4 Cuba Documentaries Worth Seeking Out
By John Verling | Monday, 04 Jan 2016 04:47 PM
There are many documentaries on Cuba covering topics such as the music,
food, politics, and people of the island nation. Many of the films are
well-made, well-researched and worked on by highly regarded directors
and crew.
Not all the documentaries make it to network TV or to theaters, but they
are worth seeking out to get a view on a very diverse country. Here are
four of them:
1. Havana Suite
This film, directed and written by Fernando Perez, follows 10 ordinary
Cuban people in one day of their lives around the capital city of
Havana. Made by a Spanish film company, there is little dialogue as the
documentary uses only sounds and music to accompany the storyline. From
dawn to dusk, the camera follows the people and gives first-hand views
of the life in Havana. The documentary won 20 awards at film festivals
throughout the world.
2. Yank Tanks
This 2002 film of about 70 minutes in length by filmmaker David Schendel
tells the story of the classic American cars that are still in use in
Cuba today. Like a 1950s time warp, the proud owners drive the huge cars
around the streets of Havana and look after them like precious pieces
from a museum. This documentary is a must for lovers of classic cars and
for those who want a glimpse of life in modern Cuba.
3. Bye Bye Havana
This documentary, made in 2004, tries to capture the current life in
Havana and shows how much the city has suffered under the Castro regime
since 1958. The once grand city of colonial architecture is a crumbling
mess and the film laments the way Havana is today. Made by J. Michael
Seyfert, the documentary is worth seeing for the footage alone.
4. Havana Curveball
This 2014 film made by top documentary directors Marcia Jarmel and Ken
Schneider follows 13-year-old Mica as he attempts to send baseballs to
Cuba against the U.S. imposed embargo. The boy is trying to fulfil his
Rabbi's words of "trying to heal the world," knowing that Cubans love
baseball and are in need of equipment. This documentary is a must for
lovers of baseball and inspirational stories, as this hour-long movie
captures the ironies of the U.S. embargo.
Source: 4 Cuba Documentaries Worth Seeking Out -
http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/cuba-documentaries/2016/01/04/id/708096/
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Five freed in US-Cuba rapprochement back in custody: rights group
Five freed in US-Cuba rapprochement back in custody: rights group
AFP
HAVANA, Cuba — Five dissidents freed as Havana launched a high-profile
diplomatic rapprochement with the United States are back in custody in
Cuba, a human rights group said Monday.
The five were among 53 political prisoners released in 2014 and early
2015 as Washington and Havana moved to restore ties after a half-century
break.
The Cuban Commission on Human Rights, an officially outlawed but
tolerated group, said the five "were confined in high-security prisons
in the second half of 2015."
They include Vladimir Morera, who had been hospitalized since launching
a hunger strike on October 9. The United States last week called on the
government to release him.
On Monday, Morera's son, Vladier Morera, said his father started eating
again on December 31.
The son said he did not know if this was voluntary on his father's part.
"All I know is that he is eating again, and that he is speaking
incoherently because the doctors say he was very weak," Morera said.
The others back in custody are Wilfredo Parada Milian, Jorge Ramírez
Calderón, Carlos Manuel Figueroa and Aracelio Ribeaux Noa, according to
the rights group.
All five were jailed "as a result of rigged trials and without due
process," it said.
Cuban authorities did not comment. But the Americas' only communist
government routinely denies it is holding political prisoners and says
those jailed are in for common crimes.
The rights group reported that 8,616 people were detained for political
reasons in 2015, most of whom were released after several hours. That
was down from 2014, when 8,889 Cubans were detained for political
reasons, according to the group.
It said "political repression" continued in 2015 "despite the well-known
expectations awakened by the announcement of the re-establishment of
diplomatic relations" between Havana and Washington.
On December 29, Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. State Department's pointwoman
for Latin America, called on the government of President Raúl Castro to
free Morera, who she said had been jailed for dissenting peacefully.
Morera, 44, was sentenced to four years in prison in April for allegedly
causing bodily harm during a scuffle with pro-government militants in
which a woman was injured. His family denies the charges.
Source: Five freed in US-Cuba rapprochement back in custody: rights
group -The Tico Times -
http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/01/04/five-freed-in-us-cuba-rapprochement-back-in-custody-rights-group
AFP
HAVANA, Cuba — Five dissidents freed as Havana launched a high-profile
diplomatic rapprochement with the United States are back in custody in
Cuba, a human rights group said Monday.
The five were among 53 political prisoners released in 2014 and early
2015 as Washington and Havana moved to restore ties after a half-century
break.
The Cuban Commission on Human Rights, an officially outlawed but
tolerated group, said the five "were confined in high-security prisons
in the second half of 2015."
They include Vladimir Morera, who had been hospitalized since launching
a hunger strike on October 9. The United States last week called on the
government to release him.
On Monday, Morera's son, Vladier Morera, said his father started eating
again on December 31.
The son said he did not know if this was voluntary on his father's part.
"All I know is that he is eating again, and that he is speaking
incoherently because the doctors say he was very weak," Morera said.
The others back in custody are Wilfredo Parada Milian, Jorge Ramírez
Calderón, Carlos Manuel Figueroa and Aracelio Ribeaux Noa, according to
the rights group.
All five were jailed "as a result of rigged trials and without due
process," it said.
Cuban authorities did not comment. But the Americas' only communist
government routinely denies it is holding political prisoners and says
those jailed are in for common crimes.
The rights group reported that 8,616 people were detained for political
reasons in 2015, most of whom were released after several hours. That
was down from 2014, when 8,889 Cubans were detained for political
reasons, according to the group.
It said "political repression" continued in 2015 "despite the well-known
expectations awakened by the announcement of the re-establishment of
diplomatic relations" between Havana and Washington.
On December 29, Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. State Department's pointwoman
for Latin America, called on the government of President Raúl Castro to
free Morera, who she said had been jailed for dissenting peacefully.
Morera, 44, was sentenced to four years in prison in April for allegedly
causing bodily harm during a scuffle with pro-government militants in
which a woman was injured. His family denies the charges.
Source: Five freed in US-Cuba rapprochement back in custody: rights
group -The Tico Times -
http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/01/04/five-freed-in-us-cuba-rapprochement-back-in-custody-rights-group
Monday, January 4, 2016
Abuse In Cuba’s Valle Grande Prison
Abuse In Cuba's Valle Grande Prison / 14ymedio, Manuel Morejon
Posted on January 4, 2016
14ymedio, Manuel Alberto Morejón, Havana, 30 December 2015 – From
Havana, the supervisor of the Christian Alliance sent 14ymedio several
prisoners' testimonies collected in the Valle Grande prison, which make
up a small sample of the abuse they are subjected to by the guards.
On 17 November 2014, at 10:00 am, First Lieutenant Maceo, known as "The
Lasher," took the hoses to Roberto Hernandez without caring that he was
under psychiatric treatment. Hernandez, known as "El Loco," is 32 and
lived in Havana's Plaza district, before entering Valle Grande prison
where he received the beating.
Valle Grande belongs to the Department of Penitentiary Establishments of
the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), and is located in Arroya Arenas
on the outskirts of Havana. Like all MININT departments, the
penitentiary has multiple and sophisticated control systems to silence
complaints coming from the prisoners, or to filter those that suit them.
But, at times, the voices of the prisoners leak out through the bars to
describe the realities that are hidden in Cuban jails. Many of them
relate to the lack of attention to inmates' health.
Raul Garcia Ramos, age 55 and a resident of Regla, is another example.
Despite being ill with cirrhosis of the liver and cancer of the
esophagus, he was refused medical care. In addition, Garcia has been in
prison since 2 June 2015, awaiting trail for the alleged crime of "threat."
As of 16 December, Hugo Damian Prieto Blanco, age 50, a resident of
Marianao and an organizer for the Orlando Zapata Tamayo Civic Resistance
Movement, demanded political prisoner status via a hunger strike. Two
days after the beginning of his protest, Prieto was transferred to Valle
Grande and his whereabouts are unknown. The activist, who is diabetic
and has pancreatic disease, has not been well cared for and also
demanded better health care for the inmates.
Far from solving anything, the prisoners' complaints and demands seem to
only aggravate their situation. Lamberto Hernandez Planas, 46, a
resident of the San Miguel del Padron neighborhood in Havana, complained
about the lack of hygiene to El Niño, the officer guarding the dining
room, because the food trays were caked with grime. El Niño threatened
to give him a beating and said that, if he didn't like the food, don't
eat it.
That day Hernandez went without eating, but his problems go deeper. His
clinical history, issued by the Combinado del Este National Hospital for
Inmates, indicates he suffers from peripheral neuropathy, gout, high
cholesterol, a herniated disc, gastritis, esophagitis, malnutrition and
low back pain. In this situation, recognized by the prison authorities,
he requires a special diet that he is not being provided.
While the beatings of opponents, including the Ladies in White, who
protest in the streets of Havana find some echo in the international
press and human rights organizations, little information comes from the
prisons where the inmates are totally defenseless.
Source: Abuse In Cuba's Valle Grande Prison / 14ymedio, Manuel Morejon |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/abuse-in-cubas-valle-grande-prison-14ymedio-manuel-morejon/
Posted on January 4, 2016
14ymedio, Manuel Alberto Morejón, Havana, 30 December 2015 – From
Havana, the supervisor of the Christian Alliance sent 14ymedio several
prisoners' testimonies collected in the Valle Grande prison, which make
up a small sample of the abuse they are subjected to by the guards.
On 17 November 2014, at 10:00 am, First Lieutenant Maceo, known as "The
Lasher," took the hoses to Roberto Hernandez without caring that he was
under psychiatric treatment. Hernandez, known as "El Loco," is 32 and
lived in Havana's Plaza district, before entering Valle Grande prison
where he received the beating.
Valle Grande belongs to the Department of Penitentiary Establishments of
the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), and is located in Arroya Arenas
on the outskirts of Havana. Like all MININT departments, the
penitentiary has multiple and sophisticated control systems to silence
complaints coming from the prisoners, or to filter those that suit them.
But, at times, the voices of the prisoners leak out through the bars to
describe the realities that are hidden in Cuban jails. Many of them
relate to the lack of attention to inmates' health.
Raul Garcia Ramos, age 55 and a resident of Regla, is another example.
Despite being ill with cirrhosis of the liver and cancer of the
esophagus, he was refused medical care. In addition, Garcia has been in
prison since 2 June 2015, awaiting trail for the alleged crime of "threat."
As of 16 December, Hugo Damian Prieto Blanco, age 50, a resident of
Marianao and an organizer for the Orlando Zapata Tamayo Civic Resistance
Movement, demanded political prisoner status via a hunger strike. Two
days after the beginning of his protest, Prieto was transferred to Valle
Grande and his whereabouts are unknown. The activist, who is diabetic
and has pancreatic disease, has not been well cared for and also
demanded better health care for the inmates.
Far from solving anything, the prisoners' complaints and demands seem to
only aggravate their situation. Lamberto Hernandez Planas, 46, a
resident of the San Miguel del Padron neighborhood in Havana, complained
about the lack of hygiene to El Niño, the officer guarding the dining
room, because the food trays were caked with grime. El Niño threatened
to give him a beating and said that, if he didn't like the food, don't
eat it.
That day Hernandez went without eating, but his problems go deeper. His
clinical history, issued by the Combinado del Este National Hospital for
Inmates, indicates he suffers from peripheral neuropathy, gout, high
cholesterol, a herniated disc, gastritis, esophagitis, malnutrition and
low back pain. In this situation, recognized by the prison authorities,
he requires a special diet that he is not being provided.
While the beatings of opponents, including the Ladies in White, who
protest in the streets of Havana find some echo in the international
press and human rights organizations, little information comes from the
prisons where the inmates are totally defenseless.
Source: Abuse In Cuba's Valle Grande Prison / 14ymedio, Manuel Morejon |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/abuse-in-cubas-valle-grande-prison-14ymedio-manuel-morejon/
Nauta vs. Gmail, and the Stupid Strategy
Nauta vs. Gmail, and the Stupid Strategy / Somos+, Javier Cabrera
Posted on January 3, 2016
Somos+, Javier Cabrera, 30 December 2015 — As a result of the Paris
attacks, many governments have put growing pressure on the technology
companies to have "backdoors" in order to access users' information
without needing a judicial order. In the U.S., the debate is at its
highest point, openly, with the citizens aware of the fight and the
technology companies giving their opinions. Such is the case with Apple
and others that have announced they won't deliver users' data for an
increase in security, and the government isn't taking it easily.
China also is trying to take advantage of the debate, although with a
focus a lot more twisted and behind the backs of its citizens, wanting
to compel by law all the technology companies to give them whatever
information they request, and threatening grave consequences for the
economy and the competition.
Recently the Cuban trolls attacked us in the article, "The Cuban
Government is stealing your digital information," saying that it's
something that happens in the whole world, forgetting the fact that
citizens and companies are aware that backdoors have ended. In Cuba,
everything is backdoor, since it's the Government itself that constructs
and manages technology security, preventing the development of
independent companies and limiting access to the Internet.
There is a gmail.cu with email service. The Government would have to ask
Google through a judge for the emails of a specified person, in a range
of closed dates, with a formal accusation that wouldn't be tied to
crimes of thought or fabricated. This would limit much of the control
they think they now have, and would leave in evidence the methods of
State Security.
For that reason, Cuba spends between 3 and 5 million dollars a month,
according to conservative estimates, to maintain Nauta.cu as a way of
having total access to the correspondence of Cubans. In spite of the
large cost, the service suffers "leaks" thanks to poor management. A
gmail.cu is perfectly viable today with today's infrastructure, at zero
cost, and with a service that would never drop, break, be interrupted
and would cover or exceed the expectations of a public that wants to use
more technology. I repeat: It's completely viable, but as the New York
Times says,"It only lacks political will."
To this we must add that everyone I know in Cuba has an alternative to
Nauta for matters where they don't want the Government sticking its nose
in. This strategy limits the real capacity of State Security's spying
but doesn't lower the cost of Internet services, so desperate people
have to use Nauta at moments of urgency. In the real world this is
called "competitive barrier and unfair monopoly."
The Socialist Government Technology is defined in Cuba by the lack of
clarity about who has access to your data, the non-existence of defense
mechanisms, the lack of transparency in the system, the very high cost
and very poor service…with citizens looking for real alternatives to
break the control and to show how stupid and unnecessary the whole
system is.
We young Cubans must continue to push. We can't remain indifferent,
conforming to what they give and sell us as technology. We are paying
for the service; we can make demands. Let's fight in 2016 for a REAL
INTERNET, independent of the Government. We have the right, as does the
rest of the world, to discuss our security and to know who has access to
our communications. Let's demand full respect for our privacy and leave
it clear that no captain, lieutenant or mercenary of the University of
Informatic Sciences (UCI) can give a damn about what we say with our
family or friends.
Translated by Regina Anavy
Source: Nauta vs. Gmail, and the Stupid Strategy / Somos+, Javier
Cabrera | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/nauta-vs-gmail-and-the-stupid-strategy-somos-javier-cabrera/
Posted on January 3, 2016
Somos+, Javier Cabrera, 30 December 2015 — As a result of the Paris
attacks, many governments have put growing pressure on the technology
companies to have "backdoors" in order to access users' information
without needing a judicial order. In the U.S., the debate is at its
highest point, openly, with the citizens aware of the fight and the
technology companies giving their opinions. Such is the case with Apple
and others that have announced they won't deliver users' data for an
increase in security, and the government isn't taking it easily.
China also is trying to take advantage of the debate, although with a
focus a lot more twisted and behind the backs of its citizens, wanting
to compel by law all the technology companies to give them whatever
information they request, and threatening grave consequences for the
economy and the competition.
Recently the Cuban trolls attacked us in the article, "The Cuban
Government is stealing your digital information," saying that it's
something that happens in the whole world, forgetting the fact that
citizens and companies are aware that backdoors have ended. In Cuba,
everything is backdoor, since it's the Government itself that constructs
and manages technology security, preventing the development of
independent companies and limiting access to the Internet.
There is a gmail.cu with email service. The Government would have to ask
Google through a judge for the emails of a specified person, in a range
of closed dates, with a formal accusation that wouldn't be tied to
crimes of thought or fabricated. This would limit much of the control
they think they now have, and would leave in evidence the methods of
State Security.
For that reason, Cuba spends between 3 and 5 million dollars a month,
according to conservative estimates, to maintain Nauta.cu as a way of
having total access to the correspondence of Cubans. In spite of the
large cost, the service suffers "leaks" thanks to poor management. A
gmail.cu is perfectly viable today with today's infrastructure, at zero
cost, and with a service that would never drop, break, be interrupted
and would cover or exceed the expectations of a public that wants to use
more technology. I repeat: It's completely viable, but as the New York
Times says,"It only lacks political will."
To this we must add that everyone I know in Cuba has an alternative to
Nauta for matters where they don't want the Government sticking its nose
in. This strategy limits the real capacity of State Security's spying
but doesn't lower the cost of Internet services, so desperate people
have to use Nauta at moments of urgency. In the real world this is
called "competitive barrier and unfair monopoly."
The Socialist Government Technology is defined in Cuba by the lack of
clarity about who has access to your data, the non-existence of defense
mechanisms, the lack of transparency in the system, the very high cost
and very poor service…with citizens looking for real alternatives to
break the control and to show how stupid and unnecessary the whole
system is.
We young Cubans must continue to push. We can't remain indifferent,
conforming to what they give and sell us as technology. We are paying
for the service; we can make demands. Let's fight in 2016 for a REAL
INTERNET, independent of the Government. We have the right, as does the
rest of the world, to discuss our security and to know who has access to
our communications. Let's demand full respect for our privacy and leave
it clear that no captain, lieutenant or mercenary of the University of
Informatic Sciences (UCI) can give a damn about what we say with our
family or friends.
