Cuba has long been marketed to Western tourists as a colorful island of vintage cars, beaches, and music. But according to Rebel News journalist Alexandra Lavoie, the reality on the ground tells a far different story—one marked by shortages, surveillance, and a population increasingly frustrated with a regime that shows no signs of reform.
In an exclusive conversation with Joe Pags, Lavoie described how she and a colleague traveled to the island under the cover of a vacation in order to document conditions ordinary tourists rarely see. Rather than openly reporting, she said they posed as a couple on a “honeymoon” to avoid drawing attention from authorities.
That caution proved necessary. “…suddenly someone came into our room when we were not there pretending to deliver a dessert when we didn’t ask for,” Lavoie told Pags, describing what she believes was an intimidation or monitoring tactic. Cuba’s government tightly controls media access, and independent journalism—especially foreign reporting critical of the regime—can bring serious consequences.
To protect the material they gathered, Lavoie said she took extraordinary precautions. “I was hiding our SD card a little bit everywhere… I was hiding the SD card in my bathing suit or in all kind of clothes,” she explained. The goal was simple: ensure that if authorities confiscated equipment, the core footage documenting daily conditions would still make it out of the country.
What she captured, she said, was a nation struggling with visible decline. Fuel shortages, limited food supplies, deteriorating infrastructure, and piles of uncollected trash were not isolated incidents but recurring patterns. While the Cuban government continues to promote the island as stable and resilient, Lavoie described widespread economic strain and public dissatisfaction.
She also told Pags that many Cubans are closely watching U.S. policy. “They actually wish that Donald Trump is doing something about Cuba. They are waiting a regime change,” she said, reflecting conversations she had with locals.
Cuba remains under the leadership of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, though Raúl Castro—who formally stepped aside from party leadership in recent years—continues to cast a long political shadow over the island’s communist system. Critics argue that despite generational shifts in leadership, the governing structure and restrictions on political opposition remain firmly in place.
Lavoie emphasized that documenting these conditions carries real risk. Foreign journalists operating without official permission can face detention, expulsion, or worse. The fact that she was able to return with footage at all, she suggested, underscores both the danger and the determination involved.
In their full interview, Pags and Lavoie walk through what she witnessed, how the surveillance state operates at a ground level, and why she believes the outside world rarely sees this side of Cuba. For viewers interested in firsthand reporting from inside one of the Western Hemisphere’s last communist governments, the complete conversation offers a rare, detailed look beyond the resort façade.