Are There Any Doctors Left in Cubaland?

the following is a translation of this article by Cuban writer Marilyn Diaz Fernandez

We Need Doctors in Cuba
by Marilyn Diaz Fernandez, Lux Info Press

CAMAGUEY, Cuba - August (www.cubanet.org) - "Cuba has 71,000 doctors, twenty times more than at the time of the Revolution," or so stated a national t.v. broadcaster this past August 23. When I heard the statement, I was amazed that he could be so wrong. The statement simply is not true.

The government of Cuba is not Cuba, only a small elite that has misgoverned the people for 47 years. That group in power has put into practice plans to make itself look good in the eyes of the world, such as graduating thousands of doctors to send them to any country in the world, since those doctors have no choice but to obey the government and go wherever it may send them.

For that reason, the newscast should have stated, "The Cuban government has 71,000 doctors scattered throughout the world."

The lack of doctors in Cuba gets worse day by day in hospitals, clinics, medical posts, and family doctor offices. Of the much-touted medical establishment only the infrastructure remains, and even that is in a process of absolute deterioration, as there are no material resources to keep the infrastructure in working shape.

Doctors, nurses, technicians, and health workers are spread around the world offering their services. Those who remain in Cuba await the opportunity to travel abroad and thus fix their economic problems.

Meanwhile, Cubans walk almost to exhaustion to find medical help. They are cared for by medical school students, and in some cases, by foreigners who staff emergency rooms. They must wait for months to see a specialist, even a pediatrician.

The doctors who remain in Cuba see approximately one hundred patients per day, and are on break from June to September. Cubans have to wait for medical treatment, no matter what disease may ail them. Or die trying.

These and other facts that are not published by the official press were the cause of my astonishment when I heard the news. If there were really 71,000 doctors in Cuba, we would be truly well cared for, and we would avoid much grief.

Saul Landau Gets It (Mostly) Right

in his piece for CounterPunch, Misreading Cuba, for 47 and a Half Years, Saul Landau gets it mostly right.

he is right that Fidel's death would not mean the collapse of Cubaland (if anything, it will mark the start of a slow, gradual decentralization of power as less able leaders step up to the plate, beginning with Raul Castro). He is right that for decades, Cuba's bureaucracy has run the country, and will continue to do so without Fidel. in fact, over 200,000 Cubans were evacuated over the weekend as (then) Hurricane Ernesto headed for Cuba. the evacuation went smoothly and independently of who in Havana is calling the shots.

I can hardly argue with his conclusion:

Washington once ran Cuba's economy and supported a dictator obedient to US needs. It's time to let Americans go to Cuba, erode the embargo and open the island to cultural and political currents that might bring pleasant and democratic winds of change.

but i am concerned that Landau underestimates the level of repression in Cubaland. I would invite him to read the numerous examples right here on this blog of abuses against dissidents. and that's just scratching the surface. i would invite him to investigate the political prisoners, the crackdowns during the past four years, the abuses to the civil rights and the basic dignity of the Cuban people who dare speak out.

he writes:

In Cuba, the anti-Castro "dissidents" did not organize protests, or street demonstrations. Miami-based Cubans danced and drank on the street when they heard the rumor--false as it turned out -- of Fidel's impending death. Well, some Cubans will use any excuse--even in bad taste -- to party!

let us, for now, ignore the last sentence (those wacky Cubans, always ready to throw a Latin party with lechon and some mojitos ... oh, when will they grow up?).

let us instead concentrate on the ignorance manifest by the first sentence "In Cuba, the anti-Castro 'dissidents' did not organize protests, or street demonstrations."

first, why the quotation marks around the word "dissident?" I wonder what one has to do to qualify as such in Mr. Landau's world. go to jail? endure beatings and abuses? be sentenced to 20 years in jail for speaking your mind? well, Cuban dissidents have suffered that and more. but perhaps that is not enough? perhaps since they are wacky Cubans (without the lechon and the mojitos, given the economic circumstances in Cubaland) they really don't know what "dissident" means and don't deserve that title?

second, is Mr. Landau awake? does he not realize that *before* the announcement was made that Fidel was ill all army reserves were mobilized and deployed throughout the island, particularly Havana? does he not realize that the Rapid Response Brigades were likewise mobilized, ready to disperse by force any anti-Castro demonstrations?

even in the face of such odds, the dissidents might have been able to coordinate such a response, but they are harassed, kept on the defensive, isolated, and in many cases under virtual house arrest. many of their leaders are in prison. what few groups of dissidents managed to gather were immediately placed under a state of siege by the RRB's and the National Police, with a triple objective: show the ability of the state to respond with violence; disrupt the ability of dissidents to gather in pre-arranged locations; and blockade any such gatherings in their initial location, thus preventing any public marches or demonstrations.

Mr. Landau speaks of considering the situation from a Cuban perspective. sadly, he does not seem able to consider the situation from a dissident Cuban perspective.

Letter From Prison: Hector Maseda

this is part of a letter (originally in Spanish) written July 7, 2006, by Cuban political prisoner Hector Maseda. Maseda was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003 during a government crackdown on dissidents and independent journalists.

recently, he (among with other prisoners) requested visits to the medical facility in their prison, only to be stripped naked, locked in a small hallway, and denied the medical treatment:


hector maseda


We were treated inhumanely and in a degrading manner when we were kept for no reason, and for a number of hours, locked in a small hallway with insufficient room for all of us, without bathroom facilities, without any sort of care, and with threats when we complained of the conditions that we would be treated worse if we continued to complain.

. . . It was not necessary to handcuff us and even less necessary to strip us naked in front of the others . . . There were some among us with medical problems and in pain, and instead of the medical attention we had requested, we were punished so that we would think it ten times over in the future before asking for medical services.

... One prisoner had sores on his feet to the extent he could not walk. Another prisoner, Fidel Garin, has been taken daily to the medical post for the last year and a half for treatment. Myself, I have been visiting the medical post on a weekly basis since December, 2005 to take my blood pressure, body weight, and to see if i have any new health issues.

