The Maleconazo

August 5, 1994. Havana. Thirty-five years of Castro in power, and people were hungry, exhausted by blackouts and desperate to leave.

Rumours of boats leaving the island drew crowds to the harbour. Thousands joined the unrest, and anger spilled into the streets against the dictatorship. That was the Maleconazo.

The crackdown brought hundreds of arrests, including opposition activists who had not been shown to have organised the uprising. Gloria Bravo, an activist with the Association of Mothers for Dignity, and Carlos Ríos, from the opposition group Cambio 2000, were severely beaten in detention.

On September 17, 162 detainees were transferred to Kilo-7, a maximum-security prison in Camagüey. The punishment continued long after the streets had been cleared.

Castro temporarily allowed departures. Around 35,000 Cubans took to the sea over roughly five weeks in August–September 1994: about 1,000 people a day on average. That's the balsero exodus that followed the Maleconazo.

He had already opened Mariel in 1980. Around 125,000 Cubans reached the United States during the boatlift: roughly 800 a day across about 160 days of departures from April to September. In May alone, arrivals topped 86,000, averaging nearly 2,800 a day. Castro also used Mariel to force out people he wanted rid of.

Mariel in 1980. Balseros in 1994. Both times Castro loosened the exit controls, Cubans left by the thousands, heading towards the supposedly evil imperialist monster across the water. Apparently that monster looked considerably less frightening than another lifetime in his socialist paradise.