14ymedio

America Airlines Gives Anamely Ramos the Official Document That Prohibits Her Return to Cuba

Ramos went to the airport this Sunday morning after having rescheduled the previous flight, from February 16. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2022 — Art curator Anamely Ramos has received the second refusal in less than two weeks to board an American Airlines plane bound for Havana in Miami. The Cuban authorities again vetoed this Sunday the inclusion of her name in the list of passengers, as the activist denounced on her Facebook account.

Ramos went to the airport this Sunday morning after having rescheduled the previous flight, from February 16, which she was not allowed to board. But this time the result was the same: the Havana authorities notified American Airlines that the passenger was not going to be admitted.

During a live broadcast, the curator, who is a member of the San Isidro Movement, showed the copy of the notification that the Cuban authorities sent to the US airline, in which her entry to the island is vetoed. Proof that “Cuba is the one that is not admitting me,” Ramos stressed.

The document shown bears the title “Notification to airlines of inadmissible passengers in national territory” and is signed by Lieutenant Colonel Néstor Morera, added the activist. continue reading

Ramos read the document during the broadcast: “The Cuban immigration authority is willing to cooperate by notifying passengers in advance that they will not be admitted to Cuba, in order to avoid inconveniences to the airline and the passenger, for which recommends not to board them,” reads the notification in its first part.

The text ends by warning that in the event of the traveler’s arrival, they “will be re-boarded on the same flight.”

This Saturday, the night before the flight, Ramos received a call from the regional director of American Airlines, Virginia Sánchez, who warned her that the company had already received a message from Havana that the curator was not going to be admitted.

“Despite that, I decided to go to the airport,” Ramos said in the video. In a meeting with company representatives, Ramos insisted until she obtained a copy of the notification that had been sent from Cuba.

Ramos entered the US with a tourist visa that expires in April and her residence on the island is valid because she has not spent more than 24 months abroad, as stipulated by the Immigration Law. The activist has repeatedly denied that she is going to request asylum to regularize her situation in the United States.

Since her entry to Cuba was denied the first time, Ramos has maintained a public protest in Miami that has attracted a lot of solidarity and generated a whole mobilization of activists among the exile, international organizations and US politicians.

Ramos believes that the Cuban authorities are carrying out a strategy that consists of arresting those they consider a threat, violating all their rights, or forcing them into exile; in addition to preventing those who are already outside from returning. Because of this, she always thought that it would be very difficult for her to return to the Island.

For its part, although the Cuban regime has not ruled on the ban on entering Cuba issued against her, Humberto López, host of Cuban Television and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, did so. The official spokesperson commented on a Facebook post by Ramos herself, including a link to the Cuban migration law and the mention of its article 24.1.

Specifically, the paragraph that indicates that the Cuban State can prevent the entry of anyone who organizes, stimulates, carries out or participates in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State.”

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Mother of Cuban July 11th (11J) Prisoner Has Been Jailed in Villa Marista Prison for Two Days

Yudinela Castro (left), mother of Rowland Jesús Castillo (right), one of the July 11th (11J) protesters. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 February 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old political prisoner and July 11th (11J) protester, Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, has spent more than 48 hours under arrest in Villa Marista, the barracks of the State Security in Havana. The woman was arrested last Thursday morning and “still has not returned home,” reported activist Arián Cruz, Tata Poet.

Cruz explained that Castro’s arrest occurred at 9 am, by an agent of the political police known as Robert, and she was later transferred to Villa Marista. On Friday, the activist went there and an investigator told him that the woman was “under investigation.”

“We managed to leave her some clothes and hygiene products. He strongly emphasized that she would remain under arrest because ’she did not want to cooperate.’ Before we left, he said he’d call to let us know the next steps — when she’d be allowed a visit, and how the process was going,” said Cruz.

In January, Castro, a leukemia patient, must have spent “a week in the hospital and in pretty serious condition after fainting as a result of toxoplasmosis,” the activist clarified. Furthemore, he informed that every day, she must take “a series of medications, which they won’t allow, and she has spent two days without taking them.” continue reading

Last Friday, at noon, a habeus corpus in favor of Castro was delivered to the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Havana because “her arrest and the subsequent procedures were totally arbitrary,” warned Cruz.

