Translating Cuba

In an article entitled Vietnam, a Country in Constant Doi Moi, published in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde on Sunday April 8, Niliam Vazquez Garcia stated that “the people feel it in the streets, in the prosperity of the family business, perhaps even in the air, the achievements of more than two decades of Doi Moi, a process that provides for the introduction of market logic in the economy, but with socialist orientation.”

She added that the Vietnamese “in a short space of time have become exporters of oil and other products as well as the second largest coffee producers in the world.” I join in the well-deserved recognition of this industrious and tenacious people, but I think it useful, along with the tribute, to promote reflection about why Vietnam can and Cuba cannot.

During the last of the wars of that country, ended in 1975 against the world’s largest military power, with the number of bombs dropped on its own territory three times higher than those used during the Second World War, 15% of its population perished or injured and 60% of the 15 thousand villages in the south were destroyed. As if that were not enough, they then had to face the economic blockade and cross-border attacks.

After the end of the war and the reunification of the nation, Vietnam started from scratch. The system of a planned economy, which extended from north to south, plunged the country into famine and hyperinflation.

Given the failure, the reformist Communist Party supported by younger cadres overcame the conservatives and, in 1986, proclaimed Doi Moi (renovation), under the theme “Economic reform, political stability,” and began by introducing market mechanisms, the autonomy of producers, the right of nationals to become entrepreneurs and the granting of land ownership to farmers.

Doi Moi, focused on developing the initiative, the interest and responsibility of producers, from the very beginning faced an economic crisis caused by the laziness, the bureaucracy and the enemies of change, which ended with the wholesale dismissal of the conservative Party cadres.

Then, upon the collapse of the socialist camp, the reformist trend continued the path of deepening and permanent renewal of the Communist Party cadres. The result was so clear that the United States in 1993 withdrew its opposition to the granting of loans, in 1994 discontinued the embargo, and in 1995 restored diplomatic relations.

In 2001, Vietnam became the second largest exporter of rice. To achieve this, besides the allocation of a further extension to this crop and technological changes, the determining factor was, without doubt, the political will of the rulers who placed the interests of the nation first and began, in fact, to make changes in everything that really needed to be changed: they generalized the market economy, defined multiple forms of ownership, eliminated the monopoly of state property and placed socialist planning second.

Thus, with Doi Moi, unlike Cuba, and focusing on internal changes, the economy managed to produce food for its 80 million inhabitants and to occupy second place in world grain exports; second place in the export of coffee (the President of the Council of State of Cuba acknowledged that Cubans, who taught the Vietnamese how to grow the aromatic grain, must buy their coffee abroad); first place in pepper exports; to which is added sales of oil, shoes, electronics and other products, while foreign investment reached tens of billions of dollars. These results allowed Vietnam to reduce poverty from 60% to 5% of its population.

Meanwhile in Cuba, which also has people who are industrious, intelligent and gifted with a high level of training, has lacked the political will to implement an economic model capable of arousing interest in production.

In 1986, when Vietnam applied Doi Moi, Cuba opted for the Correction of Errors and Negative Tendencies, a project, if I may it call that, aimed at blocking the influence of Perestroika, than beginning in the Soviet Union.

Then, in 1993, forced by circumstances, facing the effects of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, Cuba implemented a small group of measures — limited and isolated — that three years later were paralyzed by the counter-reform initiated in 1996.

Similarly, but with the opposite results of Vietnamese rice production, facing the decline of sugar production in Cuba from more than 8 million tons in 1990 to just 3.5 million in 2001, the government announced the restructuring of the Sugar Industry and the Alvaro Reinoso Task, in order to produce six million tons. To meet that figure — which had been achieved in the country in 1948 — they closed 71 of the 156 sugar mills and redistributed 60% of the land used for cane plantations to other crops.

The result was the decline in the harvest in 2005 to 1.3 million tons (a figure that had been produced in the year 1907). Twelve years after that failure, last March 31, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, Marino Murillo stated that the Ministry of Agriculture “presents a financial and economic condition unfavorable for several years, impacting negatively on business management” and recognized “that have been insufficient actions and measures taken so far to reverse it.” [1]

The difference is obvious. The Cuban government remains committed to an obsolete and unworkable model, and so far refuses to have its own citizens included as true subjects of the changes. Still pending is reform of the current ownership structure, whose foundation has to be political pluralism and opportunity for participation.

The big difference with Vietnam is that the delay in undertaking the changes in Cuba has led to the structural crisis, making it impossible at this stage to limit the changes to some isolated aspects of the economy. Now, simultaneously, changes need to be made in the field of civil liberties; it is the only way that Cuba, like Vietnam, can do it.

1 Puig Meneses Yaima. Working with integrity on each problem. In the newspaperGranma April 5, 2012, p.3

Published in Spanish in Diario de Cuba.

April 27 2012

The Economic Chamber of the Court of Havana issued a summons to the Panamanian corporation Ingelco S.A., to appear and answer the lawsuit within sixty working days from March 28, 2012.

The notice, issued on March 23, 2012 by the Supreme Court and published on the 27th of that month in the Official Gazette of the Republic, the organ of publication of national laws, the former Audience of Havana, ignores the legal address of the firm.

According to the Secretary of the Court, Mara Piedras Velarde, the organ of justice of the capital, began the paperwork in 2012 for the Dissolution and Liquidation of the Joint Venture Company Rio Zaza S.A., at the request of the Food Corporation S.A.

