EU provides drought support for Caribbean nations
PR
Added 28 May 2016
SANTO DOMINGO – The impact of natural disasters is increasing, despite
countries' efforts to reduce it. Over the past year, drought has
affected more than 6.2 million people in the Caribbean, especially in
Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
Irregular and insufficient rainfall throughout 2015 has caused loss of
crop and livestock in the region. For the third consecutive year, some
people are facing periods of drought that threaten their livelihood,
with the most vulnerable groups being small producers, day-labourers and
people with no land of their own.
In this context, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil
Protection department (ECHO) is contributing 13.9 million euros to help
the Caribbean cope with drought in 2016, facilitating access to food and
water, and protecting the livelihoods of more than 429 000 people. The
European Commission has allocated 12.2 million euros of this
contribution to Haiti, 1.1 million euros to the Dominican Republic and
600 000 euros to Cuba.
Additionally, the European Commission continues its commitment to
Disaster Risk Reduction, helping the Caribbean prepare to cope with
future droughts by contributing 2.8 million euros in 2016: 1.5 million
for Haiti, 700 000 for the Dominican Republic and 600 000 for Cuba.
These actions will facilitate the sharing of good practice in the
current response implemented at local level, which can then be
replicated in the future. It is anticipated that around 200 000 people
in the region will be helped during 2016 to 2017.
These contributions are in addition to the more than 9.3 million euros
that the Commission provided for the region for Disaster Preparedness
during 2015 to 2016 through its DIPECHO programme (Disaster
Preparedness, ECHO), with the focus on strengthening local ability to
cope with future disasters. The key areas of intervention for this
programme, which benefits 410 000 people in 12 Caribbean countries,
include the strengthening of early warning systems, earthquake risk
preparedness and information concerning good practice in Disaster Risk
Reduction.
Since 1994, the European Commission has provided the Caribbean with a
total of 509.7 million euros in financial aid. Of this amount, 353.7
million euros have been allocated to Haiti, mainly in response to the
devastating earthquake of 12 January 2010, the fight against the cholera
epidemic, food insecurity and disaster preparedness. The remaining 156
million euros have provided support to the rest of the Caribbean in its
response to emergencies and activities aimed at disaster preparedness. (PR)
Source: EU provides drought support for Caribbean nations -- NationNews
Barbados -- Local, Regional and International News nationnews.com -
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/81714/eu-provides-drought-support-caribbean-nations
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Cuba - The Return of the Power Cuts
Cuba: The Return of the Power Cuts / Ivan Garcia
Ivan Garcia, 27 May 2016 — As of three weeks ago there have been power
cuts of up to three hours in different parts of Havana. Sometimes longer.
"Friday, April 29 in Altahabana (a neighbourhood in the southeast of the
city), the power was cut off from eleven at night until four-thirty in
the morning. Because of the heat, I spent the whole night waving a fan
over my eight-month-old baby. Two days earlier, there was a three-hour
outage in the afternoon," I was told by Magda, who works at Comercio
Interior.
In the central and eastern provinces, the power cuts started in the
middle of March. According to Reinaldo, who lives in San Pedrito in
Santiago de Cuba, 550 miles east of Havana, the blackouts aren't the
only problem.
"In some parts of Santiago we get water every eight or nine days. People
store it in buckets, bowls and improvised tanks, which increases the
chance of mosquitos transmitting dengue, zika and chikungunya. You can
add to that the countless earthquakes you get in the months of December
through March. Many families sleep in the parks because they are afraid
their roofs will collapse. The power cuts in Santiago are frequent.
Sometimes half an hour, and other times up to five hours," Reinaldo told me.
In Remedios, a town in Villa Clara province, 180 miles from the capital,
Odaisi, an intensive care assistant, tells me that the cuts have become
worse since the end of April.
"There are two or three a week, and sometimes up to five hours, or all
night. People go out in the street because of the dreadful heat. Lots of
people phone the electric company but they get no reply," Odaisis said.
Esther, who works in a substation on the outskirts of Havana, is sure it
isn't because of a fuel shortage, which is what many people think.
"Fifty percent of the electricity generated in the country uses Cuban
diesel. And there are new plants which run on gas. The problem is
unexpected breaks in the cables, which, together with maintenance to the
power stations in Matanzas and Holguín, have created power shortages in
peak hours."
A power company official, who preferred to remain anonymous, didn't
think that the present cuts will get as bad as the ones in the years of
the Special Period [a time of severe crisis after the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the elimination of its aid to Cuba].
"No way. The country is much better prepared to deal with electricity
supply. Thousands of kilometres of cable have been replaced,
transformers and connections have been renewed, and power distribution
losses, which got to thirty percent, have fallen to five percent. There
is also more modern equipment in the power plants, and we have a
contract with Russia to build two new power stations and modernise four
others. Our present problem is due to breakages, but we will sort them
out in the month of May," the official assured me.
But Noel, who works at CUPET, the initials of the Cuba Petrol Company,
is doubtful. "Out of the 105 thousand barrels a day we were receiving
from Venezuela two years ago, now we only get sixty thousand, and my
bosses tell me that they expect it to reduce further down to forty
thousand or fewer barrels. In Venezuela, because of the drought, and the
bad technical state of their power stations, there are constant power
cuts outside of Caracas. To that you can add the economic crisis and the
fact that oil exports represent ninety-five percent of their income."
Although a barrel of oil has fallen from over a hundred dollars a barrel
a few years ago to a little under thirty dollars on the international
market, Orelvis, an economist, believes that the Cuban government
doesn't have enough money to buy fuel.
"Bartering with Venezuela is the perfect business deal. Medical services
in exchange for oil, and part of the oil gets re-exported. Now
electricity generation in the country has increased. More hotels and
private businesses consuming more, and some of the people with money to
buy things have air conditioning and electrical appliances in their
houses. I think there has been a setback in electricity production, but
I don't think that the situation can be as serious as in the 90's, and
the Special Period, but people need to be ready for programmed blackouts
in the coming months," he thought.
Raisa, a technician in the electric company sees the problem
differently. "Every province and town in the country has an assigned
level of fuel consumption, and, for various reasons, most of them are
consuming more. That, plus the recent breakdowns, are the cause of the
latest outages."
But it's difficult to convince the Cuban in the street with technical
arguments. There is nothing they like less than a power cut.
"It's one damn thing after another. A screw-up getting any food.
Salaries which are too low, not enough public transport, and now they
are telling us that if the drought continues, the water supply will be
cut in Havana. And, the cherry on the cake, more power cuts. It's too
much. We have had these problems for nearly sixty years, and they have
never come up with a definitive solution," complains Adelberto, a pensioner.
The electricity cuts in Cuba are cyclical. For one reason or another,
they always recur. It's one of the pernicious legacies of Fidel Castro's
revolution.
Translated by GH
Source: Cuba: The Return of the Power Cuts / Ivan Garcia – Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-the-return-of-the-power-cuts-ivan-garcia/
Ivan Garcia, 27 May 2016 — As of three weeks ago there have been power
cuts of up to three hours in different parts of Havana. Sometimes longer.
"Friday, April 29 in Altahabana (a neighbourhood in the southeast of the
city), the power was cut off from eleven at night until four-thirty in
the morning. Because of the heat, I spent the whole night waving a fan
over my eight-month-old baby. Two days earlier, there was a three-hour
outage in the afternoon," I was told by Magda, who works at Comercio
Interior.
In the central and eastern provinces, the power cuts started in the
middle of March. According to Reinaldo, who lives in San Pedrito in
Santiago de Cuba, 550 miles east of Havana, the blackouts aren't the
only problem.
"In some parts of Santiago we get water every eight or nine days. People
store it in buckets, bowls and improvised tanks, which increases the
chance of mosquitos transmitting dengue, zika and chikungunya. You can
add to that the countless earthquakes you get in the months of December
through March. Many families sleep in the parks because they are afraid
their roofs will collapse. The power cuts in Santiago are frequent.
