Translating Cuba

Spending One’s Youth in Prison, the Cuban Regime’s Punishment for Filming a Protest

Before ending up in a dungeon, people prefer to hang up their ideological mask or emigrate to any country where peaceful protest is not so harshly penalized.

Most of the 13 Cubans prosecuted for the demonstrations in the Camagüey municipality Nuevitas were tried for the crime of sedition / Mayelín Rodríguez Prado/Facebook

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 30 April 2024 –She was 21 years old when she took her mobile phone and recorded part of the popular protests that shook the city of Nuevitas, in the Cuban province of Camagüey, in August 2022. Just a few days ago it was learned that a court sentenced her to 15 years in prison. If she serves that complete sentence, when she is released from prison, Mayelín Rodríguez Prado will be close to completing four decades of life. She will have spent the most precious moments of her existence behind bars. The time of studying for a university degree, of walking with her young friends, of being a mother or undertaking a professional project, will all be spent for her in a penitentiary.

Most of the 13 Cubans prosecuted for the demonstrations in that Camagüey municipality were tried for the crime of sedition, the legal figure that the Cuban regime also used against some of the protesters in the historic protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’). In the case of Rodríguez Prado, his participation was limited to transmitting the events in Nuevitas through Facebook and collecting testimony from some girls who were beaten by uniformed troops after they detained several participants in the revolt.

For the summer that is upon us, the reasons that led the residents of Nuevitas to take to the streets two years ago seem to be repeated

The severity of the sentences seeks to send an exemplary message to the rest of the Cuban population. The official plan is to warn every citizen that any demonstration of dissent in the streets will be harshly punished. In addition to the reduction in civic rights that this State policy entails, it brings with it two phenomena that, although secondary, are no less important: the extension of opportunism and the increase in exodus. Before ending up in a dungeon, people prefer to hang up their ideological mask or emigrate to any country where peaceful protest is not so harshly penalized. continue reading

It is also significant that these protesters have been tried for sedition. According to the Cuban Penal Code, it is a “crime against the internal security of the State” and is used against those who “riotously and through express or tacit concert, using violence, disturb the socialist order.” But, despite this explanation, it is impossible to separate the word from its military connotations, associating it with the mutiny or uprising carried out by troops recruited in a military framework. That evocation is not far from the reality of this Island.

For decades, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has treated its citizens as part of a platoon, as simple troops in a barracks. For the authorities of this country, ordinary people must respond quickly and without hesitation to official calls, accept orders without question no matter how delirious they may seem, always be alert to fight the enemy in a battle that never comes, and swallow criticism without disobeying superiors. Even though we don’t wear uniforms, we are all treated like common soldiers. Any social insubordination will be judged as if it were a trial in a military court.

The effectiveness of this message of terror can only be proven over time. For the summer that is upon us, the reasons that led the residents of Nuevitas to take to the streets two years ago seem to be repeated. The energy deficit increases as temperatures rise, the subsidized basic family basket suffers fluctuations in supplies and is barely enough to eat badly for a few days of the month. Social fatigue does not stop growing due to inflation, the devaluation of the Cuban peso and the evident inability of the PCC leadership to find solutions. The soldiers behave more like citizens every day: they complain loudly and believe that the streets belong to them.

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The Official Press Celebrates a Million Tourists in 2024 as an ‘Element That Confirms’ the Recovery

‘Prensa Latina’ once again remembers the goal of three and a half million travelers, very far from the more than four million in 2019

Tourists on Obispo Street, in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2024 — A little more than a week after the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) reported that Cuba received 809,238 international visitors in the first quarter of the year, the official press celebrates that, last Friday, the Island reached one million travelers since the beginning of 2024.

For Prensa Latina, it is the “element that officially confirms the possibility” of recovery of the sector, which has not raised its head since the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the economic aspiration for this year of 3,500,000 visitors, reported by the official agency, is still far removed from the 4,275,558 that arrived in Cuba in 2019, a year before the pandemic, not to mention that the Caribbean low season is now beginning.

The authorities, in any case, continue to strive to enhance the sun and beach destination of the Island, and the International Tourism Fair will focus on this. It will be held at the Jardines del Rey tourist center, in Ciego de Ávila, between May 1 and 5. continue reading

Canada continues to send the most tourists to Cuba, followed by the Cuban community abroad

The million travelers who have arrived in the country, although it represents twice those who arrived in the same period of 2023, don’t reach the figures for the same period in 2018 and 2019, when in January and April, 1,802,853 and 1,928,561 tourists were received, respectively.

Canada continues to send the most tourists to Cuba, followed by the Cuban community abroad, Russia, the United States, Germany, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Spain and Argentina.

Faced with the decrease in the usual markets, Juan Carlos García Granda, Minister of Tourism, has leaned towards new options. In January, he declared at the International Tourism Fair in Madrid that “Russia could still grow much more. We have other countries such as China, Poland, Eastern European countries, Turkey and Arab countries that are growing today, and we undoubtedly have to take a look at Latin American countries.”

García Granda’s intentions coincide with the promises made by the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, during his visit to China in December 2023 to make adjustments in hotel facilities to “capture” more Asian visitors. For its part, at the beginning of April, Cubana de Aviación announced the restoration of the Beijing-Havana route in May with Air China.

In 2023, three out of four hotel rooms on the Island were left empty

Attention to the Russians is not neglected either. García Granda expects about 200,000 travelers from that country to arrive in Cuba in 2024. So that they have no problems with payments, MIR cards have been accepted on the Island since November last year. “The Russian MIR card has arrived in Cuba to stay,” he said at a press conference convened by the TASS agency at the beginning of March during his visit to Russia.

The minister did not miss the opportunity to promote the Island as a tourist destination and offered the Kremlin investment opportunities and the inauguration of Russian-managed hotels.

Although the “recovery” of tourism to which the regime aspires does not achieve the numbers that gave the sector the epithet of “locomotive of the Cuban economy,” the Government continues to invest a lot of capital in it. In 2023, 23.745 billion pesos (almost one billion dollars at the official exchange rate) were allocated to business and real estate services and rental, and 8.626 billion pesos or 360 million dollars to hotels and restaurants. Between the two areas, they represent 33.5% of the total investments compared to the little money allocated to sectors such as Education, Health, Agriculture and Science and Technology.

