Brazilian Government must defend the rights of Yoani Sánchez, Cuban blogger and all other dissidents, journalists and human rights activists – Amnesty International
Brazilian Government must defend the rights of Yoani Sánchez, Cuban blogger and all other dissidents, journalists and human rights activists
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
27 January 2012
AI Index: AMR 19/002/2012
Br azilian Government must d efend the rights of Yoani Sánchez , Cuban blogger and all other dissidents, journalists and human rights activist s
The news that Brazil has issued a visa for Yoani Sánchez, the Cuban blogger and human rights activist, to visit the country for a film festival is an important step in recognising her right to freedom of movement. The Cuban authorities must now grant her permission to travel to Brazil to attend the screening of a documentary by Brazilian documentary-maker Dado Galvão in Jequié, Bahia State, on 10 February. The film features the story of Yoani Sánchez and other bloggers.
Amnesty International is calling on the Brazilian government to intervene with the Cuban authorities so that Yoani Sanchez is given permission to travel freely to and from Cuba. On 20 January 2012 Amnesty International wrote to Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, calling on the Brazilian government to intervene in this case and to discuss human rights violations in Cuba. (see letter http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR19/001/2012/pt)
President Dilma Rousseff will be visiting Cuba on 31 January 2012. Amnesty International urges her to raise Yoeni Sánchez' case with the Cuban authorities as well as the issue of freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement which is of serious concern. The case of Yoani Sánchez and her visit to Brazil gives the Brazilian authorities an opportunity to engage on those issues with the Cuban government.
The Cuban authorities continue to severely restrict the freedom of expression, assembly, and association of political dissidents, journalists and human rights activists. Dissidents, journalists and human rights activists are subject to arbitrary house arrest and other restrictions to prevent them from carrying out legitimate and peaceful activities. In addition, the Cuban government is using the denial of exit permits as a punitive measure against government critics and dissidents.
Amnesty International trusts that President Rousseff will use her upcoming visit to Cuba to reinforce Brazil's increasing global influence in the promotion and protection of human rights.
Cuba, Where Sheep Are Trained To Venerate Wolves
Op/Ed – 1/31/2012 @ 11:15AM
Cuba, Where Sheep Are Trained To Venerate Wolves
With the death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, Cuba has lost one of its precious remaining brave souls. While a sputtering dissident movement shows occasional signs of life, reminding us of the hell the Cuban people endure, it casts a pale shadow compared to the fury of the Arab Spring. How is it possible that the Castro brothers have been able to run one of the world's most repressive and dysfunctional gulags for so long without their meeting the fate of the Ceausescus by now?
Their technique of how to introduce communism on an island scale is worth studying.
First, take a geographic area and build a firewall around it. Allow an elite group of monomaniacal thugs to subject the people trapped inside to five decades of brutal repression, privation, confiscation, and humiliation, all bolstered by relentless propaganda designed to convince victims and observers alike that this is necessary for the greater glory of the revolution.
Second, enlist an army of global intellectuals to manufacture a smokescreen of respectability for a governing philosophy that extols the virtues of equality and sacrifice, despite the fact that it delivers the equality of poverty and the sacrifice of self respect. Build a few Potemkin village medical facilities to fool the gullible into believing some noble purpose or higher achievement motivates the endeavor.
Third, make it is risky, but not impossible, for anyone who possesses the ambition and courage to rebel to escape instead.
Finally, marinate for two generations as you chase off the best and the brightest and observe what happens to the character of the people that survive.
Welcome to Cuba, where the human spirit has been so thoroughly crushed that a nation of sheep passively waits for their predatory wolves to die of old age, safely in their beds, not a hand raised against them.
Given the Cuban people's apparent resignation to their own fate, is it any surprise that the rest of us just shake our heads in wonder and go about our business, our political leaders impotently decrying the occasional human rights outrage that escapes the censors and makes it into the news?
When the nightmare runs its course and the complete story is finally told, there will be no redeeming chapters.
But what about the lower-than-average infant mortality and longer life expectancy touted by the Castro regime's boosters, if such statistics can be believed? Isn't living longer an end that justifies the means? Think about what living longer implies if you're forced to live under tyranny. America's founders—and indeed, the leaders of the Central and South American independence movements—preferred death to that sort of life, and said so with their words and deeds.
