Again? You can't be serious!

After I found out that Ciro Diaz and Claudio Fuentes were back home safe and sound yesterday I breathed a sigh of relief. The entire ugly ordeal was over for now, everyone could get some rest. I was so happy to see such a quick mobilization of the blogosphere, everyone who posted about it on their blogs, gave contact information for the policeman who had detained both of them without reason, spoken of their outrage on their blogs and those who gave the world up to the minute updates.

I was happy that it was over and that I could get back to complaining about other things...

However, my relief would be short lived.

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, author of many books including BORING HOME which I hosted digital copies of on this blog on the day of its launch, which was banned by the Cuban government. He is commonly known as OLPL and he has been summoned by State Security for questioning.

Hopefully this will be a short round of questioning and he will be swiftly released, but again I find myself in shock at the harassment faced by these writers, artists and bloggers, for doing something we take for granted: talking about our feelings and our politics.

For updates please check here or Octavo Cerco (English)

Muchacho Enfermo

Interview with Claudia Cadelo (part 2)

After my first interview with Cuban blogger Claudia Cadelo was published on Ashin-Mettacara.com she was gracious enough to grant me a follow up interview.

I like this one even better than the first one, with much help from two very good friends, I feel that we have captured her exact words even better than the first one. I also feel that this interview, while containing only 7 questions, really hits home and really shows us what these bloggers go through on a daily basis.

***envíeme por correo electrónico si usted quiere la versión española original: muchachoenfermo (at) gmail (dot) com***

Click Here for the full interview.

Here's the first question in the interview.... just to give you all a little taste and hopefully encourage you to read the rest of it:

Muchacho Enfermo: Your first post was written on Yoani Sanchez’s blog (Generacion Y) it was called From Paranoia to a Scream), can you describe what you felt that day, when you made your decision to publish your name, your picture and your opinions?

Claudia Cadelo: The night before Gorki’s trial we decided to go to ask for support at the Tribuna Antimperialista where Pablo Milanés and a few guest musicians were holding a concert. We had a banner that simply read GORKI, so that the paranoids wouldn’t alert security. But they are paranoid by nature so they simply started to hit us and abducted Ciro (Guitar player of Porno Para Ricardo and La Babosa Azul) and a friend of mine.

The following day Gorki’s trial was to take place and we were all very tired and surrounded by security agents at the entrance of the court house; we had barely slept, Ciro was exhausted. At six o'clock in the afternoon they began the trial; it was supposed to be at 9 on the dot that morning but instead we spent the whole day there, outside the court house.

But the support that I felt around us was bigger than our exhaustion, after four days of sending emails and running around Havana there were, along with us, a few lads from the university, many friends, a lot of foreign press and even diplomats, so we were excited.

When they set Gorki free, I felt something so big that I could no longer stay quiet, I wanted to share my happiness and I asked Yoani Sánchez to publish a text of mine on her blog. She accepted; and this is the way it all happened.

Muchacho Enfermo

Interview with Claudia Cadelo

As some of you know, I try to contribute regularly to Ashin-Mettacara.com, a news website operated by Ashin Mettacara, a burmese monk whose blog I am a big fan of. Ashin is an advocate for freedom of thought, belief and expression so I thought it appropriate to post a couple of interviews with another person who fights for her freedom of thought and expression and whose blog I greatly enjoy, Claudia Cadelo.

This interview is the first in a series I called "The True Democracy of the Voteless" and I think it's a great read for anyone wanting to know a little bit more about Cuban bloggers or for anyone who already reads her and other blogs that originate from behind enemy lines.

I'd like to encourage all of you to read the interview by clicking HERE and since you can't comment on the other site feel free to comment here. For those of you who won't I'll post a very small portion of it here.


Muchacho Enfermo: In a recent blog post you spoke of the harassment of the State towards those they perceive as dissidents. Is that something that worries you?
Claudia Cadelo: It worries me, I worry about a lot of things, my family, my friends, myself. I know perfectly well that I upset the government, like all those who are different upset them and everyone who, in one way or another, denounces or simply abstain from participating in the political circus that Cuba has become. But that doesn’t mean that I will stop writing, or that I will stop offering my support to those they try to silence.

Muchacho Enfermo: Why do you think what you do is important?
Claudia Cadelo: The truth is that I don’t know if it is important or not, I don’t like thinking of my blog as important. It is simply something that I do because I want to and because it seems right to me. If it is important for someone, that is very good, but that’s not what compels me to write; the fact that some people like reading it is, for me, already slightly wonderful and unexpected, that is more then I hoped for. I don’t try to change anybody’s mentality, I only want to say what I have a right to say in a world where freedom of expression is an abstract concept, one might say that it’s a luxury that I afford myself: I have decided to be a free being.

Muchacho Enfermo: What would you like to say to those outside Cuba who agree with the system and that criticize your blog and other blogs from VocesCubanas.com?
Claudia Cadelo: I have nothing to say to people that use their freedom of expression, their civil rights, their economic freedoms and their political freedoms to defend this totalitarian system. I don’t believe that any system is perfect, but what I am sure of is that this system is not the right one: a better society cannot be constructed if the basis of it is oppression, fear, militarism, the absence of civil rights and the supreme unlimited power in the hands of only two or three people; and we can add to that that the social ills, the corruption and the poverty which are also a part of the status quo, which remains.

Muchacho Enfermo

Cuban author threatened, they even called his mother!

A book launch planned for Monday February 16th in Havana, hosted by world famous blogger Yoani Sanchez, for the new book of Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo called Boring Home is now threatened by the government.

Early this morning a blog post on Octavo Cerco showed an email that is circulating on the Caubarte.cu intranet. An email that is a not so subtle threat to OLPL and to those planning to attend the meeting. Yoani Sanchez has posted about it on Generation Y a few hours following the post on Octavo Cerco and shows the same email.

OLPL`s mother also received a call to tell her to warn her son not to go. I mean seriously, how sad is that when a government resorts to calling your mom?

I'll post a copy of the email here but please refer to the above mentioned websites for more insight and details:


I’ve heard a there’s a message circulating, by email, promoting the presentation on this coming Monday, the 16th, outside La Cabaña, of a book by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and that it will be presented by the infamous and counterrevolutionary blogger, Yoanni Sánchez, who is well compensated by the empire.

A few months ago a photo of Pardo Lazo also circulated, masturbating over a Cuban flag, an act that outrages all the sons of this country and of other latitudes because this is an insult to a symbol of the country. His literary work is little known, however this fact was disclosed as part of the propaganda against Cuba.

Pardo Lazo has become a puppet at the service of Yoanni and her clique.

I don’t think they would carry out this stupid activity, to do so will give them a fright like that I’ve read in the “summons,” and I’ve also had news of some disagreeable surprises they are going to find there.

I still can't believe they called his mom...

Muchacho Enfermo