Freedom Of Expression In Cuba? Students Are On For It!

Cubans are going through an important change yet there are few reports from inside the country that reach us, compared to the plethora of news items that international agencies churn out about this country's hated leader.



The mainstream media are devoting a lot of attention to the changeover and the voting process that facilitates it, but bloggers on the ground are alerting us to some other signals. It’s been only a few days that a video which had been sent anonymously to the BBC circulated on the web, showing a few Cuban students who openly criticised their government in front of Parliamentary President Ricardo Alarcón.



A blogger who wrote about the issue for ObserversFrance.com (also the link to the e video) says she had difficulty believing her eyes watching the video. “It’s not easy to imagine. But it's true,” she writes.

It appears that people have difficulty believing this happened, let alone predict what's next. “Is the nearing end of Fidel Castro's reign bringing about improvements in freedom of speech, or is it a publicity stunt to better outside views of the authorities?”, the Havana blogger writes. A few days later she wrote an update with news about the temporary disappearance of Eliecer Avila, one of the protesting students. She said he appeared on Cuban tv, saying that the foreign media had ‘manipulated' his statement. Well, if anything, let's be happy he appeared again.

The end of the Fidel days are not expected to lead to much change in the country. Everybody knows that the fate of this small island is largely in the hands of Washington. And the Americans are demanding that the situation on the ground, ie the political democracy, improves, before it will lift the 46-year embargo. All Presidential candidates in the US elections race issued reactions to the Castro resignation that unanimously demanded improved democracy.

Castro’s brother is credited with the agricultural reforms and could issue some more changes. He has been brainstorming since the summer of 2006 for economic reforms and is quoted as saying he is all for openness. Many Cubans dread what will happen if Fidel dies because they have been sat in the guagmire where unexpected things simply have been a no no since 1959. Castro has outlasted 9 US presidents, the fall of the Soviet empire and he's even exported his own brand of communism abroad to Venezuela.