Yoani Sánchez: An effective voice against the Castro dictatorship

Posted on Sunday, 03.31.13

Yoani Sánchez: An effective voice against the Castro dictatorship
BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER
Elblogdemontaner.com

Yoani Sánchez visits Miami. It is the most difficult stop in her long
tour. Everywhere, like a bullfighter hailed after a good afternoon, she
has been carried on the shoulders of the crowd. She will also triumph in
Miami, but her task will be a bit harder.

I get the impression that a huge majority of Cubans like her and respect
her — I count myself among them — but there's no shortage of those who
oppose her for various reasons, often totally irrational.

Yoani has made dozens of appearances, granted hundreds of interviews and
has successfully confronted the mobs of supporters sent by the Cuban
dictatorship in every city where she has been invited to speak.

In more than half a century of tyranny, nobody has been more effective
in the task of dismantling the regime's myths and exposing Cubans'
miserable living conditions.

It is a paradox of life that, somehow, the rude and vociferous attitude
toward Yoani shown by these aggressive bullies — though unpleasant
during the incidents themselves— has served to feed the interest of the
communications media and foster the support of notable political and
social sectors.

These maniacs, accustomed to the Cuban environment, where no vestiges of
freedom exist, don't understand that trying to silence Yoani, insulting
and slandering an independent journalist, a fragile young woman shielded
only by her words and her valor, is counterproductive.

Yoani's weapons have been sincerity, a crushing logic, an innate ability
to communicate, and her own attractive personality. That is, the same
features that gradually attracted, first, the curiosity of the major
media and institutions — Time, El País, The Miami Herald, Foreign
Policy, Columbia University — and later the admiration of millions of
readers throughout the world who found in her chronicles a balanced
description of the impoverished madhouse called Cuba.

The regime of the Castro brothers, convinced (or at least intent on
convincing others) that behind every criticism lurks the hand of the
United States, capitalism or dark economic interests, tried
unsuccessfully to demonstrate that Yoani was a puppet of the CIA., the
Prisa Group or some artificial manufacturer of prestige.

None of that. As usually happens, Yoani's talent, unpredictable luck and
the attacks from the dictatorship made her the focus of the major
information distribution centers. One result was that, by the time the
journalist was extremely famous, President Obama himself answered a list
of questions for him that appeared on her blog.

That could have happened to other notable bloggers inside Cuba — Claudia
Cadelo, Iván García, Luis Cine, among other good writers — but it was
Yoani on whom international public opinion concentrated, aware of the
harassment and mistreatment by the regime.

Throughout that never-ending tyranny, Huber Matos, Armando Valladares,
Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, Gustavo Arcos, Ricardo Bofill, María Elena Cruz
Varela, Reinaldo Arenas, Marta Beatriz Roque, Laura Pollán, Raúl Rivero,
Oswaldo Payá, now his daughter Rosa María, and other brave Cubans have
found a platform and sounding board for their denunciations as a result
of the abuse to which they were subjected.

If the first time that Yoani Sánchez received an invitation and a visa
to travel abroad, the dictatorship had allowed her to exercise her right
to leave and reenter the country freely, she would not have gained the
huge celebrity and weight she now enjoys.

Why didn't the government do it? Because of a mixture of arrogance and
stupidity. Because it believed that it could crush people without any
consequences.

Fortunately, that's not true. The people's voice is the strong voice of
the weak. "A just principle from the bottom of a cave is more powerful
than an army," José Martí wrote.

Welcome to freedom, Yoani!

Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/31/3313998/yoani-sanchez-an-effective-voice.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy