Una reflexión sobre Zapata
Estimados compañeros:
Me llamo Daniel y vivo en Cárdenas, Matanzas. Trabajo en turismo y por eso he podido ver en estos días todo el debate que se ha levantado a raíz de la muerte del preso Orlando Zapata. Lo he visto en CNN en Español y Televisión española. También he leído algunos periódicos porque en los hoteles tenemos internet. He leído artículos escritos por intelectuales extranjeros, disidentes cubanos, amigos de la revolución, enemigos. A raíz de todo eso, y de las cartas que andan circulando por ahí, me gustaría compartir una reflexión con ustedes. Yo no soy nadie, ni actor ni cantante ni figura pública, tampoco intelectual, pero si sirve de algo, antes de dedicarme al turismo hice la carrera de sociología, soy militante del Partido y miembro de la asociación de Combatientes de la Revolución por haber cumplido misión internacionalista en Etiopía.
Lo primero que quiero contarles es que la muerte de Zapata me ha dejado muy confundido. Al margen de que Amnistía Internacional diga que era un preso de conciencia y nuestro gobierno insista en que era un preso común, Zapata ha muerto por una huelga de hambre. Porque se negó a comer. He pensado mucho en eso. ¿Qué le pasa por la mente a una persona para hacer algo así? Yo no lo sé, pero reconozco que en este país ningún disidente había llegado tan lejos. Al menos que yo tuviera noticia. El Granma ha dicho que Zapata hizo la huelga porque quería un televisor, un teléfono y una cocina en su celda. Que alguien muera por eso sólo admite dos lecturas, o Zapata estaba loco o el Granma miente. Ciertamente la locura podría explicar todo esto, pero si Zapata tuviera antecedentes psiquiátricos, no tengo duda de que el Granma los habría publicado. Así que no me queda más remedio que asumir que este señor no murió por un televisor. Murió por otra cosa. No sé cuál. Dicen que lo manipularon, y seguramente haya algo de verdad en eso, pero convencer a alguien para que se deje morir no debe ser fácil. Ni es tan simple.
Aquí siempre nos han dicho que los disidentes son mercenarios, pero un mercenario no hace eso. Los mercenarios cobran y viven. Los mercenarios no se inmolan por una idea (por muy ridícula que sea), por eso los terroristas de Al Qaeda no usan mercenarios sino fanáticos. ¿Era Zapata un fanático? ¿Un fanático de qué, de la contrarrevolución? No sé qué pensar, porque un fanático no surge de la nada, necesita un caldo de cultivo. ¿Existe en la Cuba de hoy ese caldo de cultivo que genera fanáticos? Sería realmente preocupante. Y una señal muy grave del estado de las cosas. Ya sé que la muerte de un solo hombre no tiene por qué significar nada. Puede ser un hecho aislado. O no. Mientras escribo esto hay otros dos disidentes que también se han declarado en huelga. Y uno de ellos está ingresado. ¿Qué pasará si mueren? ¿Serán otros dos mercenarios aislados, dos pobres víctimas manipuladas?
Lo bueno de hacerse viejo (yo tengo 44 años) es que uno tiene una memoria enorme de las cosas que ha visto. Yo estos días me acuerdo mucho de algo que pasó hace casi treinta años… En 1981 diez presos del ejército republicano irlandés (IRA) se declararon en huelga de hambre en sus cárceles de Gran Bretaña. Muchos cubanos no se acordarán, pero entonces el tratamiento que se le dio en la televisión nacional fue de respeto y admiración. Desde que falleció el primero; Bobby Sands hasta que murió el último; Mickey Devine, todos sus nombres fueron mencionados en el noticiero de las ocho como una forma de mostrar la represión política que entonces ejercía Margaret Thatcher sobre Irlanda del Norte.
No intento comparar Cuba con Irlanda. Pero sí me llama la atención que aquellos huelguistas (algunos de ellos condenados por delitos de terrorismo en los que fallecieron inocentes) merecieran tanta gloria, y los que tenemos aquí sólo desprecio. ¿Por qué? ¿Porque supuestamente son delincuentes comunes, porque son cubanos, porque están contra el gobierno? Soy consciente de que el mero hecho de plantearme esto me coloca en el bando del enemigo. Pero yo no soy el enemigo. Cuestionar la versión oficial de quién era Orlando Zapata no significa que comparta sus ideales (que desafortunadamente ni siquiera conozco). A mí la revolución no me educó para convertirme en una persona insensible, ni en una máquina de repetir consignas (aunque lo han intentado). Yo creo que si un cubano muere de huelga de hambre tengo derecho a exigir respuestas claras y convincentes.
Además, no es la primera vez que me cuestiono una versión oficial. Ni la primera vez que la rechazo. Antes he contado que pasé dos años en Etiopía, en la brigada que apoyaba al gobierno de Mengistu Haile Mariam. Los que estuvimos allí sabemos quién era ese señor, y las barbaridades que hacía en su país. Era obvio que aquello no tenía nada que ver con el socialismo sino con prácticas de un gobernante feudal, pero aunque todos en la brigada éramos conscientes de lo que pasaba (incluidos los jefes de misión) la versión oficial siguió insistiendo en que apoyar a Mengistu era bueno para la causa revolucionaria, pero poco después de que Cuba retirara sus tropas (no el apoyo político) Mengistu huyó de Etiopía en un avión cargado de dinero. Hoy vive en Zimbawe y está acusado en su país de genocidio. Repito: GENOCIDIO. Cuando lo supe, en 1991, me dio rabia por tantos compañeros que fueron a Etiopia a luchar por una causa justa y murieron apoyando a un genocida que hoy vive de su cuenta en Suiza .
Aquella vez mi gobierno se equivocó. Como se ha equivocado muchas veces. Por eso tengo que decirlo; soy cubano, soy revolucionario, pero apoyo incondicional no. Me niego a confiar ciegamente en un sistema que a veces dice la verdad, a veces sólo media verdad, y a veces miente. Como todos los gobiernos del mundo, dirán algunos. Pero éste es el mío, éste es el que me exige cerrar filas sin hacerme preguntas, sin cuestionar qué está pasando en la sociedad cubana para que un preso muera de huelga de hambre.
A mí me enseñaron que en Cuba las huelgas de hambre las hacían los revolucionarios contra Batista. ¿Qué está pasando aquí para que ahora hagan huelga los gusanos? ¿Qué tendría Zapata en la cabeza para que no le baste con ser mercenario, para que elija morirse? Yo creo que para responder a eso tenemos que dejar de mirarnos el ombligo y ser autocríticos.
Hay que cuestionar las cosas, compañeros, porque eso es lo que hace un revolucionario. Y no se le puede llamar mercenario a todo el que lo haga. Algunos lo son, no tengo dudas, pero todos no. Yo no tengo buena opinión de los disidentes porque, en primer lugar, sólo sé de ellos lo que me cuenta el Granma, y segundo porque me siento lejos de personas que defienden posturas conservadoras que llevarían este país a un extremismo de derechas, justo aquello contra lo que siempre he luchado, pero tengo que reconocer que algunas de las cosas que dicen tienen razón. ¿Eso me convierte en disidente? Rotundamente no. Entonces, ¿Dónde está la línea? Por ejemplo, exigir responsabilidades políticas porque en Mazorra han muerto de frio treinta enfermos mentales de los que nadie se ocupó, ¿Eso es hacerle juego al enemigo? Quejarnos de que en los hospitales no haya higiene, o que no podamos salir del país sin permiso ni tener acceso a internet, ¿eso es de revolucionarios o de mercenarios? Lamentar que en mi país exista una ley de peligrosidad, copiada del régimen fascista de Franco, que condena a las personas “proclives” a cometer un delito (sin haberlo cometido aún), ¿Eso es de gusanos o de comunistas? Sinceramente no lo sé.
