Poster for National Cuban Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (MartiNoticias)
EFE/14ymedio, San Juan, 14 August 2015 — Leaders of the Cuban dissidence arrived on the island and everyone met this Friday in Puerto Rico to work towards a common position with regards to the new scenario that is opening with the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba.
The Cuban National Conference brought together in San Juan one hundred dissidents who are trying to achieve a single strategy among all the groups who are fighting against the regime in Havana, with regards to the steps they should follow to bring democracy to the island, according to what regime opponent Guillermo Fariñas told EFE.
“There is a new context with the change in relations – between the United States and Cuba – and therefore it is necessary to achieve unity,” said Fariñas, who emphasized that it can’t be ignored that the rapprochement between Washington and Havana has repercussions on the strategy of the dissidence. continue reading
“We are working to be heard as a single voice for the democratization of Cuba,” said Fariñas about the objective of the meeting, scheduled before learning of the change in relations between the US and Havana, which culminated this Friday with the raising of the American flag over its embassy in the Caribbean capital in the presence of US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The dissident outlined that although the change in relations is a relevant event, the ultimate goal of the National Cuban Conference being held in Puerto Rico is to mend fences between all the opposition groups inside and outside the island to agree on a common strategy that will bring democracy to Cuba.
Fariñas added that the work undertaken during the meeting will result in a Declaration of San Juan, this coming Monday, in which a joint strategy will be announced to ensure that democracy comes to Cuba.
Eliecer Avila, the young regime opponent and collaborator on the digital newspaper 14ymedio directed by the critical blogger Yoani Sanchez, told EFE that the change in direction in relations between the United States and Cuba opens a new stage, which civil society on the island must adapt itself to.
“Unity of action is paramount, and so far it has been a struggle against a regime marked by dispersion and by the actions of groups with isolated agendas,” said Eliecer Avila
“The objective is to capture all opinions to prepare a joint document,” said Avila, for whom this is the time to unite on a strategy that facilitates the return of democracy to Cuba, despite the fact that among the dissidents there are those who see the rapprochement as a positive thing, and others who are critical of it.
Thirty papers, prepared over the last year, have been presented during the meeting.
“Unity of action is paramount, and so far it has been a struggle against a regime marked by dispersion and by the actions of groups with isolated agendas,” said Avila.
Sylvia Iriondo, president of the human rights organization MAR for Cuba (Mothers and Women Against Repression), told EFE that the San Juan meeting arose in order to “unite democratic Cuban forces committed to change on the island.”
Iriondo, who lives in Miami, expressed her rejection of the rapprochement between Washington and Havana, given that Raul Castro’s regime does not represent the Cuban people.
The Cuban National Conference, in preparation for over a year, was promoted by United Cubans of Puerto Rico, an organization founded in 1967 with the aim of supporting opposition to the Havana regime from the Puerto Rican commonwealth.
The presence of nearly 20,000 Cubans in Puerto Rico and the cultural affinity were some of the reasons to bring the meeting to San Juan, according to the organization.
The work has been divided into two thematic areas, the first being the coordination of efforts between the interior of the island and the exile, and the second on strategies for democratic change.
People gather outside the US embassy in Havana on August 14, Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters
Atlantic Monthly/14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, 15 August 2015 — My grandchildren will ask, “Were you there, grandma?” The answer will be barely a monosyllable accompanied by a smile. “Yes,” I will tell them, although at the moment the flag of the United States was raised over its embassy in Havana I was gathering opinions for a story, or connected to some Internet access point. “I was there,” I will repeat.
The fact of living in Cuba on August 14 makes the more than 11 million of us participants in a historic event that transcends the raising of an insignia to the top of a flagpole. We are all here, in the epicenter of what is happening.
For my generation, as for so many other Cubans, it is the end of one stage. It does not mean that starting tomorrow everything we have dreamed of will be realized, nor that freedom will break out by the grace of a piece of cloth waving on the Malecón. Now comes the most difficult part. However, it will be that kind of uphill climb in which we cannot blame our failures on our neighbor to the north. It is the beginning of the stage of absorbing who we are, and recognizing why we have only made it this far. continue reading
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
The official propaganda will run out of epithets. This has already been happening since the December 17 announcement of the reestablishment of relations between Washington and Havana took all of us by surprise. That equation, repeated so many times, of not permitting an internal dissidence or the existence of other parties because Uncle Sam was waiting for a sign of weakness to pounce on the island, is increasingly unsustainable.
Now, the ideologues of continuity warn that “the war against imperialism” will become more subtle, the methods more sophisticated … but slogans do not understand nuances. “Are they the enemy, or aren’t they?” ask all those who, with the simple logic of reality, experienced a childhood and youth marked by constant paranoia toward that country on the other side of the Straits of Florida.
Now that an official Cuban delegation has shared the U.S. embassy-opening ceremony with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, there is a family photo that they can no longer deny or minimize. There we saw those who until recently called us to the trenches, now shaking hands with their opponent and explaining the change as a new era.
And it is good that this is so, because these political pragmatists can no longer turn around and tell us otherwise. We have caught them respecting and allowing entrance to the Stars and Stripes.
The opposition must also understand that we are living in new times—moments of reaching out to the people, and helping them to see that there is a country after the dictatorship and that they can be the voice of millions who suffer every day economic hardship, lack of freedom, police harassment, and lack of expectations.
The authoritarianism expressed in warlordism, not wanting to speak with those who are different, or snubbing the other for not thinking like they do, are just other ways of reproducing the Castro regime.
“Are they the enemy, or aren’t they?” ask all those who experienced a youth marked by constant paranoia toward that country on the other side of the Straits of Florida.
A conflict of eras is unfolding in Cuba—a collision between two countries: one that has been stranded in the middle of the 20th century, and one that is pushing the other to move forward. They are two islands that clash, but it needs to happen. We know, by the laws of biology and of Kronos, which will prevail. But right now they are in full collision and dragging all of us between the opposing forces.
This Friday’s front-page of the newspaper Granma shows this conflict with a past that doesn’t want to stop playing a starring role in our present—a past tense of military uniforms, guerrillas, bravado, and political tantrums that refuses to give way to a modern and plural country.
