There Is a Perverse Conspiracy in Everything Generated by the Castro Government


HAVANA, Cuba – If in the report to the deputies —the same deputies who unanimously applauded Marta Elena Feitó and even praised her words— the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, admitted that ETECSA made “mistakes in how the implementation [of the rate hike] was handled,” as well as in the “political-communication strategy” it used, then why, up to now, has no senior official from the company or the ministry to which it belongs resigned or been forced to resign?

The answer lies not only in the nearly 25 million dollars that have been collected in 46 days from the discrimination against the national currency, extortion of emigrants, and fraud against the “vulnerable” and those with low wages. It also lies in the fact that this was an abuse conceived within GAESA and coordinated with the top brass of what some aptly call “Roboilusión”, i.e., the theft-ilution”.

Only after the scandal almost sparked another July 11 uprising did they come out to pretend they weren’t entirely part of the “mistake.” But they made it very clear that the rate hike was going ahead no matter what, and that they had even foreseen the crisis it would provoke—maybe not to the degree it reached, but enough that, on the eve of the announcement, they took care to send Communications Minister Mayra Arevich Marín far from the hot zone (she only returned when no one would demand explanations from her anymore).

Everything suggests that the Minister of Energy and Mines will not be asked to step down either, even after admitting before the National Assembly that his promise of a blackout-free summer has not and will not be fulfilled at any point. According to him, the issue is a lack of fuel—a detail none of his “experts” seemed to foresee after 65 years of blaming the embargo for these types of “miscalculations” and “lack of foresight.”

No one in that theater—because that’s all it is—rebuked him for his false promises, or even for failing to recall, back in April when he gave us the illusion of improved power generation, the old fallback that all our misfortunes are “the fault of the U.S. government.” Incidentally, that’s the same country from which we import the most domestic generators now used in homes of those who can afford them—including the homes of PCC leaders and their families—thanks to at least two ships arriving daily at Mariel port from Florida, loaded with everything imaginable, from frozen chicken to luxury cars.

Despite this being the largest and most diverse flow of goods today, there wasn’t a single report on it in the National Assembly. GAESA isn’t accountable to anyone, not even to the Comptroller’s Office, and the deputies seem just fine with that — a far bigger scandal than anything Marta Elena Feitó said.

Yet the minister expelled from the communist Olympus was called “brave.” That’s how Marrero Cruz described her. But no deputy has asked him how someone who makes such offensive public statements—causing widespread public outrage—can be called “brave” instead of stupid or inhumane. Or perhaps Marrero’s praise is an unconscious admission that Feitó was just a sacrificed pawn, fully aware of the role she had to play.

Her so-called bravery may lie in her political suicide: saying out loud what all of them think privately. Though she went too far—especially with the comment about disguised beggars—she still received applause from an Assembly that, if it had any true “heroism,” should resign en masse for having supported such arrogance and elitism, which even the hypocrite Miguel Díaz-Canel tried to denounce. Of course, the very next morning, they all went to the ministry to pat her on the back (and “assign her new responsibilities”).

Those who believe there was no collusion and that this is just the fantasy of lunatics and conspiracy theorists who attribute to the regime “more intelligence than it actually has,” only demonstrate, through their naive denial, that they remain oblivious to the reality they’ve lived in for over half a century. Worse still, they suffer the same amnesia as those who refuse to acknowledge the regime’s long and well-documented history of cruelty and manipulation—done in the name of clinging to power and damaging its opponents.

Let’s take just one of many recent examples: the current crisis involving the Masonic lodge. To deny that there’s (bad) intent behind this, managed from State Security offices and possibly leading to the dissolution of a brotherhood inconvenient to a regime obsessed with controlling all thought and terrified of the word “freedom,” is pure naivety.

The Ministry of Justice’s statements—like others issued by institutions of the dictatorship—try to deflect, as if it were merely an internal Masonry issue. But it’s clear to everyone: State Security agents surround the Masonic temple and the home of the CubaNet journalist covering the story. It’s a classic maneuver by the dictatorship: letting others appear to unleash and manage the crisis, while it quietly benefits from the outcome.

The same logic applies to the mass exodus coordinated with “friendly” governments in the region. It was not just about creating a political crisis at the U.S. southern border or threatening national security, but also about increasing the flow of intelligence and influence agents (essentially the same thing) in a quiet invasion that’s now undeniable. Dozens of regime loyalists and their relatives have already been discovered in the U.S., either trying to stay under the radar or openly running remittance and shipping businesses that directly support the dictatorship—and are now its main economic lifeline.

These are joined by hundreds of companies based in Panama, the UK, Canada, and elsewhere, wherever the law has allowed them to operate in the shadows. This all dates  back to the early 1970s as a money-laundering scheme developed behind the Soviets’ backs, peaking in the 1990s. It didn’t end with the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa or the arrest of Manuel Noriega for drug trafficking—it continues, tied to the island’s embassies and “solidarity with Cuba” groups operating anywhere a diplomatic mission exists.

There is collusion. There is intentional and highly perverse conspiracy in everything th Castro government generates, and it is very naive and dangerous to attribute it, from the outset, to chance or “error,” under the mistaken belief that we’re merely suffering under the incompetence of mediocre leaders. That belief ignores the reality: our misery is a political control strategy—one that turns rights into privileges.

A system where no outsider can rise to equal status with the ruling elite. Castroism is a closed organism: if you’re not blood-related to it, your best hope is to play a service role—one that always includes, knowingly, the possibility of being sacrificed. And when that happens, they try to pass it off as “bravery” when it’s simply another assigned task.

Examples of this include every “sacrificed” official who has gone on to assume “new responsibilities,” dead or alive. So, we’ll soon see what space on the chessboard where Feitó reappears. She may even end up, along with her “renegade” son, running a shipping company, a mobile top-up business, or chanting slogans against the embargo outside Versailles (restaurant).

And if you’re still not convinced, just take stock of who leads each ministry, each major and minor company, and what their ties are to the ruling military elite and to the capital flowing in and out—without passing through the banks where you and I go to find there’s no money. But if that task seems too exhausting or impossible, don’t worry.

Other “paranoid” and “crazy” people have done it for us, with the kind of journalistic courage these times demand. All we need to do is read the little—but revealing—information they’ve uncovered here and there (amid so much secrecy and repression). They didn’t share it to shock us with how perverse the dictatorship can be, or to get likes—but to wake us up from our disinformation coma and help us choose the right tools to fight back.

ARTÍCULO DE OPINIÓN
Las opiniones expresadas en este artículo son de exclusiva responsabilidad de quien las emite y no necesariamente representan la opinión de CubaNet.

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