[ I do not wish the future of Cuba to be like the present of
Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras or even Puerto Rico...The United States
was never satisfied with having lost the Cuba subjected to its
ambitions.] [[link removed]]

CUBA: HELL, PURGATORY AND PARADISE  
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Frei Betto
July 18, 2021
El Cohete
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_ I do not wish the future of Cuba to be like the present of Brazil,
Guatemala, Honduras or even Puerto Rico...The United States was never
satisfied with having lost the Cuba subjected to its ambitions. _

,

 

Few ignore my solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. For 40 years I
have frequently visited the island for work commitments and
invitations to events. For a long period, I mediated the resumption
of dialogue between the Catholic bishops and the Cuban government, as
described in my books _Fidel y la Religion_ (Fontanar / Companhia
das Letras) and _Paradise Lost, Trips to the Socialist
World_ (Rocco).

Currently, under contract with FAO, I advise the Cuban government on
the implementation of the Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education
Plan.

I know in detail Cuban daily life, including the difficulties faced by
the population, the challenges to the Revolution, the criticisms of
the country's intellectuals and artists. I visited prisons, I spoke
with opponents of the Revolution, I lived with Cuban priests and laity
opposed to socialism.

When they tell me, a Brazilian, that there is no democracy in Cuba, I
descend from the abstraction of words to reality.

How many photos or news have been or are seen of Cubans in misery,
beggars scattered on the sidewalks, children abandoned in the streets,
families under the viaducts? Something similar to
the _cracolândia_ , the militias, the long lines of patients who
wait years to be treated in a hospital?

I warn friends:

* If you are rich in Brazil and you go to live in Cuba, you will know
hell. You will not be able to change cars every year, buy designer
clothes, travel frequently on vacation abroad. And, above all, he
will not be able to exploit the work of others, keep his employees in
ignorance, be 'proud' of María, his cook for 20 years, and who denies
access to his own home, to schooling and the health plan.
* If you are middle class, get ready to experience
purgatory. Although Cuba is no longer a state company, the
bureaucracy persists, you have to be patient in the queues of the
markets, many products available this month may not be found next
month due to the inconsistency of imports.
* However, if you are salaried, poor, homeless or landless, get
ready to meet paradise. The Revolution will guarantee your three
fundamental human rights: food, health and education, as well as
housing and work. You may have a huge appetite for not eating what
you like, but you will never go hungry. His family will have
schooling and health care, including complex surgeries, totally free,
as a duty of the State and the right of the citizen.

There is nothing more prostituted than language. The famous democracy
born in Greece has its merits, but it is good to remember that, at
that time, Athens had 20,000 inhabitants who lived off the labor of
400,000 slaves ... What would one of those thousands of servants
answer if asked about the virtues of the democracy?

I do not wish for the future of Cuba the present of Brazil, Guatemala,
Honduras or even Puerto Rico, an American colony that was denied
independence. Nor do I want Cuba to invade the United States and
occupy a coastal area of ​​California, such as Guantánamo, which
has been transformed into a torture center and an illegal prison for
suspected terrorists.

Democracy, in my concept, means the 'Our Father' - the authority
legitimized by the popular will - and the 'Our Bread' - the sharing of
the fruits of nature and human labor. The electoral rotation does not
make, nor does it ensure a democracy. Brazil and India, considered
democracies, are flagrant examples of misery, poverty, exclusion,
oppression and suffering.

Only those who knew the reality of Cuba before 1959 know why Fidel had
so much popular support to bring the Revolution to victory.

The country was known by the nickname 'Caribbean brothel'. The mafia
dominated banks and tourism (there are several movies about
this). The main neighborhood of Havana, still called Vedado, has this
name because blacks were not allowed to circulate there… The
United States was never satisfied with having lost Cuba subjected to
its ambitions. Therefore, shortly after the victory of the Sierra
Maestra guerrillas, they tried to invade the island with mercenary
troops. They were defeated in April 1961. The following year,
President Kennedy decreed the blockade of Cuba, which continues to
this day.

Cuba is an island with few resources. It is forced to import more
than 60 percent of the country's essential products. With the
tightening of the blockade promoted by Trump (243 new measures and,
for now, not withdrawn by Biden), and the pandemic, which has zeroed
out one of the country's main sources of resources, tourism, the
internal situation has worsened .

The Cubans had to tighten their belts. Then, the discontent with the
Revolution, who gravitate in the orbit of the 'American dream',
promoted the protests of Sunday, July 11 with the 'solidarity' help of
the CIA, whose boss has just made a tour of the continent, worried
about the results of the elections in Peru and Chile.

