Protest, exit, and border expansion in Cuba in the context of COVID-19

This article examines the expansion of border control and migration strategies in Cuba following the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the biomedical response to the pandemic by the Cuban state, this context was marked by unprecedented levels of social mobilization and the largest migratory exodus in Cuban history. The first section discusses several of the migratory modalities used by Cubans in a context marked by the precarization of life, accentuated by the economic reform adopted by the Cuban state. The second one explores the political function of the border regime in the state response to an unprecedented moment of oppositional activism. Specifically, it analyzes how the practices of banishment, denial of entry, and control of exits, are used as part of the repertoire of repression, underscoring the importance of the border regime vis-a-vis the notions of citizenship and belonging in the Cuban context. The article argues that in the analyzed context of deepening internal economic crisis and political retrenchment, the border regime plays a central role in managing political decisions in Cuba. While Cuban migrants find themselves navigating ever more complex, dangerous border regimes abroad, they also contend with the Cuban state’s instrumental and often repressive use of a border regime at home.