A communist mob armed with flagpoles bearing hammer and sickle insignia descended on a peaceful group of pro-freedom protesters who organized outside of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City on Monday, beating them and reportedly breaking one of the protesters’ fingers.
The congregation outside of the embassy consisted of a multicultural group of freedom activists that included former Polish President Lech Walesa and representatives of pro-freedom and conservative groups from the Cuban, Mexican, Salvadoran, and other communities. Several of those participating were in Mexico participating in that country’s iteration of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which took place on Friday and Saturday.
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, the coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, explained to Breitbart News that the goal of the protest was to bring awareness to the Cuban Communist Party’s mass murder of eight people last month, including a two-year-old girl, who were attempting to escape the island on a raft. The incident – which occurred in Bahía Honda, Artemisa province, outside of Havana – was initially reported as a situation in which a Cuban Coast Guard ship “collided” into the makeshift vessel. Cuban regime officials claimed that they would “investigate,” treating it as an accident but later blaming the government of the United States, which played no role in the incident, for the deaths.
Former Polish President Lech Walesa, coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, and other protesters convene outside of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 21, 2022, to protest communism. (Photo courtesy Assembly of the Cuban Resistance)
The peaceful assembly attracted a mob chanting “these streets belong to Fidel!” in Spanish, referring to the late Cuban dictator, which then proceeded to violently assault the protesters.
Communist mob assaults of this kind are known in Cuba as actors de repudio (“acts of repudiation”) and are a common occurrence on the island. The Castro regime typically sends such mobs to the homes of known political dissidents to humiliate them, intimidate them out of leaving their homes, destroy their property, and batter them. Such mob attacks also occur against nuns, priests, and other clergy members to subdue the growing Christian faith on the island and its role in encouraging protest.
The Castro regime has exported “acts of repudiation” against dissidents in nominally free countries that tolerate a Cuban government presence in the past, such as Panama and Peru, and have repeatedly staged such mob scenes at the United Nations to prevent human rights events from proceeding.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a hard-left Castro regime supporter who has publicly engaged in bigoted rhetoric against Cubans who reject the communist regime.
Protesters hold pro-freedom signs outside the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 21, 2022 (Courtesy Assembly of the Cuban Resistance).
“Our intentions were earnest, legal and moral. We wanted to denounce the abhorrent acts of the Cuban regime at Bahía Honda in Cuba, where eight innocents lost their lives, including a two-year-old beautiful little girl,” Gutiérrez-Boronat told Breitbart News. “Their crimes? Wanting freedom. Our press conference was peaceful and legal. And was supported by dignitaries from El Salvador, Mexico, and even former Polish President Lech Walesa attended.”
In photos and videos shared with Breitbart News, the assembly appears to be a peaceful congregation demanding justice outside of the Cuban embassy in the Mexican capital. Across the street, a small group of communists had organized waving communist and Cuban flags and displaying the flag of the 26 of July Castro movement, named after a prominent terrorist attack by Fidel Castro in 1953, the storming of the Moncada barracks.
A separate mob of people also carrying wooden sticks with flags on them then marches towards the pro-freedom protesters, who held up photos of Cuban political prisoners and victims of the Castro regime outside of the embassy.
That group appears prepared to swarm the protesters before police intervene, chanting “these streets are Fidel’s!” and “no maggots!” Maggot (gusano) is an epithet for anti-communists commonly used by the Castro regime that has also been popularly adopted by white leftists in America.
A video published by the independent outlet ADN Cuba shows the moment the mob pushes past police to beat the pro-freedom protesters with their flagpoles.
“Before we could even position ourselves to begin, we were assaulted by communist agents living in Mexico,” Gutiérrez-Boronat told Breitbart News. “The assault was aggravated by the use of sticks disguised as flags with hammer and sickle emblems on them. Many of our group received impacts.”
“Although we did not return their aggression, we stood resolute. We did have to relocate to a safer area in order to conduct the press conference,” the organizer of the Cuban dissident coalition added.
“This should stand as evidence of the tactics used by the communist regime against anyone who speaks out against their numerous and continuous reprehensible actions. Let this also illustrate the extent to which this plague has infected Mexico,” he concluded. Gutiérrez-Boronat emphasized, however, the professionalism of Mexican police and credited them for preventing greater violence.
The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance is a coalition of anti-communist, pro-freedom groups both on and off the island that work together to call for an end to the 63-year-old regime and plan for a transition to a true republic. Gutiérrez-Boronat, a contributor to Breitbart News, spoke at CPAC Mexico alongside Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and anti-communist freedom fighter who has taken to supporting the cause against communism in Latin America.
“I am very impatient that communism continues to govern in Cuba and the regime is still there,” Walesa said at a press conference on Monday. “As you all know, I led a struggle against communism and we defeated Soviet communism but, as you see, communism still exists in some places. That is why I call the government of Cuba to end its communist regime, stop killing the Cuban people. Communism is a mistake.”
Cuba is currently in the throes of civil unrest that has not abated since the historic, nationwide protests that occurred on July 11, 2021, essentially paralyzing the regime and resulting in mass arrests of hundreds, potentially thousands, of people. An estimated 187,000 people took the streets demanding an end to communism in Cuba on July 11, 2021.
Many of those arrested were youths and children; the Castro regime prominently sentenced child protesters to as much as 20 years in prison for opposing communism in the months that followed. The campaign of terror that followed the protests failed to silence the Cuban people; in August, for example, the NGO Cuban Observatory of Conflict documented 11 protests a day across the country.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
