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.







 

Regime to Cubans: Mourn Castro or suffer dangerous consequences of dissent or indifference

“The difference between the communist and capitalist systems is that, although both give you a kick in the ass, in the communist system you have to applaud, while in the capitalist system you can scream." - Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls, 1993

Eduardo Cardet of MCL badly beaten, jailed and threatened with 15 years in prison 

Danilo Maldonado, a Cuban artist, was beaten up, abducted and continues to be detained for shouting "Down with Fidel!, Down with Raul!" live from the Habana Libre Hotel in the Vedado Saturday, November 26, 2016 at 5 a.m. Six hours later at 11:15am Cuban intelligence officials forced their way into his apartment, physically assaulted him and dragged him away. His story has received coverage in the media but there have been others, but not covered by the English speaking news.

The plight of Eduardo Cardet Concepción, national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) in Cuba is especially worrying. In an interview published in ACI Press on November 30, 2016 Eduardo declared that the true legacy of Fidel Castro for Cuba is sadness and "misery of all kinds" and he went on to say that those communists praising Fidel Castro abroad "have wanted to have a regime of this kind" for their own country. Cardet went on to observe that although Fidel Castro had died that "repression has intensified" and that the mass exodus of Cubans "is a direct indicator that this is the true legacy of Fidel Castro, a painful legacy, a legacy of sadness, a legacy of misery of all kinds. There's really nothing positive. " The Christian Liberation Movement leader was also interviewed on Spanish radio where he outlined the measures taken by the Castro regime to pressure and manipulate Cubans into creating an image of Cubans mourning the dead dictator, but that in reality Fidel Castro "was rejected and hated by the Cuban people." Viewing the scenes in Miami of thousands of Cubans and Cuban Americans living in freedom taking to the streets to celebrate Castro's death would back up Eduardo Cardet's assertion.

Urgente: llevarán a Eduardo Cardet #MCLiberacion a tribunales por desacato,escándalo público,resistencia a la autoridad y lesiones

— MCL (@oswaldopaya) December 1, 2016

In the early morning hours of today various police officials detain and badly beat up Eduardo Cardet and he is currently in a dungeon in Holguín, Cuba. Regime officials are threatening him with 15 years in prison for "meeting with people he shouldn't have during his visit to the United States last week." At 4:16pm the Christian Liberation Movement tweeted the above message in Spanish, "Urgent: Eduardo Cardet of #MCL will be taken to court for contempt, public scandal, resistance to authority and injuries."

These courageous activists are not the only ones being targeted but the Cuban populace has a whole is being pressured and implicitly threatened to mourn Fidel Castro or face the consequences. Cubans who have been caught playing music for example have had their sound systems taken away. Some Cubans at their work have been told to go out and participate in official mourning activities.

This is totalitarianism. An authoritarian regime will be satisfied with your non-participation in political activities and silence but a totalitarian regime requires that you take part and mouth the right words and sign the right documents. 

Some experts do not like to use the word "totalitarianism" because they feel it does not address the complexity of these type of regimes, but I disagree for one simple reason it provides an effective and brief description of how this type of regime operates.

The dictatorship in Cuba is a communist totalitarian regime and because of this it strives to control everything. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a correspondent for The Atlantic presented a classical definition of totalitarianism in his March 26, 2014 essay "The Meaning of Totalitarianism":  

Although it has been most often used to describe Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, the word “totalitarian”- totalitarismo - was first used in the context of Italian fascism. Invented by one of his critics, the term was adopted with enthusiasm by Benito Mussolini, and in one of his speeches he offered what is still the best definition of the term: “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Strictly defined, a totalitarian regime is one that bans all institutions apart from those it has officially approved. A totalitarian regime thus has one political party, one educational system, one artistic creed, one centrally planned economy, one unified media, and one moral code. In a totalitarian state there are no independent schools, no private businesses, no grassroots organizations, and no critical thought. Mussolini and his favorite philosopher, Giovanni Gentile, once wrote of a “conception of the State” that is “all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.

This is what is meant when one defines the dictatorship in Cuba as totalitarian. Under the Castro regime only one political party is legally recognized in the Cuban constitution, the Communist party. Private schools were closed in Cuba in the 1960s and all is controlled by the dictatorship and students who dissent, such as gather signatures for a legal citizen initiative like the Varela Project are expelled. There are no legally recognized independent non-governmental organizations in Cuba that are truly independent. The economy remains under control of the Castro regime with the military directly controlling 80% of the economy. Any foreign investors must enter into partnerships with the dictatorship. Workers salaries are paid by foreign investors to a regime agency that in turn pays Cuban workers in the local and devalued currency. Employers who have tried to pay workers directly under the table have been arrested and jailed. Critical thought can fall under the categories of oral or  written enemy propaganda and is punishable by prison. Also associating with persons with these ideas opens one up to a charge of "predilection to social dangerousness" and can also be imprisoned.

Hannah Arendt, the political scientist who wrote the opus The Origins of Totalitarianism offered further insights into how totalitarian functions at a lecture in Oberlin College on October 28, 1954:    

“If we look at it as a form of government, it rests on two pillars: on ideology and on terror. It is no tyranny because tyranny is lawlessness and because it is content with the political sphere in the more narrow sense of the word.” ...“Authoritarianism in many respects the opposite of totalitarianism. Totalitarianism possible only after all authorities broke down.” 

With the death of Fidel Castro, the great helmsman of the communist revolution in Cuba, although a non-entity in day to day operations of the dictatorship over the past decade still the symbol he represents now departed spooks the regime leadership. They are trying to strengthen their main two pillars: ideology and terror. Cubans are given a choice swear ideological loyalty to the regime or be targeted for terror that may include other members of your family.

There is a reason that totalitarian regimes have lasted so long.

The terror sponsor list and The White House's contradictory Cuba policy

White House Cuba policy is a study in contradiction

White House press briefing today

Despite ample evidence that the Castro regime continues to be a state sponsor of terrorism the Obama administration today removed Cuba from the list of terror sponsors in order to proceed with the normalization of diplomatic relations. Below is the statement released today which states "the Government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding 6-month period." Now this statement ignores "the 100 tons of gunpowder, almost three million detonators and some 3,000 cannon shells" on a ship bound for Cuba detained on March 3, 2015 that said these were "grain products."  The Cuban government has been caught twice in the space of twenty months smuggling large amounts of weapons and ammunition which would imply that it is common practice. This also raises an obvious question: "Who are these weapons for that the Castro regime doesn't want them traced?"

 The Castro regime had made removal from the list one of the key elements in formally opening embassies and that appears to have been what drove the Obama administration action despite the claims of the Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhoades. This decision seems to contradict another action taken by President Barack Obama when on February 25, 2015 he  issued a notice titled "Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Cuba" which states:

On March 1, 1996, by Proclamation 6867, a national emergency was declared to address the disturbance or threatened disturbance of international relations caused by the February 24, 1996, destruction by the Cuban government of two unarmed U.S.-registered civilian aircraft in international airspace north of Cuba. On February 26, 2004, by Proclamation 7757, the national emergency was extended and its scope was expanded to deny monetary and material support to the Cuban government. The Cuban government has not demonstrated that it will refrain from the use of excessive force against U.S. vessels or aircraft that may engage in memorial activities or peaceful protest north of Cuba.

The Obama White House on February 25, 2015 was saying that it believed that the Castro regime was still willing to destroy unarmed, civilian aircraft or vessels in international airspace or waters north of Cuba if those craft "engage in memorial activities or peaceful protest." Would such an act not qualify as an act of international terrorism? Will he now rescind this notice?

This is the definition of contradiction.