Translating Cuba

What does the voice of Henrique Capriles sound like? A neighbor asked me a few days ago. I didn’t know whether to tell him it was high-pitched or deep, soft or forceful, because the Cuban media is careful not to air it. Instead, we only have the opportunity to hear the agitated shouts of Hugo Chavez, the verbal attacks he throws at his young opponent. So this morning we saw the leader, who has been in power for 13 years, celebrating his new electoral triumph. It’s clear than a new six-year term for him is a guarantee of survival for the government in Havana.

Raul Castro’s government had too much invested in the Venezuelan elections on October 7. He could have lost the irreplaceable support of his most devoted ally. The Venezuelan subsidy has allowed the General President to implement, slowing and in a lukewarm way, changes that constrict the economic sphere. But this type of dependency, once established, ends up becoming a chronic situation. Neither through offering farmers the ability to lease land in usufruct, nor the expansion of licenses for self-employment, has Cuban managed to take its first steps towards material autonomy nor economic sovereignty. More than a circumstance, the need for external subsidy is the core of the Castro regime, the direct result of its inability to successfully manage the national economy. We can’t forget the voluminous support sent from the Kremlin… now replaced by the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. Once again a blank check has been signed over to the Plaza of the Revolution, for six more years.

Fifty-four percent of Venezuelans have ratified Hugo Chavez as leader of their country, and Raul’s regime has some breathing room. But the great polarization in Simon Bolivar’s fatherland will make it more difficult to publicly sustain the maintenance of Cuba. Havana’s government I looking ahead to complicated months. The election in Venezuela has been the first in a cycle of three elections that will influence, to a greater or lesser extent, our national life. The presidential election in the United States follows immediately in the list of electoral processes that lie ahead. Mitt Romney has promised a heavy hand with the Cuban authorities, but Barack Obama could also be very corrosive to the Cuban system if he deepens his policy of family, academic and cultural approaches.

The first five-year term of Raul Castro will end in February 2013. Few are betting that he’s thinking of retiring to make way for a younger figure. These elections, the third that await us in the coming months, are also the last in importance and in generating expectations. The process of nominating People’s Power delegates and installing them in the National Assembly has already begun, and this body will approve the nominations to the Council of State. If the Venezuelan results have decided whether we are granted billions in subsidies, and our relationship with our powerful neighbor to the north is in play in those elections, the Cuban elections smell strongly of a play whose script is already written. We don’t even need surveys or voter polls. There is no possibility of surprises.

9 October 2012

By: Ignacio Estrada Cepero, Independent Journalist. [Note from Translating Cuba: The strike discussed here was successful and is now over… our apologies for not translating this article sooner.]

Havana, Cuba: In a press conference the leading dissident Lic. Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello explained her decision to begin a hunger strike on last Monday, September 10th.

According to the economist, this hunger strike’s main objective is to obtain Jorge Vázquez Chaviano’s immediate release from prison. Chaviano is serving a sentence in the high-security prison La Alambrada located at 9 km from the town of Manacas, municipality of Santo Domingo, in the Villa Clara province.

During the conference, Roque Cabello presented evidence, in the form of several filed case documents reviewed by the organization “Network of Community Communicators,” a group she presides over, that Vázquez Chaviano was supposed to be freed last Sunday, September 9.

During her appearance, the well-known dissident also addressed other issues, particularly with respect to the ongoing actions against Human Rights (HR) activists and Cuba’s internal opposition groups carried out by the State Security, actions that violate the socialist state’s laws. Roque Cabello gave several examples such as police raids, surveillance, the retention of identity cards, arbitrary detentions, as well as other violations like the forced entries into Human Rights activists’ homes, planned arson, and the demolition of homes as some of the most recent cases.

Marta Beatriz, who is 67 and has diabetes, expressed that she will not accept any kind of medical assistance offered by the government during the hunger strike, tube feeding and resuscitation included. During the protest, a group of women will stay with her at home and provide live information about her health.

A group of 11 people from all around the country, among them opposition leader and ex political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) has joined Beatriz Roque in the hunger strike.

Among the strikers, the most worrisome health conditions are those of Idania Yánez Contreras of “Coalición Central Opositora”, who moved to Havana to support Roque Cabello, and dissidents Alberto Reyes Morales and Luis Enrique Santo Caballero, both with one kidney, who remain on strike at the home of Damaris Moya in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba.

