Modig “Plays the Swede”

Modig "Plays the Swede"
August 7, 2012
Dariela Aquique

HAVANA TIMES — Hacerse el sueco (Playing Swede, meaning to "play dumb"),
was one of the least satisfying works of Cuban cinematography. This 2001
film by Gerardo Chijona is one of so many others that have had Cuban
self-ridicule at their core.

Nonetheless, the film was a kind of catharsis in the wake of the
agonizing 90's as audiences laughed to relieve their troubles.

The main character was a fairly shrewd Swede who manages to survive in
Cuba by taking advantage of his status as a foreigner. It was a plot
with both absurd and hilarious situations.

Recently, this was exactly how Swedish national Jens Aron Modig seemed
to me when he appeared at the center of a press conference here that was
broadcast of the television program "La Mesa Redonda" (The Round Table).

I need to say that for more than 25 days I was without access the
Internet (though the details around that aren't worth explaining). But
when I heard the Ministry of Interior's statement on the news
"clarifying" the details concerning the July 22 accident in which two
Cuban citizens lost their lives (Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Paya, a
Sakharov Freedom of Thought Prize awarded by the European Parliament), I
was sure that there would be more controversy surrounding the deaths of
those Cubans on the web.

When I was finally able to access other media and compare information
from official sites and other websites, it was confirmed to me that
Modig had had no choice but to "play the Swede" in making his
hard-to-believe apology to the Cuban people and government for his
illegal activities in this country. He had been asleep during the
accident, which prevented him from giving many details.

He was obviously in a difficult situation. He had no choice but to be
brief, monosyllabic and say loudly and clearly that he was a member of
the Swedish Social-Christian Party, that this was his second trip to
Cuba and that his objective had been to advise the dissident movement
and bring them money for the creation of political youth groups.

In addition, he acknowledged that he was sent by his party to deliver
4,000 euros to Oswaldo Paya and to give advice to the daughter of the
dissident in order to promote her as a leader of a new youth group that
needed to be founded. To top this all off, he said, "I have no
recollection of there being another car involved in this accident."

Now that he's back home in his own country and running less of a risk,
he has to be careful not to retract his version of the events in Cuba
since his Spanish associate (the driver of the car) is still being held
here on the island. But after a while, I wonder if Mr. Modig will keep
playing the Swede?

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