Glance - Draft messages for secret 'Cuban Twitter'

Glance: Draft messages for secret 'Cuban Twitter'
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- USAID's secret Cuban Twitter program hired Alen Lauzan
Falcon, a Havana-born satirical artist based in Chile, to propose text
messages to be sent to Cuban users. Neither Lauzan nor the Cuban
subscribers realized the U.S. government was behind ZunZuneo, the social
media network.

Last Thursday, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said "no
political content was ever supplied by anyone working on this project or
running it. It was the people — the Cuban people on the ground who were
doing so."

But in an interview Tuesday, Lauzan said he does only political work.

In a series of linked messages, obtained by The Associated Press, Lauzan
had imagined Cuban President Raul Castro teaming with the now-deceased
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a pop act who would dance the
"perreo," a twerk-like Caribbean dance associated with the tropical
genre reggaeton, and record songs with titles mocking their countries'
economic and social policies.

Said one text: "'The economy is not our thing' by the Hugo and Raul duo
is already a hit."

The messages, written in Spanish and presented here in translation, are
full of puns, cultural references and in-jokes that would mystify most
outsiders but would be readily understandable by islanders.

Here is a sample of the messages Lauzan wrote for ZunZuneo:

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THE BACKWARDS WORLD

54% of Americans think Michael Jackson is alive and 86% of Cubans think
Fidel Castro is dead.

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GRAB THE CLAWS!

Fidel Castro Ruz's nails are cut after fifty-one years. They will be
donated in Formal Ceremony to the Museum of Manicurevolution.

(Note: "Manicurevolution" is a play on "manicure" and Havana's Museum of
the Revolution.)

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Latest: Cuban dies of electrical shock from laptop. "I told you so,"
declares a satisfied Ramiro. "Those machines are weapons of the enemy!"

(Note: Ramiro Valdes is a Cuban vice president and former communications
minister who once famously described the Internet as a "wild colt" that
"should be tamed.")

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Hot news! Latest!: Cuba YES, laptops NO! Ramiro, firm: "We are too old
and revolutionary for that, dude, the cellphone is enough for us!"

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FROM RUMBA TO REGGAETUMBA

The coma-andante testified in "Hysteria will Bury me" his desire to be
buried with MP3 of Baby Lores.

NO: TOO POLITICAL (Apparent rejection of this text)

(Note: "Coma-andante" is a pun on "comandante," the honorific commonly
attributed to Fidel Castro; the Spanish-language play on words
translates roughly to "walking comatose," a dig at Castro's age and
shaky health in recent years. "Hysteria will Bury me" references
Castro's revolutionary prison manifesto, "History will absolve me." Baby
Lores is another reggaeton singer.)

Source: WASHINGTON: Glance: Draft messages for secret 'Cuban Twitter' -
Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/09/4048361/glance-draft-messages-for-secret.html