Open letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel

I have grown old in opposition to his regime. When you were not born I was a premature anti-communist, totally intuitive, at 16 years old. He was 15 when the revolution triumphed. Today I am 80. There is no right to that continuity. And he was anti-Batista, too, in a natural way. He antibatistianismo It was the consequence of my parents. Manola and Ernesto were.

Arriving in exile on the afternoon of September 9, 1961, I was surprised by the change that could be observed in my father: it was a pro-Batista change and I attributed it, without any basis, to the new wife my father had taken: Lourdes Anaya. Murillo, daughter of some prominent Batista supporters.

Manola continued to be anti-Batista. I was glad that my mother continued to feel democracy in the same way that I had learned: an absolute tolerance for other people's thoughts.

I tell you this story so that you do not believe the disinformation that the regime spreads in its publications about its adversaries. I have nothing to do with the CIA, nor with terrorism, nor with Batista, and there is no truth in the hoax about “that Montaner helped train Yoani Sánchez in Internet things” during a visit she made to Europe. Unlike Yoani, director of the magnificent and necessary digital 14 intervene, I neither know nor care how the network works. My knowledge of these matters is very limited. These are excuses that Security always makes to disqualify those who propose initiatives outside of communism, such as the one in this letter.

Mister Diaz-Canel, Marxism, as the substance of the communist system, has always failed, with every type of communism and leader who has tried it. Because? It has been carried out among Germans and you have already seen the results. It was discussed among the Koreans and you have already seen the consequences: on the same peninsula there is a part, to the north, that does not even have electricity at night. And in the south, on the other hand, it is developed Korea that exports vehicles, televisions and computers, and the population has a standard of living similar to that of the first world.

What has not been achieved is equalizing the results. Not everyone is powerful and rich in the most prosperous countries on the planet. There are, of course, many poor people in the world's richest societies. But what kind of poor person is immersed in those pockets of wealth? In the USA, poverty is that of a family of 4 people that has income of less than USD 27,750. More access to schools, hospitals, food stamps and justice. He welfare state It is even more impressive in the Nordic countries of Europe. Denmark will pay my granddaughter Claudia for a second “master’s degree.” When you finish studying you will be able to face a life without debt.

This is paid for with the income generated by workers' salaries and company profits. Confiscating large and medium-sized companies was a serious mistake that was made between June and December 1960 in Cuba. Just charging them taxes was enough. And confiscating small companies was a stupid thing that happened in 1968, where tens of thousands of companies passed to the State, during the so-called “Revolutionary offensive”, some of them made up of only one person, such as taxis and certain barbershops and hair salons, and, much to their regret, Cuban society became the most communist on the planet.

I haven't come this far to tell you what you already knew. That Marx was wrong was evident. That communism was based on the appropriation of the productive apparatus was a disaster. That on our island it had caused a tremendous catastrophe, with cities and roads destroyed, as if they had suffered a bombardment from an unforgiving power. What deserves to be heard is “how to turn setbacks into triumphs,” as I think you say yourselves.

You see, sir Diaz-Canel: A few days ago I had turned 80 years old. Recently the young woman came to visit me in Madrid. Rosa María Payá. He came to bring me a book. She is the daughter of Oswaldo, who was murdered by State Security in 2012, along with Harold Cepero. This is demonstrated in the research done by David E. Hoffman (Give me liberty, Simon & Schuster) who has won a Pulitzer Prize for, precisely, historical research.

Rosa María today leads Cuba Decide and does not give up his efforts to continue the mission that his father, at the head of the Christian Liberation Movement, drove on the island with the Varela Project. Its objective was to hold a plebiscite through which Cubans would freely decide their destiny at the polls. Objective that your daughter pursues to end once and for all the curse of continuity that you sadly preside over.

My time has already passed. The time of Castroism has already run out. In reality, he was born condemned to failure from the beginning. It is the moment for young people like Rosa María Payá inside and outside the island, who eagerly seek what she summarizes as “the defense of freedom, democracy and human rights.” Learn from them. You can still do it. When Raúl dies they will do it to you.