What happened on March 17 in Cuba?
The US plan of economic asphyxiation and media toxication
In the March 20 inaugural edition of the You-Tube program “Desde La Presidencia,” sponsored by Presidencia Cuba, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that two things happened on March 17, 2024. The first was a group of persons, understandably bothered by long power cuts and by disruptions in the delivery of food in the state-subsidized monthly food basket, went looking for explanations from local authorities. Groups formed in three localities in the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo, numbering approximately 1,000 citizens in total in the three places. Explanations were provided by the local authorities, and the majority of persons were satisfied with the explanations, such that normality was soon reestablished.
The second thing that occurred was the construction from these events of a virtual reality, in which sustained protests and rebellions occurred, converting the affair into something more permanent and of greater magnitude. This simulation was constructed by online clusters of counterrevolutionaries, and it included the use of tools of artificial intelligence. In the simulated construction, the events were presented as continuing into the late evening and early morning hours, when in fact things had returned to normal in the real world in the afternoon.
Díaz-Canel noted that the persons who had assembled were bothered by conditions that had been provoked primarily by the intensification of the blockade against Cuba, which had been initiated by the Trump administration and maintained by Biden. He maintained that the entire affair makes clear the two dimensions of the U.S. strategy with respect to Cuba: economic asphyxiation and media toxication.
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On the day of the events, Díaz-Canel posted on his X (Twitter) account that the enemies of the Revolution were taking advantage of difficulties in Cuba with the intention of creating a situation of destabilization. He noted that terrorists in the USA promote acts against the public order in Cuba, through a counterrevolutionary media campaign utilizing the multiplication of messages of hate and subversive content, divulged in anti-Cuban sites and networks, which distort and manipulate the demands expressed by groups of citizens who are reasonably upset with respect to the problems concerning the electric service and the distribution of food.
He further observed that the authorities of the Party and the government are oriented to attending to the demands of the Cuban people. The authorities are disposed to listen, to dialogue, and to explain the numerous efforts that are being made to improve the situation.
On March 17, the Cuban Internet news outlet Cubadebate reported that Beatriz Johnson, First Secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, addressed the concerns of the citizens in front of a city government building in Santiago de Cuba, where a group of persons had gone to express their dissatisfaction with the power cuts and with the distribution of food, especially milk. The Secretary informed them that the distribution of the basic food basket, including three pounds of rice and four pounds of sugar for each person, was in process, and it had attained a partial distribution. A great mobilization was being undertaken by the leadership to respond to these dissatisfactions, she reported. The First Secretary also conversed with the gathering concerning the supply of electricity, which was affected by problems confronted by the thermoelectric centers and by the availability of fuel.
The First Secretary reported in her X account on March 17 on the respectful attitude of the population of Santiago de Cuba. They listened attentively to the explanations being given by the city leadership in relation to the distribution of the basic food basket and milk as well as the power cuts.
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In a March 19 Granma editorial entitled “The lords of chaos did not attain their desire,” Raúl Antonio Capote stresses the U.S. financing of a mediatic campaign that was designed to manipulate public opinion on the island, confusing the people and seeding fear, insecurity, and lack of confidence in the revolutionary leadership. He writes, “from the bot farms created by the CIA labs, thousands of fake news stories were launched, multiplied to saturate the receiver, limiting their ability to analyze and respond objectively.” He notes that analyses of websites and social media of recent days show a multiple increase in the “news” related to violent events, massive acts of corruption, and popular protests.
Capote further observes that the demands with respect to power cuts and food distribution were made in a peaceful manner, and Cuban police responded in a non-repressive form. “Anyone who sees the images of our police, without shields, without helmets, without weapons to launch tear gas, without water carts, together with the people, understands the difference between those who called for violence and those people who demanded the attention of the authorities.”
