According to French reporter Francis Matéo, the key to understanding Cuba’s political upheavals is to track the regime’s money: its phantom accounts abroad, the debts it cannot pay, what it charges for sending medical brigades, and the budget it used for propaganda. The wear and tear of his methods after six decades of abuse, added to repression and shortages, put the order established by power in crisis during the protests of July 11, 2021.
Matéo, who was unable to enter the country until travel restrictions were lifted due to the coronavirus pandemic, collected dozens of testimonies from protesters and published them this year in Cuba… la patrie et la vie! ( Cuba… homeland and life, VA Éditions), a detailed report that will soon be published in Spanish by Ediciones Ecúmene. From Barcelona, the city where he lives, the author speaks with 14ymedio about the present and future of the Island.
Ask. What was the writing process like? Cuba… homeland and life? Did you meet all the interviewees in person or was it essentially an online job?
Answer. I did not meet all of them personally, but I spoke to them directly, through WhatsApp. A Cuban friend named María del Carmen, who lives in Barcelona and knows many of the protesters in the neighborhood of Barcelona, was very important for this book. La Guinera. It was she who helped me create the contact through various means.
to the journalist Iliana Hernandez, one of the interviewees, I did go to see her directly when she was still in Havana. I met her at her house, where she was watched by the Police with a camera that was pointed at her door day and night. I have been to Cuba almost 30 times in the last two decades, and the two most recent trips were in November 2021 – when the country opened to tourism after the pandemic – and in May 2022.
When I arrived on November 16, a day after the so-called Civic March for Change scheduled for the 15th, there was no one on the streets. Everyone was still confined. There was much disappointment about Yunior García and his flight to Madrid.
I have been reproached for interviewing certain opponents who now live outside of Cuba, and whom other Cuban exiles do not recognize as such. But I believe that there is no good or bad opponent: it is an opponent who confronts the regime. The same goes for the media. A good means of communication about Cuba is the one that tells the truth. In this we must congratulate this newspaper, which, of course, is one of my sources of information.
It must be said that none of the characters in this book or the situations described are fictitious. The sufferings expressed are also real. Furthermore, most of the people subpoenaed have agreed to testify “openly.” The only concession to this reality refers to the (rare) names changed for obvious security reasons. As I point out at the end of the book, some fictitious details also make it possible to give coherence to the narrative to facilitate reading, without compromising the witnesses. These small fictional elements are actually necessary artifices in the story, to avoid the book being a succession of events that could be incomprehensible, especially for readers who do not know Cuba well or who have never been there.
Q. You talk about the difficulties of speaking to Europeans about the true Cuban reality. Is there an interest in the European media to know that true Cuba that you describe or do you want to maintain the myth of “paradise” defended by the editor who rejected your report, as he tells in his book?
R. In France there is still a kind of romanticism with the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and Che. I wanted to tell the anecdote of that rejection because it was what prompted the writing of the book. To tell the reality of the Island, a means of communication is needed that allows us to do so, and I realized that in France it is very difficult to write about Cuba, in some cases because of that rancid romanticism and in others because a caricature is expected. from the country.
If one wants to write about the Cuban political and social situation, one must qualify. We must avoid the trap of pointing out “the good and the bad”, with which we journalists must struggle so much
If one wants to write about the Cuban political and social situation, one must qualify. We must avoid the trap of pointing out “the good and the bad”, with which we journalists must struggle so much. Now Europeans are beginning to see things differently, because the tourism relationship with Cuba has also changed. We are seeing what never happened: violence against the tourists themselves (such as the famous “punched rubber scam”, a trap in the parking lot of Che’s mausoleum in Santa Clara, which the book illustrates with the case of a French couple who had to pay 400 euros to the criminals themselves who damaged the tire, to have it repaired). That has changed the notion. But they are far from understanding what is really going on.
Q. Tell us more details about the perception of Cuba in the French media, the public or the universities.
R. Before writing the book, I thought that there was not much interest in the Island. Now I realize that this lack of interest was the result of misinformation. In the French university system there is a left influenced by a certain philosophical tradition that stems from Sartre and, even in these years, the myth of Cuba is still alive. Many students are still seen with Che’s face on their clothing.
