In Defense of the Cuban Five [Updated Links]

It was the little billboard that couldn't. It survived only a day until enough people threatened to boycott the owners arguing that it was an offense to the community. Suddenly it was gone. I myself was surprised that this billboard was actually up in Miami, knowing well that this city, when it comes to news about Cuba, lives in an almost impenetrable bubble. You can't deny it. The very mention of the Cuban Five in Miami evokes comparisons to the worst criminals, like Hitler or Al-Qaeda. The result of course is a city that dares not confront such taboo subjects, and its citizens, without much choice, acquiesce to a propaganda message repeated in the local media.

But, Mambi Watch believes people have the right to choose their political causes, and be given the right to defend their causes in public and in the media. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Cuban Five, this right is hardly observed.

THE BILLBOARD OF DISCORD

The story of the billboard, dubbed the "Billboard of Discord" by America TeVe show "A Mano Limpia," is simple to summarize: A local Miami group called Alianza Martiana (Marti Alliance) rented space on a billboard to promote the cause of the Cuban Five. They paid a month's rent to Clear Channel Outdoors and the company placed the ad on a billboard near the Alianza Martiana offices on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon it was gone because members of Vigilia Mambisa threatened to boycott the property owners where the billboard is located. The property owners, fearing a boycott from several other Cuban exile organizations called Clear Channel Outdoors and asked for the ad's removal. According to reports, the removal was negotiated just a few hours after the complaint. An official from Clear Channel responded publicly that "it was determined the material does not fit with our norms [of processing], and has been removed." The property owners fully supported the decision.

But, the billboard incident is just the tip of the iceberg. A review of how this story was reported in the media reveals how difficult it is in general to promote the cause of the Cuban Five, while the cause AGAINST the Cuban Five is constantly promoted.

Locally, none of the English-language news stations gave the billboard story any attention, which is typical. Local news in English concerning Cuba is far less frequent than in Spanish media, as if they avoid it. Univision23 and AmericaTeVe, on the other hand, kept audiences well updated on the "Billboard of Discord." But, neither one presented the cause of the Cuba Five, meaning they didn't even mention the main reasons why their supporters believe they should be free. In other words, there seems to be a deliberate attempt to silence the cause of the Cuban Five. But, in every report there was time given to speakers opposed to the Cuba Five, be it someone calling them assassins or convicted criminals. Not very balanced.

ENTER MAX LESNIK

Speaking on behalf of Alianza Martiana was Max Lesnik who was given time on both Univision23 and AmericaTeVe to explain why his organization placed the Cuban Five ad (and to respond to its removal), but not to elaborate on the cause to free the Cuba Five. On Wednesday, Lesnik appeared on AmericaTeVe's 8pm talk program "A Mano Limpia" to speak at length about the billboard incident. The program began with an interview with Miguel Saavedra, leader of Vigilia Mambisa, to explain how he negotiated the removal of the Cuban Five ad. Lesnik then appeared on the show alongside an opponent of the Cuban Five, but the discussion focused on the ad's offense to the community (because the Cuban Five are undoubtedly assassins), and soon framed as Miami-vs-Cuba (asking Lesnik to help place a billboard in Cuba favoring a cause by Cuban exiles). The details over the cause supporting the Cuban Five were ignored.

Max Lesnik then appeared Thursday on the radio on WQBA (1140AM) with Bernadette Pardo. In this interview, again Lesnick had to explain the reasons behind the ad, but within the first few minutes the interview took a predictable turn: the Cuban Five were compared to Osama bin Laden. Obviously, the discussion is framed as an issue of respect towards the community, and not about the cause of the Cuban Five. The details of the case were never discussed.

OTHER EXAMPLES

So, do the Cuban Five ever get a break? Not in Miami. Last September, several American actors and artists sent a letter to President Obama requesting a review of the case of the Cuban Five. Soon, the letter was also signed by non-American artists and actors, such as Colombian singer Juanes. The local Spanish media jumped at the chance to attack Juanes.

