Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 8 april 2019
In possible first, Cuba allows march by animal activists

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN er option than to accept
Associated Press reality and people with a
HAVANA (AP) — More than lot of courage have defied
400 animal-lovers peace- the limits and pushed the
fully marched more than boundaries back a little."
a mile through Havana on In contrast, when self-em-
Sunday, shouting slogans ployed taxi drivers went on
and waving signs calling for an informal strike to protest
an end to animal cruelty in new regulations, they were
Cuba. met with a flood of inspec-
Short, seemingly simple, the tions that forced many to
march wrote a small but stop working.
significant line in the history Animal-rights activism has
of modern Cuba. The so- been a fertile field for orga-
cialist government had ex- nizing in Cuba, where these
plicitly permitted a public are no laws against animal
march unassociated with abuse and virtually every
any part of the all-encom- neighborhood has a resi-
passing Communist state, dent or two who dedicate
a move that participants hours to feeding, treating
and historians call highly and sterilizing street dogs
unusual and perhaps un- and cats, sometimes with
precedented since the first the help of foreigners do-
years of the revolution. nating supplies and funds.
"I think it's very intelligent The country has one offi-
that they approved the cially recognized animal-
demonstration, or, rather, rescue group, Aniplant,
march," said singer Silvio and perhaps a dozen other
Rodriguez, an establish- small, non-state organiza-
ment figure who has criti- tions in Havana and other
cized official cultural rigid- Pet owners march against animal cruelty in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, April 7, 2019. major cities. In recent years
ity and who participated in Associated Press the groups have collected
the event. "It makes us feel thousands of signatures
optimistic. Now we have Party. Those groups are fix- "It's a shame that after the mental violations in western asking for an animal-pro-
to see if the same thing will tures in the mass marches march was approved, the Cuba. tection law, with no suc-
happen with other causes." and gatherings organized national press hasn't cov- "It's part of a trend toward cess to date.
There is no indication Cuba by the state on public holi- ered it," he said. "It's sad." recognizing civil society, in "What I believe is that, if I
is moving toward unfet- days. On the other end of In the year since Raul Cas- a tacit manner, sometimes live in this country I should
tered freedom of assem- the spectrum are dissident tro handed the presidency a timid one, but one that's try to fight for what I want
bly: The state still clamps groups, often with close ties to longtime party techno- growing, little by little," said in this country, and what I
down on unapproved po- to anti-Castro forces in Mi- crat Miguel Díaz-Canel in Yassel Padron Kunakbae- want is to help Cuban ani-
litical speech with swift and ami who want to overthrow April 2018, churches, civil va, a blogger and intellec- mals," said Grettel Montes
massive police mobiliza- the socialist government society groups and loose tual who describes him as a de Oca Valdes, a profes-
tions, waves of arrests and and reinstall a capitalist associations of like-minded Marxist revolutionary. sional dancer and found-
temporary detentions. So system with close ties to acquaintances have been A 10-year-old private group er of the group Cubans in
a march by independent Washington. Their attempts using the growing avail- known as Forest Guard- Defense of Animals, whose
civil society groups seek- at street protests and other ability of internet in Cuba ians regularly organizes members marched on Sun-
ing government action forms of organizing are al- to organize for various tree plantings and clean- day. "I don't think that we
was a remarkable sight in most instantly quashed by causes, and the state has ups of rivers that cross the should stop speaking out
a country where, for nearly state security. been ceding them a small city of Havana, said orga- because if we stop speak-
60 years, virtually every as- The animal-rights march degree of freedom to op- nizer Isbel Diaz, a biologist. ing out nothing happens.
pect of life was part of a was monitored by what ap- erate. Last year, the group used That method is useless."
single chain of command peared to at least a cou- Artists pushed back suc- $11,000 in small donations With dozens of participants
ending in a supreme leader ple of dozen plain-clothes cessfully against a new law to buy a headquarters walking dogs on leashes
named Castro. state security agents, who regulating artistic expres- where it holds workshops and even in baby strollers,
"It's unprecedented," said watched participants sion. Evangelical churches and study groups with what the march ended at the
Alberto Gonzalez, an or- closely but did not inter- prodded the government it calls a leftist, anti-capital- grave of Jeannette Ryder,
ganizer of the march and fere. Gonzalez said security to rescind a proposal to le- ist orientation. an American who fought
publisher of The Ark, an on- officials had asked him to galize gay marriage. Thou- Diaz said that the group's for animal rights in Cuba
line Cuban animal-lovers steer the march from the sands organized online to first cleanup of the Male- at the start of 20th century.
magazine. "This is going to main thoroughfare where get private aid to victims con promenade in 2010 Aniplant has typically orga-
mark a before and an af- it had been authorized to of a tornado in Havana had 14 members picking nized what it calls pilgrim-
ter." a smaller side street in order in January. Biologist Ariel up trash as several dozen ages to the grave every
Since shortly after its foun- to avoid traffic. Ruiz Urquiola was freed state security agents filmed, April. In a sign of remaining
dation, the Cuban Com- It was covered by virtu- from prison after an on- took photos and called out tensions between the offi-
munist government has ally all major international line campaign by a wide threats and insults. cial and unofficial in Cuba,
only permitted the ex- media based in Havana, range of Cubans against "Activism in Cuba has tak- many volunteers from
istence of what it calls but did not appear to be his one-year sentence en place despite the state," the government-backed
"legitimate civil society" covered by most state-run for "disrespecting a forest Diaz said. "In my opinion, it's animal group boycotted
— groups overseen, spon- media, a fact that Rodri- ranger" during a broader not because the state has Sunday's march and hold-
sored and managed by guez, the legendary singer, campaign against illegal felt the need to open up, ing their own event next
the state and Communist called a lost opportunity. logging and other environ- but because it's had no oth- week.q