Cuba: again in the eye of the storm | A death between demonstrators clashes with the defenders of the Revolution

Nothing in Cuba can be explained today without the intensification of the blockade to which the United States is subject. This unilateral measure, defeated by 29 successive votes at the United Nations, which spans two centuries and nearly six decades, reveals the context that can be breathed in its streets today. One death (Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, 36 years old), an imprecise number of detainees according to whom the count, wounded among the demonstrators but also among the defenders of the Revolution, the marches and counter-marches, occurred mainly in Havana and in other parts of the country. The government in the voice of its chancellor Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla He denied that “a social epidemic started on Sunday 11”. But opponents on the island and abroad believe they are on the threshold of a counter-revolution. The world has suddenly stopped watching what is happening in other countries to position itself on Cuban reality. With all that that implies: the media centers in operation which call for the “fall of the regime” and the bet to produce meaning in social networks as if it were a Caribbean “spring”.

From Trump to Biden

While Joe biden denounced Tuesday the 13th a campaign of the Republican Party to restrict the vote of the Hispanic and African-American minorities in the United States, the spokesperson for the State Department, Ned Price, called on Cuba to “release any detainee for demonstrating peacefully”. The president of the world’s main power has admitted restrictions on civil rights in his own country, but Cuba continues to be a monothematic of US foreign policy. In the real and virtual world, White House interference has changed almost nothing compared to the Democratic administration with the government of Donald Trump. The tycoon’s bombastic and confrontational style is hardly lacking.

But this time, it was as if Cuba’s detractors had waited for the precise moment to proclaim a change of era. Perhaps because they believed that the emergency situation experienced by the Cuban people had matured. The one that always seemed to be the blocking strategy. The more suffocation there is, the greater the risk of interference. Amid the usual hostilities the island endures, they also believed that majority support for the Revolution had weakened. And they took to the streets, at the cost, with some informative inaccuracies, already known: the murder of young Tejeda in the neighborhood of La Güinera in Havana, plus a number of injured and detained without official confirmation.

Moreover, still too far from the scenario we saw in Chile, Bolivia and Colombia not so long ago. But in the middle of the pandemic which has increased the statistics of infections and deaths on the island and without key inputs such as ventilators. Not even, prestigious Cuban medicine could stop a third wave due to the Delta strain.

SOS Cuba

It is difficult to find informative equanimity when it comes to Cuba. There are international agencies that never mention the policy of interference in the internal affairs of the island. A look that focuses on the dominant media in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Right-wing politicians appreciate this platform of doctrine. Since Mauricio Macri – yesterday he got involved again with a tweet: “#SOSCuba, we are with you” – a Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the president of the Community of Madrid and referent of the PP who also spoke out against Cuba.

But voices of support for the Cuban government and people do not appear in these media. With less means, the official media Granny Yes Latin press cited the support received: from the Chinese Foreign Minister, Zhao Lijian, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov and the voices of Latin American presidents or leaders. Alberto Fernández, Andrés López Obrador, Nicolás Maduro, Lula and Evo Morales, have been most expressive in their criticism of the blockade formally imposed since February 7, 1962, when it was declared John F. Kennedy. The former Brazilian president commented: “Biden should use this moment to get on television and announce that he will adopt the countries’ recommendation to the UN to end this blockade. The United States seems a long way from approaching this reparation position for Cuba, which has already lost $ 147,853 million.

The invisibility of this data would be as if the death of a single Cuban was hidden. That of Tejeda or any other ordinary citizen of a Havana suburb, such as those who got lost at sea because of the aggressive US policy of cheering on the rafters and those of the athletes who were traveling on the plane. Cubana when he took to the air in a bomb attack planned by the anti-Castroites Luis Posada Carriles placeholder image. October 6 will mark the 45th anniversary of this attack. His ideologue died free in Miami, the city from which began the plot of tweets that sparked the uprising denied by Foreign Minister Rodríguez Parrilla.

Cuban church

The death and arrests which the government admitted, and which we see in several videos, also prompted a pronouncement of the cuban church. The latter, according to AFP, said the government “has tried to take measures to alleviate the aforementioned difficulties”, but “has defended that the people have the right to express their needs, desires and hopes” . A sector of the church in the United States also spoke. The Archbishop of Philadelphia, Nelson Perez, and three other Cuban-American bishops signed a document which reads: “As Cubans and as bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States, we are always aware of the constant suffering and frustration of our brethren. and sisters on the island.

Among the injured in the incidents, there are also victims among those who defend the Revolution. Professor Reinaldo Rosado Rosello, from the University of Computer Science (UCI), received a few stones in the head which almost made him lose an eye. Your photos have been published on the site Cubadebate. His declarations also: “I never thought that in Cuba we were going to achieve what has been experienced. Many colleagues received blows on the feet, ribs, face… A UCI teacher had her head split open and they had to make four stitches ”.

[email protected]