14ymedio

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, 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

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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, 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

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A Line Ends in Blows this Good Friday in Central Havana

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

14ymedio, 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.

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

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

14ymedio, 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.

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

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

14ymedio, 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.

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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, 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.

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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, 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.

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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, 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.

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Basilio Gusman, One of the ‘Plantados’ in Cuban Prisons, Dies

Basillo Guzmán was originally from Campo Florido, Havana (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 April 2022 — Former Cuban political prisoner Basilio Guzmán Marrero, who spent 22 years confined to the Island regime’s prisons, died on Wednesday, in Virginia, United States, the country where he has lived for many years, as dissident Frank Calzón confirmed to 14ymedio.

Guzmán was originally from Campo Florido, Havana, and “joined the struggle against Fulgencio Batista’s regime, suffering persecution,” recounted the International Committee of Former Cuban Political Prisoners while lamenting the opponent’s death.

“Years later, following the rise to power of the ill-named Castrista Revolution he returned to the struggle in search of the freedom that was being snatched from the Cuban people,” added the Committee, which also highlighted that Guzmán was tried in the 1960s [and sentenced] to 30 years in prison, “of which he served 22, the majority of that time wearing only underwear.”

The former prisoner became known not only for his confinement in prison, but also for the positions he took while behind bars. According to Calzón, Guzmán was a man who, from the beginning, very clearly drew a kind of red line as a Cuban political prisoner.

He was known for his intransigence for not wearing the uniform of a [common] prisoner, one of the characteristics of those known as plantados* in Cuba, and Guzmán was especially known as a “key and very heroic figure for his confrontations against Castroism within the prison system,” added Calzón. continue reading

In the United States, he maintained his profile as an opponent of the Island’s regime. “Basilio was Alpha 66’s representative in Washington, D.C., where he lived. We offer his family our most heartfelt condolences,” concluded the Committee’s statement.

Basilio Guzmán Marrero was one of the signatories of a letter sent, in April, to US President Joe Biden and signed by more than two hundred intellectuals, artists, writers and Cuban-American leaders asking the president to condition his policies toward Cuba on a “general amnesty for all political prisoners” on the Island.

“A good man has died, a great patriot,” who “knew Castro-Communism’s hate very well,” wrote Julio M. Shiling, director of The Cuban American Voice, on his social networks. “Nothing, however, separated him from his own balance, peace, and light.”

“Thank you, friend, for your example and dignity! From another dimension, Cuba will continue to count on you. Our most heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and the entire Cuban political prisoner community,” added the writer and political scientist on his post.

When the International Committee of Former Cuban Political Prisoners announced Guzmán’s death on their social media, they also lamented the passing on Wednesday of dissident Evelio Díaz López in Los Angeles, California.

The Committee said Díaz was a member of a farming family from Matanzas where he “became known for the support he provided to the guerillas of Benito Campos and Agapito Rivera” and his “participation in the struggle against Castroism.”

*Translator’s note: “Plantado’ — literally ’planted’ — is a term with a long history in Cuba and is used to describe a political prisoner who refuses to cooperate in any way with their incarceration.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Retirees Return to Work to Replace Young People Fleeing Cuba

“It is not mandatory to retire, people retire when they decide and, if they wish, after the established age,” says a Cuban official. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 14 April 2022 — The massive flight of Cubans is beginning to be reflected in the number of jobs to be filled in Cuba, to the point that the official press is already talking about the rehiring of retirees. “Currently many people request retirement with the plan to be rehired to increase their income and thus address the high cost of living today,” states the provincial newspaper of Sancti Spíritus, Escambray, in an article aimed at clarifying if it is possible to go back to work in a position that was abandoned.

The text explains that some retirees want to go back to work, although it does not offer data to support this, not only to supplement their income in a context in which pensions stretch less than ever due to runaway inflation, but also to “contribute their experiences and knowledge at a time “marked by the aging of the population and the lack of youthful strength.”

“The labor entity is not obliged to rehire the person who retires, this works as an agreement between the parties, and depends on whether they need it or not. It is a business decision. Not every place wants to rehire the same workers , but retirees can be employed in their own entities or in other places where they can manage the job and there they can also contribute their knowledge and experiences,” explains José Adriano Abreu, director of the National Institute of Social Security in Sancti Spíritus.

The official notes that in 2020 a rule was approved that allows companies to assess whether they need and want to rehire a retiree “because there are also young people waiting for those jobs that retirees leave.” The statement shocks the editor of the report himself, who writes: “But not accepting retirees back seems a bit contradictory in the face of the aging population that the territory is already experiencing.” continue reading

Abreu maintains that, in the case of Education, Sancti Spíritus withdrew the workers of retirement age because “it already had the available force of the new teachers who had just been trained”, a striking assertion since the ministry itself alerts , year after year, that there is a deficit of teachers.

In 2021, Minister Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella indicated that there was a shortage of teachers in 14 Cuban provinces. A year earlier, the hiring of more than 5,000 teachers, most of them retired, was announced to meet the needs of the Island. In 2018, 10,000 teaching positions were unfilled and a year before the number was 16,000.

Abreu, despite mentioning in Escambray that there are young people who need to work, reminds Cubans that “it is not compulsory to retire, people retire when they decide to and, if they wish, after the established age — 60 years for women and 65 in men — they can continue working for longer in their regular jobs.”

Last year, the Ministry of Labor estimated that there were 4,708,800 workers in Cuba, of which 3,105,400 are in the state sector and 1,603,400 in the non-state sector. The last population census, which is carried out in Cuba every ten years, was in 2012, and on occasion there were 11,167,325 inhabitants, compared to the 11,177,743 recorded in 2002.

In the coming months this data will be updated, which will highlight what everyone knows, the emptying of the Island, which, in addition to the human drama, is putting at risk an already damaged pension and healthcare system and, therefore, the entire economy.

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Cuban Government Calls 2021 One of the Hardest for Public Health

Nearly 90% of Cubans have one of the three doses against covid-19, according to the Government. (ACN)

EFE (via14ymedio), Havana, 10 April 2022 — Cuba’s Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, acknowledged this Saturday that 2021 was the “hardest” year for the sector “in recent decades” due to the covid-19 pandemic, although he highlighted the work of health personnel in this scenario.

The headline noted, quoted by the official media outlet Cubadebate, that the circulation of the Delta variant of the coronavirus — whose first case in the country was detected in March 2020 — led to a complex epidemiological panorama during last July and August.

At that time, the new positives exceeded 9,000 and the deaths were close to a hundred daily, according to data released by the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) and compiled by Efe.

Portal considered the high level of immunization in the Cuban population as an advance in the health system, where nearly 90% of the 11.2 million inhabitants have at least one dose of the three Cuba-developed vaccines against covid-19.

However, he blamed the crisis generated by the pandemic and the “strengthening” of the US economic embargo for the “sensitive” impact on the “availability of resources and on population health indicators.” continue reading

Last year, “the number of deaths increased in all the country’s territories, with the 60-year-old age group being the most affected,” he said.

He added that “covid-19 had a negative impact on registered infant and maternal mortality rates.”

The report also recognizes “the lack and low coverage of medicines, medical supplies, diagnostics, expendable material” and “problems in the technological infrastructure, obsolescence and breakdown of equipment.”

In January, the president of the state group of the biopharmaceutical industry (BioCubaFarma), Eduardo Martínez, informed the official newspaper Granma that in 2021 it only supplied 121 of its portfolio of 359 drugs.

The “basic” palette of medicines, according to the Government, includes 619 products.

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Motherhood Dropped in Cuba in the Pandemic, But Less So Among Teens

The authorities recall that more teenage pregnancies occur in more marginal environments. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 13 April 2022 — Adolescent motherhood in Cuba has decreased in the last two years –marked by the pandemic — however the fall was at a much slower rate than among all other age groups, and therefore now represents a greater percentage of mothers in the country (17%), according to a study by the Center for Demographic Studies of the University of Havana.

From 2019 to 2020, pregnancies — both interruptions and births — per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19, decreased. The pregnancy rate was 123.4 and fell by around 9% compared to 2019, when this indicator stood at 136.8, details the study, cited by state media.

For the deputy director of the Center for Demographic Studies (Cedem), Matilde Molina, this decline could be explained by the confinement and closure of recreational centers, schools and other socialization spaces, according to an article in Cubadebate.

This situation led to “fewer unions and marriages, less frequent sexual relations, fewer sexual initiations and greater family control over girls’ leisure time and their contact with people outside the home,” the expert pointed out. continue reading

“In 2019 births to mothers between 15 and 19 years old represented 16.7% of the country’s total births, but in 2020 that figure rose to 17% and in 2021 to 17.1%,” she detailed.

The article also refers to reports from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) program in Cuba, which refer to the highest indicators of early pregnancies in the provinces of Camagüey, Las Tunas, Holguín and Granma, with 51.5 births per 1,000 women under 20 years of age, in 2020.

The sociologist and professor at the University of Havana, Reina Fleites, pointed out during a conference on Children, Adolescents and Youth – recently held in Havana – that early motherhood occurs more among mixed-race and black adolescents, living in rural environments, not engaged in study or work, and living in low-income housing and in precarious conditions.

“Many adolescents choose a ’maternity project’ based on the belief that this can be a way of migrating, improving their well-being, getting out of poverty or leaving their family of origin, some even believe they can achieve independence,” said Fleitas.

During April of this year, the third National Fertility Survey is being carried out in Cuba, whose main objectives are to update information on demographic, socioeconomic and cultural factors and the motivations and circumstances that play a role in the reproductive decisions of men and women, including adolescents.

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Cuba: The Majority Dilemma

International Workers’ Day March in Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 12 April 2022 — The majority demanded Pontius Pilate crucify Christ. The majority of Germans, in the times of Hitler, acclaimed the Führer. The majority of Cubans, at some point, shouted “Firing Squad” and “Get out.” This civic immaturity creates Peter Pan societies, which refuse to grow up and hold onto Never Never Land. The immature society sighs for the bad boy, is attracted by the charismatic lunatic who ends up becoming Batman’s Joker. The world has seen more than one Joker wear a presidential sash and fry his country’s democracy in his own vanity while the masses applaud.

In marketing (and, of course, in politics), the bandwagon effect or the drag effect are often discussed. In it, people can be observed doing and believing certain things, based on the fact that many other people believe and do the same. As more people follow something, more want to hop on the bus.

I’ve always obsessed over the word equilibrium. I resist continuing to view reality through the screen of the old Russian television I had as a child. Krim-218* Syndrome makes us see everything in black and white, without nuances. Our parents’ generation felt panic if they were out of line, in a Cuba marked by uniforms. The Revolution imposed the weight of its own opinions, forcing us to repeat the same slogans, converting civil society en masse, into a committee.

The dogma became irrevocable. Those who managed to escape to other shores soon espoused the contrarian discourse, also in a nearly unanimous way. Those who until the previous day called the dictator “Fidel,” even while flaying him (in hushed voices), now began to call him “Castro.” The sad thing is that at times, deep down, opposing positions end up resembling each other. continue reading

Majorities almost never lead real change. It is painful to discover that in the last war for our independence more Cubans fought on the side of the Spanish than the side of the Mambises [rebels]. At the end of the struggle, the Liberation Army had 40,000 members. And many of those joined in the last months, when Spain was practically defeated and the United States intervened in the conflict. In contrast, on the Spanish side, there were 80,000 creoles from the Island, including volunteers and relief soldiers. The majority who greeted Máximo Gómez, when he entered Havana, with hands raised high, had done almost nothing for independence.

The bearded men of the Castro’s Sierra Maestra didn’t receive massive support either, as described in their history books. The assault on the Moncada barracks was a chaotic failure which was met with varied criticism from the same forces that opposed Batista. They were called adventure-seekers and irresponsible. The Chilean daily El Siglo, of a communist bent, even suggested that the assault had been organized by the CIA. Nor could they count on the majority during the frustrated general strike on April 9, 1958. However, a few months later, all of Havana went out to greet the new caudillo with triumphant euphoria.

On the 11th of July 2021, it became clear that the regime has already lost popular support. They’ve had to use repression and fear to halt the protests. Social media is a hotbed of criticism against the ruling class. The apparatus does not dare conduct the “elections” that should have taken place in November to select new “delegates” and have used the pandemic as an excuse. They don’t even dare to reveal the results of the surveys conducted discretely by the Party offices. The State newspaper Granma published an article on April 8th where they recognize they are a minority and speak of “turning off the lights of El Morro”*.

Democracy is not, and should not be, a dictatorship of the majority. The democratic ideal is based on consensus, debates, real participation, transparency, freedom to be a part of or oppose something, adherence to human rights, legality, justice, representation, citizen sovereignty, respect for minorities and the individual. Populism which aspires to dominate the rest while taking advantage of the frustrations, prejudices or the vengeful spirit of the masses always ends in tyranny.

Hopefully, we Cubans will be capable of breaking the vicious cycle. Hopefully, we will overcome the anthropological damage caused by so much propaganda, so much Never Never, so much Krim-218. Hopefully we will be capable of building a plural Cuba, which won’t fall victim to the majority dilemma again.

Translator’s notes:
*Krim-218: A reference to Cuban state television, which much of the country watched on Soviet Krim-218 model black-and-white TVs.
**El Morro is the iconic lighthouse at the entrance to Havana Bay, and ’will the last one…. turn off the lights’ is an iconic phrase used around the world in similar circumstances.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Southwest Airlines Triples its Flights Between Fort Lauderdale and Havana

Southwest Airlines has the second highest number of flights between Havana and Fort Lauderdale, in Florida. (SA)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 April 2022 — The low-cost US Southwest Airlines will increase its flights to Cuba from Florida starting in May, according to a statement from the company.

In the case of the route between Havana and Fort Lauderdale, the flights are tripled, going from one to three daily. In addition, one more flight will be added to the daily service between the Cuban capital and Tampa on Saturdays.

“The airline’s service, offering authorized trips between the United States and Cuba, is available to more Southwest customers,” the company said in its statement.

Southwest Airlines requested permission to operate in Cuba when commercial flights were authorized in 2016 under President Barack Obama. The airline then began to fly to Varadero and Santa Clara in addition to the capital. continue reading

In 2017, with Donald Trump as president of the United States, the bubble of flights to Cuba began to burst. First because of the saturation of the market, but also because the travel measures were becoming more restrictive.

In June 2017, Southwest chose to reduce routes and concentrate its flights in Havana, suspending those to beach tourist destinations.

“Our decision to interrupt the other flights to Cuba comes after an in-depth analysis of our performance for several months, which confirmed that there is no clear path to ensure the sustainability of the service to those markets,” said Steve Goldberg, a company manager in Florida said at the time.

In February of this year, the company resumed its operations to Cuba after the break during the pandemic and is the second airline, after Jet Blue, flying between the cities of Havana and Fort Lauderdale.

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As of October, Cuba Has Stopped Accepting Deportees From the US

Cuban citizens are deported from the United States, in a file photograph. (EFE/Alejandro Ernesto)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, 13 April 2022 — The Government of Cuba has not accepted the arrival of citizens deported by the United States immigration authorities for months, a spokesman for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) told Efe on Wednesday.

So far in fiscal year 2022 (that is, since last October), Cuba has not accepted any deportation of Cubans by ICE through commercial or charter flights from US territory.

During this time, only 20 Cubans have voluntarily returned to the island from the United States.

For comparison, between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021, ICE deported 95 Cubans.

According to figures from the US immigration agency, there are currently approximately 40,050 Cuban citizens pending deportation from the United States to Cuba after receiving the final order from a judge.

Cuba’s refusal to accept deportations comes amid an increase in the number of Cuban migrants trying to reach the United States irregularly through a route that starts in Central America and crosses the Straits of Florida.

Data from the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) indicate that in the last five months a total of 47,331 Cubans entered the North American country irregularly. In February alone, 16,557 entries were registered. continue reading

The Government of Cuba blames the United States for the increase in the irregular migratory flow and has accused it of failing to comply with the agreements on the matter.

However, on April 5, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said he was willing to talk with his “adversary” the United States, despite the historical differences between the two nations.

“We don’t need confrontation to exist either, as some fools think,” Diaz-Canel wrote on Twitter, quoting a phrase from former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Both countries began a rapprochement in 2015, known as a “thaw,” during Barack Obama’s last term (2009-2017), but it was reversed with the administration of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021).

Trump tightened the economic sanctions against the Island and paralyzed a large part of the measures taken by his Democratic predecessor.

Upon his arrival at the White House in January 2021, US President Joe Biden said he would review Trump’s policies.

However, Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, stated last November that “circumstances changed” in Cuba policy after the July 11 protests, which were repressed by the authorities.

That day, thousands of Cubans spontaneously took to the streets to demand more freedoms and political change in protests that resulted in hundreds of people arrested.

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