Johana Tablada, deputy director-general at the United States Department of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, talks to redfish about the U.S. role in stoking anti-government sentiment in socialist Cuba in this exclusive interview. To Tablada, most economic grievances we saw during Cuba’s protests can be traced to the U.S. blockade and explains how U.S. President Joe Biden has continued the Trump Administration’s policy of “maximum pressure” towards Cuba. “[The U.S.] took it upon themselves to find out how Cuba was surviving … then they designed, like a tailor-made suit, a strategy on how to cut the throat of the Cuban economy,” Tablada says. “It’s logical that when Cuba’s oil is taken away, it creates an electricity shortage. And it’s natural that people take to the streets and say, ‘Hey, I need electricity to cook.’”