Cuba, China, and the Coronavirus cover-up

Breaking through the false narrative to save lives

Cuban healthcare facilities are in a poor state.

Taken and updated from CubaBrief

Reuters reported the claim made by the official press on March 11, 2020 that "four Italian tourists who were staying at a hostel in the southern town of Trinidad after arriving at Havana airport on Monday had presented respiratory symptoms and were taken to a hospital on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the hospital confirmed that three of the tourists had tested positive for the coronavirus, the broadcaster said."

Prior to this, the Cuban government claimed that it had no cases, and claimed to be mobilized and prepared. On March 6, 2020 Granma, the official communist newspaper of Cuba, made the claim that "to date, no cases of Coronavirus ( Covid-19 ) have been confirmed in Cuba." Presently, there are cases in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, and many other places. Regime officials claim to be ready if and when an outbreak takes place. At the same time officials of the Castro regime have reported that there is a shortage of soap and detergent in Cuba that will not be alleviated until May - June 2020.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending a number of measures, two of which are: washing your hands regularly, and maintaining social distancing. (Maintain at least 1 metre [3 feet] distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.) There is a shortage in Cuba of the ingredients needed to wash your hands, and a housing shortage. Cubans live one on top of another in tight spaces. This is not sufficient for a good public health response.

Cuba has covered up epidemics in the past targeting doctors and journalists who speak out, just like in China We have witnessed in China how the communist regime covered up the coronavirus outbreak making it worse. Doctors and journalists who tried to warn about the coronavirus were arrested. Is this something to be congratulated or declared a huge achievement?

The Castro regime has done the same thing in Cuba during other outbreaks, and endangered lives in the process.

In 1997 a Cuban doctor was silenced for warning about a deadly dengue epidemic. Dr Desi Mendoza Rivero, married with four children at the time, was arrested on June 25, 1997. On November 28, 1997 he was sentenced to eight years in prison for "enemy propaganda." Amnesty International declared Dr. Mendoza Rivero a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for his freedom. He was released on November 20, 1998 due to health reasons following the visit of the Spanish Foreign Minister, under the condition that he leave Cuba for exile in Spain.

First official report to the World Health Organization of the dengue outbreak was six months after initial identification made by the jailed and later forcibly exiled physician. Mendoza Rivero's reports were eventually confirmed. This episode would have a chilling effect on other doctors coming forward.

News of a cholera outbreak in Manzanillo, in the east of the island, broke in El Nuevo Herald on June 29, 2012 thanks to the reporting of an independent reporter in the island. Calixto Martinez, the independent Cuban journalist who broke the story was jailed. The state controlled media did not confirm the outbreak until days later on July 3, 2012. The BBC reported on July 7, 2012 that a patient had been diagnosed with cholera in Havana. The Cuban government stated that it had it under control and on August 28, 2012 said the outbreak was over.

In July 2013 an Italian tourist returned from Cuba with severe renal failure due to cholera. New York high school teacher Alfredo Gómez contracted cholera during a family visit to Havana during the summer of 2013 and was billed $4,700 from the government hospital. A total of 12 tourists were identified who had contracted cholera in Cuba. On August 22, 2013 Reuters reported that Cuba was still struggling with cholera outbreaks in various provinces.

In the August 22, 2019 The New York Times article by Carl Zimmer, "Zika Was Soaring Across Cuba. Few Outside the Country Knew", the newspaper tries to shift the blame for an unreported outbreak of zika in Cuba in 2017 on a reporting glitch. This ignored a decades long government pattern of covering up epidemics.

"Until now, the Pan American Health Organization had no record of any Zika infection in Cuba in 2017, much less an outbreak. Following inquiries by The New York Times about the new study, published in the journal Cell, officials acknowledged that they had failed to tally 1,384 cases reported by Cuban officials that year. [...] Officials at P.A.H.O., an arm of the World Health Organization, blamed the failure to publish timely data on the Cuba outbreak on a “technical glitch.” The information was held in a database, they said, but not visible on the website. By Thursday afternoon, the website had been updated."

On September 2, 2016 the Associated Press reports that Cuba had "remarkable success in containing Zika virus." This report made no mention of the regime's past history of covering up epidemics. On January 8, 2019 New Scientist reported: "Cuba failed to report thousands of Zika virus cases in 2017."

 Reality of Cuba's healthcare system
Cuba has a two tiered health care system one tier for the nomenklatura and foreign tourists with hard currency that offers care with modern equipment and fully stocked pharmacies, then there is a second tier which is for the rest with broken down equipment, run down buildings and rooms, scarce supplies, a lack of hygiene, the denial of certain services and lengthy wait times. Healthcare professionals are poorly paid and lack food.

There are serious consequences for travelers to Cuba when they are not properly informed with what to expect with Cuba's public health failures and the disastrous state of Cuban healthcare. Not to mention a hefty bill for catching Cholera while on vacation, or worse yet discovering that you had been exposed to Zika virus when your child is born with microcephaly, a serious birth defect.