What about the famously low crime rate, where a midnight stroller is safer in Havana than in Washington, DC? Yes, violent crime is a government monopoly in a police state. Plus, in a country that has so little, there is nothing much to steal. After all, how many iPhones can get ripped off when nobody can afford one and posting the wrong thing on Twitter can earn you a visit from state security?
It'll be interesting to see what happens to a demoralized people after Castroism breathes its final breath. A new pack of wolves might try to keep the workers' paradise going, but at this point even the most devoted cadres may well be weary of the experiment. Look for them to enrich themselves by "privatizing" the economy Russian oligarch-style, as they carve up the island to remodel it into the Caribbean resort destination it has every right to be—so long as the "right" people profit.
A brief vintage car export market will likely open up as the world's largest living auto museum sells off its collection. Prostitution will return, or more precisely come out of the shadows, perhaps along with the revival of what once was a thriving pornography industry. It's hard to imagine a manufacturing base springing up to take advantage of the cheap labor as this needs to be coupled with a work ethic, something the Castro regime has made every effort to destroy. Surely, some unique comparative advantage will come to the fore. But having tolerated the intolerable for so long, will the Cuban people know what to do with their newfound freedom once liberated from their chains?
That is the experiment that awaits the return of capitalism.
One can imagine a scenario in which an influx of returning expats, rich in both human and financial capital, blow past the locals as they reintroduce the courage, entrepreneurship, and work ethic they took with them when they escaped. A two-tier society could easily emerge, with returnees and their children lording their success over the bewildered and resentful locals. Petty theft likely will make a comeback, so expect a vigorous market for alarm and security services.
Cubans who have managed to get an advanced education under Castro, like the many doctors staffing its medical system, will probably do fine, though many might move to the U.S. seeking better pay, filling our looming doctor shortage. Cigar exports will spike, although once Cuban cigars lose their naughty cachet they will have to compete with many excellent products produced by Cuba's neighbors. And the music industry will thrive once it is coupled with international distribution—some talents just cannot be stamped out.
But what will happen to the rest of the populace? Many might go to work as the cooks, dishwashers, waiters, and hotel maids that will surely be in demand when Club Med comes to town. They'll be much better off than they are now. But don't expect that to stop the mainstream media from running nostalgic stories about the equality that should have, would have, and could have been had Marxism only been implemented properly.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2012/01/31/cuba-where-sheep-are-trained-to-venerate-wolves/
Cuban authorities ‘responsible’ for activist’s death on hunger strike – Amnesty International
Cuban authorities ‘responsible’ for activist’s death on hunger strike 20 January 2012
“The responsibility for Wilman Villar Mendoza’s death in custody lies squarely with the Cuban authorities, who summarily judged and jailed him for exercising his right to freedom of expression.” Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser at Amnesty International Fri, 20/01/2012
The death in custody of a Cuban prisoner of conscience after a hunger strike is a shocking reminder of the Raúl Castro government’s intolerance for dissent, Amnesty International said today.
Wilman Villar Mendoza, 31, died this morning in Juan Bruno Zayas Hospital in the city of Santiago where he was transferred from prison on 13 January due to health problems allegedly arising from a hunger strike protesting at his unfair trial and imprisonment.
He was serving a four-year prison term on charges related to his participation in a public demonstration against the government.
“The responsibility for Wilman Villar Mendoza’s death in custody lies squarely with the Cuban authorities, who summarily judged and jailed him for exercising his right to freedom of expression,” said Javier Zúñiga, Special Adviser at Amnesty International.
“His tragic death highlights the depths of despair faced by the other prisoners of conscience still languishing in Cuban jails, who must be released immediately and unconditionally.”
“The Cuban authorities must stop the harassment, persecution, and imprisonment of peaceful demonstrators as well as political and human rights activists.”
On 14 November 2011, police arrested Villar Mendoza and eight other members of the Cuban Patriotic Union dissident group in the eastern town of Contramaestre for taking part in a protest against the Cuban government.
