Category: Pedro Corzo

Diaz-Canel’s Heirloom Vase Is Crumbling

A scene from one of the protests that took place in Santiago de Cuba on Sunday, March 17

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 24 March 2024 — It might not happen tomorrow but it is quite clear that the giant vase now in the care of Cuba’s dictator designate, Miguel Diaz Canel, is already cracked and could shatter at any moment. People, who are fed up with sixty-five years of oppression, are starting to realize they have the right to a better life.

The oppressed are fed up. Like genies in a bottle, they will eventually break out of the narrow confines of totalitarianism in a fury. And who knows what may happen to those who have supported it for decades? Incidentally, the last two major protests in Cuba occurred on a Sunday, as my wife pointed out to me, so totalitarianism may yet give us a Sunday that turns out to be bleak for them, its supporters, and bright for us, all those who love freedom.

The oppressed are fed up. Like genies in a bottle, they will break out of their narrow totalitarian confines in a fury

Remember that this is someone who inherited power because he didn’t have a backbone. In a government of indignities, he proved to be even more of a lackey than Roberto Robaina or Felipe Pérez Roque, whom Fidel Castro once described as the person who best interpreted his thoughts. Roque still got sacked. That is why it is worth asking how much Díaz-Canel had to humble himself before being left in charge of the country that the Castro brothers turned into a barracks. continue reading

Don Miguel is not holding onto power because he has courage or talent, which is presumably why the old guard — the Moncada Barracks generation — get nervous anytime the situation “turns red,” a popular expression in Cuba for circumstances that are getting complicated.

There is one precedent we should keep in mind. On September 4, 1933, soldiers, students and teachers joined forces to prompt the fall of the regime that had replaced the dictatorship of President Gerardo Machado. We can only hope that the military, with popular support, will put an end to all the humiliation and subjugation.

On September 4, 1933, soldiers, students and teachers joined forces to prompt the fall of the regime that had replaced the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado

That protest, in my opinion, is more relevant that one that took place on 11 July 2021. On that glorious day, it was mostly young people who stormed the streets to demand freedom. The impetus of youth, suppressed for so long, cannot come too soon. I determined, however, that the average protester was actually older, a symptom that must deeply alarm those in the upper echelons of power.  It is a serious sign of desperation when it is the parents who assume the responsibility of taking risks.

We could all see and hear the protestors yelling at four government henchmen, who had climbed onto a rooftop as they tried to flee, that none of them had been chosen by the people. In another protest, I heard a group of fellow countrymen singing a stanza from the national anthem that goes, “Run towards combat, Bayamese, do not fear a glorious death.” On this occasion, I did not get the sense of a people surrendering to totalitarianism as I had at other times. Quite the opposite. I appreciated their desire to end the oppression sooner rather than later.

Certainly, some were protesting out of exhaustion with the scarcity and misery that they have suffered for decades, but many more did so — just like on 11 July 2021 — to claim their rights, demanding political change in a country for everyone.

It seems that the residents of the largest country in the Antilles are preparing to storm their Bastille, otherwise known as the Palace of the Revolution

Setting aside the historical anomalies for a moment, it seems the residents of the largest country in of the Antilles are preparing to storm their Bastille, otherwise known as the Palace of the Revolution. I am not saying this simply out of enthusiasm but because at least some of them perceive it that way. We could see this when official newscaster Humberto Lopez repeated on his TV program — the one the regime gave him because of his obvious nastiness — the same threats Fidel Castro or his spokesmen have been making since that dark New Year’s Day of 1959.

Lopez continues to stoke Cubans’ fears of the United States. Although there are many survivors on the island, the hardships are so great that only those slavishly loyal to totalitarianism, such as Lopez himself, can get by. What they really want is to forget the revolution and go live in this or some other coutry.

No one believes the argument that restoring democracy in Cuba will mean more poverty and misery for the population. Those who are protesting already find themselves living below the poverty line. How much more fearful can you make people who have nothing?

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Is Cuba Headed Towards Post-Totalitarianism?

Raúl and Fidel Castro in José Martí Revolution Square at an event celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces on December 4, 1976.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, March 19, 2024 — For many years Cubans have realized that the dictatorship the Castro brothers imposed on the Island was quite different from those we had experienced in the past, and not only because of the endless repression and extreme cruelty. Its control over the population was unprecedented, extending even to property management, over which the state gradually acquired a monopoly.

The early years were extremely chaotic. Everyone was impacted by missteps and confusion. I still remember the apprehension I felt over Fidel Castro’s identifying each year by name. The purpose was to indicate the most important task of those ensuing 365 days, so 1962 was supposed to be “The Year of Planning” and 1963 “The Year of Organization.” Instead, the opposite occured. After that, the economic disarray just increased along with the number of executions, political prisoners and exiles.

At first it was a genuine, populist-inspired military dictatorship, though one distinguished by abject inefficiency and waste, massive propaganda and the deification of Fidel Castro

If one thing was certain from January 1959 onwards, it was that no one could be oblivious to political issues, which encompassed everything. We found ourselves caught up, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the Castro system, which we would come to see as a form of totalitarianism. It was very similar in its criminality to the Nazi and Soviet systems but much more economically encompassing, so much so that the writer José Antonio Albertini said at one point that they were about to nationalize toothbrushes, which shortly thereafter disappeared from store shelves along with toothpaste and everything else. continue reading

At first it was a genuine, populist-inspired military dictatorship, though one distinguished by inefficiency and waste, massive propaganda, the deification of Fidel Castro and consecration of his closest disciples. It was also one that demonized political parties and subjugated civil society, including all labor, social and professional organizations.

The largest property owners lost all their assets in the first three years of revolutionary government while, in a parallel move, foreign-owned businesses were expropriated without compensation. Many small businesses were also confiscated and consolidated into larger companies, a move that, in no small measure, helped plunge the country into an economic abyss.

The Castros controlled the economy without neglecting politics. They never allowed independent political parties or anything like a free press. By 1965, Cuba was under the  control of a single-party regime. To make it official, they created the Communist Party of Cuba and set up the newspaper Granma as its official organ.

Once socialism was established and the generous Soviet subsidies were secured — sending thousands of Cubans to Angola as cannon fodder for Castro and the Kremlin further guaranteed it — the country was ready for the most ruthless kind of totalitarianism.

The Castros controlled the economy without neglecting politics. They never allowed independent political parties or anything like a free press

On March 13, 1968, the regime nationalized approximately 58,000 small businesses, arguing that this move would be the best way to industrialize the country. Cobblers, hairdressers, barbers, seamstresses and all those providing goods or services — those that the regime now promotes as MSMEs and self-employed workers — became state employees. The bureaucracy was enthroned and leadership of the new conglomerates was assumed by party men. Real, non-fictional men in black. All were incompetence personified.

