In her diary, Lynn Cruz describes a fare increase for an almendrón in Havana, using it as a starting point to question US intervention in Cuban politics. She invokes history and quotes from José Martí to warn against despotisms disguised as freedom. She expresses skepticism toward promises of change under the Trump administration.
On February 13, 2026, Lynn Cruz published a diary entry on Havana Times titled 'The Enemy of My Enemy Is Not My Friend'. She describes how, the previous afternoon, she boarded an almendrón, a shared taxi from a 1950s Chevrolet model, and the driver charged her 400 pesos to go to El Vedado, an increase of 150 pesos from the morning.
Cruz links this everyday experience to historical reflections. She recalls the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine by the United States, which helped end Spanish rule in Cuba, alongside the use of the cinematograph to depict Spaniards as crueler. She quotes a 1884 letter from José Martí to General Máximo Gómez: 'There is something above the personal sympathy you may inspire in me (…) and it is my determination not to contribute in the slightest, out of blind love for an idea for which I am giving my life, to bring to my land a regime of personal despotism, which would be more shameful and disastrous than the political despotism it now endures'. She adds: 'A people is not founded, General, the way one commands an army camp'.
The author critiques the desire among many Cubans for the Trump administration to resolve problems inherited from Fidel Castro. She mentions Mike Hammer, Trump's main spokesman in Havana, who speaks of dialogues 'democratically behind closed doors and at the highest level'. Hammer posted on Facebook: 'Thank you President Trump for establishing the first Anti-Communism Week to renew our national promise to remain firm against the poison of communism'.
Cruz refers to announcements of 'new property reforms' by Cubatrámite and internal pressures, but warns against manipulations that could replace one oligarchy with another, recalling transitions in former communist countries. She compares to Chilean cases, like that of Jorge Mateluna, sentenced in 2013 and pardoned in 2023. She questions whether the release of political prisoners will include vindication of rights beyond Castroism.