Below are the names of the people currently on hunger strike.
Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello (Havana)
Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez)  (Placetas, Villa Clara)
Alberto Reyes Morales (Santa Clara)
Yosmel Martínez Corcho (Santa Clara)
Luis Enrique Santo Caballero (Santa Clara)
Jorge Vázquez Chaviano (“Alambrada” Prison, Manacas, Villa Clara)
Yerandy Martínez Rodríguez (“La Pendiente” Prison, Santa Clara)
Orlando Almenares Reyes (“Canaleta Prison”, Ciego de Ávila)
Luis Enrique Pons Sánchez (“Canaleta Prison”, Ciego de Ávila)
Roverley Villalobo Torres (“Canaleta Prison”, Ciego de Ávila)
Israel Robert Isaac (“Canaleta Prison”, Ciego de Ávila)
Yuniel Álvarez García (“Canaleta Prison”, Ciego de Ávila)

 Translated by Eduardo Alemán

September 12 2012

The decline in tourism in Havana is inescapable in these bleak images.

While the official media speculates about the growth in tourism to the largest of the Antilles, the reality in Havana is very distant to that in past years when innumerable foreign delegations visited.

Commenting by word of mouth, traders and restaurant staff repeat it to their friends. One of these restaurant staff attracted my attention and obliged me by offering a tour this past Sunday of some of the places most frequented by foreign visitors.

The tour started in the central area of near the Capitol, and later continued walking along Obispo, the Plaza de San Francisco, the old Plaza de Armes, and then the Cathedral. I finished the grueling walk in Chinatown, witnessing in reality the decadence or the little tourism that exists in the Cuban capital, to which we can add the number of vacant stores.

There is a sculpture on permanent display in Havana in the patio of the old St. Francis of Assisi Convent called The Silent Table, a work of an unknown artist, but on seeing these images one might suggest that they create a new work called: The Empty Table.

October 1 2012

The constant appearance of micro trash dumps on Havana’s streets is one of the reasons the Aedes Aegypti mosquito — carrier of dengue fever — cannot be eradicated.

Despite the fickle efforts of the Ministry of Public Health and the authorities of the Municipalities in the capital of the country. The eradication of micro trash dumps and the proliferation of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito are from completion. So the increase in detected cases of Dengue Fever is something still unexplained in the official media.

The micro trash dumps are created as a result of lack collection of solid waste and contaminates. To which you can add the irregular hours of collection and in many cases the lack of vehicles for treating and transporting the trash.

Recently, the authorities have been forced to deal with these micro trash dumps by joining forces with other official entities.

A neighbor of the place where I took these photos, on learning where they would be published, whispered to me, “Brother, Havana is no longer ’The Capital of All Cubans.’ Now it’s ’The Capital of Trash.’”

October 1 2012

In past articles I have addressed the art of mimes in Havana, with great respect. Today I bow to them again and applaud those who develop with such professionalism in our streets.

The mimes recreate personalities from the Wild West, from musical spectaculars, artists, musicians and even composers. Now of all those I’ve seen before I’ve been most impressed by the way the character has been recreated on our streets today of the well-known Caballero de Paris.

It seems as if the man sculpted in bronze has come alive and walks among us. Kids, teenagers, young and old, everyone stops to look at him and listen to his stories, taken from different places and chivalrous adventures. I saw him give flowers made from cut up magazines and dried plant leaves. I can assure that it feels like being with the such a prodigious man who enchants Havana today, with one of the most beautiful stories.

I murmured while standing there looking at him and taking these photos that today I share with each one of you. Welcome back to the streets that have always been yours, great Caballero de Paris — our own Knight of Paris.

October 1 2012

We’re already used to perceiving the interrogation tactic of “good cop, bad cop,” so it’s only natural that those of us who are usually on the other side of the questioning think of duplicating the method.

On October 4 at around 5:30 in the afternoon an impressive police operation stopped us at the entrance to the city of Bayamo to prevent us from attending the trial of Angel Carromero. Yoani Sanchez, Agustin Lopez and I had crossed the 500 miles that separated us from Havana in a Moskovich make car. We suspected they wouldn’t let us enter the courtroom, but we didn’t think we merited the deployment of forces with which they intercepted us.

