HAVANA, Cuba. – After They will “sing the 40” in Guantánamo to Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a live broadcast where at least two residents of the areas most affected by Hurricane Oscar denounced the terrible management of the Government, there was no other live report for national television.
The order to the press team that accompanies the Cuban leader was apparently to limit themselves to reporting by telephone and sending photos but no videos, much less with audios where the population could be heard making complaints and asking this man with an ugly face to account. inexpressive that only knows how to respond repeatedly with justifications and slogans, with threats and militarization of a disaster zone where waters and landslides only finished what institutional abandonment and misery had already begun years ago.
Everything that came after the unfortunate broadcast has been attempts to divert attention from the most serious issue – which is in reality disinformation and government neglect – towards issues such as “media manipulation”, “social networks” and the “enemy”. ” that have had nothing to do with the general blackout happened in those days nor with the fact that Oriente was abandoned to its fate because they were more afraid of what could happen in the streets of a capital for several days in the dark and without drinking water.
In reality, if social networks, independent press media and even the “enemy” who sends remittances so that the misery would at least be bearable had not existed, the impact of the hurricane – which the official media called a “tropical storm” until many hours after having risen to category 1—would have been much deadlier.
Likewise, if there were not those only unofficial channels that kept those who gained access to them informed—despite poor connectivity, regime censorship, and lack of electricity—today we would not even know what happened, who responsible for the tragedy, the true number of victims, nor would we have the images of people trying to survive on their own just because the Government did not think of sending rescue teams and disaster experts to an area where it had been known for hours before it would be affected by intense rains.
If the Internet did not exist today we would only have the happy version written, directed and corrected a thousand times by the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, but we would still have been saved from that boring Saturday night program that the same inexpressive and insensitive man recorded “from the Presidency” not with the purpose of reporting what was being done in Guantánamo but to insist on an image self-cleaning operation that increasingly leaves them dirtier for everyone to see.
More when they don’t hide that They are more concerned about those who spread the rumor of the collapse of the dam in San Antonio del Sur —an episode that serves them in the demonization of social networks— than to investigate the causes of why an announced storm took the “leaders” of Guantánamo by surprise, or why the Civil Defense was not as active as on previous occasions ( or as when it comes to the effects of Western Cuba, and Havana in particular), and why the official media, busy with the service agenda imposed on them by the Communist Party, never fulfill their duty to inform, arriving late. and bad with the news that has already aged on the internet.
The best example that what happened in Guantánamo has not served as an experience is in the latest broadcasts of the Television News (NTV) where, a few hours before a new storm affects Cuba, much more time is dedicated to the 10th Congress of the UNEAC, to the debates on “cultural colonization” and the “negative impact of social networks and the internet ”, which will report minute by minute on the evolution of two systems that will probably be producing intense rains in the coming days.
Even without leaving the “energy contingency”, knowing that many of the provinces that could be affected by the meteorological phenomenon remain in blackout for more than 10 hours a day, and that this contributes to misinformation, the first 20-30 minutes of what should be a news program serving the population are dedicated to any other topic except warning and showing detailed graphics about the state of the weather, while the ideologizing agenda of the “Information System” responds to the interests of a Government focused on his own affairs and totally unfocused on the problems of the population.
What interest can there be in finding those guilty of spreading a rumor that did less damage than the abandonment of the Government and misinformation? A rumor that, by the way, no alternative media outlet replicated as confirmed news, and about which Humberto Lopezthe spokesperson for the regime’s political police, only showed two publications from people on social networks that did not actually disclose anything, they only asked if what they received was true or not.
The insistence on getting stuck in this episode, on giving it greater relevance than that which the residents of Imías have given to institutional helplessness, to the Government’s late response, to Miguel Díaz-Canel’s delay in visiting the most affected places – to which made a lightning visit because the animosity of some residents forced him to flee to return later with better safety equipment – may lead to suspicion that the rumor of the collapse of the dam could have come from the same people who today use it to reinforce demonization of the internet, in a political context where what hinders the Cuban regime most is everything that they cannot control and submit to their service.
According to the forecasts, more days of water are coming and, whether there are many or few, the precariousness of the life of Cubans is such that any drop that falls will overflow the limits and bring more calamities in the form of landslides, floods, hunger and hopelessness, although, in comparison, these will be much less. than those brought consciously by an irresponsible and insensitive Government.
