Cuba launches its online encyclopedia

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The government of Cuba on Tuesday launched its version of Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, but the new website called EcuRed was having technical issues on its first day online and not all pages were loading properly.

The site -- www.ecured.cu -- is meant to present Cuba's view of the world and history, from a "decolonized" perspective, the state newspaper Granma announced (link in Spanish). The site is to be edited by individual users, but articles would have to be approved by unidentified moderators. It was not clear Tuesday whether users outside Cuba are able to register and edit or add new articles at EcuRed. La Plaza attempted to register as a new user to test the interface but was unable to load the registration page.

Although many EcuRed pages were not loading, cached versions of some pages in a Google search had  the communist government's official biases on display. The United States is "recognized as the empire of our times," the site says, and Fidel Castro is described as the "historical leader of the Cuban Revolution" in a lengthy entry.

Here's the rest of EcuRed's introduction to its entry on the United States, as translated by La Plaza:

The United States of America, recognized as the empire of our times, is the most powerful nation in all of history. Emerging as an independent nation in 1776, it has reached notable economic, scientific, and military development. It is historically characterized by stripping by force the territory and natural resources of other nations and countries in order to place them in the service of its companies and monopolies. It consumes 25% of the energy produced on the planet, and despite its wealth more than a third of its population does not have guaranteed medical care.

New cables reveal frank U.S. views on Latin America, from Argentina to Venezuela

The global fall-out over the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables continues to trickle into Latin America, where leaders are responding to a variety of disclosures that reveal frank opinions on governments with whom   the United States has sometimes had tense relations.

Here's a run-down of some of the most significant claims or statements made on Latin America in the latest WikiLeaks disclosures, by country. Links below follow news coverage as well as the original cables as published by WikiLeaks or the news organizations that have reviewed them.

Another step toward capitalism in Cuba

Cuba's plan to lay off half a million state workers is another bid to save its economy through gradual but strictly controlled reforms that lean toward, if not fully embrace, capitalism, Tracy Wilkinson reports in The Times.

Since it lost its chief patron when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the tiny Communist nation has struggled to sustain itself in a globalizing market economy. Recent help from Venezuela, the Cuban revolution's foremost cheerleader in Latin America, "can't last forever," Wilkinson writes.

Under the new plan, unproductive or overpaid state workers will be let go and allowed to enter into small mom-and-pop-style businesses. Lack of expertise and resources stirs doubt about how successful the plan might be, but a similar program for taxi drivers suggests that there's money to be had for the average Cuban.

Private taxi drivers make 33 times more than state-employed taxi drivers.

Wilkinson writes: "The list of approved businesses includes upholstery; repair of dolls, toys and umbrellas; animal shodding; music teaching; sales of flowers, herbal medicines and brushes; and manicures and eyebrow waxing."

And then there's the Castro quotient. In recent interviews with foreign journalists, Fidel Castro, the regime's looming former leader, has praised Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, and said Cuba's socialist economic model "doesn't even work for us anymore." He later backtracked on the comments.

Castro and his brother, Raul, who is now Cuba's president, have attempted to make it clear that they are not abandoning the revolution, or at least their grip on power. Since July, the government has released 36 political prisoners -- but booted most of them to Spain. The intelligence firm Stratfor reports that when Fidel Castro delivered a speech to students at the University of Havana earlier this month, which he used to backtrack on the economic-model statement, the aging former leader wore green military fatigues for the first time in four years. 

So far, Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, has offered to help Cuba with its layoffs and small-business development plans. On Monday, a leader in the U.S. House of Representatives said he is not giving up on seeking legislation that would relax travel and trade bans between Cuba and the United States.

The Times editorial board backs relaxing the bans, and so does the White House. In a 2009 story from the island, Wilkinson reported that "Havana is crawling with Americans these days."

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Workers prepare Cuban sandwiches at a snack bar in Havana. Credit: Associated Press

Fidel Castro takes 'responsibility' for persecution of Cuban gays

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro called years of official persecution of homosexuals under his Communist regime an "injustice." In an interview published this week in a Mexican newspaper, he said he takes responsibility for the repression.

"If someone is responsible, it is me," Castro told Carmen Lira, editor of the left-leaning daily La Jornada. Here's the second part of the Castro's interview in Spanish. La Plaza reported on the first part here.

