“They imposed a fine of 7.50 pesos for being undocumented and they confined me to a cell until they released me at 11:20 pm in the street of the Ladies in White national headquarters,” wrote Moya on his Facebook account.
The two activists were detained on Sunday when they attempted to go out once again, for the seventh consecutive week, to demand the release of all those arrested in relation to the antigovernment protests of July 11th.
As they explained, the detention took place outside the headquarters of the Ladies in White in the Lawton area of Havana.
“[Berta and Ángel] have been detained and disappeared at 11:16 this morning at Calle E and Porvenir in Lawton as they went out to the street to exercise their right to freedom,” denounced Ladies in White member Lourdes Esquivel Vieyto on social media on Sunday.
According to Moya, both were transferred to different detention centers, where they were held in the cells for more than ten hours. continue reading
Since the Ladies in White announced that they would protest each Sunday, as they did before the pandemic, demanding the release of those detained for the antigovernment protests on July 11th, they have been arrested every week.
The EU and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticized that wave of politically motivated arrests. Cuban authorities, however, alleged that it was an attack on national sovereignty on orders of the United States.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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The South African Democratic Alliance has been focusing on the importing of Cuban doctors for months. (Capture)
The South African Democratic Alliance, in opposition, estimates the money invested in paying the salaries of Cuban doctors with expired contracts who continue in the province of Gauteng (which is home to the two largest cities of the country, Pretoria and Johannesburg) at almost 2 million dollars, while some local healthcare workers are unpaid.
The opponent Jack Bloom, from the provincial Health area, denounced that there are vacancies not filled with South African doctors while 14 Cuban doctors continue to earn between 78,000 and 91,000 rand per month, the equivalent of between 5,000 and 6,000 dollars. Meanwhile, there are 10 interns at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic Hospital who are “suffering” because they haven’t been paid this year.
“They do invaluable work on 12-hour shifts, but things are getting desperate as some of them are starving and don’t have money for transportation,” Bloom said.
The aforementioned Cuban doctors are part of a group of 28 whose contracts are not related to the special ones for covid-19, but to the agreements between the two countries signed in 1996. In this case, their contracts ended in May 2020, but Bloom denounces that half are still employed without any possible justification. continue reading
“It’s disappointing that the province still employs 14 of them when the local doctors are unemployed. I don’t see them doing anything the local doctors can’t do,” he said. The politician denounced that many of them do not even speak English well and are not familiar with the health problems in the area.
But Nomathemba Mokgethi, head of the regional health department, defended the measure. “Cuba as a country is known for having the best results in this area and its experience in prevention and health promotion helps strengthen the district system,” she said.
“Cuban doctors also serve as mentors and trainers for doctors who are located in primary health care centers, especially South African doctors trained in Cuba,” she alleges.
Bloom, on the other hand, sees shadowy interests in the maintenance of Cuban physicians. “It’s not a surprise, but there is something deeply suspicious about this because we have unemployed local doctors and unfilled medical positions,” he warned. In addition, the opponent said that at the end of the month health workers who were hired to attend to the pandemic will be laid off, so there will be vacancies.
The opposition has spent months focusing on the importing of Cuban doctors into the country, a task that entails a high cost because, in addition to salaries, it implies providing the health workers with accommodation, transportation and maintenance, costs which would not exist in the case of hiring to nationals.
The contingent of doctors who arrived in South Africa during the pandemic cost at least $6 million, which was justified at the time by having “limited” experience in the country. Those contracts were renewed twice. The tasks they carried out, according to the Cuba’s State-run Granma newspaper itself, were taking samples for PCR tests for Covid and contact investigations, a task that could have been carried out by nursing assistants, pharmacists or trained administrative personnel, but which, in the case of the Cuban doctors, cost almost 14 million dollars.
Relations between Cuba and South Africa are a source of frequent controversy. In addition to the conflict ridden contracts with doctors, the South African scholarship holders who study on the island have also been in the eye of the hurricane, recently due a party that the South African students were celebrating in Villa Clara, which ended with the Cuban police beating the medical students. Although the South African Government stated that it would ask for explanations, the issue has dissolved like a sugar cube in cup of coffee.
Other problems have arisen from agreements with Cuban engineers who come to South Africa to share their sanitation knowledge. The opposition has repeatedly denounced that, instead of focusing on local hiring, these workers are being brought in who are not even legally authorized to do a good number of tasks.
The scandal of the South African purchase of interferon alpha 2b from Cuba through the Ministry of Defense, in what was an operation not authorized by the Health Department, remains unresolved, but millions were invested in acquiring medicines that had to be returned or destroyed for the most part.
The most recent controversy between the two countries is the approval of a $3.25 million donation to Cuba to improve its “food security.” The authorities consider that it is necessary to support the island in the face of the US embargo with this economic aid since Havana supported them in their fight against apartheid, but experts and the opposition consider that collaboration due to an historical event is already excessive and it can become corruption.
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The Police have established a cordon to prevent those interested from approaching Panama’s diplomatic headquarters. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 March 2022 — The situation at the Panamanian Embassy in Havana has worsened 24 hours after the chaos generated this Wednesday after it was learned that the country had begun requesting transit visas from Cubans.
Hundreds of people arrived at the entrance of the consulate yesterday to find out how they could quickly acquire a necessary piece of paper a few hours before some of them had to board a flight stopping in the Panamanian capital.
The scene was repeated this Thursday, although the Police had taken control of the area today and it was impossible to approach the diplomatic headquarters. In addition, the internet signal had been cut off in the area.