I remember that even the bars and nightclubs were closed because, according to the official party line, they were hotbeds of prostitution, homosexuality and crime, labeled as social scourges by the leaders of the Communist Party Central Committee. In spite of its association with the Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest and the musical group Los Van Van, the next decade saw the national economy sink into a deep depression as dependence on the Soviet Union and militarization of Cuban society increased.

The enthusiasm of Castro’s followers led the country into the wastelands of corruption and inefficiency. The national economy is now completely in ruins, so much so that, according to some, the regime is now thinking about getting rid of some totalitarian measures and becoming once again the bloody dictatorship it was before March 13, 1968, when prison bars and bloodstained bread were the norm for those actively opposed to its tyranny.

Once socialism was established and the generous Soviet subsidies were secured, the country was ready for the most ruthless kind of totalitarianism, which could already be seen in the way politics were managed.

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Jose Marti, in the 21st Century

The statue located in the Central Park of Havana, was the first erected in Cuba in honor of José Martí. (Trabajadores)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 28 January 2024 — To mark an anniversary of the birth of the most notable of all Cubans, Jose Martí (January 28, 1853), many of us who honor that gentleman do everything possible to remember such a great date, based on an unwritten commitment that we have contracted.

That tradition was partly carried out by the Pen Club of Cuban Writers in Exile, chaired by the writer Luis de la Paz, celebrated with the participation of Santiago Cárdenas and Emilio Sánchez, two notable intellectuals who have a profound knowledge of Martí’s work. Both were assisted by two other great admirers of the apostle, Julio Estorino and Sara Martínez Castro, who read Martí’s poems.

Martí’s first action in his struggle for independence is not associated with war, as happened with most of our heroes. His activities began by publishing writings against Spain and by calling a fellow student who had enlisted in the Spanish Army to fight the Mambises of the Ten Years’ War a traitor. For that reason he went to prison and was later exiled to Spain.

It must be recognized that most of the notable personalities who fought for the independence of Spain, members of a glorious and abundant heritage in which Simón Bolívar and Jose de San Martin stand out, patricians of strong continue reading

national convictions, leadership and indisputable military talent, left indelible traces by establishing the foundations of several republics in the hemisphere.

Martí, we all know, was not a warrior but, by far, the most important promoter of Cuba’s independence from Spain

That glorious group is mainly made up of men of arms. However, we must include other heroes who, although they did not stand out for their talent as warriors, were great thinkers and efficient organizers, capable of cementing new republics, as was the case of José Martí, a hero whose life’s work led Cuba to independence.

Martí, we all know, was not a warrior, but, by far, the most important promoter of Cuba’s independence from Spain and the most notable organizer of the “just and necessary war,” an expression which shows that he conceived of military conflict as the only way to achieve emancipation of the homeland.

He fell in his first fight, facing the sun, as he had requested in his Versos Sencillos, contrary to the most distinguished military leaders in the hemisphere who did not die in the heat of the battle. His death in Dos Ríos, at only 42 years old, left the Cuban independence fighters orphaned by their most lucid thinker, the only man, as history has shown, capable of working in a republic “with everyone and for the good of all.”

Despite his early death, he left a vast and profound work that remains current and valid. Reading Martí in the present is to access a fresh and contemporary knowledge. All his work exudes sensitivity and neighborly love, as he wrote in another simple verse: “I cultivate a white rose in July as in January, for the sincere friend who gives me his hand freely, and for the cruel one who tears out the heart with which I live, neither thistle nor arugula do I grow, I cultivate a white rose.”

Reading Martí in the present is to access a fresh and contemporary knowledge, which is that all his work exudes sensitivity and neighborly love

Martí’s thought is deeply human. “There is no better homeland, Cubans, than the one that is won with one’s own effort. The foreign sea is made of blood. No one loves or forgives if not our country,” he wrote.

Martí’s work retains relevance and validity. It has not lost strength; it has not aged; it remains as vibrant as ever. “Whoever wants a secure homeland must fight for it. Whoever doesn’t will live under threat of whip and banishment, considered a wild beast, thrown from one country to another, smiling before charity, earning the disdain of free men and the death of his soul.”

And in these times in which the fragmentation of our rights and the respect that both minorities and majorities deserve are appreciated, what is better than this: “Man does not have any special rights because he belongs to one or another race; call him a man and all his rights are already given. The black man, by being black, is not inferior or superior to any other man: the white man who calls me a black man sins by being redundant; the black man who calls me a white man sins by being redundant. Everything that divides men, everything that specifies, separates or encloses them, is a sin against humanity.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Lies Are the Foundation of Castro Totalitarianism

The José Martí monument in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery. The first big lie was to link Jose Martí with the insurrectional process and the subsequent dictatorship that was imposed. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, January 7, 2024 — The totalitarian Castro regime was constituted and established based on a network of lies and myths that have been reconstructed for generations, always maintaining a false epic and honor that do not correspond to the historical truth, creating a narrative of heroic victimization that confused and made it possible to manipulate large sectors of the population for decades.

The first big lie was to link Jose Martí with the insurrectional process and the subsequent dictatorship that was imposed. Martí was a passionately free man, and freedom was the foundation of his luminous thought.

It is completely false to see the heroism of the brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro in the attack on the Moncada barracks. The missing dictator-in-chief never entered the military bastion, and his heir attacked the Palace of Justice. Both were later arrested without presenting resistance, although they were armed. continue reading

It is completely false to see the heroism of the brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro in the attack on the Moncada barracks. The missing dictator-in-chief never entered the military bastion, and his heir attacked the Palace of Justice

It is illusory to describe the arrival of the Granma yacht on the Cuban coast as a “landing”. In reality, it was a shipwreck, another great mistake of Fidel Castro, which showed, like the failed attack on the Moncada barracks, the strategic incapacity of someone who resorted to extreme violence with the sole purpose of projecting himself as a national figure.

The terrible preparation of the two operations testifies, without a doubt, that Fidel only sought popularity by killing those who disagreed with him. He tried, by their deaths, to procure followers.

The dictatorship has tried to match the heroic feat of the Mambisa invasion led by General Máximo Gómez and Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo with the incursion commanded by the serial killers Ernesto Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, two absolutely different events in purposes and results.

The modest guerrilla activities commanded by the sadly famous brothers in the mountains of the province of Oriente have been magnified.

There is no doubt that in the eastern mountains they fought against the Army of the Republic, but not to the extent that official propaganda has disseminated, with the sole objective of giving undeserved laurels to the evil brothers and their unconditional supporters: Guevara, Cienfuegos and the unscrupulous hitman Ramiro Valdés.

Another farce is the vaunted attack on the armored train, a term that intimidates but that in reality was not as protected as the propaganda says. In addition, the personnel it was transporting were not combat personnel but engineers and other soldiers who had the mission of repairing the tracks, without ignoring that the train, according to numerous complaints, was economically negotiated with the military chief in charge of it.

The control of information, in addition to the moral shooting of organizations and people, prevented the population from accessing investigations that allowed them to balance the knowledge of the past.

