Headline, July 18 2021/ ''' '' CUBAN STUDENTS ' CUSPS '' '''

''' '' CUBAN STUDENTS'

 CUSPS '' '''

THE DAY CUBANS LOST THEIR FEAR : WAVES OF NEW FACES LEAD CUBAN DISSENT : Protesting Cubans and Students feel emboldened across the island nation despite a large and broad crackdown.

Guillermo Farinas, a veteran Cuban dissident known for long stints in prison and frequent hunger strikes, said he couldn't believe his eyes as the police station he was briefly held in following mass protests on Sunday filled up with unfamiliar faces, many of them teenagers / students.

He didn't recognize any of them from traditional opposition circles, he said.

''I told the state security guard who arrested me,'' You re going to have to change,'' Mr. Farinas, 59, said. ''This is the people, and not just the people, but the youth/students. Look at them : They've just decided they are not just going to continue leaving the country - they want change here.

CUBANS AND CUBAN STUDENTS UNEXPECTEDLY TOOK to the streets last Sunday. Tens of thousands were chanting for Freedom and Food. It is just so very hard to imagine a more succinct diagnosis of the problem with Latin America's oldest dictatorship.

For more than six decades, the Cuban regime has denied its people the basic building blocks of the human spirit and body. Of course, the U.S. embargo that's been in place nearly as long doesn't help. Government restrictions on the tiny private sector hurt Cubans even more.

Businesses, including grocery stores and restaurants, are barred from taking out bank loans or engaging in trade. Food has always been rationed, and now the pandemic, restrictions are even stricter.

While the complaints are not new, there was something new about Sunday's demonstrations : their spread. The protests broke out en masse, spontaneously, across the country, including in rural towns.

In the past, protests were limited to small groups, mostly in the capital, Havana. Ordinary Cubans, even those who were angry, know better than to get too close to the protesters - physically or politically. Any expression of solidarity with any form of dissent is just too risky. Losing your job is common. Getting arrested is typical.

On Sunday, however, it seemed that this collective ''fear of joining'' vanished. Solidarity trumped Cuba's fend-for-yourself mentality.

The government responded as it has with previous protests, with a call for ''battle.'' The president, Miguel Diaz Canel, sent out security forces to quash the protests. He also called on Communist citizens to ''defend'' the revolution.

The closest thing to Sunday's protests Cuba had experienced in the recent past was the ''Maleconeazo'' of 1994, when hundreds of Cubans gathered in Havana's famous seaside esplanade, the Malecon, to protest the economic depression known as ''special period''.

The triggers behind the protests are similar. Today, as in 1994, Cuba is suffering because of upheaval in its main financial supporter and supplier of oil - the former Soviet Union then; Venezuela since 2016. Power failures are as common today as they were in the early 1990s. Today, as in 1994, the country has endured a five-year economic contraction.

But many leaders around the world, including President Joe Biden, quickly embraced the protesters' cause and condemned the wave of detentions.

''The place for these people is not in prison but in a public discourse,'' Peter Stano, a spokesman for the European Union, said on Tuesday. ''We call on the Cuban authorities to release immediately all the people who have been detained based on their political conviction and based on their journalistic work.

With tensions running high on Tuesday, many independent journalists and activists reported being forbidden from leaving their homes. That was the case for Dennis Solis, a rapper who sings anti government lyrics, who had just been released from an eight month prison term when Sunday's protests broke out.

But thinking about what his fellow citizens had done, Mr. Solis was in a jubilant mood. ''I can't believe what's happening,'' he said. ''It's what we've been waiting for since 1959. Something that was impossible was made possible.''

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on The-State-Of-The-World, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Ernesto Londono and Frances Robles. The World Students Society also thanks Javier Corrales for his opinion.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, the People, Students, Professors and Teachers of Cuba and the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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