14ymedio

A School Without a Roof in San Juan and Martinez Where the Cuban Regime Profits From Tobacco

14ymedio, Havana, 1 April 2023 — Between tobacco plantations and in a very beautiful natural setting, the residents of San Juan y Martínez in Pinar del Río continue to suffer the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which last September destroyed much of the municipality’s infrastructure. To the meteoric winds is added the State’s lack of attention that has left the Modesto Gómez Rubio school without a roof for half a year.

If you look at the educational center from the outside, located at kilometer 5 of the road to Punta de Cartas, it seems that the hurricane barely managed to damage it. But its blue walls hide from view the drama that is experienced inside its classrooms. Hurricane Ian tore off the roof and also damaged some columns that supported the asbestos cement tiles.

Nora Mesa García, mother of three children and a resident of San Juan y Martínez, no longer knows which door to knock on or which official to approach for a new roof to be installed in the primary school where her eight-year-old son is in the third grade. The woman explains to 14ymedio the sequence of winds, willfulness and inefficiency that has led them to the current situation.

After the passage of Hurricane Ian, former spy Gerardo Hernández, National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, arrived in San Juan y Martínez with an official delegation. “He said that the school year had to start although the parents warned him that the school did not meet the conditions,” Mesa recalls.

Despite the arguments for not restarting classes due to the condition of the building, Hernández ignored the approaches of the neighbors of San Juan y Martínez and said goodbye to the municipality with a triumphalist phrase: “The course will happen!” Six months later, classes continue, but risk and discomfort mark the day-to-day life of students and teachers. continue reading

“What was done was to collapse the parts that were in danger of falling and put two tarps on the roof, with the help of the people of the cooperative,” she adds. “We provided a third tarp so that at least the children could each be in their respective classroom and not have to all be squeezed into a small space.”

With a small enrollment that does not exceed one hundred students, classes are taught in the school from preschool to sixth grade. Mesa describes it as a place with “four small classrooms” of which only three were covered with the tarps, a momentary solution that has already continued for a half-year without a comprehensive repair of the property.

Before the “show” of the elections to ratify the deputies to the National Assembly began, Mesa verbally complained to several of the delegates of the People’s Power of San Juan y Martínez. “It seems unbelievable that you don’t have the courage to say that the priority here is to repair the school so that the children are safe,” she told them.

“Right now there is a lot of wind and the tarps move all the time. You have to enter those classrooms to feel the terror of the teachers and students. A few days ago when I went to pick up my son from school, one of the tarps had fallen, and a piece of debris almost hit him.”

“After that, my eight-year-old son won’t go to classes anymore because it’s a very dangerous situation. Here the little that has been done on the premises is because of the initiative of the parents, the cooperative and thanks to the courage of the teachers and the director of the school who are working despite the risk.”

“They told us that this was going to be temporary and that we had to wait because there were many houses destroyed and tobacco sheds totally swept away by the winds. But they didn’t do anything about the little school. They only restored the other school that is at the entrance, in the Calderón neighborhood, next to the road, because it is the one you see when you arrive.”

Mesa has not stopped complaining and wrote to several institutions demanding that the property be repaired. She received a response from the national director of investments of the Ministry of Education of Cuba, Francisco Navarro. “He told me that yes, the school is in the investment plan, but that it is not the only one that is affected; in total there are 218. Many justifications but nothing concrete.”

“We feel like we are orphans everywhere. The rainy season is about to begin, and we will not be able to go inside the classrooms,” warns Mesa, who feels outraged because she considers that San Juan y Martínez is one of the municipalities that “contributes the most to the economy of the country” due to its tobacco production, which is sold at high prices in the international market.

“It bothers me because this is an area that provides the main contribution to the cigars, the leaf that is placed on the outside when they are rolled. It must be of very good quality and is not produced in the rest of the country. What hurts me is that the authorities of the Ministry of Education have not even come to see our situation.

“They shouldn’t play with the parents’ feelings. They can’t tell us that it’s in an investment plan and nothing happens, because it’s our children under those tarps,” she says. “They have a cigar fair, they do auctions and everything under our noses without caring about anything that’s happening here,” she emphasizes. “It’s frustrating because we’ve run out of hope.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Cuba, the Private Sector Creates Twice as Many Jobs as the State

Last year, the private sector created twice as many jobs as the public sector. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 5 April 2023 — The private sector created almost twice as many jobs in Cuba in 2022 as did the State. The number of new employees amounted to 226,704, of which 79,912 were government employees, compared to 146,792 in “other forms of management,” according to data offered in the annual review analyzed on Tuesday by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, who asked for “a different look” taking into account “the challenges imposed by demographic dynamics.”

According to the report presented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, more than 4,653,000 workers are employed, although the figure will have to be confirmed pending an employment study announced this Monday that is intended to show “the magnitudes and structures of the economically active population.”

The document clarified that the percentage of employed women amounts to 39%, 34,000 more workers than in 2021. The largest number of female jobs were created in the sector of direct activities in the production and provision of services in the state and non-state sectors, “with a favorable impact of the jobs generated by the private sector.”

The data, however, reveal — as argued by Ariel Fonseca Quesada, National Director of Employment — a gender gap, since 34% of women do not have paid work, especially mothers who take care of children or the elderly, he added, without breaking down the data.

There are now 172,069 people who do not have any type of job, and Marrero indicated that many positions are vacant because of a lack of qualified personnel. He proposed to solve this problem through multi-employment.

The prime minister criticized some other issues that occur in the workplace, including unpaid employment of young people with the argument that they are being trained, and the low penetration of teleworking beyond the pandemic, and informal employment, against which, he insisted, it is necessary to fight. continue reading

“It is not a matter of going after them now, but of identifying them in order to protect the worker and demand that the employer assume his responsibilities,” he said.

At the opposite extreme is Alejandro Gil Fernández, Minister of Economy and Planning, who criticized “underemployment” as an evil that fundamentally plagues the sector that depends on the State budget and gives work to people who receive a salary without a specific task to do. Gil regretted that salaries do not serve to meet the needs of workers. Supposedly, as Minister, he could provide solutions.

At the meeting, other issues related to social assistance were addressed, such as the situation of women with children who cannot enter the labor market because they have no one to take care of their children. According to the prime minister, the expansion of child care through “little houses” has not been very successful, since their coverage is negligible.

In addition, the creation of “social work” as a university career was announced “on the basis of Cuban theory, which in no way resembles that of other countries, because it is part of our country’s model, in which social justice prevails,” an explanation that clarified little about the content and how it differs from the profession in other nations.

In this meeting, Cuban leaders addressed a problem of the first magnitude for the future of the country, which faces low birth rates, greater longevity and a massive emigration of people of working age, responsible for the maintenance of the State and pensions. But Cubans have the feeling that beyond words, what is systematically missing are changes.

