Category: Translator: Mary Lou Keel

My Encounter with Paya in Voices 16 / Mario Lleonart

Careful with those whom you all kill, they can spur a craving for liberty in the people (Oswaldo Paya in an interview by the Hispano Cubana Magazine, No. 16, 2003, p. 122).

Friday, September 7 the launch of the 16th edition of the magazine Voices took place in Havana in the home of Yoani Sanchez and Reinaldo Escobar.  Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was in charge of the introductory words, and not one more person could have fit in the living room and on the terrace of our friends.  Thanks to God I was able to be there and also I have the honor of being included in the so heartfelt pages of this singular issue whose special edition is dedicated to the tragic death of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero which occurred July 22 in the vicinity of Bayamo.

I thank greatly the editors of this very daring magazine who, for a second time, have included one of my writings.  The first time was in the still recent Voices 14 presented and dedicated to the then imminent papal visit where was inserted my prediction, regrettably correct, “Another Pope, another Cuba and another church.”  This time Voices 16 took from my soul “My encounter with Paya” and I feel maybe they are the simplest of the included pages, surrounded as I am there by multiple voices of high quality.

I recommend the reading of the 16 editions of Voices in general (http://vocescubanas.com/voces) and this issue 16 in particular, as singular as the rest, but so special for its being dedicated to two such special souls as Harold and Oswaldo.  Regardless of my invitation to read the magazine directly, I will provide in my next post fragments of the writing that I dragged from my heart for Oswaldo Paya in Voices 16.

Translated by mlk.

October 30 2012

Upgrade of Cuban Migration Policy? / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

It is already a fact: the awaited “migration reforms”, announced by Raul Castro a month and a half ago, arrive with a lot of noise — much ado about nothing. Published “casually” five days before the elections for delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of Popular Power, the modification to Law No. 1312 “Law of Migration” of September 20, 1976, was again the plastic carrot hung in front of the herd. Some simpleton might believe his opportunity in life has arrived, but the disillusionment — I really wish I were wrong on this point — sooner or later will reveal the true intention behind a decree where they repeat the verb “to authorize”too much which has ruled the destinies of a people confined to their borders for more than half a century.

According to my understanding of Decree-Law No. 302, issued by President Raul Castro October 11, 2012, and published in the Official Gazette last October 16, nothing changes for the professional Cubans — including thosefrom the Public Health, needless to say — we continue dragging that cross that the government became by havingdevoted ourselves to the cultivation of knowledge. Once again it pays us so: leaving us at aclear disadvantage, violating our right to travel, depriving us ofany opportunity to meet the world. Articles 24 and 25, subsections f, make it very clear when they exclude from leaving the country all those who lack “the established authorization, pursuant to the strict rules of preserving the qualified work force…” which with one blow leaves millions of Cubans out of the game.

One does not have to be really smart to notice that articles 23, 24 and 25, added entirely to the former Law of September 1976, give fullpower to the authorities to refuse passport, to refuseentry and equally to refuse exit from the country, respectively and according to subjective criteria, to any person inside or outside of Cuba, all of which serves to leave bare the true, hypocritical and deceptive nature of this law. Too much ambiguity leaves open Article 32, subparagraph h — and by extension the same subparagraph of Article 25 — when they establish that some clerk can refuse the award of the passport and/or exit from the countryto anyone, “When for other reasons of public interest the empowered authorities determine…”, ambiguity which will serve to continue detaining millions of Cubans under this blue sky every time the Cuban Government feels like it. These articles and subparagraphs will be hanging, like the sword of Damocles, over all Cubans.

The other invidious facet of the matter: Article 24, by means of its subparagraphs c, d and e, establishes as “. . . inadmissible. . .” for entry into the country — because they put them into the same category as terrorists, human and arms traffickers, drug dealers and international money launderers — those accused by the Cuban Government of “…Organizing, encouraging, managing or participating in hostile actions against the political, economic, and social fundamentals of the Cuban State…“, “…When reasons of Defense and National Security so suggest…” and also — this is the little jewel in the crown — all those whom the Cuban Government considers must “…Be prohibited from entering the country for being declared undesirable or expelled.” If one wants it clearer, pour water on it: it is a given that those Cubans with politicalstandards divergent from the Government lines will continue being deprived of travel, and in case they do manage to leave the country, they assume a high risk of not being permitted to return, and this includes, of course, the millions of Cubans and their descendants who live outside of their country.

Something remains clear: as long as one authority might prohibit those of us living in Cuba from leaving freely, and also prohibitthat anyone of the millions that live outside return unconditionally to the embrace of their homeland, no one will be able to speak of realfreedom of travel; this is an individual’s exclusive decision and will never be a clerk’s because, right to the end, it is inalienable. As long as they make us leave our families here as hostages as a prerequisite to travel abroad, freedom of thought is abridged with an exit blackmail, if even one Cuban is denied his right to freely come or go as his birthright, nothing will have changed in Cuba. Time will have the last word, but for now everything seems pure illusion; for the moment, on the balcony of Havana, this little room is just the same.

Translated by mlk.

