Translating Cuba

Fideless / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Last Christmas with Fidel Castro

-Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

December is a sad month, precious, blue-lit and dreamily silent. I was born in this month. And in this month, in a year not so distant as it now appears, I shall return to Cuba with a Nobel Prize in Literature, the first of the Cuban Nobels, which I will rub in the face of the dictatorship that we will still have in Cuba by that date, and of which prize money I will use unto my ruination to hasten our liberty.

December is over before it barely starts. It is an atemporal month, achronological, almost uchronic [imaginary], outside the calendar, at the border of that mystery which is the changing year.

We are others, and we die piece by piece every December. In fact, almost never do all of us who started out the year reach the end of it. We who gather together this month do not know if we will get to the next month a year from now. Death reaps the best among us. Every December there are fewer and fewer Cubans left. We survivors are the worst, we are the one discarded, even by the gods.

This Christmas 2014 is also our first Death Celebration* without the dictator, who died on us without ever facing justice. With Fidel deceased ** (1926-2014), all now seems easy, expeditious, unnecessary. The Revolution was a nightmare had by a few million. The memory is renewed at a vertiginous velocity. In a little while, the new Cubans will not know or be able to spell the unnameable name of Fidel Castro – which in a few months will barely resonate in the curriculum for the Prehistory of the Nation, dissolved by the virtue of apathy and the amnesia of new generations.

The death of the hegemonic one has surprised us all. He didn’t even say goodbye, the jerk, just as he didn’t announce his arrival but rather imposed it by death blows, lies and evil. Fidel Castro has gone forever from our nation and he has left us incredulous and distrustful, to the point that we prefer to pay attention to this historic milestone. We still do not believe ourselves to be alone, without the delirious despot. We will not believe it, either, when his brother Raúl Castro announces it to us, surrounded by his octogenarian military elite — perhaps on January 28, 2015, to make Fidel’s death coincide with the birth of José Martí.

But today once again is Christmas. Part of the lost country will gather together the best of its spirit on this date. Hope will cease to be a congenital illness, and the blue light of the child-god will warm our home-mangers, making them less awful, making us less perverse in being human zeroes who aspire to be human beings,*** after a half-century or half- millennium of multitudinarially murdering each other over nothing.

It is Christmas once again, my soul brothers and sisters, and in 2015 will shine the words that for centuries should have been spoken among Cuban, but which have remained buried by the string of tyrants that have brought about our unnecessary independence. Perhaps it is the season to grow closer to being a civilization of free cosmopolitans and move ourselves away from Slaveamerican barbarity.

It is Christmas, and I love you all.

Translator’s Notes:

*The author is making a play on words in Spanish, using the common name for Christmas, “Navidades” (Nativity) to contrast with the quasi-rhyming word for morbidity, “Morbilidades.”

**An alliterative play on words – deceased in Spanish is “fallecido.”

*** A play on words in Spanish – the word for “zeroes” sounds very similar to the word for “beings”

25 December 2014

Change of Scenery / Fernando Damaso

Clearly, though we have not been aware of it until its recent announcement, there has been a change of scenery in Cuban policy, at least in regards to differences between the two governments.

This shift requires a repositioning of the forces in play as well as a tactical and strategic revision. To simply accept or reject it based on preconceived notions is not enough, nor does it demonstrate intelligence or responsibility. A serious and profound evaluation of what this represents and of the possibilities it offers or precludes is necessary. All human actions — especially those involving politics — present both positives and negatives. Taking advantage of and advancing the former while minimizing the latter is not easy but it is certainly possible.

After more than fifty years of maintaining intransigent positions, a major hurdle has been overcome through the will of the governments of Cuba and the United States. This is good for both the Cuban and American people.

It it is now the turn of Cuban civil society, both on the island and overseas, to help consolidate this initial change and advance other political, economic and social policies. Therefore, the government and civil society must set aside years of confrontation and rejection, and put Cuba first.

What has been achieved externally must be repeated internally. This constitutes the best path towards achieving a peaceful transition to a democratic, inclusive and peaceful regime in which there is equal opportunity for all Cubans with all their differences.

The repetitive, triumphalist rhetoric — exemplified just a few days after the announcement of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the phrase, “With a people like the Cubans, the Revolution can last for 570 years” — should not be a cause for concern; it is simply more of the same.

Incidentally, it reminds me of Hitler’s claim that the Third Reich would endure for 1,000 years. Fortunately, history does not take verbal overstatements seriously. Nevertheless, one should be cautious; the best-laid plans are sometimes destroyed on the ground. Let us hope that is not the case here.

One truly worrisome aspect is the suggestion that only a few Cubans are opposed to the system — and this because they receive material and moral support from outside Cuba.

In reality, there are hundreds of thousands who disagree with the regime, although only a few hundred say it out loud. It would be a terrible error for the authorities to believe their own myth about the unity of all Cubans with regard to the Revolution.

23 December 2014

MONEY MONEY MONEY / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo and Clive Rudd

How to Raise Funds: A Manual for Cuban Democrats

Clive Rudd, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

The successive “investigations” (or filtrations of intelligence) of the Associated Press (AP) and other media, that try to demonize the material support of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and governments in solidarity with the democratic cause in Cuba, is not a new phenomenon nor is it exclusive to the free world.

