14ymedio – Page 522 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Second National Conference Debates Principles of a “New Cuba” / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

”United We Will Be Free” is the slogan of the conference, which involved nearly a hundred activists from the island and from exile (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 12 August 2016 — The Cuban 2nd National Conference is meeting this Friday in San Juan, Puerto Rico, under the slogan “United we will be free,” with the presence of nearly a hundred activists from the island and from exile.

The event seeks to “provide a space for reflection and dialogue among the greatest possible number of opposition organizations” to discuss, among other things, the principles of a “New Cuba.” Throughout the meeting, which will run until noon on Monday, there will be a discussion of the creation a structure of unity of action in diversity inside and outside Cuba. continue reading

The organizers of the conclave have predicted, at the end of the discussions, there will be proposals of candidates for the elective positions of the resulting structure, and a vote. The members elected by the new organization will inform the plenary regarding the work to be carried out both within Cuba and from the exile.

The meeting has as its antecedent the one held last year, where a nine-member Coordinating Committee was created, with five members from the internal opposition and four from the exile. Their principal mission has been to communicate the contents of the Declaration of San Juan and coordinate the current meeting.

On the eve of the conference and during the first day of work, attendees focused on ironing out differences and finding common ground in order to achieve the democratization of Cuba. Creating a coalition or common front among the opposition is the larger challenge ahead of the participants.

The Cuban 2nd National Conference is taking place at a time of intense debate among Cuban activists on the island, a situation reflected in the departure of at least two of the most representative opposition groups on the island – the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and the United Anti-totalitario Forum (FANTU) – from the Democratic Action Unity Roundtable (MUAD).

A statement released this week by Boris Gonzalez, MUAD spokesperson, sent a greeting to all the participants in the Second Conference, and wished them “the greatest successes to achieve the democratization of Cuba.” The document recognizes “all efforts in this direction.” This opposition coalition is widely represented in the San Juan meeting.

Cuban Government Lifts Censorship Against Revolico / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata

Revolico’s user portal. (Silvia Corbelle / 14ymedio)

14ymedio,Zunilda Mata, Havana, 12 August 2016 — With the same discretion that eight years ago led the government to censor a popular Cuban version of Craigslist, it has now lifted its electronic blocking, without any announcement or public statements. The news of the unlocking the Revolico, a site filled with classified ads, has revolutionized the wifi connection sites.

Access to Revolico is also possible now from the computers in the Nauta internet rooms managed by the government-run Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), according to what this newspaper was able to confirm.

In several Havana hotels that offer internet access to their guests from terminals in the lobby, one can go directly to Revolico’s home page, navigate its menu options and look at the classified ads without any hitches.

However, users of Infomed, managed by the Ministry of Public Health, complain that Revolico remains inaccessible from servers at that institution.

Despite the government’s long-standing censorship of Revolico, it became the leading classified site on the island. Its main attraction is the vast assortment of ads – 16 million accumulated from the start – for property, the buying and selling of technology, job offers, and every kind of home appliance, all scarce on the country’s store shelves, can be found on their pages.

The well-known “weekly packet” distributed in the informal market each week, for years has included a copy of Revolico intended for users without internet access, a solution that facilitates the posting of ads via email and has helped increase users to the current 300,000 unique visitors a month.

Hiram Centelles, cofounder of Revolico, is satisfied with the new situation of the site and already anticipates possible improvements. “In the near future we will launch a new version of the product and platform, and we are getting many more users in Cuba, now that the site is unblocked. Our goal is to continue providing the best classified ad service to Cubans, as we have done these past eight years,” he told 14ymedio.

Several digital sites that have been censored for years, such as 14ymedio, still remain inaccessible, unless the surfer uses an anonymous proxy anonymous or other tricks to circumvent censorship.

Private Transport Drivers in Central Cuba Demand End to Excessive Controls / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata

An "almendrone" -- old American car used as a fixe-route shared taxi (14ymedio) — An “almendrone” — old American car used as a fixe-route shared taxi (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 9 August 2016 — Private trucks covering the stretch between Santa Clara and Sancti Spiritus remained out of service during the weekend and Monday in response to new demands from the authorities. For several days, at checkpoints along the road drivers have been asked to show an invoice for the purchase of fuel in state service centers, a move intended to discourage them from resorting to the illegal hydrocarbon market, 14ymedio’s reporter Jose Gabriel Barrenechea told this newspaper.