“It continues the political discourse, the exhortations, but nothing is said about the fall in the purchasing power of the Cuban peso. Pensioners and many workers cannot cover the cost of the ’basic family basket’ [sold through the network of ration stores] with their income, and there is poverty. So what do we pensioners do who work for our Cuba, defend it, cut the cane and participate in agricultural and military mobilizations? Nothing has been done about these problems that we suffer; they are ignored, and there are no measures to solve them. We support the macroeconomic adjustment that has been mentioned, but its scope has not been made public,” a reader wrote in Cubadebate.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Don’t Forget To Bring Me Salt,’ the Plea of Cuban Mothers to Those Who Travel Abroad

How is it that a country surrounded by seawater lacks salt? This is the great question that Cubans ask themselves. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 5 April 2023 — The shortage of salt has been a serious issue on the streets of Cuba for a long time, but it was not until this Wednesday that the official press mentioned it. In a long article, Cubadebate echoed the complaints of its own readers and admitted that “for several months there has been instability in the marketing of salt in the country.”

The problem is not a lack of salt: more than 9,000 tons have been stored. The difficulty is with distribution, according to statements by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, speaking in February. “Problems with transportation have affected the delivery to consumers,” he said.

In what seems a justification for the big question — how is it that a country surrounded by seawater lacks salt? — the text devotes great space to arguing that most of the salt flats on the Island are in the eastern area. This, says the director of the Salt Company (Ensal), Jorge Luis Bell Álvarez, “is not due to whims or lack of investments, but to the fact that very specific weather conditions are required for their location”; that is, where “there is little rain and a lot of wind.” Two salt regions are located in Guantánamo, and the rest are in Las Tunas, Camagüey, Villa Clara and Matanzas.

“Guantánamo is the province that produces the most salt because it has a semi-arid climate, very dry and with little rain all year round,” says the official, while in Matanzas “salt can only be produced in the driest and windiest months, which are April, May, July and September. In the other months it rains a lot, and the water dissolves the salt that has formed.” continue reading

The salt flats of Matanzas present another problem, according to the president of the Geominero-Salinero Business Group, Fabio José Reimundo: “Every time a hurricane passes through, the entire installation is taken away, because there are dikes that separate the ponds and allow the salt to crystallize. When a strong swell happens, the water gets in and mixes with the salt. There are many hurricanes that pass through here, but not in Guantánamo.”

Despite everything, the director of Ensal assures that the state “has managed to maintain the production and (limited) distribution of salt throughout the national territory, despite the resource difficulties it faces.”

The same official explains a complex distribution process through the regulated ’family basket’ according to the number of household members. In the first month of the quarter, for example in March, 4,100 tons of salt are distributed, “and all households receive one bag of salt per household. But in April, 2,800 tons are distributed only to households that have more than four family members. “In the third and last month of the quarter, between 900 and 1,000 tons are distributed to the larger households and to those who still have a bag to fill.”

One can conclude that the figures in the Cubadebate article are not the same as on the street. Thus, the proposed price per kilogram of salt [2.2 pounds] in the warehouses, which the director of the company puts at 25 pesos [$1.04] can go up to 136 pesos [$5.67], as this newspaper was able to verify a few days ago in Luyanó, where it was sold only as a repackaged product.

“Already it must be gone, because any little bit doesn’t last long. As soon as they put it out, the resellers grab it. They repackage it and, as you know, sell it at an exorbitant price,” says a neighbor, who managed to buy a pound.

There is also inconsistency between paper and reality in the costs of salt “on the left” [on the black market]. Cubadebate says that a package costs 150 pesos [$6.25], but this same Wednesday in several markets in Havana, a package of a pound and a half was at 250 pesos [$10.42]. “They sell it to you as a kilogram [2.2 pounds], but you can see that it’s less, and not always of a good quality. Sometimes it’s half wet, sometimes it’s very fat, and sometimes good, yes, but that depends,” complains a resident of Havana’s El Vedado district.

In San Antonio de los Baños, Ana María was able to buy just a small repackaged bag. “I don’t understand why salt is so scarce, a country surrounded by the sea!” says the woman, married and with a young daughter. “Salt wouldn’t have to be imported; it doesn’t have to come from any other country.”

Those who have a traveling relative have added salt to the list of orders to bring from abroad. “My mother sent me a message so I wouldn’t forget to bring her salt,” a habanero visiting Spain tells this newspaper. “But the last time I brought it was from Bogotá, and I almost missed the flight, because they made me open the suitcase to know what that ’dust’ was in my luggage. It was quite painful to explain to the Colombians that it was salt to take to an Island.”

In the face of all these vicissitudes, the response of the authorities via the official press is, as usual, proactive. “We are looking for alternatives to improve the transport of salt and change the modal matrix,” says Dolcey Castellanos, director of operations of Ensal. For example, “using additives that keep the salt from clumping” or “making an investment” in the salt flats of Santa Clara to “increase production capacity from four to ten tons per hour.” At the moment, nothing has been finalized.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Closed Gas Stations and Empty Streets in Cuba Due to the Delay in the Delivery of Venezuelan Oil

Gas station at G and 25, in El Vedado, Havana, on Monday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 3 April 2023 — Havana faces restrictions due to fuel shortages for the umpteenth time. According to the website OnCuba from the State newspaper Granma — which this Monday again experienced “technical failures” and could only be partly accessed — the provincial government will establish new measures to face “a situation created by the lack of supply of fuel for private carriers and individuals with financial means in this sector.”

Thus, the official press says, “the fuel figures allocated to vital activities will be readjusted”; that is, a limit will be imposed on buying, and the sale of fuel will be offered in four service stations “located to the east, west, center and south of the city.”

The authorities do not offer the names of these gas stations but report that they will be open “in the early hours of the morning to provide services to the population.”

There will also be limits on the amount allowed according to the type of vehicle, although at the moment they have not specified the quota assigned to each one. continue reading

The lack of fuel is evident in Havana because there is insufficient transportation and garbage collection. This Monday the streets looked emptier than ever, and even on avenues as central as 23rd, minutes went by without a car being seen.

Several gas stations, like the ones at G and 25th and L and 17th, where there are usually long lines of vehicles, were without service because there was neither gas nor diesel for sale. “They are both gone,” complained a driver to 14ymedio. “I’m paying for fuel at 50 and 60 pesos [$2-2.50] a liter [roughly a quarter of a gallon] on the street because I’m not there to wait in line.” The price in the official establishments is around 30 pesos [$1.25] per liter.

Other provinces have been suffering cuts for weeks. In Villa Clara, for example, fuel was rationed at the beginning of March, at a maximum of 30 liters [7.5 gallons] per car, 20 liters [5 gallons] for cargo and passenger bikes and 10 liters [2.5 gallons] for motorcycles.

In the middle of the month, just after a visit by Raúl Castro to Caracas, Reuters reported that Venezuela was preparing to send more than one and a half million barrels of oil to Cuba in a supertanker with the Panamanian flag. The cargo was composed, according to the report, of 400,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil and 1.13 million barrels of diesel.

