Castro’s Useful American Students
Castro's Useful American Students Malcolm A. Kline, May 23, 2012
For years we have reported on professors who brag that they have done something worthwhile by taking their students to Cuba. For example in 2006, we reported that "Gustavus Adolphus College is ahead of the curve on junkets."
"We have funded 'Teaching for Social Justice' trips to Tanzania, Cuba and Ireland," Professor Eric Eliason, who teaches at GAC, reported to a panel at the Modern Language Association's annual convention. Dr. Eliason did not share the Civil Liberties primers that Fidel Castro provided.
"The Cuban government targets those who go there so if you're from Oklahoma and have never been to Cuba, you'll believe what your professor tells you," Tania Marstrapa, a research professor at the Institute of World Politics, said at the Heritage Foundation on May 18, 2012. "Then they come back and say they met people on the street who say they have great health care."
"They haven't: They've met plants."
Like Eastern European Soviet satellites of old, whose archives she has studies, Mastrapa points out that the Cuban government engages in "disinformation campaigns utilizing media, clergy and Western university professors to make anti-communism unfashionable."
"Visiting students stay in tourist areas," says Vanessa Lopez, a research associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. "They don't see the poverty."
Lopez has visited the island nation since Fidel Castro famously ceded power to his brother Raul and argues that the alleged changes there have even been cosmetic, at best. "Many people in the media and in some academic circles are saying that the changes that Raul Castro has institute in the past six years have led to democratic changes," Lopez avers. "This is simply not the case."
She notes that there are 181 private sector activities permitted under Raul Castro. Budding entrepreneurs, for example, can shine shoes, refill cigarette lighters, be bathroom attendants, and "be a dandy, whatever that is."
"Raul Castro has governed with severe brutality since 2006," Lopez claims. "This is not a man who is less of a dictator than his brother."
As part of the presentation during which both ladies spoke, the Heritage Foundation featured audio messages from human rights activists from within Cuba. "Parallel to this important awakening of consciousness of a people who resist and refuse to continue living without freedom, the forces of the Castro-communist dictatorship have increased their repressive measures against the Cuban people and pro-democracy activists, beating women, threatening to sexually assault them and their small children, surrounding their homes, and confining them to house arrest, proving that they are very fearful of public actions out on the streets as part of the We Are All Resistance and The Streets belong to the People campaigns," black Cuban activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez said. "All these repressive politics are increasing, while various governments and personalities who consider themselves democratic are openly flirting with our repressors, whether it is by visiting the island to meet with our victimizers and ignoring the victims, or by attempting to legitimize the Castro regime in international forums."
"Meanwhile, it is alarming that while activism and Resistance is increasing inside Cuba and while repression also increases, the government of Mr. Barack Obama has exercised a political agenda of approach and relaxation with the regime of Havana, instead of strengthening the support for the Resistance."
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
Cuban-American gay activists in Miami protest Mariela Castro’s visit to San Francisco, New York
Cuban-American gay activists in Miami protest Mariela Castro's visit to San Francisco, New York BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Gay Cuban Americans in Miami are furious that Fidel Castro's niece is meeting this week and next with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists in San Francisco and New York City.
"For Mariela Castro, or anybody else under the Castro dictatorship, to say they are representing the rights of anyone is an insult to the hundreds of thousands who have either been killed, jailed or assassinated by their own hands, or the nearly 100,000 people who've jumped into the ocean looking for freedom who haven't made it here," said Herb Sosa, executive director of Unity Coalition, Miami-Dade County's leading Hispanic gay rights group.
Mariela Castro, whose father, Raul, succeeded his brother, Fidel, as Cuban president, is in the United States on a visa granted about a month ago.
An advocate for marriage and transgender equality, Mariela has been a visible gay-rights figure in Cuba, where until several years ago LGBT people were treated as outcasts and often sent to hard-labor camps.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, known as both a staunch anti-Castro Cuban American and one of Congress' most outspoken Republicans for LGBT equality, is harshly critical of Mariela Castro's U.S. visit.
"The Castro regime was particularly brutal and harsh in its treatment of members of the Cuban gay community and as part of its revisionist push the dictatorship wants the U.S. to believe its lies because it respects no one's rights," Ros-Lehtinen told The Miami Herald. "The Cuban dictatorship would round up members of the gay and AIDS community and send them to forced labor camps where their most basic human rights came under withering assaults. This is all a public relations ploy meant to soften Cuba's image abroad and it will not work."
Sosa calls Castro's public support for gay equality "a dog and pony show."
"The true LGBT leaders are routinely arrested, beaten up or simply disappear at the hands of the Castro leadership every time Mariela marches," he says.
Pedro A. Romanach of Miami calls her visit "patently absurd."
"She may be pro-gay marriage, but the very elementary rights Cubans don't have — freedom of the press, freedom of assembly — gay people don't have those rights in Cuba," Romanach said. "Neither do straights."
Castro started her San Francisco visit attending meetings Tuesday on transgender healthcare at the University of California, San Francisco. She is scheduled to participate in an educational forum on the same topic at San Francisco General Hospital on Wednesday.
Later, the San Francisco LGBT Center is planning to host Castro for a discussion on Cuba's gay rights policies. She also is chairing a panel on sexual politics Thursday at the annual meeting of the Latin American Studies Association.
"She's going to come over and be welcome as some kind of hero by gay people and she's not. There are anti-communist gay people in Cuba who she's argued with," Romanach said. "She doesn't represent anybody but herself. The real heroes in Cuba are the gay people who are pro gay and pro freedom, anti-communists who aren't getting any publicity."
On Tuesday, Castro is scheduled to speak at the New York Public Library, along with Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The forum is titled, "LGBT Rights in Cuba, the United States and Beyond: Mariela Castro and Rea Carey in Conversation."