“On behalf of her family and friends, I hold the State Security responsible for anything that might happen to her,” he concluded.

Activist Camila Rodríguez also stated that Yudinela Castro has custody of her “two-year-old” grandson.

Since her son was taken to jail, Castro has denounced each one of the injustices commited against the young man and has not stopped demanding his release. She has also denounced, “the lies” told by the regime during the trial against her son Rowland, accused of sedition for which the prosecutor initially sought 23 years, later reduced to 12.

On several occasions, Castro has been arbitrarily detained by State Security officials to interrogate her but she has always said that “whatever it takes,” nothing will stop her from fighting to achieve her son’s freedom.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Prison Sentences in Cuba for Protesting During the Pandemic and Yelling ‘Diaz-Canel Motherfucker’

The Martín Perdomo brothers are two of those convicted. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2022 — Slowly, and missing their own deadlines, Cuban tribunals have meted out new sentences which provoke indignation among the family members of the July 11th protesters, not only for the number of years in jail, but also for the motivations invoked by the judges.

Maikel Puig Bergolla’s 20-year prison sentence last week for “instigating a crime” plus “two charges of attempted murder” for his participation on July 11th (11J) in Güines, Mayabeque province, is one of the most severe by a Cuban tribunal in recent months. In contrast, the sentence made public last Friday against brothers Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, both of San José de las Lajas, is likely one of the most surprising in terms of the motivations invoked by the judges.

The tribunal also stated that Puig Bergolla should “repair material damage caused to the Ministry of the Interior in the sum of thirty-seven pesos and twenty-one cents.” Initially the prosecutor sought 25 years in a trial that began on January 12th.

The sentence mentioned that the accused, who “was enjoying the benefits of conditional freedom,” joined others in the Asbel neighborhood or las Yaguas in the municipality of Güines and “began traveling through the center of the street,” to the area of the central park. They state that once there, “they joined hundreds of people,” and “in blatant disrespect to the President of the Republic” yelled slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker]*” and “dickhead police”. In addition, they mention that Bergolla encouraged neighbors to join “the walk.” continue reading

Another sentence made public last Friday was that of Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, both of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque. Signed on February 8th by judges Sergio Rodríguez Garcés, Omar Castro Castro and Roberto Viltres González, sentenced the brothers to six and eight years in prison, respectively, for the crimes of “assault”, “contempt” and “public disorder”.

Although both sentences were reduced from what prosecutors were seeking –Nadir, from 8 to 6 years and Jorge from 10 to 8 years — family members were indignant. For Betty Guerra Perdomo, the defendants’ cousin, the sentence against them was “an aberration” which “cannot be celebrated nor appreciated.”

“This sentence is the culmination of a theatrical work, completely absurd, disrespectful, and humiliating,” she declared to this newspaper. “Everything that has happened with my cousins’ case from the beginning is an aberration until this moment, I do not want to say it is final because I cling to the hope that with strength and a fight we can change it.”

Guerra recounts that the trial, which took place in Quivicán on January 25th, and specifies that last week the brothers were separated and placed in different prisons. “I continue to believe that each day they’ve spent there is a year of life violently robbed and, as a result, the fight will be for complete freedom,” she said.

In the section on “proven facts” in the sentencing document, which 14ymedio accessed, it states the accused, on J11, “decided to mock” the measures dictated by the Ministry of Public Health for the COVID-19 pandemic, “which at the time was causing thousands of infections and deaths per day,” and that, “aware of the ills their behavior would cause,” joined “a group of people” on 54th Street in San José de las Lajas.

The protest, the document continues, “reached other individuals when the accused called for them to join the throngs, who while carrying pots, metal objects and motorcycle horns created loud noises, which alerted nearby neighbors and even those far away — very outward behavior unprecedented in the country.”