Sometimes half an hour, and other times up to five hours," Reinaldo told me.
In Remedios, a town in Villa Clara province, 180 miles from the capital,
Odaisi, an intensive care assistant, tells me that the cuts have become
worse since the end of April.
"There are two or three a week, and sometimes up to five hours, or all
night. People go out in the street because of the dreadful heat. Lots of
people phone the electric company but they get no reply," Odaisis said.
Esther, who works in a substation on the outskirts of Havana, is sure it
isn't because of a fuel shortage, which is what many people think.
"Fifty percent of the electricity generated in the country uses Cuban
diesel. And there are new plants which run on gas. The problem is
unexpected breaks in the cables, which, together with maintenance to the
power stations in Matanzas and Holguín, have created power shortages in
peak hours."
A power company official, who preferred to remain anonymous, didn't
think that the present cuts will get as bad as the ones in the years of
the Special Period [a time of severe crisis after the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the elimination of its aid to Cuba].
"No way. The country is much better prepared to deal with electricity
supply. Thousands of kilometres of cable have been replaced,
transformers and connections have been renewed, and power distribution
losses, which got to thirty percent, have fallen to five percent. There
is also more modern equipment in the power plants, and we have a
contract with Russia to build two new power stations and modernise four
others. Our present problem is due to breakages, but we will sort them
out in the month of May," the official assured me.
But Noel, who works at CUPET, the initials of the Cuba Petrol Company,
is doubtful. "Out of the 105 thousand barrels a day we were receiving
from Venezuela two years ago, now we only get sixty thousand, and my
bosses tell me that they expect it to reduce further down to forty
thousand or fewer barrels. In Venezuela, because of the drought, and the
bad technical state of their power stations, there are constant power
cuts outside of Caracas. To that you can add the economic crisis and the
fact that oil exports represent ninety-five percent of their income."
Although a barrel of oil has fallen from over a hundred dollars a barrel
a few years ago to a little under thirty dollars on the international
market, Orelvis, an economist, believes that the Cuban government
doesn't have enough money to buy fuel.
"Bartering with Venezuela is the perfect business deal. Medical services
in exchange for oil, and part of the oil gets re-exported. Now
electricity generation in the country has increased. More hotels and
private businesses consuming more, and some of the people with money to
buy things have air conditioning and electrical appliances in their
houses. I think there has been a setback in electricity production, but
I don't think that the situation can be as serious as in the 90's, and
the Special Period, but people need to be ready for programmed blackouts
in the coming months," he thought.
Raisa, a technician in the electric company sees the problem
differently. "Every province and town in the country has an assigned
level of fuel consumption, and, for various reasons, most of them are
consuming more. That, plus the recent breakdowns, are the cause of the
latest outages."
But it's difficult to convince the Cuban in the street with technical
arguments. There is nothing they like less than a power cut.
"It's one damn thing after another. A screw-up getting any food.
Salaries which are too low, not enough public transport, and now they
are telling us that if the drought continues, the water supply will be
cut in Havana. And, the cherry on the cake, more power cuts. It's too
much. We have had these problems for nearly sixty years, and they have
never come up with a definitive solution," complains Adelberto, a pensioner.
The electricity cuts in Cuba are cyclical. For one reason or another,
they always recur. It's one of the pernicious legacies of Fidel Castro's
revolution.
Translated by GH
Source: Cuba: The Return of the Power Cuts / Ivan Garcia – Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-the-return-of-the-power-cuts-ivan-garcia/
Cuban Migrants Criticize The High Prices Of Airfares To Mexico
Cuban Migrants Criticize The High Prices Of Airfares To Mexico /
14ymedio, Mario Penton
Cuban migrants stranded in Mexico wait to buy airplane tickets to Mexico
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 6 May 2016 — Accustomed to standing in
long lines on the island, thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in Panama
were waiting for hours Friday to buy an airline ticket to Mexico. Among
these "middle class rafters" criticism was rising over the high price of
airfares which has reached $805 for an adult ticket.
José Antonio Quesada and his wife, both lawyers, are among those who
were waiting in the sun today to get tickets. As of May 5, the
Panamanian Government authorized the sale of airline for Cuban migrants
and at least 800 of them have already purchased their tickets to
continue their journey.
The two attorneys spent 1,669 dollars in tickets, including the trip by
bus to the airport, the equivalent of more than five years wages for a
in Cuba. Both have managed to raise the money with the help of relatives
in Miami, but they are concerned because they have no more cash for when
they reach the U.S. border.
Quesada and his wife traveled from the island to Ecuador with the
intention of settling there and improving their economic condition.
However, the obstacles to legalizing their residence and finding jobs
pushed them to make a difficult journey through Colombia and the Darién
jungle. They departed with the hope of taking advantage of Cuban
Adjustment Act which grants immigration benefits to all residents of the
island who reach United States.
Now the two professionals are among the lucky ones who have been able to
purchase a ticket for flights starting next Monday to the city of Nuevo
Laredo in Tamaulipas State, Mexico. The cost of the trip by plane for a
child between 2 and 11 years is $332 whereas for a child under a year
the amount drops to $160.
The sale of tickets has been marked by the absence of official
statements from the Panamanian president's office, which arouses
suspicions among migrants, who fear shady dealings with regards to
prices or lack of transparency in the process. "The Government does not
give us information," complains the Cuban Elizander Roque.
As of noon this Friday hundreds of migrants from the island had
undertaken, on their own, to travel to the David's Mall, 25 miles from
the shelters where they are staying in Los Planes, Gualaca, to buy tickets.
The prices have surprised Sisleydis Moret, a 25-year-old Cuban who says
she feels "desperate" at not having enough money to buy them, due to the
expenses of supporting herself during her stay in Panama.
Her companion in the hostel, Keily Arteaga, age 29, is in a similar
situation. "The news was like a bucket of cold water," she says and
comments that, "now we don't have the money they are asking for."
Arteaga, who resides in a house in San Isidro, left Ecuador because she
was not able to legalize her immigration status. She had "a good job"
but she was illegal, which mean that "all the doors" were closed to her,
she explains. She says she has taken advantage of "all of this turmoil"
of the immigration crisis in Central America to reach Panama.
Those who travel accompanied by several family members experience the
most delicate situation. Isleyda Lelle said she was glad to hear that
tickets sales had begun to Mexico, but now she needs to wait for her
mother, resident in the United States, to help her "complete" the cost
of the trip for her, her brother and her sister-in-law.
For Andy Llanes, the situation is more difficult because he says that he
does not have "a single dollar" to buy the ticket. "My journey was very
hard, we were attacked along the way and they stole from us all that we
had." In the trip to Panama he details that his partner "was raped and
now the poor woman is pregnant from the Coyote who abused her."
Llanes says the only thing he owns is the "flip-flops" he is wearing and
says that if he cannot continue the trip, he will stay in Panama because
"I won't return to Cuba even if they threaten me with death."
Alfredo Córdoba, regional head of the National Migration Service in the
Chiriqui province told 14ymedio that he still does not know what will
happen to those Cubans who cannot afford the airfares.
An official source who requested anonymity explained that Cuban migrants
found in Puerto Obaldia have not received their passports yet and so far
there are no specific directions about whether they will or will not be
part of the humanitarian program.
This newspaper has gotten in touch with both the Panama National
Migration Service and the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but so
far we have not received answers to our questions.
Ed. note: Since this article was written the price of the airfare was
lowered and then the sale of tickets was cut off altogether.
Translations of articles detailing these subsequent events will follow.
