A group of Cuban healthcare workers prior to their transfer to the Nayarit community of Santiago Ixcuintla. (Municipal DIF)
14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 9 August 2022 — Finally, 641 Cuban doctors will be hired by the Mexican government to fill vacancies in precarious areas. The director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, indicated that these healthcare workers will be integrated into the Health Plan for Well-being and that “115 are already working in the states of Colima and Nayarit.”
A source from the Institute of Health for Welfare (Insabi), who withheld their name, confirmed to 14ymedio that the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, SA, will be “responsible for selecting the group of Cuban specialists and the salary issue.”
This Government of Havana company, created in 2011, has been accused internationally of human trafficking and forced labor. It is also pointed out as a business channel of the regime through which it operates, from sending personnel to international medical missions “paid” by the requesting countries, to offering treatments under the concept of health tourism. continue reading
The Insabi official affirmed that, by the end of 2022, it is expected that the 641 Cuban doctors will be giving consultations in the marginalized areas assigned to them. “The salaries are the same that Mexican doctors will receive, we are talking about 41,784 pesos (2,042 dollars) for a specialist and 35,237 pesos (1,722 dollars) for a general doctor.”
The money, 1,308,922 dollars per month, will be managed by Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, S.A. “The agreement specifies that this first stage will be for one year, with the possibility of extending the agreement.”
The information provided by the director of IMSS is different from that published on August 3 by the journalist Lourdes Mendoza. The Government of Mexico informed via transparency of the hiring of 610 Cuban doctors, for whom it would pay Cuba 1,177,300 euros per month (1,199,645).
The source consulted by this newspaper confirmed, as made known to the communicator, that the payments will be deposited in an account of Banco Internacional de Comercio, SA, with fiscal domicile at Inmobiliaria Monte Barreto, Jerusalem building, ground floor, 3rd avenue, and / 78 and 80, Miramar, Playa, Havana, Cuba.
The Government of Mexico promised to provide accommodation and food to the Cuban doctors. Of the 115 specialists who are already in Mexico, 40 are women and 75 men. It was also detailed that 15 are high-demand specialties, 31 internal medicine, 31 pediatrics, 24 general surgery, and seven gynecology and obstetrics.
Insabi authorities asked the Island for a list of Cuban doctors who are missing to join the medical mission. “It is required to advance in immigration paperwork and the revalidation of studies before the Ministry of Public Education, which was what stopped the integration of the team in Nayarit,” explained the official.
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The authorities do not know exactly the damage to the four storage tanks, of the eight at the Supertanker Base, which are on fire. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2022 — With the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base out of control since Friday, August 5, and a population distressed by the consequences of the incident and the additional blackouts that are coming, the Cuban government begins to imply that the United States is reluctant to send aid to the island.
Thus, Johana Tablada, deputy director general for the United States of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, in statements collected by Cubadebate, that the only thing that the northern neighbor has offered so far was “technical advice (talking by phone with our specialists)” and that the rest “does not depend on Cuba.”
However, according to US sources speaking to this newspaper, the problem is that Havana has not requested the aid through the proper diplomatic channels. In the same vein, Guena Rod, editor of the podcast 23yflagler.com, wrote on Facebook : “I am told that the US has been and is prepared to send everything available to extinguish the fire, but that due to the circumstances and regulations, they cannot send something that Cuba has not requested directly and through the appropriate channels. ”
Guena Rod asked his sources about the public call made by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, and they replied that “that helped, but that’s not how it works.”
Diplomacy experts explain to 14ymedio that although there is no international rule that requires establishing this type of relationship between countries in a certain way, the usual thing is to either send a letter signed by the president, prime minister or chancellor of a country, or issue a verbal note, and immediately establish a communication channel between the experts, not only for technical issues related to the problem, but also to smooth out any bureaucratic hurdle that the case entails, such as customs permits.
Such a communication by the Cuban government would, of course, entail formally admitting that it is asking the perpetual “enemy empire” for help, something it appears to be reluctant to do.
“The United States is carefully monitoring the situation in Matanzas and is waiting in case Cuba requires humanitarian or technical assistance,” the US embassy in Havana tweeted on Monday, insisting hours later on “supporting the people and organizations that are sending humanitarian assistance goods in response to the Matanzas fire. Our team is here to facilitate the export of humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people.” continue reading
Meanwhile, the statements of Alexander Ávalos Jorge, second chief of the National Extinction Department of the Cuban Fire Department, leave no doubt that the incident that has devastated the Matanzas Supertanker Base since Friday is still out of control and will continue to be so. “It is impossible to calculate,” he admits, when it will be controlled. “We could still be looking at days.”
In his press conference this Monday, the military official also acknowledged that the exact damage to both the third and fourth tanks affected by the fire, of the eight that make up the facility, close to the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest on the island, is unknown. That plant, which stopped working this Monday due to lack of fuel and water.
