14ymedio – Page 612 – Translating Cuba

The Exodus Is Due To The Lack Of Freedom / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

The Red Cross helps Cubans stuck at the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border since last weekend. (La Nación)

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 25 November 2015 — The current immigration crisis created by the presence of thousands of Cubans in Central America in transit to the United States has put the issue of human rights in Cuba back in the international arena, in particular the civil, political, social and economic rights of Cubans.

The government of General Raul Castro and a part of the international press emphasize the idea that it is a legal issue, related to the Cuban Adjustment Act. The Cuban government also links it to the maintenance of the blockade-embargo, which analysts say is an attempt to pressure the US government to repeal both laws. continue reading

However, it is not possible to hide, behind the Cuban exodus, the fundamental problem in Cuba: the dissatisfaction of hundreds of thousands of Cubans with the economic and political situation in our country, which remains essentially unchanged thanks to decisions taken by the government — which has been in power for more than half a century – in the name of socialism, which has never existed.

No, we Cubans are not starving, because really there is no generalized crisis of that type in Cuba. Although for many nutrition is precarious, the fundamental appetite Cubans have is for rights and freedoms, for democracy, because the “dictatorship” – supposedly of the proletariat – established in Cuba and always led in the same direction by the Communist Party, continues to insist on its political and economic model of monopolistic State capitalism; by its nature anti-democratic, exclusive and retrograde.

Despite the public discourse of an “opening,” in reality economic activity outside the State is constantly limited by laws, regulations and provisions at all levels and by high direct and indirect taxes. Autonomous work, or self-employment, continues to be restricted to a group of activities and cannot be exercised by professionals in medicine or law, for example. To establish a cooperative requires permission from the Council of State.

But above all, State monopolies in domestic and foreign trade and the limited access to international communications networks, hinder non-State economic activity.

But what most oppresses Cubans, along with the daily problems of housing, transportation or poor-quality food, is the repressive philosophy of the State that impedes the freedom of expression, of association and elections, which obstructs any democratic alternation in power of forces and figures different from the governmental clan, forces and figures that could bring another focus to politics and get the country out of the stagnation in which it finds itself.

This is definitely a massive and flagrant violation of the civil, political, economic and social rights of the Cuban people, by a government that has spent more than half a century in power, with the methods and mechanisms to guarantee its indefinite existence. And this is the real cause of the exodus and of the current crisis.

It is true that the internal problems of Cubans must be resolved by Cubans ourselves, but when these problems affect other nations it is logical that they would take action in the matter and try to influence events through international means established by multilateral institutions recognized by the States.

The Central American community has met to discuss the crisis, but it should go beyond the legal and border problems involved and evaluate it in its entirety. The Inter-American system should also take action on the issue and the United Nations itself should involve itself, because as long as there is no resolution to the internal problems in Cuba, the system imposed by this “eternal Government” is going to continue to generate regional tensions related to immigration, be it in Central America, South America or the Straits of Florida.

Some believe that the current immigration crisis caused by the presence of thousands of Cubans in Central America is a land version of the Rafter Crisis of 1994. Any attempt to put a plug in the Cuban exodus across the continent could lead to a situation like that one, if democratic changes that loosen tensions do not come to pass in Cuba

‘La Joven Cuba’ Blog Questions Official Position on the Cuban Adjustment Act / 14ymedio

Cuban rafters — “Cubans who reach the United States without the Adjustment act will have to submit to the exploitation that other illegal immigrants are subjected to,” says the blog: La Joven Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 25 November 2015 – In an unusual gesture of criticism toward an official position, the blog “La Joven Cuba” (Young Cuba) published a post on Tuesday that challenges the Cuban government’s approach to the Cuban Adjustment Act.

The site, run by graduates of the University of Matanzas, stresses “the need to of more than a few fellow countrymen to emigrate,” and defends the thesis that Cubans who want to reside in another country will do so regardless of whether conditions are better or worse. The article, signed by Roberto G. Peralo and titled “Eliminate the Cuban Adjustment Act and What,” uses an example close to him as an illustration. continue reading

“A woman friend who is a doctor was preparing to emigrate to Ecuador. She had a job lined up at a clinic. When she learned that the government of Ecuador wouldn’t recognize her license to practice her profession, she told me, ‘I’m going even if I have to clean the hospital floor for the rest of my life.’”

The author defends the Cuban government’s asking for the elimination of the law which also provides an advantage for Cubans over other immigrants and believes that the United States will end up repealing it. However, he believes that this will not improve things because Cubans will continue leaving and will do it in even worse circumstances.

“Cubans who reach the United States without the Adjustment Act will have to submit to the exploitation that other illegal immigrants are subjected to. They will not receive government benefits and will have to take the worst jobs at the most miserable wages. In the best of cases they will have to renounce returning to Cuba, even to visit, to be able to support the thesis that they are “politically persecuted,” so that they can receive government benefits.

The Joven Cuba website, which has also suffered censorship within the University of Matanzas, is a part of the sector relatively critical of the government, although from a “revolutionary” position that leads to censoring dissent and opposing a market economy.

In the official discourse the Cuban Adjustment Act is the target of the worse criticisms and is held responsible for the exodus of Cubans to the United States. On national television the presenters call it “The Assassin Law” and hold it entirely responsible for the current migratory crisis provoked by the arrival of more than 2,000 Cubans at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

This Wednesday, the newspaper Granma published a note on the meeting of the foreign ministers of the member countries of the Central American Integration System – Cuba, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico – to seek a solution to the drama of the Cuban migrants. As the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma noted the unanimous rejection of “the Cuban Adjustment Act and other regulations related to the wet foot-dry foot policy and the Parole Program for Cuban Healthcare Professionals, which stimulates illegal immigration to the United States.”