The Cuban government has known how to utilize the attacks on the funding for democracy. This has been at the expense of committing historic malapropisms that defy any comparison with the fundraising done by José Martí and his Cuban Revolutionary Party, or even by Fidel Castro in his insatiable quest for dollars in Mexico, Costa Rica and Venezuela (which was then not to fund anti-government propaganda but to buy weapons and train armies and, in short, impose violence for life on our society).

The new form of expression of this demonizing campaign (which essentially plagiarizes the methods employed by the Havana government) is led by the AP and The New York Times (NYT). There are many other “useful idiots” but their voices don’t resonate as much. Since the time of the Sierra Maestra and the bad reporting by Herbert Matthews, Castroism has been a series of blows to maudlin effect on North American public (shameless) opinion.

It is obvious that the message of these hegemonic media cannot be so clumsy as that of the Havana dictatorship, being that they convey between the lines a subliminal message to the Good Capitalist of the North: “The donation of funds by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other organizations to support democracy in Cuba, far from achieving the desired objectives, is counterproductive and useless.”

This message is more than well-known. It is the same argument employed with impunity to lobby for the lifting of the embargo: “The embargo doesn’t work and therefore should be lifted immediately and unconditionally.”

All right, then. In the name of the Cuban and North American peoples, thank you. However, the problem lies in that to defend this argument of inefficiency, there need to be firm proofs, not opinions. Also, the most solid proofs are achieved by comparing the initial objectives of a program with its final results. Here is where things get tough because, for a serious news medium to say that a program was “amateurish and profoundly unsuccessful,” there must be access to documents that have gone cold and are now obsolete (which the AP has been able to gain) but there also must be investigative reporting done that includes access to all or the major parties involved in the matter, including the Cuban people.

As has been known from responses of certain parties included in the AP’s last crusade, all indications are that there have been lies or results have been fabricated to rate these USAID programs as “profoundly unsuccessful.”

According to his interview in the El Nuevo Herald newspaper, Aldo Rodríguez, leader of the musical group Los Aldeanos, did not receive one cent from USAID, he did not compose his songs at the request of this agency, nor did he receive a laptop from subversive foreign elements — three assertions made in an “objective” piece by AP.

These campaigns of the AP, in symbiosis with the Cuban government, to demonize fundraising in support of pro-human rights projects on the Island, have media reach precisely because the national public is a captive audience under the monopoly of the State, and also because it is not common for us Cubans to do public fundraisers, as occurs in any democratic country of the world.

In countries where there are free elections and institutions, fundraising rules and regulations have been created and there are even specialists trained in the technique of quickly and effectively raising monies for political campaigns and the propagation of ideas. This is a subject yet to be included in the curriculum for Cuban democrats and any other social actor who will not want to submit himself to a despotic governmental dictum.

It would be most useful for our civil society, inside and outside Cuba, if we would create a sort of manual for raising funds legally and efficiently to support the alternative projects on the Island. Thus, we Cubans would be the ones to judge which citizen initiatives have been successful and which ones not so much, as we learn from their results to improve those methods of collecting, distributing and utilizing funds for democracy in Cuba. The ends justify the means.

Cuba’s solvency was always handicapped by Castroism. Only a poverty-stricken people is vulnerable to enslavement. At the beginning, it was accomplished through ideological class hatred. Currently, in Castroism’s latter days, it is done through paranoia about a foreign conspiracy (even though Havana has received funding from the United Nations as well as from Qaddafi’s criminal regime).

Therefore, People, perhaps it is time for us to behave less as secret victims and more as modern members of a global economy, transparent in its accounts and convinced of the legitimacy of its anti-totalitarian mission, beyond the laws of Castroism and the media campaigns that prop it up.

Enmeshed in the Raul regime make-believe reforms, we Cubans should not lose our focus to a Fidel who is as much fossil as fatal. Despite the pathetic AP and the NYT, our radical redemption still goes by this watchword: “Within the dictatorship, nothing; against the dictatorship, everything.”*

*Translator’s note: This last line is a riff on Fidel’s famous/infamous statement, “Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing,” from his so-called “Speech to the Intellectuals” delivered in June 1961.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

26 December 2014

Will the poorest Cubans whose properties were seized be indemnified? / Cubanet, Jose Hugo Fernandez

Photo:Havana’s Chinatown prior to 1959 — Photo: Havana’s Chinatown prior to 1959

Cubanet, José Hugo Fernández, Havana, 24 December 2014 – How many – and which – private properties seized by the regime could be returned to their owners or their descendants? Alternatively, how many indemnifications could there be once the US embargo is finally lifted? This topic has once again taken its place in our discussions, online and on the ground. Once again, we are given to speculate about everything pertaining to major enterprises, and North American and Cuban landowners.

