The 2012 Goyas Awards / Miguel Iturria Savon

Jose Sacristan - Best Actor
Jose Sacristan – Best Actor

On the night of Sunday the 17th, millions of Spaniards and Europeans watched the Goya Awards ceremony which concede high honors to the top films, actors, directors, and other professionals of the movie world.  The gala event, full of pomp, authenticity, and splurges of humor was hosted by the celebrated comedienne, Eva Hache, who was aided in the presentation of awards by winners from the previous year, 2011. continue reading

Because of the connection that Spanish cinema shares with the Cuban populace, I offer a summary of the winners for this Twenty-Seventh edition, corresponding to 2012.  The films receiving the greatest number of awards were: “Snow White” with 10 statuettes; “The Impossible” (5); “Unit 7″ and the animated feature “Tad the Lost Explorer;” top actor awards went to Maribel Verd, Josí Sacristán, Candela Peía, Joaquin Nuñez, and Concha Velazco, who received the special “Goya de Honor” (highest honor) award.

Detailed recipient list follows:

  • Best Film: “Snow White,” directed by Pablo Berger
  • Best Director: Juan Antonio Bayona (“The Impossible”)
  • Best Actor: Josí Sacristán (“The Dead Man & Being Happy”)
  • Best Documentary: “Children of the Clouds: The Last Colony,” directed by Ilvaro Longoria
  • Best Animated Feature: “Tad the Lost Explorer,” directed by Enrique Gato
  • Best Iberoamerican Film: “John of the Dead,” directed by Alejandro Bruguís
  • Best European Film: “Untouchable,” directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
  • Best Hair/Makeup: Sylvie Imbert and Fermín Galán (“Snow White”)
  • Best Supporting Actor: Julián Villagrán for “Unit 7″
  • Best New Director: Enrique Gato for “Tad the Lost Explorer”
  • Best Visual Effects: Pau Costa and Filix Bergís (“The Impossible”)
  • Best Cinematography: Kiko de la Rica (“Snow White”)
  • Best Actress: Maribel Verdú (“Snow White”)
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Gorka Magallón, Javier Barreira, Ignacio del Moral, Jordi Gasull and Neil Landau (“Tad the Lost Explorer”)
  • Best Original Screenplay: Pablo Berger (“Snow White”)
  • Best New Actress: Macarena Garcia (“Snow White”)
  • Best Production Supervision: Sandra Hermida Muñiz (“The Impossible”)
  • Best Sound: Peter Glossop, Marc Orts, and Oriol Tarragó (“The Impossible”)
  • Best Original Score: Alfonso de Vilallonga (“Snow White”)
  • Best Original Song: “No Te Puedo Encontrar” by Pablo Berger and Chicuelo in “Snow White”
  • Goya of Honor (special award): Cocha Velasco
  • Best Supporting Actress: Candela Peía (“A Gun in Each Hand”)
  • Best Spanish Fictional Short Film: “Aquel No Era Yo”
  • Best Documentary Short Film: “A Story for the Modlins”
  • Best Animated Spanish Short Film: “The Smoke Vendor”
  • Best Editing: Bernat Vilaplana and Elena Ruiz (“The Impossible”)
  • Best Costume Design: Paco Delgado (“Snow White”)
  • Best Art Direction: Alain Bainíe (“Snow White”)
  • Best New Actor: Joaquin Nuñez for “Unit 7″

With its 10 Goyas, “Snow White” was recipient of the Best Film, Best Hair & Makeup, Best Cinematography, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best New Actress, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Costume Design, and Best Art Direction.

“The Impossible” (5) took home the Goya for Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Supervision, Best Sound and Best Editing.

“Tad the Lost Explorer” (3) was the recipient of Best Animated Film, Best New Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay Goyas.  ”Unit 7,” with its two statuettes, achieved honors for Best Supporting Actor as well as the Best New Actor.

Translated by: Luis Pérez-Bodé

18 February 2013

Elections in Venezuela / Rafael León Rodríguez

Capriles, the opposition candidate in Venezeula

If any country in our region has stood out in recent times for its election practices, the country is Venezuela. The Venezuelan people are now engaged in another election process to decide the their political direction that, supposedly, the majority determine.

The campaigns of the two main adversaries are seasoned more by diatribe and disqualification of the other, than by promotion or critical discussion of the sustainability and viability of their programs.

Capriles, the candidate of the opposition, points out in his speeches the inability of Chavismo without Chavez to resolve the problems that the winner will have to have. The grave challenges of citizen insecurity, the galloping economic crisis, and the the interference by the Cuban government in Venezuelan matters, are his principal arguments. continue reading

For his part, president Maduro has publicly imitated even to the song of a bird, assuring his listeners that Chavez’s spirit is close to him. The nagging accusations of the aggressions of the right: attempted assassination, coup d’etat, oil strike, a  referendum of revocation, etc., which marked Chavez’s time as Venezuelan president, form the base of the Maduro’s discourse about his electoral platform.

