Author: Armando Chaguaceda

I share the demands of the demonstrators for participative democracy and their criticisms of the dominant politics. However, I want to sound some alarms that I find necessary not only as a result of the current conjuncture, but also to favor a new radically sustainable agenda on the left.

I promised this post to several friends who wanted me to speak about the Spanish demonstrations, now known as “Movimiento 15 M.”

I don’t understand why they raised special slogans during the march (for example freedom for the Cuban Five and in support for the country’s leaders).

I don’t question the authenticity of the interviewees or their testimonies, but what did indeed catch my attention was the interviewer’s seemingly negligible interest in presenting the more complex picture of our situation.

The recent events in North Africa and the Middle East have destroyed several myths of academia and global politics, thus sowing doubt and fear in all species of opinion makers, movers and shakers. This has also generated interpretations — more or less daring and substantial ones — on this side of the Atlantic including Cuba.

As a result of the changes now underway in Cuba, several people have written me to share their views regarding the impact they are experiencing — or foresee suffering — in their daily lives.

The end of my stay in Nicaragua couldn’t have been any better. Invited by friends of the Nicaraguan “Another World is Possible” social movement, I was part of the Central American Climatic Court.

Nicaragua is a country of young people. With sixty percent of the population under the age of 35, this is a condition that can present itself as either an opportunity or a barrier to the civic mobilization that the country needs to curb the indecencies of the traditional powers.