Global Voices Online

Cuba's Generation Y sends a questionnaire to U.S. President Obama “with some of the issues that keep [her] from sleeping” and publishes his responses.

“There are a good number of ministers still under sixty, but the largest share of power is concentrated in the hands of septuagenarians and octogenarians”: Cuba's Generation Y suggests these veterans are unable “to hear the new generation knocking at the door, coming like a whirlwind to dismantle everything.”

Rick Lowe issues a few words of warning to the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce when it comes to doing business with Cuba: “The Chamber stands for ethics in business and I believe they are on shaky ground recommending we do business with a regime in Cuba that apparently does not honour basic human rights…”

Both writing for Havana Times, Circles Robinson reports that the U.S. government has criticized the recent seizure of blogger Yoani Sanchez and two of her peers, noting that “Cuba maintains its rejection of any interference of the US government in its internal affairs”, while Pedro Campos suggests that “to reject unnecessary violence does not denigrate the revolutionary and socialist position; quite the contrary - it dignifies it.”

In the aftermath of her seizure by state authorities, Generation Y admonishes those who may be adopting a “blame the victim stance, while Claudia Cadelo says she prefers being a victim to being the executioner. Havana Times, meanwhile, posts a piece about the march against violence on the way to which Yoani and the other bloggers were detained.

Along the Malecon reports that supporters of Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez are “hoping to start a trend” by “using the blogger's photo as their profile picture on Facebook in a show of solidarity.”

The detention, beating and subsequent release of bloggers Yoaní Sánchez, Claudia Cadelo and Orlando Luis Pardo by Cuban state security on November 6, is receiving widespread coverage in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere and twittersphere. Yoaní has written (es) about the incident on Generación Y, her blog, and English-language blogs like Babalú Blog, Repeating Islands and Uncommon Sense are following the story. An audio interview (es) with Sánchez about the incident has been posted to YouTube.

On the evening of November 6, Babalú blog linked to a post by Penultimos Dias (es) reporting that a number of prominent Cuban bloggers, including Yoaní Sánchez and Global Voices contributor Claudia Cadelo, were detained by state security forces. An update from Penultimos Días reported that Sanchez and Orlando Luis Pardo were “verbally abused and severely beaten”.