Jeovany Jiminez Vega, 21 March 2024 — The messes keep on coming for that scoundrel Diaz-Canel since he assumed his role as the dummy in the window and we can’t see any end to what looks like karma for some very bad past life. Little has changed in Cuba since the historic protests that in July 2021 [commonly referred to as ’11J’] shook more than fifty cities across the island; little has changed except that today we are hungrier, inflation has increased dramatically, we are much poorer and we suffer longer and longer blackouts; In other words, we live in a country that is exponentially more unhappy and insecure, going through the saddest moments of its history, for all of which last weekend tens of thousands of jaded Cubans had the patriotic idea of once again taking to the streets.
But unlike in 2021, these protests were accompanied by storm signals much more threatening for the dictatorship; this time, there was a more disturbing background noise accompanying them which, even though hidden, confirm the most fearsome nightmare of the regime: in addition to its usual perennial quagmires – perpetual shortages, the abysmal quality of all basic services including health, education, transportation and all communal services, followed by a long further list – today the dictatorship will have to deal for the first time, at least publicly, with the dark winds of disloyalty, a variable that Castroism never had to consider at their current level, not counting the Ochoa case – because it was generally understood that this was always in full knowledge of Fidel and Raul Castro, which cannot be interpreted as a real insubordination.
That’s how bad things are at the Biran estate [birthplace of the Castro brothers]. It so happens that during the last few weeks it has partially turned out that a group of officers of different ranks of the Cuban army were detained or are under investigation – including General Leopoldo Cintra Frias, ex-Minister of the Armed Forces and until now a historical stalwart of the regime – for having distributed, and communicated repeatedly through satellite phones capable of evading Big Brother’s control, which is extremely serious and in Castro’s jargon can only be understood as an act of high treason, something very serious and which may end up keeping the autocrats in Havana awake at night.
Of course, the official press, trying to cover up the scandal, rushed to deny the detention of the former minister, but the fact that a group of high-ranking officers, most of them active with various positions in the chain of command – with troops and weapons under direct command- are whispering behind the back of the hierarchy is something unprecedented that is already very relevant and serious, and cannot be concealed by the Castro establishment, above all because it clearly questions the leadership of the high command, calls into question the myth of blind obedience to its outdated ideals and leaves its allegedly infallible counterintelligence with its pants down.
This situation has a very simple human explanation. In a society where poverty is so deep-rooted, real privileges are reserved only for the high command and leaders of the upper echelons, while the middle-ranking military officers must make do with crumbs and chicken skin at the end of the month, which they must perceive as outrageous, even though this may seem a luxury in contrast with the even more appalling poverty of the common people. Well, now this unpredictable iceberg may have entered a collision c
