The only hope is to get out. The phrase, on the lips of many of those who wait under the tropical sun for the water pipe that does not arrive, for the electricity interrupted hours ago, or in line with the ration card in hand, is repeated in conversations in the Island, in the newspapers, the radio and television programs in exile.
But it is not true.
It is not true that the only hope is to go abroad. The idea that the only option is to emigrate to escape hunger and repression is promoted by the regime itself to maintain its control, and is repeated by thousands of desperate people who have suffered ignominy and discouragement for six decades. It is an idea that ignores the terminal phase in which the regime finds itself, its lack of responses to the national crisis, its discredit before international public opinion and its own people, who once believed in its promises and risked their lives to achieve them.
Hope is before our eyes, because, as in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the once acclaimed Revolution is in its terminal phase.
Hope is before our eyes, because, as in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the once acclaimed Revolution is in its terminal phase.
The regime needs the opposition to leave, when those who should have to do so are the leaders responsible for the deaths of thousands of Cubans and the disaster that is Cuba today.
State Security also wants to convince us that there is no viable opposition in Cuba, that the exiles are mercenaries, that the future is the continuity of what exists, and that the streets belong to the revolutionaries.
But no one believes them anymore.
On the island there are leaders like José Daniel Ferrer, who was offered his release when he was serving four and a half years in prison, on the condition that he go into exile with his family, in permanent exile, without the right to return.
In 2020, under international pressure, he was placed under house arrest, and remained in Cuba directing the organization Unión Patriotica Cubana, (Unpacu).
During the massive protests of July 2021, he was again arrested and sentenced in a trial without the slightest procedural guarantees, to four years in prison, for his non-violent opposition to the arbitrary acts that occur in the country, and for believing in the ideas of resistance. peace of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Vaclav Havel. And, like Martí, for working for a Cuba with everyone and for the good of all.
But in the world, the least that exists is continuity, and all those who bet on paralysis and inequality always end up in the dustbin of history.
But in the world, the least that exists is continuity, and all those who bet on paralysis and inequality always end up in the dustbin of history.
The more than a thousand political prisoners and the demonstrations of discontent that continue are proof of that “underground force” that Marti spoke of, in response to those who proclaimed that Cuba would continue to be Spanish and that separatism no longer had the strength to win.
State Security also says that we are alone, that nobody is interested in Cubans. That is not true either.
There are international organizations, democratic governments, and the press around the world that are calling for the release of prisoners, denouncing human rights violations in Cuba, and looking for ways to put pressure on the regime. In the European Union, some deputies denounce the fact that Havana has not complied with its commitments and ask for the suspension of the agreement that represents billions of dollars a year.
But the most important hope, which will liberate the island and the Cubans, is inside Cuba. Political prisoners are the first priority of decent Cubans and we all must help them.
Hope is in the miracle of a generation that was born and grew up under Castroism and, despite censorship and indoctrination, rejects it, protests in the streets, suffers in prison, refuses to participate in any project promoted by the Government and not even he leaves, he doesn’t shut up.
Political prisoners, their families and the activists who support them are our heroes. Exile will never turn its back on them. They deserve to be free, like all Cubans.
Hope is also in the rebirth of the Church and in the courage of the parish priests who oppose a Cuban raising his hand against another Cuban, and in the exile organizations and leaders that in Miami, Brussels, Madrid, Geneva, Warsaw , Washington and other capitals are working tirelessly to have the United Nations expel the regime from the Human Rights Council, as they did Putin, despite strong opposition from China, Iran and Cuba; and for the United States to fulfill the promises of President Joe Biden to give free Internet to the Cuban people and condition the sending of remittances to their recipients, and not that they end up in the pockets of “their oppressors” as denounced by the US president .
The Biden Administration has responded negatively to the campaign by Havana and its lobbyists in Washington to remove Cuba from the list of countries that do not cooperate against terrorism
The Biden Administration has responded negatively to the campaign by Havana and its lobbyists in Washington to remove Cuba from the list of countries that do not cooperate against terrorism, unless the regime turns over to the United States the terrorists who They live on the Island and who murdered Americans and are wanted by the FBI. The United States has also condemned sending Cuban mercenaries to fight under Putin’s orders in his criminal aggression against Ukraine.
The hope should not be to “leave Cuba.” Those who will leave are the criminals who misrule the Island.
Widespread pessimism and mistrust among opponents are part of the regime’s strategy. Ours is to live in the truth and maintain solidarity between the opposition forces and the rest of Cubans, to advocate for nonviolent struggle, and for non-participation in the initiatives of the regime. We are all resistance, the night will not be eternal. Homeland and Life.
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