The control of information, in addition to the moral shooting of organizations and people, prevented the population from accessing investigations that would allow it to balance the knowledge of the past

A notable example is that the Castro dictatorship has always promoted the July 26 Movement as if it had been the only organization that dignifiedly fought the military regime of Fulgencio Batista, when in reality there were several that fought against the general, such as the Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray, the Organización Auténtica and the Directorio Revolucionario, among others.

Another great lie on which totalitarianism was based was that 20,000 people lost their lives during the insurrectionary process. This false information came from Bohemia magazine – at the time under the direction of its founder, Miguel Ángel Quevedo – and from one of the greatest pimps disguised as a journalist – totalitarianism has had many – Enrique de la Osa.

The true figure was made public by Colonel and historian Ramon Barquín, head of the Conspiracy of the Cigars, a military faction that opposed General Batista in 1956, who was imprisoned for attempting a military coup against the regime of March 10.

According to Colonel Barquín, author of several books on the history of Cuba, including The Day Fidel Castro Seized Cuba, the death toll of both forces amounts to 2,495, a remarkable number of lives lost, but very far from the official figure of the regime.

In these 65 years the lies have been many, the destruction of Cuba, almost absolute.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban Nostalgia

The December 31 dinner is an opportunity to get together with family and close friends. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, December 31, 2023 — The common denominator of exiles and emigrants is to have left behind their country of birth and, most likely, to share the longings for the past, which for both can be overwhelming, although different. It’s worth saying that I learned this a very short time ago.

Nostalgia is one of the most personal and complex feelings. I experienced it a year ago, in a restaurant where I had dinner with my wife and with my brothers Morera and Xiomara and their wives, Kemel and Cristina.

I assimilated my nostalgia with difficulty. A Castro singer-songwriter had just died. I call him that because his songs, as Jose A. Albertini wrote, helped to silence the firing squads who were executing people. The music of this notable artist is admired by many compatriots, and one of those fans proposed to the entertainers that they perform a song in his memory.

It is worth saying that I was very upset, although I understood the situation when everyone told me, “those are his memories of that singer, try to understand, what you remember as bitter can be sweet for someone else.” This is the irreducible truth, because sometimes you remember something as charming until it becomes dangerous. continue reading

Art in general, along with sports, have been used by Island totalitarianism to manipulate the population and spread a smokescreen over the events in Cuba. In addition, artistic manifestations have been used to repress authors, as happened to Meme Solís. The performers I remember the most are Los Cinco Latino, The Platter and Luis Aguilé, a very Cuban Argentinian.

Art in general, along with sports, have been used by Island totalitarianism to manipulate the population and spread a smokescreen over the events in Cuba

Terror devoured us. The political situation was so demonic that a song entitled Adiós Felicidad (Goodbye Happiness) by Ela O’Farrill was considered counter-revolutionary. The author was arrested and humiliated, denounced by a communist professor, a friend of the family, for having composed a counterrevolutionary ballad, an accusation that determined her exile.

Christmas, from the 1960s, began to take place very discreetly. People stopped congratulating each other, or they did it privately. At the same time, there was very little to give away, and groceries were conspicuous by their absence or their prohibitive prices. However, the worst thing was that Christmas celebrations were politically incorrect, but not New Year’s Eve, which heralded the advent of the New Man.*

On January 6, the Three Kings Day celebration also went to jail or into exile. Toys, according to government propaganda, were regulated so that all children had them. The regime replaced customs and traditions. It transformed everything so that Fidel Castro could take over the collective imagination. More than a government, a new creed was imposed in Cuba.

I admit that, at Christmas, the homesickness is more severe. It is a period that, without being religious, imprisons me and puts me in a time machine that leads to sharing again with those who are no longer there in place and time and who will never return.

My last Christmas in Cuba was in 1980. On the Island it was practically banned. Somes churches discreetly decorated in accordance with the date. I remember a temple that did open its doors, located on Trista Street in the unforgettable Santa Clara.

Castroism arranged that the Christmas holidays were celebrations without devotional connotation for the people. The festivities would take place on July 25, 26 and 27

Castroism arranged for the Christmas holidays to be celebrations without a devotional connotation for the people, something that is spreading a lot today. The festivities would take place on July 25, 26 and 27, as part of its policy of destroying the national roots and transmuting the date of the assault on the Moncada barracks as the focal point of the new religion that was winning over Cubans.

The Christmas I remember the most is that of 1958, a year before the strategy of the Three Cs was put into practice – “zero cinemas, zero purchases (compras), zero cabarets” – and Fidel Castro’s July 26, with its rhythm of bombs and personal attacks that imposed terror, a situation that would drastically worsen months later.

The country was virtually at war. We were all frightened by the extreme violence on both sides. However, no one could imagine the magnitude of the coming disaster. The Republic, the whole nation, was nearing extinction: the work of the Castro brothers.

*Translator’s note: ’Che’ Guevara, in 1964, said that a revolutionary society (based on Marxism) needed to create a New Man with a “revolutionary consciousness” who wouldn’t rely on material incentives.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuba: Spies to Order

The former US diplomat Manuel Rocha. (@AnthonyDaquin/Twitter)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 10 December 2023 — Castro’s totalitarianism never rests, it does not take vacations or holidays. It avidly feeds on its hatred of freedom, on its desire to eliminate the United States, which is why its intelligence service will always be ready to destroy that nation, while the repressive forces inside the Island do not give up their efforts to crush the opponents. In short, the perfect terrorist state.

Hence I was not surprised by the discovery of a new Castro mole in the spheres of American power. Unfortunately we must be prepared for subjects who, due to moral disability, economic reasons or any other cerebral deficiency, serve regimes contrary to human dignity.

The case of Ambassador Víctor Manuel Rocha demonstrates once again how efficient the Castro intelligence trappers are and how confident the officials of this country are who favor closer relations with the Cuban regime, the best ally that Russia, China and Iran have in the hemisphere.

There is no doubt that Castroism publicly seduced a significant number of people on the continent, some admitted their enchantment, others, apparently, maintained it in pectore, such as the accused spy Rocha and the unforgettable Mrs. Ana Belén Montes, an analyst with the US Defense Intelligence Agency, who confessed to having spied for Cuba for 16 years, resulting in her being sentenced to long years in prison. On the Island she would have been shot. continue reading

Unfortunately we must be prepared for subjects who, due to moral disability, economic reasons or any other cerebral deficiency, serve regimes contrary to human dignity

Those who favor closer relations with Castroism, Americans and Cubans, in the best of cases have a terrible memory, are very ignorant or there is something more rotten in their brains.

The Castros know this society from the inside. Even before coming to power, supporters of Fidel Castro in the July 26 Movement formed cells in the most important cities in the United States to support the insurgents, exert influence on the media and on the ruling class, particularly in universities and intellectual sectors, the objectives they prioritized and managed to continue to develop fully and efficiently.

