Cuba, 5 August 1994: Spontaneous Revolt, Expected Response

Cuba, 5 August 1994: Spontaneous Revolt, Expected Response / Juan Juan
Almeida

Juan Juan Almeida, 5 August 2016 — In Cuba 1994 marked the low point of
an economic downturn which has been ongoing since the demise of the
Eastern bloc in 1989. At the time the government was anticipating social
unrest in the east of the country.

Discontent within the military had reached dangerous levels due to
layoffs and forced reassignments by the the Interior Ministry after
Cause I and Cause II* of that year produced the same rumblings as the
libertarian winds blowing into the island from Eastern Europe. The
crisis was exacerbated by a sugar harvest that barely reached four
million tons and by the untimely arrival of a polyneuritis epidemic,
which forced authorities to take extraordinary economic measures. In
terms of the volume of its transactions, the black market rivaled
state-run stores, but with prices twenty times higher.

Financial imbalance, budget deficits and an insolvent population turned
life into a daily drama. Cubans routinely witnessed unconventional
attempts at illegal emigration, such as the hijacking of the 13 de Marzo
Tugboat and the ferries at Regla and Casablanca.

It was a time of exhaustion, privation, hopelessness, anger and
blackouts. The government realized, all too well, that all these factors
could easily set off an explosion, which it believed would lead to
riots. It was prepared for this but it had no confidence in the loyalty
of the Interior Ministy’s Special Forces. As we now know, it responded
by creating the Black Wasps, an elite and parallel military force that
included anti-riot units.

The anticipated popular uprising (which ordinary Cubans call the
“Maleconazo”) began on August 5 but, to the astonishment of the Cuban
high command, it was not about overturning the government; it was about
leaving the country. The government reacted with its customary
brutality, counterattacking in every direction. Through lightning force,
trickery, viciousness and bloodshed it crushed the protests. It
infiltrated the demonstration with its own agents, who tempered the
group’s fortitude in order to allow Fidel to later make an appearance in
the conflict zone, which made an impression both on those present and
world opinion.

Those implicated in the uprising were forced to publicly denounce it in
the national media, which decided to refer to the protests as “the
events of August 5.”

They exhibited both a perfidious strategy and strength. For the rest of
that summer, helmeted anti-riot troops with shields patrolled Havana in
armored vehicles (especially the Old Havana, Guanabacoa and Tenth of
October neighborhoods), leaving the population with a sinister,
frightening and evocative vision of what could happen if there were ever
a repeat of a previous protest.

*Translator’s note: On July 13, 1989 a high-profile general, a former
head of the Cuban Interior Ministry and two senior military officers
were executed by firing squad after having been convicted by a military
tribunal of drug trafficking and treason. Several of their associates
received long prison sentences.

Source: Cuba, 5 August 1994: Spontaneous Revolt, Expected Response /
Juan Juan Almeida – Translating Cuba –
translatingcuba.com/cuba-5-august-1994-spontaneous-revolt-expected-response-juan-juan-almeida/