The ship was supposed to arrive on the Island at the end of March, but there is no trace of that cargo on the streets.

Meanwhile, one group of workers especially outraged about the shortage of fuel are the taxi drivers. Sources in this newspaper say that they are fighting to be enabled by special services so that they don’t have to stand in the same lines as the rest, including the private ones. “So far we are having to gather together several taxi drivers to take turns standing in line, but we can’t continue that way,” says one of them.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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China and Cuba Agree on ‘A Long-term Strategic Relationship’ in Cybersecurity

Mayra Arevich, Cuba’s Minister of Communications, and Cao Shuming, Cyberspace Administrator sign agreement. (Prensa Latina)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 April 2023 — On Monday, China signed an agreement with Cuba that details the collaboration between the two countries on matters of cybersecurity, as they had suggested in November. Press agency Prensa Latina celebrated the news that this compact lays the groundwork to build “an internet that supports development and wellbeing of the people.”

The agreement, which was signed by Mayra Arevich, Cuba’s Minister of Communication, and Cao Shuming, Representative of China’s Cyberspace Administration, marked the mission of a Cuban delegation to Beijing, headed by Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo.

During an interview with Prensa Latina, Perdomo stated that along with China they are working to strengthen the development of telecommunications on third and fourth generation — 3G and 4G — networks, as well as broadband, the deployment of which, he added, has not been completed because it is dependent on the Island’s economic capacity.

He said, “Chinese entities and collaboration with China are vital.” During the meetings they also reviewed the “actions” to continue with the digital television program, a project that began on the Island in 2013, with support from Beijing.

The cybersecurity ties with China go “beyond a commercial relationship,” and is considered, “a long-term strategic relationship,” in the economic and national security areas, said the vice prime minister. He added that information and communications technologies are being considered; they are “also platforms to destabilize politics, imperialist aggression in our country, political and ideological subversion.” continue reading

As you know, the Asian giant maintains strong control over the internet, with an organization specifically dedicated to this considered the most extensive and most sophisticated. The perfect example is the battalion of employees working 24 hours a day dedicated to reviewing any content or page that could a broad audience.

None of this is mentioned in the Cuban state-run press, the vice minister stated that the Island defends the sovereignty of each country to build a technology infrastructure that “it could use for its political, economic, and social development,” as well as “communicate” with other countries to safeguard “its national identity and values.”

The agreement was reached in the context of sanctions placed by the United States on several Chinese companies, such as ByteDance, owner of TikTok, for the repercussions it could have on its security. The Asian firm is called out for leaking data on American citizens to Beijing.

The state press stated that the Cuban delegation’s agenda included meetings with the Executive Vice President of China’s Development Bank, Wang Weidong, as well as with the President of the Insurance Credit Coorporation, Sheng Hetai. In addition, they held a meeting with Han Fangming, the president and founder of Charhar, an institute described as the thought center of “high professional ethics and global vision”, dedicated to promoting China’s political discourse to the international community.

The tour, which began last Thursday, also included visits to Information Industries and Technologies, the International Agency for Development and the National Health Commission. A visit to Changchung, in Jilin province, and a tour of mixed enterprise Changherber were scheduled for Tuesday.

The new rapprochement between Cuba and China comes five months after Miguel Díaz-Canel met with his counterpart Xi Jinping in November 2022, in a desperate search for financing amid a new economic and energy crisis. In that meeting, they agreed to disperse $100 million to reactivate important lines of industrial activity on the Island, production of renewable energy and cybersecurity.

The relationship between Cuba and China for cooperation in cyberspace is not new and there is evidence that dates back to 2014, long before the government authorized access to the internet on mobil phones. Nine years ago, Beijing and Havana signed an agreement to develop laws and regulations.

In 2014, one of then President Raúl Castro’s concerns was the “existence of a global system of telecommunications espionage” by the United States. Since then, according to several articles in the state press, the Cuban government has had more rapprochements with China and the issue has remained on the negotiating table.

While the government in Havana hawked the internet for development, the state monopoly, Etecsa, maintains control of telecommunications and restricts the telephone service of individuals on the island considered to be of interest.

In addition to China, in 2018, the Cuban informatics solutions firm, Softel signed an agreement with Russian Inoventica to build a regional cybersecurity center in Havana, although following the signing the state press has maintained complete silence on the topic.

Last week, another agreement was reached between Havanatur and Chinese tour operator Tumei International Travel to promote the Island to the Asian market as a “reliable and safe” destination. According to Rodrigo Wen, Vice General Manager for Tumei, Cuba is a priority on its agenda and is among the 20 countries approved by Beijing for group travel after reopening its borders after three years of COVID-19 isolation.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Placetas, Cuba’s Private-Sector Aluminum Capital

In Placetas the workday begins and eight in the morning, with the clamour of the furnace and steam from molten metal rising out of the ovens. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutierrez Faife, Camajuaní, 2 April 2023 — The municipality of Placetas, one of the economic engines of Villa Clara province, is also the aluminum mecca of Cuba. Initially, its foundries were clandestine operations but were later licensed by the government as small and medium-sized private businesses (SMEs). They still follow their own rules and still have difficulty finding raw material, but they attract hundreds of workers and are among the few industries that have managed to prosper in central Cuba.

Aluminum has long been the most versatile and common metal found in Cuban homes, used for tableware, doors, windows, spare parts, benches and seating. Salaries are good, from 300 to 350 pesos a day, but the risk of workplace injury is high. It depends on the type of object and the size of the project. Even still, business is booming.

At eight in the morning, a clamor can be heard coming from the furnace as steam from molten metal rises out of the ovens. One of the factories, operated by two locals, consists of two high-ceilinged warehouses built near their homes.

The process of melting and molding takes place in one of the warehouses. Skilled workers shape the product, assembling its parts and welding the pieces together. In the second facility, they later sand and paint the objects. The forge has forty-eight workers, who toil tirelessly in front of the fiery ovens. continue reading

“When we started in 2012, this was all illegal,” admits David, one of the factory’s owners. “At first we were making pots and pans, oil stoves, cutlery, plates and glasses. In 2016 everything changed, we made the leap to producing windows and doors in small quantities and only sold to local customers. Fortunately, this led to us getting a business license and then of becoming an SME.”

The major obstacle facing David and other producers is finding aluminum, which they initially got from the Placetas Raw Materials Company. The state, he says, was stingy with the amount it sold them, which is why they turned to “collectors,” scavengers who collect or buy any bit of aluminum they find on the streets.

Finally, they were offered a contract by the Cuban Fund for Cultural Assets, which agreed to supply them with an adequate amount of aluminum. In return, David and his partners had to agree to a favorable price for producing benches and trashcans for city parks, security bars for government buildings, light fixtures for city streets and assorted pieces of furniture.

However, they are still committed to using privately collected and recycled metal, which provides a source of income for retirees who collect and sell used aluminum beer and soft drink cans. There are also now several privately owned recycling companies such as Hila Metal Sur, which is owned by one of their partners.

“The life of the foundry worker became a little more comfortable,” says David. The other factories still had to look for alternative sources of raw materials, however. Today, there are other producers affiliated with the Fund in Placetas. They are part of the government-run Provincial Metal Shaping Company, known as Metalconf. Meanwhile, independent artisans now operate as SMEs.

One such artisan is David, who explains that the work is “spread around” to the various factories. “Those affiliated with the Fund are contracted to produce roofing panels, lamp posts, swings and other articles ordered by the government, which gets everything at a discount. In turn, it provides foundries with subsidies to manufacture objects that are later sold in industrial product stores. Meanwhile, smaller-scale producers specialize in kitchen utensils, though the bulk of their work is blinds, doors, chairs, armchairs and tables.”

According to official sources, Metalconf itself has several factories in Placetas, as well as its own distribution and marketing divisions, that export to other countries in the Caribbean.

David notes it is the SMEs themselves which determine prices. An aluminum door usually costs 6,900 pesos and a window 5,500. A table with four matching chairs is 13,000; two armchairs with a sofa and coffee table goes for 15,000 pesos. He points out that his company offers free home delivery. Once a week, a truck transports their products to Santa Clara, Camajuaní, Remedios, Caibarién and to Placetas itself.

Rodrigo, one of the partners in another local foundry, is worried about the adverse working conditions of his thirty employees. Half of them are directly involved in production while the rest spend their time looking for recyclable aluminum. He has still not registered his business as an SME but hopes to do so as soon as he has completed all the paperwork.

“The foundry workers are exposed to toxic substances and lead poisoning on a daily basis, to say nothing of the burns from molten metal splashing out of the mold,” says Rodrigo. “There’s concern that they often don’t have the necessary protective gear, such as heat-resistant gloves, leather boots or belts. It’s also hard to get protective goggles and sturdy overalls.”

Rodrigo’s foundry, which turns out cutlery and other kitchen utensils, operates like an artisan’s studio. Pieces of aluminum are tossed into a furnace and melted down. The mold is covered with earth, and once ready, the liquid metal is poured through a hole at the top. After several hours, the molten metal will have cooled down – it solidifies quickly because it hardens at a very high temperature – at which point the mold is broken and the piece is removed.

“Then comes the finishing, which consists of filing the piece down, assembling it and spray-painting it,” says Rodrigo. He surmises that it is rare for any house in Villa Clara – or in all of Cuba for that matter– to not have a piece of aluminum that was “made in Placetas.”

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A Devastating Article in Cuba’s Official Press About the Mistakes in the Management of Tourism

The article laments that the recovery of tourism is so slow. (14ymedio/Archivo)

14ymedio, Madrid, 4 April 2023 — The provincial press once again proves to be the only one capable of separating itself from the official discourse of the Communist Party and sounding a wake-up call to the Government from within the system. The newspaper of Ciego de Ávila, Invasor, dared to do so this Monday with an opinion piece entitled “Cuban tourism: balances and imbalances,” in which it admits that the sector is not growing at the right pace, the goal for 2023 is “complicated” and, even more, the strategy is wrong.

The text highlights the failure of the recovery of Tourism, which in the first two months of the year was very far from the 2019 data, a fact that for the first time was mentioned aloud by Cuba’s Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, last Tuesday in a meeting in which the “weaknesses and strengths” of the sector were analyzed.

Marrero, who was Minister of Tourism for 15 years, said that 1,014,087 foreigners visited the Island in 2022, 37.8% of the number in 2019. It was no secret, since the official data reflected it, and the independent press had been warning for months that the appropriate date for comparing tourism figures was not the previous year, but the last year before the impact of COVID-19. However, the state media had never put it in black and white.

Taking advantage of the circumstance, as well as the analysis of the current prime minister, Invasor took the data from the 2022 Tourism report to accurately emphasize that travelers spend most of their money on food and not on hotels. Yet, the Government insists on building them.

Cuba earned, always according to the official data, 19.2 billion pesos ($800 million with the rate of $24 to 1 peso) in income in the entities of international tourism, but “the highest income was not from accommodation but from gastronomic services, with about 44% of the total collection,” writes the author, Saily Sosa. continue reading

“This means that this is where we should put the money: in increasing the quantity and quality of gastronomic offers inside and outside the tourist hubs, generating value chains back and forth. Because to guarantee the cuisine destined for tourism we must import food and raw materials, and the business is far from great,” Sosa says bluntly.

The article recalls an extremely alarming fact: only 15% of hotel beds were occupied last year. In other words, out of every 10 hotel rooms on the Island, more than 8 were empty in 2022, an even more discouraging figure when compared to competing destinations, such as the Dominican Republic (70% occupied in Punta Cana), or the Mediterranean (75% occupied in the Balearic Islands).

For Sosa, the figure is a “poor indicator” that should lead to reflection, especially if one takes into account that “Tourism has benefited in the last decade with million-dollar investments, fundamentally in the expansion of hotel rooms.”

Invasor mentions “the lack of food, beverages and supplies; poor service; insufficient leisure and entertainment activities in the tourist resorts; lack of maintenance in the facilities and unstable internet service; in addition to the difficulty of finding fuel for planes, rental cars and tour buses.” One surprising data point that Marrero revealed was the decreasing number of workers in the Tourism sector. They were among the most benefited by the juicy trips they received, but the collapse of tourism also diminished the attractiveness of these jobs.

“Several economists have warned of the urgency of changing the pattern of investments in Cuba, drifting towards the production of meat, vegetables, fruits, grains and food amounts that improve the productive bases from the technological point of view, so that it can be spoken of in terms of competitive returns and supply markets, not just in terms of of tourism, by the way,” the article spits out.

While pointing out the “disadvantage” of the “blockade,” which does not allow the arrival of American tourists, the article immediately qualifies this with a devastating criticism of political leaders who have not made the necessary decisions to produce what is needed for tourism on the Island. By importing everything instead of producing in the country, “the income is equal to the costs; therefore, profits tend to zero.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘It’s Not for Solidarity That Cuba Sells Its Expensive Teacher Program to Honduras’

Cuban teachers upon their arrival in Tegucigalpa, last December. (Government of Honduras)

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 March 2023 — The 123 Cuban teachers who will train teachers in Honduras will cost that country approximately 406 dollars a month, according to the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo on Wednesday in an article in which several analysts describe the investment on the part of one of the poorest countries on the continent as a mistake.

The newspaper claims to have acceded to the agreement, signed between Havana and Tegucigalpa on October 21, 2022, and points out that the amount allocated to each professional is 10,000 lempiras per month and a total of 14.7 million per year (just over half a million dollars). The total amount, for the three years initially agreed, is, as had already been announced, 40 million lempiras (1.6 million dollars).

“I understand the issue of solidarity, but in reality this is not cooperation because they are services that the Cuban regime sells very expensively, the same as with the doctors,” Julio Raudales, rector of the José Cecilio del Valle University (UJCV) told El Heraldo.