I asked the prosecutor if he thought I was lying. He said he did not. I told him that I was convinced that it was useless to complain of mistreatment since all the involved entities (Interior Order, Jail and Prisons, the Military Prosecutor, and the Ministry of the Armed Forces) are part of a system that defends and protects itself.


hector maseda with his wife,
Laura Pollan, in happier times

Mass Stockholm Syndrome?

recently, the harrowing story of Natascha Kampusch has made headlines. kidnapped at 10, the girl grew into a young woman of 18 before she was able to escape from her captor. to the surprise of many (but not of those familiar with the psychological implications of long captivity), Natascha did not seem to hate her captor. in fact, she seems to even like him, describing him as "a part of my life," and adding "that's why I also mourn for him in a certain way."

Stockholm syndrome, and more generally capture-bonding, are well documented psychological phenomena. while they have been applied to individuals, why not apply them to a whole generation? a whole society? a whole country?

what do you do when a man institutes a system that steals your life from you? from birth, you are watched. if you spout the party line, you suffer the intrusion of the state quietly, giving away your days, your weeks, your months, your years ... your life ... to a system that keeps you prisoner in its insistence that it decide for you what your best interests are.

if you don't spout the party line, you suffer the much more intrusive, malevolent attentions of the state, who marginalizes you, isolates you, and ultimately imprisons you either in your own home or in cells designed to break men and women.

what do you do when a man has stolen your life from you? do you hate him? hard to do when his minions are still around, and consequences might be high.

what does a sane person do? well, you might identify with him, feel he is "part of your life," try to rationalize that, at least, you didn't suffer some of the things other people in other countries suffer, such as drug addiction, unemployment, racial discrimination.

in fact, many Cubans spoke in similar terms. Fidel is all we've known. Fidel is so familiar to us. Things won't be the same without him. I wonder how much of this is a psychological reaction to a man who has absolute power over Cubans.

and so, when the people of Cubaland reacted to King Fidel's impending death not so long ago, i wondered how much of their reaction was due to a collective capture-bonding experience, where, after 47 years, your captor has become, for lack of another alternative, your protector and sole source of security.

Business as Usual in Cubaland

Marta Beatriz Roque, one of Cuba's best known dissidents, has asked the government to put her back in jail (only in Cubaland, folks). why?

the 61-year old dissident, who suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and has heart problems (truly a dangerous woman, no?) says she can no longer live with the threats and on-going insults of government agents who shout at her in the street and slip threatening notes under her front door. last week, a gun was fired next to her window, at midnight (and don't nobody but the government has guns in Cuba).


marta beatriz roque

this type of bullying (and even worse) is a common weapon of King Fidel's forces. just a few examples from this past month:

Felipe Bernardino Morell, the vice-president of the Cuban Liberal Movement (MLC in Spanish) was arrested by security forces this past August 22. He was beaten, and his family says he suffered at least one head wound.

recently, another one of MLC's officers, Alexander Santos Hernandez, was sentenced to four years in prison for "dangerousness" (of the political kind, of course).

approximately 100 members of the state-controlled Rapid Response Brigades blocked off the house of dissident Idael Perez Diaz from 4 to 8 p.m. this past August 24. the paramilitaries played music through loudspeakers and threatened to kill anyone who left the house.

twelve dissidents had gathered there for a peaceful meeting.

Lester Fernandez Zamora, a member of the Liberal Cuban Party (PLC in Spanish) was fired on August 17 from his job as a teamster. the reasons given were that he was a "worm" and a "counter-revolutionary" who did not attend the (voluntary) political rallies held at his workplace.

thus King Castro ensures the love of his wayward subjects

Death of an Old Fighter

Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, leader of the Comite Cubano Pro Derechos Humanos (Cuban Committee for Human Rights), and a veteran among Cuban dissidents, has died in a Havana hospital at the age of 80.

Gustavo Arcos took part with Fidel Castro in the assault on the Moncada Barracks in July, 1953. After 1959 he worked as the ambassador to Belgium. He was imprisoned for supposed counterrevolutionary activities and in 1988 he succeeded Ricardo Bofill as president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights.

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Dissidents are Assaulted by Government Agents

this story comes from a writer in Cuba. it was translated from the Cubanet site.


MATANZAS, Cuba - 22 August, 2006
by Oscar Sanchez Madan

On the morning of August 20, combined forces of the Department of State Security, the National Police, and the paramilitary Rapid Response Brigades, violently opposed activists of the Independent Movement for an Alternative Option (MIOA in Spanish). The activists were gathered for a vigil during which the dissidents would demand that the Castro dictatorship immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners . . .

Approximately 40 government agents ... with various motorcycles, cars, and trucks, blocked access to the event. Through loudspeakers, the agents broadcast loud music, insults, and threats to the 10 activists who had arrived prior to the blockade.

"We have thousands of armed men mobilized, who are willing to shoot you all down," was repeatedly broadcast, as well as insults of "traitors" and "mercenaries."

Various neighbors shouted "bullies" to the government agents, just as the paramilitaries were arresting a member of the governing board of the MIOA, Jose Antonio Perez Morell, as he attempted to cross the barricade to join the other activists inside.

A short while later, approximately 12 paramilitaries surrounded activists Yoany Junco Sardinas and Yovany Junco Sardinas and pushed them against a police jeep. Shortly thereafter, they were arrested and driven away.

Dissident Ulises Sigler Gonzalez was assaulted by the same group, and was struck repeatedly on the face and agents threatened to lynch him. Four family members and several neighbors intervened and stopped the beating. Sigler Gonzales was then arrested by two uniformed agents, who handcuffed him and took him to police headquarters.

Satellite Dishes are the Devil, Part II

after the announcement by hack party newspaper Granma that satellite dishes could be used by the US to brainwash the Cuban people into believing they live in a repressive regime with no civil liberties and no freedom of expression whatsoever (yes, a hard job, i know ... but somebody's got to do it), the troops on the ground lost no time in implementing the crackdown.

the first ten days of August saw the bulk of the raids by the national police, with continued, though intermittent, raids since.

the raids were timed to coincide with such "subversive" shows as Sabado Gigante, the Christina Show, and the Laura Show, all beamed from the US, and all very popular with captive Cuban audiences.

let's think about this for a minute, ok? we're talking about a country that chooses to control what its citizens watch or do not watch to the extent of cracking down on satellite dishes.

there's got to be something wrong with that

The High Cost of Cell Phones

At half a dollar per minute of use and 150 to 200 dollars in the black market for the phone itself, cell phone service is prohibitively expensive for the average Cuban.

