Yunior García Aguilera – Page 4

Eduardo López-Collazi, Scientist and Writer Who Left Cuba ‘To Be Free’

The Elena Fortún Library was packed with a broad ranging audience./ 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 26 april 2025 – “I left Cuba to be free”, Eduardo López-Collazo said on Saturday in Madrid at the launch of his first novel, ’Narcisos’. After thirty years in Spain his life has become an example of personal and professional realization, combining rigorous investigation with creativity, a passion for the arts and literature, scientific dissemination and activism to promote diversity and inclusion.

On account of this, the psychologist and neuroscientist Ana Asencio wondered: “How can so many lives fit into one single body?” López-Collazo himself rebels against the insistence, in certain sections of society, for always classifying or pigeonholing people with one single label. It’s a long time since he decided to come out of all the closets: he stopped signing his cultural critiques with a pseudonym, and in his LinkedIn profile he stopped hiding the fact that he wrote about dance in El Cultural. He’s not worried that they call him a twenty-first century Renaissance man.

The amazing thing is that this Cuban, born on 3 July 1969, in Jovellanos, Matanzas, manages to do it all “like crazy”. He graduated as a nuclear physicist from the University of Havana, a city in which, in his own words, he was “hungry and homeless”. In Spain he got his doctorate in pharmacology at the Complutense University of Madrid and ended up running, over the course of a decade, the biggest centre for scientific investigation in the Spanish capital. The impact of his work has been recognised by Forbes, El Mundo and El Español, all of which have described him as one of the most influential people in the country.

Narcisos presents us with the lives of eight men through the eyes of Carmen, a psychologist who will go on to have a journey of self discovery over the course of the narrative. The author describes the novel as a search for understanding “who we are when nobody is looking at us, not even ourselves”. The work is dedicated to his lifetime companion Holden, with whom he discussed the evolution of many of his characters. continue reading

[The filmmaker and writer Carlos Lechuga, charged with presenting the book, described its cinematic potential

The filmmaker and writer Carlos Lechuga, charged with presenting the book, described its cinematic potential. The reader will be able to confirm this immediately, thanks to the fluidity of the dialogue and the richness of the images transmitted through its pages.

Although this is the first novel he has had published – by Mayda Bustamante and Ediciones Huso – it is in fact the third one he has written. The previous two are very personal and it might take a little more time for them to see the light of day. Nevertheless, anyone who has followed his work, including his most scientific texts, will recognise the ease of his writing. It’s not for nothing that El País included one of his titles in their list of “books with an unsettling theme that are a pleasure to read”.

When questioned about whether there exists a battle between the rigour of science and the chaos of creativity, López-Collazo replied that he always looks for freedom. Naturally, he’s a firm believer in discipline: he admits that on occasion he sometimes found himself counting the number of words that he’d ascribed to each of his characters in order to achieve perfect equilibrium. “But without freedom”, he confessed, “growth is lateral, never upwards”.

It’s no surprise that the Elena Fortún public library was packed with a broad ranging audience, many of them standing, to be witness to this presentation. Among those present were the singer-songwriter Liuba María Hevia, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Umaña, the former Vice Mayoress of Madrid Begoña Villacís and the dancer María Pagés, worthy winner of the Asturias Prize for Princess of the Arts. And many others, who, when it was all over, rushed to buy the book – in which some of the characters are real… and others are too.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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The Annexationist Thoughts of Cubans

It is natural that the millions of Cubans who have acquired American citizenship see the future of Cuba linked to the country where they have been able to prosper.

The average Cuban usually sees in Miami an image that contrasts with the precariousness and misery they suffer on the island. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 March 2025 — The Castro-communist regime, whose narrative has been fundamentally based on its dispute with the United States, has always used the specter of annexationism as an argument in its favor. According to its theorists, the northern power desperately desires to seize Cuba, even today. To support their thesis, they use old theories such as the “low-hanging fruit ” of John Quincy Adams (1823), the Monroe Doctrine (America for Americans), and the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. On the other hand, the regime’s opponents have been repeatedly labeled “lackeys of the Empire” or, simply, as annexationists. In this way, Castroism hides behind a supposed defense of national sovereignty to legitimize itself.

One might suspect that Cuba’s State Security itself has been responsible for spreading annexationist sentiments among a segment of the exile community and the opposition to bolster its narrative. And while I have no doubt this is perfectly suited to their narrative, I also don’t ignore other reasons why this current of thought has all the fuel it needs to spread spontaneously.

Let’s be frank, annexationist thinking has existed among Cubans for more than two centuries. Its origins date back to the late 18th century, within the Creole slave-owning bourgeoisie. On the one hand, they were disappointed with the decline of Spain, feared abolitionist pressures from England, and were terrified by the slave revolutions taking place in the region. This sector saw in its allegiance to the southern United States an opportunity to maintain the stability of the slave economy. Even our flag has an annexationist origin, designed by the Venezuelan Narciso López, a staunch defender of that movement.

Within the United States itself, rejection of the idea of Cuba becoming part of the Union was growing.

However, within the United States itself, rejection of the idea of Cuba becoming part of the Union was growing. Perhaps the most striking reflection of this contempt for this option was the article “Do We Want Cuba? ” published in The Manufacturer in 1889. The article praised the land but despised its inhabitants.

White Cubans were categorized as an inferior race, effeminate, lazy, morally deficient, and naturally incapable. The main argument used to justify our inability to be free was precisely the continued failure of our rebellions.

Black Cubans were treated even worse, with the argument that they were “clearly on the level of barbarism.” According to the article, the only possibility of annexation was to completely replace the population. But even so, they feared that the Anglo-Saxon race would degrade under the effects of the tropical sun.

Obviously, the pamphlet was rejected by Cuban patriots, especially José Martí. The annexationist tendency gradually declined, while support for the independence ideal grew. Later, during the Republic, the rejection of the Platt Amendment would be one of the driving forces behind an increasingly nationalist outlook among Cubans.

Then came the Revolution, capitalizing on and radicalizing a supposed nationalism, although in practice it turned the island into a satellite of another foreign power: the USSR. The oversaturation of anti-American discourse, out of exhaustion, provoked the opposite effect in a large part of the Cuban population, resurrecting annexationist thinking.

While in the rest of Latin America the word “gringo” is often used to refer to Americans, in Cuba the word “yuma” is used, which has a connotation that is far from pejorative. The average Cuban tends to see in the US, and especially in Miami, an image that contrasts completely with the precariousness and misery they suffer on the island. On the other hand, it is only natural that the millions of Cubans who have acquired American citizenship over the decades see Cuba’s future inextricably linked to the country where they have been able to prosper.

In short, annexationist thinking not only has historical roots but is also a direct result of the political, economic, and social failure of the Castro regime, as well as the continued mass exodus of Cubans to the United States.

For my part, leaving aside any ideological bias, I don’t believe the American powers are seriously considering the possibility of annexing Cuba. The current US president, when he talks about expanding his territory, looks more to the north: to Canada and Greenland. This administration, when it looks south, doesn’t see any ripe fruit or anything like it. It goes and dreams… of very high walls.

I don’t think the American powers would seriously consider the possibility of annexing Cuba.

There are reasons to believe that the majority of the Cuban opposition desires a free and independent country. Beyond our differences, I believe the prevailing vision is a future Cuba that maintains a normal relationship with its northern neighbor, without renouncing our sovereignty. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to the differing opinions growing in certain exile communities.

Finally, and to dispel any doubts about the regime’s hypocrisy when it uses the word “sovereignty,” it is enough to recall Díaz-Canel’s words after his last visit to Moscow. The hand-picked dictator said he was deeply moved when Lukashenko reminded him that Cuba “was also a former Soviet republic.” He told this to Ramonet, his eyes watering with nostalgia. And he repeated it to Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, moved and with goosebumps, from the presidential plane. When talking about annexationism, this anecdote cannot be forgotten either.

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March 8 in Cuba: When Dignity and Obedience Are Confused

The Federation of Cuban Women said it was celebrating, not Women’s Day, but the right that the Revolution gave them to be “dignified.”