The behaviors referred to in the sentencing document and described as “total disrespect,” were chanting “with euphoria,” “harsh and vulgar” words such as “dickhead police” and “Díaz-Canel, motherfucker,” along with “Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life],” in addition to “making gross demands of those commissioned to protect the place,” and snatching a Cuban flag for a moment from an agent who was participating in a government counter-demonstration.

At one point, the document indicates that the protest achieved “an elevated scale,” as “stones were lobbed against establishments,” though it clarifies, “without the implicated Martín Perdomo brothers partaking in these episodes.”

Even so, the brothers were convicted, with the aggravating circumstance that the events occurred “in the precise moment of the COVID pandemic crisis.”

As to the defense’s version, the document indicates that the defense attorney, Reynier Brito López, “only considered the thesis that the charges faced by their clients did not constitute crimes and he sought absolution for both of them.”

For their mother, Marta Perdomo, her sons’ sentences have been unjust, with the added pain of having to go from one jail to another to visit them, “Nadir is in Melena del Sur and Jorgito in Quivicán,” she says. “They separated my sons saying one big lie that Nadir had requested to be separated from his brother. I will complain to the chief of prisons to request that they be together once again because the financial situation is very difficult and it is not easy to pay for cars to go to two different destinations.”

Furthermore, she stated that she will appeal the conviction and although she is aware that it will be “practically in vain,” she will go through all the necessary procedures, including delivering “letters to Díaz-Canel for the torture they imposed on Nadir.”

“I will continue to request their release while blood runs through my veins, it was unjust,” concluded Perdomo. “They are playing with ours, but I have to continue fighting for my sons.”

*Translator’s note: This has become a preferred epithet against the Cuban president, likely because his name and ‘singao’ roughly rhyme.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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With the European Sky Closed to Russian Planes, Cuba Loses its Last Tourists

Aeroflot has announced the suspension of its flights to Latin America and the Caribbean. (Ecuavisa)

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 February 2022 — The closure of European airspace to Russian planes is one of the first collateral consequences for Cuba of the invasion of Ukraine. The Island remains, for now, without Russian tourists, its only rising market in recent years. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (Ator) has reported this Monday that the restrictions have forced the suspension of the sale of trips to Latin America and the Caribbean.

“In the reservation systems of tour operators, trips for all dates, as of February 28, to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, are no longer available,” says the statement, released by the Sputnik agency.

The measure of closing the airspace to Russian aircraft is also in force in Canada, an “insurmountable obstacle for transatlantic flights by Russian airlines, even to open countries,” the statement added.

One of the main companies that fly to the island from Cuba, Aeroflot, has suspended all flights to Cuba as of Monday due to the impossibility of crossing Canadian airspace, according to the company, although it could also be due to the regular stops it makes to and from Moscow.

“Aeroflot’s transatlantic flights from Moscow and back to the following destinations have been cancelled: Mexico (Cancun), United States (Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington), Cuba (Havana and Varadero) Dominican Republic (Punta Cana) “, says the statement. continue reading

At the Aeroflot offices in Havana, they assure this newspaper that they have no instructions from the “headquarters,” and that at least until March 6 there are no scheduled flights. All Russian tourists must go to their country’s consulate to register.

In a call to the Russian diplomatic headquarters, they said that travelers must send an email, individually, with their name and surname, passport number, date of entry to Cuba and arrival flight number, expected departure date and flight number, airport and, if applicable, tour operator.

Nor can the Azur Air company, which flew to the Cuban tourist destinations of Varadero and Cayo Coco, reach the island. “Due to the introduction of restrictions on the use of airspace, the Azur airline temporarily suspends passenger flights from Russia to Mexico, Dominican Republic and Cuba from February 28, 2022,” is communicated on the airline’s Facebook page.

The company adds that it will take its travelers out of these destinations with “export flights” and asks those who had purchased tickets to contact the operators to proceed with possible returns. “Azur Air continues to carry out flight programs to Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Maldives and Vietnam,” they explain.

Royal Flight has also suspended its flights to Cuba and the Dominican Republic and will limit itself, like Azur, to chartering return flights for its tourists stranded on the island.

