Cuban editor is voice of regime

INTERVIEW. Lazaro Barredo is the editor-in-chief of Granma, the most important newspaper in Cuba and the official media of the Cuban communist party. In this interview, made by questionnaire, Barredo explains the role of the media in his country, freedom of speech and how the recent changes in Cuba have affected the country.

What is the role of Granma at this moment, with such huge changes in Cuba?
The people need now more answers about the socialist concept of the Revolution, more emphasis on the State control and more civic participation. Now we have to fight against bureaucracy, corruption, illegality, social and labor indiscipline, the lack of efficiency, the double moral and the simulation that damage the authority of Revolution.

Your newspaper is part of the communist party. Would it be independent in the near future?
The Revolution, the Communist Party and Granma are the same thing.

You publish columns made by Commander Castro. What is his core message?
Fidel has not renounced, he is still with us, but because of his physical limitations he has announced that his “only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas.”

Are Cuban journalists guaranteed the freedom of speech?
There are no possible ways for the state to stop the freedom of speech. In fact, the Cuban people used by the United States to attack Cuba from inside the country can express themselves without any restrictions, share their opinions with the foreign correspondents or diplomatic corps. No one in Cuba is persecuted because of hearing foreign media, even those who are widely against Cuba.

But some Cuban journalists spend their days in jail.
In Cuba, we don’t have any journalists convicted because of their profession. There are some mercenaries, paid by a foreign power, in this particular case the government of United States, to execute their subversive plans.

Do you believe Hugo Chávez is the new myth of Latin-American socialism, just as Fidel Castro was decades ago?
Chávez and Fidel are both symbols of the bloody fight carried by humble people and for the humble people.

Would you say that Cuba is about to live the biggest change in the country since the Revolution 50 years ago?
I have noticed that all the questions you have made talk about “change” and ... I just ask: What needs to be changed in Cuba?