Although it still remains to close the book on the clinical case of the patient Hugo Chavez, we can already affirm that the issue of the Venezuelan president’s health has had its final outcome, it seems clear that the Bolivarian commander will not have another opportunity to be president.
After a silence where we have heard only vague comments about the complexity of the postoperative process and repetitions of what the whole world already knows, the time is coming to make public complete information, including a chronology. Information that is urgent to inform the world, and especially the Venezuelan people, about the causes that prevent the elected president from assuming office in a timely manner.
The main question is who should provide this information; who should take responsibility for what happened.
From June 30, 2011, when Chavez announced that he had detected a cancer, no medical institution has officially spoken about the patient. To reconstruct the history of the appearance, evolution and end stage of the disease, so far we have only a mix of rumors, reported by the Venezuelan government through their spokesmen, and the declarations issued in the first person by Chavez himself.
The accuracy of this information, already on the opposition’s agenda, goes far beyond the interests that oncologists might have based on their scientific curiosity about this type of cancer appearing and disappearing in such a surprising way. The real mystery to unveil before public opinion is perhaps found in these variables:
1. In October of 2012 Chavez was totally cured; thus he accepted his victory as a candidate in the presidential elections. Meanwhile, now he suffers from another, new cancer, that no one expected or suspected.
2. Chavez was not completely healthy, nor in any condition to accept the responsibility of assuming the presidency.
2.1 He knew it and hid it from his constituents.
2.2 He didn’t know it.
2.2.1 He didn’t know it because his medical team was not aware of the danger stalking him.
2.2.1 He didn’t know it because his medical team lied to him or hid the information.
Returning to the question of who should explain the above variables, obviously it would touch on the medical team located in Cuba or the Cuban government itself, which through its institutions chose the personnel in charge of this case.
If this is another cancer and not the one detected in mid-2011, they will have to provide scientific evidence comprehensible at least to specialists beyond political whims and Jewish curses.
If the disappearance of the disease was never definitive enough for Chavez to dare to accept his nomination as a presidential candidate, the medical team will then be obliged to confess that it did not have the scientific resources or the necessary expertise to know that, or, on the contrary, that it did know but refused to inform the patient, or that it knew, informed the patient, and he then decided to hide it.
Already, Señor Hugo Chavez has no political future, he barely has a biological future. If he already knew all this in October of last year, his decision to hide it from the electorate can only be understood to result from a voracious lust for power, or, being generous, as an act of elevated altruism: knowing his fatal destiny, he would assure in this way the presence of his party in the presidential chair, eventually handing off the baton to the vice president Nicolas Maduro. Perhaps it was a valiant effort to appear to vigorous — with the help of steroids — which precipitated the final breakdown of his health.
Now everything seems to indicate that such a sacrifice was in vain and in addition counterproductive, because the unveiling of such a deception could come at a devastating political cost to his party facing new elections, as provided for in these cases by the Venezuelan Constitution.
Venezuelan public opinion has a moral duty and right to demand a truthful and convincing explanation. We Cubans must also demand one because the international credibility of our institutions has been put into play here.
A long time ago, when we were happy and believed that we could fix the world by debating about baseball, poetry and politics (much time has passed since then), we found the Sancti Spiritus-Santiago de Cuba based poet, Reinaldo Garcia Blanco, who reminded us of the time when Christmas was rationed, with his poem “Very long eulogy” which conjured images of those ‘Bulgarian onions and some Rene Barbier Rosada wine’. Years later, they gave me this same wine as a welcome present to this poetic site known as Miami. The wine, the books, and friendship are a tribute to Reinaldo, Marta Maria Montejo, Rafael Vilches, Carlos Esquivel and many others who believe in the strength of words when some believe in the strength of physical blows and stonings at night. 2013 could be the year of uniting poetry and life, of finally getting fed up with so much silence and so much screaming. I leave you with a fragment of the poem which moved us that one time:
“From Left to Right”
‘With the stare of an angel, there is a woman with a mustache. It’s Frida Khalo, and her hand lies over the shoulder of Trotsky (who brings an apple towards his face), and then there is a Doric column (now it’s in sepia but during the photo it was red). Then there is a man with a firefly on his hand and a tobacco on his mouth (he makes circles of light so we can see in this darkness) and it seems as if he’s giving his back to a girl called Greta Garbo (she is playing with a kite and the hand which comes out of nowhere to snatch the toy from her belongs to Salvador Dali). Towards the back, there is a sign which reads “Proletariats of the world, Unite”. Towards the far right one man adds with a paintbrush: “Last warning”. My memory fails me, but I would bet it was Pablo Picasso. Others follow him, and it seems that they are Russian, Chechnyans, or Quakers…God knows. On the table, there are Bulgarian onions and some “Rene Barbiera Rosado” wines. The girl and the old man are Maria Kodama and Jorge Luis Borges. The one getting down from the cross is Jesus. The one with the Second World War nurse outfit is Isadora Duncan and the one with the faint stair holding a Beatles CD in his hand is Mao Zedong.’
