14ymedio – Page 522 – Translating Cuba

What Everyone Should Avoid / 14ymedio, Jose Daniel Ferrer

Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, Wednesday in Miami. (14ymedio) — Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Wednesday in Miami. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Jose Daniel Ferrer, Miami, 6 August 2016 — We live in complex times. The world is full of problems, some more serious than others. We live in the twenty-first century of the Christian Era, with some surrounded by comfort and wonderful technologies and others living like poor serfs of the Middle Ages. We live in a world where millions of people enjoy all their rights and freedoms, other millions only enjoy certain rights and freedoms, and many millions suffer under regimes that violate all or almost all their rights and freedoms. We live in a world where there are very noble, humanitarian and sweet people, and others who are criminals and madmen like those of ISIS, or the regimes of the Castros and North Korea. continue reading

We live in a world where many citizens of the first powers of the free world, and luckily the planet, say they never thought to reach a presidential election with two candidates as controversial. Others believe they have magnificent aspirants for the Oval Office who will represent them well inside and outside the country’s borders. We live in a world where a pope praises a Stalinist like Fidel Castro and a Cuban Bishop says he wants “socialism to prosper” in a nation where we have the worst capitalism, which is bad capitalism, that of a family and generals, who own everything and everyone. We live in a world where other bishops and pastors do not forget that Christ was persecuted and died on the cross and that evil is confronted with dignity and courage.

We live in a world where a pope praises a Stalinist like Fidel Castro and a Cuban Bishop says he wants “socialism to prosper”

We live in a very complex world and the free press confirms it for us every day. And in the midst of so many complexities, we Cubans have our own. Some of the worst of any people living on the planet. We live under a regime comparable only to that of Stalin and North Korea, a comparison annoys the cynics and cowardly agents of the Castro regime and the Castros themselves. Our people live without rights and in the deepest misery. Thousands escape risking their lives in search of freedom and opportunity in other lands. And worse, against all logic, while the Unites States, the European Union and others, strive to help Cuba out of the sorry state the Castro regime has plunged it into, Raul Castro does the exact opposite of what at certain times he faked that he was willing to do.

To the extent that the US and the European Union show more generosity to the Castro regime, this regime repressed more, beats its opponents more, imprisons them more, tortures more and assaults and steals more from peaceful opponents, those fighting for the democratization of country and respect for human rights.

With increased its repressive actions, knowing the commitment of the European Union and the United States to human rights, the regime not only hurts its people more every day, it also mocks the powers of the free world, which creates a negative image of weakness and/or insensitivity before the excesses of a dictatorship.

At a time when, instead of advancing economic openness, the Castro regime prefers to harass, excessively control and exploit those who try to get ahead as entrepreneurs; at a time when instead of demonstrating greater respect for the people’s feelings and their fundamental rights, and respect for their foreign partners, the Castro dictatorship attacks with greater force the opposition movement, Guillermo Farinas, Carlos Amel Oliva Torres and other members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) engaged in a long and very dangerous hunger strike with the aim of calling attention to the excesses of the Castro regime and seeking to put limits on their infamous behavior.

We all need to prevent these brave and selfless Cubans from losing their lives. We need those who love them and admire them, they need good people, they need the churches called to act as Good Samaritans, they need the governments of the United States and the European Union in dialogue with the Castro regime, and above all, Raul Castro, who has already caused too much damage, and in times in which we are living does find it in his interest to take the steps that can end it in a way that is comfortable for him and his family, rather than in way that results in international tribunals and conditions like those in which the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic ended up.

Those who love and admire the hunger strikers have been making strenuous efforts to convince them to suspend their hunger and thirst strikes. They, with too many reasons in their favor and with principles and an honor very rare in our times, refuse to end their strikes without seeing some positive demonstration from the Castro regime. The strikers only ask that the regime complies with its own laws. Or do the laws of the regime authorize beating, assaulting and robbing peaceful citizens who have committed no crime? We remember the brutal and constant beatings against activists handcuffed behind the back, the torture and the theft even of food and our children’s books.

For our request to the strikers to stop their hunger and thirst strikes, it would be a great help to have the support of the Catholic Church, the US government and the European Union, through authorized officials who could communicate with whose who risk their lives for a just cause and who would express their concern for their lives and tell them about the efforts, which undoubtedly must be made before the Castro regime, to put an end to, or moderate, their uncivilized behaviors.

The US government and representatives of the European Union have already expressed concern for the lives of the strikers, and other prominent politicians and personalities have also done so. To them we are all are very grateful. The days pass, the dictatorship does not give the slightest sign of willingness to act and the lives of these worthy Cubans fades slowly. Let us join efforts to convince them to lay down their strikes and to pressure the regime to moderate its despicable behavior. The death of more Cubans on hunger strike for just demands, is what we should all avoid.

The author is coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, UNPACU.

An Official Journalist Calls For Justice / 14ymedio, Havana

Jose Ramirez Pantoja, Holguin Radio journalist and author of the blog Verdadecuba.(Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 August 2016 – Radio Holguin journalist, Jose Ramon Ramirez Pantoja, will find out this Friday if a labor tribunal will punish him with the permanent loss of his job for having published in his blog some controversial words from a deputy directory of the newspaper Granma about the current economic crisis in Cuba.

Ramirez Pantoja explained in a phone conversation with 14ymedio that, given his disagreement with the disciplinary measure, he filed an appeal “within the seven days required by the labor law.” The reporter says he feels confident that “justice will be done,” although he declined to allow his statements to this newspaper to be recorded. continue reading

The cause of his firing, according to the digital newspaper Cubanet, was the publication in his blog Verdadecuba (Truth of Cuba) of the words of Karin Marrón, deputy director of the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party. Marrón’s statements were made during a meeting of the Cuban Journalists Union (UPC) in July.

In her comments, the official journalist expressed her fear that there would be “protests in the street” if there is a crisis similar to that suffered by the Cuban people in the 1990s. Marrón said that “a perfect storm” is brewing, and she fears a repeat of episodes like that of the 1994 Maleconazo.

The transcript of the journalist’s speech, divulged by Ramirez Pantoja, circulated among various media and on the social networks, but so far the official press has not published Marrón’s words.

