The narratives about the recent activities of the Cuban dictatorship are becoming more and more astonishing.
HAVANA, Cuba. – In a series of journalistic works published in this same digital newspaper in these initial days of the week, my colleagues from CubaNeteach one working on their own, but all contributing to the higher cause of clarifying the pitiful situation that our unfortunate Cuba is suffering right now, offer us elements to qualify this catastrophic state of affairs, and what is worse: they confirm the absence of adequate ways to begin to get out of this mess.
The worst thing is that the decisive steps so that the inhabitants of this Great Antille would be left without the mechanisms that, in the countries of our hemisphere, have served to make a decisive change of course when the latter becomes necessary, were definitively lost as far back as the same year 1959, the same year in which Fidel Castro and his cronies rose to power.
Upon the fall of General Fulgencio Batista’s regime, the new leaders promised to hold elections within several months. But that formal offer was replaced by an astonishing slogan, which posed exactly the opposite: “Elections for what?” And in truth, if the establisher of the new regime already completely dominated the reins of power, what sense would it make (for himself, I mean) to call an electoral consultation that could only undermine that all-embracing power?
Thus, Cuba went a whopping 17 years without holding anything resembling elections. And when he carried them out in 1976, it was only to elect some councilors who did not decide at all or very little. The deputies were voted for by the different municipal assemblies, but since the number of candidates was identical to that of the seats, it was guaranteed that everyone was “elected.” In short, “elections” adjusted to the most rancid communist traditions.
When, over the years, the “socialism of the 20th century” established by Castro gave way to the so-called “socialism of the 21st century,” the existence of opposition candidates who, in theory, could triumph was allowed. Another thing is that in countries like Venezuela or Nicaragua, the numbers of votes received by each candidate are blatantly changed, or those who dissent are imprisoned.
But in countries that have not reached these extremes, different results are observed. This is the case of fraternal Bolivia, where, in the midst of the difficult economic situation enthroned by the waste of public resources perpetrated by the MAS (Movement to Socialism) governments, citizens were able to opt for other parties and candidates. We have seen that this led to the election of a new president (Rodrigo Paz), who is setting his constituents and the country on a different path.
But it is time to make a brief summary of the gloomy picture of Cuba that my colleagues from CubaNet have described in their articles in recent days. I will start with Ana León, who published a text with an clarifying title on Monday: “SOS Cuba: from Castro’s secrecy to Díaz-Canel’s negligence”.
The journalistic work delves into the welfare issues that for decades have been raised by the regime, in a lying way, as supposed examples of an admirable activity… But the downside of the text is frankly lapidary: “The Díaz-Canel Government, perpetuator of the disaster created by Fidel Castro, has successfully turned Cuba into an ecosystem hostile to health, rehabilitation and life.”
It is a way to summarize, for general consumption, a reality that ordinary Cubans have been suffering in recent months. I am referring, for example, to the epidemic of chikungunya and other arboviruses. Although, at the beginning, the country’s health authorities maintained a stony silence about the wide spread of these evils, today it is recognized that there are thousands of cases. Even the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) “has identified Cuba as the country with the highest rate of chikungunya infestation in the entire American continent.”
For his part, the economist Orlando Freire Santana, once again insists on a topic that is recurring within the Cuban alternative press: “The harmful government contracting of agricultural products”. The specialist recapitulates the terrible work of the Collection Company, the state monopoly that sets prices unilaterally, but which, in addition, often does not collect the crops and pays them late and poorly.
Here it is worth making a small digression, and delving into the current version of the Constitutionwhich dates back to 2019. Its article 18 establishes that “in the Republic of Cuba, a system of socialist economy governs based on the ownership of all the people over the fundamental means of production as the main form of property, and the planned direction of the economy (…)”.
To put in a few words the absurd situation in which what remains of the Cuban economy finds itself today: the same system called “socialist” (which is, to begin with, the one that put the country’s productive apparatus in the quagmire in which it finds itself) is the one that is called to correct previous errors and, supposedly, relaunch the economy to new, higher levels.
I think that the degree of desperation that overwhelms the Cuban leaders can be seen when reading the text: “A mirage called ‘direct contracting’: the regime’s bait for foreign investors”. This means that, in the middle of the “corralito” that prevents foreign investors from freely using the foreign currency in their bank accounts, they try to trick them with these small, specific and insignificant changes.
Meanwhile, colleague Gladys Linares dabble in what awaits the inhabitants of this island once called “the pearl of the Antilles” after death. From the beginning, the journalist clarifies that she does not intend to refer to the causes of the death of a highly esteemed neighbor of hers (an arbovirus), but rather, she says, “I am going to refer to the grotesque phenomenon that funeral services have become” in the country.
And yes, it is necessary to recognize that the parallel payments for providing basic funeral services, the claim for additional payments for carrying out the simplest acts that are supposed to guarantee moderately respected funeral homes, which are listed in detail in the article, are overwhelming.
I would like to finish this article by making an appointment with an interesting text from colleague Luis Cino. Its title expresses a reality that, in a documented manner, with precise data, is illustrated in the text: “The anti-communist repression was greater under Castroism than during the Republic.”
This is, of course, one more facet of the repression that has been an inevitable characteristic in the activity of the Castro-communist regime. But if my friend Cino demonstrates, in a documented manner, that the repression, not directed against democrats or libertarians, but against communists!, was more severe in these decades than under what they call “the mediatized Republic”, I think any additional comment is unnecessary! The absolutely repressive nature of the Castro-communist regime has been demonstrated without a doubt!