However, in 2023, three out of four hotel rooms on the Island were left empty, according to the annual report of selected tourism indicators.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Pan-American Judo Champion Is the Latest of the Escaped Cuban Athletes

Magdiel Estrada, 29, escaped last Wednesday in Brazil

Magdiel Estrada took advantage of his trip to Rio de Janiero (Brazil) to escape / Prensa Latina]]

14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2024 — The Pan American and Central American judo champion, Magdiel Estrada, 29, fled the Cuban delegation in Brazil last Wednesday. However, it was not until Friday that it was confirmed by the official media Jit. The young man, a native of Matanzas, did not show up for his match on Friday in the 73-kilogram category in the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championship held in Rio de Janeiro and escaped from the Island team “before fulfilling his commitment,” Jit said.

Magdiel Estrada did not show up for his Friday match in the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championships

The first news of Estrada’s ’desertion’ was given on the Facebook page ‘The Truth of Judo’. The same publication pointed out that it was an “intelligent decision” of an athlete who, due to his age, was about to leave the national team. He recalled that “there are countless glories with world and Olympic results,” but when the cycle ends the “privileges fall off.”

The Play-Off Magazine portal reported that Estrada was deleted from the list of the Olympic classification ranking after his escape. “He appears as retired.” It also said that with Estrada’s dismissal, “Judo and the Cuban sports movement lose a prominent figure less than three months before the great date in the French capital. A phenomenon that doesn’t stop.”

At the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile (2023), Magdiel Estrada won gold in the mixed team category. That same year he also won the gold medal at the Central American Games in San Salvador, in addition to the Pan American Judo Open in Lima. continue reading

He also won the gold medal in the Pan American championships held in Peru (2019) and San José (2018).

The escape of Estrada joins that of Lázaro Castro, who abandoned the Cuban soccer team in Managua, on April 18

Estrada’s escape is in addition to that of defender Lázaro Castro, who left the Cuban soccer team in Managua, Nicaragua, on April 18. The news was announced by journalist Andy Lans, who said that the team led by Osmel Valdivia was left with 13 athletes.

Before Castro, last February, Osmany Diversent, the gold medalist at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, fled before his participation in the Pan American Olympic qualifying tournament.

The digital creator Roly Dámaso, who closely followed the incidents of the event, also spread the news of the escape of Susana Martínez and Santiago “Santiaguito” Hernández at the beginning of that same month.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Young Woman Who Broadcast the Nuevitas Protests Is Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

Fray Pascual Claro Valladares attempts suicide in prison upon learning of his sentence, 10 years in prison for sedition
Between 4 and 15 years in prison for 13 peaceful protesters in the city of Camagüey

Mayelín Rodriguez Prado was 21 years old at the time of the protests in Nuevitas, Camagüey / Facebook/Mayelin Rodríguez Prado

14ymedio, Madrid, April 28, 2024 — The judgments of the Provincial Court of Camagüey handed down against the demonstrators of Nuevitas in August 2022 repeat the repressive pattern of the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J). Thirteen Cubans have been sentenced to between 4 and 15 years in prison for peacefully taking to the streets to protest. According to activist Marcel Valdés, one of them, Fray Pascual Claro Valladares, “tried to hang himself” in the Cerámica Roja prison, in the same province, when he learned of his sentence: 10 years of deprivation of liberty for the crime of sedition. His mother, Yanelis Valladares Jaime, also prosecuted for sedition, was acquitted “for insufficient evidence.”

The highest sentence was for Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, the then 21-year-old who transmitted the protests through Facebook, and who has been sentenced to the 15 years in prison that the Prosecutor’s Office requested, for “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature” and “sedition.” Prosecutors also asked for 15 years for José Armando Torrente Muñoz, who was finally sentenced to 14 years of deprivation of liberty for the crimes of sedition, attack and resistance.

Jimmy Jhonson Agosto and Ediolvis Marin Mora were sentenced to 13 years in prison, both for sedition and sabotage

Jimmy Jhonson Agosto and Ediolvis Marin Mora were sentenced to 13 years in prison, both for sedition and sabotage. They are followed in gravity by the conviction of Lisdan Cabrera Batista with 11 years in prison for sedition and “other acts against State Security.”

Most of the defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison for sedition, the crime par excellence that was also used in the sentences of those arrested for 11J. Along with that of Fray Claro Valladares, it was applied to Davier Leyva Vélez, Keiler Velázquez Medina, Menkel de Jesús Menéndez Vargas, Frank Alberto Carreón Suárez and Lázaro Alejandro Pérez Agosto. continue reading

For his part, Yennis Artola del Sol received an 8-year sentence of deprivation of liberty for “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature,” and Wilker Álvarez Ramírez received 4 years for cover-up.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) issued a statement this Saturday in which it condemns “in the most energetic terms” the resolution of this trial, which took place for two days last January.

The Justice 11J organization, which compiles the list of demonstrators detained since that day in 2021, reported in August 2022, after two consecutive days of peaceful demonstrations in Nuevitas, the “violent” arrest of José Armando Torrente, who took to the streets in the Pastelillo neighborhood. The NGO then warned that there was “audiovisual evidence of the assault on his 11-year-old daughter, Gerlin Torrente Echeverría” and another girl who accompanied her, when the police repressed the protesters.

The OCDH issued a statement this Saturday in which it condemns “in the strongest terms” the resolution of this trial

Gerlin’s mother was also violently arrested, but released on Saturday night. Fray Claro Valladares and Mayelín Rodríguez Prado were interrogated for transmitting the protests through Facebook.

The demonstrations in Nuevitas began on the night of August 18 with the cry of “the people are tired.” Hundreds of neighbors took to the streets to shout slogans of freedom and demands for electricity. They also threatened to return to the streets if the authorities cut off the power again.

The next day, the neighbors of Nuevitas reported the militarization of the place.

The protests, as observed in numerous videos shared on social networks, were massive, lit by the flashlight of cell phones and motorcycle headlights and accompanied by beating on saucepans, honking horns, clapping and yelling slogans.