Translated by Alberto
Source: Cuban Migrants Criticize The High Prices Of Airfares To Mexico /
14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-migrants-criticize-the-high-prices-of-airfares-to-mexico-14ymedio-mario-penton/
14ymedio, Mario Penton
Cuban migrants stranded in Mexico wait to buy airplane tickets to Mexico
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 6 May 2016 — Accustomed to standing in
long lines on the island, thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in Panama
were waiting for hours Friday to buy an airline ticket to Mexico. Among
these "middle class rafters" criticism was rising over the high price of
airfares which has reached $805 for an adult ticket.
José Antonio Quesada and his wife, both lawyers, are among those who
were waiting in the sun today to get tickets. As of May 5, the
Panamanian Government authorized the sale of airline for Cuban migrants
and at least 800 of them have already purchased their tickets to
continue their journey.
The two attorneys spent 1,669 dollars in tickets, including the trip by
bus to the airport, the equivalent of more than five years wages for a
in Cuba. Both have managed to raise the money with the help of relatives
in Miami, but they are concerned because they have no more cash for when
they reach the U.S. border.
Quesada and his wife traveled from the island to Ecuador with the
intention of settling there and improving their economic condition.
However, the obstacles to legalizing their residence and finding jobs
pushed them to make a difficult journey through Colombia and the Darién
jungle. They departed with the hope of taking advantage of Cuban
Adjustment Act which grants immigration benefits to all residents of the
island who reach United States.
Now the two professionals are among the lucky ones who have been able to
purchase a ticket for flights starting next Monday to the city of Nuevo
Laredo in Tamaulipas State, Mexico. The cost of the trip by plane for a
child between 2 and 11 years is $332 whereas for a child under a year
the amount drops to $160.
The sale of tickets has been marked by the absence of official
statements from the Panamanian president's office, which arouses
suspicions among migrants, who fear shady dealings with regards to
prices or lack of transparency in the process. "The Government does not
give us information," complains the Cuban Elizander Roque.
As of noon this Friday hundreds of migrants from the island had
undertaken, on their own, to travel to the David's Mall, 25 miles from
the shelters where they are staying in Los Planes, Gualaca, to buy tickets.
The prices have surprised Sisleydis Moret, a 25-year-old Cuban who says
she feels "desperate" at not having enough money to buy them, due to the
expenses of supporting herself during her stay in Panama.
Her companion in the hostel, Keily Arteaga, age 29, is in a similar
situation. "The news was like a bucket of cold water," she says and
comments that, "now we don't have the money they are asking for."
Arteaga, who resides in a house in San Isidro, left Ecuador because she
was not able to legalize her immigration status. She had "a good job"
but she was illegal, which mean that "all the doors" were closed to her,
she explains. She says she has taken advantage of "all of this turmoil"
of the immigration crisis in Central America to reach Panama.
Those who travel accompanied by several family members experience the
most delicate situation. Isleyda Lelle said she was glad to hear that
tickets sales had begun to Mexico, but now she needs to wait for her
mother, resident in the United States, to help her "complete" the cost
of the trip for her, her brother and her sister-in-law.
For Andy Llanes, the situation is more difficult because he says that he
does not have "a single dollar" to buy the ticket. "My journey was very
hard, we were attacked along the way and they stole from us all that we
had." In the trip to Panama he details that his partner "was raped and
now the poor woman is pregnant from the Coyote who abused her."
Llanes says the only thing he owns is the "flip-flops" he is wearing and
says that if he cannot continue the trip, he will stay in Panama because
"I won't return to Cuba even if they threaten me with death."
Alfredo Córdoba, regional head of the National Migration Service in the
Chiriqui province told 14ymedio that he still does not know what will
happen to those Cubans who cannot afford the airfares.
An official source who requested anonymity explained that Cuban migrants
found in Puerto Obaldia have not received their passports yet and so far
there are no specific directions about whether they will or will not be
part of the humanitarian program.
This newspaper has gotten in touch with both the Panama National
Migration Service and the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but so
far we have not received answers to our questions.
Ed. note: Since this article was written the price of the airfare was
lowered and then the sale of tickets was cut off altogether.
Translations of articles detailing these subsequent events will follow.
Translated by Alberto
Source: Cuban Migrants Criticize The High Prices Of Airfares To Mexico /
14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-migrants-criticize-the-high-prices-of-airfares-to-mexico-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Cubans Demonstrate In Front Of The US Embassy In Quito
Cubans Demonstrate In Front Of The US Embassy In Quito / 14ymedio, Mario
Penton
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 27 May 2016 — Hundreds of Cubans, more
than a thousand according to organizers, marched this Friday morning in
front of the United States embassy in Quito, to ask for Washington's
intervention in the negotiation of an immigration agreement that would
allow more than 5,000 migrants reach the US border.
"They didn't let us go past the embassy. The Ecuadorian police blocked
the way," said Peter Borges, who leads the protests along with Fernanda
de la Fe.
According to the activists, it was a peaceful demonstration intended to
deliver a letter to the ambassador to ask him to mediate with the
Ecuadorian government for the passage of thousands of Cubans who want to
emigrate to the United States and take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment
Act. Since 1996, the Act has given special treatment to the island's
citizens who are able to reach US territory with regards to emigration.
"Cubans do not want to leave here, we spent several hours in the
demonstration," said the activist.
The letter, which they were not able to deliver, denounced the
"horrendous episodes of extortion, rapes, murders and the disappearance
of entire families," which the migrants have suffered on their journey
as undocumented emigrants across the continent with the objective of
"reaching the freedom and well-being permitted by the generous United
States government."
The purpose of the missive is "to seek help to avoid further loss of
human lives." The letter also states that Cubans living in Ecuador are
worried because "the Ecuadorian government has implemented a document
review process for a large group of 'irregular' Cubans who make their
lives here on the occasion of this crisis and as a form of retaliation."
The demonstration comes after the Mexican government rejected a similar
request on 18 May. On that occasion, Jaime del Arenal, Mexican
ambassador in Ecuador, explained in a communication that the Cubans,
many of whom have not been able to regularize their immigration status
in the country, "do not qualify for the granting of visas."
According to the organizers, the initiative also seeks to avoid adding
to the number of Cubans who are stranded in Turbo, Colombia, after
Panama closed its border to the passage of undocumented migrants. Panama
recently transfered more than 3,800 Cubans to Mexico as the result of an
an exceptional migratory agreement.
Following the restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States
and the worsening of living conditions on the island, tens of thousands
of Cubans are trying to reach the US border for fear that the Cuban
Adjustment Act will be repealed. In the current fiscal year alone,
between October 1 and April 30, 35,652 Cubans had been accepted under
the special "parole" program available to them in the United States. It
is expected that more than 60,000 Cubans will arrive in the United
States this year.
Source: Cubans Demonstrate In Front Of The US Embassy In Quito /
14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cubans-demonstrate-in-front-of-the-us-embassy-in-quito-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Penton
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 27 May 2016 — Hundreds of Cubans, more
than a thousand according to organizers, marched this Friday morning in
front of the United States embassy in Quito, to ask for Washington's
intervention in the negotiation of an immigration agreement that would
allow more than 5,000 migrants reach the US border.
"They didn't let us go past the embassy. The Ecuadorian police blocked
the way," said Peter Borges, who leads the protests along with Fernanda
de la Fe.
According to the activists, it was a peaceful demonstration intended to
deliver a letter to the ambassador to ask him to mediate with the
Ecuadorian government for the passage of thousands of Cubans who want to
emigrate to the United States and take advantage of the Cuban Adjustment
Act. Since 1996, the Act has given special treatment to the island's
citizens who are able to reach US territory with regards to emigration.
"Cubans do not want to leave here, we spent several hours in the
demonstration," said the activist.
The letter, which they were not able to deliver, denounced the
"horrendous episodes of extortion, rapes, murders and the disappearance
of entire families," which the migrants have suffered on their journey
as undocumented emigrants across the continent with the objective of
"reaching the freedom and well-being permitted by the generous United
States government."
