Cuba's Yoani Sánchez Speaks Out - Full Interview | MetroFocus

[Mika]

Cuba's Yoani Sánchez Speaks Out - Full Interview | MetroFocus

Published on Apr 3, 2013
MetroFocus anchor, Rafael Pi Roman, speaks to Cuban blogger, Yoani Sánchez about her home country.

Read the full interview transcripts in English and Spanish on the MetroFocus website: http://bit.ly/16tVYlS.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Life's too short

to listen too her paid rants.

[Mika]

2. Its interesting. After hearing her in several interviews ...

... I think that she's working with/for the Castro regime.
Take a listen, I think you'll hear what I mean.

[naaman fletcher]

6. Nothing would surprise me

But what do you mean?

[Mika]

9. Raul is a smooth customer.

He hasn't "set" the hook yet.
Plays Miami and DC exiles like a cheap fiddle.
Meanwhile, behind closed doors ...

[naaman fletcher]

11. Ah

Yes, I had always said that the castors were the masters of the rope-a-dope. You may be right.

[MADem]

12. They arrested her .... why, then?

Very confusing, how some think she's on the US team, others think she's on Castro's.

Maybe she's just what she is? And she gets help from her friends in Switzerland, where she used to live?

[Mika]

15. "Arrested" (like Gorki, as in: not arrested) and had to pay a fine for using hotel WiFi illegally.

An "arrest" in Cuba is different in Cuba than here. She was not handcuffed and put in any cell, nor booked and had to post no bail. She was notified of the fine at the police station and went right home, like Gorki.
Illegally hijacking/hacking into WiFi = using the hotel WiFi w/o a reservation in that hotel and cracking the login password. Similar laws apply in the US.
She mewled that this was Castro's "crackdown" on bloggers.

[MADem]

18. No, I am not talking about that. She was also arrested and beaten enroute to a protest,

this was in 2009 or thereabouts:

and last year, she was arrested for blogging about that weird auto accident that killed Oswaldo Paya:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/05/world/la-fg-cuba-blogger-20121006

The dissident blogger had intended to cover the trial of Angel Carromero, which began Friday in Bayamo, about 400 miles east of Havana. Carromero, a member of Spain's conservative Popular Party, crashed his rental car near Bayamo while visiting the island July 22. Cuban officials have accused him of speeding and causing the deaths of dissident Oswaldo Paya and another Cuban activist, who were riding in the car. Carromero faces up to 10 years in prison.

The pro-government blog http://www.yohandry.com asserted Friday that the blogger had traveled to Bayamo "to start a provocation and a media show to harm the proper conduct of the trial."

Both Sanchez's detention and the controversy surrounding the case offer telling glimpses into the government's relationship with dissident forces in Cuba six years after Raul Castro was handed the reins of government by his ailing older brother, Fidel.

...."In the last few years (political repression) doesn't consist in long prison sentences, but in hundreds and hundreds of detentions each month for political reasons, which last a number of hours, days or a few weeks. And later, in general, the opponents are freed without charges — although sometimes some stay in prison."

[joshcryer]

38. Not true, her latest detention was in a cell.

Cracking a wifi signal could get you prison time in the US though. It's not all that common but has been used in pedophile cases (hacking charges tacked on to the pedophile charge).

[joshcryer]

37. She's been saying this stuff for years.

You just haven't been listening.

If anything her flip on the embargo after talking to Rubio is more disconcerting than anything.

[MADem]

3. Who pays her? You're saying the Columbia School of Journalism has been 'duped?'

Sánchez has managed to use the internet without the internet so well in fact that her blog is now read in 18 different languages across the world. Time Magazine named Sánchez one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008 and she has won some of journalism’s most prestigious awards including Spain’s Ortega y Gasset Prize, The World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

[dipsydoodle]

4. USAID

She's a scam.

