Category: AUTHORS

The Literary Mafia in Cuba / Víctor Manuel Dominguez

HAVANA, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org -The overall control the authorities have established over the publishing system, promotional spaces, travel agendas, and whatever takes place on the country’s artistic-literary plans, brings many writers together in a kind of mafic that some prefer to call a “clan,” a “pineapple” and other words that mean the same: “Interest groups.”

Joined by friendship and affinities of aesthetics, politics, generations, race, sexual orientation, or simply for advantaged access to publishing opportunities, spaces of influence or prevalence in the rarefied Cuban literary market, those involved in this war of interests defend, by any means, the groups chosen for their personal realization.

In a country where everything is measured by the common denominator of the unconditionality of the regime, these groups, driven to certain tricks that allow them to expel or disqualify others, living together without public displays of animosity, but alone tripping each other up, setting dirty traps, and making use of their space gained at any price for their works, styles, shapes and themes: these are the literary reference points of the nation.

That’s why the Cuban literary mafia, beyond their ambitions for or vision of the national literature, share control, participate in book presentations, and even serve on contest juries that know ahead of time who will win, or organize a story or poetry anthology where members of each group appear in equal parts, like a pact of honor among mediocre authors who represent the interests of the clan.

For many years, and in the corridors of clerks, careerists, believed, and other members of the various literary trends, walking the gardens of UNEAC (Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba) — mojito in hand — among other places of cultural interest, four denominations have arisen to “characterize” each group in the national literary watering hole.

Cafe Literario Attendees -- Photo from VMD
Cafe Literario Attendees — Photo from VMD

The first, baptized The School of ’Socialist’ Realism (also know by its rivals as The Penis Club), brings together the macho egocentrics who call themselves realists, “filling key posts in magazines, publishers, and the country’s promotional institutions, despising other current modalities. Their totem is Mario Varga Llosa.”

For natural opposition, the second group is called The Pink Mafia, with the principle characteristic of its coreligionists being homosexualities. The defend fantasy and absurdist literature, and their works revolve around the issue of gays looking for a place in society. They are belligerent, to the point of scandal, toward their counterparts in the Penis Club. Their idol is Virgilio Piñera.

The third is called The Black Colony, because it “brings together individuals of this race united in asserting their neglected rights in a mass mixed-race yearning, at all costs, to pass through Aryan, Nordic, Slavic or Latin, according to its spokespeople.” Their literature is a provocation, conceptual, deconstructivist. Your guardian angel is Severo Sarduy .

In last place, The School for Wives, whom The Penis Club call Clitoris Hall, or Hell, due to the fickleness of their demands, and a fierce feminism which advocates a generic discourse to gain areas of sociocultural emphasis, and is uses to achieve their purposes. Their idol is Simone de Beauvoir.

These and other qualifications heard at gatherings, exhibitions, bars; or read in publicized controversies in literary magazines (Yoss), and books such as Questions of Water and Earth (Jesus David Curbelo), show us the interior panorama of an exclusive literature, divided and censored, that lost its influence on the cultural heritage of the nation.

Víctor Manuel Domínguez, vicmadomingues55@gmail.com

Cubanet, 18 October 2013

A Cyber Cafe in Cuba? No chance.

Illustration: photomontage The Singularity of the Island.

Under the heading “Protect Internet Cafes in Cuba. Julian Assange Bungles It,” the website  http://www.lasingularidad.com offers good advice for Cuban citizens and digital non-conformists wanting to get around censorship restrictions.

Every time that I receive questions from activists in Cuba about the internet browser rooms, I never tire of repeating the phrase “Begone, Satan”, “Good riddance”, “Take them winter wind”, or any other interjection I can think of at that moment to make it clear that they should run as though from the devil himself. Like moths to a flame, they are designed to attract the unwary, who are bedazzled by its radiance.

The Cuban regime took its time designing these “booby traps” and — in what it considers a masterful sleight-of-hand — is attempting to make itself look good in the eyes of the modern world, which increasingly considers internet access to be a basic human right.

In fact, it has already reaped some rewards this week by successfully recruiting a “figure” of no less international stature than Julian Assange to proselytize politically on behalf of the Cuban regime. This is a completely surreal and incomprehensible development since, supposedly, the hacker’s code of ethics mandates fighting for free access to information.