“The high temperatures have made work very difficult and it has been committing itself in a chain reaction and it has been practically impossible,” to stop the fires admitted Ávalos Jorge, on a day in which large explosions continued to occur, and were even broadcast live by the state television.
According to the official, the rest of the tanks, of 50,000 cubic meters each (50 million liters), are also “compromised.”
The latest explosions and the profusion of smoke at ground level frustrated the use of the hydraulic pump brought by Venezuela, publicized by the official press as “key” to containing the flames. In fact, according to CiberCuba with a source in a fire chief present at the scene of the incident, seven more people were injured this Monday, including several foreign technicians.
So far, the authorities have only reported one deceased, firefighter Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, 60, from Cienfuegos, whose body was recovered on Saturday.
The number of disappeared dropped from 16 to 14, after “two people appeared in hospitals,” said Susely Morfa, first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the PCC in Matanzas.
Despite all of them being called ’firefighters’ by government sources, many of them are 18 and 19-year-olds who were in military service, as testified by the desperate calls from family members on social networks.
A total of 24 wounded, out of a total of 125, are still hospitalized.
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“Turn on the electricity dickhead,” was the majority cry of the people, between the sounds of people banging on pots and pans and the blare of car and motorcycle horns. (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2022 — Nearly 200 people took to the streets on Tuesday morning in Alcides Pino, one of the 21 popular councils of city of Holguín, to protest the prolonged blackouts that the city is suffering.
“Turn on the electricity dickhead,” was the majority cry of the people, between the sounds of people banging on pots and pans and the blare of car and motorcycle horns, which accompanied the large demonstration, broadcast through social networks.
One of those recordings was made by a user who said: “It’s time to ask for freedom for the people of Cuba,” a cry that was answered with gestures of assent by the crowd. “Join us!” they yelled at bystanders watching the march.
Some of the protesters covered their faces with their own shirts, something that did not happen on July 11, 2021. Many of those imprisoned for those protests were arrested after being identified in the videos broadcast, that day and in the following days, on social networks. continue reading
Alcides Pino is one of the more than twenty places in Holguín that, as reported by the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE), would suffer a power cut between 12 at night and 6 in the morning and would only have electricity again from that time until 6 pm this Tuesday.
Since the first demonstrations against the blackouts, on July 15, in Los Palacios (Pinar del Río), protests have been added throughout the island, which is suffering an unprecedented energy crisis. On August 5, the same day that the gigantic fire started at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, hundreds of people demonstrated in Martí Park in Cienfuegos demanding an end to the blackouts, which in some areas last up to 14 hours.
Electricity shortages, however, are far from easing. The official media reported this Tuesday morning that the current deficit is forecast at 837 MW – the previous day, the forecast of a deficit of 991 MW ultimately turned out to be 1,246 MW. Meanwhile, the Antonio Guiteras plant, near the Matanzas fire, which was shut down this Monday due to lack of fuel and water, is now in the “start-up process,” and many other units are out of service. Using the usual euphemism in these cases, the authorities described the situation as “very complex.”
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Moment when the fire reaches the third tank of the Matanzas Supertanker Base, on Sunday night (@SantanaMiriel/Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 8 August 2022 — “The fire has taken on a greater magnitude; four tanks are already compromised,” Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Avalos of the Cuban Fire Department said at a press conference on Monday afternoon. The military said that they’re working to prevent the spread of fire to other areas of the Matanzas Supertanker Base, such as a nearby depot that contains reserves of other fuels. Extinguishing the fire can take days.
The fire that has been devouring the Supertanker Base since Friday worsened on Sunday night when it reached a third fuel tank after explosions in the second. The provincial governor himself, Mario Felipe Sabines Lorenzo, confirmed on Monday morning that the third tank collapsed.
Official media, as well as private users, broadcast live through social networks the moment when, before midnight, a gigantic flash emerged from the affected tanks and, instantly, a column of fire reached several tens of meters.
A few minutes earlier, announcer Humberto López, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, welcomed the fact that the first tank set on fire, as a result of lightning, according to the official version, was “without flames,” only emanating “white smoke.” That fire was extinguished when all the national crude oil contained in the tank was consumed.
The strategy to combat the flames, which included cooling the tanks with sea water with the help of Mexico and Venezuela, was unsuccessful.
This morning, Cubadebate reported, a Venezuelan rig arrived at the scene of the accident to pump a chemical agent over the fire. On Sunday, 35 firefighters, specialists and PDVSA technicians arrived from the Caribbean country with 20 tons of foam and other chemicals. Likewise, a Boeing 737 of the Mexican Air Force also landed on Sunday with 60 rescue soldiers and 16 technicians from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).
Sabines Lorenzo admitted that the fire was revived when the second tank collapsed and the fuel it contained was spilled. Neither authorities nor official journalists mentioned the word “explosion” at any time.