Secrecy has been denounced from the government itself as one of the problems most affecting the work of the Cuban media. The highest government officials, such as Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel, have spoken on several occasions about the need to eliminate this evil, and the warnings from Granma’s deputy director were widely discussed in the plenary session of the UPC.

The demand for the enactment of a Media Law that would limit censorship is shared among professionals of the press, with particular enthusiasm from the young people who are studying in the universities to be future communicators. Recently, in a letter signed by the base committee of the Young Communists Union of the periodical Vanguardia in Villa Clara province, they denounced instances of persecution by State Security against the most critical journalists.

The decision of the labor tribunal in the case of Ramon Ramirez is expected to be a sign of where the shots are being fired in this battle.

5 x 6 = 90 / 14ymedio

Official billboard to celebrate the 90th birthday of Fidel Castro. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2016 — Five images taken over a span of six decades form the official billboard to celebrate the 90th birthday of former president Fidel Castro. The first two capture the young lawyer who assaulted a military fortress and the guerrilla commander who led a rebel army in the mountains of eastern Cuba. There is hardly a difference of five years between them.

Among the last three there is only a decade. In the first, an out-of-focus sea of flags evokes the era of open grandstands beginning of this century; in the microphone in the second appears an element inseparable from his biography: a microphone. That last catches the occasion when, already sick and retired, he appeared before the cameras with an inexplicable metal star fixed to his olive-green cap.

Forty years of his iconography, absent in the composition, they have shown him in his most intense moments, when he dictated laws, orders the construction of schools in the countryside, gave away sugar mills to other countries, directed a war on the other side of the world, and signed orders for executions. Also lacking are the most recent images, those of his extreme old age: his sagging lower lip, scraggly beard, the spots on his skin and the Adidas sportswear he dresses in.

It could be debated whether or not Fidel Castro was the Cuban who has managed to summon more followers in a square, the most loved and the most hated, but certainly he has the merit of being the most photographed of all time.

The Special Period: The Return Of The Cuban Middle Ages / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Cubans try to repair an "almendrón" (old American car) in Havana. (SN) — Cubans try to repair an “almendrón” (old American car) in Havana. (SN)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 6 August 2016 — She split the plate into two meager rations. “Mommy, you’re not going to eat?” asked one of the daughters voraciously swallowing the mashed banana without oil, free of protein and with hardly any salt. The image of this skimpy dinner in the summer of 1993 is recalled by Maria Luisa, 59, a Havanan who now fears the return of the hardest moments of the Special Period. Like her, many Cuban families are alarmed by the worsening economic crisis.

Announcements during the last session of the National Assembly about the island’s liquidity problems, amid the falling prices of nickel and oil, have only confirmed what has been palpable on the street for months. The reductions in annual growth forecasts from an initial 2% in GDP to a more realistic 1%, is one of many signs of the worsening living conditions of Cubans. continue reading

For much of the island, Venezuela’s collapse is much more significant than the flutter of a butterfly’s wings and its effects could be a true economic tsunami. A scenario that could aggravate the migration crisis in a nation where few are willing to relive the deprivations of the 1990s.

The return of those rigors would be perceived like the reopening of a still painful wound. Once again, the languid faces whose features display hunger. The smell of sweat and grime that fills the air in the absence of hygiene products. People launching themselves en masse on the sea. The images when that period is evoked are like slides passing over and over again before the eyes.

There is no worse nightmare for a nation than to perceive that the past it is trying to distance itself from is returning in an endless loop. But the difference from that first period of misery, is that a new edition is not finding the same naiveté in its protagonists. Cubans know very well what is coming: it is called despair.

Official sources themselves warn of the possibility that the population will not react with the same complacency to the turn of the screw. Karina Marrón, deputy director of the newspaper Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, predicts that “a perfect storm is forming” on the island, due to the reduction in the supply of fuel to the state sector, the increasing blackouts, and the food shortages. Others also predict a situation that could lead to episodes of popular protests like the Maleconazo of August 1994.

Unlike then, the pressure cannot be released by decriminalizing the dollar, opening agricultural markets, or authorizing self-employment.

The most likely outcome is that increasing scarcities will increase the number of people emigrating. The repetition of a drama creates in the minds of those who have lived it the feeling that it will go on forever, without any possibility of changing it or influencing its ends. The looming economic collapse, whose real scope can barely be imagined, could be the shot that sets off the great stampede.

To convince the youngest to stay here and face it is harder every day. For many of them, who grew up practically without toys after the implosion of the Soviet Union and in a society divided by the dual currency system and with a generation in power that is exhibiting a threatening longevity, there is no argument strong enough to make them endure in their own land the effects of a profound economic crisis.

However, the Special Period, a Cuban Middle Ages, a dark age of despair and hunger, never ended. Its worst symptoms have only been appeased with the subsidy coming from Caracas. Cubans have remained in a “survival mode” all this time and the misery has shaped their character, determined their physical abilities and left an irreversible injury on their minds.

Although some, in the last two decades, have managed to work for themselves, benefit from remittances from family abroad, or open thriving businesses filled with the foreigners now flooding the island, Cubans have not lost the feeling of insecurity, the shock of store shelves that can be emptied in a second, and the dread of the so-called Zero Option—a fallback plan devised in the depths of the Special Period to feed the people of each block from a single collective pot.

Maria Luisa’s daughters are already mothers in their turn. They know that if the financial meltdown in the country continues to worsen, they will have to choose between carrying their children on their backs through the Central American jungles or once again lying, telling them: “Eat, eat all your mashed banana, I’m not hungry.”

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This text was previously published in El Nuevo Herald

Amel Carlos Oliva: A Handful Of Guts Against A System / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Amel Carlos Oliva receiving hydrating serum at the September 28 Polyclinic. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, 4 August 2016 — On August 13, the 90th birthday of Fidel Castro, there will not be only official festivities. If the young activist Carlos Oliva Amel holds to his decision not to eat, that day will mark one month of his hunger strike. The government opponent is fighting an uphill battle: his body deteriorates and the government appears deaf to his demands. This member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) is fading slowly without his demands being answered.