Capote cannot hide his disdain for those who called for violence, who “tried to sow chaos in our cities and towns . . . from the comfortable armchairs of their homes, or hidden behind the webcams of their computers, far away from the streets they wanted to ‘heat up.’” But their discrediting campaign failed: “The blood did not flow, as they wanted, through the streets of the island. Our cities and streets were not set on fire. We Cubans show ourselves with total nobility, never surrendering, always dignified, united, politically mature, and unscathed in the face of slander and lies.”
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On March 19, the newly formed Institute of Information and Social Communication presented a report to the chiefs of government in a session chaired by Díaz-Canel and attended by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and other leaders. The Institute was created as a new entity of the state administration, replacing the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, in accordance with the new Law of Social Communication, which constituted an implementation of the new Constitution of 2019. At the conclusion of the session, Díaz-Canel made comments with respect to the importance of the Institute, because of the great importance of educating everyone, through communication, including the leaders as well as the people.
The Cuban President declared that one should speak not only of social communication, but also of political communication. We need users participating in the social networks today who are not only users but also communicators, capable of transmitting our content, in response to the “cultural colonialism” of the social media platforms. Political and social communicators who can explain the two-dimensional U.S. strategy of economic asphyxiation, involving the intensification of the blockade and the inclusion of Cuba on the list of terrorist countries; combined with mediatic toxication, characterized by the denunciation of non-existent events, fake news, lies, and false videos, generated with the aid of artificial intelligence. He noted that we still have not been capable, as much as we have tried, of explaining to our people the consequences of being included on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
With respect to the events of March 17, Díaz-Canel noted that local leaders conversed with the people and clarified things, and most returned to their homes. He declared that he understands the difficulties with respect to the living conditions in the present time, and that the people are not satisfied. But they also “have to know all that is being done, because there is no one here with their arms crossed, every day we spend most of the time dedicated to the search for solutions.” He also noted that the problems that we have with economic inefficiency in national production are very far from being the fundamental cause of what is happening.
The Cuban President observed that the enemies of the revolution were hoping for a social explosion on March 17, but they did not attain it, because of the unity of the revolutionary leadership, explaining the truth to the people, confronting with the truth the doubts that the people have. Díaz-Canel further observed that on this occasion, the purposes and perversity of the government of the United States has been demonstrated once again, along with its contempt for the people of Cuba and the Cuban Revolution, and “its contempt for our desire to be free, sovereign, independent, and have our self-determination.".
Díaz-Canel reiterated “the willingness of the Cuban government, of the Party, and of our institutions to dialogue with our population, to explain, to convoke, to unite, to work, to continue seeking with our own efforts and with our own talent solutions to the difficult situation in which we are living.”
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The inaugural session of the YouTube program “Desde la Presidencia” [“From the Presidency”] was recorded on the evening of March 20. In the initial program, President Díaz-Canel and the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, were interviewed by journalist Arleen Rodríguez, General Coordinator and frequent host of Mesa Redonda, a nightly television news interview program. Rodríguez began by asking Díaz-Canel to explain what occurred on March 17.
The Cuban President explained that there are economic difficulties, including power cuts, shortages in food, and fractures in the distribution of the family food baskets. These problems understandably bother the population a great deal. He also noted that the basic food basket, which the Cuban government provides in a highly subsidized manner, should be larger, and it should arrive to the people with greater efficiency, which it would if it were not for the limitations imposed by the blockade.
This situation, Díaz-Canel reported, provoked a group of persons in three localities in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo, involving 500 persons in the first location, 300-400 in the second, and 100 in the third. Basically, they were looking for explanations with respect to two themes: prolonged electric power cuts and the lack of food.
The authorities of the local and provincial governments responded immediately, the President stressed. They presented themselves before the persons to explain the circumstances. The explanation, the President noted, has to do with the intensification of the blockade during the past four years, which has affected the daily life of Cubans and has included the placing of Cuba on a spurious list of nations that sponsor terrorism. In addition, there were some bad administrative decisions due to an element of bureaucratism related to the distribution of the food basket, which were being made in complex conditions, in that there has been a shortage in recent months of fuels fundamental for providing electricity.