The two entities selling cell phone service on the island, Telcel, and Secom, only offer it to foreigners and to Cubans who are specifically authorized to have the service. That means government approval. In other words, don't expect a dissident to get a cell phone any time soon.

In any case, the service must be paid for in dollars; pesos are no good here. To pay for the $200 dollar phone and one hour of air time (for $30), an average Cuban has to work approximately ... 46 months.

one wonders if the high price is not intentional? makes you want to reach out and touch someone

The Chinese Connection, Part II

look for China to come to an oil production country near you.

after China signed exploration and drilling rights contracts with Cuba not so long ago, it is now courting Venezuela's oil industry. See Chavez visits Beijing.

China's motive? it needs new sources of oil for its growing (and oil hungry) economy.

Chavez motive? in his own words:

Chavez said Venezuela's growing relations with China are part of his government's efforts to create a "multipolar" world to counter U.S. hegemony. He accuses Washington of using its might to bully countries like his own from developing military technology.

The left-leaning Chavez has forged strong ties with Beijing since taking office in 1998. He said last week that he will buy Chinese-made oil tankers and seal an oil exploration deal.

Cubaland is a Military State

as if there were any doubt...

Fidel Castro organized the 26 of July Movement (named after his disastrous attack on Cuba's second largest military garrison on that date in 1953) along the lines of an army. he was its absolute leader. they had absolute discipline.

with roughly 80 of his "soldiers," Fidel landed in Cuba in late 1956 and became a guerrilla army, eventually winning a short war against the forces of the previous military dictator, General Batista.

Fidel, at the head of his Rebel Army (the military wing of the 26 of July Movement), arrived in Havana in early January, 1959, and, in one fell swoop, one dictator in a khaki uniform was replaced by another dictator in an olive-green uniform.

the Rebel Army was reformed as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (the Revolutionary Armed Forces) (FAR in Spanish), and Fidel was officially designated as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, a title he still holds. His brother, Raul, as highest-ranked general in the Army (second only to Fidel) and Minister of the Armed Forces, oversees the army's day to day operations, including its lucrative investments in the tourist industry.

how important is the army in Cuba? it's the power base of the Castro brothers. it will be the power base of whoever follows in their wake.

in a masterful stroke, Fidel has NEVER (never) used the army against the people. instead, he employs the police as well as the secret police (run by the Ministry of the Interior) and ad hoc gangs of thugs under the state's control to enforce the rules when such becomes necessary. thus, the people of Cuba have never perceived the army as their enemy -- as it most surely is, allowing as it does the dictatorship to survive without fear of a coup.

from Cuban Army Called Key in any Post-Castro Scenario
By Anthony Boadle

"Without doubt, the FAR is the most efficient, best-trained and most cohesive institution in Cuba," a European diplomat said. "Take MINFAR (Armed Forces Ministry) out of the equation and you don't have a state."

The armed forces were the first institution to introduce capitalist business practices in Cuba when fuel was so scarce in the 1990s that MiG fighters had to be hauled into parking slots by horses. Now MINFAR's business operations generate billions of dollars in annual revenues.

The FAR controls industries, technology and computing firms, vast farms and citrus plantations, beach resort hotels, car rentals, an airline and a fleet of buses. It also owns one of the largest retail chains in the country.

Generals runs Cuba's sugar industry, administer the ports and direct the lucrative cigar industry.

Its core of trained managers may also prove useful to Raul Castro if he decides to open up Cuba's economy along Chinese lines, as some analysts expect.

"He is probably the only person in Cuba capable of convincing the hard-liners to open up the economy," the European diplomat said.

The FAR is also popular, unlike most Latin American militaries. It is an article of faith that the army cannot fire on the people, Klepak said.

"Tiananmen Square is the greatest nightmare the armed forces have. When Cuban military officers saw Chinese armor moving against civilians they said 'No way'," he said.

The other nightmare for Cuba's leadership is that East European armies were "not willing to risk a fingernail" in the defense of communism when the Soviet Union fell apart, he said. The Cuban authorities expect otherwise from the FAR.

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Miami Herald Calls for End of Embargo

in a move that is sure to spark controversy in heavily-Cuban Miami, the Miami Herald is yet another voice adding to the "time to rethink US policy towards Cuba" in the wake of Fidel's illness.

the main points are worth highlighting:

If Cuba were any other country (think China, Vietnam, North Korea), the first consideration would be security. Does a Cuba governed by Raul Castro or one of the younger senior Communist Party officials constitute a threat to U.S. security? Does it have weapons of mass destruction or support terrorists operating abroad?

If the answer is No, then the diplomatic and economic sanctions of the kind imposed against Cuba over the past four-plus decades would be difficult to justify. While it is the responsibility of U.S. officials to constantly monitor and reassess security threats, especially with unfriendly states -- and Cuba is no friend of the United States -- there is no credible case that Cuba is a threat to our national security.

A second consideration is whether there are common interests. Given close geographic proximity, the United States and Cuba share a fragile marine environment with major shipping lanes and recently discovered deep-sea petroleum deposits. Both countries also must cope with the same natural disasters. Then there is human traffic across the Straits of Florida. These are all challenges that could be better managed through closer government-to-government contact and coordination.

Economic gains are a third consideration. Cuba could be an important market for U.S. exports and destination for U.S. private investment. The embargo has put Cuba beyond the reach of U.S. companies (and U.S. tourists) while European, Canadian, Latin American and Asian businesses trade and invest in the island's slowly recovering economy.

This suggests a fourth criterion: Does our policy have the support of other countries, especially of our allies? The answer is a resounding No. Every year the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passes a motion condemning the U.S. embargo on Cuba, and Washington typically can count on fewer than a handful of votes supporting the embargo. Designed to isolate Castro, U.S. policy has isolated Washington and opened the door for the rest of the world to conduct economic relations with Cuba.

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In Cubaland, Libraries are Dangerous Places

well, unofficial libraries, that is. the official ones only have books that the government allows the people to read; as far as they go, they are orthodox.

but a few "unofficial" libraries have cropped up all over Cuba, where patrons have a chance to browse new books brought in from abroad or old classics kept in private libraries -- in other words, they are outside the government's control and thus sheer heresy.

the government, of course, does not like this dangerous exposure of the Cuban people to unauthorized books:

One of the readers who visit the independent library Gaston Vaquero, located near the center of the town of Banes, was stopped by police this past August 5, according to the director of the library, Martha Diaz Rondon.

