Category: Somos+

Fidel Castro’s Battle of Ideas… Political Pantomime / Somos+, Roberto Camba

Anti-imperialist Tribune in Havana, in front of the then United States Interest Section (now the US Embassy)

How much truth can a man take?
Friedrich Nietzsche

Somos+, Roberto Camba, 12 September 2016 — They say it began with the fight to return the young rescued rafter Elian Gonzalez from the United States to Cuba. Really it was much earlier, since the strategy never changes: silence and ignore the adversary, incessantly repeat lies until it is almost impossible to distinguish the truth.

To define, to communicate that the assault on the Moncada Barracks was a revolt of sergeants, to publish in Bohemia magazine in January of 1959 that the Revolution was green like the palm trees and had nothing to do with the Soviet Union, or to when the United States invaded Granada in 1983, are examples. And yet, “Revolution… is never lying,” say the propaganda billboards. continue reading

By monopolizing all the media immediately after 1959 and creating their own education program, the arsenals of weapons were entirely under their power. The enemy could have ideas, but could never express them publicly.

With the Elian Gonzalez case they started the Open Forums and the Roundtable TV shows… all caps. I never understood that these manifestations of the Battle of Ideas transmitted to the Cuban people were just about ensuring their overwhelming support for the Revolution. Where was the battle? Who was the enemy? Why do you line up the “canons” facing your own soldiers?

The speakers at these “Masses” didn’t have to think, they just recited the Revolutionary “creed” from memory. On the Roundtable show the soldiers didn’t have to face the enemy, only their colleagues on the other side of the table.

Cuban TV studio during the filming of the Roundtable show.

The concept of “Round” itself symbolizes the endless and monotonous. Like in Mark Twain’s novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the topics of each day of the week were identical: “The King walks through his circular courtyard.” There is nothing new in a vicious circle.

All Communist regimes have curtailed freedom of expression. The only explanation for this is that it is in the ideological arena where they are most vulnerable. Therefore, they continually reject dialogue with the opposition, they refuse to share “the same room” with its representatives during the Americas Summit in Panama, so they hid the people of the “Varela Project” and discussions with Edmundo Garcia were only broadcast in Miami. Ultimately, former vicepresident Ricardo Alarcon ends up looking ridiculous talking to Eliecer Avila, then a student, as do the Castros at press conferences. They find having interlocutors uncomfortable. They learned monologues, not dialogues.

They arm the “fighters” of the Rapid Response Brigades for an act of repudiation against the Ladies in White. They shout a lot so they don’t have to hear the voices of these brave women. If there are not enough people they bring an orchestra, they set up a “Street Fair” with screaming kids or hold a “Carnival.” If the Ladies in White continue to express their ideas they force them into a bus and take them away.

The “Battle of Ideas” is a paradox. There is no “battle.” They only fight when they have previously “killed” the enemy. The other army is not allowed to shoot. Only then they can win the battle. In the Cuban Constitution there is only freedom of speech and of the press as long as they “conform to the aims of socialist society” (Article 53), which is another way of creating the crime of “enemy propaganda” (Article 103 Penal Code).

The “Battle …” has now moved to the digital arena. The “soldiers” of the University of Computer Sciences and State Security must comment on the articles of the official media, and of those refugee challengers in the only place that the state can not fully control: the internet.

Compare the comments on the articles in the official sites such as “Granma” or “Cubadebate” with those of the independent sites such as “14ymedio” or “CubaNet.” In the articles themselves, it seems they are speaking of different countries. Censorship makes the difference. The “soldiers” don’t get medals, they get toiletries and free internet access. In the land of those with nothing, nothing is an incentive.

The idea is not even new. Putin learned it in the KGB and used  it extensively as revealed by the newspaper The Guardian. The difference is that Putin pays his trolls better. Like any war strategy, it has a weak point. The “soldiers” — allowed to surf the internet to promote the Revolution — are exposed to the enemy’s “weapons.” Eventually they will contrast these ideas with those they’ve been inculcated with and with the reality they experience. And they will learn the truth … and the truth will set them free.

Free Press: Knockout / Somos+

Students at the University of Havana holding a mock funeral for the newspaper “Diario de la Marina”

Somos+, Victor Manuel Camposeco, 10 September 2016 — In April of 1960, from the official newspapers Hoy (Today) and Revolución along with the leftist organization FIDEL, the demands to take by force the three independent print media still standing seemed unstoppable. For months, the newsrooms of those newspapers had also been infiltrated by State agents.

Diario de la Marina, the most influential conservative newspaper in Cuba, respected by publishers and the public, which at one time had supported Castro, had its own building in Havana, “a stately stone building,” at the corner of Paseo del Prado and Brasil Street. On May 11 it would publish a spread signed by more than 300 of its workers in support of defending the freedom of expression. Members of FIDEL, advised by the infiltrators, along with a huge crowd, took the building by assault the night before and its facilities were partly destroyed. continue reading

The police refused to intervene. The next day, at the University of Havana, the already tamed the University Students Federation, FEU, led a grotesque celebration: between slapstick and jokes they buried a copy of the last Diario de la Marina published.

