Cuba's Blogger Crackdown
Yoani Sanchez and her blogging comrades are now the targets of the Castro regime's censors—and police.
Or maybe that's precisely why the dictatorial Cuban regime finds the 33-year-old Sanchez so intolerable. Her lyrically and masterfully written blog, Generacion Y, is the most prominent online site in Cuba—if such a thing even exists. Access to the Internet is severely restricted there, and the Havana government shows no hesitation in censoring a long list of sites, including Sanchez's.
Now things are getting even tighter. Just as Sanchez was preparing to travel to the western edge of the island to participate in a first-ever two-day blogging workshop this past weekend, she was summoned to appear before state security officials. She posted the police warrant on her blog and then detailed the tongue lashing and direct threat she received when she showed up at the police station.
She reports on what she was told by the police, whom she referred to as "intimidation professionals":
We want to warn you that you have transgressed all the limits of tolerance with your rapprochement and contacts with counter-revolutionary elements. This totally disqualifies you for dialog with Cuban authorities.
The activities planned for the coming days cannot [be] carried out.
We, for our part, will take all measures, make the relevant denunciations and take the necessary actions. This activity, in this moment in the life of the Nation, recuperating from two hurricanes, will not be allowed.
What recent natural disasters have to do with muzzling free speech is inexplicable. It's not just Sanchez who got squeezed. So did blogger Claudia Cadelo, who was also called into a meeting with state security but didn't make an appearance due to illness.
Last week the Castro government also imposed a new measure ordering Internet service providers to "prevent access to sites where the content is contrary to the social interest, morals or good customs; as well as the use of applications that affect the integrity or security of the State."
The estimated 20 bloggers who planned to attend the workshop in the province of Pinar del Rio decided it would be more prudent to conduct their conference online instead of all showing up in one place and risking arrest. Writing on her blog, Sanchez celebrated the ingenuity of her blogging comrades, saying, "We ended up finding the cracks between the fingers of the censors, through which the fine sand of information and understanding managed to slip." A press release on Sanchez's blog from the workshop participants promises a contest among Cuban blogs.
As it stands, Sanchez and other Cuban citizens can only indirectly blog. She sends her dispatches from the island out by email to a network of foreign friends. They, in turn, translate her writing into several languages and maintain her popular blog, which has a worldwide audience.
None of Sanchez's writing is overtly political. She crafts mostly highly styled, often heartbreakingly simple descriptions of daily life in Havana, an existence often marked by longing, disappointment, and frustration aggravated by an ossified society.
Here are the moving words she wrote a few weeks ago, soon after the election of Barack Obama:
For weeks, there are words like "ballot box," "votes," and "candidates" that persecute us everywhere. First there were the elections in the United States and now the issue has been revived with what happened on Sunday in Venezuela. It's as if at the end of the year everything conspires to remind us of our condition as non-electors, our limited experience in deciding who leads us. You become accustomed to not being able to choose what to put in your mouth, under which creed they will educate your children, or to whom to open the door, but that resignation shatters when you see someone else vote. Because of this it has risen up, these days, the desire to fold the ballot, to push it into the slot and to know that with it goes my stentorian shout that demands: "to choose."
In the recent past, the Cuban government has not flinched from jailing independent journalists it has accused of being "counter-revolutionaries." Until now, it has refrained from locking up bloggers. But unless Sanchez and her fellow bloggers can mobilize support, they may soon face the full wrath of a regime that continues to criminalize free thought.
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Marc Cooper's lopsided out of context view of blogging in Cuba smacks of his resentment for a government trying -with many accomplishments and faults- to do something different than the rest of the so-called "free" societies where citizens can go from rags to riches or security to poverty over night. As a US citizen blogging from Cuba for the last three years and teaming up with a dozen Cubans to do an alternative website, I have received no negative comments or threats from any government, Communist Party or security authority and some of the contents of the site can be very critical of policies, practices and yes, the media. What we don't do is go to bed with enemy, something Cooper seems to equate with Freedom of the Press. For Marc and those wanting to checkout the site and see for yourself click: www.havanatimes.org
Thanks to Mother Jones for printing this article. In the past, the Cuban Revolution has had some support from you. Its nice to see the other side of the revolution also portrayed. I am impressed.
You act as if it is a
You act as if it is a suprise?
Cooper's complaints about Cuba would be funny if they didn't come from someone whose government won't allow its citizens to visit the island if they want to.
Cuba has any number of problems, not all of which are Washington's fault, but Cooper seems blind to all of that. He blames the Cuban government for every problem from which the island suffers.