No sé dónde quejarme, dónde lamentar, dónde exigir. No sé con quién tengo que hablar. ¿Con mi núcleo del partido, con mi presidente del CDR, con el delegado de mi circunscripción? ¿Con el Granma? Créanme que ya lo he hecho y no ha servido para nada. Entonces, ¿Dónde canalizo mi vergüenza? ¿En el Miami Herald? Les voy a contar de qué se habló en la última reunión de mi núcleo del partido; de retirarle el carné a un compañero porque había pedido la nacionalidad española. De eso se habló.
Cuando veo el noticiero me indigno porque siento que me tratan como si tuviera diez años y viviera en la luna. Yo no vivo en la luna. Yo vivo en Cuba y sé lo que pasa. Y me indigna que me digan que un preso ha muerto porque quería un televisor.
Yo no sé lo que quería Orlando Zapata con su huelga, pero sé lo que quiero yo: soluciones a los problemas de mi país. Y podemos buscarlas o decirle al mundo que la culpa de todo la tienen los yanquis y los mercenarios, podemos intentar arreglar esto entre nosotros o mentirnos diciendo que no pasa nada, que la juventud está comprometida, que nuestro pueblo cada día es más heroico y viril, que somos la referencia del mundo, que la calle es de Fidel…
Y sí, mi calle hace cincuenta años que es de Fidel, y no tiene bombillas porque se las roban los de la empresa eléctrica (esos sí son mercenarios), se inunda siempre que llueve y necesita asfalto.
Así que ustedes dirán,
Revolucionariamente,
Daniel
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Cuban dissident: Government lying about case of political prisoner
CNA STAFF, Mar 18, 2010 / 02:15 pm (CNA).- In an interview with CNA, the president of the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, Oswaldo Paya, offered encouragement to those struggling for democracy in the country and accused the government of spreading lies about the recent death of prisoner of conscious, Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Referring to the plight of prisoners of conscience, Paya remarked that they “are treated like common prisoners” and are “abused and harassed” right in front of government officials. These prisoners are held “often far from their families, in conditions of extreme overcrowding, with barely enough water to drink,” said Paya adding that they “have to use paper or bags when they go to the bathroom.” These conditions they face are in addition to the “systematic beatings and abuse they receive, such as the case was with Orlando Zapata,” Paya said. Speaking about Zapata, who recently died, Paya explained that he was first sentenced “to three years in prison,” and after being “subjected to arbitrary trials” he was “sentenced to 36 more years.” Because of this oppression, he said, “Zapata declared a hunger strike. He was put in a prison, in a cell that was truly like a cage. We even received reports that they left him without any water for several days.” Paya said hunger strikes are sort of an “act of desperation because the prisoner has no other recourse and for this reason his demands must be supported.” When “a prisoner declares a hunger strike we must ask that his demands be met, which is different than the lies that the Cuban government has spread that are an insult to people’s intelligence. We must ask for a more decent treatment, for more respect of the human being.” He then reported there are some 200 political prisoners in Cuba, and that the government paints them as dangers to society in order to avoid the appearance of incarcerating them for political reasons. “They are considered to be delinquents and agents of imperialism ... In this case the political motives were the defense of human rights, the proposal for peaceful change, the denunciation of human rights violations, the organizing of peaceful civic movements to promote dignity, rights and information.” “This is what Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Pinochet, Saddam Hussein did, and it’s what the government of Fidel and Raul Castro are doing,” Paya said.
Dissident encourages dignity and rights for Cubans
CNA STAFF, Mar 22, 2010 / 11:56 am (CNA).- In an interview with CNA, the president of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Paya reiterated the need for a democratic change in Cuba and called on the international community to support this peaceful struggle without ideological bias. In the second part of his interview with CNA, Paya spoke of the complicated situation on the island that has caused some to lose hope. “First of all, our call is that people, whether they are believers or not, discover that they have the God-given capacity to be free. That is, they are born free and with rights. We say: Cubans have a right to rights.” “And we are sowing hope not in a foreign power nor in the demise of a dictator,” but we tell people to “discover your own dignity, discover your own rights and show solidarity out of love for your neighbor.” “In other words, the source of this liberation is not hatred, nor the desire to destroy others, but rather love, the unselfish love of oneself.” Referring later to the Varela Project, an initiative of the Christian Liberation Movement, Paya explained that it proposes “asking Cubans in a referendum whether or not they want these changes." The project, he continued, “is a peaceful path but it gives citizens the power, it gives citizens the ability to participate in public and economic life and vote on changes. Let the people be the ones to decide what is good, what they want, but above all in an atmosphere of reconciliation, in an atmosphere of brotherhood. This is very important, because we don’t want liberation resulting from a brother against brother confrontation.” “We don’t see the Christian Liberation Movement as the interpreter of the gospel ... but we do get light from the gospel, recognizing each human being as our brother. For this reason our motto is, ‘Cubans All, Brothers All, and Now Freedom’,” Paya said. He added that the central point of solidarity lies in “the liberation of all political prisoners. Why? Because they are prisoners for defending these rights. They are prisoners for calling for these peaceful changes, and nothing else.” “Let us seek out the truth together. Nobody has a monopoly on the truth. The truth is in God and we are all children of God. God gives freedom to human beings – to those who believe or do not believe,” Paya continued. “For this reason we speak in terms of liberation, not through violence or through hatred, but through the restoration of liberation, dignity, and the rights of each human being,” he concluded.
Biosketch: Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino
Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana (Cuba), was born in Jagüey Grande in the diocese and province of Matanzas, Cuba, on 18 October 1936. His father was first a worker in the sugar factory close to the village where he was born, and subsequently a shop-keeper. When he was five years old, his family moved to the city of Matanzas. There he completed his compulsory education at the prestigious school Arturo Echemendía. He completed his higher education at the Advanced Institute for Secondary Studies of Matanzas, a state-run student centre. He earned a diploma in arts and sciences in 1955 and after one year at the university, entered the diocesan seminary of San Alberto Magno, directed by the Fathers of the Foreign Mission of Quebec. 
