Introductory comment  by:
Jose A Hernandez, MD
President, CubaResponde

Great excitement has been generated by the changes that the recently installed regime of Raúl Castro has implemented in Cuba. These modifications have led some, as noted in the following article in the Washington Post, to compare Raúl Castro with Mikhail Gorbachev and led NPR to state that “expectations have been running high in Havana.”

One should question if the fact that “any Cuban who can spare a year's worth of the average salary may now buy and activate a cellphone” (basically what the new economic initiative accomplishes) warrants these conclusions; particularly since Raul, while showcasing these changes, has “dispatched police and scores of party thugs” to abuse a group of pacifist women, Las Damas de Blanco (Women in White), by forcefully removing them from a public gathering where they were attempting to plead the case of their imprisoned loved ones to Raúl Castro.

Police and scores of party thugs removing one of the Women in White who had gathered in a public park to ask about the penal status of their loved ones.

In CubaResponde you can find the opinions on this topic

 of the Independent journalists in Cuba (Spanish)

Also recommended "It's same old repression in a new package"

-------------------------------------------------------------
No Space for Dissent

Raúl Castro's answer to the Women in White.

Monday, April 28, 2008; A14
Washington Post

IN THE PAST few weeks, Cuban President Raúl Castro has introduced a handful of micro-reforms to the oppressive and bankrupt regime left behind by his brother. Cubans are now officially allowed to buy cellphones, computers and microwave ovens; state workers may get deeds to apartments they have been renting for decades; and farmers may be able to sell part of what they grow at market prices. The measures won't have much impact (though they have evidently annoyed the officially retired Fidel Castro): The vast majority of Cubans can't afford to buy electronic goods, and the agricultural reforms fall short of steps taken years ago by North Korea.
The new leader's moves have nevertheless touched off a flurry of excitement and speculation among Cuba-watchers in the United States and Europe, some of whom have taken to comparing the 76-year-old Raúl Castro to Mikhail Gorbachev. European apologists for the Castro dictatorship, led by the Spanish government, are clamoring for the European Union to restore normal diplomatic ties with Havana; Democrats such as Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) have renewed their calls for a lifting of the U.S. trade embargo, even as they campaign against free trade with democratic Colombia.

Unsurprisingly, such Cuba buffs haven't had much to say about another signal Mr. Castro sent last week after the Women in White approached his office in Havana's Revolution Square. About 10 members of the group gathered in a park at the edge of the square, saying they wanted to talk to the new president about their family members -- independent journalists, intellectuals and political activists who were abruptly arrested and sentenced to long prison sentences five years ago during Cuba's "Black Spring." Fifty-five of the 75 dissidents rounded up then remain imprisoned, along with some 175 other political prisoners.

The women were not able to talk to Mr. Castro. Instead he dispatched police and scores of party thugs to the park to rough them up and hustle them into a bus. State media followed up with a propaganda campaign against the women, sporting the usual slogans. "There will be no space in Cuba," said the state newspaper Granma, "for adversaries, fifth columnists or internal mercenaries."

Yes, any Cuban who can spare a year's worth of the average salary may now buy and activate a cellphone. But there's little indication that Mr. Castro intends even the sort of change that has transformed formerly communist countries such as China and Vietnam into more prosperous dictatorships, much less a political opening. Here's a fair test: Let Mr. Castro respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights his government recently signed, which guarantees not only freedom of assembly but the right to freely leave the country. Cuban officials recently hinted that the current ban on foreign travel by average citizens might be changed; let it be removed. Then Mr. Castro can discover just how many of Cuba's 11 million people are willing to go on enduring a regime whose idea of reform is permitting the sale of microwave ovens

Envíe sus opiniones a Cubaresponde@cubaresponde.org

Las cartas deberán incluir el título del artículo y el nombre del autor, así como la ciudad desde la cual se envían. Algunas serán publicadas a modo de comentario al final del artículo.