EspañolDear readers, you can’t imagine how eager I was to talk to you. Unfortunately, the daily challenges I have to face in order to survive and live a free life in Cuba consume all my time and efforts. But here I am.
However, instead of telling you about the reality of everyday life for the average Cuban, I ask you to help me answer a question.
How is it possible that there are still governments in our continent that praise Cuba’s political and social system, to the point of claiming it to be an example?
Do Dilma Rousseff, Nicolás Maduro, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, and Daniel Ortega not know that Cubans survive mainly through the black market? That the islands’s jails are packed with people whose only goal was to feed their children?
How can these presidents be unaware that only those Cubans who agree with socialism’s tenets enjoy freedom of speech? That only those who kneel before the regime can talk, while those who think differently are met with ostracism, repression, and imprisonment?
How can they ignore that the average Cuban enjoys no freedom of association, to meet peacefully or organize even for the purpose of protecting their human rights?
Is it possible that these unofficial ambassadors of the Cuban regime haven’t noticed that our beautiful island is a one party state, where the communist cadre outlaws all other competitors and tramples on democratic freedoms?
Have they somehow missed the mass defection of sportsmen and doctors, who abandon everything in search of a better, more dignified life abroad?
Are they unaware that, unlike the ruling elite, Cuban fathers and mothers spend sleepless nights worrying over how they will feed their children the next day?
How can they overlook the barbaric and inhuman laws that can land people in jail for no crime whatsoever? All you need is a court, policeman or Communist Party member to believe you are “likely” to commit an offence in the future.
Tell me, dear reader!
Do those regional leaders who sympathize with the Castro regime really not know all this? Or is the truth that they secretly dream of the same for their own countries?
Translated by Daniel Duarte. Edited by Laurie Blair.