Cuba doesn’t need Castro clone

In Havana on Dec. 20, a group of artists and activists were preparing to perform a piece titled “Psychosis.” The plot concerns a person enclosed in a very small space, showing signs of madness, who wants to leave.

The play was inspired by events in 2010 at a psychiatric hospital in Havana, where 26 patients died of hunger and cold. The story is obviously a metaphor about the regime of the Castros, who have ruled the island for nearly six decades, intolerant of dissent and free speech. In the performance, there were to be allusions to Raúl Castro and terms such as “dictatorship.” Predictably, before the performance, authorities swooped in and detained the director, as well as the chief actor. Also arrested was activist Lia Villares.

This is how Fidel and now Raúl Castro have kept their hold on power: with fists and force. But the Castro era is at a new crossroads. Raúl Castro, 86, who has been president for a decade, has pledged to step down this year, at the end of his second term. Recently, he delayed his departure from February to April. His modest economic reforms, allowing for limited activity outside the control of the state, have stalled, while Cuba’s oil lifeline from Venezuela has all but collapsed. Now, Castro is looking to Russia for oil and relief.

What Cuba really needs is not more Castro, or a handpicked clone to prolong the deprivations of socialism and dictatorship. What the island’s long-suffering people should get is a genuine chance to decide their own future, one where they can perform a play called “Psychosis” without arrests and fear.