In response to the Cuban government’s crackdown, the group behind the opposition march halted on Monday urged Cubans to continue protesting and raising their voices against “injustice.”
In an early morning statement on Tuesday, Archipiélago, the group behind the march, said the reasons for the initiative still remain and that the Cuban government “has not understood the message.”
“The Cuban government has responded to our demands as a dictatorship does: with extreme militarization of the streets, more than 100 activists under siege, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, acts of repudiation, violence, threats, coercion and hate speech,” the statement said. “Repression against citizens and peaceful protesters is not and will not be accepted.”
The government was determined to prevent Cubans from joining a march that intended to send a message against violence and advocate for the release of political prisoners. A spontaneous protest on July 11 caught Cuban authorities by surprise, but on Monday the military was on alert, and cities and towns across the island woke up to a significant police presence.
After weeks of an intense propaganda campaign to discredit the organizers and efforts to intimidate supporters, most Cubans decided to stay quiet. News that some of the protesters incarcerated by the government after the July 11 demonstrations are facing 25 years has sent a chilling message to the population.
Still, a few people managed to walk outside, dressed in white, as the organizers suggested and later posted images and videos. But most activists and dissidents could not join them, since their homes were under police surveillance or surrounded by pro-government mobs, ready to stage so-called repudiation acts.
But Archipiélago said it does not feel defeated.
“Never have the Cuban people been more united in the fight for their rights,” the group said. “We have outdone ourselves as a nation and that is the resounding success of 15N.”
The group has called for an extension of individual civic actions supporting the march objectives until November 27. The date is remembered in Cuba as the anniversary of an infamous episode during the colonial period in 1871, when Spanish authorities unjustly executed eight Cuban medical students, stirring support for the ongoing independence war.
One of Archipiélago’s members, who was the target of an hours-long repudiation act so she could not join the march, echoed the sentiment in the statement, calling the initiative and the debate surrounding it “a victory.”
“I believe that yesterday the people of Cuba gave a show of civility. The few people who walked through the streets did so in a very civil way,” Saily González said in an interview from Santa Clara, a city in central Cuba. “Yesterday, we did not fail at all; it was a victory because the images showing that Cuba is a dictatorship spread around the world and generated a lot of solidarity within Cuba.”
Even so, the group faces an uncertain future as the government has made clear it is determined to quash dissent. At the same time, the opposition movement is forcing those in power to govern by force, eroding its domestic and international legitimacy. Many public figures in Cuba have disavowed leader Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government and praised the group’s efforts, among them the renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer.
“I support all Cubans, and I include myself, who want a better country,” Brouwer said in a video published Monday. “For me, it is sad to refer to Cuba as the ‘no’ country, a lost, sunk or destroyed island where nothing is possible, where everything is censored, criticized. I join my fellow artists and the people in general; I do not want more devastation or suffering. Enough already.”
González said the group is still trying to determine how many people were arrested Monday.
Some have been released, but some others have not, including dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa. The group said that the whereabouts of Daniela Rojo, a mother of two and one of the coordinators of Archipiélago, are unknown.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said in a press conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that the march initiative “created a powerful symbol” for Cubans and others around the world.
“I don’t understand how any country which defends Cuba can continue to do so,” Rubio said.
A senior administration official said Monday that President Joe Biden was planning to ask the presidents of Mexico and Canada, two countries with close relations with the island’s government, to join the U.S. in urging the Cuban government to allow Cubans to express themselves freely.
“The United States is committed to supporting the agency of the Cuban people as they seek to promote democratic change as an inclusive and broad-based social movement,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a late-night statement Monday. “We urge the Cuban regime to refrain from violence against peaceful protesters and to immediately release all those unjustly detained, and we call on the international community to voice their support for the Cuban people.”
McClatchy DC reporter Michael Wilner and Miami Herald reporter Alex Daugherty contributed.
______