Annoyances of the New Identity Card / 14ymedio, Sol Garcia Basulto

Identity card office in Camagüey. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Sol Garcia Basulto Camagüey, 25 November 2015 – One year since the start of the issuing new identity cars in Cuba, many recognize the advantages of the modern ID card, but criticize the complex process to get one. In Camagüey province the manufacture and distribution of the new identify card started last May, but delays in delivering them and long lines continue to characterize their arrival in this region.

To learn about the details of the process, 14ymedio approached the ID card office this Tuesday, where people interested in applying for the new polycarbonate card had gathered since the early morning hours. The applicant must bring one or several stamp/seals with a total value of 25 Cuban pesos. Fingerprints are taken on the premises and the applicant is photographed. continue reading

Among those waiting to update their identity card was Gabriel Villafaña Bosa, whose previous document had deteriorated through use and the passing of years. This Camagüeyan believes that the new format is “stronger and more durable,” so that the number of times it needs to be replaced because of damage will be reduced. However, to get it he had to overcome a long wait.

Yosbani Martinez commented, “I still don’t have the new card because everyone in the world is here.” Living near the office, the young man says that he has passed by the place at four in the morning, “and the line goes to the corner.”

Trying to reduce the avalanche of requests, the authorities have warned that the document can only be replaced in case of loss, damage, change of address or reaching the age of majority. In statements in the official press, several officials have insisted that it is not obligatory to possess the new card, because the two prior formats continue to be valid.

The dissatisfaction with the long wait even made the pages of the local newspaper Adelante this last September whenthe journalist Yasselys Perez Chaos commented to a friend, “after waiting five days in nighttime lines I was allowed to enter the office, where a single unhappy looking official was able to issue only three to twelve cards a day.”

The delays mean serious problems for those who have lost their identification. “Imagine a police officer stops me and asks for the card. When I tell him I don’t have it they take me to the station for fun,” said Villa Faña Bosa. The lack of the document has even affected his collection of remittances. “What do I do if my dad sends me money? How can I collect it at Western Union without the card,” the young man asks, standing in the middle of a long line.

Others resist losing patience despite the obstacles. This is the case with Adalberto Perez Arteago, who says, “It’s the first card I have, because I spent 25 years in prison and didn’t participate in the prior change of format.” The man also feels that the design of the new document, “looks better.”

Among the changes in the document is that the identity number is embossed, there are security features, the content is printed in invisible ink, the bars are machine readable, and there is a ghost image on the back.

The most repeated complaints also address the continued interruptions in the service of delivering the new cards, for various reasons. This Tuesday the building was being fumigated, which paralyzed the process in the only office authorized to issue them in the Camagüey capital. A couple waiting for the process so they could get married decided to return another day, earlier. “It’s already five in the afternoon and look at the number of people who are here. We lost an entire day on this,” the woman pointed out.

As of last June, 380,645 new-format identify cards had been issued in the entire country; that covers 4% of the population over age 16. In Camagüey the numbers are more modest; with a population of 717,686 adults, only 5,746 had obtained the document by that date, some 0.8% of the local population.

Impromptu Meeting Between Raul Castro and International Red Cross / 14ymedio

The president of the International Committee of Red Cross, Peter Maurer, and Cuban President Raul Castro. (JPSchaererICRC)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 November 2015 – An impromptu meeting this Wednesday between Cuban President Raul Castro and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, suggests that the issue of the almost 3,000 Cuban migrants stuck in Costa Rica is one of the objectives of Maurer’s visit, the first at this level in more than 40 years.

Officially, Maurer has been in Cuba since Monday on a trip seeking to strengthen cooperation on humanitarian issues. In the statement pervious to his arrival, his program included only interviews with Health Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda, with the Chief of Staff of the Civil Defense, Major General Pardo Guerra, and with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. continue reading

According to the official report, Castro and Maurer “spoke about the good level of relations between Cuba and the [Red Cross], as well as other topics related to the humanitarian field.” The meeting was also attended by the head of the ICRC regional delegation for Central America and Cuba, Juan Pedro Schaerer, and on the Cuban side by the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) General Leopoldo Cintra Frias, and the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelino Medina.

Last Week the Red Cross of Costa Rica issued a call for solidarity to collection donations for Cubans stranded in that country after the Nicaraguan government blocked their passage on their route to the United States, where they can enter without a visa thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act. In a communication, the Red Cross Chief in Costa Rica, Idalberto Gonzales, said that, “the Red Cross opens its doors to Costa Ricans so that they can lend their support to the Cubans in our country.”

The humanitarian organization especially requested toothbrushes, combs, toothpaste, disposable razors, bath soap, toilet paper, sanitary towels, bath towels, disinfectants, plastic utensils, shampoo and sunscreens. It also opened the opportunity to make monetary donations to Red Cross bank accounts in Costa Rica.

At this time, Costa Rica has set up seven shelters near the Nicaraguan border, where some 1,300 Cubans are being housed. Others are still being housed in churches, community centers and gymnasiums. More than 400 have refused to go to the shelters and remain the Peñas Blancas border post.

The Nicaraguan Red Cross is also waiting for the Cubans to be able to cross the border, to assist them with accommodation and food.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, founded in 1863, is defined as an impartial, neutral and independent organization. Its humanitarian mission is focused on protecting the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflicts and armed violence, as well as offering them assistance. The ICRC delegation for Mexico, Central America and Cuba, based in Mexico City, also works to ensure that people with major risk factors and vulnerability, especially migrants, are protected and assisted, and that their fundamental rights and dignity are respected.

Havana Graffiti Criticizes State Phone Company / 14ymedio

Graffiti in Havana: “Super offer? If I buy one banana they give me two. But I have to eat them in 1 hour. Loosen up Cubacel!” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, 25 November 2015 – Criticisms of the management of the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA) have reached the walls of Havana. A nice graffiti criticizes the conditions attached to the latest international recharge promotions for cellphone customers. The drawing mocks the requirement that consumers use their balance in a short period of time.

