Another Idea on How to Promote Change in Cuba

By Francisco Acevedo

HAVANA TIMES – There have been many proposals on how to push for political change in Cuba, and they almost always involve the same premise: Mobilize the masses.

A popular uprising is the only thing that could lead to the downfall of the Communist regime that has been imposed here for more than 60 years, and that is still in power by nothing but a miracle.

However, the answer we need won’t come from any other country, as last year proved, and everything needs to spring from within our own island, and the only peaceful way to do this is to take to the streets.

That said, this did in fact happen in July last year, and it is now just a story, in the sense it didn’t have much of an aftershock in the months that followed. Don’t let anybody be fooled though, it had a crushing effect on Cubans’ mindsets, and July 11th marks a before and after for many Cubans, or a That’s enough!, but it didn’t achieve its main objective.

Fierce repression came swiftly at the hands of the dictatorship, with sentences up to decades-long for some protestors, which stopped the people’s impetus quite a bit, recently stirred again by people being fed up with blackouts.

So, how can we repeat that uprising and, more importantly, keep it going?

My idea has to do with supporting protestors. It isn’t a matter of getting the US Department of State to make a statement or ask for the release of political prisoners. This has been repeated to death, and the Cuban Government has never made a move.

Nor does have to do with a social uprising of YouTubers online or with initiatives such as 15-N.

I believe we must support those who take to the streets, but not with words. The main concern of people who decide to protest despite the great risks they face from an almost perfect repressive apparatus, isn’t receiving a beating or going to jail, which are intimidating enough consequences as it is.

No, the worse thing is that these people in jail are no longer able to provide for their families and, worse yet, they become a burden, because those left behind normally end up spending most of their income on getting food, personal hygiene items, cigarettes, and anything else these protestors can use or negotiate in a prison.

With prices of basic essentials through the roof, feeding anyone who is left behind and supporting the person behind bars is a burden too heavy for any family.

That’s why my proposal is to create a fund to help all of these people financially. I believe that instead of investing money in looking for a violent way forward, or trying to find ways to make it easy for the thousands of people who have crossed the border, the focus needs to be on those who have directly suffered the consequences of asking for freedom on the island.

Of course, the rest is also important, but you have to eliminate the root cause, and we can only do this on the island.

Organizations such as Justicia 11J and Cubalex, to give you just two examples, have lists of real prisoners, whose families have to make enormous sacrifices to survive and support their loved ones in prison.

With a fund like the one I’m proposing, we won’t only be helping those who have sacrificed their personal freedom for asking for Cuba’s Freedom, but it would encourage others to do the same, because they know that nobody would be abandoned.

I know that if this were to happen, Humbertico would come on national TV and say that these are funds coming from the opposition abroad, but that’s enough of following the alleged “rules” that the dictatorship is constantly violating, because we continue to wait for a miracle.

This fund doesn’t need to be governmental, as Cuban emigres can make personal donations, as long as there is total transparency, that’s why I follow the lists already published and recognized by human rights organizations.

People who take to the streets in the future and suffer repression would be added to these well-documented lists.

There are many ways to get money or products to these families, and the amount to be sent should also be determined in the future. For starters, I think that 50 USD per month is a good figure and bearing in mind the fact that the number of prisoners on public lists since July 11th up until now, isn’t more than 1000 people, we could promote change in Cuba in this way with a very modest fund.

According to figures from the Cuban press, in 2020 alone, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) distributed over 5 million USD in Cuba, via anti-government organizations that have been able to do very little and mostly using it in poorly implemented subversive actions. Instead of winning popular support, it has led to rejection because it insults patriotic symbols or implies sabotaging key points, which can be easily manipulated by the propaganda machine to stop the Cuban people approving of it.

With this sum alone, we could have guaranteed more than a year’s worth of support for those who are paying a very high price for taking to the street, and I’m sure that it would encourage many more to follow this path, which has been proven to be the only way to bring about the downfall of this Communist regime.

If a solid fund was raised by NED or USAID – just to mention the most well-known agencies – and they were to be joined by other organizations and groups of Cubans based in exile, this would help to reduce fear among the Cuban population, as there are still thousands of people who don’t have the financial means needed to leave the country via Nicaragua or another country.

If they could all see that they and their families would be looked after if they took to the streets, I’m sure the July 11th protests would multiply, and sooner or later, Cuba would change once and for all.

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