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International Grandmaster of chess Lázaro Bruzón issued a strong critique of the Cuban regime in a live interview, stating that its leaders are sick with power, they have always sacrificed the people and that this is "the root of everything" that the Cuban people suffer from.
"They have always completely sacrificed the people for their own interests, that is, they have prioritized their personal agendas," declared Bruzón, who left Cuba in 2018 and since 2019 has been openly writing about politics on social media, where he receives attacks from accounts he identifies as regime trolls.
The chess player, nine-time national champion and one of the best in Latin America in recent decades, dismissed any initiative from the regime as a means to improve the country's situation.
"It seems to me that nothing coming from there is going to help the situation," he noted, pointing to two possible paths for change: external intervention or a new massive popular uprising, "another July 11, but multiplied many times over."
Bruzón also commented on the recent interview of Miguel Díaz-Canel on the NBC News program Meet the Press —the first by a Cuban leader in that space since Fidel Castro in 1959—, in which the president stated that "revolutionaries do not renounce" and that he is "willing to give his life for the revolution."
The chess player described that intervention as "mediocre" and "disconnected from reality," in stark contrast to the situation that the Cuban people are experiencing.
The interview takes place weeks after the largest protests recorded in Cuba since July 11, 2021, when hundreds of people took to the streets in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, on March 13 with pot-banging and chants of "Freedom!" and "Homeland and Life," culminating in the burning of the local Communist Party headquarters.
The trigger was the collapse of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, which left 68% of the island without power for up to twenty hours a day. The regime responded with internet cuts and mass arrests: at least 47 people, including minors.
Bruzón reacted to those protests with "significant expectation," but also with sadness due to the subsequent repression, specifically mentioning the case of a 16-year-old imprisoned.
The chess player also supports a "surgical" intervention against the Cuban high command. "If it is the solution to end the suffering that so many Cubans endure day by day, I do support it, of course. Something surgical, that incurs the least possible cost and that removes those people who are clinging to power," he stated.
Reject any transition that involves figures from the current regime and proposes to legally prohibit the Communist Party. "We must start from scratch and no one from the leadership, neither the Castro family nor any of their close associates, can be supported," he stated.
Bruzón relies on the pressure from the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio —whom he sees as a "sentimental card" because of his Cuban roots— to force a change. "We were part of the greatest marketing scam in history. They sold us a very poor product, but they marketed it incredibly well," concluded the chess player, who states that he will not return to Cuba until the country is free.
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