“If I buy one banana they give me two. But I have to eat it in 1 hour,” muses a pensive chimpanzee painted on several walls in the capital. The complaint ends with a “Loosen up, Cubacel!” demanding that the cellphone network give better terms for its recharge offerings.

Between the 16^th and 20^th of November, the company launched an international promotion under the slogan: “A bonus on your recharge with 30 or 60.” Each prepaid customer whose phone was recharged from abroad (presumably on-line by family or friends) for 20 or 30 CUC during that period, received an additional bonus of 30 or 60 CUC respectively. However, the user had to use the balance before December 20^th of this year.

Some customers of the prepaid service have considered the requirement an exorbitant condition and are demanding that the credits earned during a promotion should not expire over time.

About 300 Activists Arrested This Sunday / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 23 November 2015 — During the day this Sunday nearly 300 activists were arrested across the country, according to what Cuban opposition sources told this newspaper. Most of those arrested belong to the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and the Ladies in White. UNPACU activist Zaqueo Báez and his wife, Lady in White Maria Acón, were released on Monday after spending more than 24 hours in custody at the Seventh Police Unit in Havana.

In Havana, over one hundred people were detained, while in the province of Santiago de Cuba the figure reached 98 activists, 51 in Camagüey, 12 in Holguin, Guantanamo 9 and 13 in Las Tunas, to which are added the arrests in other provinces, according to José Daniel Ferrer, leader of UNPACU.

In Camagüey, the police raided the home of Fernando Vázquez Guerra, coordinator of the organization in the province, and seized documents, discs and several Cuban flags belonging to UNPACU.

The opponents were detained for several hours and by Sunday night most of them had been released.

Macri And The End Of Populism In Argentina / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner

The change in Argentina is expected to lead to a change in hemispheric relations. In the picture, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Nestor Kirchner, Cristina Fernández, Lula Da Silva, Nicanor Duarte and Hugo Chavez signed the agreement for the foundation of Banco del Sur (The Bank of the South). (CC)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 23 November 2015 — The victory of Mauricio Macri in Argentina is the triumph of common sense over strained discourse and failed emotions. It is also the arrival of modernity and the burial of a populist stage that should have disappeared long ago.

There is a successful way of governing. It is the one used in the 25 leading nations of the planet, among which should be Argentina, as it had been in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Everyone hopes that Macri will lead the country in that direction.

Which are those nations? Those recorded in all rigorous manuals, from the Human Development Index published by the United Nations, to Doing Business from the World Bank, to Transparency International. Some twenty compilations agree, however they stack up: the same ones always appear at the top of the list. continue reading

There is a successful way of governing. It is the one used in the 25 leading nations of the planet, among which should be Argentina

Which ones? The usual suspects: Norway, England, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, United States, Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, and the usual etc. How do they do it? With a mixture of respect for law, clear rules, strong institutions, markets, open trade, reasonable administrative honesty, good education, innovation, competition, productivity and, above all, confidence.

Sometimes the governments are liberal, Christian democrat or social democrat. Sometimes they combine in coalitions. Despite disputes, they all form a part of the extended family of liberal democracies. What is usually discussed in elections is not the form in which society relates to the state, but the amount of the tax burden and the formula for distributing social spending. The economic model, on which productivity rests, is not in play in the voting booth, nor is the political model which organizes coexistence and guarantees freedoms. On this they agree.

They are nations, in short, that are calm, without upheavals, without saber rattling and rumors of chaos, wonderfully boring, where the voices against the system are too weak to be considered, and where you can make long term plans because it is very difficult for the currency to suddenly lose its value or for the government to hijack your savings in an infamous and illegal seizure.

That does not mean that there are no crises and speculative bubbles, or that some, like Greece, engage in underhanded practices and need to have their chestnuts pulled out of the fire. Of course this happens, but they overcome it, and the economy recovers without breaking the democratic game. There are inevitable cycles, which are produced in free markets, where every now and then greed distances buyers and sellers. The leading nations have learned how to overcome it and move forward.

Everyone hopes that Mauricio Macri will move in the same direction for the good of Argentinians, but given that it is the largest and best educated country in Latin America, one can venture that his victory will have notable consequences across the whole continent. For now, it is very important that Argentina has abandoned the drift towards Chavism introduced by Kirchnerism.

Macri’s victory will have repercussions in the Venezuelan elections, to which the democratic opposition will come with the certainty that it has a new and valuable friend who will refuse to validate the fraud being prepared by Maduro

Macri’s victory will have repercussions in the Venezuelan elections on 6 December, to which the democratic opposition will come with the certainty that it has a new and valuable friend who will refuse to validate the fraud being prepared by Maduro, much less the oppressive Civil-Military Junta he has threatened if the polls don’t go his way.

It will have effects on the Brazilian electoral landscape, strengthening the center right forces that oppose Lula; and on Chile, when Mrs. Bachelet, whose popularity is in the basement, calls new elections in which she cannot be a candidate.

Not only is Mauricio Macri, as rightly pointed out by Joaquín Martínez Solá in La Nación, the expression of the generational change this country needs—with men and women who didn’t suffer the trauma of the military dictatorship nor the guerrilla barbarity of the armed opposition—but he can be the one who will lead the fight in Latin American for democracy and freedoms. Someone who leads the country into the 21^st century, which began almost 16 years ago, and gets it out of the old populist morass in which Peronism mired it for many decades.

Few rulers have begun their mandate with so many national and international dreams resting on their management. It is a great country that deserves a great president.