Nor have they made public the list of those who are missing in the accident. Only one body, that of firefighter Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, 60 years old and originally from Cienfuegos, was found and identified. The Government has already warned that the recovery of bodies will not begin until the flames are extinguished. continue reading
The Matanzas Supertanker Base, in Cuba, near the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, before the fire started on Friday. (Google Earth)
Despite all of them being called firefighters by government sources, many of them are 18- and 19-year-olds who were fulfilling their military service, as evidenced by the desperate calls of relatives on social networks.
Among the names of the missing are Fabián Naranjo Núñez, Osmany Blanco Sosa, Andy Amarilys Ramos, Adrián Rodríguez and Leo Alejandro Doval Pérez de Prado.
For its part, this Sunday, the Ministry of Public Health reported that there are 122 injured, of whom five remain in critical condition, three are in serious condition and 16 are receiving care. The others were discharged.
About 5,000 people have been evicted from villages near the industrial complex, which houses a total of eight tanks of 50,000 cubic meters (50 million liters) each. Stored in one of the eight tanks in the port of Matanzas, are 700,000 barrels of fuel oil were sent by Russia in June.
Russia is one of the countries which the Cuban government asked for help. “Cuba requested national assistance after the disaster that hit the country,” María Zajarova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement, adding that “the competent entities are in constant contact with the Cuban side to coordinate possible joint actions and provide the necessary assistance.”
The United States declared on Saturday that its law “authorizes U.S. entities and organizations to provide aid and response to disasters in Cuba” and that it is “in contact” with the Cuban authorities.
The smoke from the fire reaches not only the entire province of Matanzas, but also Pinar del Río and Havana, more than 100 kilometers away, where, since Friday, the air clearly smells of oil.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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We can’t even say that it was dawn in the city because the horizon was a dark smudge this morning. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 8 August 2022 — My sore throat woke me up. I went to the bathroom to gargle and looked out the window. An eerie glow was visible in the sky to the east. The fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Terminal, which started last Friday, is not something that can only be seen on television screens or through social networks. It is also here, in Havana, where a dark cloud, with the residue of the combustion, covers the city while people search for answers they cannot find.
My dog Chiqui raises her snout and hides her tail between her paws before hiding under the sofa. My mother calls me because she has to go outside and she doesn’t know what precautions to take. I tell her to wear a mask and to avoid at all costs getting wet in the rain if there is a downpour. In the background the official television report sounds, showing party leaders in a meeting in an air-conditioned room and some announcers who avoid precise words at all costs. “Explosion” or “alarm” is not said, nor are the words “danger” or “threat” pronounced.
They are two parallel realities. While in the microphones there is talk of overcoming and resisting, in my neighborhood people raise their eyes and fear. We can’t even say that it was dawn in the city because the horizon was a dark smudge this morning. My eyes burn and when a ray of sunlight manages to cross the clouds, a strange, almost ghostly golden line is projected on the floor of the balcony. My head throbs and I try to drink as much water as I can; yes, from that we have collected before the start of the fire, because the rains may have contaminated the reserves between Saturday and today.
I review my list of the most fragile people I know in this situation. The old lady on the corner who had to stand in line at dawn to buy bread, the friend who has a small plot of vegetables and fears that so much waste in the air will end up on that food, and if he can’t sell it he won’t have the money to support his family, and the mother with a son in the Military Service whose heart is in suspense because her boy could be sent to the disaster area, even if he lacks the experience and age to face the monster of fire.
I never believed that this system’s capacity for disaster could reach such a point, that mismanagement, violation of security protocols, laziness and voluntarism would take us to these limits. As an optimist by nature, I thought that even the official bungling had a limit or a circumscribed margin of effect, that they could not harm so many people in such a short time. I was wrong. This system is lethal. Its ineptitude kills and kills many. The sky of my city today is screaming those truths.
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The regime, fond of funerary statues and monuments, summoned José Villa Soberón to “capture the essence” of Leal in a sculpture. (Granma)
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 2 August 2022 — The legacy of Eusebio Leal, after two years of his death, fits in a couple of showcases and some tearful speech. An exhibition at the Elvira Cape Provincial Library, in Santiago de Cuba, was the greatest tribute to which the historian of Havana could aspire, far from the city to which he dedicated his life.
The Office of the Historian, dismantled in practice by the Armed Forces, exists as a symbolic skeleton to take advantage of the influence gained in life by Leal, although deprived of its business background.
Eusebio Leal died on July 31, 2020, and while the Government was preparing the funeral to embalm one of its most skilled managers, the military bureaucracy was grinding its teeth to reorganize the Office. A wave of dismissals, relocations, betrayals, departures from the country and petty battles for the favor of the new masters took hold of the most independent institution in Havana.
“They don’t have money for anything and the projects they used to have to help people in poverty were limited,” says a former worker at the Office. “It was the case of the department that was in charge of Humanitarian Affairs, from which the old people of Old Havana received help and donations. Now, they cannot even drink a glass of milk.”