Curiously, there is less talk about the small businesses. Those were the ones whose owners worked hard all their lives, never suspecting the disrespect and cruel coldness with which the Revolutionary government would expropriate them. These entrepreneurs were forced to abandon their establishments and take nothing but the clothes on their backs. Begging the pardon of the large investors who saw their assets taken away, it seems to me much more crucial to consider the tragedy of these small business owners. I believe that now that “our” dictatorship is trying to make a place for itself among “normal” governments, it should start with the intent to mitigate (being that it cannot erase) this shameful chapter in our history, by at least indemnifying the descendants of the entrepreneurs.

They must number in the hundreds of thousands, if one considers that each town, each neighborhood, and often each street, hosted swarms of small businesses owned by persons of modest means, who built them up penny by penny with the sweat of their brow.

By way of illustration, it would perhaps suffice to cite the example of the honest and hardworking business owners of Havana’s Chinatown – just one case among millions, but one which helps to clarify the issue because of being concentrated in a small area.

By 1959, a little more than a century had passed since the arrival of the Chinese to Cuba as quasi-slaves. The only property owned by each and all of them upon disembarking here was their family name – and even this they had to give up. Even so, when Fidel Castro took power, Havana’s was probably the most important Chinatown in the continent.

The neighborhood boasted its own Bank of China, with $10-million in assets – a true fortune in those days. It had a network of import businesses that directly brought in products from Asia to be used and sold here. There was a Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, which was connected to a considerable number of entrepreneurial associations, such as the Union of Commercial Retailers. It would be exhausting to list the vast number of dining establishments – some world-famous – and other businesses providing the most diverse services, that were located in this neighborhood.

Havana's Chinatown today — Havana’s Chinatown today (photo by author)

The Chinese population of Havana operated its own health care system, endowed with medical practices and laboratories, as well as a fully-equipped clinic and patient pavilions, and a broad network of pharmacies. Three independent newspapers, three radio stations, four cinemas, a theater, an athletic club, a retirement home, a cemetery, multiple societies and recreation centers – all of these composed the cultural life of the neighborhood. In short, as I have indicated, the list of assets would be too long. Just on one small block, on San Nicolás Street, between Zanja and Dragones, one could see more commercial activity than what is observed today in the whole neighborhood. It goes without saying that the scene on that stretch of San Nicolás is heartbreaking to see.

In 1960, Alfonso Chiong, president of the Chinese Colony and editor of one of its newspapers (The Man-Set-Ya-Po), was informed by the regime that he would have to resign his post. Upon refusing to do so, he escaped to Miami to avoid being sent to jail. According to the newspaper Avance Criollo*, when Chiong arrived at the Miami airport he carried, as his only capital, five dollars in his pocket. Mario Chiu, secretary of the Colony, had less luck – when he refused to resign, he was thrown into the dungeons of La Cabaña prison.

The tragedy was already in progress. It was unstoppable and quite possibly defining. Soon afterwards the flourishing Chinatown turned to ruin, while the entire poor neighborhood found itself as lost, vulnerable and frightened as had its ancestors when, a century before, they arrived on our shores.

*Avance Criollo newspaper; Friday, November 18, 1960.

Translated by Alicia Barrequé Ellison

Message from Cuba from the Cuban Democratic Project / Rafael León Rodríguez

The latest developments in negotiations between the authorities of the Cuban government and those of the United States augur interesting expectations for peoples on both sides of the Straits of Florida in the coming year of 2015. The announced normalization of diplomatic relations at the level of embassies will certainly strengthen the creation of new and significant bridges for both societies.

To what extent this new political context will help the empowerment of civil society in Cuba will depend, primarily, on whether Cubans will be able to continue working peacefully to achieve Cuba’s return to democracy, freedoms and the rule of law.

The Cuban regime must recognize, finally, that human rights constitute an indivisible whole. The ratification and implementation of the International Treaties on Civil and Political rights and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, signed by the government of the island in 2008, and they are still a crucial unresolved issue this, they must endorse the law.

If the blockade or embargo of the United States against Cuba is one more violation of the human rights of the Cuban people, this hiding behind the adoption of a Constitution in 1976, now disregarded, to legitimize a singular government party and discriminate against political plurality, is also. Both violations must cease.

We so-called Cuban political minorities have inalienable rights that must be respected by the authorities of the regime, which, after 56 years of totalitarian power, show that in the interior of the country the only things “updated” are the poverty, hopelessness, failure, corruption and escapism.

Many people in the world, because of goodwill, accompany the Cuban people in an attempt to facilitate the recovery of their freedoms and improve their situation through dialogue and negotiation. Pope Francis sublimely represents all of them. We thank you.

We are confident that the coming year will bring Cubans to the so long-awaited national reconciliation, with justice and peace. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a bright New Year 2015 of our Lord.

Rafael León Rodríguez, General Coordinator
Cuban Democratic Project

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

24 December 2014

Plebiscite not only for Cuba, but by the Cuban people / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

The American President, Barack Obama, decided on behalf of Cubans. His holiness the Pope decided on behalf of Cubans. The Army General Raul Castro decided on behalf of the Cubans. Everyone, except the Cubans , decided on behalf of Cubans.

After more than six decades without any consulting of the popular will in free and competitive elections, it’s finally time for Cuba to decide for Cuba with everyone participating and for the good of all. It’s finally time for Cubans to decide for Cubans.

