The Rumor of Being G2, an Imported Harm / Juan Juan Almeida

Under the direction of Yuri Andropov, of the KGB, a totally terrifying maneuver was organized, destined to sow doubt in the eyes of the world to raise questions and stigmatize about the eminent scientist and activist in favor or human rights and civil liberties, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1975.

Against the Russian dissident they created rumors, malicious comments and jokes, and they falsified and published documents about his personal life that seemed credible and invited people to judge him. The entire power of a State against one individual.

Some time has passed since then; but this continues to be the most common of the assassinations of the credibility and decency of the human being.

This sign instituted as state terrorism — a very well-learned skill, with the highest marks, by the “always most humanitarian” revolutionary government — seems to be gaining momentum. It is the modus operandi, that MININT (Ministry of the Interior) converts a name into target practice exaggerating a truth, minimizing realities, distorting points of views, multiplying the doubts and feeding the rumors.

Everyone who distances themselves from the common doctrine, becomes the object of criticism, rejection or ridicule. Be it their cultural level, their manner of dress, of speaking, their skin color, sexual orientation and even manners. The government strives to hide their dissidence and manages to identify them as ugly, liars, dysfunctional or frustrated.

Questionable to proceed; but very well thought out; who has among their aspirations to be poor one day? The idols of the crowd are lovely, powerful, talented, intelligent or rich.

The are multiple ways to discredit a human being. Whoever dissents inside or outside the island, or facing this dictatorship that is committed to not respecting even the most minimal ethical norms, much less legalities, has an adjective foisted on them to undermine their authority and reputation.

The most common and overused way of creating distrust of some critic or opponent is spreading the rumor that “so-and-so works for G2 — Cuban State Security.” Beyond the horror of feeling ashamed when I hear Cubans questioning Cubans, using the same arguments of the dark machinery that, although quite rusted, still manages effectively put a wrench in the gears.  We do not need to echo so much doubt.

It is true that technological development is directly proportional to human freedom; but also the internet has become the perfect tool for the Cuban State to launch “discrediting active measures,” convinced that, pushed by its agents of influence, special collaborators, and those ever less sympathetic, using the uninformed, resentful and/or envious as a breeding ground on the web and social networks.

We need to change old structures, abandon obsessions and with a little effort erase the prejudices that time marks, like a tattoo, in the center of the Cuban genome.

The damage is anthropological; we must overcome it, we have to.

7 March 2013

Havana, Lechery and Deceit

LujuriaLooking back from 2013, I think one of the most controversial measures for the Cuban people last year were the approval of Law No. 113, the new tax system. and Decree No. 308, which since its appearance in the Official Gazette, regulates the norms and procedures that, according to the newspaper Granma, began to be applied in a gradual way starting in January.

In principle, I agree with the new legislation. The economy of my country was built on the cement of an architectural system of arbitrary crime, where many thieves, from all over the world, came to Cuba with suitcases full of money to evade international regulations and, without explaining the origins of the money, deposited it in our bank and invested it in our country.

Here I should point out that some of those crooks ended up cheated, because we were living — and I’m not sure if I should refer only to a time in the past — in a tax and moral amnesty, which among other things affected our candid island modesty, and without any justification, forced us to practice that worn-out Chinese proverb, “A thief who robs a thief…”

One of the meanings of the word freedom is to be part of a disorder; but even so, we Cubans (solvent or not) must recover our culture of taxes.

I invite you to consult the law that went into effect on January 1, which obliges people to pay taxes: personal, utilities, sales, services, land transport, transmission and inheritance of goods, documents, etc. And to review the nine taxes that, although they appear in the body of the ordinance, it will not be in effect for now.

If we immerse ourselves in the spirit of this new tax policy, we will find that it is basically economic. The country is falling apart and this danger falls on everyone in sight. It’s a source of additional relief that it only seeks to collect, not benefit.

