[Photo credit: Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters]
By Canyon Ryan
On the weekend following the assassination of Haitian dictator-to-be Jovinel Moïse, with all eyes on the Carribbean, thousands of Cubans rose up in condemnation of food and medicine shortages, long queues for goods, dwindling living standards, the embargo, and the government. The protests were the largest in the last 25 years, with people turning over police cars, looting shops, throwing rocks at government buildings, and fighting with police.
The protests come just weeks after the United Nations near-unanimously voted to denounce the unilateral U.S. embargo against the nation for the 29th consecutive year, with only the settler-colonialist states of Israel and the U.S. voting against the Resolution. What’s more, last week the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden Administration was deliberating the tempering of U.S. sanctions as a coercive measure against enemy states.
Alas, spontaneously Cubans rebelled, putting the nation in the international spotlight for having its largest protests since the Maleconazo uprising in 1994. Suddenly, Joe Biden is being forced to take a position beyond, “the U.S. stands with the people of Cuba”. Will his Administration stay true to his campaign promises to return to dialogue with the Cuban government and release the 243 additional Trump sanctions (and other restrictions), or will Biden choose a hardline position and increase sanctions against Cuba? Maybe he will sit on his hands, as most U.S. Presidents have, and allow the NGOs and CIA to slowly destabilize the social and political systems of the country, knowing full well the embargo is doing just that to the country’s economy. So far, all we have heard from Biden is that there will be no easing of restrictions Trump placed on remittances to Cuba, and Biden intends to extend sanctions on Cuban officials.
This article will analyze the U.S. interference in contemporary Cuban affairs, the Cuban protests and their roots, the social insecurities the Island is currently facing, the international coverage of these historic protests, and attempt to foresee how the protests may pan out.
US Interference in Contemporary Cuba
Beyond the U.S. imposed embargo on Cuba which has cost the Island more than $130B since 1962, the U.S. has concocted various nefarious plots designed to harm the government, and at times the people of Cuba. You may have heard of the more sensationalized stories about U.S. involvement in Cuba, post-Revolution, such as Operation Mongoose, the more than 638 assassination attempts aimed at Fidel Castro, the plot to depilate Castro’s beard, and the scheme to dose Castro with hallucinogines. But many are unfamiliar with more recent attempts to undermine the Revolution. The following examples hold relevance and add clarity to the current protest movement, and hopefully will enlighten those curious for context on Cuba.
Much of this activity has been encouraged and financed by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from the U.S., being wielded as soft-power hammers to continually oppress the Island. Allen Weinstein, cofounder of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), once remarked, “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA”. Indeed, the NED through its various appendages, as well as USAID and the State Department, work surreptitiously to support anti-Castroists in a multitude of ways.
Cuban Diaspora Research Regarding Regime Change
Founded in 1999, the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) was established to conduct academic research and promote discussion on Cuban and Cuban-American relations out of the University of Miami (UM). By November 2001, ICCAS was accepted for a grant of $6,000,000 by USAID titled “Cuban Transition Project” to “study and make recommendations for the reconstruction of the island once the post-Castro transition begins in earnest”.
Manuel Jorge Cutillas served as the Advisory Board’s Chairperson to the CTP for much of the project’s existence. Cutillas is the great-great-grandson of Don Facundo, a Spanish businessman who founded the Bacardi rum distillery in 1862. Raised in Santiago, Cutillas moved to the U.S. where he earned his Bachelors of Science in Troy, New York. After graduating, Cutillas moved back to Cuba and continued in his familial footsteps working as the Assistant Distillery Superintendent of Bacardi in 1955. After the 1960 Revolution, Castro’s Administration seized and nationalized Barardi properties, utilizing the revenues for the benefit of Cuba’s development. Cutillas eventually fled to the U.S., landing in Miami and settling in the Bahamas where Bacardi & Company Ltd. established its headquarters. In 1997, Cutillas became Chairperson of the Center for a Free Cuba, a seat he served until his death in 2013.
Serving as the Senior Academic Advisor for the CTP was Antonio Jorge who worked as the Vice Minister of Finance, the Chief Economist of the National Association of Manufacturers in Havana (1956-1957), and Chief Economist of the Cuban government. In 2000, ICCAS-CTP published “The U.S. Embargo and the Failure of the Cuban Economy” which aimed to analyze the effects of the blockade. Jorge’s conclusion is a “terse” one in which he proclaims “the embargo has not harmed the Cuban economy” and that it would be unwise for the U.S. to lift the embargo without a “firm commitment to the democratization and market reforms that [Castro’s] regime has stubbornly opposed for the last 40 years”. He further criticizes Castro’s “catastrophic decision to remove a prosperous, modernizing society from the western world’s political and economic orbit... for which he must assume full responsibility”, which translates to a critique of Castro’s removal of Cuba from the imperial dominance of the U.S. and support for all Western aggression against the island thus far.
