{"id":5020,"date":"2021-08-10T08:17:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T08:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=5020"},"modified":"2021-08-10T08:17:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T08:17:49","slug":"rene-gonzalez-of-the-cuban-five-on-cubas-challenge-and-washingtons-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/rene-gonzalez-of-the-cuban-five-on-cubas-challenge-and-washingtons-hypocrisy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez of the Cuban Five on Cuba\u2019s Challenge and Washington\u2019s Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ren\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez is one of the Cuban Five, long jailed in the US for their intelligence work combating far-right Miami terrorist groups. He spoke to Jacobin about the blockade and what his trial told him about the US’s concern for human rights in Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ren\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez is a former member of Cuba\u2019s \u201cWasp Network<\/a>,\u201d set up to combat the terrorism long directed against the island by far-right Miami exile groups. Following the murder of over two hundred Cubans in sustained attacks on the country\u2019s aviation, shipping, and tourism sectors \u2014 organized by figures like CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles<\/a> \u2014 this intelligence unit worked to infiltrate and undermine the terrorist milieu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immortalized in the 2019 Netflix<\/em> film<\/a> Wasp Network<\/em>, Gonz\u00e1lez is best-known as one of the so-called Cuban Five<\/a>. After the FBI broke up the Wasp Network in 1998, Gonz\u00e1lez and four of his colleagues were put before a Florida court in a trial internationally condemned<\/a> for its lack of due process. He was sentenced to a fifteen-year jail spell, and finally returned to Cuba in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today living in Havana, Gonz\u00e1lez saw first-hand the July 11 protests that captured international attention. In an interview with Voces sin Fronteras<\/em>, hosted by Jacobin <\/em>contributing editor Denis Rogatyuk, he spoke about the current situation in the capital, the history of US attacks on the island, and a six-decade-long economic blockade affecting even Cuba\u2019s trade with third countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has your experience of the protests been, and what have you seen? RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the vast majority of Cubans, I woke up on July 11 and began my normal life \u2014 or at least, a normal Sunday under the pandemic \u2014 and suddenly information began appearing on social networks. First, about what was happening in San Antonio, then the president\u2019s presence there<\/a>, and gradually, especially from sites in Miami, information and jubilant videos about events elsewhere in Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continued my routine, until I realized something more serious was going on. I started making some calls and in the evening, I went to two places where protests had taken place. I went to [the municipality of] Diez de Octubre, and when I got there, the protest was still ongoing but was practically over. You could see the damage, and then I went to Zanja Street where something had also happened, but much less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I could see things first-hand. Then, I think on the Monday there were some further protests, and a mixture of falsehoods, lies, and video footage. We all know now that images of Buenos Aires, Alexandria, Venezuela<\/a>, and other places were used to create the impression that Cuba was immersed in chaos, and that the government had collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Cuba, we all knew that was a lie, but I suppose that it will have had its effect on some people elsewhere, who do not know the Cuban reality. And I suppose that some exaggerations regarding the supposed repression of peaceful protesters will have made their mark on some of the not so well-informed. DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about the counter-mobilizations, in support of the revolution? RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to deny that what happened surprised us. We\u2019re not used to seeing events like these in our country \u2014 and above all, this level of violence. I will clarify that not everyone who demonstrated was a violent person \u2014 there were places where some dissatisfied people came out, some with genuine claims and problems that have been imposed on us for years, largely from the United States. But the level of violence was unusual for Cuba. This is something we need to examine, make the corresponding analyses, and take the appropriate measures \u2014 in terms of public order, but also social and political measures. We, as a country, as a people, as a community, have for six decades been subjected to a genocidal policy whose express purpose is precisely to make people surrender out of hunger, out of desperation, out of necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These events provoked a response among people who don\u2019t want to see our country like this. The demonstrations organized by communities and by trade unions took to the streets to show that we want to build a peaceful country \u2014 we don\u2019t want these levels of street violence. And also to show that most Cuban people continue to support this country, the revolution, the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above all, that we\u2019re aware that beyond the legitimacy of some people\u2019s demands, all this is part of an attack against Cuba. It was well-planned through