The Leaders Feel “Threatened” After Obama’s Visit

The Leaders Feel "Threatened" After Obama's Visit / 14ymedio

14ymedio, 21 April 2106 — The national coordinator of the Christian
Liberation Movement (MCL), Eduardo Cardet, argues that the communist
leaders of Cuba felt "very threatened" by the recent visit of US
President Barack Obama. "They fear losing power," he said told the
Catholic news agency Aciprensa on Wednesday.

"This entrenchment (of the senior leaders) in that old position
demonstrates the fragility they feel, the fear in the face of the change
that our people are expecting. The people of Cuba have changed, there is
a diversity that is manifesting itself and there is an exhaustion with
this official discourse and there is no longer any identification with
the message that they want to impose on the people," he asserts.

For Cardet, the recently concluded Seventh Congress of the Cuban
Communist Party has been "more of the same" and has failed to meet the
expectations of the people. However, the coordinator of the MCL admitted
that no significant change was not expected at that meeting.

The opposition stressed that even "moderate Communist members" are
"extremely disappointed" because they had "the hope that there would be
a certain renewal within the core of the party to bring a fresh air,
fresh ideas and they have seen that that opportunity has vanished and
that nothing really positive has happened."

Cardet considered the harsh criticism from Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodriguez directed on Monday at the United States president as a proof
of the fear of the party leaders of losing power. "Because of this they
are returning to these hardline positions," returning to the rhetoric of
confrontation and "pointing to the United States as the empire that is
supposedly destroying the Cuban nation and all these fallacies that do
nothing to support reconciliation or the normalization of relations," he
said.

The leader of the movement founded by Oswaldo Paya stressed that the
continued repression towards the opposition "shows that the Government
has no intention of changing with regards to political tolerance" and he
invited Cubans to "be united and work hard" to achieve a transition to a
state of law.

Source: The Leaders Feel "Threatened" After Obama's Visit / 14ymedio –
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-leaders-feel-threatened-after-obamas-visit-14ymedio/