The international community must act against the undemocratic Cuban
regime as it increases its repression of dissidents, argues a member of
the European Parliament's human rights subcommittee

Who is responsible for the death of the Cuban political prisoner Wilman
Villar Mendoza on January 19? Why, on February 3, was blogger Yoani
Sanchez refused permission to travel abroad by Cuban authorities for the
19th time since May 2008? Why were opposition group Damas de Blanco –
Sakharov prize laureates – not allowed to travel to the European
Parliament in Strasbourg to collect that prestigious award for the
freedom of thought?

There are so many questions and almost no answers from the Cuban regime.
The situation of harassment and repression endangers the lives of Cuban
people who defend human rights and civil liberties. We are aware that
the regime is directly responsible for the death of four political
prisoners – Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Laura
Pollan Toledo and Wilman Villar Mendoza – as well as thousands of
arbitrary arrests and hundreds of beatings, assaults, and acts of
repudiation.

The death of 31-year-old dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza on January 19
after a 50 day hunger strike highlights the continuing repression in
Cuba. Villar Mendoza was detained in November 2011 after participating
in a peaceful demonstration in Contramaestre calling for greater
political freedom and respect for human rights. He was charged with
'contempt' and sentenced to four years in prison in a hearing that
lasted less than an hour. He was not given the opportunity to speak in
his defence, nor represented by a defence lawyer.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a
human rights monitoring group that the government does not recognise,
classified Villar Mendoza as a political prisoner in December 2011. The
Cuban regime denies holding political prisoners and said in a statement
that Mr Villar "was not a dissident nor was he on a hunger strike". The
authorities did not even bother to tell Wilman Villar's wife about the
death of her husband, and she was informed by some human rights defenders.

Almost two years ago, political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in
similar circumstances, also on hunger strike, with the same demands.
Activist Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia died last year after receiving a
brutal beating from the political police at Leoncio Vidal Park, in the
city of Santa Clara, Villa Clara province. Less than three months ago,
Laura Pollan Toledo, leader of the Damas de Blanco, died under
mysterious circumstances that have still not been clarified. Numerous
reports issued from within the island over the past three months have
reported an increase in the regime's violence against opposition –
including cases of activists who have suffered fractured skulls after
machete blows, and members of the Damas de Blanco who have been pricked
with needles containing unknown substances while participating in
marches on the streets of Havana.

The regime in Havana and its prisons have a system devised to eliminate
those political and common detainees who protest against the injustice
and inhumanity of their captors by denying them water and medical care,
and confining them in freezing cells. Catherine Ashton, the European
Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,
deplored the tragic death of Mr Villar and urged Cuba to continue
working to make progress on respect of human rights and freedom of
expression. "It's the second death in similar conditions in a very short
time and it poses doubts concerning Cuban's judicial system and
penitentiary," Ashton said.

According to human rights organisations, there is no way to know how
many government opponents remain in jail, as independent investigators
cannot visit prisons. In 2010, Raul Castro freed 52 prisoners who had
been arrested during a 2003 crackdown, but human rights defenders from
the island say that those releases have not changed the attitude by the
regime towards dissidents and repression continues. Last year the regime
decided to release 2,900 inmates, but following human rights defenders
information, the dissidents were not released.

Political prisoners must be released immediately. The persecution of
people for their legitimate demands for freedom of speech, thought and
assembly is unjust. The lack of fundamental rights contradicts the
principles of humanity and is a clear infringement of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, of which Cuba is a signatory.

One could get an impression that Cuban regime is making free-market
reforms which aim at reviving Cuba's socialist economy by boosting
private enterprise. But the reality is much darker. So-called
free-market reforms will not change much in relations between the state
and citizens: the regime will still control 99 per cent of the economy.
Moreover, those reforms will not provide Cuban citizens with their
fundamental rights, such as freedom of thought, freedom of speech and
freedom of assembly. It is not a surprise that most Cubans desire
economic opportunities and private property ownership, but at the same
time they closely tie these economic changes to political changes in the
form of free elections, free expression, access to information and the
right to dissent.

It is clear that the reality in Cuba is far from the state propaganda of
'reforms' and 'changes'. The regime deserves strong condemnation for
these crimes and persecutions of people. The international community
should take the necessary steps to prevent the further escalation of the
extrajudicial executions by the Castro regime. Any repressive and
undemocratic regime is similar to a dead man walking. The Arab spring
surprised the world in 2011 throwing away one dictator after another.
Spring is unavoidable and inescapable, in Cuba also.

Dr Laima Andrikiene is an MEP in the European People's Party and a
member of the European Parliament's subcommittee on human rights

http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/1472/cuban-spring-unavoidable-amid-repression

Dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez has issued a video plea after being
denied permission to leave the country since 2004

The dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez – famed for her outspoken
online critiques of the country's communist regime – has issued an
appeal to Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, to help her leave the
Caribbean island.

Sánchez, a Havana-based writer who has been accused by Cuban authorities
of conducting a "cyberwar" against the government, has not been able to
leave the country since 2004 because of migration rules that require
Cubans to receive government permission to travel.

She has now been invited to the Brazilian state of Bahia in February for
the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba and Honduras
in which she features.

But speaking to the Brazilian television channel Record this week,
Sánchez said she expected her latest request for an exit permit would
again be declined without "high-level intervention".

Sánchez told Record she had "exhausted all of the options inside my
country to get them to allow me to travel".

In the video appeal to Rousseff, posted on YouTube, Sánchez called on
Brazil's first female president to intervene.

"Please help me," said the blogger, who says it is her 19th attempt to
get travel permission from Cuban authorities. "Through this small video
I want to send a very respectful [and] very humble message … to the
president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff."

"Unfortunately I am forbidden from leaving my own country – I have not
committed any crime."

Referring to the time Rousseff spent in jail during Brazil's military
dictatorship, Sánchez said: "I know very well that she has felt first
hand … what excessive control and repression is."

"I have done everything that is within my reach but the wall of control,
the wall of censorship, the wall which stops me travelling freely and
returning to my island seems not to move," said Sánchez, whose
supporters have also created an online petition calling on Rousseff to
intervene.

Before Christmas, activists had hoped that Cuba's president, Raúl
Castro, would announce major changes to the country's migration laws,
particularly the rule that means Cubans require exit permits to travel
abroad.

But while Castro, who officially took over from his brother as president
in 2008, announced pardons for nearly 3,000 prisoners, those hoping for
a loosening of travel rules were disappointed.

"The migration reforms … were not announced again," Sánchez says in her
video appeal to Rousseff. "In the 21st century … we are forbidden from
leaving and entering freely our country."

Sánchez has earned international plaudits for her blog, Generación Y, on
which she publishes regular critiques of the Cuban authorities, often
secretively posted from internet cafes.

In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the world's 100 most influential
people. The magazine's profile, written by the American novelist Oscar
Hijuelos, described her "feisty dedication to the truth".

"Under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated dissent, Sánchez
has practiced what paper-bound journalists in her country cannot:
freedom of speech," Hijuelos wrote.

But while the blogger's supporters view her as a standard-bearer for
press freedom, Cuban authorities have accused her of conducting a
Washington-backed "cyberwar" against the island's communist regime.

In a recent piece for Foreign Policy magazine, the Cuban blogger said
that while many foreign correspondents in Havana feared expulsion if
they offended authorities, social networks were helping independent
journalists get the message out.

"Opening the world's eyes to the real Cuba … no longer requires a wire
service dispatch; it can be done with a cell phone," she wrote.

Meanwhile, Cuban authorities have vented their anger at a Twitter user
whom they accused of starting a wave of online rumours this week
claiming that the former president, Fidel Castro, had died.

An article posted on the state-run Cubadebate website pointed the finger
of blame at a tweeter called @Naroh.

In the story, entitled: "New lie against #FidelCastro fails on Twitter",
the website claimed that after the rumours began "necrophiliac
counterrevolutionaries, aided by some media, immediately started to
party." Responding to the allegations that he had started the hoax,
Naroh tweeted: "Cuba is blaming me for killing Fidel Castro on Twitter.
Can I now consider myself a Twit-star?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/05/cuban-blogger-appeals-brazil-president

Posted By Ellery Roberts Biddle On 23 November 2011 @ 2:19 am In Citizen
Media,Cuba,Digital Activism,English,Freedom of Speech,Human Rights,Latin
America,Photos,Spanish,Technology & Internet,Weblog | 2 Comments

The first post [1] in this two-post series featured highlights from a
discussion between bloggers in Cuba, the United States (US), and Spain
focusing on the use of new media in Cuba, where Internet access and
technological tools are extremely scarce [2].

For this post, I interviewed City University of New York (CUNY)
Professor of Sociology, Ted Henken, a Cuba expert who is the author of
El Yuma [3], a blog that explores social currents in contemporary Cuba
and closely follows the Cuban blogosphere.

I discussed with Henken his recent appearance on Radio Martí where he
helped facilitate a dialogue between several of the most prominent Cuban
bloggers writing today and his students at Baruch College in New York
City. This was a unique event for Radio Martí [4]. Funding and oversight
of the station come from the Broadcasting Board of Governors [5], a US
federal agency devoted to broadcasting radio and television into
countries where media outlets independent of the state are either scarce
or heavily censored.
Ted Henken (on the right) with blogger Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo. Posted
with permission of photographer. [6]

Much of Radio Martí programming is explicitly anti-Castro and supportive
of US policy towards Cuba; the station is seen by many as a symbol of
the political gridlock that has defined US-Cuba policy for decades.
Henken shared his perspective on the political nature of Radio Martí:

You can describe their goals in different ways. You can say that
it's intended as a way to overthrow the Cuban government, or as a way to
get information to people.

Ted Henken is a unique contributor to the online conversation about
Internet use and blogging in Cuba. He is both a scholar of, and active
participant in, the Cuba-focused blogosphere. Henken also takes an
objective approach to studying Cuban politics and culture; he does not
come down firmly "for" or "against" the revolution.

In our conversation, he explained that while he had never wholly
dismissed Radio and TV Martí, he has long been wary of the program. "In
a perfect world, Radio Martí wouldn't exist," he told me. "But the world
is not perfect."

Yoani Sánchez [7] and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo [8] [es], two of Cuba's
best-known "critical" bloggers were featured on the program. Both are
members of the Voces Cubanas [9] [es] blogging collective, where most
bloggers are explicitly critical of the government. While members of
this group are often thought of as "dissident" bloggers, many of them,
including Sánchez, reject this label. Henken commented on the
distinction between "citizens" and "dissidents."

"Even though they have clear systemic criticisms of the
government,their main thing is civic action, working [their voices]
into the dominant discourse. To me that is what the story is."

People try to adopt them as political dissidents, and sometimes
they're presented that way because of their criticisms. Yoani [says],
people try to call me a dissident but I think of myself really as a citizen.

According to Henken, under the Obama administration, Radio Martí
producers are making greater efforts to diversify political viewpoints
in their programming. As part of this effort, they have solicited
interviews with bloggers who have been classified as supporters of the
Cuban revolution, including Global Voices contributor [10] and La
Polémica Digital [11] [es] author Elaine Díaz, who declined the
opportunity [12] [es].

Henken noted that many bloggers who are not explicitly against Cuban
government policies "would not agree to do this, because of the
repercussions it could have for them."

He acknowledged that Radio Martí, a broadcast station that fits cleanly
into the "old media" model of "one-to-many" communication, provided an
unusual setting for discussing the power and importance of independent,
citizen-driven social media. He paraphrased a quote from Reinaldo
Escobar [13] [es], husband of Yoani Sánchez, and an active blogger in
Cuba, who acknowledges that Radio Martí is not the ideal venue for their
message.

"The last thing we want to do is rely on the propaganda of a
foreign government to get our voices out.
We need to communicate with other Cubans. We use the Internet, and
that's limited for all the reasons we know, and we listen to Radio Martí."

In the radio interview, Sánchez mentions that Cubans who want to speak
out critically about their government have very limited options as far
as different media are concerned. So, as Escobar says, they use any
channel to which they can gain access.

"People like Yoani or Reinaldo will talk to anyone who wants to listen
to them," Henken told me. "They're just responding to people who are
interested in hearing what they have to say."

Though scarce, the availability of access to cell phones and the
Internet has strengthened communications between people in Cuba and the
rest of the world. These new technologies, along with the old, have
created a unique collage of new and old media spaces in which Cubans are
able to initiate critical conversations about government policy, human
rights, and the direction in which Cuba is headed, without having to
rely on government entities for support.

Of course these media remain politicized, but civic dialogue in a
politically complex space is better than no civic dialogue at all.
Henken believes that what Sánchez and others are trying to do is
exercise "real rights."

[Yoani] tries to say what she really thinks. She tries to exercise
real rights. This is in some way more radical. Luckily she's eloquent
and responsible. I think she appeals to a group of people who are, if
not middle of the road, at least responsible.

URL to article:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/23/cuba-blogger-and-scholar-ted-henken-on-new-media-in-cuba/

URLs in this post:

[1] The first post:
http://globalvoicesonline.org../2011/11/04/cuba-bloggers-discuss-the-internet-offline-on-radio-marti/

[2] Internet access and technological tools are extremely scarce:
http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/briefings/data/000195

[3] El Yuma: http://elyuma.blogspot.com/

[4] Radio Martí:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_y_Televisi%C3%B3n_Mart%C3%AD

[5] Broadcasting Board of Governors: http://www.bbg.gov/

[6] Image:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/23/cuba-blogger-and-scholar-ted-henken-on-new-media-in-cuba/henkenandorlando/

[7] Yoani Sánchez: http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/

[8] Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo: http://vocescubanas.com/boringhomeutopics/

[9] Voces Cubanas: http://vocescubanas.com/

[10] Global Voices contributor:
http://globalvoicesonline.org../author/elaine-diaz/

[11] La Polémica Digital: http://espaciodeelaine.wordpress.com/

[12] who declined the opportunity:
http://espaciodeelaine.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/a-radio-marti-n-u-n-c-a/

[13] Reinaldo Escobar: http://www.desdecuba.com/reinaldoescobar/

[14] Image:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/23/cuba-blogger-and-scholar-ted-henken-on-new-media-in-cuba/vocescdjlori_bync/

Dutch diplomat Caecilia Wijgers has been honoured for her commitment to
promoting democracy in Cuba.

The Dutch foreign ministry announced on Saturday that Ms Wijgers
received the first Palmer Prize for Diplomats during a ministerial
conference on democracy in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

The Palmer Prize was created to honour diplomats who under difficult
circumstances continue to fight for democracy in the country where they
have been stationed. Between 2005 and 2009, Ms Wijgers fought for
freedom of speech and free access to information for civil society,
journalists and human rights activists in Cuba. She was the then deputy
ambassador to Cuba.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/local_news/international-prize-for-dutch-diplomat_160425.html

Winds of change are opening doors that have been closed in oppressed
countries for half a century, not only in the near East but also in the
Caribbean. In central Cuba, one recent day seemed like any other until
those winds blew through the main entrance at government-run Radio Placetas.

The station is owned and operated Cuba, Fidel Castro, Raul Castroby the
Castro regime, as are all radio stations in Cuba. Consequently, the
station transmits only programming approved by Cuba’s ruling Communist
Party, broadcasting a predictable and monotonous replication of life
under a totalitarian regime.

The fresh winds this time took the human form of three young black Cuban
women, who opened the doors and demanded to be heard: Yaimara Reyes
Mesa, Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera and Donaida Perez Paseiro. Miriam, the
station director, rushed to confront them. It is rare for citizens to
demand air time in Castroite Cuba. In a calm and respectful voice, the
three women insisted that the station air an opinion different from the
government’s official line about the recent death of dissident Juan
Wilfredo Soto Garcia, who perished at the hands of police in the nearby
city of Santa Clara a few days before.

“We are Cuban citizens, we live in this city. Don’t we have a right to
be heard?” said Yris. “This station only transmits the policies of the
Party and the government,” replied Miriam, the director, shocked that
anyone would dare try to access the microphones of a “public” radio
station for any unapproved message. “Then we will remain here until we
are heard,” countered the dissident Donaida.

Whipped into a fury by the station’s ever-present Communist Party
delegate, employees surrounded the three protesters with hostile shouts
of “Whatever you tell us to do, Fidel, we will do…” (Pa’ lo que sea,
Fidel, pa’ lo que sea). The unlikely heroines were unmoved; “We will not
leave until the public knows that Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia was beaten
to death by police.” And remain they did, until police arrested them.

Yaimara, 29, Yris, 35, and Donaida, 39, are members of the Rosa Parks
Feminist Movement, a nonviolent protest organization that advocates for
the re-establishment of civil rights for all Cubans. They were
protesting the death of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, a 46-year old
activist and former political prisoner who died after being beaten by
police in a park in the provincial capital of Santa Clara on May 8 of
this year. The beating took place after dictator Raul Castro sternly
warned the illegal but increasingly active opposition groups during the
April closing of the Cuban Communist Party Congress: “…it is necessary
for us to clarify that we will never deny the people the right todefend
their Revolution, since the defense of independence, of the conquests of
socialism and of our plazas and streets will continue to be the first
duty of all Cuban citizens.”

This was Castro’s order, in Orwellian doublespeak, to police and
paramilitary forces to attack freedom activists anywhere and anytime
they saw fit.

After long imprisonments of peaceful dissidents led to international
condemnation of the bankrupt, half-century-old Castro dictatorship, and
failed to stem the rising tide ofpublic defiance, brutal street violence
seems to be the regime’s principal recourse to stem a rising tide of
popular resistance. The regime has reason to fear: Yris, Donaida and
Yaimara are said to be the tip of an iceberg of grassroots opposition to
the dictatorship. Young, black and from impoverished provinces, they are
representative of the 93.1 percent of young Cubans who, according to a
recent public opinion poll commissioned by the International Republican
Institute,would vote in favor of changing Cuba from “the current
political system to a democratic system with multi-party elections,
freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

Shortly after being released from her arrest for the Radio Placetas
sit-in, Yris joined other civic activists in a public march in her city.
Violently intercepted by Regime police, Yris was thrown to the ground
and beaten unconscious. After her release, before the pain of her
injuries had begun to fade, she cried: “I will not renounce the struggle
for Cuban freedom.” The march concluded a twelve-day cycle of protests
organized across Cuba by the National Civic Resistance Front (FNRC).

Street protests like those by the FNRC were unheard of in a country
where fear has ruled for decades. Their newfound frequency indicates
that discontent against the Castro regime is overtaking fear, and
motivating veteran activists to find freedom through nonviolent
resistance. As distracted journalists and academics focus on Raul Castro
and his purported plans of pseudo-reform, they would do well not to
ignore Cuba’s growing Resistance and its will to bring about democratic
change. At this time of year the winds in the tropics can be
unpredictable and strong. And after 52 years of abuse, old and weak
doors may not stand for long.

Otto J. Reich, a Washington, D.C.-based consultant, is a former U.S.
assistant secretary of state and ambassador to Venezuela. Orlando
Gutierrez-Boronat is national secretary of the Directorio Democratico
Cubano in Miami.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Cuba-FidelCastro-RaulCastro/2011/06/19/id/400579

Roberto supports the legislative reforms that the government announced,
but considers more important the adaptation of the Republic of Cuba
Constitution, the new conditions of the development of humanity.

Roberto Esquivel slowly rocks in a chair, while he reads the news in the
Daily Granma, about the government's intentions to modify legislation,
after the Communist Congress, scheduled to be held in the second half of
April.

"This update policy and legislative perfection in the country in line
with the new national reality and the objectives proposed," said Granma,
quoting the Minister for Justice, Maria Esther Reus.

"The future of Cuba is gradually fleeing, thousands of young people
migrating to developed countries, that is our reality," says Esquivel, a
retired lawyer. Roberto regrets that his eldest son, a computer
professional, was abroad in search of better career opportunities.

"Don't think I judge him" he says, "… with my 78 years I do not know how
to navigate the internet which is not unusual, but my granddaughter, 12,
has never been able to use Google to do her homework, it's an absurdity,
in Cuba there is no technological generation, because they don't have
the means," he said.

Today in the 21st Century, the right to be informed, freedom of thought,
expression of ideas and opinions, and above all the right to an
education, is not conceivable without the developed technological
instrument of the Internet.

Roberto depends, to communicate, quickly and cheaply with his family in
Spain, on email which his other daughter has at work. "What we say via
this means is monitored and controlled by the business," he says.

"Cuban laws, as the highest expression of government strategies clearly
show delayed development of new technologies for citizens, at the same
time they develop an infrastructure to control the flow of information,"
opines Esquivel.

According to Robert the restrictions begin in the Constitution which
recognizes "freedom of speech and press in accordance with the aims of
socialist society" and continues with nearly 50 laws, which limit the
use of technological equipment and Internet access, to make it
compatible with the defense and security of the Cuban state.

According to the maximum State Law, within the island the freedom of
expression is enjoyed by the mere fact that the mass media "are owned by
the State" which "ensures the exclusive use of the service for working
people and interests society."

"This is the only national newspaper, it is the official organ of the
Communist Party, meaning that only I have the opportunity to know the
version of what they consider fair. That is not freedom of information
and expression, it is imposing a view," argues Robert, while showing the
print edition of the newspaper Granma.

The Cuban Constitution only refers to the traditional media, "… the
press, radio, television, film and other mass media," when the flow of
information has undergone a profound change in the past 20 years thanks
to the information revolution.

According to Roberto, Cuba remained frozen in time with respect to these
technological advances of mankind, not only for economic reasons but
also for purely political decisions. "The cost is very large, they are
sacrificing the future generation," he concludes.

April 22 2011

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=9354

CUBA

2009 2011
INTERNET FREEDOM STATUS Not Free Not Free
Obstacles to Access 25 24
Limits on Content 30 30
Violations of User Rights 33 33
Total 88 87

POPULATION: 11.3 million
INTERNET PENETRATION: 1 percent
WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS BLOCKED: Yes
SUBSTANTIAL POLITICAL CENSORSHIP: Yes
BLOGGERS/ONLINE USERS ARRESTED: Yes
PRESS FREEDOM STATUS: Not Free

INTRODUCTION

Despite a slight loosening of restrictions on the sale of computers in
2008 and the important growth of mobile-phone infrastructure in 2009 and
2010, Cuba remains one of the world's most repressive environments for
the internet and other information and communication technologies
(ICTs). There is almost no access to internet applications other than
e-mail, and surveillance is extensive, including special software
designed to monitor and control many of the island's public
internet-access points.1
Cuba was connected to the internet for the first time in 1996, and the
National Center for Automated Interchange of Information (CENIAI), the
country's first internet-service provider (ISP), was established that
year. However, the executive authorities continue to control the legal
and institutional structures that decide who has access to the internet
and how much access will be permitted. Nevertheless, a growing community
of bloggers has consolidated their work, creatively using online and
offline means to express opinions and spread information about
conditions in the country. 2

OBSTACLES TO ACCESS

According to the last official report on the website of the National
Statistics Office, there were 1.6 million internet users in Cuba in
2009, representing 14.2 percent of the population.
3 However, only 2.9 percent of Cubans access the internet regularly and
5.8 percent routinely use email. Most internet users are only able to
connect to a government intranet rather than the internet proper. Some
sources estimate that only 200,000 residents have access to the world
wide web.4
Most individuals who are able to access internet face extremely slow
connections, making the use of multimedia applications nearly
impossible. In January 2010, the government announced that it had
expanded the national bandwidth and achieved a 10 percent increase in
international connectivity. According to official data, Cuba now has
speeds of 209 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloading and 379 Mbps
for uploading. 5
Cuba continues to blame the U.S. embargo for its connectivity problems,
saying it must use a slow, costly satellite connection system and is
limited in the space it can buy. But in 2009, in a move that eased some
aspects of Washington's prolonged sanctions on trade with Cuba,
President Barack Obama allowed U.S. telecommunications firms to enter
into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite
telecommunication facilities linking the United States and Cuba and to
enter into roaming agreements with Cuban providers. However, these
high-speed connections are not available to regular users and officials
also noted that the government's plans did not include fostering private
use of the internet. 6
Cuba's leaders reiterated their demand for a complete end to the
embargo, and official media ignored this important change in the U.S.
legal framework. The bilateral relationship was affected by another
incident in 2009 that touched directly on the lack of open internet
access in Cuba. On December 4, the Cuban authorities arrested an
American independent contractor, Alan Gross, who was in the country to
set up individual satellite-based internet connections as part of a U.S.
government–funded project.
The Cuban government maintains tight control over the sale and
distribution of internet-related equipment. The sale of modems was
banned in 2001, and the sale of computers and computer accessories to
the public was banned in 2002. This policy changed in early 2008, when
the government began allowing Cubans to buy personal computers, and
individuals can now legally connect to an ISP with a government permit.
However, this permit is granted only to certain people, mostly Cuban
officials or "trusted journalists." High costs also put internet access
beyond the reach of most of the population. A simple computer with a
monitor averages around 722 convertible pesos (US$780) in retail
outlets, or at least 550 convertible pesos (US$594) on the black market.
7 By comparison, the average monthly Cuban salary is approximately 16
convertible pesos (US$17).8 Computers are generally distributed by the
state-run Copextel Corporation, which imports ICT equipment.
Approximately 31 percent of Cubans report having access to a computer,
but 85 percent of those said that the computers were located at work or
school.9
Cuba still has the lowest mobile-phone penetration rate in Latin
America, but the number is rising fast. There were 443,000 active
mobile-phone subscriptions in 2009, a huge increase since 2004 when that
figure was approximately 75,400. An internet connection in a hotel costs
between 6 and 12 convertible pesos per hour.
10 In part because family members frequently share a mobile phone, it is
estimated that the total number of users currently exceeds one million.11
In another step to increase affordability, the state-owned
telecommunications firm ETECSA announced a series of rate modifications
in April 2010. The government eased restrictions on mobile-phone
purchases in March 2008, and reduced the sign-up fee by more than half,
though it still represents three months' wages for the average worker.
12 Per-minute rates for calls on prepaid accounts will be reduced from
0.65 convertible pesos to 0.45 convertible pesos, except for 11:00 p.m.
to 7:00 a.m., when a 0.10 convertible peso rate will apply. Also,
international long-distance rates will fall, for both mobile and
fixed-line accounts, by between 42 and 75 percent. Calls to the Western
Hemisphere will now cost 1.60 convertible pesos per minute, except for
the United States (1.85) and Venezuela (1.40), and calls to the rest of
the world will be 1.80 per minute.13
In addition, a scheme will be introduced whereby either the caller or
the call recipient will be able to indicate that they will pay the
entire charge for a call. Ordinarily, both parties to a call pay 0.45
convertible pesos per minute, but under the new scheme, the party taking
on the whole charge will pay 0.60 convertible pesos per minute.
Activation fees for new accounts have fallen from 120 to 60 to 40
convertible pesos. Cuba has roaming agreements with 306 carriers in 128
countries, and 2.2 million people used those services in Cuba in 2010.14
The island's mobile network already covers 70 percent of Cuban
territory, and further expansions are planned.15
In November 2010, after a series of delays, the government announced
that the fiber-optic cable being installed between Cuba, Venezuela, and
Jamaica to improve the island's internet connection would become
available in January 2011. When the cable becomes fully functional, it
is expected to dramatically improve the internet speed on the island and
make it easier to access multimedia content. However, it is unlikely
that the cable will enable significant network expansion and bring the
internet to a greater number of Cubans. Most mobile phones do not
include internet connections, but it is possible to send and receive
international text messages and photographs with certain phones. 16
The government divides access to web technology between the national
intranet and the global internet. Most Cubans only have access to the
former, which consists of a national e-mail system, a Cuban
encyclopedia, a pool of educational materials and open-access journals,
Cuban websites, and foreign websites that are supportive of the Cuban
government. 17 Cubans can legally access the internet only through
government-approved institutions, such as the approximately 600 Joven
Clubs de Computación (Youth Computer Clubs) and points of access run by
ETECSA.18
In June 2009, the government adopted a new law (Resolution No. 99/2009)
allowing the Cuban Postal Service, which is controlled under the domain
of the Ministry of Computers and Communications, to establish cybercafes
at its premises and offer internet access to the public. Users are
generally required to present identification to use computers at these
sites. Many neighborhoods in the main cities of Havana and Santiago
advertise "internet" access in ETECSA kiosks, but field research has
found that the kiosks often lack computers, instead offering public
phones for local and international calls with prepaid phone cards. The
government also claims that all schools have computer laboratories,
while in practice internet access is usually prohibited for students or
limited to e-mail and supervised activities on the national intranet.19
However, home connections are not yet allowed for the vast majority of
Cubans and only those favored by the government are able to access the
internet from their own homes.
One segment of the population that enjoys approved access to the
internet is the professional class of doctors, professors, and
government officials. Facilities like hospitals, polyclinics, research
institutions, and local doctors' offices are linked by an online network
called Infomed. However, even these users are typically restricted to
e-mail and sites related to their occupations. Beginning in 2007, the
government systematically blocked core internet portal sites such as
Yahoo!, MSN, and Hotmail. This ban was extended to blog platforms and
blog commentary technology during certain periods in 2008. As a result,
Cubans cannot access blogs written by their fellow citizens. Moreover,
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) remains blocked in Cuba, with the
exception of unauthorized points of connection in old Havana. Some
social-networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are accessible
in university cybercafes and other location, although with varying
consistency.
There are only two ISPs, CENIAI Internet and ETECSA, and both are owned
by the state. Cubacel, a subsidiary of ETECSA, is the only mobile-phone
carrier. In 2000, the Ministry of Information Science and Communication
was created to serve as the regulatory authority for the internet, and
its Cuban Supervision and Control Agency oversees the development of
internet-related technologies.20

LIMITS ON CONTENT

Rather than engaging in the technically sophisticated blocking and
filtering used by other repressive regimes in countries like China and
Tunisia, Cuban authorities rely heavily on lack of technology and
prohibitive costs to limit users' access to information. The websites of
foreign news outlets—including the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC), Le Monde, and El Nuevo Herald (a Miami-based Spanish-language
daily)—and human rights groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch, and Freedom House remain largely accessible, though slow
connection speeds impede access to the content on these sites.21 Some
sites and writings that are considered anti-Cuban or
counterrevolutionary are restricted. These include many of the Cuban
dissident sites based in the United States and abroad, and any documents
containing criticism of the current system or mentioning dissidents,
supply shortages, or other politically sensitive issues.22 Blogs and
other sites with content written by Cubans residing in Cuba—such as the
blogging platform Voces Cubanas and the Bitácora Cubana blog—are also
inaccessible. Sites such as Cubanet.org, Payolibre.com,
Cubaencuentro.com, and the Association for Freedom of the Press also
cannot be accessed at youth computer centers.23 Even Revolico.com, a
platform for classified advertisements that has no direct association
with politics, has been censored.24
It is a crime to contribute to international media that are not
supportive of the government, a fact that has led to widespread
self-censorship. Cuban blogs typically feature implicit or explicit
elements of self-censorship and anonymity. Many of those working closely
with ICTs are journalists who have been barred from official employment,
and the prohibitive costs surrounding the technology represent a major
obstacle for them. The majority of their work is done offline by hand,
typewriter, or computer, then uploaded and published once or twice a
week using a paid internet-access card. For those contributing to
international outlets, content can be dictated via costly international
phone calls.
Despite all of these barriers, Cubans still connect to the internet
through both authorized and non-authorized points of access. Some are
able to break through the infrastructural blockages by building their
own antennas, using illegal dial-up connections, and developing blogs on
foreign platforms. The underground economy of internet access also
includes account sharing, in which authorized users sell access to those
without an official account for one or two convertible pesos per hour.
Some foreign embassies allow Cubans to use their facilities, but a
number of people who have visited embassies for this purpose have
reported police harassment. Some cases of Cuban activists using mobile
phones or text messaging to organize events or disseminate political
information have been reported. There is a thriving improvisational
system of "sneakernets," in which USB keys and data discs are used to
distribute material (articles, prohibited photos, satirical cartoons,
video clips) that has been downloaded from the internet or stolen from
government offices.
There is no exact count of blogs produced in Cuba, but the Cuban
Journalists' Union (UPEC) has reported a current total of 174. Examples
include Yoani Sánchez's famous blog Generación Y, which draws 26 percent
of its readers from within Cuba, as well as sites like Retazos, Nueva
Prensa, and Convivencia. Regional radio stations and magazines are also
creating online versions, though these are state-run and do not accept
contributions from independent journalists. However, in a recent
development, some of these sites have installed commentary tools that
allow readers to provide feedback and foster discussion, albeit censored.
Yoani Sánchez has become the most visible figure in a blogging movement
that uses new media to report on daily life and conditions in Cuba that
violate basic freedoms. She and other online writers—including Claudia
Cadelo, Miriam Celaya, Orlando Luis Pardo, Reinaldo Escobar, Laritza
Diversent, and Luis Felipe Rojas—have come together on the Voces Cubanas
blogging platform to portray a reality that the official media ignore,
earning broad support throughout society that resulted in the government
shutting down the platform. They have even made it "trendy" to exercise
the right to free expression. Young people are increasingly using the
Twitter microblogging service and mobile phones to document repression,
as well as to spread leaks of prohibited information. These have
included reports from a closed-door meeting at the Communist Party's
Central Committee headquarters, news on freezing and starvation deaths
in a psychiatric hospital, and explicit videos of student protests and
police beatings. 25
Unable to completely suppress dissident activity on the internet through
legal and infrastructural constraints, the authorities have taken a
number of countermeasures within the medium itself. Government entities
maintain a major presence on the social networks, and they have relied
on trusted students at the University of Computer Sciences to help fight
the "internet campaigns against Cuba." The authorities have also created
official blogs designed to slander and criticize the independent
bloggers. 26

VIOLATIONS OF USER RIGHTS

The legal structure in Cuba is not favorable to internet freedom. The
constitution explicitly subordinates freedom of speech to the objectives
of socialist society,27 and freedom of cultural expression is guaranteed
only if the expression is not contrary to the Revolution.28 The penal
code and Law 88 set penalties ranging from a few months to 20 years in
prison for any activities that are considered a "potential risk,"
"disturbing the peace," a "precriminal danger to society,"
"counterrevolutionary," or "against the national independence or economy."29
In 1996, the government passed Decree-Law 209, which states that the
internet cannot be used "in violation of Cuban society's moral
principles or the country's laws," and that e-mail messages must not
"jeopardize national security." 30
Resolution 56/1999 provides that all materials intended for publication
or dissemination on the internet must first be approved by the National
Registry of Serial Publications. Moreover, Resolution 92/2003 prohibits
e-mail and other ICT service providers from granting access to
individuals who are not approved by the government, and requires that
they enable only domestic chat services, not international ones.
Entities that violate these regulations can have their authorization to
provide access suspended or In 2007, Resolution 127 on network security
banned the spreading via public data-transmission networks of
information that is against the social interest, norms of good behavior,
the integrity of people, or national security. The decree requires
access providers to install controls that will enable them to detect and
prevent the proscribed activities, and to report them to the relevant
authorities. revoked.
Resolution 179/2008 requires all ISPs to censor materials viewed in
conflict with state security or contrary to social interests, ethics,
and morals. Specifically, it authorizes ETESCA to "take the necessary
steps to prevent access to sites whose contents are contrary to social
interests, ethics and morals, as well as the use of applications that
affect the integrity or security of the State." The resolution, which
also spells out the requirements and procedures to become an ISP,
requires ISPs to register and retain the addresses of all traffic for at
least a year. 31
Cuban customs regulations specifically prohibit the entry of any phones
that use the Global Position System (GPS) or satellite connections. 32.
The government continues to repress independent journalism and blogging
with fines, searches, the confiscation of money and equipment. There
have been a few cases in which online journalists were imprisoned for
their work, most notably two correspondents for Cubanet.org. One of them
was sentenced to four years in prison in April 2007 for "precriminal
social danger," and the other was sentenced to seven years in November
2005 for "subversive propaganda." More recent is the case of Dania
Virgen Garcia, a blogger and journalist, who was arrested in April 2010
and sentenced to 20 months in prison on arbitrary charges; the
authorities released her a few weeks following the arrest. Despite
constitutional provisions that protect various forms of communication,
and portions of the penal code that set penalties for the violation of
the secrecy of communications, the privacy of users is frequently
violated in practice. Tools of content surveillance and control are
pervasive, from public access points and universities to government
offices. The government routes most connections through proxy servers
and is able to obtain all user names and passwords through special
monitoring software Avila Link, which is installed at most ETECSA and
public access points. In addition, delivery of e-mail messages is
consistently delayed, and it is not unusual for a message to arrive
without its attachments.
Prominent bloggers and activists face a variety of other forms of
harassment and intimidation. In May 2008, during a public trial of
dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque, state television and Granma
showed evidence of government hacking of dissidents' Yahoo! accounts.33
Bloggers have been summoned for questioning, reprimanded, and had their
domestic and international travel rights restricted.34
Luis Felipe Rojas, a blogger who documents human rights abuses, was
taken for questioning and detained on numerous occasions, most recently
in August 2010.35 Moreover, in recent years, the Cuban government
refused on multiple occasions to issue Yoani Sánchez a travel visa that
would have allowed her to receive various prizes or honors overseas.36
Similarly, in May 2010, the government denied another blogger, Claudia
Cadelo, a permission to leave Cuba to attend an international gathering
of bloggers in Germany.37

———

1 "Prestaciones efectivas para redes informáticas" [Effective Features
for Computer Networks], Radio Surco, April 11, 2009,
http://www.radiosurco.icrt.cu/Ciencia.php?id=415; Danny O'Brien, "The
Malware Lockdown in Havana and Hanoi,"CPJ Blog, June 8, 2010,
http://cpj.org/blog/2010/06/the-malware-lockdown-in-havana-and-hanoi.php.
2 Ben Corbett, This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives (Cambridge, MA:
Westview Press, 2002), 145.
3 National Statistics Office, Republic of Cuba, Tecnologías de la
Información y las Comunicaciones en Cifras: Cuba 2009 [Information and
Communication Technologies in Figures: Cuba 2009] (Havana: National
Statistics Office, May 2010), http://www.one.cu/ticencifras2009.htm.
4 Ray Sanchez, "Cuba Cutting Internet Access," Sun Sentinel, May 7,
2009,
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-cuba-internet-cutoff-050709,0,4376220.story;
Reporters Without Borders, http://www,rsf.irg/article.php3?!id_article26096.
5 Amaury E. del Valle, "Cuba, la red sigue creciendo" [Cuba, the Network
Continues to Grow], Juventud Rebelde, January 6, 2010,
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/suplementos/informatica/2010-01-06/cuba-la-red-sigue-creciendo/.
6 "Fact Sheet: Reaching Out to the Cuban People," The White House:
Office of the Press Secretary, April 13, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Fact-Sheet-Reaching-out-to-the-Cuban-people.
7 "Cubans Queue for Computers as PC Ban Lifted, But Web Still Outlawed,"
Irish Examiner, May 5, 2008.
8 "Mobile Phone Use Booms in Cuba Following Easing of Restrictions,"
Agence France-Presse, April 24, 2008.
9 9 National Statistics Office, Republic of Cuba, Tecnologías de la
Información y las Comunicaciones en Cifras: Cuba 2009 [Information and
Communication Technologies in Figures: Cuba 2009]
10 There were 327,000 subscriptions in 2007. International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), "ICT Statistics 2009—Mobile Cellular
Subscriptions,"
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Reporting/ShowReportFrame.aspx?ReportName=/WTI/CellularSubscribersPublic&ReportFormat=HTML4.0&RP_intYear=2009&RP_intLanguageID=1&RP_bitLiveData=False.
11 "ETESCA mobile phone users cross million mark," cubastandard.com,
July 14, 2010
http://www.cubastandard.com/2010/07/14/etecsa-mobile-phone-users-cross-million-mark.
12 The website of ETECSA, or Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA,
can be found at http://www.enet.cu .
13 Amaury E. del Valle, "Rebajarán tarifas para llamadas de telefonía
móvil en Cuba" [Prices for Mobile Telephone Calls Will Fall in Cuba],
Juventud Rebelde, April 21, 2010,
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/suplementos/informatica/2010-04-21/rebajaran-tarifas-para-llamadas-de-telefonia-movil-en-cuba/.
14 Ibid.
15 Nick Miroff, "Getting Cell Phones Into Cuban Hands," Global Post, May
17, 2010, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/cuba/100514/cell-phone.
16 Ellery Biddle, "Cuba: Fiber Optic Cable May Not Bring Greater
Internet Access," Global Voices, November 19, 2010,
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/11/19/cuba-fiber-optic-cable-may-not-bring-greater-internet-access/.
17 ETECSA: Empressa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A., www.enet.cu,
Accessed August 28, 2010.
18 See the club system's website at http://www.cfg.jovenclub.cu/.
19 Resolution No. 99/2009 was published in the Official Gazette on June
29, 2009)
20 The ministry's website can be found at
http://www.mic.gov.cu/.
21 Reporters Without Borders, "Free Expression Must Go With Better
Communications, Says Reporters Without Borders as Blogs Prove Hard to
Access," news release, March 31, 2008,
http://en.rsf.org/cuba-free-expression-must-go-with-31-03-2008,26396.html.
22 OpenNet Initiative, "Country Profiles: Cuba," May 9, 2007,
http://opennet.net/research/profiles/cuba.
23 Bitácorea Cubana can be found at http://cubabit.blogspot.com/; the
Association for Freedom of the Press (Asociación pro Libertad de Prensa)
can be found at http://prolibertadprensa.blogspot.com/.
24 Marc Lacy, "A Black Market Finds a Home in the Web's Back Alleys,"
New York Times, January 3, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/americas/04havana.html.
25 For example, see the videos of a August 2008 police beating and
October 2009 student protest posted on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0mztIF8wxE,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLEX6_VAzMo&feature=fvw. Also, pictures
of malnutritioned patient bodies from a local hospital on the Penúltimos
Días blog http://www.penultimosdias.com/2010/03/02/los-muertos-de-mazorra/.
26 A few examples include Cambios en Cuba,
http://cambiosencuba.blogspot.com/; Yohandry's weblog,
http://yohandry.wordpress.com/; and the official bloggers platform
CubaSí, http://www.cubasi.cu.
27 Article 53, available at
http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/const_92_e.htm, accessed July 23, 2010.
28 Article 39, d), available at
http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/const_92_e.htm, accessed July 23, 2010.
29 Committee to Protect Journalists, "International Guarantees and Cuban
Law," special report, March 1, 2008,
http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/laws.php.
30 Cuba – Telecoms Market Overview & Statistics 2008.
31"Internet En Cuba : Reglamento Para Los Proveedores De Servicos De
Acceso A Internet" (Internet in Cuba: Regulations for Internet Service
Providers),
http://cubanosusa.com/opinion/editorial/42454-internet-en-cuba-reglamento-proveedores-acceso-internet.html,
accessed on August 28, 2010.
32 See the website of Aduana General de la Republica de Cuba (Cuban
Customs): http://www.aduana.co.cu/turista.htm.
33 Deisy Francis Mexidor, "Presentan evidencias irrefutables sobre
actividad subversiva de Estados Unidos contra Cuba" [Irrefutable
Evidence Is Presented of Subversive Activity Against Cuba], Granma, May
19, 2008, http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/05/19/nacional/artic20.html.
34 Steven L. Taylor, "Cuba vs. the Bloggers," PoliBlog, December 6,
2008, http://www.poliblogger.com/index.php?s=cuba+bloggers; Eduardo
Avila, "Cuba: Government Officials Tell Bloggers to Cancel Planned
Meeting," Global Voices Advocacy, December 6, 2008,
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/12/06/cuba-government-officials-tell-bloggers-to-cancel-planned-meeting/;
Marc Cooper, "Cuba's Blogger Crackdown," Mother Jones, December 8, 2008,
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/12/cubas-blogger-crackdown.
35 For more information, see Rojas' blog Crossing the Barbed Wire,
http://cruzarlasalambradaseng.wordpress.com/.
36 "Cuba Refuses to Give Blogger Visa to Collect Prize," Agence
France-Presse, May 6, 2008. On Yoani Sanchez being denied visa to Brazil
on July 2010 see
http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5jSr2TuI94zsTbnak2Il-C-p44gcA.
On Yoani Sánchez denied visa to travel to receive a special recognition
from the Maria Moors Cabot Prize committee in New York on October 2009
see, http://www.americasquarterly.org/yoani-sanchez-cabot-award.
37 Claudia Cadelo, "Confessions Regarding Utopian Journey," translated
by Octavo Cerco, May 12, 2010,
http://octavocercoen.blogspot.com/2010/05/confessions-regarding-utopian-journey.html

Source

Over the past few years, we have met many Cuban American college and
university students who are part of the Roots of Hope (Raíces de
Esperanza) organization. The vast majority of them have been kids with
an admirable yearning to make a difference, and a heartfelt desire to
see Cuba liberated and the Cuban people released from the shackles of
tyrannical oppression. Nevertheless, we still have serious reservations
regarding the organization Roots of Hope, and those doubts center around
its leadership and its main benefactor and supporter, Carlos Saladrigas.

Roots of Hope was founded in 2003 by Felice Gorordo with a generous
donation from Carlos Saladrigas. Since then, its agenda—as dictated by
the organization's leadership—has for the most part mirrored the agenda
of another Saladrigas funded organization, The Cuba Study Group. As most
of our readers already know, the Cuba Study Group is a staunch and
active supporter of lifting all sanctions against the Castro
dictatorship, and it fervently advocates and lobbies for the
normalization of relations with the criminal and murderous Cuban regime.
Although Roots of Hope claims to be a "non-partisan group," that is a
bit difficult to believe when Felice Gorordo, the executive director of
the organization, also sits on the board of Saladrigas' very partisan
and agenda driven Cuba Study Group.

Since its inception, the seemingly worthwhile projects and initiatives
undertaken by Roots of Hope have been mired and handicapped by the
politically driven agenda of the organization's leadership and its
partisan benefactors. They have used the labors and efforts of the
organization's members to promote their own views, which have little to
do with freedom and democracy in Cuba and are focused on business
opportunities with the Castro dictatorship. By burdening these projects
and initiatives with partisan politics, the leadership and benefactors
of Roots of Hope have rendered them useless.

With all of this in mind, it did not come as a surprise when last
weekend Roots of Hope co-sponsored a partisan conference at Boston
College with the stated purpose of discussing "the most pressing issues
to Cubans and Cuban Americans in the world today." The conference only
featured speakers and presenters who shared Cuba Study Group's view of
engagement with the Castro dictatorship, and naturally, Carlos
Saladrigas was one of their featured speakers. Saladrigas was also
joined by Orlando Marquez, a spokesman for the infamous Cuban Catholic
Church, who was flown in from Cuba along with Father Jose Conrado
expressly to address the conference. However, the conference speaker who
may have been arguably the most disturbing and questionable was the
founder of Havana Journal, Rob Sequin.
Rob Sequin: first person seated on the extreme left (no pun intended)

Rob Sequin: first person seated on the extreme left (no pun intended)

Rob Sequin is the epitome of an opportunistic and immoral businessman.
When he looks at Cuba, he does not see an island of 11-million people
lacking basic freedoms and enslaved by a tyrannical dictatorship. He
sees an opportunity to prey on a repressed population with sexual tourism.
But you do not have to take my word for it; his website, sexincuba.com,
speaks for itself. This site is one of the websites in Sequin's Havana
Network, which is owned by his company, Havana Journal, Inc. It is here
is where you can see what Rob Sequin really thinks about Cubans and
travel to Cuba.

Cuban Girls, Sex in Cuba and Jineteras

This site is designed to provide information on Jineteras (Cuban
prostitutes and female hustlers), sex laws, escorts, gay hangouts and
clubs where you are most likely to find (temporary) love. We will be
posting some entertaining stories and eye candy photos but this site
will not be X rated.

Check back for Cuban sex stories, Cuban marriages gone bad (and
some that have gone right) along with traveler precautions, sex laws,
sex customs and places to score whether you are straight, gay or some
where in between (for you transvestite lovers) and there is an active
transvestite culture in Havana Cuba.

Seriously, Cuba is the place to get laid… man, woman, straight or
gay! There may not be freedom of speech but there certainly is freedom
of sex. However, if you are looking for strip clubs or any adult video
stores, forget it. You're not going to find those in Cuba.

When we found out about Sequin's appearance at this Roots of Hope
conference, Val called Felice Gorordo and asked him why he would have
such a contemptible character addressing the conference attendees.
Gorordo pleaded ignorance, and told Val he had no idea of Sequin's
deplorable Cuba sex website. He disavowed any knowledge and said that
Sequin had been invited to speak by one of the other conference
co-sponsors and not by Roots of Hope. To his credit, Gorordo published a
statement condemning Rob Sequin on the Roots of Hope blog. Nonetheless,
the damage was already done.

Unfortunately, it was brought to our attention after the conference
that one of the panelists, Rob Sequin of the "Havana Journal," owns a
web site related to sex in Cuba. Conference organizers were not aware of
this site nor of its ties to the panelist. This site is absolutely not
in line with Roots of Hope's values, and we strongly condemn it.

Had the organizers been aware of the circumstances, Mr. Sequin
would not have been invited to participate in the event. After being
informed of the existence of this site, the organization strongly urged
Mr. Sequin to take it down. At the time of this post, the site was disabled.

Ed.: The site may have been down at the time Gorordo wrote his
post, but it was back up later in the day.

This incident perfectly illustrates the concerns and doubts we have had
about the Roots of Hope organization. Although they claim to be
non-partisan and non-political, as they have done in the past, there was
no effort whatsoever to provide opposing points of view at this
conference. The speakers and guests were all anti-embargo, and they all
advocate engagement with the Castro dictatorship. In their fervor to
stack the deck in favor of a specific partisan political view, Roots of
Hope ended up associating and allying themselves with one of the most
detestable and reprehensible figures in this debate.

Note: In case Rob Sequin decides to take his sexincuba.com site offline,
below the fold there are screenshots of all the pages on the site saved
forever in cyberspace for posterity.
Links available at source page:

sexincuba.com Home Page:

sexincuba – home
sexincuba.com Cuban Girls page:

sexincuba – cuban girls
sexincuba.com Sex In Cuba page:

sexincuba – sex in cuba
sexincuba.com Jineteras page:

sexincuba – jineteras
sexincuba.com Gay In Cuba page:

sexincuba – gay friendly cuba
sexincuba.com affiliation with Havana Journal closeup:

sexincuba.com 2011-4-12 20-9-36"

http://babalublog.com/2011/04/roots-of-hope-the-roots-of-indiscretion/

At the invitation of President Raul Castro, Rosalynn and I visited
Havana on behalf of The Carter Center, accompanied by John Hardman,
Jennifer McCoy, Robert Pastor, Melissa Montgomery, John Moores, and
Diane Rosenberg.

The goals of our trip were to:

become acquainted with President Raul Castro and to ascertain his
immediate and long-term goals for Cuba. The Party Congress will convene
in April (on the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs) and Cubans will
adopt plans for economic and social reforms;
explore ideas on how United States-Cuba relations might be improved;
visit with key players in government and independent sectors; and
learn as much as possible about the cases of the Cuban Five
prisoners in the U.S. and Alan Gross in Cuba.

Prior to the trip I had conversations with Secretary of State Clinton,
National Security Advisor Donilon, and Judy Gross.

There is a fundamental incompatibility between policies of Cuba and the
U.S., based on more than half a century of efforts by leaders in
Washington to disrupt and bring about changes in the communist regime of
Fidel and Raul Castro.

An economic embargo continues against Cuba, codified into law by the
Helms-Burton Act passed during the Clinton administration. Activities or
funds expended under its auspices, as expressed officially in the Act,
and also assumed by Cubans, are limited to democracy promotion programs
designed to weaken and overthrow the Castro regime. Such U.S. activities
are authorized by U.S. law and considered a crime against the state by
Cuban law.

Except for certain causes (academic, journalistic, or religious) and
Cuban-American families, American citizens are deprived of the right to
visit Cuba.

The Cubans know that, as president, I lifted all travel restraints and
made strides toward normalizing diplomatic relations. This included the
establishment of Interest Sections in Havana and Washington, through
which a modicum of diplomatic exchange could be conducted.

We were met at the airport by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, Cuban
Interest Section Chief Jorge Alberto Bolaños, and U.S. Chief of Mission
Jonathan Farrar. I rode to our hotel with the foreign minister, who
acknowledged some positive steps taken by the Obama administration
(which I enumerated in detail), but maintained that the overall impact
of recent policies had been very damaging to Cuba, primarily because of
a tightening of financial transactions through foreign banks. Also, the
continuing Helms-Burton program for "democracy promotion," which is a
regime change strategy funded at $20 million, remains a serious source
of concern.

Our first briefing was at the U.S. Interest Section, where I also spoke
to the assembled staff (in Spanish and English). We were surprised at
the size of the staff – 50 Americans and 270 Cubans. There seems to be
minimal direct contact between American diplomats and top Cuban officials.

We next had a delightful visit with leaders of the Cuban Jewish
community. Although there is no rabbi in Cuba, the 1,500 Cuban Jews have
a lively religious and social agenda. They say they have complete
freedom to worship and adequate internet communication with the outside
world, and that they had no substantive contact with Alan Gross.

Our next meeting was with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who explained the
procedure by which the Cuban government permitted the release of the
remaining 52 of the original 75 political prisoners incarcerated since
March 2003 plus an additional 74 others over the last six months. Twelve
of them were permitted to remain in Cuba and the others were exiled to
Spain. The Cardinal also gave us a briefing on the status of the various
religious groups in Cuba.

Rosalynn, Jennifer, and I had an extensive private session with Foreign
Minister Rodriguez, who repeated much of our previous conversation and
concentrated on the case of Alan Gross, who was arrested, tried, and
convicted on his fifth visit to Cuba for "acts against the independence
of the state." Under a USAID subcontract, he was in possession of
equipment designed to enhance internet communication, ostensibly for the
benefit of the Cuban Jewish community, using funds under the
Helms-Burton Act. (I had been informed by the Cubans that American
prisoner Alan Gross would not be released during my visit, but believe
that this is a possibility after his appeals process is completed.)

In our breakfast meeting with ambassadors from Spain, Canada, Hungary,
Mexico, UN, EU, Sweden, Brazil and Colombia, they reaffirmed what the
Foreign Minister had said about the adverse effect on their banks and
their movement of funds into Cuba as a result of new and more severe
U.S. banking restrictions.