While he was in detention, police intimidated Villar Mendoza, telling him he would be disappeared or face imprisonment on criminal charges stemming from an earlier arrest if he did not stop his protests and leave the dissident group.
He was released after three days in police custody but was then summoned to Contramaestre Municipal Tribunal on 24 November. Judges tried him in private and refused to accept testimony from his wife or other defence witnesses.
The judges sentenced the activist to four years’ imprisonment and immediately transferred him to Aguadores prison, in the provincial capital Santiago. The same day, he began a hunger strike in protest at the ruling.
As Villar Mendoza’s health deteriorated over recent days, members of the Cuban Patriotic Union and the Ladies in White opposition group organised a vigil outside the hospital. On 18 January, state security officials broke up the gathering and detained more than a dozen people.
Wilman Villar Mendoza is not the first prisoner of conscience to die in Cuban custody.
Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a prisoner of conscience jailed after the “Black Spring” crackdown on opposition groups in March 2003, died in prison on 23 February 2010 after several weeks on hunger strike.
Cuban women on a protest march say police harassed and detained them
Posted on Thursday, 02.02.12
Cuban women on a protest march say police harassed and detained them
They say they were trying to stage a march in the central Cuba city of Santa Clara when police searched them for cellphones
By Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban dissidents say police beat, groped and detained seven women who tried to stage a march in the central city of Santa Clara to demand the release of an opposition couple jailed since early January.
In an audio recording provided by the dissidents, women were heard screaming and repeatedly shouting "Don't stick your hands on my breasts, murderer" — allegedly as police searched for the cellphones recording the scene.
"He put his hands inside my blouse, then they lifted my blouse in the middle of the street looking for my phone," said Idania Yánes Contreras, who led the march and recorded a narration of the Wednesday confrontation on her phone.
"We were all punched and had our hair pulled" as police carried the women to waiting patrol cars, Yánes added. Police also seized a frying pan the women had been banging on to attract attention.
Six of the women were freed Thursday and the seventh was sent home late Wednesday, Yánes told El Nuevo Herald by telephone from her home in Santa Clara.
Yánes said the seven members of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights, all dressed in black as a sign of mourning "for the victims of the dictatorship," launched the protest carrying a sign that said, "For Freedom, Against Impunity."
The march was intended to protest the continued detention of independent journalist Yazmín Conlledo Riverón and her husband, Rafael Álvarez Esmoris, who were arrested Jan. 8 on what Yánes described as fraudulent charges.
The women had gone only about half a block, shouting "Freedom" and "Down with Repression," Yánes said, when uniformed police and State Security agents in civilian clothes swooped down on them and began searching for the phones.
One security official told another, "that person has a cellular there," according to a transcript provided by the dissidents. The actual recording, posted on the blog of Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as Antúnez, is sometimes difficult to understand.
Antúnez, whose wife Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera was one of the seven women detained, writes the blog Ni Me Callo Ni Me Voy — I will not shut up or leave.
The other women were identified as Yaité Diosnelly Cruz Sosa, Yanisbel Valido, Xiomara Martín Jiménez, María del Carmen Martínez López and Damaris Moya Portieles.
The Rosa Parks movement is named after the Afro-American civil rights activist woman who sparked the bus boycott in Montgomery, Al.
Antúnez said police have subjected dissident women to sexual harassment in the past, and that his wife was once threatened with rape if she continued her activism against the government.
Dissident Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya, meanwhile, has started a hunger strike in a police station in the eastern town of Palma Soriano to protest his detention, his wife told Radio Martí. Yelena Garcés Nápoles said Cabrera is under investigation for a robbery in Havana last year. But he's not been in Havana in two years, she told Radio Martí.
In Washington, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution condemning the Cuban government for the death of Wilman Villar, 31, a political prisoner who died earlier this month after a long hunger strike to protest a four-year-sentence.
The resolution also asks all governments to push Cuba to halt human rights abuses and calls on the United Nations to suspend Cuba's membership in its Human Rights Council.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/02/2621727/cuban-women-on-a-protest-march.html
Amnesty: Cuba Releases 3 Prisoners of Conscience
Amnesty: Cuba Releases 3 Prisoners of ConscienceBy PETER ORSI Associated PressHAVANA January 23, 2012 (AP)
Amnesty International said Monday that three Cubans held without charge for 52 days following their arrest at a protest were released last week, hours after the human rights group named them as prisoners of conscience.