With regards to the mass rallies with the Chavista governors participating, populism overflows, approving emerging site plans, infrastructure projects, social benefits, housing construction, etc., like at a Christmas Fair. And he is always accompanied by three icons: God, the Bolivarian Constitution of the Republic, and Chavez’s family.

It is true that our Latin roots favor the family as the one uniting and central base of society. When it comes to scenarios of power, these concepts are revealed in public. Historic examples abound in our own backyard. Now Venezuela reaffirms this practice, legitimated by the legacy of the late president. The vice presidency, several governorships and other important government positions are held by the Chavez family. On the election of Maduro will enable the continuation of this state of affairs. Hence the unity of populist politicians of the left, with the heritage of Chavez.

In the upcoming April 14 elections to be held in Venezuela, Cuba without a doubt is betting on a win-win. Of course, the candidate of continuity, Maduro, accuses the opposition of trying to withdraw from the electoral process to sabotage the elections. Of preparing a charge of fraud to election authorities so as to not to recognize the results of the vote count.

In recent days they have declared they discovered a plot to assassinate the Chavista candidate. Maduro is likely to win this election, thanks to the emotional burden that the tragic events of the death of Chavez give to the present time; and as for the next, if they are still in power, the people here and over there, certainly they will put into practice, thanks to the cooperation of Cuba, and for the misery of Venezuelans, the method used in Cuba at the beginning of the Revolution called dictators here: Elections… what for?

9 April 2013

The Executed and The Accomplices in April / Haroldo Dilla Alfonso

FusiladosLorenzoCopelloCastilloBarbaroLeodanSevillaGarciaJorgeLuisMartinezApril 2013 marks a decade since once of the most depressing moments of post-revolutionary history: the so-called Black Spring. It was a time when Fidel Castro, excited about what he assumed was a revolutionary wave in Latin America and the arrival of the first subsidies from Venezuelans, decided to eradicate every sign of discontent and opposition that had accumulated along the road of defeat-after-defeat-until-the-final-victory that he had laid out. The pretext was, as it had been since 1959, shutting the door to the imperialist threat.

Although the Black Spring is remembered above all for the imprisonment of 75 opposition activists without due process, I focus my attention on another event: the shooting of three black youths for the failed hijacking of a passenger ferry that crossed Havana Bay.

As is well-known, a group of eleven young people participated in this criminal act on April 2, 2003, intending to reach the coast of Florida. This involved taking thirty passengers hostage, including two foreign girls who converted to kidnappers and who became, for the police, key pieces in the negotiations. Finally the boat ran out of gas, prompting the hijackers to accept a settlement that only their naivete could support: be towed to the dock at Mariel where they would be refueled so they could resume their journey north. continue reading

The result was the capture of all the hijackers without any physical injury to any passenger. On April 8 a summary trial concluded, at which the detainees had had no access to an attorney of their choice. Three of them — Lorenzo Capello, 31; Bárbaro Sevilla, 22; and Jorge Martínez, 40 — were sentenced to death, while others were punished with sentences ranging from life in prison to two years.

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Cuban State had proceeded to “try and condemn them without the guarantees of due process,” adding “because of the type of offenses committed by alleged victims (under the applied law) the death penalty did not apply, only a penalty of  deprivation of liberty.”

In the galactic time of three days, the sentences were reviewed by the Supreme Court and the Council of State, whose members unanimously upheld the execution of the three youths. Finally, they were shot on April 11, without notification to their families — who were confident the entire time that the order would be reversed — or allowing them to say goodbye. This means that in the nine days that elapsed between April 2 and 11, the lives of three people proceeded to execution, including time for appeals.

The Council of State based its decision, to quote Fidel Castro — in a four-hour tirade that followed the execution — on “the potential dangers that involved not only in the lives of many innocent people but also for the security of the country — subject to a sinister plan of hatched by the most extremist sectors of the United States Government and its allies in the Miami terrorist mafia with the sole purpose of creating conditions and pretexts to attack our country.”

That is, according to Fidel Castro, three young Cubans who did not commit acts of bloodshed, nor take any life, were shot in order to deal with the alleged threat from the United States government headed by then George W. Bush; thus it is conceivable that a decision was made against Cuban citizens based on the attitudes of the American president. Who, in this way, became a legal and internal political actor in Cuba, making Fidel Castro a common “Plattist” (supporter of the Platt Amendment) who accepted the power of interference.

And it happened again some time later, when other Cubans hijacked a boat on the north coast, but this time with more severe acts of violence, and yet that time they were not sentenced to death because that was the condition set by the American government for it to began to returning to Cuba Cubans intercepted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard. In this case, again, the American government imparted justice and decided on the life of Cuban citizens. And again the Cuban leaders joined the bandwagon of “Plattism.”