Alas, this is the kind of work USAID is sponsoring. Materially biased anti-Castroist elites being paid millions to conduct ‘research’ regarding Cuban political economy while also plotting how to privatize state assets and introduce the economy to international exploitation once Castro is no longer.
The Establishment of ZunZuneo
In 2009, with direct U.S. involvement through USAID, for-profit tech contractor Creative Associates International launched “ZunZuneo”. ZunZuneo (otherwise known as the ‘Cuban Twitter’) was a website and SMS service which existed in Cuba and was used to skirt censorship laws on the Island. As part of USAID’s push for ‘internet freedom’, the platform was established to attract Cuban youth and serve as a form of communications between subversives. Establishing a Cuban user base was made easy for Creative Associates as they had seemingly illicitly obtained approximately 500,000 Cuban phone numbers from an internal government source. The Associated Press reported that the project was earmarked by USAID at an estimated $1,600,000, under an unspecified project in Pakistan. USAID has disputed this claim.
The U.S. worked tirelessly throughout the project to cover their tracks. After contracting Creative Associates to develop the software, USAID hired Mobile Accord, a Denver tech startup, to work on stabilizing the platform while also concealing its foundations. Mobile Accord considered a dozen European candidates to take over ZunZuneo, enshrouding its background throughout the process of marketing the platform, to no avail.
Messages on ZunZuneo would funnel through two countries, neither using U.S.-owned servers, so as to remove traffic from Cuban purvey and disguise U.S. involvement. The clandestine operation was activated the same year that Alan Gross was arrested for sneaking satellites into the country. Gross was working for Development Alternatives, Inc., an NGO subcontracted by USAID to help provide internet connectivity to the Island using U.S. government operated satellites. Gross smuggled laptops, smart phones, hard drives and networking equipment into Cuba while traveling with fellow ideologues (whose identities he later compromised to Cuban officials) under the cover of traveling as Jewish-American ‘humanitarian aid’ delegations. We are to believe the two projects are unrelated, as though the U.S. and its foreign appendages sponsor programs for millions of dollars designed to destabilize a designated state-sponsor of terror in a vacuum.
ZunZuneo would peak at approximately 40,000 members, collapsing without notice in 2012 as the USAID grant coffers emptied and the software proved prone to blackouts. Many users were unaware that the program was developed in the U.S. for the purpose of subversion.
Infiltration of the Hip Hop Scene
Around the same time that ZunZuneo launched, USAID (again through Creative Associates) was sponsoring and promoting the underground hip hop scene in Cuba. Aldo Rodriguez and his group Los Aldeanos had gained notoriety after the release of their album “Censurado”, a compilation of protest songs opposing the government. In a county where the government holds power over the hip-hop artist’s union (Agencia Cubana de Rap), Los Aldeanos were preaching a unique message not regularly heard by hip hop heads.
The program went much further than just sponsoring Los Aldeanos concerts. In the process of building a counter-revolutionary constituency, the contractors of the campaign established TalentoCubano.net, building a list of 200 'socially conscious youth’ they could hopefully weaponize against the Cuban state. Contractors also created a front company in Panama to funnel money into Cuba which was used to print and distribute DVD’s on the dissident cultural movement in Cuba that could then subvert Cuba’s censorship laws.
Much like the concealing of U.S. support when pitching ZunZuneo to outside financiers, Creative Associate’s pointman Rajko Bozic (who played a role in supporting the overthrow of Slobadon Milosevic in Serbia through similar means) was sure not to disclose USAID’s involvement. Numerous artists were targeted by the operation, resulting in Cuban officials detaining and confiscating incriminating evidence from participants working on behalf of the U.S. government. Thus, the organic protest movement became a weapon for USAID. What’s worse, it built reason for Cuban authorities to be skeptical of all subversive hip hop, meaning USAID delegitimize the entire phenomena, beyond their own failed operation.
Bolstering an Independent Civil Society
In the 21st century alone the U.S. has (on the books) spent more than $250,000,000 in Cuba, largely on “civil society and government” grants from the U.S. State Department and USAID, mostly funneled through the NED.
Between 2019 and 2021, Directorio Democratico Cubano (DDC), which runs Radio Republica, received approximately $1,000,000 from the State Department and USAID for radio broadcasting, humanitarian aid, civil society engagement and the like. Radio Republica considers itself “the voice of the Cuban resistance”, while the tax-exempt Miami-based DDC has since 1996, ‘promoted freedom and democracy for Cuba in the face of the current dictatorship’.
Over $1,375,302 in the NED 2020 Cuba budget was dedicated to promoting uncensored literature, broadcasts, internet and media prohibited on the Island, while an additional $1,626,022 was earmarked for supporting independent labor organizations, independent music groups, independent human rights organizations, and independent cultural organizations. Of course, the independence of these organizations is questionable considering they receive funding from the U.S. government and its private beneficiaries.
