Official announcer Amanda Toirac just before boarding her flight out of Cuba. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2022 — The ’Informative System’ announcer Amanda Toirac joins the ranks of official journalists who are leaving Cuba. The young woman published on social networks that she left the Island after discovering that she felt “complicit and dishonest.”
The young Radio Rebelde announcer pointed out that she was told to “repress” her countrymen and that, on refusing, she saw “the true face of the monster they have turned my country into.”
“I started to leave when I knew that I was a spokesperson for lies on a radio station,” wrote Toirac, who qualifies her words by pointing out that she discovered since the July 11 protests and that she realized that she lived in a country “that only existed in my head.”
In her words, the announcer captures part of the Cuban reality, which she summarizes, speaking softly, when with the Government: purchases in MLC (Freely Convertible Currency), the high prices of food such as oil and milk, and the dismissal of the director of Alma Mater magazine.
“There is no jungle, no river, no desert, no border, where I don’t ask myself if I did the right thing. There isn’t a day that doesn’t hurt,” she adds.
In response to Toirac’s words a river of comments flows wishing her luck on her new route and others questioning her for having waited until July 11 to “realize it.” continue reading
Commenter Jessica Genes wrote, “Since I was 15 years old I realized the reality of my country. I don’t know why it took you so long. Because even a child is capable of seeing reality, what a pity that you were complicit in many, so very many lies.”
Although she does not reveal what her destination is, in the photo she posts on her Facebook account, the young woman is seen about to board an Air Century plane bound for Santo Domingo. Before Toirac, several media professionals have left Cuba, such as Maray Suárez, who has rebuilt her life in Miami as an ’emotional coach’, in the country to which she dedicated so many attacks from Cuban television.
This is also the case of journalist and official Cuban television presenter Yunior Smith, who this March confirmed that he was on the southern border of the United States, requesting political asylum.
That same month, the stampede of spokesmen for the Cuban regime continued with the arrival in Florida of Alejandro Quintana Morales, Radio Rebelde announcer and television presenter, who congratulated himself on his Facebook profile for being in a country where one can “feel free.”
Last January, the arrival in the US of another Cuban official broadcaster, Frank Abel Gómez Bernal, caused much controversy in the exile community in Miami. The communicator, popular on radio and television, requested political asylum and after entering the country he told the press that, although he had his job in Cuba, he “was starving.”
This February, the former director of the Information System of Cuban Television and of the news program Buenos Días, Yailén Insúa Alarcón, ended up stranded at the Bogotá airport when she tried to reach Nicaragua fleeing the island. In her case, she asked the Colombian government for asylum, alleging her life would be in danger if she returned to Cuba.
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They leave (a decision that I personally do not question) but I continue to investigate how many lies they helped spread that cost tears, social isolation and physical pain to others. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 28 April 2022 — I wonder how many of these official journalists who are taking to their heels helped to prolong the demonization of independent reporters, contributed to silencing the voices of the media not controlled by the Communist Party (either because of their actions or because of their lack of action).
How many of them spread the idea that we were the “traitors,” the “enemies,” who had to be silenced, and then moved their mouths away from the microphone. How many looked at us over their shoulders, chewed our names with annoyance, joined the defamation campaigns against us and, now, put the sea in between us. They leave (a decision that I personally do not question) but I continue to investigate how many lies they helped spread that cost tears, social isolation and physical pain to others.
The responsibility of the journalist is not a suit that is taken off and left behind to put on another, clean of stains. The responsibility of the journalist implies knowing that the words said, the headlines circulated and the lies amplified also left victims, cut off the path for more honest people to reach the cameras, pulled the rug out from under excellent masters of information who, because they had critical ideas, were never able to stand in front of a classroom. The journalist’s responsibility leads us to wonder: These official reporters who are fleeing today, how many years of ‘survival’ did they give the dictatorship?
Questions that I ask myself. From here, from Havana.
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Armando Franco Senén became director of ’Alma Mater’ magazine in 2019. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, April 27, 2022–On Tuesday Alma Mater, the Cuban university magazine, was left without its director, Armando Franco Senén, a decision of the Union of Young Communists (UJC), in a clear interference by the university publication’s partisan organization.
The news was delivered by Alma Mater itself on its Facebook page, where it shared the short statement which left much to be desired by nearly 900 users who joined. “By decision of the National Bureau of the Union of Young Communists, Armando Franco Senén was relieved of his duties as director of the magazine.”
Franco, who graduated with a degree in journalism in 2016 and was a professor in the School of Communication in Havana, took charge of Alma Mater in 2019. The publication had won the favor of many people — close and not so close — to the state for its more modern treatment of information, the openness to topics rarely covered by other media, and, of late, its coverage of July 11th (11J).
The magazine focused heavily on information about the protesters who were arrested, many of them students, which is very unusual for a channel of the regime. Alma Mater clearly advocated, in some cases, for the release of those arrested or the cancellation of the judicial proceedings to which they were subjected.
On Tuesday, the magazine published an interview with Cuban Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Padilla, which centered on the issue of migration and relations with the U.S. with regard to that topic. Some believe it to be coincidence that Franco’s exit occurred immediately afterward, however there does not appear to be a reason to link them, as the questions did not cause the minister any discomfort, and he was given plenty of space for his discourse. continue reading
Those close to the journalist attribute the dismissal to the timid revolution in form and content that Franco brought to the magazine.
This year Alma Mater celebrates its centennial and it is one of the oldest publications in Cuba. The magazine has always been characterized by its independence and its ability to reflect the sentiment among university students. Following Fidel Castro’s rise to power, it slowly lost its autonomy, but even then tried to maintain its mark. The decision to dismiss its director left many perplexed as it a reflection of the control that the youth organization of Cuba’s Communist Party has over the magazine.