From the New York Public Library website:
"In 2010 the Cuban government began providing sex reassignment surgery free of charge as part of their universal healthcare. This was the result of several years of work by the Cuban National Center for Sex Education under the leadership of Mariela Castro Espín, niece of Fidel Castro and daughter of current Cuban president Raúl Castro. The current developments in LGBT rights in Cuba are remarkable given the discrimination suffered by gays, lesbians, and transgender people in Cuba in the 20th century, as well as comparison with current LGBT movements in the U.S. and abroad."
On Saturday, Romanach sent a protest email to Carey:
"I am gay, a registered Democrat, and a member of the Task Force Foundation. (I just sent you $40 renewing my membership a few days ago. In the past, I have also been a member of the Task Force Foundation, sending yearly contributions of around $35.) I am also an anti-Communist Cuban American in Miami," Romanach wrote.
"Ms. Carey, there are many anti-Communist gay Cubans both in Cuba and outside the oppressed island. Mariela Castro represents no one but herself. She does not represent gay Cubans. If you are to meet with her, and I hope you don't, I hope you will vigorously question her about why she supports a despicable dictatorship that denies basic freedoms to its citizens," Romanach continued. "With all due respect, if this is not done, I will not be renewing my Task Force Foundation membership as a protest. Mariela Castro is despised by anti-Communist gay Cubans and Cuban Americans because of her disgusting defense of the dictatorship which oppresses the land where I was born."
This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.
In US, Castro’s daughter focuses on gay rights
Posted on Wednesday, 05.23.12
In US, Castro's daughter focuses on gay rights By LISA LEFF Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro brought her fight for gay rights to a U.S. forum Wednesday, stressing the need to secure social equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation.
Speaking in Spanish through a translator, Mariela Castro addressed about 50 medical professionals and transgender advocates at San Francisco General Hospital on Wednesday.
She has an international reputation as an outspoken gay rights advocate and lobbied her father's government to cover sex reassignment surgery under the national health plan, which it has since 2008, and to legalize same-sex marriages, which so far it has not.
"If we don't change our patriarchal and homophobic culture…we cannot advance as a new society, and that's what we want, the power of emancipation through socialism," she said . "We will establish relationships on the basis of social justice and social equality…It seems like a Utopia, but we can change it."
Castro, director of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, or CENESEX, spoke about transgender health care in Cuba. Wednesday's speech was part of her multiday visit devoted largely to meeting with gay and transgender rights activists and an academic conference where she is scheduled to chair a panel on sexual diversity.
She was one of at least 60 Cuban scholars who were granted U.S. visas to attend Thursday's meeting of the Latin American Studies Association.
A number of Cuban-American politicians have criticized the State Department – which provided special agents as Castro's security detail in San Francisco – for issuing Castro an entry visa. They noted that U.S. rules prohibit Communist Party members and other high-ranking Cuban government officials from entry without special dispensation. Aside from kinship, Mariela Castro has no official link to the government, although CENESEX is part of Cuba's public health ministry.
She credited her late mother, Vilma Espin, who served as president of the Federation of Cuban Women and was a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, with inspiring her to seek equal rights for Cuba's marginalized citizens. Espin died in 2007.
"I promised her we would be able to achieve that, and I can't let go because the process is not complete," she said.
Castro described Cuba's Communist Party as an increasingly good ally in advancing gay rights. The party approved a statement earlier this year advocating the elimination of all remaining forms of discrimination in Cuban society, a position which can be used to push for policies that benefit gay and transgender people, she said.
"What helped is we went to the Communist Party, the leaders, and told them our ideological context of this," she said. "It was very difficult to have this internal division in the Communist Party, but it seems like they are becoming more and more relaxed."
During her 90-minute appearance at San Francisco General, she said she wanted her audience to hear a Cuban's perspective on the half-century of animosities between Havana and Washington because it helps explain why the nation's growth on issues like gay rights has sometimes been stunted.
"The Revolution has grown in Cuba, and it's been more than 50 years now," she said. "The Cuban people have been the victims of state terrorists, of the economic blockade against Cuba, campaigns to…misinform the world's population about the power of a revolution."
She also criticized Cuban exiles who oppose her father's regime and that of her uncle, former president Fidel Castro, and support economic and travel restrictions between the U.S. and her country.
Castro also visited the United States in 2002 during Republican President George W. Bush's administration. She obtained a visa to attend an event in Los Angeles, and also stopped in Virginia and Washington.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/23/2814637/mariela-castro-blasts-cuban-mafia.html
‘Jinetear’ ya es parte de la cultura nacional
Sociedad
'Jinetear' ya es parte de la cultura nacional Iván García La Habana 24-05-2012 – 9:14 am.
Lo hacen las 'jineteras', los 'pingueros' y hasta el gobierno. El 'jineteo' es mucho más que sexo.
Si algo han aprendido muchos cubanos en los últimos 53 años es a pedir y a lamentarse de su mala suerte. A ordeñar como si fueran vacas a extranjeros, parientes o amigos emigrados. Es casi un estilo de vida.
Jineteras y pingueros han puesto a Cuba en el mapa del turismo sexual. La cifra de turistas que vienen a la Isla en busca de sexo no aparece en los anuarios estadísticos estatales. Pero es alta.
Muchos negocios mixtos con extranjeros han nacido tras fogosas noches en la intimidad. No son pocos los inversionistas foráneos casados con cubanas o liados con alguna jinetera que le ha montado una historia de amor digna de un guión cinematográfico.
Cuando un europeo tiene relaciones sentimentales con una cubana, en confianza le pregunta a sus amigos: "¿Tú crees que sea jinetera?". Y es que jineteras no solamente son las mulatas de minifaldas cortísimas que hacen propuestas cuando caminas por el malecón.
No. También en Cuba existe una legión de jóvenes con dotes de actrices, que cuando pescan a un yuma elaboran un drama amoroso al estilo de Corín Tellado. Su finalidad es escapar. No importa cuán lejos.