March 8th commemoration in the presence of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Havana, 10 March 2025 — This past March 8th, the Cuban regime’s institution responsible for monitoring and controlling women put out a weak, shaky, and contradictory statement. The FMC (Federation of Cuban Women) announced in their pamphlet that they were celebrating not International Women’s Day, but rather the right the Revolution gave them to be “dignified.” They claimed to uphold the principles — not of their own female leaders (if they even have any) — but of a macho man who presided over all their congresses and always insisted on having the final say. It’s pretty clear the statement was a throwback to recent events in Río Cauto.

The population of this Granma municipality sank into darkness and misery each year, like the rest of the country, but the local press only spoke of fictitious achievements and a supposed revolutionary euphoria. Río Cauto had been proclaimed “Vanguard Municipality” in the celebration of July 26th in 2023. That same year, it had earned the distinction of hosting the provincial event commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the Triumph of the Revolution.

But the most striking event occurred in February 2024, when the town experienced a collective ’bristling’ following the visit of the appointed dictator, Miguel Díaz-Canel. Its three key officials — Sadia Pérez Nápoles (first secretary of the municipal PCC), Dailín Cox Pajaró (president of the Municipal Assembly), and Yaniel Yero Nápoles (mayor) — had already amassed a significant collection of diplomas and were sharpening their claws to be promoted, without a doubt, to provincial positions.

But just a year later, an unexpected turn of events once again put Río Cauto in the spotlight, and not for its usual submissiveness. All Cubans saw on social media a humble woman protesting against hunger and misery. We also witnessed two mastodontic goons violently dragging her away in front continue reading

of her children. We read the statement from Río Cauto’s authorities branding her ungrateful and throwing in her face the four planks and zinc roof that the Government, in its boundless generosity, had provided her. At the climax of this chronicle, we all closely followed how her neighbors took to the streets in the most resounding protest of the year so far across the country, demanding her release and voicing their collective exasperation.

Political Prisoners and the Chalk Circle

In a joint television appearance, a Cuban jurist and a state propagandist demonstrated that the regime does not even know how to act like it is running a country governed by the rule of law. / Cuban Television

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, January 16, 2025 – The word “all” is one of the most frequently used words in Cuban social media posts these days, a clear reference to political prisoners. Those of us who have been fighting for their release are overcome by a strange feeling, especially since the protests of 11J. The regime has begun to release some of the 553 prisoners it promised the Vatican it would free in exchange for its help in getting Joe Biden to remove Cuba from the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The use of political prisoners as bargaining chips has been common practice when the regime is bartering with its favorite enemy.

Why do I describe it as a strange feeling? First of all, anyone with a shred of humanity would rejoice that so many unjustly incarcerated people might be leaving the hell of Cuban prisons, embracing their families and sleeping in their own beds again. Especially if they should never have been imprisoned in the first place. But walking out of their cells does not mean that they are free. The regime itself has made this quite clear through its spokesperson, Humberto López, and the vice-president of Cuba’s supreme court, Maricela Sosa, who stressed the “benefit of early release.” In other words, this is not an amnesty or a pardon. Once released, the prisoners will still be subject to strict monitoring by the repressive powers-that-be. They could forced back into prison at any time if those who misgovern the country so decide.

Leaving their cells does not mean that they are free. The regime itself has made this quite clear through its spokesperson, Humberto López

In a joint television appearance, López and Sosa demonstrated that the regime does not even know how to pretend it is running a country governed by the rule of law. Ms. Sosa knows all too well that, when it comes to political crimes, the Cuban legal system is a farce. The court’s role has been diminished to that of a paper pusher . The final verdict depends solely and exclusively on what Caesar decides, whether his thumb is pointing up or down. On the other hand, what are we to do? Is this a concession to the pope continue reading

in honor of the Jubilee? How much of a gesture is it really when they themselves claim to have released more than 10,000 prisoners in the last two years? Did Díaz-Canel suddenly convert to Catholicism and now is in a state of ecstasy over the Jubilee? Is it payment in kind for acting as intermediary with the White House? Is it intended as a farewell kiss to Mr. Biden? Or is it something that was due to happen, based on current legislation, long ago? The quagmire that Humberto and Maricela got themselves into is reminiscent of a bad comedy-drama.

Obviously, there are more uncertainties than solid answers. We will have to wait to find out the names of the 553 former prisoners. We will also have to wait and see what the Trump administration does about taking Cuba off the notorious terrorism list. Expectations are that it will be Marco Rubio, even more than Trump, who will take the lead on any decisions having to do with the island. One of the few certainties is that Cuban civil society is completely excluded from this process.

There are several reasons why decisions that affect us are made behind our backs

There are several reasons why decisions that affect us are made behind our backs. For one thing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in any kind of activism within the country, much less full-on opposition. The harsh persecution to which independent opinion makers are subjected in Cuba prevents not only the necessary debate but even simple expression in a public forum or in social media. How can a gagged, impoverished, tightly monitored and constantly threatened civil society empower itself?

Meanwhile, divisions within the exile community continue, as do clashes of ego and unfounded suspicions stoked by Cuban State Security agencies. In Miami, which continues serve as the exiles’ unofficial capital, political polarization has dampened the interest of the United State’s two major political parties in winning the Cuban vote. When partisan differences become so obvious, the ability to attract interest, or to influence decisions, is suddenly lost. Some will think this sounds all too much like teenage love affairs. But politics is not very different from youthful passions, especially in times when emotion reemerges as a potent political weapon.

As for the Cuban diaspora, it is clear that we are fragmented, dispersed, disconnected and powerless to influence the governments of the countries where we find ourselves living.

When Cardinal Beniamino Stella visited Havana in 2023, the papal envoy expressed his intention to negotiate the release of political prisoners. He noted that “those who have to power to talk among themselves should to be able to listen to others.” The key phrase was “those who have power.” The sad truth is that, today, neither the opposition nor civil society in general have enough power to be heard, neither by one nor the other. And that is a fatal flaw.

We are fragmented, dispersed, disconnected and powerless to influence the governments of the countries where we find ourselves living

Crying and complaining will not serve us well. We must roll up our sleeves. Above all, we must put aside our petty differences and focus on the task at hand, the most urgent being to empower ourselves. That means being able to mobilize Cuban society, consolidate leadership, and ensure that our leaders are heard at the highest levels internationally. And not just so world leaders can feel sorry for us. Victimhood always makes for fleeting, inconsequential news. We need to demonstrate to world leaders that we have the potential to change things. It is about consolidating alliances and drawing up firm strategies with international decision-makers. We should be significant enough so that no one rushes in to make decisions that impact us without consulting us first. However, in order for our cause make it onto international agendas, we must first come up with a clear agenda of our own. It should not be one full of sloganeering and shouting. Rather, it should be one that has been carefully agreed upon, with a clear roadmap and concise strategies.

I have saved for last the questions that most concern me at the moment. What will happen to the other five-hundred political prisoners who will not be receiving this “benefit”? How long will they remain in this unjust, inhuman situation? Until the next Jubilee? Will they be the card that the regime is saving for its showdown with Marco Rubio? Will the regime lock up another thousand Cubans next year in order to do another swap? Will we keep going around in circles?
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Cuba: Artificial Intelligence against Natural Stupidity

Many of these technologies have been developed to democratize creative processes, and that word is for them the greatest threat

Havana, recreated with artificial intelligence (IA.Cuba/ Artificial Intelligence Cuba)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, January 8, 2025 – On April 19, 2023, a Parliament, held hostage by the Single Party, ratified Miguel Díaz-Canel as the hand-picked dictator. His management during the previous five years could not have been worse, but the nonagenarian Raúl Castro continued to give him a thumbs up. Why? It is true that the absolute incompetence of his pupil was evident, but at least Raúl and the other Castro bosses continued to keep their privileges intact.

It didn’t matter if the rest of the country fell apart. His test piece had shown that he was willing to distribute all the force necessary to keep the commoners at bay. And that was enough for him. In addition, looking sideways at the rest of the deputies present, it is likely that he whispered to his confidant, General Amadito Ricardo Guerra: we have to use what we have, and it doesn’t really matter if we loan this ass the baton for five more years.

