To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel's exercise in projection. Cuban art historian explains need for dissidents in both authoritarian and democratic systems
Projection (noun): the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects especially: the externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility as a defense against anxiety.
Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel is engaging in a classic exercise of projection when he claimed in an October 24th speech to Communist party zealots that the U.S. embassy in Havana was fanning dissident protests on the island." CBS News described it as "the latest flashpoint between the longtime rivals ahead of fresh rallies slated for Nov. 15."
In mid-July 2021 and in the run up to November 15th it has been Mr. Diaz-Canel and the Castro regime's repressive apparatus that has repeatedly created flashpoints with Cubans seeking to peacefully assembly and express themselves. The response from the government has been beatings, gunfire against unarmed protesters, arbitrary detentions, and summary trials without due process. This is why the Center for a Free Cuba and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation have requested that Miguel Diaz-Canel be subjected to Magnitsky Sanctions for his criminal behavior.
Raul Castro selected Miguel Diaz-Canel to be president of Cuba, and remains a powerful figure
CBS News got the story wrong. There is a flashpoint, but it is between the communist dictatorship in Cuba in power for 62 years, and Cubans who want to live in freedom, and are tired of six decades of political and economic stasis.
Carolina Barrero, a 34 year old Cuban art historian who has been under house arrest over 100 days, interviewed in Latino USA explains that even if Cuba were a democracy that she would still be a dissident, and maintain a critical eye because: "to progress you always need dissident people, you always need something to disrupt, and question the status quo that is the love for evolution. If everything remains the same and nothing changes, nothing is challenged, you don't have life that's just death. I'm sure if we didn't have this authoritarian system, even if we had a democratic one I would still be a dissident."
Carolina Barrero reading Jose Marti outside of the Ministry of Culture earlier in 2021.
40 American diplomats based in Cuba were victims of the Havana Syndrome, and these diplomats were "given a series of tests called the Havana Acquired Brain Injury Tool, or HABIT, which were developed and administered by State Department medical personnel." 26 of these diplomats stationed in Cuba failed the HABIT tests, and " were medically evacuated and sent for additional testing at the Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia." These injuries were consistent with "directed energy exposure."
Due to these serious injuries visited on diplomats at the American Embassy in Cuba, the U.S. diplomatic headquarters in Havana has been minimally operational since 2017. Diaz-Canel is complaining about Tweets criticizing the Castro regime's human rights violations, the arbitrary detention of hundreds of political prisoners, and calling out the dictatorship for failing to respect international human rights standards, that include the right of citizens to peacefully assemble.
The U.S. embassy is in no position to "foment" or "fan" protests in Cuba. The same cannot be said for the Cuban government, and its embassies around the world that have a history of training and sponsoring terrorist attacks, establishing narcotics trafficking in Venezuela through their connection with Colombian guerilla forces, and successfully subverting democratic countries in Ibero America. These practices by Havana have continued to the present day.
Mary Anastasia O'Grady in her October 24, 2021 column asked "Who funds violent Latin American politics?" and points to Venezuela. She highlights two individuals that have a lot of information that have been extradited to the United States, former Venezuelan military intelligence director Hugo Carvajal —a k a El Pollo, and Alex Saab. According to Carvajal, the Castro regime's efforts at destabilizing democracy included Spain through funding of the anti-system Podemos Party.
It is the Castro dictatorship with its effective diplomats that have fanned the flames of violent protests, and terrorism across the world, and continue to punch above their weight. Diaz-Canel's critique is a projection of what Havana has been doing for decades to expand its influence, and subvert democracies.
Latino USA, October 26, 2021
At Odds With Cuba’s ‘Myth’
By Patricia SulbarΓ‘n Oct 26, 2021
Carolina Barrero didn’t know that returning to Cuba after living abroad for years to join a protest movement would mean that she would witness the largest demonstrations the island had seen in decades.
“When we went to sleep on the 10th of July, no one could imagine what would happen the next day,” the young art historian remembered.
The morning of July 11th, dozens of videos started to circulate on social media, showing Cubans shouting “Abajo el comunismo,” protesting in front of the Communist Party affiliate offices all across the island and expressing their frustrations about a “collapsed” healthcare system, power outages and food shortages amid a global pandemic. Overall, protesters demanded change from a one-party government that has ruled for over 60 years.
The government rapidly deployed its security forces to disperse the crowds. A protester named Diubis Tejeda died in Havana after getting shot by a police officer, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH, in Spanish).
No comments:
Post a Comment