“There is no turning back”: Cuban dissidents embolden despite repression

Guillermo Fariñas, a veteran Cuban opponent known for his long stays in prison and regular hunger strikes, said he did not believe what he saw when the cells of the police station where he was briefly held were filled with unfamiliar faces, many as teenagers.

He said none were familiar to him in mainstream opposition circles.

“I told state security who arrested me: ‘They are going to have to change,'” said Fariñas, 59. “It’s the city. And it’s not just the people, it’s the young people. Look at them: they have already decided that they are not going to keep leaving the country, they want a change here”.

After the notable wave of protests across Cuba over the weekend, the government arrested dozens of people in an effort that activists have described as the biggest crackdown in years and possibly decades.

A seasoned human rights activist said the arrests across the island were only comparable to the harsh measures implemented before the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

Amnesty International said on Tuesday it had drawn up a list of 150 people arrested after the Sunday protests. Another group, the San Isidro Movement, a group of Cuban dissidents led by artists and academics, included 171 reports of detained or missing persons during demonstrations.

“The massive peaceful protests were historic,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s director for the Americas. “Although the forms of repression are the same, we are witnessing a significant and dangerous mobilization of the police and security forces”.

Human rights groups have said it could take several days to get a clear picture of the scale of the government’s response, as poor internet and phone connections make it difficult to track the number of people detained.

But Cubans said there was a heavy presence of security forces on the streets Monday and Tuesday, with many families desperately trying to locate loved ones who had been detained or disappeared after the protests.

Still, seasoned opponents have said crackdown is to be expected after what many have called the biggest day of protests in the country since the Cuban revolution, forcing Cuban leaders to recognize the severe economic crisis that has thrown thousands of people away. in the street. Many have described a turning point in a country where the Communist Party has managed to quell even the smallest challenges to its authority for decades.

“The spark is on, ladies and gentlemen, there’s no turning back“Said the independent journalist Yoani Sanchez in a short podcast he recorded on Tuesday. “People have felt, enjoyed for the first time what it is to cry out for freedom in the Cuban streets.”

The Cuban government often detains dissidents for a day or two after security forces disperse protests. It was not clear whether Sunday’s arrests will lead to a new generation of long-term political prisoners.

Daniel Triana, a Cuban actor who was held in a center in Havana for about 24 hours, said the cell he was being held in was flooded by protesters.

“Many people across the country are still in detention, I would say hundreds,” he said in a telephone interview. “In my annex, there were dozens of people and they put people when I got there, and they put people when I left.”

Camila Remón, a member of the San Isidro movement, said the recent protests were possible due to widespread internet connectivity on the island, a relatively recent phenomenon.

“It has been a very effective way of expressing yourself,” he said, noting the amount of videos online, many of which broadcast live, which have given people around the world a real-time snapshot of this. that was happening inside Cuba while the protests were taking place. “We managed to get a lot of content showing what the diet does”.

But internet service was quickly blocked across the country on Sunday, and many activists said they were having trouble getting online this week. Dissenters have said the government appears to be restricting access to a tool that poses a serious threat to its power.

“The only thing that gave us the courage to go to the streets was to see that others were doing it tooSaid Triana, the artist. “Cutting the Internet is going to crush any security we have. “

In Florida, United States, leaders discussed on Tuesday how to strengthen opposition groups in Cuba. State Governor Ron de Santis has expressed interest in local businesses looking into expanding internet access on the island.

Senior Cuban officials seemed surprised at the scale of Sunday’s protest, which spread to dozens of towns and villages across the island. Crowds of rebel protesters denounced the state, the rising cost of living and the shortage of medicine and food.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called on government supporters to take to the streets and hinted at the possibility of violence when the regime sought to establish control. “We are not going to give up sovereignty, or the independence of the people, or the freedom of this nation,” he said Sunday after the protests. “There are many revolutionaries in this city who are ready to give our lives.”

The next day, Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, head of the Communist Party’s ideology department, said the protests were part of an “unconventional war strategy” that the United States had undertaken to seek regime change.

“It follows tactics of the so-called nonviolent struggle to generate instability and chaos in the countries,” he said, to “provoke the police to induce repressive actions which, in turn, generate the perception of violation of human rights. “

However, many leaders around the world, including United States President Joe Biden, quickly joined the protesters’ cause and condemned the wave of arrests.

“The place of these people is not in a prison but in public discourse,” Peter Stano, spokesperson for the European Union, told reporters on Tuesday. “We call on the Cuban authorities to immediately release all those detained for their political beliefs and their journalistic work.

Activists on the island said many people, especially well-known dissidents and those who had not committed acts of vandalism, had already been released.

Julie Chung, America’s top diplomat for Latin America, said the arrest and disappearance of protesters “reminds us that Cubans pay dearly for their freedom and dignity.”

With the rise in tensions on Tuesday, many independent journalists and activists said they were banned from leaving their homes. That’s what happened with Denis Solís, a musician who sings against the Cuban government and who had just been released from an eight-month prison sentence when protests erupted on Sunday.

But thinking about what his compatriots had done made Solís very happy.

“I can’t believe what’s going on,” he said. “This is what we have been waiting for since 1959. What was impossible has become possible.”.

© The New York Times 2021

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