Political Prisoners Inspire Cuban Boxer Yordenis Ugas in the Ring

Yordenis Ugás has adhered to the motto Patria y Vida and demands freedom for political prisoners. (Twitter)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2022 — The fight that has been described as “the most important of his career,” has been dedicated by the Cuban boxer Yordenis Ugás to the political prisoners of the Island, as published on his social networks.

“My fight, as always, is representing our island, Cuba, but especially to all those who want and wish for change. To all the political prisoners, to all the prisoners of 7/11. To all of us who suffered exile for thinking differently and because a person can’t live in our country. Thank you. Patria y vida,” wrote the current professional boxing world champion on Instagram.

The boxer competes this Saturday against the unified world champion, the American Errol Spence Jr., at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Dallas, Texas. Both athletes will seek to unify the welterweight titles of the Association and the World Boxing Council, as well as the International Boxing Federation.

Ugás, along with his words on social networks, added a video where a compatriot wishes him luck in the competition, and the boxer turns to greet him. “Thanks to each person who is coming to this stadium to support me, especially my Cubans, who are few but for me they are worth thousands,” he wrote. continue reading

Yordenis Ugás is a Cuban boxer who, in addition to hooks and rings, also knows very well the drama that thousands of his compatriots experience daily when they leave the Island.

In March 2010, he left his country on a boat, with the goal of reaching the United States, but before that he made a stopover in Isla Mujeres, opposite Cancun, Mexico.

At the age of 24, he left his mother, Milagros, and the rest of his family in Santiago de Cuba. His future was in the power of his fists, though just one year out of training he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

In September 2020, he was crowned the welterweight world boxing champion and in August 2021, Ugás defeated Manny Pacquiao in the ring; Pacquiao had tried to recover the title that the Cuban had won a year earlier.

____________

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.

Cuban Musician José Luis Cortés ‘El Tosco’ Dies at 70

The flutist, composer and musical director, José Luis Cortés, was born in Villa Clara on October 5, 1951. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 18 April 2022 — Cuban musician José Luis Cortés El Tosco died this Monday in Havana at the age of 70, sources close to the artist informed 14ymedio, confirming that the director of NG La Banda had been having health problems for a few months.

Although the cause of death has not been revealed, the sources affirm that “he had heart problems.”

The flutist, composer and musical director was born in Villa Clara on October 5, 1951. In his long artistic career he played with the Los Van Van orchestra, of which he was the founder, and the Irakere orchestra, conducted by Chucho Valdés, where he composed works that became popular.

In 1988, together with other musicians, he decided to found the Nueva Generación NG La Banda orchestra, which he directed until his death. Among the group’s best-known songs, performed by vocalists such as Issac Delgado and Tony Calá, are La brujaÉchale Limón y NG La Banda, La que manda. continue reading

On several occasions, El Tosco was involved in numerous controversies. One of them was involved statements about the Buena Vista Social Club group, which he called a “damn lie.”

He also quoted Manolín El Médico de la Salsa to say that “Miami is the graveyard of Cuban musicians…  Issac Delgado himself, when things were bad, had to turn back to Havana,” Cortés argued in an interview, pointing out that Delgado had emigrated to the United States several decades ago and later returned to make musical collaborations in the Island

The musician was denounced in 2019 by the singer Dianelys Alfonso Cartaya, known as La Diosa , for alleged domestic violence, revealing alleged abuse towards her person by El Tosco at the time they worked together in NG La Banda. Alfonso, according to her reports weeks later, managed to file a lawsuit against Cortés.

The official newspaper Granma , when reporting the death of El Tosco, recalled that the artist received the National Music Award in 2017 and “is considered one of the creators of the new school of flutists of our popular music and precursor of timba.”

____________

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.

Miami Hosts an Exhibition by Imprisoned Cuban Artist Otero Alcantara

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement (Photo: EFE/Yander Zamora)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Miami/Havana 17 April 2022 — An exhibition dedicated to the work of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the leaders of the San Isidro Movement, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since last July, will open this week in Miami with the help of various institutions.

“Alcantara, Artist imprisoned in Cuba,” shows the works that the artist’s partner, art curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo, took out of Cuba last November and brought to Miami.

Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, the day that the biggest protests ever broke out against the government and in favor of change in Cuba since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Otero is being held in a prison in Guanajay.

The exhibition, which will open its doors to the public from April 22 at The ArtSpace gallery, has been curated by Claudia Genlui Hidalgo and supported by the Bacardí Family Foundation, El Espacio 23 — owned by Cuban-born businessman Jorge Pérez — and I’ve Been Framed.

“His life has become a great performance, an exercise in constant resistance,” says Genlui about Otero Alcántara. continue reading

The art curator reported through social networks that last Saturday Otero Alcántara’s relatives visited him in prison and found him “in better spirits,” but “in poor health.”

