Maleconazo at 25: The popular uprising that shook the Castro dictatorship

"We now know that any method or model which purportedly aims to achieve justice, development, and efficiency but takes precedence over the individual or cancels out any of the fundamental rights leads to a form of oppression, to exclusion and is calamitous for the people." - Oswaldo Paya, Strasbourg, December 17, 2002

 

Popular uprising near the Havana Sea Wall on August 5, 1994

Cubans have been fleeing the dictatorship in Havana for decades, but there is one episode that stands out that shook the Castro regime to its very core. It has become known as the Maleconazo. Less than a month after the "13 de Marzo" tugboat massacre of July 13, 1994 a thousand Cubans were marching and shouting for freedom. On that same night as the uprising, Fidel Castro, was re-framing the circumstances surrounding the attack and sinking of the tugboat that claimed the lives of 37 men, women and children. The following account is taken and translated from the Spanish newspaper ABC , Radio Marti, testimony from Cuban dissident Regis Iglesias, and from testimony by "13 de Marzo" tugboat survivor Sergio Perodin.



What happened? 
500 Cubans gathered on August 5, 1994 on the pier "de la Luz", to take the launch that goes to Regla and Casablanca because there was a rumor that it would again be diverted to Florida. It was a rumor of a path to freedom that these 500 people had seized upon. 


Military trucks arrived and announced the suspension of the launches departure and dispersed the crowd.  People walking along the Malecón (The Havana Sea Wall)  joined the dispersed crowd and gathered near the  Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force). A thousand Cubans began to march shouting Freedom through the streets of Havana. 

Cubans marching and shouting for freedom on August 5, 1994

That 500 Cubans would gather to flee the island is not a new phenomenon but that another 500 would join them  to march and call for freedom was something new and an unexpected development for the security services.

After marching for a kilometer, a hundred Special Brigade members and plain clothes police confronted the protesters. 

The demonstrators dispersed into the neighborhood of Central Havana, burning rubbish bins, smashing the windows of the dollar stores and clashing with the police with stones and sticks. Regime agents responded with physical beat downs, several gun shots and their own mobilization of repressive actors.

Plainclothes regime agent aims his gun at protesters August 5

That same day Fidel Castro took to the official airwaves and as usual blamed the dictatorship's problems on the United States but had to address the event that took place on July 13, 1994 saying:

 "...it [the United States] wants at all costs to undermine the country's economic effort, as part of its overall plan to destroy the Revolution.  Radio broadcasts, subversive propaganda, all of this is spearheaded from outside and is encouraged abroad.  But, to be sure, this concrete fact--this phenomenon--has been much more clearly in evidence in recent weeks, starting with the accident involving the tug '13 de Marzo'.  I believe that one of the most infamous and most grossly cynical acts of the United States Government occurred because of this accident."

An exhaustive investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the events of the attack and sinking of the "13 de Marzo" tugboat on July 13, 1994 found that "[t]he evidence clearly shows that the sinking of the tug "13 de Marzo" was not an accident but rather a premeditated, intentional act," and held the Cuban State responsible for violating the right to life of all those killed that day aboard the tugboat. 

  The beginning of the massacre had been witnessed from the Malecón and according to one of the survivors, Sergio Perodin: "People in Havana Malecon (a popular seafront place), couples, fishermen, began to shout asking the Polargo's crew not to sink us." 
Twenty three days later 1,000 Cubans were marching through the streets of Havana and clashing with regime officials and Fidel Castro was trying to justify the events surrounding the "13 de Marzo" tugboat sinking portraying the perpetrators of the massacre as heroes and defaming the victims. The number of protesters continued to grow with some estimates placing the total number at more than 20,000. 

ABC newspaper in Spain outlines what happened on August 5, 1994

Porvenir Street, a small street in Havana, already seemed more a series of military stops than an ordinary artery of the city. A convoy of trucks crammed with repressive special troops and a vehicle with a 50 caliber machine gun on top patrolled up and down the long street. 

In the vicinity of the Maceo Park, military trucks were seen with trailers carrying machine guns and agents of the well-known Black Wasps, the special troops of the Armed Forces.

Ignacio M. Montero: Present at Maleconazo

Ignacio Martínez Montero, who had been sitting at the sea wall in Havana with others, described how he ended up caught up in the protest. "I sat, like many, on the sea wall, very close to where still today the famous Casablanca launch travels in and out. That year was turbulent, constant talk about boats diverted to Miami, and the tugboat. Maybe that's why the special brigade trucks arrived and attacked all of us who were sitting. Our response to their aggression was only to clamor for freedom. It has been said that we threw stones; but all that is a lie, the truth was that we were tired of so much aggression, without planning among ourselves, we began to walk together shouting, Enough, Down with the revolution! ... And before reaching Hotel Deauville, a battalion waited for us that attacked us with sticks and iron rods. It was they who made the big mess. They broke my left eyebrow and left me semi-lame. Yes, there were assaults and the aggressors had guns, but not among the civilians. 

State security agents aim their guns at protesters on August 5, 1994

 One of the boys who went with us, who was called the Moor, even while handcuffed, they shot him in the torso and it was a miracle that he did not die. Who do you think paid for that? No one." Ignacio and the others were placed in a truck and beaten while being told to shout "Viva Fidel." They were eventually taken to the police station on  L and Malecón. 

Sentencing document for Ignacio Martínez Montero

Following that Ignacio got medical treatment for his injuries. Once treated, he was taken to prison 15/80 along with other protesters. Conditions were rough and their was at least one suicide who hanged himself. From there he was taken to Villa Marista and interrogated for 18 days during which there was torture. The secret police could not believe that the uprising had been spontaneous.  Ignacio was subjected to a summary trial and served eight months in Kilo 7 prison. Upon his release he was warned that he would be watched, and they kept their word.

Police and plainclothes official in Cuba detain demonstrator on August 5, 1994

Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela in a August 2, 2019 interview in Diario las Americas described the misery of the "Special Period" in the early 1990s and his experience on that day. "In the midst of all that despair, the "Maleconazo" of August 5, 1994 happened. That day, incredibly, I had a concert at the Karl Marx, the largest theater in Cuba. I remember that afternoon they decided to cancel all the events that were there that night in Havana, but for some reason and to my surprise someone decided that my concert that night was not canceled. Although the theater was sold out 15 days before, that night only half attended."

Mass arrests followed and on Saturday, August 6, 1994 the Malecón and various Central Havana streets were closed off. Communist youth patrolled the streets. Several police officers and demonstrators hurt during the protests were hospitalized.  

Political police with baton takes away a prisoner.

Carlos Varela described how on that evening twice the capacity of the theater had tried to enter: "That night was the first time that people in the audience began throwing thousands of coins on stage and lit their lighters while I sang the phrase 'Coins in the air' that says: 'Maybe, maybe, a miracle will reach us down here.'"

It appears that what had started, provoked by a rumor of freedom, frustrated by repressive forces then combined with outrage from the previous month's massacre of innocents turned into a popular protest that initially caught the Castro regime by surprise. For the first time in 35 years a mass popular protest was able to sustain itself long enough to be reported on by international media before it was crushed by the regime's repressive actors.

Twenty five years later and the Maleconazo is still remembered in the popular consciousness of Cubans. 



The Cuban punk rock group, Porno para Ricardo named a song and album after the protests. Below is a video the banned group produced for the 18th anniversary of the August 5th uprising in Cuba.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the uprising Carlos Varela released the song "El bostezo de la espera" (The yawn of waiting) and offered up his thoughts on its significance. "Definitely on August 5, 1994, all of us were silently contaminated with the yawn of waiting. Ideology, power and the need for money divided us all, cut our wings and filled us with doubts, fears and distrust."

