Court Confirms Sentences for Garrido Sisters for July 11th (11J) Protest in Mayabeque

The writer and activist María Cristina Garrido saw her sentence confirmed, a long with the other defendants in her case, during this week’s appeal. Writing on hand: No more violence against women. (Facebook)

14ymedio biggerThe writer and activist María Cristina Garrido saw her sentence confirmed, a long with the other defendants in her case, during this week’s appeal. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 June 2022 — The writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez and her sister Angélica, sentenced in March to seven and three years in prison respectively after their participation in the July 11th (11J) protests, had their sentences ratified after the appeal hearing held this Monday in the Provincial Court of Mayabeque.

According to Luis Rodríguez Pérez, Angélica’s husband, during the hearing the charge of attack was modified and the charge of contempt was maintained. However, the sentence did not undergo any change.

In the same case were Alexis Pedro Acosta Hernández, Osmany Hernández Rodríguez, Giorbis Pardo del Toro, Yanet Sánchez Cocho and Patricia Lázara Acosta Sánchez. The five, a married couple and their daughter who were in the main square of Quivicán drinking with two friends, had a fight and, according to Rodríguez Pérez, they were arrested and included in the same case and their sentences were also confirmed.

“Their case is also sad, there is a 14-year-old boy who, if his parents’ sanction is maintained as it is, would be left in the care of his sister who is very young and has a little girl. [And nothing they did was] related to 11J, nor with the Garridos. It is likely that they tried them together to smear them with politics, or to give the Garridos a criminal connotation more common than political,” Rodríguez said. continue reading

According to her account, the judge – whom she describes as an actress – indicated that the Revolution was generous with children and the sentence of the mother of the family was modified to six years of correctional work with internment. When the astonished lawyer pointed out that this was already the sentence she received in the first trial, the magistrate replied: “Ah, yes! Here it is! Apparently there was a mistake. Well, then it stays that way, as it is.”

This Thursday the appeals of Abel Lescay were also held and, according to the musician himself, those of 18 more people who were with him in court. In addition, Makyel Puig, who was already sentenced to 20 years for his participation in 11J, was facing a second trial for allegedly assaulting a guard at the Quivicán prison where he was an inmate.

As of today the results of these hearings have not been reported.

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The End of the Embargo in Exchange for Democracy in Cuba?

The singer Yotuel Romero, one of the architects of the anthem for change in Cuba ‘Patria y Vida’, opened a debate on Tuesday through his networks. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 2 June 2022 — The singer Yotuel Romero, one of the architects of Patria y Vida, the anthem for change in Cuba, opened a debate on Tuesday through his social networks that has ignited Cubans, especially from outside the Island.

“And if we ask at the Summit of the Americas for the end of the embargo on the Cuban dictatorship, in exchange [for]: the release of all Cuban political prisoners and free elections in Cuba, multiparty [and] supervised by an international commission and let what the people choose win?” This is what the musician — who has been invited by the United States to the Civil Society Forum that will take place within the framework of the summit, between the next 6 and 8 June in Los Angeles — suggested on his Facebook wall.

Immediately, he received passionate comments, especially against. One of the harshest was that of Alex Otaola, who in his Wednesday program said that it could not be that “the face of Patria y Vida suggested the end of the embargo… What must be asked at the Summit of the Americas is that a dictatorship not be oxygenated,” the ‘influencer’ commented on Yotuel’s proposal.

“Were you invited to the Summit of the Americas or to the ALBA-TCP Summit? I don’t understand anything,” said independent reporter Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, exiled in the United States.

The also independent journalist Iliana Hernández responded, from Spain: “The embargo is eliminated when the created conditions exist in Cuba, freedom for political prisoners, freedom of the press and free elections. The embargo is a law, they persecute human trafficking, in Cuba there is a slave system.” continue reading

Internet user Odalys Menéndez replied to Hernández: “Those who implemented the embargo and keep it active at half throttle do nothing to ensure that the conditions are met, rather they are accomplices,” to which the journalist replied again: “It’s that it’s not them [the US] that have to do it, it’s us.”

The controversy that arose was such that Yotuel himself deleted the original post and, instead, published a video clarifying his words. The singer explained before the camera that “there are some very basic and very important conditions for the freedom of Cuba” and that “if there is freedom of expression, if there is freedom of political prisoners, if there is freedom of elections supervised by a foreign body… that embargo ceases to exist automatically.”

The clarification generated enthusiastic sympathy, such as that of Estela Puertas Borges (“Very well said, brother! Now all Cubans on the island need to understand that it is like that!”) and that of Daimiry Ríos Valiente (“I don’t think that this time Otaola is right. We have to take off Cuba’s mask in front of all of Latin America”).

Also, there were some ironic comments in favor, such as that of Guena Rod: “It is incredible, but we have arrived there. Yotuel only showed the same conditions established by the Law of Freedom of Cuba (Helms-Burton) to lift the general sanctions against Cuba. Luckily he did not mention that in that same law, there is a significant part that stipulates a great “economic aid” for the island after the conditions, that is, muuuucho money for Cuba once the same thing that Yotuel asked for has been fulfilled. It is not going to be that they also accuse him now of wanting to give $ to the dictatorship.”

However, it has continued to arouse misgivings. “We are at a time where you have to be exact with each term that is used, especially when you represent a people without a voice. With the dictatorship there is nothing to negotiate, nothing to discuss,” expressed Heidy Pérez.

“You can’t negotiate with them, you have to remove them from power. Only that!” Esther García emphasized. Maga Noa was more forceful: “First dictators go to prison,” as was Zafiro Sony: “The embargo is lifted when the Freedom Law is fulfilled!”

Others, like Pedro Fechter, allowed themselves another critical nuance: “I think your idea is very good, only that it starts from the wrong premises. I also think that people did not understand your post well because in the text the first thing you say is: and if we ask for the end of the embargo… I advise you for the next one, first put the ultimate goal and then the means to achieve it.”

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Cuban Doctors Arrive in Mexico Without Waiting for a Court’s Decision on Their Hiring

A judge in Puebla will decide whether to suspend the hiring of 500 Cuban doctors. (Vladimir Molina / El Diario)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 1 June 2022 — Health workers from Cuba arrived in Mexico on May 31, a few hours before a judge in Puebla was to decide if Mexico could hire 500 Cuban doctors under the conditions agreed upon by the governments of both countries.

“They have already arrived and are in Mexico in three hotels; whether they are doctors or not, we don’t know, but they are here,” confirmed Éctor Jaime Ramírez Barba, deputy of the National Action Party (PAN) for Guanajuato. The politician argued that, taking into account the number of health workers that the federal government plans to hire, Cubans do not represent a disproportionate amount, although at one time he opposed the agreement.

“If they are doctors, there is no formal decree that prevents the President from incorporating them today. If he doesn’t comply with what the court orders, we will be making the corresponding complaints,” Ramírez Barba told the local press. If the data available to the opposition, provided by the Government, are true, the number of Cuban health workers in Mexico would equal for every 10,000 national health workers.

However, the complaints are focused on issues such as whether the group is made up entirely of health professionals, whether they are properly trained and whether working conditions are respectful of the law, which is very doubtful considering the number of complaints charging that agreements of this type are a semi-slavery relationship.

The anonymous whistleblower who is trying to paralyze the incorporation of the 500 doctors stated in the application that the Mexican Government has not demonstrated that the doctors have the adequate capacity or training to practice medicine in Mexico and that the remuneration that the Mexican government will pay for these health workers could go, as in all agreements of this type, to the Cuban Government rather than to the contracted professionals themselves. continue reading

The judge denied the provisional suspension because “so far it’s not determined that the agreement signed by the federal government contravenes provisions of public order,” but he gave a deadline of May 31 for the authorities to present their arguments and is scheduled to announce his decision on June 1.

On May 31,  the PAN deputy explained that the model in which Cubans will work is the one planned for “dispersed areas,” which are organized by health communities. The politician commented that Mexican doctors who go to those areas do so temporarily, with a one-year contract that provides them with points for their next destination, so they are not classified as “places.” However, national health workers refuse to occupy these areas.

By virtue of the agreement announced by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during his visit to Havana on May 8, Cubans will be sent to these places, some of them in very dangerous areas, such as the Montaña de Guerrero, one of the most conflictive points in the country, due to the presence of several cartels that dispute drug trafficking.

The profession of doctor in Cuba, which was once the jewel in the crown, is losing its appeal and not only within the island, since the foreign missions, often used by the doctors to earn more money but also as a springboard to emigrate, are becoming more complicated. On Tuesday, news broke on social networks that at least 17 Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela were arrested while trying to leave for Colombia.

Doctor Miguel Ángel Ruano said on Facebook that some have been sent back to the island as prisoners and threatened with the application of article 176 of the new Criminal Code, which punishes with between three and eight years in prison anyone who “on the occasion of the fulfillment of a mission abroad and against the express order of the Government, moves to another country.”

Emilio Arteaga Pérez, a member of the Free Cuban Medical Association like Ruano, confirmed the facts and said that the rest of the 20,000 Cuban collaborators in Venezuela have also had their passports taken away as retaliation and as a preventive measure.

Under these conditions, it’s not surprising that the majority of Cubans who still have a vocation for public health choose the only way that opens the door for them to leave the island, which is to practice “Integral General Medicine.” Medical specialists have been regulated since 2015 and are prohibited from leaving the island for five years, after which they can request their “liberation” by the authorities.

The advice not to specialize so as not to close the door to emigration circulates in several medical forums, one of them based in Spain, where many Cubans fight to validate their degrees in a country where more and more doctors are imported while nationals emigrate.

In the last five years, 20,608 foreign doctors have had their degrees validated in Spain. Cubans were in the top tier of the most professionals admitted in 2018, 2020 and 2021, with 342, 598 and 564 respectively. Most know that in order to work in a European country they need the permission of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from which they must ask for the required documentation to be able to validate their degrees. To do this, they must have performed their required social service and, of course, not be “regulated” [banned from leaving the country] or marked by “desertion”; otherwise they will never get the papers.

In addition, they often need to complement their studies to equate their level with that required and pass the MIR (Internal Resident Doctor) exam in case they want a specialty other than family medicine.

Trade unions in Spain warn of the shortage of doctors in the country, where wages are low and the workload very high, especially compared to some of the neighboring European countries, where there is more stability and better conditions. In the last five years 11,506 Spanish health workers applied for the certificate of eligibility to leave, while, in the same period, almost twice as many foreign graduates validated their degree: 20,608.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Registers the Worst Potato Harvest in Half a Century, With the Exception of 2014

The Ministry of Agriculture affirms that it cultivated 6,000 hectares this year and recognizes as a failure “the lack of inputs during the cultivation cycle.” (ACN)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 June 2022 — While pineapples abound in Cuban fields, potato production has fallen to historic lows, as was glimpsed in recent publications in the official press. According to data from the preliminary report of the 2021-2022 campaign of the Ministry of Agriculture, the potato harvest totaled 93,650 tons, the worst in the last 30 years, with the exception of 2014.

The original plan for the 2022 campaign was to collect 120,914 tons to try to meet the demand in Cuba. However, in March the same ministry predicted that tuber production would not reach that forecast.

Although there is still no harvest in Ciego de Ávila, the preliminary report indicates that the previous campaign did not reach 97,354 tons, and the demand had to be covered by importing to make up for the shortfall. The figures are not expected to change, since the Ciego de Ávila press announced last week that it had its worst harvest in the last 20 years, due to the rains.

The Ministry of Agriculture affirms that it cultivated 6,000 hectares this year and recognizes as a failure, “the lack of inputs during the cultivation cycle.” It adds that due to the storms that began on April 6, there was a delay in the harvest and “high levels of loss due to rot, mainly in the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Matanzas.” continue reading

By province, comparing the plans that the Ministry of Agriculture had for each of them, Matanzas registered the worst result: of 29,305 planned tons, it actually collected 21,657. Villa Clara follows, where 8,220 tons were expected and 5,379 were harvested. However, Cienfuegos obtained more than expected, 6,245 tons harvested, versus a plan of 5,692.

“It is worth noting that Cuba must increase the planting of nationally multiplied potato seed, to reduce the cost of importing seed from abroad” to cover the demand for fresh and industrial consumption of potatoes, the document states.

Last February, the shortage caused the price of potatoes to double and the long lines to buy them were even longer. One pound of the tuber went from three to five pesos, and up to six pesos in the case of refrigerated potatoes.

In 2014, with just 53,308 tons of potatoes, half the harvest of the previous year (130,933), according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), one of the worst results in the historical series since 1946 was recorded. Eight years ago, the long lines to buy one of the essential foods in the Cuban diet were beginning to be seen.

In 1996, upon reaching a record production of 364,958 tons, Cuba became an exporter of the tuber, which had been rationed for years, and sales on the island were liberalized as of 2010.

The good news ended in 2014 with the collapse of production and, despite the recovery registered in 2015, with 123,938 tons, the Government had to import potatoes to cover demand, which led to rationing again in 2017. Between 2010 and 2018, both the planted area and production were reduced by approximately 30%. In 2019, potato consumption in Cuba was 151,668 tons, of which 35,272 were imported from the Netherlands and Canada.

Despite the catastrophe, the official press celebrates that 77% of the planned harvest has been achieved and hides the fact that there will not be enough potatoes for all Cuban tables this year.

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Police Return to ‘Guarding’ the Hard Currency Stores in Havana

Numerous “red berets” guarded the entrances and shops of the Plaza de Carlos III in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 June 2022 — The picture offered by the Plaza de Carlos III in Havana was not normal, with numerous “red berets”, known within the Armed Forces as “prevention troops”, guarding the entrances and shops of the market on Wednesday morning. The same thing happened in La Época, in Galiano and Neptuno.

