Belly of the Beast

Season 2 of The War on Cuba, a docuseries by Havana-based media group Belly of the Beast is out this Nov.

Episode 5: On July 11, unprecedented protests erupted across Cuba. Most media organizations portrayed the demonstrations as a cry for freedom against Communism. But the reality was far more complex. Journalist Liz Oliva Fernández explores the root causes of the devastating economic crisis that has pushed Cuba to the brink. She takes the viewer to Cuba’s working class neighborhoods, where we see the impact of ever-intensifying U.S. sanctions during the COVID pandemic and the near fulfillment of a 1960 State Department memo justifying the purpose of the U.S. embargo: “[to deny] money and supplies…to decrease…wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.”