In Cuba, “A Change is Gonna Come,” but when?
As 2020 comes to an end, people around the world have had to adjust to living under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic while answering calls for change from social movements like Black Lives Matter and the Mouvement des gilets jaunes.
Yet, in Cuba, the events surrounding the Movimiento de San Isidro (San Isidro Movement, or MSI) shows us that, regarding the Cuban dictatorship, it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
On November 18 th , a group of nine young artists, writers, independent journalists, and scientists, all members of the Movimiento San Isidro, went on a hunger strike at the Movement’s Havana headquarters. They called for the release of rapper Denis Solís, who was arbitrarily detained, subjected to a summary trial based on trumped-up charges, and sentenced to eight months in prison.
As the hunger strike unfolded, the international community raised its voice in favor of Solís’ case and the Movimiento San Isidro’s cause. World leaders like U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček, and the Netherlands Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Ambassador Bahia Tahzib-Lie, as well as NGOs like PEN International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for a Free Cuba, and dozens of civil society organizations issued statements condemning acts of repression against the artists.
Support for Solís and the Movimiento San Isidro also came from fellow artists, writers, and independent journalists living in Cuba who risked similar attacks from the Cuban government against them and their families for defending freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and other basic human rights. On November 27 th , approximately 150 Cuban artists signed a declaration supporting the Movimiento San Isidro and went to the country’s Ministry of Culture, where they demanded a meeting with Culture Minister Alpidio Alonso Grau.
Yet the Cuban regime’s response to the Movimiento San Isidro and its members’ demands has not come as a surprise. Cuban government forces stormed the Movement’s headquarters and forcibly removed and detained the members that were on a hunger strike. The Cuban dictatorship’s attitude towards the Movimiento San Isidro was perhaps best expressed by Mariela Castro, Director of the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) and daughter of Communist Party Chairman and former head of state Raúl Castro. Ms. Castro declared that “The image of this group is degrading to the best values of the Cuban people and to Cuban decency; it is a transgressor against all of the country’s cultural heritages; it represents the worst of the nation and its decadence, coarseness, and vulgarity.”
This situation occurs as Cuba ironically looks towards 2021, the 62nd anniversary of the Castro dictatorship’s rise to power, with a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. The government’s reaction to the desire by Cuban artists to exercise their fundamental freedoms harkens back to Fidel Castro’s 1961 speech, commonly referred to as “Words to the Intellectuals,” in which he declared “Within the Revolution, everything. Against the Revolution, nothing.” In spite of several cosmetic political changes that have taken place in recent years, including the emergence of Miguel Díaz-Canel as Cuba’s new, non-Castro head of state in 2018 and a new Constitution promulgated in 2019, change has not translated into increased political and cultural rights for the Cuban people.
Acts of repression such as those carried out against the Movimiento San Isidro are carried out under the framework of Decree-Law 370 of 2018 and DecreeLaw 349 of 2019, through which the Cuban dictatorship has increased its repression against all intellectual freedom and freedom of expression.
Similar cases of human rights violations abound, including the cases of journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones, who was finally freed in September of this year after serving an unjust, one-year prison sentence; of writer and Washington Post contributor Abraham Jiménez Enoa, who resides in Cuba and has received threats from the Cuban police for his reporting; and the recent act of repudiation carried out by the Cuban regime’s mobs against artist Tania Bruguera for her expressions against the dictatorship.
The Cuban dictatorship is intent on resisting change by continuing its repressive tactics and fomenting intolerance for basic freedoms and human rights that the Cuban people are clamoring for. Yet it seems that the Cuban people are changing. Protests and hunger strikes like the ones organized by the Movimiento San Isidro are no longer private, low-key, and isolated incidents.
They are increasingly gaining supporters among the Cuban population and solidarity around the world. Cuba today is at a crossroads between decades under a failed repressive dictatorship and the prospects for a liberal democracy. As we approach the new year, the words of singer Sam Cooke serve as an anthem of hope: “It’s been a long time, a long time coming. But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.”