As of noon Monday, “not a single truck” had passed on the route which also serves intermediate towns like Placetas and Cabaiguán, a decision the private drivers of both provinces made together in protest against increased controls by the police. continue reading

This kind of transport is very popular in the area and moves thousands of passengers every day, in old trucks reconditioned to move people. The situation got worse this weekend with the celebration of carnivals in Santa Clara, which significantly increased the number of travelers in the region.

There was a huge crowd of people at the Sancti Spiritus terminal on Monday around noon. The truck drivers refused to provide their services, explaining that last Friday a group of private drivers was detained at the provincial delegation of the Ministry of Interior.

The arrests occurred at several operations at checkpoints on roads connecting Santa Clara with Sancti Spiritus, where the carriers were required to show proof of having purchased their vehicle’s fuel through the Cupet chain of state gas stations.

Ubaldo, 53, one of the drivers who serves the route and who has refused to work for the past three days, told this newspaper that the business does not make enough to buy fuel at Cupet because a liter is nearly 30 Cuban pesos, and the same amount can be bought illegally for about half that. “Nobody wants to drive the road because the fares are the same and we don’t do charity,” he says.

Most of the gas that is sold in the informal market comes from state enterprises [i.e. is illegally “diverted” at various points], which in recent months have experienced up to 30% cuts in their fuel assignments because of the tense economic situation in the country.

Given the crowding of passengers at interprovincial terminals and various points between Villa Clara and Sancti Spiritus local authorities yielded to pressure after noon on Monday and called the truckers one by one to ask them to make the trip and guaranteed that no one will ask for proof of payment.

Some of the self-employed saw this decision as a small victory and returned to work Monday afternoon, but others, more distrustful, have preferred to wait to verify that the controls have been ended. “I do not want to lose money nor my license,” Raymundo, who owns a Ford truck that regularly makes the trip from Villa Clara to Trinidad told this newspaper.

State buses in the region are not adequate to meet the demand for interprovincial travel. From the bus terminal in Sancti Spiritus vehicles leave five times a day – at 5, 6, 7 and 10 am and 2 pm – bound for Santa Clara, but they suffer frequent breakdowns and technical glitches.

Transport managers and specialists in the area are studying “setting caps” on the prices of private transport, as was done in the capital, according to sources in Villa Clara’s provincial government. The authorities, are hoping to counter the rising fares by also bringing in a fleet of new “Diana” brand buses assembled on the island.

An "almendrone" (14ymedio) — An “almendrone” (14ymedio)

In Havana, the picture is not very different. Desperate customers crowding corners to board a shared fixed-route taxi and workers who need more than three hours to get home at the end of the working day are scenes that are repeated everywhere. The imposition of price controls for “almendrones” (the old American cars used in this service, named for their “almond” shape) has contributed to the transport crisis, which interferes with daily life in the Cuban capital.

Passengers see this as a test of strength between the government and the self-employed transportation providers, a confrontation where the private operators seek to overcome the fare restrictions, and the authorities try to control the rising prices the sector has experienced since mid-June.

The shortages at the gas stations regulated by the State contribute to the problem. Of the five gas stations in Havana’s Vededo district 14ymedio visited this Sunday, only one, at 25^th Street and Avenue of the Presidents, was open for business. El Tangana, at the corner of Malecon and Linea, and the station at 17^th and L, as well as the station at Linea and D Street all remain closed for lack of supply.

An article published last Thursday by the official daily Granma recognizes the reduction in the number of private cars that make up a major part of the transportation routes within the capital city, due to the drivers’ response to the freezing of rates on July 14, a decision taken by the Provincial Administration Council in Havana.

With the application of Agreement 185, which established that self-employed drivers could not raise their fares and must adhere to the fares in effect prior to July 1, drivers have chosen to shorten their routes or significantly curtail their working days, as recognized by Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party.

“Before, I could take just one car from my house in Santiago de las Vegas,” a passenger told this newspaper. “Now I have to take two vehicles, one to Sports City and another to the end, so the trip costs me twice as much,” the woman lamented, who said the government thought it had found a solution to the price increases caused by a reduction in the supplies of fuel in the informal market. However, she says, “what has happened is that the drivers have split the routes and no one can force them to run the whole way,” explains the irritated customer.”

