Young Cuban Journalists Look at Their Profession / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The official press knows that it can criticize an official, but not a government policy. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 February 2017 – Now underway is the second meeting of young journalists at the Jose Marti International Journalism Institute in Havana. The main objective of the event, organized by the Cuban Journalists Union (UPEC), is to discuss “journalism and citizen participation, and communication in the context of updating Cuba’s social-economic model.”

The news reports published in the official press, in addition to reviewing the 24 proposals from the previous meeting, held in December 2015, reiterate “the urgency of a change in the routines of production and a transformation of the management model.”

It is likely that the young participants of this experience will leave with the belief that national journalism is on the verge of change, and that they will have a role in its transformation. This would be the healthiest mistake of their professional career. continue reading

The vast majority of those in charge of deciding what can be published and what must be silenced know perfectly well how diffuse are the limits of their responsibility

Imbued with this useful error, they will return to their newsrooms convinced that the sacred verse of “changing everything that should be changed” will be applied to the mass media so that the press will finally fulfill its social role of keeping the population informed about what is really happening in the country.

The vast majority of those in charge of deciding what can be published and what must be silenced know perfectly well how diffuse are the limits of their responsibility. They know, for example, that they can berate the negligence of an administrator at a collection point where the bananas are rotting on a truck, but they can never criticize the evil effects of the excessive centralization of public administration.

When it comes time to choose, these leading cadres prefer to censor rather than declassify, because, as they know, no director of a newspaper or radio station ever been dismissed for silencing a criticism or hiding complaints in a drawer.

When these impetuous kids return to their media with a new shot of adrenaline, their more experienced colleagues will take the time to explain to them that since the 3rd UPEC Congress, held more than 40 years ago, it seemed that everything would change if they fulfilled the theme of that event: “For a critical, militant and creative journalism.”

Since then, there as been a lot of talk from the podiums about the culture of secrecy and the essential need to undertake rigorous analysis of the problems that afflict the population.

A brief inventory of recent information lacunae could justify a certain pessimism about the future of Cuba’s official journalism. The most notorious example is that no one has reported on the cause of death of ex-president Fidel, despite the fact that his passing is the news that has occupied the most space in the media since the end of last year.

No journalist has tried to explain in the official media why Marino Murilla, in the last session of parliament, did not not offer his traditional progress report with regards to the implementation of the Party guidelines, nor what has been the fate of the new electoral law that Raul Castro announced in February 2015 would be forthcoming, but about which nothing more has been heard.

Silence reigns over such important topics as the date when the country’s dual currency system will end, or when the United Nation’s human rights covenants will be ratified, or the depth of the dredging in Mariel Bay

Silence reigns over such important topics as the date when the country’s dual currency system will end, or when the United Nations human rights covenants will be ratified, or the depth of the dredging in Mariel Bay, just to mention a few topical issues.

If we go back a decade, it comes to mind that there have been no explanations about how the super-entity called the Battle of Ideas ended, which was led by Mr. Otto Rivero, of whom nothing more has ever been said. Nor is there any official report on the ouster of Carlos Venciaga, a member of the Council of State, nor about that of the army of social workers who had become omnipresent, but which are now nowhere to be seen.

Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke with reporters Monday afternoon and emphasized “the need to perfect” the work of the media. In passing, he called attention to ways to confront “the platforms of ideological political subversion,” which target young people. Curiously, among these platforms appear all of Cuba’s independent journalism, which finds among its principal niches all the information that is never talked about in the official press.

Juvenile, Always Juvenile / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Josefina Vidal last October when the Government provided free Wi-Fi at the University of Havana for young people to show their opposition to the “blockade”. (@JosefinaVidalF)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 27 January 2016 — An old Soviet joke from the time of Leonid Brezhnev relates his attempts to enthuse young people to celebrate the six decades of the October Revolution in the autumn of 1977. The septuagenarian leader entrusted to his friend, Aleksei Kosygin – who had a reputation of being a liberal – to take charge of organizing the celebrations with a renewed touch to attract to the new generation.

Later, when reading the reports denoting the absolute indifference of the young Muscovites for the commemoration, the secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union called his man of confidence to explain to him on the causes of the failure. “I can’t explain what happened, but I put the ‘girls from the 17th’ in front,” said Kosygin, annoyed, referring to the enthusiastic Komsomols who, 60 years previously, had chanted slogans and sang revolutionary hymns. continue reading

The humorous anecdote is once again relevant in Cuba. The first secretary of the Young Communists Union (UJC), Susely Morfa, has called for the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the organization she leads and the “further strengthening, mobilizing and including of our new generations.” To connect with this sector of society she proposes “a fresh, revitalized, approach that responds to their interests and will leave an impression on them.”

The first point on the agenda of the UJC, to meet her objective, will happen on Friday night, with “the traditional March of the Torches” that will recall the 164th anniversary of the birth of José Martí. In February the “historic routes will begin and in March we will begin a tour of the Moncada and Buena Fe groups.”

It seems that the novel plan to attract the young has been designed by “the girls of ’59,” those who climbed the trucks to kiss the bearded men coming down from the Sierra Maestra nearly 60 years ago.

