Armando Chaguaceda’s Diary

Here’s where I intend to drink my morning coffee, after a short workout of walking two floors up to salute the astral king with the taste of the filtered beans.

Although I am quarantined in this picturesque Mexican community, I have never been so connected with my native Cuba.

Today the virus acquired a face. The daughter of a friend in Europe. Even though she’s a young person, strong and well taken care of, it makes me nervous.

What we’re living through has no parallel. It’s not a war where we know who and where an attack is coming from. Neither is it an earthquake…

With my paranoia under control and the news – and signs – of infection dangerously closing in on our area, we are getting ready to bunker down in quarantine.

“Come back – now!” mi esposa ordered over the phone with that mixture of reason and imperial authority, so much her own and so irresistible.

Recent protests in Ecuador refer to three analytical dimensions: a home-based genesis (the combination of historic legacy and political circumstances), a certain foreign influence (of Venezuelan governments and allies) in their development, and in the crossfire, an incalculable impact on democracy in the continent.

One of the problems [we have] in Mexico—given that the archetype of what some call the “long neoliberal night” still holds weight, as well as the effect of our own cultural, geopolitical or ideological parochialisms—is to label as “neoliberal” any policy that either excludes, alienates or dominates American territory (as in the continent, not the US).

Different analyses and testimonies about Cuba’s new constitutional reform have recently been published on official and alternative media platforms throughout the country. I would like to write about what is likely to happen with this process, instead of what I wish for.

Ariel Ruiz Urquiola is a young scientist being held prisoner here in Cuba, the victim of a rigged trial revealing a country’s impunity where State law supersedes its people’s rights. A renowned biologist and dedicated environmentalist, Ariel has been denouncing Cuban officials’ poor management for a few years now.