The letter campaign was ill-described as a "political campaign of the Cuban government" by AmericaTeVe reporter Juan Manuel Cao. The news reporting was an obvious attempt to cast doubt on Juanes' honest intentions concerning his Peace concert in Cuba the previous year, while reporter Gina Romero wonders why Juanes hasn't signed a letter in favor of Cuban political prisoners. (Not surprisingly Capitol Hill Cubans had the same concern.)

The AmericaTeVe program "A Mano Limpia" followed the same attack on Juanes with a full program, including Gina Romero and other opponents of the Cuban Five. And, never a mention of the details over the cause of the Cuban Five.

Finally, when Amnesty International (AI) came out in support of the Cuban Five with a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the same thing happened. Aside from the usual silence from the local media, America TeVe program "A Mano Limpia" came out ready to challenge the AI letter. Host Oscar Haza gathered three local attorneys to argue against the Cuban Five and the AI letter which Haza described as part of a "fierce international campaign" by the Cuban government.

FREE THE CUBAN FIVE

If any honest person takes the time to review the case of the Cuban Five, just like Amnesty International did, they may reach the conclusion that this MIGHT be a case of injustice. Or perhaps not. But, they should be given that chance to decide for themselves.

The cause of the Cuban Five has not been given fair treatment in Miami (or no treatment at all), and therefore people have not been given the opportunity to form an opinion over the case. In addition, some in Miami feel that even discussing the subject of the Cuban Five is an attack against the community. This is nothing but paranoia.

The case of the Cuban Five is a legitimate political cause that has been supported by many people internationally, and deserves to be defended. Even if you do not totally agree with it (like myself because I oppose espionage on principle), it does have the right to be heard. Especially in the media which is responsible for giving everyone with a cause a voice.

Media Sources Reviewed:
- Univision23 news reports
- America Teve news report 1 and 2
- Radio Mambi news report
- El Nuevo Herald report
- Cafe Fuerte report

Additional Resources supporting the Cuban Five:
- Amnesty International's "The Case of the Cuban Five" (October 2010)
- National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
- International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five
- Sting of the Wasp: The Cuban Five Connection

"It's Time for Change"

After the Peace without Borders concert in Cuba, Olga Tañon was back in Miami the next day and made a television appearance on Maria Elvira Live!, MegaTVs popular Spanish-language political talk show program (Tañon also appeared on another MegaTV program).

The picture above shows an emotional Maria Elvira after handing Olga Tañon a bouquet of flowers and thanking her for Sunday's performance [video]. Maria Elvira is immediately overwhelmed by emotions, crying and thanking Tañon "because you mentioned Miami, because you mentioned el exilio." She also gave thanks on behalf of her mother, a Cuban exile.

For weeks Maria Elvira Live! has produced an endless amount of programming analyzing the Peace without Borders concert. It was typical to see on her show some of the most hard-line figures in Miami opposed to the concert, but at some point Maria Elvira herself began seeing beyond the rhetoric, and saw hope. Hope that Cubans (exiled or not) would enjoy a wonderful concert, and maybe decide that it was time for change.

Time will tell what change brings.

Another very interesting thing also happened last night. Maria Elvira again interviewed Miguel Saavedra, leader of Vigilia Mambisa who organized a protest in Miami on Sunday, where they destroyed music CDs by participants of the Peace without Borders concert.

Saavedra was on the defensive [video]. He mentioned that it was not time for Cuban exiles to change, that they need to stay militant, and it is the others ("the leftists") that need to change. Saavedra even believed that the Peace without Borders was nothing special because hundreds of thousands of Cubans would have gone to any other concert held in Cuba. According to Saavedra, Cubans have "nothing else to do" and would pack a concert festival because "its the new thing."

Saavedra is revealing his great ignorance here. There was another large music concert not long ago in Cuba in 2005 by the rock band Audioslave. That concert was described as "historic" gathering about 50-60 thousand young Cubans, but if we go by Saavedra's logic, then that concert should have gathered a similar number of concert-goers as Sunday's concert because Cubans have "nothing else to do" and "its the new thing." I personally believe Saavedra revealed his utter contempt for the people of Cuba.