The silliness of the plan continues with the Necessary Connections spaces for exchanges in the mass organizations where, according to Morfa, they will attempt to “reach every participant with a copy of the concept of Revolution from our Commander in Chief.”

The “casual wave” of the UJC will continue in April with “an anti-imperialist encampment in Santa Clara.” Probably in May there will be a parade for Labor Day. It is expected that similar events will occur during the next eight months.

The summer will be full of anniversaries, such as the birth of Antonio Maceo and Ernesto Guevara, the assault on the Moncada barracks or, in August, Fidel Castro’s first birthday after his death. The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution will also play a leading role in September.

The disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos will be remembered the following month, and then, in November, will be the first anniversary of the death of Fidel Castro. There will still be time, near Christmas, to celebrate the 1959 of the coming of the Revolution.

Yomil and El Dany, the most popular reggaetoneros of the Island, are not included in the novel proselytizing project. Nor has the organization of young communists ever thought of setting up a wall for spontaneous graffiti, or even implementing a Wi-Fi zone with free internet access to flood social networks with teenage energy.

It seems that the novel plan to attract the young has been designed by “the girls of ‘59,” those who climbed on the trucks to kiss the bearded men coming down from the Sierra Maestra nearly 60 years ago.

Obama Left, Trump Arrived, the Repression Continues / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The political police detained more than 60 members of the Ladies in White Movement in Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Ciego de Avila. (EFE / Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 23 January 2017 — Within 48 hours of Donald Trump being declared President of the United States, the political police maintained their repression against opponents unchanged. The hard hand of State Security begins to contradict the claim that “Barack Obama’s concessions” to the Plaza of the Revolution fueled the repressive character of Raúl Castro’s government.

According to partial reports issued on Sunday, the political police detained more than 60 members of the Ladies in White Movement in Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Ciego de Ávila. Berta Soler and her husband, the former Black Spring prisoner Angel Moya, were arrested along with 23 women as they prepared to leave the organization’s headquarters in the Lawton neighborhood of Havana. continue reading

The repressors did not shake their hands in the face of the scenario of a new tenant in the White House. They were not even frightened by the warning issued by the mogul weeks before in his Twitter account, when he clarified that “if Cuba is not willing to offer a better agreement for Cubans, Cuban Americans and the American people in general,” he would liquidate the diplomatic normalization.

With the thaw or without the thaw, the repressive nature of the Cuban system remains unchanged

Despite the hopes of some and the threats of others, the repression continues and on this Sunday morning more than 30 Ladies in White in Matanzas were prevented from attending Mass. Some were taken to police stations, while others were driven to the outskirts of the city and put out of the cars to find their own way home, and other were driven home. Two arrests were reported in the city of Santa Clara and another in Ciego de Ávila.

If there really is any relationship between what the new president says and does and how the Cuban government decides to treat its opponents, the next few weeks will have to prove it.

With the thaw or without the thaw, the repressive nature of the Cuban system remains unchanged. Obama does not seem to be responsible for the twist in the oppression experienced in the past two years, as perhaps Trump also fails to alleviate the rigors of a regime that could not exist where liberties flourish.

 

When A Hope Is Lost / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

A dozen Cuban rafters arriving off the coast of Florida on April 26 of this year. (Youtube / screenshot)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Desde Aqui, Reinaldo Escobar, 13 January 2017 — The end of the wet foot/dry foot policy entails among its many consequences the loss of hope for a great number of Cubans. Few times in our national history has a decision taken outside the borders of the island touched the lives of so many Cuban citizens in a medullary and definitive way.

Among those affected are migrants already on their way to the United States, as well as those who have sold their property and possessions to pay for the expenses of the journey, those who were waiting for an opportunity to desert from an official mission abroad, or simply those who dreamed of escape from the island. In total, tens of thousands of people. continue reading

However, there is a much larger number. Incalculable. The one made up of all those who saw in the possibility of emigration a motivation to behave with docility in the face of difficulties. They were the ones who trusted that, at the moment when they could not longer bear the hard daily life of the island, they had a way out: a raft, the jungles of Central America, the Mexican border, the Bering Strait…

The only hope is that we recover the courage to face our reality and assume the consequences

Like the last drops of water in the canteen while crossing the desert, the lifejackets the stewardess holds up for emergencies, or the last gulp of oxygen with which the diver must try to reach the surface, the wet foot/dry foot policy represented hope for many on the island. The illusion that if they reached their limit there would always be a lifeline to cling to.

“If it gets ugly, I’ll up and leave,” was a recurring thought shared among young and old, poor or new rich, dissidents or government officials. It relieved them to know that, from the closed box which Cuba has become, they had a way out. Perhaps they would never use it, but it was a balm to know it was there.

From now on there are no lifejackets under the seat, no water in the canteen to cross the desert, and there is no oxygen left to return to the surface. The only hope is that we recover the courage to face our reality and assume the consequences.

Brief and Imprecise Sketch of a Supporter / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The assembled should not have been all those excluded by the official discourse. Placard: “I am Cuba, Fidel, Revolution” (Twitter)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 3 January 2017 — The images from the January 2nd parade and the march of the “combative people” provoked questions in many: Who are these Cubans who went to the Plaza of the Revolution? What characteristics define those who awoke at dawn, shouted slogans in front of the podium or marched diligently carrying a pro-government placard?

