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 HAVANA 00000241 002 OF 002 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