By Courtney Moran

On October 16, 2009, five Cuban emigrants, Siro del Castillo, Dr. Juan Antonio Blanco Gil, Dr. Willy Allen, Dr. Carmen Diaz, and Dr. Haroldo Dilla, submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) addressing the Cuban government’s restrictions on freedom of movement. The petition alleged that the government routinely commits human rights violations, which include requiring emigrants to apply for permission to return to Cuba, confiscating the property of Cubans who leave “illegally,” and charging inaccessible rates for telephone and internet communications in rural areas of the country. These civil society representatives want the Cuban government to change its migration laws to allow more freedom of movement and make the current laws known to Cuban citizens.

Blanco and Castillo spoke on behalf of the five representatives at an IACHR hearing on November 6, 2009. Blanco began by summarizing the restrictions the Cuban government places on citizens living abroad as well as residents within the country. For example, citizens must request permission from the government to enter or exit the country, which is generally an arbitrary decision, and unapproved travel may lead to criminal prosecution. Blanco asserted that Cuba and North Korea are currently the only countries that make their own citizens go through such a process to return to their homeland. Blanco then compared Cuba to countries such as Mexico, China, Vietnam, and Libya, all of which allow their citizens to leave and return without imposing significant limitations. Castillo explained that at least 24,000 Cubans throughout the world have been blocked from petitioning for reentry into Cuba because the government has determined that they left illegally. Castillo, who lives in Florida, left Cuba in 1972 and has not been allowed to return since, despite the fact that he has traveled all over the world and never changed his citizenship.

The Commissioners followed by asking several questions about the internal restrictions on freedom of movement, the reliability of the representatives’ data, and what the parties request the Commission do with the information presented to them.

Regarding the internal restrictions, Blanco candidly stated, “People travel from areas of anemia to the areas of cholesterol. People are trying to find a better life.” Rural Cubans want to travel to Havana and Cubans in Havana want to travel abroad. Within the country, Cubans must have a permit specifying the number of days they are allowed to stay in certain area. If they are detected in an unauthorized area, the government forces them to return home. This leads to racial discrimination, as most Cubans in the impoverished eastern provinces are afro-descendent, and most Cubans in “rich” Havana are white.

Blanco then added that even if the petition’s figures weren’t exact, these policies apply universally to the 11 million people living in Cuba as well as the 2 million Cubans living abroad. He stressed that these discriminatory laws affect all Cubans and that the government should not be able to sanction anyone’s movements. (Visit the U.S. Department of State’s website for information about U.S.-imposed restrictions on freedom of movement to Cuba.)

Blanco and Castillo requested that the Commission include this information in their annual report on Cuba and ask the special rapporteurs of migrants to work with the Cuban government to improve the migration laws and make them known to citizens. After the hearing, Blanco acknowledged that the IACHR lacks supervisory power over Cuba, but that he hoped their report would reach the UN because the Cuban government is likely to heed the UN’s advice.

Blanco, a resident of Canada, writes a blog called Cambio de época for a news site, where he discusses current issues in Cuba such as the government’s restrictions on freedom of movement.

Reinaldo Escobar / Desdecuba.com

Summary of the previous episode in Havana: Yoani Sanchez, the most known Cuban blogger and one of the most active opponents to Castro’s regime, had been arrested during a few minutes and beaten by State Security agents. This weekend her husband Reinaldo Escobar, who is also a well known blogger, organized an event to protest against this act of violence. He wanted to meet security agents in a “verbal duel” about the incident.

But while he was talking with journalists, several hundreds of people arrived and began to shout against him. “They pulled my hair, hit me with a shoe, tore my shirt, pulled away my bag of books. I lost my glasses”, Escobar told Reuters. He and his supporters hardly escaped from a lynch. One might think that a movement of such a magnitude was not spontaneous even if Cuban authorities explained that “the Cuban people are tired of Yoani Sanchez”.

This new incident came a few days after the publication of an interview of Barack Obama on Yoani Sanchez’ blog. Some videos have been taken from the incident :

A Bayamo…. ¡Y no en coche!