Reports that travelers that passed through Cuba tested positive for coronavirus have already emerged, but the Cuban government continues to maintain the claim that the country is without the illness..
The healthcare claims about Cuba made by many who should know better are but one of the many myths propagated by the Castro regime that do not hold up under scrutiny.

Hospital bed in Cuba

What to do?
Call on civil society in and out of the country to provide soap and detergent to Cubans on the island. Tell the Cuban government to get out of the way. Now is not a time to profit off of human need but help each other.  The Castro regime, like their Chinese counterpart, cannot be trusted.

The Conversation on March 6, 2020 published  a must read article titled "China’s coronavirus cover-up: how censorship and propaganda obstructed the truth" that also contains a video of Chinese nationals trying to circumvent repression and censorship that is both heart breaking and compelling.  Sadly, Cuban nationals are suffering the same type of practices in Cuba.

Castro regime begins to adopt Communist China's model of control and repression on the internet

Objectives remain the same, but the tactics have changed.

Big Brother took over the internet in China and in Cuba.

The dictatorship in Cuba is shifting tactics on controlling the internet, but their 2011 declaration of cyberwar has not been abandoned. In the past it denied access now it seeks to control it. Decree 68 issued on July 4, 2019 "prohibits Cuban citizens from running websites hosted outside of the country." The Cuban-based online publication 14ymedio, that will be effected negatively by this new law they reported on as follows:

This Thursday, the authorities published a set of laws "on the computerization of society in Cuba" that have as their objective, "to elevate technological sovereignty for the benefit of society, economy, security and national defense" and "counteract cybernetic attacks".

This approach mirrors that of China which "seeks to further restrict already the country’s already tightly controlled Internet—further curbing online news reporting and putting Party-appointed editors in charge."

The Castro regime often changes tactics but only in service of an overall strategy to maintain power.  Havana banned the sale of computers in 2002 in Cuba. Here is what the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported at the time:

On January 16, 2002, a decree was approved by the Ministry of Domestic Commerce prohibiting the sale of personal computers to individuals.  According to an article published on March 25 in the digital periodical wired.com, Decree 383/2001 prohibits "the sale of computers, printers, duplicating machines, photocopiers, or any other instrument for large-scale printing" to any association, foundation, nonprofit civil organization, or individual.  In cases where the purchase of such equipment or related spare parts or accessories is considered indispensable, authorization must be requested from the Ministry of Domestic Commerce.

This runs counter to the postulates made by some that over time more media necessarily means less controlled media," and that "the Communist regime remains, but Cuba is no longer frozen in time."

The restriction on the purchase of computers was lifted by Raul Castro in 2008 after six years and was hailed as progress.

The Committee to Protect Journalists in 2011 listed the Castro regime as one of the online oppressors that used the denial of access as their chief mean of controlling the internet. Evidence in 2012 for this was to be found with regards to both internet and cell phones. Cuba had the lowest internet and cell phone coverage in the hemisphere.

Now Cubans will have access to internet and cell phone coverage but content will be controlled by the Castro regime, which is copying Chinese model of control and repression on the internet.

The Golden Shield appears to be arriving in Cuba. Will Google be complicit in erecting this system of repression in control as American tech companies did in China 20 years ago? Or will Cuba complete its adoption of the China model and ban Twitter, Google and Facebook?

Time will tell.

Remembering and honoring Celia Cruz 15 years after her passing, except in Cuba.

Celia Cruz should not be an unperson in Cuba

Cuban music icon Celia Cruz still banned in Cuba

Celia Cruz passed away on July 16, 2003 after a battle with cancer. She was 77 years old. The world over mourned her death, except in Cuba where the official media printed a small note on her passing recognizing Cruz as an “important Cuban performer who popularized our country’s music in the United States,” it went on to say that “during the last four decades, she was systematically active in campaigns against the Cuban revolution generated in the United States.”

15 years later her music is still banned in Cuba, and in death she remains an unperson in official circles.

Her real crime? Choosing to live in freedom and continue her career as a musician. Because she had decided to continue to play her music, as a free woman, outside of Cuba the Castro brothers barred Celia from returning to Cuba in 1962 to bury her mother who had just died. This fueled her distaste for the Cuban dictatorship. When she went to the Guantanamo Naval Base three decades later she picked up some Cuban soil, a piece of home, to take back with her into exile.  

This 1990 trip to the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base would not be forgotten in official circles.

Celia Cruz picks up some Cuban soil to take a piece of home back to exile

On August 8, 2012 BBC News reported that Cuba's ban on anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted and on August 10 the BBC correspondent in Cuba, Sarah Rainsford, tweeted that she had been given names of forbidden artists by the central committee and the internet was a buzz that the ban on anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted. Others soon followed reporting on the news. The stories specifically mentioned Celia Cruz as one of the artists whose music would return to Cuban radio.

