Translating Cuba

News reported by ABC-Spain.

Here is a translation of that report:

Rosa María Payá stated that she had met in Madrid with the People’s Party (PP) politician, who recounted what happened in the unexplained accident that killed her father and Harold Cepero.

The daughter of the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá said today in Madrid that Ángel Carromero confirmed, on her arrival in Spain this February 16, that a vehicle rammed them off the road in the unexplained accident that killed her father and the opponent Harold Cepero on July 22, 2012, near Bayamo (Cuba).

During a press conference — in which the Swedish politician Jens Modig Aron, who was traveling as copilot’ in the car driven by the New Generations of the People’s Party politician — Rosa María Payá also said they were considering legal action.

Payá’s daughter claims that Carromero — sentenced to four years in prison in the Communist island after a “rigged” trial — is not guilt of the “probably murder” of her father and Cepero, and therefore should not be treated as a criminal in Spain.

February 28 2013

By Ignacio Estrada, Independent Journalist

Havana, Cuba. This little note is in tribute to a very important Cuban graphic designer exiled in the United States. Rolando Pulido, native of the province of Cienfuegos, living in New York, collaborates closely without compensation on his designs in support of Cuban civil society. His designs not only form a part of different graphic campaigns, but are already used as logos for different organizations within Cuba.

This is a very simple way to say thank you in capital letters to someone who never says no to others’ requests and requests coming from the island.

25 February 2013

The leaders of the revolutionary government and of the Cuban state enjoy an odd isolation in which they live isolated (I believe redundancy is good) from the rest of society, thereby generating and manipulating a morbid curiosity in which many people wonder if there is any difference between an imperialist tycoon and a communist bigwig.

Although not impossible, it is in fact very difficult to enter into this protected ghetto. Cuba’s leaders socialize together, relax together and mate together. There are cases – and not isolated ones – in which the wife of some military official ends up as the casual acquaintance of the comrade General. She does this not in pursuit of pleasure but because it presents a better game plan. He is a widower and has a doctorate in Marxism, so he understands perfectly well the meaning of “communal property.”

The sad though understandable fact is that certain dissidents (and for now we will set aside the unseemly self-confidence of the top leadership) marginalize themselves for various reasons and live inside a bubble. I am not unaware of the real danger they face, but I do not confuse it with the emotional aspects. I am, however, certain that, if one wants to have a real impact in political life, such self-confinement is a mistake because, although it protects them, it also makes them invisible. continue reading

Sunday, February 24 was the culmination of a Cuba’s own “original” electoral process. Deputies of the National Assembly of People’s Power – whose own candidacies had been previously approved by the Communist Party Central Committee – nominated and elected the President, Vice-President and Secretary of the Assembly. They subsequently elected the President, First Vice-President, five Vice-Presidents, Secretary and remaining members of the Council of State. As in any human endeavor there were positive and negative aspects.

First things first. It is laudable that no member of the Council of State can serve more than two five-year terms in any one post, and that there is also an age limit on office holders. The re-elected President has also publicly stated that this will be his last term in office, and that the First Vice-President will be someone who does not belong to the generation of Cuban revolutionaries – the so-called “historic leaders.” Although this announcement has come somewhat late, people are welcoming the measures, taken after more than half a century of a one-person government with two faces, even though they will have to wait until 2018 for them to take effect.

On the other hand, to repeat yet again that socialism is irreversible, and that all that is left to be done is to perfect it, update it and save it when the majority of the citizenry consider it to be beyond salvation – especially in light of its demonstrable failures and inefficiencies over the course of more than fifty years – is not a pragmatic approach.

It is quite clear to everyone that its principles and dogmas, maintained through force, are the main impediments to real freedom and the development of productive forces, which are the only hope we have for overcoming the deep economic crisis in which we find ourselves.Nor is it useful, though it is now routine to do so, to speak of essential political and social changes necessary to save socialism. Instead, we should be talking about how to save the country, which is something much more important. In spite of some accommodation by the “historic leaders,” the principal levers of power remain firmly within their hands.

The changes in the offices of the President, Vice-President and Secretary of the National Assembly are merely cosmetic. Since the right to be elected as deputies is not granted to all citizens, no matter they may think, the Assembly is not representative of the full political spectrum of the nation. If it does not change the way it operates, it will continue to be more of a formality than a reality, a mere echo change for the state.