Through the pages of Diario de la Marina had passed Pedro Henriquez Urena, Miguel Angel Asturias, Mariategui, Borges, Alejo Carpentier and Lezama Lima, among many others. Shortly afterwards the Rivero family, owners and managers of the newspaper, went into exile. The “stately stone building” was delivered with its workshops and offices to the Communist newspaper Hoy. The life of Diario de la Marina, then celebrating its 128th year, ended violently.

Humberto Medrano, deputy director of Prensa Libre, the largest newspaper in Cuba, published an article the next day:  “It is painful to witness the funeral of freedom of thought in a center dedicated to culture […] Because what was buried last night [at the University] was not a newspaper. Symbolically what was buried was freedom of thought and expression. The obligatory colophon of this act is the commentary in the periodical Revolución. The title of this commentary says it all: “Prensa Libre on the road to La Marina.” They didn’t have to say it, everyone knows.”

On July 4, at night, the FIDEL mob took by assault the Prensa Libre facilities. Medrano left the building, the street teemed with activists. One of them tried to stop him, shouting comments for the occasion, but others let him pass. Medrano got into his car and went to seek asylum at the nearest embassy, that of Panama. Perhaps during the drive he recalled the six times Batista’s police had stopped him, before the triumph of the Revolution, and interrogated him for publishing comments that displeased that other dictator.

Days later Humberto Medrano, escorted to the airport by Panama’s ambassador, left with his family on a commercial flight to Miami. That same week he got a job as a taxi driver. He soon began writing for a local newspaper and devoted himself since that time to the fight for respect for human rights in Cuba. He died in Florida in 2012, at the age of 96.

At the end of the fifties, the most important magazine in Latin America was Bohemia. Founded in 1908, it was directed by Miguel Angel Quevedo, the son of the founder. “Bohemia reported when reporting was dangerous,” said Humberto Medrano in 2008. The first interview Fidel Castro gave to a Cuban media, from the Sierra Maestra, went to Bohemia. The magazine sent Augustine Alles Soberon to interview Fidel and he also interviewed Che.

The editorials, news reports, photographs and articles in favor of Fidel Castro, by Alles Soberon and  later others, filled dozens of pages of the magazine. Fidel Castro himself published in Bohemia. Recently installed in power Fidel Castro visited the magazine’s offices. That was a party, about which a large and proud story was published in the weekly magazine itself. The courageous editorial attitude of Bohemia against Batista, in defense of freedom of expression and in support of Castro, was the most prominent among all the media.

On June 15, 1960 Fidel Castro celebrated the Day of Freedom of the Press. A year after that party with Fidel in Bohemia’s offices, the crazed mob of the FIDEL organization took the workshops and offices of the magazine by assault. Miguel Angel Quevedo took refuge in the Embassy of Venezuela. He committed suicide in Caracas in 1969.

Taken from the site Revista Replicante

Can Cuba’s 1940 Constitution be Salvaged? (Part 1) / Somos+

Somos+, Kaned Garrido, 24 August 2016 — Among vibrant speeches, spirited debates, coalitions of power, changing sides, unthinkable alliances and the dream of rebuilding the Republic, was born one of the most progressive legal texts. The ambitious statements of the 1940 Constitution are as interesting as the story behind it.

The fall of Machado’s dictatorship had left the country with a shaky legitimacy of power. Parties and movements sought profound changes. The revolutionaries wanted to slow the growth of monopolies, the size of the large estates, inequality between classes, poverty in the countryside and cities, and, above all: eventually form an independent nation.

Within the Constituent Assembly political leaders were battling it out in intense discussions. In the upheaval of World War II Cuban politics took sides in the movements of the great powers. Eduardo Chibas criticized the support of Cuban communists for Moscow’s actions. Meanwhile, laws were proposed to reduce American dominance over the island. Nationalism was the recurring and necessary theme. continue reading

The constitution has a strong liberal base, a deep respect for the separation of powers and equality before the law. In addition it proposed an ambitious social program.

Article 61 guaranteed that all Cuban workers would have a minimum wage consistent with their material, moral and cultural needs. Commissions would set salaries that should take into account economic activity, the conditions of the region, and consider the worker the “head of household.”

If we created a commission right now, would would be the estimated minimum salary for a Cuban worker?

Article 67 gave every worker one month’s rest for every eleven months worked. If due to circumstances he did not complete the 11 months, the rest was proportional to the time worked. But those were only benefits, the true right resided in Article 71:

“The right of workers to the strike and the right of employers to the lockout is recognized, in conformity with the regulations that the law may establish for the exercise of both rights.”

This was the law that would prevent the employers from ignoring the workers. The mere threat of a strike is a reason to negotiate.