Any international solidarity will be useless if Cubans don’t have a say. Any dissent and national opposition would lack a legal framework as long as there is no referendum by Cubans. There is no legitimate government without the effective participation of the governed. No consensus will be credible as long as Cuba does not decide for Cuba.

One learns in the open exercise of freedom, how to live in freedom. The American President and His Holiness, and the General of the Army and all authorities of good faith in the world are invited not to decide but instead to accompany Cubans in this decision, in a historic meeting where the transit from totalitarianism towards an open society or another controlling regimen is defined.

The demand for a national referendum is already in motion. May no one speak for the Cuban people but rather support the Cuban people so that they may recover their voice.

Translator’s note: The graphic is a “suggested design” by El Sexto for a new Cuban flag.

Translated by William Fitzhugh

23 December 2014

‘We keep searching for you, Homeland’* / Antonio Rodiles

December 17 is a watershed in the recent history of our country. It is the break point between those who are betting on neo-Castroism or who are willing to participate in its moves, and those of us who argue that our nation should rebuild itself around the basic premises of freedoms and fundamental rights.

No nation has to assume our burdens and resolve our conflicts, but undoubtedly the measures taken by President Barack Obama will provide great benefits to those who intend to mutate to this new authoritarianism. It has been a grave error to set aside the many voices and stories that have so much to say about Cuba, and to listen only to the Castros and to a handful who pretend to know how to transition to democracy.

In parallel, they have tried to show that those who advocate an unbending position with regards to full respect for fundamental human rights are retrograde and extremist people, obsoletes who revel in pain and lack a vision of the future. What a naïve and dangerous game they propose as an exit strategy from totalitarianism. Can they ignore so much history and fail to understand that in a transition there are actors who cannot be omitted?

The longest dictatorship in the hemisphere has destroyed our country materially and profoundly damaged the Cuban soul. The reconstruction of the nation requires more than investment, cellphones and flash memories. Cuba is not a computer on which new software can be installed to make it become socially functional.

We need a consciousness and memory of what has happened to us, our frustrations and pains, what we do not want to repeat or never again perpetuate. Without this recognition we will continue to be a dispersed and broken nation, without the spirit to be reborn. Cuba needs to be re-founded with a fresh impulse, full of strength and a sense of freedom. Starting from clear demands to return the dignity, the pride, and to allow the design of a future without the burden of the Castro regime.

There is a great deal for us to rethink: projection, messages, strategies and even aesthetics. But the hope of shaking off an elite that has shown the most profound contempt for Cubans is a genuine sentiment that steers us. A political solution is only possible if it is based on full respect for the human being.

The current United States administration has to change course if it wants to be an agent of credible change, and it must pay attention to the demand of thousands of Cuban citizens who from within and outside the Island insist on a solid and firm commitment to human rights. The ratification and above all the implementation of the United Nations Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights should be a key tool as a precondition to move us forward in the Cuban dilemma. The European Union has already paid attention to this demand, adding the International Labor Organization (ILO) standards. A clear and firm repositioning is the only way to give credibility to a process that began with profound mistakes.

What is needed is a strong push to infect with desires of freedom Cubans who, in the face of survival and evasion, have lost faith. To find a solution to our long conflict, it is a premise that all political actors, from within and outside the island, must participate.

It is no longer about the Castro regime, the Castro regime is dying. The conflict is between accepting a neo-Castro authoritarianism, or moving to a true democracy.

The phrase that is the title of this article is a quote from Reinaldo Arenas.

The “Weekly Packet” Rules in Cuban Homes / Cubanet, Anddy Sierra Alvarez

Cubanet, Anddy Sierra Alvarez, Havana, 28 October 2014 — With the delivery of the “weekly packet” to Cuban homes, the people have taken an important leap toward access to information and entertainment. In a country where the only television is state-run and there is no mass consumption of the Internet, this phenomenon helps to build society. Cuban television has faded to the background.

The so-called “weekly packet,” which is normally distributed on external hard disks to individual residences, contains the latest foreign films of the week, shows, television series, documents, games, information, music and more. This packaged content is favored by the Island’s population over the programming provided by Cuban state-run television. In the past, entertainment would be delivered via clandestine satellite TV, but citizens caught in this illegal act would have to pay heavy fines.

Mariam González, 47, of Havana’s Arroyo Naranjo borough, relates that thanks to the “weekly packet,” many people have avoided the jail time or fines that used to be the consequences of using satellite antennas. “Several of my friends were fined over the years up to 10,000 Cuban pesos for receiving the satellite signal in their homes,” González said, adding that, “now, we only have to pay one dollar and we have access on a hard drive to the latest programs from the week just ended. We connect it to the TV set and enjoy the content whenever we want. It’s better than nothing.” continue reading

Ángel López, 31, is a fan of such TV series as Grimm, Revolution, and The Blacklist. He notes that “the packet is my font of information and without it in the house, life would be extremely boring.”

“Besides,” he adds, “my cousin watches nothing other than series like Cold Case, and that is not something broadcast on state television.”