Overcoming Obstacles, More Cubans Arrive From Central America To Mexico Heading To The US / EFE (via 14ymedio)

Dozens of Cuban migrants cross the Suchiate River on Mexico's border with Guatemala on Friday. (EFE / Benjamin Alfaro) — Dozens of Cuban migrants cross the Suchiate River on Mexico’s border with Guatemala on Friday. (EFE / Benjamin Alfaro)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Tapachula, Mexico, 22 November 2015 — Despite increasing obstacles in their path, the number of Cubans crossing the Mexican border from Central America, in order to get a safe conduct pass that allows them to reach the United States, has increased in recent weeks.

Nor has the closure of the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, on November 15, stopped Cubans, who travel in large groups of up to 500 people and who, for a payment of five dollars, cross the international Suchiate River separating Mexico and Guatemala on rafts every day.

Nicaragua closed its border to the migrants after accusing Costa Rica of throwing them at its door. continue reading

“It’s a difficult process where they don’t know if they’ll be allowed to continue; they are waiting to see if the situation is resolved and they can get to Guatemala. We are the first group, they have given us the safe conduct passes and we made it this far,” EFE was told by Oricesar, a migrant who managed to cross Nicaragua and reach Mexican soil.

Traveling in his group of 50 Cubans were also Luis Enrique and his wife, who, helped by a “guide,” made it in six days to the Mexican state of Chiapas. They denounced that “more than two thousand Cubans are stranded in Costa Rica, and if they don’t open the border with Nicaragua the number will be more than 3,000 within a week.”

They avoided talking about internal Cuban politics, but agree that they left the Caribbean nation because of “the poverty and the mistreatment by the authorities,” without regard to their “suffering humiliation in the migration through the countries of Latin America” in order to get to the United States.

In Mexico, the National Migration Institute registered, as of 18 November, the entrance of 9,100 Cuban migrants, of whom 7,317 were housed in the 21^st Century Station in Tapachula, Chiapas. These are figures well above the 1,817 who were received during all of 2014.

In the last week some one thousand Cubans entered Chiapas to voluntarily surrender themselves to the immigration authorities

In the last week some one thousand Cubans entered through Chiapas to voluntarily surrender themselves to the immigration authorities and request that the departure office allow them to travel, without restrictions, the last 3,000 miles of the route to US soil.

Efrain Hernandez, 22, a native of Havana, is one of them; he tells EFE that he traveled 3,000 miles to get to Mexico from Ecuador, through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

From that list of countries, men and women complain that they suffered the greatest corruption at the hands of the police in Colombia, because they were charged $100 each to pass through that South American nation.

To get to the southern border of Mexico, the Cubans invest between $5,000 and $6,000 to pay for transportation, lodging and food “in search of a better life for my family,” says Joan Peña, who after obtaining the safe conduct pass, in three days, is on the final leg of his journey, in a hotel in the center of Tapachula where he pays five dollars a night.

Those who are traveling have sold their houses and left their families and jobs, like Maybelli Fernandez, a native of Matanzas. After having surrendered to the authorities they are transferred to the migration offices to complete the paperwork in the departure office, which gives them 30 days to reach the northern border and their final destination.

The undersecretary of Migrant Assistance in the Ministry for the Development of the Southern Border of the Government of Chiapas, Victor Moguel, rejects the idea that the arrival of thousands of emigrants is creating a humanitarian crisis.

On the contrary, Cubans keep hotel occupancy figuresup and fill the daily flights and buses that travel to Mexico City and Tijuana.

For now, Mexico and Cuba do not have a treaty for the deportation of migrants from the island country; however, moved by the rumor that this could happen, Cubans arriving at the border are ever more fearful that, in 2016, the borders between Mexico and Central America might be closed.

Costa Rica Will Propose The Creation Of A Humanitarian Corridor For Cubans / 14ymedio

Nicaraguan police guarding the border with Costa Rica to prevent the passage of Cuban immigrants bound for the United States (Photo Alvaro Sanchez / EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 November 2015 – The United States and Cuba should work together to alleviate the Cuban migration crisis now facing Costa Rica and Nicaragua. So says Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, who believes that the authorities of the country of origin like those of the country of destination must help find a final solution, as reported by the Costa Rican newspaper La Nación.

During the inauguration of the Torito hydroelectric plant in Jabillos de Turrialba, the president expressed his hope that the meeting of foreign ministers to be held next week could help to alleviate the problem, with the commitment of the foreign ministers of all the nations included in the “Cuban route.”

The arrival of more than 2,500 Cubans in Central America en route to US territory has become a regional dilemma because the flow of the Caribbeans continues. On Friday Solis insisted that in the next round the US and Cuban authorities should sit down with Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

The Costa Rican government will bring a proposal to the meeting to create a humanitarian corridor free of rapes, robberies and other indignities that characterize the current route continue reading

The Costa Rican government will bring a proposal to the meeting to create a humanitarian corridor free of rapes, robberies and other indignities that characterize the current route, full of natural hazards and human traffickers.

“We must build a transit space for the flow of Cuban immigrants to travel safely, documented, under appropriate conditions, without resorting to organized crime,” said Solis. He stressed that “If there is the political we will have chance of success.”

In response to statements by the government of Daniel Ortega, according to which Costa Rica is trying to play the victim and proclaim itself a defender of human rights, the Costa Rican president asserts that the country is not a victim “nor will it change its policy about the granting of visas.” He added that there will be no change in the fight against the human trafficking networks.

Costa Rican authorities granted Cubans seven day transit visas to continue on their way to the United States, but on Sunday Nicaragua prevented them from crossing the border and accused Costa Rica of wanting to provoke a humanitarian crisis.

“This is a conflict of humanitarian order, not geopolitical. Our bilateral issues (in Nicaragua) are working out where it should, in international courts. The migrant population should not suffer from the problems between the two countries,” added Solis.

The statesman stressed that his country does not need excuses to draw the attention of the international community, “nor do we use the subterfuges of an immigration crisis that has no origin or Costa Rica or Nicaragua”.

