The D Frente collective addressed a letter of solidarity to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. (EFE)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 18 October 2022 — A coalition of opposition groups from Cuba has expressed “solidarity” with Ukraine in an open letter to its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, rejecting their country’s support for Russia.
The D Frente collective, which brings together Cuban dissident groups “opposed to the totalitarian system prevailing in Cuba,” says in the letter that “a considerable part of Cuban civil society has seen with deep pain and concern” the “justification” and “support” of Havana for the Russian invasion.
They emphasize that Moscow’s February decision to attack Ukraine is “in frank violation of the principles of international law, the self-determination and sovereignty of its people, the peaceful and negotiated solution of disputes, and a breach of peace and good neighborliness.”
The signatories assure Zelensky that “the Cuban people are not their government.” Havana has not condemned the invasion, has not applied sanctions against Russia and has abstained in the votes on the issue at the United Nations. The official media on the Island replicate Moscow’s terminology and narrative about the war.
The letter refers to Ukraine’s Soviet past in which “citizens and aspirations were ignored. There are many of us who don’t feel represented by our leadership and who also reject the position of our government regarding this unnecessary and cruel conflict,” it states. continue reading
In the letter, D Frente applauds the “courage, deep love and attachment to their culture, sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the Ukrainians and conveys to Zelensky “our most sincere respect and feelings of solidarity towards your people and your government.”
“We are convinced that a plural, democratic and totalitarian-free Cuba, in which the rule of law and the will of the Cuban people prevail, would categorically reject the acts of aggression against your country and make every effort to achieve a peace in which the legitimate aspirations of the Ukrainian people are respected,” they say.
Bilateral relations between the Governments of Cuba and Russia are politically and symbolically close, but not economically or commercially so.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A shipment of humanitarian aid from the United States that arrived in Santa Clara, Cuba, in 2021. (Archive/Customs of Cuba/Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 18 October 2022 — On Tuesday, the United States Department of State announced that it will provide humanitarian aid of 2 million dollars to those “in need in Cuba” who were affected by the passage of Hurricane Ian in September.
A statement signed by the institution’s spokesperson, Ned Price, reported that the United States will send the aid through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to “international partners who work directly with Cubans whose communities were devastated by the hurricane.”
“We are currently reviewing requests from organizations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to provide this assistance,” the statement details.
The U.S. authorities said that they will continue to “monitor and evaluate the humanitarian needs” of Cubans in coordination with organizations and the international community. “We will continue to look for ways to provide significant support to the people of Cuba, in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations.”
At the beginning of October, it became known that Cuba had sent an urgent request for help to Joe Biden’s Administration, after the crisis caused by Ian, according to an article published in The Wall Street Journal. continue reading
At that time, after an exchange of mail between the two governments, Havana had not asked for a specific amount of money, so Washington was still evaluating the extent of the damage, although a formal request had not been received from the Island.
Within a few hours of the article being published in the U.S. newspaper, the Cuban government confirmed that it maintained contact with the United States regarding the material damage suffered by Hurricane Ian.
“The Governments of Cuba and the United States have exchanged information about the amount of damage and the regrettable losses caused by Hurricane Ian in both countries,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said on the social network Twitter.
Hurricane Ian crossed the western end of Cuba from south to north on September 27, with heavy rains and winds of up to 125 miles per hour, leaving five dead and heavy material damage.
For reasons not fully clarified, the passage of the hurricane generated a complete blackout on the Island, damage to 200,000 homes and a serious impact on crops and infrastructure.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In Last Tunas, a crowd, which included older people and children, faced off with authorities Monday night. (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Havana, October 18, 2022–A total of 23 people remain in detention in Cuba for participating in the latest cazerolazos — protests featuring banging on pots and pans. According to estimates Justicia 11J on Tuesday, since September 29th 52 people have been arrested for protesting, primarily for the restoration of electricity during the scheduled power outages.
Since these demonstrations began, on June 14th, the number of detainees totaled 152; along with those of July 11th 2021, they reach “at least” 1,753 (counting those who have been released), said the justice organization.
Justicia 11J highlighted the cases of Ovidio Martín Luna, Milena González Martín and Sulaine Almenares Videau, arrested on Monday for protesting on Sunday night in the neighborhood of Vista Hermosa, in Santiago de Cuba.
Almenarez Videaux, an activist member of Cuba’s Patriotic Union (Unpacu) and mother of two children, aged six and three years, and a nine-month-old baby, was taken to a detention center with them, according to claims made by several activists on social media. continue reading
In Aguada de Pasajeros (Cienfuegos province), Justicia 11J also underscored that Carlos Rolando Gómez Rosell, arrested for demonstrating on October 12th, has been beaten by police and is on a hunger strike. According to his wife, whom the organization cites, “he is being investigated for possession of three pounds of meat from his own horse.”
Despite the repression, Cubans continue rebelling against the government. On Monday it was, for the second consecutive night, in Las Tunas, which until now had been one of the provinces least likely to protest.
In a video shared on social media, one can hear, in sheer darkness, the sounds of screams and banging on pots. The protest occurred, according to users, in the neighborhood of Buena Vista. In another, a crowd, which included older people and children, faced off verbally with authorities, to whom they complained for lack of power. “How long will they go on talking?” asked a resident who stated, “We’re demanding our rights — electricity, food, water.”
Through October 15th, Proyecto Inventario, an independent organization, had documented 200 protests since July 14th, when the daily blackouts began.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Liván Arronte, recently dismissed as Minister of Energy and Mines, in an appearance on the Mesa Redonda [Roundtable] TV program. (Screen capture) 14ymedio, Havana, 17 October 2022 — The Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz, and the director of the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE), Jorge Armando Cepero Hernández, were dismissed from their respective positions this Monday. Without mentioning the names of those dismissed, in a brief note, Cubadebate reported that Vicente de la O Levy will be the new minister, and Alfredo López Valdés, the new director of the UNE.
“Both were general directors of the Electric Union at other times. Likewise, Alfredo López Valdés previously held the position of Minister of Energy and Mines, and of Industries,” the text states.
These dismissals make Cubans fear that the promised solution to energy shortages will not occur in December.
The deposed Arronte, who had been in office since 2019, had become in recent months a media figure, in the middle of the unprecedented energy crisis that the country suffers, being the main figure of authority who went out to give explanations about the daily scheduled blackouts that the population suffers, for example in programs such as Mesa Redonda.
It should be noted that this ministry is under the orders of Deputy Prime Minister Ramiro Valdés. continue reading
The UNE had predicted, again, a huge energy deficit, which on Monday would cause a “simultaneous blackout” of 41% of the service. According to his daily statement, the electricity generation capacity at peak time will be 1,941 megawatts (MW) for a maximum demand of 3,200 MW, and the deficit would be 1,259 MW, 65% of the maximum generation capacity. However, the “allocation” — which will be disconnected — the state estimates, will be more: 1,329 MW.
There are 11 nonfunctional thermoelectric units. Last Friday, less than 24 hours after it was connected, Antonio Guiteras left the system again, in Matanzas.
On October 7, the organization Justice 11J published an update on the detainees, based on the statements of their relatives and other information. According to the NGO, they will be prosecuted for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and resistance, although it cannot accurately provide the number of people imprisoned, which is around 30 according to several organizations.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Medications that are about to expire have been made available for sale by the government. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yankiel Gutierrez Faife, Camajuani, 16 October 2022 — On Friday a crowd of locals gathered in front of an old mansion that now serves as a pharmacy. As if by magic, the store shelves were filled with medicines that have not been seen for months. The sudden abundance generated suspicion. Where did all these drugs come from?
An employee provided a simple answer: “They’re about to expire.” The scene was repeated in nearby towns such as Taguayabon as well as municipalities such as Remedio and Santa Clara. The outrage of those waiting in line quickly grew.
Why did public health officials wait so long to provide these drugs? What warehouse were they being stored in and why are they about to expire. Frantic over having to process and sell the medications, pharmacies in the province are trying to make them available to customers as quickly as they can.
Outside the pharmacies, people openly express their frustrations. “Bad management, like everything else,” says Ramon, one of the residents, “I don’t understand why there was nothing before and now it’s here in record time. It’s because they had it in storage.” continue reading
Miguel, another customer, suspects the drugs came from the National State Reserve Warehouse, where the government stockpiles medications to deal with critical shortages. “I asked the employees and even they don’t know where they came from,” he says. “All that matters to them is that they sell them before they expire.”
“They should lower the price,” argues another customer, who observes that Cubans will consume any medication, even if it is out-of-date, as long as it does not “look funny,” is not off-color and is not visibly disintegrating.
“Yesterday, my sister-in-law told me that medicines would be available,” says Yudit. “So today I got up early to see if I could get paracetamol, loratadine, diazepam and chlordiazepoxide. But it was no use. I was only able to get some paracetamol tablets, for 3.40 pesos, and loratadine, which cost me 8.60.”
Unsurprisingly, the situation is not unique to Villa Clara. As soon as word got out, lines also formed in front of the pharmacies in Sancti Spiritus and Havana.
“It’s not that they’ve expired; it’s that they’re about to expire,” explains Juan, an allergy sufferer from Sancti Spiritus “But a lot of drugs are still not available. I still can’t buy ketotifen, montelukast or any other antihistamine.”
Maria Eugenia’s hands are sweaty and her eyes dart from side to side. For months the 65-year-old Havana resident has been unable to get the medications a doctor prescribed for her persistent anxiety, from which she has suffered since her husband died several years ago and her son emigrated, leaving her alone on the island.
“I can’t go without chlordiazepoxide,” she says. “At the pharmacy where I am supposed to get it, several of us are in the same situation. Our nerves are shot and we can’t get the medication we need.”
Recently, Maria Eugenia waited in line from midnight till the pharmacy in Central Havana, where she has to buy the medication she urgently needs, opened the next morning. “They said they had to set aside some of the nerve pills for people who have a heart disease. But it was a lie.”
By dawn, she says, “It looked like a line of crazies because you could clearly see the huge anxiety on all our faces. But when the pharmacy opened, the employees told us they had not received any of our medications.
Frustrated and desperate, Maria Eugenia turned to the black market, where she paid 350 pesos for twenty chlordiazepoxide tablets. “They were made in Cuba so they must have been stolen from some store or pharmacy,” she speculates. She noted that the expiration date on the bottle was October 2022.
“I am going to go ahead and take them because I don’t have any other option,” she says. I don’t have the luxury of waiting to find some other tablets that aren’t about to expire and I cannot get by without this medication. I go out every day knowing I have a few pills in my bag. Just knowing that calms my anxiety.
Many Cubans cope by anticipating these situations: “You have to pester the doctor and ask for your prescriptions every month. You never know when the medicines are going to arrive and you have to be prepared.”
