14ymedio – Page 303 – Translating Cuba

Marxism Disappears From the Central Report of the Cuban Communist Party Congress

“It is necessary to increase revolutionary militancy and intransigence and strengthen their contribution to ideological work,” said Raúl Castro during the congress. (Granma)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 19 April 2021 — A cursory glance at the central report to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba could be reduced to the fact that the most significant were the limits imposed on the reforms and the disappearance in the text of any allusion to Marxism-Leninism, underlined by the absence of images of Marx, Engels or Lenin in the gallery of the Convention Center.

Raúl Castro was precise when he pointed out that the private practice of certain professions and private commercial importation “in the spirit of establishing a non-state system of internal trade” would be among those limits that should not be exceeded “because the consequences would be irreversible and would lead to strategic errors and the very destruction of socialism and therefore of national sovereignty and independence.”

He reiterated the urgent need to maintain the “unique” character of the Communist Party that according to him “guarantees and represents the unity of the nation” while redefining the role of civil society recommending that it was necessary “to revitalize its actions in all spheres of society and update its functioning in correspondence with the times we live in …” and, just in case, he emphasized: “It is necessary to increase revolutionary militancy and intransigence and strengthen its contribution to ideological work, the confrontation with the subversive plans of the enemy and the creation and consolidation of values.” continue reading

He warned about the growing presence on the internet of opinions contrary to the Government and consoled himself by stating that “the streets, parks and squares do and will belong to the revolutionaries and that we will never deny our heroic people the right to defend their Revolution.”

With these thunders, no one dreams of openings to the market or to democracy, although Marx, Engels and Lenin no longer appear in the iconography nor are their postulates mentioned as a catechism in Party documents.

Anecdotally, it is worth noting the veiled announcement that Marino Murillo seems to have fallen out of favor, given the criticism of the performance of the Permanent Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Guidelines, which, according to the report, “failed to organize, in an adequate manner, the participation of the different actors involved in the implementation of the Guidelines and assumed functions that exceeded the mandate given by Congress…”

As if he were responding, with his customary ambiguity, to those who predict that he will remain in the shadows, Castro made two things clear: one, his decision not to accept proposals to remain in the higher organs of the party organization, and another, that “while I live I will be ready, with my foot on the stirrup, to defend the Homeland, the Revolution and Socialism.”

Another detail that should not be overlooked was his insistence on recommending Miguel Díaz-Canel as his probable successor who, according to “the assessment of the Party’s leadership,” has been carrying out his position as president with good results.

Shortly before asking his audience to applaud the president, the army general mentioned that Díaz-Canel “before a call from the Commander-in-Chief, voluntarily performed military service in antiaircraft defense units to assimilate the new technique, after graduating as an electronic engineer from the Central University of Las Villas “

Without wishing to deny the general or the version given by his recommendation, it should be clarified that the referred “call from the Commander in Chief” to join the ranks of the “strategic weapons” occurred on March 13, 1962, when Díaz-Canel still had not completed two years and his entry into the Antiaircraft Rocket Troops (TCAA) was not voluntary, but obeying the law of military service in 1982, when “the new technique” was approaching obsolescence.

There are three aspects to analyze in this congress: what will happen with the guidelines, what will be the final version of the conceptualization, and the list of the new members of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau. As boring and sterile as it may seem, we will stay tuned.

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Otero Alcantara Demands $500,000 from Cuban Government for Damage to His Works

For Otero Alcántara, the fact that State Security will not return his artworks is a great absurdity because he never signed an act of confiscation. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 21 April2021 — The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been besieged for more than two weeks in his home in Old Havana, headquarters of the San Isidro Movement (MSI). “I have been here for 17 days without being able to leave my house. I try to leave and the political police detain me,” he explains to 14ymedio.

Since last Saturday, a day after State Security raided his home on Damas Street and detained him for 16 hours, the artist has been arrested every day at four in the afternoon when he tries to go out to demand the return of the works of art that the officers took away.

“Today they are still on the corner and do not let anyone in, it is still the same here,” he explained to this newspaper this Wednesday and insists that the increase in repression leads him to demand more from the authorities. “The first demand is that I want $500,000 for damage to my works.” continue reading

The seized and damaged works are part of the series Despite being a good boy, I did not know the Three Wise Men, in which the artist illustrates in large format coverage of some of the sweets that he ate in his childhood, at a time in which jams intended for children’s have disappeared from stores in national currency.

Otero Alcántara already has an idea of what to do with those resources: “I am going to spend that money on remodeling the houses of the people here in San Isidro. So don’t tell me that the situation is difficult, if you want them to take money from the hotels they are building on all sides.”

Last Monday, while he was detained in the El Wajay police unit, south of Havana, he was interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Kenia María Morales, an officer accused of participating in the repression against independent artists. Morales showed him photocopies of some of the works. “We have them and we will return them to you if a judge decides,” he said.

The artist recalls: “I was inside my house, they came in and took me out and put me in a patrol car and I didn’t know anything else until I returned the next day. Those works of art are my children.” Since then he has not had mobile data service on his cell phone either.

This Tuesday he was arrested again and, this time, he was taken to the Cotorro police unit and they kept him in the cells there until 10:30 at night when they took him home. The operation that surrounds his house prevents him from going out and talking to the neighbors. A situation that they consider intolerable.

“After this, what can I put up with? That they shoot a colleague? No, this is something unacceptable, after they enter your house and take your works of art, what can you expect tomorrow? I can’t move, I can’t draw, nothing, and if they’re looking for me to leave the country, they’re wrong, I’m not going to go anywhere,” he insists.