We raised a question about the terrorist list, and the Ambassadors from
Spain and Colombia said they were not concerned about the presence of
members of FARC, ETA, and ELN in Cuba. Indeed, they maintained that this
enhances their ability to deal more effectively with these groups. In
fact, ETA members are there at the request of the Spanish government.

We then had an extensive briefing on Cuban economic policy by Oswaldo
Martinez, President of the National Assembly Economic Commission. He
described Cuba's current problems and outlined steps being taken or
contemplated for "cautious progress" toward reductions in state control
over farming, trade, and services. Now, for instance, only about 50
percent of arable land is used, and idle land is being made available to
private families on leases for "indefinite time." Several hundred
thousand other citizens are being encouraged to adopt private means of
employment.

After visiting an enormous senior citizens center we had lunch with
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, who further described the
goals of the impending Congress assembly of about 1,000 people. He
stated that more than 2/3 of the proposed paragraphs had been amended to
accommodate suggestions from citizens.

We then met with two mothers and three wives of the "Cuban Five," who
have now been incarcerated for more than twelve years. Their trial in
the highly charged Miami political climate was considered to be biased
by a U.S. appellate court, but subsequent appeals have been denied. Top
Cuban officials claim they had personal assurance from President Clinton
that there would be no more small plane flights over Havana, and that
the U.S. was warned that no more "violations of Cuban sovereignty" would
be permitted. Despite this, the small plane repeated its mission and was
shot down. These officials claimed that the member of the Cuban 5 who
was convicted of murder of the plane's crew could not have been involved.

Rosalynn, Jennifer, and I then had an extensive meeting with President
Raul Castro, where we covered again many of the same economic and
political issues. He gave an overview of the Cuban revolution, the Bay
of Pigs incident, Cuba's often confrontational relationship with the
Soviet Union, their armed forces' involvement in Angola and other
places, his relationship with Fidel, and an outline of the speech he
will make to the Party Congress. He received well my suggestion that he
and his ministers have easier and more frequent access to foreign
diplomats. All members of our group then joined other top Cuban
officials at a supper hosted by the president.

Wednesday morning we met with a group of active dissidents, bloggers,
and others and then hosted 10 of the 12 recently released political
prisoners and their wives, who reported that they were still insisting
that those exiled to Spain be permitted to return to Cuba. They
complained about their difficulty in getting renewed ID cards and
drivers' licenses.

Rosalynn and I had an extensive visit with Alan Gross in a military
hospital where he is confined. He expressed some regrets at now being
treated much better than his fellow prisoners (after earlier poorer
treatment) and said he had adequate communications with his wife and family.

We then visited Fidel in his private home and found him to be vigorous,
alert, and especially intent on monitoring voluminous media reports on
his list of prescribed subjects. His primary health problem concerned
his left knee and right shoulder, badly injured in a fall in 2004 at a
ceremony honoring Che Guevara.

Before leaving Havana, I had a press conference, a TV interview, and
another brief session with President Castro, who met me at the airport,
where I repeated my request that Mr. Gross be released and relayed
concerns I had received from the dissident groups. He promised to
investigate the concerns and report his decisions to me.

In all, I believe the basic goals of The Carter Center were realized
during the visit.

Some notes about the visit: Raul, Fidel, and other leaders are
thoroughly familiar with our political system and the special pressures
from a fading but still powerful minority of Cuban-Americans. They know
that Helms-Burton cannot be repealed, and are experts on what authority
the president has.

Both privately and publicly I continued to call for the end of our
economic blockade against the Cuban people, the lifting of all travel,
trade, and financial restraints, the release of Alan Gross and the Cuban
Five, and end to U.S. policy that Cuba promotes terrorism, for freedom
of speech, assembly, and travel in Cuba, and the establishment of full
relations between our two countries. At the airport, Raul told the
press, "I agree with everything that President Carter said."

http://www.cartercenter.org/news/trip_reports/cuba-march2011.html

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Trip is officially to strengthen bilateral ties
However, ex-president may try to lobby for American prisoner
U.S. contractor recently sentenced to 15 years

Havana, Cuba (CNN) — When Jimmy Carter arrived on his last visit to
Cuba in 2002, Fidel Castro himself was on the tarmac to greet the former
U.S. president.

He became the only American leader — in or out of office — to visit
this island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

On Monday, Carter will be back on a private mission at the invitation of
the Cuban government. He will meet with the new president, Raul Castro,
and other officials to talk about bilateral ties.

The trip has sparked speculation that Carter could try to secure the
early release of American contractor Alan Gross, who was recently
sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison for "subversive" work providing
illegal internet access to Cuban groups.

Carter's three-day trip is "to learn about new economic policies and the
upcoming Party Congress, and to discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba
relations," according to a press release from the Carter Center.

In some ways, the time is ripe.

Raul Castro has introduced sweeping changes to the Soviet-style economy,
laying off state workers and expanding the private sector.

And just this week, Cuba freed the last of 75 dissidents jailed in a
2003 crackdown on the opposition that prompted worldwide condemnation.

Oscar Elias Biscet was one of those recently freed. He was originally
sentenced to 25 years in prison for counter-revolutionary activities.

"I want to continue my work in the defense of human rights," he told
CNN. "We want a democratic and free society."

Raul Castro agreed to release the prisoners last year as part of a deal
brokered by the Catholic Church and Spain. Initially, only those who
agreed to go into exile in Spain were freed.

But over the last couple of months, dissidents who demanded to stay in
Cuba were also let go, removing one of the major obstacles to improved
relations with the United States.

But Washington's response has been muted.

"The release of political prisoners is a step in the right direction,"
said U.S. State Department Deputy spokesman Mark Toner. "However, human
rights conditions in Cuba remain poor. The Cuban government continues to
limit fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, the press and
peaceful assembly."

U.S. President Barack Obama singled out Cuba for criticism during a
speech on regional policy in Chile earlier this week. He said it was
time for Cuba to reciprocate on positive steps he had taken.

"Cuban authorities must take meaningful actions to respect the basic
rights of the Cuban people — not because the United States insists on
it, but because the people of Cuba deserve it," he said.

Part of the reason for the impasse between the nations is Gross. The
USAID contractor was arrested in Havana in 2009.

The United States said he was helping the Jewish community connect to
the internet, but Cuba says he was part of a broad plot to use illegal
internet connections to destabilize the government.

Despite the hefty 15-year-sentence, foreign diplomats in Havana have
speculated that Gross could be released early as a humanitarian gesture,
given that his mother and daughter are battling cancer.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/03/26/cuba.carter.visit/?hpt=T2

WASHINGTON — The United States said Friday that human rights conditions
under Cuba's communist regime remain "poor" despite Havana's recent
release of the last members of a group of dissidents detained eight
years ago.

"We welcome the release of the last of the 75 peaceful Cuban activists
who were unjustly arrested for exercising their universal rights and
fundamental freedoms during the 2003 'Black Spring' crackdown," Mark
Toner, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement.

The release marked "a step in the right direction," he said.

"However, human rights conditions in Cuba remain poor. The Cuban
government continues to limit fundamental freedoms, including freedom of
speech, the press, and peaceful assembly," said Toner, adding that
Washington urges Havana to "release all remaining political prisoners."

He also pressed Cuba to allow the United Nations and Red Cross access to
the country's jails, "so that a fuller accounting of remaining political
prisoners can be possible."

On Wednesday the government released Felix Navarro and Jose Ferrer, the
last from the 2003 group.

But Cuba's opposition movement stresses that the prisons are not empty
of dissidents, with one activist noting on Wednesday that there are some
60 people currently held on political charges.

Last July, the Catholic Church struck a deal with the state to have the
2003 group's remaining 52 imprisoned dissidents freed and allowed to go
into exile in Spain, in the biggest prisoner release since President
Raul Castro formally took power in 2008.

But only 40 agreed to leave Cuba, and the remaining dozen insisted on
staying, leading in some cases to months-long delays in their release.

Toner said US President Barack Obama has focused "on increased
engagement with the Cuban people in an effort to promote democratic
ideals and improve human rights conditions on the island."

On Monday in a speech in Chile, Obama urged Cuban authorities to "take
meaningful actions" to improve the rights of Cubans.

Ties between Washington and Havana, which have had no formal relations
for more than 50 years, thawed slightly when Obama took office.

But Washington was incensed when in December 2009 Cuba arrested an
American contractor, Alan Gross, for delivering communications equipment
on the island.

On March 12 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "acts against the
independence or territorial integrity" of Cuba.

Tag: human rights

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g5Jp992JUCXiAZSwVJtEFWWt72vQ?docId=CNG.de92f85d65472ea8b1ff48ef59135245.101

Domain name: .cu
Population: 11,451,652
Internet users: about 1,604,000
Average cost of a one-hour cybercafé connection: about 1.5 U.S. dollars
for the national network – 5 to 7 U.S. dollars for the international
network.
Average monthly salary: 20 U.S. dollars
Number of imprisoned netizens: 0

Fibre optic cable in Cuba: Unprecedented potential for growth?

According to the authorities, nearly 10% of Cuba's population is
connected to the Internet. That does not necessarily mean that they have
access to the World Wide Web. Two parallel networks co-exist on the
island: the international network and a closely monitored Cuban intranet
consisting only of an encyclopaedia, email addresses ending in ".cu"
used by universities and government officials – a sort of "Cuban
Wikipedia" – and a few government news websites such as Granma.

Outside of hotels, only a few privileged individuals have a special
permit to access the international network. Yet even the latter does not
escape censorship, which is mainly directed against dissident
publications on foreign websites, but has been relaxed to some extent
since early February 2011.

The regime does not have the means to set up a systematic filtering
system, but it counts on several factors to restrict Internet access:
the exorbitant cost of connections – about 1.50 U.S. dollars per hour
from the points of access to the state-controlled intranet, 7 U.S.
dollars per hour from a hotel to access the international network (even
though the average monthly salary is 20 U.S. dollars), and lastly
infrastructural problems, particularly slow connections.

These obstacles explain why the number of Internet users and the time
spent online remain limited. Most cybernauts try to just read their
emails and answer them. They do not have the time to navigate the
Internet or surf websites. For years, the regime has been blaming the
American embargo for the lack of a good Web connection on the island,
claiming that it prevents the country from accessing international
networks. That problem is about to be solved, thanks to the ALBA-1 fibre
optic undersea cable which has been linking Cuba to Venezuela since
February 2011, thereby increasing 3000-fold Cuba's capacity to connect
to the rest of the world. It is scheduled to be put into service in July
2011.

Until then, international network connections will continue to be made
via satellite, at immoderate costs. Theoretically, fibre optic cable
should lead to lower Internet access prices and improve connection speeds.

It is unlikely, however, that Internet access will be democratised and
made available to the general population.

The authorities are cautious when commenting on this new development. In
February 2011, Cuba's Vice-Minister of Information and Communications,
José Luis Perdomo, pointed out that cable "is not a 'magic wand,'" and
that granting Cubans access to the Internet will require a substantial
investment in its infrastructures. He also said that there is "no
political obstacle" to offering such access. For the time being, this
access to the Web will remain reserved for "social use" by institutions,
universities and certain categories such as doctors and journalists. He
stated: "Our priority is to continue the creation of collective access
centres in addition to strengthening the connections in scientific,
university and medical research centres."

Resourcefulness

A genuine black market has been prospering in Cuba in which offers are
made to buy or "rent" passwords and codes used by the few individuals
and companies whom the incumbent party has cleared for Internet access.

Navigating the Net costs 50 U.S. dollars per month and receiving/sending
one email message costs 1 U.S. dollar in some "hacker centres." Illegal
users find it safer to connect only at night.

Some international network connections can be accessed from foreign or
private residences.

Certain dissidents tweet by sending SMS via foreign-based accounts,
while others insert foreign SIM cards into their cell phones to access
the Net. While netizens will stop at nothing to pass on information, it
can come at a high cost. Freelance bloggers do not have direct access to
their websites, which are not hosted on the island. They are have to
rely on friends abroad to publish their articles and posts. They do that
by following a well-tested procedure: they prepare their content in
advance, copy it onto a USB flash drive, and send it by email from a
hotel or other location, because dissidents are more and more frequently
denied entry into tourist hotels. USB flash drives, which are also being
passed from hand-to-hand, are the new vectors for freedom of speech in
Cuba – the local "samzidats."

Demonising bloggers and social networks: A digital cold war?

In 2009, the regime became wary of the growing popularity of certain
bloggers, notably Yoani Sanchez. The latter has been repeatedly
assaulted, interrogated and targeted by genuine slander campaigns, while
other bloggers, such as Luis Felipe Rojas, have been arrested several times.

Cuban dissident and cyberjournalist Guillermo Fariñas Hernández ("El
Coco"), winner of the 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought
awarded by the European Parliament, was arrested three times in less
than 48 hours in January 2011. His only wrongdoing is that he has been
militating in favour of the right to inform and to circulate news freely.

The legal arsenal used against online opposition to the regime remains
particularly harsh and dissuasive. Cuban netizens risk punishment of up
to twenty years in prison for posting an article deemed
"counter-revolutionary" on an Internet website hosted abroad, and five
years for illegally connecting to the international network.

The problem is becoming increasingly urgent as the authorities fear the
social networks' mobilisation power even more after witnessing Tunisian
and Egyptian examples of it. Some U.S. diplomatic cables published by
WikiLeaks in December 2010 revealed that the Cuban regime is more afraid
of bloggers than of "traditional" dissidents.

In a 15 April 2009 telegramme, dissidents were described as forming "a
movement as old and out of touch from the lives of ordinary Cubans as
the regime itself." A cable dated 20 December 2009 stressed, to the
contrary, that bloggers are "a much more serious threat" to the Cuban
government. The United States views the reporting by Cuban netizens of
their arrests and mistreatment as an invaluable political tool, because
the latter represent "a group which frustrates and scares the Cuban
government like no other." "The bloggers' mushrooming international
popularity and their ability to stay one tech-step ahead of the
authorities are causing serious headaches for the regime." The U.S.
diplomat concluded: "We believe that it is the younger generation of
'non-traditional dissidents' that is likely to have a greater long-term
impact on post-Castro Cuba."

Another telegramme noted that "Younger individuals, including bloggers
(…) are much better than traditional dissidents at taking 'rebellious'
stands with greater popular appeal" – an assessment that Cuban leaders
seem to share. Since February 2011, a one-hour or so video has been
circulating on the Internet (vimeo.com/19402730) in which an
unidentified Cuban expert explains in detail how the American enemy is
funding Cuban cyberdissidence.

Using as an example blogger Yoani Sanchez, he asserts that "she is
organising a virtual network of mercenaries who are not traditional
counter-revolutionaries." The expert urges that these new forces be
neutralised, stressing that "being a blogger is not bad. They have their
bloggers and we have ours. We're going to fight to see which of the two
turns out to be stronger."

Government reprisal: Occupy the field

The authorities are now striving to expand their presence on the Web: an
official Cuban bloggers association was formed in 2009. The number of
"pro-government" bloggers is said to be constantly rising, and may be as
high as several hundred. In February 2011, the Reuters press agency
reported that Cuba had some 1,000 "official bloggers."

Any possible links between the Havana government and hackers who target
Cuban websites and blogs hosted abroad, among others, are under heavy
scrutiny.

Since the regime's strategy is to "drown" dissident bloggers in a flood
of pro-government bloggers, the government no longer needs to keep such
a tight rein on the former, and can afford to make some concessions.
Since 9 February, forty-some opposition blogs and Internet pages, among
them Yoani Sanchez's Generación Y, are accessible again from the island
for those who can connect to the international network. According to
this blogger's statements to the foreign press, Cuba may owe this breath
of fresh air to the 14th Informática – International Convention and
Fair, held in Havana from 7 to 11 February. What remains to be seen is
whether this deblocking will last.

The authorities' negative track record with regard to censorship
accounts for dissidents' doubts that the Internet will ever be
accessible throughout the island. According to Yoani Sanchez, "the cable
optic fibres are already engraved with the name of their owner and its
ideology. This undersea connection seems destined more to control us
than to link us to the world." However, with this cable, "it will be
more difficult to convince us that we cannot have YouTube, Facebook or
Gmail," she pointed out, specifying that "no one will prevent us from
using this cable to do something very different from the plans of those
who bought it."

For the middle or long-term, some people are banking on Chinese-type
progress: Web growth for economic reasons, with more access for the
population, while maintaining political control. A glimmer of hope
remains: Cuba has announced that it wishes to switch from a Windows to a
Linux operating system. This initiative may enhance the technical
expertise of Cuban IT specialists, who will then be in a better position
to circumvent censorship.

http://en.rsf.org/internet-enemie-cuba,39756.html

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- The Cuban people live in very difficult
times. However, this is not news. For more than fifty years we have
witnessed increasing poverty and the ongoing violation of our human rights.

We have watched with sadness and outrage as our cities have become a
heap of dust, destitute people, and discrimination. Instead of
confronting these crises with meaningful change, the Castros blame
others and make promises which are never fulfilled, and the Cuban people
have no mechanism to hold them accountable for these failures. The
regime treats Cuban citizens like children, attempting to control all
aspects of Cuban life. They tell us how to do business, how to think,
how to act. They have created a system that spreads doubt and division
among us, weakening our unity, pitting Cuban against Cuban, benefiting
some at the expense of others. The socialist economic model has stifled
generations of Cuban creativity and productivity, resulting in decay and
destitution. We deserve and demand better.

Concilio Cubano is a forum that proposes to bring together all of the
opposition groups that peacefully oppose the current regime. We intend
to give the people of Santiago de Cuba, and eventually all of Cuba, a
comprehensive program with viable proposals on political, economic, and
social issues. These proposals will help us to exit the crisis to which
the current regime has brought us; a regime that, despite fifty years in
power now asks us for more sacrifices and more budget cuts, and intends
to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers.

We have gained consciousness of our current situation. We will not
continue to remain silent. We want solutions, and we say enough to the
speeches and empty formalities.

We need a government that represents the whole population of Cuba in its
diversity: political, ethnic, religious, sexual preferences, and other.
We want the creation of institutions and laws consistent with that
cultural diversity.

We need a government whose primary interest is to respect freedom and
equality, including] the free expression of thought, freedom of
association, and economic freedom.
We deserve a government that is accountable to the people of Cuba.

Economic

In the economic realm, the industries and commerce are in ruins. The
economic system has been dominated by state control, stifled by
bureaucracy, and crippled by a lack of competition. To address our
economic crisis], the current regime proposes the "actualization of the
socialist economic model." However, what this really means is the
continuation of economic failure. In the new economic reform guidelines,
one can recognize once again that the economic policy of the communist
regime will be the same in its essence: foreigners will be the only
people who will be allowed to open big businesses in conjunction with
the regime. The Cuban people only get the crumb of self-employment
activities. We will not have the right to increase or better our
participation in the economy of our country.

The regime also proposes taxes that are excessive and absurd. Previous
experiences indicate that increasing taxes dispirits the consumer and
inhibits productive activity. For this reason, the solution is not in
creating new taxes; it is in reducing existing taxes to promote the
creativity and productivity of the Cuban people.

The regime has failed to meet the needs of working people. The workers
who were recently laid off do not have the necessary resources to stay
afloat in self-employment. It is truthfully inhumane to lay off a worker
after decades of having paid him/her a miserable salary that does not
add up to enough savings, without first ensuring that the person has
access to bank loans. We are ashamed to see that the Center for Cuban
Workers (CTC) and its top representative, Mr. Salvador Valdes Mesa, has
supported the directives of Raul Castro and left the workers in a total
state of helplessness.

We are weary of public works projects that never yield any benefit to
the people. Our streets have been destroyed again and again in the name
of supposed infrastructure programs that are never completed, due to
official indecisiveness and negligence. The so-called "work of the
century," will not be called that for its quality but because it will
last a hundred years before its completion.

To promote greater economic freedom and opportunity, Concilio Cubano
proposes the following:

1. Grant full legal recognition to the Cuban people's rights to private
property. These rights include: the right of homeowners to sell their
homes; [the right to buy or rent housing freely; the right to freely
make a will; and the right to inherit.]

2. [Reform the tax code to promote productivity by reducing overall tax
rates and creating tax incentives for workers and business owners.]

3. Provide increasing economic opportunity for citizens under 35 and
employment opportunities for the disabled. Provide skills education for
workers of all ages who need to adjust to a new economy.

4. Permit all citizens born in Cuba to be investors in medium and large
companies whether or not they reside in the country or outside it. In
other words, enable the decentralization of the economic activity of the
country, which is currently in the hands of the totalitarian state. It
is necessary to put this activity into the hands of Cuban citizens.

5. Facilitate the granting of credit to all those who need it to start
private businesses.

6. Make possible the mixed association of foreign citizens and Cuban
citizens within companies.

7. Create a transparent and accountable government agency to oversee
public works projects.

Political and Legal

In the political realm, one sees an increase in human rights violations
including: the persecution and harassment of those who think differently
than the regime; the dispossession of goods without any judicial order;
arbitrary detentions; denial of rights of free speech and association,
freedom of the press and media, and freedom of access to information;
refusal to allow Cuban citizens to travel freely within Cuba and to and
from foreign destinations; and interference with freedom of religion.

These abuses are made possible by the lack of government accountability
to the people of Cuba. There are no free and fair elections in which
citizens can hold their officials accountable for their behavior.
Political parties are denied the freedom to challenge abuses by the PCC.
The lack of such accountability mechanisms leads to widespread
government corruption. The court system is unable to provide a check
against government abuses because it lacks the necessary independence.
As a result, the Cuban people suffer from arbitrary tyranny and a
failure of the rule of law.

[To promote a transparent and accountable government that respects the
rights of citizens, Concilio Cubano proposes the following:]

1. [Recognize and enforce the human rights of all Cuban citizens,
including the rights to freedom of speech, expression, and association;
the right to private property; the right to freedom of religion; the
right to a free press and access to information; and the right to free
movement.]

2. Eliminate all restrictions that prevent Cuban citizens from freely
entering or leaving the country. Repeal Decree No. 217 from April 22,
1997, which prevents the free movement of citizens, mainly into the city
of Havana.

3. Repeal Law 88, which criminalizes basic rights of association and
access to information, and eliminate the law of social dangerousness. No
one should be punished for exercising basic political and personal rights.

4. Modify the Criminal Procedure Code to guarantee the rights of the
accused person and the fairness of the criminal justice process.

5. Make these rights meaningful by: joining the American Convention on
Human Rights and accepting the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights to hear cases of human rights violations in Cuba;
creating an independent human rights commission with the power to
investigate and address human rights abuses; and making the structural
changes in #6 below that will enable citizens to effectively enforce
their rights within the Cuban legal system.

6. Restructure the government to provide transparency, accountability,
and the rule of law. In particular: allow a wide range of political
parties to organize, speak, campaign, and contest elections; hold free
and fair elections; create an independent anti-corruption mechanism with
open and transparent procedures; provide by law for the independence of
the judiciary; provide by law for the independence of the parliament
from the executive branch, and give the parliament sufficient power to
act as a check on the executive.

Social and Cultural

The fabric of Cuban society has been frayed by more than fifty years of
dictatorship. Cuban people have lived under a system in which they must
often break the rules to survive. This experience has undermined respect
for law and encouraged dependence. The regime coerces citizens into
spying on each other and reporting on each other. It uses networks of
informants to generate a massive system of surveillance which undermines
social trust.

Under the Castros, Cuban society has experienced the breakdown of basic
social institutions, including regression in education, culture, health
care and technology. In all these areas, the regime expects
professionals to act as arms of the state, and refuses to allow them the
independence necessary to establish relationships of trust with those
they serve. Education has suffered. The system is designed to
indoctrinate, not to educate. Maestros emergentes, or fast-track teacher
syoung and inexperienced teachers who have been trained in a speedy
process to cope with the loss of educated teachers leaving for better
paying jobs], are failing our students and parents.

The service in hospitals is poor; young doctors often receive inadequate
training; there is insufficient confidentiality in the doctor-patient
relationship; on many occasions medicines are not found; and our
physicians are sent to complete international missions to the detriment
of the inhabitants of the provinces who need medical attention. People
with HIV are incarcerated in quarantine centers as though they were
criminals instead of respecting their human rights.
In our streets, we see the consequences of such social deterioration.
Violence in our streets has considerably increased and we see with
sadness how continuous assaults are produced, adding to the insecurity
to our citizens.

The widespread use of alcohol contributes to the increase in violence.
Citizens who are struggling to survive and have little hope for their
futures turn to violence against each other. This situation contributes
further to the breakdown of social ties.

Our cultural life has been stifled by the Castros. The regime dominates
all creative and artistic expression. Artists are forced to represent
the regime's point of view. The Castro regime has restricted peoples'
access to technology in order to isolate them from the world, and it has
selectively blocked websites representing dissident points of view.

To rebuild the social and cultural realms, Concilio Cubano proposes the
following:

1. Disband all watchdog systems of surveillance.

2. Reform the educational system to provide well-trained teachers, a
focus on critical-thinking skills, and] the autonomy of educational
institutions, particularly colleges and universities.

3. Reform the health care system to provide well-trained health
professionals; increase access to medicines and supplies in general;
increase access to health care in the provinces in particular; and
protect the independence of medical professionals.

4. Eliminate the quarantine system for people with HIV.

5. Create public health intervention programs to address the needs of
the homeless, and those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction.

*6. Allow the development, and support the flourishing, of independent
artistic and creative enterprises.

7. Increase the Cuban people's free access to technology and internet
communication.

8. Protect the equal rights of all Cuban citizens – regardless of race,
religion, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation – to marry, to
have or adopt children, and to enjoy the benefits of family and private
life.

With the support of our people, the strength of our political program
and our method of peaceful struggle, the time has arrived to demand
change. Concilio Cubano forms part of the peaceful opposition that
presents a viable alternative program. We represent the just demands of
the people of Santiago de Cuba and eventually the Cuban people. We speak
for this noble endeavor to all Cubans, not only to our friends, but also
to those who colluded with injustice in the past but now hope for a
future of freedom and prosperity.

We believe that all Cubans, regardless of their past allegiances, should
now come together to build a better future for our country. Because of
our activities and our ongoing claim for our rights, we have been the
victims of the biggest campaign of slander and repression that has ever
been received by an opposition movement in contemporary history. This
experience of repression has taught us that] the most important resource
we have with which to speak is the truth. We aim to give a message of
hope to our people: to the young who have lost their hopes, to the
parents who have cried for the death of a son who attempted to find a
future in another country, to the seniors who after many years of work
receive a pension that does not afford them enough to eat, to the
divided families who have missed their loved ones for years. To all
those who have lost their faith: we present our Declaration, promising
to continue our struggle for you.

Santiago de Cuba, January 14, 2011.

If you wish to contact us to discuss this Declaration or to report any
denunciation that has to do with the violation of your rights, you may
do so below by the following signatures:

1 – Ernesto Vera Rodríguez. Lawyer Manager of the Eastern Provinces for
Concilio Cubano. Vecino de José Antonio Saco # 1255 entre 6 y 7 Reparto
Santa Bárbara, Santiago de Cuba. Teléfono 646333.

2 – Raudel Ávila Lozada. Confederation of Workers of National
Independent of Cuba (CONIC) and member of the Political Commission of
Concilio Cubano. Vecino de Callamo # 618 entre Céspedes y Primero de
Mayo, Palma Soriano.

