14ymedio – Page 699 – Translating Cuba

Mistaken Focus Hinders Cuban Dialogue / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calls for Efficiency/ 14ymedio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seven of Eleven Former Black Spring Prisoners Allowed to Travel for “Good Behavior” / 14ymedio

Martha Beatriz Roque leaving her appointment at the Immigration and Nationality office at Factor and Final Streets in Nuevo Vedado in Havana.(14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2016 — Former prisoners of the Black Spring Martha Beatriz Roque and Arnaldo Lauzurique received from the authorities “a unique opportunity to travel,” Roque informed 14ymedio this Monday, adding that today she will begin the paperwork to apply for a new passport.

On leaving the Immigration and Nationality Office, located at Factor and Final Streets in Havana’s Nuevo Vedado neighborhood, Roque explained that Major Orestes Rodriguez Bello assured her that she will be able to return to the country without problems. He added that this was an exceptional measure because the beneficiaries “have displayed good behavior.” However, their status as beneficiaries of “parole” is maintained, and this is not a change in their criminal status. continue reading

Seven of the eleven former prisoners of the Black Spring who remain in Cuba have been summoned to the Immigration offices, presumably to regularize their situation and allow them to travel abroad before Barack Obama’s visit to the island. So far only two among them have had their appointments and the rest will do so throughout the morning and the afternoon.

In the citation they are summoned “to the section covering immigration and nationality to resolve their immigration status.” The document is signed by Maria Cristina Martinez Bello, according to a report from the dissident Martha Beatriz Roque to this newspaper.

In addition to Arnaldo Lauzurique and Martha Beatriz Roque, those cited so far include Oscar Elias Biscet, Hector Maseda, Jorge Olivera, Eduardo Diaz Fleitas and Félix Navarro.

Those not summoned to appear include Angel Moya, José Daniel Ferrer, Iván Hernández Carrillo and Librado Linares.

The eleven former prisoners of the Black Spring residing in Cuba have been prevented from leaving the country under the legal justification that they are “on parole,” a situation that has been widely condemned by international human rights organizations.

In March of 2003, the government ordered the arrest of 75 dissidents, including 29 independent journalists. They were sentenced to long prison terms. In 2010, after mediation through the Catholic Church, they were released in exchange for their departure to Spain, but the eleven remaining in Cuba did not want to leave the country.

To Cusio And Libna, Wherever You Are / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 22 February 2016 — He was an acknowledged homosexual and she a convinced Jehovah’s Witness. One lived in the same tenement where I was born and the other in the dreaded “218,” where violence and sewage competed for a starring role. Cusio and Libna should have grown up with the conviction that every sexual orientation or religious belief is respected and necessary, provided it does not imply violence against the other.

They achieved something unthinkable in the Cuba of the eighties: reaffirming that beds and beliefs belong to all of us, and no ideology should interfere in them. They were the true survivors of uniformity, the shipwrecks of the storm of “parameterization” and police raids. Now in my forties, I continue to owe a debt to the lesson in plurality they taught me.

Cusio experienced abuse and neglect, but he was always smiling. From Libna, I learned patience, to swallow hard when everything is against me, and keep going. I lost count of all the humiliations I faced for not wearing the neckerchief, that piece of cloth that was making my neck itch and that now reminds me more of the yoke used on oxen than any ideological commitment. continue reading

One day I lost sight of both of them. We grew up, reached adulthood, and the game of childhood ended. I know Cusio stayed with his adoptive parents until their final days, in a Cuba where material poverty results in so many old people being abandoned. Of Libna, not a trace. I don’t know if she is still living on the island or if she decided to leave, with her persecuted beliefs, for some other place.

As time goes on I think about them more. I appreciate the lesson of humility that developed before my eyes, without expecting anything from me, not a vindication, not even a hug.

Obama and Raul Castro: Encounters and Disagreements / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner

The US president, Barack Obama, and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, at the headquarters of the United Nations. (EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 20 February 2016 — Obama will go to Havana in March. The trip is part of his change of policy regarding the island. He wants, as John Paul II asked, for “Cuba to open itself to the world and the world to open itself to Cuba.”

That includes, as suggested by El Nuevo Herald, the entry into the country of independent journalists who are not intimidated by the political police. Will Obama bring it up among his requests?

A few hours before the news of the visit, the State Department announced that commercial flights will be resumed – up to a hundred a day – and authorized the installation of a tractor assembly plant. continue reading

The White House wants to hinder any involution of the measures taken, if after the November elections a candidate wins who is averse to having good trade relations with the Cuban regime.

It is highly significant that a US government spokesman has declared that Obama does not intend to visit Fidel Castro. It is a gesture of the desire to emphasize his lack of connection with the ideology of the dictatorship. At the end of the day, he was born after the Bay of Pigs and most of his career has been spent after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He is the first truly post-Soviet president of the United States.

Apart from the anthropological curiosity of a visit to the old tyrant, who is no longer head of state, but a gentleman encased in a tracksuit who says some very odd things, being photographed with him and listening to his infinite nonsense (now aggravated by age and infirmity), is a part of the well-known political ritual that, subliminally, conveys a message of solidarity or, at least indifference, to the second oldest military dynasty on the planet. The first is North Korea.

Obama does not want to make this mistake. He will meet instead with members of “civil society.” This expression includes the opposition. Perhaps he will talk with the journalist Yoani Sánchez, with the opponents García Pérez “Antúnez,” Cuesta Morua, and Antonio Rodiles, with the very brave Ladies in White who, every Sunday, march peacefully while the political police insult and attack them. The purpose is obvious: to give support to democratic pluralism.

Raul Castro, meanwhile, feels that he is participating in a contradictory and dangerous game. Obama has unilaterally declared the end of the Cold War in the Caribbean, although Havana continues to man the battle stations.

The activities of the Forum of Sao Paulo, the anti-American strategy of the countries that conform to 21^st Century Socialism under the leadership of Cuba, the transfer of arms to North Korea in violation of UN agreements, and the unconditional support of Middle East terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, are some signs of that old subversive anti-Yankee mentality that the Castros have never wanted to renounce.

General James Clapper, Director of US National Intelligence, said officially on 9 February in an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee: from the perspective of espionage, Cuba was one of the four most dangerous countries for the United States. The other three were Russia, China and Iran.

Hours later, the island returned an American missile carrying secret technologies that had been sent to Havana “by mistake” from a European airport. During the 18 months of the “mistake” the rocket had been in the hands of Cuban intelligence. In this period, experts assume, Raul Castro’s government had had time to copy it, sell it or share it with its anti-American allies.

What is Raul Castro going to do with the olive branch Obama has given him? Is he going to cancel the hallmarks of the Cuban Revolution and admit that he has been mistaken almost his entire existence?

I do not think so. For 60 years, since he climbed the Sierra Maestra and kidnapped some American marines, his leitmotif has been fighting Washington and trying to destroy the unjust capitalist system of production, convinced that the ills of Cuba derived from the private sector and the Yankees.

Then life proved otherwise: Cuba’s ills are the result of not enough capitalism, not too many Yankees, and of not enough democracy; deficiencies especially critical now with the death agonies of the generous Venezuelan cow, milked without pause or mercy in the midst of Real Socialism and of an orgy of corruption to which the masters of Havana are not alien.

A noted international development expert who prefers anonymity told me, “If Raul intends to overcome the economic and social crisis that afflicts Cuba, his timid reforms will accomplish nothing if he doesn’t open the political game and establish a regimen of freedoms, even though this would imply the eventual loss of state control.”

And then he concluded, “As long as there is a single party and as long as the large business enterprises are in the hands of a bureaucratic clique that makes the decisions, the country will continue to sink.”

