Cuban state media commemorated the 68th anniversary of the Revolutionary National Strike of April 9, 1958, with tributes and patriotic speeches, while maintaining complete silence on the protests shaking the island, which the regime dismisses as "vandalism."
Canal Caribe dedicated a video of over three minutes to glorify the strike called by the July 26 Movement against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, poetically describing how the blood spilled in the streets did not extinguish the rebellion, but nourished it.
The Cuban News Agency covered an event in Matanzas where students, teachers, and authorities from the Communist Party paid tribute to the local martyrs of that incident and highlighted the determination of the young people who took to the streets to demand the end of the dictatorship.
The contradiction is glaring: that same press that glorifies the popular strike of 1958—as one marked by assaults, sabotage, and dozens of deaths—systematically ignores the current protests by Cubans demanding electricity, water, food, and medicine.
On March 13 and 14, Morón, located in Ciego de Ávila, was the scene of the largest wave of demonstrations since July 11, 2021, featuring pot banging, shouts of "Liberty!" and "Homeland and Life," and the burning of furniture in front of the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party.
The regime's response was radically different from the admiration with which it recalls the rebellion of 1958: President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the protests as "vandalism" and "violence," warning that there will be no impunity for vandalism".
Although Díaz-Canel acknowledged that "the prolonged blackouts understandably cause discontent among our people," he insisted that "what will never be understandable, justified, or accepted is violence and vandalism that threatens public tranquility and the security of our institutions."
Regime officials referred to the protesters as "antisocials" and "riffraff," echoing the language used by the official press during the events of July 11, 2021, when Granma headlined "mercenary provocations at the service of the enemy in several provinces."
On the same day that state media commemorated the 1958 strike, protests with pots and pans took place in Guantánamo after 23 hours without electricity, and the day before there was a massive pots and pans protest in Santos Suárez, Havana, due to 15 hours of blackout.
The double standard is the essence of the official narrative: popular rebellion is heroic when it happened 68 years ago and the regime needs it as a foundational myth; when it occurs today, in the face of 67 years of communist dictatorship, it becomes a crime.
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