The agents, among other missions, must control traffic, which has been diverted to prevent yesterday’s crowds. The dozens of people who get as close as possible brandish their tickets in their hands and, like yesterday, demand solutions and answers in the midst of desperation because they don’t know if they will be able to fly.
Among the agents, some are understanding with the citizens who insist on receiving more information, but the order, in view of the operation, is to prevent them from getting closer to the diplomatic headquarters. continue reading
However, the number of interested parties is increasing. A guard who was several blocks from the area asked the 14ymedio reporter what the exact address of the Panamanian Embassy was, because many people insist on asking him.
The crowds repeated this Thursday, one day after learning about the new transit visa requirement for Cubans in Panama. (14ymedio)
This Wednesday, the Panamanian Consulate assured Cubans who plan to travel on or before the night of Saturday the 12th that they will not need the new transit visa, but those who plan to travel between March 13 and 30 will have to reschedule their flights. The employee assured that whoever travels after March 31 will have no problem obtaining the visa, but must submit their application at least 15 business days before the departure of their flight.
The news that the Panamanian authorities would begin to require transit visas from Cubans fell like a pitcher of cold water on those who planned to make a stopover in the Central American country with the Copa airline, which stops in Panama, to continue towards Nicaragua. Nicaragua does not require visas for Cubans and since November that country has become the main exit point for those who want to emigrate. At the end of February, Costa Rica took the same measures.
The cost of the visa is 50 dollars and gives the right to stay 24 hours in transit through Panama.
Cuba’s authorities have taken advantage of the situation to denounce the immigration policy of the United States, which they accuse of failing to comply with the immigration agreements that establish the delivery of at least 20,000 annual visas for Cuban citizens.
“This has led to the establishment of alternative routes for Cuban citizens who wish to emigrate to that country, creating complicated situations for other countries that are used as transit to reach the United States,” affirms the official press in a note published this Wednesday that recounts the scenes of yesterday and stresses that the decision belongs to Panama, and the Cuban government cannot do anything about it.
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Firefighters rushed to the crash site, which was packed with onlookers. (Capture)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 March 2022 — A woman died due to injuries sustained by the fall of the false ceiling in a soup kitchen in Old Havana last Tuesday. The woman was an employee of the Family Care System (SAF) at the premises on the corner of Monserrate and Lamparilla, and she also lived in the vicinity of the place.
“It was more or less 4:30 in the afternoon when part of the false ceiling collapsed,” details another worker from the Gastronomy Company that manages the dining room. “She was an elderly person and she was inside sweeping when part of the roof collapsed. She died instantly, nothing could be done because the pieces that fell were very large.”
This Thursday the state in which the premises remained after the collapse was still visible. (14ymedio)
The premises, located on the ground floor, previously housed the Bar Franco, but was recently converted into a dining room for the elderly, people with disabilities and other social cases. “This SAF was previously located at Teniente Rey and Cuba, but that place is now a shelter for families affected by the collapse of their homes,” the employee clarifies. continue reading
“Since the transfer was made, it was evident that this facility was badly damaged by leaks in the roof falling from the residential building above it. Several employees complained about it, but nothing was done,” he says. “Her body was completely buried under the rubble.”
“All the buildings on this block are in very poor condition, and when heavy trucks pass by, everything shakes. It’s very scary,” the woman explains. “If it had been lunchtime and it had been full of old people, the tragedy would have been greater, that’s what all the neighbors are commenting on.”
In a video broadcast through the social network Facebook, numerous people can be seen leaning out of the windows of the dining room last Tuesday after the collapse, and a fire engine arriving at the scene. La Esquina, a very busy place, is near a Cuban peso store that constantly has long lines.
In Cuba there are 76,175 people registered in the Family Attention System that provides them with a daily lunch and dinner. The lack of variety, the low quality of food and the rise in prices after the entry into force of the Ordering Task* are a constant target of criticism and complaints.
Users of this service are mostly retirees who lament that spices, oil and animal protein are often lacking in the food prepared. The 445 kitchens of this type that exist throughout the country also receive people with disabilities and other social problems daily.
*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes 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 others.
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This Thursday the bicycle became the objct of desire in Central Havana (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 March 2022 — “The bikes arrived and Armageddon set in,” says Maria. The shouting on San Nicolás street, in Central Havana, called the attention of passers-by who, despite being accustomed to long lines and fights forming when the Mundo de la Fantasia [Fantasy World] toy store displayed merchandise, today stopped in surprise to see what the reason was for such exaggerated pandemonium.
The bicycles, a bright pink sprinkled with little flowers, were not entirely cheap. But the price, 3,439 pesos, was attractive enough for the resellers, eager to get a good profit in dollars on the online site Revolico, to compete with the fathers and mothers who milled around the store trying to get a hold of the product.
To get one of these toys, it is essential to show the card that proves the buyer has children, an obstacle that the resellers manage to overcome, sometimes with a real document, others with a borrowed one and others with the complicity of the seller.
The lines are constant in Mundo de la Fantasia, formerly La Casa Pérez, every time that, “from time to time” this store, located on Neptuno street, receives merchandise to sell. However, this Thursday the Police even had to approach the area when they saw the organized scandal, although, as soon as they left the area, chaos returned.
María laughs between amused and resigned. “Because of the messes that are formed, and today more than ever, in ’Fantasy World’ there is nothing. This store should be called ’Terror World’.”
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In a long poston her Facebook wall, Ramos emphasizes that her decision “is not due to the national dialogue project,” referring to the initiative launched by the MSI a year ago to convene all the actors of Cuban society, a new stage of which has been announced this week. This has opened a deep debate between those who reject any rapprochement with the regime and others who understand that it is a dialogue between activists and opposition groups.
“Luis himself explained the project to me when the call was launched back in February 2021 and I know that it was not about any dialogue with the Government of Cuba,” explains the activist. “However, I think there are discussions that are stillborn, precisely because they involve hijacked words (such as dialogue right now).”
On this issue, she confesses: “I am tired of waking up in the morning and having hundreds of messages asking me about something in which I have not participated actively and that I do not have to explain if there are others who can and should do it better than me. “.
“I know that many will begin to tell me that unity must be achieved and that the only thing this does is divide,” she argues. “Unity is not and cannot be an a priori, when unity is not built and cultivated attached to reality, it is a trap. The dictatorship was built, in fact, on a certain unity. I bet more on the plural even if the path is longer. And on assuming personal dignity with responsibility. I really believe that if we had fewer organizations and more worthy people, we would have advanced further.” continue reading
And she concludes: “I’m not saying that the MSI doesn’t make sense, it is me who doesn’t see the point of being fully inside at this moment. Others will be in charge of breathing life into it. And I will remain open to my loneliness and to new alliances that may appear.”
In her publication, Ramos says that “it is not an impulse, nor a decision made yesterday morning” and asks that no debate be generated in this regard.
“I am not a founder, nor a coordinator, so my departure will not cause much damage to the main lines of work of the movement right now,” she says. “When I entered the MSI, the group had already existed for a long time with sustained work, which will continue.”
By way of explanation, the activist claims to respond “to certain internal voices” that “point the way… The battle that I am waging right now puts me in an extreme situation, where I have few handholds: no country, no home, no possibility of being with my son and my family, no permanent job… It is a situation of helplessness that I prefer to carry to the end, looking at it in its crudeness, because that’s how I am, without half measures,” she writes.
Anamely Ramos was turned down, twice in less than two weeks, when she tried to board an American Airlines plane in Miami for Havana, after spending more than a year at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico to study for a doctorate in anthropology.
The second time she was prevented from boarding, on February 27, the US airline gave her a copy of the document that the Cuban authorities sent her and in which her entry to the island was vetoed. The “notification to airlines of inadmissible passengers in national territory” was signed by Lieutenant Colonel Néstor Morera, who was later included in the list of repressors of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba.
The regime did not make an official statement on his case, but Humberto López, a presenter of Cuban Television and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, did. In a Facebook post, he annotated a post by Ramos herself with a link to the Cuban migration law and a mention of its article 24.1, which indicates that the Cuban State can prevent the entry of anyone who organizes, stimulates, carries out or participate in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State.”
“Life has taught me that when reality pushes you to the limit, you must bravely accept the loneliness it brings,” Ramos continues in her publication. “For me it is impossible to continue being brave without being sincere. I will go as far as I can and when I can go no further, I will say it, with the same love and the same serenity. That moment has not come.”
The curator acknowledges that if “Luis and Maykel were free” they would have “different opinions” about her decision. “Surely we would fight, but even a discussion with them makes sense, they are the interlocutors I would like to have. Unfortunately it is impossible now,” she mentions, alluding to the fact that both are in prison.
Her departure from the MSI, she assures, “does not diminish my commitment to them and to Cuba at all. I have already said before that I will not let go of Maykel’s hand even if he asks me to.” The activist will continue working “in everything I have done so far and for which I have cultivated very diverse alliances.”
The San Isidro Movement, created in 2018, gained prominence with the protest carried out in November 2020 to request the release of one of its members, Denis Solís, sentenced to eight months in prison for alleged contempt. Several members of the group began a hunger and thirst strike, which some were able to maintain for more than a week, until the headquarters of the Movement, where they were locked up, was raided by the political police, who detained them for several hours.
Since then, all its members have lived under the harassment of State Security. In May of last year, Osorbo was arrested and, on July 11, before he could participate in the massive demonstrations that were taking place on the Island, Otero Alcántara was arrested as well. The rest of those who participated in the original hunger strike that November are today outside of Cuba, forced into exile.
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“Tyrannies do not stop being what they are because they define themselves as left or right,” says Hidalgo. (Archive)
14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 6 March 2022 — The person who’s writing to you, a former professor of Marxist Philosophy in the high schools in Havana, and author of a book that was chosen as a supplementary bibliography for all writing careers on the history of the labor movement in Cuba and the first Cuban socialists, wishes to alert you of the mistake which, due to ignorance or fanaticism, could tarnish your names before the possible damning judgment of future generations, for placing yourselves on the wrong side of history.
I do not question your good intentions, your loyalty to the cause of social justice and your commitments to all those human beings in this world who suffer from misery, exploitation and oppression, but the Cuban regime is not what you have believed it to be, and it is necessary that I warn you, with words pronounced by José Martí, who was the numen of Cuban independence, about “the violence and hidden rage of the ambitious who, in order to rise up in the world, begin by pretending so they’ll have shoulders on which to rise up, frantic defenders of the homeless,” which did not mean the renunciation of that ideal, since he himself declared that such attitudes “do not authorize souls of good birth to desert their defense.”
