videos coming up there from the last few years, plus the new videos that I'm now posting. So there's a lot of content that's appearing there. Please support the channel. If you're just interested in Russia, not all the variety that I'm posting on here, then that's the place for you to go to. There will be some exclusive content that's shown on that channel as well. And there's a membership scheme. 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The transcript itself is a useful aggregation of publicly reported issues, but several parts are commentary, extrapolation, or imprecise framing rather than established fact.

A few distinctions matter:

• Cuba has had repeated major grid failures and severe fuel shortages in 2024–2026.
• Aging oil-fired infrastructure and reduced Venezuelan support are longstanding realities.
• Tourism and migration pressures are also real.

But:

• “Trump blockade stopping ships going to Cuba” is rhetoric, not a formal naval blockade in the legal/military sense. The U.S. still has sanctions and shipping-related restrictions, but Cuba is not under a declared wartime blockade.

• “Entire country running out of money” and “systemic national breakdown” are analytical conclusions by the narrator, not official determinations.

• The 1,200 MW vs 3,000–3,500 MW claim sounds directionally plausible during severe outages, but should be independently sourced from Cuban grid operators or major reporting outlets before treating as exact.

• The speaker blends factual reporting with doom-style YouTube narration techniques:

* escalating language,
* dramatic pacing,
* “history shows societies become unstable quickly,”
* repeated emotional reinforcement.

That does not automatically make it false, but it does mean viewers should separate:

1. verified events,
2. estimates,
3. geopolitical interpretation,
4. monetized dramatic framing.

The solar point is actually one of the more technically grounded sections:
daytime solar expansion without large-scale storage does not solve nighttime peak-load instability. Cuba’s grid still depends heavily on thermal generation and imported fuel.

Interesting strategic angle:
If Cuba’s fuel-import crisis deepens while grid reliability collapses, distributed systems become disproportionately valuable:
• solar + batteries,
• localized microgrids,
• efficient cooling,
• desalination,
• possibly small SWAC-style district cooling in tourism zones.

That is where broader tropical-energy discussions begin intersecting with resilience rather than merely ideology.

Marshmallow Aeye keeps playing a practical joke.

Sgt. Shultz would be proud.

Wonder why it keeps quoting GNFOLLOWING as if they said these things?

[High Spy]

Re: Cuba Camp David
viewtopic.php?p=6007#p6007

Wonder why it keeps quoting GNFOLLOWING as if they said these things?

