Cuban skeptics say leftists behind aid mission 'actually know nothing'
The Nuestra América Convoy to Cuba (NACC), a humanitarian aid mission which brought tonnes of food, medicine and solar equipment to the Cuban people in protest against U.S. sanctions of the island, was framed as a gesture of international solidarity with the Cuban people.
Prominent participants included U.K. MP and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Irish band Kneecap, and Colombian senator and presidential candidate Clara López, as well as other prominent international parliamentarians and activists.
A U.S. oil blockade of the Caribbean nation cut off non-private foreign fuel shipments for months, although the recent arrival of a Russian oil tanker in Cuban waters suggests the blockade is softening.
Regardless, the island is facing a fuel shortage-induced humanitarian crisis .
The NACC’s stated intention was to protest sanctions, but the mission proved controversial amongst Cubans both on the island and abroad, with some hailing the mission as generous and others criticizing it as a legitimizing propaganda stunt for the Cuban dictatorship.
Cubans from all over the island shared their thoughts on the NACC with National Post over phone and text, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals by an increasingly repressive Cuban government.
Most interviewees appreciated the NACC’s gesture of humanitarian solidarity, with one construction site manager from Havana stating that “it’s great that, on a humanitarian level, foreigners sympathize with everything that is happening to the Cuban people now, and their decision to bring food (and other aid) is laudable.”
However, there are concerns about how aid is distributed. In early March, Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca reported that food aid from the Mexican government intended to be distributed for free to Cubans had been resold in Cuban dollar-only stores linked to military officials.
One male Havana resident in his late twenties who works in a private business expressed concern that corruption could also affect the NACC aid: “The functionaries will keep the best of the aid (for themselves) and donate the rest as they see fit.”
Frustration extended beyond Havana, with one young man in his early twenties from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago expressing cynicism towards the humanitarian aspect of the NACC mission.
“The people from the ‘humanitarian aid’ (NACC) are ignorant or not honest … or both,” he said. “Many Cubans are complaining about those people wasting the little power we have left.”
Though aid delegates used electric vehicles to conserve fuel, some criticized them for staging concerts and staying in hotels whose electricity supplies appeared unaffected by the various nationwide power cuts that have plagued Cuba recently.
An older male resident of Santiago who works in the tourism industry was less cynical, but criticized the NACC’s politicization.
The aid “could help a tiny part of the population, and I appreciate that anyway. However, this convoy is, from my point of view, a political move to support the Cuban government … They actually know nothing, neither about the hardships of daily life for most Cubans, nor about the undeniable violation of human rights that takes place in Cuba every day,” he argued.
Others also attacked the mission’s seeming endorsement of the Cuban state. One female student at the University of Havana said, “we (Cubans) think that those in the convoy defend the regime, they only mention the embargo part but never that Cuba is a dictatorship that we didn’t vote for.”
Human rights groups have criticized the Cuban regime for suppressing free expression, incarcerating dissidents and concentrating power around the ruling Cuban Communist Party, which remains the only permitted political party on the island.
Cuban journalist Jorge Alfonso, now based in Mexico City, lived on the island until age 25 and was forcibly detained by Cuban authorities for covering the mass protests of 2021. Alfonso told National Post he was concerned that NACC’s humanitarian element is overshadowed by its apparent endorsement of the Cuban state.
“Material help is sorely needed in Cuba. The NACC took tonnes of medicine, food and other supplies that are necessary,” he said. “But that help was also needed six months or a year ago. Cubans abroad have been organizing this kind of support for years, long before the fuel blockade. So why now? Because it is a good time to take a photo on the island to show opposition to Donald Trump and commitment to anti-imperialism.”
While acknowledging that U.S. sanctions “end up impoverishing the whole country,” Alfonso criticizes the NACC delegates for concentrating “only on condemning the policies of the United States without denouncing the violations of human rights that the Cuban government commits.”
On March 20, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed the delegation and met several of its high-profile members in person, including Corbyn and David Adler, the coordinator of Progressive International. Many delegates praised the Cuban political model.
“If this humanitarian aid is accompanied by the whitewashing of the Cuban government … then what this flotilla of solidarity is doing seems quite questionable to me,” Alfonso said.
However, not all Cubans interviewed were as skeptical. Ileana Giménez, the spokeswoman of Italy-based Cuban solidarity group Comité Marianas Cubanas Contemporáneas and a NACC participant, told National Post that the mission was a way of repaying Cuba for its history of international solidarity.
“When Covid happened, two Cuban medical brigades came (to Italy) … and they did an amazing job, they saved lives in very difficult conditions. Now it is my turn to help my country, this is why this mission has to happen,” she said.
Giménez argues that the U.S. is the primary culprit of Cuban suffering. “There is a blockade that has existed for more than 60 years, a financial and commercial blockade which means that we (Cubans) need help at this moment,” she concluded.
— Latin America Reports
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