The man points to Perla Rosales, deputy director of the Office and daughter of Division General Ulises Rosales del Toro, former Minister of Agriculture and one of Raúl Castro’s “incombustible” faithful, as responsible for the “surrender” to the military.
“I worked with them for many years, before the decline began,” he says. “The old directors retired or left the country, because they knew the misery that was coming: with Perla Rosales nothing can be ’resolved’, only she has ‘authorization’ to fill her pockets.” continue reading
“The residences for the elderly, very different from the asylums,” says the former worker. “They tell me that the employees, with a key to the apartments, usually enter and rob the old people with impunity. That did not happen with Leal.”
Havanans had become accustomed to a certain “activity” in the main arteries of the city. Stores, agencies, projects or museums promoted by the Office or by its economic arm, Habaguanex.
However, in 2016 the progressive dismantling of this corporation began, involving, according to rumors, an unprecedented embezzlement that the Government took advantage of to limit the functions of the Historian.
“It hurts us, yes, that at a time when perhaps the greatest respect for life circumstances is required, the mediocre ones who lack any work, and the poor in spirit, take advantage of it to hurt and harm the many who have worked over the years to save the heritage of a nation, whether in Cuba or any latitude on earth,” he added then.
Leal had forged a multinational network of influence, achieved almost exclusively personally, which was extremely useful for the Cuban government. Two years after his death, perhaps the most scandalous thing in the state management of the Office is not having already chosen a new Historian of Havana.
In addition to economic and hotel management, Eusebio Leal recovered the former academic splendor of the Office. Founded in 1938 by Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, the first historian of Havana, the original vocation of the Office was to rescue the capital’s heritage, both the intangible and the buildings in the historic center of the city.
The opening of the Colegio San Gerónimo in the same place where the old University of Havana was located; the financing of the Cuban Academy of Language and History; the foundation of a publishing house, Ediciones Boloña, and an extraordinary magazine, Opus Habana, formed a cultural ecosystem that Havana had lost with the cultural supremacy of the Revolution.
The “glorious ruins” that the Elvira Cape Provincial Library in Santiago de Cuba exhibits in display cases of terrible taste testify to this active editorial work.
The regime, fond of funerary statues and monuments, summoned José Villa Soberón to “capture the essence” of Leal in a sculpture. A few hours before the anniversary of his death, in the portals of the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, some tourists were taking photos next to the bronze figure, to which a prankster had placed, in his outstretched hand, a paper cup of granizada.
In an interview granted to the official journalist Randy Alonso, during the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, Eusebio Leal said: “I don’t aspire to anything, I don’t even aspire to what they call posterity.”
The Cuban Government, the Armed Forces and the cultural bureaucracy have enthusiastically complied with the wish of their historian.
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The authorities urged teleworking during the pandemic, but the option was never consolidated. (Prensa Latina)
14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2022 — The Ministry of Labor and Social Security of Cuba announced labor measures to reduce electricity consumption ranging from working remotely, in the field, vacations, adjustments in hours and job relocation.
The package of measures seeks to reduce energy consumption in the state sector and contemplates work interruption, although this “must be applied as a last option,” according to a press release from the Ministry.
The text indicates that, if a reduction in working hours is determined, the salary will be paid in correspondence with the real time worked, not one hundred percent.
It’s also specified that workers who cannot be relocated are entitled to a wage guarantee equivalent to one hundred percent of their basic daily salary for a period of one month, counted consecutively or not, within the year.
Cuba already adopted alternatives such as teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid contagion, although it wasn’t widely applied, and face-to-face attendance returned quickly.
The measure comes in the midst of the country’s energy crisis, with daily power cuts and scheduled power outages for the residential sector. Industries had already been progressively reducing their work time during peak hours, but nothing seems to be sufficient.
The blackouts were one of the causes of social discontent that provoked last year’s massive anti-government protests, as well as the minor but increasingly frequent demonstrations in recent days.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The column of smoke from the fire extends for kilometers over the island. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 August 2022 — Firefighter Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, 60, is the first identified fatality of the fire that still continues at the Matanzas Supertank Base. His body was found this Saturday, and he was one of the 17 missing.
The Cuban authorities have not reported information about the other 16 people. On Saturday, the Cuban Presidency reported that in addition to the injured, there is also a group of missing people, without specifying who they are. In a morning report, the EFE agency said that they are firefighters.
According to the newspaper Girón, family members who ask about people who aren’t on the lists of those injured or those who are still fighting the fire must go to the Velasco Hotel. “In the hotel there is a care center for the families of those who aren’t listed,” said psychologist Laura María Hernández, who is in charge of mental health specialists at the Faustino Pérez hospital.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health said on Sunday that 122 more people were injured. Of these, 24 remain hospitalized, including five in critical condition and three in serious condition, and the rest have been discharged. Also, 4,946 people have been evacuated from the area of the accident. continue reading
The official press released a photograph of the firefighter who died in the fire, Juan Carlos Santana Garrido. (Collage)
So far, the official press is reporting that firefighters continue with the work of extinguishing the fire, which started around 7:00 pm last Friday, allegedly due to the lightning strike on the structure of tank 52, which held national crude oil. The fire spread to a second tank of imported fuel oil and threatens to spread to a third.