“It is very unfair everything that the neighbors here are going through too. On the day of the raid they took a neighbor’s son into custody because he was filming, but they already released him,” he details. His perceptions of Damas Street these days, where he lives, is that “it has been half phantasmagoric, with few people on the street but as of yesterday it has already begun to regain its normal rhythm.”

This Tuesday, on social networks, several Internet users denounced the presence of the State Security bus parked on the same corner as the MSI headquarters. It is the same bus that State Security used on January 27 to arrest artists and journalists who were protesting in front of the Ministry of Culture, a complaint that was confirmed by an investigation carried out by the independent Inventory project .

The bus was identified as being of the Chinese Yutong make and with the number 5604, belonging to the Provincial Transportation Company of Havana, an image that was shared on Facebook by the artist Salomé García.

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Raul Castro’s (presumed) Political Testament

At the end of the Eighth Congress, he will be 45 days away from entering the venerable condition of nonagenarian. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 April 2021 — Raúl Castro has been getting his retirement ready for five years. He announced it in April 2016 when he warned that the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) would probably be “the last where the historical generation would be present.” Presumably, he is now feeling the temptation to bequeath to his successors some kind of political testament and the ideal setting to make it known will be the Congress, which will meet next week.

The Army general knows that all the large press agencies already have the main paragraphs of his obituary in advance. According to the ideological inclinations of each one, they will classify him as a nonconformist reformist or the continuator of a dictatorship. He also knows that his last appearance as the legitimate heir of the Castro regime may have the capacity to delay or advance the inevitable: change.

It is embarrassing that the immediate future of a nation is subject to the whims of a dictator who may try to tie everything up before retiring, but that is the harsh reality. continue reading

To delay what is clearly inescapable, all the retiring first secretary would need to demand from his successors is a firm commitment to “keep the flags of socialism flying high.” To advance it, to “anticipate the future,” as a poet would say, a slight hint by Raul would be enough to call for the completion of the reforms that he could not or did not know how to carry out.

Will he act as a leader or as his brother’s predecessor, as a statesman or as part of a family? He alone knows the answer

At the end of the Eighth Congress, he will be 45 days away from entering the venerable condition of a nonagenarian. Of the historical generation, he is the only one who has the ability to send a message that redefines the forces of power. With his death, the last specimen of the clan that has gripped the Island for more than half a century will be extinguished: his farewell would have to be a very well-played card.

Only Raúl Castro can bury the memory of the man who led the country to the abyss he is glancing at today. Will he act as a leader or as a brother to his predecessor, as a statesman or as part of a family? He alone knows the answer.

If, true to the family-man reputation that his minions have carved out for him, he wished to leave his biological descendants a country not to be ashamed of, Raúl Castro would have to choose to “open the cages,” as the peasants metaphorically refer to economic and political apertures.

If he is more committed to a sterile Numantine posture so that he is not blamed for the capitulation; if he is not willing to take responsibility and self-criticism for the accumulation of errors through which he accompanied his brother for decades; if he cares more about appearing on the last page of the past rather than starring on the first one of the future, then he will clench his fist and shout some well-worn slogan.

The silence in which he has locked himself since the last time we heard his voice heralds the continuity of his silence. The absence of a political will to clear the way for the changes demanded has a huge advantage: We won’t have to be grateful to him for it.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Congress or Funeral? In Cuba, You Never Know

Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel during the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. (Revolution Studies)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 20 April 2021 — In the illegal Cuban lottery, the number eight means death, the same number as this edition of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) Congress that concluded on Monday in Havana. The conclave has had all the solemnity of a political funeral for a generation that is vacating its high positions, but it has offered few optimistic signs for our national life which is going through its worst crisis in this century.

The departure of Raúl Castro from the secretariat of the most powerful organization in the country is not surprising. The irremediable footsteps of biology have pushed him to step aside, at least publicly. Even so, although no one at the top of the Party now bears the surname of the family clan that has ruled Cuba for 62 years, it would be naive to think that the lineage that came from the small town of Birán will not try to continue to control the national destiny.

To remain at the helm of the ship without being visibly in the main cabin, Raúl Castro drew up a plan in advance that is consistent with the methodical discipline of his personal motto: “without haste but without pause.” The naming of Miguel Díaz-Canel to lead the Communist Party, a ‘favored youngest son’ trained to maintain the continuity of the system at all costs, has been a fundamental step in this plan for the transfer of public responsibilities. continue reading

The intrusion into the Political Bureau of Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, Raul Castro’s former son-in-law and head of the military consortium that controls a large part of the island’s tourism business, suggests that the priorities of the outgoing Party leader are to prevent a reformist turn of events from collapsing the system with the result that the family would lose the management of the most succulent pieces of the national economic pie.

This is the roadmap that the general has defined to spend his last days safe from courtrooms and prison bars, but it is not enough. The country that has been passed along, at least nominally, is experiencing its moment of greatest citizen dissatisfaction with, and unrest over, the political and economic model. The absurd bans, centralism and poor productive management have contributed to a material disaster that the pandemic has deepened in the last year.

Public demonstrations of disagreement are no longer exclusive to the opposition and rare is the week in which a street protest, a confrontation between the people and the police, or a denunciation of the excess of State Security is not broadcast on social networks. The entire nation seems like a vast expanse of dry grass under the inclement sun of misery and repression, which could be ignited with a small spark or lead to another of the many migratory crises that Cubans have cyclically lived through.

