Fighting Historical Amnesia in Cuba: Remembering past and present street protests

"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting" - Milan Kundera

Animal rights protest in Cuba permitted by communist regime

Four decades of non-violent resistance erased with a couple of headlines. Reuters titled it , " Independent march in Havana believed first for communist-run Cuba, organizers say" and Agence France Press, "Some 300 activists march in Havana to demand an animal protection law, in the first independent demonstration to take place in Cuba in years."  The first independent march in Cuba, according to these news sources, was for animal rights. This ignores the decades of human rights activism in Cuba that cost many their freedom.

This ignores the many street protests stretching back decades that were not approved by the communist regime, but otherwise tolerated or brutally repressed.

Massive anti-government street protest in Havana on August 5, 1994

We must remember the thousands of Cubans who took to the streets 25 years ago on August 5, 1994 chanting "libertad" freedom and were met with brutal repression in what became known as the Maleconazo.



We should also remember the courageous activists who year after year took to the streets on International Human Rights Day and were met with violent repression with hundreds detained.

Activists arrested in Cuba on human rights day for peacefully assembling (Reuters)

We must remember the Ladies in White (Las Damas de Blanco) that despite harassment, threats, brutal beatings, and arbitrary detentions beginning in the Spring of 2003 following their loved ones unjust imprisonment began a regular campaign of nonviolent marches demanding freedom for their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers.

 Laura Inés Pollán Toledo became a dissident when her husband was imprisoned during the Black Cuban Spring of 2003 along with more than 75 other activists and civil society members. She was one of the founders of the Ladies in White and challenged the Castro regime in the streets of Cuba. Following brutal repression, in an effort to prevent them from marching through the streets of Havana, Laura Pollán directly and nonviolently challenged the regime: "We will never give up our protest. The authorities have three options — free our husbands, imprison us or kill us.

We should also remember that after seven years of constant struggle they achieved their goal of freeing their loved ones. 

The Cuban dictatorship assumed that they would disappear but Laura Pollán made the announcement that they were now a human rights organization, that they would continue marching until the laws were changed, and shortly afterwards met with a suspicious death after a sudden illness in 2011.  Despite Laura's death the Ladies in White continued marching, and facing the consequences. On Mother's Day in 2012 they marched along with Laura's widower in remembrance of her.

Ladies in White march on Mother's Day in honor of Laura Pollán, along with Laura's widower

The march this past Sunday, may be the beginning of a new chapter, with regime approval of a non-communist party demonstration, or it may be another example of the fake change Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas warned about. Either way we must remember the demonstrations that have taken place in Cuba before yesterday's and place them in proper context.

Ladies in White still marching today in Havana, Cuba (Photo by Angel Moya)

We must not forget. These protests are still taking place today in Cuba, and human rights defenders continue to pay a terrible price.