Of the more than 496,400 people who in January of this year were “self-employed,” at least 50,482 are dedicated to the transport of cargo and passengers.

Ivan Hernandez And Felix Navarro Prevented From Leaving Cuba “A Second Time” / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Ivan Hernandez Carrillo. (Twitter / @ivanlibre)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 11 August 2016 – Cuba’s immigration authorities prevented activists Ivan Hernandez and Felix Navarro from traveling outside Cuba this Thursday. The former prisoners of the 2003 Black Spring were invited to participate in the 2^nd Cuban National Conference that be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 12 to 14 August, but were unable to board their flight at Havana’s José Martí International Airport, where they ran into Reinaldo Escobar, 14ymedio’s editor

The answer that each of the dissidents received on presenting their documents to the Immigration and Nationality official was: “You cannot leave a second time.” continue reading

Both Hernandez and Navarro had received, in March of this year, special permission to go abroad “one-time” after being placed on parole, a condition the authorities continue to maintain since release from prison in 2011. All those released from the Black Spring “Group of 75” who continue to reside in Cuba benefited from a similar authorization.

The opponent Librado Linares, also a former prisoner of the Black Spring and general secretary of the Cuban Reflection Movement (MCR), did manage to board his flight on Thursday to participate in the meeting of Puerto Rico, since it was the first time he made use permit leave the Island.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) recently sent a letter to Raul Castro expressing “deep concern” about the “violent treatment” received by the trade unionist Ivan Hernandez on his return to Cuba after his first trip abroad. He traveled on the same flight as the opponent Vladimir Roca and attorney Wilfredo Vallin, of the Law Association of Cuba.

Hernandez was arrested on July 31 and reported that he received a “savage beating” when he refused to be subjected to a search at the time of arrival. During his trip abroad he met with organizations and activists from Europe and the United States.

Both Hernandez and Navarro cataloged the “injustices” and said they will continue trying to assert their right to travel freely.

The Cuban National Conference is a continuation of one held last year, which involved 23 organizations in Cuba and 32 from exile. It has been convened by the Coordinating Liaison Committee composed of Ana Carbonell, Rosa María Payá, Sylvia Iriondo, Guillermo Farinas, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva, Rene Gomez Manzano, Mario Félix Lleonart and  Saylí Navarro

Among the participants in the conference traveling from Cuba are also Eliecer Avila, leader of Somos+ (We Are More) and Boris Gonzalez, a member of the Democratic Action Roundtable (MUAD). The great absence the meeting will be Guillermo Fariñas, who remains on hunger strike in Santa Clara.

In the early hours of Thursday, Lady in White Leticia Ramos Herrería was arrested while traveling from Matanzas to Havana to take the flight that would also have taken her to the conference in Puerto Rico, according to the leader of the Ladies in White movement, Berta Soler, speaking to this newspaper. The activist was returned to her home where she is under police surveillance.

Event organizers want to use this 2^nd Conference to create a “structure of unity of action in diversity,” whose purpose is to “operate inside and outside Cuba, coordinating the efforts of both shores.” In addition, they discussed “the general principles of the new Cuba” desired, an issue that was left pending at the previous meeting.

Injustices of a Debate / 14ymedio Miriam Celaya

Note: The video is not subtitled in English

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana 10 August 2016 – The recent broadcast of a television program from Miami with Maria Elvira Salazar as moderator, where there was a heated debate between the well-known Cuban opposition leader, Jose Daniel Ferrer, and the also well-known Castro regime panderer, Edmundo Garcia – former presenter from a decadent musical program on Cuban television, before he chose to settle in Miami “for personal reasons” – has sparked an avalanche of wide-ranging comments about the performance of one rival or the other, as well as about the appropriateness or otherwise of the topics introduced by the host on the set.

While the confrontation between an opposition leader living on the island, and a regime defender – but not a “representative” – of the Cuban dictatorship was original, the truth is there are antecedents where supporters and opponents of the Castro regime have faced off before the cameras. continue reading

Almost 20 years ago, on 23 August 1996, Maria Elvira herself participated, along with two of her colleagues, in moderating an unusual debate between a representative of the opposition in exile and a senior official of Fidel Castro’s government.