6 de agosto. Carnavales en Bayamo, el motivo perfecto para que la School Bus enfrentara un viaje interprovincial. La carretera que une la capital provincial de Granma y Holguín parecía trazada con una regla gigante. La línea de asfalto cruza perpendicularmente en el Municipio Cauto Cristo sobre el río más largo de Cuba, alcancé a tomar una foto.

En el camino vi vacas, caballos, baches como las trincheras del amigo Charly, pastos para el ganado llenos de marabú, puebluchos que semejaban mi natal Itabo por el color gris y la desolación, guajiros a caballo, guajiros encima de la school bus ( entre estos últimos me incluyo).

Esta era la segunda jornada del plan vacacional, los miembros votaron en su mayoría por un día en la ciudad de ¿los coches? y las ¡mujeres bonitas! Y yo ni corto ni perezoso me sumé a la ola que pregonaba un inolvidable día en el Chapuzón (en su momento les cuento de este lugar).

El boulevard de Bayamo siempre me atrapa. Ya lo conocía, pero no puedo resistir su hipnótico encanto. Mezcla perfecta de la cultura tradicional y los desafíos de la era moderna. ¿Una histórica ciudad perdida en la geografía cubana?

Bayamo merece la visita de todo cubano. Quedarán como yo, atónitos ante la calidad de las ofertas gastronómicas, los precios, la belleza femenina y otros aspectos.

Un hecho inusual fue que los barrenderos llamaran “Lazarito” al primer secretario del partido provincial, lo que demostraba un elevado nivel de cercanía e identificación, y se reflejaba en la impecable limpieza (al menos en la céntrica zona).

El parque Carlos Manuel de Céspedes encandila. Cada tres horas los trabajadores bañan de brillo las losas del piso. De roble en roble graznan los negros judíos, los gorriones prefieren el colonial techo de la cremería (apunto: el helado para el pueblo más rico de Cuba), frente a ella. una tarja señala el lugar donde los habitantes iniciaron el histórico incendio de la ciudad. Hermosas muchachas pasean uniformadas vendiendo un rico café. La radio local se escucha a través de aparatos dispuestos por todo el parque.
Carnavales. Llovía cerveza y lechón asado. A unas cuadras de todo el boulevard, o sea, en la vía consiguiente y paralela. Como en todas las fiestas populares el fenómeno se generaliza. No abrieron los museos, a pesar de ser jueves, y me quedé con la ganas de disfrutar de las magníficas esculturas de cera. En esa ocasión, por más que busqué, no encontré el venerado Pru Oriental, uno de los motivos principales del viaje.

La decoración del lugar resalta entre las acuarelas gigantes que abrazan a los postes del tendido eléctrico, los bancos de disímiles formas, el trabajo del piso, las plantas verdes aún, después de 3 años.

El chapuzón. ¡Qué lugar! El río de igual nombre que la ciudad, fue alterado en su cercanía a la urbe, represado, para ser más exacto, sin que esto obstruya su paso saludable hasta el mar. Era el verano y aquello estaba a punto de explotar. Asomaban camiones con chapas de todas las provincias orientales, en ambas riberas las sombrillas de guano, el local para alquilar botes y bicicletas acuáticas, los quioscos con todo lo que necesita un cubano, y el ceremillar (término muy utilizado en el campo para demostrar abundancia) de gente de aquí pa llá, y de llá pa cá.

Lamentablemente fui solo a ese lugar y dejé el celular-cámara en el bus, pero alcancé una foto en Internet. Me pasó algo divertido, disfrutando de la temperatura deliciosa del agua se me acercó un señor y me dijo:

-Compa, como hay gente de otras provincias verdá?

No le respondí, solo atiné a sonreír. “Si él supiera, pensé.

Bayamo me dejó un agradable sabor (como otras veces). Ojalá en la próxima visita no cambie de opinión.

Mamey maduro
Encima el gorgorito
de las palomas

When Reinaldo Escobar made the announcement that he’d challenge Cuban state security to a weaponless duel to avenge the indignities he and his wife claimed (without the slightest proof) had been visited upon her, the announcement was dutifully broadcast by the foreign media in Havana.  It seemed to me to be a rather pitiful display and I imagined Reinaldo waiting alone at a street corner, attended by no-one else but the foreign reporters he had summoned.  But there were two things I failed to take into account: 1) Reinaldo’s not that smart, and 2) had I been in Havana I would have known that there was something off about his selection of time and location, since apparently the airwaves were full of announcements about the book fair being sponsored by the Young Communists Union for that same time, same location.  Of course this was not mentioned in a single one of the reports announcing the “duel.”