His support for one of the world’s most repressive communist dictatorships — one known for restricting access to the free flow of ideas on the internet — is a senseless action that will very probably cause Assange to lose face in the eyes of the hackers who support him. Will Assange turn out to be one of those typical useful, misinformed fools or an opportunist looking for free vacations in the Caribbean? Whatever the answer, the betrayal of the ideals of hackers like Anonymous will not go unnoticed.

Why is Nauta a trap?

1 – Price censorship.

The cost of one hour of access to the internet in these rooms is 4.50 CUC, some $5 US if we convert it. Considering that the average salary in CUCs is approximately $20 per month, we can calculate that one hour of internet use costs Cubans close to 25% of their monthly salary. In a country where the salary is barely enough for one or two weeks’ worth of food, very few can afford to visit these rooms. By way of comparison, if in the United States or Europe one hour of internet cost more than $1,300, social network sites like Facebook would be very bleak places…

2 – Total lack of security, privacy and basic functionality.

To be able to buy a Nauta card, users have to display their identity cards. Their names, addresses and surnames, together with the identification code of the cards sold, are registered in a database. In this same database all their activity is stored: the sites they visit, passwords they enter, screen captures and general captures of all that they type (keyloggers).

The computers available are in fact thin clients* running a modified and highly restricted version of Windows Xp, an operating system so antiquated that it will soon be discontinued by Microsoft, which will no longer issue updates for it.

Short Restrictions:

It is not permitted to right click with the mouse. This reduces functionality for those who are used to cutting and pasting text using menus and eliminates all the information that right clicking in Windows provides. Hint: You can use the keyboard shortcuts ctrl+C to copy, ctrl+X to cut and ctrl+V to paste.

It is not permitted to run any programme from USB memory sticks.

It is not permitted to run any programme from command lines (CMD.exe).

Task Manager is disabled, the Ctrl + Alt + Del and don’t even dream of administrator access in order to install some program that you may need.

Overcoming Nauta

The number one rule is : If you can avoid it, DO NOT USE IT. In Cuba, there are many other alternatives: Access from work centers, much less restrictive network dial-up access, illegal accounts shared by foreigners, friends who can send your emails as a favor, and of course access to offline internet content like the Web Packets Weekly Mulitmedia Packets that reign across the island.

If you have no other option you can protect yourself using these simple tips:

1.  Use disposable email accounts, ask your contacts to do the same if possible. The value of your messages lies not only in their contents but also in those to whom they are directed and from whom and from where you receive them (Metadata).  Never use your name or personal information to create an email account or to search websites on the Internet.  If you use false data and a fake name it will be much more difficult for government analysts or their spy programs to determine if your mail or user profile is worth the effort of analyzing.  These spy programs are used by almost all governments, including the United States and, of course, Cuba.

2.  Mask “complicated” words in your messages by using spaces, repeated letters and punctuation signs at random.  This will prevent automated software or analysts that search for key words from being able to flag your messages or profile as being of interest for analysis.  For example, instead of writing “the dissidents screamed liberty at the demonstration” write “the di. Si-dde :ntes shouted lib. ee.r t y in the demi. str *ati-on”  A text search for the words “dissident” and “demonstration” will not detect your messages.  Government agencies in other countries like the C-I. A and the N-S. A will not appreciate this advice, either.:)

3.  Mask your messages by excess information.  For example, began your email with several paragraphs of weighty poems and by prior agreement let your recipient know in which paragraph will be the true message.  The poor analyst that has to read your email will simply go to the next when he sees your long poem. The idea is to make his work difficult all the time.  Remember to mask words as explained above.

4.  Be aware that everything that you type and capture on-screen is being recorded on your user profile.  If you are forced to use a personal password, mask it with random fillers that you will then remove with the mouse and the Delete key. For example, if your password is “freecuba123,” write “iwantfreecub123456.”  Then select “iwant” and “456″ with your mouse and hit delete.  This is not 100% safe with advanced keyloggers but it will make it hard for the analyst who is watching your information to discover which is the true password.  There exists no completely secure protection in the world of information nor in the real one.  It is like protecting your home:  the more difficult you make it for the thief, the less likely your house will be the one in the neighborhood that gets hit.

5.  Use PHP proxies for accessing web pages whose navigation is censored and that you do not want to be kept in your navigation history.  Write on Google:  ”php proxy list” to access web pages that keep lists of proxies that constantly change in order to prevent them from being blocked.  These proxies will permit you to navigate as if your were in another country and will hide the website addresses that you visit.  Nevertheless, remember that your screen is being recorded and if you do something that calls attention they might check your user profile.

