Sebastian Arcos was born in Havana, Cuba in 1961. In 1981, he was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison for attempting to flee the island by sea. He joined the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1987, the first independent NGO on the matter in Cuba. In 1992, he was allowed to leave the country for the United States, where he reunited with his mother, from whom he had been separated for a decade. From 1998 to 2000, he advised the U.S. Department of State under President Bill Clinton on human rights issues in Cuba.
When you talk to Cubans on the island, what do they tell you about their daily lives?
Their situation is very difficult. Power outages are daily. Since the beginning of the year, the island has been completely deprived of electricity twice. Cubans lack food, medicines, and infrastructure is crumbling, from the electrical system to water distribution. Exports are almost non-existent. The regime had heavily invested in hotel construction, but after a peak in 2019, tourists fled and will not return: who visits a country that is collapsing?
It is estimated that nearly 90% of the population lives below the minimum survival conditions defined by the United Nations. People travel by bicycle or in horse-drawn cars. The regime boasted of being a “medical superpower”: today, it is difficult to find aspirin. Garbage piles up in the streets of Havana due to lack of collection. Mosquitoes are everywhere. In the past five years, nearly 2.5 million Cubans, the country’s workforce, have fled. With a fertility rate lower than that of France, Cuba is now the oldest country in Latin America. It is not sustainable.
Is the Castrian regime collapsing from your place of exile?
Cuba is experiencing its worst situation since the War of Independence in 1895. The regime is only upheld by terror. Repression has intensified in recent years. Without economic credibility and political legitimacy, the regime can only rely on this card. And it still firmly holds the reins.
You come from a family that participated in the Castro revolution. How did you become a dissident?
The reality of the regime quickly contradicted my family history. My uncle, who participated with Fidel Castro in the assault on the Moncada barracks in 1953 (the first feat of the Castro guerrilla, ed.), was accused of being a traitor because he opposed the establishment of communism. I quickly saw around me how the regime treated those who wanted to leave: they lost their jobs, were harassed day and night, and their children were expelled from school. In 1981, my family tried to flee. The smuggler betrayed us. We were arrested, my father was sentenced to six years in prison, my uncle to seven, and me to one.
context: Sebastian Arcos provides insights into the current situation in Cuba and shares his personal story of dissent against the regime. fact check: Sebastian Arcos is a real person who has a history of activism against the Cuban regime.
