UPROAR AMONG CUBAN INTELLECTUALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000048

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/16/2017
TAGS: PGOV KPAO CU
SUBJECT: UPROAR AMONG CUBAN INTELLECTUALS


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Classified By: COM Michael E. Parmly for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: The recent reappearance on Cuban state
television of three former officials responsible for cultural
pogroms in the 1960s and 1970s has set off a firestorm of
reaction among prominent Cuban intellectuals. In an email
exchange addressed to a &who,s who8 of Cuban literary
figures and artists, several intellectuals, led by
prizewinning writers Anton Arrufat and Reylando Gonzalez,
decried an apparent attempt to rehabilitate these hatchet
men, and openly questioned the motives for doing so at this
sensitive time. The reappearance of the three officials, who
had been allies of Raul Castro, coupled with the recent
resignation of the President of the official Union of Artists
and Writers of Cuba (UNEAC) has caused concern. A group of
20 writers met with Culture Minister Abel Prieto and with the
state broadcasting agency to protest the officials,
television appearances, but we are told by one source that
the exchange of emails has spread to some 40 intellectuals.
The fact that Cuban intellectuals, including many
establishment figures, have voiced such strong criticism and
have aimed it so directly at the top of the regime is a
further sign of disquiet among the nomenklatura. End
Summary.

2.(C) The appearance of Luis Pavon Tamayo, the former
chairman of the National Culture Council on a January 7
television program featuring important cultural figures in
Cuban history, prompted an uproar among the Cuban
intelligentsia. During his tenure on the National Cultural
Council from 1971-1976, known as the &grey period,8 Pavon
ruled with an iron fist, enforcing party discipline in a
pogrom against Cuban writers and artists, and weeded out
homosexuals. The appearance of Pavon, pictured in photos
with Fidel and Raul Castro and extolling his closeness with
Che Guevara, was the third in a series of appearances by
former cultural officials. Pavon,s deputy Armando Quesada,
called the "Torquesada8 or Inquisitor for his role in
repressing Cuban theater, first appeared on a television
program in November, followed in December by Jose Serguera, a
former prosecutor who had overseen trials of
"counter-revolutionaries8 in the early 1960s and was later
head of the Cuban Institute of Radio Broadcasting. The
resignation last month of the President of the Union of
Writers and Artists (UNEAC),allegedly for personal reasons,
and speculation about his possible replacement by more
hard-line candidates for that position has added to the
unrest.


3. (C) Immediately following the Pavon broadcast, a group of
prominent Cuban writers led by Anton Arrufat and Reynaldo
Gonzalez, a former USINT contact, began an email campaign
decrying, as writer Norge Espinosa Mendez characterized it,
&the resurrection of these cadavers.8 The emails recalled
the persecution of writers and artists, who were neither
&revolutionary nor counterrevolutionary8 under Pavon, and
criticized the passivity of intellectuals, drawing parallels
to today. Author Gerardo Fullera Leon reflected, &It is not
a moment for fear or silence but of unity to thwart any
attempt to return to that time and repeat history.8 Several
intellectuals questioned the timing of the appearances by
Pavon and his cohorts at a &watchful moment,8 according to
Espinoza, &when questions about the immediate future must be
posed with respect of the other, respect for all.8 The
emails also reflected on Cuba,s post-Castro future, as
Arturo Arango wrote, &We are living a moment as difficult as
it is intense and I am convinced the direction the country
takes in the more or less immediate future is the
responsibility of all.8

4.(C) We understand that approximately 40 intellectuals
participated in the email exchange. Another 200 writers and
artists are listed as recipients and many of our contacts in
the cultural community were well aware of the controversy.
Some of the leaders of this campaign, such as Arrufat and
Gonzalez, had been censored for their views or persecuted as
homosexuals during the "grey period8 in the early 1970s, but
have since become establishment figures among the Cuban
intelligentsia. Most of the participants cannot be
characterized as dissidents but range from independent
writers and artists, including some USINT contacts, to
well-connected literary figures close to the regime. A group
of 20 intellectuals met last week with Cuban Culture Minister
Abel Prieto, who offered no apology for the reappearance of
Pavon, as well as with the Cuban Radio and Television

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Broadcasting Institute (ICRT). For its part, ICRT claimed to
have been ignorant of Pavon,s past prior to airing the
program. Several of the intellectuals also made critical
comments to the international press about the repression they
endured under Pavon. One dissident writer, Raul Antonio
Capote, warned it was no coincidence orthodox hard-liners
were resurfacing at a time when the regime faced an uncertain
future.


5. (C) Comment: Although intellectuals and artists are a
privileged class that has flourished under the regime and
their reaction has a clear strain of self-interest, the furor
over the Pavon episode illustrates emerging fissures among
the nomeklatura. The fact that a group of more or less
establishment figures launched such a public protest and
demanded a voice in the future direction of post-Castro Cuba
is significant. Until now, most dissent among intellectuals
has been expressed through their individual works, as the
painter Montoto (who was not on the email exchange) once
commented to us, &All of our art is metaphor.8 For a group
of intellectuals to collectively voice dissent in such a
"public" forum as the Internet, and in the midst of a
transition indicates that the nomenklatura will not be
complacent as Raul Castro attempts to consolidate his
illegitimate grip on power. It is worth recalling that many
of the leaders of political transitions in Eastern Europe
were artists and intellectuals, and it is worth continuing to
cultivate our ties with these groups. While the regime may
marginalize and repress traditional civil society actors and
self-declared political dissidents, dissent among the
nomenklatura, whom the regime relies on for political
legitimacy, is more difficult to stifle. The sharp reaction
of these intellectuals to events that happened almost 40
years ago also provides us with a possible window into
post-Castro Cuba when less privileged Cubans will at last
feel free to unleash their true emotions about the past half
century.
PARMLY