There is only one problem. It is not true. Diario de Cuba reported on August 21, 2012 that Tony Pinelli, a well known musician and radio producer, distributed an e-mail in which Rolando Álvarez, the national director of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (ICRT) confirmed that the music of the late Celia Cruz would continue to be banned. The e-mail clearly stated: "All those who had allied with the enemy, who acted against our families, like Celia Cruz, who went to sing at the Guantanamo Base, the ICRT arrogated to itself the right, quite properly, not to disseminate them on Cuban radio "

According to the 2004 book Shoot the singer!: music censorship today edited by Marie Korpe there is increasing concern that post-revolution generations in Cuba are growing up without knowing or hearing censored musicians such as Celia Cruz and Olga Guillot and that this could lead to a loss of Cuban identity in future generations. This process has been described as a  Cuban cultural genocide that is depriving generations of Cubans of their heritage.

Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans to Daniel Ortega: Time for you to resign murderer

"Enlightened despots are mythical creatures; real despots seem more interested in stealing money or installing their sons after them." - Elliott Abrams

Thousands of anti-government protesters take to the streets of Nicargua

Call for investigations and an end to the killings
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States issued a statement today in which they condemned "the deaths of at least 25 people in a context of repression of protests against plans to reform the social security system in Nicaragua." The IACHR also made known that "four TV channels that were reporting on the protests were taken off the air following government orders."

#Nicaragua: We have received reliable reports that at least 25 people were killed during nationwide protests against planned social security reforms. We call on authorities to ensure transparent investigations into these deaths. https://t.co/9OSAVZkREd pic.twitter.com/8VVKqgy3XW

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) April 24, 2018

The United Nations Human Rights Council issued a tweet and statement on the killings in Nicaragua  calling for transparent investigations and questioning their legality.

Anti-government protesters on the march in Nicaragua on April 23, 2018

Tens of thousands take to the street and call for Daniel Ortega to resign
On Monday, April 23, 2018 tens of thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets in nonviolent protests against the violent repression of the Ortega regime and demanded the resignation of the president.  The Economist's bureau chief in Mexico tweeted video of protesters tearing down images of Daniel Ortega and his wife (and Vice President).

Totally unthinkable even a week ago: protesters demolish a billboard of Daniel Ortega and his wife as thousands of people openly cheer them on #SOSNicaragua pic.twitter.com/i8il7QL79q

— Richard Ensor (@richardjensor) April 24, 2018

It is difficult to get news out of what is going on with the Ortega regime attempting to silence the press and limit internet access.

The government now trying to censor social media channels and cutting free WiFi in parks #Nicaragua #SOSNicaragua https://t.co/0qucFqYmTO

— María 🇳🇮 (@MariaPWong) April 24, 2018

How this crisis flared up
On April 16, 2018 an unpopular reform is passed that increases contributions to the pension system while at the same time cutting benefits to existing beneficiaries. Two days later Nicaraguans opposed to the "reform" take to the streets in protest. Rather than address grievances the Ortega regime send out the national police and "Sandinista youth" to destroy commercial establishments, take over the university and crush the protests. At the same time mass media are ordered to shut down their signals in a blatant act of censorship.

Journalist Ángel Gahona was shot in the head while conducting a live broadcast of the protests in Bluefields, Nicaragua.

The Ortega government continues to ratchet up repression and the death count mounts. Later Sunday night early Monday morning this blog publishes the available information at the time. On Sunday, April 22, 2018 with over 25 confirmed dead Ortega rescinds the "reform." This would have ended the protests on April 18, 2018, but after the thuggish behavior of the regime combined with the wholesale violation of freedom of the press, freedom of expression and association the citizenry was aroused.

Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela

The Ortega-Maduro axis
This should not come as a surprise. Ortega's return to power in 2006 was fueled by support from Hugo Chavez and the relationship with Caracas under Nicolas Maduro remains strong. It is equally important to remember that behind both regimes one finds the Castro regime and its intelligence services hard at work to maintain their outposts in the region.


Sadly, the United States is funding this regime in Nicaragua with U.S. taxpayer dollars and that needs to come to an end. Meanwhile it is important to get humanitarian assistance to Nicaraguans.

Spoke on @HouseFloor to condemn the actions of #Ortega and his cronies against the people of #Nicaragua. I urge the Senate to pass my #NICAAct to cut funding streams to the Ortega regime + to stand with the Nicaraguan people. We must not let his actions go unpunished. pic.twitter.com/aF11vgUNdY

— Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) April 24, 2018

Please keep an eye on the events unfolding in Nicaragua.

#LetWomenSing: Castros wouldn't let Celia Cruz sing in Cuba but the Queen of Salsa sang to the world

Let Celia Cruz be heard on radio in Cuba.

Let Celia Cruz's music be heard in Cuba

Freemuse in 2017 is focusing on women’s and musicians’ rights and access to cultural equality under the banner #LetWomenSing. The image they are using in their media campaign bears a striking resemblance to Celia Cruz and it is appropriate because Freemuse wants to create awareness and start a conversation about the inequality female musicians are experiencing.