The memorable and passionate debate between Jorge Mas Canosa, then chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, and Ricardo Alarcon, then president of the National Assembly of Cuba, was recorded simultaneously from both sides of the Florida Straits – Mas Canosa in Miami, Alarcon in Havana – and released by the CBS television in more than 20 countries.

Lasting almost an hour, that discussion made clear the superiority of an opponent who expressed himself with total freedom, in contrast to the obedient servant of a totalitarian ideology, tied to slogans and cliches, who was literally run over by his rival.

An important moment of that program came when Mas Canosa exhibited the dehumanizing nature of the assumptions on which the Castro regime stands, reading Alarcon the text, printed on the back of a Cuban internationalist’s card, with a phrase from Che Guevara taken from his speech during the Tricontinental Conference: “… the revolutionary needs to know how to become a cold killing machine…” There is nothing to discuss.

Saving the differences, the most recent debate between Jose Daniel Ferrer and Edmundo Garcia repeats some elements of that one from two decades ago, namely, the passionate defense of diametrically opposing positions and the adherence of the Castro regime supporter to the same scheme of slogans and repetition of the discourse dictated by the Cuban totalitarian power.

However, a great many of the colleagues and friends who from Cuba and from emigration have shared with me their views on this program, agree that Ferrer fell below expectations, and could and should have been more precise and direct in his responses to the hackneyed postulates and attacks of Mr. Garcia.

They feel, moreover, that the confrontation demonstrated, on the one hand, the ability developed by the Castro regime’s servants in the media to evade positions about the Cuban reality and the continuing violations of the rights under the dictatorial Castro regime, clouding the atmosphere and attacking the adversary with the usual disqualifications that are repeated ad nauseam in the official media of the island; and secondly, the lack of training of the leaders of the opposition in controlling the debate and taking advantage of the many weaknesses of the pro-Castro discourse, even when it is presented by a minor extra lacking any credentials, as is the case with Edmundo Garcia.

Personally, I agree with most of these opinions, but I know, from the times I have been able talk with José Daniel Ferrer, that his ideas are better informed and his discourse is better articulated than that he offered us during his presentation in Miami.

We have to recognize that, like it or not, Mr. Edmundo Garcia, an emigré who defends the olive-green caste from the comfort of a Florida city – which however, he considers a nest of terrorists – dominates the job of disinformation, and misinforms, distorts and disguises truths before the cameras with astonishing tranquility. José Daniel, on the other hand, was visibly uncomfortable. His natural setting is the tribunal of the streets, the passionate call, the colloquial discourse among Cubans; not the media. A limitation that must be overcome.

The use of inexact or poorly enunciated terms on the part of the moderator was not helpful, nor was the poor selection of the video that should have been shown (but wasn’t) of the beatings the political police deal out to opponents. The well-trained and opportunistic Edmundo knew how to use these failures to his favor.

These and other miscues explain how Garcia handled himself and dared to say without blinking and without a blush on his cheeks, that the painful events of the 13 de Marzo tugboat massacre, when a group of innocent Cubans were killed by Castro’s military forces, were the direct responsibility of the victims.

He also downplayed the scandalous hiring of foreign labor on the island, when there are thousands of unemployed Cubans, a fact that Ferrer pointed out to him and that the ineffable Edmundo Garcia considered something “normal.” I can understand that Ferrer could barely contain his outrage in the face of the rampant cynicism of this man, and to a certain extent this explains to me Ferrer’s distraction while responding in the debate.

Another unnecessary altercation between the two was related to the number of activists and members belonging to the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), recognized as the largest opposition group inside Cuba. A topic on which Ferrer was left in the dust by Garcia. The latter tried to ridicule the figure and question the veracity of the numbers quoted by the opposition leader, when in reality what is essential here is not the number of members of this or any other opposition party, but the legitimacy and fairness of their demands and their right to exist as an alternative to the powers-that-be.

It is known that, in a dictatorship, the opposition is always a minority, so there is no need to emphasize how many fans support one team or the other. Why play this crooked game of the Castro regime’s servants and make it so easy for them?

But, put in that position, Ferrer coud have, in response, reminded Garcia of the ridiculous membership numbers of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), which the last Congress officially cited as 700,000 – despite the almost 60 years “in Revolution” and the more than 50 of a “single party” – which constitutes barely 6.36% of a population of 11 million people. Isn’t this a compelling piece of data if we are talking about legitimate rights based only on a question of numbers?