To make the ignominy worse, 27 Cuban intellectuals and officials took it upon themselves to produce a plaintive document in which they declared to “friends of the world” that “in order to defend itself Cuba has been forced to take energetic measures that naturally it did not wish to,” and called for a repudiation of “the great campaign to isolate us and prepare the ground for United States military aggression against Cuba.”

Among in the intellectuals appeared creatures who never missed an opportunity to dabble in the mud, as is the case with Silvio Rodríguez, Miguel Barnet and Amaury Perez. Nor were other erudite officials missing — to call them intellectuals would be unpardonable hyperbole — such as Carlos Martí, Eusebio Leal and Alfredo Guevara. But also signing were figures from whom one would have expected, at least, an opportune withdrawal, as was the case with Leo Brouwer, Chucho Valdés, Roberto Fabelo, the late Cintio Vitier, his wife García Marruz and Marta Valdés.

The most aberrant aspect of the document was that it held Cuba responsible for the ignominy, when in reality it was only a very small part of it that was guilty. The majority of Cubans knew nothing about it until the newspaper Granma published it, without any contrasting version, and always under the threat of police billy clubs which in those days were swung more quickly than ever.

Nor were the emigrants, who are also Cuban, and who in their vast majority have nothing to do with the metaphor of the “Miami Mafia,” a part of this decision. And most importantly, the executed young people and their families were a legitimate part of Cuba. Consequently, not only was the criminal decision made behind the backs of the majority of Cubans, but also against them.

It is likely that, with the passage of time, this event is weighing on the minds of those who opted for the summary execution of three young black men. It is possible, for example, that in his wanderings as a hospital administrator with no future, then vice-president Carlos Lage has thought about this, as did the Felipe Perez Roque, then Foreign Minister, when he wrote his little note of repentance and noted that he felt a lack of firmness in his pulse when he signed the confirmation of the crime. And it’s possible that when the castrated spokespeople of authoritarianism look back, they will also feel some regret for having called on their friends and not blushing, when faced with the ignominy and the crime.

Another chance for them that Barbaro Sevilla, Lorenzo Copello and Jorge Martinez didn’t have.

Nobody gave them an opportunity to repent.

Translated from Cubaencuentro.

8 April 2013

Socialism: A Transition Stage Between Capitalism and… Capitalism / Rebeca Monzo

Building for sale.

I was having a conversation recently at a friend’s house about new private businesses, doctors being given permission to travel, the prices and shortages of food, and other issues currently affecting our Cuban planet. One of those present mentioned that she was very concerned about the crisis in Europe, unconsciously repeating what she had been told on television, radio and in the press.

I said that I had just returned from Spain and that in fact this is the only thing that the people and the media there were talking about. When they did this in my presence, I asked them to please “not talk about the rope in the house of the hanged man.” continue reading

Indeed, there is a serious crisis in Spain and other European countries, caused perhaps  by a housing bubble — among other things — which led people to spend much more than they could really afford, but which is in no way comparable to our situation, which has lasted for more than half a century. I personally visited many European cities and nowhere did I observe anyone who was badly dressed, wandering from place to place through streets that were not impeccably clean and pothole-free, in search of a store with toilet paper or toothpaste for sale, much less in “foreign money,” or at least not in a currency in which salaries and benefits are paid.

As I told my friend who is so worried about the crisis in Europe, this does not even take into account the high cost of having gone through a revolution, whose specific goal was to improve the quality of life for the population, but which has resulted in the deterioration and destruction of its cities and inhabitants. Nor does it take into account the high price of familial separation, nor of the ever greater exodus of young people in search of social and economic freedom — the very people for whom all this sacrifice was supposedly made — not to mention the corruption that has dominated and continues to dominate the entire country, apparently “at will.”

The upshot is that now, among other signs of a “new capitalism,” there is a contagious frenzy for selling large and beautiful buildings, which were confiscated from their original owners and family members and subsequently handed over to people of “revolutionary merit.” Their descendants are now asking astronomical prices for them, as though they were an inheritance resulting from some familial sacrifice. There are other crazy things happening, like buying out someone, whose home was once the big brick smokestack of the now abandoned El Cocinero cooking oil factory, so that a private investor can turn it into a restaurant, cafe and bar.

At any rate, these and other questions — quite discomforting, to be sure — cause us to reflect on the fact that the sacrifices made over all these years for “socialism” have served only to bring us back to where we started. There is, however, an additional grim reality. In spite of the enormous moral and material deterioration, which we “carry in our ribs” along with a great many lost years, we have in the end returned to a capitalism, but without capital.