We do not always have the foreign currency we need, he declared. In addition, the blockade includes an energy persecution, in which they pressure a company supplying fuel to not do so. They pressure shipowners that could bring the fuel to our ports to not touch Cuban ports. And they pressure insurers of ship cargos.
Díez-Canel noted that long electricity blackouts are very troublesome for the Cuban family. The outages affect the capacity to cook and to supply water. So the authorities explained the reasons, and the majority of the persons that were participating in the interchanges understood. After a relatively short period of time, things returned to normal. Although there were some who chanted counterrevolutionary slogans, creating a situation of possible vandalism, and they were disrespectful to the authorities, as a consequence of mediatic toxication, above all in the social media. Later, there were two or three incidents more in two or three barrios with the participation of ten or twelve persons that were related to such discontent, and they lasted minutes.
That was what happened on Sunday March 17 in real Cuba, Díaz-Canel stated. But there also was a virtual Cuba. A construction from these events, making them longer lasting and of greater magnitude. They constructed a virtual reality, making it appear similar to what had occurred on July 11, 2021, accompanied by a negative media narrative concerning the Revolution.
Díaz-Canel declared that the Cuban revolutionary leadership is convinced that all this has roots in an April 1960 memorandum by the U.S. government official Mallory, which affirmed that the majority of Cubans support the Revolution, and therefore, one must provoke popular discontent through the creation of economic and material difficulties, employing all possible means to weaken the economic life of Cuba, to reduce financial resources and real salaries, provoke hunger and desperation, and derail the government. Today they are applying this strategy.
The empire speaks clearly, Díaz-Canel observed, of its hegemonic intention of dominating all those that seek to live in dignity and defend their sovereignty and self-determination. Accordingly, there is today an intense media discrediting campaign against Cuba.
Thus, the Cuban President observed, we can see that the campaign against Cuba has two dimensions: economic asphyxiation and media toxication. It is a program of cultural colonization and capitalist and neoliberal restauration imposed on Cuba through silent bombs that intend to suffocate our economy, supported with mediatic missiles.
Minister of Mines and Energy de la O Levy explained that on the day of March 17, as in the previous days, there were blackouts of twelve to eighteen hours in some sections of Santiago de Cuba. But, the Minister declared, we had explained to the people that this situation was coming to an end on March 18. The problems provoking the situation had been overcome. We were not yet going to be able to completely end the planned stoppages, but the situation was going to be substantially improved. March 17 was going to be the last day of the prolonged power cuts.
Rodríguez noted that some media, above all those in southern Florida, have stressed that Díaz-Canel always blames the United States. How does he respond?
Díaz-Canel responded that one must speak of the great blame of the government of the United States, because it is fundamental. He believes that the U.S. perspective is perverse: acting to cause problems in the Cuban economy, and then saying that the blame lies with the Cuban government. They apply the blockade, they pressure ships and insurance agencies, they apply illegal extraterritorial laws, they try to pressure investors and countries to not have relations with Cuba, they close the doors to credit and to commerce, and they close income from transmittances. They prohibit North American citizens from traveling to Cuba; and they prohibit cruise ships. That government acts in a manner that provokes shortages in fuel, thus provoking power cuts and important lacks in food, medicine, raw materials, and supplies, affecting our principal productions of goods and services. In addition, they place Cuba on a list of states that supposedly sponsor terrorism. “We have every sovereign right to blame the government of the United States.”
At the same time, Díaz-Canel observed, the evidence in recent days is clear. When these events began, the Cuban authorities, in the exercise of full socialist democracy, went to the places involved to speak with our people. The institutions of the government and the Party always have had full capacity to converse with our people, because there is no separation between the government/Party and the people. We always possess the will to speak, discuss, and dialogue. Decisions in Cuba take into account the opinion of the population and the analysis of the people. The most complex processes in our country are submitted to the debate of the people. We presently, for example, have initiated four processes of discussion, which will arrive to the local communities, concerning the economic measures announced by the Prime Minister at the National Assembly of People’s Power.