After four years studying humanities and philosophy, the Bishop sent him to study theology at the seminary of the Foreign Mission in Quebec, Canada. He then returned to Cuba and was ordained priest on 2 August 1964, in the Cathedral of Matanzas. His ministry as Coadjutor Vicar of Cárdenas was interrupted in 1966 when he was detained in work camps known by the initials UMAP. In 1967, at the end of his imprisonment, he was appointed parish priest of Jagüey Grande, his native town. Like all parish priests in Cuba during this period when priests were few and far between, he was in charge of several parishes and churches. In 1969 he was appointed parish priest of the Cathedral of Matanzas. Responsible for the parish of Pueblo Nuevo in the city and another two churches outside it, at the same time he was also President of the Diocesan Commission for Catechesis and maintained an active apostolate with the youth of the Diocese. In those years, very difficult for the Church's pastoral activities, he founded a youth movement, which included among the various forms of the apostolate summer camps for young people and evangelization by the means of theatricals, performed by the young people themselves. For several years, in addition to his pastoral activities in the city of Matanzas, he taught at the Sts. Charles and Ambrose interdiocesan seminary in Havana, which he visited once a week to give courses in moral theology. On 4 December 1978, John Paul II named him Bishop of Pinar del Rio. He was consecrated on 14 January 1979 in the Cathedral of Matanzas, and on 21 January he took possession of his diocese. Three years of pastoral work in a deeply religious Catholic Diocese with a very committed and participative laity left an indelible mark on the soul of the Bishop who was promoted to the Archdiocese of Havana as Archbishop on 20 November 1981. On 27 December he took possession of this new See. He was in charge of pastoral activities for 13 years in this Archdiocese. He created new parishes, set up the Diocesan Council for Pastoral Initiatives, rebuilt more than 40 churches and parish houses, founded a priests' residence for the priests of the Diocese and of the whole of Cuba for meetings, retreats or simply for holidays, created a lay centre for meetings with a library, chapel and guest rooms, built two centres for meetings and conferences especially for youth. These are some of the principle initiatives undertaken by the Archbishop who always showed special interest in the laity and above all, in young people. In 1991 he set up Caritas in Havana, thus founding Caritas Cuba. The Archbishop's chief concern was for vocations to the priesthood. In the course of his episcopal mission, Archbishop Ortega ordained 22 Cuban priests; a modest but significant number in a country where the Church's pastoral action has always been considerably curtailed. Thanks to his homilies, the archdiocesan monthly bulletin Aqui la Iglesia and other speeches and messages, he made himself known to the people in his archdiocese who listened to his opinions and followed his guidance despite the fact that the Church in Cuba has no access to the media. In 1988 until November 1998, he was President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. In this capacity, he took part in the fourth General Conference of the Latin-American Bishops in Santo Domingo. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Second Vice President of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM). From December 2001 until February 2006, he served his fourth time as President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. Has received degrees Honoris Causa from the Barry and St. Thomas Universities (Florida), University of San Francisco (California), Providence College (Rhode Island) and Boston College (Massachusetts). January 2001, Honoris Causa doctorate, St. John’s University (New York). Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of November 26, 1994, of the Title of Sts. Aquila e Priscilla.
Curial membership:
Clergy (congregation)
Health Care Workers (council)
Latin America (commission)
After four years studying humanities and philosophy, the Bishop sent him to study theology at the seminary of the Foreign Mission in Quebec, Canada. He then returned to Cuba and was ordained priest on 2 August 1964, in the Cathedral of Matanzas. His ministry as Coadjutor Vicar of Cárdenas was interrupted in 1966 when he was detained in work camps known by the initials UMAP. In 1967, at the end of his imprisonment, he was appointed parish priest of Jagüey Grande, his native town. Like all parish priests in Cuba during this period when priests were few and far between, he was in charge of several parishes and churches. In 1969 he was appointed parish priest of the Cathedral of Matanzas. Responsible for the parish of Pueblo Nuevo in the city and another two churches outside it, at the same time he was also President of the Diocesan Commission for Catechesis and maintained an active apostolate with the youth of the Diocese. In those years, very difficult for the Church's pastoral activities, he founded a youth movement, which included among the various forms of the apostolate summer camps for young people and evangelization by the means of theatricals, performed by the young people themselves. For several years, in addition to his pastoral activities in the city of Matanzas, he taught at the Sts. Charles and Ambrose interdiocesan seminary in Havana, which he visited once a week to give courses in moral theology. On 4 December 1978, John Paul II named him Bishop of Pinar del Rio. He was consecrated on 14 January 1979 in the Cathedral of Matanzas, and on 21 January he took possession of his diocese. Three years of pastoral work in a deeply religious Catholic Diocese with a very committed and participative laity left an indelible mark on the soul of the Bishop who was promoted to the Archdiocese of Havana as Archbishop on 20 November 1981. On 27 December he took possession of this new See. He was in charge of pastoral activities for 13 years in this Archdiocese. He created new parishes, set up the Diocesan Council for Pastoral Initiatives, rebuilt more than 40 churches and parish houses, founded a priests' residence for the priests of the Diocese and of the whole of Cuba for meetings, retreats or simply for holidays, created a lay centre for meetings with a library, chapel and guest rooms, built two centres for meetings and conferences especially for youth. These are some of the principle initiatives undertaken by the Archbishop who always showed special interest in the laity and above all, in young people. In 1991 he set up Caritas in Havana, thus founding Caritas Cuba. The Archbishop's chief concern was for vocations to the priesthood. In the course of his episcopal mission, Archbishop Ortega ordained 22 Cuban priests; a modest but significant number in a country where the Church's pastoral action has always been considerably curtailed. Thanks to his homilies, the archdiocesan monthly bulletin Aqui la Iglesia and other speeches and messages, he made himself known to the people in his archdiocese who listened to his opinions and followed his guidance despite the fact that the Church in Cuba has no access to the media. In 1988 until November 1998, he was President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. In this capacity, he took part in the fourth General Conference of the Latin-American Bishops in Santo Domingo. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Second Vice President of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM). From December 2001 until February 2006, he served his fourth time as President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops. Has received degrees Honoris Causa from the Barry and St. Thomas Universities (Florida), University of San Francisco (California), Providence College (Rhode Island) and Boston College (Massachusetts). January 2001, Honoris Causa doctorate, St. John’s University (New York). Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the consistory of November 26, 1994, of the Title of Sts. Aquila e Priscilla.
Curial membership:
Clergy (congregation)
Health Care Workers (council)
Latin America (commission)
Cardinal Ortega: Church in Cuba “is alive and united with her people”
Havana, Cuba, Jan 9, 2008 / 08:04 pm (CNA).
In an extensive interview with the magazine “Espacio Laical,” published by the Archdiocese of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega said the Church in Cuba is “alive and united with her people.” Speaking with reporter Lenier Gonzalez Mederos on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of John Paul II’s visit to Cuba, the cardinal noted that during the first few years after the Castro revolution, the Church experienced a drop in the number of priests and personnel and a lack of resources to carry out her mission. The focus was mainly on internal Church affairs, the sacraments and the spiritual, moral and material support of the Catholic communities, he explained. However, “in 1981 the Church in Cuba began to develop what was called the Cuban Ecclesial Reflection program, which was carried out over five years and ended with the National Cuban Ecclesial Encounter in 1986.” That event “opened doors” and “breathed a new spirit into the communities,” the cardinal said. “Our faithful needed to understand this and come out from the fold and the Church needed to recognize that the Church has a mission that is not limited to the confines of the sacristy.”
“The Catholic faithful,” he added, “has progressively understood that the Church has an irreplaceable mission to carry out here, and the State has also progressively accepted and understood the mission of the Church, which is not limited just to worship.” Pope John Paul’s visit to Cuba was a consequence of the “enthusiastic and coherent attitude of all the bishops of Cuba. At that time we acted as one, with great determination and enthusiasm to make the Pope’s visit a reality,” Cardinal Ortega said. The visit required intense coordination with local officials, he went on, and thus it became clear that it was possible to participate in society and live together “without giving rise to conflict.”
“The whole time the Pope was in Cuba, the gestures of the people were very significant. The reception by the people surpassed our expectations,” the cardinal said. “One day,” he recounted, “the Pope told me as we were coming back: ‘These people are intelligent. They applaud the concepts and not just the way a speech sounds’.”