The official press defines them with positive adjectives – grateful, loyal, combative – and includes them in slogan of the day, which each of them repeated on Monday: “I am Fidel.” But it is also possible to draw the contours of their nature from what they are not, or at least what they should not be… continue reading

It is clear that in the wide esplanade, in the shadow of the Ministry of the Interior, missing were those who maintain political differences with the Government or those who did not have the desire to fake overwhelming revolutionary enthusiasm. Those who still had an end-of-year hangover and could not drag themselves out of bed so early are also on this list.

If we take at face value officialdom’s description of the faithful gathered there, nor should we concur that they include that “anti-social scourge who neither study nor work”

However, if we take at face value officialdom’s description of the faithful gathered there, nor should we concur that they included that “anti-social scourge who neither study nor work,” a group whose principle ideology is survival and who label “on the left” (as in “under the table”) everything that is done outside the law to survive the rigors of daily life.

It is assumed that those in the Plaza included none of the many who traffic in tractor and bus fuel, “diverted” from those uses. Nor even the negotiators in gas and oil “extracted” from electricity generation equipment, freight transport and state-owned vehicles, who resell the product to the drivers of private vehicles.

In that mass of inflamed people one assumes there were no faces of those who sell food or personal hygiene products “diverted” from kindergartens, hospitals, schools, workers’ cafeterias and even prisons and military units. Because “these kinds of people” had no place in a march called for the unimpeachable.

Under that logic, among the combative construction workers none of those who marched feed the black market with cement, sand, bricks, bathroom fixtures, cables, electrical outlets and all the other things extracted from state-owned works. Not to mention those who commit the crime of buying “diverted” resources to repair their homes.

Among the seniors, who represented those who worked on the literacy campaign, former militiamen or internationalist fighters, none should have been the elderly who buy newspapers from the state kiosks at 20 centavos and resell them for one peso. Nor would there have been any retirees who, at the doors of the markets, offer at retail prices cigarettes, plastic bags, coffee and spaghetti, taken from what they receive on the ration book, to round out their pensions.

Among the thousands of children and teenagers who waved flags, carried banners and chanted slogans there was no space for those who sell their bodies to tourists or who dream of leaving the country

The list of those who – under no circumstances – should have been part of the rally organized by the government on Monday could be extended ad infinitum. In those tight ranks there was no room for the unproductive, for negligent service workers, for those who manipulate weights in the markets, or for the administrators who fix the numbers before the auditors show up.

Among the thousands of children and teenagers who waved flags, carried banners and chanted slogans there was no space for those who sell their bodies to tourists or who dream of leaving the country, whether by crossing the Straits of Florida or crossing the jungles of Central America, not to mention through a loveless marriage to a foreigner.

Nor expected to show up would be those who buy the test for admission to higher education or falsify a medical certificate to escape military service.

And also missing should be those who star in that phenomenon the official media calls a “crisis of values” and exemplify it with the use of “symbols alien to our culture,” like celebrating Halloween, preferring soccer over baseball or wearing a T-shirt with the American flag on it.

If none of these types excluded from the official discourse, stigmatized by propaganda and condemned by the system, marched this Monday… who, then, filled the Plaza?

Raul Castro’s Hourglass is Running Out / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Cuban General-President Raul Castro accompanied by Miguel Díaz Canel, vice-president, on the first of May. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 December 2016 — A popular joke inquires about the color of a train that arrives late at the station. The answer is a play on words: de morado.* Raul Castro has dressed in just that tone in relation to his obligations for the end of the year. The delay in keeping certain commitments threatens the image of punctuality and pragmatism that the General President has wanted to present.

The plenary session of the Communist Party Central Committee planned for this December still doesn’t have a date. The partisan meeting should approve the expected Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model, as well as the 2030 Economic Development Plan, but there are only five days remaining for it to fulfill its promise. continue reading

A telephone call to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) clarifies few doubts. The secretary for Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, a member of the Secretariat responsible for the Department of Education, Science and Sport, confirmed to 14ymedio that “they have not set a date” for the pending meeting.

Both documents were debated by the PCC membership and the Young Communist Union (UJC), as well as the leadership of the mass organizations and trade unions. The official press emphasized that currently there is massive agreement with the texts as presented, although it reported several proposals to modify or add to them.

Point 104 of the Conceptualization document raised a stir; the point reaffirms an idea raised in the PC Guidelines. The cold water for local entrepreneurs focuses on the statement that “concentration of property and wealth in natural or non-state legal persons is not permitted.” A proposal that must be accepted or rejected this December.

If the plenary session is not held, the seriousness that Raul Castro has wanted to imprint on his official acts would suffer a serious blow. He would also be obliged to publically justify the informality. Hurricane Matthew, the surprising election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and the death of Fidel Castro could be among the official excuses.

The number of days remaining in December is the same as the number of fingers on one hand. At least two of them will be used for the upcoming session of the National Assembly of People’s Power. Given the traditional confusion of roles between the Government, the Parliament and the Party, perhaps in the sessions with the deputies the date of the party conclave will be reported.

But if it does not happen before the end of the year, Raul Castro will need to show a very convincing explanation.

*Translator’s note: “Morado” means purple, and “de morado” means delayed.

