By Seamus O’ Tuairisc | FRFI

The US has plans to make use of Facebook and other social media in order to generate political dissent in Cuba. The US government has charged the Miami-based network Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) with the task of overseeing the spread of propaganda and disinformation through social media. The OCB is a subsidiary of the state-owned Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an agency which owns and supervises other networks that broadcast pro-US propaganda overseas, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

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The Solar Photovoltaic Park of the Central University 'Marta Abreu' in the Las Villas province of Cuba.

By Ben Geraghty | FRFI

Cuba’s new constitution will incorporate articles enshrining Cuba’s commitment to sustainable development and the protection of the environment. This is a long-standing commitment of which the most recent major iteration was an announcement in 2014 that the country aims to source 24% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

Currently about 5% of Cuba’s energy is produced by renewable sources, but there is huge potential for renewable energy development due to Cuba’s geography giving it access to a variety of biofuel sources, a windy coastline and generous amounts of sunshine. Luis Hilario Berriz Perez, president of the state enterprise Cubasolar, explains that ‘Cuba’s territory, of about 111,000 square kilometres, receives solar radiation equivalent to the energy produced by 50 million tons of oil, every day. That is, the solar radiation Cuba receives in a single day, is greater – in its energy value – than all the oil consumed in five years.’ However, there are major barriers to energy development; not least the US blockade. Cuba has been forced to look outside of the US’ sphere of influence for solutions to its energy needs.

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By Helen Yaffe | FRFI 

On 22 July, over 600 delegates in Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, the country’s highest decision-making body, approved the draft of a new Constitution after two days of debate in which more than 100 delegates made interventions. Now the Constitution will be distributed throughout the island and between mid-August and mid-November the population will debate it in grassroots meetings, in communities and centres of work and study. A second version of the Constitution will then incorporate opinions expressed in the popular consultation. Following approval of this second version by the National Assembly, the new Constitution will be put to a nationwide referendum based on a secret ballot, probably early in 2019. Helen Yaffe reports.

The socialist character of the Cuban system and the role of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP), as the country’s ideological leadership, remain ‘principles set in stone’. However, a clause in the 1976 Constitution about the ultimate aim of building a communist society is omited from the draft. ‘This does not mean we are renouncing our ideas,’ said President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo. At the time of the earlier Constitution, one-third of the world’s population lived under socialist regimes. Today Cuba is almost isolated as a country building socialism. Under such circumstances, the idea of a transition from socialism to communism is abstract and remote. ‘We believe in a socialist, sovereign, independent, prosperous and sustainable country’, explained Lazo. State enterprises will remain the mainstay of the economy. There will be limits to the concentration of private ownership. Access to healthcare and education will remain free and universal. New in the Constitution is a defence of the environment, and the need to mitigate climate change. Other articles are rights which the Cuban state will work to make viable, and some require subsequent legislation.

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By Will Harney | FRFI

On 19 April 2018 Cuba inaugurated its new Council of State, including the new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez. He is the first leader of Cuba’s government to be born after the revolution of 1959. At this event which concluded the six-month long general election, outgoing leader Raul Castro addressed the National Assembly of People’s Power, expressing optimism about the suitability of the country’s new leadership to continue the programme of economic, social and political reforms, as well as the significant progress made in rejuvenating and diversifying the National Assembly so that it reflects the demographics of the nation it serves. Raul also expressed his hope that Diaz-Canel would succeed him as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, indicating that the ties between the Party and the government of Cuba will remain strong in the years to come. Will Harney reports.

The transition to the next generation

Raul stepped down this year after two terms in office, in accordance with the term limits agreed in the Communist Party of Cuba’s programme of updates to the socialist model, which were approved at the 6th Congress in 2011 and consolidated at the 7th Congress in 2016. Guidelines for economic, social and political reforms were drafted, modified and agreed in 2010-11, in consultation with the people through a participatory democratic system (FRFI 221). Included in the programme are gradual changes to improve efficiency and productivity in Cuba’s economy, with a greater role for non-state enterprises, introduction of a housing market and incentives for greater foreign investment with the state retaining control over central planning. The guidelines also stipulate that no one over 70 will assume a leadership position in the Party, effectively guaranteeing that the country’s leadership will transition to a new generation.