I do not question your good intentions, your loyalty to the cause of social justice and your commitments to all those human beings in this world who suffer from misery, exploitation and oppression
On September 23rd, 2019, the New Politics Journal, considered an “independent socialist forum,” published one of my articles addressed to the Democratic Socialists of America, who at the Atlanta Convention had expressed their support for the Cuban Government. In it, I told them that “the social economic system established in Cuba without a plebiscitary consultation was copied from the Russian Stalinist model, an arbitrary and opportunist interpretation of the Marxist theory of socialist revolution, which returned to the most reactionary aspects of Hegelian thought embodied in The Philosophy of Law about a State that should absorb all civil society and all individual wills.”
Teaching classes to workers in the so-called workers’ faculties in the 1970s, I received numerous testimonies from my students of repeated conflicts of interest between the administrations designated by the State and the rank-and-file workers, which made me question the repeated assertion that these were the owners of the means of production, and motivated me to carry out the investigation of the Cuban economic-social system that concluded, as a professor in a pre-university institute, with a manuscript where I expressed my disagreement with the politics and the economic model established in Cuba, which years later would be published abroad under the title of Cuba, the Marxist State and the New Class.
continue reading
I was just proposing a different model of socialism. However, the consequences were my expulsion from the country’s educational system in 1981 and, later, under the accusation of “left-wing revisionist,” I was sentenced to eight years in prison in a sentence that added: “and as for his works, destroy them by fire.” As if this were not enough, I was held incommunicado in a narrow walled cell in the death rows of the Combinado del Este prison for more than a year. Such was the fear of the words of a man almost naked but not willing to keep the truth silent.
I was just proposing a different model of socialism. However, the consequences were my expulsion from the country’s educational system in 1981
The prison brutalities that I would witness, as well as my subsequent encounter with many other innocent convicts imprisoned solely for expressing their ideas, led me, along with five other prominent political prisoners, to join what would become the first group to defend human rights, which can be considered as the main nucleus of the current dissident movement spread throughout the country today.
I have not yet thanked in the way they deserve many left-wing intellectuals, such as Noam Chomsky and many others, both in the United States and Latin America, for having signed letters requesting my freedom, as well as the campaigns of international institutions, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, thanks to whom I was released in 1988 after seven years in prison.
But the left must reevaluate its vision and its position with the Cuban regime, and its peers in Venezuela and Nicaragua, just as they previously condemned Pinochetism in Chile and Francoism in Spain. Tyrannies do not stop being what they are because they define themselves as left or right. On the contrary, they contribute, as Stalin did in the Soviet Union, to spread a denigrating image of just causes, so they must free themselves of that defamatory ballast.
I have condemned in many articles the embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba, above all because it has served as an alibi for the Cuban historical leadership to present itself as a victim, obtain international support, and justify all the economic nonsense of its misrule, because in reality, Cuba It is one of the main trading partners of the United States, and another type of blockade has been more damaging: the one that this leadership has imposed on its own people for more than sixty years.
But the left must reevaluate its vision and its position with the Cuban regime, and its peers in Venezuela and Nicaragua
It is time to tear down the lies raised for many years about what is still called the “Cuban Revolution,” because that revolution ended in 1968 to give rise to what I have described as “reverse socialism,” because in that year, with the so-called “Revolutionary Offensive,” not only were the workers not empowered but, on the contrary, what little they had was taken from them: grocery stores, cafeterias, barbershops, laundries, grocery and food stalls, and even street vendors, such as ice cream carts and shoeshine boys, among others.
It is said that there are no longer monopolies in Cuba. In reality, a monstrous absolute monopoly has arisen, the State itself, which has devoured everything, from which we can affirm what Martí himself said about monopolies: “an implacable giant sitting at the door of all the poor.” The lands were not distributed among dispossessed peasants, nor were the large estates eliminated, but rather they were nationalized, so that the State became the “supreme landowner” — which Marx spoke of in Volume III of DasKapital — which continued to exploit the farm laborers.
A similar fate also befell the workers of the cities in the different confiscated companies: businesses, industries, banks and the media, among others, at the head of which officials were appointed, not because of their ability, but because of political loyalty, bureaucrats who because of their inability, and above all their proclivity to corruption, have dragged the country into misery and plagued the population with endless calamities.
Many of the struggle comrades of that leadership opposed to this model were imprisoned or put to death. Tens of thousands of people went to jail and around two million preferred to face the rigors of exile.
The comparison is eloquent. If we call the Batista regime a dictatorship, what should we call this one?
The architects of the assault on the Moncada Barracks during the Batista dictatorship that caused the death of numerous people only received sentences of up to 13 and 15 years and were granted amnesty two years later. In contrast, the protesters of July 11 did not kill anyone or use any violence, but the regime began with a brutal repression, resulting in at least one death, many injuries and more than 1,300 detainees, of which more than 700 still remain in prison, including 32 minors, with prosecutor requests of up to 20 and 30 years in prison.
The comparison is eloquent. If we call the Batista regime a dictatorship, what should we call this one?
I will not tire you with more details that could fill many pages. I only ask you to reason what I have exposed to you without passion and draw your own conclusions, and above all, to take into account from which side of history do you want to be remembered.
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Writer and activist María Cristina Garrido has been sentenced to 7 years in prison; the prosecutor had sought a 15-year sentence. Text on hand: No more violence against women. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, March 10, 2022–Writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez and her sister Angélica, who protested on July 11th (11J) in San José de las Lajas (Mayabeque), have been sentenced to 7 and 3 years in prison, respectively, according to Michel Valladares Cala, the first woman’s husband and director of the Republican Party of Cuba in Pinar del Río.