After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Communist government arrested gays and sent many to labor or "re-education" camps. Homosexuality is no longer criminalized on the island nation and Castro's niece, Mariela Castro (daughter of current President Raul Castro), is a prominent activist for expanding gay rights in Cuba.

Numerous books and films have depicted the period of persecution, including the novel Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas, later adapted into a film. Here's a video by the Guardian newspaper on the contemporary gay and transgender culture in Cuba.

In the interview, Castro said the repression against gays occurred in a tumultuous period while the Communist government was defending itself against "traitors" and the CIA. "But in the end, after all, if someone must assume responsibility, I offer my own," Castro told Lira. "I cannot blame anyone else."

— Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Former Cuban President Fidel Castro. Credit: Associated Press

 

Cuba: Fidel Castro says he was near death

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has given a rare interview to a foreign journalist and disclosed new details about just how sick he was when he relinquished power in 2006.

"I was at death's door," Castro told Mexico's leftist daily La Jornada. "But I came back."

The interview (link in Spanish), which was published in Monday's editions, lasted about five hours and was conducted by the paper's editor, Carmen Lira Saade.

Castro, who turned power over temporarily to his brother Raul in 2006, then formally quit the presidency in 2008, dropped from public view for most of that time. Until recently. The 84-year-old has started making speeches again and appearing on television.

— Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City

Photo: La Jornada editor Carmen Lira Saade interviews Fidel Castro. Credit: Estudios Revolucion.

Latin America Digest: Cuba, Venezuela and Guatemala

TODAY'S ONE-LINE NEWS BRIEFS:

Havana -- Cuba has accused Chilean businessman Max Marambio, a former close friend of Fidel Castro, of bribery, fraud and other crimes, and summoned him to appear before investigators in a high-profile corruption case, according to a decree published Tuesday.

Caracas, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would put a representative on the board of directors for opposition television station Globovision, the leftist leader's boldest move yet against his fiercest media critic.

Guatemala City -- Information once buried in Guatemalan police archives led a judge to send former police officers Hector Ramirez and Abraham Gomez to trial on accusations related to the forced disappearance of union leader Fernando Garcia in 1984.

--Times wire reports

Cuban dissident calls off hunger strike after 134 days

Guillermo Farinas, the Cuban dissident who has drawn international attention for his prolonged hunger strike, has called off the fast, supporters said Thursday. The dissident's decision comes after the Cuban government agreed to release 52 political prisoners over the next several months, about a third of those currently jailed.

Prominent Cuban opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez was among the first to report the end to Farinas' protest, via a tweet, from the hospital in the city of Santa Clara where Farinas has been receiving nutrients intravenously since March. Sanchez also posted a photo, seen at left, of Farinas taking "his first glass of water."

The 48-year-old psychologist and journalist recently courted death, doctors said, after a potentially lethal blood cot developed in his neck.

The dramatic about-face for both Farinas and the communist government of the island nation comes after Cuban President Raul Castro met Wednesday with the archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, and Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, told The Times on Thursday that the prisoners being released are dissidents rounded up during the 2003 "Black Spring" crackdown. The mothers and wives of many of those jailed that year have staged public protests in recent months, calling themselves Damas en Blanco, or Ladies in White.

One jailed figure in the 2003 group, Orlando Zapata, died in late February while on a hunger strike.

Sanchez said the announcement of the release demonstrates that the government responds to outside pressures. "The government needs to clean up its image," he said. "With a lot of the international insistence on this issue, this is a step in its interest."

In Washington, Human Rights Watch released a statement calling for Cuba to release all political prisoners. "So long as Cuba's draconian laws and sham trials remain in place, they will continue to restock the prison cells with new generations of innocent Cubans who dare to exercise their basic rights," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the group's Americas director.

On Twitter, Yoani Sanchez also uploaded a hand-written "note to the press" apparently signed by Farinas, in which he salutes "the memory of Orlando Zapata, because this hunger strike was started by him."

-- Daniel Hernandez and Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City

Photo: An image uploaded by blogger Yoani Sanchez of Guillermo Farinas, taking his first glass of water since ending his hunger strike. Credit: Yoani Sanchez, via Twitpic

Dissident on hunger strike in danger of dying, Cuba says

A prominent Cuban dissident on a hunger strike has developed a blood clot that could kill him, Cuba's government said in an unprecedented official report in the Communist Party state-run newspaper. Here's the report in state-run Granma, in Spanish, headlined "Fighting for life is our responsibility." (The English version of the site does not appear to have the article posted.)