These parties insist on ignoring that the alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, led a Fair Play for Cuba Committee; that a senior Immigration official, Mariano Faget, transmitted information to the Government of Havana; that dozens of Castro agents were expelled from the United Nations for espionage; and that the Wasp Network caused the death of four young people when their planes were shot down by a Castro Mig.

Other cases that once attracted attention have apparently been forgotten. José Rafael Fernández Brenes infiltrated the US station TV Martí and his information helped the Cuban Government to interfere with the station’s signal, and the academics Carlos Álvarez, doctor in Psychology, and his wife, the psychotherapist Elsa Prieto, were convicted of spying for the Cuban regime.

According to the indictment, Álvarez had spied since 1977 and his wife since 1982. Also forgotten is the married couple Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, who spied for 30 years in support of the Cuban regime. Myers, who worked for three decades in the State Department, acknowledged, together with his wife, responsibility for spying for Cuba.

Those who favor closer relations with Castroism, Americans and Cubans, at best, have a terrible memory, they are very ignorant or there is something more rotten in their brains

Cuban spies have a lot of blood on their hands. Manuel Hevia Cosculluela published the book Passport 11333 in Cuba, where he confessed to having infiltrated the CIA and having worked alongside Dan Mitrione in Uruguay, a US agent murdered by the Tupamaros, trained by Castroism.

It is unknown how much ambassador Víctor Manuel Rocha will have benefited the Island’s totalitarianism, however, if he is found guilty he should be punished with the greatest severity for spying in favor of a criminal dictatorship and against a country that gave him the opportunity to serve as ambassador.

It is assumed that the accused is not the last as he was not the first, if we accept the statement of Lieutenant Colonel Chris Simmons, working in counterintelligence in the United States Army, who once told The Miami Herald that, between 9 and 18 months after the dismantling of the Wasp Network, the number of Cuban intelligence agents and officers in Florida had returned to the levels prior to the capture of that infamous espionage network.

The danger exists and will exist as long as Castro’s totalitarianism rules in Cuba.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Migration Conferences for Castroism

Those first conferences were aimed at dividing the exiles from the mass of migrants who were not political. (Presidencia de Cuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, November 18, 2023 — The ability of the Island totalitarianism, despite its long agony, to develop strategies that to some extent extend its existence is really remarkable, a reality that is evidenced by the call for a Fourth Conference on the Nation and Emigration, two concepts that the dictatorship interprets at its convenience.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Castroism, in this conference and the previous ones, continues to attribute to itself the representation of the nation. Fidel Castro, from the day of the insurrection victory, on January 1, 1959, made public his claim to synthesize the nation and his Government in his person, as if he were a kind of trinity that symbolized what was most transcendental, the homeland.

Castroism, when it was politically convenient, galvanized its supporters by selecting those who went abroad and opponents as the enemy to hate. Yes, to hate. A simple act such as leaving your country in search of a better life was described as treason, and the traitor could not even give away his belongings. These were confiscated, and he was warned that he could not return to the abandoned paradise. continue reading

Undoubtedly, this manipulation of the environment, to the point of turning it into a lie, has yielded great fruits.

Undoubtedly, this manipulation of the environment, to the point of turning it into a lie, has yielded great fruits. A notable part of the population voluntarily bowed to the regime, while another sector, no less relevant, confronted it or decided to leave the country, with all the official repudiation that both actions implied.

To top it off, a revolutionary could not correspond with an exile, particularly if the exile resided in the United States. I remember a lady who said to her crying sister: “Don’t write to us because that could harm us.” However, a few months later, she was asking for assistance through their mother. That double standard has always been there for those who obey the Government.

The regime’s propaganda apparatus worked intensively on the population to incorporate into the popular creed the certainty that Fidel, the Revolution and Cuba were the same thing, so much so that the supreme dictator said: “Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world, which is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism.”

Those first conferences were aimed at dividing the exiles from the mass of migrants that did not declare themselves politically. In those times, potential aid did not matter; the one who left the Island, unless they showed regret and collaborated with the Government, was still an enemy.

The dictatorship believed that it could be self-sufficient and that the population was willing to die of hunger for the dreams of its pharaoh

Then, the dictatorship believed that it could be self-sufficient and that the population was willing to die of hunger for the dreams of its pharaoh.

From now on, other rules will apply. Exiles will be able to mutate into emigrants if they are willing to rehabilitate themselves by investing in Cuba. Of course, you should not worry that the conditions of the country are more chaotic than when you abandoned it, and that your assets could be confiscated by decree, due to the chronic lack of legal security.

Trusting the Cuban regime is a crass mistake. The mental structure of its leaders has only known how to take advantage; hence, they changed national sovereignty for the billionaire Soviet subsidies, which, after the USSR was exhausted, they would associate with a military coup until leading Venezuela into bankruptcy.

Throughout these more than six decades the regime has squandered billions of dollars, without forgetting that a good part of this fortune was wasted by the heirs of the ruling class or is in the bank accounts of corrupt officials.

That money does not only come from the Soviet and Venezuelan funds. There is also money from foreign investors who trusted the promises of Castroism, particularly from Spanish businessmen, although these had their investments guaranteed by Madrid, a condition that emigrants who invest will not have.

The Castro-Díaz-Canel Government is only trying to survive. The principles went to the garbage can of History, as the maximum leader liked to say. Yesterday’s enemies become allies if they are able to pay the toll assigned to them. For Castroism, even in the life of its commander, everything has a price, which many of us are not willing to pay.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Progressives, the Cubans and Israel

An Israeli tank on the border with Gaza on November 12, 2023. (EFE/EPA/Neil Hall)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 12 November 2023 — While the totalitarian regime that has prevailed in Cuba for 65 years, minus two months, has almost always enjoyed favorable public opinion, the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel, is still the target of many of those who defend Castroism.

Cuban democrats, like Israelis, are, in the mentality of these groups and organizations, targets to be destroyed. However, they represent just causes that have never had the necessary international support to achieve the objectives that encourage them.

Their enemies, who consider themselves progressive, liberal and leftist, do not care that the Jewish nation promotes democracy and the rule of law. They simply share with the Nazis the hatred of a people who defend civil and religious freedoms, where the norm is between absolutism and military dictatorship.

They prefer to ignore that Israel is a free geographical and cultural space, in a region where authority is based on  military might or religion. Without being perfect, Israel should be an example for those continue reading

who defend freedom and human rights. The Israeli State is concrete evidence of material progress and well-being for those who reside in its territory.

Cuban Democrats, like Israelis, are, in the mentality of these groups and organizations, targets to be destroyed

However, it is a country that suffers permanent harassment from its neighbors. Israel has been subjected to true international isolation and frequent military conflicts, with the aim of eliminating it as a nation, as advocated, among others, by the theocratic State of Iran.

The terrorist actions against Israel, such as those of last October 7, are a brutal reflection of the hatred advocated by the serial killer Ernesto Che Guevara: “The intransigent hatred of the enemy, which pushes beyond the natural limitations of the human being and turns him into an effective, violent, selective and cold killing machine.” This phrase could have inspired the executioners of the Tribe of Nova festival.

