After her teenage son refused compulsory military service, Ismari Saavedra faced years of government harassment, school expulsion, and threats—exposing Cuba’s crackdown on conscientious objection.

The contamination of the Belico and Cubanicay rivers, which border the center of Villa Clara, has a long history. One of the first lessons families in the area teach their children is that the surrounding rivers “are not good for swimming.” 

“The problem is no longer making the regime recognize the result. The problem is that the executive branch, the high military command, the national electoral council, and the attorney general conspired to disregard the popular will, and that constitutes an attempted coup d’état.”