Writing about manipulation against Cuba is boring, yes. They're very painful. In Cuba they are very bad, they have no food or medicine, they have been cut off by the internet, even electricity, the Cuban regime up, the Cuban dictatorship down... How many times have we received such simplistic and apocalyptic messages from poisoned opinion columns as well as from many Tertulians?

Yes, they are in a difficult situation in Cuba. Beyond that, they are accustomed to living in Cuba in a difficult situation, as they have been condemned to live in a difficult situation. Since the revolution came to power, the attack of U.S. imperialism has been constant, also using the blockade as a weapon, which has been going on for six decades. Today, the structural problems and deficiencies are compounded, among others, by the fall of tourism (the front line of the economy) or the increase of the pandemic. In a difficult context, the blockade has ordered the material support of the protests. It is a situation that has visibly worsened and the concern and concern of the people is understandable. Another thing is that from social networks, in some cases responding to a concrete external strategy, try to channel the dissatisfaction of some sectors to fight the revolution.

In this sense, it is irritating to see how most media totally avoid the blockade or leave it in second place, represented as an excuse used by Cuban revolutionaries. We must ask so many people who claim to be so concerned about the Cuban population where they were on 23 June, when the internationalists concentrated on the Basque capitals against the blockade.

They are also passionate about the sick and deceased affected by COVID-19. Despite the fact that the situation is worsening, there is only a comparison of Cuba’s figures with the countries around and with those of Europe, to see how they join at a much lower level than those here. They do not so much stress that Cuba has been the only Latin American country to develop its own vaccines (already in use of Abdala, Soberana 2 pending approval and three other vaccines in earlier phases). Yes, a small town with few natural resources and blocked is facing this challenge.

They also tell us about repression, sometimes pictures that are not Cuban. They say that they are very concerned, but it would not be wrong, as a comparative exercise, to provide coverage proportionally depending on the degree of violence. How many minutes and characters to the restricted violence that was used in the face of the Cuban incidents and to the 400 eyes lost in the Chilean demonstrations or to dozens of deaths and hundreds of missing in the Colombian protests? or the 1,206 social leaders and 277 demobilized guerrillas killed since the signing of “peace” in 2018. They will hardly be able to teach us Cubans who have come out to defend the revolution against the rioters.

Today, using the motto SOS Cuba is to be part of this operation of confusion, from ignorance or from a conscious political position. It responds to a strategy, yes, driven and funded by the United States and extended by local attendants in the capital of many countries. As they did with the rebel artists of San Isidro or with the song Patria y vida. And no, this is not just the tagging of the other so as not to move from their positions. There are problems in Cuba, they are obvious, and the Cuban revolutionaries (also the authorities) do not deny them. The situation causes exhaustion, both material and emotional (what is sought with the blockade…), and it is not easy to maintain serenity in the face of the deficiencies and queues to be made and to know how to place in a context the simplest things of everyday life.

Even more so in the case of many young people, far from official rhetoric and with the bombardment of the constant campaign of social networks. But let us not forget what is behind these movements. It has an excessively accentuated stench of the revolutions of colours developed elsewhere. To transfer society to a very delicate situation, to feed the protests and to open the door to outside intervention, on pretexts of human rights or disguised as humanitarian aid, as he has also attempted in Venezuela. Many things can certainly be improved in Cuba, but what needs to be done is for Cubans to decide, without the suffocating pressure of the greatest economic and military power.

The cries of ‘freedom’ against the Cuban Revolution do not have much more credibility than those of the far-right in Madrid during the pandemic. In addition to the necessary criticism of the established power (criticism of the transformative power to improve, denunciation to bring down the oppressive power), what is behind those who shout “freedom”? What proposal? The revolutionaries who attacked Moncada against Batista’s dictatorship had a program that Fidel described in the alleged History will absolve me. What do those of us who today see as demanding “freedom” propose? Undo the revolution and return to capitalism? Following the developed fruit theory of John Quincy Adams, do you stay in the hands of the United States? What happened to Platt's correction after the demolition of the Spanish colonizers?

The formation and pride of the majority of Cubans and the deep roots of the revolution will leave these counter-revolutionary attempts in place, as they have done other times. It is up to Cubans to improve their people and their revolutionary process, with obstacles, errors and achievements. It is up to us to work on Basque internationalism, showing solidarity with the Cuban revolutionaries, denouncing the counter-revolutionaries and dealing with the lies that spread. In the case of Cuba, both globally and in the Basque Country, because what you need is SOS is the truth.

*Iñaki Etaio belongs to the internationalist organization Askapena