The officials asked the reader for his official id and noted his name in writing; they also stated they would be forwarding the information to the officials in charge so that an official warning would be issued that if the reader continued to visit the independent library, he would be charged with the crime of being a social danger.

See Full Story

the "crime" of being a social danger is about as broad as it can get. basically, if the government doesn't like what you are doing, you can be charged with being a "social danger."

thus, Cubaland teaches its citizens how to read, but does not allow them to read anything the government doesn't want them to read.

Miltary + Oil = Cuba's Future?

will Cuba be turning into the next Iraq?

hardly ... but as the regime looks for ways to survive, it has been increasingly looking to oil production (particularly off the north west coast of Cuba) as its next profit-maker.

of course, the current profit-maker is tourism, which is controlled by Prince Regent Raul's military. no surprise to learn that if oil production becomes viable, the military will also control that.

simply put:

In Cuba, "the military's job is to make money," Frank Mora, a professor at the National College in Washington, told The Miami Herald in a recent article.

"Power in Cuba is not just who holds the guns, although that helps. More important is who controls what is profitable."

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Bush Policy in Cuba Misguided

in light of recent events, it is clear that the Bush administration believes (erroneously) that with King Fidel gone, the Cuban communist system will collapse. Wishful thinking.

it is also clear that the Bush administration's biggest concern with a Cuban transition is a mass exodus a-la-Mariel that will flood Florida with scampering Cubans. the administration's message to Cubans: in the middle of the upcoming chaos that will follow Fidel's death, STAY HOME.

both issues show how, after 47 years, US policy makers still have no grasp of the Cuban problem 90 miles to their south. hard-line policies towards Cuba have, again and again, produced almost the exact opposite to the intended result.

here's are excerpts from an excellent opinion piece on that subject:

Reality in Cuba Belies U.S. Goals
by Paolo Spadoni

...

Since the early 1990s, Washington's stated goal with respect to Cuba has been to hasten a democratic transition on the island, which eventually would lead to the abandonment of the current state-controlled communist system in favor of a multiparty democracy with free and fair elections, freedom of speech, press and association, and a market-based economy.

To achieve this goal, U.S. policymakers have devised a series of restrictive measures aimed to deny hard-currency revenues to the Castro government that would be used by the latter to resist domestic and international pressure for change.

However, in recent years Cuba has been moving in the direction exactly opposite to the one envisioned by the United States. Havana's authorities have reverted some of the capitalist-style economic reforms they had implemented between 1993 and 1994 to ensure the survival of a system on the verge of collapse. They have also stepped up government control on the overall economy and exhibited greater intolerance of political dissent.

Thus, from a U.S. standpoint, Cuba is farther from democracy today than it was a decade ago.

...

In short, the Castro government has been able not only to minimize the economic pressure of U.S. sanctions, but also to skillfully introduce liberalizing measures and regain almost complete control at a later time. Such an outcome has important implications for both U.S. policy and Cuba's future, especially in light of the most recent events.

Imagine if Castro had fallen ill 10 to 12 years ago, in the middle of a profound crisis and substantial economic changes. It would have been extremely difficult for the Cuban authorities to prevent further liberalization. Now, with the economy in better shape and a process of re-centralization well on its way, it will be easier for them to stay the course.

While an ailing Castro turned 80 on Sunday, Washington's long-standing goal of hastening a democratic transition on the island remains a chimera. Rethinking the overall policy approach toward its communist neighbor could be a good idea for the United States, as a post-Fidel Cuba might not look too different from the current one.

A Very Capitalist Birthday

well, it's Fidel's 80th birthday today, and just in time for the celebrations, his picture is released, post-operation, to show the world he is alive and (more or less) kicking.



of interest is that Fidel, Dictator-In-Chief of one of the handful of communist states still left in the world is wearing ... an Adidas shirt

is this a new clever campaign by Adidas to appeal to the hard-left, octogenarian sports-apparel buyer of taste?

what's next, a Nike campaign featuring the embalmed Lenin raising from his crypt to shoot hoops as we are told to "Just do it?"

on a serious note, Fidel's choice of apparel again highlights the great inequality that exists between the Cuban ruling elite and the Cuba people, most of whom have no access to the hard currency needed to buy such clothing in Cuba.

ah, Fidel ... in your Adidas shirt, air conditioned room, eating the best diet money can buy, while your people make do with old clothes, black-outs, and scraps of whatever they can get from day to day.

********************

the following excerpts are taken from an essay written by a Cuban writer, living in Cuba, and it reflects the terrible economic suffering that King Fidel has inflicted upon his people:

Economic Freedom and Transparency

by Raul Soroa

HAVANA, Cuba -- August, 2006 (www.cubanet.org) - The misery caused by the Special Period [the collapse of Soviet aid to Cuba] allowed Cubans to free themselves from the tyranny of the automobile and electricity. The lack of oil brought with it blackouts and horse-drawn carts. Families again gathered by candlelight or kerosene lamps, without refrigerators, returning to the simple, natural life of the centuries predating the industrial revolution.

The disaster was such, that bicycles . . . became the primary means of transport. Deserted streets, hunger, lack of everything were the results of the failure of the Cuban system, a failure made all the worse by the collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe.

...

The crisis of the 90's could only be fought with radical economic and political changes . . . However, only a few cosmetic changes were allowed, which did slow down the collapse of the Cuban regime. For example, partnerships with foreign corporations were allowed for the first time. Tourism was fostered, including allowing foreign companies to manage hotels and other tourist enterprises. The dollar was legalized and became the basis of exchange, and the families abroad were able to remit hard currency to their relatives inside Cuba.

Many Cubans hoped that things would, at last, change. Private restaurants were allowed to open; private taxis re-appeared on the streets; plumbers, masons, and craftsmen began to operate small businesses. The much-needed farmer markets were legalized.

...

Cubans felt relief. At last, a small crack, a narrow opening, through which Cubans could squeeze out their imprisoned creativity and communal ability and wisdom. However, the respite was short-lived. As soon as the regime was able to ensure it survival, it began to close the breach.