Anway, despite Saavedra being constantly on the defensive (taking many opportunities to describe Maria Elvira as a communist, or a friend of communists), near the end of the interview Saavedra actually proposes the idea of changing the tactics of Vigilia Mambisa! He says that instead of smashing CDs, they should maybe consider aerial banners. Maria Elvira loved the idea. And, I give her a lot of credit for trying to explain to Saavedra how his protests continue to give the Cuban exile community a very bad image in the media.

But, I'm sure Saavedra knows that he needs to change his tactics, especially becuase of recent pressures, such as last month's Bendixen/Cuba Study Group poll [PDF] showing 74% of Cuban-Americans disapproving of Vigilia Mambisa smashing CDs, disapproval (but not condemnation) from leaders within the Cuban exile community, and Sunday's counter-protest from young Cubans at the Versailles Restaurant.

Also, Saavedra most likely knows how poorly Miami has viewed his recent protests. Here's a good video (in Spanish) showing random interviews with Cubans in Miami (two male adults, two female adults, one young woman) all showing their satisfaction with Sunday's Peace concert, one saying that it "shut up" those who opposed the concert, and two saying that those who smashed CD's (Vigilia Mambisa) might be (to put it nicely) a few card short of a full deck.

Now, the big question is: can Maria Elvira get Armando Perez Roura to change?

Meanwhile in Miami...

No, that's not Val Prieto from the Babalu blog in the photo. Instead, Prieto thanked Juanes [screenshot] for organizing the Peace without Borders concert and this morning wrote:

"Gracias Juanes! You fucking communist son of a bitch."

Oh, those boys at Babalu!

I mean Prieto got all excited this morning that he forgot to copy the last paragraph of Yoani Sanchez' latest blog post. In that last paragraph she writes:

"If we see the performance of this September 20th as the dress rehearsal for a concert we’ll have one day, then we must congratulate those who participated. Even if there isn’t another, and the Plaza again takes on its solemnity and grayness, at least this Sunday afternoon we live something different. In a place where the division between us has been systematically sown, Juanes—to the setting of the sun—has shouted, 'For one Cuban family!'"

I'm sure he'll correct the error.

Well, if you want to see what the Cuban people thought about the concert, here are two good videos [1 and 2] I found on YouTube. Or, you can go to Babalu blog and view Humberto Fontova's latest post comparing the concert audience to a herd of animals.

You might have also read some reports about a protest in Little Havana yesterday. Yup, Vigilia Mambisa was at it again. But, this time they might have met their match. Carlos Miller has the scoop.

But, if you want to see some video, click here and here. Basically, what happened yesterday was that Vigilia Mambisa and its supporters died out (not literally) once their demonstration permit expired into the evening. Many anti-Juanes protesters soon left, leaving many pro-Juanes demonstrators at the Versailles Restaurant (which grew after the end of the television broadcast of the Peace concert). The crowd numbers were quite large, according to Miller and this local reporter for CBS4 news.

[Photo by Reuters]

Congratulations...

To all the artists who performed at the Peace without Borders concert in Cuba. Thank you for showing us the power of music and peace.

[View the final emotional minutes of the concert here.]

[Photo by Reuters: Miguel Bosé, Olga Tañon, and Juanes (the three main sponsors of the event) embrace in the final minutes of the Peace without Borders concert in Cuba.]

Where to Watch the Concert

If you have DirectTV or Dish Network then you are in luck. The Peace without Borders concert will be broadcast live on both services on the HITN channel [check here for the channel].

The HITN website also looks like it will be streaming the concert, so you can check there tomorrow. The Yahoo! Musica website will definitely be streaming the concert. And, according to Carlos Miller, the NBC Miami website will also be streaming the concert live.

Several, news networks will be covering the event, including CNN. Locally, Telemundo 51 and Univision 23 are both in Cuba already covering the events. Also, AmericaTeVe, the Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald will be collaborating to bring special coverage on the concert.

You can listen to that special coverage on local radio at Caracol 1260AM.

Concert begins at 2pm ET.

