The video of Amelia Calzadilla, born in a direct transmission from her Facebook, went this Monday from being a digital storm to having repercussions in the real and palpable world. As a result of her comments, the young woman from Havana was summoned to the seat of government in El Cerro, her municipality.
Leaving the meeting, which lasted more than two and a half hours, Calzadilla preferred not to make any statements to the international media that were waiting, including the Spanish news agency Ephwhose report describes the place surrounded by onlookers and State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes.
Calzadilla assured that he would express himself again from the networks. “No one questioned me. This was a meeting ”, she affirmed on Facebook a few hours later in a direct one in which he said that she had the opportunity to expose his problems to the municipal governor, especially the expenses generated by the lack of gas in the house. .
Calzadilla also assured that he does not care about the criticism of recent days and once again showed his “gratitude” to all the people who have shown him their support.
“My children have no food”
Amelia’s face and words became virilized after her emotional nine-minute message, broadcast on Facebook on June 9. In it, she charged against the lack of gas at home, an issue that she, according to videos that can be consulted on her Facebook profile, had warned since January 2021.
This time, he also referred to the power cuts, the increase in prices, the shortage, the purchase of basic products with foreign currency and “the tail of the chicken”, criticism that quickly caught on among many Cubans who recognize their problems. .
“Because my children don’t have food, because they don’t have shoes, because they don’t have clothes, because they need my relatives abroad to live with dignity in Cuba,” Calzadilla said, visibly excited. “Cuban mother, who gets up in the morning like me, worried that they will cut off your electricity, that you do not know what you are going to give your children for food at the end of the afternoon when they arrive from school (…), I I ask: How much longer are you going to last? Because I can’t take it anymore, ”she concluded.
The direct broadcast, in line with its previous broadcasts, collected common complaints about the main symptoms of the economic crisis that Cuba is going through, motivated by the COVID.19 pandemic, the exacerbated US sanctions since the Donald Trump administration, and management failures. national macroeconomics.
But, it also contained clear criticism of the political class. “I am blaming those who lead, those at the top,” said Calzadilla, who referred to the Minister of Energy and Mines, Nicolás Liván, the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and, in general, “to the revolution ” for which his father had also fought.
“How long will the people continue to pay for your comforts?” Calzadilla, who has a degree in English and is a tourist guide, wondered at one point. Eph.
With that direct, his voice went viral in a matter of hours, shared thousands of times on networks. Other Cuban mothers, sometimes with their children in their arms, also recorded themselves on videos showing solidarity with Amelia.
Repercussions of a video
According to the source, the Cuban media based in Miami —and critical of the island’s government— quickly echoed this message, as did opponents and activists such as Ángel Moya, Martha Beatriz Roque, Saily González or Salomé García Bacallao. .
In parallel, several pro-government accounts — some anonymous — began to criticize and discredit the young woman, deploying a historic ploy to put the morale of the critical citizen, in this case questioning their economic difficulties, for which they alleged data such as the furniture that was noticed in his house, the way he did his nails or looked at photos on his Facebook wall, one of them in a well-known restaurant in Havana.
Others ventured to say that it was financed by “counterrevolutionaries” from the United States or that it was simply looking for money from Cuban exiles.
The official media did not take long to join the criticism. The website Cubadebate published an op-ed claiming that “Amelia’s viral video is a textbook example of what is called anger management,” implying that it was not spontaneous and was orchestrated by dissent.
In the second direct from Calzadilla, made this weekend, she looked more serene and careful, aware of the phenomenon she had generated, although equally sure of her words. She explained that she was leaving the networks, that she had rejected the help that she had been offered after her viral video and then she advanced that she had been summoned this Monday at the government headquarters of her municipality.
After this statement, the YouTube channel of an anonymous pro-government account called Guerrero Cubano announced that it would not open “the pandora’s box of the alleged suffering mother.” “Why does she do it herself? Who is behind and pays for this? Everything with evidence, including the relationship of the event with the attacks against Cuba at the Summit of the Americas and the anti-Cuban terrorist mafia”, was what he promised to reveal, but he did not do so, he points out. Eph.
Efe/OnCuba.