Global Americas, an “independent” think-tank that received two payments of $50,000 in 2015 and 2016 by the NED, wrote an article in May, 2018 titled “Laying the Groundwork for Insurrection: A Closer Look at the U.S. Role in Nicaragua's Social Unrest” that notes, “US [sic] support has helped play a role in nurturing the current uprisings.” U.S. support came in the form of grants from the NED, “focused on strengthening civil society, improving accountability and governance, fostering a culture of human rights, and reinforcing democratic ideals and values”. The ‘uprisings’ in question were the 2018 protests that resulted in clashes between the FSLN government and counter-revolutionary protesters; resulting in 440 estimated deaths on both sides and the unanimous U.S. Senate passage of the ‘NICA [Act]’, which prohibits Nicaragua from receiving U.S., International Monetary Foundation, and World Trade Organization loans.
US Interference in Latin America and the Caribbean
The above information is used to demonstrate U.S. NGO interference in Cuban affairs since the 21st Century began. While just four instances, these projects are symbolic of a larger systematic attempt to undermine the Cuban Revolution. It is important to note that since 1995 Cuba has been in a state of recovery from the Special Period. This convalescence was greatly assisted by Hugo Chavez’s coming to power in Venezuela, which generated a massive wave of leftist governments achieving a position of authority in their countries and the proliferation of left-alliances across the region. Moreover, Chavez believed in the Cuban Revolution, and through South-by-South assistance sent Cuba fuel in exchange for Cuban administrators and health professionals. But many, if not all of the left in Latin America looked to Cuba as an inspiration and example of what was possible without reliance on international banks and U.S. support. Thus, this period of rehabilitation coincided with a period of Cuban pride.
However, when the pink tide ended so did many of the regional gains. Venezuela, Cuba’s greatest ally, found itself in a dire situation as oil prices plummeted, economic mismanagement caught up to the PSUV and the opposition was able to assert itself with some coordination (and U.S. assistance). U.S. interference in regional affairs further regained primacy as the U.S. turned away from much of its earlier activities in West Asia and started prying into Latin America and the Caribbean once more. In order to regain hegemony in the region, the U.S. overthrew Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti (for the second time), Hugo Chavez for a period of days in Venezuela, and Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, and assisted in the lawfare removal of Lula da Silva in Brazil. All the while, the U.S. was establishing relationships with leaders happy to be sycophants for the Empire to the North.
Cuba, forever defiant under revolutionary leadership, refused to comply with regional alterations directed by U.S. pressure and continued to build alliances with the pink tide governments which remained in positions of power, namely Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. For these alliances Cuba has continued to suffer, as have her allies. Bolivia was most recently the target of a U.S. supported anti-Indigenous coup, which conducted massacres of peaceful Andean protesters, was quickly submerged by COVID19, and postponed elections for over a year. Incredibly, Evo Morales’ party Movement Towards Socialism (Movimiento Al Socialismo) was able to, despite many legal restrictions and threats, successfully regain power in the elections with Luis Arce securing the presidency in the first-round. However, both Nicaragua and Venezuela have found themselves being suffocated by U.S. sanctions and in serious conflicts with the U.S. NGO-sponsored opposition. Caracas, Havana and Managua have been termed the Troika of Tyranny, and the U.S. Empire is willing to destroy these defiant nations at any cost.
Since taking power, the Troika has existed much to the ire of Washington. Why? Could it be that in 1998 Hugo Chavez inherited a country in which two-thirds of the population subsisted on less than two dollars a day and in the following years decreased the Gini Coefficient by 54%, reduced poverty from 70.8% (1996) to 21% (2010) and extreme poverty from approximately 40% to 7.3%, while 20,000,000 benefited from PSUV sponsored anti-poverty programs? And in Nicaragua, after the U.S. sponsored Contra terrorists plagued the country in indiscriminate attacks while USAID and the NED built an opposition coalition to run the FSLN out of office, Daniel Ortega successfully regained the presidency in 2006. Since then, the FSLN has annually increased minimum wage 5-7% above inflation, improved working conditions across the country and sliced poverty 30% between 2005 and 2014. Could it be that these countries are setting too sincere of an example that the State can benefit its people, if it holds the capitalist class accountable and assists the development of socialism within its borders, while practicing anti-imperialist solidarity abroad? Or is it simply their ability to defy the U.S. at every regime change attempt pursued that results in U.S. terror, as both countries exist in approximate turmoil as the U.S. actively works to undermine both socialist governments through sanctions, supporting oppositional media, parties and civil society, and promoting violent protests while condemning any and all responses by the government.