Hmm.  What would have happened if Machetera had shown up dressed in a Che t-shirt and holding a sign that said Viva Fidel outside Lázaro González’s home in Miami while Elian González was being held hostage?  Would we have had Mary Murray reporting to NBC that it was surprising that the police didn’t do a better job of controlling the crowd?  Hmmm…..

The most hilarious thing in the whole pathetic episode is watching Escobar be hustled away by the same security men he’d challenged to the duel in the first place.  See the video below, at about the 19 second mark.

The Cuban People are Tired of Yoani Sánchez – Español

By Guillermo Nova for La República – Havana

Translation by Machetera

On Friday, November 20, Reinaldo Escobar, the husband of Yoani Sánchez, tried to disrupt an event at the closing of the University Fair for Books and Reading (FULL) at the intersection of 23rd Street and Presidents Avenue, in Havana, but it turned out badly.

When Havana’s youth came to enjoy reduced price books and performances by various musical groups, the husband of the Cuban blogger planted himself before the foreign press in attendance and said that he was there to carry out a duel in response to the supposed aggression visited upon his wife the prior week.

The Cubans were fed up with the provocation and with the conga rhythm going, the young people participating in the event began to shout spontaneously, “This street is revolutionary” and “down with gusano [worm] crap,” or “Raul will hit those yankees hard!”

The curious thing is that the security agents who Yoani Sánchez has so often denounced for hounding her and acting aggressively towards her, were those who had to hustle her husband away so that he would not have to suffer the wrath of a crowd that has grown tired of so many provocations.

The supposed aggression that Sánchez denounced was completely discounted in declarations made exclusively to La Repúblca by the same doctors who attended her and could not find any bruising whatsoever.  Moreover, Sánchez was in agreement with the medical examination performed.

Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.

Texto y fotos: Carolina Vilches

Las difíciles condiciones económicas que vive Cuba nos han obligado a los cubanos a ser creativos en cuanto a soluciones para resolver nuestras vidas, y uno de los problemas que nos golpea es la escasez de medios de transporte. De cualquier manera, y aunque esté bastante escaso, nos movemos, y para eso nos valemos de todos los medios a nuestro alcance.

Las carretas haladas por tractores, bueyes,etc., han sido por siglos un medio de transporte muy utilizado en los campos de Cuba. Ahora se le añaden con frecuencia bicicleteros que se "cuelgan" de este medio para adelantar camino y ahorrar fuerzas.

También como modalidad de estos tiempos, los tractores abandonan los terraplenes y entran a las carreteras e incluso a los pueblos más cercanos.

En los lugares donde el agua es el elemento más abundante, el medio de transporte por excelencia sigue siendo el bote de remos.

Las “volantas”, pequeños carros de dos ruedas halados por un caballo, son frecuentes en nuestros campos. Algunos campesinos le incorporan adelantos de la técnica para hacerlos más agradables.

Un campesino "parquea" su volanta frente al consultorio del médico de la familia de un pequeño poblado en el municipio de Remedios, Villa Clara.

La yunta de bueyes, pareja inseparable del campesino trabajador, imprescindible para su trabajo, es además continuamente utilizada en nuestros campos, y de manera muy creativa, por cierto, para transportarse.

El caballo, transporte milenario y universal.

En las calles de Güinía de Miranda, un campesino prepara su volanta tirada por bueyes, mientras conversa con otro montado en su caballo.

El arria de mulos, pionera del transporte de carga en Cuba, extremadamente útil en las zonas montañosas. Poblado Bermejas, en el Escambray.

En las ciudades, sobre todo en las capitales provinciales, el coche de caballos ha retomado un lugar que había perdido ante el auge del transporte automotor.

Pero a veces ni los carretones son suficientes para mover al gran flujo de personas en Santa Clara.

El transporte urbano resulta también insuficiente, por lo que es común la aglomeración de personas para subir.