At the meeting of foreign ministers, to be held next week in El Salvador, Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua’s first lady, may participate. The Government of Costa Rica hopes that Murillo will adopt a “position of solidarity” with migrants and that her country will allow them to pass through on the way to the United States.

The Sad Ballad of Cuban Emigration / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner

Cubans return to Costa Rican soil after Nicaraguan police and soldiers prevented them from continuing their journey to the US. (La Nación)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 21 November 2015 — Another stampede of Cubans. It happens from time to time. An editorial in Costa Rica’s La Nación offers a strong description of how the government of that country reacted: “First duty, to protect the victims.” The Costa Ricans gave them transit visas and, as they are stranded at the border, quickly built provisional shelters to feed and house them.

Bravo! This is what a civilized nation does. These are not animals. They are more than 1,700 people. They are not criminals, as a Nicaraguan Sandinista deputy unjustly labeled them. The criminals are the military and the police who are clubbing unarmed and peaceful immigrants. They are frightened individuals and families – children, pregnant women – almost all young, who are trying to reach the United States border by land, after traveling over a thousand miles from Ecuador. continue reading

Nor are they going to break the laws of the country they are heading to. In the United States a favorable law awaits them, enacted over 60 years ago in the midst of the Cold War. If they reach US territory they are granted a provisional parole and then allowed to regularize their status at the end of one year. They left Cuba legally and they will live legally in the United States. What sense does it make to stop them?

Not to mention that this measure that protects Cubans has a pedagogical utility. It serves to demonstrate that the best way to solve the problem of the undocumented is to arbitrate some formula that allows them to study, pay taxes, be productive and integrate themselves into the nation in which they are living. The notable success of Cubans in the United States is due, to a certain extent, to the fact that they can rebuild their lives quickly and fight to conquer the “American Dream.”

The same editorial, with anger and astonishment, reproaches the Cuban authorities who do not protect their own citizens. If 1,700 Costa Ricans, Uruguayans, Chileans, Spaniards, or people from any normal country in which the state is at the service of the people, found themselves in the situation these Cubans find themselves in, the government in question would have tried to protect them, the president would have publicly expressed his solidarity, and the foreign minister would have allocated resources to help them.

Cuba is different. The dictatorship has spent 56 years humiliating and mistreating every person inclined to emigrate. Anyone who leaves is an enemy. While civilized nations have institutions dedicated to supporting emigrants, without asking them their reasons for exercising their right to settle where they can and where they please, on this unhappy island the government plunders them, insults them and treats them as traitors.

So it has been since 1959, when at the airport adults were stripped of all the valuables they carried, including engagement rings, right up until today, when the Cuban government asks that of Nicaragua to use a heavy hand to stop the flow of Cubans. Nothing has changed.

The use of terror against emigrants reached a paroxysm in 1980, with the so-called “Mariel Boatlift”

The use of terror against emigrants reached a paroxysm in 1980, with the so-called “Mariel Boatlift,” named after the port from which they embarked. The political police organized thousands of “acts of repudiation” to punish those who desired to leave. They shouted insults and beat them. In a couple of cases, it rose to killing them. An English teacher died this way. His students, spurred on by the adults of the Communist Party, murdered him by kicking him in the head.

At that time I lived in Spain and gave work to a Cuban cameraman, originally from the Canary Islands, who survived these outrages. He had arrived in Madrid emotionally devastated. When he said he was leaving the country, his fellow workers hung a sign around his neck that said “I am a traitor,” threw him to the floor and made him walk on his knees between two rows of people who jeered and spat on him.

The Mariel Boatlift exodus (afterwards there were others) resulted in 130,000 new exiles, among whom there was a remarkable group of homosexuals forced to emigrate, many valuable artists (like the excellent writer Reinaldo Arenas), mixed in with crazy people, criminals and murderers taken from prison to contaminate the group and “prove” that only undesirable people did not want to live in the communist paradise. For this homophobic government a murderer and a homosexual were the same thing.

Apart from the human tragedy in the journey of those emigrants now protected by the Costa Ricans, what is happening in Central America makes us understand why this dictatorship, despite its attempt to show a reformist face, continues to believe that Cubans are slaves without rights or dignity. Pure escoria – scum – as they often call those who, despite everything, are willing to make any sacrifice not to live in that outrageous madhouse. Nothing substantial has changed.

The Culprit Has The Solution / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Hundreds of Cubans are still stranded at the border of Costa Rica while Nicaragua denies them entry to move north. (EFE / Alvaro Sanchez)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 21 November 2015 – “Anyone who has $15,000 to give a human trafficker is not fleeing poverty,” were the words of Oliver Zamaro, an official spokesperson on Cuban television who was commenting this Friday on the situation of the more than 2,000 Cubans stranded at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

After days of silence on the situation, the partisan media wants to use the drama of these compatriots as a weapon against the White House. An overused strategy that barely has any effect at this point. Now, they want to convince us that the massive exits are not the responsibility of the country being left behind, but rather of the other one those leaving are trying to reach. continue reading

Suffice it to mention the thousands of Cubans who escape to other nations where there is no “wet foot, dry foot” law, to realize that the responsibility for the exodus that we have been experiencing for more than half a century rests on a system that has not been able to offer its citizens material prosperity, personal fulfillment or freedom… Much less a future.

Why, if they can get $15,000, do they prefer to invest it in a dangerous escape with no certainty of getting to the other side, instead of creating a business or prospering in their own country? The answer is painful and compelling: because there are no guarantees, no hope

Mr. Zamora apparently ignores that the amount of money mentioned, equivalent to more than 60 years of the salary of a professional earning 500 Cuban pesos a month, comes from a desperate action, or from help sent from abroad. The majority of those who are currently in Central American shelters have sold all their belongings to undertake such a dangerous route, or depended on relatives who have emigrated to finance the payment to the human traffickers.