Da igual Helsinki, Ottawa o Montevideo. Si es una ciudad estadounidense, bingo. En la lista no entran Puerto Príncipe ni Kabul. Jinetear se ha convertido en la principal herramienta de muchos jóvenes cubanos para poder emigrar legalmente.
Pasado y presente del 'jineterismo'
Pero el jineteo en Cuba es más que sexo. En sus inicios, quienes jineteaban eran los hombres. El verbo jinetear nació a mediados de los 80, y se refería a aquéllos que se dedicaban a la compra y venta de dólares en las calles, un bisne entonces ilegal.
En esa época, los jineteros cazaban a los turistas fuera de los hoteles para proponerles cambios de moneda a mejor precio que el ofrecido por el gobierno. Si la policía te pillaba, ibas cuatro años tras las rejas. Jinetear con divisas era un negocio suculento.
"Recuerdo que compraba los dólares a cuatro pesos. Luego a un estudiante africano le pagaba un dólar por cada dos que yo le daba, y éste me adquiría pacotilla: pitusas, zapatillas, camisas de bacterias o shorts reversibles en tiendas para técnicos extranjeros. Las ganancias eran descomunales. Uno compraba un par de zapatillas Cast en dos dólares (ocho pesos) y las vendía en 120", recuerda Jorge, un jinetero ya jubilado.
Cuando en 1993 Fidel Castro despenalizó el dólar, la palabra jinetera acabó colgada en las despampanantes muchachas que se prostituían, primero en los barrios habaneros, luego en el resto de las provincias.
Actualmente, debido a la dura competencia de las prostitutas, las jineteras se han ido desvalorizando. Si en los 90 una jinetera solo iba a la cama con alguien que tuviese pasaporte, y no por menos de 100 dólares la noche, hoy ya son tantas, que la escala de precios abarca todos los bolsillos.
Existen jineteras en moneda dura y en pesos cubanos. Las hay de 15 años y de 40 o más. Desde las que cobran 40 cuc, hasta guajiritas apeadas la noche anterior del tren procedente de Santiago o Guantánamo, que se ofertan por 80 pesos. O menos.
También ahora jinetean chicos que se pasan seis horas haciendo pesas en un gimnasio particular. Travestis que madrugan por las avenidas. Y gays orgullosos de los nuevos aires que corren y suelen ofrecer sexo oral en escaleras.
El verbo jinetear llegó para quedarse. Y va más allá. Se utiliza cuando alguien se aprovecha de una persona con dinero y se le pega como una lapa para que lo invite almorzar o le pague unas cervezas.
En aquellos centros de trabajo donde es posible viajar al extranjero, jinetear consiste en "trabajarle fino" al tipo que da luz verde para "fastear" [viajar]. Si el jefe es intransigente, se le hace una brujería. Si es "fácil", se le ofrecen regalos y promesas de compartir con él una parte del dinero asignado. Cualquier cosa con tal de que tu nombre aparezca en la lista de candidatos del viaje a China o a alguna otra parte.
En ocasiones, incluso, se jinetea a la propia familia. Se acercan los 15 de la hija o las vacaciones están al doblar de la esquina y se quiere pasar un fin de semana en un hotel. Como los familiares viven lejos, se les llama a cobro revertido o se les envían emails. De poco valen los sermones del pariente, de que la crisis económica es real y no un invento del Granma. Después de la descarga, el jineteo sigue en pie: "Mira a ver si puedes mandar algo, hazlo por tu sobrina que este año termina la secundaria".
Jinetear ya forma parte de la cultura nacional. Se ha convertido en una especie de deporte, como tomar ron o jugar dominó en las esquinas. Pero los reyes del jineteo son los gobernantes.
Jinetero en Jefe
Ellos inventaron la fórmula. Desde que Fidel Castro cambió de alianza en 1961 y se comprometió con el comunismo soviético, los mandarines criollos tienen un doctorado a la hora de pedir. En aquel tiempo, armas y aviones Mig-21, sin pagar un peso. La promesa de ponérsela fea a los yanquis bastaba para enamorar a los "bolos".
Como el socialismo es un sistema ineficiente por antonomasia, al socio soviético —al margen del petróleo, que llegaba por tuberías— frecuentemente se le hacían peticiones. Camiones, tractores, autos, maquinarias textiles, televisores en blanco y negro, compotas de manzana, latas de carne, préstamos monetarios…, de todo.
Pagar nunca estuvo en los planes del Jinetero Mayor. Hoy a la extinta URSS se le deben más de 20 mil millones de rublos. Con China se intenta conseguir crédito, pero los "narras" son duros de pelar.
Ahora sólo queda Hugo Chávez, quien cayó como un chorlito en el jamo de Fidel Castro. Los más poderosos en Cuba rezan cada noche para que el hombre fuerte de Caracas no muera de cáncer y gane las elecciones el próximo mes de octubre.
Por si llegan malas noticias de Venezuela, ya se ha empezado a jinetear a cubanoamericanos acaudalados. ¿Que algunos académicos formados en los clásicos del marxismo y emigrados que no olvidan que una vez fueron tildados de 'escoria' se puedan resistir?, es un riesgo menor. Se apartan de un manotazo y se pacta con los cubanos más ricos. Los expertos en la cultura del jineteo cambian el discurso con la misma facilidad que una chica de ropa interior.
Al final, afirman, todos somos cubanos. Aunque eso no les ha impedido hacer caja con el "impuesto revolucionario" a las remesas giradas por los compatriotas residentes en Estados Unidos.
A estas alturas, los Castro se van de fiesta con cualquiera, mientras legitimen su poder político. Pasar el cepillo es un mérito innegable del régimen. A la hora de jinetear, tienen el número uno.
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/11200-jinetear-ya-es-parte-de-la-cultura-nacional
Why Doesn’t the Land Belong to Those Who Work It? / Dimas Castellanos,Dimas Castellanos
Why Doesn't the Land Belong to Those Who Work It? / Dimas Castellanos Dimas Castellanos
With the title "The Land Belongs to Those Who Work It," the newspaper Granma published an editorial on May 17, in commemoration of "Peasant's Day" from which I have selected three points that invite reflection.
