Díaz-Canel Threatens Cuban Students with War Rhetoric

Leer en Español

Cuba: From Student Fee Hikes to the Regime's Bellicose Language

The student movement that has shaken Cuban universities since early June is not simply a protest against internet fees. It is the desperate cry of a generation that refuses to bear on their shoulders the weight of decades of economic mismanagement and authoritarianism, despite the indoctrination the dictatorship has subjected them to.

Beyond the "ETECSA Fee Hike"

What began as an academic strike at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Havana against ETECSA's new internet rates quickly became something much deeper. Students are not protesting solely about the cost of mobile data, but about the fundamental right to access information, education, and communication.

The voices of these young people are clear and forceful:

"The people cannot be the ones who have to bear this economic burden," expressed one of the students. This phrase perfectly summarizes the core of the conflict: a population exhausted from subsidizing with their poverty the deficiencies of a system that promised prosperity and equality but delivers scarcity and inequality.

A Generation That Will Not Be Silenced 

 

Direct link: https://cubanamericanvoice.com/pwa.html

The testimonies from university meetings reveal impressive political maturity. Students question not only the economic measures, but also the lack of transparency and popular participation in decisions that affect them.

"In a republic that should be socialist and democratic," argues one young person, exposing the fundamental contradiction between official discourse and authoritarian reality.

These university students speak of dignity, human rights, and social justice. They use the regime's language to denounce its contradictions. When they affirm that:

"ETECSA is a socialist company of the people, and this is the people," they are applying implacable logic that disarms any official justification.

Student Demands: An Emerging Political Program

Students have articulated specific demands that go far beyond a simple tariff reduction:

Transparency and Participation: They demand respect for ETECSA's contract that establishes 30 days' notice before changes, and criticize the "totally autocratic measure without popular participation." Their central demand is clear: "We want total revocation of the measures."

Social Justice: They question why "data package prices far exceed a retiree's minimum wage" and denounce that tariffs are designed so that only relatives abroad can afford them, deepening dependence on remittances.

Right to Information: They argue that the internet is "synonymous with information, ideas, innovation, learning, communication, freedom and above all development," and that new tariffs limit fundamental rights in a digitalized society.

Accountability: They pose uncomfortable questions about the destination of public resources: "Where was all the money collected all this time destined, and why do the people have to be responsible for its mismanagement?"

National Dignity: They express pain at how "Cubans, due to all the shortages, have seen their dignity on the floor, having to beg relatives abroad to send us money."

One of the most revealing testimonies comes from Joan Santana Zamora, a chemical engineering student at CUJAE, who declared:

"We are not numbers, we are students who need internet to research, to submit assignments. They have taught us to resist, but that is not synonymous with submission."

Repression as a Predictable Response

The regime's reaction has been the same as always: repression, intimidation, and threats. State Security agents have visited student homes, closed communication channels, and threatened university expulsions. This response confirms that the government perfectly understands the political nature of the protest.

The phrase "Lies don't silence us and injustice unites us more," which appeared on CUJAE walls, seems to have been the trigger for a repressive escalation that includes interrogations and threats to entire families. The disparity in the official response reveals the regime's genuine fear of a youth who no longer accepts empty explanations.

The Intimidating Message: Díaz-Canel Resorts to Bellicose Language

Amid growing student unrest, dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Communist Party of Cuba have escalated their rhetoric to alarming levels. The official message, published on the PCC's social networks, used a belligerent tone that criminalizes any form of student dissent.

Quoting Fidel Castro's words, the official communiqué warned that "these revolutionary processes have no middle ground, they either triumph or are defeated." This declaration is not casual: it constitutes a direct threat that presents student demands as a national security issue.

"Rest assured that we will not be counted among the defeated," Díaz-Canel concluded, establishing a clear dividing line between the regime and those who dare to raise their voice.

This bellicose language inevitably evokes the "combat order" of July 11, 2021, when the dictator ordered:

"Revolutionaries to the streets," unleashing a wave of repression, beatings, and arbitrary arrests against peaceful demonstrators.

The message is not trivial. When the first secretary of the country's only legal party declares the need to "defeat extreme reaction," he speaks not abstractly but explicitly authorizes the use of repression against students, journalists, activists, and anyone who questions the power's decisions.

This rhetorical escalation coincides with the promotion of Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas to general, in the presence of Raúl Castro. More than a tribute, this gesture represents a reaffirmation that power remains shielded behind the same faces, ideas, and repressive methods as always.

Political Repercussions: An Earthquake in the Making

The political implications of this student movement transcend immediate circumstances and point to deeper transformations in the Cuban political landscape:

Fracture of Generational Consensus: For the first time in decades, a generation formed entirely under the socialist system publicly questions its foundations. These young people are not external "counterrevolutionaries" but products of the Cuban educational system itself who now use their training to criticize the regime's contradictions and demonstrate the failure of the malevolent attempt to form the "new man".

Crisis of Legitimacy of Official Organizations: The demand for the resignation of FEU national president Ricardo Rodríguez González, and open criticism of this official student organization represents a blow to one of the pillars of youth political control. Several FEU branches have had to join the discontent or risk losing their legitimacy.

Institutional Domino Effect: The protest has demonstrated the capacity for contagion between universities. From the University of Havana to CUJAE, from Matanzas to Las Villas and the University of the East, the movement has achieved horizontal coordination that deeply worries the regime.

Internationalization of Conflict: Support received from Argentina, Chile, and other Latin American leftist countries puts the Cuban regime in an uncomfortable position, being criticized from its international political spectrum.

New Forms of Resistance: Students have demonstrated the capacity to organize through digital channels, create their narratives, and maintain discipline in their actions, all despite repression. This organizational sophistication represents a qualitative leap in forms of social protest in Cuba.

Impact on Army and Police: The warning from First Colonel Hugo Morales Carel about defending "State security and interior order" reveals security apparatus concerns. However, open repression against university students carries significant political costs, even for an authoritarian regime.

Precedent for Other Sectors: If students achieve victories, other social sectors might feel encouraged to raise their demands. Student protests could become the catalyst for a broader social movement.

A Struggle for the Future

This student protest represents something more than a political conjuncture. It is the expression of a generation that grew up in permanent crisis, that knows the world beyond Cuban borders through the internet, and that refuses to accept that their future is mortgaged by decisions made without their participation.

Cuban students have achieved something that seemed impossible: articulating a coherent critique of the system from its own declared values, exposing contradictions between socialist discourse and authoritarian practice. Their protest is peaceful but radical, local but universal, specific but systemic.

Final Reflection

The temporary suspension of the strike at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science does not represent defeat, but tactical reorganization in the face of repressive escalation. The movement has achieved something invaluable:

The movement has achieved something invaluable: demonstrating that there exists a generation of Cubans willing to question, to demand, and not to conform with crumbs, even in the face of the regime's most explicit threats.

The return of bellicose language by Díaz-Canel and the PCC reveals the true nature of a dictatorship that does not tolerate the slightest dissent. There is talk of struggle, enemies, and ideological confusion, but at no moment is it addressed:

The true origin of discontent: unpopular decisions, disconnection from reality, and the insistence on governing based on fear.

Cuba's future will not be decided in the offices of the single party, but in the classrooms, dormitories, and streets where these young people are writing a new page in their country's history. Their struggle is for the right to have a voice in decisions that determine their destiny, and that is a battle that transcends any internet tariff.

The question is no longer whether the regime can silence this protest with its trench language, but how long it can resist the awakening of a generation that no longer accepts empty promises or threats as responses to their legitimate claims.

History has shown that regimes that resort to bellicose language against their youth are, inevitably, writing their sentence.