The question would be why, if they can get $15,000, do they prefer to invest it in a dangerous escape with no certainty of getting to the other side, instead of creating a business or prospering in their own country. The answer is painful and compelling: because there are no guarantees, no hope and because the timeframe of their lives cannot wait for the promises of improvements on the horizon: promises that every time we come close to touching them become more distant.

The problem unleashed is growing, because Nicaragua’s closing of the border to Cubans is not deterring those left on the island from trying to leave. The flights to Ecuador continue to carry Cubans who, instead of feeling discouraged by the increasing difficulties, believe that the visibility of their cause might protect them and create pressure for a corridor that guarantees passage to the north.

It seems to be a repeat of the effect that moved 10,000 people to occupy the Peruvian embassy in Havana in 1980, and shortly after led more than 100,000 to leave from the Port of Mariel, the same migratory fever that led 35,000 Cubans to figure in the Rafter Crisis in 1994. A nation in flight, one whose children cyclically find a route to leave behind the land where they were born.

It is noteworthy that this situation is happening when Raul Castro’s reforms seem to have peaked and proved their ineffectiveness in bringing about results that can be seen in daily life

It is noteworthy that this situation is happening when Raul Castro’s reforms seem to have peaked and proved their ineffectiveness in bringing about results that can be seen in daily life. Not even the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States has managed to appease the widespread disappointment and despair among Cuba’s youngest.

The undeclared but latent threat, that the Cuban Adjustment Act will be repealed, has only hastened each individual’s decision to abandon their country, but this is neither the trigger nor the cause for deciding to risk one’s own life and those of small children on a journey filled with danger.

A brief statement by Raul Castro in front of the cameras on national television, where he would say what millions of Cubans have waited decades to hear, would be enough to stop the flow of migrants and even to start to reverse it. Not offering this final speech, of the autocracy that will give way to another government, makes him guilty of everything that is happening.

Cuban State Security Warns Berta Soler “The End Of Opposition” Has Arrived / 14ymedio

Berta-Soler-Damas-Blanco-CC_CYMIMA20141021_0001_13 — Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White (CC)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 November 2015 — The leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, was arrested Friday outside Havana’s Fifth Police Station and held for several hours. The regime opponent was there to show her solidarity with the the activist Hugo Damian Prieto, detained since October 25 and charged with the alleged crime of disorderly conduct for participating in a demonstration.

During the arrest, at a police unit in Alamar, east of the capital, Soler was warned by State Security official who called himself Francisco, that “the end of the opposition has already been reached.” The agent added that it was also time for “the end” of the Sunday marches in the area of Santa Rita Church.

Among those also detained during the day were Ladies in White Lismery Quintana, Maria Ancon and Maria Cristina Labrada, as well as the activists Zaqueo Baez, Egberto Escobedo and Angel Moya. All were released hours after their arrest, as was confirmed by this newspaper.

Chronicle of a Cuban ‘Rafter’ on Foot (Part 3)

Overland immigrants cross the border between Mexico and the United States

This is the third and final part of the testimony of a Cuban who has made the dangerous trip from Guatemala to the United State. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Mexico City/Laredo Texas, 20 November 2015 – The smell of coffee draws me to the kitchen. The first rays of the sun have yet to appear when Domitila and her husband Juan get ready to start work on the farm. They protect us that day, hiding us from the Mexican police, always ready for deportations. “There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of Cubans who have passed through this house. They all say the same thing, ‘You can’t work there, you can’t live there’,” they say.

“Thanks to the Cubans we have this little ranch.” Their house barely has two rooms, one of which our group of immigrants is occupying. The family treasure is their farm, a little expanse of land with rubber trees. In this place we received the best care of the whole journey, we even get a bath.

A special solidarity joins this noble-hearted woman with the fate of Cuban migrants. Her daughter has lived in the United States for ten years. She arrived there as a ‘wetback’ and since then they haven’t seen each other. This was our last stage towards Mexico City. continue reading

A cold wind, in keeping with the altitude, and the endless lights leads us to believe we have arrived at the capital. The danger of a special police checkpoint makes us throw ourselves from the truck as fast as we can and take off into the semi-desert. The guide hurries us. Again, an altercation with the tropical version of the “revolutionary tough guy” is about to get us deported. The intervention of women prevents a river of blood, at least for the moment. The night passes without other mishaps.

To the joy of some and sadness of others, tonight is the last time we see the Hindus and the Central Americans. Halfway along the road a vehicle intercepted us, they climbed on and quickly took another route. According to what they tell us, they will enter at another border crossing.

We meet the “patroness,” a lady with the credentials of a trafficker who combines, in her features, virility with cunning and the female sixth sense

We arrived in Mexico City at three in the morning. A beautifully designed house, full of artworks and books of literature, religion and history suggest to us that we are in contact with someone knowledgeable and sensitive to the world of culture. Meeting the “patroness” is a huge surprise, a lady with the credentials of a trafficker who combines, in her features, virility with cunning and the female sixth sense.

“One Cuban who is coming alone!” Timidly I raise my hand. “Another!” A boy from the group joins me. “Another Cuban who is coming alone!” she says imperiously. “You! Get up, let’s go!” Maikel is traveling with his uncle, but his pleas are useless. It is decided and there is no turning back. He will have to leave his uncle alone.

The Cuban “tough guy,” who tried to sneak into this first departure, ended up with his tail between his legs on learning that even though he had given his wife’s jewels to the coyote in Guatemala, supposedly his money is not enough and he will have to wait in Mexico. We immediately think that this is the response of the organization to the aggressive attitude of the guide who took us to the capital.