His compatriots all know this well. And so they flee.

Broom Salesman / 14ymedio

A seller of brooms and other cleaning tools offered his wares on the streets of Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 February 2016 – A new broom sweeps clean. So goes a saying that refers to the effectiveness of everything novel and brand new. However, often buying home cleaning supplies is a headache for Cuban families. Items in convertible pesos are expensive and of poor quality, which has led to the proliferation of vendors of mop sticks, dustpans, brooms and squeegees to clean the water from the floor.

The traders are often harassed by the police, as the raw material for these tools comes from smuggling networks. The high demand has increased the offerings, which now also include push brooms for outdoor areas, dusters and toilet plungers.

There are more than a few Cubans who take advantage of a trip abroad to bring home a broom or other cleaning tool in their personal belongings. Next to toilet paper, washing detergent and vitamins, brooms are an inseparable part of the travelers’ luggage.

An Hour and a Half with Big Brother / 14ymedio, Juan Carlos Fernandez

14ymedio, 18 February 2016 – For an hour and a half this Wednesday I received a barrage of threats from State Security in Pinar del Rio. Like a scene out of George Orwell, four agents devoted themselves to warning me that I could be prosecuted for the crime described in Law 62 of the Penal Code, which refers to “professional intrusion.” My work as a journalist could send me to jail, promised these jealous keepers of the occupational limits of every Cuban.

In a chair bolted to the floor in a small room, I listened to the hackneyed intimidation that my work equipment would be confiscated the next time they saw me on the street “reporting something.” The agents said that both of the information projects I participate in are illegal: the daily 14ymedio, and the magazine Convivencia (Coexistence). I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to suggest to them that they allow freedom of the press and thus end the problem.

Not to mention, of course, the record of the police warning I refused to sign. However, when I left there and later hugged my wife and a friend who were waiting for me outside, I realized that I had no resentment against the threatening agents, rather they inspired pity in me.

I got home, laid down for a minute on the living room couch to gather my strength, and from the kitchen my wife shouted, “Juan! We’re out of eggs, we have to find something to eat tonight!” The reality that State Security could not deny, once again was knocking on my door.

‘Nos Vemos En La Habana’ Obama Says In Weekly Address / 14ymedio

14ymedio 20 February 2016 — The first trip by a US president to Cuba in almost ninety years was the central focus of Barack Obama’s weekly message to the American people, broadcast this Saturday. The president concluded his speech with the Spanish phrase, “Nos vemos in La Habana.” (We’ll see each other in Havana.)

Obama said that his presence on the island is based on a decision he took “to begin a new chapter in our relationship with the people of Cuba.” He believes that “the best way to help the Cuban people improve their lives, is through engagement—by normalizing relations between our governments and increasing the contacts between our peoples.” continue reading

The president acknowledged that “change won’t come to Cuba overnight.” But as the island opens up, there will be “more opportunity and resources for ordinary Cubans.” In his speech he listed the advances that he believes have been achieved in the last year, such as US diplomats “interacting more broadly with the Cuban people.”

The increase of US visitors to the island, among whom are “Cuban-American families; American students, teachers, humanitarian volunteers, faith communities,” are helping to forge “new ties and friendships that are bringing our countries closer,” he said. And he predicted that “when direct flights and ferries resume,” the citizens of both nations “will have the chance to travel and work together and know each other.”

For the president, the start-up of US companies in Cuba is “helping to nurture private enterprise and giving Cuban entrepreneurs new opportunities.” The implementation of “new WiFi hotspots” means that “more Cubans are starting to go online and get information from the outside world,” he said.

“In Cuba today, for the first time in a half century, there is hope for a different future, especially among Cuba’s young people who have such extraordinary talent and potential just waiting to be unleashed,” said Obama.

During his visit the US President will meet with Raul Castro, “to discuss how we can continue normalizing relations, including making it easier to trade and easier for Cubans to access the Internet and start their own businesses.”

