Cuba: Tobacco dollars over public health

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

In a section of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore talks on the topic of smoking and its harmful effects on human life, but this piece of the film seems to be ignored by Fidel Castro and the Cuban communists, although they are apparently anti-global-warming activists.

Much of the civilized world has begun to pass laws to ban smoking in places that affect other people, as recommended by the World Health Organization; however, as if it were not enough to be one of the only countries still governed by a socialist dictatorship, Cuba also prefers to be one of the few nations to avoid anti-tobacco regulations in order to not harm the earnings of its state tobacco industry.

According to WHO, about 6 million people will die this year because of smoking, not including passive smoking, but in the socialist paradise of the Castro brothers, the "problem" to choose between health and dollars is defined in the style of Wall Street investment bankers, what makes more profit?, where tobacco capitalism wins easily.

While Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay and other Latin American countries continue to move to offer its citizens smoke-free spaces, Cuba continues to hold the annual "Habano's Festival", tobacco is still among the top three Cuban export products, and the pictures of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara with cigars in their mouths are part of Latin American communist culture.

A few years ago, the government of Cuba sought to promote anti-tobacco regulations, but they were nullified with the excuse of being intolerable for the people, which sounds highly implausible because we are talking about one of the most repressive dictatorships on the planet.

And in this we have another of the contradictions of Cuban socialism. Fidel prefers to write about the growth of deserts in Africa and toxic emissions in the northern hemisphere, but where he can do something real for life, in Cuba, where the Castro family has dominated for the past 52 years, he chooses to discuss the problems in foreign countries.

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"The Latin American left is leaning to the center"

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

The prestigious publication "The Christian Science Monitor" published an interview in which the journalist Sara Miller spoke with us about the Peruvian elections (click here to read it in full). Luis Alberto said to this news agency that since the arrival of Ortega to Nicaragua's presidency in 2007, no other wannabe Chavez has appeared in the region because the leftists are now betting on centrist positions. We had already expressed this idea on other occasions, implying that Humala will most likely follow the footsteps of leaders like Mauricio Funes, in El Salvador.

Luis also told "The Christian Science Monitor" that this was because, although Chavez's speech is attractive to some people, the failure of the XXI Century Socialism in matters such as inflation, insecurity and power generation had shown to the neighboring countries that chavism is not a good example to follow, which, coupled with falling oil revenues -less money to buy foreign loyalties-, had reduced his regional influence.

Click in the image to enlarge it

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Kidnapping, the face of the Chavista security policy failure

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

The Chavez government has failed miserably in public security policies, to the point that the authorities no longer give official figures on the exact number of crimes being committed daily in Venezuela, hoping that, in this way, the population will not be aware of the government's inability on the subject. All crimes have flourished under the administration of Lt. Col. Chavez, from drug trafficking to counterfeiting of documents, but is kidnapping the illegal activity that has grown more in these 12 years of XXI Century Socialism.

According to figures from the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, about 17 000 kidnappings occur each year in Venezuela, indicating that 47 citizens of this country are victims of this crime every day.

In 1998, the Venezuelan electorate believed that a military would solve the escalation of crime that took place in Venezuela during the nineties. The reality shattered ​​that expectation. Before Chavez came to power, kidnapping seemed to occur only on the Venezuelan western border, but now that Chavez has twelve years applying his policies, Venezuela has surpassed Colombia in kidnapping cases per year.

While Lt. Col. speaks of socialism and expropriation, Venezuelans suffer the kidnapping of a family member or a loved one. Worst of all, the police is involved in eight out of ten of these crimes, as some experts say, and courts have become, under the Chavez government, ineffective institutions that do not punish those who commit such acts.

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"La Gran Recesión y la Izquierda": Presentation in Cumaná

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

Accompanied by family and friends, we presented our book "La Gran Recesión y la Izquierda" at the Casa Ramos Sucre, in Cumana, Sucre state, Venezuela. Before the event began, we were interviewed by the local media, speaking about the book and the political-economic conditions in Venezuela.

After opening, Luis made a discourse in which he thanked God and those present for the occasion to have this meeting, and then refer to the essay. Jose, for his part, provided further details of the book's theme in his speech, which was followed by a round of questions and answers, the baptism of the text, the toast, and the sale of the autographed book.

We broke the protocol at the end, sharing with the audience, exchanging views, taking pictures and sampling some snacks. Among those attending were the candidates for mayor of Cumana for Accion Democratica and Primero Justicia, Robert Alcala and Juan Barrozzi; the owner of the most important local broadcaster, journalist and businessman Marcos Lopez Inserni; the artist Ali Zapata; and a group of university teachers.