When one scrutinizes Friday’s edition of the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party, it is easy to detect how a country that is unraveling clings to its past, trying not to make room for the country to come.
In this future Cuba, which is just around the corner, some restless grandchildren will ask me about one day lost in the intense summer of 2015. With a smile, I will be able to tell them, “I was there, I lived it … because I understood the point of inflection that it signified.”
This article was translated from the Spanish by Mary Jo Porter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yoani Sánchez is the Havana-based founder and executive director of 14ymedio, Cuba’s first independent digital newspaper.
Note: This article originally appeared in Spanish in 14ymedio; this English translation appeared first in The Atlantic Monthly.
1898: the United States declares war on Spain after accusing it of the sinking of the battleship “Maine” in Havana harbor. The United States wins and Spain has to give up Cuba.
1 Ground invasion during the war between the US and Spain
1901: On June 12, the United States imposes the Platt Amendment which will be incorporated into the first Constitution of Cuba and limits the sovereignty of the nascent republic.
1902: The island is proclaimed an independent republic under President Tomas Estrada Palma, but remains under the tutelage of Washington. continue reading
2 Tomas Estrada Palma, the first president after the independence of Cuba. (University of Miami)
1903: Estrada Palma and the US President Theodore Roosevelt sign the Cuban-American Treaty, which includes a lease of the naval base in Guantanamo, in perpetuity.
3 – Guantanamo Naval Base
1912: US forces return to Cuba to squelch the protests of the Black community against racial discrimination.
1928: Official Visit to Cuba of Calvin Coolidge, the last of a US president. He received the then president of Cuba, General Gerardo Machado.
4 — Coolidge with President Machado at the Embassy of Cuba in Washington in 1927. (Library of Congress)
1933: President Machado is overthrown by a coup.
1934: Washington waives the right to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs (the Platt Amendment, imposed on Cuba in 1901, is repealed) and establishes a quota for sugar exports from the island to the US.
5 — Carmita sugar mill. (University of Miami Libraries)
1945: On March 9 Edward R. Stettinius is the last US secretary of state to set foot on Cuba on official business.
1953: July 26, Fidel Castro fails to take the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.
1955: In February, US Vice President, Republican Richard Nixon, makes an official visit to Cuba three weeks before the inauguration of Fulgencio Batista.
6 — Nixon with his wife during his visit to Cuba. (Video Capture Archive British Pathé)
1956: 82 men, including Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, leave Mexico to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma purchased from a US company. The go into the Sierra Maestra to organize a guerrilla effort.
7 — Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra (CC)
1958: In March the US withdraws military aid to Batista. In June Fidel Castro sends a letter to Celia Sanchez where he tells his “destiny” will lead to a “long and great” war against US.
January 1959: Batista flees, Fidel Castro enters Havana and takes power.
8 — Fidel Castro entering Havana on January 8, 1959
April 1959: Castro meets with US Vice President Richard Nixon in an unofficial meeting in Washington. Nixon later writes that the US had no choice but to try to “orient” the leftist leader toward the “right direction.”
1960: Cuba nationalizes US companies without compensation. US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba, cancels the sugar quota and establishes an economic embargo on the island, still in force.
April 1961: Cuban exiles fail in their attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (known as Playa Girón in Cuba) with the support of the US.
1961: Castro proclaims the socialist character of Cuba and confirmed its alliance with the USSR.
9 — Fidel proclaimed the socialist character of the Revolution on April 16, 1961 (Humberto Michelena)
October 1962: President Kennedy denounces the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After 13 days of tension, Moscow agrees to withdraw its 42 missiles in exchange for a US commitment not to invade the island.
10 — The missile crisis referred to in the official Cuban press
1965: The “sea bridge” begins from Camarioca, Matanzas, to be followed by the “freedom flights,” which allow the exodus of some 260,000 Cubans to the US.
1966: US approves the Cuban Adjustment Act, known as “dry foot / wet foot”. Any Cuban who places a foot on American soil is allowed to stay, any Cuban intercepted at sea is returned to the island.
1977: Under President Jimmy Carter both countries establish “Interests Sections” in the other. The building has remained under diplomatic protection afforded by Switzerland since 1961.
April 1980: Mariel boatlift. After a diplomatic crisis with Peru — sparked by Cubans claiming, and being given, in Peru’s embassy in Havana — Fidel Castro allows exiles in Miami to come in a flotilla of boats to pick up their relatives at the Port of Mariel. Some 125,000 Cubans wishing to leave the country come to the US in this way.
11 — The April 1, 1980 a crowded bus Cuban drove through the fence of the Peruvian embassy in Havana, and the drive and passengers sought asylum to leave the island. The embassy refused to let them leave the embassy and on April 4 the Government of Fidel Castro decided withdraw military protection from the place.
1985: The US government creates Radio Marti to break the monopoly and the Cuban state censorship on news and information on the Island
1990: With the implosion of the Soviet empire, Cuba loses the huge subsidies from Moscow and establishes what it calls the “Special Period In the Time of Peace,” marked by widespread shortages
1994: As a result of the “rafter crisis”, Havana and Washington sign an agreement on immigration: The US will accept 20,000 Cubans each year and the island promises to control the exodus of migrants.
12 — The Maleconazo. (Wikimedia)
February 1996: The Cuban Air Force shoots down two US civilian planes of Brothers to the Rescue, an organization of Cuban exiles who are dedicated to saving the rafters in the Florida Straits. Four crewmen die. In response, the US Congress enacts the Helms-Burton Act, which tightens the embargo.
1998: The Clinton administation allows the sale of some food and agricultural products to Cuba.
January 1998: During his visit to Cuba, the first by a pope to the island, John Paul II asks: “Let Cuba open itself to the world and let the world open itself to Cuba.”
13 — Fidel Castro during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998. (Cubadebate)
June 2000: The Cuban exile loses the battle for custody of Elian Gonzalez, who arrived the previous year off the coast of Florida on the same raft in which his mother, stepfather and several others died in their attempt to reach the USA. Elian is returned to his father in Cuba.
14 — Elián González reunited with his father and family members at Andrews military base. (CC)
June 2001: Five Cubans detained in Miami received long sentences for spying for Havana. The case of “The Five” becomes a new rallying cry for the government in Havana.
