The loud sound of the drums can already be heard
By Fabián Escalante Font
The loud sound of the drums can already be heard. This time, the sound is not coming from our Caribbean aborigines or those from the south of the continent which vibrate in celebrations and protests to the sound of their claims or slogans. Those that are now being heard are the ones of the North American Empire, who is preparing to launch a generalized offensive against our peoples, south of the Rio Grande.
No, they are not satisfied with the state of affairs they are facing. They thought that with a new liberalism headed by Bolsonaro, Piñera, Abdo Benitez, Duque, Moreno, Hernandez, Bukele, Giammattei and other equals, they had settled or at least, contained the resistance of our peoples. However, this has not been the case. The upcoming elections in Ecuador, even in the legendary Peru, can strengthen a bloc of progressive countries already composed by Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba and provide a crushing blow to the Yankee "ministry of colonies", the OAS, thus reestablishing a Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, free from imperial tutelage.
This is precisely the reason of the visit to Argentina in the coming days of the head of the US Southern Commando, Admiral Craig Faller, whose main objective is the aggression against the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, while its close ally, sure supplier of cocaine has not been able to subdue the brave people of Bolivar and Chavez.
The Admiral intends to build a war front with Brazil and its military coup leaders, and at least, neutralize the countries of the South. It would be a combined military action along both Venezuelan borders, which would liquidate in the style of the Hitlerian armies, in one blow, the resistance of their armed forces, their militias and the organized people. Something that is unthinkable, because when a people assumes its dignity, defense and sovereignty it is capable of defeating the invaders of Darius at Thermopylae like the Spartans of ancient Greece. And we are sure that our brothers from one end of the continent to the other will defeat them with the sable of Bolivar and the words and actions of Chavez, Kirchner, Evo, Correa, Lula, Dilma and all the fighters that preceded us.
The strategic objectives of the Empire continue to be the same, even after Trump, now with Biden. They know they are strategically defeated not only militarily, but economically. Russia, China and Iran have stood up and accepted the challenge. The once powerful European Union, which has become a "lapdog" of the United States, is, as a Spanish joke of my times used to say: "like the curro at the party, which cannot leave, nor stay", tied by important economic interests to Russia and access to an inexhaustible, innovative and cheap Chinese market. However, it accuses, attacks, slanders and threatens our peoples: they serve as an accomplice to the Empire in its new Latin American offensive.
For their part, the Yankees have prepared what they have called fourth generation warfare, which in two words assumes all the modalities employed until then by the "warlords". Among them, the powerful "psychological warfare", that is to say, the softening of the conscience of our peoples with the objective of confusing, deceiving, manipulating their feelings, opinions and behaviors, in short, to annul their social conscience, their rebelliousness, their history of struggles, their yearnings for a future that does not depend on those dramatic caravans of emigrants forced by hunger and deceived by propaganda, who march towards the North in search of a better future.
The military political scenario is being actively prepared. It is not surprising that soon a Juan Guaidó will appear at the Venezuelan-Colombian border wearing a war helmet and wielding a rifle, I imagine a wooden one, since the other one would hurt his hands.
However, in Cuba, in its example, in its men and women, the responsibility to protect the flame of the continental Revolution continues. That is why the new Yankee government headed by Biden does not hurry to review its policy towards our country, perhaps hoping for the miracle of a de-merging in the style of Eastern Europe in the 90's. Why? They know that regardless of whoever it may bother, Cuba continues to be the beacon of light lit by Fidel Castro on that glorious morning of January 1, 1959; The winner of the Bay of Pigs, of the October Crisis and a thousand battles, of the Henry Reeve brigades, of the "Yes I can" literacy programs, of the Milagros and Barrio Adentro health operations, of the fight against Ebola, the one that won together with his brothers and sisters, the one who defeated, together with his Angolan and Namibian brothers the odious apartheid in South Africa, the eternal Commander in Chief, the one who in his political testament, indicated, among others, two essential ideas, as if his work were not monumental, incomparable: Change everything that must be changed, pointing out that Revolution is the sense of the historical moment. And it is that, the sense of this moment, which points the way, changing, renewing, attracting new generations of Cubans to this unequal and at the same time victorious combat.
By dint of struggles and combats, we Cubans have some experience in these matters, not in vain the United States has blockaded us, attacked us, terrorized us, launched terrorist campaigns of all kinds for more than 60 years. I do not believe that there are any precedents in the history of mankind. Of course, now we find ourselves in a particular situation, in a process of generational transition, economically and politically harassed, suffering like humanity one of the most terrible pandemics known for centuries.
Psychological warfare was the first recipe used against the Cuban Revolution, taking advantage of the still existing illiteracy, the prejudices against socialism and the vain hopes with which its media were pounding our population with the "American dream", the developed consumer society as the "golden dream" that we had to reach.
Just weeks after the triumph of the Revolution, the United States and its Information Agency accused Cuba of "violating" the human rights of detained murderers and torturers. However, those war criminals were tried for their murders in public and televised tribunals in which they were guaranteed due process.