6.  Https is your friend.  Always prefer web pages in which the URL or address begins with https.  This means that all traffic between your navigator and the web page server is automatically encrypted in a secure way, hence the letter “s.” However, remember that what you type is being recorded so you cannot stop using the tricks listed above or better still, if you can avoid it, do not enter your search information on any page from Nauta.

If you have other ideas and suggestions for the protection of privacy and security of users in browser rooms in Cuba, write them in the comments below.

Archived in Cuba

*Translator’s note: Computers or computer programmes which depend heavily on other computers (their servers) to fulfill their computational roles.

Translated by Shane J. Cassidy, mlk

30 September 2013

Humberto Real Suarez: 16 Years Old, Condemned to Death / Lilianne Ruiz

The parents of Humberto Real Suárez

Havana, Cuba, October 2013, www.cubanet.org – Humberto Real Suarez is another of the men who disembarked on the night of 15 October 1994 on the coasts of Caibarien, along with Armado Sosa Fortuny.

Today he is serving a sentence of 30 years imprisonment in “Kilo 8” maximum security prison in Camagüey.

The group of seven men, under the command of Sosa Fortuny, had sailed from Tavernier, Florida. They belonged to the Democratic National Unity Party (PUND), but they had received minimal military training, barely knew each other, and they were inferior in number and materiel to the army they intended to fight when they got to the Island.

It’s been 19 years since the night when an accidental shot from Real Suárez’s rifle cost the life of a man and thwarted the plans of the command to create a guerrilla front in the Escambray Mountains.

Real Suárez has never recanted his actions, but he regrets that a man is dead, so he characterizes his act as recklessness:

“I came here to fight against the government army, not to kill any civilians. The man’s death was an accident. But the reasons that made me return to Cuba, ready to engage in armed insurrection, are still valid,” he says in a telephone interview with Cubanet.

After a year and a half of psychological torture at the Villa Marista prison, he was tried in 1996 and sentenced to death. He was then 26 years old.

Independent lawyers from the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, after analyzing the prosecutor’s file, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge Real Suárez for the death, and issued a call to human rights organizations to intercede with the Castro government for his life.

The pressure exerted by the appeal of his parents, Graciela Suarez and Humberto Real, calling for international support to preserve his life, alongside the work of human rights organizations and the declaration of renowned intellectuals like Mario Vargas Llosa, resulted in Real Suárez not being executed. In December 2010 the initial sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison.

The document in which the sentence was given in 2010 again stated that no explosives were found among the weapons taken. That did not remove what was in the prosecution’s description of the alleged intentions — without any proof: “to carry out violent actions against schools and public facilities.”

On the other hand, several paragraphs describe the accused as anti-social elements, imitating the propaganda the Spanish government used against the mambises — at the beginning of the Ten Years War — painting them as “highwaymen” to the Cuban public. And much later — in the sixties of the last century — against the rebels fighting the Castro autocracy, calling the extermination of thousands of Cubans in the Escambray mountains, “a fight against bandits.”

Demanding Dignified Treatment

Humberto Real Suárez (family archive)
During the 16 years he was under a sentence of death, confined in an isolation cell, the only request Real Suárez made to his jailers – in all the hunger strikes he made during that period – was his right to go to the firing squad dressed in the same military clothing he was wearing when he arrived in Cuba.

When asked how how he endured for so many years a death sentence staring him in the face, Real Suárez replied that faith in God allowed him to live those 16 years without fear of execution.

Today his life is spent in a cell in the Kilo 8 prison, but shares the day with other prisoners. At 6:00 am, the guards open the gate and let him walk up and down a 40 yard corridor, until 6:00 PM. Each day, the prisoner is entitled to one hour of sunshine in the courtyard of the prison.

Recently, Humberto Real Suarez’s launched a new public petition. This time before the Archbishop of Havana, begging Cardinal Jaime Ortega to arrange the transfer of their child to a prison in the province in Matanzas, as it very difficult to travel to the province of Camagüey, given the difficult conditions of transportation in Cuba and the advanced age of both parents. Graciela Suarez and Humberto Real, have as the only purpose in life to alleviate the prison hardships of their son, through family visits that have been held during these 19 years.

Humberto Real’s father, also interviewed Cubanet, related that when he saw his son for the first time after the 1996 trial, he only managed to say, “Here is your father.” Graciela, the mother, says she has never been able to sleep a full night.

Justice in Cuba looks after its own interests

The speech that served as an ideological alibi to the court that convicted Real Suárez – in 1996 and 2010 – is a discourse of extreme violence, exemplified in the slogan “Socialism or Death,” among others.