The Cuban artist continues to have vision problems while the authorities have refused his demand to provide him with specialized medical care, Genlui Hidalgo denounced on Facebook.

Otero Alcántara’s health has deteriorated as a result of several hunger strikes, before and during his imprisonment.

In early April, his relatives reported that Otero Alcántara could be suffering from a severe eye disease after the partial paralysis he suffered during his last hunger strike.

“Everything that happens to Luis is the responsibility of the Cuban government, which is determined to isolate and torture him,” Genlui stressed.

At the beginning of April, the Cuban Prosecutor’s Office informed, after months of waiting, of the sentence request that they will make to the court that that will try Maykel ’Osorbo’ Castillo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: ten years for the first and seven for the second.

The information was released by the Osorbo Facebook account; he has been imprisoned since May 18, 2021.

Both artists share the same case, in which they are accused of aggravated contempt, public disorder and instigation to commit a crime for going out on the street, in front of the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Old Havana to sing Patria y Vida among the neighbors, on April 4, 2021. Alcántara also has been accused of outrage against national symbols for his work of art titled Drapeau.

____________

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.

Maray Suarez, the Scourge of the Common People on Cuban TV, Rebuilds Her Life in Miami

Maray Suárez has replaced political slogans with mantras of personal growth. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 18 April 2022 — She entered and took a seat on one of the wooden benches of the Municipal Court of Playa where, that August 2008, the musician Gorki Águila was being tried. The large hall was packed. There were bloggers, dissidents and activists; but also agents of the political police and official journalists. Shortly after, Maray Suárez delivered a report on Cuban television, speaking out against the rocker and his friends. She now lives in Miami.

Since that time in Cuba, the reporter began to gain space on the small screen and in August 2013, with the launching of the program Cuba Dice (Cuba Says), she became one of the faces of Raulista journalism along with Talía González, Gisela García and Boris Fuentes. Every Tuesday, they were seen blaming citizens and officials, but without ever questioning the political model or the men in power. Suárez was one of the most combative.

That space acted as a judge of those who immersed themselves in the black market to buy a bag of cement, as a whip for those who tried to survive by selling imported products, for the self-employed workers who pushed the iron limits imposed by their license, and for any entrepreneur who dared to accumulate some wealth. It was the scourge of the common people and the spearhead of a policy of “falling in line” with society, promoted by a general for whom no one had voted for the position of president.

Almost a decade after that news reporting experiment saw the light of day, the journalist has been professionally recycled and now works as an emotional ‘coach’ in that country to which she dedicated so many attacks. She now wears fancy clothes, smiles for the camera, and warns her followers not to “let anyone steal” their light. She has replaced her slogans continue reading

with mantras of personal growth, and her ideological attacks with phrases interspersed with  words like “success,” “emotions” and “overcoming.”

Many of the people who were denigrated and demonized in Maray Suárez’s reports are still in Cuba. Having been mentioned by her on prime time national television brought them problems in their communities, rejection by their more dogmatic neighbors, the harassment of their children in schools, and even other mental health problems due to so many pressures and abuses of power.

“You can create a new life for yourself regardless of the moment or how old you are,” the new happiness coach now announces on her social networks. However, some of the victims of her barricade journalism will never have that option. They were overwhelmed and their names sullied without the right to reply. In her current job, Maray Suárez must know that any process of personal change must also include review and self-criticism. We are waiting for her to do hers.

____________

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.

Public Displays of Affection, Cuban Dictatorship Edition

Lis Cuesta with Miguel Díaz-Canel. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger Alexis Romay, New Jersey, 16 April 2022

 

Díaz-Canel has a wife
whose tackiness knows no bounds.
It’s not as cute as it sounds,
in the midst of Cuba’s strife,
when she says that, in her life,
he’s “The Dictator.” For sure!
(Lis Cuesta is done with demure.)
Cubans long to live in peace.
That regime is a disease,
and we are ready for the cure.

____________

Author’s note: This text is my recreation and condensation, in English, of my décimas published this week in the Spanish edition of 14ymedio. Remember, this post is considered a crime by the Cuban government.

____________

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.

Mexican Police Identify Cubans by Their ‘Tennies’ and Extort Them to Cross the Rio Grande

The passage of Cubans through Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras, in the state of Coahuila, to Texas (USA) increased in the last week. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger 14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 14 April 2022 — There is no official figure, but “this week on average almost 1,300 people a day crossed the Rio Grande from the Mexican city of Piedras Negras (Coahuila) to Eagle Pass (USA),” Francisco Manrique, a member of Mexican government’s Grupo Beta de Protección a Migrantes, confirms to 14ymedio.

“The Cubans reach the banks of the river in groups of up to 60 people with Nicaraguans and some Venezuelans,” says the rescuer. “If we talk about Acuña and Piedras Negras, the passage of Antilleans through the channel exceeds 300.”