No faltan los que arriesgan su vida remolcándose en bicicletas a vehículos mayores para cubrir distancias largas.

Amazon's Global Kindle Reader

I heard that Amazon now has a global version of Kindle. I was disappointed to find this morning that the new version still will not work in my country.

Since I’ve wanted one for some time, but have been waiting until they got a version that would work in my country, I checked out their website this morning, only to be disappointed again. Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new Global Kindle for a Christmas gift this year, since the new version will only work in SOME countries, I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Tejero Molina addresses the Spanish Congress, 1981

The U.S. Government and the World’s Great Media Empires Are Using “Mercenary Bloggers” in Their Offensive Against Cuba – Español

By J.P. for La República

Translation: Machetera

The world’s great media empires have undertaken a merciless offensive against the Cuban revolution, offering spectacular coverage to any kind of mercenary blogger movement such as that of Yoani Sánchez or her husband, who receive a spectacular amount of money for the articles they write against the Cuban government and against a supposed censorship that appears rather insignificant in the light of the wide coverage they obtain worldwide.

Last week it was Yoani who issued a denunciation for having been attacked by Cuban agents, but not only was she unable to show any kind of proof of the attack, the doctors who attended her, who were interviewed by La República, did not find any evidence of any kind of aggression.  Later, it would be her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, who would denounce being hit and attacked by a crowd who reacted to his attempted provocation, with shouts in favor of the Cuban revolution.  However, Escobar did not suffer even a scratch from this supposedly “uncontrolled mob.”

These events also coincide with the President of the United States, Barack Obama, elevating Yoani Sánchez to the altars of imperialism by answering a series of questions that she posed and congratulating her for her anti-Castro blog.  It just so happens that Obama didn’t waste a moment in answering the questions of the mercenary blogger but still has not answered a series of questions that he was sent months ago by Fidel Castro himself.  Questions such as “Is it correct that the President of the United States should order the assassination of any person worldwide, no matter what the pretext?” “Is it ethical that the President of the United States should order the torture of other human beings?”  “Is state terrorism an instrument that ought to be used by a country as powerful as the United States so that peace might exist on the planet?” Or, “Is an Adjustment Law that only applies as a punishment against one single country, Cuba, in order to destabilize it, good and honorable, even though it takes the lives of innocent children and mothers?  If it’s a good thing, why is the right to automatic residency not granted to the Haitians, Dominicans and those from the rest of the Caribbean countries, as well as the Mexicans, Central and South Americans who die like flies along the wall at the Mexican border or in the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific,” among others.

However, governmental support for the salaried bloggers doesn’t come only from the United States.  Apparently, in Spain, next week the Congress of Deputies will debate its support for Yoani Sánchez, the “defender of freedom,” and opposition to the supposed persecution “that the Cuban regime maintains against Yoani Sánchez and other democrats in the Caribbean country.”

It’s curious that there should be a debate over the support of someone who claims to be censored and yet enjoys ubiquitous international media coverage, of someone who says she’s been attacked but cannot provide any proof of the attacks, and who claims to be a defender of freedom and democracy in Cuba but doesn’t hesitate to ally herself with the United States, a country that for the past 50 years has attacked her country, militarily and economically.

Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.

El periodista, poeta y escritor, ex preso político: Manuel Vázquez Portalñ recién ha abierto su blog Tinta Infeliz, Mierda Florida.

Operation Marketing

Esteban N. Martínez for CubaDebate – (Español): Operación Marketing

Translation: Machetera

The interview President Barack Obama granted the “blogger” Yoani Sánchez is the culmination of a project I feel like calling Operation Marketing; aimed as it is at the promotion and visibility of a new counter-revolutionary figure in Cuba, in the face of the worn out and battered “dissidence,” fighting like a pack of wolves with fangs bared in search of their prey…money.

The promotion of Yoani Sánchez began some time ago, when Grupo PRISA granted her the Ortega y Gasset prize and another publication put her on their list of the “World’s  (100) Most Influential People,” although in her country she was completely unknown.

The torrent of prizes and recognition began to fall like “manna from heaven,” while press agencies, newspapers and websites, for the most part run by the rightwing, gave her the space to make her visible to the eyes of the world.

