HAVANA, Cuba.- An independent journalist friend of mine tells me that he feels as if he were living in a branch of the State Securitybecause two of his relatives who live with him and are supporters of the regime, constantly find out what he does and are aware of all his movements.
He regimeFrom the very beginning, he instilled in Cubans that informing is a duty to the country and the revolution. This has worked as one of his strategies of domination. He has succeeded in creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust among Cubans because of the idea that anyone can be an informant. In many cases, even family members are distrusted.
In my friend’s case, it’s not that he thinks his relatives are capable of informing on him, he doesn’t think they would go that far, but he fears that the political police could convince them to collaborate in any maneuver against him. For example, that they would agree to change their personal history for one that would be convenient for the regime in order to denigrate him.
Let us remember that, in the media at the service of the regime, every time they refer to opponentsare presented, at best, as people with poor social behavior.
My friend many years ago tried to commit suicide to avoid going to Compulsory military serviceBut now his relatives say that they did not know that it was because of military service that he tried to take his life, but because he was sick with nerves, the result of having had a difficult adolescence and “hanging out with strange people who manipulated him against the revolution,” and they assure that being in the army “would have straightened him out.”
His relatives deny the reprisals he suffered for opposing the regime and say that all the setbacks my friend had were due to “his bad head.”
My friend, like many other opponents and independent journalists, often has his Internet connection cut off, sometimes for several days, but his family denies that it is on the orders of State Security. ETECSAThey say that it is their paranoia and that “the connection, due to technical problems, is bad for everyone.”
I don’t think my friend is exaggerating with the fear that if one day he refers to him Humberto Lopezin Reasons for Cubaor some other official parrot, can count on the testimonies of his relatives who assure that he is an emotionally unhinged guy, with bad social conduct and “easy to manipulate by the enemy due to the resentment he has for the mistakes made against him by the revolution.”
OPINION ARTICLE
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