“Normally there is a guarapito or two, never three, so six per corner is too much,” explained a boy on the outskirts of Carlos III, surprised by the presence of the agents. “You smell fear in the air.”

The last time such a deployment was seen was in the weeks after the July 11 and 12 demonstrations , to police hard currency stores. One of the elements that precisely formed part of the protests of those days was the complaint against the establishments selling in freely convertible currency (MLC), which the bulk of the population cannot access, which charges in pesos and does not have access. to money from abroad.

Precisely those who can only buy in national currency were busy early, this Wednesday, looking for some meat in the state stores of the capital. Unsuccessfully. They did not take out or mincemeat, or sausages or chicken.

“The stores are bare,” a resident of Centro Habana complained as she walked away to look for another establishment, the room she would visit in the morning. She “has” to buy “for the book” in the Amistad Market, located in San Lázaro and Infanta, but it has been closed for several days. “People are speculating that they’re going to turn it into a store in MLC.” continue reading

There was the same vigilance at La Época, on Galiano and Neptuno. (14ymedio)

On the other hand, food rationing on this day was meager. “A single pound of sugar per person was given today,” said an old man as he left the ration store.

Plaza de Carlos III is one of the shopping centers that have almost entirely gone to selling in foreign currency, with the exception of the food market located on the ground floor and some processed food stores. The rest are stores that offer their products for home hygiene, brand clothing or decorative elements in MLC (hard currency) only.

One of the new restrictive measures of the provincial government, in force since May 20, is that the bodegas – the ration stores – will be linked to the Cimex and Caribe stores. The regulations, in any case, force people to go to fewer establishments, which has further complicated daily shopping in Havana, especially in the municipalities farthest from the center.

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But What Good Practices Are They Going to Substitute in Cuban Agriculture?

As Cuba’s economic situation worsens, citizens are faced the with empty markets. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger 14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 29 May 2022 — Is the agricultural situation in Cuba really going to be substituting “good practices” to increase the production of food, vegetables, grains and fruits? Well, it seems that this is what they did in the National Plenary of Cooperatives and Advanced Producers of the Productive Poles of various crops. Tremendous name.

According to the State newspaper Granma, which carried out the news coverage of such an important meeting, “the integral management of agroindustrial chains to generate high value-added products and services was analyzed, and the good practices of producers were socialized, with the purpose of increasing the production of food, vegetables, grains and fruits.” Deputy Minister Tapia, Minister of Agriculture Ydael Pérez, along with other ANAP (National Association of Small Farmers) authorities participated in the event.

Faced with the terrible results of the agricultural sector in 2021, which apparently are just as bad in 2022, as Minister Gil acknowledged at the last meeting of the Council of Ministers, citing the numerous “non-compliances” in product deliveries, communist leaders organize these “flower games” in which the cooperatives that make up a so-called “Political Productive Vanguard Movement” participate for the 100,000 kilograms of various crops and advanced producers.

Apparently 19 municipal plenaries were preceded by as many others in the agro-industrial “productive poles” with an agricultural vocation, the last collectivist invention of the regime, and four provincial ones. And of course, in the face of so many agricultural gatherings of the “productive avant-garde” one asks: Who is left in the furrow working daily to produce more? continue reading

The communists, in the face of the evident failure of their “63 measures” and any initiative that has its origin in the social communist model that governs Cuban agriculture in the last six decades, can think of nothing more than to “distract” producers, instead of letting them work freely, decide how much to produce, in what dimensions of plot and at what prices.

The regime’s interference in agriculture is the origin of all the evils of a sector that aspires to have the freedom to decide. Agrarian reform was a disaster; INRA’s (National Institute for Agricultural Reform) replacing the old ministry was another. A lot of time has passed since then, but the evils of Cuban agriculture remain the same: statism, bureaucracy, interference, control and repression.

It is not with “substitution of good practices” that more and better can be produced. The communist invention of the so-called “productive poles” dedicated to the production of various crops, will not work either, since it implies exercising a coercive force on producers, based on bureaucratic and political decisions, which have little or nothing to do with the socio-productive reality of Cuban agriculture.

A good example of this deficient creation of the so-called “poles” was offered by Granma stating that this formula, despite the full support of the regime, including these “substitutions of good practices,” has only produced 706,200 tons, barely 26% of the total production achieved in the year. A minutiae. And in the first quarter of this year, when non-compliance by Minister Gil was reported, the productive poles have not improved their contribution, with only 232,485 tons, which represents 25.3% of total production, one point less.

Then the National Director of Marketing of the Ministry of Agriculture spoke about marketing policy to point out what everyone knows, “that it is once again a difficult task, especially because of the scenario that Cuba is currently experiencing.” The solution is at their fingertips, and if they don’t implement it, it’s because they don’t want to: suppress ACOPIO (Cuba’s State Procurement and Distribution Agency) forever and leave absolute freedom to the marketing of producers with competitive private distributors. That’s a good practice.

In reality, and although this plenary served to vindicate, for the umpteenth time, the 63 measures of agricultural production, the truth is that no more production has been achieved, and there are the official results of ONEI (National Office of Statistics and Information) and the statements of Minister Gil, and they have not served to improve marketing either. Cuban communists still do not understand that what is not produced cannot be distributed, and that before the pitcher, you have to have the cow to produce milk. The achievements in terms of new products, new points of sale and new economic actors that offer products in other varieties have been carried away by the wind, in a 2021 lost forever, and a 2022 that is not going any better.

And in the face of the failure of the “63 measures”, the leaders insist that it’s necessary to continue “advancing in the dissemination of this policy, in which its importance and advantages, especially for the producers, are understood.” The author of this blog has consulted several Cuban agricultural producers who insist that the problem isn’t in knowing the measures, but in their futility, which simply don’t address what is really needed, so they turn their backs on them.

The meeting also discussed agricultural prices, an issue of the utmost importance, which according to the CPI prepared by ONEI on a monthly basis, are the fastest growing of the different components of the index, with their negative influence on the population. The evidence indicates that the current inflationary process that the Cuban economy is experiencing, which will get worse in the coming months, is originating from and also influencing the prices of raw materials and food.

And that either the authorities face this problem with effective and practical solutions, or the probability of a food crisis in Cuba seems very high. Wasting time relying on a possible solution to the problem on the part of state-owned companies doesn’t make sense, in view of past experience. The productive poles don’t either. The regime has no solutions within the communist social model to deal with the agricultural crisis, a situation that, similarly, led the Vietnamese to apply the Doi Moi (1986 Vietnam economic reforms). Why not in Cuba?

