The Cuban-Salvadoran documentarian Jorge Dalton stated in an interview with CiberCuba that the Cuban regime "must end, it must fall, it can no longer continue", and he described it as "corrupt, highly repressive," and "directly responsible for the sinking of the Cuban nation."
Dalton, who has lived in Havana since he was six and trained at the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), speaks from a unique position because he knows Cuba from the inside. However, he has spent decades building his career from San Salvador, which gives him a perspective that he himself defines as that of someone who "spends life walking and finding characters."
The filmmaker acknowledged that Cubans are divided between those who support armed action and those who oppose it, but he emphasized that there is a point of convergence. "Both sides agree on one thing: the dictatorship in Cuba must end."
To explain why the Cuban opposition was never able to formulate a transition plan, Dalton drew a historical comparison with other 20th-century dictatorships such as Franco's Spain, Pinochet's Chile, and Rafael Videla's Argentina. In those cases, he said, "the opposition had some leeway to put together a program, a plan that worked" when the moment for change arrived.
What has happened in Cuba, he pointed out, is that since 1959 "all civil society was suppressed, all possibility of maintaining democracy as it had been in previous years was eradicated," leaving the opposition without organizational capacity.
The only attempt that, according to Dalton, came close to succeeding was Oswaldo Payá's Varela Project, which operated within the existing legal framework until it was crushed by the regime.
"It was so dangerous for them that look what happened," Dalton said, adding about Payá's death that "it is most likely that they murdered him," and that this case 'should be revisited when the new Cuba comes'.
Payá died on July 22, 2012, in a traffic accident whose circumstances remain disputed. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the government of the United States have supported the thesis that it was not an accident.
About national reconciliation —the central theme of his documentary "In a Corner of the Soul", described by critics as one of the most remarkable about Cuba in recent times—, Dalton rejected the argument that Cubans who emigrated lose the right to express their opinions on the future of the island.
"You have no right to say anything because you live outside of Cuba or because you left, you abandoned — no, no, no," he responded, comparing the situation of the diaspora with that of José Martí, who spent much of his life in New York.
The filmmaker, son of the poet Roque Dalton, argued that any design for the new Cuba "must involve the Cubans who have left," and emphasized that the new generations of the diaspora—in Miami, New York, Mexico, and Spain—will be the ones "who will have to take the lead."
The filmmaker also expressed that "the new Cuba must first begin with a change in our mentality" and that this change "must start within the homes, in the family, in communication both inside and out."
As a possible reference for transformation, Dalton mentioned Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, who according to him has over 90% approval, although he acknowledged that his administration also generates divisions.
The documentary "In a Corner of the Soul" captures the thoughts of the exiled Cuban writer Eliseo Alberto Diego, who passed away in Mexico in 2011 and proposed reconciliation between the "two Cubas" as a prerequisite for any transition, a message that Dalton believes is as relevant today as when they filmed the movie.
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