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Why protests started in Nuevitas? Religious in solidarity with victims of repression. Electricity for luxury hotels, not everyday Cubans. Emilio Bacardi at 100.
August 30, 2022
Yoani Sanchez explains why protests started in Nuevitas, and it has to do with revolutionary expectations not being met. Electricity for luxury hotels prioritized, but everyday Cubans left in the dark by the communist dictatorship..
Religious conference expresses solidarity with victims of repression, and highlights protests in Nuevitas. The centennial of the death of Emilio Bacardi Moreau, the first democratically elected mayor of Santiago, Cuba reminds Cubans of the democratic republic that was lost, and the courage needed to regain it.
Religious men and women in solidarity with victims of repression in Cuba
The Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women (CONCUR) in a August 27, 2022 Facebook post gave a message of solidarity with the hundreds of citizens persecuted or arrested by the Cuban dictatorship during protests that began on August 19th in the town of Nuevitas: “As religious life calls us to be alongside the suffering people, we make ours the cry of the multitudes in different communities of the country and more recently in Nuevitas, Camagüey, demanding a response to their basic needs and their desire to be able to express themselves in freedom.”
“Protest in Nuevitas, Cuba in August 2022.
There are over 1,000 identified political prisoners today in Cuba. This includes Cuban artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Pérez of the San Isidro Movement. Yesterday some of their friends gathered on the television program Canatalo TV highlighted the cases of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Pérez.
Iris Ruiz, wife of artivist Amaury Pacheco, explained that in recent weeks Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) "has been in a punishment cell, deprived of making phone calls and they do not give him his materials to paint. She warned that all political prisoners have undergone similar repression."
Maykel Castillo Pérez "Osorbo" and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara prior to their present jailing.
CiberCuba reports that Maykel Castillo Pérez "Osorbo" suffers from some kind of disease that causes hard bumps under the skin and although biopsies have been performed, they do not trust the official diagnosis. "This has been a very long process," said activist Anamely Ramos. "It was clear that something had to be done to save Maykel's life, because we don't even know what's wrong with him."
Why did protests break out in Nuevitas?
Yoani Sanchez in an August 23rd piece republished in the Havana Times"Why the Protests in Nuevitas, Camaguey, Cuba?" explained that "in the 1960s, some guerrillas who had just come to power decided to turn it into the 'industrial city' of the country, a Caribbean icon of development and modernity." According to Yoani, "those who packed their bags in other provinces of Cuba and moved to Nuevitas, believing that if socialism was going to bear its first fruits of prosperity and bonanza somewhere, it would be in that piece of land with the smell of the sea. But the bubble burst at the end of the 1980s, when the Soviet subsidy, essential to maintaining that showcase, began to fade." ..."Those who took to the streets on August 19 were, for the most part, the children of those who were made to believe that this beautiful seaport could only experience better times, evolution and splendor."
Revolutionary priorities in Cuba: Electricity prioritized for luxury hotels, not every day Cubans.
The Grand Aston in Havana inaugurated in March 2022, has electricity while surrounding neighborhoods do without. (Photo: 14ymedio)
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz, declared that maintaining Cuba's national electricity system “is expensive” and Edier Guzmán Pacheco, director of Thermal Generation of the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE), explained which blocks or units are out of service and how much it will cost to recover them. Adding up the figures provided by the staff member, he said the amount would be between $245 million and $265 million.
Cuban government officials claim they do not have the money to repair thermoelectric plants, some of which haven’t been maintained for years, but they do have money to build five-star hotels, and construction hasn't slowed. For example, the K Tower of El Vedado built by the Gaesa military conglomerate, that some specialists estimate, cost a minimum of 200 million dollars; an amount that would repair and update most of the thermoelectric plants in Cuba. The money invested in the thermoelectric plants would help millions of Cubans with stable access to electricity, but not enrich the military junta's coffers with tourist dollars is the ruling class's thinking.
Emilio Bacardi Moreau on the centennial of his death
Emilio Bacardi Moreau (1844 - 1922)
Emilio Bacardi Moreau after a life of entrepreneurship and patriotic service, died 100 years ago on August 28, 1922, of a heart ailment in Santiago de Cuba, the city of his birth. The city of Santiago suspended all public events for two days to mourn and celebrate the life of who they had nicknamed “Cuba’s foremost son.” He conspired against Spanish colonialism, was repeatedly exiled, and his son served as an officer in combat against Spanish forces under Antonio Maceo.
Paying their respects to Emilio Bacardi Moreau following his death in August 1922
Elements of the Cuban regime have tried to co-opt his memory on the centennial of Emilio Bacardi's death, but the life he lived is the antithesis of Castroism.
Angel Castro, Fidel and Raul Castro's father fought for the Spanish crown against Cuban independence. Castro's father, Angel, according to the 2016 TV3 documentary, "Franco and Fidel: A Strange Friendship" had a photo of Francisco Franco on his nightstand. On Franco's death in 1975, Fidel Castro decreed three days of mourning in Cuba for the Spanish despot, in an official decree rubber stamped by Cuban president Oswaldo Dorticós.
During the Republic, the Bacardi family not only had enlightened business practices, but also engaged in civic activities that promoted a Cuban democratic culture. Emilio Bacardi was the first democratically elected mayor of Santiago de Cuba. His reputation for honesty and public serviceearned him a seat in the Cuban national senate in 1906.
Each time that a dictatorship arose in Cuba, the Bacardi's joined the democratic resistance. A tradition they have continued to the present day, but since 1960, when Bacardi's assets were illegally taken by the Castro regime, they have done it from exile.
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