The Hurricane ‘Ian’ left in Cuba a trail of wreckage and also an evidence expressed in the unpublished images of barricades and burning tires in the streets. After going completely dark, the island has restored the electricity supply, especially in almost all of Havana. However, the feeling has remained in the air that nothing will be the same from now on. The protests against the power cut and the shortage gave another depth to the political discomfort that had already been silently manifested, but with the force of a shout during the popular consultation that approved the new Family Code. The high abstention rate and the striking vote against a project with a strong progressive cut represent a turning point regarding the days of unanimity.
“I reiterate, we will not surrender the revolution and for that very reason we are not going to abandon anyone, that is the motto that makes us revolutionaries. You have to understand social processes and attend to them comprehensively,” he said on Monday the first lady, Lis Cuestawhen the Government considered that the situation had been overcome after a weekend that brought to mind the social outburst of 11J of 2021.
I reiterate WE ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP THE REVOLUTION and for that very reason we are NOT going to abandon anyone, that is the motto that makes us revolutionaries. It is necessary to UNDERSTAND the social processes and ATTEND THEM integrally. #CubaForPeace
– Lis Cuesta (@liscuestacuba) October 3, 2022
Paradigm shift
The three-day protests that began on September 29 would have been unthinkable in the analog age. In Cuba they currently operate more than seven million mobile phones in which everything feeds back: the fake newss and well-founded criticism, indignation and disenchantment. The mega blackout turned many citizens into documentarians of fury. The telephones filmed scenes of state violence that previously were no more than a rumor or a whisper. “Documenting protests and the repression that often accompanies them is a valuable and increasingly common practice for Cubans. However, on more than one occasion, videos and photographs have also been used to identify protesters and file charges against them. against”, warns the portal The touch.
The technology it is never neutral, and less so in the midst of the crisis in the largest of the Antilles. “We have not been able to find the identity of the black woman brutally beaten by men in civilian clothes but they obviously have Professional training in combat techniques“, denounced on social networks the feminist collective ‘I do believe you in Cuba’. “The Justice 11J group recorded that at least 20 arrests took place that crowned the most conflictive September in recent decades. Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) assures that during that month there were 364 protests which included cacerolazos, roadblocks and marches in Havana and different cities in the interior.
?The images captured of two men beating a woman in the demonstration on Línea y F street, on the night of Oct 1, in addition to the violent arrest of a young woman, are facts that give a message of permissiveness of gender violence by the Cuban State. ?
— I do believe you in Cuba (@YoSiTeCreoCuba) October 4, 2022
The position of the Government
“Manifestations of that type they have no legitimacysaid the president Miguel Diaz Canel. “The concern and the honest, decent approach, in the midst of a difficult situation, we accept and attend to,” but, he stressed, “those who act that way, who claim all the rights that the Revolution gives, but who contribute little , that attitude, you have to discuss it and confront it with arguments”. Diaz Canel he reminded society that Cuba pays the price of building “a socialist society with a lot of work” and with “a blockade that does not allow us to advance.”
for the gate The Young Cuba the enormous upheavals caused by the hurricane enhanced “the growing popular rejection to the management of the Government” and Havana “was filled with faces tired of so much sorrow, poor living, misery.” And he added: “Dismiss actions such as those that occurred on 51st Avenue, under the rhetoric that they are orchestrated by the enemy, as criminals, as marginal, does nothing but ridicule the government’s position in the face of citizen demands, since it exposes the intolerance of the power elite“. The discomfort and perplexity over what happened called for voices that have historically aligned themselves with Castroism, such as that of Silvio Rodriguez. “On the defensive, no government can be revolutionary, and we have been on the defensive for too many years.”
latent conflict
Related news
The crisis may have another blow due not only to the lack of energy and food shortages. Inflation is about to pierce the 200% barrier. When, at the beginning of 2021, the monetary unification was launched, one dollar was equivalent to 24 pesos. “The measurable result of ordering indicates that it has worked as an economic adjustment package that has concentrated the cost of the adjustment on the workers,” said the Economist Pedro Monreal.
The measurable result of the “ordering & rdquor; indicates that it has worked as an economic adjustment package that has concentrated the cost of the adjustment on the workers. There has been a sudden change in the functional distribution of national income in the midst of an inflationary context pic.twitter.com/iXVb2PaznG
– Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) October 3, 2022
Beyond the sanctions of Washington, Cuba You pay the price for your strategic decisions. “At the end of September 2021, only 0.5% of public funds had been allocated to the educational sector and 1.0% to health and social assistance. These numbers contrast sharply with the 42.3% allocated to real estate and construction hotel industry. Such figures bear witness to the vulnerability of an important part of the Cuban population, which -except for a privileged minority- has high rates of poverty,” he maintains. The Young Cuba.