The Aphrodysiacal Turns of Cuban Leaders

Martin Guevara

HAVANA TIMES — People can make us fall in love with them in different ways. There are those who seduce with words, those who use clothing and perfumes, those who spend lavishly, those who are funny, those who are beautiful, those who have personality, those who walk and look at others a certain way, those who use their faces and even those who captivate the incredulous with the dexterity of their lips, tongues, fingers and passion.

There are also those who can make others fall at their feet, after succumbing to the hurricane of their unbridled passion and authentic love, to the excessive shamelessness, the total and absolute disinhibition, the overdose of boldness they exhibit, leaving those smitten so confused that, spellbound, they willingly allow themselves to be devoured by the unflinching Don Juan or audacious Aphrodite.

I have a question for you Fidelistas, followers of Raul Castro, cardboard revolutionaries, fragile de-evolutionists, communists of the Cuban-Soviet type (never true communists) and opportunists who espouse the ideology that allows you to sit in the throne of power without doing any actual work:

Have you been able to forget the constant, fiery speeches, the betrayal of your brothers, the attacks, the executions, the imprisonments, the ostracism, the banishment of those who did not share in the desire to exterminate the United States and its brand of imperialism, those who wanted a system that allowed its citizens to travel, own a small sugarcane juice kiosk or a large clothing warehouse?

Have you managed to forget the humiliation you inflicted on fellow citizens who made their religious sensitivities public, who expressed they had embraced the spiritual world as a set of norms for co-existence, have you forgotten the ostracism and exile imposed on them, forced to join the twenty percent of the population made to leave the country, the harassment you subjected them to for over forty years for the crime of not being dialectical materialists or Marxist-Leninists?

Have you forgotten how you persecuted, banished, imprisoned, banned and alienated all artists who stepped outside the official discourse and did not praise the high leader, the ones who decided to express their own opinions, with their own voice, as individuals and citizens?

Are you having trouble remembering how you trampled and uprooted all individuality from society, how you silenced points of view, not that different from or opposed to the commandments set down by that devouring god that was Fidel Castro, but which simply did not shamefully acquiesce to the whims of the leader?

Have you forgotten how you persecuted, banished, imprisoned, banned and alienated all artists who stepped outside the official discourse and did not praise the high leader, the ones who decided to express their own opinions, with their own voice, as individuals and citizens?

The reason I ask this is simple: there are many people who won’t be able to forget these things so easily.

Some will jump out of their seats, leap back in amazement with a surprised, disgusted, angry or even incredulous look on their faces, when they realize that, without the slightest show of reservation, without asking the victims for forgiveness, the architects of the one-party capitalism Cuba has been drifting towards for years are the same who executed and imprisoned several individuals who merely suggested a rapprochement with the United States.

They will have the same reaction when they note and see that the person who claims he wishes to start praying once again, the person who now feels close to the Vatican and sings praises to the Pope of Rome, is the same person who agreed to ostracize all religious people and allowed serious abuses of the population and authorities who expressed religious sentiments, uprooting all symbols of adoration that were not Marxist-Leninist.

Many will of course be happy with these supposed steps forward, but they will look each other in the eye, speechless, their faces gripped by spontaneous surprise, asking themselves why these policies are being impelled by those who once repressed such proposals with all of their strength, those who destroyed all ties with the United States and the Vatican.

After the surprise has passed and they have sighed with a sudden bout of amorous attraction, the kind shamelessness others provoke in them, with the telling gleam in the eyes typical of spellbound lovers, they will loudly exclaim: “what’s this all about, buddy?”