Along with the cries that called for the end of the blackouts – “turn on the current, dicks” – those of “freedom” and “homeland and life” also resounded. Some citizens shouted that irreverent slogan repeated on 11J – “hey, police dickheads” – and others sang the national anthem in unison at the top of their lungs.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Political Police Intensify Their Harassment Against Several Cuban Opponents and Journalists

State Security has launched a “repressive escalation” throughout the island, family and friends denounce

So far this month, Tan Estrada has been fined for alleged violation of Decree-Law 370, interrogated twice and suffered internet cuts / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, April 27, 2024 — Several independent activists and reporters have denounced the arrest of Camagueyan journalist José Luis Tan Estrada by State Security this Friday in Havana. After a month of tensions with the authorities, the reporter had traveled to the Cuban capital from Camagüey, and according to several sources he spent the night at the headquarters of the political police, Villa Marista. Activist Yamilka Lafita said that she had received, at 8:00 pm on Friday, a phone call from Tan Estrada in which he described his arrest at 2:00 pm, when he arrived in Havana. Lafita denounced the fact and warned about “what happens in those cells, the torture and psychological pressures to which the people who are transferred there are subjected.”

According to journalist José Raúl Gallego, a resident of Mexico, Tan Estrada has been harassed for several weeks by agents of the Ministry of the Interior. So far this month, he says, Estrada has been fined for alleged violation of Decree-Law 370, interrogated twice and had his internet cut off. In addition, the journalist has been “detained, threatened with a beating and harassed on social networks by cyber stalkers,” Gallego said.

Tan Estrada, a collaborator of several independent media after his expulsion in 2022 from his position as professor at the University of Camagüey, suffers – according to Gallego – “repressive escalation, intimidation of his family” and warnings that he must leave his job as a reporter. continue reading

According to Gallego, the opponent José Antonio Pompa López is also detained in Villa Marista

According to Gallego, the opponent José Antonio Pompa López is also detained in Villa Marista. On Friday morning, after leaving his son at school, the agents of the political police “picked him up” on the street, according to his wife, Suarmi Hernández, as quoted by Cubanet. State Security also showed up at his house and carried out a search.

Pompa López also had the opportunity to make a call before being held incommunicado. The cause of the arrest and search, according to his wife, was a surprise investigation to demonstrate his links with the opposition organization Cuba Primero. They didn’t find the alleged evidence, since “he had already gotten rid of it,” Hernández said.

The Police, however, told the woman that Pompa López had received a mobile phone from Cuba Primero and that “they were going to take him to Villa Marista.” “My husband is unjustly detained because you can’t be arrested without cause or evidence,” she added.

The arrest of Ailex Marcano, mother of the political prisoner Ángel Jesús Veliz, was also reported in Camagüey

Cubanet also denounced the arrest in Camagüey of Ailex Marcano, mother of the political prisoner Ángel Jesús Veliz. She had gone to Kilo 9 prison to visit her son when two patrols intercepted her. The agents transferred her to Villa María Luisa – the state security barracks in the province – without offering explanations.

She suffered, as Marcano herself told the media after she was released, interrogations and a search, for which she had to undress. “They threatened to send me to prison because they said that my posts on social networks incited people to go out into the streets and to collaborate with ’counter-revolutionary’ organizations such as the Ladies in White. They wanted to make me sign a warning letter, but I refused to do it,” she said.

Marcano could not see her son, who was taken to an isolation cell for protesting his mother’s arrest. Nor did they allow him to make calls.

The negotiation for the release of political prisoners that the regime keeps imprisoned after several cycles of protests since 2021 has reached a standstill. Although several organizations, such as the Catholic Church, have been willing to negotiate their release, the regime does not show signs of flexibility, and every month new episodes of harassment and arrests occur.

The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) recorded in its most recent report, after the March protests, 1,092 people imprisoned for political reasons. PD, based in Madrid, indicated that last month it added to its list 31 individuals who qualify as political prisoners and that six others left the registry after being released. According to PD, 24 of the 31 political prisoners were linked to “the peaceful demonstrations of March” that began on the 17th in Santiago de Cuba when hundreds of people peacefully took to the streets to protest.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In the Cuban Athens ‘Everything Is Done on Foot’ Due to the Transport Crisis

Not even the “blues,” the inspectors in charge of intercepting vehicles and boarding passengers in Matanzas, “impose respect”

In peak hours, the mass of Matanzas residents who accumulate at the transport stops must decide whether to wait or leave on foot / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, April 27, 2024 — A Transmetro bus passes by and does not stop. A few minutes later, one from Transtur follows it. Travelers on any road in Matanzas look in desperation at the empty vehicles with the long-awaited air conditioning. “Not even the cars with State license plates stop anymore,” they lament, despite the fact that the leaders have given them the order to pick up passengers.

Not even the soothsayer Nostradamus could predict the times in which public buses circulate within the city of Matanzas. The traditional routes have been terminated for a long time, in an instability that significantly affects the daily routine of the matanceros.

Whether they are articulated, panoramic or assembled by pieces in a state workshop – such as the Dianas – the buses do not work at the same time, much less every day. That translates into a mass of stacked and sweaty Cubans who, when the rush hour arrives at stops, must decide whether to wait for a State car that deigns to pick them up or walk to their destination.

“The blockade does not come from outside, the blockade is here inside,” emphasizes an old man who claims – fanning himself with an improvised leaf – to have been waiting for more than an hour for transportation to go from the historic center to the Peñas Altas area. “Is there no oil?” asks a woman and from the same line the answer emerges: “What there is is no shame, señora. Look at that bus: it’s empty. continue reading

“The blockade does not come from outside, the blockade is here inside,” emphasizes an old man

Not even the figures of the “blues” – inspectors in charge of intercepting vehicles and boarding passengers – “imposes respect” on the state Ladas and Kamazes. To top it all off, the old man still sitting at the stop says, they are as inefficient as the public transport itself. “They only work half a day and on weekends so you can’t expect them.” Nor do the forceful looks of the “blues” and their clipboards intimidate anyone.

The Government’s vehicles pass, wave, and the inspector says goodbye “as if it’s nothing.” When the cars are not known but have State plates, the official registers the number – or pretends to – on a sheet of paper so as not to “offend” overcrowded travelers.

In the end, the “weakest link,” tired of waiting, gets out of line and takes charge of the matter. Any well-formed line is abruptly interrupted when a bus appears. Even if it’s empty, there are pushes and offenses. Pregnant women, children, the elderly and disabled, called to board first, must cross the furious mass in order to get a seat and not run the risk of being left behind.

The disorder quickly becomes a feeding ground for thieves and pickpockets, who grab chains, cash and even cell phones. By the time they manage to get on the bus, many passengers have even been stripped of their identity cards.

The other side of the coin are the private carriers, who, in tune with inflation, impose their prices / 14ymedio

The other side of the coin is the private carriers, who, in line with inflation, impose their prices according to “their objective and subjective needs.” For a trip of a few kilometers, a motorcycle taxi charges between 300 and 500 pesos, Mario, the driver of an electric motorcycle, tells this newspaper. In the case of a vehicle, for the same distance, the price ranges between 50 and 100 pesos per person. The máquinas*, on the other hand, charge about 100 pesos.

According to Mario, those are just the “standard prices.” “If I rent or work at night, the costs go up.” The electric vehicles, which the Government announced last January with pomp and fanfare after buying them at $7,000 each, are far from meeting the city’s demand for transport

At the central transport stop, from which the old man was able to escape in an agricultural truck, a medical student now occupies his seat. “It can already be said with propriety that Matanzas is the Athens of Cuba and, like the ancient Athenians, we do everything on foot,” he mocks. A few streets ahead you can see the remains of the old tram line, inaugurated when the city was experiencing better times and the only blue was that of the bay.

*Translator’s note: Máquinas, almendrones and colectivos are overlapping names for similar services: generally a shared taxi service (and in some cases fixed-route) provided by classic American cars, which are now generally retrofitted with diesel engines because that fuel is more likely to be available than is gasoline.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Intellectuals and Castroism

The Cuban delegation that traveled to the Tampa Book Fair / Rogelio García / Facebook

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, April 27, 2024 — What drives many intellectuals to voluntarily submit to the authority of a despot? It is a question that overwhelms many ordinary citizens, because it is inconceivable that people who may be among those who lose the most in an autocratic society are among the most willing to pay tribute to a tyranny. This new reflection about intellectuals who voluntarily submit to an oppressor is relevant for the recent First International Book Fair that was held in Tampa, a poor imitation of the First Exiled Cuban Book Fair that opened in Miami in 2015, sponsored by journalist and writer Silvio Mancha and several exile organizations.

The Tampa Fair was tarnished by the presence and participation of home-grown Castro intellectuals. They create narratives to cover the failures and abuses of the Havana regime and even subscribe to documents which support the ignominies of the dictatorship as did Francisco López Sacha and Rigoberto Rodríguez Entenza, signatories of the letter that in 2022 endorsed the repression of the peaceful protests in Cuba against Castro and his lackeys. I clarify, not all servants live on the Island.

Cuban totalitarianism has been an absolute failure, but it is undeniable that its ability to survive must be added to other successes which highlight its talent for repression and its ability to attract servants in the creative arts, specifically in the media and literature. continue reading

Usually the intellectual is an individual who flees from commitments

Usually the intellectual is an individual who flees from commitments. Their freedom to do and think are the essential passports of their spirit. They are iconoclasts, rebels and destructors of ways of thinking.

However, apparently, there is something hidden in the Cuban creative consciousness that treasures a vulgar and cruel primitivism. Tempestuous passions can provoke reactions that obscure critical thinking. Castroism has been successful because it has bought or seduced many creators.

It is true that there are authors who irrupt into a controlled world, subject to a supreme authority, such as in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, where the new creators are subject to the guidelines that their predecessors managed with their genuflecting behaviors.

In those cases, an inevitable period of learning and convulsions is understandable, which will determine whether they are free citizens or applauders. However, those who came before the most recent are guilty of having created the mire that the new generation of intellectuals must go through in those countries.

Castroism doesn’t rest. Spying on and infiltrating free societies with hitmen is its life mission, universities being the main focus of attraction to capture those “enlightened” people who have served it with devotion.

In Cuba there is no NGO linked to the Government that is free and even less so is the Union of Writers of Artists of Cuba

You cannot be naive with Castroism. In Cuba there is no NGO linked to the Government that is free and even less so is the Union of Writers of Artists of Cuba, Uneac, one of the main creative focuses of the dictatorship. Uneac served the repression and lies from the day it was founded, for example with the cultural exchanges where the oppressor decides the conditions.

The novelist and writer Jose Antonio Albertini, who wrote his first novel in Cuba clandestinely, in addition to taking it off the Island in secret, was one of the first to denounce the Castro penetration at the Tampa Fair, describing the Uneac members as “excremental riflemen of the false narrative of Castroism.”

Albertini also says that the servitude to Castroism has tried to influence the Miami Book Fair. Also, we must not forget that the famous poet Ángel Cuadra, an intellectual committed to freedom and democracy, was excluded from those events by a political disagreement with a publishing house.

No person with common sense denies how vital it is for the future of Cuba that its children get to know each other and work together, but those who defend totalitarianism should not and cannot participate in that task because that system destroyed the Republic and puts the nation at risk.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Warning of Upsurge in Violations Against Intellectuals and Journalists in Cuba

Image shared on her networks by Alina Bárbara López Hernández, after several hours of detention by State Security / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 23 April 2024 — The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) denounced on Monday that, “in the midst of the poverty” that the Island is experiencing, the Cuban Government “dedicates enormous resources to increase repression against intellectuals, trade unionists and independent journalists,” pointing out several repressive acts committed by the political police in recent days. The organization, based in Madrid, mentioned the arrest of reporter Camila Acosta, a collaborator of CubaNet, this Sunday in Cárdenas, in the province of Matanzas, “when she was on her way to visit relatives of political prisoners. Four police cars participated” in the operation, orchestrated by State Security.

In the same province, last Thursday, Professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández “suffered bodily injuries due to police brutality during an arbitrary arrest.” The academic was detained for several hours at the Playa police station, and after returning home she denounced the mistreatment she suffered in a Facebook post.

“We warn of the upsurge in violations and call on the international democratic community to denounce these facts”

López Hernández reported that doctors diagnosed her with a “right humeral dislocation (sprain of the right shoulder)” and a “subluxation in the thumb of the left hand.”

Also in Matanzas, but this time in the municipality of Colón, the secretary general of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba, Iván Hernández Carrillo, was summoned by the regime, “as part of the harassment campaign he suffers.” continue reading

Last week, in Camagüey, independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada was interrogated twice, explains the OCDH report. The former professor was ultimately fined 3,000 pesos “for violating Decree Law 370, a law used by the Havana regime to silence activists, journalists and citizens” after being accused “of publishing memes, comments and even “liking” other publications.”

Also, “the former political prisoner Luis Darién Reyes Romero was intimidated with a gun in the middle of the street in Old Havana by a repressor dressed in civilian clothes,” a fact classified by the OCDH as “serious.” The video circulated on social networks in which Reyes Romero showed the face and weapon of the State Security agent while chasing him.

“We warn of the upturn in violations and call on the international democratic community to denounce these facts. Likewise, we support the efforts of the Cuban Catholic Church to mediate the serious crisis that the country is experiencing,” the organization concludes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Without ‘Family in the Exterior’ Survive by Reselling on the Streets

Galiano Street, in Central Havana, has become a showcase for misery

An old woman has half a dozen disposable razors for sale, some that are also ’discarded’ / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 23 April 2024 — Cubans who emigrate to Miami have an expression for those who remain on the Island, those whom they support with their remittances: “Cubans with faith.” The word “faith” in Spanish is “fe,” which stands for “Family in the Exterior,” meaning relatives abroad. Eduardo, who left the country three years ago on the “route of the volcanoes” (through Nicaragua), doesn’t understand how “those who don’t have fe” can survive.

“Every week I have more and more acquaintances in Cuba asking me to send them money, because they don’t have children who can send them some. But I can’t handle everyone; I have children there too,” says this 40-year-old from Havana. “Distant relatives write my mom to ask for my help, as if I were a millionaire. I wish I could, but I know that’s not the solution.”

Aurora was an artist in the principal theaters of Cuba and always believed in the Revolution

If she ever dares to tell those relatives to stand in front of the Plaza de la Revolución and ask for “help” to save themselves, they call her an “anti-patriot” and a “Trumpista.” The suffering of relatives who couldn’t emigrate becomes dramatic in the case of the elderly.

Aurora was an artist in the principal theaters of Cuba and always believed in the Revolution. Today, widowed and alone, with a pension that does not reach 2,000 pesos and not a single family member who sends her money from abroad, she barely survives. Eating, although little, is not such a problem: there is always a neighbor who has a slightly more comfortable continue reading

life, either because of business “on the left” or from receiving remittances, and will help with a little rice or beans or both. The biggest problem is electricity. She can’t pay the new prices, so Aurora doesn’t even turn on the lights at night: one more risk to add to her 85 years and her reduced mobility.

On a step under the arches, an old man sells cigars and rubber parts for pots and coffee makers / 14ymedio

Like Aurora, hundreds of thousands of elderly Cubans – two and a half million over 60 years of age on the Island – are on the verge of extreme poverty. Those who don’t even have a roof over their heads sleep in the streets. Several of them take advantage of the busiest roads of the capital to resell a few items, always scarce, always of poor quality. One of the busiest is Galiano street, in Central Havana, a true showcase of misery.

An old woman had half a dozen disposable razors for sale this Tuesday, including those that are also discarded: few people can shave with those gadgets that they sell in state shops.

Later, on a step under the arches, another old man sells cigars and rubber parts for pots and coffee makers. Others offer sweets, liquid detergent, instant soft drinks or batteries.

“It’s not just that it’s not enough for them to live on, it’s that it’s useless for them,” said a woman who helps her 80-year-old mother as much as she can and who bought, out of charity, a battery pack on Galiano on Tuesday. “It’s just that 1,500 pesos of pension in this country is nothing. And look how hungry they are, how much need and sadness.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Japan Donates 20 Million Dollars to Cuba To Install a Photovoltaic Park on Isla de la Juventud

The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and the Japanese ambassador to Cuba, Kenji Hirata, at the inauguration of the facilities / Juventud Rebelde

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 27 April 2024 — The International Cooperation Agency of Japan (Jica) donated more than 20 million dollars to collaborate with Cuba in the assembly of solar photovoltaic parks in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, local media reported on Saturday. The installation, inaugurated the day before by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, includes a system of fast-discharging lithium batteries that “allows to compensate for the fluctuations caused by the instability of photovoltaic generation,” according to the official newspaper Granma.

The project will reduce the use of fossil fuels in generation and improve the supply of electricity in that territory, according to the newspaper. With this, the electricity system in Isla de la Juventud would reach 20% of energy production with renewable sources, said the director of the state-owned Unión Eléctrica, Alfredo López.

The electricity system on the Isla de la Juventud would reach 20% of energy production with renewable sources

Marrero thanked Japan’s ambassador to Cuba, Hirata Kenji, and Jica’s representative, Ashida Tatsuya, for the donation. He also recognized the Cuban and Japanese engineers who work together on the construction site.

The Cuban Government aspires to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, which currently account for 95% of national energy production, and especially on the import of crude oil, due to the cost. continue reading

The national “energy transition” plan aims to have 37% of its energy mix come from renewable sources by 2030, although currently it is barely 5% and investments in this area are minimal.

At the beginning of March, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, announced two contracts with Chinese companies with which it is intended to contribute “gradually” more than 2,000 megawatts (MW) to the National Electricity System (SEN).

These agreements provide for the installation of three parks in each province, 92 in total, with which the Island intends to save 750 tons of imported fuel. The only drawback is the deadlines, between 2025 and 2028 while the population “endures” a deficit of 300 MW this Saturday.

The national energy transition plan aims for 37% of its mix to come from renewable sources by 2030

Also, Spain will also support the construction of a solar park in Cuba within the framework of the Global Gateway strategy of the European Union (EU). This project aims to provide energy for 8,500 households, generate savings of 84 million euros, replace 168,000 tons of fuel and avoid the emission of 721,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The poor state of Cuban thermoelectric plants, together with the lack of crude oil for generation, have meant that since the end of January, the daily rate of maximum energy deficit is between 20% and 45% of the country’s needs. Meanwhile, the Island appeals to an increase in the use of renewable energies as a solution to the energy crisis, but the progress is too slow compared to the needs of the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Ciego De Avila, Cuban Women Have Not Received a Single “Intimate” Item So Far This Year

Mathisa continues to violate the State’s order, says the official newspaper ’Invasor’ / Escambray

14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2024 — A special report on the lack of sanitary pads in Ciego de Ávila, published this Saturday in Invasor, harshly criticizes the slow production of the industry on the Island, which asks for “calm,” while menstruation does not wait. Of the 100,000 women – according to 2022 data – who receive the product monthly in the province, not a single one obtained it this year, says the official newspaper, the only one that is allowed, within limits, to be critical of state management.

