Riled Cuban Communists deploy colorful arsenal against Obama

Riled Cuban Communists deploy colorful arsenal against Obama
NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
ngameztorres@elnuevoherald.com

Using poetry and even fairy tales to make their point, delegates
gathered at the Seventh Congress of the Cuban Communist Party deployed a
colorful arsenal to criticize President Barack Obama and his new policy
of engagement with Cuba.

Referring to the United States again as "the enemy" was a popular
talking point during the debates at the Congress, which started Saturday
with a two-hour speech by Cuban leader Raúl Castro. Obama's address to
the Cuban population during his visit to Havana last month was
particularly riling to Communist Party loyalists, seeming to have marked
a before and after in the process of normalization.

René González, one of the Cuban spies of the "Wasp Network," who was
invited to speak, compared Obama to the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

"Here was the 'Pied Piper' 15 days ago and he came to play to our
children and steal their hearts," González told the gathering. "He
played the flute very well, because he has specialists who tell him how
to play it."

Antonio Guerrero — also a member of the Cuban spy network who was freed
on Dec. 14, 2014 as part of a prisoners' exchange agreement — dedicated
a few verses from Cuban poet Cintio Vitier to Obama and his policy of
rapprochement: "Don't attempt with your delicacy to have me betray
myself. Do not pretend you are going to believe in my situation."

According to a report in Juventud Rebelde, Guerrero turned to poetry,
"as a resonant symbolic exercise against those who approach us today
with fake softness."

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez was more straightforward in his
criticism of Obama, whom he accused of wanting to "dazzle" Cuban
entrepreneurs.

"Obama came to stand here and dazzle the non-state sector of the economy
[the so called cuentapropistas] as if he was not the defender of big
corporations but the defender of those selling hot dogs and small
businesses in the U.S.," he said.

Rodríguez then clarified how the ruling elite perceives the United
States in this new era of relations. Commenting about Castro's
announcement of a constitutional referendum in the near future, the
foreign minister insisted that it was "a battle" in a different context,
with "a very heterogeneous society...in which there are changes in the
perception of the enemy, which remains the enemy. And it is there, in
the North."

Although Castro agreed to restore diplomatic relations, open embassies
and partake in talks for continued cooperation, the new policy approach
promoted by the Obama administration has led militants and government
officials to dust off the old Marxist manuals to warn of the dangers of
"ideological subversion," a theme that resonated during the congress
session.

As usual, delegates on Monday again rubber-stamped various proposals
such as a document theorizing the new economic model for Cuba, which
will move on for broader discussions before final approval.

Tuesday is the final day of the Cuban Communist Party's Congress, when
results of who will be heading the Central Committee and the Politburo
will be announced. Those positions are perhaps the most important
outcome of the gathering.

Source: Riled Cuban Communists deploy colorful arsenal against Obama |
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