It is difficult to define the grammatical terms to talk about these laws, to say how much they were held to. The years of that constitution were plagued by corruption and ended with Batista’s coup d’etat on 10 March 1952.

Today, a review by officialdom recognizes certain social conquests in the text, but considers it a “bourgeois constitution” and “inferior” to today’s.

So we must create our own perception of what is salvageable and what is not. Why is such an ancient text so important? Can we copy and paste it into the twenty-first century?

Many constitutional scholars agree that only some amendments need to be updated, because by its nature it is liberal and fair making it applicable to our time.

Possibly this constitution written among the storms of the nineteen-forties will be the basis of a new Cuban democracy. So we will continue talking about it…

Thank You, Venezuela! / Somos+

Somos+, 2 September 2016 — Yesterday the Venezuelan people gave us another great lesson: We can go out into the streets united to demand our rights, we can peacefully challenge a Populist-Marxist government and conquer the streets. It was a great victory.

We salute our Venezuelan brothers and we thank them. Thank you for gathering in such huge numbers to remember one of your leaders, Leopoldo Lopez, who chose to be arrested in a very special place in Caracas: at the foot of the statue of Jose Marti, reminding us all that Cuba is one thing and Fidel Castro and his agents are another, and they are the ones collaborating with the Maduro dictatorship. continue reading

The protest achieved its planned objectives: to “occupy” Caracas and demand a recall election, without delay, without waiting for next year, which is what Maduro wants.

It is important to know what the objective was and that it has been achieved, because some voices have commented saying the effort was useless, because they should have taken advantage of the moment to occupy the centers of power in Caracas.

That would have been to anticipate events and give the Chavistas arguments to use all the forces of their paramilitary collaborators and the army itself.

The time for that has not yet arrived in Venezuela. First all the legal means and resources must be exhausted, and we hope that when the time comes the military will refuse to shoot, because they recognize that in these demonstrators are their children, their brothers, their wives, their mothers or themselves.

Venezuelans have given us a great demonstration of where you can get with unity around a table in which everyone can organize themselves, around those objectives they have in common and forgetting their differences.

These common objectives are, briefly: NO to hunger and misery, YES to work and progress. NO to tyranny, YES to democracy. It’s that simple.

From this lesson we must draw a firm determination, in our own national struggle, of advancing our movement: Somos+ (We Are More), and advancing our roundtable: MUAD.

Long live free Venezuela and Cuba!

Wave Of Arrests Against Activists Seeking To Prevent A Youth Congress / 14ymedio

Amel Carlos Oliva, youth leader for UNPACU. (Somos +)
Amel Carlos Oliva, youth leader for UNPACU. (Somos +)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 July 2016 – This Sunday several independent organizations are holding the first Cuban Youth Congress in the city of Santiago de Cuba, under heavy police pressure and after dozens of arrests. Among those arrested is the activist from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) Amel Carlos Oliva, who was arrested last Thursday, according to sources from UNPACU.

Oliva’s family and friends told 14ymedio that they lost telephone contact with the dissident hours after he met in Havana with Eliecer Avila, president of the Movement Somos+ (We Are More), an organization also participating in the youth event. continue reading

Oliva returned from Washington the same day he was detained and, according to the leader of the UNPACU, Jose Daniel Ferrer, was “kidnapped by the repressive forces” as he traveled from the Cuban capital to the east.

Since Saturday some members of both organizations were also victims of arbitrary detention, while others were subject to strong police operations around their homes. However, a few managed to reach the Santiago headquarters of UNPACU, where the Congress is now taking place.

Joanna Columbié, a member of Somos+, was arrested on the outskirts of the meeting. She managed to report her arrest by telephone, seconds before being put in the police car. According to reports from the organizations involved in the Congress, more than a hundred activists have been arrested.

The wave of arrests on Sunday is the continuation of the dozens of arrests from the day before, when several members of UNPACU were violently arrested while protesting to demand the immediate release of Carlos Amel Oliva.

Economic Transition in Cuba: A Brief Analysis / Somos+, Gretther Yedra

Somos+, Gretther Yedra, 1 June 2016 — When addressing the need for a “transition” of Cuban society, Cuban leaders respond that such a process already took place, starting in 1959, when the Revolutionary government seized farms, factories, shops, banks and other industries which had hitherto been in private hands.

But when the traditional opposition-in-exile speaks of transition, it almost always means a return to the political and economic order that existed before 1959, which in essence means returning confiscated property to its former owners. In other words, to turn back the clock, retracing the path that the Revolution took in the years immediately following the triumph of the insurrection. This is, from a revolutionary point of view, counter-revolutionary. continue reading

One might think that it all boils down to a choice between two diametrically opposed options, with each alternative amounting to nothing more than a reverse of the other. One option proscribes absolute collectivization; the other calls for complete privatization. When the first agrarian reform was carried out and large estates were seized, the government spoke of giving the land to the peasants. A frequently heard phrase at the time was “The land should belong to those who work it.”