“At the end of April, the so-called ‘intimates’ still have not appeared in the pharmacies in at least half the country. Meanwhile, the recommended ‘calm’ means finding expensive alternatives – imported and national products – or very unpleasant ones: making pads out of recycled fabric, as in the 90s,” Invasor says sharply.

Other alternatives, such as the use of menstrual cups, are not too popular on the Island. “The menstrual cup is very comfortable and, although it is more expensive than other feminine hygiene products, the investment is quickly recovered when you stop buying pads all year round,” explains Marta, a woman from Avila who, however, knows that the product must not only overcome prejudices but also face practical situations of life in Cuba.

“The problem comes when you have to manipulate it in a public bathroom, where there is almost never water, soap or toilet paper”

“The problem comes when you have to manipulate it in a public bathroom, where there is almost never water, soap or toilet paper. Not to mention the lack of hygiene in some places,” she emphasizes. continue reading

“Using tampons,” she adds, “is not very popular because they are hard to find. For a while they were sold in MLC (freely convertible currency) stores and could be bought in buying and selling groups, but women prefer the pads, which they know better and are usually more affordable.”

Invasor also gives the price of pads in the informal market: for the low-quality Mariposa brand, a single package costs between 250 and 300 pesos, a “module” price with which a home delivery can even be requested, says the report. The rest of the national brands that are distributed in the central region of the Island cost 400 pesos and, if they are imported, up to 450 for no more than 12 pads, according to 14ymedio.

Invasor tried to communicate with Arthis, a company that, according to official reports, is funded by Cuban and Italian capital and has a production capacity of 20,000 daily packages of pads, diapers and dressings. They didn’t answer their phone.

Although the Arthis pads, sold under the Angélica brand, should, in theory, be marketed in pesos and in MLC – as the company said after its remodeling last December – “the offers consulted were all on e-commerce pages with payments from abroad,” says Invasor. The prices, in addition, “range between 900 and 1,000 pesos per pack of 36 pads.”

But, beyond the prices, it is the low availability that hits the women of the Island the hardest

But, beyond the prices, it is the low availability that hits the women of the Island the hardest. In a “short chronology” of the ups and downs of the industry, Invasor makes it clear that the situation has been going on for years. In 2016, the Sancti Spíritus Mathisa factory – in charge of supplying women from Matanzas to Camagüey – closed with a debt of three million units due to logistics problems. By 2021, the Avila authorities had produced only 60% of the expected pads, and the debt of the company that year, which was never settled, was four million units.

From then on, the logistical obstacles were joined by the lack of fuel and the shortage of raw materials in recent years, so Mathisa’s production has been intermittent. The company was barely able to resume its production two weeks ago – after stopping it in February – when it received the imported filler for the pads, and now they are trying to produce what they owe from the first quarter of 2024.

For the moment, the women of Avila will continue to wait for Mathisa, which “violates the State order again and again,” but it will be increasingly difficult for them to comply with the call to order of the regime. Invasor makes it clear that “the subsidized price of the humble pads in national currency should not be the only explanation” given by the officials.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Casa de las Americas Licks Its Wounds on Its 65th Anniversary and Longs for Its Influence in the Region

The top brass of the regime accompanies Abel Prieto on the anniversary of the institution / Casa de las Américas

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, April 27, 2024 — After 65 years operating as a kind of second ministry of culture, Casa de las Américas longs for the time when the institution was more powerful and influenced the cultural debates of the continent. On the eve of the anniversary, its president, cultural commissioner Abel Prieto, regrets the lack of “coherence” of the institution and assures that “the amount of crazy things full of lies” that are said about the Island’s regime do it “damage.”

Founded just four months after Fidel Castro’s arrival in Havana in 1959, Casa de las Américas emerged with a declared vocation: to take advantage of the intellectual enthusiasm caused by the “beards” to attract Latin American writers to the Island. The success was total. From promising young people like Ricardo Piglia to figures of the stature of Miguel Ángel Asturias, they passed through the institution or aspired to its literary prize.

Now, Prieto invokes the controversies that marked the first decades of Casa de las Américas, such as the emergence of the magazine Mundo Nuevo – emblem of the Latin American boom and under the direction, from 1966 to 1971, of the Uruguayan critic Emir Rodríguez Monegal – about which he states that it was “designed, built and launched as a counterweight to our magazine Casa de las Américas.” continue reading

Prieto invokes the controversies that marked the first decades of Casa de las Américas, such as the emergence of the magazine ’Mundo Nuevo’

The former Minister of Culture attributes to the United States multiple “traps”, “storms” and “manipulations” to sink the institution. He speaks with fury about the Rómulo Gallegos prize, saying “it is founded to oppose the Casa de las Américas prize,” although he does not mention that the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Castro ended up hijacking it. In 2000, invited to be on the jury for the Rómulo Gallegos prize, the novelist Roberto Bolaño denounced that the “chavista” methods of the organizers – who “designated” the politically convenient winner – were already identical to those of Havana in the 60s.

“The Casa always has an answer,” Granma celebrates in its interview with Prieto. The commissioner nods, but insists that everything in today’s world leans “to the right,” because “the Yankees have dedicated a lot of money” to preventing the cultural work of the Island. “At the center of all those controversies was the dispute over that area so important that is the intellectual field,” he says, and recalls that the institution always tried to be “at the center of those hurricanes.”

“At the center of all those controversies was the dispute over that so important area that is the intellectual field”

Prieto dedicated a long commentary to his predecessors, notably the founder of the Casa Haydée Santamaría, who “loved a lot, admired and lost” – he said, enigmatically, when announcing a book of tributes that he published this year – and whose suicide allowed Mariano Rodríguez to preside over the House until 1986. On that date, the poet Roberto Fernández Retamar assumed the position, until his death in 2019. After spending time as Raúl Castro’s “personal advisor,” and two long periods as Minister of Culture, Prieto took charge of the institution.

