Protests and marches against the Cuban government are taking place all around Cuba, in a never-seen-before series of events.
The country of Cuba has long been an example of a regime and a dictatorship. Since the end of the revolution on January 1st, 1959, the notorious Castro regime ruled with a heavy hand and kept the people quiet.
A lot has happened since then. Since the internet was permitted in Cuba, people began to realize that they didn’t need to be in misery; that the rest of the world wasn’t. When the pandemic began, the San Isidro movement took place, creating more upheaval throughout the country— but the country still had some sense of stability that kept people in their homes.
During the last few weeks, however, as the pandemic seemed to be coming to an end on the island, there was an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases. This rise led to the collapse of hospitals, and a death toll Cuba hadn’t seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
As of today, those events have pushed people to go and protest on the streets, screaming “Freedom”, “Homeland and Life”, “Down with Communism”, and offenses against the Cuban government.
These protests have taken place in several places across the country, but mainly in the provinces of Havana and Matanzas, which are the main economic points of the country. All protests have been transmitted live on Facebook as the people of Cuba try to gain attention from the international community.
Videos, such as this Facebook live, show that there has been little police resistance with the protestors, and in many cases, the police have even joined the protest. Since the people of Cuba don’t have the right to bear arms, the protestors don’t have guns and the police have no reason to intervene.
However, on Facebook people have posted videos and pictures of the special government forces gathering in trucks in what the people expect is to stop the protests, given that in Cuba protesting is a federal offense. In response to the gatherings, the Cuban government has slowed, and in some cases, shut down the internet to impede the spread of the news in Cuba.
Outside the country, people have also gone to the streets. For example, in Orlando and West Palm Beach, groups gathered to wave Cuban flags screaming “Libertad” (Freedom).
Other Cubans who live outside the country can only share consciousness and sit while receiving messages from their families who fear for their lives.
Here is a rough transcript of a six-minute voice message sent from a Cuban woman to her friend in Miami:
“I’m here with my nerves high due to all that’s happening in our country. Right now, no one knows what direction this is going to take, people are throwing themselves in the streets in Havana and in Matanzas, people are screaming, and we are all afraid.”
“We have family, we have children and people are dying due to COVID, in tons. Matanzas is collapsing with people dying with sickness. Right now they’re showing live all that’s happening in Havana, people are in the streets in tons, screaming things at the government, and I’m afraid. I have my son here and I have a family, and I don’t know what will happen, but it’s true there’s too much hunger in this country.”
“There’s no medicine, there’s nothing. Prices are up in the clouds. You can barely buy anything, prices are so high you can’t even imagine. There’s no clothes, no shoes, the ones we have are the ones we had before, or that our friends or families have brought from outside. But there’s people who have nothing to wear on their feet and have had to save money— 2,000 pesos, 3,000 pesos to buy some shoes, our sandals, and bad quality.”
“My niece’s son had nothing to wear on his feet, they had to pay 2,000 pesos to buy a pair of sandals, it’s embarrassing what our country has become. There’s no limit to this. There’s no food, all the food is in American dollars or with a card and people no longer receive American dollars from anywhere.”
“But people are in the streets, the young are in the streets they don’t understand. The old are in the streets, and the rest in their houses, scared of what will happen. I tell you all this so you know, but don’t worry because one day it had to happen. At least before we had public health, we had medicine, but now we have nothing.”
“We don’t have medicine, there’s nothing, but we have to move forward. At least as of today, I have eaten, but some people save the bread they get from the bodega so they can eat at dinnertime because they don’t have money to buy anything and they don’t have a way of receiving money.”
“I’m just saying this so you guys know how things are going. Why? Because if something happens to us, you know why this has happened. I’m not sure what has been happening, but our country has been deteriorating completely.”
“Well my friend, you can be sure that me and Marlon [my son] are quiet and safe here, that we don’t get involved in anything. I tell him he can’t get involved in any of that because he’s very sick and I’m messed up too, and with my father here too who’s sick and old. I talked to my Mayito [my son in the US] today and he told me ‘Mom, you don’t need to worry about money, at least to eat, whatever comes up even if it’s expensive you call me as soon as you’re running out of money, you tell me so I can send you, don’t worry that I’ll figure it out on my end with my wife and my daughter’.”
“But life is very difficult. Very very difficult and things have taken a turn that I don’t like at all.”
“Well I just care that you are okay, I never thought I’d send a voice message like this one but it’s reality. I would’ve liked to send a message of joy instead of this, but there’s no joy. Honestly, I have no joy, people are extremely sad and scared, mainly due to all the death that there’s happening on the daily, [the death] of people like us.”
“We’re always sitting here inside our homes since you never know what will happen with this virus and one is always thinking that one could be next so we try to be safe the most we can but sometimes we have to go out when someone comes by selling food, we have to go out, but we go out in fear regardless. Kisses to all of you, I love you all, and take care.”