The newspaper has consulted with several experts who, among the flaws in the agreement, point out that the money could have been allocated to a national project to hire Honduran teachers and unemployed people. Specialists believe that it is an “initiative that arises from an erroneous and imposed ideology” and that it will “weaken” Honduras’s own educational system. continue reading

The implementation of the “Yo sí puedo” [“Yes I can”] program aims to help 700,000 people to become literate during the term of Xiomara Castro, who supports the Government of Havana. Although the program is very complete and works, specialists affirm that it has nothing new to offer and has not been proposed in Honduras.

“The document is well done, but it is not superior to a program that has been carried out by Hondurans. In comparison, the Nacho [a school book used in the country] is better elaborated than this methodology,” says Dennis Cáceres, director of Education of the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ).

The specialist mentions several projects that were implemented in Honduras for adult literacy in previous years and insists that there are no big differences. “In the end, literacy is based on learning words in a context, with the objective that people know how to read, add and subtract. Something that our programs already have,” he alleges.

The planned classes have a duration of two and a half hours and are spread over three days a week, and the exercises consist of the study of syllabic letters and combinations, but some experts warn that “if the roles are not agreed correctly” there could be indoctrination sneaking into the counseling.

Another of the specialists consulted, Johnny Varela, believes that it seeks to attract attention politically by launching a new proposal instead of seriously addressing a “true educational refoundation.”

The program has been the center of controversy since its announcement, when at the beginning of January the imminent arrival of ten technicians from the Island was announced to begin implementing the program, which has already been exported to about 43 countries. Then a promotional video of the Secretariat of Strategic Planning, one of the signatories of the agreement, which was advancing a new education system for Honduras, generated discomfort. “It will be universal, inclusive, participatory, secular and scientific. Just as it should be and not as the one that is being applied.”

The video continued to praise the Cuban education system, “which is one of the best in the world and will turn the exclusionary system into one that is inclusive, and we will begin to raise the cultural level of the population by delving into values such as solidarity and cooperation.”

In the images, an attractive young white woman explains in just under two minutes, smiling and with exaggerated gestures, the importance of the agreement. “The system prioritizes four aspects in education: literacy, universal access to education, the importance of teachers and education focused on social change,” she explains, referring to education in Cuba.

The opposition, led by the National Party of Honduras (PNH), also rejected the initiative, described as “Cuban interference,” and spoke of “dubious agreements.” “There are many questions from Latin American countries about Cuba’s political and ideological presence on the continent, which uses health and education as a pretext for its purposes,” a spokesman said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Six Months, the US Coast Guard Thwarted 6,202 Cuban Rafters

The US Coast Guard thwarted the landing attempt of a group of Cubans who made the crossing on the raft ’The Faith of God’. (Twitter/@USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 April 2023 — In the last six months the United States Coast Guard has thwarted the attempt of 6,202 Cuban rafters to reach Florida. According to official data, this figure exceeds the total of the entire previous year, which was 6,182. Lieutenant John Beal of District Seven reiterated that “anyone who tries to enter the United States illegally by sea will be rescued and repatriated.”

Beal stressed that “those rafters who disembark will be arrested and prosecuted for expulsion.” This is the procedure faced by the 14 Cubans who managed to make landfall on Friday in the Florida Keys. The migrants arrived in two rafts, and one of the groups had a dog with him.

Although the landing of Cubans in Florida has decreased since last January, the Chief Officer of the Border Patrol, Walter Slosar, documented with images the arrival of 89 nationals of the Island in March. The largest group, 48 Cubans, was registered after their two rafts arrived at the Dry Tortugas National Park on March 4.

This national park in the Florida Keys had to close in January due to the arrival of at least 300 migrants in two days. These landings occurred just as Washington implemented the humanitarian parole program to receive 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua on a monthly basis, in an attempt to stop the massive illegal arrival of people from those countries. continue reading

During the month of January, the US authorities granted the rafters who managed to land “an expedited deportation order,” the verdict issued by a judge for the expulsion of a person but which can be reversed with legal advice. Currently, they are being prosecuted and returned to their country of origin, noting that “they will not be eligible for the humanitarian parole program.”

This Sunday, the Coast Guard delivered 64 rafters to Cuba, and counting them there have been 2,998 irregular migrants returned to the Island this year. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the group was made up of 54 men and 10 women.

The migrants, mostly from Matanzas and Mayabeque, were handed over to the Cuban authorities in the port of Orozco in Artemisa province. Two of these people “were transferred to the investigative bodies, because before being involved in the illegal exits they were investigated as possible perpetrators of serious criminal acts,” the Ministry of the Interior said.

On the other hand, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to receive 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled by the United States, and this has generated an increase in arrests and confinement of foreigners in centers of the National Institute of Migration (INM), where abuses, extortion and human rights violations predominate.

In a temporary-stay area created by the Government, located on the Ciudad Juárez border, 38 migrants died as a result of a fire, out of the 700 who were held there. On Monday, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection reported that the death toll had risen to 40.

“At the moment, 40 people have died and 27 are injured, of which 23 remain hospitalized,” the INM said in a statement. Among the victims are six Hondurans, seven Salvadorans, 18 Guatemalans, one Colombian and seven Venezuelans. The identity of the last deceased person is still unknown.

According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, since about 900 died in an attempt to cross into the United States without documents.

The region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented people detained at the U.S. border with Mexico since last October.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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What Can Happen With the Russian Economic Plans in Cuba?

Miguel Díaz-Canel was received by Vladimir Putin on his visit to Russia. (@DiazCanelB)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 4 April 2023 — The Russians are not going to be the salvation of the Cuban economy. Not by a long shot. No one should expect magical solutions in all this. Because they don’t care whether Cubans live better, nor have they received that order from Cuban President Díaz-Canel. Let no one have any illusions. Little is known about the Russian plans for the Cuban economy, but a conclusion can be reached. They will not straighten out the state shipwreck that is the inefficient and inoperative Cuban economy. The Russians propose to make changes but without touching anything. Let’s see how they do it.

However, the script of what has to be done to get the Cuban economy out of the Marxist hole is known and written, and in general, there is a lot of consensus around it. Therefore, it is advisable to distrust the Russian plan proposed by Putin’s adviser, Boris Titov, as president of the council of the Center for Russian-Cuban Economic Transformation that was born with the approval of Díaz-Canel during his trip to that country. This council acts on the instructions of Putin in the first place, and Díaz-Canel, secondly. From these two partners, from the good and the bad, you can expect anything, except rationality and economic wisdom. Any Spanish, Argentinian or American consultant could have done better.

