Justice Before Delivering Forgiveness?

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Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 24 September 2015 — The recent visit to Cuba of the Bishop of Rome, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, brought a flood of masses and homilies in several different settings, where, among others, two words were often heard in the context of the Cuban landscape: forgiveness and reconciliation. They were all the more curious since they were not evoked at the same time as those other words to which they are unavoidably related: offense, confession and repentance.

In this fashion, Francis urged all Cubans, believers or not, to reconciliation in the abstract and forgiveness of no particular offense, an exhortation so cryptic and watered-down that it well could have been uttered anywhere in the world. Who are the offenders and the offended, what do offenses consist of, whose turn is it to forgive and who will be the forgiven were matters that were left to each individual to ponder. The Pope also spoke of “suffering of the poor,” of “respect to differences” and many other similar phrases that can assume conflicting interpretations according to one’s point of view. continue reading

In any case, forgiveness and reconciliation have different nuances, depending whether they stem from theology or from politics. Let us assume, then, that Francis remained more attached to the first, given his status as a clergyman, though we must not forget that he is also a head of State, a politician and a diplomacy maker representing very particular interests – beyond his good intentions towards the Cuban people — and with no responsibility at all for solving the serious problems facing our nation.

In case there is doubt, the Pope had announced himself in advance as ‘missionary of mercy’, which strips this visit — at least in the obvious — of any political overtones. It is fair to understand the Supreme Pontiff’s delicate position that aims to sail to a safe harbor. Further considering his complicated role as mediator between God and Catholics, and even between rival governments — as has been plainly demonstrated on issues of the restoration of US-Cuba relations — it could be argued that he played his role with dignity during his stay in Cuba.

Because of this, anyone who had expected the Pope to give the dictatorship a scolding, to extend some considerate gesture towards the dissidence or to adopt a position of outright rejection of the Lords of the Palace of the Revolution has been greatly disappointed. The Pope might have done more, but we already know that the ways of God’s ministers on earth are as inscrutable as the Lord’s.

However, once we acknowledge the unpredictability of words, the time may be is right to put them in context and give them the interpretation they deserve from a closer perspective to mundane issues. Let us try to reconcile Bergoglio’s case against reality, plainly assuming that the Pontiff might have implied that Cubans should forgive crimes and abuses inflicted by a dictatorship about to celebrate its 57th healthy anniversary in power, a regime that has never shown any interest in our forgiveness, never confessed its countless mortal sins, and remains ever reluctant to show any repentance.

Should we merely forgive the oppressors, informers and other despicable humanoid instruments used by the dictatorial power to repress, which they continued to do even at the very moment when the Pope launched his message of peace? Is Bergoglio asking of us, without further ado, to place a veil of piety over victims of the firing squads, over the innocent dead of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat and over all the crimes committed by the Cuban dictatorship over more than half century?

He does not have the right to do so.

If we Cubans want to build a healthy and free nation, devoid of the grudges of an ominous past, if we aspire to the Rule of Law, we must mention the word justice before pronouncing the word forgiveness. We must not make the mistake of ignoring and forgetting the pain of thousands of Cuban families or we will suffer the consequences: revenge, punishment and resentment. Without justice there will be no harmony, because it’s a well-known fact that ignoring the horrors of the past has never been a basis for achieving national peace.

Recent history is rich in examples of processes of reconciliation and forgiveness in different countries. Suffice it to recall typical cases, such as the Spanish National Reconciliation of 1956, a proposal aimed at overcoming the schism caused by the Civil War won by Franco; or that of Chile after the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet; or of South Africa at the end of the apartheid regime and the creation of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, through which the moral condemnation of perpetrators of many violent crimes and of multiple human rights violations was achieved, a process that allowed victims the opportunity to offer their testimonies and publicly accuse their abusers.

Other examples, perhaps less conspicuous though no less valuable, are the Commissions of Truth and Reconciliation that were created in Peru to clarify the acts of violence experienced by the Andean country, victim of terrorism led by the Shining Path and the Tupamaros groups, and the military repression from the late 1970’s until 2000; or that of El Salvador, at the end of its bloody civil war, to unravel the human rights violations that took place in that Central American country during the conflict.

Perhaps someday we Cubans will have to democratically assume the responsibility to choose between impunity or condemnation of the perpetrators for the sake of the reconciliation and reconstruction of our nation’s moral force. Perhaps it will be impossible to fully satisfy the thirst for justice of all the victims. The moral condemnation of the perpetrators, at least of those who have not committed bloodshed, might be preferable for Cuba’s spiritual recovery.

If we opt for generosity, a known character trait of our people, as demonstrated in accepting, at the time, tens of thousands of Spanish immigrants — including the parent of today’s dictators — in the Republic born after the last war of independence against Spain, harmony will exceed grudges, and we will prevent the establishment of the new country over another spiral of hatred and exclusions.

But the patterns of a true national reconciliation will not be dictated by the speeches of mediators or by the practices of the same victimizing power. In order for the country to achieve true spiritual recovery and lasting democracy, Cuba’s own people – whose dreams and voice are still unacknowledged — will need to be the ones to decide to forgive or not their executioners. For now, the culprits have not shown the slightest sign of humility or repentance.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Repression of Science

Oscar Antonio Casanella Saint-Blancard, bio-chemist, researcher for the National Institute for Oncology and Radiobiology, speaks of how he is pressured and prevented from fully carrying out his work because of his friendship with dissidents.
Oscar Antonio Casanella Saint-Blancard

Oscar Antonio Casanella Saint-Blancard, bio-chemist, researcher for the National Institute for Oncology and Radiobiology, speaks of how he is pressured and prevented from fully carrying out his work because of his friendship with dissidents.

diariodecubalogoDiariodeCuba.com, Waldo Fernandez Cuenca, Havana, 25 September 2015 — It all started because of a party for his best friend, Ciro Diaz, at the end of 2013. Ciro Diaz, besides being a graduate in Mathematics from the University of Havana, has just one remarkable characteristic: He is a dissident and member of the band Porno for Ricardo. Soon came the threats from State Security to make him a prisoner if he engaged in the activity.