Amel Carlos Oliva told 14ymedio during on phone call on Wednesday, the 22nd day of his fast, that he felt a lot of pain “in the knee, and acidity.” Two days ago he received a rehydration drink at the September 28 Polyclinic in Santiago de Cuba that eased the “heartburn” but now he is again suffering from “nausea and dizziness.” The dissident complained that in recent days he has been totally surrounded by a “strong repressive operation.” continue reading

A few yards from Oliva, at the UNPACU headquarters in Santiago de Cuba, opposition members Oria Josefa Casanova Moreno and Zulma López Saldaña have gone without food from the 16^th and 18^th of July respectively. This morning they were visited by two doctors who arrived from the nearest polyclinic and insisted that the two women should be “rehydrated” as soon as possible.

“We are waiting for ambulances to come to take them,” explains Yriade Hernandez Aguilera, a board member of the opposition organization. This activist who responds to calls in minutes, attends to the strikers and monitors the operation that that is expanding around them.

Oliva had his belongings confiscated on 24 May. Two laptops, a cellphone, a hard disk and a Nanostation (to receive and repeat WiFi signals) and some money were taken from him in that arbitrary dispossession that turned his world upside down. In July they returned and along with a laptop they took a Samsung Galaxy S6 cellphone, 6,421 dollars, 12 convertible pesos, a kitchen knife and two screwdrivers.

On July 12 Oliva received a call from the police telling him he should wait for State Security to contact him for the return of his belongings, but the call never came. The dissident decided that night to stop eating and publically announced his hunger strike the following day, 13 July.

State Security officials tried to pacify him on a visit to the police station, saying that they would return one of the laptops, but the dissident stood his ground: “I’ll take all or nothing.”

Oliva, in a bare whisper through the phone line, tells this newspaper that “a high official” from State Security “alias The Pole,” assured him that there was “no need” to carry out a hunger strike. “With one call we would have returned your things,” was the key message the official sent through Oliva’s father.

Wednesday Oliva was still committed to achieving, through his empty guts, a correction from the repressive apparatus and the return of his property. But the outcome is uncertain and his strength is beginning to fail him.

Humor and Exile Combine in the Sketches of Several Cuban Cartoonists / 14ymedio, Mario J. Penton

“Not even with self-employment?” (Santana) Courtesy of the author

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, 31 July 2016 – “The cartoons are not what gives the cartoonist the most laughter but how much they were made to pay for them,” joked Ley Martinez, one of the five cartoonists invited to the Independent Art and Literature Festival in Miami this Saturday to talk about exile cartoon humor, their experiences and outlooks.

The graphic artists Aristide (Aristides Miguel Pumeriega), Garrincha (Gustavo Rodriguez), Pong (Alfredo Pong), Ley Martinez and Omar Santana spoke about their work for more than an hour with about a hundred people. They remembered the years of work in Cuba when publishing a cartoon could cost them a job. continue reading

“At the end of the eighties, there came a Soviet journalist from Pravda who was interested in interviewing me because of a cartoon I had made called ‘The Bobocracia.’ They were publishing it in Moscow as a demonstration of Cuba’s glastnost progress. What they got was the next week I was prohibited from going on with that work,” remembered Aristide.

The limitations of the profession’s practice on the Island impelled many of them to create their art outside of the country. Nevertheless, censorship also is present on the other side of the Florida Straits. “Miami is a very prudish city. There are problems with placing sexual symbols in the cartoons. In important media outlets they are very careful with so-called obscene words. But in the end, there exists freedom of creation. It is another type of censorship, but it, too, is censorship,” said Santana.

For Ley Martinez, a graphic designer and cartoonist for eight years, the invitees to the meeting this Saturday represent a wide spectrum of styles and themes. “They have been, since Aristide, who is an emblematic figure in Cuban graphic art, ending with me taking the first steps in the genre.”

The artist shared his experience in the use of social networks for the spreading of his work and commented on the difference between those who stay in traditional press outlets and the young ones who use more virtual media. “We want to create an environment of opinion so that people understand from the art what is happening,” he added.

“Exiled Graphic Humor: Experiences and Outlooks” panel. (14ymedio)

For Martinez, graphic humor in exile does not have to be limited to Cuba. “You can make local graphic humor. About the mayor of Miami or Hialeah. It is one way of raising awareness and states of mind,” he said.

Aristide, meanwhile, said that for him the cartoon is inextricably linked to the fight against the Cuban government: “I always wanted to come to Miami because it was the other side of the coin. I had to come to this city to continue the fight against the Cuban dictatorship that seized my son. That fight of the Cuban people means a lot to me.”

The artist, a veteran of the event, remembered the years in which he was persecuted because of his work on the Island, for which he had to exile himself in Miami. About the current state of the cartoon in south Florida, he lamented the decreasing presence of the cartoon in media outlets, especially those related to Cuba.

For Garrincha, the work of the graphic humorist should not be reduced to cartoons and political satire. “One should speak of the humor in the graphic and the graphic in the humor, and people should be open to other kinds of humor.”

The artist thinks that an interaction on humoristic themes is maintained between the Island and the Cubans of Miami. “Often I have found that they send me a cartoon by email from Cuba, and they tell me, look how good this is, and when I look, the cartoon is mine. The flow between shores is maintained.”

Among the attendees of the event was the Cuban writer Legna Rodriguez Iglesias, in addition to other artists and writers from the Island as well as from the diaspora.

“How not to come to an event like this? In the sketches of these artists each of us has seen a reflection of ourselves. Even Bobo de Abela has emigrated by now,” commented Elizabeth Diaz, one of those present.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Chronology: Ten Years Without Fidel Castro / 14ymedio

Fidel Castro signed his provisional resignation in July 2006 (Roberto Chile / Radio-Canada)

14ymedio, Havana, 31 July 2016 – Since the proclamation in which Fidel Castro temporarily delegated power on 31 July 2006, the former president has met with two popes, has received visits several European, Asian and Latin American leaders and has written hundreds of articles under the title “Reflections.”

However, his role in the daily lives of Cubans has diminished and in the political sphere control has been consolidated under the control exercised by his brother Raul Castro. To develop a chronology of these ten years is a risky and difficult task, because at the end of the day it is a portrait of the end of this era that carries the name “Fidelismo.”

2006

July 31: Carlos Valenciaga, member of the Council of State, read on television Fidel Castro’s proclamation provisionally delegating his responsibilities to his brother Raul and also close collaborators.

Aug. 1: The first stage of Operation Caguairán begins, with extensive military mobilization throughout the country, including the deployment of tens of thousands of active troops and reservists.