Some of these crossings were captured by journalist Ricardo Arambarri from Univisión. He verified the persecution of municipal police against a group of at least 17 Cubans who were running towards the river. “It is as if the floodgates were opened so that they could reach the water.” Some fall and manage to get up to reach their goal, others are caught.

“The municipal and liaison police chase those who don’t pay,” says Joel Santos, a resident of Guerrero Street, which is less than 10 minutes away from the so-called Black Railroad Bridge, in Piedras Negras. “These people are passing through there. When the patrols see them, they stop them and charge them money to let them reach the shore.” continue reading

Santos affirms that Haitians, Salvadorans and Guatemalans are charged in pesos, “about 100 or 200” ($5 to $10 USD), but Cubans, “they ask for 100 dollars.” They are distinguished by the way they dress, affirms the local, “the brand of tennis shoes, the clothes” and some are blond or dark-haired with blue or green eyes.

These extortions had already been documented by Ramón Tejera, when police stopped the bus in Ciudad Acuña in which he was traveling with several migrants, all with a transit safe-conduct pass. On their way to the US border, Cubans pay fees to police at checkpoints and those who do not are detained, even if they have permits to be in the country. For not paying a bribe to Immigration, Tejera was returned to the Island along with his wife and daughter.

The Facebook user identified as José López published a video on Facebook on Wednesday in which Coahuila Specialized Police agents are observed extorting money from Central American migrants. Given the evidence, three people were arrested. The Secretary of State Public Security, Sonia Villarreal Pérez reported this Thursday while opening an investigation for the “collection of fees from foreigners at a checkpoint.”

The possibility for parole (being allowed entry to the US) for Cubans announced in March has increased the migratory flow through Ciudad Acuña to reach Del Río (USA), and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) has publicized that the Cuban government’s recently announced policy that it will not accept back to the Island Cubans deported by the Biden government. This “will generate a bigger problem for Coahuila,” said Manrique, a rescuer from Grupo Beta. “This can overwhelm us, we are already seeing it.”

This is no time to challenge the Rio Grande. Local media carry out night tours, in which they have videotaped the passage of Cubans under the Black Railway Bridge. ImpactoVisión Noticias shared the moment in which a family, including four adults and two minors, manage to arrive in Texas.

Among the figures the Rio Grande generates, is the record of deaths. As of this Thursday, Civil Protection reports 47 deaths in attempts to reach the US. This Wednesday morning, the discovery of a body was reported at the height of the Morelos neighborhood. Two more, one person from the Dominican Republic, were confirmed by Eagle Pass authorities and in the afternoon neighbors reported a body floating yards from the border bridge.

____________

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.

The Good Friday Way of the Cross Returns to Havana After Two Years of the Pandemic

The Good Friday procession of the Cross passes through a street in Old Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Raquel Martori, Havana | 16 The Good Friday Stations of the Cross once again returned to the streets of Havana after two years of isolation for Cuban Catholics due to the crisis generated by the covid-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of people of all ages — most of them adults — joined the procession that started from the parish of Cristo del Buen Viaje, a church in the historic center of the Cuban capital, to walk the path of the 14 stations that marked the passage the religious act, which represents the death of Jesus.

At the exit of the procession, the vicar general and chancellor of the Archdiocese of Havana, Ramón Suárez Polcari, urged the faithful to “remain firm in faith and good work.”

A group of believers carried the images of Jesus of Nazareth — carrying his cross and crowned with thorns — and the Virgin Mary of Sorrows through the narrow alleys of the oldest and most popular area of ​​Havana.

The Virgin Mary of Sorrows is carried through the narrow alleys of the oldest and most popular area of ​​Havana. (EFE)

The procession – presided over by the Cardinal and Archbishop of Havana, Juan de la Caridad García, brought together priests, nuns, deacons and faithful, accompanied by a car with a speaker, from which songs were broadcast. continue reading

But also prayers for Cuba, with voices in favor of solidarity, forgiveness, faith, respect for values, reconciliation, overcoming divisions, as well as for those who must ensure the common good and particularly those most in need.

Residents and onlookers watched the Stations of the Cross standing at the doors of their homes, on the sidewalks or from the tops of balconies and rooftops over more than a kilometer, with the penultimate stop at the imposing Havana Cathedral and ending at the rhythm of a funeral march in the church of the Holy Angel.

The procession also attracted the eyes of numerous tourists who walked through the area most frequented by tourists in Havana.

Ana María Martínez, arriving early at the Buen Viaje temple of which she is practically a neighbor, said that she was moved “by a great faith, because I will always have it.” According to what she told Efe, she has been left without a family: her only sister died from covid and her nephews live in the United States.

“I have great hope that life will return to the way it was before, although we continue to suffer from this disease. There are many people who have not lost faith and today I have come to ask God to help me,” she said.

