Dictator Raúl Castro, with the obedient assistance of his top aide Miguel Díaz-Canel and other "revolutionary" hierarchs, are pushing Castroism in Cuba towards a traumatic and uncivilized end.
The four-star general, who has not earned even one, repeats the rhetoric of the worst tyrants of modern times, ever since King Louis XV of France stated: "After me, the deluge" ("Après moi le déluge"). And so it was: 15 years after his death the French Revolution broke out.
Castro II is also acting in an increasingly irresponsible and criminal manner, callous to the fate of the Cuban people or their future. In addition to his refusal to liberate the country's productive forces and implement essential changes, he is intensifying political and social repression. He wants to go down in history as Raúl "The Cruel."
For example, the medieval blackouts that have been the last straw, sparking popular indignation, are being suffered because the Government, instead of investing in technical maintenance, and the renovation of plants that are totally run-down after almost 40 years of operation without proper maintenance, and in the development of this vital industry, is investing billions of dollars in building luxury hotels to further sweeten the dolce vita of the vultures in power.
Violence begets violence; the right to self-defense
But repressive obstinacy begets its counterpart. It is an inexorable law that violence spawns violence. In other words, dictatorial violence generates violent responses that people perceive as a right to self-defense.
There are not many who believe that the repeated major breakdowns crippling the country's electrical power system are all accidental. Some think that, although the neglect and technical deterioration of these plants is severe, so many breakdowns at once, even the day after the repairs are made, raise suspicions. Besides, if they are inadvertent, the government remains culpable of having brought about such disasters.
Other accidents, poorly explained by the bureaucrats, paralyze factories, including the nickel plants in Moa. A five-star tourist facility, the Saratoga Hotel, blows up, shaking half of Havana, supposedly due to a gas leak —but there was no fire, rendering the explanation of a gas explosion implausible.
Nor are Cubans entirely convinced that it was lightning that caused the fire that destroyed much of the Matanzas Supertanker Base. Many wonder whether it was due to negligence that the lightning rod system was not activated, or it was disconnected on purpose.
Meanwhile, it is known that the flames that devoured four ranches, and the one that consumed the Archive of the Tribunal of Centro Habana at the end of July, were works of arson (are judicial and police officials already destroying incriminating evidence?).
Shops, pharmacies, etc. are also being stoned. In Remedios, two people were painting anti-dictatorship slogans on the residence of a high-ranking official. When they were surprised by the agent, they threw stones at him, who responded with two shots according to a witness who did not give his name.
But it is not a question here of supporting violent actions that worsen the oppressive survival of Cubans, but rather to show how the maxim that violence begets violence is already being borne out in Cuba, and that the tyrant and his henchmen are responsible for the fact that the country just might fall of a precipice.
"The people are weary" was one of the slogans recently shouted by demonstrators in the streets of Nuevitas (Camagüey) in protest against the unbearable blackouts, and also against tyranny with cries such as: "Homeland and Life," "Freedom," and the now classic "Díaz-Canel, you bastard."
This time, however, two things happened: 1) the local police, faced with so many angry people, got scared and did not intervene; when the black beret thugs arrived they had to retreat before a shower of stones hurled by the demonstrators; and 2) the next day police officers arrested four young people in the Pastelillo neighborhood (Nuevitas) and were going to incarcerate them when residents wielding machetes, like mambises, advanced towards the agents, who were forced to release the young people.
Where will the next popular uprising break out, and how intense will it be?
That social outburst in Nuevitas was the biggest since 11J. Where will the next one break out, and how intense will it be? The dictatorship, far from reflecting on these clear warning signs emitted by the people, already "tired" of so much abuse, and already taking action to put an end to so much misery, moved on the demonstrators to beat them, including two 11-year-old girls who were hugging their father so that he would not be taken to jail.
In short, "The Cruel" is getting crueler and crueler. And now he's at his wits' end, because everyone knows that socialism does not work, so ideological or political discourse has evaporated. The architect of the great lie that the Revolution was "as Cuban as palms trees" is no longer around to bamboozle people with his verbiage. People are fleeing a country in ruins in droves, the exodus of Cubans now constantly setting records.
Where does all this lead? No one can know what is going to happen in Cuba. Oracles are the stuff of ancient mythology, but it is clear that if the dictatorship continues to sow terror, hunger and hatred among the population, there will be violence. People are fed up, especially those who don't receive remittances or benefit from "mules" with their dollars and packages of consumer goods.
Still fresh in Cubans'memories are the cries of "Murderer!" shouted by dozens of demonstrators in Palma Soriano on 11J at the dictatorship's most notorious henchman, Ramiro Valdés, founder of the sinister State Security division in 1959.
It would be a good idea to remind Castro's henchmen who beat up defenseless civilians in the streets that if the goons of the Machado and Batista dictatorships suffered accordingly after those autocracies were overthrown, the same fate awaits them.
Many have already been placed on the blacklist of Cuban repressors compiled by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC), including two of the main culprits in Nuevitas: Roberto Conde Silverio, the first secretary of the PCC in the province of Camagüey; and "security" enforcer Allen Velázquez, who ordered the beating of the 11-year-old girls mentioned above, and then the beating of their father, who has since been arrested.
Castro II Would Order the Massacre of Protesters in the Streets
In a new social and political outburst, the henchmen of the MININT and the black berets could be overwhelmed by demonstrators, in which case everything indicates that Castro II would give the order to roll out the army, tanks included, to crush them.
But, would subordinate officers on the ground leading troops and tanks carry out the order to massacre defenseless women, men, old men and teenagers, all to defend those who are starving them? Would the military high command fracture and generals stand up to the dictator and generals issuing genocidal orders?
Whatever the answers to these questions may be, the stench of looming violence hangs heavy in the air, so we must demand that Castro II and his minions stop abusing and repressing the Cuban people, NOW!
How can this be done? There are ways that worked during the fall of Communism in Europe, a subject I will address in another article.