“He revitalized something that for years, no university student had read and others didn’t even know existed. I will proceed to remove my “like” from its page because I already know what’s coming!!!” said one of the hundreds of readers who expressed their rejection of the news.
Another commenter, who knew Franco in high school, praised his character from when he was young and defended causes. “A leader is born, not made, and he was born with that quality, which he further developed during his life. Years later, he became the director of Alma Mater magazine and returned to me a habit I had lost long ago, reading the news; but this time, I was reading something very different to what I was accustomed and that should be appreciated, that is what we need, that is what we have to encourage, it is what we need to defend,” they added.
“I don’t know the reasons, but taking into consideration the journalism that Alma Mater was doing under the direction of Armando Franco, the UJC Bureau should analyze this. Do they know the type of journalism Cuba’s youth need? Without words. It hurts,” laments a third commenter.
The majority have demanded that the reasons be made public with clarity and that the magazine’s autonomy be returned. “And how can the organization which represents reolutionary youth dismiss the director of the magazine and the most revolutionary example of journalism I’ve read in a long time?”
With its refined satiric humor, El Lumpen could not pass up the comparison and has shared the news and images of the former director of the newspaper and the Spanish dictator titled: Alma Mater Rectifies and Franco Returns.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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The citizen began to carry out his peaceful protest a approximately 8:47 am. (Camila Carballo/INSIDE/Capture/YouTube)
14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2022 — “If you want Fidel to live, well let Fidel live, that is your problem. I do not want to be a communist!” The phrase was spoken very loudly early on Thursday morning on San Rafael boulevard in Havana. Some stood and watched, others filmed with their cell phones.
The clamor came from a lone man, Carlos Ernesto Díaz González (known on social media as Ktivo Disidente), standing upon the walled entrance of a playground located on the corner of San Rafael and Industria, a busy pedestrian walkway that includes numerous businesses and connects the municipalities of Centro Habana and La Habana Vieja. A few meters away there is an MLC* store which only takes payments in freely convertible currency.
“There doesn’t need to be violence, there doesn’t need to be bloodshed but they must allow us to participate in the political life of this country,” he demanded. “Whoever is a communist, let them be, but they must respect whomever does not want to be,” continued the activist in a spiel that continued for five minutes.
At several points during his presentation, the man stated, “All Cubans have a right to participate in the political life of the country, be they communists or not.” Díaz González is a member of Archipiélago and was arrested last November, on the eve of the Civic March for Change, for putting up protest posters in Cienfuegos. continue reading
“Soon they will place two or three there so that they can conduct an act of repudiation, to a Cuban who is raising his voice. But it will continue to be that way until we do what we have to do and demand what we need to demand because it is ours, because we have the right to have rights,” he said referencing the daily repression of the Cuban regime against opponents or regular citizens who criticize the government.
On Wednesday, a few hours before climbing on the wall in Havana, Ktivo Disidente had uploaded a video in which he invited Cubans to a march in favor of freedom for political prisoners.
During his speech, the man received shouts of disagreement from some people who demanded he be quiet, but he was not daunted. “The people are scared , the people have been terrorized: citations, the sector chief on your back, a snitch on you. How long will we live like this?” he insists.
“Yes, you can buy there,” he warned another who requested silence from the line to enter the hard currency store — where the line had begun to form early in the morning — and where they sell personal hygiene products and cleaning supplies for the home.
The man demanded freedom for Cuban political prisoners and again insisted, “All Cubans deserve to participate in the political life of the country. They must count on us. Inclusion! An inclusive homeland! We are not obliged to be communists or socialists. Wherever communism has passed is a disaster. They are going to turn us into a North Korea.”
Police began to congregate around him, but their intervention was hampered by the height of the location from where the man shouted. Finally, more than ten uniformed policemen around the corner ordered the passers-by to turn off their mobile phones or move away from the area.
Later the man came down without resisting and, according to witnesses, was handcuffed and placed in a car. “I know nothing more of this sad story,” said one of those present.
Street protests have a recent history. On 4 December 2020, young Luis Robles protested on that same boulevard in Havana, a few meters from where Thursday’s events occurred. At that time, the activist peacefully protested, raising a placard which sought freedom, an end to repression and the release of protest rapper Denis Solís.
In March, Robles was sentenced to five years in prison and in the sentencing document, the judges justified their decision because the young man maintained a “marked interest in creating an environment to destabilize the social system and domestic economic development.”
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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The Embassy of Ukraine is located on Fifth Avenue in the municipality of Playa, Havana. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2022 — The state press agency of Ukraine, Ukrinform, is blocked in Cuba according to the report of the Cuban political scientist, Alexei Padilla, on Facebook, and published in Diario de Cuba. The site isn’t accessible from the Island without VPN (a Virtual Private Network)*, although the Cuban Government has not made any public decision in this regard, as is usually the case when the decision is taken to prohibit other news media, whether they be international, like CNN, or national, like 14ymedio itself.
“UPEC (The Cuban Union of Journalists) itself, which rent its garments in anguish over the censure of Russian media in Europe and the U.S., perhaps hasn’t heard, I think, of the censure in Cuba of Ukraine’s principal news agency, because Ukraine and its news media don’t have solidarity with UPEC,” said Padilla on Facebook.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the official media of the Island have criticized any method of sanction taken by the members of NATO and other western countries against businesses, institutions, and persons linked to Putin’s government. One of these measures has been the European blockade of Russia Today and Sputnik, which have been accused of disinformation and generating destabilizing currents of opinion.