The Empire orchestrated all the existing mass media in the country, still in the hands of the criollo oligarchy, to chorus its slogans and not content with this, it built on an island in the Honduran Caribbean a powerful radio plant of 50 KW of power that transmitted 24 hours a day, chaining in prime time, the radio stations of Florida, transmitting terrifying messages to the Cuban people about the objectives of the Revolution, its leaders and the political, social and economic project that was being put in place. The false law on the parental authority made a sector of the population believe that the State would take away the power of the parents over their children, provoking the exodus to the United States of more than 15,000 children, many of whom were never found again.
The 21st century and the emergence of the Internet and social networks will dramatically change these psychological warfare operations, or rather their concepts and strategies. It could be said that psychological warfare actions have been extended and anyone with a telephone with access to the network can participate in it.
The United States and its allies, long before, had created "laboratories" to direct and guide the actions proposed in this sense, thanks by the way to a certain extent, to their disastrous and unsuccessful experience against the Cuban Revolution. USAID, NED, Freedom House, Reporters without Borders, the Albert Einstein Foundation, etc., which are financed by the Congress of that country, organize programs aimed at specific sectors of society. This is not random, but the result of a "scientific" study that looks for weaknesses, our mistakes, the neglected flanks, and then, they direct the blow in that direction.
In our case, topics such as tiredness, social exhaustion, "how long do we have to sacrifice?", "when is the Revolution going to satisfy all the needs of the population?", "when can we have luxury apartments and the latest model cars?", are concepts with which they have been hammering the conscience of our young generations, as if reaching it were possible, as if any society in the world had achieved it, as if daily and hard work were not the only source of satisfaction at least of the immediate needs, and as if Cuban society did not have one of the highest social standards in our continent, as if social security, health, education at all levels, the development of culture in its multiple spheres, basic nutrition, citizen security, early vaccination of infants, the scientific development achieved, with the organization of the fight against the covid pandemic, with the SOLIDARITY we have offered to other peoples in more than 60 years, because we have not given what we have left over, but as the Nazarene indicated, we share what we have, the little that we have. And I believe that this has no comparison with any other example in the past, of a people building or trying to build a more just, humane and equitable society, surrounded, attacked, blocked. No, I do not remember any other in the history of mankind. Today we are in the process of producing five vaccines against covid-19. To imagine that this small country, surrounded and attacked, can do something as important as this, fact that will save millions of lives, because as always, Cuba does not intend to become a millionaire -as the big pharmaceutical consortiums that today produce vaccines aspire-, but to help its brothers, our peoples, because that was the legacy of Martí and Fidel, when he said that this people would be men of science and also forged the conditions for it.
The counterrevolutionaries of the early years had to stock up on weapons and explosives to act, to take risks, to attack, to show their faces in a frontal manner, but that has changed in this era. Now, they become "independent" journalists on the Internet for their reports and slanderous news, others more risky enroll in programs of the aforementioned organizations and propose what the focal points of the aggressions against their Homeland should be, our weak sides, presenting a project in which they explain in detail how to organize the aggression, a "dissidence", plastic actions, protests by disgruntled young "artists" etc., so that they can be paid the budget and then with that money, act. The so-called San Isidro Movement is an example in which a subject, who has no notion of art, sits on a toilet wrapped with the Cuban and American flags and proclaims the act as a cultural event and an anti-government protest.
And then, the marathon of fake news begins: violation of human rights, accusatory reports by "independent journalists", memes mocking the leaders in the networks, songs composed by well-known artists who in their golden and paid exile produce music and lyrics to give "color" and voice to the "protests" against the "Cuban regime."
The stage is set. Before, Trump in his last days declared us a terrorist state and now the US Secretary of State appears with a report where he states that human rights are violated in Cuba and therefore, it is inferred, or I infer, that none of the 242 anti-Cuban measures taken by the previous president against this small and burdened country will be modified, if concessions are not made, that is, they ask for forgiveness, kneel and implore the new emperor-president Joe Biden for clemency and promise to surrender.
And what is the antidote to these aggressions, to this psychological, cultural, economic, social, multilateral and total war that the enemy is waging against our people?
Trenches of ideas are worth more than trenches of stones, José Martí indicated to us, and later, during this long war against the Empire, from those trenches, to engage in the Battle of Ideas to which Fidel summoned us. We face the war of ideas with ideas, with truth, with the development of revolutionary consciousness, understanding the historical moment, defending national unity - breaking it is the enemy's objective - because without that unity we are lost, criticizing everything that should be criticized, rectifying everything that should be rectified, arming that consciousness with new thinking and incorporating the new generations without continuismo but with continuity, with renewal, using all the wealth of the social, trade union and fraternal organizations, in short, all of them, arming them with the concepts and ideas of our socialism, with which Fidel shows us the way.
Today, more than ever we must fight on the offensive, not allowing the enemy to surround us, within the encirclement imposed by the blockade, because within it they will annihilate us. To take the combat to their own terrain, precisely where they do not expect us. To use the guerrilla style bequeathed to us by Che and Fidel. To remember that everyone should have the right to defend the Revolution as he¬/she knows or can, with their fingernails if necessary, without dogmas, from their own ideas and trenches.
Continuismo: System of politics which advocates continuity, maintenance of the status quo.