The city of Miami surprised me. Many of its buses pay tribute to someone who is a symbol of defending civil rights in this country. On my daily comings and goings through its neighborhoods, I found that detail. Right behind the bus driver’s seat, there is a small plaque with the details. Miami does it, and so have other cities in the United States, as one day will be done in Cuba with some similar actions.
The fact that Rosa Parks decided, on that afternoon of 1955, not to give up her seat to a white person, ignited the spark among her fellow citizens, leading to known events like the public transport strike in Montgomery. It was a gesture, a pro-active action, an act of non-cooperation, doing. Just like a few women decided to take to the streets of Cuba in 2003, dressed in white and with a flower in hand, or how a group of men have said: “I do not cooperate with the dictatorship”. It is these citizen gestures which turn on the motor of grand human actions.
Berta Soler. Photo by: Luis Felipe Rojas
After so much blood has been shed on the island, years of unjust imprisonment, arbitrary detentions, beatings and harassment against political activists and their families, will the definitive spark be ignited? Everything seems to indicate that it will, although sometimes we may lose hope or think that the dictatorship which has governed us for 54 years is eternal. When Laura Pollan screamed in front of the guards: “We are not afraid of you”, when Marta Diaz Rondon and Caridad Caballero shouted at the top of their lungs: “My house is not a prison”, or when Iris Perez Aguilera protested in a small town of Cuba’s interior in front of a radio station because it was only reporting part of the truth, they too were also paying tribute to Rosa Parks. They are also like her. And although they did not have the immediate protection and coverage which the humble lady from Alabama had, there is still the hope that one day they will be acknowledged for their gestures of reasonable rebellion. Against brute force, reason stands firm, Rosa said it: “Freedom is not free”.
Let’s take a look at government predictions. According to state technocrats, Cuba’s GDP will grow 3.7% in 2013. Spokesmen for General Raul Castro claim that, in spite of an economic crisis affecting half the world, social services will remain at 2012 levels.
The “good news” keeps on coming from the Palace of the Revolution. The construction materials industry will grow 5.4% The electrical energy supply will increase 2%. Planned investments at 34%. Construction at 20.8%. Domestic travel will reach 10.1%. Labor productivity is estimated to grow 2.6%.
The finishing touch to these official forecasts is that tourism figures will surpass three million visitors. The military overlords, who control 80% of the nation’s wealth, claim it will be a good year economically. But the macroeconomic figures do not trickle down to Cuban households. For the last twenty years a basket of essential goods and services has consumed 90% of a typical family’s income.
Having three meals a day is a luxury in Cuba. Most people have black coffee and bread with oil for breakfast. Or they do not have breakfast. Families try to see to it that the ill, elderly and children have lunch at home. For a large segment of the population lunch is bread and croquettes or pizza prepared at small, privately owned cafes. At night, dinner ideally consists of rice, beans, egg, pork or chicken, and salad or a seasonal vegetable.
But there are not always beans and meat. Right now procuring food is Cubans’ number one concern. High food prices make it difficult for many people to satisfy their nutritional needs.
For several years now General Raul Castro has recognized that guaranteeing the bean supply is more important than having a fleet of T-62 tanks at the ready. The inefficient agricultural and livestock industry has not been able to guarantee a steady supply of dairy products, meat, legumes, produce, fruits and vegetables at prices commensurate with the poverty-level salaries that Cuban workers earn. Management is inefficient in other sectors as well. The water supply in Havana, for example, is often accessible only every other day. In villages such as El Calvario distribution occurs one out of every three days.
This has forced many families along the width and breadth of the island to install supplemental facilities for storing water. These are regularly found to be uncovered, in bad repair and infested with swarms of mosquitoes, which transmit dengue fever. Cholera has also reappeared due to the shortage of clean drinking water.
Another day-to-day problem for the average Cuban is public transport. We do not have a subway line in Cuba. The suburban rail system is barely functional and modestly priced taxis do not exist. The only way then to get from one location to another is by city bus or private taxi, which charge ten to twenty pesos a ride.
Five years ago a network of articulated buses was introduced in Havana. There were seventeen lines that ran along the city’s main thoroughfares, and were spaced five to ten minutes apart at peak hours. More than 200 are now out of service due to a lack of replacement parts. The bus shortage has led to the collapse of the capital’s public transportation system.
The optimistic economic figures do not take into account repairs to the innumerable water leaks in towns and cities. Or repairs to streets and multi-family apartment buildings. The government claims that the sale of construction materials unsubsidized by the state will grow for years to come.
