{"id":7504,"date":"2021-07-13T15:39:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T19:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7504"},"modified":"2021-07-15T15:42:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T19:42:18","slug":"cuba-protests-4-essential-reads-on-dissent-in-the-post-castro-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7504","title":{"rendered":"Cuba Protests: 4 Essential Reads on Dissent in the Post-Castro Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
A rare unauthorized public gathering in Havana on July 11, 2021. Some demonstrators on the streets that day chanted \u2018Down with the dictatorship.\u2019 Yamil Lage\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Street protests erupted across Cuba on July 11, 2021, with crowds of Cubans demonstrating against food scarcity, medicine shortages and economic misery in their island nation. Some demanded \u201cfreedom\u201d and the end of \u201cdictatorship\u201d \u2013 anti-government sentiments that were soon echoed in the United States by Cuban-Americans and politicians, including President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

In a televised address, Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel blamed the spontaneous demonstrations \u2013 by far the largest mass protests in decades \u2013 on U.S. interference and threatened a \u201cbattle in the streets.\u201d Protesters say hundreds were arrested.<\/p>\n

These four stories describe current conditions in Cuba and the recent history behind this rare public outpouring of anger.<\/p>\n

2018: Cuba gets a new president<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Communist Party has run Cuba since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Picture<\/a>
Fidel Castro in 2010. Ismael Francisco\/ Cubadebate, CC BY-NC-ND<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

For five decades, its leader was the fiery, anti-American revolutionary Fidel Castro. Castro led the country until 2008, when he fell sick and was succeeded by his more subdued younger brother, Ra\u00fal.<\/p>\n

The younger Castro, also a Cuban Revolution fighter, maintained the his party\u2019s total grip on politics but liberalized Cuba\u2019s Soviet-style economy, recognizing private property and allowing Cubans to run small businesses. He also cultivated a less antagonistic relationship with the United States during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

Ra\u00fal Castro\u2019s April 2018 retirement marked the end of the revolutionary era. But the selection of D\u00edaz-Canel as president in April 2018 seemed unlikely to herald the beginning of a new Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect any drastic changes in direction from D\u00edaz-Canel \u2013 at least, not right away,\u201d wrote the American University Cuba analyst William LeoGrande<\/a> shortly after Diaz-Canel took office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel is a seasoned Communist Party insider and Raul Castro\u2019s chosen successor. Castro also remained in Cuba\u2019s government until 2021 as first secretary of the Communist Party, \u201carguably a post more powerful than the presidency,\u201d says LeoGrande.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel came into office facing serious problems, including a weak economy and bad relations with the U.S. under then-President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

He also faced a new challenge: the internet, which had just become widely available to everyday Cubans. Access to online information and social media makes it harder for D\u00edaz-Canel to repress dissent as effectively as for his predecessors.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternet expansion on the Communist island has produced a growing chorus of domestic critics,\u201d LeoGrande wrote.<\/p>\n

2019: Cuba gets a new constitution<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those critics gained more leeway to show their discontent in February 2019, when the Cuban National Assembly passed a new Cuban Constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It included provisions that would \u201csubstantially expand social, political and economic rights in Cuba,\u201d wrote the Cuban-American scholar Mar\u00eda Isabel Alfonso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of those rights was freedom of assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, Cubans had the \u2018right to meet, demonstrate and associate, for licit and peaceful purposes,\u2019\u201d explained Alfonso, \u201cbut only as part of a so-called \u2018organizaci\u00f3n de masa\u2019 \u2013 the Cuban term for state-run groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new constitution removes the \u2018organizaciones de masa\u2019 restriction, theoretically giving people and civil society groups more freedom to gather.<\/p>\n

But Alfonso cautioned that the government could still crack down on \u201cindependent organizations \u2013 especially if those groups are political in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Police
Arrests following an anti-government demonstration in Havana on July 12, 2021. Yamil Lage\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

