I first heard the term “estática milagrosa” (“miraculous stasis”) from a friend of my wife. The young woman — an architect — had worked for an urban heritage conservation office in Cuba, and she marveled at how the mansions, buildings, cinemas, and theaters of the once-Parisian Havana refused to collapse.

Humidity might burst the dowels within their columns; saltpeter might bloat the cement on their facades; a hurricane might rip away their doors and windows — yet the structures remained standing, defying the terror of skittish passersby.

The Revolution turned Havana into a Pompeii of Salt. Ruins without a volcano. The volcano — red as the most vivid lava — was socialism. The city’s miraculous stasis is mirrored in the very malady that has caused its impoverishment. Cuban socialism has misgoverned the country — and squandered its sugar and tourism industries — to such an extent that, although it should have collapsed years ago, its capacity to cling to power remains astonishing.

Events between Cuba and the United States have taken a series of highly symbolic turns this May.

On the 5th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited SOUTHCOM headquarters during a national security conference in Miami, where he posed for a photograph in front of a map of the island while shaking hands with General Francis L. Donovan.

On the 12th, he smiled for the camera once again. This time, aboard Air Force One, he wore a gray Nike tracksuit — remarkably similar to the one Nicolás Maduro was wearing when he was extracted during the operation on January 3rd. Was he sending a warning to Raúl Castro regarding what would befall him should he refuse to negotiate a change in Cuba?

Two days later, John Ratcliffe, the Director of the CIA, arrived in Havana for an unprecedented official visit. After years of accusing independent journalists like myself of being “mercenaries paid by the CIA,” the U.S. delegation was received by Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casa and Intelligence Chief Ramón Romero Curbelo.

Furthermore, Ratcliffe reportedly held talks with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez, head of security and factotum to his 94-year-old grandfather, Raúl Castro, who holds the reins of the island.

It appears that things did not go entirely smoothly during the talks, or perhaps Rubio simply wants no further delays from Havana. That very night, an administration official leaked to major media outlets that the United States is moving toward indicting Castro in connection with the 1996 massacre of activists from Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue).

Amidst all this, earlier in the month, widely circulated reports emerged regarding an increase in U.S. spy flights near Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second-largest city. Since February, P-8A Poseidon and RC-135V Rivet Joint aircraft, as well as MQ-4C Triton drones, have reportedly conducted at least 25 intelligence-gathering flights.

Meanwhile, economic pressure continues to mount. The Canadian mining firm Sherritt, which had been operating in the eastern part of the island, is set to dissolve its Cuban subsidiary due to sanctions imposed by Washington.

According to both the secretary of Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey, Cuba possesses one of the world’s largest nickel reserves; moreover, in 2023, Cuba ranked as the world’s seventh-largest producer of cobalt — a mineral critical for battery manufacturing. The geopolitical significance of these critical minerals provides yet another compelling reason why a free Cuba serves the national interest of the United States.

On the domestic front, the diplomatic efforts of Ambassador Mike Hammer continue to exert a positive influence on the public opinion of the average Cuban regarding the role of the United States in the current crisis, as well as the White House’s support for those on the island who risk their safety to raise their voices in support of a new Cuba.

If there is one issue that unites the entire spectrum of political opinion within the Cuban dissident movement, it is the liberation of political prisoners — a group that currently numbers well over a thousand. And the Trump administration is pressuring the Castro regime to carry out further prisoner releases.

The departure of activist Sissi Abascal — escorted directly from prison to a flight that took her to the United States on a humanitarian visa — is the most recent example. It occurred shortly after USA Today published audio recordings of the high-profile political prisoners Maykel Osorbo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, in which they describe receiving an ultimatum from the regime: leave Cuba or remain in prison.

Meanwhile, the protests continue unabated — an extension of that "Spring of Fire" which began in March and has filled neighborhoods across the country with the din of banging pots and pans. People are protesting with cacerolazos against power outages, medicine shortages, repression, and food scarcity.

Will all of this momentum finally translate into the end of the “miraculous stasis” (what Cubans view as a “cursed stasis”) that sustains the longest-running tyranny in the hemisphere? The Donroe Doctrine must take root in the heart of the Caribbean to affirm its hegemony — and to realign the destinies of millions on the island with the cause of freedom.