Rosalia, a Forgotten Hamlet in the Center of Cuba

One of the homes in the forgotten Rosalía hamlet, in Camajuaní. (Yankiel Gutierrez Faife)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní (Villa Clara), 19 March 2022 — Rosalía is a rural area in Camajuaní, poor and in decline, like so many small towns in Cuba. This place, full of history, was prosperous thanks to the sugar industry, but today is almost abandoned by its population, despite its good land and cool climate.

In its best times, the place in the province of Villa Clara had a center for the collection of its production and a railway, with its switch, which today is just ruins; there was an infirmary for small aid, which disappeared and even the primary school has been threatened with disappearance. The place is so small that it only has one road with the occasional bog, which makes it difficult for its citizens to circulate.

Transportation is by family carts and bicycles, but not everyone has one. Years ago there was a public bus with several daily frequencies, but over time it decreased and it only came “when it could.” After the pandemic, it was eliminated and has left residents without any means of transportation.

Every morning some children, young people and adults are seen at the door of the bodega, next to the embankment, hoping that someone driving by will kindly do them the favor of taking them to Taguayabón, the neighboring town, where their schools are and where there is the highway that connects Camajuaní and Remedios. continue reading

Elisa is one of those few young women with a bicycle and every day, at 5:00 am, she pedals the four kilometers to reach the highway, where she will board a transport to get to her work as a seamstress.

Like her, there are other women who work in the outskirts and take their children to school by bicycle.

Those who decide to stay in Rosalía continue to farm and keep their cattle. (Yankiel Gutierrez Faife)

The oblivion in which Rosalía has been left makes many of its inhabitants think of migrating, even four kilometers away, to Taguayabón, where life becomes easier.

Others, despite the shortcomings, are committed to continuing to keep their farms full of crops, cattle, horses, birds or beehives. This is the case of Lele, as his neighbors affectionately call him, a man who has been a beekeeper for 10 years and, between September and November, loads his oxcart with the tools to collect honey.

Lele delivers his product to the State, which will export it to the European market and Rosalía’s honey will end up being sold in a German market at a price that the beekeeper cannot even imagine and of which he receives a minimal part.

Juan, another resident of Rosalía, survives thanks to the small farm inherited from his grandparents and his crops of cassava, peanuts and, sometimes, beans, which help him feed his family and face the widespread shortages on the Island.

In the countryside, products such as oil, which reaches 600 or even 700 pesos when it is found, are even more scarce than in the cities.

Despite all the difficulties, Lele, Elisa and Juan have made the decision to continue with their lives in Rosalía and have resisted the temptation to move to Taguayabón, as many of their neighbors have done in search of services that no longer exist in their little hamlet.

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Cuba’s Official Year-on-Year Inflation Stood at 23 Percent in February

A Cuban woman paid 5 pesos a pound for potatoes in February, since  the price increased. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 19 March 2022 — Year-on-year inflation rose 23.03% in Cuba in February, according to a statement from the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei).

As official media reported this Friday, the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) compared to January was 0.90%, according to official data, which does not include the fluctuations experienced by the island’s extended informal market.

Thus, the inter-annual CPI in February, although high, is significantly lower than in January, which the National Office of Statistics and Information placed at 54.82%.

Accumulated inflation so far this year stands at 1.05%, when at the same point in 2021 it was at 45.65%. continue reading

By categories, recreation and culture rose 61.90% in inter-annual terms in February, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages (41.87%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (23.67%) and restaurants and hotels (14.72 %).

Only the prices in the health category registered reductions, falling by 10.36%, according to the same office.

Cuba is going through a serious economic crisis due to the combination of the pandemic, US sanctions and errors in national macroeconomic policy.

The situation is characterized by scarcity, the partial dollarization of the economy and a sharp increase in prices.

According to official figures, inflation in regulated commerce was around 70% in 2021 as a whole. Some estimates put the figure in the informal market at around 500%.

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Mother of Young Man Sentenced to Prison for July 11th is Hospitalized After a Suicide Attempt

A change of precautionary measure was approved for Castro on March 10 after she was detained for almost 15 days by State Security. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 March 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of the 18-year-old political prisoner Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro and a protester on July 11, has been admitted to the Julio Trigo hospital in Havana, after she made an attempt on her life. According to family sources confirmed to 14ymedio , Castro is out of danger.

“She is already recovering. She is under treatment in the Julio Trigo psychiatric ward,” says María Teresa Pérez, Castro’s mother. The woman, a leukemia patient, has also suffered several crises due to this condition in recent months.

A change of precautionary measure was approved for Castro on March 10 after she was held for almost 15 days by State Security in the Cuban capital. She is currently under investigation for an alleged crime of contempt.

She had been arrested on February 24 in the morning hours, activist Arián Cruz, Tata Poet, reported then, explaining that she was transferred to Villa Marista, a center known as the State Security headquarters in Havana. Cruz later reported that, after six days of investigation, the mother had been presented with “contempt charges.” continue reading

Since her son was taken to jail, Castro has denounced each of the injustices that have been committed against the young man and has not stopped demanding his freedom. In an interview with 14ymedio, she reported threats from State Security if she continued “demanding and protesting” in favor of the young man.

She has also denounced “the lies” of the regime told in the trial that was held against her son Rowland, accused of sedition and with an initial prosecutor’s request of 23 years, later reduced to 12.

On several occasions, Castro has been arbitrarily detained by State Security officials for interrogation, but she has always warned that “no matter what it costs” nothing will stop her in her fight for her son’s freedom.