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Rescuers and police in front of the building which partially collapsed in Old Havana. (EFE/Felipe Borrego)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 17 October 2022 – A child died and two women and another child were injured in the latest building collapse in Old Havana on Monday. The four were trapped beneath the roof, which had fallen down onto them in the early hours of the morning in their home on Calle Sol, between Egido and Villegas.
A crowd which had gathered in front of the police cordon applauded, just after 9.30 am, as the emergency services rescued the girl alive, but hours later the People’s Assembly of Old Havana reported her death. “We regret the loss of life of the minor under 5 years old named Ismary Orozco Castellanos, as a result of the collapse that occurred this morning in building No. 466 in Old Havana,” read the official statement. The woman and her four year-old son had been rescued earlier and taken to hospital.
“I was saying only yesterday, that roof is going to come down, that roof is going to come down”, one neighbour tells this newspaper, adding that he had warned the residents but that they hadn’t done anything. At the same time, he explains, recreating the scene, “This roof only has three wooden joists, that’s all, and there’s one missing here, and here, and here”.
Although many families are aware that they live in collapsing homes, they avoid evacuating for fear of their belongings being stolen or other people occupying their property.
Another neighbour adds that they’d been complaining for a long time about the dangerous state of the the building but that no one had taken any notice of them. “They’re all here today, the ones we complained to. They come along now, but they never did before“, she grumbles. continue reading
Yet another neighbour agrees that the building had been “bad” for a long time, and that she’d managed to “sort out another property” to move to, but for other people there was no alternative.
In addition, the neighbors complained to the Spanish news agency Efe that the cistern that supplies water to the building has been reported for contamination for more than a month to Public Health and the state company Aguas de La Habana, and “no one has come here to solve anything”.
The collapse happened in Calle Sol, between Egido and Villegas in Old Havana. (14ymedio)
Very close to where this building collapse occurred, in Calle Luz between Curazao and Egido, a stairway fell down last June and injured an elderly man who remained trapped until the fire service arrived.
At the beginning of this month, due to the intense rain that affected the west of the country, there were 60 reported building collapses in Havana, one of which caused the deaths of two people.
Central Havana suffers just as many building collapses, or partial collapses, as Old Havana does, but the authorities, who invest huge amounts of money in the construction of luxury hotels, do nothing to address the problem in this zone, where precarious housing conditions threaten the lives of hundreds of families.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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The group of Cubans left immigration headquarters and are already with their relatives, a Havana professor confirmed. (Facebook/V Sorjes Martín)
14ymedio, Havana, 17 October 2022 — A group of 20 Cubans who left the Island through the port of Cojímar (Havana) arrived in the United States, according to a post shared this Monday on Facebook by Professor V. Sorjes Martín. “Dream fulfilled,” said this habanero, who has studied engineering and law.
“We all left immigration today for our family homes,” said Sorjes Martín, who had “maintained a low profile” with some friends due to the imminent escape that was being planned.
Sorjes Martín, who among many other sacrifices had to sell his house to make the trip, said in a video that the crossing took 10 and a half hours, and there were times when the crew was “stressed. We had to go around three or four boats and finally a coastguard boat that fell behind and couldn’t catch us.”
The current situation in Cuba “with a tremendous amount of political problems,” commented Sorjes Martín, motivated this group to “flee.” The professor, who shared several images in which four children and a dog are observed, said: “Here everyone is family.”
On the speedboat, the habanero reported that the U.S. authorities will determine his fate. continue reading
So far in October, 205 Cubans have managed to make landfall in Florida, most on rustic rafts, although two of them arrived on October 12 on windsurfing boards. The latter “will be subjected to a deportation procedure,” warned the head of the Border Patrol of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar.
Just as the arrival of Cuban balseros [rafters] doesn’t stop, neither do the deportations, and the American Coast Guard repatriated 80 Cubans between Saturday and Sunday. The migrants were returned to the Island aboard the ships WilliamFlores and PaulClark.
The repatriated balseros are part of six interceptions made in the vicinity of Key West, the Tavernier Creek sports fishing port, Marathon and Sugar Loaf.
The Coast Guard non-commissioned officer, Nicole Groll, urged Cubans to choose a safe and legal path to get to the U.S. “so that families don’t wonder where their loved ones are when they choose to migrate illegally.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A Cuban farmer makes extra money turning the invasive marabou weed into charcoal for export. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, October 16, 2022 — When a government ignores economic problems, it does so for two reasons. Either because of incompetence, or because there are substantive reasons that prevent the adoption of appropriate measures to meet social demands. Or it can happen as in communist Cuba, where the two converge. For example, incompetence and ideological pressure are the factors that condition the terrible results of Cuban agriculture, with declines in GDP in the second half of the year that are above the average of the economy as a whole.
In other words, neither the “63 measures” planned for agriculture, nor the “94 of sugar” have served to change the trend of the two fundamental sectors of the Cuban economy. And, as always, in these cases, the state press directs its accusations to the U.S. blockade, holding it responsible for alleged millions of losses in agriculture, which are added, of course, to those of the other sectors.
Strangely enough, Cubans have experienced this sequence of events since the earliest times of Fidel Castro. Blaming the blockade has always been present, and now, when people can’t take it anymore, Cuban communists shamelessly unleash the embargo/blockade doberman again. The point is that this excuse is no longer believed by anyone in Cuba or in the rest of the world.
