Penniless activists in run-down studios

At the risk of again being accused of “appealing to readers’ emotions,” I am posting the following story. It surprised me not because of the chain of events, but because the protagonist is a French student—not a journalist, not a political activist—just a graduate student writing her thesis on Cuban opposition and resistance groups. The story:

Marie-Bérengère Ruet, a graduate student in the Parisian Institute of Political Science (Sciences-Po), spent two months in Cuba to gather material for her thesis on Cuban opposition and resistance groups. During her stay, she met with, interviewed and befriended several opposition activists. As she explained, Cuban authorities considered the dissidents whom she interviewed “dangerous deliquents,” and “capitalist terrorists who are paid by the CIA to destabilize the regime. But from what I saw, they were penniless activists who lived in run-down studios and shared one computer and one camera between eight bloggers to get their information out. To go online, they have to sneak to Internet terminals in foreign embassies.”

On April 15, eight uniformed men from the Interior Ministry security force (Minit) arrested her, took her to immigration department headquarters for interrogation, and finally deported her. Her computer and the files it carried were confiscated, as well as many of her thesis notes.

[Fortunately, I imagine the experience itself has enough in it for a full thesis.]

Ultimately then, a curious student was deported merely for talking to members of the opposition. This is a further piece of evidence of the Cuban regime’s unfortunate intolerance of giving voice or attention to dissenting opinions in the country.

Events like this make it an eternal struggle to make sure one has the most accurate information about affairs on the island…