One: The Agrarian Reform was a basic need for economic liftoff.
An affirmation that I share, since the concentration of large tracts of land was, and is, in addition to a generator of social injustice, a major obstacle to the diversification of agricultural property, roots, the sense ownership and development.
In the beginning, in the sixteenth century, large tracts did not hinder the formation of a class of small owners. It was the growth of the sugar industry, accelerated by the Haitian Revolution, which ruined the economy of this neighbor island, which led to the fact that from the late eighteenth century Cuba occupied the number one position in the production and trade in that product. That leap accelerated the conversion of cattle ranches common estates — haciendas — and multiplied the number of mills by promoting the growth of small and medium ownership. It was from 1860, due to increased production capacity, that the larger mills swallowed up the smaller ones, leading to the separation between agriculture and industry and the emergence of the figure of the tenant farmer. However, these transformations did not lead to the concentration of large land areas, as the tenant farmer, who settled on tens of thousands of farms, supplied the necessary cane.
It was in the late nineteenth century, resulting from the struggle for raw materials, where the competition between mills for more land originated, from which emerged the modern large estate. This process accelerated after 1902 with the orders issued by the Government of Occupation, which authorized the investors to purchase and expropriate land for railway lines and to install new plants. As a result, the penetration of foreign capital concentrated in about 180 mills, a fifth of the country, as reflected in the 1946 census. Of a total of 159,985 farms, fewer than 12% had 76% of the land, while 24% of the remaining area was scattered in 142,385 farms, with their respective owners.
That anomaly so vital to the Cuban nation, attracted the attention of illustrious figures of our history, from the Bishop Espada in 1808 to Manuel Sanguily in 1903, passing, among others, José Antonio Saco, Francisco de Frías, José Martí, Enrique Jose Varona, Martín Morúa Delgado and Fernando Ortiz, who argued for the need for small and medium land ownership and the existence of a national middle class. However, the social struggles, the measures taken by the Republican leaders, and the brake on large estates, endorsed in the 1940 Constitution, were insufficient to reverse the ownership of land to those who worked it.
Two: It was precisely the Agrarian Reform Law that defines the Cuban Revolution.
In his legal brief, History Will Absolve Me, in 1953, Fidel Castro — taking into account the adverse effect of large estates and in order to win the support of the peasantry — proposed to grant land ownership to all who hold parcels of five or fewer caballerías (one caballería equals about 33 acres). This project, launched in October 1958 during the insurrectionist struggle, formed the basis of the First Law of Agrarian Reform, which liquidated the estates in the hands of Cuban and foreign companies, benefiting some 100,000 farmers and defining the 1959 Revolution as advanced, agrarian, and democratic.
However, 40.2% of the confiscated lands remained in state hands. Then, with the Second Agrarian Reform Law of 1963, the thousand farms that had more than five caballerías went directly to swell the collection of state land, which increased to 70% of the country's arable land. So sudden was the turn, that if the First Law was allowed to define the Revolution as advanced, agrarian and democratic, the Second Law marked it as totalitarian, in concentration an amount of land greater than that possessed by the great estates that had been confiscated.
In 1974, the fifteenth anniversary of the Agrarian Reform Law, the chief of the Revolution urged the peasants to tackle "higher forms of thinking about production, since the course of development of the country can not be stopped, since the growing needs of the population necessitate a constant modernization of our agriculture, and an optimal use of all the land " [1] .
With this supposed end, they developed a process of induced formation of cooperatives, through the creation of Embryonic Cooperatives, Mutual Aid Brigades, the Credit and Service Cooperatives (the only ones in which the farmers retained ownership of the land and means of production, but they lack legal status), and Agricultural Production Cooperatives; meanwhile state ownership rose to 75% of arable land.
Three: The Law established the principle that the land belongs to those who work it.
Given the decrease in production and efficiency brought about by State ownership, Raul Castro, in his speech in Camagüey on 26 July 2007, acknowledged the shortcomings, errors and indolent or bureaucratic attitudes as reflected in fields infected with the marabou week, and argued that the rising cost of food in the international market forced us to produce it in Cuba. However, nothing was said of the unworkability of the State-owned large estates, nor of the fact that in privately owned lands the marabou week is kept under control. At that juncture they enacted, in 2008, the Decree Law 259, for delivery of vacant land in usufruct*.
If usufruct consists of enjoying the use the property of others, in this case the huge properties of the State, and the land becomes idle, what is the reason for the private producers, who have demonstrated the ability to produce efficiently, to be tied to usufruct agreements — that is to be essentially tenant farmers — and for the State, responsible for inefficiency, to be the owner? Why doesn't the land belong to those who work it?
Translator's note: Usufruct is the right to use and enjoy the profits of something belonging to someone else. In Cuba, Decree 259, of 2008, established a system of limited term usufruct to turn over idle lands to people who want to work it.
[1] J. MAY. Two decades of struggle against landlordism. Brief history of the National Peasant Association, p. 21
21 May 2011
Panel de la ONU lanza fuerte crítica al régimen cubano
Publicado el miércoles, 05.23.12
Panel de la ONU lanza fuerte crítica al régimen cubano Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com
Un panel sobre tortura de la ONU exigió el martes a Cuba que diera información sobre las muertes de varios presos políticos, la represión contra disidentes como las Damas de Blanco y los 2,400 arrestos de críticos del gobierno reportados en el 2011.
La exigencia tuvo lugar el mismo día en que el periódico oficial Granma y la agencia noticiosa Prensa Latina publicaran reportajes defendiendo el sistema carcelario de la isla, que enfrenta una ola de acusaciones de usar "trabajo esclavo" y otros abusos.
La información exigida por el Comité Contra la Tortura de la ONU, radicado en Ginebra, Suiza, constituye uno de los questionamientos más severos del historial de derechos humanos de Cuba en años recientes.
Miembros del panel solicitaron al gobierno cubano que explique las recientes muertes de los disidentes Orlando Zapata Tamayo y Wilman Villar tras largas huelgas de hambre en la cárcel, y la de Juan Wilfredo Soto tras una supuesta paliza propinada por agentes de la Seguridad del Estado.
En Ginebra se han recibido quejas de que las prisiones cubanas están marcadas por el hacinamiento, la malnutrición, la falta de higiene, las palizas a los que protestan y el exilio forzado, declaró el miembro del panel George Tugushi.
Cuba tendrá además que explicar las "agresiones y acosos" contra disidentes como las Damas de Blanco, los blogueros Yoani Sánchez y Orlando Luis Pardo y la madre de Zapata, Reina Luisa Tamayo, señaló el panel durante el primer día de su audiencia de dos días dedicada a Cuba.
El panel pidió también explicaciones por las más de 2,400 detenciones breves de disidentes reportadas en el 2011 por activistas de derechos humanos en La Habana, entre ellos Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz de la Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional.
"Queremos que Cuba aclare todos estos casos", afirmó Nora Sveaass, una de los 10 miembros del panel y abogada de los derechos humanos en Noruega, según reportes de prensa recibidos desde Ginebra.
El panel, que supervisa la Convención sobre la Tortura y Otros Abusos y Transgresiones Físicas de la ONU, revisa el expediente de varios miembros de la ONU todos los años, y este año le tocó el turno a Cuba.
El vicefiscal general de Cuba Rafael Pino defendió a su gobierno durante su comparecencia ante el panel, diciendo que "en nuestro país nadie ha sido enjuiciado o sancionado por ejercer sus derechos, incluyendo los de libertad de expresión y de asociación".
Pino añadió que de las 263 quejas de abusos en la cárcel presentadas al gobierno del 2007 al 2011, solamente en 46 casos se encontró que agentes de la Seguridad del Estado habían sido responsables. No dio más detalles.
Sus comentarios ocurrieron al mismo tiempo que el Granma publicaba un artículo defendiendo el sistema carcelario del país y que Prensa Latina citara a Antonio Llibre, identificado como el experto cubano en derecho internacional, declarando que Cuba había estado "libre de tortura" desde 1959.
Estas alegaciones fueron desestimadas como mentiras por activistas de los derechos humanos en Cuba y el extranjero.
"Los ex presos (…) describen consistentemente condiciones profundamente inhumanas en las cárceles de Cuba, desde el hacinamiento en las celdas a provisiones inadecuadas de comida y agua, desde mala atención médica a una peligrosa falta de higiene", indicó José Miguel Vivanco, director para las Américas de Human Rights Watch.
Sánchez y Vivanco señalaron además que Cuba no permite que la Cruz Roja inspeccione sus cárceles. "Si las cárceles cubanas son instituciones modelo, ¿por qué impedir que la gente las vea?", añadió Vivanco.
El artículo de Granma incluyó información que Cuba no ha revelado durante décadas, aunque nuevamente no mencionó el número de cárceles en Cuba.
Cuba tiene ahora 57,337 presos, incluyendo 31,494 "en condiciones cerradas" y 25,843 "en instalaciones abiertas", señaló el Granma, pero sin explicar estos términos. Sánchez ha estimado que la población de las prisiones era de entre 70,000 y 80,000.
Sánchez señaló anteriormente que, antes de que Fidel Castro tomara el poder en 1959, Cuba tenía 14 cárceles y 4,000 presos en una población de 6 millones, o sea, alrededor de un preso por cada 1,500 personas. En la actualidad, los 57,337 presos en una población de 11.2 millones equivale a uno por cada 195 habitante.
Alrededor de 27,100 presos reciben clases, y 24,531 están participando en programas de entrenamiento laboral, agregó Granma, órgano oficial del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba.
El diario reportó además que los presos pueden practicar deportes y participar en actividades religiosas, y que el famoso cantautor Silvio Rodríguez y otros artistas actuaron en 16 cárceles durante una gira hecha en el 2008.
Mencionó que los presos tienen "un fuerte programa de atención integral de salud", pero no dio detalles. Un bloguero progubernamental escribió la semana pasada que las prisiones tienen un médico por cada 300 presos, un dentista por cada 1,000 y un enfermero por cada 120.
Críticas de las cárceles de la isla estallaron este año tras informaciones de que la cadena de muebles IKEA había contratado mano de obra penitenciaria cubana a finales de la década de 1980, y una serie de videos filmados dentro de una cárcel de La Habana mostraron inodoros y paredes grotescamente sucios y salideros de aguas albañales.
Granma reportó que alrededor de 23,113 presos están "incorporados al trabajo" y reciben un sueldo "según las tarifas establecidas en el país para el resto de los trabajadores", pero no dio más detalles sobre sus ingresos o dónde trabajan.
Cuatro congresistas cubanoamericanos enviaron una carta el lunes a la Organización Internacional del Trabajo de la ONU pidiendo una investigación sobre las informaciones relacionadas con IKEA.
"Organizaciones internacionales dispuestas a hacerse de la vista gorda sobre los graves abusos de los derechos humanos en Cuba le han permitido demasiadas veces al régimen de Castro salirse con la suya", indicó la carta de los republicanos del sur de la Florida Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart y David Rivera, y el demócrata de Nueva Jersey Albio Sires.
UN panel on torture wants information on Cuban prison deaths and dissident arrests
Posted on Tuesday, 05.22.12
CUBA
UN panel on torture wants information on Cuban prison deaths and dissident arrests
The same day the Cuban media published stories defending the island's prison system By Juan O. Tamayo jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
A U.N. panel on torture Tuesday demanded that Cuba provide information on the deaths of several political prisoners, the repression of dissident groups such as the Ladies in White and the 2,400 arrests of government critics reported last year.
The demand came on the same day that Cuba's Granma newspaper and Prensa Latina news agency published reports defending the island's prison system, which faces allegations of "slave labor" in the 1980s and other current abuses.
Members of the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, requested the Cuban government explain the recent deaths of dissidents Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar after lengthy prison hunger strikes, and that of Juan Wilfredo Soto after an alleged beating by security officials.
Complaints that Cuban prisons are plagued by overcrowding, malnutrition, bad hygiene, and beatings for those who protest and forced exile for others have been received in Geneva, said panel member George Tugushi.
Cuba also has been asked to explain the "aggressions and harassments" against the Ladies in White, bloggers Yoani Sánchez and Orlando Luis Pardo and Zapata's mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, the panel noted during the first day of its two-day hearing on Cuba.
The U.N. committee also asked for explanations of the more than 2,400 short-term detentions of dissidents reported in 2011 by Havana human rights activists, including Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
"We want Cuba to clarify all these cases," said Nora Sveaass, one of the 10 panel members and a Norwegian human rights attorney, according to media reports from Geneva.
The panel, which monitors enforcement of the U.N. Convention on Torture and Other Physical Abuses and Transgressions, reviews the records of several U.N. member nations each year. This year it was Cuba's turn.
Cuba's Deputy Attorney General Rafael Pino defended his government during his appearance before the panel, saying that "no one in our country has been persecuted or sanctioned for exercising their rights, including those of free expression and association."
Pino added that of the 263 complaints of prison abuses filed with the government from 2007 to 2011, only 46 led to findings that security agents were responsible. He gave no further details.
His comments came as Granma published an article defending the country's prison system and Prensa Latina quoted Antonio Llibre, identified as a Cuban expert in international rights, as saying Cuba has been "free of torture" since 1959.
Those claims were disputed by human rights activists in Cuba and abroad.
"Former prisoners … consistently describe deeply inhumane conditions in Cuba's prisons — from overcrowded cells to inadequate food and water, from poor medical treatment to a hazardous lack of hygiene," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch.
Sánchez and Vivanco also have noted that Cuba does not allow the Red Cross to inspect its prisons. "If Cuban prisons are model institutions, why prevent people from seeing them?" Vivanco asked.
Cuba now has 57,337 inmates, including 31,494 "in locked conditions" and 25,337 "in open installations," Granma noted, without explaining the meaning of those terms.
Sánchez previously estimated the prison population at 70,000 to 80,000.
He noted that before Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, Cuba had 14 prisons and 4,000 inmates in a population of 6 million, or about one inmate per 1,500. Today, the 57,337 inmates in a population of 11.2 million equal one per 195.
About 27,100 inmates receive schooling and 24,531 are participating in job training programs, added Granma, the official voice of the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party of Cuba.
Granma also reported that prisoners can play sports and engage in religious activities. The paper noted that famed singer Silvio Rodríguez and other artists played in 16 prisons during a tour in 2008.
It mentioned that inmates have a "strong health program" but gave no details. A pro-government blogger wrote last week that prisons have one doctor for every 300 inmates, a dentist for every 1,000 and a nurse for every 120.
Criticisms of the island's prisons erupted this year amid reports that the IKEA furniture chain had contracted for Cuban prison labor in the late 1980s. A series of videos allegedly shot inside a Havana prison showed dirty toilets and walls and leaking sewage.
The newspaper added that about 23,113 inmates are "participating in labor" and receive a salary "according to the tariffs established'' for others in the labor force, but gave no further details on their salaries or employers.
Four Cuban-American members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to the United Nations' International Labor Organization on Monday requesting an investigation of the reports about IKEA's prison connection..
"The Castro regime has been given a pass far too many times by international organizations willing to look the other way on Cuba's grave human rights abuses," said the letter by South Florida Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and David Rivera, and New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/22/v-fullstory/2812521/un-panel-on-torture-wants-information.html
Visa for Castro’s niece turns into political tempest in Florida
Posted on Tuesday, 05.22.12
Visa for Castro's niece turns into political tempest in Florida By ERIKA BOLSTAD AND MARC CAPUTO McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Florida's top congressional Democrats broke with President Barack Obama on Tuesday over his administration's decision to issue Fidel Castro's niece a visa to attend a conference this week in San Francisco.
The opposition of Sen. Bill Nelson and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz came just hours after Republicans had blasted away at the visa decision – while failing to acknowledge that Republican President George W. Bush's administration had allowed Mariela Castro to visit the United States three times a decade ago.
The fact that Republicans had remained silent over Bush's decision while criticizing Obama gave Wasserman Schultz a measure of political cover in breaking with Obama.
"The Bush Administration set a bad precedent by granting Mariela Castro a waiver in 2001 and 2002 as I believe that such visa requests should not be accepted because of the ongoing human rights abuses in Cuba," she said in a written statement to The Miami Herald. "While I respect my colleagues, it's important to note they did not criticize President George W. Bush for granting Ms. Castro a waiver in 2002. Politics has no place when we are standing up for human rights."
Nelson was more terse and more concerned with the plight of a jailed American.
"Allowing Raul's daughter to come to the U.S. when the regime still holds Alan Gross makes no sense," said Nelson, who faces a tough re-election campaign this fall.
Mariela Castro, a noted gay-rights activist who heads a sex-education center in Cuba, is the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro. She is scheduled to lead a panel on sexual diversity at the Latin American Studies Association conference in San Francisco this week. She is among more than 70 Cubans who applied for visas for the event; the State Department has denied about a half dozen of the requests.
Both Wasserman Schultz and Nelson had remained quiet on the visa controversy until asked this week by The Herald.
Meanwhile, the Florida Democratic Party has been vigorously defending the Obama administration's visa decision since last week. That's when Cuban-American Republicans from Miami, including Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and David Rivera, began criticizing the administration's move.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a vice-presidential short-lister for Republican Mitt Romney., said it was "shameful" to grant the visa. He described the Cuban president's daughter as "an arm of his regime" who's coming to the United States to "spread their anti-American propaganda."
Romney's presidential campaign took advantage of the issue to slam Obama. "The United States should be standing up for freedom, not coddling the privileged children of communist dictators," Romney's policy director, Lanhee Chen, said late last week.
On Tuesday, Republicans blasted out news releases all but calling Obama a communist. "Obama Lays Welcome Mat for Communist at U.S. Front Door" said one news release from the Hispanic Leadership Network. "Obama Rolling out the Red Carpet for the Castro Family," said one from the Republican National Committee.
The political tempest comes at a time when the Republican Party is attacking Obama's record at every turn to excite a crucial conservative voting bloc for Romney in Florida: Cuban-Americans, who overwhelmingly vote Republican.
In defending Obama, other Florida Democrats lashed out at Republicans for being hypocritical.
"Where was their criticism then?" said Freddy Balsera, an Obama supporter from Miami, speaking on behalf of the Florida Democratic Party. "Nowhere, because ultimately this is all about politics for them."
Balsera called on Republicans to "stop playing with people's emotions when it comes to Cuba."
The Hispanic Leadership Network, partly led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, says there's a huge difference between the Bush-era visits and the most recent visa approvals by Obama. The human rights situation in Cuba has deteriorated since Castro's initial visit, said its director, Jennifer Korn. That includes Gross' detention.
Also, Mariela Castro, at the time of her initial visit, was the niece of the then-president, Fidel Castro. Now, she's the daughter of the Cuban president, Korn said.
"The situations are not the least bit similar as the human rights situation has deteriorated," she said. "An American citizen is locked up in a Cuban jail now for trying to provide Internet access to Cubans, and in the last few months since Pope Benedict's visit, Cubans have lived under even more fear as they cope with a large roundup of dissidents and activists."
By day's end, the conservatives had unexpected ideological allies in Nelson and Wasserman Schultz, who has long straddled the dual worlds of being a partisan Democrat and a Cuba hardliner.
After she was first picked by Obama to become DNC chair, a May 2011 Miami Herald story noted that the two differ over Cuba.
"It's not going to be something that creates any daylight between the president and myself," she said at the time.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/22/2812632/visa-for-castros-niece-turns-into.html
El falso concepto de la amistad y el falso concepto de la hombría
El falso concepto de la amistad y el falso concepto de la hombría Martes, 22 de Mayo de 2012 00:21 Escrito por Juan Gonzalez Febles
Cuba actualidad, Lawton, La Habana, (PD) Hace varias décadas justo al inicio de lo que se da en llamar revolución o proceso revolucionario, la élite de poder encabezada por Fidel Castro se afanaba por destruir valores seculares y corromper el alma de la nación cubana.los-propietarios-de-cuba
Para lograr la actual cosecha de delatores y hombres nuevos, se emprendió una campaña dirigida contra lo que denominaron "falso concepto de la amistad" y "falso concepto de la hombría".
Se trató de elevar la delación a categoría de virtud ciudadana o para decirlo mejor, en "valor revolucionario". No pocos de los captados para los nuevos valores se aprestaron a chivatear. Muchos ascendieron por esta vía y ciertamente mejoraron su status y sus calidades de vida. En otro orden de cosas, pero en pos del mismo objetivo, se creó el plan "la escuela al campo" y de cierta forma se completó la tarea de desarraigar los valores familiares y ciudadanos existentes hasta ese momento.
De acuerdo con la tesis estigmatizadora del "falso concepto de la amistad", no existía opción frente a la alternativa del mejor amigo, padre, madre, familia, etc., si en contraposición se encontraran los valores o intereses "revolucionarios". Como establece uno de los "ordeno" del capitán general de la revolución, "los revolucionarios no son amigos de los contrarrevolucionarios". Los revolucionarios deben "abroquelar el corazón frente a la compasión". Con eso y más, aquí se lidia a diario.
Otra figura emblemática de la "revolución", el condotiero y archi pesado argentino, Ernesto che Guevara, aspiraba a ser "una fría y eficiente máquina de matar". Ciertamente logró la frialdad y la condición de matarife. Felizmente, la eficiencia, en cualquiera de sus acepciones y manifestaciones, se mantuvo providencialmente lejos de su persona y de todo lo que emprendió. El tipo en vida fue una catástrofe, muerto, ha conseguido al menos ser medianamente útil.
Un interesante libro escrito por uno de los ex guerrilleros urbanos del Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, da una imagen interesante y diferente sobre la vida cubana antes del desastre. Guillermo Jiménez, para sus amigos "Jimenito", y su libro Los propietarios de Cuba 1958, dan la medida del arte para destruir del capitán general de la revolución cubana, Fidel Castro.
El autor, Guillermo Jiménez consiguió grados de comandante y además, sobrevivir sobre los "buenos" y entre los "malos". Los prologuistas de la obra, Oscar Zanetti Lecuona y Jorge Ibarra, o al menos alguno entre ellos, se refieren a estos 550 propietarios, en su mayoría cubanos, con el calificativo de burguesía dependiente y en otros casos, oligarquía.
El libro detalla a qué clubes exclusivos pertenecían, cómo construyeron su mundo familiar y hasta puntualiza la ubicación de las casas que en aquel momento habitaron. Es una obra fascinante porque ofrece la posibilidad de más de una lectura.
Conquistado por la obra de Jiménez, me caractericé y visité algunas de las casas de aquellos burgueses vencidos. En ellas hoy viven extranjeros que supieron pescar en aguas revueltas o personas muy revolucionarias que reaccionaron desconfiadamente cuando alegué motivos sentimentales para retratar las casas en que viven y en las que vivieron sus ex propietarios emigrados. Los extranjeros fueron atentos y serviciales, los nacionales, no. Curiosamente se comportaron como burguesía dependiente –de una élite iletrada- y oligarquía, mucho más egoísta e inescrupulosa que la que consiguieron desplazar.