Evaluating the current situation in Cuba, Cardinal Ortega pointed out that Cuban culture is essentially Christian but that during the last 50 years there has been an attempt to erase Christianity in the country—“through a very strong Church-State separation.” Today the new generations of Catholics are called to insert themselves into society, he said, and “this is something the Church should foster.” Cardinal Ortega acknowledged that the concept of “national reconciliation” is “a term that many times cannot be used in Cuba,” because it is often a politically charged idea that “refers to the possibility of reconciling ideologies.” However, “people can be reconciled. I believe that we can reach that kind of fraternity through personal dialogue. We’re not talking about dialogue between Church and State leaders, but rather dialogue between the diverse political sectors,” the cardinal stated. As reconciliation between people spreads, he emphasized, “other situations, including political ones, will improve.” Finally, Cardinal Ortega stressed that with the historic papal visit, “The Church made our society known to the entire world: The Catholic Church was there, she was alive and she was united with her people,” he said.
In an extensive interview with the magazine “Espacio Laical,” published by the Archdiocese of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega said the Church in Cuba is “alive and united with her people.” Speaking with reporter Lenier Gonzalez Mederos on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of John Paul II’s visit to Cuba, the cardinal noted that during the first few years after the Castro revolution, the Church experienced a drop in the number of priests and personnel and a lack of resources to carry out her mission. The focus was mainly on internal Church affairs, the sacraments and the spiritual, moral and material support of the Catholic communities, he explained. However, “in 1981 the Church in Cuba began to develop what was called the Cuban Ecclesial Reflection program, which was carried out over five years and ended with the National Cuban Ecclesial Encounter in 1986.” That event “opened doors” and “breathed a new spirit into the communities,” the cardinal said. “Our faithful needed to understand this and come out from the fold and the Church needed to recognize that the Church has a mission that is not limited to the confines of the sacristy.”
“The Catholic faithful,” he added, “has progressively understood that the Church has an irreplaceable mission to carry out here, and the State has also progressively accepted and understood the mission of the Church, which is not limited just to worship.” Pope John Paul’s visit to Cuba was a consequence of the “enthusiastic and coherent attitude of all the bishops of Cuba. At that time we acted as one, with great determination and enthusiasm to make the Pope’s visit a reality,” Cardinal Ortega said. The visit required intense coordination with local officials, he went on, and thus it became clear that it was possible to participate in society and live together “without giving rise to conflict.”
“The whole time the Pope was in Cuba, the gestures of the people were very significant. The reception by the people surpassed our expectations,” the cardinal said. “One day,” he recounted, “the Pope told me as we were coming back: ‘These people are intelligent. They applaud the concepts and not just the way a speech sounds’.”
Evaluating the current situation in Cuba, Cardinal Ortega pointed out that Cuban culture is essentially Christian but that during the last 50 years there has been an attempt to erase Christianity in the country—“through a very strong Church-State separation.” Today the new generations of Catholics are called to insert themselves into society, he said, and “this is something the Church should foster.” Cardinal Ortega acknowledged that the concept of “national reconciliation” is “a term that many times cannot be used in Cuba,” because it is often a politically charged idea that “refers to the possibility of reconciling ideologies.” However, “people can be reconciled. I believe that we can reach that kind of fraternity through personal dialogue. We’re not talking about dialogue between Church and State leaders, but rather dialogue between the diverse political sectors,” the cardinal stated. As reconciliation between people spreads, he emphasized, “other situations, including political ones, will improve.” Finally, Cardinal Ortega stressed that with the historic papal visit, “The Church made our society known to the entire world: The Catholic Church was there, she was alive and she was united with her people,” he said.
Cuba eyes foreign investment to halt sugar decline
Reuters
Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:54am EDT
* Talks with foreign investors advancing: sourcesBonds
* Joint administration of mills on the table
* U.S. embargo, national pride seen as obstacles
* First such projects since 1959 revolution
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, March 25 (Reuters) - Cuba may open sugar production to foreign investors for the first time since the 1959 revolution as it seeks to reverse the once proud industry's relentless decline, business sources said this week. Talks between investors and the government have come and gone with little result for years, but what is shaping up as perhaps the island's worst harvest in a century has increased interest in bringing foreign partners, the sources said.
Their money and management know-how could help revive a sugar industry that has collapsed from neglect and the decapitalization of mills and plantations, local experts and foreign traders said. President Raul Castro, who took over from ailing brother Fidel Castro two years ago, is trying to right communist Cuba's cash-strapped economy by increasing exports and cutting imports.
Sugar, once the driver of Cuba's economy, now accounts for less than 5 percent of Cuba's foreign earnings, but prices have been driven up by ethanol demand, so Cuba is turning to it once again.
A Cuban source with knowledge of the sugar industry said the government has been seriously exploring foreign participation for several months. "The executive Committee of the Council of Ministers approved plans to pursue talks last November, and again this year to sign administrative agreements," the source said. Foreign banking and other business sources confirmed talks were advancing toward agreements that would have investors jointly administer several mills and share in the production for a limited number of years. The sources would not name the various companies involved or provide further details. Similar agreements already exist in the citrus industry, where Panama-based Israeli investors jointly operate juice plants with the government.
U.S. HELMS-BURTON LAW
Theoretically, the state-run sugar industry has been open to direct investment since 1995, but in practice there has been little interest on the government's part except in a few joint ventures making sugar derivatives such as alcohol and parts used in sugar processing, the sources said.
A big obstacle is the U.S. Helms-Burton law, which penalizes investment in properties expropriated from U.S. owners and contains a yet-to-be implemented chapter allowing Cuban-Americans to sue investors who "traffic" in their expropriated properties. All but eight of Cuba's mills were built before the revolution and therefore nationalized, and most plantations are lands expropriated by the government after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Foreign investors are forbidden by law to own land in Cuba, and do not need to own anything for the proposed sugar ventures, said a local economist. "There is little need for investors to own land. In fact, it is in their interest to simply administer mills, provide farmers with technology packets and process the cane," he said.
Cuba was once the world's biggest sugar exporter with raw output reaching 8.1 million tonnes in 1989, but the industry went into decline after Cuba's top ally for 30 years, the former Soviet Union, collapsed in 1991. The Soviet Union paid padded prices for Cuban sugar to boost the island's economy, so its demise hit Cuba and the sugar industry hard. Cuba shut down and dismantled 71 of 156 mills in 2003 and relegated 60 percent of sugar plantation land to other uses. More mills have closed since then, with just 44 mills open this season. Another 20 have been maintained in working condition for future use. Only 1.7 million acres (700,000 hectares) of the over 5 million acres (2 million hectares) once controlled by Cuba's Sugar Ministry are currently dedicated to sugar cane. Cuba planned to produce 1.3 million tonnes of raw sugar this season, but milling problems and low yields have resulted in a shortfall of more than 100,000 tonnes to date. With the harvest scheduled to end by May, Cuba is in danger of reaching its lowest output since 1908, when 1.2 million tonnes of sugar were produced.
Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:54am EDT
* Talks with foreign investors advancing: sourcesBonds
* Joint administration of mills on the table
* U.S. embargo, national pride seen as obstacles
* First such projects since 1959 revolution
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, March 25 (Reuters) - Cuba may open sugar production to foreign investors for the first time since the 1959 revolution as it seeks to reverse the once proud industry's relentless decline, business sources said this week. Talks between investors and the government have come and gone with little result for years, but what is shaping up as perhaps the island's worst harvest in a century has increased interest in bringing foreign partners, the sources said.
