Category: Cuban Law Association

Treatment and Classification of Prisoners / Cuban Law Association, Dayami Pestano Lazos

B. Dayamí Pestano Lazos

Under the Geneva Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (1955), are rules 57 and 59 which address Imprisonment and other measures whose effect is to separate the criminal from the outside world, which are afflicting by the very fact of depriving the individual of his right to dispose of his own person by depriving him of his liberty.

Therefore, the prison system should not aggravate the sufferings inherent in this condition… the prison regime should utilize — trying to apply them according to the individual treatment needs of all offenders — all the remedial, educational, moral, spiritual and methods of other natures and all forms of assistance that can be provided.

The individualization of punishment is the adaptation process that occurs between the subject and the sanction. Within this process we find legal, judicial and prison individualization, this last phase, the most important, which must be continuous and must comply with all the biological, psychological and social peculiarities of the subject. Some of the components of this individualization are the classification and treatment of prisoners as a way to treat the prisoner as a person in need of assistance or aid for belonging to a particular group or be a special case.

Treatment must occur within a framework of respect for human rights to dignity, liberty, equality and safety.

In Cuba much of recidivism in crime is due to the poor conditions in prisons where there are no buildings suitable for the various categories of offenders, nor the prison staff suitable to working scientifically with the current measures for this.

Despite some experiments, such as sports fields, shops, schools, hospitals, we have not gone beyond mere mechanical custody, and have never applied enough effort and and enough funds, to establish a more serious and consistent therapy, we have settled on external isolation.

Among the many defects are overcrowding and lack of hygiene in these centers, the idleness which most inmates suffer, and especially the grouping of inmates regardless of age, severity of the crime and personal situation: indicted or convicted, or repeat offenders, healthy versus physically and mentally ill. All these factors adversely affect the inmates and should be avoided.

There are other drawbacks to imprisonment and that is the violent, the sexually abnormal, the doctor who has caused an illegal abortion, motorists who violated traffic code, coexist in the same facility and share the same areas, and yet there is a great difference between all these prisoners.

September 27 2012

Other Citizens Without Rights / Cuban Law Association, E. Javier Hernandez H.

By E. Javier Hernández H.

In a previous post we talked about Cuban Immobility (stagnation), an issue that has many sides, or as we say in “good Cuban”: “There is a lot of fabric to be cut.”

The issue of civil rights in different sectors of our society has been analyzed by many compatriots. But I want to refer specifically to sports, where despite little public information, people know the avatars and the suffering of the Cuban athletes, the few rights they have, and the great immobility that distinguishes its managers in holding back our sports system.

For our athletes the questions are: When do they stop paying for their career in sports? Who reviews their contracts and enforces its terms? If Revolutionary Sport is a unified thing, why are some hired and compete with professional, and earn awards, and others cannot?

The immobility and mutilation of rights border on the absurd; in team sports to reach the rank of cadet or youth participants, the athletes have no championships or regular leagues within the county, holding back their development by being unable to compete in international clubs, a normal practice accepted around the world.Rarely do we remember that athletes are the most selfless, pressured, monitored and manipulated, especially with regards to contacts with their counterparts in other countries.

A few may earn hard currency for their activities and without their consent their bank accounts are emptied for “collective goals”. Nobody reacts to defend the athlete. Neither those who run the programs nor the “eternal seconds” who spend the year traveling, talking politics, but never sports.

To accept the changes and respect the rights mentioned, sports talent as a profession would become an unimaginable monetary income generator for the country.

Finally again we have the relationship of citizen-constitution-civil rights. While this “three-category” democracy is not real, tangible, sustainable, Cubans, and within them our athletes, continue to suffer discrimination.

We remember that these people are unique in nature, are born with their talent and in some cases come around once in many years, while being humble, modest, giving us great satisfaction. In gratitude, we must help them.

September 22 2012

Crossroads / Cuban Law Association, Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

By Lic. Wilfredo Vallín  Almeida

Three youths were arrested violently, forced into a police car, and taken to a national police station where they were held for about 24 hours under interrogation by the State Security.