Cuba, on the other hand, is different. There were no soaring highs for Cuba in the early 2000s and the Island has not found itself mired in street conflicts or in political battles with an opposition. Instead, Cuba is a seasoned player in the game of U.S. interference and has successfully snubbed the Empire on many occasions throughout its history. The greatest difficulties in Cuba come in the form of economic constriction, which results in a demoralized population and a consistently questionable future for the populace as goods become more scarce. Cuba is resilient, but the U.S. is unrelenting in its dedication to complicate the Revolution. Indeed, today Cuba faces one of its greatest domestic challenges to date: a youth who are indifferent to the Revolution and yearning for a way out of the current recession.
NGOs Wield Culture as Coercion
The slogans of the protests are said to be “Liberty” (Libertad), “Down with the Dictatorship” (Abajo la Dictadura), “Diaz-Canel, Motherfucker” (Diaz-Canel, Singao) and often “Fatherland and Life” (Patria Y Vida). “Fatherland and Life” is a collaborative song by Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky. It is a reference to “Patria o Muerte”, a phrase popularized by Fidel Castro throughout his presidency meaning “Fatherland or Death”, which became a marked Revolutionary slogan and a call to arms for revolutionaries around the world. As such, the song exists as a testement to anti-Castro and anti-communist dissent; and to an extent, a rebuke of the struggles of anti-colonialism.
The song is a collaborative effort by Cuban artists who speak out against the Revolutionary government, two from the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and three who have left the Island. Yotuel, Gente de Zona and Descemer Bueno all live in Miami, while Maykel Osboro and El Funky remain in Cuba. Press in Cuba loathes the song, while press in the Empire lauds it. The music video begins with a Cuban Peso displaying the face of Jose Marti disintegrating in flames only to be replaced with the face of George Washington on one-half. The lyrics mention MSI, other dissident artists, Cuban government repression and the “evil Revolution”; while the video shows scenes of the artists singing and crying, Cuban police wrestling protesters, and other national images like the Cuban Flag and the Cespedes Flag of Yara.
Yotuel, described by the Wall Street Journal as a ‘superstar rapper’, explained in an interview with Billboard that it was the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana that ‘pushed him over the edge’. He elaborates, “for me, it was 440 years… Before the revolution, we had a beautiful Cuba; now we have ruins. From that point on, I said, ‘I’m not going to be quiet anymore’.” Thus, we have a Cuban artist living in Miami yearning for the years of colonialism, subjugation, and dictatorship. And putting it as plainly as possible, the founder of the MSI in an interview with WSJ says, “we want democracy, we want a free market, we want opportunity”.
In another article, I explained that the MSI is composed of an assortment of on-the-Island dissident artists demanding more freedom of expression. They are a collective of musicians, producers, performance artists, painters, etc. that, despite their more problematic membership (such Denis Solis, who used homophobic and mysognyst language and praised Trump while being detained) and goals, have valid desires that should not be outrightly dismissed. MSI developed after the passing of Decree 349, the first law signed into effect by Miguel Diaz-Canel which prohibits artists from ‘providing their services’ in any open space without government approval. The government’s reasoning for this was that artists not employed by the government are able to circumvent taxes. But the law also gives the government the ability to detain any artists demonstrating in public without prior approval. This is the frustration which built MSI.
The Cuban police do harass dissident artists, through scare tactics, surveillance, arbitrary arrests and the like. Some of the largest non-authorized protests to occur on the island before the July protests were at the Ministry of Culture where MSI and sympathizers rallied in solidarity with detained MSI members. Indeed, there was even the incident of residents from San Isidro preventing authorities from arresting MSI member and ‘Homeland and Life collaborator‘ Maykel Osboro. So it should be understood that Cuban authorities do not necessarily have popular support in this repression. But it should also be understood that the Cuban authorities have other reasoning behind their actions which go beyond the artist's calls for ‘human rights’ and freedom of expression.
MSI members are known to promote sanctions on the Cuban economy and remittances, and in October of 2020 were telling a South Florida audience to vote for Trump because of his hardline stance on Cuba. The group has also called for a Cuban-American strike on remittances to struggling Cuban families. Denis Solis, the homophobic rapper mentioned above who upon being arrested shouted, “Trump 2020! That is my President” admitted to authorities that a Cuban-American in Miami had offered him $200USD to carry out political work. Not to mention that Solis was being arrested for failing to appear before National Revolutionary Police to explain his links to “a terrorist element based in Miami” twice. A Cuban journalist named Nelson Julio Alvarez, who is employed by the USAID-sponsored NGO ADN, detailed in a Telescopio Cubano Facebook group how he received $150-200USD to be ‘provocative’. These provocations can come in many forms, from staging protests and hunger strikes, to throwing molotov cocktails at gas stations and breaking windows at the bank. The motivation for the latter was not ideological but financial, being payment for propagande par le fiat of 200-500 CUC (before the process of currency unification had begun).
