For months, the United States has been waging what it describes as a “maximum pressure campaign” against Cuba, blocking oil imports to the island, levying criminal charges against a former leader and squeezing the already fragile economy with new sanctions. The Trump administration has made no secret of its end goal: the collapse of Cuba’s Communist government and the dawn of a new era of political and economic liberalization. This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Photographer Lisette Poole González recently set out on a road trip across the island to document this consequential moment. Over two weeks, she traveled between Havana in the west and Baracoa, a city on the eastern edge of the island. She toured remote provinces rarely visited by international journalists in recent years thanks to government restrictions and the difficulty of procuring fuel. 1.
The longest bridge in Cuba is mostly void of traffic. Fuel shortages mean fewer cars on the road. 2. A horse pulling a carriage passes a church in Baracoa, on Cuba’s eastern tip. 3.
An altar in the home of a practitioner of an African diasporic religion. She encountered beaches typically teeming with tourists that were spookily empty, and fishermen unable to work because they lacked gasoline to go to sea. Public transportation has largely ground to a halt, and the repeated collapse of the national power grid plunges the entire island into darkness for days at a time.
Even on a good day, most Cubans receive just a few hours of electricity. Water shortages are common. Poole González captured resilience in the face of hardship: A man showering outside in a rainstorm.
Horses pulling people in carriages. Teenagers pushing children on a carousel that stopped turning long ago. 1. In Baracoa, people gather outside to take advantage of natural light amid near-constant power outages.
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