This statute passed by the members of the National Assembly of People’s Power (people who are well-read, erudite and eloquent), is an act of publicity which, like any discourse carried out in parables, should not be put into effect. It is nothing more than an incomplete law riddled with loopholes which, subtlety saturated with gimmicky babbling, appears as quasi-chimerical perfection and manages to convert the defrauded into the defrauder.

In a punitive spirit, small tax frauds are persecuted as if the nation’s corruption rested in the carpenter, the shoe repairer, the kiosk vender; and not in the big cities or the State enterprises. Who did they think they were fooling; just a few years ago the Ministry of the Armed Forces (MINFAR) disbursed the shameful sum of several million dollars to set up a project of private jets with airplanes that never flew or left their hangers because there were no buyers. This, indeed, was a mega tax fraud, worthy of being punished.

But Lae No. and its Decree No. 308, are chess moves. A cold creation of the Cuban government which, hidden behind the typical trip of the old poker player, launches on the world, and especially on the United States, a message of solidity and change. If the Spaniards know wine, Havana knows lechery and deceit.

9 March 2013

Degeneracy Among Cuban Military Officers/ Juan Juan Almeida

Some official, unofficial and foreign media outlets have been subject to a certain government manipulation, serving as an echo chamber by focusing special attention on the fight against corruption, which seems to have the become the principal challenge facing the Cuban president. It was for this reason that in 2009 he created the office of Controller General, the bureau in charge of conducting audits of state businesses and institutions.

“We can`t think twice about the battle against crime and corruption,” said the General in a speech before the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. He thought it sounded catchy and since then the refrain has become a leitmotiv.

I ask myself how far the mighty sword of the controller’s authority or scope of action might reach. I suspect that the purpose of this imaginary wordplay is more mythical than real. It has the hint of a purge and less transparency than a Tamagotchi screen.

We all know that the concept of corruption goes a little deeper than the corrupt bureaucrat. It does not enjoy “real official consent,” yet it leads to unnecessary and superfluous expenditures from the state treasury. I prefer not to call it “stealing,” which is such a horrendous word.

The anti-corruption verbosity of the president-general is simply a Stanislavsky-like mannerism — something energetic and appealing to the ear. He should channel all this talent into something more constructive, or more respectable, like not ordering crowds of paramilitaries out into the streets every Sunday to attack defenseless women.

Cuba does not realize that this is just another infection eating away at society.

Has the General forgotten that during his term as head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces military leaders participated not only in military campaigns, but also in popularity contests and licentiousness?

I cannot believe that Raul Castro, a symbol of Victorian puritanism and a man obsessed with scrutinizing other people’s lives, has not read even one of the many reports dealing with incidents of assault or sexual abuse by Cuban military personnel.

The president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba knows perfectly well that there is an endless list of high-ranking leaders and important officials with gargantuan appetites, who are as high spirited as festival clowns. They have been seen to be involved in one or another “little scandal” related to inappropriate sexual practices in which they have made use of pressure, position, rank, deceit, subjugation or shamelessness.

How to combat this degeneracy? Here is a telling figure. According to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces’ own figures, which are no doubt overly conservative, more than 40% of Cuban women who served in Angola during the war years or afterwards were victims of sexual assault or rape. And this does not include those who remained silent out of fear.

The island’s leadership is made up of perverts, who are very attuned to all the meanings of the word corruption.

1 March 2013

Declaration of Jorge Luis Garcia Perez (ANTUNEZ)

In view of certain statements appearing in the media and on the Internet saying that, together with the dissident Juan Juan Almeida Garcia, I have accepted political asylum in the Republic of Chile through the efforts of that country’s Foreign Minister, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify that at least in my case, I have not undertaken the slightest effort to leave my country, although I sincerely appreciate any efforts made on my behalf, and I once again reaffirm my position that I will not leave. I continue consistent with my slogan: I will not shut up, I will not leave Cuba. Any declaration, affirmation or insinuation to the contrary should be considered erroneous and unfounded, with infinite thanks for any gesture or concern for my person and for my compatriots.