The Cuban writer Daína Chaviano stated this Sunday that she considers it unlikely that change in Cuba can come from within the island and referred to a popular saying to illustrate her belief that the regime will not relinquish power voluntarily.
"Dictatorships must be set on fire like the macaw.... because otherwise, they won't leave, they won't leave on their own," declared the author, exiled in Miami since 1991, in an exclusive interview with CiberCuba.
Chaviano was categorical in dismissing the possibility that change could arise from within the island. "I don't believe it can come from inside the island," she emphasized.
The saying used by the writer refers to prompting a drastic and irreversible action, a great uproar that forces a change that would not occur otherwise.
Although he expressed his wish for the regime to decide to leave, he acknowledged that he does not believe it is possible. "I wish they would decide that it's time to go, but I don't think that's going to happen," he said.
On the waiting stage, Chaviano was direct. "I would like it to be something very quick, to eliminate the main causes of this situation, which is already unsustainable," she argued.
The writer referenced the fall of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela on January 3. "I wish it could be something like Venezuela, which is what we are hoping for," she specified.
Chaviano also compared the current situation in Cuba with the Special Period of the 1990s, a time she experienced before going into exile and that she portrayed in her novel "El hombre, la hembra y el hambre" (1998). Her verdict was clear: "It is not the same; it is even worse."
He noted that the population has returned to cooking with charcoal, a situation that didn't even occur during that crisis, and that if Cuba were not an island, the country would have completely emptied of its inhabitants by now.
"If Cuba were not an island, the country would have already emptied. What keeps the population in the country is precisely that island quality," he stated.
Chaviano proposed the establishment of a committee made up of dissidents and members of civil society within Cuba to manage a transition, and he emphasized that the Cuban regime does not even maintain the appearance of electoral processes.
"They were just putting on a show for the elections, that whole thing that in Cuba is lost now... We are all on edge, those of us living abroad and those who are inside the island as well," the writer concluded.
Chaviano's statements come at a time of peak tension. The Cuban economy could contract by 7.2% in 2026, accumulating a decline of nearly 23% since 2019, according to projections from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Maduro's departure from power cut off the supply of subsidized Venezuelan oil to Cuba, which aggravated the energy crisis with blackouts of more than 20 hours a day in various parts of the island.
On April 11, a delegation from the United States Department of State met in Havana with representatives from Raúl Castro's circle, including his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, according to a report by the American media outlet Axios.
Washington warned that the Cuban economy is "in free fall" and called for the release of political prisoners and free elections, the source pointed out.
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