Alejandro Batista, 38, affirms, “I prefer to spend a dollar over being a zombie. Cuban programming is no good, it’s stagnant…well, actually, we are stagnant!” he added with a wry smile. Packet prices vary according to the day of the week. On Sundays the “weekly packet” of 1 terabyte is priced at 10 dollars, on Mondays and Tuesdays, 2 dollars, and other days, 1 dollar.

Tomás González, 32, is a distributor of the weekly packet. “Every Monday I receive the packet for 2 dollars,” he said. He then downloads the content onto USB drives of 4, 8 or 16 gigabytes (Gb), which provides an alternative (to the hard disk) way of distributing programming to individual households.

“I sell the 4-Gb USB drives for 10 Cuban pesos, the 8-Gb for 20 pesos, and the 16-Gb for 30 or 40 pesos,” González explained. The younger generations don’t waste time on state television. Miguel Ponce, 21, had this to say about state-run television: “Cuban TV holds no interest for me and, as far as I know, none of my friends wastes their time on that. Now, HD movies are a whole other thing…”

With its lack of variety and offerings that do not meet what the public wants, Cuban TV loses ground.

Alejandro Batista notes that “the government for so long refused to broadcast foreign programs and now we have them on USB drives. But,” he asks, “what makes me wonder is, how long can Cuban television continue, if each day the public leans more towards the foreign programs that we can get on the packet?”

Translated by Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Press Workshop in San Diego / Ivan Garcia

In early October, when I was invited to a workshop on investigative journalism at a university in San Diego, the first thing I did was search the internet for background information on those courses.

I knew that the speakers were superior. It’s not every day that an independent Cuban journalist has the opportunity to dialogue with reporters from the US of high caliber, some of them Pulitzer Prize winners.

I confess that I had an attack of skepticism when I saw the schedule for the workshop. The presentations dealt with the border conflict between Mexico and the United States, new technological tools for investigative journalism, and how to approach reporting on health and the environment in a creative and entertaining way. continue reading

How would I be able to combine those themes with the reality of my country, which for 56 years has been ruled by autocrats named Castro? I was mindful also of the existence of a law which allows the sanctioning of an independent reporter with 20 years of incarceration, and that the internet is an expensive luxury. In a country in which the average salary is 20 dollars a month, one hour of internet connection costs 5 dollars

With those doubts in place I enrolled in the workshop. Twenty-two colleagues from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica and Cuba, all living in different contexts. Perhaps for the Venezuelans the realities are analogous. It was an honor to be the first Cuban to be invited by the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego.

I am one of those who believe that journalism is an occupation always open to new experiences. The workshop was designed in a meticulous manner. Denisse Fernandez, the assistant, was on top of every detail. From the accommodations to the transportation, even providing dinner at the hotel, foreseeing that my arrival in San Diego would be around midnight on a Sunday.

From the first presentation by reporter Andrew Becker, the workshop awoke my enthusiasm. To learn of the raw realities of the border of Tijuana, the emigration problems and drug trafficking seen from a new perspective was an impactful lesson.

I intend to adapt the tools I learned and the experiences narrated to the Cuban context. Although the cloister of the workshop presenters was not typical of academics seduced by Fidel Castro’s revolution, the state of affairs on the island obviously did not preoccupy them.

I had to repeatedly explain to them our reality. And why certain standards and tools of modern journalism are anachronisms in Cuba, where there is no requirement for an institution to disclose information or statistics.

Yes, certain web applications for use in investigative journalism were novel. But if I do not have internet access in my home, nor is there public access to the internet, not to mention that many websites are blocked, how can one use these tools?

“Can you imagine, ” I said to Lynne Walker, one of the most extraordinary journalists I have ever known, “If I were to ask my boss at Diary of the Americas for $2000 to cover a story, when they operate under a minimal budget?

“If I took eight weeks to report a story I would simply die of hunger. The independent journalism that is done in Cuba, in web pages that receive funding from foreign institutions or newspapers with scarce financial means would not allow that.

“They operate like meat grinders. You must constantly be submitting articles, and because there is no profitable business model, digital journalism becomes an establishment of survivors.”

Lynne listened to my arguments with patience. Smiling she replied, “Then we submit to defeat. Will we be stopped by the fear of being murdered by a drug cartel in Tijuana, of being unemployed in Caracas, of being poorly paid or having no internet access in Cuba? It’s all about being creative. Overcoming barriers. And always think big. Never accept a No. Those are the basic rules.”

Besides gaining new knowledge and learning new journalism techniques, the best part were the ties of friendship made with Latin American colleagues. Because of the slightly egocentric mentality of many Cubans, we tend to believe that our political and social problems are the most severe in the world.

But you must modify your way of thinking when you meet reporters of interior Mexico who for months have had to operate with police escort because of narcotrafficking, or men like Columbian Fabio Posada who was chief of an investigative unit of the newspaper El Espectador, or John Jairo, who frequently receives death threats since reporting a story in Cucuta.

With the six Venezuelan reporters attending the workshop I shared an almost natural chemistry. They are now living through what we experienced in Cuba 56 years ago. The compadres of the PUSV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) intend to dismantle piece by piece democratic institutions and freedom of expression.

Certainly, Cuba continues to be substandard in the exercise of freedom of the press. But the rest of Latin America is not doing much better.