In an amazing way, the anti-blockade argument changes over time. Interestingly, the regime now says that “the blockade is the main obstacle to the implementation of the 2030 Development Agenda.” A false complaint, which aims to reach the United Nations forums where these issues are addressed, like the Summit on Sustainable Development Goals, held in the context of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly two years ago, where such a statement still has force.
Foreign Minister Rodríguez, increasingly irrelevant in international forums, seeing that friends are fewer and fewer, pulls this new story of the embargo/blockade and the 2030 agenda out of a hat. If this aptitude for defining insubstantial paradigms were applied to food production, maybe things would go another way.
Cuban communists, seeing themselves isolated at the international level, have returned to the charge against the impact of the economic, commercial and financial blockade, insisting that it slows the country’s economy and considerably affects development in all sectors. They have now set their sights on agricultural production. And to that end, they have unloaded again a numerical figure that says the losses due to the blockade amounted to 270 million, 852 million, and 548 million dollars between August 2021 and February 2022, according to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture. Almost nothing. continue reading
Where does that absurd figure come from? Specifically, it was the director of International Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture, Orlando Díaz Rodríguez, who was in charge of making it known that the estimate, “summarizes the income not received by exports of goods and services, losses due to geographical relocation of trade, as well as from effects on production and services, monetary and financial ones and technological limitations.” Of course, optimistically, no one can beat them.
Income not received from exports is child’s play. The first thing would be to see if those exports have a demand or interest in the U.S., and they don’t seem to. The concept of “geographical relocation of trade” follows the same trend as always but is false. All countries look for the necessary goods and services wherever they are, and then transport them. As for the “allocations,” this is already known. The internal blockade of the regime is much more negative and has been so for 63 years.
The tireless Cuban communists accuse the 243 coercive measures adopted by the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021), still in force with the Biden administration, and say that “they put the brakes on the business system, which includes cooperatives and individual producers, making it impossible to position their products in the North American market.” False. There is nothing in the dispute that prevents independent producers from placing their sales in the U.S. market. The problem is the same as always: is there demand for those products? Cuban communists talk about tobacco, fresh fruit, honey and charcoal as the products affected by the embargo, but could more of them even be produced? We doubt it.
According to the communist leaders, Americans have been deprived of these Cuban products and cannot purchase them because of the blockade. In particular, in the health sector, he alluded to Vidatox-30 CH, a homeopathic drug developed by Labiofam used as a complementary therapy for the treatment of cancer, which, due to the “criminal policy,” cannot be commercialized in the northern nation. As if the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. didn’t have similar drugs, validated by the World Health Organization.
Not satisfied with everything said, there was also talk of the interest of entrepreneurs, producers and other “representatives of the agricultural sector in denouncing the blockade, as well as the measures that intensify it, and they’ve expressed their interest in cooperation, investment and commercialization with the Island.”
Do you know when they’re going to collect if they sell on credit to Cuba? The U.S. chicken producers and farmers already market their products under the current conditions [i.e. payment in cash at time of sale]. What reason is there to sell if they can’t collect until later? In addition, agriculture in Cuba needs to import animal feed, inputs, technologies and raw materials for the sake of food production for the people. What are they going to pay for it with?
It’s the same old song. The embargo is guilty of everything. They fall into the most absolute ridiculousness. More opportunities will come for accusing the embargo/blockade of all the ills of the Cuban economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 17 October 2022 — When Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning Gil decided, unilaterally, two months ago, to create an exchange rate of 1×120 for the dollar relative to the peso in an attempt to counteract the trend in the informal market, it was soon observed that the limits imposed on the availability of currencies, the geographical scope and access to purchase, limited to natural persons, would cause more problems than solutions, since this process eliminated the basic principle of convertibility of the foreign exchange market.
The minister’s decision, far from redirecting the situation, alerted the informal market, which began an unprecedented escalation of the dollar to around 200 pesos. After all the failures, the authorities now intend to redirect the situation and position the foreign exchange market between the national currency and the foreign currencies, preventing the Cuban economy from being dollarized. It won’t be easy. A very valuable amount of time has been lost, and now the cost of the adjustment will be higher.
The minister is determined to control all the currencies that enter the economy to channel them into the state coffers, and as they are fewer and fewer, decisions are increasingly risky. We remember that the stores that only accept payment in MLC (freely convertible currency) were adopted as a temporary and necessary solution to maintain socialism, and they are still there after more than two years. Everything that is proposed for a while ends up becoming permanent. And that’s how it goes.
On the other hand, there is concern among Cubans about what may happen with the peso exchange rate in the coming months. Those who have stocks in this currency don’t know whether to change now, at 190-200 per dollar, or to wait and see. The uncertainty is great, because the functioning of the informal market deviates from the conventional schemes that explain the trends in the value of currencies, and there is no anchor for the analysis. In any case, it doesn’t seem that the leaders are going to change the conditions of the environment that have led to this situation, so things will continue in the same way. continue reading
So, in the face of the current exchange rate crisis of the peso, which the authorities are unable to reverse, there are messages in the official press regarding the fact that the Cuban peso should be the center of the financial system, including an inclusive price system for all economic actors and a market that works with a certain level of wholesale and retail offers. So, why don’t they succeed?
The foreign exchange market is considered one of the essential elements in the recovery of the convertibility of the national currency, but it’s much more than a nominal exchange of currencies. In fact, the official thesis points out that its absence was a great obstacle to the full use of productive capacities, limiting the country’s economic growth. The foreign exchange market is a reflection of other balances or imbalances that affect the relative value of the currencies. It’s not an isolated entity.
