One Night: A Critical View of Cuban Social Reality / Dimas Castellano
Posted on April 26, 2014
Una Noche (One Night) is the film which best reflects why it is that
young people leave Cuba. That's how a female friend of mine, who is a
lover of the seventh art, laconically replied to my question, after
visiting the film exhibition in the 34th Festival of New Latin-American
Cinema, which took place in Havana from 4th to 14th December 2012.
Because of the social theme it deals with, because of the magnificent
photography of Trevor Forrest and Shlimo Godder, Roland Vajs' and Alla
Zaleski's sound quality, and also director Lucy Mulloy's script, the
British-Cuban-North American co-production Una Noche constitutes an
important cinematographic work, which, with its truthful narrative, gets
close to documentary cinema; and, due to the authenticity of the people
and social events it focuses on, it gets close to naturalism. Shot in
Havana, with local actors, dealing with a national theme, the film can
be considered to be part of the filmography of the island.
Shot between the years 2007 and 2011, the 89 minute film received
international resonance with the news that the three principal
protagonists, Javier Núñez, Anailín de la Rúa and Daniel Arrechada,
deserted the artistic delegation going to the XI Tribeca Film Festival
in New York, in the month of April 2012.
The first two did it as soon as they touched down on North American soil
in Miami, the third, after receiving the prize in Tribeca. The event,
something quite ordinary for Cubans, attracted international attention
to the film and served to confirm the film's story.
Una Noche gained three of the prizes awarded in the Tribeca Film
Festival. Javier Núñez Florián, jointly with Dariel Arrechada–neither
with acting experience before Lucy Mulloy selected them in a casting
session–were awarded the category of Best Actor; it also obtained the
Best Direction and Best Photography awards, which made it the most
recommended film in the New York festival.
Then, in the 43rd Film Festival of India, Mulloy's debut film received
the jury's special prize, the Silver Peacock, worth $27,500. In the
first Brasilia International Film Festival it picked up Best Script. It
next entries–in the Deauville Film Festival, in France; in the Vancouver
International Film Festival in Canada; in the Trinidad and Tobago Film
Festival; and in the Rio Festival–are likely to attract further awards.
In Cuba, the film opened in the month of September in a sexual health
fair, organised by the National Centre of Sex Education, in the cinema
La Rampa, and more recently in the 34rd International Festival of New
Latin American Cine in Havana, included in the "Made in Cuba" section,
in which were included audiovisual productions made in the island
without the right to compete for the Coral awards.
On each of these occasions it was shown just once, and because of that
only a few Cubans have had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with
the multiprize-winning film which deals with a very significant aspect
of their lives.
The feature film focuses on the social phenomenon of illegal emigration,
especially concerning young people going to the United States, which
constitutes one of the worst tragedies in Cuba because of the large
number of people who have died in the process, because of the split
families, and because of the brain drain of Cuban professionals (a theme
I will return to later).
The principal cause of the Cuban migration phenomenon lies in the
absence of civil rights such as being able to freely enter and leave the
country, which has developed into a flight to realise human aspirations,
which, although they are basic ones, are impossible to satisfy within
our frontiers.
We are talking about a general permanent flow which Una Noche presents
on a personal level in terms of the story of three young people who
escape in a fragile craft, made of car tyres.
In spite of the fact that the director spent several years in Havana,
gathering information for the feature, it remains suprising that,
without being Cuban, she manages to get so deeply inside the behaviour
of a part of the society and show in sound and vision the conduct of a
section of present-day Cuba, its shortages and frustrations.
Lila, one of the film's protagonists, tells how people leave Cuba via
different routes, but she never imagined that Elio, her twin brother,
could abandon her. The story begins when Elio starts to work in the
kitchen of the Hotel Nacional, and there makes the acquaintance of Raúl.
From that moment on, Lila's worry that her brother might leave her
begins to give her horrible nightmares which prevent her sleeping. Right
away the film starts to look into the social settings and digs about for
the possible reasons for flight.
In another scene Lila comments that in Havana you can get what you want.
The shops are empty, but if you know the right person, everything is for
sale; a statement about the reality of daily life in the capital, which
is demonstrated by way of Raúl and Elio's vicissitudes as they seek the
things they need to cross the dangerous Straits of Florida: tyres,
compass, wood, a motor, food and glucose.
In each process we see highlighted the mistreatment by state
organisations, the environment and language of the slums, the
under-the-counter business, the loveless sexual relations, the domestic
violence, the moral deterioration in the bosom of the family, the
destruction and lack of hygiene in Havana, the robberies, and police
repression and abuse. An asphyxiating climate which is illustrated and
accentuated by rap and reggaeton music.
In the same way, the camera, which can penetrate further than the human
eye, and the microphone, which can register sounds undetectable by the
human ear, make incursions into the homes of the protagonists.
In the twins' house, the macho attitudes, the disagreements between the
parents and the material misery they live in; in Raúl's apartment, the
dirt, the physical and moral destruction, where his mother, who is
getting on in years, and is suffering from AIDS, has to work as a
prostitute, and the absence of a father, who left Cuba and does not keep
in contact with them.
Along with the above, mixed in are scenes of groups of young people and
adolescents behaving irresponsibly, bathing in the contaminated waters
of the Havana Malecon, or risking their lives cycling about in the
middle of the traffic; the old man singing dementedly in the street,
whose daughter married an Italian and never came back to see him; the
woman selling religious artifacts who completes the picture with false
predictions in return for money.
The climax, which concludes and summarises what has happened in the
events narrated, expresses the key to the story. In the boat, the
dramatic conflicts, the superficiality, and the lack of foresight, show
themselves.
Elio loves Raúl and Raúl loves his sister; discussions about
prostitution and Elio's and Raúl's superficial approach to their future
in Miami; Lila's fall into the water; the shark attack, and the sinking
of their boat which leads to Elio's death, while the shipwrecked Lila
and Raúl desperately cling on to a piece of polystyrene, until they are
rescued by a sea scooter on a Florida beach. The film ends with Raúl's
detention in Havana, where we see dream and reality mixed up and confused.
The treatment of social phenomenon on the screen is nothing new.
Information about the discovery of one of the pioneers of the seventh
art, French theatre director and actor, producer of Viaje a la Luna
(Journey to the Moon), George Méliès (1861-1938), shows us cinema as a
way of interpreting and forming reality; and the North American film
director David Wark Griffith (1875- 1948) director of Birth of a Nation
and Intolerance, this last considered to be the artistic culmination of
the silent screen, who looked at history as a source of cinematographic
experiences.
In that sense, Una Noche, with its penetrating analysis of Cuban
immigration, may be said to occupy a place in the history of social
criticism in our country centred on that way of observing social reality
at the margin of official apologetics.
