Continuity or a Dismantling?

Once again Mr. Jose Ramon Machado Ventura addressed the issue of the speed of “the transformations” driven by Raul Castro, warning that these processes are distorted from the outside by voices “paid by the empire” who demand more rapid progress naively believing that they are going to lead to capitalism.

On this occasion Cuba’s first vice president had the audacity to add that Cubans enjoy freedom of expression because “the people are constantly stating their views and opinions without any type of coercion.” According to the version published in the newspaper Granma, “Cubans talk on the street, on the block, at the meetings of the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution] and the FMC [Cuban Women’s Federation]; and if they are students they freely express themselves in the systematic interchanges in the student organizations, and everyone is heard.”

The second Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party forgot the detail that the freedom of expression of a nation is not measured by the examples he mentions, but by the access people have to the media. On the other hand, to affirm that there is no type of coercion for offering views and opinions is to deny the existence of the repudiation rallies, of State Security’s taking note of who on the block and in the workplace dares to push the limits of what can be openly criticized.

It is true that people are increasingly less afraid, but that is not a credit to the executioners but rather to the victims.  To say that people express themselves freely is like saying that the number of people who drink milk at breakfast is three times the number who receive it on the ration book, or that in Cuba no one is barefoot, or that the number of people with cellphones is already equal to those with land lines, data that may be true but that are not the results of the achievements of the system, but rather a victory of the citizens who find alternative paths to earn a living and better their standard of living.

The so-called measures of perfecting or updating the model are not steps towards capitalism although they do, indeed, deviate substantially from what we once described as Socialism. In proportion to their ceasing to resemble that deceiving egalitarian utopia, people feel better. The aged leaders can disguise as continuity what is clearly a dismantling, but life will have the last word. Perhaps by then “they” will no longer be among us, or no longer occupy their current positions; and then the blame for the final collapse will fall on the new wolves of their own litter, who today applaud them and who tomorrow will tear them to pieces without pity.

21 January 2013

Assaulting the Frontier

Notice in Immigration and Travel Office window – See below for translation.

Just a few hours ago Yoani Sánchez and I had the ecstatic experience of being the first to file the paperwork for the new Migratory Law. To be NUMBER ONE in a line is always comforting, and especially of the place has not been bought from a professional line-holder and the line is not a mad crush because of some extraordinary event. But the most successful part of the process, which we were able to put to the test in the first minutes, was the real-time operation of the much-hyped travel and immigration reform.

Yoani Sánchez, whom the Cuban government refused the now-eliminated Exit Permit twenty times, this morning was one of the most efficient thermometers for measuring the extent of the new measures. It would be enough to read Subsection H of Article 23 of the new law to feel pessimistic; the subsection says that passports will not be granted “when for reasons of public interest, the authorized authorities decide.”

Now, they have promised us the new passport within two weeks, and everyone in the office responded with, “Yes! Of course you can travel!” leaving us only to wait to see what will happen at the window of the immigration official’s booth at the airport, when the famous blogger tries to walk through the door officially labeled “the border.”

The most significant is not that this person travels, but what it could mean, a sign that finally reality has prevailed over the absurdity, and not because of the noble will of a political authority who orders it, but because of the public reaction within the Island and the moral pressure of international public opinion has pushed in the right direction and with the necessary force.

We’ll know soon.

PS: The errors in the writing of the notice, placed in the immigration office, are not the responsibility of the author of the blog.

TRANSLATION OF THE NOTICE IN THE WINDOW

AS WE HAVE INFORMED IN THE MEDIA WE REITERATE:

In accordance with what is established in Ministry of the Interior Resolution 13, those under 18 or disabled residents in the national territory,are only required to “update” current passports that are valid and current “without any encumbrance.”

TO AVOID INCONVENIENCE AND ECONOMIC AFFECTS THAT COULD BE OCCASIONED THOSE WHO FALL INTO THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES SHOULD DESIST FROM PRESENTING THEMSELVES AT THE BORDERS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY:

1 – Those who have been informed by their institution that they require its authorization to travel.

2 – Those who possess fire arms that have not been deposited.

3 – Those males who from the January 1st in the year they turn 17, to December 31st in the year they turn 19, and who have been informed that they are included in the upcoming calls to Active Military Service.

4 – Other people who are described in Article 25 of Decree Law 302/2012.

14 January 2013

With Meme Solis in the Distance

The “Another Dawn” concert held at the America Theater on January 5 and 6 as a tribute to the maestro Meme Solís, provoked in me nostalgia, shame and awe.