The work of putting out the fire has been joined by delegations of experts from Mexico and Venezuela. The first of three Mexican planes arrived last night at the Juan Gualberto Gómez de Matanzas airport in an aircraft of the Mexican Air Force, a Boeing 737-700.
The Mexican delegation is composed of 60 members of the Armed Forces and 16 technicians from the state company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) “with experience in cooling this type of disaster,” said Cubadebate. The other two planes will transport chemicals and materials to fight the fire, according to statements by the Mexican ambassador to Cuba, Miguel Díaz Reynoso.
During the early hours of Sunday, an A340-600 aircraft also arrived from Venezuela, at Juan Gualberto Gómez de Varadero International Airport, with 35 firefighters, specialists and technicians from the state company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to help extinguish the flames.
In addition, the United States offered technical advice to help put out the fire. Yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Island, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, said that they were coordinating the aid. Nicaragua and Chile have also offered help, in addition to the European Union, which expressed its willingness to collaborate.
On Sunday morning, Matanzas Radio 26 reported that some trucks are already moving material to extinguish the fire. In addition, the ship María Cristina arrived in the bay of the province to evacuate 6,000 tons of fuel from the tanks.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The bridge belongs to a highway that connects the city of Santiago de Cuba with other municipalities such as Songo-La Maya and Segundo Frente. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Santiago de Cuba, 2 August 2022 — Graffiti with the phrase “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker],” in capital letters, appeared at dawn this Tuesday painted on the pavement of the bridge that connects the town of El Cristo with the national highway, in Santiago de Cuba, popularly known as El Elevado [The Elevated].
Shortly after the graffiti was discovered and with a strong police presence, the sign was covered up by local authorities. Several photos circulating on social networks show the state of the road after the white letters, outstanding for their large size, were censored.
The bridge belongs to a highway that connects the city of Santiago de Cuba with other municipalities such as Songo-La Maya and Segundo Frente. This last territory is frequently visited by high-ranking leaders of the country because the mausoleum of the martyrs of the Frank País García Second Eastern Front is located there, holding the remains of Vilma Espín, who was the wife of Raúl Castro, and those of the Spanish dancer Antonio Gades.
The mausoleum, located about 60 kilometers from Santiago de Cuba, also houses the remains of more than 200 combatants of the Rebel Army. In addition, the stone where Espín’s ashes were buried will also be the tomb of Raúl Castro.
Anti-government graffiti is not very common in Santiago de Cuba, but in recent years it has become more frequent in central areas of the city, such as the Sueño neighborhood, where it has also been censored with paint by leaders of political organizations or Ministry of the Interior agents
This Monday, the city experienced a day of protests due to the long blackouts, which were concentrated in the Luis Dagnes neighborhood, in the Altamira Popular Council. The event quickly led to the presence of several military and public order forces, while the demonstrators shouted various slogans against the Government and Fidel Castro, according to what a local resident told this newspaper. Among the phrases they chanted were: “Enough already,” “Turn on the power, pinga [dickhead]” and “Díaz-Canel, singao.“ continue reading
The signs of popular disagreement continued throughout the day, also in Havana. “We want [to see] Díaz-Canel,” demanded a group of people who cut off road traffic at a point on the national highway near the José Martí airport. The demonstrators, among whom were women and children, formed a human cordon that prevented access to one of the main roads into the city.
In a video of the protest, circulated on networks, numerous vehicles can be seen stopped in front of the protesters, without daring to advance. One of the passengers gets out of his car to take a closer look at the situation and, when he returns to the car, tells the driver: “Havana has heated up!”
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Cubans are increasingly turning to the black market to get cigarettes. (ACN)
14ymedio, Madrid, 2 August 2022 — When Marino Murillo was appointed president of Tabacuba in November 2021, many Cubans reacted with irony. “I hope he won’t ‘Re-order’ Tabacuba, or we’ll run out of cigarettes,” one reader wrote, joking in reference to the so-called ‘Ordering Task’* which is affecting broad elements of the Cuban economy. The joke has come true, and the worst omens have been more than fulfilled. The state tobacco company, which then warned that the lack of cigarettes would continue until the first quarter of 2022, announced on Monday that the amount planned for the first half of the year doesn’t even reach half of the original goal.
“The production plan of the state factories from January to June 2022 is fulfilled at 47%,” explains the official newspaper Granma in a note dedicated to the scarcity of the product and its causes. The delay “is mainly due to the lack of raw materials used in the cigarette industry, such as cigarette paper, boxes and wrapping paper (wheel or cigarette package), which caused the factory to be paralyzed in January, March and May,” sources of the business group said.
