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FROM
CUBA
Plebiscite
Javier Machado, Cubanacán Press
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, May 17 (www.cubanet.org)
- I just read in the newspaper Granma that
1.2 million people marched on Havana's Malecón.
The headline said that was only a small
part of the brave and heroic people who
made evident the unity and fighting spirit
of the Cubans.
The photo that appeared in Granma was evidence
of the enormous human river, multicolored
and compact, that marched in front of the
Anti-Imperialist Viewing Stand in the capital.
Havana came to a stop. Nobody worked, nobody
went to school. According to Granma, it
was a patriot party where David shouted
at the powerful Goliath from the north,
where no one was afraid and everyone was
for country or death.
But what would have happened if at the
time of the great parade there had been
a flotilla of American ships off the coast?
Or if there had been a rumor that the American
Interests Section and accredited embassies
in the city had announced they were opening
their doors to give out free of charge immigrant
visas?
Imagine the scene. I can envision some
old people burning the tires on their cars
to reach the ships. I can see people running
in all directions except towards the viewing
stand where there's a man in olive green.
They're ready to accept whatever happens.
The images that pop into my brain faster
than the cinematographic 24 per second show
women with children in their arms entering
the diplomatic offices while their husbands
go to the sea; the military remove their
uniforms and jump into the water, knowing
that a counter-order might come from the
embassies. I see Rául saying adiós
to his brother, who cries out once again,
Venceremos!
I believe that, for a few hours, this would
be a true plebiscite among people with a
plurality of votes, or a type of consultation
of the public powers by submitting to a
popular and direct vote approval or rejection
of proposals from the people. What an escape
valve!
But it's an illusion to think that the
United States can promote such a popular
consultation within our borders, unless
Cuba authorizes participation in a new visa
lottery to be announced in Granma, as was
done in 1998. They know how many requests
were then made, although many never reached
their destiny because of the complicity
of trained hands that converted to ashes
those requests.
It is said that the number of requests
in 1998 surpassed half a million. If we
consider that each request covered four
family members, the total surpassed two
million. We don't include those who didn't
participate because of fear of reprisals
or the letters that disappeared.
The Cuban explanation will always be that
those who emigrate do so for economic reasons
and the rhetoric will say we're a third
world blockaded country
The number of people who expressed their
desire to emigrate was substantially higher
than two million Cubans in 1998. What would
the number be now, six years later? To me,
they'd be unimaginable.
For these reasons, I think it's too euphemistic
when it's said that a determined number
of people participated in the march "representing
11 million Cubans." There are Cubans
who never watch national television, not
even out of the corner of their eye, because
they've been subject to so much propaganda
and calculated lies. Don't speak of unity
because the right to buy a telephone or
a televisions is capable of making an enemy
to the death of neighbors or companions
at worked.
But there were thousands of people on the
Malecón because there was no alternative
to the pressure of the unions and the Party.
Some had happy smiles because they could
go home afterwards to rest. The children
received a day off from school.
Versión
original en español
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