Every act in Cuba in favor of change, outside of the official framework, is considered an act of dissidence. It doesn’t matter whether you sympathize with Posada Carriles’ violent methods, with the Chicago school of economics or whether you are a democratic socialist like yours truly.
Read MoreThe 1968 “Revolutionary Offensive” nationalized all the small businesses that remained after the Revolution triumphed in 1959. According to figures from Granma newspaper itself, 55,636 small businesses were seized back then:11,878 grocery stores, 3130 butchers, 3198 bars, 8101 food selling establishments, 6653 launderettes, 3643 barber shops, 1188 shoe repairmen, 4544 car repair workshops, 1598 craft businesses and 3345 carpentry workshops.
Read MoreNo one could have anticipated the person who would pick up the torch passed on by Diaz, Emiliano Chamorro, and Somoza. How could we ever have imagined that it would be a fighter for Nicaragua’s national liberation, one of the leaders of the Sandinista Front?
Read MoreTwo people never tell how something happened in the exact same way. One person accentuates certain facts, the other person accentuates others. Therefore, I am going to go out on a limb and say the following: the way a story is told says more about the people telling the story than about what actually happened in the first place.
Read MoreEvents in Venezuela are truly a cause for concern. A political party, with a socialist name, is clinging onto power with ruses, rather than mass popular support. The desire to implement socialist policies should never undermine the principle of strict compliance to the people’s will which is expressed via democratic channels.
Read MoreIn politics, credibility is all-important. When citizens believe an institution is incapable of leading them, people apply the principle of “order whatever you want and I’ll do whatever I want”, because, like author Jose Saramago once said, “needs also legislate”.
Read MoreWhen Cubans made more use of their inventiveness rather than a non-existent savings, the island’s economy began to take on another dynamic. It was another less strained atmosphere to the one in the state sector, where resources are being diverted everywhere, where there is embezzlement, corruption and opportunism.
Read MoreI don’t know how it must have been in China, but the phenomenon of a new wealthy class within what is still an “egalitarian” socialist Cuba, greatly resembles what happened in Russia. Generals, historic revolutionaries and their descendants make up the new stock of power, who are responsible for representing the new jet set class and of carrying the weight of swollen coffers of gold.
Read MoreI feel I have the moral obligation to publicly confess my mistake. And I’m not embarrassed at all because this often happens in this profession, when you are navigating through these waters which, on occasions, demand foresight.
Read MoreDo the following exercise: stop and stand in a line, at a bus stop, on a street corner… and listen to what people say. In the majority of cases, they will be talking about politics. Because food, the transport situation, what the media says or doesn’t say, wages, changes… are all political subjects.
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