In this Eighth Congress, the outgoing leaders of the Communist Party preferred to send the message of persistence on the current path instead of promoting change, and opted to stick to the script of passing on the ideological baton to the detriment of announcing a plan of openings that a part of the population was expecting. In the coming weeks, as more details of the event are released, there will be a few who will rub their hands, many who end up assembling a makeshift raft to emigrate, and others who will light a candle for the nation that continues to expire.
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In Cuba Marino Murillo Falls, Raul Castro’s Ex-Son-in-Law Rises

Among the most high-profile demotions is that of Marino Murillo (left), whom the foreign press had dubbed Cuba’s “czar of economic reforms.” (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, April 19, 2021 — The most striking development of the Eighth Communist Party Congress, which concludes on Monday after a four-day meeting with hardly any news, will be the retirement, at least officially, of the old guard. For the first time, no one with the last name Castro will hold a senior position. Additionally, the position of second secretary will be dissolved. The entire senior leadership of the Party Congress will leave office and more than 20% of Politburo members will be new.

The Central Committee will add fifty-five new faces — among the standouts are Manuel Marrero and Lázaro Álvarez Casas — who will also join the Politburo. Among the new members is a former-spy: Gerardo Hernández Nordelo. The military will gain nine new generals.

The list of those leaving comes to eighty-eight, all members of the so-called historical generation (Raúl Castro, Ramiro Valdés, Guillermo García, Leopoldo Cintra Frías, Julio Camacho Aguilera and Ramón Pardo Guerra), and some “younger ones” such as Mercedes López Acea, Rodrigo Malmierca and Víctor Fidel Gaute López. continue reading

One unsurprising Politburo appointment is General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, head of Gaesa, the military consortium that controls a significant portion of the island’s tourism-related business and other strategic sectors. Analysts had long been predicting that Raúl Castro’s former son-in-law would be promoted to a position near the pinnacle of Cuban leadership.

The appointment of López-Calleja to the Politburo — the most senior position in the Communist Party held by any family member, at least in an official, public way — represents a gesture of defiance towards Washington. Last September the U.S. Office for Control of Foreign Assets added him to its list of “blocked persons.”

Among the most significant departures is that of Marino Murillo, whom the foreign press had dubbed “the czar of economic reforms” and who headed the Commission for Regulatory Implementation and Development. A civil servant, he was the face of currency unification, a package of monetary reforms that began taking effect in January.

However, popular dissatisfaction could have been the cause of his fall from grace, as outlined in a report in which it was claimed the commission “did not manage to adequately coordinate the participation of different actors involved in the implementation of the regulations and assumed functions that exceeded the mandate given it by Congress.”

Among the new additions is TV presenter Humberto López, whose career had a meteoric rise last year when he went from anchoring the first newscast of the day to hosting the program Hacemos Cuba, which focused on attacking independent activists, artists and journalists.

López has been routinely denounced on social media for smear campaigns for which his targets have no right of reply. The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba also recently added him to its database of “violent Cuban repressors.”

There has also be a change in overall numbers. Counting the fourteen members of the Politburo and five in the Secretariat, the Central Committee now has 114 members, down from the previous 145 members, a significant reduction in the typically bloated party bureaucracy.

But what has been most discussed is the abolition of the post of second-secretary of the Politiburo, a position that until yesterday was held by the veteran and very orthodox José Ramón Machado Ventura. A novelty unique to Cuban communism that did not exist in any other Soviet bloc country, its phase-out may be due to the fact that it was an invention by Fidel Castro who, with his brother in a position of such close proximity, was looking for a way to protect his back.

Now, with the departure of Raúl Castro as head of the Communist Party, it makes no sense to preserve the position. And finding someone who would be sufficiently trustworthy would be a difficult proposition.

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Alvaro Lopez Miera to Replace Leopoldo Cintra Frias as Minister of Armed Forces

Álvaro López Miera, Cuba’s new Minister of the Armed Forces. (Juventud Rebelde)

14ymedio, Havana, April 15, 2021 — On Tuesday Alvaro López Miera was named the new Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, replacing veteran Leopoldo “Polo” Cintra Frias, one day before the start of the Eighth Communist Party Congress. Lopez Miera, 77, the son of Spanish Loyalists, is described by analysts as a member of the “reliable clan.”

“As proposed by the First-Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, and the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Council of State has approved a request by Army General Leopoldo Cintra “Polo” Frías — Hero of the Republic of Cuba, with an extensive and brilliant record of service to the fatherland from an early age as a combatant of the Rebel Army — to be relieved of command as Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces,” reads the official announcement.

“The proposal to name Army General Alvaro López Miera — Hero of the Republic of Cuba, who has been serving as First-Deputy Minister and Chief of the General Staff, and who has enjoyed a long and fruitful career from a very young age in the Rebel Army — as Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces has been approved.

In official jargon, dismissal notices have their own grammar. The phrase “request to be relieved of command” is almost always associated with unsatisfactory performance or an exit from something other than the front door.

Polo, a man extremely loyal to Raul Castro, used to be considered “the youngest of the old guard” compared the octogenarians and nonagenarians who hold the most important positions in Cuba’s power structure.

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Retail Sales of Beef to Begin after State Orders Are Filled

The sale of beef has been illegal for decades. (tiempo21.cu)

14ymedio, Havana, April 14, 2021 – Cuban authorities will allow retail sales of beef once the state’s orders have been filled and the livestock supply is stable, a measure similar to one governing milk and its byproducts, whose retail sale is conditional on certain indicators being met.

Both changes are part of a package of sixty-three measures announced on Tuesday which are intended to boost food production, though some independent economists think they will be insufficient unless they are accompanied by more fundamental reforms.

Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca proposed some of these measures, including a reduction in electrical rates for all agricultural activities. The new rates will remain in effect regardless of fluctuations in the price of oil or water. Costs for both will be covered in the state budget at a figure estimated to be between 240 and 400 million pesos. continue reading

Changes will be made in procurement procedures to guarantee that contracts with individual producers regarding planting, production and sales are fulfilled. Prices for raw materials and some products, local development projects, certain financial issues and taxes are other measures to be explained in greater detail, presumably on Wednesday, during the next broadcast of the State TV Roundtable program.

Tapia Fonseca claimed the changes “were not drafted in an office” and, according to official press reports, “the broadest possible range of opinions” was taken into account in their preparation. However, input from independent farmers’ associations has never been taken into account, either in meetings with authorities or in proposals they have made through open letters or written statements.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself, who was present at the meeting in which the new measures to increase food production were announced, said the package of reforms is a result of a “democratic, participative and inclusive exercise which took into account the opinions of both state and non-state producers as well as those of experts, academics, research centers, agricultural company directors and many other voices in the country.”

“We all have to do something for the country at this time. We all have to dedicate ourselves to defending the Revolution,” the president added.

Elias Amor, a Madrid-based Cuban economist, argues on his blog Cubaeconomia that these measures have come about “because of the terrible design of the currency unification process. “They have closed one hole but opened a much bigger one in the form of uncontrolled public debt.” [Related article here.]

The expert believes the changes are a response to protests from producers but sees them as little more than “populist patches” that will solve nothing.

“Anyone who works the earth, increasing its value and improving it, wants it to be his, to be able to use it as he freely chooses, in whatever way he deems appropriate, without any communist oversight… The path of freedom begins with property rights to land. From there, progress can then be made towards efficiency and food security, and even the export of surpluses, as in Vietnam,” he argues.

Another economist, Pedro Monreal, is more optimistic though he is waiting to see the details. He believes it is too early to come to any conclusions because this may only be the beginning of a process, with more significant changes to come.

“It is difficult to evaluate these new measures — they represent an experimental approach, which is not the same as an experiment — without a broader discussion of economics and politics. But the key aspects to look at it will be supply and price stability,” he said on his Twitter account.

In Monreal’s opinion, the eventual success of these measures could encourage adoption of other changes that would impact production, such as the direct distribution schemes of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), “which would benefit small and medium sized businesses.”

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Cuba: Taking Control of Your Own Health in Times of Rampant Inflation

Spice seller in Havana, this Thursday. Sign: “Attention! The products went up to 10.00 (pesos), please avoid malicious comments.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 April 2021 — Among sales kiosks run by the military, a private seller of spices in the Youth Labor Army market on Tulipán Street seems to have found the formula to prevent his premises from becoming a parliament of complaints to the “Ordering Task” and the rise of food prices, which have skyrocketed since the beginning of this year.

To take control of one’s own health, the self-employed person hung up a sign that reads: “Attention! The products went up to 10.00 (pesos), please avoid malicious comments.” His poster is not excessive.

Along with inspectors who fine sellers who dare to raise prices too high, the government has also thrown countless Communist Party militants and loyal Committees for the Defense of the Revolution members — known as ’cederistas’ from the initials CDR — into the streets to gather information on “unscrupulous merchants,” customers outraged by the cost of living, and anyone who lines up in a public square to complain against the Plaza de la Revolución.

These are days of talking quietly and taking care of each other, and the spice salesman knows it well.

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Castro Leaves, Castroism Remains

The responsibility of carrying out the urgent reforms that Cuba needs rests on the shoulders of the successors appointed by Raúl Castro. (EFE / ACN)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 17 April 2021 — A few hours before the start of the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), there were those who insisted that the conclave would be canceled and Raúl Castro’s departure from office postponed. The hypothesis was not entirely far-fetched but it failed to take into account two very important aspects of the man who, until yesterday, was secretary of the PCC: his mediocre predictability and the almost 90 years that weigh on his shoulders.

Without surprises, as one who carries out a long-drawn up plan down to the smallest details, Castro not only opened the Party meeting but also confirmed that his name will no longer formally head an organization placed above any institution or entity of power on this Island. He had long prepared for that moment and postponing it was to risk dying on the job.

Since the announcement, the international media has been filled with headlines about a farewell to a surname that has ruled the country for 62 years, but without perceiving that Castroism is more than a man and his clan. It is a way of managing politics, controlling the press, managing the economy from the military sector, defining education plans, managing international relations and structuring ideological propaganda. continue reading

Now, when Raúl Castro says goodbye to his secretariat in the Party and goes through the last stretch of his finite biology, he remains looking over the shoulders of the successors to whom he designated the responsibility of carrying out the urgent reforms that the country needs. But embarking on the path of these changes implies dismantling, to a large extent, Castroism, that system marked by voluntarism, inefficiency and intolerance.

Molded and promoted by Fidel Castro and later touched up by his brother with the flexibilities carried out in the past decade, Castroism has ended up establishing itself as a way of behaving. Hence, it does not matter if the surname that gives the system its name will no longer be in the minutes or documents. As long as the heirs to power do not dismantle such a legacy, it will be as if both brothers were still in command of the national ship.

Is Miguel Díaz-Canel willing to dismantle that strict network of controls and absurdities in which Castroism has gripped an entire country? Does he want his legacy to be as a continuist who sank the Island, or as a reformist who prioritized the well-being of the people over the dark task of prolonging a dysfunctional regime? As long as Raúl Castro breathes, those questions are unlikely to be answered, and by then the situation is likely to be even more catastrophic.

In order to say goodbye to Castroism, it is necessary to remove the fundamental pillars that make this stale populism, disguised as sovereign nationalism, an evil deeply rooted in Cuba. They would have to dismantle their hatred of difference, that deep allergy to any criticism or dissent that has been one of its most characteristic signs. But its end would also have to eliminate the economic centralism with which they have controlled everything from the sugar trade to the importation of a vehicle.

