The Cuban diaspora raises its voice from Madrid
Cuba is going through perhaps the most decisive days of the last 62 years. Not since the triumph of the revolution has the Caribbean country experienced a wave of mobilisations similar to the one that broke out last Monday in San Antonio de los Baños, when part of the Cuban people decided to take to the streets in protest against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel. The marches soon spread to various parts of the island under the slogans of "bread and freedom", and the Castro regime cracked down harshly on critics. So far 187 people have been arrested or disappeared, according to the NGO Prisoners Defenders, and one has died, according to the official version.
On the other side of the Atlantic, more than 7,400 km from Havana, an invaluable part of the Cuban diaspora has decided to raise its voice against what they consider an atrocious persecution of the people. Throughout this week, the statue of the bear and the strawberry tree has been dressed with the Cuban flag and the rest of the Puerta del Sol has been dyed red, white and blue, the characteristic colours of the Caribbean country, in support of the delicate situation on the island in the face of the shortage of basic products, food and medicine.
Since Tuesday, hundreds of Cuban exiles have held a series of rallies in Madrid, which are expected to continue in the coming days. Some demonstrators have hardly left the streets since then, and many remain at the forefront of the protests. The headquarters of the dissidents have been set up in front of the Cuban Embassy, located on Paseo de La Habana, and a few metres from Kilometre Zero, where shouts and slogans can be heard every afternoon.
On Thursday, the mood was still unsettled after a week of nervousness. "I haven't slept for several days," admitted one of the demonstrators. Tension is growing by the minute in the face of the brutal repression put in place by Castro's regime. Díaz-Canel himself called on supporters of the revolution to regain the pulse of the streets and silence the "counter-revolutionaries". However, hours later he changed his tune and spoke in a much more conciliatory tone: "I call for solidarity and not to let hatred take over the Cuban soul, which is a soul of kindness, affection and love", he said.
For its part, the strength of the protests in Madrid has been diminishing as the trickle of information crossed the pond. What at the beginning gave the opposition in exile unprecedented hope, today is a source of deep uncertainty. The latest information exported from Cuba shows that the mass rallies have lost their intensity. For the time being, there is a kind of tense calm that covers the whole island. "The fact that a volcano is not inactive does not mean that inside it is not boiling with lava", warns Cuban dissident journalist Mario Leclere from the Puerta del Sol.
Leclere, a connoisseur of Castroism's information practices, acknowledges that it is complicated to know what is happening in the country. "They are going to try to contain all that rage inside the houses, and that could explode at any moment. Either they are simply deceiving us and people are still exploding... or this calm has really been created, which I don't think it has". "We have to check the information and the sources," he says, in view of the growing number of fake news stories taking over social networks.
The facts that have come to light are clear. On 11 July there was a social outbreak in the town of San Antonio de los Baños, an hour and a half from the capital, which quickly spread throughout the island. A section of Cuban society sought to protest peacefully about the poor state of the economy, food shortages, the weak response to COVID-19 and the harsh restrictions on freedom of expression. However, the protests were heavily repressed to the point that the Cuban Interior Ministry reported the death of Diubis Tejeda, a 36-year-old citizen, after clashes with the authorities in a Havana neighbourhood.
"We are already seeing that there is going to be bloodshed. Five days ago I said no bloodshed, now I just ask that there not be too much," the journalist said. In this sense, Leclere warns that "if the government says there has been one death, I'll give it 10". With regard to the number of detainees, the journalist denounces that many of them are being kidnapped: "If a person arrives from behind and does not identify himself, and takes you with him, that is not a detention. That is kidnapping". Among them was ABC correspondent Camila Acosta, who was released from prison on Friday and placed under house arrest.
Outside the island, rallies have been held in many capitals around the world. Madrid has been witness to the most heartfelt, as Spain is the second main destination of the Cuban diaspora after the United States. Nearly 170,000 people living in Spain come from the Caribbean country, and up to 11,500 do so in the Madrid region. Unlike the national government, this community has publicly shown its support for the protests.
So much so that the Cuban flag illuminated the façade of the Real Casa de Correos, the seat of the Madrid presidency occupied by Isabel Díaz-Ayuso, for two consecutive nights. The popular leader expressed her support for the opposition to Castroism: "Madrid is Kilometre Zero of Freedom and the home of the brave Cubans who these days are rising up against those who have been stealing their lives, their democracy and their most basic rights for six decades". "Today more than ever: Communism or Freedom," he said.
"Freedom will be achieved if we continue to fight," urged one of the organisers, who hours earlier had held a meeting with the leadership of the Popular Party, to his compatriots. The slogans launched by the exiles seemed to have struck a chord with some passers-by; others, however, passed by. Without even stopping. Some even took the opportunity to do business. Capitalism without perspective, as Fidel would say, found a way into the rally: "Cuban flag, ladies and gentlemen! I have Cuban flags! A flag, sir?" shouted an avid seller who ended up selling out.
