Cuba’s Protectors of the Faith

Cuba's Protectors of the Faith
August 2, 2012
Fernando Ravsberg*

HAVANA TIMES — Intellectual Daniel Diaz is making comparisons between
the Spanish Inquisition and the return in Cuba of the "sad habit of
hastily casting aspersions while relying on impunity afforded from
belonging to a given power structure that is difficult to challenge."

In his open letter he adds that this practice "is not an evil
characteristic of only one epoch or a single political system; it is an
aberration in the use of authority that can affect any human group, in
any place or time, and it is not as rare as we tend to believe."

Today on the island these "protectors of the faith" have returned to the
fray with a crackdown on all independent projects that are beyond their
control, this time throwing stones without revealing their hand, which
could mean they no longer have as much official support.

While the country is immersed in trying to turn utopian dreams into
realities, and attempting to convert "over-fulfilled goals" into food on
the table, they are weakening the nation by dividing it into heretics
and the faithful, making enemies out of the unholy.

They are accusing Daniel and other intellectuals of working for "the
empire" (the US government), pointing to the website Havana Times as a
mouthpiece of the dissident movement, compelling the self-destruction of
La Joven Cuba and banning the "Opera of the Street" cultural program for
the mortal sin of allowing its participants to make a living off of
their wages.

The Catholic magazine Espacio Laical believes this is being done to
"maintain the old status quo of civil institutions," and is calling for
an end to the baseless rants, insults and "the smearing of emerging
projects and their leaders."

This time, other voices have added themselves to the usual complainers.
The president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC),
Miguel Barnet, publicly rejected "this unjustifiable wrong, for which
every apology is insufficient."

He explained that "Desiderio Navarro and Victor Fowler (both members of
the National Council of UNEAC), and Lina de Feria, Reina Maria Rodriguez
and Daniel Diaz Mantilla (…) are writers who work daily in defense of
Cuban culture and deserve our respect and our trust."

The president of the Artists and Writers Association (UNEAC), Miguel
Barnet, supported the writers who were publically accused of working in
plans of the United States. Photo: Raquel Perez

Some of the young people who write for Havana Times hired an attorney to
file a lawsuit charging slander by those who leveled accusations against
them. Indeed, wanting to take their case to the Court of the Inquisition
itself is quite a daring move.

Nor did people let the lowering of the curtain on the "Opera of the
Street" company go unanswered. Though fully aware of the power held by
those who gave the order to shut down that cultural program, the
National Council of the Performing Arts published a letter openly
supporting the company.

The council's leadership said that "Opera of the Street" plays an
important cultural role in the community, which is why it would continue
working in its locale and receive some public funding. The Arts Council
did everything possible in its hands.

Almost simultaneously, the blog La Joven Cuba (from the University of
Matanzas) announced that it was ceasing to publish, without an
explanation. Speculation of censorship circulated because these young
people — who advocate socialism — spoke out with critical positions.

In Camagüey Province, another young journalist for a local paper wrote
an excellent article that looked into the costs borne by the provincial
Communist Party in moving its headquarters and contrasted these to the
chronic shortages suffered by social programs in the area.

The article — published on her personal blog, Nube de Alivio (Cloud of
Relief) — remained online just a couple of days. The "protectors of the
faith" pressured her to remove it on the grounds that it didn't fit
within the "doctrine" and could be exploited by the followers of Satan.

Martin Luther King said that what was most worrisome was the "silence of
the good." Desiderio Navarro agrees when he says that the "lack of a
sufficient public response to these characters encourages more
aggressive actions that violate socialist law."

Desiderio demands an end to slander and defamation "as the instruments
of neo-Stalinist cultural policy that certain nostalgic people and
isolated brotherhoods are still trying to impose on Cuba, using the
media and their positions within government and social institutions."

Hope was revived when the responses by Desiderio and Daniel appeared in
the Camaguey newspaper and on Espacio Laical's editorial page. It
reemerged as well with the irreverent youth of Havana Times, the Arts
Council defending the truth and UNEAC standing up to slander.

A colleague recently accused me of being an optimist; but I can't avoid
this because I think that this time things won't reach the point of
burning at the stake whatever "heretic" goes around trying to make Cuba
an inclusive nation "with all and for the good of all."
—–
(*) An authorized Havana Times translation of the original published by
BBC Mundo.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=75588