Have a leftest friend who said she's looked into the Cuban protest and doesn't think there is any outside involvement. Obviously a lot of signs are there but I suck at articulating ideas, if there are some good sources I could send to her it would be great.
Edit: thanks for the info, looks like she was closer to correct then I was.
The protests themselves are probably natural and caused by very real material concerns, but that's part of what makes it a colour revolution or an attempted one.
The issue comes from Western countries trying to turn a simple protest into a mass anti-government movement, which will be used as a justification for any further actions taken against them.
Point out the size of the protests and counter-protests, and the media reaction to each. Point out the coverage of other riots and protests in the US and other countries and compare the reaction here.
The UK has had a ton of protests regarding police activity in recent times, and also some protests regarding the COVID-19 lockdowns. Were these treated with the same level of media coverage as Cuba protests? Is the rhetoric the same?
Point these inconsistencies out, and hopefully they'll make the correct conclusion.
It's a small group of people, there's a combination of different protests going on. A lot are protesting actions by the government (namely allocation of resources to tourism instead of healthcare, but that's a complex situation with tourism being the only way they can afford to import healthcare products).
The reactionaries saw this "discontent" and decided to jump on it thinking it was anti-communist when it was actually just people practicing direct democracy as is allowed in the Cuban constitution. The reactionary agitators started fights and hurt people, it now seems to be mostly under control and there's local discussion about the actual concerns that started the protests (resource allocation).
The gusanos in Miami are perpetually waiting for a chance to do Bay of Pigs 2 because they want Cuba to be a semi-feudal mafia state again. Ever since Kennedy told them to chill and they killed him this is all they've ever wanted.
Also, the new season of Blowback basically pre-emptively debunked this whole thing lol.
Another point is that the people in Cuba aren't idiots. They know that leveraging their government is a good way to change policy they feel is poor or wrong, but they also know that the ultimate cause of all their economic issues is US embargo. No one thinks letting the US in would improve things. Mainly because there are still people alive who lived through the last time the US was in control and had the fascist Batista running things.
there’s local discussion about the actual concerns that started the protests (resource allocation).
Do you have a source for that claim? I'd love to learn a bit more about it.
Here's an acknowledgement of the protests and an analysis of their character
Who was part of the group? It included members of the population, who have needs, who are experiencing some of these shortages; it included revolutionaries who are confused, do not have all the arguments, or were expressing these dissatisfactions, but they were doing differently, because they were seeking to understand, seeking explanations.
"But this was led by a core group of manipulators who are indeed lending themselves to the designs of the SOS Matanzas or SOS Cuba campaigns… Several days ago, they were preparing demonstrations or social disturbances of this type in several Cuban cities. This is criminal, at a time when people should be at home, protecting themselves."
So the process has been started.
There are a ton more sources at the bottom of the page, but they're all in Spanish and I'm rusty
Bots behind the hashtag:
http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2021/07/12/investigacion-confirma-la-perversa-operacion-de-redes-sociales-contra-cuba-lanzada-desde-el-exterior/
The original tweet thread showing the data and examples of images of unrelated or pro-government protests being widely propagated, including by corporate media outlets:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1414681678539378691.html
US government spending on propaganda and political manipulation in Cuba:
https://twitter.com/catcontentonly/status/1414948182950285313?s=19
https://twitter.com/catcontentonly/status/1414948615978721283?s=19Plus the very obvious fact that it's the embargo that's causing the medical supply shortages.
And the extremely long and detailed history of the US government trying to overthrow the Cuban revolutionary government that I shouldn't have to dig up sources for. Blowback season 2 is rolling out for free right now, which should be a good intro.
Edit: also this shit
US secretly created 'Cuban Twitter' to stir unrest and undermine government
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/03/us-cuban-twitter-zunzuneo-stir-unrest
they've been doing this exact kind of shit for 60 years why would they stop now?
It’s not a color revolution, they just want to make it one
Just talk about media attention/bots/photos of completely different events. protests are protests, they happen. Millions of Indian farmers protested and they have not received that much Anglo attention.
The protest could have been just local chuds, it was like 100 people, but the massive media and social media hype it's getting is 100% the imperial consent manufacturing machine in action.
There's a ton of good advice here, especially advice pointing out that many of the protests are real and address real concerns about life in Cuba.
However, it is very likely that if the US tries to convert this energy toward regime change (I hate the phrase 'color revolution'), the real proof that it happened won't be revealed until years or decades later. Unfortunately, many people are reluctant to put two and two together and accept the conclusions of a material analysis here.
You'll get a lot of satisfaction telling people "I told you so" in like 15 or 20 years, though.
No outside involvement? Did the blockade, Radio Martì, and coordinated international propaganda campaigns blaming "the dictatorship" suddenly cease to exist?
Color revolutions are not simply coups, they depend mostly on international propaganda and a critical mass of homegrown protesters who bought into it.
Does she trust the current media outlets that are covering it when it comes to other events? Does she know the long history of US state dept et al's media campaign in Cuba?
My take is to show the clear inconsistencies with how it's being reported and who's doing the reporting for these outlets and tie that into the history.
Actuality her first reaction was that the US was involved but while skeptical of mainstream news she still tends to trust it for international (non us) news so now she thinks it's entirely organic
Oof. I don't doubt there's people in Cuba who would protest organically, it's impossible to think Langley hasn't been seeding this at the least, if not actively organizing. That aside, the media coverage has been wildly biased. Don't understand why she would trust us media for any coverage, or even western media for that matter, but hey we all have our own depropagandizing to do.
I don't have any particularly good sources at the moment but if she's into podcasts, tell her about blowback. Season 2 does a pretty good job covering our most current history of interference in Cuba. Really showed me how fanatic the government was about taking them down.
If there's one think Cuba is the absolute best at, it's owning CIA agents without even blinking lol
I mean if you count increasing embargos on an already poor country, from previous embargos, during a global pandemic as "seeding" then yeah Langley jizzed this one out
she can't be the leftest if there's people out there lefter than her