8 April 2013

The Attributes of a Candidate / Fernando Damaso

I acknowledge that the recently deceased Bolivarian president, Hugo Chavez, was never a favorite of mine. I always considered him to be a melodramatic populist with a genetic predisposition towards authoritarianism, and rejected the pretension that he was the twenty-first century reincarnation of Simon Bolivar. It is not surprising then that, given his personality and charisma, some of his public and clownish actions — quite the opposite of what one would expect from a responsible head of state —  provoked laughter and gave him a certain appeal among the poorest segments in Venezuela, Latin America and other regional societies, as well as applause from certain people accustomed to extremes. continue reading

His successor, now the ruling-party candidate in the upcoming presidential election, is a colorless personality, devoid of charisma or personality. In his proselytizing campaign he employs his predecessor as an icon, attempting to canonize him while desperately trying to be like him by appropriating his personality and his votes in the hopes of achieving victory. I believe this will mark the first time in history that a country votes for a deceased candidate so that someone else, who pretends to be his immediate reincarnation and a kind of clone, can occupy the presidency. Without a doubt, it is a novel approach, one which goes far beyond anything that happens in Macondo* or that imagined by any of Latin America’s magical realist authors.

It remains to be seen if, after April 14, the elected president — faced with the country’s currently critical situation and the problems that must be addressed — will govern by following word-for-word the directives sent to him by his predecessor in the form of spiritual messages from the great beyond, or dictated to him in whispers by a reincarnated bird or other small animal.**

It seems that these days anything goes, even if it makes you look ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Due to a Caribbean idiosyncrasy, we Cubans reject ridiculous people, especially if they are “dullards,” or as they are popularly called, “lead streams,” “worn-out screws” and “broken bridges.” In other words, people who are intolerable and impassable.

From what we have seen so far, the ruling-party candidate possesses all these attributes. Once again Albert Einstein’s appraisal hold true. Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity.

Translator’s notes: 
*Maconodo is the fictional town which serves as the backdrop for Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
** Venezuelan presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro recently claimed to have received the blessing of Hugo Chavez in the form of a little bird who appeared to him in church.

9 April 2013

Urgent: Angel Santiesteban Prats Was Transferred And His Whereabouts are Unknown / Angel Santiesteban

Today the Human Rights Commission was scheduled to visit La Lima Penitentiary. Because of this they planned to take Angel Santiesteban to the Salvador Allende Military Hospital so that he would not have access to this Commission. At his blunt refusal to enter the hospital they were going to give him a pass for a few hours to go home. He woke up expecting to be taken there. But instead he found himself handcuffed and taken no one knows where. Since this morning we have been waiting in vain for news. We hope there wasn’t an incident when he was transferred but we don’t know any more.

We pray that you spread this news as widely as possible.

9 April 2013

The Era of Broken ATM Cash Machines / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

Several banks in the capital’s municipalities have broken ATM cash machines, which makes it hard for people to get their money.

In Cuba the use of technology to facilitate and expedite service to the population in the metropolitan banks, fails to live up to the same services and technology of other Latin American countries.

Ana C. Jimenez, 45, says she lives near the metropolitan bank that is next to Quinta Canarias — a center for people with psychological problems — in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.

“Every time I go to take money out, the ATM is broken, and this is a bank that’s always full of people and there’s one line for all transactions,” Jimenez said.

The simplicity of having a magnetic card to withdraw money from any ATM is complicated. The truth is that many people don’t want to travel long miles to avoid the huge lines at banks, but many complain they have no choice but join those lines, and then spend long hours of waiting to get the money to buy food.

One problem that affects these services is maintenance, the State enterprises, as usual, exploit the equipment until it stops working. Then when it breaks they repair it, instead of maintaining it so so it doesn’t break. By not tracking the maintenance, the machines break more often and it shortens their useful life, and causes problem for citizens.

The truth is that, meanwhile, the technology is out of service, and instead of maintaining and caring for it so it functions efficiently, citizens are stuck in lines for several hours.

8 April 2013

3D / Yoani Sanchez

Poster for the Young Filmmakers Festival in Havana
Poster for the Young Filmmakers Festival in Havana

They stretch out their hands to touch the creature that seems to emerge from the screen. They scream when the dragon opens its mouth and even cringe when the trees of the ancient magic forest surround them. They are the first viewers of 3D movies in Cuba, the first travelers on an optical adventure. Teenagers, for the most part, who want to appreciate the sensation of three dimensions in the movies. They put on their special glasses and when the film ends, they always want to see it again, to re-experience those visual effects.

In my neighborhood they’ve opened a 3D theater. A tiny place run by a family where you can watch the latest movies with this technology that have been released to the world movie market. At first, no one knew precisely what it was all about, but little by little the enthusiasm has been spreading among younger people and now there is a line outside the place to get a seat in front of that fantastic screen. This week they are showing “The Hobbit,” a lavish production based on the work of the novelist and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien.

The State hasn’t wanted to be left behind and during the Young Filmmakers Festival in Havana they programmed, for the first time, a series of film showings in 3D. The projections took place in a room accommodating only 45 viewers and the tickets sold out in advance. The glasses and TVs that allow you to enjoy this technology have never been sold in Cuban stores, but the wide variety of these gadgets that show up in the underground market is surprising. On the illegal networks you can find everything you need to enjoy this new entertainment. No one wants to miss the experience, even though it only lasts a few minutes.