Yoani and Agustin have already told their stories. Yoani chose to clam up like an oyster, neither responding to questions nor taking food or water. She was the bad prisoner, impenetrable. I chose instead to respond, to drink fluids and, although I wasn’t on a hunger strike, I refused food (white rice and a chicken leg) simply because I had no appetite.

An investigating officer who introduced himself as Captain Céspedes (What a coincidence, a Céspedes in Bayamo!) let me know that I was under investigation for the presumed crime of “defamation of the heroes and martyrs of the Revolution,” which I later learned is really called “Defamation of institutions and organizations and of heroes and martyrs,” as defined in Article 204 of the Penal code.

I will not relate here all the dialog verbatim, just my impressions. The most notable was that, according to what my interrogator hinted at, his opinions about us were not based on information provided as evidence, nor on the reports of experts, but by what he had learned through “enemy propaganda” that had been divulged in the official Cuban media. Full of good faith as I am, I suppose that this officer, a serious, respectful and meticulous man, could not reveal the real results of the investigations because if he had we could not have been processed.

Another interesting detail is that when I was explaining the reason for our presence in Bayamo I told the investigator that the newspaper Granma (which never lies?) had published that the trial would be oral and public, so we had the right as citizens to attend. Cespedes responded that this did not include counterrevolutionaries. I couldn’t resist the temptation and argued that when Cuban decriminalizes political dissent it would not be possible to stop a citizen from attending a trial previously announced as oral and public.

With the firmness that is used to state one’s deepest convictions, my interlocutor warned me as follows: “We will never permit the counterrevolution to do what it wants.” In my role as the good prisoner I clarified that luckily it would not be them who would be governing the country and that the day this decision happened he would have to obey the order, as befits a soldier.

Then he let me sleep on a single bed with a foam mattress in a room with air conditioning and at noon on the 5th we returned to the capital in a minibus that traveled escorted by police cars sounding their sirens from Bayamo all the way to Guanabacoa.

Arriving in front of the building where we live, Yoani, the bad prisoner, shot out like greased lightning and went up the elevator. Once in the lobby, after returning to me my confiscated belonging, I said goodbye to the other officer who came to the front of the caravan. “I’m sorry I cannot thank you,” I said, “we would have preferred to return another way and you have hindered us.”

The Moskovich made another journey, but that is related by Dekaisone.

8 October 2012

The re-opening of the Johnson Drugstore is a fact, for a several weeks now.

For those who walk down the central Obispo Street in Old Havana it’s a wonder to find such an important place rejuvenated after several years The architecture is the same as in yesteryear according to connoisseurs of this urban area. But others establish credibility by referring to the fact that it was a true drugstore before the coming to power in 1959 of the one who annoys everyone.

The truth is, the knobs on display according to one of the staff are the same as used before, with the only difference that now they are solely decorative. But it’s not the only difference, the drugstore is not the site of the Cuban Pharmacology Museum and now the products sold in the place are only available in hard currency, CUCs, a money whose value is 25 times that of the official peso.

Now the reopening of what was the most prestigious pharmacy of its era only causes a lot of talk among Cubans and is a constant witness to the institutionalized apartheid of the Caribbean island.

October 1 2012

Yesterday was an exhausting day. From very early I was awaiting messages from anywhere at all regarding the electoral process in Venezuela. Cuban television and radio didn’t do me any good, because all they broadcast all day was slogans and this that and the other detail about the movements and statements of Chavez, along with guests and observers from the left.

The ability to constantly be updated and compare information possessed by the whole world continues to be a key indicator measuring the degree of the ever greater isolation of the Cuban people. For our neighbors, people always presented as examples of those who are worse off, it’s now normal for them to follow on the internet, through the social networks and millions of websites, blogs etc., all the relevant events on the planet.

It’s useless for Cuba to have an immense number of professionals, intellectuals, students and a generally “cultured” people, if the leadership of the State considers that “we are not prepared to access the free flow of information that is enjoyed by the civilized and democratic world of today.” Although it is not the people who are not ready, it is them.

With great disappointment, as usual, I watched how they interrupted the live broadcast from TeleSur (for the “Special Review” following the Venezuelan elections from Cuba) when it was announced that Capriles was going to speak. With nothing planned, the two Cuban commentators, like grotesque puppets, had to fill the time with clumsy words and rebroadcasts of the same material several times throughout the day, because someone had to be assured ahead of time that everything was perfect before airing a tiny edited piece of the words of the candidate who opposed the candidate favored by Havana.