With this type of substitution of “good practices” and support for statism, the communist regime is on its way to a situation of serious structural crisis in the agricultural sector that no one wants, but which is on the doorstep. For a long time, the Cuban guajiro has known what the good practices are in his sector, and although he cannot claim them freely for fear of repression, it’s very clear: freedom, private property rights and a free market. The rest is wasting time.

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.

Cuba: Saily González is Freed After Covering Up the “Free Maykel and Luis Manuel” Slogan on Her T-Shirt

Saily González wore this t-shirt as she was arrested. (Twitter/SailydeAmarillo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 June 2022 — Saily González Velázquez was freed on Tuesday night, after spending several hours in the custody of State Security, which detained her as she marched down a Santa Clara street demanding freedom for Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo.

They told several family members who were waiting for her at the door of the police station that they’d release her if they provided another T-shirt for her to wear over the one she was wearing, which contained the hand-written slogans, “Free Maykel Obsorbo” and “Free Luis Manuel.”

“They freed Saily González. She is on her way home now!” informed blogger Boris Sancho on social media. The message was shared on the accounts of several activists who also confirmed that a patrol car dropped off the Villa Clara-based activist at home and that the political police also interrogated her mother.

The measure is part of a government policy denounced by the Madrid-based Cuban Observatory for Human Rights which sent a report on Tuesday to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that detailed how family members of those arrested are used as part of the harassment.

“The government strategies consist of surveillance, interfering with or suppressing the use of internet by family members to silence them or reduce their presence on social media and independent news media; exhorting them not to organize defensive legal actions before national and international organizations; infiltrating agents or trusted subjects; and offering legal benefits conditioned on forced exile,” they warn.

Until now, the young entrepreneur and former moderator of the Archipiélago platform had not made any public statements beyond demanding freedom for Carlos Ernesto Díaz González, aka Ktivo Disidente. The rapper from Cienfuegos was arrested in April after he launched an antigovernment diatribe while standing on a wall in Havana.

“All I want to say is that if I’m home, Ktivo must also be. Both of us protested similarly in a public street. Both equally demanded freedom for political prisoners, because those prisoners are also my brothers,” said González adding the hashtags that are being used for the trials against the July 11th (11J) protesters and the trial of Otero Alcántara and Osorbo. continue reading

The video she recorded while she marched, described the government as “terrorist” and “fascist” for “all the injustice and arbitrary actions” it commits. González added that the regime “cannot handle the free souls,” which is why “they want them in prison.” “Disrespect against patriotic symbols?” she asked alluding to the charges against Alcántara for his performance Drapeau, to which she responded, “That is when I see Miguel Díaz-Canel standing alongside a Cuban flag.”

At that moment, a State Security agent violently pounced on her and said, “You know you can’t do that. Give me the telephone. You know you can’t do that. What is that for?” The individual took González’s telephone and interrupted the livestream while he admonished her for her behavior.

The court day on June 1 was also expected to be intense, as the appeals of several 11J protesters in Las Vegas were expected as well as the appeal of Abel Lescay, who was sentenced to six years in prison for his participation in the July 11th protests in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.

Singer songwriter Silvio Rodríguez came to the musician’s defense, asking for transparency during Lescay’s trial and a higher level review of his sentence. “I do not have faith that the system will correct itself. As I have said before, it continues to be a very small circle of people, practically a sect, which makes decisions,” he said despite everything.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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With Public Transportation Operating at 30%, Havana Residents Spend Hours at Bus Stops

Drivers of state vehicles do not stop in response to signals of the new inspectors and, if they do stop, they do not take on any passengers. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 May 2022 — “Transportation is bad, but not worse than other days.” Havana residents have not been taken by surprise by the declarations of the provincial authorities acknowledging the critical situation the sector finds itself in, because they have been putting up with it daily for at least three months.

Neither is it any better. This Monday, after the Havana government made the announcement that 286 vehicles, “school buses and from different institutions and organizations,” would be added to the urban buses that are circulating in the capital “as part of the strategy to alleviate situation in this sphere”, there were more Transmetro buses, which normally transport state workers, but this hasn’t seemed to have alleviated the problems, the waiting lines or the crowds.

The inspectors, uniformed in blue, also returned this Monday. Their function is to force state vehicles to stop to take possible passengers who are going in the same direction but, in this regard, they do not impose much of their authority either. As this newspaper was able to testify, either the drivers do not stop in response to their signals or, if they do stop, they do not allow anyone to get in either.

The Government’s voluntarism, which has promised to expand “electric tricycle routes in the municipality of Boyeros” and study a “similar system” for Guanabacoa, does not hide what they themselves have acknowledged: “Currently, Havana has the lowest technical readiness coefficient of the last ten years”, Granma cites, based on statements by First Deputy Minister of Transportation, Marta Oramas Rivero.

Until April, Havana Provincial Transport Company only had 442 vehicles in operation, reports the same official press, which transported more than 580,000 people daily, “a figure that is far from the 780 buses scheduled three years ago, with 20% in reserve”.

Last Friday, the governor of the province, Reinaldo García Zapata, stated that “the situation is critical”, since only 30% of the total fleet of transport buses is active.

The authorities did not refer to the fuel crisis that, for a few days, has shaken the country again. They did mention “the energy issue”, only to announce “saving measures in the non-residential sector to reduce consumption during peak hours”.

At any rate, Cubans are resigned, although they can no longer stand the analyzing. “It’s one lie after another with the problem of electricity,” complained a man on crutches, while waiting for a bus this Monday in Central Havana, to which another man replied: “If they stopped building hotels, they could improve the state of the National Electric System.”

Translated by Norma Whiting

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In Havana, It is Not Two Men Who Are Judged, But a Symbol

Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo in Havana, when they were still free. (Anamely Ramos)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 31 May 2022 — The last Monday of May dawned cloudy and humid in Havana. However, it was not the possibility of a shower or the difficulties of getting around in a city paralyzed by the fuel crisis that were the main features of the day. In the Court of Marianao, a neighborhood in the western part of the Cuban capital, a trial is taking place that thousands of eyes are watching. The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and the rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo are the accused.

Although in recent months oral hearings against those who participated in the popular demonstrations of last July, or to sentence citizens who show their disagreement on social networks have become common, this week’s process marks a climax of repression in the country. Otero Alcántara is being tried, among other crimes, for placing the Cuban flag on his body for days, in an artistic action that has annoyed a ruling party that hijacked the national emblems for its particular ideological and partisan crusade.

For his part, Osorbo is blamed for having insulted the figure of the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel and for holding Prime Minister Manuel Marrero responsible for the lack of supplies in hospitals. Both accusations, with a prosecutor’s request for seven and ten years respectively, would hardly carry a small fine in democratic nations or, simply, would not constitute a crime under a rule of law. But the two artists have been in jail for long months and are only now being brought before a court, whose ruling is governed more by the whims of a group in power than by the rigors of justice.

