Dreams and realities before and after the Summit of the Americas

Cuba: Dreams and realities before and after the Summit of the Americas /
Juan Juan Almeida
Posted on April 2, 2015

Now that the beginning of the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama is
upon us I think I understand why there are so many expectations. I
studied in the former USSR and I know that many optimists are living in
a sort of suspense similar to that of Moscow in 1985, when Mikhail
Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan were going to meet, for the first time, in
Geneva.
Although many have forgotten due to the monumental act put up by the
translator who hoarded the headlines, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro met
for the first time during the funeral of Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Today, some think that we are making progress and others that we are on
the verge of a "nervous breakdown". The truth is that all Cubans will
listen to the speeches of both leaders and will pay attention to the
small details that we will only be able to see during their handshake.

To Panama will go part of Cuba's opposition and Cubans in exile. But I
think the preferred topic to speak of will be the hundred, maybe more,
of actors, students, intellectuals, artists, farmers, private vendors,
members of cooperatives, businessmen and academics who, also as
representatives of Cuba's civil society, were zealously selected to
travel to said Summit and to dramatize an entire spectacle with a
gelatinous dynamic. In this spectacle we will see one or two desertions
and special acts with tones that are sentimental, democratic,
multiracial, polytheistic, progressive and pluralistic.

This is what the ex Minister of Culture and current presidential adviser
Abel Prieto anticpated when he said on March 17 that "the Cubans who
attend the Summit in Panama have to be prepared to confront the
stereotypes created around the idea that Cuba has a monolithic society."

The story will begin when upon the end of the Summit, Cubans return to
the island to confront the real scenario with the new changes in
everyday life. Venezuela cut by more than half the amount of oil it
sends to Cuba and although it is logical to understand that Havana and
Caracas, so long as they maintain inscrutability and motivate
speculation are keeping quiet, one only has to turn the page to see that
there is no objective possibility for Venezuela to continue to subsidize
oil while facing its own extreme difficulties.

An even worse case is Brazil; the exploration of oilfields below the
ocean would provide an income of millions of euros. Based on this there
were agreements signed and commitments made, Brazilian oil will be the
"goal of the future" but the fall in crude oil prices and the recent
scandal related to Petrobas, sank the South American giant into the
worst of its crises and into a political paralysis that will have its
consequences in Cuba and on the Port of Mariel megaproject which is
suddenly halted due to a lack of capital.

Cuba's medical delegations abroad will continue because the government
will use the military's budget in order to not alter any precepts. But
the return of electricity blackouts, in the present circumstances in the
island, where everyone likes to play at leading and democracy, will
force replacing the decadent debate of the "lefts and rights" for the
need to choose between "politics and economics".

Doubtlessly, that does erode the government's strength and will force it
to retreat to allow new alternatives for the development of the
citizenry, which will resourcefully find the legal and/or natural
mechanisms to improve the wellbeing of self, family and nation. In that
order, because the reverse is called utopia.

Translated by: P.V.M.

Source: Cuba: Dreams and realities before and after the Summit of the
Americas / Juan Juan Almeida | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-dreams-and-realities-before-and-after-the-summit-of-the-americas-juan-juan-almeida/