Human Rights in Cuba

The Party…Up for Debate? / Luis Felipe Rojas

2012-02-16T22:00:00.001-08:00

The Party…Up for Debate? / Luis Felipe Rojas
Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.

The following post was written by Luis Felipe Rojas for "Diario de Cuba"
and published on Wednesday, February 15th:

During the past few days, fragments of the recently concluded sessions
of the Communist Party of Cuba National Conference have been televised.
And the first thing that jumps out at one's eyes is the lack of
confrontation. The Cuban communists pay no attention to their best
mirror: in each corner of any town of the island it constantly turns on
the most substantial of discussions. About baseball or the quality of
bread. Of the neglect of public functionaries or of the frequency with
which eggs or beans are distributed in rations. Still lacking any glints
of democracy, a debate – which the deputies of the National Assembly
wish they had- surges anywhere.

During the discussion about a possible constitutional reformulation of
Article 42, one could see how Mariela Castro Espin (daughter of Raul
Castro) was the subject of timid pleas. Her intention was that they add
"reasons of gender indentification" to the mentioned article which lists
that no one should be discriminated based on race, gender, nationality,
or religion.

The responses from Alarcon and Eusebio Leal refused the necessity to
cite these terms in the constitution. They cited Marti and spoke of
unity. The quick intervention of Esteban Lazo as moderator cut the
debate, the television also cut the running time of the event, and as a
product of digital magic, we could see when "everyone" raised their
hands to unanimously approve something.

There is a contradiction which asks for special attention. Commission
No. 1, according to an article published by Granma newspaper on
Wednesday, February 1st, debated the internal functioning of the
communist organization. The intention was to finish with the ruling and
meddling of the Party instructors when it comes to productive decisions,
while they stated that they would "strengthen the role and faculties of
the Party Committees in the work place". Any Cuban knows very well about
the arrogance of the municipal Party functionaries, and not to mention
the visiting officials from provincial committees. The sole announcement
of their visits puts any municipality on guard: checking work plans,
painting sidewalks and once gain reviving gastronomy.

A televised fragment in which the Ministry of Culture and the President
of the Cuban Radio and Television Institute bragged about the bad taste
provided signals of the stagnant thought within the structures of power.

Minister Prieto alluded to the careerists which sustained themselves by
making jokes and parodies, and informed about the juicy gains and the
corruption in the provincial centers of music through the evaluation and
hiring of artists and artistic projects of low quality and of the worst
aesthetic taste. The dichotomy between what artistic talent offers and
what people want continues to be the source of discord which has not
been resolved in a commission of Stalinists. The contemporary television
dynamic goes one way while the indoctrination which tries to spread
throughout Cuba through soap operas and TV series for adolescents goes
the other way.

It is something which is completely evil. The imposition of stagnant
communist ideas as the sole source of political citizen participation
does not, after all, result in the ever concealed unity of "all" Cubans.

Debates behind closed doors to later show them edited and served like
recipes are the buttons of proof of the single Party. Regardless, what
was not debated or televised must have been more interesting than the
gabbles published during these days. The fact that Raul Castro initiated
the closing discourse with his position about the possibilities of a
multi-party system made it barely visible, according to some, that the
matter was at least in the debate of the work commissions.

The Communist Party of Cuba is a rigid and exclusive option which
attempts to perpetuate a system condemned to failure.

Translated by: Raul G.

15 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15225

Concerns Without Surprises / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

2012-02-16T20:02:00.001-08:00

Concerns Without Surprises / Anddy Sierra Alvarez
Anddy Sierra Alvarez, Translator: Unstated

On February 13, 2012, the sky was clear with temperatures lower than
normal. The awakening of the citizens of the "Rosario" neighborhood in
the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo of the Cuban capital, is stunning, as
the bakery and pastry shop in the town suddenly stopped working, leaving
no supply for the population. Alfredo one of the neighbors who lives
adjacent to the bakery, said, "It's possible it was the noise that I
felt at dawn, like a short circuit." The administrator, alias "Chiqui,"
explains that with the rainfall in the evening, the water leaking
through the roof because of the poor condition of the roof of masonry
caused a short circuit on a large-scale, as the oven and kneading
machine, the only ones on the premises, were seriously affected.

A nearby source, a worker in the place, commented that conditions were
bad and that what happened was not a surprise at all; it's true that the
ceiling was one of the causes, but the real one was a common water leak
within the room where the machines are working and this created a
constant humidity and where there is electricity, water is fatal. Those
responsible for reviewing the machinery, gave the news that electrical
wires from the oven and the motor of the mixer had burned and they were
taking them to the workshop to re-encase them and that could take a week
to 20 days.

Some other person murmured, "Then until they repair the engine there
won't be any bread!" and a great tumult was heard loudly from the crowd
of people, so whoever said it remains anonymous. After several hours,
the delegate arrives and explains that they were not going to run out of
bread, for he had already spoken to the manager of the central bakery
(who is responsible for meeting the demands of a bakery out of service)
and that they will supply the demand of the affected population until
they solve the problem in up to 20 days …

At 5:00 pm, the horses began arriving with carts full of plastic boxes
with bread — the journey from the bakery to the central bakery and
confectionery of "Rosario" is about 6 miles away — so they started from
6:00 pm until 8:00 pm to give bread to the population and all were
comfortable with the idea that this discomfort would be ended by the
time promised by the workers in the maintenance shop.

15 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15231

A Visit to Reality / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

2012-02-16T18:54:00.001-08:00

A Visit to Reality / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Translating Cuba, Translator: Unstated

You never know which is worse. The debacle of a hospital in ruins, like
most in the city of Havana or perhaps in the whole country, or the no
less deadly accuracy of a luxury therapy room, one of the science
fiction hangars that come out in First World movies, and suddenly, a Day
of Love you stumble upon, but in a corner of Vedado.

29th and E approximately.

Oncology and radiology it says on the facade in a creepy font. In the
lobby, a monstrous masterpiece of modernity dedicated to "hope." It's
obvious that we are entering a terrain where materialism and God share
the same isotropical homeland (like radioactive isotopes).

I tried to get in and out with blinders on. Without noticing the
details. Without humanizing the faces of those who come toward me in
wheelchairs. Without hearing the moans from the next bed. Without
understanding the maternal tongue that says right out in the hall the
age of this boy (the undermined maxilla) or of that bald teenager (the
blood liquified).

I greeted my family as if they had returned from a long exile. I looked
through the fogged glass. I swear I didn't know what city that was, much
less what date it was. The night was so beautiful and I didn't want to
think I was still breathing. I came not from abroad, but from among the
dead. Dead for now without a diagnosis of cancer, like my country
cousin, but still ready to go to pieces in operation after operation.
Pieces of memory cut for free. Dizziness. Feeling absolutely nothing.
Not recognizing the ancient faces of other cousins younger than I. When
you wake up, suddenly I'll be like a hundred.

They sedated her in a luxurious private room. Full of tubes. Partial
glossectomy, I thought I understood, or at least I reconstructed the
word thanks to its etymology. My cousin would have to learn to speak
again. Would have to, also, cling to that amateur monument of hope. This
is not her first surgical intervention. And so much cut-and-paste on the
body wears us out.

The medical report was gentle. Each nurse with the demeanor of a
professional reggaetoner, so full of vitality and humor. We looked
through a window to the intensive care room. Quite swollen by the
invasive manipulation she slept with a grimace of pain. Nightmares for
sure. Nightmares and no ability nor did she want to wake up.

In half an hour I was free again. A drunk spewed curses on the
government over the curb (from what I saw, I knew this detail would not
be tellable: too literary, too much allegory of a good final contrast
for a chronicle, but there you are). He said he himself had lived in
capitalism and so he knew what it was to live. I don't think so. You
could tell he was still young amid the stinking filth in the faded
light. Cuban capitalism day by day leaves too much in the past. I don't
believe him. Too much repetition of the words life and living. At best
someone will die in there and no one would dare to pass. We're trapped.

The teams looked so neat. The floor of some synthetic material, gleaming
under the neon lights. An air conditioner on full blast. And yes a
certain overwhelming sense of loneliness. Dying would be easiest.
Outside on 23rd street definitely no one's missing. They're all there,
including me. Those who are in bed at 8:00 at night have nothing to do
here. It's as if they never existed. As if we had never existed. Nausea.

I remember my studies in Biochemistry in the last century not far from
there: at about 25th and K. We read about the thousand and one molecular
mechanisms of cancer (I have classmates who got doctorates in the
subject). Almost beautiful. An out of control clock. A mischief of
evolution, viruses included. But there are a thousand and one
developable strategies to make fun of cancer tomorrow. Man has a pretty
good idea of what to do about it. We just lack time and money. And the
planet will not give us the mercy of such an opportunity. Nor will
history, with its crises and perennial revolutions. For now, we cut
little pieces of meat. Inject this or that monoclonal antibody or
radioactive serum. And derive encouraging statistics, as we impose a
priori the mausoleum that welcomes you to this hospital resuscitated
from among its ruins, at 29th and F.

I a couple of hours the sun will come out. I'm not afraid. I'm
terrified. Without the arm waving panic. With cynical equanimity. I
thought I would be a child. I was wrong. I grew up some time ago. I'm
more adult than anyone. I have no references to continue forward.
Please. Now.

February 16 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15243

Forget About Sending Love Notes by Cell Phone in Cuba / Yoani Sánchez

2012-02-16T16:52:00.001-08:00

Forget About Sending Love Notes by Cell Phone in Cuba / Yoani Sánchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez

Already in the early hours of February 14 we noticed that something was
happening with our mobile phones. Any attempt to send and receive a
message or make a call, ended in failure. It was Valentine's Day and
many of the mobile phone users in the country came up with the same
idea: send a greeting to the contacts in their phonebook. It did not
work. The only cellular phone company in Cuba did not pass the test of
such high demand and, come noon, its 1.3 million subscribers were simply
"out of service."

Cuba lags behind all Latin American countries, including Haiti, in the
number of mobile phones. Although the figure has grown since 2008, when
the government of Raul Castro finally allowed Cubans to contract for
cell phone service, it still insufficient. Despite the high prices of
calls and text messages, the cellular provider, Cubacel, has not
invested a share of its profits in improving its infrastructure. Hence,
the service collapses with increasing frequency. Holidays, celebrations
and Christmas are dates on which the use of this this little gadget with
a screen and keyboard is almost impossible.

But this logjam of messages is also a good sign, because it means that
every day cell phones are becoming a more and more popular method of
communication among us. Although nearly twenty years behind the rest of
the world, the mobile phone has entered our lives. For people reserve
their use for urgent issues or occasional greeting on the Day of Love.
But at some not too distant future it will also be a mechanism by which
we can call for social action, a channel to unite us and express
ourselves civilly.

16 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15218

The Death Certificate / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

2012-02-16T14:51:00.002-08:00

The Death Certificate / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado
Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado, Translator: Hank Hardisty
The historical and honorary President of Cuba signed a death certificate
on Twitter last week. Our country has been known for years for the
practice of "illness and burial" of the Cuban historical leader, more or
less regularly in the unofficial voice of the people, to serve as the
pretext of his proud reappearance, in the media, in order to deny the
rumours. I think it is an over-exploited resource for "oficialistas" to
refloat the anointing of the phoenix of Cuban politics.
I always found it suspicious, that battered history. I think it has been
closely linked among the 638 terrorist attacks that government spokesmen
have claimed occurred against the former president. A figure also
suspect, if we consider the published writings and audiovisual material
made and disseminated on Cuban television, with the assistance of the
Ministry of the Interior; stories of aggression told and retold that
fall short of twenty. It is likely that the number and continuing
rumours of his disappearance, have been aimed at denigrating his
opponents, by consecutive refutations, in the diaspora.
I know not whether this was spontaneous, that year, and resulted from a
rumour which took root in Cuba that became routine. It is possible that
when some emigres gathered together to play dominoes, drinking to the
death of the "Guinness Records Hoarder" of Cuba, authorities added it to
the long list of attacks he claims. Perhaps they reacted now to the
prevalence of the social networks and intend to use the chirping of the
free bird that is Twitter to their advantage. I'd rather use those
"cyber-comments", often the fruit of social lethargy or the state
mind-trap, and see how they add the most recent funeral to fabricate the
number 639 in the long list of attacks on former President Castro.
Translated by: Hank Hardisty
January 26 2012
http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15174

Harsh realities of life in Cuba

2012-02-16T13:14:00.001-08:00

February 16, 2012 2:11 am

Harsh realities of life in Cuba
From Mr Paul Nabavi.

Sir, Having lived in Cuba for more than six years to 2007, I take issue
with Michael Redwood's romantic vision of life in contemporary Cuba
(Letters, February 13) and his assertion that it provides pointers to
"the more sustainable society" our world needs.

Like an impressionable tourist, Mr Redwood cites the use of "bicycle
rickshaws" for getting round narrow streets and says the stock of
pre-1959 private cars is perhaps no worse than our own "over-extended
car ownership". He makes the unsubstantiated claim that Cuba is
"realising its potential to create a transport infrastructure which does
not follow the errors of the west". I recommend he joins ordinary Cubans
as they stand for hours in the tropical sun waiting for scarce buses or
simply for someone to stop and give them a lift just so they can get to
work.

I agree that Cuba provides its citizens with valuable public goods
(healthcare, education and basic nutrition) absent in many countries of
similar income levels, but surely Mr Redwood goes too far in saying that
in education and health (and organic market gardening!) the Cubans "beat
most of the rest of the world hands down". People have commented on
original research in Cuban medicine, and I am great admirer of the
skills and dedication of Cuban doctors. However, if you talk privately
to Cubans who actually use public services, they will tell you of
slipping standards in basic care in hospitals and in schools. Most
shockingly, I was told of the need for Cubans to give presents and make
payments under the table to get many of the basic services they require.

I share Mr Redwood's regard for the resilience and creativity of the
Cuban people. They are admirable in surviving in a dysfunctional system
in which many manage against the odds to live with decency and dignity.
However, one must acknowledge the darker side of Cuban society, namely
the widespread petty corruption and pilfering. If Mr Redwood spent some
time talking with Cuban people, he would understand some of the daily
realities they face in making ends meet, getting access to basic
services and in putting food on the table (what they call resolver).

Mr Redwood describes a people "who appear amazingly content despite
their many deprivations". It is, of course, hard to judge other people's
happiness but I would point out that many Cuban families are split
between those members who live in Cuba and those whose frustrations have
led them to emigrate in search of better opportunities elsewhere. The
resulting family separations cause much heartache and distress.

After decades of underinvestment in physical infrastructure, Cuba
requires significant capital and significant institutional reforms. Mr
Redwood warns against a rush to globalisation, which he trivialises as
having "German luxury goods and American fast food outlets". He
underestimates the challenges faced by Cuba as much as he presents a
romantic view of the present reality.

Paul Nabavi, Stonegate, E Sussex, UK

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f08dcb2-5739-11e1-be25-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1mZ9CANvE

Cuban dissident Fariñas says police to punish agent who threatened him

2012-02-16T11:11:00.001-08:00

Posted on Thursday, 02.16.12

CUBA

Cuban dissident Fariñas says police to punish agent who threatened him

Police tell Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas that the government agent
who threatened to kill him will be punished.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuban police have told dissident Guillermo Fariñas they will punish a
former officer who threatened to kill him, an unprecedented move that
Fariñas said should embolden other dissidents attacked by security agents.

"This is a blow against impunity," said Fariñas. "Peaceful opposition
activists can now file lawsuits for injuries, for threats, for attempted
murders, against those who pummel them constantly."

Fariñas said National Revolutionary Police officials told him Monday he
will be allowed to witness the session next week where the man who
threatened him, former Interior Ministry Maj. Miguel Morejó Padrón, will
be sanctioned.

Morejó will be hit with a restraining order to stay away from Fariñas, a
warning that he will go to jail if he threatens the dissident again and
a 300 peso fine, just high enough to trigger a criminal record, the
dissident said.

Fariñas, winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize in 2010 for
his peaceful opposition activism, said it was the first known incident
in which a government agent is punished for acting against dissidents.

Facing his many public complaints against Morejó, "the authorities
didn't want this grinding, demoralizing media show and decided to
sacrifice one of its officers," he told El Nuevo Herald by telephone.

Cuban dissidents regularly complain of beatings, harassments and threats
at the hands of security forces and government-organized mobs when they
attempt to stage public protests. Some have been rushed to hospitals for
treatment of injuries.

Fariñas said the death threat came on Nov. 2, when he went to the
Arnaldo Milian Castro Hospital in his hometown of Santa Clara to visit
dissidents Alcides Rivera and Roland Ferrer, who had been admitted amid
lengthy hunger strikes.

Morejó, who had left the Interior Ministry with the rank of major and
was second in command of the hospital's security, intercepted him, hit
him and threatened to kill him, he added. Morejó's job in the ministry,
in charge of domestic security, and the reasons for his departure were
not known.

Fariñas was detained and when he was released on the 4th he went to the
National Revolutionary Police to file a complaint. Morejó was summoned
and boasted "that he threatened to kill me, and that he would kill me if
he had to," the dissident added.

The police initially told him they would do nothing, but he returned to
the police station three times and stood in front of the building in
protest. He was arrested each time, and released hours or days later.

Fariñas said police told him a "multidisciplinary" team had examined the
case and decided on the warning and fine because Morejó had no previous
criminal record.

Cuban authorities regularly deny allegations of abuses by the island's
security forces and boast that its National Revolutionary Police and
State Security agents at the Interior Ministry are superbly trained.

There have been reports that some security agents were privately
disciplined after committing abuses. But there are no known cases in
which the victims were informed of the punishments, or were allowed to
witness them.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/16/2643403/cuban-dissident-farinas-says.html

Cuba Unleashes the Pent-Up Energy of Real Estate Dreams

2012-02-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

Cuba Unleashes the Pent-Up Energy of Real Estate Dreams
Jose Goitia for The New York Times
By VICTORIA BURNETT
Published: February 15, 2012

HAVANA — As fixer-uppers go, Carmen Martínez's derelict shotgun house is
no cakewalk. The living-room roof collapsed 15 years ago, and the porch
soon followed suit, leaving two teetering columns with nothing to hold
up. The bathroom is a squalid privy, and the kitchen consists of a sink
with no taps and two oil drums full of water.
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A new property law that took effect on Nov. 10. allows Cubans to buy and
sell their houses and even own a second home outside the cities.

But roofs — even half-missing ones — are a hot commodity these days in
Havana, which has been swept by a bout of real estate fever. So Yoél
Bacallao, a 35-year-old entrepreneur, offered to repair Ms. Martínez's
dilapidated house for free on one condition: that she let him build an
apartment of his own on top of it.

"It was as if a ray of light had come down from the sky," said Ms.
Martínez, 41, who would hang laundry in the roofless living room and
sweep furiously during rainstorms to keep the rest of the house from
flooding. "I have been watching this house fall apart around me for years."

All over the capital and in many provincial towns, Cubans are beginning
to inject money into the island's ragged real estate, spurred by
government measures to stimulate construction and a new law that allows
them to trade property for the first time in 50 years.

The measures are President Raúl Castro's biggest maneuver yet as he
strives to get capital flowing on the island, encourage private
enterprise and take pressure off the economically crippled state.

For decades, the government banned real estate sales and kept a jealous
grip on construction. Materials were scarce, red tape endless and
inspectors meddlesome. Black marketeers would deliver cinder blocks by
cover of darkness, and purchasing a bag of sand was a furtive process
akin to buying drugs.

But during the past two months the state has reduced paperwork, stocked
construction stores, legalized private contractors and begun offering
homeowners subsidies and credits.

On many streets, the chip of hammers and gritty slosh of cement mixing
rises above the sparse traffic as Cubans paint facades, build extensions
or gut old houses. Still, it is generally small-scale stuff: Mr.
Bacallao, who has savings from his business repairing mobile phones,
expects to spend about $10,000 on his project.

"Before, you had to sneak a bag of cement here, a bag of cement there,"
he said. Mr. Bacallao, who rents a tiny apartment with his girlfriend,
built a rooftop house three years ago, but the state confiscated it
because he could not explain how he came by the materials. If this house
works out, he will move his daughters to Havana from the provinces.

"Now I can explain where I got the materials," he said. "I can explain
where I got the money. No problem."

Behind scruffy porticos and walls of bougainvillea, the wheels of the
property trade are turning. Unofficial brokers — who are still outlawed
in Cuba — say they have never been so busy, trawling the streets and the
Internet for leads and fielding calls from prospective buyers.

Cubisima, an online classified service, said the number of hits on its
real estate page tripled to an average of 900 per day after the new
property law took effect on Nov. 10. The law allows Cubans to buy and
sell their houses, and even own a second home outside the cities, though
it still bars most foreigners from buying.

It is a crude market, where househunters rely on word of mouth and
prices are based as much on excitement as on any clear sense of property
values, according to interviews with homeowners, brokers and experts.
Buyers, who at the top end are mainly Cuban émigrés and Cubans married
to foreigners, often declare a fraction of what they pay, and money
sometimes changes hands overseas, suggesting that the government's hope
of reaping significant tax revenues may be at least partly thwarted.

On a recent day, a stylish flight attendant showed a viewer around the
pretty three-bedroom home she hopes will fetch $150,000; a mile away, an
elderly widow held out for an offer of $500,000 for her big, unkempt
1950s house — to be deposited in Spain, please.

Many sellers plan to downsize, so they can live better or leave.
Victoria Pérez, a retired doctor, put her spacious house and two-bedroom
annex on sale last month for $80,000. She hopes to buy something smaller
and put aside about $20,000 to live on and visit her daughter in the
United States.

"To earn $20,000 would take 20 years," she said. "This opens up a whole
world of opportunities."

Statistics are few, and brokers admit that the curious outnumber the
serious. The National Housing Institute processed just 364 sales in the
three weeks after the new law took effect.

"Prices are very inflated," complained a Cuban-Canadian who was viewing
a mint-colored four-bedroom house priced at $240,000 one recent
afternoon. He said he would watch the market for a month or two to see
how things shook out.

Steep price tags notwithstanding, experts and brokers say there are
signs that the better-off are starting to migrate to areas like Miramar,
Havana's embassy district, and build vacation homes on the coast.

"There is definitely a rearrangement going on," said Carlos García
Pleyan, a sociologist who worked for decades for the Cuban government's
urban planning department.

Other than Cuban émigrés, he said, the gentrifiers were "the winners of
the Cuba of recent years."

"People who have made money legally, and people who have made money
illegally," he said. "Businesspeople, maybe a restaurant owner, maybe
someone who owns taxis, maybe someone who has made money through
corruption."

"We shouldn't be worrying so much about how people rearrange
themselves," he added. "We should be asking ourselves how such large
social inequalities have happened."

While the new market dynamics helped Ms. Martínez, some worry they will
do little to solve the housing problems faced by many Cubans, whose
wallets would not stretch even to buy a $3,000 one-bedroom apartment.

"It's all very well for those who have money or who have a relative
abroad; but if not, forget it," said Luis Martínez, a construction
worker (who is not related to Carmen). "My son is 18. The only way he'll
ever leave home is if he marries a girl who has a house."

If anyone needed a reminder of Cuba's critical housing problem, they got
one in January, when a building collapsed in central Havana, killing
four people. Miguel Coyula, an architect who specializes in urban
planning, said an average of three buildings collapsed in Havana each
day, victims of neglect, overcrowding and improvised construction. Well
over 100,000 people are waiting to move to government hostels.

Mr. Pleyan estimated that it would cost about $3.6 billion to build the
600,000 houses Cuba needs, according to the government. Independent
estimates are more than double that. The creation of construction and
housing cooperatives is one step being discussed: such arrangements
would reduce building costs and allow groups of individuals to build,
say, a small apartment block.

But Mr. Pleyan said Cuba would also have to open wider to foreign
investment and look for models that would balance public interests and
private profit, by, for example, encouraging developers to build local
infrastructure.

Such projects will not happen quickly — if at all — and Ms. Martínez
feels lucky that she salvaged her home before she and her family had to
abandon it. Once the roof is on, she said, she would like to get running
water in her kitchen, replace the toilet and finish building a bedroom
for her teenage son.

"I need taps, doors, windows, tiles; everything needs fixing," she said,
looking at the stained walls and rotten shutters of her bedroom.

"Little by little," she added. "Little by little."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/world/americas/real-estate-fever-spreads-in-cuba.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Obama should take the offensive on Cuba

2012-02-16T09:08:00.001-08:00

Posted on Wednesday, 02.15.12

In My Opinion

Obama should take the offensive on Cuba
By Andres Oppenheimer
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com

BOGOTA, Colombia -- miamiherald.com/andres_oppenheimer/

The U.S. State Department wasn't terribly smart when it rejected a
demand by Latin American populist leaders that Cuba be invited to an
April 14 summit of President Barack Obama with 33 hemispheric leaders in
Colombia. It should have accepted the petition, and used it to grill
Cuba's military dictatorship in front of a world audience.

The diplomatic ruckus started at a meeting of leftist presidents in
Venezuela earlier this month, when Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa
proposed that members of the Venezuelan-led ALBA bloc boycott the 5th
Summit of the Americas to be held in Cartagena, Colombia, unless Cuba —
the only country in the hemisphere excluded from the meeting — was
allowed to participate. Venezuela and other countries immediately
approved the motion.

U.S. officials responded — sticking to their policy guidelines — that
Cuba cannot be invited because under the summit's rules only
democratically elected leaders who are committed to the 34-country
Organization of American States' rules can attend.

Colombia — the host country, which is trying to avoid defections that
would mar the summit — sent Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin to
Havana to try to solve the problem, but she came back empty-handed. She
told reporters after the visit that Cuba indeed wants to attend the summit.

The diplomatic impasse is making big headlines in the region. During a
visit here, almost everybody I talked to referred to the issue. Not
surprisingly, the prevailing narrative in the Colombian press is that
the United States is once again punishing a small and proud Caribbean
island for its independent foreign policy — the old David vs. Goliath
tale, which Cuba has played so often over the years.

So what should Washington do? Instead of rejecting Cuba's presence, the
State Department should have put out a statement saying that Cuban ruler
Gen. Raúl Castro is more than welcome to attend the summit as an outside
guest to answer several questions, starting with for how long Cuba plans
to remain the last military dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere.

More specifically, and given diplomats' penchant for legal formalities,
Gen. Castro should be asked:

Why is Cuba not complying with former President Fidel Castro Ruz's
commitment at the 1996 Sixth Ibero-American Summit in Viña del Mar,
Chile, to respect "political pluralism," "human rights," and "political
freedoms?" At that Summit, Castro signed the Vina del Mar Declaration,
which specifically calls for "the freedoms of expression, association
and assembly."

Needless to say, Cuba still has hundreds of political prisoners — two of
whom have recently died from hunger strikes — and allows no opposition
parties.

Why is Cuba still violating Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights, which states that "Everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return to his country"? To this day,
Cubans need a government permit to be able to leave the island.

Prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, who has denied a permit to visit
Brazil earlier this month, wrote in her Twitter account Feb. 3 that
"It's the 19th time that they violate my right to enter and leave my
country... I am a prisoner."

If Gen. Castro responds, as he surely would, that the U.S. "empire" and
its allies are attacking his island because it has become a model
society, Obama's answer should be very simple: "If the Cuban people were
so happy, and love you so much, why don't you allow free elections?"

My Opinion: The ALBA threat to boycott the Summit of the Americas over
Cuba's attendance is pure political theater. Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez and his Ecuadoran apprentice, President Rafael Correa, won't miss
the summit: They are demagogues who need to make constant headlines, and
who won't miss a chance to do that at a mega-summit with Obama.

Most likely, they are creating this fuss to place themselves at
center-stage at the summit. Rather than staying out, they will probably
settle for a vague statement in the summit's final declaration that they
can interpret as an invitation for Cuba to the next summit.

Obama — who, by the way, has just given a red carpet welcome to China's
likely future president Xi Jinping, a leader of another dictatorship —
should turn the tables and invite Cuba to the summit provided that Gen.
Castro is willing to answer some uncomfortable questions. Cuba won't
accept, and the United States will look much better than it does now.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/15/2643434/obama-should-take-the-offensive.html#storylink=misearch

Forbidden Books / Lilianne Ruíz

2012-02-15T16:25:00.001-08:00

Forbidden Books / Lilianne Ruíz
Lilianne Ruíz, Translating Cuba, Translator: William Fitzhugh

Well now I am in my house, just returned from the sixth birthday of
Ada's twins; Ada is the sister of my friend Agustín. I love going with
my daughter, all very simple, just great in the way that she knows how
to share this family whose roots are in Villa Clara. There is nothing
warmer than a home of Cuban peasants. And Agustín; he administers the
Dakaisone blog.

The girls have played, the adults have chatted. When a person lives in
a country with laws that limit what one can eat, what books you can
read, what you are permitted to do and what you risk when your
conscience wants to take you beyond that, you go over and over the same
things, but it is left to the rest to talk about their experience and
why it is a good thing to find other similar people who repeat to each
other with their own voice what you already know. Nobody has a
solution, only to speak about resistance. The resistance of conscience
that knows to plant itself on free ground and which can face the winds
that the constipated entrails of the Revolution spew, not without
holding our noses. A beautiful and tragic image of the awoken conscience
in the middle of a sewer.

At the party, I met Omaida and her daughter Jennifer. Omaida is the
source for a network of independent libraries. The term "independent
library" could sound strange but in communist countries, in
dictatorships of the extreme left, such libraries are the only oases of
good literature. In the case of Cuba, the history of literature is not
even totally complete for the twentieth century. All that was saved was
what the magazine Orígenes collected. The second half of the twentieth
century is empty in the piles of shelving or repeated in others, such
that it seems like no-one writes poetry that is worth the trouble in the
contemporary world, or novels, or essays that are not indigestible in
the realm of the Americas.

As for myself, I'm getting sick and tired of Saramago and the Castro's
personal Columbian friend (Gabriel Garcia Márquez ) because I'm
convinced that enough better literature has been written in the world
than to have to forgive the creator of the town of Macondo of his mortal
sin. I have books that are dearer to me but they continue to be back
issues to which I can return as is only possible when so few books are
known.

In Cuba, only the friends of the Revolution get published. Because the
Revolution; apocalyptic beast with the number of man that "very few have
understood" is a beast with few friends. It can't survive when it is
compared to the free expression of the mirror that has found its nature
in the vacuum between the freedom of the glass and the quicksilver, the
absoluteness of the death of ideologies, the easing of the mind before
the serenity of a lake that perfectly reflects a mountain, the silence
of haiku.

It is rare to find a book from Octavio Paz, Vaclav Havel, M. Kundera,
Vargas Llosa, absolutely impossible to find a book from Carlos Alberto
Montaner. It is easier to be badgered by Italo Calvino who was a
communist or Eduardo Galeano who has remained as the only one that state
misanthropy can resort to. Calvino wrote very very well, but Galeano
did it terribly terribly badly, and used the case of Cuba as a symbol,
I'm not sure of what, but he behaves for the world like no Cuban
resident of the island does.

In this Cuban experiment, that is about how submissive human nature can
become when it submits to the absolute control of government political
and economic totalitarianism, it has been seen that the first recourse
has been the education of "the people" that are thought of like
livestock. The example of that unglamorous little library where the ex
president of the island made the curatorship of the University's books
for everyone without universality. The information that the conscience
would be subjected to was selected carefully, it was repeated, it was
threatened and the result is this will to survive in an autophagic way,
to not protest save a few exceptions. On of the ways to produce
consciousness to open up the bandwidth of information, providing news,
evangelizing with the literature of liberty, and for this reason it is a
crime to administer a separate library.

That's how I learned, with horror, about the harassment to which Omaida
has been subjected by state security. They sent an agent she describes
as having crawled out of a dumpster who has the nerve to sit uninvited
in her living room and threaten her. And although it seems like
something out of a bad Bukowski novel, he dares to call on her birthday
to remind her that an evil shadow lurks where only her guardian angel
should dwell.

But these guys have no fear of God. She also told me that the chief
agent made a visit too, a man who can cite books and authors.
Undoubtedly he is autistic, because agents do not understand what they
read. Their core value is the constipated revolution. These thugs do not
know the potential Delphic curse Lezama invented having to do with the
famous inscription "gnothi seauton" (displaying my complete ignorance of
Greek), which means "Know thyself." That is what literature is for: to
illuminate, to transport, to change the adornments of the soul until its
final form is found, released by the image.

My Christian charity is not sufficient to pity them.

Translated by William Fitzhugh

January 30 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15186

On the Same Side / Miriam Celaya

2012-02-15T16:24:00.001-08:00

On the Same Side / Miriam Celaya
Miriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting

These days of rest, when I have not even had the nerve to open my
machine and write, have instead been used to think about the Cuban
reality, present, future and my own assumptions. Friends and enemies
have branded me as inflexible on more than one occasion, or at least as
excessively caustic. And they're right. Not in terms of my usual
bitterness about the government: I reiterate every invective and
criticism I have dedicated to the autocracy, and multiply my bitterness
towards it exponentially. I do not like it, do not approve of it at all,
and will fight against it in my surly style as long as I am alive; I
have a deep contempt for this and other dictatorships, and I refuse to
serve or obey the regime.