The release of the three also came a day after a hunger-striking dissident died, prompting condemnation from island dissidents, rights watchers, the United States and other nations. Amnesty had planned to designate Wilman Villar, 31, a prisoner of conscience but he died in custody before it could.
Ivonne Malleza Galano, Ignacio Martinez Montejo and Isabel Haydee Alvarez were set free Jan. 20 but threatened with "harsh sentences" if they do not stop their anti-government actions, the human rights monitor said in a statement Monday.
It said all three were detained at a Nov. 30 protest in Havana at which Malleza and Martinez held a banner that read "Stop hunger, misery and poverty in Cuba." Alvarez was arrested for objecting when security forces took the other two into custody.
"Amnesty International had adopted them as prisoners of conscience, as they were detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, and had called for their immediate and unconditional release," the statement said.
Cuba considers dissident activity to be counterrevolutionary, and the dissidents to be mercenaries out to bring down the communist-run government. It denies holding any political prisoners in its lockups.
Amnesty, which has strict criteria for who constitutes a "prisoner of conscience" including a history of nonviolence, had not recognized any Cuban inmates as such since the previous spring, when the last of 75 dissidents jailed since a 2003 crackdown were freed.
Villar was arrested in November in the eastern city of Santiago following an anti-government protest.
The Cuban government denied that he had been on hunger strike or was even truly a dissident. It described him as a "common criminal" sent to prison for domestic violence, said he received all the medical attention he needed and alleged that his case was being manipulated for political ends.
Authorities' indignation continued Monday as official newspapers Granma and Trabajadores published an editorial titled "Cuba's Truths." Taking up the entire front pages of both publications, it attacked critics' own records on human rights and defended the island, citing achievements in health care, education and literacy, and calling the accusations a smear campaign by Cuba's enemies.
"The so-called political prisoner was serving a sentence of four years, following a fair process … and a trial according to the rule of law, for brutally and publicly beating his wife, threatening police and violently resisting arrest," the editorial said
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which monitors detentions of dissidents in Cuba, sent an open letter to the government demanding access to the investigation.
It said it wanted to confirm or rule out its belief that Villar was unfairly and disproportionately punished for his political activities, held in solitary confinement and given inadequate medical care when he went on hunger strike. Signed by Commission founder Elizardo Sanchez, a dissident and former prisoner himself, the letter doubted that Villar was truly imprisoned for beating his wife.
"The family incident from July 2011 should be clarified, as well as the reasons why he would be freed and sent back to the family home despite the possible risks from a supposed situation of domestic violence," it read.
Dissident blogger says Cubans wanted more from Brazilian visit
Posted on Thursday, 02.02.12
Dissident blogger says Cubans wanted more from Brazilian visit
The Brazilian leader had vowed to make human rights a cornerstone of her foreign policy pointed to the U.S. detention camp for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay on the island's southeastern tip.By Matthew BristowBloomberg News
HAVANA — Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said her compatriots had hoped for more from Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who avoided criticizing the human rights situation on the communist island during a state visit to Havana this week.
Sanchez said she had looked for at least a "small wink" from Rousseff, who was imprisoned and tortured for fighting Brazil's dictatorship in the 1960s, after a jailed dissident, Wilman Villar, died last month following a hunger strike and President Raul Castro vowed to maintain single-party rule.
"It was pure chance that she came at this time, but people had hoped for more," Sanchez said in an interview last night in Havana. "I would've hoped for a small wink, a phrase with a double meaning that we could interpret, and that the government could interpret too."
Rousseff, who concludes a three-day visit to Havana today, said that it was an internal matter for Cuba to decide whether to allow Sanchez to leave the island after Brazil last week granted the 36-year-old blogger an entry visa to attend next month a screening of a documentary she appears in. Sanchez, a critic of the Castro government on the Generation Y blog, has been denied permission to leave Cuba for four years.
