Raúl Castro's Daughter Leads Pro-Hamas LGBT Conga in Cuba
YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty
Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba's nonagenarian communist dictator Raúl Castro, led a “Conga Against Homophobia” this weekend dedicated to opposing Israel’s war against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.
The younger Castro has established herself as an enforcer of communist ideology in Cuba’s gay and lesbian community, attempting to rehabilitate the public image of a 65-year-old regime notorious for torturing and imprisoning suspected gay people in labor camps. The Castro regime remains to this day especially abusive against LGBT people who publicly dissent from the regime.
The “Cuban Conga Against Homophobia and Transphobia,” which had a pro-Palestine twist this year, is an annual event that the communists hold alongside other activities ahead of May 17, which LGBT activists mark as the “International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.”
The yearly LGBT conga rally is organized by Mariela Castro, a sexologist and LGBT activist who runs the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex), an office that represses anti-communist gay people.
Participants of the conga rally, in addition to expressing their support for the Castro regime's “gay rights,” expressed support for the radical Islamist cause against Israel, accusing Jerusalem of committing a “genocide” in its self-defense operations against Hamas.
“The revolutionary LGBTI Movement joins the international movement against genocide in Palestine. Enough of genocide,” Castro said.
🇺 | ATENCIÓN
En Palestina, ser gay es un delito severamente castigado por Hamás, sin embargo, Mariela Castro, sobrina de Fidel Castro, no defiende a la comunidad LGBTI palestina.
En cambio, en Cuba, usa la marcha LGBTI para fines políticos, mostrando una clara discrepancia… pic.twitter.com/SVggyeIJFM
— UHN PLUS (@UHN_Plus) May 12, 2024
“I come because I think it is one more year of struggle to show society that we are part of this country, of this world,” Rafael Acosta, a participant in the event, told the Associated Press.
Con gritos de "Viva Raúl" "Pa' lo que sea Canel, pa' lo que sea" "Viva Palestina, abajo Israel, las chicas de Mariela somos hijas de Fidel" marcharon al son de la Conga las hordas Revolucionarias del CENESEX con Mariela Castro al frente por las calles de #ElVedado en un acto de… pic.twitter.com/3aF2Fhq2BD
— LaTijera© (@echezabaljd71) May 12, 2024
In a press conference last week, Castro stated that the communist regime's events ahead of May 17 would “constitute an expression of revolutionary activism by the local LGBTQIA+ community and of support for the Palestinian people.”
Castro asserted that the planned activities would support a “free Palestine, from the river to the sea,” using a genocidal slogan that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and elimination of its people.
“Something very exciting is that revolutionary, LGBT activist groups in Cuba are joining the Palestinian cause, solidarity with Palestine and denouncing the genocide,” Castro said.
“We will not speak out in favor of prejudice, but in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their cause, and against the genocidal aggressions of imperialism and international Zionism,” she added.
Castro, who did not acknowledge the lack of gay rights in Gaza, nor Hamas’s proclivity to punish LGBT people with torture and death, claimed during the press conference that support for the pro-Hamas cause and the end of armed actions in Gaza, which Hamas governs, “do not conflict” with pro-LGBT demands. Castro argued that “homophobia exists all over the world” and explained that “the day Palestine is free, we will continue to advance in [other] social conquests.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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