A US oil embargo ordered by the Trump administration has pushed Cuba deeper into humanitarian crisis, triggering widespread blackouts, food shortages, and a surge in rare public protests. In March, residents of Morón (a city in central Cuba) attacked the local Communist Party headquarters — what analysts describe as the first assault on an official government building in nearly 70 years of communist rule — and reported demonstrations have jumped from 30 in January to 229 in March, according to Cuban human rights group Cubalex. While experts caution that Cuba lacks a viable opposition movement or leader capable of threatening the regime — weakened further by the exile or imprisonment of dissidents and the emigration of over a million Cubans since 2020 — the growing unrest signals that prolonged deprivation may be eroding the regime's grip in ways not seen since the mass protests of 2021.