CDMX, Mexico. – Mariela Castro, daughter of former governor Raúl Castro, traveled to Mexico to participate in the II International Congress on Education Oaxaca-2023 “Social Realities and Popular Educations, the Historical Project of Our America”. The event, which took place in one of the states with the greatest educational backwardness in the country, was attended by the Cuban sexologist as the main speaker.
As can be seen in the photographs of the meeting, Mariela Castro was surrounded by intellectuals and academics allied to the Cuban dictatorship and who for years have publicized the official speech of Havana.
In the photos published on January 21 in the account of the Cenesex on Twitter Mariela Castro is seen, with her Apple computer and flanked on her left by the Brazilian theologian Frei Betto. To her right are José Ramón Fabelo Corzo, Marco Raúl Mejía and the organizer of the event, Miguel Erasmo Zaldívar Carrillo (at the end of the table). All are voices recognized for their sympathy for the longest-running dictatorship in the hemisphere.
Zaldívar Carrillo is precisely the coordinator of the Autonomous Movement for Emancipatory and Community Education (MAEEC) of Mexico, the institution that prepared this congress. Zaldívar Carrillo is a Holguin resident in Mexico since the mid-2000s.
Graduated in Education specializing in Physics and Astronomy, he traveled to Oaxaca as part of an agreement signed in March 2005 between Mexico and Cuba for literacy and human development called “Margarita Maza de Juárez”, and did not return to Cuba. Since then he has been close to radical groups of the Oaxacan teachers. These, grouped under Section XXII of the National Coordinator of Education Workers, paralyzed almost the entire state of Oaxaca with protests in 2006.
Zaldívar is also one of the main actors in the solidarity movement with Cuba in Oaxaca and a fervent defender of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Congress attended by Mariela was held from January 19 to 21 at the Juárez Theater, which was previously the headquarters of the Chamber of Deputies of Oaxaca, located in the historic center of the city. There, in addition to the panels, they sold books from the speakers and collected donations to buy gifts for the panelists, including Mariela Castro.
The media are unaware of Mariela’s presence
Despite the publicity that there was on the part of the organizers of the event on Facebook, the presence of Mariela Castro had no impact in the Aztec national media. The daughter of the Cuban dictator was not even mentioned in the local media in Oaxaca or in the island’s propaganda organs. Her trip to southern Mexico has gone unnoticed. In fact, until the publication of this news, the Cenesex tweet about the event had only five retweets, by Cuban accounts, and three likes. According to the Twitter count, it had only been seen 231 times.
It is not known if this time his trip to Mexico lacked the publicity that characterizes the high command of the Cuban dictatorship to avoid opposition protests or if he did not achieve the impact he expected.
Mexico, despite its diversity, is a territory where the discourse of the Cuban dictatorship has had followers and massive acceptance for decades. This has influenced the director of Cenesex to be frequently invited to academic and political meetings.
In June 2021, Castro Espín participated in the IX Latin American and Caribbean Conference on Social Sciences as one of the main speakers. In that panel he promoted Castro’s propaganda with the theme “The emancipatory project of the Cuban Revolution: challenges of transformation (Second Part).” She was even invited four years ago to speak on human rights at the Chihuahua Book Fair.
After the massive protests of July 11, 2021, The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) invited her to a zoom where she gave her version of the facts. This prestigious house of high studies has welcomed her as a speaker to share Cuba’s progress in LGBTIQ+ matters and social “justice and equity”.
Also in Havana has been recognized by the Aztec embassy in Cuba.
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