In order to say goodbye to Castroism, it is necessary to eradicate the confusion that national independence is only possible from the socialist management model and, incidentally, set aside the fallacy that something similar to a system of social justice and equality for all governs in Cuba. Burying Castroism involves opening the parliament to plurality, the newsstands to the diversity of the press, and the schools to other versions of history.

Raúl Castro’s farewell eulogy this Friday in front of a party organization increasingly diminished in number and social descent, is not enough. The true end of the Castro era will come with the eradication of that constant hatred of the other, of prosperity, wealth and freedom, that one family managed to sneak into the DNA of an entire country.
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Cuba: 27N Makes Public Four Demands to Build the Country it Dreams of

More than 300 Cuban artists and intellectuals gathered at the doors of the Ministry of Culture on November 27^th. (Reynier Leyva Novo)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 April 2021 — The group, known as 27N (27th November) because of the date they held a protest in front of the Ministry of Culture, has released a manifesto this Monday in which they express their idea of Cuba the country, and summarize the four fundamental demands through which to achieve it. 14ymedio is reproducing it in full below.

27N Manifesto

On November 27^th, 2020, more than three hundred intellectuals, artists and journalists went to the Ministry of Culture to demand the recognition of our freedoms and citizen rights; and to express the rejection of state violence, sustained for years, and increased in recent months. The trigger for this demonstration were the events that occurred in the San Isidro neighborhood the night before, from the need to continue the path of demands that began on that day, and from the will to participate in the present and future of Cuba. The 27N evolves from this.

We are an open, diverse community, driven mainly by young artists and intellectuals, brought together by chance and united by the desire to build a more dignified and just country for all Cubans. Constituted horizontally, we try to replace the verticality of traditional leaderships through debate and the generation of consensus that respond to the diversity of its membership and not to the unanimity of criteria, which encourages more democratic, plural and inclusive practices.

We are not a political organization or movement, but a civic one, with artistic creation and intellectual work as our main tools. Through decisions taken collectively and under constant interaction, we organize ourselves into work groups, voluntarily integrated by activists according to their time availability, their talents and abilities, without implying hierarchy or privilege within that community that grows each day and of which any Cuban citizen can be part of, regardless of their ideology, occupation, place of residence, etc., provided that they are accompanied by honesty, civility and respect for freedom of expression. continue reading

We do not act in secret because we do nothing illegal, we make our ideas visible on our digital platforms. We do not accept discriminatory pronouncements that promote political hatred or violate the freedoms and rights defended by our community. Our actions are civic, peaceful, supportive, with exchange of ideas, committed to the sufferings of current Cuban society and its aspirations for a future of democracy and well-being. There are no profit motives or influence of foreign interests or political organizations, the only thing that governs is the will of the Cuban citizenship.

We base our existence on the political and legal principle, contained in the International Bill of Human Rights, as well as in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba approved on April 19^th, 2019

We base our existence on the political and legal principle, contained in the International Bill of Human Rights, as well as in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba approved on April 19^th, 2019, that the citizens of a State must have guarantees to enjoy with full equality of all rights and freedoms, without distinction of race, color, gender, sexual identity, political position, level of economic access, social origin, place of birth, religion, disability status or any other condition. In this way, we assert our right to express ourselves, associate and demonstrate freely, condemning before Cuba and the world any act that violates these human rights. We demand that the Cuban government take responsibility in its administration to listen to the citizens and to promote peace and respect for our rights.

The country we dream of:

We want an inclusive, democratic, sovereign, prosperous, equitable and transnational country.

We want a nation where expressing oneself freely is not an act of courage, but a natural consequence of autonomous thinking, where there is no political hatred, police violence, repression, censorship, media manipulation, violation of privacy or acts of repudiation. In short, the abusive practices of power exercised by a centralized, military and partisan political leadership, which discriminates and annuls those who disagree, violating their human rights. We claim the legitimacy of open and free discrepancy and critical thinking as a vital exercise to avoid immobility, corruption and wrongdoing by officials or any other entity in society that threatens their development. As a country, we need to heal the damage that has been caused by indoctrination, replace the learned lies and bad habits with the will and commitment to rescue honesty and love of truth as a principle.

Cuba requires a change and, for this, it needs to build a more participatory citizenry with a greater degree of awareness which the political and economic future of this country depends on ourselves. In order to rebuild our nation, honesty must serve as a fundamental principle. It is urgent to decentralize and recover the political power that has usurped from us, and that our future Cuba be designed according to the needs and desires of all Cuban citizens, with equal rights to participate in its design, regardless of their ideology, political affiliation or place of residence.

Consequently, we advocate for laws that guarantee our right to develop as a heterogeneous society, where laws created for the benefit of the majority do not restrict or disregard the rights of minorities.

We need to reaffirm ourselves as different people among each other, as ecumenical citizens, tolerant, respectful of the opinions of others. Consequently, we advocate for laws that guarantee our right to develop as a heterogeneous society, where laws created for the benefit of the majority do not restrict or disregard the rights of minorities. We are not enemies, but Cubans who dream of a better Cuba to bequeath to our children, which will be with all and for the good of all.

We aspire to work for a society with social justice and well-being, where each Cuban can live in his country from the fruits of his work, where the productive forces are freed and bureaucratic parasitism is replaced by a capable and proactive civil service. That we may leave behind the misery and shortages imposed by the incompetence of the prevailing system, and that the rights to a decent life be guaranteed, with assurances – among other things – to health and public education.