What the Newspaper ‘Granma’ Can Change / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

As of this Thursday, the official newspaper ‘Granma’ will have a new design with changes limited only to the visual. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 21 December 2016 — The newspaper Granma announced that as of tomorrow, in Thursday’s edition, it will debut a new design. For the peace of mind of the most orthodox, the note concludes by warning that “the official organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party is being renewed, but it will remain the same.”

The modifications refer to the alignment of the headlines, more readable typography, better composition of the front pages and greater prominence of photographs. According to the paper itself, its new design “is more compact, more modern, more contemporary, and cleaner.” continue reading

What is striking is that the intention “to look like current times” will be limited to the visual aspect. Apparently, the paper will not stop practicing secrecy, political debate will remain absent, and criticisms will never be directed towards the highest levels of power. No one will question the legitimacy of the rulers or the viability of the system.

The change of image will coincide with the date when, 55 years ago, the end of illiteracy in Cuba was proclaimed, but the directors do not seem to understand that what its readers require from this press organ is precisely a change of philosophy, of its essence, in order to leave behind “the conceptions of the founding era.”

Only a profound political illiteracy can come to the conclusion that a newspaper at the beginning of the 21st century should continue to be dogmatically governed by such narrow ideological guidelines.

Granma will continue to choose “positive” verbs, adjectives and adverbs for its national news and will select “negative” ones for the titles that refer to the rest of the world (excluding its allies). We will have to continue reading that in Cuba the harvests are growing, the goals are being exceeded, the programs are advancing without delays, meanwhile foreign economies are collapsing, unemployment only grows, and the richest intend to despoil the planet.

“The purpose of this redesign is to compete with ourselves and win,” confesses Granma in an act of utmost honesty. When an athlete runs alone on a track she always takes the trophies. It would be another kettle of fish if at the newsstands the readers could choose among several publications, if in citizens’ homes there were access to the internet and any digital news source that circulates in the world, without restrictions or censorship.

However, the notice that something changes is always welcome.

The Material Basis Of Joy / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Traditional celebrations called ‘parrandas’ that are normally held in December in Remedios, have been postponed this year until January 6-7. (DC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 16 December 2016 — In the Marxist catechism it is established that the material is first, over the spiritual. From this conceptual Big Bang, is structured a doctrine in which all categories are concatenated more or less harmoniously; social property over the means of production, the fundamental law of socialist distribution, and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

From this key starting point it is explained that matrimonial fidelity is due to the appearance of private property, and that the ambition for riches will only be overcome in the human condition when material goods flow like a river due to the increased productivity that comes as a fruit of dominion over nature. continue reading

For the faithful followers of this form of thinking, joy in human beings is nothing more than the result of drinking alcoholic beverages in an environment where there is music and jokes, social contacts, smiles, cheers and laughter. That is, people do not drink, sing and laugh because they are happy, but the other way around.

At the end of December, Cubans usually indulge their desire to celebrate. Christmas and New Year’s come together to promote gift giving, Christmas Eve feasts, improvised choirs of nostalgic carols, resolutions for the future, furtive kisses at midnight, buckets of water thrown into the street to wash away the year’s evils, and taking a walk with a suitcase as an expression of the desire to take a magical trip to another part of the world.

With this cornucopia, joy prevails and bottles are uncorked, while others eat or dance and someone opens the door to receive the latest guest who didn’t want to miss the feast in which the discomfort of daily life is temporarily relegated to the background.

However, in these days that are left of the month of December, on the pretense of a tragic reason, from certain more or less official bodies, “the order has come down” to moderate the joy, postpone the parrandas, ban celebrations at workplaces and schools. Rumors are rife that alcohol will disappear as of the 20th, there will be no fireworks, and no loud music, not even within one’s own home.

Marxists are like that. They are intimately convinced that by eliminating or undermining “the material basis of joy” they can prevent joy from rising in hearts, crush feelings of gratitude for life itself, and smother the sparks of hope that light the way. At the end of the day, they maintain, the material is above the spiritual.

New Anthology of ‘Fidelism’ / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

On the cover of each volume are portraits that show the physical and psychological transformation of the man. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 12 December 2016 – The first impression one gets of the book “One Objective, One Thought” is that throughout its three volumes the reader can assess the political evolution of Fidel Castro, author of the quotes contained in the tome. The initial assessment is owed to the portraits appearing on the covers of each volume, which show the physical and psychological transformation of the man.

The first cover shows the leader with a black beard, olive green beret and defiant gaze. It is the image of the guerrilla in power during the ‘60s and ‘70s. On the second volume he is seen in the dress uniform of the Commander in Chief, notably graying and with the look of someone who has an answer for everything, as he presented himself in the ‘80s and ‘90s. continue reading

The image on the third cover reflects a moment in Castro’s life in this millennium. The former president is on the brink of old age, with a certain halo of wise experience, but maintaining his willful authority. It is a snapshot from before 31 July 20016, when he announced his retirement from public life due to the serious state of his health.

However, beyond the impression of transformation offered by these three images, the book presented this Saturday at the Palace of the Captain Generals in Havana, is simply a compilation of the ex-president’s ideas organized chronologically around 50 topics. A bundle of carefully chosen quotations to show more the continuity of his thought than its evolution.