[MADem]

8. So PBS got scammed? nt

[Mika]

5. Here ...

The Curious Case of Yoani Sanchez
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/20/the-curious-case-of-yoani-sanchez/

13. How can your blog accept Paypal, a payment system not available to any island resident because of economic sanctions that affect, among other things, e-commerce?

16. How are you able to register your domain through the U.S. company GoDaddy when this is formally forbidden under current economic sanctions?

17. Your blog is available in 18 languages including; English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Lithuanian, Czech, Bulgarian, Dutch, Finnish, Korean and Greek. No other Web site in the world, not even the sites of important international agencies, such as the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, OECD or the European Union offers this degree of linguistic support. Not even the U.S. State Department or the CIA offers this degree of access to non-English speakers. Who finances the translations?

18. How is it possible that the site that hosts your blog offers bandwidth 60 times greater than the Internet access service Cuba offers to its users?

24. In 2011, you published 400 messages per month. The price of sending one SMS message from Cuba is $1.25. So, you spent $7,000 in one year of Twitter use. Who pays for this?

When asked about this list during her visit to Columbia University’s School of Journalism she joked that when she was in Brazil the list had grown to fifty questions and that she had already answered all of them. These questions though are not just for Yoani to brush off but are rhetorical questions that thinking people ought to ask when looking at her website and the production methods of “Team Yoani”.
Indeed, the first stop on her 80-day Phineas Fogg-like trip produced plenty of questions and Yoani’s answers belied the fact that maybe she wasn’t exactly “ready for primetime.”

Upon her arrival in Brazil, Yoani was greeted by the stark reality that many global citizens do not agree with her narrative. She was challenged by Brazilian journalists, students, and other citizens about her description of Cuban reality and her answers to three questions in particular caused her to backtrack almost immediately.

When asked about the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Yoani stated unequivocally that it was an interventionist policy and was a justification for the failings of the Cuban government. Most importantly she emphasized that this policy of economic strangulation was a “relic of the Cold War” and needed to be abandoned as soon as possible (“Ya!”). She also called upon the closing of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Not the detention center that has brought so much infamy to the United States government and has challenged our notion of due process, but the actual base which is a violation of Cuban sovereignty. Lastly, she called for the release of the Cuban operatives known as the Cuban Five arguing that the Cuban government has spent an unnecessary portion of its budget to campaign for their release.

When confronted by Miami Cubans who were incensed by such commentary Yoani began to backpedal by saying that her comments about the Cuban Five were “ironic” and that she believes that they are not innocent. This rationalization poses a problem for the legitimacy of her position.

For example, now that she has arrived in the United States her position towards the embargo and Guantanamo has been mitigated to a milquetoast generalization that there should be a “dialogue” about these issues. Why is she advocating for dialogue now instead of demanding for the termination of unilateral sanctions as she did in Brazil? Why does she not also decry the interventionist nature of USAID programs that are specifically aimed at “regime change” in Cuba? Why are these questions not being asked in New York, or more pointedly, why aren’t the institutions and academics not letting them be asked? The “guardians” at NYU and Columbia have shown a tendency to “cherry-pick” the questions directed towards Yoani. Why, in what is supposedly the freest nation on earth, is this happening? There have been protests and outbursts in her meetings but no direct challenge has been allowed that would put her in a position of explaining her vacillating views on such important topics.

{permission granted by author to cite some or all of article}

[MADem]

7. Many questions--not many answers...and it sounds like she tailors her responses to suit her

audience when she meets them in person. Otherwise, her schtick would be the same in Brazil as it was in DC.

If she had one specific "mentor" with a specific agenda, you'd think she'd have her narrative down.

[Mika]

10. Unless that mentor is ...

[MADem]

13. Why would the government give her shit and arrest her x2, then?

Doesn't make sense...