Then came the accusations at work of his being “mercenary” and “annexationist*.” But at no time was this young man, a bio-chemist by profession, intimidated, and he resisted the wishes of his oppressors. Oscar Antonio Casanella Saint-Blancard has kept his ties of friendship with Ciro and other opposition figures.

Casanella made his case known to the independent project Estado de Sats and was also arrested during the wave of repression unleashed by the performance by activist and artist Tania Bruguera at the end of last year. Since that time his harassment by State Security has continued, principally at his place of employment: The National Institute for Oncology and Radio-biology (INOR) where he serves as a researcher. continue reading

We talked about his current work situation and the plight of the Cuban health system. In spite of the difficulties he has lived through, Oscar has never lost his smile, and he maintains the same composure as always, which has lead to his repressors to try to corner him.

What situation are you in right now?

Right now I am subjected to psychological warfare in the workplace. Not just me, but also my co-workers, and it hurts me more for them than for myself because I have already overcome my fear, but my colleagues have not.

What does the psychological warfare consist of?

The doctor and deputy director of research for INOR, Lorenzo Anasagasti Angulo, has been pressuring and coercing my co-workers, above all the laboratory managers, to not let me into the various labs of the Center. He explains that there is a labor rule that says that access to these places is restricted, and that is true, but it only applies in my case, because the other researchers enter and exit the various labs without any restriction, while my access is impeded. I think I am treated very differently and discriminated against.

That is not the only thing that has happened to you…

Before this, in June of this year, I prepared a course on Bio-computing for students at the University of Havana and researchers from the INOR, and after my immediate boss had approved it, even though teaching personnel had reserved a hall for me to teach the classes, when this was all coordinated with the Biology Faculty so that students of that school could receive this training, this gentleman, Lorenzo Anasagasti Angulo, did not give me the authorization to teach the class.

But it did not stop there, he also coerced many employees of the Oncology Institute to not attend the course, and he has told them on more than one occasion not to talk to me. All these actions were not enough for him, and he told me: “Oscar, get this into your head; I am going to make sure that you have no future in this institution and I am going to make everything as difficult for you as I can.”

This gentleman, together with a member of the Communist Party from the Pedro Fernandez Cabezas Institute, has threatened to expel me from the Center just because of my ties with opposition figures. Also, Anasagasti has pressured my colleagues to deliver the copy of the lawsuit and letter that I sent to Raul Castro where I reveal the articles and laws so violated by the State Security officers, agents of the PNR and members of the PCC and where I demand the President of the country leave me in peace.

The deputy director asked my colleagues to destroy all this documentation and said that it was “enemy propaganda.” So, to demand adherence to Cubans laws is, according to Doctor Anasagasti, “enemy propaganda.”

As if that were not enough, just a month ago Lorenzo Anasagasti appeared with two State Security officers at the home of Doctor Carlos Vazquez, head of the Board of the Oncological Tumor Devices, in order to sound him out and tell him in a threatening tone: “We’re checking up on you.”

Lorenzo Anasagasti is a collaborator with the repressors, which makes him another repressor who occupies a job at the Institute of Health which has nothing to do with these issues. This is a person in service to the Cuban political police and for him that function is more important than the professional development and education of the INOR. This gentleman has demonstrated that he prefers no thesis be carried out if I participate in the statistical analysis of an academic project in the Institute.

I also am a Molecular Biology teacher for a module that is taught to doctors who are specializing in Oncology, and I have to interact with a person who coordinates that course, but Anasagasti has demanded that person prohibit me from accessing his laboratory and pressured him to not even talk to me. In this way the interaction between researchers and workers, so necessary to offering high quality training for the country’s future oncologists, is made more difficult. The development and quality of teaching are sacrificed for the sake of repression.

Some foreign mission doctors are familiar with the dispossession of their fees by the Cuban government, and they justify it on the grounds that the country invests that money primarily in oncology resources. What is your opinion of this matter? Do you believe that is really so?

It is true that cancer treatments are expensive anywhere in the world and that, for being an underdeveloped country, the country’s situation is not one of the worst. But really the duties that the doctors, researchers, nurses and service personnel perform does not correspond at all with the wages that they earn and the conditions under which they work.

Currently the volume of patients seen in Cuba by a single doctor is abusive. It is a situation that affects the doctor as well as the cancer patient, who has to wait long hours to be seen, and now the quality of the attention and treatment is not the same. This is mainly due to a stampede, a very big exodus of professionals to the outside, and this causes a work overload for those who remain, although those from the INOR who emigrate the most are the recent graduates, not doctors, who barely stay two years between their graduation and their exit abroad.

I worked some years ago on research about brain tumors and, of the specialists who carried out the research with me, all left the country. There was one point when INOR had no neurosurgeons or neurologists. Another interesting element is that when I started to work at the Institute in 2004, there was free internet access for all researchers, and the situation, 11 years later, is very different. In my department I do not have access to the internet, and I work in Bio-computing. They have restricted access to the internet only for department and laboratory heads, but there is less access than there was 11 years ago.

In spite of the promises that the Government has made to doctors about economic improvements like better wages, the chance to buy a car, a laptop, etc., several of the doctors at my workplace are very pessimistic, because they listened to the words of Chancellor Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla at the press conference about the embargo on September 16, which confirmed that Cuba was not going to change its internal politics. “Maybe I improve my life, but my relatives who are not doctors are going to continue with the same deprivations,” one of them told me. That’s why they have decided to abandon the country at the first opportunity that is presented.