The edition was conceived to honor the leader’s 90th birthday, celebrated this last August, but its launch has taken place a few days after his ashes were placed in a vault in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba. The work thought of as a summary of a life has become, in reality, a condensed post mortem of Fidel’s legacy.

The work, priced at 30 Cuban pesos (less than $1.50 US), has as an antecedent the “Dictionary of the Thinking of Fidel Castro,” prepared by Salomon Susi Sarfati for Politica Publishers in 2008. Another compilation of high value is “Thus Spake Fidel Castro,” from Roberto Bonachea Entrialgo, issued by the Spanish publisher Ediciones Idea, also in 2008.

The text was presented by Eugenio Suarez, director of the Office of Historical Affairs of the Council of State, along with the main editor of the volume, Rosa Alfonso Mestre, as a guide for action and ideas for future generations. The presentation took place in front of 50 participants, among them, notably, the faces of officials, admirers of the deceased leader and members of the Communist Party.

The editors state that “for this compilation 4,000 bibliographic sources were consulted, covering a period from October 1953 to April 2011 (…) from which around 8,000 quotes were selected.” Speeches, interviews, Fidel’s newspaper column “Reflections,” have been the principal sources.

But the reader finds a highly filtered text, which avoids quoting Castro’s mistakes, rants and more intolerant positions. For example, under the theme of terrorism, a speech he gave for the 15th anniversary of the creation of the Ministry of the Interior is omitted.

The book was presented at the Palace of the Captain Generals in Havana. (14ymedio)

On that day in 1976, at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, the leader admitted: “If we dedicated ourselves to terrorism, it is certain we would be effective. But the fact is that the Cuban Revolution has never used terrorism. That does not mean we renounce it, let us warn you!”

In addressing drug trafficking, the anthology does not mention a single word from Cause No. 1 of June 1989, when high officials from the armed forces were tried and condemned to death for their supposed implication in this crime.

On the subject of self-employment and private enterprise, the editors avoided the speeches given during the 1968 Revolutionary Offensive, where Castro emphasized, “We propose to eliminate all manifestations of private commerce, in a clear and decisive manner.” Three decades later, he had to once again authorize the non-state sector, to ease the profound economic crisis caused by the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the chapter dedicated to racial and gender discrimination, you cannot find a single one of the multiple occasions on which he expressed his well-known homophobia. Conspicuous by its absence are the remarks Castro delivered in March of 1963: “Many of these bums, children of the bourgeoisie, walking around with their too-tight pants; some of them with a little guitar and an ‘Elvis-Presley’ attitude have taken their debauchery to the extremes of wanting to go to some public gathering places and organize their faggot-y shows for free.”

Despite the extreme partisanship in the selection of the texts included in these three volumes, the workflow the editors faced is clear. Filtering hundreds of speeches, interminable public presentations and long hours of soliloquy must have been a marathon and exhausting task. But the most arduous work is that of the reader, peering into these pages of such a chaotic, contradictory and disproportionate legacy, like the man who created it.

‘Santa And Andrés’ Under Revolutionary Vigilance / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Frame from the film by Carlos Lechuga 'Santa and Andrés. (Facebook)
Frame from the film by Carlos Lechuga ‘Santa and Andrés. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 7 December 2016 — In the 38th edition of Havana’s Festival of New Latin America Cinema, shining by its absence is the Cuban film Santa y Andrés, by the filmmaker Carlos Lechuga. Those responsible for its censorship certainly didn’t cross it off the list without first consulting non-artistic entities such as the organs of State Security and other custodians of the official dogma.

The controversy over the exclusion of the film has been unleashed on social networks and in several digital spaces. Arguing against Lechuga’s feature film are the voices tied to the “establishment,” who claim that it distorts history and that the many errors committed in the cultural field have been rectified. The defenders, for their part, laud the artistic values of the film and assert that it cannot be considered counterrevolutionary. continue reading

The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) behaves like an entity privately owned by the only political party permitted in the country, and applies the resulting right of admission, an attitude contradictory and unacceptable for an institution that is publicly created as a representative the interests of the whole nation.

Many filmmakers act as if they believe that the ICAIC does not represent the interests of power. This apparent naiveté gives them a right to feel offended and surprised by the censorship imposed by the entity, like the teenager who comes home late with the illusion of not being scolded by her parents, who remind her of their right to search her belongings and to prohibit her next outing.

As long as artists continue to respect and revere institutions without directly questioning them, they will have to bow their heads and obey, or ultimately they will have to leave the country.

Santa and Andrés was conceived and created independently as if censorship did not exist, as if the stern father had softened and tempered over the years. One way of putting strength to the test and pushing the wall of prohibitions.

Regardless of its indisputable artistic values, Carlos Lechuga’s film will be remembered as another occasion when the repressors of thought were forced to take off their masks of good-naturedness. Cultural authorities have again demonstrated the hardened face of an intolerant patriarch showing his children who really holds the key to the house.

