The exodus, inflation, blackouts, and repression illustrate the cost of having responded to 11J with the “combat order”
14ymedio, Havana, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, July 10, 2026 / There are questions that never grow old. On the contrary, time sharpens them. Five years after the protests of 11 July 2021, I wonder what kind of country we would have today if those in power had listened to those who shouted “freedom,” “we want change,” or “Patria y Vida” [Homeland and Life] during that day across this island.
We will never know that answer. But we do know the path that was chosen.
Repression was chosen. A citizen’s demand was turned into a police case. The response was the phrase that now occupies a dark place in our contemporary history: “The combat order has been given,” uttered before the cameras of national television by President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Imprisonment, beating, surveillance, expulsion, and the sowing of fear were chosen where there had been an opportunity for dialogue.
Governments, like people, end up resembling the decisions they make in crucial moments. And that July was one of those moments.
Thousands of Cubans discovered, simultaneously and in dozens of cities, that they were not alone in their discontent. However, the price has been enormous.
That day, a political system didn’t fall, but a spell was broken. Thousands of Cubans discovered, simultaneously and in dozens of cities, that they weren’t alone in their discontent. However, the price has been enormous.
In the last five years, Cuba has lost more than a million inhabitants to emigration, according to estimates by independent experts. The authorities themselves acknowledge a drastic demographic decline. Young people are leaving in droves, families are breaking apart, and neighbors are learning to say goodbye at a pace reminiscent of wartime.
The Cuban peso ceased to be a currency and became a symbol of lack of confidence. Inflation devoured salaries, pensions, and savings. Blackouts went from being a nuisance to becoming the clock that organizes daily life. Hospitals, schools, factories, and homes began to operate around the hours of available electricity, as if the 21st century had decided to turn back several decades.
At the same time, the clanging of pots and pans returned to the dark nights. No longer just to demand food or electricity, but to remind everyone that discontent remains alive even though the streets are more heavily patrolled and the prisons are overflowing.
Would we have arrived at this same place if, instead of mobilizing troops, a national dialogue had been convened?
Would we have arrived at this same place if, instead of mobilizing troops, a national dialogue had been convened? If the regime had understood that a protesting citizen is not necessarily an enemy? If it had accepted that governing also involves listening?
I have no way of proving that we would be living in a better country today. History never offers parallel experiments. What we do know is the result of the decision that was made. That experiment has already been realized. It is called Cuba, 2026. It is enough to walk down any Cuban street to find nearly empty buildings because their inhabitants have emigrated, shops where prices change several times a week, elderly people eating from the garbage, and young people whose principal illusion is to leave.
Five years later, the greatest failure of the regime is not only having repressed a protest of that magnitude. It is having squandered the last great opportunity to reconcile with its own country. The result is before us: a sadder, poorer, older, and more broken country than the one that took to the streets on that July 11th.
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