Freedom of expression and censorship in Cuba

CADAL organized at Torcuato Di Tella University a round table with referents of independent culture, human rights activism and academia.

Oscar Grandío: «It is a farce that in Cuba there is a government accepted by the majority»

In this Cuarto de Hora, Oscar Grandío talks with Jorge Elías about the construction, use and abuse of propaganda narratives of the Cuban regime to present a fictitious image of its human rights situation before international organizations such as the United Nations. How was this macabre mechanism created? With what eyes does the international community see Cuba? «The same narrative that paints Cuba as a country where the rights to education, health, direct access to political power by the masses, etc., are guaranteed, is a farce. The council showed you. Now, it is still difficult to understand how the facts in practice negate this propaganda. In other words, there was a country that violated human rights and, if before it was not known how human rights were violated, now it is known. The Internet has changed everything. Cuban society is beginning to mobilize and the complaints are continuous, and the regional governments that support Cuba cannot continue denying a reality that is clear,» says Oscar.

Giselle Morfi: «The Cuban State has been in charge of erasing the historical memory since 1959»

In this Quarter of an Hour, Giselle Morfi, head of Cubalex’s legal team, talks with Jorge Elías about the situation in Cuba: a month with 225 repressive acts that translate into harassment by agents of the dictatorship. Harassment, persecution, criminalization and physical and psychological violence, which affect security, freedom and private life. Most of the victims are activists, human rights defenders and independent journalists. What happens on the island? »The Cuban Constitution regulates, in Article 4, a series of principles that the citizenry has to follow, of obligations that they have to do in defense of the Cuban revolution, and that if they do not do so, the Constitution itself says that they can be punished with the most severe penalties» says Giselle.

Carolina Barrero: «The EU does not recognize the dimension of the Cuban dictatorship»

In this Cuarto de Hora, Carolina Barrero talks with Jorge Elías about the result of the visit of Josep Borrell, the high representative for foreign policy of the European Union, to Cuba. The European Union, according to Borrell, does not have the capacity or the will to impose changes in Cuba. What solution does the Cuban people find in the face of a dictatorship that does not provoke rejection in the majority of the democratic governments of Latin America and the Caribbean? »If Europe does not want to open its eyes to the Cuban dictatorship or does not want to tell the truth, and rather becomes a propaganda, a propaganda machine for the dictatorship’s own narrative, we Cubans have our own voice to tell our reality » says Caroline.

José Jasán Nieves: «Reality and humor are combined with creativity, resilience and a hard stomach»

«A punta de lápiz». In this Cuarto de HOra, José Jasán Nieves talks with Jorge Elías about how El Toque, one of the main independent Cuban media, reflects the reality of the island and its fight for democracy, freedom and human rights, including digital humor. «In all those spaces where there are Cuban communities, we create content for those communities in the native formats of those social networks, so the government will have to block Facebook, YouTube, Twitter so that our message does not reach the Cubans who are in that community, in those virtual spaces» affirms José.

Reinaldo Escobar: «The worst thing for me, at this moment, is the lack of people’s rights»

In this Quarter of an Hour, Reinaldo Escobar talks with Jorge Elías about the situation of people in Cuba: the island where whoever protests is exposed to being branded a traitor, going to jail or forced exile. «Of course there were problems with electricity, of course there were shortages, but they were not the claims that people shouted in the street. The people shouted and demanded freedom, saying out loud: »we want change, we want change» and that change does not mean anything other than the democratization of the country, the decriminalization of political discrepancy, the opening to the economic rights of citizens , and they are such violent changes that they would really turn Cuba into another country,» says Reinaldo.

Hilda Landrove: «In Cuba, opponents are presented as criminals»

In this Quarter of an Hour, Hilda Landrove talks with Jorge Elías about the report «July 11 in Cuba: strategies of totalitarian power to control the narrative, actions deployed to control and impose the official narrative in the virtual space» that published with Yanet Rosabal. In Cuba, the internet reached phones in 2018, social networks became the only means of communication that the State does not have under its control, and where Cubans can make visible the social discontent of more than 6 decades. «We are talking about a regime that can, for example, impose home confinement on a person for 15, 20, 30 days, three months. There are many cases of this, of a regime that makes express arrests, that takes people prisoner for a few hours and then releases them without at any time during those hours saying where they are... In other words, we are talking about a specific repression, and social networks have also helped to make these cases visible,» says Hilda.

David Hoffman: «The really unique thing about Oswaldo is that he got 35,000 people to rise up against the dictatorship»

Jorge Elías talks with the author of the book «Give Me Liberty», David Hoffman, about Oswaldo Payá: the Cuban who challenged Fidel Castro with an unprecedented citizen petition at a national level for democracy and who died after a suspicious traffic accident that, even to this day, has unanswered questions. «Oswaldo had a brilliant idea and that was to use the state law against himself. That made people lose their fear», says David.