And when factories, businesses and banks were seized, it was said to have been done on behalf of the proletariat in order to make workers the “owners of the means of production.” The Revolutionary government was, therefore, conceived as a means for transferring wealth from one class to another. This was supposed to take place in two stages. First, the assets of the bourgeoisie were to be expropriated and, second, they were to become the property of the workers.

No one can seriously claim that the first step in this transition was not carried to the fullest extent possible — all property belonging to capitalists and landowners was expropriated — but what remains an open question is whether or not the second stage was ever realized.

These two extremes are not altogether unalike, with both sharing a common denominator. Both involve transforming the way monopolies are controlled, with one approach precluding the other. Whether a large plantation is run privately or by the state, its essence remains unchanged; it is still a plantation. Instead of dividing the land among the peasants, collective farms were created. Workers in factories, shops and banks could not democratically elect their directors and administrators; they were appointed by higher-ups.

As noted by sociologists both inside and outside the island, the model adopted by state-run agriculture tended to conflate state property with socialist property, which also affected non-state socialist enterprises such as CPAs (agricultural production cooperatives). One result is that a farm worker’s position more closely resembles that of salaried employee in a capitalist enterprise than that of a socialist owner.

In neither case has the radical rethinking necessary for a real solution been realized. Neither addresses the essential dilemma: the monopolistic control of property, the absence of worker participation in management decisions and the marginalization of much of the population.

While the first step was taken in the early years, the second was indefinitely postponed. Companies came under state control, which became an end unto itself. To say that the transition has already been carried out is only half true. It is a transition that was interrupted, one that never came to fruition, and as a result the revolutionary process remains unfinished.

What is significant is the term “state-owned” rather than “social” property as the official terminology used to describe the essential nature of a socialist society. But statism is not socialism. It is a form of centralization that precludes civil society and is incompatible with the original concept of socialism, which might better be called socialization or, in other words, the free participation of all sectors of society in economic activities without bureaucratic intermediaries.

Since classic Marxism predicted the eventual abolition of even state-owned property during the most advanced phase of socialism, how can it be argued that state ownership is the ideal form of social property given that it was the inefficiency of such a system that led to failure of the Soviet Union itself?

Democracy should be a pathway, one in which we are free to choose our leaders and remove them from power if they prove to be corrupt or if they betray us. It is essential that our economy be guided by experts in this area, not by the military. Political ideology cannot be the determining factor in our country’s economic growth.

Therefore, our goal must be to eliminate centralism, which we consider to be a hindrance to the development of the kind of society we want to build. Learning from our own and others’ mistakes is a first step in the right direction. The change lies within us.

Without Haste and With Many Pauses / Somos+, Joanna Columbie

Raul Castro speaking at the recent 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party

Somos+, Joanna Columbié, 24 May 2016 — The Cuban economic model, one that is imprecise, vague, and very particular to Cuba, does not manage to meet the needs of the Cuban people. The nominal wage does not come close to the actual salary that a Cuban citizen needs to cover their basic necessities and, in this respect as in many others, the Guidelines set forth in the previous Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba have failed to be implemented effectively; according to official figures, only 21% of the proposals have actually been carried out.

In Cuban president Raúl Castro’s own words, this whole process should be carried out “without haste but without pause,” however we should ask ourselves whether this phrase can ever be realistic for the Cuban people. Having to wait over 57 years for the promises made by Fidel Castro in his speech known as “History Will Absolve Me” to be put into effect puts this current wait into question. continue reading

It is not the first time that a similar process has been implemented in Cuba. Appearing to recognise the mistakes that have been made, necessary rectifications of mistakes and negative trends have been set out on more than one occasion, in each case with the apparent objective of distracting the population, making sure that their attention is diverted away from the serious economic and social situation that has plagued the country at various points in history.

And now Raúl is back at the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (known as the PCC) with the same discourse. Nothing has changed and in his speech he repeats this same fateful phrase that has led to many a frustrated hope for the people of Cuba and many a useless plan.

Part of the population hoped that this 7th Congress would bring change, change that has to happen sooner or later, but we did not think that it would come via a party that has lost its reason for being in this society, if it ever had one. Remaining in the same political confinement to which we are accustomed will not be a sufficient reason for the opposition movements in Cuba to walk step by step towards necessary change, even though the communists finish their congress in the same way it started: without haste and with many pauses.

Translated by E Hill

The War of the Blacks / Somos+

Somos+, Jose Manuel Presol, 17 May 2016 — If there is something shameful in our republican history, it is the events of 1912. Nothing much is being said about it, not even in the government’s current propaganda. It is mentioned, articles and books are published about it, although it is not widely exposed.

Relatively few things have been written about it; the data, which is scarce at the source, are lost, and it is difficult to achieve an in-depth knowledge about it. Oral transmission is likewise poor, perhaps out of shame by some or out of fear by others.

