Promoters of anti-communist protests in Cuba rethink strategy

The frustrated march of November 15 (15N) against the communist regime of Cuba and the departure from the country of its main face have led the promoters of this initiative to a crossroads in which they are checking forces, defining objectives and rethinking their strategy.

Two consecutive blows have led Archipelago to deep reflection, the virtual platform made up mostly of young artists that emerged after the July 11 protests and that had brought a new boost to the Cuban opposition in recent weeks. .

The first was the failure of his call for a civic march on November 15 to demand a political change in the country and that the communist regime that controls the island for more than 60 years declared illegal.

There were hardly any protests that day, beyond some symbolic action on social media or in the street, largely due to the deployment of State security agents in large cities and the repression against key opposition figures, who they were detained, held incommunicado or besieged inside their homes, according to what they themselves denounced.

Then, the playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who had become the visible face of the Archipelago, after several hours disappeared, in which he was found to be arrested, landed by surprise in Madrid. Not even the other members of the platform knew that he planned to leave the country.

“I broke down,” he acknowledged in his first interview from Spain, recalling the pressure he suffered on the eve of the march, when state security agents were posted next to his home and dozens of people related to the government surrounded the house and they scold for hours.

His departure from the country was received by the dissent with understanding on the part of some and clear rejection of others. García Aguilera publicly acknowledged that the first contact after the trip with his companions from Archipelago was “very hard” due to “doubts” and “disagreements”.

Dropouts and reflection

Archipelago suffered from these two blows. One of its moderators, Leonardo Fernández Otaño, left the platform due to differences with other members after having criticized García Aguilera’s march to Madrid.

Then there is the resignation of the platform coordinator Daniela Rojo, who recently announced on Facebook, after spending four days in detention around November 15, that she was leaving the group due to “personal and family problems.”

“My departure from the Archipelago has nothing to do with a change in my ideas or in my political position,” said the young woman, who added: “But I need to shelter my family, who have suffered the most from this process, especially my children. ”.

This Saturday he uploaded a video to social networks in which, dressed in white, he placed a flower on a statue of the poet, politician and thinker José Martí, a key figure in the Cuban independence movement, one of the symbolic gestures that the Archipelago had promoted.

The platform took seven days to react publicly to these setbacks, after intense internal debates: “What has been learned has become strength,” they assured in a statement and, looking forward, they reaffirmed their fundamental principles, such as the release of political prisoners, the promotion of citizen participation and the non-violent conquest of fundamental rights.

The view in the future

The reverberations have reached other areas of the opposition. Guillermo Fariñas, European Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience in 2010, called García Aguilera’s decision “irresponsible” and “wrong” in an interview with Manuel Milanés’ YouTube channel.

“On a personal level I respect his decision, but there is something called responsibility and when a summons of the magnitude that he made is made, you have to assume it,” he argued.

From a similar position, the activist Carolina Barrero, who was arrested while trying to leave her home on November 15, affirmed on Facebook that García Aguilera’s departure from the country was “one of the most irresponsible acts in the history of the rebellion. in Cuba”.

For Fariñas, the events of 15N do not change anything about the situation on the island: “The social tension continues, the social dissatisfaction continues and the social explosion occurs at any moment. You do not have to put a date, it is when the spark jumps. And that’s when we have to be prepared to take to the streets ”.

This is also the opinion of the group of dissident artists and intellectuals 27N. On the first anniversary of the protest that gives the group its name.

“One year after 27N 2020, citizen discontent remains and the number of #political prisoners adds up to hundreds, but our collective aspirations for the right to have rights and the end of authoritarianism remain intact,” they stated on Twitter.

Barrero, speaking to Efe, was optimistic about the future: “This is the moment of greatest weakness that the regime has had. The opposition must continue to be creative, it must continue to empower each other, united around the ideas of Freedom that sustain us. There can be nothing that slows us down, but rather drives us to continue ”.

The decisions of the Cuban authorities in recent months have decimated the team of the Efe delegation in Havana, where currently only two journalists can continue to carry out their work. Efe hopes to be able to recover its information capacity on the island in the coming days.