14ymedio – Page 750 – Translating Cuba

‘El Sexto’ Exhibits the Pigs That Sent Him to Jail in Cuba / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

'Raul' and 'Fidel', the pigs from the performance art piece banned in Cuba, were paraded through the Market Gallery in Miami on Thursday. (14ymedio) — ‘Raul’ and ‘Fidel’, the pigs from the performance art piece banned in Cuba, were paraded through the Market Gallery in Miami on Thursday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 26 February 2016 – Last night in Miami Danilo Maldonado (known as ‘El Sexto’, The Sixth), was able to show off the pigs Raul and Fidel, which cost him ten months in prison in Cuba. The opening of the exhibition “Pork,” at the Market Gallery in Miami Beach this Thursday, included the performance art piece banned in Cuba at the end of 2014, in which the two pigs walked peacefully around in an area restricted for their display, while a crowd gathered around and flashes lit up the pigs, who now and then appeared to pose.

El Sexto is an artist of freedom. At times irreverent and iconoclastic, but decidedly sensitive and intuitive. “The only way to find freedom is to go out and get it. I am still looking for it, but only this search is what frees you from a state of repression,” he told 14ymedio while preparing for the opening of his first exposition in the United States.

Enlivened by the well-known and controversial band Porno Para Ricardo, the event welcomed hundreds of participants, especially young Cuban Americans, and was a showcase for the work of the artist imprisoned for his performance art piece in Havana’s Central Park, inspired by Orwell, that never saw the light of day until last night in Miami. Since then, the image of the two pigs painted olive-green with the names of Fidel and Raul on their sides, accompany El Sexto wherever he goes. continue reading

“For me, the pig chosen by Orwell was the closest thing to the characters I wanted to represent. But in addition, it is the only thing left to us, there is no fish, no chicken… all there is is pork,” he said, to explain his choice.

Maldonado began his artist work painting graffiti on the walls of Havana which he signed underneath with the pseudonym “El Sexto” (The Sixth), as a way of protesting against the huge campaign financed by the Cuban state to demand the release of the five spies considered heroes in Cuba. His social criticism and sarcastic messages were completely unacceptable to the authorities, who interpreted his art as a hostile act.

“I have been a follower of El Sexto for a long time. His work shows the injustice of the Castro regime, the lack of freedom, Valle Grande Prison (where he was held), the hunger strike he was forced to undertake…” commented Sheila Oliva Gonzales, a young Cuban who graduated from the National School of Arts in Cuba and now lives in Miami.

Despite everything, his imprisonment was a learning experience for El Sexto. “In Cuba there is a society that is falling apart, a country that is collapsing and this system has no solutions.”

The trip to the United States has represented a qualitative leap in Maldonado’s artistic career, but also on a personal level. “It helps you to want to transmit what you see to those over here. Here people believe in big dreams, and they are motivated to work, they have a purpose. That makes you fee.”

Ramon Alejandro, one of the great Cuban painters of exile, was present at the exhibition. “I did not know that he was a photographer, or that he painted on fabric, I only knew the drawings that circulated on the internet. He is a very good painter and what he does is very interesting, independent of its social and political implications,” he commented.

Others who were also there were Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, and Antonio Gonzalez Rodiles, director of the Estado de Sats project. “It’s fantastic that he can have the exposition here, because he couldn’t do it in Cuban. It seems that Raul has bought this name and now it is his property, and the name Fidel as well. Now no one can have it, not even the pigs,” lamented Soler.

Danilo Maldonado, who is very close to the Todos Marchamos (We All March) initiative undertaken by several civil society groups on the island and in exile, has said on numerous occasions that his intention is to return to Cuba in March and to continue attending, along with his mother and grandmother, Santa Rita Church, with the Ladies in White. “The importance of Todos Marchamos is that no one has dared to do this before now, to take to the streets,” affirmed the artist.

Former Democratic congressman Joe Garcia, who was also present at the evening, praised Maldonado’s courage, because he had the opportunity to leave Cuba but decided to say. “This makes him a good Cuba, a patriot. The most heroic acts are those silent acts that people undertake to improve their country. And there are thousands and thousands of Cubans who are doing this every day,” he said in praise of El Sexto.

One of the most moving moments of the night, along with the realization of the performance art piece aborted in Havana, was the moment when El Sexto proceeded to get a tattoo of a declaration asking for the freedom of the Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez, imprisoned in that country, and the Cuban political prisoners.

“Pork” an Exposition of “El Sexto” in Miami / 14ymedio

This Thursday opening in Miami was the exposition by graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, known as “El Sexto” (The Sixth). There was a great deal of publicity and friends and colleagues joined the occasion. Maldonado plans to return to Havana in March and continue his activism and also resume his street art, which has made him the most famous underground artist on the island.

Outstanding among the pieces at the Market gallery in Miami Beach, the 'performance' art that cost Maldonado ten months in prison in a Havana park two pigs with the names Fidel and Raul painted on their sides. — Outstanding among the pieces at the Market gallery in Miami Beach, the ‘performance’ art that cost Maldonado ten months in prison in a Havana park two pigs with the names Fidel and Raul painted on their sides.

Maldonado, age 32, based his planned performance on George Orwell's 'Animal farm" where the animals rise up against the farmer under the leadership fo the pigs. — Maldonado, age 32, based his planned performance on George Orwell’s ‘Animal farm” where the animals rise up against the farmer under the leadership fo the pigs.

Unlike what happened in Cuba, where the artist was arrested and pigs confiscated, on this occasion the animals walked around quietly in a restricted area while the crowds crowded around to take pictures of them.

From Valle Grande Prison 'El Sexto' not only continued with his artwork inside the prison, but also carried out two hunger strikes and brought out visual testimony of the overcrowding and bad conditions in Cuban prisons. — From Valle Grande Prison ‘El Sexto’ not only continued with his artwork inside the prison, but also carried out two hunger strikes and brought out visual testimony of the overcrowding and bad conditions in Cuban prisons.

Ladies in White leader Berta Soler at the show. While he was behind bars, El Sexto also kept a kind of diary, when he wasn't in isolation. The human rights organization Amnesty Internationl declared him a prisoner of conscience. — Ladies in White leader Berta Soler at the show. While he was behind bars, El Sexto also kept a kind of diary, when he wasn’t in isolation. The human rights organization Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience.

The strong social criticism and sarcastic messages that characterize the work of this young man are not at all appreciated by the Cuban authorities who interpret his work as a hostile act.

'El Sexto' is very critical of many Cuban artists on the island whom he considers "accomplices of Castroism" and be believes they work they do is "an art of lies" because "they aren't capable of questioning the system." — ‘El Sexto’ is very critical of many Cuban artists on the island whom he considers “accomplices of Castroism” and be believes they work they do is “an art of lies” because “they aren’t capable of questioning the system.”

In the graffiti artist's opnion, a great deal of the blame for the system that has come this far falls on the artists, who have helped to legitimate ex-president Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. — In the graffiti artist’s opinion, a great deal of the blame for the system that has come this far falls on the artists, who have helped to legitimate ex-president Fidel Castro and his brother Raul.

At the show the punk rock group Porno para Ricardo played several themes which mix the renegade feeling of their lyrics, civic protest and criticism of the repressive organs of the Cuban government.

The exhibition also included a showing of the film "The Life of Juanita Castro" - Fidel and Raul's sister who has lived in the US since 1964. — The exhibition also included a showing of the film “The Life of Juanita Castro” – Fidel and Raul’s sister who has lived in the US since 1964.

Padura Says Obama’s Visit Marks A Different Moment In Cuba-US Relations / EFE, 14ymedio

EFE (14ymedio), February 2016 — Cuban writer Leonardo Padura said today that he views positively the upcoming visit of U.S. president Barack Obama to Cuba, and he believes it marks “a different moment” in the relations between both countries, which have always been “very traumatic.”

“We are living at a unique moment: Obama is coming, the Rolling Stones are coming, a baseball team is coming, Chanel is coming… This has become like a theme park that everyone wants to visit,” joked Padura to EFE in Havana.

The author of “The Man Who Loved Dogs” confessed that he was surprised by the news of Obama’s trip announced for 21-22 March, which he greeted as something “very good.” continue reading

“I think that everything that contributes to eliminating tensions, building bridges, coming to a better understanding and, in the end, a better life for Cubans. you have to greet this as a positive thing,” he said.

The trip of President of the United States to the island “historically is marking a different moment. The relations between the United States and Cuba have always been very traumatic and, if that trauma is overcome and we travel a path towards real normalization of relations, it will be beneficial for everyone, especially for us Cubans,” he added.

Leonardo Padura participated today in Havana at the “Cultural Thursdays” colloquium organized by the Spanish Embassy in Cuba, held on this occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the creation of his character Mario Conde, the protagonist of his saga of police procedurals.

Along with Padura, speaking at the symposium was the actor Jorge Perugorría, who plays Mario Conde in the film and television series “The Four Seasons” which will premiere this year, directed by the Spanish filmmaker Felix Viscarret.

Jorge Perugorría told EFE that Obama’s visit has created “a kind of expectation among Cubans” and he hoped that it will serve to change and definitely improve relations between the two countries.

“I thought this [the visit of US president] was something I would never see. However, it has been faster than we imagined. Since the famous declaration of 17 December 2014 so much has happened, and so quickly. Obama is coming and I think it’s fantastic that this is happening and that the two countries will follow the path of understanding and normal relations,” said the actor.

Tractors In Cuba, From Ghosts To Orishas / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

The old tractor on La Isleña farm in San Juan y Martinez, Pinar del Río. (14ymedio)

“Do not put me in the dark to die like a tractor”
(popular parody of a line from José Martí)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 February 2016 – Two pieces of news have raised hopes among Cuban farmers. One is that the United States company Cleber LLC will install a tractor factory in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM). The second is the announcement that China will open a line of credit so that the island can buy YTO brand Chinese tractors to use in the rice program.

To encourage more hopes, the newspaper Granma dedicated an article today to an explanation of the situation of the 62,668 tractors registered in the country, of which 95% have been in use for more than 30 years. The article reports the number of these machines, their distribution by area, what they are used for, and how many tires or tracks they had. But they said nothing about the future of these obsolete vehicles nor the new ones to come. continue reading

However, Cubans learned long ago that when the river is roaring it is because it is carrying stones, but when you can’t hear it it’s doing the same. It’s been a long time since anyone has repeated from a podium or in a meeting with senior officials that plowing with oxen is better than doing it with farm machinery.

The thousand small tractors the US firm proposes to produce annually are optimal for use with organoponic cultivation methods and they suggest selling them to independent farmers in Cuba. The tractors will enter the market under the name Oggún, one of the main orishas of the Yoruba religion tied to technology and surgeons.

A rural legend, repeated by old already-retired tractor drivers, tells that at the end on the seventies in the San Juan y Martinez nursery area, a huge pit was dug to bury hundreds of destroyed tractors. Whole machines buried as scrap before handing them over to the peasants. State ownership “was ready to die” before making the transfer to the calloused hands of the private producers.

Time passed and the “Special Period” arrived and only then was the decision made to hand over whatever was unusable. Alfredo Perez, operator of a ’56 Ford belonging to La Isleña farm in Pinar del Río, who tells how this transfer worked. “As far as I know, in the nineties the state enterprises began giving the private farmers some farm machinery,” he says.

The farmer remembers that in most cases the tractors involved were in such poor condition, that in all the bureaucratic paperwork it appeared as the sale of decommissioned equipment, not property. From there it was up to the farmer to find a way to do what the state had failed to do despite all its resources, which is what they did. “They handed over a ghost that had to be resuscitated,” remembers Perez.

Despite the poor mechanical condition of the equipment, it was necessary to have an endorsement letter from the president of the cooperative and a commitment to lend the vehicle to whatever entity needed it , including the police.

The current practice is that when a state enterprise receives a new fleet of machinery, they hand over the old equipment to the cooperatives. Sometimes the machines are in terrible condition, other times in pretty good shape or even the company itself can help the cooperative get the parts to make it work.

Another way to acquire a tractor is to have the great good fortune to know the owner of a piece of American-made equipment that they want to sell. The Soviets awarded by another system what they weren’t allowed to market. The price of these “agricultural almendrones*” could vary between 100,000 to 150,000 Cuban pesos, depending on their condition and the farm implements included.

Alfredo only knows one farmer to whom they sold “ten years ago, a new tractor, and it was Alejandro Robaina,” the famous tobacco farmer of Vueltabajo. The farmer has some reservations and wonders if “the Americans” are going to distribute through the state or market them freely.

With the wisdom of a man of the countryside who knows that nothing is certain until the harvest is gathered in, Alfredo knows that tying the tractors to Oggeun is very premature, “because it is not even confirmed that they will build the factory,” and “only time will tell.”

Increasing food production is a priority for the State, so as to be able to replace imports and meet demand. The shortages and consequent rise in prices generate controversies of every kind, but there is something everyone agrees on: the solution is to produce more and for this, willpower isn’t enough, tools are needed. The farmers need better resources and marketing tractors puts to the test the old governmental prejudices: the Cuban countryside, stuck in the 20^th Century, is facing the modernity it needs.

*Translator’s note: “Almendrones” (from the word for almond) is what Cubans call the pre-Revolution American cars still circulating in Cuba.

The Unexpected Closure Of The Locale Thwarts A Meeting On Socialism / 14ymedio

Screen Shot 2016-02-26 at 11.59.28 AM — Billboards being prepared for May 1st in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution

14ymedio, Havana, 19 February 2016 — The meeting “Socialism And The Society We Want, organized by several organizations for tomorrow at the Omega Cinema in Havana, had to be postponed because at the final hour the management of the site reported that the theater “will not open its doors that day.”

Scheduled to participate in the meeting are leftist independent organizations such as Participative and Democratic Socialism (SPD), Cuban Leftist Democratic Socialists and Cuban Socialist Refoundation (ISDC-RSC) and the New Socialist Project for Cuba (NPSC).

In the article published in the SPD Bulletin this Friday, it said that the meeting was postponed, given there is not enough time to find an alternate venue. The organization assures that it will continue preparing for the event and that the date, place and time will be “announced promptly.”

Speaking to 14ymedio, Pedro Campos, one of the organizers, said the commitment was made verbally a week in advance, with the idea of paying the rent on the day of the event. “When we went by yesterday to confirm the reservation, we were told that the place was closing that day but were offered no explanation. It wasn’t for fumigation for because someone had forbidden it. They simply said it would be closed.”

Campos did not want to speculate on the reasons for the refusal. “As they say in the TV show Passage to the Unknown, everyone can draw their own conclusions,” he added.

Cleber Tractors is First US Company Authorized in Cuba / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 15 February 2016 – The Cleber Tractor Company has become the first U.S. company to receive authorization from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury to operate in Cuba, as reported Monday Associated Press (AP).

Last November, the Alabama-based company won a license of the Government of Cuba to operate in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM).

Cleber will built an assembly plant for up to 1,000 small tractors a year, specifically designed to support and expand organoponic cultivation methods. These products will be sold to independent farmers in Cuba, according to the AP. The assembly plant will be called “Oggún,” like the orisha of the Yoruba religion linked to technology and surgeons, and syncretic with Saint Peter in Catholicism.

The company’s partners, Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal – who was born on the island – received notice from the Treasury Department last week and plan to initiate their activities in the country in the first trimester of the coming year.

“Everyone wants to go to Cuba to sell something, but we are not trying to do that. We are studying the problem and how to help Cuba resolve the problems that they believe are the most important to resolve,” Clemmons told AP. “We believe that we will both win long term if we do things that are beneficial to both countries.”

Among the biggest problems facing Cuban farmers is access to machinery that will facilitate work in the fields. Currently, the tractors that remain active are state-owned, are affiliated to a cooperative or have decades of use in private hands, and have been preserved thanks to ingenuity and spare parts purchased in the informal market.

The Wrong Interlocutor / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya

US President Barack Obama, this February. (WhiteHouse)

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 11 February 2016 — More often than reason dictates – since the announcement of the restoration of relations between the governments of Cuba and the United States – statements, newspaper articles and even open letters have appeared taking to task president Barack Obama for a decision that some consider a political mistake, an excessive concession to the longest dictatorship in this hemisphere or, at best, naïve. There have even been those who have gone so far as to accuse the American president of orchestrating “a betrayal of democratic Cubans,” even if unaccompanied by arguments to support such an affirmation.

Without wishing to discuss the sovereign rights of each person to say what their own intellect dictates, it is noteworthy that the angriest complaints rest on questions that are not attributes exclusive to the president of the United States. Let’s take, for example, the issue of the relations themselves. Has this political rapprochement been more beneficial to the Cuban government, perhaps, than the acceptance and recognition it has had from other democratic governments? That is, countries such as Germany, Great Britain, France and Spain, among others, that have maintained relations with the Cuban dictator for years, and yet to date their governments have not received so many complaints on the part of those who indict president Obama for the same “crime.” continue reading

Another interesting issue is the wave of anxiety over the lifting of restrictions on Americans’ visits to the island, and trading between US producers and Cuban companies, when for decades we have received millions of European and Canadian visitors and have traded with businesses in numerous democratic companies without, so far, raising so many hackles.

In fact, foreign investors have been active on the island since the nineties – among them the well-known entrepreneurs from our stepmother country, Spain, which have exploited native labor ad nauseam in flagrant violation of the laws of international entities that defend the rights of workers – and have offered the Cuban government greater profits than all the relaxations of the embargo pushed by the US administration.

I wonder why Cubans’ democratic longings have never been directed toward the politicians and businessmen of that nation, culturally and historically related to the island, and why it has never offered vertical and openly declared – or at least convincing – support for the struggle for democracy on the island.

Is the critical approach of Barack Obama to the Castro dictatorship morally more reprehensible than the flirting of Madrid’s Moncloa Palace with the Palace of the Revolution, or than the entertainment received by the general-president Castro II during his recent stay in France, cradle of modern democracy?

Was it not the Holy Father himself, the humble Francis, who gave major honors to the island satrapy by favoring the ex-president Castro I with a personal visit, while deliberately ignoring the repression of the dissidents, avoiding a meeting with representatives of civil society, and conveniently omitting any criticism of the deplorable state of human rights in Cuba?

However, with a persistence worthy of better causes, the critics of the current US administration maintain a moral blockade against Barack Obama, as if he should take responsibility for the history and destiny of a people that has been sufficiency irresponsible as to allow itself the sad eccentricity of supporting the longest dictatorship in memory in the Western world.

Recently in this newspaper, a letter was published where a Cuban directed four personal questions to President Obama (Four Questions For You, President Obama). These four questions summarize approximately the same complaints and demands of a great number of the resentful, who do not understand why the president of our northern neighbor “has taken no [effective] actions” to force the Cuban dictatorship to respect the democratic rights of Cubans, or why he has not done enough to guarantee the quality of life of the islanders since 17 December 2014, as if some of these issues were priorities or key issues for the president of a foreign country and not matters that we Cubans are capable of resolving ourselves.

Paradoxically, this young Cuban who says he “does not want to emigrate and dreams of a free, independent and democratic Cuba” has clearly subordinated Cuba’s national sovereignty to the will and decisions of that foreign government. Indeed, some patriots show themselves to be so passionately naive that one doesn’t know whether to give them a round of applause or burst into tears.

But this is how things are in these parts. There are also others abstractly flying an exacerbated civicism that falters, however, when they try to apply it to daily life. I wonder if this young man and so many other “demanding” Cubans here – in particular those who attend the meetings to nominate candidates or the so-called “Accountability Assemblies” – have had the courage to ask their representative what he or she is going to do to guarantee the human rights, freedom and prosperity of (at least) their neighbors and the community.

And taking the matter to a more individual level, how many of them ask themselves what they are doing to change the state of affairs in Cuba.

Personally, I have no demands of President Barack Obama nor to any specific foreign government. Most likely if I were in his shoes I would do the same: seek to safeguard the interests of my nation and my compatriots, as well as the safety of my loved ones. It is what I aspire to in a future Cuban president, when we live in a democracy. I suppose that Mr. Obama has every right from his own discernment to think: If Cubans in great enthusiasm applauded the installation of a dictatorship from before I was born, if they have chosen to escape it or to tolerate its excesses ad infinitum, who am I to assume the role of redeemer?

It seems cynical, and may be so, but if you look at it coldly, it’s reality. The Cuban dictatorship has done exactly what we have allowed it to do. And it will remain on the throne of power as long as it wants, not only for its own absolute power but because Cubans consent. For an autocracy to succumb there doesn’t have to be an assault on barracks or the unleashing of a war; it is enough to stop obeying it.

Until that happens, we can bombard Barack Obama or the next occupant of the White House with any questions we like; the truth is that the real answer is among ourselves.

Cubans In Ecuador Come Together To Demand Their Rights / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

A group of Cubans living in Ecuador met in the English Park to demand their rights. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 24 February 2016 — Fifty Cubans met in English Park, in the north of Quito, to request treatment similar to their compatriots stranded in Central America. The anonymous call to the meeting, which circulated among groups of Cubans on Facebook, asked all Cuban immigrants living in Ecuador to agree to “ask and demand” that they be sent to the United States, because, they say, they are fed up with “the abuses and contempt” in the Andean country.

According to the event organizers, their goal for the “First Meeting of Cubans in Ecuador” is to be heard about their “rights as human beings.” In addition, they affirm they do not want “any form of conflict within in the country,” and only want “to have a dignified life and to be able to choose the ideal place to do so.” continue reading

Pedro Sanchez, one of the participants, told 14ymedio via the Messenger app that the protesters set three objectives. First, push for an agreement between the Governments of Ecuador and Mexico to allow a safe transfer to the United States of those Cubans who are undocumented in the country; second to form a movement with a legal basis; and third, to advocate for the nine Cubans who are imprisoned in the Hotel Carrion and are also part of their struggle. The Hotel Carrion is an immigration jail where undocumented Cubans are sent while awaiting eventual deportation to the island.

“The main problem of the Cuban community is discrimination,” says Osvaldo Hernandez Cabrera. “Here they don’t want to legalize us or give us work.. We only ask that they give us a direct way to reach the United States via Mexico as they have given our brothers. We are not illegal, we are Cubans stranded in Ecuador,” he claimed.

To get a work permit, he adds, there are many requirements and most of the time, when they go in search of employment, they are rejected with a resounding “no Cubans are hired here.” “We are trying to send letters and get them to listen to us, otherwise we are ready to throw ourselves on the border with Colombia to get them to pay attention to us,” he said.

Hundreds of messages of support have been sent to these Cubans from different parts of Ecuador. “Some of us are not in Quito, but we are one hundred percent for the cause. From other places we will be supporting everything that is needed,” said Yordey Betancourt, an app user. Another young Cuban lamented the discrimination to which she is subjected. “Today a lady told me on the trolley (bus) ‘this is not your country.’ They mistreat us without reason, because Cubans are good. Give us an out and Ecuador will see that we will never return. We’ve run out of money and they no longer want us. Incomes, sales, taxis, trade… they all increased with us and now they do not want us.”

Vivian Hernandez Valdes supports the requests of the group: “What they are asking for is fair. The living conditions of many compatriots here are very poor and I think it is the right time for all Cubans who are in Ecuador and want to travel to the United States to get the same treatment as those in Panama and Costa Rica.”

The Cuban community in Ecuador grew starting in 2008 when the country lifted the visa requirement for travellers from the island. It is estimated that there are about 40,000 Cubans residing in the country. Ecuador was used as a springboard by Cuban migrants to reach the United States to take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act. According to official figures, in mid-2010 37,000 Cuban entered the country, a trend that continued rapidly increasing until Rafael Correa’s government decided to re-impose a visa requirement last December, after the immigration crisis that broke out in Central America.

Dead at 91 Ramón Castro, Brother of Fidel and Raul Castro / 14ymedio

Ramón Castro Ruz died Tuesday in Havana. (Youtube)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2016 — On the morning of Tuesday, 23 February, Ramon Castro, brother of Fidel Castro and Cuban President Raul Castro, died in Havana at age 91, according to the official newspaper Granma.

Born in Biran, now in the province of Holguin, on 14 October 1924, he was the second child of Angel Argiz Castro and Lina Ruz Gonzalez. In his family he was called by the nickname Mongo Castro.

He studied agricultural engineering at the University of Havana and was imprisoned during the Batista regime in 1953, after his brothers’ assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in Bayamo. continue reading

The official note said that he “cooperated with the 26^th July Movement and organized one of the networks supplying the Frank Pais Second Eastern Front.”

After the first of January 1959, he served as advisor to the Ministries of Agriculture and Sugar as well as three other ministries, where he is remembered “with neither pain nor glory,” according to former colleagues consulted by this newspaper.

Ramon Castro is credited with a part of the responsibility for the disastrous livestock policy and the dairy development plan during which cows were imported from Canada, animals that were not acclimated to conditions in Cuba. He was also the director of the failed Special Genetic Plan of the Valles de Picadura.

The official note states that he had received “several awards and held the title of Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba”.

For several years, the eldest of the brothers has been out of public life and the rumor about his ill health had spread on the island. The statement about his death, also read on the main television news, did not specify the cause.

To the Cuban people he is particularly remembered for his great physical resemblance to his brother Fidel Castro.

His remains were cremated and will be transferred to Biran, his birthplace and the place where the remains of his parents repose, state media reported.

In addition to Ramón, children from the marriage of Angel Castro Argiz and Lina Ruz Gonzalez were Angela Maria, born in 1923 and died in 2012, Fidel Alejandro (1926); Raúl Modesto (1931), Juana de la Caridad (1933); Emma de la Concepción (1935) and Agustina del Carmen (1938).

Pedaling to Survive / 14ymedio

A police checking the papers of a pedicab driver in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2016 — Preferred by customers for short distance travel and demonized by motorists who consider them a danger to traffic, pedicabs are part of the urban landscape of Havana and many provincial cities. With their three wheels and their many decorative variations, these vehicles use the “human fuel” of a driver who pedals you to your destination. That makes them the most precarious link in passenger transport in Cuba.

Those who work the pedals are harassed by the police and exploited by the owners of the pedicabs. Many, the poorest, come from the east of the country and are considered “illegal” in the so-called “capital of all Cubans,” because they lack the resident permits required to live in the city. The days they manage to make more than five convertible pesos (CUC) they feel happy, although there are some who brag about giving tours for tourists for no less than “20 CUC per hour.”

The “bite” taken out by the police must also be factored into the prices. Among those in uniform extortionists abound and avoiding a fine or a confiscation can only be achieved with gifts or hard cash. In the network of corruption suffered by self-employed workers, the pedicabs drivers are on the lowest rung of the ladder. They must pay if they want to continue to pedal through the city.

Will Obama Speak at the University of Havana? / 14ymedio

Intense renovations at the University of Havana have triggered speculation about a possible visit of Barack Obama to the University of Havana’s Great Hall. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 February 2016 – For several days students at the University of Havana have observed with surprise several teams of builders who are refurbishing and repairing the common areas and the most important areas on “The Hill,” the site of the University of Havana. Speculations about the Aula Magna – the Great Hall – as a possible site for Barack Obama’s speech have soared as a result of the major clean up.

Were he to speak there, he would be the first United Stats president to take the floor at this academic site; Jimmy Carter spoke there in 2002 but he was no longer in office. On that occasion, the speech stood out particularly for his reference – with the speech being broadcast live on television – to the independent Varela Project, which advocated political reforms.

In that speech, the politician who for years official propaganda had referred to disparagingly as “the peanut seller,” alluded to his agricultural origins, and also requested that the then government of Fidel Castro allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Cuban prisons, and receive the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights to discuss issues such as prisoners of conscience.

Those who speculate that Obama will speak in the emblematic auditorium during his March visit, hope that the president of the United States will demand greater freedoms as well as mass access to the internet.

Mistaken Focus Hinders Cuban Dialogue / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

Since 1959, the rebel group that capitalized on the triumph of the Revolution began to question anyone who disputed their decisions. (Historical Archives)

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 23 February 2016 – As of early 1959, the rebel group that capitalized on the democratic revolutionary win against the Batista dictatorship began labeling as counterrevolutionaries anyone who questioned their decrees, policies and decisions, without differentiating between those who did it through healthy dialog – including from their own ranks – and those who openly and violently confronted them.

The fight for the restoration of democratic institutions was what had united the Cuban people at that time. The trigger that divided the large anti-Batista coalition was the interest of the rebel leaders to prioritize social and economic transformations and to postpone, indefinitely, the holding of elections and the establishment of a democratically elected government based on the 1940 Constitution. continue reading

This disdain for democracy, a disregard for the interests of others and those who thought differently, as well as the channeling of the torrent of revolutionary spirit among the people according to the narrow interests of this rebel core, led to early and subsequent confrontations and gave rise to a diverse opposition and “counterrevolution” that would encompass every political-economic and social aspect that this core considered a threat to its power.

Throughout all the years since, they have maintained this approach of putting in the same “counterrevolutionary” bag all those who simply disagreed or who did not support some “revolutionary” measure, along with those who chose to confront them in a violent way.

Now in Cuba, in 2016, general-president Raul Castro, brother of the historic leader, will soon receive the president of the United States, a country that is “the center of the imperialist world, cradle of the counterrevolution, the historic enemy that has tried by every possible means to destroy the Cuban Revolution.”

But internally Raul Castro’s government does not even recognize that there is an extensive non-governmental democratic socialist side that, from dialog rather than confrontation, has done everything possible to make its constructive positions known to the leadership of the Party-State-Government, the Cuban people, international public opinion and the historical opposition.

Many of us have been treated as counterrevolutionaries and enemies, and if they have left some spaces where we can participate, such as the magazine Temas (Themes), meetings of the Cuban Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC), the Juan Marinello Foundation and others, they apply to us covert and sophisticated forms of repression, trying to block our message and keep us as far as possible from decision making, that is away from the bureaucracy that is the main brake on advances in the country, and which, like ivy clinging to a wall, clings to power and denies the people and the workers.

But even this does not lead us to fall into provocations and abandon our democratic vocation of dialogue and move to confrontation and violence.

We must trust and work so that the influence of the majority of the people who do not want more violence, but rather democracy and participation, leads the Government to undertake a process of internal dialogue and negotiation, like that it is undertaking with the “historical enemy,” “French imperialism” and other less recognized imperialisms, that will open the channels to the democratization of politics and economy.

As a democratic socialist I deplore violence, terrorism, vindictiveness and a settling of old scores and once again I call on the Government-Party-State to cease repression of thought and the peaceful political activism of those who think differently, and to undertake a process of democratization leading to the reconciliation of Cuban society.

