When I come to Cuba, I don’t like to stay in hotels because they’re too distant from the daily life of the people. I know it’s important to welcome and accommodate the now few tourists who come to the island, but that’s not my thing, and so I’m staying with my Cuban “brother” Héctor and his family in their humble but dignified home.
By Roberto Boccarusso
Their humility and dignity are accompanied by extraordinary strength and character, characteristics that fully identify 98% of the Cuban population, while the remaining 2% are those commonly referred to here as “gusanos” (worms), supporters of the siege and who can’t wait to return to being colonies and slaves. One of our ancestors said that “there are no better slaves than those who are happy to be one”; well, those are the gusanos.
Talking at length with Héctor, hearing him recount every event of the revolution and everything that accompanied the life and resistance of this people, is priceless, and often our eyes both shine when Fidel forcefully enters our conversations… even now, as I write about him and everything he tells me…
Words are not enough to describe the beauty of Cuba, but above all the atmosphere that permeates it; everywhere you can find every kind of expression in support of the Revolution, of solidarity, of the unwavering desire for sovereignty and freedom against any external interference. Cubans claim to have already suffered too much oppression, first from Spain and now from the United States, and the teachings of Fidel and Che Guevara here are food for the soul.
The current situation is undoubtedly extremely difficult, worse than the “special period” following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet bloc, the island’s main economic partner. The solutions implemented by the Cuban government, such as the massive expansion of energy production from renewable sources and membership in alternative and solidarity economic circles (BRICS), even if they will take a long time, nevertheless offer hope.
For this reason, Trump threatens every other day to intervene militarily against Cuba, something he has already attempted in recent weeks with the failed attempt to infiltrate terrorist agents. The United States fears not Cuba, but its example. They fear that the moral strength of the Cuban people will finally lead the South American continent to rebel against the yoke of their hateful North American neighbor; they fear the feeling that unites peoples in a harmonious and supportive union, because solidarity among peoples is the most powerful weapon in the world.
Let us now see how the decades-long siege, recently further tightened, is terribly affecting a people who only wants to be happy, as can be read on many walls in the streets of Havana.
This phrase, “necesitas ser feliz” (literally translated as “you need to be happy,” but whose intrinsic meaning is “the Cuban people needs happiness”) has become the Cuban people’s anthem for the right to enjoy its own happiness by sovereignly and freely deciding its own future and, of course, its own political system. A right that belongs to all the peoples of the world.
As I’ve already explained, the first, most serious, and most recent problem is fuel. The brutal blockade, backed by threats of sanctions as well as by military aggression—as already seen in the case of Venezuela—on the shipment of oil and its derivatives to Cuba affects every type of activity, because the lack of fuel leads to a lack of electricity, and the lack of electricity doesn’t just turn off the lights, it turns off everything. The little energy available is guaranteed only to what is deemed “essential,” like hospitals; everything else suffers enormously.
Seeing Havana in the dark after 8 p.m. is incredibly sad, but I can testify that the narrative spread by Western mainstream media is a huge lie (like almost everything else written about Cuba): I’ve been here for a week now, I’ve traveled extensively, I’ve spoken to people, and no one blames the government or the socialist system (except the gusanos), because everyone knows full well who is responsible for all the problems that have plagued Cuba for over half a century. There are no anti-government demonstrations, as some US-supported media outlets claim.
Another obvious result of the various US coercions is waste. The only way to ensure timely and regular garbage collection in a city of over two million inhabitants like Havana is to have an adequate number of vehicles dedicated to this purpose. It’s not this that’s lacking, but the fuel to propel these vehicles. At the beginning of the fuel rationing, piles of garbage appeared in many neighborhoods, and the images obviously went around the world. But then Cubans realized the risks this entailed and began to self-manage, at least when it came to placing garbage on the streets while awaiting pickup, which, albeit slowly, has resumed. Let me show you what I mean:
Before:
After:
As you can see, containers and collection points are being used to their fullest. However, Western mainstream media has only covered the “before” aspect of all this, obviously blaming the socialist system for the situation.
Another huge problem is the shortage of medicines, which, as you might imagine, are diverted almost exclusively to hospitals. I personally visited a sadly empty pharmacy and was able to engage in a very cordial conversation with the pharmacists there; I had no doubt what they would say, because only those who refuse to see, hear, or understand (the gusanos) can blame the Cuban government for the situation. In fact, I’ve been told that things started to get worse a few years ago, after the timid opening to resuming relations under Obama and then, lo and behold, under Trump’s first term. From then on, everything escalated, with an endless list of sanctions, threats, coercion, and blackmail against any nation that dared send anything to Cuba. But according to the “gusanos” and the mainstream media, none of this corresponds to reality. As if to say, “don’t believe your eyes, but what we tell you.”