"Brazil gave the visa to the blogger," Rousseff, 64, told reporters yesterday in Havana before meeting with Castro and his brother Fidel. "The rest is not a matter for the Brazilian government."
Rousseff, who has vowed to make human rights a cornerstone of her foreign policy, failed to comment on the Cuban government's record, pointing instead to the U.S. detention camp for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay on the island's southeastern tip.
"He who throws the first stone has a roof made of glass," said Rousseff, whose Workers' Party has long supported Cuba. "We in Brazil have our problems too."
While critical of the Brazilian president's stance, Sanchez said Rousseff's silence is preferable to her predecessor and mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's siding with the Castro government after the death of another jailed hunger striker in 2010, she added.
"I wake up every day and say to myself, today I am going to behave like a free person," Sanchez said. "Dilma once said the same. She paid a high personal and physical cost, but in the end life proved her right and Brazil became a democracy."
Julia Sweig, an author of publications on Cuba and Brazil, said criticism of the Castro government is more widespread today than it's ever been since the 1959 revolution and taking many forms that escape the attention of foreign governments and media. As Cuba's second-biggest investor, helping Castro ease state control of the economy, Brazil is well-positioned to discuss the island's rights record behind the scenes in a productive manner, she added.
"Yoani's situation bears zero comparison to what Dilma went through," said Sweig, director of the Latin America program at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. "Unlike Dilma, she hasn't been and won't be jailed or tortured and I seriously doubt she's going to be president of Cuba."
Cuba's government relies on beatings, short-term detentions, forced exile and travel restrictions to repress virtually all forms of political dissent, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report this month. Cuba denies it's holding any political prisoners and considers dissident activity to be counterrevolutionary supported by anti-Castro "mercenaries" in the U.S.
While blocked from traveling abroad, Sanchez has emerged as a leader among a group of young dissidents who describe the daily travails of life in Cuba through difficult-to-access social media. Many of her chronicles are published by newspapers throughout Latin America. She has also written a book, "Havana Real: One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth About Cuba Today."
Sanchez said the visibility she has gained through blogging gives her some protection from the Cuban government.
"The day I stop blogging, they'll put me on trial," she said.
Rousseff, who travels to Haiti today, discussed the possibility of hosting Raul Castro at a future date, according to a Brazilian official with the president who isn't authorized to comment on the two leaders' talks publicly.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/02/2620793/dissident-blogger-says-cubans.html#storylink=misearch
HRW: “Cuba se mantiene como el único país de América Latina que reprime virtualmente toda forma de disenso político”
DDHH
HRW: "Cuba se mantiene como el único país de América Latina que reprime virtualmente toda forma de disenso político"
En el informe anual publicado este domingo, Human Right Watch afirma que "En 2011 el Gobierno de Raúl Castro continuó imponiendo el conformismo político usando las detenciones temporales, golpizas, actos públicos de repudio, exilio forzado y restricciones de viaje"
Agencias, Madrid | 22/01/2012
El gobierno de Cuba usó en 2011 las "detenciones temporales, golpizas y actos públicos de repudio" para impedir expresiones de descontento en el único país de América Latina que reprime casi toda forma de disenso político, dijo la organización Human Rights Watch (HRW), informa este domingo la AFP.
Según la agencia, en el informe anual publicado este domingo en El Cairo la organización de derechos humanos afirma que "En 2011 el Gobierno de Raúl Castro continuó imponiendo el conformismo político usando las detenciones temporales, golpizas, actos públicos de repudio, exilio forzado y restricciones de viaje".
"El Gobierno dependió crecientemente de los arrestos arbitrarios y las detenciones temporales para restringir derechos básicos de sus críticos, incluidos los derechos para reunirse y desplazarse libremente", agregó.
Indicó que "el Gobierno de Cuba también presionó a los disidentes a escoger entre el exilio o la represión continua, e incluso el encarcelamiento, llevando a grandes cantidades (de cubanos) a dejar el país con sus familias durante 2011".
"Cuba se mantiene como el único país de América Latina que reprime virtualmente toda forma de disenso político", afirmó HRW.