Translated by Regina Anavy
Source: Nauta vs. Gmail, and the Stupid Strategy / Somos+, Javier
Cabrera | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/nauta-vs-gmail-and-the-stupid-strategy-somos-javier-cabrera/
January 1, 1959: The Beginning of a Betrayal? (Part 1)
January 1, 1959: The Beginning of a Betrayal? (Part 1) / Somos+, Jose Presol
Posted on January 3, 2016
Somos+, Jose M. Presol, 1 January 2016 — "The Revolution declares its
absolute and reverent respect for the constitution, which was given to
the people in 1940, and restores it as the official legal code. It
declares the only flag to be the tricolor with the lone star and carries
it forth as always, glorious and strong, into the heat of battle. And
there is no other anthem other than the Cuban national anthem,
recognized worldwide by the vibrant stanza, 'To die for the homeland is
to live.' "
These are not the words of a counterrevolutionary. They are not the
words of the current defenders (for how long?) of the current Cuban
government. They are not even the words of Dr. Fidel Castro. They are
the words of our own Martyrs of Moncado. And I say "our" because they
are ours; they long ago stopped being theirs. We are the revolutionaries
of today, fighting against an unjust dictatorship, just as they were the
revolutionaries of yesterday, fighting against another unjust dictatorship.
This was written by Raúl Gómez García and is excerpt from the so-called
"Manifesto from the Moncada Revolutionaries to the Nation." It amounts
to a statement of conscience, assuming they had one, that has not been
fulfilled.
The first revolutionaries to enter Havana on New Year's Eve 1958 were
not the forces of the 26th of July Movement, a claim that is not
disputed when the subject comes up. The first to go in were men and
women of the Second National Escambray Front.
Nor were Camilo Cienfuegos nor Ché Guevara the ones who occupied the
Columbia or La Cabaña military barracks. It was a Ramón Barquín, a
native of the city of Cienfuegos and an army colonel, who took command
of those installations. He had been imprisoned on the Isle of Pines (now
the Isle of Youth) since 1956 for leading a rebellion of Los Puros ("the
pure") against Batista. After he was liberated, he flew to Havana, where
he became de facto commander of the army and president of the republic.
However, he put aside any personal ambition and on Day 3 handed over
command to Cienfuegos on the orders of the acting president, Manuel
Urrutia Lleó. Colonel Barquín died in exile on March 3, 2008.
Speaking of Manuel Urrutia, he was a key figure in the trials of Frank
País and many other prisoners after the Santiago uprising, as well as
the trials of various men captured from the Granma expedition. They were
found innocent and released because, as Urrutia reasoned, the 1940
constitution recognized the right to take up arms against anyone holding
power illegally.
But it was not just in Havana where things were happening. Santiago de
Cuba had been taken by a column led by Huber Matos. The city was serving
as the provisional capital of the country and it was there on January 1
that Urrutia was sworn in as acting president based on previous
agreements made among the various anti-Batista organizations.
Urrutia began appointing a government, the first post revolutionary
government and one which did not include either Fidel or Raúl Castro, or
Ernesto Guevara, or any number of the future "great leaders." Of its
nineteen members, which included Urrutia, eight held no government
positions at the times of their deaths in Cuba. Six died in exile, one
died in a traffic accident, one was shot, one committed suicide, one
died in office, and one still lives in Cuba, though in a low-level
government position.
It is quite striking how lethal being a member of that first government
turned out to be. Those who died in exile were the president (Manuel
Urrutia), the prime minister (José Miró Cardona), the minister of state
(Roberto Agramonte Pichardo) the minister of public works (Manuel
"Manolo" Ray Rivero), the minister of social welfare (Elena Mederos
Cabañas) and the minister of housing (Rufo López Fresquet). The one who
was shot was the minister of agriculture (Humberto Sori Marin).
And speaking of the 1940 Constitution, the fact that it outlawed the
death penalty did not stop one "gentleman" named Ernesto Guevara and
another named Raúl Castro from making good use of it in Havana and Santiago.
And speaking of manifestos once again, we might conclude with another
one: the "Manifesto to the People of Cuba," published by Bohemia
magazine on July 26, 1957. (Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Cuba's
"capitalist and bourgeois" press was allowed to publish manifestos by
those fighting in the mountains.). This manifesto — signed by Fidel
Castro, Raúl Chibás (who died in exile) and Felipe Pazos (who also died
in exile) — promised four things:
Restoration of the 1940 constitution.
Free and democratic elections after one year of provisional government.
Freedom for all political prisoners.
Absolute freedom of the press.
But since Fidel did not enter Havana on January 1 but rather on January
8, shall we wait a few days to discuss these four points?
Source: January 1, 1959: The Beginning of a Betrayal? (Part 1) / Somos+,
Jose Presol | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/january-1-1959-the-beginning-of-a-betrayal-part-1-somos-jose-presol/
Posted on January 3, 2016
Somos+, Jose M. Presol, 1 January 2016 — "The Revolution declares its
absolute and reverent respect for the constitution, which was given to
the people in 1940, and restores it as the official legal code. It
declares the only flag to be the tricolor with the lone star and carries
it forth as always, glorious and strong, into the heat of battle. And
there is no other anthem other than the Cuban national anthem,
recognized worldwide by the vibrant stanza, 'To die for the homeland is
to live.' "
These are not the words of a counterrevolutionary. They are not the
words of the current defenders (for how long?) of the current Cuban
government. They are not even the words of Dr. Fidel Castro. They are
the words of our own Martyrs of Moncado. And I say "our" because they
are ours; they long ago stopped being theirs. We are the revolutionaries
of today, fighting against an unjust dictatorship, just as they were the
revolutionaries of yesterday, fighting against another unjust dictatorship.
This was written by Raúl Gómez García and is excerpt from the so-called
"Manifesto from the Moncada Revolutionaries to the Nation." It amounts
to a statement of conscience, assuming they had one, that has not been
fulfilled.
The first revolutionaries to enter Havana on New Year's Eve 1958 were
not the forces of the 26th of July Movement, a claim that is not
disputed when the subject comes up. The first to go in were men and
women of the Second National Escambray Front.
Nor were Camilo Cienfuegos nor Ché Guevara the ones who occupied the
Columbia or La Cabaña military barracks. It was a Ramón Barquín, a
native of the city of Cienfuegos and an army colonel, who took command
of those installations. He had been imprisoned on the Isle of Pines (now
the Isle of Youth) since 1956 for leading a rebellion of Los Puros ("the
pure") against Batista. After he was liberated, he flew to Havana, where
he became de facto commander of the army and president of the republic.
However, he put aside any personal ambition and on Day 3 handed over
command to Cienfuegos on the orders of the acting president, Manuel
Urrutia Lleó. Colonel Barquín died in exile on March 3, 2008.
Speaking of Manuel Urrutia, he was a key figure in the trials of Frank
País and many other prisoners after the Santiago uprising, as well as
the trials of various men captured from the Granma expedition. They were
found innocent and released because, as Urrutia reasoned, the 1940
constitution recognized the right to take up arms against anyone holding
power illegally.
But it was not just in Havana where things were happening. Santiago de
Cuba had been taken by a column led by Huber Matos. The city was serving
as the provisional capital of the country and it was there on January 1
that Urrutia was sworn in as acting president based on previous
agreements made among the various anti-Batista organizations.
Urrutia began appointing a government, the first post revolutionary
government and one which did not include either Fidel or Raúl Castro, or
Ernesto Guevara, or any number of the future "great leaders." Of its
nineteen members, which included Urrutia, eight held no government
positions at the times of their deaths in Cuba. Six died in exile, one
died in a traffic accident, one was shot, one committed suicide, one
died in office, and one still lives in Cuba, though in a low-level
government position.
It is quite striking how lethal being a member of that first government
turned out to be. Those who died in exile were the president (Manuel
Urrutia), the prime minister (José Miró Cardona), the minister of state
(Roberto Agramonte Pichardo) the minister of public works (Manuel
"Manolo" Ray Rivero), the minister of social welfare (Elena Mederos
Cabañas) and the minister of housing (Rufo López Fresquet). The one who
was shot was the minister of agriculture (Humberto Sori Marin).
And speaking of the 1940 Constitution, the fact that it outlawed the
death penalty did not stop one "gentleman" named Ernesto Guevara and
another named Raúl Castro from making good use of it in Havana and Santiago.
And speaking of manifestos once again, we might conclude with another
one: the "Manifesto to the People of Cuba," published by Bohemia
magazine on July 26, 1957. (Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Cuba's
"capitalist and bourgeois" press was allowed to publish manifestos by
those fighting in the mountains.). This manifesto — signed by Fidel
Castro, Raúl Chibás (who died in exile) and Felipe Pazos (who also died
in exile) — promised four things:
Restoration of the 1940 constitution.
Free and democratic elections after one year of provisional government.
Freedom for all political prisoners.
Absolute freedom of the press.
But since Fidel did not enter Havana on January 1 but rather on January
8, shall we wait a few days to discuss these four points?
Source: January 1, 1959: The Beginning of a Betrayal? (Part 1) / Somos+,
Jose Presol | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/january-1-1959-the-beginning-of-a-betrayal-part-1-somos-jose-presol/
Cuba And The Three Questions
Cuba And The Three Questions / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner
Posted on January 3, 2016
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 2 January 2016 — The Castros
have been in power for 57 years. At this point, general curiosity is
limited to formulating three disturbing questions. Why have they lasted
so long? Is it a failure, as their opponents say, or a success, as their
supporters claim? What will happen after this extremely long-lasting
government, the longest in the history of the Americas?
The Castros' government has been so enduring because it is a
dictatorship that does not seek the consent of society, nor does it
dedicate itself to obeying it. On the contrary, its efforts are
permanently dedicated to directing and controlling it.
The secret of this permanence is to convert people into sheep and to
conveniently keep them penned up. To these ends a formidable apparatus
of counterintelligence is organized, with some 60,000 people and a
proven repressive script. That amounts to 0.5% of the population,
consistent with the infallible formula learned from the German Stasi
which, along with the KGB, was the mother and teacher of the Cuban services.
The other similar regime in the world, North Korea, is also a military
dynasty and has continued for 68 years. The father of that orchestrated
anthill of rhythmic gymnasts was Kim Il-Sung. He started in 1948 and
died, in power, in 1994, but not before bequeathing to museums the
chairs where he had placed his egregious buttocks. He was then followed
by his son Kim Jong-il, and his grandson Kim Jong-un.
North Korean security troops exceed 106,000 members, to control 24
million survivors. More than twice the Cuban population. That police
apparatus, which doesn't do things by halves, has created a system of
political castes called Songbun, dividing people into three groups:
loyals, waverers, and hostiles. The loyals serve as auxiliaries to
counterintelligence in the harassment and surveillance of the other two
sectors. It is no wonder that when Fidel Castro visited North Korea,
according to those who accompanied him, he was fascinated with the
experiment. It seemed like a model country.
Has the Castro regime triumphed or failed? If measured by the ability to
cling to power, it has undoubtedly triumphed. Raul Castro was the
Minister of Defense at age 28, he is now 85 and has never ridden in
anything but good official cars and never ceased to live lavishly with
the royal family. For him and for his group of minions, it has been a
success.
If measured by the influence achieved by the regime, the conclusion is
the same. Venezuela has become a generous colony, meticulously
exploited, and political operatives trained by Cuban intelligence
services control or influence a dozen unfortunate Latin American
countries, to the extent that the Colombian peace process is being
irresponsibly negotiated in Havana.
But if what we take into account is the overall prosperity of the
country and the degree of genuine happiness shared by the whole
population, it has been a resounding failure. Across three generations
Cubans have suffered thousands of executions, tens of thousand of
political prisoners incarcerated, millions of people exiled, and the
government has erected the most unproductive model of wealth creation in
history, while meticulously demolishing the material structure it
inherited. It is "the art of making ruins" at its finest.
In 57 years of absolute control of power, the Castros have aggravated to
the point of martyrdom key elements of daily life: food and access to
drinking water, housing, transportation, communications, electricity,
shoes and clothing. From this grim landscape escape, as always, the
thousands of Cubans currently stranded in Costa Rica, compassionately
cared for by the government and people of that exemplary country.
These dire results are not, in reality, products of evil, but of
ignorance, the ambition of power and the revolutionary arrogance
emanating from Marxist certainties. They were willing to kill and do
harm to remain in power and forced Cubans to live according to the
utopia they lodged in their feverish brains. And so they have devastated
the country.
What will happen in the future? Nothing substantial. As long as the
Castros and their clique do not retire from public life, and as long as
their system – today transformed into military state capitalism –
remains standing, the country will continue to be condemned to the
massive emigration of desperate Cubans and the most radical lack of
productivity.
The basic problem lies in perceptions and in the confidence that
emanates from them. It does not matter if the United States ends the
embargo or substantially increases the number of tourists. It doesn't
matter if President Obama visits Cuba, like the last three popes, and
gives a speech in favor of freedom.
Cubans, as a general rule, do not believe in the system. They do not
believe in their compatriots. They do not believe in the destiny of
their country. They do not believe in those who lead them, and much less
in the capabilities of that sleepy and grim bureaucracy that
imperturbably continues to practice centralized planning. All this will
begin to change after the Castro regime is buried. Never before.
Source: Cuba And The Three Questions / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner
| Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-and-the-three-questions-14ymedio-carlos-alberto-montaner/
Posted on January 3, 2016
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 2 January 2016 — The Castros
have been in power for 57 years. At this point, general curiosity is
limited to formulating three disturbing questions. Why have they lasted
so long? Is it a failure, as their opponents say, or a success, as their
supporters claim? What will happen after this extremely long-lasting
government, the longest in the history of the Americas?
The Castros' government has been so enduring because it is a
dictatorship that does not seek the consent of society, nor does it
dedicate itself to obeying it. On the contrary, its efforts are
permanently dedicated to directing and controlling it.
The secret of this permanence is to convert people into sheep and to
conveniently keep them penned up. To these ends a formidable apparatus
of counterintelligence is organized, with some 60,000 people and a
proven repressive script. That amounts to 0.5% of the population,
consistent with the infallible formula learned from the German Stasi
which, along with the KGB, was the mother and teacher of the Cuban services.
The other similar regime in the world, North Korea, is also a military
dynasty and has continued for 68 years. The father of that orchestrated
anthill of rhythmic gymnasts was Kim Il-Sung. He started in 1948 and
died, in power, in 1994, but not before bequeathing to museums the
chairs where he had placed his egregious buttocks. He was then followed
by his son Kim Jong-il, and his grandson Kim Jong-un.
North Korean security troops exceed 106,000 members, to control 24
million survivors. More than twice the Cuban population. That police
apparatus, which doesn't do things by halves, has created a system of
political castes called Songbun, dividing people into three groups:
loyals, waverers, and hostiles. The loyals serve as auxiliaries to
counterintelligence in the harassment and surveillance of the other two
sectors. It is no wonder that when Fidel Castro visited North Korea,
according to those who accompanied him, he was fascinated with the
experiment. It seemed like a model country.
Has the Castro regime triumphed or failed? If measured by the ability to
cling to power, it has undoubtedly triumphed. Raul Castro was the
Minister of Defense at age 28, he is now 85 and has never ridden in
anything but good official cars and never ceased to live lavishly with
the royal family. For him and for his group of minions, it has been a
success.
If measured by the influence achieved by the regime, the conclusion is
the same. Venezuela has become a generous colony, meticulously
exploited, and political operatives trained by Cuban intelligence
services control or influence a dozen unfortunate Latin American
countries, to the extent that the Colombian peace process is being
irresponsibly negotiated in Havana.
But if what we take into account is the overall prosperity of the
country and the degree of genuine happiness shared by the whole
population, it has been a resounding failure. Across three generations
Cubans have suffered thousands of executions, tens of thousand of
political prisoners incarcerated, millions of people exiled, and the
government has erected the most unproductive model of wealth creation in
history, while meticulously demolishing the material structure it
inherited. It is "the art of making ruins" at its finest.
In 57 years of absolute control of power, the Castros have aggravated to
the point of martyrdom key elements of daily life: food and access to
drinking water, housing, transportation, communications, electricity,
shoes and clothing. From this grim landscape escape, as always, the
thousands of Cubans currently stranded in Costa Rica, compassionately
cared for by the government and people of that exemplary country.
These dire results are not, in reality, products of evil, but of
ignorance, the ambition of power and the revolutionary arrogance
emanating from Marxist certainties. They were willing to kill and do
harm to remain in power and forced Cubans to live according to the
utopia they lodged in their feverish brains. And so they have devastated
the country.
What will happen in the future? Nothing substantial. As long as the
Castros and their clique do not retire from public life, and as long as
their system – today transformed into military state capitalism –
remains standing, the country will continue to be condemned to the
massive emigration of desperate Cubans and the most radical lack of
productivity.
The basic problem lies in perceptions and in the confidence that
emanates from them. It does not matter if the United States ends the
embargo or substantially increases the number of tourists. It doesn't
matter if President Obama visits Cuba, like the last three popes, and
gives a speech in favor of freedom.
Cubans, as a general rule, do not believe in the system. They do not
believe in their compatriots. They do not believe in the destiny of
their country. They do not believe in those who lead them, and much less
in the capabilities of that sleepy and grim bureaucracy that
imperturbably continues to practice centralized planning. All this will
begin to change after the Castro regime is buried. Never before.
Source: Cuba And The Three Questions / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner
| Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-and-the-three-questions-14ymedio-carlos-alberto-montaner/
Cuba en la pantalla: el negocio de las apps
Cuba en la pantalla: el negocio de las apps
LILIANNE RUIZ, La Habana | Enero 04, 2016
Basta un toque con el dedo índice y un mapa de la ciudad se abre ante
los ojos. Otro, y en la pantalla aparecen recomendados los mejores
restaurantes del país. Muchos programadores cubanos desarrollan
aplicaciones para teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas con contenido
vinculado a los servicios del sector privado.
