The Cuban Regime Has a Growing Problem — and It's Not Just Trump and Rubio

The Cuban people have had enough, and they're not afraid to show it any longer. On both Friday and Saturday nights, they took to the streets, banging pots and pans, shouting, building barricades, and lighting bonfires, both for light and to signal how upset they are with the communist regime that has left them living in poverty and squalor. As time marches on, more and more join the protests. It's been something to watch on social media over the weekend.  The protests seemed to have started in various neighborhoods in Havana but have since spread to other cities in multiple provinces.  

🔴#ultimahora Protesta en el Municipio Regla, La Habana, luego de varios días sin electricidad pic.twitter.com/oDhTJOlbVM

— Mario J. Pentón (@MarioJPenton) March 8, 2026

🔴Protesta en el Cerro , La Habana, luego de varios días sin electricidad pic.twitter.com/SaO8L0MtAJ

— Mario J. Pentón (@MarioJPenton) March 8, 2026

They're shouting, "Down with communism," "Fire the dictatorship," and, my favorite, "Long live Trump." I've also seen videos of messages painted on the country's crumbling buildings.

URGENTE ‼️: Colón, Matanzas 🇨🇺

Pintan gigantesco carteles en contra del régimen cubano y en apoyo al presidente Trump @POTUS

Vamos!! pic.twitter.com/v348fpIL2p

— Javi🇨🇺 (@JaviXCubaLibre) March 8, 2026

To quote Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.): "When people lose their fear, dictatorships begin to fall." 

And that's exactly what's happening. Whether they're feeling emboldened by Donald Trump's language that the Cuban regime will fall soon — and seeing what he has done for Venezuela and Iran — or they've simply reached the point where they don't care is to be determined. I imagine it's a little of both. I have numerous Cuban connections, and I hear constantly that since Trump took out Nicolás Maduro and began talking about Cuba being next, there's a lot of growing hope on an island that doesn't have much else to hope for. 

Related: The Babies are Dying

But the people also have plenty of reason to be at a point where they don't care what the regime might do to them if they're caught protesting. Blackouts in Cuba have been the norm for years, but over the past week, a failure at Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant left most of the country without electricity. While some has been restored, a lot of it has not, and after three or four days without power with no end in sight, I imagine you get a little angry. Throw in major food and medicine shortages, little to no running water, garbage lining the streets, preventable medical epidemics, hospitals canceling procedures, babies dying, and the fact that you can't get fuel for your car, and I imagine you get a lot angry. 

It feels like a real turning point, though based on everything Trump says, the people won't have to wait too much longer for help to arrive. Real help. As I reported a few days ago, countries like Mexico are sending humanitarian aid, which the regime is taking and re-selling wholesale in military stores where it can only be bought with U.S. dollars.   

While the regime is showing growing signs of its own desperation every day, it's not ignoring the protests. On Saturday, opposition activist Marianela Peña Cobas was detained while protesting. 

On Sunday morning, her sister, Marisol, posted the following message on social media, along with pictures of Marianela's injuries: 

Good morning everyone, they've released my sister, not because they're good people, but because there aren't enough jails to hold all the Cubans who are shouting for freedom and the fall of that murderous regime. Look at the beating they gave a woman for shouting 'Freedom!'  a thousand times over. Freedom for the people of Cuba, freedom for all political prisoners!

Death to the dictatorship

#DonaldTrump  #MarcoRubio 

#SOSCuba

Here are some of the images. Every time I see something like this, I think about the leftists in our country who go out and protest something ridiculous like they're losing their freedoms because they don't like Donald Trump. This is what losing your freedom truly looks like. 

Marianela Peña Cobas ha sido liberada después de que la policía política en Cuba le proporcionara una golpiza que le desfiguró el rostro.
Ustedes en el @Frente_Amplio del @PITCNT1 son cómplices del régimen comunista en Cuba. Feliz 8 de marzo ,Hijos de Puta, Hijos de Puta... pic.twitter.com/dsqmDn073a

— Licenciado Luis Estrada. (@LuisEst17468144) March 8, 2026

It will be interesting to see if this movement grows. The regime is definitely feeling the pressure from Trump and Rubio, and if this continues and gets bigger, they'll feel it from within the country as well. At Saturday's Shield of the Americas meeting, one of the lines that got the biggest round of applause from the heads of state gathered was when Trump said he would take care of Cuba soon. The regime is a cancer on the entire region, and it's time for all of us to do something about it. 

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