In a Facebook post, Valladares accused Gervasio Escalona Escalona, who he described as a “PNR (National Revolutionary Police) henchman,” of fabricating the assault charge, of which his wife was convicted. According to his testimony, officials who presided over the trial confirmed that the writer was not in the presumed location of the events on the night of the 11th. The agent affirmed that Garrido Rodríguez, who was accused of assault, contempt, resistance, public disorder, and organizing to commit a crime, hit him in the back.
Ángel Mesa was arrested in Guanajay, Artemisa, and on Wednesday received a 12-year prison sentence. (Facebook)
Forty-one-year-old María Cristina and 39-year-old Angélica Garrido Rodríguez were tried at the end of January and the prosecutor sought 15 and 10 years for them, respectively.
At the time, Valladares Cala described the proceedings as a “circus,” in which he says the prosecutors exposed contradictions in the testimony offered by the police officers. “They have not said a single truth, pure lies, pure contradictions among them,” stated Valladares who said, however, that the attorneys, “are doing a good job.”
In the last few hours, they also handed sentences to other protesters in Guanajay, Artemisa, of which only that of Ángel Mesa is known; he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for assault.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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The number of Cuban women imprisoned for their activism grew significantly following the protests on July 11th.
14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2022 — Every year on March 8th, the state press is filled with the faces of women wielding rifles, in front of a classroom, or leading a state-owned business, but nothing is said of the political prisoners. The number of Cuban women incarcerated for their activism grew significantly following the protests on July 11th (11J). Today we remember eight of them, forgotten during the official celebrations of International Women’s Day.
At the beginning of this month, activist Saily Navarro received some bitter news. After being tried for public disorder, assault, and contempt, the 35-year-old from Matanzas was sentenced to 8 years in prison. A member of the Ladies in White and the Cuba Decide platform, Navarro’s “crime” on July 12th, 2021 was to demand, in front of the municipal police station in Perico, the immediate release of those who were arrested on the previous day.
The blow is doubly difficult for the dissident’s family as her father, former Black Spring political prisoner Felix Navarro, one of the few among the 75 convicted in March 2003 who refused to abandon the island, was also tried at the same time and sentenced to nine years behind bars. Saily Navarro has spent almost two decades of her life experiencing repression in the flesh, first for being the opponent’s daughter and now for her own activism.
They did not arrest Yudinela Castro on July 11th, she didn’t even take to the streets that day due to her delicate state of health. But in the days following the popular protests, they snatched from this woman — who suffers from leukemia and who has relapsed more than once — what is most precious to her. Her young son, Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, was arrested for participating in the protests and now faces a 12-year jail sentence.
At the end of February, Castro was arrested by political police in an attempt to curb her activism. They transferred her to the 100 y Aldabó prison in Havana and they charged her with contempt, according to the denouncements of several activists. Her arrest seeks to prevent the indignation of the 11J mothers from crystallizing into a demanding movement, which will put the regime in check as occurred once before with the Ladies in White. continue reading
Two nearly identical faces were seen among the defendants in the Tribunal of Placetas, Villa Clara last September. They are sisters Lisdany and Lidianis Rodríguez Isaac, for whom the prosecutor sought sentences of ten years in prison for their participation in the 11J protests. These 22-year-old twins have been in the Guamajal prison, a precautionary measure imposed while they are being processed for the alleged crimes of public disorder, contempt and two counts of assault.
Liadinis’s daughter, only three years old, believes her mother has gone to work where they make sweets and cookies. She waits for her each day, while her grandmother makes up stories of a delayed return. The women’s mother, along with their triplet sister, confirmed that the most “serious” thing they did was to shout “patria y vida” in the streets of their community.
The lettered are not safe from repression either. At the end of January, in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, the prosecutor sought 15 years in prison for writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez. Garrido’s husband, Michel Valladares Cala, described the trial as a “circus”, in which “they did not tell a single truth, pure lies, pure contradiction among themselves,” he said, alluding to the behavior of the prosecutors and their witnesses.
The writer was tried for the crimes of assault, contempt, resistance, public disorder, and organizing to commit a crime. Those in charge of Ilíada Ediciones, which published her book, Examen del Tiempo [The Test of Time], launched an initiative so that all proceeds from the sale of the book will support the author, “long ago converted into an activist for the defense of human rights and women’s rights in Cuba,” stated the editors.
The Beirut family was especially shaken on that July 12th day. Exen Beirut took to the streets to join the claims of freedom in La Güinera, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Cuban capital of Havana. In the following days, police hunted protesters, house to house, and arrested him. His sister Katia Beirut and her father Fredi protested his arrest in the street and they too were arrested.
Since then, the young woman has been in jail and although her and her father’s trial was held in December in the People’s Municipal Tribunal of 10 de Octubre, they are still awaiting their sentence. The prosecutor’s request amounted to 20 years in jail. The siblings’ mother believes the Cuban regime seeks to “tear down” and “destroy” her family.
Home has become a prison for Gabriela Zequeira Hernández, a 17-year-old sentenced to eight months in prison for participating in the 11J protests. Arrested for her behavior on that day, her case became an example of Cuban minors being arrested and international pressure made it possible for her to return home on July 24th, under house arrest.
The second-year accounting student at the Andrés Luján technical school of San Miguel del Padrón spent several days in the Women’s Prison of Occidente, known as El Guatao, and must complete an 8-month sentence. It will take much longer than that for her to forget the violence she suffered the day of her arrest. “The officials grabbed me so hard to put me in the patrol car that they hurt me, they treated me like I was any old thing,” she recalls.