Obama announced that he will speak “candidly” about the important differences with the Cuban government, “including on democracy and human rights” and reaffirm that “the United States will continue to stand up for universal values such as freedom of speech, assembly and religion.”

In the speech on Saturday it was confirmed that the occupant of the White House will also meet with “members of civil society in Cuba: courageous men and women who give voice to the aspirations of the Cuban people.” The president also plans to meet with “Cuban entrepreneurs to learn how we can help them start new ventures.”

Obama said he will speak “directly to the Cuban people” about the values shared by the two countries and the ways in which they can collaborate. A population for which he predicts “a future of more freedom and more opportunity.”

Living Under Someone Else’s Roof / 14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada

14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, Havana, 20 February 2016 — After seven years in Havana, Carlos continues jumping from one rental to another, subject to the whims of the those who rent to him, and the lack of legal certainty for tenants.

Despite the 2010 legislative change that eased the renting of homes, rooms and premises, the legal housing stock in Cuba is extremely limited, among other reasons because of the fears of many landlords that they could be stripped of their properties. This suspicion has as a precedent the expropriation carried out in 1960 by the Urban Reform Law, through which the state took ownership of all housing that was rented out by its owners, in exchange for a pension calculated based on the value of the confiscated property. The maximum allowable pension was 600 pesos* a month.

Most of those affected by this measure emigrated, and 56 years later it’s likely that few of them survive. But although the economic reforms of the last six years on the island have been announced as irreversible, many owners are reluctant to lease. continue reading

This is one of the factors that keeps the national rental market “irregular,” and deprives tenants of the limited guarantees granted to them by law. Carlos, 28, is a native of Ciego de Avila and since he arrived in the capital in 2009 he has moved more than ten times, “from Central Havana to Guanabacoa.” Arbitrary rent increases are the biggest problem he faces. Until recently he paid 35 convertible pesos (CUC) a month (more than $35 US) for a small room in Old Havana, but he had to leave because the owner announced a price increase.

“Most of the places where I’ve been have serious problems with the bathroom or water leaks, but as it is not my house, I don’t want to invest in it,” says the young man. The owners also don’t fulfill obligations to repair their homes, or provide minimal amenities. “I have run into everything from toilets that don’t flush to houses full of rats,” says Carlos. In Cuba, more than 60% of the housing is fair or poor condition, according to official data.

Many of those who lease in the capital are people coming from another province, trying to settle in Havana. But many are couples who don’t want to share space with their parents or in-laws. Cuba is experiencing a profound housing crisis with a deficit of more that 600,000 housing units, and an average annual construction of no more than 30,000 homes.

But not all cases are like that of Carlos. Zoila, 41 and from Santiago, has a degree in economics and works in the capital and claims to have had no problems “with shelter.” She came “on the right foot [legally**] in 2013” and since then has been paying 60 CUC for a house for herself alone, for an indefinite period.

As an economist working in the private sector she has a monthly salary that allows her to pay such a high rent, but someone working for the state would find it impossible to maintain payments that high. “I would have to go stay for a while in my parents house in Santiago,” she admits.

Many owners who have emigrated rent to foreigners, especially now with the rise of tourism and the opening to foreign investment that enable entrepreneurs to work in Cuba.

Current legislation gives Municipal Housing Directors the right to cancel a lease if, within the rental property, there are “illegal or antisocial activities, by the owner, his roommates, tenants or their companions.” The law leaves open to the interpretation of government institutions what can be considered “illegal” or “antisocial.”

In the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, a small house that is rented for a long time can cost up to 180 CUC monthly, and a large house can exceed 300. Very few nationals can pay those prices, but those renting them focus on foreign students or entrepreneurs planning stays in Cuba of longer than three months.