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By Will Harney | FRFI

The self-confessed terrorist bomber and CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles died a free man on 23 May in Miami, Florida where he had been sheltered by the US government since 2005. He was a counter-revolutionary responsible for the deaths of innocent people throughout Latin America.

The right-wing Cuban exile community mourn Posada as a hero: radio station La Poderosa observed a minute’s silence; the Havana Times blog gave tribute to the ‘Hero’ (later amended to ‘Warrior’); while the Miami Herald’s coverage on the day painted him as the James Bond of Latin America. US media headlines were forgiving and almost universally described Posada only as a ‘militant Cuban exile’ (eg Washington Post, 23 May 2018). Echoing this hypocrisy for a British audience, the BBC presented Posada as a ‘Cuba anti-Com­munist activist’ above his smiling portrait.  In the imperialist countries, it was as if a likeable firebrand had passed away, and not a prolific mass murderer.

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‘The internet appears to have been made for revolutionaries’ – Fidel Castro

By Will Harney and Conan Underhill | FRFI

Far from seeing the internet as a danger to be controlled or censored, the Cuban government recognises its potential for empowering oppressed peoples in the revolution against global capitalism (Granma 16 February 2018). The new Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel urged in his maiden speech to the National Assembly of People’s Power on 19 April that Cubans must be ‘more creative with spreading our truths’ and start using new technologies to publicise life in socialist Cuba, to counter the lies and misinformation spread by their enemies. This is why development of Cuba’s internet infrastructure has continued apace despite its primary obstacle: the US-imposed economic blockade of Cuba. Meanwhile, US President Trump has ordered the creation of a task force to explore the potential of using the internet to undermine the Cuban revolution. Will Harney and Conan Underhill report.

Expanding internet access

Cuba is prevented from accessing most of the undersea fibre-optic cables which skirt the island, due to the US blockade which prohibits the majority of service providers, based in the US, from connecting to the island (FRFI 218) – with the exception of the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, connected to Florida by the GTMO-1 cable since 2015. Internet usage has therefore always been expensive in Cuba and has been rationed to provide vital service to medical, research and educational institutions. In 2008, Venezuela launched the Venesat-1 (or ‘Simon Bolivar’) Satellite from a rocket base in China to provide internet, television and telephone connectivity to Latin America, to the benefit of countries which had been forced to depend on US infrastructure. This enabled greater internet access in Cuba but connection via the satellite remained slow compared to a cabled network. Then in 2013 the 1,860km ALBA-1 fibre-optic cable was constructed between Venezuela and Cuba. Public Wi-Fi hotspots have multiplied to more than 500 in the years since.

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Speech by representative of Cuban Embassy to RATB ‘Cuba Today: Democracy and Socialism’ meeting – 19/05/18

The following speech was delivered by Julio Pujol Torres, the Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Cuban Embassy to the UK, at a meeting organised by Rock Around the Blockade on 19 May to launch our 2019 solidarity brigade to Cuba.

Dear friends,

First of all we want to thank the comrades of Rock Around the Blockade and the Revolutionary Communist Group for inviting us to the Launch of the Brigade two thousand nineteen – ‘Cuba today: socialism and democracy’ - precisely today, when we commemorate the one hundred and twenty-third anniversary of the fall in combat of the Apostle of our Independence Jose Marti.

It is a pleasure for us to be here today with you. We want to offer our full support to this idea of solidarity with our people of Cuba.

Just a few weeks ago millions of Cubans marched in all squares from our country to greet the international workers' day and to support to our victorious Revolution that continues the struggle to consolidate the construction of a prosperous and sustainable socialism, which guarantees the greatest justice for all Cubans, despite imperialism's attempts to destroy us in all possible ways.