Ingelco S.A. had a contract of international economic association with the Heroes of Giron Combined Citrus Company, effective until December 31, 2005, and with the Combined Lacteo Rio Zaza, for 13 years from August 10, 1998, according to the Resolution of the then Minister of Foreign Commerce, Raul de la Nunez Ramirez.

The court notice also warned that failure to respond “would indicate agreement with the facts of the demand, without the need to provide proofs.” In addition the notification of a judicial resolution provides for the modification of protective custody, without specifying which, and the citation to attend the hearing called for 30 July 2012 at ten in the morning.

Rio Zaza Food S.A., a packaging industry for dairy, juice, food and alcoholic beverage products, is approved for 15 years, beginning on 26 January 2001, and authorized to undertake direct and permanent commercial operations in the internal Cuban market.

Max Marambio, a Chilean businessman of 63, is the co-proprietor in partnership with the Cuban government, of the Rio Zaza firm through his business, International Network Group (ING), also a Panamanian firm.

The conglomerate company, which did tens of millions of dollars annually in businesses related to Cuba, received renewals of its license in 2005 and 2008. In 2010 the license to operate was temporarily suspended and in 2011 it was canceled altogether.

Rio Zaza Food S.A, was subjected to an audit for irregularities in its management and linked to a corruption scandal involving Ofelia Liptak, its commercial director, and her husband, Rogelio Acevedo González, a General of the Cuban Revolution and former president of the Institute of Civil Aeronautics. On April 13, 2011, its General Manager, Chilean Roberto Baudrand, died in Havana after Cuban authorities prevented him from leaving the country.

Marambio,resident in Chile, was tried in absentia in March 2011 and sentenced to 20 years in prison in May of that year, for “bribery, fraud and falsification of bank or business documents, all of an ongoing nature” according to official notice in the official newspaper Granma.

In the process, also sentenced to 15 years in prison, was former Minister of Food Industry, Francisco Alejandro Roca Iglesias, for allowing himself to be corrupted, for favoring the businessman and for buying overpriced products for his consortium, causing serious damage to the Cuban economy.

Currently, the prices of products sold by Rio Zaza in hard currency State stores, rose between 5 and 15 cents in freely convertible currency in the internal Cuban market.

April 27 2012

Five decades have passed since that fateful triumph featuring people dressed in garments of olive green, who descended from the mountain proclaiming a society of equality for all men without distinction of race, creed, political or sexual orientation.

Not many years had passed when they begin to devise on the island the first exclusions from workplaces, educational and government institutions, of those Cubans whose sexual conduct was characterized by the nascent government as shameful and as a practice that tarnished the morals of the Cuban socialist nation.

Our forebears spent years in confinement, forced labor camps, facing acts of repudiation, and in many of the cases were stoned and forced into exile. Separating them from family and friends. Cuban history includes the anecdotes and suffering of Reinaldo Arenas, Virgilio P, Lezama and those who even their names remain in oblivion, or whose bodies lie in the waters of the Straits of Florida or along the Cuban coasts.

Fifty years later, history repeats itself and violations of the respect for human rights continues in Cuba and have again targeted the Cuban LGBT community. The same ruler act as if they have changed the practice of such violations, but when they come for analysis the situation facing this community in Cuba is the same.

The lack of spaces, of freedom of expression, freedom of association, free movement and the right to establish a relationship or marry in equality of rights, the right to decide the opportune moment to make your family aware of your sexual orientation, all these are some of the constant violations facing the LGBT Community in Cuba.

Meanwhile, State institutions like the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) directed by Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of the current president of the nation, proclaim to the world uncertain openings that guarantee the full respect of the human rights of the LGBT community, the reality of the Island is otherwise, which they don’t hesitate to silence out of fear of losing the great sums of money given for phantom projects that respond only to the interest of the Cuban State and not to those of the LGBT community in Cuba.

On the island there are daily reports of the arrests of LGBT people accompanied by heavy fines, deportations, in the case of homosexuals, from the capital Havana, extortion or blackmail by the police or law enforcement officers to purchase their own benefit at the suffering of those who fall into their hands. Beatings, arrests, instant and arbitrary searches in public places occur.

During year 2010 there is evidence of layoffs due to sexual orientation, layoffs of members of this community not following the current government’s political thought or simply for maintaining a friendship with someone who was an activist for the LGBT rights.

The violence resulted in the deaths from assaults of six homosexual in unknown conditions. We denounced the death of a young transvestite in a police cell from negligence and inattention. The dismissal from her work of a transsexual woman, Wendy Iriepa Diez for wanting to unite in marriage to a human rights activist. The arrest of homosexuals in public places, the ongoing siege for alleged homosexual tourism among others.

We continue to denounce the abuse of prison sentences between two and four years imprisonment or forced labor to those homosexuals who wander at night through the streets of Cuba, those who ingest alcohol and even those who are maintained by their families and do not choose to work with the Cuban state.

Cuba is a country where, according to the authorities, Cuban citizens are not prepared to face changes such as marriage between people of the same gender, or adoption or cohabitation. Meanwhile we Cubans ask the leader of these explanations where are your criteria, if when we walk in the street people smile at us and on occasion congratulate us for our sexual orientation, if not for our great humanism.

The truly guilty with regards to the constant violations of the rights of the Cuban LGBT Community face are the State and it institutions, armies of homophobics and discriminators. There is, in our nation, no power or persons more exclusionary than our leaders.

The growth of male prostitution, in the community of men having sex with other men, shows at this time in the large number of infections by HIV/AIDS in the history of the illness in Cuba, 8 or every 10 people with HIV are men.