As in any real estate business, there are highs and lows dictated by the invisible hand of the market. Article 74.1 of Decree Law 322 specifies that the payment of these leases is “by price freely agreed upon.” The lowest average in the capital is one convertible peso a day. This is called the “cruise price” and the only thing offered for less are properties with no bathrooms, and no security or guarantees.

Renting by the hour has also greatly expanded, in the so-called “riding schools” that function as motels. But this method can be a source of problems for the owner. “With each customer, I’m playing with fire. If a man comes here with a large woman and it turns out she is a minor, I could lose my house,” a Central Havana resident who rents a room by the hour told this newspaper.

This self-employed man is considering renting for longer periods, but fears that “people would become attached to the place, and then they won’t want to go and I would have to call the police.”

Translator’s notes:
* It is impossible to calculate the exact value of this in purchasing power then or now, but today 600 Cuban pesos is worth about $25 U.S.
** Cubans from elsewhere in the country cannot legally live in Havana without acquiring a resident permit.

Montaner: “The regime has succeeded in confusing the Cubans about their own history” / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 19 February 2016 — José Martí is not the precursor of the Cuban Revolution, nor can one establish continuity between the mambises [Cuban independence fighters of the 1800s] and the Stalinist regime in place since 1959. “This telling of the story is an ideological swindle,” said Carlos Alberto Montaner in a series of three lectures in Miami from 16 to 18 February at the Casa Bacardi Center for Cuban and Cuban-American studies.

The course was very well received in this city, recognized as “the capital of the historical exile” and one of the places where Cuba’s Republican era legacy, erased at a stroke after the Revolution of 1959, is best preserved. “It is a way of maintaining Cuban roots, which is something that after all these years I have not lost. Even my children will identify themselves as Cubans, not Cuban Americans, but simply Cubans continue reading

,” he told 14ymedio’s Pilar Ramos, a 61-year-old architect of Cuban origin who attended the event.

Montaner shined in the domain of national history, which he presented from a bird’s eye view, sprinkled with picturesque anecdotes. He presented colonial Cuba explaining, from an international perspective, the main events of the time, from the economic boom under the English flag, to the bitter slavery paid for with the rum produced on the island and the lives of one million Africans claimed in the Cuban countryside.

The presentation of Republican era Cuba and “Revolutionary” Cuba were the richest moments, especially for young people from the island, educated under the Marxist historiography dedicated to rewriting history, as in George Orwell’s 1984. “This is a vital issue for me, because I am nothing but Cuban and I also believe it is important to explain and revindicate that Republic has been unfairly vilified,” said Montaner, who showed both the lights and shadows of the Cuban Republic. He described the causes that led to the coup of 1952, a disastrous prelude to the end of democracy in the country.

A special section was, of course, the establishment of communism in Cuba and the figures of Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. Decades of Castroism must be assessed in their appropriate perspective to understand national history, distancing oneself from the opposing positions that remain both in Cuba and in exile. “Using history as a weapon, I believe, is a mistake, history is an account that needs to be told as objectively as possible,” said researcher.

For Montaner, “In the exile there remains a Cuba that is not going to return. The Cuba of the future will be different but hopefully it will recover the virtues of the Cuba of the past.” The journalist has hope that a phenomenon similar to what occurred in the countries of Eastern Europe after the collapse of socialism will also occur on the island. “When the time came for democracy they tried to retrieve their own history that had been destroyed or disguised by the agents of communism.”

He could not fail to reflect on the announcement of Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Cuba, the first by a US president in 88 years. “The idea of unilaterally decreeing the end of the Cold War in the Caribbean, without engaging the adversary, is so naïve that it stuns me. It goes against the United States’ own institutions and can only be explained by the psychological and intellectual nature of President Obama.”

While for some of the attendees it was a recalling of the years they had lived through, for others it was peek into a story that has been off-limits to Cubans for decades because of partisan interests. The history of Cuba in three lessons demands continuity. A well-known saying tells us that a people ignorant of its own history is doomed to repeat it, or as Cicero said, “not knowing what happened before us, is like being children forever.” It is time for us to grow up.