The directors of the Central Bank of Cuba rightly consider that the foreign exchange market involves the possibility of connecting the national currency with foreign currencies, through a well-founded exchange rate and that, in addition, this should be reflected in practice, in the relations that are established between economic agents, both state and private. The inconvertibility that occurred after the approval of the rate of 1×24 meant the emergence of alternative mechanisms to access foreign currencies, such as the dollarization of the economy in informal markets. The leaders want to set limits on this, since it opposes the objective of increasing the purchasing capacity of the national currency.
From this perspective, the official position assumes that the non-convertibility of the currency generates imbalances, because economic actors cannot meet their currency needs with the national currency at the current official exchange rate. When this process is carried out in a disorderly manner, it puts the economy in a complex situation, and an example of this is the current scenario of the dollarization and development of the informal market, which the authorities want to stop.
On this point, the official vision emphasizes the need to correct the sources of imbalance that gravitate on the foreign exchange market, mainly those associated with large national currency issues to support the fiscal deficit. So, they suggest that through an orderly and coherent intervention, using the economic policy instruments that the state has as a regulatory body, a foreign exchange market can be implemented that responds to the purposes of convertibility.
The directors conclude that macroeconomic stability is essential to be able to grow, and that growth is what allows the expansion of productive capacity, which enables the economic development of the country, and in that development lies the possibility of building socialism. To achieve this objective, a set of structural transformations that lead to the full convertibility of the national currency must be implemented on the fly. The question is the same as always: what structural transformations?
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A line outside a currency exchange (Cadeca) in Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 17 October 2022 — The official voice of the party has finally spoken. Like Don Rafael del Junco in that radio serial of the great Félix B. Caignet that paralyzed the country for a long time, the official state newspaper Granma talked about the foreign exchange market in order to blame the informal market and inflation for everything bad. And it has done so with arguments that are more political than technical, with evidence that is more propaganda than scientific. Let’s take a look. What it has always done is nothing more and nothing less than what we could expect.
According to Granma’s official analysis, “in the nation’s current conditions, it’s essential to capture a greater number of currencies, formalizing their entry into the financial system, stabilizing the exchange rate and making it the only one, for both natural and legal persons.” [A ’natural person’ is an individual human being, while a ’legal person’ can be an entity.]
Wrong. A greater influx of foreign exchange doesn’t guarantee control of the financial system, nor will exchange rate stability be achieved. So what does Granma want? Let no one be mistaken: to fill the state coffers and then allocate these funds to the regime’s objectives, which, as we know, have little to do with ordinary Cubans.
This idea was what led Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning Gil two months ago, to improvise a new exchange rate for the purchase of foreign exchange by the State (1 USD per 120 CUP), as he said at that time, to establish an exchange market in the country aimed at “increasing foreign exchange income and gradually advancing in the recovery of the economy.” This is the first thing, of course. The second thing has already been seen. Quarterly GDP growth fell from 10.7% in the first quarter to 1.7% in the second, a full-fledged collapse of the economy, dragged down by the terrible results in agriculture, sugar and manufacturing. continue reading
The communists cannot understand, under such conditions, how in a very short time the official exchange rate collapsed compared to the informal market, which at one point reached 200 Cuban pesos/US dollar. There were many reasons for the failure, but it was clear that the simple sale of foreign exchange, limited in amount and only for natural persons, was not going to go very far, as in fact happened.
It is useless for Granma to launch all kinds of attacks against the informal market, which they describe as a “crooked and illegal” business. Although Granma doesn’t recognize it, the informal market has been the winner of this whole process, and unless the State represses or eliminates it, it will continue to be so. Basically because this market, unlike the state of Minister Gil, provides its services to the population without limits, regulations or ties. Granma says, belittling the agents of the informal market, that “it is the only exchange service that is now profitable and open at midnight outside the CADECA [the state exchange service], attending to the line and then selling places in line at 1,000 or 2,000 CUP, or even at dollars.”
“They started shouting ‘take the flag away from him!’ and ‘let’s kill him!'”, says Pons, who had to dodge the punches and did not attack anyone. (Navarre Television)
14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2022 — Lázaro Luis Pons Pérez, a Cuban who has lived in Navarra for ten years, took to the streets of Pamplona on October 12 with the Spanish flag draped around his shoulders.
In the center of the city, a group of left-wing Basque nationalists, or abertzales, protested against the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Day. When they saw Pons with the Spanish flag, they began to insult him: “N__, go back to your country, you can’t be here: this isn’t Spain.” Pons remained firm and serene.
“I didn’t go out to provoke anyone,” says the man, interviewed by 14ymedio. “Above all, I am Cuban,” he clarified over the phone, “but I have the right to walk the streets with the flag of this country, which I also feel I’m a part of.”
The abertzales tried to snatch the flag from him to burn it, since one of the postulates of their ideology is independence from Spain. One of them approached Pons and spit at him. He spat back and then they tried to hit him.
“They started yelling ‘take the flag away from him!’ and ‘let’s kill him!’, says Pons, who had to dodge the punches and did not attack any of them. The nationalists did not dare to confront him directly, they cornered him in a group and jumped close to him without being able to snatch his flag.