The idea, in the first place, is to end the strict control that the regime exercises over the currency exchange. Correct. The creation of a foreign exchange market in Cuba for the peso, transparent and efficient, like the one that exists in other countries of the world with their respective currencies, is a proposal that the communist regime neither likes nor is interested in. Díaz-Canel had it at his fingertips in the Ordering Task,* and it barely lasted two months. He doesn’t like it because a fixed exchange rate can’t be sustained with the level of reserves of the economy. And it doesn’t interest him, basically, because for Cuban communists the foreign exchange market is nothing more than a means of collecting foreign currency for the state coffers that is not going to leave just because. continue reading

All the exchange decisions that are taken in Cuba, including the fixed exchange rate of the ordering task, go through arbitrating mechanisms for the spin of currencies that enter the country for the benefit of the state. The discrepancies between the official and the informal exchange rate prevent any possible solution to the problem of the loss of value of a currency, the fundamentals of which are in serious crisis. The regime does not like the alternative of a foreign exchange market and, therefore, will block this proposal of the Russians, even if they recognize the consequences of the disastrous exchange rate policy.

Secondly, the Russian plan proposes to Havana to empower and promote small and medium-sized enterprises, which in Cuba are known as SMEs, and which have already been criticized from different positions. Are the Russians thinking that Castro’s SMEs serve their reforms? I doubt it. They have proposed an in-depth reform of fiscal policy to bring out activities from the underground economy. As a theoretical approach it could work, but first you have to throw something away. In the Cuban economy, taxes are only a small part of what prevents the SMEs from prospering.

The main problem lies in the absolute interference that the communist regime maintains in the SMEs, which in Cuba must be authorized by the Ministry of Economy and Planning and violates the right to free enterprise that exists in market economies. The Ministry offers monthly data from authorized SMEs, but nowhere is there information on those that go out of business, and it is known that this type of project usually presents a high mortality in its early years. Without this data, it is impossible to determine the scope of the reform of SMEs and their economic and social impact. Presumably, the Russians have asked for the data. Meanwhile, the Cuban state maintains its absolute control over all strategic areas of the economy and corners the SMEs by limiting their possibilities for growth.

The SME sector and other private actors cannot lead any economic change because it only represents 7% of GDP, 11% of budget income and offers employment to a quarter of the country’s workers (1,600,000 according to data from the Ministry of Labor, compared to more than 3 million, double, employed by the state and its companies). The figures do not allow comparison: the private sector in other countries represents more than 80% of employment and in terms of GDP management it far exceeds 70%. The distance from Cuba with these international parameters indicates the intensity and complexity of the reforms to be undertaken.

Thirdly, the Russian plan aims to eliminate other obstacles faced by companies in Cuba, such as the difficulty in accessing credit, high taxes, problems with the rate of return due to the prices of some goods, which are established in a directive way by the regime, or the price of other goods, limited by low wages in the public sector.

In short, return the axis of the functioning of the economy to the private market. Correcting the aforementioned factors is not easy, especially since, in this case, it would not be fair to apply corrective measures only to private companies, when the state companies, which are the “center of the economic system” for the regime, will not receive the same treatment.

Fourthly, the Russian plan believes that making the tax regime more flexible can help the private sector get out of the underground economy and the vicious circle in which it finds itself, and produce results in the increase of the production of food and commodities. The proposal is to move slowly, but surely, in terms of reforms, to avoid what happened in Russia, where structural transformations caused notable social injustices.

The question is how to reconcile reforms in the functioning of the economy with the maintenance of social quotas served by a budget that, necessarily, has to be reduced in size to free up resources for the private sector. It is not a matter of shock therapies or anything like that, but if the state is intended to reduce its weight in activity by placing itself at levels similar to other countries, and central planning is to be replaced by the laws of supply and demand in the setting of prices, the population cannot be deceived: sacrifices will have to be accepted.

And those sacrifices will be the greater the more the structural decisions are delayed and the more they try to sustain the state budget with the current superfluous spending commitments that currently exist. There is no possible alternative, and it should be explained to the people that the adjustments are necessary to build a prosperous economy, capable of generating employment and wealth for all, far from the Stalinist collapse of six decades.

Fifth, the definitive farewell to collectivism must be accompanied by transparent privatization processes with international observers, to ensure the legality of the actions. But as far as we know, the Russian plan doesn’t say much about this. The redistribution of economic power that is associated with these processes should not lead to the creation of mafia groups or companies of the regime, which in reality already exist, but to the birth of efficient, flexible and competitive private companies that help in the reconstruction of the nation. If the Russians are not able to offer this solution, it’s better that they don’t do anything.

In reality, the experience of Cuban SMEs in the last year has little to do with the free enterprise of which the Russians speak. Of course, it is much better that there are SMEs than that there are none. But the regime has absolutely controlled the process of creation and approval, and despite everything, it has not been able to consolidate productive structures in the field of food, where unattended needs are still very prominent. There has been a commitment to the manufacturing industry and services, which have been consolidated in the first sectoral position.

There have also been complaints that some SMEs have been oriented to develop businesses that are in the hands of family and friends of senior officials, as well as foreign entrepreneurs related to the regime. But the truth is that, so far, you can’t talk about an economic class with defined objectives and purposes. The state maintains absolute control of the process, and the SME as an alternative to communist power is weak.

Within the framework of the projects that the Russians want to implement in Cuba, there has also been talk of a joint commercial company, based on foreign investment to distribute food, chemicals and other items with the participation of the Cimex group, although no contract has yet been signed, and it is already known how these things end. Another investment project, also to be developed, is a hotel for the exclusive use of Russians, justified by the return of tourism from this country to the Island. The authorities have denied this information.

Okay, then. Russia’s relations with other countries, including Cuba, are usually structured on a framework of obscurity and little transparency that, at times like the present, with the war in Ukraine and the international embargo, multiplies significantly. Geopolitics also has a very important influence. Russians are not Cubans, nor are Cubans Russians. It will be difficult to know exactly what the Russian plans consist of, but there is no doubt that they may be compromised by what happens in Russia in the immediate future. Most likely, they will amount to nothing.

*The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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20 Years Since the Black Spring, the Long Shadow of Repression in Cuba

Part of a protest banner against Cuba’s “Black Spring”. (Archive)

14ymedio, Havana. 18 March 2023 – Twenty years ago a wave of repression swept through Cuba. Whilst the world’s attention was fixed on the start of the war in Iraq, Fidel Castro condemned 75 dissidents to prison in an authoritarian offensive known as the Black Spring. Two decades later, the number of political prisoners on the island numbers over a thousand, the Gag Law is still in force, and the number of citizens demanding political change has multiplied significantly.

If after the arrests of those days in March 2003, the Cuban regime managed to significantly silence the opposition and deal a heavy blow to independent journalism, that effect only lasted for a short time. The emergence of the Ladies in White, mothers and wives who demanded the release of prisoners of conscience, international repudiation and the appearance of new opposition actors capsized the script that Castro had foreseen.

If the sentences of up to 30 years handed down against the 75 sought to kill dissent on the island, then that warning message from the courts failed. If the subsequent exile of a large part of the political prisoners was designed to leave a leaderless wasteland among Cuban activists, it can be concluded that the strategy did not bear the expected results. If the imprisonment of reporters was aimed at rooting out independent journalism, then the fiasco was even bigger.

