EDITOR, The Tribune.

The month of June saw an uptick in the number of Cuban migrants being apprehended by Defence Force and US Coast Guard personnel. According to The Tribune, Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis said at the 2022 Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles that the Cuban immigration situation poses an existential threat to Bahamian national security. In two separate interdictions, 23 and 13 Cubans were caught, respectively. The Tribune mentioned an additional 192 being apprehended in the months of January and February. Seventy-three were repatriated some weeks back. Cuba’s population is 11.4 million. Left unchecked, Cuban migrants can easily overwhelm The Bahamas.

South Florida, particularly Little Havana, is the preferred destination of these distressed migrants. From an ideological standpoint, Cubans live in a Marxist-Leninist universe, some 245 miles from Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas, where Bahamians have the constitutional right to freely express themselves and to vote for whomever they desire every five years. Fidel Castro once told a televised audience that he will be a Marxist-Leninist until the end of his life. That was in 1961 -- the year the US severed diplomatic ties with Cuba. That was also the year of the Bay of Pigs. This was two years removed from the Cuban Revolution, when Castro and his Socialist rebels overthrew the Fulgencio Batista administration. Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until his retirement in 2008. When Castro died in November 2016, I wondered if the Cubans would successfully overthrow the People’s Power of Cuba (PPC), which is the only political party in Cuba. Opposition parties are illegal. In Cuba, political detentions are common. In 2019, there were 3,157 political arrests made, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights. Dissenters are also subjected to beatings, torture and other forms of abuse. Cubans are restricted in their relocation. They must obtain authorisation from the Communist regime to move to Havana. There’s no freedom of the press. The Communist state owns the formal media.

Journalists who are deemed anti-PPC are barred from traveling abroad and are under constant surveillance by the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. This particular agency is ubiquitous in Cuba. The internet is also restricted. Freedom of assembly and expression are severely restricted. In Cuba, there’s a law known as Law 88, nicknamed the muzzle law. Criticising the Cuban Communist regime is dangerous. There are no private schools or universities. The cost of passports is exorbitant. Opportunities to work in the private sector are also restricted. The average monthly wage is about $87, even for a PhD. This is pittance; however, the Cuban state provides its oppressed denizens with free healthcare, housing and education, in a feeble attempt to live out its collectivism ideals. The Council of State, one branch of the government, has complete control of the judiciary. The electoral process is a farce. Cubans get to vote in the National Assembly and municipality elections, although the candidates are presumably all members of the PPC. Furthermore, there are no campaigns or rallies during their election season. The Cuban president is Miguel Díaz-Canel. He succeeded Raúl Castro in 2018. Díaz-Canel would also succeed Castro as First Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Cuba in 2021. The real leader of Cuba holds this important position.

The prime minister of Cuba is Manuel Marrero. While atheism is the official religion of Cuba, with 23 percent of Cuban adherents; 59 percent of Cubans are Roman Catholics, while five percent are Protestants. When Castro died in 2016, he had amassed a net worth of $900 million. His jaw-dropping wealth screamed bourgeoisie and capitalism. This would have made the proletarian Karl Marx to roll over in his grave and Vladimir Lenin to roll over in his mausoleum. It is these two who Castro idolised. Lenin, who murdered three million Russians, would lead the bloody Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. I believe the 1959 Cuban revolt was Castro’s emulation of the Lenin’s overthrow of the government of Tsar Nicholas II 42 years earlier. Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, authored The Communist Manifesto, the Bible of Marxists. Until the Marxist-Leninist system is uprooted, illegal Cuban migrants will continue to pose an “existential threat to our national security.” Dialoguing with the Díaz-Canel administration would only serve as a cosmetic approach, while the underlying problem remains deeply entrenched.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

June 29, 2022.