English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) has just made their National Conference document (scheduled to take place on January 28th 2012) public. It is like an extract from a manual containing the recipe to revive the ideological corpse, that political dinosaur that is communism in the 21st century. As if it were a self critique, the … Continue reading “Ideological Concoction, a la Carte / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The political and fiscal plot against corruption has obvious political overtones. Many are asking if Raul Castro is playing hard ball or leaving the road to his political and economic adversaries. Let’s wait and see. Meanwhile, the mystery continues on the island. Detentions after detentions. Surprise audits of Gladys Bejerano’s accounts. And the Chinese padlocks … Continue reading “Cuba: War Against Corruption and Settling the Score at the Same Time? / Iván García”
I was able to hear, via a radio show being transmitted from Miami, the reading of an article by a Cuban writer named Eduardo del Llano. It was a perfect sonata defending the right of Cuban workers and dissidents to strike. “Why not?”, asked del Llano. I was greatly impressed by the light and fresh … Continue reading “Dreamer and Disconnected / Luis Felipe Rojas”
It was very early, the circles under the speaker’s eyes could be seen like two dark wounds, and the sun was not yet too punishing in Maximo Gomez Plaza. On soft seats, a small group witnessed live the 26th of July event in Ciego de Avila province. Meanwhile, the rest of those in the Plaza … Continue reading “Fatigue / Yoani Sánchez”
Those who expected some clues about the needed economic and political reforms that the island is crying out for were left disappointed. General Raul Castro sent them a message: you will have to wait. Castro II did not even speak at a ceremony held in the province of Villa Clara, 180 miles from Havana, to … Continue reading “The Castros, Each One on His Own Side”
The July 26 event started early, in fear of the evening rains and to avoid the sun that makes the neck itch and annoys the audience. It had the solemnity that is already inherent in the Cuban system: heavy, outdated, and at times dusty. Nothing seemed to jump out of the script; Raúl Castro didn’t … Continue reading “Without Fanfare, But Without Results”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2022 — In contrast to the previous trials of July 11 protesters, in which the final sentences were lower than those sought by the prosecutors, the Diez de Octubre Tribunal in Havana, which tried 33 people on January 31, has been relentless. Thus, it has sentenced Brandon David Becerra Curbelo, 17 … Continue reading “Almost 2,000 Years of Jail Time for 128 of the July 11 (11J) Protesters in Cuba”
Fernando Dámaso, 28 February 2019 — As a result of the Constituent Assembly and the elaboration and implementation of a new Constitution of the Republic, in an electoral process characterized by legality and tranquility, Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar became the sixth president, a man who had left the army with the rank of colonel (in February … Continue reading “The Man of the White Suit / Fernando Damaso”
14ymedio, Jacobo Machover, París | 5 January 2019 — Cuba Betrayed is the English title of Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar’s book, published two years ago in Mexico and titled simply Respuesta… (Response). It is the defense by the island’s one-time strongman against all the attacks against his regime and his person. The American edition takes up again the key idea of the … Continue reading ““Betrayals” According to Batista”
Fernando Damaso, 15 August 2018 — The supposed historic right of the current Cuban Communist Party is fairly questionable. In the first place, it is not the continuation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC), founded by José Martí to organize and carry out war against Spain for Cuba’s independence, which, according to its statutes, ceased … Continue reading “A Supposed Historic Right / Fernando Dámaso”
Fernando Damaso, 5 February 2017 — To say that the history of Cuba has been manipulated over the last 58 years is nothing original. Subjected to “ideological accommodation,” with the objective of using it for the narrow interests of the established power, important people and events have been ignored or misrepresented, and others that are insignificant … Continue reading “Manipulation and Manipulators / Fernando Dámaso”
From the blog of Dimas Castellano: In response to an article in Diario de Cuba about different views on human rights, one reader noted that he would like to read an account of how democracy disappeared from Cuba. In response, Roberto Alvarez Quiñones wrote “At Democracy’s Funeral,” an article which I am posting below. At … Continue reading “How Democracy Disappeared from Cuba / Roberto Alvarez Quiñones”
Dimas Castellenos, Mexico City, 1 September 2015 — In Cuba, the concurrence among the failure of its totalitarian model, the aging of its leaders and the society. For this impact to be a positive one requires the presence of a missing factor: the citizen. If this thesis begs the question of how it is possible … Continue reading “The New Scenario and the Absence of the Citizen / Dimas Castellano”
Somos+, Alberto Bruno Diaz, 28 July 2012 — At its Tenth Plenum, the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) agreed to hold its Seventh Congress in April 2016 and to adopt a new electoral law before the general elections of 2018, among other measures. This could mark the first intergenerational transition of power … Continue reading “Seventh Cuban Communist Party Conference and Electoral Reform: Continuity and Succession or Disruption / Somos+, Alberto Bruno Diaz”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 26 July 2015 — The liturgy does not change. The anniversary event for the Day of National Rebellion took place this Sunday in front of the Moncada Barracks. A script where each detail is repeated year after year, like a rite empty of emotion and surprises. The only novelty on this occasion … Continue reading “The Revolutionary Mass is Held at Dawn / 14ymedio, 26 July 2015”