From the very beginning, Generación Y, the media platform designed for this digital project, counted on a broad architecture: German servers, replication in 18 languages and other technological means to set up the machinery, conceived outside Cuba and launched on the Internet under the duplicitous label of sourcing from Cuba.

Whoever has followed Yoani’s trajectory and those who sponsor her, know how the “blogger’s” positions have gone from a lukewarm criticism of the revolutionary Cuban project, to more openly aggressive ones, in search of a confrontation.

One of the first actions in this escalation had to do with the self-titled musician Gorki Águila, when the new “star” of citizen journalism launched a campaign in favor of the rocker, who’d starred in more than one scandal, but that story dissolved when the Cuban authorities only fined him.  According to Yoani they tried to sentence him to a long prison term and now he’s wandering about elsewhere.

The Havana Book Fair was the other stage chosen by those who pay Yoani Sánchez to make her presence felt.  At that event and to a miniscule audience, she was the star in another production staged on the outskirts of the main event dedicated to books and reading in Cuba.

Afterwards, there were other activities outside the Cuban capital. Yoani took her Ortega y Gasset prize to leave it at the shrine to the Virgin “Caridad del Cobre” in Santiago on the eastern end of the island, taking advantage of the trip to try to seek converts, manipulating and deceiving young people in order to try to get them to jump in her counter-revolutionary car, and then doing the same at the other end of the island, Pinar del Río, where she went with the same subversive intentions.

For “PRISA’s daughter” as she had now come to be known by certain media, she aligned herself increasingly with the enemies of the revolution, appearing frequently in articles and interviews with Radio Martí and Miami’s El Nuevo Herald, mouthpieces for the most retrograde positions and loudspeaker for the Cuban-American mafia located in Florida.

The story of skirmishes and other incidents is a long one, as she began to seek at all costs to make herself visible; counting on the complacency of the major media, charged by shadowy forces with making people believe that there is a transcendent political figure in Cuba who is opposed to the project which sustains the Cuban people.

With this voluminous record, Yoani Sánchez and her sponsors began the real Operation Marketing in recent weeks, beginning with a ridiculous episode: the “blogger” showed up disguised as a German tourist at a debate sponsored by Temas magazine, where to her surprise she was recognized, despite her wig, colorful clothing and garish handbag.

Coming off badly in the eyes of the “Montagues and Capulets,” Generación Y’s queen began to weave a new story, where she reported to the four winds that she’d been “kidnapped,” and beaten by state security agents.

Without cross-checking the facts and without verifying anything, plenty of media ran with the story about the “kidnapping” and “beating” of the famous “blogger.”  Hundreds of articles circled the planet from one end to the other on that story, which Yoani herself could not back up, even with the BBC, when she could not present any proof of the blows she’d received.

But not everyone got on the boat of lies, and many have been questioning the script.  One skeptic was the La República newspaper, who went to look for the doctors who attended Yoani and found that none of them found the least physical evidence for the supposed aggression.

Certainly, in a country where even lost dogs are called for on the radio by their owners, it sounded odd, like a media fabrication; something that even “classic dissidents” could appreciate once they saw their dollars endangered, heading now toward the “competition.”  In a desperate attempt to call for attention, Martha Beatriz Roque and her acolytes put on their own “show,” complete with “hunger strike” and news of her “serious health problems,” but the climax was yet to come, and it came on Thursday with Obama’s answers to Yoani Sánchez’s questionnaire.

Doubting the legitimacy of the answers and wondering whether they were written by Obama or his advisers adds nothing to the debate.  What’s interesting are the questions and the head of the empire’s answers to them.

Yoani Sánchez’s questions were aimed at subjects that would allow the person being asked the ability to drive forward his points of view, trying to blame the Cuban side for not moving forward on a path to better relations on both sides of the Florida Straits.  Questions about essential subjects in the Cuba-United States dispute remained outside the journalistic realm of inquiry.

The economic and financial blockade by the world’s greatest power against the Cuban people was barely hinted at, left aside, without delving into the billions of dollars that this criminal policy has caused the Cuban economy and which constitutes the biggest drag on the island’s economy.  Nor were the effects or strategies of a blockade designed to “kill through hunger or disease” and which has caused so much suffering for the Cuban family and is today repudiated by the entire planet, touched upon.