But I've also been a bit unfair in my judgmental ratings towards my
countrymen, especially when I attack what I consider to be the people's
excessive passivity and docility. Permanent helplessness has a dulling
effect on the senses that prevents any clearly formulated proposal. In
conversations with some friends that I've been nursing these days, I
have been pleased to see that people are neither so weak nor so blind;
they just have not found the way. Many are not permissive, but fearful.
The characteristics of dictatorships are magnified in the people's
imagination; they look larger and more powerful than they really are.
Now that image is beginning to crack.

One example is a friend of mine, who, without my suspecting it, is a
regular reader of blogs on the Voces Cubanas platform. I did not even
realize that, for years, she has known what I do, and is a regular fan
who urges her son, — a twenty-something young man — to put everything in
digital form that is published in the independent web, including sites
of Estado de SATS and recordings of Razones Ciudadanas, among others.
For my part, I had not spoken to her about my political views or of my
dissident activities, though my opinions are well known and are even
shared among all my friends. I do not like to scare people, but the
opposite effect was evident in her: "since I've read your posts, since I
found out all about and what you do, I'm less afraid. Each time I'm more
convinced that the only way to fight this government is to stop playing
its game. I want my children to know something besides this, a Cuba
different from ours".

So, I made a mistake too. I have underestimated the power of freely
expressed opinions, I have underrated the scope –- limited, yet
inexorable — of the independent press and the individual will of the
disobedient, and I have overestimated the fear of Cubans. This friend is
a member of the Communist Party, one additional faker, but she has also
been, for a long time, a silent activist who has taken to her workplace,
her friends and family nucleus, recorded on disks and flash drives, the
whole spectrum of opinions currently stirring in Cuba, especially
anti-government views.

Additionally, I have recently become convinced of the power of believing
in our own strength. We, the disobedient, are not an "underground"
phenomenon. We walk with our heads held high, and make public our
meetings, aspirations and opinions. The government is the one
underground, locked away in its palaces, plotting its own conferences
and laws. Hidden are the power lords, fearful that people might find out
what they are scheming, terrified in the presence of the effects of
whatever measure they might propose, disconcerted at the slightest
possibility that Cubans might have access to information. It is true
that people are afraid, but the masses are generally more ignorant than
cowardly. The ruling Cubans are actually the real pack of cowards who
hide behind the force that gives them absolute power to suppress and
prevail. However, they survive in a permanent state of shock,
mistrusting even their own followers. Therefore, I ask Cubans, at least
those whom I misjudged, to forgive me. You are in hiding, we are in the
open, but, at the end of the day, we are all on the same side.

Translated by Norma Whiting

February 10 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15180

Another Irreplaceable Loss / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

2012-02-15T16:23:00.001-08:00

Another Irreplaceable Loss / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado
Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado, Translator: Jackie Isaksen

Once again Cuban society darkens from the avoidable death of another of
its members. The peaceful protestor Wilman Villar Mendoza was detained
in a police offensive carried out in Contramaestre, a province of
Santiago of Cuba, unjustly and quickly condemned to 4 years in jail for
working with a free conscience, in a trial behind closed doors, and they
argue that this attracted his naked protest, his hunger strike and the
resultant pneumonia — that was attended to too late — costing him his
life. The outrage and official teaching toward those who think
politically different are the moral rubric and the behavior of the Cuban
dictatorship that have become tradition. The impunity with which the
state works, the judge, who is part of and owner of all power, forsakes
those citizens of the alternative political society who face the
oppression of the state. For action and omission, the authorities are
responsible for the death of this young man of 30 years.

Wilman was the victim of the abuse of power and the police who appeared
to be directed by the high leadership of the country. Accustomed to vex
and judge roughly the peaceful political dissidents and independent
journalists in order to plant the seeds of terror in the citizenship, to
avoid with intolerance what the independent civil society grows, and to
maintain unharmed their cabinet and perks. To blackmail Maritza
Pelegrino –now widow of Villar Mendoza — threatening to take away her
daughters if she didn't abandon the ranks of the Ladies in White, is an
act lacking in ethics. Facts like these do not serve to "defend their
Revolution" but to sully it. When they use violence, when they publicly
denigrate and have paramilitary men hit women and defenseless people,
they are serving a shameful, unspeakable and arbitrary order. They don't
change the mentality with slogans or through a decree, but with an
appropriate government code of ethics and and in the just exercise of power.

This tragedy happened within just in a few days of the awaited visit of
the president of Brazil, an ex-political prisoner who was tortured, and
the visit of Pope Benedict XVI scheduled in March. In this hostile
environment that has propitiated the intolerance, the Cuban government
hides behind "convenient" criminal offenses in order to sanction
political activism while awaiting these dignitaries. You can't reform a
country destroyed by the same people who pretend to fix it with
ideological propaganda, but must do so with humane ideas and logical
ethics and by including people who contribute to the respect of justice
in all orders of national life. The new Cuba which inevitably will be
reborn from this rubble of ignominy, should erect itself humanely with
the respect and the harmony of all of its children inside and outside
our borders, where there exists plurality of parties and ideas and where
there is not mistreatment or oppression toward its children who defend
their differing opinions from the official ones.

I sympathize with the pain of the families and I join the "outraged"
members of Cuban society to condemn this death which could have been
avoided. It is left to us to continue working to honor the example and
the valiant souls of Pedro L. Boitel, Orlando Zapata, Laura Pollán and
Wilmar Villar, rest in peace.

Translated by Jackie Isaksen

January 24 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15213

Global Insider: Brazil's Rousseff is Positioned to Push for Change in Cuba

2012-02-15T14:14:00.001-08:00

Global Insider: Brazil's Rousseff is Positioned to Push for Change in Cuba
By The Editors | 15 Feb 2012

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made her first official visit to Cuba
last month. In an email interview, David Herrero, a research associate
at the Council on Foreign Relations, discussed Brazil-Cuba relations.

WPR: How did Brazil-Cuba relations evolve under former Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and what were Brazil's priorities?

David Herrero: Lula significantly expanded political engagement and
commercial ties with Cuba. He visited the country four times as
president and helped launch a $950 million modernization project --
financed mostly by Brazil's development bank, BNDES -- at the Cuban port
of Mariel. On the issue of human rights, however, he was at times
criticized. In February 2010, for instance, after a Cuban prisoner named
Orlando Zapata Tamayo died while on hunger strike, Lula was taken to
task for his offhand comment, "Imagine if all the criminals in Sao Paulo
went on hunger strike to demand freedom." Nonetheless, Lula's legacy was
marked more by the blossoming cooperation his government fostered with
Cuba: on agriculture, housing, oil and minerals, transportation
equipment, tobacco, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and other sectors.

WPR: What does President Dilma Rousseff's first year in office and
recent visit indicate about any shifts in emphasis, including in the
area of human rights?

Herrero: With the spotlights trained on Brazilian investment and
economic cooperation, there were no surprises during Rousseff's first
visit to Cuba. She toured the port of Mariel and announced $600 million
in new credits for Cuban food and agriculture. Rousseff proceeded
gingerly on human rights, framing the issue as one that should be
addressed multilaterally. "He who throws the first stone has a roof made
of glass," she remarked, acknowledging that Brazil has its own human
rights issues, and lamenting the U.S. embargo and ongoing operation of
the prison at Guantanamo. Rousseff understands the sensitivity of human
rights issues in the context of relations with Cuba -- and the strategic
importance of being kept inside the tent with the Castro government.
Should she so chose, though, she is better positioned than her
predecessor to advance the dialogue on human rights. Rousseff survived
torture as a political prisoner during Brazil's military dictatorship.
She authorized Brazil's vote in favor of a U.N. special investigator on
human rights in Iran and decried the case of an Iranian woman sentenced
to death by stoning -- even as Brazil enjoys robust trade with Iran.
Rousseff has also been tough on corruption, which resonates with the
Cuban public and politburo. Cuban President Raul Castro recently called
corruption "the principal enemy of the revolution."

WPR: What role can Brazil play in Cuba's opening, and what is the value
of enhanced ties for Brazil?

Herrero: Castro has made economic productivity the focus of reforms in
Cuba, with new laws targeting housing, private enterprise, agriculture
and sugar -- all areas in which Brazil has a role to play. Rousseff is
wise to cultivate strong diplomatic ties with her Cuban counterparts if
Brazil is to continue having a positive impact on Cuban infrastructure
and food security. Brazil is Cuba's second-largest trading partner.
Commerce between the two countries swelled to $642 million in 2011. And
while the trade balance is uneven -- Brazilian exports consume the
lion's share of bilateral commerce -- Brazilian demand has grown for
Cuban medicines, chemicals and minerals. These economic ties are
significant in a time of changing regional dynamics in Latin America and
the Caribbean, with Cuba pursuing the most transformative economic and
political reforms in decades, while the United States remains on the
sidelines.

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/11481/global-insider-brazils-rousseff-is-positioned-to-push-for-change-in-cuba

La Iglesia edifica obras en el Santuario de El Cobre para recibir al Papa

2012-02-15T13:51:00.000-08:00

Religión

La Iglesia edifica obras en el Santuario de El Cobre para recibir al Papa
Agencias
Santiago de Cuba 15-02-2012 - 7:13 pm.

La residencia que alojará a Benedicto XVI es una edificación moderna de
una sola planta y a prueba de sismos.

Aspecto exterior de la casa donde se alojará el Papa, a unos metros del
Santuario del Cobre. (EFE)

Los preparativos para recibir al papa Benedicto XVI en el Santuario de
El Cobre, durante su viaje a Cuba, avanzan con obras de remodelación,
ampliación y construcción en los alrededores de ese templo, que incluyen
la casa que hospedará al Pontífice en su primera noche en la Isla,
informó EFE.

La residencia, que alojará al Papa y cinco acompañantes, es una
edificación moderna de una sola planta y a prueba de sismos, que cuenta
con seis habitaciones climatizadas y tantos baños, cocina, comedor y
sala, y se ubica a pocos metros del Santuario Nacional de la Virgen de
la Caridad del Cobre.

La casa está prácticamente terminada y solo restan la pavimentación de
la calle de acceso, así como muros, aceras y jardines, obras que deben
estar listas para el 28 de febrero, según dijo a EFE el ingeniero Fausto
Veloz, a cargo de los trabajos.

Veloz, quien es jefe del Grupo de Construcción e Inversiones del
Arzobispado de Santiago de Cuba, afirmó que entre los pendientes está la
construcción de algunos "elementos de barrera" que exigieron como
requerimiento de seguridad integrantes de la Guardia Suiza que visitaron
las obras hace una semana.

El ingeniero explicó que la vivienda debe quedar "constreñida" entre un
muro ya existente, las nuevas barreras que se levantarán y el antiguo
seminario San Basilio Magno, donde se hospedará el resto del séquito de
11 personas que acompañará al papa al Santuario.

Benedicto XVI visitará la Isla en marzo, donde permanecerá entre los
días 26 y 28 de ese mes y oficiará dos misas en las ciudades de Santiago
de Cuba y La Habana.

Su llegada será por Santiago de Cuba y allí oficiará su primera misa
pública.

De acuerdo con el programa previsto, esa noche el Papa dormirá en El
Cobre y al día siguiente realizará una visita privada al Santuario,
ubicado a unos 20 kilómetros de Santiago de Cuba y dedicado a la Virgen
de la Caridad del Cobre, patrona de la Isla.

El viaje papal coincidirá con el Año Jubilar en Cuba por el IV
Centenario del hallazgo de la imagen de la Virgen de la Caridad.

Las obras para remodelar y restaurar la edificación del Santuario fueron
terminadas oficialmente en enero pasado, a pocos días de comenzar el Año
Jubilar el 7 de enero.

Otras remodelaciones

Además del templo, el complejo del Santuario incluye una hospedería para
peregrinos, aún en reparación, y la casa de retiro y convivencia, que es
como se denomina al antiguo seminario que acogerá al séquito del Papa y
en cuya capilla el Pontífice oficiará una misa privada el 27 de marzo.

El sacerdote Eugenio Castellanos, al frente de la atención de los
peregrinos y del Santuario, indicó a EFE que todas las obras mencionadas
estaban en planes por motivo del Año Jubilar y antes de confirmarse la
visita papal.

"Pero al venir el Santo Padre a pasar una noche aquí, las condiciones de
la casa tenían que tenerse listas y ha habido que adelantar la fecha de
terminación", precisó Castellanos.

De hecho, la residencia que hospedará a Benedicto XVI, ya conocida por
los habitantes de El Cobre como "la casa del Papa", lleva un año y medio
en ejecución y fue concebida inicialmente como vivienda para una orden
de religiosas.

Castellanos apuntó que también "se está haciendo nueva" una plazoleta
junto al templo que se convertirá en una "plaza mariana" y en un futuro
podrá acoger misas exteriores y otras celebraciones del Santuario al
aire libre.

http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/9620-la-iglesia-edifica-obras-en-el-santuario-de-el-cobre-para-recibir-al-papa

They don’t know everything, my love, they don’t know… / Yoani Sánchez

2012-02-14T14:08:00.001-08:00

They don't know everything, my love, they don't know… / Yoani Sánchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez

Will there be microphones here? You ask me while poking your head into
every corner of the room. Don't worry, I say, my life goes on with my
guts on display, letting it all hang out. There is no place dark,
closed, private… because I live as if walking through a gigantic X-ray
machine. Here is the clavicle I broke as a child, the fight we had
yesterday over a domestic trifle, the yellowing letter I keep in the
back of a drawer. Nothing saves us from scrutiny, my love, nothing saves
us. But today — at least for a few hours — don't think about the police
on the other end of the phone, nor the rounded eye of the camera that
captures us. Tonight we are going to believe that only we are curious
about each other. Turn off the light and for a moment send them to the
devil, disarm their eavesdropping strategies.

With so many resources spent on watching us, we have conjured away from
them the primordial facet of our lives. They don't know, for example,
even a single word of that language made for twenty years together, that
we can use without parting our lips. They would score a zero on any test
to decipher the complex code with which we say the trivial or urgent,
the everyday or the extraordinary. Surely none of the psychological
profiles they've done on us tell how you comb my eyebrows and jokingly
warn that I'm going to end up looking like Brezhnev. Our watchers, poor
guys, have never read the first song you sang me, much less that poem
where you said one day we would go to Sydney or Baghdad. Nor will they
forgive us every time we escape from them — without a trace — on the
diastole of a spasm.

Like Agent Wiesler in the film The Lives of Others, someone will listen
to us now, and not understand us. Not understand why, after arguing for
an hour, we come together and share a kiss. The astonished police who
follow our steps can't classify our embraces, and they wonder how
dangerous to "national security" are those phrases you say only in my
ear. So I propose, my love, that tonight we scandalize them or convert
them. Let's take the ear off the wall and in its place oblige them to
scribble on a sheet: "1:30 am, the subjects are making love."

14 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15142

The Right to Know / Cuban Law Association – Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

2012-02-14T14:07:00.001-08:00

The Right to Know / Cuban Law Association – Wilfredo Vallin Almeida
Cuban Law Association, Translator: Unstated
by Wilfredo Vallin Almeida

The Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba is over. From it, what we
have left is a single phrase: "no illusions."

This is equivalent to saying — in good Cuban — that things will continue
as they are, we should not expect changes and future rosy prospects and
must resign ourselves to our fate for any number of years.

It also means that anyone who thinks differently, who dares to protest,
to questioning the higher ups about their performance, or to engage in a
hunger strike will be, unquestionably, "an employee of imperialism, a
traitor to his country, a scum criminal who already had problems";
finally, someone totally disqualified to question anything, even at the
cost of his life.

A sad fate that we live as a country.

But I think that the constraints are limited and what seems to be coming
in Cuba, though it doesn't appear so, is that things are changing and
one of those changes is what happens with information.

Information used to be exclusive to the State until a few years ago. Now
the technology (although we are still far from the INTERNET), along with
the bravery of a group of independent journalists (despite the Black
Spring), have broken the monopoly and the public finds out things they
previously would not have known.

Of the Ladies in White there is no need even to speak: its very
existence and the release of the 75 political prisoners — first and
foremost, the credit for this is theirs — speak for themselves.

In this context, we will continue doing what we believe is our duty as
Cuban lawyers, namely: Let our countrymen know their rights under the
law of the country and ways to exercise them accordingly.

Let them know the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights signed by the Cuban government for
the people of Cuba, but never published for the information of citizens.

Continue to help Cubans who can not afford it to pay for services from
the Law Collective, the transport of these firms' lawyers to prisons or
other places, or what is often asked for "under the table." and any
other advice requested from civil society.

The eternal heroes of this nation, who unfortunately are no longer with
us, long ago gave us the rights "we don't have to beg for," many of
which are inalienable because they derive from our essential human
condition.

And this, which we note here, is in that category, because it is a
question of the Right for Cubans to know.

Translator's note: This is the first translated post from the Cuban Law
Association blog — an outstanding blog about the law and human rights in
Cuba. The original blog in Spanish is here.

13 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15096

U.S. Watches Closely As Oil Drilling Begins Off Cuba

2012-02-14T13:49:00.001-08:00

U.S. Watches Closely As Oil Drilling Begins Off Cuba
by Greg Allen

There are big plans for oil exploration in the Caribbean, not far off
the coast of Florida. A Spanish company recently began drilling in Cuban
waters — just 55 miles from Key West.

The well is the first of several exploratory wells planned in Cuba and
the Bahamas. The drilling has officials and researchers in Florida
scrambling to make plans for how they'll respond in case of a spill.

The U.S. currently doesn't allow any drilling for oil off its Atlantic
coast or in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. One reason is what's at stake.
Florida's tourism-based economy depends on its beaches, fishing and
clear Caribbean water.

Environmental Concerns

The U.S. ban on drilling off of Florida, however, doesn't affect
America's Caribbean neighbors. The exploratory well being drilled off of
Cuba has many here concerned, including people like Richard Dodge. Dodge
is the dean of Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center in
Dania Beach, near Fort Lauderdale, and what he's really concerned about
is coral.

At the school, Dodge and his graduate students raise staghorn coral in
outdoor saltwater tanks. Live coral grow in the crystal-clear water,
some just finger length.

"These are relatively new ones that we're starting out," Dodge says.
"But over here, these are ones we'll be transplanting to the wild."

In another tank, large branches of coral will soon be used to help
restore damaged reefs.

Florida is home to more than three-quarters of the nation's coral reefs
— and they haven't been doing so well. Development and warming oceans
have already weakened many.

On a map, Dodge points out the location of what he believes is an even
bigger potential threat — the spot where Cuba has approved offshore oil
drilling. "The site that will be drilled," he says, "is only about 50
miles from Key West."

The rig drilling off Cuba's northern coast is operating in water that is
more than a mile deep. But it's not the depth that concerns Dodge. In
the case of a blowout, it's the operation's proximity to the Gulf Stream.

"We're worried that it could get into that stream fast and therefore,
within days, impact our coastal ecosystem and coastline," Dodge says. A
spill could potentially affect hundreds of miles of beaches, mangroves
and estuaries from the Keys to Palm Beach.
At the organization Clean Caribbean and Americas, 30,000 feet of
floating boom is ready for immediate shipping in the case of an oil spill.
Enlarge Greg Allen

At the organization Clean Caribbean and Americas, 30,000 feet of
floating boom is ready for immediate shipping in the case of an oil spill.

Dodge and other marine scientists in Florida are asking the federal
government to fund research that would help identify the resources most
at risk, and develop guidelines to protect them.

Embargo Could Complicate Cleanup

Complicating matters is the fact that this new well is being drilled in
the waters of a country that's under a strict U.S. embargo. Unless they
apply for and receive special permission from the government, U.S.
companies are banned from doing any work on the well — even if there's a
spill.

Jorge Pinon, a former oil company executive and now a research fellow at
the University of Texas, says if there's a blowout, the U.S. president
is sure to immediately lift the embargo for companies that respond.

Pinon also says the Spanish company doing the drilling, Repsol, has a
lot of experience with deep-water drilling in the Gulf. And, he says,
the company has upgraded its procedures to incorporate lessons learned
in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

But Pinon sees another problem. Because of the 50-year-old embargo, the
U.S. and Cuban governments have almost no contact. "There is no
agreement of cooperation of who's going to do what during an incident
like this," he says.

After the Deepwater Horizon blowout, Pinon notes Coast Guard Adm. Thad
Allen was put in charge of the cleanup — coordinating industry and
government efforts.

"That's not going to be the case here," Pinon says. "And here
particularly, it's between two countries that have not spoken to each
other in 50 years."

Cooperation Progressing — So Far

But there are people working on developing contingency plans.

At the Clean Caribbean and Americas cooperative in Fort Lauderdale, a
warehouse is full of oil skimmers, floating boom and tanks of chemical
dispersant. The organization is funded by oil companies with one
mission: to respond to big oil spills. Company personnel are now working
with Cuban officials on the international response to a spill in Cuban
waters.
Related NPR Stories
Magnetic Soap May Help Clean Up Spilled Oil Jan. 27, 2012
Revolutionary Oil Skimmer Nets $1 Million X Prize Oct. 19, 2011
Cuban Offshore Drilling Plans Raise U.S. Concerns Sept. 12, 2011

Clean Caribbean and Americas technical adviser Mike Gass says that in a
meeting recently in Havana, Cuban authorities agreed to cooperate on
customs, immigration and air space control. And Cuba has already
approved some cleanup procedures, such as burning large patches of oil.

Gass says Cuba has also agreed, if there's a spill, to use chemical
dispersant. "They have their own agriculture spray aircraft that would
be their first line of defense to apply these things," he says.

Gass says Cuban officials are offering good cooperation so far. "People
are talking," he says, "people are listening, people are motivated."

There is a chance that after drilling, energy companies may not find
enough oil off of Cuba to merit further exploration. Pinon, the former
oil company executive, says the rig off of Cuba is scheduled to drill
three wells — at a cost of $100 million each.

The fact that international oil companies are investing $300 million
shows the industry's confidence that its next big oil field may be just
50 miles off the coast of Florida.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/13/146635957/u-s-watches-closely-as-oil-drilling-begins-off-cuba

Cuba and its Ongoing Engagement in Espionage in the Americas

2012-02-14T13:44:00.001-08:00

Monday, February 13, 2012

Cuba and its Ongoing Engagement in Espionage in the Americas
By Jerry Brewer

Despite many pro-Cuba chants for economic aid and the lifting of the 50
year old Cuban Embargo placed via President John F. Kennedy's
Proclamation 3447, there appears to be no shortage of funding by Cuba
for that nation's energetic spy apparatchik.

The original U.S. Cuba manifesto, in 1962, expressed the necessity for
the embargo until such time that Cuba would demonstrate respect for
human rights and liberty. And today, there certainly cannot be much of
an argument that the continuing Castro regime has complied with any
aspect of that mandate. In fact, Castro's revolution has arrogantly
continued to force horrific sacrifices on Cubans in their homeland, as
well as the suffering by those that fled the murdering regime over the
decades and left families behind.

Neither of the Castro brothers ever, even remotely, disguised their
venomous hatred for the U.S., democracy, or the U.S. way of life - even
prior to the embargo. Their anti-U.S. rhetoric echoes loudly throughout
the world. And they continue to extol radical leftist and communist
governments.

As simply partial evidence of continuing human rights abuses, and as
recent as last month, the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights
and National Reconciliation said that the government was "using
temporary detentions to disrupt events organized by the opposition." The
Cuban regime made "brief arrests of 631 opponents in January" alone.

Cuba's security officials also continue to deny the holding of political
prisoners, while saying that "Cuban dissidents are tools of the United
States."

Do not underestimate Cuba's vast intelligence and espionage network.
Their security and intelligence apparatus are on a scale perceived to be
"many times larger than that of the United States." And even with
Cuba's poverty, depressed economic situation and weak prognosis for
future windfalls, their clandestine operational acts continue and extend
throughout the Americas and the world.

The Cuban espionage budget is not generally known outside of most major
competent intelligence services globally. However, much of their modus
operandi is. Essentially the DI (Dirección de Inteligencia) never had
to be reinvented, other than by moniker, from the former DGI (Dirección
General de Inteligencia) with original training by the former Soviet KGB.

Cuba maintains one of its largest intelligence networks within
Venezuela, with President Hugo Chavez preferring direct access to the
service, as indicated by cables unscrupulously released and sent from
the U.S. Embassy in Caracas to the State Department. This cozy
relationship, between Cuba and Venezuela, reeks of potential massive
funding hidden by obscure secret decrees.

Cuba's intelligence network has long been focused on the U.S. as its
primary adversary. As the U.S. is perceived to be the number one threat
to the Castro and Chavez regimes, intelligence acquisition is a high
priority to the dictatorial-like leftist regimes throughout Latin
America. It seems as though every calamity from weather, cancer or
related maladies are blamed on the U.S. and the CIA.

Hugo Chavez has used this hysteria of convenience in his attempt to
justify to a savvy Venezuelan people the need for the massive purchasing
of military armaments, and to amass Cuban intelligence experts on
Venezuelan soil thought to be in excess of 3,000 people.

Chavez has been accused by neighboring nation's officials of spreading
instability within the region. In a memo released from the U.S. Embassy
in Brasilia, in February 2008, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim
"all but acknowledged the presence of the FARC guerrillas in Venezuela."
Other released U.S. intelligence documents also cited "leftist rebels in
Cuba belonging to the FARC."

Using diplomatic cover to disguise intelligence operational acts in
Panama, Peru, Mexico City, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and other Central
American areas, Cuba has historically spread insurgence. Operatives
supervised the airlift of an estimated 30 planeloads of Cuban arms to
Nicaragua's Sandinistas during their revolution in 1978-79.

Former Cuban official Pedro Riera Escalante, who was summarily deported
by Mexico and who served undercover as a Cuban consul in Mexico City
from 1986 through 1991, has described Cuban espionage operations against
the CIA station in Mexico City and other operations he ran in Europe and
Africa.

Cuba has reluctantly acknowledged that in the case of the infamous Cuban
Five spies, from 1998, that the five men were intelligence agents, but
says "they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the U.S.
government."

In the case of Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes (a former senior analyst at
the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency), she was arrested on September 21,
2001, pleaded guilty to spying, and was eventually sentenced to a
25-year prison term.

Cuba continues to maintain a large intelligence-gathering hub in Mexico
City.

With Castro and Chavez's close relationship to Iran, and the history of
hostile Cuban espionage throughout the hemisphere, it is important not
to assume that "poverty-driven" Cuba is sleeping.

----------

Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a
global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia. His
website is located at http://www.cjiausa.org/.

http://www.mexidata.info/id3268.html

Cuba encouraging trade and investments

2012-02-14T13:43:00.001-08:00

Cuba encouraging trade and investments
By ARTHUR CYR
Syndicated columnist
Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 6:44 a.m.

Yet another intimate portrait has just emerged about one of the most
prominent and pivotal world leaders of the early 1960s, arguably the
most dangerous and highly charged years of the Cold War.

An iconic hero for many, thanks to his charismatic personality and
demonstrated courage, this former head of state is also controversial
thanks to personal behavior, which can only be described as reckless.

This reference of course is to Fidel Castro, who at age 85 has published
an appropriately lengthy autobiography in two volumes and numbering
approximately 1,000 pages. According to Havana's state television,
Castro described his literary work in detail over six straight hours
before a convention center audience.

Age and illness led Castro to retire from Cuba's presidency in 2008; the
country since then has been led by Raul Castro, by all accounts firmly
in charge but lacking his older brother's appeal. Enemies join with
admirers in agreeing that Fidel Castro possessed a unique leadership style.

After Havana was captured and despised dictator Fulgencio Batista fled
in early 1959, Raul Castro handled bloody mass executions with efficient
dispatch, and since has effectively led the military and a pervasive
domestic security apparatus.

Soon after taking power, the brothers Castro ended hopes for
representative democracy.

They nationalized major industries, including U.S. corporate assets.

Fidel Castro highlighted Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union by
joining Nikita Khrushchev in a remarkably raucous 1960 visit to the
United Nations in New York, punctuated by the Soviet leader publicly
pounding a shoe on a desk.

The Eisenhower administration began a clandestine effort to overthrow
the increasingly radical regime.

The successor Kennedy administration drastically escalated such efforts.

The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 stands out as especially
dangerous among Cold War confrontations.

In recent years, the evolution of the Americas toward democratic
governments has been striking.

As a result, Cuba is more isolated than ever.

The Soviet Union, the main source of subsidy, collapsed nearly two
decades ago. Venezuela provides much more limited aid.

When Fidel Castro stepped down, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a
formal public statement endorsed the desirability of "peaceful,
democratic change" in Cuba and also suggested that the international
community work with the people there.

The Bush administration had been pursuing a particularly restrictive
hard line toward Cuba.

President Barack Obama early in his administration loosened extremely
tight restrictions on interchange with Cuba. Cuban-Americans are now
allowed to travel and send financial remittances to relatives still
living there.

Additionally, telecommunications companies may pursue licensing
agreements in Cuba.

As part of such efforts, we should work to expand cultural as well as
personal family exchanges with the island.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated comparable programs with the
Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, to great benefit.

The punitive Helms-Burton Act, passed during the Clinton administration
in an effort to court the fiercely anti-Castro Cuban population of
Florida, does not prohibit these exchanges.

For Raul Castro, encouraging trade and investment are priorities, along
with loosening restrictions.

At the end of January, he presided over a national conference of the
Cuba Communist Party, which emphasized these goals.

This represents remarkable acceptance of reality. Everyone favoring
democracy and competitive market economies should be encouraged.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College.
Email him at acyr@carthage.edu.

http://www.newschief.com/article/20120214/NEWS/202145005/1013/opinion?p=all&tc=pgall

Reversal of Fortune: Venezuela Could Be Biggest Beneficiary of New Cuban Oil

2012-02-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

Reversal of Fortune: Venezuela Could Be Biggest Beneficiary of New Cuban Oil
By Pierre Bertrand: Subscribe to Pierre's RSS feed

February 14, 2012 7:30 PM GMT

Which OPEC member could benefit hugely from Cuba's nascent offshore oil
industry?
Venezuela.

As Cuba starts its first offshore drilling and foreign companies eye
more prospects, the Latin American republic led by President Hugo Chavez
may be among the biggest winners.

The reason is that after years of subsidizing the island nation of
former president Fidel Castro and now his brother Raul, a Cuba that
starts making money from oil might slowly wean itself off Venezuelan aid.

Cuba now refines about 50,000 barrels of oil a day, about a third of its
requirements. Venezuela makes up the difference for free, said Jorge
Pinon, the former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and an expert on
the Cuban oil industry. Pinon now is a research fellow at the Center for
International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas.

Instead of cash, Cuba pays back its Latin American neighbor by sending
doctors, teachers and other skilled labor in a sort of international
bartering system, Pinon said in an interview.

Cuba may have vast oil reserves, mostly offshore. The U.S. Geological
Survey estimates the island has reserves equivalent to 941 million
barrels of oil.

Oil-hungry China has extended a line of credit to Cuba for the purpose
of expanding the country's refining capacity to 150,000 barrels a day.
That expansion should be completed by 2015, Pinon said. That would be
just in time, Cuban authorities hope, for the Spanish-contracted
Scarabeo-9 oil rig to find and start producing oil offshore.

Repsol, Spain's biggest oil company, is using that rig to drill only 56
miles from the Florida coast. The rig itself was built in China.

An expanded and improved Soviet-era refinery in Cienfuegos on Cuba's
southern coast, previously refurbished by Venezuela, is expected to
enable the country to meet its domestic demand. That would immediately
benefit the Chavez regime because the oil would be sent to Venezuela for
sale on world markets.

With the extra revenue, Venezuela could start paying the Cuban
government in cash for the skilled labor exchanges between the two
countries, Pinon said.

Despite its resources, Cuba will be unable to export much of its refined
or crude oil because most of the world's refineries have some form of
business relationship with U.S. oil companies, Pinon explained. To
maintain those working relationships, the U.S. embargo against the
communist regime extends well beyond the Western Hemisphere.

"On the assumption that Cuba produces more oil than it actually needs,
that will become a challenge," Pinon said. He added that Cuba could
likely find markets for its excess crude in Venezuela and China.

Being far away from markets, however, such trading wouldn't be
economical, considering a country's oil refining infrastructure is set
up in such a way that oil is designed to flow out of the country -- not
back in.

In Tuesday trading the price of crude was up a nickel to $104.05 a barrel.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/298579/20120214/cuba-oil-drilling-refining-barrels-offshore.htm

Democratizing Cuba? (Part II)

2012-02-14T13:38:00.001-08:00

Democratizing Cuba? (Part II)
February 14, 2012
Isbel Diaz Torres

HAVANA TIMES, Feb 14 — My previous post, "Democratizing Cuba (I),"
concluded with the expression "behind closed doors." As this is so
closely related to the topic I'm dealing with, I'd like to make some
comments about the discussions that took place during the recent
National Conference of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC).

The first is that — unlike what happened with last year's famous
"Guidelines" document, around which mass national debate was promoted
beforehand — such discussions didn't happen this time.

Even though discussion of the "Guidelines" wasn't structured so that
rank-and-file assemblies could actually change its content (nothing of
what was raised at my job was later reflected in the final version), at
least people could vent.

This time was it worse. The discussions were excluded from the majority
of the Cuban population, who aren't members of the PCC or the Young
Communist League (UJC) – though we're subordinate to the party by virtue
of Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution.

