«It’s a lie … They are the only ones who help us»

The relations between Cuba and the United States have been tense since 1959. The regime ensures that aggressive policies against Cuba are a constant in all US governments, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, who, without distinction, prioritize the «interference in internal affairs» of the island. But is this an opinion entrenched among Cubans?

Although there are still sectors that feed the hatred against «the neighbor of the north», the Cuban population does not have that negative feeling, despite the state propaganda that reinforces the idea of ​​an external enemy, he said, from the provincial prison of the sleeves, in the province of Granma, the political prisoner Fernando Barzaga Mompié, in a recorded comment sent to Martí News.

“No matter how much the news manipulates through their means. Very few ignore that the communists orchestrate and draw vandalism to justify the oppression and imprison United, ”he said.

The Havana government proclaims that the imposition of the United States embargo is an act of discord, and the United States argues that it is a measure to pressure Cuba to respect human rights.

Bárzaga Mompié urges to end that difference: «The Cuban dictator regime is running out of masks, many prefer to be unfairly imprisoned than put their backs to endure the whip of the dictatorship. The Cuban people do not have to be part of the hatred and rivalry of Fidel Castro to the United States.»

The political prisoner stressed that Cubans should be free to feel and comment on the ideological differences between the two nations, especially, in terms of the form of government and the economic system, «but they do not impose us to be part of such an absurd.»

«We need a better Cuba. We know that it is possible on the basis of reconciliation between ourselves, love without hate, and leading our steps to full sovereignty, and already deserved, after so many years of suffering for a usurped freedom. Freedom, dignity and condition of a man pay the price of his life,» he said.

This Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba (Minrex) convened the US business manager on the island, Mike Hammer, in protest of what qualifies as a “provocative and irresponsible” behavior, according to a statement.

The Foreign Ministry accused the diplomat of encouragement to «commit criminal acts of marked gravity, attempt against the constitutional order or stimulate them to act against the authorities and to manifest themselves in support of interests and objectives of a hostile foreign power.»

Hammer, who has been a diplomat for 35 years and since his arrival in Cuba has maintained conversations with opponents and activists, entrepreneurs, religious and other citizens indicates that it is of interest to “listen directly to the Cuban people” and “strengthen ties between the two countries from the base”.

The United States Embassy in Cuba published a video, on Friday, of a diplomat tour of the city of Güines in the Mayabeque province: «I visited the first chapel of Santa Barbara in Cuba and spoke with a few güineros on foot,» Hammer wrote.

Maibol González García, wife of the political prisoner Noslen Ayala García, told Martí News that the relatives of political prisoners would have loved to speak with the ambassador. «We are in the best disposition.»

On the animosity that promotes the regime against the US, González García commented that «only the dome is in favor of that. It is a lie that Cuba has to hate the United States, on the contrary, they are the only ones that help us.»

On the subject, the 29 -year -old, Irina Colina, a resident in Manzanillo, pointed out: «Everything we are happening, who are taking away the current 20 hours and remove it and do not know when they will put it, the boys cannot almost even go to school for the bad night and heat, and that is for all the leaders here, it is not for those of the United States.»

The political scientist Manuel Cuesta Morúa, vice president of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, believes that, despite the discredit campaigns of the Cuban government, the Cuban population admires the United States.

«The Cuban people, in any case, have masked their love for the United States, but say that, for a while, the government sold that image well and there were sectors that certainly looked at the United States as the great historical enemy of the Cuban nation, but this was weakened over time, like any process,» he explained.

According to Morúa Cuesta, there is «a minority of people dogmatized by education and ankylosed by age», which still believe the regime’s postulates. «There may be 10,000 people in a march shouting, authentically, to the United States to the ear, but those are not representative of the Cuban people.»

In the analyst’s opinion, Cubans not only feel respect and admiration for the United States, but see it as a shelter, «and one does not hate what he conceives as his own refuge.»

«Many people, still without hating the United States, assumed or believed that the United States were responsible for the current situation, that we did not progress, but the mentality has been opening and the Cubans know that those responsible are not the Americans, as it has been sold for a long time, but the government itself, which insists on maintaining a model that does not work, and the policies that do not work either,» Cuesta Morúa concluded.