Complicity with Guevara is not exceptional. It shows the frivolity and hypocrisy that reign in some international organizations, non-governmental organizations and famous universities that present themselves as standard-bearers of justice but have placed themselves at the service of the worst causes.

Guevara defended violence out of conviction. It was the instrument in concentration camps for homosexuals in Cuba. There are hundreds of testimonies about the murders he ordered, and, however, this did not prevent the UNESCO World Memory Program, in all its categories, from accrediting and rewarding his work, in addition to the fact that Guevara and Fidel Castro were proud of their cemeteries. As Guevara said at the United Nations, in 1964: “We have executed, we have shot, and we will continue to kill as long as is necessary.”

These actions are incomprehensible and force us to unearth the moment when Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, spoke in 1974 at the United Nations with a gun on the table in front of him.

I do not dispute the fairness of the Palestinian cause, but the beheading of children and indiscriminate murder should not be protected or silenced, as some sectors claim

Ideological commitments lead to omitting or changing the facts. When the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died, the headline of the newspaper El País said: “Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dies.” However, when the Cuban autocrat died, the headline read: “Fidel Castro, the last revolutionary, dies”, as if he had not been another dictator with a horrendous criminal record.

I do not dispute the fairness of the Palestinian cause, but the beheading of children and indiscriminate murder should not be protected or silenced, as some sectors claim. Nor should persecutions be justified by race or religion, as the enemies of the Jews are doing in many parts of the world. They are acts repudiated by the United Nations itself and should be severely punished.

Cuban totalitarianism also inspires the progressives  to misrepresent the facts. On the Island, citizens’ rights are systematically violated; those who profess ideas contrary to the official proposal are imprisoned; total censorship of the media is practiced and bloody events such as those of the unforgettable tugboat massacre on March 13 occur, with dozens of deaths, including children. However, his allies present Castro totalitarianism as a victim of the United States and of the exile community.

They speak of a blockade or embargo, which has more holes in it than gruyere cheese, without alluding to the vileness of the rulers and the true blockade of Castroism.

Translated by Regina Anavy 

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Cuba: The Confusion of Interests

Raúl Castro(L), Daniel Ortega(C) and Nicolás Maduro (R). (Twitter)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, November 5, 2023 — Freedom is by far the greatest good of the human being; hence the commitment to defend it as appropriate, a reason that forces us to be alert and not believe in redeemers who promise the salvation of our prerogatives, if we follow them like rats do the flute player.

Behavior, which I fear, is being put into practice by many people in different parts of the world, when they arrange for individuals who are not subject to any control to decide about their lives, despite the fact that no one has the right to forget that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

What happens in countries like Cuba, with Castro-Díaz-Canel, in short, is 65 years of totalitarianism. The autocrats, Ortega-Murillo, in Nicaragua, 27 years of government in two periods. Hugo Chávez and Nicolas Maduro, 24 years of despotism between the two. Bolivia, with the phoney Evo Morales, 13 years in office with the aspiration of returning to government to perpetuate himself, which should be inadmissible to any honorable person who has self-respect.

These rulers achieved power thanks to the fact that to a large extent their peoples allowed it, either because they were confused by promises, well-spoken truths or the charm that can emanate from these subjects. continue reading

Frivolity is burying us, along with our lack of interest in accessing conflicting and balanced information, even if we have access to it

The will of the citizen majority folded to suggestive siren songs that promised, cunningly, to make the most paradoxical dreams come true, ceding, to achieve them, their citizens’ rights, in addition to practicing a criminal intolerance and plunging them into an aberrant indolence.

This reflection is the result of an experience, at a friend’s house, that left me dismayed, because I found intelligent people, with a great reputation for commitment to freedom and democracy, passionately defending Vladimir Putin, ignoring the persecution he executes against the opposition and the close relations he maintains with the Castro tyranny.

These friends and acquaintances, in my opinion very confused, justified the aggression against Ukraine. No one alluded to the presence of Cuban mercenaries there, nor to the fact that Putin, like the aforementioned autocrats, has been ruling Russia for 23 years, and that when he was not president he played at being prime minister.

All this demonstration was in a framework of severe criticism of President Joe Biden for his help to Ukraine. Needless to say, I do not sympathize with the president and his government, but I do believe that the support given to Ukraine is vital, just like the one offered to Israel and the one that can be given to Taiwan. They are countries that are in the first line of fire against predators who are a threat to everyone.

Of course, I couldn’t stay calm and entered the arena, with a friend who had already had that experience. They argued that the former KGB colonel was defending our values by attacking Ukraine. They repeated that fascism was a serious threat, as if the despots of any ideology were not, and that Putin was against the social currents that seek to replace the family, which may be true, but that does not justify a war of aggression like the one that the head of the Russian government sponsors, nor his alliance with Castroism.

It goes without saying that I do not sympathize with the president and his government, but I do believe that the support given to Ukraine is vital

It is difficult to neutralize this confusion that arises, in my opinion, in the laxity of many of us against those contrary to our rights and in allowing those same individuals to exercise them. Frivolty is burying us, along with our lack of interest in accessing conflicting and balanced information, even if we have access to it.

Those of us who have suffered regimes of force or imprisonment know that the power held by the army, regardless of the place they occupy in the chain of command, is destructive. Their ability to cause suffering is difficult to imagine, turning our desire to survive into an everyday odyssey.

I fervently believe in democracy with all its imperfections. Knowing that the authorities can be revoked, being able to get rid of the great man or the donkey that we wrongly chose. Being able to tell the subject who commands rifles and cannons that he is not in charge, that he was left without a job and it is time to leave, is a right that we are obliged to defend until the last breath.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Maria Corina Machado and the Rescue of Hope in Venezuela

Former Venezuelan deputy María Corina Machado celebrates with allies and followers the results offered by the primary elections commission, in Caracas, on October 23, 2023. (EFE/Miguel Gutiérrez)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, October 29, 2023 — Venezuelans committed to democracy have once again set an example of perseverance and commitment to their country. An achievement in which the leadership of María Corina Machado, a woman with overflowing courage and convictions, has been essential.

Machado overwhelmingly defeated her rivals and enemies. Even more importantly, she managed to get her fellow citizens, both inside the country and abroad, to take to the streets to vote, a sovereign right that despots try to violate.

The electorate believed in her with such fervor that they voted massively in her favor, despite the difficulties implemented by the autocrats, among others, the disqualification of the candidate, a condition widely repudiated by the voters with the resounding support they gave her.

Castro-Chavismo breathes into its governed at least two terrible viruses: hopelessness and the certainty that the end of tyranny can only occur with foreign help. continue reading

The loss of hope is the most pernicious thing that a people can suffer

Hopelessness is caused by the high level of frustration of the governed. A feeling that is proportional to the duration of the mandate one suffers and corresponding to the enthusiasm generated by the demiurges who propose to be gods.

