(EUROPA PRESS) .- Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who last week arrived in Spain To escape repression, he calls on the opposition to “reinvent themselves” to try to “change things” on the island, for which he raises, for example, the need to speak with opponents from Venezuela and Nicaragua who are facing “the same dictatorship “as in Cuba.
García Aguilera, one of the most prominent figures of the opposition since just a year ago, on November 27, was part of the hundreds of artists who demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Culture asking for dialogue and freedom of expression, took stock from Madrid of these twelve months, in which they have seen how threats and pressures have occurred, both in private and in public.
In an interview with Europa Press, he explains that to this day the “regime” of Miguel Díaz-Canel still follows the “discrediting campaign” against him from the official media.
“It is not necessary to give 20 years of our life to that regime,” he says. “It is not about going down in history, being given a street or putting a marble statue in a park. It is about changing things”
“Cuba does not need more martyrs,” insists García Aguilera, who assumes, once again, that he may have “disappointed” part of the opposition by leaving Cuba in the midst of a wave of protests, but that he sees this stage as a necessary step to avoid being left. “silenced” in his house in Havana. The playwright reiterated that for now he rules out requesting asylum.
“It is not necessary to give 20 years of our life to that regime,” he says. “It is not about going down in history, being given a street or putting a marble statue in a park. It is about changing things,” he adds.
García asserts that his family has suffered threats “that perhaps it is not yet time to tell”, although he does confirm “pressure” by the diplomatic corps on relatives in other countries and whom the Government supposedly wanted to use as intermediaries in the “coercion “.
They wanted to “convince” him to leave Cuba. “They thought that I was going to asylum or concentrate on my work, or that I was going to forget about politics,” says the playwright, who assumes that there may be people “following” him also in Spain to give an account of what he does or says.
Opposition organizations have reported in recent months an increase in repression on the island, especially as a result of the July 11 mobilizations. Archipelago already criticized the veto of the protest that it had called for November 15 and the pressure continues even after this date.
Some of them “have had to lower their profile”, as the playwright explains when questioned by cases like those of Daniela Rojo, who a few days ago resigned as coordinator of the group. “It is human”, admits García when speaking of this type of situations, of which in his opinion they are the true “protagonists”.
Those who are still inside Cuba, he adds, are “those who need more attention.” The founder of Archipelago considers that appearing in the media, making himself “visible”, is in many cases a shield against persecution, since precisely the authorities try “not to make anyone look at you to be able to do whatever they want with you.”
“They thought I was going to asylum or concentrate on my work, or that I was going to forget about politics,” says the playwright, who assumes that there may be people “following” him also in Spain
Another of the strategies used by the “regime” would be to foment the division between the dissent. “All the time they make you feel that your colleagues are your enemies,” Garcia sums up, who immediately advocates prioritizing the “common goal” over any possible difference.
“It is not a race to see who gets there first” or “who manages to get more attention,” he adds, speaking of “a diverse group” trying to do “everything it can” to “change the reality of Cuba.” “We have made mistakes and we will continue to make them,” he says.
García affirms that “no one has been trained to overthrow a regime, to build a democracy within a dictatorship,” but he does believe that “there are paths traveled without success” and it is time to “reinvent themselves.” In this “intermission”, in which “the regime believes it has obtained a victory” by stopping the marches on the 15th, it is time to “regain strength.”
The playwright, who has already met in Spain with authorities such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, also wants to take advantage of his stay in Madrid to “exchange experiences” with other people who have gone through similar situations.
Therefore, it is feasible to replicate the “strategic alliance” that exists between the administrations of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, but at the level of the opponents. “In the end we are facing the same thing”, it is “the same dictatorship”, in the opinion of the opponent.
García redefines concepts usually associated with communism in Cuba, among others that of homeland. “Your homeland is the people you know. For me, homeland is not feeling alone,” he reviews, recalling his own experiences in a country that he even compares with the “Matrix.”
The Castro brothers, first, and Díaz-Canel, later, would work in favor of a “great lie” that “they have sold as the best commercial product.” “It has received better publicity than Coca-Cola” and “many people in the world have bought that commercial product called the Cuban revolution,” he laments.
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