‘El Sexto’: Cuba Can Change Only If People “Wake Up Inside” / 14ymedio

Danilo Maldonado, ‘El Sexto’ (The Sixth). (From the artist)

EFE (14ymedio), Ana Mengotti, Miami, 19 February 2016 — Cuban graffiti El Sexto (The Sixth), who spent ten months in prison for having written the names of Fidel and Raul on two live pigs that he intended to release in Havana, told EFE that Cuba will change only when “people wake up inside.”

The week that he opens his first exhibition in the United States, sponsored by the London’s Pollock Gallery and the Human Rights Foundation of America, Danilo Maldonado is amazed to be living a “dream,” but there are also moments when he thinks about the consequences of his efforts. continue reading

In Miami’s Market Gallery, El Sexto, (a nickname that refers “The Cuban Five,” the group of Cuban agents who served sentences in the United States for espionage and who are considered heroes by Raul Castro’s government), will present his artworks created in the Netherlands, Cuba and the United States, including 40 drawings done in prison.

The title of the exposition is Pork, an animal revered for its meat by Cubans and one that unwittingly led this graffiti artist to prison. “Blame George Orwell,” he jokes.

Maldonado, 32, tried to do a piece of performance art in Cuba based on Animal Farm, Orwell’s satire about Stalinism in which the animals rise up against the farmer under the leadership of the pigs, who end up perverting the new rules and imposing their own power.

At Christmas of 2014 he was arrested in Havana before he was able to release two pigs, painted green and with the names Raul and Fidel written on their hides; he remained in prison without charges for ten months.

CRxiUMZVEAMwkmT While behind bars he drew and wrote a kind of diary, when he was not in isolation, undertook a hunger strike, and was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He also won the 2015 Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissidence, awarded by the Human Rights Foundation.

As appetizer to his exhibition in Miami on Thursday, 25 February, he will stage a live evening performance, accompanied by his friend Gorki Aguila and his band Porno para Ricardo, and a curious film by Andy Warhol entitled “The Life of Juanita Castro.”

There may also be some pig there, says this mysterious artist, who believes that “art can do everything.”

For this reason he does not forgive many Cuban artists who, in his view, have been, and are, accomplices of the Castro regime. “That is the art of lies,” he says, about those who “are not capable of questioning the system.”

“Much of the blame for this system that has lasted so long is on the artists,” he says, convinced that they have helped to legitimize Fidel Castro, leader of the Revolution, and his brother Raul, today president of Cuba, and they have also helped to deform the minds of Cubans.

But the blame is not entirely on the “hostages,” he says, referring to Cubans. There are also other governments in the Americas and Europe who have contributed to perpetuating totalitarianism in Cuba, he asserts.

When El Sexto was able to leave Cuba, thanks to a grant from Justice and Peace Netherlands, and came to know the world “outside,” he felt he had been “robbed” his whole life and that “an experiment” had been carried out on him and on Cubans in general.

However, he does not plan to leave Cuba and entirely forget about it, like others. “Of course (I will return), I was born there for a reason,” he says.

pegatina4 He has a daughter in Cuba, Renata Maria who is two-and-a-half, and he told EFE that everything he does “is to let her name rise higher.”

An anonymous hand placed next to the gallery entrance where El Sexto will have his debut as an exhibitor, two stickers made my him: one is a portrait of Renata with a chick on her head and the word “despiertica” (little awake one), and the other a self-portrait with a rooster on his own head and the word “awake.”

pegatina5 Cubans “waking up within” is, for El Sexto, the only way to change Cuba, apart from, clearly, “the [Castro] government stepping down,” a government that “has spent 50 years taking things from the people and exercising power by force.”