Nor were the consequences of the biological war against Cuba promoted by previous administrations among the questions – a war which through the introduction of plagues and illnesses damaged crops, animals and caused the death of Cubans, including more than a hundred children, when murderous hands introduced the dengue virus during the 1980’s.

The inconsistent position of the North American government in the struggle against terrorism was off the table, whereby a confessed killer like Luís Posada Carriles struts around the streets of Miami along with other terrorists and not a finger is lifted to extradite him to Venezuela, where he is wanted for blowing up a civilian Cuban airliner with 73 people on board, while five anti-terrorist fighters are enduring long sentences following a dirty, rigged trial in Miami, the capital of terrorism against Cuba.

The consequences of the Cuban Adjustment Act, a legal monstrosity classified as a “murderous law” for its role in promoting and stimulating illegal departures from Cuba, the cause of a slew of incidents and a long list of deaths in the waters of the Florida Straits, and which today fosters an unscrupulous business in human trafficking involving the Miami mafia along with criminals from other countries – also off the table.

The presidential response to the questioner about military intentions against Cuba is contradicted by factual reality; a Fourth Fleet armed to the teeth is sailing throughout the region, the permanency of the illegal Guantánamo Naval Base on a portion of Cuban soil and the construction of seven North American military bases in Colombia tell a different tale and constitute a threat not only to Cuba but to the entire continent.

Beyond questions and answers, the intention of Yoani Sánchez and those who promote her is to gain greater global visibility in a Marketing Operation, a game which Barack Obama has joined, whether consciously or encouraged by his advisers, and one which leads to a well worn path where he will find that the firmness of the Cuban people is an insurmountable hurdle.

Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, and translator are cited.

(photos to follow)

1. There are two currencies–one for locals (CUP) and one for tourists (CUC). This is a fact that makes me feel like there’s a whole layer to the country’s (economic) story that I can’t access. My favorite bill is the 5 CUC one. It has a picture of soldiers having some sort of meeting. Amidst the seriousness, a couple of the soldiers are in hammocks.

2. People would randomly walk up to you and ask for soap (or your shirt, your towel, gum, or straight-up money). Sometimes they say it’s for their kids. When I asked someone about it, he said that rations are not always enough, particularly for soap.

3. We stood in line at a famous ice cream store for an hour (and didn’t get any ice cream because they ran out). In front of us was a group of 15-20 kids singing and dancing to religious songs.

4. We took a cocotaxi (which is like a Guatemalan/Thai tuktuk or a Filipino tricycle) to the beach. A few hours later, when we were heading back to the city, we saw our cocotaxi driver chilling at the beach; we took his same taxi back. I wonder if this is a manifestation of the theory that communism removes incentives for productivity? This is plausible if the driver gets paid by the hour, and if there are no performance measurements of any kind.

5. Apart from the ration booklets, people do get cash salaries (and not in equal amounts). Somebody said that Cubans can and do get rich, but economic position is not used to gain political power, and rich people often still live simply so you barely notice them.

6. We saw a group of people at the parque central in Havana, holding sheets of paper. They were swapping houses. This is how you move to a new place in Cuba. Mortgages and that kind of stuff are uncommon.

7. I withdrew Cuban cash from my Canadian visa. My visa was charged in USD, which is worth more than the CAD in Canada, but less than it in Cuba. So I lost some amount in the USD-CAD exchange. Plus, there is a 10% surcharge for USD-CUC exchanges, so I lost some more. The clincher is that they wouldn’t charge my visa in either CAD or CUC. Roar.

8. I devoured lobsters every time I got the chance. A lobster meal with rice, vegetables and fruits costs about $10. And I loved the cheap local pizzas. A personal-size one costs $0.50. The food, overall, is not so good, though, especially for vegetarians. Omelets and much else are quite greasy. And I imagine it’s worse for vegans.

9. People still use horse-drawn carriages for people and cargo, but not in Havana. Horse-drawn carriages are mostly a tourist thing there.

10. Homes are still colonial-style everywhere, some less well-maintained than others. We stayed in people’s houses, called casa particulares, because it’s a cheaper option than hotels. I loved how every house had rocking chairs.

