December is disappearing and this country is crying out for one of those requisitions that end in an outburst. Out everything… from top to bottom, but especially above.
HAVANA, Cuba.- For decades, Cubans have not been in favor of throwing things away because everything can be useful at a given moment, and if it is not useful to them, it could very well be useful to their neighbor. So the Cuban guards and waits, making a search every so often to keep the storage room at bay. Most of the time, upon finishing the review, you are convinced that what you have accumulated has every reason to be there, and will remain there until necessity calls for it. Other times, at least, he lets himself be carried away by an outburst and throws everything away, and is surprised to see that the sunlight penetrates like a storm through that window that had not been opened for a long time, that that little room full of chores until recently is more spacious than he remembered, and that a simple wash with water in a neglected room has the same effect as a good bath on a miner.
December brings with it the madness of renewal, even if it is a cautious renewal without consequences for the survival of the storage room, like the one that has just occurred in the National Assembly of People’s Power. The official whose unpleasant face disfigured the Cuban Workers’ Union for decades, perhaps the most anti-proletarian of all Cuban institutions, is gone. The former president of the FEU who turned his back on the students to support the ETECSA tariff, an arm of corrupt power that today returns him to the arena of mere mortals so that he can make his way as best he can, a difficult endeavor for him, considering what he sowed. I hope you are not surprised to discover that traitors are neither liked nor respected. It was proposed to relieve Rubén Remigio Ferro of his duties, the high magistrate who publicly stated that the right to protest is respected in Cuba, while the prisons were filled with the protesters of July 11, 2021 (11J). To date, more than a thousand remain incarcerated, serving disproportionate sentences.
The political caste decided to dust off a little, just enough so that the year does not close without the people seeing that something has moved. And we saw it. We all know that the purge is still underway, eliminating names related to the fall from grace of the former Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil. They do it to sottovocewithout giving explanations that, moreover, are not necessary. The Cuban people already know everything they need to know to make the decision that they have had to make for a long time. It is not possible to specify the moment in which this decision will be expressed. It could be the breaking of January, or in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of our glorious day, or perhaps it will take more time than we have left as a nation. When is an enigma, but the reasons are clear.
Two or three movements within the single party are not a wave of change and have nothing to do with sending signals to the White House. They are improvising with what is left, which is little and bad. 2025 has been such a complete failure that not even the popular move of dedicating next year to the centenary of the dictator Fidel Castro managed to raise the spirits of the “loyal” and worried cadres. Miguel Díaz-Canel admitted that the country is sunk. If he did not do it officially, the UN would be in charge, so it would be better to confront such revealing data about the debacle of a country that, according to “the undefeated leader”, would achieve a social well-being index higher than that of many first world countries.
Despite the severity of the crisis, Díaz-Canel closed his speech ranting about the same thing, urging people to “work hard and obtain better results,” talking about production and exports, as he has done since he occupied the presidential chair under Raúl Castro, while the country goes back to the 19th century. But admitting it doesn’t mean you take responsibility for it. The Cuban government, unable to hide the crisis, ignores it, blaming the “blockade”, the “media conspiracy”, the rate of The Touch and the military deployment of the United States off the coast of Venezuela that serves, among other things, to show the difference between blockade and embargo. The situation looks so bad for 2026 that they have once again forecast GDP growth of 1%, the same figure that had been forecast for this year at the end of 2024; another modest goal that was not met.
December is disappearing and this country is crying out for one of those requisitions that end in an outburst. Out everything. It’s time to clean the house, from the sidewalk to the last centimeter of the patio, from the flower beds and skirting boards to the parapet, from Cape San Antonio to Punta de Maisí, from top to bottom, but especially above, lots of water and a broom to remove the dirt, throw away any useless junk that gets in the way and finally let the sunlight enter the last corner of a newborn Cuba.
