"No one is going to confuse me," Edelmario Batista Mateo says with absolute firmness. This young 27-year-old driver works at the Las Tunas Taxi Base, an entity with an indisputable role in the confrontation with the pandemics and in the provision of other sensitive services, such as helping patients in need of hemodialysis.
The ideological enemies of the Revolution make a thousand tricks to drag the youth behind the siren songs that would lead them, irremediably, to neoliberalism, a make-up version of capitalism that even its ideologues recognize as a failure.
Edelmario knows it and pronounces himself: "They are trying to confuse the people, taking advantage of the problems of the pandemics and other unsolved needs, mainly because of the blockade and the crisis we have, to say that a system change is necessary," he comments.
But he, as the majority of Cubans, knows of the empire's perennial hostility and its stubborn desire for hegemony, and "no one is going to convince me," he reiterates and confirms that he does not feel represented by those young people who participated in the riots, many of them with a criminal record that has nothing to do with the opportunities provided by the Revolution.
For Edelmario, “those who instigate are ignorant people, lazy, who like an easy life; who have not studied and want to have a yacht... They go after those dreams that paint them from there (USA). Those are the ones leading these demonstrations. They get excited because they get paid,” he argues.
He is convinced of the need for “our youth to take to the streets - as they are doing - not to play the game of violence but to try to convince them to change that aggressive attitude. I am sure that the Revolution can count on the vast majority of the youth it has trained to face these problems and move forward, overcoming the obstacles of the blockade and the pandemics."
“They can call me at 3:00 in the morning, at any time, and ask me to take a doctor to Matanzas, a patient to the hospital. I am ready to fulfill any task and where it is necessary, in defense of the Revolution and Health.
“I learned that attitude since I was born. Later, in school with the study of our history; I grew up and was formed in those principles,” he pointed out.
They are not mere words, his work colleagues assure that Edelmario Batista Mateo doesn't talk much, “he prefers to do, he never makes excuses to accomplish tasks at any time, at night, at dawn… He responds solicitously to calls, from work, from a sick neighbor.”
Edelmario is one of those grateful youngsters who were born with the Revolution and now, in this difficult situation, defend it against enemy manipulation; he is one of those who lash out with words and, from the trenches of creative work, he offers his contributions for the improvement of the living conditions of the people. That is his irrevocable decision.