That was the first closed door.

Next, the changes made to the conference's draft document were reported
numerically [i.e. "…16 guidelines had been moved to other points, 94
remained unchanged, 181 were modified in content and 36 new guidelines
were incorporated"], however no mention was made of the contents that
were moved, modified or added.

In other words, if 300 commas were changed and 200 adjectives replaced,
for those people who didn't participate in the conference it was the
same as them having changed the single-party system to a multi-party
one. We simply didn't know what the members changed in the discussions.

That was another locked door.

Finally, the discussions in plenary sessions were televised days after
these took place to allow time for any necessary editing. I learned
about some comments made in some critical discussions that occurred
there, but apparently our people aren't prepared to see such things.

They did, however, allow us to see a few snippets of Mariela Castro, who
they certainly didn't allow in as a delegate; she was a guest, which
isn't the same.

Mariela argued for people not to be discriminated against because of
their gender identity, an issue that's not reflected in the laws, nor in
the constitution, and still not in the goals of PCC either.

Their rights were left "pending," just like what occurred in last year's
party congress concerning the issue of workers' control of state
enterprises.

Added to all this was our not being able to see the full debate. Rather,
we had to suffer through unfortunate, uninformed, unsupportive, and
insensitive addresses by City Historian Eusebio Leal and
writer/ethnographer Miguel Barnet.

Nonetheless, a brief phrase by Politburo member Esteban Lazo made me
raise an eyebrow.

The party leader said he "did in fact know" the number of suggestions
made on the point concerning discrimination.

That revelation made me wonder: How was it that he knew but the rest of
us didn't? Him having the privilege to the key to that door didn't seem
either fair or democratic.

Days later I read an article saying there were 11,285 suggestions, but
they didn't even say how many were for or against discrimination based
on sexual orientation.

This indicated yet another one of the problems of democratic practices
here: if this involves the power of the majority over the minority, then
they shouldn't have approved a point with so much opposition. Yet
fortunately that didn't occur.

Rights are important, even those of one man or one woman, and this
includes those who have a gender identity that's different from the one
arbitrarily assigned by society.

It's obvious that there's a long way to go for democracy to flourish
here. It just seems that neither last year's 6th Communist Party
Congress nor the recent National Conference of the Party are suitable
places for it. They have too many closed doors.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=62079

Internet for Cubans: A Permanently Impossible Dream?

2012-02-14T13:37:00.001-08:00

Yoani Sanchez - Award-winning Cuban blogger

Internet for Cubans: A Permanently Impossible Dream?
Posted: 02/13/2012 6:27 pm

It's 10:00 a.m. at the Plaza Hotel a few yards from Havana's Capitol
building. A smell of moisturizer wafts from the bodies of tourists
rushing through their coffee so they can go out and explore the city. On
one side of the lobby several people line up at the entrance to a small
office where there are six computers connected to Internet. Inside the
room, anchored to the wall, a security camera focuses directly on
keyboards and the faces of people who use the service. No one speaks.
Everyone seems very focused. Any web page can take several minutes to
open and some give up after an hour without being able to read their email.

But most surprising is that most of those sitting there are not
foreigners, but Cubans seeking the oxygen of information and
communication. They seem willing to sacrifice even one-third the average
monthly salary for 60 minutes of surfing on the great World Wide Web.

While outside our borders there is increasing debate between
permissibility versus control on the web, 11 million Cuban citizens
wonder if 2012 will be the year that we will finally become Internet
users. We feel as if we're abandoned and motionless by the side of the
expressway, with ever faster and unattainable kilobytes speeding by us.
Again and again the announced deadline for providing us with mass access
to cyberspace has failed, leaving us isolated from and behind the rest
of the world.

July 2011 was the last official date for the fiber optic cable laid
between Cuba and Venezuela began to function, and to multiply by 3,000
times the Island's scant connectivity. But for now, the status of
implementation is one of the country's best kept secrets, second only to
reports of the health of former President Fidel Castro.

Some say corruption, technical incompetence and mismanagement have left
the modern cable -- laid at a cost of $70 million -- not functioning.
Others murmur that is already operational but only available to "very
reliable" agencies and institutions, such as the Ministry of Interior.
The most credible version, however, appears to be that the Cuban
government has stopped its implementation for fear of the flow of
information it would bring to the nation. A fear, it seems, that the
house of cards of government power -- held up at the expense of secrecy
and censored news -- would come tumbling down.

Official journalists have been warned not to touch the subject of the
cable, and prices for access from the hotels continue to vary between 6
and 12 dollars an hour, or more. Having a home connection is a privilege
given only to the most politically reliable, or the result of the
audacity of those who pirate a state account.

Instead of opening up to social networking and other interactive tools,
the authorities have offered in vitro versions of Facebook or Wikipedia
style sites to schools and workplaces. They spend thousands of dollars
from the national budget to create highly controlled programs and
interfaces -- for local use only -- that will keep local readers far
from the hubbub of the democratic Internet.

Each day they postpone our entry into the virtual village, the country's
academic and professional capital plummets a little more. In addition,
they thereby delay our development as citizens, and keep us oblivious to
the debates and trends that are occurring in the world today.

Right now the controversy between intellectual property and free
exchange of files across the network gains strength far from our ears.
While news headlines all over the planet announce the arrest of several
directors of the Megaupload site, it's embarrassing to know that the
vast majority of Cubans do not even know the existence of this portal.

Echoes of the criticisms over the new content controls on services like
Twitter reach us, but lacking any framework, we can't decipher their
real implications. When we do manage to read the critical analysis of
the so-called SOPA Law (the Stop Online Piracy Act), or of Spain's
controversial Sinde Law (that country's version of an online anti-piracy
act), we wonder what the name of the ministerial -- or presidential --
directive is that keeps us far from the great World Wide Web. Worst of
all is that we can't even complain about such limitations by filling the
forums with texts or images of protest, or decreeing a blackout day on
the social networks.

They have reasons to suspect web surfers and many motives to remain
vigilant and active before what is happening. Because not only the times
of sharing music, movies and software may be coming to an end. The fight
against piracy has become the fight against the Web 2.0 itself, putting
at risk the most public and dynamic part of this advance. But the doubt
that assaults Cubans is whether the Internet -- as it is known today --
is going to die before we ever experience it, if it will become a cage
before we could have used it as wings.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuba-internet-_b_1274140.html

Younger Castro steers Cuba to a new revolution

2012-02-14T13:36:00.001-08:00

Younger Castro steers Cuba to a new revolution
Oil, foreign investment, free enterprise, and golf courses are on their way
Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Sunday 12 February 2012

Fifty years ago this month, the United States began the embargo on Cuba
which continues to this day. But the country against which it was aimed
is rapidly becoming a very different one to the alleged communist menace
just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Under Fidel Castro's brother,
Raul, it is in the throes of a second Cuban revolution.

For a sign of the change which is turning life on their island on its
head, the people of Havana have only to peer into the night at the
northern horizon. This month, Repsol, the Spanish energy company started
drilling the first oil well from a massive and brightly lit rig, the
lumbering Scarabeo 9, built in China for ENI of Italy. This morning it
will still be grinding away seeking the billions of barrels of oil and
the trillions of cubic feet of gas that the US government, among others,
says lie under Cuba's offshore waters.

The Spanish oilmen working on the structure, which has been towed
halfway around the world amid US efforts to delay its progress, will be
followed aboard by a succession of Norwegians, Russians, Indians and
Malaysians.

Optimistic geologists reckon that within a few years the island – long
cursed by a lack of oil supplies, half of which it has had to import –
will actually be exporting the stuff. And it will be able to do so
without the aid of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who has kept the
island's motors, power and air-conditioning going with his subsidised crude.

Also, at the fine harbour in Mariel, a few miles to the west of the
Cuban capital, is another pointer to the future, the big island-changing
harbour that Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant, is building
with a large wodge of money provided by the booming South American nation.

The end of the first national conference of the Cuban Communist Party
set the seal last month on changes that President Raul Castro had been
building up to. Since he took over from his ailing elder brother, Fidel,
in 2006, the new president, himself an octogenarian, has pushed ahead
with measures which are turning the traditional Cuban lifestyle upside
down by decreeing that the party will henceforward cease micro-managing
daily life and confine itself to strategic matters.

Landscapers are working hard on matters of equally urgent national
strategy. Fifteen more golf courses and new marinas are being laid out
in Cuba and they can't be finished quickly enough: golfers from abroad
will even be able to lease chalets and timeshares. The island's hotels
are packed. European visitors are pouring in. After decades of
US-imposed isolation from high-speed internet, Cubans and their visitors
are finally beginning to receive it via a new cable laid from Venezuela.

Yet Raul's strategies are not confined to big infrastructure projects;
they reach down deeper into an effort to keep Cuban society together.
Senior Cuban figures make no secret of the fact that even more important
work has to be done to improve Cubans' ideological outlook and the
economic conditions.

"Whole generations have long since grown up with no personal knowledge
of the heroic days before and after what we call 'the Triumph of the
Revolution'," says one. New Year's Day 1959 was when General Fulgencio
Batista, a dictator armed and honoured by the West, fled with suitcases
of banknotes and valuables as Castro's forces got their hands on Havana.
Few remember the abortive 1961 Bay of Pigs operation, the tragi-comic
fiasco of Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy to conquer the
country.

The US embargo, introduced on 7 February 1962, is a constant talking
point for island authorities, who blame it for shortages of everything
from medical equipment to the concrete needed to complete an eight-lane
highway running the length of the island. Cuba frequently fulminates
against the "blockade" at the United Nations and demands the US end its
"genocidal" policy. Every autumn, like clockwork, the vast majority of
nations agree, and overwhelmingly back a resolution condemning the
embargo. Last November, 186 countries supported the measure, with only
Israel joining the US.

Wayne Smith was a young US diplomat in Havana in 1961 when relations
were severed. He returned as the chief American diplomat after they were
partially re-established under President Jimmy Carter. "We talk to the
Russians, we talk to the Chinese, we have normal relations even with
Vietnam. We trade with all of them," Smith said. "So why not with Cuba?"

The United States actually does have significant trade with Cuba under a
clause allowing the sale of food products and some pharmaceuticals.
According to the most recent information available from Cuba's National
Statistics Office, the US was the island's seventh-largest trading
partner in 2010, selling $410m (£260m) in mostly food products. However,
that was down from nearly $1bn in 2008, as the island increasingly
turned to other countries that don't force it to pay cash up front.

As Raul gave his closing speech at the party's first national congress,
it was announced that new laws would allow people to sell their
crumbling houses and wheezing cars. With the lonely support of only one
ally, Israel, Washington has insisted on continuing six decades of
crippling boycott on trade with Cuba despite overwhelming condemnation
of it in the UN for the past 19 years.

But no longer will Cubans be obliged to leave their homes or their
vehicles to their children, or do dodgy swaps with strangers. More than
one million of the 4.3 million state employees will be encouraged to
form co-operatives or start private businesses in a mass of trades and
professions up to now reserved to the state.

"China is an example. No other country has lifted so many people out of
poverty. This is something of which the Chinese people and government
should be proud, and which the rest of the world admires," official
daily Granma said in October 2009, echoing Fidel's words. Like China, or
more likely Vietnam, the island will remain a one-party state.

"To renounce the principle of only one party would simply mean
legalising the party or parties of imperialism on Cuban soil and
sacrifice the strategic weapon of one party," Raul declared last Sunday.
The president added that he would be merciless in punishing corruption,
especially if the culprits were party members.

Next month the Pope, Benedict XVI, arrives on the island at the end of
an unprecedented religious act. In 2010 Raul allowed the public
veneration of a statue of the Virgin of Charity, the island's patroness,
which was driven for 425 days from one end of Cuba to the other on top
of a van.

Oil, mass tourism, private enterprise, broadband internet, organised
religion – the brakes are coming off a society which today looks less
towards Marx and Lenin and more toward its native-born 19th century
hero, José Martí, who died in the battle for Cuban independence from
Spain in 1895. God alone knows what's coming next.

Hugh O'Shaughnessy is writing a biography of Fidel Castro for Signal
Books and Macmillan Caribbean

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/younger-castro-steers-cuba-to-a-new-revolution-6792209.html

The Long Arm of Zorro / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

2012-02-13T14:29:00.001-08:00

The Long Arm of Zorro / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado
Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado, Translator: Unstated

Foreign and domestic news pours forth in Cuba with extensive coverage of
the international and national press; academic, intellectual, social,
and cultural events, contests, speeches and appearances: all
manipulated, at the convenience of the powers-that-be with a huge media
coverage.

Almost simultaneously the authorities unleash a wave of repression that
stirs concern and solidarity. So new information arises that will take
prominence and displace other no less important news. Wilman Villar died
without having been morally vindicated by those who caused his death and
later, as an aggravation, they reviled him.

Hmmm! It is a strategy repeated endlessly with one arm so long that it
extends beyond our borders. Some might think that luck accompanies the
Cuban totalitarian government and safeguards the aftermath of world
opinion, but I think that traditionally and historically they have
pulled the strings of the Creole political puppet and will continue to
do so, with the reins firmly attached behind the scenes and from time to
time the scriptwriter-in-chief comes to light. I watch and comment,
because it is my duty and right to freely express my opinion.

February 12 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15069

First Season / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-13T13:28:00.001-08:00

First Season / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

Flipping through various economic and social information, for the
Republican era in Cuba, in newspapers, magazines, yearbooks and other
documents of the time, I note, again, the actual development reached by
the country, and the prominent place it held in many important
indicators, a measure of the effectiveness of policies implemented by
the different governments. Not everything was resolved, of course, but
the path of solutions in process for fifty-six years, with undeniable
results, allowed confidence that what was still lacking was only a
matter of resources and time, because the forms and methods to achieve
it were more than proven by years of successful application. That was
the country that existed on 31 December 1958.

The new regime introduced from 1 January 1959, overturned the whole
economic, political and social structure, engaged in the execution of
willful experiments, with no serious scientific basis or citizen
control, which converted the normal evolutionary process of the
development of a nation into an artificial accelerated involution, with
increasingly absurd decisions and actions.

The result: a country in ruins. We can put forward thousands of reasons
and justifications to try to validate the hundreds of costly mistakes,
but the harsh reality of generations sacrificed, resources wasted,
destroyed wealth and talents lost, will not allow it. It has been over
fifty years of continued decline, promising an uncertain and
unattainable future, at the expense of the daily misery of the majority
of the population.

Now they try to attack the evil with pills, bandages and some ointment,
but it is an impossible mission: to bring about healing of the nation
surgical actions are essential sooner rather than later. Everything else
is the waste of time to save time.

The measures implemented, greatly limited and in drips and drabs, remain
far below the expectations of citizens. Many more and deeper measures
are needed in virtually all areas, and must be applied in the near term,
if we are to begin to undo many wrongs, although it will by no means
solve all the complex problems accumulated.

We can not ask for calm and wait for the Greek calends — that is a time
that never comes — until the many committees set up complete their work.

On the street people are saying we are now in the early chapters of the
first season of the guidelines — those created to "update" the model.
These opening chapters aroused some interest but with the passage of
time, they have been losing their following.

If the script of this drama is not improved, viewers will stop paying
attention, as has happened with other earlier serials. But all kidding
aside, this is not actually a soap opera, but something much more
momentous and important to the nation.

I hope the authorities are aware of this situation and act with
responsibility and restraint, but also with depth and speed. Despite all
the many signs to the contrary, this is what the average citizen really
expects, being so bored and tired of government inefficiency.

Photos: Rebeca

February 11 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15068

Another Pope / Yoani Sánchez

2012-02-13T12:27:00.001-08:00

Another Pope / Yoani Sánchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez

In just a few weeks Pope Joseph Ratzinger will arrive in Cuba but we are
already breathing something of his incense from a distance. In a country
where many of those who pray in the churches by day light candles at
night to an African deity, the visit from His Holiness awakens
enthusiasm, but also curiosity. The Catholics are preparing their
liturgies and their pomp to receive Benedict XVI, while others wonder if
his arrival will bring some significant transformation in the political
or social situation of the nation. People want to believe that the Holy
Father will push the reform process of Raul's regime, driving it toward
greater speed and depth. The most imaginative even dream that the
highest figure of the Vatican will achieve what the popular rebellion
should achieve: real change.

There are too many differences between this month of March in which his
Holiness will land at the Havana airport and that January of 1998 when
John Paul II did so. He, who was also known as the "Traveling Pope,"
came preceded by stories relating to the fall of the regimes of Eastern
Europe. Ratzinger, for his part, will arrive at a time when there is an
entire generation of Cubans born after the fall of the Berlin Wall who
don't even know the significance of the initials USSR. At the end of the
nineties Karol Wojtyla lit up our hearts – including those of agnostics
like myself – saying the word "freedom" more than a dozens times in the
Plaza of the Revolution. But now the apathy and discouragement will make
it more difficult for the phrases of Ratzinger to inspire the same
emotion. His visit will be but a pallid reflection of that other,
because we are no longer the same, nor is it the same Pope.

12 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15051

Oh, Pablo / Miguel Iturria Savón

2012-02-13T12:26:00.001-08:00

Oh, Pablo / Miguel Iturria Savón
Miguel Iturria Savón, Translator: Unstated

The Pablo Milanes concert, announced for August 27 at American Airlines
Arena in Miami, unleashes opposing views in capital of the Cuban exile,
where the promoters of Fuego Entertainment fill their lit billboards,
their posters at bus stops and their TV ads, with what goes unnoticed by
some while angering hundreds of critics who consider the author of the
songs "Yolanda", "To Live" and "The brief space where you are not" as
"the Castro government's emissary disguised as a musician."

At the other extreme is the impresario Hugo Cancio, the alleged
organizer of cultural exchanges between artists from Cuba and the United
States, who says that "Pablo Milanes is undoubtedly a musical icon
followed by millions of fans around the world. We are extremely excited
and proud to have the opportunity to produce his first U.S. tour in
almost a decade. "

To make matters worse, Hugo Cancio announces on the Internet that the
appearance in Miami of the Cuban singer "is a historic event, unique,
iconic, powerful evidence that our city has changed, we've matured, we
are more tolerant, wise, that we are more united, a new generation
blooms, blossoms, spreads … "

Beyond the hype of the president of Fuego Entertainment and the reasons
of the exiles who see in Pablo Milanes the musical spokesman of the
Cuban dictatorship, it is clear that the dilemma is the result of the
traditional ideological positioning imposed on the island for half a
century.

It is true that Pablo Milanes, like Silvio Rodriguez, was a singer
committed to the Revolution and socialism. In founding the Nueva Trova
Movement in the late sixties both trumpeted the official chimeras and
received much support in their "missions" inside and outside the island.
Silvio is still subject to the circles of power, but Pablo has two
decades of estrangement; in his case, to classify him as on the
"official" side, is to ignore his criticism of the regime and his
personal honesty.

Consider also the right of art impresarios to contract with figures
consistent with their spectacles, and the rights of artists to perform
where they want. They should not have to be on their guard because Pablo
Milanes sings in Miami or Puerto Rico. Pablo, like Silvio, Chucho Valdes
and Juan Formell are also children of the marketplace, and thanks to the
international market they have hard money and the freedom to travel.

These singers have nothing new to offer because the theme and variables
of the "Nueva Trova" is ancient history, like the "revolutionary magic"
that holds them in the past. In the case of Pablo, this is an artist who
crosses the threshold of the past and criticizes the Gods of the
shipwrecked island; more than an official singer he seems like a
dissident limited by certain beliefs and commitments. Although Miami is
the reverse of Havana, why demand from them other political positioning?

August 19 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15028

A Petaluman reflects on Cuba

2012-02-13T09:47:00.001-08:00

A Petaluman reflects on Cuba
By MARY STOMPE
Published: Monday, February 13, 2012 at 3:00 a.m.

Cuba has been on my bucket list for many years. I can't exactly tell you
why but visiting a socialist country sparked my interest. When an
opportunity to join a Historical Society tour from Bellport, New York
presented itself, I jumped at the chance.

My tour was supposed to be Arts and Architecture but I was determined to
provide some humanitarian work along the way. I packed half my suitcase
with gifts for the locals (who only earn about $12 a month which can buy
them enough basic food for only 17 days). What I didn't count on was the
number of starving animals I would encounter and feed along the way.

Arriving in Cuba was like a walk back in time with many classic cars
from the 1940s and 50s racing down the street amongst the horse drawn
carriages and bike powered taxis. The century-old architecture was
stunning while poverty was clearly present throughout the country.

I never saw a dog that was spayed or neutered. Several emaciated dogs
were in the square, but one caught my eye in particular. He could barely
walk and was grotesquely thin. On my way to meet up with the group, I
ran into another dog who was about to give birth. She climbed into my
lap and didn't want to get down. At that point, I decided to save my
meals for the dogs. When I returned to the square a few days later, I
couldn't find the starving dog. I wanted to find a way to end his suffering.

Throughout my trip, I encountered many emaciated dogs, donkeys and
horses, none as bad as the dog in the square. I'd slip away from my
group to feed as many of the dogs and people as possible. Chicken was
out of reach for most Cubans and they were grateful to have my leftovers.

My gifts to the locals were well received. However, many were extremely
aggressive about tips, even bursting into a hotel room demanding a tip.
This is understandable because life is hard in Cuba with little
opportunity to improve your situation.

Our tour guide, a bright young woman, was open and honest about all the
questions we asked her. In Cuba, health care and education are free.
When you graduate from college, you are given a job in your field. The
higher your ranking in the class, the better job you can select. Any job
with an opportunity to receive tips from foreigners is highly coveted.
She chose a tour guide job and is required to stay in the job for three
years. If she quits before the three years is up, the government will
take back her college degree.

I wondered what motivates an employee in a socialist society to perform
well when the job doesn't include tips. Money is a powerful motivator in
Cuba.

What impressed me about Cuba was the cleanliness of the country.

What disappointed me most was the poverty – hungry dogs and people. No
animals were spayed or neutered only compounding the problem.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Old Havana Senior
Center. When we walked through the door, we were greeted with smiles,
waves and clapping.

Is Cuba worth the trip? Definitely! I have high hopes that life will
improve for the Cubans as their government begins to allow some private
enterprise. Lifting the US embargo could further help the people of Cuba
through tourism and commerce.

Visit www.youtube.com and search for "Street Dogs of Cuba" and "Cuba
2012" to see videos of my trip.

(Mary Stompe is executive director of PEP Housing and a former Petaluma
city councilmember)

http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20120213/COMMUNITY/120209534/1362/community01?Title=A-Petaluman-reflects-on-Cuba-

Cuban blogger riles with her weapon of words

2012-02-13T09:42:00.001-08:00

Cuban blogger riles with her weapon of words
Last updated: February 7, 2012 7:02 pm
By John Paul Rathbone in Havana

Yoani Sánchez is Cuba's best-known blogger and, for many outside the
island, also its opposition's most important voice. She is also,
however, a philologist whose refusal to mangle the Spanish language is
matched only by her love of 140-character tweets.

Resolving that contradiction is one of the lesser challenges Ms Sánchez
faces as an internet-based activist in a country that, by some metrics,
has less internet connectivity than even Haiti.

"I try to tweet with the brevity and elegance of classical Spanish,
while only using whole words," she jokes of herself on a recent evening
in Havana.

Such humour is characteristic of the 36-year-old, whose mordant and
highly personal vignettes of Cuba's quotidian drabness have long angered
the regime – even as her writings' literary and political merits have
turned her into an international star.

Her blog Generation Y, begun on a whim in 2007 but now visited up to 14m
times a month, ranges from piquant observations about lemon shortages to
the human rights implications of the visit to Havana by Brazilian
president Dilma Rousseff last week. She has 200,000 followers on
Twitter. Last year, Foreign Policy magazine voted her one of the world's
Top 100 Thinkers.

Cuba's state-run media meanwhile accuses Ms Sánchez of conducting
cyberwar. Fidel Castro has called her the leader of a group of "special
envoys of neo-colonialism, sent to undermine" the Castro brothers' rule.

Sitting in a Havana state-run restaurant with independent journalist
Reinaldo Escobar, her longtime partner and collaborator, Ms Sánchez,
with her slight frame and toothy grin, hardly cuts a typical figure of a
counter-revolutionary agent.
Tale of the tweets

Jan 29 Detained: Ladies in White and other activists in Guantánamo when
they went to mass in Cathedral. Call this # for more info.

Jan 31 Brazilian journalists all over Havana today. Contrast their bold
professionalism with Cuba's docile official press.

Feb 3 No surprises. They've denied me a visa to leave and return to my
country – the 19th time. Breathe, count to ten. Don't respond to an
insult with an insult, I tell myself. Better a hug! Dilma: what's the
point of having a port as big and modern as Mariel if we can't use it to
come and go?

Feb 2 Hearing, but can't confirm, that Abel Prieto, culture minister,
has been freed from his post.

Feb 4 Fidel Castro presented the first two volumes of his memoirs.
Threats of m-m-many more to follow ... Abel Prieto has reappeared in
public, although rumours growing in Havana's streets he's been fired
from culture ministry.

Feb 5 I ask myself: what advantages does my denied exit bring? There is
so much to do here!

Feb 6 Amnesty International has released an announcement about my denied
exit visa [www.amnesty.org].

Feb 7 Very little information about Syria, and Cuban official TV seems
partial and in favour of Bashar al-Assad. What's going on? It has been
raining all afternoon in Havana – happy trees, but collapsing sewers :-0

"I consider myself an independent citizen," she says, pointing out that
in Cuba's one-party system there are "no crimes against thinking or
opinion – only against the state".

Precise attention to language is a hallmark of her conversation. Ms
Sánchez puns that Cuba's irregular Communist party congresses are "less
a parley-ment than a listening-ment: there's not been a single "No" vote
in 50 years".

But perhaps the greatest puzzle about her work is technology. How does
social media operate in Cuba given the state's information monopoly,
only 2 per cent of people have access to the internet and sending a
single Tweet can cost up to $1 – a fifth of the average weekly state wage?

Critics say that explains why Cuba's fragmented opposition movement is
better known outside the island than inside. Even a copybook Facebook
site is a government-run intranet.

Ms Sánchez, who earns her living from a bi-weekly column in El País, the
highest-circulation newspaper in Spain, says mobile phone technology,
and the "echo chamber of abroad", amplify social media's local impact.

"I send an SMS text to 70 people, they send to 70 more, and so on. Texts
can also be uploaded directly on to the internet. It is tweeting blind,
but the tweets get mentioned in news stories abroad, which are broadcast
by Hispanic TV and watched by Cubans on illegal satellite dishes here.
The echo chamber is crucial."

She writes the blog only once a week, she adds, "to let myself breathe".

This ingenious network works both for incoming and outgoing news. "We
were the first to learn of Gaddafi's death," she says. "My phone was
red-hot with texts." As Etecsa, the state telephone company, has just
cut phone charges, she adds her "text newspaper" may get more effective
still.

Even so, the system has limits. Ms Sánchez rolls her eyes at suggestions
made by Republican party candidates campaigning in the Florida primaries
last month that they wanted to reverse President Barack Obama's
loosening of travel restrictions, tighten the US embargo and promote a
"Cuban spring".

"It is far too early for that," she says. The Arab world "spent years
integrating technology into their lives. We are still in an embryonic
state". About 10 per cent of Cubans use a mobile phone; in Tunisia, it
is more than 75 per cent.

"I've also learnt that the more restrictions there are, the less people
have and the more subservient they become to who dispenses it – the
state," she adds. "We are a long way from the banality of internet
ubiquity – although I am all for a bit more frivolity."

Pope Benedict XVI's scheduled visit in March, Havana's recent freeing of
political prisoners and her own international profile help protect Ms
Sánchez. Pluck and a sense of humour meanwhile seem to keep her spirits up.

She says she was not realistically expecting Ms Rousseff to voice any
human rights concerns while in Cuba – or for Havana to allow her an exit
visa to visit Brazil, the 19th time permission has been denied.

"I never want to become bitter," says Ms Sánchez. "I tweet, I blog, I
write. I wake happier than most. Everyday is a new scenario."

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/478caf9e-5181-11e1-a9d7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1mHdItPMa

2-year effort to set up ferry service to Cuba runs aground

2012-02-13T09:35:00.001-08:00

Feb 13, 2012

2-year effort to set up ferry service to Cuba runs aground
By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Although charter fights to Cuba have now been approved from a dozen U.S.
airports, an effort to set up cheaper ferry service between the two
countries appears to have run aground, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

About 400,000 Cuban Americans, who are allowed to visit family on the
island whenever they wish under more relaxed policies by the Obama
administration, went to the island on authorized charter flights last
year from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and a handful of other U.S. cities.

But Havana Ferry Partners's application for ferry service out of Port
Everglades, Fla., has languished for two years, the newspaper says. The
company, which would use a 600-passenger ferry to the island, proposes
to charge $50 less than the $400 roundtrip airfare.

At least three other companies are eyeing a similar service, the
newspaper says.

Progress seems unlikely during an election year, the newspaper says,
because it could alienate conservative Cuban-American voters who want to
tighten, not loosen, the 50-year-old U.S. economic embargo on the
Caribbean island.

"In an election year, that company has a better chance of joining Newt
Gingrich's colony on the moon," John Kavulich, senior adviser to the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, tells the Sun-Sentinel. The New
York-based group helps companies interested in business with Cuba.

Havana Ferry partners is so frustrated that it is now pushing for
one-time permission to carry passengers to Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI's
visit scheduled for March 26-28, the newspaper says.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/02/ferry-service-cuba-us/1

Lessons for Cuban business

2012-02-13T09:27:00.001-08:00

Lessons for Cuban business
January 30, 2012 8:19 am by John Paul Rathbone

President Raúl Castro wants the recent liberalisation of small
businesses to bolster Cuba's sagging economy and absorb the 1m state
workers he says will eventually be laid off.

But Cuba's budding micro-entrepreneurs – over 350,000 had registered as
of November 2011 – lack almost everything that start-ups need, from
premises and relevant skills to capital. Will they ever really get off
the ground?

A bustling restaurant in Havana's colonial centre – which opened in
January 2011, is appropriately called "La Moneda Cubana", the Cuban
coin, and is run by Miguel Ángel, a 37-year old entrepreneur - suggests
some answers.

First, the premises. The three-storey restaurant, which once belonged to
Ángel's grandfather, was nationalised in the 1960s. But the family has
lived continuously at the premises since then – indeed, ever since 1924.
As a result, Ángel was able to set up operations immediately.

And what a location it enjoys: La Moneda Cubana lies just a few steps
from the cathedral, has a sweeping view of the Havana bay from its roof
terrace, and enjoys a regular stream of tourists. Few are so fortunate.
Indeed, the process of leasing state properties remains incipient.

Second, necessary skills. Ángel worked for several years in the state
tourist sector, first at the Floridita, where Ernest Hemmingway once
drank daiquiris; then in the kitchens of the nearby Hotel Sevilla. "I
learnt there everything I needed to run my kitchen," Ángel told beyondbrics.

However, similar backward linkages are rarer elsewhere. "A good
restaurant also needs a manager and an accountant," he adds. Such skills
are hard to come by in Cuba's Soviet-style economy – hence the business
skills training program the Catholic church set up last year.

Third, funds. The usual supposition is that Cubans turn to their émigré
relatives for start-up capital. This is entirely legal under Castro's
new rules – indeed, it is tacitly encouraged.

Be that as it may, the cagey habits of under-the-table informality that
Cubans developed over decades socialism remain deeply engrained.

Ángel, for example, insists he restored the three-story building "all
with my own resources".

Be that as it may, Ángel says his operation is now self-financing. La
Moneda Cubana's intense footfall suggests this may indeed be so. That is
just as well, as the notion of Cuba's creaking banking system offering
credit is entirely novel – although there is government talk it will do so.

Fourth, inputs. Cubans can now buy construction materials directly from
the state. As for food, Ángel still buys from the state rather than
private farmers. "They can't ensure a steady and reliable supply," he says.

That is changing fast, however. According to state media, 71 contracts
have been executed between private farmers and state-run hotels – a huge
change that will strip out the inefficient state-distribution system.

Cuba's small business sector is still fragile and Ángel's success will
not be replicated everywhere. Business generally remains very small
scale. Most entrepreneurs sell out of their homes, or from makeshift
street stalls. Havana is far from becoming a neon-wrapped landscape.

But the popularity of the reforms and Castro's mantra that they will be
implemented "slowly, but without pause" also means they are
irreversible. Ahead of the Communist Party's conference over the
weekend, even state newspaper Granma talked of the need "to leave behind
prejudices against the non-state sector" and to overcome the
"psychological barrier" of "obsolete dogmas".

One of these is work habits. Ángel, for one, has already turned on its
head the old socialist rubric of "everyone pretends to work and the
state pretends to pay." Compared to state wages worth around $20 a month
but paid in Cuban pesos, his staff get a percentage of profits in hard
currency. "They like that, very much," he says.

As for his own workday: "I get here early in the morning and usually
leave around 3am." Does he mind? "One has to do what one has to or wants
to do – and I do. This is as much an emotional adventure as a financial
one," he says, with a smile.