...

Castro has had no problem ending all those measures that the initial collapse of the Soviet Union forced him to allow. Havana's regime is a mix of Stalinism, Maoism, and populism subjugated by Castro's ideals, and is fiercely opposed to economic or political freedoms: the existence of any sort of private property contradicts the essence of this system.

Today, the private restaurants are closing one after another. Private taxis are disappearing. Under the constant pressure of the regime, everything is returning to the way it was. Cuba is sunk in poverty, violence, and frustration. The few resources that the country has are wasted on illusory projects or subverting Latin America...

The sugar industry, another engine of the Cuban economy, idles among disassembled sugar mills, over-cultivated land, and abandoned small towns. Sugar production, which once commonly reached eight million tons of sugar per year, can no longer surpass one and a half millions...

In Cuba, a totalitarian regime rules. Freedom is a joke told by government officials. The country sinks ever further into wishful thinking. Cubans are not free, neither economically nor politically. The regime controls Cubans through absolute control of their means to survive. Their day-to-day struggle to survive is the fundamental weapon of the totalitarian regime.

King Fidel's Tsunami

according to his pal Hugo Chavez, King Fidel has a great recipe for upset stomachs (if there's any consolation is that King Fidel must have such stomach troubles that he actually needs such a recipe). King Fidel quaintly calls the recipe "the tsunami."

says Chavez:

Fidel has a formula for stomach problems and gases and heartburn -- the tsunami. Fifty percent oatmeal, 25 percent whole rye flour, and the other 25 percent whole wheat flour. You mix all that and it's a marvel because it's pure fiber and it cleans the stomach, all the digestive paths.

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ironically, the Cuban people haven't seen oatmeal, whole rye flour, or whole wheat flour in Cuban stores for decades. here's a typical MONTHLY allowance per person. meat is rare and in some areas comes only once or twice a year. many of these supplies aren't available for months. keep in mind that this is the maximum allowance. most months, not even these essentials are available:

6.6 lbs of rice
6.6 lbs of sugar
1.1 lb of beans
7 ounces g salt
2.2 lbs fish
14 ounces chicken or beef
14 eggs
1 tube toothpaste (per family of 4)
1 bar hand soap
1 bar laundry soap every two months
limited quantities of tobacco, rum and coffee, as available

Source.

and yet, while his people live with this minimal diet, Fidel yarns about oatmeal, and whole rye flour, and whole wheat flour.

because, you know, with communism, there are no class differences in a country.

********************

after decades of misreading and underestimating the Cuban regime, the US foreign policy establishment believes that the Cuban government won't survive Fidel's death.

in a creative (though completely misguided) metaphor, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon compared a communist regime with a malfunctioning helicopter:

When a rotor comes off a helicopter, it crashes. When a supreme leader disappears from an authoritarian regime, the authoritarian regime flounders.

hmmm ... sort of like after Lenin's death the Soviet Union only lasted ... what .... seventy years?

and after Mao's death, China's communist regime collapsed in .... oh, wait... it's still there.

likewise Vietnam. Ho Chi Min: dead. communist regime: still there.

one wants to believe that with Fidel gone, Cuba's regime will be doomed. alas, the army and the communist party and the endemic bureaucracy are so firmly entrenched that it is not realistic to expect them to just collapse after Fidel moves on to the great tobacco fields in the sky.

Forbes Magazine Calls for End of Embarbo

yeah ... like, what other options are there, really? i would like an end to the Embarbo too. he's been nothing but trouble for Cuba. but, alas, his fantastic luck is still getting him through, it seems.

but on a serious note: the embargo. alas, it has to go too. and the sooner the better.

first, let me say that my goal is to see a democratic Cuba which can guarantee its citizens basic human rights, preferably in a market economy model (because communism is an economic nightmare ripe for big-government abuse).

that said, the embargo against Cuba ain't working, folks. it's been now ... oh ... 45 years? and Cuba's still communist.

perhaps it is time to revise the approach here?

a brief history of the embargo: soon after coming to power, Castro nationalized Cuban properties. the US grumbled, but basically did nothing. Soon thereafter, Castro nationalized large U.S. landholdings in Cuba. The U.S. stopped shipments of oil to Cuba. Castro then bought oil abroad and had it shipped to Cuba.

the U.S. owned the refineries in Cuba. the refineries refused to refine the non-U.S. crude. Castro then nationalized the refineries.

at that point, the U.S. began the embargo, which has been tweaked and refined (no pun intended) over the last 45 years.

the U.S. Justice department finished accounting claims by U.S. corporations against Cuba in 1974. including interest, those claims are worth approximately $7 billion.

the embargo, however, hasn't returned the confiscated U.S. assets . it hasn't returned the confiscated oil refineries. and it hasn't removed communism from Cuba.

one would say, it hasn't worked.

here's what Forbes suggests, and there's great merit to it:

First, and perhaps most importantly, Congress should act quickly to roll back the elements of the embargo that inhibit assistance to Cuba, beginning with the immediate repeal of the 1996 Helms-Burton law. Removing the law from the books would restore flexibility to the president and allow him to respond to changing circumstances in Cuba. Revoking the law would have the added benefit of removing an ongoing irritant in our trade relations with Canada, Mexico and Europe.

Second, the president should take steps to rescind the harsh restrictions on travel and remittances that were instituted in 2004, which further limited travel by students, private citizens and Cuban Americans. Even better, the administration ought to consider revoking the entire travel ban to allow regular contact between Americans and Cubans.

Finally, the U.S. private sector and nongovernmental organizations have an important role to play. From church groups to humanitarian organizations to private businesses and trade associations like ours, it is important to make clear to our elected officials our desire for a change in U.S. policy. We must also stand ready to engage our counterparts and constituencies in Cuba when these changes come.

Engagement would demonstrate a spirit of friendship with the Cuban people and begin to reestablish ties and influence to a society with which we have had regrettably little contact, despite its proximity to the United States.

These are also no small tasks, which is why it is necessary to start changing direction now. Until U.S. policy changes, American businesses, educators, religious groups and humanitarian organizations will remain on the sidelines as a new era dawns.

We do not have to know what is coming next in Cuba to recognize that we need to chart a new course in the United States. The time to act is now.