Two decades later, the press not controlled by the Communist Party has opened a space in the Cuban audience, even greatly displacing the official media. Several waves of dissidents, artists, and reporters have developed other methods, adopted new technologies to spread their message, and have earned the sympathy of millions of citizens inside and outside the Island.

The San Isidro Movement, independent journalism, the artists of 27N (27 November 2020) and activism, each time with more diverse causes and closer to the concerns of citizens, contributed significantly to the outbreak of the most important popular protests in its history on the Island, that have come to be known as ’11J’. July 11 , 2021 was evidence of the resounding defeat of the Black Spring, because that oppressive raid had not eradicated nonconformity or the desire for freedom from the hearts of Cubans. continue reading

Although the legislation that put those 75 opponents in prison is still in force and new restrictive regulations have been added to it, the Cuban regime has never had to deal with so many public demonstrations of rejection. To channel that popular anger, it has promoted the largest migratory exodus the Island has experienced and keeps hundreds of ’11J’ protesters behind bars. But Cuba is today a much more difficult country to control by the political police, a nation much more aware of the need for system change and a less docile society.

It is true that that Black Spring did not lead to a liberation summer, but neither did it lead to the long winter of citizen meekness that Castro had foreseen.

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Arrested in January for Calling for ‘Another July 11th’ in Cuba, Sulmira Martínez is Taken to Guatao Prison

Sulmira Martínez, 21 years old. (Cubalex)

14ymedio, Havana, March 31, 2023–Sulmira Martínez Pérez, arrested on January 10th for announcing her intention to protest in the streets, was transferred on March 17 to Guatao prison in Havana, according to Mónica Baró who cited the 21-year-old’s mother, Norma Pérez.

“Norma says her daughter is traumatized, that in Villa Marista [prison] during the visits they had, which last ten minutes or a bit more, always in front of an officer, she couldn’t say anything, but yes, she suffered in there,” said on Friday the Cuban journalist who now lives in New York.

Baró stated that Martínez Pérez, “began yelling in Villa Marista for them to let her go and after that they transferred her to El Guatao.” They transferred her, continues the publication, “in a little cage, one of those State Security vehicles that are hermetic, with bars,” and she was mistreated on the way.

“She was handcuffed and asked them to loosen the handcuffs because they were tight, and what they did was to stand her up and handcuff her to a bar in the vehicle, with her arms spread apart, as if it were a stockade,” stated the independent journalist.

Similarly, Norma Pérez told Baró that the charges against her daughter have changed from “propaganda against the constitutional order” to “instigating a crime,” one of the charges applied to many of the protesters of July 11th, 2021. She does not have, at the moment, a trial date. continue reading

The woman was able to visit her daughter on Wednesday, but told the journalist that she cannot go see her every Thursday, which is visitation day, “The transportation to the prison, round trip, from Las Guásimas to El Guatao, including the wait time, costs 3,000 pesos and Norma receives 2,000 pesos [per month] as a retiree. Furthermore, she cannot gather enough food every week to take her daughter and pay for the transport.”

In jail, Baró continued, “the prisoners are sleeping on mattresses full of bed bugs, receiving poor nutrition and suffering cruel and degrading treatment by the guards.”

The legal organization, Cubalex, which monitors cases of political prisoners on the Island also demanded on Friday, “The Cuban regime should release Sulmira without delay and stop incarcerating Cubans for freely expressing themselves.”

Known on social media as Salem Cuba, a pseudonym under which she managed a Facebook page where criticism and memes of Cuban authorities are frequent, posted the following before her arrest, “For those who say ’all bark and no bite’, I am planning a demonstration, in the streets, not behind a screen,” and “We need organization… spread the word!!! We’re planning another July 11th.”

At first, little was known about her arrest, but a few weeks later, her mother’s desperation began to echo; during a livestream she expressed how “she was holding it in.”

“First she was at 110 y Aldabó [a detention center in Havana] and later they moved her to Villa Marista [State Security headquarters],” explained the woman, who claimed that during the arrest her house was the target of a police search, “They took the computer, the telephone and the Nauta internet connection.”

The lawyer, hired through the “revolutionary state” cost 5,400 pesos, said the woman and she clarified that her daughter is accused of “propaganda against the constitutional order.”

The new Criminal Code, which went into effect last December, increased the penalties against human rights defenders, activism, and controversial criticism on social media. In article 143, the norm states that anyone who supports, encourages or receives resources “for the purposes of paying for activities against the State and its constitutional order” incurs a sanction of deprivation of liberty for four to ten years.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuba: Politics, Art and Sport

The Cuban baseball team said it felt under pressure in the Miami game, and, after its defeat, the regime blamed the audience and the opposition. (Jit)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 1 April 1, 2023 — They are three independent activities, but when the arts and sports, like any discipline, are developed under a dictatorial, even worse, totalitarian management, such as the Cuban State, the management, individual or collective, is subject to the will of the government.

There will be those who do not understand the protests, which, in other words, are not against the athletes, but against the regime they represent, although as citizens, they also have rights and duties within their community.

I confess that I remember with bitterness those days of death sentences that were carried out in 24 hours, and that many prominent athletes and artists, receiving awards abroad, in their first statements to the press dedicated their awards to Fidel Castro or simply said that he was their inspiration.

The distinctions that athletes receive under the regime are a product of their own efforts, but the Government capitalizes on them for propaganda purposes, and this contributes to disinformation and to the athlete’s dependence on the State. Something similar happens with any scientific advance that occurs in Cuba. They make believe, they disseminate the results, as a genuine progress of the system, not of the nation; even less, of the individuals who with their talent and dedication achieve success. continue reading

The totalitarian regime takes credit for any award or recognition to a Cuban who represents the Island. But some do not feel a triumph as something national or as a success that belongs to everyone.

I have participated in protests against the dictatorship at sporting events. I confess that it’s not easy. I have felt like the character of the book The Two Halves of the Viscount, by Italo Calvino, which describes an aristocrat physically divided in half by a cannonball, which results in the contradictory behavior of his two halves.

The situation presented by Calvino in his short novel is complex, similar to that suffered by those of us who face totalitarian regimes that are capable of appropriating the values of a nation. It is true that there are those who do not have problems with their halves; they are whole, and they act as a battering ram without suffering the consequences.

In the early 1980s, a sports competition was celebrated in a stadium in Valencia, Venezuela, attended by Cuban boxers.

It was an intense day. Together with Kemel Jamis, a former political prisoner, and two other compatriots, we appeared on the grounds with a couple of large signs that said, “Welcome Cuban sports brothers” and another, “We condemn Castro-Communist tyranny.” Fortunately, for our safety from the Cuban and Venezuelan henchmen, the National Guard intervened and took us into custody and out of the stadium.

Protesting is a right, especially when people are not assaulted and public and private property are not damaged.