La organización denunció que una organización cubana de derechos humanos divulgó, en junio de 2011, una lista de 43 presos políticos en el país, pero esta entidad "estima que hay más presos políticos cuyos casos no puede documentar".
Señaló HRW que las detenciones son usadas para impedir la participación en "mítines o eventos vistos como críticos del Gobierno". "Las víctimas de tales arrestos arbitrarios dijeron que han permanecido 'incomunicados' por varias horas o días, a menudo en cuarteles policiales", precisó el reporte.
"Algunos han recibido un 'acta de advertencia', que los fiscales pueden usar después en juicios penales para mostrar un patrón de comportamiento delictivo", añadió.
Recordó que los últimos 12 disidentes del "grupo de los 75" —detenidos en 2003 y condenados a largas penas de cárcel—, fueron excarcelados en marzo de 2011, pero "la mayoría fueron forzados a escoger entre continuar en prisión o el exilio forzado".
Human Rights Watch criticó además que el Gobierno cubano "mantiene el monopolio de los medios en la Isla, lo que asegura que virtualmente no haya libertad de expresión".
"El gobierno controla todo lo que difunden los medios en Cuba y el acceso a la información del exterior está altamente restringida. El acceso limitado a internet significa que solo una pequeña fracción de cubanos pueden leer artículos publicados independientemente y blogs", alertó HRW.
El informe, añade AFP, también destacó que el Gobierno cubano impide a sus ciudadanos salir y entrar al país sin obtener un "permiso oficial, que a menudo es negado".
"Por ejemplo, a la conocida bloguera Yoani Sánchez, que ha criticado al gobierno, se le ha negado el derecho a salir de la isla para recibir premios y participar en conferencias en al menos 16 ocasiones en los últimos cuatro años", indica.
Cuba activist says brief detentions doubled in 2011
Cuba activist says brief detentions doubled in 2011Wednesday, January 11, 2012
HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — A leading Cuban human rights campaigner said yesterday that brief detentions of dissidents nearly doubled in 2011 compared to the year before.
The report released by Elizardo Sanchez, who monitors arrests as head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation, said there were 4,123 arrests of dissidents, nearly all of them lasting "for several hours or days", up from 2,074 in 2010.
Cuba's government, which calls dissidents "mercenaries" in the service of Washington, disputes Sanchez's statistics. A state-run website reported last year that several names on his list were Bolivian and Peruvian athletes and an 18th-century painter. He acknowledged the mistakes
but said his people had been tricked by security agents pretending to be dissidents.
Sanchez also reported that arrests spiked to 796 in December, more than any other month, even as President Raul Castro's government announced it was releasing more than 2,900 prisoners, mostly common criminals serving long terms.
Cuba no longer has any inmates considered "prisoners of conscience" by Amnesty International after freeing the last of dozens of intellectuals and social activists in 2011. Many of those left the country for exile.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Cuba-activist-says-brief-detentions-doubled-in-2011_10544328
Challenges Facing Cuba’s New Left
Challenges Facing Cuba's New LeftJanuary 11, 2012Erasmo Calzadilla
HAVANA TIMES, 11 ene — Cuban political scientist and columnist Haroldo Dilla recently published an essay on the need for a new left to be born in our country.
Nevertheless for me, as someone who considers themself a member of that political wing, those words (at least most of them) didn't resonate. Nor did they resonate with most of the "new leftists" I know.
Haroldo's commentary invites us try to specify what is (and what is not) the "new left," who belongs to it and who doesn't – a task that I leave for the wisest among us.
Instead, I'm going to discuss the "new leftist spirit" that has been astir here in Cuba.
In recent decades there has been born not one or two isolated groups, but an entire spirit, a new (or deeper) consciousness among earthlings, and also among Cubans.
This new awareness includes a lot of environmentalism, queerness, cool solidarity (also with other species), pantheistic religion that ubiquitously assumes a divinity threatened by the consumerist and alienating praxis of the current regimes, and of politics in the sense of activism from below against the established powers.
I would suggest, though not everyone will agree, that this is a left motion.
Like with the "indignados" at Puerta del Sol (Madrid) and elsewhere, this new left is far removed from centralism, authoritarianism, chauvinism, the traditional symbols of the left as well as representative democracy. It distances itself from the spectacle of the struggle between parties, elections, private ownership and other aspects in common with the "Western" paradigm.I don't deny that some people in this new wave (I'd say that only a minority feel fairly strongly about this) still believe that this regime is not beyond hope and that the "historic leaders" can lead the change.
Another minority (one that is given much attention and fanfare) consists of those who only focus on the issues of civil and human rights, and who believe that social democracy is a way out. (This is a minority within this "new leftist spirit" to which I'm referring, though perhaps not among the general population).
But back to Dilla. Later in his commentary he states: "But at the same time, I think that this emerging left is facing several critical issues that it must resolve if it wants to actually be a political alternative in Cuban society."
A "political alternative in Cuban society"? What a joke! For the time being, I don't think such a thing can be hoped for, and for several reasons.
Building from the ashes
In the first place this is because the movement is still very immature and (in my opinion) too few in number. Castro Stalinism fell like an atomic bomb on the left tradition, hurling people — by their natural rejection — into the arms of capitalism and liberalism.
The left now has to reconstitute itself from the ashes and it must do it at the rhythm of those who are little by little building a new paradigm.
Secondly this is because participating in the political struggle in the traditional style would mean renouncing the essence of the movement. It would involve, for example, the role of an "enlightened vanguard" and everything derived from that: top-down "verticalism," internal police organization, the frequent purging of heretics, demagoguery, representativeness as a mode of relations between professionals and the rest of the movement, and so on.
However, what's clear is that the new left should propose (explicitly or by example) the alternative of "achievable good living" (i.e. not committing the idealist's sin).
There is much talk of cooperatives but — be careful! — when some new leftists suggest this as a way of organizing work (versus private enterprise and wage labor), aren't they invoking another form of totalitarianism where everything would have to be turned into cooperatives, and where everyone would have to be connected to work in that manner?
In any case, I'm not denying that this movement has before it plenty of dilemmas constituting veritable mountains in its path. It wouldn't be bad to hear "And you, on your tiptoes!"(*), but maturity can't be rushed.
As for the question of time running out, I think the left can take it easy regarding this point: there will always be plenty of work for it.—–* In Mambi mythology, when one of the Maceos died in combat with the Spanish, the mother, Mariana Grajales, said to another of her sons who was still a minor "And you, stand on your tiptoes so that you can head for the jungle to fight." Maybe that wasn't the exact expression – but who really knows?
Human Rights Still Suffer Despite Change In Cuba
Human Rights Still Suffer Despite Change In Cuba01-09-2012New incarcerations for political dissent have not stopped.
Members of dissident group "Ladies in White" pray after a Mass and before the group's weekly march at Santa Rita church in Havana, Cuba, Sunday Oct. 16, 2011. The group continues to face harassment by government officials and pro-government groups.
In an ideal world, the Cuban government would adopt "respect human rights" as its New Year's resolution. Alas, the Cuban government remains stubbornly opposed to democratic principles, human rights, and fundamental freedoms.
New incarcerations for political dissent have not stopped. In December 2011, The Government of Cuba used harassment, detention and assault to block dozens of human rights activists, journalists, and others from observing International Human Rights Day. Members of the Damas de Blanco, winners of the Department of State's 2011 Human Rights Defenders Award, continue to face harassment by government officials and pro-government groups. Despite government claims to the contrary, independent human rights groups estimate that more than 60 political activists remain in Cuban jails.
There have been a few positive glimmers: Cuba's year-end release of 2900 prisoners and the announcement of some economic measures that could provide a greater degree of economic independence and relief to the long-suffering Cuban people. However, Cuba still has a long way to go. When it comes to human rights, the basic outline of Cuba's political system has not changed. One party rule brooks no dissent and jail awaits those who dare speak out.
Former spanish ambassador to Cuba to head relations with Latin America
Posted on Thursday, 01.05.12
CUBA
Former spanish ambassador to Cuba to head relations with Latin America
Jesus Gracia Aldaz was ambassador in Havana when Cuban government jailed 75 dissidentsBy Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
A Spanish diplomat who served as ambassador in Havana from 2001 to 2004 was appointed Thursday to head the Foreign Ministry section that handles Spain's relations with Latin America.