It is extremely disrespectful, to say nothing of journalistic ethics which don’t exist, that throughout this campaign the Cuban people never heard a single word directly from the mouth of Chavez’s contender. It would seem that for the press of this country there were not several presidential candidates in Venezuela, but only one, just like here.

The people of Venezuela themselves heard both of them, in Cuba we saw, heard and read only one. And the worst of it is that this happens with absolutely everything, and no one in the structure of the State says a single word.

Is that honesty? Is this what they invite me to believe in when they say the future? I know that nobody in this country likes to be treated as stupid, as a moron, but they will never treat us differently if we are not respected.

The case of Venezuela itself is a lesson for Cubans. There is no doubt that Chavez has influenced many sectors of the population of this country, especially in the lowest strata, but it is also evident that the people of Venezuela have influenced — with their YES and above all with their NO — Chavez.

A Chavez who recently spoke of combatting, crushing, now talks of dialog and building the future of the country together. And there are no longer changes in the Constitution to monopolize power, silence opposing voices, and remain in power forever. Although it is possible that deep down he desires it, he learned that if he continued down the road of faithful imitation of the Cuban model, he was fried.

This people, my people, has no more excuses. We cannot be simple spectators to what happens around us, we are frozen in time, asleep, and if we don’t wake up soon we are going to be dead, because our small flame of hope is extinguished every day in the young people who leave.

In the film Juan of the Dead there is a speech where Juan’s young daughter, who lives in Spain, says, “I left because I didn’t know anyone it was worth staying for.” This phrase is a tremendous truth, especially for those of us who earn nothing, want nothing, in exchange for resisting, and who, like all human beings, need to feel that the effort and problems we confront are worth it.

Many want to find a treasure, a very big one that will make them happy for their whole lives. I dream of finding the soul of this country and shaking it very hard to make it wake up from the profound lethargy in which it has been mired for several decades.

This nation cannot die as the men who have led or dominated it died, for that is to serve the new generations, but today Cuba seems more like a bitter aftertaste. It is slow, stubborn, thinks it knows everything and spends its time telling its stories so often told before.

We, the Cubans of today, we have to make Cuba look more like us, as we appear inevitability of our own time. We have the moral obligation to try, and we will try. Here, politics will come alive again, here there will be democracy and hope again. And the military, who have stolen a political role that does not belong to them, I say to them: better that you prepare to live with and respect this democratic scenario, and not to avoid it, prevent it and delay it. Because this way, with the attitude you maintain today, I don’t know who you are helping, who you are protecting, because it is not the people.

And the people are now realizing that.

Translated from Diario de Cuba.

8 October 2012

Selling pets is one of the businesses that has been growing over the last months in Havana, the capital city.

Countless people walk around with mutts in hand along the streets and avenues, looking for purchasers for their merchandise. Others put ads in on their doors or attach signs to bus stops or crowded places, some use the well-known digital page Revolico to let people know their news. Those who go into business selling these animals, according to those in the know, do it legally.

Someone told me that lately in Havana’s Chinatown, and in Obispbo Street, this  type of trading is undertaken by the self-employed. The pictures were taken this Sunday and they attest to the fact that these private businesses, according to their owners, are profitable.

One of the dealers told me that prices vary greatly in the case of dogs and birds, and that the animals marketed are pedigree and in the case of the birds that is supported by the association. When asked about the most sold breeds he told me, “Listen, here we sell a lot of Chihuahuas,  Pekingese, Labradors, Dalmatians, and dogs for protection.”

The dealer didn’t state his name but explained that in Cuba is not only the sale of dogs and birds that is going very well, but guinea pigs, lab mice, and one of the most requested birds is the parrot, but that’s not the market that can be commercialized, he said.

One of the people observing near the animals’ cages, on hearing me ask the seller, said, “It’s good that the animals are traded, but look, the same traders don’t treat these little animals well, they don’t have water,” she said, referring to the fact that they had no water at that moment, “and that’s nothing,” the lady continued. “Many of the people who buy them don’t know how to take care of them and in many cases they over or underfeed them, and in the worst of cases they throw them out in the street where later you find these little pets with fleas and ticks,” she concluded.

Havana now exhibits a new business that according to the traders themselves, even after the boom, is not being exploited as it should be.