October 25 2012

 

An Injurious Trial / Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado

Downloaded from elnuevoherald.com

Cuba’s partisan newspaper, Granma, announced that at nine in the morning on October 5 in the city of Bayamo, Granma province, a public trial would be held of a Spanish citizen, Ángel Francisco Carromero Barrios,accused of homicide while driving a car on a public road. Ángel Francisco, 27 years of age and director of the youth organization of the Spanish People’s Party, New Generations,drove a rented vehicle that on July 22 crashed into a tree in Bayamo. Also travelling in the car were Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante, both of whom died. It was not a coincidence but a strategy that they chose a Friday for the court hearing because press agencies logically would be closed on the weekend and that would lessen the repercussion and impact of the news. Also—fundamentally—because two days later, Sunday the 7th, the Venezuelan elections would be held, and events before, during and after those elections would detract from the political relevance of the event, which incites great interest and is under the global magnifying glass the same day as the accident.

But it seems that the Cuban laws have their concept or definition of when a legal proceeding is “public.” If we stick to the letter—not the spirit, of course—of the announcement, it is presumed that the relatives of those killed in the accident and other people interested in the case could be present in the room where Carromero Barrios would be judged, but this was not to be. Yoani Sanchez and her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, left for the event to report on it, but were intercepted and detained upon their arrival in Bayamo.

Dictatorships only know how to behave as such. That is why they also stopped the children of the late Payá Sardiñas when they were a few meters from the city’s provincial courthouse. Why did they impede the grieving offspring from attending if they had announced that the trial would be public? Some news agencies noted that the big police presence around the courthouse suggested that the person being tried was a criminal confined to a maximum security prison.

The abused and musty pretext of Cuban authorities and their spokesmen seems to me stale—as old as the vulgar Stalinist insult used through the years against opponents and independent journalists—that Reinaldo and Yoani had been instructed by the United States Interest Section in order to influence the legal proceedings against the Spanish politician and create a provocative show.

That is something as hackneyed and worn out as it is speculative,and if it did not concern our liberty, or maybe even our own lives, it would be laughable. Governmental propaganda always publicly mistreats its political adversaries within and outside of Cuba and accuses us of being amoral, traitorous or even terrorists.

The objective is to hang on us a placard of misdeeds in order to discredit us. It is a villainy so recurrent that only their naive followers, their poorly paid militants—those with stable jobs, material possessions and trips around the world—and their overseas supporters who perform “gestures of solidarity” whenever there is some setback, hoping for their gratitude, are the ones who still believe it.

The Cuban authorities have taken great care in this process, because of the fatal human injuries that the crash caused and the damages that on top of the participation and responsibility of another unidentified car, exist. The final judgement should confirm if they will use the Spanish citizen as political detergent to wash away suspicions about the government, and try to leave our image of it untainted. Surely they will take advantage of this opportunity to send the message—nothing subliminal—that revolutionary ethics and justice make no distinctions in the application of the law.They want no doubts to remain about governmental innocence and that it was the high speed, the highway disasters and misfortune that sabotaged the pedals and the steering wheel of the car driven by Angel Carromero on that fateful day.

Translated by mlk and unstated

October 16 2012

Public Opinion? / Fernando Damaso

Photo: Rebeca

Public opinion is a term that often appears in the print, radio and television reports whenever the authorities approve some measure to benefit, or not, the population. Our agile reporters, microphones and cameras in hand, go about the task of interviewing citizens—preferably in schools or workplaces, and at sites where people congregate, such as bus stops, checkout lines, etc.—by being where the double standard comes into play and few people dare to say what they really think. If an incorrect opinion happens to be expressed, however, it gets suppressed in the editing.

This means that all opinions that get reported, one way or another, are unanimous in their support for or rejection of—depending on the desires of the authorities—the approved measure. This bit of theater serves to promote the idea that all citizens are in full agreement with the authorities, that these same authorities are capable of addressing our concerns, and that we live in the best of all democracies—one that lately has been described as “indigenous.” This is somewhat of a replacement for the former term “socialist,” which has perhaps lost a bit of its luster.

Now, with emigration reform and the elections underway, something else has occurred. Certain politically chosen opinions—they range from the infantile to the ridiculous, and include the usual gripes and criticisms of “the Empire,”the source of all our past, present and future problems—are now brandished as “the opinion of the people.”

Translated by mlk and unstated

October 23 2012

Voting / Regina Coyula

Only when I heard unusual noises next to my house, still before daybreak, did I remember that yesterday they were holding elections for delegates to the People’s Power. The doorway of the house next to mine was restored as a school in order to open from seven in the morning. Without need of knowing the votes, I knew it would turn out that the same delegate was re-elected, who I think is going for her third or fourth term. She is a single mother who adds this additional burden to her work and raising a teenage son, because no one else wants the post.

The nomination assemblies around here were meteoric;hardly any took longerin search of an impressive alternative candidate. My attention was drawn also to the fact that from my neighborhood, in all the places whereIsaw candidate photos, there were two, in contrast with previous years where there appeared a sizeable group of pictures with their corresponding political biographies, but — and this ischaracteristic nationally — no candidatereveals a plan, outlines a job, displays a concrete programon being elected.

As I stopped believing in the project of the government years ago, I do not vote. Yesterday, my neighborsfrom the polling station will have detested us a little (a little more?) because through our fault they kept the college open until the closing deadline. I am one step beyond those who void their ballots orleave them blank, but this year, my son for the first time, was of the requisite age to choose. He has just entered the university as you already know, that’s why I thought he would feel compelled to vote. It was treated as a very personal decision that we did not influence. He decided not to do it, but not for the civic reasons of his mom and dad: As it is a right and not a duty, it does not interest me.