I am referring to what is called the “War of the Independent People of Color,” or the “War of the Blacks.” continue reading

Whoever denies the significance of our compatriots of color in the War of Independence is blind. Their freedom from slavery, their recognition as citizens and all their rights as Cubans stem from it. Apparently, there was something deeper: friendship and brotherhood amongst whites and blacks who had jointly fought as mambises (patriotic fighters).

But that equality was merely on the paper the Constitution was written on and in multiple laws. The fact is that Cuba had, and still has, an important racist component. At the 7th Cuban Communist Party Congress, Raúl Castro himself mentioned that “the fight against any vestige of racism which hampers or slows down the promotion of blacks and mestizos to leading positions shall be relentlessly pursued.” And even after 57 years of a theoretical “egalitarian revolution” and three generations under “socialism,” we still encounter expressions such as “Dude, you strike me as an ’Oreo’.”

Legal equality had been achieved, but not in reality.  In 1902 began the creation of organizations in defense of the rights and interests of black people, such as the Black Veterans Committee, some of whose meetings were presided over by Juan Gualberto Gómez.

In 1908 the Group of Independent People of Color was created, a rather more political organization, which on August 7 of the same year became the Party of Independent People of Color (PIC, according to its Spanish acronym). Its platform was not only anti-racist but also social, as it called for an eight-hour working day and general and free education.

However, from then on big mistakes were made by both parties:

On the part of the State a black senator, Martín Morúa Delgado, filed a motion against that party, by considering a party based on racial principles to be unconstitutional, and the “Morúa Amendment,” modifying Section 17 of the Electoral Act was adopted and the PIC was declared illegal.

Morúa, in his–likely honest–attempts to avoid social division, even forgot the continuous insults to which he and other black and mixed race senators and congressmen were subject. One of the most frequent was that in all receptions, these were directed to the guest and companion or mistress, while discriminating against their wives.

On the other hand, Evaristo Estenoz, a slave-born PIC leader, distanced himself from many whites who supported him, thus politically isolating himself, and attempted to foster a new U.S. intervention, to which end he held meetings with figures such as Charles Magoon, the U.S. occupation governor between 1906 and 1909, and Enoch Crowder, former Military Governor of the Philippines, who had taken part in U.S. interventions in Cuba and in wars against the Apaches, led by Jeronimo, and the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull. Both of them being “very good company.”

Finally, on May 20, 1912, a PIC armed uprising took place in Pinar del Río, Havana, Santa Clara and Oriente to achieve their demands, although it did not contemplate the overthrow of the government presided by José Miguel Gómez.

Originally no attention was paid to it, but the contacts initiated by Estenoz were in motion, and the Cuban government was warned that, in order to defend U.S. interests, armed troop vessels were being sent to Guantánamo and other destinations.

Thus, the President ordered the army to intervene, which put an end to the uprising–to the embarrassment of all–by murdering all the black and dark-skinned mixed-race people encountered, whether or not they had participated in the revolt; it even removed peaceful workers from their homes and killed them in front of their families.

The leaders of the uprising, Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet, perished. Regarding the former there are versions that he committed suicide and that he died in combat; his body had a shot in the temple. Ivonet was simply murdered after being taken prisoner.

It is not known how many victims there were. Some mention 60 victims, which could be ludicrous if we were not referring to human lives, others mention 6,000. The safest thing is that they ranged between 3,000 and 4,000.

In order not to revisit similar mistakes and embarrassments, let us recall that we are all Cubans and it is no good to merely state it on a piece of paper. This is another pending change which has to be begun, as all changes, by ourselves.

Meeting in New Jersey with Eliecer Avila this Saturday / Somos+

13220111_10207578844722699_1539987182_nSomos+, 17 May 2016 — On Saturday, May 21, at 2:00 p.m., at the Club Cubano de New Jersey (New Jersey Cuban Club), the president and founder of Somos+ Political Movement, will give a lecture about current issues in Cuban society. After several months of efforts, this meeting is possible thanks to the cooperation of the members residing in the U.S. You are all invited to this meeting and debate. Hoy Somos+.

The Cuban Exile is Young, and It Hasn’t Died / Somos+, Javier Martinez

Cuban emigrants in Central America waiting to continue their journey north to the United States

Somos+, Javier Martinez, 9 May 2016 — The Cuban exile is not dead. I am 28 and I live outside my country for political reasons, so I consider myself an exiled Cuban. The Cuban exile has not died, and will not die as long as we Cubans have to leave our country to seek in other countries what the dictatorial government of the Castro brothers and their clique has denied us for more than six decades. I can agree that the exile now is different, but it hasn’t died, and it will not die as along as dignified Cubans are fighting for the future of their country.

To put this in context, some days ago a text circulated on social networks referring to the death of the Cuban exile.

