Why are Cubas boiling over street tensions?
Liuba lvarez leaves her home three times a week at 3.45am to line up in front of her local supermarket for basic goods like meat, oil and detergent. Her last queue was relatively short: after eight hours she came home with some minced meat in time for lunch. Other days she does not return until 5 p.m.  Tiresome, says lvarez, 47. Waking up early gives me migraines, but it is the only way I can take these products to feed my children. Cubans are used to the queues. But since pandemic, endless lines, tight wages and power outages have become a harsh reality for millions. And on Sunday tensions erupted in the largest anti-government protests in decades. Social media, the pandemic and harsh US sanctions combined with a new generation hungry for higher living standards have made for a dangerous cocktail with which the ruling Communist party is trying to fight. Cubans need cigarettes, coffee and food to be happy, Rey Alonso, 41, in central Havana on Tuesday, said. Four years ago we had everything you could go out and buy a can of cola. Now everything is gone. Of course people took to the streets! Covered current  Cuba has one of the lowest Covid mortality rates in the region, with less than 2,000 dying from the disease since the onset of the pandemic. But the island, which hospitalizes all those who test positive for the virus, has been hit hard by new variants: Cuba on Saturday recorded a record 6,923 new infections. #SOSCuba was on trend on Facebook as hospitals in the western city of Matanza were so overcrowded that they placed patient beds in the hallways. The increase in the number of cases has increased anxiety in the population. Developing its own Covid vaccines has been the number one priority of states and 17% of Cubans have been vaccinated so far. But laundering money in vaccine production has left the state immersed in money with little funding to import other essential medicines, and pharmacy shelves are barren. Men ride their bicycles next to a poster of the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana this week. Photos: Yamil Lage / AFP / Getty Images  Trump sanctions still in effect  US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Monday criticized the Cuban regime for failing to meet the most basic needs of the people, including food and medicine. For decades, however, U.S. policies have been clearly designed to create such shortcomings. (When you first think of sanctions, President Dwight Eisenhower supposed that If they [the Cuban people] are hungry, they will throw Castro out.) Donald Trumpss maximum pressure campaign against the island limited foreign exchange inflows: flights to the island were disrupted, cruise ships were banned, shipments were canceled and US firms were allowed to sue multinationals investing in Cuba. Target, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, reportedly told diplomats, was to starve the country.