3 – Tania Montoya Vázquez. Municpals of Opposition of Palma Soriano.
Vecina de carretera de San Luis # 13 Reparto La Concepción, Palma Soriano.
4 – Rodis Mustelier Caignet. President of the National Board of
Democratic Transition. Vecino de Carretera de Siboney km 12, Las Guásimas.

5 – Pedro Antonio Alonso. Promoter of the Municpals of opposition and
President of the Political Commission and Human Rights of Concilio
Cubano. Teléfono 631487.

6 – Lázaro Rosales Rojas. Coordinator of the Liberal Unity of Santiago
de Cuba. Vecino de Paco Cabrera # 6B e/ Edel Mora Y Final, Reparto
Timbales, municipio Contramaestre.

7 – Idalmis Núñez Reynosa. Delegate of the FLAMUR and President of the
Economic Commission of Concilio Cubano in Santiago de Cuba. Teléfono 674510.

8 – Eunice Madaula Fernández. Executive Director of the CEEDPA "José
Ignacio García Hamilton". Teléfono: 653115 y vecina de Pedro Alvarado #
19 entre 8 y 10 Reparto Terrazas.

9 – Francisco Herodes Díaz Echemendía. Political former prisoner. Vecino
de Calle E # 74 entre B y D. Reparto Chicharrones, Santiago de Cuba.

10 – Carlos Alberto Reyes Casanova. Municpals of Opposition of Palma
Soriano and activist of Political Party of CID. Vecino de Villuendas #
258 entre Avenida de la Libertad y Remus, Palma Soriano.

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=31464

p2pnet view P2P | Freedom:- A little while back, "What if Generation Y
is a government sponsored initiative (that will really have no impact to
change things) just so that the government [of Cuba] can give the
illusion of freedom of speech to the smarter part of the population …
false hope basically?" – asked Another Perspective in a Reader's Write
to a p2pnet re-post of Yoani Sánchez (right) then current Generation Y blog

"If the regime was so ruthless why is she still blogging?" – asked the
comment.

Here's a new Generation Y post >>>

Seated in the armchair of a hotel with my laptop open, I note the slow
blinking of the WiFi transmitter and watch the stern faces of the
custodians. This could be one more day trying to enter my own blog with
an anonymous proxy, jumping over the censorship with a few tricks that
let me look at the forbidden. On the bottom of the screen a banner
announces that I'm navigating at 41 kilobytes a second.

Joking with a friend I warn her we'd better hold onto our hair so it
won't get messed up from "speeding." But the narrow band doesn't matter
much this February afternoon. I'm here to cheer myself up, not to get
depressed all over again by the damned situation of an Internet
undermined by filters. I have come to see if the long night of
censorship no longer hangs over Generation Y. With just a click I manage
to enter the site that, since March of 2008, has not been visible from a
public place.

I'm so surprised I shout and the camera watching from the ceiling
records the fillings in my teeth as I laugh uncontrollably.

After three years, my virtual space is again sighted from inside Cuba.

I don't know the reasons for the end to this blockade, although I can
speculate that the celebration of the 2011 Havana International Computer
Science Fair has brought many foreign guests and it is better to show
them an image of tolerance, of supposed openings in the realm of citizen
expression.

It is also possible that after having proved that blocking a website
only makes it more attractive to internauts, the cyberpolice have chosen
to exhibit the forbidden fruit they so demonized in recent months.

If it's because of a technical glitch that will soon be corrected, once
again throwing shadows over my virtual diary, then there will be plenty
of time to loudly denounce it. But for the moment, I make plans for the
platforms www.vocescubanas.com and www.desdecuba.com to enjoy a long
stay with us.

"This is a citizen victory over the demons of control", says Yoanni on
Generation Y, adding:

"We have taken back what belongs to us. These virtual places are ours,
and they will have to learn to live with what they can no longer deny."

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/48657

Internet Policy in Castro's Cuba
By Ellery Roberts Biddle
February 3, 2011

Fidel Castro has an acute understanding of the power of communication.
It fueled his force as a ruler for over half a century, and was freshly
evident last summer when the 82-year-old leader of the Cuban revolution
reappeared in public for the first time since handing power to his
brother in 2006. Castro gave televised press conferences to Cuban and
international media, and granted an exclusive interview to Carmen Lira
Saade, editor of the renowned Mexico City newspaper La Jornada. During
the interview, Castro discussed international security, his own
mortality, and one of the most pressing issues facing the Cuban
government today: the Internet.

The Internet has put the possibility of communicating with the
world into our hands. We had nothing like this before. … We are facing
the most powerful weapon that's ever existed… The power of communication
has been, and is, in the hands of the empire and of ambitious private
sector groups that have used and abused it… [A]lthough they've tried to
keep this power intact, they haven't been able to. They are losing it
day by day… as many other [voices] emerge each moment.

Castro said he admired alternative Latin American news organizations
that advocate for government transparency, and was fascinated by the
power that WikiLeaks has begun to wield over the U.S. government. Lira
did not venture to ask him what would happen if a WikiLeaks organization
were to surface in Cuba. Instead they talked about the challenges Cuba
faces in obtaining Internet service (due in part to the U.S. embargo)
and the government's peculiar system of providing Internet access to the
public. Press freedom and the flow of information remained conspicuously
absent from the conversation.

The advocacy groups Reporters without Borders and Freedom House label
Cuba an "Internet enemy" along with China, Iran, Syria, and Myanmar. But
while the governments of those countries are known to censor online
content, there is no evidence that the Cuban government blocks more than
a handful of websites on the island (among them the site of renowned
blogger Yoani Sánchez). If you can get online in Cuba you can visit
almost any website you want, but most people never get that far. Cuba's
bandwidth is miserably narrow, its telecommunications infrastructure is
poor, and citizen access to the Internet is highly regulated by state
officials.

Rationing the Digital

The International Telecommunication Union reports Cuba's Internet
penetration rate as 14 percent, placing it on par with other poor
nations in the region such as El Salvador and Guatemala. Only a tiny
fraction of Cubans have at-home connections—those who use the Internet
typically get online at their places of work, or in hotel Internet
cafés, where an hour of service can cost more than ten dollars, or
nearly two weeks' pay on a state salary.

A reporter I spoke with in Havana compared government policy on Internet
access to the nation's rationing system. "They dole out Internet access
the same way they dole out rice," she said. "It's distributed according
to necessity."

The nation's skilled professionals—doctors, academics, researchers of
science and technology, and high-ranking government employees—are
allowed access at their places of work because it is considered
necessary to their professions. As such, they are expected to use their
connections for professional purposes only. While some check their
personal email accounts, read the news, or write blogs while at work,
others are more cautious. Rumors of state-installed spyware and Cuba's
longstanding regime of "soft" social control have conditioned most
Cubans to self-censor their online behavior, even when they have open
access to the global Internet.

For the millions of Cubans who do not fall into this elite group of
high-skilled workers, the government has built an "Intranet," known as
Red Cubana, which Cubans can use at universities, youth computing clubs,
and post offices. Although it does allow Cubans to connect to the state
email platform, Red Cubana is not connected to the global Internet—it
connects only to sites hosted in Cuba, all of which are under constant
scrutiny by the Ministry of IT and Communications.

Objective though it may sound, "distribution by necessity" politicizes
access: Cubans do not remain in the upper echelon of "skilled
professionals" if their political behavior falls out of line with
government expectations. And those who engage in anything from black
market transactions to critical expression online risk being labeled
"counterrevolutionary," and can face greater obstacles to getting online
as a result. But as flows of foreign capital and technological savvy
increase on the island, many are able to connect through unofficial means.

Access Underground and Rumors of Blogostroika

Internet access has become a hot item within the island's expansive
underground economy. Access cards used at hotel Internet cafés are sold
at below-market rates, and many who have access in their homes allow
friends and neighbors to use their connections for a fee.
Telecommunications workers have been bribed to split at-home cables so
that multiple households can get online using the same connection. Some
Cubans have even experimented with pirating satellite connections from
the rooftops of their homes. While authorities have attempted to clamp
down on these activities, there is evidence of an internal debate among
government officials: Some believe that the proliferation of
unauthorized access may become impossible to control.

While the government has aimed for a stable (if highly restricted)
balance in its policy of Internet access, it openly condemns critical
voices within the island's nascent blogging community. Diplomatic cables
sent from the U.S. Interest Section in Havana (an office that exists in
lieu of an actual embassy), released by WikiLeaks in December 2010,
suggest that government officials have come to view the island's
bloggers as a "most serious challenge" to Cuba's political stability.

Bloggers like Claudia Cadelo, author Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and Yoani
Sánchez have become outspoken advocates for "Internet freedom," for
freedom of speech and information, and for economic rights for Cubans.
They have garnered immense recognition within the international human
rights community and among foreign leaders, and their documentation of
government repression has provided concrete data to hold the Cuban
government accountable for its actions.

In January 2010, Cuba Study Group, a diaspora organization that
advocates for the liberalization of Cuba, convened a meeting of Cuba
scholars and policy experts to discuss the potential civic and economic
gains that new technologies could bring to Cuban citizens. In a paper
entitled "Empowering the Cuban People through Technology" they urged
President Obama and the U.S. Congress to remove (embargo-related)
restrictions on telecommunications companies so that the Cuban
government could contract with these entities and increase service on
the island. But before the Obama administration could muster the
political capital to act, the Cuban government found another way to
solve its problem.

The Chávez Solution

Over the summer of 2010, the government moved forward in an agreement
with Venezuela to build a submarine fiber optic cable linking Cuba,
Jamaica, and Venezuela's Caribbean coast. The cable will increase the
island's connectivity 3,000 times and thus enable video, Voice over IP,
and other high-bandwidth technologies that are nearly impossible to run
on the island at present. The cable will reportedly be in place by March
of 2011, but it will not, as many had hoped, create more opportunities
for Cubans to get online. It will simply increase the quality of
connection for those who already have Internet access.

Under the Castro government, the open, borderless, many-to-many form of
Internet communication presents a serious challenge. Cuba's national
stability depends upon centralized structures of bureaucratic and
political power, substantial limits on civil and economic liberties, and
a regime of social control that is deeply entrenched in collective
psychology. The free exploration and expression of political ideas is
not a part of civic life, and self-censorship is a natural, often
unconscious practice. Bloggers like Sánchez and Pardo Lazo belong to a
very small, risk-loving class of Cuban citizens who have rid themselves
of these mechanisms of control. But they are the exception.

While the Cuban leadership is keenly aware of the potential power of
social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, government
officials also understand the tremendous benefits of the network as a
space for knowledge acquisition. They are determined to maintain
excellence within the nation's medical and academic sectors, and they
recognize that if researchers cannot use the web to connect with their
international counterparts, they will swiftly become irrelevant.

In an attempt to balance this confluence of interests, the government
has created a complex social hierarchy of network use: The well educated
and highly skilled use the global Internet, albeit under state watch.
Those with money log on at hotel Internet cafés, while those with black
market savvy pirate their connections. Everyone else—the masses of
workers who were once the collective soul of Fidel's revolution—can use
Red Cubana. Or they can wait for the next revolution.

http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/briefings/data/000195

Dear Cuba:

Maybe you've got a point.

I refer to your outrage over a new video game, the object of which is to
assassinate Fidel Castro. In "Call of Duty: Black Ops," the player is
transported to Havana during the Cold War with a mission to kill the
young communist revolutionary.

As an article on your state-run news website put it, "What the United
States couldn't accomplish in more than 50 years, they are now trying to
do virtually." It says the game will turn American kids into sociopaths.

That's a dubious claim, at least according to Christopher J. Ferguson, a
psychology professor at Texas A&M International University and expert in
video-game violence, who was quoted in an Associated Press account. "At
this point," he said, "there is no evidence that video games, violent or
otherwise, cause harm to minors."

Youth violence in the U.S., said Ferguson, is at its lowest ebb in 40
years, even though research indicates that virtually all young men — up
to 95 percent — have at some point played violent video games. So, Cuba,
your suggestion that "Call of Duty" will produce kill-crazy psychos
seems naive, at best. Hysterical at worst.

All that said, it's not hard to empathize with your feeling of pique.
How would we like it if you produced a game where players had to shoot
their way through Washington with a goal of killing President Barack
Obama? The U.S. government would likely have a thing or two to say about
that.

Not to equate our duly elected president with your former dictator for
life, but only to say, I understand where you're coming from. Castro is
a murderous thug, but he's your murderous thug and it really knots your
knickers when people try to video-game assassinate him. Message
received. But the question is, what do you think we can do about it?

We have this thing in this country, maybe you've heard about it, called
the First Amendment. Among the things it guarantees is freedom of
expression. That's a right enjoyed by everybody — even video game
makers. Every American is free to say pretty much anything she or he
pleases, and the government is legally proscribed from stopping them.

That sounds crazy to you, right? How can the government be proscribed
from doing anything it wants?

In your country it's different. Say something the government doesn't
like and they whisk you off to the ol' gulag. You throw journalists in
jail. You throw dissidents in jail. You throw poets in jail. Don't do
the rhyme if you can't do the time, right?

And we're not talking some country club jail with conjugal visits and a
TV room, are we? No, we're talking jails with moldy, maggoty food,
roaches, rats, reek, rampant physical, mental and sexual abuse, and
cells so narrow you barely have room to sit.

Yes, we have some pretty draconian policies in this country, but I'm
afraid ours pale next to yours. Heck, we haven't a gulag to our name.
And no law to send video game makers there if we did.

But don't despair. Maybe your statement will get people talking about
the propriety of assassinating other nation's leaders in video games.
Maybe they'll debate whether that's in the best of taste. Of course,
maybe Activision Blizzard will tell them to take a flying leap.

That's kind of how freedom of speech works. Everybody gets their say.
It's messy and unpredictable. But we like it. We think it works.

Anyway, thanks for listening. And tell Elian we said hi.

lpitts@miamiherald.com

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/pitts-cuba-needs-to-learn-how-freedom-of-1045835.html?cxtype=rss_opinion

STRASBOURG — The European parliament awarded Thursday its prestigious
Sakharov human rights prize to Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas, as
Europe debates whether to normalise ties with the Communist regime.

"Guillermo Farinas is an independent journalist and political dissident
who was ready to sacrifice and risk his own health and life as a means
of pressure to achieve change in Cuba," said parliament president Jerzy
Buzek.

The 48-year-old journalist and psychologist has often used hunger
strikes to press for greater freedoms in the island led by the Castro
brothers since the 1959 revolution.

"He used hunger strikes to protest and to challenge the lack of freedom
of speech in Cuba, carrying the hopes for all of those who care for
freedom, human rights and democracy," Buzek said as he announced this
year's winner.

Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa and Israeli rights group
Breaking the Silence had also been on the shortlist for this year's
Sakharov award. The winner is chosen behind closed doors by the heads of
the European parliament's political groups.

Farinas is the third Cuban to receive the prize, after Oswaldo Paya in
2002 and the "Ladies in White" group of women whose husbands are jailed
in Cuba, which received the award in 2005.

But the Communist government has never allowed the Ladies in White to
travel to Strasbourg to pick up their prize at the parliament.

"I sincerely hope that together with Guillermo Farinas another Cuban
laureate from 2005, the Ladies in White, will also be able to collect
the Sakharov prize in person," Buzek said. The ceremony is scheduled for
December 15.

The 22nd Sakharov Prize, named after late Soviet dissident Andrei
Sakharov, comes with a cash award of 50,000 euros (70,000 dollars).

The decision to give this year's award to Farinas came four days before
European Union foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg to discuss the
27-nation bloc's relations with Cuba.

Spain's Socialist government wants the EU to normalise relations with
Cuba, arguing that a shift away from a hardline stance would accelerate
change on the island.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia, former communist bloc countries, oppose
any change in the EU's current position, diplomats said.

The EU's "common position" at present is to insist that Cuba make
progress on human rights and democracy before ties are normalised.

Europeans remain divided on how to proceed with Cuba ahead of Monday's
meeting of foreign ministers, diplomats said.

Farinas held a 135-day hunger strike earlier this year that left him
near death but compelled the Cuban government to release 52 political
prisoners.

Another fast between 1995 and 1997 brought attention to his allegations
of corruption at the hospital where he worked.

He also carried out a six-month hunger strike in 2006, but that time he
failed to force the government to allow freer access to the Internet.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYbn4A0Faez8FsXTP7jv1q9rKd_w?docId=CNG.503f5376282f37d4d1855abb2aea9e6a.2a1

The Obama administration has embarked on a path of cultural exchanges
and lax immigration policies toward Cuba reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's
administration and the brief detente that existed with the island's regime.

This year alone, we have seen the likes of artists such as Silvio
Rodriguez, Los Van Van, La Orquesta Aragon, Omara Portuondo and
Adalberto Alvarez perform in various cities in the United States,
including Miami.

The latter was unimaginable during the Indian summer of good relations
Cuban and American diplomats enjoyed in the late 1970s under President
Carter.

Along with the performers, our city has seen an increase of former
Castro security agents, assistants and ex daughters-in-law who have
added a circus-like, paparazzi feel to local television talk shows on
Spanish language stations that deal with the Cuban polemic on a nightly
basis.

For the most part, I support the cultural exchanges if for nothing else
than to demonstrate that freedom of speech is alive and well in Miami,
where Cuban exile leadership has been so maligned by the media (and
sometimes rightfully so) for being narrow-minded and obtuse.

Albeit, the exchange seems to be “one way.'' I have yet to see Albita
play the Karl Marx Theater in Havana or Willy Chirino play an open air
show in the very spot that Colombian singer Juanes serenaded a million
Cubans several months ago.

I have come to believe that human contact goes a very long way in
dispelling the wall of mythology and propaganda promulgated on both
sides of the Florida Straits.

These cultural exchanges have brought Cubans in Miami closer to the
present-day sights and sounds of the island, which undeniably helps
bridge the gap that politicians in Miami and dictators in Cuba cannot
negotiate.

Given this new era of openness with Cuba, I was surprised when a friend
brought her father's hopeless status to my attention.

Timoteo Gonzalez, a 77-year-old native of the Cuban town of Bolondron,
would like to come to the United States to live out the rest of his days
with his children who are hard-working contributors of our society.

The snag? In 1964, Mr. Gonzalez burned a cane field in protest of and
out of frustration with the Cuban regime, which was at the height of one
of its most rigid periods of intolerance. For this, he was arrested and
tried in Cuba.

He served seven of his 30-year sentence and was eventually released to
live the rest of his life as a political leper in a country that does
not celebrate divergence.

What is puzzling about Gonzalez' case is that, considering this new
immigration philosophy adopted by the administration toward Cuba, it is
the American government that is not permitting him entry into this
country, likening him to “a terrorist threat.''

I contacted Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehitnen's office for help on this
matter, and she regrettably informed me of the government's posture. “I
find the fact that this government can give Mr. Gonzalez such a hard
time on his petition to enter the U.S. and has no problem granting
declared enemies of this country the right to travel, perform, and in
the case of some of the former Castro aides, the right to reside in the
U.S. truly hypocritical,'' Ros-Lehtinen commented.

I concur with the congresswoman. The decision is hypocritical indeed,
along with shameful and shortsighted.

Unfortunately Gonzalez is the victim of selective historic revision and
partisan politics.

The fact that he doesn't play the guitar and rail against the United
States every opportunity he gets seems to work against him. So much for
open-mindedness and detente.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/18/1830429/this-is-open-minded-detente.html

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said this weekend that she feels "very
responsible" following the International Press Institute's decision to
choose her as one of its 60 World Press Freedom Heroes.

"The word that sums up how I feel now is responsibility. Very
responsible for what this means, being on a list with people who are
risking their lives and their reputations as well in many parts of the
world," Sanchez, who received a text message telling her the news about
the award announced in Vienna on Friday, said.

The blogger, who turned 35 on Saturday, joins the list of 60 journalists
awarded prizes since 2000 by the Vienna-based IPI, which has described
her as a "harsh critic of the reality in Cuba," while highlighting her
work to remind "the world about the Caribbean island's restrictions on
free speech."

Sanchez, author of the "Generacion Y" blog since 2007, said the IPI
honour included an invitation and "in theory I should be in Vienna on
Sept. 13 to take part in the ceremony."

"There's not much time but I'm going to apply to see if I can go," said
the blogger, whom the Cuban government on several occasions has denied
permission to leave the island when invited to receive prizes and take
part in international events.

Yoani Sanchez, who also expressed her gratitude for the prize with an
audio message on her Twitter account, won Spain's 2008 Ortega y Gasset
Prize for Digital Journalism and in 2009 received an honourable mention
for the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University in New York.

In its announcement IPI said that Sanchez's blog, Generation Y, "is an
acerbic critique of life in Cuba, and a telling reminder to the world of
the restraints on free speech and expression on the Caribbean island".

Sanchez, a graduate of Havana University, left Cuba for Switzerland in
2002, but returned two years later. On her return, she set up, along
with a group of other Cubans, the magazine "Consenso" as a forum for
reflection and debate.

In 2007, spurred by what she saw as a growing repressive climate in her
homeland, she launched her blog, Generation Y. Composed of reflections
on daily life, politics and culture in Castro's Cuba, the blog today
boasts a readership of more than a million.

In early 2008, Sanchez reported that the site may have been targeted by
government censors. In April 2008, the site became unavailable in Cuba.

Since then, Sanchez has resorted to extreme and creative measures to
keep her blog alive. In a country where internet access is severely
restricted and prohibitively expensive, Sanchez often poses as a tourist
to access the internet, emailing her entries to friends outside the
country who then publish them online.

Sanchez has been refused permission to travel outside of Cuba at least
six times in the past two years alone, despite international acclaim for
her blog. In 2008, "TIME Magazine" named her one of the world's 100 most
influential people, noting her "feisty dedication to the truth," and
pointing out that "under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated
dissent, Sánchez has practiced what paper-bound journalists in her
country cannot: freedom of speech." She has also received the Ortega y
Gasset Prize, Spain's highest award for digital journalism; the Maria
Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University; and in 2009, TIME Magazine
named her blog among the 25 Best Blogs of 2009.

In her own country, however, Sanchez has repeatedly faced harassment by
authorities. In November 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported that she was
beaten by a group of unidentified men while on her way to a peaceful
protest. According to the article, after the attack, she was dumped
"again in the middle of the street, (…) leaving her bruised, scared and
sobbing."

Sanchez says she has not been able to see her own blog since 2007. She
reports on her blog that she is under continuous surveillance by state
security agents. On 24 May, Sanchez's blog reported that her name had
been announced on Cuba's state-run Roundtable program, "mixed with
concepts such as "cyber-terrorism," "cyber-commandos" and "media war."

"To be mentioned in a negative way in the most official program on
television is, for any Cuban, the confirmation of her social death,"
says Sanchez in her blog.
However, Sanchez refuses to be silenced. "If you are insulted by the
mediocre, the opportunists, if you are slandered by the employees of the
powerful but dying machinery, take it as a compliment," she says on her
blog.

http://en.mercopress.com/2010/09/06/cuban-blogger-joints-the-list-of-world-press-freedom-heroes

Nayana Jayarajan, Press Freedom Adviser

The International Press Institute today declared Cuban blogger Yoani
Maria Sanchez Cordero its 60th World Press Freedom Hero.

Sanchez's blog, Generation Y, is an acerbic critique of life in Cuba,
and a telling reminder to the world of the restraints on free speech and
expression on the Caribbean island.

Sanchez, a graduate of Havana University, left Cuba for Switzerland in
2002, but returned two years later. On her return, she set up, along
with a group of other Cubans, the magazine "Consenso" as a forum for
reflection and debate.

In 2007, spurred by what she saw as a growing repressive climate in her
homeland, she launched her blog, Generation Y. Composed of reflections
on daily life, politics and culture in Castro's Cuba, the blog today
boasts a readership of more than a million.

In early 2008, Sanchez reported that the site may have been targeted by
government censors. In April 2008, the site became unavailable in Cuba.

Since then, Sanchez has resorted to extreme and creative measures to
keep her blog alive. In a country where internet access is severely
restricted and prohibitively expensive, Sanchez often poses as a tourist
to access the internet, emailing her entries to friends outside the
country who then publish them online.

Sanchez has been refused permission to travel outside of Cuba at least
six times in the past two years alone, despite international acclaim for
her blog. In 2008, "TIME Magazine" named her one of the world's 100 most
influential people, noting her "feisty dedication to the truth," and
pointing out that "under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated
dissent, Sánchez has practiced what paper-bound journalists in her
country cannot: freedom of speech." She has also received the Ortega y
Gasset Prize, Spain's highest award for digital journalism; the Maria
Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University; and in 2009, TIME Magazine
named her blog among the 25 Best Blogs of 2009.

In her own country, however, Sanchez has repeatedly faced harassment by
authorities. In November 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported that she was
beaten by a group of unidentified men while on her way to a peaceful
protest. According to the article, after the attack, she was dumped
"again in the middle of the street, (…) leaving her bruised, scared and
sobbing."

Sanchez says she has not been able to see her own blog since 2007. She
reports on her blog that she is under continuous surveillance by state
security agents. On 24 May, Sanchez's blog reported that her name had
been announced on Cuba's state-run Roundtable program, "mixed with
concepts such as "cyber-terrorism," "cyber-commandos" and "media war."

"To be mentioned in a negative way in the most official program on
television is, for any Cuban, the confirmation of her social death,"
says Sanchez in her blog.

However, Sanchez refuses to be silenced. "If you are insulted by the
mediocre, the opportunists, if you are slandered by the employees of the
powerful but dying machinery, take it as a compliment," she says on her
blog.

"Sanchez's tremendously important work provides a glimpse into what is
otherwise a closed world," said IPI Interim Director Alison Bethel
McKenzie. "It is perhaps fitting that our 60th and final World Press
Freedom Hero represents a future where the power of the internet can be
harnessed to promote free speech. We are proud to know Yoani and to
award this prestigious prize to her."

"Yoani's work has contributed tremendously toward a more wholesome
understanding of the reality of life in Cuba. Her clear insights,
beautiful use of language and tenacity have distinguished Yoani as an
outstanding Caribbean journalist, blogger and citizen. We all look
forward to the day conditions in her homeland change so that free
expression can be more fully and abundantly facilitated, encouraged and
exercised. Our congratulations on her achievement of this prestigious
award," said Wesley Gibbings, President of the Association of Caribbean
Media Workers, reacting to the announcement of the award.

http://www.freemedia.at/singleview/5130/

Despite Increased Repression Independent Unions Continue to Emerge
Inside Cuba
By Jack Otero

During the Clinton Administration Mr. Otero served as Deputy
Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs, Assistant Secretary
of Labor-Designate and was the U.S. Government Representative on the
Governing Body of the International Labor Organization (ILO) 1993-1997.

Mr. Otero is a former Vice President of the U.S. National Labor Center
AFL-CIO. He was also International Vice President of the National
Federation of Railway and Airline Clerks, TCU; Vice President of the
National Democratic Party; President of the 1.7 million member Hispanic
labor organization, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
His international experience includes a combined 27 years of service as
Member of the World Executive Board and Regional Director for Latin
American Affairs of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).

In recent weeks several new independent unions have emerged, despite
increased repression by the Communist dictatorship – carpenters,
seamstress, teachers and other groups of workers have taken steps to
create new local unions identified with the major independent labor
centers, such as CONIC, CTDC, CITC, CUTC. These are acts of courageous
defiance since the Castro government explicitly prohibits independent
unions and has taken extraordinary repressive measures to quash any such
efforts. These developments point to the fact that opposition and
resistance to the regime is gaining momentum.

