Raul Castro will remain dictator of Cuba in 2018 whether he is called "president" or "party chief"

New boss will be the old boss.

General Raul Castro and his son Colonel Alejandro Castro of the secret police

Raul Castro is trending in the news because it has been announced that he will remain "president" of Cuba until April 2018. He was supposed to be departing office in February 2018, but regardless will be remaining has head of the Communist Party of Cuba. Cuba is a tyrannical dictatorship and titles matter little. Raul Castro will remain in control.

After Raul Castro's retirement date is set, who will be Cuba's first non-Castro leader in almost 60 years? https://t.co/p20C5IuCdj pic.twitter.com/JXxc5NAzI6

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) December 21, 2017

 The question raised by Newsweek is at best naive. Raul Castro has been grooming his son, Alejandro Castro, a colonel in the secret police as a successor. Cuba is a communist dictatorship where dynastic succession, within the Castro family, is reminiscent of another communist dynastic dictatorship, the Kim family in North Korea.

The only question within the context of the dictatorship will be if the Castro family continues to hold the title or place a puppet, for public relations purposes, and continue to run things in Cuba. Real change must come from outside of the regime responding to the miserable reality on the island.

TR @RosaMariaPaya Moment in which they kidnap and beat the artists Tania Bruguera, Luis Manel Alcantara and Yanelis Nuñez. They remain missing. The police stations say they do not have them. FREEDOM! #CubaDecide pic.twitter.com/vkPJoaW9TY

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) December 21, 2017

Meanwhile as the international focuses on this non-story inside Cuba repression is ramping up against nonviolent dissidents and their is relatively little press coverage. Cuban artists Tania Bruguera, Luis M Alcantara, Adonis Milan, Yanelis Nuñez and Lia Villares were beaten up and arrested last night in Cuba by the regime's secret police as they attempted to attend the staging of the play Psychosis. As of today reports indicate that Lia Villares and Luis Manuel Otero remain detained with some questions about their whereabouts.

#CUBA State Security agents violently arrested the artists: Tania Bruguera @Immigrantmove Luis M Alcantara Adonis Milan Yanelis Nuñez at the door of the gallery of @liavillares, who was previously arrested with Iris Ruiz
Just for exercising their freedom of expression#CubaDecide pic.twitter.com/9MZIsgTyp9

— Rosa María Payá A. (@RosaMariaPaya) December 21, 2017

Cuba is a tropical island but the drab grey Stalinism, usually found in colder climates, that drains the life out of vibrant cultures is present within the Castro regime.

 

Rolling Stones, Performance Art and a Missing Artist in Cuba

"We know that years ago it was hard to hear our music in Cuba, but here we are playing for you on your beautiful land. I think finally times are changing." - Mick Jagger, from the stage in Havana, March 25, 2016 (In Spanish)

 

Gorki Águila and Lia Villares of Porno para Ricardo held a performance art protest on March 25, 2016 at 5:00pm prior to the start of the Rolling Stones concert in Havana, Cuba. During the Stones concert in Havana Mick Jagger recognized the prior censorship in Cuba that had banned the Rolling Stones and their music for decades expressing that he thought "finally times are changing" with their playing a concert now in the island. Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Regis Iglesias, and life long Rolling Stone fan tweeted:  "Really Dear Mick? Because the @RollingStones are in Cuba does not mean that anything has changed. Castro [does] not let me return to my own country, I can get no satisfaction, but time is on my side..."

#RollingStones rock Cuba with historic free concert https://t.co/NDB09Bmn2p #RollingStonesEnCuba pic.twitter.com/asGkQkr2wP

— dwnews (@dwnews) March 26, 2016

In addition, what transpired before the concert indicates that the British rocker may be mistaken in his belief. Fraudulent change is underway in Cuba as opposed to real change. The dictatorship in order to carry out its dynastic succession makes cosmetic changes while maintaining its repressive and totalitarian nature.

Gorki explained that "upon learning that we were announcing the performance here in the house [state security] closed the block at every corner and did not let anyone pass who had been invited." We saw the deployment of a lot of state security."

Unfortunately, Danilo Maldonado (also known as El Sexto) was arrested on his way to the performance and more than 12 hours later remains missing. El Sexto is a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience and a performance artist who has been targeted for his works of art.

 
Gorki and Lia were joined later by others, among them activists Sayli Navarro, and Rosa María Payá Acevedo. Earlier today over twitter Rosa María asked people of good will to call the police stations in Havana and ask about the whereabouts of the missing Cuban artist.

 The Rolling Stones put on a great show that pleased hundreds of thousands of Cubans and that will be remembered in the history books. Below is the set list taken from their official twitter feed.

#StonesCuba setlist! 🇨🇺👅 pic.twitter.com/u2JwimdaTr

— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) March 26, 2016

Cuban punk rockers tear it up at Churchill's

 "It's only rock n roll but it bothers you." - Porno para Ricardo

Porno para Ricardo tearing it up at Churchill's on Saturday night (March 5, 2015)

Cuba's best known punk rock band, Porno para Ricardo, played a blistering set at Churchill's last night in Miami's punk Mecca. They maybe a Havana based band but their anarchic spirit and punk rock attitude fit right in with this South Florida landmark which has hosted everyone from Marilyn Manson and Social Distortion to Dick Dale and Agent Orange.

