Sunday, December 7, 2008
Obama could bring change to US-Cuba ties
WASHINGTON (AFP) — After decades of tense ties, President-elect Barack Obama has an opening to bring change to relations between uneasy neighbors Cuba and the United States. Washington and Havana do not have full diplomatic ties. And the United States has had a full economic embargo on Cuba since 1961. Ties between communist-ruled Cuba and Washington remained strained during the two administrations of President George W. Bush. Then in July 2006 Fidel Castro stepped aside after major surgery and almost 50 years in power, and his brother Raul Castro took the helm formally in February. Cuban President Raul Castro, 77, and Fidel Castro, 82, have underscored that Cuba is ready to talk -- if the United States is ready to drop its age-old carrot-and-stick diplomacy.
And Obama seems to be eyeing some change in US handling of the Americas' only one-party Communist country. He said on the campaign repeatedly in recent months that if elected he would ease restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans and on remittences sent to Cuba by US-based relatives. Yet for now Obama has ruled out lifting US sanctions saying that they could be used to keep pressuring Havana. Prevailing US law says the trade embargo cannot be ended while Fidel Castro or Raul Castro is in power -- legislation approved under the last Democratic US president Bill Clinton. Another option that could be in the works would be for Washington to take Cuba off its State Department list of countries it officially says promote terrorism. That could go a long way in improving relations on the diplomatic front, according to Archibald Ritter, at the Norman Patterson School for International Affairs in Ottawa. Meanwhile, the United States is keenly aware of business opportunities looming just 90 miles away.
Despite the embargo, US farmers have become the top suppliers of food to Cuba -- because it is sold in cash only, as part of a loophole allowed in the wake of a major hurricane that damaged Cuban crops. And Cuba's belief that it has much more significant oil reserves than previously thought also is not lost on US oil giants currently missing out on the exploration phase. "I think ... petroleum can play a very major role in the near term future. Whether the Cuban estimates of reserves are reliable or not, we can say there is a potential," said Terry L Maris, a University of Ohio Cuba expert.
Press Notes from the Gathering of Cuban Bloggers in Pinar del Rio
Entre los días 5 y 6 de diciembre han empezado a realizarse los primeros intercambios de un taller de conocimientos entre personas que mantienen blogs en Internet desde la Isla y otros interesados en acercarse a este medio.
Concebido desde sus inicios como un itinerario de estudio con varias etapas, el encuentro se vio privado de su sesión inaugural porque agentes del Ministerio del Interior citaron a algunos participantes para anunciarles, de manera oficial, que se les prohibía asistir a la inauguración en la ciudad de Pinar del Río. No es posible ofrecer una prueba documentada de esta prohibición porque dichos agentes se negaron a confirmarla por escrito.
Pero la libertad halla caminos que la represión no encuentra. Por eso los participantes del taller, fieles a su opción por el diálogo y la búsqueda de alternativas viables, acuden a otras modalidades para iniciar el itinerario sin tener que trasladarse físicamente de un territorio a otro.
Han sido varios los temas iniciales: Apuntes generales sobre una bitácora, animado por Yoani Sánchez, donde se abordan cuestiones técnicas relacionadas con los programas informáticos apropiados para un blog; La redacción en un blog, propuesto por Reinaldo Escobar, donde se debate la aplicación de las normas periodísticas de redacción al nuevo lenguaje del ciberespacio , y finalmente La ética blogger, donde Eugenio Leal introduce conceptos relacionados con la conducta ética en esta novedosa forma de transmitir ideas e información. Los textos debatidos y otros que surjan se publicarán en un sitio web.
Los intercambios de experiencias se produjeron en un clima informal, de respeto por las opiniones distintas y de debate propositivo. Promovieron esta experiencia los colaboradores de la revista digital Convivencia (http://www.convivenciacuba.es) y del portal Desde Cuba (http://www.desdecuba.com) entre otros.