*Translator’s note: An “annexationist” is someone who advocates Cuba becoming a part of the United States.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

What Cuban Doctors are Thinking / Somos+, Kaned Garrido

Somos+, Kaned Garrido, 21 September 2015 — Cuban doctors have sustained everybody’s health for decades. The reason Cuban medicine has such prestige is because of the incredible effort of its professionals. The same as Cuban teachers, doctors earn very little. They spend years and years at their careers, and later in service to the country.

That’s the reason we have quality education and healthcare in Cuba. Not by some magical social politics nor because we want to take money away from the rich, like Robin Hood. It’s because of dedicated professionals and the rest of the Cuban workers who finance the expenses, all with pathetic salaries.

But it’s not easy work to sustain such a good health service in a country with such an unproductive economy. This burden ends up falling on the shoulders of Cuban doctors. Some choose the path of the missions in the Exterior to earn a little more. Others prefer to leave the island. So we need to know what they think.

These are the opinions of doctors who presently work in Cuba.

Doctor R. M. earns 1100 pesos (44 CUC, or about US$50) a month. Her specialty is general medicine. She describes her work conditions like this:  continue reading

Education Launches a New Offensive against the “Weekly Packet” / 14ymedio, Orlando Palma

A Cuban accessing the “Weekly Packet” from his laptop at home (14ymedio)
A Cuban accessing the “Weekly Packet” from his laptop at home (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 25 September 2015 – Under the name To Educate Yourself, the Ministry of Education announced Thursday a collection of documentaries, films and music that it will begin distributing monthly in its learning facilities during the current academic year. In open competition with the illegal weekly packet of audio-visual material, this official rival seeks to establish itself as “an attractive offering of Cuban education” through content of “good taste.”

The compendium is aimed at those among whom the weekly packet is a hit. The majority of Cuban children and teens frequently watch cartoons, video clips, series and films that are distributed on the black market. In order to compete with those materials, the Ministry announces that its offering has “a search engine so that the user is not lost searching among more than a terabyte of data.” continue reading

The new product will include courses and tutorials for the self-study of foreign languages, computation, agriculture, and masonry, as Barreto detailed. Some materials will be accompanied by animated graphics and a tool to display video, text and photos at the same time, reported the official.

However, the official announcement did not address how copyrights will be managed on To Educate Yourself. Cuban television and national media frequently overlook payment for rights to films, concerts and musical recordings, especially those coming from the United States, which are the majority.

Divided into folders, like its rival alternative, the file will contain a section called Learn to Look with “expert commentaries and interesting facts so that the young form critical judgment about what they are watching,” Barreto specified.

The Cinesoft manager added that a second packet aimed at teachers and entitled The Teaching Library will also be distributed every fifteen days and will consist of books, articles and theses.

Given the serious material problems which plague labs in many of the country’s learning centers, To Educate Yourself will include a collection of virtual labs for Physics, Chemistry and Biology so that “when [the students] truly perform the exercise, there will be less risk that they will break some implement or spill a substance.”

This is not the first time that the government has tried to compete with the weekly packet. Distribution in Youth Clubs of the Backpack, a collection of audio-visual materials, began in August 2014; so far it has had a poor popular reception.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

The Abuse of My Rights and The Repression Reaffirmed My Opinions / Cubanet, Miriam Leiva

The independent journalist Miriam Leiva was detained on two occasions during the visit of Pope Francis (File Photo)
The independent journalist Miriam Leiva was detained on two occasions during the visit of Pope Francis (File Photo)

cubanet square logoCubanet, Miriam Leiva, Havana, 24 September, 2015 – I received the pleasant surprise of a brief visit to my little apartment by Msgr. Veceslav Tumir, secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Havana, around 11:30am on 19 September. It gave me great joy to receive the invitation to go to the Nunciature at 4:00 pm that day to greet the admired Pope Francis, who would be arriving there at approximately 5:30 pm. Up until that moment, I had planned to attend the welcome event at 31st Avenue (five blocks from my home) with the community of St. Agustín church, or the one at St. Rita church, and to attend the Mass at José Martí Plaza, as I did when Pope John Paul II (at which time I also went to the mass in Santa Clara), and Pope Benedict XVI came to Cuba.

When at 3:10 pm I was walking along the sidewalk about 20 yards from my home en route to the Nunciature, a State Security official, accompanied by a young woman from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), told me that I was detained, took my cellular phone and my little camera, and took me in a patrol car to the PNR precinct on Zanja Street. continue reading

Shortly thereafter, a Lieutenant Colonel (who called himself Vladimir) arrived and said, “You are detained because….”

“…it is absurd that I cannot attend the welcome for the Pope,” I added, serenely.

I said that I had been invited to welcome Pope Francis at the entrance to the Nunciature. Between the departures of the two officers, obviously to report, my treatment was professionally respectful.

Soon after the Holy Father arrived at the Nunciature, they took me to the entrance of my little apartment in the same PNR patrol car. The whole proceeding took four hours total. The State Security official remained on the sidewalk facing the building where I reside (I don’t know for how long because I don’t have a window that faces the street).

On 20 September, around 7:24 am, I received a telephone call from a lady telling me, in the name of the Secretary of the Nunciature, that I should be at the entrance to Havana Cathedral at 4:00 pm, to greet the Pope upon his arrival there. At approximately 3:30 pm, I boarded a taxi-almendrón (a typical automobile made in America between 1925 and 1959), at the corner of my residence.

As I was traveling along San Lázaro Street, passing by Ameijeras Hospital, suddenly two cars brusquely intercepted the almendrón. The driver and passengers started babbling with astonishment as they spied a license on the windshield with an “SE” in red. “What’s going on?” they asked, alarmed.