In order to advance in the construction of the country we dream of, our community is setting the following objectives:

To promote citizen participation for the re-acknowledgement of rights

We seek to vindicate rights and freedoms, violated by the political power in Cuba and constitutionally endorsed. For this, citizen participation and the exercise of personal freedom are essential in the face of censorship, repression and any attempt to subject the Cuban people to the will of an authoritarian and exclusive government.

Create, strengthen and promote conditions for the creation of consensus

We intend to work with various groups of the Cuban civil society, associations and actors in general in order to find common concerns, interests and strategies, to establish spaces for debate, alliances, projects and goals together, to collaborate with each other, and move forward together – from each one’s diversity – in the construction of a better country.

Promote the legalization of independent positioning

By asserting the right to free association, we claim and exercise the right to create public and private spaces, both physical and virtual, that allow greater collective and personal autonomy.

Our main demands are:

Political rights:

We demand respect for the legitimate right to freedom of expression, of creation, of protest or peaceful demonstration, of political representation and participation, of association and mobility, of open and public debate in the search for citizen consensus. Political freedom is essential to be able to exercise any human rights, given their interdependent nature. There can be no prosperity or freedom of creation in any sphere of society without political freedom.

We demand that all people who have been tried for expressing ideas contrary to the political system be released. We advocate that the norms of criminal due process in Cuba be complied with, and that the Criminal Procedure Law be updated in terms of providing the accused greater guarantees than those that exist today.

We demand the cessation, by the institutions of the State, of repression of citizens who think differently. We demand a stop to media discredit campaigns against independent creators, political, cultural and civic activists and against civically active subjects in any area of society who claim unrecognized rights, including the right to protest.

Economic freedoms

We affirm the right of every citizen to different forms of economic participation, ownership and management. We recognize the role of private initiative and the exercise of economic freedoms that enable the promotion of productive capacities and are generators of essential goods and services for the nation’s development.

We defend the right of every citizen to enjoy decent work and the fruits that it generates. We consider any form of work legitimate as long as it does not harm human dignity or other citizens’ rights and their ability to prosper. We are convinced that, without the consolidation of a decent material base, well-being and social equity cannot be achieved.

Legalization of independent media

We urge the Cuban State to legalize the so-called independent press media, so that they can achieve legal status and register as such. By abiding to Cuban laws, these media could count on legal norms that would protect them, harassment of their journalists would cease, and they could transparently render accounts to society, complying with their ethical, technical and tax responsibilities. In a climate of tolerance and legality, a relationship between the State, the press, and society would be generated where the imperative for all the media would be truth in the news and rigor in their focus.

Right of association

We claim the right to generate communities to actively participate, without further delay or pretext, in the construction of a better reality, where our considerations and expectations are taken into account. We understand that the right of association is essential to achieve true citizen participation in the economic, social and political processes of the country.

We demand that the freedom of association that Cuba has endorsed in Convention No. 87 of the International Labor Organization and in the Labor Code of our country be respected, for the protection of the labor rights of all citizens, linked or not, with the State, through employment contracts, without distinction of race, gender, creed, or political position.

With the conviction that winning these rights begins with the will to defend them with bravery, we encourage all Cubans, whether they are in Cuba or elsewhere, to maintain union and peace, understanding and communication, to search for the truth by expressing what one thinks and feels, defending in solidarity those who are repressed and defamed for expressing themselves freely. 27N was born out of an act of solidarity, and it continues to live by its sense of responsibility, creating and adding, for the right to have rights and so that love and poetry may unite our people.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Last Castro Speech in Cuba

Brothers Fidel and Raul Castro before Fidel’s death.

Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, April 16, 2021 — There is expectation, and even a certain morbid curiosity, about what Raul Castro will say in his speech before the upcoming Communist Party Congress, a conclave that will serve as his final farewell as leader. The feelings are understandable given that he will be the last Castro to occupy such a prominent position in Cuban political life.

His brother Fidel used to have the starring role at these events, eliciting tears and applause from many of his followers, both national and international, without saying much of anything. Can we expect the same of Raul. I don’t think so.

Do not expect a panoramic speech, with dramatic overtones and triumphalist rhetoric, full of revolutionary fervor and messages intended for domestic consumption. No one buys that stuff anymore. From 1971, when the first speech was given, to 2021, our year of living dangerously, these speeches had to be carefully crafted if they were to reach their target audience. They are now aimed at those who still do not understand the collective madness of trying to assimilate into society a political party whose propaganda has continually distorted political and social reality. continue reading

And that’s Raul’s problem. Having survived for so long, anything he says at this congress will be applauded by the opportunists. But it will not reverberate with large segments of the population whose minds will be elsewhere and who long ago learned to tune out the official dogma. The revolution and everything it represents have grown old, which is why preparing the speech now requires so much care.

The reasons?

First of all, Cuban society has changed. People want to move forward, improve their quality of life, increase prosperity, end poverty. They know the government is responsible for the never-ending system of rationing, that it is a tool the regime uses to keep the population under its economic control. How to get out of this quandary, not even Raul Castro knows. Who would ever have imagined that Cuba’s communists would one day open foreign currency stores to sell basic products? Let’s see if Raul says something about that in his speech.

Secondly, at this point it is hard to fool people with obsolete, outdated messages which have no relevance in the face of worldwide trends such as globalization, digitalization and a new industrial revolution. Cubans have travelled overseas, they own cell phones and personal computers, they talk to foreign tourists. They are not isolated they way they were during Fidel Castro’s first congress. It is a historical oddity that Raul Castro, the person responsible for restoring some basic freedoms, became the victim of a process he started. That’s how it goes.