That current, which was present in Cuba since the silent film era,
started to show itself after the Revolution with the documentary PM–a
short film about the ways in which a group of people in Havana had fun,
which was produced in 1961 by Orlando Jiménez Leal and Sabá Cabrera
Infante–which showed us a modern look at the Revolutionary reality, and
became, because of that, the most problematic film in Cuba's audiovisual
history, at a time when the priority for the Cuban Institute of Cinema
Arts and Industry was propaganda about class struggle and the fight
against the threats of imperialism.
PM was censored and it was forbidden to show it, which produced
controversy among the artists and intellectuals which led to the
discourse of the Leader of the Revolution on 30 June 1961, known as
Palabras a los intelectuales (Words to the intellectuals), in which he
introduced the restrictive idea: Within the Revolution, everything;
against the Revolution, nothing. From that moment on, culture, which
precedes and transcends politics, became a prisoner of the Revolution
right up to today.
In 1971, in the fictional feature film Una pelea cubana contra los
demonios (A Cuban struggle against demons), its director, Tomás
Gutiérrez Alea, proposed: in any time or place it is unrealistic to
develop human existence in any authentic manner, if you impose limits on
the process, if you define limits of acceptability of group social
behaviour, if, with the starting point of a moral interpretation of
society (whether it's called bourgeois or socialist, religion or
liberal) you prevent people freely discussing their own visions of the
world …
The intellectual, he said, is the specialist who is most able to express
clearly the semantic incoherences which have arisen within the
Revolution. In the '90's of the last century, among the 60 cinematic
works of fiction produced, there emerged important works of social
criticism.
In the 21st century, among the many film directors who have made
incursions into social phenomena, I would like to focus on the
prize-winning creator Fernando Pérez, who has clearly shown the
potential of cinematographic criticism for encouraging reflection among
Cubans.
In La Vida es Silbar (Life is to Whistle) (1998), Fernando dealt with
the search for happiness by way of inner liberation, the truth and
social communication, and in Suite Habana (Havana Suite) (2003), he
decided to convert our contradictory reality–as seen in Una Noche–into
an inexhaustible source of inspiration for love and inner liberty: love
of a neighbour and of a city, which, in spite of its neglected and
destroyed condition, he shows us to be beautiful and full of possibilities.
In that respect, Una Noche and Suite Habana are radically different. The
first one concentrates on showing the harshness of the physical and
moral destruction, the second turns away from that destruction in order
to show the hidden beauty and the possibilities of getting beyond it.
Between the two of them they offer a comprehensive close-up on the
general reality of Havana and Cuba.
On the same lines, the film producer Alfredo Guevara, President of the
New Latin American Cine Festival, in its 33rd event in 2011, said, "The
Cuban Revolution, which, in 1959 could …" This Revolution now requires
the privatisation of Cuban Society, freed from the state bureaucracy,
which corrupts everything.
The 2011 festival showed us a group of films whose common theme was
social criticism: Casa Vieja de Lester Hamlet (Lester Hamlet's Old
House), a film which talks about who we are and how to understand
Cubans' lives from the standpoint of emotional commitment. Esteban
Insausti's Larga Distancia (Long Distance), in which he shows the
frustrations caused by emigration in our society.
Boleto al paraíso (Ticket to Paradise) by Eduardo Chijona, inspired by
real events, deals with the degradation of youth, going as far as
deliberately catching the AIDS virus in order to be able to have a
better life in a sanatorium. Afinidades (Relationships) by Jorge
Perugorría and Vladimir Cruz, in which corruption leads to emptiness,
taking refuge in your instincts, using sex as a way of discharging
electricity, manipulating people near to you as a means to reaffirming
your damaged personality. Martí el ojo del canario, (Martí , the eye of
the canary), by Fernando Pérez, a masterwork of cinema as historical
investigation.
Just as Lucy Malloy outlines some of the causes of emigration, her film
offers the opportunity to show, as a kind of accompaniment, some
thoughts about the migration problem in Cuba, which could be useful for
those people who, having seen the film, feel inclined to get to
understand a bit more about contemporary Cuba.
The economic inefficiency, the loss of civil and political rights, the
inadequacy of salaries in relation to the cost of living, among other
things, have had very negative effects: corruption, a phenomenon which
was present in the political administrative sphere in the republic
before the revolution, spread into all levels of society; while
immigration, which had characterised the country since earliest times,
changed after 1959 into a diaspora, that's to say, with people moving
out all over the world, as shown in the statistical data.
On 9 January 1959, the government enacted Law No.2, to restrict the
right of freedom to leave the country on the part of those who wanted to
go. This provision was amended by Law No. 18, which stipulated that any
Cuban in possession of a valid passport issued by the Ministry of State,
who wanted to travel to another country, had to obtain an "authorisation
to that effect , which would be provided by the Chief of National Police".
In 1961, the Ministry of the Interior instituted the notorious "exit
permit" and laid down the length of time Cubans could remain abroad. In
1976, Law No. 1312 was enacted, by way of which permission to leave was
confirmed.
In spite of these measures, the number of Cubans in the United States,
who, in 1959, amounted to some 124,000, increased substantially after
that date. Firstly by way of people linked to the overthrown regime or
who lost their property, along with the thousands of children who left
by way of Operation Peter Pan (1960-62), and then the first massive
outflow via the port of Camarioca and the air bridge from Varadero, with
260,000 Cubans leaving between 1965 and 1973.
In April 1980, after a bus violently crashed through the fence of the
Peruvian embassy in Havana, and its passengers requested refuge,
thousands of Cubans invaded the embassy with the same intention. The
result was another 125,000 Cubans left the island.
Between May and August 1994, groups of Cubans invaded the Belgian and
German embassies and also the Chilean consulate, at the same time as
various boats were seized.
On August 5th of the same year, Fidel Castro accused the United States
of encouraging illegal immigration, and said: either they should take
measures or we will not prevent people who want to go and seek their
family members.
As a result, during the summer of 1994 approximately 33,000 Cubans
escaped from the island, of whom about 31,000 were provisionally
detained at the Guantánamo Naval Base.
During those three huge wave–Camarioca, Mariel and Guantánamo–there also
occurred innumerable tragedies. Cautious estimates suggest that at least
25% of the boat people didn't survive their journey in their variety of
very different floating objects.
Nevertheless, as the main cause of the emigration was the economic
deterioration and the absence of liberty, none of these laws was able to
hold up these individual departures, in groups or en masse.
The Cuban diaspora constitutes a continuing process over a period of
time by all the different ways of which Cuban imagination and
desperation could conceive, which is reflected in the 2010 United States
Census, which showed a total of 1,800,000 Cubans, which, added in to all
the others who spread out all over the world, takes us past 2 million;
that's to say, that 18% of all Cubans are abroad.
