Total cynicism: Fernando Pereira, Óscar Andrade and the entire leadership of the FA laughed in the face of left-handed militants

On the one hand, the grassroots militancy of the Communist Party, with its face painted red and its fist raised, graffiti Montevideo from end to end with anti-imperialist slogans: “Yankee go home”, “Out with Yankee bases”, “Nimitz = imperialism”. On the other hand, those who were sent to paint knew perfectly well that Yamandú Orsi had already scheduled his visit to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the flagship of the imperialist fleet that they detest so much

in speeches.

And here comes the best: there is no possible hypothesis that Abdala didn't know. None. Zero. Not even the most naive. Because this is not decided at a neighborhood meeting nor is it filtered through militant WhatsApp. This is decided at the top, with a presidential agenda and State protocol. Abdala knew that. Orsi knew. The entire PCU apparatus knew this. And yet they let the kids go out into the street to make a fool of themselves with spray and ladder

.

They laughed in their faces. They laughed as the left-handed people sweated their asses climbing the walls of the Rambla, the center, the neighborhoods, believing that they were fighting the great anti-Yankee battle. They laughed when the kids were playing with fines, arrests and public shame for a cause that the bosses themselves had already sold for a helicopter ride and a photo wearing an American dress uniform

.

This is not clumsiness. This is textbook cynicism. It's the classic double speech of the Broad Front raised to the umpteenth power: during the day they shout “Down with the empire!” , at night they board the empire's aircraft carrier. And in the meantime, the grassroots militancy, the one that really believes, the one that has no private plane or invitation to the White House, is left as a useful idiot in the story

.

But there is one more layer. One that makes it even more nauseating

.

Because the PCU didn't just know. He also had very specific reasons for keeping quiet. While the kids were painting the walls, the leadership of the party carried a much more uncomfortable burden than the visit to Nimitz: the CIA and the FBI are already operating in Caracas, disarming the corruption networks that for years connected the regional left with the Venezuelan regime. These networks are not abstract. They have names, they have accounts, they have people who know people. And these people, in more than one case, speak Rioplatense Spanish

.

Then, all of a sudden, anti-imperialism has a price that is too high. Protesting against Nimitz when the Yankees are already reviewing files in Caracas is, let's say, inconvenient. Better to send the kids to paint and keep quiet. Better to let the base wear out on the street while the dome cares for its own

sidewalls.

That transforms cynicism into something worse: complicit cowardice. They were not silent because of party discipline or because of diplomatic strategy. They kept quiet because they were afraid. Because the same empire that its militants insulted with spray was, at the same time, the one that could complicate their real life, the life that matters, the one with account numbers and flights to Caracas

.

Because the Communist Party is not a fool. You know perfectly well that the Nimitz is not a tourist cruise ship. He knows that it represents exactly what they denounce in every act, in every flyer, in every mural. But when it's time for the photo with the gringos —or when the gringos already know too much—, anti-imperialism suddenly becomes “diplomacy” and “international relations”. And those who pay the price are the same as always: the militants who believed the verse

.

Abdala and company were not wrong. They planned. They let the base wear out, waste paint, time and dignity, and then come out with a clean face saying that “Orsi represented the State”. As if the Uruguayan State were not the same one they control when it suits them. And as if that same State were not, in parallel, looking askance at Caracas with more nervousness than indignation

.

It's the most blatant cynicism we've seen in a long time. They laughed in the face of their own people. They spit in their eyes as they asked them to continue painting. And the most serious thing: they did it with full conscience. Not only that a visit to Nimitz was inevitable, but that protesting it publicly cost them more than they were willing to

pay.

Grassroots left-handers deserve to know: their leaders don't represent them. They use them. They use them for the mural, for the event, for the number of members, for the photo of the combative party. And when it's convenient for them—when the Yankees they hate so much in their speeches turn out to be the same people who can complicate their lives—they throw them away from the story without blinking an eye

.

The aircraft carrier Nimitz has already sailed, Orsi has already taken the photo, the CIA already has its files open in Caracas, and the graffiti is still there, on the walls of Montevideo, as a silent testimony of the biggest joke they have done to the communist militancy in years.

To have it engraved on your forehead: it was not a mistake. It wasn't naive. It was a calculated mockery, executed out of fear and covered with the flag that the bosses themselves trample on in private. And Abdala, Orsi and the whole PCU laughed. Out loud. Although, of course, with the door tightly closed.