The Cuban writer and journalist Alfonso Quiñones stated in an interview with CiberCuba that "Cuba today is about 500 times worse than in '59," while analyzing the three scenarios that President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged Washington is considering for the island: social upheaval, economic control, and military intervention.
Quiñones, who has been living in Santo Domingo for 25 years, was responding to journalist Tania Costa about the statements made by Díaz-Canel to elDiario.es, published on the same day, in which the Cuban leader described three possible outcomes for Cuba.
"There can be those three scenarios, but the outcome will be the same. They will not continue," asserted the writer, who believes that the regime's time "ended a long time ago" and that they do not relinquish power "because it is the biggest business of their lives."
To illustrate this thesis, Quiñones pointed out the widespread corruption of the ruling elite: "Almost every day, news emerges about new relatives, new ministers, new generals, and new party officials who have businesses outside of Cuba."
The writer was direct in mentioning a specific case: "Why come to me and say that Díaz-Canel's stepson, who just bought a mansion for three million dollars or euros, got that money from you? That's a lie. Where did it come from?"
That statement aligns with prior information about Anido Cuesta, Díaz-Canel's stepson, who has been linked to a luxurious lifestyle in Madrid, including the use of high-end accessories.
Quiñones described the phenomenon as "the greatest corruption that could exist today in any country" and presented it as the real reason why the regime clings to power, beyond any ideological conviction.
Regarding the state of the Cuban nation, the writer was equally emphatic: "If a Cuban nation still exists, it is fragmented, it is diluted across many points in the world, and in Cuba, there remain only faint traces of what it once was."
To explain the deep deterioration of society, Quiñones referred to the concept of "anthropological damage," coined by the Cuban intellectual Dagoberto Valdés, founder of the Centro de Estudios Convivencia in Pinar del Río.
"I believe the best definition of that is anthropological damage, as Dagoberto Valdés put it," Quiñones stated, referring to the concept that describes the essential weakening of the human being—in its ethical, cognitive, and social dimensions—caused by decades of totalitarianism, fear, and ideological control.
The writer also addressed the cultural impact of 67 years of dictatorship, noting that Cuban national culture today exists in the diaspora and that the national awards for literature, music, and plastic arts on the island have lost all real value: "The National Literature Award or the Critics' Award or the Plastic Arts Award is given to the first person who walks by on the sidewalk."
The full interview, conducted by Tania Costa, can be viewed on the CiberCuba channel featuring Alfonso Quiñones, where the writer also elaborates on his thesis that "nothing changes with the same people" and presents the only two outcomes he considers possible for Cuba.
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