Cooper talks about freedom for Cuba, but most of us here in the United States are banned by US law from traveling there to see it for ourselves. Like grade school children who need a hall-pass to go to the bathroom, people from the U.S. have to have a permission slip from the federal government to travel to Cuba. Cooper doesn't mention this or evidently think that there's anything wrong with such restrictions of OUR freedoms.
Not so long ago in a galaxy not so far away, Marc Cooper was some sort of a leftist. I know because I traveled with him to Nicaragua in 1983 on a solidarity brigade with dozens of others. But like others of his generation, Cooper has gone and gotten old, tired and seems to prefer echoing what Washington has to say to being the critic he once was when he was younger.
Cuba is an endlessly interesting, yet sometimes mysterious and frustrating place. Cooper used to appreciate that. Here's Cooper's concluding paragraph from an excellent report he made about Cuba in the LA WEEKLY in 1984:
Pablo [Armando Fernandez, noted Cuban poet, still alive and active in 2008] senses my anxiety about having to return home and make sense of those about having to draw up on journalistic balance sheets. Pablo gives me a final piece of advice: "If you want to understand Cuba, then listen to this. Reagan sends a spy to Cuba, but after a week the agent returns and tells Reagan there is nothing to be done. His report reads: `You sent me to Cuba to provoke disorder, but Cuba already is chaotic. It is chaotic, but there is no unemployment. There is no unemployment, but nobody works. Nobody works, but all the production plans are surpassed. Production plans are surpassed, but there is nothing to buy. There is nothing to buy, but everyone has everything they need, and in variety. Everyone has everything they need, but they all sit at home and [deleted]. They all sit at home and [deleted], but when Fidel calls them out, they applaud for him and cry for joy and are ready to do whatever he asks them. They do whatever Fidel asks them, and then they come home and [deleted] some more.' That, my friend, is Cuba."
I just went to your website. The Cuban Government would be foolish to crackdown on your site. It comes across as very supportive of the revolution. Thats the perception, that's the reality.
There are other factors to
There are other factors to consider though. Keep the leash short.
Thanks MoJo and Marc Cooper for this great piece. It's really important to see those of us on the American left stand up for freedom --everywhere. For too long the Cubans have gotten a free pass from us. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.
I think the comment here from Mr. Lippman is ridiculous. It looks like what he wrote refers to something Cooper wrote a quarter of a century ago. A lot changes in 25 years except in Cuba where the same guys are in power. All those people who in 1984 who came out to applaud Castro are probably pretty tired by now of doing it over and over again.
Interesting to see that Mother Jones is still publishing anti-Communist propaganda. Back in the 1980s, when Michael Moore was editor, he was instructed to publish a Sandinista-bashing piece by Paul Berman. When he told the magazine's owner that the article was filled with lies and refused to publish it, he got fired. Of course, firing is the way that political consensus is enforced in a "free" country like the U.S.
Wow! I never even knew that.
Wow! I never even knew that.
Mr. Robinson, who are you trying to kid? I looked at your website and can see why the Cuban regime doesnt bother you. You don't bother them! I have been to Cuba three times and let's be honest: there is no freedom of the press in Cuba. There are no independent newspapers or political parties allowed. And you and I both know that it is very had for most Cubans to get on the net and if they do they find much if it blocked.
Not surprisingly as Yoani Sanchez became more prominent as an international symbol of opposition to the Cuban government, she became a person of concern for its security officials.
Some like Cooper believe it is inherent in the system and proof of its perfidy. Others that it is a defensive move against US efforts to find a more modern way to subvert the revolution.
Certainly our own history has many examples of repression of people, both prominent and obscure, who were seen as subversive agents of a foreign power because of what they believed and wrote.
Was the US more or less threatened by the Soviet Union and the Communist Party or by 9/11 and violent extremism as Cuba is by the US? Our sins do not justify other's, but may help to understand them.
Certainly Ms. Sanchez can be built up by sympathetic foreigners as a symbol until she becomes either a persecuted martyr in Cuba or an heroic exile outside it.
However, the situation of people like her in Cuba is not likely to improve unless the threat from Washington ends.
When Barack Obama becomes President, he can change the parameters dramatically by scrapping not just modifying a policy of regime change and affording to Cuba the critical sovereign respect we give to other countries that don't adhere to US views of human rights, e.g. China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia.
He can start by restoring, as much as his power allows, Americans' own fundamental human right of freedom to travel.
On January 21 Obama can direct that general licenses be issued for twelve categories of non-tourist travel, including family (Cuban-American), educational, humanitarian, religious, cultural, sports, and "support for the Cuban people."