En ellos fue fácil reconocer a esos que en su momento renunciaron al "falso concepto de la amistad y de la hombría". Hoy, andan temerosos de tener que devolver algún día el bienestar que disfrutan y no contribuyeron a crear con su esfuerzo y esta peculiar condición les coloca en el mismo lugar emocional y geográfico de aquella oligarquía vencida. ¿Qué les parece?
Lo más lamentable de toda esta historia es que recuperar "los falsos conceptos" será una verdadera misión imposible. Algunos de muy buena fe contaban con la iglesia católica para ello; entonces, el cardenal Ortega y sus miñones se encargaron de destruir aquella poquita fe que quedó. Tampoco lograron retener las viejas tradiciones y valores de aquel llamado y perdido "falso concepto de la hombría y la amistad".
En fin, el escenario nacional es complejo y todo parece indicar que los reajustes siempre serán dolorosos.
Para Cuba actualidad: juan.gonzlezfebles1@gmail.com
La Héjira, los olvidados de la tierra
La Héjira, los olvidados de la tierra Publicado el Lunes, 21 Mayo 2012 16:49 Por Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez
LA HÉJIRA, HOLGUIN.- Los pueblos rurales de Cuba reflejan la verdadera pobreza en que la revolución castrista ha sumido a la mayoría del campesinado. Uno de estos pueblos es La Héjira, a 12 kilómetros de Velasco y 40 de Holguín, en el extremo oriental de la isla.
Las fotos de la Héjira recuerdan aquellas imágenes sobre la vida del campesinado cubano que publicó la revista Bohemia en los primeros días de 1959, con la promesa de Fidel Castro de erradicar la pobreza. Un Realengo 18 en pleno siglo XXI.
La Héjira es un lugar montañoso desde donde se puede ver el mar -la playa de Caletones-, el poblado de Chaparra y parte de la ciudad costera de Puerto Padre, en la provincia de Las Tunas. Allí viven entre 50 y 60 familias, hay un consultorio médico donde vive una enfermera, una escuela y una bodega.
Sumando los otros caseríos vecinos, La Púa y Tierra Buena, en el área hay aproximadamente unas 140 viviendas.
El abastecimiento del agua y los problemas de transporte son crónicos en la zona. En La Héjira no hay pozos de agua y los campesinos se ven obligados a cargarla.
Hace alrededor de 10 ó 12 años se llevó un acueducto hasta el lugar, pero según los vecinos, la construcción fue deficiente y se deterioró. Actualmente sólo suministra al reparto Los Pajaritos. Un operador de Servicios Comunales que posee un tractor es el encargado de transportar el agua. Pero el problema sigue latente.
"Aquí el agua hay que cargarla. Toda la vida la han cargado en carros pipas, fue hace unos años, más o menos 10 o 12 años pusieron un acueducto y no quedó mala la construcción, pero se fue deteriorando", relató Manuel Martínez León, de 55 años.
Manolito, como es conocido, vive con su esposa, hijastro y dos hijas -una de 2 años y la otra de 8 meses. Asegura que por su oposición al gobierno se le ha negado el acceso al líquido vital.
"Hay algunos tractores particulares que tienen pipa y a ellos tú le pagabas y te daban el viaje a 100 pesos o 150 y más, te duraba 15 días más o menos. Entonces la misma delegada [del Poder Popular] y la Seguridad del Estado me han hecho una campaña", contó Manolito. "Al operador del camión de Comunales le orientaron en el municipio de que a mí no me dejaran agua, y varios de los tractores particulares tampoco me tiran el agua… Ahora tengo que pasarme una pila de días cargando agua en el lomo de una bestia [caballo] de uno a dos kilómetros. Los que no tienen caballos tienen que cargarla en cubos".
Rafael Leiva, de 49 años, y residente del cercano poblado de Velasco, considera que otro de los problemas graves de la zona es la insalubridad causada por la escasez de agua.
"De hecho la carestía del jabón en el mercado de aquí se puede suponer al ver a los niños de aquí vestidos, y de cómo esta su porte y aspecto se puede uno dar cuenta de que las plagas de piojos y chinches que pueden existir", opinó Leiva.
La mayoría de los habitantes de La Héjira son agricultores pequeños e individuales, algunos asociados a la cooperativa "José Velázquez Leiva". Cultivan plátano, ajo, ají, cebolla, melones y algunas hortalizas. Menos de 10 trabajan como empleados del Estado.
El transporte es otro problema crítico en el área. Hace dos o tres años, comentan los campesinos, un ómnibus conectaba a Velasco con La Héjira, pero esa conexión sólo se mantiene los jueves.
La falta de transporte también afecta la producción de alimentos.
Manolito rememora cuando recientemente cultivó varios quintales de melones y sólo pudo vender 50 a través de la cooperativa.
"Me los pagaron en un precio totalmente miserable, abusivo, a 19 pesos cubanos, y se me pudrieron más de 60 quintales en el terreno porque no lo recogieron. Cada melón tenía más de 20 libras", contó el agricultor.
El paso del huracán Emily hace dos años afectó la zona. Aún hay casas destruidas, el círculo social quedó sin techo y los productos de la bodega se venden actualmente en casa de la administradora, pues el local quedó muy dañado.
Las condiciones de vida no han mejorado ostensiblemente en la zona desde 1959. Las mejores casas tienen techo de fibrocemento y zinc. Algunas son ranchitos de guano y yagua con paredes muy endebles, pero muchos viven pegados a la tierra.
Algunas personas que duerme directamente en el piso de tierra y otros que han podido fabricar algunos colchones con hierba seca, los rellenan con sacos de nailon, lo que les ha provocado serias afectaciones en la piel.
"Eso explica la gran cantidad de chinche y otros insectos que hay en las casas y que pueden crearles enfermedades debido a los picazos", comentó Leiva. "Además, la atención médica es muy mala, ni siquiera existe un médico, sólo enfermera, porque están en las misiones en Latinoamérica", manifestó Leiva.
*Director de la agencia de noticias Hablemos Press
Recent Comments