Despite the totalitarianism, despite the iron hand of the power of the State, the Cuban LGBT Community today is rising from the ashes like a phoenix showing its beautiful plumage which, on this occasion, has the colors of our unequaled flag demanding and recovering all the spaces usurped by the power and the lies.

February 20 2012

By Alfredo Felipe Valdés

The professional trained for at least a decade, with a high educational rigor, who once he or she graduates has a high level of knowledge, is not treated by the State with the consideration deserved from the years and personal effort it took to complete the training.

This includes how other social sectors are vastly better paid despite not playing a social role even remotely comparable. This worker, who economically belongs to the medium-low social class, and leads a life of unjustifiable deprivation, has to witness how the government uses the results of his work as a trump card and banner to export an image of concern and anxiety for the good of the people and the rest of the Third World.

At this point the consolidated successes of past decades, such as the eradication of polio and other rash diseases by mass vaccination campaigns, and the low levels of infant and maternal mortality, are used to present them as achievements only possible under socialism, and are incorporated into the advertising discourse that seeks to mask the real social situation.

The Public Health Situation in Cuba

In 1964, the government of Fidel Castro took exclusive control of the Cuban Health System, just as it took control of most other spheres of social, economic, and political life in Cuba. For the half-century in which it has had this control, the Cuban government has presented the health system as a model to follow and did not hesitate to classify it as a “world power.” However, it is possible that in this area are seen most clearly the violations and trampling that for all these years have defined the relationship between the State and the individual. The most grave situations of this sector are described below.

Situation of Public Health Personnel

The professional trained for at least a decade, with a high educational level, who oncehe has graduated has a high level of knowledge, is not treated by the State with the consideration deserved from the years and personal effort it took to complete the training.

This includes the fact that other social sectors are vastly better paid despite their not playing a social role even remotely comparable. This worker, who economically belongs to the lower middle social class, and leads a life of unjustifiable deprivation, has to witness how the government uses the results of his work as a trump card and banner to export an image of concern and anxiety for the good of the people and the rest of the Third World.

At this point the consolidated successes of past decades, such as the eradication of polio and other such diseases by mass vaccination campaigns, and the low levels of infant and maternal mortality, are presented as achievements only possible under socialism, and are incorporated into the advertising discourse that seeks to mask the real social situation.

Health professionals face restrictions on travel, and are punished if they apply to do so
Deserving of special mention is the extreme subjection of all workers under the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) under Ministerial Resolution 54 of July 2, 1999, by the then Minister of Public Health, Dr. Carlos Dotres Martinez, which is one of the most exquisite aberrations dictated by the Cuban government. According to the terms of this Resolution, every employee under the Ministry of Public Health, who desires to go abroad, either temporarily or permanently, is forced to apply to the Ministry to be “released” from the public health sector; on submission of the application the employee is held by Ministry for a term of five years, with no exceptions.

This regulation applies equally to a recent graduate or to someone who has worked for 20 years, all will be held for at least 5 years before being allowed to travel. There are a great many cases where the prohibition on travel has been extended to 7 years. Even doctors and dentists who are already retired, are held for 3 years against their will by this former minister, who is not required to specify an exact term and who is the one who ultimately decides, according to his personal will, who will be “freed” and when.

During this time, this professional is given medical assignments, which are virtually forced on him, and which most of the time under spent deplorable conditions with regards to meals and often of hygiene; it is not uncommon for the staffof a polyclinic or hospital to have no running water for hand washing, the food is limited to a little rice, an egg and some root vegetable.

Salaries are low, and often not paid

The overtime medical shifts, are every 5 or 6 days, and the personnel is not paid for them for decades. Nor are they paid for seniority, bio-hazard risk, nor night shifts; for example, for many years nurses were paid the absurd figure of 6.00 Cuban pesos monthly for night shifts, that is about 30 cents on the U.S. dollar. Nor are those who take on teaching and administrative tasks — which adds $2 to $4 USD monthly to their salary — paid appropriately.

The Ministry of Work, through its Resolution No. 16 in 2005, fixed the basic monthly salary for this sector between 257.00 pesos (a little less than $13.00 USD) for technicians and 627.00 pesos (a little more than $31.00 USD) for specialized doctors at the second level. With this lean salary, this worker, given the high cost of living, will barely be able to feed his family for 10 days — as a result of which he is forced to engage in a variety of activities on the informal market or the black market.

In the case of doctors, this wage increase is around 48.00 pesos (less than $2 USD) relative to the monthly salary that they have at the moment. This was received by the workers with indignation and was seen to demonstrate a profound lack of respect. Despite this, the government then boasted about a disbursement of about 200 million pesos every year (about $8 million USD), of which only two would fall into the pocket of a mistreated doctor every month.

Asking for a raise brings loss of medical license

Amid these conditions, the aforementioned “augmentation” wage of 2005 led to two physicians, Drs. Rodolfo Martínez Vigoa and Jeovany Jimenez Vega, then working in the Guanajay municipality west of Havana Province, to draft a letter to then Health Minister Dr. José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera where they presented the majority opinion generated by this wage proposal.

To try to prevent their carrying forward with this initiative they were coerced and threatened in every way, including the classic acts of repudiation organized by the Party and the Union. This letter was endorsed by the signatures of 300 workers who shared their views and was delivered on November 11, 2005 to the Ministry of Public Health.

The Ministry never responded. The only response, was that the two doctors who had the initiative were barred from the practice of medicine throughout the country for an indefinite period, by a Ministerial Resolution that cannot be appealed.