It is time to understand that it is not the same to disagree, to differ, to dialogue and try to seek an understanding, as it is to oppose dialogue and engage in open confrontation. It is not the same to support the blockade-embargo and the politics of external pressure, as it is to support international policies of dialog and rapprochement.

Some of us democratic socialists have met with members of the opposition in search of consensus for an inclusive national dialogue and to open avenues for the process of democratization that we long for, but we have never supported open confrontation, violence and provocation, nor have other peaceful opponents done so.

It is time for the Cuban government to change this mistaken focus of considering anyone who does not share its methods and conceptions a “counterrevolutionary,” which hinders a much needed national dialog, and to internalize the same processes of consultation and peace that guide its foreign policy.

Cuban Exiles Obama’s Visit From the Waters off Havana / 14ymedio

A flotilla marked the 20th anniversary of the 13 de Marzo Tugboat sinking. (Democracy Movement)

14ymedio, 23 February 2016 – The Democratic Movement and the Mambisa Vigil, Cuban exile groups in Miami, are preparing a protest that will take place off the coast of Cuba coinciding with President Barack Obama’s visit to the island on 21-22 March.

The details of the protest will be announced this coming Thursday, but the leaders of both organizations explained their intentions to the Mexican news agency Notimex, saying that they firmly believe that the historic visit will only serve to legitimate a repressive, single-party regime that has perpetuated itself in power for decades. continue reading

“We want to confront Cuba with a presence demanding free elections when Raul Castro leaves the throne and not a hand-picked successor,” Ramon Saul Sanchez from the Democratic Movement told Notimex. The activist, who considers the Cuban government terrorists, has been imprisoned on several occasions, undertaken several hunger strikes, and led fleets of boats into Cuban waters. “We are going to advocate for the reunification of the Cuban family,” he added.

The Mexican news agency also spoke with Miguel Saavedra, from Mambisa VIgil, who said his protest action will take place outside the Versailles restaurant on 8th Street in MIami, where they regularly hold their protests.

“President Obama is trying to do whatever he can to make Congress see we can do some kind of business with Cuba and to get them to lift the trade embargo” lamented Saavedra.

Calls for Efficiency/ 14ymedio

Calls for efficiency are everywhere, but the Cuban economy is not emerging from the crisis. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2016 — Several generations of Cubans have lived surrounded by calls for efficiency, sacrifice and productivity. There are so many billboards, posters and slogans demanding that people to do more and better, that we don’t even read them or listen to these demands. They are on the walls, in workplaces, in schools and even in hospitals, but they do not achieve their objective nor make the country into a more productive and prosperous place.

With Raul Castro the slogans have lost some of their ideological baggage they carried during the reign of his brother, and are now filled with demands for quality. Also proliferating are calls for “tightening our belts.” However, the forecasts for economic growth for 2016 stand at 2%, half of what was expected in 2015.

Weak growth is also due, in part, to the falling prices of nickel and sugar, two of the country’s most important exports. But it is mainly due to the low productivity of a country that imports 80% of the food that it consumes.

Tribute To Orlando Zapata Leads To Dozens Of Arrests / 14ymedio

Activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba marched this Sunday despite the arrests. (UNPACU)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 February 2016 — The events organized on Sunday to remember the late activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo resulted in dozens of opposition members arrested throughout the country. Several civil society organizations had also called for a tribute to honor the four Brothers to the Rescue pilots on the twentieth anniversary of their death at the hands of the Cuban Air Force.

Zapata Tamayo died on 23 February 2010 after a prolonged hunger strike to protest his prison conditions. The death of the dissident led to a wave of indignation in Cuban civil society and strong pronouncements from international bodies devoted to respect for human rights. continue reading

The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) confirmed to this newspaper the arrests of 134 of its members. The arrests occurred when opponents tried to “reach Catholic Churches to attend mass, from Guantanamo to Camaguey, as part of the actions within the We All March Campaign,” according to a statement from UNPACU.

In Havana about 37 Ladies in White managed to walk down 5th Avenue, supported by 34 activists. At least seven women were prevented from reaching the place, in the west of Havana.

“Fifty members of the Interior Ministry, some dressed in olive green uniforms and others in police uniforms, overpowered the protesters at the scene,” the blogger Agustín López Canino told 14ymedio at the scene. In his report, the activist added that those arrested were being put into “paddy wagons and taken to detention centers.”

Also present were “civilians” of the rapid response brigades who shouted pro-government slogans against the dissidents.