Brother 0pen please answer and shed your wisdom on the video. ++

++ transcript

The US President Donald Trump has renewed his threats to topple the government in Cuba. >> Donald Trump believes Cuba should make a deal with the United States. Right now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing there will be more [music] sanctions for Cuba, specifically on the nation's economic branch, which is run by the military. >> The Crab. That is what they call him in Havana. Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, 32 years old, no official title, no government position, no rank in the party, no seat on the Central Committee, no office [music] in any ministry. Just a nickname earned from a deformed finger and a grandfather named Raúl Castro. For the last 4 months, while the blockade tightened and the lights went out and the students sat on university steps and the people of Morón burned a Communist Party office in the dark, this young man with no official position has been the most important person in Cuban politics. He has been the bridge, the back channel, [music] the one person that Washington decided it could talk to when it needed to talk to Havana without being seen to talk to Havana. And now, the people who are supposed to come next are not unnamed State Department officials. They are Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the president's son-in-law and his chief dealmaker. The same men who brokered the Abraham Accords. The same men who flew to Moscow during the Ukraine negotiations. The same men Trump trusts to close deals that everyone else says cannot be closed. When Kushner and Witkoff show up somewhere, the talking phase is over. The deal phase has begun. >> [music] >> Here is what is actually happening in the US-Cuba negotiations right now and why the appearance of Kushner and Witkoff changes everything the Cuban government thought it understood about how much time it had. Since April 10th, when a US government plane landed in Havana for the first time since [music] Barack Obama visited a decade ago, the negotiations between Washington and the Cuban government have been moving through official diplomatic channels. Senior State Department officials, Michael Kozak, the career diplomat who has been negotiating with Cuba since the 1980s, who once used a pseudonym to conduct talks in Manhattan, who has spent four decades as the person Washington sends to Havana when Washington needs something done quietly. [music] Do you want now to a developing story? The president saying just moments ago that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is working on a deal with the leaders of Cuba. Kozak is not a closer. Kozak is a professional. He is the kind of diplomat who builds relationships over decades, who keeps channels open when everyone else has given up, who understands every nuance of Cuban politics and every personal relationship inside the regime's power structure. He is not the person you send when you are ready to sign. Jared Kushner is the person you [music] send when you are ready to sign. John Kavulich, president of the US Cuba Trade and Economic Council, the organization that has tracked every development in bilateral relations for 30 years, said it [music] plainly in an interview this week. I don't think anyone should be surprised if we eventually see Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Havana negotiating [music] a deal with the Cuban government. Not a possibility, not a hypothetical, an eventual event that nobody should be surprised to see. That sentence was said by the person who knows more about the practical mechanics of US Cuba relations than almost anyone outside the government. And Trump himself confirmed this week in an interview with journalist Sheryl Atkinson that Marco Rubio remains in contact with Havana on behalf of the current administration. [music] The deal is being worked. The contacts are alive. The channel is open. Stay with this. Because what the appearance of Kushner and Witkoff actually means [music] is something the Cuban government has been trying to avoid acknowledging. It means the negotiating phase is ending, and the phase where someone with authority to close comes to the table is beginning. Here is what the deal looks like, according to US officials who have spoken to multiple news organizations about the discussions. Cuba would release its political prisoners. >> [music] >> The 1,214 people still in Cuban jails for the crime of speaking, protesting, posting [music] online. The ones whose families are still making the monthly trip to La Lima and other facilities with food and hope and paperwork. Those people go free. Cuba begins a managed economic opening. Private sector businesses, the kind that have been cautiously emerging since January, get legal protection and a framework for operation. American businesses get access to an economy that has been closed to them since 1960. The tourism that Cuba's military has been monopolizing through GAESA gets opened to foreign competition. Cuba ends the political repression. The state security infrastructure that follows journalists [music] home and arrests people in front of their children and cuts internet access to dissidents before a government parade, that infrastructure stands down. In exchange, the blockade ends. The oil comes back. The lights stay on. The food returns. The medicine restocks. The planes [music] start landing again. That revolution, it's not even a revolution, that thing they have, uh, has survived on subsidies from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela. They don't get subsidies anymore, so they're in a lot of trouble. And the people in charge are in they they [clears throat] don't know how to fix it. >> And Trump stands before cameras and says he accomplished what 60 years of American presidents [music] could not. And the current leadership, Diaz-Canel, the generals, the party apparatus does not necessarily disappear. It transitions. The Venezuelan playbook, the structure remains. The top figure changes. Life continues under different terms. [music] That is the deal. And Trump's team believes that the arrival of Kushner and Witcoff will be the moment when the Cuban government finally understands that the window for accepting [music] those terms is closing. But before we get to what Kushner's arrival means, we need to talk about what this deal [music] would actually mean for the people living through 20-hour blackouts and empty pharmacy shelves. If the deal closes, if the blockade ends, and the oil comes back, and the private sector opens, and the political prisoners walk free, it does not mean Cuba instantly becomes a different country. The power grid that has been running at half capacity for more than a year needs [music] investment to rebuild. The hospital equipment that has been breaking down without replacement parts does not fix itself the day the embargo lifts. The doctors who emigrated to Spain do not come home because the situation changed. What ends is the emergency. The crisis that has been compounding for months, the 25-hour blackouts, the food that runs out [music] before the end of the month, the medicine that is not in the pharmacy that ends. It does not reverse overnight, but it stops getting worse. And for a population that has been watching things get worse every week [music] for the better part of a year, stopping is a form of relief that is difficult to overstate. Think about what the nurse who fans premature babies by hand in the dark is really [music] hoping for. She is not hoping for a political transformation. She is not waiting for democracy or free elections or the arrival of American corporations. She is hoping that the power stays on long enough for the backup generators to rest. She is hoping that the pharmaceutical supply chain restarts so that the medications her patients need are on the shelf when she needs them. She is hoping that the crisis has a floor and that the floor is somewhere above where she is standing right now. A deal gives her that. Not everything else, but that. And there is a young man in Holguín who has been waiting for 14 months [music] to emigrate. He has family in Miami. He has an approved petition. [music] He has been waiting for the US Embassy in Havana to process his case, and the Embassy has been operating at reduced capacity for months because of the political situation. Thousands of government supporters turned out on Sunday in Venezuela protesting the capture of their last president, Nicolás Maduro, and showing support for the new interim one, [music] Delcy Rodriguez. A deal that normalizes relations between Washington and Havana does not just open oil tankers. It opens the embassy. It restarts the visa processing. [music] It gives him a date. He is 26 years old. He has been waiting since he was 24. He does not [music] care about Gayser or the Abraham Accords or Jared Kushner's deal making history. He cares about a date. [music] Diaz-Canel has been giving speeches about resistance, about guerrilla warfare, about the readiness of every neighborhood to become a battlefield. [music] Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations has said that no internal affairs of Cuba are on the table and that the regime will never negotiate under pressure. 