Category: Laritza Diversent

Response of Laritza Diversent to Two Readers / Laritza Diversent

In Cuba, my unknown homeland, published on January 3rd, 2010, a reader who signed under the name of Philipp, and who, because of the flag shown, must live in Germany, left the following comment on August 3rd, 2011.

“A question remains: this I don’t understand…How is it possible that you have a blog (meaning you have access to the internet) and that you don’t have the possibility of making a trip with Astro, staying at a private house for national tourists, or any of the other camping sites of the many that exist in your beautiful country?

“I imagine that keeping this blog is at least as expensive as a trip similar to the one I described.

“Traveling around Cuba I met a bunch of Cubans traveling through their own country, in fact I found more Cuban tourists than foreigners. Can you explain this please?

“Thank you very much, warm regards.”

Since my internet time ran out, preventing me from commenting on the blog, I e-mailed the comment to the independent journalist Tania Quintero. Tania lives in Switzerland as a political refugee and along with the Portuguese friend Carlos Moreira, does Iván and me the favor of administering the blog From Havana, in their free time and without charging us a cent. Thus, the explanation that follows does not refer to this blog, but to Laritza’s Laws, blog that I manage all by myself and that I cannot keep as updated as I would want.

Mr. Philipp: I don’t doubt that you have seen many Cubans touring their country, entering the classification of “national tourism”, but they have to pay with hard currency, meaning, in convertible pesos. Keeping a blog from Cuba is not as expensive as making a trip throughout the entire island, especially if one knows the technological possibilities that the web provides, in order to program in advance all of the works that have to be uploaded.

I can’t always connect to the internet once a week, from a hotel, at a price of 15 convertible pesos (cuc), a price that in national currency would be enough to do a round trip with Astro, paying for the service in Cuban pesos, the way you suggest, in order to support the economy, and ignoring the time that I have to waste standing in lines, which I hope you have seen in Cuba.

Back to the topic of internet. With 15 cuc I can acquire a card for two hours of internet access in a Havana hotel.

My work begins at home, when I write the text in Word 2007. Then I use a template that allows me to publish it, once connected to the internet, along with images, directly to my blog or as a draft. Then I open the blog (Laritza’s Laws) and I only have to program it so that it comes out at the chosen date.

Internet cards are one of the best gifts a friend from abroad or a traveler to Havana can make to a blogger. In that sense, I am very lucky: thanks to that help, those 15 cuc that a card costs, I can use to buy food for my family or a pair of shoes for my son.

I hope my explanation can help you understand that traveling through Cuba is much more expensive than keeping a blog.

With a long delay on this case, I take this opportunity to respond to Anteco, a Spanish reader, whom I invite to coffee in my house, if he ever travels to Havana one day. These are his words:

“I have just discovered this blog, and from the few entries I have read, without a doubt this one is very moving and gives an idea of the sad reality of Cuba. I am a Spaniard in love with your country (which I have never been to) and with a great curiosity to get to know one day the Cuban people. However, I would have never imagined that the restrictions of the Castro regime reached that point. It seems that the wonders of your island are limited to the enjoyment of the rich foreign tourists, a contradiction-come-true in a communist regime. I hope there is soon freedom in Cuba.”

Read also: Daughter of the revolution and Why did you make me a dissident?

Picture: It is from 2009, in the Saratoga Hotel, when Laritza was managing the blog Laritza’s Laws which she later decided to call Cuban Legal Advisor.

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Translated by: Claudia D.

August 6 2011

It Won’t be Easy for Cubans to Buy or Sell Houses / Laritza Diversent

Photo: Havana House, drawing by the Canadian, Alicia Bedesky

A few days ago, the newspaper Granma announced that by the end of 2011, Cubans would be able to buy and sell homes. Despite the buzz caused by the news – according to the announcement, the steps for conveying property legally would be more flexible – many people still have misgivings.

According to the newspaper, “the payment of the price agreed upon between the parties will be made through a bank branch.”

“I don’t like that. It seems strange that they’re now making it so easy,” says Manolo, 40, who works filling cigarette lighters. He distrusts the requirement to open a cash account at least for the buyer, and adds: “What worries me the most is having to justify the money.”

The government only recognizes as legitimate income from employment, remittances and inheritances. “How do I show the money my brother sends me through ‘mules’ or one of those private agencies that are not recognized by the government?” asks Manolo.

Indeed, for those who can’t certify the legality of their inflows of money, there is the risk of being prosecuted administratively for unjust enrichment, because the state can presume that the deposits are the result of theft, diversion of state resources or activities on the black market.

In these cases, they confiscate homes, cars, bank accounts, etc., acquired over a period of time that may be prior to when the inherited wealth was verified, which allegedly enriched the individual and the close relatives who can’t justify the legal origin of their goods.

Moreover, taxes are also on the list of concerns of those who are obliged to create a bank account to buy a home. The seller must pay personal income tax, while the buyer has to pay for the transfer of property.

And the tax rates make people uneasy. On the black market, real estate is priced in convertible pesos. The price of a stone house with a room, kitchen and bathroom, located on the outskirts, can run between 5,000 and 6,000 dollars in hard currency. In local currency, by which taxes are calculated, it would be between 125,000 and 150,000 Cuban thousand pesos.

The more anxious analyze the situation by comparing it to the taxes on private businesses. “If someone who by the sweat of his work makes more than 50,000 pesos has to pay a 50 percent income tax, can you imagine how much it will be for selling a house?” commented the clerk at a privately-owned cafe.

The transaction, undoubtedly, will eliminate tax evasion, but not fraud in the affidavits. It appears that the relaxation of bureaucratic regulations in the sale of housing will not eliminate “the manifestations of illegality and corruption,” as Granma says. And the government waits.

