Alligator Alcatraz: the latest resource of state terrorism by the fascist government of the United States against the Cuban nation. Photo: U.S. Government / Rawpixel (CC).

What’s happening to Cubans imprisoned as migrants in the United States, and particularly in the Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp in the Florida Everglades, offends all Cubans. As children of this land, we deeply hold a sense of human dignity. My solidarity also extends to the grief of their families and loved ones in the North, and in the archipelago where they were born and raised.

In the comments and approvals that have been made to the posts denouncing this genocidal behavior of the perpetrators of the blockade, there has been the typical mortification of the protest: "I told you so! The Yankees who govern that country are…" There has been no shortage of criticism for the support given to the candidacy of the fascist president, many of whom are now mistreated with persecution and imprisonment. Just as it’s typical of us, the denunciation and repudiation are unanimous.

Nothing escapes ideology and politics, but ideology and politics do not command the civilizing principles of being in good and good living, they do not command human dignity, they don’t command the sense of justice, fraternity, and solidarity. Much less do they determine familial, gender, ethnic, cultural, and group identities, affections, and loves. Quite the opposite: from the principles and philosophies of life and destiny, ideology and politics are built. Above all, as revolutionaries, we build ideology and politics based on ethics, affection, and tenderness. We Cubans learned this from the founding fathers of the nation; the National Hero José Martí Pérez systematized this feeling, thinking, and action for us.

"The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." "The true revolutionary must foster love for the people and the most sacred causes," defined the Heroic Guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara in his masterful letter-essay "Socialism and Man in Cuba," March 12, 1965. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/espanol/guevara/escritos/op/libros/presente/16.htm

No one deserves degrading treatment. No Cuban deserves for us to idly contemplate their spiritual and physical pain, especially if it’s intentionally and brazenly provoked, today, by the fascist who governs the United States and his cohort of repressors.

The reality and the debate over our migration have been artfully placed in the field of anti-Cuban operations, in the US empire's war against the Cuban Revolution. At this moment, it’s a very complex matter. But the defense of the honor and human rights of migrants, before ideological issues, is essential. Whether ideological or political, it results in a cause of humanist ethics, of national sentiment in the fraternity of Martí.

In recent years, in Miami, Madrid, and some other cities, a small clique of mercenaries and opportunists—a "new" cyber counterrevolution competing with the already established one—has carved out a trench of hatred, plundering the crumbs of the empire. With a high profile in the media on so-called social networks, these monstrosities, with the approval of the fascist right in metropolitan governments, have had "successes" in hate and abuse, successes in harassing and fracturing exchanges and friendships... But that’s not Cuban migration!

Regardless of how they think about philosophy, ideology, and politics, it gives me pride and peace of mind to know that the vast majority of Cubans living abroad are hardworking people. Hardworking and honest Cubans. Families who build and rebuild their surroundings in search of the "American Dream". In search of the life that the blockade has prevented them from having here, even though many think—and it’s their legitimate right to think—that "socialism is to blame."

And the majority love their homeland, those who remain close to their family, those who wish peace and prosperity to those of us who live within the country, who collaborate, respect, and esteem us, even though we are "communists."

Never in my travels through Miami, knowing who I am, how I think and act, have I lacked a roof, a helping hand, and a great deal of Cuban brotherhood. The same respectful and fraternal Cubanness I have enjoyed in other cities of the empire, among Cubans living around the world. From those who are relatively "well off" economically, and also among those who are not.

I'll never forget the almost surreal experience of those Cuban marginalized settlers, living in one of the harshest circles of poverty in the hills of Lima. They arrived "in Peru" in 1980, as they told me: "fooled!" A few years ago, while doing fieldwork with my comrades from EDUCAP and popular education, I happened to run into them, and we recognized each other as fellow Cubans. One afternoon, I climbed the hill and visited them. Only among Cubans, there was no shortage of good "Cuban" coffee, chicharrita, and even a good "Chispa de tren" booze. At that time, they were requesting our Embassy to allow their children to participate in the scholarship programs that Cuba offered for young people from low-income families. The Cuban community living abroad is part of the nation: When Cuban communists and patriots within the country resist and do not yield, we are also defending the country, the culture, the environment, the homeland of those who migrated.

The undeserved appropriation of the anniversary of May 20, 1902, as a symbol of "their" republic, as we recently criticized, conditions the interest in sustaining the image of "another" Cuba, which they want to position against the nation. At: https://www.facebook.com/cuban-cuban-communists com/story .php ?story_fbid=2138995139847018&id=1000 120965 793 71&rdid=GOogzCj5neYwNWmH

The imposition of the category of "repressors" on anyone who has participated in activism within Cuba, the lists, the insults, and the pressure within the Cuban community in the United States, constitute precisely a fascist operation against the unity of identity, against the culture of love and tolerance of the Cuban family, the nation, and its emigrants.

The criminality of the prison in the Everglades, very close to the Cuban settlements in Florida, compels terror and seeks to freeze the migrants' relations with the nation. The coup already underway is to hinder, freeze, and cut off remittances, food shipments, and family travel. Alligator Alcatraz is a new resource of state terrorism against the nation and the Cuban Revolution.

Those of us who resist do not ask for a truce, nor do we surrender. Whatever help and sincere collaboration arrives in these times of terrible shortages and rudely provoked tempers, we receive with the head held high of a gladiator who is willing to keep on fighting.

Well done to the militant solidarity of Cuban patriots who live and work in other lands today. Well done to the resources that come from the philanthropy of those who think of children and the elderly, of the sick who suffer shortages today, of our heroic mothers who perform miracles to feed their families, amidst hyperinflation, the shortage of products, domestic fuel, and electricity. Well done to those who feel obliged to support their families… Every act of collaboration today is a response to fascism, a concrete act of support for the nation at risk.

Let’s defend, together with the human dignity of imprisoned migrants, respect for the Cuban family, and the ever-fertile space for Cuban unity. Let’s denounce the abuses and fascist criminality of the Donald Trump administration and its Cuban-American mafia aides, of its cyberterrorism spokespeople.

[1] Havana. Professor. Historian. Member of the Historical and Social Literature Section. Writers' Association. UNEAC

Taken from Cubainformación

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSi Translation Staff