To avoid showing solidarity with the defendants, the surroundings of the Court woke up under a strong police and security services operation, the telephone lines and Internet access of innumerable activists and independent journalists were cut, and an intense campaign of demonization was deployed on social networks to try to counter any show of support for Otero Alcántara and Osorbo. But the effect of this offensive seems to be just the opposite of what the regime is seeking: people who were not aware of the trial have found out after inquiring about the many uniformed men they have seen in that part of the city, and the insistence on defining them as “criminals” in the official media has aroused more sympathy than rejection.

In the hands of Castroism — like a hot potato that burns if held between the fingers and ridicules if it is dropped — are the lives of two young people who represent the failure of a system. Coming from a humble neighborhood, both were supposed to blindly embrace the political model established in the country more than six decades ago because, according to official propaganda, they are part of the sectors most favored by the Revolution. But instead of that, Otero Alcántara and Osorbo have denounced the lies and arbitrariness of the leaders in olive green, the poverty of their neighborhood of San Isidro and police impunity.

By arresting and judging them, the Cuban system itself is showing that it only accepts total obedience from citizens, never criticism or dissidence in any of its forms. It has turned them into a banner of the fragility of a citizenry that has been cut off from all peaceful paths to change the status quo.

In the next few days the sentence against the two artists will be known. It is very likely that they are sentences designed to send an exemplary message to the rest of the population. But the Cuban regime has already lost this battle, it can lock up their bodies for years but it will not be able to put behind bars the symbol they have become.

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Editorial Note: This text was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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Cuba: Confusion Over Andy Garcia’s Return to Prison Following his Release

Andy García Lorenzo on Monday in a video where he criticized the trial of Otero Alcántara and “Osorbo”, shortly before his re-arrest. (SailydeAmarillo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 31 May 2022 — Andy García Lorenzo, one of the July 11 (11J) prisoners released in Santa Clara last Wednesday, was newly arrested on Monday and his situation is confusing, although, according to the latest information, his transfer to an “open regimen”* was revoked and he must return to prison.

His sister, Roxana García Lorenzo, explained yesterday on Facebook via an unstable connection, that in the morning a summons which arrived at the house stated that Andy García must appear at the tribunal to be notified of the date on which he must appear at the camp to serve the rest of his sentence. The same message also reached the others released on the same conditions.

Andy García went to the designated location where they communicated that on Tuesday at 2 pm he must report to El Jabú, the labor camp where he was to continue his sentence. Shortly after, the young man went to the Guamajal prison accompanied by his father, Nedel García Pacheco to pick up some belongings which were still there. On his way back home, on motorcycle, both were detained “to talk” and they took them to the 5th unit in Santa Clara, according to activist Saily González Velázquez.

Roxana García, who went to the detention center seeking an explanation, denounced that she was treated “like a dog.” “After this, my brother came out barefoot, handcuffed with several police officers. Barefoot, that was incredible: all of them, quiet. My brother was the one who began to tell me ‘they revoked me, they revoked me.’ It is the only thing Andy was saying to me, with tremendous anger,” she said.

“I’m okay because soon your time will come. Your family will go through all of this because of you. What happened for Andy to be in the infirmary? Before all of this, Andy had to get some tests done due to kidney-related health problems. He is urinating blood. They didn’t even allow him to get the tests done,” she confirmed. continue reading

Pedro López, Roxana García’s father-in-law said, “this is Patria y Vida [homeland and life] until it’s over. The trial was a circus, they had to reduce his sentence because they realized they didn’t have any evidence against Andy and look what they do now: they arrest him arbitrarily and they take him. Then they don’t want us to say that this is a dictatorship. It is a dictatorship, it has no other name. We live in a dictatorship.”

Twenty-four-year-old Andy García Lorenzo had been sentenced to four years in prison on January 10th along with 15 other protesters who went out to the streets on July 11th.

Following an appeal, he was “released momentarily” on Wednesday, while awaiting “the completion of his sentence in an open prison,” announced his family who at that moment had warned that although they were happy he was by their side, they knew the struggle was not over.

In an interview shared by Cubanet, García Lorenzo had denounced that the few days he’d been on the street he was being subjected to constant surveillance, “Tracking! A caravan. They follow me everywhere. It’s incredible how they waste resources,” but he seemed proud of his participation in the 11J protests.

“How could I regret the act I’m most proud of in my life, that of all Cubans, the happiest day in history, the day in which the people rose up against the oppressor,” he said.

Hours before his arrest, on a video shared on social media, the young man also spoke of the trial of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo, which began on Monday and is expected to conclude today, Tuesday. “That trial is more than done. Injustice reigns in this country. Those of us that have been through those trials, that is a mockery. They will try to intimidate the people with that type of trial.”

“The San Isidro Movement has been an inspiration that, in the future, things can happen, future movements to finally create a party that will truly take on the communist Castro regime until there is multi-party system in this country. Freedom for my brothers and hopefully justice will truly be done and they will be released,” he added.

*Translator’s note: An “open regime” is similar to a labor camp, versus incarceration in a “regular” prison.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Arrests and Threats for Cuban Activists During the Trial of Alcantara and Osorbo

Caption: Police control access to the tribunal where the trial against the artists will take place in Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 30 May 2021 — On Monday, May 30th, an impenetrable operation guarded the Tribunal in Marianao in Havana, where the first day of the trial was held for Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo.

Some witnesses who were able to attend the oral arguments relayed to 14ymedio that, based on the behavior of the Tribunal and the Prosecutor, they sensed that the trial ended on Monday, though officially it is planned to last two days. Outside the building where the trial was held, the operation the regime maintained in the afternoon was impressive.

Patrol cars, ambulances, buses, countless undercover State Security agents and uniformed police remained in the surrounding area, confirmed artist Julio Llópiz-Casal, who attended along with painter Lázaro Saavedra, called by Alcántara’s defense.

Saavedra’s wife also attended but was unable to enter the tribunal. Without looking at a list he had in hand, she said, a State Security agent let the first two pass after looking at their faces and prevented her from entering.

According to Llópiz-Casal, who was only able to enter the courtroom where the trial was held when it was his turn to testify, the space was large and from where he was seated, he was unable to make eye contact with Alcántara. While he was testifying, the questions centered on emphasizing “his basis for endorsing [the activist’s] artistic trajectory.”

Moreover, the political police arrested actor Daniel Triana, reported independent journalist Claudia Padrón Cueto. Triana himself shared a video in which he declared his intention to leave his house “in protest” and solidarity with the prosecuted artists. Before crossing the threshold, he passed the phone to his sister, Amanda, who filmed how the agent that “attends him,” Adrián, attempted to block the actor and attack him and the young woman. “Call the patrol car because I’m going out,” Triana says to the opressor; he [Triana] managed to walk a few steps from his house and get lost in the distance.

Similarly, Camila Acosta was arrested while leaving her house. “Two police officers and two women dressed as civilians stopped me and put me, without explanation, into patrol car No. 786. I was headed to a meeting with my lawyer,” the journalist posted on her social media. “The State Security official let me go some 20 minutes later, when he spoke with his superiors, though not before warning me that my criminal case was still pending and I was under house arrest, and that “any crime” committed would aggravate my situation,” she explained, referring to the public disorder charge against her for reporting on July 11th. “I have not paid the fine they imposed last week,” Acosta explained. She recalled, “I signed an act of freedom, I am a free person (though in a dictatorship). Any arrest or preventing my public movement is a violation of my human rights.”

Dagoberto Valdés, director of Convivencia magazine, also received threats; he stated that a chief of police summoned him on Monday at 2 pm “in the sector” in Pinar del Río. continue reading

Since the early morning hours, part of 14ymedio‘s team in Havana has been without internet conection. On the ground floor of Luz Escobar‘s building, which is also without internet, there is already a guard to prevent her from leaving. Afrika Reina, a close friend of the artist and a member of the San Isidro Movement, has also denounced that an officer arrived at her house at 6:21 to tell her she could not leave nor go to the courtroom as she had intended. The journalist and activist María Matienzo is also under surveillance.

A white vehicle transported a Swedish diplomat who attempted to cross the police perimeter, but the agents did not allow it. (14ymedio)

Access to the Marianao Tribunal is closed and unauthorized vehicles are not allowed, as confirmed by 14ymedio. A white vehicle transporting a Swedish diplomat attempted to cross the police barrier, but the agents did not allow it. Outside it, international media, such as AFP and diplomats from Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands remained.

“We simply want to enter to observe the trial and until now we have not received permission,” said a German diplomat in statements made to international media, picked up by EFE. The diplomat added that they will continue placing “much attention” on the case and assured, “We want human rights to be respected in all places and countries.”

This daily counted at least one hundred agents guarding the location and several points under surveillance on 33rd street. Neighbors in that area added that, next to the nearby playground there was a rapid response brigade vehicle and there were undercover State Security agents at the street corners. The only cameras in the area were those of the state-run national television and the traffic is building, since the block is closed off.

Access to the Marianao Tribunal is closed and unauthorized vehicles cannot pass, as this newspaper confirmed. (14ymedio)

The trial began around 9:00 in the morning and during the previous days both opponents have been subjected to new arbitrariness by the authorities.

The artist and leader of the San Isidro Movement has been punished and not allowed to make phone calls for having released an audio recorded on May 17th and shared by Claudia Genlui. In it he spoke of the repression he has suffered in the last years, the regime’s offer to release him in exchange for exile, which he rejected; and of the fighting spirit he wishes to transmit to his son and all Cuban people. Otero Alcántara has been in Guanajay prison since July 2021 when he was arrested before he was able to join the protests on the 11th of that month.

For his part, Osorbo has been punished with a change of attorney a few hours before his trial and all the damage that could entail. The information was provided by Anamey Ramos, who on Friday explained that the rapper’s attorney, Ginett del Solar Vega, was disqualified by authorities.

These events occurred the day before when, during a visit to Villa Marista prison, where Maykel Castillo has been transferred after a year in detention, she was informed that “she had had some problems at the law firm and they had restricted her from trials until August 1st.” As of now, Yoilandris Savón is in charge of his defense.

“An act such as this is very suspicious, just days before the trial. For us it was pretty obvious that it was a new trap set by State Security, to which the Cuban judicial system lends itself. It is odd that an attorney is removed from trials that are already scheduled, in any case new contracts, and less than a week before the trial,” said Ramos who demanded answers from the law firm and again requested that foreign press, diplomats on the Island and foreign governments cover the proceedings which began on Monday.

About twenty Cuban exiles met at Callao plaza in Madrid, among them Yunior García Aguilera, Mónica Baró, Hamlet Lavastida, Carolina Barrero, Yanelis Núñez and Heidi Hassan. (Facebook/Alicia Fernandez Acebo)

This morning, some Spanish media outlets extensively covered the start of the trial.

On social media, the San Isidro Movement has also requested support from the population, through the promotion of hashtags #freeMaykelOsorbo #FreeLuisma and #LibertadParaLosPresosPoliticos. Furthermore, several actions are planned abroad. In Miami, at 6 pm, a human chain will be formed outside the Hermitage of Our Lady of Charity, while in Madrid a similar activity took place outside the Sun Gate at 7 pm.

On social media, the San Isidro Movement has also requested support from the population, through the promotion of hashtags #freeMaykelOsorbo #FreeLuisma and #LibertadParaLosPresosPoliticos. The small protest in the Spanish capital was attended by about twenty Cubans, among them Yunior García Aguilera, Mónica Baró, Yanelis Núñez, Heidi Hassan, Hamlet Lavastida and Carolina Barrero, who met at Callao plaza and marched along Preciados street to the Sun Gate.

Otero Alcántara is facing seven years in prison for aggravated contempt, public disorder and instigating a crime while prosecutors seek for Osorbo ten years for assault, public disorder and evasion by a prisoner or a person under arrest.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued a joint statement requesting support from the international community for what they consider a trial for “exercising their human right to criticize their own Government… Latin American governments should not remain silent when artists are threatened with prison sentences, a demonstration of extreme intolerance typical of the brutal dictatorships that governed the region in the past.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Regime Prevents Saily Gonzalez from Going to U.S. to Attend Summit of the Americas

Saily González, a businesswoman and activist from Villa Clara, asked the other governments to advocate for the participation of Cuban dissidents. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, May 29, 2022 — Villa Clara businesswoman and activist Saily Gonzalez was informed by State Security that she would not be allowed to attend the ninth Summit of the Americas, which she was invited to attend as a representative of Cuban civil society.

Word was sent through her family that the activist will not be allowed to pick up her visa at the United States Embassy in Havana. She received a summons from the political police, who notified her of the travel ban and also reminded her that she was still the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.

“To do so they brought an arbitrary criminal proceeding against me for urging people to join the civic march for change on November 15. They resort to this whenever they see fit,” Gonzalez denounced on Twitter. At the Criminal Investigation offices, Gonzalez was met by an agent going by the name “Daniel,” who has arrested her twice before, on November 20 and January 13.

The young activist insists that, in spite of the threats against her, she still plans on participating in the Summit of the Americas, which will be held from June 6 to June 8 in Los Angeles, California. Gonzalez was planning on flying to Los Angeles on Saturday at 11:50 A.M.

Gonzalez called on the region’s democratic governments to lobby for the participation of Cuban civil society and the dissident community in the summit. She anticipates she will not be the only one barred from attending. “I think it’s time to act like the regional bloc we are and demand that Cubans be allowed to participate, that the Cuba government allow Cubans to participate in this summit,” she says. “Of course they’re not going to invite government representatives. Those people represent absolutely no one.” continue reading

This week the U.S. government confirmed that it was not inviting Venezuelan or Cuban officials to the Summit of the Americas but has still not confirmed whether or not it has extended invitations to their Cuban counterparts.

When asked on Thursday by Senator Marco Rubio if Cuba had been invited, summit coordinator Kevin O’Reilly responded, “Not to my knowledge, sir.” In explaining the U.S. government’s position, O’Reilly stated, “We want to have as broad a participation from civil society [as possible] from every country where authoritarians or dictators are seeking to snuff out public debate.”

In a series of four tweets posted Wednesday night, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel criticized Washington’s handling of the event and stated, “In no case will I attend.”

“It is well known that the government of the United States conceived the Summit of the Americas as a non-inclusive event. It was its intention from the beginning to exclude several countries, among them Cuba, in spite of strong regional demands to do away with such exclusions,” he wrote.

In reaction to Cuba and other possibly other countries being sidelined, Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he will attend only if everyone is invited. Bolivian president Luis Arce and Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei have also indicated their attendance is conditional. Likewise, Argentina’s Alberto Fernandez and the Hondura’s Xiomara Castro have also raised doubts about their attendance for similar reasons.

After announcing that it would not attend the Summit of the Americas, Cuba proposed holding an improvised ALBA summit with leaders of countries the United States has described as undemocratic.

Text of Tweet: I am counting on social actors from other countries whose governments do not behave in the same arbitrary way towards civil society as the Cuban government, which is denying us the opportunity to attend the IX Summit of the Americas. @CumbreAmericas pic.twitter.com/kihviYVBoy — Saily Gonzalez Velazquez (@SailydeAmarillo) May 27, 2022

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Audience Shouts ‘Freedom’ During Carlos Varela Concert in Havana’s Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum

Carlos Varela’s performance this Saturday in Havana, when cries of “freedom” were heard. (Arbol Invertido)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 30 May 2022 — Cries of “libertad” [freedom] crept in on more than one occasion during Carlos Varela’s performance this Sunday at the Havana World Music Festival, at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum in Havana.

The audience chanted the word at two moments, first when he finished singing Foto de familia, and later when he was interpreting La feria de los tontos [The Fair of Fools], according to what concert attendees shared with this newspaper. At the end of his performance, the singer-songwriter shouted “Viva Cuba libre” and thanked the organizers – with Eme Alfonso at the head – of the event, whom he praised for “having the ovaries” to invite him to sing in Cuba.

Text in tweet: It’s thrilling… the young people shouting “Libertad” [Freedom] from the Sports City Coliseum in Havana… it is the roar of a people silenced by repression and prison… the night will not be eternal! #Libertad

The singer-songwriter Carlos Varela became the musical spokesman for the desire for change in Cuba, especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the winds of perestroika and glasnost arrived from the USSR, which allowed the countries of Eastern Europe break free from Moscow’s influence.

At that time, his song Guillermo Tell [William Tell] became an anthem, where he talks about the need for a generational change of power in Cuba. This, along with other themes such as Jalisco Park, were not only manifestations of the desire for democracy in Cuba, they also portrayed the reality at that time, during what called the ‘Special Period’.

Text in Tweet: According to sources who attended the Saturday concert in the Ciudad Deportiva, #Havana, the public screamed #LIBERTAD [Freedom] during the Carlos Verala @noeselfin concert as in the ’80s and ’90s he was in favor of the majority demanding change in #Cuba.

These positions led to ostracism and censorship. Varela has frequently been away from major Cuban events and his participation in this concert, in which Buena Fe and Haydée Milanés were also present, is striking. The official press, which covered the activity, barely mentioned the artist and did not, as might be expected, mention the exciting moment when the word “freedom” was heard shouted from the stands.

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No. The Cuban Agricultural Sector is Not Doing Well

Farmers believe that the new measures only support “on paper” what they had already been doing. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 25 May 2022 — The worst thing that can be done to a person is to deceive him or take him for a fool, or both at the same time. This is what can be concluded from the Round Table program in which the Castroite Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez, participated, and which Cubadebate has outlined with an article entitled “A year after their approval, how are the 63 measures to boost agriculture going?”

Well, they’re going badly. Very badly. They don’t produce the expected effects, no matter how much makeup you put on them, and now, in addition, as a council of economists in Davos warns in a quarterly report, a global food crisis is coming that won’t pass by Cuba, far from it. As happens in these cases, the blame for everything lies with the American embargo, and the rest is a mere formality.

It was another Roundtable program wasted for Cubans, in which Randy Alonso limited himself to agreeing with everything the communist minister said. Yes, the regime is concerned with looking for solutions and energizing agricultural production; yes, the processes in agriculture take time and some are long; yes, there are 63 measures and 658 actions with measurable goals and indicators, which are accountable to their promoters, and endless explanatory arguments that don’t convince anyone because once again they entertain themselves with indicators of process and not with the results, when what really matters to people is being able to eat every day. Very communist.

I ask, what Cuban is interested in the ministry’s decisions being divided into seven groups related to the management and finances of the agricultural system, the productive program, the cooperative system, the cadres of the sector, science, innovation and communication or the agricultural communities? What Cuban is interested in knowing that 16 agricultural policies, seven decree laws, 11 decrees and 19 resolutions have already been approved, to favor and unblock issues related to production? What Cuban is interested in knowing that the National Assembly recently approved the Law on Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutrition Security? As if hunger and food shortages were resolved by publishing laws and more laws. continue reading

The minister missed a golden opportunity to assume responsibility and speak clearly about why there is a lack of food in Cuba. Surely he knows why and also that getting lost in talking about a process indicator does nothing more than bore an audience that doesn’t give a damn that there is a reorganization of the ministry or that the role of the municipalities is strengthened, passing employees from one place to the other, as well as Raúl Castro’s old idea of producing in pots, parks and gardens.

At one point in his speech, the minister alluded to the restructuring of companies, which have reduced their workforce by 39%, especially the OSDEs*, which, out of an average of 180 contracted workers, now have fewer than 70. To avoid panic, he said that it’s not a matter of leaving people unemployed, but of “relocating them” and cited the example of “comrades who were heads of UEB** who today are heads of an irrigation-machine labor collective.” In other words, UEBs don’t help much, if budget tables can be dispensed with.

The minister said that “we need to look for more people dedicated to production.” it seems that he doesn’t have enough, that almost 20% of the employed population in Cuba is in the agricultural sector, and he wants more people producing with the result of lower productivity. On the other hand, he talked about “inflated structures” so we don’t really know what to expect.

He also talked about increasing foreign investment, recognizing that not enough progress has been made in agriculture. In fact, it has been on the margins of the projects, due to the legal structure of property rights that has to change.

He referred to the agricultural development bank, which in his opinion “has been very well received by producers,” but in reality has a marginal existence, since only 1.8 billion pesos were granted last year “mainly to producers linked to pig production, cattle ranching, and the cultivation of rice, bananas, cassava and guava” without significant increases in production, as revealed by ONEI*** data.