See Full Story

Sounds good to me.

In Cubaland, Satellite Dishes are the Devil

hmmm... imagine a country so afraid of what its citizens may learn from foreign newscasts that it would outlaw and then seek to confiscate ... all satellite dishes.

you don't have to imagine. Cuba's doing just that:

Cuba's Communist government has signaled a crackdown on the use of black-market satellite dishes, just over a week after ailing leader Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma on Wednesday warned that the dishes, which many Cubans use to watch Spanish-language television programs from Miami, could be used by the U.S. government to broadcast subversive information.

See Full Story

why now? there's an estimated 10,000 satellite dishes in Cuba, all of them bought in the black market (and thus illegal), since the government does not provide or sell the dishes to its citizens.

well, the official story is likely to be that since the Bush administration has stepped up its transmissions into Cuba, Cuba is defending itself in the information war.

the reality, however, is that Cuba is quite good at jamming transmissions from the U.S. and has been doing so for years. in fact, Cuban officials brag about how good their jamming programs are.

no. the real reason is that with Fidel out of commission, it is more important than ever to keep ordinary Cubans in the dark as to what is going on in their country. now more than ever, the Cuban government wants to be the sole source of news to its people, so that it can control what they know ... and, by extension, control them.

by the way, the Cuban government doesn't allow its people access to the Internet either (duh).

Check out my earlier entry, Internet for all? Not in Cubaland.

ain't Cubaland grand

All of Raul's Men

should Fidel not pull through and return to his active dictator role, Raul Castro will step forward and try to keep things going. by all accounts, he's an efficient (some say ruthless) manager. even Fidel has acknowledged that Raul is the best organizer he knows.

unlike Fidel, Raul takes care of his men. over the years, Fidel has chewed up and spit out his best commanders, aides, confidantes, and proteges.

Not so Raul. Raul is known for nurturing and looking after his best people. in exchange, he has the loyalty of military men in key government positions.

the key names to look for are:




Julio Casas Regueiro, Raul's second in command and confidant, oversees the Defense Ministry's Business Administration Group, the military's economic enterprise which runs approximately 60% of Cuba's tourism operations.




Juan Almeida Bosque played a historic military role in the revolution's early years; he has been one of five Vice-Presidents of the State Council (Cuba's de facto ruling body) for quite some time.



Jose Ramon Fernandez, played a leading role during the U.S.-backed invasion of the Bay of Pigs in 1961. He's held a number of key positions, and is currently a Vice President of the Council of Ministers and President of the Cuban Olympic Committee.





Abelardo Colome Ibarra, oversees the island's vast domestic security and intelligence apparatus as Minister of the Interior. Ostensibly, he is the third most powerful man in Cuba. Because of political realities (and a feud won by Raul's Armed Forces against the Ministry of the Interior in the 1990's), he is powerful, but not a kingmaker. He is a Vice President of the State Council as well.




Ulises Rosales del Toro, controls Cuba's economically important production of cane for export. Once Cuba's primary source of income, sugar has been supplanted by tourism and remittances from abroad as the main moneymakers. He is a long-time military man.

The King is Almost Dead, Long Live the King

is King Fidel dead, physically or politically? the answer to either question is "No."

how do we know?

because Raul Castro, his appointed successor, has not stepped forward to claim the throne. Fidel is King, the House of Communist Cuba is in order, and the Appointed Heir knows his place.

so long as King Fidel lives, he rules Cuba and will brook no competition. one is reminded of Stalin's last days, flapping like a fish while his courtesans awaited the final breath before taking any action (one can never be too cautious with dictators).

at most, we can expect Prince Regent Raul to come forward (in his brother's name) and keep things moving if King Fidel's illness is prolonged.

the day Prince Regent Raul steps forward and assumes command, we will know Fidel is dead and King Raul has been crowned.

what happens to those who dare rival King Fidel? Prince Regent Raul knows well. That is why he has survived so long as his brother's second-in-command: the key is, NEVER, EVER, EVER, RIVAL FIDEL FOR POWER. those who do end up sidelined, stripped of their rank, in jail, or dead.

the last significant "rival" to Fidel's leadership was General Arnaldo Ochoa. He ended up shot by a firing squad. A bit of history:

On June 12 of [1989], Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez was placed under arrest and accused of extreme corruption, dereliction of duty, and narcotics trafficking. Ochoa was no small fry. He had belonged to the original band of guerrillas in the Sierra Maestra, was a member of the 26th of July Movement that formed the inner core of the revolution, had been among those Cuban internationalists who tried to raise the flag of revolt in Venezuela and the Congo in the 1960s, and had headed the Cuban military missions to Angola, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. Perhaps he had seen too much of the outside world. Perhaps, in that year of 1989, he was one of many Cubans who saw promise in Mikhail Gorbachev's program of glasnost and perestroika.

See Source


Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa with Cuban journalist
and writer Norberto Fuentes


While in Angola, Ochoa took to calling Fidel "the Crazy Old Man," for his inane orders from half a world away. Ochoa went so far as to rig his transmission towers with explosives so he could detonate them in an emergency and claim he had to act on his own initiative, rather than follow what he considered to be suicidal orders. Ochoa went on to befriend, nurture, and in many cases shape the career of Cuban Army officers, and, in what probably signed his death warrant, dared criticize King Fidel and his policies.

Ochoa was an old comrade of Fidel's. They had fought in the mountains together. They had reached power in Havana in 1959 together. Ochoa was hand-picked to lead Cuba's foreign excursions. And yet, when Ochoa made the mistake of thinking he knew better than Fidel, that perhaps he knew better what was good for the Army and for Cuba, he was accused of trumped-up charges and murdered.

Raul won't be shot. But he might be resented. Worse, he might be side-lined from succession.

His job is to be a good nobody. He is second in command precisely because he has no desire to be first in command. He knows that. And he won't jeopardize his role by acting too hastily.

Until King Fidel is dead, Raul will continue to be the nobody he was picked to be.

Raul Castro: The Great Leap Forward?

ok, so conventional wisdom has it that Raul Castro is an unsophisticated muscle man, someone who will resort to force first rather than nuance to deal with any internal problems.

what if conventional wisdom is wrong?

for one, Cuba's dissidents tend to view Raul Castro as an opportunity for chage.

says dissident Vladimiro Roca of Raul:

"He lets people counsel him, unlike Fidel, whose only adviser is found in the mirror. He has a more open mind."