They went to get 24-year-old Yunaiky de la Caridad López Rodríguez at her house ten days after the protests of J11, when she took to the streets in the municipality of Diez de Octubre in Havana. She disappeared for two days and her mother, Niurka Rodríguez García, went from prison to prison looking for her.
Also imprisoned in El Guatao, López Rodríguez is one of the few women convicted of sedition in a trial held on January 31st, sentenced to 17 years in prison.
None of these eight names will be repeated on Tuesday, during the celebrations in state-run organizations. They are the women excluded from the headlines and microphones. They are the Cuban women who have paid a high price for exercising their civil right to protest.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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The Police try to push back the crowd from the entrance of the Panama embassy. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 March 2022 — Hundreds of people surrounded the Embassy of Panama in Havana from early in the morning, shortly after the news broke that the country had begun to require transit visas from Cubans. The Police had to evacuate the surroundings and form a cordon to prevent the crowd from getting closer to the door.
“We want answers!” shouted the crowd. Among those who have gathered in front of the consular headquarters — people who had purchased tickets and who do not know if they will be able to travel — there are cries and loud demands, but explanations are still lacking.
At first, they told those present that at 1 pm the Panamanian Consulate would publish on its social networks the instructions to request the document and that this Wednesday they would attend only to people who had an appointment, but when that time came, there was no news. Then in the afternoon, outside the diplomatic headquarters, officials came out again and assured that those who travel by Saturday night will not need the new visa.
However, those who travel after that day and within 15 days will have to reschedule their flights. The employee assured that whoever travels after April 1 will not have any problem.
During the next three months, Panama will require a transit visa from continue reading
Cubans passing through its territory. The measure, which came into force since its publication in the Official Gazette on Tuesday, affects all citizens who planned to fly to Nicaragua through Copa, the only airline that keeps the island connected with Managua, which since November had become on the main land exit route to the US.
“The visa for passengers or crew members in transit is established as a requirement for foreign citizens of Cuban nationality who travel through the Republic of Panama, to another destination or return to their country,” specifies the new rule.
The procedure has a cost of 50 balboas — 50 dollars — and must be done at the Embassy of the country in which you reside at least 15 days before the date of the flight. To do this, you must fill out a form accompanied by two passport photos, a photocopy of the passport, a copy of your air reservation, a copy of the identity document of the country of residence and proof of payment of consular fees.
The visa may be granted for up to a maximum period of twenty-four hours and only authorizes the migrants to remain in the international transit area of the airport so that they can continue their journey to another destination or their country of origin, according to the decree.
In front of the Embassy, those who arrived by appointment gathered and they were upset and asking about the procedure, generating a chaos that in the afternoon hours has not yet been resolved. Some, like a woman whose flight was scheduled for this morning at 10 am, cried desperately.
At the end of February, Costa Rica introduced an identical measure – although in that case it also affected Nicaraguans and Venezuelans – that provoked strong rejection among Cubans. The Government of that country reacted to Daniel Ortega’s decision to open the land border with his country, which allowed the entry of migrants through that route towards Nicaragua. Many of them already had a purchased ticket to San José and gathered in front of the embassy in Havana to protest. “What we want is that they respect the people who purchased tickets before the new law was applied,” they demanded.
At that time, the Embassy of Panama in Cuba issued a statement to clarify that it was not considering requiring a transit visa for Cubans, although the words were marked in bold for the time being. But only two weeks have been enough for the country to change its mind.
In mid-February, Copa announced a suspension of ticket sales to and from Cuba. The Panamanian airline maintains six daily flights from Panama City to Havana and two weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to the Abel Santamaría International Airport in Santa Clara.
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Today the Cuban official media Cubadebate launched a call for journalists to join its work team. (Cubadebate)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2022 — “I would love to work for you. I have always loved science fiction.” This one by Osvaldo Figueruelo was one of the multiple reactions to a job announcement launched by Cubadebate this Tuesday to cover ten positions in the official media.
The medium offers positions as journalist, web editor, designer, social network analyst, cameraoperator-editor, social network manager, opinion analysis specialist, communication and marketing manager, but many users have chosen to make fun of the publication itself on Facebook.
“We offer new positions. The previous occupants have left the country,” said Vladimir Lara López, who completed primary studies at the Ignacio Agramonte School in Havana and a bachelor’s degree at the Baku State University (Azerbaijan).
A Cuban journalist, Javier Díaz, who currently lives in Miami and works for Univisión, responded: “My freedom is priceless.”
The specification that it is “essential to reside in Havana” to apply for a job provoked sarcasm among some Facebook users. “I am desperate to belong to the Cubadebate team, work against ’media terrorism’ and earn a revolutionary salary,” said Eduardo Castroman, who asked if the requirement was to avoid hiring a “worm.” continue reading
Users also took advantage of the announcement to express their rejection of the editorial line of the site, which was launched in August 2003 and developed by Chasqui, a group of students from the Marta Abreu Central University in Las Villas, Santa Clara. “And can the journalist write his own articles, or does he have to wait for the PCC (Cuban Communist Party) to dictate them to him?” Glimar Garcia Olivera asked.
“No, thank you,” was the comment of Alegna Muro from Havana. “As a freelance blogger and podcaster, I’m doing great, and best of all, I don’t have to lie to do my job.” Meanwhile, another user identified as Lily Nouveau warned: “But first you have to pass the Pinocchio course to get the job.”
“The greatest requirement for the demand for employment with the dictators is to be a lamb informer and the rest is a story,” wrote Ana María Martí.