Obama supporters should convey their views on Cuba policy to his web site
http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople and/or add their names to an on-line letter at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/obamacuba/
John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development
Cooper knows darn well this blogger has a history of fibbing about issues of supposed censorship. She got famous by claiming her blog was being blocked in April, and then made headlines a few months later when she reported from the "free-speech" trial of the punk rocker Gorki, who in fact was in court for playing his music too loud - and had to pay a small fine. Oops. Now she gives us a one-sided account of an exchange in a Havana police station and Cooper laps every word of it up, neglecting every fundamental principle of journalism. Would a biased one-source story like this pass muster on any other topic besides Cuba? Of course not.
Other throw away lines in the piece are flat wrong. He says the 'net is "severely restricted," when in fact Reporters Without Borders (Yoani's supporter) concluded in a study that that Cuba allowed mostly unfettered access to web sites, even those considered "subversive." The lead reporter wrote, "I was surprised I could visit all Web sites." (Miami Herald).
Second, Cuba has not jailed anyone for just being an "independent journalist." Every one of those couple dozen people who call themselves journalists in Cuban prison's were proven in court to have received resources and support from the US Government and its entities. No one even disputes this - they just (obviously) think it is ok to work for and with the arch-enemy of your country. In the US, we do not tolerate Hamas or Cuban agents working with "independent journalists." There are plenty of critics of the regime continuing their work online and off - except they know to stay clear of people from Washington DC.
Mr. Robinson seems to think there is something in the Cuban context that makes Cuba's repression of free expression something other than what it is: vile oppression done by thugs. As a shill for the Cuban regime, Robinson even has the nerve of accusing Yoani of what he himself is guilty: of going to bed with the enemies of his country.
"Mr Biscet" - your namesake is another perfect example of what Cuba can not be expected to tolerate. The real Mr. Biscet met night and day with the US Government's chief representatives in Havana. He literally had a free pass to come and go as he pleased. He also took money from CANF, an organization that bought helicopters, grenade launchers, boats and tons of weapons in their terrorist plot against Cuba. He was also a willing participant on US propaganda radio and TV stations, supporting the blockade and all the US' anti-Cuba policies. In other words, a perfect agent of a foreign power.
Again, we do not know what Yoani was specifically told to be careful about. All she tells us is that it was about her "associations" - not writings. I hope she will be smart and forget about those people in Washington DC and Miami that want to use her to reassert their position in Cuba. There are plenty of other highly critical bloggers in Cuba (and on her portal desdecuba.com) who have had no trouble whatsoever.
I just began reading her blog after reading this article. It really makes one appreciate being a United States' citizen.
-Jeremy
http://www.jeremyabrams.com
Americans can go to Cuba, they're just vehemently advised not to - and, true, it is illegal under most circumstances to spend your dollars there. But Cuban citizens are forbidden from the leaving the island, period. They can't vote. They can't speak out against their government. They live in fear of repression and they often go without the most basic of necessities. Those are the facts.
Any argument that Cuba is a workers' paradise or that its government is benevolent towards its critics is specious. There are nice things to be said about Cuba. Until it permits its citizens freedom of movement and allows them to travel or leave the island permanently with do so 6 feet under dirt, I will conside the Castro government to be a national warden whose task seems to be to insure he has subjects left to rule.
Any government that tells its citizens that they may not travel out of the country is lacking in humanity. Traveling with a political minder does not count, people.
I wonder if life would not be better for Cubans if those who wished to leave were permitted to do so without being harrassed in the process.
No one is calling Cuba a paradise. But with limited resources, and under longstanding attack from the US, they have managed to provide basic rights and dignity for their citizens that we are still fighting for here. Because of the attack, they have had to place some restrictions as well.
But the idea that Cubans can not leave the island is totally false. The only requirement is that they complete an exit visa (carta blanca) process. The US State Department estimated that "the vast majority" Cubans are allowed to exit. The few who are not allowed to leave are criminals and those who skirted their national service.
Yoani was not "denied" permission to travel. She wanted a special exemption to speed up the process to 4 weeks time - to collect her award in Spain. This is not enough time, as anyone in Cuba knows.
Meanwhile, the US keeps prevents us from travelling there to see this place for ourselves. And we keep out ANY Cuban we want for purely naked political reasons. If you are a musician or scientist and said something good about the Revolution recently, you're not getting a visa from the US. Yoani was allowed to leave - and then come back to the island a few years ago.
