Cuba is out of supplies and out of ideas

The economic crisis is accelerating two recent trends. First, the communist government is losing control of the country—which is not to say the regime is about to fall. “All of us are here to save the revolution and save socialism,” Cuba’s president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, said this month. But few believe the ideological rhetoric. The government is unable to provide even the basic canasta (basket) of goods for its people, let alone anything else. The result is growing inequality, unrest and emigration. In the two years to the end of 2023 a tenth of the population of 11.2m left (see chart). Second, in search of succour the government is moving even closer to China and Russia. These growing economic and security ties come at a time when American officials are worried by those countries’ growing influence in Latin America.