But if you visit one of the markets where they are sold, you can almost never find what you need. To say nothing of the high prices. Not everyone can afford to pay 90 to 110 pesos for a bag of cement. Or 10 pesos for a cinder block or a brick.
I have reviewed the 2013 economic forecasts, but have not seen anything to indicate that the government intends to study, address or resolve the issue of low wages. Or the contradiction of having two currencies in circulation within the country. And one of these, the principal one being the convertible peso or CUC*, is not used to pay the bulk of workers’ salaries.
Any rational analysis would show that a family of four, that hopes to live comfortably, must have an income of no less than 6,000 Cuban pesos or 240 Convertible pesos (CUCs). The average salary in Cuba is 400 Cuban pesos. Such insolvency is the cause of low productivity and poor quality in industrial manufacturing. Many go to work simply to steal whatever they can.
Work schedules are ignored. Stores open half an hour after the posted time and close half an hour before. In stores and markets cash counts and audits in the middle of the day are routine, paralyzing sales.
The average Cuban is not a habitual slacker. He has demonstrated his industriousness and creativity in places he has settled, such as Florida. But he feels he has not been sufficiently motivated to work long and hard in his homeland. These days, in conversations among people waiting in line, there is skepticism about the government’s encouraging predictions.
Amid the “good” economic forecasts is a fundamental issue on which the regime would prefer not to comment. That is the state of health of President Hugo Chavez, who remains bedridden in a Havana hospital. An atmosphere of suspense and secrecy surrounds the formidable chief executive.
No one knows with certainty if his swearing-in on January 10 will take place in Caracas or in a medical clinic in Havana. If it becomes impossible for Hugo Chavez to retain office in 2013, the force of such a political earthquake will strongly impact Cuba, whose economy is highly dependent on the 100,000 daily barrels of oil provided at favorable prices by the generous Venezuelan.
A new government, even one led by Chavez supporters, would lead to an anxious waiting period on the island. The Chavez factor is more important to the Castros than the rosy published economic predictions.
Without Chavez, 2013 will be a tough, dark year in Cuba. The Creole autocrats are doing everything within their power to assure that their optimistic forecasts do not go off track. From a mass for the Bolivarian comandante in a Catholic church to the orishas of the Afro-Cuban religion, anything goes.
Iván García
*Translator’s note: The convertible peso, or CUC, is one of two official Cuban currencies and is pegged at roughly 1.10 to the US dollar. Many essential goods are sold only at government-run hard currency stores, which accept payment only in convertible pesos.
To finish, Garrincha sends out this final present, which makes you want to stay and celebrate. Thanks to everyone who did the nearly impossible to allow us to be here. Happy New Year and best vibes for 2013.
Another year is ending and in a few days 2013 will begin. For me, 2012 has been like a whirlwind, so much has been happening and I’ve been so busy! Since for me a year is much more than time intervals that limit one from another every 365 days, I like to think of them by proper names according to what they mean to me, what I plan to achieve in their course or what events take place in each one.
It may seem crazy, and perhaps it is, but personalizing the years helps me to get a hold of them and to live them more intensely. I make better use of time when I assume, with empathy, those periods I claim to fulfill options and realize dreams. Not only does it work for me, but I can deal with adversity more optimistically.
It was not always so. Just over a decade ago I felt the year’s passage as a weak-willed segment between Christmases. Waiting for December was the illusion, the mainstay of the soul to achieve what I considered the best of each year –parties, overindulging, revelry, parades of friends we hadn’t seen since last year … – with the additional childish expectation of thinking that perhaps the new year would be the one to make a difference: who’d know if perhaps we would be lucky enough to dawn in a better Cuba one of those days. Thus, the hidden sign behind the lights on the Christmas tree and behind the greetings and the toasts was always the longing, the quiet feeling of undigested and poorly assumed deprivation, frustration and dissatisfaction. If I didn’t succumb back then to the national epidemic that I am in the habit of calling “the zombie effect” it was simply miraculous, by chance, or perhaps because my testy nature always refuses to accept resignation as a destination (or to accept fate with resignation, as a good Christian friend would say).
The truth is that at one point I caught a glimpse of that light in all of us and came out of the quagmire. Ever since that day, though December continues to be a happy, joyful and festive month for me, far from being a goal, it’s a pretext for invoking both my best angels and to exorcise my worse demons. Each December is a watchtower to view the horizon ahead of me, and to choose my own path towards it. 2000 was, if memory serves me, the first year I named in the millennium: I named it Awakening because that was what my spirit felt, and since then, each New Year’s eve I celebrate the christening of the coming year.
I wanted to share with you these memories to wish you success and prosperity in the New Year and so that, together, we make them ours. I wish you much health and lots of the good energy to achieve our personal goals. Recently, I choose the name of my 2013: it will be called Hope. I hope that my readers will understand why. A big hug to everyone,
It is recommended that on occasion we avoid leaving footprints of our intentions on the floor of our walk to they won’t know where we direct our steps. So sometimes it’s good to wear masks on our feet.