Danilo Maldonado admits that when he was younger he thought “about trying to escape,” but then he came to understand his role as an artist. When he was younger than now, painting the walls of Havana made him feel good, but he looked at art as a hobby, like an affair with a woman. At age 25, after having done everything, including a job as a computer teacher, he decided to turn completely to art. “Today I am happily married,” he says.

A Group Of 124 Cuban Migrants Arrived In Mexico On Friday / 14ymedio

Cuban migrants arriving in Mexico on 9 February. (INM)

14ymedio, 18 February 2016 — A group of 124 Cuban migrants arrived Friday in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, directly from Costa Rica, where they had been stranded since mid-November en route to the US.

The migrants, 85 men and 39 women, were received by the National Institute of Migration (INM), which gave them free permission to stay in Mexico for up to 20 days.

Since the beginning of the migration crisis last November, 1,492 Cuban migrants, divided into ten groups, have arrived in Mexico through direct flights such as happened on Friday, or by land to Ciudad Hidalgo in Chiapas.

Officials have scheduled another direct flight for Saturday morning.

The previous group of 122 Cuban migrants arrived in Mexico on Thursday on a direct flight from Costa Rica. The 86 men and 36 women were welcomed at the international airport in the border city of Nuevo Laredo by the INM, while on Wednesday, some 186 Cubans arrived by land.

On Tuesday, the airlift to Mexico of Cubans stranded in Panama also began, according to a source in the National Migration Institute (INM). The destination of those flights will be Ciudad Juarez in the northern state of Chihuahua.

“We Know That The Cuban State Has Essentially Continued The Same Repression” / 14ymedio

presidente-norteamericano-Barack-Obama-febrero_CYMIMA20160211_0001_13 (1) — US President Barack Obama, this February

A senior US State Department official speaking with 14ymedio expands on the reasons for the US president’s visit to Cuba

14ymedio, 19 February 2016 — The United States government is aware that its approach to the Cuban government has not yet resulted in an increase in the rights of its citizens, but they trust that they are contributing to a climate that is conducive to it.

“We are not going to say that we have noticed great advances on questions of human rights. We know that the practice of detentions has continued, The Cuban State has fundamentally maintained the same repression,” declared a senior State Department official speaking to 14ymedio shortly after the announcement of President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba on March 21-22. continue reading

Among the few official advanced details from the White House it has been announced that the president will travel to the island accompanied by the first lady, Michelle Obama, as a first stop on another official visit, in this case to Argentina. The president will meet with Raul Castro and sectors of civil society among whom will be members of the opposition, according to sources in the State Department. However, initially ruled out is a meeting between Barack Obama and the former Cuban president and leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro.

According to State Department sources, the dissidents who will meet Barack Obama will come from all sectors, both those who have supported the policy of his administration and those who have been critical of it.

“We want to change the point of view of Cubans and the international community with respect to the policy of the United States and the Cuban government, when they see the poverty, backwardness and lack of opportunities and political liberties. Our goal is that they see with absolute clarity that these problems are caused by the policies of the Cuban government, not because of the United States nor the embargo,” said the senior US official.

Other sources in the Obama administration provided some details about the president’s visit to Cuba. The president will give a speech to the Cuban people in a place that has not yet been finalized and, in addition, will meet with opponents, the self-employed and religious leaders.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry was receptive to Washington’s announcement and said that “the US president will be welcomed by the Government of Cuba and its people, with the hospitality that characterizes us.”

Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s director general for the United States for the Foreign Ministry believes that this will be “an opportunity for President Obama to appreciate the Cuban reality and to continue discussions about the possibilities of expanding the dialog and bilateral cooperation on topics of mutual interest to both countries,” according to statements reported this Friday in the official newspaper Granma which, however, gave greater weight on its front page to the current visit of Peruvian president Ollanta Humala.

“It will be interesting to see how the Cuban press will cover the visit,” said the US State Department official to 14ymedio. “It will be difficult for them to conceal from their people the message President Obama will bring.”

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