August 13: No official celebrations are held for the 80th birthday of Fidel Castro. continue reading

August 14: TV shows a video of Fidel Castro convalescing in bed while being visited by Hugo Chavez.

September 16: Fidel Castro is elected as President of the Non-Aligned Movement during its XIV Summit in Havana, despite not having been present at the meeting.

December 2: Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the landing of the yacht Granma are held, but the tributes for the 80th birthday of Fidel Castro announced in the proclamation do not happen.

December 26: The first details on Fidel Castro’s condition are released, when the Spanish doctor Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, head of surgery at Gregorio Maranon hospital, reveals in Madrid that he is recovering and that does not have cancer.

2007

March 28: The first of the Reflections of Fidel Castro, which continue to appear periodically in the official press, is published. The first article speaks against ethanol production from corn.

24 May: Fidel Castro breaks his silence about his health and says in a Reflection that what happened “was not just one operation but several. Initially it was not successful, and this implied a prolonged recovery.”

May 25: Fidel Castro, “will live to be 140,” said Cuban physician Eugenio Selman, who for years was part of the medical team caring for the rulers.

June 5: Cuban television broadcast an interview of Fidel Castro with journalist Randy Alonso, the first since the reading of his Proclamation temporarily ceding power.

2008

February 19: Fidel Castro announced in a text published in the Granma newspaper that ne will not accept or does he aspire to the positions of “Chairman of the State Council and Commander in Chief” and clarifies that these responsibilities require “total mobility and dedication” and he is not “in a physical position to offer it.”

24 February: Raul Castro is elected president of the Council of State State Council and as first vice president he appoints Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, a figure of the “old guard” instead of the younger Carlos Lage.

April 28: Raul Castro announces that the postponed Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party will be held, and he commutes most death sentences to 30 years or life in prison. Because of delays, the Congress does not take place until April 16, 2011.

2009

March 2: Raul Castro dismisses Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, and the secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, Carlos Lage Davila, in what many analysts characterize as a purge against “Fidel’s men.” Also dismissed are Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, head of International Relations for the Cuban Communist Party, Otto Rivero, vice president of the Council of Ministers and Carlos Valenciaga, chief of staff to Fidel Castro and the man who read Fidel Castro’s Proclamation temporarily ceding power.

March 3: Fidel Castro publishes a Reflection where he accuses Perez Roque and Lage and says that “The honey of power, for which they made no sacrifice, awoke ambitions in them that led them to an unworthy role.”

December 20: Raul Castro detailed at the National Assembly during the year that 126,000 boarders of pre-university education has been moved to cities and work was underway to move another 80,000, realizing one of the key educational goals of Fidel Castro.

2010

February 23: The political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo dies after 86 days on hunger strike. Activists protest throughout the country and the government unleashes a strong crackdown.

February 24: Regime opponent Guillermo Fariñas begins a hunger strike that will last for 135 days to demand the release of political prisoners.

May 19: A meeting is held between President Raul Castro and the principal Cuban Catholic authorities: Archbishop of Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega, and Secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, Dionisio García. Cardinal Ortega confirms that the situation of political prisoners is being addressed “very seriously” with the government.

March 16: The Ladies in White initiate several protest marches in Havana on the seventh anniversary of the conviction and imprisonment of their families. They are harshly repressed.

June 11: The Government informs the Catholic Church of the imminent release from prison for health reasons of dissident Ariel Sigler and the new transfer of six prisoners to prisons in their home provinces.

June 27: In his Reflections Fidel Castro predicts an imminent war and warns that “a catastrophe” is “rapidly” approaching and could even happen before the quarterfinals of the Football World Cup in South Africa.

July 7: The church reports in a statement the agreement between the Cuban government, the Church and representatives of the Spanish government to free the 52 prisoners of the Black Spring within a period of “three to four months.”

July 7: The first public appearance of Fidel Castro since the announcement of his convalescence, in a visit to the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC).

July 8: Regime opponent Guillermo Farinas ends his hunger strike.

August 7: Fidel Castro addresses the National Assembly and says that “the current order established on the planet can not endure, and inevitably will collapse immediately.”

2011

April 19: Fidel Castro participates in the closing day of the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, with his brother, who relieved him as first secretary of the party organization.

September 21: The Official Gazette publishes Decree Law 286 subordinating the Social Workers Program to the the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, giving the final blow to one of the last programs undertaken by Fidel Castro.

October 1: Enter the decree law that allows the purchase and sale of cars, one of the most anticipated action by the Cuban population and whose postponement was awarded to the express will of Fidel Castro in force.

November 10: Buying and selling homes is authorized another very missed by the Cubans and whose approval measure was unthinkable during the government of Fidel Castro.

December 23: The government of Raul Castro announces the pardon of more than 2,900 prisoners.

2012

March 28: Pope Benedict XVI meets with Fidel Castro and his family at the Nunciature of Havana during the pope’s visit to Cuba. Castro seizes the moment to ask the Bishop of Rome “What does a pope do, what is your mission?”

2013

14 January: Travel and immigration rules take effect relaxing requirements and eliminating the “exit permit” also know as the “white card.” The flexibility will allow dozens of dissidents to travel outside the country and greatly increase the numbers of Cubans emigrating

4 February: Fidel Castro appears in person to vote at a polling station in Havana during the elections to elect the 612 deputies of the National Assembly and the 1,269 provincial delegates.

24 February: Fidel Castro presides with his brother Raul at the opening of the eighth session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, after almost three years without appearing at the meetings of the Assembly.

2014

March 29: The Cuban National Assembly approves the new Law on Foreign Investment.

April 29: Cuba and the European Union meet in Havana to start negotiations to normalize bilateral relations.

December 17: Raul Castro and Barack Obama deliver public speeches where they announce that both governments have been negotiating for 18 months seeking the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.

2015

April 11: Barack Obama and Raul Castro meet during the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

July 20: Cuba opens its embassy in Washington in a ceremony headed by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

August 14: United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, presides over the ceremony of hoisting the US flag over its embassy in Havana. Later he meets with a group of Cuban activists at the residence of US Chargé d’Affaires on the island.

September 19: Pope Francis meets Fidel Castro during his visit to Cuba, and gives him a collection of sermons of the Spanish Jesuit Amando Llorente, who was a teacher at the school where Castro studied, but who was forced to leave the island shortly after the triumph of the Revolution, after the expulsion of foreign religious.

2016

March 20-22: President Barack Obama makes an official visit to Cuba but does not met with Fidel Castro.

March 28: Fidel Castro publishes a Reflection under the title “Brother Obama” in which he castigates the speech of US president in the Gran Teatro de La Habana, for using “syrupy” words to express: ” It is time, now, for us to leave the past behind. It is time for us to look forward to the future together — un futuro de esperanza.” [a future of hope]

April 19: Fidel Castro speaks at the closing of the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, where he recognizes that “perhaps this will be the last time” he will speak at the Palace of Conventions.

Watch Out! Cattle On The Road / 14ymedio, Jorge Guillen

14ymedio, Jorge Guillen, Candelaria, 29 July 2016 — He still shudders when he remembers that morning, when the broken glass from the windshield exploded everywhere and he had a taste of metal in his mouth. Ulises Ramirez crashed into two cows loose on the national highway as he was returning from the airport to his native Candelaria. The encounter with these animals ended up with serious damag his vehicle and head injuries for himself, but at least his life was spared. Others haven’t enjoyed the same fate.

Between 2010 and 2015 at least 1,054 accidents, resulting in 12 deaths and 279 people injured, were caused by loose cattle on the road, according to data from the official newspaper Granma. continue reading

Ramirez notes that, a few minutes before he would have arrived home, he made out in the darkness a herd walking or sleeping on the asphalt. He braked, swerved to avoid the crash and desperately sounded the horn. When he thought he would get out of unharmed, he felt a strong impact on the right side of the car. The next thing he saw was two cows lying on the road and the blood running from his head.

Although the law strictly prohibits “leading animals to graze or to water and allowing them to remain on the paved road or the surrounding areas and in conditions that allow them to access it,” the problem does not seem to have gotten better.

As a general rule, the official press blames the rancher who doesn’t keep his animals safely off the road, but the farmers say “they don’t sell us barbed wire to put up a fence to keep the cattle from escaping and causing problems on the nearby roads.” “It is very easy to impose fines and confiscate cows,” complains Hermes Amador, who calls himself “the best milk producer in Candelaria.” For this Artemisan, who has 66 acres of land leased in usufruct to support his cows, the law is not applied equally to cattle belonging to state enterprises.

“The State’s cows live on the road and nothing happens,” he complains. “At Kilometer 52, Commander Guillermo Garcia has a farm and the cattle get out every day, and what happens? Nothing happens and there have been several accidents,” he explains. Garcia’s farm belongs to the Flora and Fauna company, a state enterprise that functions as a tourist villa and allows its visitors to go horseback riding, hiking, walking and bird watching. In Cuba more than 50% of the cattle are the property of the state.

The problems faced by these cattle ranchers don’t end with difficulties in buying supplies for their farms. Gregorio Garcia, another producer in the area, has problems selling his livestock. “I’ve a spent a year going after the buyers of a livestock company trying to sell three bulls who aren’t quiet in the paddock,” he explained to this newspaper. But, still, “every month they talk about the topic at the cooperative meeting, nothing happens.” The producer says he feels sorry for “some of the neighbors whose animals have been injured” and he says they had to pay “a 500 peso a day fine for when they were out on the road.”

Cuban farmers cannot slaughter their own cattle and must deliver them “on the hoof” to the state, which deals with the slaughter and distribution of the meat. Thus, Gregorio Cabezas’ restless bulls will continue making mischief until the state slaughterer intervenes.

Santiago Alfian has had to confront the problem in his work as an inspector. He has spent 15 years trying to enforce the decree, which imposes a 500 peso fine and damages against those who graze their animals on the roads or verges of the railways. “In the case of repeat offenders the animals should be confiscated.”

“We have confiscated [cattle] from some farmers who are repeat offenders, but the problems remain,” explains Alfian, who attributes the problem to lack of wire fencing. “When the government sold a little, there was not enough for everyone and it was sold at the very high price of 600 Cuban pesos for a roll of wire,” he adds.

The inspector avoids the question of whether a state company had ever been fined for letting cattle loose on the road. “Well, everyone knows how that goes,” he responds with an eloquent smile.

Fidel Castro’s Proclamation, A List Of Unmet Instructions / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Carlos Valenciaga, chief of staff to Fidel Castro, as he read the proclamation on the night of 31 July 2006. (TV screenshot)

14ymedio, Havana, Reinaldo Escobar, 30 July 2016 — Ten years after the Proclamation in which Fidel Castro announced his departure from power, that document continues to reveal distinctive features of a personality marked by the desire to control everything. More than an ideological legacy, the text is a simple list of instructions and it is unlikely that the official media—so addicted to the upcoming major anniversary of Fidel Castro’s 90^th birthday—will offer an assessment of whether these instructions have been followed.

On 31 July 2006, the primetime news broadcast brought an enormous surprise. Around nine at night Carlos Valenciaga, a member of the Council of State, appeared in front of the cameras to read the Proclamation of the Commander in Chief to the People of Cuba, where he announced that due to health problems he felt obliged “to rest for several weeks, away from my responsibilities and tasks.” continue reading

After giving his version of the complications that plagued him and the causes that had caused them, Fidel Castro offered six basic points in this document and additionally left instructions about holding the Non-aligned Summit and about the postponement of the celebrations for his 90th birthday.

The first three points of the proclamation are dedicated to the transfer of powers to his brother Raul Castro as head of the Party, the government and the armed forces. The order for these transfers were completely unnecessary because it was already in his position to undertake these functions given that he was then in second position in both the hierarchical order of the Party and the government. It is striking that in each case he reiterated the “temporary delegation” of the transfer of responsibilities.

In the three remaining points he delegated (also on a temporary basis) his functions “as principal promoter of the National and International Public Health Program” to then Minister of Public health Jose Ramon Balaguer; the “principal promoters of the National and International Education Program” to Politburo members José Ramón Machado Ventura and Esteban Lazo Hernández; and as “main promoter of the National Energy Revolution in Cuba and collaborator with other countries in this area” Carlos Lage Davila, who was then secretary to the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers.

In a separate paragraph he clarified that the funds for these three programs should continue to be managed and prioritized “as I have personally been doing” by Carlos Lage, Francisco Soberon, then minister-president of the Central Bank of Cuba, and Felipe Perez Roque, at that time minister of Foreign Relations.

