Pedro Quiala Carmenate says he’s not religious but he’s praying for President Donald Trump to liberate Cuba.  It makes sense for what he is praying.

     “There’s no food, there’s no electricity and there’s no medical care,” he told The Post from his neighborhood, Old Havana, where he was speaking on his cell phone during one of the frequent blackouts on the island.  In addition to power outages, an increase in crime, no trash collection and climbing inflation, the 34-year-old pro-democracy activist can barely find enough food to feed his children.  Due to lack of food, he’s keeping his kids, aged six and fifteen years old, from class, although he also notes teachers have stopped showing up to the government-run schools.  

     The capture of former Venezuelan strongman president Nicolas Maduro in a US military special operation earlier this year had two effects on Cuba. It cut off the main supplier of oil to the nation, and gave dissidents against the Communist Cuban government — led by President Miguel Diaz-Canel — hope.  Activist José Daniel Ferrer’s cell phone blew up with messages from fellow activists in Cuba on January 3, the day Maduro was captured.       

     “I must have gotten 60 messages asking me when the US military would be on their way to Cuba to get rid of Diaz- Canel,” said Ferrer, 55, who leads the a pro-democracy movement and has been repeatedly incarcerated and tortured for his activism over the years.  “The majority of Cubans want the Americans to intervene because they are living through the worst period of the 67-year dictatorship.”

     Blackouts and shortages are nothing new in Cuba since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959 in the name of Communism. However, hardships have increased in recent years, leading to a mass exodus of over 800,000 people in each of the last four years. This is equivalent to around 25% of the population, leaving less than eight million on the island, according to The Guardian.