Family members separated for years, or all their lives; married couples
who have grown old with the pain of not being able to return to their
children; kids grown up in other countries who will never more be able
to see their parents. Suffering which has caused anthropological damage
in many Cuban homes, where the family ceases to be the school of love,
education and security and becomes instead a place for ideological
disagreements, grudges and mental upsets, exactly what Lucy Mulloy was
stressing in Una Noche.
The diaspora, resulting from the absence of liberties and economic
inefficiency, has had, in turn, other negative effects. The rate of
demographic increase was altered during the years 2001-2010 by a
negative migration balance of 342,199 people, to a rate of on average
34,000 per year; a process which is converting Cuba into the only
country in America with a declining population.
In the same way, it has led to a brain drain of professionals, as Cuba,
which had managed to achieve a very high proportion of higher education
graduates, has changed into one of the countries which is losing its
professionals and technicians due to emigration.
In the last 30 years tens of thousands of doctors, engineers, qualified
in various specialties such as mid-range technical people, and skilled
workers, have emigrated, which amounts to a present day and potential
future threat to the country.
The fact is that the illegal departures before and after the Ley de
Ajuste (U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act), and before and after the migration
accords which have been agreed, clearly shows it is directly related to
the Cuban internal crisis.
The production of Una Noche, a film which shows the role of cinema in
the way we see, interpret, and form reality; comes at exactly the moment
when the Cuban government decided to modify the current migration
legislation, although the change does not give Cubans back all the
rights which were violated by the legislation described.
The need to obtain permission to leave the country disappears, but
certain categories of Cubans, either because of the positions of
responsibility they occupy, or because of studies undertaken, continue
to be subject to the same limitations as previously, which will be the
cause of further young people abandoning their studies and fleeing in
order not to be caught by the new law.
In this sense, Una Noche is the precursor to new migratory changes up to
the point where Cubans will recover the right and freedom to leave their
country just like any other citizens in the world.
***
Published in German in edition 60 of TRIGON magazine, entitled "Fliegen
oder bleiben?; hintergründe zum film Una noche. (To fly or to stay?
background to the film One Night)
Translated by GH
25 February 2014
Source: One Night: A Critical View of Cuban Social Reality / Dimas
Castellano | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/one-night-a-critical-view-of-cuban-social-reality-dimas-castellano/
Saturday, April 26, 2014
U.S. Says It Built Digital Programs Abroad With an Eye to Politics
U.S. Says It Built Digital Programs Abroad With an Eye to Politics
By RON NIXONAPRIL 25, 2014
WASHINGTON — The United States built Twitter-like social media programs
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, like one in Cuba, that were aimed at
encouraging open political discussion, Obama administration officials
said Friday. But like the program in Cuba, which was widely ridiculed
when it became public this month, the services in Pakistan and
Afghanistan shut down after they ran out of money because the
administration could not make them self-sustaining.
In all three cases, American officials appeared to lack a long-term
strategy for the programs beyond providing money to start them.
Administration officials also said Friday that there had been similar
programs in dozens of other countries, including a Yes Youth Can project
in Kenya that was still active. Officials also said they had plans to
start projects in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Some programs operate openly
with the knowledge of foreign governments, but others have not been
publicly disclosed.
The Kenya project, like the Cuba program, is the work of the United
States Agency for International Development. The projects in Afghanistan
and Pakistan were run by the State Department. All such programs have
come under greater scrutiny since the administration acknowledged the
existence of the Twitter-like program in Cuba, which ran from 2008 to
2012, when it abruptly ended, apparently because a $1.3 million contract
to start up the messaging system ran out of money.
The Associated Press, which first published a detailed article about the
Cuba program, reported that it was set up to encourage political dissent
on the island. But administration officials, while acknowledging that
they were discreet about the program when it existed, said it was set up
to provide Cubans with a platform to share ideas and exchange information.
Administration officials provided no information about the purpose and
scope of the Afghan program, which had not been previously disclosed. In
contrast, in 2009, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state,
announced the Pakistani program during a meeting with students in
Lahore, Pakistan. The State Department worked with Pakistani
telecommunications companies to create the network.
Called Humari Awaz or Our Voices, the program was run out of the office
of Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan
and Pakistan, who died in 2010. The purpose of the program, according to
people who worked on it, was to provide a platform that used messaging
to help Pakistanis build mobile networks around their shared interests.
At its peak, State Department officials said, the program cost about $1
million and connected more than a million people who sent more than 350
million messages. Users of the service could sign up using their
personal information or remain anonymous.
The service was used by a diverse segment of Pakistani society,
according to people who ran the program. Farmers used it to share market
prices. News organizations used it to reach readers. People used it to
connect and share information such as cricket scores.
State Department officials enlisted the Pakistani government to promote
the social media program, which officials thought at the time might ease
mounting tensions between the two countries. The United States provided
billions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, but officials in both
the Obama and George W. Bush administrations have accused elements of
Pakistan's spy agency of supporting the Taliban. Many in the Pakistani
government have grown weary of American operations within its borders,
including drone strikes and the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Administration officials would not say when the Pakistani program ended
or what it ultimately accomplished.
In Kenya, the Yes Youth Can service started shortly after the disputed
2007 presidential election, which left more than 1,500 people dead after
gangs of unemployed youth linked to losing parties attacked voters.
The service allowed young people to send messages and use other tools to
organize into youth associations that helped them register to vote and
encouraged them to participate in the political process. American
officials credit the project with helping to pave the way for Kenya's
more peaceful 2013 presidential election.
The State Department and the United States Agency for International
Development have actively pushed for the use of social media programs
after seeing their successful use during the uprisings in Egypt and
Tunisia in 2010. Messaging was also used by protesters during the 2009
Iranian presidential election.
The Cuban project, which was called ZunZuneo, attracted 40,000
followers. The idea was to start the system with innocuous messaging,
like soccer scores, and then move on to the promotion of democracy. But
it shut down with no apparent effect on the Cuban government. Senator
Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, called the program "just dumb."
Archon Fung, a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government, who has researched the role of social media in public
participation, said tools like the ones used in Pakistan and Kenya could
be valuable to American diplomacy — up to a point.
"Only if it's transparent and if people understand who built the
platform and its purposes," he said. Otherwise, he said, referring to
the Cuban Twitter-like program, "you end up with the U.S.A.I.D. episode."
Source: U.S. Says It Built Digital Programs Abroad With an Eye to
Politics - NYTimes.com -
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/world/us-ran-social-media-programs-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan.html?_r=1
By RON NIXONAPRIL 25, 2014
WASHINGTON — The United States built Twitter-like social media programs
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, like one in Cuba, that were aimed at
encouraging open political discussion, Obama administration officials
said Friday. But like the program in Cuba, which was widely ridiculed
when it became public this month, the services in Pakistan and
Afghanistan shut down after they ran out of money because the
administration could not make them self-sustaining.