The enemies of the Revolution always apply the same method, the Cuban President noted. They focus on peaceful demonstration, and later they speak of police repression, and then of political prisoners; then they speak of ungovernability and of a failed state. Later, they begin to speak of regime change. All this is mounted by influencers and youtubers with a strategy that follows the U.S. manuals of unconventional war.
A high government official of the United States, Díaz-Canel noted, was saying in Twitter that the blockade will continue as long as Cuba does not open to democracy. They do not recognize our democracy, which is much better and much more democratic than theirs. Note their arrogance. They are saying that if the Cuban government and the Cuban people do not assume the democracy that they want to impose, then the blockade will persist.
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In response to a question with respect to knowing the attitudes of the people, the Cuban President noted that the leadership has direct knowledge that is derived from their family relations, because their families do not live in a social world separate from the people. But in addition, the leadership conducts studies in order to know the attitudes of the people. They are aware that the key to positive opinions is the electricity system and the economy. Resolving the problems of the energy system is the key, because it is the base of production and transportation.
Díaz-Canel noted that we are speaking of two fundamental problems: the power cuts and the distribution of food, particularly in the family basket. But we also are speaking of communication. Santiago de Cuba is a city with one million inhabitants. Some hundreds, less than one thousand in total, were concentrated in the streets on March 17, and the local leaders of the government and the party were present immediately to explain the situation,
Díaz-Canel observed that Beatriz Johnson, First Secretary of the Party in the province, in order that the people could hear her, climbed to the roof of a building to continue explaining. Beatriz was communicating with the people. Here is a leader who is capable of explaining to the people, because she knows her people, and she is sensitive to the problems of the people. I ask, in what other country is there a leader who is able to climb to the roof of a building to speak to the population, and nothing happens to her? This is possible because the people were bothered by the situation, but they wanted a response. They were not against her, and they wanted to hear what she was saying; the great majority of them understood, so that all quickly returned to normal.
Now there was a mistake in this, Díaz-Canel continued, in that the video of Beatriz speaking from the roof was not disseminated by the social media, as a counter to the social media lies. This is what we have to improve. We are discussing this issue in the Institute of Information and Communication. We have to put forth a narrative in the social media that is a narrative based in morality and truth.
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Final considerations
The Cuban Revolutionary Government calls for the end of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba as a violation of the principles of the UN Charter, to which it fully subscribes. It expresses its appreciation to the many states and civil society organizations throughout the world that have condemned the blockade. And it repeatedly reiterates its willingness to negotiate with the United States, without preconditions and as equal sovereign states, the normalization of the relation between the USA and Cuba.
But in truth Cuba possesses the deeply held view that imperialism will always be imperialism, and it does not expect an end to the blockade in the near future. It places its hope on the emerging alternative world order, the construction of which was initiated in Bandung in 1955 by the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa, and which today has reached a more advanced stage than ever. The process of construction of an alternative world order is being led by China and Cuba, and it is based on the principles of respect for the sovereignty of nations and the development of mutually beneficial trade among the nations of the world. Cuba is today working diligently to develop mutually beneficial trading relations with China, Russia, and the nations of the global South, not only in defense of itself, but also in defense of humanity. Cuban revolutionaries hope for a future of peace, stability, and prosperity for Cuba and the world.
In my view, the call of the Cuban President for an improvement in social and political communication also has relevance to the campaign in the USA and other nations of the West for ending the U.S. blockade of Cuba. We in the West need to develop a greater understanding of Cuba’s alternative process of people’s democracy, to which Diaz-Canel alludes. We need to grasp the role of people’s legislative assemblies, mass organizations, public media, public education, and the Party in the construction of a form of democracy that is more advanced than representative democracy. The dissemination of an understanding of the structures and dynamics of people’s democracy in Cuba would discredit the persistent U.S. claim of violations of human rights in Cuba, which undergirds its long-standing policy of hostility.
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