In addition, collaterally, the financial sanctions also prevent the financing of delegations from those media in Europe, and issues can include anything from the rental of housing to workers’ salaries. continue reading
At the beginning of March, UPEC denounced the suspension of those media as a “cultural crime” and considered this a violation of the rights “of millions of people who lack all the elements necessary to evaluate the conflict.” Up to now they haven’t said a word about the application of similar measures in Cuba for Ukrinform, just as they have never said anything about the rights of Cubans to know points of view that are different from the official ones.
In all this time, Cuban State media continues to publish articles rejecting the western censorship of the Russian media and even went so far as to call the West “Nazis” in a text published September 5, entitled “The Russians are the new Jews and the West the Third Reich.”
In it, in addition, half-truths were spread like the one that said the University of Valencia in Spain had “invited” the Russian alumni to leave. In reality, the institution had offered economic and administrative support to whoever wanted to return to Russia, a complex task because of the sanctions.
It also said that the University of Córdoba fired the Russian professors, something legally impossible. That institution indicated that there was a revision of the programs of collaboration maintained with the technical scientific institutions of the Russian State.
The official Cuban press has been the mouthpiece for the Kremlin in the 63 days of the conflict, questioning the reports coming from Ukraine without any proof and defending those coming from Russia, among them denying the massacre in Bucha, verified even through aerial photographs and comprehensive, irrefutable reports from The New York Times.
Ukrinform was founded in 1918 and belongs to the European Alliance of News Agencies. The European governments announced the end of emissions from Russian media in February, while Russia made public the blocking of channels like the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Meduza, in addition to Twitter and Facebook. But the Cuban Government maintains silence about its censorship.
*Translator’s note: VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network,” an application that encrypts data, identity, and browser history for a monthly fee.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A sign behind the windows said the same thing as the employees of the place: it would be closed due to “technical problems”. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 April 2022 — The sale of food in Cuban pesos has lasted three days at the Fress store in Plaza de Carlos III, in Havana. This Monday, the brand new business, which opened its doors on Friday with great anticipation, was closed.
To the question of a client who was surprised, an employee of the place explained that he was without service “temporarily” due to “technical problems.” The same was written on a sign behind its windows. And indeed, inside it could be seen how an operator was messing around in a display refrigerator.
The employee also said that they would open tomorrow, Tuesday, but “only the food area,” that is, the cafeteria to consume already prepared products on the premises. This newspaper was able to verify that almost all the canned foods and also the dairy products that filled the shelves and refrigerators for sale to the public had disappeared.
According to two workers from the Plaza speaking to 14ymedio, “they held an emergency meeting here in Carlos III due to criticism on social networks, and starting tomorrow they can only sell prepared food.”
Another worker asserted that “they had ordered the closure from above, from the Government,” due to criticism of the resale of products such as condensed milk, which was sold for 250 pesos at Fress, a few meters from the Plaza supermarket where it costs 35 pesos but where the lines to enter can take long hours. The same goes for gouda cheese at 4,000 pesos for a wheel of three kilograms, which is only found in stores in hard currency. continue reading
The opening of the store caused outrage among its first customers, who left dismayed by the extremely high prices of products that are much cheaper in state stores in the same shopping center.
The Fress store, in Plaza de Carlos III in Havana, closed this Monday. (14ymedio)
Sources from Carlos III Plaza had confirmed to this newspaper that the state premises were rented to a Spaniard, something unusual in Cuba for a private establishment of this type. The man himself welcomed the customers on opening day. Until now, Fress provided its services through various online shopping sites for home delivery, supported by payments from abroad.
“If the only thing that is going to remain here is the hot table, this will not last even a week, because the food was bad, bad,” commented a young man, this Monday, upon learning of the sudden turn of business.
“But of course, if people here are persecuted for that when they do it at the door of their house, or in their cafeteria, in their paladar (private restaurant),” a woman replied. “I have nothing against the private ones, but the problem is not that it is private, but that it was cheeky. Why some yes and others no?”
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Cubans during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. (FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
14ymedio, Elias Amor Bravo, Economist, 22 April 2022 — There are two phenomena that have affected the life of the Communist Regime in Cuba for six decades. The two are closely related and have also been used for the Cuban government’s own benefit every time it wanted to.
To interpret both processes over such a long period of time can cause forgetfulness, intentional or not, which makes it difficult for the general public to understand what’s being discussed. Is it enough to read an article in the State’s flagship newspaper Granma entitled “Who benefits from creating a ’migratory crisis’ between the U.S. and Cuba”? The article goes to the heart of the matter by recounting facts that seem taken out of a fairytale.
It was enough to read that, already in the Fifties, Cuba wasn’t receiving immigrants and that what was really happening was a massive exodus of Cubans to the United States, where, the article says, 100,000 Cubans were living in 1958. This has nothing to do with the more than 2 million in 2022. But it’s all the same; when It’s a matter of distorting reality and creating a nonexistent alternative, the Communists have no rival.
And there’s no other way to look more ridiculous than to be determined to do the same thing over and over again. The only thing you can do is to go to the ONEI, the National Office of Statistics and Information, and consult the annual statistics for 2020, the latest published in the historical series of population by sex, annual rate of growth, and ratio of male to female.
If you take the figures from 1950, which show 5,876,052 inhabitants, and compare it to 1960, with 7,077,190 inhabitants, there is an increase in population of 1,201,138, or 14%, the highest in the historic data. Later, in the decade of the Sixties, the relative growth was lower, some 13%.
To think that this increase in population in Cuba in the Fifties was due only to birth and death is naive. A half-million Europeans came to Cuba in those years to realize their dreams, because in their countries of origin it was impossible. But be careful with the data, because they’re a boomerang that can come back to hit you. continue reading
Starting from this observation, reality confirms that the Cuban population is affected by the massive exodus of Cubans to the Exterior, a flow that hasn’t slowed since 1959 and that the Communist regime has managed at its will, encouraging every 15 years, more or less, massive population departures: 1965, Camarioca; 1980, Mariel, 1994 Guantánamo (Balseros).
