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        <h1 class="reader-title">3528. Cuba: A Scream</h1>
        <div class="credits reader-credits">By Leonardo Padura, La Joven
          Cuba,</div>
        <div class="meta-data">
          <div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">6-8 minutes</div>
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              <p><span><a
href="https://jovencuba-com.translate.goog/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/b0962a72b90563db5f70208731efbb0df661014d.jpg?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=ajax,elem"
                    rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span><img
                        alt=""
src="https://i1.wp.com/jovencuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/b0962a72b90563db5f70208731efbb0df661014d.jpg?fit=1170%2C658&ssl=1"
                        title="Scream (1)"></span></a></span></p>
              <p><span><span>(Photo: Eliana Aponte / AP)</span></span></p>
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              <p><span><span><span>It seems very possible that
                      everything that happened in Cuba since last </span><a
href="https://translate.google.com/website?sl=es&tl=en&ajax=1&elem=1&se=1&u=https://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/protestas-en-cuba-la-habana-y-otras-ciudades-sacudidas-por-manifestaciones-ineditas-contra-el-gobierno-de-miguel-diaz-canel-patria-y-vida-fotos-y-videos-sosmatanzas-soscuba-noticia/?foto%3D15"
                      rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span>Sunday,
                        July 11</span><span>,</span></a><span> has been
                      encouraged by a greater or lesser number of people
                      opposed to the system, even paid some of them,
                      with the intention of destabilizing the country
                      and causing a situation of chaos and unsafety. It
                      is also true that later, as often happens in these
                      events, opportunistic and regrettable acts of
                      vandalism occurred. But I think that neither
                      evidence takes one iota of reason from the scream
                      that we have heard. A cry that is also the result
                      of the desperation of a society that is going
                      through not only a long economic crisis and a
                      punctual health crisis, but also a </span><a
href="https://jovencuba-com.translate.goog/estallido-social/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=ajax,elem"
                      rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">crisis of
                      confidence</a><span> and a loss of expectations.</span></span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>To this desperate claim, the Cuban
                    authorities should not respond with the usual
                    slogans, repeated for years, and with the answers
                    that these authorities want to hear. Not even with
                    explanations, however convincing and necessary they
                    may be. What is imposed are the solutions that many
                    citizens expect or demand, some demonstrating in the
                    street, others giving their opinion on social
                    networks and expressing their disappointment or
                    disagreement, many counting the few and devalued
                    pesos that they have in their impoverished pockets
                    and many, many more, queuing in resigned silence for
                    several hours in the sun or rain, including a
                    pandemic, queues at markets to buy food, queues at
                    pharmacies to buy medicines, queues to reach our
                    daily bread and for everything imaginable and
                    necessary.</span></span></p>
              <div id="gmail-attachment_35517">
                <p><span><span><img alt="Scream (2)"
src="https://i2.wp.com/jovencuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/diaz-canel-tv_f-captura-pantalla-pl.jpg?resize=873%2C581&ssl=1"
                        width="873" height="581"></span></span></p>
                <p id="gmail-caption-attachment-35517"><span><span>"(...)
                      the Cuban authorities should not respond with the
                      usual slogans, repeated for years ..." (Photo:
                      Canal Caribe)</span></span></p>
              </div>
              <p><span><span><span>I think that no one with a minimum
                      feeling of belonging, with a sense of sovereignty,
                      with a civic responsibility can want (or even
                      believe) that the solution to these problems comes
                      from any type of </span><a
href="https://jovencuba-com.translate.goog/derechos-intervenciones-corredores/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=ajax,elem"
                      rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span>foreign
                        intervention</span></a><span>, much less of a
                      military nature, such as some have come to ask,
                      and that, it is also true, represents a threat
                      that is still a possible scenario.</span></span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>I also believe that any Cuban inside or
                    outside the island knows that the US commercial and
                    financial blockade or embargo, whatever you want to
                    call it, is real and has become internationalized
                    and intensified in recent years and that it is too
                    heavy a burden for the Cuban economy ( as it would
                    be for any other economy). Those who live outside
                    the island and today want to help their relatives in
                    the midst of a critical situation, have been able to
                    verify that it exists and how much it exists when
                    they are practically unable to send a remittance to
                    their relatives, just to mention a situation that
                    affects Many. It is an old policy that, by the way
                    (sometimes some forget it) practically everyone has
                    condemned for many years in successive United
                    Nations assemblies.</span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>And I don't think anyone can deny that a
                    media campaign has also been unleashed in which,