Other beneficiary products such as tomatoes, soybeans, pigs and livestock, in addition to rice, beans, corn, potatoes, bananas, cassava and sweet potatoes, also did not experience any improvements, with the exception of tomatoes. The 18,282 credits approved do not reach 10% of tenants and independent producers, and the 5 billion pesos are a drop in the bucket for the real needs of the sector. The farmers have turned their backs on the “dynamizing measures” of agricultural production. They have done the right thing.

Then, after talking about the need for more labor in agriculture, the minister said that “there is a lot of land to be exploited,” and in this case, once again, the direct responsibility is his. In reality, if “idle or poorly exploited land remains in Cuba, a problem to be solved in order to raise production,” the regime has to recognize that collective ownership of land is a strategic error and that it should be transformed into private property, as the Chinese and the Vietnamese did.

If the minister wants “our people to feel that making the land produce is part of their life project,” what has to be done is to give the land to those who work it, but with all the consequences, so that its use can be increased, reduced, sold, rented, or freely decided without ideological or partisan slogans, only with the criteria of efficiency and profitability.

The minister doesn’t seem to bet on this. For him, it’s more important to take care of labor groups as part of the land delivery process. He cited the more than 1,500 labor groups, with almost 15,000 workers, who could benefit from the approved measures, but acknowledged “that they’re not received everywhere in the same way (…) We find problems with the bosses, because they don’t change their methods. That doesn’t create a sense of belonging in the workers, and we need efficient management there as well.”

With regard to the delivery of land, the minister was critical and pointed out the delays in meeting the deadlines and resistance of the administrations to deliver idle land. The picture is bleak: premature requests that have to be resolved through political management, many more in process and the people going hungry.

The minister spoke of “working more intentionally with producers, approaching them and offering land to them.” But he stressed in this regard that “we don’t want to concentrate the ownership of the land in usufruct [a form of leasing], but in the management of that land.” And it was justified by the delivery of land for livestock, because of more than 7,000 hectares of land delivered, due to the lack of imported feed, no increases in production have been achieved.

In livestock production, milk and meat, the minister spoke of the recovery of more than 1,000 typical dairy farms, as well as the efficiency of the more than 150,000 producers, the 27,000 ranchers with 10 or more cows that “are key in our plans and we are visiting them” to give them land. Apparently it doesn’t work; they want to give them up to 555 acres of land but the average is around 165. No one wants to contribute their work and effort to something that will never be theirs. Let’s see when they learn. The minister acknowledged that there is a decrease in the livestock mass and said that “we have just over 3.5 million head of cattle, but only 40% of our cows give birth. Although we are complying with the milk plan, this is an area where more can also be done.”

In organic farming, the minister pointed out that the cultivated areas have grown but are insufficient. For example, bananas need 70,000 more acres, while malanga needs another 27,000 and cassava needs more than 125,000. The disturbing question is who decides which areas are organically cultivated, how and why?

He also pointed out that in the cultivation of food and vegetables, “more could be done” and cited as an example the autonomy of municipalities to agree on prices as a stimulus to production, while helping not to raise costs excessively, in his plans is to recover urban agriculture.

At another point he said that in Cuba there are 4,494 cooperatives and more than 400,000 producers and noted that “in the Political Bureau, 17 solutions for cooperatives were approved, and work is currently being done on a new legal norm that gives them more independence.” The organizational form is in crisis.

Regarding the training of cadres, with which he was dissatisfied, he pointed out that work is being done on skills and on the projection of the cadre and insisted that “we have to continue to improve work with young people.”

He reserved another part to talk about the role of scientists and science, which in his opinion has allowed progress in innovation-based management having achieved “247 innovations, 33 topics and 117 indications from the president.” In this regard, he said that “dissatisfaction persists. We must look for mechanisms that allow what has been achieved in one producer to spread more quickly to others.”

In summary, the minister defended the implementation of the 63 agricultural measures by justifying their positive impact, but didn’t offer a single indicator of improvement results. The recent publication of ONEI still gave figures very close to the negative balance of the agricultural sector in 2021. Therefore, following the lines of Minister Gil, the head of agriculture joined the official speech that “progress is being made, although we can’t feel pleased. We are totally dissatisfied.”

The question is, what gradual progress should be achieved to be satisfied with something that obviously doesn’t work? Because at this rate, either a new model for the Cuban agricultural sector is identified, or the food crisis anticipated by analysts and experts is closer than ever.

And it may be true that the solution is not to import consumables, as the minister said, but to find a way to produce them here, but perhaps others should look for and implement solutions. Cubans can’t be fooled any longer. Don’t take them for fools. Their daily meal is not secure. Things are getting worse and worse.

Translator’s notes:
*Organizaciones Superiores de Dirección Empresarial [Higher Organizations of Business Management]
**Unidad Empresarial de Base [Basic Business Unit]
***Oficina National de Estadisticas e Información [National Office of Statistics and Information]

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.

Cubans Pay 30,000 Dollars to Avoid Getting Killed in Mexico

Bárbara Rodríguez Téllez and her son Sadiel González were kidnapped in Mexico, they were threatened and after paying an extortion they were released. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 May 2022 — “A miracle we are alive,” said Bárbara Rodríguez Téllez. This Cuban woman told CNN en Español the nightmare she experienced while being held captive for 26 days in the border city of Ciudad Juárez across from El Paso, Texas. “Seeing that they could kill my son… They would point a gun at me here [pointing at her neck] and make him kneel down. If I didn’t say what they told me, they would kill my son.”

Rodríguez and González left the island on March 17. They flew to Nicaragua and began the journey in search of reaching the United States. After almost two months of travel and a few kilometers from the border in Ciudad Juárez, an armed group stopped the bus in which they were traveling.

“There they take us to a place on the left side of the highway, a few kilometers inside, which is like a desert,” said González, keeping them in the bus for 26 days. And it was thanks to her aunts, her mother’s sisters living in the US, that they were able to pay the money they demanded to be released. “They’ve spent almost $30,000 on the two of us.” continue reading

Human trafficking is one of the most profitable illicit activities. Recently, it has been estimated that the income of smugglers who traffic migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States was almost 7 billion dollars per year, according to figures from the National Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean.

This mother and son crossed into the United States, but were returned. Gónzález insisted that they will remain in the refuge, waiting for a resolution, because to “Cuba, I will not return.”

The area of ​​Ciudad Juárez, where Rodríguez and González were kidnapped, is controlled by the Juárez Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the latter under the command of Nemesio Oserguera Cervantes, El Mencho , for whom the US State Department is offering an award of 10 million dollars.

Faced with the flow of migrants seeking to reach the US, Mexican cartels have extended their tentacles to illegal human trafficking. In December of last year, the Government of Mexico recognized that there were networks operating from countries in South and Central America, which charge each migrant between 5,000 and 15,000 dollars with the promise of taking them to US territory.

“It is a criminal organization that is putting many people at risk,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told the media that same month.

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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.