Police Free ‘14ymedio’ Journalist Reinaldo Escobar / 14ymedio

The '14ymedio' journalist, Reinaldo Escobar. (Youtube)
The ’14ymedio’ journalist, Reinaldo Escobar. (Youtube)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2016 — The journalist Reinaldo Escobar, editor in chief of 14ymedio, was detained for more than four hours on Thursday, in the midst of the control measures that the Government deployed after the death of Fidel Castro. The reporter gave an interview to Spanish Television (TVE) on the Malecon in Havana where he was intercepted by police and taken to the Zapata and C police station in Vedado, according to witnesses who confirmed the arrest.

A man in civilian clothes approached the place where Escobar was being interviewed by Vicenç San Clemente of TVE. “He said we could not be here because it was an avenue where many presidents were passing by,” the Spanish correspondent told this newspaper. The man remained nearby listening to Escobar’s answers. continue reading

“They were questions about the future of Cuba, about the possible legal reforms that might be made,” explained San Clemente. However, the man ended up calling a patrol car, with license plate 099, which took the two journalists to the police station.

The Spanish Embassy in Havana began negotiations for the release of both reporters as soon as they heard the news, a diplomatic source informed 14ymedio. San Clemente was held at the entrance to the police station, but Escobar was lost to sight when he was led into the interior of the building.

Four hours after the arrest, the Cuban journalist was released and when he inquired at the station about the infraction or crime which had been entered into the log book, the uniformed officer responded with the brief word: prophylaxis.

Escobar graduated from the University of Havana in journalism in 1972, and has served as editor-in-chief of this independent newspaper since its founding, in May of 2014; the newspaper is blocked on servers on the island by the government. Previously, Escobar worked for various press media, among them the magazine Consensus, which was founded in December of 2014, and on his personal blog, From Here.

In December of 1988, Escobar was fired from the newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), the second most important newspaper in the country. The dismissal was due to several critical articles he published after being motivated by the new air of glastnost in the Soviet press. Since then the government has not permitted him to exercise his profession in any of the state-controlled media, which exercise a monopoly over the press.

The Political Testament Of Fidel Castro / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Revolution is ... (14ymedio)
Revolution is … (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 29 November 2016 – Under the shadow of national mourning after the death of Fidel Castro, Cubans have been called to sign, as an oath, some words spoken by the former president in May of 2000, in which he left for posterity his concept of Revolution.

“Revolution is a sense of the historic moment; it is changing everything that must be changed; it is full equality and freedom; it is being treated and treating others as human beings; it is emancipating ourselves by our own efforts; it is challenging powerful dominant forces within and outside the social and national sphere; it is defending the values we believe in at the price of any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism; it is fighting with audacity, intelligence and realism; it is never lying nor violating ethical principles; it is a profound conviction that there is no force in the world capable of crushing the force of truth and ideas. Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and the world, which is the foundation of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism.” continue reading

More than a definition, the text should be understood as a personal assessment of the political process in which Fidel Castro played the starring role. In the absence of a solid theoretical thought, the exegetes of the Commander in Chief have made use of the poetics of his rhetoric to extract, something like that, as a political testament.

The phrase chosen has the turns of an oratory delivered to captivate those congregated in a plaza, where almost all license is permitted, while sounding good and conquering the ears. But read at a distance and analyzed as a thesis, it lacks programmatic solidity.

In the phrase, the term Revolution is ambivalent and is presented both as a result obtained and reached for. At other moments the statement seems a method to achieve certain goals, the final fruit of a process, or a tie to moral values close to the Decalogue of good behavior.

The contradictions of the concept stated by Castro for more than fifteen years ago have discouraged academics of the official environment and organic intellectuals from analyzing it. Instead, they have chosen to sanctify the verse so as not to be seen to be committed to rigorously dissect it.

When Castro mentions that Revolution is the sense of the historic moment, it only confirms that he lacks the political instinct to perceive the wealth of opportunities that such processes trigger, something that rests exclusively in the capacity of certain individuals to take advantage of the situation.

On the other hand, the substantial difference between Revolution and reform resides in the way transformations are realized, but these words avoid pointing out the violent and radical character of the process they promote. The absence of this precision constitutes the most important conceptual deficit of the text.

In the horizon of almost all social revolutions is equality, but a process of such a nature is not needed to try to achieve it. Freedom has historically been most affected by revolutions. In particular, the freedoms of expression and association, and, in the case of socialist revolutions, economic freedoms.

The inaccuracies in the text does not end there.

In the words extolled today, Castro defines his creature as the capacity to treat others and to be treated as human beings. It is the promise of the lowest profile that a politician could project and, most obvious, that includes a concept for posterity that is, at least, a disturbing gesture.

The confusion rises in tone when the leader invites us to “emancipate ourselves by our own efforts,” without specifying if he speaks from the working class that must shake off the “chains” of exploitation, or if it is a nationalist-style demand to eliminate dependency on some foreign power.

In the first case, it would be renouncing alliances with other sectors such as the peasantry, while following the second to the letter leads to renouncing proletarian internationalism.

The act of “challenging dominant forces” differs if you are in an insurrectional period, or it is several years after the beginning of the Revolution. When Castro stated this concept, power in Cuba lay in the Communist Party and especially in his own will, which did not accept the slightest challenge.

The voluntarism of the orator stands out when he calls for “paying whatever price necessary,” while he appropriates Christian values by promoting modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism. The call to never lie or violate ethical principles reinforces the character of the commandments of a religion.