There is mounting evidence that the overwhelming majority of Cuban
citizens are crying out for a change in the system that will bring an
improvement in their daily lives. It is in fact, an absolute but tired
majority. Almost all Cubans are convinced that the status quo is
non-reforming and useless. Nobody believes any longer the propaganda and
false promises of the regime. Nor do they believe the many plans often
unveiled by the government, all of which are never implemented.
There is a general lack of everything, most particularly basic
necessities such as food– unless you have foreign currency to buy it in
special government stores. And most Cubans are desperate for work, and
vast amounts of arable land lie fallow. If allowed to plant food and
sell it freely, people in the island could once again feed themselves.
The regime, however, realizes that this would be a profound capitulation
to history. Better to let a nation stay hunger, undernourished and laid
waste than to compromise the Communist principle that the state must
control everything.
Nothing functions well in the island and everybody knows it. Although
resistance to the regime is growing every day, the social anonymity and
anemic willpower of the people generally are notable. This is still the
style of normal life in Cuba. There is prevalent paralysis at all levels
of society in the country. Only a few persons and a few groups have
remained steady in the pursuit of securing a more promising future for
the people. Those individuals and groups of individuals who advocate
free and independent labor unions represent one of the prominent forces
in the resistance. But they are paying a huge price for their
aspirations to a better life.

On January 12th, 2010 the independent trade unionist Osvaldo Alvarez,
from Perico, Matanzas province, was ambushed and severely beaten up by
state security forces when he was walking to the railroad station to
catch a train to travel to Havana.

The attack was conducted in the dead of night. Alvarez who lay wounded
and unconscious until taken to the hospital, ended up with two broken
ribs, contusions and lacerations but was unable to identify his
assailants. Mr. Alvarez is also a reporter for the independent agency
Trade Union Press based in Matanzas.

Another independent trade unionist, Isidro Manuel Pérez Cruz, resident
of Las Tunas and General Secretary of the independent union "Vicente
García" reported that on January 6th he was detained by agents of the
State Security police who roughed him up and confiscated his video JVC
camera. Next day he was summoned to the police station where he was
interrogated, booked and placed under probation under threat of a future
court trial. Pérez Cruz who is also a delegate to the independent
central labor federation CONIC, reported that he was warned at the
police station that he would be summarily arrested and sent to prison if
he continued involved in independent labor activities.

On December 28th teacher Rafael Leyva Leyva, member of the Collegiate
Independent Teachers of Cuba (CPIC) was also assaulted, beaten up and
arrested by a group of members of the so-called Rapid Response Brigades
headed by Rubinelsa Santana, along with the DSE official better known as
"el polaco." The brutal beating has resulted in a tear of his rectum,
causing him frequent hemorrhaging and the loss of sight from one of his
eyes.

Under the Castro-Communist regime only one union is allowed to operate –
the CTC – Confederation of Cuban Workers – which is an instrument of the
dictatorship to control and subjugate workers. The CTC leadership is
appointed by the government and they all must be members of the
Communist Central Committee. The Cuban government thumbs its nose at
international opinion and to the ILO, which has insisted that Cuba
respect and apply the various ILO Conventions and Recommendations
adopted and ratified by previous Cuban governments. Castro contents the
government is undertaking a complete review of its Labor Code, except
that it has been doing such review for the past 12 years. The Castro
regime contends that workers' freedom of association rights protected by
ILO Convention 87 was imposed by the imperialist power of capitalism and
does not apply in Cuba.

The Cuban government controls the market of labor and sets wages and
working conditions within the state sector, but such starvation wages
have only resulted in abject poverty for state Cuban workers and the
populace in general. The government also controls employment in the
private sector. No foreign corporation in Cuba can directly employ Cuban
workers – it must do so through employment agencies set up by the
government for such purposes. But only those workers whom the Communist
Party trusts are allowed to be hired by foreign corporations.
And, shamefully, the Cuban government retains between 95% and 98% of
what it receives in hard currency from the corporations for contracting
out this labor force.

This dictatorial repression does not permit labor strikes or any other
form of workers' peaceful protests. Any independent labor activity is
nearly impossible and extremely risky, as the government does not
hesitate to employ tactics of harassment, intimidation, arrests and long
term prison terms against those who dare defy the ban on the creation of
independent unions. There are several trade union prisoners still
languishing in jail, some of them still service 25-year terms imposed on
them during the massive trade union reprisals and arrests of 2003.

But those who ardently spouse the cause of free and democratic trade
unionism in Cuba have not given up the fight, risking their freedom,
their lives and the security of their own families. Despite the
repression, there are several labor organizations in Cuba – conducting
underground activities and with representation throughout the island.
Existing labor groups such as CONIC, CUTC, CTDC, CITC, among others,
advocate the principles of free trade unionism but are unable or capable
of representing effectively the interests of the workers, as they are
not recognized as legitimate entities by the government. Therefore, they
lack the basic rights to form unions of their own choosing, rights to
collective bargaining, right to strike or have freedom of speech. In
addition, the government forbids peaceful marches or their
demonstrations to display publicly their labor demands.

The independent unions in existence were established by dissidents who
oppose the Castro dictatorship, though they are often the victims of
brutal repressions, physical attacks, banning of their children from
school, banning of their relatives for any employment – either with the
state or the private sector. And in many cases such independent leaders
are arrested, brutally beaten and sentenced to long prison terms. There
have been a few who had been lucky to get out of jail and/or leave the
country for exile. But, not everyone is that fortunate.

There are several independent trade unionists languishing in prison. In
2004 nine members of the CUTC were condemned to long prison terms, many
of them as long as 25-year sentences. Among them was Pedro Pablo Alvarez
Ramos, General Secretary of CUTC who was freed after serving nearly five
years in prison but forced into exile in Spain. Two others were also
freed due to their dismal medical conditions, including Carmelo Diaz who
has stubbornly remained in the island leading the CITC. Several others
convicted in 2004 are still behind bars. See the CFTU webpage for more
information on the trade union prisoners visit our website:
www.freetradeunionism.org

The single union concept remains the angular stone of the Castro
regime's labor policy. I do not foresee any significant changes in the
near future that will permit Cuban workers to secure freedom of
association and collective bargaining rights, so long as this Communist
regime remains in power. We at the CFTU are determined to continue
pressuring the ILO and the international community to take action to
force the Cuban government to respect and apply the human and trade
union rights conventions adopted by the ILO and ratified by the Cuban
government.

But it is also our objective to hold responsible those foreign
corporations and governments that have lent a blind eye and a deaf ear
to the brutal repression of freedom and enslavement of the Cuban people
by the Castro regime. Those foreign corporations and governments are in
open complicity with the slave labor practices, imprisonment, torture
and other human indignities levied by the Castro regime upon the Cuban
people and Cuban workers for the past 50 years. When the time comes
those corporations and governments that are now profiting at the
expense, suffering and pain of the Cuban people will pay the price for
their dastardly conspiracy with the Castro regime. They will not be
exempt of punishment for the exploitation and abuses inflicted upon the
Cuban people. For sure, they will have their comeuppance for their
greedy and inhumane sins.

3.22.2010

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/media/Web1/Despite%20Increased%20Repression%20Independent%20Unions%20Continue%20to%20Emerge%20in%20Cuba.doc

They began by making the "L" sign for liberty and the "V" sign for
victory with their fingers.

The six independent journalists from Cuba gathered at a news conference
in Madrid were among the first to arrive in Spain this week after being
freed by the Havana authorities.

In total, the Cuban government has agreed to release 52 dissidents from
prison, in a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church.

Cuba might have hoped its move would improve its image abroad after the
international outrage when political activist Orlando Zapata died on
hunger strike in February.

But here in Spain, the former prisoners have been giving disturbing
details of their years behind bars.

"I spent 18 months in solitary confinement," Lester Gonzalez told the
BBC, showing a court paper which detailed his 20-year prison sentence.

"[I was] in the dark, with my hands tied; with rats and cockroaches and
excrement everywhere. That was all I could smell."

The men were among 75 arrested in a 2003 round-up of Cuban dissidents,
known as the Black Spring.

Now in Spain, which offered to receive them after their release, they've
described crowded and filthy prison cells where they were denied
drinking water for days; often, the only food was "giraffe soup" – so
watery, the prisoner stretched his neck searching for some kind of
nutritional content.

"I went into prison weighing 86kg, now I'm 48kg," said Jose Luis Garcia
Paneque, one of several men now suffering serious medical complaints.

"That's the effect of my prison time: chronic illness for rest of my
life," explained Mr Garcia Paneque, now a shrunken figure with hollow
cheeks.

Cuba has always denied that it has political prisoners, describing them
as criminals paid by the US to destabilise the country.

The men, who were held with ordinary Cuban criminals, recounted how
prisoners routinely inflicted serious injuries upon themselves to get
even basic medical attention from prison staff.

In one case, they said a man jabbed needles in his eyes but was left
unattended for two days.
Confinement

News that Church officials had secured dozens of political prisoners'
release came on 7 July.
Cuban dissidents Normando Hernandez, right and Omar Rodriguez hug on
arrival at a hostel in Madrid, on 14 July 2010 It has been an emotional
few days for the freed dissidents

The first men chosen were instructed to make a list of family members.
Days later, they were whisked from their cells straight on to a plane
and into exile.

The men were issued new Cuban passports at the airport; here in Spain,
they have been given residency, with the right to live and work where
they choose. But to the formers prisoners it still feels like a form of
confinement.

"The Cuban government has been categorical: we have to get permission to
return to the place we were born in," said Julio Cesar Galvez, who
describes his arrival in Spain as deportation.

"We are not free. We are not immigrants here. Quite simply, we are
refugees."

Cuban Church officials say 20 prisoners have agreed to come to Spain. As
their criminal convictions have not been overturned, they say exile was
the only option.

"If I leave prison, but I can't work to support my family, that's not
freedom," explained Mr Galvez, who was sentenced to 15 years for his
work as an independent journalist.

"If I'm still harassed, if they follow us, listen to our phone calls and
want to know where we're going and what we're doing – we're not free,"
he said.

'Smoke-screen'

Spain hailed the decision to release the men as the start of a new era
in Cuba.

Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was in Cuba at the time,
called on the EU to soften its stance and "normalise" relations with
Cuba in response.

He made the same appeal when Spain held the EU presidency in the first
half of 2010, but Orlando Zapata's death was a powerful counter-argument.

Now, the former prisoners say it would be "unacceptable" to see their
release as proof that the Cuban government's approach to human rights
has improved.

"Real improvement would mean new laws, no more repression or arrests of
human rights activists," one said, adding that included his own right to
return home without fear of prison again.

Another mentioned freedom of speech, and a third called the government's
move a "smoke-screen" ahead of an EU review of its common position on
Cuba this autumn.

That will make uncomfortable listening for the Spanish government.

The Spanish Red Cross and refugee agency (CEAR) are helping the men with
accommodation, legal aid and finding work.

They will move to refugee centres outside Madrid soon, where they can
start planning for the future.

For some, there has already been an emotional reunion with relatives.
One man had not seen his mother in seven years; all say their
imprisonment was as harsh a punishment for their families, as for them.

So as they adjust to life outside prison – and together again – the men
have vowed to go on fighting for the freedom of all political prisoners
in Cuba, from here in exile.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10661407

Among the first to have arrived in Spain with their families is the
Cuban dissident journalist Pablo Pacheco. He was one of those jailed for
20 years in the 2003 crackdown.

Always maintaining his right to freedom of speech, the Castro regime
eventually accused him of working for the US.

Pablo Pacheco has been talking to euronews:

"The proof of my guilt according to the Cuban Government was me owning a
1950s typewriter, a tape recorder, pens, denunciations, a fax, white
sheets of paper, books – the majority of them about journalism – a
short-wave radio. And all this I had and they thought there's the
proof," he said.

Enrique Barrueco, euronews : "Do you give any particular importance to
the change in presidency from Fidel to Raul Castro?"

"I think yes, if Fidel Castro had been in power at this moment, this
interview would not have been possible," said Pacheco.

He continued: "I think Raul can become the man who changes things in
Cuba, and takes steps to come out from under his brother's influence,
because I think Raul has been living his entire life in Fidel Castro's
shadow."

http://www.euronews.net/2010/07/15/freed-cuban-dissident-talks-freely-to-euronews/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+euronews%2Fen%2Fworld+%28euronews+-+world+-+en%29

A brief biography on the seven Cuban political prisoners released and
then sent to Spain:

—

LESTER GONZALEZ – Independent journalist from Santa Clara, youngest of
the 75 opposition members arrested in Cuba in March 2003. Member of
Reason, Truth and Freedom Human Rights Movement. Sentenced to 20 years
in prison. He reportedly has a number of health problems, including a
hernia operation he underwent in 2008 and anxiety from being separated
from his daughter.

Source: English Pen and Amnesty International.

—

OMAR RUIZ – Independent journalist from Santa Clara working for a group
not recognized by Cuba's government. Over 60 years old. Sentenced to 18
years in prison. Reportedly has prostate problem and high blood
pressure. Opposition websites say he is son of evangelical pastor.

Source: Amnesty International.

—

ANTONIO VILLARREAL – Signature collector from Santa Clara for the Varela
Project democracy drive. Sentenced to 15 years in prison. He reportedly
started a hunger strike along with five other inmates at Boniato prison.
The Varela Project collected thousands of signatures from Cuban voters
seeking a referendum on civil rights such as freedom of speech,
assembly, press and business ownership. The signatures were delivered to
Cuba's parliament, which shelved the proposal.

Source: Amnesty International.

—

JULIO CESAR GALVEZ RODRIGUEZ – Journalist from Havana. Sentenced to 15
years in prison. He was allegedly fired in 2001 from two official radio
stations for collaborating with Cuba Free Press.

Source: Amnesty International.

—

JOSE LUIS GARCIA PANEQUE – Plastic surgeon from Las Tunas who received a
24-year sentence. He was a member of the unofficial Cuban Independent
Medical Association. He was also involved in independent journalism.

Source: Amnesty International.

—

PABLO PACHECO AVILA – Independent journalist from Ciego de Avila,
sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Source: Amnesty International.

—

RICARDO GONZALEZ ALFONSO – Independent journalist from Havana who did
work for Reporters Without Borders. Sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Maintained a private library at his home. Family members concerned about
his health.

Source: Amnesty International.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/13/1728104/brief-biographies-on-7-cubans.html

Human rights group Amnesty International urged Cuba to release political
prisoners and take other measures to end what it called a "climate of
fear" for government opponents, in a report issued today.

The London-based organization said Cuban leaders used the longstanding
US trade embargo against the communist-led island as what it called a
"lame excuse" for repression.

"The release of all prisoners of conscience and the end of harassment of
dissidents are measures that the Cuban government must take immediately
and unconditionally," Kerrie Howard, the deputy director of Amnesty
International's America's programme, said in a statement that
accompanied the report on Cuba's limits to free expression.

"It is clear that the US embargo has had a negative impact on the
country, but it is frankly a lame excuse for violating the rights of the
Cuban people," Ms Howard said.

Amnesty International says Cuba has 53 "prisoners of conscience." The
independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights says the island has about
190 political prisoners locked away, including the 53 cited by Amnesty.

Cuba views dissidents as mercenaries working for the United States and
other enemies to undermine the government.

It has said control of government opponents will end when the United
States stops promoting political change in Cuba.

The trade embargo was imposed 48 years ago after Fidel Castro took power
in Cuba in a 1959 revolution and remains in place, never having achieved
its aim of toppling the government.

Amnesty International said Cuban laws restrict freedom of speech and
stifle dissent, and are capriciously interpreted by courts serving the
desires of the state.

It said the government "has a virtual monopoly on media while demanding
that all journalists join the national journalists' association, which
is in turn controlled by the (ruling) Communist Party." The government
blocks access to opposition Internet sites, the group said.

Cuba must "dismantle the repressive machinery built up over decades and
implement the reforms needed to make human rights a reality for all
Cubans," she said.

Cuba came under international criticism after the February death of
dissident hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo and in recent weeks has
slightly relaxed its policies toward dissidents.

One political prisoner was released earlier this month and 12 other
moved to jails closer to their families following a meeting between
President Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, head of the Cuban
Catholic Church.

Church officials have said they are hoping for the release of more
prisoners.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0630/breaking22.html

HAVANA (Reuters) – Human rights group Amnesty International urged Cuba
to release political prisoners and take other measures to end what it
called a "climate of fear" for government opponents, in a report issued
on Wednesday.

World | Cuba

The London-based organization said Cuban leaders used the longstanding
U.S. trade embargo against the communist-led island as what it called a
"lame excuse" for repression.

"The release of all prisoners of conscience and the end of harassment of
dissidents are measures that the Cuban government must take immediately
and unconditionally," Kerrie Howard, the group's Deputy Americas
Director, said in a statement that accompanied the report on Cuba's
limits to free expression.

"It is clear that the U.S. embargo has had a negative impact on the
country, but it is frankly a lame excuse for violating the rights of the
Cuban people," Howard said.

Amnesty International says Cuba has 53 "prisoners of conscience." The
independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights says the island has about
190 political prisoners locked away, including the 53 cited by Amnesty.

Cuba views dissidents as mercenaries working for the United States and
other enemies to undermine the government.

It has said control of government opponents will end when the United
States stops promoting political change in Cuba.

The trade embargo was imposed 48 years ago after Fidel Castro took power
in Cuba in a 1959 revolution and remains in place, never having achieved
its aim of toppling the government.

Amnesty International said Cuban laws restrict freedom of speech and
stifle dissent, and are capriciously interpreted by courts serving the
desires of the state.

It said the government "has a virtual monopoly on media while demanding
that all journalists join the national journalists' association, which
is in turn controlled by the (ruling) Communist Party."

The government blocks access to opposition Internet sites, the group said.

Cuba must "dismantle the repressive machinery built up over decades and
implement the reforms needed to make human rights a reality for all
Cubans," Howard said.

Cuba came under international criticism after the February death of
dissident hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo and in recent weeks has
slightly relaxed its policies toward dissidents.

One political prisoner was released earlier this month and 12 other
moved to jails closer to their families following a meeting between
President Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, head of the Cuban
Catholic Church.

Church officials have said they are hoping for the release of more
prisoners.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65T1RD20100630

We should honor BP for protecting the environment. While we're at it, we
can name Jack the Ripper to the Commission for the Protection of Women,
and make Philip Morris a special advisor on pulmonary health. This would
all make perfect sense if we followed the example of United Nations
Human Rights Council, one of the most astonishing organizations the
world has devised under the UN umbrella.

The Council operates as a parody of itself, as if it had been designed
by a team of comedians writing theater of the absurd. The reality,
however, is that the UNHRC is a disaster that requires some decisive
action by countries that truly value human rights, especially the US.

Today's UNHRC stands as one of the greatest obstacles impeding the
protection of human rights by the international community. The
organization makes a mockery of the suffering of the victims of
human-rights abuses, glorifying their tormentors and depriving victims
of a desperately needed protective voice. The obscenely dysfunctional
UNHRC has removed from the arsenal of civilization a critically needed
tool against regimes that brutalize their people. And now, adding to its
dazzling performance in the field of human rights, the Council is
working its magic against freedom of the press.

The question now is what does the Obama administration — and the
world's democratic nations — plan to do about this suppurating sore on
the body of the world's foremost international organization?

Where to begin to explain the outrages? Let's look at the Council's
Advisory Committee: The group is chaired by Halima Warzazi of Morocco,
whose history-making contribution to human rights came when Saddam
Hussein used poison gas against Iraq's Kurds in 1988. Warzazi proudly
blocked the U.N.'s move to condemn the massacre. The vice-chair of the
Committee is the always impressive Swiss diplomat Jean Ziegler, who
helped Libya's despot Moammar Qaddafi create the charmingly named
“al-Qaddafi International Prize for Human Rights,'' and became its
first winner.

Ziegler who, like the rest of the Council, is obsessed with Israel's
sins to the exclusion of any other problem on Earth, has shared the
Qaddafi prize honor with Fidel Castro, Louis Farrakhan, Hugo Chávez and
other luminaries of freedom. The latest “expert adviser'' is
Nicaragua's Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, admirer of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and
defender of Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president indicted by the
International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

The Council succeeded the disgraceful U.N. Commission on Human Rights in
2006. CHR was such an embarrassment that it had to be disbanded and
replaced. But the new effort is even more of a disaster.

The Council, where the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) effectively dominates the proceedings, now threatens freedom of
speech under the guise of protecting religion from defamation. The OIC
pushed through a resolution creating a watchdog to prevent perceived
slights in the media against religion, such as the cartoons of Mohammed
printed in Danish newspapers. U.N. Watch, which keeps an eye on the
United Nations to make sure it abides by its own principles, calls this
an attempt “to turn an international shield for religious freedom into
a sword for state censorship.''

The Obama administration ended a Bush-era boycott of the UNHRC,
promising to use its presence on the Council to pressure the
organization to do its job. But that has not happened. According to U.N.
Watch's Hillel Neuer, since returning to the Council, the United States
has been a disappointment. U.S. participation is not wrong, Neuer
argues, “if it fights vigorously and uses the council to put a
spotlight on abusers.'' But it has not done that. Instead, Washington
has used the Council as another venue for diplomatic engagement, a
policy that has yielded minimal benefits.

Packed with representatives of dictatorships, the UNHRC, says Neuer, is
little more than a “mutual praise society.'' It has stopped monitoring
abuses in places like the Congo and Cuba. And, while Iran hangs people
in the street, Libya imprisons and tortures dissidents and massacres
continue unpunished in other corners of the world, the UNHRC spends
almost all of its time condemning Israel.

The U.N. Human Rights Council's behavior is so offensive that it might
qualify for that Qaddafi human-rights prize. It's time for the United
States to make its presence useful there or else lead democratic
countries out of the organization.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/25/1699494/the-human-rights-council-is-a.html

When Cuban native Lisset Diez was 13, her father came to the United
States after years of imprisonment and torture as a political prisoner
of Fidel Castro.

"I didn't see him for 23 years, and I actually never thought we would
see each other again before he passed away. But it happened. I'm
extremely happy," Diez told Fostoria High School students Thursday.

The United States negotiated her father's freedom in 1987, and Manuel
Diez became a U.S. citizen in 2007. After working for years to save
enough money to bring his daughter to the U.S., he recently secured her
emigration to the U.S. through a family reunification program.

She arrived in the U.S. with her husband and two children less than
three weeks ago and now resides with him in Findlay, where he built a
house so her family could live with him.

"I felt joy — immense joy that the voice on the phone was now the person
I was holding and hugging," Lisset said afterward of being reunited with
her father.

Manuel said the physical pain from torture didn't compare to the feeling
of separation from his daughter.

"I live for her, and my whole life is surrounding her, and now I'm not
alone anymore," he said. His wife died three years ago, and he has no
other children.

Speaking through a translator, the family answered students' questions
ranging from what it's like for them to come to the U.S. to the
children's future goals.

After being accustomed to restrictions on food, work and speech under
the communist government, the family members said they are adjusting to
a life of abundance and opportunity in the U.S.

"It's like being born again," one family member commented.

Lisset's husband, Dusvani Martinez, said part of him is sad to leave
some family behind in Cuba, but he feels very fortunate to be here and
is eager to start his new life.

Students were surprised to hear someone could be imprisoned for 10 to 15
years for having more than the rationed amount of meat.

Students also learned many people in Cuba don't have the option to
choose what type of work to do, but rather are assigned by the government.

Manuel spoke about the restrictions on freedom of speech and told
students, "I feel saddened when I see some of you … don't realize how
lucky we are to be in this country."

Manuel didn't want to answer questions from students or the media about
why he was arrested in Cuba or how he was treated in prison. Spanish
teacher Esther Garcia-Tio had warned students beforehand that he may not
speak about it because his 11- and six-year-old grandchildren there did
not yet know the full story.

However, Manuel previously spoke to FHS students and spoke more openly
then, Garcia-Tio said afterward.

"He endured a lot of torture and hunger," she said. "He was put in
isolation. They were trying to break his spirit, you know, but they were
unable to do that."

At one time, Castro stood before him, and he was told to kneel. When he
refused, they broke his legs, she said.

Lisset said after the assembly it was very unfair how her father was
treated because he hadn't committed any crimes.

"He had just spoken up against the leader, and he didn't deserve the
abuse he got," she said.

Manuel said when he was in Cuba, there was repression and a lack of
food. "I felt there was no future."

"The only thing you can say about (Fidel) in Cuba is that he is good.
Otherwise you will be arrested," Manuel told students.

When asked what their plans are now that they are in the U.S., the
family said they want to learn English and find jobs.

"She just wants to work and work really diligently so she can have
things for her children that she was not able to have as a child," the
family's translator said as Lisset spoke.

Afterward, Junior Chris Jackson said he learned not to take things for
granted.

"They get in trouble for saying things we have the right to say in
America. It's just a lot different," he said.

Garcia-Tio said she hopes the program will motivate students to see the
opportunities they have here in the U.S. and to take advantage of them.

"The sky's the limit," she said. "We set our own limitations, not a
government setting them."

Mayor John Davoli presented the key to the city to Manuel before the
family answered questions from the students.

He said afterward that while Americans face problems economically on a
local, state and national level, listening to the family speak puts
everything in perspective.

"I think (the students) will appreciate more of what they have," he said.

Chandra Niklewski contributed to this report.

http://www.reviewtimes.com/Issues/2010/Apr/23/ar_news_042310_story3.asp?d=042310_story3,2010,Apr,23&c=n

In January, Spain took over the presidency of the Council of the
European Union. Despite being deeply affected by the global financial
crisis, Spain confidently proclaimed ambitious objectives for its term
at the head of the EU, including the cancellation of the EU's "Common
Position." The latter defines the EU policy towards Cuba that has been
in place since 1996. During his two-day visit to the Caribbean island
last October, Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stated
that Spain wants "to give up the Common Position in order to obtain
bilateral agreements."

Undoubtedly the motivations behind Spain's initiative are at least
partially economic in nature. Moratinos explained that the Iberian
nation has negotiated for Cuban authorities to pay their debts to
Spanish companies. Cuba's president Raúl Castro has promised to repeal
the payment block of approximately $300 million due to the 280 Spanish
companies currently operating in Cuba or have some other financial stake
in the country. After strong opposition from Eastern European members,
states such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, Spain eventually
withdrew its initiative allowing the EU to maintain the Common Position
for the present time. In fact, such acquiescence has little or no
significance for the actual Cuba policy that will be followed by
individual European states, as national interests tend to outweigh
supranational positions. Spain has always conducted its policy toward
the Castro regime according to its primary concerns such as economic
desiderata, its colonial legacy and cultural kinship. This is in stark
contrast to the anti-Cuban stance of the Common Position. From the
beginning, the latter was more a reflection of a prudent compromise
between Eastern and Western Europe than an actual formula fixedly
guiding national policy. The EU has struggled to achieve the numerous
objectives obligated by adopting the Common Position.