On July 13, 1994 (the same year of the failed landing), 41 people, some of them children, died at sea as a result of the deliberate sinking of the tugboat “13th of March.” The responsibility for these deaths was never acknowledged by the government, which instead of bringing forward those who were guilty, responded to the popular protests known as The Maleconazo (August 5, 1994) with more repression. Later they justified it, in the face of national and foreign public opinion, with uninterrupted ideological propaganda in all the mass media, a maneuver known as the Battle of Ideas.

Humberto Real Suárez and his companions were not tried with all the procedural guarantees, but none has asked for clemency. They, along with many inside and outside the island, continue to hold on to the dream of freedom and human rights for all Cubans.

Lilianne Ruíz

Cubanet, October 18, 2013

Red Sea, Blue Sea / Regina Coyula

In the beginning there was the word, before discovering his vocation behind the camera, still being a boy, Miguel wrote really well. Now, with this novel he should prove it, although he excuses himself by saying that it’s early. It doesn’t matter — in Red Sea, Blue Sea, the obsessions are there that would (will) become movies. Congratulations on your presentation.

Saturday, 19 October at 1 PM EDT (at) The Place of Miami in Miami. Go and cooperate with the artist!!

And… you can buy it here!

Translated by: JT

18 October 2013

Are People Motivated to Procreate in Cuba? / Rebeca Monzo

Many people wonder why there is such a low birthrate in our country, where there is an excellent climate for raising a baby: no extreme temperatures, good sun and magnificent beaches.

Here are some images that will answer this question for themselves.

The first is the facade of the González Coro Hospital, formerly the Sacred Heart Clinic, one of the most modern installations of this type in the fifties. The dream of most future mothers was to be seen here throughout their entire pregnancy and after the birth, particularly in the late sixties when the other similar facilities, constructed earlier, started to demonstrate the deterioration of the already incipient abandonment.

More than twenty-eight years ago, a little drip started in the OB/GYN waiting room. Then the solution was to place a bucket under it and a blanket under that.

Today, the same situation persists, only made worse by three decades. It has become larger and greatly affected the false ceiling, which shows a creeping deterioration, even more so because it’s a health center and safety and hygiene should come first.

What solutions have the health authorities found to deal directly with this and other facilities?

Simply to place an enormous bucket to collect as much water as possible, and instead of placing blankets around it on the floor (which are rare and expensive) as they used to do to absorb the spray, they have placed enormous cartons, to prevent the pregnant women from slipping.

18 October 2013

Partial Solutions / Fernando Damaso

With regards to the adoption of the Mariel Special Development Zone Decree Law, it comes to mind that this idea of trying to solve the problems of the country not in a global way, but by creating regions and special plans, has been a tendency of the authorities since their earliest days in power.

We remember the declaration of the town of El Cano, as the first socialist town of Cuba and, later, that of another unimportant one as being the first town where money would not be needed. These constituted, at the time, childish utopias within the large adult utopia that has been the so-called Socialist Revolution, which has had very little of socialism and a great deal of voluntarism.

To these initial blunders, we have to add the failed Havana Cordon, the Ten Million Ton Harvest, the micro-jet bananas, the failed livestock cross-breeding plans, the Pharaonic harvests of pangola grass and pigeon peas, the windbreaks, the embankments on any nearby key, the Turquino Plan*, the Escambray Plan, and a great deal more economic and ecological nonsense.

Now, copying the Chinese brothers in turn (we lack originality), and after greatly criticizing them, the so-called Special Development Zones started to appear which, though they strengthen the creation of accelerated wealth in the chosen and controlled regions, they deform the economic map of the country, generating reas of extreme poverty, where people have no other option for survival than to emigrate to these new El Dorados, where all this rootlessness and loss of identity leads, affecting the social fabric, making even more virulent the economic and social differences between regions, creating a country alienated by its different living conditions, very distant from “with all and for the good of all” advocated by José Martí.

For those of us who dream of a single prosperous Cuba, where citizens do not have to emigrate from the places of birth to develop their life projects, time and the tenacity of Cubans are working in our favor.

*Translator’s note:  The Turquino Plan was a 1980s effort to develop forestry and site appropriate agriculture to stabilize mountain populations and make mountain areas independent of cities.