Boldly, the commissioner leaves his most daring statement for the end of his interview: “Many people say that the so-called Latin American boom, especially in the novel, has to do with the Cuban Revolution, firstly, and secondly, with the work of the Casa de las Américas.” Of those writers – whose progressive break with Havana was sonorous – however, he only mentions two: Gabriel García Márquez, Castro’s unconditional friend, and Julio Cortázar, whose criticisms of the Revolution were minimal and always in private correspondence.

In his personal account of the history of the institution, Prieto also did not mention the internal cultural controversies in which Casa de las Américas played a leading role. He did not allude to the fact that the magazine served to publish aggressive ideological libels – such as Calibán, from Retamar himself – against those who opposed the cultural vision of Havana and, on many occasions, personal attacks on authors that the regime disapproved of, such as Jorge Luis Borges.

Nor does it speak of the famous 1971 issue of the Casa magazine, in which the transcripts of the National Congress of Education and Culture appeared, with the authorities “locating” and “healing” homosexuals. Also appearing in the final pages of that issue, which served as a road map for what was known as the “Five Grey Years,” was the self-indictment of the poet Heberto Padilla, arrested by the State Security weeks before the publication.

The Casa building, next to the Havana Malecón, has long ceased to be a meeting and gathering center

The Casa building, next to the Havana Malecón, has long ceased to be a meeting and gathering center. Affected by multiple hurricanes and hard-pressed for a repair, the property ran out of steam as a cultural space in recent years. The most important event of the century that took place inside its walls was the one that happened in 2007 after the “Little War of Emails” was unleashed over the exaltation in the official media of former political commissioners of the “Five Grey Years.”

During weeks of exchanges by email, direct accusations of the Ministry of Culture and of Fidel Castro himself, dozens of intellectuals and artists lashed out against cultural policy on the Island. The official response was to convene a meeting at the Casa de las Américas to calm the tempers and stir up revolutionary spirits. The call left out the most critical figures in that controversy, and after it was over, the political police were brutal against the rebellious voices.

On its 65th birthday, the institution is still sheltered by the regime, whose top brass, headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, accompanied Prieto in the anniversary ceremony. The Casa de las Américas Awards were also given out this week. The “Latin American unity” award is the only one that Cuba pays in dollars.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Overwhelmed By the Excess of Garbage, Las Tunas Trash Collectors Stop Working for the Cuban State

Many employees have been “frightened” by the situation of landfills in the province, and the increase in wages is not enough to avoid the stampede

14ymedio, Havana, 25 April 2024 — The garbage collectors hired by Communal Services in Las Tunas to pick up the trash with a horse and cart have protested again because of the low wages and the terrible conditions. “Few have stepped forward to face the work,” the authorities complain, alluding to the 252 who are still collecting garbage in the province. Their taxes were lowered at the end of last year when they demanded “to earn more and sweat less.”

Each cart operator is paid 40 pesos per cubic meter of garbage, and they pay 35% less in taxes. The carts can carry 15 cubic meters a load and make three trips a day, with which they earn, the authorities calculate, 1,800 pesos (some $5 US at the informal exchange rate) on a good day. “But they don’t even want to carry out that work,” complained Elser Prieto, the provincial deputy director of Comunales, in an interview given this Thursday to Periódico 26.

What explains the reluctance of the cart drivers to work with Comunales? Neither the official press nor the manager will risk a hypothesis, but the hygienic situation of Las Tunas, where waste has been accumulating for months, seems to be one of the keys, suggests Periódico 26. In addition, there is the lack of personnel – ideally, about 659 cart operators should be working – and the lack of tools for collection, plus the complication of maintaining a cart and horse, and the risk of disease. continue reading

Comunales should maintain two collection trucks and eight tractors, but it only has 2,000 liters of diesel per month

In the province of Las Tunas, Comunales should maintain two collection trucks and eight tractors, but it only has 2,000 liters of diesel per month and, of the tractors, only two work. Most of the collection must be taken care of by horse-drawn vehicles. According to the official newspaper, the province generates about 33,200 cubic meters of waste per month.

The saturation of garbage, the leaders admit, has frightened many cart drivers, who “have been vocal about the low salary they receive,” says Prieto, who claims to have “dialogued with them” without them listening. The leader mobilized local Hygiene and Epidemiology officials as part of a “strategy” that he did not reveal to “support” the collection, despite the “low number” of cart operators, whose stampede continues.

At the beginning of April, Periódico 26 described the overwhelming landscape of garbage in Las Tunas: a capital city “full of dumps,” municipalities in absolute “deterioration,” absence of a communal work system and “lack of sensitivity” of the leaders, who act only “when it is indicated by the higher authorities.”

They also regretted the “social indisciplines” such as throwing garbage in any corner, but they recognized that “many residents have no other option

They also regretted the “social indisciplines” such as throwing garbage in any corner, but they recognized that “many residents have no choice but to throw garbage in the dumpsters even when they are full.” “What else can they do if there is no fuel and no horse-and-cart operators?”

The newspaper also demanded a salary increase for the cart operators- “there is no other way” – a measure that should have been taken “many months ago.”

“A very serious problem, in addition, is the inefficient work system of the companies of Communal and Aqueduct Services to face the collection of waste and the discharge of sewer water, which runs through many streets of the capital city,” they summarized. “The deterioration of state equipment and the lack of fuel affected the capacity of the state entities in charge of garbage collection. The situation worsened because the self-employed who collected waste abandoned their positions, overwhelmed by the increase in operational costs.”

When the cart operators threatened to withdraw because garbage collection was not as profitable as they expected, Comunales raised an outcry

When the cart operators threatened to withdraw because garbage collection was not as profitable as they expected, Comunales raised an outcry, since using animals has been the only method they have found in the face of fuel shortages and the absence of special trucks.

Drivers prefer to work in the transport of passengers or cargo, a better paid and less cumbersome job. During the last tension with the cart operators, the testimony of one of them was eloquent: “I don’t need to spend all day covered in muck, with the risk of getting sick, because there are many things in the waste that can hurt you, and they check your papers over and over again. Now, hired privately, with a couple of good cart-loads a day or disposing of debris from a construction, I’m doing well.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Quisicuaba, or the ‘Revolutionary Calling’ To Look After the Poor

The official press celebrates with “hope” the work of the project in a new report on begging

In the project’s dining room this Friday, they served spaghetti without cheese / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 26 April 2024 — In the second part of a report on beggars in Cuba, in which the authorities recognize that the State is not able to deal with the increasing number of homeless people, the official press celebrates with “hope” the work of the Cabildo Quisicuaba project. Its director, Enrique Alemán, who mixes spiritualism and Afro-Cuban religions with activism in favor of the regime, says that he offers meals to more than 4,000 “wanderers” and “vulnerable” people a day in a dining room in Havana. If this is true, it would mean feeding three people per minute for 24 hours each day.