[Mika]

16. Not when one thinks like an American.

She wasn't arrested in the same way as one is arrested here.
She was fined twice for hijacking hotel WiFi w/her blogger boyfriend.
The were trying to get charged with a crime (and not a misdemeanor) for propaganda uses. The Cuban gov't followed the law, and just gave her a local civil fine.
Since then, the "tyrannical" Cuban gov't passed a new law that allows hotels to encrypt their WiFi - at the Cuban hotel industry's request.

[MADem]

19. No--I am talking about the kidnapping/beating in 09 and the arrest/detention last year.

Not "stealing wifi." These were far more serious incidents--see upthread.

[Mika]

20. 1st, we have no idea who "kidnapped" and released her.

"Elizardo Sanchez says" means dooda. He claimed Gorki was arrested too. And that Paya was murdered by Castro.
Was she arrested? Detained? Charged?
If she were any of these, why would the tyrannical gov't let her travel?
But, she sure looks like a brave hard core hard suffering dissident, doesn't she?

[MADem]

21. Someone beat her up but good. If she was going to fake bruises, she would have made them more

dramatic.

I think it's interesting that there are two diametrically opposed views of her allegiance in this very thread. She's working for USAID!! No, she's working for Raul Castro!!!!

I don't pretend to have a single solitary clue who she is working for--if anyone. I am not sold on either allegiance, not yet anyway. Maybe she's just in the mood for political change? It could happen...


I do know that she gets her blog out in e-mail (low bandwidth) format, and friends (either from her days in Switzerland, or through other associations) are the ones who--from a position offshore-- manage the website, do the fancy graphics, and pay the bills (hence, the paypal) to keep her online. She's not doing any of that from Cuba; she's just writing and either sending plain text email or giving visitors thumb drives.

[Mika]

22. Consider that their interests are mutual.

Regarding your point about allegiances.

[MADem]

23. So, you're saying USAID conspired with Raul Castro to install this dissident blogger in

Cuba, by sending her off to Switzerland for several years, then sending her back home to ... write a blog and get harassed routinely?

Or are you just saying that both agencies are covertly supporting her, one hand unknowingly washing the other?

Seems like a lot of intrigue. A lot of work, too, if that's the case. Why not just let her blog away, and shake an occasional fist at her, rather than beating her up, screwing with her husband, playing the "held without charges" game (see the article where that is discussed upthread) and in general, just being a jerk?

Plus, while Raul seems to be loosening up in preparation for bowing off the stage, it could hardly be said that he's been at all consistent when it comes to his treatment of dissidents. He's more of a one step forward/two steps back type. It's all fits and starts. I honestly think his biggest headache is how he's going to keep the lights on and the buses running in the years ahead. The little Doctors For Oil arrangement with VZ might not last forever, and most of his other friends have cash flow issues.

He needs to rapproach with USA, but there's a devil in those details that is stopping that--not sure what it is, but every president since Carter has made some kind of noise about closer ties while running as a candidate, and then it seems like they get into the Oval Office, have a look at a TS/SCI NOFORN folder or something, and then say "Fuck that shit." It's the oddest thing. The campaign rhetoric NEVER matches the post-election actions. They do stupid stuff (here's more food, here's some humanitarian aid, your relatives can visit more...) but they don't do the Big Kahuna Reach Out that they almost all talked about when they were young, dumb and innocent.

I'm not going to play the conspiracy theory game, because I have no idea, but it just seems damned strange to me that we can rapproach with China, with the former USSR, with frigging Vietnam after fifty eight thousand of our children died foolishly in the heat and mud...but we can't "get over" Cuba and a Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis that is over a half century old? It just doesn't pass my smell test that they remain "Unforgiven." They have to have done something....well, unforgiveable....? And I'm guessing--not with any knowledge, mind you--just speculating--that we'll never normalize with Cuba so long as Fidel lives--he's the guy they're pissed off at. He's the Unforgiven One--that's how it seems to me. And he's no spring chicken, but I do think he is a tough old bird--he could live for another decade with good care, good nutrition, taking it easy and not trying to do too much, if he doesn't have any more major issues like that last round of butchered operations, and he doesn't fall and break anything.

