The Undersecretary of State of the United States listed four “myths” that – to his judgment – distort the reality of Cuba.
Miami, United States. – In a series of publications released on Wednesday, when it would have been the 99th birthday of Fidel Castro, the US State Secretary, Christopher Landau, affirmed that in Cuba “a dictatorial regime of the Communist Party” persists and listed four “myths” that – to his judgment – distort the reality of the island.
“Any person on the planet under 67, including me, has never lived a single day in which Cuba was not under the dictatorial regime of his communist party,” he said.
He also added that “the myths persist that the communist leaders of Cuba are ‘the good’ and that the Cuban people are happy with this arrangement”, and that “who still believes in these myths, at this point, deceives themselves in a deliberate way.”
“MYTH 1”: LIVING AND SERVICES
Landau said that, after “more than 60 years of communist regime of the single party”, “the quality of life in Cuba is lousy and continues to deteriorate.” He said that “according to regime’s own statistics, at least 10% of the Cuban population has fled the island in the last three years.” He denounced the collapse of basic services such as electricity and said that “the infant mortality rate (children under five) has increased by more than 50% since 2018”.
About calls “Internationalist missions” of the regimehe wrote that doctors sent abroad “do not carry out charity work: they are the largest source of cash income (above tourism or cigars) and the government itself keeps payments.”
He added that Cuba went “from being the world’s largest sugar exporter” to being “net importer”, that access to basic food and medical supplies “is, in the best case, very limited”, and that “the average salary of a state worker is around 16 dollars per month, and pensioners survive with about five dollars a month.”
“No one is rowing to move to Cuba (not even Russian tourists!); On the contrary, the Cuban people flee massively towards any possible exit,” he finished.
“Myth 2”: “Progressive Liberating” leaders
The former US -U. in Mexico also described Fidel Castro and his environment as “ruthless thugs who did not stop at anything to consolidate an absolute and perpetual power” and said that “they have given refuge to fugitives from US justice for decades.”
He quoted Che Guevara – “whose image appears in so many posters and t -shirts” – to affirm that “it was openly boasted in the UN that the fusetones were an instrument of government policy to eradicate the ‘worms’ (political opponents).”
He also recalled that “in 2021, the Cuban regime arrested and imprisoned more than 1,000 people for peacefully requesting freedom, accusing them of ‘sedition’ and other similar political crimes,” and added: “The majority continues to languish in prison.”
“Myth 3”: Interest in the welfare of the people
“As in any other dictatorship, the elites benefit while the rest suffers,” Landau wrote. He said that “the Castro family and other elites of the regime (especially the military and intelligence dome) live in luxury” and that have accumulated “billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts”, while the population “manages to get food and electricity.”
He told Fidel Castro’s grandson: “Fidel’s grandson, Sandro, a influencer On the Internet, he has exposed his family’s luxurious lifestyle, full of leisure, designer clothes and accessories. And again, you don’t have to believe me alone: check Sandro’s Instagram [Castro]”
“Myth 4”: the “blockade” as an explanation
Landau rejected that the “blockade” of the United States explains the crisis: “such ‘blocking’ does not exist: Cuba is free to trade with other countries and, in fact, receives economic lifeguards from abroad, such as oil from Venezuela and Mexico, and tourists from Canada, Europe and other places”.
He added that “the US law explicitly allows the export of food and medicines to Cuba” and that a real blockade was applied “for a few weeks in the missile crisis of October/November 1962”, before his birth. “After more than sixty years, it is pathetic that the culpe regime of the economic collapse of Cuba to the United States instead of its own grotesque bad economic management and political repression,” he wrote.
Called to a free future
Landau closed his messages with a general assessment on the dispute of narratives around Cuba: “I have no doubt that ideological fans will continue to spread, and perhaps even believing, these myths regardless of the facts. They are free to believe in unicorns too. His own reactionary and repressive domain.
