VIDEOS: "Undercover in Havana" and "An island in turmoil"

Our post "Beginning of the end for Castro Communist Cuba?" (WWW 10/2/26) brought more reaction than usual, not all of it positive. Agent 2, who used to be a regular visitor to Cuba and has friends there, thinks it wrong of Agent 10 to advocate a boycott of Cuba as a tourist destination. 2 writes:

I understand that she wants change in Cuba.... She is telling people not to go and support a dictatorship. But what is happening right now is extremely hurtful to the residents. No tourists mean some resorts are closing, no jobs for the workers, no transportation because of the fuel. 

How are they to shop, go to doctors or hospitals, visit friends or sick relatives? Only some of them have decent bicycles. The tourists give tips, clothes, medicines not only to the workers but they walk off the resorts to the villages to distribute money and meds and clothes.

Lack of fuel for the tourists to take a cab and guess what, the cab driver has a family. Schools are closed and for how long?... I am on WhatsApp constantly with my Cuban friends who are hurting. They are living with this mess. 

The next few months will be very difficult for them. The big solution here is which country will bring their tankers not overthrowing the government. That is for another time.

In this video, Ezra Levant interviews Alexa Lavoie, who he sent to Havana on a mission to document how things are on the ground. Ms Lavoie describes poverty, shortages and surveillance seen in Havana and how its reality clashes with Cuba's tourist image.

She reports many of the same things Agent 2 said, especially the part about jobs at hotels and resorts being the best jobs. As you'll see, things are not so good if you're a teacher or... just about anything else. Watch the video and decide for yourself whether it's right for the US of A to be trying to depose the Castro Communists. 

And here's another one, an ARTE documentary published last October. Like the first video, it shows how, for foreign tourists, Cuba is a corner of paradise in the heart of the Caribbean. But for Cubans life is not easy. A rolling economic crisis means food shortages and poverty as buildings and infrastructure crumble. How can we fail to understand how much the poor people of Cuba -- that includes everyone except the Castro cronies and their military -- want change and wants it now!