After the initial exaltation caused by a populist victory full of demagoguery and falsehoods, comes a daily life that demands work, discipline, probity and perseverance; a management in which the people of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia have been able to confirm that their autocrats, in addition to being corrupt, have been inept.

The loss of hope is the most harmful thing that a people can suffer. It is true that there are those who do not stop fighting, even if the blackest darkness surrounds them; however, the majority of citizens need to see a light, however minimal, at the end of the road, a dawn that, evidently, María Corina Machado, an exceptional leader, has made it possible for her people to perceive.

My admired fellow prisoner, the ambassador Armando Valladares, wrote an anthological book about that feeling entitled Against All Hope. It is that in prison all hopes can die just as under tyrannies, although, unfortunately for tyrants, they are never lacking. Jose Martí’s white roses in the most lush field of thistles and nettles.

Machado spread hope among Venezuelans. She erased the many mistakes of these years, including those of her colleagues who timidly tried to reproduce the behaviors and speeches of their enemies. The candidate germinated confidence again and restored the certainty that it is possible to enjoy a better life, with a promising future for one’s children.

The journey was uphill, never without danger. She challenged Nicolás Maduro and Diosdado Cabellos, two individuals with a terrifying criminal record. However, the path that remains is no less complex and abrupt, which is why the candidate continues to need to count on the support of her forces and herself, to continue fully interpreting the feelings and needs of her supporters.

Hope has been recovered and I trust that the Cuban experience demonstrating that there are committed allies will become certainty for those who suffer regimes that perpetuate themselves because they know how to choose their enemies.

The candidate germinated confidence again and restored the certainty that it is possible to enjoy a better life, with a promising future for one’s children

Castro-Chavismo stigmatizes the opposition when it accuses it of being a foreign agent and it mutilates itself if it comes to believe that outsiders will be firm allies in its efforts, which motivated the apostle Jose Martí to write: “The enemies of the freedom of a people are not so much the strangers who oppress them, as the timidity and vanity of their own children.”

I was a partial witness of that magical Venezuelan enthusiasm. I shared with friends and strangers the joy of glimpsing a better future, even more so, the expectation of seeing the clouds covering El Ávila hill again or simply driving under the towers of Silencio.

I even dreamed that we Cubans, one day, would be able to have a similar experience and, suddenly, an aside from the poet Antonio Machado came to me, “Walker, there is no path, you make the path as you walk*.” In both Cuba and Venezuela, there has been no shortage of walkers who have given everything for their rights, and pilgrims like María Corina Machado, imitating the poet, with enough awareness to look back without repeating the path that leads to slavery.

*Translator’s note: From Antonio Machado, 1917

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuba: Totalitarianisms’ Dangerous Business Vision

A small and medium enterprise (mipyme in Spanish) in Havana, Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, October 14, 2023 — Castroite totalitarianism is reinventing itself by launching the rise and development of small enterprises, an activity that would not be possible if the ruling class weren’t strongly involved with the opportunistic objective of preserving power.

I confess that I do not believe in the good faith of Cuban autocrats. They’ve demonstrated more than enough skill to manipulate the population and other people of good faith, without excluding professional climbers who only seek to promote their own interests. Subjects whom we all know.

The heirs of those who belong to “the new class” — as Yugoslav Milovan Djila would wisely identify them — is greedy for the wealth and wellbeing that competes with the resentment and sectarianism of their predecesors. Nevertheless, they do no want to leave the government, which would mean losing their invaluable prerogatives.

On March 13, 1968, with the so called Revolutionary Offensive — which eliminated close to 60,000 small private businesses that had survived other confiscations by Castroism — Fidel realized his dream of building a kind of trinity comprising him, the Revolution and Cuba. continue reading

The confiscations were so absurd, says writer Jose Antonio Albertini, that a high-ranking government official, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, one of Castro’s loyal servants, opposed the measure alleging that socialist countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland hadn’t implemented that option. The Castros never listened to the claim.

To grow, the ’mipymes’ need the least intrusive government possible, a condition the Cuban authorities never grant, due to their controlling and arbitrary nature

One year later, Christmas was banned on the Island by governmental decree. The regime declared July 25, 26 and 27 official holidays. The caudillo assumed the role of messiah. We had a new national religion with a vanguard of loyalists, which we could have referred to as Castro’s inquisition, supported by mass organizations the leaders of which, to the rythm of songwriters of totalitarianism, emulated the sadly famous Tomás de Torquemada.

Some will remember that, parallel to the scarcity and the snitches of the Committees in Defense of the Revolution, the firing squad was deafening and more jails were built, because death and prisoners were the only thing the regime produced.

Until 1968, we had lived under an iron-clad and bloody dictatorship. As of that date, we began to suffer one of the most severe and disastrous totalitarian regimes to ever exist, accumulating, by imposition, failures, misery and a profound disenchantment among most citizens.

We can’t deny that imposing totalitarianism relied on the complicity of a large number of citizens and that the counteroffensive we live today, contrary to the nature of absolutists, isn’t orphaned by the support of other Cubans on the island and abroad either, which trust that Miguel Diaz-Canel and his servants, through economic freedom, will drive the Island toward democracy, as if Xi Jinping’s China were free.

The extreme poverty created by even the most modest confiscations — barber shops, hair salons and even the closure of the miserly shoe repair establishments — led to strengthening the state bureaucracy with the creation of consolidated enterprises that managed the businesses confiscated by sector.

We cannot deny that imposing totalitarianism relied on the complicity of a large number of citizens

Certainly, although the inefficiency was enthroned in the country, humor was not lacking, people would say that the most important business was Ecochinche — Bedbug Management Company — that horrendous parasite Castroism had imitated to perfection because it has spent more than six decades bleeding the people dry, plundering their allies and stealing from business owners who, trustingly, have invested in their properties.

The micro, small and medium enterprises have always existed and, luckily, many of them were the starting point for large companies that, due to their efficiency and creativity, have been pillars of universal development. However, to grow they all need the least intrusive government possible, conditions the Cuban authorities will never grant, due to their controlling and arbitrary nature.

In any given Latinamerican country, even the poorest, small businesses which are now called mipymes exist. The governments allow them to be created and grow without restrictions, in contrast to what happens on the Castros’ Island, where even to travel abroad a permit is required and the approval of political commissars. From there, my doubts about the legitimacy of management that should benefit Cubans, more than its despots.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Where Are You Going, Colombia?

Protesters with banners and speeches against the Government walk the streets in Cali (Colombia). (EFE/Ernesto Guzmán Jr.)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio Pedro Corzo, Miami, 7 October 2023 — I visited Colombia a few days ago on a tourist and family trip. In both visions I could see that the Government doesn’t have much sympathy. A significant number of those who say they voted against President Gustavo Petro seriously question those who elected him. Even more, I saw graffiti on historic walls that, among other criticisms, asked the president why the cost of living had become so expensive.

