OPINION
Five years ago this month, thousands of Cubans bravely took to the streets to demand freedom and human dignity after decades of the regime’s repression and brutality.
Under the rallying cry of Patria y Vida, the song that became the anthem of the protests, Cubans launched the largest nationwide demonstrations in decades.
The tyrannical regime responded with its usual playbook of brute force.
They deployed state security thugs to beat peaceful protestors, conducted mass arrests, and unjustly imprisoned more than 1,400 peaceful demonstrators.
Yet, the conditions that sparked those historic protests remain.
Cuba continues to endure countless human rights violations, nationwide blackouts, and economic collapse, while hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars.
This month, Cuba suffered its ninth major blackout since late 2024, a perpetual reminder of the regime’s mounting failures.
Yet the regime continues to imprison those who dare to demand change, including children.
That is why U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz recently held up photographs at the General Assembly of imprisoned protestor rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez "Osorbo" and recently released political prisoner who was forced into exile, artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) will recognize both men at the 2026 Democracy Awards as part of its commitment to honoring those who have endured enormous sacrifice for a free Cuba.
Cuba is among the top five democracy programs supported by NED, reflecting a commitment that spans more than 40 years.
Through that support, NED has helped independent journalists, religious leaders, human rights defenders, civic organizations, political prisoners, and democratic leaders prepare to shape the country's future themselves. NED, the core institutes — the Center for International Private Enterprise, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and the Solidarity Center— and their partners are working to ensure that the voices of the Cuban people are heard, and that democratic networks on the ground are strengthened to better foster genuine democratic change.
This work also counters the Cuban regime’s anti-democratic, anti-American influence in Latin America. One example is NED's support for investigations into GAESA, the regime’s military-run economic apparatus.
This support has helped bring to light how GAESA siphons away billions from the people to fill the regime’s coffers.
While the people are suffering and the average Cuban only makes approximately $15 USD a month, the Miami Herald reported that the communist regime’s military has $18 billion stashed away— "an amount larger than the international reserves of nations like Costa Rica, Uruguay and Panama."
An additional money maker is the human trafficking of Cuban doctors, which typically brings the regime somewhere between $4-$8 billion a year.
In a February 2025 statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that "Cuba's labor export programs, which include the medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime, and in the case of Cuba's overseas medical missions, deprive ordinary Cubans of the medical care they desperately need in their home country."
The same regime that exploits Cuba's economy to preserve its grip on power also works systematically to suppress independent civic life. Churches and faith communities are a target of that repression.
According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Cuban authorities continue to control religious institutions and punish religious activity that does not conform to the state’s priorities by harassing, detaining, and threatening religious leaders and their parishioners.
That is why support for religious freedom remains central to any serious effort to defend Cuba’s democratic future. NED and the International Republican Institute (IRI) have worked with Cuban civil society partners to document the regime's persecution of religious leaders and elevate their firsthand testimony before international audiences.
IRI has helped bring these abuses to light, documenting how the Cuban regime surveils, detains, threatens, and intimidates faith leaders who refuse to submit to state control.
The faith-based networks that NED and IRI support inside Cuba will play a foundational role in any transition on the island.
A stable and democratic future for Cuba requires sustained pressure on the regime while ensuring that the aspirations of the Cuban people remain at the forefront of any lasting democratic solution.
Responsible nations throughout the hemisphere should uphold the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and support conditions that enable Cubans to shape Cuba's political, economic, and democratic future.
The following recommendations translate these principles into action, requiring a clear and coordinated strategy that keeps the Cuban people at its center.
First, just like in Venezuela, the international community should come together and demand the immediate and unconditional release all political prisoners, and also extend support and solidarity to the Cubans who are demanding human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Second, responsible nations should increase pressure on the regime by exposing its corruption and holding accountable those responsible for human rights abuses, through mechanisms such as the USCIRF recommendation to designate Cuba as a Country of Particular Concern and any other tools available.
Third, Congress should continue to invest in democracy assistance through the Department of State and NED to strengthen democracy actors and ensure that Cubans themselves are prepared to shape their country's democratic future.
The regime can cut internet access, jail its critics, and try to silence the voices of Patria y Vida, but it cannot extinguish the desire for libertad.
As Americans mark 250 years of independence, we should answer that call with sustained accountability and pressure on the regime, continued support for Cuba's pro-democracy movement, and determination that Cuba's future belongs to its people.
Former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., served as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is the first Latina elected to Congress, and is on the Board of Directors of the International Republican Institute.
Eddy Acevedo is the vice president of policy and government relations at the National Endowment for Democracy. He previously served as a senior foreign affairs staffer in Congress for former Florida U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
These opinions are solely that of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for Democracy or the International Republican Institute.
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