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Rock Around the Blockade sends our deepest condolences to the familes of those who died in the tragic plane crash in Havana on Friday 18 May. Over 100 people died, despite the quick reaction of emergency services and local authorities. We send solidarity to the Cuban people who are in mourning this weekend. 

Published 12 March 2018 on TelesurTV.net

With voter turnout for Cuba's legislative election Sunday at almost 80 percent, the island completed the second stage of its general elections that will culminate in the election of a new executive in April.

Published 15 Febuary 2018 by Revolutionary communist Group

Cuba’s Gay Revolution: normalising sexual diversity through a health-based approach

Emily J Kirk, Lexington Books, 2017, 167pp, £60

In 1992, Fidel Castro was one of the first heads of state to openly support LGBT liberation, declaring: ‘I am absolutely opposed to any form of repression, contempt, scorn or discrimination with regard to homosexuals.’ He later expressed personal regret for historic persecution of homosexuals in the country: ‘Yes, there were great injustices... if someone is responsible, it’s me... We had so many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death. In those moments, I was not able to deal with the matter. I found myself immersed, principally, in the Crisis of October, in the war, in policy questions.’¹

Internationally, the history of LGBT politics in Cuba has received little in the way of serious attention which often takes the form of generalisations or thinly veiled attacks upon Cuban socialism. Emily J Kirk’s book, therefore, is hugely significant. Drawing from the archives of the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) and interviews with its staff, she sets out an objective and insightful analysis of how LGBT rights have developed through the history of the Cuban revolution.

Underpinning Kirk’s approach is a sincere appreciation of how change works in Cuba. Kirk adopts what she calls the ‘negotiative process framework’. This argues an essential truth: the Cuban revolution is a complex, continually adapting process of negotiation and debate. Kirk is equally understanding of the country’s own framing of both LGBT oppression and liberation. This is highlighted by her use of the term ‘sexual diversity’ as opposed to the more commonly understood term LGBT which rarely appears in Cuban literature.

Homophobia in pre-revolutionary Cuba

Kirk begins her analysis by looking at the history of sexual diversity in pre-revolutionary Cuba. The Spanish colonisation of Cuba resulted in the concept of machismo, a combination of the attitudes of Spanish colonisers, indigenous Cubans and African slaves toward gender and sexuality. Machismo sees the idealised man as aggressive, sexually dominant and unfaithful. The ideal woman was understood as the opposite: submissive, without sexuality and faithful.

US imperialism has also been fundamental in shaping Cuban homophobia. By the late 1950s, tourism had become Cuba’s second largest earner of foreign currency and sex work had grown to an enormous scale. The country housed around 270 brothels, some employees as young as 12. This industry was controlled by the Cuban elite and US-based crime syndicates. Preferential hiring treatment was given to homosexual men in the tourist sector to provide young men to satisfy US military personnel and tourists. As such, homosexuality was initially understood as a symptom of imperialist intervention and capitalist decadence after the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959.

Socialism and homophobia: the 1960s and 1970s

Homophobia continued among officials and socially after the revolution. What separates Kirk’s analysis is her acknowledgement that this is by no means unique to Cuban socialism. That the World Health Organisation did not remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses until 1990 illustrates the universality of homophobia across modern human society.

Nevertheless, the early years of the revolution are significant. The Penal Code maintained homophobic legislation throughout the 1960s and 1970s, using laws dating back to the 1938 Cuban Social Defense Code. Article 490 gave a prison sentence of up to six months to anyone who ‘habitually engaged in homosexual acts’, propositioned someone or created a ‘display’. These attitudes deepened during the 1960s. The influence of western scientific orthodoxy, which equated homosexuality with mental illness, and the emigration of middle class homosexuals to the US contributed to an understanding of sexual diversity as dangerous. By 1965 sexual diversity was viewed as synonymous with counter-revolution in Cuba.