Tabacuba has four state factories in the country: Segundo Quincosa, in Havana; Ramiro Lavandero, in Villa Clara; Juan D’ Mata Reyes, in Sancti Spíritus; and Lázaro Peña, in Holguín. The first three have been operating normally since the last halt in May, although the article already warns that materials are guaranteed only until September. Then, we’ll see.
The fourth, in Holguín, stopped in August and will continue to be halted, at the very least, all month, due to the lack of packaging. “The paper used in their manufacture will arrive in the country in the first half of August and must be processed in the printing presses before arriving at the factory,” the managers add.
In addition to the problems caused by the lack of liquidity, the international context hasn’t helped due to the lack of available ships and delays in maritime traffic. Other causes were the increase in the price of raw materials and the distance from the supplying countries. Also, the lack of energy has a lot to do with the drop in production, since factories must stop between 11 and 1 to save electricity. continue reading
Faced with such an outlook, Tabacuba has established some measures to try to recover manufacturing levels, although the very low level they have reached complicates the objective. Work shifts, for example, have been increased to two per day and on some Saturdays, and vacation times have been reduced.
Tabacuba also aspires to find suppliers on the island to avoid the costs and difficulties of importing, but so far it’s nothing more than a wish expressed out loud, and it’s hard to believe that, if such an option exists, it hasn’t been used before.
Meanwhile, Brascuba Cigarrillos, a joint venture in the Mariel Special Development Zone, is helping to alleviate the situation. The company’s production plan, which manufactures H. Upmann, Popular with filter, Rothmans, Dunhill and Cohiba, meets the target at 86% and has three work shifts seven days a week, says Granma.
“Brascuba not only sells directly to the store chains but also to the Tobacco Marketing Company in Rama La Vega, and they, in turn, to the Wholesale Marketing Company of Food Products (EMPA), which is in charge of distribution and marketing to units of the retail trade network,” say the directors, who specified that Tabacuba must subsidize the dollar cost of production so that they can sell in Cuban pesos. An unusual public investment in a product harmful to health.
Problems with the domestic production of cigarettes date back at least to 2020, when there was no money to buy wrapping paper and other materials indispensable for manufacturing. In 2021, breaks in machinery, the pandemic and the lack of transport fuel increased the problems.
Due to the shortage of the product, cigarettes became rationed at the territorial level, and consumers had to present their ration book to purchase them. The objective was, the authorities argued, “to prevent the hoarding and resale of this product,” but the end hasn’t been achieved and has unleashed subterfuge for the umpteenth time. With the beginning of the sale in the bodegas (ration stores), many have not hesitated to use other people’s ration books to buy them.
Sales on the black market continue. Cigarettes that are rationed cost 10 pesos a pack, but on the black market the price exceeds 100 pesos, and some like the Rothmans are even more than 200, a price similar to that of stores that only take payment in freely convertible currency and where, in addition, you have to line up.
Meanwhile, and despite the fact that cigars continue to report significant dividends in exports for the country, the fall this year was 13%. In recent days, the Government has announced its intention to launch a luxury tourism project linked to cigars. It is a high-end hotel that will open in September to promote the tourist-focused Cigar Trail in the Pinar del Río area that will have, in addition to lodging, an information center, a smoking room and a specialized shop.
But at the same time, the provincial newspaper Guerrillero revealed that the harvest is expected, as is customary in almost everything, to be bad. “There are limitations due to energy, humidity in the raw material, a deficit of covers for packaging and an excess of unbound tobacco in warehouses and selected by companies, which affect profit flow,” Pedro Rafael González Lorenzo, coordinator of the production programs, said last Thursday.
Of the 5,945 tons planned until July 22, only 5,000 could be collected, due to the lack of diesel and electricity. In addition, there are delays in the construction of tobacco cure rooms, which are at 29% of what is scheduled, and also delays in the repairs of those that already exist, which are at only 50%.
*Translator’s note: 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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Red Cross personnel in the vicinity of the Matanzas Supertanker Base. (Granma)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 August 2022 — “A failure in the lightning rod system, which couldn’t withstand the power of the electric shock,” is the official version that the Cuban Government has given so far on the cause of the gigantic fire that began at the Matanzas Supertanker Base on August 5.
The official version that has added another element this Saturday was unconvincing. “The First Secretary considered that the fire system apparently failed, something previously recommended,” the State newspaper Granma published. “This issue needs to be reviewed to avoid similar events in the future, especially in thermoelectric plants and fuel facilities,” it added.
Faced with questions as to whether the lightning rod system was certified by the Fire Protection Agency (AFP), the official argument focused on pointing out that “the energy of lightning can be very destructive, as it clearly was in this case.”
Danger Ricardo, a 37-year-old welder who works there, contacted by the AFP agency, said that there is no explanation for how the tank’s lightning rod system failed. Videos regarding the fire began to be shared on social networks, including a graphic uploaded to the Twitter account of an Internet user, who identifies herself as Yanetsis, about security protocols at the time of a fire.