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/01/30/lessons-for-cuban-business/#axzz1mHeihRK2

Apathy among Cubans

2012-02-13T09:23:00.001-08:00

Apathy among Cubans
February 13, 2012
Osmel Almaguer

HAVANA TIMES, Feb 13 — They say that Cuba is the best place in the world
to live. I'm sure, though, that this affirmation is merely a rumor
spread by those in power. In addition to the rumors that hatch on the
street (from the right, left or center), there are also the ones planted
by our officials.

Later they like to feign innocence when it better suits them to shirk
their responsibility for the social chaos we face. Instead, they'll
point to safe streets, equitable distribution, free services, low
prices, health care, education and culture – benefits that are almost
absolutely verifiable.

Yet what's more subtle and damaging is the apathetic spirit that has
taken over Cuban society. We see generalized apathy for work, study,
being responsible, showing respect and finally for all actions in life
that are related to virtue.

However, what's most shocking is the lack of interest we suffer when it
comes to receiving. I find it amazing since selfishness is present in
human nature, as well as in the animal kingdom.

I'm not saying that selfishness has been lost. Rather, apathy has
reached the point to where people who receive benefits want them without
lifting a finger. In other words, to many people the slightest sacrifice
to improve themselves or to get ahead isn't worth the effort.

Examples abound: my pupils at school don't want me to teach them their
lessons. Residents who are required by housing inspectors to comply with
certain code requirements hurry to find fault with their professional
judgment. Vendors collude among themselves on prices so they don't have
to compete.

At my house, we don't answer the door when the crews come to spray for
mosquitoes. The buses that usually charge five pesos don't want to stop
outside the bus stops to pick up passengers. Collective taxi drivers
prefer an empty taxi to lowering their rates.

Kiosk vendors don't work on Sundays. At six in the evening of weekdays
no businesses are open. Sellers prefer not to sell to you if your bill
is too large. The majority of bus drivers don't care about collecting
the fares.

To most men, a "thank you" or a "please" seems gay.

I could go on with the list — it's endless — but I prefer to conclude by
pointing out the root cause of all these actions. People have begun to
disregard those little favors and courtesies because they now consider
them useless or alien.

These are the vices of a socialist society hit by the Special Period crisis.

Admittedly, I don't have the answer. In fact, I can't imagine any change
that could fix the majority of these problems.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=61960

Awaiting pope: New Castro, same mess of an economy

2012-02-13T09:18:00.001-08:00

Posted on Monday, 02.13.12

Awaiting pope: New Castro, same mess of an economy

Fourteen years after the last papal visit, some reforms have taken root
in Cuba, but the economy is still an unmitigated mess.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@elNuevoHerald.com

Two years before Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, then-Defense
Minister Raúl Castro cracked down on a half-dozen young academics who
had dared propose market reforms for the island's Soviet-styled economy.

The Center for the Study of the Americas was ordered to stop studying
Cuban issues. One of the academics suffered a fatal heart attack, blamed
on the government pressures. Another fled into exile, and two others now
live mostly abroad.

Today, it is President Raúl Castro who is championing even more daring
reforms, including deep cuts in state spending and the largest expansion
of private economic activity allowed in the communist-ruled island.

When Pope Benedict XVI lands in Santiago next month to start a three-day
visit to the island, he will find a Cuba very different yet in many ways
very similar, to what his predecessor encountered during his visit 14
years ago.

A different Castro is in charge. Church-state relations are warmer. Talk
of economic reforms is now acceptable. Dissidents are more combative.
But the economy is still in deep trouble. And a Castro is still in power.

Back in 1998, Cuba was "a living memory of the Soviet model of society,"
yet the island's Catholic Church had managed to endure and "give witness
and provide hope against hope," said Orlando Marquez, spokesman for the
archdiocese of Havana.

Cuba was officially atheist from 1962 to 1992, Christmas was restored as
an official holiday only in 1997. And the next year Cardinal Jaime
Ortega became the first church leader to speak on state-owned television
since the early 1960s.

Today, the church has "a more defined place in society," there's a
church-state dialogue and Cuba "is living a process of transformations
and reforms," Marquez told El Nuevo Herald. "That's the Cuba that
Benedict wants to meet when he comes."

After Ortega met with Castro in 2009, the cardinal announced the
government would free more than 100 political prisoners and
pro-government mobs in Havana halted their harassments of the dissident
Ladies in White.

The church also has been permitted to build a new seminary, launch a
business school in conjunction with a Catholic University in Spain and
run a string of independent charity and educational programs that fill
gaps in the government's eroding social security net.

Yet critics say that the improved church-state relations came at the
price of silence on government human rights abuses. All but 12 of the
jailed dissidents were taken directly from prison to airplanes that flew
them to exile in Spain, they noted.

"The church is now the only independent actor recognized by the
government as an ally. Today, there is a quasi-concordat [an official
agreement] that was not there before," said Haroldo Dilla, one of the
Center for the Study of the Americas academics attacked by Raúl Castro
in 1996.

When the Polish-born John Paul visited Cuba Jan. 21-25 of 1998, he was a
fierce opponent of communism and a healthy Fidel Castro had just
addressed a Cuban Communist Party congress from a stage under large
portraits of Marx and Lenin.

John Paul died in 2005 and Fidel Castro, now 85 years old, surrendered
power the following year after emergency surgery. And when brother and
successor Raúl Castro addressed another party congress last year, there
were no portraits at all on the stage.

One constant from one papal visit to another has been the crisis in the
Cuban economy, which shrank by about 35 percent in three years after
Moscow halted its subsidies to the island, estimated at up to $6 billion
a year, in 1992.

Yet the ways in which the more ideological Fidel and the more pragmatic
Raúl dealt with the economic problems were vastly different.

Fidel grudgingly embraced some basic free-market reforms, like allowing
"self-employment" such as family-owned restaurants, party clowns and
manicurists. But as soon as the economy stabilized in 1995, he began
retrenching.

By most accounts, Fidel ordered Raúl to crack down on the Center for the
Study of the Americas' too-eager reformers in 1996. Communist Party
ideologue Raúl Valdés Vivo branded Cubans who favored capitalism as
"piranhas" the following year.

But today Raúl is pushing a string of far more ambitious economic
reforms, including leasing millions of acres of fallow state lands to
private farmers, allowing more and larger private businesses and
offering government loans to support them.

"That is not because he wants to open up, but because he has no other
option" after decades in which the hallmarks of the Cuban economy were
inefficiency, lack of productivity and corruption, Dilla told El Nuevo
Herald.

One clear change between the two papal visits is the way that Cuban
exiles in South Florida view the trips.

In late 1997, the archdiocese of Miami was forced to cancel a cruise
ship charter that would have taken thousands of pilgrims to Cuba to
witness John Paul's visit, because of stiff and highly vocal opposition
from Catholic exiles.

Today, the archdiocese is plowing ahead with arrangements for air
charters to take pilgrims to Cuba for Benedict's visit, and exile
opposition to the charters has not been as strong or as loud.

And while 11 bombings shook Cuban tourist spots in 1997, blamed on exile
Luis Posada Carriles, today the idea of armed struggle against the
communist government has been dropped by all but a handful of the most
recalcitrant exiles.

Cuba's peaceful domestic opposition also has changed and grown
significantly over the past 14 years, while the government has shifted
the ways and means it uses to repress dissent.

In the late 1990s, most of Cuba's top dissidents were older
intellectuals who had initially backed Fidel Castro. The late Gustavo
Arcos participated in Castro's 1953 attack on the Moncada army barracks
before he became a dissident. Elizardo Sánchez taught Marxism before he
became a human-rights activist.

Fidel Castro had little tolerance for dissidents and put many of them in
prison. Arcos served seven years in prison and Sánchez served eight. And
a crackdown in 2003 sentenced 75 dissidents to up to 28 years in prison.
All were freed by last spring.

Dissidents today tend to be younger, more working-class and more
aggressive. They stage street protests and ask tough questions at
pro-government events. One even filed an unprecedented lawsuit against
the Justice Ministry, making some headway before losing.

The Ladies in White now have tacit government approval for their protest
marches after Sunday Mass at a Havana church — unthinkable under Fidel —
although police and pro-government mobs have crushed their efforts to do
the same in eastern Santiago de Cuba.

Scores of Cuban dissidents and othersd now have cell phones and blogs,
like Yoani Sánchez's Generacion Y, that they use regularly to rail
against the communist system and disseminate their complaints in Cuba
and abroad.

"In 1998, the ideological and political controls were much harder than
now," said Dilla. "Today it is evident that the system is more tolerant,
but it can turn tough and even brutal when needed."

Security officials in recent years have largely stopped subjecting
dissidents to trials and lengthy sentences, and instead mostly detained
opposition activists for a few hours or days in order to intimidate and
harass them or block planned activities.

Such "express detentions" totaled 85 in one four-month period in 1997,
according to one news headline. In 2011, according to Elizardo Sanchez's
Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, they
totaled more than 4,000.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/v-fullstory/2638823/awaiting-pope-new-castro-same.html

Public Declaration in Self-Defense of Rastafarian Artist Hector Riscar (El Nano) / El Sexto – Danilo Maldonado Machado

2012-02-12T13:07:00.001-08:00

Public Declaration in Self-Defense of Rastafarian Artist Hector Riscar
(El Nano) / El Sexto – Danilo Maldonado Machado
El Sexto - Danilo Maldonado Machado, Translator: Unstated
Share

I, Hector Riscar Mustelier, declare in writing what really happened on
Wednesday 16 November 2011.

We left the National Cabaret, where we were working the Heritage Group,
a reggae band, of which I am director.

We were Adrian (props), Daniel (drummer), Zenén (sound engineer) and I,
crossing the corner of Prado and San Jose, where we were stopped by an
officer with badge number 44777. He asked for our ID cards and tells us
we can't continue, but Zenen didn't have his ID so we explained that
we're musicians who come out of the club every Tuesday we're there. Then
comes another officer, called Duruti, standing behind us.

As I was carrying a bag with a DVD, the officer no 44777 asks to search
us completely, purse, pockets, everything. He tells us that we can
continue and we get ready to do so when another one appears — 45717 —
who wants to check IDs again. We say that we were already searched by
another officer, but he aggressively orders us to put our hands on our
heads and spread out legs.

We began to tell him that our audience was still coming out, and it was
a spectacle in the street, that he could take me to the station in
handcuffs if he wanted, but it was a violation, that he can't search a
citizen against his will by force, because the Constitution protects us,
at which point the officer is still more agitated, and physically
assaults me taking me by the neck and punching me in the back, ripping
my shit, putting me on the ground and putting handcuffs on me.

In the struggle my white turban had fallen to the ground. The officer
stood me up at the same time the patrol car arrived. I was very
insulted, like my colleagues, who could not believe that abuse was
permitted, and they were also grappling with the police, and that is why
they also put Zenén in the car. Inside the car I see Duruti and 44777
outside, speaking separately. The officer 44777 comes up and says
something to the patrol car officer who can not hear because we were
still grappling with 45717.

Upon arriving at the Dragones police station they took my bag and soon
the three officers arrived, talking softly to the guard. We were sitting
on the bench, paying attention and hearing him say to the duty officer,
turning to 45717: "You accuse him because you're in the [Communist]
Party and no one will doubt you." So they're plotting it all in our face.

Then they begin to accuse us of drugs and we argue with them, against
the lie.

They say the drugs were in my turban. Which is a big lie because
everyone saw when my turban fell to the ground, and there was nothing
either on the ground or on my head and everyone saw it. It was a brother
and a witness who handed me the turban in the patrol car, and this can
be clearly be seen recorded in the cameras there and we demand that
these images appear and are displayed, because these films are or should
be in the service of safety and security of citizens. Consulting them,
there can be no confusion: all my clothes were white, easy to see in the
dark, and every movement had to be recorded.

Continuing the story in the police station, they continued with their
offenses while an officer without a badge, in black leather, showed a
ball wrapped in nylon and said it was drugs, directly accusing me of
having it in my belongings. Soon the experts came and took me up. I was
very upset with all the injustice that I was a victim of, I know of
similar stories but had never lived it myself, at all. I decided not to
speak a word. I knew I needed a lawyer. They were mocking and accusing
me as if everything is an absolute truth.

Then a higher level official dressed in dark green says that the proof
was in the promotional papers for Herencia: he's referring to some
invitations related to promotional group that were in my bag, they took
when we entered the station, along with the DVD device. Of course the
invitations had been manipulated long before the arrival of the experts,
down in the folder.

I kept quiet, just said I wanted to speak in the presence of an
attorney. Every passing minute there was more confabulation. Soon an
officer came from narcotics, talked and left. Then comes another
narcotics official from municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, with whom
I had a discussion.

Before, years ago, he worked in Central Havana and wanted me to work for
him and even gave me his phone. I gave him some brochures to learn our
way of life, philosophy and ideology of African culture, where it
becomes clear that our idea is the unification of our race, spiritual
prosperity, peace and love in everything and everyone. But from the
viewpoint of the police and government we are just hairy black drug
addicts, persecuted and repressed by the police elements of this country.

I made it clear to this officer that I would never work for him. He said
that year 2005 that one day I would regret it and he would retaliate. I
didn't make a case of his threats and I never heard from him. Now he got
angry, saying by way of derision (I quote) "So you took drugs! The drug
gives your dick money… " What a phrase worthy of a chief national
anti-drug department.

"Sure you have every luxury at home," he said. Everyone knows how we
live humbly at home with my mom and my wife. This officer wanted to
provoke me. I just opened my mouth to say: "LIAR, you say that because I
never worked with you."

Then they took me to the station where I was assigned an
"instructor"(investigator/interrogator) named Yordanis, who insisted for
days that I make my statement, fooling me saying he would investigate
the matter well. I told him I had evidence to disprove all the police
farce and that was when I stated this in my own hand.

We now know, all that is on file 826/11, they have set a trap, using my
declaration, adapting it to the police, with all their lies so well
organized. The cost of my statement has been the loss of the only visual
evidence in my favor, disappeared.

Now the file is back to the station with the sole intention of "fixing"
pretty much everything, or leaving out details that were inconsistent,
so that they are perfect. They used my mom to sign a record of delivery
of DVD that was never dealt with because they were so busy at the
Dragones station constructing their lie that they had no idea of dealing
with the DVD.

They falsified further investigations of my Committee for the Defense of
the Revolution (CDR): having cards made by the comrades of the CDR,
where they say they haven't gone to check anything, neither in Cerro nor
in Central Havana, and are fully prepared to declare in court.

Only because of the type of people we are, Rastafarians, in the false
investigation they say the worse they say about about a person. I know
no one with cars and motorcycles, only a few who visit us very little.
The bikes that come to visit are for two People's Revolutionary Police
investigators that are our neighbors living in the same hallway.

The comrade who appears declaring now (named Ernesto), after the P4 the
prosecution sent, said that someone in turn says that I used to sell in
the National, but in his opening statement only said that I had seen
"smoking."

Everything has been improved to incriminate me for a traffic offense
that is not mine, committing unjust illegalities that not even a lawyer
has the courage to denounce.

Back in 2003 I did serve an unjust traffic sanction that was reported
but nothing came of it, but now, according to the fabricated record, I
also engaged in the planting of marijuana, that makes us all ask, where
is that seed? What's happening? Can this really be happening here in
Cuba? Or is that the police accept that they invented everything? Or is
it better, rather than to be just and true, to judge someone who has
committed no crime? Someone who in any case they have to help do justice
to the truth, but not harm through abuse of power, because it is not for
this reason that we have the security police of this country.

Or, if this does happen, then there is: injustice, illegality,
corruption, manipulation, deceit, violation of human rights, abuse of
power, ideological discrimination and racism.

No more for now. Hoping for ultimate justice and fair use of my rights,
and rights of the true facts, and to soon recover my liberty,
unconditionally.

Rastafari
PEACE
No more discrimination!

6 February 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15039

Not Twelve, Seventeen / Miguel Iturria Savón

2012-02-12T13:06:00.001-08:00

Not Twelve, Seventeen / Miguel Iturria Savón
Miguel Iturria Savón, Translator: Unstated

Since the release of latest political prisoners from the repressive
crackdown known as the Black Spring of 2003, foreign correspondents in
Cuba cling to a mythical number twelve, referring to those who refused
exile and stayed on the island, which is a half truth.

There were 52 remaining of the 75 convicted under the Gag Law, when the
regime decided to open the gates to launder its image abroad after the
death of striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo and physical deterioration of
another striker, independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas Hernández,
icons of civic resistance.

Of the 53 who left earlier, almost all under the euphemism of parole,
remaining on the island from 2004 to 2006 were the independent
journalists Jorge Olivera Castillo and Oscar Espinosa Chepe,
Assemblywoman Martha B. Roque Cabello, the liberal politician Hector
Palacios Ruiz and Marcelo Lopez Bañobre.

Among those who marched from the prison to exile in this period are the
poets Raúl Rivero and Manuel Vazquez Portal. In 2010 there were 12 who
said no to banishment, 12 of 52 prisoners who waited in prison despite
the pressure of the regime, the mediating efforts of the Archbishop of
Havana and the facilities offered by the Spanish government which was
acting as a screen for the Castros before the European Community.

Among the twelve who chose to live at home instead of seeking freedom
under another flag are Feliz Navarro, Iván Hernández Carrillo, Arnaldo
Ramos Lauzurique, Oscar Elías Bicet, Eduardo Díaz Freitas, Librado
Linares, José D. Ferrer García, Guido Sigler Amaya, whose brother is
being medically treated in the United States; Diosdado González Marrero,
Pedro Arguelles Morán, Héctor Maceda Gutiérrez and Ángel Moya Acosta.

The admiration unleashed by these twelve heroes of civic resistance is a
continuation of the position taken by the five former prisoners released
for health reasons between 2004 and 2006. All remain on the island under
control of the political police.

Everyone deserves respect and affection as the rest of the 58 who went
abroad by choice, family pressure or state pressure. In the Kabbalah and
in historical mythology, twelve is a mythical number. Twelve were the
original tribes of Israel, the Promised Land of antiquity. Twelve
apostles accompanied Jesus at the Last Supper.

Twelve independence fighters remained alive with the Father of the
Nation, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, after the attack on the village of
Yara, on October 10, 1868. And twelve expedition members met with Fidel
Castro in a hamlet in the Sierra Maestra after the failed landing of the
Granma yacht on December 2, 1956.

So twelve is all very well, but please, no more manipulation. There are
not twelve but seventeen prisoners released from the Black Spring who
remain in Cuba. There are also other fighters in prisons, and in the
streets who are serving or served sentences for demanding the freedoms
kidnapped by the "liberators of the Fatherland."

August 22 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15030

Uncertain Execution of Judgment Hurts Civil Society Activist / Dora Leonor Mesa

2012-02-12T13:03:00.001-08:00

Uncertain Execution of Judgment Hurts Civil Society Activist / Dora
Leonor Mesa
Dora Leonor Mesa, Translator: Unstated

Persistent rumors from the ECAL No. 2 state that the entity surrendered
to the police a letter dated September 7 this year which states that …
"as outlined in file No. 174 of 2010, regular process established by
Dora Leanor Mesa Crespo and provision made by the Municipal People's
Court of Diez de Octubre, ordering the demolition of the wall' that
affects the applicant, we have to inform you that in a visit to the
former premises occupied by the Negotiating Group of the Extinction
Movement of State Microbrigades, located in Calzada de Luyanó No. 557
between Manuel Pruna and Juan Alonso, Diez de Octubre municipality, to
date we have been unable to access this location to determine the scope
of work to be executed, because the compañero residing there, named
Adolfo Perez Zenea is serving a sentence of imprisonment in Penitentiary
1580."

Based on information obtained from sources that refused to be
identified, the director of the ECAL Pita No.2 Nelson Córdova Pita his
Legal Advisor Yaquelín Rodríguez allege they are seeking the key from
the defendant's wife, also a local resident, worker at the Municipal
Plaza Microbrigade, part of the construction company that is located at
23rd and 2nd street, in the Vedado neighborhood.

A confirmation of the existence of the letter of ECAL No. 2 was
delivered to the Police, the justifications are related to the complaint
of weeks ago — property infringement — by the civil society activist Ms.
Dora L. Mesa.

First some clarification would be good. The above residence of the
worker and his wife is absolutely illegal, as is confirmed by documents
held by all parties. The place is not even legally registered as state
property, it was part of the house of the complainant. Furthermore, the
ECAL # 2 tries to ignore the judgment of the Municipal Court No. 17 of
Diez de Octubre dated April 29, 2011 which appears verbatim:

Fail: We must declare and we do declare in favor of the complainant, and
in consequence affirm this statement condemning the defendant to respect
the required separation between the two properties adjoining the site,
and the defendant must demolish and create a corridor of approximately
one meter and fifty centimeters between the two properties. Without Costs.

It should be clear that the complainant does not have to demolish a
wall, because the sentence is explicit by clarifying that they have to
demolish the adjacent locale, always taking appropriate action because
the ceiling of the room is used a wall of the house of the applicant.
Lest by chance the property of the activist might also be demolished.

This legal battle has been going on for 45 years. The request for
enforcement of judgment is dated June 30, 2011. From that moment 3
trials have been suspended by the absence of the directors of the ECAL
and other unknown causes. The next citation is Sept. 27 at 10 a. m. and
probably will be suspended by the most unlikely reason: Protection of
breeding animals for profit, slippery keys, busy magistrates…

They are wasting their time if they believe that Ms. Dora Mesa will not
go every day to the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre to know how to
start the execution of the judgment. They don't know the power of filial
love and the brave old man's voice clamoring for justice.

Regardless of the excitement or otherwise of the case, the applicant can
legally establish another lawsuit but cannot demolish the premises and
request the restitution of his backyard. In short, if your family spends
nearly half a century in these legal chores, should be awarded the
missing part. As the Cuban sociologist Calviño would say: It's worth the
pain.

September 20 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14999

Efficient Leadership and Organizations for Cuban Civil Society / Dora Leonor Mesa

2012-02-12T13:02:00.001-08:00

Efficient Leadership and Organizations for Cuban Civil Society / Dora
Leonor Mesa
Dora Leonor Mesa, Translator: Unstated

The Cuban Law Association, the Cuban Observatory of LGBT Rights, the
Citizens Committee for Racial Integration … are some examples that serve
to encourage pro-democracy activists and other civil society actors to
continue to create spaces for civic activity and to expand their reach,
because they can help ordinary citizens to take initial steps to raise
the hope for positive change.

To have a vibrant civil society requires successful civil organizations.
Success is possible even in hostile surroundings if promoters are
trained properly in the types of leadership and efficient organizational
structures.

Contingency theories emphasize situational factors, where the
effectiveness of leadership depends on the situation. People become
leaders not only for their personal traits, but because of situational
factors. The motivation and the ability of the followers are among the
factors that affect situational decisions.

Each civil society organization can use certain types of leadership but
contingency theories emphasizing situational factors could be very
useful in the current Cuban atmosphere, characterized by its dynamism
and hostility.

The Fiedler contingency theory has helped develop an educational
organization, the Cuban Association for the Development of Education
(ACDEI), but the transformational theory of Bass and Leithwood allow a
leader-follower relationship more effectively in the current Cuban
environment and in particular in educational settings.

Our small NGO is currently working on a project called "ACDEI supports
Private Nurseries," whose target audience are owners and educators and
the employees who work with them, and parents and families of children.
It prepares teachers and unskilled caregivers, instructing them in
modern educational techniques and the knowledge and use of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In addition to educating the children of the nursery school, we
emphasize in explanations to owners that their businesses provide an
important service, where the initial cost is relatively low, but it is
characterized by certain aspects that require certain skills and staff
training.

In particular we reiterate that the beneficiaries of the service (the
nursery school children) can not be considered as clients but as
learners. Children who receive continuous stimuli in their environment
later develop with better physical, psychosocial and cognitive outcomes
(Umayahara, M., 2003).

The ACDEI NGO strives to provide both children and educators and
caregivers education and training required by the standards of the
Ministry of Education and UNICEF. To continue this line of work it is
hoped that the articulation between preschool and primary education will
more successful and thus improve children's learning.

September 10 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14997

Yoani Sanchez’s Technical Book / Miguel Iturria Savón

2012-02-12T13:01:00.001-08:00

Yoani Sanchez's Technical Book / Miguel Iturria Savón
Miguel Iturria Savón, Translator: Unstated

Last May I was overwhelmed when browsing in the apartment of Yoani
Sanchez I came across her book Word Press: a blog to talk to the world.
Three years earlier I had noted her famous blog (Generation Y) and,
stimulated by it, I opened my blog, Island Anchor, also hosted on the
platform Cuban Voices. The connection continued with the sessions of the
Blogger Academy, occasional meetings, calls and text messages and my
collaborations in Voices magazine, created by Yoani, Reinaldo Escobar
and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo.

The volume struck me with its compositional structure, didactic sense,
the effective selection of expository texts, the eloquence of the
illustrations and the overall coherence, both technical and casual, all
of it "so Yoani," whose human warmth cohabits with a scriptural acuity.
The pragmatism of her civic proposals, her passion for new technologies,
her citizen journalism and her commitment to what happens on the island,
always from a personal viewpoint that is no stranger to wonder and the
need to seek.

Word Press: a blog to talk to the world is a compendium of accelerated
learning from Yoani Sanchez, the curious and avid linguist, fascinated
by "the mysteries of cyberspace," and whose banner freedom of
expression. It is also a gift for beginners and an instrumental doorway,
perhaps for the methodical carpenter to test the tools that free — and
release — us from the information banality and dreams of domination of
despots, these young men who damaged the lives of millions of people and
converted the nation into a hacienda that supports them.

The work, of 463 pages, 20 chapters, 2 prologues, Editor's Note,
Glossary, Bibliography and Index, is a reference manual of educational
value, a brick of paper that outlines her own experience with her blog,
interacting with readers and the media and how this universal Cuban
woman — recognized for her talent and dedication to others — learned to
do it all. If anyone thought there were some kind of "maneuvers" around
the prizes Yoani has been awarded from outside the island they can put
that idea to rest. Yoani has succeeded because she convinces with her
writings and computer knowledge.

Written at the request of Eugenio Tuya, editor of the publishing house
Anaya, who rates the outcome as excellent and praised the clarity of
exposition and "charming amiability" of the author, the book is intended
for "all who dream of exposing their life's travels through a blog and
especially those in difficult situations who need to communicate with
the world and be encouraged to express themselves freely."

No wonder the Spaniard Esperanza Aguirre advises in his prologue that
Yoani Sanchez, "In teaching us to use the tools of information
technology, gives us an exciting lesson … about our duty to always open
new windows, whatever the difficulties, a juggernaut for freedom. "

José Luis Orihuela, author of Cuaderno.com, evokes the Internet as the
XXI century printing press and the blog Generation Y as "the
paradigmatic representation of the network as a technology for freedom
and the blog as a personal press," to which he adds that "Yoani has
extended her passion to many others inside and outside the island" and
that she and her blog "are no longer just about technology, not only
about the literature of the everyday, and have become a symbol of
peaceful resistance to oppression, in a tangible demonstration of the
power of words."

"This is a book about the tool that has made possible the Revolution of
Yoani Sánchez, Word Press, written for people like her: those who don't
know technology but have things to say, those who want to communicate
and have no other means than the most simple and powerful: a blog."

Perhaps because of this and because "the network is no longer a space
for consultation and has been converted into a space for participation
in the social environment," Yoani's book can not circulate on the
island, where it is seized by customs officials, recalling those lists
of medieval inquisitors bent on shaping thought and censoring those who
did not assume the prevailing orthodoxy.

The list of contents would be enough to stimulate the search for the
next installment from the best-known blogger in Cuba. Attractive and
suggestive titles such as: The Birth and Consecration of Word Press; The
Map to Install Word Press; The Viscera or the Administration Page;
Appearance and Design of the Blog; Learning to Live with the
Commentators; the Trolls and other Creatures of Cyberspace; Categories
and Labels; URLs and Links, Multiplatform Blogs…

Through these themes lie the road ahead and the liberating door for
those who accompany Yoani on her wanderings, real and virtual. They just
have to dare. Not surprisingly she claims that "the highest purpose of
mankind will not have to wait for someone' who will open a space where
you can show yourself. You will not need a bureaucratic permit. You will
not need to amass a fortune or have a menacing army backing you up … You
would not even need to be under the umbrella of a political party … Here
you have a window, or rather the carpenter to build it … "

July 21 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15019

The New Man Needs Toys / Dora Leonor Mesa

2012-02-12T13:00:00.001-08:00

The New Man Needs Toys / Dora Leonor Mesa
Dora Leonor Mesa, Translator: Unstated

Without detracting from the prestige gained by Cuban education since
1959, in my view the shortage of toys that children in Cuba have
suffered, and do suffer, has been ignored.

While the Russians were sending millions of rubles every day, our
parents gave up sleep to buy three toys a year. In schools and
kindergartens the situation was no better. The toys are few, the variety
and beauty meager. Even the comics (in Cuba we call them muñequitos) for
some time were few and not very fun because of the "socialist realism"
in the art and culture of the now-extinct socialist bloc.

The Cuban Revolution has abolished private property for more than half a
century, and eliminated for-profit education. It attempted to create a
kind of "New Man," with a collectivist outlook and willing to sacrifice
for the common good. It created the educational institutions known as
"scholarships" — which were, in practice, boarding schools — where many
children were kept much of their youth. Along with that came the
state-run organizations such as the Organization of Pioneers, the
Secondary School Student Federation, the Union of Young Communists and
many more.

These plans had a significant impact on Cuban society and dazzled half
the world by their novelty and the success in academics extended to many
citizens. Behind the strategy were successful Cuban educators with
Russian and German advisers of the former socialist camp. This was a
valuable aid in pedagogy given the reputation Russian and German schools
enjoyed for centuries the.

Toys are generally expensive. But in Cuba today I invite my readers to
visit the toy stores at the Hotel Habana Libre or the Carlos III
Complex. A doll or a truck that is worth more than $10 in many parts of
the world, can only be bought in those stores with the monthly salary of
a Cuban surgeon. A remote control SUV can be purchased if desired, with
the salary of two surgeons. Do not mention BMX bikes because I might
have to include the salaries of the entire medical team in the operating
room.

This situation is not new. It's been like this for decades. So when they
say that Cuban children are happy and they do not lack the basics, I
remind the "enthusiasts" that a toy for an infant is like water for
humans, especially in the world of technology and knowledge.

If you ask a girl how much a Playstation is worth, she might doubt her
answer. But ask her what the black market prices are and then she will
give you all the details you need, and she will also to update you on
the exchange rate between the CUC, the euro and the dollar.

Not bad that children know the world around them but I disagree with
those who say that Cuba does not skimp on education resources. On the
facts would be preferable to say that is skimps. The list is long:
Textbooks are unattractive, teachers lack computers or email, 45% of
schools lack telephones, and children lack toys despite the efforts of
their parents and teachers to provide them.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 3, paragraph 1 provides:
"In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or
private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative
authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall
be a primary consideration."

Selling is a legal business, selling toys at exorbitant prices, in my
opinion, is a scam aimed our daughters and sons. They treat us like the
Spanish colonialists treated the Indians: exchanging mirrors for gold.

September 13 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14996

They deposited a formal request for investigation into the murder of Juan Wilfredo Soto Graca / Ricardo Medina

2012-02-12T12:07:00.001-08:00

They deposited a formal request for investigation into the murder of
Juan Wilfredo Soto Graca / Ricardo Medina
Ricardo Medina, Translator: Hank Hardisty

Abdel Rodriguez Arteaga, Vice Presidentof the Cuba Independent and
Democratic Party, gave to the Attorney General's Office, at noon, July
11th, a document in support of the request for investigation to the
death of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia. The original request was made by two
priests on June 8th.

Copies of the document, presented by Rodriguez Arteaga, were delivered
to the State Council, Ministry of Interior and Justice, and were
accompanied by a hundred signatures in support of the request for
investigation to the death of Soto Garcia, presented by the priests:
Ricardo Santiago Medina Lleonart Salabarria and Mario Felix Barroso,on
June 8th.

The letter dated July 8, states that the signatories ask the Attorney
General to exercise his powers to:

1) Give a public explanation from the Cuban government of this
lamentable event.

2) Restore the Methodist Pastor Yordi Alberto Toranzo Collado to his
pastoral ministry and to his rectory in the Methodist Church: "The
Trinity" of Santa Clara. Bishop Ricardo Pereira Diaz, (Bishop of the
Methodist Church in Cuba) removed him under pressure from the Department
Religious Affairs, Ministry of Justice, after the minister attended the
funeral of Soto Garcia.

Copies of this document were given, in addition to the Legal Affairs
Committee of Parliament, to His Eminence Cardinal Jaime Ortega,
Archbishop of Havana, and Bishop Ricardo Pereira Diaz, Bishop of the
Methodist Church in Cuba.

Translated by Hank Hardisty

June 11 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=15014

Absolute Cuba: More Cuban Flags and Less Che Guevara / Dora Leonor Mesa

2012-02-12T12:06:00.001-08:00

Absolute Cuba: More Cuban Flags and Less Che Guevara / Dora Leonor Mesa
Dora Leonor Mesa, Translator: Unstated

While in Cuba and almost anything is possible, it produces confusion to
try to buy a flag and the national emblem in your own country and to
find there are none in the shops, nor do the libraries offering
representations or posters or patriotic symbols, nor even the books on
the subject.

