Cuban protests: Some want military intervention; others on the island seek change, 'not war'

Corrections & Clarifications: Susannah Rodríguez Drissi's first name was misspelled in an earlier version of the article.

“¡Libertad!”

Freedom. This is what Cubans have been demanding during almost two weeks of demonstrations on U.S. streets. The protests do not bring to light a new problem, but this time, Cubans say, the people expect a greater change than those that have been seen on the island since the beginning of the Castro regime.

The majority of the Cuban community in the United States has asked the Biden administration to carry out military intervention in Cuba in order to overthrow the regime, but other Cubans and dissident movements believe that alternative solutions should be considered.

And the fact is that Cuba, a relatively small island in the Caribbean, has not gone through many significant changes in almost seven decades. Cubans say that the island has remained in a relatively static state in which the shortage of resources comes and goes and the repression of freedom has been constant.

Ronal Delgado, who has organized different protests in Arizona, affirms that one of the objectives of the protests is for the U.S. government to examine the need for immediate intervention.

"We are not asking that the embargo be lifted," Delgado said. "We are asking for a humanitarian intervention or a military intervention in Cuba in order to remove the dictators from the island."

And something that the vast majority of the Cuban people agree on is that lifting the embargo is not a sufficient solution to the island's problems.

In previous years, the administration of then-President Obama focused its efforts on lifting the embargo — which had been in place for more than 54 years — and on authorizing sending remittances or economic aid to the island.

But although Cuba enjoyed slight economic growth and supply of resources during this period, the island's boom was limited because although the United States relaxed its policies toward Cuba, the Raúl Castro regime did not do the same in response.

"The Obama administration tried to make some changes, but no condition was imposed that the repressive methods (on the island) be relieved," said Eliana Rivero, a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona and a Cuban by birth.

Many claim that Obama's policies also benefited the regime since the Cuban government had the power to extract a percentage of remittances sent from abroad, depriving the population of resources that by right, they say, belonged to them.

During his presidential campaign, Biden announced that his administration would adopt a policy similar to that of Obama after the Trump administration had once again imposed an economic blockade, paralyzing the small growth that the island had.

But on Thursday, prompted by the demonstrations of the Cuban-American community, President Biden announced that he would carry out sanctions against the repressive actions of the Cuban government, shifting from his initial campaign promise. Even so, Biden's administration has maintained its decision not to carry out a forced invasion of the island and has said that he is in the process of reviewing policies to respond to the situation in Cuba.

Some Cubans consider that the people on the island should also review their alternatives, because among the 11 million inhabitants on the island — 2 million Cubans are abroad — there are different points of view regarding how to proceed following the protests.

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A peaceful, nonmilitary solution

Betty Maura, who resides in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, said that she would like to see real solutions to Cuba's problems, but that she would like them to be peaceful solutions.

“Yes, I would like to see some changes, but not a war. No more violence,” Maura told The Arizona Republic.

And although for Maura July 11 — when protests initiated on the island — began as "any ordinary Sunday," that same afternoon her husband, Leovel Frank Canga, was detained by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) while participating peacefully in the demonstrations in Matanzas, says Maura.

Within a few days, she received the news that she is expecting a child along with her husband. Canga continues to be detained and is awaiting prosecution on charges of public disorder, epidemic spread and instigation to commit a crime, Maura said.

Like Maura, there are many Cubans who think that military intervention can lead to violent results in which innocent people are affected. But negotiations with the government, many say, is a difficult goal to achieve as authorities have repeatedly refused to listen to the voice of the people and have adopted repressive measures, including the arrest of peaceful protesters like Canga.

It is estimated that so far the number of disappeared has exceeded 100 and the number of detainees has exceeded 700, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights. However, due to restricted internet access, many Cubans argue that the number could be higher.

Yanelys Núñez, spokesperson for the San Isidro Movement (MSI), of which some members are also currently in the hands of the police or missing, said that establishing a dialogue among Cuban citizens is key so that the voices of all sectors of the community are heard before starting to develop strategies.

"A military intervention can be discussed, but there are many Cubans on the island who do not want that," Núñez said.

Since before the protests began, dissident movements like MSI have promoted national dialogue as a way to collectively propose solutions.

"The San Isidro Movement manifests the urgent need to call for a National Dialogue of all Cubans, whether they live inside or outside of Cuba and who aspire to build a country that represents a safe home," the movement announced in a statement published on its website in March.

Susannah Rodríguez Drissi, a Cuban-born writing programs professor at UCLA and author of the novel "Until We're Fish," which is inspired by the impact of the regime in Bauta, Cuba, said that the purpose of the protests, for now, is nothing more than to give visibility to the situation and amplify the voices of Cubans on the island to make known the changes they seek. 

"Our main concern is to help the Cuban people in their fight for their freedom," Rodríguez said. "Once we know what Cubans want on the island, then from there (we can) start with a plan, a strategy."

'Something like this has never been seen'

The island had not gone through a similar crisis in almost 30 years. The situation in the country has been aggravated in recent years since the reiteration of the economic blockade, but the lack of food in millions of Cuban households is added today to the lack of care in hospitals saturated with patients infected with the coronavirus.

During the so-called Special Period in Time of Peace in the '90s, which was fueled by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country suffered from a food shortage similar to today’s, plunging the island into a deep humanitarian crisis.

That scenario 30 years ago led a hungry people to take to the streets of Havana, proclaiming the same thing that Cubans demand today: "freedom!" This scene of Aug. 5, 1994, is known today as the Maleconazo.

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But that same afternoon the government repressed the demonstrations and the situation resulted in the displacement of thousands of Cubans to the United States.

This time the picture has been a little different. The demonstrations did not only remain in Havana, nor did they last just one afternoon.

In a matter of minutes, the protests that began in San Antonio de los Baños spread through social networks until they reached the other end of the island in Guantánamo, passing through Cienfuegos, Camagüey, Bauta, Santiago de Cuba, among other cities.

But the scope of those images and videos did not stop at Cuban borders. That same day, protests were also seen in Miami, New York, Washington D.C, Houston, Phoenix and other cities around the country.

That spontaneity and the magnitude of the protests took the world by surprise, and continue to do so.

“Something like this has never been seen,” Rodríguez said. "Cuba does not have a culture of protest, because in Cuba that is a crime."

But the people hope that the result of these protests will finally be freedom for the island.

"People would like a system in which there is freedom of expression and freedom of supply," Rivero said. "That is what people want."

Reach reporter Laura Daniella Sepúlveda at lsepulveda@lavozarizona.com or on Twitter @lauradnews.

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