18 October 2013

It is Forbidden to Name a Baby “Antunez”

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez” – Yudeici wants to be her son to be his namesake. Photo by Tracey Eaton

CAMAGÜEY, Cuba, October 18, 2013, Fernando Vázquez Guerra / Cuban Network of Community Spokespeople / www.cubanet.org.- On October 15 at 3:00 in the afternoon, Yudeici Rondón Villavicencio, who is the Delegate from the Rosa Park Feminist Movement, was beaten with her newborn child in her arms by two members of the political police in the Ana Betancourt Maternity Hospital in Camaguey, where she had been admitted. One of the attackers is the Psychologist of State Security known as Claudia and the other was Angel Eduardo Guadarrama, nicknamed Carlos.

For several days, Yudeici has maintained a social difference with the State Security because she wants to name her son Jorge Luis Antunez and this repressive body will not agree to it. Now, the regime wants to take away a parent’s right to name their newborn child. Yudeici responded that it is that name or none, so the baby left the hospital without being registered.

Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) is the name of a prominent human rights activist living in the center of the island, who served several years in prison for his activism.

If you want to support Yudeici, the telephone number of the hospital board is: 5332297511, extension 1089.

From Cubanet, 18 October 2013

What Happened in “The Bivouac”? / Michel Iroy Rodriguez

Ladies in White (seated against wall in background) surrounded by police and plainclothes agents, last Monday, photo EFE
Ladies in White (seated against wall in background) surrounded by police and plainclothes agents, last Monday, photo EFE

HAVANA, Cuba, October 18, 2013, Michel Iroy Rodriguez / www.cubanet.org.- At the detention center known as “The Bivouac,” near Calabazar, on the border between the capital municipalities of Arroyo Naranjo and Boyeros, and Cattle Arroyo Naranjo, a repressive wave of arbitrary arrests launched by State Security between the 11th and 14th of this month, just before the second anniversary of the death of Laura Pollán Toledo on the 14th, resulted in the jailing of 46 opponents, in dubious circumstances.

From the early hours of Friday the 11th, until Sunday, State Security agents were arresting Ladies in White, regime opponents, human rights activists and independent journalists, so that they would not be able to attend the second anniversary mass for the death of Laura Pollán, nor participate in the usual Ladies in White Sunday March from Santa Rita Church in Miramar.

In protest against the arbitrary arrests, 23 detainees in “The Bivouac” went on hunger strike and all refused to be indicted on charges by the officers of Villa Marista (headquarters of the State Security). During the interrogations they were subjected to they received threats from officials from the political police.

David Aguila Montero, director of the Social Agency of Independent Journalists of Cuba (ASPI), who was detained from Friday the 11th and who was one of those who declared a hunger strike, said that the treatment of those arrested was deplorable. He spoke of activists with illnesses who were prevented from taking their medication or who were given it off schedule.

During the three days he was held, Aguila Montero claims to have seen 34 male regime opponents in “The Bivouac,”many of them from other provinces, and 9 Ladies in White, including Niurka Luque who, he said, had a wound on her face that looked like it was made with a knife when she was arrested .

After more than 92 hours, the detainees were released, but the whereabouts of 4 activists from the province of Pinar del Rio were unknown at the time of writing this information.

Michel Iroy Rodriguez, yeikosuri11@gmail.com

From Cubanet, 18 October 2013

Human Rights Defender Kidnapped In His Home / Veizant Boloy

An act of repudiation in front of the house of Andrés Pérez Suárez, courtesy of the author.

Havana, Cuba, 11 October 2103, Veizant Boloy / www.cubanet.org.- Today, Friday, 11 October at 6:45 AM, Andres Perez Suarez, president of the opposition  group Commission for Assistance to Political Prisoners and Their Families (CAPPF, was arbitrarily arrested.  The arrest was carried out by the Department of State Security agent known as Camilo, supported by the police of patrol car no. 131.

“Now, Andres, things are complicated for you!” Camilo shouted, as he tried to enter the house by force, according to information received in a phone call by Regla Rios Casado, a Lady in White and Andres’ wife.

“He climbed over the fence, which is more than six feet high, and climbed on the roof looking for a way to get into the house,” said Rios Casado. “He told us he had a search warrant but what he showed was a an arrest order and they took him away.”

Also near Pérez Suárez’s house they arrested Mario Moraga Ramos and Roberto Ávalos Padrón, both CAPPF activists. In this operation the participating State Security agents were Leodan, Frank, and Captain Alejandro. According to agent Camilo, who hours later returned to threaten Rios Casado, Perez Suarex was taken to the police station at Infanta and Manglar in the capital municipality of Cerro.