Despite Varela's claim that all were "contaminated with the yawn of waiting" the actions of his country men and women over the past 25 years indicate that many could not wait. Tens of thousands of Cubans would sign the Varela Project. The project has no relation to Carlos Varela. It is named after Father Felix Varela, the Catholic Priest who helped form the Cuban national identity in the 19th Century.  The Varela Project is an initiative of the Christian Liberation Movement. 



The Cuban dictatorship responded to this initiative, as it did to the August 5th uprising in Havana, with political terror, and violence. The organizers of the Varela Project were subjected to political show trials in 2003 and long prison sentences.  The main author of the Varela Project, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, was extrajudicially executed along with a youth leader of the movement, Harold Cepero, on July 22, 2012.

The mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives of the 75 prisoners of conscience jailed in 2003 formed the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) and campaigned for their release. They were also met with political terror, and violence. Their founding leader, Laura Inés Pollán Toledo, died under suspicious circumstances on October 14, 2011. These women were subjected to brutal attacks that were so outrageous that in 2010 Carlos Varela spoke out against the violence perpetrated against them.

The doubts, fears and distrust continue to be sowed by the dictatorship to preserve power. It is up to people of good will to denounce these practices and demonstrate their solidarity with Cubans.







 

Maleconazo at 20 years and the Associated Press

"Freedom did not come that August, but nothing would be the same."- Regis Iglesias, spokesperson, Christian Liberation Movement

On the Avenida del Puerto in Havana shouts of "Cuba Si, Castro No!"and "Freedom!"

 20 years ago today, a thousand Cubans marched through the streets of Havana chanting "Freedom!"and "Down With Castro!" They were met with brutal repression, including regime agents shooting at unarmed demonstrators. Little has been reported on this, but the images and sounds remain. After things were under control the dictator Fidel Castro appeared on the scene and opened the borders. Before that announcement fleeing refugees had confronted snipers and grenades. The end result was another mass exodus of Cubans.


It appears that the Associated Press for example has had other priorities than to report on this important anniversary and its significance for Cuba. Over the years numerous journalists have been expelled from the island for accurately reporting on the situation there but Andrea Rodríguez doesn't seem to have that problem with the Cuban dictatorship. For example the Associated Press didn't have time to report on the Maleconazo because it was on its third major "story" spinning news in a favorable light for the Cuban government that has met with skepticism in some quarters in Cuba.

Plainclothes state security agents with their guns out and pointed at the protesters on August 5

What happened?
Five hundred of the Cubans had arrived at the Havana sea wall (El Malecon) to board a launch that was rumored was going to be taken to Miami.  These people were not seeking to overthrow the dictatorship but did want to live in freedom. They were met by the Castro dictatorship's state security agents using force who told the crowd to disperse. Instead of diffusing the situation another 500 Cubans joined in and  they began to march along the Malecon chanting "Freedom!"and "Down With Castro! After marching for a kilometer, a hundred Special Brigade members and plain clothes police confronted the protesters. 

Police and plainclothes in Cuba detaining a demonstrator on August 5, 1994

 What is amazing is that 20 years later and the full details of what transpired remain unknown the pictures of regime officials pointing their handguns at the demonstrators combined with reports of the sounds of gun shots and wounded protesters have echoed down through the years in anecdotal stories about that day. 

Ignacio Martínez Montero: Present at Maleconazo

Eyewitness account  
The testimony of Ignacio Martínez Montero posted on la voz del morro allegedly gives a first hand account of what happened that day:

Then came the year 94 One hot August of that year's day, I'd arrived at my mother in laws home in Cuba and Chacón in the heart of Old Havana, near the Malecón, for that reason alone, after visiting my mother in law, I sat , like many, on the wall of the bay, very close to where still today the famous Casablanca launch travels in and out. That year was turbulent, constantly talking about boats diverted to Miami, and the tugboat. Maybe that's why the special brigade trucks arrived and attacked all of us who were sitting. 