Of the initial twenty-to-thirty protestors at the Ministry of Culture, the Cuban government counts nine as U.S. NGO employees. Also at that protest was Chargé d’affaires for the US Embassy in Cuba Timothy Zuñiga-Brown, visiting the group and transporting protesters. Similarly, in 2020 the NED sent Fundacion Cartel Urbano $110,000 for their “Empowering Cuban Hip Hop Artists as Leaders in Society”, where artists met at the Hip Hop Summit in Colombia to “share their experiences of social transformation. The organization will mentior [sic] artists and provide technical capacity to strengthen their work. The group will also raise awareness about the role hip hop artists have in strengthening democracy in the region”. These programs, as Raul Castro correctly points out, are not meant to benefit a country that the U.S. has held down for more than 60 years, but to sow division in a Cuba unified by the struggles against the omnipresent embargo.
We must question how different (if at all) the intent of the hip hop infiltration projects in 2020 are compared to the projects of 2014. It is clear that hip hop culture is being weaponized as a soft power tool by the U.S. to promote dissident artists and spark rebellions much like those seen in late 2020 and July 2021. And what is a dissident artist if backed by a foreign government, both politically and financially, which holds the dissident’s government hostage? When former CIA head and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez are supporting a social movement, shouldn’t this alone be cause for concern?
Social Media and the Influence of Celebrities, Bots and a Hashtag
As with all protests and international movements these days, many interested in what was going on in Cuba turned to social media for up-to-date coverage on the protests. There they may have seen Pitbull’s plea for Jeff Bezos and the capitalist class to do something to support the protests in Cuba, or Lebanese-born Mia Khalifa using Cuban slang for ‘motherfucker’ (Singao) directed at President Miguel Diaz Canel while promising to never step foot on the Island until there is a change in the regime. Similarly, the Miami Heat and Miami Dolphins came out in support of the protests, posting photos of neon signs reading “Patria y Vida” on Instagram and tweeting #SOSCUBA. There were also tweets and Instagram statements from musician-turned-businesswoman a hundred-millionaire Gloria Estfan; the singer-songwriter with a racially insensitive past, Camila Cabello; John McCain supporter Daddy Yankee; alleged plagiarist Ricky Martin; and other prominent Spanish-speaking musicians.
However, aside from celebrities spouting the messages of support for a “Free Cuba”, there were also many lesser known (and entirely unknown) accounts that took to Twitter to amplify the protests in Cuba, including “anti-Castrist” Miami-based accounts (such as the bot-attached, Trump promoting @Yusnaby) and disinformation accounts. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez noted that the Cuban government had detected the use of ‘bots’ on social media spurring the #SOSCUBA trend. But where did the hashtag originate from? Cuba, surely? No. Not Cuba, but instead her former colonizer Spain, and the Cuban-American diaspora (largely based in Miami).
The first account to use #SOSCUBA was located in Spain, automating 1,300 tweets on July 10 and 11. Twitter account @carnota_96 later sent out a request for users to tag pop-culture artists to call attention to what was going on in Cuba, receiving 1,100 responses mostly from bots; the results of which have been displayed in the introductory paragraph above. More than 1,500 accounts participating in the hashtag campaign were created on July 10 and 11, as well. While this may not sound like a lot, if 1,000 accounts tweeted #SOSCUBA 1,000 times in a day can, there would be 1,000,000 tweets supporting that trending hashtag. This is the influence that bot operations can, and will have in the future.
There were also copypastas of tweets reading, “we Cubans don't want the end of the embargo if that means the regime and dictatorship stays, we want them gone, not more communism”. This is not so different from the bot activity we saw come out in support of the 2019 coup in Bolivia, where copypastas consistently read, “friends from everywhere, in Bolivia there was NO COUP” and the more than 100,000 accounts born in two weeks to endorse the Anez dictatorship. Moreover, @BotSentinel, a Twitter account which identifies inauthentic account activity referenced more than 2,099 posts since July 11 tweeting with mentions of #SOSCUBA. I have noted that ZunZuneo was created around the same time that the ‘Twitter Revolutions’ of the Arab Spring were taking place. Is it really so different this time?
Equally disdainful has been the coverage of the protests. For one, there has been the incessant use of protests being mislabeled as those taking place in Cuba. Protests in Alexandria, Egypt from 2011; Washington D.C. in 2017; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Miami, Florida are being shared as evidence of wide-spread unrest on the Island. The same has occurred with injured children, as videos from Venezuela are being shared as though this is the situation in Cuba. The Associated Press, Fox News, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Washington Times, and Voice of America have taken this to a different extreme, sharing photos and videos of pro-government rallies as evidence of anti-government protests. It is easy to discern the difference due to the use of the M-26-7 flag, which was used by Castro and his rebel army during the Revolution. What’s more, there has been clear evidence of Twitter verifying bot accounts spewing anti-communist jargon.