I admit, my curiosity about what that's all about has remained unabated down through the years. I know Cubans who migrated to PR fifty years ago, and they're surprised, too, that it is still an unresolved thing all these decades later. Their kids don't identify as Cuban, they call themselves Puerto Ricans, they've married Puerto Ricans, and the only time they hear the "Cuban thing" is when they get ribbed for being high-handed or aggressively ambitious, or something like that--but it's more of a joke (sometimes meanspirited, other times not) than something that they relate to day-to-day. They wonder if it's down to November 22 63, and I have to wonder that, too...?

[Mika]

24. Only the logic of campaign money and maintaining power is at play.

No need for them to conspire. It is all natural (on a political power level).
The other nations that the US is "normalizing" relations with do not have an empowered exile faction to provide cover for the behind the scenes machinations. The status quo has ruled because the status quo is the mechanism for retaining power for both the pro and anti embargo factions in the US. Of course, this works well for the Castro regime also.
Yoani, Elian, shoot downs, the Cuban Five, all invigorate the extremists on both sides. Stirring the pot (especially w/comments that are all over the map w/contradictions as Yoani's are) work well for all parties. They provide cover and distraction for the profiteers and players.

[MADem]

25. USAID has an interest in maintaining the status quo?

I'm just not following the logic. Those exiles--the loudmouthed ones, anyway--want their "stuff." They'd be happy if the grandson of Batista took over and "un-nationalized" everything and gave them back their buildings and land. That's not going to happen, and, like Castro, they grow older every year. Their influence is diluted, too -- it used to be that they were the Lead Dog in the Hispanic community, dictating how things would be and what the priorities were. Now, they're diluted, a much smaller fraction of the American Hispanic community, and their wishes aren't front-n-center anymore.

I just don't see any money to be made the way things are--the Cuban nation is broke, they have a major cash flow problem, they have interfered in the affairs of a sovereign nation (VZ) to an unseemly degree because they need the charity that nation provides in order to survive day-to-day, to the point where they export their own health care staff in an effort to maintain some semblance of quid pro quo for the massive oil resources they receive; their entire business model is just not sustainable, and even the Castro brothers will say that when pressed. The truth of the matter is, 'players' in USA and Cuban entrepreneurs would all do much better if Cuba and USA became friendly. How well the Cuban population does will depend on how "normalization" is implemented. There is much money to be made--curious tourists, willing and educated workers who will work for a song, natural resources just waiting to be exploited -- about the only people who will 'really have something to cry about' will be the Puerto Ricans, who for a variety of reasons, some of them competitive, (tourism, the entire pharmaceutical industry, e.g.) don't want Cuba opened up.

In 2018, the "new guy" --Raul's protege--will take over. Then perhaps the "Libertad" (Helms-Burton) Act will be trashed and relations can be normalized.

Or maybe not--something's gotta give.

[Mika]

29. The entities that you mention who would be harmed by normalization ...

... all contribute to the campaigns of US pols who support keeping sanctions.
Of course, w/o the US sanctions then the pols who "represent" the farm belt and other states that would benefit from Cuba trade would not have the 50+ year old funding stream for their campaigns.
For US reps (and, some Cubans in the hierarchy of the Cuban gov't), it's not about freedom. It's not about trade, its about the maintaining of power and the benefits thereof.
Cuba is great allies with most all of the Caribbean nations, yet most all of those nations govt's heavily fund the campaigns of pro sanctions US pols.

Nothing has changed, except who it is we are distracted with at the moment. Yoani, now.
I've said this all along here on DU, its about US campaign funding for both sides of this issue - which is a mix of Dems and Repugs. No sanctions = no pro/con sanction platforms upon which to raise money. The mewling exiles and their minions in DC are excellent loudmouthed cover.

