Shame before servitude

By: Pedro Corzo - 30/03/2026

Guest columnist.
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I know that some will not like this comment, that there will be those who are annoyed and even rebuke me, but as an admirer of Jose Marti I follow his postulate that "A man who hides what he thinks, or does not dare to say what he thinks, is not an honest man" and I intend, I try, to be an honest man, so I will not keep quiet about what I think, even if my compatriots feel offended.

It is shameful to see so many Cuban-born people continue to support Castro's totalitarian regime despite not enjoying even the most basic civil rights and surviving in extreme poverty. Most Cubans are aware that they live in conditions worse than the slaves on 18th-century sugar plantations; however, a significant segment participates in spectacles that benefit the system that oppresses them.

I am convinced that there are those who believe that Castroism gave them a better life; I am not speculating, I know them. These are people who do not realize that they live like farm animals and that everyone's living conditions tend to improve when there is freedom and rights can be freely enjoyed.

These people don't understand that they have become a mass manipulated by a class that holds power for its own exclusive benefit, that they are subjected to a doctrinal indoctrination that makes them believe the alternative is death or greater misery. These individuals refuse to accept that the reality they experience is part of a gigantic network operating within the walls built by the Castros, with Miguel Díaz-Canel as its overseer.

I recently saw a remarkable number of Cubans cheering the inept despot Diaz Canel, incomprehensibly showing support for the one who oppresses them. Even more so, while the capital remained in almost total darkness, another, or perhaps the same, mob stopped in front of the illuminated hotel where the members of a convoy of useful idiots were gathered, convinced that those who cheered them were victims of imperial conspiracies and not of a system that has led the nation to the precipice.

I am convinced that some participate in these events out of fear, a feeling from which very few escape and which Cubans have lived with for far too many decades. Others attend because they remain seduced by a lie that has been shattered by reality; they are convinced, like the rats of Hamelin, that following the tune to the point of catastrophe is the best course of action. And then there are a few, driven by at least two motivations that ultimately become intertwined: frivolity and support for those who oppress them—a kind of mass Stockholm syndrome.

Castroism has possessed a remarkable talent for manipulating the Cuban population. To that end, it has created a significant number of organizations that dispense much coercion and little encouragement, generating an insecurity mixed with fear that is difficult to overcome. But beyond this criminal manipulation, I am certain that there is no shortage of Cubans who, like robots, have it ingrained in their consciousness that any other political or ideological proposal is worse than the one they endure.

Castro's totalitarianism has never lacked allies because all those who reject what the United States represents are willing to assist it; therefore, Castro's choice of Washington as his archenemy has always been favorable to him.

Nevertheless, I am very proud that there has never been a shortage of Cubans who reject Castroism. Since January 1st, despite the almost absolute power of the oppressors, men and women from different social backgrounds and of all ages and races confronted the dictatorship at a time when food was plentiful and electricity met the demand, thanks to the accumulated wealth of the Republic that Fidel and Raul Castro destroyed.

It is true that in those days freedom of the press was being eroded. Freedom of travel was restricted, those who practiced a religion were discriminated against, education was morphing into indoctrination, and even wearing a collar and tie was considered subversive—abuses that led to the execution of Porfirio Ramírez, Alberto Tapia Ruano, and thousands more; the deaths of Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo, along with other worthy compatriots, on hunger strike; and the imprisonment of Ángel de Fana, Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez, and Amado Alfonso, along with hundreds of thousands of others, for defending the rights of all.

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