The text also extols audacity, intelligence and realism, guidelines that are more appropriate to succeed in business than to drive social transformation. Emphasizing these assertions with the conviction that “there is no force in the world capable of crushing the strength of truth and ideas”: pure idealism, alien to the dialectical materialism of Marxist inspiration.

Unity does not make the Revolution, nor is independence a conquest in the midst of a globalized world that has put an end to borders, so all that is left to the orator to base his concept on is “our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism “and to fight for “our dreams of justice,” without substantiating any.

The conceptual gap of the definition of Revolution that, as of this Monday, millions of Cubans have signed, leaves their hands free for whatever future decision is taken by whoever relieves the current historic generation. On this foundation stone, one can erect anything.

The Last Death of Fidel Castro / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Fidel Castro at a meeting with civilian workers of the Ministry of Interior and the Revolutionary Armed Forces. (Revolution Studio)
Fidel Castro at a meeting with civilian workers of the Ministry of Interior and the Revolutionary Armed Forces. (Revolution Studio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 November 2016 — As expected, the news of the death of Fidel Castro was announced by his brother Raul, in a brief official statement to the people of Cuba and friends around the world.

While his biographers are careful to detail that he survived hundreds of alleged attacks, no one can keep count of the innumerable times that his death circulated as a rumor or even as a headline, starting with those left him for dead after the attack on the Moncada barracks, or after landing of the yacht Granma on the coast of eastern Cuba. continue reading

Sixty years to the day after the morning of 25 November 1956, when the historic yacht sailed from Tuxpan, Mexico, events have changed the significance of that anniversary to inscribe the date, as of today, as the moment when the hisotiral leader undertook his “ultimate journey.”

The question so often formulated, of what would happen after the physical disappearance of Fidel Castro, will soon have its inexorable answer. Obviously, it will not have the dramatic effect it would have had, had it happened when he was in command of the rudders of the country, as was on the point of happening in June of 2006 when he had to “provisionally” delegate all his responsibilities to his brother Raul.

Although the impact has been ameliorated by a decade of relative absence, in one way or another his real death marks a before and after. Especially for the decisions that his heir must take in his last year in office. From this point, the argument that this or that cannot be done because “the boss” would not agree, ceases to have any meaning. No one will now have any doubt about who rules Cuba

Now begins the prolonged stage of competing panegyrics and diatribes. Adulators and detractors will bring to light their long sharp conclusions, will once again relate the anecdotes that earned him glory and blame; they will recall the legends and jokes, epithets and nicknames.

Cuban television will have already prepared a selection of his historic moments, the best pens of the national Parnassus will publish poems and compose songs, and then will come the anniversaries, and sooner or later the generation of those who never knew him will exceed that who saw him triumphantly enter Havana, deliver his interminable speeches, make his unappealable decisions.

The contemporaries of Elian Gonzalez will perhaps remember that 17 years ago, a day like this 25 November, that child rafter was rescued almost miraculously in the Straits of Florida. This coincidence obliges us to think of Charon, the mythical boatman who leads souls to their final destination. This ship will not sink. Fidel Castro is dead. Sadly for some and joyfully for others, this time it’s true.

Clean Sweep and Old Promises / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The unconcluded debts of Raul Castro’s mandate are exactly those that would directly impact citizens’ lives
The unconcluded debts of Raul Castro’s mandate are exactly those that would directly impact citizens’ lives

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 November 2016 – In the next 40 days, before the end of the year, the Cuban Communist Party must hold its second Central Committee Plenum and approve the final version of the documents issued by their most recent congress. It is expected that there will also be a meeting of the Council of Ministers and a third session of the 2016 National Assembly of People’s Power. These three events will mark the beginning of the last year of Raul Castro’s government, and the deadline for the fulfillment of his pending promises.

Not included in this list are details such as the glass of milk he promised every Cuban in July of 2007, or the eradication of the invasive marabou weed from the Cuban countryside, the unresolved problems of his administration which include ending the dual currency system, eliminating the rationing system, ratifying the United Nations human rights covenants – signed by Cuba but never ratified – and achieving efficiency in the state socialist enterprise. continue reading

The list of outstanding promises also includes producing food that is affordable to Cuban wallets, achieving the necessary volume of foreign investment, promulgating a new electoral law, and ensuring that wages become the main source of income, as well as leaving behind the conceptualization of and a viable program for, an economic, political and social model for future generations.

In this regard, only the theoretical commitments appear to be on track to be completed, while the unconcluded debts of Raul Castro’s mandate are exactly those that would directly impact citizens’ lives. Although the conceptualization never moved beyond an intellectual exercise, the program to 2030 rests on conjectures and promises for which Castro will have no opportunity to respond.

In the coming months, there would have to be a surge in the average private enterprise and the opening of the wholesale market so necessary to satisfy the demands of workers in the private sector. The countdown for the ending of unearned freebies and inflated payrolls is entering its final minutes.

Before the conclusion of his time in the presidential chair, Raul Castro has the responsibility to adopt measures that will lessen the emigration hemorrhage, structure an effective plan to address the demographic problem, and finally bring before parliament a law to regularize same sex relationships.

