Tiny Bubbles

A while back, an unnamed European diplomat likened Cuba to a pot being heated. There are bubbles here and there, their number increasing. To read Miscelaneas de Cuba today is to be reminded of the analogy.

On Wednesday of this week, the Junta de Coordinadores de la Agenda para la Transición, loosely the committee for the transition agenda, met for the second time. This small conclave is worth noting for a variety of reasons. First, it represents a concerted effort to unite opposition groups on the island, a seeming necessity if they are to accomplish anything. Second, the list of those attending reads like a who's who of same:

Félix Antonio Bonne Carcassés, Margarito Broche Espinosa, Francisco Chaviano González, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, Jorge Luís García Pérez (Antúnez), René Gómez Manzano, María Antonia Hidalgo Mir, Roberto de Miranda Hernández, Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, Néstor Rodríguez Lovaina, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz Pacheco, Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya e Idania Yanes Contreras.

You can read about it here . Third, it was the inspiration for this by José Luís García Pérez (Antúnez), Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (Coco) and Francisco Chaviano González. In it, they go through a lengthy examination of the term dialogue because they feel that it is dialogue that is needed. It is not a dialogue with the regime, because as they quote if "politics is the art of the possible," then the regime as authors of the Cuban tragedy, given to all species of treachery, would not seem to be an appropriate interlocutor. Instead, they would have Cubans speak with each other. They would have those in exile form their own group to then work with them.

In a separate entry, dissident Oswaldo J. Payá Sardiñas of Varela Project fame, forced to send closing remarks to a conference in Brussels, makes the point that Cuban destiny is a Cuban thing. In the full text of his remarks here, he touches eloquently on the whole gamut of issues. Read it in English here. If you follow no other link, follow that one.

I cannot agree with him on the question of dialogue with the regime. Sit down with thieves, murderers, and tyrants without any true overtures on their part? I do think that we can soften the tenor of much of our commentary without giving an inch. It's all about face. We have it; they don't. About the embargo, more later.

Finally, this declaration from Miami where Hector Palacios finds himself describes the current state of things in Cuba and offers hope.

(All text unless otherwise indicated is in Spanish.)