Celia Cruz was and remains a nonperson in Cuba. Celia Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music." The impact of the Castro regime on music in Cuba goes beyond jailing musicians and includes systematic censorship that threatens the island's musical legacy as has been the case with the Queen of Salsa.

According to the 2004 book Shoot the singer!: music censorship today edited by Marie Korpe there is increasing concern that post-revolution generations in Cuba are growing up without knowing or hearing censored musicians such as Celia Cruz and Olga Guillot and that this could lead to a loss of Cuban identity in future generations. This process has been described as a  Cuban cultural genocide that is depriving generations of Cubans of their heritage.

Olga Guillot's music is also still banned on Cuba radio

Later this month on October 21st the world will observe the 92nd anniversary of the birth of Cuban music icon Celia Cruz. The Queen of Salsa passed away fourteen years go on July 16, 2003 and her music is still banned in Cuba today.  At the time of her death in 2003 the Associated Press reported:

"While the death of salsa singer Celia Cruz was reported prominently in newspapers across the world, the news got scant and somewhat bitter treatment Thursday in the official media of her homeland. The Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Cruz’s death in a tiny, two-paragraph story published low on page 6 of the eight-page edition."

On August 8, 2012 BBC News reported that the Cuban regime's ban on anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted and two days later the BBC correspondent in Cuba, Sarah Rainsford, tweeted that she had been given names of forbidden artists by the central committee and the internet was a buzz that the ban on anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted. Others soon followed reporting on the news.  The stories specifically mentioned Celia Cruz as one of the artists whose music would return to Cuban radio. This wasn't news but a rumor that nine years after her death her music would be played on Cuban radio, after a half century absence but they were dispelled by regime officials. On August 21, 2012 Tony Pinelli, a musician and radio producer, distributed an e-mail in which Rolando Álvarez, the national director of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (ICRT) confirmed that the music of the late Celia Cruz would continue to be banned. The e-mail stated:

"All those who had allied with the enemy, who acted against our families, like Celia Cruz, who went to sing at the Guantanamo Base, the ICRT arrogated to itself the right, quite properly, not to disseminate them on Cuban radio "

This e-mail refers to Celia Cruz playing at the Guantanamo Naval Base in 1990. Because she had decided to continue to play her music, as a free woman, outside of Cuba the Castro brothers barred Celia from returning to Cuba in 1962 to bury her mother who had just died. When she went to the Guantanamo Naval Base three decades later she picked up some Cuban soil, a piece of home, to take back with her into exile. 

Celia Cruz picks up some Cuban soil to take a piece of home back to exile

In October of 2015 Telemundo aired the first of an 80 part - novela on the life of Celia Cruz, the woman who would become known as the Queen of Salsa and "La Guarachera de Cuba".

Google Doodle of Celia Cruz from 2013

In 2013 Google, on the tenth anniversary of her passing, honored Celia on her birthday with a Google Doodle. In 2010 the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp in her honor describing the Cuban artist as follows.

"A dazzling performer of many genres of Afro-Caribbean music, Celia Cruz (1925-2003) had a powerful contralto voice and a joyful, charismatic personality that endeared her to fans from different nationalities and across generations. Settling in the United States following the Cuban revolution, the “Queen of Salsa” performed for more than five decades and recorded more than 50 albums." 

Sadly, it is not only in Cuba, Freemuse is working to bring attention to the "very violent and direct restrictions women musicians face in countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan," and censorship elsewhere. Here in America we witnessed an ugly episode of censorship with the Dixie Chicks in 2003, but at least it was not government sponsored but Clear Channel played a sinister role in keeping their music out of their airwaves. However they are back on the airwaves and touring across the country. Something that Celia Cruz and other banned Cuban musicians were never able to do, not even posthumously in the island where they were born: have their music played on the radio. This is part of the terrible legacy of Castroism. The music of Celia and Olga will return to Cuba's radio airwaves one day and that will be cause for celebration. Azucar!

How Google is helping the Castro regime turn the internet into a Trojan Horse against Cubans

How Google's technology is empowering Castro's secret police

Photo credit: Fox News/Marta Dhanis

The reality that Google's deal with the Castro regime and how it benefits the dictatorship while harming Cubans has made it into a major news story. Marta Dhanis, a news correspondent, who visited Cuba to see first hand if there has been an improvement in internet access found that it continues to be "extremely limited."  She dug a little deeper into the cliched feel good news about Google's partnering up with the Cuban dictatorship and talked to Cubans inside the island and the result is the article titled "Google entering Cuba is 'Trojan Horse' that could reinforce regime, residents say." In the article the perspective from an academic points to something far more sinister:

“We call the internet a ‘Trojan Horse.’ The success of this government has been possible thanks to the people’s lack of information,” said a 57-year-old retired professor who requested anonymity for fear of retribution by the communist regime. “I would have a patrol car at my door tomorrow to monitor my life,” he said. On the other hand, he and others contend, this Trojan Horse is also providing the communist regime with technology that will empower the secret police with detailed reports of the users’ searches and profiles, right down to their location.

