The Cuban regime has a strategy: to blame the United States for the massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Cubans in the last two years and hold it responsible for the consequences of this “irregular and chaotic migration”.
The goal is to pressure the Biden administration to lift "the blockade," or at least remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
To this end, they have a "powerful idea": The United States has created "extraordinary and artificial stimuli for Cuban emigration".
The leitmotiv crafted in the regime's foreign ministry contains three arguments: "the blockade," the privilege of admission at the border (credible fear), and the privilege of residence (Cuban Adjustment Act).
This set of privileges and extraordinary incentives is the reason why, according to Havana, nearly half a million Cubans have applied for political asylum in the United States in the last two years.
The totalitarian Cuban regime does not explain the migration crisis caused by the massive exodus of citizens due to any internal cause or circumstance.
The economic crisis, inflation, widespread shortages, increasing poverty and inequality, lack of rights and freedoms, and repression do not constitute "trigger factors" for the stampede led by a significant percentage of its population toward any point on the planet.
In the United States alone, 424,894 asylum applications were recorded in the last two fiscal years. During this period, those who were returned to Cuba after being intercepted at sea number in the tens of thousands, as do those who are still on their journey.
In addition, one must account for the tens of thousands who have emigrated to other countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, which do not exactly provide "extraordinary and artificial incentives for Cuban emigration."
The fact that the trio of “blockade”, “credible fear” and “Cuban Adjustment Act” existed before 2022 and did not serve as an incentive for the flight of hundreds of thousands of Cubans means nothing to the regime's propaganda.
To blur this contradiction in their discourse, it is enough for them to mention the pandemic, "the more than 240 measures by Trump against Cuba," and their maintenance by President Biden, attributing the Cuban migration emergency to these.
The fact that the United States has resumed its consular activity in Cuba, has granted more than 50,000 visas in the last two years, or has granted humanitarian parole to over 50,000 Cubans from January to date, does not prevent the Cuban regime from continuing to cry and lie.
That more than 380,000 Cubans are waiting for their parole requests to be resolved is the fault of the United States and its “extraordinary and artificial incentives for Cuban emigration.”
And even more cynical and criminal is the fact that they attribute to that country the cost in human lives, injuries, extortions by mafia groups, as well as the various traumas and anguish experienced by Cuban migrants in their different journeys escaping from the "prison island."
“The worst part is that they are inducing illegal, unsafe migration that costs lives,” affirmed the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel in his recent interview for the regime's television program Mesa Redonda.
A regime that encouraged the largest exodus in the history of Cuba by agreeing with its Nicaraguan ally to waive visa requirements for Cubans, opening the Central American route to migrants, and charging exorbitant prices for tickets and services.
A regime that -continuing the teachings of the dictator Fidel Castro- again used migration as a pressure valve, despite the agreements between both countries that consider this scenario as a “hostile act.”
A regime that has a strategy, but also has officials like the Deputy Director General of the United States Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Johana Tablada, who is well-versed in the refrain of "destroying the Cuban revolution," but in relaxed settings reveals the true strategy that guides the decisions from the Palace.
The moral and material degradation exacerbated in Cuba by the "continuity" government has led to the unprecedented emergence of citizen protest demonstrations in Cuba.
Since the protest of 27N to the historic one on 11J, the Cuban civil society has taken to the streets to express their desire to live with rights and freedoms, to question the legitimacy of those who govern through terror and violence, and to demand a change of direction for the country.
This eruption of citizen discontent on the streets, on social media, and within Cuban families has been the main trigger of the regime's repression, but it has also been part of its strategy to alleviate social pressure: emigration.
No matter how much it is now discussed about the “extraordinary and artificial stimuli for Cuban emigration” from the United States, the regime knows that the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Cubans in the last two years is part of its survival plan and its “political project” to perpetuate itself in power.
Hence the strategy to force or encourage the exile of Cubans who can no longer endure and pose a threat to the statu quo, with the added advantage of extorting them later through remittances and the emotional blackmail of leaving family members behind, hostages of the regime's abusive policies.
“The 200,000 that the United States thought would come out to topple the government... have emigrated”, Tablada said to the channel Russia Today, in a long and relaxed interview where this offhand remark revealed the Machiavellian logic of the regime.
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Opinion article: Las declaraciones y opiniones expresadas en este artículo son de exclusiva responsabilidad de su autor y no representan necesariamente el punto de vista de CiberCuba.