social networks. But we are going to defend this government, our sovereignty, our independence \u2014 and we are going to continue resisting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, as a country, as a people, as a community, have for six decades been subjected to a genocidal policy whose express purpose is precisely to make people surrender out of hunger, out of desperation, out of necessity. And well, there are people who surrender. I don\u2019t mean this as an insult \u2014 I don\u2019t think that everyone necessarily has to have the same level of endurance. The people who decided to blame the Cuban government for all this aren\u2019t all criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I believe that criminal elements, spurred on by the tremendous campaign on social networks, made these demonstrations into what we saw in [those] days. I believe that the part of the population that maintains a dignified position in the face of US imperialism\u2019s criminal policy has the right to take to the streets to demonstrate in favor of this process and against the policy that has tried to suffocate us for sixty years. DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think about the comparisons being made between these protests and the so-called \u201cEl Maleconazo\u201d <\/em>in 1994?<\/em> RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many points of contact. The main one, the \u201cbackdrop,\u201d is the US blockade against Cuba, which has deliberately sought to sow despair among the Cuban people so that they become disenchanted and blame the government for this country\u2019s economic problems and material hardships. It is part of a systematic, sixty-year policy, a common thread running through the 1994 crisis and the one we are facing now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, I think that in both cases, the uprising was promoted from abroad. In 1994, the immigration issue was used so that some desperate people took to the streets and, in this case, the COVID situation has been used. This has been linked to an intensification of the criminal US policy against Cuba, imposed by President Trump and continued by President Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that US empire\u2019s policy towards Cuba will continue to promote these events. It will not change as long as they consider that they can provoke despair in the Cuban people, and there are moments like these when various circumstances converge that increase people\u2019s material hardships and when part of that population \u2014 out of despair in some cases, in other cases due to political, malicious, sometimes even criminal intentions \u2014 end up taking these positions and take to the streets. DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you seen signs of a campaign of fake news? RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, of course. The US government has always tried to use the media to influence the Cuban population and incite insurrection, illegality, and violence. We cannot forget that during Reagan\u2019s presidency, Radio Mart\u00ed was created. Previously, there was Radio Ciudad alongside Radio Americas.The US Government always wanted to use communications to subjugate Cuba, as part of this war. This is the psychological component of a war of attrition that is anything but simply psychological. In the 1960s, it was the radio, then came TV Mart\u00ed, though it was never seen in Cuba, and recently social networks have joined this war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know that the US Government dedicates considerable funds to this psychological warfare, which, through social networks, has been \u201cdropped\u201d on Cuba. It is a persistent, systematic, methodical, scientifically calculated effort that does end up impacting some people \u2014 and has been a very important element in this campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This campaign is carried out in two directions. One aims to break our spirits, to confuse some Cubans, to incite us to violence, to make us believe and rationalize the theory that the embargo does not exist, that there is no blockade, that the Cuban government is to blame for everything. But we mustn\u2019t forget that it also aims to deceive the rest of the world, so that people receive false news about Cuba. It aims to magnify any problem that occurs here and thereby justify the demands for \u201chumanitarian intervention,\u201d which many of the worst spokesmen of the Cuban counterrevolution make to the US government in the hope that its army will hand them back their privileges in Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases, I think this is a criminal use of a technological instrument that in other circumstances should serve to bring people closer, to sow the seeds of peace. Obviously, this is not in the interest of those who wish to reconquer Cuba. And that\u2019s a phenomenon that we must continue to face and fight. DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it possible to do something from outside of Cuba? RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As in the case of the Cuban Five, I think it\u2019s important for people to inform themselves and not be fooled, to try to learn about Cuba from the Cubans who are here. Not to be influenced by all the campaigns, the lies, the misinformation that \u2014 both through social networks and through the hegemonic disinformation media \u2014 are disseminated throughout the world. To try to stay informed and spread that information among your friends, your acquaintances, and try to stir worldwide solidarity with the Cuban people, against the criminal policies of the US government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not kid ourselves. They want to turn