At some point that indifference will stop. That will be when he feels represented, or feels that his vote can make a difference.

Translated by mlk.

October 22 2012

Cuban Public Health System and "Quality" / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

“There is no greater honor than to be the guardian of public health.” Fidel Castro

Cuba boasts of its public health system, and its hospitals are overflowing with cases of viral dengue fever. This outbreak is caused by this country’s poor performance in supplying water to homes, especially in the capital province.

The township Arroyo Naranjo was one of the most affected by dengue in 2012, after which the measure was taken to suspend the water supply every other day (one day on, one day off).

According to the official version, the supply of water to this area was every four days, because four motors were broken out of six total and the measure taken would prevent the remaining two working motors from breaking down because of overload.

More than seven months passed, and the problem with the water supply continued, the desperate citizens began to store water in pots, tanks, etc.  With passing days, this accumulated water prepared the conditions for the Dengue-carrying mosquito larvae, creating a considerable hatchery in each home.

The sprayings and the groups fighting the mosquitoes were diminishing with each passing month, the visits to the homes and the sprayings were increasingly rare.  Then the cases of dengue began on a grand scale.

The “Covadonga” hospital located in the capital township “Cerro” like the “Julio Trigo” and the “Enrique Cabrera” (National Hospital) were overrun with cases of dengue, but none was  hemorrhagic.

Then!  The government decided to announce that the water would be on every other day for this township, like it had before.  It all happened because the government had no interest in fixing the motors so that the citizens could have safe water.

Only Cuban problems are solved after there is a big, harmful event among the people.  The government’s system has shown this throughout these 53 years of “REVOLUTION.”

Translated by mlk.

September 10 2012

Loving is Over / Cuban Law Association, Esperanza Rodriguez Bernal

Photo: Habana del Este, by Marcelo Lopez

By Attorney Esperanza Rodriguez Bernal

At the Cuban Judicial Association, the cases with which we deal most frequently involve housing.

For a very long time this was the exclusive jurisdiction of the State, which was the only entity with the power to build (or to hand out the rare license to do so). The housing stock was not able to grow for many years and, as a result, we are now confronting dramatic consequences.

The problem is not confined to buildings and houses that collapse when it rains a little, due to a prolonged lack of maintenance. It also occurs when conflicts arise from several generations, or people of unequal levels of education and standards of behaviour, living under the same roof. These conflicts are multiplied exponentially by the fact that there are ever fewer units of housing available for everyone.

The first projects of which I am aware were built in Habana del Este, or “Pastorita,” as it is often referred to. These were constructed with care and by builders who knew what they were doing.

Another wave of construction activity occurred later, as I recall, in Alamar. In contrast to the earlier projects, however, these later constructions in general left much to be desired in terms of quality and urban character.

Alamar is in no way comparable to Habana del Este. The worst thing about this is that this implies a kind of devolution, since it would have been logical to assume that the first projects built just after the Revolution were surpassed by those built later, and not vice versa.

But on top of the physical problem of a shortage of housing, there is the fact that we are now a nation of more than eleven million inhabitants. It is awful to see grandchildren trying to commit their grandparents to an institution in order to be able to live by themselves. Or a recently divorced man trying to evict his ex-wife and children from their home, even when they have nowhere to go, because he is in a new relationship.

And in that struggle it is possible to see everything, from threats and domestic violence to bribery of housing officials to achieve a singular purpose – one’s own roof.

It’s been a long time since I heard a song by Los Van Van, whose chorus goes:

“No one loves anyone, loving is over. . .”

Someone told me that they no longer play this on the radio or television because it has been banned.  I don’t know, but what does seem terrible to me is that we have lost, among so many other things, the love of our neighbors and above all of those closest to us.

Translated by mlk.

September 6 2012

Our Campaigns and the Pacts / Mario Barroso

In 2008 the Mission Board of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba convened the first Campaign of Fifty Days or Prayer for Cuba. It was an intense journey of prayer that involved believers inside and outside of the island. That same year, 2008, was also significant for another national reason: The Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations, on February 28 in New York City, signed the Pact of Political and Civil Rights and the United Nations Pact of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which constituted a very laudable act.

After that important year our churches have continued praying for the nation and this year, 2012, our already celebrated Campaign of Fifty Days of Prayer for Cuba — always held between the day of the Resurrection and Pentecost — was the fifth one. But the mission of the believers is not only to pray but also to do everything they can for this world to adjust to divine will; not in vain did the wide Ignacio of Loyola say: Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you. It is in that sense that the believers themselves who pray so intensely for our nation should join a just citizen demand that asks the highest authorities of Cuba to take the necessary steps first taken in 2008, and ratify the signed pacts given that in them the spirit gathers the dignity of all human beings and the respect for their most elemental rights as creatures created in the image and likeness of God.

If the highest Cuban authorities ratify the pacts that they signed in New York in 2008 and take all the steps that implies we can thank God because many of the petitions that we have raised in our campaigns will have been granted. And it is that, a pact, although of man, once ratified, no one invalidates it or adds to it (Galatians 3:15).

Translated by mlk.

