Itxu Díaz: As Government Cops Dragged Away Cuban Journalist, She Uttered These Chilling Final Words
The 25-year-old independent journalist Dina Stars participated in an interview via Skype on Tuesday from Cuba on the Spanish channel Cuatro TV — your typical left-wing outlet, you know, the one that often picks up on the fascism of the last century right away but tends to become short-sighted in the face of today’s communism.
Yesterday on live TV, they witnessed a sad epiphany. As Stars explained the repressive situation in her country, suddenly, the regime police broke into her room, took her computer and kidnapped her. She barely managed to warn the audience before disappearing: “I hold the government responsible for anything that may happen to me. They are forcing me to go with them.” (On Wednesday, Stars shared on Twitter that she has been released after spending a night in jail.)
This is just one of the recent examples of the evils of communism at play in Cuba. And the lack of action by world leaders is disgraceful.
Camila Acosta is a journalist for ABC. She was reporting on the protests in Cuba. Fifteen Castroist policemen raided her home, stole her computers and sealed off her house. They hacked her WhatsApp and her internet connection. They gave the landlord an hour to kick her out. And finally, when she went out to run an errand, they detained her with accusations of “public disorder” and “contempt” for reporting on the same thing that anyone else on the ground sees.
In three days, there are already more than a hundred innocent people detained or missing in Cuba. The regime has cut off communications and the internet. Díaz-Canel turns off the lights so that the world cannot see what he is doing to his people.
In a way, I understand. Communism creates unbearable frustration. It is a broken system, a moral disease. But above all, it doesn’t work. So the only way out, the only way to live well is to be part of the regime — a privilege only available to a handful of people because to endure their life of revolution-caviar, it’s necessary to confiscate everything from the rest of the people.
As the American political satirist and journalist P.J. O’Rourke wrote, “You can’t get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That’s all you need to know about communism.”
The Cuban dictatorship is, more than ever, on the ropes. Its only idea has been to call for civil war, to ask for denunciation and violence. And its only ideological weapon, at this point of misery, is panic. But the good Cubans, those who are in the streets, have already made their message clear: They are so hungry for freedom that they have even eaten their fear.
The people can no longer do more than their share to end the nightmare. In addition to repression and jail, several generations had to endure Fidel Castro’s seven-hour speeches as children, which would be much more painful.
That tyranny remains in power because of the cowardice of certain European and American leaders and the mediocrity of others.
Just yesterday a new Spanish minister made her debut assuring people that Cuba is not a dictatorship. Once again, socialism, in Spain as in Brussels, is an accomplice of communist infamy, by action or omission.
And Washington isn’t off the hook. Because the pretty words of sleepy Joe, full of solidarity, resilience and sustainability, are worthless when overthrowing the regime — which would be possible with even the slightest military threat — is within your power.
A gesture from the greatest power in the world would be enough for thousands of Cuban police and military to dare to desert. They are willing to do so. But Biden and Kamala are focusing their efforts on the important things — you know, like displaying Pride flags at American embassies and things like that.
I am ashamed of the behavior of world leaders at this historic moment.
Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher marked the only path to freedom. I don’t know what we are waiting for.
After all, a drone flying over Havana with the American flag emitting the pre-recorded sound of a machine gun would be enough to cause even Castro’s last distant cousin to jump into the sea in a panic and not stop swimming until they arrived at Greenland — an impossible feat if the sharks do their part since we pay tons of green initiative taxes to reduce sea pollution.
This article first appeared on The Western Journal en Español.
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