The result was homophobic persecution. A 1965 report from the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) concluded that homosexuality was learned and could be ‘corrected’. Later that year, Cuba formed Military Units to Aid Production (UMAPs) – labour camps in the province of Camagüey which were set up for those who could not, or would not, participate in military service. Homosexuals were amongst the people sent to these camps as they were not permitted to openly serve in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces until 1993. Little research has been carried out on UMAPs, but it is estimated that around 60,000 people worked in them. The UMAPs were closed within three years after widespread criticism within the country and an undercover investigation by the Cuban government.

The 1971 Declaration of the First National Congress on Education and Culture shows how homophobic attitudes continued into the next decade. Whilst promoting the need for a comprehensive programme for sexual health, the Congress banned sexually diverse people from participating. It went on to recommend the exclusion of homosexuals from the teaching profession. Law 1267 formalised this in 1974. Reminiscent of the UK’s notorious ‘Section 28’ law which, from 1988 to 2003, prohibited local authority-maintained schools in Britain from ‘promoting the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’, homosexuals in Cuba were prohibited from working in any position in which they could influence children. A shift away from these circumstances was signalled by the decriminalisation of homosexuality, with an equal age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals, in Cuba in 1979.

The FMC and the discrimination-health link

The foundational step in normalising sexual diversity in Cuba came from the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), founded on 30 August 1960. The organisation’s first National Congress, held in 1962, highlighted the need to improve the country’s public health service, with a focus on sexual health. The founding of Mujeres, a bi-monthly magazine for women, in 1961 was equally important. A regular section titled ‘Debates on Health’ contained contributions from various specialists explaining the female body. This provided a platform for discussion on sexual health.

Perhaps more significant was the legalisation of abortion in Cuba. Abortions remained illegal during the initial years of the revolution. In the same period, around half of Cuba’s 6,000 physicians emigrated. Many women self-administered abortions. For example, women regularly used sulphuric acid to kill unwanted foetuses. This ‘treatment’ invariably resulted in death for the mother. The problem was addressed in 1965, with early-term abortions both legalised and provided by the state free and on demand (two years before abortion was legalised in Britain). In 1979 abortions in the second and third trimester were allowed with approval from a hospital’s director.

At first, legalisation did not stop self-administered abortions. Cuban women could still face social stigma if they took help from a medical professional to end their pregnancy. This became known as the discrimination-health link: if a group faces discrimination, it is detrimental to their health. The FMC incorporated this into their work, with a programme to improve attitudes toward abortion, framing it as a medical necessity.

1980s: the National Group for Work on Sexual Education (GNTES)

GNTES was founded in 1972 by Vilma Espín, then head of the FMC, and Álvarez Lajonchere, as a body to research sexual health. It recruited an East German translator named Monika Krause, providing access to literature on sexual health and sexual diversity (decriminalised in socialist East Germany in 1968). Following an increase in emphasis on sexual education in the late 1970s, GNTES was recognised as a state body in 1977. The organisation’s purpose was to develop a National Sexual Education Programme (ProNes). It was through ProNes that GNTES began combatting discrimination against sexual diversity.

Through the 1980s GNTES ran courses on sexual health at FMC meetings, community centres and schools which discussed sexual diversity alongside sexual education training courses for doctors, teachers, psychologists, health officials and specialists. From 1979 GNTES also led the National Commission on Sexual Orientation and Therapy, set up to care for transgender Cubans, and was central to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in the late 1980s.

HIV/AIDS

Kirk identifies the HIV/AIDS epidemic as another factor in the normalisation of sexual diversity in Cuba. Following the first diagnosis in North America in 1983, Cuba founded the National AIDS Commission. The Commission quickly set up a system to survey the disease, spearheaded scientific research and established a national sanatorium system. Between 1986 and 1993 HIV/AIDS patients were required to stay in the sanatoriums for treatment.² Although strong-armed, the Cuban campaign was a success and the nation’s HIV/AIDS rate, at around 0.07%, is one of the lowest in the world (the infection rate in the US is estimated to be 0.35%) despite being in a region with exceptionally high infection rates.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on Cuban attitudes to sexual diversity are contradictory. Initially, the condition was viewed as a ‘gay disease’. A 1988 study illustrated that this wasn’t true, with gay or bisexual men accounting for 25% of HIV/AIDS cases and straight men accounting for 50%. The discrimination-health link was further emphasised, with discrimination now seen as harmful both to those discriminated against and those engaged in discrimination.