Cuba into a Syria, a Libya, an Iraq, and then come in with all these processes we\u2019ve seen already in which capital returns and supposedly rebuilds the country that they have just destroyed. They want to do the big business that they do everywhere when they arrive with their \u201chumanitarian\u201d interventions, in favor of \u201cdemocracy,\u201d etc. DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have been the harshest effects of the blockade that you have observed in the last year? RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blockade has been a brutal act of war, intensified over the past four years by the Trump administration. The assault on the Cuban economy has been brutal, even before the pandemic came along. I\u2019ll give some examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the connivance of the Latin American right, specifically the presidents of Brazil<\/a> and Ecuador, the medical programs that brought several billion dollars a year to enter Cuba were dismantled. That was a brutal economic blow. Then [Trump\u2019s administration] continued to take measures against family remittances. Trump talked a lot about \u201chuman rights,\u201d as does Mr Biden and all the others who went before did. They attacked the Cuban family and cut remittances to relatives in Cuba, inflicting another blow to the heart of the Cuban family economy. Further, [foreign-based] Cubans\u2019 trips to Cuba were drastically reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic added to all this. After the other blows I described, the Cuban economy was counting on tourism, but the pandemic has practically paralyzed the tourism industry and we have had to do without that income, which is what allowed the development of normal life in Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under these conditions, the United States has increased its disinformation campaign, its psychological war against Cuba, always with the message that the fault lies with the inefficiency of the Cuban government \u2014 that it doesn\u2019t care about its citizens and should be protested against. The result has been that some people have become desperate and have lost their perspective on the real impact that these measures have had on Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know the exact figure, but we can speak of several billion dollars that have stopped arriving in Cuba in recent years. Under these conditions, the government has had to deal with the pandemic \u2014 and the resources are simply not enough for everything. I wouldn\u2019t venture a comparison with other governments such as Leningrad [in 1941], but the conditions we are experiencing at this time are quite similar. The US government considers that it has the right to decide that each country must do what suits the US government \u2014 and, if not, it will have to face the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we lived in a just world, the Trumps and Bidens would be prosecuted for this criminal policy. It is imposed by the largest political, economic and military power in human history against a country of 11 million inhabitants which gives the rest of the world only solidarity, love, and peace. But our all-powerful neighbors have decided to set us against each other. They continue to dream \u2014 as it was set out in the 1980s \u2014 that through hunger and despair Cubans will end up desperate and will kneel before the US government. DR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a former US political prisoner, what would you say to those who say that Cuba is a dictatorship or a totalitarian regime? RG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that the repression within US society is visible to the whole world. I am amazed when some people take lessons on human rights, on the rule of law, from the US government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US government has been repressive from its inception, and that has not changed. That\u2019s not even mentioning the rest of the planet. The US government considers that it has the right to decide that each country must do what suits the US government \u2014 and, if not, it will have to face the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trail of death that it has left around the world in recent decades just because a government decided not to do what suits US capital is appalling \u2014 and that is what they are looking for in Cuba. To speak of repression, and to do so in the name of the US government, is the most blatant cynicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: jacobin mag<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ren\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez is one of the Cuban Five, long jailed in the US for their intelligence work combating far-right Miami terrorist groups. He spoke to […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101011,"featured_media":5021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2643,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/red-lines-host-anya-parampil-speaks-with-rene-gonzalez-a-member-of-the-cuban-five-whose-real-life-experience-inspired-the-recent-netflix-film-the-wasp-network\/","url_meta":{"origin":5020,"position":0},"title":"Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Ren\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez, a member of the Cuban Five whose real life experience inspired the recent Netflix film \u201cThe Wasp Network\u201d.","author":"Editorial Team","date":"August 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jYVpTX2M23w They discuss his reaction to the film as well as what it was like for him to work as a Cuban agent in the 1990s monitoring right-wing terrorist networks in Miami. 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