August 5 2012

The Two Wings of a Bird / Fernando Dámaso

Archive Photo

From time to time, when a Puerto Rican pro-independent visits Cuba, they will bring up in the corresponding discourses, that image by the Puerto Rican poetess Lola Rodriguez the two wings of a bird and the approach of Jose Marti, the first fight for the independence of Cuba and later for that of Puerto Rico, valid in the 19th century when both territories were Spanish colonies, but subsequently obsolete with the development of historical events, where Cuba obtained its independence and Puerto Rico became an “Associated Free State” of the United States (or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its official name in English).

In the 19th century, apart from its solidarity content, the Martian approach also had an eminently practical objective: to get the Puerto Rican residents in the Union, principally en Key West and Tampa (who were numerous) to help the Cuban cause economically with the commitment of doing the same for them once Cuban independence was achieved. Since then it has rained here a lot.

Today this approach, if one tried to put it into practice, would be considered an interference in internal matters by another state and would receive little support from international agencies. It is logical, no one has the right to decide about a foreign country.

According to the information I have (here these data are not published), Puerto Ricans mostly are in agreement with their status with the United States: in the last referendum held on the topic, some 48% (close to three thousand pro-independents, who voted at the last minute to prevent the country from becoming part of the United States as its 52nd state) were in agreement with keeping the current status of Associated Free State, 48% voted to join the US as a state and only 4% voted for independence. To summarize: 96% agree with the status (in one form or another) and only 4% do not. When they have taken later surveys among the population, 90% are in agreement with the current status and only 10% are not.

The reasons are understandable: the country has never had dictators, nor fratricidal fights, having enjoyed for decades a tranquil social climate and economic development. Besides keeping its flag, anthem and language (Spanish is mostly spoken but also English), its customs, culture, etc., and sharing also those of North America, they possess the same rights as North Americans because they have had US nationality since 1917, including the passport; they can live on the island or in any state of the Union, enjoying a first class health and education system, as well as Social Security.

That’s why, when some clueless person presents in the United Nations the topic of the decolonization of Puerto Rico, many look surprised and ask: How to decolonize someone who does not want to be decolonized, because they do not feel that way? Absurdities of some countries’ foreign policy, where ideology prevails instead of reason. Puerto Ricans of all political stripes have demonstrated that, respecting each other,people can live in peace and successfully develop a country achieving well-being for the majority without social upheavals or violent acts. They make a good example to follow. In November this year they will realize a new referendum to determine democratically what political relationship with the United States their inhabitants wish. Let’s await the results!

Translated by mlk

July 8 2012

EFE with the Cuban News of the Year / Dora Leonor Mesa

For decades the extinct Microbrigades Company of the City of Havana, today Group GECAL, has caused our family deep sorrow and anguish as a consequence of its creation of a warehouse in our backyard. My daughters avoid using the bath and looking out the windows. The usual threats of damage to our property and dispossession of our backyard are real. The mental torture and intimidation continue, we are a mere incident.

Cuba promises in the UN that it will authorize the visit by the inspector on torture.

Geneva, June 1 (EFE). — Cuba has committed today to the members of the UN Committee on Torture to authorize the visit of a special investigator from the United Nations for this matter, Juan Mendez, whose predecessor tried for years without success to get authorization to visit the Caribbean island.

The lawyer and member of the committee, Fernando Mariño, told EFE that the Cuban delegates, participating in the session in which the case of their country was examined, “have committed to arrange a visit” of the current investigator, although they did not specify a date.

If this happens, “there would be an independent and competent international organ that could travel anywhere there are detainees and would report independently about what is taking place there,” he noted.

For Cuba it would mean showing “that there is no political fear to submitting to oversight by outside agencies.”

Additionally, the Committee on Torture expressed concern in its report today about the continuing complaints of arbitrary, brief detentions in Cuba of political opponents, human rights activists and independent journalists.

Cuba has denied that there has been an increase of arrests of this kind without legal authorization.

“It has to do with detaining a person for 24 or 48 hours, then letting him go, but without having taken any legal action, not even by the prosecutor. This is a form of quick political harassment,” explained Mariño.

Contrary to claims by the government in Havana,Mariño said that “it seems that (the practice of brief detentions) has lately become widespread.”

In another section of its report, the group of experts from the UN also complains of the use of “ambiguous criminal laws,” among which it cited “pre-criminal societal danger.”

In this way it justifies “restrictions on freedom of association, invasive surveillance operations, physical aggression, and other acts of intimidation and harassment presumably committed by agents of the National Revolutionary Police and members of the State Security Agency.”

Likewise, it mentions with concern the reports of “acts of repudiation” which continue to take place in front of the dwellings of the members of the so-called “Ladies in White” and the Patriotic Union of Cuba.

The committee expressed regret over “the reticence” of the State to present complete information about the incidents and “about the means taken to avoid these kinds of coordinated actions in which the presumed connivance between the harassers and the police authorities is noted,” says the report.

It also mentions the “lack of detailed data about complaints, investigations, prosecutions and convictions in cases of torture and mistreatment, as well as cases of murder in custody.”

On this topic Cuba noted during the session that the committee had indicated that no case of death in detention during the period studied was determined to be the responsibility of the officials in charge of custody and that no autopsy revealed signs of physical violence.

In response to this position, the committee pointed out that Cuba has not provided statistical information about the causes of those deaths.