Nostalgia, because the program “Alone with you,” broadcast by Radio Progresso after 10:00 at night, was one of my preferred transgressions in the years of my military service, when we violated the silent hours and the prohibition against having portable radios. Gathering around the cot of the recruit Andrés Villorín, owner of the receiver, we listened to those songs that were a balm of modernity in the closed environment of Cuban music of those times.

Shame, because in that era it seemed perfectly normal to me that Meme Solís was stripped of his right to appear in public for having committed the “unspeakable fault” of having asked to leave the country. Although unfortunate, it also seemed normal and even acceptable that his songs were banned from radio programs. When almost the entire world had forgotten him I saw him in person, for the first and last time, at the Hotel Jagua in Cienfuegos, where he played the piano some nights in the cabaret. I thought then that they were being generous to give him that opportunity.

Astonishment bit me because at the concert, where almost everyone was visibly moved, the singer’s face could be seen on the screen accompanied by figures such as Maggie Carlés, Mirta Medina, Annia Linares, Xiomara Laugart, Albita Rodríguez and other glories of Cuban music who today live outside the Island. Is a cultural thaw underway to recover from the damage caused by so many years of political intolerance? Are we on the eve of producing a tribute to Celia Cruz?

The nostalgia was shared, especially by the audience members of my generation. The shame was not made manifest, because nobody there asked Meme Solís for forgiveness for the pain he was caused. The astonishment was shown in the approving applause every time one of those banned divas appeared.

I would like Meme Solís to know that we have not forgotten him and that no one now has the arrogant intention of forgiving him for having left Cuba, rather in every case the desire to ask his forgiveness for having abandoned him to his fate.

Reinaldo Escobar

7 January 2013

Prophecy for the Coming year

For me 2013 has special connotations. I have a personal prophecy that I’ve only told my friends and that came into my head in a dream in the middle of a hangover, after the party for the arrival of the year 2000.

The dream in question was a conversation in which I was debating how comparable two dates were, one was the first of January 1959 and the other the 13th of April 2013. That’s all I could remember when I woke up and since then I have been waiting for this day.

So I leave it there. I promise not to kick myself if something happens on that day and I accept ahead of time all the jokes that will come my way when absolutely nothing happens.

31 December 2012

What Do the Polls Say?

I know I’ve repeated this little joke too many times, but I stress the question. What is the prediction coming out of the polls in regards to the name of the next Cuban president?

17 December 2012

The Brake Mechanism

From: thewe.cc

From:britannica.com

From: myspace.com

Listening yesterday to the General President in his discourse before the Cuban parliament, I got the impression that the so-called “process of reforms” will continue on its course without backtracking, but it will do so without the depth and speed required.

Raul Castro again complained about the existence of a mentality stuck in the methods of the past, something he had done in his speech before the 5th Plenum of the Central Committee as well as at the last extended meeting of the Council of Ministers.

It is surprising that a person who holds in his hands all the resources, all the legal power, and even the moral authority to change things, presents himself as a victim of phantasmagoric way of thinking that doesn’t allow him to move forward as needed.

An example of this situation is the slowness demonstrated in renewing the cadres. Last January, the 1st National Conference of the Cuban Communist Party, which was required to renew the Central Committee, declined to act and passed a kind of vote of confidence (and at the same time a mandate) for the Central Committee to renew itself by 20%. They have already held at least two full sessions since the Conference and nothing has been said about renewal.

In the days of Perestroika Mikhail Gorbachev and the ideologues on his team created the term “brake mechanism” to identify the recalcitrants who didn’t want to change anything. If the Island’s “go slow” faction continues to impede reforms, sooner or later Raul Castro will be forced to go over to the opposition, or to stage a Fujimori style Auto-Coup.

The unfinished business which, in my opinion, prevents any progress, is centered on the issue of Political Reforms. As long as they don’t deactivate the repressive character of the regime, as long as they don’t decriminalize political dissent, as long as they don’t allow and promote freedom of expression and freedom of association, Raul Castro will have to continue plowing with the old and tired oxen who just don’t understand the direction of the new furrows.

I know I am being extremely generous, or perhaps I’m just being sly to show that in this car even the most insignificant screw forms a part of the annoying brake mechanism.

14 December 2012

The Truth Under the Bombs

In recent days we have been bombarded with news of the Gaza Strip. Given our physical and cultural distance from these matters it is very difficult to have an independent opinion when all we hear, through the official media, is biased information that dismisses Israel and victimizes the Palestinians, or rather Hamas.

We all wonder how it is that the rockets that the commentator Cristina Escobar (no relation of mine) calls “artisanal” — which are falling on Israel — are so sophisticated that they only kill soldiers and never reach the elderly, women and children, and how the Israeli artillery can be so ineffective and so cruel that it never manages to hit military targets but only kills defenseless civilians.

Yesterday the editors of the news images missed the screen-crawl of a foreign news agency, which scrolls across the bottom of the screen while the images flash. The screen-crawl claimed that Tehran supplied the technology for the Palestinian rockets. Suddenly the entire official truth with its undeniable claims of “real truth” was called into question.

I don’t know who to blame for that conflict. I just know that innocents die.

23 November 2012

Reasoning with Antonio Rodiles

Translator’s note: Our apologies for not having a subtitled version…

As of this afternoon the latest chapter of Citizens’ Reasons will be available, dedicated to discussing a topic that is abstract but essential: Legitimacy. Participating on this occasion are Dagoberto Valdés, Miriam Celaya, Antonio Rodiles and, as moderator, this humble servant who is pleased to announce the program.

Of particular interest is the presence of the animator of the space Estado de Sats — Antonio Rodiles — who was arrested just as we were finishing editing the chapter.

As its title indicates, this edition of Citizens’ Reasons tries to respond to the question of to what extent we citizens should recognize the legitimacy of the “current” Cuban government and what we must do from civil society to achieve our own legitimacy.

The arbitrary arrest of Antonio Rodiles occurred confronting a department of State Security while participating in a civic and peaceful action to inquire about the situation of the attorney Yaremis Flores. There he was brutally beaten, but it was not his attackers who had to answer to the law, but rather the victim, accused of “resisting arrest.” At the time of this writing the courts have not ruled on the matter.

This has been the reality that gives the context to what is discussed in the most recent chapter of Citizens’ Reasons. I recommend that you watch it.

16 November 2012

Sensitive People

I had a friend who had a very short fuse. Alcibiades was a man with a bad temper and his family and the neighborhood learned the lesson that no one should contradict him. As a result, among other consequences, he was always the last to hear bad news and in his entire adult life he lacked a thermometer to measure the effects of his own actions. Obviously he died of a heart attack.

I remembered Alcibiades when people from civil society were arrested, having gone to the police station out of concern for their friends. An agent of State Security, whose name I couldn’t learn, warned me with authoritarian gestures that “they” were not going to tolerate any provocation. I’ve thought a lot about that warning.

We could wear ourselves out clarifying that this is not a provocation but very sensitive people and we end up concluding that the only way of not provoking them is to follow the old advice of the poet Heberto Padilla in his Instructions to Enter a New Society:

One step forward, and
two or three back:
but always applauding.

Every day more Cuban citizens refuse to follow these instructions. A sense of self-esteem is growing among us and turning us into individuals, far from a domineering “us.” This inevitably leads us to disobedience. “They” whom I can’t name as “the authorities” so as not to irritate the other sensitive people, sooner or later will have to face the reality that they are on the brink of ungovernability, because anger is not usually gradual nor does it build slowly but surely. The anger that originates in seeing our most elemental rights trampled jumps directly from meekness to rebellion.

As I am an optimist and an enemy of violence, I think we have to time to seek an understanding. To whom does it fall to take the next step? I think it’s precisely up to “them,” initiating a process of political reforms that need to start with the decriminalization of political dissent, the dissolution of the mechanisms of repression against those who think differently, and a clear message to all of society where it is proclaimed, once and for all, that a legitimate rule of law will be established in the Nation.

12 November 2012

A Lightening Arrest

Video showing the arrest of Yoani Sanchez and the beating and arrest of Angel Santiesteban

In the last 48 hours a wave of arrests has been unleashed that at this point can’t be explained in any reasonable way. The first difficulty in understanding what happened is that it is very difficult to think like the repressive forces. They have their own “logic” and it is often confusing.

Shortly after learning that among the people arrested was my wife, the blogger Yoani Sanchez, I went to the police station on Acosta street with the blogger Agustin Lopez (his blog is Dekaisone). Minutes after asking uniformed men about Yoani’s presence in this place, others came, dressed in plainclothes and also uniformed, and told us we were being arrested.

The frisking process was brief, they handcuffed us and put us in the car. The squad car pulled out and turned the corner. We had barely gone 60 yards when a man in civilian clothes stopped the car and ordered them to let us go. Probably Agustin and I have starred in one of the shortest detentions of recent times.

The night went slowly, full of news of other arrests and releases. At this point, still behind bars are Yaremis Flores, Antonio Rodiles, and an undetermined group of civil society activists.

9 November 2012