Almost immediately after having read that proclamation there was an enormous military mobilization in the entire country, called Operation Caguairán. Shortly afterwards the former omnipresence of the Maximum Leader was reduced to some sporadic Reflections of the Commander in Chief published in all the newspapers and read on all the news shows. Twenty months later the National Assembly formally elected Raul Castro as the president of the Councils of State and of Ministers and later the 2011 Sixth Congress of the Communist Party elected him as First Secretary.

From his sickbed Fidel Castro affirmed on that 31st July that he did not harbor “the slightest doubt that our people and our Revolution will struggle until the last drop of blood to defend these and other ideas and measures that are necessary to safeguard our historic process.” In the text itself he asked the Party Central Committee and the National Assembly of Peoples Power “to strongly support this proclamation” although in previous lines he had had already dictated that the party “supported by the mass organizations and all the people, has the mission of assuming the task set forward in this Proclamation.”

A decade passed, the temporary absence of the “main driver” became permanent and four of the seven men named no longer occupied their positions. The reader of the proclamation was ousted. The programs mentioned have become part of the normal functions of the ministries in charge of these tasks and the “corresponding funds” (although no one has proclaimed it officially) are no accounted for in the nation’s budget.

While the 80^th birthday wasn’t able to be held with his presence, nor the 2 December 2006 50^th anniversary of the landing of the Granma, the yacht that brought the Castros and other revolutionaries from Mexico, as foreseen in his proclamation, now in 2016 all cultural events, sporting events, productive activities, have been dedicated to his 90^th birthday.

The ultimate significance of that proclamation lies not in the message it contains, among other things because its author seemed to be persuaded that this was not his political testament but a “bear with me, I’ll be back in a while.”

The final results of this proclamation has been like a blinding spotlight that goes out, a permanent noise that we have become accustomed to and suddenly stops ringing, a will that ceases to give orders, the termination of an omnipresence. The absence occasioned has more connotations of relief than of a capsizing. There is nostalgia. The anxiety about the final outcome has been diluted in a fastidious tedium, like that of sitting in front of those films that stretch unnecessarily.

Cuban Government Seeks Meat And Dairy In Paraguay / 14ymedio, EFE

14ymedio/EFE, Paraguay, 29 July 2016 – Cuban technicians will travel to Paraguay in August to study the possibilities of importing food products to the island, especially meat, dairy and soy, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Paraguay (MIC).

The delegation plans to visit two dairy plants and several refrigeration companies, where they will verify the processing of beef, pork and poultry meat.

The visit was announced by Cuba’s ambassador in Paraguay, Sidenio Acosta, who met Wednesday in Asuncion with Minister of Industry and Trade, Gustavo Leite. continue reading

At the meeting it was explained that Cuba is interested in Paraguayan cattle genetics and embryos and has already approved the authorization for the importation of soybeans, corn, wheat, rice and oil, according to a MIC.

The Cuban government also extended an invitation to Paraguayan companies to participate in future editions of multisector fairs held on the island.

Leite met last year with Vice Minister of Commerce Oscar Stark to initiate efforts to increase trade with Cuba.

According to official figures, Cuba imports products worth seven billion a year, most of which is food.

Despite the relaxations carried out by Cuban President Raul Castro since he took office in February 2008, livestock production continues to be tightly centralized on the island. In 2011, in an interview with the official weekly Workers, Omelio Borroto, director of the Institute of Animal Science (ICA), said it was “fundamental to decentralize producers and businesses” to achieve an increase in milk production.

However, four years later, at the end of 2015, the numbers pointed to a decrease in the production of cow’s milk. The numbers fell from 579 to 479.5 million liters of milk produced in the country and experts agree that the current year will show still more alarming figures due to, among other factors, the drought.

This April there was a reduction in the price of powdered milk in the hard currency stores across the island. The price of a 500-gram bag went from 2.90 to 2.80 CUC and for a one kilogram bag the price was lowered from 5.75 CUC to 5.50 CUC. This benefit has been criticized by consumers who don’t consider it significant, and has also contributed to the shortage of powdered milk on store shelves.

In the past, Cuba has imported milk from as far away as New Zealand. This situation led to Uruguayan president Tabaré Vázquez and Cuban president Raúl

Castro to commit in 2015 to studying the installation in Uruguay of a production plant for milk powder whose output would be destined for the island.

Pope Francis Asks Young Cubans “Don’t Be Afraid” / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata

"Open up to big things. Do not be afraid," Pope Francis told young Cubans in a message released Thursday. (14ymedio) — “Open up to big things. Do not be afraid,” Pope Francis told young Cubans in a message released Thursday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 29 July 2016 – A message from Pope Francis aimed at young Cubans raised spirits Thursday in celebrations that took place in Havana simultaneously with World Youth Day held in Krakow, Poland. “Young Cubans: open yourselves to great things! Do not be afraid!” the Bishop of Rome told them in a few words that were projected on a large screen in front of more than a thousand Catholics throughout the island.

Havana’s Cathedral Square, from early Thursday morning, displayed a panorama completely different from usual. Although there was no lack of tourists, performers and, of course, the police, there were around 1,300 young Catholics from all provinces who met “in sync with Krakow,” according to the organizers. continue reading

During the early afternoon, the delegations made their cultural and pastoral presentations. The Santiago delegation accompanied the chorus of the “first diocese in Havana bringing the message of Charity”with percussion instruments. Those from Camagüey presented a choreographed dance, while those from Bayamo, Pinar del Rio and participants from every corner of the island made an effort to leave their mark on the celebration.

Among the more than 60 young people from Camagüey who attended the meeting was Dariel Hernandez, coordinator of the youth ministry in that diocese. “We come having prepared for this event for almost a year to be in sync with what is happening right now in Poland with Pope Francis. We have raised money to cover the cost of these activities,” he explained to 14ymedio.

Melisa Boga, is a second year student of Foreign Languages at the University of Cienfuegos. “We are 84 from our province; I hope and desire to know the reality of the other young people who have come here,” she said.

Around 9:00 PM, a message to young Cubans sent by Pope Francis specifically for the occasion was broadcast, interrupted with cheers and shouts of approval.