The purpose of the missive is "to seek help to avoid further loss of
human lives." The letter also states that Cubans living in Ecuador are
worried because "the Ecuadorian government has implemented a document
review process for a large group of 'irregular' Cubans who make their
lives here on the occasion of this crisis and as a form of retaliation."
The demonstration comes after the Mexican government rejected a similar
request on 18 May. On that occasion, Jaime del Arenal, Mexican
ambassador in Ecuador, explained in a communication that the Cubans,
many of whom have not been able to regularize their immigration status
in the country, "do not qualify for the granting of visas."
According to the organizers, the initiative also seeks to avoid adding
to the number of Cubans who are stranded in Turbo, Colombia, after
Panama closed its border to the passage of undocumented migrants. Panama
recently transfered more than 3,800 Cubans to Mexico as the result of an
an exceptional migratory agreement.
Following the restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States
and the worsening of living conditions on the island, tens of thousands
of Cubans are trying to reach the US border for fear that the Cuban
Adjustment Act will be repealed. In the current fiscal year alone,
between October 1 and April 30, 35,652 Cubans had been accepted under
the special "parole" program available to them in the United States. It
is expected that more than 60,000 Cubans will arrive in the United
States this year.
Source: Cubans Demonstrate In Front Of The US Embassy In Quito /
14ymedio, Mario Penton – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cubans-demonstrate-in-front-of-the-us-embassy-in-quito-14ymedio-mario-penton/
Welcome to the new Cuba, where dog baths cost what some state workers make in a whole paycheck
Welcome to the new Cuba, where dog baths cost what some state workers
make in a whole paycheck
By Ana Campoy
If there's anything more anathema to the ideals of the Cuban Revolution
than a chihuahua-sized hoodie, I don't know what it is.
The story behind the racist Chinese ad where a black man gets his skin
color scrubbed off
Yet a Havana pet boutique I came across on a recent visit was selling
dog coats in both female and male designs for the equivalent of $18, not
far off an entire monthly salary for the average state worker. The pet
specialty shop, one of several in the Cuban capital, also had doggie
nail polish and American dog treats, likely smuggled in a suitcase on a
flight from Miami.
In today's Cuba, the Castro brothers stick to their communist spiel in
speeches, tourists continue to drool over Old Havana's crumbling
facades, but Cubans have moved on. Their sights are on branded sneakers
and all-inclusive beach vacations, the latest MacBook Air and a car to
get to work in. And thanks to legal changes in both Cuba and the US, a
growing number of them can actually afford those things.
As one local observer put it, the well-off have become the neediest
people in Cuba. And new businesses to serve those needs abound. For $60
a session, the island's nouveaux riches can get rid of tacky
communist-era tattoos. For $10 more, they can have a facial mud
mask—another superfluous vanity in a country where much of the
population is seemingly blessed with near-flawless skin.
Why does gin and tonic taste so good?
The rise of this consumer class is the new Cuban revolution. Its members
are sidestepping the island's schizophrenic, half-planned, half
market-driven economic model, and going full-blown capitalist. Give them
a few years, and they will turn Cuba around.
First, though, they need their dogs groomed.
Capitalism, self-multiplied
The whims of the wealthiest Cubans are contributing to a chain reaction
that's pulling everyone up the socioeconomic ladder. How it started
dates back to the final days of the Soviet Union.
Desperate for cash after the Soviet collapse, Fidel Castro flung Cuba's
doors open to tourism, and released Cubans to strike out on their own,
albeit in a highly restricted set of economic activities.
The pace of reform quickly picked up after Raúl Castro took over from
his more dogmatic older brother in 2008. He opened up more sectors to
cuentapropistas, or private entrepreneurs. In a stunning break with
previous rules, he even allowed them to hire workers who were not
actually related to them.
Meanwhile, in the US, president Barack Obama opened up the remittance
floodgates and in not-so-many-words told Americans it was now okay to
visit Cuba as tourists. Money orders worth roughly $2 billion a year
started gushing in, along with dollar-toting rubberneckers. The
cuentapropistas catering to them and the lucky Cubans with rich
relatives abroad had cash to burn. Thanks to the paquete semanal, the
stash of foreign media delivered weekly on USB sticks—a kind of
pre-internet internet—they also got ideas on how to spend it.
Other enterprising Cubans obliged, opening up spinning gyms,
party-planning companies, and private kindergartens. All those
businesses have employees, also considered cuentapropistas, earning
several times a state salary. This has added yet another layer of
consumers to the economy.
To be sure, even the richest Cubans would be considered middle-class
elsewhere. And many in Cuba's new private sector are barely making
enough to survive. But they, too, seem to be driven by the intoxicating
promise of stuff—everything from $67 Puma sneakers to new Audis, which
stand out amid Cuba's otherwise dilapidated fleet like American tourists
on the Malecón.
The officially estimated number of cuentapropistas has now reached some
half a million.
That's 10% of the workforce, and it doesn't include another 600,000 or
more making money in the underground economy, according to Richard
Feinberg, a Cuba scholar at the University of California, San Diego.
On May 24, the government announced that it would grant legal
recognition to small and medium-sized private businesses. Though details
on what this means are scarce, it could potentially lift many of the
current barriers that have stunted private enterprise.
Quick studies
The speed at which Cuba has caught up to standards outside the island is
mind-boggling. When Kché, a beauty salon, started out 11 years ago, it
consisted of one office chair and an antique sewing-machine table that
had been turned into a manicure counter.
Its owner, Cassandra López Tirado, had studied business management back
when "business" meant a slightly more independent branch of the
government. But a financial statement is a financial statement, she
says, whether you're at a state firm or a private company. She's gone
from being a state-employed shoe buyer making 300 pesos ($11) a month to
earning enough for a nanny, spinning lessons, and pet-parlor visits for
her dog.
Not that it's been easy. López Tirado has to buy nail polish at state
stores, at retail prices, because she has no access to the wholesale
market. Loans are hard to get and, when available, tend to be small, so
she had to rely on her savings, and the ornate apartment she inherited
from her aunt, to set up her newest salon on Havana's happening Calle 23.
The clucking chickens and the goat tied in the driveway a few buildings
down take Kché's classy ambience down a notch. Still, it's way more
sumptuous than many of the strip-mall salons that dot the US. It has
crystal chandeliers, perfectly restored, double-height ceilings, and a
gigantic vase of fragrant tiger lilies to greet customers.
It also has a much wider array of services than I'm used to back in the
US, all priced in CUCs, Cuba's secondary currency, which trades
one-to-one with the dollar. I had to Google some of the beauty
treatments on the list: Diamond-tip dermabrasion (essentially
dead-skin-cell vacuuming) and radiofrequency (or sagging-skin repair
without undergoing the knife).
There's also tattoo removal, made possible by a machine López Tirado
imported from the US in her suitcase. She reserves that service for
clients with smallish tattoos, because after all, this is still Cuba.
Who can afford the multiple $60-an-hour sessions needed to clear a large
swath of inked skin?
Actually, who can afford any of this stuff? I asked several experts that
question, and they said the answer is hard to pin down, because the
Cuban government doesn't acknowledge this social class, much less put
out statistics on it. Roughly speaking though, it's a heterogeneous
group of remittance recipients and independent entrepreneurs—people who
range from artists to babalaos, the Afro-Cuban priests commissioned to
perform other-worldly services. The academics I spoke with did not
mention prostitutes, but one business owner I interviewed whispered to
me that they, too, have small fortunes to drop on clothes and beauty salons.
Kché's clientele doesn't want the out-of-date techniques imparted at
state-run beauty schools. So the manicurists dutifully study the latest
international styles on YouTube beauty videos included every week in the
paquete. I got a pedicure adorned with a cute sparkly flower. It cost me
two CUCs and I left another two as a tip.
The ultimate middle-class indulgence
On a recent Friday morning, all the kennels at iDog, a pet salon in one
of Havana's nicer residential neighborhoods, were occupied by slightly
irritated dogs and one sleeping cat.
Since it opened three years ago, the business has exploded. Yorkies
alone take up six pages of the ruled notebook that serves as iDog's
client directory, says Anitée Vidal, one of the groomers. After studying
veterinary medicine, she's now getting an education in the kind of
marketing that spurs consumers to buy things they don't really need,
like polka-dot doggie bows. And I get why she's there, trimming dog ears
and paws. It's way better than working at a threadbare animal clinic, or
inspecting pig parts at a meat-packing plant, some of the state-job
alternatives.
iDog is covered in minimalist red tile and pictures of cute dogs. There
is a clear divider between the small receiving area and the grooming
stations so owners can see first-hand the devoted care doled out to
their pets. The air-conditioning is always on.
It wasn't that long ago that dogs were just another animal to Cubans,
says Vidal. But a growing number of Cuban families now treat their dogs
the way dogs are treated by the affluent in other countries—like spoiled
children. A client who dropped in while I chatted with Vidal couldn't
stop kissing her baby pit bull. It's named "Limbo," after the new
restaurant/bar her family is opening. The puppy sleeps with her, she
says, and gets a helping of her restaurant meals.
Another client, who pulled up in a modern Chinese sedan, was less
affectionate with his fluffy white dog. He takes her to iDog because he
has too much work to do to bathe her himself. Our conversation quickly
petered out after I asked him what it was that kept him so busy. He
loaded his perfumed dog into his new car and drove off.
Veterinarians can't yet get cuentapropista licenses. But if and when
they do, and if she can cobble together enough capital, Vidal hopes to
open her own clinic, going after the kinds of clients who come to iDog.
Like many of the Cubans I met during my visit, she's caught the
entrepreneurial bug.
The American dream, Cuban style
Castro came to power partly on the back of resentment at the excesses of
a small, corrupt elite. But two generations on, many Cubans say that
when they see the new elite's ballooning prosperity, they want to
reproduce it, not expropriate it.
It's hard to see the state's staid bureaucracy holding them back, much
less competing with them. A taxi driver pools his family savings to buy
one of the dilapidated American cars pictured in nearly every Cuban
postcard. He restores it and is now getting ready to sell it at several
times its original value. With the money, he plans to buy an even better
car to repeat the process.
A mathematician repurposes himself as a photographer of quinceañeras, or
girls turning 15. He promotes his services, which cost around $300 a
session, on Facebook, and on the glitzy virtual pages of Primavera, a
paquete-distributed magazine in PDF format and devoted to the teen
market. He proudly shows me his latest photos; they show a gangly girl,
posing provocatively, half-immersed in the Caribbean. The idea for the
setting came from his art director—a necessity, he says, to stand out in
his competitive line of business.
Then there's Sandro Fernández López, a personal trainer who wants to
spread the tropical version of spinning he's developed. He's doing all
the right things. He came up with a catchy name: "Q'suin", which is how
a Cuban would say "What swing!" He has a logo, and is in the process of
registering a trademark. He assembled a crowd of more than 700 last year
to watch sweat-dripped Q'suin practitioners dance atop stationary bikes.
Red Bull was a sponsor.
And yet he's not making any money off his idea. He needs a partner to
launch Q'suin classes at hotels in Cuba, or gyms abroad, but
cuentapropistas are not allowed to strike direct deals with government
entities or foreign companies.
For now, his business plan requires way more than what Cuba's confining
private-business rules allow.
But even as Fernández López struggles within Cuba's weird breed of
socialist capitalism, the achievements of the revolution are not lost on
him. A while ago, as he was planning a trip abroad, his heart failed. He
spent 15 days in the hospital, for free. "Had I left," he says, "I would
be dead."
Unlike the thousands of Cubans who are abandoning the island to try
their luck abroad, he's staying put.
"I'm hoping for my dream to come true," he says of Q'suin, "and that
it's here in Cuba."
Source: Welcome to the new Cuba, where dog baths cost what some state
workers make in a whole paycheck - Yahoo Finance -
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/welcome-cuba-where-dog-baths-131554185.html;_ylt=AwrC0CNQYElXkGcAN1LQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--
make in a whole paycheck
By Ana Campoy
If there's anything more anathema to the ideals of the Cuban Revolution
than a chihuahua-sized hoodie, I don't know what it is.
The story behind the racist Chinese ad where a black man gets his skin
color scrubbed off
Yet a Havana pet boutique I came across on a recent visit was selling
dog coats in both female and male designs for the equivalent of $18, not
far off an entire monthly salary for the average state worker. The pet
specialty shop, one of several in the Cuban capital, also had doggie
nail polish and American dog treats, likely smuggled in a suitcase on a
flight from Miami.
In today's Cuba, the Castro brothers stick to their communist spiel in
speeches, tourists continue to drool over Old Havana's crumbling
facades, but Cubans have moved on. Their sights are on branded sneakers
and all-inclusive beach vacations, the latest MacBook Air and a car to
get to work in. And thanks to legal changes in both Cuba and the US, a
growing number of them can actually afford those things.
As one local observer put it, the well-off have become the neediest
people in Cuba. And new businesses to serve those needs abound. For $60
a session, the island's nouveaux riches can get rid of tacky
communist-era tattoos. For $10 more, they can have a facial mud
mask—another superfluous vanity in a country where much of the
population is seemingly blessed with near-flawless skin.
Why does gin and tonic taste so good?
The rise of this consumer class is the new Cuban revolution. Its members
are sidestepping the island's schizophrenic, half-planned, half
market-driven economic model, and going full-blown capitalist. Give them
a few years, and they will turn Cuba around.
First, though, they need their dogs groomed.
Capitalism, self-multiplied
The whims of the wealthiest Cubans are contributing to a chain reaction
that's pulling everyone up the socioeconomic ladder. How it started
dates back to the final days of the Soviet Union.
Desperate for cash after the Soviet collapse, Fidel Castro flung Cuba's
doors open to tourism, and released Cubans to strike out on their own,
albeit in a highly restricted set of economic activities.
The pace of reform quickly picked up after Raúl Castro took over from
his more dogmatic older brother in 2008. He opened up more sectors to
cuentapropistas, or private entrepreneurs. In a stunning break with
previous rules, he even allowed them to hire workers who were not
actually related to them.
Meanwhile, in the US, president Barack Obama opened up the remittance
floodgates and in not-so-many-words told Americans it was now okay to
visit Cuba as tourists. Money orders worth roughly $2 billion a year
started gushing in, along with dollar-toting rubberneckers. The
cuentapropistas catering to them and the lucky Cubans with rich
relatives abroad had cash to burn. Thanks to the paquete semanal, the
stash of foreign media delivered weekly on USB sticks—a kind of
pre-internet internet—they also got ideas on how to spend it.
Other enterprising Cubans obliged, opening up spinning gyms,
party-planning companies, and private kindergartens. All those
businesses have employees, also considered cuentapropistas, earning
several times a state salary. This has added yet another layer of
consumers to the economy.
To be sure, even the richest Cubans would be considered middle-class
elsewhere. And many in Cuba's new private sector are barely making
enough to survive. But they, too, seem to be driven by the intoxicating
promise of stuff—everything from $67 Puma sneakers to new Audis, which
stand out amid Cuba's otherwise dilapidated fleet like American tourists
on the Malecón.
The officially estimated number of cuentapropistas has now reached some
half a million.
That's 10% of the workforce, and it doesn't include another 600,000 or
more making money in the underground economy, according to Richard
Feinberg, a Cuba scholar at the University of California, San Diego.
On May 24, the government announced that it would grant legal
recognition to small and medium-sized private businesses. Though details
on what this means are scarce, it could potentially lift many of the
current barriers that have stunted private enterprise.