Starting from a situation that since the 1990s has plagued Cuban emigration: all the Cubans who are benefitting under the Cuban Adjustment Act, ask for political asylum from the emigration authorities when they reach the borders of the United States but, the truth is, these new emigrants when they receive their residency permits after a year and a day, return to visit Cuba, and the vast majority of them do nothing to achieve the political freedom of the country they were forced to leave. continue reading

We cannot cover the sun with a finger, the Cuban exile has changed, and greatly. At the beginning of the Revolution the majority of exiles were from the upper class, Cubans whose property had been expropriated, members of Batista’s military, intellectuals, and also those who could see, from the first months, the socialist and communist direction the country’s leadership was taking. Today the people leaving Cuba are not only those opposed to the government, but also those who want to escape from the shortages, the neglect and the bad treatment from the government.

The vast majority of the emigrants of today prioritize their personal wellbeing above politics, even when sheltering themselves under a law that shelters them for political reasons. We could say that only one is ten is tied to opposition organizations in exile, not an exact figure, but Somos+ is a living example that not all are economic emigrants, as many of the Cubans now leaving the island are called; some, when they leave Cuba, are expressing their desire to fight for freedom.

We know that the exile has changed, these are not the years when exile groups planned armed actions from Miami. The exile has also changed, in many ways, like Cuban society has changed. The forms of struggle have moved to the social networks and today’s weapons do not assault directly; now they transform, educate, show Cubans on the island that change is possible through civic struggle, through a knowledge of our rights and a study of our duties, which leads to a gradual transformation of an entire society.

To clarify, this does not mean that the young people of the exile–and when I refer to them I am speaking on behalf of dozens of friends who belong to Somos+ and live in the United States, Spain, Ecuador and Switzerland, to mention some of the countries where young Cuban opponents to the Castro government live–are trying to occupy a space that the historic exile might say belongs to only a few, on the contrary, we want them to open its doors to us.

We call on this historic exile that some pretend has died, to join our ranks, we want to learn from them and show them that today we believe in a path that could lead us to achieving what they have been fighting for for years: full freedom for Cuba. A freedom where the rights of everyone to think differently are respected, even if we don’t agree with their ideas. That is, those who try to force us to think in a unilateral way, their time is past.

We young exiles who now form a part of the opposition to the socialist government do so from the deepest democratic convictions, and thus we respect the personal right of every person to decide what to do with his or her life, but of one thing we are certain: the exile has not died, as long as Cuba is not free we will continue to fight for the ideals of justice and freedom that we desire for our people.

For Mima, the Best Kiss… / Somos+

Somos+, Eliecer Avila, 8 May 2016 — First of all I want to send a huge kiss to all the mothers of the world, and especially the Cuban mothers, many of whom cannot sleep peacefully knowing that a mysterious black wolf called State Security stealthily monitors their young children day and night.

Among these mothers is mine. Or all of mine… because I have several. The one who gave birth to me from whom I was separated by divorce when I was three (although we still see each other), the one who raised me, my grandmother (Mima), my aunt Arelis, perennial guardian of the entire family; at least two memorable stepmothers whom I love very much, and dozens of mothers who have appeared to me recently because according to them they pray for me every night and have adopted me as their son.

But today I want to talk about Mima, because she is now almost 70 and every day she fills my thoughts. It has been five months since I last saw her, because of the 450 miles that separate us since the end of 2013 when I came to live in Havana. At times it’s hard even to talk on the phone because I know that sooner or later she is going to ask the question that causes a lump in my throat, “M’ijo… when are you coming?” continue reading

Recently, seeing me come through the door is her moment of greatest happiness. I could almost say she lives for this day. She keeps for me in the fridge a little piece of each chicken she kills on the yard, spared from her own little pounds (a tiny checkbook), and I don’t know how she manages to have for me “pineapple juice that you like, powdered milk and even a little piece of red meat…” All luxuries that she can’t give herself during the time we are apart.

When I see her, along with my grandfather (Tata) I can’t help feeling some remorse and a sense of guilt. I don’t know if I have to the right to build my own life, going far away to look to improve to, for access to culture and work opportunities. I have tried a thousand times to convince her to come with me, even if just for a time, because I want to give her the first day of the rest in her entire live and take care of her as she always did me, but there is no one who can get her off the farm and she is an expert in manufacturing pretexts…

I also wonder how it is that, living on an island, we can feel such a strong sense of distance. I am convinced that it would be a whole different thing if instead of this absurd government we had a normal one. We would have access to hundreds of technological tools that would allow me to see her face and talk with her a little bit at night, persuade her to eat more and work less, ask her how the services went in the little church she attends, where sometimes she even preaches and constantly fasts for her children and grandchildren. Now my aunt tells me she has become infatuated with the idea of my grandfather “having women out there…” Which he denies saying, “If only…” ha ha ha. How I would love to laugh and enjoy every day with them.