When I traveled to Venezuela for the recall referendum, in 2004, I told my Venezuelan friends that I had the perception that, with or without cheating, Hugo Chávez would win. Now I wonder how Petro won the elections last year if most of the people I talked to, almost entirely unknown, spoke against him. I did not see any fear of the authorities, since the individuals talked freely.

My first stay was in the fabulous Cartagena de Indias. It is a city full of contradictions. Its historic walls always move me, but what pleasantly impressed me was the progress in the modern area called Bocagrande. Hopefully Gustavo Petro will not be determined to destroy the development achieved, as his peers in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua did when they took power. Their eagerness to curtail freedoms and end economic and social advances is unhealthy and criminal. continue reading

When I traveled to Venezuela for the recall referendum, in 2004, I told my Venezuelan friends that I had the perception that, with or without cheating, Hugo Chávez would win

Bocagrande – or South Miami, as some call it – is beautiful, vibrant and rich, with the busiest beaches in that part of the country, although I confess that I still prefer the walled city, with its convents and its legends of apparitions. By the way, the assistant in a bar we visited told us that she would never be alone in that place because she had already had a scare. In addition, the churches, aged buildings, car rides and the San Felipe de Barajas castle transport us back in time.

The history of that part of the city is that of the entire hemisphere, of our most emblematic villas of the colonial era, in which at least two Cuban cities are distinguished, Havana and Trinidad. By the way, one of the guides told us that a certain Cuban was considered a hero in colonial times, for his leadership in an insurrection.

In Cartagena, at one of the restaurants where we had lunch, I sampled my first coconut lemonade, a real feast for the palate. There, inadvertently, politics broke out. The lady who served us, realizing that we were all Cubans with the exception of my wife, brought out her artillery against the president. She described how much life in the region had changed for the worse and the many fears about the future that overwhelmed the citizenry, both rich and poor. She was critical of the presidential flirtation with irregular groups, including drug traffickers, and of his approach to the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.

Our arrival in Medellín coincided with Petro’s visit to the United Nations, where he was snubbed and overshadowed by the remarks against the mayor of the city, Daniel Quintero, an ally of the president.

Quintero is noted for having forged a strong business alliance with Venezuelans who enriched themselves under the autocracies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro

Quintero is noted for having forged a strong business alliance with Venezuelans who enriched themselves under the autocracies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. A harsh report by the newspaper El Colombiano describes a network of interests, which offers grounds for a judicial investigation so that a conscious electorate does not vote for the candidate who supports the current office holder.

In the capital of Antioquia, in the face of renewed criticism of Petro, I asked again how he had been elected. The answer did not surprise me: my interlocutors said that it was the vote of the young people, trusting in the Petrist promises, that brought him to power. A pity, because the leaders resemble the brothers Castro, Chávez, Maduro, Daniel Ortega and Evo Morales, in my opinion Gustavo Petro’s fellow travelers, the ones who most damage the possibilities of achieving a society like the one that the despots promise in their speeches.

I told my friends Horacio and Consuelo Puertas that Colombia enjoys spaces that no longer exist in the Castro-Castrochavista States, with a very energetic civil society that will be difficult to crush. However, I suggested with great respect that they could not be negligent, because “the shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Resistance, the Cuban Way

Exile leaders and former Cuban political prisoners during a press conference in Miami, on February 15, 2023. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 23 September 2023 — The everlasting will of the Cuban exiles to overthrow totalitarianism is as proverbial as the solidarity shown by those same exiles with their relatives on the Island, despite the intense propaganda deployed by the Castro authorities and, in particular, by the Cuban Government’s fellow travelers residing abroad, who try to show that the opposition, in order to end the dictatorship, is willing to sink the country where they were born.

The Cuban exile has shown a very unique perseverance and dedication for his country. Just as inside Cuba there has never been a lack of freedom fighters, abroad there have also been men and women ready to take the risks required to participate in the return of citizens’ rights to the Island.

The darkest decades of the opposition in Cuba, I dare to say, was in the period from 1960 to 1980, illuminated by the resistance of political prisoners and the creation of the Comité Cubano Pro-Derechos Humanos [Cuban Committee for Human Rights], inspired by Ricardo Bofill.

It was also one of the periods in which the banishment was most active, as shown by the constitution, among others, of the Cuban Patriotic Junta, by Manuel Enrique de Varona, and the Cuban American National Foundation, by Jorge Mas Canosa, as well as by the constitution of Independent and Democratic Cuba, led by Commander Huber Matos and many other former political prisoners like Ángel de Fana and Reinaldo Aquit Manrique, whom  prison hardened in their already firm convictions.

Signs of that tenacity and drive are not often found in History. I affirm that the opponents abroad are vibrant and as committed to overthrowing the dictatorship as they were when this struggle began more than 60 years ago.

“I affirm that the opponents abroad are vibrant and as committed to overthrowing the dictatorship as they were when this fight began more than 60 years ago”

This gives cause for us to feel proud, because the evidence of that resistance and dedication to a more-than-just cause exists in the young and old, as shown by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, founded in 2009. In my opinion, because of the efficient work it does, under the coordination of Orlando Gutiérrez, it has managed to motivate not only Cubans, but also numerous politicians from different countries who work hard to bring democracy to Castro’s hell.

It’s important to note that the commitment is still present in those who left Cuba to study in the so-called socialist countries, as shown by the intense activity they carry out in Europe against totalitarianism. There are groups such as Miscellaneous of Cuba, Cuban Observatory of Human Rights and Prisoners Defenders, in addition to personalities such as Zoé Valdés and Alejandro González Raga.

These former students are among the most tenacious and active enemies of the regime. There are groups in Europe that develop an intense activity in favor of democracy in Cuba, also in other regions of Latin America such as Puerto Rico, where there is a personality like Gerardo Morera, 88 years old, who does not stop promoting the fight for democracy in Cuba, while working intensively to preserve our traditions, supporting and managing the patriotic Casa Cuba de San Juan.

Of course, there are several states in the U.S. where the main foci of resistance are located, with South Florida, particularly Miami-Dade County, being the vital nucleus for most Cuban organizations. They use different strategies to fight Castroism. Some, such as Alpha 66, directed by Ernesto Rodríguez, have been doing so for more than six decades.

Those of us who are already approaching eight decades of life, or the 90s, such as Roberto Perdomo – 28 years in prison in Cuba, 23 of them in underpants for rejecting the common prisoner’s uniform – must be very proud, because young people born in the United States, such as Daniel Pedreira, have made a firm commitment to everything that has to do with democracy in Cuba. Others, such as the aforementioned Orlando Gutiérrez, who left Cuba before adolescence, are examples of dedication and sacrifice as were their elders, who were executed or served decades in Castro prisons.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Castroism and Human Trafficking

A group of Cubans who were recruited to fight on the Russian side in the war in Ukraine. (Mario Vallejo/Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 16 September 2023 — Human trafficking is one of the greatest aberrations that people can do, but when a government does it, it’s hard to find a qualifier.