The reason: Handing out leaflets for the Citizen Demand for Another Cuba which, weeks before, had been delivered by its developers to the People’s National Assembly where it was received and given the number 1207, on June 20, 2012.

Although police violence is a fact that occurs almost daily in our country — the record of it is shown in photos, videos and interviews by independent media, bloggers and others — this case in particular, by its connotation, deserves special consideration.

When we speak at the police station with the agents of the political police who handled this case, we noticed several things to be discussed below.

First they told us that these young people had been arrested “for distributing propaganda in the public street.” Although they didn’t use the term “enemy,” it was obvious that in referring to propaganda it had to be, because otherwise there was no justification for the arrests.

When we showed the agents that this document had been delivered to the National Assembly of People’s Power without objections on the part of those who received it, they then went on to say “they resisted arrest.”

We will not detail here the argument under International Law that an arrest that begins by being illegal it is not valid for the powers-that-be to later turn it into one that is. That is, at least for now, another issue.

What the agents seemed to look at most strongly was where those sheets had been printed. So what is “important” to them is the printing, not the content. And that can be logically understood because what really worries them is not the actual printing, but the issue that plays out on those sheets.

And the issue is the Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Human Rights, both of the United Nations (UN).

And we can understand the official concern because:

Cuba is a member of the UN.

Cuba participates in the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

It is seen as an International Rights Organization violating rights, which they reserve to themselves.

There is a plan, for the second or third time, for a UN rapporteur for torture to visit the Island, it’s not known when.

The Cuban government signed its intention to introduce these Covenants on the island on February 28, 2008.

In the case of such documents they cannot characterize them as an “imperialist maneuver against the country” or something like that.

Nor can they imprison those who disclose these covenants or support this campaign because this act would be wholly inconsistent with the principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

They know that, across the whole country, if their content and perspectives are made know to Cubans, there would be countless citizens who would support that demand.

The problems with the UN are not the same as with the harmless, unarmed and defenseless peaceful Cuban opponents.

And this only highlights some aspects of the problem.

Now the question is, of course, very difficult, in the hands of those who can resolve it, or who can conceal it Cuba, if they continue to speak in the tone of arrogance and power with which they spoke with us at the Sixth Police Station.

I think that for those who run things in the government in the country, the defining word today is: CROSSROADS.

September 13 2012

The U.N. Covenants on Human Rights: A New Crime In Cuba? / Cuban Law Association, Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

By Wilfredo Vallín Almeida

As we have seen, there seems to be a new offense under the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Act (LPP), a “crime” that seems interesting to analyze with regards to what it might mean to the future.

And I begin this analysis with what — over so many years — has been understood to be a CRIME and when it does and doesn’t exist.

People like the Italian Cesare Bonesana, Marquis of Beccaria, with his famous book On Crimes and Punishment published in 1764, and the well-regarded author German Paul Johann von Feuerbach who, in 1813, issued the famous legal maxim Nullun crime, nulla poena sine praevia lege (“No crime, no punishment, without a previous punishment law”), gave a sharp twist to what was then called “criminal law.”

Those words of Feuerbach, translated into our language and brought to the present, mean that “for a person to be arrested for certain behavior, it is essential that their conduct is registered as a crime in the Penal Code prior to its commission. Otherwise, there is no crime. ”

Of course, in the case of an infraction, (I repeat, previously defined and sanctioned by law) it proceeds from the arrest of the person and taking him to a police station to clarify the facts… but I am referring to the violation of a REAL criminal standard, not an invention.

The Criminal Procedure Act explains, as the name suggests, the ways in which the authorities and the law enforcement agents can respond to criminal behavior.

Thus, in Title IV, Chapter I, Articles 241-244 of Cuba’s criminal statutes it states, clearly, the cases where an individual shall be arrested and, precisely by being defined in it, the principle of legality applies to everyone and we are subject to it without exception.

To detain someone, except in cases established by law, and inventing, for that purpose, “offenses” that do not exist in the Penal Code or situations not falling under the Criminal Procedure Act, is simply to invade a sphere that belongs only to the legislative body, which in the Cuban case is called, as far as we know, the National Assembly of People’s Power.