15 — Fidel Castro with The Five, on 28 February in Havana. (EFE / Revolution / Cubadebate Studies)
November 2001: For the first time in 40 years Washington sends aid to Cuba: $30,000 in food for victims of Hurricane Michelle (22 dead).
May 2002: The Bush administration accuses the government of Cuba of developing biological weapons and adds the island to the group of countries that Washington calls the “axis of evil.” Former President Jimmy Carter, on a goodwill trip, visits several scientific centers in Havana. It is the first trip by a US former president to the island since 1959.
July 31, 2006: Fidel Castro is ill and provisionally delegates his functions to his brother Raul.
July 2007: Raul Castro demonstrates openness to talks with Washington to improve relations, but only after the US presidential elections of 2008.
February 2008: Raul Castro officially assumes power as president. Washington claims that the embargo will remain until the holding of free and fair elections.
April 2009: President Barack Obama lifts restrictions on family travel to Cuba.
December 2009: The US contractor Alan Gross is accused of espionage and sentenced to 15 years in prison in Cuba for having brought into the country equipment for satellite transmission, which is banned in Cuba.
October 2011: The US releases the Cuban agent Rene Gonzalez, one the group of “The Five.”
December 2011: The US again demands the release of Gross, but Cuba refuses.
17 — Demonstration calling for the release of Alan Gross
December 2013: US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, shake hands at the official memorial service of the South African president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg.
18 — Raul Castro and Barack Obama greet each other for the first time at the events of the funeral of Nelson Mandela in South Africa
February 2014: Several surveys show that most Americans favor the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba.
December 16, 2014: US and Cuba agree to a prisoner swap.
December 17, 2014: Alan Gross lands in the US. In speeches on TV, the presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announce the start of the normalization of relations between the two countries.
19 — Alan Gross in his flight back to the US after being released last December. (CC)
January 2015: The White House softens the regulations on travel to Cuba and introduces other measures to facilitate, for example, the work of telecommunications providers and financial institutions.
April 2015: Barack Obama and Raul Castro dialogue at the Summit of the Americas in Panama. Soon after, at the request of Obama, Congress removes Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, on which it had been since 1982.
20 — Raul Castro with Barack Obama at a press conference at the Summit of the Americas
July 20, 2015: The Cuban embassy in Washington and the US embassy in Havana are reopened. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, travels to Washington for the ceremony of hoisting the flag.
21 — Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez after hoisting the national flag at the Cuban embassy in Washington. (EFE)
July 27, 2015: The United States removed Cuba from its list of countries not doing enough to combat human trafficking, which includes Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others
August 14, 2015: Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry, travels to Havana for the raising of the American flag at the embassy.
22 — Cuba and the United States, at odds for more than half a century after the triumph of Castro’s revolution, today inaugurated a new era with the restoration of diplomatic relations, broken in 1961
“Those who believe that the Cuban government is democratic are the same ones who claim that our principal problem lies in the dispute between the governments of the United States and Cuba.”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 12 August 2015 – In 1950 Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring presented to the Ninth Congress of History his controversial essay Cuba Owes its Independence to the United States. In it he laid out a little more than a century of facts and his nationalist and anti-imperialist view attributing the victory over Spain to Cuban troops.
Still discussed today is the weight of the American involvement in the conflict and especially the motives for its intervention. It has been another half century since that book came out and Cubans are no longer fighting to obtain their independence as a nation, but to install a system of democracy, and again our neighbor to the north makes laws, approves budgets and undertakes actions, this time with the declared intention to favor the future democracy on the island. continue reading
The Cuban government’s first endorsement of the scope of these measures is expressed every time it classifies as mercenaries, employees of the empire and other similar labels any opponent, civil society activist or independent journalist it sees.
Those who believe that the Cuban government is democratic are the same ones who claim that our principal problem lies in the dispute between the governments of the United States and Cuba. For those who differ from the Communist Party line, the fundamental contradiction is the conflict between the Party-State and the legitimate rights of citizens.
There is an unbridgeable gap between American interests, which demand the return of confiscated property or compensation, and the demand for freedom of association and expression, made unanimously by all opposition political trends, whether social democrats, anarchists, liberals or Christian Democratic.
The point of agreement is that, as long as the current leaders remain in power, both things seem impossible, and that “common cause” has promoted, on the one hand, logistical support to armed invasions, the supply of military equipment, diplomatic pressure or trade embargoes, and on the other, riots, sabotage and, more recently, peaceful and political structures attempting to organize protests.
It is a fragile and uneven alliance and the first to want to break it is the Cuban government. So the Communists had two paths: open political space to opponents on the condition of “maintaining sovereignty,” or reforming the market to attract American capital. Faced with the dilemma, they chose the second option.
Consequently, some leaders of the opposition environment feel betrayed because they believed they had some sort of pact for democracy with the US government. The main argument put forward is the continuation of repressive acts against the Ladies in White and other peaceful activists who support them with their actions, just days before the formalization on the Havana Malecon of the restoration of relations between the two governments.
For others it is about a sovereign decision by President Obama backed by the idea that confrontation has not brought results. The concept of changing methods without renouncing objectives, proclaimed publicly and without nuance by the Americans, is a complete challenge for the Cuban government, which sees itself forced to maintain its repressive and confrontational methods to achieve its only objective: maintaining itself in power.
The United States maintains diplomatic relations with countries where there are not democratic regimes, which does not mean friendship or support for a totalitarian model. Now, in the case of Cuba, it remains to be seen if it will maintain, in the embassy, the internet rooms, the communications courses, the refugee program, invitations to celebrate Independence Day on the 4th of July, and all the contacts programmed by the former United States Interests Sections, now belonging to the embassy.
There are more than a few who fear “being abandoned in the dark of the night,” left to the excesses of an intransigent government. The new interests created between the old contenders are economic and everyone will do their best to protect them. Perhaps the Americans will keep the opponents at a distance to not annoy the Cuban leaders; perhaps the repression will give way to please the investors, be they real or potential.
What will not arrive by this route is democracy, as real independence will not come by way of American gunboats. The political system we deserve must arise from our own efforts, independent of solidarity that comes from outside.
