EspañolWe Cubans are like guinea pigs. Every conceivable social experiment falls upon us, be it a communist revolution or the current state-led dynastic capitalism. Either way, we get a perpetually castrating Castrocracy.
On top of it all, we Cubans never escape alone. We always do it in spectacular stampedes, causing conflicts and chaos on our way — we’re a plague without a country. On second thought, let me fix my initial statement: in practice, we Cubans are more like rats.
Before 1991, the outpour of Cuban exiles only affected the United States, whose citizens had to endure wave after wave of islanders fleeing the Castros for decades. But after the fall of the Soviet Union and its European satellites, the entire world became a target, and countries like Sweden, Spain, Chile, Mexico, and even Russia had to pay the price.
Wherever Cubans don’t need a visa to travel, there we go, like the apocalypse horsemen. Instead of turning against our oppressors and fighting them, we run away.
Now it’s Ecuador’s turn. There, Rafael Correa, an eccentric president, wants to stay in power indefinitely. Correa is an economist who studied in the United States just like other criminal dictators. He is now imposing a tyrannical “Citizen Revolution.” Violating the Ecuadorian Constitution, which enacts “universal citizenship” and forbids limiting the entry of foreigners, Correa’s government will begin requiring Cubans a tourist visa in December.
It seems that Cubans don’t qualify as foreigners, much less as citizens. Those who flee from the island under communist rule are not worthy of respect in the eyes of Latin America’s progressive, populist regimes.
Nicaragua deploys its tanks and anti-riot troops against the elderly, women, and children, deporting them like cattle to the Costa Rican side of the border. The Daniel Ortega administration excels at this kind of pest control. All they need is the order to exterminate, which comes from Havana.
Ecuador discriminates Cubans, condemning them to return to Cuba. The inflexible Sandinista ruler prevents people from running away from Marxist misery and reaching their Floridian promised land: Hialeah, or North Havana.
Meanwhile, in Havana, fake protests are orchestrated in front the Ecuadorian embassy. All of a sudden, the notoriously brutal Castro police respects demonstrators. Foreign media record the show and send the news across the globe. Viewers might think: yes, it’s bloodcurdling, but Cuba is transitioning toward democracy!
The truth, however, is very different: the pro-Castro regimes across the continent are in danger. Kirchnerism lost in Argentina. In Venezuela, Chávez’s ghoulish soul will begin to collapse after the December 6 congressional elections.
Here’s the strategy behind the latest Cuban migration crisis: use our people’s despair to destabilize our hemisphere once again, and to distract the media from the “popular” coup d’état that President Nicolás Maduro has warned will take place if his ruling party loses the elections.
Totalitarians do nothing spontaneously; one must read between the lines to understand the script. And we Cubans keep playing our part as rats who eat nibble at anything, except at the archaic Castroism that controls us.