Meanwhile the market is saturated with pictures of Che Guevara, even
embedded within the national emblem. The fact remains that Che Guevara
is liked by most of the Cuban people, however the situation, in my
opinion, is outrageous.

Symbols are learned by children from the time they are small. The flag,
the national emblem, the anthem … Together they form part of the
identity of a nation. No wonder the image that is used to represent the
Constitution of the Republic of Cuba is the shield of the royal palm,
the national tree.

It is worth emphasizing the Law of Laws of the Republic of Cuba, Chapter
I, Article 4 where it states:
"The national symbols are those which have presided, for more than a
hundred years, over the Cuban struggles for independence, the people's
rights and social progress:
The lone star flag;
The anthem of Bayamo;
The shield of the royal palm."

I will never tire of repeating that for years UNESCO and UNICEF have
promoted: "The quality of early childhood education is essential for the
development of a country."

Although brochure No. 6 for children of two to three years in the
"Educate Your Child" program don't mention patriotic symbols, the
toddlers become familiar with them inductively, by their constant
presence in the nursery, private or otherwise, which will help to
facilitate their further understanding of their transcendental meaning.
The most important thing is to protect our identity and pass bit by bit
to the smallest.

The pride of being born in Cuba, is not limited only to being generous,
playing baseball and dancing well. To have in a Cuban home the flag and
its shield is not only a right, it is a need in these hard times being
experienced by the country.

The tourist or Cuban who wants photos of Che can buy them. Cubans also
want to buy Cuban flags and shields of all shapes and sizes. I guess my
opinion does not matter … but if you are interested, here it is:

Absolute Cuba: More Cuban flags and shields and many preschoolers who,
before going to school, harmoniously sing the national anthem.

September 15 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14995

Fort Lauderdale company wants to run Cuba ferry

2012-02-12T11:54:00.001-08:00

Posted on Sunday, 02.12.12

Fort Lauderdale company wants to run Cuba ferry
The Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Fort Lauderdale company is still awaiting
government approval to run a ferry between Port Everglades and Cuba.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ( http://sunsent.nl/yLLx0m) reports that
Havana Ferry Partners applied for the license nearly two years ago.

The company is one of at least four interested in running ferries to
Cuba through travel licenses allowed as exemptions to the embargo.

A U.S. Treasury Department official told the newspaper in an e-mail the
office cannot comment on specific licenses.

Absent the approval, Havana Ferry is pushing for a one-time permission
to carry passengers to Cuba in March for Pope Benedict XVI's scheduled
visit.

Broward County leaders have backed requests for ferries, which traveled
frequently between Havana and Florida before the communist revolution.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/2637870/fort-lauderdale-company-wants.html

USAID contractor work in Cuba detailed

2012-02-12T11:51:00.001-08:00

Posted on Sunday, 02.12.12

AP IMPACT: USAID contractor work in Cuba detailed
By DESMOND BUTLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Piece by piece, in backpacks and carry-on bags, American
aid contractor Alan Gross made sure laptops, smartphones, hard drives
and networking equipment were secreted into Cuba. The most sensitive
item, according to official trip reports, was the last one: a
specialized mobile phone chip that experts say is often used by the
Pentagon and the CIA to make satellite signals virtually impossible to
track.

The purpose, according to an Associated Press review of Gross' reports,
was to set up uncensored satellite Internet service for Cuba's small
Jewish community.

The operation was funded as democracy promotion for the U.S. Agency for
International Development, established in 1961 to provide economic,
development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of
U.S. foreign policy goals. Gross, however, identified himself as a
member of a Jewish humanitarian group, not a representative of the U.S.
government.

Cuban President Raul Castro called him a spy, and Gross was sentenced
last March to 15 years in prison for seeking to "undermine the integrity
and independence" of Cuba. U.S. officials say he did nothing wrong and
was just carrying out the normal mission of USAID.

Gross said at his trial in Cuba that he was a "trusting fool" who was
duped. But his trip reports indicate that he knew his activities were
illegal in Cuba and that he worried about the danger, including possible
expulsion.

One report says a community leader "made it abundantly clear that we are
all 'playing with fire.'"

Another time Gross said: "This is very risky business in no uncertain
terms."

And finally: "Detection of satellite signals will be catastrophic."

The case has heightened frictions in the decades-long political struggle
between the United States and its communist neighbor to the south, and
raises questions about how far democracy-building programs have gone -
and whether cloak-and-dagger work is better left to intelligence operatives.

Gross' company, JBDC Inc., which specializes in setting up Internet
access in remote locations like Iraq and Afghanistan, had been hired by
Development Associates International Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, which
had a multimillion-dollar contract with USAID to break Cuba's
information blockade by "technological outreach through phone banks,
satellite Internet and cell phones."

USAID officials reviewed Gross' trip reports and received regular
briefings on his progress, according to DAI spokesman Steven O'Connor.
The reports were made available to the AP by a person familiar with the
case who insisted on anonymity because of the documents' sensitivity.

The reports cover four visits over a five-month period in 2009. Another
report, written by a representative of Gross' company, covered his fifth
and final trip, the one that ended with his arrest on Dec. 3, 2009.

Together, the reports detail the lengths to which Gross went to escape
Cuban authorities' detection.

To avoid airport scrutiny, Gross enlisted the help of other American
Jews to bring in electronic equipment a piece at a time. He instructed
his helpers to pack items, some of them banned in Cuba, in carry-on
luggage, not checked bags.

He once drove seven hours after clearing security and customs rather
than risk airport searches.

On his final trip, he brought in a "discreet" SIM card - or subscriber
identity module card - intended to keep satellite phone transmissions
from being pinpointed within 250 miles (400 kilometers), if they were
detected at all.

The type of SIM card used by Gross is not available on the open market
and is distributed only to governments, according to an official at a
satellite telephone company familiar with the technology and a former
U.S. intelligence official who has used such a chip. The officials, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
technology, said the chips are provided most frequently to the Defense
Department and the CIA, but also can be obtained by the State
Department, which oversees USAID.

Asked how Gross obtained the card, USAID spokesman Drew Bailey said only
that the agency played no role in helping Gross acquire equipment. "We
are a development agency, not an intelligence agency," he said.

Cuba's communist government considers all USAID democracy promotion
activities to be illegal and a national security threat. USAID denies
that any of its work is covert.

Gross' American lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, declined comment but has said in
the past that Gross' actions were not aimed at subverting the Cuban
government.

Cuban authorities consider Internet access to be a matter of national
security and block some sites that are critical of the government, as
well as pages with content that they deem as counterrevolutionary. Most
Cubans have access only to a severely restricted island-wide Intranet
service.

Proponents of providing Internet access say it can undermine
authoritarian governments that control the flow of information to their
people. Critics say the practice not only endangers contractors like
Gross, but all American aid workers, even those not involved in secret
activities.

"All too often, the outside perception is that these USAID people are
intelligence officers," said Philip Giraldi, an ex-CIA officer. "That
makes it bad for USAID, it makes it bad for the CIA and for any other
intelligence agency who like to fly underneath the radar."

Even before he delivered the special SIM card, Gross noted in a trip
report that use of Internet satellite phones would be "problematic if
exposed." He was aware that authorities were using sophisticated
detection equipment and said he saw workers for the government-owned
telecommunications service provider conduct a radio frequency "sniff"
the day before he was to set up a community's Wi-Fi operation.

---

U.S. diplomats say they believe Gross was arrested to pressure the Obama
administration to roll back its democracy-promotion programs. The Cuban
government has alleged without citing any evidence that the programs,
funded under a 1996 law calling for regime change in Cuba, are run by
the CIA as part of an intelligence plan to topple the government in Havana.

While the U.S. government broadly outlines the goals of its aid programs
in publicly available documents, the work in Cuba could not exist
without secrecy because it is illegal there. Citing security concerns,
U.S. agencies have refused to provide operational details even to
congressional committees overseeing the programs.

"The reason there is less disclosure on these programs in totalitarian
countries is because the people are already risking their lives to
exercise their fundamental rights," said Mauricio Claver-Carone, who
runs the Washington-based Cuba Democracy Advocates.

USAID rejected the notion that its contractors perform covert work.

"Nothing about USAID's Cuba programs is covert or classified in any
way," says Mark Lopes, a deputy assistant administrator. "We simply
carry out activities in a discreet manner to ensure the greatest
possible safety of all those involved."

The U.S. National Security Act defines "covert" as government activities
aimed at influencing conditions abroad "where it is intended that the
role of the United States Government will not be apparent or
acknowledged publicly."

USAID's democracy promotion work in Cuba was spurred by a large boost in
funding under the Bush administration and a new focus on providing
communications technology to Cubans. U.S. funding for Cuban aid
multiplied from $3.5 million in 2000 to $45 million in 2008. It's now
$20 million.

Gross was paid a half-million dollars as a USAID subcontractor,
according to U.S. officials familiar with the contract. They spoke only
on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the
case.

USAID head Raj Shah said democracy promotion is "absolutely central" to
his agency's work. The Obama administration says its Cuba programs aim
to help politically repressed citizens enjoy fundamental rights by
providing humanitarian support, encouraging democratic development and
aiding the free flow of information.

U.S. officials say Gross' work was not subversion because he was setting
up connections for Cuba's Jewish community, not for dissidents. Jewish
leaders have said that they were unaware of Gross' connections to the
U.S. government and that they already were provided limited Internet
access. USAID has not said why it thought the community needed such
sensitive technology.

Asked if such programs are meant to challenge existing leaders, Lopes
said, "For USAID, our democracy programs in Cuba are not about changing
a particular regime. That's for the Cuban people to decide, and we
believe they should be afforded that choice."

Others disagree.

"Of course, this is covert work," said Robert Pastor, President Jimmy
Carter's national security adviser for Latin America and now director of
the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University
in Washington. "It's about regime change."

---

Gross, of Potomac, Maryland, was a gregarious man, about 6 feet (1.8
meters) and 250 pounds (113 kilograms). He was hard to miss. He had
bought a Rosetta Stone language course to improve his rudimentary
Spanish and had scant knowledge of Cuba. But he knew technology. His
company specialized in installing communications gear in remote parts of
the world.

Gross' first trip for DAI, which ended in early April 2009, focused on
getting equipment in and setting up the first of three facilities with
Wi-Fi hotspots that would give unrestricted Internet access to hundreds
of Cubans, especially the island's small Jewish community of 1,500.

To get the materials in, Gross relied on American Jewish humanitarian
groups doing missions on the island. He traveled with the groups,
relying on individuals to help bring in the equipment, according to the
trip reports.

Three people briefed on Gross' work say he told contacts in Cuba he
represented a Jewish organization, not the U.S. government. USAID says
it now expects people carrying out its programs to disclose their U.S.
government funding to the people they are helping - if asked.

One of Gross' reports suggests he represented himself as a member of one
of the groups and that he traveled with them so he could intercede with
Cuban authorities if questions arose.

The helpers were supposed to pack single pieces of equipment in their
carry-on luggage. That way, Gross wrote, any questions could best be
handled during the X-ray process at security, rather than at a customs
check. The material was delivered to Gross later at a Havana hotel,
according to the trip reports.

USAID has long relied on visitors willing to carry in prohibited
material, such as books and shortwave radios, U.S. officials briefed on
the programs say. And USAID officials have acknowledged in congressional
briefings that they have used contractors to bring in software to send
encrypted messages over the Internet, according to participants in the
briefings.

An alarm sounded on one of Gross' trips when one of his associates tried
to leave the airport terminal; the courier had placed his cargo - a
device that can extend the range of a wireless network - into his
checked bag.

Gross intervened, saying the device was for personal use and was not a
computer hard drive or a radio.

According to the trip reports, customs officials wanted to charge a 100
percent tax on the value of the item, but Gross bargained them down and
was allowed to leave with it.

"On that day, it was better to be lucky than smart," Gross wrote.

Much of the equipment Gross helped bring in is legal in Cuba, but the
volume of the goods could have given Cuban authorities a good idea of
what he was up to.

"Total equipment" listed on his fourth trip included 12 iPods, 11
BlackBerry Curve smartphones, three MacBooks, six 500-gigabyte external
drives, three Internet satellite phones known as BGANs, three routers,
three controllers, 18 wireless access points, 13 memory sticks, three
phones to make calls over the Internet, and networking switches. Some
pieces, such as the networking and satellite equipment, are explicitly
forbidden in Cuba.

Gross wrote that he smuggled the BGANs in a backpack. He had hoped to
fool authorities by taping over the identifying words on the equipment:
"Hughes," the manufacturer, and "Inmarsat," the company providing the
satellite Internet service.

The BGANs were crucial because they provide not only satellite telephone
capacity but an Internet signal that can establish a Wi-Fi hotspot for
multiple users. The appeal of using satellite Internet connections is
that data goes straight up, never passing through government-controlled
servers.

---

There was always the chance of being discovered.

Last year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked about
clandestine methods used to hide the programs and reports that some of
them had been penetrated.

"Possible counterintelligence penetration is a known risk in Cuba," the
State Department said in a written response to AP. "Those who carry out
our assistance are aware of such risks."

Gross' first trip to Cuba ended in early April 2009 with establishment
of a communications site in Havana.

He went back later that month and stayed about 10 days while a site was
set up in Santiago, Cuba's second-largest city.

On his third trip, for two weeks in June 2009, Gross traveled to a city
in the middle of the island identified by a U.S. official as Camaguey.
He rented a car in Havana and drove seven hours rather than risk another
encounter with airport authorities.

Gross wrote that BGANs should not be used outside Havana, where there
were enough radio frequency devices to hide the emissions.

The report for Gross's fourth trip, which ended early that August, was
marked final and summarized his successes: wireless networks established
in three communities; about 325 users; "communications to and from the
U.S. have improved and used on a regular basis." He again concluded the
operation was "very risky business."

---

Gross would have been fine if he had stopped there.

In late November 2009, however, he went back to Cuba for a fifth time.
This time he didn't return. He was arrested 11 days later.

An additional report was written afterward on the letterhead of Gross'
company. It was prepared with assistance from DAI to fulfill a contract
requirement for a summary of his work, and so everyone could get paid,
according to officials familiar with the document.

The report said Gross had planned to improve security of the Havana site
by installing an "alternative sim card" on the satellite equipment.

The card would mask the signal of the BGAN as it transmitted to a
satellite, making it difficult to track where the device was located.

The document concluded that the site's security had been increased.

It is unclear how DAI confirmed Gross' work for the report on the final
trip, though a document, also on Gross' company letterhead, states that
a representative for Gross contacted the Jewish community in Cuba five
times after his arrest.

In a statement at his trial, Gross professed his innocence and apologized.

"I have never, would never and will never purposefully or knowingly do
anything personally or professionally to subvert a government," he said.
"I am deeply sorry for being a trusting fool. I was duped. I was used."

In an interview with AP, his wife, Judy, blamed DAI, the company that
sent him to Cuba, for misleading him on the risks. DAI spokesman
O'Connor said in a statement that Gross "designed, proposed, and
implemented this work" for the company.

Meanwhile, the 62-year-old Gross sits in a military prison hospital. His
family says he has lost about 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and they express
concern about his health. All the U.S. diplomatic attempts to win his
freedom have come up empty and there is no sign that Cuba is prepared to
act on appeals for a humanitarian release.

---

Follow Butler

at http://twitter.com/desmondbutler

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/v-fullstory/2637730/usaid-contractor-work-in-cuba.html

More Words’ Less Words / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-11T13:51:00.001-08:00

More Words' Less Words / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

In the arsenal of leftist parties and governments, there are certain
words that constitute grounds for worship. One of them, here, is the
word cuadro — or cadre in its English form. I do not know where it was
first used in the sense that they give it, but I guess that was in the
Russian Bolshevik party, even long before taking power in 1917 the last
century. In many of its documents they speak of party cadres, referring
to militants holding positions in different instances. From there it
comes to us, brought by the comrades of that time, some of whom headed
for these lands.

For many years the little word of yore is constantly repeated, both in
political and in mass organizations, such as state agencies and
institutions. For many citizens, committed to the model, their highest
aspiration is to become a cadre of something. The cadre, as official
understood, is a highly reliable militant, able to perform any task
assigned to them, regardless of their specific professional training.
For example, a physician may direct a mass organization, a sugar mill or
bakery at different stages of life, and everything is supposed to be
done with efficiency, or to a railway worker can lead a national trade
union center, a chain of stores or a croquette factory.

As is easy to assume, although there may be rare exceptions, usually the
results obtained with these cadres are poor, if you get any at all.
Fifty-three years of failure show that the mechanism does not work very
well. This being who is unique, special, multipurpose, can be used for
everything and does everything well, is quite rare in reality and can
not be manufactured or prepared in any facility.

To stubbornly insist on it, leads to constant mistakes and demotions,
without coming to understand that one little word, pleasing as it may
sound to some ears, is not capable of turning a vision into reality.

Speaking of cadres and the politics of cadres leads nowhere, when the
right thing would be to facilitate putting people at the forefront of
organizations, agencies and institutions and, in their various guises,
the most able people, without questions of an ideological and political
nation, and without the constraints that come with being a cadre:
unconditional above all, proven loyalty, total submission and complete
obedience to their leaders.

Moreover, the little word in popular parlance has so many different
meanings, which have been devalued: to be cuadrado — square — is to be
dogmatic, to cuadrar — square — the matter is to agree, the cuadro — box
— is closed means there it no outlet, and if man is cuadrado — square —
he does not compromise. There are many more, but those shown are sufficient.

These days, when there is constant talk of the loss of values, which is
a reality, to complicate matters further, it is argued that the cadres,
among other things, must be ethical, and handle themselves with agility,
creative and sensitive. Many assumed that these were mandatory
conditions. It seems we were wrong. In short, words more, words less, do
not create wealth, do not improve services, do not raise wages and
pensions, do not eliminate corruption, do not lower product prices, do
not increase production, let alone, solve the multiple social problems
we suffer from. They only form a part of the rhetoric from time to time,
occupy official attention, more to entertain than to solve.

February 5 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14994

Ethics in the Cuban Schools: Little of Confucius and Much of Puss in Boots / Dora Leonor Mesa

2012-02-11T13:50:00.001-08:00

Ethics in the Cuban Schools: Little of Confucius and Much of Puss in
Boots / Dora Leonor Mesa
Dora Leonor Mesa, Translator: Unstated

Men rarely recognize the shortcomings of those they love, nor are they
accustomed to appreciating the virtues of those they hate.
Confucius

For some years there is painful and frequent news in various
journalistic media, print and digital, which questions the ethics of
teaching professionals in Cuban schools. Some teachers or teachers eat
their students' snacks, others ask for gifts for birthdays, some openly
show preference for particular students, teachers charge for exams …

There is ample justification to talk about ethics in school
organizations in Cuba, a huge challenge for both the state and
citizenry. They go together in ethical and social responsibility,
although the ethics may be considered as "a method, viable assumptions
and conceptual tools to decide what course of action is most
appropriate"(Brown, 1992). A communication process that is efficient and
ethical accepts the equality and authority of managers and members to
identify problems, to think and express ideas with respect and without
risks.

The high academic standards of Asian countries like China and Japan are
globally recognized. Their philosophy is still based on the precepts of
Confucius, philosopher, social theorist and founder of an ethical system
– rather than religious – which has survived to this day.

Kung-tse (Confucius, to the West) lived in feudal China over 2,500 years
ago, between 551 and 479 BC. His origins were humble, but from his youth
showed a fondness for old books and, eventually, he held a high position
as an officer of the state of Lu, in the province of Shang-tung. His
ideas are about justice and harmonious coexistence.

Far from the mystical and religious beliefs, Confucianism is proposed as
a practical philosophy as a system of thought oriented toward life and
for the improvement of oneself. The aim, ultimately, is not "salvation,"
but wisdom and self-knowledge. The basic principles of Confucius are
decency, honesty, loyalty and filial piety.

But Perez Cavarría (Technological Institute of Monterrey, 2003)
recognizes that the implementation of any program of ethics implies a
strong commitment from the managers of any organization; it requires
strategic planning, training and communication plan plus monitoring
results. His proposal involves developing ethics along with new ways of
communication and interaction with members of the organization — in the
present case, the school.

Respect, trust, honesty, to name a few values, necessarily have to
appear in the form of how members of an organization communicate with
each other. In other words, decency is a fundamental principle of the
identity of the organization. The organizational culture, ethics and
communication have similarities to each other but each occupies a
different place.

Another valuable recommendation of Perez Gutierrez refers to the
implementation of mechanisms to protect everyone (the family of the
student or teacher) who reports unethical behavior or exposes their
doubts: Some emails and phone numbers to ensure anonymity, suggestion
boxes, etc.

For organizations communication and the strengthening of ethical values
is essential. The evaluation of professors and teachers should not only
be based on academic results, but also include ethical behavior.

The Ministry of Education of Cuba, with all the difficulties involved in
its meager budget and outdated school technology, also faces serious
institutional conflict. In classrooms a secret battle is being waged
between our Confucius as always, which has given prestige to Cuban
education, and the Puss in Boots, pretending to be teaching
professionals, when in fact, like the famous character in the story,
they lie, simulate, and if we let them, stop trying to be cats to become
minor royalty.

October 13 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14998

Statistics / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-11T13:49:00.001-08:00

Statistics / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

A journalist, writing about traffic accidents, said that Cuba has one of
the lowest rates — 6.5 deaths per hundred thousand inhabitants — and
adds that, since 1963 there is a downward trend. I do not question his
statistics but, to better understand them, it is necessary to consider
some factors that are obvious.

In the decade of the fifties Cuba had one (1) automobile for every forty
(40) people. Then, our population was six million five hundred thousand
(6,500,000) inhabitants. You can imagine the traffic density. The
triumph of the insurrection stopped the massive import of cars (they
were brought only for leaders and senior government officials), so it is
natural that from the year 1963 (as the existing fleet aged or broke
down) accidents would diminish.

In the early sixties care almost ceased to move (they became prehistoric
animals), and you could cross any street in slow motion, without danger
of being run over. Some Skodas were imported from Czechoslovakia, mainly
for foreign experts and specialists based in the country, along with VWs
and Alfa Romeos for State Security, and some of the latter, for senior
leaders.

In the decade of the seventies, after the failure of the Ten Million Ton
Harvestt, when the now extinct Soviet Union and the socialist camp
decided to increase the diameter of the "subsidies pipe" to save their
Latin American showcase, a part of the credits not paid, was invested in
importing cars — Ladas, Moscovitches and the so-called Polaquitos — the
first for the Nomenklatura and professionals in charge (who were granted
the right to buy), the latter primarily for personnel in health and
education (same conditions), and the third to less important posts.
There were also some Volgas and Fiats for State use, especially for
college graduates, when it was a national goal to have a college educations.

With the demise of socialism, came the era of Chinese bicycles, which
flooded our cities and towns, ridden by inexperienced people, with total
disregard for traffic regulations, both day and night (without means of
lighting, which were never imported). At that time accidents were the
order of the day. With the creation of joint ventures and a certain
economic revival in the late nineties and early 2000, the bikes
disappeared (which had come to stay), and cars of capitalist origin
began appearing (Tiko, Toyota, Hyundai, etc.) and some Mercedes Benz for
top leaders, and others officially called ostentatious, acquired for by
artists (mostly musicians) and high performance athletes.

In recent years, they have mainly imported China-made vehicles, cars and
buses and trucks, and this has increased traffic some, despite the poor
condition of many roads, which has concentrated traffic on the few
passable roads. Today, more than eleven million inhabitants, although
figures are not published, and we must be very far from the car for
every forty people. Considering all these factors, not addressed by the
journalist, it makes sense that regardless of all regulatory and
organizational measures taken by relevant authorities, accidents have
decreased. It's a simple equation: fewer vehicles traveling equals fewer
accidents. When comparing statistics with other countries, all this must
be considered.

November 10 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14975

The Face Hidden Behind the Triumphs / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-11T13:37:00.001-08:00

The Face Hidden Behind the Triumphs / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

The Pan American Games of Guadalajara 2011 ended and our country came
second, preceded by the United States, and followed by Brazil, Mexico,
Canada and others. Our athletes deserve the congratulations of all
citizens. Regardless of what has been achieved, with the goal of being
honest and not erroneously conceited, it is healthy to point out some
features present in these Games.

The fact of the coming Olympics London 2012, influenced many countries
not to send their best athletes and equipment, reserving them for the
Olympics. So it was with the United States, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica and
others, who chose mainly young figures, still in development, with an
eye to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 2016. In the case of Cuba this was
not so: they presented their best World Cup and Olympic athletes and
teams, accompanied by some young figures in development. This brought
results that were unbeatable for most athletes and teams of inferior
quality. In many cases it was like a lion fighting a tied up monkey.
Yet, in baseball and volleyball, to name only two sports, we suffered
costly defeats.

The reason for this decision is that, for the Cuban government, athletic
competitions, whatever their level, are considered political battles,
where you must win at any cost, and if the opponents are the United
States, so much the better, as a peasant from Pijirigua would say. This
leads to an over performance of athletes and teams, and places them in
situations of possible injuries and exhaustion. In the scheme of sports,
boxers are rightly considered the flagship of Cuban sports (those who
earn more medals), as they are eternal professionals with extensive
experience, who never "turn professional" like other players, and if
they do decide to do it they leave Cuba and so, to the Cuban government,
stop being Cuban and become traitors to the homeland, losing all their
rights. This absurdity also extends to other athletes. Although in all
sports the slogan appears, "Sport is the right of the people," this is
just a fallacy, as with other rights. Sport in Cuba is not massive but
selective.

I was struck by the pamphlet narrating the events by sports journalists
(some non-sports), saturated with an outdated chauvinism. The use of
adjectives was too much, every time you had a national team athlete or
the valuation of the medals earned (this gold medal is worth double,
this silver is as good as gold, this silver weighs as much as the gold,
this bronze shines like gold), disqualifying the arbitrators and judges
when their decisions were not favorable, and the little attention
devoted to the achievements of the adversaries, dissonant with the
spirit of fraternity and brotherhood that should prevail in these events.

Just around the corner are the 2012 London Olympics. They will bring
together the best athletes and teams in the world. There Cuba will also
be present. Not surprisingly, the results will not approach those
obtained in these Pan American games. There they will fight lion to lion.

November 1 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14976

A Repressed Sport / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-11T11:38:00.001-08:00

A Repressed Sport / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

The province of Pinar del Rio, broken off from its original province
(Artemis), more for political interests and to control the citizens, who
by economic necessity, in what is still left to them, possesses natural
wealth that intelligently used, could provide development and wealth to
its people and the nation. I am not referring to the famous tobacco
plantations or mining, but the eco-tourism in its different variants
(hiking, observation and photography of wildlife, climbing natural stone
walls, etc.).

For years in the municipality of Viñales, where the valley that bears
its name is located, climbing has been spontaneously practiced, both by
foreigners and nationals, attracted by it. The National Institute of
Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) has never been
interested in it (perhaps because it provides no Olympic medals), nor
have the tourist or environment bodies.

For some time now, municipal authorities, with the consent of the
province, have been given the noble task to pursue climbers and expel
them from the territory, threatening them with fines, detention and
other injustices. The reason given for such a course, is that they are
predators in the valley, undermine the environment and could be
conducting espionage in the caves and mountains.

Climbing is practiced worldwide, where there are natural conditions for
it, and climbing walls (artificial walls) are built for this purpose,
and there is evidence that its followers are great ecological activists
and environmentalists, and preserving the environment in its natural
state, without aggressive action against it, which would defeat this
activity, which requires climbing stone walls in their natural state
without artificial alterations.

The suggestion of espionage demonstrates the technological illiteracy of
the authorities and their partners, who know that every inch of the
planet's surface is permanently under observation for the existing
satellite systems without the need for shadowy agents, or film or video
cameras.

It would be desirable that the responsible entities (sports, tourism,
agriculture and environment) regulate these activities, giving them
legal status, thus avoiding the hardships of these brave out-dated witch
hunters, inventors of nonexistent laws and regulations.

A National Park is not a museum with inanimate objects on permanent
display, with a sign that says "Don't touch," but a living organism,
where fauna, flora and humans interact. At least that is what happens in
all National Parks in the world.

To prohibit things, even though it has always been, and is, the most
used measure in this country for over fifty years, has never solved
anything, and has provided only violations, illegal, misery and discomfort.

The real predators in the valley are those who have destroyed the
original caves with dynamite explosions and excavations that have
liquidated its flora and fauna, forcing farmers to go deep into the
forests and clearings to harvest hidden tubers in order survive,
polluting and drying up rivers and streams, attacking the walls with
paintings of artificial haystacks, trying to attribute to our indigenous
people skills they never had, because of their limited development, and
also those who, having to ensure the integrity of the forests, cut down
their trees and sell the wood in the black market.

Once before the authorities banned rock music, pursuing its fans and
putting them in forced work camps. Years later, the same authorities,
erected a statue to its highest figure — John Lennon — in a central park
of El Vedado, and now even organize festivals. Do not make the same
mistake with climbing. These past experiences should serve for
something, even if they were negative.

January 30 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14986

Cuban gay men are most affected by AIDS

2012-02-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

Cuban gay men are most affected by AIDS
Health and Medicine
02 / 11 / 2012

Unprotected sexual intercourse is the predominant mode of transmission
of HIV / AIDS in Cuba despite the work being done in prevention
campaigns. Specifically, the group of gay men are the greatest incidence
and prevalence of the disease occur.

Nearly nine of every 10 men contracted the disease that way. His
greatest vulnerability the conditions the interaction of biological,
psychological and social, said Dr. Maria Isela Lantero, head of the
department of STI / HIV / AIDS, the Ministry of Public Health.

Over 85 percent of those diagnosed are between 15 and 49, the remaining
are distributed to over 50, with a tendency to increase in men and women
over 60 years, said the newspaper Granma specialist.

Assessed as a priority to increase the scope and effectiveness of
prevention efforts, promote condoms, provide access to this health
product, to promote peer education and continue to increase volunteer
participation in prevention.

While recognizing that in theory it could be argued that advances in the
treatment of AIDS have become a chronic disease, "are still incurable
with treatment entities have a chronic course."

However, he stressed that the diagnosis of HIV has a meaning very
different from diabetes or hypertension, both the person and their
children, other relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers or study.
Facing that reality can not be reduced only to therapeutic advances.

He argued that only through laboratory studies can confirm the
diagnosis, and the greatest obstacle in the world to increase access to
comprehensive care affected health and prevent transmission in the
population, is that many people who have HIV do not know.

In Cuba, people can easily access health services and our doctors know
the importance of providing basic information on sexually transmitted
infections before proposing and indicate an HIV test to all sexually
active do not use condoms consistently.

Be emphasized that the diagnostic test and know their outcome should be
borne by the population and practice self-care of their health in a time
when AIDS is among us.

Our country has nearly 200 laboratories that perform this test. In the
past year were 2.3 million, the most in the last five years, said the
expert.

"AIDS remains a disease with no cure. Living with HIV not easy for those
affected, their families and friends. Prevent it remains the best
option," summed up the specialist.

http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2012/02/11/34552/cuban_gay_men_are_most_affected_by_aids.html

Support Cuba’s dissidents, commissioners

2012-02-11T11:16:00.001-08:00

Posted on Friday, 02.10.12
The readers' forum

Support Cuba's dissidents, commissioners

Among Cubans and Cuban Americans, a number of foreign companies have
earned a place in the "hall of infamy" for their outright complicity
with the Castro dictatorship. These include Spain's Sol-Melia hotel
chain and Canada's Sherritt mining company for profiting from long years
of the Castros' apartheid brand of tourism and exploitation of Cuba's
natural resources.

However, Brazil's Odebrecht construction conglomerate is now placing
itself in a reprehensible class of its own. Foreign companies that seek
to do business in Cuba generally recognize they must choose either to
profit from the monopoly of the Castro dictatorship or from Cuban
Americans in Florida's free market.

In the 1990s, Sol-Melia and Sherritt shamefully chose the Castro
dictatorship, giving up opportunities in Florida. Odebrecht feels it is
duly entitled to both.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff traveled to Cuba last week to promote
the company's business arrangements with the Castros' dictatorship.
These include enlarging the Port of Mariel, which Raúl Castro considers
the single most important project to ensure the economic survival of his
regime, and a new 10-year agreement to revitalize the island's moribund
sugar industry. During her trip, Rousseff made a point of shunning Cuban
dissidents and even refused opportunities to criticize the Castros'
human-rights record.

Meanwhile, a couple hundred miles to the north, for more than a decade
Odebrecht has been seducing Miami-Dade County commissioners, taking in
more than $4.8 billion in taxpayer dollars — much of it from
Cuban-American victims of its business partners in Havana.

The company has been awarded contracts on projects ranging from the
seemingly interminable reconstruction of Miami International Airport, to
building the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Art and a no-bid
contract to build Florida International University's stadium — complete
with an Odebrecht skybox.

Its seduction has been so effective that Miami-Dade County commissioners
jumped through legal hoops last year to give Odebrecht a $57 million
contract to strengthen the cargo wharves of the Port of Miami.
Commissioners sought to justify the contract by asserting Odebrecht was
the lowest bidder. But it wasn't.

The lowest bidder was actually a U.S. company — American Bridge Company.
It didn't get the contract because of a "local preference" that favored
Odebrecht despite the extra expense. How could that be?