Before handing over power, Fidel Castro’s younger brother should decriminalize political dissent and propose a dialog so that the different viewpoints gaining force in the country can seek consensus to avoid more dramatic confrontations.

Will the general president bring such a demanding agenda to a conclusion, or does he intend to leave such tasks to his successors?

In the more than 400 days left to him as president of the Councils of State and of Ministers, Raul Castro will be forced to pick up the pace. Time, implacable, is running out. In the final stretch that remains of his mandate he will no longer have space for experiments or leisurely actions. There will be no pause, but much haste.*

*Translator’s note: Raul Castro promised to update the country’s economic, social and political model “without haste, but without pause,” and the phrase has become a centerpiece of his tenure.

The Portfolio Of The Arrogant Beggar / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Cuba’s current portfolio looking for foreign investors offers 395 projects distributed in 14 areas of the economy. Compared to the previous year it has two more sectors.(14ymedio / Luz Escobar)
Cuba’s current portfolio looking for foreign investors offers 395 projects distributed in 14 areas of the economy. Compared to the previous year it has two more sectors.(14ymedio / Luz Escobar)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 7 November 2016 – The appearance of unusual proposals such as ostrich farming, the production of quail eggs, or the tanning of exotic hides, along with the timid introduction of a banking sector, are some of the most significant novelties in the Portfolio of Opportunities for Foreign Investment launched during the recently concluded International Fair of Havana.

The illusions generated in 2014, with Cuba’s new openness to foreign capital, have lost strength along the way. The third edition of the portfolio targeted to international business is evidence of this disengagement. The document repeats proposals that didn’t find any takers and adds timid offerings that have yet to overcome mistrust. continue reading

Investors have not “fallen all over themselves” before the pieces of Cuban cake. In part, because there is no easing of the concerns about the dual monetary system, but, fundamentally, because there is no easing in the short term to make the country an attractive and secure place to set up a business.

The current Portfolio offers 395 projects distributed in 14 areas of the economy. Compared with the previous year, it presents two more sectors: sugar and hydraulics. In all, there are 69 additional options from 2015, and some 149 more than in the document published two years ago.

However, as often happens, the numbers don’t tell us everything in this case. Only three sectors, sugar, food production and tourism, are responsible for the “new opportunities,” while construction, industry and mining show a decline.

In the area of health, the three projects from the previous year remain almost unchanged, with the difference that the investment for the International Sports Medicine Clinic is no longer estimated at 11 million dollars but at 18.3 million. The reason for the cost increase is not clear.

Something similar happens with the creation of audiovisuals, which appeared in the portfolio for the first time in 2015. Among the offerings still included, which no one seemed to take up, are projects for a national cable television system, an initiative to improve teaching in computer science and audiovisual media, along with the creation of a forum for the production of high definition materials.

The portfolio is not, as many believe, an inventory of what is up for auction on the island, but a list of what has fallen to pieces or that will fail to exist if it doesn’t receive, quickly, the fresh air of foreign capital. Its pages describe the nation’s economic holes and the amounts fixed, along with the conditions imposed, which resound as the request of an arrogant and disturbed beggar.

The Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM), where only last week the “first stones” of two industries were laid, maintained its privileged position at the beginning of the document. Some of the projects of that economic enclave are repeats of the offerings from two years ago, without the wave of enthusiasm initially predicted for the desolate site.

The longed-for “plant with clean technology for the assembly and production of a minimum level of light vehicles,” is back on stage, although this time the offer differs from the two previous editions, when it was offered as a joint-venture project. Now the government has chosen to give way and accept that it would be established as an enterprise with wholly foreign capital.

The same change has happened to the project for a plant “with clean and leading edge” technology for producing dinnerware, glasses and cups for the hotel industry. Currently these products are almost entirely imported and supply instabilities plague the tourist sector.

The stagnation in the ZEDM has also affected the mythical plant for glass containers for beverages, medicines and preserved food, with a cost of 70 million dollars. The operation of this industry depends on everything from the production of pharmaceuticals to the manufacture of soft drinks, beer and compotes for children.

In the rest of the country other projects are repeated year after year, among them a proposal for the technological modernization of a slaughter line for 3,000 chickens per hour, as a joint venture; one for rice production in the province of Artemisa; and others for peanut and coffee processing.

Sugar, which broke into the pages of the portfolio in 2014 with the proposal to improve corporate governance in four sugar mills, just reappeared a year later through an overview from the state sugar company Azcuba. After the successive failures of past harvests, it is now proposing the added processing of cane derivatives.

The telecommunications, information technology and communications sector hovers in the portfolio, but without detailing specific projects. The only information that is presented is that “it excludes the form of wholly foreign-owned enterprises in this sector,” a way of maintaining state control over the transfer of information.

In the last pages of the punctilious document the banking and financial sector is mentioned for the first time, but only to present the facilities investors can count on. The text warns, however, that “investment in the capital of 100 percent Cuban financial institutions is excluded, along with the establishment of branches of foreign banks.”

The new portfolio opens an era of expectations. Optimists are confident that the tinkered-with projects will generate some enthusiasm among investors, but they forget that no gesture is made more cautiously than putting one’s hand in one’s pocket. There is no one more difficult to trust with one’s capital than those who have disdained wealth and systematically assaulted the patrimony of foreign owners.