Among Worms and Other Vermin

Among "Worms" and Other Vermin
2006-05-13

Who among the Cubans has not heard the term worm being used to label
those who are in disagreement with the government’s policy? Whether
shouted by Castro from a tribune or uttered by people that love to
repeat the president’s words, the end being pursued is the same: the
alleged wretched people are expected to be taken for despicable persons
not even worthy of calling themselves Cubans.

This approach has been a constant in the contorsions made by the regime
to the end of maintaining its rule over the island. It avails itself of
certain terms in order to discredit the work of the opposition already
from the outset, thereby hanging the tag of pro-imperialist endeavor on
any pursuit of alternatives to the current form of government.

Such terms, which the dictatorship readily recurs to as soon as the
opportunity presents itself, were used for the first time by the regime
in their new intended role when the Castro brothers came to power back
in the late fifties, and have been exploited ever again by the state
media and even by our teachers when going about their sacred duty of
educating the children that are to be the foundation of the nation’s
future. This has been going on for decades.

Thus, when adressing the nation, it is easy for Castro to touch in many
Cubans the string that plays the alluring tune of national sovereignty
in a way that it awakens in them disgust and hatred towards those who
dare “jeopardize” that which the dictatorship has painstakingly built up
and maintained. Hatred and intolerance are the weapons that Castro
wields best in his speeches, and does so with a skill that shows
practice. It is hatred and intolerance directed towards everything that
shows the slightest dissention in relation to his dictatorial project.

And it is just that, ever since 1959, Castro has striven to eliminate
every chance for an opposition movement to arise in the island; for he
saw himself as infallible and as the only one who knew what was best for
the nation. Thus any opinion or deed that distanced itself from his
plans was looked upon with suspicion and considered a hindrance.

At the end, in a clever move by the dictator, it came to the creation of
the so-called mass organizations. However, I would state here that the
only thing about them that honors their name is the huge number of their
members; for neither their format nor their activity bespeak the input
and, above all, the vitality which are bound to become manifest there
where many join forces to carry forward a social enterprise.

Without a doubt the fervor reigning during the first years of Castro’s
rule plus the hopes that the Cuban people harbored created favourable
circumstances for what took place later: the enrollment on a vast scale
in organizations such as the Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution (CDR), the Cuban Women Federation (FMC) and the Unions
(Sindicatos de Trabajadores). But nobody heeded the fact that the energy
and talent of their members, the very renewing sap so important to
anything that is to bear the stamp of a endeavor permeated by the
efforts of a whole people, were being directed through a few channels
devised by the Castro-led hierarchy.

And all such channels converged at one end: to maintain a strict control
over the Cubans in every sphere of their daily lives so that any looming
threat to the permanence of Castro in power could be detected and
neutralized. Because of this, little time remained for what should have
been the main focus of these organizations: the welfare of the people.
It was relegated to the background, which brought on its train the sad
realization that the hopes of many would remain just that. Subsequently,
the apathy of the members increased remarkably, thus leading to the
rigidity of the afore-mentioned organizations. The outcome can not be
any different when a project is not resting on a solid foundation.

But Castro sees in them a very valuable tool as these still perform the
task for which they were created in the first place: to operate as a
vigilance apparatus and, if deemed necessary, to act as a repressive
force. All of us, who are familiar with the plight of the Cuban people,
already know of the physical aggressions comitted against those who left
the country in the eighties.

These actions were arranged by the CDR, the Unions and the FMC. They
also set the stage for the so-called repudiation acts, perpetrated
nowadays against the members of the opposition movements, where the
aggressors don’t even shrink from physically abusing their targets. But
those involved in such cowardly acts are, for the most part, mere
executors, indolent people who feed off an alien ideology which they
take as their own to spare themselves the effort of thinking.

The person who is been using this people like an artist animates
lifeless puppets is no other than Fidel Castro, aided by his henchmen.
And the so-called mass organizations provide the fertile soil for “el
máximo líder” to put in practice his strategy with the certainty that it
will bear the fruits he wishes for.

Thus, in a country where the state is about the only employer because
the private enterprise is almost non exixtent due to the numerous
hindrances and obstacles that the government places, in a country where
the instruments of the dictatorship are omnipresent and ready to squeal
even on their family members, in a country where the regime has total
control over the media and penalizes Internet use in the households, in
such a country the opposition finds itself in a extremely difficult
situation.

Castro has denied them a role in the national stage and avails himself
of such trivial events as the visits of opposition members to embassies,
where they are given the chance to use Internet, to call them
mercenaries in order to have a reason before the international public
opinion that justifies his actions against them. Let’s stay alert
because our denouncing of the dictatorship’s maneuvers could become a
powerful weapon that would counterpoise the effects of the regime’s
shrieking propaganda.

By Julio Urquiza
President of the Organization for Cuban Exiles in Norway (UCEN)
and asylum seeker to Norway

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=5442