I murmured, “Take it easy, this is my problem.” I exited the car. The same official from the day before yelled, “You are detained!” A plain-clothed woman rushed forward, I told her to let go of my arms, I turned to pay the taxi, and then surrendered my cell phone and camera. They sat me in a vehicle between a man and the woman, with two other officials on the front seat. They took me to the PNR station at 62nd & 7th in Miramar, and held me there until the end of the meeting with the young men at San Carlos Seminary.

At the door of the station the female official warned me: “You cannot exit your house nor participate in any activity of the Pope’s.” When I calmly argued against this measure, she replied that I did not possess any credentials, and did not have a written invitation to attend. I asked if the entire population of Cuba had them. The behavior of these four officials was also respectful. This “operation against a dangerous female subject” lasted two hours until my return to my “mansion.”

They used a lieutenant colonel and a State Security official on 19 September, and four officials on 20 September, to detain and guard a calm lady, accompanied and protected by God on the way to Him, whose lethal weapons were a straw hat, a little purse, a cellular phone and a little, almost-useless, camera. I am strengthened by the pain of being denied the honor of greeting Pope Francis and receiving his blessing. The abuse of my rights and the repression to which I was subjected reaffirmed my opinions and my perseverance over the last 23 years to work towards a democratic Cuba. More than 150 Cuban women and men throughout the country have been harassed and detained during the visit by Pope Francis.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Francis, the Man Who Came With the Rain / 14ymedio, Rolando Garcia

Pope Francis before the Virgin of Charity. (YouTube)
Pope Francis before the Virgin of Charity. (YouTube)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Rolando M. García, Santiago de Cuba, 22 September 2015 – Jorge Mario Bergolgio’s trip through Santiago de Cuba has left many of the faithful frustrated as they were not able to hear his homily in a public square, as had happened in Havana and Holguín. The Pope’s visit to this region consisted only of a Mass for invited guests at the Sanctuary of El Cobre, and a gathering at Santiago de Cuba’s cathedral on Tuesday, but without a massive public presence. About 1,100 people, including Raúl Castro, attended the Mass in the Basilica, while another two thousand followed it on the giant screens outside.

The eleven miles separating El Cobre and the provincial capital of Santiago de Cuba were teeming with security guards, vehicles, and the faithful invited to hear the homily during the early morning hours on Tuesday. Many of these arrived at El Cobre in the early hours after midnight in order to avoid possible transportation problems. continue reading

Vendors who typically situate themselves on the sides of the road selling wooden replicas of the Virgin of Charity, flowers, and stones with specks of copper,* were not allowed to open their stalls last Tuesday. In their place, some of the local faithful lined the road to greet the Pope as he departed the Sanctuary in direction of the city.

It had been almost two weeks since it last rained in Santiago de Cuba. The last time it did so it came down as a weak and unimpressive drizzle. It was very different than the rain that greeted Pope Francis upon his arrival to the city. The people of Santiago de Cuba, who are in so much need of hope, saw this downpour as a good omen. Still, a lot more than rain is needed for a miracle to happen in these parts.

Restorations in honor of the 500th anniversary of Santiago de Cuba – celebrated last July – are still fresh. Consequently, the Bishop of Rome found an embellished city center, and a thoroughly restored cathedral. Work took two years, and included the renovation of the interior, the two bell towers, the parish house, and façades.

During the last few weeks the preparations for the Pope’s arrival have gone beyond the Catholic community, involving government, Communist party, and provincial agencies, as well as the security services. The latter were in charge of warning activists and troublemakers that they were not allowed to approach the places the Pontiff would be visiting.

Santiago de Cuba’s homeless and beggars were also hidden away until Pope Francis concluded his visit to the city, “ although he has said we are all children of God,” sarcastically remarked Pablo, a homeless 65-year-old retiree, who spends his nights in the area around Céspedes Park, Santiago de Cuba’s main square, where the city’s cathedral is located. Near the bus station he told us, “I’m in hiding these days because I don’t want to get picked up.”

José Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the Patriotoc Union of Cuba (UNPACU), reported to this newspaper that hours before the arrival of Francis, the detention of around fifty activists, and that “service had been cut off to many cellphones.” For this dissident it seemed inconceivable that the Pope has not until now said “not even one word in support of human rights.” Still, Ferrer is certain that dissidents will change “Cuba for the good of all Cubans, with or without the Church’s support.”

Others see the Papal visit as great business opportunity. Margot lives close to the centrally located Enramadas Street, and applied two years ago for a government license allowing her to rent rooms to foreigners, but is still waiting for it. She told us: “A lot of tourists have come for this day, and it’s hard to find vacancies.”

“I wish a pope could come here every week,” Margot added with a big smile. “Santiago de Cuba has to reclaim the attention it deserves. Francis will help us in that. So will Cachita** who’s already here with us.”

Translator’s Notes:
*The Basilica/Sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity is located in a former mining town called “El Cobre,” literally, “The Copper.” Cuban Catholics value copper fragments from the local mines because of the metal’s historical link to the Virgin of Charity. 
**An affectionate nickname for anyone named “Caridad,” or “Charity,” including the Virgin of Charity herself.

Again With the Blockade! / Fernando Damaso

Fernando Damaso, 22 September 2015 — The hackneyed topic of the blockade or embargo continues to be among the priorities that the Cuban government demands that the United States of America resolve, the objective being to assure stable and mutually advantageous relations.