It mentions that, according to the “limited information” that it has received between 2010 and 2011, they found 202 deaths in the penitentiary system, a figure it considers “elevated.” EFE

Translated by mlk

June 19 2012

The Cuban Government Before the Committee Against Torture / Dora Leonor Mesa

By Miriam Leiva, Havana 06/07/2012

Extracted from www.cubaencuentro.com

Cuban authorities for more than nine years avoided the analysis of their violations of human rights in the United Nations Committee on Torture; a period that coincides with the uprising of March 2003, when it subjected 75 peaceful protesters to summary trials and shot three young boat hijackers — who caused no bloodshed themselves –as well as the deaths of political prisoners Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar Mendoza on hunger strike, and it maintains strong repression over many members of civil Cuban society.

The 48th Session of the Committee analyzed the report presented by the Cuban Government the 22nd and 23rd of May, fulfilling its commitment as a State that is party to the Convention against Torture and Other Agreements or Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Punishments (which it subscribed to in 1987 and the National Assembly ratified in 1995). On June 1 the Committee against Torture issued its Final Observations. The Cuban authorities always have denied the use of torture, in reference to the notable physical evidence, but the concept is much wider.

Article 1 of the Convention specifies that “’torture’ is any act by which serious pain or suffering, whether physical or mental,is intentionally inflicted n a person with the goal of getting information or a confession from him or a third person, punishing him for an act he may have committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing that person or others, or for whatever reason based on whatever kind of discrimination, when said pain and suffering is inflicted by a public official or other person in the exercise of public duties, at his instigation or with his consent or approval.”

The Committee against Torture is composed of 10 independent experts, proposed by the countries, but they work in their personal capacity. Their work is to supervise the application of the Convention by the states that are parties to it, which must present periodic reports and respond to questions about the complaints received, as well as take part in the meeting of the Committee for the consideration of the reports. It meets in Geneva twice a year, and on this occasion they analyzed Albania, Armenia, Canada, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Greece, Rwanda, and Syria.

As verified  the reports of the international press agencies, the rapporteurs Nora Sveaass and Fernando Marino Menendez, together with other experts, analyzed the Report and referred in detail to the well documented complaints received. On May 22 and the next day, the Cuban delegation rejected all the accusations.

The Cuban deputy prosecutor Rafael Pino Becquer argued that between 2007 and 2011, 263 complaints of mistreatment in places of detention were answered,by reason of which “46 agents of the security forces were held criminally responsible.” He said that all the complaints about mistreatment were false, denied the existence of overcrowded jails, and said that there had not been a single prison death that could be blamed on the authorities. With regards to the human rights activists’ situation, he repeated the Government’s traditional falsehoods that they “cannot be qualified under that concept, according to the precepts of the UN” because their actions”. . . seek to destroy the internal order of Cuba (. . .) in the service and under the direction of a foreign power. In Cuba, the authentic defenders of human rights are protected. No one in our country has been persecuted or sanctioned for exercising his rights, including those of free expression and association.”

“. . . they look to destroy the internal order of Cuba (…) in the service and under the direction of a foreign power. In Cuba, the authentic defenders of human rights are protected. No one in our country has been persecuted or sanctioned for exercising his rights, including those of free expression and association.”

About the concept of danger, he expressed that it is applied by independent judges under the rules of due process in accord with sufficient proof,”and certainly not because of the political beliefs of the individuals. There only exist detentions under the rules of due process for a citizen or a group that wants to alter the public order, “and certainly not because of political beliefs of individuals. There only exist properly registered detentions for a citizen or a group that wants to alter the public order.”

The document “Final Observations” from the Committee begins showing that the Periodic Report presented by Cuba, more than nine years late, does not fully conform to the established guidelines, and regrets that some of the questions were not answered. It reiterated the recommendation of 1997 that defined the crime of torture in domestic law,as contained in Article 1 of the Convention.

“Final Observations” recommended that all detainees should be guaranteed all of the fundamental judicial rights; that the necessary measures are adopted so that prison conditions meet the UN’s Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Inmates; that diet and sanitary and medical resources are improved; that communication between relatives and a lawyer is guaranteed; that any cruel, inhumane or degrading punishments, such as solitary confinement in deplorable conditions, be completely prohibited.

The Committee raised concern about the legal ambiguity of former prisoners under “parole,” and confirmed the reports received about the arbitrary restrictions of their personal liberty and free movement. It also exposed the need to modify the provisions of the Penal Code regarding pre-criminal social dangerousness, “an ambiguous criminal offense.”

Among otherissues traditionally rejected by the Government of Cuba, the Committee suggested the ratification of the Optional Protocol of the Convention in order to create a system of periodic visits by national and international observers without prior notice, designed to prevent torture or inhumane and degrading punishments, and reiterated its previous recommendation that non-governmental human rights organizations be permitted entry into the country, and to cooperate with them in the identification of cases of torture and mistreatment. It also expressed serious reservations about the three last executions of death sentences, after summary proceedings, carried out April 11, 2003, and called for the examination of the abolition of the death penalty.

The committee started that the State Party should guarantee the impartial and exhaustive investigation without delay of all the deaths of detainees, and the monitoring and adequate medical treatment of detainees who declare hunger strikes. It demonstrated concern because significant changes have not been produced in the judicial system since the presentation of its initial report in 1997, particularly the lack of independence of the executive and legislative powers. It recommended a guarantee with respect to the Basic Principles of Lawyers; called for the end of repression with arbitrary detentions or the application of pre-criminal security measures against political opponents, human rights defenders and activists, independent journalists and other actors of civil society who put themselves and their families at risk.

