A social outcry unleashed on July 11, 2021 resulted in two days of intense demonstrations that shook nearly 50 towns in Cuba to the cry of “Freedom” and “We are hungry”, when the economic crisis that engulfs the island, the worst in three decades, was accentuating.
(Read: Cuba: General Rodríguez López-Calleja died)
One year after the protests of July 11 and 12, social and economic difficulties continue and have even worsened in some sectors such as transport or electricity supply.
(You are interested in: Cuba: dissidents Otero Alcántara and Osorbo sentenced to 5 and 9 years)
Hundreds of protesters have been tried and sentenced to harsh sentences while the government multiplies cultural, recreational and sporting events that make discontent forget and possible belligerents calm before the anniversary of the unusual popular uprising that surprised Cuba and the world.
The anti-government marches, the largest since the triumph of the revolution in 1959, left one dead throughout the country, shot down by soldiers in La Güinera, a marginal neighborhood of Havana, harassed by police during the historic protests, in addition to dozens of wounded both sides and more than 1,300 arrests, according to the NGO Cubalex.
The government reported that 790 prisoners were charged and 488 received a final sentence, many for the crime of sedition with sentences of up to 25 years in prison. The United States recently said it would work with allies to support those “wrongfully” detained.
In turn, the spokesman for the Foreign Service of the European Union, Peter Stano, expressed his “concern” about the sentences of 5 and 9 years respectively to opponents Luis Manuel Otero and Mikel Castillo ‘Osorbo’ -who refused to appeal their sentences – and urged the Cuban authorities to “respect civil and political rights.”
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) this week rejected Stano’s statements for being “contrary to the principles of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC) of equality, non-interference and respect for the sovereignty of the parties.”
Jorge Gil, a 72-year-old retiree and a representative of the Cuban Communist Party in La Güinera, acknowledges that the protest was the result of years of neglect.
“There was a fairly long stop and the entire cast deteriorated,” he explains in front of the foundations of what was his house. The house was demolished for its reconstruction, as part of the official improvement program. The materials have not arrived and he continues to live with his family in a borrowed place.
Opposite, in a newly painted house, lives Isabel Hernández, 44 years old. One of her children is also in prison for marching. Despite this, her home was restored in six months, thanks to the improvement work. “I’m very happy,” she says with mixed feelings.
Some believe that 11J was a triumph of the revolution. “We are more than super grateful, President, with all the changes that our neighborhood has undergone,” said Ileana Macías, a local leader, during a women’s meeting with the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
But for Wilbert Aguilar, there is a “general sadness.” He denies that the protesters are “counterrevolutionaries.” “They didn’t find weapons on them, their only weapon was their voice,” he alleges.
And it is that these 12 months have been marked by the unilateral US blockade, galloping inflation that has skyrocketed prices, transport in a critical situation, breakdowns in important thermoelectric plants that cause annoying blackouts and, as if that were not enough, the island deals with the largest infestation of dengue-transmitting mosquitoes in the last 15 years.
Within the intense panorama, something good is that the covid-19 pandemic is kept under control thanks to the Cuban vaccines developed by the powerful biotechnology industry. According to official figures, more than a million Cubans were infected and 8,529 of them died.
Of course, the shortage of fuel translates into kilometric queues to fill the tanks. “They told me that they were going to take out and I came at two in the morning to be able to refuel. At that time there weren’t that many people,” says Carlos, a private taxi driver.
For this reason, garbage trucks collect less frequently, causing mountains of waste on the ground and environmental pestilence.
The search for food in stores where you can only pay with currency cards is no longer as massive as it was at the beginning of its opening. Now, “the killing” is in stores that sell in national currency.
They are long and exasperating and there has been more than one fight, even with a knife or hair-pulling for jumping the queue, when the average salary is around 3,838 Cuban pesos, which, at the official exchange rate, would be 153 dollars and at the parallel exchange rate about 38.38. .