This situation makes me think of the thousands of children who are in other countries, while their mothers are here, sometimes sick and always getting older. The family crisis this country has been experiencing for decades is really terrible.

This morning I went to Monaco Park, one of the wifi points in the Capital, and it was even fuller than usual, which makes sense. But what most struck me was a woman of some 90 years in a wheelchair and with an IV drip at her side. She got out of a Moskovich car with the help of several family members who put a tablet in front of her to share with her what was probably her last wish: to see her son who lives in Orlando whom she hasn’t been able to hug for 27 years.

On the other side of the screen was a gray-haired gentleman surrounded by two sons and a newborn granddaughter, crowded together on a couch, trying to say something but unable to do so. Several minutes passed without a word, the tears never stopping and then a sister’s cracking voice, “Mama, say something, the [internet] card is going to run out…” The old woman tried to compose herself and then the words I hear so often and that pain me emerged, “M’ijo… when are you coming to see me?” and she added, “I’m waiting millet.”

I couldn’t take it any more, I closed the computer and left to walk the mile and a half from the park to my house. Determined to find a way to go and see my grandmother and my mother this month. It is really very hard that so many Cubans are forced to bear this damned circumstance, simply because some men retain for themselves the desire to keep this country in the dark ages of technology on one side and in material and spiritual poverty on the other, distancing thousands of children from their mothers every day.

I will never understand by Fidel preferred to separate rather than unite, to discriminate rather than protect, to hate when he could have used his charisma to support the Cuban people to cultivate love, togetherness, the family and pride in being Cuban.

There is a great deal we can do for our mothers as a new generation that clings to its natural right to participate in the politics of the country. We hope that very soon we will have that opportunity and we will live up to such an honorable responsibility.

Here I share photos of my mother and grandmother. And I invite everyone to share on this day images of your mothers, those here and those who care for us from above, those far away and those at our side. Let us fill all the spaces today with their sweet faces.

This Time I Reached Pinar de Rio / Somos+, Eliecer Avila

 

Somos+, Eliecer Avila, 26 April 2016 — The last time I tried to meet with several families in this province I was forcibly  “deported” by State Security agents, who told me I was “persona non grata” in the territory. It is very likely that no citizens had heard of the action taken against me, because today I noted the astonishment and indignation of many upon learning those facts. “You are welcome here and everywhere,” I was told by the wonderful people who welcomed me this time.

Obviously, State Security and the Communist Party do not represent the views of the vast majority of the Cuban people. I think they no longer represent even those of their own members. So they try at all costs to prevent the average Cuban from encountering the new proposals. This repressive and fearful weapon can delay the process, but never stop it. continue reading

Those who think differently and want to work sincerely and responsibly for the nation will always find a way to reach the people, because that love, support, and popular respect energizes us to continue fighting for a better future.

We have always been convinced that there are more of us, and that is now becoming increasingly apparent. We are seeing a slow but steady loss of fear. We are surprised by the number of people openly expressing their views. Logic and reason are opening a path through the thorns of hatred and unthinking force.

I congratulate the Center for Coexistence Studies for the work performed during these 8 years of labor in the formation of civic consciousness and human values.

We continue fertilizing the land with love and fresh, clean water, so the most beautiful garden in the Caribbean will bloom again, for everyone.

Translated by Tomás A.

Open Letter to Cuba’s Foreign Minister / Somos+, Jorge Ros

“Better I shut up”

Mr. Bruno Rodriguez,

I am not going to say that your statements about President Obama’s visit surprised me, because nothing you do surprises me any more. Nor do I concern myself with looking for the logic in it, because there isn’t any. You, or some of you, are totally dogmatic and impractical. Because of this your system doesn’t work, because dogmas that didn’t work in the Cold War, and much less so now, predominate.

You said that President Obama’s visit was an attack. Your blindness doesn’t let you see that the president is extending a hand to Cuba to get it out of this economic slump of what you call socialism and that isn’t remotely socialism that you have caused it to fall into. Your myopia is such that continue reading

you don’t see how badly things are going in the country and you are even proud, I don’t know why, because it should make you feel badly.

Everything Obama said is true. We must respect people and let them express themselves. And we must let the people choose their leaders in a pluralistic way. You say that his saying that was an attack on the cultural and political conceptions of the island. But you made a grave error.

It could be that your cultural and political conceptions are dictatorial and totalitarian. It could be that your vision of the government is a group that decides for everyone, and that has the gift of never being wrong and so you have maintained your unalterable dogma despite its failings. You live still believing in the class struggle, when this concept has been obsolete for dozens of years.

You talk about guarantees for a non-state sector in the economy. I refute that point and want to be very clear. The guarantees that we need to find are that of a productive and sustainable Cuban economy and it is demonstrated that this can only be achieved when the state doesn’t participate in it, and leaves small, medium and large businesses to fulfill their function of production through incentives and a profit for the owners.