Lenny X, a Cuban artist who left the country two decades ago, admits to having felt ashamed of himself for having kept silent for so long, all, he says, for fear of reprisals against his family. "I've been hiding here like a rat for 20 years out of fear, but I've had enough," he says. He, who is married to an Italian, was able to leave the country, but "anyone who speaks out cannot go back". And he has already spoken.
"Now I look in the mirror and I am proud of myself. I am a free man for the first time in my life"
"I have decided to come out of the political wardrobe," he admits. The sunglasses don't hide his face, and the mask doesn't hide his trembling voice. "No more, brother. I've freed myself. I used to look at myself in the mirror and I was ashamed of myself, you know. I was like, 'You're a rat'. And once I came out, I said, 'No more.' Now I look in the mirror and I'm proud of myself. I'm a free man for the first time in my life".
The rallies have been going smoothly. One guy dared to cross the street wearing a communist-style khaki cap with the red five-pointed star on his forehead, a recklessness that would have almost cost him if it hadn't been for two National Police officers. In any case, the movement was hardly attended by Spaniards. Of the few who have expressly expressed themselves in the Cuban conflict, some have done so on the side of Díaz-Canel's government. While the dissidents protested in front of the Cuban Embassy, a few members of the Spanish Communist Party were inside the building, vindicating the role of Castroism in the Caribbean country.
Since 5 August 1994, when the so-called 'Maleconazo' took place, nothing like it has been seen in Cuba. The social outburst is the result of a series of circumstances, a trickle that has exhausted the patience of part of Cuban society. The balance sheet is increasingly negative after more than six decades under the Castro regime. Shortages in the shops, extreme poverty, the establishment of the single party and the lack of freedom of expression are some of the reasons. "If there is one thing about our revolution, it is that it has not been revolutionised," says Leclere. Everything remains the same, even the vehicles.
Castroism has been maintained without the presence of Fidel, but still with Raúl and with a successor appointed by the ruling family and belonging to the regime's hard core, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who lacks the charisma of the revolution's driving force. "Fidel was smarter and could fool the people. He was never prepared to lead the country", says Fran, 44, a political exile living in Spain for the past two years.
"We are no longer shouting fatherland or death, but fatherland and life", reads the song written by a group of dissident artists. The slogan has been part of the rallies because it reflects how the guild has been able to bring together the feelings of part of the Cuban people. In fact, in December 2020, the group of artists called Movimiento San Isidro was the precursor of the protests with the start of a hunger strike to demand freedom of expression, and also to demand the release of one of its members.
The government's response to the COVID-19 crisis has been another major motivation behind the protests. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has recorded 263,086 infections and a total of 1,726 deaths, 67 of them in the last 24 hours, the highest number of deaths in one day. With these figures, the protesters claim that "the health issue is terrible. They have nothing to give to the people. "People have died without attention, in a country that claims to be a power in health care," Lenny X denounces. "They have confronted the dictatorship knowing that the coronavirus is in the streets", Leclere remarked.
In this sense, Cuba is not part of the Covax mechanism, created by the WHO to provide access to doses for low- and middle-income countries, nor has it acquired them on the international market, but is developing two vaccines of its own: Abdala and Soberana 02. The first of these has received emergency use authorisation, the first Latin American vaccine against the coronavirus, while the second is still being tested.
"If there is one thing about our revolution, it is that it has not been revolutionised"
Another reason has been the emergence of a new generation, the grandchildren of the revolutionary era, young people who are much more educated and far removed "from indoctrination". However, the decisive factor that has marked the mobilisations has been the internet. Dozens of demonstrators live-streamed the mobilisations in San Antonio de los Baños, and all the threads of the opposition, both inside and outside the country, have been woven through the networks. "Now everything that is happening can be filmed and documented," says Fran. For this reason, the government has cut off access to the network and hinders all types of connections with the island, connections that US President Joe Biden is studying the possibility of restoring.
Díaz-Canel and the rest of the Cuban government have directed all their criticism at the United States. Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, declared that Washington "sometimes veiled and sometimes in a public way has been calling, summoning, instigating a social explosion and working in a casual and covert way to provoke it". In any case, the main recrimination is that of the blockade.
"Blockade? But what blockade? They are still building big opulent hotels for tourists. The money that Europe gives them is used for hotels, for their things... and they keep saying it's the blockade", Lenny X vehemently recriminates. What exists is an embargo based on a broad legal framework that sometimes restricts and sometimes prohibits commercial activity with the island. Although Cuba currently maintains close economic ties with Europe and even with the United States, its main exporter of food and medicines, the island suffers. The underlying problem, however, lies in "the government's abysmal management and economic model", according to Cuban writer and journalist Amir Valle.
"Everything is negative in Cuba", Fran assures us. The diagnosis seems clear: nobody is happy with the situation the country is going through. However, for some, Castroism is the solution, while for others it is the problem itself. Complications arise when it comes to defining what percentage of support each tendency has, because behind the social outburst there does not seem to be a defined platform. In addition, the political opposition has been laminated by Castroism. "I didn't think my people would take up arms as they have, otherwise I would have stayed there," admits an exile from the centre of Madrid. "Now I'm suffering.
Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra
