Cuban Colada

Elsa Morejón Hernández publishes open letter asking for release of 11 political prisoners (morning roundup)

Top News The year closes without resolution of the cases of 11 jailed dissidents imprisoned since 2003.

Elsa Morejón Hernández, wife of Cuban political prisoner Oscar Elías Biscet, published an open letter on Tuesday asking the Raúl Castro government why it has yet to release her husband and 10 other prisoners, as promised in an unofficial agreement brokered by the Catholic Church. Though the Cuban government has released the other "Black Spring" prisoners into Spanish exile since that agreement, the Castro government appears unwilling to free the remaining 11 because they have said they want to stay in Cuba.  

The news comes just as the Castro government released Egberto Escobedo Morales on Thursday. Escobedo had been sentenced to 20 years under charges of espionage and enemy propaganda, but was released five years early. Elizardo Sánchez of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights said the release was routine, citing that Escobedo had served more than half his sentence, but said it caught his attention that Cuban authorities allowed Escobedo to remain on the island rather than sending him to Spain.

Below is a YouTube video advocating for the release of Biscet, featuring his daughter Winnie (H/T Capitol Hill Cubans). 

In Other News

• The United States will introduce a Celia Cruz postal stamp in 2011, along with stamps for other Latin music stars.
• Havana's Hotel Nacional turned 80 on Thursday. 
• Jamaica will serve as the Caribbean hub for Cuba's foreign eye care program. 
• Fidel Castro said that Venezuela will attain first world-quality healthcare thanks to Cuban assistance.

In Cuban State Media

• Cuba and Russia signed an interparliamentary cooperation agreement.
• Cuban intellectual and independence leader José Martí belonged to the Twilight Club in New York, according to a new book by Rodolfo Sarracino Mariñat. 

In the Blogosphere

• Café Fuerte has a list of the top ten news stories of 2010. Number one? The drive to restructure the economy led by Raúl Castro, most clearly articulated in his "o rectificamos o nos hundimos" speech (loosely: "either we rectify or we sink"), which was recently recommended by Cuban filmmaker Alfredo Guevara. 

What did we miss? Send us links to more stories in the comments.

-- Roque Planas

USINT's Parmly on dissidents, WikiLeaks

Michael Parmly, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, was interviewed this week by Stéphane Bussard of the Swiss daily Le Temps. Here are some Parmly quotes from the interview, which was published in French.

• On the WikiLeaks disclosure of USINT messages: "The documents prove that we have principles, ethics. But Julian Assange broke the law by publishing confidential telegrams. Every business has its rules and is entitled to his secrets. Otherwise it's anarchy. Or voyeurism."
• On the authorship of USINT messages: "Contrary to what publications suggest, I wrote only 1 or 2 percent of the cables. It was important for me to make the staffers write. It was a form of apprenticeship. I personally did not write the cable on Fidel's health; I only validated it. It is the work of a person who had contacts with the hospitals and physicians. I hope she is never identified."
• On the value of listening to the people: "For us, the opinions of 11.2 million Cubans count. I believe in pointillism."
• On identifying Vladimiro Roca and Elizardo Sánchez in a message: "These are two international figures.* The damage is limited. If, instead, a little-known family man appears in a footnote, he could suffer the consequences of his life."
• On WikiLeaks' chilling effect on diplomats: "The publication of the WikiLeaks documents might discourage Cubans from talking to us. Our capitals could be less informed. Intimidated, the diplomats could censor themselves. If I had foreseen WikiLeaks, I would have reduced the production of documents in half. An effort to lower the level of [security] classification had been undertaken. Now, the [classification] 'secret' will again be reinforced."

*Read Dec. 17 blog item "Diplomat is miffed by dissidents' complaints."

Misgivings?

'I would be very unhappy if the numerous conversations I had with blogger Yoani Sánchez were to be published.'

–Michael Parmly, former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, commenting on
the WikiLeaks disclosures.

Speaker of Russian House is in Havana

Moscow views interaction of 2 nations as 'strategic'

The president of Russia's State Duma, Boris Vyacheslavovich Gryzlov, arrived Wednesday in Havana on an official visit and will remain in Cuba until Sunday (Jan. 2), the Russian media reported.

(PHOTO SHOWS Gryzlov leaving a wreath at the memorial to Russian soldiers who died while posted to Cuba in the 1960s.)

Gryzlov was invited to the island in late November by his Cuban counterpart, Ricardo Alarcón, who visited Russia for a week.

In Havana, Russian Ambassador to Cuba Mikhail Kamynin told Itar-TASS that the visit will be "a logical conclusion" to the 50th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Russia and Cuba.

Many events in Cuba in 2010 involving Russia "once again confirmed the great potential of friendship and solidarity that exists between our countries," the Russian news agency said. According to Kamynin, they demonstrated that "the interaction between Moscow and Havana is increasingly assuming a strategic character with a view to the future."

"The high point in the development of interparliamentary cooperation between Russia and Cuba will be the scheduled signing of a cooperation agreement between the State Duma and the National Assembly," Kamynin added. "Communication between the legislative bodies of our countries is important and harmoniously complements the active contacts in other areas." (PHOTO SHOWS the signing ceremony by Alarcón and Gryzlov.)

[UPDATE: Speaking after the signing ceremony, Gryzlov said that "the current trade, which totals $260 million, does not reflect the bilateral trade potential," and that Moscow is hoping to diversify its economic and investment ties with Cuba.]

Another political prisoner is released

Cuban authorities have released a political prisoner who, 15 years ago, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for "espionage and enemy propaganda," an opposition spokesman told the French news agency AFP on Thursday.

Egberto Ángel Escobedo Morales, 44, left prison on Wednesday, five years short of serving his full term, said Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz, head of a human rights organization in Havana. Escobedo was released on parole, presumably for health reasons. He had repeatedly staged hunger strikes while in prison.

The report did not say where Escobedo was imprisoned, but a September 2010 report that he had gone on a hunger strike placed him at the Toledo II prison in Havana.

For several years earlier, he was an inmate at the Cerámicas Rojas prison in Camagüey, his home town. (NOTE: His first name has been spelled "Edberto" in various news reports.)

Escobedo "was arrested after he joined a military counterintelligence unit to obtain information for the opposition," Sánchez explained. A 1997 press release by Cuba Press said Escobedo was also charged with the "forcible theft of documents, maps, files and video cassettes with secret information from the Youth Labor Army of Camagüey."

Cuban journalist and blogger Ernesto Morales Licea arrives in Miami (morning roundup)

Top News: Cuban journalist and author of the blog "El Pequeño Hermando," Ernesto Morales Licea, left the island for Miami on Tuesday, with plans to work as a journalist in the United States.

The news was first reported by Wildfredo Cancio of Café Fuerte. 

After studying journalism at the University of Oriente, Morales went to work for state media in the eastern town of Bayamo. Morales' disagreements with the state's editorial line put him in constant conflicts that boiled over when Cuban hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo died, Morales told Cancio. "I was in an ethical conflict, because they obligated me to take sides and do interviews with artists and intellectuals to back up the government position, when in reality I was against it," Morales said. 

After leaving state journalism, Morales began a the blog El Pequeño Hermano in July, gaining notoriety soon after when his work was recommended by famous Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez on her Twitter account. (Morales had interviewed Sánchez for a post published by Claudia Cadelo's blog Octavo Cerco in April.)

In November, Morales denounced a series of intricate, online defamation attacks that he believes were coordinated by Cuban authorities. Morales outlined the story in a blog post entitled "Dissecting a Modus Operandi." 

In Other News

• The rumor floating around the blogosphere yesterday has been confirmed by the press: Cuba will remove soap, toothpaste and detergent from the public's ration cards. The cutback on subsidies for hygiene products will raise prices for the goods drastically. Click here for the report from Cuban state media with a .pdf of the resolution. 
• Cuban-American historian and journalist Ángel Torres passed away yesterday.
• A Mexican judge sentenced two Cubans to seven and a half years for faking the kidnapping of a third Cuban in order to seek a ransom. 

In Cuban State Media

• Cuban authorities met with the Brazilian ambassador in Havana to review the state of bilateral relations before the inauguration of president-elect Dilma Rousseff.
• Fidel Castro continues to reflect on the Haitian cholera epidemic, among other musings.
• Cuban filmmaker and founder of the Cuban Cinematography Institute (INCAIC, in Spanish) Alfredo Guevara called upon Cuba's youth to keep working for the Revolution and to read Raúl Castro's recent speech to the National Assembly. 

In the Blogosphere

• Alfredo Guevara's comments on Wednesday were widely quoted in the Cubanist blogosphere, often with a touch of sarcasm following a post by La Loca del Blog, reposted by Periódico Guamá. 
• Para Leer Si Te Queda Tiempo named Cuban blogger Luis Felipe Rojas, author of Cruzar las Alambradas, its Joven of the Year for 2010. 

What did we miss? Send us links to relevant articles in the comments. 

-- Roque Planas

List of subsidized goods is further reduced

Beginning Sunday, soap and other toiletries such as toothpaste will no longer be available to Cubans at state-subsidized prices via the monthly ration card, The Associated Press reports, citing the Official Gazette.

The official announcement was signed by Jacinto Angulo Pardo, minister of Domestic Trade.

At present, Cubans pay 25 cents of a peso for a bar of soap and 60 cents of a peso for a tube of toothpaste. As of Sunday, they'll have to pay 5 and 8 pesos, respectively.

Or, Cubans can turn to hard-currency stores, which sell toiletries for convertible pesos – at a much higher cost. [UPDATE: The continuing elimination of subsidies is the subject of an article by blogger Yoani Sánchez in her website, Generation Y. Click here.]