From September to now, the government’s represssive forces have deployed operation and arrested Perez Suarez nd his wife to keep them from going to the Ladies in White march at Santa Rita Church, where they go every Sunday.

“Every time, after enduring harassment and beatings, we are abandoned to our fate,” commented Rios Casado. “The last time agent Camilo arrested me they took me without my shoes and without any money to a complicated place* called La Lechuga, in Melena del Sur. On that occasion a man and a woman, both police officers, dragged me out of the patrol car by my feet,” she concluded.

Regla Rios Casado and her family have suffered more than three acts of repudiation from last month to today.

Opponents have, on several occasions, denounced this practice through legal means. Based on the exercise of complaint and petition, provided for in Article 63 of the Constitution of the Republic, and Article 26 of the rules themselves that recognize that “every person who suffers injury or damages unjustly caused by the officials and agents of the State exercising the functions of their job, have the right to demand and obtain corresponding reparations or indemnification in the manner established by law.”

The Attorney General of the Republic neither responds to complaints nor protects against them. Even though it is required to do so within 60 days of the violation.

More arrests today

We also learned that agent Camilo visited the Route 12 settlement of San Miguel del Padrón. Arrested there today were Yoeldy Boza Garrido, 24, and his father, Juan Bautista Boza, migrants to the capital from the province of Guantanamo. They live in appalling conditions, in a shack. Presumably, the reason for the detention was Yoeldy’s statements to Cubanet, in a video that shows the precariousness of their environment.

Veizant Boloy  — veizant@gmail.com

*Translator’s note: It is now a common practice to arrest opponents, drive them to far off places, and simply abandon them there. This is part of the strategy of repression the opponents call “catch and release.”

From Cubanet, 11 October 2013

The Pathology of Ethics / Lilianne Ruiz

Heartbreaking, repulsive, are adjectives that describe the act of repudiation of Monday outside the headquarters of the Ladies in White on Neptune Street between Aramburu and Hospital. Many who were mobilized there to shout insults and threats were young university students, members of the Federation of University Students (FEU) and the Young Communist Union (UJC), as they themselves declared as they chanted their their slogans.

An event to verbally assault a women’s Movement fighting for the release of the political prisoners, didn’t seem an obviously wrong act to them. Their sense of what is humanly correct or incorrect was annulled by ideology or by an instinct for self-preservation.

This morning I spoke with a former political prisoner who had been jailed for 15 years, and a good part of those 15 years he spent in Kilo 8 Prison on a maximum severity regimen, which meant greater cruelty and impunity on the part of the guards.

I wonder if there is another place on earth like Cuba, where the confusion, the perversion of the ethical meaning of life is greater. Because I want to think that those people who were there on Monday, in front of the Ladies in White headquarters, supporting a regime very dangerous to the human condition: Do they really know what they are doing?

18 October 2013

Words into the Wind / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

By Jeovany Jimenez Vega, M.D.

When I spoke during the discussion of the Draft Law to amend the Labor Code a couple of weeks ago, I said that our industry (public health) generates 50% of the GDP of this country; that it represents an income of between 8 and 10 billion hard-cash dollars every year; that this is a lot of money, which should be enough to significantly increase the salary of the sector that produces it; that those who remain here deserve as much as those who go on work medical missions abroad; that I will never understand why a prestigious professor of medicine, after decades of dedication, earns one-third the salary of an office manager trained for fifteen days.

It’s not just that our salary is ridiculous, but that it is particularly absurd in this country of merciless prices. We have patients who easily earn three to ten times our salary, and not from self-employment, but also from the few state jobs that link salary to performance; or simply through “struggling” — that is, stealing with both hands. It is high time to put an end to this humiliating situation, because if there exists today in Cuba a sector that is able to increase substantially the wages of its workers — here we’re not talking about the ridiculous two pesos per hour for nighttime work — it’s public health. I said all this, a couple of weeks ago, when I was able to speak.

My specific proposal? A basic monthly salary for a recent graduate of 800 Cuban pesos (roughly $33 US), increasing by 150 pesos every two years up to, for example, 1,500 pesos eight or ten years after graduation; 100 pesos per each medical shift at multi-specialty and primary care clinics, and between 150 and 200 pesos in hospice facilities depending on the workload assumed by each specialty, never less than 5 pesos an hour for night duty, 200 pesos for biohazard risk, 200 for administrative positions and teachers — it could be higher for provincial or ministerial positions; 250 for certified masters and 500 per specialty completed. And finally, it would be fair to give longevity pay after fifteen years of work at 100 pesos every five years (100 after the first 15 years, 200 after 20, 300 after 25 and so on) and finally a retirement that does not force those who served their people for decades to live on a little less than a beggar would get.