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Havana’s Ecotaxis Will Hire 25 Drivers for the New Routes in Boyeros

In the center of Havana currently 23 Ecotaxis operate. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2022 — The Ecotaxis network is looking for 25 new drivers in Havana. According to the State newspaper Granma, the drivers will operate the new routes that will connect Fontanar, the Abel Santamaría neighborhood and Wajay, in the municipality of Boyeros.

The current drivers, who go from the National Bus terminal to the train station, say they need assistants who can replace the drivers when they are not there.

The lack of personnel means that in Havana there are “eight vehicles not operating,” one of the drivers tells this newspaper.

The Taxis-Cuba company, in charge of electric tricycles, highlights that those who apply must, among other requirements, be between 18 and 50 years of age, have no criminal record and have a motorcycle and car license, in addition to  three years driving experience in at least one of the two categories.

The current employees report that the experience they are asking for is about five years, and that to apply for the job “you have to go to Ayestarán.”

As this newspaper reported five months after the Ecotaxi service was inaugurated in October 2020, the taxi fare costs four pesos and each tricycle can carry six passengers. Thus, in a trip, a driver can earn 24 pesos, which adds up to 432 after completing the 18 trips of the day. continue reading

However, the license holders must deliver 125 pesos to the company and subtract 10% from the difference, which goes to the National Tax Administration Office. The assistants, in addition, must give 300 pesos to the company and this reduces their income (132 pesos).

The leased transport company ensures that each driver travels 100 kilometers on average, during eight working hours, but that “income depends on the capacity and commitment to work.”

“In 2021 alone, more than 92,200 trips were made and just over 724,160 passengers were transported, without emissions of polluting gases into the environment,” the company proclaims.

In the center of Havana, 23 vehicles of this type currently operate, and most of their drivers previously belonged to the Cocotaxis tourist line.

The Ecotaxi project, financed mainly by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to “promote the empowerment of women” — is why all the drivers are women — has been criticized for not being as “green” as announced in the posted advertisements.

The solar panels that are supposed to be used for recharging are still not working, and the batteries are recharged connected to the national electricity system, which is supplied by 95% fossil fuels.

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Panama Exempts From Transit Visas Cubans Who Return to the Island

Hundreds of Cubans stood outside the embassy soon as they learned of the new requirement demanded by Panama to transit through its territory. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana 17 March 2022 —  The Government of Panama has established a new norm for Cuban citizens that exempts them from the obligation to carry a visa to travel through the territory of that Central American country upon their return to the Island.

Under the signature of the Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo, and the Minister of Public Security, Juan Manuel Pino, the new text published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette, modifies the previous provision, which since March 8 required a transit visa for all Cuban passengers and crew.

This Executive Decree also includes in the exception of the requirement to obtain visas to citizens who have Valid Residence or Multiple Visa, previously used in the State that granted it, valid for no less than six months at the time of transit, by other countries.

In this group are the current residents or those with multiple visas issued by the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Singapore and the member countries of the European Union. continue reading

The measure will not serve to satisfy the population that, since last week, has been experiencing the imposition of transit visas for Cubans who pass through Panama, since most of them are looking to leave Cuba.

Hundreds of people who had purchased a ticket to emigrate to Nicaragua, which maintains the visa exemption for Cubans, were surprised by the new requirement. One of the few ways to get to Managua is through Copa Airlines, which stops in Panama, especially since Costa Rica, in February, also began to require the transit document.

For at least four days, many Cubans crowded as close as the Police allowed them to get to the diplomatic headquarters of Panama, where they demanded solutions and answers.

The director of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Ernesto Soberón, insisted that he would mediate to relax the demands that initially came into force immediately, although new dates had been established later to try to calm travelers.

Cubans who planned to travel between March 16 and 31 must reschedule their flights with the Copa airline, which offers connections at times for two or more months, and process their visas, which cost $50.

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In Havana Appointments for Mexican Visas Appear to be ‘Sold Out’ in Less Than a Day

Attention to the public in the last two years at the consular headquarters has been repeatedly interrupted due to the spike in coronavirus. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger 14ymedio, Havana, 14 March 2022 — Hundreds of Cubans denounced this Monday that they could not access the website set up by the Mexican embassy on the island to request a consular appointment for the month of April. The diplomatic headquarters announced at the beginning of the month that from Monday, at 4 pm, the new procedures could be scheduled. By 6:00 am on Tuesday, the appointments appear exhausted

Yesterday, the new web address announced by the embassy, ​​citacuba.sre.gob.mx, had difficulties loading and was displaying messages such as “connection failed,” “error 20.”. Other problems were being able to enter user data but then not being able to continue.

“It’s always the same. And this has been denounced even in collective letters to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and nothing happens,” the Cuban journalist based in Mexico, José Raúl Gallego, complained on his Twitter account, showing screenshots with failed attempts to access the site.

“Corruption continues with total impunity,” added Gallego, in a clear allusion to the usual complaints about the illegal sale in Havana of consular appointments, which can cost up to 1,500 dollars. continue reading

In the last two years, services to the public at the consular headquarters have been repeatedly interrupted due to the spike in coronavirus in both Cuba and Mexico. In January 2021, the Mexican government decided to suspend “until further notice” all consular and immigration services. It was not until the end of last December that Mexico notified that it would enable appointments for the first days of 2022 and only for legalization of documents and visa applications.

Several Cubans residing on the island, who are undergoing family reunification processes, have also denounced that the opening of appointments has coincided this Monday with “one of the worst days of internet connection.”

“The connection has deteriorated in recent weeks, it’s slow, there are constant crashes when browsing the web on mobile phones, but today it’s gone to extremes,” one of those affected tells 14ymedio. Users on the island “find it doubly difficult to make an appointment,” on the one hand, they insists, “the site is collapsed,” but on the other, “Cubans’ Internet access is very limited.”