Moreover, Ferrer should avoid comparisons between the Castro regime and North Korea, or extemporaneous allusions to the similarities between it and Stalinism, the fascism of Mussolini and Hitler, or other equally criminal regimes.

The Cuban reality, by itself, is sufficiently subversive so as not to have to appeal to historical or geographically distant paragons. It would have caused a better effect to enumerate the many and urgent existential problems and the absence of freedoms in Cuba than to try to describe the fascist nature of the Castro regime, which we all know ad nauseam.

One of the most recurrent vices of the opposition is precisely this, taking every opportunity to characterize the island dictatorship, instead of putting your finger on the everyday problems of the Cubans, or disclosing your own platforms and proposals to reverse them.

For example, the government’s blockade toward prosperity and the happiness of the population is reflected in the continuing, growing and unstoppable emigration of Cubans. Or there is the subject of the laws that have been changing in recent years, with the express ban on Cubans investing in Cuba, or unionizing, or the free contracting of workers, to mention just a few. These are issues that would have been difficult for Mr. Garcia to rebut, or had he done so, he would have done so very badly. Not to mention other sins, such as a lack of freedom of the press, of expression and of information, or the right to strike and other issues of great importance, timeliness and relevance to those they were talking about.

It is clear we must urge finally overcoming the media oversimplification of bad Castro regime and the good opposition. We simply have to engage in effective opposition and if the media over there or everywhere offers the space, we have to take advantage of the opportunity to present our own message, instead of allowing others, from the comfort of the television studios with one eye on the audience ratings, to write the script for a sterile course. It is not reasonable to squander the moral capital of a leader on a mediocre program.

Of course, to achieve this it would have been necessary to have a good script and a better moderator. Maria Elvira pitifully lost control of the program, which at times seemed like a cockfight arena without any order. Although she probably considers this a manifestation of spontaneity and democracy.

She was also truly unfortunate in some of the issues focused on, looking for easy sensationalism – like the Chanel fashion show on the Prado or the arrival of US cruise ships to the Port of Havana – rather than essential questions that really affect Cubans’ daily lives. The right to attend a parade is truly innocuous compared to the pressing problems of Cubans: the total absence of freedoms and the material needs of an entire nation. Frivolity strikes when it comes to politics.

In the end, the moderator repeated to the combatants the exact same question that 20 years ago she asked Mas Canosa and Alarcon: Would you be willing to recognize the triumph of your adversary in democratic elections? And their answers demonstrated once again the moral superiority of free thought: Jose Daniel, as Mas Canosa did before him, said he would accept the decision of the people at the ballot box; not so Edmundo Garcia, who declared that he would take to the Sierra Maestra before accepting the electoral triumph of UNPACU. Perhaps this was the high point of the program.

However, what I really deplored in the end was the fact that a leader of the prestige and courage of Jose Daniel Ferrer would accepted a debate with a character who isn’t even a legitimate representative of the dictatorial regime he defends. In any even, there was nothing to gain. I would say Ferrer spent artillery shells to shoot a mosquito… without success.

In my opinion, the problem of the program-debate in question is not who came out better or worse, or who better defended his position. The truth is that the debate of José Daniel Ferrer versus Edmundo Garcia should never have taken place, because it tends to lend prestige to someone like Garcia, who does not have the least relevance now nor will he later. A political leader must be careful when choosing his opponents.

Either way, I take this opportunity to express my solidarity with Ferrer and my respect for his performance as an opposition leader, his honesty and courage in the defense of that cause that belongs to many Cubans like him and like the members of UNPACU. Know that my criticism is anointed with the greatest good will, so I reject in advance any misrepresentations about it. In any case, opinion journalism is the way some of us contribute to the development of democracy and freedoms. I have reason to have confidence in the greatness and ability of Ferrer to understand this as well.

UNPACU Activists End Hunger Strike / 14ymedio

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

14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2016 – Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) activists have decided to end the hunger strike they have engaged in for periods ranging from days to weeks, among them Carlos Amel Oliva who, as of this Tuesday, had not eaten for four weeks. The opposition member told 14ymedio that the decision was made because they have managed “to put a focus on the human rights violations that occur in Cuba.”