11. Road quality ranges from paved and maintained, to cobblestones, to dirt roads. In Trinidad, houses and streets all look alike–colonial and cobblestone. We got lost in that small city a few times. Curiously, when we asked a police officer for directions, he didn’t know where our place was. It turned out to be just a few streets away.

12. Showing off abs is in. Guys roll up their shirts. Girls wear tube tops or just sports bras.

13. People often gather on the streets, playing dominoes or eating or drinking or talking, or some combination of these.

14. Some of the people are really nice. For example, one lady went out of her way to explain to us how the payphone worked (you had to have a card), and she let us use her card for free.

15. We saw a letter written by Che in a museum. He ended it with te abrazo con el fervor revolucionario (I hug you with revolutionary fervor). Apparently, this is how he used to end his letters. We also saw a picture of Fidel in Russia, wearing a gigantic coat. It was funny because he looked like he was saying, “I’m Cuban, and this is too cold for me.”

16. Cubans usually drop the s in words, saying mucha gracia instead of muchas gracias. They also talk very fast, and frequently drop half the word, saying ta bie instead of esta bien.

17. Not all kids in school were in uniform. I think that kids in Africa also shouldn’t be hampered from going to school by something like not having uniforms.

18. We met a guy who knew about the Philippines, how it has 7000 islands, how it was occupied by the Spaniards and the Japs, how Corazon Aquino succeeded Ferdinand Marcos, and how Noynoy Aquino is planning to run for president. I was impressed.

19. People thought I was Chinese-Cuban.

20. A guy asked us to mail letters out of Guatemala (when we get back there) to some Cuban athletes in Canada and Holland. It is apparently difficult to mail something from Cuba.

21. People do the bait and switch, and half the time you don’t know what’s going on, but you just roll with the punches. Like, somebody tells us that something will cost $15, but then it costs $30. Sometimes we get good deals, though, so it all evens out.

22. Internet is all prepaid dial-up, and quite scarce. Skype is illegal because it competes with the government’s own telephone line.

23. There are many artists and art galleries, and there are many musicians. Sometimes you would walk by a house and there would be an amazing jam session going on.

24. Some cars were really old, with windows that would gradually inch open (the glass would move downwards) as the car vibrated. Sometimes the drivers had to insert rocks in engines to make them work, I have no idea how.

25. We once had an energetic little woman driver.  She sought help from one of my (guy) friends for getting a couple of female tourists as additional passengers. Then she teased that he was a jinetero, a pimp. Haha.

26. Guys often hiss or call you beautiful while you’re walking on the streets. It is impossible for a female tourist to leave Cuba without getting hit on. Our guide for the horseback ride through the valleys in Viñales wanted me to live with him. Haha.

27. I haven’t recovered from the itchiness of my bites from the coffee farm, and now I have additional bites from the valleys. Oh.

28. A number of farms in Viñales had solar panels built 1-2 months ago, with help from China or Venezuela or such. The farmers with solar panels don’t need to pay for any electricity bills. The solar energy is stored in batteries for the nighttime. Other farms have power lines built by the government 3-4 months ago, and they pay for electricity every month. Previously, everyone would just use gas lanterns at night.

29. Farmers give 90% of their crops to the government and keep 10% for themselves.

30. Tobacco leaves are strongest at the top of the plant, and weakest at the bottom. The bottom leaves are used for cigarettes.

31. I’ve started reading a book called In Conversation with Fidel Castro. In it, he said something like: “Short of violence, we must do everything to counter globalization.” But Cuba relied on the USSR so much that Cuban trade dropped 65% at the fall of the Soviet Union, and Castro said that this was a major blow to the Cuban economy, like the US embargo against Cuba. Well, sir. If you need international trade, then stop cursing globalization.

32. Barber shops are huge. They had, like, 20 seats. And they were always pretty busy.

33. Baseball is bigger than football (soccer). My friend had a Blue Jays cap, and everyone recognized the logo of this team from Toronto.

34. Cuban coffee is really strong. Cubans drink coffee in small amounts, in tiny cups.

35. Restrooms usually do not have either toilet paper, toilet seats, or soap.