Emilio Roig would not have written his famous book if a few miles from Santiago de Cuba the American ships had returned home and those troops had never landed. But history is the enemy of the subjunctive, and similar conjectures lack any value.
Hopefully a historian will never have to clarify that Cuba owes its democracy to the United States.
Reinaldo Escobar, 13 August 2015 – A Havanan – one of those who doesn’t usually use the letter “R”* — an old pro-American joke tells us, is walking along the Malecon with his young son. Pointing to the immense blue of the ocean, the boy asks his father, “Papa, and that, what is it?” And the man, with his Havana pronunciation, responds, “The evil, my son, the evil.”* Some yards further on and a few minutes later, the boy returns to the fray, “And what is on the other side of that?” To which the man answers, “The good, my son, the good.”
Just across from the Malecon, where the waves remain an impassive witness to what happens in Havana, the American flag will be hoisted at the recently inaugurated United States embassy. But the sea did not want to be distant from the diplomatic chores and offered up to Havanans a symbolic gift: fish in the ration market.
Fish prices in the market. (14ymedio / Luz Escobar)
The funny thing is that the last time the buctcher shops in this coastal city were full of scales was, no more nor less, the day before December 17 of last year, when Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that both countries was reestablish relations.
Surely, the Havana newspaper Tribuna, would publish the schedule for the sale of the marine product in every municipality. In the lines the same usual scenes repeat themselves and the joy of the poor will endure the little that always makes it to the quote of the ration book.
Fish, the sea, the flags, old whimsical symbols that invite us to a different reading, almost prescient, of reality.
*Translator’s note: The joke relies on replacing the letter R with the letter L. “Mar” is “sea” and “mal” is “bad” or “evil.”
The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and Fidel Castro. (EFE / Bolivian Information Agency)
EFE, 13 August 2015 – Ex-Cuban president Fidel Castro and Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, surprised the Bolivian president Evo Morales this Thursday in the hotel where he was staying in Havana, according to the Bolivian State news agency ABI.
Castro and Maduro arrived in a microbus at La Laguna Hotel to visit Morales who arrived in Cuba in the early morning to celebrate Castro’s 89th birthday, according to the source.
“For Bolivia all the affection in the world and my admiration,” said Fidel Castro. Morales was scheduled to visit Castro at his house, so he was surprised that the Cuban leader went to find him at his hotel.
The Presidency of the Palace of La Paz also released photographs to the Bolivian media of the meeting between the political leaders. “I came to be with, to accompany our big brother, Fidel Castro, on his birthday. I admire him greatly and love him greatly and have learned a lot from him,” Morales said before arriving in Havana.
The Bolivian president is scheduled to attend a ceremony in Havana this Thursday where he will receive a donation of computer equipment for the Plurinational State of Bolivia primary school, according to the Foreign Ministry of the island.
His previous visit to the island was in December of 2014 when he attended the XIII Summit of ALBA in Havana and met with Cuban President Raul Castro.
A girl getting her supplies ready for the new school year. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 12 August 2015 — The long line snakes outside the bookstore under the scorching August sun. Most are women with children. “They’re selling the thick notebooks,” announces an elderly lady to someone asking who is last on line*. The race is on to buy school supplies, such as backpacks and lunchboxes. However, some have better starts than others.
Daniela visited the aquarium, went to the beach, and ran around in the park near her house during her summer vacation. But now, as the days of rest are running out, her mother has embarked on a marathon run from store to store trying to find everything from colored pencils to a water bottle. Daniela wants to start the first day of school with “nice and pretty things,” which will hardly be cheap.
With 6,827 elementary and 1,766 middle schools throughout the country, the authorities of the Cuban Ministry of Education are giving assurances that school supplies will be guaranteed for the more than 1,500,000 students starting the 2015-2016 school year. Still, students and parents complain about the poor quality of the supplies, and the limited quantities distributed. continue reading
“My daughter can’t use an eraser because it leaves a hole in the paper,” said a mother about the notebooks handed out in schools. The woman was waiting to shop outside of La Época department store in Central Havana. Illegal vendors in the vicinity of department stores sell notebooks with colorful covers, and ruled paper for one CUC.
In homes with school age children, the same scenario is being repeated over and over again as kids line up their precious pencils, protractors, and erasers on their beds or on the dinner table. Some families have already found backpacks, the source of many a headache given the high prices and flimsiness of those for sale in the government’s network of retail stores.
Daniela is lucky. She has an aunt living in Miami who bought her a backpack online. Her family received a phone call from the Plaza de Carlos III shopping center informing them there was a school supply purchase waiting for them there. The émigré relative also threw in a box of colored pencils. In Cuba, Daniela’s mother – an engineer who graduated a decade ago – would have had to work three days to pay for those pencils.
However, the online purchase hasn’t solved all the problems. Daniela’s family will spend a whole week searching for all the supplies she still needs. Her grandmother, who owns a car, will be going to “La Cuevita,”* a popular yet illegal market where small and medium size school uniforms are sold, although these same sizes are in short supply at government-run stores. Daniel’s father’s mission is to find her shoes, while her mother is in charge of finding a pencil sharpener and a compass for geometry class.
School uniforms (Luz Escobar)
Since shortages have worsened in the last few weeks, Daniela’s family’s task will take a few days. “Every store is empty,” protested a grandmother of twins who will be starting first grade in September as she visited La Moderna Poesía bookstore. “An eraser here costs me at least 50 cents in CUC, but that’s my whole pension for one day,” she added.
Fashion also affects the predilection for specific school supplies. “My daughter wants a Monster High backpack,” explains a desperate mother who last Tuesday visited all the shops on Monte Street. The Monster High fashion doll and video franchise has become all the rage among Cuban children, putting their parents into a bind, pressured to do the impossible to get a hold of one of the brand’s items.
The same scenario – but with even more challenges – plays out in cities and small towns outside Havana Province. Long lines to buy school uniforms have become part of the urban landscape every month of August in the city of Pinar del Río. Still, unauthorized vendors manage to outwit the police by selling pencils, quality notebooks, and book covers made from recycled x-ray film.
The Ministry of Education turns a blind eye to all of this. A couple of weeks ago, Marisol Bravo Salvador, the Ministry’s director for the Vueltabajo Region of Pinar del Río Province affirmed that her district “has all the necessary resources, like notebooks, pencils, and teaching modules that guarantee a year for optimal learning.”