To try to justify these penalties, those who handled the case resorted to falsification of documents and the manipulation and misrepresentation of facts, accusing both doctors of having deceived their colleagues by presenting them with a document unknown to them and which they covered up, at the time they collected the signatures. This was disproved by the copies of the document made at the time.

Here it is not possible to determine whether, at that time, there were similar reactions in other provinces, but it is suggested in the case as being very illustrative of the modus operandi that continues to be the posture of the State and the way in which the Ministry of Public Health solves its differences with its workers.

Any initiative, from any worker anywhere in Cuba will be treated in the same way. At the time of writing both physicians continue to be barred from practice, after 4 years, for something they never did. This abuse has gone on for years with the full knowledge of all the central authorities of this country, including the Attorney General, but remains unpunished.

One of these doctors decided to leave the country after 4 years of humiliation, He was required to apply for the aforementioned “liberation” from the Minister, but despite not having been a part of the Public Health System for 4 years, having been separated for from it against his will, the waiting time was determined to begin now so he will have to wait 5 additional years before he can leave.

This last evidence, even more than the rest of the elements outlined above, demonstrates that the Minister and other senior leaders of the circles of power in Cuba have no limits on their abuse and violation of the rights of workers this sector.

Primary and Secondary Health Care Understaffed and Undersupplied

The situation of care in primary health care has deteriorated considerably during the last decade as a direct result of the priority set for sending doctors and technicians to Medical Missions abroad, which now represents about half of practicing doctors. When a doctor leaves his workplace he does not always have an immediate replacement and generally the population is affected in various ways, either because the person who comes to relieve him only works part-time or because the patient has to move to a clinic further away and, because the clinics are now more crowded, the wait to be seen can extend to hours. In most cases, the Municipal Health Directors choose to concentrate the patient population in fewer clinics, given the scarcity of doctors working in primary care.

The doctor who is here to bear the work of those who leave. There have even been occasional very dramatic situations where a Polyclinic made up of 22 individual clinics has, for a time, had only two doctors overseeing all services.

It is valid to note that when any of these situations occurs, the doctor in question continues to receive exactly the same salary for taking on the work of their absent colleagues. It is even very common that an entire municipality or a territory will be deprived of certain specialty service because the only specialist has been sent abroad on one of those Missions.

For secondary care, the care situation also suffers from this involvement but rather more attenuated fashion, because the Medical Mission solicit all the specialists, especially the internal medicine specialists in primary care. In the case, more acute situations in hospitals and institutions are caused by problems of logistics and infrastructure assurance.

The doctor’s work is limited by the frequent lack of resources such as disposable material for clinical and surgical treatments, the limited availability of laboratory reagents, plates for x-rays, or even the drugs themselves are often lacking. This is compounded by the structural deterioration of many facilities that often do not have running water, have poor ventilation and no air conditioning. There are cases of Surgical Units closed for months because of structural problems.

Also affecting medical management is the dismal state of the available ambulances, which often results in the involuntary abuse of patients who have to wait, sometimes for 6 to 8 hours, to be transferred, sometimes in life-threatening clinical situations in which the time is critical.
The Problem of Infrastructure

Although a little over 5 years ago the country began a program of repair of many health facilities — in most cases the only repairs in decades — this did not reach all of them nor did it always end with the best quality, as is usual when the reconstructions are excessively delayed and at times what should take months takes years, which is causing inconvenience to the population, the theft of construction materials, and results in cost increases for the final execution of the work.

Generally, once the repairs are finished, there is no follow-up with regular maintenance, which is causing us to already see signs of deterioration in these new facilities.

In primary care we see a heterogeneous situation. The original plan, from over two decades ago, was to ensure one typical doctor’s office — with a doctor, nurse and all equipment — for every 120 families. Thanks to the progressive deterioration over the years, in the current state we can’t say precisely the number of patients per doctor, but it can rise to the thousands, and sometimes there is a sixth year intern to help.

This typical office model has only been preserved in a handful of cases, and in general over the years has been taken over clinic, which, in the best of cases, are located in homes confiscated from people who emigrated, or some vacant locale adapted for this use. As a general rule, the typical site is small, badly lit and ventilated even worse, in most cases without running water for hand washing.

In secondary care, save in fortunate exceptions, the majority of hospitals are more or less markedly deteriorated structurally, with a lack or scarcity of running water in the rooms, sanitary facilities in a deplorable state, bad conditions with regards to cleanliness, and often infested with insects and the associated risk of spreading hospital-acquired infections.

Medical Education: Creating a University in Every Large City

The so-called “municipalization” of university education, that is, the intention to create a university in each municipality in this country, has had a detrimental impact on the quality of teacher education, at least in the case of medicine. This experiment, conducted over the last decade, emerged as a direct result of the arrival of tens of thousands of students of the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) following the disaster of Hurricane Mitch.
And it’s very good to help others, but everything should be studied carefully and they should create the infrastructure necessary so that this does not lead to problems, especially if it is ultimately decided to extend the ELAM program beyond the 10 graduate programs included at the time the idea was launched.

Foreign students displaced Cuban students at the historically recognized faculties in the City of Havana, and from the provincial capitals to the municipalities, where now the Cuban student sits in front of a computer and takes lessons from teachers who often are not prepared with the rigor that this level of education requires.

The results of the above combination and the desire to produce graduates at all costs and at any price to ensure the continued availability of relief staff to cover Cuba’s Medical Missions abroad, has been to weaken every link in the teaching chain. During the last decade and at least until last year, there has been a degeneration of the requirements demanded at all levels.

