Cuba in 2023: resist, create and conquer

To appraise the greatness of a nation, we must always go to the essence of its people and history. In that certainty, the epic written in the largest of the Antilles during the year 2022 is strengthened; a calendar in which the capacity of resistance of Cubans and their enormous will to reinvent themselves in the face of each new challenge rooted in the olive-green archipelago the Marti’s and Fidel’s dream of defending our model of social justice.

In this endeavor, nothing was easy. Once again, Cuba, in the face of its history, grew b the impossible, overcoming all kinds of complexities and opening trenches of firmness where others – sick with hatred- wanted to establish collective discouragement.

It was, undoubtedly, a hard year, a very hard year, in which the Cuban society was subject to many tensions associated with the intensified imperial policy of the U.S. government towards the island and its unavoidable consequences in the galloping inflation of products, food and services; in the deficit in the supply of national electric energy; and in the increase of migration, conditioned by the imperial power that intends to drown an entire country.

But to these realities we must also add other truths that speak of the feat of a people that did not yield even a meter of its homeland, before the crude campaigns of media manipulation orchestrated from the digital scenario, or before the very difficult national context of shortages and proliferation of illegalities, social indiscipline and criminal behavior that have lacerated the quality of life of Cuban families.

It is the same people that after the impact of dramatic events such as the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel in Havana, the fire at the Supertanqueros Base in Matanzas, and the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian in several western provinces -mainly in Pinar del Rio- first joined the pain of those affected, and then, in each of those places, gathered arms from all corners of the island to revive hope.

“Nothing was ever easy for the Cuban Revolution. The 64 years it celebrates in a few days are plagued with difficulties and challenges; but, in response, they are also full of feats and heroism,” said in this regard, before the end of 2022, our President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez.

Under that unwavering conviction and in the face of the challenges to come in 2023, we Cubans will continue to embrace the possible dream of a better country, without resorting to neoliberal practices or measures.

In this sense, Cuba will embark on a challenging year, with unpostponable premises such as the relentless fight against crimes and illegalities in all sectors, the dynamization of the socialist state enterprise, the necessary boost to agricultural production and innovation, and the stimulation of dynamics that will strengthen the autonomy of the municipalities as the main path to local development.

The humanist work of the Revolution will also continue to throb in the neighborhoods and communities undergoing and communities in transformation and in the attention to the thousands of people in vulnerable situations.

However, the desire to do and found will not be enough, we must do things right, changing what needs to be changed when necessary.

Because if we have faced the blows of nature, material limitations, and we have recognized and faced our own mistakes without bending our knees, in the immediate horizon of the nation should be proposals of solutions and not the internal brakes that make obstacles grow.

That is why Cuba in 2023 has immense challenge of resisting, creating and overcoming ahead.