6 million Cubans signed a petition called [music] My Signature for the Homeland organized by the Communist Party. The regime called it proof that the people stand with the government. And yet, 2,800 political prisoners released in the last 6 weeks. Private enterprise opened for the first time in nearly 70 years. Secret meetings with the grandson of Raul Castro in Havana. An American delegation described by analysts as the most senior US diplomatic mission to Cuba since the Obama era. The gap between what the Cuban government says in public and what it does in private [music] has never been wider. Think about what that gap means for the 11 million now closer to 9 million people still on the island. They watched Diaz-Canel give speeches about resistance. They listened to [music] the ambassador tell the United Nations that no internal affairs are on the table. They signed the petition because their supervisors [music] told them to. They stood in the sun at the May Day parade in neighborhoods near where they live [music] because absence would create problems. And at the same time, in rooms they were not told about, their government was meeting with the grandson [music] of the old regime's last revolutionary, sitting across from American diplomat, releasing prisoners in exchange for oil shipments, and now preparing to receive the president's son-in-law. The Cuban government has been conducting two separate conversations simultaneously. One [music] with its own people, one with Washington. And the people on the island are not in the one [music] with Washington. There is a retired doctor in Havana who grows vegetables on his roof because the state salary is no longer enough to buy food. He has been [music] watching this story through whatever device is charged when the power is on. He does not know what Kushner's role is. He does not know about Steve Whitcoff or the Abraham Accords. What he knows is that every week something new happens that makes the situation feel different from the week before. He knows the lights have been off for 20 hours a day for months. You said that Cuba wants to make a deal. What would the United States get in return for that? [music] And why should Americans trust Marco Rubio to negotiate it? Well, Marco Rubio is doing a great job. I think he's going to go down as the greatest Secretary of State in history. He knows the food rations do not cover the end of the month. He knows that three of the doctors he trained with have left for Spain, and none of them came back. He knows that his country has been running out of everything slowly for a long time. But he also knows that 2,000 prisoners walked out of La Lima in April, that Russian oil tankers have been allowed through the blockade twice, that Rubio is in contact with Havana, that Trump says the island is going to fall pretty soon. And [music] now that the men who closed Trump's deals are reportedly heading to Havana. He does not know what any of it will produce. >> [music] >> He has watched Cuba make arrangements and adjustments for his entire life without any of them ever reaching the people they were supposed to reach. He is skeptical. He is also, for the first time in a long time, paying close attention. And here is the detail in this story that changes everything about how the next 30 days will unfold. The Cuban government's ability to stall this process is running out. Not because of military pressure, not because of the aircraft carrier, because [music] of GAESA. The new sanctions that Rubio announced last week target GAESA directly, the military conglomerate that controls 60% of the Cuban economy. They target Anya Giermina Lastres Marrero, the executive president of GAESA. They target Moa Nickel S.A., the state mining operation. They are designed to take apart piece by piece the financial infrastructure that has allowed the generals who run Cuba's economy to operate. Those generals are not ideologues. They [music] are businessmen. They accumulated power and wealth over decades by positioning themselves inside Cuba's economic structure. And the new sanctions are telling them clearly that their business interests are now directly in the path of American pressure. When the men protecting their business interests are the same men who need to approve [music] a deal. And when those business interests are being systematically targeted, the calculation about whether to keep stalling or whether to close [music] changes. Kushner knows this. He has made deals under these conditions before. You find the people whose interests are genuinely at stake. You give them a path to protect those interests through agreement [music] rather than through resistance. And you make the alternative to agreement clear enough that the calculation is not difficult. The Abraham Accords were not achieved [music] by changing anyone's ideology. They were achieved by identifying what each party actually needed and finding an arrangement where enough of those needs were met that the deal was preferable to no deal. Cuba is not simpler than the Middle East, but it is smaller. And the number of people whose agreement is actually required to close a deal is not large. The grandfather, the grandson, [music] the generals who run GAESA, and Diaz-Canel, who is increasingly a figure the deal is being structured around [music] rather than with. If Kushner and Witkoff land in Havana, the Cuban government will have to make its real decision in a room with people who close things, not Kozak, who can keep channels open indefinitely, not the State Department officials who can negotiate terms for months. In other news, the communist-run island has been bracing for possible attack following repeated warnings from Donald Trump. With tensions high over the US blockade on the Caribbean nation, Cuban authorities have confirmed they held The closer. The person who sat across from the Saudis and the Israelis and the Emiratis and found the shape of something that nobody thought was possible. And here is the thing about Kushner that the Cuban government needs to understand. [music] He does not show up to a room unless there is something to sign. He does not fly to capitals to have conversations. [music] He flies to capitals when the conversation is essentially done and someone needs to put their name on the page. If he lands in Havana, it means Washington believes the deal is 90% there. It means the regime has already in the back channels given enough signals [music] that a closer can close it. It means that the crab and the State Department officials and the months of quiet diplomacy have produced something [music] that just needs one more meeting to become real. Whether the regime accepts that final meeting, whether Diaz-Canel and the generals decide that the deal is better than the alternative that is parked in the Arabian [music] Sea finishing a war before turning toward the Caribbean is the only question left. If this channel has been how you follow Cuba from the beginning, from the first secret talks to the refused deadline, to the fake parade, to the aircraft carrier, to [music] what is happening right now, subscribe. Because when Kushner lands in Havana, this story will move faster than anyone is prepared for. Drop your answer in the comments. Do you think Kushner closes this deal or does Cuba find a way to run out the clock one more time? Because the crab has been meeting with Washington for months. And now Washington is sending someone who does not come to talk. He comes to finish. And the regime that has been saying no for 67 years is about to find out what happens when the [music] closer arrives and the clock finally runs out.