In her Feburary 2019 article, she quotes the Cuban blogger Jos\u00e9 Gabriel Barrenechea saying that, in Cuba, \u201cspontaneous gatherings are not seen positively and are always perceived to be the product of a foreign power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other changes, Cuba\u2019s 2019 Constitution also gave constitutional legitimacy to Ra\u00fal Castro\u2019s economic reforms and limited Cuban presidents to two five-year terms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2020: Artists revolt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s new Constitution reflects how D\u00edaz-Canel has largely followed his mentor Ra\u00fal Castro\u2019s path of gradually giving Cubans greater economic and social freedoms but resisting pressure for democratic reform.<\/p>\n

One result of Castro\u2019s 2009 move to legalize small businesses, for example, was a flourishing of activist art.<\/p>\n

As galleries and theaters opened across Cuba, enabling artists to show their work in nongovernment-run cultural spaces, \u201cdissident artists took advantage of this newfound freedom to advance their political demands<\/a>,\u201d says Alfonso.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the D\u00edaz-Canel government issued a decree imposing restrictions on independent artistic production and cultural venues, angering many artists. Then, in November 2020, the government raided the home of an artist who openly opposed the government\u2019s decree.<\/p>\n

Cuban artists and intellectuals rebelled. Days after the raid, about 300 of them convened via WhatsApp to stage a protest outside the Culture Ministry. They demanded negotiations with the government to restore freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Woman
Cuban artists regroup after a Nov. 27, 2020, meeting with Cuba\u2019s vice minister of culture. Yamll Lage\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe negotiations would end soon after they began, followed by a major crackdown on dissent,\u201d wrote Alfonso. But \u201cthe size, duration and public nature of the artists\u2019 opposition were unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artists\u2019 uprising was, she says, \u201ca sign of how resistance in Cuba has grown and changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

2021: The Castro era ends<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ra\u00fal Castro stepped down from his top post in the Communist Party in April 2021, leaving behind a changed Cuba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is no longer a Soviet-backed ideological challenger \u2013 or nuclear threat \u2013 to the United States. Bereft of international communist patrons and financially isolated from the world by the strict, decades-old U.S. embargo, Cuba is ailing.<\/p>\n

For so long the bearded, fatigues-clad Fidel Castro defended the pain of the Cuban people as the righteous struggle of a proudly sovereign nation. D\u00edaz-Canel, born in 1960, lacks Castro\u2019s charismatic ability to invoke the faded revolutionary past.<\/p>\n

\n
\"People
A counterprotest in support of the D\u00edaz-Canel government in Havana, July 11, 2021. Yamil Lage\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Ever fewer Cubans even remember those heady post-revolution years, says the Cuba historian Joseph Gonzalez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike their parents and grandparents, Cubans in their 20s, 30s and 40s never enjoyed a sustained, functional contract with the regime: We provide you a living, and in exchange you give us support, or at least acquiescence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez says younger generations in Cuba still trust the government to provide free quality health care and education \u2013 both achievements of the Castro era.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they know it cannot feed, clothe and house its people in any but the most basic way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Today Cubans have to hustle to survive; many work two jobs. A recent currency change means cash is scarce and many everyday goods are unaffordable. And after a year keeping the pandemic largely at bay, COVID-19 is surging on the island.<\/p>\n

Recent protests suggest some Cubans are sick of so much struggle.<\/p>\n

Catesby Holmes<\/a>, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Street protests erupted across Cuba on July 11, 2021, with crowds of Cubans demonstrating against food scarcity, medicine shortages and economic misery in their island nation. Some demanded \u201cfreedom\u201d and the end of \u201cdictatorship\u201d \u2013 anti-government sentiments that were soon echoed in the United States by Cuban-Americans and politicians, including President Joe Biden. In a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/411111\/original\/file-20210713-25-grrygz.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Cuba Protests: 4 Essential Reads on Dissent in the Post-Castro Era","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7506,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504\/revisions\/7506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}