The race to get all necessary school supplies is in full swing, but surely many children will enjoy nothing new when the schools year begins. These kids will probably become the targets of the snooty stares of their classmates, who – right in front of their eyes – will be showing off their lunch boxes that keep soda cold until afternoon recess, as well as their strawberry-scented erasers.
When the first morning school bell rings in September, there will be children lining up for class with eye-catching backpacks sporting smiling Disney princesses, carrying notebooks purchased by émigré relatives. Others will recycle part of what they used last school year, or they will just wait for whatever the teacher gives out.
Translator’s Notes: * Cubans join a line by asking, “who’s last,” and then they are free to cluster, wander around, leave and come back etc., without losing their place in line. **Literally “The Little Cave.” In popular Cuban parlance the term is applied to discrete locales of unlawful activity, much like U.S. Prohibition-era speakeasies.
During the march of the Ladies in White on Sunday August 9, some demonstrators wore masks of Barack Obama. (Twitter /ForoDyL)
EFE, Washington 10 August 2015 — The US government on Monday expressed “deep concern” about the detention for some hours of about 90 dissidents in Cuba, including a group of members of the Ladies in White, and insisted that it will continue to work to ensure respect for the right to demonstrate in Cuba.
“We have seen the reports, and our staff at the embassy in Havana confirmed these arrests,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the State Department, in his daily briefing.
Kirby stressed the “deep concern” of the US government over these arrests. continue reading
“We are going to continue to pressure for the rights of peaceful assembly, associate and freedom of expression, and we are going to continue expressing our support for an improvement in the conditions of human rights and democratic reforms,” he added.
Those arrests come just days before the US Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Havana this Friday for the formalization of the raising the flag over the embassy in Cuba, opened last month, and within the process of normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries which remained suspended for more than half a century.
The spokesman referred to the arrests Sunday, several hours after a demonstration in a Havana park, with some carrying photos of political prisoners and others wearing masks with images of the US president, Barack Obama.
The opponents Antonio González-Rodiles, his partner, Ailer Gonzalez and Angel Santiesteban told EFE that they were arrested and taken into a police car to a detention center after meeting with the Ladies in White, after the usual walk that this women’s movement undertakes on Sundays after Mass in a church in the neighborhood of Miramar.
The three said they were detained for a few hours and they knew of other dissidents in the same situation as in the case of Aliuska Gomez of the Ladies in White, who was already released.
Gonzalez Rodiles, who leads the independent project Estado de Sats, explained that they carried the photos to “signal that repression has intensified against opposition activists” as part of the campaign “We All March” which they have undertaken to advocate for the release of political prisoners.
According to the latest report released by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), during July there were at least 674 temporary political arrests on the island, the highest level since June 2014, and 21 cases of physical attacks during the arrests.
The raising of the flag is scheduled for Friday morning, August 14th. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, 12 August 2015 — The U.S. embassy in Havana will not be inviting the opposition to its official inauguration, which will take place this coming Friday, August 14th, in Havana, with the attendance of John Kerry. Nevertheless, another flag raising ceremony has been planned at the ambassador’s residence where there will be a meeting between the Secretary of State and a group of dissidents, as has been confirmed by 14ymedio. Among the activists who received an official invitation from Secretary of State John Kerry are Antonio González Rodiles, Martha Beatriz Roque, Elizardo Sánchez, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Dagoberto Valdés and Héctor Maseda, among others.
The flag-raising ceremony and the reception at the residence of Jeffry DeLaurentis will begin at 4:15 PM and the guests are expected to arrive before 3:45 “for security reasons.”
Washington hopes this will resolve the dilemma created by the official visit of John Kerry to Havana, the first by a secretary of state in seventy years. continue reading
The news comes one day after Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), wrote Mr. Kerry asking him to “meet with the courageous leaders who are fighting to bring freedom to Cuba and invite them to the ceremony you will be presiding over at the new American embassy.” The Cuban-American senator added: “They [the dissidents], among many others, and not the Castro family, are the legitimate representatives of the Cuban people.”
Republicans are pressuring the White House to express a gesture of encouragement towards the opposition. Yet the Obama administration finds itself in a predicament, since the Cuban government might interpret its Washington’s approach to the opposition as an offense at a moment when both countries are trying to normalize relations, since it considers dissidents to be “mercenaries.” On the other hand, excluding the opposition might result in criticism from those sectors that would accuse the U.S. of being lukewarm when it comes to defending human rights.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said: “The United States will continue to advocate for the rights to peaceful assembly, association and freedom of expression and religion, and we’re going to continue to voice our support for improved human rights conditions and democratic reforms in Cuba.” Apart from the flag-raising ceremonies, Kerry will meet with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, and they may also hold a joint press conference. Kerry also plans on taking a short stroll through the capital, according to the authorities.
14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, Havana, 12 August 2015 – Recently the Cuban intellectual Rafael Hernández, editor of the journal Temas (Topics) and moderator of the debates that take place on the last Thursday of each month at the Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate) center, gave an interview to the journalist Cristina Escobar for the program Interviews From Havana by the Telesur network.
The interview was conducted in English, and broadcast with subtitles in the early morning hours for Cuban viewers. In it Rafael Hernandez defends some theses that have been put forward for some time in the intellectual spaces tolerated by the government, and he proposed a “new look at the theoretical conceptualization of the socialism we need.”
When asked what to do with the fact that “the enemy press takes any criticism that comes out in the Cuban media to amplify it against Cuba”, the intellectual and responded with emphasis and determination: “We must tell the truth, period,” because he believes that “it is better to have a discussion on any topic in our camp, than to allow the enemy to take us to his.” continue reading
Rafael Hernández makes innumerable references to the “enemy” without it being clear to me exactly what or who he means
In the interview Rafael Hernández makes innumerable references to the “enemy” without it being clear to me exactly what or who he means. I do not know if I myself, or my friends, many of my neighbors or my fellow students, who think differently from the Government of Cuba, are part of Rafael’s “enemy.” I hope not.