The Committee sought to guarantee that everyone be protected from the intimidation and violence to which the simple exercise of their freedoms of opinion and expression and rights of association and peaceful assembly could expose them, as well as to authorize enrollment in the Register of National Associations of non-governmental human rights organizations that apply for it. Also, it invited the ratification of fundamental treaties of human rights, in particular the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights, the International Pact of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and others.

In Cuba the achievement of this session of analysis has not be published,almost certainly the Government will default on the recommendation to widely disseminate through official news media and non-governmental organizations the report presented to the Committee and its final observations. In any case, one can expect repression of the opposition NGOs that divulge it.

Mr. Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur against torture, could not carry out the invitation to visit Cuba in 2009, the Committee urged repeating it to his successor, Juan E. Mendez. The Cuban government representative stated that he is reconsidering a visit, even though he “had no faith in the sources of information used by the Committee.”

Let us remember the initial illusion of Mr. Nowak, who ended up with a total disappointment, because they gave him excuses and changed the dates of each of his proposed trips, evidently due to his statement that he proposed to visit prisons without prior warning and meet with all Cubans. Now his successor, Mr. Juan E. Mendez, 67, an Argentinian jailed for 18 months during the military dictatorship of the 70’s, could expect a similar situation, above all after the detailed display of the repressive methods of the Government against the Cuban people.

Translated by mlk

June 19 2012

OUR SHARE OF REPRESSION FOR THE VISIT OF BENEDICT XVI / Mario Barroso

The 103rd Annual Assembly of the Baptist Association of Western Cuba, to which I belong, concluded Saturday the 24th at 6:00pm. That was why my wife Yoaxis and I found ourselves in Havana from the Monday before, the 19th of March, separated from our two girls and from the churches in which we work in the center of the island.  Nevertheless the news that arrived from there was not very promising for our return.  Because of the visit of Benedict XVI something inconceivable was launched throughout Cuba: a true human hunt that trapped as common criminals and fearsome terrorists peaceful people who simply worried about the deplorable human rights situation in their nation.  Detained friends, whole families fenced in, telephones cut off, people disappeared; this was the news we got, and it was really happening behind the scenes in contrast with the striking order on the plazas where the Pope said mass.  In such a situation and assuming that some of these repressive variants or several at once could befall us, we decided to stay in the capital against all risk.

We planned as varied as possible an itinerary that on one hand would keep us moving constantly without any fixed site and that on the other hand offered us the possibility of carrying out advantageous activities in the midst of true secrecy.  One of the most outstanding moments was the religious service we participated in on the Havana Malecon with the street church Victory Reach that as part of the international ministry Victory Outreach rescues treasures in the midst of such darkness.

In our very own pilgrimage, giving time for the Pope to leave, and trying to survive without being captured, at nightfall on Tuesday the 27th, we went to the home of a fellow pastor who took great pains in preparing a tasty supper that we shared in lively fashion with his family in his house full of neighborhood children as they prepared for what they call a night of sleepover, completely outside the presence of a Pope in Cuba.

As part of our rigorous schedule we did not permit ourselves to stay more than three hours in the same place and from the house of our brothers in faith we planned to move to an unfixed point on the Havana Malecon from which we could try to contemplate the presence of the other Cuba that also desired to be present amidst so much euphoria, that of the diaspora, through a self ordained Lights of Liberty, that like the other realized in December on the eve of the International Day of Human Rights, would greet Cubans sequestered on this prison island through fireworks.

The supper was almost finished when they knocked on the door of the apartment in which we found ourselves.  It was the State Security, through two of its agents, who had found us and explicitly prohibited my wife and me from participating the next day in the mass that Benedict XVI would offer on the Plaza of the Revolution.

We explained to them that our presence in Havana after concluding the 103rd Annual Assembly of the Baptist Convention was not principally due to our desire to participate in said mass, but to avoid this repression that now finally made itself present here.  Evidently the order that the agents brought was to detain us both, as they were doing with hundreds of others.

The brother that welcomed us and his family all gathered at the door and prevented the detention by expressing to the agents that they were in the best position to offer us their home for the night and to watch the mass together the next day on television.  The agents, a little perturbed by the atmosphere of peace and harmony that was clearly observed, and which in a certain manner they had interrupted, told us that as far as they were concerned, there was no problem, but they had to consult higher authorities.

Asking me to accompany them alone to the stairs of the building, which I did without resisting, prepared for the ordained arrest, the only one of the two agents who the whole time made use of words left me alone a moment in the custody of the other and made a call, I suppose to the command center of the operation, and after receiving confirmation expressed to me that they accepted my presence in that house from which I could not move while they maintained surveillance.

So it was that we spent a fun night of sleepover in the home of our beloved brothers in faith while the agents kept watch.  I cannot count how many there were in total, but do affirm that there were many more than the two who showed their faces.  Something that powerfully called our attention is that the kind of transport they used possessed private license plates (rather than the plates identifying their vehicles as government cars) and included at a minimum two modern, white cars and another green one, plus a Suzuki motorcycle which could not be missed.

