Opinion Archives - Page 423 of 484

New Cooperative Policy Big for Socialism

Cuban reform czar Marino Murillo has just presented “a policy that has been adopted for the experimental creation of non-agricultural cooperatives.” My first reaction is to celebrate this step.

Is There Really An Opposition In Cuba?

Those who receive money from a foreign power — one which is also the self-declared enemy of the Cuban Revolution — cannot be regarded as a simple opponents. They are mercenaries and counter-revolutionaries.

The Oil that Bleeds Cubans Dry

Whenever I’m forced to come to grips with our waning cooking-oil ration (even though I pour it in a bottle whose eyedropper cap allows me to manage it carefully), I think back to an incident that I experienced years ago with a tourist from Curacao, a friend of the family.

Openings for Free Expression in Cuban Society

Last week I first attended a discussion at the Felix Varela Cultural Center, an organization that operates under the auspices of the Cuban Catholic Church. Frankly, never in my two decades of living in Cuba had I seen such a variety of political views, at least not in the same room.

The Pope, Marxism and a Murder

I want a Cuba without discrimination or exclusionary vetoes; one without monopolies of posttraumatic accompaniments, because the country belongs to everyone and should be for the good of all.

Listening to My Police

Since I come from a Catholic family, as a child I remember my mother telling me to always have my guardian angel accompanying me. Later I realized that, thanks to the revolution, my guardian angel had been transformed into a repressive police presence that wouldn’t let me express myself.

Cuba: What Do We Mean By Revolution?

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard and read the word revolution throughout my life. I don’t know how many slogans with the word “revolution” are batted around in school. But never until now have I wondered what exactly the revolution really is.

The Two Souls of Socialism

The justified popular rejection of the “socialist” model that existed in the USSR and Eastern Europe and its versions in China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba, is a reflection and cause of the loss of credit that the ideas of socialism as such have undergone.

He Who Could Speak of Love in Revolution Square

On Wednesday I watched the Mass officiated by his Holiness Benedict XVI on television. I confess that despite all the political tensions that the event caused (implicitly and explicitly), despite the rapidly deployed machinery of improvised tolerance and ecumenism, I felt a huge relief with respect to the tone of the speech.

The Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Cuba

Many aspects caught my attention during the recent visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Cuba. I was impressed by the warm welcome given to him by the people, who spontaneously came out to greet him along the route from Antonio Maceo Airport to his destination in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and two days later in his farewell in Havana en route to Jose Marti Airport.