The healthcare emergency technician based in Spain, Joaquín Alberto Reyes Franc, indicated that with this type of accident you need to “cool the affected tank. Large volumes of water and huge amounts of foam are needed.” continue reading
Reyes Franc explained that this represents “an advanced technique of attack and patience” and recalled that “in Spain we have suffered at least three accidents of this type, and it was very hard work. Especially the Escombreras fire in 1969 (8 days of combat).”
The accident, which according to official reports has so far caused the death of firefighter Juan Carlos Santana Garrido and injuries to 122 people, of whom 24 are hospitalized. But the regime still doesn’t offer details about 16 people who were fighting the flames and were close to a second tank in the complex that exploded.
At seven o’clock at night on August 5, lightning struck tank 52, which at that time was at 50% of its capacity, which is 50,000 cubic meters. “The most important thing is to maintain strict control of the temperature” of the damaged tank, rescue teams explained to the official newspaper, Girón.
The “strict temperature” control was carried out through water discharges. This has been the main way to try to control and put out the fire. A day after the catastrophe, on August 6, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz highlighted the “feat” of the firefighters and reiterated the strategy to confront the accident, while moving away from the fire.
“We are now leaving the site of the fire in Matanzas. The fuel tank remains, and the nearest tank is being cooled with water, which reduces the possibility of the fire spreading,” Marrero shared through his Twitter account. In addition, the discharge of water from a helicopter over flames that soon reached a second tank was observed.
In support of Cuba, this Sunday, 60 rescue soldiers and 16 technicians from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) arrived from Mexico with equipment and chemicals, while 35 firefighters, specialists and technicians from Petróleos de Venezuela arrived with 20 tons of foam and other chemicals.
“We’re here to help prevent risks and put out the fire with water and foam,” said Brigadier General Juan Bravo, the head of the Mexican expedition.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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At the moment, firefighters and workers from the Cupet Territorial Division are working to put out the flames. (14ymedio)
EFE/14ymedio, Matanzas/Havana, 6 August 2022 — The Cuban authorities are coordinating with the United States with regards to the aid offered by this country to put out the great fire that is still active in two of eight crude oil tanks at the Supertanker Base in the industrial zone of the Cuban city of Matanzas). So far, 17 firefighters have disappeared and at least 67 people have been injured.
Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío wrote on Twitter that the US government “offered technical advice, already placed in the hands of specialists for proper coordination.”
“We deeply appreciate the condolences and expressions of help from various organizations and people from the United States on the occasion of the incident in Matanzas,” added the Vice Chancellor.
The United States Embassy in Cuba also reported on Twitter that it was “in contact with Cuba about the incident in Matanzas.” Adding, “In the meantime, we want to make it clear that United States law authorizes United States entities and organizations to provide aid and response to disasters in Cuba.”
This Saturday afternoon it was also learned that “by presidential order, specialized personnel from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) are getting ready to travel to Cuba to help extinguish the fire,” according to the newspaper El Universal .
“High-level sources from the [Mexican] federal government assured that it was President Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself who gave the instruction,” the press outlet said.
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During a family visit, Alcántara denounced that after determining his situation to be “risky,” the police proceeded to remove him from the cell where he was being held, which he shared with other prisoners. One of those prisoners, who is serving a 51-year prison sentence, had been instructed by State Security “to assault Luis Manuel,” according to another MSI report from July 21.
The “harassment” and “provocations” that Alcántara endured were the reason for his transfer, which occurred four days before the family visit, the activist himself explained. The statement adds that the artist has contracted dengue fever, “as have other prisoners,” and suffers from frequent “cramping in his hands and feet,” and has not received adequate medical attention.
The MSI adds that Alcántara has been subjected to physical and psychological violence not only by some of the prisoners, but also by prison agents themselves. A few days ago the artist was deprived of his drawing materials and has not been allowed to receive correspondence from activists and friends such as Katherine Bisquet, Coco Fusco or Anamely Ramos.
The San Isidro Movement concludes its statement by holding the Cuban government responsible for Alcántara’s physical and mental wellbeing, and describing the repression to which he has been subject as “the only tool the regime has to try to intimidate and coerce Cuban opponents.”
According to statements by curator Claudia Genlui on July 21st, the artist lacks any stability in jail and his situation changes constantly. Until his transfer to a communal cell, and enduring harassment by one of the other inmates, Alcántara was being punished and “unable to even access sunlight.” continue reading
That transfer was in reprisal for the hunger strike he started on July 4th. “It is evident how State Security tries to provoke a conflict in which Luis Manuel would be affected,” Genlui stated on that occasion.
Even if Alcántara tries not to confront the guards or the inmate who harasses him, the repression has increased. “His is not in a [penal] camp, he is suffering, he is subjected to torture, and his life is in danger,” added the curator.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo, founders and members of MSI were arrested last year and were tried ten months later. They received five- and nine-year prison sentences, respectively.