Despite these drawbacks, poor service from the Consulate was already a constant before the pandemic. Getting an interview at the embassy was always difficult due to problems in the electronic system, delays with applications, or the resale of appointments on the informal market.

Cubans initially had to go to the site of the National Migration Institute to schedule a date, but the Embassy created the Appointments-Cuba page in the Mexitel system at the beginning of 2020 to speed up the procedures.

However, several independent media have reported that the number of appointments remains limited and intermediaries continue to charge excessive amounts of money to those who want to arrange one.

For the month of April, only 1,217 appointments for visas and legalization of seals and signatures were enabled, according to the embassy. “Appointments for the month of May will be opened at a later date,” it informed.

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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.

In 2021 Cuba Detected the Highest Number of Dengue Mosquitos in 15 Years

The ’Aedes aegypti’ mosquito, responsible for the transmission of dengue and zika viruses. (James Gathany)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana 17 March 2022 —  In 2021, Cuba detected the highest number of breeding sites for the mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus in the last 15 years, as confirmed this Wednesday by the Island’s Ministry of Public Health.

In a statement, the Ministry indicated that 71.1% of the mosquito breeding sites were detected in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Villa Clara.

In addition, the highest incidence was found during the months of June, September and October of last year.

The Ministry’s press release clarifies that, as of September, dengue cases were reduced by 29.3% compared to 2020, although without citing the figures.

In addition, it reported that the presence of the mosquito that transmits the viral disease has been increasing since 2007. continue reading

On the other hand, the health authorities point out that there are no records of other arboviruses — transmitted by insects, such as the mosquito — such as chikungunya and zika since 2019 and 2017, respectively.

They also alerted to the fact that that in seven out of ten cases, larvae of the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are detected in water storage tanks.

According to the Ministry, during 2021 in the American continent, 1,173,674 cases of dengue, 131,630 of chikungunya and 18,804 of zika were detected.

In January, a pilot trial of a nuclear technique by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) culminated in Cuba with almost 1.3 million mosquitoes, and managed to reduce the population of the Aedes aegypti species by up to 90%.
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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.

Almost 2,000 Years of Jail Time for 128 of the July 11 (11J) Protesters in Cuba

Moment when several young men overturned a patrol car at the corner of Toyo, Havana, on July 11th (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2022 — In contrast to the previous trials of July 11 protesters, in which the final sentences were lower than those sought by the prosecutors, the Diez de Octubre Tribunal in Havana, which tried 33 people on January 31, has been relentless.

Thus, it has sentenced Brandon David Becerra Curbelo, 17 years old at the time of his arrest that Sunday, to 13 years in prison when the prosecutor sought five years without internment.

His sentence is one of 128 made public on Wednesday and reflects the harshness of Cuban tribunals against the 11J protesters. The sentences communicated by the People’s Supreme Court are those related to protests at the corner of Toyo and La Güinera in Havana and the jail time received by the defendants adds to no less than 1,916 years.

The convicted were grouped into six cases, tried between December 14 and February 3 for which 129 people were processed, only one was absolved and another received 4 years, “of correctional labor without internment.”

The note shared by the Supreme Court states that the accused had committed and provoked “grave disturbances and acts of vandalism with the objective of destabilizing public order, collective security, and citizen peace.” continue reading

In the cases of the protests on the corner of Toyo, they state being able to demonstrate that the accused intended to “violently subvert the constitutional order. They launched stones and bottles against several officials, agents of interior order, installations of the National Revolutionary Police, patrol cars; they overturned a motorcycle and cars belonging to the Municipal Assembly of the People’s Power and caused injuries to other people and serious material damage.”

Those protests provided the most iconic image of that day, an overturned patrol car and a young man atop it with a Cuban flag, which has become irrefutable proof for tribunals of violence, which they attribute solely to the protesters.

With regard to the events of La Güinera, the document states that the neighbors accused “went to the streets in that area and called for passers-by and neighbors to join them; they threw stones, sticks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at agents of the Ministry of the Interior and other employees of state institutions who were present, whom they injured. For several hours, those who were tried also surrounded the National Revolutionary Police station in the Capri neighborhood.

The statement did not, at any point, mention the death of the young protester, Diubis Laurencio Tejada, shot in the back by police.

In addition, the tribunal states that the events were organized, despite the fact that the protests occurred spontaneously in San Antonio de los Baños (in the province of Artemisa), and then began to be replicated throughout the rest of the country, encouraged by seeing others on social media. Similarly, it considers their occurrence during the pandemic, when exceptional measures were in place to avoid crowds, an aggravating circumstance.

As is customary, the statement highlights that the procedures adhered closely to the law, despite the numerous claims, by not only opposition groups and human rights organizations, but also international and independent organizations, that they violated rights.

Those who received the harshest sentences were Dayron Martín Rodríguez and Miguel Páez Estiven, sentenced to 30 years in prison; Wilmer Moreno Suárez, to 26; Roberto Pérez Ortega, Luis Frómeta Compet and Asley Nelson Cabrera Puente, to 25 years.

With 23-year jail sentences are Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, Ángel Hernández Serrano, Yerandis Rillo Pao, Oscar Luis Ortíz Arrovsmeth, Robert Orlando Cairo Díaz, Denis Ojeda Álvarez, Yoandry Reinier Sayu Silva and Yoanky Báez Albornoz.

Lázaro Zamora González, José Luis Sánchez Tito and Frank Aldama Rodríguez, received 22 years in jail; and Roland Vázquez Fleitas, Henry Fernández Pantera and Juan Emilio Pérez Estrada, 21 years.

Finally, Katia Beirut Rodríguez, Fredy Beirut Matos, Alexander Guillermo Martínez Amoroso, Dianyi Liriano Fuentes, Alexis Sosa Ruiz, Orlando Carvajal Cabrera, Jorge Vallejo Venega, Ronald García Sánchez, Alexis Borges Wilson, Donger Soroa González and Alexander Ayllón Carvajal, were sentenced to 20 years.

The list continues naming the many sentenced, in descending order down to 6 years, the shortest of the jail sentences imposed. And finally Nelsón Nestor Rivero Garzón is the only one whose sentence was commuted to correctional labor without internment.

The president of the Spain-based Prisoners Defenders, Javier Larrondo, told the Spanish agency EFE that the sentences were a “barbarity” and were exemplary in nature since the “large majority were peacefully protesting.”

The judgments issued in the first instance may be appealed to the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, the Provincial Tribunal of Havana revoked the sentence of two years of correctional labor without internment for José Díaz Silva, leader of the Opposition Movement for a New Republic (MONR), and arrested him on March 3rd.

According to the sentence, the activist violated the sanction imposed in July 2021, when he threatened a neighbor who entered his yard to steal plantains. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that he has been fined six times and has a “warning” for “meeting with people whose social conduct caused the neighbors discomfort.”

On this subject, Prisoners Defenders stated that “the Cuban regime did not stop until they jailed activist José Díaz Silva.”

COMPLETE LIST OF THOSE SENTENCED

With 30 years in prison: Dayron Martín Rodríguez and Miguel Páez Estiven.

With 26 years in prison: Wilmer Moreno Suárez.

With 25 years in prison: Roberto Pérez Ortega, Luis Frómeta Compet and Asley Nelson Cabrera Puente.

With 23 years in prison: Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, Ángel Hernández Serrano, Yerandis Rillo Pao, Oscar Luis Ortíz Arrovsmeth, Robert Orlando Cairo Díaz, Denis Ojeda Álvarez, Yoandry Reinier Sayu Silva and Yoanky Báez Albornoz.

With 22 years in prison: Lázaro Zamora González, José Luis Sánchez Tito and Frank Aldama Rodríguez.

With 21 years in prison: Rolando Vázquez Fleitas, Henry Fernández Pantera and Juan Emilio Pérez Estrada.

With 20 years in prison: Katia Beirut Rodríguez, Fredy Beirut Matos, Alexander Guillermo Martínez Amoroso, Dianyi Liriano Fuentes, Alexis Sosa Ruiz, Orlando Carvajal Cabrera, Jorge Vallejo Venega, Ronald García Sánchez, Alexis Borges Wilson, Donger Soroa González and Alexander Ayllón Carvajal.

With 19 years in prison: Duannis Dabel León Taboada, Adael Jesús Leyva Díaz, Lauren Martínez Ibáñez and Kendry Miranda Cárdenas.

With 18 years in prison: Odet Cruzata Hernández, Reinier Reynoso Valdes, Jesús Enrique Vázquez Cabrera, Marlon Brando Díaz Oliva, Dayán Gustavo Flores Brito, Oscar Bárbaro Bravo Cruzata, Yussuan Villalba Sierra, Ricardo Duque Solís, Francisco Eduardo Soler Castaneda, Elieser Gordín Rojas and Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro.

With 16 years in prison: Carlos Paul Michelena Valdés, Daisy Rodríguez Alfonso, Amaury Leyva Prieto, Kevin Damián Frómeta Castro, Juan Piloto Ferro and Luis Miguel Oña Jiménez.

With 15 years in prison: Felipe Almiral, Elier Padrón Romero, Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez, Amalio Álvarez González, Luis Armando Cruz Aguilera, Oriol Hernández Gálvez, Edel Cabrera González, Roberto Ferrer Tamayo and Harol Michel Mena Nuviola.

With 14 years in prison: Adán Kiubel Castillo Echevarría, Adrián Oljales Mora, Yunaiky de la Caridad Linares Rodríguez, Juan Carlos Morales Herrera, Amaury Fernández Martínez, Carlos Alberto Hernández Pérez, Andrius López Fragosa, Osvaldo Lugo Pita, Juan Walberto Verdecia Rodríguez and Lázaro Noel Urgelles Fajardo.

With 13 years in prison: Yunior García Vizcay, Carlos Luis Águila Socarrás, Adonay López López, Julián Yasmany Díaz Mena, Eduardo Álvarez Rigal, and  Brandon David Becerra Curbelo.

With 12 years in prison: Karen Vázquez Pérez, Franyer Abad Dumet, José Luis Castillo Bolaños, Yan Carlos Martínez Bonne, Freidel Ramírez Castillo, Jarolkis Suárez Rojas, Idael Naranjo Pérez, Jesús Ramón Rodríguez Pérez, Yosney Emilio Román Rodríguez, Raudel Saborín González, Yasiel Arnaldo Córdova Rodríguez, Rafael Jesús Núñez Echenique, Elyán Seguí Cruz, Mackyani Yosney Román Rodríguez, Alejaime Lambert Reyes, Rolier Salazar González and Yurema Ramos Abad.

With 11 years in prison: Jaimel Alcide Firdó Rodríguez, Alejandro Bécquer Arias, Arielvis Rill Baró, Yaquelín Castillo García and José Luis Castillo de la Torre.

With 10 years in prison: Leoalys de la Caridad Valera Vázquez, Yunan González Terry, Raynel Mayet Frómeta, Brayan Piloto Pupo, Giuseppe Belaunzarán Guada, Santiago Vázquez León, Lázaro Daniel Cremé Bueno, Dayán Jesús Ramírez Rondón, Germán Barrenechea Echavarría and Eris Diógenes Mejías Vinent.

With 9 years in prison: Frank Daniel Roy Sotolongo, Yassell Guerra Campos, Marco Antonio Alfonso Breto and Liliana Oropesa Ferrer.

With 8 years in prison: Dariel Cruz García, Juan Yanier Antomarchi Núñez, Yurileydis Soler Abad, Félix Jesús Armada García, Eloy Bárbaro Cardoso Pedroso, Yoilán Limonta Mojena, Yosnel Daniel Castro Fernández and Frandy González León.

With 7 years in prison: Rubis Carlos Vicet Padilla, Emy Yoslán Román Rodríguez, Yensi Jorge Machado González and Wilfredo Limonta Mesa.

With 6 years in prison: José Antonio González Guerrero and Yeinier Ibáñez Boudet.

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.

‘I Left Cuba Because I Felt Alone in My Struggle,’ Says Dr. Manuel Guerra

Dr. Manuel Guerra, in a recent image, already off the Island. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 17 March 2022 — Every day it is more common to go to a doctor’s office and hear “we don’t have a doctor, you’ll have to come another day.” The exodus in the Public Health sector is increasing despite the obstacles that the Cuban Government puts up to prevent the bleeding of white coats. One of the most recent to emigrate has been Manuel Guerra, an obstetrician and critic of the regime.

A member of the Archipiélago platform expelled from his job at the Nicodemus Regalado Hospital in Holguín and arbitrarily arrested last October, Guerra recently left the island with a stopover in Nicaragua, trying to leave the repression behind and with an eye toward exercising medicine in freer circumstances.

Now, in a country that he prefers not to mention in order to avoid the long arm of State Security, the doctor admits that his dream of a democratic opening on the Island has come true. “My mother called me a dreamer and I had hope, even before July 11, that there could be an imminent change in Cuba, because society was expressing itself.”

The doctor tells 14ymedio that he dared to express his questions publicly when he saw people like “Yunior Morales, Saily González and Yunior García Aguilera himself ” opposing the regime. “They have been raising their voices and joining forces against the dictatorship for some time now.”

But his entry into activism came with a personal history of struggle. Guerra had been waiting for years for a family reunification immigration process with his father, who lives in the United States. His status as a resident doctor condemned him to be ‘regulated’ – forbidden from leaving the country so he tried to leave the country illegally in 2019, was intercepted and the anger of the authorities increased around him. continue reading

For decades, when a doctor announces that he plans to emigrate or is caught in the act of doing so, he knows that he will be placed in the hospitals with the lowest resources, the most deteriorated consultation rooms, with long shifts, cases that few want to attend and the hours in an emergency room doing sutures.

Guerra’s case was no different, but his passion for his profession made him face the challenge with professionalism and put aside his plans to emigrate. However, he acknowledges that “we don’t have even the most basic medicines in a hospital. We don’t have painkillers, we don’t have antibiotics.” Despite his problems, he continued with his specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

His anecdotes of the Cuban health disaster would fill several volumes: “I had to suture a patient, after giving birth, without anesthesia.” However, he warns that in addition to the resources “to be a doctor you have to have human quality, you have to be on the side of the people, of the people who suffer. The doctor has to be fair, first of all.”

And that sense of justice led Guerra to show his solidarity with his colleague Alexander Raúl Pupo Casas, who was defamed by official spokesmen for publishing his critical opinion about the political situation on the island and resigned from his job at the Ernesto Guevara Hospital of Las Tunas, where he did his residency in Neurosurgery.

The obstetrician regrets that Pupo’s example has not spread among health personnel. “If only the Cubans would take a semi-critical position, but except for a few who have the decorum that many do not have, Cuba has a submissive people, a cowardly people,” he lamented.

“It is true that the oppressive regime is arbitrary, totalitarian, harmful to the mental and physical health of all our brothers and sisters, but we are the ones who have allowed it.” On his migratory journey he has met many Cubans: “I have seen a mother with a three-month-old girl in her arms and 74-year-old diabetic patients jumping the border, crossing the mountains.”

The days before boarding the plane were a whirlwind. He details that the pressures of the political police grew. After his arrest in October, he “felt alone, literally alone.” When he left the police station where he had to sign the dismissal of that process, his wife and his mother were just waiting for him. “And so I decided to leave the country.”

During these months, he heard from State Security agents everything from veiled threats against his family to phrases calling him to leave the Island or he would be imprisoned. Shortly after, the authorities withdrew the travel ‘regulation’ that weighed on him and, in an expeditious manner, they also renewed his passport.

Until the last moment, a few meters from the boarding gate at the Havana airport, the political police pressured him to sign a document retracting his publications critical of the regime, but Guerra refused. Those minutes until the plane took off were the longest of his life.

Returning to Cuba seems impossible in the current circumstances: “Now I’m a realist, I’m not a silly dreamer. I know it’s very difficult for them to let me in again, I’d have to be totally silent and not talk anymore, which I am never going to do.”

Guerra practices his English and thinks about the day when he can put on his white coat again and practice his profession. Meanwhile, in a hospital in Holguin, his hands are no longer there to receive a newborn baby, give the first spank of life and show an exhausted but happy mother that new being that has arrived to inhabit a home and an island.
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The Number of Foreign Tourists in Cuba Quadruples in January

Hotel Grand Aston La Habana, recently built by Gaesa on the Malecón. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 March 2022 — The number of foreign tourists who visited Cuba in January was almost four times higher than the same month of the previous year, when the figures sank due to covid-19.

As published this Saturday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the number of international visitors rose to 134,661 in January, compared to 35,842 in the first month of 2021.

The strong increase is linked to the global recovery from the pandemic, both in Cuba and in its main tourist source markets, and contrasts with the evolution in 2021 as a whole.

The ONEI estimated 573,944 international travelers as the number who visited Cuba throughout last year, which represented a decrease of 60% compared to 2020.

The figure for the whole of 2021 represents a quarter of the official projection at the beginning of the year, which was around 2.2 million visitors, and very far from the between 4 and 5 million annual tourists  prior to the pandemic. continue reading

The Ministry of Economy and Planning estimates that this year some 2.5 million international visitors will travel to the island, who should contribute some 1.159 billion dollars to the Cuban economy.

Cuba, which reopened its borders in the middle of last November after the closure forced by the pandemic, sees tourism as a priority sector. This is its second largest item of gross domestic product (GDP) and its third largest source of foreign currency, behind the sale of medical services to other countries and remittances sent primarily from Cubans abroad to their families on the Island.

The state tourism sector expects to end this year with 84,906 rooms, 5.7% more than the previous year, despite the pandemic. As this newspaper has confirmed, the construction of new hotels is going at full speed.

In Havana’s Vedado, for example, the dilapidated structure of the Moscow restaurant is being rapidly demolished to make way for accommodation to be managed by the Cuban company Gran Caribe and the Spanish company Be Live, and ten days ago the Telégrafo Axel Hotel was reopened as the first LGBTI friendly establishment in the capital.

Despite coronavirus restrictions, a lack of tourists and a shortage of construction supplies across the country, the Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (Gaesa), the military conglomerate, has not stopped its massive projects. One of them is the one that is being built at 25th and K, in El Vedado, a luxury hotel that is projected as “the tallest of its kind in Havana” and that aims to reach 42 floors and 154 meters in height. .

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With No Packaging for its Adulterated Coffee, Cuba-Café Asks Consumers for Patience

For at least the next two months Hola coffee with not be sold in its usual packaging, which has to be imported. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, March 14, 2022 — Hola-brand coffee, an essential consumer item which can be bought using a ration card, will available for sale — at least through March and April — in a clear polyethylene sleeve instead of its usual screen-printed bag. Delivery delays of its imported packaging have kept the product off store shelves, so officials have settled on this temporary solution. They made the announcement in order to allay any doubts about the authenticity of their coffee, which is mixed with dried peas, something the packaging label does not mention.

The announcement — made to the official press by the director general of Cuba-Cafe, Daniel Cobas Cheda — was not enough to calm public discontent. The statement, first published in Tribuna de la Habana  and later posted on the official website Cubadebate, has generated numerous comments reflecting consumers’ frustration, especially over the island’s heavy dependence on imports, which now also includes the packaging in which coffee is sold.

“So even plastic has to be imported? Can’t we manage to produce a plastic bag in this country?” asks one reader. “Besides reducing imports, it would confirm the product is authentic.”

“If they want to reduce imports, why are they putting a product that everyone knows is low-quality in a plastic wrapper? These are unnecessary expenses. If it’s all for domestic consumption and is not a high-quality product, then put it in packaging made here,” reads another comment along the same lines. continue reading

This issue is one that has also been raised by Cubadebate readers. Even some of those who describe themselves as “revolutionaries” believe it is outrageous that a product of such low quality could even be called coffee. “I consider it insulting that the statement above claims this will clarify any confusion about the product’s authenticity. This product ceased to be authentic “COFFEE” a long time ago. Now it’s just a powder with an unpleasant odor and an unbearable taste that seems to be something other than what it claims to be: coffee. I think that you should have a little more respect, of which you clearly have none, for hardworking people who have sacrificed and dedicated themselves to the work of the Revolution. Thank you,” writes one reader.

Multiple comments focused on the argument that what is being sold is not really coffee, and has not been for some time. “After reading this news, I realized no one respects anyone anymore. Cuba-Café, or perhaps we should call it Cuba-dried-pea, has no repect for its customers or for itself. This is a company incapable of guaranteeing something as basic as its brand’s reputation. Of course this is only for the domestic market. They would never dare export this.”

Hola’s directors acknowledge that, for the past two years they have been blending the coffee they sell locally with 50% dried peas. The International Coffee Organization states, however, that any product that contains more than 5% of another ingredient cannot be classified as coffee.

The former general director of Cuba-Café, Antonio Aleman Blanco, explained in an article in the official press the the formula, “which is no secret, is 50% Arabica or Robusta coffee beans and 50% dried peas.”

One of those who posted a comment was happy to learn that the product will at least be available again but has not given up hope that one day it will be better: “Good decision. There are other products out there that we can’t buy because of packaging. What’s important now is that it gets here. How? It doesn’t matter. Now my question is: Will we one day be able to drink 100% Café Cubano coffee?”

Few could resist the chance, however, to get in an ironic jab. “What a shock! For a moment I thought we’d be getting pure coffee again,” someone wrote. “Right now they give you peas, beans and rice and say, ’Innovate and like it,’” added another.

Once the plastic packaging arrives in the country, says Cobas Cheda, Hola’s coffee-and-pea blend will return in its usual format.

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The Death of Another Cuban After Falling into a Pothole Unleashes Demands on the Authorities

The accident occurred in front of the Sevillano park, on Úrsula street, between Jorge and D’Strampes, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 16 March 2022 — Another pothole claimed the life of a Cuban on the Island, Daniel Toribio, age 30. The young man died last Monday after spending about 48 hours in a coma at the Miguel Enríquez Surgical Clinical Hospital in Havana after suffering an accident on March 10.

The incident occurred in front of the Sevillano park, on Úrsula street, between Jorge and D’Strampes, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, Toribio’s friends inform 14ymedio. Yuri Arrechea, who made the complaint on Facebook, details that the accident took place around five in the afternoon.

Some witnesses told the family that Toribio was driving calmly down his path when a truck, coming in the opposite direction, slammed on the brakes near the pothole and the young man could not “dodge the hole” so he “lost control of his motorcycle.” In the pothole on Úrsula Street, according to photos taken by the victim’s friends, a puddle of water remains that prevents seeing the depth of the sinkhole.

“Because of a pothole we lost a great friend whom we buried two days ago. A young man full of dreams and goals. I have seen, lately, at least three accidents for the same reasons. We must call it to the attention of the authorities of this country so that this does not become a habit,” wrote Arrechea in the Facebook group BUSES & TRUCK ACCIDENTS, in support of more experience and fewer victims! continue reading

“I pass by there every day and I passed the day of the accident. I saw Criminalistics in action but unfortunately the pothole is still there and that young man is no longer there,” the user identified as JC RG commented on the post“We must unite in one voice so that they fix all the streets. Many accidents for this cause,” Internet user Delmis Sánchez added in the same publication.

This Wednesday, several friends of Daniel Toribio gathered in the Sevillano park to pay tribute to him and deposited several bouquets of flowers on the trunk of a tree, a few meters from the pothole.

Several friends of Daniel Toribio gathered in the Sevillano park to pay tribute to him. (Yuri Arrechea)

On March 6, Yunior Tabares Magdariaga, 21, died after losing control of his motorcycle when he fell into a hole on Calvario street, in Santiago de Cuba. The young man, a resident of the town of Los Altos de Quintero in the north of the city, suffered a spectacular fall from the moving bike that caused his death, according to several acquaintances.

Holguin native Octavio Almaguer Ricardo, about 50 years old, also died in an accident with his motorcycle last October. “It was almost dark, late at night, he had left the house to take some friends at the entrance to the road. He hit the pothole, was thrown and the motorcycle fell on him,” a person close to the victim reported to this newspaper.

Almaguer Ricardo, with a serious head injury and multiple leg fractures, was transferred to the provincial hospital of Holguín and underwent surgery, but nothing could be done to save his life.

Earlier this month, the National Road Safety Commission warned that during the past year 70% of Cuban provinces had an increase in accidents, due in part to an increase in motorcycles that can result in more traffic accidents.

The authorities once again attribute responsibility to the human factor, which was responsible for 94.2% of accidents while “only 5.8% was due to technical failure.” However, the error persists of ignoring that a modern vehicle and healthy roads minimize accidents and, consequently, victims.

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Some Display a Sign and Others Leave Cuba

Capture of the moment in which Marina Ovsyannikova bursts into the news, crying out against the war in Ukraine.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 16 March 2022 — Her name is Marina Ovsyannikova and until a few days ago she was an editor at Channel 1 of Russian official television. But after having the courage to appear with a sign against the war in Ukraine during a live newscast, her name has become synonymous with professional integrity and daring, as well as a symbol that many in authoritarian countries should learn from.

The day that Ovsyannikova unfurled her sign, the social networks about Cuba were immersed in the umpteenth debate around an official journalist who took to his heels and is asking for asylum in the country which, until recently, was the center of his attacks. As with every controversy of this type, some accused the presenter of being opportunistic, others appealed to empathy to accept his escape, and others converted his departure from the country into the new watershed that was going to divide us as Cubans.

A woman, alone, with a piece of cardboard written on by hand, shook up the entire controversy that was wearing us down. She made the arguments of one side and the other seem frivolous. “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda,” read the sign she showed on camera behind the news anchor. With that gesture, she not only showed immense decorum, but she also risked ending up in a legal process that would take her to prison for many years, although until now her audacity has resulted in an arrest and a fine. continue reading

Without intending to nor having this Island in her mind, Ovsyannikova was also speaking to us Cubans. She was telling those who disown anyone who works in an official media that one day, any employee of those propaganda mechanisms takes a role or uses her voice to denounce an injustice reaches a much larger audience than an activist shouting in a corner.

To the other party, who calls for mercy for the official journalists who, until yesterday, were defaming opponents and now celebrate having arrived “in the land of freedom,” this young Russian was reminding them that something can always be done. Every opportunity in front of the microphone, every chance to speak live and not denounce the dictatorship is a lost opportunity, and more time given to the longest-running authoritarian system in this hemisphere.

Ovsyannikova threw us against the mirror of our trifles. Not all those who work in the official channels are run-of-the-mill repeaters of slogans, nor is “nothing can be done because everything is controlled” of much use to evade civic responsibility. We have to watch closely so that this woman does not end up with her bones in jail, poisoned by a mysterious substance or pushed into exile; but also to call for each Cuban to use the crack that opens up to get rid of this horror.
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Russia will be the Guest of Honour at the Cuban Tourism Fair, Whatever Happens in Ukraine

The Tourism Fair announced Russia as the host in 2019. (Mintur / File)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, March 2nd, 2022 – Just as if nothing had happened, or, even worse, taking advantage of the moment in which everybody is rejecting Moscow to position themselves as an unwavering friend, the Cuban tourism authorities are more than happy about having chosen Russia as the invited guest of honour at FitCuba 2022.

The tourism fair had announced its host in 2019 with the idea of exploiting a market sector which was then growing vigorously, but with the arrival of the pandemic the event was cancelled for two consecutive years and finally will take place between May 3rd and 7th in Varadero.

At a time when Russia is marginalised both in the cultural and sporting spheres, Cuba is a long way from reconsidering  who should be the guest of honour  and neither is it worried about whether or not the guest will be able to get to the island, now that nearly all the country’s airlines have cancelled their flights because of the sanctions which forbid overflying most of the northwest hemisphere.

The decision to bar Russia from social, cultural and sporting events has provoked derision from those who consider that it is a ridiculous measure, but it has hurt the Kremlin. This very morning, chancellor Sergei Lavrov has recognised that they can expect sanctions because of the invasion – or, military operation as they call it – but not that it would be extended to artists and sportsmen. According to the experts, these kinds of decisions are powerful in symbolising isolation but also have a practical effect: in making it clearly visible to Russian people that something is happening. continue reading

In a press conference about the nautical events expected in 2022, the authorities were asked by FitCuba about the possible repercussions of the “international context” on the Russian  tourist presence in Varadero in only two months, but sources close to Moscow authorities – according to Cubadebate – consider that there won’t be any problem.

The answer did not refer to the remote idea of being questioned before an international community committed to supporting Ukraine against its aggressor, but rather to the fact that, although the guests cannot travel, it is clearly demonstrated, thanks to the pandemic, that online events can work just as well as face-to-face ones.

“The whole world has managed virtual events and, if there can’t be physical presence, there can still be professional and commerical interchange” says the official press.

The position fits with that of the government in the conflict, although finally Cuba has decided to abstain in voting on the United Nations General Assembly text against the Russian invasion which was overwhelmingly approved this Wednesday in New York.

In his address this Tuesday, Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, Cuban permanent representative to the United Nations, again rejected any use of force by NATO and blamed it for its “expansionist efforts” which provoked the Russian response. And although he did not go as far  – at least publicly – as Nicolás Maduro, who called Vladmir Putin to convey the “firm support” of Venezuela, nor recognised the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk which brought about the outbreak of Russian hostilities, the Cuban regime’s media and diplomatic deployment continues to be in Moscow’s favour.

Among the nautical events presented yesterday, there is a new offer: a new diving centre developed by the Russian company Siberian Diving and the Marlin Marine and Nautical Company of Cuba.

Nevertheless, in the current scenario, when the Russian stock market has been closed for three days to contain the bloodbath resulting from international sanctions, the Russian partner is wobbling as a source of supply.

Translated by GH

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Socialist Solutions to Deal with Price Hikes Due to the War in Ukraine

For months vegetable oil has been in short supply on the island, where fried, salty foods and other items using large amounts of oil are a mainstay of the cuisine. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, March 11, 2022 — Among the products Cuba imported from Ukraine in 2021, fats and vegetable oils topped the list. Though not the island’s main supplier, Cuba stands to suffer the consequences of the war in Ukraine, which include food shortages. On Wednesday, deputy prime-minister and head of the Ministry of Economics and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernandez, warned of looming price hikes which, he said, the government plans to fight with “socialist solutions.”

Gil Fernandez noted that markets are already reeling from the price of fuel, which has affected all modes of transportation, particularly charter boats. He pointed to skyrocketing prices for oil, wheat and soy flour, a situation that is raising inflation rates around the world. This threatens to be catastrophic in Cuba, however, because — though he did not mention it — currency unification has already had its own inflationary impact, with prices having risen as much as 70%.

Governments around the world are preparing contingency plans to deal with the effects of increasing supply shortages and inflation resulting from what the the United Nation’s own Food and and Agricultural Organization described on Friday as “disruptions in logistics and supply chains of grain and oilseed in Ukraine and the Russian Federation, as well as restrictions on Russian exports,” which have significant implications for food security around the world.

Gil Fernandez did not specify, however, what ideas the Cuban government has for dealing with the situation beyond its stated intention of focusing on “fair administrative and socialist solutions” with the goal of protecting vulnerable citizens through price controls rather than providing subsidies to state-owned businesses. continue reading

He also noted that 500 Cuban companies have reported losses for 2021 though he pointed out that, for many of them, the problem was one of inefficiency but that prices for their goods and services were not enough to cover costs of raw materials and manufacturing. In any case, he admitted that the government was in no condition to bail out money-losing enterprises, especially those which are overstaffed or which distribute profits.

Though Gil Fernandez stated in his speech on Thursday that the current tense international situation must be “faced with a clear head,” Finances and Prices Minister Meisi Bolaños took the opportunity to talk about the national budget, explaining that adjustments are being made to deal with loss of foreign exchange earnings due the pandemic and “the worsening American blockade,” which have forced the government to spend 17 billion pesos to cover expenses.

In addition to the problems stemming from the pandemic-related fall in tourism and an expected decline in tourists from Russia, there is the issue of food.

For Cuban families the news is bleak. For months, vegetable oil has been in short supply on the island, where fried, salty foods and other items using large amounts of oil are a mainstay of the cuisine. As culinary options decline, Cuban cooks are increasingly turning to dishes such as croquettes, which can used to stretch the limited amount of animal protein available.

Cookies, breads, pizzas and pastas also play an important role in daily meals. Many Cuban households follow the tradition inherited from their Spanish ancestors of augmenting lunch or dinner with a slice of bread. It also provides an essential guarantee that children are able to have an an afternoon snack at school. And at private cafes it practically serves as the main course.

Bread with cheese, bread with ham, bread with mayonaise and — for the poorest — bread with a spoonful of sugar often constitute some people’s main meal. Home-delivery menus and those of many privately owned restaurants also feature items made from wheat flour, so any reduction in supply would have a severe impact on the food service sector.

It could even impact the critical distribution of rationed bread, a frequent target of complaints over its declining quality and size. Individuals are entitled to 80 grams of bread a day, though they rarely receive that much. An attempt to replace wheat flour with cassava or sweet potato flour has not gone over well wiwth consumers, who describe the substitutes as hard and tasteless.

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