Their money and management know-how could help revive a sugar industry that has collapsed from neglect and the decapitalization of mills and plantations, local experts and foreign traders said. President Raul Castro, who took over from ailing brother Fidel Castro two years ago, is trying to right communist Cuba's cash-strapped economy by increasing exports and cutting imports.
Sugar, once the driver of Cuba's economy, now accounts for less than 5 percent of Cuba's foreign earnings, but prices have been driven up by ethanol demand, so Cuba is turning to it once again.
A Cuban source with knowledge of the sugar industry said the government has been seriously exploring foreign participation for several months. "The executive Committee of the Council of Ministers approved plans to pursue talks last November, and again this year to sign administrative agreements," the source said. Foreign banking and other business sources confirmed talks were advancing toward agreements that would have investors jointly administer several mills and share in the production for a limited number of years. The sources would not name the various companies involved or provide further details. Similar agreements already exist in the citrus industry, where Panama-based Israeli investors jointly operate juice plants with the government.
U.S. HELMS-BURTON LAW
Theoretically, the state-run sugar industry has been open to direct investment since 1995, but in practice there has been little interest on the government's part except in a few joint ventures making sugar derivatives such as alcohol and parts used in sugar processing, the sources said.
A big obstacle is the U.S. Helms-Burton law, which penalizes investment in properties expropriated from U.S. owners and contains a yet-to-be implemented chapter allowing Cuban-Americans to sue investors who "traffic" in their expropriated properties. All but eight of Cuba's mills were built before the revolution and therefore nationalized, and most plantations are lands expropriated by the government after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Foreign investors are forbidden by law to own land in Cuba, and do not need to own anything for the proposed sugar ventures, said a local economist. "There is little need for investors to own land. In fact, it is in their interest to simply administer mills, provide farmers with technology packets and process the cane," he said.
Cuba was once the world's biggest sugar exporter with raw output reaching 8.1 million tonnes in 1989, but the industry went into decline after Cuba's top ally for 30 years, the former Soviet Union, collapsed in 1991. The Soviet Union paid padded prices for Cuban sugar to boost the island's economy, so its demise hit Cuba and the sugar industry hard. Cuba shut down and dismantled 71 of 156 mills in 2003 and relegated 60 percent of sugar plantation land to other uses. More mills have closed since then, with just 44 mills open this season. Another 20 have been maintained in working condition for future use. Only 1.7 million acres (700,000 hectares) of the over 5 million acres (2 million hectares) once controlled by Cuba's Sugar Ministry are currently dedicated to sugar cane. Cuba planned to produce 1.3 million tonnes of raw sugar this season, but milling problems and low yields have resulted in a shortfall of more than 100,000 tonnes to date. With the harvest scheduled to end by May, Cuba is in danger of reaching its lowest output since 1908, when 1.2 million tonnes of sugar were produced.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Can Cuba’s Mysteries Help Save the World’s Coral Reefs?
by Ocean Doctor
July 18, 2008
Until that tranquil morning in late June 1974, the sum total of my SCUBA diving experience had been in a landlocked state, in a stifling, moldy indoor YMCA pool in the Philadelphia suburbs and a Pennsylvania quarry, flooded with icy soup-green water. Barely comprehending the new world of pungent humidity, mountainous afternoon cumulus clouds, and lush tangles of flowering succulents I experienced at water’s edge during my first visit to the Florida Keys, I was wholly unprepared later that morning when I found myself seated in sugar-white sand with 40 feet of warm, clear aquamarine water above my head. As impossibly multi-colored fish passed slowly within reach before my wide 15-year-old eyes, my gaze broadened as I marveled at the towering jetties of coral around us, living layer cakes of corals upon corals, brown and mustard rock-like structures, encrusted with brilliant red, violet and orange coralline fans and branches, swaying in the warm, nourishing current and, like eager spring blossoms, reaching toward the dancing sunlight scattered on the surface above. Even in those first minutes face-to-face with a coral reef, the enormity of what I was witnessing was clear to me. I remember thinking, “There’s a whole living world going on down here, and we don’t know anything about it.” While I may have suspected in those moments that I would dedicate my career to something having to do with the oceans, I never would have dreamed that more than three decades later I would be literally immersed in some of the most important work of my life just 90 miles to the south of where I was seated beneath the waves.
Last week, as I departed Ft. Lauderdale and the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, the world’s largest coral summit held every four years, the news was sobering. One-third of the world’s corals are well on their way to outright extinction, and the rest are threatened with, among other things, the indignant end of simply dissolving away, as increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel emissions enters the oceans, raising their acidity to the point where any ocean creature with a calcium carbonate shell — from corals to clams — succumbs to the acid waters. When my daughter was 15 and floated above that same reef I had experienced, it had become a pale shadow of the miracle of nature I had so delighted in. Nearly half the corals in the Florida Keys have died in my lifetime. Some are bleached bone white, others shackled in diseased bands of black. Many more lie smothered in broad blankets of algal slime which have robbed the reef of its rainbow of colors, leaving a lifeless green-gray skeleton where countless diversity once eeked from every imaginable crack and crevice. As I beheld this tragic image, little did I imagine that important clues to saving this reef and many more like it around the Caribbean and the world, might lie just 90 miles to the south.
I now sort through assorted dive gear, video equipment, and sunscreen preparing for my 37th visit to that magical place 90 miles to the south, to an island larger than all the other Caribbean islands combined, to an island whose coat of arms bears a key — “llave del golfo“, the key to the Gulf of Mexico — a subtropical nexus where the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean intertwine in a sublime undersea cocktail of diversity, color and mystery. Our fourth joint expedition of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental (Project of the Northwest Coast) — a project of the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (Centro de Investigaciones Marinas: CIM) and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi — will continue our ongoing project to explore the most unknown corner of the Gulf of Mexico: Cuba’s northwest coastal waters.
A green sea turtle hatchling at Cuba's westernmost point, Guanahacabibes
It is often said that those 90 miles of open water south of the Florida Keys — the Straits of Florida — separate Cuba and the USA. Like a hand-drawn blue borderline, the Straits are often invoked as a symbol of the 50-year-old Cold War that has frozen our two countries so tantalizingly close, yet so tragically far apart. But to the sea turtles, sharks, lobster, whales and other sea life, those same 90 miles of blue unite our countries with racing blue currents, unseen underwater pathways, and a web of colorful life that defies the perceptions of so many of the Gulf of Mexico, who know it only as a hot, muddy cauldron that spawns hurricanes and oil platforms. Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. share the Gulf of Mexico and have a responsibility to work together to understand and protect it. Thankfully, despite debilitating restrictions, which are ever-changing in the cool winds of Cold War politics, we have worked for a solid eight years now with our Cuban colleagues, advancing our understanding of the Gulf of Mexico and providing research opportunities for Cuba’s next generation of marine scientists — nearly 20 have based their Masters and Ph.D. research on our joint projects.
Cuba’s northwest coast – the verdant Pinar del Río province, home to Cuba’s legendary cigars — is the least-developed coastal region of Cuba. But as Cuba’s tourism trade continues to develop and as Cuba’s fledgling offshore oil development expands into the Gulf, we hope that the insights from our joint research help to guide the hand of such development so that some of Cuba’s most precious assets, its coral reefs, will be spared the all too common fate I’ve seen elsewhere in the Caribbean. And there is much at stake.
As we dove during the second expedition, it was as if we had been transported decades backward in time, to the healthy, vibrant, towering reefs I remember from my mid-teens. The reefs I have seen in the Archepiélago de Los Colorados, the barrier reef that runs along Cuba’s northwest coast, are the healthiest I have seen in my life. For that reason, and because of its unique history and geography, Cuba may hold important clues for coral reefs elsewhere in the Caribbean and perhaps around the world. Good friend and colleague, Dr. Gaspar González-Sansón, titular professor at University of Havana, CIM, and co-principal investigator of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental, recently pointed to a number of possible reasons for the health of Cuba’s reefs when we spoke when I was recently in Havana:
Cuban commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of MexicoCuba does have a commercial fishing fleet, but fishermen principally use hook and line, so unlike nets and trawls which result in catching just about everything, fishing in Cuba is highly selective. In contrast, more than 80 percent of what’s caught in U.S. Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawls is not shrimp — it’s small finfish and other creatures collectively known as “bycatch” that represent the unforgivable waste of this fishing practice. Cuba is now phasing out all bottom trawling on its continental shelf.
In the early days of the revolution, President Fidel Castro declared, “Not one drop of water to the sea,” a call to action to dam rivers and streams in order to divert water for use in agriculture and population centers. Reducing fresh water input upset the delicate balance of fresh and salt water in Cuba’s estuaries, resulting in the disappearance of populations intolerant to the saltier waters, such as the white shrimp. In another way, however, this policy may have inadvertently served to help reefs by reducing the transport of fertilizers and pesticides to the reefs. Use of fertilizers and pesticides has dropped dramatically since the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Given that nutrient pollution is a key factor in the growth of coral-smothering algae, this may also be an important factor.
In countless ways, the island of Cuba is unique. And when it comes to coral reefs, Cuba is again, unique. Here an island of thriving corals flourishes amid a world of corals dying and disappearing. In this mysterious corner of the Gulf of Mexico where time seems to have stopped, I find hope. Hope that the rich ecosystems of this beautiful island will endure. And I find hope that Cuba’s coral reefs might share some of their tantalizing secrets, secrets that can offer clues to protecting and restoring coral reefs elsewhere, including a special place I still remember in the Florida Keys, just 90 miles to the north.
July 18, 2008
Until that tranquil morning in late June 1974, the sum total of my SCUBA diving experience had been in a landlocked state, in a stifling, moldy indoor YMCA pool in the Philadelphia suburbs and a Pennsylvania quarry, flooded with icy soup-green water. Barely comprehending the new world of pungent humidity, mountainous afternoon cumulus clouds, and lush tangles of flowering succulents I experienced at water’s edge during my first visit to the Florida Keys, I was wholly unprepared later that morning when I found myself seated in sugar-white sand with 40 feet of warm, clear aquamarine water above my head. As impossibly multi-colored fish passed slowly within reach before my wide 15-year-old eyes, my gaze broadened as I marveled at the towering jetties of coral around us, living layer cakes of corals upon corals, brown and mustard rock-like structures, encrusted with brilliant red, violet and orange coralline fans and branches, swaying in the warm, nourishing current and, like eager spring blossoms, reaching toward the dancing sunlight scattered on the surface above. Even in those first minutes face-to-face with a coral reef, the enormity of what I was witnessing was clear to me. I remember thinking, “There’s a whole living world going on down here, and we don’t know anything about it.” While I may have suspected in those moments that I would dedicate my career to something having to do with the oceans, I never would have dreamed that more than three decades later I would be literally immersed in some of the most important work of my life just 90 miles to the south of where I was seated beneath the waves.
Last week, as I departed Ft. Lauderdale and the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, the world’s largest coral summit held every four years, the news was sobering. One-third of the world’s corals are well on their way to outright extinction, and the rest are threatened with, among other things, the indignant end of simply dissolving away, as increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel emissions enters the oceans, raising their acidity to the point where any ocean creature with a calcium carbonate shell — from corals to clams — succumbs to the acid waters. When my daughter was 15 and floated above that same reef I had experienced, it had become a pale shadow of the miracle of nature I had so delighted in. Nearly half the corals in the Florida Keys have died in my lifetime. Some are bleached bone white, others shackled in diseased bands of black. Many more lie smothered in broad blankets of algal slime which have robbed the reef of its rainbow of colors, leaving a lifeless green-gray skeleton where countless diversity once eeked from every imaginable crack and crevice. As I beheld this tragic image, little did I imagine that important clues to saving this reef and many more like it around the Caribbean and the world, might lie just 90 miles to the south.
I now sort through assorted dive gear, video equipment, and sunscreen preparing for my 37th visit to that magical place 90 miles to the south, to an island larger than all the other Caribbean islands combined, to an island whose coat of arms bears a key — “llave del golfo“, the key to the Gulf of Mexico — a subtropical nexus where the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean intertwine in a sublime undersea cocktail of diversity, color and mystery. Our fourth joint expedition of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental (Project of the Northwest Coast) — a project of the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (Centro de Investigaciones Marinas: CIM) and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi — will continue our ongoing project to explore the most unknown corner of the Gulf of Mexico: Cuba’s northwest coastal waters.
A green sea turtle hatchling at Cuba's westernmost point, Guanahacabibes
It is often said that those 90 miles of open water south of the Florida Keys — the Straits of Florida — separate Cuba and the USA. Like a hand-drawn blue borderline, the Straits are often invoked as a symbol of the 50-year-old Cold War that has frozen our two countries so tantalizingly close, yet so tragically far apart. But to the sea turtles, sharks, lobster, whales and other sea life, those same 90 miles of blue unite our countries with racing blue currents, unseen underwater pathways, and a web of colorful life that defies the perceptions of so many of the Gulf of Mexico, who know it only as a hot, muddy cauldron that spawns hurricanes and oil platforms. Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. share the Gulf of Mexico and have a responsibility to work together to understand and protect it. Thankfully, despite debilitating restrictions, which are ever-changing in the cool winds of Cold War politics, we have worked for a solid eight years now with our Cuban colleagues, advancing our understanding of the Gulf of Mexico and providing research opportunities for Cuba’s next generation of marine scientists — nearly 20 have based their Masters and Ph.D. research on our joint projects.
Cuba’s northwest coast – the verdant Pinar del Río province, home to Cuba’s legendary cigars — is the least-developed coastal region of Cuba. But as Cuba’s tourism trade continues to develop and as Cuba’s fledgling offshore oil development expands into the Gulf, we hope that the insights from our joint research help to guide the hand of such development so that some of Cuba’s most precious assets, its coral reefs, will be spared the all too common fate I’ve seen elsewhere in the Caribbean. And there is much at stake.
As we dove during the second expedition, it was as if we had been transported decades backward in time, to the healthy, vibrant, towering reefs I remember from my mid-teens. The reefs I have seen in the Archepiélago de Los Colorados, the barrier reef that runs along Cuba’s northwest coast, are the healthiest I have seen in my life. For that reason, and because of its unique history and geography, Cuba may hold important clues for coral reefs elsewhere in the Caribbean and perhaps around the world. Good friend and colleague, Dr. Gaspar González-Sansón, titular professor at University of Havana, CIM, and co-principal investigator of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental, recently pointed to a number of possible reasons for the health of Cuba’s reefs when we spoke when I was recently in Havana:
Cuba’s tourism industry did not begin until 1993, necessitated by the demise of
the Soviet Union and its aid to the island. Though tourism has proceeded at a
rapid pace, it is highly localized at specific resort areas on the coasts. The
healthiest reefs also happen to be far from shore, such as Los Colorados to the
north and Jardines de la Reina to the south, perhaps beyond the reach of harmful
concentrations of coastal pollution.
Cuban commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of MexicoCuba does have a commercial fishing fleet, but fishermen principally use hook and line, so unlike nets and trawls which result in catching just about everything, fishing in Cuba is highly selective. In contrast, more than 80 percent of what’s caught in U.S. Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawls is not shrimp — it’s small finfish and other creatures collectively known as “bycatch” that represent the unforgivable waste of this fishing practice. Cuba is now phasing out all bottom trawling on its continental shelf.
In the early days of the revolution, President Fidel Castro declared, “Not one drop of water to the sea,” a call to action to dam rivers and streams in order to divert water for use in agriculture and population centers. Reducing fresh water input upset the delicate balance of fresh and salt water in Cuba’s estuaries, resulting in the disappearance of populations intolerant to the saltier waters, such as the white shrimp. In another way, however, this policy may have inadvertently served to help reefs by reducing the transport of fertilizers and pesticides to the reefs. Use of fertilizers and pesticides has dropped dramatically since the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Given that nutrient pollution is a key factor in the growth of coral-smothering algae, this may also be an important factor.
In countless ways, the island of Cuba is unique. And when it comes to coral reefs, Cuba is again, unique. Here an island of thriving corals flourishes amid a world of corals dying and disappearing. In this mysterious corner of the Gulf of Mexico where time seems to have stopped, I find hope. Hope that the rich ecosystems of this beautiful island will endure. And I find hope that Cuba’s coral reefs might share some of their tantalizing secrets, secrets that can offer clues to protecting and restoring coral reefs elsewhere, including a special place I still remember in the Florida Keys, just 90 miles to the north.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use
11 Nov 2009
* Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
* Some factories, workshops to be closed through December
* Most other economic activities to be reduced
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt "extreme measures" to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union. In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the island is facing a "critical" energy shortage that requires the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine. Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year. "The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population," said a recently circulated message from the Council of Ministers. "Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of imports and basic services for the population," according to another distributed by the light industry sector. President Raul Castro is said to be intent on not repeating the experience of the 1990s, when the demise of the Soviet Union and the loss of its steady oil supply caused frequent electricity blackouts and hardship for the Cuban public. The directives follow government warnings in the summer that too much energy was being used and blackouts would follow if consumption was not reduced. All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which encompasses 90 percent of Cuba's economic activity, were ordered in June to reduce energy use by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity cuts. The measures appeared to resolve the crisis as state-run press published stories about the amount of energy that had been saved and the dire warnings died down. The only explanation given for the earlier warnings was that Cuba was consuming more fuel than the government had money to pay for. The situation is not as dire as in the 1990s because Cuba receives 93,000 barrels per day of crude oil, almost two-thirds of what it consumes, from Venezuela. It pays for the oil by providing its energy-rich ally with medical personnel and other professionals. Cuba has been grappling with the global economic downturn, which has slashed revenues from key exports, dried up credit and reduced foreign investment. The communist-run Caribbean nation also faces stiff U.S. sanctions that include cutting access to international lending institutions, and it is still rebuilding from last year's trio of hurricanes that caused an estimated $10 billion in damages. In response, the government has cut spending, slashed imports, suspended many debt payments and frozen bank accounts of foreign businesses. It reported last week that trade was down 36 percent so far this year due mainly to a more than 30 percent reduction in imports.
* Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
* Some factories, workshops to be closed through December
* Most other economic activities to be reduced
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt "extreme measures" to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union. In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the island is facing a "critical" energy shortage that requires the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine. Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year. "The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population," said a recently circulated message from the Council of Ministers. "Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of imports and basic services for the population," according to another distributed by the light industry sector. President Raul Castro is said to be intent on not repeating the experience of the 1990s, when the demise of the Soviet Union and the loss of its steady oil supply caused frequent electricity blackouts and hardship for the Cuban public. The directives follow government warnings in the summer that too much energy was being used and blackouts would follow if consumption was not reduced. All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which encompasses 90 percent of Cuba's economic activity, were ordered in June to reduce energy use by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity cuts. The measures appeared to resolve the crisis as state-run press published stories about the amount of energy that had been saved and the dire warnings died down. The only explanation given for the earlier warnings was that Cuba was consuming more fuel than the government had money to pay for. The situation is not as dire as in the 1990s because Cuba receives 93,000 barrels per day of crude oil, almost two-thirds of what it consumes, from Venezuela. It pays for the oil by providing its energy-rich ally with medical personnel and other professionals. Cuba has been grappling with the global economic downturn, which has slashed revenues from key exports, dried up credit and reduced foreign investment. The communist-run Caribbean nation also faces stiff U.S. sanctions that include cutting access to international lending institutions, and it is still rebuilding from last year's trio of hurricanes that caused an estimated $10 billion in damages. In response, the government has cut spending, slashed imports, suspended many debt payments and frozen bank accounts of foreign businesses. It reported last week that trade was down 36 percent so far this year due mainly to a more than 30 percent reduction in imports.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Cuba's blogosphere has developed a sharper edge
Nov. 09, 2009
BY JUAN O. TAMAYOjtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, speaks during a interview with AFP in Havana, on May 6, 2008. Sanchez won the Ortega y Gasset prize in Spain for digital journalism for her critical Internet blog on Cuban reality. Cuban authorities have refused to give a travel visa to Sanchez so she can receive one of Spain's top journalism awards in Madrid on Wednesday, said Spanish newspaper El Pais which hands out the awards annually. When a dozen Cuban bloggers wanted to stage a protest last month, they simultaneously tweeted, texted and posted messages like ``Freedom.''
One later used a blond wig to sneak into a government building and complain against censorship of the Internet. And the next day, she posted a video of her complaint on her blog. Carefully, but with daring determination, some Cubans whose blogs once focused largely on the frustrations of daily life are moving toward sharp-edged commentaries and activities that some fear will eventually lead to a crackdown by the communist government. ``We do not have a common position . . . but yes, some people have been doing actions that go beyond the click and the keyboard and try to exercise the rights of a free person,'' said Reynaldo Escobar of the Havana blog Desde Aquí (From Here). Some bloggers indeed have become ``more assertive, more confrontational, more pushing the limits -- and pushing their luck,'' said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor who is writing a paper on the social implications of the Cuban blogosphere's growth.
In fact, on Friday the best known of the Cuban bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, reported that she and another blogger were detained and beaten severely by state security agents, apparently to keep them from joining a peaceful march in Havana organized by young musicians. Cuba's blogosphere is tiny for an island of 11.5 million people. About 200 blogs have official approval and 100 don't, among them dissident journalists and human rights activists, according to a recent report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. But about 15 bloggers have captured widespread attention at home and abroad -- sometimes becoming better known than political dissidents -- with posts that challenge the government and break its monopoly on information entering and leaving the island. While human rights activists report ``the sufferings on the island, which are indeed tragic,'' said Henken, the usually younger bloggers tend to use more humor and nonpolitical language to connect with young Cubans and foreigners. ``They appeal to a new generation that speaks their language, the language of social networks'' like blogs and Facebook, he added. ``They appeal to people like my students, who have no politics.''