Rafael Jiménez se graduó en ciencias de la computación en la Universidad
de La Habana. Cuando creó su primera app la distribuyó en varios
talleres de reparación de celulares para darse a conocer. "Fue una buena
idea porque en poco tiempo tenía pedidos para programar nuevas
herramientas", asegura mientras muestra la utilidad que le abrió las
puertas a ese mundo.
Jiménez unificó en una funcionalidad para dispositivos con sistema
Android los servicios básicos que brinda la Empresa de
Telecomunicaciones (Etecsa). Desde enviar un mensaje de texto, realizar
una transferencia de saldo, conocer el estado del tiempo o votar por los
premios Lucas al mejor videoclip cubano.
"La idea era facilitarle a la gente las tareas con el móvil", asegura el
orgulloso creador de la aplicación, que hizo la interfaz por un deseo
personal, pero después comprendió que se había topado con un nicho de
mercado. "Muchos desarrolladores crean aplicaciones por sus propias
necesidades y descubren que terminan sirviéndole a mucha gente", afirma
Jiménez.
Entre los caminos para distribuir estas herramientas se encuentra el
llamado paquete, donde junto a los audiovisuales y la música, cada día
se agregan más programas para computadoras además de apps, la mayoría de
las cuales han sido desarrolladas por programadores del patio y están
diseñadas para funcionar sin necesidad de conectarse a internet.
Además de las utilidades para hacer más eficiente el uso de los
celulares, también proliferan la que dan visibilidad o ayudan en la
gestión a los negocios por cuenta propia. Algunos de estos empresarios
ya piden "a la carta" la app que necesitan. Es el caso de Pedro Sierra,
chofer de taxi, que con su Chevrolet de 1956 pasea turistas por toda la
Isla.
El conductor conoció a un joven apasionado de la programación y decidió
invertir en una herramienta que ha hecho más eficiente su trabajo.
"Quería algo parecido a Google Earth pero que trabajara sin conexión",
cuenta. Al final compró una app, cien por cien cubana y pensada
especialmente para sus necesidades. En la pantalla de su tableta, Sierra
dibuja el trayecto y la utilidad calcula la distancia y el gasto de
combustible.
"Ahora puedo definir las tarifas antes de iniciar el viaje", comenta el
chofer, quien lleva el dispositivo colocado en un soporte pegado en el
interior del parabrisas. "No tengo nada que envidiar a los que tienen un
TomTom satelital", alardea.
El graduado de informática que le vendió la app, tuvo que hacerlo de
manera ilegal. La licencia para trabajo por cuenta propia que permite
laborar como programador de equipos de cómputo no incluye la
comercialización de software. Las operaciones deben hacerse sin
reconocimiento legal y el pago, en efectivo.
Para los cubanos radicados en la Isla aún no es posible manejar una
cuenta de PayPal debido a las restricciones financieras del embargo
estadounidense, y pocos cuentan con tarjetas de crédito o débito que le
ha enviado algún familiar emigrado o que han logrado hacerse durante un
viaje al extranjero.
Esa limitación impide a muchos comprar herramientas de pago en Google
Play para mejorar su trabajo. Tampoco pueden poner a la venta sus
creaciones, por la falta de mecanismos de pago. Registrarse en el sitio
para obtener una licencia como desarrollador conlleva una transferencia
electrónica de 25 dólares.
Sin embargo, los obstáculos no frenan el negocio nacional de las apps.
Isladentro es una de las más populares en Cuba. Se trata de una guía
para viajeros disponible de manera gratuita y con un diseño muy
atractivo. En su interfaz aparecen los servicios, estatales y privados,
ordenados por provincia.
A falta de internet, para hacer uso de Isladentro, un dispositivo debe
estar conectado a la red de telefonía móvil para que funcione la
localización a través de las antenas de la red celular. "Creamos esta
aplicación para que funcione totalmente offline", explica a 14ymedio
Indhira Sotillo, directora del equipo de trabajo que desarrolló la utilidad.
Isladentro no ocupa demasiado espacio en la capacidad del dispositivo,
funciona tanto en iOS para aparatos de Apple, como para los que cuentan
con el sistema operativo Android, aunque en el primer caso debe
realizarse primero el jailbreak (desbloqueo) del móvil o del iPad.
El sueño del equipo es poder subir Isladentro a la plataforma Google
Play, como ha ocurrido con otras apps producidas en Cuba al estilo de
AlaMesa y Ke Hay Pa Hoy. Por el momento sólo pueden hacerlo para su
descarga gratuita o a través de amigos o familiares en el extranjero que
cobren por ellos el importe de la descarga.
Sotillo prefiere ser cautelosa y no poner en peligro lo que ya se ha
logrado. "No es lo mismo que aparezcan una o dos apps hechas en Cuba [en
la tienda digital] a que aparezcamos todas. Puede ser que no pase nada o
quizás nos tumben de un día para otro".
Mientras tanto, Isladentro continúa actualizándose en información,
diseño y códigos. Los emprendedores cambian sus ofertas y surgen nuevos
restaurantes a lo largo del país, otros cambian de lugar o cierran. "Eso
nos obliga a trabajar continuamente", dice Sotillo con una convicción
que no deja ninguna duda sobre su capacidad e ingenio para crear en el
futuro una empresa de software a mayor escala.
Source: Cuba en la pantalla: el negocio de las apps -
http://www.14ymedio.com/nacional/Cuba-pantalla-negocio-apps_0_1919808005.html
LILIANNE RUIZ, La Habana | Enero 04, 2016
Basta un toque con el dedo índice y un mapa de la ciudad se abre ante
los ojos. Otro, y en la pantalla aparecen recomendados los mejores
restaurantes del país. Muchos programadores cubanos desarrollan
aplicaciones para teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas con contenido
vinculado a los servicios del sector privado.
Rafael Jiménez se graduó en ciencias de la computación en la Universidad
de La Habana. Cuando creó su primera app la distribuyó en varios
talleres de reparación de celulares para darse a conocer. "Fue una buena
idea porque en poco tiempo tenía pedidos para programar nuevas
herramientas", asegura mientras muestra la utilidad que le abrió las
puertas a ese mundo.
Jiménez unificó en una funcionalidad para dispositivos con sistema
Android los servicios básicos que brinda la Empresa de
Telecomunicaciones (Etecsa). Desde enviar un mensaje de texto, realizar
una transferencia de saldo, conocer el estado del tiempo o votar por los
premios Lucas al mejor videoclip cubano.
"La idea era facilitarle a la gente las tareas con el móvil", asegura el
orgulloso creador de la aplicación, que hizo la interfaz por un deseo
personal, pero después comprendió que se había topado con un nicho de
mercado. "Muchos desarrolladores crean aplicaciones por sus propias
necesidades y descubren que terminan sirviéndole a mucha gente", afirma
Jiménez.
Entre los caminos para distribuir estas herramientas se encuentra el
llamado paquete, donde junto a los audiovisuales y la música, cada día
se agregan más programas para computadoras además de apps, la mayoría de
las cuales han sido desarrolladas por programadores del patio y están
diseñadas para funcionar sin necesidad de conectarse a internet.
Además de las utilidades para hacer más eficiente el uso de los
celulares, también proliferan la que dan visibilidad o ayudan en la
gestión a los negocios por cuenta propia. Algunos de estos empresarios
ya piden "a la carta" la app que necesitan. Es el caso de Pedro Sierra,
chofer de taxi, que con su Chevrolet de 1956 pasea turistas por toda la
Isla.
El conductor conoció a un joven apasionado de la programación y decidió
invertir en una herramienta que ha hecho más eficiente su trabajo.
"Quería algo parecido a Google Earth pero que trabajara sin conexión",
cuenta. Al final compró una app, cien por cien cubana y pensada
especialmente para sus necesidades. En la pantalla de su tableta, Sierra
dibuja el trayecto y la utilidad calcula la distancia y el gasto de
combustible.
"Ahora puedo definir las tarifas antes de iniciar el viaje", comenta el
chofer, quien lleva el dispositivo colocado en un soporte pegado en el
interior del parabrisas. "No tengo nada que envidiar a los que tienen un
TomTom satelital", alardea.
El graduado de informática que le vendió la app, tuvo que hacerlo de
manera ilegal. La licencia para trabajo por cuenta propia que permite
laborar como programador de equipos de cómputo no incluye la
comercialización de software. Las operaciones deben hacerse sin
reconocimiento legal y el pago, en efectivo.
Para los cubanos radicados en la Isla aún no es posible manejar una
cuenta de PayPal debido a las restricciones financieras del embargo
estadounidense, y pocos cuentan con tarjetas de crédito o débito que le
ha enviado algún familiar emigrado o que han logrado hacerse durante un
viaje al extranjero.
Esa limitación impide a muchos comprar herramientas de pago en Google
Play para mejorar su trabajo. Tampoco pueden poner a la venta sus
creaciones, por la falta de mecanismos de pago. Registrarse en el sitio
para obtener una licencia como desarrollador conlleva una transferencia
electrónica de 25 dólares.
Sin embargo, los obstáculos no frenan el negocio nacional de las apps.
Isladentro es una de las más populares en Cuba. Se trata de una guía
para viajeros disponible de manera gratuita y con un diseño muy
atractivo. En su interfaz aparecen los servicios, estatales y privados,
ordenados por provincia.
A falta de internet, para hacer uso de Isladentro, un dispositivo debe
estar conectado a la red de telefonía móvil para que funcione la
localización a través de las antenas de la red celular. "Creamos esta
aplicación para que funcione totalmente offline", explica a 14ymedio
Indhira Sotillo, directora del equipo de trabajo que desarrolló la utilidad.
Isladentro no ocupa demasiado espacio en la capacidad del dispositivo,
funciona tanto en iOS para aparatos de Apple, como para los que cuentan
con el sistema operativo Android, aunque en el primer caso debe
realizarse primero el jailbreak (desbloqueo) del móvil o del iPad.
El sueño del equipo es poder subir Isladentro a la plataforma Google
Play, como ha ocurrido con otras apps producidas en Cuba al estilo de
AlaMesa y Ke Hay Pa Hoy. Por el momento sólo pueden hacerlo para su
descarga gratuita o a través de amigos o familiares en el extranjero que
cobren por ellos el importe de la descarga.
Sotillo prefiere ser cautelosa y no poner en peligro lo que ya se ha
logrado. "No es lo mismo que aparezcan una o dos apps hechas en Cuba [en
la tienda digital] a que aparezcamos todas. Puede ser que no pase nada o
quizás nos tumben de un día para otro".
Mientras tanto, Isladentro continúa actualizándose en información,
diseño y códigos. Los emprendedores cambian sus ofertas y surgen nuevos
restaurantes a lo largo del país, otros cambian de lugar o cierran. "Eso
nos obliga a trabajar continuamente", dice Sotillo con una convicción
que no deja ninguna duda sobre su capacidad e ingenio para crear en el
futuro una empresa de software a mayor escala.
Source: Cuba en la pantalla: el negocio de las apps -
http://www.14ymedio.com/nacional/Cuba-pantalla-negocio-apps_0_1919808005.html
A ‘plantado’ says No
A 'plantado' says No
As a former Cuban political prisoner, a plantado, who spent 20 years and
seven months in Castro's prisons, the recent letter by 10 Cubans
Americans promoting travel and business with Castro's Cuba is shameful,
to say the least.
According to them, we are supposed to believe what they saw in trips
where they met with the repressors of the Cuban people and take their
word for it.
Yet, the mention of respect for human rights and justice is missing.
They are asking our exile community to accept that Cubans on the island
are third-class citizens and are happy about it.
The letter is an affront to all those men and women who have sacrificed
and continue to sacrifice so much to attain Cuba's freedom. Definitely,
the letter signers are not their "fellow Cuban Americans."
ANGEL DE FANA, DIRECTOR, PLANTADOS UNTIL FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY IN CUBA, MIAMI
Source: A 'plantado' says No | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article52856930.html
As a former Cuban political prisoner, a plantado, who spent 20 years and
seven months in Castro's prisons, the recent letter by 10 Cubans
Americans promoting travel and business with Castro's Cuba is shameful,
to say the least.
According to them, we are supposed to believe what they saw in trips
where they met with the repressors of the Cuban people and take their
word for it.
Yet, the mention of respect for human rights and justice is missing.
They are asking our exile community to accept that Cubans on the island
are third-class citizens and are happy about it.
The letter is an affront to all those men and women who have sacrificed
and continue to sacrifice so much to attain Cuba's freedom. Definitely,
the letter signers are not their "fellow Cuban Americans."
ANGEL DE FANA, DIRECTOR, PLANTADOS UNTIL FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY IN CUBA, MIAMI
Source: A 'plantado' says No | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article52856930.html
Direct flights resumed between Italy and Camaguey in Cuba
Direct flights resumed between Italy and Camaguey in Cuba
Published on January 4, 2016
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- With the arrival of 130 Italian travelers on
January 1 at the Ignacio Agramonte International Airport in Camagüey,
Cuba, the link between that city and Italy – one of the main countries
sending tourists to this eastern province – was resumed after over a
decade without direct flights.
After a stopover in Varadero, Matanzas, a Neos Airlines aircraft from
Milan arrived in Camagüey, where travelers were greeted with Cuban music
and dance, the Cubasi website reported on Friday.
Later they went to Santa Lucia, where they stayed at the Villagi Bravo
Club Caracol, the new name of the former Hotel Club Amigo Caracol, which
was remodeled to meet the demands of Italian customers.
With the opening of flights between Italy and Camagüey, Neos Airlines
will add another destination to its operations in Cuba.
Currently it provides links from Milan to the cities of Havana, Holguin
and Santiago de Cuba, and to the tourist areas of Varadero and Cayo
Largo del Sur, and in October it made an exploratory flight to Villa
Clara to study the possibility of including the northern cays of that
territory as another destination.
Source: Direct flights resumed between Italy and Camaguey in Cuba |
Caribbean News Now -
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Direct-flights-resumed-between-Italy-and-Camaguey-in-Cuba-28848.html
Published on January 4, 2016
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- With the arrival of 130 Italian travelers on
January 1 at the Ignacio Agramonte International Airport in Camagüey,
Cuba, the link between that city and Italy – one of the main countries
sending tourists to this eastern province – was resumed after over a
decade without direct flights.
After a stopover in Varadero, Matanzas, a Neos Airlines aircraft from
Milan arrived in Camagüey, where travelers were greeted with Cuban music
and dance, the Cubasi website reported on Friday.
Later they went to Santa Lucia, where they stayed at the Villagi Bravo
Club Caracol, the new name of the former Hotel Club Amigo Caracol, which
was remodeled to meet the demands of Italian customers.
With the opening of flights between Italy and Camagüey, Neos Airlines
will add another destination to its operations in Cuba.
Currently it provides links from Milan to the cities of Havana, Holguin
and Santiago de Cuba, and to the tourist areas of Varadero and Cayo
Largo del Sur, and in October it made an exploratory flight to Villa
Clara to study the possibility of including the northern cays of that
territory as another destination.
Source: Direct flights resumed between Italy and Camaguey in Cuba |
Caribbean News Now -
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Direct-flights-resumed-between-Italy-and-Camaguey-in-Cuba-28848.html
Airlift only short-term solution to Cubans trapped in Costa Rica
Airlift only short-term solution to Cubans trapped in Costa Rica
English.news.cn 2016-01-04 14:13:58
SAN JOSE, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- A burgeoning humanitarian crisis in Central
America seemed to have got a temporary solution last Tuesday when
regional countries agreed to begin next week airlifting around 8,000
Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador.
With the first flight set for early January, the migrants will then be
transferred to Mexico by bus before continuing their journey onto the
U.S., their final destination.
The number of Cuban migrants traveling to the U.S. dramatically
increased in 2015, as fears have grown that the rapprochement between
Washington and Havana will see the favorable American immigration policy
for Cubans be scrapped soon.
The Cuban Adjustment Act, passed in 1966, states that the Cubans who
arrive on American soil will be fast-tracked for work permits, economic
assistance and permanent residency status.
It is estimated that over 43,000 Cubans entered the U.S. during 2015,
while around 24,000 in 2014. Many are now choosing to risk the long
route through Central American countries as the U.S. Coast Guard keeps
patrolling the Straits of Florida.
The sheer scale of Cubans pouring into the borders led Nicaragua to shut
its borders on Nov. 15, leaving thousands stuck in Costa Rica and Panama.
Nicaragua's refusal to budge has been such that it did not participate
in the meetings between Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and
Honduras to solve the situation.
Upon its announcement on Tuesday, the airlift plan was hailed as a huge
breakthrough. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez called it
"absolutely exceptional" as a lasting example of regional cooperation.
Nevertheless, while the airlift will certainly come as a relief for the
currently stranded Cubans, it remains little more than a stopgap.
To start with, there is no guarantee that all the Cubans will be
transported to El Salvador. If they are, no timeframe has been made
clear. Even the basic question of who will pay for all these flights has
not been fully settled.
Furthermore, any Cubans now trapped in Costa Rica will be deported as
the airlift will not apply to them.
As Ecuador has canceled its no-visa policy for Cubans and Nicaragua
attacked the immigrants with tear gas, the plight of the Cubans
transiting Central American countries is not getting easier.
However, the deal does not solve any long-term issues.
With 8,000 Cubans still stranded in Costa Rica, Cuban officials have
poured scorn on the U.S. authorities, reiterating that the current
migrant crisis was caused by "the migratory privileges" Washington has
offered Cuban migrants.
Cuban President Raul Castro has been adamant that the "wet foot, dry
foot" policy by the U.S. is racist and encourages people trafficking.
Until Washington abandons its politically motivated "wet foot, dry foot"
policy, more Cubans are willing to risk their lives on their way to America.
Furthermore, this migratory policy continues to be one of the main
obstacles preventing the full normalization of ties between the U.S. and
Cuba.
However, any policy change of this kind is unlikely to happen before
U.S. presidential elections in November 2016. For many of the Republican
Party, including Senator Marco Rubio, Cuba represents the last
ideological bastion of the Cold War. In their eyes, the Castros are
enemies of the U.S. that must be fought and their people must be
welcomed, if possible.
As a result, the Cuban lobby in Florida is so influential that President
Barack Obama will not risk shutting out Cuban immigrants, for fear of
Florida voting Republican.
This hedging means that more Cubans are likely to make the perilous trip
through South and Central America to Mexico and then the U.S. border.
The new airlift operations will help those currently stranded, but
urgent planning is needed to deal with the upcoming complex situation.
Source: News Analysis: Airlift only short-term solution to Cubans
trapped in Costa Rica - Xinhua | English.news.cn -
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/04/c_134975829.htm
English.news.cn 2016-01-04 14:13:58
SAN JOSE, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- A burgeoning humanitarian crisis in Central
America seemed to have got a temporary solution last Tuesday when
regional countries agreed to begin next week airlifting around 8,000
Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador.
With the first flight set for early January, the migrants will then be
transferred to Mexico by bus before continuing their journey onto the
U.S., their final destination.
The number of Cuban migrants traveling to the U.S. dramatically
increased in 2015, as fears have grown that the rapprochement between
Washington and Havana will see the favorable American immigration policy
for Cubans be scrapped soon.
The Cuban Adjustment Act, passed in 1966, states that the Cubans who
arrive on American soil will be fast-tracked for work permits, economic
assistance and permanent residency status.
It is estimated that over 43,000 Cubans entered the U.S. during 2015,
while around 24,000 in 2014. Many are now choosing to risk the long
route through Central American countries as the U.S. Coast Guard keeps
patrolling the Straits of Florida.
The sheer scale of Cubans pouring into the borders led Nicaragua to shut
its borders on Nov. 15, leaving thousands stuck in Costa Rica and Panama.
Nicaragua's refusal to budge has been such that it did not participate
in the meetings between Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and
Honduras to solve the situation.
Upon its announcement on Tuesday, the airlift plan was hailed as a huge
breakthrough. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez called it
"absolutely exceptional" as a lasting example of regional cooperation.
Nevertheless, while the airlift will certainly come as a relief for the
currently stranded Cubans, it remains little more than a stopgap.
To start with, there is no guarantee that all the Cubans will be
transported to El Salvador. If they are, no timeframe has been made
clear. Even the basic question of who will pay for all these flights has
not been fully settled.
Furthermore, any Cubans now trapped in Costa Rica will be deported as
the airlift will not apply to them.
As Ecuador has canceled its no-visa policy for Cubans and Nicaragua
attacked the immigrants with tear gas, the plight of the Cubans
transiting Central American countries is not getting easier.
However, the deal does not solve any long-term issues.
With 8,000 Cubans still stranded in Costa Rica, Cuban officials have
poured scorn on the U.S. authorities, reiterating that the current
migrant crisis was caused by "the migratory privileges" Washington has
offered Cuban migrants.
Cuban President Raul Castro has been adamant that the "wet foot, dry
foot" policy by the U.S. is racist and encourages people trafficking.
Until Washington abandons its politically motivated "wet foot, dry foot"
policy, more Cubans are willing to risk their lives on their way to America.
Furthermore, this migratory policy continues to be one of the main
obstacles preventing the full normalization of ties between the U.S. and
Cuba.
However, any policy change of this kind is unlikely to happen before
U.S. presidential elections in November 2016. For many of the Republican
Party, including Senator Marco Rubio, Cuba represents the last
ideological bastion of the Cold War. In their eyes, the Castros are
enemies of the U.S. that must be fought and their people must be
welcomed, if possible.
As a result, the Cuban lobby in Florida is so influential that President
Barack Obama will not risk shutting out Cuban immigrants, for fear of
Florida voting Republican.
This hedging means that more Cubans are likely to make the perilous trip
through South and Central America to Mexico and then the U.S. border.
The new airlift operations will help those currently stranded, but
urgent planning is needed to deal with the upcoming complex situation.
Source: News Analysis: Airlift only short-term solution to Cubans
trapped in Costa Rica - Xinhua | English.news.cn -
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/04/c_134975829.htm
Air China connects to Cuba via Canada
Air China connects to Cuba via Canada
Air China celebrated the launch of flights to Havana in Cuba on 27
December at Montreal Airport in Canada. The thrice-weekly Beijing to
Havana service, flown using 777-300ERs, operates via the Star Alliance's
existing service to Montreal.
Air China, on 27 December, began serving Cuba for the first time, when
the Star Alliance carrier commenced thrice-weekly flights between
Beijing (PEK) and Havana (HAV). The 13,061-kilometre service will
operate via Montreal in Canada and will be flown by the airline's
777-300ERs. Flights depart the Chinese capital on Tuesdays, Fridays and
Sundays. The launch ceremony in Beijing was attended by representatives
from the Cuban Embassy in China, Beijing Capital International Airport
and Air China. Air China Vice Chairman Ms. Wang Yinxiang said in her
speech that in recent years, the economic and trade ties between China
and Cuba have become increasingly closer. The Beijing – Montreal –
Havana service has filled a longstanding gap in the aviation market
between China and Cuba and the Caribbean, and will further promote the
economic, trade, cultural and tourism development of the two regions,
and offer more convenient options for travellers. Air China now serves
10 destinations in the Americas; Havana, Hawaii, Houston, Los Angeles,
Montreal, New York (JFK and Newark), San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Vancouver
and Washington.
Source: Air China connects to Cuba via Canada -
http://www.anna.aero/2016/01/04/air-china-connects-to-cuba-via-canada/
Air China celebrated the launch of flights to Havana in Cuba on 27
December at Montreal Airport in Canada. The thrice-weekly Beijing to
Havana service, flown using 777-300ERs, operates via the Star Alliance's
existing service to Montreal.
Air China, on 27 December, began serving Cuba for the first time, when
the Star Alliance carrier commenced thrice-weekly flights between
Beijing (PEK) and Havana (HAV). The 13,061-kilometre service will
operate via Montreal in Canada and will be flown by the airline's
777-300ERs. Flights depart the Chinese capital on Tuesdays, Fridays and
Sundays. The launch ceremony in Beijing was attended by representatives
from the Cuban Embassy in China, Beijing Capital International Airport
and Air China. Air China Vice Chairman Ms. Wang Yinxiang said in her
speech that in recent years, the economic and trade ties between China
and Cuba have become increasingly closer. The Beijing – Montreal –
Havana service has filled a longstanding gap in the aviation market
between China and Cuba and the Caribbean, and will further promote the
economic, trade, cultural and tourism development of the two regions,
and offer more convenient options for travellers. Air China now serves
10 destinations in the Americas; Havana, Hawaii, Houston, Los Angeles,
Montreal, New York (JFK and Newark), San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Vancouver
and Washington.
Source: Air China connects to Cuba via Canada -
http://www.anna.aero/2016/01/04/air-china-connects-to-cuba-via-canada/
Cubans Who Recently Left Island Long for Those Left Behind
Cubans Who Recently Left Island Long for Those Left Behind
by TRACEY EATON
HAVANA, Cuba - Julio Oñate grew up listening to rapper Eminem. He
recorded his own songs and dreamed of hitting it big. But success never
came and he soon ran out of patience.
"I'm leaving Cuba," he told his mother. "I'm going to the United States."
Mirta Mesa was devastated, but said she supported her son.
"I said, 'Well, my son, if it's best for you, if it's to fulfill your
dreams…I agree to it,'" she said.
Oñate, 28, departed in September as part of the largest wave of Cuban
migrants since the 1990s. Now, like countless other Cubans, he and his
relatives on the island will be apart at the start of a new year.
"If I think about my mother a lot, I get depressed," he said. "So I work
and try not to think about it."
Once in the U.S., he settled in with his girlfriend in Miami, started
working a construction job and bought a green SUV.
"It's an old car, but it's very good," Oñate said. "I think I'll have it
paid off by the end of January. I lived my whole life in Cuba and never
dreamed I'd have a car. In three months, my life has changed completely.
It's incredible how your life can change in a moment."
In all, 43,159 Cuban migrants entered the U.S. at ports of entry in
fiscal 2015, which ended on Sept. 30. That was a 78 percent jump over
24,278 migrants the previous year, according to the Pew Research Center.
BETWEEN 2014 AND 2015, THERE WAS A 78 PERCENT JUMP IN THE NUMBER OF
CUBAN MIGRANTS ENTERING THE UNITED STATES.
Cuban officials say migration spiked because many Cubans feared that the
Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 was going to be repealed. Under the act,
Cuban migrants need only touch U.S. soil to be eligible for residency.
Only Cubans enjoy such a privilege. All other migrants must first obtain
U.S. visas, a process that can take from a few months to as many as 23
years, according to the State Department.
Cuban officials say the law, a relic of the Cold War, should be scraped
because it encourages migrants to risk their lives to reach America.
Joandri Crespo, 39, of Havana, knows about the risks. He and three
friends arrived in November after a perilous journey from Ecuador.
The trip through Colombia was especially frightening, he said.
"I worried they would kill us and sell our organs. That was my fear. I
figured one of my kidneys was worth $10,000."
And so if he had to pay hundreds of dollars to the smugglers, he'd pay it.
"This was no camping trip. Nothing like that."
Smugglers saw the migrants as merchandise and nothing more, Crespo said.
"It was a business. Everyone had pistols. I'll never forget those
people. They smelled like alcohol and had missing teeth. They were bandits."
He said the police weren't much better and extorted money from him and
others during their journey.
Crespo said when migrants protested, the police told them, "Don't
complain or we'll deport you."
He said he hid his money in his backpack, his shoes, his pants, even his
underwear, but the police usually found it.
Some women tucked their money in strips of cotton in their underwear.
They smeared blood from a pricked finger on the cotton to discourage
inspection. That often worked, Crespo said.
By the time he got through Colombia, he said he missed the tranquility
of Havana.
"In Colombia, I saw a lot of violence. In Ecuador, too. I heard
gunshots. Pow! Pow! I saw that they were from street gangs. I have to
recognize that Cuba has that under control."
Crespo said he traveled by canoe from the coast of Colombia to Panama.
Nearly 20 migrants crammed into each canoe, powered by outboard motor.
At least 16 or 17 of the long, narrow vessels left for Panama every day.
Two days before he made the trip, he said a toddler slipped from his
mother's hands and fell into the sea. The canoe's driver circled back to
search for the child, but couldn't find him. The mother made it to
Panama, but was overwhelmed with guilt.
"She hung herself the first chance she had," Crespo said.
Crespo ran out of money in Panama. He and his friends scavenged the
garbage for food and sold the few belongings they had.
"We went through a tremendous ordeal. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
Crespo's mother, Francis, sent him money so that he could continue his
journey north. On Nov. 14, he reached Brownsville, Texas. The next day,
Crespo caught a flight to Nebraska, where his mother works at a meat
packing plant.
CUBANS WHO ARE MAKING THE UNCERTAIN AND PERILOUS JOURNEY FEAR THAT A
CHANGE IN U.S. POLICY WILL MAKE IT HARDER TO EMIGRATE THERE IN THE
COMING YEARS.
"I was so happy when my son arrived," she said.
Crespo had lost 20 pounds, but was finally safe. He said he was lucky to
make it through Central America before Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala
stopped granting safe passage to Cuban migrants.
Thousands of Cuban migrants were stranded in Costa Rica. On Monday,
Costa Rican Foreign Ministry announced that they would be shuttled to El
Salvador by plane, then taken to Mexico by bus, ensuring that they will
reach the U.S.
Jesús Arboleya, a former Cuban diplomat, said it should be of no
surprise that young people have been leaving Cuba. The nation produces
more human capital than the labor market can absorb, making the country
a "factory" of potential migrants, he said.
Increased economic development is probably the only thing that will
deter migrants in the future, said Arboleya, author of a book about
Cuban migration.
Many arriving Cubans post photos on Facebook showing scenes from their
new American life: Visiting Walmart, driving a car, trying on a pair of
work boots, cooking chicken legs on a backyard barbeque. They smile for
the camera, but say their mood is bittersweet as they remember relatives
left behind.
Like many migrants, Crespo left Cuba for economic reasons. Once he has a
U.S. work permit, he said he'll join his mother at the meat plant in
Schuyler, Nebraska.
"I plan to work hard," he said. "It's difficult, but this is how
immigrants start out. I have my children's future in mind."
Joandri Crespo's daughter, Emily, in Havana. Her mother is hoping that
she and the children can be reunited with Crespo, who migrated to the U.S.
His 9-year-old daughter, Emily, and 7-year-old son, Elvis, are in Havana
with their mother, Yarisley Rivero, 31.
Rivero said her husband considered applying for a U.S. visa, but
couldn't even get an interview with immigration officers until the year
2027. So he decided to make the dangerous trip from Ecuador to the
U.S.-Mexico border.
"What was I going to do?" Rivero asked. "It hurt in the beginning…to
think that I was going to be alone with the children, but I couldn't
keep him from going. I miss him a lot. He helped me with the kids, with
school and the house and now I am alone."
She hopes her husband will get her and the children out of Cuba within a
year or two.
Many young people from her neighborhood, called Cerro, also want to leave.
"Everyone comes and meets outside my door. They sit talking about the
same thing: Things are bad, I want to leave the country. Every day it's
the same thing," Rivero said.
"I couldn't give you an exact number, but quite a few boys have left.
Most of them are young."
The departures have taken a toll on the families. Rivero said her
daughter cries every time her father calls. Her son asks, "When is my
dad coming home?"
THE DEPARTURES HAVE TAKEN A TOLL ON FAMILIES LEFT BEHIND, ESPECIALLY
CHILDREN.
"When my son gets mad at me, he says, 'I should have gone with my dad.'
That's what he tells me."
Rivero said she hopes her husband doesn't forget about her and his
children now that he's in Nebraska.
"I can only wait to see what happens," she said. "It could be that
Joandri will remember me…that he'll get me out. But maybe not. Many
people leave promising things, but in the end they forget about their
families. They forget about everyone."
Mirta Mesa, who lives in Havana's Vedado neighborhood, said she's sure
her son Julio, the musician, will be back. She doesn't know when, but
she has faith he'll return.
She stepped into the kitchen and unfurled a poster of her son.
"This is little Julio," she said proudly. "He has never left my side. He
was always very close to me."
That's why it was so hard to see him go, she said.
But she doesn't want him to worry.
"Tell him I'm fine," she said. "Everything is fine."
Tracey Eaton traveled to Cuba with support from the non-profit Pulitzer
Center.
Source: Cubans Who Recently Left Island Long for Those Left Behind - NBC
News -
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cubans-who-recently-left-island-long-those-left-behind-n487366
by TRACEY EATON
HAVANA, Cuba - Julio Oñate grew up listening to rapper Eminem. He
recorded his own songs and dreamed of hitting it big. But success never
came and he soon ran out of patience.
"I'm leaving Cuba," he told his mother. "I'm going to the United States."
Mirta Mesa was devastated, but said she supported her son.
"I said, 'Well, my son, if it's best for you, if it's to fulfill your
dreams…I agree to it,'" she said.
Oñate, 28, departed in September as part of the largest wave of Cuban
migrants since the 1990s. Now, like countless other Cubans, he and his
relatives on the island will be apart at the start of a new year.
"If I think about my mother a lot, I get depressed," he said. "So I work
and try not to think about it."
Once in the U.S., he settled in with his girlfriend in Miami, started
working a construction job and bought a green SUV.
"It's an old car, but it's very good," Oñate said. "I think I'll have it
paid off by the end of January. I lived my whole life in Cuba and never
dreamed I'd have a car. In three months, my life has changed completely.
It's incredible how your life can change in a moment."
In all, 43,159 Cuban migrants entered the U.S. at ports of entry in
fiscal 2015, which ended on Sept. 30. That was a 78 percent jump over
24,278 migrants the previous year, according to the Pew Research Center.
BETWEEN 2014 AND 2015, THERE WAS A 78 PERCENT JUMP IN THE NUMBER OF
CUBAN MIGRANTS ENTERING THE UNITED STATES.
Cuban officials say migration spiked because many Cubans feared that the
Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 was going to be repealed. Under the act,
Cuban migrants need only touch U.S. soil to be eligible for residency.
Only Cubans enjoy such a privilege. All other migrants must first obtain
U.S. visas, a process that can take from a few months to as many as 23
years, according to the State Department.
Cuban officials say the law, a relic of the Cold War, should be scraped
because it encourages migrants to risk their lives to reach America.
Joandri Crespo, 39, of Havana, knows about the risks. He and three
friends arrived in November after a perilous journey from Ecuador.
The trip through Colombia was especially frightening, he said.
"I worried they would kill us and sell our organs. That was my fear. I
figured one of my kidneys was worth $10,000."
And so if he had to pay hundreds of dollars to the smugglers, he'd pay it.
"This was no camping trip. Nothing like that."
Smugglers saw the migrants as merchandise and nothing more, Crespo said.
"It was a business. Everyone had pistols. I'll never forget those
people. They smelled like alcohol and had missing teeth. They were bandits."
He said the police weren't much better and extorted money from him and
others during their journey.
Crespo said when migrants protested, the police told them, "Don't
complain or we'll deport you."
He said he hid his money in his backpack, his shoes, his pants, even his
underwear, but the police usually found it.
Some women tucked their money in strips of cotton in their underwear.
They smeared blood from a pricked finger on the cotton to discourage
inspection. That often worked, Crespo said.
By the time he got through Colombia, he said he missed the tranquility
of Havana.
"In Colombia, I saw a lot of violence. In Ecuador, too. I heard
gunshots. Pow! Pow! I saw that they were from street gangs. I have to
recognize that Cuba has that under control."
Crespo said he traveled by canoe from the coast of Colombia to Panama.
Nearly 20 migrants crammed into each canoe, powered by outboard motor.
At least 16 or 17 of the long, narrow vessels left for Panama every day.
Two days before he made the trip, he said a toddler slipped from his
mother's hands and fell into the sea. The canoe's driver circled back to
search for the child, but couldn't find him. The mother made it to
Panama, but was overwhelmed with guilt.
"She hung herself the first chance she had," Crespo said.
Crespo ran out of money in Panama. He and his friends scavenged the
garbage for food and sold the few belongings they had.
"We went through a tremendous ordeal. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
Crespo's mother, Francis, sent him money so that he could continue his
journey north. On Nov. 14, he reached Brownsville, Texas. The next day,
Crespo caught a flight to Nebraska, where his mother works at a meat
packing plant.
CUBANS WHO ARE MAKING THE UNCERTAIN AND PERILOUS JOURNEY FEAR THAT A
CHANGE IN U.S. POLICY WILL MAKE IT HARDER TO EMIGRATE THERE IN THE
COMING YEARS.
"I was so happy when my son arrived," she said.
Crespo had lost 20 pounds, but was finally safe. He said he was lucky to
make it through Central America before Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala
stopped granting safe passage to Cuban migrants.
Thousands of Cuban migrants were stranded in Costa Rica. On Monday,
Costa Rican Foreign Ministry announced that they would be shuttled to El
Salvador by plane, then taken to Mexico by bus, ensuring that they will
reach the U.S.
Jesús Arboleya, a former Cuban diplomat, said it should be of no
surprise that young people have been leaving Cuba. The nation produces
more human capital than the labor market can absorb, making the country
a "factory" of potential migrants, he said.
Increased economic development is probably the only thing that will
deter migrants in the future, said Arboleya, author of a book about
Cuban migration.
Many arriving Cubans post photos on Facebook showing scenes from their
new American life: Visiting Walmart, driving a car, trying on a pair of
work boots, cooking chicken legs on a backyard barbeque. They smile for
the camera, but say their mood is bittersweet as they remember relatives
left behind.
Like many migrants, Crespo left Cuba for economic reasons. Once he has a
U.S. work permit, he said he'll join his mother at the meat plant in
Schuyler, Nebraska.
"I plan to work hard," he said. "It's difficult, but this is how
immigrants start out. I have my children's future in mind."
Joandri Crespo's daughter, Emily, in Havana. Her mother is hoping that
she and the children can be reunited with Crespo, who migrated to the U.S.
His 9-year-old daughter, Emily, and 7-year-old son, Elvis, are in Havana
with their mother, Yarisley Rivero, 31.
Rivero said her husband considered applying for a U.S. visa, but
couldn't even get an interview with immigration officers until the year
2027. So he decided to make the dangerous trip from Ecuador to the
U.S.-Mexico border.
"What was I going to do?" Rivero asked. "It hurt in the beginning…to
think that I was going to be alone with the children, but I couldn't
keep him from going. I miss him a lot. He helped me with the kids, with
school and the house and now I am alone."
She hopes her husband will get her and the children out of Cuba within a
year or two.
Many young people from her neighborhood, called Cerro, also want to leave.
"Everyone comes and meets outside my door. They sit talking about the
same thing: Things are bad, I want to leave the country. Every day it's
the same thing," Rivero said.
"I couldn't give you an exact number, but quite a few boys have left.
Most of them are young."
The departures have taken a toll on the families. Rivero said her
daughter cries every time her father calls. Her son asks, "When is my
dad coming home?"
THE DEPARTURES HAVE TAKEN A TOLL ON FAMILIES LEFT BEHIND, ESPECIALLY
CHILDREN.
"When my son gets mad at me, he says, 'I should have gone with my dad.'
That's what he tells me."
Rivero said she hopes her husband doesn't forget about her and his
children now that he's in Nebraska.
"I can only wait to see what happens," she said. "It could be that
Joandri will remember me…that he'll get me out. But maybe not. Many
people leave promising things, but in the end they forget about their
families. They forget about everyone."
Mirta Mesa, who lives in Havana's Vedado neighborhood, said she's sure
her son Julio, the musician, will be back. She doesn't know when, but
she has faith he'll return.
She stepped into the kitchen and unfurled a poster of her son.
"This is little Julio," she said proudly. "He has never left my side. He
was always very close to me."
That's why it was so hard to see him go, she said.
But she doesn't want him to worry.
"Tell him I'm fine," she said. "Everything is fine."
Tracey Eaton traveled to Cuba with support from the non-profit Pulitzer
Center.
Source: Cubans Who Recently Left Island Long for Those Left Behind - NBC
News -
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cubans-who-recently-left-island-long-those-left-behind-n487366
The EU must not betray Cuba
The EU must not betray Cuba
Brussels needs to insist on the Cuban people's right to choose their
political system.
By ROSA MARÍA PAYÁ 1/4/16, 5:30 AM CET Updated 1/4/16, 9:38 AM CET
After more than a year of negotiations with the Cuban government, the
European Union has shown no significant progress beyond statements on
commercial issues and the establishment of the basic framework for an
agreement.
The Cuban government has played its cards well. It made public part of
its talks with the U.S. government, and the already frenetic race to
secure "positions" in Cuba went out of control. In the naïve belief,
among others, that the biological end of the brothers-in-chief will
bring about democracy spontaneously, European and other business people
are trying to assure themselves a place on the island "before the
Americans get there" — no matter how much money they lose in the process.
I will not dwell on the obvious lack of a market in Cuba, where the
people have no purchasing power or democratic resources required to deal
with foreign investors because the only legal business partner is the
Cuban government. Clearly, foreign investors handpicked as minority
partners by a government that controls everything on the island are
guaranteed that they will have no competition. But that comes at the
risk of losing it all the minute they start to become "inconvenient,"
either because they demand to be paid what they're owed or because the
government has found a more interesting — and submissive — partner. Some
European investors have even wound up in Cuban prisons, such as Stephen
Purvis from Britain.
The truth is that deals with mafias are never win-win. Paradoxically,
despite the country's clearly precarious economic situation, the Cuban
government has succeeded in portraying itself as having nothing to lose
in its negotiations with the EU. Yet European diplomats would be seen as
having failed if they are forced to call off the negotiations and admit
that the Cuban government is not ready to give in on anything and
therefore does not meet the basic human rights conditions the EU
requires of its partners. The pressures on this issue run counter to
logic, and so the EU negotiators in the end are more likely to sign any
agreement to show results and satisfy economic interests.
The EU requires a human rights clause in the final agreement, which the
Cuban government will try to define as if it is meeting the conditions.
But if Europe comes to the coherent conclusion that it is Cuba that
needs Europe, and not the other way around, it will have the leverage to
support democracy and, through that, true peace, progress and stability
in Cuba and the region. That is required for a real framework of
guarantees for European economic interests.
***
Cuba has not had a free and multiparty election in 65 years, and there's
not even a framework for carrying one out now. The space for economic
reforms is also very limited because the constitution was illegally
amended in 2002 to put the island's economic, political and social
system under the "irrevocable" control of the Communist Party and its
monopolistic management. The EU cannot ask for a change in the
constitution, but it can support the right of Cubans to choose their own
future, and the political and economic systems they want for their
country. The opposite is immoral.
There is a non-partisan citizens' initiative, Cuba Decide (Cuba
Decides), for a binding referendum that will allow Cuban citizens to
vote on the changes needed to start a transition to democracy. No mater
how many cosmetic reforms the government puts in place, a true
transition cannot start until Cubans participate fully. The human rights
issue must permeate each and every point of any EU agreement with Cuba,
and cannot be treated independently of the others. Conditions
established by the EU must be measurable and verifiable.
That is why we hope for support for the binding referendum, under
conditions that guarantee the transparency of the process and the
presence of international observers. It happened in Chile in 1988, with
support from the majority of the world.
Neither the EU nor the Barack Obama administration are responsible for
fixing Cuba's problems. But they do have a historical responsibility to
take specific steps of effective solidarity with a real transition to
democracy. To support the participation and sovereignty of Cuban
citizens, instead of the rule of an unelected corporate-military elite
that has been in power for 56 years, is in any case the moral option.
Who could oppose the Cuban people's right to chose?
Rosa María Payá promotes the "Cuba Decides" campaign and is the daughter
of the late dissident leader Oswaldo Payá. She Tweets at @RosaMariaPaya.
Source: The EU must not betray Cuba – POLITICO -
http://www.politico.eu/article/the-eu-must-not-betray-cuba-negotiations-commercial-agreement-human-rights-clause/
Brussels needs to insist on the Cuban people's right to choose their
political system.
By ROSA MARÍA PAYÁ 1/4/16, 5:30 AM CET Updated 1/4/16, 9:38 AM CET
After more than a year of negotiations with the Cuban government, the
European Union has shown no significant progress beyond statements on
commercial issues and the establishment of the basic framework for an
agreement.
The Cuban government has played its cards well. It made public part of
its talks with the U.S. government, and the already frenetic race to
secure "positions" in Cuba went out of control. In the naïve belief,
among others, that the biological end of the brothers-in-chief will
bring about democracy spontaneously, European and other business people
are trying to assure themselves a place on the island "before the
Americans get there" — no matter how much money they lose in the process.
I will not dwell on the obvious lack of a market in Cuba, where the
people have no purchasing power or democratic resources required to deal
with foreign investors because the only legal business partner is the
Cuban government. Clearly, foreign investors handpicked as minority
partners by a government that controls everything on the island are
guaranteed that they will have no competition. But that comes at the
risk of losing it all the minute they start to become "inconvenient,"
either because they demand to be paid what they're owed or because the
government has found a more interesting — and submissive — partner. Some
European investors have even wound up in Cuban prisons, such as Stephen
Purvis from Britain.
The truth is that deals with mafias are never win-win. Paradoxically,
despite the country's clearly precarious economic situation, the Cuban
government has succeeded in portraying itself as having nothing to lose
in its negotiations with the EU. Yet European diplomats would be seen as
having failed if they are forced to call off the negotiations and admit
that the Cuban government is not ready to give in on anything and
therefore does not meet the basic human rights conditions the EU
requires of its partners. The pressures on this issue run counter to
logic, and so the EU negotiators in the end are more likely to sign any
agreement to show results and satisfy economic interests.
The EU requires a human rights clause in the final agreement, which the
Cuban government will try to define as if it is meeting the conditions.
But if Europe comes to the coherent conclusion that it is Cuba that
needs Europe, and not the other way around, it will have the leverage to
support democracy and, through that, true peace, progress and stability
in Cuba and the region. That is required for a real framework of
guarantees for European economic interests.
***
Cuba has not had a free and multiparty election in 65 years, and there's
not even a framework for carrying one out now. The space for economic
reforms is also very limited because the constitution was illegally
amended in 2002 to put the island's economic, political and social
system under the "irrevocable" control of the Communist Party and its
monopolistic management. The EU cannot ask for a change in the
constitution, but it can support the right of Cubans to choose their own
future, and the political and economic systems they want for their
country. The opposite is immoral.
There is a non-partisan citizens' initiative, Cuba Decide (Cuba
Decides), for a binding referendum that will allow Cuban citizens to
vote on the changes needed to start a transition to democracy. No mater
how many cosmetic reforms the government puts in place, a true
transition cannot start until Cubans participate fully. The human rights
issue must permeate each and every point of any EU agreement with Cuba,
and cannot be treated independently of the others. Conditions
established by the EU must be measurable and verifiable.
That is why we hope for support for the binding referendum, under
conditions that guarantee the transparency of the process and the
presence of international observers. It happened in Chile in 1988, with
support from the majority of the world.
Neither the EU nor the Barack Obama administration are responsible for
fixing Cuba's problems. But they do have a historical responsibility to
take specific steps of effective solidarity with a real transition to
democracy. To support the participation and sovereignty of Cuban
citizens, instead of the rule of an unelected corporate-military elite
that has been in power for 56 years, is in any case the moral option.
Who could oppose the Cuban people's right to chose?
Rosa María Payá promotes the "Cuba Decides" campaign and is the daughter
of the late dissident leader Oswaldo Payá. She Tweets at @RosaMariaPaya.
Source: The EU must not betray Cuba – POLITICO -
http://www.politico.eu/article/the-eu-must-not-betray-cuba-negotiations-commercial-agreement-human-rights-clause/
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Happy Talk from Cuba's General-President
Happy Talk from Cuba's General-President / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar
Posted on January 2, 2016
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 January 2015 – In
the Cuban National Assembly of People's Power final meeting of the year,
the Minister of the Economy and the general-president himself coined a
new expression. Both alluded to "reserves of efficiency" available to
the Cuban economy to face the challenges of the future.
The optimistic tone of the phrase gives the impression that, starting
now, the government can count on a secret weapon to guarantee the
long-promised prosperous and sustainable socialism.
Whatever the accepted meaning of the term "reserve" might be, in its
sense of "value that is saved for special occasions" it must always
imply the willingness to conserve – at least what is included under this
heading – the fruits of an unexpected surplus. We hear about a nation's
"gold reserves," or its "water reserves" for times of drought, "fuel
reserves" for a long trip, as well as "troop reserves" which are not
mobilized until they are needed, along with "food reserves," jealously
stored for an emergency situation.
Efficiency, an abstract noun with practical implications, cannot be
saved or set aside for another time. That which was not used,
irretrievably disappears when an action concludes with unalterable
results. How can a surgeon explain to the family of a patient who just
died on the operating table that some quantity of efficiency reserves
remain unused in the failed operation?
In cutting sugar cane, one of the indicators of efficiency is the height
of the pieces of cane remaining in the ground. If they are very long, it
is unthinkable to make another pass to recover the wasted cane; if they
are cut too close to the ground the cane will not germinate again and a
great deal of useless organic material will inevitably – and without
recourse – contaminate the mass fed through the mill. In that case, the
efficiency will be vaporized and no one will be able to argue that
having left the stalk too long or too short represents reserves of
efficiency to achieve a better crop for the next harvest.
Efficiency is a value that must be constantly renewed under new
circumstances and attached to the unstoppable development of productive
forces, as a Marxist faithful to the catechism would say. Unlike
stagnant water in a reservoir, resources that have served to make work
efficient today will not be equally useful for what we are going to
undertake tomorrow.
Whomever tries to exhibit, with cheerful optimism, their supposed
reserves of efficiency, can do so only to the extent they have been
inefficient. It is a trick of linguistics. There are no reserves: there
were only deficits."
Soure: Happy Talk from Cuba's General-President -
http://translatingcuba.com/happy-talk-from-cubas-general-president-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/
Posted on January 2, 2016
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 January 2015 – In
the Cuban National Assembly of People's Power final meeting of the year,
the Minister of the Economy and the general-president himself coined a
new expression. Both alluded to "reserves of efficiency" available to
the Cuban economy to face the challenges of the future.
The optimistic tone of the phrase gives the impression that, starting
now, the government can count on a secret weapon to guarantee the
long-promised prosperous and sustainable socialism.
Whatever the accepted meaning of the term "reserve" might be, in its
sense of "value that is saved for special occasions" it must always
imply the willingness to conserve – at least what is included under this
heading – the fruits of an unexpected surplus. We hear about a nation's
"gold reserves," or its "water reserves" for times of drought, "fuel
reserves" for a long trip, as well as "troop reserves" which are not
mobilized until they are needed, along with "food reserves," jealously
stored for an emergency situation.
Efficiency, an abstract noun with practical implications, cannot be
saved or set aside for another time. That which was not used,
irretrievably disappears when an action concludes with unalterable
results. How can a surgeon explain to the family of a patient who just
died on the operating table that some quantity of efficiency reserves
remain unused in the failed operation?
In cutting sugar cane, one of the indicators of efficiency is the height
of the pieces of cane remaining in the ground. If they are very long, it
is unthinkable to make another pass to recover the wasted cane; if they
are cut too close to the ground the cane will not germinate again and a
great deal of useless organic material will inevitably – and without
recourse – contaminate the mass fed through the mill. In that case, the
efficiency will be vaporized and no one will be able to argue that
having left the stalk too long or too short represents reserves of
efficiency to achieve a better crop for the next harvest.
Efficiency is a value that must be constantly renewed under new
circumstances and attached to the unstoppable development of productive
forces, as a Marxist faithful to the catechism would say. Unlike
stagnant water in a reservoir, resources that have served to make work
efficient today will not be equally useful for what we are going to
undertake tomorrow.
Whomever tries to exhibit, with cheerful optimism, their supposed
reserves of efficiency, can do so only to the extent they have been
inefficient. It is a trick of linguistics. There are no reserves: there
were only deficits."
Soure: Happy Talk from Cuba's General-President -
http://translatingcuba.com/happy-talk-from-cubas-general-president-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/
Cuba, One Year After December 17, 2014
Cuba, One Year After December 17, 2014 / Ivan Garcia
Posted on January 3, 2016
Ivan Garcia, 14 December 2015 — In a basement blackened by humidity and
soot, Leonardo Santizo and two workers make cookies, candy and peanut
nougat, as a private enterprise.
At the back of the room, piled up in nylon sacks, are hundreds of
kilograms of unroasted peanuts, bottles of vegetable oil and all-purpose
flour. On a damaged and dirty table, a thermos of recently-made coffee.
While they work, they chain-smoke.
"We've been on our feet since five in the morning and we work until four
in the afternoon. Every day we make 600 cakes, 100 packages of biscuits
and 400 tablets of ground peanuts. The average pay is some 400 pesos
daily. Sometimes a little more. We sell the cookies and sweets for the
most part to private retail businesses," says Leonardo.
As in every private business, they apply a double accounting and buy the
raw material on the black market. "There's a balance sheet that is
rigged by ONAT (the institution that manages private work in Cuba) and
another that they give the business owner, with the real gains and
losses. This is the way that all the independent businesses work."
On December 17, 2014, remembers Leonardo, "The three of us were eating
lunch and listening to salsa music on a portable radio when an announcer
said that President Raúl Castro would make an important speech.
"We were left without words. After so many years of rattling on about
Yankee imperialism, both presidents squared off on their differences. In
the afternoon we took up a collection and bought a bottle of aged Havana
Club rum, and we began to make plans. We thought that things would get
better and we would be able to get raw material from the North. A year
has passed and things are still fucked up," Leonardo confesses.
After drinking a bit of coffee, he continued unloading. "And we can
thank God that in one day we earn what a professional earns in a month.
I'm not an optimist. Those guys (the Government) don't intend for people
to live better. They want to run all the businesses themselves."
December 17 was a watershed moment in the national life. It's hard for
Cubans to not remember what they were doing just at noon when the
information bomb exploded.
Luis Carlos, a private taxi driver, was driving one of the thousand
hybrid autos that circulate in Havana, with a chassis made in the
Detroit factories in the 1940s to 1950s, and now rolling with motors and
pieces of modern cars.
"Like everyone in Cuba, I believed certain things. I told myself, damn,
now the fuckup is over and the idle talk between the Yankees and the
Government. That night at home, I thought that soon fast-food
restaurants would arrive; they would lower the airfare to Miami and the
shops would overflow with food and rubbish from the U.S. One year later,
the domino game is still going on," says Luis Carlos.
If you chat with Cubans who have only coffee for breakfast, this is more
or less the register of opinions. In 12 months they have passed from
exaggerated expectations to the worst pessimism.
The balance after one year of diplomatic relations and President Obama's
road map to empower the Cuban people and extend the use of new
technologies is thin.
There are 40 public plazas where, for two convertible pesos an hour (two
days' salary for a professional), you can have wireless access to the
Internet.
There is a contract between the U.S. telecommunications company IDT and
ETECSA (Cuba's telecommunications company). A flurry of famous Americans
have visited Cuba and little more.
For the obstruction, because in one year there hasn't been a larger
commercial interchange, the olive-green Regime blames the economic
embargo, the military base of Guantánamo, Radio and TV Martí, the Cuban
Adjustment Act or any other wildcard.
In those 12 months, the autocracy on the Island has only known how to
complain. Or to listen only to proposals about future business with
state groups, almost all of them in the orbit of military companies.
The genesis of Plan Obama, to offer a bridge with private entrepreneurs
and other Cubans, has been dynamited by Raúl Castro's government.
It's no secret that the Island executive has no sympathy for small
family businesses. In one of the first sections of the Regime's economic
bible, the so-called Economic Guidelines, it says that the State would
not accept the concentration of capital in the hands of individuals.
From here comes the strategy of not permitting Cubans on the Island to
invest in their own country or private workers to establish imports or
trade with foreign companies.
While private businesses are perceived as nests of criminals, good
intentions after December 17 remain only that.
Most Cubans feel prepared for the framework of an economic reform,
access to modern capitalism and market economics.
Yohanna, an engineer, was convinced of the benefits of Marxist
socialism, and she believed in the utopias of scientific communism. The
night before December 17, she was walking on her knees to the entrance
of the sanctuary of San Lázaro (Saint Lazarus), south of Havana, to pay
a promise to one of the most popular saints in Cuba.
"I asked him that in addition to health he would bless us, since my
husband and I had plans to walk to the U.S. by land from Ecuador. The
following morning, after hearing the news of the reestablishment of
relations, we postponed our plans thinking that things would get better.
But seeing the current scenario, the only door that remains open is to
emigrate. How and when I don't know, but I'm convinced that while the
same people govern, I have to get out of Cuba," Yohanna says.
The divide between popular desire and the official narrative is evident.
While the optimistic official news tells us that the country is growing,
a wide segment of disillusioned Cubans feel trapped in a dead-end street
with no way out.
The economy continues leaking, salaries are a joke and having two hot
meals a day is an act of prestidigitization. And the Government doesn't
learn.
Iván García
Translated by Regina Anavy
Source: Cuba, One Year After December 17, 2014 / Ivan Garcia |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-one-year-after-december-17-2014-ivan-garcia/
Posted on January 3, 2016
Ivan Garcia, 14 December 2015 — In a basement blackened by humidity and
soot, Leonardo Santizo and two workers make cookies, candy and peanut
nougat, as a private enterprise.
At the back of the room, piled up in nylon sacks, are hundreds of
kilograms of unroasted peanuts, bottles of vegetable oil and all-purpose
flour. On a damaged and dirty table, a thermos of recently-made coffee.
While they work, they chain-smoke.
"We've been on our feet since five in the morning and we work until four
in the afternoon. Every day we make 600 cakes, 100 packages of biscuits
and 400 tablets of ground peanuts. The average pay is some 400 pesos
daily. Sometimes a little more. We sell the cookies and sweets for the
most part to private retail businesses," says Leonardo.
As in every private business, they apply a double accounting and buy the
raw material on the black market. "There's a balance sheet that is
rigged by ONAT (the institution that manages private work in Cuba) and
another that they give the business owner, with the real gains and
losses. This is the way that all the independent businesses work."
On December 17, 2014, remembers Leonardo, "The three of us were eating
lunch and listening to salsa music on a portable radio when an announcer
said that President Raúl Castro would make an important speech.
"We were left without words. After so many years of rattling on about
Yankee imperialism, both presidents squared off on their differences. In
the afternoon we took up a collection and bought a bottle of aged Havana
Club rum, and we began to make plans. We thought that things would get
better and we would be able to get raw material from the North. A year
has passed and things are still fucked up," Leonardo confesses.
After drinking a bit of coffee, he continued unloading. "And we can
thank God that in one day we earn what a professional earns in a month.
I'm not an optimist. Those guys (the Government) don't intend for people
to live better. They want to run all the businesses themselves."
December 17 was a watershed moment in the national life. It's hard for
Cubans to not remember what they were doing just at noon when the
information bomb exploded.
Luis Carlos, a private taxi driver, was driving one of the thousand
hybrid autos that circulate in Havana, with a chassis made in the
Detroit factories in the 1940s to 1950s, and now rolling with motors and
pieces of modern cars.
"Like everyone in Cuba, I believed certain things. I told myself, damn,
now the fuckup is over and the idle talk between the Yankees and the
Government. That night at home, I thought that soon fast-food
restaurants would arrive; they would lower the airfare to Miami and the
shops would overflow with food and rubbish from the U.S. One year later,
the domino game is still going on," says Luis Carlos.
If you chat with Cubans who have only coffee for breakfast, this is more
or less the register of opinions. In 12 months they have passed from
exaggerated expectations to the worst pessimism.
The balance after one year of diplomatic relations and President Obama's
road map to empower the Cuban people and extend the use of new
technologies is thin.
There are 40 public plazas where, for two convertible pesos an hour (two
days' salary for a professional), you can have wireless access to the
Internet.
There is a contract between the U.S. telecommunications company IDT and
ETECSA (Cuba's telecommunications company). A flurry of famous Americans
have visited Cuba and little more.
For the obstruction, because in one year there hasn't been a larger
commercial interchange, the olive-green Regime blames the economic
embargo, the military base of Guantánamo, Radio and TV Martí, the Cuban
Adjustment Act or any other wildcard.
In those 12 months, the autocracy on the Island has only known how to
complain. Or to listen only to proposals about future business with
state groups, almost all of them in the orbit of military companies.
The genesis of Plan Obama, to offer a bridge with private entrepreneurs
and other Cubans, has been dynamited by Raúl Castro's government.
It's no secret that the Island executive has no sympathy for small
family businesses. In one of the first sections of the Regime's economic
bible, the so-called Economic Guidelines, it says that the State would
not accept the concentration of capital in the hands of individuals.
From here comes the strategy of not permitting Cubans on the Island to
invest in their own country or private workers to establish imports or
trade with foreign companies.
While private businesses are perceived as nests of criminals, good
intentions after December 17 remain only that.
Most Cubans feel prepared for the framework of an economic reform,
access to modern capitalism and market economics.
Yohanna, an engineer, was convinced of the benefits of Marxist
socialism, and she believed in the utopias of scientific communism. The
night before December 17, she was walking on her knees to the entrance
of the sanctuary of San Lázaro (Saint Lazarus), south of Havana, to pay
a promise to one of the most popular saints in Cuba.
"I asked him that in addition to health he would bless us, since my
husband and I had plans to walk to the U.S. by land from Ecuador. The
following morning, after hearing the news of the reestablishment of
relations, we postponed our plans thinking that things would get better.
But seeing the current scenario, the only door that remains open is to
emigrate. How and when I don't know, but I'm convinced that while the
same people govern, I have to get out of Cuba," Yohanna says.
The divide between popular desire and the official narrative is evident.
While the optimistic official news tells us that the country is growing,
a wide segment of disillusioned Cubans feel trapped in a dead-end street
with no way out.
The economy continues leaking, salaries are a joke and having two hot
meals a day is an act of prestidigitization. And the Government doesn't
learn.
Iván García
Translated by Regina Anavy
Source: Cuba, One Year After December 17, 2014 / Ivan Garcia |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-one-year-after-december-17-2014-ivan-garcia/
14ymedio’s 14 Cuban Faces of the Year for 2015
14ymedio's 14 Cuban Faces of the Year for 2015 / 14ymedio
Posted on January 3, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2015 — The protagonists of 2015 Cuba have
made their mark sometime in the past twelve months. These people from
the areas of culture, sports, religion, politics, science or social
activism made this year different and unique. They did it from celebrity
or from ridicule; from victory or failure; from discretion or scandal.
All those included on this list barely a representation of the thousands
of those who have been at the center of the commentaries, the headlines
in the press, and in public opinion. These faces of 2015, according to
14ymedio, are the physiognomy of our country: a diverse and
contradictory nation.
Zacchaeus Baez Guerrero, government opponent
Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party
Juan Carlos Cremata, playwright and filmmaker
Gente de Zona, musical duo
Leonardo Padura, writer
Yarisley Silva, pole vaulter
Tania Bruguera, artist
Josefina Vidal, diplomatic
Yordanka Ariosa, actress
Elio Hector Lopez, 'The Transporter' and manager of 'The Weekly Packet'
Danilo Maldonado, 'El Sexto,' graffiti artist
Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez, Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba
The Team that developed the vaccine against lung cancer
Antonio Castro, son of Fidel Castro and doctor
Source: 14ymedio's 14 Cuban Faces of the Year for 2015 / 14ymedio |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/14ymedios-14-cuban-faces-of-the-year-for-2015-14ymedio/
Posted on January 3, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2015 — The protagonists of 2015 Cuba have
made their mark sometime in the past twelve months. These people from
the areas of culture, sports, religion, politics, science or social
activism made this year different and unique. They did it from celebrity
or from ridicule; from victory or failure; from discretion or scandal.
All those included on this list barely a representation of the thousands
of those who have been at the center of the commentaries, the headlines
in the press, and in public opinion. These faces of 2015, according to
14ymedio, are the physiognomy of our country: a diverse and
contradictory nation.
Zacchaeus Baez Guerrero, government opponent
Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party
Juan Carlos Cremata, playwright and filmmaker
Gente de Zona, musical duo
Leonardo Padura, writer
Yarisley Silva, pole vaulter
Tania Bruguera, artist
Josefina Vidal, diplomatic
Yordanka Ariosa, actress
Elio Hector Lopez, 'The Transporter' and manager of 'The Weekly Packet'
Danilo Maldonado, 'El Sexto,' graffiti artist
Dionisio Guillermo García Ibáñez, Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba
The Team that developed the vaccine against lung cancer
Antonio Castro, son of Fidel Castro and doctor
Source: 14ymedio's 14 Cuban Faces of the Year for 2015 / 14ymedio |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/14ymedios-14-cuban-faces-of-the-year-for-2015-14ymedio/
Cuban Faces of 2015: Tania Bruguera, Artist
Cuban Faces of 2015: Tania Bruguera, Artist / 14ymedio
Posted on January 3, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2015 – Announcing a performance in the
Plaza of the Revolution tossed the artist Tania Bruguera into the middle
of a hurricane of repression and solidarity. The reprise of Tatlin's
Whisper, this time under the title #YoTambienExijo (I Also Demand),
would have brought microphones to the emblematic locale for those who
wanted to express themselves during the day on 30 December 2014.
Cuban cultural authorities initially pressured Bruguera to change the
location of her artistic action, then rained down threats upon her and
finally arrested her. Her passport was confiscated and retained, and for
months she suffered several clashes with State Security, in addition to
a sequence of interrogations and preparations for an alleged judicial
process that never materialized.
Born in 1968, Bruguera defines herself as an artivista (art-activist),
and was excluded from the latest edition of the Havana Biennial. Despite
all of this she decided to honor Hannah Arendt with more than 100 hours
of consecutive reading of her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, and
founded at her own home the International Institute of Artivismo, which
carries the name of the renowned German philosopher.
In July of 2015, the authorities returned Bruguera's passport, which
enabled her to participate in international events, exhibitions and
conferences. In New York City she was awarded a fellowship to the
renowned Yale University, and was chosen by People Magazine in Spanish
as one of the 50 most influential Latinos in the world.
Source: Cuban Faces of 2015: Tania Bruguera, Artist / 14ymedio |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-faces-of-2015-tania-bruguera-artist-14ymedio/
Posted on January 3, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2015 – Announcing a performance in the
Plaza of the Revolution tossed the artist Tania Bruguera into the middle
of a hurricane of repression and solidarity. The reprise of Tatlin's
Whisper, this time under the title #YoTambienExijo (I Also Demand),
would have brought microphones to the emblematic locale for those who
wanted to express themselves during the day on 30 December 2014.
Cuban cultural authorities initially pressured Bruguera to change the
location of her artistic action, then rained down threats upon her and
finally arrested her. Her passport was confiscated and retained, and for
months she suffered several clashes with State Security, in addition to
a sequence of interrogations and preparations for an alleged judicial
process that never materialized.
Born in 1968, Bruguera defines herself as an artivista (art-activist),
and was excluded from the latest edition of the Havana Biennial. Despite
all of this she decided to honor Hannah Arendt with more than 100 hours
of consecutive reading of her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, and
founded at her own home the International Institute of Artivismo, which
carries the name of the renowned German philosopher.
In July of 2015, the authorities returned Bruguera's passport, which
enabled her to participate in international events, exhibitions and
conferences. In New York City she was awarded a fellowship to the
renowned Yale University, and was chosen by People Magazine in Spanish
as one of the 50 most influential Latinos in the world.
Source: Cuban Faces of 2015: Tania Bruguera, Artist / 14ymedio |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-faces-of-2015-tania-bruguera-artist-14ymedio/
President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations – and his foreign policy legacy
President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations – and
his foreign policy legacy
Christi Parsons
President Obama may go to Cuba this year if its government bolsters its
human rights record and opens its doors more fully to American business
in the coming weeks, a senior advisor to the president said Saturday.
Obama would probably make such a decision in the next couple of months,
as his national security team evaluates the tentative warming of
relations since the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana last year.
"The key test," said deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, is
"whether the president's going to Cuba would help advance those
priorities," and in particular, whether a visit would "improve the lives
of the Cuban people."
The controversial possibility arose in a preview of Obama's foreign
policy plans for his final year in office, as aides prepare for the
president's return to Washington after two weeks of vacation with his
family in his childhood home state of Hawaii.
By far, the overarching foreign policy challenge of the new year will be
the fight against the terrorist organization Islamic State and its
efforts to inspire attacks against Western targets.
The Obama administration will be looking to disrupt the terrorist
group's plans, ease the Syrian civil war and push the group out of its
safe havens in the region.
Toward that end, aides say, Obama plans to seek a new authorization for
the use of military force. The fight against terrorism will also be a
focus of conversations with NATO leaders at an upcoming summit in Poland.
But while Rhodes ranked the campaign against Islamic State first in
every mention of Obama's foreign policy priorities, he also made clear
that the president planned a full-court press on several projects — all
of them crucial to his foreign policy legacy.
In dealings with Iran, Obama plans to spend the next year making sure
the Islamic Republic is not making any moves toward developing a nuclear
weapon in violation of its agreement with the international community,
while also enforcing sanctions still in place. Though some critics are
calling for new sanctions, Rhodes said the U.S. government had work to
do before new sanctions could be announced.
Obama plans to travel to China and Laos and host Southeast Asian leaders
at a summit in California as part of his effort to turn American
attention toward Asia. He will also press world leaders to take more
steps to fight climate change during a summit in China in the fall.
The normalization of relations with Cuba is of symbolic significance to
the Obama administration. It represents not only a historic opportunity
to end a lingering remnant of the Cold War but also the chance to push
for an affirmative change rather than simply respond to crises in the
Middle East.
The initiative has its critics. Many believe that Cuban President Raul
Castro will not significantly expand the freedoms of his people and that
Obama will go down in history for doing business with a despotic regime.
Rhodes, a lead negotiator in the talks between Washington and Havana,
said Saturday that he believed the Castro government had its own reasons
to open the way for commerce and to free the flow of information via
Internet and cellular communications.
Join the conversation on Facebook >>
"I think they have made a decision that they want this to happen," said
Rhodes, adding that there are changes afoot in Cuba and that the
government sees "some degree of change" as "consistent with their
revolution."
Obama's hope is to make enough progress in U.S.-Cuban relations — with
more travel to and corporate investment in the island nation — that a
Republican successor could not undo his work.
Obama will go to Cuba, Rhodes said, when and if his team determines a
visit would advance that cause.
christi.parsons@latimes.com
Twitter: @cparsons
Source: President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations
– and his foreign policy legacy - LA Times -
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-na-obama-cuba-20160103-story.html
his foreign policy legacy
Christi Parsons
President Obama may go to Cuba this year if its government bolsters its
human rights record and opens its doors more fully to American business
in the coming weeks, a senior advisor to the president said Saturday.
Obama would probably make such a decision in the next couple of months,
as his national security team evaluates the tentative warming of
relations since the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana last year.
"The key test," said deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, is
"whether the president's going to Cuba would help advance those
priorities," and in particular, whether a visit would "improve the lives
of the Cuban people."
The controversial possibility arose in a preview of Obama's foreign
policy plans for his final year in office, as aides prepare for the
president's return to Washington after two weeks of vacation with his
family in his childhood home state of Hawaii.
By far, the overarching foreign policy challenge of the new year will be
the fight against the terrorist organization Islamic State and its
efforts to inspire attacks against Western targets.
The Obama administration will be looking to disrupt the terrorist
group's plans, ease the Syrian civil war and push the group out of its
safe havens in the region.
Toward that end, aides say, Obama plans to seek a new authorization for
the use of military force. The fight against terrorism will also be a
focus of conversations with NATO leaders at an upcoming summit in Poland.
But while Rhodes ranked the campaign against Islamic State first in
every mention of Obama's foreign policy priorities, he also made clear
that the president planned a full-court press on several projects — all
of them crucial to his foreign policy legacy.
In dealings with Iran, Obama plans to spend the next year making sure
the Islamic Republic is not making any moves toward developing a nuclear
weapon in violation of its agreement with the international community,
while also enforcing sanctions still in place. Though some critics are
calling for new sanctions, Rhodes said the U.S. government had work to
do before new sanctions could be announced.
Obama plans to travel to China and Laos and host Southeast Asian leaders
at a summit in California as part of his effort to turn American
attention toward Asia. He will also press world leaders to take more
steps to fight climate change during a summit in China in the fall.
The normalization of relations with Cuba is of symbolic significance to
the Obama administration. It represents not only a historic opportunity
to end a lingering remnant of the Cold War but also the chance to push
for an affirmative change rather than simply respond to crises in the
Middle East.
The initiative has its critics. Many believe that Cuban President Raul
Castro will not significantly expand the freedoms of his people and that
Obama will go down in history for doing business with a despotic regime.
Rhodes, a lead negotiator in the talks between Washington and Havana,
said Saturday that he believed the Castro government had its own reasons
to open the way for commerce and to free the flow of information via
Internet and cellular communications.
Join the conversation on Facebook >>
"I think they have made a decision that they want this to happen," said
Rhodes, adding that there are changes afoot in Cuba and that the
government sees "some degree of change" as "consistent with their
revolution."
Obama's hope is to make enough progress in U.S.-Cuban relations — with
more travel to and corporate investment in the island nation — that a
Republican successor could not undo his work.
Obama will go to Cuba, Rhodes said, when and if his team determines a
visit would advance that cause.
christi.parsons@latimes.com
Twitter: @cparsons
Source: President Obama considering visit to Cuba to shore up relations
– and his foreign policy legacy - LA Times -
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-na-obama-cuba-20160103-story.html
A flow of Cubans – going home
A flow of Cubans – going home
By Nick Miroff
The Washington Post
Published: January 2, 2016
HAVANA — Mauricio Estrada left Cuba in 2003 full of the same
frustrations as so many others eager to move away. He married a Spanish
woman, moved to Barcelona and got a job as a prep cook.
A dozen years later and divorced, Estrada is back, this time as the
proprietor of a stylish Iberian-themed restaurant, Toros y Tapas,
decorated with old matador posters and the taxidermied heads of longhorn
bulls.
"Having my own restaurant is a dream," said Estrada, 48. "I never could
have done it if I'd stayed in Cuba."
Estrada is a repatriado, a repatriate, one of the growing number of
Cubans who have opted to move back to the island in recent years as the
Castro government eases its rigid immigration rules. The returnees are a
smaller, quieter countercurrent to the surge of Cubans leaving, and
their arrival suggests a more dynamic future when their compatriots may
come and go with greater ease, helping to rebuild Cuba with earnings
from abroad.
Not since the early years of Fidel Castro's rule, when his leftist
ideals brought home a number of exiles initially sympathetic to the 1959
revolution, have so many Cubans voluntarily returned.
The difference is that today's repatriates are not coming back for
socialism. They are coming back as capitalists. Which is to say, they
are returning as trailblazing entrepreneurs. Prompted by President Raúl
Castro's limited opening to small business and his 2011 move allowing
Cubans to buy and sell real estate, the repatriates are using money
saved abroad to acquire property and open private restaurants,
guesthouses, spas and retail shops.
Cuban authorities said they could not provide up-to-date statistics, but
in 2012, immigration officials said they were processing about 1,000
repatriation applications each year. The numbers appear to have
increased since then, at least judging from anecdotal evidence and the
proliferation of new small businesses in Havana run by returnees.
Communist authorities no longer stigmatize such Cubans or view them as
ideologically suspicious, provided they're not coming back as
anti-government activists. Virtually all Cubans who emigrated are
eligible for repatriation unless they are deemed to have committed
"hostile acts against the state."
Returnees say the paperwork takes about six months to process. It allows
them to return home with a shipping container's worth of goods and to
regain access to the socialist country's benefits, including free health
care and food rations.
For Cubans nostalgic for home or determined to build small businesses on
the island, repatriation offers travel privileges few others enjoy.
Cubans returning from Spain, for example, do not have to renounce their
Spanish citizenship and the all-important European Union passports that
come with it, allowing them to travel far more freely than ordinary
Cuban passport holders, who need visas for practically any country they
wish to visit.
The repatriation trend is a classic case of "Cuban ingenuity," said
Pedro Freyre, a partner and an expert on Cuba trade laws at the Akerman
law firm in Miami. "It's an instinct for taking advantage of any
opening, and the perception that with this mechanism an expat can have
the best of two systems."
To be clear, the number of repatriates is dwarfed by the more than
70,000 Cubans who left the island in 2015, the highest figure in decades
and nearly twice as many as departed in 2014. The emigration wave is
being driven by a range of old and new factors, from the island's
perpetual economic troubles to new fears that better relations with the
United States will bring an end to the unique U.S. immigration
privileges extended to Cubans.
For Enrique Soldevilla, 34, the December 2014 announcement that the
United States and Cuba would begin normalizing relations was the
decisive factor in his return home after a decade in the Dominican
Republic. Optimistic that the U.S. thaw would bring better times to
Cuba, he moved back to Havana in April, giving up a well-paid job in
audio and video production.
Life in the Dominican Republic was good "professionally and
financially," Soldevilla said, "but something was always missing."
He felt a "spiritual need" to be in his home country and culture, with
his family close by.
Someone like Soldevilla would have had few options just a few years ago,
when restrictions were much tighter on private business and independent
labor. But today, more than a quarter of Cuba's workforce is not
employed by the state.
Soldevilla has been working as a freelance producer, using his
international contacts and his skills to get contracts with foreign
clients. He has done casting work for the U.S. reality TV show "House
Hunters," something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago,
when Cubans were prohibited from having cellphones and going online was
all but impossible.
Poor Internet access is still a major headache, but Soldevilla can take
his laptop to a tourist hotel with WiFi when he needs to conduct
business. "I'm not earning as much as I did [in the Dominican Republic],
but the cost of living is a lot lower. And I'm happier here," he said.
Many of the repatriates, like Soldevilla, are returning from Europe and
Latin America. Cubans in the United States may be more reluctant to
return to the island because of their relatively high incomes. But
American economic sanctions also make it essentially illegal for any
U.S. resident to go to Cuba and run a business. And the ability to buy
property remains mostly restricted to Cubans who live on the island.
For Kelly Sánchez, the 2011 overhaul of Cuban real estate laws was the
biggest factor in her decision to give up a job as an advertising
executive in Spain and return to the Old Havana neighborhood of her
childhood.
The change meant that a Cuban could acquire a residence that could also
house a small business.
Sánchez bought a 200-year-old house in the city's historic quarter, and
she now operates it as a small hostel called Casa Vieja. The ground
floor has 15-foot ceilings and doubles as an art gallery; she has a bar
and dining room on the roof deck. Sánchez's rooms rent for about $40 a
night, and demand is so high that she said she's almost entirely booked
for 2016.
"It's insane," she said, referring both to the demand and the myriad
challenges of running such an operation in crowded, crumbling Old Havana.
When Sánchez left for Spain in 1998 as a 24-year-old, she was an
unemployed university graduate with an engineering degree and a
frustration that drove her to depression. "I was desperate to get out of
here," she said.
A professional career in Europe "is what I needed to grow up," she said.
"It made me the woman I am today - smarter, more confident, more
open-minded."
Like Sánchez, restaurant owner Estrada describes life abroad as a kind
of international business school, an education in capitalism. Estrada
said he has struggled with the training and management of his Cuban
employees, who he said still treat their jobs as if they work for a
government-run business. Pilfering is a problem, he grumbled, along with
tardiness and poor customer service skills.
Like other private restaurant owners here, Estrada said he prefers to
hire workers with no experience that he can train to his standards,
rather than hire employees who have picked up the bad habits of
state-run businesses.
"In Spain, workers take their jobs seriously," Estrada said. "They know
that if they don't, they'll be out on the street with nothing to eat."
Source: A flow of Cubans – going home - Americas - Stripes -
http://www.stripes.com/news/americas/a-flow-of-cubans-going-home-1.386908
By Nick Miroff
The Washington Post
Published: January 2, 2016
HAVANA — Mauricio Estrada left Cuba in 2003 full of the same
frustrations as so many others eager to move away. He married a Spanish
woman, moved to Barcelona and got a job as a prep cook.
A dozen years later and divorced, Estrada is back, this time as the
proprietor of a stylish Iberian-themed restaurant, Toros y Tapas,
decorated with old matador posters and the taxidermied heads of longhorn
bulls.
"Having my own restaurant is a dream," said Estrada, 48. "I never could
have done it if I'd stayed in Cuba."
Estrada is a repatriado, a repatriate, one of the growing number of
Cubans who have opted to move back to the island in recent years as the
Castro government eases its rigid immigration rules. The returnees are a
smaller, quieter countercurrent to the surge of Cubans leaving, and
their arrival suggests a more dynamic future when their compatriots may
come and go with greater ease, helping to rebuild Cuba with earnings
from abroad.
Not since the early years of Fidel Castro's rule, when his leftist
ideals brought home a number of exiles initially sympathetic to the 1959
revolution, have so many Cubans voluntarily returned.
The difference is that today's repatriates are not coming back for
socialism. They are coming back as capitalists. Which is to say, they
are returning as trailblazing entrepreneurs. Prompted by President Raúl
Castro's limited opening to small business and his 2011 move allowing
Cubans to buy and sell real estate, the repatriates are using money
saved abroad to acquire property and open private restaurants,
guesthouses, spas and retail shops.
Cuban authorities said they could not provide up-to-date statistics, but
in 2012, immigration officials said they were processing about 1,000
repatriation applications each year. The numbers appear to have
increased since then, at least judging from anecdotal evidence and the
proliferation of new small businesses in Havana run by returnees.
Communist authorities no longer stigmatize such Cubans or view them as
ideologically suspicious, provided they're not coming back as
anti-government activists. Virtually all Cubans who emigrated are
eligible for repatriation unless they are deemed to have committed
"hostile acts against the state."
Returnees say the paperwork takes about six months to process. It allows
them to return home with a shipping container's worth of goods and to
regain access to the socialist country's benefits, including free health
care and food rations.
For Cubans nostalgic for home or determined to build small businesses on
the island, repatriation offers travel privileges few others enjoy.
Cubans returning from Spain, for example, do not have to renounce their
Spanish citizenship and the all-important European Union passports that
come with it, allowing them to travel far more freely than ordinary
Cuban passport holders, who need visas for practically any country they
wish to visit.
The repatriation trend is a classic case of "Cuban ingenuity," said
Pedro Freyre, a partner and an expert on Cuba trade laws at the Akerman
law firm in Miami. "It's an instinct for taking advantage of any
opening, and the perception that with this mechanism an expat can have
the best of two systems."
To be clear, the number of repatriates is dwarfed by the more than
70,000 Cubans who left the island in 2015, the highest figure in decades
and nearly twice as many as departed in 2014. The emigration wave is
being driven by a range of old and new factors, from the island's
perpetual economic troubles to new fears that better relations with the
United States will bring an end to the unique U.S. immigration
privileges extended to Cubans.
For Enrique Soldevilla, 34, the December 2014 announcement that the
United States and Cuba would begin normalizing relations was the
decisive factor in his return home after a decade in the Dominican
Republic. Optimistic that the U.S. thaw would bring better times to
Cuba, he moved back to Havana in April, giving up a well-paid job in
audio and video production.
Life in the Dominican Republic was good "professionally and
financially," Soldevilla said, "but something was always missing."
He felt a "spiritual need" to be in his home country and culture, with
his family close by.
Someone like Soldevilla would have had few options just a few years ago,
when restrictions were much tighter on private business and independent
labor. But today, more than a quarter of Cuba's workforce is not
employed by the state.
Soldevilla has been working as a freelance producer, using his
international contacts and his skills to get contracts with foreign
clients. He has done casting work for the U.S. reality TV show "House
Hunters," something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago,
when Cubans were prohibited from having cellphones and going online was
all but impossible.
Poor Internet access is still a major headache, but Soldevilla can take
his laptop to a tourist hotel with WiFi when he needs to conduct
business. "I'm not earning as much as I did [in the Dominican Republic],
but the cost of living is a lot lower. And I'm happier here," he said.
Many of the repatriates, like Soldevilla, are returning from Europe and
Latin America. Cubans in the United States may be more reluctant to
return to the island because of their relatively high incomes. But
American economic sanctions also make it essentially illegal for any
U.S. resident to go to Cuba and run a business. And the ability to buy
property remains mostly restricted to Cubans who live on the island.
For Kelly Sánchez, the 2011 overhaul of Cuban real estate laws was the
biggest factor in her decision to give up a job as an advertising
executive in Spain and return to the Old Havana neighborhood of her
childhood.
The change meant that a Cuban could acquire a residence that could also
house a small business.
Sánchez bought a 200-year-old house in the city's historic quarter, and
she now operates it as a small hostel called Casa Vieja. The ground
floor has 15-foot ceilings and doubles as an art gallery; she has a bar
and dining room on the roof deck. Sánchez's rooms rent for about $40 a
night, and demand is so high that she said she's almost entirely booked
for 2016.
"It's insane," she said, referring both to the demand and the myriad
challenges of running such an operation in crowded, crumbling Old Havana.
When Sánchez left for Spain in 1998 as a 24-year-old, she was an
unemployed university graduate with an engineering degree and a
frustration that drove her to depression. "I was desperate to get out of
here," she said.
A professional career in Europe "is what I needed to grow up," she said.
"It made me the woman I am today - smarter, more confident, more
open-minded."
Like Sánchez, restaurant owner Estrada describes life abroad as a kind
of international business school, an education in capitalism. Estrada
said he has struggled with the training and management of his Cuban
employees, who he said still treat their jobs as if they work for a
government-run business. Pilfering is a problem, he grumbled, along with
tardiness and poor customer service skills.
Like other private restaurant owners here, Estrada said he prefers to
hire workers with no experience that he can train to his standards,
rather than hire employees who have picked up the bad habits of
state-run businesses.
"In Spain, workers take their jobs seriously," Estrada said. "They know
that if they don't, they'll be out on the street with nothing to eat."
Source: A flow of Cubans – going home - Americas - Stripes -
http://www.stripes.com/news/americas/a-flow-of-cubans-going-home-1.386908
Va. Republican challenges McAuliffe to meet with dissidents in Cuba
Va. Republican challenges McAuliffe to meet with dissidents in Cuba
By Laura Vozzella January 2 at 1:41 PM
MIAMI — On the eve of his three-day trade mission to Cuba, Gov. Terry
McAuliffe (D) on Saturday pushed back against a Republican legislator's
demand that he meet with dissidents while on the island.
Del.-elect Jason Miyares, the first Cuban American elected to Virginia's
General Assembly, called on McAuliffe to spend time with the Ladies in
White and others at odds with Cuba's communist regime. Miyares's family
fled the country in 1965.
"As Governor McAuliffe decides to ring in the New Year in the only
non-democratic nation in the entire Western Hemisphere, perhaps he
should keep in mind the thousands of dissidents that are harassed,
beaten and imprisoned each day in Cuba simply because they yearn for
freedom," said Miyares, who in November won a House seat, representing
Virginia Beach.
"As Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe holds the same seat as Thomas
Jefferson, and as such he has a special responsibility during his Cuba
trip to speak out on behalf of the timeless universal truths of his
predecessor; the self-evident truths that 'all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights'
including the Right of 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuant of Happiness,'"
Miyares said in a written statement issued late Friday night. "Mr.
Jefferson was able to utter those words to the mighty British Empire 240
years ago, surely Governor McAuliffe can advocate these same timeless
principles to the Castro regime today."
[McAuliffe, at the midpoint of term, sets sights on Cuba and other
foreign markets]
McAuliffe heads for Cuba on Sunday for a three-day trip intended to
promote exports of Virginia products at a time of warming relations
between the two countries. His public schedule for the trip, dominated
by meetings with the various government officials who do the buying for
Cuba's centrally planned economy, gives no indication that the governor
plans to meet with dissidents.
McAuliffe's spokesman said the governor's job in Cuba is to promote
trade, but noted that an improved U.S.-Cuban relationship offers hope
for progress on human rights.
"The purpose of the Governor's trip is to open new markets for Virginia
products," McAuliffe's spokesman, Brian Coy, said via email in response
to Miyares's statement. "He believes opening trade relations is a key
strategy to create new economic activity and opportunities for families
in Virginia and Cuba alike.
"For the first time fifty years, the US and Cuba have a formal
diplomatic relationship and a process — agreed to by both governments —
for discussing human rights. The Governor is pleased with this
significant achievement as he believes it, along with greater commerce
and trade activities, will pave the way for better relations between the
US and Cuba, something that citizens of both countries support."
McAuliffe will be the fourth sitting U.S. governor to travel to Cuba
since President Obama announced plans just over a year ago to begin
normalizing relations with the communist country. He follows New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) and Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott (R).
None of the others met with dissidents during their trips, said John
Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which
provided information to McAuliffe and other governors ahead of their trips.
"Generally we have suggested that when governors go down, that they
steer away from anything that is truly going to be provocative for the
Cubans, because they're supposed to be there as chief marketing officers
for their states," Kavulich said.
"I think there's a different role for a United States senator or a
member of the House of Representatives," he added, noting that unlike
governors, members of Congress have an official role in making foreign
policy.
But Kavulich said that McAuliffe is in an awkward spot because he has
close personal ties to former president Bill Clinton and current
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"It's tough because that delegate does have a point — you're an elected
official, you're a very visible official, you've got that tie to the
Clintons," he said. "So maybe you should say, 'I'm here trying to get
business as a state official, but as a human being, as a father, as a
husband, I think it's important that anyone who comes to a country not
gloss over issues just because they're inconvenient.' "
Laura Vozzella covers Virginia politics for The Washington Post.
Source: Va. Republican challenges McAuliffe to meet with dissidents in
Cuba - The Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-republican-challenges-mcauliffe-to-meet-with-dissidents-in-cuba/2016/01/02/7cbc27a2-b169-11e5-9ab0-884d1cc4b33e_story.html
By Laura Vozzella January 2 at 1:41 PM
MIAMI — On the eve of his three-day trade mission to Cuba, Gov. Terry
McAuliffe (D) on Saturday pushed back against a Republican legislator's
demand that he meet with dissidents while on the island.
Del.-elect Jason Miyares, the first Cuban American elected to Virginia's
General Assembly, called on McAuliffe to spend time with the Ladies in
White and others at odds with Cuba's communist regime. Miyares's family
fled the country in 1965.
"As Governor McAuliffe decides to ring in the New Year in the only
non-democratic nation in the entire Western Hemisphere, perhaps he
should keep in mind the thousands of dissidents that are harassed,
beaten and imprisoned each day in Cuba simply because they yearn for
freedom," said Miyares, who in November won a House seat, representing
Virginia Beach.
"As Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe holds the same seat as Thomas
Jefferson, and as such he has a special responsibility during his Cuba
trip to speak out on behalf of the timeless universal truths of his
predecessor; the self-evident truths that 'all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights'
including the Right of 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuant of Happiness,'"
Miyares said in a written statement issued late Friday night. "Mr.
Jefferson was able to utter those words to the mighty British Empire 240
years ago, surely Governor McAuliffe can advocate these same timeless
principles to the Castro regime today."
[McAuliffe, at the midpoint of term, sets sights on Cuba and other
foreign markets]
McAuliffe heads for Cuba on Sunday for a three-day trip intended to
promote exports of Virginia products at a time of warming relations
between the two countries. His public schedule for the trip, dominated
by meetings with the various government officials who do the buying for
Cuba's centrally planned economy, gives no indication that the governor
plans to meet with dissidents.
McAuliffe's spokesman said the governor's job in Cuba is to promote
trade, but noted that an improved U.S.-Cuban relationship offers hope
for progress on human rights.
"The purpose of the Governor's trip is to open new markets for Virginia
products," McAuliffe's spokesman, Brian Coy, said via email in response
to Miyares's statement. "He believes opening trade relations is a key
strategy to create new economic activity and opportunities for families
in Virginia and Cuba alike.
"For the first time fifty years, the US and Cuba have a formal
diplomatic relationship and a process — agreed to by both governments —
for discussing human rights. The Governor is pleased with this
significant achievement as he believes it, along with greater commerce
and trade activities, will pave the way for better relations between the
US and Cuba, something that citizens of both countries support."
McAuliffe will be the fourth sitting U.S. governor to travel to Cuba
since President Obama announced plans just over a year ago to begin
normalizing relations with the communist country. He follows New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) and Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott (R).
None of the others met with dissidents during their trips, said John
Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which
provided information to McAuliffe and other governors ahead of their trips.
"Generally we have suggested that when governors go down, that they
steer away from anything that is truly going to be provocative for the
Cubans, because they're supposed to be there as chief marketing officers
for their states," Kavulich said.
"I think there's a different role for a United States senator or a
member of the House of Representatives," he added, noting that unlike
governors, members of Congress have an official role in making foreign
policy.
But Kavulich said that McAuliffe is in an awkward spot because he has
close personal ties to former president Bill Clinton and current
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"It's tough because that delegate does have a point — you're an elected
official, you're a very visible official, you've got that tie to the
Clintons," he said. "So maybe you should say, 'I'm here trying to get
business as a state official, but as a human being, as a father, as a
husband, I think it's important that anyone who comes to a country not
gloss over issues just because they're inconvenient.' "
Laura Vozzella covers Virginia politics for The Washington Post.
Source: Va. Republican challenges McAuliffe to meet with dissidents in
Cuba - The Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-republican-challenges-mcauliffe-to-meet-with-dissidents-in-cuba/2016/01/02/7cbc27a2-b169-11e5-9ab0-884d1cc4b33e_story.html
Cubans fleeing oppression, or moving?
Cubans fleeing oppression, or moving?
As the number of Cubans stranded in Central America continues to grow,
and the impact of thousands of new migrants heading to the United States
— and most likely Miami-Dade — fuels concerns, even hysteria, about the
cost of this growing humanitarian crisis, it's clear that the Obama
administration needs to step in to control the flow.
So far, the State Department has been almost mum.
Last week Central American nations reached a deal to let the Cubans
stuck in Costa Rica — 8,000 so far because Nicaragua closed its border
to them weeks ago — continue their journey north to the United States.
The plan would provide an airlift to Cubans starting in January from
Costa Rica to El Salvador, and then by bus to Mexico.
News organizations in Central America reported that U.S. officials were
part of the talks, but a State Department official would only say on
Tuesday that "we are aware of press reports that a deal has been reached
to allow Cuban migrants to proceed north through Central America. We
refer you to the involved host governments for details of the agreement.
The United States is committed to supporting safe, orderly and legal
migration from Cuba through the effective implementation of the 1994-95
U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords."
No doubt there is a growing crisis, and the United States needs to lend
a helping hand. But make no mistake — the circumstances have changed in
Cuba since the migration accords were crafted two decades ago.
Among the distinctions: Cubans were not allowed to travel without
government permission; today most Cubans can travel outside the country
and return. Those who left since the 1959 revolution until a few years
ago had to leave all of their belongings, give up their homes, cars and
anything else of value to the government.
Today, Cubans are allowed by the communist government to sell their
homes and cars, and they are doing just that to get the thousands of
dollars they need to pay "mules" to take them on a dangerous trek from
Ecuador (where until recently they could board a plane from Havana
without the need of a visa) to, eventually, the United States. Many then
return to visit the island a year and a day after they left — and some
do so even as they are getting U.S. government help like food stamps.
In the short term, the United States needs to move the new migrants who
do not have family in South Florida to other parts of the country where
they can be sponsored by church groups and families, similar to the
programs put into place during the 1960s Freedom Flights and the 1980
Mariel exodus. These helped thousands find jobs and learn about the
American way of life. In the longer term, the new U.S.-Cuba relationship
warrants a true change in policy.
Cubans are "voting" with their feet, leaving a totalitarian system that
has failed them, but there are many other immigrant groups who are doing
the same, whether they are fleeing violence in Mexico or Guatemala or
fleeing political repression in Venezuela or anywhere else.
The "wet foot, dry foot" policy that Cubans have enjoyed for 20 years
can no longer stand the test of time. And the policy's foundation, the
coveted Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, is already under fire.
In his last year at the White House, President Obama should focus on
finding a fair way to treat Cubans fleeing oppression, and
distinguishing them from those who simply want to move on temporarily,
benefiting from American benevolence.
Source: Cubans fleeing oppression, or moving? | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article52577540.html
As the number of Cubans stranded in Central America continues to grow,
and the impact of thousands of new migrants heading to the United States
— and most likely Miami-Dade — fuels concerns, even hysteria, about the
cost of this growing humanitarian crisis, it's clear that the Obama
administration needs to step in to control the flow.
So far, the State Department has been almost mum.
Last week Central American nations reached a deal to let the Cubans
stuck in Costa Rica — 8,000 so far because Nicaragua closed its border
to them weeks ago — continue their journey north to the United States.
The plan would provide an airlift to Cubans starting in January from
Costa Rica to El Salvador, and then by bus to Mexico.
News organizations in Central America reported that U.S. officials were
part of the talks, but a State Department official would only say on
Tuesday that "we are aware of press reports that a deal has been reached
to allow Cuban migrants to proceed north through Central America. We
refer you to the involved host governments for details of the agreement.
The United States is committed to supporting safe, orderly and legal
migration from Cuba through the effective implementation of the 1994-95
U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords."
No doubt there is a growing crisis, and the United States needs to lend
a helping hand. But make no mistake — the circumstances have changed in
Cuba since the migration accords were crafted two decades ago.
Among the distinctions: Cubans were not allowed to travel without
government permission; today most Cubans can travel outside the country
and return. Those who left since the 1959 revolution until a few years
ago had to leave all of their belongings, give up their homes, cars and
anything else of value to the government.
Today, Cubans are allowed by the communist government to sell their
homes and cars, and they are doing just that to get the thousands of
dollars they need to pay "mules" to take them on a dangerous trek from
Ecuador (where until recently they could board a plane from Havana
without the need of a visa) to, eventually, the United States. Many then
return to visit the island a year and a day after they left — and some
do so even as they are getting U.S. government help like food stamps.
In the short term, the United States needs to move the new migrants who
do not have family in South Florida to other parts of the country where
they can be sponsored by church groups and families, similar to the
programs put into place during the 1960s Freedom Flights and the 1980
Mariel exodus. These helped thousands find jobs and learn about the
American way of life. In the longer term, the new U.S.-Cuba relationship
warrants a true change in policy.
Cubans are "voting" with their feet, leaving a totalitarian system that
has failed them, but there are many other immigrant groups who are doing
the same, whether they are fleeing violence in Mexico or Guatemala or
fleeing political repression in Venezuela or anywhere else.
The "wet foot, dry foot" policy that Cubans have enjoyed for 20 years
can no longer stand the test of time. And the policy's foundation, the
coveted Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, is already under fire.
In his last year at the White House, President Obama should focus on
finding a fair way to treat Cubans fleeing oppression, and
distinguishing them from those who simply want to move on temporarily,
benefiting from American benevolence.
Source: Cubans fleeing oppression, or moving? | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article52577540.html
Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social unrest in 2016
Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social unrest in 2016
HAVANA | BY JAIME HAMRE
Priests offering New Year's prophecies from Cuba's Afro-Cuban religion
forecast an explosion in migration and social unrest worldwide in 2016.
Many on the Caribbean island eagerly wait for guidance from the Santeria
religion's annual forecast. Santeria, with roots in West African
tradition brought to Cuba by slaves, is practiced by millions of Cubans.
This year, the island's official association of priests, known as
babalawos, predicted an "explosion" of migration and "social unrest
provoked by desperation."
The yearly reading is for Cuba and the world at large, but the babalawos
did not state which predictions, if any, apply to Cuba specifically.
"The predictions of Ifa (divination system) warn world leaders that if
no action is taken, we may lead our people to a massive migration
provoked by different things, desperation among them," priest Lazaro
Cuesta told a news conference in Havana.
The flow of migrants from the Communist-ruled island jumped by about 80
percent last year as the process of detente between Washington and
Havana, announced in December 2014, stirred fears that preferential U.S.
asylum rights for Cubans may soon end.
Cuesta said war, economic hardship, political conflict and terrorism are
sparking worldwide migration.
He did not give specifics about the priests' social unrest prediction,
but offered a metaphor: "When you are in your room and it's really hot,
desperation makes you run out of the room. If we give you an air
conditioner, you stay put."
"I can be living in a hot room and I don't leave running because it's my
room," Cuesta said. "I'm living alongside everyone else in Cuba, and I'm
not leaving."
Based on this year's forecast, the babalawos recommend "establishing
favorable accords with respect to migration policy," and "reaching a
balance between salaries and the high cost of basic necessities."
Earlier this week, Cuban President Raul Castro told the National
Assembly, the country's single-chamber parliament, that an economic
slowdown is expected in 2016. Food prices have increased more than 50
percent on the island over the last four years, according to official
media. The average salary throughout the island is less than $30 a month.
"A person who economically considers himself incapable of living in the
place where he is is going to look for a better future somewhere else,"
said Cuesta.
The priests also prophesied that 2016 would bring greater foreign
investment and accords between nations, but gave no further details.
(Editing by Marc Frank and Matthew Lewis)
Source: Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social
unrest in 2016 | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-santeria-idUSKBN0UG0LA20160103
HAVANA | BY JAIME HAMRE
Priests offering New Year's prophecies from Cuba's Afro-Cuban religion
forecast an explosion in migration and social unrest worldwide in 2016.
Many on the Caribbean island eagerly wait for guidance from the Santeria
religion's annual forecast. Santeria, with roots in West African
tradition brought to Cuba by slaves, is practiced by millions of Cubans.
This year, the island's official association of priests, known as
babalawos, predicted an "explosion" of migration and "social unrest
provoked by desperation."
The yearly reading is for Cuba and the world at large, but the babalawos
did not state which predictions, if any, apply to Cuba specifically.
"The predictions of Ifa (divination system) warn world leaders that if
no action is taken, we may lead our people to a massive migration
provoked by different things, desperation among them," priest Lazaro
Cuesta told a news conference in Havana.
The flow of migrants from the Communist-ruled island jumped by about 80
percent last year as the process of detente between Washington and
Havana, announced in December 2014, stirred fears that preferential U.S.
asylum rights for Cubans may soon end.
Cuesta said war, economic hardship, political conflict and terrorism are
sparking worldwide migration.
He did not give specifics about the priests' social unrest prediction,
but offered a metaphor: "When you are in your room and it's really hot,
desperation makes you run out of the room. If we give you an air
conditioner, you stay put."
"I can be living in a hot room and I don't leave running because it's my
room," Cuesta said. "I'm living alongside everyone else in Cuba, and I'm
not leaving."
Based on this year's forecast, the babalawos recommend "establishing
favorable accords with respect to migration policy," and "reaching a
balance between salaries and the high cost of basic necessities."
Earlier this week, Cuban President Raul Castro told the National
Assembly, the country's single-chamber parliament, that an economic
slowdown is expected in 2016. Food prices have increased more than 50
percent on the island over the last four years, according to official
media. The average salary throughout the island is less than $30 a month.
"A person who economically considers himself incapable of living in the
place where he is is going to look for a better future somewhere else,"
said Cuesta.
The priests also prophesied that 2016 would bring greater foreign
investment and accords between nations, but gave no further details.
(Editing by Marc Frank and Matthew Lewis)
Source: Cuba's Santeria priests predict explosive migration, social
unrest in 2016 | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-santeria-idUSKBN0UG0LA20160103
White House - decision on Obama Cuba trip in next couple months
White House: decision on Obama Cuba trip in next couple months
HONOLULU | BY JEFF MASON
The White House will decide in the next couple months about a potential
trip by President Barack Obama to Cuba and wants both countries to take
steps to ensure the thaw in relations is irreversible, U.S. deputy
national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Saturday.
Rhodes, who was a key architect of the shift in U.S. strategy to the
island nation, said Washington wanted to see Cuba improve its record on
human rights and spur greater economic activity such as allowing private
companies to operate in the communist country.
Cuba also needed to give its people more access to information and the
Internet, he said.
"The key test for us is whether the president's going to Cuba would help
advance those priorities," Rhodes told reporters in Hawaii, where Obama
is vacationing.
"That's something I think we'll make a decision about ... in the next
couple months."
A trip by a U.S. president would be historic and the White House is
eager to use that leverage to press Cuba to make reforms. Obama has made
clear he is eager to visit the country before he leaves office next year.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Editing by W Simon)
Source: White House: decision on Obama Cuba trip in next couple months |
Reuters - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-idUSKBN0UG0NW20160102
HONOLULU | BY JEFF MASON
The White House will decide in the next couple months about a potential
trip by President Barack Obama to Cuba and wants both countries to take
steps to ensure the thaw in relations is irreversible, U.S. deputy
national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Saturday.
Rhodes, who was a key architect of the shift in U.S. strategy to the
island nation, said Washington wanted to see Cuba improve its record on
human rights and spur greater economic activity such as allowing private
companies to operate in the communist country.
Cuba also needed to give its people more access to information and the
Internet, he said.
"The key test for us is whether the president's going to Cuba would help
advance those priorities," Rhodes told reporters in Hawaii, where Obama
is vacationing.
"That's something I think we'll make a decision about ... in the next
couple months."
A trip by a U.S. president would be historic and the White House is
eager to use that leverage to press Cuba to make reforms. Obama has made
clear he is eager to visit the country before he leaves office next year.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Editing by W Simon)
Source: White House: decision on Obama Cuba trip in next couple months |
Reuters - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-idUSKBN0UG0NW20160102
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