Pinar del Rio, April, 1996- With deep preoccupation, the Cuban opposition looks to the political horizon of the country. Fresh in our memory is the repressive assault of the regime towards Concilio Cubano, which was in search of national unity. It had never happened until today, such a violent collision of two counterpoised ideologies: that of absolute totalitarianism, spent and failed, which denies hearing the call of reason, and tolerance, which comes even from its traditional friends, and the strong new force of the genuinely national Concilio Cubano.
Today the regime debates in an unpleasant situation. The economic crisis could not be worse. After a long five year period of great need and deprivation for the people, the anxiously awaited light at the end of the tunnel is not seen. The corruption in its inoperative administrative machinery is something that would worry even the most calm of politicians. The internal socio-political situation does not offer symptoms of favorable change for the population's soul and to the abrupt manifestations of popular inconformity follows a sentiment of deep discouragement and rejection to the official rhetoric, resulting in a higher and conscious support of the internal dissent, as a logical alternative to the evident failure of the regime.
The loss of the diffusive leadership of their ideas creates unrest in the ideologists. Today their accusations against the opposition and it's leaders sound empty. They get disturbed because of the resurgence of private economic activity and stammer their acceptance reluctantly, inclusive of the affluence of tourists to the island, and to the treatment that they give to corporations and their selected workers. Accepted valuation of their strategic limitations.
The traditional ideological work sees itself questioned today even by the most prominent party chiefs. They worry about the opposition being able to convince, and within their own structure they have unleashed a witch hunt, with the pretext that the road is being paved for an eventual foreign intervention. The strategic unity which is consolidating within the internal opposition and to which the different tendencies within the exile community are gradually adding, is disquieting the regime to the extreme.
The gestation, development and birth of Concilio Cubano did not happen, as some want you to believe, in the offices of the CIA, the State Department or the Congress of the United States. On the contrary, it is the logical consequence of the maturity of the opposition. And that is impossible to break down, unless there is a fierce repression.
What are we to expect from the immediate future? A worsening of the economic crisis, especially in what concerns to the quality of life of the populaton, the sharpening of the confrontation between the regime and the opposition, new attempts to divide it and an increment of the role played within the dissent movement different social sectors, especially by the youth, the intellectuals, and academicians, of spheres so sensitive such as education, health, and technical activities. All of this framed within a growing cohesion of the opposing movement, around Concilio Cubano and therefore, the increase of a more cruel repression.