Cuba’s communist government has blocked the country’s internet access and now they are deploying plainclothes police officers and citizen spies to infiltrate protests in an effort to crush dissent among the thousands demanding freedom in the streets.
Infiltration is a common ploy of despotic regimes to quell the masses. The rapid-response brigades that are being deployed are comprised of neighbors, co-workers, and plainclothes officers who are loyal to the Cuban government, according to dissident bloggers and reporters.
Yoani Sanchez, who is a Cuban journalist, reported on the increased activity of the brigades, as well as “a heavy police presence” on the streets of many of Cuba’s largest cities during her “Ventana 14” podcast on Friday.
“The government lost the street and are using anything they can to stop the protests,” claimed Ted Henken, who is a Baruch College sociology professor and an expert on Cuba, according to the New York Post.
(Video Credit: CBS Miami)
Over 200 Cubans have been arrested during the protests so far. The homes of many demonstrators have reportedly been raided. These individuals were identified from videos taken of the demonstrations, according to Henken.
The brigades are not new in Cuba. The vigilante organizations were deployed in the 1990s when the Soviet Union withdrew economic support to the country. That began the rationing of food, medicine, and supplies that plagued the island for years. It resulted in a revolt in 1994. But spies and infiltration have been going on since 1959 when Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister.
“They never stopped functioning,” remarked Andy Gomez, who is a retired dean of International Studies at the University of Miami. The communist regime has used the groups whenever they felt the people were slipping out of their iron-fisted control.
The brigades have thousands of members that are sent out all over the island, according to Gomez. Many are loyalists but others are forced to participate if they want to keep their jobs.
The Ministry of the Interior mixes the brigades with cops and uses them as a combined domestic security and intelligence force. Information gathered by the organization is not only used against protesters, it is used against political opponents. Those arrested are then reportedly tortured and held for years if not killed.
Dissidents who speak out against the totalitarian government frequently disappear and are never heard from again. Many others wind up in brutal prisons for years, if they survive.
U.N. human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, urged the Cuban government on Friday to address protesters’ grievances and called for the release of all those who have been arrested.
“I am very concerned at the alleged use of excessive force against demonstrators in Cuba and the arrest of a large number of people, including several journalists,” Bachelet declared in a statement. “It is particularly worrying that these include individuals allegedly held incommunicado and people whose whereabouts are unknown.”
(Video Credit: CBS Miami)
The Ministry of the Interior’s spies are feared by just about everyone. More so than the military. “Cuba has never called on the armed forces to put down any social unrest because they consider themselves an army of the Cuban people,” Gomez explained.
“I was arrested with the same contempt as Hitler treated Jews in Nazi Germany,” claimed playwright and opposition figure Yunior Garcia Aguillera. He wrote on Facebook that he shared a cell with a number of other protestors who “were all Cubans, fighting for a free and prosperous Cuba … a Cuba without dictators.”
President Diaz-Canel is blaming the United States for the protests and upheaval in Cuba. He torched President Biden for labeling Cuba “a failed state.”
“A failed state is that which, to please a reactionary and blackmailing minority, is capable of doing damage to 11 million humans,” Díaz-Canel tweeted. “If President Joseph Biden was really worried about the humanitarian issues facing the Cuban people, he would eliminate the 243 measures imposed by President Trump, including the more than 50 cruelly imposed during the pandemic.”
Despite the fear of spies, Cubans are still fighting back with stones and sticks in the street against Cuban forces.
Americans see a disturbing trend here amid their support for the Cubans:
They have been doing that since 1959 this is not new news. And everybody knows who they are in the neighborhood. ¡Cuba libre!
— Tranquilo (@Prosperar100) July 17, 2021
“resorting”???
I would argue they have had plain clothes uncover operatives mixed in with the masses since the revolution 60 years ago.
— FCFLINT – fuming incense stencher (@JohnGal20571788) July 17, 2021
Whole world resorting to this type of b.s. In the “free world” it’s “progressives” on the socials policing language. Getting canned from a job for espousing center-right views at work is no different from getting thrown in the clink.
— You Enjoy Myself (@AddenoidalHonk) July 17, 2021
Germany did something like this, once. 🤔
— PurpleSkies (@ChargeSmoke) July 17, 2021
— Silk (@808Silk) July 17, 2021
And the Democrats just resort to using Facebook, Twitter, Google and all other social media platforms to crush dissent.
— Valefor (@_falln_angel) July 17, 2021
No 2nd Amendment
— Nathan (@OilGasExpert) July 17, 2021
Cuba and others communist nations always operate like this. It’s similar to what Biden and Jen Psaki are trying to implement.
— Medium-Rare (@OfficMediumRare) July 17, 2021
May the good lord deliver these folks to the freedom they’ve so long deserved
— Peter Peterson (@peetymilad) July 17, 2021
That’s the way it was in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and other authoritarian regimes. And now with this administration here asking us to fink on our neighbors.
— J Farnot (@NotFarHome) July 17, 2021
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