The re-appointed climbed to the podium with his handful of notes, read a speech full of hyperboles and made the pauses marked in the script to receive the corresponding applause. And, to be in tune with the trends recommended by his advisors, he decided to also talk about AI. His words resonated from a completely defensive attitude: “I am quite sure that no Artificial Intelligence simulation could summarize the feat of the Cuban people in recent years. The creative resistance of the people of this country, their resilience, exceeds the limits of any simulation or prediction. There is no algorithm capable of reflecting everything we live.”

“I’m pretty sure that no Artificial Intelligence simulation could summarize the feat of the Cuban people in recent years”

Behind his words was hidden something very interesting that went viral on social networks. Several Cubans had begun to play and experiment with the new applications, asking ChatGPT about issues related to the reality of the continue reading

Island or generating images of a possible Cuba without a dictatorship. The algorithms were forceful. With them [the Regime] in power, life was an absolute disaster. Without them, the country and its people would enjoy undisputed development and prosperity. That’s why Díaz-Canel lashed out at an Artificial Intelligence that refused to recognize or applaud the alleged achievements he mentioned in his speech.

However, just a few days ago, he touched on the matter again, although this time going on the offensive: “We have to use Artificial Intelligence. Everyone is talking about it; everyone is applying it to the processes.” His audience looked at him without understanding if the speech was about using robots as employees at the ration stores or covering the potholes on the streets with some Instagram filter. Theater director Mario Junquera posted on his Facebook page: “I would say YES for AI to govern the country… tomorrow.” It was obvious that even the most primitive computer would make more coherent decisions than the “same old, same old” of the ruling bureaucracy.

Cuba is late to these debates, like almost everything else. And it is understandable. In a country where banking has not been carried out due to technological insufficiency, what can be expected from experimenting with AI? In a country where the internet is slower than a caterpillar and where blackouts are more frequent than alumbrones — a Cuban word coined to describe when the lights are ON — who will have nerves, battery and enough data to mess with those futuristic toys?

The truth is that Artificial Intelligence is no longer a fantasy of the future, but a reality of the present. And the speed with which it evolves generates fear in some and fascination in others. Some compare the development of Artificial Intelligence with that meteorite that extinguished the dinosaurs. Others celebrate it as the tool that will help humans take a great evolutionary leap as a species. What will happen to AI? Or, rather, what will happen to humans? Will it make us smarter or more idiotic? Will it steal our job or give us more time for ourselves? Have we opened a Pandora’s box?

The truth is that Artificial Intelligence is no longer a fantasy of the future, but a reality of the present

I’m on the side of the enthusiasts. Using these tools has allowed me to find inspiration, make project models in record time, as well as generate and socialize content more quickly and attractively. And its use has not taken away anyone’s work, on the contrary. I have received calls from other colleagues interested in collaborating on new projects, precisely thanks to the result they saw with the help of AI.

As for Díaz-Canel and his harangue, there is little to add. Many of these technologies have been developed to democratize creative processes, and that word is for them the greatest threat. In any case, what they develop will be to promote that only area in which they are efficient: surveillance, control and repression against the masses.

But, once again, it would be a shot in the foot. With the clumsiness that characterizes them, what they generate could turn against them in a very short time. It is impossible to pretend to dominate Artificial Intelligence, when you have more than enough of natural stupidity.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One Hundred Years of Solitude Was Not Released in Macondo

The Cuba of flesh and blood is very far from what Carpentier called the “real maravilloso”

Presentation of the series in the Taganana room of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba. / Capture

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 8 December 2024 — The Cuban bureaucracy has celebrated with great fanfare that the adaptation of García Márquez’s masterpiece had its “world premiere” in Havana, before it was on Netflix. Perhaps the ICAIC [Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry] officials did not get the producers’ sarcasm. It sounded great, from the point of view of capitalist marketing, to announce that this audiovisual product had its premiere in the most absurd and dystopian place on the continent. Cuba is the Latin American country where, many years later, people still run the risk of ending up in front of a firing squad. Cuba is the dark corner of the world where children may no longer know what ice is, due to perpetual blackouts.

However, the premiere was not in Havana. On December 4, Brussels had already witnessed a special screening of the first chapter and a discussion. Two days earlier, in Mexico City, a similar event had taken place with a cocktail party, panels and talks. Anyone who knows Alexis Triana, the current president of the ICAIC, knows well that he would be capable of disguising some filmmaker as an Eskimo to inflate his festivals and announce the presence of Inuit cinema on the Island.

One of the attendees at the Havana screening, according to Radio Rebelde, said excitedly upon leaving the Yara cinema: “I was left wanting more, I have to look for the rest of the series.” Obviously he was not referring to looking for it on the famous streaming service, since only a tiny minority of Cubans have the luxury of accessing that platform. He was surely referring to getting a pirated copy on El Paquete [’The Packet’], our local Netflix. The advertising spot itself for this 45th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema pays a very unsubtle tribute to piracy, saturated with what Abel Prieto calls “cultural colonization.”

García Márquez’s novel is one of the best examples of magical realism, without a doubt.

García Márquez’s novel is one of the best examples of magical realism, without a doubt. But the Cuba of flesh and blood is very far from what Carpentier called the ‘real maravilloso’. It is rather a reality that frightens, horrifies, disillusions, depresses. One would have to be very sick to continue continue reading

romanticizing the misery and oppression suffered by the overwhelming majority of Cubans. One would have to make a very toxic reading of love, to continue believing that in Cuba the ones who govern are “those who love and build” or that “the country advances.” That land, (beautiful, yes) where many of us were born, but from which millions of us had to escape, suffers the plagues of insomnia and oblivion in a more brutal way than those suffered by the people of Macondo. And still no alchemist has appeared who can find a remedy.

In the Macondo-like Cuba, the government is not governed by a Buendía*, but by a puppet with the last name Díaz-Canel. This reserve lieutenant colonel, who achieved his military ranks God knows how, is far from possessing the gift of clairvoyance. On the contrary, the subject is the favorite son of impudence and bad luck. He is also the most gifted student in the subject of “making a mistake” that is effusively taught in the Party school. We also do not know if he has a pig’s tail, we are not interested in investigating those parts. What we do know is that there are many other characteristics that he shares with the quadruped to which his loyal singers of Buena Fe awarded the title of “national mammal.”

The oldest dictatorship on the continent has already existed for more than half a century, although we hope it does not reach 100.

The oldest dictatorship on the continent has already existed for more than half a century, although we hope it does not reach 100 years… of solitude. According to the saying, there is no evil that can last so long. Borges’ anecdote is well-known when he said that García Márquez’s novel was good, but that fifty years would have been enough.

On the other hand, the novel that Fidel Castro imposed on us as reality has become a soap opera that is impossible to praise, unless bad taste dominates us. It has already been more than six decades of crisis, exoduses, prisons, mediocrity and death. The thread of blood that the patriarch left us runs through, not just a town, but an entire country, and extends beyond borders. The crazed old man ended his days tied to a chestnut tree, in the courtyard of history, reflecting with the ghosts of his enemies.

Rivers of ink will flow talking, good or bad, about the Netflix series. Although it is very likely that it will not satisfy a good part of the general public. Gabo himself refused during his lifetime to have the apple of his eye adapted to the cinema. He himself said: “I prefer that my readers continue to imagine my characters as their uncles and my friends, and not that they remain totally conditioned by what they saw on screen.” Beyond the possible success or failure of the Netflix series, what no one doubts is the desperation of a regime that is dying, capable of inventing premieres to raise the morale of the troops and elevate the chauvinist ego. The Castro apparatus should read the end of Gabo’s novel very carefully, to understand how the lineages condemned to a hundred years of solitude end up.

*Translator’s note: The Buendía family are the fictional founders of Macondo, the South American town that is the setting of the novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’.

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Hurricane Over the Marabou in Cuba

Sartre wanted to read the palm of a country he didn’t understand at all. And as a palmist, he was disastrous.

Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Ernesto Guevara in Havana, 1960. / CC

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 20 November 2024– In these days shaken by earthquakes and cyclones, I have revisited Jean-Paul Sartre’s book Hurricane over Sugar. After finishing it, I could not help but feel a little sorry for the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sartre wanted to read the palm of a country he did not understand at all. And as a palm reader, he turned out to be disastrous. Often, the greatest stupidity is that which accompanies intellectuals, like a blazer over the shoulders.