The one who best explains the current situation in Cuba is its
president, Díaz-Canel:

«The financial, economic, commercial and energy persecution has
begun. They (the White House) want an internal social outbreak to be
provoked in Cuba to ask for 'humanitarian missions' that translate
into invasions and military interference. We have been honest, we
have been transparent, we have been clear, and at all times we have
explained to our people the complexities of today. I remember that
more than a year and a half ago, when the second half of 2019 began,
we had to explain that we were in a difficult situation. The United
States began to intensify a series of restrictive measures, tightening
of the blockade, financial persecution against the energy sector, with
the aim of strangling our economy. This would cause the desired
massive social outbreak, to be able to request a 'humanitarian'
intervention,

“This situation continued, then came the 243 measures (by Trump, to
tighten the blockade) that we all know, and finally it was decided to
include Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. All
these restrictions led the country to immediately cut off various
sources of foreign exchange income, such as tourism, Cuban-American
travel to our country, and remittances. A plan was formed to
discredit the Cuban medical brigades and the solidarity collaborations
of Cuba, which received an important part of foreign exchange for this
collaboration.

“All this has generated a situation of shortage in the country,
mainly of food, medicine, raw materials and supplies to be able to
develop our economic and productive processes that, at the same time,
contribute to exports. Two important elements are removed: the
ability to export and the ability to invest resources. We also have
limitations on fuel and spare parts, and all this has caused a level
of dissatisfaction, added to accumulated problems that we have been
able to solve and that came from the Special Period (1990-1995, when
the Soviet Union collapsed, with a serious reflection on the Cuban
economy). Along with a fierce smear media campaign, as part of the
unconventional war, which tries to fracture the unity between the
party, the State and the people;

“The example of the Cuban Revolution has bothered the United States
a lot for 60 years. They applied an unjust, criminal and cruel
blockade, now intensified in the pandemic. Blockade and restrictive
actions that they have never carried out against any other country,
not even against those they consider their main enemies. Therefore,
it has been a perverse policy against a small island that only aspires
to defend its independence, its sovereignty and to build its society
with self-determination, according to the principles that more than 86
percent of the population has supported.

“In the midst of these conditions, the pandemic arises, a pandemic
that has affected not only Cuba, but the entire world, including the
United States. It affected rich countries, and it must be said that
in the face of this pandemic, neither the United States nor these rich
countries had all the capacity to face its effects. The poor were
harmed, because there are no public policies aimed at the people, and
there are indicators in relation to the confrontation of the pandemic
with worse results than those of Cuba in many cases. Infection and
mortality rates per million inhabitants are notably higher in the
United States than in Cuba (the United States has recorded 1,724
deaths per million, while Cuba is at 47 deaths per million). As the
United States entrenches itself in vaccine nationalism,

“Without the possibility of successfully invading Cuba, the United
States persists in a rigid blockade. After the fall of the USSR,
which provided the island with ways to circumvent the blockade, the
United States tried to increase its control over the Caribbean
country. Starting in 1992, the UN General Assembly voted
overwhelmingly to end this blockade. The Cuban government reported
that between April 2019 and March 2020, Cuba lost $ 5 billion in
potential trade due to the blockade; in the last nearly six decades,
it lost the equivalent of $ 144 billion. Now, the United States
government has deepened sanctions against shipping companies that
carry oil to the island.

It is this fragility that opens a flank to the manifestations of
discontent, without the government having put tanks and troops in the
streets. The resistance of the Cuban people, fueled by examples like
Martí, Che Guevara and Fidel, has proven to be invincible. And we
must, all of us who fight for a more just world, stand in solidarity
with them.

_[Frei Betto is a Dominican friar, liberation theologian, journalist
and Brazilian writer. _

_His roles as a revolutionary Christian, popular educator, social
movement articulator, and journalist/writer provide insight into the
political and religious history not only of Brazil, but of Cuba and
former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. His lifepath is one of
engagement with the revolutionary struggle against the Brazilian
military dictatorship in favor of social transformation. His arrest in
1969 for coordinating the safe departure of political militants from
Brazil, and his concern to eliminate hunger and suffering from the
poorer classes, were strong credentials as he promoted dialogue
between political bodies, the religious establishment and the
population at large._

_Strongly influenced by the propositions of Liberation Theology, a
defining thread of its activities was to seek an understanding, an
accommodation, between Christianity and socialism. Friar Betto
maintained close relations with former Brazilian President Lula da
Silva and Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionary government, and
wrote about how the internal dynamics of the Cuban religious universe
could be applied to other countries and to different political
circumstances. His writings on socialist countries, especially
Paradise Lost, are aimed at promoting understanding on several levels:
between the Church and the communists; between the military and
politicians; between religious leaders and the people.]_

_Translation by Internationalist 360°
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