His voice sounding tired over the phone line, the dissident told this newspaper that after five in the afternoon he drank his first glass of water since last Friday, when he also declared a thirst strike. He confirmed that the other seven UNPACU strikers have joined in his decision. continue reading

Activists who had joined the Oliva’s fast included Maikel Mediaceja Ramos, Zulma López Saldaña, Oria Casanova Josefa Romero, Ruben Alvarado Reyes, Laudelino Rodriguez Mendoza, Alexander Martinez Rizo and Carlos Infante Rodriguez. The latter joined the protest from the prison in Las Tunas.

Oliva said that he did “not want to abandon the strike” but realized that “vanity or foolishness without any purpose is useless.” So he decided to end the fast and the first place he visited after his hospitalization was UNPACU’s main headquarters in Santiago de Cuba to “acknowledge the support” of the other strikers.

“For us it was a victory,” said the youth leader, who also said that other activists who had supported the strike felt “comforted and useful in the midst of the pains and sorrows,” on hearing the news. Oliva said the meeting with his partners in the cause was “very emotional and beautiful.”

For his part, Jose Daniel Ferrer, UNPACU’s leader, told this newspaper that the leadership of the organization was “very happy with the decision.” The opponent said that they had been asking them to end the strike for some time. According to Ferrer, the strike succeeded “in attracting international public opinion to the situation faced by opponents of the regime.”

Oliva now hopes to convince the well-known dissident Guillermo Fariñas that he should also end his hunger strike that began last July 20, through which he is demanding the end of repression against dissidents and for the authorities to agree to a dialogue with the opposition.

However, Jorge Luis Artiles Montiel, spokesman for Guillermo Fariñas during his hunger strike, told this newspaper that the dissident “will continue until the final consequences” and believes that “these young Easterners have performed a brave act,” referring to the UNPACU activists.

Eliecer Avila, who on Monday published an article urging Oliva to end the strike said it filled him with satisfaction that the activists have made that decision. “It is really reasonable and I am happy to have contributed a bit in that direction, because their lives will always be the most important thing,” said the leader of the movement we Somos+ (We Are More).

“The Cuban Nation Is Wounded, But It Will Laugh Again” / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Camagüey Pastor Bernardo de Quesada. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 August 2016 – Everyone in the Versalles neighborhood in the city of Camagüey knows Bernardo de Quesada Salomon. Loquacious, restless and the founder of the Apostolic Movement, he has experienced intense months this year, especially January 8^th, when the police entered his home and demolished the structure in the backyard that served as a center of worship.

Quesada opened his doors to this newspaper to talk about how he became an adored pastor to his neighbors and malefactor to State Security. On the slab behind his house, where until recently the temple stood, he now meets every Sunday with his congregation under the intense August sun. None of them have stopped coming in the last months, despite the campaign against the leader of the church which continues to rage every day. continue reading

The Christian movement he is a part of separated from the Cuban Council of Churches in 2003, but Quesada had devoted himself to religion since much earlier, in 1984, a year after he began studying Biology, for which he received his degree just as the Berlin Wall was falling in Europe.

Now, while showing the place where he sang and improvised sermons, he recalls that when he was working as a high school teacher “every time I taught some of the subjects such as evolution, embryology, anatomy, physiology and genetics, I ended up seeing the hand of God.” His faith began to clash with the education authorities.

“In 1991 I felt there was little left for me in the education system. I was working then in Vladimir Ilich Lenin University in Las Tunas, where I taugh microbiology and botany to students in agricultural engineering,” he says. Quesada was named to various positions at the national level in his Church, a situation that strained the atmosphere in his job.

Cuba was currently in the midst of the Special Period and the island was suffering economic hardship and despair. Thousands of former atheists began to embrace religion and Protestant movements grew everywhere.

In September 1991, he was called in by the university leadership, who evaluated him with “a kind of judgment looking at all factors, the party, the union, youth” he recalls. They accused him of speaking about God to students and teachers, although he remained in his post until April 1992 when he was expelled. Among the complainants was an employee there who now “works in Radio Marti in Miami,” he said derisively. “Beware of extremism and extremists” he says in a passage in his book, In The Eye Of The Hurricane.

When he cut his ties with his state position, Bernardo began to consider himself “a free man” and began “preaching in different churches in Cuba.” He came to be an “itinerant evangelist” which brought him to very poor places like Macareño, in Santa Cruz del Sur. In those places he found thousands of followers who attributed to him even physical healings.