In his collection of reports on the nascent Castroite Cuba, Sartre was a victim of the “retinitis pigmentosa” that he himself criticized at the beginning of his articles. He fell into the same trap as those Parisians he describes in his essay Paris Under Occupation, enchanted by their own German executioners, accepting as natural what was not and being complicit in their infamy.

It is not surprising, however. Every dictatorship, however despicable its record, has always found a poet willing to sing its praises. In his book From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chávez: Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship, sociologist Paul Hollander offered an interesting study of those romances that have brought the worst autocrats and supposedly lucid thinkers together under the same covers.

Every dictatorship, no matter how despicable its record, always found some poet willing to compose its praises.

Nicolás Guillén, considered Cuba’s National Poet, was once seduced by Machado. And I am not referring to Antonio, the Sevillian poet, but to Gerardo, the dictator born in Las Villas. It is said that Guillén belonged to his censorship corps and that he had to hide from the crowd after the fall of the Machado regime. Later he would be bewitched by another, even worse continue reading

dictator, on the other side of the planet. He himself composed the song to Joseph Vissarionovich “Stalin, captain / whom Shangó protects and whom Ochún protects / at your side, singing.”

Nicolás was named not only Guillén, but also Batista. Perhaps that is why he never became Castro’s favorite. And he worked hard to write the most childish poems anyone could imagine, like the one that said: “Oh, how beautiful my flag is, my little Cuban flag, without being sent from outside.” But the bearded man considered Guillén a drone incapable of producing poems to the rhythm of the harvest, as did, for example, the selfless Indio Naborí.

Cabrera Infante recounted that the poet confessed his panic to him under a mango tree. Fidel had criticized him at one of his university meetings, and the kids improvised a quasi-act of repudiation in front of his house, chanting the conguita: “Nicolá, you don’t work anymore / Nicolá, you are not a poet at all.” One day I asked Antón Arrufat about this anecdote and he told me that the writer could not be given much credit, but he did not doubt that the story was true.

Let us return to Sartre and his trip to Havana in 1960. He and Simone de Beauvoir had already been in an open relationship for just over 30 years. Sartre was her necessary love, although she would maintain countless contingent loves, devouring students, both male and female, without any discrimination. Beauvoir would confess in one of her letters to other lovers that Sartre never satisfied her sexually, but the ugly man was a genius with whom it was worth debating existentialism in and out of bed.

Havana at that time turned them on. She, perhaps, had an orgasm when Fidel Castro first shouted “Patria o Muerte” in front of 500,000 fans. Both of them got hot when Che, a cigar in his mouth, described their relationship as a “revolutionary love.” He, surely, suffered the biggest erection when he got Fidel Castro to sit his buttocks, for the first time, on a theater seat. Especially because it was one of his plays, La puta respeto (The Respectful Whore). The bearded man didn’t understand much about art, but he did about rifles, so his praise was less theatrical and more military: “I just discovered a tremendous weapon,” he told him backstage. And a blushing Sartre answered: “Well, use it.” From then on, perhaps, Fidel would assume his definitive role in the Cuban tragedy.

It is probable that neither Sartre nor his sweet Castor understood that testosterone-saturated island. But the people on the street sensed them immediately, improvising a conga that was much more suspicious and synthetic than the French intellectual’s reports: “Saltre, Simona, un dos, tres / Saltre, Simona, echen un pie.”

Hurricane over Sugar aged quickly and badly. Sartre would break with the Revolution a decade later, after the Padilla case. The employees of official thought try to justify their decision by blaming the bad influence of Carlos Franqui. What we could say is that, if Sartre and Simone were to come back to life and visit Cuba today, neither of them would find any reason to get excited. And the book would be called, without a doubt, Hurricane over Marabou.

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Requiem for Guantánamo

The easternmost province of Cuba is also the poorest, and the ideologues of the regime know that the greater the poverty, the greater the dependence

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel arrived in the areas affected by Oscar with an army of escorts, but empty-handed / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, October 24, 2024 — Thanks to the theater, I was lucky enough to tour almost the entire Cuban archipelago, from Pinar del Río to Santiago, including the Isle of Pines (now the Isle of Youth). However, I was left with a debt before I was expelled from Cuba: Guantánamo. Some of my works were presented on its stages, but the performance always coincided with a trip outside the country. That aphorism that reads “know Cuba first and abroad later” has never been taken very seriously by most Cubans who have the privilege of boarding planes. So when we are far away, we are crushed by the full weight of nostalgia. Guantánamo is my loose end, my little thorn, my pending account.

The easternmost province of Cuba is also the poorest. And the ideologues of the regime know that the greater the poverty, the greater the dependence. That is why no one rules out that planned misery is one of their strategies to maintain an obsolete, impoverishing and catastrophic model. In the “elections” of delegates of 2023, for example, Guantánamo was the province with the most validated votes (92.94%).

The regime prefers to concentrate the scarce resources it distributes on the most problematic areas, the least obedient, those where the spark of protest ignites more quickly. That’s why they tend to leave the territories that show greater loyalty alone. The poverty of Guantánamo is not only the result of a geographical fatalism. Its helplessness is directly proportional to the confidence that the bureaucrats feel in the political fidelity of the region. “You don’t waste bullets on won territory,” could be a new aphorism. But all that, perhaps, is about to change. continue reading

The regime prefers to concentrate the scarce resources it distributes on the most problematic areas, the least obedient

The hand-picked dictator arrived in the areas affected by Hurricane Oscar with an army of escorts, but empty-handed. He arrived with a lot of excuses, but without solutions; with a troop of cameramen, but without supplies. Cubadebate published this Thursday: “Neither alone nor abandoned, Cuba works as a function of you.” However, in all the images that circulate on social networks, the truth slaps the official headline in the face. People did not receive Díaz-Canel with applause. In their voices you could repeatedly hear a blunt phrase: You abandoned us.

We still don’t know, for sure, the size of the destruction. Hurricane Ian (2022), category 5, left five fatalities. Oscar, with category 1, has already claimed seven lives, although it is feared that the figure is higher. Not even the response to hurricanes, which once enjoyed prestige, can now boast of anything. The disaster is total.

Some Cubans have suggested turning the Guantánamo Naval Base into a city for free Cubans. Although the idea is Macondian* and unlikely, it would be interesting to transform that little piece of Cuba, occupied by the United States, into a kind of Caribbean Hong Kong. Imagine the moral impact that a free city could cause in the very mouth of the caiman. Imagine the contrast between both sides of the metal fence. Of course, this suggestion is no more than a fantasy. But since the regime has taken practically everything from us, don’t let them also take away our ability to imagine.

No one, not even the most bitter enemy of the regime, is happy about the tragedy that occurred

I’ve never been to Guantánamo, but I have a lot of friends there. I attest to the talent, intelligence, creativity, nobility and courage of the people I know. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them today. No one, not even the most bitter enemy of the regime, is happy about the tragedy that occurred. We all hurt for Guantánamo. In exile, many Cubans are already organizing to send aid, prioritizing the most affected areas. And we are aware that a bandaid does not solve the whole problem, but it serves, at least, one injured person. That’s not a small thing. Worse would be to stay with our arms crossed or limit ourselves to denunciation and catharsis.

Cuba is fed up with political speeches. Those of us who have focused on fighting for change should avoid reproducing the regime’s talkative model. Practicing politics is, above all, doing concrete things for the people. It should be more about doing and less about talking. It should be a practice, not just simple rhetoric. It’s true that it is extremely complicated to do it from the outside. It’s true that, with any aid, there is the trap of indirectly benefiting the regime. But that fear cannot cause us to abandon those who need help.

How to force a humanitarian intervention? How to achieve it despite the obstinacy and arrogance of a dying regime? Let’s not just stay in a corner singing La Guantanamera. Doing something today for Guantánamo is the best way to do it for the Cuba of our dreams.

*Translator’s note: Macondian is a term associated with the fictional Colombian town of Macondo, which is featured in Gabriel García Márquez’s novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba and Hopelessness

The word that is most repeated in the talks of exile is not blackout, hunger or misery, but an even gloomier one

The few people who passed by had a lost look, with the resignation of someone who no longer expects anything / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 10 October 2024 — From time to time I meet with Cubans who have just left the Island or are passing through Madrid. The word that is most repeated in our talks is not blackout, hunger, or misery, but an even gloomier one: despair. A friend who recently went to Cienfuegos showed me the photos he took during his visit. The streets were practically deserted, and the few people who passed by looked lost, not like those who wait for a miracle, but with the resignation of those who no longer expect anything.

