The Obstacle Course to US-Cuba Fence Mending

The Obstacle Course to US-Cuba Fence Mending
December 31, 2014
José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas (Progreso Weekly)

HAVANA TIMES — The "artistic" performance that Tania Bruguera had
planned to stage on Tuesday (Dec. 30) in Revolution Square was the first
of many tricks aimed at the process of normalization of diplomatic
relations between the United States and Cuba, announced by Washington
and Havana on Dec. 17.

The time set for the event came and went and the Square remained as
before, bathed in sunlight, with few visitors. In the distance, a group
of the always large contingent of foreign journalists, waited for the
event's organizers, who never showed up. House detention and the
detention of some of the activists who presumably would "act" in
Bruguera's performance froze a project that concealed a provocation.

Ever since the platform #Yotambienexijo announced the initiative, we
could predict a scenario of confrontation and violence that could have
had some very tough consequences. https://www.facebook.com/YoTambienExijo

Tania Bruguera, who arrived in Havana on Saturday (Dec. 27), had been
asked by the National Council of Plastic Arts to move her performance
into the National Museum of Fine Arts, a non-politicized space, but she
did not accept that alternative.

What surrounded this "artistic act" — which attracted no ordinary people
and was thwarted by the detention of dissident activists such as A.
Rodiles, E. Ávila and R. Escobar — was a concentrated example of how
complex political strategies will become, now that the direct
confrontation between the two governments has allegedly ended and we
enter the field of underhanded tactics.

To try to place a podium in one of the most symbolic spaces of the Cuban
Revolution, without authorization and against the rules, and to try to
make it a protest site — in the style of Tahrir Square in Egypt, Maidan
Square in the Ukraine or Occupy Wall Street in New York — sounds like an
attempt at slapping the faces of Cuban government officials and those
leaders in Washington who are trying to change the brutal policy
maintained for more than 50 years against Cuba.

The provocation sought repression, not true dialogue.

The island's hierarchy now acts in the knowledge that the U.S.
government modified the method — not the objective — of "regime change."

Bruguera and her sponsors have achieved a few minutes of television time
and some moments of "trending topic" in these festive year-end days.
While doing so, they enabled many media to reaffirm the image of the
country's authorities as people who limit freedom of expression.

That is why dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez congratulated the Bruguera
this afternoon, saying that "I told her that part of her performance was
accomplished by the disclosure of censorship."

Only a few days after inaugurating this new stage in bilateral
relations, the Cuban government faces the same problems: How to ensure
governability and sovereignty in the face of such a powerful enemy? How
to deal with the desire for and right to free expression of any Cuban?

This saga is just starting. It is very likely that skirmishes like this
will recur. And we'll have to try new kinds of responses that tend to
alleviate hostility and broaden the margins of tolerance for all the
participants, so long as the game is fair.

Today was a regrettable day when anger reigned. As this article is
written, Tania Bruguera has not appeared. The activists are beginning to
call for her. And there's the impression that another circle of
ambiguities, opacities and distortions is opening. That's just what the
Cuban people do not deserve, at the dawn of a New Year that should be a
haven of peace.

Source: The Obstacle Course to US-Cuba Fence Mending - Havana Times.org
- http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=108283