Ivan Garcia

Photo: The participants of the Investigative Journalism Workshop (November 10-14, 2014) display certificates earned on the last day. Taken from the blog Journalism of the Americas.

Trip report (IV)

Translated by: Yoly from Oly

On Cuba, Hope and Change / Alexis Romay

President Obama, a man who actively promotes the audacity of hope and based his presidential campaigns on the idea of change, has combined both concepts in his long gaze at Cuba: he hopes Castro will change. However, that option isn’t remotely possible in Cuba. Back in 2003, Castro Bros. added to the Cuban Constitution that the socialist character of the Cuban revolution is irrevocable.

Lest you think the Cold War is over, and it’s time to move on, Raul Castro is there to remind you not to forget. Both Castro and Obama had agreed to announce the news of a new dawn for Cuba-USA relations, simultaneously, at noon on December 17^th, a day that has particular significance in Cuban lore, as it celebrates San Lázaro, the patron saint of the needy, the one who brings hope to the people.

Obama conducted his press conference standing up in a properly lit room. He’s a young man, during his second presidential term, talking naturally. Castro, a player from the Eisenhower era, was sitting down in an obscure mahogany time capsule. He read from several sheets of paper (paper!), with the affected tone reserved for a grandiloquent speech, the only tone with which he has always addressed the Cuban people. continue reading

Obama, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces, was wearing civilian clothes. Castro showed up in his military uniform with all the medals he has bestowed on himself over the years (he’s been the head of the Cuban Army since he and his older brother took power in 1959). That choice of attire was carefully considered.

Raul Castro appeared between two black-and-white framed photos. In one, he poses with a comrade in arms who died fighting the previous dictator —not Fidel, the one before him. The other photo shows Raul with his late wife, the most powerful woman in Cuba in the last half-century. As much as the president of the United States wants to move forward, Raul Castro is a man living in the past.

But if the retro look wasn’t enough, then Castro opened his mouth. These were his first words: “Since I was elected President…” That’s exactly the moment the educated audience should have known this is a complete farce: Raul Castro has never been elected.

The agreement to open an American embassy in Havana was preceded by a quid pro quo mambo in which an American spy serving time in Cuba was traded for three Cuban spies. (According to the trophy-of-war selfie Raul Castro took with them upon their arrival, his spies were well fed in their American prisons). The USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, who lost most of his teeth and over 100 pounds in his Cuban prison, was released on “humanitarian grounds” after five years of wrongful imprisonment for handing out laptops and cellphones to the Cuban Jewish community.

Additionally, Obama announced he wants to revisit Cuba’s standing in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Yet, the same day of this exchange, the long tentacle of North Korean repression reentered America’s collective consciousness by dictating to Sony Pictures (and its global audience), that if Sony releases “The Interview,” there will be terrorist retaliations.

Nothing has changed in Cuba since July 2013, when the Chong Chong Gang, a North Korean ship, was caught in Panamanian waters carrying 240 tons of weapons concealed under sacks of sugar. The ship and the weapons were coming from Cuba, from the same regime that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war in the early sixties, the same regime this new development is trying to appease.

In his inaugural speech on January 20, 2009, Obama hinted at the Castro dynasty: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” But Castro’s fist is as tight as it has ever been.

On the morning of December 20th, 2014, the news of a Cuban Coast Guard sinking a vessel, carrying women and children, that was fleeing the island started to reach English media outlets. So far, one passenger has been reported missing. Expect more snubs to the US government (and the Cuban people) where this came from.

There’s a parable that illustrates the doomed relationship between Obama and Castro. A man sees a scorpion drowning in a puddle. He weighs the outcome of his actions, but decides that his nature is to nurture, so he picks up the scorpion. The scorpion’s nature is to sting. The man reacts to this venom by opening the hand, which drops the scorpion back in the water. With his limbs beginning to swell and about to hallucinate, the man sees a scorpion in a puddle. And he feels an urge to save the creature.

***

Alexis Romay is the author of two novels and a book of sonnets. He blogs on Cuba, literature and other tropical diseases at http://belascoainyneptuno.com.

Note: English text provided by the author.

The Port of Mariel Has Gone to Shit / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

The underwater rocks of the Cuban island platform are also gusanos (worms), as if in tribute to the 135,000 free Cubans who were saved from the Castros via the stampede through Mariel Harbor: Friends of the Castro regime, with all due respect and utmost distinction, it happens now that the super-freighters do not fit through the mouth of the Bay of Mariel, they simply cannot enter the autistic, isolated bay, so all the millions of dollars of corrupt investments from Venezuela, Brazil, China and Russia were in vain. The super-port of Mariel will only be a super-ghost. As fossil Fidel himself is. Thank you parasite rocks: on these stones we shall build a Cuba without Castro. Amen!

