Author: Irina Echarry

In Cuba, animals are at a disadvantage. No law protects them and there aren’t many humans involved in the struggle to get one passed. There are many of us who think one is needed, but not enough.

“If I can’t have you, no one can.” Regrettably, the phrase wasn’t pulled out of a cheap soap opera but from real life. Those were the last words heard by the young, 16-year-old girl who, last week, stepped out of Alamar’s new cultural center with her boyfriend.

In the beginning, Alamar was a quiet neighborhood with horrible, densely-clustered buildings and plenty of vegetation. Far from the city center, it lacked an efficient public transportation network. The problem was overcome with a terminal with a number of bus stops that shortened distances some.

The news says that the 25th Havana Book Fair brings us a wide range of publications this year and that more than four million volumes will be sold. One of the books the public is anxiously waiting to get their hands on is Orwell’s 1984, which has been published in Cuba for the first time. (13 photos)

There were no excuses: it wasn’t raining, people had been notified in advance, the meeting would be held before the sacred soap opera came on and the “visitors” would arrive early. We had only to wait until the clock showed 8 pm to start.

The Cuban government has had no choice but to televise a migratory conflict involving its own citizens. This time around, we aren’t seeing Syrians fleeing from NATO bombings or Haitians taking to the sea in precarious rafts, nor Africans flocking to Europe’s borders in search of a better life.

Once again, I was able to see how the government manages to keep people quiet and prevent them from questioning their predicament or demanding their rights. This isn’t accomplished at gunpoint, no. They use a different weapon: disinformation.