We have documented on this blog how Google in Cuba has collaborated with the Cuban intelligence services and how the Castro regime's tech monopoly ETESCA is blocking the e-mails of the Ladies in White. This has led to a coalition of Cubans to condemn Google at a gathering in Puerto Rico in 2016, But what is being prepared with this deepening of relations between Google and the Castro regime is a nightmarish scenario that we have already seen played out in China where dissidents were rounded up, some jailed, and some tortured with the aid of American technology companies like Yahoo.

In 2006 Amnesty International released a report exposing the practices of American tech companies including Google titled "UNDERMINING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CHINA. THE ROLE OF YAHOO!, MICROSOFT AND GOOGLE."  In the report Amnesty International stated that  "Google has come closest to acknowledging publicly that its practices are at odds with its principles."

Tragically, a decade later the pattern is repeating itself in Cuba.

Google goes along with Internet censorship in Cuba in order to have a presence there

Told you so...

Google + Kcho Mor center in Havana, a Google-sponsored techn zone & hotspot. (Photo 14 y Medio)

 Capitol Hill Cubans yesterday reported the following on the presence of Google in Cuba:

Reports from Cuba have noted that the center has been given priority use by Ministry of the Interior ('MININT') officials and trainees. The MININT is home to Castro's intelligence services. Thus, the Google + Kcho Mor center has become a playground for Cuba's spies and future cyber-warriors. Furthermore, after passing various security checks, when regular Cubans finally get to enter the center, they are treated to censored online access. Webpages like Cubaencuentro, Revolico and 14ymedio remain blocked. Thus, Google has now officially become an extension of Cuba's censors.

This should not come as a surprise and back in 2011 I pointed out the following:

American companies such as Microsoft, Nortel, Cisco and Sun-Microsystems collaborated extensively with the Chinese communists to set up an intranet that blocks free access to internet to hundreds of millions of Chinese. American technology companies identified and located Chinese dissidents for the regime who imprisoned and tortured them. For example, according to Amnesty International, Chinese journalist Shi Tao is serving 10 years in jail after Internet company Yahoo! gave the authorities his personal email account-holder information.

American tech firms, such as Narus, aided the Mubarak regime in Egypt during its brutal crackdown tracking Egyptian activists during the Arab Spring and has also been suspected of helping Libya track dissidents.

The difference between Cuba and these other countries is that due to economic sanctions - some US technology corporations were blocked from doing the same sordid business with the Castro regime. Of course that does not mean that other companies from other countries are not already engaged in those practices. At the time of the 2003 Black Cuban Spring the Italian company, Telecom Italia, provided technology that was used to track activists that used the internet in a "counterrevolutionary manner."

Internet apartheid its not just a Cuban thing but thanks to US sanctions at least US companies do not have carte blanche to do the same thing in Cuba that they are doing in China, Syria, Egypt and in so many other places around the world. Unfortunately, there are other companies in Cuba collaborating and doing it.

In March of 2015 I went further into analyzing the shortcomings of those who see technology as a panacea in resisting totalitarian regimes:

Technology is neutral, and repressive regimes have contracted Western companies to place draconian controls on the internet that are used to target activists. Amnesty International identified "Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Websense and Sun Microsystems" as having "provided technology which has been used to censor and control the use of the Internet in China." These repressive applications of new technologies have been transferred to other dictatorships.

Many experts, like the ones apparently operating in the State Department, argue of the importance of conditions such as: a large middle class, internet penetration or some minimum annual level of income.

However, Srdja Popovic, a cofounder and key figure in the Serbian resistance movement “Otpor!” that toppled Slobodan Milosevic nonviolently in 2000 disagrees with the above line of argument and makes the case that the most important thing that you can do is to build up the skills of activists because they are the ones who make the change. Conditions are important to take into consideration when activists are formulating their strategy but they do not define success.

Now thanks to President Obama's new Cuba policy it appears that American companies such as Google are collaborating with the dictatorship in setting up sophisticated censorship capabilities and giving Cuba's secret police priority access to control what Cubans will see when surfing the internet.  This opens the door to American high tech companies propping up and modernizing totalitarianism in Cuba as they did in China.

If the above analysis is incorrect then please provide your counter-argument in the comments section below.

Freemuse Report 2016: Cuba among top 10 countries registering serious artistic freedom violations

Cuba in 2015 was the tenth country in the world with most serious violations of artistic freedom reports Danish NGO Freemuse, February 22, 2016.

 

 Freemuse Annual Statistics on Censorship and Attacks on Artistic Freedom in 2015

Full Freemuse report available online in pdf format

CUBA — WITHIN THE REVOLUTION EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED

Cuba remains a classic dictatorship. The Cuban Constitution allows freedom of speech and press, as long as it follows the purposes of the socialist society as understood by the Cuban government. The Cuban government has gained a reputation for its limited tolerance for public criticism, and the Communist Party is mandated to give prior approval for printing almost all publications and to censor public screenings and artistic performances.


Freemuse in 2015 documented 21 cases of violations on artistic freedom of expression in Cuba, including imprisoning one artist and keeping two in prison, detaining two artists and prosecuting another.

