CUBAN YOUTH SEE NOT MUCH HOPE IN EITHER THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000241

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2017
TAGS: CU PGOV PHUM PINR PREL
SUBJECT: CUBAN YOUTH SEE NOT MUCH HOPE IN EITHER THE
GOVERNMENT OR OPPOSITION

REF: 2007 HAVANA 1018

Classified By: A/COM: J. Williams : For reasons 1.4 b/d


1. (C) Summary: In a meeting with Poloff ten Cuban young
people, none of them a member of any opposition organization,
agreed that the greatest problem they face is that there are
no incentives for trying to work hard. They feel that no
matter how hard they work, there are no prospects that they
can obtain anything worthwhile. They spoke about how Cubans
all depend on selling items on the black market to survive,
and for many young people this means engaging in
prostitution. There is a great deal of frustration about the
opportunities that are extended to foreigners in Cuba that
the government denies its own citizens. They also describe
regular police harassment of young people. Despite all the
complaints, the majority of these young people stated that
they had little interest in joining opposition groups. In
their view the opposition was weak, divided and ineffective.
End Summary.


2. (C) Poloff held a meeting of young people at his house on
March 5 attended by 10 males in their early twenties. None of
them was a member of an opposition organizations. However,
one participant, Juan Carmelo Bermudez Rosabal, a third year
psychology student from the University in Santiago de Cuba,
had participated in protests on that campus. In contrast to
youth who are affiliated with opposition organizations who
will speak of "freedom" or "change", most of this group
listed the most serious problem as being the lack of rewards
for working hard. They said that no matter how hard a person
works there is no way ever to earn enough to buy something
worthwhile. Several remarked that even though there are jobs
available, some young people don't work because the effort
achieves so little. One young man said that with the present
salaries, even if you try hard to save, the biggest luxury
you can expect to buy is a pack of cigarettes.


3. (C) Several members of the group commented that nearly
all Cubans have to sell something on the black market just to
get by. One young man remarked "Cuba can't produce anything,
but Cubans know how to sell everything." This led to a
discussion on prostitution as the logical outcome of a
situation where a person can find nothing else to sell. Some
of the group commented that prostitution is very common,
although the police in Havana have been trying to suppress
this activity. Some participants said that many young Cuban
women do not think that they are prostituting themselves.
Instead they think that they are hunting for a boyfriend.
They added that promiscuity is common, and people in general
don not think much when adolescents start sexual activity at
a young age. A couple of the young men said that the typical
prostitute in Havana is between 16 and 20 and tries to
connect with a tourist. These women grant sexual favors for
meals, drinks and presents rather than for cash. They
pointed out that, although it is not the norm, they have seen
girls as young as 12 engage in this activity. Most of these
young girls have parents with severe problems such as
alcoholism who leave the children to fend for themselves.


4. (C) A subject that angered nearly all the participants
is the favorable treatment given tourists and foreigners over
Cubans. Two of the young men from Central Havana said that
police will tell them frequently to turn back if they are
approaching tourist areas even though they are less than a
mile away from their houses. They said that the situation is
worse when they were with a girlfriend because the police
thought they were going to try to prostitute her to a
tourist. They said that police try to prevent any
conversations between young Cubans and tourists. They also
briefly mentioned that many goods are only sold in
convertible pesos (CUC's) and that Cubans can not buy the
things available to foreigners due to the dual monetary
system. Two of the group work construction jobs and
commented that they had renovated several homes in the
Miramar area, where Pol off's home is located, as well as
adjoining areas. They said that the government had either
confiscated the houses from people who had fled the country
or had ordered the Cuban inhabitants out for "social

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reasons". They said that many houses were given extensive
repairs, and in some cases swimming pools were installed.
Then the government rented the homes to foreigners. They
contrasted this was the very little the GOC does to improve
the poor housing conditions of the average Cuban. Bermudez
spoke of the resentment on the campus of his university
because of the vastly superior dormitories, dining halls and
food afforded to foreign students, many of them from
Venezuela, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. He said that
Cubans cannot visit the dormitories of the foreign student,
and stated that there was a recent incident where a Cuban
student was allegedly beaten with impunity by foreigners for
"invading" a "foreigners only" recreation area.


5. (C) The youths said that the streets are always filled
with plainclothes policemen who stop youths frequently. If a
young person is walking down the street at night wearing a
backpack, especially an Afro Cuban, he will be stopped for
sure. The group stated that normally nothing will happen if
you just produce your ID and do not talk back. Two of the
youths said that if there is a group of friends chatting, or
even one person just sitting on a bench talking to a friend,
sometimes the police will tell them that they are conducting
"an illegal meeting" and order them to separate. They said
in Havana police are alert to identifying people from the
Eastern provinces coming to Havana to look for work. If a
person's ID shows an address in these areas, the authorities
quickly ship them back.


6. (C) Poloff posed the question as to why there were not
more protests in Cuba. Almost the entire group stated that
because demonstrations would not achieve any results, and
could just cause more trouble, such as the loss of their
jobs. They said that the Cuba opposition is so weak and
divided that they probably could not organize more than a
dozen people to show up for a protest and GOC has enough
plainclothes officers on the street to break a demonstration
of that size quickly. One youth said that he didn't think
any of the opposition organizations had more than four or
five members. They all denied they had any fear of
participating in protests, but indicated that the opposition
organizations are incapable of changing things, so that they
found no incentives to join them. Bermudez disagreed. He
detailed the protests that had spontaneously broken out at
his University in the fall over the issue of security (see
reftel). The rest of the group had never before heard
anything about this incident. He said that there were some
immediate improvements especially in terms of installing
lighting at night. Recently the administration started to
play music throughout the campus. However, eight of the
students involved in the protests recently "disappeared" from
campus. He assumed that they were expelled, but when
students have contacted the parents, the parents refused to
discuss the situation. Bermudez said that since things have
quieted down, his teachers have been very demanding and his
colleagues have been distant. He is now longer welcome to
participate in study groups. He said that many of his fellow
students feel now that the effort was not worth the risks.
However he said that he is glad that he protested because the
students' demands were just, and hopes that Cubans when they
have justifiable grievances will speak up.


7. (C) Comment: Post continues to try to engage a wide
variety of Cuban youth groups. What is striking is the
degree of disilusionment and alienation many Cuban youth
display. It is clear the regime has failed completely to
engage the younger generation. However, it is also notable
that the Cuban opposition has yet to reach many young people
who the dissident groups can unite to promote positive change.
PARMLY