9 April 2013

Licentiousness of the Press / Miriam Celaya

Preliminary Note to readers: For reasons way beyond my control, I did not have the chance to update the blog for many days. The Desdecuba.com page was hacked twice, and Yoani Sánchez and other friends are still trying to get it fixed. I am posting a new article, and I hope complete service will be established soon.  Thanks and hugs to all friends.

Nobody listens to his stories any more. Work of Cuban painter Abel Quintero

It’s true that in Cuba there is no freedom of the press. In its place, press licentiousness, as prolific and thorny as the invasive marabou weed, has developed. It is a peculiar way to “report”, and, as crazy as the results are, (or perhaps because of it), it’s very consistent with the system.

The press is one of the indicators that most markedly evidences signs of change, a constant that has an influence even in societies such as ours, where secrecy rules.  Some of the readers with sharper memories will remember that, during the period of Castro I, we experienced an absolutely triumphant press: all  the milestones of the three first decades of the revolution were positive, crop and livestock production grew each year, indicators of health, education, sports and culture marked an unstoppable upward course, the harvests were huge, and so were all the line-entries that heralded an economic splendor always knocking at our doors, without ever entering our lives.

Not even the 1990’s crisis was able to destroy the vibrant spirit of a kind of completely alienated optimism.  So the press repeated each inspired and inflamed phrase of the Great Orate, and we didn’t have food, clothing, shoes or fuel… but we did have “dignity”.  We also had the celebrated battle for Elián, one of the most resonant Pyrrhic victories in Cuban history, in which substantial resources were spent while people went hungry, and a while later we had “Five Heroes”… who, some day, will “return”. Then came the open tribunals each Saturday in different municipalities throughout Cuba, squandering what we didn’t have, and the absurd Round Tables were instituted.  The press had the mission to inflate the balloons that substantiated the indestructible success and the indisputable superiority of the tropical socialist system, despite the collapse of the USSR and the abrupt disappearance of subsidies.

But it has been under the period of Castro II that licentiousness of the press has reached its climax, especially in the heat of the “opening” marked by the so-called government reforms, where the economic parameters sealed the full apogee of an original way to “report” under which things are not what they seem, but something completely different.

This explains why, for example, official figures reported a modest GDP growth at the end of 2012, and, paradoxically, at the barely ending first trimester in 2013, an expanded meeting of the Council of Ministers acknowledged hereto unspeakable evils in the Cuban economy: lack of productivity, inefficiency, defaults, lack of organization and lack of discipline, among others, that prevented the fulfillment of the plans.  Nobody bothered to explain this strange way of “growing” by being unproductive.

Indicators of the progress of the harvest and sugar production were recently published, with very poor results, and, compared with the same period last year, a decrease in foreign tourist arrivals has been reported for the month of February, 2013 (full peak of tourist season). However, the press ensures that the investment plan will continue for that “priority sector” and that an increase in revenue is expected on this line-entry of this important economic sector.

The Moa nickel plant ceased production, however, the General-President insists on “the need to work to guarantee the assured external income, including those derived from the export of nickel and sugar”, although the country is forced to import sugar just to meet domestic demand. In his words, “we are moving at a great pace despite the obstacles”. With such news, it seems clear where progress is moving, but there is no doubt that this informative coven lurching between chaos and optimism is the mirror image of the national condition.

In short, the press turns out to be more licentious the more representative of the Castro II “transparency” it is. But there is nothing to wonder at, according to the dictionary of the Spanish language, some synonyms of the word “licentiousness” are: impudence, obscenity, indecency, dishonesty, shamelessness, among others. I guess that, once the terms are known, nobody will deny that licentiousness of the press in Cuba is enjoying perfect health.

Translated by Norma Whiting

8 April 2013

Strange Institutions / Fernando Damaso

All professional associations in Cuba – those that claim to represent attorneys, architects, economists, artists, journalists and craftspeople, among others, as well as those made up of women, students, farm workers, laborers and others – which purport to the world to be NGOs, are in reality governmental organizations. They are organized, directed, financed and controlled by the state. Rather than defending the interests of their members, they really serve as straightjackets, forcing them to behave within established political and ideological boundaries. Anyone who dares to go beyond or to ignore them in the belief that he has some degree of independence is immediately called to account. If this does not achieve the desired result, the person can be dishonorably expelled from the association, which then makes him into a social pariah and, if he is a professional, leaves him without the right to legally practice his profession.