Among those who took it seriously, there were those who asked if they could work at home and the payment would be in freely convertible currency.
Adonis Ramos proposed that they wait for the press to have journalists, while Leandro Miguel Céspedes Balón joked: “This page is funnier than Pánfilo, they should broadcast their jokes on Monday nights, so they can laugh a little.”
On the media’s website, where comments are controlled, some interested people could be read, although complaints proliferated about the requirement to reside in Havana. The enthusiasm was such that some applied to do it even for free with this spelling*: “I’m interested in collaborating at no cost, I’m an Argentine Revolutionary, I live in Havana, I have a lot of experience in political analysis, training in economics and social sciences” (sic).
*Translator’s note: This translation does not attempt to reproduce the spelling errors.
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Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara during his hunger and thirst strike in November 2020. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2022 — Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a prisoner at the maximum-security prison of Guanajay being held without trial since his arrest eight months ago, is weak after ending his hunger strike which lasted over two months.
As of now, curator Claudia Genlui, who published news of the artist on Wednesday on her Facebook profile, states that the leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) will change his “strategy” and accept visits to the prison, phone calls, and provisions from outside, which he had rejected in protest of his unjust incarceration.
This change, says Genlui, whose source is the activist’s attorney who was able to visit him after a four-hour wait, “does not mean he changes his position with regard to other things: he will not leave the country just because an agent of the Cuban state wants him to, but rather when he decides; he is willing to face trial and accept the consequences; he continues to declare his innocence and supports all those who have left Cuba for any reason.”
“Although it has been 16 days since he ended the hunger strike, he continues to be held in punishment ’corridor 25’, with those who do not have the right to phone calls,” continued the curator. “Luis has lost a lot of weight, he doesn’t go out to take sun because his strength is limited and he is weak. Next Thursday, if Luis Manuel does not communicate with his family, the attorney will file an appeal with the prosecutor to demand that he be transferred to the general population. continue reading
On January 18th, Otero Alcántara went on a hunger strike for the second time since he’s been in Guanajay, after being held in isolation. In solidarity with the artist, activists, and opponents in Cuba and abroad published daily texts with the hashtag #DiarioParaLuisma.
Similarly, the Government of the United States repeatedly requested his immediate release and raised concern that he is held in a maximum-security prison, “without formal charges or a trial date.”
The artist has been in jail since July 11th, when he was arrested before he was able to join the spontaneous anti-government protests, and is accused of public disorder, instigating a crime, and contempt.
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Cuban president Díaz-Canel said he rejected “imperial aggressiveness,” but in reference to the United States and not to Russia. (EFE/Yander Zamora/File)
14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2022 — “We unambiguously oppose the use of force against any state,” Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday in a speech in which he managed not to mention Ukraine once. The Cuban president, who was closing the 2021 results assessment meeting of the Ministry of Culture, spoke of the war that is being waged in Eastern Europe from a peculiar point of view according to which NATO “has established an offensive military siege against Russia,” but the invaded country is not even worth mentioning.
Díaz-Canel was neither as energetic nor as fervent — presumably as a matter of character — as his Venezuelan colleague Nicolás Maduro in defending Moscow, but he did leave some striking moments. One of them occurred when he equated Russia with Cuba because of the sanctions that both countries suffer from the United States, the only party responsible that he identified.
“As a small country we understand it better than anyone, besieged for more than 60 years. Under constant threat we have suffered from state terrorism, military aggression, bacteriological warfare and a brutal blockade, and we are absolutely clear about the value of principles of international norm that serve as protection against unilateralism, imperialism, hegemonism and attempts to overcome developing countries,” he argued.
For the Cuban president, Russia is suffering from the “media aggressiveness” that the island has also had to experience for decades, although he said he trusts “that the people continue to be aware of these events in the difficult effort to distinguish truth from manipulation.”
Russia’s attack on Ukraine – which he never mentioned – comes to be, in the words of the Cuban president, the response to NATO’s provocation for having established that supposed military siege that he did mention. continue reading
In the 1990s, NATO agreed with the Soviet Union that it would not expand eastward beyond its enlargement after German reunification. The independence of different countries of the former Soviet orbit changed the paradigm and the Alliance currently defends that each of them has the right to decide which course they want to take, something that Russia rejects by clinging to that pact of three decades ago.
Diaz-Canel adhered to this argument in his speech, defending that there is a “consistent effort by the United States Government to expand its military and hegemonic domain” around the Russian border. “To think that Russia would remain defenseless in the face of NATO’s offensive military siege is, to say the least, irresponsible. They have put that country in an extreme situation,” defends the president.
Díaz-Canel also negated the European Union (EU) by undermining its decision-making and intervention capacity despite the fact that, in an unprecedented move, the twenty-seven members of the EU have agreed on express times (decisions which in the EU must be taken unanimously, hence the slowness of its machinery) to apply sanctions and measures that even put its own citizens at risk, as Russia has threatened to leave them without gas. On the European continent, which does not have hydrocarbon deposits, only two countries, mainly Spain and also Italy, supply their fuel needs with through pipelines from other countries. This Tuesday in Brussels, they are studying how to cut that sector’s dependence on Russia.
“The one who is adding fuel to the fire is imperialism, but outside its stoves, in the stoves of others. And it does so using European countries as a backyard,” he said, in a very inopportune energetic simile.
Díaz-Canel said he rejected “imperial aggressiveness,” but in reference to the United States and not to the Russian threat of transgressing its borders in what appears to be an attempt by Putin to reestablish the old Russian empire, a movement that has been more reminiscent of the 19th century than of the former USSR.
