Quashing discontent with extreme violence is a high-level order in Cuba. Violence has been authorized ever since the "call to fight" issued by Miguel Díaz-Canel during the historic protests of July 2021. The priority of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and its State Security force is that there not be another 11-J. Thus, in Caimanera they acted quickly; with coordinated repression, the protest was put down in a short period of time, followed by a guarded "tranquility."
Diaz-Canel's much-criticized order to his "revolutionaries" more than two years ago is still in force after his ratification as head of the Government and also as First Secretary of the PCC, the only legal party, which runs Cuba with exclusive impunity.
"The PCC is not accountable to the people or to any other official institution. Its leaders are not even part of the rigged electoral process, they do not proceed from the electorate. Its instructions in matters of public policies and of all kinds are strictly complied with, and budget expenditures on its management, especially that allocated for items related to ideological imposition, censorship, disinformation and repression, are not subject to control," former judge Edel Gonzalez told DIARIO DE CUBA in a reflection on what happened in Caimanera.
"Neither the Comptroller General's Office nor the auditing area of the Attorney General's Office have the freedom to audit events, processes and expenses related to the PCC. No organization, and certainly not the Cuban citizen, can access such information, or demand transparent accounts. Nor are the members of the Central Committee Bureau free to file complaints and criminal proceedings for administrative excesses or crimes without consequences. The criminal procedural law reinforced the immunity of these leaders, so that they can be 'safe' from any consequences for the crimes they order and carry out during their repression of citizens," added González.
"It is no coincidence that power is concentrated in the hands of those who are extremely loyal to the will of the Castroist leadership. Any director, deputy or delegate, of any level, who does not pay it obeisance is removed from office by the control mechanism established in Decree/Law 13 of 2020", he pointed out.
In the lawyer's view, as long as the power elite "is made up of 'alpha males,' there will be no open or inclusive dialogue; there will be no opposition, no recognized dissent that weakens them; there will be no laws that guarantee the effective right to meetings and protests, no promotion of freedom of association, and no right to exercise any constitutional freedoms/rights/guarantees, such as those of expression, information, communication, thought and press without criminal consequences for those who dare to defy the ruling elite."
"The new procedural laws and the organic law of the courts of justice will be mere empty declarations, a hodgepodge of content that only serves to promote disinformation and arbitrary imprisonment," he predicted.
In the lawyer's opinion, "in spite of the institutional violence, Cubans have no other alternative for freedom than protests."
"Faced with scenarios of beatings, systematic abuse by the State and a failed structural model of justice, the response, historically, has been popular rebellion," he warned. "In the processes of adverse relationship between State and society, where the principle of proportionality does not exist, the final outcomes are social uprisings," he stressed.
"The proportionality requirement, which characterizes democratic countries, is based on the idea of avoiding the excessive use of measures that entail a deprivation or restriction of liberty," said Gonzalez. Thus, "violence by State bodies of the kind seen once again in Caimanera, in the face of the civic exercise of human rights, should never be the first option."
Meanwhile, the illegitimacy of power in Cuba, instituted on the basis of terror, in the midst of a failed political, economic and social model, is increasingly evident.
"Since the constitutional referendum of April 2019 until the present, it has been possible to verify (analyzing official figures) that at least more than three million nationals, in one way or another, are fed up with the system, openly disapproving of it. Another group of dissatisfied citizens could ascend to millions, making for a majority in the event of a secure popular consultation to put an end to the prevailing model," the jurist pointed out.
According to González, this "data of disapproval explains the institutional violence".
"As the number of victims among the population grows due to institutional violence, the citizenry's commitment to its rulers wanes, and the desire to achieve freedom at any price increases. Thus, it cannot be ruled out, in the medium term, that more social outbursts may occur until the model is dismantled, unless the transition to democracy is urgently and effectively precipitated from within," he said.
Recent examples of institutional violence
In August 2022, in Nuevitas, Camagüey, a peaceful demonstration was put down with brutal violence. The top leadership of the PCC was at the center of the repression, led, in this case by Roberto Conde Silverio, first secretary in the municipality of Agramontino. He was accompanied by special agents such as Allen Velázquez, a State Security officer.
Two months later, brothers Frank Artola Plasencia, 18, and Hillary Gutiérrez Plasencia, 26, were beaten and detained by special forces during the Línea & F protests in Havana's Vedado district. The beating, which also included other participants, was a public act that did not go unnoticed by Cubans.
Last Saturday, May 6, in Caimanera, images of brutality recurred, as videos circulating on social media showed that there was no mercy for the defenseless mass of people who took to the streets to voice their complaints and requests.
Felipe Correa Martínez, 26, and Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez, 31, two of the five detainees, were beaten during the protest by Interior Ministry personnel. Both are being held in a unit for crimes against State Security, under threat of being tried and convicted. Authorities promised their families that they would be released, but then announced that they will have to wait in captivity for the start of the criminal proceedings. This has been the pattern since 11-J, a way to erase the corporal traces of the detainees' beatings by stalling, holding them in jail.
Although Díaz-Canel claims to be committed to the special mechanisms and provisions of universal law and the United Nations, practice shows otherwise. His call to fight the demonstrators and his approval of police beatings violate the "State security forces action protocol for public demonstrations" and other similar extraordinary situations, whose application the UN endorses but the regime ignores.