EUROPA PRESS (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 27 November 2021 — Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who arrived in Spain last week to escape repression, calls on the opposition to “reinvent itself” to try to “change things” on the island, for which he suggests, for example, the need to speak with opponents from Venezuela and Nicaragua who are facing “the same dictatorship” as in Cuba.Just a year ago on November 27th, García Aguilera, became one of the most prominent figures of the opposition.
He was a part of the hundreds of artists who demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Culture asking for dialogue and freedom of expression, took stock from Madrid of these twelve months, in which he has seen how the threats and pressures have happened, both in private and in public.
In an interview with Europa Press, he explains that to this day the “regime” of Miguel Díaz-Canel is still engaged in the “discrediting campaign” against him through the official media.
“Cuba does not need more martyrs,” insists García Aguilera, who assumes, once again, that he may have “disappointed” part of the opposition by leaving Cuba in the midst of a wave of protests. However, he sees this stage as a necessary step to avoid being left “silenced” in his house in Havana. The playwright reiterated that for now he rules out requesting asylum.
“It is not necessary to give 20 years of our life to that regime,” he says. “It is not about going down in history, being given a street name, or putting up a marble statue in a park. It is about changing things,” he adds.
García asserts that his family has suffered threats “that perhaps it is not yet the time to talk about,” although he does confirm “pressure” by the diplomatic corps on relatives in other countries and whom the Government supposedly wanted to use as intermediaries in the “coercion.”
They wanted to “convince” him to leave Cuba. “They thought that I was going into asylum or to concentrate on my work, and that I was going to forget about politics,” says the playwright, who assumes that there may be people “following” him in Spain as well to give an account of what he does or says.
Opposition organizations have reported in recent months an increase in repression on the island, especially as a result of the July 11 mobilizations. Archipiélago already criticized the government’s veto of the protest that it had called for November 15 and the pressure continues even after this date.
Some of them “have had to lower their profile,” as the playwright explains when questioned about cases such as that of Daniela Rojo, who a few days ago resigned as Archipiélago’s coordinator. “It is human,” admits García when speaking of these types of situations, in which in his opinion they are the true “protagonists.”
Those who are still inside Cuba, he adds, are “those who need more attention.” The founder of Archipiélago considers that being in the media, making oneself “visible” is, in many cases, a shield against persecution, because what the authorities are trying to do is to make sure “no one is looking at you so they can do whatever they want with you.”
Another of the strategies used by the “regime” would be to foment division among the dissent. “All the time they make you feel that your colleagues are your enemies,” Garcia sums up, who immediately advocates prioritizing the “common goal” over any possible differences.
“It is not a race to see who comes first” or “who manages to get more attention,” he adds, speaking of “a diverse group” that tries to do “everything it can” to “change the reality of Cuba.”
“We have made mistakes and we will continue to make them,” he says.
García affirms that “no one has been trained to overthrow a regime, to build a democracy within a dictatorship,” but he does believe that “there are paths traveled without success” and it is time to “reinvent ourselves.” In this “intermission,” in which “the regime believes it has obtained a victory” by stopping the marches on the 15th, it is time to “regain strength.”
The playwright, who has already met in Spain with authorities such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, JosÃ? Manuel Albares, also wants to take advantage of his stay in Madrid to “exchange experiences” with other people who have gone through similar situations.
Therefore, it is feasible to replicate the “strategic alliance” that exists between the administrations of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, but at the level of the opponents. “In the end we are facing the same thing,” it is “the same dictatorship”, in the opinion of the opponent.
García redefines concepts usually associated with communism in Cuba, among others that of homeland. “Your homeland is the people you know. For me, homeland is not feeling alone,” he reviews, recalling his own experiences in a country that he even compares with the “Matrix.”
The Castro brothers, first, and Díaz-Canel, later, would work in favor of a “great lie” that “they have sold as the best commercial product… It has received better publicity than Coca-Cola” and “many people in the world have bought that commercial product called the Cuban revolution,” he laments.
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