Escobar said some of the bloggers -- sometimes called alternative bloggers to differentiate them from government-approved and dissident writers -- have now decided ``their purpose is not just to be on the Web but to express their individual will to come together in a place, on an issue.'' They have arranged three ``virtual protests'' since May, but their largest came on Oct. 20, the anniversary of the day the Cuban national anthem was first sung, when a dozen Cuban bloggers and about 100 other sites coordinated their posts, text messages, tweets and other Web activities for Blogacción -- Blog Action. Escobar wrote that if he had a microphone for only two seconds he would ask for ``freedom.'' Myriam Celaya blogged demanding Internet access for all. Claudia Cadelo wrote that she dreamed of the release of blogger Pablo Pacheco, who has been jailed since 2003 but dictates his post to Cadelo, who then arranges to have them posted on Voz Tras Las Rejas -- Voice from behind Bars.
``It's a matter of trying to grease the machinery for online protests,'' Sánchez, 34, wrote about the Oct. 20 event in her blog Generación Y. The total number of participants is unknown, but Google reported 22,000 searches for the words ``Blogacción'' and ``Cuba.'' Six days later, Escobar and Sánchez, who are married, hosted the first session of the Bloggers Academy of Cuba, a series of training sessions for some 30 would-be bloggers in their Havana apartment that includes technology, photography, ethics and the legalities of the Internet. And three days after that, Sánchez sneaked into a government-run cultural center that was hosting a discussion on the Internet. While other cyberactivists were barred from entering, Sánchez took off her wig and launched a withering critique of the government's ``ideological filter'' on the Internet. A video of her comments -- and the thin applause she received -- was posted on her blog hours later. The government has long tried to control Cubans' access to the Internet, putting restrictions on computers and subscriptions, keeping prices high and blocking access to unfriendly sites, including most alternative blogs. It also has assigned university students of computer sciences to post comments supporting the government and attacking its critics.
But Cubans have found myriad ways to get around the roadblocks: Passwords for Internet access sell on the black market for $10 a month. People with access download information to CDs and USB thumb drives and pass them on to others, who then copy the data and pass it further on. One file being passed around instructs cybernauts on how to get around government blocks on the unfriendly blogs and other websites. Yosvani Anzardo, a young engineer from the eastern province of Holguín, even established the digital newspaper Covadonga and an private e-mail system called Red Libertad -- Liberty Net -- by reprogramming his laptop to work as a much more powerful server. Then there's Bluetooth, which allows the rapid transfer of files such as forbidden books, songs and foreign news reports between cellphones that are near each other, without going through telephone or computer lines. Security agents probably don't realize the impact of Bluetooth, Escobar said. ``Those people studied in the KGB and maybe now they are studying in China, but their knowledge is antiquated,'' he said in a telephone interview from Havana.
© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miamiherald.com
BY JUAN O. TAMAYOjtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, speaks during a interview with AFP in Havana, on May 6, 2008. Sanchez won the Ortega y Gasset prize in Spain for digital journalism for her critical Internet blog on Cuban reality. Cuban authorities have refused to give a travel visa to Sanchez so she can receive one of Spain's top journalism awards in Madrid on Wednesday, said Spanish newspaper El Pais which hands out the awards annually. When a dozen Cuban bloggers wanted to stage a protest last month, they simultaneously tweeted, texted and posted messages like ``Freedom.''
One later used a blond wig to sneak into a government building and complain against censorship of the Internet. And the next day, she posted a video of her complaint on her blog. Carefully, but with daring determination, some Cubans whose blogs once focused largely on the frustrations of daily life are moving toward sharp-edged commentaries and activities that some fear will eventually lead to a crackdown by the communist government. ``We do not have a common position . . . but yes, some people have been doing actions that go beyond the click and the keyboard and try to exercise the rights of a free person,'' said Reynaldo Escobar of the Havana blog Desde Aquí (From Here). Some bloggers indeed have become ``more assertive, more confrontational, more pushing the limits -- and pushing their luck,'' said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor who is writing a paper on the social implications of the Cuban blogosphere's growth.
In fact, on Friday the best known of the Cuban bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, reported that she and another blogger were detained and beaten severely by state security agents, apparently to keep them from joining a peaceful march in Havana organized by young musicians. Cuba's blogosphere is tiny for an island of 11.5 million people. About 200 blogs have official approval and 100 don't, among them dissident journalists and human rights activists, according to a recent report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. But about 15 bloggers have captured widespread attention at home and abroad -- sometimes becoming better known than political dissidents -- with posts that challenge the government and break its monopoly on information entering and leaving the island. While human rights activists report ``the sufferings on the island, which are indeed tragic,'' said Henken, the usually younger bloggers tend to use more humor and nonpolitical language to connect with young Cubans and foreigners. ``They appeal to a new generation that speaks their language, the language of social networks'' like blogs and Facebook, he added. ``They appeal to people like my students, who have no politics.''
Escobar said some of the bloggers -- sometimes called alternative bloggers to differentiate them from government-approved and dissident writers -- have now decided ``their purpose is not just to be on the Web but to express their individual will to come together in a place, on an issue.'' They have arranged three ``virtual protests'' since May, but their largest came on Oct. 20, the anniversary of the day the Cuban national anthem was first sung, when a dozen Cuban bloggers and about 100 other sites coordinated their posts, text messages, tweets and other Web activities for Blogacción -- Blog Action. Escobar wrote that if he had a microphone for only two seconds he would ask for ``freedom.'' Myriam Celaya blogged demanding Internet access for all. Claudia Cadelo wrote that she dreamed of the release of blogger Pablo Pacheco, who has been jailed since 2003 but dictates his post to Cadelo, who then arranges to have them posted on Voz Tras Las Rejas -- Voice from behind Bars.
``It's a matter of trying to grease the machinery for online protests,'' Sánchez, 34, wrote about the Oct. 20 event in her blog Generación Y. The total number of participants is unknown, but Google reported 22,000 searches for the words ``Blogacción'' and ``Cuba.'' Six days later, Escobar and Sánchez, who are married, hosted the first session of the Bloggers Academy of Cuba, a series of training sessions for some 30 would-be bloggers in their Havana apartment that includes technology, photography, ethics and the legalities of the Internet. And three days after that, Sánchez sneaked into a government-run cultural center that was hosting a discussion on the Internet. While other cyberactivists were barred from entering, Sánchez took off her wig and launched a withering critique of the government's ``ideological filter'' on the Internet. A video of her comments -- and the thin applause she received -- was posted on her blog hours later. The government has long tried to control Cubans' access to the Internet, putting restrictions on computers and subscriptions, keeping prices high and blocking access to unfriendly sites, including most alternative blogs. It also has assigned university students of computer sciences to post comments supporting the government and attacking its critics.
But Cubans have found myriad ways to get around the roadblocks: Passwords for Internet access sell on the black market for $10 a month. People with access download information to CDs and USB thumb drives and pass them on to others, who then copy the data and pass it further on. One file being passed around instructs cybernauts on how to get around government blocks on the unfriendly blogs and other websites. Yosvani Anzardo, a young engineer from the eastern province of Holguín, even established the digital newspaper Covadonga and an private e-mail system called Red Libertad -- Liberty Net -- by reprogramming his laptop to work as a much more powerful server. Then there's Bluetooth, which allows the rapid transfer of files such as forbidden books, songs and foreign news reports between cellphones that are near each other, without going through telephone or computer lines. Security agents probably don't realize the impact of Bluetooth, Escobar said. ``Those people studied in the KGB and maybe now they are studying in China, but their knowledge is antiquated,'' he said in a telephone interview from Havana.
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