Simply to detail them: the high school graduate who already carries the aftermath of the failed counterpart experiments in previous levels of education, comes with a poor background, and the grade point average required to enter these careers is increasingly dropping. The study of the preclinical subjects that were once taught in prestigious schools such as the Victoria de Girón Institute (Bay of Pigs Victory Institute), by teachers with decades of experience in their subject, are now taught at a computer in a local polyclinic with teachers who are just starting out.

Then for the rest of the stage of clinical training the student would assist only twice a week at the hospital. In his sixth year he would complete the internship stage, decisive in the consolidation of the knowledge of the future graduate, by standing in at a clinic and performing the work of a doctor who would be on a Medical Mission abroad.

Now graduated, this young doctor might complete the specialty of General Medicine (MGI) in just 2 years, when the traditional method before 2000 required a total of 4 years. And to take it one step further, this MGI resident can do a second, so-called “parallel specialty,” for example ophthalmology, and will graduate from both specialties in just two years, although the combined specialties may be as complex as Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology.

Students of different Health technologies, after passing the first semester but without completing the first year of training, have been sent to any of these dozens of Medical Missions in Third World countries which, incidentally, have netted the Cuban government, in recent years, billions in hard cash dollars.

Artemisa, Provincia La Habana. October 2010.

Published on the Internet by Alfredo Felipe Valdés, before leaving for exile in Spain with his family, as part of what he called “Cuba Report.”

Originally posted on Citizen Zero Blog: February 22 2012

It leaves an empty space … my friend Alfredo goes into exile. In March 2003, that Black Spring, chaos erupted in his life. The son of Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, an opponent of the regime, and Loyda Valdes Gonzalez, Lady in White.

His father, proselyte, irreducibly dissenting, fell into the round of 75 opponents taken prisoner. His crime, as far as I could understand, was to have in his home an independent library and the have participated actively in the collection of signatures for the Varela Project.

State Security’s search of his home lasted over 7 hours. The lawyer who was in charge of the defense only had one hour, the time it took by car to drive from his home to the Court, to study for the first time a fat file inches thick.

Already in the Court, the room deliberately filled with people who had nothing to do with the case, selected for the single reason to prevent the several family members from being able to witness the trial.

The result of the summary trial: the prosecution asking for a sentence of 15 years imprisonment and the judge ultimately imposeing a sentence of 27 years, the third highest among the 75.

Then Loyda, his wife, joined the activism of the Ladies in White, who stopped at nothing and the rest is history. Alfredo was released last October 7 and exiled to Spain. last October 7 was released and exiled to Spain along with part of his family. A health situation delayed the departure of the rest. Today they fly to the desired reunion.

Leaving with his family is Alfredo the son, my friend from when we were young until now. An unconditional friendship, even when it came my turn to face the storm, he was at my side and assumed all the risks along with me.

In 2002 he signed the Project Varela petition and later other civic initiatives, including a public letter to Raul Castro. With his high regard for human dignity and indignation before any offense converted him, also, into a signatory of our Letter of the 300 workers, to the Minister of Health in November 2005.

A doctor with soul, poet, engraver of chimeras, hopeless dreamer, transparent and luminous spirit, an adamantine being. He leaves here others to whom they scream slogans, others who in the name of that Revolution try to legitimize barbarism; that authentic Revolution in which, despite everything, we continue to believe, that Revolution betrayed by so much simulation, raising of straw men, and opportunism that has offended and defiled this beloved land.

I’ll see you my brother. The future must be better!

Translator’s Note: This early post from Jeovany’s blog is translated and presented here as a reference point to the following post, Medicine in Cuba Today: A Series of Shortcuts and Scarcities, which was written by Jeovany’s friend Alfredo whom he speaks of here.

27 January 2011

The venue for this year’s parade will once again be the Plaza of the Revolution, which for some is still Civic Plaza. One new aspect in particular will stand out.

For the first time in more than fifty years self-employed workers and owners of small businesses will take part. They are already unionized.

So, will these new people be pressing for labor concessions – something prohibited under socialism – or will they simply be supporting the Revolution and the Party, and demanding that the American imperialists release the five spies. . . I mean, heroes?

I really do not understand this. One of the greatest aspirations which all workers supposedly have – workers who in one way or another have managed to distance themselves from the State in order to make a living – is specifically not having to take part in parades, shout slogans, or support and sign statements in favor of socialism.

Will this be merely a display of cowardice? If they are attending this gathering out of a sense of conviction, they should be applauded. But I fear that even in the private sector a double standard is becoming evident. It is an indication that they by no means consider themselves to be free men and women. I respect the decision they have made. But what they are aspiring towards is to be treated with respect by the State itself, which not only manipulates them at whim, but also burdens them with excessive taxes, sells them wholesale supplies atalready inflatedretail prices without any special consideration, while unleashing on them a herd of ravenous inspectors. And, though no one will say so publicly, they are considered to be cowards by society itself. Is this the way we pretend that change is taking place in the country?

The changes will only be successful after a resurgence of civil society. But for that to happen, it is necessary to discard the heavy ballast of our induced fears and double standards. If you do not violate the country’s laws, no matter how unjust you feel they are, behave like a respectable citizen, and neither defame nor cause harm to others, then what is there to fear?

I believe that now is time to think before acting, to no longer continue drifting along on the already weak current of an almost dry river on the verge of disappearing.

