With the fall of the Libyan dictator, Cuban news analysts, with great regret, have referred to figures from the deposed government who left that camp and today there are harsh critics of their previous affiliation. Diplomatic, military, political, holders of government scholarships abroad; all stalwarts of yesterday.
Some will say it’s about opportunists at the last minute, when the collapse of the dictatorship was inevitable.
Knowing first hand how simulation and pretense work in these closed regimes, I find unsurprising the images in the recently re-baptized Plaza of the Martyrs, once filled with the green tide of Gadaffi’s followers, now filled with joy at the overthrow of the regime. I could see it in the extinct Soviet Union and in the rest of Eastern Europe, and particularly in Romania. Although my sorrowful analysts like the theory of Russia Today, where these views are presented as a montage.
I have seen these recent images on the internet, but the vast majority of Cubans have neither seen nor heard of toppled statues or effigies on fire, which brings me back to Cuba. We have seen countless mobilizations where they announce in advance the number of participants and use them to proclaim the unity and support of people for the government. And, on a small scale, but like an incessant drip, we have seen over the years, the exit of “trusted” senior officials, scientists, artists and athletes.
I do not think I’m wrong in my prediction that we also will see this massive change of loyalties.
September 2 2011