A few meters away, Adrián Rodríguez, a 27-year-old who supported the organization of the Stations of the Cross, considered it “very important” that it could be carried out because it gives hope to “move forward,” after the country’s economic situation had deteriorated, which in his opinion “has had repercussions at the community level with the increase in faith,” although it has also triggered emigration.

In 2012, the then Pope Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to Cuba, during which he asked the then president of the island, Raúl Castro, to restore the commemoration of Good Friday as a holiday, which had been suspended for almost half a century.

That year and the next, the Cuban government declared Good Friday an “exceptional” holiday in consideration of the Pope’s request and since 2014 has considered that Christian date as official in the island’s calendar.

In Cuba, with more than 11.2 million inhabitants, it is estimated that 60% of the population is Catholic, according to the number of people baptized on the island.

The relations between the Catholic Churches and the Government experienced tensions at the beginning of the revolution in 1959, and for years later the ups and downs continued until the beginning of the 1990s, when there was a  transition to a relaxation, especially since the historic visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998, which was followed by that of Benedict XVI and the current Pontiff Francis.

____________

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.

Madrid, the New Miami for the Latin American Dissidence

A woman attends a protest at Puerta del Sol, in Madrid, in support of the 15N (15 November) demonstrations, in Cuba. (EFE/Kiko Huesca)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Macarena Soto, Madrid, 16 April 2022 — Madrid has become, in recent months, a place of “refuge” for Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan dissidents who have found other opponents in the Spanish capital and another tone from which to raise their voices against the governments of their countries.

Ever since Venezuelan opponents such as businessman Leopoldo López Gil, currently a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), and the former mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, arrived in Spain, there has been a constant trickle of personalities who have chosen the European country to live in “exile” from which to continue with their struggle.

“I first went to the United States because I have a family and I had businesses, but leaving is very difficult, one needs a certain social blanket, human warmth, and I couldn’t get it in California,” López Gil told EFE.

During a visit to Barcelona, ​​he realized that Spain would offer him a better welcome: “the human interest in our case was infinite compared to that of the United States, so I began to stay here and immediately gained friendships and great support.”

For the writer Gioconda Belli, who after visiting her daughter in the United States was unable to return to Nicaragua, Spain has been “that embrace of solidarity” that every migrant wants to find upon arrival in a foreign country. continue reading

“Here we speak our language, Spain has a very positive attitude in relation to certain people in Latin American exile, we have found that embrace of solidarity and that means everything when you have to leave your country,” she told EFE.

Belli is taking her period of “exile” as a “job for Nicaragua” to demand the freedom of political prisoners.

“Leaving your country is one of the most difficult things a human being goes through, leaving your way of life, you need so much emotional support to recover and not fall apart,” analyzes the writer, who defends that this wave of migration of dissidents will be “a contribution to Spain.”

Her compatriot and former vice president of Nicaragua, Sergio Ramírez, expresses himself along the same lines, finding that, even in times of the Spanish dictatorship, Madrid was a refuge.

“Like Paris, they have been two recurrent destinations for Latin American writers, and the waves of exile that occur very often in Latin America often end up in Madrid. Now we meet here many writers, artists, academics, students, workers who, due to economic hardship, come looking for work,” he adds.

For former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, these opponents are emigrating to Spain because there is an “indissoluble link” with Latin America and he defends that migrations generate “the mixture of races” that defines the region.

“I am the son of an Italian immigrant from the south who arrived in Venezuela and his first job was selling ice cream, thus, this is a reunion with the ancestors,” he says about his arrival in Europe.

The historical threads between Spain and Latin America also offer more favorable legal conditions for the stays of Latin Americans in European territory than those received by citizens of other regions.

This is echoed by Ledezma, who recalls that this is another of the reasons why Venezuelans settle in Spain, and are the most numerous Latin American nationality present in the country.

Spain has also opened the door to citizens with dual nationality who have fled their countries due to the current political situation, such as the Cubans Carolina Barrero and Liliana Hernández.

Those without dual citizenship also find other incentives, such as the Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera, one of the promoters of the peaceful marches against the Cuban government, who indicates that in his case he chose Madrid for its relationship with culture.

García believes that Miami, in the minds of Cubans, is a place “to prosper economically” and those who have more to do “with thought, choose Madrid.”

In addition, he analyzes the Cuban opposition in Miami and believes that it is “seen by the regime’s propaganda as a more resentful opposition, with a harsher discourse.”

“Obviously, many Cubans live in Miami who lost everything they had or risked their lives to get there; those who lived through the worst of the dictatorship and have another pain that translates into resentment,” he says.

Despite this, he believes that the “pain” of the exiles in Spain “is not less”: “Sometimes it might seem that they have less pain and less resentment, but when one digs deeper one realizes that there is the same pain wherever they are, although perhaps from here the speech has been less rabid.”

*Translator’s note: See link for 15N (15 November) protests in Cuba 

____________

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.

