Cienfuegos Distro Statement on Recent Cuban Unrest

The following statement on the current wave of protests, clashes with police, and looting in Cuba is from Cienfuegos Distro based in so-called Miami, Florida. Originally posted to their Instagram.

In this historic moment we stand with the Cuban people, El Pueblo, in defiance against the decrepit Cuban state and it’s violence. This tin pot dictatorship is owned and controlled by an entrenched military leadership and party bureaucrats. Between the U.S. government’s economic blockade on Cuba and their corrupt government – the Cuban people have finally had enough.

The corrupt Cuban state has been running an authoritarian state capitalist system for far too long and have over played their hand. This police state, coupled with the frequent blackouts, lack of food and many basic goods, the low wages, high prices, and the recent spike in Covid cases and deaths have ignited a flame in the Cuban masses to finally stand up for themselves once again and revolt for a better and freer future.

This is the first major wave of popular revolt to be seen in decades. It is sweeping the island and reminding the dusty Stalinist bureaucrats that true power comes from the people. From the masses. From the working classes.

Real power and freedom for the Cuban working class will not come from foreign, and especially U.S. intervention. Anyone with the most basic understanding of Cuban history knows that. It will not come from international corporations coming to fleece the island for profit. Real power and freedom will not come from those fossils, the party bureaucrats, and their decaying and outmoded authoritarian state structures. Liberation, and the power to achieve it, will always flow from the bottom upwards. It flows from the working masses of the Cuban people and their revolutionary courage.

This one is close to our collective’s hearts. We all have Cuban family, we have friends and family on the island, the person writing this is a Cuban American. We are anti-capitalist AND anti-authoritarians. We will always stand with the oppressed and their struggle for liberation, no matter where in this world but especially when the flame of revolt is ignited back home. Cien fuegos más.

Por una humanidad libre!