October 1 2012

The press advances with cautious steps, not confronting but questioning, it says that “there are differences of opinion,” and serves at the citizens’ table a menu of political and social diversity. True, they are small unsure steps, contained and small still — baby steps — but they’ve started to walk.

Some journalists on the Cuban television information system air critical writings and audiovisuals, as in one denouncing the manager of a hard currency store who declined to give an interview. It is interesting to imagine how such reports pass the heads of the censorship department, the news director, who surely must in turn consult with the vice president or president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television.

I’m pretty sure that the curtains of this budding opening are have the authorities at the helm; but is the result it could have in society — in fact, is already influencing — and in the Cuban media the same as if it were natural and spontaneous?

The effect is evident in the media universe itself, as it increases the number of workers in the media who dare to “take the leap” of freedom of information and publicize problems that for decades, were shoved under the rug of censorship under the anachronistic carpet of immobility.

The comedians also do their thing, mainly in the capital, lowering the bar each time a little more than permitted — despite fifty years of limitations and the to-be-expected fear — and extract humor rather than pus in their shows. I’m sure the time will come in which as if at a free national auction, with a wide catalog of freedoms and rights, we will stand openly “without auctioneers” and ask: Who offers more?

October 7 2012

Among our leaders there is a practice of submitting for discussion and popular approval certain laws and documents which they consider to be of special importance. The assumption is that, by doing this, they are presenting an example of direct democracy as an expression of popular will, which will grant them greater legitimacy.

In reality this is not the case. Although figures are published indicating approval in the millions, we all know—including the authorities—that real discussion is notable by its absence and that approval is merely a formality, as exemplified by the well-known expression, “Why waste time talking about it if everything has already been decided at the top?” It has been this way for too many years. Laws have also been imposed, from one day to the next, without having been submitted for either discussion or approval by the people. This has led to a lack of civic awareness and citizen responsibility, currently two of our worst ills.

Years ago, when the proposed constitution was being presented, many did not even bother to read it much less analyze and discuss it. It was approved by a majority of the population which, even today, is unaware of its principal provisions, such as those dealing with citizens’ rights and responsibilities. It is really just a formal document—it has not even been reissued—languishing in obscurity and only used by the authorities at propitious moments to further their political interests. When the article that established “eternal socialism” was added, it was hurriedly approved by signature, with tables and lists everywhere, in a few days of hustle and bustle, and was intended to close a breach that had been discovered in the “state monolith.” Many of those who signed did not even think about what they were doing.

In the end, something similar happened with the new Guidelines for the economy. Officially declared “the document most democratically discussed and approved by the majority of the population,” in reality it was formally “analyzed” and “discussed” in situations that had already taken place, and “approved” the way all documents proposed by the authorities are approved—by unanimous consent.

As a result this way to achieving “direct popular approval” does not lead to more democracy nor does it improve what is being proposed. It only increases quantity to the detriment of quality. The constitution of 1940, considered the most important document of the Republic, did not have to be discussed by the entire population nor approved by every Cuban because it attracted the widest citizen participation through responsibly elected “constituent members.” They represented the widest political spectrum of Cuban society at that time and, through real and profound debates, wrote it article by article, balancing the different interests for the good of the nation. This allowed for the creation of a document which, even today, retains its importance and relevance. It might even serve as “temporary constitutional support” in a political transition.

In short, the country has for a very long time had a body — the National Assembly — which, if it concerned itself more with what should be its primary reason for being and met periodically rather than only twice a year, would be responsible for analyzing, discussing, amending and approving or rejecting the laws proposed by the government. To do this it must rely on “elected” deputies who, as officially described, represent their constituents. If this is so, why is it then necessary to go back to consult with them? Various specialists, knowledgeable about the subject in question, could be invited to join the analysis and discussion without excluding anyone for arbitrary political reasons and, through their preparation, could contribute to and enrich the debate. There is no denying that the current deputies do not reflect the current political spectrum of the country, which now has only one color — the government’s. This prevents serious and critical debate.

Unnecessarily prolonging the approval of a proposed law, taking it to the so-called citizen “base,” not only reeks of populism, but also means an unnecessary loss of time. It does not provide the impetus for “updating the model” or the speed demanded by the majority of the population, who are well aware of the speed at which problems are piling up.

October 3 2012