At the same time, one of the demonstrators approached a Navarra Television cameraman, who was recording the scene, and broke his camera. The video, however, was able to be broadcast on the local network. continue reading
One of the ‘abertzales’ approached him and spit at him. He spat back and then they tried to hit him. (Navarre Television)
“I know them,” he says, “it’s not the first time I’ve seen them.” Pons is the founder of the Cuban Association in Navarra (Acuna) and it is common for nationalists to try to sabotage their demonstrations and make their appearance shouting slogans in favor of the Revolution, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
“The best thing in the world is respect,” he points out, “In this country, everyone chooses their own ideology. There is freedom to think and act for oneself. I respect them, even if I don’t agree with them and even if, to the contrary, they are true instigators.”
The assailants dispersed and Pons returned to his house to avoid another confrontation. “If nothing in Cuba prevented me from saying ‘Down with Fidel!’ Now I’m not going to shut up because of them,” he assures.
For Pons, celebrating Columbus Day is remembering Cuba’s links with the country that welcomed him in exile. In addition, the date also evokes, due to its proximity to Cuban Independence Day, the date Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his slaves and invited them to fight for freedom.
“It is the same freedom that I have now achieved in Spain,” says the man, who worked as a teacher at the School of Sports Initiation (EIDE) and at the Higher Institute of Advanced Athletic Training (ESPA) in Villa Clara.
“When the 11J protests took place, a group of Cubans met spontaneously in Pamplona. Ever since that moment we knew we should create an association”
He is still capable of reciting Santa Clara streets and locating his old neighborhood accurately, near Cardiocentro, not far from Parque Vidal.
He emigrated thanks to his marriage to a Spanish citizen with whom he fell in love in Cuba. “My wife supports me and defends our cause. She is Spanish and Navarrese, but she is also very Cuban,” he says.
“When the 11J protests took place, a group of Cubans met spontaneously in Pamplona. Many journalists interviewed us about what was happening in Cuba. Ever since that moment, we knew we had to create an association.”
This is how Acuna was born, of which Pons turned out to be vice president. Its objectives are to help Cuban political prisoners with food, money and whatever can be sent to their families. In addition, they welcome recent emigrants to look for jobs, food and lodging in Navarra.
Cubans state that violence only begets more violent actions, but that it may be Cuba’s only alternative at this point. “You have to fight in the streets,” he says, “and unfortunately, it won’t be peaceful. The streets are the only way: until they hand over power.”
The racist and xenophobic aggression of the Basque nationalists has given more visibility to exile from the Island. (Navarra Television)
Concerned about the infiltration of Cuban State Security agents in Spain, Pons also denounces that many companies launder money from the Island’s dictatorship in Europe. “There is a lot of complicity: those spies would never have entered en masse if it weren’t for the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez,” he says.
Cuban diplomacy promotes reactions and attacks such as that of the abertzales – frequently extolled by the Cuban official press – in Pamplona, says Pons. “When we managed to get the Navarra government to cancel some aid it had for the regime, the consul himself told me to forget about going to Cuba.”
“Why should I want to go?” says Pons, whose mother died last year and who has little family left in Santa Clara. “When I went to see her, three years ago, I visited many friends. They all had resigned and sad faces. I came back and told my wife: I’m not going anymore.”
Pons’s work does not stop. The racist and xenophobic aggression of the Basque nationalists has given more visibility to exiles from Cuba and demonstrates, for mankind, the intolerance that characterizes the Spanish radical left: the same one that finances the Cuban regime with public funds.
There is another sector: the one that has a romantic vision of the Revolution. “One has to explain history in detail to those, because they think that Cubans are protesting against the ‘blockade’.”
“We are alone,” laments Pons, commenting on the complicity of many governments with the Cuban regime. “I always tell my colleagues in Cuba not to expect anything from the European Union or the United States, that they could have supported Cuban democracy a long time ago and they don’t because they just don’t feel like it.”
“It is important to clarify that I have no ties to any political party here or anywhere. My association is one: Acuna,” he says, since several political representatives have contacted him since October 12 asking about him and asking what they can do for Cuba.
“I don’t want anything,” he says, “only that those who do it, stop sending money to Díaz-Canel. We alone have to walk the path to freedom.”
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A carton of eggs on the underground market can go for as much as 1,700 pesos, half the monthly salary of a minimum wage worker. (14ymedio).sdsd
14ymedio, Havana, October 14, 2022 — Many readers were surprised when, just a month ago, Cuba’s official media outlets were suggesting people turn to quail eggs as an effective, economical and nutritional alternative to chicken. Though eggs have been in noticeably short supply in stores for months, no one knew just how scarce they were until Invasor, a newspaper in Ciego de Avila province, published an article on Friday.
“The country needs about six million eggs a day to meet its basic needs and we are only getting two or three,” says Katia Leyda Martinez Arnaez, director of the province’s Poultry Company.
The article describes a dire situation. In Ciego de Avila, one of Cuba’s top three poultry-producing provinces, more than half its hens are not laying eggs. More specifically, only 43% of hens lay one egg a day while 57% lay none. Although the data is sobering, the article highlights the fact that it is almost a miracle the hens are laying any eggs at all.
“Considering that chickens go several days without food; that those which do get fed subsist on a protein mixture which is in very short supply; that some go without water for extended periods of time due power outages; that some are not exposed to light long enough to stimulate egg production; that they are fed at irregular hours due to delays in feed delivery; that enfeebled hens remain on the production line fourteen months longer than proscribed; then the fact that 43 out of every 100 hens manage to overcome this stress and lay an egg may sound like encouraging news,” the article states. continue reading
The company admits that, although it managed to produce 126 million eggs one year, it had set a goal of 100 million by 2022. By the end of September, however, it had only delivered 60 million. In the words of its director, “It’s going to be our worst year ever, without a doubt.”