[Photo (sign says "Concert of the Century") by Reuters]

Listening to Juanes

The video above [link here] is a song by Columbian artist Juanes called "(It's Time to Change) the Hatred through Love." The video, which includes English subtitles, clearly expresses a message of unity through personal reflection and transformation, and the possibilites of world peace if everyone "changes" their mind.

Since the release of his 2007 album "Life... Is a Moment," Juanes has begun to write more songs about universal love and how these bonds can bring about world peace. It's a significant change from his earlier more popular messages of finding love, and losing love, which are a staple in the mainstream music industry.

There are also songs about raising our voices, and lifting ourselves up to improve our lives (like in the songs "I Don't Believe in Never" or "Life is a Moment"). There's a song called "A Flag of Hands" that calls for liberty, dignity, justice, and bringing peace by raising our voices through manifestations.

These are wonderful messages.

Then, why did Juanes get so many people in Miami upset over his concert in Cuba? The answer, to me, is simply because he would not be transmiting the message that has propagated in Miami for decades: the Cuban government is a source of evil, and the cause of great pain and suffering throughout the region.

Be it true or not, Juanes will have a different message to spread. And it definitely upset many Cuban exiles in Miami, not just because Juanes lives right here in South Florida, close to the exile experience, but because Cuban exiles would be losing a great propaganda opportunity.

Juanes is a huge, multi-Grammy award-winning artist, famous throughout Latin America and, therefore, an ideal source of political propaganda for those who would want to exploit it, such as Miami's Spanish-language media.

Those who live inside South Florida will notice that local Spanish-language stations like Univision 23, Telemundo 51, MegaTV, AmericaTeVe, and GenTV admire and rely greatly on Cuban artists who repeat the message condemning the Cuban government for so many ills, such as Willy Chirino, Gloria Estefan, Andy Garcia, or even lesser known artists like the members of Porno for Ricardo, or Los Aldeanos.

These stations, when it comes to Cuba, function very similar to a propaganda network, mainly propagating a single, non-pluralist, and close-minded message of the "evil" Cuban government. And, when a media celebrity deviates from the propaganda message, he or she becomes a target by the local media. Notice how the Spanish local media responded to the artist Paulito FG when he publicly stated his positive views of Fidel Castro earlier this year. He was basically pressured to change his opinion.

The same was attempted on Juanes when the local media found out his "peace" message for Cuba. In his first interview with Univision, Teresa Rodriguez (who has worked for Univision in South Florida since 1982!) made several attempts to get Juanes to show some regret over his decision to go to Cuba, and at one point started to lecture Juanes saying: "You recognize that Cuba is a country that is a great violator of human rights? You recognize that?"

The same kind of lecturing came from several other interviewers, always asking (as if telling) whether Juanes was informed about Cuba's countless human rights violations or its political prisoners or its support of the FARC rebels in Colombia. In that one interview with Teresa Rodriguez, Juanes responded perfectly: "Everyday its reported in the news." It's the main message that is reported in the local news.

So, it seems that some people don't want to listen to Juanes when he speaks about "peace" in Cuba. Which is certainly strange given the fact that his message is no different than a pure human rights message: that we are all "members of the human family" who share "inherent dignity." Those are the same concepts found in the Preamble from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Then, one should be left wondering if some Cuban exiles, who also are defenders of human rights, are aware of this fundamental concept that happens to be an important message in the music of Juanes.

Unfortunately, politics in Miami is dominated by political identites when it comes to Cuba (you are easily categorized as anti-communist or apologist/communist/socialist), and therefore it is difficult to view an event beyond this frame. Juanes wants to go beyond that narrow frame. He wants us first to see ourselves as part of the same undivided family. Like he told the crowd last year in his first "Peace without Borders" concert [video]:

"Here there are no political differences, no [political] parties, no racial differences, no [social] classes, no religions. Here we are only one."

Yes, it's a human rights message.

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Next Sunday, Juanes, including several other artists, will be performing inside Cuba for his grand concert titled "Peace without Borders." (The Hispanic Information and Telecommunication Network [HITN] will broadcast the concert live, available across the nation on satellite through DirectTV and Dish Network.)