Throughout 2015 the Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, the legislative parliament of Cuba, announced a “recommendation” of restricting free public spaces from vulgarity and the denigration of women in order to stop foreign influence contrary to Cuban values. The assembly also “advised” comedians to avoid “irresponsible humour”. The Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), a state monopoly, amplified this statement. The president of the ICRT, Danilo Sirio, emphasized that “under no circumstances will artistic content that denigrates women, or incites vulgarity, obscenity or offensiveness, or what is contrary to the Cuban values will be broadcasted”. Sirio also suggested that some materials, such as foreign television series, should be accompanied by comments from a Cuban specialist.

 RAP & HIP-HOP AS DISSENT
On 28 January 2015, rapper Maikel Oksobo “El Dkano” (real name Maikel Castillo Pérez) was sentenced to one year in prison in Havana. It is generally believed he was targeted for having used his music to express dissenting political opinions. El Dkano was sentenced under a charge known as the “peligrosidad predelictiva”, translated as “dangerousness that is likely to lead a crime”, which is used to imprison dissidents for longer periods.

In April 2015 a group of Cuban hip-hop artists were expelled from the Cuban Rap Agency (ACR). In an open letter sent out on 28 June2015, the group denounced Minister of Culture Julián González Toledo for deteriorating Cuban hip-hop both inside and outside the country. The group also said that the Cuban Institute of Music made “promises that never came true”, and that Cuban hip-hop is being censored more than ever. Some of the artists stated that the real reason of their expulsion was their participation in Panama in the Summit of the Americas, a set of international summits organized by the Organization of the American States bringing together leaders of countries in the Americas. The hip-hop artists who participated in the summit were Soandry, Hermanos de Causa, Renovación Urbana, Maikel y El Fonky, La Alianza, Raudel Escuadrón Patriota, Ruta 11, Bárbaro el Urbano, Charly Mucha Rima, Cuentas Claras, Carlitos P and P, Yimi con Klase, and Onda Libre.

PASSPORT RETURNED TO BRUGUERA
US-based performance artist Tania Bruguera was not allowed to leave Cuba during the first six months of 2015. The artist was first detained in December 2014 after trying to stage a work entitled ‘Tatlin’s whisper #6’, in Havana’s Revolution Square. Bruguera was harassed several times in 2015, and was also detained for a few hours in May 2015 after reading passages from Hannah Arendt’s ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ outside her home in Havana. Cuban authorities didn’t file formal charges, but Bruguera had her passport confiscated. In mid-July 2015 authorities returned her passport.

In October 2015, graffiti artist and activist Danilo Maldonado Machado, El Sexto, was released after being detained for 10 months. The artist was first detained in December 2014 after police officers found a drawing of two pigs named Fidel and Raul that the artist was planning to use in a performance. Authorities explained to the artist’s family that El Sexto was detained because they considered him “counter-revolutionary”. During this period the artist didn’t face any trial or sentence.

Gorki was detained on three occasions in 2015 and physically attacked

 
GORKI ÁGUILA DETAINED AGAIN ... AND AGAIN

Gorki Águila, leader of the band Porno Para Ricardo, has never had an easy relationship with Cuban authorities. A controversial figure, Gorki has been arrested or detained many times during the past 15 years; sometimes because of his role as an activist, sometimes because of his artistic work, and sometimes due to the combination of both his art and activism — or “artyvism” as some call it. 2015 was no exception for Gorki. On 23 May Gorki was arrested outside Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts by Cuban authorities after carrying a banner with the image of the graffiti artist El Sexto and the word “libertad” (freedom) on it. Gorki was incarcerated for 23 hours and said police physically attacked him while in their custody.

In July, Gorki dedicated a song to the Damas de Blanco (Women in White), a citizen movement that gathers wives and relatives of political prisoners. Gorki declared that “it seems that the Cuban government planned to dismantle the Damas de Blanco with intimidation and violence, but what the governmental interference did was to only unite them even more”.

On 5 August 2015, some weeks after his presentation, officers of State Security waited for Gorki outside his home and detained him again for a couple of hours. A State Security officer warned him that, if he continued to attend opposition meetings, the government could restrict his travels to other countries. However, Gorki stated that the State is “violating every right, one after another: the right to pacific protest, to freedom of speech, to travel, and that the detentions in the island are totally arbitrary”.

On 7 November 2015, Gorki was again detained, along with two journalists from tv channel France 24, for several hours in Havana. The musician and the two journalists were brought to the Playa Municipality police station, where Gorki made a phone call to digital independent media outlet 14ymedio, and reported the situation. After hours of detention, all three were set free without charges.