Only in Miami-Dade County can a Brazilian company be given preferential
treatment (at extra cost to taxpayers) over a U.S. company. It was an
award that fuels suspicion and feeds nasty stereotypes. This charade has
gone on long enough.

Rousseff, in support of Odebrecht, didn't hesitate to shun Cuban
dissidents seeking political and economic reform. The time has come for
Miami-Dade County commissioners — a majority are Cuban-American — to
shun Odebrecht in support of those dissidents. As they do so they may
find they're also helping U.S. companies.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, director, U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC, Washington, D.C.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/10/2635363/support-cubas-dissidents-commissioners.html#storylink=misearch

A Frenzied Media Campaign / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-10T22:54:00.001-08:00

A Frenzied Media Campaign / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

Until now I had decided not to write about the five Cuban spies, who are
serving sentences in the United States, mainly out of consideration and
respect for the feelings of their families. However, in the face of the
frenzied media campaign unleashed by the Cuban authorities, with the
obvious complicity of them, I consider it necessary to clarify some
issues, overly manipulated to convince nationals and foreigners of their
supposed innocence, and that the whole thing is simply the aggression of
the Empire against some poor little Cubans.

These five citizens were caught red-handed – after an intense and
thorough investigation to gather evidence — conducting espionage as
Cuban intelligence agents planted in the U.S. as part of the Wasp
Network with seven others, who agreed to testify. Of those, although
Cubans like the others, also with families, not a word has been said,
they have ceased to exist, they have entered the limbo of non-persons.

They all confessed their guilt and were tried by a jury, the composition
of which both the prosecution and defense agreed upon, in the State
where they committed their crimes, and sentenced to various penalties,
depending on their degree of responsibility and cooperation with the
justice, to clarify the facts.

Although they had been detained for nearly three years in the process of
accumulating evidence, we Cubans learned of them only when they were
tried, since the usual secrecy took care to hide it. Despite the
infantile argument that they were spying to protect Cuba from the United
States and from terrorists (like finding an unauthorized alien in our
home who, when discovered, argues he had come to protect us), which no
one with a modicum of intelligence can accept, this has become the
banner of struggle for so-called "Cause of the Five" and they are even
put forward as international personalities, whether from political
opportunism, mental inertia, or true lack of basic reasoning, I don't know.

During these years, besides having at their disposal a team of U.S. and
Cuban lawyers, paid for with money from the Cuban people, their families
have practiced and are practicing international tourism, also at the
Cuban peoples' expense. They have become national celebrities, with a
presence in any public ceremony that takes place.

They talk about terrible and inhumane prison conditions and violation of
rights, when in fact they serve their sentences in appropriate detention
facilities, with medical attention, are well fed and clothed, neat, with
phones and internet access and can receive visitors, study, write
patriotic letters, send messages of solidarity and gratitude, play chess
games with Cuban children and write poems, paint and put on art
exhibitions, conditions very different from those of the prisoners in Cuba.

If that was not enough, they also have at their disposal the President
of the National Assembly, whose main job description seems to be, in the
opinion on the street, to serve them and their family members, and to
call and open and close, with blows of hammer, the two annual sessions
of that body. It has come to the absurd point where in the press the
case of the five is one of the unrenounceable causes of the Cuban
nation. We have always had problems with the just measure of things:
either we miss or we fall short. We regularly miss.

It is human and understandable to appeal and fight for the freedom of
loved ones, even if they committed a crime. I can understand that there
are even people who, by conviction or bigotry, spend years of their
lives, or more, in prison unfairly. What is unacceptable is to
manipulate the truth to raise awareness among citizens and to seek,
through this, what could not be achieved through the courts for justice.
A government paranoia does not have to become a national paranoia. These
five people have had more chances to appeal than did the three* young
Cubans were shot in less than seventy-two hours after being arrested,
prosecuted, tried, sentenced, filed appeals, upheld the convictions,
etc., in a demonstration of efficiency of justice in Cuba.

*Translator's note: Fernando is speaking of the young men who hijacked
the 13 de Marzo tugboat hoping to go to Florida, but never made it out
of Cuban waters.

October 7 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14972

Trampling Innocence / Angel Santiesteban

2012-02-10T19:53:00.001-08:00

Trampling Innocence / Angel Santiesteban
Angel Santiesteban, Translator: Unstated

In the official newspaper — of course no others are allowed to exist — a
"journalist" published an article titled "Trampling innocence," where,
exalted, he concerns himself with highlighting some children's games
where they pretend to "kill." He tells us, "They can hide these
irresponsible attitudes in the future; and although habit does not make
the man, it least it identifies him."

The writer also highlights that another group of children ran some
remote control toy cars over some soldiers, who are seen as human
figures, and the one who ran over the most received the biggest ovation
and shouts of victory.

Then, wise, he emphasizes, "The formation of personality is a process of
sedimentation of behavior, values and influences. Could not the 'naive
violence' shown in the game be a pattern that prevails in the future?
It's worth pondering."

And he says, "It is not a secret, because the Law so provides, it is the
responsibility of parents to form the character of their children."

When I finished reading it I wondered how could a journalist in middle
age, as evidenced by the photo accompanying the article, could trample
his innocence, or worse, the readers'. How many times have we called
attention to militarism and, therefore, the violence that the government
plants in children?

For as long as we can remember they've prepared us physically and
psychologically to kill. What is the point of the "Boy Scouts" other
than to direct you in the first steps in military rigor, the life of
survival in extreme situations? Since children are part of the military
circles, military units led us, taught us to handle the military technique.

We, according to the education we received, are a product of the
revolutionary process which we must and have to defend with our lives.
From an early age they made us go and hold a gun made of wood or tin.
They filled the island with shotguns, because the slogan was: "Learn to
shoot, and shoot well," and the investment was made by SEPMI, a direct
offshoot of the army.

We had a subject, which still exists, read well: a subject called
"Military Readiness" for little boys and girls, as important as the
others when it came time to average the grades by which they assign
those who will study for future professions. A subject to accompany you
for the rest of your life, in high school, in military service before
college.

Even then, in the university, the preparation continues. And after
graduation, you still part of the army and from time to time are
required to stay for a month or more in spring training. The Sundays of
MTT, which fill our neighborhoods, understood as the spaces of
childhood, with dark scenes of attacks, gunfire, smoke and explosions.
And we, the children we were then and now, witnessing all these scenes
of death.

While we postpone our games because we wait for the adults to finish
with theirs, but with real guns, and we returned to the streets, while
we wait for our mothers and fathers to come home, in their sweaty
uniforms and muddy boots, with barely the energy to clean the house,
only their bodies begging for a bath, food and rest. And we are left
with: imitation, going to repeat those fires, to occupy the barricades
with sacks filled with dirt.

To this add, of course, always removing the mask of innocence and
pointing to reality,that the national television programs in prime time
are about the police, incorruptible heroes, who through violence reach
justice. Just remember those great series: "It had to be in silence,"
"Julito the fisherman," "Something more than dreams," among many,
presentations that, like it or not, marked our personality of who we are
today, and our parents unable to prevent it, even if they were aware of
future consequences in the human beings we would later be. But how to
stop events, time, isolate us from everything?

I believe that the journalist, perhaps with the best of intentions,
tramples his own innocence, or underestimates the society by concealing
that the true reasons for the current violence is transmitted through
the speeches, the perennial fear generated in us about invasions to our
shores, air strikes, among others.

Cuban society in these 54 years of political process that governs us,
above all those of us born out of chaos, were raised to kill a perceived
enemy that never came. We still await the impending attack of the United
States, so that several generations of Cubans sacrificed their lives,
putting their hopes on a better future that never came.

I remember in the innocence of my generation as we played at killing
like cowboys, but most wanted to be Indians, Apaches defending their
territory because we saw the gunmen of the West as abuserswho wanted to
impose their law, steal our land, our tranquility and impose their
customs. We learned from American movies with which they also roasted
us, just before the arrival of Soviet war movies and the rest of the
socialist camp. They twisted our culture, the look and the innocence.

Hopefully the most objective of the writer is his call for "reflection"
which would be worthwhile for anyone, though, we understand, he didn't
have the audacity to name it directly because that would be suicide,
closing the door to his existence as an official journalist. Because
ultimately, what we are, good or bad, we owe to our rebellion or to
Fidel Castro, who imposed the rules with which each generation must comply.

Bifurcated ways that everyone, rolling or rocking his innocence, took
for himself.

February 8 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14968

Legalizing the Illegalities / Fernando Dámaso

2012-02-10T17:52:00.001-08:00

Legalizing the Illegalities / Fernando Dámaso
Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated

The two Decree-Laws adopted regarding the purchase and sale of Motor
Vehicles and Housing, in spite of the propaganda organized around it to
convince people that they represent important steps in the political
updating of the model, constitute a reality of more heat than light,
because it does not go beyond simple legalization (with dozens of years
of delay), of the illegalities committed (with dozens of years of
advance) for many citizens, against the grain of the absurd prohibitions
established by the authorities demonstrating their intelligence to
overcome the arbitrariness of the State. As always, the actions of
citizens were ahead of the state measures. Briefly analyzed, they didn't
even reestablish the rights on both issues in the Republic, which were
violated from the year 1959. By removing only part of the prohibitions
and not all, it remains the breeding ground for new illegalities. Patience.

Now it turns out that the prohibition on purchasing new vehicles will be
maintained for the majority of citizens; this possibility will be
granted only to athletes, musicians and doctors on some priority
international medical missions. It seems that the rest of the doctors,
and the architects, engineers, lawyers, physicists, chemists,
mathematicians, computer scientists and other professionals are ignored
by the state.

The chosen ones (the reasons are not explained) are, along with the
leaders, the new privileged class in the most just society in world.

Something similar happens with housing, which only deals with existing
homes. What if a citizen can and want to build their home? A friend told
me: the scorpion, ever were you to remove the poison, remains a scorpion.

It seems that totalitarian governments and their leaders, both right and
left (like the scorpion), are so accustomed to command and control, it
is very difficult if not impossible, to change and to stop doing what
they've always done, although the results have been disastrous.

According to their erroneous and unsuccessful conceptions, they must
regulate and control everything, and if not all, at least in part,
without ever cutting the umbilical cord.

When they offered explanations on TV about the content of the two
Decree-Laws, these details were omitted, thus constituting a deception
by omission. It seems that to really solve the many problems facing the
Cuban nation, the only solution is change the model. Everything else is
just talk and entertainment to win some time, even a few months, weeks
or days. They apply what Lampedusa said in The Leopard: make changes so
that everything remains the same. Like these Decree-Laws, any other to
be approved later, by what we see, will come burdened with the same
absurd and obsolete concepts. It's a genetic problem.

Photos by Rebeca

November 13 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14967

Havana is Falling Down on Us / Iván García

2012-02-10T16:49:00.001-08:00

Havana is Falling Down on Us / Iván García
Iván García, Translator: Unstated

For Rogelio, 49, the need for housing is stronger than his fear of
losing his life due to a collapse. Born in Guantanamo, and he has nine
years in Havana. For twelve hours a day, he frantically pedals a
rickshaw under a blazing sun. He lives in one of the more than 6
thousand tenements — called "solares" in Spanish — in the capital.

Fifteen years ago, his quarters were declared uninhabitable by the
authorities. The danger of collapse is real. Let's visit the site where
he resides. At the entrance, some high wooden braces barely support the
crumbling structure. Between screams, reggaeton music blaring, tenants
who play the lottery, chat about baseball, politics and women or simply
do nothing, he spends his hours in the place.

Rogelio's minimum room leaks when it rains. A steel bar bisects the room
to prevent the collapse of the miserable hovel of concrete and gray tiles.

Not to mention the precarious living conditions. Bathing facilities,
toilets and broken pipes cause a foul smell. That matters little to Rogelio.

"I have no options. I burned all my ships. I lived in a hut with a
thatched roof and no future hidden location known as Happiness in
Yateras. One evening I packed my bags and two thousand dollars I had
saved by selling homemade rum, came to the capital. Havana is our Miami
for many from the East. And a step that can be used to catapult yourself
and migrate," says Rogelio while his wife rubs ointment on his legs,
trying to ease the pain after twelve hours of pedaling.

Official figures are terrifying. In a population of 11.2 million, the
housing deficit is 600,000 homes and state plans for construction
decreased from 150,000 to 50,000 or less per year. It is estimated that
60% of homes in Cuba are in fair or poor technical condition; of these
at least 20% would be uninhabitable.

In the old and central Havana the number of dilapidated buildings
increases. Julia, 56, selling pirated CDs as usual, knows the risk to
the resident in an old building within walking distance of the Capitol.
"But if we leave, we will end up in one of those overcrowded government
shelters, which are the closest thing to a prison. Sketchy people living
there and sometimes violent disputes resolved by dint of knife," says Julia.

A collapse occurred on January 17, in a uninhabitable building, at
Infanta and Salud, Central Havana, killing four young people: Yexnis
Mejías Muñoz, Daniela Fleites Marchante and Rachel Labrada Mesa, the
three college students, and Jorge Osvaldo Gómez González, the boyfriend
of one of them. It was hidden under a heavy police deployment. The event
has generated intense debate among the population, both among those
waiting in lines and standing on corners as well as within the
'almendrones' or old American cars, converted into private taxis.

Most people believe the government should take urgent measures to
prevent the repeated collapses that continue to occur in several
municipalities of Havana, with their costs in deaths, injuries and
property damage. A medium intensity rain shower usually causes the
collapse of houses and buildings in Havana.

Not to mention when the Cuban capital is shaken by the fierce winds of a
hurricane. Fortunately, none have been force 5. Due to the hurricanes
that hit the island in 2008, more than 647,110 houses were affected in
the country, and 84,737 collapsed. In Havana, thousands of families lost
their homes and many are still without them.

The prayers and charms of the babalao Gregory, 62, do not seem
sufficient for the next hurricane season; adverse weather conditions
erased at a stroke hundreds of buildings that still stand only due to a
miracle.

So people like Rogelio from Guantanamo, or the vendor Gladys, have to
sleep with a heavy heart fearing a possible collapse of their homes.

The worst thing is that the government of General Raúl Castro does not
have at hand a solution to urgently rehabilitate and reform the city.
Havana will have to keep waiting.

Photo: Joisy Garcia Martinez. Of a building collapse that occurred on
June 29, 2010 at the intersection of 10 de Octubre and Luyano, better
known as Toyo corner. Taken from his blog Creole Liberal.

Note. – On 26 January, just days after writing this work, there was a
second landslide in Havana, with one fatality. After decades in ruins,
the Campoamor Theatre collapsed, located as San Jose and Industria, on
the side of the Capitol and one of the most important theaters in Cuba
in the twentieth century.

January 27 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14885

Civic and Economic Robbery / Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere

2012-02-10T15:49:00.001-08:00

Civic and Economic Robbery / Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere
Mackandal - Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere, Translator: Unstated

From slavery heroes emerge, but from infertile freedom only the useless
emerge.
José Martí

The economy has always been the soft underbelly of the Cuban government.
However, before 1959 Cuba was among the countries with highest economic
solvency of the Americas, second only to a few countries such as the
United States and Canada. There was an economic boom that flourished
over long periods and that undoubtedly would have resulted in improved
conditions for the citizenry.

Through workers' strikes — demonstrations of civil rights — the Cuban
proletariat achieved several important victories.

Despite the fact that the sharks also had their times, the citizenry was
moving forward.

But the unconsidered issue of Afro-Cubans as a group with very specific
problems, necessitated a policy that would emphasize racial
individuality, as it should have been then and as it continues to be
ignored in Cuba today.

The growth that at times has been found in the financial sector —
according to official data — has not guaranteed improvements for the
most deprived sector of the nation's population, where the survey should
also find many white families, but in fact does not.

Today the economic robbery, for which the government is solely
responsible, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of workers losing
their jobs due to layoffs that do not take into account years of service
or the needs of the citizen, in a country that wants to make the world
believe in the advantages of socialism. They create the mechanisms of
exclusion such that vagrancy and crime increase, now under the aegis of
totalitarianism.

It would be worthwhile to do a comparative study with the critical years
when Cuba was a colony, when blacks and mestizos, as now, got the worst
of it.

No improvement will be achieved through good management of political
legerdemain, with the implementation of laws aimed mainly to maintain
and strengthen the regime, against a citizenry that lacks all the
essentials for a decent livelihood

The vast majority of Afro-Cubans know that buying time is a maneuver
that is working very well for the regime, but that falls short for
solving problems of such magnitude as ending the exclusion and racism in
a society where the majority don't take it into account, although
committed to radical changes and a dignified citizen solvency.

9 February 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14926

Getting off on the wrong foot / Rebeca Monzo

2012-02-10T14:50:00.001-08:00

Getting off on the wrong foot / Rebeca Monzo
Rebeca Monzo, Translator: Unstated

On Friday I got up very willing, had four errands to run and
fortunately, they were all close to home.

The first was to go to a specialty pharmacy, where one could buy the
prescribed medicine. Arriving there about 10.30 am, what was my surprise
to see everyone in a white coat sitting on the curb of the sidewalk,
conversing lazily, but some other people who seemed to be waiting. On
seeing the doors of the establishment in question closed, I asked,
addressing one of white-coated ones, what's going on?

Very dismissive, barely glancing at me, he replied: The pharmacy will be
closed at least one hour, because they just fumigate. Protesting
quietly, knowing the futility of it, I moved on to the Bank of Credit,
my next stop. Upon arriving and noting that there was no line,
surprised, I asked the doorman. "It's that there is no electricity
throughout the area," he said gently.

Determined to resolve some of the planned errands, I directed my steps
to the offices of the courier Aerovaradero, near the area, to
investigate a package sent from Miami, which has been lost for two months.

After queuing for nearly an hour, just for information, they sent me
inside and made me wait another twenty minutes while I watched the
employees in their coming and going, living it up and joking with each
other and discussing their personal affairs. I left upset because they
wouldn't give me any details.

Then I dropped by the fruit and vegetable stand, which faces the
Polyclinic, to buy a product that I needed. I waited more than thirty
minutes for the employee's arrival, whom I was informed had gone to
lunch couple of hours ago.

The sign placed in front of the stand says it's open to the public from
9 am. to 5 pm. Nowhere did it say anything about lunch time. I left
there, you can imagine how.

Also, on my way home I saw the reason for the lack of electricity: the
tree murderers, forgive me, the personal who chop them off, saw in hand,
was destroying the entire grove on Tulipan street.

At the time those verses of the mournful stanzas of November 27 came to
mind, and paraphrasing them I recited to myself: The corpses of trees
which, one day, were the ornaments of my country.

I returned home as swiftly as I could. I swear, never have I felt so
happy to get inside. That popular maxim was ratified once again: Getting
off on the wrong foot.

February 7 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14888

Cuba Wants To Attend Upcoming Americas Summit; US Rejects Idea

2012-02-10T13:23:00.001-08:00

Cuba Wants To Attend Upcoming Americas Summit; US Rejects Idea
FEBRUARY 10, 2012, 8:20 A.M. ET

BOGOTA (Dow Jones)--Colombia's foreign minister said Thursday Cuba wants
to attend the upcoming 34-nation Summit of the Americas, an idea
immediately dismissed by the U.S. on the grounds the island nation isn't
democratic.

"They told me, obviously, that they're interested in attending,"
Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said in Bogota upon
returning from Cuba, where she met with the Communist nation's
president, Raul Castro.

Colombia will play host to the summit April 14-15 in the Caribbean
resort city of Cartagena, and U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to
attend.

It'll be the sixth such hemisphere-wide gathering of heads of states
going back to the 1990s. Communist-ruled Cuba has never been invited,
although it sometimes has sent to the event representatives who hold
their own meetings and protests outside the gates of the official event.

On Saturday, Ecuador President Rafael Correa called on left-leaning
nations in the region to boycott the summit if Cuba isn't included. The
summit is organized by the Organization of American States.

Holguin said Colombia will hold diplomatic meetings with other OAS
member nations over the coming weeks to see about the possibility of
Cuba getting an invite to the summit.

"We're going to look into it," she said, adding that the meetings will
be closed-door.

For the U.S. government, any suggestion that Cuba be invited is a
nonstarter.

"The countries of the Americas, by consensus at the 2001 Quebec Summit,
made clear the Summit process is open only to democratic countries," the
U.S. Embassy in Bogota said in an emailed statement Thursday. "The U.S.
supports that shared commitment and looks forward to the day when a
democratic Cuba takes its rightful seat at a Summit of the Americas.
Sadly, that day has not yet come."

-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120210-708631.html

CPJ: Rousseff Quiet As Cuban Blogger Denied Travel to Brazil

2012-02-10T13:21:00.001-08:00

Rousseff Quiet As Cuban Blogger Denied Travel to Brazil
By Carlos Lauría/Americas Senior Program Coordinator, 9 February 2012

press release

The response from Cuban officials did not take anyone by surprise.
Prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez had been, once again, denied
permission to leave her country after she was granted a visa by the
Brazilian Embassy in January to attend a film festival. "I feel like a
hostage kidnapped by someone who doesn't listen nor provide
explanations. A government with a ski mask and a gun in a holster,"
tweeted Sánchez on Friday after the Cuban government denied her request
to travel to Brazil. It was, according to the blogger, the 19th time
Cuban officials have turned down her request to leave the island. As in
the past, officials gave no reason for the rejection.

Brazilian filmmaker Dado Galvao announced Tuesday that he was postponing
the premiere of the documentary "Connection Cuba-Honduras," a movie
about press freedom in both countries, in solidarity with the Cuban
blogger, who participated in the film. Brazilian President Dilma
Rousseff, who visited Cuba last week and declined to meet with Sánchez
or any dissidents, spoke to reporters before Cuba denied the blogger
permission to leave the country. "Brazil gave the visa to the blogger.
The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government," Rousseff said at
the time.

Sánchez's work is well known outside Cuba. She has received several
international awards, including Columbia's University's Maria Moors
Cabot Award for excellence in Latin American reporting, and she blogs
regularly for the U.S.-based Huffington Post. Sánchez also gained a
measure of fame when President Barack Obama responded to a written
questionnaire she sent to the White House in November 2009.

Sánchez has not only been denied permission to travel abroad but has
suffered official harassment for her work. In early November 2009,
Sánchez and two other independent Cuban bloggers were detained,
harassed, and assaulted by state security agents on their way to a
peaceful march in Havana. Sánchez has also been the victim of smear
campaigns in Cuba's state media, which have described her as a
"cybermercenary" at the service of foreign governments.

A vibrant and enthusiastic independent blogging community has emerged in
Cuba in the past few years, according to CPJ research. The bloggers, who
face severe legal, economic, and technological limitations, are mostly
young and from a variety of professions. They critically examine the
issues that Cubans face daily: food shortages, health care, education,
housing problems, and the lack of Internet access, a 2009 CPJ special
report found.

Free press advocates and Cuban journalists point to Sánchez as a pioneer
in this evolving community. Sánchez, who started blogging in April 2007,
was the first to write under her own byline. Her blog, Generación Y, and
several other Cuban blogs are hosted by the German-based portal Desde
Cuba (From Cuba), a place where, as its introduction says, "citizen
journalists" can offer "opinions that don't have room in official Cuban
outlets or any other publication that is conditioned by political
requirements."

Rousseff's first visit to Cuba as president had raised expectations
among some independent reporters, bloggers, and political dissidents
that she would speak about human rights on the island. But the Brazilian
leader stayed away from the topic, sticking instead to the trip's key
mission of developing trade and boosting Cuba's economy. Sánchez wrote a
blog entry prior to her visit, in which she expressed hope that
Rousseff's behavior would be "consistent with the clamor for democracy,
instead of opting for a complicit silence before a dictatorship." But
Rousseff's visit to Brazil clearly showed that Latin American leaders
are still reluctant to address Cuba's grave human rights violations when
they travel there.

CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría, a native of
Buenos Aires, is a widely published journalist who has written
extensively for Noticias, the world's largest Spanish-language
newsmagazine. Follow him on Facebook @ CPJ en Español.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201202100606.html

Cuban Oil: Country's Ambitions Endanger Florida Coral Reefs and Coast

2012-02-10T13:19:00.001-08:00

Cuban Oil: Country's Ambitions Endanger Florida Coral Reefs and Coast
By Pierre Bertrand
February 10, 2012 12:54 AM GMT

Cuba's fledgling oil industry has for the first time dropped an offshore
rig into the waters off the Florida Keys, a move that has U.S. officials
and environmentalists warning that the island nation's energy ambitions
could come at the expense of the ecologically sensitive region at the
tip of the Florida Peninsula.

"Cuba cannot be trusted to provide even the bare essentials to its own
citizens and it certainly can't be trusted to oversee safe and
environmentally sound oil drilling only 90 miles off our pristine
Florida coast," said Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll in testimony
before the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

Working with Spain's biggest oil company, Repsol, Cuba has placed an
exploratory well 30 miles off Havana, 5,600 feet below the ocean
surface. It's one of five wells planned in the region and is deeper than
BP's Macondo well that spilled millions of barrels of oil in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010. The well sits 56 miles away from the Keys. By contrast,
BP's well was 41 miles off the Lousiana coast. Cuban officials hope that
the oil produced offshore will fill a 100,000-barrel-a-day supply gap
currently covered by Venezuela.

Because of the well's location in the Florida Strait a spill or blowout,
like the one that occurred in the Gulf, would be an environmental
disaster of untold peril, said John Proni of Florida International
University, a scientist with the Atlantic Oceanography and
Meteorological Laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration.

Proni, who also testified before the maritime subcommittee, explained
that the Cuban rig sits dangerously close to the Gulf Stream current
system. Any leaked oil that gets into this whirlpool would reach U.S.
coastal waters quickly and threaten the "iconic Florida coral reef
system, important fisheries and breeding grounds, location of threatened
and endangered sea grass and coral, and habitat for rare and endangered
species," Proni said.

The drilling of the well is expected to take roughly two months.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement concluded last month
that the Cuban rig met U.S. standards after American offshore oil
drilling regulators boarded and reviewed the Spanish-operated equipment
before it reached Cuban waters. However, because the rig was not bound
for U.S. territory, nor contracted for exploration in the United States,
the regulators had no authority to influence Repsol's plans. The U.S.
has recently overhauled its offshore permitting processes and tightened
regulations -- and it is likely that these rules will continue to evolve
in the coming years. Since the U.S. and Cuba do not have diplomatic
relations, it will be impossible to continue to monitor this offshore
project even as the standards for operating rigs in coastal waters improve.

Oil spills in offshore projects are an increasingly common occurrence.
From the early 1970s through the 1990s there were only four a year in
U.S. waters. But between 2005 and 2010, there was an average of more
than 20 oil spills a year in coastal waters. So although Repsol has a
relatively good reputation for quality, the chance of a spill cannot be
discounted. If it occurs in this project, Cuba simply does not have the
capabilities or equipment to respond quickly enough to an accident
before it begins to compromise the waters around it, said Jorge Pinon, a
former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and an expert on Cuba's oil
industry. The BP well blowout required 5,000 vessels, three additional
rigs, submersibles, more than 100 aircraft and 30,000 emergency
responders to get under control.

"Cuba doesn't have these assets," said Pinon. "They will have to come
from the United States."

Because of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, which restricts business
transactions and trade between the two countries, U.S. companies and
experts would not be permitted to respond to a Cuban offshore oil rig
accident. However, Pinon noted that the U.S. president could temporarily
lift the embargo to allow crews and first responders to participate in a
shutdown and recovery operation. The Spanish rig uses a U.S. blowout
preventer so replacement equipment could theoretically be sent in as well.

But the logistics of such a rescue effort would mar its effectiveness,
Pinon added. With so little routine communication and so much antagonism
between the two countries, it's hard to imagine how a plan could be
worked out quickly for who takes command of the many moving parts
involved in a cleanup. And there would be many questions to address
about whether U.S. spotter and oil dispersant planes could fly in Cuban
airspace, where rescue teams could operate and whether crews would need
visas. All of this could greatly delay the response and increase the
chance that the Florida Keys would be damaged, Pinon said.

Jennifer Diaz, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, said the state is in the process of drafting a coastal oil
spill response plan. Two others for the region are being put together by
the U.S. Coast Guard.

Lt. Patrick Montgomery, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, which would
take the lead on any ocean cleanup, said it is always on the lookout for
oil spills. But in the event of a spill in Cuban territorial waters, the
Coast Guard's response powers are nil.

Montgomery said that under current rules crews can only clean up oil
that is spilled or drifts into U.S. and international waters. But since
the well is in Cuban territory, it will be the responsibility of Cuban
and Repsol authorities to shut down a malfunctioning well and prevent
any oil from leaking.

"We have in place contingency plans that adhere to the strictest
international standards and are confident that we have all the elements
in place to deal with potential threats," said Kristian Rix, a spokesman
for Repsol, who did not elaborate further. "Our diligence has been
rewarded by the positive comments and feedback received from the U.S.
Coast Guard during their inspection of the rig."

Rix added the company implemented two suggestions made by U.S.
regulators but did not elaborate.

Manuel Marrero of the Cuban Ministry of Basic Industry said on the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website that Cuba's environmental
regulations pertaining to oil drilling are "very strict and severe."
Companies involved in the drilling of offshore oil in Cuban waters will
be required to have equipment and a logistics center in the coastal town
of Mariel, located several miles outside Havana.

None of this is comforting to Frank Verrastro, senior VP and director of
the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Energy and National
Security Program, who put it succinctly: Cuba has never drilled for
deepwater oil before and "the expectation is [Cubans] don't have the
capability to handle [a large spill]."

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/296258/20120210/gulf-mexico-florida-coast-guard-cuba-oil.htm

Sen. Feinstein singles out Cuba as potential drug smuggling point

2012-02-10T13:08:00.001-08:00

Posted on Friday, 02.10.12

CUBA

Sen. Feinstein singles out Cuba as potential drug smuggling point
By David Goodhue
dgoodhue@keysreporter.com

A California senator who chairs a congressional caucus on international
drug trafficking warned last week that Cuba could become a significant
hub for illegal drugs entering the United States in the near future.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) made the remarks while leading a
hearing on what several observers consider the growing possibility that
the Caribbean could become an even larger transit zone for illegal
drugs. If the trend happens or is happening, it is likely because of
increased pressure international law enforcement is placing on violent
drug cartels in Mexico and elsewhere in Central America, these observers
say.

While mentioning the growing drug violence throughout the Caribbean
during opening statements of the Feb. 1 hearing of the Senate Caucus on
International Narcotics Control, Feinstein said Cuba should not be
considered immune from the problem.

"I would be remiss not to mention Cuba. Just 90 miles from Florida, Cuba
has the potential to be a major trans-shipment point for illicit drugs,"
she said.

The statement comes just weeks after Cuba's state-run newspaper, Granma,
reported the communist government last year confiscated more
foreign-borne drugs than in any time during the past seven years.

It also comes as U.S. officials are making public statements over
concerns about increased smuggling activity in the Caribbean as a whole.

In October, William Brownfield, assistant secretary of the U.S. State
Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement,
testified in front of Congress that increased attention on Mexico would
likely force drug smugglers to look to the Caribbean as a gateway to get
their products into the United States.

During the Feb. 1 hearing, Aubrey P. Marks, Jamaica's ambassador to the
United States, said her government fears the same thing. She told
Feinstein the possibility becomes even more real if the U.S. doesn't
better coordinate law enforcement efforts with all of its neighbors in
the Caribbean.

"Moreover, security efforts cannot be undertaken sequentially, as this
will create a 'balloon effect' to which Assistant Secretary Brownfield
alluded when he warned of the potential for the Caribbean to become, as
it was in the 1980s, the major trans-shipment point for illegal drugs
from South and Central America," Marks said in written testimony. "We
must agree that this is, currently, a very real possibility."

Already, Caribbean nations are seizing significantly more illegal drug
shipments than in previous years. Anibal de Castro, the Dominican
Republic's ambassador to the United States, said law enforcement in his
country confiscated almost 50 percent more cocaine passing through
Hispaniola in 2011 than in 2010.

"Only in the month of December of last year, joint efforts by law
enforcement agencies succeeded in intercepting four large shipments over
a two-week period totaling over 1.3 tons of cocaine," de Castro said.

While urging more law enforcement assistance from the United States,
Marks warned that economic help and job training should also be a part
of anti-drug efforts in the Caribbean. She said the poverty-stricken
conditions of many nations in the region create fertile ground for
international cartels and smugglers to recruit workers. Approaching the
problem too heavy-handedly, and with a focus solely on law enforcement,
could backfire and make the situation in these countries worse, Marks
told Feinstein.

"Often, actions taken by the U.S. in pursuance of one aspect of domestic
or foreign policy have unintended consequences for our countries and
undermines the efforts of other U.S. agencies to achieve the overall
goal of a more-secure third border with the Caribbean," Marks said.

"Let us not ignore the umbilical relationship between an underdeveloped
economy, social vacuums and narco-trafficking."

Jonathan C. Benjamin-Alvarado, a political science professor at the
University of Nebraska, said the possible shift in narcotics trafficking
to the Caribbean shows that enforcement operations Mexico are working.
But he also took issue with Feinstein's specific inclusion of Cuba in
her statement on the matter, noting that combating drug smuggling is one
area where the United States and Cuba work well together.

"It's really irresponsible for her to say that," Benjamin-Alvarado said.
"It sets in motion that the Cubans are doing nothing, which is
absolutely not true, and it insinuates that Cuba is descending into some
sort of narco state."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/10/2634547/sen-dianne-feinstein-singles-out.html#storylink=misearch

Very few…

2012-02-09T19:52:00.001-08:00

Very few…
Published February 9, 2012 | By Translating Cuba

It is not surprising how many people go out in mass, before any
revolutionary summons. In Cuba, the State is the absolute owner of
everything; hospitals, schools, radio and television stations, hotels,
discotheques, restaurants. The State is the sole employer. At the
address of each one of these places, there appear the photos of the
State, "personified" in its commanders, like revolutionary "saints", who
sold the cornerstone of the social justice in exchange for their
survival. And to make sure that there were no returns, they
expropriated the owners of the companies, hardened capitalists, who
today might be alternatives [to the state]; shelters. Very few decide to
jump into the void to stop being mercenaries of the State and
accomplices in their own tragedy.

Nowadays, the house of Sara Marta has been surrounded by the State
Security in a 100 metre perimeter. Twelve people, until yesterday, held
a wake for the death of Wilmar Villar. My friend Augustine did not let
it pass.

Very few people declare themselves in opposition to the government
because people do not want to be dismissed from their jobs, be demoted
or land in more serious trouble. Having faith in their own consciences
(which most Cubans have lost) a few have decided to touch the door
knocker of destiny; in conflict with the laconic state which decides
destinies and fights against God in every person.

To give you an idea of the threat and criminality of State Corporation
poses, you have to remember the case of Laura Pollan. When she was ill,
with a disease that probably would not have caused death, she had to go
to the Calixto Garcia hospital, scary for everyone. Certainly, if
visited by State Security, which I venture to suppose, orders to the
medical staff could have been given, "mission" dependent, to allow the
negligence causing the death of the Lady in White, who was inconvenient
to the state.

The police who beat and punished Wilmar Villar are also state employees.
At the corner of my house, Lombillo and Boyeros, the Police Directorate
distributes live poultry and egg cartons to their tarnished servants
who, for the donation, do the colita (a doped-up dance) in the parking
lot. The political department of each unit has a policy to acknowledge
"the lord" of the state and to obey any order even if it means abusing
to death an unarmed human being who only was a part of a protest. No one
should be misled about these "people."

We are considered mentally destitute, deserving the benefit of
veterinary care. Except for those "ungrateful" like Wilmar who
ironically died of pneumonia in a country where two medical students
woke me up this morning to take my temperature, and before my denial,
asked me not to say anything.

The octopus of the state monopoly, keeps their employees at one of the
lowest poverty levels; earning less than 50 cents on the dollar (CUC)
per day. Because nobody wants to get into trouble, [the state] has
achieved the miracle of people applauding slave labour and slavery of
conscience. Very few are willing to die on a hunger strike to demand
freedom.

When I hear them say that persons who complain are "salaried" [that is,
"in the pay of the empire"], I think of the state as the employment
agency, with the power to grant permits to allow you a little pizza
businesses. That "checks" with the "Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution" to determine whether or not someone gets a better job. And
do I think Laura's nurses, Villar's jailers, who are only fulfilling
their ideological work, have no consciousness of the poor who do not eat
beans daily, where there is no other employer or homeowner so that the
"State of the caudillos is secure." Those who swallow the pill of
revolutionary hagiography what tyranny do they believe it is necessary
to fight?

Translated by: Hank Hardisty

January 30 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14916

Coastal pollution in Cuba

2012-02-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

Coastal pollution in Cuba
Science and Technology
02 / 09 / 2012

Toxic wastes and pollutants that are generated by different processes in
terrestrial areas are dumped into the sea. Specifically in Cuba, its
geographical costs are the main reservoir and therefore the most damaged
area.
Such a feature-explanatory that usually infectious substances are
organic-biodegradable, due to being the major component of urban and
industrial waste liquids.
Although there is another variety of impurity materials, including
potentially toxic chemicals, the truth is that make up the bulk of the
landings.
A national inventory of corrupt means indicated that 40 percent of them
had no treatment systems for liquid waste, excluding the absence of
sewage in small coastal settlements.
The fact is that in open areas, although they receive the noxious
barrage from land, including sewage, discharges go directly to the sea
and this is responsible for dilution and transport.
For this reason, infection levels are not elevated, except in the
estuarine zone near the mouth of rivers, where avalanches create a
continuous area, mainly as a sort of pen, which possess a high degree of
organic pollution mainly fecal origin.
However, in the bays the loads generated systematically assimilate waste
accumulation, due to poor tidal exchange compared to the volume received
directly or through the rivers that flow into them.
Also influenced by their own geographical features that are mostly
closed bays, with a narrow channel of communication.
In some of them, may be high rates of contamination by organic and
inorganic chemical compounds, with a toxic nature.
These ranges of concentrations are in the bays of Havana and Cienfuegos
Nuevitas, considered the most contaminated by metals.
The same applies to the one in Havana, Cienfuegos, and Mariel, but in
this case hydrocarbon anthropic origin or caused by human activity.
A particular case is that of Levisa, in the province of Holguin, with a
marked pollution caused by metallic elements associated with open pit
mining.
Other effects on the coastal marine area are related to biodiversity,
including urban planning, which helps determine the spatial organization
and allocation of land uses, appropriate management and protection of
natural resources.

http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2012/02/09/34532/coastal_pollution_in_cuba.html

Reports of Castro Confessing to Pope Stir Buzz

2012-02-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

Reports of Castro Confessing to Pope Stir Buzz
Wednesday, 08 Feb 2012 05:56 PM
By Mike Tighe

Imagine the line queued up behind Fidel Castro — he of the hours-long
speeches to the Cuban people he led for almost five decades — if he went
to confession when Pope Benedict XVI comes to town. And, of course, if
the pontiff has time during his visit to the communist island nation in
March.

What goes on in the confessional obviously would be a private matter
between the 85-year-old former Cuban dictator and God. But reports in
two major Italian newspapers that he is inclined to seek forgiveness
have generated speculation about the possibilities.

"If true, this is a remarkable story — and one that has yet to catch the
attention of editors this side of the Atlantic," GetReligion.org
observes in a story under the headline "The Last Temptation of Castro."

A report in the center-left La Republicca quotes Castro's daughter,
Alina, as saying, "During this last period, Fidel has come closer to
religion. He has rediscovered Jesus at the end of his life. It doesn't
surprise me, because Dad was raised by Jesuits."

The Italian daily also quotes a Vatican official who is working on
details of the Pope's Cuba trip, including a meeting with Castro's
successor and brother, Raul. "Fidel is at the end of his strength.
Nearly at the end of his life. His exhortations in the party paper
Granma are increasingly less frequent. We know that, in this last
period, he has come closer to religion and God," the Vatican official
told La Republicca.

However, some raise the issue of Castro's supposed excommunication from
the church in 1963. Some observers contend that Pope John XXIII bounced
him out of the flock; others say that's a misconception.

La Republicca quotes a Vatican official as saying, "True, in 1963
[Castro] was excommunicated by the Pope, but then that measure was a
measure almost automatic for those who professed Communism."

GetReligion.org also cites a Vatican Insider column in La Stampa that
says, "there is no evidence that Castro was excommunicated by Pope John
XXIII."

Besides, excommunication doesn't bar reconciliation with the church if a
penitent seeks forgiveness and is absolved.

Those who note Castro's former hard-line position against religion cite
his attending Mass during Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit to Cuba as
proof the ailing dictator had softened on matters of faith.

And Matthew Cantirino addresses the significance of a possible
reconciliation in his First Thoughts column at the First Things website,
writing: "But an event like this, if it does indeed occur, would
represent such a poetic, almost-unbelievable Medieval occurrence that it
is bound to seem, to many of us in the first world, like some sort of
political ploy or cynical biographical touch. Yet even if political
motives figure in Castro's decision [which they no doubt do to some
extent], that should not necessarily not take away from the enormity of
the event. A political leader's conversion, especially one whose entire
governmental philosophy has at its core atheistic materialism, has to be
scrutinized for the public effect it will have. In Castro's case, it is
difficult to conceive how the effect would be anything but an enormous
positive for Cuba's repressed Christian community."

Amid the speculation, many Cuban bloggers insist that the Pope should
cancel his trip, "their main concern being that the Vatican is putting
its stamp of approval on the Castro regime despite regular reports of
human rights violations coming out of the island," according to Global
Voices.

Among those violations are recent incidents in which the regime blocked
people from attending church.

"Just weeks before Pope Benedict's visit to Cuba in March, another
Sunday on the island — February 5th 2012 — was marked by an excessive
level of violence on behalf of the dictatorship against the peaceful
Resistance, for simply trying to attend church," Global Voices quotes a
blogger as writing.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Castro-Pope-BenedictXVI-Cuba/2012/02/08/id/428877

The unruliness of Cuba’s law

2012-02-09T13:50:00.001-08:00

Posted on Wednesday, 02.08.12

The unruliness of Cuba's law
BY JOSE MANUEL PALLI
jpalli@wwti.net

Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García and
Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac are the names of the last three Cuban citizens
to face a firing squad. They were arraigned on April 5, 2003, charged
under Cuba's Law 93 of Dec. 20, 2001, known as the "Cuban Law Against
Terrorist Acts", for hijacking a ferry and taking hostages.

They were executed at dawn, April 11, 2003, after being sentenced to
death by the People's Court (Tribunal Popular) of Havana.

The court took only three days to sentence the three young Cubans of
African descent to the gallows. The subsequent automatic appeals, first
to the Supreme People's Court (which ratified the lower court's
sentence) and then to the State Council ( Consejo de Estado) — a
nonjudicial organ that spent a few hours analyzing the proven facts and
their implications vis-a vis-potential risks for state security — were
found without merit.

I strictly followed the official story in writing a brief essay
dissecting the legal procedure it described, and it was rather easy for
me — who had not visited criminal law since I was a young lawyer in
Argentina — to show a blatant failure to comply with the provisions of
Cuba's own substantive and criminal procedure laws. The circumstances
did not even allow for the application of the death penalty: Under
Cuba's Law 93, the death penalty is reserved for crimes resulting in
loss of life or severe injuries, conditions that were absent in the
case, and to material damages or losses of considerable importance and
significance, also absent.

Even in the case of an abbreviated criminal procedure authorized under
Cuban laws — of dubious applicability to a case like the one at hand —
it was all but impossible to go through the different stages of the
trial in less than 15 days. Yet, these three fellow Cubans were
condemned and shot in six days.

I undertook this arguably futile writing exercise, after the sad fact of
the executions, for the sole purpose of confronting (amiably and without
animosity, but showing my plainly justified indignation, as a Cuban and
as a lawyer) some of my friends and colleagues in Cuba (most of them of
a different ideological persuasion than mine) with the facts listed in
my essay.

And I did this because I strongly believe that by seeking that dialogue
and confrontation, I am more likely to have an impact on the future —
and even the near future — of Cuba than by marching up and down Calle
Ocho or even ranting against the Cuban government from the halls of
Congress.

Now we face the case of Wilmar Villar, a young, healthy Cuban citizen
who, while in the custody of the Cuban authorities — whose official
story apparently claims he was not in any kind of hunger strike —
develops a condition that kills him in a few short days despite the
avowed quality of Cuba's medical know-how.

Both cases are similarly perplexing, under the light of Cuba's own laws
and under the most basic and universally recognized — human rights.

But even more perplexing is that some of us Cuban Americans claim that
by sticking to our guns and persevering on historically impotent
policies aimed at isolating Cuba — so impotent that even those who
support them say they are just a pretense — we are doing anything to
prevent incidents like those described above from happening, again and
again.

We need to engage, we need to debate and confront our beliefs and ideas
with those in Cuba who contest them. And we need to do that for the sake
of people like Copello, Sevilla, Martinez and Villar. I am afraid
history will find it hard to absolve us if we simply sit tight and wait
till we can pick up the broken pieces of a homeland that is as much
theirs as it is ours.

José Manuel Palli, a lawyer born in Cuba, is president of World Wide
Title, Inc.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/08/2631768/the-unruliness-of-cubas-law.html#storylink=misearch

Setting record straight on a program to help Cuba

2012-02-09T13:47:00.001-08:00

Posted on Wednesday, 02.08.12

USAID

Setting record straight on a program to help Cuba

BY ORLANDO GUTIERREZ-BARONAT
Orlando@directorio.org

Totalitarian regimes and their apologists have turned the manipulation
of facts and the distortion of reality into a science. Dictatorships
believe that political power flows from moral power, therefore character
assassination of their opponents is imperative.

That's why the Castro regime has launched diverse campaigns to taint
those who stand up for the rights of the Cuban people. Regrettably, some
in the pro-democracy movement echo these regime "lines," focusing on the
supposed ineffectiveness of federal aid to the Cuban resistance.

Let's set the facts straight:

A nonviolent grassroots pro-democracy movement with the potential to
transform the tragedy of Cuban politics has risen to challenge the most
repressive, brutal and media-savvy tyranny in the history of Latin
America. In this, the Cuban resistance is no different from other
liberation movements, such as Washington's Continental Army, De Gaulle's
Free French or Walesa's Solidarity, all of which needed foreign
assistance to confront dictatorships that far surpassed them in material
power.

The truth is that the Cuban people are up against a totalitarian state
that cannot run an economy and improve the livelihood of the nation but
is excruciatingly adept at holding on to power. American aid — from the
world's foremost democracy — has been indispensable in allowing the
Cuban resistance to have a permanent support infrastructure.

This support is indispensable in empowering the Cuban people to counter,
even in a limited manner, the enormous resources channeled by the
Castro-Chávez axis to perpetuate their oppression.

The historical experience of freedom struggles has demonstrated that
foreign assistance is essential in three key areas: providing captive
populations with uncensored and objective information, enabling
international solidarity that provides dissidents with a network of
associations that elevate the political cost of repression, and
channeling direct logistical aid to resistance activists.

Because we disagreed with past policies of USAID (U.S. Agency for
International Development) regarding direct assistance to activists
living on the island, the Cuban Democratic Directorate ( Directorio),
chose to concentrate its efforts under federal grant funds to transmit
uncensored information and provide international solidarity to the Cuban
freedom movement. Direct assistance has been raised privately and
fundamentally within the Cuban-American community.

Radio República, the Directorate's 24-hour, seven-day-a-week shortwave
radio station, has provided a voice to Cuba's resistance from the
smallest provincial towns to the largest Havana neighborhoods. Its
format has been strategically designed to enhance the natural
self-defense mechanism of nonviolent struggle generated by Cuban
society. Costing between $1.5 million to $2 million a year, Radio
República's budget accounts for over 50 percent of the Directorate's
annual funds from federal grants. These costs are far below the annual
budgets of both public and commercial shortwave radio stations.

Likewise, it is undeniable that Directorio has made a vital contribution
to the changing attitudes of the international community towards the
Castro regime. The Cuban pro-democracy leadership has moved from
international neglect to international recognition, winning prestigious
awards like the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize and nominations for
the Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

Reality belies the propaganda efforts. Cuba's resistance has gone from
minuscule dissident groups to a broad popular effort that defies
repression on the streets. The Castro regime attacks Directorio
constantly in print and electronic media precisely for its effectiveness
in contributing to the organic growth of Cuba's resistance.

The truth is that the testimony of hundreds of civic resistance leaders
throughout the island shows that Radio República has become an essential
tool for social organization. Independent financial audits by the GAO,
IRS and other agencies have yielded positive assessments of the
organization's internal controls and the compliance of its programs with
grant objectives.

From dissidence to resistance, the Cuban people have gone through
incremental stages in their drive toward freedom. They must not be
alone. American aid is a necessity, not a luxury, just as it has been
for almost every other liberation struggle in the world for the past two
centuries.

Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat is national secretary of the Cuban Democratic
Directorate.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/08/2631767/setting-record-straight-on-a-program.html#storylink=misearch

Palabras al viento

2012-02-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

Palabras al viento
Jueves, Febrero 9, 2012 | Por Ernesto García Díaz

LA HABANA, Cuba, febrero, www.cubanet.org -Por estos días, he estado
evaluando las noticias del sector agrícola, que no son pocas, y los
resultados finales de la I Conferencia Nacional del único partido
oficial en Cuba. De las primeras relaciono los principales elementos. De
la segunda, aprecio su fiasco: No habrá cambio. Por lo demás, un país
con más 11 millones de habitantes está gobernado por un partido que
representa menos del 8% de la población cubana. Si esto es democracia…

Su líder, el General Presidente —como lo llama el Historiador de La
Habana—, ha resaltado que saldremos de la crisis guiados por los 311
Lineamientos Económicos y Sociales y los 100 Objetivos de Trabajo de la
omnipotente organización comunista. Mientras tanto, la engalanada casta
de dirigentes, adolece de ética y gobernabilidad, según las profundas
críticas realizadas por la Contralora General de la República.

Contrario a lo dicho por Raúl Castro, el diario oficialista Granma y
algunos cortos televisivos demuestran que los cambios y reformas
económicas, ni en números marchan bien. Cito:

- 4 de enero:…"el Estado tuvo que comprar en el exterior más de 30
mil toneladas de granos" (¡más de 25 millones de dólares, solo por este
concepto!)

- 13 de enero:…"el país, se ve obligado a importar (sic) más de
1.500 millones de dólares en la compra de alimentos en el mercado mundial".

- 20 de enero:…"299 mil toneladas de viandas fueron a parar a
destinos no contemplados…. se quebrantaron los Decretos No.191 de 1994 y
el No.80 de 1981"

- 2 de febrero:…"el pasado año dejaron de entregarse a la
industria unos 30 millones de litros de leche, hecho que obligó al
Estado a erogar 14 millones de dólares en adquirir leche en polvo. Solo
en el 2011, en la provincia Villa Clara, se desaprovecharon por
diferentes causas más de 20 mil reses".

- 3 de febrero:…."El 2011 cerró con un decrecimiento del 0.8% en
las ventas totales de productos agropecuarios… se dejaron de recaudar
14.3 millones de pesos… y en productos cárnicos 2.100 toneladas menos
vendidas que equivalen a 59.6 millones de pesos no recaudados".

Mientras tanto, en Banao, municipio de Sancti Spíritus, donde se siembra
y produce el 85% de la cebolla del país ocurren pérdidas millonarias.
Elsa Ramos Ramírez, oficialista de la radio espirituana, presionada por
la agencia independiente Yayabo Press, dio cobertura a los graves hechos
que acontecen en la cosecha y comercialización de la planta liliácea, en
evidente contradicción al reportaje triunfalista de Alain Jiménez, en el
Noticiero del mediodía, enalteciendo las supuestas hazañas y
sobrecumplimientos de la zafra cebollera.

Ante esos planteamientos contradictorios, el columnista Enrique Ojito
Linares, del periódico provincial Escambray, tuvo que destapar el
secretismo oficialista en su artículo "Cuello de cebolla", al consignar
que más del 16% de la preciada hortaliza almacenada tiene afectaciones
de calidad y daños por más de medio millón de pesos, sin contar las
pérdidas de los campesinos, señalando que Banao semeja una plaza
sitiada, llena de carretas, con cientos de quintales en estado de
descomposición.

El mentado publicista, también significó que los productores le
comentaban: "Tengo un plan de 1.100 quintales y no he vendido
ninguno"…"Es un crimen ver la cebolla echándose a perder en la finca sin
poder hacer nada"… "ya me la llevé para la casa, la muestreé y tenía
veintipico de sacos podridos. De aquí no me la llevo más".

Ojito Linares, bajo el subtítulo "El gobierno de la informalidad",
reseñó el irrespeto a las contrataciones, la paralización de las compras
planificadas del Estado a los productores y la ausencia de las
provincias de Granma, Guantánamo, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas,
Matanzas y Pinar del Río en las compras.

Esto me recordó a José Ramón ("El Gallego") Fernández, que en la
conferencia partidista decía: "Somos un país agrícola… Es una vergüenza
que estos productos no se garanticen…. y que tengamos que invertir
millones de dólares en compras de alimentos…. Así no es posible… Debemos
comprender lo que significa la agricultura".

Ahora cuando restan por cosechar más de 14 mil toneladas del codiciado
bulbo, seguro que la negligencia y la indisciplina volverán a forcejear
por el lugar cimero. Este cuello de cebolla nos hará recordar el
desastre de 2009 y tener presente que las palabras se las lleva el viento.

http://www.cubanet.org/articulos/palabras-al-viento/

The Vatican: A Bet on the Future of the Castros / Iván García

2012-02-08T14:00:00.003-08:00

The Vatican: A Bet on the Future of the Castros / Iván García
Iván García, Translator: Unstated

The flirtations of Castro with the Vatican are nothing new. After all,
for brothers born in Biran, Holguin, 700 kilometers from Havana, in the
wooden house on high pilings where they lived, God and the Bible were
common in their childhood.

Their parents, Angel Castro, a descendant of Galicia, and their mother
Lina Ruz, worshiped Jesus Christ. The education of the two men who have
ruled the destinies of Cuba in the last 53 years had a strong Catholic
influence.

So no wonder the Castro's wink at the Vatican. It has been a formidable
spin. Pure political juggling. A future strategy.

After a stormy and hostile period against the priests, Catholics and of
other religions, where not a few went to jail or were imprisoned in
labor camps, Fidel Castro changed his policy of confrontation. It was
because of the rise to power by popular and democratic vote of Salvador
Allende in Chile in 1971, that Castro was restated his strategy of
gunfire toward the Vatican.

Latin America was and is the region with the greatest number of
Catholics worldwide. The bearded commander realized at once that any
revolution, whether through elections or armed uprising, should begin by
acknowledging the role played by priests, bishops and cardinals in a new
proposal for social change and advocacy of the always excluded in the
hemisphere.

From the guerrilla priest Camilo Torres in Colombia, the Brazilian
Bishop Helder Camara, to the theologians of the doctrine of liberation
such as Leonardo Boff and Frei Betto, Castro realized that to further
his dream of continental revolution he had to play with the ball of the
fervent Catholicism in Latin America.

And he began to design a new ideological castling. The Fourth Congress
of the Communist Party in 1991, he accepted as members believers of any
denomination.

A philosophical contradiction in spades for atheists and pure Marxists.
But Fidel Castro decided to look away. He knew that with the advent of
democracy on the continent, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise
of the Soviet Union, he had to change the rules.

He realized that to subvert, ideas were more important than bullets. And
if these ideas were proclaimed from the pulpit by a Monsignor like
Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, so much the better. The armed struggle in
Latin America had no future. The ELN and the FARC in Colombia became a
bunch of terrorists and drug traffickers.

Better to reestablish a new kind of anti-imperialism, taking advantage
of the opportunities for democracy, even if it is imperfect and is full
of corrupt people who see power as a throne, practice nepotism and steal
from the public coffers.

Precisely the wrong course of traditional parties in the hemisphere
allowed the 'enlightened' such as Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Rafael
Correa to enter through the back door. With exotic polarized crazy
speeches … wearing under his arm a proposed 21st century socialism, no
one knows for sure the course one can take.

These new 'little fathers of the fatherland' confidently combine
theories of Marx, Lenin, Bolívar, the Bible and the indigenous variants
such as the Pachamama. And of course, still bowing to their Cuban
political manager.

After Castro was on the threshold of death in 2006, his brother, General
Raul Castro, took the reins of power and further paved the way to Rome.

When the a political prisoner Orlando Zapata died on February 23, 2010,
as a result of a prolonged hunger strike, and the civilized world
launched a major campaign against the regime in Havana, due to excessive
repression against opponents and the Ladies in White, Castro II knew
immediately who to call.

And he called Cardinal Jaime Ortega. Born in Matanzas in 1936, Ortega
had personally suffered ill-treatment from the olive-green government in
the 1960's, when he was confined to a labor camp.

The Cardinal would become key political chess piece for the Castro
brothers. He was the partner par excellence between government, the
militant Ladies in White and the Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos. The talks allowed the release of dissidents who had remained
behind bars since the crackdown of March 2003.

The move brought the regime some political oxygen. Raul Castro did not
move his remaining chips. The other alternative would be to sit down and
talk face to face with the opposition. But in five decades, if someone
has been scorned and slighted by the autocratic government of Castro, it
has been internal dissent.

For various reasons, Jaime Ortega was the ideal type. Among others, for
being a Catholic, desirous of a national church with a starring role in
Cuban society.

To a few dissidents on the island, the Cardinal is a docile type, they
say he is a puppet handled by the Creole mandarins at will. Someday we
will know if Ortega is driven by the hope that the situation in Cuba
will lead to a democracy, or other pressures have led him to play a role
that some exiled opponents see as cowardly.

The icing on the cake in the General's strategy is to strengthen
dialogue with the Vatican. A method already used by his brother who
allowed the visit of John Paul II to Cuba in January 1998.

On 26 March, Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Santiago de Cuba, where he
will honor the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, the Patroness of Cuba, to
mark the 400th anniversary of her appearance. On the afternoon of March
27 he will travel to Havana. The next morning, he will offer a Mass at
the Plaza of the Revolution. When he gets on the plane to Italy,
relations between the Vatican and the government of Raul Castro will
have been relaunched.

The Cuban regime knows that dealing with an ancient institution such as
the Holy See, a specialist in managing politics like the work of a
goldsmith, it will always face open or subtle criticism from analysts
and the media. But they have no choice.

The Cuban population, without the devotion of other Latin American
nations, began some time ago to start going back to church, without
dropping the practice of syncretic cults.

The strategy of the Castro brothers is the continuation of their
political legacy, but with a facelift in terms of the religious theme.
For the first time, the state allowed a pilgrimage of the Virgin of
Charity throughout the provinces. After 16 months and more than 28,000
kilometers and with broad participation of citizens, the pilgrimage
ended last December 30 in an outdoor mass in front of the Bay of Havana.

Today, relations with the Cuban Catholic Church and the Vatican have an
important place for the General and his comrades. It is in the cloisters
sponsored by the Catholic Church where there are pockets of tolerance
and democracy.

From a discussion with officials of the regime such as Alfredo Guevara,
a moderate communist in the style of Esteban Morales, and the dissident
economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, to the lecture with open questions by
the Jewish Cuban-American political scientist Arturo Lopez-Levy,
professor at the University of Denver — and according to informed
sources, the cousin of Luis Lopez Callejas, son-in-law and right hand of
General Raul Castro.

What intrigues local observers is whether the conspiracy with the Cuban
Catholic Church and the Vatican could lead to a democratic state of law.
Or is just a ploy to gain time and give a wider social space to
Catholicism in education and health, sectors facing hardships due to the
widespread economic crisis in the nation.

To forecast the future of Cuba is like diving into a pool without water.
Only that eternal conspirator Raul Castro knows what he's doing.
Although at this stage of the game, perhaps Cardinal Ortega has some
clues. Let's ask.

February 5 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14854

Against the Leaders / Lilianne Ruíz

2012-02-08T14:00:00.001-08:00

Against the Leaders / Lilianne Ruíz
Lilianne Ruíz, Translating Cuba, Translator: Unstated

I've discovered something important in other to keep writing in my blog.
I am not political. I am simply a deeply religious woman. It's not the
gang of mobsters who work for State Security who would say that. No,
it's a warning for me alone. Because I am counting on, one day, the
prayer to God to end this, to finish the arbitrariness toward human
beings that is the Cuban Revolution, I must suppose that there will have
to be another form of government in Cuba and there will have to emerge
new faces, political personalities, public personages, with whom I won't
necessarily be content.

And that is why I am warning myself, not to be disappointed. I want
there to be laws over any public figure, over any politician. I don't
need a president of the country to a soul I fall in love with, nor a
messiah of justice and goodness, nor a star to scream at euphorically.
Because these three things, in that order, I have to find: in my most
intimate space, in the church, and watching clips of Usher.

The President of the country doesn't need to be a part of my personal
iconography because it should be a recyclable figure.

In the midst of my political illiteracy I guess what I need are laws in
my country, a legal structure that protects the freedoms and rights over
public figures, a new constitution. I understand that when it comes time
to organize a society the majority agree that people with the aptitudes
to govern, the leaders, have very dangerous egos, and want to
permanently decide the lives the destiny of people.

Thus, the most desirable societies are those disposed to defend
themselves against the leaders who "succumb to the temptations of
power." The distance that I see between a leader and a mental patient is
so short that we citizens need to prevent, through the legal system,
possible breaks that this "species" suffers from in the objective
perception of their place in the world.

One of the things that the countries that want to live in peace do, is
they limit the time in office, and have an electoral system beyond any
party. The priority of the State is to satisfy its citizens and not its
leaders, and this satisfaction will be be the result of the state
establishing itself as the providential administrator of goods and services.

I confess that I can't think what the function of the State should be,
because since I was born the State as I know it is a kind of
impoverished religion in bad taste. Nor do I know if a leader has any
use, as I'm traumatized.

I do believe the best spirits never choose a public life in politics,
the best stay home and have a good time with their friends, discussing
in closed rooms their personal mystic in order to make sense of the
world, in order to write good screenplays.

Presidents accent the death of enjoyment.

If in my blog I declare myself against the Revolution, it's because it
violates daily the rights and freedoms of people, because it abolished
the laws that don't guarantee it's supposed irrevocable character,
because it declared itself irreversible.

The Revolution is not an absolute, and there are plenty of people in the
world who abhor it and some percentage that approve it (and who deserve
to be analyzed to cure their personal frustrations without the cruelty
that condemns millions of Cubans to be dominated by a State, instead of
being served by it.)

But the only ones who suffer threats and persecution for being against
it are the Cubans themselves who have been unable, or unwilling, to
leave the Island. This means that if the Revolution were not condemned
in the world, and had a longer arm, everyone on the planet would be
persecuted for his party.

I am going to vote for the most pragmatic President, because he won't
dare to tell me his dreams from a dais.

If there are laws I could make a mistake when I choose because I can
revoke any power, but if the law is a caudillo, a leader, we will always
have problems.

I will only vote for a president who does not molest me, who respects
the Law, who does not turn injustice and arbitrariness into State
policy. And of course who saves his ideology for the when he goes to
take a shit, and doesn't impose it on anyone.

I'm going to vote because there will be laws that protect Cuba, Cubans,
from the leaders. Never again will anything like the Revolution happen
in Cuba. I pray for this as well.

February 6 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14846

Out of Service / Yoani Sánchez

2012-02-08T13:56:00.003-08:00

Out of Service / Yoani Sánchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez

Commemorative plaque in Havana for the first telephone conversation in
Spanish, which occurred in that city on 31 October 1877

It weighs more than a "bad marriage," my grandmother used to say about
that enormous black telephone in the neighbor's house. It had a very
short cord and after making a call my index finger was covered with the
dust from under the dial. Still, I waited anxiously for the shout that
announced my mother was calling from her work or from some province. We
went running up the stairs to glue our ears to the receiver and listen
to what the almost metallic voice said on the other end. Among the more
than ten families living in that tenement, only two had telephones. So
any quarrel with the owners of this important gadget would leave you
helpless, incommunicado.

If, in March of 2008, Raul Castro had imagined the role cell phones
would play in Cuba's incipient civil society, he probably never would
have authorized their use. Before that date, Cubans had to ask a
foreigner to take out a cell phone contract and then allow them the use
of the service. The desired SIM card could only be acquired by the same
people who could enjoy the hotel rooms and car rentals, in short, by
people who had not been born on this Island. Fortunately, this apartheid
ended almost four years ago, and since that date more than 1.2 million
users have contracted with Cubacel for prepaid service. This figure
shouldn't please us, because we are still far behind the rest of the
Latin American nations.

Despite the limitations of its high cost, low coverage area in many
places in the country, and the temporary suspensions of service to
"inconvenient" users, cell phones have changed our lives. At this time,
the ability to send and receive text messages has strengthened contact
between citizens, fostered the exchange of news, and given us the
invaluable ability to post Twitter messages without Internet access. A
few days ago the price of internal text messages was reduced by 44%,
though we are still light years above the prices in effect in the rest
of the world. If the objective of the country's only telephone company
is to attract more customers and raise profits, they will also have to
accept the collateral affect of the freeing up of information and
communications that this will bring. Cubacel calculates the economic
benefits, but it is incapable of realizing — in its true potential — the
powerful social tool that we now carry in our pockets.

7 February 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14840

Until When? / Luis Felipe Rojas

2012-02-08T13:56:00.001-08:00

Until When? / Luis Felipe Rojas
Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.

The mother waits in the hospital lobby. Outside, it is very cold- very
unusual considering the accustomed high temperatures which whip through
the Cuban East. The young man is barely 22 years old, he jumped in to
separate two of his friends in a street brawl, and when the police
arrived they began to hit them with sticks and kick them. He suffered
the worst part. One of his friends went to get me because they had
convinced him to give me all the details. The mother shut down all sorts
of dialogues in order to protect him. It was pointless for me to explain
his rights to him. My arguments that he should denounce the events were
not worth anything. She would return home, 'either way in this country
nothing works…get out of here, don't bother me anymore', she told me.