Hidden reasons for the "Common Position"

The two main objectives of the Common Position policy have been: (1) to
"encourage a process of transition to pluralist democracy and respect
for human rights and fundamental freedoms," and (2) to contribute "to a
sustainable recovery and improvement of the living standards of the
Cuban people." Thereby, the EU conditions its support of Cuban economic
development to progress made in democratic reforms. Although the
promotion of democracy has been the declared objective of the Common
Position, its companion goal was economic engagement. At its heart, the
Common Position was the European response to the United States'
Helms-Burton Act, which was passed by overwhelming majorities in both
Houses of Congress on March of 1996, shortly before the "Common
Position" was implemented.

The Cuban Air Force shot down two American aircraft in February of 1996
flown by pilots of the Miami anti-Castro organization, "Brothers to the
Rescue". That same month, the Clinton administration passed "The Cuban
Liberty Act," also known as the Helms-Burton Act. Helms-Burton was aimed
at tightening the already existing embargo against Cuba that was
introduced under the Kennedy administration in 1960. Title III of
Helms-Burton outlines that the U.S. intents to prosecute foreign
companies "allegedly trafficking property formerly owned by US citizens
but expropriated by Cuba" after the 1959 revolution. With this law, the
Clinton Administration hoped to bring down the Castro regime as fast as
possible, through a policy of extreme isolation and restricting access
to resources. But at the same time, this policy of isolation directly
threatened the trade between foreign countries and Cuba, thereby
prompting retaliation action by critics of Helms-Burton in the EU member
states. However, that legislation allowed the President of the United
States to waive Title III every six months, so that foreign countries
would not be prosecuted under its provisions. In July of 1996, Clinton
aggressively encouraged Washington's allies to accelerate change in Cuba
by promising that the suspension of Title III would depend "upon whether
others have joined us in promoting democracy in Cuba." The Common
Position, which was adopted by the EU member states on December 2, 1996,
can be seen as an accommodative reaction to the Helms-Burton Act and the
desire by Brussels to waive the appointment of Title III from being
applied to its members.

Before the implementation of the Common Position, the European Union's
policy toward Cuba strived to foster constructive engagement with
Havana. It sought to unconditionally promote democratic ideals and
respect for human rights through informal, cultural and economic
exchanges, as well as many other vehicles. The Common Position radically
changed European policy by tying humanitarian aid and economic
cooperation to democratic reforms and respect for human rights in Cuba.
This EU policy more closely reflected the United States' own policy on
Cuba by stipulating that humanitarian aid and economic relations are
dependent upon democratic change. The shift in policy had more to do
with trans-Atlantic relations than with European-Cuban relations, and
was primarily designed to protect business interests.

Ironically, Spain, the country that today wants to abandon the Common
Position, was initially responsible for its implementation in 1996,
during the incumbency of Prime Minister José María Aznar. Due to its
historic close ties with Cuba, Spain has influenced European policy
toward the island nation more than any other member of the EU. In 1996,
Spain was Cuba's number one European trading partner and was
particularly exposed to the negative impact of the Helms-Burton Act. In
response, it pursued a change in European policy toward Cuba to secure
its own investments on the island. The conservative government under
Aznar initiated the Common Position against the consensus of many
European ministers. Spain initially based the Common Position on
pragmatic objectives, not on any long-term ideological vision.

National interests outmatch supranational strategy

Although the "Common Position" implies a common European policy, there
are different and even contradictory policies toward Cuba to be found
within the EU. Germany and the United Kingdom maintain a similar stance
toward Havana to that of the US. However, France, Belgium and Portugal
favor a policy of stronger engagement. Due to Cuba's historic,
unflinching support of Moscow's communist regime, the eastern states of
the EU maintain an critical position toward Cuba. The Eastern states
prefer to focus their policy on strengthening democracy and promoting
human rights on the island, along with relying upon an assortment of
anti-Havana diplomatic deployments.

After a short period under Aznar, in 1996-97, Spain began to ease away
from backing the Common Position and since then has shifted its
priorities by crafting policy more akin to its domestic economic
interests. After Cuba jailed 75 dissidents in June of 2003, the EU
decided, at Spain's behest, to review its Cuba policy. This review
resulted in a commitment to limit high-level government visits, reduce
member states' participation in cultural events in Cuba and invite
representatives of dissident groups and spouses of political prisoners
to national day receptions. Consequently, Fidel Castro boycotted all
European-related diplomatic functions. As a result, a number of European
countries moved to scale back their embassies' interactions with Havana
officials. In 2005, many European countries, again led by Spain,
suspended the earlier 2003 diplomatic measures. By 2008, Spain was
working to fully lift the various diplomatic restraints against Cuba by
rejecting US pleas to maintain the status quo regarding diplomatic
pressure on the island. During his visit to Havana, Spain's foreign
minister Moratinos carefully avoided meetings with Cuban dissidents. Now
in 2010, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero has moved to cancel
the "Common Position" altogether.

Human Rights in Cuba

Cuba is the only nation in Latin America lacking a cooperation agreement
with the EU. Also, groups such as Mercado Común del Sur MERCOSUR, the
Andean Community, The United States-Dominican Republic Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA) and the Caribbean Community have already initiated
regional agreements with the EU. Furthermore, the Caribbean countries
have signed the Cotonou Agreement, a pact between the EU, African,
Caribbean and Pacific group of states aimed at reducing poverty and
promoting criminal justice in those regions, along with addressing trade
matters. But any agreement between the EU and Cuba is not possible
because of the Common Position, which demands a democratic transition
and the respect of human rights in the country before economic
assistance can be extended to the island nation.

This being said, not much has changed since the implementation of the
Common Position; Cuba has not been transformed into a democratic society
under the rule of the Castros, who have led the state for 50 years. In
November 2009, the middle-of-the-road Human Rights Watch (HRW) published
the report "New Castro, Same Cuba," its first report on human rights in
Cuba since Fidel Castro took leave of the presidency in June of 2006 due
to illness. While observers hoped Cuba would become more democratic
after Raúl took over in 2008, the report charges that, in fact, he has
established new laws that restrict freedom of speech and criminalize any
opposing opinions.

According to the report, individuals who are deemed a threat to Raúl
Castro's reign are imprisoned "before they have planned or committed any
crime." Human rights organizations such as HRW perhaps intemperately
criticize Spain's intention to give up the Common Position, as "it would
send the signal that the EU does not care about the fate of political
prisoners in Cuba. If the EU wants to improve the human rights situation
in Cuba it must strengthen its present Cuba policy and make it more
effective rather than dismiss it," says Latin America director of HRW,
José Miguel Vivanco.

No common policy

The Common Position's impact on Cuban policy has been negligible. While
Cuba remains the only Latin American country without cooperation
agreements and a regular political dialogue with the EU, its unilateral
trade and diplomatic lines to individual EU members is an adequate
substitute for Brussels support.

Despite their ability to speak with one voice most of the time,
ultimately, the interests in the bloc of 27 states are too diverse,
pluralistic and multipolar to always be able to act as one. Although the
Common Position is supposed to affect the national foreign policy of
every European country, "there are many ways to undermine it," said
Prof. Philip Brenner, Cuban expert at American University. Over 20
bilateral agreements between Cuba and European states have been signed,
indicating that although a Common EU Position formally exists toward
Havana. In reality there is no common policy at least not on this issue.

Caribbean Net News: Commentary: No 'common policy,' as Europe grapples
over its future ties with Cuba (7 February 2010)
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/article.php?news_id=21318

Our policy of prioritising human rights and freedom of speech – unlike
the Tories – in relations with Cuba is the right one

Stephen Wilkinson is profoundly wrong to argue that the UK government
should not insist on meeting a range of political voices within Cuba.
The Labour government has always opposed the embargo of Cuba as it is
counterproductive. What is more, I would be delighted to talk to Cuban
ministers on bilateral issues, and to visit Cuba. Indeed, in recent
months both Baroness Kinnock and I have tried to make progress on this
point with the Cuban government.

But – and it is a big but – the Cuban government refuses to allow any
such visit to take place if it includes meetings with anyone the
government has not approved – and this includes political opponents. As
noted in the paper Opting for Engagement, Cuba is a "one-party state
with restricted civil and political liberties, which prioritises unity
and punishes its opponents" and cites the arrest and issuing of long
jail sentences to some 75 political dissidents in spring 2003. This is
exactly why it is important for British politicians to meet political
voices outside of the one-party state when we visit the island.

In line with the 1996 EU common position on Cuba, human rights remain a
priority in the government's relations with Cuba. In June 2009, EU
foreign ministers expressed serious concern at the lack of human rights
progress, and reaffirmed the relevance of the common position and "dual
track" engagement with the Cuban government and Cuban civil society.

Although fundamental rights are guaranteed under the Cuban constitution,
they may not be exercised "contrary to the existence and objectives of
the socialist state". Cuba's penal code effectively criminalises
dissent. Charges of "pre-criminal social dangerousness" – a pre-emptive
charge based on the likelihood of a person committing a crime in the
future – are often used to target potential or actual dissent. The
unofficial Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation
estimates that there may be between 3,000 and 5,000 people sentenced
with up to four years in prison under "pre-criminal dangerousness"
charges, including prostitutes, alcoholics and unemployed people. We
wrote to the Cuban justice ministry last March asking for official
figures for people held on this charge, but have not yet received a
response.

Wilkinson mentions trade union support of Cuba. On 3 August 2009, four
independent trade union activists from the Independent National Workers'
Confederation of Cuba were summoned to a police station in Havana and
detained until the following day. Maria Elena Mir Marrero and her
colleagues allege they were threatened with further harassment and
physical harm unless they stopped their activities. Political prisoners'
families allege routine use of solitary confinement, denial of medical
care and restrictions on family visits.

We have full diplomatic links with Cuba, we are and will continue to
engage with Cuba. It is positive that Cuba ratified the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
in February 2009. But ratification and implementation of key human
rights conventions remains uncompleted.

Wilkinson finishes with the rather naive claim that people who want
better relations with Cuba should vote Tory. If he'd read the rest of
the original story he might experience a more severe disquiet over Tory
donor Lord Ashcroft's attendance at meetings with Cuban officials. It
seems the Tories have naively subcontracted their foreign policy to a
man who has financial interests in the region. That's what Wilkinson
should be really worried about.

Labour is right on Cuba | Chris Bryant | Comment is free |
guardian.co.uk (4 February 2010)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/04/cuba-human-rights-labour

HAVANA — Hundreds of government supporters shouted insults and
pro-Castro slogans at about 50 wives, mothers and other female relatives
of Cuban political prisoners as they marched Wednesday through a crowded
Havana neighborhood in the name of human rights.

There were no injuries among the "Women in White," a political
opposition group that holds small, silent marches along Fifth Avenue in
a wealthier part of the Cuban capital each Sunday after attending Roman
Catholic Mass. The women dress head-to-toe in white.

The demonstrations usually only go for a few blocks and rarely draw the
ire of supporters of Fidel and Raul Castro, nor do they generate much
support among the general population, who know little about the dissidents.

But this time, the group left from the central Havana apartment of Laura
Pollan, one of the organization's founders and the wife of Hector
Maceda, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for his political
views. They also marched for more than an hour.

Supporters of Cuba's communist government are especially edgy this week
given that Thursday marks International Human Rights Day, which annually
prompts the Women in White and other tiny dissident groups to stage marches.

On Wednesday, the women made their way through the streets carrying
copies of the universal declaration of human rights and occasionally
chanting "Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!"

A crowd followed behind yelling "Fidel! Fidel!" and "Down with worms!" –
the latter a common slang for Cubans who head into exile in the United
States.

After the women returned to Pollan's home, which is filmed day and night
by a government camera mounted nearby and also often watched by state
agents in plainclothes stationed on nearby street corners, the
government supporters continued to shout insults while the women cowered
inside.

"For 50 years they've been violating our rights and those of our
husbands," Pollan said.

Pollan's group was formed after what Cuban dissidents call the "Black
Spring" in 2003.

With the world's attention focused on the start of the U.S.-led war in
Iraq, Cuba's government rounded up 75 leading political opposition
leaders, activists and independent journalists and sentenced them to
lengthy prison terms for allegedly conspiring with Washington to
undermine the island's political system.

The Communist Party is the only political party allowed in Cuba and the
government tolerates no organized opposition, imposing strict controls
on freedom of speech, assembly, expression and the press. The island's
leading independent human rights group says more than 200 political
prisoners are being held in Cuba.

Some of those arrested in the 2003 crackdown have been released on
medical parole and others were freed into forced exile in Spain or after
serving their sentences, but 53 remain behind bars.

Pro-government crowd pursues Cuban rights marchers – World AP –
MiamiHerald.com (9 December 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1374640.html

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The number of Cubans calling for an
overhaul of the country's political system has increased, according to a
poll by the International Republican Institute. If given the chance,
75.2 per cent of respondents would vote to change the current system
into a democracy, up 12 points since November 2008.

In addition, 85.6 per cent of respondents would support an economic
system including freedoms such as being able to buy and sell property.

Fidel Castro became the de facto leader of Cuba in 1959, following the
conclusion of the revolution he led to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. In
1962, the United States imposed a trade embargo against Cuba.

In July 2006, the Cuban government announced a "provisional transfer of
duties" to vice-president Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, after the
president suffered "an acute intestinal crisis, with sustained bleeding"
which required immediate medical intervention.

In February 2008, Fidel Castro announced that he would not accept a
nomination to seek a new term as head of state. His brother remains
Cuba's political leader.

Raúl Castro has introduced several reforms since taking office, which
have been regarded by some as the beginning of more profound changes,
and deemed merely cosmetic by others.

On Nov. 19, U.S. president Barack Obama answered a set of questions
submitted by Yoani Sánchez—the renowned Cuban blogger of "Generación
Y"—saying that he is against lifting the embargo but wants to have a
direct talk with Raúl Castro about it. The American president added: "I
applaud these collective efforts to empower your compatriots to express
themselves through technology. The U.S. government and the people are
with you in anticipation of the day when all Cubans will be able to
express themselves freely and publicly without fear."

Polling Data

If you were given the opportunity to vote to change from the current
political system to a democratic system—with multi-party elections,
freedom of speech and freedom of expression—would you vote in favour of,
or against, that change?

Aug. 2009 Nov. 2008

In favor 75.2% 63%

Opposed 5.8% 32.4%

No answer 19% 4.6%

If you were given the opportunity to vote to change from the current
economic system to a market economy system—with economic freedoms,
including opportunities for Cubans to own property and run
businesses—would you vote in favour of, or against, that change?

Aug. 2009 Nov. 2008

In favor 85.6% 86.3%

Opposed 3% 12.5%

No answer 19% 4.6%

Source: International Republican Institute
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 432 Cuban adults, conducted
from Jul. 4 to Aug. 7, 2009. Margin of error is 5 per cent.

More Cubans Urge for Change in Politics, Economy: Angus Reid Global
Monitor (1 December 2009)
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/34601/more_cubans_urge_for_change_in_politics_economy

The debate over U.S. policy towards Cuba heats up this week as the House
Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) holds a hearing Thursday on whether to
lift the U.S. travel ban against Fidel Castro's island-prison. Senator
Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Ranking Member of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the HFAC,
respectively, fired the first salvo with an op-ed in the Miami Herald
calling for the unilateral lifting of the "anachronistic" ban, arguing
that ordinary Americans can "serve as ambassadors for the democratic
values we hold dear," thereby eroding the impediments to change in Cuba.

It is indeed a quaint conceit on the part of many in this country that
Americans, just by being Americans, can demonstrate the errors in
others' ways and infuse on the recalcitrant and autocratic a sudden
appreciation for the commonweal, sparking a dawn of democratic reform
and respect for human rights. Sadly, the world doesn't work quite that
way and thugs like Castro will not be impressed by the earnestness of
American tourists to engender a better Cuba.

Besides, if we are to take our cues from Canadian and European tourists,
one wonders whether political agitation can compete with sun, sex, and
cigars as the primary motivations for visiting the walled tourist
compounds on the Island of Dr. Castro. This doesn't even countenance the
motivations of U.S. businessmen, for whom political agitation would be
the very last item on their agendas, given that their interests are
served by a perceived vision of stability and cozy relations with the
incumbent government.

This is not to recognize the moribund state of affairs in Cuba. Senator
Lugar and Rep. Berman can hardly be blamed for being frustrated. Anyone
who cares about Cuba is frustrated at Fidel Castro's pathological
obstinacy and nominal leader and brother Raúl's craven inability to
deviate from his brother's uncompromising ideological line.

But bad proposals are worse than none at all. The short of it is the
Castro regime simply is more determined to maintain absolute power than
the United States is in mercifully terminating its fifty years of
misrule. Given that, opening the floodgates to U.S. tourists and
businessmen will result in a desperately needed financial windfall and
credibility boost that will only strengthen the regime, not undermine it.

Moreover, the debate over the U.S. travel ban and, more broadly, the
U.S. economic embargo of Cuba clouds the real issues at hand. Namely,
that the real conflict in Cuba is not between the United States and the
Castro regime, but between the regime and the Cuban people. This is made
abundantly clear in a searing new report by the International Republican
Institute on the results of a recent survey conducted discretely among
the Cuban people on the island

Conducted this past summer among a total of 432 Cuban adults from across
the island, the survey found that Cubans do not need American tourists
to tell them that things are rotten in their own country and that change
is desperately needed. Specifically, more than four in five citizens on
the island (82 percent) do not believe things are going well, while a
vast majority of Cubans would vote for fundamental political change (75
percent) and economic change (86 percent) if given the opportunity.

The survey also found that only 8.8 percent believed the U.S. embargo
and "isolation" was the biggest problem in Cuba and only 7.9 percent
said they thought ending the embargo would most help improve the
economy. What do Cubans overwhelmingly want? Multi-party elections,
freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and economic freedoms,
including opportunities to own property and run businesses.

Imagine, Cuban citizens came to those conclusions all on their own.

It remains to be seen whether Congress can mobilize the votes to
overturn the travel ban (the restrictions were codified under the 1996
Helms-Burton Law), but the prospects seem unlikely. To its credit, the
Obama administration has shown no inclination to support such an effort
at this time. At the Inter-American Summit last April, the president's
words on Cuba were cautious — and sober. "The Cuban people are not
free. And that's our lodestone, our North Star, when it comes to our
policy in Cuba," he said.

He also said his policy would be guided by reciprocity:

What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be
changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are
released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can
travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that
people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted … And if
there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we
can see a further thawing of relations and further changes.

It is not U.S. policy to be stagnant and unimaginative on Cuba, as
critics would have it. President Obama appears intent on continuing the
Bush policy of trying to empower Cuban civil society through strategic
engagement to operate more independently of the regime's control,
although he obviously intends to go much further in opening new avenues
to reach the Cuban people. The strategic goal behind such an offensive
would be to expand pockets of independence within Cuban civil society
and fortify networks among those pockets, putting Cubans who want a
different future for their country in touch with other Cubans fed up
with the same old struggle and deprivation the regime is only capable of
offering.

That Castro's decrepit regime continues to limp along fifty years on
understandably confounds many. But that is less an argument for relaxing
pressure on the regime than it is an argument to persevere in a cause
that is just and right.

The real conflict in Cuba is not between the US and the Castro regime -
By José R. Cárdenas | Shadow Government (18 November 2009)
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/18/cuba_needs_change_not_us_tourists

MIAMI — The Supreme Court is staying out of a dispute in Miami between
school officials and civil libertarians over a book about Cuba that
depicts smiling children in communist uniforms but avoids mention of
problems in the country.

The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from the American Civil
Liberties Union of Florida that sought to prevent Miami officials from
removing the book "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version, "A
Visit to Cuba," from library shelves.

The Miami-Dade County School District board wants to ban the book,
intended for children ages 5 to 8, because it does not mention limits on
civil liberties in Cuba, political indoctrination of public school
children and food rationing among other issues. Board members voted to
remove the book after a parent who spent time as a political prisoner in
Cuba complained.

The school district would not immediately comment on the decision.

Frank Bolanos, a former Miami-Dade school board chair who championed
efforts to remove the book, said he was pleased.

"I support the author's right to publish the book as incomplete and
defective as it may be," he said, "but we're simply not required to pay
for it with taxpayers dollars," he said, although the district already
spent money to buy the book. Bolanos said the case sets precedent for
districts to back parents' rights in future cases.

The ACLU disagreed.

"These books were removed under the guise of 'inaccuracies,' but the
real reason they were removed was because the books ran afoul of the
political orthodoxy of a majority of the school board members," Florida
director Howard Simon said in a statement Monday.

"If that is to become the new standard for censoring books from public
library shelves, the ACLU may be immersed in censorship battles for
years to come."

A federal judge in Miami ruled that the board should add books of
different perspectives instead of removing offending titles. But the
11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the district wouldn't
be infringing on freedom of speech rights by removing the book because
it presents an inaccurate view of life in Cuba.

The 2001 book by Alta Schreier contains images of smiling children
wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and celebrating the
country's 1959 revolution. In discussing daily life, the book says
children work, study and play the same way children in other countries do.

The case is ACLU v. Miami-Dade County School Board, 08-1564.

Court won't get involved in book banning case – Cuba News –
MiamiHerald.com (16 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/more/story/1336491.html

Change comes slowly in Cuba, even when it starts at the top. Despite
expectations of reforms when Raul Castro became president last year and
some signs of easing, the island nation remains a tightly controlled
central economy under a Communist regime that suppresses freedom of
speech and other civil liberties.

The Castro government has extended its authority over the Internet, as
it has done with newspapers, radio and television. It restricts access
to computers and Internet subscriptions, keeping prices high and
blocking Web sites that the government considers critical or
undesirable. Officials and government loyalists monitor Web logs, or
blogs, to watch for signs of dissent and to post comments supporting the
regime and attacking its critics.

These actions took an ugly turn this month when 3 prominent Cuban
Internet journalists were attacked by plain clothes government security
agents. On their way to cover a peaceful march in downtown Havana, Yoani
Sanchez, Orlando Luis Pardo and Claudia Cadelo were forced into unmarked
cars and driven around for 20 minutes, during which time Ms. Sanchez was
beaten. Ironically, the purpose of the march, organized by young
musicians, was to protest against violence. Ms. Sanchez's work reporting
on conditions in Cuba has been recognized around the world.

President Barack Obama proclaimed November 9 as World Freedom Day, and
it is just this kind of repression and violence against the voices of
freedom and reconciliation that his proclamation is meant to expose.

The United States strongly deplores the assault and urges the government
of Cuba to ensure the full respect of the human rights and fundamental
freedoms of all its citizens.

VOA News – Stifling Voices Of Freedom In Cuba (13 November 2009)
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-11-13-voa1.cfm

HAVANA — The U.S. State Department issued a statement late Monday
decrying attacks on three Cuban bloggers, including one who has gained
international attention for her searing observations about life on the
communist island.

"The U.S. government strongly deplores the assault on bloggers Yoani
Sanchez, Orlando Luis Pardo, and Claudia Cadelo," the department said.

Sanchez, who has won international awards for her blog "Generacion Y,"
said Friday that two Cuban state agents in civilian clothes stopped her
and Pardo in Havana's Vedado neighborhood as they and other friends
headed to a nonviolence march.

Sanchez said she and Pardo were ordered into a car where the agents
pulled her hair and kicked her. Both she and Pardo were held briefly
before being let out at their homes, she said. Cadelo was picked up by a
car separately around the same time.

The Cuban government has not commented. There was no way to corroborate
Sanchez's assertion state security was involved, but agents routinely
follow members of Cuba's tiny political opposition.

The State Department said the three bloggers were "beaten" and called
"on the Government of Cuba to ensure the full respect of the human
rights and fundamental freedoms of all its citizens."

Many Cubans who openly criticize the country's single-party system say
they are harassed regularly by the state, particularly if they try to
attend or plan street demonstrations. The government does not recognize
the legitimacy of the opposition, claiming they are paid mercenaries of
Washington.

Earlier this year, Time magazine named Sanchez one of the world's 100
most influential people. In October, the government denied her
permission to travel to New York to receive a journalism prize.

While her blog gets about 1 million hits a month, Sanchez enjoys more of
a following off the island than on it. Internet access to her blog is
blocked in Cuba and Sanchez blames the government, which severely limits
freedom of speech and assembly and controls all newspapers, radio and
television stations.

US State Dept 'deplores assault' on Cuban bloggers – Technology –
MiamiHerald.com (10 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/technology/story/1325258.html

Freedom of speech campaigners are railing against the repression of
bloggers around the world, following claims by a prominent Cuban
dissident that she was beaten up for her online activities.

Yoani Sánchez, an author and blogger who has forged a reputation as a
critical voice against the Castro government, said over the weekend that
she and other bloggers had been attacked in Havana in what she called a
"gangland style kidnapping".

The incident caused outrage online, but according to advocacy campaign
Threatened Voices – which launched last week to highlight cases of
internet suppression worldwide – such a move was "only a matter of time"
as regimes around the world lash out at web-based critics.

The news came just a week after supporters of Iranian-Canadian blogger
Hossein Derakhshan marked the first anniversary of his incarceration in
an Iranian jail, on charges of spying for Israel.

Blogging is now extremely popular in Iran, but Derakhshan – who is known
online as Hoder – was one of the earliest to take up the technology, and
is largely seen as instrumental in encouraging Farsi bloggers.

A crackdown on internet dissidents and journalists is currently underway
in Tehran, with press freedom organisations campaigning on behalf of
those affected.

"Journalists are still being kidnapped or arrested illegally in Iran,"
said a spokeswoman for Reporters Sans Frontieres. "At least 100
journalists and cyber-dissidents have been arrested in the past 145 days
- since the 12 June presidential election – and 23 of them are still
being held."

According to Threatened Voices, the five governments that rank as the
worst offenders against freedom of speech online are China, Egypt, Iran,
Tunisia and Syria, while bloggers in the US, Canada and Europe have also
faced arrest and potential imprisonment for breaking the law.

Last month eight Vietnamese bloggers were given sentences ranging from
two to six years for posting criticisms of the government online, while
three internet users in Thailand were arrested last week for writing
that the king was in poor health, which they suggested would have an
impact on the country's stock market.

Cuban crackdown part of worldwide attack on internet dissidents |
Technology | guardian.co.uk (9 November 2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/09/blogging-freedom-of-speech

HAVANA — A Cuban blogger who has gained international attention for her
searing commentary about life on the communist island said she was
briefly detained Friday and warned by state security agents about her
opposition activity.

Yoani Sanchez, who runs a blog called "Generation Y" and whose writings
have appeared in several international publications and Web sites, told
The Associated Press that two state agents in civilian clothes stopped
her in Havana's Vedado neighborhood as she and several friends made
their way to a protest march in central Havana.

The agents ordered her and one of her friends to get into their car and
pulled her hair and kicked her when she initially refused, Sanchez said.

"It was very violent," she said.

Once in the car, Sanchez said, the agents told her she had gone too far
with her writings, which vividly tells of problems of a country where
the government controls nearly all aspects of life. Sanchez said that
after issuing their warning, the agents let her and her friend go.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment, and it was impossible to
independently verify Sanchez's charges. Many Cuban opposition leaders
say they are harassed from time to time by the state, particularly if
they try to attend or plan street demonstrations.

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation says
there are more than 200 political prisoners in Cuba, a number that has
dropped sharply since Fidel Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in
2006. The government does not recognize the legitimacy of the
opposition, saying they are paid mercenaries of Washington.

Earlier this year, Time magazine named Sanchez one of the world's 100
most influential people. In October, the government denied her
permission to travel to New York to receive a top journalism prize, the
second time this year she has been refused permission to leave the island.