Jesús Gracia Aldaz, named as Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, was Spain's ambassador to Cuba when Havana courts sentenced 75 dissidents to lengthy prison terms during a crackdown in 2003 known as "Cuba's Black Spring."
He was appointed to the Cuba post in 2001 by the conservative People's Party government of Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and left the island in 2004, when socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero succeeded Aznar. PP leader Mariano Rajoy took over as prime minister after his party won the November elections.
Joaquin Roy, who heads the European Union Center at the University of Miami, noted that while Gracia is experienced in Spanish-Cuban relations, he will have to follow the policy guidelines set by Rajoy and Foreign Minister José Manuel García Margallo.
"Everything depends on how active Rajoy and García-Margallo want to be on Cuba. I would be surprised if they start any 'harassment' (against the Cuban government) … that goes beyond the verbal," Roy wrote in an email to El Nuevo Herald.
After Cuba's crackdown in 2003, the Aznar government helped push member nations of the European Union to adopt sanctions on Havana, such as cutting back on government-to-government contacts and inviting dissidents to embassy functions.
Rodríguez Zapatero and his foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, reversed course by pushing the EU nations to abandon the 2003 sanctions and trying unsuccessfully to lift a EU "Common Position" that loosely links EU assistance to Cuba's human rights record.
The socialist government also eliminated the title of Secretary of State for Iberoamerica in 2010. Gracia Aldaz' appointment to the resurrected title points to Rajoy's stated goal of warming up relations with Latin America.
The 51-year old Gracia Aldaz is currently the No. 2 at the Spanish embassy in Argentina and has served in top positions in the government agencies that are in charge of assistance to Latin American and other nations.
A post Thursday in the Spain-based blog CubaEncuentro argued that Cuba issues have a low priority for the Rajoy government because of Spain's many domestic problems and the hefty Spanish investments in the Cuban tourism and oil industries. The Spanish Repsol company is spearheading the island's offshore oil exploration efforts.
But Rajoy also is unlikely to continue the Rodriguez Zapatero government's strong push to drop the EU's Common Position, and trouble may lie ahead, added the post, signed by Tony Gonzalez.
"Somewhere along there will be confrontation, and diplomatic notes with insults and apologies," the post noted.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/05/2575578/former-spanish-ambassador-to.html#storylink=misearch
Ros-Lehtinen says Smithsonian trips to Cuba a cash gift to Castro
Ros-Lehtinen says Smithsonian trips to Cuba a cash gift to CastroBy Pete Kasperowicz – 01/04/12 12:11 PM ET
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said the Smithsonian Institution's plan to chaperone Americans on four visits to Cuba this year amounts to licensed tourism of Cuba that will help give the "Castro dictatorship" access to much-needed hard currency.
"It is deeply disappointing that the Smithsonian Institute, primarily funded by American taxpayers, is facilitating access to U.S. dollars, which enables the Castro regime to make a hefty profit," Ros-Lehtinen said Tuesday. "The trips not only illustrate a blatant disregard for human rights conditions on the island by an entity that receives U.S. government funding, but provide the deplorable Havana tyranny a sense of legitimacy."
Supporters of tough travel rules related to Cuba have argued for decades that easing travel to the island will only encourage Americans to spent money in Cuba that will mostly end up in the hands of the government, given the amount of control the government has over economic activity.
Ros-Lehtinen stopped short of saying she would move to block the Smithsonian trips but said the visits would do nothing to help Americans to see the brutality of the Cuban regime. "Instead, these tourists will experience a false depiction of Cuba through a biased and censored 'tour' of the island," she said.
"The Smithsonian's 10-day trips to Cuba will amount to little more than a tropical vacation," she said. "Americans participating in these trips will not see the brutal reality of the Castro dictatorship."
The Smithsonian is offering several trips to Cuba this year under a license issued by the Treasury Department. According to the Smithsonian, the trips start at $5,450 and will run from May 4-13, May 11-20, Nov. 9-18, and Nov. 30 to Dec. 9.
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