Yoanis Sanchez is a nobody inside Cuba. She is a creature that is being promoted by foreign interests outside the island.
"... the idea that Cubans can not leave the island is totally false. The only requirement is that they complete an exit visa (carta blanca) process."
You are joking, aren't you? So that's why so many risk their lives to escape in inflatable boats and inner tubes. Oh, I see, they are all "are criminals and those who skirted their national service. " I have family in Cuba, and they are not criminals, they have not skirted their national service, and they might eventually get permission to leave th island, after we've forked over 100s of dollars, that ordinary Cubans without family abroad don't have, after we've jumped through every beaurocratic hoop you can imagine, and quite a few you can't, after, with internal travel limitations they have been made to travel to and from Havana repeatedly, and after we've waited a year, or two, or five, or ten, who knows...
Yes, that sounds like fredom to leave the island to me.
Riani, a few thousand people in Cuba take risks to reach America each year -as millions do from Mexico, thousands do from Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, etc. In fact, more people are caught by the Coast Guard from the island of Hispanola, which is much further from the US than Cuba, each year. They just do not make the evening news.
Cubans have the extra incentive of taking risks because of the murderous US policy called wet-foot/dry-foot. It assures that any Cuban who reaches US shore will become a legal US Resident and get loads of "refugee assistance" (ie. our tax money) to find housing, jobs and learn English. No one else in the world has such a privledge. Imagine if we granted that right to the truly desperate people of Haiti. The island would be empty tomorrow.
You appear to acknowledge that your family is on a path to gain a Cuban exit visa. Yes, there is cost involved on both ends (Cuba and the US). And yes there is a wait. The real wait is normally to obtain a US entry visa, which again is a blatantly political process. The US only offers so many entry visas per year, which is the main thing preventing a legal, rational flow of people - and compells many Cubans to take to the seas.
Sucking up to the anti-Cuban lobby? You call that "fearless journalism"?
You obviously have no respect for English.
Represión en La Habana contra opositores que insisten en celebrar el Día Internacional de los DD HH (updated)
Represión en La Habana contra opositores que insisten en celebrar el Día Internacional de los DD HH (updated)
“El hecho ocurrió a las 1:05 p.m. de hoy 9 de Diciembre, en la calle K entre Línea y 13, en la barriada del Vedado, cuando ocho policías en dos carros patrulleros, comandados por un oficial de la Seguridad del Estado, agredieron de forma brutal a Belinda Salas Tápanes, Marlene Bermúdez, Lazaro Joaquín Alonso Román y Roberto Marrero. Sin mediar conversación alguna, los agentes comenzaron a golpear con inusitada violencia a los activistas, introduciéndolos por la fuerza en los carros patrulla.
“Ni siquiera solicitaron identificación”, denunció Belinda Salas, Presidenta de FLAMUR. “A mi esposo Lázaro le propinaron tal golpiza que sangraba abundantemente por la boca y la cabeza, además recibió fuertes golpes en los testículos. Marlenis y su esposo Roberto recibieron fuertes golpes, y los agentes mientras les golpeaban gritaban que irían directo para Camagüey, lugar donde ellos residen. A mí me rompieron la blusa dejándome desnuda y la golpiza me produjo fractura en una mano. Además me arrojaron fuera del auto en movimiento”. Actualmente se desconoce el paradero de los tres detenidos. Al alejarse los coches policiales, Belinda vio a su esposo inconsciente, sangrando abundantemente por la cabeza y la boca
“Pedimos solidaridad ante tan criminal acto y ratificamos que FLAMUR continuara luchando por los derechos del pueblo de Cuba. No seremos intimidados por la represión”, denunció enérgicamente Belinda Salas Tápanes. Esta brutalidad demuestra que a sólo horas de cumplirse el 60 Aniversario de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, el régimen castrista continúa ejerciendo una represión brutal contra quienes defienden estos derechos en la Isla”, agregó Magdelivia Hidalgo, representante internacional de FLAMUR.
When you have the worlds only super power sending terrorists to Cuba to kill it's people and it's leader for 50 years, its hard to have an open society with out the fear of the U.S. Sending down the pigs to stage a coup
So, Dog. Let me get this right. Because the US threatens Cuba, Cubans should have no right to freely speak, write or publish? That's what you and other here are saying. What's the logic of that? If you allow any freedom the Americans might come in and take it away. So why bother with it in the first place. This sort of argument, in the end, is a deeply authoritarian and even totalitarian one that nobody on the left should be making. It basically says that a few government bureaucrats operating in the name of the people know better than the people themselves as to what is healthy for them to see and hear. If you believe that, then perhaps we should have suspended all civil liberties and shut down the presses after 9/11.