Thirdly, there is the issue of time. There is no going back, no matter how much we might want to do so. The train only moves in one direction, towards the final destination. Rewinding the clock is not an option. One could talk about the present but it is complicated, difficult, chaotic, and there are no concrete solutions. No one is interested in the future because all that matters now is getting by day to day. And any mention of past congresses is just a waste of time.

We will have to keep in mind what he says is largely determined by what the scribes, the guardians of official ideology and the bootlickers allow him to say. They exercise their influence by correcting speeches and inserting their own thoughts and ideas into the words of others. It would be a shame if this gang were responsible for Raul Castro’s last words to his party comrades. I am still hoping that the last of the Castros will pull a rabbit out of his hat and then retire to his eastern refuge.

The dream of any matador is to leave the bullring through the main gate of the plaza after a great performance, basking in the adulation of the crowd. But a time of severe economic crisis unlike any in the last five years is no time for communist fanfares. The people, the masses, would not understand. Though the crowd will not reward Raul with spoils of battle, he can at least try to leave the communist conclave with a good taste in its mouth. What will matter to the rest world, which in this case will be listening in, is that this will be the last time.

Therefore, if I were writing Raul Castro’s official farewell speech, I would recommend that he acknowledge the following:

That he did not have the courage to see the reform process he started to its conclusion. That he ended it too soon, succumbed to pressure and left things unfinished, with only 13% percent of the workforce employed in the private sector.

That he made a mistake in choosing his successor. That Diaz-Canel has not been up to the job, working on his doctorate in the middle of a crisis.

That the Castro family is out of control and possibly in danger. That they can be seen coddling their puppies while driving their high-speed luxury cars and hosting lavish banquets while most Cubans go hungry.

That, like his brother, he will not write anything in his final years of life. That he will retire and go fishing. That he will be happy.

That he has missed the chance to leave Cuba a big inheritance. That he no longer blames the U.S. embargo, or “blockade,” admitting it was always a secondary issue, that it was his brother’s thing, not his.

That he has left the nation’s economy in much worse shape than he found it. That he was not able reform the system and make it viable. That he acknowledge it is not viable and that he is leaving it to those who come after him to change it. That he insist this is something that must done.

That the momentum to restore relations with the United States faltered because he lacked political will and because his brother used his position as an influential writer to wreck the process from the sidelines. That there were too many missteps before Trump came along and everything fell apart.

That he has been unable to overcome the legacy of his brother, no matter how hard he tried. That people now speak less and less about Fidel and that, for this, we should all be grateful.

That there were too many years were spent stalling for time. That, yes, things should have changed during Perestroika, but Gorbachev upstaged Fidel, and Fidel never let anyone get in his way.

That, with him, the Castro dynasty ends. Once and for all. That he does not really care might happen to them other than that they stay safe, that he will leave them what he can. That they do not cry for him, that he doesn’t deserve it, that he be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Sierra Maestra, that they forget about him as though he had never existed.

That he ask forgiveness and walk away in silence.

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Cuba’s Communist Party Congress Multiplies the Eggs in Cuba but Doesn’t Manage the Same with the Nation’s Fish

The inhabitants of Havana will have four more eggs this month compared to last month. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — The imminence of the Eighth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), which begins its work this Friday, has had a beneficial effect on Cuban chickens and a rebound for residents of the capital. This was announced on Thursday, with great satisfaction, by the Ministry of Internal Commerce which reported a substantial improvement compared to the month of March: in April there will be four more eggs available under “controlled” sales for people living in Havana and one more egg per person in the rest of the provinces.

The ministry considers it an “improvement throughout the national territory in the availability of this product for controlled sale in relation to the previous month.” In March, the people of Havana were only able to enjoy three eggs, in addition to the five guaranteed by the rationbook throughout the island.

Medically authorized diets that include fish have not had the same luck, and the ministry will have to substitute chicken for fish in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, while in the rest of the provinces it has been able to assure a supply “with their own sources.” continue reading

The list of products that the State should guarantee, and cannot, continues, because there is not enough canned meat and it will be necessary to replace it “partially” with chicken, depending on availability.

The same occurs with ground meat and sausages, which also have “production limitations,” the ministry reports, softening the tone of the shortages, and these, too, will be “compensated or delivered” in part with chicken.

The situation in Havana with soy yogurt is spreading across the country and the lack of the material with which the packaging for this product is made will also mean that the children of Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo will have to settle for smoothie mix.

Smoothie mix, which is a powder of sugar, whole milk, cocoa and salt, must be mixed with water for its preparation, although most children reject the combination and prefer it made with milk, a product that is also in short supply.

At least Cubans can improve their grooming. What the State does guarantee for this month and the next are two bars of toilet soap, another “improvement” that the ministry celebrates since “the equivalent of the soap corresponding to each person was less.”

The product, they say, will be from the Daily brand, although that will not be evident from the packaging, which will not be lithographed because the original packaging material is not available. However, that has not dampened the news and the authorities are pleased that this is “the highest quality soap, whose cost is equivalent of 7 Cuban pesos.”

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Four Cubans Arrested for Supposed Links to ‘Terrorists’ Outside the Country

Humberto López announced the alleged plans to attack civilian and military targets on the island in the coming days. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — On the eve of the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba this Thursday, Cuban television announced the arrest of four people accused of plans that were supposedly were to take place in the “next few days.”

According to Humberto López, director and presenter of the government TV program — who, himself, has recently been added to the list of “violent repressors” drawn up by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba — the supposed plans came from South Florida with ties to Spain.