Our response to this aggression was only to clamor for freedom. It has been said that we threw stones; but all that is a lie, the truth was that we were tired of so much aggression and without agreeing to we began to walk together screaming, Enough, Down with the revolution ... And before reaching Hotel Deauville, a battalion waited for us that attacked us with sticks and iron rods. It was they who made the big mess. They broke my left eyebrow and left me semi-lame. Yes, there were assaults and the aggressors had guns, but not among the civilians. One of the boys who went with us, who was called the Moor, even while handcuffed, they shot him in the torso and it was a miracle that he did not die. Who do you think paid for that? No one. 

They put us in a truck where they received us with beatings only to convince us to scream "Viva Fidel." They took us to the police station located at L and Malecon. Hours later I was taken to Calixto García hospital. There they attended to my foot and I treated the eyebrow wound; the medical certificate, never appeared. From there we boarded another bus and were taken to the prison 15/80, I could say "kidnapped" because nobody knew where we were. Some kids and nephews of my dad, who were with us, were released immediately. A boy could not take it and ended up hanged. No one learned of this; but we are many the witnesses who know what really happened that August 5th 1994, the day of Maleconazo.

Twenty years later and the Castro regime remains firmly in power terrorizing, beating, torturing and murdering nonviolent dissidents, but at the same time the dictatorship's state security apparatus has been extremely effective at using its agents of influence to downplay its brutal nature and distract international attention. For example on the 20th anniversary of the largest anti-Castro uprising in the past half century there were only two stories referencing the Havana uprising of August 5, 1994 and sixteen that mentioned the Maleconazo compared to 12,600 results for USAID and Cuba thanks to the Associated Press and its well timed release of this questionable story.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who it appears was extrajudicially executed by state security agents along with Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012 less than a year earlier on September 20, 2011 had videotaped his interview with Andrea Rodriguez of the Associated Press and released it because he believed that what he had told her was not fairly reflected in the article she had written.He provided a transcript along with the video below of the interview. It is still extremely relevant today. 

Oswaldo spoke truth to power while maintaining at all times his nonviolent and principled stand while denouncing those advocating a fraudulent change that did not empower Cubans in their own country and is demonstrated in the excerpt below:

"Where in the world does a woman dressed in white walking down the street constitute a provocation? Only in a fascist-communist regime like this.
Therefore the victim gets criticized because no one dares to criticize the executioner. There is a real “moral inversion,” in what the foreign media, intellectual circles, ecclesiastical circles, diplomats and politicians are doing against the people of Cuba and against the dissident right now. They judge the persecuted, the poor, those who are silenced, but they do not dare to judge the government. And what the government needs to be told is what we say in “the People’s Path”. Hold free elections; change the law so Cubans can express themselves, so they can choose. But what they want is to keep their privileges while they say that everything has been agreed upon. This joke will go very wrong because the people of Cuba are not stupid, and the majority are still poor and distressed.

But the worst is that the foreign media, intellectual circles, ecclesiastical circles, and entire states are accompanying the Cuban government in setting up this fraud, this joke that will bring only confrontation and pain to Cubans, and that is keeping the majority of the Cuban people silent and gagged while this virtual scenario for change is being created.

We are trying to draw attention to this but also demanding and saying that, after 52 years of totalitarianism, we want what all peoples want: freedom, rights, and free elections. The opposition is focusing on that direction: fundamental rights so citizens can organize and express themselves, and free elections."

 Today, as we observe this historic cry for freedom on the streets of Havana, Cuba that was heard around the world. We must remember that it was due to the courage of those who succeeded in video taping and photographing what took place and getting it out to the rest of the world. What is worrying is that 20 years later reporters preferring not to be expelled from the island might think twice before documenting and reporting on such an important story. Instead it is left to independent dissident journalists, who risk prison, to report on what is really happening including breaking the story on the first cholera epidemic since colonial times in Cuba. The independent journalist who broke the Cholera story was imprisoned for seven months and recognized as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.

Twenty years later the spirit of freedom lives on in Cuba and one day Cubans will win back their country and their freedom from the dictatorship currently in power despite what the Associated Press reports.