Porno para Ricardo founded in Cuba has been a fixture there in the music scene since 1998. The lead singer Gorki Águila has paid the price for his critical lyrics being sentenced to four years in prison in 2003 on trumped up charges and got out in 2007. Only to face one year later the charge of "dangerousness" with the potential for another four year prison sentence, but the mobilization of punk rockers and human rights activists around the world and in Cuba succeeded in saving him from another prison sentence in 2008.

However short term arrests, threats and the occasional beating by the secret police still continue. For example in 2015, according to the Danish human rights NGO, Freemuse, Gorki was arrested on three occasions and in one of them beaten up by Castro's agents for demanding the freedom of Cuban artist Daniel Maldonado "El Sexto" who had been jailed for 10 months beginning in December of 2014 for trying carry out a performance art piece critical of the Cuban dictatorship. He was freed in October of 2015 and on March 2, 2016 kicked off an exhibition of his art work on South Beach with his performance art piece and Porno para Ricardo performing a set of their music. However, the concert in Churchills was special because for the first time the entire band (Gorki Águila, Ciro Díaz, Lia Villares, and Renay Kairus) was able to play together outside of Cuba.

If you missed this great performance you have one more chance today at 6pm in Little Havana at Cubaocho Museum and Peforming Arts Center where they will be playing. The band returns to Cuba later this week.

Porno para Ricardo plays Cubaocho Museum and Performing Arts Center (1465 SW 8th Street, Miami FL 33135) today, Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 6:00pm

Oslo Freedom Forum pays tribute to Cuban prisoner of conscience Danilo Maldonado "El Sexto

"I dedicate this prize to those who are keeping me in prison, to remind them I'm not alone." - Danilo Maldonado "El Sexto", winner of the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent 

Danilo Maldonado "El Sexto", a Cuban artist unjustly imprisoned since December 26, 2014 for wanting to engage in a performance art piece was honored today at the 2015 Oslo Freedom Forum with the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent 2015. Since Danilo was unable to attend due to his present arbitrary detention, Lia Villares received the prize on his behalf, played the Porno para Ricardo video calling for his freedom and read a letter sent by Danilo for the occasion.

"El Sexto" dedicated the Havel Prize to the Ladies in White, his daughter, imprisoned independent journalist Angel Santiesteban and other artists persecuted by the Cuban government. Danilo also wrote: "I dedicate this prize to those who are keeping me in prison, to remind them I'm not alone."

Cuban Punk Rockers say: "Free El Sexto"

Punk Rockers in solidarity with imprisoned Cuban artist


The Cuban punk band "Porno para Ricardo" has a new basist and her name is Lia Villares, who has also been at the forefront of a campaign to free Danilo Maldonado, an unjustly imprisoned Cuban artist. He has been jailed since December 26, 2014 for wanting to engage in a performance art piece involving two pigs named Fidel and Raul. On January 26, 2015 the one month mark of Danilo's imprisonment the band released the above music video titled "A Day For Cuba"calling for his release.

  On February 5, Lia tweeted that messages sent via this e-mail or in comments left on this page would reach him in prison. A month earlier on January 4th, Lia Villares tweeted an image of El Sexto" with a signed text that read: "To beat me you need arms, police, prisons. For me to beat you I only need spray paint and this little paper. - El Sexto".

Uncommon Sense on January 22, 2015 offered an overview of the December 26th detention of Danilo Maldonado and the privations that he continues to suffer including now serious health concerns:

Despite the recent giddiness by some about Cuba, there remain in the Castro gulag numerous political prisoners, including at least one -- Danilo Maldonado -- arrested after the Dec. 17 announcement by President Barack Obama that the United States and Cuba were well on their way toward normalized relations. Maldonado, a grafitti artist better known as "El Sexto," was arrested Dec. 26 while driving two pigs to a Havana park. In Cuba, where pork for the masses is scare, that he had two pigs is probably a crime in itself. But El Sexto's worse transgression is that he had painted on the pigs the names "Fidel" and "Raul," and that they were to be used in performance piece.

Lia Villares: #ITooDemand #FreeElSextoNow 1 artist deserves the attention of future free generations.

 Police charged El Sexto with "insulting" and threw him in jail, where he remains while awaiting trial. Laritza Diversent, a dissident lawyer, tried to win El Sexto's release by filing a writ of habeas corpus arguing that El Sexto had been arrested aribitrarily. Also, she wrote that "Fidel" and "Raul" are common names and anyway, the government should not be so sensitive to criticsm. Officials rejected her arguments. Meanwhile, Diario de Cuba and other sources reported Wednesday that El Sexto has developed pneumonia and is not receiving needed medical care.

Danilo Maldonado, "El Sexto", making art