The media success of a regime opponent

La Habana/“Who did you vote for?” an older woman was asked by her neighbors. “For Chaviano,” she said, on her way out of the polling station in the FOCSA building, just as a reporter from this newspaper was passing by. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe, after everything, the official myth that the Cuban opposition represents nobody fell today.

Someone, at least this woman who didn’t even notice who was listening to her, voted for “Pucho,” as Hildebrando Chaviano is affectionately called. The opposition candidate spoke with 14ymedio in the afternoon today, while resting a bit from the election hubbub in his 28th floor apartment, where he lives with his wife, Susana Mas, also a journalist.

It had been a marathon day. CNN, EFE, AFP and several other chains and news agencies had been interviewing him since the morning. One of them that has most impressed Chaviano is Cuban Television. “It was the first time I gave an interview,” he said. Although he didn’t recognize the reporter, and thought that a good part of his comments in front of the national cameras would be censored because of the content of his discourse, the candidate was somewhat surprised by the initiative.

Hildebrand Chaviano confesses that it will be a day he won’t forget. It is the first time a regime opponent has been presented in the elections, and the fact has not passed unnoticed. His biography, at the entrance to the polling place, was drafted with the worst epithets of the Electoral Commission, starting with “counterrevolutionary.” However, this has not stopped some neighbors from showing enthusiasm with the idea of seeing something different this time. A few days ago, Pucho said, a voter commented on his candidacy, “Finally I see people ashamed of this.”

CNN, EFE, AFP and even Cuban television have been interviewing Chaviano since the morning

There have been many other displays of affection. One of his old neighbors – Chaviano has lived in his apartment since 1961 – has developed a motto that everyone in the house joined in on: “Let’s vote for Pucho because we love him so much.”

While waiting for the counting of votes, starting at six in the evening, the opposition candidate speaks a little of what his plans are if he is elected. First, he says, is to improve the nutritional conditions of the elderly people in the community who are unprotected. He also anticipates fighting for better conditions for those whose housing is in a critical state of deterioration and who can’t get credit to make repairs.

In the long term, in a somewhat larger battle, Chaviano advocates defining the self-employed as legal entities. Ideologically liberal – a current he defends in the midst of the populist official attacks – the opponent wishes to grant guarantees to private entrepreneurs to promote the development of small local businesses.

When the vote count begins in the two polling stations where the photo of Hildebrando Chaviano is on display, two of his friends will help, as observers, while the ballots stack up for one candidate or the other.