Jib, I don't think anyone is saying human rights ought to be thrown out the window when under attack from a powerful neighbor. But Cuba is under no obligation to permit its citizens to be used as part of a well-defined and supported Bush Administration policy of regime change. That is limited to those citizens who are working with the US Government and its dangerous proxies in Miami. Cuba is largely tolerant of those going in an out of the US Interests Section in Havana to receive training, access the internet, etc. They allow tons of criticism - and in fact officially encouraged everyone to complain loudly last year in an organized way. Raul told the people to "debate fearlessly." But patience has its limits, when the US Government or its enemies in Miami are involved. Foreign subersion is not a protected human right.
Should I, a US dissident, obtain money and computers from the Cuban Interest Section here in Washington, I could be arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison as an unregistered foreign agent. This is not a whit different from what happens with these Cuban people herein described.
It is not Cuba which threatens invasion and unlawful political change to the USA. The shoe is on the other foot. And I've no respect for people who would favour a foreign foe, whose wierd interest is to restore the rights and privileges of the Mafia in the seized and suppressed bordellos and casinos of the Batista regime, to say nothing of the big US oil and sugar companies who shared with Meyer Lansky influence over Cuban government ante Castro.
If this be treason, make the most of it.
Chris Herz
cdherz44@yahoo.com
Fact: Yoani Sánchez received Spain's Ortega y Gasset Prize for digital journalism in 2008 (akin to our Pulitzer). She was invited to Madrid to attend the award ceremony.
Fact: the Cuban government denied her request for permission to travel to Spain to accept the award.
Fact: Cuban citizens who reside in the island are required to request permission to travel each time they wish to leave the country for any reason. That permission can be, and routinely is, denied without reason or justification. You can see an image of the written document denying her request to travel to Spain on Yoani's website. Cubans can't even move to a different dwelling without asking permission, which also is routinely denied. By the way, Yoani posts to a website that is not on the Cuban web, the only internet a small minority of Cubans have access to. In order to access the WWW, Cubans must use one of the internet facilities for foreign patrons, and pay tourist prices; facilities which are under constant surveillance by "attendants." Yoani uploads her posts from there, hardly the subterfuge one would expect from someone "sleeping with the enemy." She's actually pretty safe there because of the international scandal it would cause if the security forces were to impede her access right under the noses of the foreighn tourists they cultivate.
Fact: Foreigners living or traveling in Cuba have privileges the government does not afford its own citizens, as long as you can pay for them handsomely, in foreign currency, of course.
I could go on...
No freedom of movement, no individual freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, etc. How do you define freedom, Circles? Or is it that you wouldn't mind living with the myriad restrictions placed on the average Cuban, which as a coddled foreigner in Cuba you've never had to experience?
Yoani, you go girl!
For anyone interested in an accurate picture of Cuba as it is today, from a top notch journalist writing in English, I suggest the lead article in the New York Times Magazine, 12/7/08.
Thank you Cubanita for providing such a voice of reason and fact. I have been to Cuba recently on a university trip and I can verify what you say. My wife has Cuban relatives in Havana and have a very different view than those who have posted their support here for what is obviously a dictatorship. What is very sad is to see a lone and courageous individual like Yoani demonized and slandered as "sleeping with the enemy" by some gringos who sit snugly and comfortably in the U.S. while defending a regime that denies all civil liberties. It is very depressing to watch these supposed defenders of freedom defend a wretched and decaying regime that cannot trust its own people to read what they please.
P.S. I can also verify what you said about Cubans' "freedom to travel." That is a cruel joke.
It is also true that Americans are deprived of their right right to travel to Cuba. That is unfair and unjust. But it pales in comparison to the injustice imposed on Cubans who can't freely trvael anywhere.
Millions of dollars spent on the election campaign in the USA. A shallow form of democracy. Capitalism in crisis, responds by giving money to bankers. No plan. Cuba has faced many a crisis and has planned a response based on the needs of the people - hurricanes, the collapse of trade with the soviet union etc. Its not perfect but the people are far better off than the majority in most third world countries.
Cubanita, Yoani tried to complete an exit visa process in 4 weeks. That is impossible in nearly any coutry. People in the US are routinely denied a permit to go to Cuba for similar bureaucratic/time reasons.
By saying that exit visas are "routinely" denied you are disagreeing with the US State Department, who admits the "vast majority" get permits. Perhaps it seems like a lot because any person who is denied gets a newspaper article written about them in the US press.