Help for Two Cuban ‘Rafters’ who Arrived in the Florida Keys Suffering From Hypothermia

One of the boats in which eight Cubans arrived at the Florida Keys (Twitter/@USBPChiefMIP)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 April 2022 —  Two of the eight ’rafters’ who reached land in the Florida Keys had to be taken to hospital as they were suffering from “hypothermia,” according to information in social media published by Walter N. Slosar, Border Patrol agent in Miami. The migrants were detained on two separate occasions.

The number of people arriving by boat went up at the beginning of April, when the border official reported “77 persons from four different countries” in two days. Included among these were 15 Cubans, who were arrested when they arrived at Cayo Hueso.

The Coastguard has intercepted 730 boats arriving by sea since October 1, 2021. The background of the exodus of Cubans to Florida has data current to March. Sixteen from the island were arrested on the 17th. This group joins that of March 12, when another 17 migrants were arrested, who also landed in the Keys. Up to that point, agent Slosar recorded more than 60 maritime smuggling incidents.

According to the data of the United States Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the last five months have seen a total of 47,331 Cubans as illegal  immigrants coming overland to the country, by way of the Mexican border. In February alone, 16,557 entries were registered.

In the image are some of the various groups of immigrants detained by Border Patrol agents in Rio Grande Valley in the last few days. (Twitter/@CBP)

Last January 9,827 Cuban immigrants were detained, about 13 times more than the 732 during the same month in 2020, when Donald Trump was still in the White House. continue reading

Between Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the Border Patrol agents in Rio Grande Valley detained 306 immigrants on two separate occasions. “The migrants came from Cuba and various countries in Central and South America,” according to information from the Federal agency.

“The groups were made up of 115 single adults, 90 family members, and 89 unaccompanied children,” reported the Border Patrol.

On April 11th alone, the border agents in Rio Grande Valley arrested four groups who were intercepted in pairs in La Grulla and Roma, a total of 754 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guatemala. “The groups constituted 356 single adults, 275 family members, 123 unaccompanied children; including two US citizens who came with their mother from Guatemala,” reported the Border Patrol.

Translated by GH

____________

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.

A Line Ends in Blows this Good Friday in Central Havana

A massive line for the El Bodegón store in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 15 April 2022 — Several policemen and patrol cars, blows, arguments and many, many people set the tone for a line to buy vegetable oil, which extended through Salud Street in Centro Habana this Good Friday, a holiday in Cuba.

“The police can’t fight the hungry people. People brutalize themselves to buy oil and chicken,” says a resident who from her house sees how several women hit each other in one of the fights provoked by the massive line for the store El Bodegón, with its entrance through Belascoaín street.

“I don’t understand why on July 11 there wasn’t a little more force, like in this line to buy oil because the police go after people, but people don’t let go, they keep hitting,” adds the resident. “On a day like today God was dead and the devil is on the loose.”

A liter of vegetable oil in the capital’s informal market costs between 500 and 700 pesos, while the sale of oil in state stores continues to be rationed like other basic necessities. For more than two years, vegetable oil has begun to be scarce.

People who were able to purchase the product today at El Bodegón, at a price of 50 pesos, had to present their supply book from the rationed market where the purchase was recorded and they will not be able to purchase oil again in another state establishment for the next 15 days. continue reading

The situation is repeated throughout the country. In Santiago de Cuba, the Edible Oil Refining Company, which also supplies the province’s black market, was paralyzed for several weeks and a liter cost more than 700 pesos. Currently, although the factory has started processing, the product is still scarce and a liter can be bought for 500 pesos.

The authorities have insisted that the stopwork of the Santiago refinery was due to “a breakdown and maintenance work” and that “at no time has the raw material been lacking,” something that residents celebrate because they will have oil for several months, even if they have to buy it from informal vendors.

____________

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’s Cimex Corporation Blames the Vietnamese Manufacturer for the Diaper Shortage

Lines to buy diapers, which are sold out in hours. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 15 April 2022 — Due to the lack of fuel, almost all of the disposable diapers produced in Cuba are distributed in Havana with a small percentage distributed in neighboring provinces. The data is revealed by the director of retail sales of the government corporation Cimex in a Cubadebate article dedicated to the scarcity of this basic product.

The article notes that disposable diapers began to be produced in Cuba in 2019 through a Vietnamese company whose factory is located in the Mariel Special Development Zone. The plant planned to produce 120 million diapers a year, but parents still can’t find them and “when they appear they run out in half an hour or the resellers buy them,” denounces a mother who points out that, on the other hand, they are never “missing in MLC” [government stores that only accept freely convertible currency].

Last February, 14ymedio said that you had to prove you have a child to buy diapers in stores that take payment in national currency, which caused disputes between customers who had approached the store without carrying the required ID card and the employees who demanded it.

The Thai Binh Global Investment Corporation pledged that same month to continue producing diapers, wipes and pads and sell them in local currency. On its Facebook page, the stores where they are going to be marketed and the available sizes are reported every week, but many doubt that the information is true, since when they go they do not find what is advertised. continue reading

Yusleydi Lezcano Palmero, director of retail sales at Cimex, assures that the situation has improved, since in the first quarter of the year there were 94.3% more diapers than in the same period of the previous year and that the chain has even reduced imports to “strengthen the Mariel supplier.” However, the problem, according to the official, is that there is an “over-demand,” a concept that Cubadebate is forced to translate at the end of the text.

“In economics, over-demand is understood as the situation in which the quantity demanded (demand) of a product or service exceeds the quantity offered (supply). This is the opposite of excess supply,” says the official newspaper in a didactic display, which has copied the wikipedia explanation of the term “excess demand,” but omitting the first definition that appears: shortage.

Lezcano Palmero says that this April the plan was for 91,297 packages, of which 85,442 have been delivered. All were sold in less than 72 hours, explains the official, who notes the control with a card required for sale. This reflects how, despite the increase in production, the shortage is notable.

Lezcano Palmero points out that the difficulties in acquiring raw material “due to the crisis caused by the pandemic” have had an influence, but he disassociates himself from the matter and blames the Vietnamese manufacturing company.

“Cimex does not intervene. It is a direct delivery to the store. The diapers do not go through any warehouse, taking into account the needs of Cuban families,” he says. The official admits that there have also been problems with distribution, also the fault of Thai Binh, which distributes, according to the contract.

“Sometimes we have had roadblocks, because due to an internal logistical issue of the Vietnamese company, the diapers arrive minutes or hours late or do not arrive on the agreed day,” he justifies. But when asked why there are places they never appear, he admits the privilege of the capital.

“The priority has been 94.5% Havana, and then the rest of the nearby provinces, which has to do with the logistics issue due to the fuel situation, which today affects everyone,” he acknowledges.

Isla de la Juventud, according to what he says, has a “differentiated” treatment, but they have not received diapers lately either because of “the weather situation.”

The first disposable diapers that were sold in Cuba arrived with the economic opening of the 90s and the dollarization of the economy. Until then there were only cloth ones, which were washed after each use. But the sale was only in dollars or convertible pesos, which turned them into a product that segregates those who could not afford them and those who received remittances from relatives abroad or had income in foreign currency.

The Vietnamese company, which had been in Cuba for decades, announced in 2018 the construction of a plant to produce diapers and its purpose of “providing local consumers with articles made in Cuba and of high quality.”

But three years after the start of its operations, a step back has been taken and disposables have once again become the dividing line between those who can have foreign currency and those who do not.

____________

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.

Medical Check-ups for US Immigrant Visas Will Happen Only in a Cuban Hospital

The Embassy of the United States in Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 April 2022 — The medical check-up for immigrant visa applicants who in May will begin to be be processed at the United States Embassy in Cuba will be carried out in a single health institution in the country, the diplomatic headquarters confirmed to 14ymedio this Friday.

The Manuel Fajardo hospital, located at 720 C Street, between Zapata and 29, in the municipality of Plaza of the Revolution, “is the only institution authorized in Cuba for panel medical examinations,” the Embassy indicated and clarified that the checkup performed by other unauthorized doctors “will not be accepted.”

The Institution had announced earlier this month that it will resume the processing of immigrant visas, beginning to process only the IR-5 category that recognizes parents who are being claimed by US citizens.

Before consular services were suspended in 2017, there were several authorized hospitals throughout the country to carry out the check-ups. When inquiring whether a single institution will remain on the island for the exam, the consular section clarified that the decision “applies at this time only to applicants in the IR-5 category who have received an interview appointment notification in Havana.” continue reading

The check-ups will be carried out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 am and the management to appointments will be in person at the hospital itself, on Mondays and Thursdays between 8 am and 4 pm. In addition, to receive information, the panel of doctors can be contacted from Monday to Friday between eight in the morning and four in the afternoon by calling +5378382439 and +5378389303.

Regarding the documentation to be presented at the medical check-up, the US consular section specified that each applicant must bring their identity card or minor’s card, their passport, a passport-size photo in digital format taken in the last six months with a white background and on a flash memory, in addition to bringing the the printed appointment letter sent by the Embassy and the confirmation page of the electronic immigrant visa form DS-260.

Payment for the exams can be made in freely convertible currency (MLC) or in Cuban pesos and “will be made on the day of obtaining the immigration check-up and will never be in cash.” The channels enabled to pay for the procedure are “bank cards issued by Cuban banks and national and international electronic payment through the Transfermóvil or EnZona and Pasarela de Pago applications (online payment with international cards).”

The cost of the check-up is as follows: applicants from 18 years old (280 MLC or 6,720 CUP), applicants from 2 to 17 years old (140 MLC or 3,360 CUP), and for those under 2 years of age, the exam is free.