Of course, this is my humble opinion, launched into the ether from the perspective of the sufferer, not remotely like that of an experienced economist. But something convinces me that an industry generating so much money could handle it comfortably. They’ve already made a timid gesture with sports, so why not with the sector that generates similar wealth, which provides reasonable assurances that it will continue, and which is showcased to the world as a success story?

Those who make these decisions should take into account that these are professionals who know that, if they approved a monthly salary like this (I’m talking about 150 U.S. Dollars), it would still be less than they could earn abroad for a few hours of work under circumstances qualitatively very different, despite which — I venture to guarantee — in most cases they would not want to abandon their country. I remains to be seen if the words spoken in meetings all across this country will fall on deaf ears, if it will do any good to throw this bottle into the sea, to throw these crazy words into the wind.

Translated by Tomás A

17 October 2013

Prison Diary LIX: Communicating the Truth: New Discovery of the Cuban Government Press / Angel Santiesteban

Photo: Enmanuel Castells (Source: revista OtroLunes)

At the close of the Congress of the Journalists Union of Cuba (UPEC), participants highlighted, among the priorities, the need for a journalism consistent with the twenty-first century, with respect to fresh, genuine, direct and illuminating information, which is nothing more than the essence of the work of journalism, its ethics and trade, since its inception; and suddenly it seems to come to the fore as if it has just been discovered: that the correspondent’s only duty is to communicate the truth.

Dictators, as we all know, the first thing they do is control information. The Communist Party, from its Department of Ideology and the Council of State, directly owns all the publications, from which they present themselves, manipulating the information in accordance with their interests. They are the owners of the television and newspapers of the country, where they convert Cuban “journalism” into the simple voice of the state, without contradicting the political line drawn by the Government.

After more than fifty years of following this uninterrupted practice, it would be very difficult to educate the free press, on the basis of social duty, which should be the only route.

It’s a shame that journalists still continue their deception, as they do in addressing the issue of the four Cuban spies convicted in the United States, which they still call “The Five”, and they do not refer to the work of the “Wasp Network”.

But, without going into details, as it is not the purpose of this post, I want to deal with the news, and how the pitiful and incomprehensible is that after so much money spent on the campaign to free them, they lied to the people who by their own sweat pay for all the travel of family members, the lawyers and the media paraphernalia.

A few months before going to prison, I learned from a book about most notorious spies throughout history, including the Cubans imprisoned in 2001, and the Cuban security spy, Ana Belen Montes, who worked at the Pentagon, which of course is never addressed in the national media but the world knows it. The author let me know the time and courage which he dedicated to the investigations and inquiries. After completion, he presented it to several Cuban publishers, who after showing interest, I am told, also noting that Cuban spies were included, then refused to publish it.

It’s obvious that censorship in Cuba is like a sickness, that could only be cured with a political change, to sterilize the evil that has lasted more than half a century. I imagine, when that time comes, the faces of Cubans on learning what has been hidden from them, overshadowing their existence with ignorance.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

18 October 2013

New Pastoral Letter from Catholic Bishops of Cuba / Roberto Jesus Quinones

GUANTANAMO, Cuba, 14 October 2013, www.cubanet.org – The latest Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops of Cuba, “Hope does not disappoint,” has been distributed to the faithful. Contrary to what happened twenty years ago, when the document “Love Hopes All things” was unveiled, so far this letter has led to no reaction from the government or the official press.

Several people attribute this to the fact that conditions have changed significantly. The new document is being made public at a time when relations between the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the government are good, and when the  institution can serve the government as an intermediary in resolving conflicts. The truth is that, without flourishes, the bishops have prepared a thorough and accurate analysis of our reality.

For reasons of space, we could not attempt an examination of all aspects addressed in this new Pastoral Letter. Those interested would find it useful to read it in full. However, by way of advancement, I would refer you to several of its highlights.

For example, in the second section, entitled “The visits of the two Popes mark our history with signs of hope,” the bishops discussed the significance the visits to the Isle of Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI have had on the Catholic Church and the Cuban people. Meanwhile, in the third section, “The divine and human word of the Church encourages our hope,” it discusses the role of the Catholic Church in Cuba today.