Cuba's housing policy has eradicated homelessness and resulted in a higher homeownership rate than in the US. Lawful requests to move are not at all "routinely denied."
The internet can not be given away free to all (as Cuba does for every public service) because of bandwith limitations imposed by the US, who does not allow Cuba to connect to the international fiber optic line that runs right near its shore. Instead they have to use costly and inefficient satellites. This will soon be remedied, thanks to a line being built from Venezuela. Still, Cuba provides many free internet locations - in its schools, workplaces and computer clubs, which operate in almost every town.
The NY Times Mag piece was a crock. They paint a picture of a failing society, when the reporter is able to walk around wherever he wanted day and night, including the toughest streets in the capital. Try that in Jamaica, try that in Colombia, Peru, Miami. He finds many people on the street who defend the Revolution with their hearts and souls, but dismisses them. Cuba is not perfect, but Cubans know the Revolution is looking out for them.
Yes! We need to BE that Support!
Here's the Address for The Cuban Embassy in Toronto; lets DROWN them with Letters! I'll tell AVAAZ, etc., too!
Cuban Embasy
Mr. Laureano Cardoso
5353 Dundas West
Square Kipling
Suite 401-402
Toronto, ON M9B 6H8
Canada
Tel: 416-234-8181
After all, with a bunch of alleged 'Socialists' and 'Closet Muslims' about to take over Power; what does Raul have to lose?
Tell the Ambassador that we've all got our Che Shirts on, and that we want to Help The Cuban People take The Revolution On-Line (or some such warm fuzzy Propaganda as that).
This stupid software mangled my url. Just go to: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com and look for the article on Annenberg and Cooper.
I was enjoying your emails until you carried that anti Cuban bollox above.
Please do not correspond with me again unless its to apologise for that yankee propogandist article.
Peace
errol
Oh no! A MOJO article actually critical of the Communist regime in Cuba. What next: criticism of Muslim murderers, Viet Cong freedom fighters, N. Korean nationalists, Chinese agrarian reformers? The American left is always the last to see that anti-American/Socialists/Communists are anti-human and anti-democratic.
internet in cuba is socially based because of serious limitations due to the american economic embargo.
her success in blogging from cuba is a direct result of her appealing to reactionary institutions around the world.
in a time of serious difficulties in cuba she should be doing differently: working for her country and not trying to pick on issues that are normally bad.
whoever doubts the validity of the elections in cuba should go and see by themselves.
she needs to know that nobody vote the house of lords in england. nobody elects the chief of state in canada either; it's the representative of the queen of england. cuba is a parlamentary democracy with natural differences from a presidential democaracy. you and she should know that there is a constitution in cuba...
a high percent of those who committed any sort of crime to reach us soil and made it, they tried hard to get an american visa legally and didn't gat it.
a high percentage of people coming to visit with their families do go back to cuba.
there's only one reason for the american government policy: dirty politics.
No, av2, Yoani did not try to complete an "exit visa." She completed the routine paperwork any Cuban who wishes to obtain a Cuban passport to travel must complete. She was not trying to emigrate. But in Cuba, even if you already have a passport, you must obtain special permission each time you wish to travel out of the country for any reason. The document of denial, which you can see on line, does not deny a request to emigrate, but simply to travel. You can verify that for yourself. Now, any American citizen who wishes not just to travel out of the coutntry but to emigrate, is free to do so without asking permission of the US govt. That is also the case for just about every country in the world, except for Cuba, of course, North Korea, and a few others.
Yoani has stated publicly in her blog that she loves her country and her people and has no desire to emigrate. She prefers to fight for civil rights and freedoms in Cuba. She has a different vision of Cuba's present and future than you and the Cuban authorities have, but she is not alone. In a recent novel, the young new literary sensation in Havana, Wendy Guerra, who received the Bruguera prize for best novel of 2007, for TODOS SE VAN (Everyone Leaves), said the following: "Vivimos entre lo prohibido y lo obligatorio." (We live between the forbidden and the compulsory).
If you can read Spanish, I highly recommend it. Also good reading: Pedro Juan Gutierrez, TRILOGIA SUCIA DE LA HABANA.
By the way, av2, what you say about being able to walk safely all over Havana is only true about the neighborhoods along the main tourist areas, where there are security police at practically every corner (for an insider's look at Havana read Gutiérrez or Ena Lucía Portela's LA SOMBRA DEL CAMINANTE.) But even if you were correct, do you realize they used to praise Franco's Madrid for the same reason? La Guardia Civil was very effective at control of both crime and dissent.