The data exist for anyone interested, and there’s no need to invent them. This continual exodus of six decades has made Cuba the world leader as the country that has a larger percentage of its citizens living in the Exterior, nothing more and nothing less than 20%. Not even the levels of migration in the Third World reach these numbers.
Cubans have turned their backs on the Regime that requires them to live a certain way, a way they don’t want, and with the impossibility of democratic changes, they leave the country, because in Cuba it’s impossible, with the Communist Party in power, to open a space for a democratic process and freedoms, or for economic reforms that improve prosperity and a better quality of life.
So now we have the second result. The U.S, throughout this traumatic history, has received more Cubans and “prevented” them from living in their country because of the “embargo/blockade” (as Fidel Castro branded it), which certainly doesn’t exist. The U.S. has to face, every day, a political regime that presents the ’blockade’ to the international community as the cause of all Cuba’s ills.
But the argument creates many scandalous votes in the United Nations, with claims that Cuba is owed billions of dollars because of the embargo, and other absurd nonsense. The embargo has become wishful thinking that has no common sense. Trade between the United States and Cuba reaches 200 million dollars annually, and Cuba receives from the United States around six billion dollars in remittances each year that now other countries will want.
And in spite of the evidence, the leaders in Havana play the embargo card every time things get complicated in Cuba, as is happening presently, above all since they launched the ’Ordering Task’ in 2021* with disastrous consequences for the country.
So now we face a new cycle in which the Communist leaders can expect another massive exit from the country to reduce the internal social tensions provoked by poor management of the economy. They can blame the U.S. for everything under the heading of “blockade/embargo” and encourage it through some worthless negotiations, which end up with the U.S. welcoming those who want to abandon the Island in search of a better future.
In this way the ’blockade’ and the immigration crisis are two sides of the same coin which the Regime plays with. And it gets advantageous results in the international sphere at the same time it rids itself of many problems that it doesn’t recognize or, worse, that It doesn’t want to fix. And thus for more than 60 years, they fall into the same trap.
*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento, the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’, is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and other measures.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez was arrested in La Güinera. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Maite Rico, Madrid, 25 April 2022 — The People’s Provincial Court of Havana has found that “Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez, 21, appeared at the scene of the crowd riding a red moped, with which he joined those present, and made gestures with his hands and movements with his body inciting people who were watching to join the disorder.” It was July 11, 2021, when Cuba vibrated with the largest demonstrations against the dictatorship in six decades. For these gestures, Cabrera is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The repression for the protests has been fierce; 894 protesters, including several minors, were jailed. Of these, 652 have already been sentenced in farce-trials behind closed doors, with 40% of them sentenced to more than ten years. And some of them, to 30 years.
For Lázara González, a girl from Cárdenas, the prosecution asked for eight years for shouting “Díaz-Canel singao [ motherfucker]“, “Patria y Vida” and “Libertad.” After a year in pretrial detention, they have lowered the sentence to three years of “correctional work.” continue reading
Wilmer Moreno, a musician and arranger, has been converted into an “agent of the foreign opposition” because he received 200 euros a month for his work for the Miami Odyssey Studio. He received 26 years in prison.
Add to this the police harassment of families, the raids, the beatings, the atrocious conditions in the overcrowded prisons: the Island has, the largest prison population on the planet* (100,000 inmates out of 11 million inhabitants) and it is the country with the most political prisoners in America.
And while the world is scandalized, there is someone satisfied: a certain Manuel Pineda, who thanks to United Left has managed to sit his enormous buttocks on a seat in the European Parliament. Yes, the same one who confronted the mayor of Melitopol (Ukraine) with the argument of Russian propaganda and was scalded. This same Pineda spat out in December (before an empty European Parliament, it is true) that “Cuba is a participatory democracy” and “an example of respect for human rights.” That there are no arbitrary arrests, that those who are in jail “are criminals” and that “homeland or death, we will win.”
A month earlier, Pineda had gone to Havana to pay homage to Cuban president Díaz-Canel. He looks like a caricature, but he is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Spain. And a co-religionist of several government ministers, by the way. It is convenient not to forget where everyone is and to have located the miserable ones.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo and is reproduced with the permission of its author.
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A young man with a placard during the 11 July 2021 protests in Cuba. Text: No More MLC [freely convertible currency] The People Are Hungry. (Screen capture)14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 April 2022 — In a recent interview, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who holds the position of President of the Republic without the consent of the voters, stated that “in Cuba no person has been prosecuted for speaking against the Revolution.” He said more, but I will limit this comment to that phrase.
Although he answered the questions of his complacent interviewer, referring to the events of July 11, the leader of the Cuban communists should have been more explicit, if not more truthful.
What does Díaz-Canel understand by ‘speaking against the Revolution’?
The first question is whether “speaking” includes “writing”; the second is whether the concept changes when speaking into the microphones of a foreign or independent media outlet and whether the words are spoken in the presence of other people, say, in the public square. What if on the streets of Havana a young man displays a placard asking for freedom ?
Here we enter fully into the content. It seems that Díaz-Canel was never informed that distributing or talking about the Declaration of Human Rights was the reason for numerous imprisonments in Cuba; nor have they told him that, in 2003, 75 Cuban opponents were condemned to long sentences, people whose only fault was to express themselves against the ruling party’s policy. continue reading
The citations and threats to the mothers of young prisoners after the 11J [July 11th] trials so that they do not speak, so that they do not complain about the sentences; are these made by State Security without the knowledge of Díaz-Canel? Those who have been fined under Decree Law 370 for expressing themselves freely on the networks, did they go through any legal process before being sanctioned with a fine?