I always thought that on the day in which things in Cuba would become as they are today, the people in power would behave with much more good sense and flexibility.
Those of us who now have grey hairs, do not forget the nationalisation without compensation of many properties, the compulsory separation from families who have gone abroad, the persecution for religious belief, the Forced Labor Camps (UMAP), the banning of the Beatles, the notorious “warning” to the intellectuals, the very dangerous installation of nuclear missiles, etc., etc.
All of this, plus the accumulation of five undelivered five-year plans, have worn out the patience of the citizens whom they asked to sacrifice their time and their lives in return for the future of the New Man.
Now we see, for example, the open letter attributed to a group of surgeons from the Calixto Garcia hospital circulated on the internet, where you can read:
The deficiencies in the medical service are so serious … that we cannot provide medical attention which is ethical and which our people deserve, which is our sacred duty.
For how long are we going to be grateful to the centenary generation for having done their duty … while our generation waits to carry out its duty to develop and to give our families and children the life they deserve?
I also never thought that we would be the citizens who use the revolutionary and socialist laws to indicate to those in power (and also to international organisations – why not?); that those who once told us “we are all equal before the law” would put themselves outside the law and allow themselves to disregard it.
It’s what happens when:
– They handcuff and throw in jail a lawyer who has gone to a police station to inquire about the legal position of a prisoner.
– They tell us that “from now on, lawyers will not be allowed into police stations.”
– They tell the activists of the campaign For Another Cuba:
These Agreements are all very nice, but, what you don’t know is that, behind all this is the hand of the enemy who has other aims in mind…
(Please note the implication that Cubans never do anything as a result of their own convictions, but we are always programmed and led by foreign enemies).
– They use violence against people without any basis in law and with the manifest contempt on the part of the political police for peoples’ legal rights as recognised in the nation’s own Magna Carta.
– They send a message to the people which reads:
The only possibility of independence and national sovereignty resides in ourselves. There is absolutely nobody in the 11 million Cubans who has more ability than ourselves to guarantee that sovereignty, as well as the right to stay here all our lives.
Violence only leads to more violence. Many people have already died for that and others have been close to dying for the same reason.
Unfortunately, possibly some more Cubans have to die before this sad story ends. It’s just that those of us who feel love for this country always bet on the first of the two choice in this absurd binomial alternative: law or violence.
Despite bad times, we should enjoy life’s pleasant things whenever they happen. So I want to share with my readers my joy when, a few days ago I received, via DHL, a heavy box containing twenty books. The books are Memories of the Sixth Contest of Essays Caminos de la Libertad, corresponding to the 2011 edition of this event held every year by the Grupo Salinas (Mexico), which I entered and –though I did not win- I did get an honorable mention, so my essay “Cuba: Tres Tiempos de Libertad Truncada” [Cuba: Freedom Truncated Three Times] is published in this volume, alongside works of prestigious personalities of this Hemisphere, of much greater intellectual scope than this impudent writer, which makes me even happier. In fact, the special award by the Group in the category A Life for Freedom was given to no less than one of the writers I most admire and respect: Mario Vargas Llosa. I am as happy as a kid with a new toy.
Since, nonetheless, the book’s superb quality is an indicator of the significance and professionalism which it encompasses, I will put aside my self-satisfaction and summarize my own essay –as publicity- so those interested in the subject can look it up on the web at Caminos de la Libertad.
This is an analysis of the pursuit of freedom in three particular moments in the history of Cuba: The First War of Independence or the Ten Years War (1868-1878), the Second War of Independence or War of 95 (1895 -1898) and the guerrilla war (December 1956-January 1959), and how that aspiration was truncated in each case by multiple factors set forth in the essay.
Simultaneously, it is demonstrated how, in each case of armed, destructive and violent revolutionary processes, freedom has not been attained in Cuba. The work includes and analysis of historical, economic, political and cultural components at each scenario and juncture, related to events, up to their convergence in the incidence they have played upon the Island’s current state of affairs.
I warn my lazy readers that this reading is somewhat dense and quite extensive, but I’d love for a lot of you, especially Cubans, to read it and, if it’s not too much to ask, to send me your comments, since this is about the roots of our common history; a work I wrote with lots of interest and enthusiasm. Hopefully it will be of some use. A hug to everyone.
HAVANA — Just outside the Virgin of Regla temple, here in Havana, a fortune-teller throws shells for passersby in exchange for money. Every day she gets the same questions: Will they find love? Will they be able to buy a home? Will they be able to travel in the near future? And above all, when will “this” end?