[MADem]

30. Bottom line, though, no matter how nicely Cuba trades with others, they are broke.

Well, surely not all of Cuba's pals are working at cross-purposes with them? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that, but ... I dunno. I don't see the exiles as having the clout they used to have, and there are fractures in their ranks, too.

I know their sugar (as sweet as Jamaican sugar, which is wonderful stuff) would make a big dent in that protected infrastructure (though Big Sugar could jump in with a partnership offer and help to set the price/rake in some of the profits with a modernization scheme), their smart population could/would make pharmaceuticals at a cheaper price, their doctors could do a lot of "closer to home with an easier flight/nicer vacation" medical tourism...there's a lot of money to be made.

Plenty of these pols are in bed with Big Sugar....but plenty are also in bed with Big Pharma and Big Fristian Medicine...so while I see competing priorities, I don't see any one group as holding sway anymore. Who has the best deal? Who has the biggest wallet?

And these Big Companies in USA do have a "reputation" such as it is, and they can open doors and facilitate access to markets...one hand washes the other, both wash the face, as it were.

I think the issues are more--pardon the term--"fundamental" than that. It could even be, if we want to flip the argument, that the "financials" are being used as cover for continued strife, not the other way round--because a political/ideological "insult" is just so Last Century.

The right deals can make money for all the "players" and I'd wager there are plenty of people, in the corporate world and in Cuban government and the small "private(ish) sector)" in Cuba, that would be more than willing to do business for cash on the barrel and an improvement in their GDP. I think the arc is well tilted towards that attitude.

I do think it's an unforgiven political insult (hey, George W. Bush knew how to hold a grudge--why should we think he's the only one?) that is holding all this "normalization" back. I don't have any insider knowledge, but from where I sit, it doesn't make sense, otherwise, because there's plenty of money to be made no matter which way we jump...and I wonder if I'll live long enough to see change--it's crazy, that it's been over a half century.

[Mika]

31. Sorta like the Walmart model.

Costco pays their workforce a better wage, benefits, full time, paid sick days, etc etc - and makes more money per square foot per store. Somewhat better for the community at large.
Walmart pays a non living wage, few to no benefits, part time, no sick days, etc etc - and makes less money doing damage to the entire community.

The Walmart clan and their top corporate critters are so rich, they can afford to fuck everyone over because they want to. Sociopaths. Psychopaths.

The Walmart model pretty much describes the US model regarding Cuba.

[MADem]

32. Well, Cuba isn't Costco, though I sort of take your point.

Costco is doing fine, they are making good profits, their outfit is well run, and they aren't operating with a bubblegum and baling wire business plan.

And technically, the "US" isn't Wal-Mart, either. We do have responsible businesses in this nation. Be nice if we had more, but they do exist. Wal-Mart is Wal-Mart--the individuals who run a global entity that does have an inordinate focus on the bottom line to the exclusion of the public welfare at times.

I think the US doesn't know what to do about Cuba. As I've tried to express, I think there is something we just don't know. Damned if I know what it is, though, with any degree of certainty. For all we know, it might not be "the obvious," but something they tried and failed to pull off, that remains deep in the archives for the time being.

It's silly that they continue to be so estranged--they're our closest neighbors, after Canada and Mexico. Our histories have been intertwined for centuries, and this Hatfield-McCoy nonsense is well past its sell-by date.

[Mika]

33. My point was that Walmart doesn't have an inordinate focus on the bottom line.

If they did, they'd run an operation like Costco. But they don't.
That's my point.
Yes, Cuba and the US and most all related business and social conditions would improve. But, that's not what the sociopaths in charge want. They don't represent the will of the people any more than Walmart CEO's and clan represent the workers and suppliers. The sociopathy of power.

[MADem]

34. Well, there's "immediate" bottom line (profits above all else) and there's

"social contract" bottom line (good of the society, rising tide lifts all boats, etc.).

When you're talking to an accountant, they only care about how far in the black a company is, not who gets left behind. My reference to "bottom line" was all about the greed/cash thing, not the (entirely valid, FWIW) "Big Picture" thing.