By the way, I am deeply troubled by the situation in the United States after the catastrophic presidency of GW Bush, but am optimistic that this recent election will start not just our economic, but especially our civic, recovery. Yoani has the same hope for her country and is contributing to a better future for her people in the best way she knows how, at considerable risk to herself, her son, her husband and the rest of her extended family. All of us who value freedom should respect that and support her right to do so.
Cubanita, I appreciate your courteous response. But I am sure that Yoani, like anyone who wants to travel, required an exit visa (carta blanca). You are right that it is a more onerous process than many other countries where visas are only required for travel to certain countries. My only point is that this process is doable, and in fact, "the vast majority" get approved (so says the US Government). This idea that Cubans can not legitimately travel is plain wrong. The main problem is cost.
I will check out for Bruguera's book. Pedro Juan Gutierrez is too nihlistic and hedonistic even for a young person like me. If his book is your source about crime in Cuba, I'll have to take that with a grain of salt. I walked all over Cuba - in the outskirts of Havana, the darkest corners of Santiago, Matanzas, Holguin, etc. Never once did I feel the fear you sometimes do in most other Latin & Carribean countries. Never did I see a Cuban child begging, ill-fed or ill-clothed.
As I see it Cuba is a country targeted for regime change by the U.S. The weapons used by the U.S. are many, from outright invasion as in the failed Bay Of Pigs debacle to siege like sanctions, biological warfare, and the more subtle but still potent accusations of human rights violations. Cuba has been infested with both swine flu virus and CIA swine dressed up like humanitarian and pro democracy types. Cuba has not only withstood all of these multi-level attacks but she shines as a beacon of hope to the world's oppressed. There's nothing new here just another "try" by the US propaganda machine.
It is possible to have done good while being a Socialist governed country. Healthcare, education, job training, housing, food- abject poverty has largely been addressed. AND Cubans do NOT have civil liberties. Freedom of speech, press, mobility, even profession, are restricted. It is a country of sharp contrasts. It's not just the US embargo, although without it, Cuba would certainly fare much better. If you talk to real Cubans in Cuba, they'll tell you that they want civil liberties. Certain freedoms have no monetary value. They are priceless.
Many Cubans, including high level officials, have spoken out privately and publicly against the exit visa system.
Vietnam used to have such a requirement too, but abolished it.
Bottom line is that however you total up the positive and negative aspects of Cuba today, please consider objectively what kinds of policies in the US will actually contribute to liberalization and benefit average people in the country.
A new report from the very mainstream Cuba Study Group does not shy away from negative exile characterizations of their homeland, but argues powerfully that reconciliation and positive evolution require ending restrictions on travel by all Americans.
http://cubastudygroup.org/_files/TravelandRemittancesforWeb.pdf
A couple of weeks ago the centrist Brookings Institution published an excellent study on US relations with Latin America that recommended ending travel restrictions and removing Cuba from the list of countries that support terrorism.
http://thehavananote.com/2008/11/brookings_blueprint_for_obama.html
marc cooper needs to talk dirty and he does it knowingly...
there's nothing more polarized in the world than the blogosphere, he knows that and still tries to present this blogger here as some kind of pure journalist...she is a paid reporter that's required to pinpoint issues that are appreciated to her bosses in europe and usa...she doesn't comment either on the new latin american cinema festival or the efforts in recovery from three big hurricans...
as to her reporting of two guys and a gal been hit by the secret police; i know not even herself believe that...there were almost two thousand cubans from usa that once invaded the homeland and under any law of any country at any time would have been excuted right away...they were sent back to their normal elucubrations and conspiracies against their land, putting their genetic hatred on three generations of sons and grandkids...not love but hatred like once vargas vila said...
go marc...continue to spread more billis throughout your keyboard...
yak...
Control of the Press is a trademark of a dictatorship and the Internet is a real problem area. When things are going good, there isn't as many problems but lately Russia and Chavez have been getting chummy and the Castro's are right in there with them-May be some new developements that they don't want leaving the Country!
The Cuban govt has its problems...why isnt anyone decrying the censorship on the internet HERE?! I have not seen it here at MoJo, but, many, many neo-liberal websites (yes, even 501-c-3's--that take your tax money) censor and ban people all the time. On some, all you have to do is say one critical thing about Obama, while, others rant on and on negatively about him , constantly, and are not banned. It is very confusing, as the standards are often not posted...
