From the Blog “Resilient Youth: In the Collective Intelligence is the Power of Society” / Reyner Aguero

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Reyner Aguero

On the afternoon of May 14 a meeting was held at the University of Camaguey with students and teachers, led by former G2  agents along with other higher level officials from Cuban Counterintelligence.

All this focused on the issue of ideological subversion with the objective of showing the students supposed CIA cables leaked to G2, to try to counter the discontent and the new mentality that is taking hold of young people in the face of the current political-social situation in the country.

I was invited to this event so that, in some way, the information presented would influence my ideas and political positions taken in recent years.

Something that is intolerable and never tolerable is how they criticize, demonize and mock great people (among these there is a major emphasis on Yoani Sanchez, Antonio Rodilies and Eliecer Avila) without giving them the chance to enter into an open debate, and denying the public the chance to decide which arguments they believe and which they don’t.

I would like to touch on so many other topics, but the inequality of the coalitions obliges me to be precise in the face of an action so hugely unjust. Simply touching on the topic of plurality, of the right of the accused to defend themselves in public, and also to criticize. This action generated a series of controversies some of which are expressed in my Twitter account (@reyneraguero1).

As with everything, something useful comes from all this. I confront a fear I  had never before thought I had the courage to face. Among the arguments, many found reason in my words to the point that a dean (a  woman Doctor), after expressing that “Cuban and the universities must be only for the Revolutionaries,” recognized her failure to express the maxim of Jose Marti, “With all and for the good of all.”

Then she defended my right to take part (in a particular way), and in the form of a harangue cried that they never should have expelled me from the university. The applause of the crowd followed, apparently unaware that I had been prohibited from studying in my country.

Later different people took the floor but with very little chance to respond to them. However, I was more satisfied than ever for having launched my grain of sand in the Plural Cuba that so many of us want to build.

(Forgive the editing errors for lack of time and connection problems.)

Reyner Aguero (@ reyneraguero1) / Juventud Resiliente

25 May 2013