It would be tiresome to discuss the use of the term “Revolution” applied to a process that has already lasted 63 years and whose most urgent goal is to keep a party in power, but ignoring that detail and understanding the Revolution according to its proclaimed initial objectives, it would be necessary to clarify whether defending them, from a point of view other than that of the only party allowed, is also understood as “speaking against.”
Díaz-Canel limits himself to the alleged fact that no person has been prosecuted for speaking against the Revolution. And what about all those who for expressing themselves in a dissenting way are prohibited from leaving the country, have a State Security agent placed at the door of their building to prevent them from attending an event, are arrested and detained without mediation? Without a court proceeding? It is true that they have not been prosecuted, they have only been repressed.
I would applaud Díaz-Canel if he publicly promised to say that no Cuban will be repressed in any way because they express their discrepancies with the Communist Party’s policy, and do so wherever they do it and by whatever means they see fit.
Guilty of ignorance is any Cuban who does not know that oral or written expression that disagrees with the policy of the Communist Party entails different government reprisals, such as being fired from the workplace or thrown out of school, being denigrated in the official media without the right to reply, or being pushed by State Security agents to emigrate.
Guilty of cynicism is any Cuban who, knowing this truth, denies it.
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Police of the Ortega regime during the raid on the facilities of ’La Prensa’, in August of last year. (Twitter)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 21 April 2022 — The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) concluded its biannual meeting this Thursday with a pessimistic document in which it maintains that “the increasing violence against journalists is the main challenge to the free press in the Americas,” but there are other challenges, also on the economic level.
The panorama of press freedom on the continent is “bleak,” according to the media organization based in Miami (Florida), which will hold its next General Assembly next October in Madrid in person.
The three-day virtual meeting that ended today produced a series of resolutions on various topics, reports on the state of press freedom in each country, and a document of conclusions that lists the many problems from greater to lesser seriousness and highlights some positive elements.
At the closing of the meeting, the SIP Bot, a digital tool at the service of press freedom, was presented.
This tool allows journalists to track the treatment of the issue of press freedom in the media and social networks in real time and has a complaints mailbox to send violation alerts to the IAPA.
According to the conclusions of the meeting, since October 2021, 15 journalists have been murdered (10 in Mexico, 3 in Haiti, one in Guatemala and one in Honduras) and 13 of these crimes occurred in the first three months of 2022. continue reading
“The impunity of these crimes continues to be worrying,” said the IAPA, recalling that this year nine cases of murders against journalists that occurred in 2002 in Colombia will prescribe.
“In Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, journalists and the media are unusually frequent victims of persecution and repression by totalitarian governments,” emphasizes the IAPA
Eight communicators, six from Nicaragua – three reporters and three directors of La Prensa – and two from Cuba, suffer imprisonment, and 77 were forced into exile: 75 from Nicaragua and two from Cuba.
With respect to Nicaragua, the document’s conclusions highlight the approval of a resolution in which 27 national and international press organizations assume an action plan to restore the freedoms of the press and expression as essential guarantees to restore democracy.
“The independent press in Nicaragua experiences systematic persecution, oppression and widespread censorship – atrocities resulting from the hijacking of public powers and the demolition of civil society structures,” says the IAPA.
The action plan contemplates requesting multilateral organizations to condition the granting of credits and non-humanitarian aid to the release of political prisoners, to return their facilities to La Prensa, Confidencial and 100% Noticias, to allow the return of media and journalists from exile and have guarantees to carry out their work.
The arson attacks against two media outlets in Argentina and two in Colombia, as well as the digital surveillance of journalists in Cuba, El Salvador and Venezuela, also are sources of concern.
Regarding Venezuela, it is highlighted that Nicolás Maduro’s “regime” blocked Internet portals and censored access to the network in general, using international telecommunications companies.
“The reform of the Penal Code in Cuba increases penalties for contempt of authority, creates offenses to penalize users of social networks and punishes “clandestine publications” with prison and fines,” the report details.
Other restrictive projects emerged in Aruba, with the media law, and in El Salvador, with the anti-gang statute that criminalizes the media and journalists.
The stigmatization of the press by presidents or other authorities practiced in Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela is already a constant.
The resolution also mentions the restrictions on access and information coverage in Aruba, Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, the United States, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Judicial harassment was reported in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, the United States, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.
Despite all this, the IAPA highlighted that in the last six months there were some positive aspects.
In Honduras, the Secrets Law was repealed, in Paraguay a bill on protection for journalists is advancing, and in Puerto Rico bills were submitted to protect confidential sources.
The IAPA also sees as a light that the Government of Canada promotes a law to force the large digital platforms to pay the media for the use of their content.
At the six-monthly meeting, the urgency of ensuring the sustainability of the press was discussed again, which includes receiving, “without further delay,” fair compensation from the large digital platforms for the use of the content generated by the media.
The IAPA highlighted that the economic crisis in the media has deepened because digital platforms absorb a very high percentage of digital advertising.
With their technology, data on audiences, economic resources and, above all, with journalistic content, these supranational companies have created a very successful revenue model to the detriment of the newspaper industry, said IAPA President Jorge Canahuati.
“We are not asking for gifts or subsidies (…). We are claiming our royalties. (…) We cannot evade our responsibilities and the platforms should not evade theirs either,” he added.
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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.
Here we do not work with cash but with stories, news and daily dramas. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 April 2022 — The “restless boys” of the Cuban political police no longer know what to ‘invent’ to boycott our journalistic work. Today it occurred to them (they have also done it before) to circulate my husband’s and my mobile phone numbers on several digital classified sites along with a false advertisement for the sale of dollars, euros and other currencies.
The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since and every call that comes in, of course, cuts off my internet connection and interrupts my editorial work, even the interviews and testimonies that I’m compiling for my series #MadresDel11J [Mothers of 11 July] are cut off with the desperate ringing of those who are looking for any cent of foreign currency to be able to escape from this #IslaEnFuga [Island in Flight].
If the agents of the State Security believe that with these coarse missteps the press is muzzled… they don’t know anything. This is almost “child’s play” compared to what we have had to experience in almost two decades of journalistic work. I am sorry, yes, for all those who dial the eight digits of my mobile in the hope of getting hold of those bills that are used to buy in the infamous stores in MLC (freely convertible currency) or to pay for a ticket to any point of world geography.
I feel very sorry for them, but no. This phone is not from an informal exchange but from a newsroom. Here we do not work with cash but with stories, news and daily dramas. Here the value is not reduced to a piece of paper but to the capacity that we have as a team to recount the deep Cuba. continue reading
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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.
The Martín Perdomo brothers have been separated and are now in different prisons. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 25 April 2022 — The appeal submitted to the Provincial Tribunal of Mayabeque by brothers Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, sentenced to six and eight years in prison following the anti-government protests of July 11th in San José de las Lajas, has been dismissed, reported Radio Televisión Martí.
The brothers’ attorney, Reynel Gustavo Brito, had confirmed in the appeals brief that in both cases “the tribunal’s partiality is evident as they disregarded the defense’s evidence with superfluous arguments without presenting other proof.” Furthermore, the document states that the sentence “was severe and did not correlate with their prior conduct, for which the accused should be credited.”
The Martín Perdomo brothers were sentenced on February 8th for assault, contempt, and public disorder. For each of them, the Prosecutor had sought two years less than what they ultimately received, but family members were emphatic in their opinions believing the sentence to be ” an aberration,” which cannot be “celebrated or appreciated.”
“This sentence is the culmination of a totally absurd, disrespectful, humiliating theatrical work,” their cousin Betty Guerra Perdomo told this daily. “Everything that has happened with my cousins’ case, from the beginning until now, is an aberration, I do not want to say it is the end because I hold on to the hope that with strength and struggle we can change it.”
Nadir and Jorge were arrested on July 17th after going out to the street to protest on the previous Sunday, as did thousands of Cubans, against the government, the lack of freedom, and the economic catastrophe exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the sentencing document, continue reading
accessed by 14ymedio, both “decided to mock” the measures imposed by the Ministry of Public Health to limit COVID-19 infections and joined “a group of people” on 54th street in San José de las Lajas.
Many others joined that march, according to the document, at the “call of the accused” and “the banging of pots, metal objects and honking of motorcycle horns causing very loud noises, which alerted the neighbors”; this gave rise to behaviors of “total disrespect”, such as calling out “with euphoria, profane and vulgar” words such as “dickhead police” and “Díaz-Canel motherfucker”, along with “Patria y vida” [homeland and life], in addition to “making vulgar requests of those charged with protecting the place” and snatching a Cuban flag for a moment from an agent who was participating in a government counter-protest.
What is most striking about the sentence is that it shows that the protests escalated to the point of rock-throwing “without the participation of the Martín Perdomo brothers in these episodes.” Despite that, both were sentenced to several years in prison and their allegations have not been taken into consideration.
“I continue to believe that each day they have spent there is a year of life violently stolen and, as a result, the struggle will be for their complete freedom,” said their cousin following the trial.
Furthermore, the brothers have been separated, with Nadir ending up in Melena del Sur prison and Jorge in Quivicán prison, located 30 and 35 kilometers away from the family home, additional drama for their family members. “They separated my children, saying such a big lie that Nadir had requested to be separated from his brother. I will complain to the chief of prisons to request that they be together again because the economic situation is difficult and it is not easy to pay for rides to two different places,” said Marta, their mother.
“To get there I need to hire a car, which costs 1,500 pesos. The driver, out of consideration for us, charges 1,200 to 1,300 pesos for the trip. But I have to travel twice because they are separated,” said Perdomo.
Their mother had shared the result of the appeal, when she declared that she was aware that, although the appeal would be “practically in vain”, she is willing to go through all the pertinent procedures, including submitting “letters to Díaz-Canel for the tortures committed against Nadir.”
“I will continue to seek freedom so long as blood runs through my veins,” she added. “They are playing with us but I must continue fighting for my children.”
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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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.
Private companies in Cuba produce ten times more milk than do State companies, according to the official data. (Granma)
14ymedio, Madrid, 21 April 2022 — The state production of cow’s milk has collapsed between 1989, when it exceeded 900,000 tons, and 2020, the year in which it barely reached the tiny amount of 43,500 tons, 95.27% less in the last 21 years. Faced with this, private production has made a considerable leap, growing by 105.9%. However, the private companies have not been able to compensate for the collapse of the state company and total production has decreased in those years: from 1,120,000 to 455,300 tons, a drop of 59.35%.
“The solution to the milk production crisis in Cuba — before the pandemic — will depend on the response of the non-state sector. It produces 10 times more than the state sector. In turn, that response would depend on officially supporting a modern private sector livestock in the country,” requested the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal in a tweet in which he compiled the statistical data of the disaster.
But the authorities bet, as usual, on volunteerism. In an extensive report in Periódico 26, the official newspaper of Las Tunas, published this Wednesday, the director of the provincial dairy company explains the difficulties in covering the increasingly meager projections. “With this I assure you that we are always immersed in inventiveness, because there is no other option,” argues Vladimir Góngora as if there were no option to change the agricultural and livestock policy to develop production.
The article leads with the testimony of several desperate people from Las Tunas, because they can’t find soy yogurt for their minor children, nor does bulk milk taste like it should – “It’s water, journalist, I’m not lying.” To add insult to injury, the few dairy products they see can be bought only with freely convertible currency (MLC). continue reading
“We put ice cream, natural yogurt and cheese in the stores that sell in MLC because the industry has to pay the farmer 15 cents in the same currency for each liter of milk that exceeds the ’plan’ and we have to have solvency to stimulate production. This does not want say that at no time do we neglect the supply to the gastronomy networks,” argues Osmani Atencio Legrá, the company’s production technical director in the province.
The report indicates that milk for medical diets was suspended both in the main municipality and in Puerto Padre because only 16,000 of the 26,000 liters needed to cover the demand for the basic market basket (rationed) and the “prioritized institutions” were reached.
According to the officials with whom Periodico 26 spoke, the situation is improving and in spring “the same” can be achieved as in the previous calendar, “a great variety of products derived from cheese production that will be in gastronomy networks,” according to the director, something not very promising considering the figures of recent years.
The official attributes the terrible data to the poor feeding of the cows, but also to the problems with imports, which affect dairy products: there is no melting salt for the cheese, nor polyethylene for packaging, which affects the quality of the milk.
There is also no sugar, throughout the Island, with which Las Tunas has reduced the amount added to soy yogurt from 8% to 4%, a very healthy decision that the Government does not take for nutritional reasons, but because of scarcity. This product is guaranteed in the province, as in three others in Cuba, but only because there are no beans.
Soy is also being used, as is already known in other corners of the Island, in the manufacture of ice cream. According to Atencio Legrá, with the paste from this seed it is possible to maintain the plan of 2,000 liters of mixture per day with which to make 500 gallons of ice cream and, although consumers are not very happy with the result, they should get used to it because there are no plans change: “We want there to be enough in the province in the summer,” he emphasized.
The official related other dramas, such as the plants that do not work due to lack of gas or overuse, but affirmed that alternative productions are invented due to the lack of milk.
The only measure that the Government has taken to liberalize this sector is to allow the surplus to be sold after complying with the State, but once again the patch does not seem to work – without taking into account defaults – and the alternative of opening the market to Private is not considered. Quite the contrary, those who tried to create alternatives have been penalized. This was the case of Raúl Abreu Gómez, a rancher from Artemisa known as the king of cheese who was imprisoned in 2020 for illicit economic activity. The producer, who supplied several private premises, was accused of delivering 70 liters of milk to the State each day out of the 150 that he was supposed to provide, but a year later he was released and his dairy was back in full swing.
Meanwhile, the Government must invest in million-dollar purchases of powdered milk. According to a report published last week by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), in 2020 Cuba had to import whole milk powder worth 85,000,000 euros and skimmed milk for about 25,000,000 (about 120 million dollars in total), mainly from New Zealand and Uruguay, but also from Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands. In previous years and on four occasions, Cuba also bought powdered milk from the United States.
The report explains that a large part of the product goes to the rationed market, but another part goes to stores that take payment in pesos or foreign currency. “Normally, powdered milk is imported in bulk and is packaged in 500g and 1 kilogram containers under Cuban trademarks, or without a known brand, coming out in stores in these formats. These establishments are controlled by state-owned companies, and apply commercial margins ranging between 180% and 240% of cost,” he adds.
ICEX considers powdered milk a business opportunity because, although, in general, “state importers offer inflexible payment conditions, with payment terms generally set at 360 days after receipt of the merchandise, (…) milk powder is a good prioritized by the (Cuban) State, so it is likely that the commercial conditions for the import of this product are more favorable for foreign suppliers.”
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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.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a file image. (EFE/EPA/Maja Hitij/Pool)
14ymedio, Madrid, 19 April 2022 — The donation of more than three million dollars to Cuba approved by the South African government in February will not be in money, but in medical and “humanitarian” material. This was stated by President Cyril Ramaphosa when asked by the leader of the South African opposition, John Steenhuisen, according to the local press on Monday.
Steenhuisen had asked Ramaphosa for an explanation for giving 50 million rands (3.25 million dollars) to the island, granted with the justification of guaranteeing its “food security” in the face of US sanctions.
“I am informed that humanitarian aid and health items, and not money, will be delivered to Cuba in response to a request for humanitarian assistance from Cuba,” the president replied in writing.
In his letter, Ramaphosa argued that, in the same spirit in which South Africa “has been and continues to be” a recipient of aid from other countries, his country “established a mechanism in the form of the African Renaissance Fund (ARF) to enable us to provide support to people in other countries when they need it.” continue reading
Last March, a court stopped a multi-million dollar donation at the request of the Afrikaner pressure group Afriforum. Since its approval, the aid has sparked controversy in the country, which, since the covid-19 pandemic, is not going through its best economic moment.
Diplomatic relations between South Africa and Cuba have been fruitful, especially for the Cuban side, which has received very important benefits in different sectors by virtue of the cooperation agreements between both countries.
The friendship dates back to the times of Nelson Mandela, but it remained the same with his successive presidents, Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008), Jacob Zuma (2008-2018) and the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, all of them from the African National Congress party.
Cuba maintains export agreements for doctors and engineers with the country, and both sectors have revealed corruption problems, according to the opposition. The most controversial case, which occurred in 2021, was the purchase of interferon alfa-2b by the Ministry of Defense to treat covid-19, circumventing Health controls.
It was settled at the end of the year, when the South African Justice ordered the illegally acquired drug to be destroyed.
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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.
