{"id":2823,"date":"2020-12-18T15:24:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=141027"},"modified":"2020-12-18T15:24:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:24:20","slug":"foreign-correspondent-are-cuban-protesters-freedom-fighters-or-u-s-pawns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/18\/foreign-correspondent-are-cuban-protesters-freedom-fighters-or-u-s-pawns\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Correspondent: Are Cuban Protesters Freedom Fighters or U.S. Pawns?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

A hunger strike, police arrests, and a sit-in at the Ministry of Culture in Havana have rocked intellectual circles in Cuba in recent weeks. Critics say the government is once again suppressing freedom of expression. Government supporters, however, argue that the dissident movement is being manipulated by Washington.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s really going on?<\/p>\n

\n

The protests are taking place at a time of serious economic hardship in Cuba.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On November 9, Havana police arrested Denis Solis<\/a>, a rapper and leader of the dissident San Isidro movement. Solis\u2019s supporters, in response, held a hunger strike demanding his release. On November 26, police cordoned off the area and raided the hunger strikers\u2019 apartment.<\/p>\n

Solis openly supports U.S. President Donald Trump and the United States embargo<\/a> against Cuba, which limits the island\u2019s ability to import food, medicine, and petroleum, among other products. Such views isolate the group from ordinary Cubans, according to Pablo Menendez, a famous guitarist<\/a> and leader of the band Mezcla.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see them [the San Isidro movement] as a legitimate movement and don\u2019t think they represent anybody but themselves,\u201d Menendez says in an interview from Havana.<\/p>\n

But the heavy-handed police action breaking up the hunger strike did anger some young Cubans. On November 27, young people gathered<\/a> for a peaceful demonstration in front of the Culture Ministry.<\/p>\n

Few Cubans had ever heard of San Isidro until the crackdown, says a Cuban woman working in tourism, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of her job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very happy to see people protesting at the Culture Ministry,\u201d she tells me from Havana. \u201cIt was great that people were brave enough to express their legitimate concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The San Isidro Movement was formed in 2018 by a small group of painters, musicians, and other artists. The group takes its name from the Havana neighborhood where the artists live. They held independent performance art events and organized exhibits, often provoking controversy<\/a> with overt sexuality and desecration of the Cuban flag. They have claimed to be promoting freedom of expression in opposition to government censorship.<\/p>\n

San Isidro is only the latest dissident group to gain international attention. In the past, human rights groups outside Cuba decried the fate of \u201cfreelance journalists,\u201d \u201cindependent librarians,\u201d and the Ladies in White<\/a>, who called for the release of political prisoners while accepting cash from the United States.<\/p>\n

These movements often begin spontaneously, but U.S. officials quickly manipulate the leaders to make sure the movements promote Washington\u2019s solution: overthrow the Cuban government and bring to power a pro-U.S. regime.<\/p>\n

That often means promoting the most rightwing wackos as legitimate fighters for democracy. Solis, for example, expresses rightwing and homophobic views.<\/p>\n

Prior to his arrest, he called<\/a> an investigating policeman a \u201cfaggot,\u201d and said \u201cyou take orders from a faggot.\u201d That was in addition to shouting \u201cDonald Trump 2020<\/a>. That\u2019s my president.\u201d <\/p>\n

If such dissidents seized power in Cuba, exactly what kind of \u201cdemocracy\u201d would they create?<\/p>\n

\n

The protests are taking place at a time of serious economic hardship in Cuba. While Havana implemented a highly successful<\/a> anti-coronavirus medical campaign, the pandemic has devastated tourism and almost wiped out remittances from Cubans living abroad. On top of this, the Trump Administration intensified the unilateral U.S. embargo against Cuba on September 23 by adding<\/a> new restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing extreme difficulties,\u201d says musician Menendez.<\/p>\n

In these circumstances, it\u2019s not surprising that Washington seeks to stir up trouble. U.S. diplomats have met with at least four San Isidro leaders. Timothy Z\u00fa\u00f1iga-Brown, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, even drove<\/a> San Isidro leader Anamely Ramos around Havana.<\/p>\n

How do we know this? She posted a video with the charge d\u2019affair driving.<\/p>\n

That reminds me of how a previous top U.S. diplomat in Cuba helped to fund a dissident. As I wrote in my book Dateline Havana<\/em><\/a>, Martha Beatriz Roque, a prominent dissident in 2008, was receiving $1,500 a month from Santiago Alvarez, a Miami right-winger who had been arrested for stockpiling arms to overthrow Fidel Castro. He arranged to have the money delivered<\/a> to U.S. Interest Section Chief Michael Parmly at the Miami airport, according to emails and phone calls recorded by the Cuban government. <\/p>\n

Parmly gave the money to Roque, acting in effect as a bagman for a rightwing Cuban. All the participants denied these accusations, but a U.S. spokesperson confirmed the story in a roundabout way.<\/p>\n

Asked about the Cuban recordings and emails, Thomas A. Shannon, then-assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said<\/a>, \u201cassistance that moves from the United States to Cuba under official auspices in this regard does so for humanitarian purposes.\u201d  <\/p>\n

In case you don\u2019t think history repeats itself, another rightwinger in Miami promised Solis $200 to support his work, according to Solis\u2019s video confession broadcast by the government.<\/p>\n

\n

After word spread about the police action against the hunger strikers, young people gathered at the Culture Ministry on November 27, calling for \u201cfreedom of expression.\u201d At its height, the sit-in numbered several hundred, according to a western journalist living in Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cLack of freedom of speech is a problem in Cuba,\u201d he tells me. \u201cIt hit a nerve, and they showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some famous artists, including film director Fernando P\u00e9rez, attended. Thirty representatives of the demonstrators met for four hours with the vice minister of culture. They agreed to meet again to carry on the dialogue.<\/p>\n

On November 29, several thousand young Cubans attended a government sponsored rally denouncing the San Isidro movement as a tool of Washington.<\/p>\n

In the following days, the hard core San Isidro leaders composed an email<\/a> to the Culture Ministry with ultimatums they knew the government wouldn\u2019t meet. For example they demanded a meeting with President Miguel Diaz-Canel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a bunch of inexperienced artists and a few hardcore leaders, hoping to light a match, to start a fire,\u201d says the reporter.<\/p>\n

Once again the U.S.-backed dissidents want to spark clashes with the government. Failing that I think they seek to create a human rights scandal and pressure Biden not to normalize relations with Cuba.<\/p>\n

Luckily, it\u2019s not working.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hunger strike, police arrests, and a sit-in at the Ministry of Culture in Havana have rocked intellectual circles in Cuba in recent weeks. Critics say the government\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}