The president of the Pro-Freedom of the Press Association in Cuba participated in the programme 'De cara al mundo' on Onda Madrid

José Antonio Fornaris: "A stampede of Cubans is taking place through Nicaragua"

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In the latest edition of 'De cara al mundo', Onda Madrid's radio programme, we had the participation of José Antonio Fornaris Ramos, president of the Pro-Freedom of Press Association in Cuba, who explained the situation of repression that the press is experiencing in Cuba. On the other hand, Fornaris told us about the situation of the Cuban people vis-à-vis the Díaz-Canel government after 11-J, protests and demonstrations in Cuba triggered by the health crisis, shortages, rationing of food and medicine, and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly. Finally, the president of the Pro-Freedom of the Press Association in Cuba spoke about the new exodus of Cubans through Nicaragua in search of new opportunities. 

How is the situation for journalists in Cuba right now?

The press in Cuba cannot be compared to that of other countries, in practice the free or independent press sector is non-existent, what we have are propaganda media in favour of the Cuban regime, so the situation has been like this since 1960.

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Is there no hope that the dictatorship can be loosened?

As long as there is no democracy in Cuba, there is no possibility of having freedom of the press and even, as I say, a press like the one known in the Western world.

The media such as Granma, TV or radio are propaganda...

Exactly, all the written media in the provinces are organs of the Communist Party in those provinces. Moreover, they are all directed by the ideological department of the Central Committee of the Party. In practice, all the media are owned by the state, so logically a government with these characteristics, in which there is no separation of powers, cannot afford freedom of the press. 
 

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Here we know of initiatives, such as blogs, of citizens who take risks and suffer repression.... 

These initiatives are based in other regions, such as Spain. The Diario de Cuba is made up of independent journalists who send their work here. In Miami this also happens, but internally this does not exist, there was a time when small agencies were created in Havana, but everything was lost due to the existing repression.

I remember Yoani Sánchez and the blog Generación, which is quite relevant... 

Indeed, you are right, she is one of the few things that still remains, along with Reinaldo Escobar, she has managed to maintain the digital newspaper. 

Everything that some people thought that with Obama's opening and the rapprochement of the United States with the regime, things could begin to change.... Has anything changed or is life still so difficult?

The situation has worsened, when Obama came in there was a rapprochement, but the Cuban regime did not take advantage of that for anything, on the contrary, they demanded more things from the US government without offering anything in return. The regime has been complaining about the embargo for 60 years, but nothing is being done to resolve the situation, there is no commitment on the part of the regime, therefore, the situation continues to be tremendous, Europe is in favour of lifting the embargo, there are other countries that do not agree with it being lifted due to the characteristics of the regime. The government is keeping the embargo in place against all kinds of incidents, even against those who are calling for the embargo to be suspended; the government does not want to lose any kind of control.

The regime seems to remain strong despite the latest demonstrations that put the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel in check, and even Raúl Castro had to appear...

Times have changed, we are in a different era in the world and logically the regime is using a time that does not belong to it. The 11-J, which is how the movement is known, was a totally spontaneous thing where the government's response has been to apply state terrorism, with huge condemnations for having taken to the streets to protest. There are young people who have been sentenced to 23 and 28 years in prison, let's remember, for going out to protest, this is terrible, people have the right to freedom of expression and to go out on the streets, article 54 of the Constitution of the regime recognises this as such, but this is theory, if we put the case into practice we have already seen what happens. 
 

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The problem is that there are still people in the world, in Spain, who still use Cuba as an example... it must be because they don't live there. 

That's clear, it looks different from the outside, but the situation in Cuba is very precarious, there is a tremendous difference in the standard of living. Society is in crisis because the economy is in crisis and this is affecting society, people lack motivation at the moment. I don't know if you know, there has been a huge stampede since the possibility of leaving through Nicaragua, people are selling their houses and trying to get out of Cuba because there is no longer any kind of hope. It's a tremendous thing that is happening. 

We had no news that there was this exodus of Cubans leaving the country again...

Yes, of course, with the peculiarity that this time the Cuban regime has not opened the floodgate again as on previous occasions because the US has said that this would be understood as aggression against the country and would respond accordingly. For that reason, Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega at the head, a partner of Havana, has opened the border without the need for a visa and people are leaving through there, we are talking about something tremendous. The surprising thing is that all kinds of houses are being sold, one notices that they are not people who are going through economic problems because those who have a house in Miramar do not have problems of this kind, what they are doing is leaving in a stampede. Soon it will also be possible to leave Cuba through Jamaica, giving Cubans 72 hours to stay at the airport without the need for a visa so that they can continue their journey.
 

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