This Sunday, March 17, several significant protests were reported in Cuba.
According to reports on social networks, the protests took place in the town of Santa Marta, Matanzas province, in Bayamo, in El Cobre and in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Those held in these last two localities in Santiago seem to have been the ones with the highest popular participation.
The trigger for the protests has been the lack of food and electricity, but other complaints were also heard that show that Cubans seem to be understanding that their misfortunes are a direct consequence of the political system imposed by Fidel Castro.
In some of the videos broadcast, phrases such as “Homeland and Life!”, “Freedom!” and others chanted by the crowd against the communist leaders and the system they represent can be clearly heard.
Beatriz Johnson, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, tried to placate the Santiago crowd that gathered on the Morro highway, from the roof of one of the houses in the area. He did the same thing in the town of El Cobre at night. In the videos it can be seen how at various times his words were rejected by the demonstrators in both places with shouts of “Lie!”, “Nobody elected you!” and “No to violence”.
The first secretary of the party tried to get the population to believe her reasons about the causes of the delay in the distribution of food and the prolonged blackouts, as well as the actions she assured that the provincial government was undertaking to respond to the demands of the population. But according to what can be seen in the videos, everything indicates that the people no longer believe in the lies that he threw at them from both rooftops and showed their disapproval unequivocally, while the special forces of the Ministry of the Interior made an appearance.
It is evident that the dictatorship has been preparing in advance for this type of event. Its first action to try to counteract them or lessen their effects is to eliminate the Internet service to prevent the live transmission of the event and the possible organization of similar events in other parts of the country.
This action is followed by on-site checks of undercover informants, the police and state security, which will then be used to detain those citizens who have had a more active participation in the protests, have used social networks to disseminate them – as already happened in Nuevitas – or stand out as possible leaders. So far, these methods, together with the rapid delivery of food or the restoration of electricity for a few hours, until tempers are calmed, have been effective, but for how much longer?
As a young opponent who served time for participating in the July 11, 2021 protests, accurately stated, the main cause of the situation of the Cuban people is the communist system.
Faced with this new scenario of citizen struggle, nothing good comes from the sensationalism that some introduce into social networks with the aim of obtaining publicity and monetization instead of projecting themselves towards the consolidation and extension of the protests, because in the face of the maneuvers of the dictatorship it is inevitable that we ask ourselves what the people must do to finish shaking off the dictatorship and how we can help them.
Above all, it is essential that the Cuban people internalize that they are the sovereign and that it is they – and not those who lead them without their consent and by force – who have in their hands the power to effect change, even if it entails sacrifices.
The dictatorship cannot imprison the majority of the population. If protests like those held yesterday spread throughout the country demanding democratic change, the dictatorship will not be able to sustain itself.
Never before have the objective and subjective factors converged so favorably for the change that is now so desired by the majority of Cubans.
Every day, the justifications of the Castro hierarchs and, above all, their accusations of the United States as the supposed cause of the crisis in our country are less credible for the people and international public opinion.
The rooftops that Beatriz Johnson climbed to exercise her rhetoric of promises and lies, rather than specific places, are also an image of power. The first secretary of the party went up to the rooftops because it is from the top down how they look at the people and that is how the communists have built a relationship with the sovereign where he is always in a subordinate position. They do not conceive of themselves as servants of the people but as bearers of a presumed absolute truth that they try to prolong, even if it does not work and is rejected by the people.
Cubans seem to be determined to definitively reject the discourse of power, or in other words, the lies that are thrown at them from the rooftops. To achieve this, they just need to be more determined and organized.
Roberto Jesús Quiñones Haces