1990s and 2000s: CENESEX

CENESEX was established in 1989 under the direction of MINSAP. The main reasons for this were high STI and abortion rates. Although GNTES was fundamental in launching ProNes and incorporating sexual diversity into national debate, a more comprehensive approach to sexual health was required. This resulted in the body being transferred to MINSAP and reformed as CENESEX.

There is little information on CENESEX in the 1990s. This is due to a lack of research and the economic pressures placed upon publishing following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Kirk’s review of what publications exist in the centre’s archives gives an idea of the work carried out over this period. Research into gender and sexuality was expanded and postgraduate courses in sexuality were developed. Additionally, the centre began to carry out community development projects, incorporating these into its objectives in 1994. In the same year the centre’s journal, Sexology and Society, was founded. The centre began to focus on discrimination, using the discrimination-health link to promote acceptance of sexual diversity in Cuba.

By 2000 this approach had become more visible. CENESEX began to involve itself in projects to combat homophobia and discrimination across all spheres of Cuban society. The work undertaken by the centre is vast. Kirk provides a sample:

● 2004: CENESEX begins to implement its own campaigns around sexual health. For example, the 2006 campaign, “How Do I Show That I Love You?” promoted HIV/AIDS prevention through condom use.

● 2007: CENESEX participates in celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia.

● 2008: Establishment of Club Cine Diferente, a joint effort between CENESEX and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Industry, hosting monthly discussions on sexual diversity in cinema.

● 2011: Establishment of CENESEX networks, spaces for discussion of sexual diversity. There are now five networks providing space for men, women, youth and the trans community. Heterosexual friends and family are encouraged to attend to help them view sexual diversity as normal.

Today, CENESEX stands at the centre of Cuba’s provision for sexually diverse people. It continues to run campaigns against homophobia, including month-long celebrations for the International Day Against Homophobia, networks and sexual health education programmes.

Socialism and LGBT liberation

Kirk’s book is a thorough, useful and insightful account of how attitudes toward sexual diversity in Cuba have shifted in the development of socialist health care. Whilst the volume is not comprehensive, its fundamental contribution is invaluable. In Cuba, LGBT liberation is not viewed through the prism of human rights, but as a concrete, medical necessity. The discrimination-health link demonstrates that homophobia is fundamentally at odds with socialist health care provision. This opens important questions on the nature of identity and socialism, which Kirk’s work provides a window to understanding.

James Bell

1. La Jornada, 31 August 2010.

2. This approach was influenced by Cuba’s extensive experience of ‘infectology’ led by the Institute of Tropical Medicine, which recommended isolating and diagnosing a patient in the first instance to prevent the spread of infection. It was initially unclear how the disease was transmitted.

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 262 February/March 2018

Published 15 Febuary 2018 by en.granma.cu

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Statement

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba energetically rejects the announcement by a group of nations in the hemisphere, released February 13 in Lima, that constitutes unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic de Venezuela, and at the same time categorically rejects the decision to reconsider the participation of the Venezuelan government in the 8th Summit of the Americas, to be held this coming month of April, in Peru.

A few days ago, the U.S. Secretary of State, on a tour of several countries in the region, stated that continuing in effect is the Monroe Doctrine, the most notorious interventionist policy of U.S. imperialism in our region. He called for a military coup against the constitutional government of Venezuela and advocated strengthening sanctions on the country. The decision adopted is not unrelated to these declarations and actions.

