DISINFO: Mainstream media exaggerated the size of protests in Cuba and distorted their demands
SUMMARY
Protests of all kinds are common in Latin America, but depending on their sign and colour, some get a media artillery in a few hours, as in Cuba, while others are at the mercy of their social media outreach and the efforts of activists to be heard, as in Colombia. In the last days, we witnessed protests of the first kind, a mobilisation that despite its size got the media to focus almost at a global level.
Mainstream media insisted tirelessly from the beginning that these were demonstrations against the dictatorship and in support of freedom, a reductionist and biased interpretation. Demonstrations started with specific, understandable economic demands, but of course, in a matter of hours were interpreted by media all over the world as a frontal rejection of the political system of the country, without nuances.
RESPONSE
The claims are false. Demonstrations took place in no less than 37 different spots of the island (which some counts elevate to at least 58 locations), a very significant mobilisation in a country where protest and public dissent is forbidden.
Though economic difficulties and other deprivations were behind them, it is not true that it was international mainstream media who attributed to these protests political intentionality. The first protest, which took place in San Antonio de los Baños on the morning of 11 July 2021, already had a marked political and anti-governmental character, as can be seen in this video that was broadcasted live by one protester, with demonstrators chanting “Freedom” and “We don’t have fear” from an early stage, as well as “Patria y Vida” [“Fatherland and Life”], a strongly anti-regime song banned in Cuba whose chorus contrasts to the long-standing motto of the Cuban Revolution “Patria o Muerte” [“Fatherland or Death”], and which explicitly supports opposition-minded San Isidro movement. Similar chants, as well as anti-government comments, were registered by international reporters in protests all over Cuba.
Allegations about mainstream media ignoring protests in Colombia are also false. Unrest in Colombia has been widely covered by outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, Le Monde, France 24, Deutsche Welle, Der Spiegel, El País or Al Jazeera, just to name a few.
See other similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that protests in Cuba are not genuine but provoked by the US, which financed and supported them and is trying to arrange a “colour revolution” in the country.