Oscar Espinosa Chepe, another dissident, on Raul:

Espinosa Chepe agreed that the younger brother would be compelled to launch economic reforms as rising prices of food and basic services like electricity cripple Cubans, whose average salaries are $15 a month. And then, he said political reforms might follow.

See Full Article.



is this the face of the new Cuba?

what are the Cuban dissidents saying? they are saying that Raul is not in Fidel's league; that, unlike Fidel, he will be controlled rather than controlling; that unlike Fidel, he will be shaped by those around him rather than shaping them; that unlike Fidel, he will be mastered by circumstances rather than master them.

in other words, without Fidel, these dissidents see a chance that (at long last) power may slip from the grasp of a single man who has managed to dominate and control an entire country for almost 50 years.

with Raul's coming (a less skilled, less powerful, less charismatic leader), the dissidents see a chance for change.

one hopes they are right. one also hopes that the change is for the better.

The U.S. Goal in Cuba: Avoid Mass Exodus

sure the Bush administration would like to see a democratic (whatever that means) Cuba. but what they really DON'T want to see is a mass exodus of Cubans heading for Florida and the good life in the U.S.

let's face it, even after Castro's fall, and assuming an easy transition to a market economy, Cuba is going to be an economic disaster for years to come. why sit it out when you can cross the Florida straights and land in a cousin's or brother's or friend's Hialeah apartment?

thus, the message put out by Bush and Rice and others this past week is one of "stay calm, don't go nowhere" to Cubans.

just today, Bush assured those in Cuba that whatever happens in Cuba will be "up to Cubans living on the island to decide."

as if that wasn't clear enough, Bush clarified he was talking about Cubans currently in Cuba, not exiles. the article goes on:

At the same time, draft documents obtained Monday also describe plans to discourage any mass migration from Cuba to the United States. The plan would crack down on smugglers and refuse U.S. entry to Cuban government officials who have engaged in human rights abuses. But it would make it easier for some Cuban doctors to move to the U.S.

While stressing that any policy shift was not yet final, administration officials said the changes could be announced as early as this week.

"Taken together, they promote safe, legal and orderly migration, while they also support the Cuban people in their aspirations for a free and prosperous society," says a draft copy of Homeland Security Department talking points obtained by The Associated Press. See Full Story.

in other words, Cubans should not look to the U.S. as a place of refuge when the brown stuff hits the fan. for better or worse, there's not going to be a Mariel II.

of course, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men ...

The Monster is Bigger than Fidel Castro

cubans fear the monster. the monster has many heads. just because one head is out of the game for a while doesn't mean the others aren't alert.

says the Chicago Tribune:

Despite the absence of Cuba's leaders, the fear and uncertainty that gripped people here immediately after Fidel Castro's announcement that he had undergone complicated surgery have been replaced by calm and a sense, even among government critics, that the island's socialist system may survive even if the president doesn't. Full Story.

if the writer truly understood Cubaland, he would have said "particularly among government critics." why? well, they have the most to lose.

one must have lived in the monster to understand. the real questions were "will the hammer come down with Fidel gone and Raul taking over? will there be waves of preventive arrests?will there be anti-Fidel sentiments expressed, leading to outsized repressive measures?

in short, the question was, will things get worse?

for now, at least, things appear to NOT be getting worse, quite a welcomed change in Cuba, where things have been getting steadily worse for the past 50 years.

says a Cuban woman in the Tribune interview:

"I am afraid. Now you don't know the consequences of your actions, you don't know ... if there are new rules."

better the monster you know than the monster you don't know.

********************

another piece of the puzzle is Raul Castro's reputation with the Cuban people. right or wrong, Raul is seen as an impulsive, ruthless enforcer, his big brother's "hatchet man."

Fidel, on the other hand, is seen as the voice of reason, the well intentioned but over-stretched leader who has to step in to fix the problems created by less brilliant officials (including his own brother). this is all a myth, of course, but it has served Fidel well as a dictator.

with Fidel out of the picture and Raul, the "hatchet man" stepping in, Cubans were understandably nervous in the context of their perceptions.

the reality is much more complex. Raul is in fact a rather skilled manager, and Cuba's Army (FAR in Spanish, for Revolutionary Armed Forces) is the best-run institution in Cuba. for almost 10 years now, the Army has run and managed tourism in Cuba. they have done such a good job, that tourism has supplanted every other form of income for Cuba except monetary remittances from relatives abroad.

and why would the Army run tourism? (can you imagine the Pentagon managing the Hilton chain of hotels?)

well... in Cuba, hard-currency means power. and tourism means hard currency.

and that's why the Cuban Army runs Cubaland's golf courses and beach-side resorts.

Who Be Them Cubans?

Mexican-American writer Gregory Rodriquez (L.A. Times) has of late taken to understand the Cuban-American community, most recently in his opinion piece Cuba Libre!

says Mr. Rodriguez:

Preferring to see themselves as exiles rather than as immigrants, Cubans in the United States cling to a powerful exodus story — full of loss, longing and redemptive possibilities — that has given meaning to their hardships and inspired their impressive climb up the American social ladder. (emphasis added)

alas, Mr. Rodriguez... i believe you confuse cause and effect. the myth did not inspire the impressive climb up the socioeconomic ladder. the myth simply reflected who they were
(the sort of people who could and would climb that ladder).

the Cuban exile population that arrived from Cuba in the early and mid 1960's was unlike most immigrant populations the U.S. was accustomed to seeing: they were well educated, middle-class or higher, upwardly mobile, and (because of the Cuban national character) highly optimistic.

why do i take exception to this? because of what follows:

All cultural groups like to think of themselves as unique, but Cubans, and especially Cuban Americans, have a grand sense of exceptionalism.

i wonder how Mr. Rodriguez might feel if one were to state that Mexicans, and especially Mexican Americans, have a grand sense of entitlement. (doesn't sound too good, does it?)

i actually do not believe that. i am simply pointing out how Mr. Rodriguez may come across to a non-Mexican audience.

i believe Cubans are proud, and justifiably so, of their accomplishments in the United States.