However, there is a matter that the American government should solve unilaterally, without trying to achieve any type of accord with the Cuban one, being that it was imposed on the latter. The argument turns out to be rather puerile, if one takes into account that when it came time to revoke the Platt Amendment (also imposed unilaterally by the American government), many conversations and accords  were mediated between both parties. In politics, to dialogue and reach agreements is a common practice, as seen throughout history. Pigheadedness has never led to anything positive. continue reading

Maintaining this position would make it seem, as many believe, that the Cuban government is not really interested in the end of the blockade, because up to now it has served as a cover-up to hide the government’s grave errors and inefficiency in the economic arena.

Besides, the blockade is a subject that began being dusted off a little more than 20 years ago, when the abundant subsidies received from the now-extinct Soviet Union and other socialist countries ceased. While these funds were flowing in–and even being squandered on foreign adventures of all kinds, and in pharoah-like and absurd national plans–nobody ever talked about the blockade. Moreover, if it was ever mentioned, it was as an object of ridicule–even unto calling it “a sieve,” being that Cuba, despite the blockade, did business with most of the countries of the world, with the exception of the United States.

It was as of then that the blockade started to be held responsible for all the ills of the nation, principally the economic ones–a view that continues to be maintained today, obviating the culpability of socialism as a failed system incapable of producing wealth and wellbeing.

As long as the Cuban government continues blaming its problems on others, and does not assume accountability as the primarily responsible party, the Nation will not come out of its prolonged economic, political and social crisis.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Anybody Can Have a Bad Day / Lilianne Ruiz

Lili under the sea

Lilianne Ruiz, 22 September 2015 — A great friend always tells me, “When something unpleasant happens to you, just say, ’This happens to us because we are alive.’”  I have wanted to be as delicate as a flower but I must admit that life is not like that, and the hard knocks, some of them, are like a box of chocolates. We must have great expectations and be determined to realize them, or, at least, to start on the path to doing so. Over here there are a bunch of decadent people, it is true, but the sun keeps rising every day, and life is so beautiful.

Today, I am gifting myself this poem by Octavio Paz, that appears in Rayuela, and I am sharing it with everyone with whom I speak today, because it has always moved me.

Here

My steps on this street
re-echo
on another street
where
I hear my steps
passing on this street
where

Only the fog is real.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

#PapaEnCuba [Pope in Cuba]: A Shout for Danilo Maldonado (El Sexto) / Angel Santiesteban

Danilo (El Sexto) painting one of the piglets for his planned performance.

Angel Santiesteban-Prats, Havana, 21 September 2015 — Today, Monday, September 21, makes 13 days since he has been on a hunger strike inside a solitary confinement and punishment cell. Separated from his family and from all human companionship, for the act and right as an artist of attempting to put on a performance that alluded, according to the political police, to the dictators when he applied two common names, Fidel and Raúl–names borne by many in this nation–on the bodies of two pigs.

He has spent nine months in captivity without due process and will not therefore have a fair trial from the judges. The lawyer I have met with assures me that her intention is to “help,” but that it is not in her power, “because she is a simple attorney, from whom the case file has been kept for several months.”

Danilo’s nights are long, extremely extensive. The dawn seems elusive, while he feels his body coming apart. His faculties are failing, and that mental deterioration which, at times, inserts ideas of desisting–along with the fear of dying, of not ever again seeing his mother and his little dauther, of losing his teeth, of ruining his kidneys, among so many fears–are the battles he fights secretly in solitary confinement.

“This too shall pass” — A drawing Danilo made in prison.

These days we are being visited by Pope Francis, the merciful one who spreads peace for being the messenger of God and who, out of respect, those who say they revere him should interrupt their wicked actions, their pride and the abuse they inflict on the helpless, whose only intent is to be artists who fight for their beliefs.

But the dictators Fidel and Raúl only manipulate the Pope, the presidents, the UN and any international courts where they appear–as they have done throughout their more than half century in power, robbing destinies, destroying futures, extinguishing lives, undoing dreams–and consequently ignoring pleas for Danilo’s release, because always, with dictators, their commitment to evil and to assuring their totalitarian power comes first.

“Peace is a white (dove) knife that is placed in our hands.”

Danilo’s little daughter sobs for wanting to see her father. Danilo’s mother bravely endures the trance of pain not wishing to break down and say goodbye to her son and, at the same time, lives the contradiction of admiring him and respecting his ideas.

Danilo’s grandparents look on with that mixture of despair and sorrow, and one feels that they need to demand, to scream, for someone to show them where to find justice, and we can only respond with our heads bent low or look away so that they don’t see our tears.

The Ladies in White along with the members of the forum for Rights and Liberties, with the hashtag #todosmarchamos [We All March], march every Sunday, for the last 22 weekends, bearing Danilo’s photo along with those of other political prisoners through the streets of Miramar, demanding their release–even when on every one of those weekends, they are subjected to brutal beatings and arrests.

Danilo’s friends accompany his family, trying to give them support in the emptiness caused by his absence. We take it upon ourselves to demand his freedom, to go along on visits to the lawyer, or to deliver letters to the prosecutors’ offices regarding the violations to the law committed against him according to their own judicial laws, which they should respect and to which they should adhere.

The regime cannot, as it always does, arm wrestle with Danilo, and have it affect his health. Their duty, their obligation, must be to free him immediately before greater harm is done, and not add another international crime to their dictatorial records.

Freedom for Danilo Maldonado, Now!

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats,

Havana, 21 September, “free” on parole

Translated by Alicia Barraqué Ellison

 

Lots of Bright Colors for Bergoglio / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya

Carlos III and Árbol Seco (author’s photograph)
Carlos III and Árbol Seco (author’s photograph)

cubanet square logoCubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana 18 September 2015 – There is just one day left before the arrival of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome, and work at the Cuban capital has intensified on the faded facades of buildings flanking the route that the head of the Vatican and his accompanying delegation will travel. A motley profusion of stridently contrasting colors has invaded the city, in an apotheosis of bad taste.