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Translated by Regina Anavy

August 4 2011

An Adolescent is Killed for Trying to Eat Genips* in Havana / Laritza Diversent

On the afternoon of July 15, 2011, the town of Mantilla, on Havana’s outskirts, was shocked by the death of Angel Izquierdo Medina, a 14-year-old black teenager, who died from a gunshot to the femoral artery by Amado Interian, a retired police Major.

According to the victim’s family members, three boys, including Angel, entered the property of the ex-police officer, to take genips, also known Spanish limes, from a tree. When the ex-cop caught them in the act, he fired two shots from his pistol. Before retiring, Interian had been a police chief in the area.

The child’s body was laid out in the Mauline funeral home, at the entrance of Santa Amalia residential neighborhood. More than 500 people attended the viewing, most of them fellow students, in shock from the news, and also teachers and neighbors.

“Oh my God he was the same age as my son, because a mischief, that only can be done by an extremist”, said one of the spectators sobbing, while passing by the coffin.

Agents of the State Security Forces dressed in civil clothes took over the funeral home because the mourners had been threatening to protest. Around midnight there were incidents reported at the site, without arrests being made. The burial was on Saturday July 16, 2011, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, in the Christopher Columbus cemetery.

Mantilla is a Havana suburb, with a low income population and high levels of dangerousness. It belongs to the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, the most violent and poor of the capital city.

So far, we don’t know if the ex-police officer will be prosecuted because of the adolescent’s death. As is usual in Cuba, when things of this nature happen, the official media prefers to keep silent and not to report what happened.

Photo: Mamoncillos. With its sweet flesh, it is one of the most preferred fruits in Cuba. But as with so many fruits, after 1959 they were scarce in the market and could still be consumed only by those who have a tree of Melicoccus bijugatus (its scientific name) in the backyard. The genip along with the sugar apple, soursop, custard apple, cashew, canistel, loquat, plum and apple banana, is listed as one of the extinct fruits after Castros took power. Years after this barbaric event — one of the tasks of the ‘famous’ Che Guevara’s invasion brigade was to uproot fruit trees from the fields where it passed by — little by little the fruits started to reappear again — mangoes, guavas , mamey and avocados — among others fruits that have been always been greatly eaten by Cubans. With the only difference that before the bearded men, with 10 or 20 cents you could buy a mamey or an avocado and now days you cannot find them for less than 10 or 20 cuban pesos. (Tania Quintero)

*Translator’s note: Melicoccus bijugatus, commonly called Spanish lime, genip, genipe, quenepa, mamoncillo, limoncillo, it is a one-inch, round fruit with a green leathery skin at maturity. Each fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself , the seeds have a fleshy tan-coloured edible sweet and juicy seed coat.

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Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez

July 19 2011

A Nightmare in Las Tunas / Laritza Diversent

On June 21st the offices of the National Institute of Housing in Las Tunas issued an ultimatum to evict from their home the daughter and grandchildren of the deceased Gustavo Valeriano Sanchez Urquiza, a fighter who participated in the guerrilla warfare fought by the Rebel Army in the oriental zone.

The Provincial Directory of Housing of Las Tunas received from the Prosecutor, and from the Department of Criminal Investigation and Operations of the Interior Ministry, instructions to confiscate the property occupied by Deysi Graciela Sanchez Rivero and illegally leased by her daughter to a foreigner.

According to the resolution decreeing the forfeit of the right to the property, and illegal occupants to the actual dwellers, “The property was rented on an hourly basis, in an illegal way, a room and a bathroom, to the foreigner Andrea Ghiotto, so that he could have sexual intercourse with females.”

The sentence No. 92/2011 of Las Tunas court claims that Andrea Ghiotto, of Italian nationality, organized a local soccer team in the years 2006 and 2007, with the consent of the Sports authorities. He even organized international matches and made substantial donations of supplies, because he is a man with a lot of money.

Andrea, famous all over the province, is considered the king of fiscal fraud in Italy. Accused of corruption in his country, he obtained his freedom thanks to a confession implicating public officials and more than a hundred businessmen.

In March of 2010, Ghiotto made his last trip to The Tunas territory. At that time he was arrested and deported from the island, after he admitted to having sexual intercourse with more than thirty girls in private homes.

Generally, the Cuban authorities prosecute citizens who rent rooms to aliens without authorization, for the crime of procuring and human trafficking, and in an independent administrative process, order the confiscation of the property, according to the decree-law 232/03 of the State Council.

That legal disposition says that “the confiscation could be ordained against the owners, including those hosting a third party who commits the crime,” whenever the occasion or the circumstances make evident or lead one to rationally suppose that they have knowledge or connection to the acts.

For more than four years, she has lived with her mother, Theresa Esther Rivero Vargas, an 89-year-old elder, diabetic, with breast cancer and a hip fracture, who also collaborated with the rebel guerrillas.

According to the authorities, the owner knew of these activities because she had solicited authorization to rent a room and it was denied, the house being situated without 75 yards of school. The fact, once appreciated as an attempt to comply with the law, turned out to be an aggravation in the case.

Deysi Graciela, daughter of the Revolutionary fighter Sanchez Urquiza, appealed the verdict of the Provincial Directory of Housing of Las Tunas before the President of the National Institute of Housing, who reaffirmed the confiscation. As the last option and facing the impossibility of asking for justice before the courts, she requested the mediation of the President of the Province Government, but he admitted he did not have the power to resolve her case.

“It is a nightmare”, said tearful Deysi Graciela, who is still appealing to the authorities to defend her rights over the property. “This can not be what my father fought for and was prepared to sacrifice his life for. Thanks be to God he is not longer with us, because he would have died of disappointment.”

Photo: Eyanex, Panoramio. Las Tunas, Fountain of the Antilles.

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Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez

July 7 2011

Cuban State Remains Silent About Unconstitutional Measures / Laritza Diversent

The government extended authorizations to contract workers, a decision which violates the Constitution and which no tribunal can question.

Laritza Diversent

The Council of Ministers agreed to extend the authorization to hire workers in the 178 authorized activities of self employment. The measure was announced by the Granma Newspaper, the official voice of the Communist Party of Cuba, this past 17th of May during a meeting of the Cuban government in which they intended to update the “Economic Plan of 2011″.

The accord signed by the Council of Ministers violates and disrespects precepts of the State Constitution which acknowledges that Cubans have the right to use and enjoy their own personal goods. It also guarantees property over means and instruments of personal or family work. However, it prohibits contracting salary work.

In fact, other laws from the judicial system are violated as well. Contracting a work force is considered a crime by the penal code, which is punishable by up to 3 years of prison and or a 25,000 peso fine in national currency.

A silenced vital point for sustaining of the” rule of law”. Especially in Cuba, where no court of law can rule on the law’s constitutionality and guide or influence the actions of the legislature and the government.

On the island , the People’s Supreme Court is in charge of the judicial branch, but it is the parliament that decides the constitutionality of the laws enacted by themselves, the laws decreed, decrees, and the rest of the general rules and regulations, and that also revokes the judicial rules that contradict the national supreme law.

The ease with which the measures are adopted, still when it is unconstitutional, and the silence of the government respectively, creates mistrust, because the effectiveness and supremacy of the Cuban Constitution and the exercise of the fundamental rights recognized in it are affected.

A constitutional reform would offer guarantees to citizens who decide to exercise this right, to formally prevent new restrictions about the same things by political free will.

One fears that in the future, the government will rush off to prohibit the hiring of the workforce or they will be interested in putting the brakes on the boom of the sector, as happened in the last few years of the 90s, when they began to freeze the granting of licenses to the self-employed.

According to official statistics, since 1993, when the activity was authorized, until a little before the expansion and liberalization of the self-employed workforce in October 2010, the sector was made up of approximately 87,889 persons, 0.78% of the population. In 6 months, the figure tripled. Currently, 309,728 are self-employed, close to 2.76% of the islanders.

In the middle of the economic restructuring, the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party approved self-employment; it became the only economic activity that can be exercised individually by Cubans within the island.

Also, it constitutes an employment alternative. Since October, self-employment added up to almost 222,000 Cubans, of whom 68% didn’t have labor ties to the only legally recognized employer until October 2010, when self-employed work was expanded and liberalized.

Although the decision represents a benefit for the sector, its legitimacy brings an implicit constitutional and legal reform. The parliament, the organ that supposedly expresses and represents the will of the people, has the responsibility to defend the effectiveness and supremacy of the Cuban Constitution and to guarantee the interests and rights of the cuban people.

Translated by: BW

June 6 2011

The Party Approves Guidelines on the Rights of Cubans / Laritza Diversent

Although the word freedom was absent, 12.7% of the guidelines approved by the Communists, for the five years 2011-2015, referred to the human rights of Cubans

Laritza Diversent

The Communists clarified, before beginning the process of discussing the draft guidelines, that these would cover only economic and social policy, but they pushed through reforms that affect the exercise of human rights on the island.

Cuba has been a member of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations from 2006 to 2012. In February 2008 the state signed the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. At present, they have not been ratified.

Of the 313 guidelines approved, 40 are directly related to human rights, which represent 12.7%. Most of them, 36, are grouped in item number 6, under the heading “Social Policy” and generally refer to economic and cultural rights: health, education, employment, wages, social security, etc.

The remaining 4 are related to civil rights, specifically property and freedom of movement. Although with respect to this last one there was only a statement of good intentions. The Communists would consider a policy that allows Cubans living on the island to travel as tourists. This possibility does not mean the elimination of entry and exit permits.

The ideologues of Marxism-Leninism warned that they would not allow the concentration of ownership in the non-state sector. The conference, described as historic, had raised expectations inside and outside the island, about the possibility of making purchases of cars and homes on the island.

Although there was talk of updating the economic model, there are few changes. The system will continue based on the socialist ownership of all the people of the basic means of production. However, Cubans have no legal means to control the government, when it makes use of common goods.

The State, however, decides how its citizens have to use their personal property. It has the economic freedom to create and manage companies, but allows its citizens only to operate individually, by self-employment, described by many as the economy of small shops.

Although it touched on but did not recognize the theme of human rights, the reforms were not significant. Cubans continue to have, as their only option, the possibility of owning one single home. They need state approval to exchange, lease, donate or sell it. Nor can they predict how long they will have to ask permission to leave or enter their own country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

June 10 2011

Logic, Absurdity and Socialism in Cuba / Laritza Diversent

Logic passed through Cuba. He was curious about how socialist democracy worked, but full of doubts. He asked everyone he saw, and only Absurdity could give an answer. “Why have the decisions of a political party been so decisive in the life of an entire people?” was Logic’s first concern.

“The Sixth Communist Congress,” Absurdity began his explanation, “discussed the final draft guideline of economic and social policy of the Party and the Revolution, to update the Cuban economic model and ensure the continuity and irreversibility of socialism.”

“The continuity of socialism as a system must be decided by all the citizens,” interrupted Logic. “So why does a political party of nearly 800 thousand members decide the issues to be discussed and what should or should not be reformed? Were they elected by the people”? he asked.

“The Party does not participate in the elections, but it’s the driving force of the State,” answered Absurdity. “In this country we have made it clear that we will defend ourselves, if necessary with arms. Only socialism can overcome difficulties and preserve the gains of the revolution,” Absurdity affirmed.

“Does this mean that the Communist Party has more power of decision than the National Assembly, the body that represents and expresses the will of 11 million Cubans”? Logic inquired. “Don’t look at it like that,” replied Absurdity. “Look at it as the Party of the people.”

“So Cubans themselves decided to require permission to enter and leave their own country, and that only foreigners could have private businesses on the island, and that their own involvement in the economy would be limited to running tiny little stands and kiosks?” asked Logic. “Yes, it’s so,” said Absurdity. “We all decided to sacrifice ourselves for the Revolution and Socialism.”

Logic continued investigating. “As I have understood, now the National Assembly must transform into law the decisions adopted by the Communist Congress,” he commented. “Yes, that was the recommendation of the Party,” reaffirmed Absurdity. “So the Party commands and the Assembly obeys, without asking the people?” Logic asked.

“In fact, Cubans were consulted about the guidelines. For your information, they were analyzed by a little more than 8 million participants, and 3 of them spoke in the debate, a real lesson in democracy,” Absurdity commented.

“But you just told me that the Party isn’t a body elected by the people,” Logic again interrupted. “So in order for there to be institutions, there has to be a referendum. Logistically a popular referendum is a waste of resources, which, in the historic moment we are experiencing, we cannot assume.”

“To our historic leaders, it seemed more necessary to invest such efforts in a parade where we showed our military arsenal to our enemies. Many are those who want to destroy the Revolution and socialism, so only they have the experience to decide what is best for all,” explained Absurdity.

“This is democracy?” Logic asked in amazement. Absurdity frowned and looked cross. Logic understood that he shouldn’t continue asking questions. Something told him that he never would understand Absurdity’s explanations, much less his reasoning, about how socialism worked in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

May 30 2011

The Government Considers Abolishing the Invitation Letter as a Travel Requirement / Laritza Diversent

The streets of the island were full of comments after, around the middle of the month, the government brought out a paper with the debates of the congress, and a leaflet with the ideas that were passed, confirming that Cubans will be able to sell their houses and cars, and in the future to travel as tourists.

In the 60’s the revolutionary government, for political reasons, empowered the Ministry of the Interior to decide which Cubans could enter and leave the island. In 50 years the motives for emigrating have changed, but the controls and the bureaucracy involved haven’t.

At the moment Cubans cannot make international trips as tourists. The Law on Migration only allows people to leave Cuba on official business or to visit friends and family. Those who travel for private reasons have to show a letter of invitation.

“To consider a policy which permits Cubans resident in the country to travel abroad as tourists”, says the final line of decision number 265, passed in the communist congress, and intended to be carried out during the current five year period, which began in January 2011.

“Pack of lies, imagine waiting till 2015 to hear the results of the study, that there will be no entry or exit permits”, said Juan after buying the pamphlet. This man, about 40, wanted to check for himself the rumours that began to circulate the second week of May, when it went on sale.

The document must be applied for and issued in the country of residence of the inviting person and must be legalised through the consulates. It is valid for one year and is issued to a single invited person, for a single journey.

Its removal means the disappearance of one of the most troublesome pieces of bureaucracy which Cubans have to pay for in order to travel, and, as well as the visa of the country they want to visit, they also need to get an entry and exit permit.

The problem then would be that the State would give an entry permit to someone who, under whatever conditions, would be a potential emigrant. Ecuador abolished the visa requirement for Cuba. Since then thousands of Cubans, legally or illegally, are looking to legalise their situation in that country.

Undoubtedly it will still take a lot to abolish the system of permits and discretionary powers which the government has to issue them. In these proposals there is a lack of precision — the word freedom is also missing — and, whatever it says, few Cubans are hopeful of travelling as tourists some day.

Translated by: Jack Gibbard

May 26 2011

The Smell of the Carob Tree / Laritza Diversent

David was found guilty of murder by the Camaguey tribunal after investigators from the Ministry of the Interior found traces of his scent on the trunk of a carob tree.

Laritza Diversent

In its sentence number 57 of March 30, 2007, the Camaguey Court sentenced Delvis David Pena Mainer to 40 years imprisonment for the assassination of a young 23-year-old man and his 17-year-old wife. Delvis, 44 years old, declared himself innocent but the Camaguey court found him guilty through a “pile of existing proofs against him”.

According to the organ of justice, on January 27, 2005, David waited for his neighbor behind a carob tree. When he arrived, he attacked him with brutal machete blows until he killed him. The wife of the young man heard the desperate pleas and ran out to help him, but upon seeing the crime she turned back and ran. Pena Mainer followed her and violently attacked her with his machete. The young woman died of excessive loss of blood due to so many wounds.

The couple moved to the “New Times”, a locality of the municipality of the Vertientes in Camaguey. There were rumors in the neighborhood that the young man had sexual relations with the daughter of his neighbor, David, and also with his wife. Pena Mainer “decided to rid himself of the insult he was being subjected to, eliminating him physically”, affirmed the tribunal in their sentence.

David had undergone three operations on his spine after an accident which occurred in 1999. In 2000, his injuries disqualified him from permanent work. The tribunal determined that “he did not suffer from a certain illness that would impede his movement”, however, they did not comment on his ability to run after a young woman to attack her.

The body of the young man was 11 meters from the carob tree. “The investigator shrewdly suggested that they take samples from the smell of the tree”, the court said. David acknowledged having been there 15 days before and five days after the crime, but the tribunal said that the argument did not justify “the presence of his scent in that specific place”.

In the same fashion, the judges rejected the evidence for the defense, relating to “the canine technique applied”. According to the court, the investigator confirmed that “the hound lost the trail” and the proof was not significant, without specifying when this was realized.

In their sentence, the court also did not expose any information about the measures which were taken to protect the scene of the crime against environmental contamination or the peoples’ curiosity. The fact “provoked a grand commotion among the population”, according to the judge.

According to the court, the injuries found on both victims were carried out by a right-handed person, like Pena Mainer, who was also found with a sharp blade. In the handle of the weapon there was some blood, “…although they were not able to determine to which species it corresponded”, the court added.

The judges accepted an experiment which was done on 4 different blades to prove the similarity between the chips seen by an unskilled artist, a neighbor of Pena Mainer, when he uncovered the suspected culprit days after the crime. The witness noticed one which was broken against the head of a pig, according to expert Zurdo. The sentence does not explain with which objects the left ones were nicked.

After four years in prison, Delvis David seeks new elements to justify his innocence. He was hoping to compare blood samples found on the weapon, with DNA of the victims, but the judges ordered the blade to be delivered to the Union of Corrective Labour with Sabanilla internment in Camagüey.

In reality, there is a low probability that his case will be reviewed by a superior court. Not after the judged from the province with the evidence ordered “the destruction and disposal” of various articles of clothing of the victims, some with “stains of hematic aspect”, spots of blood from the place of the events and two slides hanged in the carob tree where they were impregnated by its smell.

Translated by Raul G and Ivana Recmanová

May 8 2011

The Official Press, a Sedative for Change / Laritza Diversent

By now we’re used to the newspaper Granma, which excessively highlights one piece of news and omits another. Of course, it’s the official organ of the government and the Communist Party, which owns it and therefore decides what is reported and how. However, it’s difficult to accept the fact that the media is used to propagate the culture of fear and repression.

Looking for information on receiving satellite signals and antennas, I found in the Official Gazette of the Republic, which publishes Cuban laws, one order of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers (CECM) and two from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) regulating the issue: Resolutions Nos. 98 and 99 from 1995, and Decree No. 269 of 2000.

The rules consider it a violation to import, manufacture, sell or install equipment, antennas, accessories and other devices for receiving radio communications from space, among which are included television signals, as well as broadcasting them.

The regulations provided for administrative fines of 1000 pesos for individuals and 10 to 20 thousand for companies. However, several newspaper articles from Granma informed the public that the fines were 10 to 20 thousand pesos, without specifying. The figures applied by MIC inspectors, at their discretion, could be for either an individual or a company.

The most characteristic work of Granma was the article entitled “Piracy of Satellite Signals” by the journalist Lourdes Pérez Navarro, in August 2006. The reporter revealed how, inside the island, the illegal broadcasting of foreign television programs was developed, the national standards that they violated and their harsh punishments.

According to the journalist, the customers for the business of broadcasting foreign television signals receive “spaces with an avalanche of commercial propaganda that displays the appearance of capitalism, anti-Cuban messages and even pornography.”

She even gave a political-ideological touch to the matter. “In the case of Cuba, part of the programming that is received in this way contains destabilizing content, which is interventionist, subversive and which calls, increasingly, for carrying out terrorist activities,” she said.

Three years later, through those alien television signals, Cubans watched as Amaury Pérez acknowledged that in Cuba “there is no freedom to have an antenna” and ” … thousands of justifications for not having Internet.”

They picture Pérez saying on Cuban television, “I have an antenna” like he did on the program “To the Point” from the television network Univisión, during his trip to Miami in the last quarter of 2009.

The singer admitted having brought it in from Mexico. “… I installed it even though it was one of the larger ones, not so small. At that time nobody had any idea about the antenna, but I … television for me is very important,” he said. Amaury did not say whether he had permission to use the service. What is certain is that he could see it in Cuba thanks to the illegal reception of signals.

Pérez Navarro claimed that “the broadcasting of satellite programs, technically known as a multipoint distribution system through microwave,” was authorized as a telecommunications service with a limited character.

In other words, in Cuba, only expressly authorized companies can distribute and enjoy the service, people who are given permission by the MIC to be users. The journalist also omitted that the service was coded and intended mainly for tourism and the diplomatic corps.

Pérez Navarro usually covers the “Issues of Law” section in Granma. The article also reported that the piracy of signals “… violates agreed-upon international regulations of usage” and commits “a chain of crimes and administrative violations, which call for severe sentences under various laws and judicial norms.”

She masterfully exposed all the crimes involved in the case. She began with smuggling, which carries penalties of up to 3 years’ imprisonment and fines between 15 and 50 thousand pesos. According to the reporter, tourists and Cubans living abroad were bringing receivers and cards into the country, in violation of customs laws.

“We have detected that another way to own antennas has been the pilfering of such equipment or accessories from persons authorized to provide the service,” she said. In this case, she warned that this was committing the “crime of theft or robbery with force” and another of receiving stolen property, for whoever acquired these things on the black market.

She mentioned other crimes: “illegal economic activities,” by providing the service without a license, aggravated by the use of materials from the black market. “Speculation or monopolization” by purchasing merchandise for resale, and “Damage,” when “electric and telephone poles are disabled or transmission is broken by relocating the cables.”

She also warned that administratively there are “heavy fines and confiscation for the transgressors….The broadcasting of satellite programs requires a license granted by the agency of control and supervision of the Ministry of Information and Communications, an entity that has inspectors with the full authority to impose fines and confiscate equipment when violations are detected.”

In her article she quoted verbatim the contravention referred to in the articles of Decree-Law No 157 of 1995, another of the rules governing the matter, which states that “the amount of the fines to be imposed … shall be determined by the Minister of Information and Communications.” But she distorts the information when she gives the figure for the amount of the fines, as set forth by Resolutions 98 and 99 of that Ministry.

“A fine could be imposed of from 10 to 20 thousand pesos in national currency, or its equivalent at the official exchange rate in convertible currency, besides other administrative confiscation as an additional measure without the right of compensation or any payment,” Pérez Navarro said in her article.

She further reported that “according to Decree Law No. 99, inspectors are empowered to raise said fine up to half of the maximum (10 thousand pesos more), which could mean imposing financial penalties of up to 30 thousand pesos.”

For the finishing touch, she said: “For some, the illegal distribution of satellite television programs has become a form of unjust enrichment, which comes under Legislative Decree 149 of 1994, and they will be deprived by means of confiscation of substantial possessions that do not correspond to their perceived salaries and that they cannot justify.”

Pérez Navarro finished her report stating that “the work of persuasion of the masses” was essential “to eradicate this practice at once to support authorities charged with enforcing regulations for those who with absolute irresponsibility violate the law.”

I confess that my mouth fell open, with Pérez Navarro’s report. That regulatory clarification did not promote the observance of the law, but rather the culture of fear and repression among Cubans. I won’t dedicate even a single sentence to denounce the MIC and its inspectors, for violating the law and defrauding the public. Not to mention that to do its work they violate the citizen’s right to a home, a constitutional right.

The official press knows they have the power to dictate what is right or wrong, what to see, hear and read, and who to obey, through the dissemination of information. However, it doesn’t dare question the politics of exclusion and repression that ithe government implements through its socialist legality, for the people it promised to serve. In other words, it’s the sedative of change.

Translated by Regina Anavy

May 6 2011

The Trap of Socialist Democracy / Laritza Diversent

I attempted to keep my mouth shut during the celebration of the Congress and to analyze the event with a positive mind, but I could not do it. I can’t stand it when communists talk about democracy, where a single party exists as does the unity of power.

Theoretically the explanation of these principles is very dull, but in practice it has a very simple demonstration. It’s enough to refer to the official reports published in the press organ of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), where the State Council, a constitutional organ which is subordinate to the Parliament, acts according to the Party’s Political Bureau.

Apparently, at the time of making decisions, multiple organs intervene. However, with the new election of the Political Bureau, 10 of their 15 members make up the State Council. That is called concentration of power, but communists like to call it “democratic centralism”.

Despite the fact that, in his 3 years of rule, Raul Castro dismissed political figures which were named by his older brother, 20 of the 31 members of the State Council make up the PCC’s Central Committee, and 72% of those members of the partisan body are delegates.

In fact, it is predicted that the level of agreement will increase with the next mandate of the Parliament which will begin in 2013. In January 2012 they will celebrate the PCC’s National Conference, which aims to restructure the composition of the Party and where pre-candidates will be chosen for the next general elections to fill the State positions.

Regardless, by law, the members of parliament must approve the guidelines assigned to them by the Party through their Political Bureau. The Constitution of 1976 acknowledges that the PCC is the “leading superior force of Cuban society and the State”. That same acknowledgment is also found in the first article of regulations of the National Assembly.

The most worrying thing about this is the priority which the concerns of those who elect them occupy in the agendas of the rulers. For example, Raul Castro is Chief of State and Government, while also First Secretary of the Political Bureau of the PCC’s Central Committee. Will he have enough time to worry about the problems of the Second Front municipality in Santiago de Cuba which he represents?

Esteban Lazo was elected by Arroyo Naranjo. Besides being a member of the State Council he is also a member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the PCC’s Central Committee. I wonder if this man knows that the territory from which he was elected is the poorest of the capital and the one with the highest rate of violence.

The partisan structure and integration coincides and confuses itself with the state level. Under those conditions, it is not strange that the political decisions of the partisan minority, made up of nearly 800 thousand members, will be unanimously approved in the National Assembly, that organ which represent and expresses the will of more than 11 million Cubans. It is there where the trap of socialist democracy lies.

Translated by Raul G.

May 18 2011

Freedom and Permission are not Synonymous / Laritza Diversent

The Communist Party Congress increases expectations, yet the changes announced do not imply more freedoms for Cubans.

Laritza Diversent

Cubans on and off the island are anxiously awaiting the announcement that certain prohibitions in regards to the buying and selling of houses and cars will be lifted. However, there is an excessive amount of optimism.

According to some street commentaries, the new legislation which would allow the buying and selling of homes was already ready before the Congress, though no one dared to speak of it first, under the conditions that it would allow judicial acts, legally prohibited within the Cuban system.

There is only one premise: in 50 years of revolution, and despite the errors, the historic leadership has not resigned control. If we try to answer some questions we will reach the conclusion that under the “Socialist Revolution” there will always be restrictions, or better said, prohibitions.

Will a Cuban be able to be the owner of his own home? Will the state resign its power of preferential acquisition? Will those who leave the country be able to sell their goods? Will they eliminate the legal system’s administrative confiscation?

To think that the socialist State will grant the freedom to sell homes and cars is pure ingenuity. We should only remember that in the guidelines approved by the Party they warned that they would not allow the concentration of property in the hands of private owners.

Although they may sell it as a reform, it is inevitable to see the permission to sell cars and homes as a new form of business which will eventually be controlled by the prices of the black market. The strategy is not new. They test it out with gradually removing products from the ration book, which are now sold at informal prices.

The economic valuation or appraisal of vehicles and houses are currently overvalued in the black market and depreciated by the State. If the government tolerates the prices of the informal market, the taxes will increase for the transfer of property. Without a doubt there will be earnings with the transactions which, despite the prohibitions, had been done illegally.

Meanwhile, I do not believe that the new legislative modification will repeal Law 989/61 which implements the “measures to be taken on real estate or personal property, or on any other class of value, etc. for those who abandon national territory with unforgivable disdain”.

Similarly, it’s not very likley that the National Assembly or the State Council will repeal the norms which allow the administration to judge acts which are supposedly criminal and to apply proceedings of confiscation guided by the principal of presumption of culpability and responsibility for the actions of others.

They will talk about reforms, but real changes will be very little, which is to say none at all. There are no guarantees while the government continues to have the right to administratively confiscate and the proprietors do not have the possibility of demanding justice before the courts. There is far too much optimism towards the announced changes made by the PCC. Freedom and permission are not synonymous.

Translate by Raul G.

May 16 2011

Cuban Justice has the Gift of Second Sight / Laritza Diversent

The court of Camagüey sentenced Delvis David Peña Mainer to 40 years in jail, for the brutal murder with a machete of 23-year-old Yeinier Moreno Leyva and his wife, 17-year-old Yuliet Urquiz Batista.

Peña Mainer, 44, pleaded not guilty. According to the court, the assessment of the available evidence against him was “exhaustive, objective and above all based on scientific principles” which turned out to be consistent and “which lead inevitably to the conviction that the accused is guilty of the crime.”

The tribunal accepted unreservedly, “because of its scientific rigour”, that the “psychological autopsies” of the victims of the crime, which it described as “effective and true instruments”, because “they are in agreement with the real characteristics of the subjects”.

Yeinier, the murdered young man, “was essentially an insecure character, lacking confidence, who made sex a priority”, the sentence claimed. This circumstance showed, firstly, the motives of the accused based on the existing comments, and secondly, that he went to meet him because he knew him and they were friends.

The couple moved away from “Tiempos Nuevos”, a neighbourhood in Vertientes, in Camagüey, but it was rumoured there that Yeinier was having sex with the daughter of his neighbour, David, and also with his wife.

Peña Mainer “decided to avenge the insult that he was being subjected to, physically removing it”, the court confirmed, describing the man as obsessive and hysterical. A psychiatric examination and a graphological analysis were carried out on him, which stated that “he was capable of carrying out this horrific crime”, according to the court of justice of Camagüey.

Peña Mainer had no criminal record but, at the trial, several witnesses “described him as a violent, untrustworthy man who was always ready to use the machete to sort out any problem, however unimportant”.

Specialists from the Meteorological Centre of Camagüey confirmed that on the night of the murder, there was natural light. The report showed that Yuliet, the murdered woman, identified Peña Mainier during the attack, and so, having been discovered, he decided to kill her.

A psychological autopsy was also performed on the citizen Francisco, a neighbour, who, after the murders, committed suicide. The evidence showed that he “gave priority to his work, was a quiet man who valued friendship and had a great sense of shame, so that his way of life can be classified as acceptable”.

“The analyst could not say that his death was not related to the events, but he stated that, judging by these aspects of his personality, he was not capable of committing a crime of this nature”, declared the sentence of the court.

The Court of Camagüey, with Sentence number 57 of the 30th March 2007, showed a new kind of power in the Cuban justice system. Not only does it uphold the law, rigorously and severely.  It also abuses its skill at fortune-telling. It communicates with the spirits of the dead to conclude with absolute certainty that Peña Mainer is guilty.

Translated by: Jack Gibbard

May 12 2011

Just imagine Amaury Pérez Saying “I have an antenna” on Cuban Television / Laritza Diversent

We’re used to the daily paper, Granma, emphasizing some news and omitting other. After all, it’s the official organ of the Communist Party. The party owns it and, therefore, decides what and how it reports. It’s difficult, however, to accept that the media is used to propagate a culture of fear and repression.

Looking for information about the reception of satellite signals and antennas in the Official Gazette of the Republic, a place where Cuban laws are published, I found one provision from the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, and two from the Ministry of Informatics and Communications (MIC) regulating the issue.

They are Resolutions 98 and 99 of the year 1995 and Decree No. 269 of the year 2000. These rules consider it a violation to import, make, sell, or install equipment, antennas, accessories and other receptor equipment for radio communications, among which are television signals. They also prohibit their distribution.

The legislation imposes administrative fines of one thousand dollars for individuals and from 10 thousand to 20 thousand dollars for companies. However, several newspaper articles in Granma reported to the public that the fines were 10 to 20 thousand dollars, without specifying. Amounts are applied at the discretion of the MIC Inspectors, whether to an individual or a company.

The most characteristic work in Granma was “Pirating Satellite Signals,” by Lourdes Perez Navarro, published in August of 2006. The journalist exposed the way in which the business of illegally distributing foreign television programs have developed inside the island, the national rules transgressed and the severe punishments.

According to the reporter, clients of the business of distribution of the foreign television signal receive an avalanche of commercial advertisement that shows a view into capitalism, anti Cuban messages and even pornography.

She even tapped the political-ideological issue. “In the case of Cuba, part of the programming is received in this way, content is destabilizing, interventionist, subversive, and calls, increasingly, to terrorist activities, ” she wrote.

Three years later, and through those crazy television signals, the Cubans saw how Amaury Pérez admitted that in Cuba “there is no freedom to have an antenna” and thousands of justifications for not having Internet access”

Can you imagine Amary Pérez saying “I have an antenna” in the Cuban television? as he did in the Univision program “Al punto” during a trip to Miami toward the end of 2009.

The composer/singer admitted to having brought it from Mexico. “I even had it when they were even bigger, not so small, at that time nobody had the antenna idea, but for me television is very important” he commented, Amaury didn’t say if he had authorization to enjoy that privilege. It is true that the program was seen in the island thanks to the reception of illegal signals.

In 2006, the Granma journalist claimed that “the spread of satellite programs technically known as multipoint distribution system by microwave,” was authorized as a limited telecommunications service.

In other words, in Cuba only specifically authorized distribution companies can distribute them, and they can only be enjoyed by the people approved by the MIC as a user. The journalist also omitted that the service is coded and was intended mainly for tourism and the diplomatic corps.

Lourdes Pérez Navarro, who regularly covers the section Laws Issues in the newspaper Granma, said that signal piracy “violates international regulations agreed for its use” and in its realization “a string of crimes and administrative violations are committed that warrant severe sentences under different laws and legal regulations.”

She explained in detail all the crimes involved around the issue. She began with smuggling, which provides penalties of up to 3 years imprisonment and fines between 15 thousand and 50 thousand dollars. According to the reporter, tourists and Cubans living abroad bring into the country signal receivers and memory cards, in violation of customs laws.

She said we have detected that another way to own antennas has been the removal of such equipment or accessories from persons authorized to hire the service, “In this case, she said, the “crime of robbery or burglary or receiving stolen merchandise by force was committed,” for those who acquired it on the illegal market.

She mentioned other crimes: the “illegal economic activities, by providing the service without a license, which is aggravated when using black market material. The “speculation or hoarding” by purchasing goods for resale and “damage”, when “electric and telephone poles are disabled or roads are broken to pass the wires.”

She also warned that administratively there were “heavy fines and confiscation for the transgressors.” “The spread of satellite programs requires a license issued by the agency of control and supervision of the Ministry of Informatics and Communications, an entity that has full authority inspectors to impose fines and confiscate equipment when violations are detected?

And she literally cited the violation under the articles of Decree-Law No 157 of 1995, another of the rules governing the matter, and records that the amount of fines to be imposed shall be determined by the minister. However, she misrepresented the information when she stated the figure for the amount of fines, as established by resolutions 98 and 99 of that ministry.

“A fine of 10 thousand to 20 thousand pesos in national currency or its equivalent at the official rate convertible currency will be imposed, as well as administrative measure the ancillary confiscation without compensation or payment,” Perez Navarro affirmed in her statement.

The same way she reported that “according to Decree Law No. 99, inspectors are empowered to raise the fine up to half of the maximum (10 thousand pesos more) for what it could impose financial penalties of up to 30,000 pesos.”

And she stressed that as for some, “illegal distribution of satellite television has become as unjust enrichment, ” these people are subject to the Decree Law 149 of 1994 and by confiscation are deprived of substantial assets “that do not correspond in relation to income and can not be justified.”

Lourdes Pérez Navarro completed her report by stating that “the work of persuasion of the masses” was essential “to eradicate this practice, while supporting the authorities responsible for enforcing those regulations against those who with absolute irresponsibility utterly violate the law.”

I was left with my mouth agape by that report. Deployment of standards that did not promote the observance of the law, but the culture of fear and repression among Cubans. Not one sentence devoted to denounce the MIC and its inspectors, for violating the law and defrauding the public. Nor did she mention that for those inspectors to do their job, they violate citizens’ homes, a constitutional right.

The official press has the power to know that, through information, dictating what is right or wrong. That to see, hear and read, and whom to obey. However, no one dares to question the politics of exclusion and repression that the government implements, in a supposedly socialist legality committed to serving the people.

Laritza Diversent, Cubanet

Translated by: Mari Mesa Contreras

April 28 2011

The Internet is a Question Mark in Cuba / Laritza Diversent

Cuban civil society is looking forward to what will happen in July when the network structure of the island is connected to to the fiber optic cable that came in early February to Cuba from Venezuela. The event, which will multiply by 3,000 the speed of data transmission, also helped the government admit its fear of individual use of the virtual tools of information.

In 1996, Cuba was officially connected to the Internet, but the government made ​​clear, legally, its policy towards full access to the services the network provides. Since then, the “network of networks” is centrally managed by Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (ETECSA) and operated by state institutions specifically authorized by the Ministry of Informatics and Communications (MIC).

Beginning in the year 2000, the Cuban government implemented, legally and technologically, an infrastructure that allows it to control access by Cubans to the Internet, through a hierarchical network of state agencies, identified as providers of “Public Services of Internet Access.”

That same year, a common international access point to the network (NAP) was legally established, ensuring that all international outgoing Internet traffic was sent from that connection. In that way, it was assured that the interconnections between national users of the Internet were routed through the national transmission media.

At the end of January 2011, the Cuban government announced the sale of the foreign shares in ETECSA, and also the purchase, at 706 million dollars, by RAFIN, a Cuban company owned by brothers Raúl and Fidel Castro. The possession of most of the shares lets them control the principal provider of the public service of data transmission.

The providers of Public Services of Internet Access cannot accept requests for installation by persons not duly authorized by the MIC. However, the regulations governing the activity requires them to accept as users “all natural or legal persons who want it.” However, the same laws have a proviso. Providers offer their services “without more limitations than those imposed by the laws in force in the country.” Since 1996, the Cuban government declared that “access to computer networks of global reach shall have a selective character” and “will have to be approved by the Interministerial Committee” composed of five ministers and chaired by the head of the MIC.

Among other legal obligations, these providers “are required to define the authorization of persons and entities that require the use of national or international Internet access services,” including “remote access from home or anywhere in the country, as well as from abroad.” They also have a duty to report the number of users with full access to the Internet, those with e-mail accounts and their IP addresses. Also required are the number of computers that access the network from places of residence and publicly. A supplier who fails to comply with the regulations of the MIC may lose its operating license.

In 2004, the Cuban government designated the “Internet Zone” to the spaces in hotels, post offices, cybercafes, etc, which provide navigation services over the Internet and email to the public costing between 1.50 and 10 convertible pesos (CUC) for one hour of access to the Web. In 2008, it completely regulated service in these centers, after Raúl Castro announced that Cubans could receive services in hotels, and authorized the sale of computers in the retail foreign currency market.

From that moment, the alternative Cuban blogosphere began to develop, currently composed of about 40 blogs critical of the government, belonging to a group of citizens, mainly young people who update their sites from hotels, embassies or with the help of relatives and friends abroad .

Providers must also block “access to sites whose contents are contrary to social interests, ethics and morals, as well as the use of applications that affect the integrity or security of the state.” One of the works of the Interministerial Commission created in 1996 was to ensure that the information “is reliable, and that it is obtained in line with ethical principles, and does not affect the interests or security of the country.”

The Cuban government is mainly concerned that the new generation of dissidents uses Twitter, Facebook and other online social networks. These sites were used to organize digital protests earlier this year that led to several revolutions in the Middle East.

Last March, the newspaper Granma announced, according to statements by Justice Minister Maria Esther Reus, that “Cuba will adjust the existing legal rules to the decisions taken as a result of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba,” held April 16 to 19.

Motivated by the advent of fiber optic cable to Cuba, the deputy minister of MIC, Jorge Luis Perdomo, referred to the development of the first Telecommunications Act to regulate the sector and to “promote order” in the services it encompasses. The progress in technological development that was represented with the arrival of the fiber optics cable to the island was overshadowed after State Security considered the “network of networks” as the new “battlefield”–a cyberwar–and the official media demonized the use of communication equipment.

Faced with these developments, there is no doubt that the future of the Internet in Cuba has a question mark hanging over it.

Translated by Regina Anavy