By Rosa Elizalde
November 16, 2021:
Informationclearinghouse.info
-- "-
Globetrotter"
On September 20, letters began to arrive at
eight Cuban municipal or provincial government
headquarters announcing the
holding of “peaceful” marches on November 15 by
a group called
Archipiélago. The motivation for these marches
was a call for change. The letter was not a formal
request to occupy the busiest streets of some cities
in Cuba, but rather a notification by the group that
they would do so and they also demanded that the
authorities provide them with security for these
marches. By virtue of Cuban laws and obsessive
American support for the marches, the Cuban
government
denied permission for holding the protests.
Almost two months have passed since these letters
were sent, but there are few indications that the
march will take place in Cuba. Florida’s propaganda
machine assures the opposite and adds that
similar marches will take place across more than
a hundred cities in the world, a third of them in
the United States.
On November 10, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodríguez
warned the diplomatic corps accredited in Havana
that the Cuban government “will not tolerate an
opposition march” and further said that “Cuba will
never allow actions of a foreign government in our
territory, trying to destabilize the country,” while
referring to the U.S.’s support of these marches.
The provocation follows the
plot seen many times before. Meanwhile, this
march, which has been scheduled for November 15, is
not what many hope it will be: a movement for change
in Cuba.
The March Is Not Autonomous
Two days after the delivery of the first letter
to the authorities, a string of
statements by the U.S. officials and members of
Congress began pouring in on September 22. Until
November 10, there had
been several public interventions from
Washington or Florida with all kinds of demands and
threats to the island’s authorities. No other issue
in the U.S. domestic politics, in recent weeks, has
received so much attention or been the case of such
obsession before these marches.
The spokesman for the U.S. State Department Ned
Price issued a statement on October 16
condemning the denial of permission by the Cuban
government to hold the march. Meanwhile, U.S.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) extended his support for
these anti-government protests
soon after the news about these marches began
circulating, while a couple of top advisers from the
Biden administration have
threatened more sanctions on the Cuban
government for denying permission to hold the march
on November 15.
As if that were not enough, more money has been
raining in for such efforts against the Cuban
government. In September 2021, the Biden
administration
gave almost 7 million dollars to 12
organizations that almost daily publicize the “civic
march for change” in Cuba. Many analysts see the
hidden hand of the “color revolutions” in this,
which were exported by the West to the Russian
periphery.
In addition to “moral,” political and financial
support, the U.S. diplomats offer support in many
ways to the anti-government movement in Cuba and
occasionally
serve as chauffeurs to the opposition. The only
thing missing in terms of interference is a show
like that of the U.S. Under Secretary of State
Victoria Nuland, who
distributed food to anti-government protesters
in Independence Square, in the capital of Ukraine,
Kiev, in 2013.
The March Is Not Disconnected From Other
Processes
The march is just another episode in a more
comprehensive strategy. The Biden administration has
interpreted the combined effect of the pandemic, the
global crisis and the economic blockade—plus the 243
additionalmeasures imposed by the former U.S.
President Donald Trump—as exceptional conditions
that have hit Cuba even harder. No spies are
required to realize that there are more queues,
inflation and shortages in a country that has been
managing shortages for 60 years, but it is also
important to understand that the march does not have
popular support within the country. Cuba is
returning to normalcy with the opening of flights,
families reuniting after being separated for two
years, the return of students to schools and the
revival of the national economy.
The Group Organizing the March Is Not Peaceful
The private Facebook group listed as the march
organizer,
Archipiélago, is anything but moderate. A large
number of publications by the group support symbolic
violence and political disqualification of those who
defend the socialist project or celebrate some
social achievements in Cuba. The debate in these
spaces is not to modify opinions, but to stir up
prejudices, instill hatred among Cubans as an
exclusive source of legitimacy for a government that
has led the country under very difficult conditions.
The repertoire is an unbridled McCarthyism and an
inordinate impulse to indulge in stigmatization that
are very common communicative practices in the
current political climate of the United States, but
alien to the political, cultural and idiosyncratic
character of Cubans. Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodríguez, on November 10,
assured that Facebook could be sued for
supporting the “dissident movement “ in Cuba,
according to Reuters.
The Marches Are Not Synchronous
There is talk of the synchronization of the
marches inside and outside of Cuba to promote
change. But there is no such thing. In Cuba, there
is definitely no atmosphere to support these
marches, while the organizers of Florida speak of
the participation of people from a hundred cities in
the world on November 15, they have not specified
the number of people who will do so.
In reality, those willing to participate in this
type of anti-Castro chaos are usually few, but that
does not matter. On April 30, 2020, an individual
opened fire at the Cuban Embassy in Washington
with an assault weapon, which led to the recalling
of the foreign minister. On the night of July 27,
two individuals
threw a Molotov cocktail at the Cuban Embassy in
Paris.
It’s Not What They Say
The conservative ghost of the far-right that
travels the world and arrives in Cuba is not what it
seems or what is visible to the naked eye. Behind
the “non-violent march” mantra is the long shadow of
the life-long reactionaries who now combine economic
ultra-liberalism, conservative morality, empty
concepts, and creative use of social media. They
dream of ending the Cuban Revolution no later than
November 15, while leaving a moral question
unanswered: How is it possible to talk of a civil,
peaceful and independent protest, if Washington is
lubricating the route plan of the protest with
threats and dollars?
Registration is necessary to post comments.
We ask only that you do not use obscene or offensive
language. Please be respectful of others.