The Cuban president pointed out that the pandemic is not over and a large part of the world’s population is still unvaccinated, so, although there is never a time to propagate war – he pointed out – this is a time when “a lot of peace” is needed. The president vindicated Cuba’s commitment to peace “in all circumstances,” but the only gesture he had with the victims was to lament the loss of human lives, without specifying at any time who are the dead and who the attacker. The UN confirmed this Monday at least 400 dead civilians but warned that there are many more, exceeding two thousand according to the Ukrainian Army in its March 2 count, the last official number.
Díaz-Canel’s words were pronounced the same day that the Union of Cuban Journalists (Upec) denounced the suspension in Europe of the broadcasts of Russia Today and Sputnik, along with other Russian media, as a “crime against culture.”
Upec considers that the rights of “millions of people who will lack all the necessary elements to evaluate the conflict” are being violated, an unprecedented declaration of principle by an organization that has never defended the right of Cubans to hear any opinions that differ from those of the official media.
The closure of these channels has been controversial in Europe, but the authorities justify it as part of Russia’s media war, whose propaganda broadcast on these channels has contributed to the rise of some populist movements that destabilize electoral or political processes and contribute to the division of the EU, something that Vladimir Putin seeks to weaken it as a power, according to the organization itself.
“These measures, never used in the face of the multiple invasions by the United States in numerous countries, are also an attack on culture, in this case, amplified to the point of the medieval inquisition with Russian literature and other artistic manifestations, a kind of neo-barbarism inconceivable in the presumably cultured Europe,” warns the text.
In recent days, the cancellation of some literary or cinematographic events in Europe by Russian authors has been reported, generating alarm in many citizens who denounced the measure. However, as it became clear later, the situation in this case is not due to the desire to suppress these acts, but to the impossibility of paying the authors under their copyrights because of the sanctions.
Upec claims its peaceful vocation and its solidarity with the victims of the conflict, but argues that it is necessary to “warn about this war against information (…) that denies the most elementary democratic principles.”
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Fernando Dayán Jorge Enríquez was born in Cienfuegos in 1998 and won Cuba’s first Olympic gold in canoeing. (September 5)
14ymedio, Havana, 7 March 2022 — Fernando Dayán Jorge Enríquez, the first Olympic gold medalist in canoeing for Cuba just seven months ago, left the Cuban delegation this Sunday when he was training in Mexico. The news was confirmed by the National Canoeing Commission in a statement in which they describe the athlete’s departure as “serious indiscipline that ruins years of intense work.”
Jorge Enríquez goes from being the great promise of Cuban canoeing to a pariah in the eyes of the sports authorities who accuse him of turning “his back on the commitment to new results for his sport and his people.”
This summer, the athlete from Cienfuegos was praised after achieving the first gold medal for Cuba in the C2 1,000 meter test together with his partner Serguey Torres. “They have made history and embrace under the flag,” said the official press after the duo’s victory in Tokyo 2020.
Now, the Commission must adapt to the new situation, since the athlete was counted on for the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028. “The work will continue in search of new athletes to take his place and expand the results of a sport that experienced its best season in history in 2021,” says the official note.
Jorge Enríquez, 23, had also participated in the 2019 Pan American Games, where he won two medals, and in the World Canoeing Championship between 2017 and 2021, where he won six medals.
This January he was one of the beneficiaries of a high-end vehicle after “an agreement of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers” in which it was decided to assign a car to “sports personalities with recognized careers,” among whom were the champions of Tokyo .
His colleague, Torres, said at that time: “Appreciation for this gesture, which has become a reality in the midst of difficult circumstances for the country, means recognizing once again the priority assigned to a sport that owes everything to the Revolution and its undefeated Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.”
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The diplomatic headquarters was illuminated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, in solidarity with that country and in rejection of the Russian invasion. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 March 2022 — This weekend it was easy to find your way around the Havana coastline from the spotlight that the Spanish Embassy in the Cuban capital has become these days. Illuminated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, in solidarity with that country and in rejection of the Russian invasion, the imposing building stood out in the middle of streets with hardly any public lighting.
The initial image, posted on the embassy’s Twitter account, is far from the one seen this Sunday night where only a couple of windows were colored blue. However, the gesture goes straight to the eyes of the Cuban Executive, which has maintained a position of harmony with the Kremlin. The Government of the Island has abstained in at least two votes in the United Nations rejecting the Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory and the official media maintain that it is a “special military operation” to “denazify” that European country.
Other European embassies and consulates have also shown their support for the Ukrainians and their president, Volodymyr Zelensky, by placing the blue and yellow flag in their outdoor areas. In the case of the Spanish headquarters, it is not the first time that it has used the lighting system on its façade to celebrate or remember an event, such as when, close to October 12 and in view of its national holiday, they adorn the building’s art nouveau walls with the tonalities of the Spanish flag.
Passers-by have not missed the new decoration to sneer about the darkness that reigns around the enormous building, located on an enviable corner, overlooking the entrance to the bay and the Morro lighthouse. “Only the embassies and hotels are illuminated, the rest of this city is shadows,” a Havana resident complained this Sunday. There have also been those who regret not having seen the colors of the Cuban flag in the building, in solidarity with the popular protests of last July 11 or in demand for the release of those detained on those days.
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EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 7 March 2022 — Ladies in White leader, Berta Soler, and her husband activist Ángel Moya were once again detained for several hours on Sunday, as he confirmed on Monday.
