Anyone would think that after 60 years, the inhabitants of a country in which the word freedom lost all meaning, would no longer have the will or motivation to fight for their right to be free. Anyone would think that having all the perfectly geared repressive apparatus of the state, ready to punish in unimaginable ways anyone who protests against the dictatorship, no one would dare to go out into the streets shouting that they are fed up, that they can’t take it anymore, that they just want freedom.
But no, on Sunday July 11, 2021, the Cuban people, tired, decimated by the pandemic, exhausted with lies, hungry and without hope, spontaneously took to the streets of several cities in the country -including rural areas-, without fear and determined to demand their rights.
In Cuba, human rights are a utopia. The very idea of protesting is punished as the worst crime. However, this time, the desire for freedom has been stronger than the fear of repression. Hunger, disease and the deep economic crisis, united a society in solidarity that until that day was characterized by the fact that everyone managed themselves as they could. This, as a consequence of the need to survive in the midst of a state of terror managed from the highest spheres of power. Five years of a deepening economic crisis have made a dent in many Cubans, who on other occasions would have remained silent and content. The myth of the “good Cuban health system” was shattered in the face of the pandemic. Hospitals are collapsed, there are not enough doctors (many are out on “missions” in other countries) and despite the fact that there is a vaccine created by Cuba, only 26.4% of the population has been vaccinated.
These protests are not like those of 1994 – El Maleconazo -. This time, there are no clearly defined leaders, citizens from all social sectors have united in one voice, asking for what are basic human rights: freedom, equality, the right to life, the right not to be persecuted or tortured for expressing their opinions, right to health, right to live with dignity. What made the difference this time? Internet and cell phones. Until December 2018, there was no mobile internet in Cuba. After allowing their entry to the island, millions of people connect to internet from their phones. As of today, more than 4.4 million people enjoy internet connection from their mobiles. This allowed videos and pictures of the protests to be posted on social media and traveled around the world in real time. Also, during the last few months, the emergence of the San Isidro Movement and its demonstrations demanding that the repression against artists on the Island cease, has not gone unnoticed by anyone. It is from those group of artists that the expression and song “Patria y Vida” was created, (contrasting to the “Patria o Muerte” that Fidel Castro coined for decades) and which has become the flag of protests inside and outside of Cuba.
The regime’s response did not surprise anyone. He accused the US of being behind the protests. He threw his security forces and his paid civilians into the streets to intimidate, subdue, arrest and punish those they consider to be “lackeys” and “mercenaries” of imperialism. The Cuban dictatorship knows how to silence and terrorize those who dare to confront it. At the time of writing these lines, hundreds have been arrested, beaten and even murdered, but the feeling that the fear has already been lost does not stop. Now, the courage of thousands and thousands moves and excites friends and strangers. What is going to happen? Nobody knows it. The dictatorship follows a script that has always worked for them, instilling terror through repression.
What is true is that Cuba will never be the same again. Something changed. Cubans no longer want death and despair. Cubans want PATRIA Y VIDA.