Social networks do not show a very encouraging panorama either. It is true that the Facebook avenues seem busier than the real streets of Havana, but there we all coincide, those who left and those who stayed. And surfing the Internet is not a sailboat ride; it is rowing in turbulent waters, where the currents of opinion throw us from one side to the other, against the rocks. Fights between opponents are more frequent than concrete actions against the Regime. Disputes, insults and “friendly fire” are more abundant than consensus and strategic agendas.

Probably, Hatuey had no desire to meet in heaven, either with the Spaniards or with his own people

There is nothing new under the sun, as Solomon would say. Reviewing our history, this despair appears more than once. We all remember the first hero, Hatuey, the enigmatic cacique who came to alert us about the ambition of the conquerors and who led the first rebellion. Our textbooks have emphasized his last words at the stake, rejecting the ticket to paradise and becoming a paradigm of intransigence. But what they never mentioned was his mood at the time. And he was not only a human being condemned to die in a frightening way, but a disappointed leader. It was one of his own continue reading

men who betrayed him, revealing his location and facilitating his capture. Probably, Hatuey did not have the slightest desire to meet in heaven either with the Spaniards or with his own people.

The other great hero in a loincloth was Guamá, who resisted the conquerors for a decade, in what some call “our first ten-year war.” And after all that time, the great chief did not die at the hands of his enemies, but by someone who shared his own blood. They say it was a matter of “skirts” or rather of petticoats. Guamá had kidnapped his brother’s wife, and the brother was possessed by Cain. While Guamá slept in his hammock, his own natiao (brother, in Taíno language) stuck an axe in his forehead. After that it was relatively easy for the Spaniards to pacify the territory.

We all know the epic anecdote that turned Céspedes into the Father of the Homeland. The Bayamés preferred the death of his son rather than give up his fight. But, perhaps, that would be his last thought in San Lorenzo. Céspedes was haunted by the envy of other caudillos from the very cry of independence. And five years after the start of the fight, he would be betrayed by the House of Representatives of the Republic in Arms itself. It was not enough for them to remove him; they also needed to humiliate him.

They forced him to march in the rear of the troops for a month and withdrew his escort. They systematically violated his correspondence, denied him permission to meet his wife and twin children in New York and abandoned him in a remote area. Perhaps we will never know for sure if he was betrayed by his former companions or if his last shot was a suicide bullet. What I’m going to write could be politically incorrect, but, with Céspedes, that abstract illusion that we call Patria committed parricide.

With Céspedes, that abstract illusion that we call Patria committed parricide

Not to mention Martí’s last days and his unnecessary death in combat. Our story, read without patriotic hysteria, is full of despair. But the purpose of this article is not to disillusion you, dear reader, but to shake you.

I was recently talking to a diplomat, whose name and nationality I reserve, and he told me something alarming. According to his vision of Cuba, the degradation is so accelerated that there is a possibility that the damage will be irreparable. Perhaps, not even if it the dictatorship falls, will we be able to rebuild the body and soul of the country in a prudent time. In short, if the Regime survives for a further five-year period, we would be left with a permanently failed state, where it would be impossible to achieve the democracy and progress we so much desire. And this fatality worsens if we analyze the international context, because today’s world is not in a position to give us the help we would need to repair all the accumulated damage.

That said, tighten your belt, dry your tears and recover hope. We are not going to bequeath this fight to our children. It’s our turn… and it has to be now.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime and Cultural Colonization

The Island was too small for Fidel Castro and he set about conquering the rest of the world

Fidel Castro with Mengistu Haile Mariam, who overthrew the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to establish a Marxist regime. / Historical archive

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 30 September 2024 — The ideologues of the Castro model repeat ad nauseam that their struggle is based on a supposed “cultural decolonization.” Abel Prieto Jiménez, a storyteller, civil servant and advisor to generals, has become tiresome with this matter. His latest books and conferences are like a catauro [basket] where he inserts loose phrases, gossip and memes, obsessively attacking Sylvester Stallone or Shakira and labeling anyone with a minimally liberal discourse as fascist. One of his most laughable anecdotes is about how Che was worried about young revolutionaries who read comics in the 60s, because Superman demoralized the effort of the Agrarian Reform.

Another of the champions of this “decolonizing battle” is the Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet. With his European passport, the highly paid intellectual travels through Latin American dictatorships, offering his unrestricted support to figures such as Díaz-Canel, Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega. The Galician-Parisian says that the handicap of the left is ethics, because the left is incapable of lying. He could not be more cynical. The Cuban Revolution itself was born on the basis of four founding lies: the repeated denial of communism; the hope of free elections; the guarantee of forming several political parties; and the promise to respect freedom of the press. The lies did not last very long. In just two years, that supposedly authentic revolution became a tropical copy of the Stalinist model.

The lies did not last very long. In just two years, that supposedly authentic revolution became a tropical copy of the Stalinist model.

From then on we would learn to say “homeland” in Russian, we would copy the Bulgarian Constitution, we would travel in Ladas, Moskvich or Karpaty cars, we would send our children to study in Leningrad, and we would replace Mickey Mouse with Masha and the Bear, until the mighty Soviet empire said “ konets ” (end). For 30 years, we were culturally closer to a Pole or a Serbian than to our own former culture. We allowed the Russians to establish not only military bases on our land, but even atomic missiles. The crudest slap in the face to the word “sovereignty” was when we applauded the Warsaw Pact tanks entering Prague to crush its spring. Half a century later, the Cuban regime once again applauds interference, shamelessly supporting Putin in his invasion of Ukraine.

Fidel Alejandro Castro was, in essence, a colonizer. An unbounded admirer of his namesake Alexander the Great, he always thought that Cuba was too small for him. And, once he achieved the status of an Antillean demigod, he set about conquering the rest of the world. Cuba did not send its armies to Africa to decolonize that continent, but to establish Marxist regimes loyal to Moscow.

The USSR provided the weapons and we provided the dead. The most notorious case was in Angola, where Cuban soldiers massacred tens of thousands of Angolans, even after their country had gained independence from Portugal. On May 27, 1977, more than 30,000 dissidents were tortured or killed by Agostinho Neto with the help of the Cuban military occupation. In 2019, the president of Angola publicly apologized for that massacre. But the Cuban regime has never apologized.

Not to mention all the damage we caused in Latin America, infesting the region with armed guerrillas. Although almost all of them failed, many were linked to drug trafficking and others mutated into conventional politics. Today we have the Nicaraguan dictatorship, repudiated by the vast majority of the international community, but unconditionally supported by Havana. Ultimately, it is its bastard daughter. And in Venezuela we have shown that the Castro model is not only capable of ruining a small country, but can also metastasize poverty, in record time, even in the richest country in the region.

In Latin America today we have the Nicaraguan dictatorship, repudiated by the vast majority of the international community, but unconditionally supported by Havana

Much has been said about Castro-communism and its characteristics, but not so much about Castro-capitalism. The model example was the Convertible Currency Department (MC). Beyond the four executed in 1989 during the Causa Uno [Cause Number 1], the company laid the foundations for what is now Gaesa. Castro-capitalism is defined by being monopolistic, shady, hermetic, by having relations with drug trafficking, by the use of front men, by being controlled and led by the military, by money laundering, piracy and ghost companies, by being above the law and the comptrollers. Castro-capitalism uses human beings as merchandise, having healthcare providers as its star product. The Cuban State’s trade in doctors is more lucrative than remittances or tourism, and has been described by several human rights organizations as “modern slavery.”

We should also define Castro-imperialism, which seeks to replace Uncle Sam with Uncle Putin; to replace Batman posters with T-shirts of a Joker like Che Guevara; to vindicate the ETA, the ELN and Hamas; to impose Maduro as a “democratic paradigm”; to demonize the liberal model; to appropriate the discourse of minorities that it previously persecuted and marginalized; to replace the bourgeoisie with civil servants.