Women's rally on Human Rights Day earns prisoners a gift from the state: ice cream

Rally leader's husband refuses to leave prison if he's not given total freedom and the right to stay in Cuba

A demonstration by the Ladies in White outside Prison 1580 in Havana on Dec. 9, International Human Rights Day, resulted in a gift of ice cream to the inmates 24 hours later, according to a letter from one of the prisoners. (For background, read our Dec. 10 blog item "Dissidents are in the news...")

In a letter to his wife, Ladies' leader Laura Pollán, prisoner Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez says that, on the morning after the demonstration, "the Interior Ministry general in charge of Jails and Prisons came 'to visit' and collect first-hand information about the incident you staged."

Although Maseda did not name the officer, the Directorate of Jails and Prisons is nominally headed by Gen. Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, the nation's Interior Minister.

"Suddenly that afternoon, a refrigerated truck full of ice-cream tubs arrived at the prison," Maseda relates. Each of us was served two or three portions with the evening meal. I got vanilla; I would have preferred chocolate."

The official explanation was that the ice cream was a present from the general to the prison staff, but that the quantity was

WikiLeaks sparks debate about Cuban healthcare (morning roundup)

Top News: Secret cables made public by WikiLeaks continue to put Cuba's famed healthcare system under scrutiny. While the Cuban government has held up its healthcare system perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Communist revolution, a 2008 cable paints a picture of antiquated facilities and patients forced to resort to bribery to receive service. The information upon which the cable is based was provided by a foreign service health practitioner who treated Cuban personnel and made unauthorized visits to Cuban facilities. For the details, see Juan Tamayo's piece in The Miami Herald (click here for Spanish). 

The same cable caused an uproar in the U.S. media almost two weeks ago, because it cited an informant whose name was redacted as saying that "the Cuban authorities have banned Michael Moore's documentary 'Sicko,' as being subversive." Moore disputed the statement and said his film had been screened nationally in Cuba on April 25, 2008. 

A recent PBS Newshour series by Ray Suarez also sparked debate about the island's health system, with critics charging that the report was overly sympathetic. Conservative columnist at The Wall Street Journal, Mary O'Grady, for example, called the report a "Cuban fairy tale." Part two of the newscast is available for viewing below.  

Another big story: Humberto Eladio Real Suárez became the third prisoner in Cuba this month to have his death sentence commuted to 30 years, following similar decisions for Raúl Ernesto Cruz León and Otto René Rodríguez Llerena. With the reduction of Real Suárez's sentence, Cuba no longer has any prisoners on death row. Real Suárez, a Cuban-American, was convicted of killing a Cuban guard during a 1994 attack on Villa Clara. (Click here for Spanish.) 

In Other News

• Cubans have already applied for 60 percent of the available self-employment licenses, while Cuban media called upon the bureaucracy to change its mentality in order to remove obstacles in the application process.  
• Notwithstanding economic difficulties at home, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez told the Jamaican press that his country will continue its aid programs to developing countries.
• The Cuban government has set a strategic goal for 2011 to migrate to open source software, according to a report from Chinese state media. 

In Cuban State Media

• The president of Cuba's National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, defended Gerardo Hernández, a Cuban spy jailed in the United States who has recently adopted a position at odds with the Cuban government's regarding the 1996 downing of a Brothers to the Rescue plane. 
• The southern Indian state of Karnataka will send 1,000 agricultural workers to Cuba to learn techniques of organic farming, Juventud Rebelde reported.
• This December is on track to become the coldest on record in Cuba since 1951, according to a report by Granma. 

In the Blogosphere

• Discussions about the ration system propelled the Cubanist blogosphere. Penúltimos Días posted the .pdf of a resolution from the Ministry of Commerce suspending the inclusion of personal hygiene products from the ration system. The news prompted conservative blog Babalú to take a dig at the Cuban government, writing a short post entitled "Dirty Communists." Yoani Sánchez at Generación Y posted a piece describing Cubans' anxieties about the coming end of the "libreta," or ration book. "Everyone knows that maintaining the libreta is unsustainable for the national economy," Sánchez writes. "But few can imagine life without it."

What did we miss? Send us links to Cuba stories in the comments.

-- Roque Planas

Telecom Italia will sell its shares in Etecsa back to the Cuban government, paper says

From the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore:
Telecom Italia is preparing to bid farewell to Cuba. According to rumors, the sale of its stake in Etecsa, the Cuban telecommunications company, is in the final stretch.

Telecom's 27-percent share, which in the last six months Telecom valued at 367 million euros, would be acquired by the Cuban government, which has control over the rest of the capital.

The price being discussed for the transaction is still unknown, but, according to the rumors, it incorporates a premium. [Blogger's Note: Market analysts Equita SIM on Tuesday estimated the value of the Cuban assets at 530 million euros.]

Telecom Italia's CEO, Franco Bernabé, said in mid-October that the negotiations for the sale of Etecsa shares were in an "advanced stage," explaining the decision by saying that "participation was never fully consolidated."

Nevertheless, Cuba offers a high potential for development, considering the still low prevalence of telecommunications