With a simple demonstrative pronoun, the fortune-teller’s clients refer to what some call “the revolution,” others, “the dictatorship,” but what most simply refer to as “The System.” It’s a difficult question for the white-turbaned woman with her intensely red nails to answer with any specificity, partly because she can never be sure if the questioner is a State Security agent in civilian dress. So she looks at the position of each shell and says, in barely a whisper, “Soon. It will be soon.”
It’s increasingly obvious that the biological clock of the Cuban government — a slow and agonizing journey of the hands that has lasted 54 years — is closing in on midnight. Every minute that passes brings obsolescence a little nearer. The existence of a political system should not be so closely linked to the youth or decrepitude of its leaders, but in the case of our island, both ages have come to be the same thing.
Like a creature made in the image and likeness of a man — who believes himself to be God — Cuba’s current political model will not outlive its creators. Every decision made over the past five decades, every step taken in one direction or another, has been marked by the personalities and decisions of a handful of human beings — two of them in particular. One, Fidel Castro, 86, has been convalescing for six long years in a place few Cubans could find on a map.
Although in the last five years Fidel’s brother Raúl, 81, has installed some younger faces in the administrative and governmental apparatus, the most important decisions remain concentrated in the hands of octogenarians. (Raúl’s successor, Jose Ramon Machado, is 82.) Like a voracious Saturn devouring his children, the principal leaders of the revolution have not allowed any favored sons to overshadow them.
The last to be ousted due to the paranoia of the Castro brothers were Vice President Carlos Lage, a figure who enjoyed popular sympathy, and the foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque. Both might have made promising successors, but were accused by Fidel Castro himself as having been “addicted to the honey of power” and removed from their positions in 2009.
Their own selfishness has left Cuban leaders without a plan for succession and time has run out to develop it, at least one not sincerely committed to continuing along the path set by old men dressed in olive green.
For Raúl, the picture is worrisome, and he has declared that “time is short” to ready the generation that will replace him and his comrades. In 2013, he will be forced to accelerate this process, and his obvious desperation about the future is contributing to the ideological weakening and the loss of whatever popular support the Castro regime still enjoys.
Meanwhile, Castro’s tentative economic reforms are also contributing to the loss of control over the population. Together, the expansion of the private sector, the imposition of taxes, the distribution of land leases to farmers, and the authorization of cooperatives in businesses other than agriculture, are gradually reducing the state’s influence in the daily life of Cubans.
Raúl may see these as a desperation move to jumpstart the Cuban economy, but one consequence will be the diminished ideological commitment of the people to a government that provides fewer and fewer subsidies and benefits. Every step the authorities take in the direction of greater flexibility is like pointing a loaded gun at their own temples.
A system based on keeping every tiny aspect of our national life under tight control cannot maintain itself when some of these bonds are loosened. Reform is the death of the status quo and maneuvers to guarantee financial survival by opening the system to private capital are a death sentence written in advance.
The year 2013 will be a decisive one in Cuba’s move from economic centralism to the fragmentation of production, from absolute verticality to its dismantling. Those who cease to receive their salaries from a state institution and come to support their families through self-employment will undoubtedly gain more political autonomy.
Despite the best efforts of the political police, the opposition today is more energized than it has been since the so-called Black Spring of 2003 — when 75 regime opponents were rounded up, most sentenced to long prison terms. Although 2012 closed with the unfortunate loss of Oswaldo Paya, the leading figure of the Christian Liberation Movement, other faces are beginning to gain prominence. The number of activists is increasing — and they are bringing fresh, modern ideas to the struggle.
An emerging community of alternative bloggers and performance artists is blending social criticism into its creations, and increasingly bold musicians are using the lyrics of hip hop and reggaeton to narrate a reality far removed from the official discourse. Meanwhile, alternative information networks, including Twitter and other social networks via mobile phones, are helping to break the state’s monopoly on opinion and to communicate the truth about what is happening on our island to the rest of the world.
The aging of the nomenklatura, the growing opposition, and the expansion of the private sector are not the only influences that will weaken the system in 2013. The worsening health of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez is a catalyst for collapse. In the absence of his great patron — and provider of subsidized petroleum — in Caracas, Raúl will have to speed up economic reforms even more quickly to spur growth, further weakening the Communist Party’s authority. The emergence of their Venezuelan acolyte was a godsend to the Castros, who lost their original benefactor with the collapse of Soviet communism. But there doesn’t appear to be another country on the horizon willing to shoulder the burden of 42,000 square miles and its 11 million inhabitants.
U.S. President Barack Obama will also have a part to play. If the United States finally lifts — or softens — its decades-long embargo, it may give the government a temporary financial respite. But on the other hand, such a move would also take away the Castro regime’s favorite political excuse for its economic failures. The country’s sad state could no longer be blamed on our neighbor to the north. It would be a hard ideological blow.
