Padura Says Obama's Visit Marks A Different Moment In Cuba-US Relations
/ EFE, 14ymedio
Posted on February 26, 2016
EFE (14ymedio), February 2016 — Cuban writer Leonardo Padura said today
that he views positively the upcoming visit of U.S. president Barack
Obama to Cuba, and he believes it marks "a different moment" in the
relations between both countries, which have always been "very traumatic."
"We are living at a unique moment: Obama is coming, the Rolling Stones
are coming, a baseball team is coming, Chanel is coming… This has become
like a theme park that everyone wants to visit," joked Padura to EFE in
Havana.
The author of "The Man Who Loved Dogs" confessed that he was surprised
by the news of Obama's trip announced for 21-22 March, which he greeted
as something "very good."
"I think that everything that contributes to eliminating tensions,
building bridges, coming to a better understanding and, in the end, a
better life for Cubans. you have to greet this as a positive thing," he
said.
The trip of President of the United States to the island "historically
is marking a different moment. The relations between the United States
and Cuba have always been very traumatic and, if that trauma is overcome
and we travel a path towards real normalization of relations, it will be
beneficial for everyone, especially for us Cubans," he added.
Leonardo Padura participated today in Havana at the "Cultural Thursdays"
colloquium organized by the Spanish Embassy in Cuba, held on this
occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the creation of his
character Mario Conde, the protagonist of his saga of police procedurals.
Along with Padura, speaking at the symposium was the actor Jorge
Perugorría, who plays Mario Conde in the film and television series "The
Four Seasons" which will premiere this year, directed by the Spanish
filmmaker Felix Viscarret.
Jorge Perugorría told EFE that Obama's visit has created "a kind of
expectation among Cubans" and he hoped that it will serve to change and
definitely improve relations between the two countries.
"I thought this [the visit of US president] was something I would never
see. However, it has been faster than we imagined. Since the famous
declaration of 17 December 2014 so much has happened, and so quickly.
Obama is coming and I think it's fantastic that this is happening and
that the two countries will follow the path of understanding and normal
relations," said the actor.
Source: Padura Says Obama's Visit Marks A Different Moment In Cuba-US
Relations / EFE, 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/padura-says-obamas-visit-marks-a-different-moment-in-cuba-us-relations-efe-14ymedio/
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Tractors In Cuba, From Ghosts To Orishas
Tractors In Cuba, From Ghosts To Orishas / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar
Posted on February 26, 2016
"Do not put me in the dark to die like a tractor"
(popular parody of a line from José Martí)
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 February 2016 – Two pieces of
news have raised hopes among Cuban farmers. One is that the United
States company Cleber LLC will install a tractor factory in the Mariel
Special Development Zone (ZEDM). The second is the announcement that
China will open a line of credit so that the island can buy YTO brand
Chinese tractors to use in the rice program.
To encourage more hopes, the newspaper Granma dedicated an article today
to an explanation of the situation of the 62,668 tractors registered in
the country, of which 95% have been in use for more than 30 years. The
article reports the number of these machines, their distribution by
area, what they are used for, and how many tires or tracks they had. But
they said nothing about the future of these obsolete vehicles nor the
new ones to come.
However, Cubans learned long ago that when the river is roaring it is
because it is carrying stones, but when you can't hear it it's doing the
same. It's been a long time since anyone has repeated from a podium or
in a meeting with senior officials that plowing with oxen is better than
doing it with farm machinery.
The thousand small tractors the US firm proposes to produce annually are
optimal for use with organoponic cultivation methods and they suggest
selling them to independent farmers in Cuba. The tractors will enter the
market under the name Oggún, one of the main orishas of the Yoruba
religion tied to technology and surgeons.
A rural legend, repeated by old already-retired tractor drivers, tells
that at the end on the seventies in the San Juan y Martinez nursery
area, a huge pit was dug to bury hundreds of destroyed tractors. Whole
machines buried as scrap before handing them over to the peasants. State
ownership "was ready to die" before making the transfer to the calloused
hands of the private producers.
Time passed and the "Special Period" arrived and only then was the
decision made to hand over whatever was unusable. Alfredo Perez,
operator of a '56 Ford belonging to La Isleña farm in Pinar del Río, who
tells how this transfer worked. "As far as I know, in the nineties the
state enterprises began giving the private farmers some farm machinery,"
he says.
The farmer remembers that in most cases the tractors involved were in
such poor condition, that in all the bureaucratic paperwork it appeared
as the sale of decommissioned equipment, not property. From there it was
up to the farmer to find a way to do what the state had failed to do
despite all its resources, which is what they did. "They handed over a
ghost that had to be resuscitated," remembers Perez.
Despite the poor mechanical condition of the equipment, it was necessary
to have an endorsement letter from the president of the cooperative and
a commitment to lend the vehicle to whatever entity needed it ,
including the police.
The current practice is that when a state enterprise receives a new
fleet of machinery, they hand over the old equipment to the
cooperatives. Sometimes the machines are in terrible condition, other
times in pretty good shape or even the company itself can help the
cooperative get the parts to make it work.
Another way to acquire a tractor is to have the great good fortune to
know the owner of a piece of American-made equipment that they want to
sell. The Soviets awarded by another system what they weren't allowed to
market. The price of these "agricultural almendrones*" could vary
between 100,000 to 150,000 Cuban pesos, depending on their condition and
the farm implements included.
Alfredo only knows one farmer to whom they sold "ten years ago, a new
tractor, and it was Alejandro Robaina," the famous tobacco farmer of
Vueltabajo. The farmer has some reservations and wonders if "the
Americans" are going to distribute through the state or market them freely.
With the wisdom of a man of the countryside who knows that nothing is
certain until the harvest is gathered in, Alfredo knows that tying the
tractors to Oggeun is very premature, "because it is not even confirmed
that they will build the factory," and "only time will tell."
Increasing food production is a priority for the State, so as to be able
to replace imports and meet demand. The shortages and consequent rise in
prices generate controversies of every kind, but there is something
everyone agrees on: the solution is to produce more and for this,
willpower isn't enough, tools are needed. The farmers need
better resources and marketing tractors puts to the test the old
governmental prejudices: the Cuban countryside, stuck in the 20th
Century, is facing the modernity it needs.
*Translator's note: "Almendrones" (from the word for almond) is what
Cubans call the pre-Revolution American cars still circulating in Cuba.
Source: Tractors In Cuba, From Ghosts To Orishas / 14ymedio, Reinaldo
Escobar | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/tractors-in-cuba-from-ghosts-to-orishas-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/
Posted on February 26, 2016
"Do not put me in the dark to die like a tractor"
(popular parody of a line from José Martí)
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 February 2016 – Two pieces of
news have raised hopes among Cuban farmers. One is that the United
States company Cleber LLC will install a tractor factory in the Mariel
Special Development Zone (ZEDM). The second is the announcement that
China will open a line of credit so that the island can buy YTO brand
Chinese tractors to use in the rice program.
To encourage more hopes, the newspaper Granma dedicated an article today
to an explanation of the situation of the 62,668 tractors registered in
the country, of which 95% have been in use for more than 30 years. The
article reports the number of these machines, their distribution by
area, what they are used for, and how many tires or tracks they had. But
they said nothing about the future of these obsolete vehicles nor the
new ones to come.
However, Cubans learned long ago that when the river is roaring it is
because it is carrying stones, but when you can't hear it it's doing the
same. It's been a long time since anyone has repeated from a podium or
in a meeting with senior officials that plowing with oxen is better than
doing it with farm machinery.
The thousand small tractors the US firm proposes to produce annually are
optimal for use with organoponic cultivation methods and they suggest
selling them to independent farmers in Cuba. The tractors will enter the
market under the name Oggún, one of the main orishas of the Yoruba
religion tied to technology and surgeons.
A rural legend, repeated by old already-retired tractor drivers, tells
that at the end on the seventies in the San Juan y Martinez nursery
area, a huge pit was dug to bury hundreds of destroyed tractors. Whole
machines buried as scrap before handing them over to the peasants. State
ownership "was ready to die" before making the transfer to the calloused
hands of the private producers.
Time passed and the "Special Period" arrived and only then was the
decision made to hand over whatever was unusable. Alfredo Perez,
operator of a '56 Ford belonging to La Isleña farm in Pinar del Río, who
tells how this transfer worked. "As far as I know, in the nineties the
state enterprises began giving the private farmers some farm machinery,"
he says.
The farmer remembers that in most cases the tractors involved were in
such poor condition, that in all the bureaucratic paperwork it appeared
as the sale of decommissioned equipment, not property. From there it was
up to the farmer to find a way to do what the state had failed to do
despite all its resources, which is what they did. "They handed over a
ghost that had to be resuscitated," remembers Perez.
Despite the poor mechanical condition of the equipment, it was necessary
to have an endorsement letter from the president of the cooperative and
a commitment to lend the vehicle to whatever entity needed it ,
including the police.
The current practice is that when a state enterprise receives a new
fleet of machinery, they hand over the old equipment to the
cooperatives. Sometimes the machines are in terrible condition, other
times in pretty good shape or even the company itself can help the
cooperative get the parts to make it work.
Another way to acquire a tractor is to have the great good fortune to
know the owner of a piece of American-made equipment that they want to
sell. The Soviets awarded by another system what they weren't allowed to
market. The price of these "agricultural almendrones*" could vary
between 100,000 to 150,000 Cuban pesos, depending on their condition and
the farm implements included.
Alfredo only knows one farmer to whom they sold "ten years ago, a new
tractor, and it was Alejandro Robaina," the famous tobacco farmer of
Vueltabajo. The farmer has some reservations and wonders if "the
Americans" are going to distribute through the state or market them freely.
With the wisdom of a man of the countryside who knows that nothing is
certain until the harvest is gathered in, Alfredo knows that tying the
tractors to Oggeun is very premature, "because it is not even confirmed
that they will build the factory," and "only time will tell."
Increasing food production is a priority for the State, so as to be able
to replace imports and meet demand. The shortages and consequent rise in
prices generate controversies of every kind, but there is something
everyone agrees on: the solution is to produce more and for this,
willpower isn't enough, tools are needed. The farmers need
better resources and marketing tractors puts to the test the old
governmental prejudices: the Cuban countryside, stuck in the 20th
Century, is facing the modernity it needs.
*Translator's note: "Almendrones" (from the word for almond) is what
Cubans call the pre-Revolution American cars still circulating in Cuba.
Source: Tractors In Cuba, From Ghosts To Orishas / 14ymedio, Reinaldo
Escobar | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/tractors-in-cuba-from-ghosts-to-orishas-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/
The Unexpected Closure Of The Locale Thwarts A Meeting On Socialism
The Unexpected Closure Of The Locale Thwarts A Meeting On Socialism /
14ymedio
Posted on February 26, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 19 February 2016 — The meeting "Socialism And The
Society We Want, organized by several organizations for tomorrow at the
Omega Cinema in Havana, had to be postponed because at the final hour
the management of the site reported that the theater "will not open its
doors that day."
Scheduled to participate in the meeting are leftist independent
organizations such as Participative and Democratic Socialism (SPD),
Cuban Leftist Democratic Socialists and Cuban Socialist Refoundation
(ISDC-RSC) and the New Socialist Project for Cuba (NPSC).
In the article published in the SPD Bulletin this Friday, it said that
the meeting was postponed, given there is not enough time to find an
alternate venue. The organization assures that it will continue
preparing for the event and that the date, place and time will be
"announced promptly."
Speaking to 14ymedio, Pedro Campos, one of the organizers, said the
commitment was made verbally a week in advance, with the idea of
paying the rent on the day of the event. "When we went by yesterday to
confirm the reservation, we were told that the place was closing that
day but were offered no explanation. It wasn't for fumigation for
because someone had forbidden it. They simply said it would be closed."
Campos did not want to speculate on the reasons for the refusal. "As
they say in the TV show Passage to the Unknown, everyone can draw their
own conclusions," he added.
Source: The Unexpected Closure Of The Locale Thwarts A Meeting On
Socialism / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-unexpected-closure-of-the-local-thwarts-a-meeting-on-socialism-14ymedio/
14ymedio
Posted on February 26, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 19 February 2016 — The meeting "Socialism And The
Society We Want, organized by several organizations for tomorrow at the
Omega Cinema in Havana, had to be postponed because at the final hour
the management of the site reported that the theater "will not open its
doors that day."
Scheduled to participate in the meeting are leftist independent
organizations such as Participative and Democratic Socialism (SPD),
Cuban Leftist Democratic Socialists and Cuban Socialist Refoundation
(ISDC-RSC) and the New Socialist Project for Cuba (NPSC).
In the article published in the SPD Bulletin this Friday, it said that
the meeting was postponed, given there is not enough time to find an
alternate venue. The organization assures that it will continue
preparing for the event and that the date, place and time will be
"announced promptly."
Speaking to 14ymedio, Pedro Campos, one of the organizers, said the
commitment was made verbally a week in advance, with the idea of
paying the rent on the day of the event. "When we went by yesterday to
confirm the reservation, we were told that the place was closing that
day but were offered no explanation. It wasn't for fumigation for
because someone had forbidden it. They simply said it would be closed."
Campos did not want to speculate on the reasons for the refusal. "As
they say in the TV show Passage to the Unknown, everyone can draw their
own conclusions," he added.
Source: The Unexpected Closure Of The Locale Thwarts A Meeting On
Socialism / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-unexpected-closure-of-the-local-thwarts-a-meeting-on-socialism-14ymedio/
Cleber Tractors is First US Company Authorized in Cuba
Cleber Tractors is First US Company Authorized in Cuba / 14ymedio
Posted on February 26, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 15 February 2016 – The Cleber Tractor Company has
become the first U.S. company to receive authorization from the Office
of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the
Treasury to operate in Cuba, as reported Monday Associated Press (AP).
Last November, the Alabama-based company won a license of the Government
of Cuba to operate in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM).
Cleber will built an assembly plant for up to 1,000 small tractors a
year, specifically designed to support and expand organoponic
cultivation methods. These products will be sold to independent farmers
in Cuba, according to the AP. The assembly plant will be called "Oggún,"
like the orisha of the Yoruba religion linked to technology and
surgeons, and syncretic with Saint Peter in Catholicism.
The company's partners, Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal – who was
born on the island – received notice from the Treasury Department last
week and plan to initiate their activities in the country in the first
trimester of the coming year.
"Everyone wants to go to Cuba to sell something, but we are not trying
to do that. We are studying the problem and how to help Cuba resolve the
problems that they believe are the most important to resolve," Clemmons
told AP. "We believe that we will both win long term if we do things
that are beneficial to both countries."
Among the biggest problems facing Cuban farmers is access to machinery
that will facilitate work in the fields. Currently, the tractors that
remain active are state-owned, are affiliated to a cooperative or have
decades of use in private hands, and have been preserved thanks to
ingenuity and spare parts purchased in the informal market.
Source: Cleber Tractors is First US Company Authorized in Cuba /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cleber-tractors-is-first-us-company-authorized-in-cuba-14ymedio/
Posted on February 26, 2016
14ymedio, Havana, 15 February 2016 – The Cleber Tractor Company has
become the first U.S. company to receive authorization from the Office
of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the
Treasury to operate in Cuba, as reported Monday Associated Press (AP).
Last November, the Alabama-based company won a license of the Government
of Cuba to operate in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM).
Cleber will built an assembly plant for up to 1,000 small tractors a
year, specifically designed to support and expand organoponic
cultivation methods. These products will be sold to independent farmers
in Cuba, according to the AP. The assembly plant will be called "Oggún,"
like the orisha of the Yoruba religion linked to technology and
surgeons, and syncretic with Saint Peter in Catholicism.
The company's partners, Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal – who was
born on the island – received notice from the Treasury Department last
week and plan to initiate their activities in the country in the first
trimester of the coming year.
"Everyone wants to go to Cuba to sell something, but we are not trying
to do that. We are studying the problem and how to help Cuba resolve the
problems that they believe are the most important to resolve," Clemmons
told AP. "We believe that we will both win long term if we do things
that are beneficial to both countries."
Among the biggest problems facing Cuban farmers is access to machinery
that will facilitate work in the fields. Currently, the tractors that
remain active are state-owned, are affiliated to a cooperative or have
decades of use in private hands, and have been preserved thanks to
ingenuity and spare parts purchased in the informal market.
Source: Cleber Tractors is First US Company Authorized in Cuba /
14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cleber-tractors-is-first-us-company-authorized-in-cuba-14ymedio/
Sunwing vacation ends in 20-hour travel ordeal for Halifax passengers
Sunwing vacation ends in 20-hour travel ordeal for Halifax passengers
Passenger says some on board sobbing and vomiting during aborted
landing, then faced long delay
By Stephanie vanKampen, CBC News Posted: Feb 26, 2016 2:06 PM AT Last
Updated: Feb 26, 2016 8:18 PM AT
A Sunwing flight from Cuba that was supposed to land at Halifax
Stanfield International Airport became a 20-hour ordeal described by one
passenger as a "gong show" that left some on board sobbing and vomiting.
Flight WG6735 was delayed leaving Cuba, and when it tried to land in
Halifax during high winds Thursday afternoon, the plane felt like it was
coming in sideways, according to Anne Giles, a passenger on board.
"We could see the ground," she said. "We thought we were going to land
and at the last minute he pulled up and he came over and said, 'We've
missed the runway.'"
Giles said many of the 136 passengers on board were stressed and scared
as the plane attempted to land in Halifax.
"The woman beside me was sobbing," she said. "Her husband was holding
her hand. The man across from me, you could see how white his knuckles
were. There were children throwing up."
'They were hungry and stressed'
From there, Giles said, the trip got worse. The flight continued to
Fredericton, where passengers waited on the tarmac for about four hours,
before the plane took off again for Moncton, N.B.
By the time the flight landed in Moncton, Giles said, passengers had
gone nearly 10 hours without food.
"They were hungry and stressed and people were yelling," Giles said.
She said passengers spent three hours waiting at the Greater Moncton
International Airport before the airline decided to put them on
five buses and send them to Halifax for the final leg of the journey.
"They did some things right and some things really, really wrong," Giles
said.
'It was a gong show'
The airline said Friday that high winds were to blame and apologized to
passengers.
"We regret the inconvenience this weather-related diversion has caused;
however the safety of our customers remains our paramount concern,"
Rachel Goldrick, corporate communications manager for Sunwing Vacations,
said in an email statement.
The airline said passengers will receive a $150 voucher for future
travel with Sunwing, but Giles said she won't be using it.
"No," said Giles. "It was a gong show."
Source: Sunwing vacation ends in 20-hour travel ordeal for Halifax
passengers - Nova Scotia - CBC News -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sunwing-flight-halifax-airport-1.3465278?cmp=rss
Passenger says some on board sobbing and vomiting during aborted
landing, then faced long delay
By Stephanie vanKampen, CBC News Posted: Feb 26, 2016 2:06 PM AT Last
Updated: Feb 26, 2016 8:18 PM AT
A Sunwing flight from Cuba that was supposed to land at Halifax
Stanfield International Airport became a 20-hour ordeal described by one
passenger as a "gong show" that left some on board sobbing and vomiting.
Flight WG6735 was delayed leaving Cuba, and when it tried to land in
Halifax during high winds Thursday afternoon, the plane felt like it was
coming in sideways, according to Anne Giles, a passenger on board.
"We could see the ground," she said. "We thought we were going to land
and at the last minute he pulled up and he came over and said, 'We've
missed the runway.'"
Giles said many of the 136 passengers on board were stressed and scared
as the plane attempted to land in Halifax.
"The woman beside me was sobbing," she said. "Her husband was holding
her hand. The man across from me, you could see how white his knuckles
were. There were children throwing up."
'They were hungry and stressed'
From there, Giles said, the trip got worse. The flight continued to
Fredericton, where passengers waited on the tarmac for about four hours,
before the plane took off again for Moncton, N.B.
By the time the flight landed in Moncton, Giles said, passengers had
gone nearly 10 hours without food.
"They were hungry and stressed and people were yelling," Giles said.
She said passengers spent three hours waiting at the Greater Moncton
International Airport before the airline decided to put them on
five buses and send them to Halifax for the final leg of the journey.
"They did some things right and some things really, really wrong," Giles
said.
'It was a gong show'
The airline said Friday that high winds were to blame and apologized to
passengers.
"We regret the inconvenience this weather-related diversion has caused;
however the safety of our customers remains our paramount concern,"
Rachel Goldrick, corporate communications manager for Sunwing Vacations,
said in an email statement.
The airline said passengers will receive a $150 voucher for future
travel with Sunwing, but Giles said she won't be using it.
"No," said Giles. "It was a gong show."
Source: Sunwing vacation ends in 20-hour travel ordeal for Halifax
passengers - Nova Scotia - CBC News -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sunwing-flight-halifax-airport-1.3465278?cmp=rss
Friday, February 26, 2016
The Wrong Interlocutor
The Wrong Interlocutor / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya
Posted on February 25, 2016
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 11 February 2016 — More often than
reason dictates – since the announcement of the restoration of relations
between the governments of Cuba and the United States – statements,
newspaper articles and even open letters have appeared taking to task
president Barack Obama for a decision that some consider a political
mistake, an excessive concession to the longest dictatorship in this
hemisphere or, at best, naïve. There have even been those who have gone
so far as to accuse the American president of orchestrating "a betrayal
of democratic Cubans," even if unaccompanied by arguments to support
such an affirmation.
Without wishing to discuss the sovereign rights of each person to say
what their own intellect dictates, it is noteworthy that the angriest
complaints rest on questions that are not attributes exclusive to the
president of the United States. Let's take, for example, the issue of
the relations themselves. Has this political rapprochement been more
beneficial to the Cuban government, perhaps, than the acceptance and
recognition it has had from other democratic governments? That is,
countries such as Germany, Great Britain, France and Spain, among
others, that have maintained relations with the Cuban dictator for
years, and yet to date their governments have not received so many
complaints on the part of those who indict president Obama for the same
"crime."
Another interesting issue is the wave of anxiety over the lifting of
restrictions on Americans' visits to the island, and trading between US
producers and Cuban companies, when for decades we have received
millions of European and Canadian visitors and have traded with
businesses in numerous democratic companies without, so far, raising so
many hackles.
In fact, foreign investors have been active on the island since the
nineties – among them the well-known entrepreneurs from our stepmother
country, Spain, which have exploited native labor ad nauseam in flagrant
violation of the laws of international entities that defend the rights
of workers – and have offered the Cuban government greater profits than
all the relaxations of the embargo pushed by the US administration.
I wonder why Cubans' democratic longings have never been directed toward
the politicians and businessmen of that nation, culturally and
historically related to the island, and why it has never offered
vertical and openly declared – or at least convincing – support for the
struggle for democracy on the island.
Is the critical approach of Barack Obama to the Castro dictatorship
morally more reprehensible than the flirting of Madrid's Moncloa Palace
with the Palace of the Revolution, or than the entertainment received by
the general-president Castro II during his recent stay in France, cradle
of modern democracy?
Was it not the Holy Father himself, the humble Francis, who gave major
honors to the island satrapy by favoring the ex-president Castro I with
a personal visit, while deliberately ignoring the repression of the
dissidents, avoiding a meeting with representatives of civil society,
and conveniently omitting any criticism of the deplorable state of human
rights in Cuba?
However, with a persistence worthy of better causes, the critics of the
current US administration maintain a moral blockade against Barack
Obama, as if he should take responsibility for the history and destiny
of a people that has been sufficiency irresponsible as to allow itself
the sad eccentricity of supporting the longest dictatorship in memory in
the Western world.
Recently in this newspaper, a letter was published where a Cuban
directed four personal questions to President Obama (Four Questions For
You, President Obama). These four questions summarize approximately the
same complaints and demands of a great number of the resentful, who do
not understand why the president of our northern neighbor "has taken no
[effective] actions" to force the Cuban dictatorship to respect the
democratic rights of Cubans, or why he has not done enough to guarantee
the quality of life of the islanders since 17 December 2014, as if some
of these issues were priorities or key issues for the president of a
foreign country and not matters that we Cubans are capable of resolving
ourselves.
Paradoxically, this young Cuban who says he "does not want to emigrate
and dreams of a free, independent and democratic Cuba" has clearly
subordinated Cuba's national sovereignty to the will and decisions of
that foreign government. Indeed, some patriots show themselves to be so
passionately naive that one doesn't know whether to give them a round of
applause or burst into tears.
But this is how things are in these parts. There are also others
abstractly flying an exacerbated civicism that falters, however, when
they try to apply it to daily life. I wonder if this young man and so
many other "demanding" Cubans here – in particular those who attend the
meetings to nominate candidates or the so-called "Accountability
Assemblies" – have had the courage to ask their representative what he
or she is going to do to guarantee the human rights, freedom and
prosperity of (at least) their neighbors and the community.
And taking the matter to a more individual level, how many of them ask
themselves what they are doing to change the state of affairs in Cuba.
Personally, I have no demands of President Barack Obama nor to any
specific foreign government. Most likely if I were in his shoes I would
do the same: seek to safeguard the interests of my nation and my
compatriots, as well as the safety of my loved ones. It is what I aspire
to in a future Cuban president, when we live in a democracy. I suppose
that Mr. Obama has every right from his own discernment to think: If
Cubans in great enthusiasm applauded the installation of a dictatorship
from before I was born, if they have chosen to escape it or to tolerate
its excesses ad infinitum, who am I to assume the role of redeemer?
It seems cynical, and may be so, but if you look at it coldly, it's
reality. The Cuban dictatorship has done exactly what we have allowed it
to do. And it will remain on the throne of power as long as it wants,
not only for its own absolute power but because Cubans consent. For an
autocracy to succumb there doesn't have to be an assault on barracks or
the unleashing of a war; it is enough to stop obeying it.
Until that happens, we can bombard Barack Obama or the next occupant of
the White House with any questions we like; the truth is that the real
answer is among ourselves.
Source: The Wrong Interlocutor / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-wrong-interlocutor-14ymedio-miriam-celaya/
Posted on February 25, 2016
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 11 February 2016 — More often than
reason dictates – since the announcement of the restoration of relations
between the governments of Cuba and the United States – statements,
newspaper articles and even open letters have appeared taking to task
president Barack Obama for a decision that some consider a political
mistake, an excessive concession to the longest dictatorship in this
hemisphere or, at best, naïve. There have even been those who have gone
so far as to accuse the American president of orchestrating "a betrayal
of democratic Cubans," even if unaccompanied by arguments to support
such an affirmation.
Without wishing to discuss the sovereign rights of each person to say
what their own intellect dictates, it is noteworthy that the angriest
complaints rest on questions that are not attributes exclusive to the
president of the United States. Let's take, for example, the issue of
the relations themselves. Has this political rapprochement been more
beneficial to the Cuban government, perhaps, than the acceptance and
recognition it has had from other democratic governments? That is,
countries such as Germany, Great Britain, France and Spain, among
others, that have maintained relations with the Cuban dictator for
years, and yet to date their governments have not received so many
complaints on the part of those who indict president Obama for the same
"crime."
Another interesting issue is the wave of anxiety over the lifting of
restrictions on Americans' visits to the island, and trading between US
producers and Cuban companies, when for decades we have received
millions of European and Canadian visitors and have traded with
businesses in numerous democratic companies without, so far, raising so
many hackles.
In fact, foreign investors have been active on the island since the
nineties – among them the well-known entrepreneurs from our stepmother
country, Spain, which have exploited native labor ad nauseam in flagrant
violation of the laws of international entities that defend the rights
of workers – and have offered the Cuban government greater profits than
all the relaxations of the embargo pushed by the US administration.
I wonder why Cubans' democratic longings have never been directed toward
the politicians and businessmen of that nation, culturally and
historically related to the island, and why it has never offered
vertical and openly declared – or at least convincing – support for the
struggle for democracy on the island.
Is the critical approach of Barack Obama to the Castro dictatorship
morally more reprehensible than the flirting of Madrid's Moncloa Palace
with the Palace of the Revolution, or than the entertainment received by
the general-president Castro II during his recent stay in France, cradle
of modern democracy?
Was it not the Holy Father himself, the humble Francis, who gave major
honors to the island satrapy by favoring the ex-president Castro I with
a personal visit, while deliberately ignoring the repression of the
dissidents, avoiding a meeting with representatives of civil society,
and conveniently omitting any criticism of the deplorable state of human
rights in Cuba?
However, with a persistence worthy of better causes, the critics of the
current US administration maintain a moral blockade against Barack
Obama, as if he should take responsibility for the history and destiny
of a people that has been sufficiency irresponsible as to allow itself
the sad eccentricity of supporting the longest dictatorship in memory in
the Western world.
Recently in this newspaper, a letter was published where a Cuban
directed four personal questions to President Obama (Four Questions For
You, President Obama). These four questions summarize approximately the
same complaints and demands of a great number of the resentful, who do
not understand why the president of our northern neighbor "has taken no
[effective] actions" to force the Cuban dictatorship to respect the
democratic rights of Cubans, or why he has not done enough to guarantee
the quality of life of the islanders since 17 December 2014, as if some
of these issues were priorities or key issues for the president of a
foreign country and not matters that we Cubans are capable of resolving
ourselves.
Paradoxically, this young Cuban who says he "does not want to emigrate
and dreams of a free, independent and democratic Cuba" has clearly
subordinated Cuba's national sovereignty to the will and decisions of
that foreign government. Indeed, some patriots show themselves to be so
passionately naive that one doesn't know whether to give them a round of
applause or burst into tears.
But this is how things are in these parts. There are also others
abstractly flying an exacerbated civicism that falters, however, when
they try to apply it to daily life. I wonder if this young man and so
many other "demanding" Cubans here – in particular those who attend the
meetings to nominate candidates or the so-called "Accountability
Assemblies" – have had the courage to ask their representative what he
or she is going to do to guarantee the human rights, freedom and
prosperity of (at least) their neighbors and the community.
And taking the matter to a more individual level, how many of them ask
themselves what they are doing to change the state of affairs in Cuba.
Personally, I have no demands of President Barack Obama nor to any
specific foreign government. Most likely if I were in his shoes I would
do the same: seek to safeguard the interests of my nation and my
compatriots, as well as the safety of my loved ones. It is what I aspire
to in a future Cuban president, when we live in a democracy. I suppose
that Mr. Obama has every right from his own discernment to think: If
Cubans in great enthusiasm applauded the installation of a dictatorship
from before I was born, if they have chosen to escape it or to tolerate
its excesses ad infinitum, who am I to assume the role of redeemer?
It seems cynical, and may be so, but if you look at it coldly, it's
reality. The Cuban dictatorship has done exactly what we have allowed it
to do. And it will remain on the throne of power as long as it wants,
not only for its own absolute power but because Cubans consent. For an
autocracy to succumb there doesn't have to be an assault on barracks or
the unleashing of a war; it is enough to stop obeying it.
Until that happens, we can bombard Barack Obama or the next occupant of
the White House with any questions we like; the truth is that the real
answer is among ourselves.
Source: The Wrong Interlocutor / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-wrong-interlocutor-14ymedio-miriam-celaya/
Cubans In Ecuador Come Together To Demand Their Rights
Cubans In Ecuador Come Together To Demand Their Rights / 14ymedio, Mario
Penton
Posted on February 25, 2016
14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 24 February 2016 — Fifty Cubans met in
English Park, in the north of Quito, to request treatment similar to
their compatriots stranded in Central America. The anonymous call to the
meeting, which circulated among groups of Cubans on Facebook, asked all
Cuban immigrants living in Ecuador to agree to "ask and demand" that
they be sent to the United States, because, they say, they are fed up
with "the abuses and contempt" in the Andean country.
According to the event organizers, their goal for the "First Meeting of
Cubans in Ecuador" is to be heard about their "rights as human beings."
In addition, they affirm they do not want "any form of conflict within
in the country," and only want "to have a dignified life and to be able
to choose the ideal place to do so."
Pedro Sanchez, one of the participants, told 14ymedio via the Messenger
app that the protesters set three objectives. First, push for an
agreement between the Governments of Ecuador and Mexico to allow a safe
transfer to the United States of those Cubans who are undocumented in
the country; second to form a movement with a legal basis; and third, to
advocate for the nine Cubans who are imprisoned in the Hotel Carrion and
are also part of their struggle. The Hotel Carrion is an immigration
jail where undocumented Cubans are sent while awaiting eventual
deportation to the island.
"The main problem of the Cuban community is discrimination," says
Osvaldo Hernandez Cabrera. "Here they don't want to legalize us or give
us work.. We only ask that they give us a direct way to reach the United
States via Mexico as they have given our brothers. We are not illegal,
we are Cubans stranded in Ecuador," he claimed.
To get a work permit, he adds, there are many requirements and most of
the time, when they go in search of employment, they are rejected with a
resounding "no Cubans are hired here." "We are trying to send letters
and get them to listen to us, otherwise we are ready to throw ourselves
on the border with Colombia to get them to pay attention to us," he said.
Hundreds of messages of support have been sent to these Cubans from
different parts of Ecuador. "Some of us are not in Quito, but we are one
hundred percent for the cause. From other places we will be supporting
everything that is needed," said Yordey Betancourt, an app user. Another
young Cuban lamented the discrimination to which she is subjected.
"Today a lady told me on the trolley (bus) 'this is not your country.'
They mistreat us without reason, because Cubans are good. Give us an out
and Ecuador will see that we will never return. We've run out of money
and they no longer want us. Incomes, sales, taxis, trade… they all
increased with us and now they do not want us."
Vivian Hernandez Valdes supports the requests of the group: "What they
are asking for is fair. The living conditions of many compatriots here
are very poor and I think it is the right time for all Cubans who are in
Ecuador and want to travel to the United States to get the same
treatment as those in Panama and Costa Rica."
The Cuban community in Ecuador grew starting in 2008 when the country
lifted the visa requirement for travellers from the island. It is
estimated that there are about 40,000 Cubans residing in the country.
Ecuador was used as a springboard by Cuban migrants to reach the United
States to take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act. According
to official figures, in mid-2010 37,000 Cuban entered the country, a
trend that continued rapidly increasing until Rafael Correa's government
decided to re-impose a visa requirement last December, after the
immigration crisis that broke out in Central America.
Source: Cubans In Ecuador Come Together To Demand Their Rights /
14ymedio, Mario Penton | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cubans-in-ecuador-come-together-to-demand-their-rights-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Penton
Posted on February 25, 2016
14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 24 February 2016 — Fifty Cubans met in
English Park, in the north of Quito, to request treatment similar to
their compatriots stranded in Central America. The anonymous call to the
meeting, which circulated among groups of Cubans on Facebook, asked all
Cuban immigrants living in Ecuador to agree to "ask and demand" that
they be sent to the United States, because, they say, they are fed up
with "the abuses and contempt" in the Andean country.
According to the event organizers, their goal for the "First Meeting of
Cubans in Ecuador" is to be heard about their "rights as human beings."
In addition, they affirm they do not want "any form of conflict within
in the country," and only want "to have a dignified life and to be able
to choose the ideal place to do so."
Pedro Sanchez, one of the participants, told 14ymedio via the Messenger
app that the protesters set three objectives. First, push for an
agreement between the Governments of Ecuador and Mexico to allow a safe
transfer to the United States of those Cubans who are undocumented in
the country; second to form a movement with a legal basis; and third, to
advocate for the nine Cubans who are imprisoned in the Hotel Carrion and
are also part of their struggle. The Hotel Carrion is an immigration
jail where undocumented Cubans are sent while awaiting eventual
deportation to the island.
"The main problem of the Cuban community is discrimination," says
Osvaldo Hernandez Cabrera. "Here they don't want to legalize us or give
us work.. We only ask that they give us a direct way to reach the United
States via Mexico as they have given our brothers. We are not illegal,
we are Cubans stranded in Ecuador," he claimed.
To get a work permit, he adds, there are many requirements and most of
the time, when they go in search of employment, they are rejected with a
resounding "no Cubans are hired here." "We are trying to send letters
and get them to listen to us, otherwise we are ready to throw ourselves
on the border with Colombia to get them to pay attention to us," he said.
Hundreds of messages of support have been sent to these Cubans from
different parts of Ecuador. "Some of us are not in Quito, but we are one
hundred percent for the cause. From other places we will be supporting
everything that is needed," said Yordey Betancourt, an app user. Another
young Cuban lamented the discrimination to which she is subjected.
"Today a lady told me on the trolley (bus) 'this is not your country.'
They mistreat us without reason, because Cubans are good. Give us an out
and Ecuador will see that we will never return. We've run out of money
and they no longer want us. Incomes, sales, taxis, trade… they all
increased with us and now they do not want us."
Vivian Hernandez Valdes supports the requests of the group: "What they
are asking for is fair. The living conditions of many compatriots here
are very poor and I think it is the right time for all Cubans who are in
Ecuador and want to travel to the United States to get the same
treatment as those in Panama and Costa Rica."
The Cuban community in Ecuador grew starting in 2008 when the country
lifted the visa requirement for travellers from the island. It is
estimated that there are about 40,000 Cubans residing in the country.
Ecuador was used as a springboard by Cuban migrants to reach the United
States to take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment Act. According
to official figures, in mid-2010 37,000 Cuban entered the country, a
trend that continued rapidly increasing until Rafael Correa's government
decided to re-impose a visa requirement last December, after the
immigration crisis that broke out in Central America.
Source: Cubans In Ecuador Come Together To Demand Their Rights /
14ymedio, Mario Penton | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cubans-in-ecuador-come-together-to-demand-their-rights-14ymedio-mario-penton/
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