After the Summit of the Americas, Raul Castro Offers to Talk to Obama, But Not to Us

The Summit of the Americas ended yesterday and it doesn't appear that an urgent meeting of parliament, or a special plenary session of the Party Central Committee, is being convened to discuss the proposals made by Obama. "A fresh start with Cuba," the American president said in Trinidad and Tobago, but today Fidel Castro's Reflections referred only to Daniel Ortega's long speech. The journalists from the National News haven't taken to the streets to collect people's impressions and my neighbor has been enlisted in Operation Caguairan, in case of a possible invasion from the North.

Given the importance of what's happening, the "accountability meeting" being held in my building today should be devoted to the new relations between Cuba and the United States. But the delegate prefers to talk about the unruly neighbors who throw their trash outside the bins, rather than ask what we think about the end of the dispute. In my son's school some teacher repeats that "Obama is like Bush, but painted black," and the billboards in the street still call for continuing the struggle against imperialism.

I don't know what to think, given the difference between what is said to the outside world and the tiresome sermon we get every day. Even Raul Castro himself seems ready to talk to Obama about things he's never wanted to discuss with us. I can't help asking myself, then, if all this "olive branch" and the willingness to touch on broad themes, is not just words said to the outside world, phrases pronounced far from our ears.

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read in English translation here.

Comments

[Sanguinary]

If I were to interview Castro, my first question would be, how many people did you have tortured and killed in your life time.

[Mexitli]

"In my son's school some teacher repeats that "Obama is like Bush, but painted black," and the billboards in the street still call for continuing the struggle against imperialism."

Listen to your son's teacher and the billboards.

[Pursuance]

The Communist Party of Cuba and its many followers are encased in a political bubble, in that they are oblivious to the world around them because of their uncompromising ideologies. In the end, what will bring change to Cuba's political atmosphere will not be outside forces, but it will be from within, from its populace that is willing to look beyond their blind faith to nationalistic pride and look to other ideas that can lead to a more beneficial life.

With all that said, there is an inherent danger in the Communist Party of Cuba wanting to re-engage with the United States, not from a place of the sincere willingness to change, but from a place where they see the opportunity revitalize themselves through the trough of the free-market. Look no further than China or Singapore and you see an economy based on free-market ideas yet still have governments that dictate their people from an authoritarian point of view.

A shift in Cuba's political atmosphere must come from within and I can almost guarantee it will not be easy, but revolution, bloodless or not, is never is.