Then there is the Canada-based Instagram account @revolucioncuba that has grown in popularity since the protests began. The account’s first post is titled “Communist Haven or Corruption? Cuba Today” in May 2020, accusing the government of living as capitalists while keeping the people poor and condemning arbitrary arrests. The second infographic titled “The Extortion of Cuban Doctors” was published two days later, where the account accuses the government of trafficking healthcare professionals around the world, a line right out of Jair Bolsonaro and Mike Pompeo’s playbook. Note as well, the accusation being made here is during the first months of the COVID19 pandemic. What does @revolucioncuba do? Smear the health professionals on the front lines. One of the most shared posts is the “If You Aren’t Cuban I Am Begging You to Share This”, which alleges that the government is starving the people of Cuba and exploiting the embargo as cover for repression.
The wave of online activism in the form of Instagram infographics is relatively new, but has achieved major success in disinformation and misinformation campaigns for the cause of regime change. This is especially true for people not familiar with Cuban affairs who want to feel like they are doing something to support the people of Cuba without any understanding of Cuba. In reality, they are unknowingly participating in informational warfare on behalf of imperialism.
U.S. Politicians and Opposing Views on Protests
U.S. politicians on both sides of the aisle found themselves in agreement on the need to voice support for the U.S.-deemed ‘pro-democracy’ protests in Cuba, in more ways than one. Governor Rick DeSantis called on the Cuban military to overthrow the government, while Miami Mayor Fracis Suarez (who once gave Juan Guaido the key to the city) recommended the use of U.S. airstrikes being explored in Cuba. Congressman Anthony Sabatini called for an ultimatum for the Communist Party to cede power or “be persecuted and executed thereafter”. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders issued statements condemning the U.S. embargo that were otherwise not too dissimilar from the Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio joint-resolution condemning the ‘authoritarian regime’. Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago’s administration also cancelled an art exhibit that included one Chinese and one Cuban artist for their alleged communist sympathies. Talk about suppression of association and artistic expression!
Aside from the social Democrats, most references to the protests ignore any mention of the embargo. Both @revolucioncuba and @humanitieshearts, as well as warmongering GOP and Dems have made the case that it is not the embargo that Cubans are protesting; no, it is not even the food, medicine and commodity shortage that the Cubans are protesting. On the contrary, the argument from the U.S. and MSI is that Cubans are protesting for freedom!
They are correct in some ways and wrong in others. Cubans are protesting for freedom: freedom from the embargo, freedom to health, freedom from hunger, freedom to a decent living standard, freedom from blackouts and electrical shortages, etc. And they are also protesting for freedom from governmental repression, which is certainly real and often excessive (or at least seemingly unnecessary). It is not always one or the other either, and this is something I am sure we can relate to when questioning what freedom is and entails. And what freedoms must be curtailed for others to be promoted. Socialist freedoms are different from liberal freedoms, but the two can overlap, especially in the 21st century dominated by a liberal international order.
Still, it is relevant to understand the freedoms those outside of Cuba are calling for are quite different from those inside of Cuba. It is a noble desire, and one easy to support, when we call for more freedom of speech in Cuba. That poets can be consistently harassed by police for having a different political alignment than that of the state is not something to praise, especially as Marxists and dissidents in our own countries. But circumstances are quite different in Cuba. In Cuba, there is a revolutionary government in power, committed to the ideals of socialism, willing to be flexible with economic freedoms; a government that incorporates the voice of the Cuban populace as a whole in the construction of a state constitution. That is the kind of freedom of speech they have in Cuba. The freedom of speech they do not have is that which is hostile to the socialist government and revolution, that which is diametrically opposed to socialism in calls for a ‘free market’, and that which is bought and paid-for, especially by the U.S. Similarly, where is Cuba’s freedom of speech? Under the U.S. embargo, Cuba has been prevented from ever reaching her true potential, as she remains under the thumb of the Empire 90-miles North. In the U.S. you can largely say whatever you want to say, but to who? Is the news going to have us on to talk about socialism? Only to disparage us. Even a social Democrat like Bernie Sanders was ignored, mocked, and dismissed when he ran for President of the U.S., and especially so when he commented favorably about the literacy campaign and healthcare system in Cuba. Capitalism chooses who has freedom of speech and who is forced to listen. The differences are striking.
Cuba was engulfed in anti-government protests because the people are desperate; and the people are desperate because the U.S. holds them hostage. While U.S. politicians and the diaspora blame the Cuba government for holding them hostage, it is quite clear who has the upper-hand in this conflict. But the issue for Cubans, who are some of the most educated people in the world, is that they have heard about the embargo for the last 62 years. They know what el bloqueo is, how it affects their lives and the economy. But they are still frustrated, and they have every right to be. The embargo is clearly not going anywhere. And the Cuban people cannot destroy ‘the blockade’, as it is foreign and immaterial. What is material and present is the government, which is explicitly meant to be accountable to the people.