In all three cases, American officials appeared to lack a long-term
strategy for the programs beyond providing money to start them.
Administration officials also said Friday that there had been similar
programs in dozens of other countries, including a Yes Youth Can project
in Kenya that was still active. Officials also said they had plans to
start projects in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Some programs operate openly
with the knowledge of foreign governments, but others have not been
publicly disclosed.
The Kenya project, like the Cuba program, is the work of the United
States Agency for International Development. The projects in Afghanistan
and Pakistan were run by the State Department. All such programs have
come under greater scrutiny since the administration acknowledged the
existence of the Twitter-like program in Cuba, which ran from 2008 to
2012, when it abruptly ended, apparently because a $1.3 million contract
to start up the messaging system ran out of money.
The Associated Press, which first published a detailed article about the
Cuba program, reported that it was set up to encourage political dissent
on the island. But administration officials, while acknowledging that
they were discreet about the program when it existed, said it was set up
to provide Cubans with a platform to share ideas and exchange information.
Administration officials provided no information about the purpose and
scope of the Afghan program, which had not been previously disclosed. In
contrast, in 2009, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state,
announced the Pakistani program during a meeting with students in
Lahore, Pakistan. The State Department worked with Pakistani
telecommunications companies to create the network.
Called Humari Awaz or Our Voices, the program was run out of the office
of Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan
and Pakistan, who died in 2010. The purpose of the program, according to
people who worked on it, was to provide a platform that used messaging
to help Pakistanis build mobile networks around their shared interests.
At its peak, State Department officials said, the program cost about $1
million and connected more than a million people who sent more than 350
million messages. Users of the service could sign up using their
personal information or remain anonymous.
The service was used by a diverse segment of Pakistani society,
according to people who ran the program. Farmers used it to share market
prices. News organizations used it to reach readers. People used it to
connect and share information such as cricket scores.
State Department officials enlisted the Pakistani government to promote
the social media program, which officials thought at the time might ease
mounting tensions between the two countries. The United States provided
billions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, but officials in both
the Obama and George W. Bush administrations have accused elements of
Pakistan's spy agency of supporting the Taliban. Many in the Pakistani
government have grown weary of American operations within its borders,
including drone strikes and the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Administration officials would not say when the Pakistani program ended
or what it ultimately accomplished.
In Kenya, the Yes Youth Can service started shortly after the disputed
2007 presidential election, which left more than 1,500 people dead after
gangs of unemployed youth linked to losing parties attacked voters.
The service allowed young people to send messages and use other tools to
organize into youth associations that helped them register to vote and
encouraged them to participate in the political process. American
officials credit the project with helping to pave the way for Kenya's
more peaceful 2013 presidential election.
The State Department and the United States Agency for International
Development have actively pushed for the use of social media programs
after seeing their successful use during the uprisings in Egypt and
Tunisia in 2010. Messaging was also used by protesters during the 2009
Iranian presidential election.
The Cuban project, which was called ZunZuneo, attracted 40,000
followers. The idea was to start the system with innocuous messaging,
like soccer scores, and then move on to the promotion of democracy. But
it shut down with no apparent effect on the Cuban government. Senator
Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, called the program "just dumb."
Archon Fung, a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government, who has researched the role of social media in public
participation, said tools like the ones used in Pakistan and Kenya could
be valuable to American diplomacy — up to a point.
"Only if it's transparent and if people understand who built the
platform and its purposes," he said. Otherwise, he said, referring to
the Cuban Twitter-like program, "you end up with the U.S.A.I.D. episode."
Source: U.S. Says It Built Digital Programs Abroad With an Eye to
Politics - NYTimes.com -
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/world/us-ran-social-media-programs-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan.html?_r=1
Burn Your Neighbor’s Beard
Burn Your Neighbor's Beard / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on April 25, 2014
The hypocritical "conversation" that Nicolas Maduro held with the
opposition indicates the political temperature of what is happening in
Venezuela.
Against his will, the dictator sat down at the table of dialogue.
Although he does not want to recognize it, he did it at the demand of
his Cuban advisors, and of Raul Castro himself, who in frequent phone
calls from the Island, advises him not to give up, or show weakness or
that he is desperate because of social pressure.
It is true that in Cuba Raul Castro is far from recognizing his
political adversaries; further away still is the possibility of a
dialogue between both sides. Many more Cubans will have to die before —
at some point — we throw ourselves into the streets in order to demand
what belongs to us by right and that they have stolen from us for more
than half a century.
Circumstances, dictators and tyrannies are different, but on perceiving
that the process imposed by the deceased Hugo Chavez is extinguished,
and in spite of the power and abuses they make a disillusioned people
suffer, they have also make them pay for their rebellion with more than
40 lives.
In order to avoid guarimbas (street clashes) in Cuba, the Castros have
maintained their iron command, which has cost many lives of those who
have opposed them. Here, if one breathes at a different rhythm than that
stipulated by the leadership, the political police open a file and begin
their constant persecution, waiting for you to breathe deeply to "bring
you" your shares of anguish.
No fire is needed in the archipelago; the smoke of a lit match barely
suffices to sound the alarm. Nevertheless, we keep dreaming of
our guarimbas.
Angel Santiesteban-Prats
Lawton prison settlement. April 2014.
To sign the petition for Amnesty International to declare dissident
Cuban Angel Santesteban a prisoner of conscience, follow the link.
https://secure.avaaz.org/es/petition/Para_que_Amnistia_Internacional_declare_prisionero_de_conciencia_al_disidente_cubano_Angel_Santiesteban/?fbss
Translated by mlk.
25 April 2014
Source: Burn Your Neighbor's Beard / Angel Santiesteban | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/burn-your-neighbors-beard-angel-santiesteban/
Posted on April 25, 2014
The hypocritical "conversation" that Nicolas Maduro held with the
opposition indicates the political temperature of what is happening in
Venezuela.
Against his will, the dictator sat down at the table of dialogue.
Although he does not want to recognize it, he did it at the demand of
his Cuban advisors, and of Raul Castro himself, who in frequent phone
calls from the Island, advises him not to give up, or show weakness or
that he is desperate because of social pressure.
It is true that in Cuba Raul Castro is far from recognizing his
political adversaries; further away still is the possibility of a
dialogue between both sides. Many more Cubans will have to die before —
at some point — we throw ourselves into the streets in order to demand
what belongs to us by right and that they have stolen from us for more
than half a century.
Circumstances, dictators and tyrannies are different, but on perceiving
that the process imposed by the deceased Hugo Chavez is extinguished,
and in spite of the power and abuses they make a disillusioned people
suffer, they have also make them pay for their rebellion with more than
40 lives.
In order to avoid guarimbas (street clashes) in Cuba, the Castros have
maintained their iron command, which has cost many lives of those who
have opposed them. Here, if one breathes at a different rhythm than that
stipulated by the leadership, the political police open a file and begin
their constant persecution, waiting for you to breathe deeply to "bring
you" your shares of anguish.
No fire is needed in the archipelago; the smoke of a lit match barely
suffices to sound the alarm. Nevertheless, we keep dreaming of
our guarimbas.
Angel Santiesteban-Prats
Lawton prison settlement. April 2014.
To sign the petition for Amnesty International to declare dissident
Cuban Angel Santesteban a prisoner of conscience, follow the link.
https://secure.avaaz.org/es/petition/Para_que_Amnistia_Internacional_declare_prisionero_de_conciencia_al_disidente_cubano_Angel_Santiesteban/?fbss
Translated by mlk.
25 April 2014
Source: Burn Your Neighbor's Beard / Angel Santiesteban | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/burn-your-neighbors-beard-angel-santiesteban/
Recollections of Police Extortion - A “Rebar”
Recollections of Police Extortion: A "Rebar" / Frank Correa
Posted on April 24, 2014
HAVANA, Cuba – I recently participated in a course on Criminal Procedure
taught by Dr. Wilfredo Vallin, an independent lawyer, to members of
civil society. We learned what the law requires and how police are
supposed to act when making stops, searches, seizures, or arrests.
Each one of us there related some personal experience of police
misconduct. Dr. Vallin explained to us in each case what kind of
violation of the law had been committed by the officers. We finally
reached the conclusion that ignorance of citizens' rights is the primary
cause that encourages these infractions.
We learned that to carry out the search of a home, a warrant signed by a
prosecutor and two witnesses is needed. The search warrant must describe
the "specific object" being sought: they cannot seize any property other
than that "specific object." In addition, everything seized must appear
on a list, and a copy must be delivered to the person affected. The
confiscations must be presented in court, and if invalidated must be
returned.
We had a slew of examples of violations of this law. As with the other
one, Dr. Vallin explained: on the street, only a uniformed police
officer can stop you, never a plainclothes officer. And to perform a
search a police officer must present a warrant, or else take you to a
police station and search you there. This is a law that is violated in
Cuba every day; just ask the hundreds of street vendors who are stopped,
searched, and deprived of their property in full public view.
We also learned that you cannot be detained in a police station for more
than twenty-four hours without an arrest warrant. After that time an
investigator must be assigned to you, who has three days to present the
prosecutor with a report of the completed investigation. The prosecutor
has three more days to issue a decision—of a fine, detention, or
immediate release. Many of those attending the course complained of
spending days in a jail cell without any compliance with this law.
I remembered the meetings of the Agenda for Transition, in Jaimanita.
And how they detained me when I left my house in the morning so I could
not cover the news! They locked me in a cell in the 5th precinct
station, popularly known as "The Warehouse," along with other dissidents
also prevented from attending the meeting. Without a word of
explanation, they left us among dozens of common prisoners until late
afternoon. Then the "file folder" (receptionist) called us one by one,
gave us our identity cards and let us go.
I also remembered the time I was on a corner in Old Havana, talking with
my friends "El Mapa" and "Pulu," when I saw boy dressed in a school
uniform coming down the sidewalk, followed by a row of detainees. In his
hand he was carrying a bundle of identity documents and asked us for
ours and told us to get in the line.
I was stunned, watching how the men meekly followed single file toward
the police station in Dragones, but when I started to protest, "El
Mapa" told me:
"Don't even open your mouth! He's a policeman disguised as a student . .
. and he's vicious! Now they're going to lock us up and search us . . .
then they'll let us go for a 'rebar.'"
Without understanding anything I followed the line to a vast courtyard
inside the station. A captain ordered us to stand facing the wall and
empty our pockets. We complied. They didn't find any drugs, or weapons,
or anything that would incriminate the men against the wall, who didn't
let out a peep.
Then he left, and we sat on the stones in the yard or on the floor,
helpless, without an arrest warrant, without having committed any crime,
and not knowing how to assert our rights . . . or to whom.
After a while I saw that the men began to leave, one by one. Before
leaving, "Pulu" passed me the sign: the passage to the street cost a
"rebar" (1 cuc, national currency equivalent to one dollar). This was
well-known in the neighborhood about their police, but I, who believe
that bribery is one of our worst crimes, was not going to contribute to it.
I remained alone in the yard, with three other poor devils who had no
"rebar." Our passport to freedom that afternoon was to carry a heavy
iron tank between the four of us and load it on a wooden cart in the
kitchen.
Afterward they handed us back our documents. Without even thanking us
for loading the tank on the cart.
Cubanet, April 4, 2014
Translated by Tomás A.
Source: Recollections of Police Extortion: A "Rebar" / Frank Correa |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/recollections-of-police-extortion-a-rebar-frank-correa/
Posted on April 24, 2014
HAVANA, Cuba – I recently participated in a course on Criminal Procedure
taught by Dr. Wilfredo Vallin, an independent lawyer, to members of
civil society. We learned what the law requires and how police are
supposed to act when making stops, searches, seizures, or arrests.
Each one of us there related some personal experience of police
misconduct. Dr. Vallin explained to us in each case what kind of
violation of the law had been committed by the officers. We finally
reached the conclusion that ignorance of citizens' rights is the primary
cause that encourages these infractions.
We learned that to carry out the search of a home, a warrant signed by a
prosecutor and two witnesses is needed. The search warrant must describe
the "specific object" being sought: they cannot seize any property other
than that "specific object." In addition, everything seized must appear
on a list, and a copy must be delivered to the person affected. The
confiscations must be presented in court, and if invalidated must be
returned.
We had a slew of examples of violations of this law. As with the other
one, Dr. Vallin explained: on the street, only a uniformed police
officer can stop you, never a plainclothes officer. And to perform a
search a police officer must present a warrant, or else take you to a
police station and search you there. This is a law that is violated in
Cuba every day; just ask the hundreds of street vendors who are stopped,
searched, and deprived of their property in full public view.
We also learned that you cannot be detained in a police station for more
than twenty-four hours without an arrest warrant. After that time an
investigator must be assigned to you, who has three days to present the
prosecutor with a report of the completed investigation. The prosecutor
has three more days to issue a decision—of a fine, detention, or
immediate release. Many of those attending the course complained of
spending days in a jail cell without any compliance with this law.
I remembered the meetings of the Agenda for Transition, in Jaimanita.