April 27 2012

A few weeks have already gone by since Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba, and one name comes up again and again to evoke those last days of March. Andrés Carrión, age 40, the citizen who shouted at the Pope’s homily in Santiago de Cuba, “Down with Communism!” He turned the eyes of the world from their contemplation of the Pope’s miter to the face of a man held by his captors and beaten by a supposed member of the Red Cross. Today, still under the effects of passing from anonymity to notoriety, he answers a few questions.

Video of Andrés Carrión being beaten with a stretcher by a member of the Cuban Red Cross, after his arrest.

Yoani Sanchez: How did the idea come to you, of taking that action at the Plaza Antonio Maceo? Was it a personal initiative or was there a group?

Andrés Carrión: I do not belong to any opposition party, even today I still do not belong to any. However, these days I have received the solidarity of various activist groups, especially in the east of the country. The idea of this action came to me alone, and I didn’t tell anyone, fearing that the information would filter out and keep me from carrying it out. José Martí said, “There are things that in order to achieve them you have to keep very hidden.” That was how I was able to get there. I had a civic motivation and principles: Cubans should do something so that the world will know about the violations and the great problems confronting us here with the freedom of expression and human rights. I carried all this inside for a long time and it was time to say something.

YS: How did you reach the place despite the police cordon?

AR: I arrived about eleven in the morning. I saw the preparations for the Mass and found a strategic place for my position. There I stood. In my pocket I had some candy and a bottle of water, and with that I held out until 5:40 in the afternoon, when I rushed into action. There were two security cordons. At one point I decided, and crossed the first cordon. Once inside I went running to stand before the altar and shouted several slogans: ‘Down with Communism! Down with dictatorship! Freedom for the people of Cuba! ‘ and when they caught me and held me I managed to shout ‘Monsignor don’t be fooled, the people of Cuba are not free!’

YS: Many have applauded your actions on March 26, but others criticize you for using the space of a Catholic Mass to shout a slogan of a political nature. What would you say to the latter?

AR: I sent a letter to the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba to explain why I did it and to apologize to the Pope and the entire Catholic community. But they must understand and everyone should understand that we Cubans do not have spaces in which to express ourselves. Because of that one looks for a place to be heard and I think this was an opportunity that could I not pass up. It was not my intention to tarnish the Mass, so I’ve told several priests with whom I have spoken and they have understood me. I’m Catholic and I did it with no interest in harming the Church or the figure of the Pope.

YS: What were the main accusations leveled against you by the police during the 20 days you were detained? What punishments did they threaten you with?

AR: I was not physically abused. I know the beatings other opponents have received, but I think with so many eyes on me or maybe because the Pope had interceded, they decided not to retaliate physically against me. Yes, they put me for several days in a cell that was very dark and very smelly. There was no clean water there and the light went on only for ten minutes at six in the morning and again for ten minutes at six in the evening. After 20 days they released me but they made me sign a paper where I am limited in my freedom. I have to show up every Wednesday at the police station, I cannot leave town without permission, I cannot meet with any opponents, I cannot give interviews, I cannot participate in demonstrations. But I have complied with almost none of this. They are not going to shut me up that way.

YS: A man, wearing the logo of the Red Cross, attacked you and even hit you with a stretcher. What do you think they should do about such aggressive behavior? How do you feel towards him right now?

AR: I feel sorry for him. I have a Christian vocation and I can not feel any other way, because I think it is a product of 53 years of indoctrination and decades of telling people that it is good to use violence against those who express themselves freely. Some friends brought me the address where the man lives and they said “we must take action against him,” but I do not think so. We would fall into the same cycle of violence and revenge. I am against any violence.

YS: Some people claim that you shouted ‘Down with Communism!’ to get a visa as a political refugee for the United States. Is that true? How do you answer that question?

AR: That’s not true. My main goal was, and so I told the State Security, was a call to the conscience of the Cuban people. Let people see that you can fight. Yet another objective was a call to the consciousness of Raul Castro to recognize our rights. Today it was me, but tomorrow it may be hundreds, thousands, or an entire people. I thought my screams would be like an engine that would lead a lot of people who were in the Plaza Antonio Maceo to do the same, but it didn’t happen and I confess that I was disappointed. I did not do it in order to seek political asylum, but now I’m living with a harassment that is unsustainable. My house is surrounded and they follow me wherever I go. For now they do not dare do anything to me because many are watching my situation, but sometimes I fear that in three or four months the worst will happen. I am very concerned for my safety.

YS: Would you do it again?

AR: Yes, of course. I did it for my country, my people, and at that moment I knew that this action could cost me my life. I even said goodbye to my family without their knowledge. I said goodbye to my mother, my sister, my wife … I told her that morning before leaving for the Mass ‘I love you very much.’ I thought I wouldn’t return, I thought this would be the last day of my life.

Translated from original article in El Pais.

24 April 2012

I Eliécer Avila Perez, father of Eliecer Avila Cicilia, desire to make public that at 9:30 AM on April 24, 2012, an Official from State Security, Manuel Sosa Lozada, met with me on the premises occupied by the administrator of Servi CUPET Puerto Padre. Following is a summary of the salient features of the conversation:

He started by telling me that my son Eliécer Avila, “is a counterrevolutionary and a mercenary,” and that “he meets with elements linked to the Cuban American Foundation, paid by the U.S. Government, and that he receives money from this foundation to issue opinions opposed to the government Cuba and the Revolution.”