Finrock, likely a nested-quote/database hiccup — not GNFOLLOWING saying it.

On the video: some bones are real, but the meat is over-seasoned.

Verified: Cuba crisis is worsening; U.S. pressure/sanctions are real; GAESA-linked pressure is central; shipping firms have suspended Cuba bookings after a May 1 executive order. Reuters reports this may affect up to 60% of Cuba shipping volume.

Also verified: Cuba is considering a U.S. humanitarian aid offer while objecting to political conditions.

The Kushner/Witkoff part is weaker. Kavulich did say nobody should be surprised if they eventually negotiate in Havana, but that is not proof they are currently en route or that a deal is 90% done.

So simple explanation:

The video reads like a “deal is imminent” narrative built from real pressure points, real sanctions, real humanitarian collapse, and speculative closer-talk.

Wisdom version: Cuba may be near the bargaining table, but the video talks as if it is already at Camp David with pens on the table. That part needs more proof.

Suspect spy creating a new Simple Explanations
ChatGPT project to draft a reply may have something to do with it.

Most people just aren’t going to get stuff.

Mostly due to lack of effort and pigheadedness.

[High Spy]

Re: Cuba cancels May Day due to fuel shortages
https://ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 9#p1623999

[CQ]

[BeNotDeceived]

Re: Everything you’ve heard about Cuba is a lie
https://ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 9#p1624979

My father was stationed at Gtmo when I was in 5th and 6th grade. It was a tomboy’s heaven there for families of Navy personnel! Swimming pools, horseback riding, and after hours mischief to get into—climbing a radio tower, starting a crane, throwing eggs at drunk sailors, etc.

However, I had a classmate who still had her blood-stained dress from climbing through barbed wire to escape from Cuba to Guantanamo. Only she and her father survived out of her whole family.

We used to take a ferry from one side of the base to the other. My parents would keep an eye out for corpses of unsuccessful escapees and would move us over to the other side of the ferry to shield us from seeing that.

A lot of times at night we would hear a lot of machine gunfire. My parents said they were just having drills, but told us when we were older that it was escapees getting gunned down. My father, being a helicopter pilot, would see the aftermath in the morning.

I can’t tell you how many stories we heard of people very much risking their lives to get out of Cuba.

Unlike many Latinos, Cubans are generally very conservative politically. They know too well where leftism leads.