“Cuba is not the happy and shiny island described on tourist postcards”

Rome Italy. – “The Island is experiencing the most serious food and energy crisis since the communist Revolution of 1959, with disastrous consequences for the entire population,” said Senator Cinzia Pellegrino, elected by the Fratelli d’Italia party and member of the Extraordinary Commission for the protection and promotion of human rights.

The words of the Italian senator echoed in the entire Senate session room this Wednesday, March 20, to inform parliamentarians about the escalation of people’s protests against the communist regime and warn that these “will end in tragedy if they do not begin immediately political, economic and social changes” on the Island.

Pellegrino also recalled that the repression unleashed by the regime after the protests of July 11 and 12, 2021 (11J) “left more than 1,200 political prisoners, that is, people sent to prison only because they were not allowed to express their disagreement against the communist dictatorship.”

Likewise, the senator denounced the serious humanitarian conditions in which the Cuban people live: “Today the inhabitants of Cuba, already oppressed by rampant poverty and uncontrollable inflation, face a critical humanitarian situation, with a lack of first-class products. necessities like milk and bread, whose prices have become prohibitive. Added to this is the unacceptable 500 percent increase in the price of oil, a decision that has made their daily lives even worse.”

In addition, he expressed his concern about “the Government’s decision to cut off communications and internet access.” [durante las protestas]”, which “represents a clear and unequivocal attempt to isolate the rebels and prevent the outside world from knowing the seriousness of the situation.”

Pellegrino explained that in Italy the suffering of the Cuban people is known thanks to the exiles and their families, who despite internet limitations and power cuts have managed to record and disseminate what is happening.

“Cuba is not the happy and shiny island described on tourist postcards. The reality is that there is a people forced to live in desperate conditions, without any assistance, without food, without electricity. This despite the enormous humanitarian aid provided for decades by Western states,” he noted.

In 2023 alone, Italy invested 7,450,000 euros in 12 development cooperation projects, according to official data from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). However, Senator Pellegrino warned that while the population suffers the humanitarian crisis, “the Castro regime uses rivers of money for its personal benefit and to strengthen the apparatus of repression, feeding its consensus with arrests and summary trials, as has well been the case. argued in several reports from international organizations such as Amnesty International.”

The senator concluded her speech by expressing her full solidarity with all the Cuban people and wishing them a dignified and free future. “Patria y Vida”, she finished.