Ana Hurtado, Take Off the Blindfold
By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – On a previous occasion, I already mentioned in this space this Spanish journalist who staunchly defends the Cuban regime. But now she’s going to be the center of attention, as they say in Cuban popular language. Ana Hurtado talks about Cuba as if she were a deputy and dared to say this week that there are no political prisoners in this country.
“They are common criminals, and there are few of them, because the Cuban police are very good. In Spain, they would have been treated more harshly, and in the United States even worse,” noted the Spanish journalist.
It’s impossible to see more disrespect, indoctrination, and even malice towards people she doesn’t know personally, neither them nor their families, because she simply repeats what her friends in power tell her, those who have her living here without a ration book.
If you think about it, I don’t understand what she says. Who is imprisoned in the United States or Spain for calling a demonstration or filming it, for shouting Freedom or Homeland and Life? I think no one.
But what can be expected from someone who dared to call the singer-songwriter Pablo Milanes a “worm and vile,” who in terms of decency is much more distant from her than from Havana to Madrid.
According to Hurtado, allowing him to sing in his country was the greatest proof of freedom of expression on the Island, when in reality it was the swan song of the troubadour. He knew his end was near and wanted to perform before his audience one more time, even if it meant keeping silent about his political views, matured over time.
More important was what Miss Hurtado said later: “I think criticizing the [Cuban] government openly shouldn’t b done on social networks. I can criticize my Spanish government on social networks, my neighbor, or whoever I believe is committing an unjust act, but the socialist project is something bigger, it’s something sacred.”
In other words, since it’s socialism, it doesn’t admit criticism, all others do. But what’s up with this woman, so democratic for everything else?
Let’s remember that she became known especially after the protests on July 11, 2021, precisely when the vast majority of artists and intellectuals, Cuban and foreign, definitively turned their backs on the dictatorship. She came out in defense of the official discourse of “destabilizing actions” orchestrated from the United States and manipulated by the international press.
Since then, the regime has embraced her and tries to promote her. In fact, her nearly three thousand followers on Facebook are mostly anonymous profiles created by Cuban intelligence. On her account, she deleted or changed to private some photos of her dining on lobster and other seafood, the traditional selfies of a lifelong tourist, and others inconsistent with the austerity discourse she started to promote.
Evidently, from Varadero and surrounded all the time by leaders or State Security personnel, it’s difficult for her to see reality. For her, most of the Cuban people have faith in the socialist project and the only problem is the US blockade.
Many believe her move to Cuba is mainly to avoid justice in her country, where Cuban doctor Lucio Enríquez Nodarse filed a complaint against her for attacking him on social networks.
Nodarse asks to “rectify these statements through the same medium in which they were published [social networks] acknowledging their falsity,” and to pay him the sum of 10,000 euros as compensation for damages, an amount that would be destined for the cause of liberating the Cuban people, as explained by the doctor.
Hurtado also had a clash with Cuban playwright and activist Yunior García Aguilera, exiled in Spain since that famous call for the Civic March three years ago.
After calling him “Yunito the little mercenary,” Ana did not respond to comments about the luxuries she enjoys and which only the privileged in Cuba can access, nor to the inflated bellies of the leaders she mingles with, nor to their mansions with pools.
“Cuba is not Miami; it’s much better,” she said from the famous Caribbean resort, and Yunior replied, “Eat and drink all you can at the parties of the ruling class, even if the rest of the country doesn’t know if they will have anything on their table tomorrow. Enjoy those moments that remind us of the end of Animal Farm. You are already one of them! They adore you in the nomenclature! They might even finance your political career in Spain. But you won’t be able to avoid the contemptuous look of the mother of a teenager condemned in the most unjust way,” to finally leave open an invitation to debate in person.
But this last part will remain pending because Hurtado has already rejected similar offers from singer-songwriter Yotuel Romero, creator of Homeland and Life, and Miami influencers; evidently, debate is not her thing.
It’s easier to live the sweet life without knowing how ordinary Cubans manage to make ends meet daily, without knowing what a blackout lasting more than half a day is, without waiting hours for a bus, and without having to keep quiet about what hurts. What she did in Spain with her government, she couldn’t do in Cuba, although we’ve seen that it doesn’t even occur to her because she’s very comfortable as she is.
She will continue to appear occasionally on the National Television News or the Round Table, hand in hand with our dear Miguel Diaz-Canel at any celebration and who knows, maybe she will even create a private business taking advantage of the brand new Communication Law, which I will dedicate more space to shortly.
From these well-fed Cubanologists, with bulletproof consciences and happy hearts, anything can be expected. However, at some point the blindfold will fall.