YOUNG CUBAN ACTIVISTS CONSIDER HOLDING ANOTHER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000053

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2017
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: YOUNG CUBAN ACTIVISTS CONSIDER HOLDING ANOTHER
FORUM

REF: 06 HAVANA 23546

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Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: Leaders of three influential Cuban opposition
youth groups met on January 17 and warmed to the idea of
holding an ambitious youth forum, possibly in March. The
prospective gathering would bring together perhaps 300 youth
activists from across the island. The three leaders --
Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, Edgard Lopez Moreno and Ahmed
Rodriguez Albacia - organized the November 24 youth meeting
(reftel) that drew 63 young activists, two of them from
Mexico. The three also told us that the Cuban Government has
stepped up its harassment of young dissidents, detaining
some, threatening others and firing at least one activist
from his job. They said more uniformed police are on the
streets and are carrying out more ID checks. Frustration is
palpable among Cuban youth. End Summary.


2. (C) Rodriguez Lobaina of the Young Cubans' Movement for
Democracy, Lopez Moreno of the Marti Youth Coalition and
Rodriguez Albacia of Young People Without Censorship held
talks on January 17, meeting for the first time since a
November 24 forum united dozens of young activists. The
three told Poloff that it would be difficult, but not
impossible, to hold an event that would attract around 300
young activists from all parts of the country. They said
they would need financial support to pay for the
participants' travel and food, adding that the GOC would do
all in its power to prevent another forum. They argued that
young Cubans want freedom and political change, but fear they
would be arrested for making any such public demand.

REPRESSIVE ACTS
--------------


3. (C) Since November 24, they said, dozens of participants
in the youth forum, as well as other members of the three
groups, have been detained, interrogated, threatened or
issued citations to appear before police. (Minimal violence
has been reported in connection with this crackdown, although
a 20-year-old activist of the Cuban Human Rights Foundation,
Luis Esteban Espinosa, said a police officer punched him four
or five times on January 12 at a police station in Ciego de
Avila.) Rodriguez Lobaina, a former political prisoner, said
11 members of his group have been subjected at least one
repressive measure since November 24. He added that the GOC
fired Alexei Escudo Fernandez as a restaurant administrator
in Havana, and forced Gerardo Sanchez Ortejas and his wife to
appear before police in Santiago three times. Lopez Moreno
said the GOC has taken repressive action against at least a
dozen Coalition members since the forum, and that the wave of
repression is increasing, with four Coalition members
summoned between January 12 and 16. Most of the young
activists who were detained were held only for brief periods,
although Rodriguez Albacia spent a week behind bars in early
January. On January 16, according to independent journalist
Guillermo Farinas, the GOC detained 24-year-old activist
Yancy Ruiz Martin, who faces a potential charge of
"dangerousness."

ANOTHER EVENT POSSIBLE
--------------


4. (C) The three opposition-group leaders did not discuss a
venue for a future forum, but expressed agreement that it
should be held in Havana. Rodriguez Albacia said young
activists have reached a historical crossroads, but that it
would be dangerous to underestimate the power and reach of
State Security. Lopez Moreno, who faces a possible espionage
charge, said any future forum should embrace "new language"
aimed at lowering the level of confrontation with the regime.


COMMENT
--------------


5. (C) Frustration is palpable among Cuba's youth, who tend
to interpret the GOC's signs that "A Better World Is
Possible" as "Anywhere Other Than In Cuba." Young Cubans are
bored with incessant propaganda, starved of recreational
activities, comfortably numbed by cheap alcohol, and aware
that the career paths offered by the current system lead
nowhere. Relatively few Cuban youngsters cross the Rubicon

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into formal opposition, but the regime, as seen by its
continuing and intensifying crackdown, realizes that the
country's many disaffected young people could become a
leading force for change. For that reason, we do not expect
any letup in the repression of young Cuban activists.
PARMLY