No, Mr. Abel Prieto, you are not seeking to decolonize anything at all, you are seeking to recolonize. You dream of imposing the hegemony of a single party and a single way of thinking throughout the world. Fortunately, fewer and fewer people are buying your rhetoric.
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The Cowardice of UNEAC, Cuba’s Writers and Artists Union

The history of the institution is a soap opera full of lynchings, expulsions, censorship and self-incriminations

Luis Morlote, former president of UNEAC, receiving congratulations from Esteban Lazo for his promotion to the Central Committee / Granma

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 19 September 2024 — Last Sunday, Cuba’s official newspaper Granma published a pamphlet entitled “The Brave and the Cowardly.” It was obvious that the article referred to the reaction caused by the expulsion of Dr. Alina Bárbara López Hernández from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), since several members resigned from the organization and expressed their disagreement on social networks. But the article never dared to mention her by name. It preferred to gloat, in super-worn nautical metaphors and the phraseology of José Martí taken out of context, as Yusuam Palacios, director of the Fragua Martiana Museum, usually does in his pseudo-poetic parliamentary speeches.

However, despite the fact that the text was loaded with all that revolutionary syrup frequently used by the deputy of Sagua de Tánamo, no one dared to sign it. It appeared under the authorship of “Cultural Writing,” a waste of courage. From the language used, everything indicates that it was written by a single person, a bad poet or some cadre who aspires to be the reincarnation of the Naborí Indian,* although only his “Elegy of the White Shoes” was read.

I have spoken to some UNEAC members who remain in Cuba, and they have confirmed to me that the author did not dare consult them before publishing this mock declaration. So it was something fabricated in an office from an order, or an initiative of some enthusiastic official. In summary, the article that calls itself “brave” is not able to mention the name of the person who inspires it, does not dare to affix the signature of anyone in particular and does not have the guts to consult about its content with members of the organization that is attributed to its authorship. continue reading

In the comments, a reader states that she is totally lost as to the content of the pamphlet

In the comments, a reader states that she is totally lost as to the content of the pamphlet. Mirella admits: “I am interested in having more information about what is happening at this time that brought about this statement as a consequence. I have some idea, but not enough to be able to enlighten others.” Another reader, Lázaro Numa Águila, confesses: “The editorial makes me feel that we continue to make use of speech that is often unintelligible for some; what is the reason for this reaffirmation?”

For several years I was a member of UNEAC, until I resigned, after the infamous statement that the organization published after 11J.** A few weeks before the incident, the late Corina Mestre had called me to a meeting to suggest that I voluntarily resign. I remember he said something like this: “Oh, Yunior, my son, haven’t you read the statutes?” And he was right. Article 2 clearly stated that UNEAC recognizes the Communist Party of Cuba as the superior leading force of society and the State. In other words, in no case is it a non-governmental organization that is part of civil society. Not at all. It is an institution, like all, subordinated to the single party. It is an extension of State Security, with the sole purpose of monitoring and controlling the guild of artists and intellectuals.

Believing that I was someone smart, I thought I could do something useful from within, that continuing to be part of their ranks served to raise my voice in the assemblies, denounce abuses and promote the democratic changes to which I aspired. Being totally honest, I also believed that continuing to be a member was a kind of protective shield, for the minions to think twice before siccing their dogs on me. But I was wrong. I wasn’t someone smart; I was naive and cynical. The history of UNEAC is a soap opera full of lynchings, expulsions, censorship and self-incriminations. UNEAC is not a guild fraternity, it is a minion institution. It’s not a protective shield, it’s a scaffold. From Heberto Padilla to Alina Bárbara there is a long list of convicts.

From Heberto Padilla to Alina Bárbara there is a long list of convicts

Some years ago, in Holguín, during one of those useless provincial assemblies, the troubadour Fernando Cabrejas asked: What is UNEAC for? Others, who also asked for the floor, argued that it was a cultural old folks’ home, which served to be shipwrecked on the Internet, to speed up a journey to capitalism, to drink cheap coffee and eat croquettes without having to line up or to have a bathroom to go to when walking through the city center.

UNEAC’s X Congress was scheduled for June of this year, but culture has never been a priority when it comes to authorizing budgets, nor was the oven used for pastries. In January, Luis Morlote was “promoted” and went from being president of the organization to being a second of Rogelio Polanco in the Auxiliary Structure of the Central Committee for Ideological Affairs: what a rise! Miguel Barnet praised his record as a leader; Polanco justified the decision made, not as a weakness, but as an ability of UNEAC to forge cadres, and Lazo gave a painting – according to the grotesque tradition – to the promoted cadre.

The conclave has been postponed to November. That’s why State Security is on the run threatening and cutting off heads. That is also why the entire propaganda apparatus of the regime publishes daily tomes about UNEAC, Although the note of pessimism is obvious. La Jiribilla, a weekly magazine of Cuban culture, has been repeating a litany of elegies for a week, hysterically shouting that UNEAC unites, adds, multiplies and any other mathematical operation they can think of. They are visibly desperate. They are afraid. They want the next congress to be like every other one, an inventory of complaints and promises. But they are terrified that someone will depart from the script and propose to delete Article 2 of their statutes. The Article 2 that demonstrates its absolute submission… and cowardice.

Translator’s notes:

* The Cuban poet, Jesús Orta Ruíz, was known as the “Naborí Indian.” After the defeat of the US in the Bay of Pigs, Orta Ruíz wrote the poem to commemorate the deaths of many civilians, including a boy whose white shoes were destroyed. A pair of bloody white shoes is on display in the Bay of Pigs museum, a memento of the first military defeat of the US in Latin America and the Caribbean.

** The first Vice President of UNEAC, Ernesto Limia Díaz, published a statement on Facebook on July 12, 2021, in support of the Regime’s suppression of the July 11th demonstrators.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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A Perfect World for Dictatorships

Politicians are dithering, companies are just out to make money, and ordinary people are becoming increasingly polarized on social media

Members of the Bolivarian National Police confront demonstrators during a protest against the results of the presidential elections, in Caracas. / EFE/Ronald Peña R.

14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguiler, Madrid, 12 September 2024 / Latin America suffered several dictatorships during the 20th century. One of the declared aims of these regimes was to stop the advance of communism in the region, to curb the influence of the USSR and Cuba, its spearhead in the region. These regimes were defeated in the streets, at the ballot box or by transitions they themselves permitted. But the trail of blood they left only managed to fuel resentment against right-wing ideologies and incubate a left-wing mystique that would later be exploited by populist leaders. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fukuyama spoke of “The End of History.” It seemed that liberal democracy had definitely triumphed. However, it was not yet the end.

The Cuban regime was left as a lost cause against which it was not worth using too much force or giving the final blow. It would disappear on its own, like a dying dog, or it would be forced to transform itself. Pushing it to adopt open-minded recipes should have the same effect as in Eastern Europe. However, they underestimated the ability of the regime to take advantage of misery to its advantage, to victimize itself, to make the citizens more dependent on its crumbs, to awaken new sympathies in the world and to wait in ambush for the opportune moment to expand, once again, its influence.

Today, at the end of the first quarter of the new century, there are three dictatorships of pure Castro style in Latin America and a handful of pseudo-democracies that prop up these regimes and flirt with authoritarianism. Today’s dictatorships have noted all the errors of their predecessors and have a new manual that is proof against ballot boxes, social upheavals and transitions. Nor is the world is the same as it was in the 1990s. continue reading

Contrary to what some people expect with a pang of nostalgia, the US is not going to intervene in the region, neither with Kamala nor with Trump in the White House

Paradoxically, China was one of the countries that benefited most from neoliberal globalization. The red giant became a super-capitalist power without giving up ideological ground. And Putin’s Russia, for its part, played the “let’s make Russia great again” game. While this was happening, the American middle classes were affected when large companies migrated to countries with cheap labor. This created a perfect breeding ground for ultra-nationalist ideas, the resurgence of anti-immigrant sentiments and the need for a strong leader focused on domestic issues.

The American superpower is in full decline, threatened by its internal fissures and oriented externally towards its main enemy: China. This has caused it to divert its attention from Latin America and delegate leadership to countries such as Mexico and Brazil, today governed by the left. Contrary to what some expect, with a pang of nostalgia, the United States is not going to intervene in the region, not with Kamala and not with Trump in the White House.