My trip began one day at 6:30 in the morning, when a taxi picked me up and left me at the Managua terminal. There, I boarded a bus to Ocotal, in the north of the country. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 23 April 2022 — I had never left Cuba in my life, so emigrating was the most difficult decision I have ever made. I had to painfully say goodbye to the people I love: my children, my grandmother, my mother, my father, my wife, my brothers. There is only one reason to have done it: despair.
Thanks to a relative overseas, I managed to arrange a ticket to travel to Nicaragua. My plan was, like that of so many others, to later cross Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico until I reached the United States. Before leaving, many feelings collided within me. On the one hand, I felt very sad and disillusioned with my country, but at the same time, I was looking forward to finally having the opportunity to carve out a future for my children.
During the trip to the airport, I trembled with anguish: I felt that I was leaving everyone behind and that I had a very uncertain future ahead of me. At the José Martí Airport there was a line of 150 people. Even to escape from this country you have to wait in line.
The vast majority of passengers talked about the same thing: where they planned to leave from, how much their ‘coyotes’ charged them, who they would travel with…
I had a very stressful time at Immigration, when, as they checked my details and my passport, they asked me to wait. After a few minutes that seemed like forever, an official looked at me and said contemptuously: “Oh, he’s from Archipíelago [platform].”
I had given my name at the beginning, when Yunior García Aguilera formed the group, but I didn’t think that it would leave a mark on me. The officers told me to relax, but the passengers on my flight were already in the waiting room and I was still there. Finally, they let me go: “Have a good trip,” the official told me with indifference. Later, I heard more similar testimonies: continue reading
they maintain uncertainty until the end. Until the plane took off, it was not clear to me that they would not make me disembark.
The vast majority of passengers talked about the same things: where they planned to leave, how much their coyotes charged them, who they would travel with… Nobody around me was going to Nicaragua as their final destination. It was a mass exodus before my eyes.
The treatment was not very good upon arrival in Nicaragua. As soon as I arrived, I was scammed into buying a Claro phone card for $20 that was supposed to have 13 GB of data and unlimited social networks, among other benefits. The next day, I had to recharge it for 100 córdobas, about three dollars.
Observing Managua from the plane, all lit up, shocked me. At the airport and on the way to the hotel, many advertisements, cafes, restaurants. The hotel was nothing to write home about, but it was cozy and had a pool. However, no one was swimming. It is hot in Managua and no Cuban goes swimming, because everyone knows what they are there for.
The first day I went out with a guy I had met and we passed by a gas station. My impression was great when we entered that tiny gas station and saw the immense variety of products they sold: all kinds of gum, chocolates, soft drinks, hotdogs… And that still hadn’t reached Walmart. I can’t even describe here what I felt when I saw all that abundance, all that immense space, with so much and so much merchandise, so varied. I didn’t even know in what direction to walk.
Then I felt very sad. I didn’t understand why we didn’t have these things in my country, why we have to go through so much trouble to buy a piece of frozen chicken or some hamburger meat or some eggs to be able to eat. When I got back to the hotel I talked to my family on WhatsApp and I got a lump in my throat, I felt very powerless to be able to have all that here and that they didn’t have it there.
The coyotes came to pick up many Cubans here during the first day and a half that I was there. I met two of them. One was a medical student in Cienfuegos and he told me that he had to take advantage of the opportunity, because in the third year they are regulated and they cannot leave Cuba. The boy has family abroad and he paid $6,000 to be dropped off at the border. He was nervous and I tried to calm him down by encouraging him.
One was a medical student in Cienfuegos and he told me that he had to take advantage of the opportunity, because in the third year they are regulated and they cannot leave Cuba
The other was named Lazarito, a slightly confused boy, from Havana. His father is in the US and paid for his ticket, in addition to the $7,000 for the coyote. He was even more nervous, because the coyotes had to come pick him up at 6:00 in the morning. They arrived at 8:00 and he finally left with them.
My trip began one day at 6:30 in the morning, when a taxi picked me up and left me at the Managua bus station. There, I boarded a bus to Ocotal, in the north of the country.
It was a very calm trip, very beautiful, the landscapes caught my attention, the fields of Nicaragua are planted, not like those of Cuba. On the way, I talked with Brenda, a 38-year-old Nicaraguan who lives in Ocotal but works in Managua, and she told me that she has three children. She works in the house of a rich man, she told me, taking care of the children, and she only gets four days off a month. During those four days, she takes a bus, takes care of her family and returns, and spends one more month locked in that house. She has been doing it for 5 years, she says, to ensure a future for her children.
Managua Terminal from where buses leave for Ocotal. (14ymedio)
I got off at Ocotal, which despite being a small town has many things, something that continues to impress me wherever I go. There, something caught my attention that I did not see in Managua: a lot of Sandinista propaganda. I arrived at my guide’s house, where I rested and was able to taste Nicaraguan beer, La Toña, very tasty, very similar to the Cuban Cristal, which brought back many memories. In the afternoon, we left for the border, a fairly long journey but in a very comfortable van.
It was night when we arrived at the border crossing, which connects the municipality of Jalapa, in Nicaragua, with a very small town called Trojes, in southern Honduras.
There, we got out of the car in the middle of a field and had to cross an area of crops that measured about 400 meters, in total darkness. There was practically nothing to be seen and we had to walk fast so that the police would not catch us. On the other side, there was a barbed wire fence, and a man with a motorcycle was waiting for me. The guy revved it up to about a million mph, and it was cold. My forehead froze, but in just three minutes, I was already in Trojes.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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Tomorrow: Caravan through Honduras — there were 30 Cubans traveling on motorcycles.
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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.
14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2022 — The ’Informative System’ announcer Amanda Toirac joins the ranks of official journalists who are leaving Cuba. The young woman published on social networks that she left the Island after discovering that she felt “complicit and dishonest.”