On April 6, 1960, Deputy Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Lester Mallory wrote to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Richard Rubottom, acknowledging the mass support for Castro and recommending sanctions to deny Cuba money and supplies as an alternative to invasion. Describing it as ‘adroit and inconspicuous’, he believed it would successfully “decrease monetary and real wages, bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government [sic]”. At that time, Cuba was able to turn to the USSR, who were happy to have comrades in the West. When the USSR collapsed, the Island was forced to fend for itself under U.S. pressure. The election of Hugo Chavez was a breath of fresh air, but not enough to keep the Island financially afloat. And today, China has replaced the USSR as Cuba remains under suffocating sanctions, but China’s role in Cuba -despite being the most contendable superpower opposed to the U.S.- is incomparable to the assistance from the Soviets. With the U.S. never willing to let Cubans live but always concerned about ‘Cuban liberty’, it makes sense the Cuban people are taking their anger out on the Cuban government. And for the younger generation, this makes complete sense. The gains of the Revolution are all but declining, and despite the U.S. hatred for Cuba, Americans are happy to flaunt their lavish life-styles online to Cuban audiences and to promote and pedestalize the Cuban diaspora and anti-communist commands every election cycle. The youth do not see the benefits of the Revolution but only hear of how good things were, so their vexation is certainly justified.
Policing Cuba-Centered Protests on the Island and in the U.S.
Beginning on July 11, protests erupted in Cuba, spreading to more than 58 locations on the Island. The first protest took place in St. Antonio de los Banos in response to rising prices, commodity, food and fuel shortages. I have explained elsewhere that Cuba is going through a process of currency unification, the much overdue monetary maneuver of ending the circulation of the Cuban Convertible Peso and combining its value with the Cuban Peso. This has resulted in the devaluation of hard currency on the Island while simultaneously raising prices. Despite government efforts to curtail the decline of purchasing price power per population, the pandemic has made this activity all the more difficult to control.
As news of the protests circulated on social media, more Cubans took to the streets to demonstrate their frustrations with current living standards. Almost immediately, Diaz-Canel traveled from Havana to the site of the first protest to request calm and dialogue with the outraged population. Nonetheless, rallies around the Island continued to grow, and became more disruptive as time went on. The expansion of the protests prompted the government to shut down internet access across the Island. Some marches were allowed to take place with no resistance while other protests were met with a heavier hand. It is important to note however that in Cuba, little-to-no tear gas was used, rubber bullets were not indiscriminately shot at protestors. The first and only reported death occurred on the second day of protests, when one man, aged 36, was killed by the police during a clash between demonstrators and the State outside a government building. Videos showing police officers entering the homes of alleged provocateurs and detaining them have disseminated profusely, with one recorded instance of police shooting a protest participant days later while in his home. Many videos have circulated of police brutality, with police fighting with protesters, chasing down protesters, and dragging protesters out of assemblies. The scenes were not all that dissimilar from those displayed by U.S. police in Los Angeles just days ago, where they shot LGBTQ+ counter-protesters point-blank with rubber bullets, battered protests and detained dozens while defending right wing extremists freedom of speech.
Cubans demonstrated peacefully in most areas but there were certainly exceptions. Protesters toppled police vehicles and ordinary cars, looted MLC shops, vandalized buildings and provoked police officers by swinging at them and throwing rocks. Marches were held where American flags were flown. In response to the chaos, police eventually filled the streets with hundreds being arrested. Diaz-Canel called all revolutionaries to the streets to defend the country from the vandals, a request that set off alarms in the global North. This was not a call for street skirmishes but for counter-demonstrations, despite what U.S. politicians are arguing. For the most part, the protests have since calmed, with one video posted by Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar showing a single man shouting “libertad” holding a sign walking through the streets of Cuba, being laughed at by the person recording.
Days after the first protest, Diaz-Canel admitted government responsibility for errors regarding food and commodity shortages, and spoke of the need for dialogue and not hate. A common critique is that Cuban government has been focusing too much on the construction of lavish hotels throughout the crisis when monetary reserves are provenly scarce. This is especially frustrating considering there have been no short-term gains as tourism has plummeted against the backdrop of the pandemic and Cuba is reporting its highest numbers since COVID19 hit the Island, with the worst contagion rate per capita in Latin America. In the beginning, Cuba was reporting the best numbers, owing that success to their medical brigades. But since the financial crisis began to accelerate throughout 2020, people cannot afford to stay inside and self-isolate as they need to stand in queues for hours and rely on each other through this trying time. Thus is the cynical nature of sanctions.
