Osmel Ramirez Alvarez

My Arrest: A Depressing Episode

It was Friday afternoon. My three children, aged 2, 8 and 9 years old, were playing in the living room. Somebody knocked on the door and interrupted my quiet siesta next to my wife. Four cars were outside my house and a dozen counterintelligence and crime agents and policemen too. One of these vehicles was an ambulance, expecting my sick mother’s possible heart attack. Luckily, that didn’t happen in spite of her grief.

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US Blockade on Cuba, Mistake or Wise Move?

Any act of blocking is wrong and can even be a crime depending on the circumstances. Whether that’s between countries, ethnicities or even between people from the same country. Cuba, poor Cuba, who has suffered so many blockades!

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Ups and Downs of Cuba’s Emerging Private Sector

For Tony, a young self-employed worker from Mayari, it’s normal to have a hard time with the bureaucracy. He doesn’t understand why but it’s normal. He’s been setting up his Weekly Package recording “business” for a whole month and he still can’t start working.

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Havana, Cuba’s Showcase

In the provinces, Havana is idealized. “The best things are there”, “the most beautiful”, “the most sophisticated”. There is even a discriminatory phrase: “Havana is Cuba and the rest is just fields.” But how dirty and poorly maintained Havana is!

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Being Honest in “Revolutionary” Cuba is a Serious Crime

It’s dangerous to read Jose Marti on your own in Cuba, without the Marxist “editing” that the Jose Marti Studies Center apply to his writings. Adopting his ethics, his moral and political values, his love for Cuba and his passion for freedom and democracy can bring us great problems with the system.

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