On the other hand, when he encourages us to “tell the truth, period,” it is also not clear to me to whom he is directing his message. Honestly, I do not believe that those who resist telling these truths are journalists. I know many of them personally, and by reference many more, and I am sure that they one hundred percent share this vision of the dignified and independent role that should be played by the press anywhere in the world. So who or what then prevents them from telling the unvarnished truths? The custom of not speaking them? Or is it that, in front of the cameras, everyone defends this “necessary sincerity” but in the spaces where it is truly decided what will be aired and what will not, no one is willing to assume the costs of telling the truth?
Are journalists the ones who decide what is published in Cuba? Is it perhaps the directors of the media? I think that as a example of what he himself demands, Rafael Hernandez could begin to say “the truth, period” recognizing that it is a tiny group of bureaucrats at the exclusive service of the Communist Party who decide every letter, voice or image that Cubans throughout the island see, hear or read.
I liked his defense in favor or a political and public debate in the national media. Like what more or less happens in the public space he leads. I clarify this saying “more or less,” because indeed it is true that normally no one is denied entry to these events, but it is also true that the panel does not usually represent the colors of the political spectrum of any nation in the world. Only in the audience can this diversity be seen from time to time. It is also the case that some dissidents speak. But they have only three minutes to do so and then the panel can dismantle everything they want, without the ongoing right to respond.
In the spaces where it is truly decided what will be aired and what will not, no one is willing to assume the costs of telling the truth
A debate, technically, is something else. In a debate, people who defend different points of view can count on a fair and reasonable time not just to defend their position but to question the proposals of their counterparts in a sequence that makes it possible to plumb the depths of each topic. For this, you have to have good intentions, and select exponents of similar intellectual levels, or at least those who enjoy public recognition in the sphere they defend.
Following this logic one could have a debate between Rafael Hernandez, on the one side, and Reinaldo Escobar n the other, about “journalism and truth in Cuba,” for example. Would the director of Temas accept this debate? Would he feature it in his magazine? I am sure that if he did it would break audience records and the results would be very useful.
I believe that when certain authorized intellectuals or thinkers talk about the necessary existence of public debate or of public spaces, they don’t always take into account that none of these things exist in Cuba.
Neither the Party nor the Government nor the intransigent Communists have anything against debate itself, what they can’t bear are the consequences. Because four good televised debates on crucial issues, no holds barred, in a framework of respect and civility, would collapse the entire house of cards.
I invite the director of Temas with regards to what he seriously proposes to be the promoter of the first public political debates in Cuba, similar to those held in other latitudes, involving communists, liberals, greens and other visions, all essential.
The economy of Cayo Granma has been in decline for many years. The only way to secure a job is by crossing the channel separating it from Santiago de Cuba.
14ymedio, Rosa Lopez, Santiago de Cuba, 8 August 2015 — “If Cuba is the key to the Gulf of Mexico, than this is the key to Santiago de Cuba,” asserts Gaspar, who lives on Cayo Granma, and swears that he has not crossed the narrows separating him from the city in many years. Gaspar thought it “was the end” when hurricane Sandy devastated the area in October 2012. During those early morning hours when waves reached thirty feet, forty homes were destroyed and two hundred experienced major damages. Gale force winds took their heaviest toll on this tiny bit of land, and the storm’s scars are still visible.
A team of students from the Martha Abreu Central University of Las Villas has been rewarded for its rescue plan for Cayo Granma during the London-based i-Rec Conference 2015: International Perspectives on Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction. But thousands of miles from England, the residents of the most famous island in Santiago Bay are trying to rebuild their lives three years after what seemed like a meteor impact. continue reading
The team is led by Professor Andrés Olivera Ranero, and includes students Ana Lourdes Barrera Cano, Royer Leno Medina, Elisa Medina Toboso, and Niuris Martín Rosabel, all of who hail from the provinces of Cienfuegos and Villa Clara. With the objective of the revitalization of the community, they presented their four-step plan, and were able to beat out over fifteen other projects competing for the award given in London.
The longboat that arrives once a day at Cayo Granma is noisy and leaves behind an odor of burning oil. Immediately after disembarking one is struck by the natural beauty of the place, and by the precarious life of its inhabitants. Cayo Smith, as Cayo Granma was originally called, is still a humble fishermen’s village, with wooden shacks that gave it its architectural uniqueness, and that used to house families of up to twenty members. The holes the winds left in the roofs and in the walls have been concealed with zinc slabs and pieces of wood collected after the storm.
“There’s not too much to do here,” explains Agustina, who lived through those years when most of the owners of Cayo Granma’s best homes left for exile, and the government turned the dwellings over to very poor people. “It was like a dream come true, but then everything got run down.” This lady confirms what specialists and sociologists have proven through their research: Cayo Granma’s economy is at a standstill, alcoholism rates among the youth are alarming, and unemployment figures are high.
“There’s only one school here that goes up to the sixth grade, and a lot of the adolescents drop out because it’s too hard getting to the other side,” explains Agustina as she points to Santiago de Cuba. Some of the villagers have their own dangerous and fragile rowboats. When they use them, they do so very quietly since most of them are not authorized and therefore are subject to frequent confiscations. When talking abut the unreliable schedule of the only means of transportation connecting them to the city, Agustina complains: “There’re days we’re not sure if the government’s longboat is coming, or at what time.”
The architecture students have proposed a first phase that would guarantee a decent home with a roof for each family living on the key. Only after this is accomplished, the second phase of the project would start with the building of a manufacturing plant and a sawmill in order to create employment in an area with a high percentage of people without ties to the labor force.
The initiative’s third step would focus on urban and economic development. The models shown the judges who gave the award to the proposal show a lovely place, with flowers and abundant gardens, where residents build their own boats and semi-attached homes. “Picturesque, resilient, sustainable, and dignified habitat,” are some of the words used to describe the community that will ensue after the project is executed. The fourth stage would be the consolidation and preservation of what has been accomplished. However reality is far from this panacea.
With strong winds powerfully whipping the shoreline, 72-year old Carlos Cesario passes by with a bag hanging from his shoulder. “Very few homes have been repaired,” he states, while explaining how he shares a dilapidated house with fifteen relatives. This problem is common among the key’s residents, and they stare blankly out towards the horizon without the slightest hope that solutions will come through official channels.