According to the economist Pedro Monreal, the average salary is “barely 18 percent higher than the value of the basic basket in Havana (3,250 pesos)”.
From October 2021 to last February, the retail price index grew 12.2 percent, so the average salary would have lost approximately 6 percent in less than six months
Monreal indicates that, according to official data, “it would be a salary very close to what could be considered the equivalent of a poverty line.”
Precisely, the difficulties in obtaining food and medicine were the trigger for the marches that began in San Antonio de los Baños.
Once the fuse was lit, they spread to various cities and towns on the island where legitimate demands were mixed with vandalism, looting and calls against the government.
The report presented by Cubalex and Justicia 11J showed the profile of the majority of those prosecuted, reflecting that the bulk of those detained for the mobilizations (93 percent) “do not belong to any political organization.”
Also, 27 people between the ages of 16 and 18 have received some type of sanction for their participation in the mobilizations.
Juan Pappier, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), stressed that the report “has to be an alert to the international community about the serious violations of human rights (in Cuba)”, while Laritza Diversent, executive director of the Cubalex organization, alluded to the fact that the new code The Cuban penal system increases the penalties and sanctions for those who “exercise their right to dissent”, in addition to criminalizing the expressions of protest published on the internet.
In her turn, Alessandra Pinna, director of programs for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Freedom House organization, said that after the 11J marches on the island there is “a pattern of generalized repression” and many activists were arrested or had to go into exile.
“The political cost is zero,” lamented the director of Freedom House, recalling that Cuba is currently one of the 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council, while the international community has not responded with the same magnitude than when it comes to Venezuela or Nicaragua.
without much encouragement
Cubans in exile have called demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners of 11J in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Chile, Uruguay, the United States and Canada. But, a year later, few expect that such a movement will occur again within the island. Dissidents affirm that the authorities make the exits clear for them: go into exile, shut up or go to jail.
For academician Arturo López-Levy, exiled in the US, the opposition needs to understand that the economy is what causes anger among Cubans.
It is an opposition that in its agenda is increasingly disconnected from the main reasons for immediate protest that the dissatisfied sector of the Cuban population has.
According to US border data, 140,000 Cubans have entered that country since October, being the largest exodus recorded since the 1980s.
However, the journalist and writer Rosa Miriam Elizalde pointed out in a column for the newspaper La Jornada that in Cuba “there have been no aftershocks” of 11J and that, contrary to expectations, “it is Washington that shows signs of weakness and isolation, Judging by the Summit of the Americas, when President Biden excluded Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba from the meeting.”
The also vice president of the Union of Journalists and Writers of Cuba assures that “the media has stopped looking at what is happening on the island and only the underworld of social platforms remains that constantly sends apocalyptic signals through disinformation warfare.”
And he maintains that “if there is a dark zone of the events of July 11 and 12, 2021 in Cuba, it is that of the responsibility of the American platforms.”
In any case, Biden’s recent announcement of making policies towards Cuba more flexible with more flights, more remittances and speeding up family reunifications, gradually reactivating the activity of the consulate in Havana, opens a small ray of hope for an improvement.
Although the most desired improvement is the one that can come from the Cuban entrepreneurs and workers themselves. Even Gil, who fought in two wars in Africa and defends the socialist system tooth and nail, admits that there is still a feeling of pain.
“I hope that this is a problem that will be fixed quickly and that most of those boys will go out to the street because in the end they are boys and they have to rectify it,” he says among what remains of his house, where the only inhabitant is a rooster fluttering around him.
MILAGROS LOPEZ DE GUEREÑO
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
HAVANA CUBA
More world news
– The photo of the alleged murderer of Shinzo Abe before shooting
– Terror by worker who was left hanging from a rope from a 23rd floor
– Rishi Sunak, former finance minister, is running as Johnson’s replacement
#Cuba #year #11J #economic #social #gaps #bad #worse