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### Viewing cable 08HAVANA168, CUBAN YOUTH CAUGHT BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
08HAVANA168 | 2008-02-20 19:07 | 2010-12-16 21:09 | CONFIDENTIAL | US Interests Section Havana

`

    VZCZCXRO2861
    OO RUEHAO RUEHCD RUEHGA RUEHGD RUEHHA RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL
    RUEHQU RUEHRD RUEHRG RUEHRS RUEHTM RUEHVC
    DE RUEHUB #0168/01 0511954
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    O 201954Z FEB 08
    FM USINT HAVANA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2892
    INFO RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS IMMEDIATE
    RUCOGCA/NAVSTA GUANTANAMO BAY CU IMMEDIATE
    RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
    RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
    RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
    RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
    RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL IMMEDIATE
    RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
    RUCOWCV/CCGDSEVEN MIAMI FL IMMEDIATE
    RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2893

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HAVANA 000168

    SIPDIS

    SIPDIS

    DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2017
    TAGS: CU PGOV PHUM PINR PREL
    SUBJECT: CUBAN YOUTH CAUGHT BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR

    Classified By: COM: M.E. Parmly : For reasons 1.4 b/d

    ¶1. (C) Summary: In two meetings Cuban youth groups said
    young people see that they have a historic opportunity to
    create a change in their country. However, they report
    widespread fear among the population. They state that Cuban
    youth want change but are unclear as to what exactly these
    changes would entail. After the government has subjected them
    to intense indoctrination for years, the young people have
    only a vaguest ideas about how the various forms of
    democratic government work and how market economies function.
    The idea that unites most of Cuban youth is the desire to be
    able to make choices. Youth report massive and increasing
    police harassment of Cuban youth, whether political involved
    or not. There are significant differences in opinion on how
    strong the opposition is based on whether the young people
    are affiliated or not with specific opposition groups. Youth
    groups report that their biggest problem is the ability to
    distribute information. Many of the young people do not
    support the US embargo, but this policy does have some strong
    defenders. End Summary.

    ¶2. (C) Pol off held a meeting of young people at his house
    on XXXXXXXXXXXX attended by 29 people, mostly between
    the ages  of 17 and 25 with a few older members of some
    organizations.  Some belonged to civil society organizations but
    several were  not members of any specific organization. On
    XXXXXXXXXXXX  hosted at his residence a group of 19 members
    Of XXXXXXXXXXXX This group included several active university
    students. It  is especially notable that XXXXXXXXXXXX has more
    success engaging in  dialogue university students from the eastern
    part of the  country than from any other region. XXXXXXXXXXXX
    has recently  gathered more than 5000 signatures to demand autonomy
    in the higher educational system and the reopening of the Villanueva
    Catholic University. The students stated that their interest  was not
    specifically for the restoration of Catholic  education but rather for a
    return to Cuba's rich cultural  tradition of private universities.

    ¶3. (C) Both groups discussed a recent incident where a
    student at a College of Computer Science sharply questioned
    Ricardo De Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly.
    Some members of XXXXXXXXXXXX expressed that this
    episode indicates  that students were more willing to speak up.
    On the other  hand, everyone of the other group of 29 young
    people thought  that this was a staged incident put on by some
    members of the government to embarrass Alarcon. No one in
    this group could  answer why the government would want to
    publicize the very  issues that the group had already listed as
    the things that  most anger ordinary Cubans, namely, the lack
    of basic goods  and the preferential treatment given to foreigners.
    However,  this consideration did not dissuade any of the young
    people  from their conspiracy theories.

    ¶4. (C) Another split between the groups was that the
    XXXXXXXXXXXX  students represent that practically no
    one in Cuba supports  the government, while the unaffiliated
    youth maintain that many people support the regime, beginning
    with their own  parents. This group stated that the government
    operates a  very effective propaganda apparatus and many people
    simply  have no other source of information. One person
    described  the process of disenchantment with the government
    as "the  slow lifting of a veil." All of the youth believed that they
    had a historic opportunity to institute change because of the
    passing of authority from Fidel Castro and due to what they
    perceive as confusion within the government. However, the
    group at the meeting of XXXXXXXXXXXX told Pol off that
    Cuban young people in general don't have a clear picture of
    what a change would mean. They said that they have only the
    most  rudimentary idea of how various democratic governments
    are  structured and how market economies work. They said that
    even above all Cuban youth want choice and the ability to end
    government control over every aspect of their lives.

