The communist Castro dictatorship is getting nervous. They’ve cut off the internet and sent the military and armed thugs into the streets yet Cubans continue protesting. They are dangerously close to the edge and they know it.
Via Martí Noticias (my translation):
A third day of protests are taking place in several locations around the Cuban capital this Saturday, according to reports on social media and from various independent news sites.
Despite cutting off internet access, several sites monitoring the situation have been able to post images of isolated protests. In those demonstrations they are banging pots in a sign of protest and using fallen tree branches, trash cans, and the debris left behind by Hurricane Ian to construct barricades and close off streets.
“Cuba is occupied with responding to the complexities of taking care of the population and an economy affected by Hurricane Ian. At the same time it’s confronting a media campaign of destabilization with the well-defined objective of carrying out a non-conventional war,” said Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel, who has been attacked with slogans from many of the protesters on Thursday and Friday.
Raul Castro’s successor once again mentioned his fear of a popular uprising: “All the foreign counterrevolutionaries — especially those based in the U.S. — are active on social media, more worried about the damage the hurricane did in Cuba than what it did in Florida, and they’re looking to foment a popular uprising in the middle of this situation.”
It’s hard to imagine the Castro dictatorship surviving if these isolated protests morph into another July 11-style massive uprising. They simply don’t have the resources and neither do they have the experienced leadership they had in the past to control tens of thousands of Cubans marching in protest all across the island. That is what has the Castro family dictatorship and their puppet president Diaz-Canel so worried.
Of course, there is no guarantee the current ongoing protests in Cuba will spell the end of the Castro dictatorship. The 63-year-old regime has been in similar situations before and with the help of sympathetic foreign nations or allies, has managed to come back from the brink. But those who have helped the dictatorship maintain power in the past, such as Venezuela and Russia, are today in no position to provide assistance. The fact the Castro dictatorship is now begging the U.S. for aid is proof the regime fears it’s at the end of its rope.
Unfortunately, anything having to do with Cuba rarely follows the conventional script, so only time will tell.
The system has nothing to offer beyond more false promises. It’s a failed enterprise for everyone except the ruling minority, which is completely focused on its position and its benefits. And no, it cannot change.