[Mika]

35. That doesn't seem to apply to sociopathic owners like Walmarts.

Nor to US gov't policy and Cuba.

[joshcryer]

40. I agree with the analysis about the sanctions.

Without the sanctions, likewise, Cuba can't go "damn Yankees!"

So it's all in both nations power holders interests for the sanctions to exist.

[Mika]

41. The best thing to happen for Ileana Ros & the Blowhard bros is Castro.

No Castro/communist gov't in Cuba = no IRL and Diaz balarts (and their ilk).
No sanctions = no campaign funds to end the sanctions.
The status quo rules as long as US campaigns are funded as they are now.

[joshcryer]

42. Unfortunately for them anti-embargo is on the rise.

So the funds will dry up one way or another. More Cuban Americans than ever support ending the embargo.

[Judi Lynn]

43. Remember the New Jersey "exile"-derived politicians have their anti-Cuba mob to draw from, also.

At the heart of things, that's how and why most Cuban-American politicians, Republican and Democrats are actually the same. It's the same base they need for funding, so they have to use the same tactics to grovel for cash, with only a very few exceptions.

[dipsydoodle]

14. Hmm

Interesting thought.

[Mika]

17. Can hardly wait for Raul to unfurl that flag that Bill Nelson gave Yoani.

[flamingdem]

26. One suspects she may just forget that flag in her hotel room!

[joshcryer]

39. She has answered these questions. Intermediaries.

Anyone can sign up for a Pay Pal account, it goes to her Gmail, but she certainly doesn't have "accounts" to use, someone else must have access to it (as it stands now the Pay Pal account cannot receive money, not sure how long that has been the case). It's possible that her account was locked for the reason that she's a Cuban.

Anyone can sign up for a GoDaddy account. The domain as it stands now is held by a company in DE, not a US company. She must have transferred the domain some time ago to avoid it getting taken (as if the US would take a dissident's domain, though).

Translations are facilitated by fans of Cuban bloggers, most of the translations are machine translated then cleaned up by speakers of the language. You don't need the CIA to do this.

Obama lifted direct donations to Cubans in 2010. This is when the Cuban blogosphere exploded. They have lists of phone numbers where you can directly recharge their phones with money abroad. The exile community is putting a lot of money into these bloggers (and as some bloggers say, some do it just for this reason, to get donations, and to get their phones recharged, etc).

Her Gmail account is still open, so why hasn't it been closed? Well, same reason hotmail accounts, wordpress account, blogger accounts aren't being closed, I suppose. The US isn't telling Google to close the accounts and Google might not do it anyway because it can claim that it's not making money on it (there are no ads on any of the blogger blogs).

[flamingdem]

27. More conspiracy fuel for the fire Yoani lives in an apartment

in a building of the army -- FAR Fuerza Armadas Revolucionaria. She has been asked about this and says it is because her husband worked on the building. However it's unlikely they would be allowed to live there, much less on the 14th floor with a nice view, if there wasn't something going on behind the scenes.

That said I really don't think it's that spy vs. spy and she's basically an opportunist with a gift for writing at the right place, right time. She is clearly up to her neck in right wing politics and at least indirectly getting USAID money, for instance she showed up at the house of Oswaldo Paya when the money arrived via Carromeros partner from Sweden. That money was admitted to have come from a USAID organization in Georgia USA, Republicans in on the game.

[ocpagu]

28. She has a "condescending" criticism for the Cuban government.

In this interview she follows the line of "things are still bad, but have been getting better". This was an opportunity for her to echo mainstream press and say that Cuba is collapsing.

I don't understand her goals.

[flamingdem]

36. I love that Beyonce and Jay Z are visiting Havana and it's the new Cuba story

with very positive pictures and comments, so much for the sour puss Yoani who scored hundreds of thousands on her whirlwind rightwing tour