Cuban Leader Brands Protesters of '94 Maleconazo as 'Dark Forces'

Three decades after the Maleconazo, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel referred to the citizens who took to the streets on August 5, 1994, as "dark forces." This protest stands as one of the most significant uprisings in Cuban history, occurring during the severe hardships of the Special Period. "Every August 5th reminds us that dark forces are always lurking against a true Revolution," Díaz-Canel posted on his official X account, previously known as Twitter, accompanied by an image of Fidel Castro confronting the crowd.

This statement is part of a larger campaign orchestrated by the Cuban regime to elevate Castro's image and diminish the symbolic power of the Maleconazo, framing the regime's response as a demonstration of "unity" and "leadership" amidst chaos. However, for many Cubans, both domestically and abroad, this rhetoric only serves to reopen old wounds.

Official Denial Meets Public Outrage

Roberto Morales Ojeda, the second-in-command of the Communist Party, also chimed in on the discussion. Similarly, Enrique Villuendas of the Ideological Department echoed this triumphal tone on the same social platform, asserting that "on August 5, 1994, not a single shot was fired. The same on July 11, 2021." This claim sparked a wave of indignation, with responses labeling it as "miserable," "false," and "criminal."

Journalist and researcher José Raúl Gallego firmly refuted these claims. He noted that during the July protests, known as 11J, firearms were indeed used against unarmed demonstrators, resulting in injuries, arrests, and at least one fatality. Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was shot from behind in La Güinera, a crime captured on video and never independently investigated. "It wasn't just the gunfire; there were also beatings, arbitrary arrests, and over 700 people, mostly young, convicted merely for demanding freedom," Gallego wrote, referencing data from the Inventario project.

The Unyielding Struggle for Freedom

The regime's narrative attempts to sanitize the repression, but history remains. On August 5, 1994, thousands of Havana residents took to the streets, fed up with poverty, blackouts, oppression, and a bleak future. They cried "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!" along the Malecón, until police forces and organized mobs responded with violence.

Assailants masquerading as "angry citizens," like the Blas Roca Calderío Contingent, targeted many protesters. In the ensuing days, Fidel Castro opened the nation's borders, leading to the balsero crisis, where more than 35,000 Cubans fled on makeshift rafts toward the United States, with many perishing at sea. The message was clear: "If you disagree, leave."

Now, 31 years later, the issues that sparked the Maleconazo have not only persisted but worsened. Mass exodus, inflation, energy collapse, and the criminalization of dissent are daily realities for millions of Cubans. Yet the methods of repression have evolved, now featuring digital surveillance, online censorship, artificial intelligence to track dissenters, and swift judicial punishments.

Images of mothers mourning their imprisoned children after 11J, videos of police beating peaceful protesters, and testimonies from hundreds of exiles challenge the official narrative that denies the repression. Reducing the Maleconazo to a heroic Fidel anecdote or a "counter-revolutionary provocation" ignores its deeper roots— the people's profound discontent.

Remembering August 5 is not an act of nostalgia but of resistance. The cries for freedom did not die with the beatings or drown with the rafters; they echo daily in the streets, online, in prisons, and in the hearts of Cubans who still dream of a different nation.