The officer insinuated to me that there are all the elements of the above. But his idea was that I would influence my son to immediately abandon what he is doing and stop meeting with all those elements, and otherwise they would have no alternative but to take action against him.  And once he is included on this list, he will not have the freedom of movement he has now and also will not be able to live in Havana as they will prevent it.

The officer continued by saying that my son called all the “leaders of the Counterrevolution” to tell the whole world about the arrests that took place on the occasion of the visit of the pope. They had taken these measures for the safety of the Pope himself.

He further informed me that friends and family had sent my son many warning messages and that he does not listen to anyone, but they know that the only person he is listening to is me, hence how important it is that I “exercise my influence to make him reflect” as he is “immature and manipulated as the enemy wants” and is very clear that his attitude is in the interests of the U.S. government.

He also said that “Security is far from repressing him, they are trying to protect him, because otherwise citizens would have beaten him on the street as they have with others.” The officer reiterated that they are handling this due to his great immaturity and the money paid to him by members of the Cuban American Foundation. Also he told me that they had “gotten him a permanent job in DESOFT and he had not accepted it because it is quite clear that he is living on the money the U.S. Government pays him through the office of the United States Interest Section and the Foundation.”

He said if that if all this was not true, how can he justify that he gets so many recharges on his phone or that some “Lorenzo” sent him a laptop via “Cecilia.”

When it was my turn, I said my son is not a Communist, but he is a Revolutionary, who speaks his mind with total honesty, front and center, leaving no room for doubt about where he stands.

Nor had he ever been called undisciplined nor disorderly. He always expressed his views with respect. On the other hand, it is not true that he has spoken ill of the Revolution, on the contrary, he speaks well, in favor of the people and in disagreement with those who operate for their own benefit in the name of “Revolution.”

I affirmed with full knowledge: his statements had never been conditioned on any payment, that what they are doing now is discrediting him before the people and so they are hanging a sign on him of “Counterrevolutionary and Mercenary,” accusations we will never accept.

After discussing the matter with great force the officer tells me that he is not interested or concerned about what my son says, that’s his problem, and he will have to bear the consequences, what they are not going to allow is that he continue with his attitude, they have all the means and the elements to act at any moment, to talk to him and convince him or “he is going to get into serious trouble.”

As for me, I had not spoken up on these issues before now but today’s threats force me to do so.

First: I do not know, nor do I want to doubt the integrity of the officials of State Security, but after talking with him long enough, I am convinced that basically what he is telling me is lies. And in cases where he said something that was, in fact, true, he interpreted it and manipulated it to make perfectly normal questions into crimes, tricks that I know well having been in the Interior Ministry (MININT) for a number of years.

Second: I know the man well, because he was born and raised at my side, he is my son. So I have known him his whole life and I know his activities in detail. And I can affirm that so far what he has done, defended or denounced reflects the sense of justice that, in good part, I myself taught him and of which we, his whole family, are deeply proud.

Third: As a parent I will not tolerate even to the least extent, that some puppet, of the many with which State power arms its theaters, will touch a hair on his head. If this happens look for those responsible even to the earth below at the cost of my life if necessary.

Fourth: Both my son and I respect the work of any authority when it is exercised with a sense of responsibility, on behalf of the citizen and respecting his rights, on these terms we are at their complete disposal. But someone who orchestrates a show, or tries, without showing any identification, using unjustified force, to violate our integrity or our home, can find themselves at a perfect meeting with the blade of a machete and then they will not claim anything at all.

Fifth: I urge these same authorities to dedicate their resources and efforts to finding those responsible for countless cases of theft and even murder that we have pending in this small town, where more and more people are unprotected at the mercy of the criminals, while the government continues to invest all our money on going after young people like my son, who are exercising their right to participate and comment on the indefensible and permanent evils of this country.

Eliecer Avila Perez

—————

Eliécer Avila Cicilia responds to defamatory actions of State Security:

I write these explanatory lines as an exception. I do not propose to occupy even a second of my time in the future to responding to anything that comes out of the laboratories of Cuban State Security. To alter my infinite tranquility and to upset myself are not pleasures that I will give to anyone.

I’d rather spend my time reading and learning and enjoying the victories of my team in the Baseball National Series. But the comments that have been floating around my neighborhood are very suspicious, that I am imprisoned; and the recent meeting with my father, to test the waters and prepare some very crude play cannot be tolerated. I respond here to the slanders made by this gentleman on behalf of State Security:

SS: “Your son is a mercenary paid by the USIS and the CANF.”

Me: In my life I’ve never stood before anyone who identifies themselves as an officer of the Interests Section nor the Foundation. I know no member or employee of either one of them. Much less has anyone offered me work or money.

The only time I saw, from the distance of a few meters, an official of the Interests Section was at an excellent program of Estado de SATS that my friend Antonio Rodiles organized to talk about US-Cuba academic and cultural exchanges, the video of which is fully available to the public on the Internet.

SS: “Your son is a mercenary because he meets with terrorist elements.”

Me: Gentlemen, they are abusing the lack of logic. If there are terrorists in Cuba, what have you done to arrest them? What terrorist acts are those that my friends have committed? The alleged people have records as unblemished as mine. I do not know of one offender among them.  Although it is obvious that you use those terms right and left to refer to anyone who does not sit well with you.

SS: “Your son called on the international Counterrevolutionary leaders to denounce the arrests that we conducted during the visit of Pope.”