There is a group of people, a majority, who belong to these associations. As one might expect, they strictly comply with all the “commandments” in order to be able to work, study, travel, enjoy some advantages and receive official recognition. Another, less numerous group attempts to operate on the inside with some degree of independence by adopting contrary positions – the official one sometimes; more liberal ones less often – trying “to be on good terms with both God and the devil.” There is also a group of rebels who do not belong to either of these two. These individuals lack legal support and must act independently and at their own risk, without the possibility of access to the governmental platforms.

These organizations do not engage in controversial actions. They are really peaceful backwaters with the normal rivalries and hindrances characteristic of each sector. However, when someone – be it either an individual or a group – dares to act independently and with a certain degree of bravery by calling something into question, these organizations – headed by its most orthodox members – become courts of inquisition, drafting and publishing accords, communiques, declarations and letters with many “voluntary” signatures. The violator of the sacrosanct commandments is then incinerated in a bonfire of the most extreme intolerance. Examples of this practice abound and are quite well-known in every organization.

In these cases the outrage, which is political, ideological and directed from above, has nothing to do with the actual feelings of his or her colleagues. Unfortunately, these attitudes are widespread and the institutions as such are incapable of defending the interests of their members. Instead, they serve as prosecutors responding to “the boss’s orders.” The consequences are disqualifications, personal insults, acts of repudiation and other unpleasantries directed from on high at the allegedly guilty parties, chosen as the propitious victims of the moment based on the interests of the authorities, who are the ones really in control.

6 April 2013

A Dreamed of, Possible and Future Cuba, Laboratorio Casa Cuba Proposal / Catholic Archdiocese of Havana

Site manager’s note: This document/proposal, published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Havana, is generating discussion among the bloggers and is posted here for the convenience of our readers.

The following translation is taken from the Havana Times. The document, in English, can be downloaded here.

A Dreamed of, Possible and Future Cuba

The sovereignty of the country is only the unrestricted exercise of all the rights of human dignity throughout the territory of our country for all Cubans.

Cuba is experiencing a new era. This imposes on us the urgency of ensuring the sovereignty of our country. Concerned about the present and the future, we wish to make proposals to be studied and debated publicly, about how a process of economic renovation might develop alongside a renewal of the Cuban social order.

We in the Laboratorio Casa Cuba*, of dissimilar ideological provenance, start from a consensus on five pillars that we deem crucial and indispensable for the present and future of Cuba: Advocate the realization of human dignity, which is specified by non-violent exercise of freedom, equality and brotherhood, for the socialization of spiritual and material wealth to be able to create, for the achievement of full democracy, for the pursuit of greater stability in this process of change and solved by the rejection of foreign powers meddling in the affairs of Cuba.

In proposing (never imposing) a minimal definition of Republic and some possible tools to achieve it, we don’t want to promote private agendas, but Cubans’, with different opinions and beliefs, among all of us to realize, broaden and deepen these criteria, we aspire to be the basis of our coexistence in the near future.

Republic:

A public order with a universe of attitudes, commitments and rules guaranteed to every human being to enjoy all the capabilities needed to perform their share of sovereignty. The exercise of citizen sovereignty, which requires a democratic order must be based on human virtues, as the principal means mutual support, and the goal of building justice.

Instruments to strengthen the Republic of Cuba today and tomorrow:

I. Ensure the enjoyment of civil, family, political, cultural, social, labor and economic rights.

II. Implement effective mechanisms through which every citizen can equally enjoy these rights, and to empower the disadvantaged.

III. To ensure the right to universal information that is free and diverse, broad and deep, interactive and critical, without censorship or monopolization. This is especially essential to ensure transparency in governance and participatory mass access to the Internet.

IV. Ensure the social and political multiplicity of the nation the right to choose different ways to self-organize in order to promote their goals, influence opinion and act in society and participate in governance.

V. Allow believers and practitioners of different religions, spiritualities and worldviews that exist in Cuba to publicly promote their identities, feel respected,  and self-organize into communities with legal status.

VI. Establish diverse ways to enable citizens to actively monitor compliance with the Constitution, and the performance of all official institutions.

VII. To seek the greatest possible autonomy for local institutions, understood as community spaces, resources and decision-making capabilities on these, to exercise the role of solidarity and citizen sovereignty.

VIII. When a problem can be solved at the grassroots level, locally, community wise or in the workplace, the higher courts should not intervene in the solution; communities, associations, companies and groups of workers must be able to freely cooperate with each other to solve their problems together.

IX. Repeal all rules that establish discrimination between citizens according to their places of origin or residence, including those that favor foreigners’ over Cubans. Likewise, repeal laws providing the possibility of criminal sanctions for those who didn’t commit criminal acts (charged with pre-criminal dangerousness: the “dangerousness” and “pre-criminal security measures”).

X. Establish mechanisms of mutual control between the various public functions. Separate legislative, executive, judicial and electoral functions and outline the cooperation that should exist between them.

XI. Each taxpayer should be involved in the development and approval of the use of funds coming into the treasury, and accountability for use in well-defined social purposes.