Quick studies
The speed at which Cuba has caught up to standards outside the island is
mind-boggling. When Kché, a beauty salon, started out 11 years ago, it
consisted of one office chair and an antique sewing-machine table that
had been turned into a manicure counter.
Its owner, Cassandra López Tirado, had studied business management back
when "business" meant a slightly more independent branch of the
government. But a financial statement is a financial statement, she
says, whether you're at a state firm or a private company. She's gone
from being a state-employed shoe buyer making 300 pesos ($11) a month to
earning enough for a nanny, spinning lessons, and pet-parlor visits for
her dog.
Not that it's been easy. López Tirado has to buy nail polish at state
stores, at retail prices, because she has no access to the wholesale
market. Loans are hard to get and, when available, tend to be small, so
she had to rely on her savings, and the ornate apartment she inherited
from her aunt, to set up her newest salon on Havana's happening Calle 23.
The clucking chickens and the goat tied in the driveway a few buildings
down take Kché's classy ambience down a notch. Still, it's way more
sumptuous than many of the strip-mall salons that dot the US. It has
crystal chandeliers, perfectly restored, double-height ceilings, and a
gigantic vase of fragrant tiger lilies to greet customers.
It also has a much wider array of services than I'm used to back in the
US, all priced in CUCs, Cuba's secondary currency, which trades
one-to-one with the dollar. I had to Google some of the beauty
treatments on the list: Diamond-tip dermabrasion (essentially
dead-skin-cell vacuuming) and radiofrequency (or sagging-skin repair
without undergoing the knife).
There's also tattoo removal, made possible by a machine López Tirado
imported from the US in her suitcase. She reserves that service for
clients with smallish tattoos, because after all, this is still Cuba.
Who can afford the multiple $60-an-hour sessions needed to clear a large
swath of inked skin?
Actually, who can afford any of this stuff? I asked several experts that
question, and they said the answer is hard to pin down, because the
Cuban government doesn't acknowledge this social class, much less put
out statistics on it. Roughly speaking though, it's a heterogeneous
group of remittance recipients and independent entrepreneurs—people who
range from artists to babalaos, the Afro-Cuban priests commissioned to
perform other-worldly services. The academics I spoke with did not
mention prostitutes, but one business owner I interviewed whispered to
me that they, too, have small fortunes to drop on clothes and beauty salons.
Kché's clientele doesn't want the out-of-date techniques imparted at
state-run beauty schools. So the manicurists dutifully study the latest
international styles on YouTube beauty videos included every week in the
paquete. I got a pedicure adorned with a cute sparkly flower. It cost me
two CUCs and I left another two as a tip.
The ultimate middle-class indulgence
On a recent Friday morning, all the kennels at iDog, a pet salon in one
of Havana's nicer residential neighborhoods, were occupied by slightly
irritated dogs and one sleeping cat.
Since it opened three years ago, the business has exploded. Yorkies
alone take up six pages of the ruled notebook that serves as iDog's
client directory, says Anitée Vidal, one of the groomers. After studying
veterinary medicine, she's now getting an education in the kind of
marketing that spurs consumers to buy things they don't really need,
like polka-dot doggie bows. And I get why she's there, trimming dog ears
and paws. It's way better than working at a threadbare animal clinic, or
inspecting pig parts at a meat-packing plant, some of the state-job
alternatives.
iDog is covered in minimalist red tile and pictures of cute dogs. There
is a clear divider between the small receiving area and the grooming
stations so owners can see first-hand the devoted care doled out to
their pets. The air-conditioning is always on.
It wasn't that long ago that dogs were just another animal to Cubans,
says Vidal. But a growing number of Cuban families now treat their dogs
the way dogs are treated by the affluent in other countries—like spoiled
children. A client who dropped in while I chatted with Vidal couldn't
stop kissing her baby pit bull. It's named "Limbo," after the new
restaurant/bar her family is opening. The puppy sleeps with her, she
says, and gets a helping of her restaurant meals.
Another client, who pulled up in a modern Chinese sedan, was less
affectionate with his fluffy white dog. He takes her to iDog because he
has too much work to do to bathe her himself. Our conversation quickly
petered out after I asked him what it was that kept him so busy. He
loaded his perfumed dog into his new car and drove off.
Veterinarians can't yet get cuentapropista licenses. But if and when
they do, and if she can cobble together enough capital, Vidal hopes to
open her own clinic, going after the kinds of clients who come to iDog.
Like many of the Cubans I met during my visit, she's caught the
entrepreneurial bug.
The American dream, Cuban style
Castro came to power partly on the back of resentment at the excesses of
a small, corrupt elite. But two generations on, many Cubans say that
when they see the new elite's ballooning prosperity, they want to
reproduce it, not expropriate it.
It's hard to see the state's staid bureaucracy holding them back, much
less competing with them. A taxi driver pools his family savings to buy
one of the dilapidated American cars pictured in nearly every Cuban
postcard. He restores it and is now getting ready to sell it at several
times its original value. With the money, he plans to buy an even better
car to repeat the process.
A mathematician repurposes himself as a photographer of quinceañeras, or
girls turning 15. He promotes his services, which cost around $300 a
session, on Facebook, and on the glitzy virtual pages of Primavera, a
paquete-distributed magazine in PDF format and devoted to the teen
market. He proudly shows me his latest photos; they show a gangly girl,
posing provocatively, half-immersed in the Caribbean. The idea for the
setting came from his art director—a necessity, he says, to stand out in
his competitive line of business.
Then there's Sandro Fernández López, a personal trainer who wants to
spread the tropical version of spinning he's developed. He's doing all
the right things. He came up with a catchy name: "Q'suin", which is how
a Cuban would say "What swing!" He has a logo, and is in the process of
registering a trademark. He assembled a crowd of more than 700 last year
to watch sweat-dripped Q'suin practitioners dance atop stationary bikes.
Red Bull was a sponsor.
And yet he's not making any money off his idea. He needs a partner to
launch Q'suin classes at hotels in Cuba, or gyms abroad, but
cuentapropistas are not allowed to strike direct deals with government
entities or foreign companies.
For now, his business plan requires way more than what Cuba's confining
private-business rules allow.
But even as Fernández López struggles within Cuba's weird breed of
socialist capitalism, the achievements of the revolution are not lost on
him. A while ago, as he was planning a trip abroad, his heart failed. He
spent 15 days in the hospital, for free. "Had I left," he says, "I would
be dead."
Unlike the thousands of Cubans who are abandoning the island to try
their luck abroad, he's staying put.
"I'm hoping for my dream to come true," he says of Q'suin, "and that
it's here in Cuba."
Source: Welcome to the new Cuba, where dog baths cost what some state
workers make in a whole paycheck - Yahoo Finance -
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/welcome-cuba-where-dog-baths-131554185.html;_ylt=AwrC0CNQYElXkGcAN1LQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--
José Daniel Ferrer, the man behind Cuba’s largest opposition group
José Daniel Ferrer, the man behind Cuba's largest opposition group
Former political prisoner heads the Cuban Patriotic Union, an
organization in eastern Cuba that has launched a campaign urging the
island's people to let go of their fear.
NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
ngameztorres@elnuevoherald.com
Irreverent youth, activist in the Christian Liberation Movement's early
days, political prisoner and now leader of Cuba's most active opposition
group, José Daniel Ferrer is probably one of the biggest headaches for
the island's government.
One of the 75 political prisoners jailed in the 2003 crackdown known as
Cuba's Black Spring, Ferrer, 45, was one of the last to be freed in 2011
under a parole that barred him from leaving the country. He arrived in
Miami last week, after the government gave him a one-time permission to
travel abroad.
After his release Ferrer founded the Cuban Patriotic Union, UNPACU by
its Spanish initials, which he estimates now has more than 3,000 members
and sympathizers, mostly in Santiago de Cuba and other parts of eastern
Cuba although it also has members in Havana, Camaguey and the Isle of Youth.
How he managed to gather those 3,000 supporters — a number that is small
in an island of 11 million people yet is significantly large compared to
other dissident organizations — is a question with more than one answer.
He is a clearly charismatic leader, and even in prison he managed to
persuade the jailers to improve the quality of the food or rush an
inmate to a nearby hospital. His love for politics, he told el Nuevo
Herald and Miami Herald editors on Thursday, grew as he listened
clandestinely to foreign radio broadcasts. He described himself as a
voracious reader, and more than once quoted Chinese strategist Sun Tzu's
book, The Art of War.
Czech leader Vaclav Havel was another idol.
"When I completed my military service in 1991, I got a copy of Vaclav
Havel's book, The Power of the Powerless, and I understood that we could
topple the dictatorship," he said. "Until that time, the question of
whether I would leave [Cuba] or stay was in the air. But the fall of the
Communist bloc and this book encouraged me to start the struggle."
I UNDERSTOOD THAT WE COULD TOPPLE THE DICTATORSHIP
What's more, Ferrer has organized UNPACU for maximum efficiency, and the
movement now has a structure and way of operating that look much like
those of a political party. Although Cuba bans all but the Communist
Party, Ferrer acknowledges that turning UNPACU into a political party is
one of his goals.
Members have concrete and clear goals to meet, and they are checked
regularly. One important part of their work is face-to-face contacts,
trying to persuade others to join the group. They receive training to do
just that.
If anything distinguishes UNPACU from other dissident groups in Cuba, it
is that ability to move beyond street protests.
Ferrer said that "valiant work in the streets" is indispensable for
showing the government that there is "a vanguard that is not afraid of
it" — an important message to convince the rest of the people that
change is possible and that the opposition has at least some chance of
winning.
But Ferrer also lists other key activities: humanitarian assistance to
the poor "without asking for anything in return," and an "intelligent
outreach" with the organization's anti-Castro message.
That's another strong side of UNPACU, which maintains an active presence
in social networks, publishes videos of its activities and
man-on-the-street interviews on topics like rising food prices, and goes
door-to-door distributing thousands of DVDs and flash drives with its
work or foreign news reports. Occasionally, it also manages to sneak
UNPACU information into the paquete — the weekly digital archive of
entertainment, news and other items sold throughout the island and the
main source of independent information for most Cubans.
UNPACU also creates its own educational materials from a broad range of
sources, including Hollywood movies edited "to encourage people to lose
their fear" or to generate discussions at group meetings.
"No one wishes for what they don't know, and no one loses their fear if
they don't see that others have liberated themselves, that they have
lost their fear," he said.
NO ONE LOSES THEIR FEAR IF THEY DON'T SEE THAT OTHERS HAVE LIBERATED
THEMSELVES
Ferrer said that one of the positive results of President Barack Obama's
recent visit to Cuba, aside from his meeting with a group of dissidents
that included the UNPACU chief, was the media spotlight trained on the
island for a few days.
"When Obama went to Cuba, dozens of journalists from the free world also
went and asked us about the political prisoners, the basic freedoms," he
said. UNPACU activists later copied the articles published and
distributed them "house to house. Then people can say, 'They really are
right, because the newspaper said so.' "
Ferrer stressed that this work of disseminating information is essential
in a place like Cuba, where the mass media is totally and tightly
controlled by the Communist Party.
"A people that for so many years has received only the information
allowed by its oppressors cannot see things in the way that a free
person sees them, for example in Miami, where they can see as many
newspapers as they want," he added.
Another UNPACU initiative has been the elaboration of a "minimum
program" for a transition, in which the organization calls for economic
reforms, a new electoral law, a free press and the release of all
political prisoners, as well as decent wages and food security. It also
declares that "health, together with education and social welfare, will
be considered a non-negotiable right of all Cubans" — an ideal that
aligns the dissident group with the desires of many Cubans on the island.
UNPACU also is trying to use the micro-enterprises allowed by the
government to sustain its members and make up for the emigration of many
of its members, who have been joining the exodus shaking up the island
in the past few years.
What's more, all of the group's activities take place under the tight
vigilance of and repression from Cuba's political police, which
constantly try to keep the opposition from continuing to grow.
Aware of the government's power to "intimidate," his strategy has been
to use small activities to slowly move toward "the democratization of
Cuba," Ferrer said.
Ferrer, who spent 90 minutes in conversation with Herald and el Nuevo
Herald journalists, acknowledged that his leadership accounts for much
of UNPACU's success. He was asked what would happen if the organization
suddenly lost its leader.
"It's a risk, but there are other people in other organizations. In
fact, I have said [to members] on several occasions that if I disappear
and they don't feel they are capable of carrying on with UNPACU, they
should end the organization and join the United Anti-Totaliarian Front,
the Pedro Luis Boitel Movement or the Ladies in White," he answered,
referring to some of Cuba's other dissident movements.
Ferrer already has urged other dissident organizations to put aside
their differences over the changes in U.S. policies toward Cuba and
agree on common aspects under a Democratic Action Unity Roundtable,
which backs initiatives such as trying to register independent
candidates for legislative elections in 2017.
WE HAVE TO BATTLE THE REGIME IN ANY ARENA WHERE WE CAN
"We have to be active in all sectors of society. We have to battle the
regime in any arena where we can," said Ferrer, who is scheduled to
visit several other cities in the United States and Europe before
returning to the island.
"We cannot allow them to feel comfortable any place," he said with a
smile. "Anywhere they are, they should feel the heat. They should feel
the chair is a little tight."
Source: José Daniel Ferrer, the man behind Cuba's largest opposition
group | In Cuba Today - http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article80388607.html
Former political prisoner heads the Cuban Patriotic Union, an
organization in eastern Cuba that has launched a campaign urging the
island's people to let go of their fear.
NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
ngameztorres@elnuevoherald.com
Irreverent youth, activist in the Christian Liberation Movement's early
days, political prisoner and now leader of Cuba's most active opposition
group, José Daniel Ferrer is probably one of the biggest headaches for
the island's government.
One of the 75 political prisoners jailed in the 2003 crackdown known as
Cuba's Black Spring, Ferrer, 45, was one of the last to be freed in 2011
under a parole that barred him from leaving the country. He arrived in
Miami last week, after the government gave him a one-time permission to
travel abroad.
After his release Ferrer founded the Cuban Patriotic Union, UNPACU by
its Spanish initials, which he estimates now has more than 3,000 members
and sympathizers, mostly in Santiago de Cuba and other parts of eastern
Cuba although it also has members in Havana, Camaguey and the Isle of Youth.
How he managed to gather those 3,000 supporters — a number that is small
in an island of 11 million people yet is significantly large compared to
other dissident organizations — is a question with more than one answer.
He is a clearly charismatic leader, and even in prison he managed to
persuade the jailers to improve the quality of the food or rush an
inmate to a nearby hospital. His love for politics, he told el Nuevo
Herald and Miami Herald editors on Thursday, grew as he listened
clandestinely to foreign radio broadcasts. He described himself as a
voracious reader, and more than once quoted Chinese strategist Sun Tzu's
book, The Art of War.
Czech leader Vaclav Havel was another idol.
"When I completed my military service in 1991, I got a copy of Vaclav
Havel's book, The Power of the Powerless, and I understood that we could
topple the dictatorship," he said. "Until that time, the question of
whether I would leave [Cuba] or stay was in the air. But the fall of the
Communist bloc and this book encouraged me to start the struggle."
I UNDERSTOOD THAT WE COULD TOPPLE THE DICTATORSHIP
What's more, Ferrer has organized UNPACU for maximum efficiency, and the
movement now has a structure and way of operating that look much like
those of a political party. Although Cuba bans all but the Communist
Party, Ferrer acknowledges that turning UNPACU into a political party is
one of his goals.
Members have concrete and clear goals to meet, and they are checked
regularly. One important part of their work is face-to-face contacts,
trying to persuade others to join the group. They receive training to do
just that.
If anything distinguishes UNPACU from other dissident groups in Cuba, it
is that ability to move beyond street protests.
Ferrer said that "valiant work in the streets" is indispensable for
showing the government that there is "a vanguard that is not afraid of
it" — an important message to convince the rest of the people that
change is possible and that the opposition has at least some chance of
winning.
But Ferrer also lists other key activities: humanitarian assistance to
the poor "without asking for anything in return," and an "intelligent
outreach" with the organization's anti-Castro message.
That's another strong side of UNPACU, which maintains an active presence
in social networks, publishes videos of its activities and
man-on-the-street interviews on topics like rising food prices, and goes
door-to-door distributing thousands of DVDs and flash drives with its
work or foreign news reports. Occasionally, it also manages to sneak
UNPACU information into the paquete — the weekly digital archive of
entertainment, news and other items sold throughout the island and the
main source of independent information for most Cubans.
UNPACU also creates its own educational materials from a broad range of
sources, including Hollywood movies edited "to encourage people to lose
their fear" or to generate discussions at group meetings.
"No one wishes for what they don't know, and no one loses their fear if
they don't see that others have liberated themselves, that they have
lost their fear," he said.
NO ONE LOSES THEIR FEAR IF THEY DON'T SEE THAT OTHERS HAVE LIBERATED
THEMSELVES
Ferrer said that one of the positive results of President Barack Obama's
recent visit to Cuba, aside from his meeting with a group of dissidents
that included the UNPACU chief, was the media spotlight trained on the
island for a few days.
"When Obama went to Cuba, dozens of journalists from the free world also
went and asked us about the political prisoners, the basic freedoms," he
said. UNPACU activists later copied the articles published and
distributed them "house to house. Then people can say, 'They really are
right, because the newspaper said so.' "
Ferrer stressed that this work of disseminating information is essential
in a place like Cuba, where the mass media is totally and tightly
controlled by the Communist Party.
"A people that for so many years has received only the information
allowed by its oppressors cannot see things in the way that a free
person sees them, for example in Miami, where they can see as many
newspapers as they want," he added.
Another UNPACU initiative has been the elaboration of a "minimum
program" for a transition, in which the organization calls for economic
reforms, a new electoral law, a free press and the release of all
political prisoners, as well as decent wages and food security. It also
declares that "health, together with education and social welfare, will
be considered a non-negotiable right of all Cubans" — an ideal that
aligns the dissident group with the desires of many Cubans on the island.
UNPACU also is trying to use the micro-enterprises allowed by the
government to sustain its members and make up for the emigration of many
of its members, who have been joining the exodus shaking up the island
in the past few years.
What's more, all of the group's activities take place under the tight
vigilance of and repression from Cuba's political police, which
constantly try to keep the opposition from continuing to grow.
Aware of the government's power to "intimidate," his strategy has been
to use small activities to slowly move toward "the democratization of
Cuba," Ferrer said.
Ferrer, who spent 90 minutes in conversation with Herald and el Nuevo
Herald journalists, acknowledged that his leadership accounts for much
of UNPACU's success. He was asked what would happen if the organization
suddenly lost its leader.
"It's a risk, but there are other people in other organizations. In
fact, I have said [to members] on several occasions that if I disappear
and they don't feel they are capable of carrying on with UNPACU, they
should end the organization and join the United Anti-Totaliarian Front,
the Pedro Luis Boitel Movement or the Ladies in White," he answered,
referring to some of Cuba's other dissident movements.
Ferrer already has urged other dissident organizations to put aside
their differences over the changes in U.S. policies toward Cuba and
agree on common aspects under a Democratic Action Unity Roundtable,
which backs initiatives such as trying to register independent
candidates for legislative elections in 2017.
WE HAVE TO BATTLE THE REGIME IN ANY ARENA WHERE WE CAN
"We have to be active in all sectors of society. We have to battle the
regime in any arena where we can," said Ferrer, who is scheduled to
visit several other cities in the United States and Europe before
returning to the island.
"We cannot allow them to feel comfortable any place," he said with a
smile. "Anywhere they are, they should feel the heat. They should feel
the chair is a little tight."
Source: José Daniel Ferrer, the man behind Cuba's largest opposition
group | In Cuba Today - http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article80388607.html
Lighthouse Cubans won’t be sent home, for now
Lighthouse Cubans won't be sent home, for now
Judge orders another hearing
Migrants swam from boat to American Shoal lighthouse
Legal challenge to America's wet-foot, dry-foot policy
BY DAVID GOODHUE
KeysInfoNet.com
A federal judge offered hope for 21 Cubans being held on a U.S. Coast
Guard cutter awaiting repatriation back to their homeland.
U.S. District Court Judge Darrin Gayles at a hearing Friday, May 27,
scheduled an evidentiary hearing for next Thursday, June 2 at 2 p.m. at
the federal courthouse in downtown Miami.
Lawyers with the non-profit group, Movimiento Democracia filed an
injunction earlier this week arguing the Cubans should be able to stay
in the United States under the wet-foot, dry-foot policy stated under
1995 changes to the Cuban Adjustment Act.
The migrants swam off their makeshift vessel and climbed onto the
American Shoal lighthouse off the Lower Keys on Friday, May 20 after
being confronted by a U.S. Coast Guard crew.
They stayed on the 109-foot structure for about eight hours before
coming down and being taken aboard an undisclosed cutter. Under
wet-foot, dry-foot, Cuban migrants caught at sea before making it to
land must be returned to Cuba.
Those who make land can stay and apply for permanent residency after a year.
The Coast Guard and the U.S. Attorney's Office argue the lighthouse,
which is about 7 nautical miles at sea south of Sugarloaf Key, does not
count as dry land under wet-foot, dry foot.
William J. Sanchez-Calderon, one of the several attorneys working on
behalf of the migrants, praised both Gayles and the Coast Guard
following Friday's decision.
"The Coast Guard has been extremely helpful in this too," he said.
Source: Lighthouse Cubans won't be sent home, for now | In Cuba Today -
http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article80402842.html
Judge orders another hearing
Migrants swam from boat to American Shoal lighthouse
Legal challenge to America's wet-foot, dry-foot policy
BY DAVID GOODHUE
KeysInfoNet.com
A federal judge offered hope for 21 Cubans being held on a U.S. Coast
Guard cutter awaiting repatriation back to their homeland.
U.S. District Court Judge Darrin Gayles at a hearing Friday, May 27,
scheduled an evidentiary hearing for next Thursday, June 2 at 2 p.m. at
the federal courthouse in downtown Miami.
Lawyers with the non-profit group, Movimiento Democracia filed an
injunction earlier this week arguing the Cubans should be able to stay
in the United States under the wet-foot, dry-foot policy stated under
1995 changes to the Cuban Adjustment Act.
The migrants swam off their makeshift vessel and climbed onto the
American Shoal lighthouse off the Lower Keys on Friday, May 20 after
being confronted by a U.S. Coast Guard crew.
They stayed on the 109-foot structure for about eight hours before
coming down and being taken aboard an undisclosed cutter. Under
wet-foot, dry-foot, Cuban migrants caught at sea before making it to
land must be returned to Cuba.
Those who make land can stay and apply for permanent residency after a year.
The Coast Guard and the U.S. Attorney's Office argue the lighthouse,
which is about 7 nautical miles at sea south of Sugarloaf Key, does not
count as dry land under wet-foot, dry foot.
William J. Sanchez-Calderon, one of the several attorneys working on
behalf of the migrants, praised both Gayles and the Coast Guard
following Friday's decision.
"The Coast Guard has been extremely helpful in this too," he said.
Source: Lighthouse Cubans won't be sent home, for now | In Cuba Today -
http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article80402842.html
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