By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – For those who have been following Cuba’s reality with a sharp eye for some time, it doesn’t escape suspicion that Rene Gonzalez is the preferred hero of our beloved Miguel Diaz-Canel.
A member of the famous group of the Cuban Five, as were known the State Security agents who spied for several years in the United States until being captured, tried, and eventually exchanged and returned to Cuba, Rene’s is a curious case.
Unlike his comrades, some with important positions in the government, he occasionally drops opinions that are, at the very least, controversial, especially coming from him, a confessed defender of the regime who most of the time adheres to the traditional discourse that the US blockade is the main cause of the country’s economic crisis.
This week, a post of his went viral in which he asked, “Does anyone know how many people in Cuba actually produce value, and how many idlers per capita there are to subsidize?”
It’s not that the rest of us never asked ourselves the same question, but it’s striking that it comes from him, who, for starters, I don’t know what he produces, and who is surrounded by thousands of parasites like him.
Just like the leaders from the high echelons to the municipalities, including a slew of top bureaucrats, he is provided with a car, gasoline, and food, a decent house (the real one, the one the Constitution says all Cubans should have) and other perks whose costs he and others pay with words, through their permanent propaganda work in favor of maintaining the status quo.
In every country, there may be people who are unemployed, who don’t contribute inc