Dariel Hernandez, coordinator of youth ministry for the Diocese of Camagüey. (14ymedio)

The pontiff recalled the legacy of Father Felix Varela when he said, “You are the sweet hope of the nation.” And declared, “To be carriers of hope you need not to lose the ability to dream,” and said that someone who “doesn’t have the capacity to dream is already retired.”

“Young Cubans: open yourselves to great things! Do not be afraid!” continued Francis, while the crowd cheered and applauded. ” Dream that with you, the world can be different! Dream that Cuba, with you, can be different, and better every day. Do not give up!” he said.

“It is not necessary for us all to think in the same way. No, everyone has to join in the ‘social friendship,’ even with those who think in a different way. But we all have something in common: the wish to dream, and this love for the homeland,” said the Pope Francis. The Pope invited young Catholics to “to build bridges, to work together with the word, with the desire, with the heart.”

Message from Pope Francis to Young Cubans / 14ymedio

Celebrations this Thursday in Havana simultaneously with the World Youth Day held in Krakow, Poland. (14ymedio)

Note: The version below is the summary of the message released in English by the Vatican.

With great hope I join with you in this moment, in which you are in harmony with the universal Church whose young heart is in Krakow. I trust that these days will be, for all, a special occasion to foster the culture of encounter, the culture of respect, the culture of understanding and of mutual forgiveness. This is about ‘making a ruckus’, about dreaming. And young people are supposed to ‘make a ruckus’!

I suggest that you live the experience of listening carefully to the Gospel and then bringing it alive in your own lives, in the lives of your family and friends. … When you pray the Via Crucis, remember that we cannot love God if we do not love our brothers. When you pass through the Holy Door, let yourself be infused with this love … and this way you will learn always to look upon others with mercy, closeness and tenderness, especially those who suffer and those who are in need of help.” continue reading

Stand before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; because in Him, and only in Him, will you find the strength to follow the most beautiful and constructive plan of our lives; because love is constructive, love destroys not even the enemy, love always builds up. And, when you are sent by the bishops as Witnesses of Mercy, remember that the Master’s most beautiful wish is that you will be afraid of nothing.

Boys and girls, do not be afraid of anything, be free of the bonds of this world and proclaim to all, to the elderly, the sorrowful, that the Church weeps with them, and that Jesus is able to give them new life, to revive them.”

Young Cubans: open yourselves to great things! Do not be afraid! … Dream that with you, the world can be different! Dream that Cuba, with you, can be different, and better every day. Do not give up! In this endeavor it is important that you open your heart and mind to the hope that Jesus gives. … And never forget that this hope is suffered; hope knows how to suffer to carry out a project, but likewise do not forget that it gives life, it is fruitful. And with this, hope will not be fruitless; rather, it will give life to others, it will create a homeland, a Church, it will do great things. …

Hope is instrumental in building ‘social friendship’, even though people may think differently. It is not necessary for us all to think in the same way … we must all join together in ‘social friendship’, even with those who think in a different way. But we all have something in common: the wish to dream, and this love for the homeland.

The important thing, regardless of whether we are the same or different, is to build this ‘social friendship’ with all; to build bridges, to work together. Build bridges!

https://youtu.be/PJp-aM2a-6E

Neither Brave Nor Intelligent, Much Less Fair / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila

Arrest of a member of the Ladies in White in Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, Havana, 28 July 2016 — On numerous occasions I have had to listen to the stories of friends and colleagues who have been detained or have been interrogated by the State Security. “These people are unreal, they know everything. The day I went to see so-and-so, what I said to what’s-his-face, what time, and even that we had coffee and ate roast pork. They don’t miss a thing!”

I imagine that these people feel very impressed, because it is as if they were sitting with a fortuneteller who “divines” their past, present and can even predict their future. The difference is that the fortunetellers, or so they tell us, “have a gift,” while State Security has human and technical methods and a society completely organized to facilitate their work, such that their gifts are simply their ears and a crystal ball made of optical fiber. continue reading

How are they not going to know the exact locations of the moles on our bodies, if they can openly and brazenly invade all our privacy?

They don’t have to be super-gifted nor pass in some school to “discover” who we spend time with, what our plans are, what our means are, because in the vast majority of cases we don’t even hide these things. The reason? It is very simple, we are citizens who study in normal schools, lead normal lives, we are not trained and don’t even want to be in intelligence or counterintelligence, we speak naturally and openly about what we think and desire because we are not ashamed.

On the other side, we have something very different, military personnel, indoctrinated, with studies of all kinds, with specialized equipment, transportation, a made-to-measure judicial system, subordinated press and fearful people who offer them what they ask for to avoid becoming targets of their investigations.

Who could do a bad job with all this? The contrary would amaze me. That there would be something they don’t know.

However, to the extent that you interact with them, you realize that they have many gaps. For example, there is an important difference between what the bosses know and what they tell the field agents. There is the need for State Security to constantly convert the ordinary into the extraordinary. This is justified because each one of these agents has to constantly think they are “saving the country” and that “the people appreciate their heroism and bravery.” In the majority of cases, however, what they are doing is committing a common crime in the name of authority against natural persons unhappy with a bad government.

In this sense they are very exquisite in their internal language. There is nothing a seguroso – security agent – likes more than to be called a “combatant,” and it delights them even more when the designation “anonymous” is added, because this gives them the sensation of being a spy and makes them think they are smarter. Incidentally, before society they think they “run great risks…” OK, this is true in part, because on retirement the majority suffer back pain because they dedicated themselves to dragging people into patrol cars. Upon reflection, they should wear supportive belts to protect themselves in these dangerous maneuvers.

Surely, in times past and under other circumstances, there might have been some who did more serious things against real threats, I don’t deny it. But today. 99% of what these “combatants” “confront” are the natural rights of a people who want to peacefully change what does not work to move the country forward and above all to not continue to shipwreck it in every respect. “Confronting” this is neither brave, nor intelligent and much less just or admirable.

The work of those who have to protect the state in societies based on rights and fundamental freedoms is very different; in societies where the threats are of an extreme magnitude and it is not enough to demand an ID card so that people or companies “cooperate.”

Men and women who risk their lives and dedicate themselves to protecting their nations against the grave threats our civilization confronts will always be heroes and heroines worthy of every kind of recognition and the gratitude of their peoples. But if the terror they impose themselves in the service of a dictatorship tramples the lives of protestors to keep themselves in power at all costs, these combatants have made a mistake in the ethical and moral sense of their careers and their lives.