Quesada believes that the shepherds of the people with the greatest problems should not even go to Havana, much less, emigrate to another country. “People avoid talking to me about an illegal exit,” he explains, talking about the issue of the thousands of rafters who each year cross the sea from the Cuban coast to try to reach the United States. “I tell them it is going to divide the family, like the medical missions abroad have done,” he says.

He reiterates, stressing each syllable, that it is “against Cubans to leave Cuba. We must change our nation ourselves and fleeing only numbs the problem more,” he says.

His critics within the system have validated the animosity of the authorities. “In Cuba there is no Law of Associations. No one can register an organization to give it legal status,” he denounces in his writings. With regards to the dissidents on the island, he believes that “expressing their rights, going out into the street to demand justice” should not be classified as “a counterrevolutionary action like they want to make people think.”

He has been accused of being a CIA agent, a provocateur, and even a madman, but Bernardo seems to know how to deal with the insult. “When they throw the stones of defamation, don’t toss them away: use them to keep building your platform for further growth,” he preaches.

The road ahead is very difficult, he thinks, but he is confident that a “genuine church” will be an “important factor in the future.”

“The Cuban nation is wounded, it bears a great social wound, but it will laugh again,” he predicts with conviction, smiling in the same courtyard where eight months ago the police thought they had dismantled his place of worship.

Don’t Give Away Your Life to Those Bastards, Compadre! / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila

Carlos Amel’s hunger strike has continued for almost a month. (Twitter / UNPACU)

14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, Havana, 9 August 2016 — I think I should say at this time what I think of the situation of human beings who are on hunger strike, especially my friend Carlos Amel.

In Somos+ (We Are More), being respectful of the decisions they took, we send them in their moment our messages of solidarity. Not because we believe that hunger strikes work as a method to achieve anything in Cuba today, but because it always seems unjust to us that ordinary people did not know what was going on and the reasons behind these extreme decisions.

Today, I want to express my personal opinion, as a friend. This is not an official statement of the President of Somos+, it is the opinion of Eliecer Avila. continue reading

I am dying of pain when I see the images of Carlos, an intelligent young man, father of two beautiful children and with a future ahead of him, at risk of suffering irreversible traumas and even death, for demanding things from a cruel and ruthless system that will gain more with his death than with his life.

If Carlos was a member of my organization I would not have allowed him to do something like this or, at least, I would have done everything possible to dissuade him. I think there are many more effective ways to generate pressure, especially when in theory we have thousands of activists across the country, to have to simply rely on the health, and even death, of these young people to be able to move forward.

I do not consider the sacrifice of one’s life as a “natural cost” of any political battle, on the contrary, to encourage an attitude like this seems to me a crime, and more so from the abundance of the table of many who today light up Facebook with messages such as: “The death of these patriots paves the path of freedom.” This is cynical.

I do not see how the death of leaders who must motivate people and drive change can help in any way. For days I have felt the need to say it, although some may not find it not politically correct. Today I could not hold back anymore.

Our struggle is for life, for family, for the future, for our children. All this becomes meaningless if we die.

There is no material value in Carlos Amel’s or any of the others ceasing to breathe. I would gladly give everything I own for a man like him to live and to live a long life, because the nation will need him more and more. In the past, many patriots, with their pressures, pushed our best men to die. I will not be part of the club of those who accept or promote such a horrendous act that rather than providing any political gain, not only forever stains our history, but our consciences.

Carlos, friend, I want to attend your valuable participation in political life, not your funeral.

Do not give away your life to these bastards, compadre!

I love you and respect you always.

Eliecer Avila

US Embassy Official Visits Guillermo Fariñas / 14ymedio

Guillermo Fariñas on a hunger and thirst strike (courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2016 – A note published on the digital site of the Anti-totalitarian Forum (FANTU) reports that Dana Brown, Political and Economic Section Chief of the United States Embassy in Havana visited Guillermo Fariñas at his home in Santa Clara on Monday. The official showed her “concern” for the health of the opposition leader, who has been on a hunger and thirst strike for more than 20 days.

Fariñas said that the American diplomat arrived at this house around noon, interested in his “state of health” and “the demands” that the dissident made to Raul Castro’s government. She asked the winner of the European Parliament’s 2010 Sakharov Price for Human Rights how the United States government could help him. The conversation between them lasted “almost an hour” and was a “very fruitful and respectful dialog” according to Fariñas.