In the report, a doctor who has been treating Guillermo Farinas said the dissident is fed nutrients intravenously and has gained weight since being admitted to the Arnaldo Milian Castro University Hospital in the city of Santa Clara. But infections and a recent clot that could block the flow of blood to his heart is putting Farinas's life in danger, Dr. Armando Caballero said.

The Granma story fills two pages in the eight-page newspaper but does not mention that Farinas is on a hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners in Cuba. The 48-year-old psychologist and journalist began the hunger strike Feb. 24; he was moved March 11 to the Milian Castro hospital, where he has access to a telephone line and a television. The dissident has carried out 22 hunger strikes in the last 15 years, reports said.

He has vowed to remain on hunger strike until all political prisoners and dissidents in Cuba are released.

Cuba usually ignores calls to release dissidents but has faced increased international pressure and protests on the island from the "ladies in white." The movement of mothers and wives of jailed dissidents grew after the February death of another hunger-striker, Orlando Zapata.

Late last month the Cuban government released one dissident, Darsi Ferrer. Ferrer had been jailed for 11 months for allegedly buying black-market cement. Critics said his punishment was excessive.

"The entire Cuban population buys black-market goods," economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe said.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: A doctor treats Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas on March 5, 2010. Credit: Associated Press

Cuba's Raul Castro meets the cardinal

A rare meeting has taken place between Raul Castro, Cuba's communist president, and the head of the Roman Catholic Church on the island nation.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega and other leaders of the church discussed "issues of mutual interest" with Castro, official Cuban media reported. The encounter occurred Wednesday but wasn't reported until now. Cuba's Granma newspaper carried a photograph of Castro, in military green, shaking hands with Ortega and Archbishop Dionisio Garcia, head of the Cuban Bishops Conference. The BBC quoted church sources as saying the leaders talked about imprisoned dissidents with an eye to next month's visit to Cuba of the Vatican's foreign secretary, Dominique Memberti. 

Ortega is widely credited with easing tensions over a recent slew of anti-government protests. The Cuban-born cardinal, who is also archbishop of Havana, brokered a deal between authorities and the female relatives of political prisoners that allowed the so-called Ladies in White to resume weekly demonstrations free of harassment.

Bishops Conference spokesman Jose Felix Perez told Reuters: "This is the first time the conference has had such a high-level meeting," adding, "It was especially relevant in the context that the church has recently been working to mediate solutions to a number of difficulties in society."

Relations between the church and Cuba's leaders were strained for years but have improved since the 1990s, especially after the government loosened restrictions on religion and Pope John Paul II visited the island in 1998.

-- Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City

Photo: Cuban President Raul Castro meets with Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Archbishop Dionisio Garcia in Havana. Credit: Granma.

A blogger academy in Cuba

Blogger Yoani Sanchez is known around the world for her vivid and passionately oppositional account of life in Communist Cuba, but she is almost unknown on the island itself. Her blog, Generation Y, is blocked by the Castro government. In addition, Sanchez is not allowed an Internet connection at home. She posts from hotels and cybercafes.

Yet that apparently is not stopping Sanchez from spreading her blogging skills to others. The Global Post reports from Havana -- from Sanchez's living room, actually -- on the blogger's effort to pass along to other Cubans the ticks and tricks of Twitter and blogging platforms such as TypePad and WordPress:

"Today we're going to talk about Twitter," Sanchez began on a recent afternoon, quieting the room. The students ranged in age from early 20s to mid-50s. One man's late father had been a leader of the Cuban Revolution. Given the Castro government’s record of infiltrating opposition groups, it was also likely a few of the students were there to take notes on their classmates, not their coursework.

No one seemed too worried about that, though, and the atmosphere was friendly, almost festive.

A pro-government Internet writer, however,  sees ill intentions in Sanchez's school. Rosa Miriam Elizalde, editor of Cubadebate, says the blogger academy is "taking place in a framework of a U.S. policy of subversion and aggression."

To the students, the coursework appears enriching.

"There are people who think I’m doing something wrong by coming here, but I don’t think so,” a 53-year-old housewife (and debut blogger) tells the visiting reporter. "We're people who want change, and we want the current government to be an instrument of change."

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Yoani Sanchez at the computer in her Havana apartment. Credit: GlobalPost.com.