Latino-Cuban Dialogue

Latino-Cuban Dialogue is a quarterly publication (in Spanish) of the Program of International Democratic Solidarity (Puente Democrático) of the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), with the objective of generating an exchange of ideas between figures of civil society, academics and analysts of Latin America and actors of the Cuban civil movement, that will help to reflect on distinct themes that contribute to a scenario of political opening and democratic transition in Cuba.

Latino-Cuban Dialogue is a quarterly publication (in Spanish) of the Program of International Democratic Solidarity (Puente Democrático) of the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), with the objective of generating an exchange of ideas between figures of civil society, academics and analysts of Latin America and actors of the Cuban civil movement, that will help to reflect on distinct themes that contribute to a scenario of political opening and democratic transition in Cuba.

This annual edition of 2013 in English gathers a selection of the 6 articles published in this period. In this regard, we have chosen two topics covered during 2013. One is the proposal of the Argentine journalist and lawyer Aleardo Laría, who was exiled politically in 1977, recommending the adoption of a parliamentary system of government with a stage of democratic transition in Cuba. From Havana, journalist, writer and former political prisoner Jorge Olivera Castillo, prevented from leaving the country, answered this pose. Another issue that was highlighted during 2013 was the role of Latin America’s democratic left in the light of the political situation in Cuba. Therefore, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for Progressive Arc, writes from Havana that “for sectors of the left, basic liberties do not form a fundamental part of the structure of social coexistence in their model of modernity, but rather are an instrumental inheritance that is disposable once their supposedly just and revolutionary societies are installed. For them, Cuba was and continues to be the future”. From Buenos Aires, historian and political scientist Fernando Pedrosa, author of “The Other Left: Social- Democracy in Latin America” (Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual, 2012) writes that “In a way, the Cuban revolution forged the radical left in Latin America, and this influenced numerous groups and leaders both during the Cold War, and afterwards. Many of them, today distanced from radical politics, maintain through the Cuban situation one of few political links with their youthful past. There is an idealized, naive and yet also cynical view, which sustains a discourse where reality and narrative share no points of contact”. In his turn, Professor of Literature Rubén Chababo, who directs the Museum of Memory in Rosario, highlights that “At this point in the 21st century, after so many reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and so many other organization that in the past denounced the violence carried out by Latin American authoritarian regimes, it should not be necessary to keep trying to convince people that what has been happening in Cuba for decades is a dictatorship”. Finally the renowned historian Luis Alberto Romero answers from Buenos Aires the interpellation Morúa Cuesta.

This publication is expected to reach a wider audience, interested in issues of Latin America and Cuba in particular, hoping to arouse the interest of adding more voices and new topics to this dialogue between Latin Americanists and the Cuban democratic movement.

Gabriel C. Salvia, Editor