In this context, Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalls the arbitrary and aggressive U.S. Executive Order, renewed in January of 2017, that describes Venezuela as "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy" of the superpower, and President Donald Trump's most recent warning about utilizing "a possible military option, if necessary."

It is unprecedented and incredible that now being used as a pretext is an alleged "unconstitutional rupture of the democratic order," precisely in a country which has held, within a few months time, municipal, regional, and Constituent Assembly elections, and has just called Presidential elections, precisely as has been demanded, including via external interference and unconstitutional, violent methods.

Cuba denounces this statement and the exclusion of Venezuela from the Summit of the Americas as contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by heads of state and government of countries which are members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

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Published on 8 February 2018 by Venezuelanalysis

CNE President Tibisay Lucena confirmed the date Wednesday.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council has confirmed Sunday April 22 as the official date for the country’s upcoming presidential elections.

CNE President Tibisay Lucena made the announcement Wednesday evening following a period of absence that has seen her withdraw from public life for several months due to an undisclosed illness.

“Elections are convoked for April 22nd of 2018,” said Lucena.

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Published 28 January 2018 by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!

After weeks of protests, a general strike against the result of the manipulated elections of 26 November began on 21 January. Called by the Opposition Alliance Against The Dictatorship, organised by ex-president Zelaya, it continued for a week until 27 January when it blockaded roads around the capital’s national stadium where Hernández was reinstalled as President for an unprecedented second term. Tear gas drifted across flaming barricades in clashes between police and angry protesters. The opposition boycotted Hernandez's inauguration, and held a symbolic swearing-in for its presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla on the same day.

So far 33 people have been killed during the continued protests since the elections. ‘This was armed robbery,’ Nasralla said of Hernández’s election ‘victory’. The UN and IACHR experts reported that even before Christmas more than 1,500 people had been detained abused and maltreated. The new parliament began its first session on 25 January with the opposition protesting vociferously inside the chamber at the swearing in of new ministers.

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Published on 10 January 2018 by teleSUR English

Published on 9 January 2018 by Venezuelaanalysis

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza shakes hands with his Portuguese counterpart, Augusto Santos Silva, following Monday’s meetings. (Twitter/JorgeArreaza)

Venezuelan and Portugal ratified 22 cooperation agreements following a series of high-profile bilateral meeting in Caracas on Monday. The talks were attended by the Portuguese minister of international business, foreign ministers from both countries, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as well as other cabinet ministers. 

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Published on 12 December 2017 by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!

On 8 November 2017, the United States government launched new sanctions against Cuba, releasing an updated list of Cuban entities – from hotels to agricultural suppliers and from soft drinks to retail stores – which US businesses and citizens are banned from engaging with. What do they have in common? The US Department of State list states that they are all ‘entities and subentities under the control of, or acting for or on behalf of, the Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or personnel with which direct financial transactions would disproportionately benefit such services or personnel at the expense of the Cuban people or private enterprise in Cuba’. Jack Lukacs reports.

It is an untenable proposition to distinguish between civilians and the military in a revolutionary state under siege. By attempting to starve the Cuban government of revenue from travel, remittances and trade, these measures hurt all Cubans on the island. Trump appears to be dancing to the tune of his key electoral allies in Florida, Miami. Extreme right-wing Cuban-American Senators Marco Rubio and Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart are the architects of the ban on transactions with military-linked enterprises. But they are not easy to please. Following the publication of the State Department’s list, they complained that it was too short because US ‘bureaucrats’ were ‘refusing’ to carry out Trump’s policy.

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Published on 11 December 2017 by venezuelanalysis

Venezuela’s socialists have won a landslide victory in municipal elections Sunday, taking 21 out of 23 state capitals as well as the Caracas Capital District.

Puebla, Mexico, December 11, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s socialists scored an overwhelming victory in mayoral elections Sunday, taking over ninety percent of the country's municipalities. 

President Nicolas Maduro’s United Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV), along with its allies, have secured victory in 308 of Venezuela’s 335 municipalities. According to preliminary results, the governing socialist party managed to take 21 out of the country’s 23 state capitals as well as the Caracas Capital District.