While her blog gets about 1 million hits a month, Sanchez enjoys more of
a following off the island than on it. Internet access to the blog is
often blocked in Cuba and Sanchez blames the government, which has
refused to comment.

The communist government severely limits freedom of speech and assembly
and controls all newspapers, radio and television stations.
Associated Press Writer Paul Haven contributed to this report.

Cuban blogger says she is briefly detained – World AP – MiamiHerald.com
(6 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1320984.html

"I think that freedom is very important and that it has a price,"
explained Alina Fernandez. Fernandez, Fidel Castro's daughter, spoke to
a very large crowed in the Barben rooms on Tuesday, October 20. Her
speech touched upon many subjects but revolved around growing up in Cuba
as Castro's daughter.

Her biographical speech began with a love story. She described her
mother as "her sprite". She was her fairy tale when all was bad. As a
teenager, her mother was "the coca cola before it became a can," and her
father was the boy that walked miles to get to school. They met because
of the revolution; they were just two people brought together by a
political cause who would fall in love.

After their initial meeting, Castro was sent to jail. Her mother kept in
contact with him by exchanging letters, "Their love began that way,"
explained Fernandez. But, Castro was still married to another woman and
he and his wife exchanged letters as well.

Then, according to Fernandez, her father mixed up the letters on purpose
and his marriage ended shortly after. "There's a lesson for this," said
Fernandez. "Men can cheat, even from jail."

Shortly after Castro was released from prison in 1955, Fernandez was
conceived. But Castro did not stick around and her mother was still
living with her stepfather. "The world is yours," Fernandez explained as
she described the innocence of early childhood.

Unfortunately, her childhood innocence was stripped from her at an early
age when rebels began showing up on her television screen. Uncle
Scourge, his nephews, and Mickey Mouse "vanished from the screen
forever," Fernandez explained. "Life went from white to black and stayed
gray for a long time."

The revolution was at its peek and Fernandez's life was quickly
changing. "I barely saw my sprite anymore, even on the weekends," said
Fernandez. Freedom of speech and expression quickly vanished on the
island. Castro "seemed to know exactly what to do control wise,"
explained Fernandez.

Her stepfather and stepsister fled to the United States. Agriculture
belonged to the state and food was distributed using rationing booklets.
Cubans "barely survived." Fidel wanted everyone in Cuba to know how to
read; he was "full of ideas." Secret police began appearing in every
town to watch people. Castro was "aiming to control people in the most
absolute way," explained Fernandez.

She described Castro as "the man that had stepped out of [her] TV
screen." He came around more and more at night. She liked that he made
her mother happy but her grandma called him, "the devil," described
Fernandez. "It was confusing."

Fernandez explained that she was a part of a generation that sat in
front of the TV set and "prayed" that Castro would be done speaking by
7:00 p.m. so that they could watch Russian silent cartoons.

It was a fight against American imperialism. "Hate to America became the
slogan of my country," explained Fernandez. She described how Cuba
accused the United States of intervening in other countries while,
hypocritically, Cuba was involved in there own guerrilla wars in many
small countries. "So much was going on, on such a small little island,"
said Fernandez.

When she was ten, it was publicly revealed the Fernandez was Castro's
daughter. Others began coming to her with their tragedies. "It's very
hard to go to school when there's a line outside your house and you
can't do anything to help," described Fernandez.

Since she was 14, Fernandez wanted to leave Cuba. She tried convincing
her father, but was told that she could not because it would be a
"political issue." Eventually she married and remarried as many do in
Cuba. "I don't practice the sport anymore," joked Fernandez.

Soon, she had a daughter and her priorities changed. And, when the
schools almost closed, she took her daughter and fled for the United
States in 1993 so that her daughter could receive an education.

She explained that now, with rights, she can do "anything." She now
lives in Miami and currently works four jobs. "Everybody pays bad so you
have to stay busy," Fernandez said. In regard to Cuba, Fernandez has
said that she will not return, even for a visit.

She considers Cuba a subject that "always" brings about passion. "You
take sides without knowing the fight," explained Fernandez.

Alina Fernandez, Fidel Castro's daughter talks of life in Cuba – News
(26 October 2009)
http://media.www.clarksonintegrator.com/media/storage/paper280/news/2009/10/26/News/Alina.Fernandez.Fidel.Castros.Daughter.Talks.Of.Life.In.Cuba-3813485.shtml

Today, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and his huge entourage returned from
their six day trip to communist Cuba. The supposed purpose of the trip
was for the Mayor to investigate Cuba's hurricane preparedness programs
and to bolster trade ties with the poor country.

Unfortunately, Nagin did what he does best and made ridiculous comments
that embarrassed the people of New Orleans. In an interview with the
Associated Press, Nagin lamented our response to Hurricane Katrina and
said that "it wasn't clear" who was in charge. Seemingly, Nagin longs
for the type of dictatorship that has ruined Cuba for the last 50 years.
In that country, the Castro brothers run everything with an iron fist.
Anyone who disagrees or dissents will either be shot or thrown in a
Cuban gulag. Does Nagin want that kind of system here?

Amazingly, Nagin said that Cubans do "a much better job" than U.S.
officials in handling hurricanes. I guess so, Mr. Mayor, because there
is no freedom of movement or freedom of speech in Cuba. No one can rebel
and everyone has to follow the commands of the communist authorities.

Nagin also said that "in Cuba, you don't have the problem" of the
President and the Governor "going back and forth." Of course not, in
Cuba there is no back and forth, there is only Castro and communism. It
is what a dictatorship is all about, but sadly Nagin is clueless about
Cuban history and the struggles that have been going on during fifty
years of brutal suppression. Nagin should talk to Cuban exiles who can
educate him about the reality of communism. There is no freedom there,
only repression. In Cuba, there are no free elections, no freedom of
assembly, no free press, no freedom to express religious faith and no
freedom to unionize. Citizens who try to speak out or oppose the
government repression are sent to a gulag. This barbarism is why so many
Cubans flee the country each year on the high seas and risk their lives
to make it to America.

If Cuba has such a great system, why are so many people trying to leave
the country? Nagin joins other Castro apologists like Ted Turner, Dan
Rather and Michael Moore. These individuals are blinded by liberal
ideology and do not recognize the real tyranny that the Castro brothers
represent.

Either Nagin is ignorant of what a dictatorship means or he wants to
emulate one in this country. Who knows what motivated Nagin to open his
mouth and criticize his own country, while praising a communist
dictatorship. However, we do know that this is a very familiar situation
with Nagin making foolish comments. Whether he is touting the city's
high murder rate as a way to get "the brand out there," or calling the
9-11 sites in New York a "hole in the ground" or claiming that he is a
"vagina friendly" Mayor, Nagin can't help but make asinine statements.
In fact, his entire list of dumb comments is too numerous to list.

Thankfully, his reign of error will be coming to a close in seven
months. Sadly, we have lost eight years with Nagin and his City Hall
crew. The real losers have been the taxpayers who will probably pay the
costs for the Nagin team to visit Cuba. These same taxpayers were left
with the $29,000 bill for Nagin and company to visit China and Australia.

None of these trips will lead to anything of substance for New Orleans.
The only things that people will be left with are bills to pay and more
embarrassment. Such is the price of electing a fool as Mayor.

–
Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a
Louisiana based program, "Ringside Politics," which airs at 7:30 p.m.
Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11
a.m.weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more
information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him
at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.
The New Orleans Nagin Castro (26 October 2009)

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/NewOrleans/The_New_Orleans_Nagin_Castro__9692.asp

After nearly a week of euphoria, I think it's time the overly optimistic
Cuban-American community put their feet back on the ground. For the past
week, I've heard all sorts of claims about the value of the Juanes
concert, how it will build hope among Cuban youth, how it's a sign the
regime is changing, how it's a sign the exile community is changing. I
must respectfully disagree.

Hope derived from this concert is from the mistaken impression that
Cuba's youth will be motivated to pursue its freedom and the Cuban
government will not be able to control it.

I'm not quite sure what concert people saw, but here's the one I saw:

Foreigners were the only performers given any leeway in what they said,
and even then, they were obviously limited in their freedom of speech.

The two “questionable'' Cuban artists who the Cuban government allowed
to perform, X Alfonso and Carlos Varela, were kept on the tightest of
leashes (particularly Varela) and their combined performances lasted
fewer than 30 minutes. Varela was chaperoned off stage by security as
soon as both songs were over. (As his performance was divided in two,
God forbid the Cuban people see him on stage for longer than 7 minutes
at a time.)

The final group performance of the concert allowed only the foreigners
to keep microphones in their hands; the microphone stayed far away from
Varela and Alfonso.

So, again, we see that foreigners are given more rights than Cubans,
even Cuban artists. This is nothing new for Cuba, but perhaps we can
point it out and not pretend like this was some major tumbling of walls.

So, my question is: How do the Cuban youth derive hope from this? It
remains obvious to any Cuban who watched the concert that nothing had
changed in Cuba or in its government.

Yes, the exile community was mentioned for perhaps the first time in 50
years. But again, how does this encourage hope for freedom for Cubans?
What occurred was a concert, nothing more, nothing less. The Cuban
people were able to enjoy the performances of world-famous mega stars,
all the while knowing that the following day would be the same as the
previous.

I am heartened to see that the Cuban government did not politicize the
concert the way that it could have been, that it did not manipulate the
statements of the artists who performed. I sincerely thought that they
would and am glad they did not.

But the Cuban government persists in being a repressive,
near-totalitarian dictatorship. Hundreds of “questionable'' Cuban youth
were told by state police that they could not attend the concert. This
is not freedom. This is not a changing government.

The message was sent loud and clear to the Cuban people: if you're a
foreigner, you're safe; if you're Cuban, you will continue to be unable
to speak your truth just like Alfonso, just like Varela.

Vanessa Lopez is a research associate at the Institute for Cuban and
Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, and a member of
UMCAUSA, a pro Cuba-democracy student-led group.

Where could one find hope? – From Our Inbox – MiamiHerald.com (28
September 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/inbox/story/1256575.html

CARACAS, Venezuela — Former presidents from Peru and Bolivia joined
newspaper editors from across the Americas on Friday in condemning what
they call a series of attempts by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and
some of his allies, to clamp down on the news media.

Former President Alejandro Toledo of Peru said he is concerned about
recent shutdowns of radio stations in Venezuela and a proposed law in
Argentina that would break up Clarin, one of Latin America's largest
newspaper and cable TV companies.

Toledo likened such actions to "a virus that's expanding" in countries
including Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and told The Associated Press:
"It must be stopped."

Ex-President Carlos Mesa of Bolivia expressed similar concerns at the
emergency meeting of the Inter American Press Association in Caracas.

"Everything that restricts freedom of speech is unacceptable," he said.

Enrique Santos, the IAPA's president, said tensions between governments
and the press have worsened throughout the Andes and that leaders in
Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have created a climate of intimidation
with verbal attacks and legal measures aimed at restricting the media.
He called it "the Chavez model" and said it has been spreading.

Chavez denies his government is trying to eliminate critical voices in
the media, and has been feuding with the IAPA for years.

Chavez did not refer to the latest criticisms in a speech Friday but did
say he considers the pending Argentine law, which is designed to prevent
media monopolies, "important" and "interesting."

Information Minister Blanca Eekhout rebuffed the press association's
concerns saying: "We're never again going to accept the media
dictatorship." She defended efforts to step up regulation of the private
media, saying "laws must be made to do away with the media dictatorship
and allow… the participation of all Venezuelans."

Chavez's government forced 32 radio stations and two small television
stations off the air last month, saying some owners had failed to renew
their broadcast licenses while other licenses were no longer valid
because they had been granted long ago to owners who are now dead.

The government has announced plans to take 29 more radio stations off
the airwaves.

Globovision – the last opposition-aligned TV channel on the open
airwaves – is also the target of multiple investigations that
authorities say could lead to the revocation of its broadcast license.

In one of those cases, prosecutors said Friday they are summoning
opposition newspaper editor Rafael Poleo for questioning about a remark
he made on Globovision that Chavez could end up "hanging" like Italian
dictator Benito Mussolini.

Poleo has left the country and has told colleagues he does not plan to
return for now, said David Natera, who heads the Venezuelan Press Bloc,
a newspaper industry association.

Poleo, now in Miami, considers the case absurd and believes he would not
receive a fair trail, Natera said.

One Globovision reporter has left the country and requested political
asylum in the United States, said Alberto Federico Ravell, the channel's
director. He did not give details.

Ex-leaders say media under threat in Latin America – Americas AP -
MiamiHerald.com (18 September 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/1240618.html

A state senator from Wynne said he is leaving today for a trip to Cuba,
a trip he says could help Arkansans in the future.

Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, said the 3-day trade mission he is going on
with Gov. Mike Beebe; Arkansas Department of Economic Development
official Maria Haley; Morril Harriman, Beebe's chief of staff; and
officials with Riceland Foods and Tyson Foods has potential.

"Rice is a major part of our agriculture, and Cuba was once a major
market for us (before the October 1960 embargo with the communist
country was enforced)," Luker said.

Luker, who represents Cross County as part of his Senate district, said
Riceland Foods, Tyson Foods and consumers would benefit if the embargo
were lifted.

"We hope the (Obama) administration will liberalize trade with Cuba and
foster trade," Luker said. "It is a potential major market for rice and
chicken."

Luker said under current standards, processed poultry can be sent to
Cuba, and the sale of food stock is allowed.

The trade of both items could lead to both Arkansas-based products being
sent there, Luker said.

"There are fruits and vegetables; and there is a large production of
sweet potatoes in my district," Luker said. "But rice and chicken, they
are lucrative."

In 2007, the Caribbean nation had a gross domestic product of about $47
billion, with the average monthly salary for people that year being
about $17, according to the U.S. Department of State.

The State Department also lists the United States as the fifth-largest
exporter of items to Cuba, behind Venezuela, China, Spain and Germany.

Embargo

In discussing the embargo, Luker said the issue has strong sentiment in
Florida, where a large number of Cuban immigrants live.

"A lot of the sentiment involves people who fled Cuba in 1960," Luker
said. "It plays a major role in Florida politics, but I am not sure on
the effect in the rest of the country."

Those who oppose lifting the embargo say the government, now run by Raul
Castro, has limited freedoms for citizens.

The State Department also notes on its Web site that the Cuban
government places severe limits on freedom of speech and press, freedom
of assembly and limiting certain economic freedoms.

However, Luker said the United States has begun trading with countries
that once were enemies of this country.

"We do business with a lot worse folks," Luker said. "Just look at
Vietnam. We were in a war with them. We had a war with Russia and China
for many years and we trade with them."

The group will meet with Cuban officials tonight for dinner and for
three meetings on Wednesday.

The trip concludes Thursday.

mwilkey@jonesborosun.com

Jonesboro Sun (28 July 2009)
http://www.jonesborosun.com/story.php?ID=39153

June 25 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama called on Cuba's
government to "unconditionally" release all of its political prisoners
and allow them to "fully participate in a democratic future in Cuba."

Obama, 47, cited three political prisoners who are the recipients of an
award from the National Endowment for Democracy, a Washington based
non-profit foundation. The president has said he is open to changing
U.S. relations with Cuba if the communist country takes concrete steps
toward democracy, including the release of dissidents.

"It is my sincere hope that all political prisoners who remain jailed,
including three of today's award recipients, will be unconditionally
released," Obama said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Obama removed travel limits for Cuban- Americans
visiting family in Cuba, ended restrictions on how much money
Cuban-Americans can send relatives on the island and allowed U.S.
telecommunications companies such as AT&T Inc. to get licenses to
operate there.

Obama and other administration officials have said it is up to Cuba to
make the next move.

"The test for all of us is not only words, but also deeds," Obama said
April 19. "It is important to send the signal that issues of political
prisoners, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, democracy" continue
to be the main U.S. priorities.

Five Cubans were given the foundation's award. Three of them — Jose
Daniel Ferrer Garcia, Librado Linares and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo —
have been imprisoned since 2003. The other two are currently under house
arrest: Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera and her husband, Jorge Luis Garcia
Perez, who was released from prison in 2007.

Obama said that they and other pro-democracy Cubans are "brave men and
women who are standing up for the right of the Cuban people to freely
determine their country's future."

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at
jgoldman6@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 25, 2009 11:31 EDT

Obama Says Cuba Must 'Unconditionally' Free Political Prisoners –
Bloomberg.com (26 June 2009)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=acUAe20OF4ZQ

Cohibas, Partagas and Montecristos from Cuba. For U.S. cigar
aficionados, the names spark thoughts of civil disobedience.

As President Obama moves to ease restrictions on trade with Cuba, cigar
lovers are savoring the prospect of legally lighting up a smoke that has
long required a black-market connection and a willingness to flout the law.

"There's a mystique about a Cuban," said John Anderson, owner of W.
Curtis Draper Tobacconist, a cigar shop in Washington, D.C. "Cuban
tobacco has become the forbidden fruit."

The possible end to the 47-year-old embargo on Cuban trade has
intensified a legal and lobbying fight between cigar makers Swedish
Match of Stockholm and Imperial Tobacco Group of Bristol, England.

Each wants exclusive rights to sell Cuban-made brands in the United
States, the world's largest market for premium cigars.

Swedish Match sells cigars in the United States made in Honduras and the
Dominican Republic under Cuban brand names.

It bought the brands from families that fled Cuba after Fidel Castro
seized their cigar companies in the 1960s. Imperial distributes
Cuban-made cigars under many of the same names to the rest of the world
through an agreement with the Cuban government monopoly, Cubatabaco.

"Before serious commerce resumes, this is going to have to be resolved,"
said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who advises clients on
Cuba-related issues.

Opening the U.S. market to Cuban cigars may jeopardize the jobs of the
147 workers at the U.S. headquarters of Swedish Match's General Cigar
subsidiary in Richmond, Va., according to Gerry Roerty, the unit's
general counsel.

"The market is going to be turned upside down," Roerty said in an
interview. After waiting for almost five decades, Americans "will buy a
Donald Duck cigar if it's a Cuban."

Obama lifted prohibitions on Cuban-Americans traveling to the island in
April and eased restrictions on shipping clothing, seeds and other gifts
to Cuban residents.

Before the United States takes further steps, Obama says Cuba needs to
free political prisoners and allow freedom of speech and religion. House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) predicted last
month all travel and trade prohibitions, imposed by President Kennedy in
1962, will be lifted by the end of next year.

Cuban cigars, hand-rolled from the tobacco of the Vuelta Abajo growing
region, hold a cachet in popular culture that dates back to the island's
days as a playground for gamblers, novelists and mobsters.

The day before Kennedy imposed the embargo, he dispatched Press
Secretary Pierre Salinger to buy 1,000 Cuban-made Petit Upmanns,
according to an account Salinger wrote in 2002.

"A Cuban embodies so much more than smoke," said James Suckling, who has
written articles on Cuba for Cigar Aficionado magazine.

He estimates Americans consume about 20 million Cuban cigars a year,
enjoying them while traveling to Mexico or the Caribbean or stowing them
in luggage on the way home.

The forbidden fruit carries a premium: A box of 25 Cohiba Robustos costs
$304 on the Hong Kong-based Cigars of Habanos website, where shoppers
are offered the option of shipping to the United States without regard
to the government's ban.

A Dominican-made version sold online by Holt's Cigar of Philadelphia
sells for $175.

Because of the low acidity in the soil and a temperate climate, Cuban
cigars have an earthy aroma and a "full taste" that make the best of
them the finest cigars in the world, said Benjamin Menendez, a Cuban who
fled the country in 1960 after Castro confiscated his family's cigar
company, Menendez y Garcia.

Not all Cuban cigars meet those standards, he said.

"People are told they have a Cuban and they immediately assume they are
good," said Menendez, who has blended tobacco around the world and at
age 73 hosts 150 cigar tastings a year for General Cigar. Once Americans
can buy Cuban cigars at their local tobacco shop, "a
lot of people are going to be disappointed."

Swedish Match and Imperial Tobacco both sell Dominican-made cigars in
the United States and together account for almost half of the sales in a
U.S. market for premium cigars that the Swedish company estimates at
$850 million annually.

After cigar makers fled Cuba, Cubatabaco began exporting cigars under
brands such as the Menendez family's Montecristo and H. Upmann, and
developed new brands, such as Cohibas.

Because of the embargo and U.S. court decisions, Cubatabaco couldn't
keep the trademarks in the United States, and General Cigar bought
brands from the refugees.

Through an acquisition, Imperial owns a subsidiary that took the same
stance, buying brands such as Montecristo from exiled families.

That created the divided cigar market, in which one company owns a brand
such as Partagas in the United States and another does so around the world.

Cuba lost the U.S. rights to Cohibas when General Cigar registered the
brand in the 1970s. General Cigar has so far fended off a 1997 lawsuit
brought by Cubatabaco to reclaim that name. A new ruling in the case may
come within months.

General Cigar has spent more than $5 million lobbying Congress over the
past eight years. It got lawmakers to strike a provision in a 2001
measure that it says would have allowed Cuba to barter cigars for food
or medicine.

Imperial began lobbying this year for the first time since at least
2000, spending an initial $30,000, according to Senate records.

The fate of the Cuban trade embargo is more than an idle topic for
discussion among the lobbyists, lawyers and politicians who frequent
Shelly's Back Room in Washington. Regulars at the cigar parlor located
between the White House and the Capitol share the dream of getting their
hands on a legal Cuban cigar.

"Cuban cigars are legendary," owner Bob Materazzi said. "Anybody who is
a cigar geek is interested.

"Competing Cohibas eye end of Cuban trade embargo – NJ.com (25 June
2009)
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/06/competing_cohibas_eye_end_of_c.html

Status: Not Free
Obstacles to Access: 25 (0–25)
Limits on Content: 32 (0–35)
Violations of User Rights: 33 (0–40)
Total Score: 90 (0–100)
Population: 11.2 million
Internet Users/Penetration 2006: 190 thousand / 2 percent
Internet Users/Penetration 2008: 1.3 million / 11 percent (Note:
includes users with access only to intranet)
Mobile Phone Users/Penetration 2006: 152 thousand
Mobile Phone Users/Penetration 2008: 327 thousand
Freedom of the Press (2008) Score/Status: 94 / Not Free
Digital Opportunity Index (2006) Ranking: 129 out of 181
GNI Per Capita (PPP): Unavailable
Web 2.0 Applications Blocked: Yes
Political Content Systematically Filtered: No
Bloggers/Online Journalists Arrested: Yes

Introduction

Despite the slight loosening of restrictions on the sale of computer and
mobile-phone equipment in 2008, Cuba remains one of the world's most
repressive environments for the internet and information and
communication technologies (ICTs). There is almost no access to internet
applications other than e-mail, and surveillance is extensive.
Nevertheless, a nascent community of bloggers has emerged on the island,
creatively using online and offline means to express opinions and
circulate information about Cuban society.

Cuba was connected to the internet for the first time in 1997, and the
National Center for Automated Interchange of Information (CENIAI), the
country's first internet service provider (ISP), was established that
year. However, the executive authorities continue to control the legal
and institutional structures that decide who has access to the internet
and how much access will be permitted.[1]

Obstacles to Access

Though the government has claimed that all Cubans have access to the
internet, according to the ITU, only 1.3 million people – 11.5 percent –
had access to the internet in 2008. [2] However, it should be noted
that this number is also potentially over inflated as it includes those
who had access to the Cuban intranet only, but not to the global
internet. A closer estimate is that 240,000 – 2.1 percent – of the
population had some level of access to the world wide web in 2008.[3]
Restrictions on access have been exacerbated by tight government control
over related equipment. The sale of modems was banned in 2001, and the
sale of computers and computer accessories to the public was banned in
2002. Exceptions could be authorized by the Ministry of Internal
Commerce if the items in question were deemed to be "indispensable."
This policy changed in early 2008, when the government of President Raul
Castro began allowing Cubans to buy personal computers. Individuals can
now legally purchase a computer and connect to an ISP with a government
permit. Nonetheless, high costs put both the internet and mobile phones
beyond the reach of most of the population. A simple computer with a
monitor averages around 722 convertible pesos (US$780) in retail stores,
or at least 550 convertible pesos (US$600) on the black market.[4] By
comparison, the average monthly Cuban salary is approximately 16
convertible pesos (US$17).[5] These computers are generally distributed
by the state-run Copextel Corporation, which imports communications,
computing, and other ICT equipment. An internet connection costs between
6 and 12 convertible pesos (US$9 and US$15) per hour.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Cuba had a
mobile-phone penetration rate of only 2.9 percent (approximately 327,000
users) as of 2007. However, the government eased restrictions on
mobile-phone purchases in March 2008, and reduced the sign-up fee by
half, though it still represents three months of wages for the average
worker. It is estimated that Cubans signed some 7,400 new contracts for
mobile phones in the 10 days following the lifting of the ban, and
according to the state-run newspaper Juventud Rebelde, an estimated
480,000 cellular lines were in use by year's end.[6] ETECSA, the
state-controlled telecommunications company, predicts that there will be
1.4 million new mobile contracts over the next five years.[7] Mobile
phones do not include internet connections, but it is possible to send
and receive international text messages with certain phones.

TTT he government divides access to web technology between the national
intranet and the global internet; most Cubans only have access to the
former, which consists of a national e-mail system, a Cuban
encyclopedia, a pool of educational materials and open-access journals,
Cuban websites, and foreign websites that are supportive of the Cuban
government.[8] Cubans can legally access the internet only through
government-approved institutions, such as the approximately 600 Joven
Clubs de La Computacion (Youth Computation Clubs) and points of access
run by ETECSA; users are generally required to present identification to
use computers at these sites.[9] Many neighborhoods in the main cities
of Havana and Santiago advertise "internet" access in ETECSA kiosks, but
field research has found that the kiosks often lack computers. Instead
they have public phones for local and international calls with prepaid
phone cards. The government also claims that all schools have computer
laboratories; in practice, however, internet access is usually
prohibited for students or limited to e-mail and supervised activities
on the national intranet.

Individuals who do access the internet face paralyzingly slow
connections, and tests conducted on the island found that just two
e-mails could be sent per hour using Yahoo! mail. Multimedia
applications were inoperable. This was the case even at universities,
where the connections are slightly better than at ETECSA access
points.[10] One segment of the population that enjoys approved access to
the internet is the professional class of doctors, professors, and
government officials. For example, 3,000 e-mail accounts had been issued
to medical institutions by 2001, and facilities like hospitals,
polyclinics, research institutions, and local doctors' offices are
linked via an online network called Infomed.[11] However, even these
users are typically restricted to e-mails and sites related to their
activities. Beginning in 2007, the government systematically blocked
core internet portal sites such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Hotmail. This ban
was extended to blog platforms and blog commentary technology during
certain periods in 2008. As a result, Cubans cannot access blogs written
by their fellow citizens. Moreover, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
remains blocked in Cuba, with the exception of illegal points of
connection in old Havana. Some social-networking platforms such as
Facebook are accessible in university cybercafes.

