For the first time in 62 years of dictatorship, Cubans are, indeed, no longer afraid.
Plainclothes police detain an anti-government protester during a protest in Havana, Cuba, on Sunday, when hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in several Cuban cities to protest ongoing food shortages and high prices of food, amid the coronavirus crisis. Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press
And thousands showed the world Sunday that they’re willing to risk their lives to protest, speak up and stand up to “President” Miguel Diaz-Canel’s brutal brand of post-Castro communist dictatorship.
Diaz-Canel’s reign since Raúl Castro installed him as president in 2019 has been characterized by unrelenting repression against writers, rappers and other artists, mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic and failure to deliver on the most basic needs.
As a Cuban protester shouted: “You keep building hotels for tourists while we starve.”
The Cuban president answered the unprecedented protests by authorizing police shootings on unarmed civilians – and, in his words, “summoning all the revolutionaries and all the communists” all over Cuba to confront the demonstrators.
Openly instigating Cuban-on-Cuban violence is a new low – even for a leader caught on video at the onset of his rule boasting that he could not care less about international condemnation of his repressive methods.
“They got the response they deserved,” Díaz-Canel said Monday, blaming the people for his own violence. Cynical. Contemptible. Coward.
Under the cloak of night into Sunday and in the light of day Monday, Cuban police and special forces moved into neighborhoods all over the island, at times shooting at homes and at ordinary people staging protests across Cuba, from Havana to Guantánamo.
The unprecedented rebellion – thousands of Cubans taking to the streets chanting “Freedom!” “We’re no longer afraid!” – and the brutal response of Diaz-Canel calling for Cuban-against-Cuban combat has been captured on dozens of videos.
A man holding up a bloodied Cuban flag in a Havana neighborhood, shots ringing in the background, says it all.
Still, they marched on, in San Antonio de los Baños, Guanabacoa, Artemisa, Cienfuegos, Cárdenas and Camagüey.
“¡Ya no tenemos miedo!” they yelled at police. We’re no longer afraid.
“¡Abajo la dictadura!” Down with the dictatorship.
“¡Libertad!” Freedom.
Cubans, in a striking assemblage of interracial unity against the dictatorship, have woken up.
And their peaceful struggle on the ground – and on the internet – since Diaz-Canel raided the headquarters and arrested artists from the San Isidro Movement last November is finally being seen.
The confrontational resistance began then when, instead of cowering, brave Afro-Cuban artists leading calls for change fought back, coming home from prison to pledge an even greater commitment to their motto, #PatriaYVida, Homeland and Life, poignant battle cry and anthem created by Afro-Cuban rappers, seen and circulated by millions worldwide, but especially, where it counts, inside Cuba.
After a day of silence, in which Cuban diplomats took to Twitter echoing Diaz-Canel in blaming the unrest on the United States, President Biden released a statement early Monday, making it clear he stood with the Cuban people.
But he didn’t go any further.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said.
“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights,” he added. “Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.”
Will this be enough? Not by a long shot, but it’s a pointed departure for a new Biden policy toward Cuba that avoids the shortcomings of the last two administrations.
Discontent in Cuba has been brewing for years since President Barack Obama’s detente effort fell apart after the still-unresolved attacks on American and Canadian diplomatic personnel.
It was evident, with the ascent of Diaz-Canel, that the country’s far left-wing hard-line had won the power struggle to succeed the reformist (although a cosmetic one) Raúl Castro.
What will Biden do about Cuba remains to be seen.
For now, the world’s spotlight need to remain where belongs: on the Cuban people and their courageous fight for freedom.
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