Me: Most true, now they are saying something that works. Although again they give it the wrong labels: You kidnapped — listen well — Willian, a musician who is almost a child, church pastors, the grandson of that great of Cuban literature Eliseo Diego, who is a filmmaker and interested in nothing having to do with the Pope. And I will not continue with the long list… of normal guys who are not leaders of anything. For all of them, their families desperately searched hospitals and police stations and no one gave them any information. That is called abuse, and if you do not want the world and the rest of Cuba to find out about it, don’t do it and that’s it.

SS: “If your son is not a mercenary, how is it that his phone is recharged so much and they send him a laptop.”

Me: Gentlemen, we are already out of control to be playing with this nonsense. With these statements and the purchase of the empanadas* — that were the snack for that historic Estado de Sats meeting — I am beginning to believe that some of you are immature. You know full well that Cubans scattered all over the world, from time to time will recharge phones through the webpages you have enabled for them to do that, and that I find out about it when it’s done. Normally I only get the typical call:

“Hello Eliezer, I’m So-and-So, I live in Germany and I agree 100% with your ideas and so I put money on your phone so you can communicate better, hugs.”

I know it drives you crazy when someone shows solidarity with those who think differently from your bosses, but imagine, if it weren’t so, with the huge scam that you impose on the prices of calls, we couldn’t communicate. Why don’t you, instead, offer fair prices for all Cubans to have a mobile phone as has been normal everywhere for years, and not a basic and backward service like what you provide?

The laptop I have, taking advantage of the chance here to thank him him for it, was sent perfectly legally and paying the abusive tax by Lorenzo Garcia, who  does not live in Miami and is a computer scientist like I am, through Cecilia, whose parents, a wonderful elderly couple whom I also salute, live in the city of Santa Clara.

None of these people have anything to do, as far as I can see, with any foundations or interest sections. Although it is clear that here anyone can be anything, including you yourselves, who don’t skimp on sending me charlatans, excuse me, “agents,” terrible in their simulation, guys without character who for a snack or a certificate would sell their own mother.

SS: “They offered me a job and I didn’t accept it.”

Me: For more than 6 months, after you fired me from my job, I went everywhere I could think of to try to find work: Constructive Maintenance Division, Directorate of Finance and Prices, the Port of Cayo, Pre and IPI, etc… and nobody wanted to give me a job thanks to you. Now, after I speak up in the Estado de Sats program, you come with this odd job in Desoft, for which you’ve deceived all my compañeros so only they would hire me. Telling me from the beginning that the job was every day and that if I was late or absent for any reason I could lose the only thing that someone works for here: a bonus in hard currency.

I do not accept such treatment, I do not manipulate or chain anyone.

And indeed, while I know how to make a living, as I have always had to do it, even while employed or studying, I don’t want to know about odd jobs that jeopardize my freedom.

SS: “What we’ve done is protect him, because otherwise citizens would have beaten him on the street as they have with others.”

Me: This hardly deserves an answer because ordinary Cubans you said this to would laugh in your face. I have traveled around the country invited by people who want to have a serious conversation. I have talked for hours with doctors, architects, artists, teachers, athletes, housewives, young students of all kinds, members of the Cuban Communist Party and even military. And never has anyone disrespected me in the least, on the contrary, people express their respect and at times I feel terrible because the people who want to talk to me are endless and I don’t have enough time. The same thing happens at Coppelia, and in any countryside.

You do not have that satisfaction, and you know it. Your complicit silence in the face of the growing needs of people, and your repressive activities and threats, they want nothing to do with. But don’t worry, if one perfectly likely day, you are not the authority but just one more Cuban, almost certainly this society will change, mature, progress mentally, and nobody is going to do to you want you want to do to me. However, if you want to travel around Cuba I invite you to come with me, while you go with me you won’t miss a meal.

Gentlemen, unless you fabricate them, I have no enemies and I sleep very well.

Finally, I just want to propose something to you: Broadcast a televised Roundtable for all of Cuba and ask me a thousand questions in front of the people, I know I can answer them all without any problems. And then reverse the telescope, let me ask five questions of the maximum leaders, let’s see who can respond and what they say. We will see whose hands are cleaner.

Eliécer Avila Cicilia

*Translator’s note: Estado de SATS ordered empanadas for a snack at one of their events.  State Security arrived at the baker’s early, claiming to be from Estado de SATS, and paid for and took the empanadas so there would be no snacks at the event.

Translated from Penultimos Dias.

27 April 2012

Last week, the municipal authority of the Ministry of Work and Social Security of the municipality of Santo Domingo in Villa Clara province, withdrew the pension of the minor Keylis Caridad Aleman Rodriguez, 15.

Keylis Caridad Alemán Rodríguez is a disabled girl permanently in a wheelchair due to congenital malformations not detected by the Cuban health system while she was in the womb. According to Yamayki Rodríguez Cepero, the girl’s mother, the local authorities told her the pension was being withdrawn because she should go to work and support her family.

Yamayki told this reporter that she worked taking care of her daughter who needed her to do things for her. The Cuban government withdrew the cash benefit that supports this family — the mother and her two children — abandoning them to public charity. Yamayki plans to carry her claim to a higher level and reports that her daughter is not just disabled but also has had a heart operation.

Keylis Caridad Alemán Rodríguez and her mother Yamayki Rodríguez Cepero live on Agramonte Street No. 38 at the corner of Maceo in the Santo Domingo municipality, Villa Clara province.

April 8 2012

This is the second photographic exhibit consisting of three snapshots taken in San Ignacio Street in Old Havana. The images are a testimony to the deterioration one finds in one of the historic mansions of Havana.

April 23 2012