There are only two ISPs, CENIAI Internet and ETECSA, and both are owned
by the state. Cubacel, a subsidiary of ETECSA, is the only mobile-phone
carrier. In 2000, the Ministry of Information Science and Communication
was created to serve as the regulatory authority for the internet, and
its Cuban Supervision and Control Agency oversees the development of
internet-related technologies.[12] In May 2008, Deputy Minister for
Information Science and Communication Boris Moreno said "Cuba is not
concerned with the individual connection of its citizens to the
internet. We use the internet to defend the Revolution and the
principles we believe in and have defended all these years."[13] The
government argues that access restrictions are a direct consequence of
the U.S. embargo, which prevents Cuba from connecting to underwater
cables and forces it to use expensive Chinese and Venezuelan satellites
instead.[14] It has been estimated that the cost of laying a fiber-optic
cable from Havana to Florida, to allow high-speed connectivity, would
cost as little as $500,000.[15] In the meantime, Cuba and Venezuela
signed documents in 2006 for the purpose of building and operating a
fiber-optic cable linking Cuba and Venezuela (as well as Jamaica, Haiti,
and Trinidad and Tobago) and amplifying Cuba's internet connections by
2010.[16] It remains unclear whether the Cuban government will truly
allow widespread access once the infrastructural impediments are removed.

Limits on Content

Rather than engaging in the technically sophisticated blocking and
filtering used by other repressive regimes such as China and Tunisia,
Cuban authorities rely heavily on lack of technology and prohibitive
costs to limit users' access to information. The websites of foreign
news outlets—including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Le
Monde, and the Nuevo Herald (a Miami-based Spanish-language daily)—and
human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
remain largely accessible, though slow connection speeds impede access
to the content on these sites.[17] Sites and writings that are
considered anti-Cuban or counterrevolutionary are restricted. These
include many of the Cuban dissident sites based in the United States and
abroad, and any documents containing criticism of the current system or
mentioning dissidents, supply shortages, and other politically sensitive
issues.[18] Blogs written by Cubans residing in Cuba are also
inaccessible. For example, sites such as cubanet.org, payolibre.com,
bitacoracubana.com, cubadebate.com, and prolibertadprensa.blogspot.com
cannot be accessed at the youth computer centers. It is a crime to
contribute to international media that are not supportive of the
government, a fact that has led to widespread self-censorship. Cuban
blogs typically feature implicit or explicit elements of self-censorship
and anonymity. Many of those working closely with ICTs are journalists
who have been barred from official employment, and the prohibitive costs
surrounding the technology represent a major obstacle for them. The
majority of their work is done offline by hand, typewriter, or computer,
then uploaded and published once or twice a week using a paid internet
access card. For those contributing to international outlets, content
can be dictated via costly international phone calls.

Despite all of these barriers, Cubans still connect to the internet
through both legal and illegal points of access. Some are able to break
through the infrastructural blockages by building their own antennas,
using illegal dial-up connections, and developing blogs on foreign
platforms. The underground economy of internet access also includes
account sharing, in which authorized users sell access to those without
an official account for one or two convertible pesos per hour. Some
foreign embassies allow Cubans to use their facilities, but a number of
people who have visited embassies for this purpose have reported police
harassment. To date there have been no reported cases of Cuban activists
using mobile phones or SMS (text messaging) to organize events or
disseminate political information. However, there is a thriving
improvisational system of "sneakernets," in which USB keys, CDs, and
DVDs are used to distribute material (articles, satirical cartoons,
video clips) that has been downloaded from the internet.

The lack of a proper internet connection remains Cuban bloggers' biggest
challenge, according to Roger Trabas, cofounder of the Bloggers Cuba
website. In September 2008, Trabas organized the first meeting—dubbed
Blogging on Our Own—designed to bring together the island's bloggers and
those involved in online journalism.[19] There is no exact count of
blogs produced in Cuba, but the Cuban Journalists' Union (UPEC) has
reported a current total of 174. Examples include Yoani Sanchez's famous
blog Generación Y, which draws 26 percent of its readers from within
Cuba, as well as sites like Retazos, Nueva Prensa, PayoLibre.com,
Cubaencuentro.com, and Convivencia. Regional radio stations and
magazines are also creating online versions, though these outlets are
state-run and do not accept contributions from independent journalists.
However, in a recent development, some of these sites have installed
commentary tools that allow readers to provide feedback and foster
discussion.

Cubans succeeded in mobilizing via the intranet in January 2007,
following the appearance of Luis Pavon Tamayo on a television program
honoring people who have made significant contributions to Cuban
culture. Cuban artists and intellectuals spontaneously started an e-mail
discussion to protest his appearance. Tamayo had formerly headed the
National Culture Council and was widely viewed as responsible for a
multiyear crackdown on cultural expression during the 1970s. The period,
known as the Grey Five, saw Cuban artists and intellectuals censored,
sent to labor camps, or driven into exile. The e-mail protest quickly
drew the attention of the government, and Culture Minister Abel Prieto
met with 20 of those involved to discuss their concerns.[20] Prieto
initially refused to apologize for Tamayo's appearance, but in the face
of a growing online movement he reconsidered and issued an apology. He
said the appearance—as well as the subsequent appearances of two other
leading figures in the 1970s crackdown, Armando Quesada and Jorge
Serguera—had been an "error," and explained that "today the leadership
of this country regards that period—which was fortunately brief—with
great disapproval."[21]

Violations of Users' Rights

The legal structure in Cuba is not favorable to internet freedom. There
is no clear constitutional guarantee of internet freedom, and the
constitution explicitly subordinates freedom of speech to the objectives
of socialist society.[22] Freedom of cultural expression is guaranteed
only if the expression is not contrary to the Revolution.[23] The penal
code and Law 88 set penalties ranging from a few months to 20 years in
prison for any activities that are considered a "potential risk,"
"disturbing the peace," a "precriminal danger to society,"
"counterrevolutionary," or "against the national independence or
economy."[24]

Cuba is one of the few countries to have issued laws and regulations
explicitly restricting and outlawing certain online activities. In 1996,
the government passed Decree-Law 209, known as Access from the Republic
of Cuba to the Global Computer Network, which states that the internet
cannot be used "in violation of Cuban society's moral principles or the
country's laws," and that e-mail messages must not "jeopardize national
security."[25] In 2007, Resolution 127 on network security banned the
spreading of information via public data-transmission networks that is
against the social interest, norms of good behavior, the integrity of
people, or national security. The decree requires access providers to
install controls that will enable them to detect and prevent the
proscribed activities, and to report them to the relevant authorities.

From a regulatory perspective, Resolution 56/1999 provides that all
materials intended for publication or dissemination on the internet must
first be approved by the National Registry of Serial Publications.
Moreover, Resolution 92/2003 prohibits e-mail and other ICT service
providers from granting access to individuals who are not approved by
the government, and requires that they enable only domestic chat
services, not international ones. Entities that violate these
regulations can have their authorization to provide access suspended or
revoked.

Despite constitutional provisions that protect various forms of
communication, and portions of the penal code that set penalties for the
violation of the secrecy of communications, the privacy of users is
frequently violated in practice. Tools of content surveillance and
control are pervasive, from public access points and universities to
government offices. Delivery of e-mail messages is consistently delayed,
and it is not unusual for a message to arrive without its attachments.
The phenomenon is known to occur in hotel cybercafes used by both
tourists and locals.

The new administration of Raul Castro has continued its predecessor's
repressive practices with respect to independent journalism, indirectly
affecting the blogging community as well. These practices include the
imposition of fines, searches, and the confiscation of money and
equipment. There have been a few cases in which online journalists were
arrested and punished for their work, most notably the imprisonment of
two correspondents of CubaNet. One, Oscar Sanchez Madan, was sentenced
to four years in prison in April 2007 for "precriminal social danger,"
and the other was sentenced to seven years in November 2005 for
"subversive propaganda."[26] Still, bloggers have not been subject to
anything akin to the Black Spring of 2003, in which 27 journalists were
arrested on grounds that they were "agents of the American enemy."[27]

Prominent bloggers do face a wide range of other forms of harassment,
intimidation, and restrictions on their rights. Yoani Sanchez and her
husband Reynaldo Escobar (a fellow blogger) were summoned for
questioning in December 2008, reprimanded, and informed that their right
to travel had been restricted, meaning they would be unable to attend a
two-day blogging workshop in the western part of the island.[28] Other
individuals planning to attend the event were also summoned for
questioning and pressured to cancel;[29] as a result, the meeting of 20
bloggers was reportedly held online to avoid the risk of arrest.[30] In
May 2008, the government refused to issue Sanchez a travel visa that
would have allowed her to receive the Ortega y Gasset prize for digital
journalism in Spain.[31]

[1] Ben Corbett, This is Cuba: an outlaw culture survives, Westview
Press, 2002,

http://books.google.com/books?id=N2P5n3rU7EkC&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=CENIAI+Internet&source=bl&ots=33reH-Vvh7&sig=UBxsUT16g0Z2BLKa0P1e5NMRFB0,
Accessed March 20, 2009.

[2] Internet World Stats,
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats10.htm#spanish, Accessed March
20, 2009.

[3] Reporters Without Borders,
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26096, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[4] "Cubans queue for computers as PC ban lifted, but web still
outlawed," Irish Examiner, May 5, 2008.

[5] "Mobile phone use booms in Cuba following easing of restrictions,"
Agence France-Presse, April 24, 2008.

[6] Cellular News, http://www.cellular-news.com/story/35917.php?s=h,
Accessed March 18, 2008.

[7] "Mobile phone use booms in Cuba following easing of restrictions,"
Agence France-Presse, April 24, 2008.

[8] ETECSA: Empressa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A., www.enet.cu,
Accessed March 20, 2009.

[9] Joven Clubs de La Computacion, http://www.cfg.jovenclub.cu/,
Accessed March 20, 2009.

[10] ETECSA: Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A.

[11] Infomed, www.sld.cu, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[12] Ministry of Information Science and Communication,
http://www.mic.gov.cu/, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[13] "In Raul Castro's reforms in Cuba, internet remains restricted,"
Agence-France-Presse, May 17, 2008,
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gbs2d7rh33vYKZ6hp3xAwhA4BXvQ,
Accessed March 20, 2009.

[14] For instance, Government sources cite the cost of 4 million US$/yr
to connect to the Internet through these satellites. From this, local
sources affirm that 850K US$/yr are just to connect a local association
of artists and writers.

[15] "Cuba to get high-speed Internet in 2010," Techweb, July 17, 2008

[16] Ibid.

[17] "Access impeded to Internet platform hosting popular blogs, other
websites," March 31, 2008,
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/92118/,Accessed March 20, 2009.

[18] ONI report on Cuba, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/cuba,
Accessed March 12, 2009.

[19] "Cuba: More Bloggers are Firing Off Thoughts From the Island,"
Inter Press Service, October 6, 2008.

[20] "Cuban writers angered by resurfacing of censor," January 16,
2007,
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000051/005155.htm
, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[21] "Artists' congress marks more changes in Cuba," April 5, 2008,
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=c97b6387-8824-4198-8910-9cc9b06ac8c6,
Accessed March 20, 2009. and Arturo Gracía Hernàndez, "Interview with
Abel Prieto, Cuban Minister of Culture,"
www.embacu.cubaminrex.cu/Portals/7/Interview.doc , Accessed March 20, 2009.

[22] Article 53, available at
http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/const_92_e.htm, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[23] Article 39, d), available at
http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/const_92_e.htm, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[24 See – Protection of Cuba's National Independency and economy.
http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/laws.php

[25] Cuba – Telecoms Market Overview & Statistics 2008.

[26] Freedom of the Press, Cuba 2008,
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2008 , Accessed
March 12, 2009.

[27] Reporters Without Borders, March 16, 2006,
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16771 , Accessed March 20, 2009.

[28] "Cuba v. the Bloggers," PoliBlog, December 6, 2008.

[29] Global Voices Online, Cuba Government Officials Tell Bloggers to
Cancel Planned Meeting, December 6, 2008,
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/12/06/cuba-government-officials-tell-bloggers-to-cancel-planned-meeting/
, Accessed March 20, 2009.

[30] Mother Jones,
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/12/cubas-blogger-crackdown,
Accessed March 20, 2009.

[31] "Cuba refuses to give blogger visa to collect prize," Agence
France Press, May 6, 2008.

Freedom on the Net: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media
freedomhouse.org: Special Report Section (23 June 2009)
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=384&key=199&parent=19&report=79

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Bucharest, Romania. May 28, 2009.- Cuba
continues to be one of the worst violators of human rights in the world,
and certainly the worst in Latin America. It systematically violates
almost all of the articles of the Universal declaration of Human Rights,
to which it is a signatory. Rather than improving in recent years,
human rights in Cuba have deteriorated.

The gerontocracy that rules the island no longer can claim the loyalty
of its people, and the young in particular want democratic change. A
recent International Republican Institute poll in Cuba of 587 Cubans
revealed that were elections held today with Raul Castro and someone
from the opposition, the dissident would garner 61% of the vote. The
Cuban nomenclature realizes it is unpopular and unable to inspire hope
in the future.

For that reason, it is fearful of change and tries to convince the
population that change will bring more, not less, misery. The crackdown
on opposition activists stems from fear that an improvement in economic
or political rights will unleash a popular torrent it cannot control.
The elite are circling the wagons in hopes of maintaining their
privileged positions on the backs of its long suffering citizens.

Over 200 political prisoners languish in squalid cells, where they are
denied basic rights like the right to adequate medical care, basic food
and exercise, and regular visits from their families. It has been
decades (1988) since outside human rights groups like the Red Cross have
been allowed access to political prisoners. The regime often places
political prisoners in jails far removed from their homes to increase
the suffering of their families. Prison guards harass prisoners and
encourage common criminals to beat them in return for rewards.

Cells are overcrowded and prisoners often spend long periods in solitary
confinement to break their spirit. Many have to sleep on the bare
floor. Disease is often rampant in these jails. Some prisoners resort
to self-mutilation to get medical attention or better conditions. As
many as 5000 persons who have committed no crime, but are considered
likely to have a tendency to do so, have been jailed for dangerousness,
a charge that carries up to 4 years in jail.

Many prisoners are black and young, and their crime consists in
non-conforming dress or behavior, or unemployment. By jailing social
deviants, the regime hopes to squelch rising signs of discontent that is
expressed through Hip Hop music lyrics and refusal to participate in
so-called revolutionary support activities. Over 1500 persons were
arrested and held for several hours in 2008 as warnings to conform or
face long jail sentences.

Civil society, which was destroyed by the regime in the 1960s, is
quietly growing across Cuba. Street protests, underground newspapers,
refusal to vote, are all signs Cubans are discontent with their lives
and future. To dampen this, the regime has been increasing its control
of the media, the internet and civil society and opposition leaders.
State Security organizes acts of repudiation in front of opposition
homes where crowds throw stones and insult occupants. Death threats are
common.

Children and relatives of dissidents generally are harassed, often lose
their jobs and are denied access to the university, internet and cell
phone. Opposition leaders are induced to leave the island, but their
families are not always allowed to go with them.

Cuba does not grant jury trials and political opponents especially are
denied adequate defense. Often defense attorneys are given the
prosecution dossier minutes before the trial begins and cannot call
defense witnesses. Due process does not exist. Most trials are over in
less than a day and are closed to outsiders. 55 of the 75 dissidents,
"adopted" by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience, and who
sentenced in 2003, remain in prison.

Authorities continue to violate their citizens' rights to privacy by
bugging their homes, opening their mail, listening to their phone and
internet conversations, and censoring their news. They continue to jam
outside radio broadcasts and prohibit ordinary citizens' access to
satellite news and entertainment, foreign literature and news. Homes of
opponents are entered surreptitiously. Although the regime
theoretically allows Cubans to have cell phones, in practice the
registration fees and per-minute costs to use them are prohibitive for
most.

The regime especially fears the internet. In 2007, the Minister of
Communications referred to the internet as " a tool for global
extermination" and "a wild colt" that needed to be tamed. After
allowing Cubans with access to dollars access to Internet Cafes, just
last month the government again blocked ordinary Cubans from using the
internet. It is illegal to encrypt internet transmissions or to have a
satellite receiver. As a result of tight controls and exorbitant costs,
Cuba has one of the lowest internet usage rates in the world at XX%.

Even when Cubans could use internet cafes, the regime censors employed
key stroke loggers, key word blockers and other methods to monitor
internet usage. It remains a crime to visit sites the regime dislikes
and to access the internet without authorization. Software at Internet
Cafes blocks access to the Center for a Free Cuba and many other
independent web sites.

In March 2008 the government allowed Cubans for the first time to have
computers, but without access to the internet, they can be used only for
word processing or other such tasks. Nevertheless, Cubans are ingenious
and thousands have found a way to gain access to the logons that allow
them to blog and communicate among themselves. This is of great concern
to the authorities, who have threatened the most prominent bloggers like
Yoani Sanchez.

The government denies freedom of speech, assembly, travel and the press.
What it does not like it labels enemy propaganda, punishable by up to
14 years in jail. Outside human rights reports are enemy propaganda, as
is news from abroad. Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
cannot be freely distributed as it is considered subversive. All media
is controlled by the State. Criticism of revolutionary leaders is a
serious crime.

No one may print a book or distribute one not authorized by the
government. Independent journalism is prohibited. 23 independent
journalists are in jail for the sole crime of disseminating non-official
news. While independent libraries exist, they are often raided and
their books confiscated. They must hide books critical of the regime
and be discreet in what they make available to the neighbors. Although
Fidel claims that no books are banned in Cuba, that is a lie.
Subversive books are behind lock and key in public libraries and the
government intercepts and destroys books of all sorts that it feels will
undermine faith in the revolution.

It is illegal in Cuba, as it was in the Soviet Union, for more than
three people to congregate. Internal travel is restricted and
permission is required to live outside one's official place of
residence. Authorities want to block poor blacks from the east from
moving to Havana. Over 25,000 illegal residents of Havana were deported
in 2008 to their home towns. The government has never approved the
existence of a human rights group or allowed one to meet.

They do so at their peril. Religious educational institutions are
banned. No political parties are allowed nor may independent unions
organize or operate. Only the Catholic Church may occasionally hold a
procession or broadcast for short periods of time. Shortwave radios
that can capture signals from abroad, and satellite radio and TV are
illegal.

Exit and entry into Cuba are closely controlled. One may not travel
freely abroad. A costly exit permit is required and medical personnel
are generally required to compensate the state for their education by
remaining 6 or more years behind as their families emigrate. Migrants
lose their homes and possessions to the state upon departure.

The government can exile a citizen to an area for up to ten years.
Often released political prisoners are required or pressured to leave
the country as a condition of release. It is illegal to attempt to
leave Cuba, without the required exit permit, clandestinely. Repeat
offenders are often jailed and most lose their employment after the
first attempt and face discrimination and harassment.

Everyone in Cuba has an official political dossier which outlines
his/her degree of political correctness. Those with bad marks are
denied access to the university and better jobs. Cuba has not had a
free election in 50 years. The authorities fear they could lose. This
obsession is buttressed by the results of the most recent compulsory
National Assembly so-called election in which 1.4 million voters or 17%
of the electorate abstained.

In practice, every candidate for the National Assembly must be a member
of or favored by the communist party to get on the ballot. The
Communist candidates routinely get 98% of the vote. To my knowledge,
there has never been a NO vote cast in the National Assembly much less a
real debate on matters of importance. Women and blacks especially are
vastly underrepresented in the ruling elite. Blacks and mulattos
constitute some 60% of the population, but whites command with 64% of
the Politburo. Racial discrimination and homophobia are rampant.
Blacks generally cannot get a job in the tourist industry.

Labor unions are banned, except for the official ones. There has never
been a strike in Cuba in the past 50 years. Independent labor unions
exist clandestinely, but five labor leaders are serving long prison
terms for their activity. The government routinely takes up to 95% of a
worker's pay if he/she is employed in a joint venture enterprise. The
government rents the worker to the foreign company, which gives the
worker a pittance in local currency while keeping for the state the
foreign currency salary.

Workers cannot work where and when they want. The government provides
the jobs and sets the work and pay conditions. Salary and performance
are supposedly now linked, but regulations implementing this do not yet
exist. The average salary remains at some $20 a month and most Cubans
rely on the ration book to survive the first few weeks of each month,
after which they must "resolver" or steal or otherwise engage in some
illicit activity to make ends meet.

There is no overtime pay and compulsory work is required to get ahead.
Pensions are less than $5 for most workers and the minimum wage is $9 a
month. Prisoners are usually forced to work for little or no pay,
especially those being "rehabilitated for dangerousness."

In summary, things are not getting better in Cuba under Raul Castro as
many optimists had hoped. The regime remains conservative, repressive
and fearful of its citizens.

It more closely resembles Iran and North Korea than China in terms of
human rights performance. It is highly unlikely that the regime will
allow greater personal freedoms as long as the Castro brothers remain
alive.

The 80 year-olds who remain entrenched in power correctly fear the
younger generation is not committed to their revolutionary ideals and so
must be contained and controlled. If they give a figurative "inch" they
expect the population will demand a "mile" and the system will unravel;
hence, tight controls will be kept in place. Foreign inducements and
blandishments will not budge them from their set ways, I believe. The
biological solution will open up possibilities for change.

Many Cubans are appalled at what has happened to Cuba. They want change,
but fear to speak out. In the meantime, the international community
must show solidarity with those brave souls who challenge the regime and
are preparing civil society for the future.

We must not abandon them or accept the status quo as somehow
foreordained and irreversible. The opposition and independent thinkers
need or solidarity, material support and encouragement. One day they
will be among the leaders of a new Cuba, and remember who their friends
were and who prolonged their agony.

CUBA UNDER RAUL: DOMESTIC AND FORENIGN POLICIES: THE HUMAN RIGHTS
SITUATION – Misceláneas de Cuba (20 June 2009)
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=21296

WASHINGTON – No president, as leader of the Free World, wants to embrace
the Cuba of the Castros without some tangible proof that the 50-year,
anti-American dictatorship is loosening its repression of the Cuban people.

President Barack Obama has made future steps contingent on something
positive occurring in Cuba: release of political prisoners, freedom of
travel or freedom of speech – signs of an opening toward democratic change.

The Castro regime's human rights record is bad. With 200 prisoners of
conscience and regular police surveillance and repression, the Castro
system routinely denies freedom of speech, association, information and
travel.

The very grass-roots foundations of freedom – civil society, trade
unions and individual enterprise – are routinely squashed by the
juggernaut of the Cuban state. The communist regime deadens the lives of
millions of Cubans, leaving them apathetic, isolated and devoid of hope.

Second, no president would feel comfortable taking steps that would help
fill the coffers of Castro Brothers Inc.

Cuba's regressive government controls 90 percent of all economic
activity. It writes every contract and enforces labor discipline. It
directs the judicial and bureaucratic machinery and doles out wages and
profits as it chooses. The cupola of the communist regime, not the
people or the market, calls every shot and reaps the lion's share of
benefits.

The 1962 embargo has been substantially modified over time. The U.S. now
sells hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food on a cash-and-carry
basis. Remittances from the United States add hundreds of millions more
and are certain to grow. Lifting of restrictions on telecommunications
will allow freer communications, if the Cubans so desire.

Two million foreign tourists bask annually in Cuba's sun while the
majority of Cubans subsist on less than $20 a month. The United States
doesn't impede Cuba's ability to barter, borrow or trade with the rest
of the world. Venezuela's anti-American president, Hugo Chavez, props up
the Castro regime with an estimated $2 billion annually. Nevertheless,
Fidel Castro calls U.S. policy "genocidal." More than a billion dollars
in trade and remittances has thus far bought a goose egg's worth of
liberalization and human rights changes. Would additional billions
accomplish anymore without a profound structural, democratic transition
in Cuba? In 2009, the partial embargo serves two purposes. It's still a
leveraging point for bargained change in U.S.-Cuba relations. Second, it
represents the moral divide between liberty and repression, between
dictatorship and democracy.

The Cuba embargo is like a wall, starkly demarcating two opposed ways of
thinking. It should have fallen in 1989 or in the 1990s as the rest of
Latin America and much of the world moved to democracy.

It can still quickly disappear once a dissenter like Dr. Oscar Elias
Biscet walks out of prison, when blogger Yoani Sanchez is free to write
and travel without hindrance, and when a humble Afro-Cuban cane-cutter
like Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez is able to speak his mind without
fear of retribution and imprisonment.

In the end, Cuba's hope for change centers on Havana, not Washington.

Ray Walser is a senior analyst for the Heritage Foundation, 214
Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002.

BillingsGazette.com :: Guest Opinion: Cuba must change before U.S. ends
embargo (12 June 2009)
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/06/12/opinion/guest/80-cuba.txt

T he 34-country Organization of American States' historic decision to
lift its 1962 suspension of Cuba was the easy part. Now comes the real
challenge: getting the OAS to demand that Cuba's dictatorship abide by
the group's democracy clauses before the island can rejoin the organization.

That won't happen anytime soon, and you and I know it.

Unless Cuba's military regime decides to allow free elections, or the
Obama administration decides to shelve its stated commitment to
democracy in the Americas, the OAS decision at its General Assembly on
Wednesday amounts to postponing the debate on Cuba's readmission.

According to the consensus agreement that was celebrated by all member
countries — including the United States — as a ''historic''
achievement, the OAS lifted the more-than-four-decade-old suspension of
Cuba, rooted in the Cold War, and started a process of inviting Cuba to
rejoin the group based on the ''practices, purposes and principles'' of
the OAS.

MIXED INTERPRETATIONS

But while Wednesday's decision gave a propaganda victory to Venezuela,
Ecuador, Nicaragua and other admirers of Cuba's military regime, and
while the Obama administration gave significant ground from its earlier
effort to set conditions to lift Cuba's suspension, the devil may be in
the details of Wednesday's consensus document.

The resolution, in addition to lifting Cuba's suspension, states that
''Cuba's participation in the OAS will result from a process of dialogue
started at the request of Cuba's government and according to the
practices, purposes and principles of the OAS,'' the organization said
in a statement.

U.S. officials said this means that to take the next step and become a
full OAS member, Cuba would have to honor the group's 1966 Democratic
Charter, which requires that member states abide by “essential elements
of representative democracy.''

The OAS Charter is pretty specific. Article 3 says that these
''essential elements'' include ''respect for human rights,'' holding
''periodic, free and fair elections based on secret balloting,'' and
having a “pluralistic system of political parties.''

Cuban President Gen. Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, who still
commands significant power, have repeatedly said they will not allow
political parties, free elections or freedom of speech. To protect
themselves from such pressures, they have said they don't want to be
part of the OAS, claiming that the group is a “puppet of U.S.
imperialism.''

But Latin American countries may interpret Wednesday's agreement
differently, and say that Cuba already abides by the OAS' overall
principles, and that its deviations from some OAS rules are no worse
than Washington's trade embargo on Cuba. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva said Wednesday that he is optimistic that OAS member
countries will find a way to readmit Cuba to the organization “within
months.''

Virtually all Latin American and Caribbean countries hailed the OAS
decision as a milestone.

''Today is a historic day, a day of rejoicing for all the people of the
Americas,'' Argentina Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana told the OAS
meeting. “We have put an end to an anachronism.''

But human rights and pro-democracy groups point out that the real
anachronism is Cuba's refusal to allow people access to the Internet,
express themselves freely, and belong to independent unions or political
parties, let alone electing their government.

THE ONUS ON OBAMA

My opinion: As I stated in a May 24 column, nearly two weeks before the
vote, I'm not opposed to lifting Cuba's suspension from the OAS. But
that decision should be used by the Obama administration to mount a
major d