Given all these factors, it’s difficult to see how The System can survive the coming year, much less ensure its long-term viability. But it’s worth noting that the regime in Havana has long demonstrated its skill in surviving even the most unfavorable predictions. After all, the Cuban economy has been in a state of crisis for the last 20 years. One could even say that our leaders find tension soothing and perform better under emergency conditions than under prosperity. Material needs can also serve to paralyze people who must spend hours waiting for a bus or standing on line to buy a couple of pounds of chicken instead of organizing.
Those expecting to see Tahrir Square break out in central Havana in 2013 will probably be disappointed. Cuba’s social explosion may end up looking like an emigration explosion. Given a choice to take to the streets to overthrow the government or to throw themselves into the sea on a flimsy raft to get to Florida, millions of Cubans prefer the latter. Our frustration is more likely to be observed in the lines outside embassies waiting to get visas than in mass demonstrations.
Of course, The System often seems to be collapsing in on itself without any help from crowds in the street. Like a nauseating stench, corruption is permeating every aspect of today’s Cuba. Government workers are increasingly helping themselves to the till in state-owned enterprises — without doing so, the majority of Cuban families couldn’t make it to the end of the month. Money is constantly leaking “out the back door” via adulterated accounts, falsified production figures, and the illicit enrichment of administrative cadres.
After decades of denying that corruption exists in our country, the government has come to recognize that it has reached unsustainable levels. Raúl has launched a crusade against all these practices, though obviously it doesn’t include an audit of corruption at the highest levels.
Still, the campaign to eliminate corruption is starting to touch powerful “chiefs” — people who have lived a life of luxury for too long. Thus, the general-president wins new enemies among his own ranks every step of the way, enemies that include those in military uniforms. Could Raúl’s moves provoke a reaction?
Even numerology seems to be against the regime. One less tangible factor you will rarely read about in the press, but which is very much on the minds of the fortune-teller’s clients outside the Virgin of Regla temple, is that cursed number 13 — identified by many with key moments in Fidel’s life, from the date of his birth, Aug. 13, 1926, to the same day in 1993 when he was forced to dollarize the Cuban economy. Given his delicate health, one can expect that the coming years will bring Cubans the news of his “grand funeral” — an event, at this point, with connotations more symbolic than political.
For now, we Cubans are clinging to our supernatural predictions, looking to what the oracles and fortune-tellers can divine from their decks of cards and thrown shells. But the clients are starting to get impatient.
Yoani Sánchez is the Havana-based author of the blog Generation Y and the recently published book Havana Real. This article was translated by Mary Jo Porter.
2 January 2012
CLICK HERE for link to article in Foreign Policy Magazine.
Trash has been accumulating on the corners around the overflowing dumpsters in the municipality of Diez de Octubre and others in Havana for days, since in many cases the trucks that should be collecting it can’t pass. Naturally, after the vermin come looking for food, with their repulsive presence and the threat of disease transmission. Several mounds of garbage flanked the dumpsters at the corner of Freyre de Andrade and Juan Delgado, en Vibora, looking more like a mountain range of filth, when they sent a bulldozer, with a pair of teeth — like a giant carrion bird — to pick it up.
I found it amazing to see the faces of relief from a group of neighbors who gathered around the device and the dump truck that would transport the waste. Also the pharmacy workers across the street, those next door, and the bodega on kitty-corner from it, showing their approval of the act. I understand they were tired of such filth and the stench.
I went and talked to several of them and they spoke in low tones of the two times they came for the trash previously, of how they cut the sidewalk with iron claws and made a hole where the planting strip was. The hole is notorious. I asked that we all to sign a document the Commune and other Party entities and the municipal government and it was like a repellent spray. The crush of people was dispersed in a few seconds.
They pulled out the shovel and the operators did their job with huge mechanical hand, carrying away much of the sidewalk along with the trash and leaving just a narrow rail of cement for everyone to walk along. Between the recurrent pests and the balance needed to walk along there, it’s better that I get a license plate for myself and put it on my behind and walk in the street.
Three years ago I went with Rebeca to greet the New Year at some friends’ house, located on Águila Street in the Central Havana district. What happened to us there became the basis of a post in her blog in which she described events in what had to be called the “wild west.” We decided not to repeat that unpleasant experience. This year she is travelling, and since “man is the only animal who trips over the same stone twice,” I accepted our friends’ invitation.
At twelve midnight, at least on Aguila street, the savagery of three years ago was not repeated; this time only water was thrown. Nevertheless, when after one in the morning I decided to retire, I found some adjoining streets — Neptune, San Miguel, San Rafael and others — besides being wet, had bags of waste and other objects scattered along them: the old and healthy custom of throwing water on the streets in order to dispose of the old year, has degenerated, for some, into this barbarity.