State Security offered both of them freedom in exchange for abandoning the country. However, Castillo as well as Alcántara declared that “leaving Cuba, as exiles, bereft of everything, is not an option.”
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Guillermo Fariñas, leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Front, is one of the best-known Cuban opponents at the international level. (EFE)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 6 August 2022 — Cuban opponent Guillermo Fariñas remained under arrest this Friday for several hours, according information from his family speaking to EFE.
Fariñas’s mother, Alicia Hernández, confirmed by phone that her son was released, after he was stopped by the police who were waiting for him nearby when he left his house. “They handcuffed him and took him away in a patrol car,” she explained.
That day, hundreds of dissatisfied people took to the streets of Havana to protest and then President Fidel Castro, now deceased, appeared to speak with some of them in front of the well-known Deauville hotel.
The leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Front, Fariñas is one of the best-known Cuban opponents at the international level, particularly for his numerous hunger strikes against the Cuban system, since the first one he carried out in 1995.
The longest strike dates back to 2003, when he fasted for 14 months, and the 25th took place in 2016 and lasted 54 days to ask the government to end the repression against dissidents.
The Government of Cuba considers dissidents “counterrevolutionaries” and “mercenaries” at the service of the interests of the United States and denies that it has political prisoners in its jails.
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On Thursday morning, 31 Cuban rafters were reported by the U.S. Border Patrol. (Twitter/@USBPChiefMIP)
14ymedio, Havana, 5 August 2022 — The exodus of Cuban rafters to the United States seems to have no limits. In just two days, on August 3 and 4, 108 people from the island made landfall in the Florida keys. The Border Patrol recorded the 12 boats in which the Cubans arrived, most of them fishermen’s boats and rustic boats, with signs of “Freedom” and “Christ, my guide.”
Several agents arrested the migrants, who were taken into custody, according to Walter Slosar, head of the border police force, on Twitter. On Thursday morning, 31 rafters arrived aboard three fishing boats, with five individuals arriving at Playa Sombrero, in Marathon, 15 at Isla Valores, in Cayos Bajos, and another 11 at Cayo Largo.
The spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s office, Adam Linhardt, indicated that this flow of rafters responds to the worsening of the humanitarian crisis on the island, with an intensification of repression and the economic crisis, which includes an increase in the cost of living, the devaluation of the Cuban peso and an increase in uncertainty about the future of the country.
On Wednesday, Officer Slosar reported the arrival of 25 rafters in a wooden boat lined with a tarpaulin, which they had adapted the engine of a vehicle that was refueled with two small drums, and in which oars were also found.
The group, coming from Artemis, was made up of three men and two women, who were placed in federal custody after a health examination. That same day, 20 more people arrived in two more rafts.
Faced with the number of landings, the Rescue Evangelical Church, based in Hialeah, used the study rooms it had available on its premises to provide shelter to the rafters. Thanks to the donations received by Pastor David Monduy, leader of the church, the dormitories have been provided with mobile showers, and other signs of support for Cubans are planned, according to Local 10 News.
Coast Guard data indicate that since October 1, 2021, crews have intercepted 3,739 Cubans.
The Cuban government insists on demanding that the Washington Administration comply with the migration agreements signed between the two countries. It attributes the increase in illegal migration to the United continue reading
States to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which allows island nationals to apply for permanent residence in the United States after a year and one day of staying in that country. In reality, not everyone who manages to cross U.S. borders can apply this regulation.
In an attempt to prevent the exodus of Cubans, Lieutenant Mario Gil of the U.S. Coast Guard invited “families and friends to encourage their loved ones to seek a safe and legal path to the United States.”
Three Cuban rafters, who were sighted five miles from Isla Pérez in the Gulf of Mexico, were rescued by the Navy.
The Cuban exodus is also carried out by other means and is subject to many penalties. On Thursday, a fishing vessel sighted a raft with several people five miles from Pérez Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, a fact that they immediately reported to the Mexican Navy. Three of the rafters had signs of dehydration and hadn’t eaten in two days. The group was handed over to Mexico’s National Institute of Migration.
On the other hand, the Central American “bridge” continues to be one of the most frequent ways to get to the United States. The official figures offered by Honduras record the passage of 44,000 people, most of them from the island, who were fined $200.
On Thursday, the official newspaper LaGaceta announced that the Honduran government published a legislative decree that exempts migrants from the payment of this fine, which applied to any migrant who entered through unauthorized border points and to whom article 104, paragraph 1, of the Migration and Aliens Law was applied.
With this suspension, the Migration Institute of Honduras also ordered that necessary humanitarian assistance be offered to migrants passing through, in addition to identifying international protection needs for those groups that are in a vulnerable situation, such as women, children, LGBTIQ+ communities and the elderly.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 9 August 2022 — Finally, 641 Cuban doctors will be hired by the Mexican government to fill vacancies in precarious areas. The director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, indicated that these healthcare workers will be integrated into the Health Plan for Well-being and that “115 are already working in the states of Colima and Nayarit.”