According to the head of production, the eggs slated for delivery in September did not arrive in Ciego de Avila until the 29th. This follows several months in which output was reduced, so consumers cannot expect to see additional supplies. The eggs are distributed in several provinces where the situation is even worse. For example, Holguin and Santiago did not see August’s delivery until September 7.
The article also notes that the problem of late deliveries has been going on for five months, with April and May’s supplies not arriving in Guantanamo until June.
Ciego de Avila is not an isolated case. Martinez Aranez says the situation in Santiago de Cuba is even worse due to the feed shortage: “It’s difficult to import raw materials, produce the feed and transport it.” Only 10% of the hens in the province are laying eggs on a daily basis.
The company director explains that getting the feed to where it needs to be is one of the issues. Normally, it starts out in Cienfuegos but, in a effort to cut costs, it now only goes as far as Santiago. However, the situation has gotten even worse because the cost of fuel is raising the price of an egg, which officials increased from two pesos to almost three.
“As a result, the company has not only failed to turn a profit by trying to feed its birds at any cost, it has incurred eight million in losses,” says the director.
To lessen the blow to the poultry industry, efforts are now being made to augment the supply with the so-called Creole egg, a locally produced commodity, raised by individuals, which would not have to be shipped to other provinces. The goal of the plan, which would not be put in place until next year, would be to reduce losses by bringing these eggs to market. This would first involve distributing hens to rural areas, though it is not yet clear how this would be done.
Eggs on the island are produced principally by individual families for their own consumption, with chickens traditionally being fed kitchen scraps. But with the country in a deep economic crisis, this has become much less feasible.
To cope, some families turn to the informal market, where a carton of thirty eggs can go for as much as 1,700 pesos, half the monthly salary of a minimum-wage worker.
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Pork has become more than 20% more expensive in the last year. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Madrid, 14 October 2022 — Inflation in Cuba reached its ceiling in April this year, but prices don’t stop rising compared to 2021. The monthly increase in consumer prices, 2.33%, continued in August but is more moderate than in July (3.35%) and June (2.83%), and much lower than in April and May, when it was 3.54% and 3.55% respectively.
However, far from taking a break, the year-on-year variation rises and already stands at 34.31%, compared to 32.32% last month. According to official data, prices have already risen by 20.01% so far this year.
Once again, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is pushed by the rise in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which increase by 2.74%. Although apparently the situation improves compared to last month, when they grew by 4.67%, the accumulated variation in the year is 30.89%, and compared to last year, Cubans are paying 54.19% more than in 2021 for these products, which are of primary importance.
In detail, lamb is the product that increased the most this month, with an increase of 5.04%. It’s followed, curiously, by garlic, with 3.81%, together with rice (which increases its price again by 2.74%), the only plant product that is more expensive in a prominent way. Pork, although the price increases again but discreetly (2.70% this month), accumulates a huge annual increase, with 20.53%, well above all the selected food indicators. continue reading
Restaurants and hotels are the sector that registers the highest increase this August, with 3.67%, and in annual and year-on-year terms, it’s the second area with the highest increase, with 27.72% in 2022, and 36.88% compared to last year.
Also in general terms, alcoholic beverages and tobacco are on the podium of products that push the rise of the CPI. This month they rose less, 1.85% (compared to 6% in July), but together since January they reached 21.60%, and the year-on-year variation is almost 40%.
One of the services that increased its prices the most this August, which is also essential for citizens, is transport. Prices increased by 2.43%, and although the year-on-year increase is not as high as those mentioned above, it costs Cubans 16.64% more to use transport than a year ago.
The transports that recorded the highest increases, possibly stimulated by the holiday period and fuel shortage, were interprovincial, especially taxis, with a monthly variation of 19.26% and other types (vans, trucks, etc.), with 13.18%.
The spectacular rise in culture and recreation is striking. Cubans who wish to attend a performance, concert or museum must pay up to 67.96% more than in 2021, despite the fact that in August the increase was only 0.95%.
In an intermediate sector of increases are furniture and household items, housing services, various goods, and services and education. All of them register increases of between 1.25% and 1.54%, with year-on-year increases of between 9.76% and 11.68%.
In the line are communications (0.03% monthly and 0.09% both accumulated and year-on-year) and health, which grows by 0.18% and accumulates 0.95% compared to the previous one. Finally, clothing and footwear increased this month by only 0.43%, although so far in 2022 the growth is 2.39% compared to the previous year’s 4.15%.
All in all, there is no section that doesn’t record increases, and Cubans continue to see how their salaries are increasingly serving them less. According to Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, “now 100 pesos are needed to buy food that cost 65 pesos in August 2021 (according to official data).”
In the black market, where most Cubans are supplied, the situation is much worse. American economist Steve Hanke, who creates balance sheets taking into account the parallel economy, pointed out on October 5 that the increase in the CPI at the end of September was approximately 208% year-on-year, with Cuba being the second country with the highest price increase in the world, after Venezuela and far ahead of Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The threat becomes more emphatic by addressing parents who “used” their minor children, for having neglected “their duties of protection.” (EFE/Yander Zamora)
14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2022 — On Friday, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Cuba issued a harsh warning against those who participated in the recent protests over the long blackouts after the passage of Hurricane Ian. In his statement, he said he was investigating the facts that “disturbed public order and citizen tranquillity.”
As already happened with July 11, 2021 (11J), the Prosecutor’s Office attributes to the demonstrators the “setting fire to facilities, the execution of acts of vandalism, the closure of public roads in order to prevent the movement of vehicles and people, attacks and offenses against officials and law enforcement agencies, and incitement to violence.”