And that is precisely what happens when a citizen is taken to a police unit and there is no Act of Detention, or he is taken and what is written as justification for his arrest is … “Interest of CI (counterintelligence ),” a reason for detention that does not appear at all where it should be mandatory: in the aforementioned Penal Code.

We can not give legitimacy to bodies that take on a function that is not theirs and which is so important for social relations: the creation of law.

Moreover, lawyers for the Cuban Law Association have never seen a legal prohibition stating that the behavior of citizens urging the government to ratify the U.N. Covenants signed by a Cuban representative four years ago in New York City, is an offense of any kind.

But, as might occur with the regulations for whether to grant an exit permit — the so-called “white card” — to citizens who want to leave the country and that we have never seen, perhaps it is in these Covenants which we still cannot read.

If so, then please publish it so that we citizens will know that, in Cuba, there is a new conduct prohibited by law: that of invoking the UN Covenants.

September 10 2012

The U.N. Covenants on Human Rights are Binding on States / Cuban Law Association, Argelio M. Guerra

By Lic. Argelio M. Guerra

The development in 1966 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, also known as the New York Pacts, has a close relationship with the gestation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. While the latter it not binding on States, the adoption of the Covenants came to bridge this shortcoming of the Declaration and, from the perspective of international law, establish legally binding obligations for States that become a part — through signing them — of such instruments.

And those conventions on Human Rights have a special feature given by the very nature of their object of protection, and that is that between the Parties there is a very different connection than what might be the result from a treaty in which the reciprocity of the compliance its obligations is what sets it apart.

Human rights treaties do not establish reciprocal obligations for the signatory states, but rather oblige them to achieve goals beyond their own material interests, and if they fail to comply with these obligations the offending State is called to respond to international organizations and the community of states.

September 5 2012

National Law and International Law: Connection and Dependence / Cuban Law Association’ Argelio M. Guerra

By Lic. Argelio M. Guerra

In the history of International Law the accords of Westphalia in 1648 set a pattern, establishing the guiding principle, followed since then by the international community, that states are sovereign and within their territories wield supreme power .

While this is fine and the national laws of states enshrine this principle, they are not isolated from observing certain mandatory principles that are dictated by extra-national legal order, i.. law.

To explain the scope and content of the relationship between national law and international law several theories have been established in different gradations (the monistic, dualistic, radical monistic, moderate), which means that for some domestic law and international law up are integrated into a single legal order being two branches of the same legal system, while for others international law and domestic law are two separate systems with different territorial areas of application.

Whichever position is adopted, the primacy of International Law is not affected by the type of constitutional system established by the State, both with regard to the application of the rules of international law within the State, and in terms of resolving conflicts between domestic law and international law, since such primacy arises from the fact that the State is bound by International Law.

A conflict arises between norms of International Law and domestic law, aired before the jurisdiction of an international tribunal, shall be resolved on the basis of the supremacy of International Law. Now, when a conflict arises between laws under domestic law it is not settled in the same way as if there is a violation of international law, bringing the State’s responsibility and the same consequences as any other illegal act. So in both cases the primacy of international law is affirmed.

October 22 2012

Freedom of Conscience / Cuban Law Association, Odalina Guerrero Lara

By Lic. Odalina Guerrero Lara

In Article 55 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, it establishes that: the State, that recognizes, respects and guarantees freedom of conscience…

There is no doubt as to these three aspects: RECOGNIZE, RESPECT AND GUARANTEE on the part of the State for Freedom of Conscience.

What I learned one day as an Attorney is that I am denied this by the actions of Cuban Government officials. Conscience implies being aware and is established in the Basic Law, that I have freedom of conscience, so why do they continue harassing me?

  • On 13 September 2011, when I was interviewed by agents of State Security, they threatened to demoralize me before the Cuban people, my family and especially my children for the mere fact of belonging to the Cuban Law Association and being in compliance with the purposes for which it was created.
  • Since July of this year they have been bothering me about the issue of MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS, someting about which I always answered I have nothing to argue, bring, signal, much less get involved in everything that has to do with that topic.
  • Different officials have been assigned to deal with me and have appeared my house and have intercepted my family on the street to tell me the reasons why I should be involved in the election process.
  • As a CUBAN CITIZEN WITH FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE, I ask for respect for my constitutional rights, to act as I think, and not to be forced by law to get involved in local elections in Cuba.

October 29 2012

On Due Process / Cuban Law Association, Amado Calixto Gammalame

By Amado Calixto Gammalame

For its implication in the ruling, a basic requirement that the criminal process has raised today, is the need to conduct an individualization of the penalty to be imposed on the accused, according not only to the social and legal significance of the facts of the case, but also the personality of their author.

Our substantive law — I am referring to the Cuban Penal Code — at least relates in a well defined way, several precepts that contribute to such an important purpose, i.e. how it should be done in the specific case to adjust the penalties.

However, it works in practice as a general trend of increasing penalties, even if the offender before the crime had had excellent behavior, but in the opinion of the authorities, because of the offense he is undeserving of such conduct or social recognition gained through his dedication and personal effort, whether by executive positions, honor, authority, or in social responsibility, to give some examples.

Dissimilar judgments are resolved under this reasoning, referring to directors with responsibilities at different levels of management.

Such action is not supported by any legal body and instead, damages a proper administration of justice; when it sentences an individual to long terms, it carries a burden that also involves the accused, a part of society. It is well known, though independent of it is illegal, and it sullies the procedural guarantees in Cuba regarding the order of the criminal process.

The judges, in their role of administering justice, are independent and owe obedience only to the law. This obedience to the law is an unavoidable premise set out in Article 122 of Constitution of the Republic and should not remain a dead letter, the precepts of adequacy are set in the general section of the code and any other interpretation violates this constitutional principle.

Our modest opinion is, that the legislature wisely raised to constitutional range such a postulate for the importance and transcendence that it has in society. On the other hand  gathered in penal institutions the suppositions of aggravation, never harmful to good conduct, the application of similar penal decision must be legislated. The foundation of this opinion derives also from the principle established in  article 2.1 of the Cuban Penal Code that  describes: the punishable character of a supposition must stand as prohibition of realizing it.

August 27 2012

Against Individual Rights / Cuban Law Association, Osvaldo Rodriguez Diaz

Lic. Osvaldo Rodríguez Díaz

On July 9th, 2012 a summary of the process of habeas corpus was presented before the Secretary of the Provincial Court of the Government of La Habana. This summary was admitted and remitted to the Third Room of the this Court.

The aforementioned Courtroom immediately communicated with the officials involved in the illegal deprivation of the liberties of the prisoners, subject to ratification of the matter.

That same day, at 10:30 pm, the damaged were released and were summoned for the next day. In the Courtroom, the involved officials were also summoned.

The defendant and those responsible for the Combined Eastern Prison Control, who were condemned in the process, appeared in court.

To date, the lawyer had not been notified of any settlement. To the privation of liberty, despite being released, they did not fill his Minutes of Court Appearance.  We do not know what explanation the officials, the ones who were notified in advance by the father of the inmate of the error which they were committing.

Despite having been prepared, the ones responsible for Penal Control keep the defendant in prison, though he is legally at liberty, more than five days.

Although the victim and his relatives do not intend to denounce the ones who are guilty of the crime of illegal deprivation of liberty, article 279.1 of the Penal Code, the Court should notify the Resolution pertaining to the lawyer that interposed the Resource.

The Court could also — conforming to Article 6 of the Court Law — giving account to the Military District attorney’s Office, what is neither of the interest of the damaged, but at least to communicate it to the National Director of Prisons and to bring to light to the principal responsible in order for this not to happen.

When an inmate avoids prison, generally he is sentenced for this new crime, now the contrary  occurs, they retain the guilty one and let go free the one that is responsible, not even an administrative measure.

Anyway, there is no interest in causing harm, only to protect human rights.

The Third Courtroom worked as fast as possible, it should always be like this.

Translated by: TAV

October 19 2012

The Individual Facing International Law / Cuban Law Association, Argelio M.Guerra

Atty. Argelio M. Guerra

With regards to the most basic concept on the subject of a legal relationship, defined as those who participate in the relationship and have the ability to claim rights and assume obligations, we can assume that if this legal relationship is of an international character, then the subjects are participating in these international relations have rights and duties, and that they exercise them within the framework and on the basis of international law.

Both classic international law as well as the most contemporary international public law assume that sovereign states are the principle subjects of international law, and this is the case because these subjects are the only ones endowed with sovereignty and in whose will to be bound by international order rests the foundation of the sources of international law. It is also true that the current recognition and widespread practice of establishing the individual as an immediate and direct subject of international law in those situations that affect his life, his work, his freedom.

This tendency has become larger since the second half of the 20th century in which the horrors and crimes of the Second World War established the ability of the individual to be a subject of international law.

The League of nations tried to set a minimum paradigm on matters of Human Rights to be guaranteed by states, and the United Nations elevates those to a new dimension for perpetrators of genocide to answer for such outrages in international order.

The International Criminal Court was established for this reason and it refers in its statutes to the obligations of the individual person, who is endowed with the ability to hold accountable a state that fails to comply with its obligations under International Law.

September 25 2012

Our People’s Lawyers / Cuban Law Association, Wilfrido Vallin Almeida

Wilfrido Vallin Almeida

The news hits me because it’s so inconceivable: as he was trying to find out the situation of a person detained in Santiago de las Vegas, the young lawyer Veizant Boloy, of the Cuban Law Association, was arrested.

This arrest took place inside a police station. Veizant was handcuffed and locked in a cell as well. There are no charges; there is no Arrest Record; there is nothing. Now in Cuba not only are the lawyers who are not pro-government not allowed to inquire about an imprisoned person, but those who question and demand compliance with the law must be punished.

The officer, obviously irritated, told him:

“We no longer tolerate lawyers in police stations taking an interest in those who are detained.”

And in a different moment:

“For us you guys are not lawyers.”

For some time we have known the defenseless situation existing in Cuba regarding those who are detained and that we lawyers cannot be with them from the moment they are taken prisoners. We can only do it after a certain amount of time, when the police have already done what they deemed appropriate.

But this matter of not allowing us even to inquire about the situation of a person who is detained is the height of arbitrariness… but only to demonstrate to what extents goes the harassment of those for whom the laws were not written.

And that harassment results — I have no doubt — from the fact that many people are willing to inform other Cubans of the Citizens’ Demand that was delivered to the headquarters of the National Assembly of the People’s Power on June 20th of the current year.

That demand urges the government to ratify the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which seems to be the last thing it wants in this world.

In acting in a repressive and violent way against what they themselves signed, those who do it show their true face to the international community… who observe what is happening not only in Syria or Africa.

Finally, whether they want it or not, those Covenants will be ratified and we will continue to work to that end, we who — although some may not like it — are OUR PEOPLE’S LAWYERS.

Translated by: Espirituana

September 24 2012

Annoying Whim / Cuban Law Association, Osvaldo Rodriguez Diaz

Ruins of Isle of Pines Model Prison
Osvaldo Rodríguez Díaz, Atty.

The problem of prisons has always been a recurring theme in literature. In Cuba, we can cite Martí, Pablo de la Torriente, and Mencía, among others.

During second half of the decade of the forties, the controversy was highlighted in a book of only 100 pages by Dr. Waldo Medina, who was then a judge of the Isle of Pines.

Law students echoed the judge’s work, and the then Prime Minister of the government was the most radical in the subject:

“We must abolish the so-called Model Prison of the Isle of Pines. We should construct as many prisons as necessay in the six provinces, and distribute the prisoners among them to be near their family members who can visit them.”

The excessive distance between the place of residence of the sentenced, and the place where they serve their sentence, has generated disgust in all eras in Cuba. Today there are prisons in all regions of the country. In some, there are several, depending on the inmate’s regime.

But the trend of current prison policy is a concern; prisoners are transferred to remote areas, sometimes more than 250 miles from their homes.

The understandable result is that families without financial resources or adequate transport must travel great distances to visit their interned relatives, taking more than a day coming and going; what benefit is this to the inmate’s rehabilitation and reintegration for useful society?

Elderly mothers, wives with small children, and other impediments threaten the ability of the prisoner to receive sanctioned visits when he or she is very far from home. The necessary support: food, personal toiletries, clothes, and above all, communication, can alleviate the prison establishment and the State itself of some of the burden.

Moreover, although there were many drawbacks, there is no perfect prison, and the distance without palpable positive result, could be regarded as an annoying whim.

September 19 2012

Is Disorganization Institutionalized in Our Society, or Is Our Society Institutionalized Disorganization? / Cuban Law Association, Rodrigo Chavez Rodriguez

Foto: OLPL

Rodrigo Chávez Rodríguez, Esq.

For Cubans today it no longer seems strange, much less unusual. A lack of punctuality affects any number of activities, whether they be in the workplace, the classroom or at celebrations. There is always some excuse. The bus did not come; they turned off the lights when I was having visitors; the water shut off when I went to take a bath; etc.

Although there might be valid justifications, they are daily occurrences that have become persistent issues, and are now one in the same.

The critical moment occurs when we try unsuccessfully to find out why from the agencies responsible for transportation, electricity, water, or whatever it might be. The responses from each one of them to the problem at hand are no more than mere excuses.

As a general rule the problems of transportation, electricity, water, or anything else are always blamed on the fifty-year-old unbending and illegal blockade. However, the vast majority of problems we face on a daily basis are rooted in the lack of organization prevalent in all spheres of activity.

Aside from the lack of replacement parts and accessories necessary to achieve the optimum benefit from parking spaces, there is no adequate plan for their use in response to the interests and needs of the populace. One could ask: Wouldn’t it be possible to contract post-market services abroad?

Under the current conditions, the acquisition of the means of transportation is carried out through “friendly” countries, which provide us with easy credit. Is it not possible to carry out a serious and thorough study that would allow for the orderly planning of bus schedules that takes into account customer demand?

After all these years have there been no graduates in engineering who specialize in transportation management? How is it possible that private transport providers can satisfy the needs of the populace with punctuality but those of the state cannot? Why do the famous reinforcements appear as if by magic? And then there is air and rail transport. It is nothing less than a miracle if arrivals and departures occur on schedule. No doubt there are justifications for these too.

If all planning undertaken in “time of war” carries over into “time of peace, then we can be sure that disorganization will be permanently institutionalized.

There are always justifications for the lack of power, electricity or water supply. They have now become common. While we are informed about disruptions, breakdowns, maintenance and other issues, it is undeniable that these almost always occur when we least expect them. In other words not at opportune times or on schedule. Nothing, or almost nothing, is well-planned or well-organized.

These are only a few examples of how organized the disorganization is, how institutionalized it is. One could broaden the scope and look at other recurring problems such as academic courses, the distribution of medications and other issues that would make up an endless and tiresome list.

At the start of every academic course, there are assurances that “everything is planned and very well-organized.” As the course proceeds, however, there are shortages of certain things. It could be fuel, it could be the basic course materials, it could be various sorts of input, etc.

The issue of medications and their distribution is, in large part, an irrefutable example of the institutionalization of disorganization, especially of those items distributed through the well-known “ration card.” In other words, medications that are controlled.  An exhaustive system of control has been set up to register individuals, yet when these same individuals go to a pharmacy to obtain their supposedly controlled medications, they find they are no longer available.

Maintenance of the distribution systems for electrical energy and water require planning. How unlike our own reality! When there are problems due to maintenance, disruptions or breakdowns, this implies that service is not available and, therefore, is not being used. But – wonder of wonders! – although charges are based on kilowatts per hour, we find out when the bill arrives that those hours, when nothing was being consumed, were not taken into account.

If there were a real desire for organization, one need only look to private sector workers as an example, whether they be in the transportation, restaurant or service industry. The first “organizers” pave the way, the second ones maintain a standard of excellence, and the third benefit from word-of-mouth.

If there is no justice and fairness, bread becomes charity.

Translated by Maria Montoto

August 15 2012

Loving is Over / Cuban Law Association, Esperanza Rodriguez Bernal

Photo: Habana del Este, by Marcelo Lopez

By Attorney Esperanza Rodriguez Bernal

At the Cuban Judicial Association, the cases with which we deal most frequently involve housing.

For a very long time this was the exclusive jurisdiction of the State, which was the only entity with the power to build (or to hand out the rare license to do so). The housing stock was not able to grow for many years and, as a result, we are now confronting dramatic consequences.

The problem is not confined to buildings and houses that collapse when it rains a little, due to a prolonged lack of maintenance. It also occurs when conflicts arise from several generations, or people of unequal levels of education and standards of behaviour, living under the same roof. These conflicts are multiplied exponentially by the fact that there are ever fewer units of housing available for everyone.

The first projects of which I am aware were built in Habana del Este, or “Pastorita,” as it is often referred to. These were constructed with care and by builders who knew what they were doing.

Another wave of construction activity occurred later, as I recall, in Alamar. In contrast to the earlier projects, however, these later constructions in general left much to be desired in terms of quality and urban character.

Alamar is in no way comparable to Habana del Este. The worst thing about this is that this implies a kind of devolution, since it would have been logical to assume that the first projects built just after the Revolution were surpassed by those built later, and not vice versa.

But on top of the physical problem of a shortage of housing, there is the fact that we are now a nation of more than eleven million inhabitants. It is awful to see grandchildren trying to commit their grandparents to an institution in order to be able to live by themselves. Or a recently divorced man trying to evict his ex-wife and children from their home, even when they have nowhere to go, because he is in a new relationship.

And in that struggle it is possible to see everything, from threats and domestic violence to bribery of housing officials to achieve a singular purpose – one’s own roof.

It’s been a long time since I heard a song by Los Van Van, whose chorus goes:

“No one loves anyone, loving is over. . .”

Someone told me that they no longer play this on the radio or television because it has been banned.  I don’t know, but what does seem terrible to me is that we have lost, among so many other things, the love of our neighbors and above all of those closest to us.

Translated by mlk.

September 6 2012

Alea jacta est — The die is cast / Cuban Law Association, Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

Oswaldo Payá has died and, despite his death, his enemies don’t hesitate to throw dirt on his corpse and present him as a reprobate.

Whether his death is the result of an accident or of a machination, it’s clear for those of us who knew him, the class of person he was, and that up to now his Varela Project has been the only one with the virtue of having shaken the government to its foundations.

In the Republic of Cuba sovereignty resides in the people from whom originates all the power of the State, says article three of the Constitution in force in the country.

Faced with the almost twenty-five thousand signatures that Payá presented, our government  of 54 years felt itself in danger, because these signatures represented a fraction of that sovereignty.

And now, again, that sovereignty is standing up to raise another petition, also covered in article 63 of the Supreme Law, only on this opportunity this new request is called the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations.

The promoters of this campaign are demanding: given that the government offered a first signature in this direction, it should ratify these important documents of the international community and even the Optional Protocols, because only in this way is the government going to offer a serious manifestation of its will to change.

But what will happen if the organizers of this new campaign manage to collect 100,000 signatures in support of their petition that the government ratify these Pacts that they signed in 2008 in the city of New York?

Will the government refuse to respond publicly before such a great manifestation of the popular will?

Will it say that these signatures should be “authenticated by a notary”?

Will it adopt the position of Libya or Syria charging that the signers are “paid from abroad” to destabilize the “socialist” government?

Will it persecute and imprison the activists of this new citizen request like it did the 75, alleging a new media campaign against the Cuban people by its “eternal” enemy?

Cuba is a member of the U.N. We suppose, therefore, that its government is in agreement with with the universal principles and tenets of the Organization and does not repress those who support these same criteria. But in the current national reality, anything is possible.

The disenchantment of the nation is obvious as much as they want to hide this reality; on the one hand the current leaders do not appear disposed to any dialog with their opposition while the country collapses before our eyes, and not only its buildings when it rains a little. On the other hand, the promoters of this new popular motion appear disposed to assume their civic responsibility to its ultimate consequences.

If I’m not mistaken in my views, then, for Cuba, Alea jacta est (the die is cast).

Wilfredo Vallín Almeida

August 30 2012