Estos primeros pasos constituyen una auténtica gestión de conocimientos. Entre las iniciativas sugeridas está la de redactar por los participantes una convocatoria para un concurso de blogs cubanos, que se lanzará para el año 2009. Estas nuevas variantes de itinerario de estudio sobre bitácoras cubanas permanecerán abiertas a todos los interesados.
Yoani's police visit on December 3, 2008
Entry from "Generacion Y" blog for December 3, 2008
Nueve de la mañana y un oficial mira con aburrimiento la citación que hemos mostrado en la puerta de la estación de 21 y C. Nos deja esperando en unos bancos, alrededor de cuarenta minutos, mientras Reinaldo y yo aprovechamos para hablar de esos temas que el vértigo de la vida cotidiana siempre nos impide tocar. Diez menos cuarto y se llevan a mi marido, preguntándole antes si tiene un teléfono celular. Diez minutos después lo regresan y me suben a mí hasta el segundo piso.
El encuentro es breve y el tono enérgico. Somos tres en la oficina y el que lleva la voz cantante se ha presentado como el agente Roque. A mi lado, otro más joven, me observa y dice que se llama Camilo. Ambos me anuncian que pertenecen al Ministerio del Interior. No están interesados en escuchar, hay un guión escrito sobre la mesa y nada que yo haga los distraerá. Son profesionales de la intimidación.
El tema me lo esperaba: estamos cerca de la fecha para el encuentro de blogger que, sin secretismo ni publicidad, hemos estado organizando desde medio año y ellos me anuncian que tenemos que suspenderlo. Media hora después, cuando ya estábamos lejos de los uniformes y de las fotos de líderes en las paredes, reconstruimos aproximadamente sus palabras:
Queremos advertirle que usted ha transgredido todos los límites de tolerancia con su acercamiento y contacto con elementos de la contrarrevolución.Eso la descalifica totalmente para dialogar con las autoridades cubanas.
La actividad prevista para los próximos días no puede ser realizada.
Nosotros, por nuestra parte, tomaremos todas las medidas y haremos las denuncias pertinentes y las acciones necesarias. Esta actividad, en los momentos que vive la Nación, de recuperación de dos huracanes, no será permitida.
Roque termina de hablarme –casi a gritos- y yo aprovecho para preguntarle si me puede dar todo eso por escrito. Esto de ser una blogger que pone su nombre y su rostro me ha hecho creer que todos están dispuestos a colocar su identidad acompañando lo que dicen. El hombre pierde el ritmo del guión –no se esperaba esas manías mías de bibliotecaria que guarda papeles–. Deja de leer lo que estaba escrito y me grita más fuerte que “ellos no están obligados a darme nada”.
Antes de que me saquen de lugar con un “retírese ciudadana” alcanzo a decirle que no pueden firmar lo que me han dicho, porque no tienen el valor para hacerlo. La palabra “Cobardes” se las suelto casi en una carcajada. Bajo la escalera y oigo el ruido de las sillas que se acomodan en su lugar. El miércoles ha terminado temprano.
Cuba says blogger ran afoul of the law
By WILL WEISSERT
HAVANA (AP) — Police have prohibited Cuba's most prominent blogger from attending an independent cyber-workshop and warned that her activities ran afoul of the law, her husband said Friday. Yoani Sanchez and husband and fellow blogger Reynaldo Escobar were summoned separately Wednesday to a police station near their apartment in Havana's Vedado district and reprimanded, Escobar said in a telephone interview. Authorities told the couple they could not travel to the western province of Pinar del Rio for a two-day blogger's workshop scheduled to begin Friday night. "We aren't attending the inauguration of the workshop, which has not been suspended. We've just changed the dynamic of how we are meeting," said Escobar, without elaborating.