With the visit of Brown, two diplomatic representatives have now visited Fariñas since the beginning of his hunger strike. On 31 July the first secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Cuba, the priest Jose Manuel Alcaide Borreguero visited his home in the Santa Clara neighborhood of La Chirusa.

Fariñas, 54, has undertaken more than 20 hunger strikes since 1995, the most recent of them in 2010 lasting 135 days, in which he demanded the release of a group of opponents of the 2003 Black Spring.

Cuban Human Rights Group Denounces 845 Arbitrary Arrests in July / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 5 August 2016 – The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) recorded at least 845 arrests during the month of July in Cuba, according to a report issued this Friday. This figure represents an increase from the prior month when there were 498 cases.

The organization notes its concern with the situation of Guillermo Fariñas, on a hunger and thirst strike since 20 July, as well as that of other activists who are also fasting.

Compared to the month of June, there was also an increase in physical aggressions by police and parapolice, from23 to 46 cases, as well as acts of harassment on the part of the police and State Security, from seven to 19.

A Woman Made Of Yarey Palm And Willpower /14ymedio, Sol Garcia Basulto

Siria Noris Rodriguez working on a palm front hat. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Sol Garcia Basulto, Camagüey, 6 August 2016 – The fiber rubs the fingertips and leaves a pleasant burning, almost a caress. The life of Syria Noris Rodriguez revolves around the fronds of the yarey palm, with which she creates hats, bags and baskets. In the municipality of Rio Cauto, in the province of Granma, this petite woman with deft hands maintains a tradition languishing under the passage of time and fashions.

Siria’s whole house has a peculiar aroma, where the scents of the Cuban countryside mix with the sweat that flows when facing the sewing machine. She spends hours there, stitch by stitch joining the dry palm fronds that will rest on a farmer’s head, in the hands of housewife heading to the market, or in the beautiful bassinet where a newborn sleeps. continue reading

Siria’s creations end up with ordinary Cubans, not on the shelves where tourists buy souvenirs of their trip. It was not her decision, but that of the bureaucracy. She didn’t have the prerequisites – an academic background as an artist and membership in the Cuban Association of Artisans and Artists (ACAA) – to place her works in the commercial areas of hotels, bazaars and boutiques.

Not being a member of ACAA limits the economic dividends Siria can get for her work. So after several decades of weaving the fiber, she doesn’t live much better than those who receive a salary for working eight hours a day for the state. If she takes a day off she has to sew more when she returns to her machine. There are days when she wakes up dreaming that someone will knock on the door and take a mountain of hats, to be able to put something on the dinner table.

In the family workshop, everyone helps out. There are sisters, grandchildren and neighbors who work with the drying, taking care “not to spoil it,” says Siria. After the leaves open “you have to make the yarey fine” and only then can you make the braid, like a belt, with which all kinds of objects can be woven.

“A hat for an adult has a braid of 15 or 16 rounds, and that’s a full day’s work,” says the artisan, without taking her eyes off the long fiber she is feeding under the needle.

She and her siblings learned to work with the yarey from their mother, Petronila Mendoza, who learned it in turn from her mother and she from hers. “We have worked for generations,” says Siria, who shares the workshop with her older sister while acknowledging that “everyone who comes by the house helps out.”

The palm fronds must be bought from farm workers, some of whom exchange them for hats or baskets for later use in the fields.

Sometimes there are some bad fronds, but this woman’s sharp eye sees them at once. “The weather affects it, the best hours for weaving are in the morning and at night, because the rest of the time the palm is too hard because there is less moisture in the air,” she explains.

A man’s hat can sell for a price that varies between 30 to 40 Cuban pesos, depending on size. “Anyone can buy this, of any profession, whether a farmer or a vendor,” she adds. She remains hopeful that the tradition of weaving yarey palm fronds will not die out because there are a lot of young people “interested in learning.”

Sometimes Siria gets up feeling pessimistic and thinks about leaving her work with this natural fiber. “It’s too hard,” she comments, but then immediately recognizes that her work is entertaining. “I start weaving and it clears the mind and I forget the pains.”

What Everyone Should Avoid / 14ymedio, Jose Daniel Ferrer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Official Journalist Calls For Justice / 14ymedio, Havana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 x 6 = 90 / 14ymedio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___________

This text was previously published in El Nuevo Herald

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: