Category: AUTHORS

Preface for an Economic Study / Cuban Law Association, Eliocer Cutino Rodriguez

Eliocer Cutiño Rodríguez

As an attorney, to speak in economic terms is a litmus test or a tightrope walk, and which both situations demand respect for a central issue in the lives of other social spheres in which man intervenes.

I will not elaborate further, I will comment as to my views on the new, but limited, economic opening that is being talked of in the country today.

The current environment of small and smaller private Cuban businesses, as we can not speak of medium enterprises, are generally characterized by lack of rights of the owners, higher personal income taxes and sometimes for alleged profits are actually received by the self-employed. continue reading

Similarly, the lack of legal power and along with this, of institutions that guarantee impartiality toward the breach of contractual obligations, require a third party does that not respond to the state interests and serves as a mediator with potential conflicts.

If to this we add that the practice requires efficient and accessible accounting programs, due to the lack of basic training to meet the new challenges and the lack of expertise in performing the activity; elements that objectively hinder the essence of the establishment and management of a business for its development.

Until these constraints are resolved, the platform on which these controversial private forms are erected is born crooked, and to paraphrase the old saying, if one builds on a such a platform it can never be straightened.

23 December 2013

Discordant Note / Cuban Law Association, Eliocer Cutino Rodriguez

Eliocer Cutiño Rodríguez

The issue of development in Cuba goes back and forth between dissimilar solutions, between truths and errors, heading toward new labyrinths that contain new and more complex situations difficult to control with a simple decree.

Last year Decrees 305 and 306 were issued in order to establish as a source of law a rule which itself shelters disadvantages with exclusive principles of new forms of non-agricultural cooperatives.

Centralization for approval undermines the facilities they could count on and sets aside the purely local interests for those they will create, considering that they are also municipal and provincial local bodies, and are evaluated by the Standing Committee and Council of Ministers. continue reading

There are limitations regarding the hiring of workers which could be up to three months and therefore work and wage instability for those who can not continue working under these conditions, limiting to short cycles the work periods without there being a legal justification for this impediment.

Finally I will suggest that possible criminal situations could arise from not guaranteeing the wholesale market inputs for the activity to cushion the difference between the state and private sectors, greatly exacerbating the competition as an intrinsic form of development of productive relationships.

30 December 2013

Disconnection / Rebeca Monzo

The last days of last year and the first of this year, I’ve been in a state of limbo without news from outside, except now and then when, putting my ear to the radio speaker and trying to ignore the screech of the interference, I’ve managed to hear fragments of programs from Radio Marti, plus some news that comes by mail from abroad, like the one that brought me the crazy list of cars and prices that the Cuban government is trying to sell to us, a population with an enormous difficulty in buying a quart of olive oil because the price is so high.

Why don’t they devote resources to solving the great problem of housing instead of bringing cars which, given their brands and prices, make us suspect they’re the result of shady deals, given the craziness of trying to sell them in our country? Where are the auto repair shops and the parts, as well as the personal capacity to maintain them, in case some crazy person decides to buy a car instead of an apartment for the same price?

I’m desperate for our friends — who, in solidarity, give us a few hours of Internet each week — to end their much-deserved vacation so that we can return to connecting to the real world.

8 January 2014

Alchemy and Lies / Yoani Sanchez

“The Alchemist” – Oil by Mattheus van Hellemont

We live in a society of alchemists. They don’t turn iron into gold, but they are skilled at replacing ingredients and adulterating almost everything. Their goal is to cheat every client or to steal from the State itself. To achieve this they use even Mendeleev’s periodic table in search of elements that can be replaced by cheaper ones.

Some of these ingenious formulas deserve an Anti-Nobel in Chemistry, especially for their negative effects on human health. Such is the case with a lengthy recipe for tomato sauce that includes beets, boiled sweet potatoes, spices, cornstarch and red hair dye. When a curious observer asks, “And the tomato?” the inventors respond, almost scolding, “No, there’s no tomato.”

So the streets are full of glue sticks that when you press them only contain air. Bottles of shampoo mixed with clothes-washing detergent. Soap with plastic shavings added by the employees at the factory who resell the raw materials. Bottles of rum that come off clandestine production lines with hospital alcohol and burned sugar to simulate aging. Bottled water, refilled from some tap and offered for sale on the shelves of many markets. continue reading

Needless to say the imitations of Cohiba cigars and other brands are sold to naive tourists as if they were authentic. Nothing is what it seems. A good part of the population accepts these deceptions and feels a certain solidarity with the cheaters. “People have to live somehow,” they justify, with even the most injured treating it like a joke.

Within the long list of what is falsified, rationed bread occupies first place. This is the most adulterated product in our basic food basket, its formula lost decades ago due to standardization and the diversion of resources.

In the bakeries, the “alchemists” have reached the heights of true genius. They add huge amounts of yeast to the dough to make it rise so much that we get “air bread,” which leaves us with sore gums and unfilled stomachs. And don’t even mention the substitution of baking flour for other uses in the making of pasta and noodles. With this process we end up with something in our mouths that is hard, dry and flavorless. Best not to look before you eat, because the appearance is worse than the taste.

If Paracelsus were resurrected, he would have to come to this Island. He would learn so much!

8 January 2014

Strong Surveillance in Prison of Writer Angel Santiesteban / Dania Virgen Garcia

HAVANA, Cuba, January 7, 2014, Dania Virgen García / www.cubanet.org.- From the  Lawton prison settlement belonging to the Interior Ministry (MININT), a center that oversees construction materials for the manufacture of military housing, writer Angel Santiesteban Prats told this reporter that he is being subjected to arbitrary measures, and harassment.
On 4 January, a group of 19 prisoners was released on passes — prisoners who are being punished for crimes such as drug trafficking, murder, fraud, arms trafficking, economic crime, and human trafficking, among others. Santiesteban was alone with two guards and was watched around the clock. Shortly thereafter, in order to reinforce the monitoring, a jailer was sent from the Valle Grande prison, who stood in the doorway of the barracks from four in the afternoon until the following morning.

From the time he arrived, the new jailer watched him with suspicion, and the writer saw him several times, especially in the morning, watching him through the window of the barracks. This continued until the next day .

On the morning of the 6th, this jailer was reinforced with the arrival of another. The two guards are standing next to the third guard at the entrance of the barracks.

With the two mentioned above this is the fifth time the writer has been subjected to this arriving at the prison settlement on August 2nd. The famous artist accused of domestic violence and condemned to five years in prisons, expects to be subjected to an additional guard in a few days.

dania.zuzy@gmail.com

7 January 2014

Hablemos Press Correspondent Arrested

HAVANA, 7 Jan 2014, Hablemos Press / www.cubanet.org — Yesterday the correspondent Luis Ignacio González was arrested by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) while taking pictures and conducting interviews with passersby in Miramar about the sale of cars.

González was taken to the 5th. Police Unit in Playa, where he was detained several hours under interrogation and threats by an agent who identified himself as Luisito.

It is the second arrest of a Hablemos Press correspondent this month. Pablo Morales Marcán was arrested on 3 January in Obispo Street, in Old Havana, Havana, after offering comments to the Radio Martí.

7 January 2014

The Commander Erased from the Currency / Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces

Hubert Matos does not appear on the bill. Photo by the author
Hubert Matos does not appear on the bill. Photo by the author

GUANTANAMO, Cuba, January – www.cubanet.org These days, as every year, young activists of the UJC (Communist Youth), FEU (Federation of University Students) and veterans of the rebel army, reenact the trip from Santiago de Cuba to Havana made by the then young and hopeful commander-in-chief Fidel Castro Ruz with other guerrillas.

The entry into the capital on January 8, 1959 which was called the Caravan of Freedom, was an extraordinary historical event that filled the people of Havana with joy, as it had hundreds of thousands of Cubans along the way to whom they promised the restoration of the 1940 Constitution, the civil and political liberties Batista had taken away, and free elections after the tyrant was ousted.

Huber Matos then
Huber Matos then

Also in these days, the TV re-broadcasts a video about Fidel entering Havana and, although the images have been edited, the informed spectator knows that the guerrilla appearing briefly to the left of Fidel is Commander Huber Matos. Today, few young Cubans know who Huber Matos was, perhaps because he was only referred to with the epithet of traitor from October 1959, which the Cuban leaders saddled him with.

So they ignore that on the back of the One Peso (CUP, not convertible) bill where the screened imaged of Camilo and Fidel appear, there should also be the guerrilla commander in adherence to historical truth, the same one who Fidel mentions in his concept of Revolution. continue reading

These young people are also unaware of the importance Huber Matos had in strengthening the guerrilla struggle in the Sierra Maestra and in organizing the supply of arms and his decisive influence on the guerrilla victory. They ignore the role played by the Column No. 9 in taking Santiago de Cuba, always minimizing it, and that this Cuban who was born in 1918 was the quickest to reach the rank of commander of the Rebel Army.

Huber Matos now, in exile in Miami
Huber Matos now, in exile in Miami

Also are also unaware that once the revolutionary triumph was achieved, Huber Matos was perhaps the only commander who requested clarification from Fidel Castro about the direction the revolution was taking, as unmistakable signs of Communist penetration in the military and in all structures power of the revolutionary government were already apparent, which was vehemently denied by Fidel Castro in the trial that began in late 1959 against Huber and a group of rebel officers, a few days after the mysterious disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos.

For the young people today are reenacting that journey of that Caravan of Freedom, they are also unaware how difficult life has been for the former members of the Column No.9 who decided to stay in Cuba, many of them discriminated against for the mere fact of having fought for the restoration of democracy in Cuba under the direction of Huber Matos.

Some day, when all sources are consulted and analyzed and the people have access to them, the history of guerrilla period and period after 1959 can be written objectively. I am sure that then the name of Commander Huber Matos will not be accompanied by an unfair stigma.

A man cannot be accused of being a traitor when he risked his life for the good of the country, not to mention when he remained consistent with the democratic principles that led to the Cuban Revolution and are reflected in the Moncada program and the Covenants of Mexico and the Sierra Maestra.

Roberto Jesús Quiñones Haces

Cubanet | 8 January 2014

The Eye of Cubanet / Frank Correa

Venus Bustamente and her family
Venus Bustamente and her family

HAVANA, Cuba , January www.cubanet.org – In 2013, I had two clear references to the attention is paying to the allegations of some independent journalists, divulged in the fee media, especially the digital.

The first occurred in October, about the case published in Cubanet about a young single mother named Venus, who lives with her four children, her father and her brother, in total overcrowding and misery, in a small room on 232 Street, in Jaimanitas.

Venus’s father and brother are occupationally disabled — mentally ill — and she has claimed support for her two daughters from a nephew-grandson of the diseased president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, a young man who while studying at the Latin American School of Medicine, had a six-year relationships with Venus.

As of today, she has not received a response from the Venezuelan Embassy; in exchange, on three occasions officials of the Cuban government have visited the address that appears in the article and were able to see the misery, the lack of protection and lack of hygiene in which this family lives. continue reading

The first commission came with sabers in hand, dictating that the mentally ill should be admitted; for her, she would get a job and the children would get places in boarding school, but Venus said resolutely but that she would not be separated from her children. Her father and brother were calm, working to seek support, and she would continue waiting for the reply from Venezuela.

The second commission was more consistent. It concluded that the family would go to a shelter, until it could provide a them a house, but Venus and her family opposed this option. They requested materials to fix the room.

The third commission dictated that a People’s Power brigade would start working in December on installing a bathroom, then the walls and roof, to fix the room and make it habitable. And it was true. They have already started with the plumbing and wiring.

The other reference was more recent. In the first week of December 2013 it was published in Cubanet that dentist visits were cancelled in definitely, referring to the complaints of several citizens of Playa, about the lack of paper, anesthesia, amalgam and water in the clinics, which provoked the suspension of service, as well as the collapse of the roof of the water pump in the Primera Street clinic in Santa Fe, which serves patients from Jaimanitas because of the closing of the clinic in Siboney, not under repair.

A friend who became my source of information, told me that on 26 December in the afternoon he was visited from two officials from Public Health — the person responsible for health care and the clinic director — to answer his complaint.

They said that a minister and two vice-ministers were in charge and they had been sent to explain. My friend confirmed that it was true that he had suffered personally the annoyances mentioned on the news, of the closing of the Siboney clinic, and the suspension of service at the Primera Street clinic because of the falling of the pump. He also heard complaints of other neighbors who returned to Jaimanitas upset about not being seen, due to lack of supplies.

The officials reported that all these problems are already solved and he can go to the clinic whenever he wants. The next day I had a second visit, of a doctor on a motorcycle, also sent out of concern for the case. He said he examined his mouth and proposed to take him to the clinic right now on his motorcycle and do the first extraction, but my friend rejected the idea, saying that ow he had to wait to have the courage to again sit in the dentist chair and hopefully by then there won’t be a lack of water, anesthesia, or paper… In addition, he confessed that he didn’t want to spend the new year with more pain than he has every day.

Frank Correa

Cubanet / 8 January 2014

No Commitment / Yoani Sanchez

Photo by Silvia Corbelle

Red and black, these are the colors of the newspaper Granma. But unlike Stendhal’s famous work, in Granma’s pages the reader will not encounter realism, simply proselytizing. When the official organ of the Communist Party chooses a headline, its intentions are to impose an idea, not to report on it.

So it was with the phrase highlighted on the front page of this newspaper last Thursday. Taken from Raul Castro’s speech in Santiago de Cuba, the words stressed that, “The Revolution will continue just the same, without commitments to anyone at all, only to the people!” With this cover page, both the orator and the editors wanted to emphasize something which, in reality, they don’t make very clear. It’s worth trying to decipher its meaning.

Fifty-five years have passed since the start of the so-called Cuban Revolution, so this reference to possible commitments should not refer back to its origins. One imagines that the General wasn’t alluding to the rupture of and ingratitude for certain endorsements and subsidies made to the rebels half a century ago.

It does not sound, then, like an adiós to the former fellow travelers who put their shoulders, and pockets, to the wheel to sustain this system for decades.

Who, then, is this “anyone” whom Raul Castro strips of any chance to make demands? Clearly it’s not aimed at the Miraflores Palace in response to the huge subsidies that Cuba receives from Venezuela. For this economic support has generated more political ties to the government being maintained than the one maintaining it.

To think that it’s an insinuation of a setting aside of the political responsibilities of belonging to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) would be naive, at the very least. What, then, was this man in his military uniform talking about, with his hackneyed phrases and written speech? What is he referring to? The answer points both to the White House and to Brussels.

Every negotiation or conversation needs a minimum set of obligations to fulfill. Any party involved in an agreement is assured that the other party cedes an equal or greater measure than it does. It’s clear that in 2013, both the United States and the European Union took steps to moderate the diplomatic temperature between themselves and the Plaza of the Revolution.

Winks, relaxations, announcements of a new path, entered the speech of some politicians with respect to the largest of the Antilles. The table was set for a feast of agreement and dialog. In response, the ungrateful guest has come and overturned the table.

“No commitments…” screams Raul Castro, and rushes to frame it in the red letters of the newspaper Granma. We already know to whom the phrase is directed; they can consider themselves warned.

7 January 2014

To the Sound of Canons / Rafael Leon Rodriguez

The new year 2014 was welcomed in Havana by the sound of canons. Twenty-one of them, so that the recent arrival would experience its first fright. In other parts of the globe, the authorities and the citizens welcomed it with fireworks, parties, hymns and songs. But here, to reaffirm that the old soldiers prefer old canons, pointed those from the La Cabaña fort, as always, at the city.

2013 left us in a December marked by the physical passing of Nelson Mandela, the South African Madiba who, after long suffering, finally rested. The official ceremony for his death coincided with the celebration of Human Rights Day. The football stadium in Johannesburg wasn’t big enough for the thousands of compatriots and representatives from all the world who went to pay a well-deserved tribute.

In heartfelt words, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, said there, “Mandela hated hatred. Mandela loved peace. Mandela showed a great capacity to forgive. It is everyone’s job to keep Mandela’s memory alive in our hearts.”

In Cuba this past month witnessed the unusual first non-unanimous public vote in the National Assembly. Probably responding to a script prepared in advance, but even so, it was interesting. The general-president had repeatedly referred to the need to end the formal unanimity of voting in the Assembly. But it was difficult for some deputy from his or her own free will to take the initiative. And this is because, lamentably, there still do not exist in this Assembly deputies who represent themselves.

The new labor code was approved by this legislature, giving the green light to the 20th Congress of the official Cuban Workers Center (CTC). As always, everything was approved, among which was the budget for the current year, 2014.

Now in this year, during the commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, celebrated in Santiago de Cuba on January 1, the general-president said in his speech “and I quote”: (…) to directly consult with the population on decisions for the development of society… “end of quote.”

So we ask ourselves: Why not consult with the people in a plebiscite about whether they prefer a multi-party system to the dictatorship of a single political party? And if, as he reaffirmed, this continues to be a revolution of the humble, for the humble and by the humble, presumably, as in al lthese years, some humble will continue being more humble than others, some equals more equal than others.

As so to begin this new year, we have the government declaration that the Revolution continues with more of the same after 55 years and, to ratify it, the police arrested several people from civil society for attempting to give toys to children on Three Kings Day.

What else could we expect after that twenty-one gun salute from the canons of yore.

7 January 2014

Benches For Rent at Bus Stops / Ernesto Garcia Diaz

Two passengers waiting for the bus. Author photo.

HAVANA, Cuba, January 6, 2014, Ernesto García /www.cubanet.org.- In Curita Park, located on the block formed by the streets of Reina, Galiano, Águila and Dragones, in Havana, on the initiative a citizen, a seat rental service started  January 3 at the P-12 bus stop (served by articulated buses), for passengers traveling from this site to Santiago de Las Vegas.

The benches were built and designed to seat three people each. The experiment was done with three benches. The charge for their use is 1.00 pesos in national currency (CUP), or one centímino in freely convertible currency (CUC). Now all that’s lacking is for the owner to submit his proposal to the authorities who govern the system of self-employment, to get this activity on the approved list and pay his taxes on it.

The new service relieves the impatience and weariness of passengers who have to wait more than 20 minutes for a bus to take them to their destination, time during which they are exposed to the sun, the rain, the dust and the environmental contamination of toxic gases from traffic and the lack of hygiene and cleanliness in the place. All this given the inability of the appropriate organs, the transport cooperatives and the autonomous shared taxis that could roof the areas at the stops and maintain public facilities.

Ernesto Garcia Diaz

Cubanet | 6 January 2014

The Netherlands Asks to “Update” the Relationship Between Havana and the European Union

The Chancellor of the Netherlands is visiting the Island. The Glasnot in Cuba Foundation, with a site in Amsterdam, asks him to meet with the dissidence.

The Glastnost in Cuba Foundation, with a site in Amsterdam, criticized the Dutch foreign minister’s trip to Havana this Monday, and said that his visit “could only be successful if dialog is established with the whole Cuban society.”

“A dialog without contacts with the peaceful opposition will not be successful over the long-term,” said Kees van Kortenhof, president of Glastnost in Cuba, according to a communication released.

The Dutch NGO said it was surprised because, in association with the trip, the government of the Netherlands classifies Mariela Castro as a “defender of human rights in Cuba and in the world.”

Van Kortenhof said that description is “extravagant and ridiculous.”

“The president’s daughter limits her human rights efforts to gays, lesbians and transsexuals. Bloggers, political opponents, journalists, musicians and the Ladies in White are attacked, but Mariela Castro talks about them as ’despicable parasites,’” explains the Dutch organizations.

The chancellor Frans Timmermans asked in Havana, according to official media, for an “updating” of relations between Cuba and the European Union.

Timmermans cites, among the reasons for the development of ties, the “economic adjustments” implemented by the regime “the business possibilities these bring.”

During his stay, the Dutch minister signed a memorandum for the establishment of political consultations between foreign ministries.

DDC | Havana | 6 January 2014

6 January 2014

Harassment in Prison Simply for Thinking Differently / Angel Santiesteban

When on August 2 last year I was transferred from Prison 1580 and brought to the “Lawton Settlement,” a Ministry of Interior (MININT) enterprise dedicated to building the houses of its officials, they let me know that in this place there would be no visits nor phone calls. They urged me to work as a method of re-education and I would obtain the benefit of being able to get a leave every twenty-seven days. I immediately chose not to accept. Then they made me know that it would be every sixty days. I shrugged my shoulders. We are a group of twenty prisoners, among them are the crimes of “drug trafficking,” “murder,” “scams,” “arms trafficking,” “economic crimes,” “trafficking in persons,” etc.

In the daytime at the site there are a lieutenant colonel, who is the unit chief, and a captain in charge of production, both semi-retired, who perform the activities and with the power corresponding to their grades and jobs.

At five in the afternoon, at the latest, those responsible leave for home and we’re left with a civilian guard who puts a padlock on the barracks at ten in the evening. In a month through brought in another civilian to staff both ends of the establishment. The next month they sent in a sergeant who also stayed until five PM.

I continued to write my denunciations.

Then they placed a uniform who will keep us under guard twenty-four hours. Last night they brought in another. That is, in four months since I came, in addition to those already here, they have quadrupled surveillance on me. Now at night we have two guards and two soldiers, although the other nineteen aren’t in the unit for six days, they’re home. All for me alone!

So, the murderers and arms and drug traffickers have gone home to their families. However, the leadership has decided, unhealthily, to reinforce the surveillance against me obviously. Since the new uniform has come, he looks at me suspiciously. I feel his gaze on my back watching every movement I make, and when I’m in my bed, I see him watching me through the window to know where I am.

Obviously, they see me as a dangerous guy. The fear ideas more than firearms, drug traffickers or financial theft. However, I don’t complain about their sieges. With the cold blood I inherited from my mother I smiled.

This is my place as long as there’s a dictatorship.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton prison settlement. January 2014.

Editor’s note: The 19 prisoners left on six-day passes on Friday, 3 January 2014.

6 January 2014

Living Illusions / Yoani Sanchez

6a00d8341bfb1653ef019b045318a8970d-550wiAt midnight, she closed the door, turned off the lights, and ran her hand over the mannequins. December came to an end and with it her business in imported clothing. Like Helen, dozens of vendors all over Havana waited until the last minute of 2013 for some good news. But it never came.

The government maintained the unpopular prohibition against the sale of imported products. The deadline to liquidate the businesses in clothes and other accessories ended just as the twenty-one gun salute heralded the new year. Meekly, although muttering their annoyance, the proprietors of the so-called boutiques, collect their merchandise, take down their lit signs and advise their clients not to return.

The next day, along with the lethargy that comes after every celebration, the city also woke with a changed face. In the doorways where before the hangers flapped with shirts, pants and children’s clothes, there was nothing left. The rooms converted to dressing rooms had disappeared along with the racks which until last week offered sunglasses or scouring sponges. continue reading

Not a single vendor has challenged the order, not one has kept their stand open.

In parallel, there have not been any union meetings to demand compensation for the lost investments, nor protests demanding a permit that encompasses merchant activity. Not even the frequent buyers have raised their voices in solidarity with those who supplied them with cheaper, more modern and varied products than available in the state stores. All have remained silent.

The explanation for this frightened silence is obtained simply by asking. “Don’t worry, you’ll see that this measure will be rolled back,” some predict. Those believed to be well-informed because they have contacts in the government said, “In a few days they’re going to permit this and much more.”

The underlying message is chilling: “complain and it will be worse,” so “better to wait and not make problems.” Meanwhile, Helen has been left with her mannequins that no one looks at and with a four-figure debt.

The illusion of a possible step forward, slows the reaction to this step back. Those affected want to believe the State will rectify it. However, the real motive for such meekness is the fear of confronting power with their demands.

6 January 2014