An account of the reprimand appears on Sanchez's blog, "Generacion Y." The site was blocked to Internet users on the island Friday. Sanchez wrote that police told her, "We want to warn you that you have transgressed all the limits of tolerance with your closeness and contact with elements of the counterrevolution." Sanchez could not be reached Friday, and Cuba's government had no comment. Another Havana blogger, Claudia Cadelo, was also called into a meeting with police, but failed to appear because she is in the hospital, Escobar said.
The gathering was supposed to involve about 20 bloggers and is being organized by Dagoberto Valdes, a Roman Catholic layman in Pinar del Rio. Valdes was the volunteer director of the church magazine Vitral, which gently called for more plurality and democratic participation, until he was removed from the post by the island's bishop in April 2007. Valdes was traveling Friday, but his associate, Virgilio Toledo, said authorities in Pinar del Rio also advised two local activists against attending the workshop. "They think it's an activity about human rights, which it's not," Toledo said.
The Communications Ministry put into effect a law this week that instructs the island's Internet providers to "prevent access to sites where the content is contrary to social interests, morals or good custom, as well as the use of applications that affect the integrity or security of the State."
Escobar said the police suggested Cuba was especially sensitive to criticism as it struggles to recover from the effects of three storms that hit in less than two months this hurricane season, causing more than $10 billion in damage. Asked if Cuba could be in the midst of a cyber-crackdown, he said, "I don't know how far they will go."
"For dissidents who traditionally have been surrounded, things have gotten stricter," Escobar said, referring to a small group of activists who dare criticize the island's single-party system. Cuba tolerates no organized political opposition and dismisses dissidents and activists as "mercenaries" who take money from the United States to undermine the communist system.
Sanchez's posts about the struggles of daily life on the island have made her a sensation overseas and she won Spain's Ortega y Gasset Prize for digital journalism. According to her blog, police said that her activities had "totally nullified your ability to dialogue with Cuban authorities." Access to the Internet is strictly controlled in Cuba and the government routinely blocks sites it considers too critical.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Fidel Castro says Cuba could talk with Obama
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro said on Thursday his country could talk to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, in Havana's latest overture to the incoming Democratic administration in Washington. His remarks followed comments from his brother, President Raul Castro, who told a U.S. magazine he could meet Obama in a "neutral place" to try to end the Communist-run island's four-decade conflict with the United States.
"With Obama, talks could happen anywhere he wants," Fidel Castro, America's longtime Cold War enemy, wrote in the latest of a series of columns he has published in state-run media since falling ill in 2006. "He should remember the carrot-and-stick approach will not work with our country," Castro wrote of Obama. "The sovereign rights of the Cuban people are not negotiable."
Fidel Castro, who took power nearly 50 years ago after an armed revolution, has not been seen in public since undergoing surgery for an undisclosed illness in July 2006. But he has met several state leaders and appeared in photographs. Obama, who takes office on January 20, has raised hopes of improved U.S.-Cuba ties by saying he was open to talks with the Cuban government and has favored easing some U.S. sanctions. He has said he will reverse the U.S. administration's policies restricting Cuban Americans from visiting Cuba and sending cash to their families. He is willing to talk to Castro but would keep the four-decade-old U.S. trade embargo as leverage to influence changes in the one-party state. Raul Castro formally took over the Cuban presidency in February and has said several times Havana is willing to talk to the United States.
Before the U.S. presidential election last month, Fidel Castro praised Obama as intelligent and humanitarian in the columns that have become his main form of communication. Raul suggested in the interview he could meet Obama in Guantanamo Bay, where the United States maintains a naval base, which Cuba considers a violation of its sovereignty.
(Reporting by Patrick Markey; editing by Todd Eastham)
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Girl cured of terminal cancer brought new Cuban blessed to the altars
Daniela Cabrera Ramos / Bl. Jose Olallo Havana, Dec 1, 2008 / 02:34 pm (CNA).- The website of the Catholic bishops of Cuba announced just hours before the beatification of Brother Jose Olallo Valdes that Daniela Cabrera Ramos was cured of terminal cancer at the age of three and that her healing paved the way for the Cuban priest’s beatification. Reporter Osvaldo Gallardo Gonzalez interviewed the girl who is today 12. According to the website, she was cured of a fatal type of cancer after her family prayed to Father Olallo for his intercession.
