Ending the Cuban dictatorship is the only option for the freedom of the Cuban people and the security of the United States

By: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín - 15/03/2026

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This is the historic moment that will define freedom or the repetition of oppression for the peoples of the Americas. That definition lies in the future of Cuba, still subjected today to the oldest and most successful organized crime regime in the region. Cuba's freedom will shape the future of the entire Western Hemisphere. If, by any means, the dictator leaves but the dictatorship remains, nothing will have changed. But if the dictatorship ends, the freedom of the Cuban people and the security of the United States and the Americas will be assured for future generations.

The Interamerican Institute for Democracy is a pluralistic, non-proselytizing think tank in the United States that has worked for nearly two decades to promote, defend, and sustain freedom, democracy, human rights, and institutional integrity in the Americas. It conducts studies, forums, conferences, colloquia, and various forms of social and political research, and its publishing arm has released over 100 books in English and Spanish. In this capacity, it recently held the “Quo Vadis Cuba 2026” Forum with leaders, academics, businesspeople, politicians, artists, journalists, and Cuban citizens living in Cuba who are part of the 67-year-old exile community.

Despite differences in education, generation, social standing, and economic and political position, the opinion of Cuban civil society is unanimous in expressing the urgency and extraordinary opportunity to end the dictatorship that oppresses them. "End" in the precise sense of "to finish, to end, to conclude, to finalize, to liquidate, to cease, to expire, to exhaust, to interrupt..."—this is real change, not more of the same in any form, presentation, or simulation.

The new generations of Cubans, those born under the Castro regime and educated through indoctrination under the narrative of the so-called revolution, consistently and uniformly repudiate the regime and cry out for “homeland, life, and liberty.” They all hope for an end to the system of “state terrorism” that has subjugated them for 67 years with the tolerance, complicity, or involvement of world governments that have turned the “Cuban question” into a tool for political adjustment in the fragile balance with transnational organized crime and the protection or activation of terrorism.

The Cuban dictatorship has sustained itself thus far through a vast network of complicity and threats that have subjugated the conduct of democracies in the Americas and the world. By projecting an image of near-eternity, of a dictatorship with no time limit, it has used and continues to use its ability to outlast, manipulate, and outlast 13 US presidents, including Trump, demonstrating its expertise in managing and overcoming crises.

Latin American governments that have opposed the Cuban regime have been victims of street protests, conspiracies, the emergence of subversion, the establishment of guerrilla groups, terrorism, kidnappings, attacks, assassinations, all kinds of internal destabilization, overthrows, character assassination, and smear campaigns. Leaders who have denounced the criminal, drug-trafficking, and terrorist nature of the Cuban regime have suffered constant conspiracies, overthrows, attacks, and persecution.

The Cuban dictatorship has orchestrated conspiracies, coups, and all manner of overthrows, promoted candidates, and financed elections, resulting in subservient presidents and governments—the “para-dictatorial” governments we see today in Brazil with Lula, Mexico with Sheinbaum, Colombia with Petro, and Spain with Sánchez, and which occurred in Argentina with the Kirchners, Paraguay with Lugo, Chile with Boric, and Honduras with Castro. It has formed “international groups” such as the São Paulo Forum, the Puebla Group, and others. It has disguised leftist crimes and/or transformed the left into a criminal entity.

Those who have embraced the Castro regime's offer of "friendship to avoid problems" have navigated relatively uneventful periods of governance, but with the ignominy of capitulation. Those who have integrated themselves into the system, placing their foreign policy at its service, handing over resources through spurious contracts with slave laborers, and following its directives, have enjoyed its gratitude and unwavering protection, much like a mafia. For the Cuban dictatorship is the head of the most successful mafia, organized as 21st-century socialism or Castro-Chavismo, which has supplanted politics with a narrative of revolution and anti-imperialist rhetoric.

With the United States' "National Security Strategy," the "Spear of the South," its operator in Venezuela transformed into the "prisoner Nicolás Maduro," the Shield of the Americas, and the new regional and global geopolitical reality, the Cuban dictatorship has proven itself to be the center of permanent aggression. That is why it is under a US ultimatum, but it is maneuvering to "cede ground in exchange for time," hoping that Trump 47 can become the 14th US president they manipulated, thus proving the dictatorial eternity they boast of and promote.

Only the end of the Cuban dictatorship will bring freedom to the Cuban people and security to the United States and the Western Hemisphere. Any other option is neither freedom nor security; it is a continuation of transnational organized crime, which can and must be definitively defeated.

*Lawyer and Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».