{"id":250835,"date":"2022-03-25T17:29:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T21:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=250835"},"modified":"2022-03-25T17:29:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T21:29:31","slug":"economic-crisis-and-repression-are-not-the-way-for-cuba-says-journalist-gerardo-arreola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economic-crisis-and-repression-are-not-the-way-for-cuba-says-journalist-gerardo-arreola\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic crisis and repression are not the way for Cuba, says journalist Gerardo Arreola"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexican writer and journalist <\/span>Gerardo Arreola<\/span><\/a>, author of the book <\/span>Cuba, el futuro a debate (Cuba, the future under debate)<\/span><\/i>, assured EFE this Sunday that the lack of decisions to resolve the economic crisis, and the increase in repression are not the way to solve the problems on the island.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn absence of political decisions in economic matters and a reinforcement of repression through the courts do not seem to be the best way to move forward,\u201d Arreola told journalist Gustavo Borges in a reflection on his work, a chronicle of the time of Ra\u00fal Castro in power and the challenges of the Cuban transition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book, published by <\/span>La Jornada<\/span><\/i> and the Penguin Random House publishing group (in the series: Debate<\/strong>), analyzes the situation in Cuba from the experience of someone who was a witness for more than 15 years, as a correspondent, of the Cuban events before and after Fidel Castro was forced by illness to relinquish power.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI tried to reflect that Cuban society is plural, there are those who are absolutely supporters of the government and do not admit criticism and there are critics of the government, without the possibility of dialogue, but in the middle, there is an observer, polemicist, critical and active society; this is one of the novelties of the current Cuban situation,\u201d he pointed out.<\/span><\/p>\n

ECONOMIC CRISIS<\/b><\/p>\n

When referring to the economic crisis, the journalist considered that it may be greater than that of the special period in the 1990s, a consequence of the collapse of the socialist camp. He believed that the government has lacked the will to apply measures that help the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an absence of political will to accept proposals from researchers close and distant from the government, which are technically very close,\u201d he said, referring to debates by economists calling for freedom for state-owned enterprises, freeing economic space for agricultural producers and other alternatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he was about to finish the book, Arreola had to extend it to refer to the massive protests that occurred on <\/span>July 11, 2021<\/span><\/a>, whose participants the government described as being at the service of the CIA, although he recognized, in principle and very slightly, that It had also been a real outbreak of dissatisfaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is striking that the demonstrations in July of last year have led to trials with high sentences if one takes into account what happened. The background of the situation, recognized by the government itself, is that there were dissatisfied people, outraged by the spectacular rise in prices and the shortage of basic products, perhaps aggravated by the pandemic,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arreola accepted that among the protesters there were violent people who broke shop windows, but he wonders if, even in the case of the aggressive ones, they deserved harsh prison sentences. \u201cThere are 16, 17 year olds on trial,\u201d he recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his book, according to EFE, Arreola avoids trials and portrays the Cuban situation from different angles, with topics such as the government\u2019s relationship with the Church, the 2019 Constitution, the rise of the military in key government positions and the issue of emigration.<\/span><\/p>\n

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CORRUPTION<\/b><\/p>\n

Unlike other times, the Internet has allowed the daily reality of Cuba to appear on social networks, a blow to official censorship, on which the correspondent reflected: \u201cCriticism and observation of reality multiplied because the accounts skyrocketed in social networks. It is enough that something happens in a corner of the island for someone to register it,\u201d he indicated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#Cuba<\/a> "Todos coinciden en que la situaci\u00f3n, como est\u00e1 planteada, es insostenible para la gente de a pie – la mayor\u00eda de las familias cubanas dedican el 90% de sus ingresos, o incluso m\u00e1s, en adquirir la canasta b\u00e1sica"…@el_pais<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/QDFiXVijiW<\/a><\/p>\n

— Gerardo Arreola (@GerardoArreola) February 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n