                    even in the grossest ways, false information has
                    been released that at the beginning and end only
                    serves to diminish the credibility of its managers.</span></span></p>
              <div id="gmail-attachment_35512">
                <p><span><span><img alt="Scream (1)"
src="https://i2.wp.com/jovencuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/L7GM6A2YDRCIJDD6GF2BF5PK3M.jpg?resize=980%2C598&ssl=1"
                        width="980" height="598"></span></span></p>
                <p id="gmail-caption-attachment-35512"><span><span>«(…)
                      Neither one nor the other evidence takes away an
                      iota of reason from the scream that we have
                      heard. A cry that is also the result of the
                      desperation of a society… »(Photo: Yamil Lage /
                      AFP)</span></span></p>
              </div>
              <p><span><span><span>But I believe, along with all of the
                      above, that Cubans need to regain hope and have a
                      possible image of their future. If hope is lost,
                      the meaning of any humanist social project is
                      lost. And hope is not recovered by force. You are
                      rescued and fed with those solutions and changes
                      and </span><a
href="https://jovencuba-com.translate.goog/cuba-incendio-san-antonio/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=ajax,elem"
                      rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span>social
                        dialogues</span></a><span>, which, by not
                      arriving, have caused, among many other
                      devastating effects, the migratory anxieties of so
                      many Cubans and now provoked the cry of despair of
                      people among whom there were surely paid people
                      and opportunistic criminals, although I refuse to
                      believe that in my country, at this point, there
                      may be so many people, so many people born and
                      educated among us who sell themselves or commit
                      crimes. Because if it were, it would be the result
                      of the society that has fostered them.</span></span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>The spontaneous way, without being tied to
                    any leadership, without receiving anything in return
                    or stealing anything along the way, with which a
                    notable number of people have also demonstrated in
                    the streets and on the networks, should be a warning
                    and I think it is an alarming sample of the
                    distances that have been opened between the leading
                    political spheres and the street (and this has even
                    been recognized by Cuban leaders). And it is only in
                    this way that it is explained that what has happened
                    has happened, especially in a country where almost
                    everything is known when it wants to be known, as we
                    all also know.</span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>To convince and calm those desperate, the
                    method cannot be the solutions of force and
                    darkness, such as imposing the digital blackout that
                    has cut off the communications of many for days, but
                    that nevertheless has not impeded the connections of
                    those who want to say something, in favor or
                    opposing. Much less can the violent response,
                    especially against non-violent people, be used as a
                    convincing argument. And it is already known that
                    violence can be not only physical.</span></span></p>
              <div id="gmail-attachment_35519">
                <p><span><span><img alt="Scream (3)"
src="https://i0.wp.com/jovencuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/DYH2AHJIFBAGBEGGZ2M7S6QJD4.jpg?resize=880%2C468&ssl=1"
                        width="880" height="468"></span></span></p>
                <p id="gmail-caption-attachment-35519"><span><span><span>"</span><span>Much
                        less can the violent response, especially
                        against non-violent people, be used as a
                        convincing </span></span></span></p>
                <p id="gmail-caption-attachment-35519"><span><span><span>argument." (Photo:
                        Yamil Lage / AFP)</span></span></span></p>
              </div>
              <p><span><span>Many things seem to be at stake
                    today. Perhaps even if calm returns after the
                    storm. Perhaps the extremists and fundamentalists
                    will not be able to impose their extremist and
                    fundamentalist solutions, and a dangerous state of
                    hatred that has been growing in recent years will
                    not take root.</span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>But, in any case, it is necessary for
                    solutions to arrive, responses that should not only
                    be of a material nature but also of a political
                    nature, and thus an inclusive and better Cuba can
                    address the reasons for this cry of despair and loss
                    of hope. that, silently but with force, since before
                    July 11, many of our compatriots had been giving
                    those laments that were not heard and from whose
                    rains these muds arose.  </span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>As a Cuban who lives in Cuba and works and
                    believes in Cuba, I assume that it is my right to
                    think and express my opinion about the country in
                    which I live, work and where I believe. I know that
                    in times like this and trying to express an opinion,
                    it often happens that "You are always reactionary
                    for someone and red for someone," as Claudio Sánchez
                    Albornoz once said. I also take that risk, as a man
                    who pretends to be free, who hopes to be more and
                    more free.</span></span></p>
              <p><span><span>In Mantilla, July 15, 2021.</span></span></p>
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