The renowned writer Leonardo Padura, wrote an article series not long ago, calling attention to the ruralization of the city of Havana, which has accelerated its deterioration and lack of hygiene. I would go a little further and speak of its marginalization. Abandoned by many of its children — those born here — and occupied progressively by immigrants from other provinces — with natural exceptions, not precisely in many cases their best exponents –it has been subjected to looting and destruction by those who lack emotional ties like identity with the city, and vulgarity, social indiscipline, disorder, physical and verbal violence, mistreatment, lack of respect, rudeness and many other negative phenomena, previously unknown,having prospered. The terrible thing is that all this happens before the complacent gaze of authorities of all levels, who do nothing effective to eradicate it, and also of many Havanans, participants and accomplices in the practices.
Havana is ceasing to be the capital of all Cubans, as the propaganda of a well know local television station says, in order to become the capital of all the marginalized. Do you doubt it? Walk any day through Downtown Havana, El Cerro, Diez de Octubre and other townships, and even through Old Havana, through the non-tourist streets. Like here, officially, the old year is not dismissed nor is the new one received, but only a new year of Revolution — with a little number and everything — and that in itself constitutes a social phenomenon linked to violence. Won’t this be, for some, a popular and original way of paying homage to it?
After a month in Spain I hardly dare to offer an opinion about this nation of my father and my grandparents that I have shared, since November 20th, with my wife and her family, residents of La Vall d’Uixó, Castellón province, half an hour from Valencia, 180 miles from Barcelona and 240 from Madrid; cities I know from imagination and literature although their streets and monuments are still a visual and bookish reference for me.
I’ve only traveled the road from Madrid to La Vall and from there to Valencia, Castellón and its surrounding villages — Villa Real, Villa Vieja, Xilxes and Moncofa; as well as across the central Castellan plateau stopping in some medieval towns of Murcia, Toledo and the community of Madrid. Insufficient, right?
Yes, but I dare to express an opinion because every day I read El Pais, I watch the news, a couple of comedy programs — The Intermediate and The Comedy Club — and I talk with people from various social strata who speak from their experience and emotions about the political situation and the possible causes of the economic crisis and its consequences.
In my environment are predominantly people who cast the blame for the current disaster on the “housing boom promoted by Aznar,” as if Zapatero hadn’t been president for 8 years and the king, the courts, and other personalities and institutions didn’t have anything to do with it, along with the regional representatives and the provincial and local organizations.
In Spain they speak from the heart and ideological positioning. Generally I hear horrors about Esperanza Aguirre, a former president of the Community of Madrid, the former president Aznar and his wife Ana Botella, current mayor of Madrid, Rajoy and unpopular measures adopted by the Government.
The blame is extended with colorful shading to the banks, the European Union, the German Chancellor. It seems that almost nobody walks in someone else’s shoes, nor thinks it’s their own fault, as if those below were little angels forced to take on debt and now condemned to dismissal by the works and grace of those above.
I hear these and other points of view, some very sharp, but I try not to offer an opinion to avoid contradicting them. It’s outside my circumstances although the national situation affects me … In my case, the hardest part is avoiding questions about Cuba because my hosts perceive me as a fount of data, almost like a Odysseus about to drown in the wave of totalitarian injustice, rescued from the wreck by his Spanish Penelope.
About Cuba I don’t play dumb, I say what I think and sometimes I hurt the sensibilities of those who believe in the myth of Castro as a liberating process. They compare this half century dictatorship with Franco’s and I am even asked what positive legacy he leaves the Caribbean nation. As it is almost impossible to satisfy such curiosity I’ve been tempted to reverse the question: what achievements did Spain manage under the rule of Francisco Franco?
I do not follow that endless road because, up to now — and despite the crisis and the naive — I have received a lot of love and kindness from Spain and the Spanish. I perceive Spain as a year-end ballad. Spain is tragicomic but it is neither a tango, nor is it an eschatological lament that rends the voice of flamenco singers, so peculiar in the Andalusian cities.
Apparently, the crisis has not yet hit bottom in the old Hispania. If we compare it to Cuba, this it is a paradise full of cars, clean streets without dogs, crowded markets, half-empty trains and people celebrating with family or among friends, with wines, meats, fruits and other delicacies, while making jokes and cursing politicians.
While some imitated the exploits of Errol Flynn, others were startled with the reality of a man who is saddled with, even today, more legends than names. They call him the Antillean Gaddafi forhis eccentric arrogance; Donatien, the Marquis de Sade, for his sadism, perfectionism and radical atheism; The Goatee, for his sparse beard look; The Master of Censorship; The Prince of Terror; The Cuban Dzerzhinsky; … and in his native district he is known as the Butcher of Artemis.
Cuba continues to be an invented reality where the good was lost in search of the better; too much reason was destroyed in the souls of many. So, continuing with this parade of cynicism and shame, today I am commenting on Ramiro Valdes Menendez, born April 28, 1932, with very peculiar characteristics. Combining near perfection, patience and persistence, with an enviable willpower. Rigid, obsessive, secretive and inflexible, he is reluctant to change. He is stubborn bordering on alienation, he speaks softly and pauses, where everyone has to shut up; and those who don’t, are silenced. The cause always surpasses even the value of human life.
