Cuban editors call for a conversation
CARDENAS, CUBA — The former editors of one of Cuba’s few non-government controlled media outlets have quietly restarted efforts to spur debate about the nation’s future, launching a series of public forums and plans for a new journal addressing the island’s most urgent problems.
The project, known as “Cuba Posible,” joins a handful of others in the small space between the uncritical state-run media and fiercely partisan dissident websites that have little reach inside Cuba.
Lawyer Roberto Veiga and journalist Lenier Gonzalez gained renown among Cuban intellectuals by transforming the Catholic church magazine Espacio Laical into a rare and influential forum for sociopolitical debate before the two men left last year amid an apparent church backlash over the publication’s aggressive coverage of current affairs.
The two men and their small circle of collaborators say they are confident the project can provide a space for dialogue between government supporters and critics without running afoul of the island’s communist leaders.
“We hope that we’ll be heard and paid attention to in the world of politics,” said sociologist and project backer Aurelio Alonso. “We hope that what’s said won’t remain in a void, but will affect institutions and political players.”
Funded by Norway’s University of Oslo, Cuba Posible is based out of the Christian Center for Reflexion and Dialogue, an ecumenical church group focused on community projects that occasionally publishes newsletters and magazines from Cardenas, a sleepy mid-sized city about 155 kilometres east of Havana. Basing the new group there means it can use the centre’s existing government permits rather than seek permission for a new independent publication.
“There have always been people inside the government who don’t like what we do and people who care about what we do,” Veiga said. “There are a variety of opinions but there’s no policy aimed at disrupting or battling us.”
The first public forum attracted dozens of academics and intellectuals and gave a hint of the group’s approach. Its central theme, “Cuba: Sovereignty and the Future,” was uncontroversial enough to avoid the risk of official ire. Participants avoided direct criticism of President Raul Castro or the island’s singleparty system in place since the 1959 revolution. But some speakers were unsparing in their evaluations of Cuba’s poor performance in sectors ranging from expanding the economy to updating educational curricula.