The majority of Cuba’s young people — those who left and those who stayed — are no longer interested in mass rallies
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, 13 April 2024, Madrid — Those open mass rallies in which Hassan Pérez Casabona stunned the crowds with his rapid-fire barrage of words are still fresh in the minds of many Cubans. At the end of each Saturday, the streets were a sea of trampled flags, empty plastic bottles and chewed-up chicken bones. People went home not understanding why these events were called “open.” In reality, they were a closed circuit in which every speaker just repeated what the previous one had said. A highly rehearsed monologue of multiple voices, it was the culmination of the Castro liturgy. Almost all the speakers whom Fidel Castro had thrust into stardom later faded under the brightness of the four stars on his little brother Raúl’s shoulder straps.
The vast majority fell into disgrace. For example, Otto Ribero, the former first secretary of the Young Communist League and vice president of the Council of Ministers went into a drunken, downward spiral before going through a public catharsis on Facebook. He proudly confessed on that platform to having personally signed the regulation preventing Cubans from leaving the island even though his children were already living overseas. Never before has the expression “other people’s shame” made more sense. That poor devil was full of praise for his executioners from the Ministry of the Interior, thanking them for every slap in the face, every kick in the groin.
Hassan Pérez Casabona managed to survive by sneaking away, lowering his profile by retreating into the basement
Hassan Pérez Casabona managed to survive by sneaking away, lowering his profile by retreating into the basement. He emerge