XII. Choose any public office representative, through direct elections, free, secret and periodic and competitive among candidates nominated directly by citizens.

XIII. Likewise, the above rules should apply to the election of the highest executive positions of the Republic and of each locality.

XIV. Limit to two periods remaining in the popularly elected executive positions, and set age limits for such functions as well as determine the incompatibility of positions to be held by the same person.

XV. Enforce the periodic interactive public accountability of all public officials.

XVI. Ensure the right of the people to revoke all mandates.

XVII. Make full use of the referendum and the plebiscite, in all areas and dimensions.

XVIII. Effectively ensure the right to work and employment guarantees, as well as the needed economic freedoms, and make the management of the economy subject to enforceable social and environmental commitments.

XIX. Keep as law, universal and free access to health care, through various forms of social organization as well as fair remuneration according to professional performance.

XX. Ensuring universal and personalized access to a democratic, humanistic and diverse education, with fair pay for educators and the active involvement of teachers, students, families and communities in the management of the school facilities and the definition of curricula as well as a free and responsible cultural development.

XXI. Academic and university autonomy, with academic freedom and of research, and an active participation of all stakeholders.

XXII. Ensure effective ways to ensure a balanced participation of the Cuban diaspora in the country’s life.

XXIII. All social activity must comply with the principles of legality, justice and constitutional supremacy. Constitutional provisions should be developed and adopted with the participation of the general population.

With this we add our modest effort to the unforgettable efforts of those who have fought and worked for the triumph of love in our land, a choir of plural and diverse voices, which we join in a common redemptive password.

Comments, analysis and proposals can be sent to the following email address: labcasacuba@gmail.com
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(*) The Laboratory Casa Cuba is a newly created team for social and legal research, recently created by Espacio Laical, a publication of the Roman Catholic archbishopric of Havana. It includes professors and researchers of diverse ideologies (Catholics, critical Marxists, republican-socialists and anarchists), whose critical contribution will attempt to provide tools that can help to continue the dialogue and consensus building for a Cuba with dignity, solidarity and citizen participation.

The Aging of Cuba and the Fiscal Deficit / Juan Juan Almeida

It is extremely worrying that our island is one of the countries with the oldest populations on the planet. The particular Cuban phenomenon is due to reasons too well-known, emigration increased while the birth rate and population growth decreased.

As what is critical rarely leaves time for what is important, it is not difficult to understand that irresponsible policies or at least misguided ones, increased pension costs and led to the unstoppable increase in the Cuban fiscal deficit.

Many will say that it is desirable to change the social system, but in my opinion it depends on the popular decision. The fact is that the population is aging, and with regards to labor issues, in Cuba the concept of the “third age” disappeared.

For the elderly, retiring is a goal; and it is a fiction that a young man of 20 — which describes so many of those who are now unemployed — can find work for the time needed to meet the requirements to retire. The young would have to work more than their entire lives to collect a pension. Of course, the orphans and disabled are — full stop — even worse off.

The aging of the population exhausted the limited financial sustainability of the pension system; its base is completely insufficient to cover the age span of a retiree.

Therefore, it is more than necessary, it is imperative to reform this system, increase revenue, expand coverage and ensure sustainability in the very near future.

We need to forget the past for a while and look towards a common horizon, abandoning this ridiculous antagonism brought by the struggle for power, and help the youth of today, so they don’t become the homeless of tomorrow.

In 2005 the Revolutionary government ordered an increase in payments, even passing new laws in this regard, but the continued devaluation of the Cuban peso has proportionally reduced the real value of the amount of money received by a pensioner. So today, they are receiving more, but it buys far less.

In the present circumstances, to offer certain status to the working population, the government would have to increase the contribution paid by workers and, in turn, increase the retirement age to 200 years. Egregious nonsense. The measures are still notoriously inadequate and misleading.

We know well that the country’s leadership began its so-called “update of the socialist model” to rid itself of a hindrance; eliminating state jobs and laying off staff without vocations, they had no choice to take refuge in the nascent private section which lacks any pension system. Office workers were turned into peasants; and bureaucrats into french fry sellers. But these workers, like every other Cuban, lack confidence in banks and continue in a limbo of abandonment.

I do not want to talk about the problem without offering my assessment; I think that, for the State workers, it would be effective to readjust the subsidy according to personal efficiency, not according to age; a kind of sustainable work that contributes, taking advantage of the individual and reassessing the self-worth of those likely to feel valued.

On the other hand, it’s urgent to modify the law governing foreign investment in a way that can provide attractive incentives such as tax exemptions for a determined period to foreign businesses that organize reliable retirement plans for those many workers who receive monthly income and which, for reasons of semantics, instead of being called entrepreneurs are called “self-employed.”

4 April 2013

When Fidel Castro Wanted to Break Up the Dissident Movement / Ivan Garcia

Neighbors witnessing the arrest of a dissident in 2003 — see more detailed note below.

