TodosMarchamos, We All March, or Fear of Freedom

#TodosMarchamos, We All March, or Fear of Freedom / Cubanet, Antonio Rodiles
Posted on June 7, 2015

Cubanet, Antonio Rodiles, Havana, 3 June 2015 – Right from the year
1959, Fidel Castro made it very clear that public spaces were only for
"Revolutionaries." To achieve this objective he converted every public
act in a harangue to intimidate the citizenry. Very quickly Cubans saw
that the saber-rattling was converted into actions and mobs that could
demolish them and their loved ones. Terror was implanted, the
"Revolution" imposed.

Fifty-six years later, totalitarianism seeks to maintain its power with
the tool it knows best, violence. Reactivating the panic genes that put
you in a straightjacket is the regime's priority.

Can Cuba change if we continue to sustain the memory of fear? Can Cuba
change if we accept the terms of some decrepit old men and their followers?

It is not about a dilemma between a supposedly peaceful change and a
violent one, as some want to show. Cuba will change if we feel the
determination to make it so, if we push a genuine desire to end the
nonsense and the stupidity.

For eight Sundays, the regime has brutally repressed a group of
opponents who, together with the Ladies in White, demand the release of
the political prisoners. Two points are intolerable for the
dictatorship: that we demand the inmates be released, and that we
exercise our right to demonstrate publicly and peacefully.

However, what has been unexpected is the ability to resist that we have
demonstrated in the face of the abuses and the impunity of the
repressive forces. Nearly a hundred activists, we continue to attend
despite the violence they impose on us. It is hard, but our rights are
worth it. We don't know how many more Sundays of abuse and outrages
await us, but we are confident that we will win freedom.

Last week we asked some friends to support us, because we need help to
sustain this demand in the face of the silence of the international
community. Quickly they promoted the Twitter hashtag #Todoas Marchamos
(We All March). A "twittazo" – Twitter protest – against repression was
organized, in support of the Sunday marches. And the result could not be
better. Thousands of Tweets flooded the Internet. Seeing them was a balm
after so much abuse.

Next Sunday we will be back on the street along with the Ladies in
White, those humble women, laden with virtues and defects, but who have
persevered like few others, and to whom we will be grateful for the Cuba
of the future.

Hopefully many will join. Off the Island, let all those Cubans who yearn
for a change send their Tweets, or gather in public spaces to show that
Cuba is hurting. Within Cuba, let the rest of the opposition understand
that the street is a space belonging to everyone, and that the blows
hurt, but more painful for us is the indifference.

If #TodosMarchamas – If we all march – on Sunday, the fear and the
disctatorship are finished. Let's do it.

Source: #TodosMarchamos, We All March, or Fear of Freedom / Cubanet,
Antonio Rodiles | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/todosmarchamos-we-all-march-or-fear-of-freedom-cubanet-antonio-rodiles/