Meanwhile, the only state capitals to remain in opposition hands are Tachira’s San Cristobal and the Libertador municipality of Merida, which were won by the Movement Towards Socialism and Christian Democrat (COPEI) parties, respectively. 

Limited grassroots victories, conflict with PSUV, CNE

With large opposition parties boycotting, grassroots movements to the left of the PSUV leadership decided to launch candidacies in several municipalities in a bid for greater diversity within the revolutionary process. 

In Apure, Jose Maria "Chema" Romero from the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current won the Paez municipality in alliance with the ruling socialists. Thirty-eight-year-old Romero has pledged to institutionalize the power of communes and social movements in the municipality as well as promote a local productive economy.

Elsewhere, however, local movements launched their own challenges to PSUV candidates, sometimes viewed as an imposition by the party machine.

In one such case, local commune leader Augusto Espinoza defeated his PSUV rival to become the mayor of Sucre state’s Cajigal municipality. 

 Nonetheless, several grassroots Chavista candidacies have sparked conflict with Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE).

In Lara state, commune leader and Simon Planas candidate Angel Prado accused electoral authorities of refusing to recognise his victory. Despite his PPT party ticket securing over 57 percent of the Simon Planas vote, Prado said the CNE refused to acknowledge his candidacy and instead handed his votes to the PSUV. The CNE had previously blocked Prado's candidacy on the grounds that as a delegate to the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) he did not have the permission of the body to run. 

Prado's El Maizal commune took to the streets Monday and has vowed to remain there until their candidate's victory is recognized. 

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Published on 5th May 2017 by Medicc.org

May 5, 2017, Havana – Cuba’s National Sex Education Center (CENESEX), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MINED), kicked off a year-long anti-bullying initiative that will focus on teacher training, support materials, and methodology to prevent homo- and transphobia bullying in the nation’s schools. Announced as the central theme of Cuba’s 10th International Days Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT), CENESEX Director Mariela Castro says “Cuba is dedicated to non-violence and social justice. Our children spend most of their time at school, so the schools need to be safe spaces, where the rights of all children are protected – no matter where they fall on the sexual diversity spectrum.” Cuba’s observation of IDAHOT began on May 3 and runs through May 20 with a robust program of cultural events, including a film festival, conferences by specialists, presentation of academic findings, and marches by LGBTI Cubans and their allies.

The 2017 anti-bullying campaign is called ‘Me IncluYO por Escuelas sin Homofobia ni Transfobia’ (Count Me In for Homophobia- and Transphobia-Free Schools) and was developed by specialists from CENESEX and MINED to “include sexual rights and education in individual and social development, while promoting equality, respect, access to resources and objective information,” according to May 3 press release. Under no circumstances and nowhere, indicated the release, will violence be tolerated based on gender, race, sexual identity or orientation, including in schools. MINED defines bullying as using offensive nicknames, slapping and punching, making derogatory jokes, and directing any disrespectful language at classmates. Children found bullying will be held accountable and receive counseling. A 2014 resolution also makes teachers responsible for enforcing anti-bullying measures and ensuring no physical, mental or emotional harm comes to their students. Failure to do so make them subject to charges of negligence and if found warranted, disciplinary action.

Part of the year-long, national strategy involves raising awareness about bullying based on gender identity and sexual orientation. One of the challenges highlighted by specialists is the invisibility of the problem and the need to educate and inform across all sectors. To achieve this, coordinated cooperation is necessary among media outlets, schools, families, civil society and institutions, as well as health institutions. Included in the scheduled IDAHOT activities are several panels on themes such as “Health and Sexual Rights in Schools” and “Reproductive Rights and Sexual Diversity.” UNESCO is providing knowledge-transfer and methodological guides during the year-long campaign, while CENESEX Publishers will release Mariela Castro’s doctoral dissertation on the Cuban transsexual experience.