2003 was an incredible year. Harassment, arbitrary detentions, acts of repudiation and verbal assaults against the opposition by the government were rising.

There was an escalation by the government against peaceful dissidents and independent journalists. Castro called a referendum to shore up his olive-green socialism. It was a response to the Varela Project petition, which had been submitted to the National Assembly by the opposition figure Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas. The petition was backed up by more than ten thousand signatures and, following procedures enshrined in the constitution, called on the legislature to undertake constitutional reforms.

In 1999 Castro had promulgated Article 88, a legal hodgepodge that mandated sentences of more than twenty years for dissidents and independent journalists under the pretext they were undermining the status quo.

Fidel Castro himself appeared on television and read a list with names of opposition figures who allegedly had contact with diplomats from the United States and the Czech Republic.

One could see that something was brewing in the sewers of power. The regime’s attacks in the media were missiles specifically directed at opposition leaders Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Martha Beatriz Roque, Oscar Elías Biscet, and the poet and journalist Raúl Rivero.

Months before the raid on dissidents, a furious Fidel Castro threatened the opposition in a speech at the Karl Marx Theater. “Don’t say later that you were not warned,” he told them. “We will not allow mercenaries to carry out their work with impunity, though we won’t kill butterflies with cannon fire.”

On March 18, 19 and 20, 2003 violent lightning raids were launched on the homes of more than eighty dissidents across the island, marking the beginning of surgical detentions intended to destroy the opposition.

It was a well-designed move. The international press corps was lining up to go to Iraq, where all signs indicated that war was imminent. According to Castro’s calculations, the administration of George W. Bush would soon be bogged down in a costly and exhausting war with the dictator Saddam Hussein.

It did not happen that way. In a devastating offensive lasting little more than a month, troops from the United States and its allies pulled down a statue of the tyrant in Baghdad. In spite of the clamor of war, the imprisonment of dozens of the island’s opposition figures did not go unnoticed by the world’s press.

International criticism was considerable. The government in Havana had not anticipated such a reaction. Some of Castro’s friends such as Portuguese writer José Saramago and Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano criticized the detentions. Saramago’s reaction was extreme. “This is as far as I go,” he said, abandoning ship and the fellow travellers who supported the bearded Cuban.

Initially up to a hundred dissidents were detained. Later the number was reduced to seventy-five. Settling accounts like an old wine merchant, Castro’s calculations were based on the assumption that the Bush administration would negotiate the release of ’his mercenaries’ by exchanging them for the five Cuban spies imprisoned in the United States.

To Castro this seemed like a reasonable exchange — fifteen “wretched worms” for each spy. Perhaps he was thinking back to 1961 when Kennedy exchanged baby food and cereal for more than two-thousand anti-Castro fighters imprisoned on the island after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

The move came back to bite him. It was a crude political error. World leaders demanded the dissidents’ freedom, and the United States and the European Union further tightened the screws on the economic sanctions against Cuba.

Castro upped the ante. Taking advantage of the case of three Cubans who had commandeered a transport vessel, he decided to send a message to frighten the population. At the time, in their eagerness to reach the Florida coast, people were escaping any way they could. At a summary trial three black youths, who were living in poor neighborhoods of Havana, were sentenced to death.

It was bad. Dissidents and ordinary Cubans alike thought Castro had lost his mind. Meanwhile, dissidents and independent journalists like us lived in a constant state of anxiety. I walked around with a spoon and toothbrush in my back pocket.

I felt that at any moment I could be arrested. Luckily, this did not happen, though the phone was cut off for several days. We were all afraid. I still remember a distressed Blanca Reyes, wife of Raúl Rivero, describing his arrest and subsequent detention.

The evidence against him consisted of his articles and poems, an Olivetti typewriter, books by universally acclaimed authors and photos of his children, friends and family members. He was arrested in his apartment in La Victoria, where he had lived since his wedding. It is a rough neighborhood, a breeding ground for hookers, pimps and hustlers. People with no future who do not enthusiastically applaud Castro’s rants. It was in one of these poor central Havana neighborhoods where the disturbances of August 1994, known as the Maleconazo, the Malecon uprising, broke out.

On the afternoon of March 20, when Raúl Rivero was arrested, the street was filled with neighbors and onlookers. When he was put into a Russian car, his hands shackled as though he were a terrorist, some outraged neighbors began to shot “abusadores” and “libertad.”

Ten years after the Black Spring, efforts to destroy opposition groups, independent journalists and alternative bloggers have increased. Those of us who have worked for democracy and freedom of expression press on. Here we are.

Iván García

Photo: Neighbors from the block where Raúl Rivero lived — on Peñalver between Franco and Oquendo streets in Central Havana — witnessing the arrest of the director of Cuba Press, an agency for independent journalism established on September 23, 1995. Among its founders are Iván García and Tania Quintero.

6 April 2013