The state benefits because successful businesses pay taxes that provide the resources to the state to carry out the functions that belong to it, which is not producing goods. The state must focus on developing the national infrastructure, on establishing an educational system that maximizes the talents of our children, on administering a universal healthcare system that works and where the material needs of such a system are not lacking as in Cuba. You might like to analyze how the Germans do it.

Their workers are protected through modern labor laws and not through making the government function like an employment agency that keeps most of the compensation that the workers should receive. And you have to respect the laws of supply and demand, because no free market system functions well when the state tries to manipulate it.

The function of the state is to create the conditions necessary for the private sector to be successful, because this success benefits everyone: The employers, the workers and the state.

Enough already with the farces and congresses of one party, a party that, if there were freedom, would not win a single election. Enough already with reciting idiocies and repeating dogmas to make the masters happy, enough already with insulting the president of a more powerful nation of the free world that is trying to help us and correct of the mistakes your dogmatism has produced.

My Esteemed Foreign Minister, your position should be to work with this great country that is offering its hand. If your dogmatism and myopia doesn’t allow you to see and recognize it, better you shut up and get out, because Cuba does not need people like you.

Sincerely,

Jorge Ros

Somos+, 20 April 2016

 

The True Support of the Majority of the People for the “Revolution” / Somos+, Pedro Acosta

Somos+, Pedro Acosta, 1 March 2016 — In any forum our highest leaders intervene in, they express the idea that the majority of the people support the regime, however…

When the people, without excluding those who manifest being its followers, nor those militants of the PCC and the UJC, or leaders at all levels of the country, prove in a massive, uncontrollable, and endless manner, an entire category of “attributes,” such as those that:

Steal or receive, buy, sell, or give academic titles and medical continue reading

certificates. When the means of the state are deviated for personal benefit and enjoyment, corruption swarms. When the working day is wasted, and they absent themselves during working hours for different issues outside of these.

When hundreds of thousands abandon their homeland and many more hope to do so. When there is apathy, skepticism, accompanied by a high dose of indifference and  irresponsibility, it’s only for a simple, easy and obvious reason, and if you have not noticed it, or try to ignore it, I will remind you.

Know, gentlemen of the Political Bureau and the Council of State, the Cuban people neither respect  nor follow you, their daily actions prove it.

To be governed, Cuba needs young blood and fresh minds with new life and renewed energy. People who aren’t contaminated by previous vices, who know how to act with sagacity and intelligence, adapting to the reality of the moment. A youth that does not fear the whirlwind and indispensable changes needed to adapt to this 21st century, knowing in turn how to preserve our independence and sovereignty. People who know how to confront the leadership of the country thinking first of all, and understanding in reality, which are the real interests of the public, unlike those who think they know them only because they are consistent with their own opinions. Human beings that don’t protect their personal desires and privileges, under the misleading pretext that these are the interests of the homeland. Cubans that don’t defend with cloak and sword their incompetence, who are able to ask forgiveness from their people when it is necessary, taking responsibility for their errors. Cubans who bravely abandon power when it exemplifies their ineptness.

New vitality must undertake this gigantic task. And above all: people who don’t take advantage of power.

People who are not afraid to lose that which they don’t have!

(Taken from my book, unpublished, Promised Paradise, Acquired Purgatory)

Translated by: Emily Piltzer

State Security fears a Cuban Snowden / Somos+, Javier Cabrera

Somos+, Javier Cabrera, 1 April 2016 — Yesterday the news came out in various media: Ultra-secret information has been stolen from the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. The poor proclamation “Raúl’s Sovereign Technology” showed itself more focused on censorship of content and limiting communication than on constructing a true plan of security in the service of the nation.

It’s not the first theft of confidential information, although the previous ones were by citizens and not directly by people in the military, like the surveillance videos in Havana or the telephone directory of the state phone company ETECSA. The absurd pledge of reinventing technology has ended up being, as expected, manipulation. continue reading

State Security, formerly considered one of the most efficient bodies, has succumbed to ridicule. The absence of generational relief to conserve jobs and benefits, the government secrecy and the absurd plan of creating technologies that are dedicated only to counteracting the bad reputation of the “Revolution” in the digital world, such as in this blog, have produced fruits, although they aren’t the ones hoped for.

The Internet and technology are not re-inventable. It’s not necessary to adapt technology to Cuba, but for Cuba to enter with full force into technology. It’s not a matter of creating professionals to work in offline businesses, repair computers or traffic in movies, but of forming true leaders in digital businesses that generate quality employment at all levels.

While this change in mentality doesn’t happen, it’s more than probable that this isn’t the only case that scares the analog government of Havana. I’m very curious to know if Raúl will defend the rights of a “Cuban Snowden” when he’s presented to public opinion with the same arguments as the North American analyst.

Mr. President, permit me to welcome you, on behalf of all computer engineers, to the Twenty-First Century.

Translated by Regina Anavy