The situation has been far more tame in the U.S., where the Cuban diaspora have held numerous rallies in solidarity with the protesters on the Island. Two men in Tampa were arrested when attempting to overtake an Interstate exit ramp under Governor DeSantis’s new anti-riot law. However, critics have also noted the preponderance of #SOSCUBA protesters in Florida not being arrested, and in some instances being waved through police-lines or joined by officers. In Orlando police escorted SOS Cuba protesters through the streets. Another Orlando protest consisted of Cuban-Americans calling for U.S. military intervention. There was also the SOS Cuba protest where the Miami police chief found himself in a debate with Proud Boys who condemned him for tacitly supporting Black Lives Matter in 2015. Notably, the former Chair of the Miami Proud Boys chapter was outed as a FBI informant last year. Yet somehow, liberals are still confused why, when they turn out for protests in support of those taking place in Cuba, they find themselves surrounded by the MAGA crowd.
Conclusion
Since the protests first began, much attention has been put on President Biden, who during his presidential campaign vowed to reverse the anti-Cuba policies of his predecessor Trump. The Biden Administration was pressed enough before July to issue several statements about Cuba not being a top priority; only for it to become a ‘top priority’ overnight. Biden has vowed not to repeal Trump sanctions on remittances and signaled to Miami officials his Administration would be extending Magnitsky sanctions on Cuban officials, while also ordering a review of possible first steps to ‘ease U.S. policy’ toward the Cuban people. Of course, that easing consists of ‘holding the regime accountable’, promoting access to the internet, increasing U.S. Embassy staff levels to ‘better facilitate civil society engagement’, and exploring further sanctions on Cuban officials ‘who committed human rights violations against peaceful protesters’. The Biden Administration also met with ‘Cuban American leaders’, such as the virulently anti-communists Gloria and Emilio Estefan whose collective net worth is well above $500,000,000, to hear policy suggestions. With the Biden Administration posturing that they will be easing the suffering of Cubans, it appears more likely than not that Biden will be accelerating the pressure brought on by Trump.
Arguably, the situation in Cuba under the revolutionary government has never been more uncertain. A theme consistently pushed by the government is the idea of continuity (continuidad), something the current government both retains and lacks. It is retained in the socialist system existing as it has: steadfast, flexible, contradictory, militant, bureaucratic, and democratic. What the Diaz-Canel Administration lacks is the flare to hold that organizational quandary together, something Fidel Castro excelled in. Critics of Raul often asserted that his lack of charisma would be a serious defect of his leadership capacity, but this was overcome by his experience in government, his role in the Revolution and the respect gained through his ability to make economic reforms. If it were not a time of crisis, this may be something that would not be an issue for Diaz-Canel. But as Cuba is indeed in a state of permanent crisis, constant economic affliction, and persistent counter-revolutionary sabotage, these issues come to the fore quickly.
However, despite presumed deficiencies in the revolutionary government’s leadership capacity, without a doubt the most pressing issue Cuba faces in terms of sovereignty is the U.S. embargo and U.S. subversion. Clearly, the U.S. has committed itself to specific sectors which it believes will bring about the most disruption for Cuba. The first is economic strangulation through the embargo, sanctions, and holds on remittances; coupled with denying Cuba access to its allies and international financial institutions. Second is the expansion of access to the internet and social media, under the belief that dissidents can use these forms of communication to undermine the government. This is furthered by the manipulation of social media so that anti-Cuba trends proliferate through bot accounts, eventually finding the messages picked up by ordinary people and celebrities alike. Third is the utilization of hip hop culture and the arts as a form of soft-power pressure, by promoting artists otherwise deemed counter-revolutionary by the government. And fourth is the promotion of civil society with an explicit emphasis on documenting human rights abuses, government failings and alleged corruption. Cuba must act with caution in all realms, on all issues. To overstep can bring invasion, to understep can bring rebellion. The revolutionary government exists only with the support of the people, and therefore must place the people’s interests first, before the government’s own. Hence Cuba’s lifting of tariffs on imported goods, despite being strapped for cash. Undoubtedly, the road ahead is rocky, and only unified can Cubans come out on top of this crisis.
The people of the world must come together in protest of the illegal U.S. embargo, against Western sabotage and interference in Cuba affairs, in support of the Cuban Revolution and its ideals, and in solidarity with the Revolutionary people of Cuba. Demand resolutions and proclamations, hold demonstrations and solicit the attention of the media, and tell friends and family about the successes of the Revolution in spite of U.S. obstruction. While Cuba fights for reconciliation and sovereignty, we must assist the uphill battle as best we can in calling for an end to the inhuman embargo on Cuba.
¡HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE! ¡SOCIALISMO O MUERTE! ¡VENCEREMOS!