Aware of the world we live in, Nicolás Maduro commits the biggest fraud in history to stay in power, forces the elected president into exile, represses and harasses the opposition… and nothing happens. Daniel Ortega, for his part, makes and unmakes in the most crude way in Nicaragua, crushing the most basic rights… and there he remains. Miguel Díaz-Canel, in Cuba, imprisons and exiles dissidents, takes the economic and social crisis to inhuman levels… nobody cares anymore. There they are, without ballot boxes, but with weapons; without rights for all, but with totalitarian laws; without civil society, but with docile institutions and yielding to their whims.

There they are, without ballot boxes, but with weapons; without rights for all, but with totalitarian laws; without civil society, but with docile institutions and yielding to their whims

It is the perfect world for these shameless dictators. Who is affected by a couple of sanctions, as long as the BRICS provide them with relief in a timely manner? What good are four denunciations and strong declarations at international summits, if in the end they are a dead letter? What does it matter what the European press says, if their governments play at extreme caution, without even daring to call the dictatorships by their name?

People suffering under these dictatorships have only three options: to revolt, to flee or to bow their heads. The last option is ideal for perpetuating the dictators and forcing the population to resign itself to material and human misery. The second is a problem for countries with solid democracies, where waves of migration are causing more and more discontent among their own voters. And the first option represents a sure grave or prison for those who dare to take it.

Parallel to all this, there is the issue of social media. A priori, it is a tremendously effective tool for denouncing abuses and mobilizing the population. But it also has its dark side. News oversaturation tends to normalize a problem, whatever it may be, turning information into noise. People can follow a crisis closely for a couple of months, but then they get fed up and feel the trivial need to turn the page and focus on the next crisis, as if real life were a streaming platform where we click on the next entertainment show. Opinions, on the other hand, do not come only from experts or well-informed people. It is common for stupidity to dominate the forums, replacing arguments with slogans, ideas with insults and concrete proposals with empty cries.

It is common for stupidity to dominate the forums, replacing arguments with slogans, ideas with insults and concrete proposals with empty cries

No one is surprised that the man who defeated Maduro in a landslide at the polls had to flee the country where his integrity was threatened. But it is also not surprising that the masses accustomed to Marvel and DC are quickly disappointed if they do not see superhuman powers in the hero. There are already attacks on the networks against Edmundo González, for the sin of still being alive. Contrary to what the masses accustomed to Netflix series think, the dead do not change regimes, the living do. When I hear María Corina Machado say “this is until the end,” I never expect that the end will be her death, because these are not the times of martyrs. And we Cubans should know this. The death of Oswaldo Payá did not pose any danger to the regime, on the contrary, and if he were still alive perhaps the opposition would have the leadership that we lack today.

It would be terrible if, within one decade instead of three, Latin America doubled its number of dictatorships. And it would be terrible if the international community continued to do nothing about it. While politicians dither, companies only want to profit, and while ordinary people become increasingly polarized on social media, we are creating the perfect world for dictatorships to spread, like a pandemic.

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‘Killing Castro’: Getting Inside the Skin of the Dictator

The actor Diego Boneta watched every existing video that showed the tyrant in his youth and looked through dozens of photos and testimonies

Promotional poster for the film ’Killing Castro’ directed by Eif Rivera / Imdb

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 27 August 2024 – Last year a young and very talented Mexican actor invited me to dinner in Madrid. He was Diego Boneta, known mainly for bringing Luis Miguel to life in the successful biographical series, although he had also worked with Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger on Hollywood productions. The motive for his invitation was to talk about Fidel Castro. He was interested in my take on him as dramatist and actor, but also as an opponent of the regime. Diego was facing the most difficult role of his career to date: to play the Cuban dictator.

I was really surprised by how much he had already researched his role. He’d watched every existing video that showed the tyrant during his youth, and had looked through dozens of photos and testimonies. But beyond mastering the voice and the gestures of his character, Boneta wanted to understand his soul, his ambitions, doubts, weaknesses and frustrations. And he’d already begun to grab that by the balls. When I asked him, ’what do you think was his ideology during the period of time covered by the film?’, he replied, ’his only ideology, at that point and, I believe, until the end of his life… was power’.

The most interesting thing, for me, wasn’t the disastrous planning and execution of the event but rather the reactions to it

Firstly, we talked about the letter that an adolescent Fidel wrote in English to President Roosevelt in 1940. In the missive he addressed the most powerful man in the world as “my good friend”. He wrote that he was willing to reveal the location of the best iron ore mines in the country for a payment of ten dollars. But also, he lied about his age, saying he was 12 when in fact he was 14. continue reading

The second theme was the attack on the Moncada Barracks. The most interesting thing, for me, wasn’t the disastrous planning and execution of the event but rather the reactions to it. Because, for a narcisist like Fidel Castro Ruz, the most important thing wasn’t the action itself but the high profile impact that it created. Actual communists at the (New York) Daily Worker condemned the action, branding it a putsch committed by bourgeois gangs. And they wrote off the so called gangs’ leader as a mere irresponsible adventurer. To top it all, an ultra-left Chilean newspaper even declared that it was the CIA that was behind the events of 26 July in Cuba.

Much has already been speculated about what was Castro’s ideology during those years. His first speeches and writings would seem to indicate that he’d read more fascists and falangists than Marx or Lenin. Also, his declarations, in English and in Spanish, denying any link between the Revolution and Marxist ideas, are very well known. “A despicable campaign” was how the emerging dictator described accusations that he was a communist.

Nikita Kruschev himself consulted with the socialists in Havana, interested in the bearded one’s ideology. But the people of the Cuban PSP (People’s Socialist Party) at that time considered him a simple nationalist petit bourgeois. The big question is: ’was he deceiving everyone?’ If we are to be guided by that letter, written when he was 14, pretending to be 12, we could presume that yes, the guy was an uncontrollably compulsive liar. But if one delves a little further into his narcissism and his obsession with power, we could say that he was ready to adopt any ideology that would guarantee his clinging onto that power. And in this, the United States was the key.

His first speeches and writings would seem to indicate that he’d read more fascists and falangists than Marx or Lenin

The biggest blow to his ego came about in Washington. His April 1959 visit there was marked by various gaffes of protocol. First, he’d travelled without invitation from the White House. As a result, President Eisenhower refused to see him, excusing himself with a game of golf. Castro explained that he hadn’t come to beg for anything, although fifteen days later he would send an emissary to do just that. Then vice President Nixon agreed to meet him for two and a half hours. But Nixon too was inept. During their meeting he took it upon himself to make the bearded one see that he had no idea about economics and that he was naive about the USSR. Fidel returned from that visit humiliated. And Soviet analysts took note, drawing up a plan that would attract Cuba, inevitably, into their orbit.

Castro’s following visit to the country to the north was already on the agendas of both the KGB and the CIA. And it is precisely this visit upon which the plot of ’Killing Castro’ is based. The film is now complete and will be released at some point this year. Also in the cast is Al Pacino, as well as the virtuoso Cuban actor Héctor Medina. We await the film’s premiere. I’m sure it’s going to generate much debate, most of all amongst Cubans.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Freedom Without Anger and Without Hatred, for Cuba

The regime has taken advantage of our anger to present us as “haters” and to feed the fear of change

The supposed “unity” of the regime is not based on the hope that one day things will get better / EFE Archive, 1980 [Text of sign: Out With the Scum]

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, August 7, 2024 — “Libertad sin ira,” “freedom without anger” [lyrics] is one of the most representative songs of the Spanish transition to democracy. In its lyrics it speaks of a Spain personified by the old authoritarianism and another embodied in a generation that sought to be free, without bloodshed. At that uncertain moment, after the death of dictator Franco, the song of the Jarcha group became a hymn for many. In our Cuba of 2024, the frustration of a people who fail to dismantle a desperately long-lived dictatorship often leads us to anger. I don’t deny that there are a thousand reasons that can support it. However, I wrap my brain around this question: is resentment useful? Will we be able to achieve a freedom without anger or will we perpetually writhe in anger without freedom?

The Cuban regime has taken advantage of that rage to adorn its narrative. While they, supposedly, are the ones who “love and build,” we are the “haters.” Such cynicism only increases the fury on the opposition side, justifying it equally with concepts from José Martí, such as invincible hatred and eternal resentment. But I haven’t come here to talk to you about poetry. I want to talk about strategy.