After breakfast they lead us to a trailer. On the way I confirm my suspicions: the “patroness” is a woman of exceptional intelligence. Easy conversation and well-formed opinions, who holds forth fluently about the Mexican reality. She has dedicated her life to study, is not married and her main hobby is travel, such that in her 40 short years she knows well a good part of the world, including Cuba. After wishing us the best part of the journey, she makes us appreciate the privilege bestowed by the Cuban Adjustment Act and asks us to take advantage of this opportunity to improve ourselves and become good men.

The truck driver is also easygoing. His name is Oscar. He has spent many years transferring goods to the United States border. Although he is forced to smuggle Cubans to support his family, according to what he tells us, it has never entered his head to emigrate to the United States. With the money he makes, he “scrapes by” he tells us.

For nearly fifteen hours we are locked in that trailer, in places specially designed to hide people. Tiny little spaces we have to get into at every checkpoint that trips us up along the way, although, according to what Oscar says, everyone is paid.

“Corruption is the cancer that afflicts Mexico,” complains Oscar, “but we are all corrupt because the politicians themselves are the first in corruption and enrich themselves at the expense of the country.” While he traffics with three little Cubans towards the neighbor to the north, the generals, he thinks, do the same with arms and drugs. Everyone is involved, just at a different scale.

A white pick-up controlled by the fearsome Zetas is charged with getting us to the border. The trafficking ends with them, because they are the ones who control the underworld of the border area.

In Nuevo Laredo the border crossing is organized. A white pick-up controlled by the fearsome Zetas is charged with getting us to the border. The trafficking ends with them, because they are the ones who control the underworld of the border area. They tell us to leave everything we have, that is, barely a bag with a change of clothes that we carry hidden. Supposedly we should arrive at the international bridge to Laredo, Texas, with nothing, so as not to raise the suspicions of the Mexican police. After an exchange of words with our dealers, I manage to save the papers that testify to my university degree and a Cuban flag. All the rest is left in the past. They give us four Mexican pesos, with which we begin a new life. Before us, the bridge that marks the end of a life without rights.

The route of Cuban migration. (14ymedio)

Nothing compares with the thrill of feeling free. Holding back the tears, we advance as fast as possible to reach the other shore. The nightmare is over. Jungles, swamps, police, the fear of an assault, narcos, traffickers, all is left behind like the price to be paid for freedom.

A group of around 80 Cubans is spending the night at the US immigration facilities, which are overflowing with the flood of Cubans. Some have been waiting days to process their paperwork. Not all of them arrive for political reasons. Many comment that their intention is to return to Cuba as soon as they obtain US residency. They left Cuba, selling their homes or going into debt, via Ecuador for two basic reasons: desperation in the face of a situation with no outlet, and fear of losing the privileges awarded by the Cuban Adjustment Act, with the recent openings toward the regime in Havana.

They have never heard about any rights and they don’t know what democracy is.

It is a time to give thanks, for us to rejoice on reaching the land of freedom. Also a time to mourn for those who did not make it. We have crossed our on Red Sea, and now the task before us is not to long for the onions of Egypt, although what lies ahead is the desert that faces every migrant.

We can finally say, like José Martí: “Freedom is expensive and you have to decide to pay its price or resign yourself to living without it.”

Double-bladed Scissors / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya

Members of the Cuban opposition march together during the Americas Summit in Panama

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 12 November 2015 — Value judgement comments are very often made abroad about what – more or less – some have taken to calling “an internal dissidence crisis in Cuba,” implying an epitaph, and with premature and unjustified gloating, when we consider that frustration and dissatisfaction – the primeval basis on which all dissidence feeds – have maintained an upward trend on the Island.

However, the existence of a crisis is not necessarily a negative sign. The new landscape, encompassing daily life in Cuba and international relations, involves rearrangements and challenges for all stakeholders, especially those who move counter to truly hostile political conditions. In any case, crises create growth opportunities as well as challenges.

So we are facing what will be a growth crisis for some opposition groups, if they know how to assume the challenge to define their strategies and advance. If they persist in continuing with their old methods and concepts that lead nowhere, however, they will face a crisis of extinction. continue reading

Slow going, winding path

The current Cuban scenario is at a juncture where a transformation is taking place due to circumstances that have been building in the past few years which mark a slow, though significant, turning point in the profoundly State-based, centralized system that characterized the entire previous “Revolutionary” period.

Among these changes are Fidel Castro’s exit and his brother’s, the general-president, succession to power with the start of a process of economic lukewarm reforms which – though lacking in depth, extent and effectiveness – envelop an admission of the failure of the government’s mission, opening a crack in the extreme centralization and creating a point of no return that has permitted the (minimum) resurgence of private initiative.

The repressive capacity of the Castro regime is its most powerful institution to date, and it is extraterritorial in character. Venezuela is proof of it.

There have also been legal changes that restored certain rights, such as the sale of homes, cars, and other goods, as well as emigration reform that eliminated the humiliating exit permit and extended to 24 months the Cuban nationals’ periods of stay abroad.

In the field of computers and communications, marketing of computer hardware and cell phones were authorized, mobile e-mail service was established and public Wi-Fi sites were created, among other measures. Despite their limitations – high prices and slow, sporadic connections – these measures represent some flexibility from the previous ironclad monolithic practices of the regime.

Obviously, compared with technological advances and rights that are enjoyed in democratic societies, such transformations are minimal. In fact, they implicitly reflect the lack of rights that Cubans have been enduring for decades. However, these restrained steps taken by the Government – forced by the need to survive and not by a real political resolve to change – mark the beginning of the end of totalitarianism and prepare the setting for demanding deeper changes.

Unfortunately, in the absence of solid structures in the independent civil society that can sway the pace, direction and depth of the changes, the transformations have been implemented from the very military power established in 1959, to suit its own interests, which has set the slow pace of the process and the twists and turns along the road, including about-face phases or stagnation of some of the adopted measures.