Humala roulette or the Fujimoris' revenge?

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

Without doubts, Ollanta Humala is similar to Chavez in some aspects: military officer, former coup leader, leftist, radical discourse, and even physically they have resemblances. However, althought Humala seems to have much affinity with the current Venezuelan president, we could also make a comparison between Chavez and Keiko Fujimori, but in another matter: the revenge motif.

The worst of Chavez was known by Venezuelans from April 13, 2002, after Chavez returned to power following the confusing events that led to the installation of a new government that lasted only two days.

Since 1999, the resentment was always one of the driving forces of Chavismo, but from that April 2002, Chavista leaders began a revenge campaign that is still used as an excuse to suppress civil liberties in Venezuela.

Nine years later, legal proceedings, media and tax harassments are still covered with the legends of April 11, 2002. Opposition leaders jailed, others exiled, purge in the armed forces, opposition owned companies nationalized or fined, and criminalization of protest are part of this history, where even students who complain about bus fare increases are immediately branded as "coup conspirators" by the government.

And all this is justified by the actions of an anti-Chavez government that lasted only two days, where times and "excesses" are incomparable to those supported by Alberto Fujimori and his allies in Peru for over ten years.

For us, voting for Humala in Peru is like playing a game of chance, because no one knows exactly how true are the words of this former soldier when he says he does not think imitating Chavez. But where we would speak of certainty is in the title of the tragedy that Peruvians will live if the daughter of the late dictator of that country becomes president: "The Fujimoris' revenge".

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Sixth Congress of the CPC: Paper socialism

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

In the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, the guidelines that will govern the economic model of this Caribbean nation in the coming years were agreed. To maintain the facade of a dictatorship that still endures despite Fidel's convalescence, and the pride of not admitting internal idealogical conflicts, the discourse that graced the event was "socialism, revolution and more socialism", without making a stop at the anti-communist reforms of Raul Castro, or openly discussing the increasingly evident crisis of faith of the upper levels of government in the Marxist philosophy.

The previous Congress had occurred in 1997. At that meeting, the final document mentions the word "socialism" only three times, while the same word is invoked 26 times in the document prepared in 2011; demonstrating the Cuban leadership's desire to emphasize the socialist character of the post-Fidel era.

But the repetition of the word socialism, more than before, does not help if the signs that the Cuban regime shows illustrate serious internal contradictions. Fidel told the world few months ago, "the Cuban model no longer works even for us", while the Communist Party shouted the "continuity and irreversibility of socialism" at the past week's convention. Who should we believe?

Although Cuban politicians tried to keep the revolutionary rhetoric, the final document coyly warns a socialism that is unlike that of Fidel. The text says, for example, "the economic system will continue to prevail based on the socialist ownership of all the people over the fundamental means of production". We note the intentional inclusion of the word "fundamental" in the declaration, which leaves the door open for private sector participation in non-strategic areas of the Cuban economy, as Raul has been allowing in the small farming and other business.

Classical Marxism, in which Fidel believed, has among its ideological pillars the collective ownership of the means of production and the abolition of private property, regardless of whether these resources were fundamental or not. They may include 26 times more the word socialism in the conclusion of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, but the socialist ownership of some means of production, the fundamentals, sounds more like a mixed economy model than a socialist one.

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Humala, like Chavez or like Funes?

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

Ollanta Humala and Hugo Chavez came from the military, they reached the same rank of lieutenant colonel, and are those who believe that yelling at a battalion is the same as governing a country. Ideologically, they seem to agree on several things, at least in words, because Humala also wants to come to power by talking about Constituent Assembly, referendum, nationalization, "a great transformation," and praising past military regimes. However, Humala's intentions and discourse are not entirely sufficient to assume that, if this ex-coup leader becomes president in Peru, we will see the consolidation of another Chavez in the Andes.

Humala's time is different. For 2011, the social, economic and democratic crisis in Chavez's Venezuela is well known; while the former governments of Lula and Bachelet, in Brazil and Chile respectively, are considered the two best examples for Latin American leftists.

The last imitator of the Venezuelan comandante appeared in 2007 in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. Since then, almost all leftist groups in Latin America have tended to resemble their Brazilian and Chilean comrades.

Mauricio Funes came to power in El Salvador in 2009, with the help of radical leftists and former guerrilla combatants. Chavista style policies were also feared in El Salvador in that moment, but Funes was wise enough to realize that following the Chavez path would be a mistake. Today, Funes is one of the most prestigious Latin American leaders because he is not ignoring democratic principles.

If he wins the presidency, Humala will have to choose in similar circumstances to those of Funes. Will he be so foolish as to copy the political crises caused by Chavez imitators in Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua?

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