A large police deployment prevents the passage through the corner that makes up Gervasio and Enrique Barnet (Estrella) streets, in Centro Habana, after discovering this Saturday morning a huge sign painted on the asphalt with the phrase “Homeland and Life” . The surroundings of the place are taken by police officers and State Security agents.
“When it dawned, the poster was already there, so it seems that they painted it at dawn,” he tells 14ymedio a neighbor of the neighborhood who regrets the police operation in the area. “They don’t let anyone pass, I could see it because I said I was going to the agro-market that is a few meters from there and I even had to buy some tomatoes to get pregnant.”
“They’ve been crazy since they arrived, but it’s going to be hard for them to erase that because it’s done with a red paint that looks like oil and the letters are quite big,” details the nearby resident. “People climb on the roofs to see it because there is no one passing by on the street.”
Around the corner, in addition to police patrols, there is also a Criminalistics vehicle
Around the corner, in addition to the police patrols, there is also a Criminalistics vehicle, several individuals dressed in civilian clothes with all the signs of being from State Security and also a deployment of the so-called “factors”, militants of the Communist Party and members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in the area.
“This neighborhood is going through a very bad time, so the strange thing is that they don’t put up a poster about this every day,” details a neighbor. “Here people are living with many needs and food is very expensive. Young people can’t take it anymore.”
Shortly after noon the sign had been removed and some soil taken from the rubble of a nearby hydraulic repair had also been spread over the area. The uniformed policemen had withdrawn, but in the surroundings there were some individuals dressed in civilian clothes that the neighbors indicated as being from the political police.
“Surely they have stayed in case the one who painted the sign returns to the place,” said a young man from the neighborhood. “We will have to be attentive to social networks to see the photos that are going to come out because many people took out their mobiles from the balconies and it is very likely that whoever wrote it also took a photo and published it.”
The appearance of the phrase occurs just in the days when the song Homeland and Life It is celebrating a year of its launch. In these twelve months, the musical theme has become a hymn of desire for democratic change on the Island and has been harshly lambasted by the ruling party.
The posters with phrases against the Government, and especially against Miguel Díaz-Canel, are becoming more frequent on Cuban streets. Not a day goes by without the Cuban ruler being the target of a meme, a joke, a joke or a graffiti.
A report from the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts detailed that last January the Cubans demonstrated above all in “individual or small group actions”, how to paint graffiti and posters, do masses or broadcast videos and photos on social networks. This strategy has the objective, adds the organization, of continuing to have “visibility and impact”, but limiting “the risk of its executors in the face of repression”.
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