These days, the deployment of supports and scaffolding has been intense around the streets that the sense of humor of people has dubbed “Via Sacra.” As often happens in murky waters, the occasion is also conducive to the illicit sale of paint. Thus, a gallon of water is added to every gallon of paint that is sidetracked for sale, in the watercolor canvas destined to cover the usual filth on the facades. It is an economic law that no opportunity for smuggling should be wasted in a country where the black market is not only the best stocked, but also the most organized and efficient. In addition, the visit will be brief, so Bergoglio will not witness how the layers of bright colors poured out in his honor will fade away under the scorching Cuban sun. continue reading

The hustle and bustle also includes the planting of ornamental shrubbery in parks adjacent to the route charted for Francis’s itinerary. In fact, in deference to the visitor, the squalid clumps punished by drought and apathy that surrounded the Central Havana relief image of Karl Marx, on Carlos III and Belascoaín, were replaced by new shrubbery. It is an irony of fate that the site of the father of atheism has been decked out just to honor the most eminent representative of God on Earth. The inventor of communism must be spinning in his grave.

Such a display of brushes and scaffolding responds to a plan that goes into effect in this type of situation, when the authorities need to ingratiate themselves with celebrities who enjoy touring and being engulfed by crowds. Officially, it is termed “The Image Plan”, and consists of investing only minimal resources to temporarily achieve a better image of the settings that visitors will see. The activity does not include any carpentry or mortar cement work for the reparation or renovation of structures. Deteriorated or damaged elements are not replaced, and surfaces are not cleaned, but the low quality paint is applied over the grime, over the exposed rusty reinforcement building supports and over the holes left by crumbling and fallen plaster. The idea is not to improve the city, but to make it look better than it really is. It is part of the scheme: false beauty in a country of false leaders and false devotees.

Carlos III and Subirana, Centro Habana (author’s photograph)
Carlos III and Subirana, Centro Habana (author’s photograph)

Of course, there has been popular criticism of what some consider a waste of resources, a swindle to visitors, and an insult to the growing needs of the population. Hundreds of poor Cubans who fruitlessly rummage through flea markets looking for the most “economic” options to paint their homes wonder how funds materialize when it involves a governmental interest.

Other Cubans question so much deployment of yellow and white Vatican flags, mounted atop public street lights, as in the case on Boyeros, Linea, and Séptima Avenida, among others, especially when, at the start of the recent school year, many primary school children were not able to wear new regulation white shirts because production was inadequate due to shortages of raw materials for garment factories, among other reasons.

But these are secondary issues. In short, including Bergoglio’s visit, three popes have honored us with their presence. It’s not that they have resolved much, but we know the magnitude of Cuban vanity… Three Popes is something not too many countries can brag about, let alone a country like Cuba, where the effects of the blessings have the same duration as the Catholic devotion of the masses: three days. What greater privilege could we wish for!

As a positive note, we know that Bergoglio’s visit will be of some use in smuggling a few messages from the Cuban President-General to the American President as the Pope sets out directly for the U.S. from Cuba. Incidentally, the event will also have been instrumental in the release of more than three thousand incarcerated individuals, some of them common criminals, victims of a system where anything can be construed as a crime. God the Father himself would have to visit us to achieve the release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Let’s wait and see if by then there are at least any walls left standing and in need of paint.

Translated by Norma Whiting

The Mass and Repression in Revolution Square / Ivan Garcia

Papa-en-Cuba-Misa-y-represión-_ab-620x330Ivan Garcia, Havana, 21 September 2015 — Almost everyone in Cuba remembers what they were doing on January 21, 1998. Stephen, who works in a steel factory southeast of the capital, recalls that he walked more than nine miles to attend the Mass of Pope Wojtyla in Revolution Square, the sacred precinct of the olive-green regime.

“I come from a Catholic family, but when Fidel came to power they stopped going to church out of fear. John Paul II was a kind of personal liberation, the reunion with my church, God, and Jesus. Afterward, travel to the island has become fashionable for the Vatican. The visit of Benedict XVI, like that of Francis I, seemed quite bland to me. More media hype than anything else,” says Stephen, as he goes to Mass with a portrait of the Virgin of Charity, Patroness of Cuba. continue reading

After midnight on September 19th, public transport service in Havana was interrupted. Sandy and his fiancee Agnes, regular salsa-dancers in a Vedado nightclub, had to change their plans.

“It’s become routine that when the government decides to stage a march or a mass event, the buses stop running. People with money should go by taxi or hired cars that charge hard currency. It’s an arbitrary imposition. We have to stay home or walk to where we want to go,” says Sandy angrily.

Although the visit of Pope Francis was a significant event, the omnipresent social control exerted by the state toward its citizens irritates quite a few Cubans.

“They treat us like we’re first graders or mentally challenged. Good or bad, what we can do depends on the government. And a lot of us are already tired of obeying rules and regulations,” said Marcial, sitting on the porch of his home in Ayestarán, within walking distance of Revolution Square.

When the sacred choral music began on the makeshift stage in front of the National Theatre, flanked by the marble statue of Jose Marti and the 3-D image of Che on the Interior Ministry, Yordanka and several friends, with pictures of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and yellow-and-white Vatican flags, began to quietly recite The Liturgy of the Word. They were reading a handout distributed by enthusiastic volunteers from the Catholic Church.

“Of course I believe in God. Also in the Afro-Cuban deities, like almost everybody in Cuba does. My companions and I didn’t come out of devotion as much as out of compliance with ETECSA, our company. Those who attended were given a snack and a soda, which some later sold for 40 pesos,” admits Yordanka.

