Haroldo Dilla

The United States has committed deplorable acts against the Cuban nation, it’s true, but all of those together fail to justify even one of the arbitrary measures taken by the Cuban government (many of them still in force) against its emigrant population.

In technical terms, while the political system moves towards an authoritarian status — requiring obedience more than empathy — the elite maintains its totalitarian bent, as if it were actually in a position to command the enthusiastic allegiance of people around the promise of a new world that it can no longer even promise.

Raul Castro has stated that one of his main priorities is to restore the country’s international economic credibility, something I find quite reasonable.

The Cuban government’s position — which implies a greater degree of tolerance than before — could be explained by synthetically paraphrasing the words of Fidel Castro to the intellectuals in 1961: within the private realm, everything; outside of the private realm, nothing.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the open letter from Pablo Milanes to Edmundo Garcia. Although I should emphasize that I don’t agree with many of Pablo’s statements.

Every time Cuba’s general/president Raul Castro talks about “updating” something, I really don’t understand what he means. It’s probable that he’s doing this for that very reason, so that no one will understand him.

Taken from one of the most recent speeches by General/President Raul Castro, the little phrase “Say what you think or want” traveled the world. Some viewed the matter with bitter skepticism, others with infantile contentment.

All political systems, even the most authoritarian, coexist with a certain degree of critical discord. All of them, even the most democratic, also attempt to trivialize those disagreements and reduce them to the symbolic/token plane.

“It’s impossible, to speak poorly of him.,” said my daughter Charlene. I discovered someone who insisted on seeing everyone as good, in each individual case scrutinizing all possible virtues – no matter how slight.

Strong historical and cultural relationships have existed between Cuba and the Dominican Republic. A part of the Cuban national legacy is in some way related to the DR, and Dominicans always remember that it was Cubans who restarted their sugar production in the 19th century.