In short, the waiting game continues, now with a five-year extension.

Photo caption: “Closing of the Constituent Session of the Eighth Legislative National Assembly of People’s Power, February 24, 2013.”

February 26 2013

The bus stop at G and 27th, three in the afternoon. Several people gather around a skinny seventy-something. He’s not selling peanuts, he’s not selling newspapers, he’s not selling candy bars, he’s not selling anything. He is exchanging one Cuban peso for 80 centavos. It works because although public transport costs forty centavos, in practice breaking a Cuban peso into smaller coins is difficult because Cuban pesos are only in the places selling on the ration book (at the bodega and the bakery) are fractions handled.

People prefer to make change with the skinny guy, outfitted with a cardboard box of his own invention hanging just below his chest, because with a peso you can only pay for one trip, and if you change it you can pay for two, others prefer to favor the retiree before tossing a coin in the farebox.

And so it goes! I say to myself annoyed at my camera. I try to speak to him but he crosses diagonally across G Street to the stop for the P-2, which starts its journey towards Alamar there.

I tried to calculate (you already know, numbers aren’t my strong point): With five people making change, he can buy himself a small coffee; with forty a pizza. How many hours a day will he have to dedicate to tramping from stop to stop, how many times will the police stop him. But in any case, the next list of allowed self-employment professions should include money-changer, coin-breaker, or something like that.

February 25 2013

With the arrival of the anniversary of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the Cuban martyr and human rights defender on the Cuban island, hundreds of arrests were carried out in order not to allow any festive and peaceful festive activity on the part of the opposition to the Castro regime.

A party such as the Hard Frontline, with an office in Los Pinos neighborhood, was besieged and some were locked up for no reason.

We are going through a transition, if they comply with the guidelines agreed at the 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party. These five years will be the last that will under the thumb of Raul Castro and there will be a weakening of totalitarian power and a coming of the path of true democracy.

But if so will these be unforgettable years for the Cuban opposition?

State Security and its support brigades (keeping the regime’s boots clean) are becoming more violent. Each anniversary of a death of Cuban dissidents leads to several arrests, repudiation rallies, persecutions, “accidents,” or unwanted trips.

On anniversaries like these the Human Rights Commission in Cuba will report simultaneous arrests and the rate of arrests of dissidents in Cuba will increase.

The fight for some is on time, for others, this would be an opportunity for the Cuban Dream: democracy and freedom from all political taboos.

25 February 2013

Knowing how to read between the lines is a prerequisite to understanding Cuban politics. The structure of power on the Island is short on details, such that we must interpret the silences as well as the seemingly inconsequential data. The ascension of Miguel Diaz-Canel, to the vice presidency of the Council of State has followed a well-known script, easily detected by analysts and the curious for months. His growing presence in the national media and his having accompanied Raul Castro to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit, already augured his ascent to the second post of the Cuban elite.

Díaz-Canel possesses characteristics that undoubtedly influenced his appointment. A man who shines very little, himself, from whom we cannot recall a single phrase of his monotonous speeches, someone who projects absolute fidelity, a good physical presence and a dose of youth (at 52), so needed by Raul Castro to show that his government is generationally renewing itself. Restrained and sober in public, he seems to know that charisma only bring problems when you are that close to the historic nomenklatura. He has skillfully passed all the tests of loyalty and tameness the General President has put in his path, before being allowed to sit in the number two seat. continue reading

Without McDonald’s, Burger King or KFC, fast food par excellence in 21st century Cuba consists of fried food and croquettes made from unknown ingredients.

Throughout Havana there are thousands of street vendors specializing in rustic cooking. They sell fried food and heavy croquettes. Some like Ignacio prepare the coating for their fried items with wheat flour, salt and chives. Jose Antonio merely adds a commercial seasoning mix. Yoana prefers to craft hers from yams or corn meal. They are not bad if eaten hot.

Cold is another matter. A greasy packaged ball that tastes like plastic. In the capital croquettes often are not made by the vendors themselves. They usually buy them from special fish markets and then resell them for a 50% profit. continue reading