In the fourth section, “The common destiny of material goods and freedom are a source of hope,” it states that among the different options for the common good, the Church chooses one that defends and promotes the responsible freedom of man. Also in this section it argues that human beings can not seek their own good while forgetting or neglecting or oppressing their brother. And that the structure and organization of societies and governments, both yesterday and today, can generate groups of power that do not always represent everyone and which are not interested in those who are outside their circle of belonging.

Literally, the bishops warn in the fourth section: “No one can claim freedom for themselves and deny it to others, or seek his own good and be indifferent to that of others. The freedom that God conceives for man is a freedom responsible for the lives and the destiny of those around us.”

The fifth section, “The changes encourage the hope of our people,” makes reference to the Pastoral Letter “Love Hopes for Everything,” and how some of its petitions have been met, but not others.

For its part, the eighth section, “The hopes of a better future also include a new political order,” is perhaps the most daring of the entire document. It says that Cuba is called on to be a pluralistic society, the sum of many realities, the nation of all Cubans, with their differences and aspiration, and there must be the right to diversity of the thinking, creativity, and the search for truth.

In the ninth section, “Dialogue among Cubans opens a path of hope,” the bishops insist that this is the only way to achieve and sustain the social transformations taking place in Cuba. While the tenth section, “Cuba in the concert of nations: reasons for hope,” mentions the changes in Latin America and in the world, and commits to the inclusion of Cuba in these contexts, but also reiterates the need to consider the relations of our country with the United States.

In the eleventh section, “The family and youth, hope of the Nation and the Church,” the bishops examine the matter deeply and honestly, based on the assertion that twenty years after the publication of “Love Hopes for Everything,” family life in Cuba is very poor, with severe consequences that affect the lives of individuals and society.

In sum, it is a document that not only responds adequately to the expectations created by the bishops of the Cuban Catholic Church, with their previous pastoral letter of 1993, it also traces the historical role that corresponds to this institution in the complex circumstances of the present and the near future.

Roberto Jesús Quiñones Haces

From Cubanet, 14 October 2013

Price Prohibitive Dairy Products / Alberto Mendez Castello

abasto-leche-bodegas-cuba-300x202PUERTO PADRE, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org – “Milk production is in serious trouble here,” said the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party in Las Tunas, Ariel Santana Santiesteban, in a meeting last month with farmers in this town.

The cows do not produce as much milk as need, because of poor management, it was reported at the meeting. Their basic food is insufficient. The dairy cattle don’t have enough forage to allow them to maintain production when the pastures are bare from lack of rains, reported the politicians and administrators meeting with the dairy farmers.

imagesMore than a logical concern for the dairy herd, the concern of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) over the low milk production recalls simple reasons of mathematical logic. When milk production is low, the town can’t supply the quote established for children up to age seven and sick people, and powdered milk has to be substituted for fresh. Producing a ton of milk powder uses twelve thousand liters of fresh milk which, at a little more than two pesos a liter, is a payment to the dairy farmers of some twenty-three thousand Cuban pesos.

The Las Tunas Dairy Products Company produces powdered milk, which in addition to being supplied to the ration stores, is sold in five hundred gram bags at 2.90 CUC (convertible pesos), in the State-owned hard currency stores. A kilogram of nationally produced powdered milk sold in those stores, is the equivalent of 5.80 CUC, and a ton at 5,800 CUC, is 145,000 in Cuban pesos.

leche_cubaDespite milk powder costing more than six times what the State pays the dairy farmer for the raw material, anyone who wants to drink a glass of milk without asking for trouble should go to the State-owned hard currency stores.

The dairy farmer is forced to sell his milk to the State. Commerce in milk, cheese or any other dairy product is prohibited between individuals and punishable by law. The same is true for coffee. And beef? Don’t even talk about it: His Majesty, the State monopoly market, is owner and lord.

For many people, inside and outside of cuba, it’s as if good old “Daddy Socialist State” was paying for everything: public health, education, milk for children and sick people, etc.  When, in reality, we are the ones who pay.

At the National Farmers Meeting, held this last September, the vice-president of the Council of Ministers, Marino Murillo Jorge, said, “… we are fewer than 11 million people, of whom 5 million work, and of these, approximately 960,000 work in agriculture, of which about 300,000 are not directly linked to production.”

Can anyone tell me who pays for the automobiles, the gasoline, the offices and the salaries of these gentlemen who produce nothing?

Alberto Mendez Castello

From Cubanet, 16 October 2013