“It’s an awful situation,” protests Moraima Fernández. “My roof caved in, my house fell apart, and I couldn’t find zinc slabs.” Mrs. Fernández points out that the local authorities’ poor handling of the situation has contributed to “after three years, everything still being more or less the same.”
When Cayo Granma’s residents were shown the winning models from the London competition, some could not contain their laughter, while others asked “And when is it supposed to happen?” The project’s timetable and date for the completion of the homes have yet to be determined. There is not even a budget yet to start on the first phase. “I’m sure that they’ll have to wait for some foreign organization to fall in love with the idea, ones that will want to finance it,” reflected Ana Laura, a young lady born on Cayo Granma. Nowadays “I only come here to visit my grandmother, because this place is like death,” she added.
Far from here, on a few restless architects’ drawing boards, rest the plans for Cayo Granma’s future, a faraway, utopian place that the island’s current residents do not even want to think about.
The projected future of Cayo Granma as it appears in one of the award-winning models presented in London.
Tankers like this, in Santiago de Cuba, distribute water for the province. (Yosmani Mayeta)
14medio, Havana, 10 August 2015 – The drought in Guantanamo province has triggered an illegal market in water. Residents of the province are coming to pay between 300 and 500 Cuban pesos for the contents of a water truck, a lucrative business for drivers of the so-called “pipes,” which the authorities have denounced after a meeting in which they discussed the measures to be taken to confront the situation.
Ines Maria Chapman, a member of the Council of State and president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), called the attitude of these drivers opportunistic, and called for people to fight back by denouncing those who “exploit” the situation caused by the drought for material benefits. continue reading
Chapman added that several communities in the region are receiving water only every 25 days.
For its part the local INRH delegate, Alfredo Correa, reported on the lack of rain and the alarming decline of water in the reservoir, which is now only 134 million cubic meters out of 347.5 possible, 39% of the storage capacity for the province.
The depletion of many sources of supply, such as rivers, dams, lakes, tanks and wells, has forced water rationing on more than 258,000 Guantanameros, 72% of the population of the province. Irrigation has been limited to a minimum in the depressed agriculture in the area, including on land for sugar cultivation managed by the State sugar company, Azcuba.
The most fortunate can receive water through supply networks on a cycle ranging from two to ten days.
The situation has forced to government to increase pumping from the Bano River, very low for years and with a high level of pollution. They have also had to construct new pumping stations, one of them about to be open on the Camarones canal, next to the central town of Argeo Martinez.
Opening wells in the mountains and the battle against leaks and illegalities are also among the measures promoted by the authorities of the province.
Cuban activists in the meeting on Monday at the headquarters of “Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism.”(14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 10 August 2015 – Under the title “Diplomatic Normalization and Democratic Normalization,” an even this Monday brought together some 25 Cuban activists of different points of view. The site of the meeting was the “Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism” in Old Havana.
The panel in the morning meeting discussed diplomatic normalization with the United States and the political dialog that the Cuban government is holding with the European Union. Specifically, they dealt with “the effects on the generation strategies of Cuban civil society and the democratic opposition.”
The event was attended by dissidents and activists from several organizations, including Juan Antonio Madrazo, Pedro Campos, Laritza Diversent, Felix Navarro, Jorge Olivera, Tania Bruguera, Navid Fernandez, Eroisis Gonzalez, Boris Gonzalez and Lilianne Ruiz, among others.
The meeting took place a few days before the Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry, will come to Havana to attend the reopening ceremony of the embassy of that country in Cuban territory. So far Kerry’s agenda on the island has not been made public, nor is it known whether it will include a meeting with activists and government opponents.
14ymedio, Eliécer Ávila, Havana, 5 August 2015 — The Cuban National Conference, which will take place in Puerto Rico from August 12th until the 15th, is generating expectations and controversies. Since its dates coincide with the reopening ceremony of the American embassy in Havana and the visit to Cuba of Secretary of State John Kerry, it poses a challenge for leaders of Cuban civil society who are debating whether to be in San Juan during those days, or to witness the historical moment from within the island.
Guillermo Toledo, a lawyer by trade, and one of the event’s coordinators, explains the summit’s objectives and its significance.
Eliécer Ávila: How did the idea of a Cuban National Conference come about?
Guillermo Toledo: Around two years ago I submitted a proposal in writing to the leadership of United Cubans of Puerto Rico so they could analyze it and give me a response. A few months passed, and my proposal was still going nowhere. So I started insisting. I was then designated coordinator of the Cuban National Conference, the name we settled on after several meetings.
Ávila: Who worked to make it happen? continue reading
Guillermo Toledo: Together with the members of United Cubans of Puerto Rico, our Puerto Rican sisters and brothers have contributed their talents and hard work to this endeavor. Our Cuban sisters and brothers have also opened their wallets in order to make an event of this magnitude a reality. These are the same people who in a future free and democratic Cuba will help with their investments to further the material development of our people. Our profound gratitude to all of them.
Ávila: Have other gatherings like this taken place before?
Guillermo Toledo: Cuban Exiles have held some great events, but as far as I know there hasn’t ever been a meeting with the character and nature of the Cuban National Conference. I don’t know of any other event that brought together so many organizations and pro-democracy activists from inside and outside of Cuba, regardless of their beliefs.
Ávila: Who will be participating?
Guillermo Toledo: Our leadership has decided not to name names until we get closer to the event. The central figures of the democratic opposition from inside and outside Cuba will be there, although there are a lot of people we couldn’t invite for lack of funds. I don’t like political labels, but I can say that we’ve invited the democratic center, the democratic right, and the democratic left.
Ávila: Regardless of their position regarding the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States?
Guillermo Toledo: It doesn’t matter if they’re in favor or against the policies towards Cuba of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. This can’t and shouldn’t be for us a new source of division. If we’re going to be a democratic people, we should respect everyone’s opinions. That’s our meeting’s golden rule.
Ávila: What are the event’s objectives?
Guillermo Toledo: Reaching a consensus on unity of action in diversity, through the appropriate mechanism to lead us to a free, prosperous, fair, and democratic Cuba. We’ll also be conducting workshops focused on identifying strategies, tactics, and peaceful methods that will help us reach our shared objective. We want to send a message of unity to the Cuban people and the international community.
