English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, 20 June 2015 — The second edition of the event Roads for a Democratic Cuba is taking place in Mexico from 18 to 23 June 2015 under the auspices of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA). Participating in this meeting are dozens of political activists and civil society leaders … Continue reading “Roads to Democracy for Cuba / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 20 June 2015 — A couple of weeks ago, the neighbors crowded onto the ground floor of a twelve-story building near Tulipan Street. “He committed suicide … They say he hanged himself with his own belt,” ran the rumor among them, while pointing to the apartment marked with number 1. The police … Continue reading ““I feel like a war reporter” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
Iván García, 27 January 2015 — The shifting political landscape of the Middle East is probably more complicated. No doubt it is. But given the spectacular diplomatic about-face on December 17 between Cuba and the United States — two sparring nations huddled in their respective trenches since the Cold War — the White House was not expecting … Continue reading “Cuban Dissidents: Some in the Trenches, Others Applauding / Ivan Garcia”
After participating in a workshop about investigative journalism in San Diego, California from November 10 to 14, Ivan Garcia spent four days in Miami. During his stay in that city a reporter from Diario de las Americas — a Miami-based Spanish-language newspaper for which he has been a contributor since January of 2013 — did an interview with … Continue reading “Diario de las Americas Interview with Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Mexico, 5 December 2014 — The meeting Roads for a Democratic Cuba, held in Mexico, closed Thursday with a joint statement signed by the attendees and focused on the consensus points necessary for beginning a democratic transition on the Island. We reproduce here the entire text of that statement: We, representatives of diverse organizations … Continue reading “Joint Statement By The Cuban Opposition Meeting in Mexico / 14ymedio”
The elderly are the big losers in the timid economic reforms of Cuba’s General-President. Thousands who once applauded Fidel Castro’s long speeches in the Plaza of the Revolution, or fought in the civil wars in Africa, today survive however they can. There they are. Selling newspapers, peanuts, or single cigarettes. Others have it worse. Senile … Continue reading “Old dissidents in Cuba: Between homelessness and forgetting / Ivan Garcia”
Before the olive-green autocracy designed economic reforms, the peaceful, illegal opposition was demanding opportunities in small businesses and in the agricultural sector as well as repeal of the absurd apartheid in the tourist, information and technology spheres that turned the Cuban into a third class citizen. General Raul Castro and his entourage of technocrats headed … Continue reading “The Silent Successes of the Cuban Dissidence / Ivan Garcia”
The regime suspended the trial scheduled for this Friday against Lady in White Sonia Garro Alfonso, her husband, the activist Ramón Alejandro Muñoz González, and the dissident Eugenio Hernández Hernández, according to members of the internal opposition in Cuba. The veteran opponent Vladimiro Roca told DIARIO DE CUBA that he talked to the opponents’ lawyer, … Continue reading “The Regime Suspends the Trial of Sonia Garro / Diario de Cuba”
Monday, September 17th marked the first week of a hunger strike carried out by the well-known economist and opposition figure Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, 67 years old, “to demand the freedom of political prisoner Jorge Vázquez Chaviano and an attempt to force the government of Raúl Castro to comply with mediocre current legislation”, she tells … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime’s Destructive Acts Against the Dissidence Have Come to Seem Normal to the World / Ivan Garcia”
The narrow streets of old Havana are a blazing market. Past two in the afternoon, the sun doesn’t let up on the sellers of cheap goods, prostitutes in their element and old musicians looking for a few convertible pesos entertaining some chubby Norwegians at lunch. It is a passageway of scoundrels and survivors. On Obispo … Continue reading “In Havana A Debate on Democracy / Ivan Garcia”
Enemy Campaigns and The Politics of Confrontation with Counterrevolutionary Groups Download a PDF of this transcript here. La ciber policia en Cuba from Coral Negro on Vimeo. Presenter: Eduardo Fontes Suárez Introduction The title more or less says it all, we can adjust [the talk to meet] your interests, comrades, when it’s time for discussion. … Continue reading “MININT Cyber Lecture Video – English Transcript”
There is no doubt the dissidence on the island is looking for a space. The document: A Future for Cuba. Issued on December 2, it is counter-proposals to the government’s measures — a balanced document that fits this time in Cuba — from a group of ten people, among them the economist Martha Beatriz Roque … Continue reading “The Time of the Cuban Opposition / Iván García”
In an interview published on December 14, 2009 in El Mundo/América, Juan Juan Almeida García told me, “I don’t see the time when Raúl Castro will let me leave Cuba.” Finally, his wish was fulfilled. On Thursday, August 24, he arrived at the Miami airport, where his wife Consuelo and their daughter Indira were waiting … Continue reading “Juan Juan’s Time Arrived / Iván García”
It was an ordeal to go from La Vibora, my neighborhood, to Miramar, where Ricardo González Alfonso lived. There were only two options: catch Route 69, which could take two or three hours. Or the 100, with more buses, but with many more passengers, for its extensive run. The 69 stops near Ricardo’s house. But … Continue reading “Ricardo’s Smile”
Nothing will be solved with the hard discourse. There will be no solution because General Raul Castro launches the call to slaughter against the dissidence. Neither will there be a way out of the deep crisis that Cuba inhabits, with the usual television Roundtables, where four rigid guys share their uniform opinions. Cuba needs a dialogue, … Continue reading “Waiting for a Dialogue….and an Inquest”