In November 2015, Cuban authorities suspended theatre director and filmmaker Juan Carlos Cremata’s permission to work following the ban of his theatre play ‘El Rey se Muere’ (The King is Dying). Later, in December, Cremata wrote in his BBC-syndicated blog that Cuban authorities tried to expel Eliecer Ávila, an opponent of the Castro regime, from a meeting about Cuban cinema at the Cultural Center Fresa y Chocolate. According to Cremata, officials were spying on the event for a while before discretely trying to take Ávila away from the crowd. When people at the event asked for an explanation, officers just said that the event was “meant to be for film makers and revolutionaries only”. The day after, the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industry (ICAIC) defended the position of the officials in a letter, stating that: “there can’t be place in our forums for those who are enemies of the Revolution”.

Cuban human rights defender Frank Calzon physically prevented from providing information at Cuba Summit hosted by The Economist

12 months later and Castro-lite thuggish censorship on display in Washington D.C.

Activist roughed up today at Cuba Summit hosted by The Economist

The Economist, the influential British magazine, does not want people to read this report, which was published by the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. The Economist held a conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington on December 3rd. The event’s attendants read like a who’s who of businesses wanting to have the United States lift its trade embargo against the Cuban regime.

Frank Calzon, Executive Director at the Center for a Free Cuba, has distributed similar reports at numerous conferences at universities, think tanks, and hotels. Calzon, a Cuban native is regularly featured in such national newspapers as the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has appeared on such television broadcasts as The News Hour on PBS and on several MSNBC, CNN, and FOX programs. He also has testified before congressional committees and been a guest speaker at more than 30 universities in the United States and abroad. In the last 40 years, Frank has been expelled from three events at the request of Cuban diplomats present. In the United States, as long as there is no disruption and one conducts themselves civilly, the distribution of academic reports are usually welcomed.

At the Four Seasons, Frank was first told he would be allowed to make available the report outside the conference room during one of their breaks. Later, he was told they would call the police to arrest him if he did not leave. The police came and did not arrest him.

An Administration official attending the conference offered to make the report available to the participants. Mr. Calzon went home. But The Economist, perhaps trying to accommodate the Cuban government (as a Professor of the University of Havana spoke at the conference), used heavy-handed methods which are most common in Havana.

Frank Calzon is a human rights defender who has spoken before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva Switzerland on several occasions. He was physically assaulted by a Cuban diplomat in 2004 after the Castro regime lost a key human rights vote, in part, thanks to Calzon's advocacy work. Eleven years later he continues to speak out for human rights in Cuba and on October 29, 2015 Frank gave a presentation on the human rights situation in Cuba that is available below.


Anyone interested in calling attention to these heavy handed tactics and/or engaging in a serious debate can contact The Economist at letters@economist.com. Challenge them to open its pages to a discussion of the subject beyond the obvious public relations goals of its Cuba Summit Conference. My own response to this outrage is to boycott The Economist and the Four Seasons Hotel.

Celebrating Celia Cruz and her decision to live and sing in freedom

How the Castro regime sought to censor and punish Celia Cruz for living in freedom

Celia Cruz: The Queen of Salsa

In just seven days on October 21st the world will observe the 90th anniversary of the birth in Havana, Cuba of Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso better known as Celia Cruz. Last night Telemundo aired the first of an 80 part - novela of the life of the woman who would become known as the Queen of Salsa and "La Guarachera de Cuba". The first episode is available online. She is recognized around the world as an icon of music and in 2013 Google honored Celia on the 88th anniversary of her birth with a Google Doodle. In 2010 the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp in her honor describing the Cuban artist as follows.

"A dazzling performer of many genres of Afro-Caribbean music, Celia Cruz (1925-2003) had a powerful contralto voice and a joyful, charismatic personality that endeared her to fans from different nationalities and across generations. Settling in the United States following the Cuban revolution, the “Queen of Salsa” performed for more than five decades and recorded more than 50 albums."  

However in Cuba the Castro regime continues to ban the music of Celia Cruz from the radio airwaves. She is not alone. There are other banned Cuban musicians of great importance. According to Shoot the singer!: music censorship today, a book edited by Marie Korpe states that there is increasing concern within the international music community that post-revolution generations are growing up without knowing or hearing these censored musicians and that this could lead to a loss of Cuban identity in future generations.The phrase cultural genocide is used to describe the "cultural revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s that blacklisted and censored scores of Cuban musicians and artists.

The above censorship is widely known, but not as well known is that when the mother of Celia Cruz was dying the Cuban musical icon was blocked by Fidel Castro from returning to Cuba to say goodbye to her mom or attend her funeral afterwards.  This practice still goes on today with Cuban dissidents in the diaspora barred arbitrarily from seeing their loved ones by the Castro regime.

Cuba under the Castros remains a totalitarian regime that has maintained a level of inflexibility that even 12 years after her death in 2003 and with relations "normalized" with the United States continues to censor the music of Celia Cruz. Women who think and speak freely in Cuba still suffer horrible consequences.

Hopefully that will soon change. In the meantime Celia's music and her legacy live on in Cuba on cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, and USBs circulating in the Cuban underground.

 

Press Freedom in Decline in the Western Hemisphere

Freedom in retreat?

"No country safe from the censorship power," concludes the IAPA

Charleston, SC (October 6, 2015).- The 71st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA ), which gathered more than 300 media executives and journalists, ended today after five days of sessions. The following document summarizes the debates and discussions that took place over press freedom in the Western Hemisphere.

CONCLUSIONS

of the 71th General Assembly

October 2 – 6, 2015

 

Unremitting violence against media outlets and journalists; the proliferation of laws, initiatives, and pressures from governments attempting to control the free flow of information both in the traditional media and on new media platforms; restrictions on access to public information; the discriminatory placement of government advertising; and greater concentration of media outlets in the hands of those with ties to governments. These were the warnings sounded most loudly by the publishers gathered at the 71st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association.

No country in the Americas is safe from the wave of censorship that is spreading like a massive oil spill. This is true even in countries that have traditionally upheld press freedom, in some cases under the paradoxical pretext of promoting pluralism, of ensuring the “right to forget,” or of stopping “hate speech.” This, combined with the rising prominence of thugs affiliated with drug trafficking and urban gangs, poses clear risks for civil liberties, and for freedom of expression and freedom of the press in particular, and hence for the strengthening of democracy in the Americas.

The unlawful actions of organized crime, drug trafficking gangs, and parapolice groups — many of which have gone unpunished — have left a toll of 11 journalists killed since March 2015: three each in Brazil and Mexico, two in Guatemala, and one each in Colombia, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. In Colombia, the statute of limitations ran out on two 1995 killings, although it should be noted that former Congressman Ferney Tapasco was convicted of ordering the murder of Orlando Sierra.

Various countries in the region saw physical assaults, attacks, acts of coercion and threats against journalists and media outlets for reasons related to their work. In Bolivia, three journalists were detained and temporarily jailed in retaliation for their reporting on government corruption. Acts of repression were directed against reporters covering elections in Guatemala and Argentina, and against those reporting on conflicts and social protests in Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.

In Venezuela, where the government is establishing totalitarian control over the media, 287 violations of press freedom have been documented so far this year, including assaults on journalists, efforts to criminalize the work of journalists, and restrictions on access to information. In a positive development, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in early September ordering the return of equipment and licenses to RCTV, but this ruling has been ignored thus far by the administration of Nicolás Maduro.

In Cuba, despite the reestablishment of relations between the Cuban and U.S. governments, little progress has been made in freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of the press, and two journalists remain behind bars. The methods of repression include censorship of critical websites, inspection of emails, suspension of mobile phone service, and physical and verbal attacks on activists and independent journalists.

In Ecuador, the climate of repression from oversight entities tasked with enforcing the Communication Act remains in place. Penalized media outlets and organizations invoked their constitutional right to resistance. A proceeding that would have dissolved FUNDAMEDIOS was dismissed, but the threats remain. The Saturday presidential addresses continue, in which those who dare to dissent from the government line are called out and stigmatized. In Argentina and Venezuela, the respective presidents abusively use national networks to air partisan propaganda and lambaste their critics.

Abuses and the discriminatory use of government advertising are on the rise in Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Mexico.

In the United States, the Justice Department revealed that in 2014 it issued two subpoenas and a search warrant, and that it twice authorized the questioning of media outlets and journalists. Two reporters who covered last year’s unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, were charged with “interference” and “trespassing.”

Restrictions on access to government-held information were exacerbated in Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In Chile, proposed laws could constitute severely undermine press freedom, including through interference in the editorial line of media outlets, restrictions on property rights and the undermining of the right to free enterprise, harm to journalistic enterprises and journalists, and restrictions on access to information.

In Panama, a bill currently under consideration would require journalists to be members of professional associations and would establish prison terms for illegally practicing journalism, among other serious restrictions. The investigations into illegal wiretappings of journalists are ongoing.

The concentration of media outlets in the hands of government entities or of people with ties to the government is an increasing phenomenon in the Americas. In Paraguay, for example, a business group linked to President Horacio Cartes purchased a group of media outlets, triggering controversy over the concentration of media in the hands of those close to the government. In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega maintains firm control over media outlets and journalists. Only one television station, one radio station, and one newspaper remain as independent media outlets; the remainder are owned by the Ortega family or by people close to them. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa failed to fulfill his commitment to reprivatize the media outlets that had been expropriated by his administration. And Argentina has seen a proliferation of multimedia groups born and raised on government advertising, despite paltry audience numbers.

In Uruguay, the online surveillance program of the Interior Ministry has caused concern, and pending before the Supreme Court are 18 claims seeking to have the Law of Audiovisual Communication Services declared unconstitutional.

In Costa Rica, meanwhile, a proposed law on radio and television that was hostile to private enterprises and press freedom was set aside, and initiatives to regulate government advertising, decriminalize the work of journalists, and legalize community radio stations are under consideration. Still, free journalism continues to face a number of threats.

Also worth noting are the coordinated efforts of press freedom organizations in the region, such as the recently formed Quito Forum, which put forward an action plan to demand that press freedom be upheld in Ecuador.

http://www.sipiapa.org/en/no-country-safe-from-the-censorship-power-concludes-the-iapa/