Obama Tries to Put a New Collar on the Same Dog / Angel Santiesteban

“Act of Repudiation” (organized by the Cuban government) against Cuban activists at the Hotel Panama during the Summit of the Americas.

Angel Satiesteban,16 April 2015 — The biggest problem confronting the Castro brothers’ government is to accept the new challenges posed by the 21st century.

They thought they would arrive at the Summit in Panama and turn it into their show, but the times taught them the truth: the world, the venues, words, belong to everyone. So of course the entourage of sycophants that had been sent obeyed the order to retreat, left the forum, and hid, because really they had no defense in the face of the nonsense that characterizes the dictatorship. They can no longer fool the world, though they continue to practice extortion, and hire acolytes who, as a matter of survival, accept and pretend to support the totalitarian regime.

Many of those I saw on television participating in the carnival, the circus of the Communists outside Panama Hotel, I know very well and I still can listen to their words of rejection and fear of the system in Cuba. But such a fear does not allow them to tell the truth of their sad souls; many others are afraid to be ignored by the institutions controlled and manipulated by the government, knowing it is the only way to live as artists because their poor creations would not survive in the real world.

I managed  to see many of those who said they were not interested in politics and would not serve in the chorus in favor or against because it “wasn’t their way” — they used to repeat to me — and they were really far away from the first line of the confrontation.

If they accepted it is because I don’t know of any intellectuals or professionals who would refuse the chance to travel. Sometimes they don’t even ask about the destination, in order to travel outside the island they would accept to visit to hell. Even more so, when it comes to being a part of an official delegation, which receives an allowance before leaving for their daily expenses, plus the hotel and food. Something like this is not dismissed no matter how humiliating it could be, according to the cynicism with which it is accepted.

Of course, they will try to fashion a victory out of defeat, and will begin, like a soap opera, to fabricate the episodes.

Obama is trying to put a new collar on the same dog.

Angel Santiesteban -Prats

Border Guard Prison, Havana. April 2015

Video taken by Yoani Sanchez

 Translated by AnonyGY