Totalitarianism introduces the citizen to a perennial debate. Consciousness, feelings, interests, politics and ideology face off against each other in a constant discussion, which acutely complicates reaching conciliation. The regime that prevails in Cuba is so absorbing and inclusive that, no matter how hard the individual tries, he cannot escape the influence of the system, unless he absolutely breaks with his roots and what he derives from them.

This perception to some extent is also based on the fact that totalitarianism, beyond the will and doing of each citizen, instilled for decades the certainty that the homeland and Fidel Castro were a single entity, an absolutism that led to the belief that any contrary individual decision would have a negative impact on the values and commitments of the nation.

All this generates an irreconcilable confrontation between the two supposed halves, not only in sports but in similar aspects. It affects everything, even the help you can give to a family member, because the reality is that totalitarianism is like a gigantic funnel that swallows everything.

But what to do? Totalitarianism is a dirty trap that corrodes us. On the Island everything is kidnapped, even our loved ones, and can there be a homeland without a family?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Comedian ‘El Gato’ Receives a Pass to Visit his Family After Two Years in Prison

Prisoner Yoandi Montiel Hernández received a permit to visit his family after almost two years in prison. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 April 2023 — Political prisoner Yoandi Montiel Hernández, known as El Gato de Cuba, obtained a permit to visit his family a few days before completing his two-year prison sentence, accused of contempt after lobbing criticism against the regime during livestreams on social media.

On Sunday, the news was confirmed by activist Daniela Rojo who shared on Facebook a photograph of Montiel, with his much more tired-looking face reflecting the two years he spent in prison. Rojo wrote, “his eyes, I no longer have words,” on a post that generated a wave of comments from followers who referred to the “pain and sadness” in his look.

The comedian was arrested on April 12, 2021 at home, by an officer of the Ministry of Interior and about 20 police officers. During a trial held on April 7, 2022, El Gato received a two-year prison sentence, but according to opponent Osmay Pérez, at that time there was a possibility that the lawyers and the prosecutor’s office might reach an agreement for him to be released in three or five months, although there were not any advancements in the case.

This April he will have spent two years in prison; he was first taken to the State Security general quarters in Havana, Villa Marista, and was later transferred to the Valle Grande prison, where he remains. During this time, the regime has rejected his family’s requests for his conditional release, and on the contrary, in May 2022 they requested a review of his case to increase his sentence. continue reading

In statements made to Diario de Cuba, his father, Lázaro Montiel, said that El Gato was arrested for “having mocked Miguel Díaz-Canel in his latests livestreams.” His mother has said that he only spoke “the truth.”

Contrary to the requests of human rights defenders, the number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience remains high in Cuba. The last report from Prisoners Defenders (PD) suggested that, at the end of February, 1,066 Cubans were detained, including 34 minors who are being charged or have been convicted of sedition with sentences of up to five years in jail.

One of the recent cases of greatest consternation was the March 23rd arrest of activist Aniette González, in Camagüey, after posting photographs of a performance with the Cuban flag as part of the The Flag Belongs to Everyone campaign, in solidarity with artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. González is being held in pretrial detention, awaiting trial, and is accused by authorities of “insulting the symbols of the homeland.”

One of her two daughters, Aniette Ginestá, told Radio Televisión Martí that last Tuesday they filed a write of habeas corpus in favor of the activist before the Provincial Tribunal of Camagüey, although they could not present the document directly in the courtroom “because the procedures have changed a bit and now it must be presented in the office.” According to her, the authorities have one week to respond to their petition.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Government Extends the Import of Generators From Cuba Until December 2023

Despite the high prices, these devices are not a luxury on the Island because of the constant blackouts. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 31 March 2023 — The Cuban authorities have extended until December 31, 2023 the permit for the non-commercial import of generators of more than 900 watts. In the run-up to the hottest months of the year, the measure — approved in August 2022 and reactivated last December — tries to guard against a summer of new blackouts and the usual breakdown of the National Electricity System (SEN) in the face of high demand for electricity.

The extension was announced this Thursday in an extraordinary edition of the Official Gazette, through a resolution of the Ministry of Finance and Prices. The sections of the document recall that this government agency is authorized to reauthorize the measure as many times as it deems necessary, and considers that the acquisition of the generators has brought notable “benefits for the residential sector,” in the face of the “contingencies” that have affected the SEN.

Initially approved after the energy debacle that the Island suffered during the summer of 2022, the measure expired in December of that year. However, the authorities extended the deadline for three months, until March, and this Thursday it was decided to extend it for another nine months.

Since last August, Cubans have taken advantage of this law to import generators of more than 900 watts, although the increase in the number of these devices has not meant a total solution to the energy problem. The lack of fuel, indispensable for the operation of the generators, and the strict control and registration that the Government maintains for the owners, have hindered their role in Cuban houses. continue reading

The rule, which promised a “special treatment” for equipment importers, was the continuation of a set of measures approved in July 2022, in order to make the non-profit import of several items more flexible. The inventory ranged from cell phones and computers to appliances, sporting goods and spare parts for cars.

At that time, the import of generators of up to 900 watts was also authorized for a price of 200 dollars, from 900 to 1,500 watts for 500 dollars, and more than 1,500 watts for 950 dollars. However, the authorities understood that the document underestimated the price of the devices and, therefore, attributed an erroneous number that affected the possibility of import. In the US market — where most of them are usually bought — the cost of a generator of more than 900 watts not only exceeded 200 dollars but could reach 500 dollars for each unit.

“When assessing the effects on the residential sector that still persist, as a result of the energy deficit caused by the breakdowns in the national electroenergy system, it is necessary to authorize, on a temporary basis, the import of generators with a power of more than 900 watts,” they agreed.

There was no shortage of complaints and comments about the opportunism of the measure. On the other hand, the noise of the machinery during the nights of blackout also caused discomfort in the neighbors of the “lucky” owners.

The dissatisfaction increased after the announcement that the generators had to be registered in the local service stations as a condition to be able to buy 2.6 gallons of gasoline to jump-start the equipment.

The owners of the generators faced new difficulties due to the need to “register” them, a requirement that also raised suspicions. The Government, said several users on social networks, also intended to carry out a strict “census” of the equipment and its owners, noting their identity card and the serial number of the machine.

As if that were not enough, the lines of customers in front of the service stations and the usual shortage of fuel were other obstacles to achieving the efficiency of the generators during a situation that the authorities had to qualify as “the worst in the history” of the SEN.

Miguel Díaz-Canel’s promise that the blackouts would stop by the end of the year was fulfilled for only a few weeks. At the beginning of this year, Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, anticipated that the blackouts would return, although initially he assured that they would be for only a couple of hours. A few weeks later he extended the period to 3 or 4 hours that, in practice, have been exceeded in some areas. Not to mention that half of the Island has already experienced four serious energy collapses in just three months.

The extension approved this Thursday will also reactivate the market for generators in the United States, where Cubans living in Florida will try, once again, to get their relatives on the Island a generator for the long nights of blackout that, according to the Government itself, are far from being an outdated reality.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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