Cibercuba said what it meant not to (say)

"I just found out that those from Cibercuba read the provincial press," a colleague of mine just told me, since this media "dismantled" her interview with a renowned Cuban musician: they just took everything out of context here, changed words and they ended up making up a story that the artist did not tell, but the one they would have liked to read or, to be more accurate, the one they charge for writing.

But after welcoming her into the world of media manipulation, I had to steal my colleague's illusions: I'm pretty sure they do not follow your newspaper in particular or the provincial press in general. If so, they would have echoed other sounding news or topics that, unfortunately, do not match with their agenda. They follow any person, natural or legal, who has ever taken sides in favor of the Cuban Revolution and their goal is to discredit them for which they are well paid.

It is not always about them telling lies, it is often impossible for them because the truths are usually too obvious. But if they cannot ignore them, they find a way to squeeze them into the mold of their convenience and write headlines like this one about a video the Ministry of Culture released and premiered. That is, the Cuban Government, at least that is how it sounds better to them and it is more functional to the idea of introducing certain artists as a kind of "agents" of the "regime."

Some have never even shown any other position than patriotism, civility or love and respect for the art made in Cuba, others have dared more, have expressed "horrors" such as "unblock me," "the strength of a country" or "at home I feel at home", but we are clear about it, freedom of expression only applies when it follows the line of the Helms Burton.

And not only Cibercuba, but also a growing list of professionals of the crudest libel, where anything goes to denigrate personalities and institutions of this country.

They are OK if the most respectable intellectuals, very talented creators, or women and men who have chosen to live in Cuba and do their work from different sectors are involved. But everything is about likes, and you know, likes are the medals of this war.

That is a war. A fourth-generation war, like the one Martí warned us about centuries ago: of thought and not bullets. But in the Internet age, sometimes, we go from information to disinformation without intermediate steps.

It is the battle of ideas, Fidel knew it first, as always. A battle where every word can be a bullet and also a Boomerang, but silence is the biggest defeat.

Both action and thinking are necessary. Each individual must do what it takes without allowing open fire to distract us from our priorities, but without naivety leaving us defenseless, with our guard down, so entertained in the world of "likes" and "followers." We cannot lose sight of who we are, our goals, and our truth.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff