![]() They had one of the best responses in Latin America in containing the virus initially, but then they decided to reintroduce tourism. Then there’s the problem of where to get foreign aid during Venezuela’s implosion, and Cuba’s COVID uptick over the summer. The GDP dropped 11 percent last year and another 2 percent this year. It was entirely predictable if you do that. Can you think of worse timing for causing extreme duress to the Cuban people? One of the prime examples is the efforts to correct the currency over this past year. So there’s been less of a feeling of fiery solidarity with the people-the government has created a privileged bureaucratic class that’s not dealing with the daily struggles to find food and Tylenol that Cubans are going through. It controls more of the money that comes in through the tourist sector. ![]() We’ve also seen increased privatization measures that began under Raúl, and the growth and power of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The positives are being increasingly overshadowed by the daily privations, struggle, and bureaucratic doublespeak. There’s also been a big generational change in Cuba in the last 30 years since the Maleconazo, and a tremendous amount of suffering. He’s not even a Castro-he’s a bureaucrat who positioned himself well enough to not threaten the status quo. There’s no loyalty to Díaz-Canel like there was to Fidel. The strategy has been an aggressive curbing of criticism just as Cubans got a new leader who they are not fans of.Įven before the protests, I felt Cubans wouldn’t make endless sacrifices for the country, which Fidel often asked of them. This government’s strategy has been to muzzle artists, limit use of social media, control public performances, and to increase imprisoning of dissidents even before July 11. I’ve never seen anything like the outright hatred and disrespect for Miguel Díaz-Canel-going back to Batista. However, there was still a lot of respect for Fidel Castro on the island and he was able to capture the moment and redirect it.īut the number of people and the extent of protest on July 11 was of greater scope. Fidel got people to stop protesting when he told them, “If you want to leave, you can leave.” And that provoked the rafters crisis, which was a human rights tragedy. The same tactic was implemented then, where government counter protests were organized immediately. The precedent people have pointed to is the Maleconazo in 1994, when Cubans hijacked the Regla ferry to try to get off the island during the extreme scarcity conditions of the Special Period. ![]() ![]() ![]() When the people of San Antonio de Los Baños took to the streets, the news spread on social media the logic was, they can’t stop all of us if we go at once, so people jumped at the opportunity. I was moved by the bravery of so many people willing to take that risk, including older Cubans who’ve always been categorized as the stalwart supporters of the Revolution but who were in the mix with younger folks. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Ĭan you speak about the significance of the July 11 protests and whether they have precedents during the Revolutionary period ? California spoke with Schneider about the significance of these historic protests and the polarized discourse about Cuba in the U.S. embargo, echoing Díaz-Canel’s rhetoric.Įlena Schneider is an Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley whose research concerns comparative colonialism and slavery within the Black Atlantic. Nonetheless, some leftists have blamed all of the island’s woes on the U.S. The international community has largely been supportive of Cuban protesters, whose mantra is “ Patria y Vida!” (homeland and life)-a dissenting appropriation of the Cuban socialist mantra “ Patria o muerte,” homeland or death. Since then, Cuban protesters have been given summary trials without legal representation and given lengthy prison sentences. The socialist government, headed since 2018 by Miguel Díaz-Canel-Raúl Castro’s handpicked successor-responded with police repression, the detention of hundreds of protesters, and by cutting off internet access across the island. On July 11, protests broke out simultaneously in various Cuban cities and towns, spurred on by the collapse of the healthcare system due to the pandemic and a severe economic crisis. ![]()
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