Citizens are becoming more aware of their rights and are demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that belong to them.
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 8 June 2025 — Everything seems to indicate that the ironclad social control established in Cuba by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, inherited by the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel, is cracking, although it is fair to say that this is not exclusively a consequence of the opposition’s courage, but rather the chronic inefficiency of the system, which has accumulated endless failures and errors over 66 years.
In a telephone conversation from Santa Clara, Guillermo Fariñas, 2010 Sakharov Prize winner and leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (Fantu), described how, despite the repression, which has resulted in the constant growth of the prison population for political reasons, citizens are developing a more precise awareness of their rights and demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that are theirs.
According to Fariñas, based on these demands, his organization has established a number of issues that activists promote in the queues that people are inevitably forced to stand in to resolve any situation, particularly those related to food and medicine.
One of the themes is the Castro regime’s unfulfilled promise to restore the 1940 Constitution, which guaranteed an open society with full respect for the rights of citizens. He told us that this is a case that is virtually unknown to younger generations, who have been submerged in complete ignorance of the past.
The immense majority of those who fought ’Castro-Communism’ in the initial years of the revolution and even afterwards, came from the revolutionary ranks.
Another issue that is brought up in the queues and discussed as if it were casual conversations is the farce that Fidel Castro embodied during the first months of the insurrection, denying that he intended to establish a communist regime, pointing out to people that the dictatorship was established with lies and false promises, an atmosphere that has been perpetuated over time.
The opposition leader, who is categorically prohibited from traveling to the nation’s capital, says that another issue that the militants in the queues is inciting violence, arguing that the Castro-led insurrection resorted to terrorism throughout its administration and that, consequently, they are morally invalidated from questioning anyone who resorts to intimidation to attack the government, since terrorism does not become good just because it promotes socialism.
Another interesting aspect that individuals in the ranks speak of as if by chance, is that the vast majority of those who fought Castro-communism in the initial years of the revolution and even afterward, came from the revolutionary ranks because they had been defrauded by the farce orchestrated by the Castros to perpetuate themselves in government.
The so-called internationalist missions in Africa are widely discussed, explaining to people that they were not genuine acts of solidarity, but rather Castro’s way of compensating for the economic and military aid coming from the Soviet Union, using Cubans as “cannon fodder,” sending them to fight on that continent where thousands of soldiers died and others were abandoned to the most extreme poverty.
The insurrection led by the Castros resorted to terrorism throughout its administration.
Two of the Castro regime’s biggest falsehoods are the free provision of medicine and education. Fantu activists point out that, since 1962, all workers have been directly deprived of 11.1% of their net wages, based on Decree-Law 147/1962. This deprivation also covers Social Security, a condition that does not make it a gift of totalitarianism.
The privileges in food and goods received by members of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior are addressed in the queues, in addition to the reasons that prevent the existence of other political parties. They add that the current energy crisis could have been avoided if, during the period of Chavismo’s rise in Venezuela (2001-2016), the enormous financial loans granted by Hugo Chávez for the remodeling of Cuban thermoelectric plants had been used.
Guillermo Fariñas says that several Fantu activists are in prison for bringing up these issues in the queues, including Oscar Sánchez Madan, political coordinator of the Fantu National Council and resident in the municipality of Matanzas, Pedro Luis Fernández Peralta, Fantu coordinator in the municipality of Diez de Octubre (Havana province), and Amaury Díaz García, municipal coordinator of Fantu in the city of Sancti Spíritus.
____________
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.