Maneuvers of Castro's totalitarianism

By: Pedro Corzo - 12/07/2026

Guest columnist.
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I urge the enemies of Castro's totalitarianism, both governments and individuals, not to be deceived. It is true that they are inept in the art or science of governing, utterly incapable of generating wealth, but when it comes to political manipulation and control, they are consummate masters, among other reasons, because they are unscrupulous.

For decades, opponents of Castroism have underestimated that system's ability to survive and inflict harm. Lies and deception are its most effective tools; it transforms itself like salamanders, and as such, it is toxic to democracies and citizens' rights.

This is not the first time the Castro regime has promised changes it never delivers, because, as the saying goes, "they buy fish and then get scared by their own eyes." The impoverishment of the country has been a constant state policy because totalitarianism is certain that economic independence leads to political independence.

The Castro regime's leaders have always held an absolute and eternal vision of power. They share many similarities with theocratic regimes, acting like religious fundamentalists and being inflexible in accepting any measure that might threaten their imperial authority.

It is true that the current deterioration is unprecedented and the decisions of the United States government have the totalitarian system on its last legs; however, they cannot be given quarter, because they stage a theatrical spectacle capable of confusing everyone long enough for Washington to change its perspectives and for the Cubans to once again be exhausted between the stick and very few carrots.

The recent statements by the State Department describing the package of 176 economic reforms announced by the dictatorship as "superficial smoke signals" and a "typical strategy" were very accurate.

They are right when they say that Castroism tries to create an illusion of openness so that international pressure ceases, and I would add, also so that the protests of the Cubans cease; they know that when the people assume the leading role that corresponds to them, not even the Chinese doctor can save them, an expression from the Cuban proverb that means that there is no possible cure.

Castroism has proven to be a highly talented actor, possessing a well-articulated script unfolding on a stage where the people have occupied the worst positions—positions they are now seemingly ready to abandon. The citizens are fed up with so much misery.

I have no doubt that the dictatorship deeply fears the United States and all that this nation represents because they are opposed to Castro's proposals; I am convinced that it would resent the end of the dishonest assistance that the European Union has been consistently providing, but, my unquestionable certainty, is that what they fear most is the fury of the population.

With these proposals, the system seeks to neutralize sectors of the government that do not have access to the privileges of the central apparatus, and also to confuse the population, fed up with the absolute misery that degrades them, a situation that has led them to protest civically, generating a climate of instability that can turn the bayonets that the soldier, also in misfortune, wields.

The Castros, Díaz-Canel, and all the henchmen who have served them for decades know what the masses are capable of when they break free from their chains. They have consciously subjected the people to conditions of extreme misery, humiliating and degrading them to unimaginable levels, and this breeds a hatred and a thirst for revenge that history has repeatedly demonstrated.

Cuba has experienced it, and the nonagenarians who have destroyed the country and put the nation at risk know it, although, just in case, I remind them of the extreme evil to which popular anger can lead.

After the overthrow of General-dictator Gerardo Machado, the corpse of one of his most notorious henchmen, Brigadier Antonio Ainciart Agüero, was exhumed from a mass grave in the Marianao cemetery and taken by mobs to the University of Havana to hang it from a lamppost. While they were trying to do so, the rope broke and the decomposing body fell to the ground. Student leader Eduardo Chibas intervened and, at gunpoint, prevented the desecration from continuing.

History may repeat itself, although not exactly to absolve tyrants and tyranny.

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