The alleged terrorist organization is called La Nueva Nación Cubana (LNNC – The New Cuban Nation) and is led by Cuban-Americans William Cabrera González and Michael Naranjo, described on Cuban national television yesterday as “people with terrible behavior” and admirers of Brigade 2506, the former combatants who attempted the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. continue reading

Both individuals publish on their Facebook pages posters or videos related to the LNNC in which they call for unity to violently combat the Cuban regime. These posts have been shared by Armonía Díaz, a Cuban resident in Spain, whom the television report also accuses of links with “counterrevolutionary” groups.

Information from Cuban Television warned that this group planned to bring weapons and explosives to the island, infiltrate people, shoot up hotel establishments and set fire to shops and police stations.

In addition, López stated that the targets include civilians, with bombs to be detonated in childcare centers and healthcare facilities. He also said attacks are planned against leaders and officials, and include introducing a new strain of Sars-CoV-2.

The LNNC collective has already reacted by denying their links with the detainees and affirming that their struggle, armed as they admit, is not directed at civilians, but at the Communist Party.

Among those detained are two people from Holguin, Amaurys Casaels Martínez, 44, and Ernesto Javier Espinosa Mañé, 22, residents of Guaro who are accused of “receiving directions from counterrevolutionary elements from abroad to throw Molotov cocktails against a bank branch and the Police station” of the locality where they live.

The other two are Daniel Aponte Ruiz, 45, and Francisco Ángel Rodríguez Gronlier, 41, both from Havana. The former is suspected of recruiting people to “create clandestine cells” to carry out terrorist attacks against the Convention Center, electrical substations, stores that sell in freely convertible currency, and units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior. Meanwhile, the latter, they maintain, was to be taken over by Aponte to carry out those actions.

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Raul Castro Hands Over Leadership of Cuban Communist Party to ‘Those Who Represent the Continuity of the Revolution’

Raúl Castro, during the presentation of the central report to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, this Friday. (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — A nonagenarian and with a country in ruins, Raúl Castro has confirmed the handover to his successor of the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), after completing the two statutory terms that he himself imposed for high-level positions.

The first secretary of the PCC announced his retirement during the presentation of the central report to the Eighth Congress of the country’s single party, which opened in Havana this Friday and will end next Monday.

He did not specifically say who he will endorse as his successor in the leadership of the Party, but he hinted that it will be Miguel Díaz-Canel, whom he appointed as his successor to the presidency in 2018. continue reading

According to the official press, “the Army General said that he has the satisfaction of handing over the leadership of the country to a group of prepared leaders, hardened by decades of experience in their transition from the base to high responsibilities, committed to the ethics of the Revolution, identified with the history and culture of the nation, full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit, and knowing that they represent the continuity of the Revolution.”

Among them, he mentioned Miguel Díaz-Canel, handed the presidency of the country by Castro himself, and congratulated his performance in office: “He has known how to form teams and promote cohesion with the higher bodies of the Party, the State and the Government,” Castro said.

There are no surprises, at least in the methodical chronology that Castro himself had drawn up a few years ago. Perhaps what is new is the context in which the role is being passed. With the deepest economic crisis of the last quarter of a century, growing popular dissatisfaction, and Washington’s decision to maintain, for the time being, the sanctions adopted by the Trump Administration, the general could never have projected a darker scenario at the time of presenting his status report.

This is why the decision was made not to broadcast the speech of the first secretary of the PCC live on national television. Castro concluded his speech in a challenging tone and in the purest style of continuity: “Nothing, nothing, nothing forces me to this. As long as I live, I will be ready with my foot on the stirrup to defend the homeland, the Revolution and socialism with more force than ever. Long live free Cuba, long live Fidel, homeland or death.”

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The Cuban Government Will Control the Internet and Social Media to "Defend the Achievements of the Socialist State"

The so-called “On Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies, and Use of the Radio Spectrum” standard will establish a legal framework for “counteracting attacks via radio frequency and in cyberspace.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 April 2021 — The Cuban government will widen its control of the Internet and social media with the passage of a new decree-law. In order to “defend the achievements made by the socialist State,” the measure will allow official regulation of new technologies and communication, according to Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, Minister of Communications, who introduced the text on Tuesday, April 13, to senior government officials.

The so-called “On Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies, and Use of the Radio Spectrum” mandate will establish a legal framework for “counteracting attacks via radio frequency and in cyberspace,” among other things proposed by the minister.

Perdomo also cited the need for the decree-law to regulate the computerization of the country, promote its sovereignty, and “safeguard the principles of security and invulnerability of telecommunications”, all with the aim of consolidating “the achievements of Socialism and the welfare of the population”. continue reading

Wednesday’s edition of Juventud Rebelde* featured an article reporting on the passage of this and two other regulations yesterday in the Council of State, wherein the Communications minister stated that this decree — whose content is as yet unknown — would be in line with the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, “as is the case with treaties and other international legal instruments.”

In July 2019, the Government had already passed legislation “regarding the computerization of Cuban society – Decree-Law 370, known as the “scourge law” — through which it attempted to “elevate technological sovereignty in benefit of the society, economy, security, and national defense” and to “counteract cyberattacks.”

Among Decree-Law 370’s most controversial articles was one that penalizes “broadcasting via public data transmission networks any information contrary to the public interest, morals, proper behavior, and the integrity of persons” — which was compared, for the virtual world, with the offense of “pre-criminal dangerousness.”

This legal concept is applied to dissidents and critics of the Government, and has been denounced by organizations such as Amnesty International and the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights for convicting citizens on allegations of crimes that they have yet to commit.

*Translator’s Note: Juventud Rebelde – literally, “Rebel Youth” – is a Cuban newspaper of the Union of Young Communists.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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