CUBA: Discontent Smoulders on the Island

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 4 2003 (IPS) - Social tensions are intensifying in Cuba as economic problems simmer and the government cracks down on corruption, drug trafficking and petty crime, reaching the point that the mix could trigger a new wave of emigration from this socialist-run island.

The clearest signs have come in the past 20 days, with three separate hijackings – involving two aircraft and a ferryboat – by persons with criminal records who sought to leave the country at any price to seek asylum in the United States.

Trials began in Cuba Thursday for some 80 dissidents, apparently part of the Fidel Castro government’s attempts to quash the opposition movement. The proceedings are expected to wrap up Monday.

And then there are the numerous rumours about clashes in various parts of the capital and about attacks on embassies. "This always happens," a police officer told IPS. "A rumour is started in order to see if it will draw out people in masses."

The officer was surprised Wednesday when a foreign journalist asked him if a bus had been rammed into Spain’s embassy in Havana. "The next day, the same story was circulating everywhere," he said.

"The situation isn’t easy," commented a woman who lives in Old Havana and until recently made a living selling homemade pastries.

"I don’t have a permit to make and sell pastries on my own, so I stopped. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do," she said.

The government anti-crime campaign – which ranges from fighting drugs and corruption to clamping down on minor crimes and irregularities – began earlier this year.

More than a few individuals and families whose incomes came from private activities conducted without official authorisation have felt the consequences.

On the streets of Cuban cities, there is consensus about the need to "put an end to drugs", but there is plenty of discontent about the government’s targeting of irregularities related to housing and self-employment, areas that Cubans had found ways to work around "the system".

Sources close to the government told IPS that a sign posted in a central district of Havana threatened reprisals for the arrests in recent months of people involved in drug trafficking and of drug users.

Official recognition of the difficulties the country is experiencing came Friday with the cancellation of a conference on migration, which was to bring some 1,000 Cuban émigrés back to Havana for debate.

A communiqué from the Cuban Foreign Relations Ministry admits that among the motives for the cancellation are the tense relations with the United States and the "complicated situation" arising from the recent hijackings.

Although studies indicate that the potential for Cuban emigration is high, local experts believe a massive exodus to the United States can be prevented because neither of the two countries wants to see it happen.

Along these lines is the decision of the U.S. authorities to arrest the people involved in the two recent aircraft hijackings.

Furthermore, James Cason, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, took the unusual step of issuing a declaration to discourage illegal attempts to leave the country.

"Any individual of any nationality, including Cuban, who hijacks an aircraft or boat to reach the United States will be prosecuted with the full force of the U.S. legal system," says Cason’s text published in Cuba’s government-run media.

The statement adds that any person convicted of this sort of crime would serve a long prison sentence and would be declared "permanently ineligible for lawful permanent residence in the United States."

The hijacking of a passenger ferry had a happy ending for the Cuban authorities Thursday, as all 50 hostages were rescued and the hijackers were arrested. The hijackers had taken over the ferry Tuesday with the intention of sailing the vessel to the United States.

Just as usually occurs during moments of internal tensions on the island, the areas along Havana Bay and the long stretch of wall along the Malecón, the coastal boulevard, are under close and constant watch by security personnel in civilian clothing – though most people are able to distinguish agents from true civilians.

Cuba went through a similar situation in July when the government had to take steps to deal with rumours that boats would be coming from the United States to pick up people who wanted to emigrate.

In February 2002, Cuba’s special forces were called in to remove 21 people who had entered the Mexican embassy by force – crashing a bus through the gates – to demand to be taken to Mexico.

History is repeating itself today with Havana’s response to the support the Washington representatives in the capital provide the island’s dissident movement.

Nearly 80 members of the opposition have been rounded up in recent weeks and are now undergoing trial. This came on the heels of a meeting of a group of independent journalists at the home of Cason, who the Castro government accuses of "fomenting subversion" in Cuba.

Also adding to the tensions are the impacts of the economic crisis, which deepened in 2002 and continues to worsen this year.

At the end of last year, the island’s population of 11 million faced a 24-percent price hike on food items in Cuban pesos, coupled with a dramatic reduction in household income.

The prices of products sold only for dollars – some of which are basic necessities – also shot up in 2002, with increases ranging from 20 percent to more than 100 percent.

"Neither tourism nor remittances from family members abroad have recovered much since the crisis triggered by the Sep 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States," said a local economist consulted by IPS.

The expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that tourism and remittances are the two main sources of cash for many Cuban families, but that there has been a recent trend of concentration of income in the hands of a few.