More than an illustrious figure, he seems like a satanic and dark character from a thriller. The guilty are released from prison, the victims do not escape the cemetery. Some may not know that after the Moncada attack, and during his time at the Model Prison on the Isle of Pines, Ramiro was diagnosed as a psychopath and confined to the ward for mental patients. Political manipulation? We have no certainty. There are photographs showing him in the Sierra Maestra with the rank of commander wearing a typical Russian hat.
He questions candidly, breathes fire and does not feel the pain of others; he propagates power with a terrifying force that some find attractive. He travels in business class and loves the charm of luxury; he’s not a man to be easily carried away by feverish amusements or showy indiscretions. He only asks questions when he knows the answers. Force is not always an advantage, so he often make the mistake of underestimating people who have nothing to lose.
For Ramiro, power is passion, drama and amusement, a portent of adventures, a unique temple where few deserve to enter. Therefore he shares the same code, the archetype of organized crime, “An adversary who does not surrender must be exterminated.”
With an athletic body, he exercises with Prussian discipline despite his advanced age. He has no known addiction, does not drink more than two glasses of red wine that is neither expensive nor exclusive, though famously French. The list of people he trusts is short.
Commander Ramiro and General Castro Ruz — unlike what many believe — are not enemies, they are rivals who show their teeth sharpened for ripping and smiling. It is said that, like revolutionary consanguinity, both share the existence of the chromosome 47 XYY, which is attributed by some genetic studies as the origin of criminal behavior. Clearly, when specimens like these are on the loose, we should be concerned.
Let’s start with the official media. If Raul Castro was seriously seeking a transformation of the Cuban press (and I want to believe that indeed, he emphasized the issue) he will be quite disappointed with the results to date. Of course, it can’t be a quick process, open minds are not achieved by decree, but it’s been time enough for us to notice something, no? We continue to hear what happens through other means and, what’s curious, it’s more or less that same types of events that our press always lets pass: prosperity abroad, disturbances within (such as the aggression of reggaetoners to troubadours last November 10th in Ciego de Avila), murders, robbery, corruption, ideas and activities of the opposition (and consequent repression) etc. It’s one thing to eschew yellow journalism and sensationalism, and another to stick your head in the sand with regards to events that, in any event, will come to be known.
That it’s the government who insists on the need for a more open press, less doctrinaire, and the interested parties skulk around and don’t seem interested, would have the appearance of a paradox were it not that the attitude of the latter is an unfortunate consequence of the intolerance, for so many years, of the former. Even now they’re stuck in the trench of believing in one truth for everyone, when both the philosophy and the technological advances of today support differences, the individual, personal space. Like it or not, the modern citizen has channels for private consumption and analysis of information. So we will not be modern citizens under a unified press. There cannot be a different press if people continue to live the same way. One cannot write about truly core issues if the relations of power, the mechanisms of control and the vulnerability of the individual remain intact.
If the official media don’t dare to throw the first stone — or even a timid piece of chalk — the independent opposition press offers a mirror image of the same sin: seeing as black what they postulate as white. Their philosophy seems to be that the worst things get the better it is. Certainly there can be a good reason, namely, we never had anything like that, and it’s no less dangerous now, continuing to be illegal and to a great extent persecuted. So it’s understandable that (with fleeting exceptions) there still has been no cathartic intoxication, joy in the denunciation itself, the pleasure of taking everything and ascribing to it the most sordid possible motivations. Basically, they are betting on the same weapon as the official media: the difficulty of confronting what they say with other verifiable sources.
As happens under the official banner, the independent news and analysis I get often ranges from reasonable efforts that deserve study to allegations in support of the indefensible, temper tantrums and nonsense. Improvised and rabid they usually focus on a ton of problems as the exclusive result of Communist repression; they would hate to recognize that the police spy and repress everywhere, that all over there is media control over the vulgar, the inappropriate, the obscene (I don’t think that banishing hard reggaeton from the distribution circuits solves anything, reggaeton is not the cause but the consequence, but to suppose that this is a new surge of prohibitions similar to those suffered in the sixties and seventies is ridiculous), for the jugglers of the official rhetoric not to publicly admit the outbreak and spread of certain diseases constitutes a recurrent strategy all over the world: you keep clean, wash your hands and watch what you eat, and we take care of everything. It’s the same as if there’s a volcanic eruption or a shark at the beach: don’t panic, it makes it worse.
We need an opposition press. We need it to be free and legal. Again, it’s not a luxury but a necessity. It would be beneficial even for the official press, which would try harder, write better. Meanwhile, Cuba continues to elude efforts to describe it. Two half-lies don’t make a truth.