i also believe that it detracts nothing from other immigrant groups for us to be proud of what we have accomplished.

one would hope that other immigrant groups (or their spokespeople) would not feel the need to detract from us in order to feel better about themselves.

but anyway, what is Mr. Rodriguez's beef? he finally comes to it:

One only need consider the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act of 1966. Until the law was amended in 1996, all Cuban migrants, no matter their documentation, were allowed to apply for permanent resident status after one year in the U.S.

a-ha... here we have it: Mr. Rodriguez is upset because Cubans get preferential treatment when it comes to immigration, and his Mexican brothers and sisters do not.

however, that is not the doing of Cubans. Mr Rodriguez should realize that it was in the best interest of the United States to allow (indeed, encourage) Cuban immigration during the Cold War, the better to embarrass Castro and his Soviet sugar daddies. it had nothing to do with Cubans and everything to do with Washington power politics.

remember what happened after the end of the Cold War? in 1996 this "open arms" policy changed and now Cubans are returned to Cuba if they are caught off the U.S. If they happen to land in the U.S. (an almost impossible task these days), they are allowed to stay. this almost never happens, and the reason it's in the books is to appease the (overwhelmingly Republican) Cuban-American voting block. it just sounds good, like they have a sporting chance: make it onshore, boys, past 90 miles of sharks and storms and a U.S. Coast Guard gauntlet, and you're in!

at any rate, no more Cold War, no more preferential treatment, Mr. Rodriguez.

and instead of blaming a fellow immigrant group, perhaps you should use your considerable intellect to revive the Soviet Union and turn Mexico into a Soviet satellite state. then, you'd have no quarrel with us Cuban-Americans.

Marielito

who am i? a Marielito.

I came to the US in May, 1980, at the age of 13. I arrived with my mother and my sister. my father had been in the US since 1972. there had been a visa snafu at the time, which they thought would take a few weeks at most to fix. after my dad left Cuba, the visa issue was never resolved. if it hadn't been for Mariel, we'd still be in Cuba.

here's a story written by Tanya Perez-Brennan (she is now with the Orlando Sentinel) about me remembering Mariel. i trusted her right away, and I knew she would "get it right." she did. i hate the pictures, but didn't have the balls to say no.

Internet for All? Not in Cubaland

MOA, Cuba - August 2 (Felipe D. Ramos Leiva, APLO / www.cubanet.org)

Recently, Cuban government officials assured the audience of the nightly TV political program Round Table that in Cuba, the Internet is open to everyone, so independent journalist Juan Carlos Garcell and myself tried to verify the statement.

At mid morning Monday, July 31, we went to the ETECSA (phone company) offices and applied to the clerk for a prepaid card to use the Internet at the phone company's cybercafe. The woman replied that the cards were only available in dollars, not in pesos. We agreed to pay in dollars, but another glitch developed; she told us the service is only available to foreigners.

The two computers in the cybercafe were being used by African students who have been in Cuba for years.

We asked the phone company's employee whether she knew that independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas has been on a hunger strike for months, demanding that Cubans not be forbidden free access to Internet.

She said that it isn't a matter of access being forbidden; rather what happens is that the service is limited to foreigners on account of the limited resources available.

*******************

in fact, the Cuban government was so eager to keep Cubans from using the internet that it arrested 10 journalists about three years ago for publishing their reports on the Internet (they happened to think Castro was a dictator and that democratic elections should be held. go figure).

to make it a more interesting haul, the authorities also arrested 24 political activists that same day. on a similar vein, i wonder why there are no newspapers in Cuba other than those printed by the Government. not because of lack of freedom of the press (oh no!); sadly, there's not enough paper to share with non-government journalists. right.

Where the Tourist is King

it's a Cuban joke, told by the people on the street:

Someone goes up to a Cuban boy in Havana and asks him, what do you want to be when you grow up? The boy thinks about it, then answers, "I want to be a tourist."

says Tom Miller of the boy's choice:

And why not? Tourists have access to much of Cuba that natives can't enjoy. Canadians and Europeans arrive by the charterful, whisked to Club Med-type resorts where the only Cubans they run into are the help and the entertainers. Industrial tourism has overtaken sugar and mining as the country's leading hard-currency earner, second only to cash sent by overseas relatives.

that's to put it mildly. tourists in Cuba get to stay in resorts Cubans are not allowed to visit (exept as workers, for a pittance). Tourists get the best food (paid for, of course, in hard currency, which Cubans don't have). Tourirsts can buy toiletries such as soap and deodorant which most Cubans don't have access to (no hard currency, no way to fight B.O., comrade ... we all stink for the future of the Revolution). In this socialist paradise, the Cuban people can't pay, so they get left out.

and, of course, the tourist has the ultimate freedom: the freedom to leave Cuba at the end of their vacation. Cubans are stuck there. they have nowhere to go. they can't leave Cuba without the permission of the government, which it seldom grants.

here's another joke that made the rounds a few years back:

what are the Cuban Revolution's three greatest accomplishments? health care, education, and women's rights.

what are the Cuban Revolution's three greatest failures? breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

**************************************

while on the subject of tourism, i am reminded of Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, a now-old but still relevant commentary of tourism and colonialism. From that book:

Every native would like to find a way out, every native would like a rest, every native would like a tour. But some natives -- most natives in the world -- cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go -- so when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and borrdom into a source of pleasure for yourself.

In Cubaland There's Always the Party

have fun in Cubaland, party at Havana Club

in the real Cubaland, the party comes after you:



yes, that's six (six) cops escorting a 60-ish year old newly-minted political prisoner to one of Cuba's interrogation centers. wonder what the old timer did. use a too-sharp pen to threaten the might of the Cuban state?

no wonder Cuban dissidents are afraid:

Oscar Espinosa, a Cuban dissident, was jailed for nearly 19 months for opposing the Castro regime. He tells Melissa Block that many dissidents expect more trouble for government opponents with power in the hands of Raul Castro. Listen to the NPR interview.

says one of Cuba's most outspoken dissidents:

"Fidel Castro may be sick, but neither the Ministry of the Interior nor the state security is sick," said Vladimiro Roca, a prominent dissident and head of a small opposition political party. "The only thing we can do for the moment is wait."

translation: you stick your head out, you get your head chopped off.

in Cubaland, the Party is always on.