Ávila: Why choose Puerto Rico as the location for this meeting?
Guillermo Toledo: Both peoples share a common historical bond. The Cuban Revolutionary Party founded by José Martí had a division dedicated to helping Puerto Rico gain its independence from Spain. It’s also about being in a neutral place, where the understandable passions of exiles residing in Miami aren’t vented so strongly. We also don’t want State Security, or “Castro’s Gestapo,” operating in Puerto Rico as it does in Miami, working as hard here to sow internal divisions as it does there.
Ávila: Will Cuban émigrés play a major role in Cuba’s shift towards democracy?
Guillermo Toledo: Cuba’s independence could never have come about without the support of émigrés and exiles. The War of 1895 [Cuba’s second and final war of independence] had its roots in the key role José Martí played outside of Cuba, although all the actual battles took place on the island. Both shores played a decisive role when Spanish despotic colonialism came to an end. Nowadays we’re trying to do away with a totalitarian dictatorship. Cuba’s problems can’t be solved without its exiles.
Ávila: Once it was known that the date for your gathering in Puerto Rico would coincide with the reopening of the United States embassy in Cuba, and given the historical importance of the latter, have you thought about moving the date?
Guillermo Toledo: United Cubans of Puerto Rico chose August 13th, 14th, and 15th of the current year, long before December 17, 2014, when the new United States policy towards Cuba was made public. Maybe we should ask the Americans if it’s just coincidence that they chose August 14th to hold the events at their embassy.
Our gathering can’t be cancelled or postponed because the international community is already aware of it, and the financial losses would be enormous. We also don’t believe there’s a valid reason to postpone it since our meeting is a thoroughly Cuban event where we’ll be discussing and reaching agreements regarding Cuba. The embassy is an American matter, as it should be.
Ávila: Do you have a dream that still hasn’t come true?
Guillermo Toledo: To return to Cuba in a dignified manner, and help create a new country where its people can enjoy freedom, and material and spiritual development.
14ymedio, Regina Coyula, Havana. 2 August 2015 — In light of the government’s refusal to dialog with the nonviolent opposition, the latter should start a discussion within itself, an exercise unfamiliar to Cubans. Instead, we are accustomed to extremes ranging from the consistent unanimity of our parliamentary sessions, to the commotion of a “disqualifying”* act of repudiation.
Change – gradual or drastic – is the possibility of change in the roles of power and the government is not interested. But society needs all its actors, whether they are dissidents or government supporters. One must be blind not to realize that Cuba is on the road to change. So for starters, our government should uphold its own laws that it disobeys time and time again when they are not in keeping with its interests. This would be just a beginning. However, as we already know, the authorities are not interested in what would follow. The experiences of Eastern Europe are still fresh in their minds. continue reading
The Cuban government behaves – if not by decree or law, certainly in deed – as if it rules by divine right. It bases its authority on a form of anti-imperialism that on many occasions turns into anti-Americanism. Despite all the anti-imperialist warmongering and siege mentality indoctrination we have been subjected to for more than half a century, it was no match for the Cuban people’s jubilation upon the announcement of the process of normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.
To speak of civil society in Cuba leads almost obligatorily to the dissidence, civic institutions that in other countries would be self-governing are subordinated to the state. According to this type of Socialism “we all support,” the only civic institutions are those recognized — and for the most part funded — by the government. Non-governmental organizations, especially those espousing independent political viewpoints, do not count.
Whether it is dissidents, government backers voicing criticisms, advocates for an independent civil society, or the “trusted opposition,” these groups highlight the existence of political pluralism in a country that is intended as a monolithic unit. Every individual is diverse and complex and if people don’t unite on issues far more simple than politics, it cannot be expected that a single political party could represent the interests of all its citizens over a timespan as long as five decades.
Cuba’s so-called “trusted opposition” is part of a larger ensemble that includes the genuine opposition. Clearly some of the more active and interesting members of this “trusted opposition” voice a type of radical nationalism more akin to the 19th century, not to this era in which national frontiers are blurred, among other reasons because of the emergence of globalization and a growing international consensus on protecting the environment, the eradication of poverty, and the marginalization of whole groups of people.
I do not support Cuba’s annexation to the United States, but if an annexationist** movement were to exist on the island, the level of support that it or any other political movement enjoys should be decided at the ballot box. Only the use of violence and discrimination in all its forms must be excluded from the national scene. Despite all the sloganeering to the contrary, Cuba is indeed moving towards a pluralistic future and it is not healthy if the government or the opposition flout the law.
By airing grievances before the authorities or the public, Cuban citizens are actually voicing their hopelessness in regards to what they expect from their government, which is the embodiment of the political system itself. Therefore it is absurd to think that Cubans will not switch ideologies, or “come out of the ideological closet” once we enjoy freedom and access to information. We will represent a wide spectrum – ranging from Christian democracy to the aforementioned annexationist movement – while never feeling any less patriotic than the most devoted member of the Communist Party.
It will be very difficult to ask for decency from an endogamous group that many years ago turned itself into the government and whose players defend their power at all costs. In their long manipulation of both information and nationalistic sentiments, we have inverted the concept of the presidency and the president. Therefore, instead of wasting time debating the limits of the “trusted opposition,” and consequently of the “other opposition” as well, we should begin to use the term “trusted government” to define what Cubans really need, a government we can trust based on the rule of law.
Translator’s Notes: * The regime commonly uses the term “disqualified” towards its opponents, as a way of completely dismissing them and their opinions, a strong assertion that they do not even have the right to speak. For example, in this post Yoani Sanchez is told: “You have transgressed all the limits… This totally disqualifies you for dialog with Cuban authorities.” ** Historians estimate that during the last half of the 19th century, Cuba’s political class was divided into three equal parts: one third strived for more autonomy for the island while securing its place as an overseas province of Spain, another third fought for Cuba’s absolute independence, and the last third wanted to apply for U.S. statehood. The latter were known as “annexationists.” The current Cuban regime often dismisses dissidents with this term, which it considers pejorative.
EFE/14ymedio, San Juan, 14 August 2015 — Leaders of the Cuban dissidence arrived on the island and everyone met this Friday in Puerto Rico to work towards a common position with regards to the new scenario that is opening with the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba.