The presence of police officers dressed in plain clothes was evident, betrayed by walkie-talkies in hand, nervous surveillance, muscles forged in gyms, and hands deformed by the practice of martial arts. Also assembled were hundreds of members of combat associations, paramilitary organizations usually involved in acts of repudiation and beatings of dissidents.

Hours before the homily was to start, dozens of opponents of the regime and the Ladies in White were arrested or barred from attending the ceremony. Berta Soler said that on Saturday the 19th, “Martha Beatriz Roque, Miriam Leiva and I were invited to the Apostolic Nunciature, where many people went to greet the Pope. Neither Martha nor Miriam could get there. In my case, when I was on my way an unnecessarily large State Security detail detained me along with my husband Angel Moya.”

Once the greeting time had ended, the three were released. Around five in the morning on September 20, some twenty women of the Ladies in White organization, including Berta, were taken to different police stations to prevent their attendance at the Havana Mass.

“I wonder how the Pope and the Vatican will react. The dictatorial regime violated their right to grant permission to those citizens who could attend His Holiness’s events. It’s a sign, another one, of the government’s intolerance. I hope that public opinion will take note,” said Angel Moya, a member of the Forum for Rights and Freedoms.

It has become routine for the Castro autocracy to hijack religious, sporting, or musical events for their own benefit, whether it be a papal Mass or a concert by Juanes.

Designing an artificial landscape has its cost. Religious commitment is nonexistent when the people attend almost under compulsion, in order not to be “marked down” and to look good at their workplace, especially if they are guaranteed a good snack and are given credit for having worked that day.

Before Pope Francis finished his brief homily, hundreds of people began to leave to go home. And if the purpose is for all to remain well with God and with Castro, the average Cuban feels like a bit player in this story.

So the response from citizens is apathy, facades, and double standards. Pope Francisco probably saw some of that.

Iván García

Exclusive video of the arrest of 3 people before the Papal Mass in Cuba

Univision Video shows the moment when two dissidents are able to approach the Pope and talk with him, are then separated from the Popemobile, and while they are subjected to being controlled, they shout anti-government slogans. It also shows three dissidents being subdued, including a woman, and finally shows the five detainees being arrested. At the time of this writing their whereabouts were unknown.

Translated by Tomás A.

The Pope, So as Not to Say Anything, Said Nothing / Angel Santiesteban

The Inverted Pyramid

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, Havana, 17 September 2015 — It always irritates me that it is accepted, ironically, for the Cuban dictatorship to ply its totalitarian propaganda and be visible in foreign countries, via the media and its “solidarity”committees, when not even Cubans themselves in their own country are not allowed to claim freedom of thought, association, and all  the rights contained in the magna carta of the United Nations. Is it just that a country that violates these rights by denying them to its own citizens be allowed the spaces to cover up, manipulate, and lie to international public opinion?

A front-page article in Granma newspaper, the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, reports “anti-blockade [embargo] tour begins in Washington,” which will include stops in other North American cities and various countries. It also announces a confirmed total of 44 visits to the Congress, 37 to congressional offices, and 7 visits to senators’ offices. continue reading

However, it is soon coming on six months since the Ladies in White, supported by members of the Forum for Rights and Liberties, as well as activists from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and other political groups who answer to the hashtag #todosmarchamos [“We all march”] have been subject every Sunday (22, to be exact), to brutal beatings and arrests. Just last Sunday it happened again, in the presence of members of the foreign press, who could see for themselves the peaceful way in which the opposition members carry out their demonstration–and in turn, the violent way they are treated, and the humiliation they suffer, upon being arrested.

The world seems to be turned on its head. President Barack Obama ignores the pleas of the dissidence clamoring for an end to the dictatorship’s violations of basic human rights. Pope Francis serves as mediator between the regime and the United States, and encourages the European Union to engage in and continue the steps taken by the United States, and so the first contacts and studies have begun to realize them in the near future.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Cuba’s top ecclesiastical representative, is more attached to the dictatorship than to his people, and so he publicly says that “in Cuba there are no political prisoners,” when he himself has met with some of them, and he has been given a list of who they are, and the details of the disgraceful legal proceedings to which they have been subjected.

To top it off, during a televised interview, he didn’t even have the decency to acknowledge the courageous Ladies in White and their current struggle–or for that matter, the abuses they suffer every weekend very near to his Santa Rita church–and he refers to them in past tense, without calling them by name, but merely as “those women who dressed in white.”

The Pope, just hours before his arrival in Havana, for the first time had the opportunity to address the Cuban people, but so as not to say anything, he said nothing. Those of us who awaited a message of salvation for a long suffering nation–one where his children launch themselves desperately on the sea without the least guarantee of survival, who need the encouragement of hope, the least glimmer of light to assure us that off in the distance an oasis awaits us–we were not granted it. He did not mention the families of this dispersed, and therefore divided, people, nor did he even speak of the pain that for more than half a century of dictatorship, we have suffered in our deepest flesh.

Hopefully once the Pope has visited our nation we may say with certainty that His Holiness visited with us, and not that he passed through this land like one more tourist.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Havana, 17 September, “free” on parole

 Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

State Security Stops Martha Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva From Meeting with the Pope / EFE-14ymedio

Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello. (14ymedio)
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana. 20 September 2015 — Opposition member Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello reported that on Sunday afternoon State Security stopped her – for the second day in a row – from personally greeting Pope Francis. Their meeting, which was to have taken place in Havana Cathedral, had been agreed upon as a way redressing what happened on Sunday to this former Black Spring prisoner who was detained as she was on her way to the Apostolic Nunciature. continue reading

On Sunday morning, the secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Cuba had assured Ms. Roque Cabello that he was surprised by the previous day’s arrest, but that everything was now in order for her to greet the Pope that same day. However, the taxi taking her to Havana’s historic center was intercepted on its way by a car with four State Security agents who did not allow her to reach the place, the activist said.

