The Cuban writer Carlos A. Aguilera, who has been residing in Prague for a decade, defines Castroism as "the history of bullying." In an interview with Tania Costa recorded this Tuesday, Aguilera maintains that the Cuban regime has operated for seven decades under a simple and brutal logic: to eliminate everything that does not suit it.
"Castrismo is the history of bullying. It is the history of every time I don’t like something, I remove it from the way, and everything I don’t like, I eliminate," asserts the writer, whose work has tackled totalitarianism and power through irony and political satire.
According to Aguilera, this elimination has been systematic and encompasses all areas. "They have eliminated everything from political parties and newspapers I disliked to people I don’t like, as they either end up in prison or have to leave the country."
The interview takes place at a time of heightened intensity in the debate about the Cuban transition. Just this Tuesday, Granma published a defense of the military conglomerate GAESA —renamed GAE— without including figures or verifiable audits, while on May 7, Marco Rubio formalized new sanctions against the financial heart of the regime.
For Aguilera, the first step towards a real Cuba is precisely not to replicate that logic. "A history as bully-like as that of the Cuban government, as that of the Cuban revolutionary state, cannot be replicated. And that is the first step to building a true Cuba."
The writer is blunt in assessing the system: "Do not replicate what we already know doesn’t work and is also morally reprehensible, such as the Cuban dictatorial framework."
In the interview, she also addresses the so-called "anthropological damage" that the regime is said to have inflicted on Cubans. Tania Costa expresses skepticism regarding this thesis, citing her experience of exile in Europe as her reasoning. "I believe that Cubans are the immigrants who adapt best to the lives and customs of the countries we arrive in. In other words, we don’t create ghettos."
However, he distinguishes that recent European exile from the historical one in Florida, which arrived "driven in the 60s" and reproduced its Cuban way of life under different circumstances. "Here, we adjust to the rhythm, we adapt to democracy, we are not a discordant element, we are just one more," he points out.
Regarding whether Cubans are ready to build a democracy, Aguilera responds honestly: "I hope so, I hope so, I don’t know. It also depends on many things, but I hope so."
The writer, however, warns against a common misconception: the belief that democracy arrives with material welfare. "What I fear is that many people think that having food or certain things means democracy has arrived. Democracy is precisely what begins after that."
This reflection is relevant in the context of the transition plan that the Cuban opposition ratified in Madrid last Monday, which consists of four phases: Liberation, Stabilization, Reconstruction, and Democratization.
For Aguilera, democracy is not decreed. "Democracy is something that is built every day. That is to say, you can't just arrive and say, well, from now on this is eliminated and democracy has begun." Building it, he concludes, involves creating "from spaces of justice to spaces of freedom in every sense."
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