Let’s All Go To Cuba To Protest Instead Of Cutting Off Remittances

One of the things we all agree on is that the system in Cuba doesn’t work and should be changed, says the author. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Andrés Rodríguez-Ojea, Miami, 4 December 2019 — I don’t post much on Facebook. I’ve been disappointed in social networks — the superficial, generalized banality that is in the atmosphere — and I get annoyed with the ads.

But recently I was hit by the news that there was a movement that proposed eliminating remittances and other assistance to families in Cuba.

I don’t want to mention names, because I don’t want to give credit to the so-called ringleader who, in my opinion, is little more than a miserable person seeking publicity at any price, taking advantage of that 15 minutes of fame, as they say in English, in order to get more followers or more sponsors, which means more money in the end.

But I’m disappointed to hear (yes, it’s true) that some people I admired before going to Cuba want to do this to Cubans on the Island. Those Cubans depend on their followers to recharge their cellphones in order to continue the “struggle” for a better Cuba. The Cubans who live here have other problems and worries, but they are free to do and say what they want, without the fear of not having something to eat tomorrow.

I don’t know how much of this is true or how far the anti-Cuban message will reach. Yes, anti-Cuban, because it talks about eliminating what is many times the only way a lot of families on the Island can survive. It’s an illusion to think this will bring about change. It’s anti-Cuban, inhumane.

But I’m not surprised, because here in the U.S. you find every kind of Cuban: Republicans, Democrats, trumpistas, (I’ll never understand them), others who are politically apathetic, who only want to make a decent living (can you blame them?). Maybe they’re tired of having suffered for so long from the politics in Cuba, which taints all aspects of life.

There are those who travel to the Island constantly, whether to visit family and friends or to pretend they have made money, when, sadly, they’re living on minimum wage with more than one job in an efficiency apartment. There also are Cubans who never want to set foot on Cuban soil again or hear about Cuba, and I don’t blame them either. Every one has their own painful history.

But in any case, if we Cubans can’t agree on everything, there’s one thing we probably can agree on, those of us outside and inside, and that’s that the system in Cuba doesn’t work and has to change.

So I want to ask those who came up with this new and “awesome” idea thinking it will bring about positive change, why, instead of promoting a foreign sacrifice or advocating for others, do you give a “Like” to the promoter of this plan from your new mobile device or while you pay for your purchases on Publix. Wouldn’t it be better to sacrifice ourselves along with them?

If they think they’re going to cause change and have a huge social impact by eliminating aid to people in Cuba, or that the Communist government will be affected, wouldn’t it be more effective if all the Cubans living outside the Island traveled together to Cuba and joined our compatriots united together to peacefully demand those changes that we want so much?

If, according to what I’ve read in certain articles on the subject, there are two or three million Cubans living outside Cuba, why don’t we travel there together and stand in front of the Council of State for one month of protest and demand the end of communism, poverty, manipulation and privation of liberties?

I’m no political expert, but almost surely such a large, peaceful confrontation against the Government would provoke, at the minimum, serious negotiations and international pressure without precedent.

For sure, this “hiatus” would be much more effective than trying to provoke a massive uprising by taking away the basic sustenance that allows our families to go to bed with full stomachs and continue dreaming of a free Cuba, while we sleep so peacefully that we start coming up with absurd ideas.

And I imagine that if we are ready to sacrifice for the good of all Cubans, surely we are also ready to sacrifice everything ourselves, no?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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