    ¶5. (C) Many of those present expressed that young people are
    the number one target of increased repression by police and
    state security officials. They said that youth are harassed
    for a whole host of reasons, most of them unrelated to

    HAVANA 00000168 002 OF 003

    politics. They said young adults are constantly stopped in
    the streets and when their ID card shows an address other
    than Havana, they are forcibly shipped back to their
    hometowns with a warning never to return. Several black
    youths stated that there are many neighborhoods where the
    police practice racial profiling and threaten with arrest any
    Afro Cuban youth hanging out in the street. XXXXXXXXXXXX
    aid that they recorded  during 2007 in Havana 3000 incidents of
    young homosexuals  fined or detained for simply congregating in
    the street and  12 cases of young homosexuals sentenced to prison
    for two to  four years under the law of "dangerousness" simply
    because  they returned to a park that they were told to stay away
    from. Nearly everyone in the room had a story about being
    threatened recently by the police. The group said police
    harassment occurs at all times of the day in every part of
    the country.

    ¶6. (C) The XXXXXXXXXXXX did feel that despite a lot of
    fear  there is potential for a large scale student movement in
    favor of autonomy for the universities and academic freedom.
    The other group stated because of fear of expulsion, and the
    present of a large number of willing government
    collaborators, the universities were the last place to expect
    the emergence of a large scale, activist youth movement.
    XXXXXXXXXXXX, expelled from university for refusing
    to  participate in a demonstration against a dissident, said that
    despite many problems with poor physical facilities and bad
    food, conditions at the universities have improved recently
    due to large scale Venezuelan investment. Many of the
    unaffiliated youths stated that the potential for explosion
    is in the high schools, where senior students not placed on a
    university track see themselves with little to lose. Citing
    an incident on February 1 where a 17 year old novice teacher
    threw a chair and killed a 12 year old, members of this group
    told numerous stories of the lack of teachers and the
    assignment of young, barely trained teachers, with neither
    the knowledge nor temperament for dealing with students, who
    are close enough in age to be their peers. They said that
    there are numerous instances of physical abuse of students,
    pedophilia, sexual harassment, and solicitations of bribes to
    change grades. In many instances teachers play an
    educational program on television for the classes and do not
    attempt otherwise to instruct the students. XXXXXXXXXXXX
    l stated that she goes to many  schools where the walls are
    crumbling, the building is  infested with insects, the furniture is
    broken and there is no food to feed the children. Many of the
    youths stated that parents are very frustrated with the lack of
    response from  the school authorities. As part of the "lifting
    of the veil" phenomenon, many parents are now questioning the
    value of  much of the education system such as mandatory
    participation  in "patriotic" activities and military training
    over the  weekends and forced labor picking coffee or fruit
    in the  countryside for a month and a half during the school year.

    ¶7. (C) Youth groups agree that their biggest problem is
    getting out information which is now largely word-of-mouth.
    There were several complaints that the outlets devoted to
    Cuba news are nearly completely focused on the traditional
    dissident movements. Many participants in the meetings
    expressed admiration for several long standing opposition
    leaders but clearly said that neither they nor the Cuban
    exile community represent the thoughts of Cuban youth.

    ¶8. (C) On 13 February there was a vigorous discussion of
    the US embargo. The vast majority thought that the embargo
    was a bad idea. Many had stories about how meetings with
    actual Americans had positively changed their opinions about
    the US. Several thought that the ending of the embargo would
    mean that the GOC could not continue to blame all of the
    problems with the economy on the embargo. Five others
    vigorously defended the embargo stating that the lifting of
    it would be a huge propaganda victory that the GOC did not
    earn by any action.

    ¶9. (C) Comment: Cuban youth is probably the most difficult
    group for XXXXXXXXXXXX to contact because of a high
    level of fear.  It is plain from the sheer number of repressive
    incidents  reported that this is the group that the government
     fears the most and subjects to the most harassment

    HAVANA 00000168 003 OF 003

    .There are differences in the opinions of youth about the
    possibility of change based on geography and whether the
    youths are  affiliated with opposition groups. By and large
    young people  do not know what type of change they are looking
    for. Their common desire is for choice, and a release from the
    control  of the government over every aspect of their lives.
    XXXXXXXXXXXX continues to work to expand contact
    with youths at every  level of Cuban society.
    PARMLY

`