14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 19 June 2022 – “I don’t care about your fear”: I heard this phrase in a film from Cuba. A woman’s voice that synthesized the feelings of many others, all fed up with a cocktail that has lasted 63 years, in which only repression and misery are mixed. An expression that reflects, in my modest opinion, the probability of very cruel and painful days that should lead to a new homeland where there are no executioners or perpetrators.
That was one of the voices I heard on social media this week. A comment that only occurs in a frightened society like the Cuban one. Where terror prevails, people censor themselves and ensure that their loved ones don’t break the circle of fear because of the harm that could happen to them.
Another heartbreaking testimony I had the opportunity to see was that of a mother of three who denounces the precarious situation she faces with her family. A forceful and irrefutable evidence of the failure of Castro totalitarianism, in addition, to show the useless sacrifice of large segments of several generations of Cubans to work in favor of a project that has devastated the island and many of the values of its citizens.
Castroism in any of its derivatives, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Bolivian and an eventual Colombian if Gustavo Petro comes to power, only leads to failure and frustration. It is an inefficient proposal in all its expressions, except for its undeniable ability to impose strict social control based on repression and disinformation.
Young people should consider miraculous political proposals with great deliberation. It’s true that in politics there are very bad things that must be eradicated, but they shouldn’t be a reason to blindly believe in an enlightened person who only assures that he will change everything to build a bright future. You have to educate yourself, know the past and learn that “my rights end where those of others begin.”
The example of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua should serve as a model for new generations who hope to “conquer heaven” without understanding that a comfortable life within justice is only achieved with work. The rest remains to be seen.
Cubans overwhelmingly embraced their Messiah and repudiated those who denied him. In that commotion of unbridled hysteria, as the historian and journalist Enrique Encinosa described it, representatives of all generations closed their eyes and lent themselves to hunt down those who disagreed. They were the ones who helped destroy the country, leading the emerging generations to the degree of despair that this mother shows when, aware of the reprisals she may suffer, she accuses the Government of being inept, corrupt and complacent, with everything badly done.
It’s true that it has been the Castro leadership and all its officials, including police and military, who have supported the disgraced regime for more than six decades, but they have also contributed to the support and formation of the colonies of Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have lent their skills and talents to disseminate and convince the so-called silent majority of the justice and profitability of the totalitarian project.
A totalitarian regime doesn’t allow fiefdoms; only those who oppose it are relatively free of its mandates. However, the rest of the citizenry must behave as ordered by the authorities, which motivates a very high level of complicity and an understanding of the fear that transcends the individuality of the person, a syndrome of defenselessness that transforms citizens into a herd without will, but that reaches a moment of rupture as happened with this mother, who asks to be arrested and urges the rest of the mothers of the island to unite, to demand once and for all respect for their rights and a dignified life.
This anguished mother* calls the regime a liar when she exposes one of its fundamental falsehoods that says the “goods belong to the people.” We all listened and read, repeated ad nauseam, “this belongs to the people,” and we must have the courage to deny it as this lady, who is suffering numerous reprisals and abuse from the authorities, has done. All that remains is to trust that more mothers, citizens, will join her call to achieve a country “with all and for the good of all.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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