Chronicle on Cuba - December 2006

Exile Community

December 2: Fidel Castro was a no-show at a major military parade that doubled as his 80th birthday celebration, raising questions about whether the ailing leader will ever return to power as his public absence begins taking on a tone of permanence. In Miami, Alfredo Mesa, executive director of the anti-Castro Cuban-American National Foundation, said the leader's failure to appear was unimportant. "For us, Fidel Castro is part of the past," Mesa said. "The pressure is on those who did appear, for them to let Cubans in Cuba decide for themselves what kind of future they want." (AP, 2/12/06)

December 4: An umbrella group of influential Cuban exile organizations joined the growing chorus of Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits calling for the United States to ease restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. About two dozen exile organizations, speaking in unison under the umbrella group Consenso Cubano, or Cuban Consensus, released a report calling for the Bush administration to ease travel restrictions. The groups say US policies that restrict Cubans from visiting family members and that limit remittances and other humanitarian aid ``violate fundamental rights of Cubans, damage the Cuban family, and constitute ethical contradictions.'' The announcement underscores a growing rift between hard-line exile leaders who want to preserve the sanctions, and more moderate Cuban Americans in Miami and dissidents in Cuba who feel that increasing interaction can help promote a peaceful transition to democracy. [Propuesta de agenda humanitaria] (The Miami Herald, 4/12/06)

December 4: The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) proposed a set of measures whereby Miami-based Cubans would be empowered to act as "agents of change" in the island. The set, part of a CANF research paper entitled “Cuba in Transition: 2006,” includes a call upon the Cuban government to let its people decide its own destiny through free elections, as well as early economic assistance packages to avoid waiting until the "day after." "It seems to us that it is completely irrational to think that it is possible to carry out a peaceful and successful transition without being prepared for it, or without preparing the Cuban people (...) The moment to act is now, not later," said Francisco "Pepe" Hernández, a member of the CANF executive board. (El Nuevo Herald, 4/12/06)

December 5: Huber Matos, an ex-Commander of the Cuban Revolution exiled in Miami, urged the Armed Forces of his country to forge an alliance with the people to restore a democratic process in the Caribbean island. In a message addressed to the military and to Ministry of the Interior officials, Matos said that "there exist the reasons, the heart and the will to play a leading role, hand in hand with the people, in the birth of the New Republic." (EFE, 5/12/06)

December 8: The residents of a town near Havana have been honoured by a European human rights groups for defending an opposition activist when Cuba's secret police went to his home to take him away, a Cuban exile organization announced. The Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate said the citizens of the municipality of Madruga received the Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Prize. The directorate said the prize was awarded "to the town of Madruga because on the 2nd of November hundreds of people took to the streets when the political police showed up at the home of human rights activist Eddy Hernandez Arencibia." Hungarian Ambassador to the United States Andras Simonyi presented the prize in a ceremony at the offices of the directorate and Jose Manuel Lopez Montero, a Madruga resident who recently arrived in Miami, accepted the award on behalf of the town. The Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award was created by Romanian physicist Gabriel Andreescu in 2001, with the support of eight Central and Eastern European human rights groups, to honor dissidents in Cuba. It takes its name from Pedro Luis Boitel, a Cuban political prisoner who died while on a hunger strike in 1972. (EFE, 8/12/06)

December 10: Mario Llerena, a Cuban intellectual who was an early representative of Fidel Castro in the United States but who broke with him before he took power because of Mr. Castro’s shift toward Communism, died in Miami. He was 93. Mr. Llerena met Mr. Castro in Mexico in the mid-1950s as Mr. Castro was preparing for an invasion of Cuba to overthrow the military dictator Fulgencio Batista. At Mr. Castro’s request, Mr. Llerena put into writing the democratic ideals that underpinned the Castro movement in the early days of the uprising. The document, “Nuestra Razón” (“Our Reason”), was published in Mexico. After splitting with Mr. Castro, Mr. Llerena became an important figure among Cuban exiles. In 1978 he published “The Unsuspected Revolution: The Birth and Rise of Castroism,” in which he accused Mr. Castro of deceiving many followers when he adopted Communism. He also published several collections of his journalistic essays about the revolution. (The New York Times, 12/12/06)

December 12: Former Cuban political prisoner Armando Valladares wrote his own book about life in Cuba as a counterpoint to two controversial children's books in school libraries. Children loading guns, hospitals full of cockroaches and elderly people who live mired in their own filth. This is the real Cuba, according to a new children's book written by Valladares. The prominent poet and author who spent 22 years as one of Fidel Castro's political prisoners was in Miami to introduce his new book, “Los Niños de Cuba”. (The Miami Herald, 13/12/06)

December 22: A small but growing number of Cubans in South Florida are getting around the US embargo that limits what can be sent to the communist island by sending their Christmas gifts through foreign Internet sites. At least one Canadian Web site, http://www.Cubamaxstore.com, allows people to ship items such as beef, jams and even deodorant to relatives in Cuba. While the gifts aren't the i-Pods and Sony Play Stations that Americans crave, they are much appreciated by Cubans who earn an average of $10 to $15 a month and often struggle to put enough food on the table. The trend exemplifies the creative ways Cuban families are seeking to stay connected, despite the restrictions on travel and exports imposed by the governments on both sides of the Florida Straits, said Cuban-American activist Ramon Saul Sanchez. "Fortunately, people try to keep in touch with their families. Unfortunately, they have to go through all these measures," he said. Antonio Conte, who left Cuba in the early 1990s and edits an online magazine of articles written by Cuban dissidents, said it was easier than going through one of the few authorized parcel services and safer than returning to the island. “It's better to send food there instead of money. It's not so expensive, and you can help a bit." Conte said. "In Cuba you have your ration card, and you get chicken only once in a while. Only the children and the sick get beef." (Globe & Mail, 23/12/06)

December 25: Violeta Cano, a pianist and composer who struck a chord with Miami's Cuban exile community, died of organ failure at South Miami's Larkin Hospital. She was 84. ''Most of her work was always by ear,'' said her daughter, Violet Moreno-Manrique. ``She was very talented, a natural.'' Cano starred in a radio show on WFAB La Fabulosa, which was the only Spanish-language station in Miami during the 1960s. Her handprint is in Hialeah's Monument Park as part of a hall of fame formed to honor Cuban culture and artists of Cuban descent. Cano belonged to the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores Cubanos en el Exilio (SACCE), an association of exiled Cuban artists who got together and played for countless social and community events. (The Miami Herald, 26/12/06)