“If you have something to say to the Pope, tell us, and we’ll tell him,” Roque Cabello said one of the State Security agents told her. The dissident was held for fifteen hours at a police station before being released.

In the case of Miriam Leiva, her detention unfolded under similar circumstances, as she was traveling in a shared taxi. “The car was forcefully intercepted by State Security. They took me to a police station, and there an official warned me that I could not participate in any activity related to the Pope’s visit,” Leiva reported to the EFE news agency.

On the way to Havana Cathedral, where Francis celebrated Sunday vespers with priests, men and women consecrated to religious life, and seminarians, the Papal entourage stopped at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saint Ignatius Loyola on Reina Street.* The Pope took a brief tour of the interior of the church, and then continued on his way to the historic center of Havana.

*Translator’s Note: Commonly called “Iglesia de Reina,” “Church of Reina (Queen [Street]),” and consecrated in 1923, it is widely considered one of Cuba’s most beautiful churches, and its tallest, with a fifteen-story bell tower. It is the mother church of the Jesuit Order in Cuba.

El Cobre Prepares to Welcome Pope Francis / 14ymedio

Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre. (Flickr)
Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre. (Flickr)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Santiago de Cuba, 18 September 2015 – The place where Cachita* — as we fondly call our patron saint — receives her devotees has seen busy days before the arrival of Pope Francis. In the Basilica of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, located in Santiago de Cuba Province, the details for the the Bishop of Rome’s September 22 Mass are ready. At this moment, the eleven miles separating El Cobre from the provincial capital are a constant back and forth of people and vehicles.

During a press conference on September 15, Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba Dionisio García Ibáñez explained that the Papal entourage will be landing at Antonio Maceo International Airport in the afternoon of September 21, and then immediately head for El Cobre. continue reading

On this occasion, repairs to the Basilica of The Virgin of Charity have been primarily focused on the façade, the interior décor, and the garden areas. The building was totally restored in 2012 for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the island, as well as to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the statue of the Patroness of Cuba.

The very popular Chapel of Miracles, previously full of offerings for the fulfillment of some promise made to the Virgin, was returned to its original function as a sacristy in 2012. The impressive gifts people have left for Cachita were moved to two side chapels that had been previously closed.

According to Catholic Church officials, after arriving in the afternoon in Santiago de Cuba, “he (Francis) will meet with Cuban bishops, and visit the sanctuary.” Once there, the Pope will offer a gift to the Virgin of Charity, and light a candle with the flame of a candle lit by Benedict XVI during his visit to the Basilica.

As did the previous pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio will spend the night at the priests’ residence hall adjacent to the chapel.

Opened on September 8, 1927, the Basilica now exhibits reconditioned woodwork with the shrine to the Virgin renovated so that the faithful can see it up closer. The surrounding buildings, such as the retreat and fellowship house and the guesthouse are in wonderful shape, although they were built over sixty years ago. However, the power, water and sewer systems have not been modernized.

Francis will offer a Mass at the El Cobre shrine attended by the residents of the small rural communities where there are no churches, according to the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. García Ibáñez also said that two children will present the Pope with a copy of the manuscript made by the veterans of the war of independence asking that the Virgin of Charity be made the Patron Saint of Cuba.**

After the conclusion of the Mass in El Cobre, the Pope will go to Santiago de Cuba’s cathedral, where representatives of families from throughout the country will be waiting for him. After blessing the city on its 500th anniversary, Francis will leave for the airport, thus ending his visit to the island.

Translator’s Notes:
*An affectionate nickname for anyone named “Caridad,” or “Charity,” including Our Lady of Charity herself.
**The petition was made to Pope Benedict XV in 1915, and it was approved the following year.

Translated by José Badué

Pope Francis Visits Fidel Castro in His Havana Home / EFE – 14ymedio

Pope Francis during his meeting with former Cuban president Fidel Castro. (Alex Castro)
Pope Francis during his meeting with former Cuban president Fidel Castro. (Alex Castro)

EFE, 14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2105 — According to an announcement made by the Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi, Pope Francis met today with former president Fidel Castro at his Havana home.

The meeting took place after the Pontiff celebrated mass in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution. According to Lombardi, the meeting lasted approximately forty minutes, taking place in a “very family-like and informal” setting.

The Apostolic Nuncio Giorgio Lingua accompanied Francis during his visit with the Cuban leader. Fidel Castro’s wife, children, and grandchildren–approximately ten people in total–were also present. continue reading

Lombardi explained that the Argentine pontiff and Castro discussed “current global problems,” especially those related to the environment.

The Vatican spokesperson said that Fidel Castro took the opportunity to ask Francis about “important issues in today’s world” that concern and interest the former Cuban president.

Apart from their conversation, Francis and Fidel Castro exchanged gifts. Specifically, the Pontiff gave Castro two books by Alessandro Pronzato, an expert in catechism, scripture, and a renowned theologian. One of the books is entitled “Disturbing Gospels,” while the other focuses on the relationship between humor and religion.

The Pope also gave Castro copies of his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium,” and his famous encyclical on environmental issues “Laudato si.”

For his part, the former Cuban president presented the Pope with a copy of “Fidel and Religion,” an interview he gave to Brazilian theologian Frei Betto in 1985. The book’s dedication read: “To Pope Francis, on the occasion of his fraternal visit to Cuba. With the admiration and respect of the Cuban people.”

Fidel Castro, 89 years old, who retired from power in 2006 due to illness, also held a private meeting with Benedict XVI when he visited Cuba in 2012. On that occasion, the former president and several of his relatives travelled to the Apostolic Nunciature in order to see the Pontiff.

Translated by José Badué