Martí has been used by Cubans with almost the same intensity as those who quote Christ to shore up their creeds. That’s why I would like to put the emphasis, rather than on his words, on his actions. The man Cubans call ‘the apostle’ was able to forgive even the henchman who tried to poison him. And not only did he offer them his forgiveness, but he also managed to persuade them to join the independence ranks. The story reveals to us how young Valentín ended up fighting on the Mambí side, reaching the rank of commander and becoming a convinced devotee of Martí for the rest of his life. continue reading

Martí has been used by Cubans with almost the same intensity as those who quote Christ to shore up their creeds

I know, it’s always easier to have a repertoire of Martí quotations on the lips than to imitate his behavior. Others will say that we leave the dead alone, that we live in another century, that we should stop waving the apostle as if he were a carnival flag. And maybe they are right. But what we call values, principles or ethics is always a convention based on references. It is useless to give up Martí. In the next century, if there is any Cuban left alive, we will continue to name him.

During these days, there have been heated controversies on social networks about the victory in Paris of the Greco-Roman fighter Mijaín López. Those who congratulate him are right; his sporting feat is undeniable. And those who point to him as a furious defender of Castroism, protagonist of repressive episodes, are right. Others have chosen to celebrate Yasmani Acosta, also Cuban, for his meritorious silver medal representing Chile. Although there is also no shortage of those who have lashed out against him, for his “warm” statements about the dictatorship.

Some European friends write to me without understanding not even one word. You Cubans, they tell me, will never be able to agree. And I’m not saying I’m free of blame. In my case, I limited myself to recognizing the triumph of Mijaín López, with nothing more to add, receiving my corresponding downpour of insults.

In this fight of ours, the most common thing is to entrench ourselves on one side, incessantly lobbing verbal grenades towards the opposite ditch, although it is also common for us to attack ourselves inside our own trench. At this rate, if we achieve freedom one day, we will all be so emotionally mutilated that the reconstruction of the country and national reconciliation will continue to be postponed.

At this rate, if we achieve freedom one day, we will all be so emotionally mutilated that the reconstruction of the country and national reconciliation will continue to be postponed

We have a lot to learn from our Venezuelan brothers. Regardless of how everything ends, the opposition has already managed to concentrate all its arrows against the dictatorship. They have unmasked the tyrant;
they have managed to add the vast majority of the people, and they have captured the attention of the whole world. Their speech is firm: there will be no impunity, but they extend their hand to anyone, military or civilian, who takes the right side.

In his book “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu recommended always leaving an escape route to the enemy. At the same time, he recommended putting your army in a dead-end position, to motivate them to fight to death, without ever considering withdrawal. The Cuban regime has read the manuals very well. For decades they have suggested to their supporters that, in the face of an eventual change, they expect they would all be hung in the public square. There are ordinary people convinced that the enemy will go house by house to look for them to settle scores for having been in the FMC [Federation of Cuban Women] or the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution]. The supposed “unity” of the regime is not based on the hope that one day things will improve, but on the fear that one day things will change. And sometimes we ourselves contribute to that mentality.

In order for this battle not to be eternal or useless, it will be necessary to dismantle many myths and change strategies. The possibility of joinig together must always be left open. We must be able to differentiate between justice and revenge. We will have to know how to convince as many Cubans as possible that the future will not be a simple change of flags in the barracks of hatred, exclusion and insult, but finally, freedom without anger.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The World is Watching Caracas

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the main accomplice of the three dictatorships on the continent

AI-generated image of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, published by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro / /Jair Bolsonaro/X

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, August 3, 2024 — On August 2, a haggard-looking Nicolás Maduro gave a press conference where he threw out clues about how he intends to hold on to power in Venezuela. Grabbing a Bible, he read a passage from the Gospel of St. John where Thomas’ disbelief is recounted. In chapter 20, verse 29, Jesus said to his apostle: “Blessed are those who did not see, and believed.” So… that’s what it’s all about. Maduro doesn’t plan to show a single bit of evidence of his supposed triumph, because he doesn’t have it!

The dictator hopes that both Venezuelans and the rest of the world will swallow the story of his victory as a matter of faith. But the opposition made a sagacious move. Despite all the difficulties that their supporters faced in accessing the voting centers, in the end they managed to get the voting records they needed to dismantle the fraud. Making those records available to the whole planet has made the National Electoral Council look ridiculous. In those votes, which now account for more than 80% of the total, it can be confirmed that the winner of the elections was Edmundo González, with 67% of the votes. The opposition has not defended its victory with mere statements or chest pounding; they are protecting it with verifiable evidence.

The opposition has not defended its victory with mere statements or chest pounding; they are protecting it with verifiable evidence

I confess that, at first, I was concerned about the way in which some of those records, which Venezuelans nickname chorizos [sausages], reached their hands. Knowing the deceptive nature of authoritarian regimes, I feared that Chavismo itself would provide them with false records and then go out to deny them. It is something they usually do, for example, with certain videos on social networks. They themselves make fictitious material, upload it to the internet, wait patiently for some clueless opponent to replicate it and then go out to denounce that it is fake news. It is a tactic that Castroism also used during the 11J mass protests in Cuba, in July of 2021, to try to deny the demonstrations. However, falsifying voting records is much more complex than adulterating videos, and the Venezuelan opposition “is not sucking its thumb” [‘wasn’t born yesterday’]. continue reading

So far I have not seen any Chavista dismantle the results of the opposition website. This Friday, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, tried, unsuccessfully, to convince us that the records displayed by the opposition are fake. This guy often uses sarcasm to cover his poverty of arguments. However, in his very brief speech, he devoted himself to speaking carefully, without daring to question the QR of a single record, without comparing them to his own in the sight of everyone, and without denying a single concrete result of any of the more than 24,000 tally sheets that the opposition has documented.

Some media have baptized what is happening as “the war of the votes,” but this is imprecise

Some media have baptized what is happening as “the war of the votes,” but this is imprecise. The only votes that we have all been able to observe, so far, are those displayed by the opposition. Maduro’s only exist in his speeches. The CNE, for its part, justifies its lack of transparency by quashing us with an alleged “cyber attack,” which has jumped from North Macedonia to Elon Musk, detracting from any seriousness of the matter. The doubt here would be: if the alleged hacking somehow prevented them from obtaining the records, where the hell did they get the statistics that awarded the triumph to Maduro? The CNE is caught in its own trap.

Some netizens talk about supposed Chinese experts who even falsified the Apollo 11 moon landing. However, even if this were true and the counterfeiters managed to manufacture new voting records, these would only serve for the internal circus that Maduro has mounted in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. They would never dare make them public, tally sheet by tally sheet, because it would be too easy to refute them.

Meanwhile, each foreign Government has recognized as president the candidate most aligned with its own ideology. The allies of Chavismo in the OAS have boycotted a statement, but without daring to vote against it. The cowardly abstentions and absences translate as: “it is obvious that Maduro is lying, but we need cheap oil.” Lula continues with his wet dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize as a mediator in some conflict; that’s why he pretends to fight from time to time with Maduro, to gain some credibility. But we all know that, deep down, the Brazilian president is the main accomplice of the three dictatorships on the continent.

Meanwhile, each Government has recognized as president the candidate most aligned with its own ideology

The world, fortunately, is still watching Caracas, although any result in another country or in the Olympic Games would be enough for us to stop watching, and Maduro continues to scam and massacre the people of Venezuela. The worst thing is that young people are increasingly losing their confidence in democracy and international institutions, dangerously returning us to those times of the violent struggle.

Operation Tomás* means everything should be resolved by faith. Maduro hopes that when the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (obviously controlled by him) ratifies the results announced by the CNE, everyone will accept his words as holy, and the “saint” will have won. Believing without seeing, that is the ruling party’s bet, as if we were living in the Middle Ages. But Maduro is not Jesus Christ; he is Herod. Maduro hasn’t even read the Bible very well. The donkey of Miraflores believes that Jesus was a Palestinian child killed by the Spanish Empire. And his false Operation Tomás is abut to appear to be Judas.

*A reference to Maduro’s use of the “doubting Thomas” story in the Bible.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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