María Matienzo: «From the official discourse, there is a tendency to justify the Russian invasion»

There is a complicity between Cuba and Russia, and the same goes for Nicaragua and Venezuela in Latin America. María Matienzo tells Jorge Elías in Cuarto de Hora how the political propaganda of the Diaz Canel regime supplies the information on the island. «The position has so far been to justify this invasion with the supposed threat that Ukraine posed to Russia,» says Maria, among many other things. From the repercussions that remain in force on the island since 11J, political propaganda, the criminalization of any action in favor of democracy, hunger, forced disappearances, beatings and imprisonments for the simple fact of thinking differently to government ineffectiveness. «There has been a lot of terror and, as this is an island, there is nowhere to run,» she concludes.

Abraham Jiménez Enoa: «The changes in Cuba are going to happen with a Perestroika»

Hosted by journalist Jorge Elías, CADALTV opens the series of interviews «Cuarto de hora». The first guest was the Cuban independent journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa, one of the founders of the magazine El Estornudo, a columnist for the Washington Post and Gatopardo, who left Cuba for the first time and is currently in Barcelona. How does Cuba look from a distance? How is the situation in Cuba after the 11J protests? Do you plan to return to Cuba?

United Nations finds that Maykel Osorbo, winner of two Latin Grammy Awards, has been imprisoned solely for his pro-democracy activism and demands his release

Following a complaint by 7 international NGOs the United Nations working group for arbitrary detention demands the release of Maykel Osorbo.

International organisations demand the immediate release of Latin Grammy-winning musician Maykel Osorbo and an immediate halt to the violation of his human rights

CADAL together with international organizations demand the immediate release of the musician Maykel Osorbo, winner of the Latin Grammy, and the immediate cessation of the violation of his human rights. Osorbo was arrested on May 18, 2021 when he was at his home and was subjected to enforced disappearance for 14 days. During the last 3 years, Osorbo has suffered at least 121 repressive police acts of all kinds, including multiple arrests. On November 18, CADAL launched a petition demanding the freedom of Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo, who was arrested on May 18 on charges of «resistance, contempt and disobedience».

Cuba: We Condemn the Detention of Musician and Activist, Maykel Osorbo, and Support an International Investigation

The case of Osorbo is emblematic of the situation human rights defenders face in Cuba. State-sponsored acts of violence and cases of arbitrary arrest have severely increased over the past year, hitting a peak in July with state-sponsored attacks on peaceful demonstrators. The international community must closely monitor systemic human rights violations occurring across the country and cast a critical eye when monitoring the cases of the hundreds to potentially thousands of people who have been documented as disappeared or arrested following the events of July 11th. This also includes monitoring the cases of 124 new political prisoners documented by Prisoners Defenders in July alone.

The popular demand for freedom in Cuba

On July 11, 2021, unprecedented mass protests took place in different cities of Cuba, on which independent journalists and leaders of culture and political activism in this country reflect a month after this great event. The protests had a great impact in Latin America, especially in the countries governed by dictatorships allied to the repressive regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel: Venezuela and Nicaragua. A month after the protests, hundreds of people have been detained and disappeared in Cuba, mainly young people. According to resolution 19/35 of the Human Rights Council, which Cuba is serving for the fifth consecutive period, "States must facilitate and protect peaceful assemblies."

The return of politics

The failure of tough policies, already anticipated in Cuba and then in Venezuela, reinforces the return to a policy strategy, now with Joe Biden. If the hawks criticized Obama's policy for its apparent lack of results, now the doves are in a position to ask the same questions in the face of the same reality. Neither Venezuela nor Cuba is any closer to a return to democracy, each with its own specificities and contexts, than they were in January 2017 when Trump came to power.

CADAL nominates the Movimiento San Isidro for the Freemuse Award for Freedom of Artistic Expression 2021

CADAL nominated the MSI for its innovative work and great effort in facing the coercive measures of the Cuban government. Since its formation in 2018 to confront the provisions of the controversial Decree 349, the movement has shown that it is possible to integrate art and activism in the same group that is solid enough to discern and fight peacefully against the dictatorial government that governs Cubans.

Cuba. Authorities Must Cease Harassment of UNPACU Activists and Organization’s Leader Jose Daniel Ferrer.

In response to the uninterrupted acts of intimidation and violence committed in the last two months by Cuban authorities against members of the dissident organization Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), its leader José Daniel Ferrer, and his family, more than 30 Cuban and international human rights organizations issued the following statement:

Organizations denounce Police violence in Cuba to prevent demonstrations

On June 30, Cuba's State Security Department led operations against journalists and activists, who were arrested on the street and held in their homes against their will. The Cuban government's violation of the rights of assembly, free expression and movement towards this group of people is part of the call issued by social networks to demonstrate on June 30 for the murder of Hansel Ernesto Hernández Galiano at hands of the National Revolutionary Police.

Joint Statement from Organizations and the Media International support for the petition to declare Decree-Law 370 unconstitutional in Cuba

CADAL signed a Joint Communiqué of Organizations and the Media that calls on actors from the international community, governments, civil society and international organizations for the protection of human rights to demand that the Cuban government immediately end online surveillance against people who express their opinions on social networks or other media and the cessation of the persecution of journalists and human rights activists.

Cuba and its Narcissus State

In the exact sense of the Narcissus myth, the Cuban state may drown in the attempt to kiss the constructed and projected image of itself in an era previous to instant and globalised information. In the post-Covid-19 world, states need more than mirrors. They need effiicency.