Editor's Note:
Carlos Alberto Montaner is a writer, journalist, and CNN contributor.
His columns are published in dozens of newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America.
Montaner is also vice president of the Liberal International.
The opinions expressed here are solely his.
(CNN Spanish) -
The Cuban regime showed that, at least on November 15, it had the upper hand.
It was not, as Joe Biden said, a failed state.
Although many are against Marxism-Leninism, what has happened in some of the societies that have abandoned that system, there is very little they can do to get rid of the dictatorship.
On November 15 there were no protests.
They did not let them or did not dare.
Nothing “failed”.
It was a perfectly controlled state.
Cuba's military prepares for an "enemy invasion" amid mounting tension with the United States.
But at what cost?
Apparently at a very high price.
The journalist Reinaldo Escobar of 14ymedio - a newspaper produced in Cuba by the famous blogger Yoani Sánchez, Escobar's wife - affirms in his report that the dictatorship found its "victory" very expensive.
Is right.
For weeks, they have been dedicating the entire police to controlling dissidents, who are many and younger and younger. They calculate that it takes several people to prevent, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, that dissidents "escape" from their homes, as happened on July 11 when, surprisingly, the people took to the streets to ask Liberty. At that time, there was no coordination. It was a spontaneous protest that began in San Antonio de los Baños, a town near Havana and later spread to dozens of cities throughout the island.
But that is the cost of the protests in pesos and cents.
The intangible cost will surely be much higher.
The capitals that will not go to Cuba because there is a clear sign that they are in danger in a volatile society, in which at some point that of God is Christ can be assembled.
They had to choose between terrorizing the population and running the risk of handing over power, and it is already known that the bosses are ready to do anything to avoid losing their privileges.
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The problem is the regime with the internal Catholic Church (or "domestic", as they say today in bad Spanish).
In the town of Bejucal, near Havana, the nuns came out dressed in white in solidarity with the youth of the Archipelago platform, while the bishops called for the release of the many political prisoners.
To all.
"We have run into the Church, Sancho," said Don Quixote. Some point out that this is possible due to the lack of Ortega, which for me ignores three fundamental causes of the change in attitude of the Church: the vicissitudes suffered by the people due to the imposition of collectivism, of which ordinary priests are witnesses. ; the hundreds of arrests and beatings inflicted on people, many of them Catholic, as a result of the July 11 demonstrations; and the fact that it was evident that there was a civic movement underway, to which the Church, for reasons of decency, wanted to join. Caridad Diego, head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), even had the sad role of threatening the priests of Camagüey with putting them in jail if they persisted in supporting the protesters.
Another issue, apart from the conflicts between the Cuban regime and the Church, affected the affectivity of the Spaniards: the revocation of EFE journalists' permits to operate in Cuba (which they later returned), and the non-granting of visas to the media. legitimate press releases.
To which is added the fact of subjecting Yunior García Aguilera and his wife to choose between exile in Spain and years in a Castro prison or, simply, preventing them from leaving their home or communicating with the outside world.
It was obvious what they were forced to do.