“I remember my veins got pricked a lot. My mom told me that I was very sick with massive cancer in my abdomen and the doctors said I would not survive,” the girl said. Daniela, who lives with her family on a street dedicated to the Cuban priest, said Father Olallo “dedicated his life to the care of the sick, whom he considered to be his favorites. He was a great nurse.”
“He bought food with his savings and went from door to door leaving food for the sick,” she added, saying her healing happened thanks “to Jesus Christ through the intercession of one of his servants, Father Olallo.”
“Now that I am older I give thanks to God for having chosen me for a miracle, because in my hospital there were many other kids just as sick as me and who died,” she said. Daniela was present on Saturday at the beatification Mass and said she would be bringing a special petition. “I will pray to him for a good kidney transplant for my dad and for his healing, that God will place his hands on all the sick children and heal them like he healed me, and that peace and love will reign on the earth,” she said.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Raul Castro attends first beatification in Cuba
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press CAMAGUEY, Cuba (AP) - Thousands of Roman Catholic faithful and even President Raul Castro gathered Saturday for the beatification of a monk known as the "father of the poor", the first ceremony of its kind on Cuban soil. The act brings Friar Jose Olallo Valdes, a member of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God, one step closer to sainthood.
Olallo was born in 1820 and abandoned at a Havana orphanage. He came to the central city of Camaguey to take his religious vows at 15 and stayed the rest of his life, earning his nickname by caring for the needy and chronically ill. He died in 1889 at age 69. Beatification declares a departed person's ability to intercede on the part of the faithful who pray to him and is the last step to possible sainthood. Olallo is credited with a miracle in 1999, when a 3-year-old girl with an abdominal tumor made an unlikely recovery after her family prayed to him for help.
Authorities erected a large, open-air cathedral in Camaguey's Plaza de la Caridad and Cuba's 77-year-old president made a previously unannounced appearance, wearing a gray suit and taking a seat in the front row. "In the face of a materialist culture that we see imposing itself everywhere and that pushes aside the weak and the poor, we learn from Olallo the virtues of the wisdom of God and how to love thy neighbor universally," said Jose Saraiva, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican's saint-making office, who traveled to Cuba from Rome for the ceremony.
To commemorate the occasion, officials released a collection of doves and rang church bells. There was also a 2-kilometer (1-mile) pilgrimage. The Cuban Roman Catholic Church started the process of beatifying Olallo in 1989, the 100th anniversary of his death. His is the first beatification in Cuba, but he is not the first Cuban to be beatified.
Cuban-born, Augustinian deacon Jose Lopez Piteira was beatified in Rome last year. He did most of his work in Spain, where he was shot in 1936 during the civil war. Pope Benedict XVI released a statement saying he hoped Olvallo's beatification will "give renewed apostolic vitality" to religious Cubans.
"We give thanks to the pope who, in Rome, watches us from a window in his heart," Camaguey Archbishop Juan Garcia said Saturday. The beatification and Raul Castro's attendance could help further improve the once icy relationship between the church and Cuba's communist government. The ceremony was widely announced in state-controlled news media, unusual in a country where official news outlets often ignore religious matters.
The single-party, communist government never outlawed religion, but expelled priests and closed religious schools when Fidel Castro took power in January 1959. Tensions eased in the early 1990s when the government removed references to atheism in the constitution and let believers of all faiths join the Communist Party. They warmed more when Pope John Paul II visited in 1998. Raul Castro's first diplomatic meeting as head of state was with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the pope's secretary of state whose previously scheduled visit to the island coincided with Fidel's transferal of power.