Our share of repression for the visit of Benedict XVI, in spite of everything, was not among the highest.  Just before returning from Havana an abject group of all the repressed joined us in the house of a young independent film maker, Ismael de Diego, grandson of the great man of Cuban letters, Eliseo Diego, who also was victim, and there we found out about the infinity of all kinds of abuses, even taking into account that we who met that afternoon of Thursday the 29th constituted the most fortunate as was demonstrated by the fact that we had been able to get there even with our telephones not working.

The great majority of those excluded and repudiated found themselves distant and handcuffed in provinces like ours, where commonly repression is greater and unpunished.  As a result of our meeting we agreed on a document of denunciation that we signed and delivered to the Apostolic Nuncio by means of the Catholic priest Jose Conrado, present among us, also with his cell phone cut off, who dedicated words to us that expressed his profound regret for what had happened to all of us as part of the papal visit.

If anything, the Cuban visit by Benedict XVI showed that the brutal repression within Cuba, and very alarmingly it seems for many in the world also, is seen now as a normal and tolerable phenomenon, very typical of a System considered unworkable even by its own actors, but which nevertheless is granted recognition and consent.

This time the exaggerated operation, coinciding with the fifth-third anniversary of the repressive organs of the State Security, has been baptized as the Vow of Silence, and undoubtedly constitutes the biggest exercise of this type that has taken place since the Black Spring of 2003, and many senses it is only as the preamble of future repressions through which there could very well be, in contrast with this, victims who are never found again.

Let us pray and work to prevent in Cuba a possible bloodbath so typical of decadent regimes like this one.  A peaceful transition to an authentic democracy, as perfectible as it may be, constitutes an issue of survival for many in the middle of a growing, dangerous impunity.

Translated by mlk

April 5 2012

In Defense of the Hustlers / Dora Leonor Mesa

Vices come like travelers; they visit us as guests, and stay as masters.
Confucius

In the old East Germany where I worked years ago as a German translator, I learned,through snobbery,top level cooking in a five star hotel. Later in Cuba, in my debut as a mother, I should have chosen between a promising professional career or resigning myself to being mother and wife. After choosing the longest road, I “got” the title of cook with an European experience, so I could get good jobs, those that pay in convertible currency (C.U.C.) and create on our humble table a culinary culture that would make us proud, in spite of the daily difficulties.

In one of my experiences as cook, a known painter for whom I worked sarcastically called me the English Lady. When I asked him why, his answer perplexed me:

“You cook very well, and you don’t steal or ask questions.”

The saddest thing about the situation is that after changing jobs, because of my employer’s return to his country, my excellent references did not avoid initial suspicions. You often found the house full of garments, another day, delicacies everywhere, sometimes money in unexpected places, “forgotten” digital equipment. . . In the end the favorable judgment, far from being flattering, is embarrassing: We Cubans, at least for some time now, have acquired fame as thieves, hustlers. . .

The controversial issue about the shameful reputation of Cuban as thieves and hustlers is real. You just have to read from time to time the weekly sections of Letters to the Editor of the Granma and the Juventud Rebelde newspapers. Passengers on the public bus avoid paying the fare. There are even citizens who steal electricity or domestic gas. In the stores you can find a cracked toilet bowl for $25 CUC (“La Especial” of Infanta) in a country with an average salary of $20 dollars. And in the farmer’s market, pretending to forget the price and the weight of the products on sale is the best strategy.

The country’s important companies, among them ETECSA, Enterprise of Telecommunications of Cuba, have legalized rapacity: exorbitant rates, discriminatory service. A different kettle of fish is the National Electrical Union, responsible for supplying electrical service to the nation and thus to the residential sector. Frequently, the Cuban magazine Bohemia explains in detail how to read the electric meter and make payment calculations according to the prevailing price rates.

For years my maternal grandmother kept her payment receipts (I do it, too). This habit helped us to discover how the household consumption’s numerical trends rose disproportionately even before the months of highest spending, Christmas holidays, vacations in August. The Company defended itself saying that consumption increases with an increased demand for electricity. Nevertheless, the actual analyzed data do not coincide with those of the receipt. With an Excel table and a simple statistical analysis you saw that the variations were significantly unequal yearly.

Sometimes we had problems with the “electricity” collectors thanks to our valuable table, which predicted when they would try to charge more. On top of that, we had to complain in the municipal billing office several times, where, it is fair to say, they still receive their clients in a friendly way, the bundle of payment receipts from several years, this “weapon”, had to be present, the actual readings and the table of statistical fact on Excel, printed with the pertinent data and graphics.

In our house we had no high-consuming new equipment or air conditioning, but the same two old refrigerators as always, responsible for the increased domestic electrical expense. We never changed them for the new Chinese appliances proposed by the State, very small and expensive. Apparently, there were some adjustments in the Electric Union. For some reason the current cost of domestic electricity is more reasonable.

Payment date / Amount in Cuban pesos

January 2009 $84.40          August 2009 $157.65

January 2010 $71.00           August 2010 $171.20

January 2011 $56.00           August 2011 $137.30

January 2012 $54.80

The Manufactured Gas Company has a history in our family. The charge for gas is really moderate (100 cubic meters cost 11 Cuban pesos, about $0.50), but we have little luck. We had a gas collector who, little by little, began to bring us the bill without the payment stamp, and the consumption readings did not correspond with what appeared on the receipt. Upon confronting her, she arrogantly told us that she was a “cutting edge worker,” that is to say, the best employee.

