The Journalism of Terror Regarding Cuba

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES — Enemies of the Cuban Revolution, who have no other name other than “counter-revolutionaries”, don’t seem to stop their attack, which is what the Empire orders them to do. Every time a measure is taken in Cuba, however insignificant it is, they decorate it with lies or twist it, so that those who are not well-informed, form a negative picture of the revolutionary government.

This is nothing more than psychological warfare which, as Fabian Escalante points out in a recent article “is set out to confuse, manipulate and cheat, and it doesn’t only hope to win over consciences, but to also discredit, defame and confuse, behind the farce of being naive and neutral. It aims to turn the collective or individual mindset along a desired line.”

Thus, for example, it was enough for the need to reduce oil and electricity consumption in the second semester of this year to be communicated, for opinions to then sky-rocket about Cuba entering a new Special Period.

Anybody who has some functioning neurons in their brain knows that the crisis we suffered in the ‘90s last century, won’t happen again, because Cuba currently has relations with and can trade with other countries, except for the US; and if they did lift the blockade, we could also have a booming trade with the US, because Cuba has a lot of products that the US market is interested in, whose production could be increased in order to satisfy this trade, as well as being able to import a wide range of goods, especially food and medicine.

We could also add to the aforementioned, an increasing number of tourists, which didn’t exist when the conditions arose that led us to the so-called Special Period. Therefore, scaremongers, ill-intentioned or not, can go and put away their predictions back in their box.

However, this isn’t the only case of twisting the truth and lying to discredit the Cuban Revolution. The implementation of taxing personal incomes of those who work for companies and make over 500 pesos (around 20 USD) a month, was recently published and widely analyzed in the media. However, I must repeat that these are company employees, many of whom make over 1,000 pesos and some even more than 2,000 pesos. It does NOT apply to public sector employees.

However, I have recently seen the following statement published: “The Cuban government has just put into effect two classic capitalist economic measures: Imposing taxes on public sector worker salaries and freezing teacher salaries. However, it hasn’t just taken these measures; it has also made cuts to the social security, health and education budgets.”

If this isn’t maliciousness against the Revolution, then somebody please tell me what name I should give this behavior, because everything said in the above paragraph is a complete and utter lie.

With regard to freezing teachers’ salaries, in Cuba, salaries have never been frozen and it’s been reported that public employees will receive pay rises, according to what the national economic situation is, while the non-budgeted sector, that is to say, those at state businesses, has complete freedom to pay salaries according to their productivity, and every worker earns according to his/her results.

It is also a huge lie that cuts have been made to social security, healthcare and education. This didn’t even happen in the most difficult years of the so-called Special Period. The majority of Cuba’s national budget is precisely destined for social security, healthcare and education, as other State expenses have already been cut considerably.

Pope Francisco has just called this kind of journalism based on rumors “terrorism”. What would journalism based on lies with the deliberate aim to discredit the revolutionary government be called? There’s no name for this.