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Cuba’s collapse is not due to the U.S. embargo but to its overlooked transition into a mafia state. Since the turn of the century, a giant holding known as GAESA has quietly privatized the country’s most lucrative enterprises and siphoned billions abroad while citizens lack food, medicine, and basic services. A kleptocratic elite controls about 70 percent of the economy and 95 percent of dollar transactions, while using repression to maintain power. Ordinary Cubans face extreme poverty, shortages, and mass emigration, while GAESA invests in luxury hotels and launders illicit funds. The state is now split between those who “govern” and those who “rule.” President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s visible government manages failure and takes public responsibility for repression, while GAESA rules from the shadows. The root cause of conflict on the island is the clash between citizens’ needs and aspirations and the ongoing oligarchic plunder.
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