The threat becomes more emphatic by addressing parents who “used” their minor children, whom the institution accuses of having neglected “their duties of protection, assistance, education and care towards them.”
The Prosecutor’s Office affirms that “they will receive the appropriate legal-criminal response.”
The statement doesn’t provide information on how many Cubans have been accused or imprisoned during the protests. On October 7, the organization Justice 11J published an update on detainees, based on the statements of their relatives and other information. continue reading
According to the NGO, they will be prosecuted for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and resistance, although it can’t accurately provide the number of people imprisoned, which is around thirty according to several organizations.
Justicia 11J offered to send families any audiovisual material or document that could be useful in the trials and claimed “the cooperation of civil society, the independent press and the accredited foreign press to visualize this injustice.”
This Wednesday, a neighbor of Bejucal, in the province of Mayabeque, told 14ymedio that during the protests that took place in that municipality on Monday night there was no police repression. However, the next day the parents were summoned to the schools for a meeting with the municipal prosecutors.
There they were warned that “the law covered them,” and they would serve two to seven years in prison if they allowed their minor children to participate in the protests. In addition, those who were over 16 years old would be sentenced to house arrest.
The new Criminal Code stipulates, in article 407, that it’s a crime “to induce a person under the age of eighteen to leave his home, miss school, reject the educational work inherent in the national education system or breach his duties related to respect and love for the Homeland.”
The sanction provides for “deprivation of freedom of six months or one year, or a fine of one hundred to three hundred assessments, or both,” and no longer than two to seven years in prison, as the Bejucal prosecutors threaten.
The passage of Hurricane Ian exacerbated the energy crisis in the island and sparked a new wave of protests against blackouts and shortages.
Some neighborhoods in Havana were out of power for up to six consecutive days after the hurricane. The blackouts lasted twelve hours in some parts of the country. The independent media ProyectoInventorio has recorded about a hundred in the last fifteen days from testimonies and videos disseminated on social networks.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The corner of Galiano and San Lázaro in Havana crumble away without restoration. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo Economist, 15 October 2022 — With the Cuban economy’s GDP in the second quarter practically stagnant, 1.7% compared to the same period of the previous year; with CPI inflation climbing to 32% also in a year-on-year rate in August; with the blackouts that don’t cease, the depreciation of the Cuban peso in informal markets, the difficulty with choosing a combination of economic policies that puts an end to the process of deterioration suffered by the Cuban economy, like sugar and manufacturing, and in the face of a new default on the tourism plan, the Cuban communist leaders remain unmoved, incapable of choosing a combination of economic policies that can put an end to the process of deterioration suffered by the Cuban economy.
The bad thing is that the worst is yet to come. While in other Latin American countries the pre-pandemic GDP levels have recovered, efforts are made by central banks to control the increase in inflation, and the depreciation of exchange rates and adjustment measures are adopted to face the new global competitive scenario, in Cuba no one does anything. The people live every day with the anguish of what to eat, and the regime remains stuck in its obsolete, failed communist model, unable to provide solutions to problems.
This is a differential element that Cubans who can travel abroad immediately see as soon as they get off the plane. Nobody understands what is happening on the Island, and therefore, the protests are increasing, the banging of pots and pans in protest is heard daily, louder and louder, and people have lost their fear of talking.
And instead of acting to eliminate daily anguish in the population, adopting economic policies that facilitate the take-off of productive forces, the regime is the same as always: take the doberman dogs for a walk and put fear into the population, from the rapid response brigades, to the Black Berets, through the prosecutor’s office. continue reading
Once again, the machinery of repression and communist control is put at the service of the single party to prevent Cubans from exercising their rights and freedoms. It’s the worst possible path, before the astonished gaze of the international community.
Consequence: fewer and fewer friends. The regime has looked for them and reacts clumsily and slowly, as when the other day it abstained, along with China, in the United Nations vote against Putin’s referendums in the conquered areas of Ukraine. With friends like that, anyone can go party.
With everything, the international allies of the Cuban communist regime are being diluted, and bank demands arise for unpaid debts, for which the communist organisation is not prepared and which will mean a real blow to the waterline when, perhaps soon, the sanctions are known.
What’s coming is not good, and it is necessary prepare. The friends of this aimless and futureless Cuba disappear. Unlike that honeymoon of Fidel Castro and Chávez that saved the regime after the Special Period, now no one appears willing to sustain an economic system without the capacity for indebtedness. There are only a few old communists left in Europe who are reluctant to recognize the failure of their dreams, if they ever had them, and when other countries visit the Island, their leaders are received by Raúl Castro, who, by the way, gives signs of life, as happened during the visit of of Vietnam’s minister of public security.
The Cuban economy is not here to play cat and mouse. Sooner rather than later it will have to face an internal and external agenda, for which the current leaders have no answer, nor do they want to offer one. Installed in defending the communist ideological model, they haven’t realized that the world is going any other way, and that any decision that has to be made, doesn’t allow for delay.
They should listen to their Vietnamese colleague. In five years that country overcame food famines and is now the number one exporter of rice in Asia, ahead of China. Cuban communists don’t want to believe it but reforms in property rights can change the direction of a country. Cuban communists don’t dare. For good reason.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 18 October 2022 — A coalition of opposition groups from Cuba has expressed “solidarity” with Ukraine in an open letter to its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, rejecting their country’s support for Russia.