Translated by Yoly from Oly

7 December 2014

Cuban Civil Society Open Forum statement on the resumption of relations with the US / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 23 December 2014 – With regards to the announcement of the restoration of relations between Cuba and the United States, coming out of secret negotiations, the Cuban Civil Society Open Forum wishes to state that:

We are pleased for the dozens of compatriots who will be released from prison and also by the release of Alan Gross.
We believe that this ends the pretext and the official narrative of a besieged people, and that we must focus on democratic change in Cuba.
We assume that the pressure from Cuban democrats within and outside the Island has contributed in a substantive way to the creation of this new scenario, and so we confirm that in the future we must expand the role of our civil society.
We must listen to, reflect, and give voice to what the Cuban people are feeling at this time and offer them a new narrative, tactics and strategy, and a new language.
We make a call to strengthen the unity in diversity achieved so far, whatever our opinions may be on this issue, and to maintain equanimity and respect.
We expect that further negotiations will be carried out with greater transparency and will take into account all of the actors of Cuban society, without secrecy, and not behind the backs of institutions.

The Cuban opposition calls for “strengthening unity in diversity” / 14ymedio

Civil Society Open Space, meeting in Cuba (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 December 2014 – Cuban Civil Society Open Forum, a new organization in Cuba which has come to be a forum of debate for the opposition, met this Monday in Havana to review its own development as well as its common position, faced with the new scenario that has opened with the reestablishment of relations with the United States.

The group, in the form of a final statement, made a call “to strengthen the unity in diversity achieved so far, whatever our opinions may be on this issue, and to maintain equanimity and respect.”

The meeting, with the participation of thirty activists of different points of view, focuses on developing an ethical approach to running the activities of Cuban Civil Society Open Forum. This framework, developed starting from the proposals collected in a previous draft, will be set out in a documents whose final version will be voted on at the next meeting, scheduled for the end of February 2015, according to a statement released by the group. continue reading

Another of the important points of the meeting was the future creation of a mediation group, which will work to solve conflicts internal to civil society.

With regards to the announcement of the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States coming out of secret negotiations, Cuban Civil Society Open Forum expressed its pleasure in “the dozens of compatriots who will be released from prison and also the release of Alan Gross.” In addition, they noted that the agreement between Raul Castro and Obama puts an end “to the pretext and official narrative of a besieged people,” which will allow, according to the participants, focus “on democratic change in Cuba.”

Guillermo Fariñas criticized, in his speech, the “secrecy of the negotiations, which were held behind the backs not only of civil society but also the ruling party, parliament and the bulk of the institutions.” For his part, José Daniel Ferrer said that, “most important is the faith and hope that from now on we must convey to the people.” The activist also stressed the “importance of building new scenarios for democracy.”

Manuel Cuesta Morua agreed that the restoration of relations with the US represents “the end of the ‘epic’ stage and the beginning of the political stage for civil society.” Elizardo Sanchez confirmed that even the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation “does not know the list of prisoners to be released, which represents about half of those imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba.”

Cuban Civil Society Open Forum meets to discuss issues of Cuban society. Last February, the group signed, for the first time, four points of consensus that summarize the demands of Cuban civil society; these were reviewed at the meeting on Monday and ratified unanimously in what was one of the first steps of opposition unity on the island.

Who is more opposed to the suspension of the embargo? / Diario de Cuba, Dariela Aquique Luna

The first obstacle will not come from the United States Congress, but rather from the Cuban government itself.

Diario de Cuba, Dariela Aquique Luna, Havana, 22 December 2014 – Once again it is obvious that the supposed “culture” of the Cuban people can be summarized in terms of basic literacy and median levels of schooling. Except for a high number of intellectuals and professionals, the ability to process information and analyze it coherently is a gift that has not been granted to the majority of that population, who were not taught to think for themselves; whose knowledge of the world and of their own country for more than 50 years has been limited to official pronouncements translated into preconceived rhetoric.

Having only scarce Internet access, an ignorance of how new technologies are used, and a perspective shaped solely by state-run media, my compatriots are unaware even of how things work. Therefore it is not unusual to overhear very naïve conversations with one or more participants claiming that, following the announcements by Obama, happiness and prosperity have arrived in Cuba. This is because for too long, many Cubans have believed that all the evils afflicting this country are due exclusively to the United States embargo. continue reading

Were the economic, commercial and financial sanctions against the Island definitively suspended, the Cuban government would have the first problem, for there would no longer be a scapegoat for the deficiencies and errors in the state-run economy, and their resulting effects on the country’s social life. Cuba would have to enter the arena of the real economic relations that govern the world today and not those that have been invented at their convenience to conceal structural deformations, which have created a lasting dependence on other economies that have proverbially supported the productive system of the country terms of capital and technology. That would be the first challenge.

On the other hand, the changes expected by that nascent, small-business class in Cuba would generate panic in the sectors of power. This is because, as the Marxists say, “the economic base defines the superstructure.” It is exactly for this reason that the Castro government, from its first moments, focused on planning the state sectors of industry, banking and services, centralizing the administration of material and human resources, all in the name of “economic sovereignty,” but really only to disguise its paranoia about threats to its political power.

Another quite interesting point is the matter of allowing free access to the “network of networks.” This would be like carrying out a second literacy campaign in Cuba. We Cubans would have to start from scratch in such subjects as civics, law, commerce, urban planning, ad infinitum. In other words, as the Communists know very well, change in the economy would entail a change in society. What former US President Jimmy Carter said — “Going to Cuba, doing business and investing there will bring democracy to Cuba” — is something that the Castros and their henchmen do not want to hear.