As they say, lets get the log out of our own eye, before we talk about the splinter in our neighbors'. Some of the things the dupoly has passed in the last 2 decades, makes "freedom of the press" and "freedom of speech", "freedom from search and seizure" laughable, if it didnt make me cry..
This all reminds me here living in Mexico, that freedom of speech isnt always allowed even here next door to the usa. On the radio this morning a show beaming from the mex capital, a comment was made by a guest about a book that protayed Felipe Calderon, the so called Pres of Mex is a closet alcoholic. His Chief of the Fed police Garcia Luna is in choots with kidnapers. This was all cut off of course by the host, and not even the name of the book was mentioned. So stop picking on Cuba, when next to the USA, Mexicos media practices self censorship, a story that wont be told.
I think I will now go to Cuba to have some dental and my small hernia surgery instead of El Salvador where I live{USA-9000 vs El Sal 900, in Cuba 200}
a vet could do it, I am just an old dog, but too much foo foo here in USA
www.tropicooltours.com[my site where we get you fixed in El Salvador, not Mexico or Thailand!!!} and I will come back and flaunt this, do some interviews and 'rub it in'
through WOL, maybe? I have a conexion to a good husband wife team, Doctors
both
the first to show up in disasters we have in Central America, always Cubans, within hours of earthquakes ,mud slides and hurricanes
all this negative against a country that where not one woman is illiterate, where they are growing ALL Organic food,and where they all have a pressure cooker and energy saving lights, and not much cheap walmart chinese crap like the arrogant, greedy,ignorant, obese, xenophobic, {disgusting} brow beaten, propagandized USA 'sheeples'
yes me again, the infamoso Senor Pescado
ask me, been all over the world, PAL!!!
even lived Asia 3 months, they have 5000 year old memories and have NEVER forgotten the Boxer rebellion nor the Opium wars, and equate us to the 'pommies'
so, I go to unamed country and catch the daily flight to Havana, [every country in the world you can catch a flight except USA]
we support those Godless Chinese, and Vietnamese COMMUNIST countries, that pay their workers with a bag of rice, for cafe pickers as in Viet and $1 day to those poor country bumpkins in China, but NOT to the most educated people in the northen Hemisphere?
ummm, go figure
yet, they[their children] know of Cuban history, and that which is NOT taught in USA schools,
well I WILL say, all 2nd graders in Mexico are taught USA theft in 1847 of a lot of Mexico, think they have forgotten?
revolucion comes, millions of Mexicans in their former territory with guns?
I am laughing, it has started
May 1, 2009, see what happens, and oh, i forgot, those 'cartels-businessmen'in business of supllying stupid dope heads in USA with something they love in the board rooms and summer houses on long island and Hawaii of corporate [deleted]x and their familes!!!!
wake up
with 2 suitcase nukes, they are not happy of Monsanto illegally and clandestinely throwing out GM corn on their grandparents land in Oaxaca and Chiapas
anyway
our sustainable caught seafood to EU and UK, Ireland, Scotland, Viva Mr Wallace!} and from CUBA,
and you 'sheeples' can just keep eating that chemical full, communist caight Asian seafood, see how you feel after eating at your cheap Chinese buffets
jaaaaaaaaaaa
back to Mr Cooper, I also was in Nicaragau, Guatemala, and El Salvador in the 80's surfing and other stuff
moved to ES in 1994,
Viva La Revolucion, and we will be growing our food, and you 'sheeples' can have that all that corn syrup and GM food
the corrupt health estab;lishements and insurance companies like AIG love ya
so
as us surfer boy's sometimes say,
"eat [deleted], and die"
have a nice day and
Feliz Navidad, y Prospero Ano Nuevo
right on av2ts,
you are obviously an educated and traveled, person, and not bought off like some of the other ignorant rants on this post
Cubans are the ONLY foreign people that o=if they touch US soil, they are granyted instant citizenship, and all over the world, everyone knows one can becone a'gobernator, or an immigrant that do themselves better, in the USA corrupt society
can you blame them or from Africa, or from Asia, where each night, hundreds of Chinese are dropped off from fishing trawlers raping our salmon, cod and more off Washington and Oregon coasts, in boats, and them making their way to every podunk town in USA with a China King in a stip mall, and living with 20 others in a room to pay off the 30,000 they ALL pay to one guy in Atlanta, one of bialrybushclinto-cheney buddy, so they can prep that chemical laden food coming from one wharehouse in Brooklyn
wake up 'sheeples'
nope, will jot happen, too cushy and lazy the life here vid games, idiot box and people magazine with then new Paris Hilton shoe color
jaaaaaaaaaa
but them not many of you surf or dive or fish
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