CUBA:
Student Denies Arrest,
Says Criticism Was
‘Within the System’
By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA (IPS) - A Cuban
university student who
made headlines around
the world when a
videotape of him
questioning aspects of
the country’s socialist
system was posted on the
Internet defended his
right Tuesday to express
constructive criticism
from within the system
and said that contrary
to rumour, he was never
arrested for speaking
out.
"If some students
expressed controversial
ideas, we did so from
the inside…in order to
build a better socialist
system, not destroy it,"
said Eliécer Ávila in
one of two videos
published Tuesday on the
web site of the
governing Communist
Party’s newspaper Granma.
"We will discuss the
things that must be
fixed, changed or
revised…from within the
revolution," Ávila said
in the interview.
He also denied reports
by the international
press that he was
arrested last Saturday
after the circulation of
a videotape of a January
meeting at the Computer
Sciences University (UCI)
in Havana, in which he
questioned things like
travel and Internet
restrictions in Cuba.
But although Ávila’s
videotaped interview
with Granma was placed
on the newspaper’s web
site, it was not
published in the paper
edition.
The meeting at the UCI
with Ricardo Alarcón,
the speaker of Cuba's
parliament, took place
before the Jan. 20
parliamentary elections,
but the videotape did
not reach the foreign
media until last week.
At the same time,
several versions of the
video began to circulate
from hand to hand in
Havana.
Media outlets outside of
Cuba reported Monday
that Ávila had been
arrested at his home in
the eastern province of
Las Tunas at 9:00 AM
local time on Feb. 9 by
Cuban security agents.
Web sites even issued
international alerts.
At the time, IPS was
unable to confirm the
report of the student’s
alleged arrest, which
was originally announced
by Juan Carlos González
Leiva of the dissident
Council of Investigators
of Human Rights in Cuba.
Students who spoke to
IPS that day said that
nothing had occurred.
Ávila said in the
videotaped interview
with Granma that what
really happened was that
after he heard about
"the media campaign
aimed at distorting the
meaning" of what he had
said in the public
meeting, he returned to
the university "as soon
as possible…to deny" the
false reports.
He said he had travelled
to his home province for
the end-of-quarter
vacation to take care of
a health issue, and that
he was never arrested.
"My family is completely
calm, there is no
problem," he told Rosa
Miriam Elizalde, editor
of Cubadebate, a
government web site.
In the January meeting
with Alarcón, Ávila and
other students openly
criticised Cuba’s voting
system, the fact that
many goods are sold in
convertible currency,
which puts them out of
the reach of ordinary
Cubans, the need to
obtain a special permit
to travel abroad, and
the restrictions on
Internet access.
They also asked why
Cubans cannot stay in
the country’s beach
resort hotels, which are
only open to foreign
tourists.
But that would have been
the end of it, the UCI
students told IPS, if
the foreign press had
not attempted to
"manipulate" what the
students had said in the
meeting, and portray
their criticism as a
challenge to the
government.
"Some people think that
perhaps it wasn't the
right place to express
those views, but some of
us believe it was," said
a fourth-year student.
"The only thing that we
have done so far is to
complain about the
manipulation and make it
clear that UCI students
are with the
revolution."
The concerns expressed
by the students were
described as "normal" by
César Lage Codorniú,
president of the
University Student
Federation (FEU) at UCI,
in one of the videos
published by Granma.
Lage Codorniú, the son
of Vice President Carlos
Lage, said the videotape
of the entire meeting
with Alarcón at the UCI
was placed on the
university’s Intranet
and was fully accessible
to all students.
The criticism voiced by
the students was similar
to questions raised last
year in spontaneous
debates in Cuba
conducted by email and
on several blogs and web
sites, and in public
discussions of the
country’s most pressing
problems, which were
convoked by acting
president Raúl Castro.
A report presented to
parliament by Raúl
Castro, who has been
governing the country
since his ailing brother
Fidel underwent
emergency intestinal
surgery in July 2006,
said that more than
three million people
have taken part in the
public meetings that
have been held at his
behest, and that 1.3
million written
proposals and complaints
have been gathered.
Some of the most
important changes
proposed by the public
are being studied by the
government and may begin
to be implemented,
starting in March,
according to sources
close to the government.
Among the issues being
considered by high-level
government officials are
some of the questions
voiced by the UCI
students, IPS was able
to confirm with sources
who preferred not to be
named.
Without going into
details about the UCI
students’ meeting with
Alarcón, an article in
the Juventud Rebelde
newspaper said the
announced reforms of the
Cuban system, considered
"a revolution within the
revolution," would not
be hindered, and that
the recent media frenzy
would not fuel internal
"reactions" aimed at
blocking the reforms. |
