The Cuban writer and former political prisoner Ariel Hidalgo stated in an interview with Tania Costa that a mobilization of one million people on the streets of Cuba would be enough to overthrow the regime, and he urged the people to lead a peaceful change similar to that which ended communism in Poland.
"What I would like is for citizens, the people, to carry out a new July 11, but in the most peaceful way possible," said Hidalgo, who has served eight years in prison for writing a manuscript critical of the Cuban dictatorship.
"If I could, if what I wanted could happen, it would be for a million people to be in the street... nobody can stand that," he added.
The intellectual, based in Miami, invoked the example of the Polish Solidarity movement to support his argument: "The Poles did it: a million people took to the streets and the communist regime collapsed." He clarified, however, that the Poles could not seize power directly because "Russian troops were at the borders at that time, in 1981."
Hidalgo made a direct comparison to the protests of July 11, 2021, in Cuba, the largest since the Maleconazo of 1994, to argue that a new mobilization would have a much larger scale: "In Cuba, if people take to the streets, it won't be the thousands that came out on July 11, it will be hundreds of thousands."
The former political prisoner acknowledged the deep despair felt by the Cuban population and admitted that many compatriots are willing to accept any solution, even foreign military intervention: "At this moment, there is such great hopelessness among the people of Cuba that they would prefer anything that comes. If the marines come and enter Cuba, even if they destroy whatever they destroy, they would prefer it that way, because the situation is so dire."
Despite understanding that sentiment, Hidalgo was explicit in his rejection of that path: "I would prefer that instead of a military intervention."
The writer identified extreme precariousness as the main obstacle to mass mobilization at this moment: "There are so many hardships in the streets that people, parents, think more about finding food for their children than about going out into the streets." Nevertheless, he emphasized that resistance has not disappeared: "And despite all that, they are still going out."
Hidalgo also mentioned that he maintains support networks within the island: "We have a group of people who send help to those inside Cuba."
The intellectual, co-founder of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights —considered the first human rights organization to emerge within Cuba— was sentenced in 1981 to eight years in prison for his manuscript "Cuba, the Marxist State and the New Class," in which he denounced the formation of a new privileged bureaucratic caste within the communist system. The sentence ordered the destruction of his works "by fire." He was released in 1988 following an international campaign and emigrated to the United States.
His ideal for Cuba was summed up in a single phrase: “What I would like is for the citizens, the people, to carry out a new July 11, but in the most peaceful way possible.”
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