A new schism

In this sense, last year’s December 17^th announcement of the restoration of relations between the governments of Cuba and the U.S. marked a milestone that shocked the entire Cuban society in general – and the dissidence in particular – since it dramatically ripped to pieces the old official discourse of David vs. Goliath, rendering it obsolete on the one hand, while on the other, it introduced a new relationship style between the U.S. government and the internal opposition.

Strategies of factions of the opposition are inevitably leading to a breaking point, and, in addition, they are fueled by ancient evils such as autocratic governments, authoritarianism and the yearning of its better-known leaders to steal the limelight.

This has forced a schism in the dissidence, whose most radical sector considers this reconciliation of the two governments a “betrayal” of democratic Cubans on the part of the Obama administration, at the same time that they disapprove of an eventual lifting of the embargo, all of which immediately places the solution to Cuba’s internal political conflicts in the hands of and under the laws of a foreign government.

Another problem is the tendency to ignore their own limitations against the powerful government machinery. Some radical groups expect general elections to be held immediately after the resignation of the current government, an unrealistic (and impossible) move, considering that the longstanding dictatorship holds not just the country’s economic, political and military power, but in addition, it absolutely controls all the structures of the social order and directs a broad and efficient paramilitary apparatus. In fact, the repressive capacity of the Castro regime is its most powerful institution to date, even extraterritorially. Venezuela is proof of it.

There is also a moderate trend sector within the dissidence that views the end of the U.S.-Cuba dispute as a possible opening that would favor a climate of deeper changes – including legalization and consolidation of independent civic organizations and the emergence of a middle class – as well as increased pressure from the international community on the Cuban Government for change in the political sphere, and a potential improvement in the living conditions of the population, among other positive effects.

This trend is betting on dialogue and negotiations to achieve reforms that will open opportunities for citizen participation that will face the power structure, historically based on a monolithic system as well as a gradient to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition, avoiding social chaos, settling of scores, summary trials and vandalism peculiar to abrupt changes in long-traumatized societies.

But, so far, the moderate sector has not been able to assert itself in the political arena and lacks recognition, not only by the Cuban Government – for obvious reasons – but it has also been ignored by international governments and organizations currently interested in negotiating with the regime.

The Cuban opposition cannot delay in such issues as abandoning the role of mere political folklore which the international press has tried to turn it into, and assuming the new conditions more realistically.

Both strategies, the radical and the moderate, pursue, as a common goal, the establishment of democracy in Cuba, but their irreconcilable approaches will inevitably lead to a breaking point. In addition, they are being fueled by ancient evils, such as autocratic governments, authoritarianism and the yearning of its better-known leaders to steal the limelight.

However, the real challenge facing the opposition is to overcome the resistance phase as an end in itself and to conquer the participation and commitment of Cubans inside the Island, something that has not been attained by either strategy.

The Cuban opposition cannot delay in such issues as abandoning the role of mere political folklore which the international press has tried to turn it into, starting by putting an end to conflicts that lead nowhere. The other path would be to disappear from the effects of wear and tear and mass departures.

It is clear that the current political and economic global interests of governments with very different ideals have encroached on our country and are negotiating with the dictatorship, while those of us who rightfully aspire to re-establish the nation are not finding the essential unification hinge to get the two sharp blades of a scissors to cut the Gordian knot of the Castro regime. Tomorrow could be too late.

Who destroyed the Tosca Cinema? / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

Hardware store where the Tosca Cinema once stood. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 9 November 2015 – In his recent speech in Merida, Mexico, the general-president Raul Castro remembered his first visit to Mexico, recalling that he had sought asylum in the embassy of that country in Havana because he was accused up putting a bomb in the Tosca cinema in the capital and, he clarified, “I still don’t know where that theater is. I believe it exists.”

It wasn’t exactly a bomb, but a firecracker that exploded on the night of 9 June in the little movie theater in the Santos Suarex neighborhood. The accusation against Raul Castro was part of a wider complaint, filed in Case No. 297 of 1955 for Crimes Against the Power of the State. There were 19 defendants, among them José Antonio Echevarría, and even some exiles like former President Carlos Prio. continue reading

The Court published the case on Thursday, 16 June 1955 and the next day Fidel Castro appeared at the court to file a written complaint where he mentioned a plan to assassinate him and his brother. It said that the accusations against Raul made no sense because the young man was at the events in Marcané that day, a village in the then municipality of Holguin in Oriente province, visiting his father who was ill. That Friday the Mexican embassy gave Raul Castro political asylum after he had returned clandestinely to Havana and spent some days at the Siboney Hotel, at Prado and Virtudes Street.

To give his complaint continuity, Fidel Castro tried to publish an article in Bohemia Magazine on Monday, with the prophetic title of “One can no longer live here,” but Miguel Angel Quevedo, director of the prestigious magazine, refused to publish it.

Mr. President, with all due respect I must announce that Tosca Cinema no longer exists

On the afternoon of Friday, the 24^th, Raul Castro went to Jose Marti Airport to fly to Mexico. He was seen off by his siblings Fidel, Lidia and Enma, along with the journalist Luis Conte Agüero. The immigration law of that time ignored that the Cuban was crossing the border with an accusation against him (one that would now be called terrorism), for which he hadn’t even stood trial. Such was the cruelty of that tyranny.

It seems that at that time Raul Castro was innocent of that explosion, where there was more noise than damage.

Mr. President, with all due respect I must tell you that the Tosca Cinema no longer exists. Only those older than 40 vaguely remember its disappearance. Instead, at number 1007, there is now a hardware store with the name of Brimart, which nobody knows the significance of. There is a surviving bakery across from it, which retains the name of the heroine of Sardou’s drama, immortalized by Puccini in his opera.

(All the historical data mentioned here appears in the book “We Will Fight to the End, Chronology, 1955” published by the Council of State’s Office of Publications, under the authorship of Rolando Davila Rodriguez.)

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