The Cuban authorities have always trafficked their citizens; even worse, they have integrated into the population the idea that this commerce is a legal and moral practice. For the regime, as long as it is profitable, it is something positive for the government to provide mercenary services to a foreign nation or to any military force that requests it.

At least a large sector of two generations of Cubans grew up under the influence of their parents, who participated in mercenary wars in the service of the extinct Soviet Union and the imperialist will of Fidel Castro. The last Spanish-speaking imperialist army in the world was Cuban, not Spanish.

Castro’s totalitarianism has historically participated in any criminal activity that benefits it regardless of how many moral or legal parameters are broken. It has always been associated with three of the most criminal transgressions: narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and terrorism. continue reading

The Cuban authorities have always trafficked their citizens; even worse, they have integrated into the population the idea that this commerce is a legal and moral practice

This sowing of false values, greed, selfishness, impunity and injustice, to refer to just a few, is showing itself with all its indignity in the close collaboration that Cuba lends to Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine, again using its citizens as cannon fodder to please Moscow.

It is not surprising that Castroism sells this to its citizens, but it must be a concern that young people are willing to participate in an unjust war, contrary to the values proclaimed by José Martí. It must hurt us that they die and kill, not to defend their homeland but to obtain benefits to which any citizen in the world has the right: to leave the land in which they are unhappy.

Cuban youth, certainly, suffer from an overwhelming level of frustration that leads them to act in search of the level of survival they want without dwelling on the damage they cause, as shown in a report by Radio Martí, by filmmaker and journalist Luis Guardia, with the collaboration of colleague Ivette Pacheco.

In the report, Caridad Díaz says that her son, Alex Rolando Vega Diaz, at the time at a Russian military base, told her that he preferred to “die from Ukrainian bombs than from hunger and sadness in Cuba,” which shows the degree of despair that the population of the Island has reached due due to Castroism.

The regime’s reaction to these events does not surprise anyone. It repeats the same script as when the ruling leadership was accused of drug trafficking, such as Causa Nº1, in which henchmen from the upper echelons of totalitarianism were prosecuted.

The staging is similar. Havana claims to have arrested several people linked to the operation. In other words, a totalitarian government like the Cuban one, which boasts of the social control it exercises in the country, was unaware of an operation in which the main beneficiary was its most important ally, Colonel Vladimir Putin.

Cuban youth, certainly, suffer from an overwhelming level of frustration that leads them to act in search of the level of survival they want without dwelling on the damage they cause

This farce of the arrests led the activist Jaimiel Hernández to wonder when Díaz-Canel will start Causa Nº2, adding that Raúl Castro, again, will be the main accuser of regime officials who are guilty, saving the scarred face of the dictatorship.

Miguel Díaz-Canel, once again, proves to be the most faithful servant, although without talent for inventing new scoundrels. It is and will always be the wildcard that ensures that the new class created by the fateful Castro brothers continues to perpetuate itself in power, destroying the Cuban nation.

For Castroism, the only mercenaries are those who oppose it; those who repress and kill when they are at its service are honorable people who should be imitated. Doctrinal education and manipulation are leaving a very negative sequel for the future of the Cuban nation, with a pernicious mafia that will survive the regime and that we will painfully know as the Cuban mafia when it should be called the Castro mafia.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Maria Corina, Alert!

María Corina Machado during a rally in the coastal state of La Guaira, in northern Venezuela. (@MariaCorinaYA)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 9 September 2023 — I feel a deep admiration for those who fight for their convictions and rights, people always willing to face real risks without fear of the consequences, which, fortunately for those of us who love freedom and the enjoyment of our citizen prerogatives, are never lacking.

The most recent display of heroism, with a tragic result, was exemplified by the candidate for the presidency of Ecuador Fernando Villavicencio, who, in the face of the numerous threats to which he was subjected, said: “The only thing they can do is kill me, and with that we liberate an entire people.” This was an example of exceptional value, because he was aware that he was going to be killed.

The murder of Villavicencio did not intimidate other Ecuadorian candidates and freedom fighters. Nor those who, in other countries – such as María Corina Machado in Venezuela – are immersed in an electoral campaign in which the assassins are also the referees.

The fiefdoms of Castro-Chavism are oiling their weapons. In Nicaragua, the nefarious Ortega-Murillo couple has increased repression against priests and other citizens. However, the resistance is not extinguished, as demonstrated, among others, by Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lago.

In Cuba, with almost sixty-five years of resistance, there are 1,047 political prisoners according to Prisoner Defenders. Among them, José Daniel Ferrer and families such as the Navarros – father and daughter in prison – Félix and Sayli, whose mother is a Lady in White. The same happens in Bolivia, where the recycling implemented by Evo Morales and Luis Arce Catacora has raised the number of political prisoners to more than 200, including former president Jeanine Áñez. continue reading

Venezuela, one of the countries where the opposition suffers the most, is in the middle of an electoral campaign, facing all the obstacles that the autocrats of organized crime are capable of

Venezuela, one of the countries where the opposition suffers the most, is in the middle of an electoral campaign, facing all the obstacles that the autocrats of organized crime are capable of. Specifically, the almost-certain electoral fraud. There are, according to reports from the Criminal Forum of Venezuela, at least 282 political prisoners, including the former student leader and former deputy Juan Requesen, who suffers the harassment and abuses of the henchmen of the Castro-Chavista dictatorship who, evidently, share the common denominator of violating the human rights of those imprisoned.

However, opponents of dictatorships do not cease in their struggle for freedom, as evidenced by the presidential candidate María Corina Machado, who, over the years, has reliably demonstrated that she has plenty of moral integrity, talent and willingness to face the dangers that Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello or any of his henchmen put on the path of the struggle for freedom.

Her participation in the civil organization Súmate – of which she was one of the founders and executive director – demonstrated a great capacity for work and the necessary courage to insist on the defense of constitutional rights, including electoral rights, always threatened by the scam of the so-called socialism of the 21st century. In addition, she faces the constant manipulation of the National Electoral Council executed by Chávez, of which Maduro has demonstrated a supreme mastery.

It is possible that, as never before in the past – and although they have always been present – women feel the threat that the proposals of the despots of Castro-Chavism mean to the integrity of the family, dangers in the face of which they have taken transcendental steps that have led them to the leadership positions to which they are entitled.

The constant and unlimited participation of women in these libertarian movements has been on a par with that of men

The constant and unlimited participation of women in these libertarian movements has been on a par with that of men. Consequently, in the electoral processes, the one that can best serve must receive the greatest popular support, without gender having any relevance.

The engineer and former deputy Machado is the favorite candidate of the Venezuelan electorate. She has always shown a firm attitude, without capitulation to Chavismo, which has led the henchmen of the despots to beat her and threaten her numerous times.

María Corina Machado has always been a stone in the shoes of the despots of her country, just like other women in Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba who have never given up the fight. This has been done for decades by Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello and the aforementioned political prisoner Sayli Navarro, who, since childhood, when her father went to prison, has denounced Cuban totalitarianism.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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