The first time I went to ask the Provincial Company of Manufactured Gas about the collection procedure, God was with me that day; the director of our corresponding office was there. In front of the clerks of the Office of Customer Service, she highlighted the “efficient collection work” and put into question the quality of my humble stove:

“That is not why! I too spend more than 11 pesos, but by leaving it burning. . .”

After the interview, normalcy returned. Nevertheless we detected that the value of the bill was always the same. The bridge collapsed when the collector told my oldest daughter:

“The next bill will come higher.”

In the rain, for the second time, I approached the Office of Costumer Service of the Provincial Company with all the paraphernalia of several years of payment. A clerk, Jorge L. Galban, compromised to investigate the case. He visited our house, reviewed the gas meter and soon after that, in the month of January, as compensation we did not have to pay the monthly bill. Our bills were being reported as if we had a broken meter.

Eighteen months later, another gas collector appears. The reading of the month of June did not coincide with the real one, the consumption climbed again without excuses. The payment receipts returned with the date of the reading without changes. I tried to convince the worker about the anomaly. I made him come into the kitchen to corroborate the reading of the meter. In truth, three pesos is nothing; we are just a mass, people. Why not clients?

Thousands of Cubans fled over the ocean, so they could feel they are treated as persons. Some made it. Others rest in the ocean. Bryan, my nephew, lives among the fish. I am sure he is happy, surrounded by freedom and beauty. We decided to stay in Cuba. We really like the idea of thinking and acting like people with rights. Previously the boss at the Gas office rejected criticisms from her exemplary collector. An announcer from a television show recommends:

“Follow the path of money.”

“Perfect. Anti-scoundrel clients, FORWARD!”

Translated by mlk

June 12 2012

Violence / Rebeca Monzo

Patchwork by R. Monzo

Much is publicized, even by the United Nations, about Cuba being one of the countries where less violence exists. It is true that we do not have wars or drug trafficking. But what is undeniable, in spite of the fact that the national press does not speak of it, is the domestic violence, like other kinds of violence carried out, due to many reasons.

Recently there occurred a lamentably bloody event, among members of a sector that is supposed to be cultured and refined. The media have not reported anything about it, but now it is popular knowledge, the crime perpetrated by one of the most outstanding musicians of the Philharmonic Orchestra, a young cellist,ranked among the best in the country.

Rumor has it that she had been a victim, like so many other musicians of the despotism with which the Director General of the Amadeo Roldan Complex,Mr. Chorens used to treat them. It seems that the straw that broke the camel’s back was the denial of a trip abroad,highly anticipated by this virtuoso of strings. Expressing her indignation on learning of the refusal, she made public among his companions, the vengeance that he was going to perpetrate: I am going to hurt him where it hurts most, she said.

She went to the house of the Director, knowing that the director’s mother would be there alone, and finished her off with a blade, repeatedly stabbing her until she died.

This is only one example of the many acts of violence that are practiced daily in our country, and about which the media never report.

There is a lot of contained hatred and frustration, any incident can be the trigger to make them explode with the same fury as a volcano expelling the lava contained in its interior. No one talks about it. The worst is that like everything kept hidden, no one is careful, especially not foreigners, who are sold the line about the safest tourist destination.

As long as the press is not free and transparent, we are going to be believe that we are living in a true paradise. I do not like the “police blotter,” but I also do not agree with hiding the news, that one way or another affects us all. Nor am I going to become a spokesman for the same, but this event has upset the artistic sector and still nothing has been published about it.

Translated by mlk

June 10 2012

Project Plapliplo Teacher: Agent of Internal Change / Dora Leonor Mesa

A change that has affected me personally has been the creation of the Cuban Association for the Development of Child Education, referred to hereafter by its initials ACDEI, founded as an association on September 22, 2010. Previously it was treated as a community project called Plapliplo, with students from primary education.

One of the essential objectives of project Plapliplo was to raise the educational quality of low income children. The project aimed to become a base of support for the Official System of Primary Education in the community. It began with pre-school through sixth grade, although in practice it began successfully from first grade through fourth. On that student level, the student body had acquired sufficient abilities to be able to continue its studies without the help of the project. As a teacher, my relationship was limited to that existing between teacher, family and student. The activities were very heart warming and my task was dedicated but much simpler than what came later. The changes introduced in the project may be simplified in the following way: a new focus on how to impart lessons and create the independence necessary in the student body so that it is capable of assuming new academic and social roles.

I must mention that it was not simple to demolish the barriers that are within some Cuban parents in order to achieve what appears to be a good attitude towards the change in teaching strategy. It required an effort of all those involved, the students, their families and me. At the end of four years I discovered that my work had been monitored by education managers of municipalities of the capital. It was simultaneously a surprise and joy; I knew that inside of the group there were parents opposed to the changes although they continued in the project to the end.

No education officials could object to the lessons I imparted and the dosage used; from the beginning I focused on the official program of instruction, and the only thing that I did was change the strategy of the same with the use of technological resources. The families of the students were involved in the introduction of the changes because they had the right to participate in order to feel valued and to take on their commitment with greater pleasure.

I quickly identified the resisters in order to direct efforts especially towards them. I communicated constantly with everyone but in particular with those most distrustful. I was understanding before their fears and firm at the same time. I knew better than they what I was confronting. I always consulted other teachers and was enriched by their experiences. Debates perfect daily work; no teacher should fear them.

Translated by mlk

January 17 2012