Obama, Carter, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and many personalities and sectors, opine that normalizing relations with Cuba will help the US more effectively promote political change on the Island. But what the US president does not account for is the resistance to these efforts that the Cuban government and its supporters will mount.

Mr. Barack Obama is naïve to think that a change in strategy will bring democracy to Cuba. Cubans who think that an end to the embargo will make all things well are naïve. We will continue to hear canned phrases such as “foreign interference,” and “we will not permit anyone to tell us what we have to do,” and all the rest of the half-century-old chatter.

The Cuban-American right should not be so worried about the announcements and gestures coming from Obama. Who is most opposed to the suspension of the embargo? The first obstacle to ceasing the embargo will not come from the US Congress, but rather from the Cuban government itself – behind the scenes, of course, and not without extracting corresponding advantage from the matter.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Fidel’s Shocking Silence / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya

Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 18 December 2014 — After the brief speech by General-President, Raúl Castro, about the release of Alan Gross and of “a Cuban-born citizen” at the service of the CIA, and of other prisoners who received “prison benefits, including the release of individuals the US government was interested in,” a speech which also included the announcement of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, everyday life in the capital continued its course, just as if we were not witnessing a moment of historical significance that puts an end to 50 years of uninterrupted disagreement between our two countries.

With agreements reached after months of negotiations, the regional political landscape changes dramatically, while such a controversial decision should, in principle have a greater effect inside Cuba, since Cuba’s excuses have run out about “the enemy” that besieges us, blockades us, and hampers our social and economic advancement. continue reading

Of course, it would be naïve to assume that the regime will make essential changes or allow an opening in political or human rights matters, particularly those relating to freedom of expression and association, just to name the some of the more “dangerous” elements for the survival of the regime. It’s the same quasi 56-year-old dictatorship of totalitarian power, and it is likely the regime will make use of any trickery to evade changes that endanger its authority in Cuba. However, that does not mean that the do-nothing strategy on the part of the US foreign policy towards Cuba was a good formula.

The strategy launched today by the White House, though risky, placed the Cuban leadership against the wall, especially in the face of the international community that, to date, has passively tolerated the ongoing violations of human rights in Cuba, and has even praised the Castro satrapy for its achievements in health and education through the continuation of a belligerent policy towards the most powerful country on earth and the supposed need for the regime to defend itself from it. With the ending of the stagnation and the re-establishing of relations, now we will have to see in what direction the actors move and the resulting changes that the new stage will produce.

We know the weakness of the nascent Cuban civil society, of its legal orphanhood and of the absence of supporting autonomous institutions, so that, on the road towards the achievement of democracy, the support and goodwill of civilized countries and of global agencies cannot be absent, under penalty of sentencing to their doom the efforts, sacrifices and aspirations of several generations of democratic Cubans. The US President seems to be aware of it, since he expressed his commitment to those hopes in his speech.

An Indifferent Cuba

The news came as a surprise to Cubans. However, contrary to what might be expected from so many years of the “struggle for the return of the Five,” and after the substantial resources invested in international campaigns to achieve their release, there or was no apotheosis of people taking to the streets, no calls for a gathering to welcome them home, no live TV broadcasting the arrival of the much awaited “heroes.”

Havana continued its normal routine, altered only by the unexpected delivery of a pound of fish (mackerel) per consumer, an event that overwhelmed people’s expectations, at least in Centro Habana, and the corresponding lines began to form in front of the state-owned butcher shops.

Meanwhile, a group of students were mobilized at the University to do some cheering and shouting; though it still unclear whether the real reason for their joy was the release of the spies or the sudden opportunity to leave the classroom earlier than usual.

Only the primetime evening news ran a brief story, carefully prepared and intended to stir the popular sentimentality, showing the reunion of the released spies and their families, and the words of ringleader, Gerardo, expressing to the General-President his availability to follow his orders. “For whatever purpose,” stated the unrepentant servant. It did not occur to the little soldier to think that, in an environment of good relations that should begin to flow between the two countries, a new espionage adventure would not look good.

The truth is that, in contrast to Alan Gross’s obvious physical deterioration, the Cuban spies looked fat and pompous, as if, instead of having stayed in harsh prison conditions that the official media had blasted, they had returned from a picnic or a long vacation.

The topography of absence

Perhaps the most significant finding on the day of a journey inside Cuba is Fidel Castro’s shocking silence

His absence from the media had already been sufficiently notorious during and after the celebration of the ALBA summit, ten years after the creation of that pipe dream for him and his pupil, Hugo Chávez. But his silence, in the presence of two events so linked to his existence as the end of a story of conflict on which the revolutionary legend was cemented and the arrival on the Island of the central characters of his last “battle,” is highly eloquent.

It is very significant that the return of the three spies has been so rash. This may be the happiest event year for the reflective chief, yet not a single apocryphal note with a copy of his well-known signature at the bottom of the page has appeared. Everything indicates that, either the highest druid has definitively plunged into a deep vegetative state, or he has already left this “valley of tears.” If that should be the case, don’t count on mine.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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