So they should not confuse their facile abuse with expertise or ability. Because this latter is an attribute of those who survive and express themselves, despite them.

Eduardo Mora, Another Mask Falls / 14ymedio, Claudia Collazo

Mara Gongora, Eduardo Mora and Yisel Filiu on the set of the program “Good Morning” in 2014. (Source: Facebook)

14ymedio, Claudia Collazo, Havana, 28 July 2016 — Compelling, cheerful, with an exuberant vocabulary and a good presence, Eduardo Mora was until recently one of the main presenters on “Good Morning,” Cuba’s morning news show. Even the most boring slogans gained grace from his personal style.

Just over a month ago, in the hallways of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) everyone said, each in his own way, that he had defected, that he won’t return, that he stayed abroad. In May, Mora attended the Latin American Study Association (LASA) meeting in New York as a speaker, and at the end of the sessions asked his bosses in Information Systems to extend his absence for a few more weeks, but they refused. The presenter intended to take advantage of the trip to visit his brother in Miami and to give some talks so that he would be able to buy a house in Havana with the money raised. When he did not appear in Cuba by the required date, he was fired. continue reading

Now, his colleagues comment quietly that Mora “has passed to a better life.” This expression, recognized as a synonym for death, has now become, ironically, a form of comparing the life of a Cuban who stays with that of a Cuban who leaves.

Those who knew him at Cubavision International when he was chief of information there, recall his scathing comments away from the cameras and microphones. Nothing extraordinary. The same things that are said in any bread line or on a bus crammed with people. For example: “Marino Murillo and the other leaders know how to adjust the economy, but without affecting themselves, nor the kings’ children.”

The real question is not why did Eduardo Mora stay in Miami, but why do our talented young professionals decide to leave. It is not about something as trite as a brain drain, because almost no one will offer him millions. On the contrary, they assume they can have a better life there, working as waiters, than they can exercising their profession in Cuba. The explanation is found in the mere fact that their working abroad, at anything, gives them at least the opportunity to pay for a plate of food on the table and, in some cases, for the same for their families on the island.

What concerns us is not that he stayed because with what he earned here he could never buy a house in Havana, not even from the results of his hard work, which, at times involves working more than two contracts simultaneously. The alarming thing is the chaos unleashed when someone like Eduardo Mora emigrates or decides to explore new work opportunities, as if wanting a better life is a grave failing, an unpardonable betrayal.

Cubavision International has not yet named a new chief of information; right now it takes a great deal of effort for people – and for young people it’s even worse – to assume leadership positions. Meanwhile, the hallway comments multiply. There is a joke that says if there were a ramparts or a common border with any other country, there would be no one left on this side. “Let he who does not cross cast the first stone!” says a lady, passing on the joke.

The system is collapsing not because it is “a plaza under siege by a genocidal blockade,” but because a good part of its people have decided to launch themselves on the path to emigration. Perhaps because, as José Martí is claimed to have said, “when the people emigrate… leaders are superfluous.” Something everyone knows and mumbles behind the scenes.

Cuban Civil Society, For The First Time Present In The Regional Internet Governance Forum / 14ymedio, Regina Coyula

The Regional Latin American and Caribbean Preparatory Meeting for the Internet Governance Forum, is a regional meeting prior to the upcoming global forum in Mexico. (Twitter)

Regina Coyula, Havana, 26 July 2016 — ¿Gover… what? That reaction has become increasingly familiar in a conversation discussing internet governance. Although many users who take advantage of it aren’t aware, governance is a fundamental issue for everyone when we venture out onto the World Wide Web. That our family email travels equally with the statistics of scientific research, with an online purchase, or with a bank account statement, is thanks to governance.

Behind any familiar and easily remembered address is a long string of numbers without which the internet couldn’t function. Early developers realized that the ordinary user would be unable to recall those long strings of numbers and so created a protocol to tie them to a name. Name and number indissoluble leading us unmistakably to the desired destination. These technical protocols that make our lives easier, also have to do with governance. continue reading

Governance, a term originally applied in the social sciences, has gained strength within international organizations, and in the case of the internet, seeks interactions and consensus among interested parties, or an English word that is difficult to pronounce – multistakeholders – (multiple interested parties, academia, businesspeople, leaders and civil society).

The natural result of this interaction are world forums on governance, very fruitful meetings where those who participate know each other personally and engage in discussions at committee and plenary sessions. Prior to these world forums which have been held since 2006 and which this year will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, in December, preparatory meetings will be held by geographic region and, in some case, even national groups. The meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean will be held in San Jose, Costa Rica, between 27-29 July.

The sessions approved for the meeting include:

Security and privacy – Concerns about cybersecurity and confidence in the digital environment.
The situation of human rights on-line in Latin American and the Caribbean: advances, challenges and trends.
Evolution, progress and challenges of the implementation of a multi-sector approach to the work of public policy and Internet governance at national and regional levels.
Lessons on the development and implementation of strategies for providing access and legal initiatives on network neutrality: What are the next steps to ensure open and interoperable internet in the region?
Expand understanding with regards to the responsibilities of internet intermediaries: the scope and limits of their responsibilities in the digital ecosystem.
The balance between intellectual property and access to knowledge: the scope and impact of interregional trade agreements in the regulatory ecosystem.
Persistent and emerging challenges for Internet access: Connecting the next billion.
Integration of Internet governance with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda: What are the priorities of the region for digital inclusion?
A multi-stakeholder perception of the digital economy.
Future of Governance of the Internet Forum of Latin America and the Caribbean (LACIGF).

Undoubtedly, the meeting will address the issue of the independence of the US government’s Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which will go into effect in September, and how ICANN, as a highly hierarchical international organization should guarantee the technical standards of internet quality: interoperability, scalability, and resistance to potential failures; but also the sovereignty of the virtual space, the equality of all users, the privacy of data, freedom of expression and the right to information, and also deal with cybersecurity. All of this in the context of a lack of rules for its proper use which diminish individual rights or national security, or favor some to the detriment of others.

Cuban civil society will be present at this event with a small representation, something that has no precedences but that could be very healthy for a citizenry that is just beginning to open itself to an internet that has restricted access and a censorship of opinions, and that is disregards of the rights that come solely by connecting to the world, human rights recognized as equals, in real space as in the virtual.

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