Just three days ago, I was publicly approached by an Honorary Official
(OH) of State Security. His intention was to have me stay in my house.
That way, he would save many hours which he would otherwise be chasing
me. Since I responded to him by citing my citizen rights, he whipped out
his blue-lettered ID tag to threaten- not me- but the passer-bys.
Despite the heated discussion and his boasting that he would call a
police vehicle, no one responded, no one moved. When I said- in a loud
voice- that the streets belong to the people and not the
revolutionaries, no one echoed the phrase. It's true that I did not
suffer a repudiation this time, but the people are just absorbed by
their bags of food and I suppose they do not have time for these
trifles, right?

Institutions such as the Fiscal Military, the three kinds of tribunals
(municipal, provincial, and national) and, time and time again, the
offices of Citizen Attention dodge the complaints against functionaries
of the order and only in counted occasions- after violations are very
evident- does the Counter Intelligence do something. These obsolete
organisms have, in part, helped everyday people put on their own
censors. Since no one defends their rights, then they mistrust
everything, they fall into the generalized apathy and end up giving in
to their very own henchmen. Only after seeing the gloomy face of the
television presenter announcing, in yet another trick, some other
dismissal, are people able to see that Cuban public institutions are
also there to watch for some things, for the interests of some citizens
and so that some rights be respected.

Translated by Raul G.

6 February 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14839

Cuba cancels national cycling race

2012-02-08T13:01:00.001-08:00

Cuba cancels national cycling race
Tour of Cuba

The Tour of Cuba, the most important national cycling race has been
suspended for the second consecutive year, due to what cuba media say
is strong economic constraints.

The Tour of Cuba, the most important annual cycling race on the island ,
was canceled in 2011 due to what was described as a plan to a
reorganization the national and international competitions of the Cuban
National Sports and recreation Institute (INDER).

According to Jit, the official daily of INDER, the 2012 Tour of Cuba
will not be organized, because it was not included in this years budget.

http://rjrnewsonline.com/sports/other/cuba-cancels-national-cycling-race

Cuba looks to kids to recover faded boxing glory

2012-02-08T12:56:00.001-08:00

Cuba looks to kids to recover faded boxing glory
By ANNE-MARIE GARCIA, Associated Press
Wednesday, February 8, 2012

(02-08) 12:06 PST HAVANA, Cuba (AP) --

Lazaro Perez jabs rhythmically at his rival in a steamy Havana gym,
dancing, feinting and punctuating each blow with a grunt.

After the final bell, he thrusts a weary arm skyward in triumph, and a
proud smile spreads across a face still years from feeling a razor's
scrape. Perez has just become Havana's first under-75-pound
(34-kilogram) boxing champion in a new age category for 9- and 10-year-olds.

Boxing-mad Cuba is putting its athletes in the ring earlier than ever.
The idea is that those who start young will have a critical edge in the
sport's motions and techniques when they start competing more seriously
down the road.

It's part of a top-to-bottom shake-up aimed at restoring Cuban boxing to
its former glory after the national squad returned from the 2008 Summer
Olympics in Beijing without a gold medal for the first time in 40 years.

"I started boxing to follow in my father's footsteps," said Perez, a
small and wiry 9-year-old in black boxing shorts and blue T-shirt. "I'm
not afraid. I'm fast, and I really like it. I want to be great like
(Olympic and professional champion Yuriorkis) Gamboa, the boxer I admire
most, and win lots of medals like (Felix) Savon."

It's not uncommon for children this age to enter the ring these days.
The International Boxing Association sanctions competitive boxing for 15
years and up, but lets national federations set their own rules for
younger children. A spokeswoman for USA Boxing said competition starts
at 8 years old in the United States, and many begin training at 7.

Since competition in Cuba's new age class began last year, hundreds of
boys have been boxing in tournaments like the Jan. 21 city championship
at the Rafael Trejo gym in Old Havana, with its splintering wood
bleachers and discolored walls.

There are strict rules to keep competition safe for the preadolescent
pugilists. A doctor examines them before each fight and referees watch
the action closely. Bouts are limited to three 50-second rounds. Only
straight punches are allowed, and fighters are supposed to keep their
distance. Headgear is mandatory, as in all organized amateur boxing.

"At this young age we teach the basic movements, the basic punches and
defense," said Jo De Vrieze, a Belgian-born coach who trains children in
the Cerro district of the Cuban capital. "The idea is that the youths
arrive at higher levels with a more advanced technical base."

It's a far cry from the "Rumble in the Jungle" or the "Thrilla in
Manila," but don't tell that to the kids, or to the parents who crowd
the stands and cheer each bout like an Olympic final.

Perez's father, also named Lazaro, yelled encouragement and advice to
his son during the title match: "Let's go!""Get him!""Watch your
defense!" he cried, head bobbing and fists pumping as if he were in the
ring himself.

"Right here is the future of Cuban boxing," the elder Perez said.

Amateur boxing is second only to baseball as a national sport in Cuba,
and it's a point of pride among islanders that their country of 11
million people usually punches above its weight in medal counts during
international competitions.

But the island's economic difficulties keep the Boxing Federation from
funding its programs at the levels other countries do, and make it hard
to replace decrepit equipment and facilities. Meanwhile, some top
fighters have defected to turn pro, including Olympic and world
champions Gamboa and Guillermo Rigondeaux, sapping the national team of
experience and talent.

Four years after Cuban boxers won five gold medals at the Athens
Olympics came the Beijing fiasco. Cuba had another subpar performance at
the World Championships in Italy the following year, and hit rock-bottom
in 2010 at the Panamerican Championships, when host Ecuador toppled Cuba
from its long-held throne as best in Latin America.

Humiliated sports authorities vowed a total overhaul to get Cuban boxing
back on track. The first move was to bring in a new coach, Rolando
Acebal, who renewed emphasis on discipline, rigor, toughness.

"The change was decisive," said Savon, a heavyweight legend who hung up
his gloves in 2000 and now works for the Boxing Federation. "Under
Acebal, some things reappeared that had gotten a little lost."

Officials also stressed recruiting and scoured the island for new
talent. Savon, who along with countryman Teofilo Stevenson, is one of
only three boxers to have won gold medals at three Olympics, personally
scouted his native province of Guantanamo.

The result is a promising new crop of youngsters who so far have done
well. Cuba took two gold medals and a silver at the World Championships
in Baku, Azerbaijan, last July. In the fall, it reclaimed bragging
rights in the Americas, winning eight men's titles out of nine possible
at the Panamerican Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The big test comes this summer at the London Olympics.

"There has been good work," said Stevenson, now a vice president of the
Boxing Federation. "We have several possibilities for medalling,
including Julio Cesar La Cruz," a 22-year-old light heavyweight who was
one of the champions at Baku.

Beyond London, the future rests firmly in the gloved fists of the kids
duking it out in the Rafael Trejo gym. The 9-10 age class is a pilot
program in just Havana for now, but officials say it could be rolled out
to the rest of Cuba, where 11-12 is currently the youngest level of
competition.

Outsiders said that could give Cuba an edge over places like Puerto
Rico, which holds fights starting at 11 years old, and Spain, where
boxers start competing at 15.

"It's tough to start competing at 15," said Carlos Vargas, technical
director of the Spanish Boxing Federation. "Then when you're 17 or 18
and you hit the international level, you're going up against boxers with
200 fights under their belts. ... You find yourself at a disadvantage
with those rivals."

At 13 years old, Dayron Valdes, last year's Havana regional champion in
the 88-pound (44-kilo) weight class, is already a veteran of youth
boxing. He said his goal is to follow in the footsteps of his idol, La
Cruz, representing Cuba on the winner's dais while fighting with honor
and style.

"I used to scrap with the other kids in the neighborhood when I was 6.
That's why I signed up for boxing," Valdes said, sitting on a rickety
chair and unwrapping his bandaged hands. "I want to be a very technical
boxer, a gentleman."

___

Associated Press writer Jorge Sainz in Madrid contributed to this report.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/08/international/i093004S05.DTL

Cuba told to revisit laws

2012-02-08T12:55:00.001-08:00

Cuba told to revisit laws
Wed, February 08, 2012 - 1:39 PM

LONDON – The global human rights watchdog group, Amnesty International,
has urged the Cuban government to reform what it has described as an
"arbitrary" exit permit scheme that Havana uses to punish free speech,
after a prominent Cuban blogger was again barred from travelling abroad.

On Friday, Cuba's immigration authorities denied blogger and activist
Yoani Sánchez an exit permit, known as a tarjeta blanca or white card or
tarjeta blanca, for the 19th time in four years. As on previous
occasions, no reason was given for the decision.

The prize-winning author of the "Generación Y" blog was invited to speak
at the premiere screening in Brazil's Bahía state on Friday of a
documentary on freedom of expression in Cuba and Honduras. Brazil had
already issued her a visa to enter the country.

"The Cuban government's repeated denial of exit permits to critics like
Yoani Sánchez can only be seen as retaliation for the expression of
their legitimate political views and activism," said Javier Zúñiga, a
special advisor to Amnesty International.

"Those fighting for freedom of expression, association, and movement
must be authorized to leave and re-enter the country without arbitrary
restrictions, and the Cuban authorities must end other tactics used to
clamp down on peaceful dissent," he added.

Zúñiga said Cuban President Raúl Castro has yet to follow through on
changes to immigration policies promised as part of a series of reforms
announced in 2011.

Sánchez's on daily life on the communist-run island often reports many
restrictions placed on Cuban political and civil rights, Zúñiga said.

Her political activism is highlighted in Brazilian filmmaker Dado
Galvão's new documentary "Connection Cuba-Honduras".

After the Cuban authorities' most recent decision to prevent her from
travelling, Yoani Sánchez expressed her frustration via the
microblogging site, Twitter.

"I feel like a hostage kidnapped by someone who won't listen or give
explanations," she wrote. "If all this effort helps to shine a light on
the migratory absurdity we Cubans are trapped in, then it was worth it."

The blogger's work has earned her numerous prizes overseas, but the
Cuban authorities have repeatedly blocked her from attending the award
ceremonies.

On January 20, the London-based human rights charity said it wrote to
Brazil's foreign minister, urging him to intervene to ensure Sánchez
would be allowed to leave Cuba.

On a state visit to Havana last week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
mentioned that the blogger had been granted a visa to enter Brazil, but
Amnesty International said she fell short of pressing the Cuban
government to allow her to leave. (CMC)

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/cuba-told-to-revisit-laws/

Fighting the Cuban regime—one tweet at a time

2012-02-08T12:52:00.001-08:00

Fighting the Cuban regime—one tweet at a time
A new breed of Cuban dissidents is storming the Internet
by Gabriela Perdomo on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 1:00pm
Freedom— one tweet at a time
Desmond Boylan/Reuters

Cuba, with the lowest Internet penetration in the western hemisphere, is
hardly social networking's next frontier. Despite the barriers, though,
a new breed of dissidents is finding ways to speak out against the
Castro regime online. Yoani Sánchez, one of the movement's pioneers,
blogs, tweets, and is on Facebook. Yet, like the vast majority of
Cubans, she has no regular Internet access. "We're inventing the
Internet without Internet," Sánchez says from her home in Havana. Since
2007, she has been blogging at Generación Y. Its slices of daily life in
Cuba—a "prison," she calls it, where people live under a "patronizing"
state—are like essays, carefully crafted by the trained language
scholar. The blog has become a roaring success, translated by volunteers
into 17 different languages.

Sánchez relies on friends and readers to update her blog. She'll dictate
posts over the phone to someone with Web access, in Cuba or abroad, or
send digital photos of the document through her phone. There is no such
thing as home Internet for Cubans; the service is reserved for elite
officials or foreign residents with deep pockets. Internet cafés are too
public and expensive, but hotels are a good resource. "I write and
accumulate eight or nine posts, and once I've saved enough money to go
to a hotel, I program my posts to come out once a week," says Sánchez.
An hour online costs about $8, an astronomical sum for a Cuban whose
monthly salary is close to $20.

When Sánchez was born in 1975, Fidel Castro had already been Cuba's
leader for a decade. She grew up in middle-class Centro Havana, near
where she currently lives with her husband and teenaged son. Sánchez
earned a degree in Hispanic philology from the Centre for the Arts and
Letters in 2000, but academia frustrated her; she preferred speaking
about "real problems," she says. After working for two years as a
freelance Spanish tutor for tourists, Sánchez emigrated to Switzerland
in 2002. But family and her love of Cuba got the better of her; she
returned in 2004, vowing to "never leave" again.

It was then that Sánchez discovered a passion for computers and
journalism, and a deep distrust of the Castro regime. In 2004, with no
formal training, she founded Desde Cuba, a Web portal for citizen
journalists. Both Sánchez and her husband, Reinaldo, are now
journalists, reporting for alternative media or freelancing for foreign
outlets. Sánchez earns her income writing a biweekly column for the
Spanish newspaper El País, though she only gets paycheques when someone
travelling to Cuba can hand-deliver them—she doesn't trust the postal
service, and money transfer services don't exist. Day-to-day life in
Cuba is hardly easy.

Since taking over from his brother Fidel in April 2011, President Raúl
Castro has promised more tolerance of dissidents. But the regime's
critics continue to be harassed. Hundreds remain in jail; many are
tortured in detention centres. Civilian-clad police barge into
demonstrations, beating women and men, detaining some for days without
explanation. Sánchez, tired of feeling helpless, opened a Twitter
account in 2008—she wanted to capture life under a dictatorship in real
time. Through trial and error, she figured out how to tweet without
going online: by using her cellphone. She pays $1 per tweet,
140-character messages like this: "Feel sorry for official journalists.
1 reports female soccer match with Canada and can't say two players
defected." Some of @yoanisanchez's more than 200,000 followers help by
adding money to her cellphone account. Twitter has become the most
important weapon of free speech for her and her fellow revolutionaries.
They teach others how to use the Internet without Internet, offering
free workshops in their living rooms. Luis Felipe Rojas, or @alambradas,
has offered Internet tutorials in rural areas to at least 100 people in
the last three months alone. He reports arrests, harassment and beatings
of dissidents—including himself. "I know a tweet doesn't save a life,"
he says. "But it does make impunity of the state less likely."

If not a real threat, Sánchez and her army have, at least, become a
thorn in the regime's side. Sánchez, listed as one of Time's 100 most
influential people in 2008, recently ridiculed Raúl Castro's daughter
after calling out her "double standards" on tolerance on Twitter.
Mariela Castro, who travels the world defending gay rights, called Cuban
dissidents "despicable parasites" in an exchange with Sánchez that made
headlines around the world. She has won several democracy and journalism
awards, but the government has so far denied all her requests to leave
Cuba. She will try once more this month: Brazil announced it has granted
a visa to Sánchez, who hopes to interview President Dilma Rousseff.
Whether Castro allows her to travel to Brasilia remains to be seen.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/02/08/freedom%E2%80%94-one-tweet-at-a-time/

Cuban 'Wikipedia' includes entry for dissident blogger

2012-02-08T12:50:00.001-08:00

Cuban 'Wikipedia' includes entry for dissident blogger
(AFP)

HAVANA — Cuba's EcuRed digital encyclopedia, inspired by Wikipedia and
operated by the island's Communist Youth, has added an entry for
award-winning dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez.

The unusual turn of events in the Communist country, where information
is tightly controlled and dissent is barely tolerated, comes with a
price: Sanchez, 36, is described as a "cybermercenary."

Sanchez has been speaking her mind on the "Generation Y" blog since 2007
and has long traded barbs with a regime.

The blog, http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/, has a huge following in
Cuba and abroad and is translated by volunteers into 15 languages.

The Spanish daily El Pais awarded Sanchez the prestigious Ortega y
Gasset award prize in 2008, and in that year Time magazine included her
on a list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The Cuban online encyclopedia, which began operations in 2010, says that
Sanchez's blog "was promoted almost immediately" after it opened "in
various newspapers around the world."

Sanchez "has accepted other prizes and recognition from openly
counter-revolutionary and far-right groups," the EcuRed entry reads.

It links her to the Ladies in White -- a protest group of female
relatives of political prisoners -- and the US Interest Section in Havana.

"More than once she has denounced mistreatment and harassment" from
Cuban security officials, "but has never been able to prove it," the
entry reads.

State-run news on the island occasionally gives information on
dissidents, but EcuRed goes as far as including entries on prominent
regime opponents like Guillermo Farinas and the Ladies in White.

Sanchez has accused the Cuban government of "censuring" the Internet and
of denying her permission to travel abroad 19 times over the past four
years, most recently to Brazil this month.

Havana accuses dissident bloggers like Sanchez of being "mercenaries" at
the service of Washington, and of waging a "cyber war" with US support
against the Cuban government.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ioWRxB1D_3OtD7kHhCDDPu54d-iA?docId=CNG.2c11d41270aedd6dc400fdf03dc6dd37.2c1

Lawyer for Cuban agents vows last-ditch appeal

2012-02-08T12:48:00.001-08:00

Posted on Wednesday, 02.08.12

Lawyer for Cuban agents vows last-ditch appeal
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press

HAVANA -- A lawyer for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms
for spying in the United States said Wednesday he is preparing a
last-ditch appeal, arguing that one of the men received bad counsel and
that the jury for all five was prejudiced because the U.S. paid several
journalists who covered the trial.

Thomas Goldstein said he would submit the appeal on Feb. 15 before U.S.
District Judge Joan Lenard, who can either rule on the matter, ask to
hear arguments or order a full evidentiary hearing. Four of the men have
been jailed since 1998. The fifth, Rene Gonzalez, was released last year
after 13 years in jail, but has been ordered to remain in the United
States while he serves out his probation.

Gonzalez's lawyer, Phil Horowitz, said he would also appeal that
probation decision shortly. He said the 55-year-old dual Cuban-American
citizen is working as a caretaker at a private home, but would not
reveal the location out of concern for his client's security.

The lawyers were interviewed by The Associated Press in a restricted
area of Havana limited to government activities and hosting visiting
foreign dignitaries.

While the agents' case is largely forgotten in the United States, it
remains a cause celebre in Cuba, where the government hails the "Cuban
Five" as heroes who were only trying to detect and prevent violent
attacks against their country by exile groups. Cuban state-run media
publish near daily accounts of solidarity from around the world, and
images of the men stare down from billboards along rutted country roads.

Goldstein said he will argue that inadequate counsel from his lawyer
resulted in a murder conviction and life sentence for one of the agents,
Gerardo Hernandez, and he said all of their cases were prejudiced by a
U.S. government program that was paying thousands of dollars to key
journalists while the high-profile trial was going on, a fact that only
came out later.

The journalists were paid for appearances on U.S. government radio and
TV broadcasts beamed to Cuba, and they also continued to produce stories
for independent media outlets.

Advocates for the five also say the trial court was wrong to reject
their request for a change of venue from South Florida, which is home to
a large Cuban exile community.

"I don't think anyone can deny that it is a serious issue when you try
supposed Cuban agents in a Miami court ... and that it obviously is
going to be a very political, very fraught trial," Goldstein said. "On
top of that, to learn that the media is being paid by the U.S.
government, we think raises a serious issue."

Goldstein, a Washington-based Supreme Court litigator, said he would
take the case all the way to America's highest court if necessary, and
that if the appeal fails, it will mean "the end of the road" for the
legal process in the case. After that, he said, the only hope would be a
political solution.

That is the same situation facing Maryland native Alan Gross, who was
arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in jail after being caught
bringing satellite phones and other equipment into Cuba illegally while
on a USAID-funded democracy program. His appeal to Cuba's top court was
denied last year, so Gross's only chance at release rests on a
humanitarian pardon by Cuban President Raul Castro or some form of
prisoner exchange.

Cuba has stopped short of linking the cases, but senior officials have
said no one should expect the island to free the 62-year-old American in
a "unilateral gesture."

Goldstein rejected any attempt to compare the cases legally, but that
the symmetry of the two cases presented a political opportunity. He
stressed, however, that he was a private lawyer and not privy to the
thinking of the Cuban government on Gross.

"Alan Gross is entitled absolutely to individual justice," he said. "I
would never encourage anyone to link what happens to him to what happens
to my clients. You can't hold someone literally hostage," he said. "But
it strikes me that to the extent that there are political solutions to
both sets of cases, then there could end up being linkage ... on the
political front."

Goldstein said the politically charged atmosphere in the lead-up to the
U.S. election in November complicated any efforts to find common ground,
particularly given the importance of Florida in presidential politics
and strong feelings about the agents' case among many Cuban-Americans.

But he said he hoped President Barack Obama would ultimately see that
freeing the men was good politics, and something that would likely lead
to reciprocal gestures from Havana.

"If the president of the United States were to release the Five and
nothing else happens, then it kind of falls like a dud," he said. "If,
on the other hand, Cuba releases Alan Gross, the president releases the
Five, the Cuban government, whatever ... it would allow the Cuban
government to do a number of things."

Follow Paul Haven at http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven/

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/08/2631033/lawyers-for-cuban-agents-vow-last.html

Cubans Saddled with Refrigerator Payments

2012-02-08T07:24:00.001-08:00

Cubans Saddled with Refrigerator Payments
February 8, 2012
By Warhol P.

HAVANA TIMES, Feb 8 — Today in Cuba there exist situations that are
somewhat complicated. At least for me, knowing that I'm shouldering a
debt to the government makes me feel kind of uncomfortable.

A year ago I stopped working because I realized that all the effort was
in vain. Every two weeks I was bringing home a measly 25 Cuban pesos
($1.00 USD). Between work stoppages due to raw material shortages and
payments on my family's loan for a refrigerator, I was barely making
enough for bus fare.

Having no job, I stopped paying on the refrigerator. I had received it
four years ago during the "Energy Revolution" in exchange for another
less efficient but still functioning one. The old ones had to be in
working condition to be exchanged for a new Haier-brand Chinese model.

I never understood why we had to swap units if in the end we had to buy
the appliances. What's more, at no time was the value the old
refrigerators considered. Plus, they didn't even give us discounts on
the price of the new fridges.

Some people said the exchanges weren't mandatory, others argue that they
were. But since what's new is new, almost everybody in Cuba switched
their refrigerators. Today though, almost everybody is in debt (the
payment period is for ten years).

Many people couldn't even pay the first month, while others like me are
waiting in fear for the bank rep to show up demanding an immediate payment.

Some friends told me that I could get a fine based on the number of
months I owe. Others say they could throw me jail. But the truth is that
I don't have any money, and I'm afraid because I know that at any moment
they might knock on my door.

My mother is worried about this situation too, but I told her not worry.
In the worst case scenario I'll tell the bank to send out a truck and
take the fridge away.

In reality, our refrigerator is more like an ornamental piece in our
house, because it's almost always empty. The only things in it are
plastic pop bottles full of water, and from what I can see, that's the
way it's going to be for quite some time.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=61557

Cuban spring 'unavoidable' amid repression

2012-02-08T07:22:00.001-08:00

Cuban spring 'unavoidable' amid repression
by Laima Andrikiene
08 February 2012

The international community must act against the undemocratic Cuban
regime as it increases its repression of dissidents, argues a member of
the European Parliament's human rights subcommittee

Who is responsible for the death of the Cuban political prisoner Wilman
Villar Mendoza on January 19? Why, on February 3, was blogger Yoani
Sanchez refused permission to travel abroad by Cuban authorities for the
19th time since May 2008? Why were opposition group Damas de Blanco –
Sakharov prize laureates – not allowed to travel to the European
Parliament in Strasbourg to collect that prestigious award for the
freedom of thought?

There are so many questions and almost no answers from the Cuban regime.
The situation of harassment and repression endangers the lives of Cuban
people who defend human rights and civil liberties. We are aware that
the regime is directly responsible for the death of four political
prisoners – Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Laura
Pollan Toledo and Wilman Villar Mendoza – as well as thousands of
arbitrary arrests and hundreds of beatings, assaults, and acts of
repudiation.

The death of 31-year-old dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza on January 19
after a 50 day hunger strike highlights the continuing repression in
Cuba. Villar Mendoza was detained in November 2011 after participating
in a peaceful demonstration in Contramaestre calling for greater
political freedom and respect for human rights. He was charged with
'contempt' and sentenced to four years in prison in a hearing that
lasted less than an hour. He was not given the opportunity to speak in
his defence, nor represented by a defence lawyer.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a
human rights monitoring group that the government does not recognise,
classified Villar Mendoza as a political prisoner in December 2011. The
Cuban regime denies holding political prisoners and said in a statement
that Mr Villar "was not a dissident nor was he on a hunger strike". The
authorities did not even bother to tell Wilman Villar's wife about the
death of her husband, and she was informed by some human rights defenders.

Almost two years ago, political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in
similar circumstances, also on hunger strike, with the same demands.
Activist Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died last year after receiving a
brutal beating from the political police at Leoncio Vidal Park, in the
city of Santa Clara, Villa Clara province. Less than three months ago,
Laura Pollan Toledo, leader of the Damas de Blanco, died under
mysterious circumstances that have still not been clarified. Numerous
reports issued from within the island over the past three months have
reported an increase in the regime's violence against opposition –
including cases of activists who have suffered fractured skulls after
machete blows, and members of the Damas de Blanco who have been pricked
with needles containing unknown substances while participating in
marches on the streets of Havana.

The regime in Havana and its prisons have a system devised to eliminate
those political and common detainees who protest against the injustice
and inhumanity of their captors by denying them water and medical care,
and confining them in freezing cells. Catherine Ashton, the European
Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,
deplored the tragic death of Mr Villar and urged Cuba to continue
working to make progress on respect of human rights and freedom of
expression. "It's the second death in similar conditions in a very short
time and it poses doubts concerning Cuban's judicial system and
penitentiary," Ashton said.

According to human rights organisations, there is no way to know how
many government opponents remain in jail, as independent investigators
cannot visit prisons. In 2010, Raul Castro freed 52 prisoners who had
been arrested during a 2003 crackdown, but human rights defenders from
the island say that those releases have not changed the attitude by the
regime towards dissidents and repression continues. Last year the regime
decided to release 2,900 inmates, but following human rights defenders
information, the dissidents were not released.

Political prisoners must be released immediately. The persecution of
people for their legitimate demands for freedom of speech, thought and
assembly is unjust. The lack of fundamental rights contradicts the
principles of humanity and is a clear infringement of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, of which Cuba is a signatory.

One could get an impression that Cuban regime is making free-market
reforms which aim at reviving Cuba's socialist economy by boosting
private enterprise. But the reality is much darker. So-called
free-market reforms will not change much in relations between the state
and citizens: the regime will still control 99 per cent of the economy.
Moreover, those reforms will not provide Cuban citizens with their
fundamental rights, such as freedom of thought, freedom of speech and
freedom of assembly. It is not a surprise that most Cubans desire
economic opportunities and private property ownership, but at the same
time they closely tie these economic changes to political changes in the
form of free elections, free expression, access to information and the
right to dissent.

It is clear that the reality in Cuba is far from the state propaganda of
'reforms' and 'changes'. The regime deserves strong condemnation for
these crimes and persecutions of people. The international community
should take the necessary steps to prevent the further escalation of the
extrajudicial executions by the Castro regime. Any repressive and
undemocratic regime is similar to a dead man walking. The Arab spring
surprised the world in 2011 throwing away one dictator after another.
Spring is unavoidable and inescapable, in Cuba also.

Dr Laima Andrikiene is an MEP in the European People's Party and a
member of the European Parliament's subcommittee on human rights

http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/1472/cuban-spring-unavoidable-amid-repression

Cuban migrants at Guantánamo base ‘broke rules,’ face restrictions

2012-02-08T07:16:00.001-08:00

Posted on Tuesday, 02.07.12
Guantanamo

Cuban migrants at Guantánamo base 'broke rules,' face restrictions
By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

Nearly three dozen Cuban asylum seekers were confined to the Leeward
side of the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Tuesday, no longer able to send
packages to family across the minefield in a security crackdown at the
U.S. migrant center at the base in southeast Cuba.

Officials wouldn't say precisely how the Cubans lost privileges of wider
access on the base. But "several of the migrants repeatedly broke Naval
Station rules in place to ensure base security," said Deborah Sisbarro
at the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

The infractions occurred "in the last several weeks," she said.

The Miami Herald was first alerted to a problem by a pro-Cuban
government blogger in Havana, who posted from the Cuban
government-controlled side of the island that 10 Cuban migrants were on
a hunger strike. But Sisbarro said Tuesday that the hunger strike was
short-lived, Feb 2-4.

As of Tuesday, the base was housing 33 Cubans, ages 18 to 53, who were
picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard and found to be potential
candidates for asylum anywhere but the U.S.

The "migrants," as the U.S. military calls them, have in the past had
wider movement around the 45-square-mile base, escorted by a contract
security group called The Geo Group. Visitors They could spot them ride
the ferry from Leeward side, where they are housed dormitory style in a
renovated Marine barracks, to the Windward side, where they could do odd
jobs and shop in the commissary.

Sisbarro emphasized that the Cuban asylum seekers are held in entirely
different circumstances than the 171 war-on-terror captives at the U.S.
Navy base at Guantánamo. The Cubans have access to a gym and a shop on
the Leeward side, and an 11 p.m. curfew. Muslim Captives are in are in
prison camps on Windward side, a ferry ride away, behind a special
security gate leading to the barbed-wire-ringed prison camps.

Of the 33 migrants, 21 are approved for resettlement in nations other
than the U.S., typically Latin America and Europe. The State Department
is evaluating the other cases.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/07/2629897/cuban-migrants-at-guantanamo-base.html#storylink=misearch

My Wish for 2012: Outraged People in Cuba / Miriam Celaya

2012-02-07T14:55:00.001-08:00

My Wish for 2012: Outraged People in Cuba / Miriam Celaya
Miriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting

Santana Cartoon illustrating the post in Penúltimos Days

A European friend who recently visited Havana asked me what my greatest
wish for this year 2012 was. Of course, she expected me to express to
her the same old litany: the end of the dictatorship, democracy, peace,
freedom, etc. The wishes that tens of thousands of Cubans have made each
New Year's and that, despite all the sorrows, have yet to come true.
Maybe the propitiatory spirits, those that presumably participate or
influence human aspirations need to perceive something more than the
resolve in those who make the wishes… a signal indicating a little more
vigor to make dreams achievable, something that can fulfill that old
saying: "Help yourself, and God will help you."

So I simply said to my friend that, for 2012, I wish to see Cuba full of
angry people, for it is on that day that we will be closer to such
longed for rights and democracy. I'm not referring to childish protests
of indignation on any corner or line, in different tones of voice and
willing to be silent when some guy who looks like a political cop stares
us down; for State transportation problems, or for the increasing
reduction of so-called "subsidies" the national method, distributor of
the parameters of poverty. Neither do I speak of the more or less biased
comments about "how bad this is getting". For at least 20 years I have
been listening to the phrase "what's so good about this is how bad it's
getting", or "never is the night as dark as before dawn", and in all
that time, there hasn't been the slightest improvement or light. What's
more, everything around us is sure to be getting worse and darker, so it
is obvious that a change is needed, but not on the part of an autocracy
that clings to power and naturally resists change. What is needed is a
change of attitude among Cubans.

My greatest desire for this 2012 is, therefore, that ordinary Cubans,
those who in all the speeches are grouped under the generic term "the
people" decide, once and for all, to make their outrage public and
evident. We could, for example, protest in the streets, or in front of
government headquarters, to demand an end to the dual currency, since
wages are paid in one currency and most products are marketed in
another. By the way, it would also be relevant to demand that wages
dignify the job, be a source of well-being and not the object of a joke
printed on paper money. We could demand the repeal of the retrograde
exit permits and all limits on emigration that keep us prisoners, slaves
of the Island-plantation. We could reclaim the sacred right to
information, the right for the flow of ideas, to participate in making
decisions about our destiny, to choose what kind of education we give
our children. We could make demands, in short, about how and by whom we
wish our country to be governed.

If you think that such claims exceed the heights of indignation of some,
perhaps we could start by protesting the unstoppable rise of food
prices, or stand up to the abuse of most public officials, or publicly
denounce corruption, which ends up striking the needy the hardest. We
could just ask to have the CDR's disbanded, (those that are still
members of the CDR's [cederistas]) or stop attending accountability
meetings and the utmost caricature of democracy: the constituency
"elections". Because — beyond the protests taking place in the First
World which the official media have the nerve to disclose here — and if
there is one thing we don't have a shortage of in Cuba it's a reason to
be outraged.

So I modified my wishes for this year, believing that, for democracy to
finally emerge, we Cubans need to stop looking outward and upward,
waiting for solutions from the solidarity of others, from the Cuban
government, or from God, and assume our share, through responsibility
and law. Recent statements by the President-General — on the occasion of
his counterpart's farewell, the Iranian dictator visiting Cuba, to our
shame — that the Communist Party's National Conference, to be held on
January 28th, will be just the organizing of the inner life of that
(political?) organization, presumably to comply with the guidelines of
the past VI Congress, lends the coup de grace to the aspirations of
large sectors that still had moderate expectations for a public debate
about the decisions of the government, including some Catholic Church
sites that have been voicing for an "inclusive and transparent" dialogue
between the government and the Cuban people. It will be interesting,
given the circumstances, to follow those sites' editorials to find out
what new proposal they make us.

So, what I want for 2012 is this: indignant people. Thousands and
thousands of Cubans angry about over half a century's worth of fraud,
outraged, if only to salvage the spoils of our national shame that still
remain after decades of dictatorship.

—–
Work originally published in Penúltimos Days
(http://www.penultimosdias.com) on January 13rd, 2012

Translated by: Norma Whiting

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=14781