It’s not the first time that the Government has praised Quisicuaba’s “social” work. Every time the media is there, even the international media like Reuters, they offer the same numbers.

Nor is it explained where the food and the resources to serve them come from

What Alemán does not mention, in a video released by Cubadebate, is that a year ago his soup kitchen on Maloja Street, in Central Havana, had, according to an article from the Swiss Embassy in Cuba, half as many people as now. The increase in homeless people, beggars or “people with wandering behaviors,” as the regime calls them, is a reality that the Government can no longer hide. Nor is it explained where the food and the resources to serve them come from. continue reading

A resident of Nuevo Vedado who once asked Quisicuaba for help told 14ymedio that not everything is rosy in the project. “I live alone and I’m now 76 years old, so I talked to a social worker to see if I could get any help. He told me about Quisicuaba and managed the delivery of a lunch,” he recalls.

“When the food arrived, it was disgusting. My dogs didn’t even like it. I remember that they brought it to me in a bike-taxi, although I think that now they no longer send couriers and you have to go to Centro Havana. I never asked for it again,” he says.

The first part of the report on beggars in Cuba gave an account of the problem: 39% of those who live in the Centers for the Care of Wandering People have not reached the age of 60; 60% sold their home and do not have the resources to join society; 86% are men, 30% have some disability – including 25% with psychiatric disorders – and 31% “have high patterns of consumption of alcoholic beverages.”

In the face of the unrealizable proposal to pass the ball to the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) or other traditional organizations, Quisicuaba – with its double religious and “social” character – strives to ensure that the regime does not look foolish. A few years ago, the project inaugurated an “assisted living center” in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa, in an abandoned rural high school.

Now, according to Alemán, 113 people reside there, and they hope to receive another 24 soon

Now, according to Alemán, 113 people reside there, and they hope to receive another 24 soon. All were previously taken care of in the Havana dining room, and after the opening of the “camp” they arrived at the facilities.

“Many of the patients who are here were alcoholics, for example, and therefore we try to create the family atmosphere that they do not have elsewhere. Here we have a simple regulation that is based on the person’s own will to want to get ahead. We give occupational therapy and work to make them feel important,” the director of the place, Yadelkis Hernández Morales, explains to Cubadebate.

Quisicuaba counts on the help that the Government and local administrations do not give to their own state shelters. “One of our fundamental premises lies in self-sufficiency, including our social dining room. To do this, we request idle land from agriculture, and we now produce coal for cooking food. In addition, we harvest bananas, sweet potatoes, malanga, pumpkin, cassava and beans. We also have an organoponic garden and a livestock module,” says Hernández. The contribution of the regime does not represent a great economic sacrifice, but it allows them to take part of the credit for the functioning of Quisicuaba.

The place also has a medical team, as well as staff from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Likewise, the medicines shown in the Cubadebate audiovisual are imported, although Quisicuaba does not state where the funds come from, since it is a non-profit project.

Alpidio Alonso, also showed up and applauded the “deeply cultural work” of the project

The Cuban authorities, who support the initiative, often show their faces in the center and give promotion to Alemán, who has also highlighted the “revolutionary vocation” of Quisicuaba. This same Thursday, a retinue made up of Abel Prieto and other members of the jury of the Casa de las Américas Award – foreign intellectuals – arrived at the Havana headquarters. The Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, also showed up and applauded the “deeply cultural work” of the project.

Also, last December Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel toured the Quisicuaba facilities in San Antonio, to “learn how the Quisicuaba Project and several agencies of the Central State Administration, Cuban civil society organizations, the Party and the Government have worked together since 2020 to make this noble work a reality.”

Despite the Government’s attempt to whitewash its image, the homeless in Cuba are far from disappearing. A report by this newspaper reports the situation of residents of Havana who, like many on the Island, try to survive without the help of relatives abroad.

“Every week I get more and more acquaintances in Cuba asking me to send them money, because they don’t have children who send it to them. But I can’t deal with everyone; I have my children there too,” said a man from Havana living in Miami who doesn’t understand how those who don’t receive remittances can survive.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Gradual Process Versus Voluntarism, a Matter of Methodology

As the results of their proposals have been the same, perhaps it makes no sense to discuss how they carried them out.

Fidel and Raúl Castro during the last session of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 April 2024 — Any attempt to theorize about methodological issues in the way of governing is usually dismissed when the results are the same. That is one of the reasons why the differences in method to exercise power between Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl are barely mentioned.

If I had to define Fidel’s method, I would reduce it to a single sentence: “We will go forward no matter the cost.”

Raul’s contribution is evidenced in his attempt to achieve “a sustainable (and prosperous) socialism” and his insistence on advancing “sin prisa, pero sin pausa” — without haste, but without pause.

Four years ago Raúl met with a large group of leaders from all political and governmental levels, and he warned them that waste and improvisation had to be eliminated and that they had to “have their feet and ears glued to the ground.”

When in April 2018 Miguel Díaz-Canel assumed the position of president of the Council of State by appointment, Raúl Castro assured that this was part of a process of “gradual and orderly transfer.”

While it can be said that everything that happened in Cuba from 1959 to 2006 (especially the disasters) was the result of Fidel Castro’s indisputable voluntarism (everyone makes his own to-do list), it can also be said that the poor result of the reforms promoted by Raúl Castro from 2008 to the present is largely due to the slowness and lack of depth of their application.

As the results have been the same (I have my own list), it makes no sense to discuss the methodology.

But I make this observation:

If Fidel Castro had applied the nationalization of foreign companies in a gradual and orderly way, and his Revolutionary Offensive of 1968 would not have been decreed with the stroke of a pen but with his feet and ears on the ground…

If Raúl Castro, a chainsaw ready for action, had put an end to the inefficient socialist state enterprise and put the country’s economy into private hands, opening the doors to foreign investment…

The methdology wouldn’t have mattered.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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