I have also realized that Castro’s propaganda is very effective. In addition, there is a very strong cultural relationship between the two countries, with music and cinema. The only major foreign film festival on the island is French. And in Havana there are two very important cultural centers sponsored by France: the French Alliance and the Alejo Carpentier French Lyceum – in addition to the Napoleonic Museum – which remain open and functioning despite the situation.
On the other hand, the influence of Cuban diplomacy is such that it has managed to paris club forgive a multi-million dollar debt to the Island without really knowing why.
Q. You comment on the complicity of French companies such as Pernod-Ricard and Bouygues with the regime. What position and interests do French businessmen have on the Island? And the government?
R. The US pressure on the European banking system is so strong that French companies have decided to withdraw from the Cuban market, except for some historical ones, such as Pernod-Ricard and Bouygues. Accor sold its last hotel in Havana – the Royalton– and others have followed suit. There was a lot of interest in the 1990s, after a visit by Fidel Castro to Paris in 1994, and several cooperation agreements were signed with Cuban joint ventures. It was the moment when Pernod-Ricard bought Havana Club. Everything came to an end due to corruption and the country’s own difficulties, in addition to the US measures to prevent business from being done with Cuba.
The embargo, as everyone knows, is one of the ways of the Cuban regime to stay where it is. But, in the end, who suffers the most is the people
Q. The US embargo, according to his book, continues to be one of the reasons for poverty in the country. Don’t you think that a government alibi has been working for six decades?
R. The embargo, as everyone knows, is one of the ways of the Cuban regime to stay where it is. But, in the end, who suffers the most is the people. They have always known how to play with this very skilfully. For the US it is a good operation; It’s not a bad deal for the regime either, because that’s how they stay in power. I think if the Americans had lifted the embargo overnight, the regime would have fallen like a low-hanging fruit. Fidel learned from the Soviets about the effectiveness of having a blocking external. In the long run, the student surpassed the teachers of him.
The Cuban government recently called for the exiles to return as tourists. It seems incredible to me that citizens are being forced to leave and that now they are being asked to go back to consuming and sending remittances. Who are there? Those who have not been able to leave because they do not have money or opportunity to do so.
Q. Why do you consider that the medical brigades are the most effective tool of the “soft power” of the Cuban regime?
R. For me they are also a mafia. Now the management is in the hands of the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos. When they arrived in France and Italy, everyone was happy and said: “The Cubans are here to help us.” Some went so far as to say that it was necessary to resort to the island’s doctors because in France we do not have the proper system. They spoke unknowingly, because they thought they came with humanitarian intentions, as they did in Andorra. But it is a system of slavery, without a doubt.
Q. Do you think the conditions exist for a new series of protests like those of 9/11, despite the migratory stampede and the increase in repression?
R. Things have only changed for the worse. The cry of the Cubans has not ceased either. But the most relevant phenomenon, since 9/11, has been the flight of thousands of Cubans, and this is a new weapon for the regime. I’m not very optimistic. The last time I went, the state of discouragement was much greater than during the year of the protests. The conditions do exist: they are the same or harsher than when 9/11 occurred. If something breaks out, it will be so violent that I don’t think it can be expected with joy.
There is a fundamental element in exile, which is getting bigger and bigger. There are many activists and intellectuals who have left, and that is a disaster for the country. Only the old and those who are so discouraged that they can do nothing remain there. The country will have to be rebuilt one day from the ruins, but who will be left to do it? There is also the danger that the Cuban exiles will become the active hand of the United States in taking over the country. Everything could end up happening in a very chaotic way.
There is a fundamental element in exile, which is getting bigger and bigger. There are many activists and intellectuals who have left, and that is a disaster for the country.
Q. You affirm that in 1959 “one dictatorship replaced the other.” Now there are changes that seem timid and uninteresting at the top, but that could be the prelude to a new era. What do you foresee for Cuba in the coming years, now that Raúl Castro has a short time to live and his “strong man”, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, has died?
R. The closest thing to what could be foreseen for Cuba is perhaps the transition after the fall of the Berlin Wall in countries like Poland, Russia or the Ukraine, where many people took advantage of the situation to earn money. The Castros have already done everything possible to preserve his memory. A clear example is the museum opened by the family in Láncara, Galicia. It is quite a symbol: with the museum they launder their memory as well as their money, and Spain helped them. Without the commitment of democratic governments such as France or Spain itself, the transition will be a disaster for the Cuban people.
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