"... and 'Patria y Vida' -- Homeland and Life -- which has become a battle cry among activists after a viral music video turned the revolutionary slogan 'Homeland or Death' on its head. 'We are not afraid!' chanted Samantha Regalado while she recorded hundreds of people walking along a narrow street in Palma Soriano."
From "‘Freedom!’ Thousands of Cubans take to the streets to demand the end of dictatorship" (Miami Herald).
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2 comments:
cubanbob writes:
"This probably isn't the end of the Communist regime. That's been said too many times before. However this time Cuban isn't under the thrall of Fidel, nor does it have the subsidies it had from the USSR and the protestors are uniformly young people, not their grandparents who were Fidelistas in the 1950's and 1960's or even their parents who more or less accepted the situation. These kids have never lived without the misery of Communism and they know their is a better life abroad. They want a better life and would prefer that life in Cuba. A number of young Cubans have been to Miami or New York and Spain amongst other places and they have seen life outside of Cuba. When they tell their friends on what they saw, it isn't idealized tales told by old people on the past or propaganda as the State claims. They see no future. I have never heard of such massive and open defiance against before and despite gunfire in some cities the protestors hurled stones at the police ( unheard of before) with the police withdrawing in some areas. Canel looked weak and confused. Raul has yet to be heard from. There appeared to be a period of indecision on what to do and what level of repression. Blaming the US fools no one in Cuba and the regime can't hide what happened. Will this continue? I suspect that if it does it will result in a mano dura reaction which means bloodshed but that too could result in outright rebellion which the regime will not be able to suppress. The secret police can't suppress a nationwide rebellion without the Army and the Army's support of the regime in such a situation isn't a given. If the Communist regime in Cuba were to fall now it would be quite an irony that it did so just when the most Left Wing Congress and Administration in this country were in power. "
Bill writes:
"I have to confess that when Castro died, I felt giddy. I hoped relief would come to that beleaguered country. Maybe now it will."
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