And how they detained me when I left my house in the morning so I could
not cover the news! They locked me in a cell in the 5th precinct
station, popularly known as "The Warehouse," along with other dissidents
also prevented from attending the meeting. Without a word of
explanation, they left us among dozens of common prisoners until late
afternoon. Then the "file folder" (receptionist) called us one by one,
gave us our identity cards and let us go.
I also remembered the time I was on a corner in Old Havana, talking with
my friends "El Mapa" and "Pulu," when I saw boy dressed in a school
uniform coming down the sidewalk, followed by a row of detainees. In his
hand he was carrying a bundle of identity documents and asked us for
ours and told us to get in the line.
I was stunned, watching how the men meekly followed single file toward
the police station in Dragones, but when I started to protest, "El
Mapa" told me:
"Don't even open your mouth! He's a policeman disguised as a student . .
. and he's vicious! Now they're going to lock us up and search us . . .
then they'll let us go for a 'rebar.'"
Without understanding anything I followed the line to a vast courtyard
inside the station. A captain ordered us to stand facing the wall and
empty our pockets. We complied. They didn't find any drugs, or weapons,
or anything that would incriminate the men against the wall, who didn't
let out a peep.
Then he left, and we sat on the stones in the yard or on the floor,
helpless, without an arrest warrant, without having committed any crime,
and not knowing how to assert our rights . . . or to whom.
After a while I saw that the men began to leave, one by one. Before
leaving, "Pulu" passed me the sign: the passage to the street cost a
"rebar" (1 cuc, national currency equivalent to one dollar). This was
well-known in the neighborhood about their police, but I, who believe
that bribery is one of our worst crimes, was not going to contribute to it.
I remained alone in the yard, with three other poor devils who had no
"rebar." Our passport to freedom that afternoon was to carry a heavy
iron tank between the four of us and load it on a wooden cart in the
kitchen.
Afterward they handed us back our documents. Without even thanking us
for loading the tank on the cart.
Cubanet, April 4, 2014
Translated by Tomás A.
Source: Recollections of Police Extortion: A "Rebar" / Frank Correa |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/recollections-of-police-extortion-a-rebar-frank-correa/
Raul Castro’s Black Glasses
Raul Castro's Black Glasses / Juan Juan Almeida
Posted on April 25, 2014
Although article 2.1 of the current Republic of Cuba Penal Code says,
"Only acts expressly described as crimes in the law may be sanctioned…"
doctrine inoculated for more than five decades managed to change in us
the concept of Fatherland, Nation, State, Country and Revolution; this
served as support for decreeing that whoever exercises the right to
publicly criticize the ineffectiveness of the government will become, by
conceptual association, an anti-patriotic activist who must be repressed.
Then, on establishing the word "Socialism" in the words of our
Constitution, any different ideology or inclination was isolated to a
dangerous anti-constitutional margin.
Cause and effect. Today in Cuba, political prisoners are held
incommunicado and sometimes, what's more, deprived of the right to legal
redress. Such is the case with a young black Cuban, Juliet Michelena
Diaz, who is in prison just for performing the innocuous work of
independent citizen journalist, which permits us to observe reality and
disturbs the clouded transparency of a governmental press; which
although it may become strong with effort, will continue for some time
to be rigid, controlled and censored.
The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba lied supremely when
at the closing of the 8th UNEAC (Cuban Artists and Writers Union)
Meeting he said unabashedly and brazenly, "I am the absolute enemy of
unanimity." Please, try that one on someone else.
Mister President forgets that his word may be command in the National
Assembly, because it's a political institution, but it should not be in
trials or in courts. Nevertheless, based on honorable functions of
watching over and protecting the citizenry, and sheltered behind the
impudent excuse of maintaining the security of the people and public
order, the Cuban authorities commit illegalities that allow them to
prosecute, even using false accusations, not only people whom they wish
to punish but also their relatives and friends.
Cuban shysters know well, they studied for this reason, that the guilt
of a prisoner is personal and non-transferable and that under no
circumstances should he be found guilty because of association, family
relationship or heritage. Even when dealing with an invented guilt as
in the particular case of Lady in White Sonia Garro and her husband
Ramon Alejandro Munoz, who have spent more than two years locked in
prison with no one caring, and nothing happens.
Apparently, the General, like his brother Fidel, wears dark glasses in
order to protect himself from the sun and to keep blacks invisible.
I must clarify that with this writing I am not trying to be a judge or
to promote a timely or opportunistic political crusade; I only want to
make clear that while we move further from the majesty of the law, we
will be permitting another "Don Juan de los Palotes" to keep distancing
us from the road to democracy, respect and the real possibility of
exercising of our full rights.
I apologize, I did not mention "Liberty" because even that is relative;
and besides I am convinced that liberty will lose its value when it
loses its obstacles.
Translated by mlk.
22 April 2014
Source: Raul Castro's Black Glasses / Juan Juan Almeida | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/raul-castros-black-glasses-juan-juan-almeida/
Posted on April 25, 2014
Although article 2.1 of the current Republic of Cuba Penal Code says,
"Only acts expressly described as crimes in the law may be sanctioned…"
doctrine inoculated for more than five decades managed to change in us
the concept of Fatherland, Nation, State, Country and Revolution; this
served as support for decreeing that whoever exercises the right to
publicly criticize the ineffectiveness of the government will become, by
conceptual association, an anti-patriotic activist who must be repressed.
Then, on establishing the word "Socialism" in the words of our
Constitution, any different ideology or inclination was isolated to a
dangerous anti-constitutional margin.
Cause and effect. Today in Cuba, political prisoners are held
incommunicado and sometimes, what's more, deprived of the right to legal
redress. Such is the case with a young black Cuban, Juliet Michelena
Diaz, who is in prison just for performing the innocuous work of
independent citizen journalist, which permits us to observe reality and
disturbs the clouded transparency of a governmental press; which
although it may become strong with effort, will continue for some time
to be rigid, controlled and censored.
The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba lied supremely when
at the closing of the 8th UNEAC (Cuban Artists and Writers Union)
Meeting he said unabashedly and brazenly, "I am the absolute enemy of
unanimity." Please, try that one on someone else.
Mister President forgets that his word may be command in the National
Assembly, because it's a political institution, but it should not be in
trials or in courts. Nevertheless, based on honorable functions of
watching over and protecting the citizenry, and sheltered behind the
impudent excuse of maintaining the security of the people and public
order, the Cuban authorities commit illegalities that allow them to
prosecute, even using false accusations, not only people whom they wish
to punish but also their relatives and friends.
Cuban shysters know well, they studied for this reason, that the guilt
of a prisoner is personal and non-transferable and that under no
circumstances should he be found guilty because of association, family
relationship or heritage. Even when dealing with an invented guilt as
in the particular case of Lady in White Sonia Garro and her husband
Ramon Alejandro Munoz, who have spent more than two years locked in
prison with no one caring, and nothing happens.
Apparently, the General, like his brother Fidel, wears dark glasses in
order to protect himself from the sun and to keep blacks invisible.
I must clarify that with this writing I am not trying to be a judge or
to promote a timely or opportunistic political crusade; I only want to
make clear that while we move further from the majesty of the law, we
will be permitting another "Don Juan de los Palotes" to keep distancing
us from the road to democracy, respect and the real possibility of
exercising of our full rights.
I apologize, I did not mention "Liberty" because even that is relative;
and besides I am convinced that liberty will lose its value when it
loses its obstacles.
Translated by mlk.
22 April 2014
Source: Raul Castro's Black Glasses / Juan Juan Almeida | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/raul-castros-black-glasses-juan-juan-almeida/
Fidel Castro 'dismayed' by Garcia Marquez's death
Posted on Friday, 04.25.14
Fidel Castro 'dismayed' by Garcia Marquez's death
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- Fidel Castro was hit hard by last week's death of longtime
friend and Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Cuba's No. 2 leader said Friday.
Speaking in Havana as he signed a book of condolences at the Colombian
Embassy, Cuban First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Castro was
left "dismayed."
"Fidel is a man of great human sensibility, so he feels the loss of his
friends," Diaz-Canel told reporters. "But he is also a man who is very
seasoned by all the battles he has had to fight ... he also has a
resilience for such problems."
Castro has not commented publicly on Garcia Marquez's passing, though he
sent a floral arrangement to a memorial ceremony in Mexico City, where
the author lived the final three decades of his life.
The two were close for years after Garcia Marquez came to Cuba to work
for Prensa Latina, the state news agency founded by guerrilla leader
Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Castro's silence fueled yet another round of rumors on social media
about the health of the 87-year-old former leader, who was forced from
office in 2006 by a near-fatal intestinal illness.
He also kept mum for days after the deaths last year of two others he
considered close friends: Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Hugo Chavez
of Venezuela.
Castro, 87, retired from the Cuban presidency for good in 2008 and
rarely appears in public now. Last year, he all but stopped writing
once-regular opinion pieces that were carried across Cuban state media.
"His health is very good. He is working intensely," Diaz-Canel said.
The vice president saluted Garcia Marquez for his "literary greatness,"
his support for the Cuban Revolution and his friendship with Castro.
Diaz-Canel is the first high-level Cuban official to speak publicly
about Garcia Marquez since the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
and other renowned novels died April 17 in Mexico City at age 87.
Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ARodriguezAP
Source: HAVANA: Fidel Castro 'dismayed' by Garcia Marquez's death -
People Wires - MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/25/4080174/fidel-castro-dismayed-by-garcia.html
Fidel Castro 'dismayed' by Garcia Marquez's death
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- Fidel Castro was hit hard by last week's death of longtime
friend and Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Cuba's No. 2 leader said Friday.
Speaking in Havana as he signed a book of condolences at the Colombian
Embassy, Cuban First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Castro was
left "dismayed."
"Fidel is a man of great human sensibility, so he feels the loss of his
friends," Diaz-Canel told reporters. "But he is also a man who is very
seasoned by all the battles he has had to fight ... he also has a
resilience for such problems."
Castro has not commented publicly on Garcia Marquez's passing, though he
sent a floral arrangement to a memorial ceremony in Mexico City, where
the author lived the final three decades of his life.
The two were close for years after Garcia Marquez came to Cuba to work
for Prensa Latina, the state news agency founded by guerrilla leader
Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Castro's silence fueled yet another round of rumors on social media
about the health of the 87-year-old former leader, who was forced from
office in 2006 by a near-fatal intestinal illness.
He also kept mum for days after the deaths last year of two others he
considered close friends: Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Hugo Chavez
of Venezuela.
Castro, 87, retired from the Cuban presidency for good in 2008 and
rarely appears in public now. Last year, he all but stopped writing
once-regular opinion pieces that were carried across Cuban state media.
"His health is very good. He is working intensely," Diaz-Canel said.
The vice president saluted Garcia Marquez for his "literary greatness,"
his support for the Cuban Revolution and his friendship with Castro.
Diaz-Canel is the first high-level Cuban official to speak publicly
about Garcia Marquez since the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
and other renowned novels died April 17 in Mexico City at age 87.
Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ARodriguezAP
Source: HAVANA: Fidel Castro 'dismayed' by Garcia Marquez's death -
People Wires - MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/25/4080174/fidel-castro-dismayed-by-garcia.html
Friday, April 25, 2014
Coming soon, a spring thaw with Cuba?
Coming soon, a spring thaw with Cuba?
A current is emerging in the U.S. attitude toward Cuba that appears more
favorable to improved relations.
By Rafael Hernández
April 24, 2014, 5:33 p.m.
It's often assumed, or even taken for granted, that U.S. policy on Cuba
is not dictated in Washington but in Miami by Cuban exiles who would
rather die than allow Washington to negotiate with Havana. This
interpretation holds the politics of a single Florida county responsible
for a conflict that has lasted more than half a century. That may be one
factor, but the real explanation is more complex.
Since the end of the Cold War, Cuba's profile on the United States'
strategic radar has diminished. The island no longer has the
significance it did nearly a quarter of a century ago when it had 50,000
soldiers in Angola and maintained a political alliance with the Soviet
Union.
President Obama probably dedicates mere minutes to Cuba compared with
the hours he devotes to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, North Korea,
Pakistan, China, Russia, Venezuela, Ukraine, etc. Yet Cuba, the largest
island in the Caribbean, is part of the maritime hub that will emerge
after the enlargement of the Panama Canal. And if you look at a map, the
Gulf ports closest to Mariel, Cuba, are Houston, New Orleans and Mobile,
Ala., not Veracruz or Maracaibo.
In this new context, a current is emerging in the U.S. attitude toward
Cuba that appears more favorable to change. In November, Obama told the
Cuban American lobby that U.S. strategy ought to remain open to the
changes on the island, and he acknowledged the idea that "the same
policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as
effective as they are today in the age of the Internet and Google and
world travel doesn't make sense." One month later, he was shaking Cuban
President Raul Castro's hand at the memorial for Nelson Mandela.
Should these signs lead to real change, what U.S. political and
geostrategic interests could be furthered by a rapprochement?
In economic terms, the embargo is beneficial to no one. Lifting it, or
letting it fade away, could encompass the interests of farming states
and agribusinesses, tourism and the biomedical, maritime transportation,
pharmaceutical and oil industries, as well as U.S. ports along the Gulf
of Mexico. It would also free a sector of Cuban American businessmen
held hostage by established policy, allowing them to participate
actively in bilateral economic relations.
In terms of security, dialogue would allow for a more permanent
cooperation on drug-trafficking interception, air and sea security,
coordination between military forces, civil defense and hurricane
preparation, mutual public health challenges, protection of migratory
species and shared environmental interests.
If the United States cares to influence the internal context of the
island, the embargo policy is counterproductive. Without opportunities
for active communication between U.S. institutions and the island,
influence is impossible. Blocking the front door while opening windows
of communication are mutually inconsistent policies.
Dialogue and discreet diplomacy — what the Canadians call "constructive
engagement" — have functioned better than external pressure toward Cuba.
The Vatican and the European Union, which could hardly be suspected of
sympathizing with the Cuban government, can bear witness to that approach.
The argument that this quiet, constructive engagement has not brought
about a transformation of the Cuban political system misunderstands not
only Cuba but also the examples of China and Vietnam. In the latter two
cases, the subject of human rights has been a prominent part of their
bilateral dialogue with the United States for more than 20 years. But if
their internal policies and legislation have moved forward in this area,
it has been in response more to their internal dynamics than to
heavy-handed external pressure.
Never before has there been a Latin American context — in the region and
within Cuba — more favorable to the normalization of bilateral
relations. And recent polls have found that a majority of Americans,
including in Florida, favor better relations with Cuba.
Obama has taken audacious steps in his second term toward the resolution
of old conflicts, and he has negotiated with countries that are far more
intractable for U.S. policy than Cuba, such as Myanmar, Iran and Syria.
None of these conflicts is less complicated in terms of security and
international policy than that of Cuba. None has cried out so long for
resolution.
The Obama-Castro handshake picture in Johannesburg, South Africa, had an
important effect that triggered unusual hopes. This gesture, symbolic as
it was, was widely supported by the international media and public
opinion. The U.S. government now knows what kind of positive effects it
might see if, one day, it decides to follow the infectious rhythm of
Grupo Interactivo and come to Havana.
Rafael Hernández is chief editor of Temas, a Cuban social science
magazine, and the co-editor of "Shall We Play Ball? Debating U.S.-Cuban
Relations."
Source: Coming soon, a spring thaw with Cuba? - latimes.com -
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hernandez-cuba-rapprochement-20140425,0,202388.story#axzz2zuw8IWfu
A current is emerging in the U.S. attitude toward Cuba that appears more
favorable to improved relations.
By Rafael Hernández
April 24, 2014, 5:33 p.m.
It's often assumed, or even taken for granted, that U.S. policy on Cuba
is not dictated in Washington but in Miami by Cuban exiles who would
rather die than allow Washington to negotiate with Havana. This
interpretation holds the politics of a single Florida county responsible
for a conflict that has lasted more than half a century. That may be one
factor, but the real explanation is more complex.
Since the end of the Cold War, Cuba's profile on the United States'
strategic radar has diminished. The island no longer has the
significance it did nearly a quarter of a century ago when it had 50,000
soldiers in Angola and maintained a political alliance with the Soviet
Union.
President Obama probably dedicates mere minutes to Cuba compared with
the hours he devotes to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, North Korea,
Pakistan, China, Russia, Venezuela, Ukraine, etc. Yet Cuba, the largest
island in the Caribbean, is part of the maritime hub that will emerge
after the enlargement of the Panama Canal. And if you look at a map, the
Gulf ports closest to Mariel, Cuba, are Houston, New Orleans and Mobile,
Ala., not Veracruz or Maracaibo.
In this new context, a current is emerging in the U.S. attitude toward
Cuba that appears more favorable to change. In November, Obama told the
Cuban American lobby that U.S. strategy ought to remain open to the
changes on the island, and he acknowledged the idea that "the same
policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as
effective as they are today in the age of the Internet and Google and
world travel doesn't make sense." One month later, he was shaking Cuban
President Raul Castro's hand at the memorial for Nelson Mandela.
Should these signs lead to real change, what U.S. political and
geostrategic interests could be furthered by a rapprochement?
In economic terms, the embargo is beneficial to no one. Lifting it, or
letting it fade away, could encompass the interests of farming states
and agribusinesses, tourism and the biomedical, maritime transportation,
pharmaceutical and oil industries, as well as U.S. ports along the Gulf
of Mexico. It would also free a sector of Cuban American businessmen
held hostage by established policy, allowing them to participate
actively in bilateral economic relations.
In terms of security, dialogue would allow for a more permanent
cooperation on drug-trafficking interception, air and sea security,
coordination between military forces, civil defense and hurricane
preparation, mutual public health challenges, protection of migratory
species and shared environmental interests.
If the United States cares to influence the internal context of the
island, the embargo policy is counterproductive. Without opportunities
for active communication between U.S. institutions and the island,
influence is impossible. Blocking the front door while opening windows
of communication are mutually inconsistent policies.
Dialogue and discreet diplomacy — what the Canadians call "constructive
engagement" — have functioned better than external pressure toward Cuba.
The Vatican and the European Union, which could hardly be suspected of
sympathizing with the Cuban government, can bear witness to that approach.
The argument that this quiet, constructive engagement has not brought
about a transformation of the Cuban political system misunderstands not
only Cuba but also the examples of China and Vietnam. In the latter two
cases, the subject of human rights has been a prominent part of their
bilateral dialogue with the United States for more than 20 years. But if
their internal policies and legislation have moved forward in this area,
it has been in response more to their internal dynamics than to
heavy-handed external pressure.
Never before has there been a Latin American context — in the region and
within Cuba — more favorable to the normalization of bilateral
relations. And recent polls have found that a majority of Americans,
including in Florida, favor better relations with Cuba.
Obama has taken audacious steps in his second term toward the resolution
of old conflicts, and he has negotiated with countries that are far more
intractable for U.S. policy than Cuba, such as Myanmar, Iran and Syria.
None of these conflicts is less complicated in terms of security and
international policy than that of Cuba. None has cried out so long for
resolution.
The Obama-Castro handshake picture in Johannesburg, South Africa, had an
important effect that triggered unusual hopes. This gesture, symbolic as
it was, was widely supported by the international media and public
opinion. The U.S. government now knows what kind of positive effects it
might see if, one day, it decides to follow the infectious rhythm of
Grupo Interactivo and come to Havana.
Rafael Hernández is chief editor of Temas, a Cuban social science
magazine, and the co-editor of "Shall We Play Ball? Debating U.S.-Cuban
Relations."
Source: Coming soon, a spring thaw with Cuba? - latimes.com -
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hernandez-cuba-rapprochement-20140425,0,202388.story#axzz2zuw8IWfu
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