14ymedio, 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.
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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