Announcing the resumption of its services earlier this month, the consular headquarters insisted that visa processing will be “limited” and, as long as this does not change, the Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana, “will continue to be the main place of processing for most Cuban applicants for immigrant visas.”

The restart of consular processes “is part of a general expansion of the Embassy’s functions to facilitate diplomatic and civil society engagement,” said the diplomatic representation.

The applicant who is notified after April 1, 2022 that their case is ready to be processed, will have their interview scheduled in Havana, and those who were informed before that date will have to fly to Georgetown to process. their visa. “Given the limitations of its resources,” the Embassy “is not accepting transfer requests from applicants.”

The Embassy did not inform “an exact date” for when “it will begin to process the full range of visa services for immigrants and non-immigrants,” and noted that “it will continue to provide essential services to US citizens and a limited processing of emergency visas for non-immigrants.”

The United States substantially reduced the staff of its Embassy in Cuba in 2017, after some thirty US diplomats suffered mysterious health incidents known as “Havana syndrome” the reasons for which have not yet been clarified. This reduction halted almost all visa processing for Cubans seeking to emigrate or travel to the United States to reunite with their families.

____________

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.

Silvio Rodriguez Calls the Leadership in Power in Cuba a ‘Sect’ and Laments the Conviction of Lescay

Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez has once again made statements questioning the Díaz-Canel government. (La Tercera)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 13 April 2022 — The greatest troubadour of the Revolution, Silvio Rodríguez, raises the tone in his criticism of the Cuban regime by describing the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel as a “sect” and coming out in defense of the young musician Abel González Lescay, recently sentenced to six years in prison after demonstrating in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, on July 11.

On Monday, Rodríguez published on his blog, Segunda Cita, the post of an economist on the necessary measures to straighten out the economy, starting with the reduction of excessive bureaucracy. The singer-songwriter is the first to leave a comment on the post, and he expresses his own opinion thus: “I have no faith that verticality will be rectified. As I have said other times, it is still a very small group of people, practically a sect, that makes decisions,” he laments.

The troubadour continues his argument by pointing out that the new imposition of the requirement that Cubans traveling through countries such as Panama and the Dominican Republic must have transit visas shows that the United States – which he refers to without naming it – presses to prevent informal trade that, in his opinion, would relieve the island and he believes that the intention is “that the pot continues to gain pressure.”

However, Rodríguez does not exempt the current leadership of the Party and the State from responsibility. “But it does not seem that we are learning that customs and borders must be made as flexible as possible, even though it is proven that this opening solves the survival of more and more people. And while “youth flee en masse,” what “miracle are we waiting for?” he demands. continue reading

The more than one hundred comments on the post, among friends and followers, stick to the economic and ideological debate, many from different positions but in a relaxed atmosphere. Until Walter Frías, a university professor, sends the link to the note released this Monday by the University Council of the University of the Arts (ISA) regarding the letter sent by the Facebook group FreeAbelLescay in which he asked the head of State for a reversal of the sentence against the young student.

The note attacked the group head-on, accusing it of carrying out “campaigns that seek to discredit the Revolution” despite the fact that the institution has maintained, according to Lescay himself, a behavior of support and respect towards its student. The musician, who reiterated his thanks to ISA, accused the editors of the note as being “shameless” and “ass kissers.”

The statement from ISA also said that there were representatives of the institution who “attended the oral trial” of Lescay and “attested to the practice of all constitutional guarantees.”

Thus, Silvio Rodríguez reacts to the message demanding that the process be broadcast on television if there is really nothing to fear. “If they don’t want the facts for which the young Abel Lescay has been ordered to serve six years in prison to be ’simplified’, they should clearly explain those facts or put the trial on television, so that it can be seen. Giving attention to a university student involved in a criminal trial is nothing extraordinary; it is a duty of the University,” replies the singer-songwriter.

Rodríguez, who had already been in favor of reversing the high prison sentences for the peaceful demonstrators  of July 11, yesterday emphasized on the specific case of Lescay. “Hopefully in the current appeal there will be enough courage to rectify the error, if there is one, in the very high sanction requested by the Prosecutor’s Office,” says the singer-songwriter. In reality, the six years in prison are the sentence of the court, since the Prosecutor’s Office requested one year more than that in prison. What does exist is, as Rodríguez says, the possibility of modifying the sentence at a higher level.

The troubadour closes that message by adding “Long live free Cuba. Down with the blockade,” but according to his statements in recent years, Rodríguez’s faith is cracking. The artist has directed multiple criticisms at the decisions of the Díaz-Canel government, although he had already rejected some of Raúl Castro’s policies and has even admitted that the “revolutionary offensive” of 1968 did “a lot of damage to the Cuban people.”

Although he has not stopped defending the socialist state and criticizing the US “blockade,” in recent times he has not stopped suggesting that the regime has not been able to be efficient so that it is not affected by foreign economic measures.

“We cannot spend our lives believing that everything we cannot do is because there is a very powerful neighbor that blocks us and prevents us from doing things. If in 60 years we have not been able to develop a creativity that overcomes the blockade, we are in the wrong,” he said in an interview with an Argentine media outlet at the beginning of the year.

____________

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.

Former Cuban Baseball Player and Manager Who Acknowledged Being a ‘Snitch’ Returns to Havana

Víctor Mesa was manager of Villa Clara, Matanzas and Industriales teams. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 11 April 2022 — For four days, former baseball player Víctor Mesa has been in Havana. The former manager of ther Villa Clara, Matanzas and Industriales teams was seen last Friday in “a festive atmosphere” in his “two-story house and strict security circuit,” located in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, according to Swing Completo.

Mesa’s presence on the island comes after it emerged, in early 2022, that the United States had denied his application for permanent residence. Among the reasons mentioned were his participation in the Univista TV sports program in July 2020, where he accepted that he was a “communist” and a chivato [snitch]. Those statements generated questions from the Cuban community in Miami.

Swing Completo suggested that Mesa’s presence in Cuba, along with his wife, Eneida Ríos, occurred because his immigration status would be resolved. “It would be unreasonable to imagine that he would enter the Greater Antilles without having a legal document that justifies his stay in the United States and prohibits him from returning.”

However, current immigration legislation in Cuba establishes that people maintain their resident status in the country if they do not exceed 24 continuous months outside the island. A rule that the regime violated in the case of art curator and activist Anamely Ramos. continue reading

But Mesa’s case has its peculiarities. Although that 65-year-old Villa Claran’s communist attachment cannot be erased, as when he said he felt “sad, very sad” for the death of Fidel or his words about Raúl Castro: “He does limit his defense of the system.”

As a manager, the controversy accompanied him. In 2017 he was banned for three games after an argument with an employee of the Hotel Bella Habana. And in 2016, the National Baseball Directorate disqualified him for three subseries for insulting referees and the technical commissioner.

As a player, his speed around the bases and his batting stood out. “We are talking about one of the best players in history… he occupies the second historical position in stolen bases with 588,” journalist Andrés Marchante pointed out at the time on the MLB portal Picheos Salvajes.

In 2018, Mesa announced his retirement and the “communist” moved to Miami, from where he began to promote the career of his sons Víctor Mesa Jr. and Víctor Víctor Mesa, who have contracts with the Marlins, the first for one million dollars, and the second for 5.25 million, revealed Radio Televisión Martí.

____________

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.

Inflation Forces the Central Bank of Cuba to Raise the Limit per Traveler to 5,000 Pesos

The lines at the exchange houses were eternal as they were at the airport as well. (CADECA). (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 14 April 2022 — When arriving or leaving Cuban airports, travelers will be able to have 5,000 pesos in their pockets instead of the 2,000 authorized until now. Inflation has forced the Government to increase the limit in order to charge much higher customs taxes to those who bring merchandise. The new norm went into effect this Tuesday with its publication in the  Official Gazette.

On the other hand, the entry and exit of pesos in cash by post, air and sea, in any denomination or other payment instruments or credit titles, is prohibited.

Those who violate the limits will be sanctioned with the confiscation of the money, in addition to the possible legal actions that may entail, both civil and criminal sanctions.

The rule also recalls that the import and export of demonetized pieces and specimens of Cuban pesos with numismatic or patrimonial character are subject to specific regulations.

The entry and exit of Cuban pesos in the country has been regulated since 2012 at 2,000 pesos. Although in 2019 there was an update of the norm, whose origin is in 1999; the amount was not modified, which remained paralyzed as if the cost of living had not evolved in those years. continue reading

On this occasion, the Central Bank of Cuba has been forced to allow a significant increase. Despite the low value of 5,000 pesos, which at the official exchange rate is about 200 dollars and barely 50 on the black market, it represents an increase of 3,000 pesos with respect to the previous amount.

The spectacular rise in prices since the beginning of the Ordering Task*, tripling in many cases, has left the previous amount of 2,000 pesos a ridiculous amount. Travelers paying taxes at Customs no longer had enough cash to catch a taxi as prices had doubled or even tripled.

With the new norm, residents who return to Cuba and carry pesos will no longer have to stand in long lines to change foreign currency into national currency at the currency exchanges (Cadeca) at the airports, something that congested the air terminals and delayed the departures of the newcomers.

For years, what was not possible, on the other hand, was to get the now-defunct CUC (Cuban convertible pesos) out of the Island. Both the 2012 and 2019 regulations stated exhaustively: “The export and import of the means of payment called legal tender convertible peso, in any denomination, is prohibited.”

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’, is a collection of measures that included 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 other measures across the economy. 

____________

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.