At the moment, the only airline that maintains its forecasts to travel to Cuba is NordWind, which flies to Cayo Coco and Varadero. In the case of the first destination, the company has a flight scheduled for March 20, but to go to the Matanzas resort there are two weekly flights throughout the month of March that are still visible. The Russian airline has announced the cancellation of its routes to Europe, as required by the measure of the European Union.

The regulation approved by the European Union that prohibits the entry into the airspace of Russian aircraft goes further and also includes aircraft that maintain code-share or capacity reservation agreements and those registered in Russia or that are controlled by individuals or Russian legal entities, entities or bodies. This implies that there could be no agreements with Cubana de Aviación that cover the route or part of it.

The Russian market has been clearly increasing in Cuba in recent years, to the point where it has become the Island’s fastest growing. In 2019, 178,000 tourists from the Eurasian country arrived on the Island. In 2020, with the covid-19 crisis already underway, the number dropped to 63,562 Russians, but in 2021 it increased to 121,949, a good relative figure despite the catastrophic global figures for Cuban tourism during the pandemic.

The Island has not been able to recover lost ground, especially against the Dominican Republic, whose strategy has allowed it to reach record numbers. The Russians, in fact, began this past year to prefer the neighboring island to Cuba and in November only 8,019 arrived, compared to the 21,387 traveling to its competitor, which, without a doubt, will also be affected by the sanctions.

The Cuban authorities have aligned themselves with Russia in this crisis, as expected, since in the midst of widespread economic ruin, Moscow is one of the Island’s few remaining allies.

However, the economic sanctions imposed not only by the US and the EU, but also by Japan, Canada, Australia and South Korea, will soon make a dent in the Russian economy, whose size does not exceed that of Spain* (it is in 11th place in the world ranking by GDP), and it is easy to foresee that there will be no giveaways for its Latin American partners. All of them – Venezuela and Nicaragua, although possibly also Brazil, which has not yet condemned the Russian invasion – will also be affected by measures like this one.

“What must be taken into account is that the sanctions on Russia are so robust that they will have an impact on those governments that have economic affiliations with Russia. Venezuela is going to begin to feel that pressure, Nicaragua too, as well as Cuba,” said Juan González, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in an interview with the Voice of America.

According to Ator’s calculations, more than 150,000 Russian tourists are currently abroad, and more than 27,000 of them in countries with direct problems for their return. The Rosaviatsia and Rosturism agencies, both state-owned, are now working with the Foreign Ministry to get their citizens out of the European countries they are presently visiting.

*Translator’s note: Spain’s population is roughly one-third that of Russia’s.

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Economic Sanctions Against Russia Will Have an Impact on Cuba

From left to right: Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. All of these countries would suffer the effects of the sanctions imposed on Russia after invading Ukraine. (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2022 — Juan González, the assistant to US President Joe Biden for the Western Hemisphere, predicted an impact for Cuba, after the economic sanctions are applied to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Last Friday, the 27 countries of the European Union, the United States and Canada announced economic sanctions against the Kremlin.

González included Venezuela and Nicaragua in the list of countries that will also suffer the effects of the sanctions.

Days before the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Parliament postponed the repayment of the Cuban debt until 2027 the Russian Parliament postponed the repayment of the Cuban debt until 2027. Between 2006 and 2019, Russia offered Cuba export credits worth 2.3 billion dollars to finance projects in the fields of energy, the metallurgical industry, and the transportation and supply of goods. continue reading

In an extraordinary summit, the heads of state of the European Union agreed to the prohibition of exports from the technology sector, financial sanctions and restrictions on visas and transport, according to a senior European official, quote Europa Press.

A statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the measures will hamper economic growth, increase inflation and erode Russia’s industrial base.

On Friday, Biden announced the first direct economic sanctions against two large Russian financial institutions, the VEB (one of the main Russian investment and development banks) and the military bank (PSB), considered fundamental for the Russian defense sector.

The United States also applauded Germany’s blocking of the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was expected to transport Russian gas to Germany.

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Mexico Paid Cuba 1.5 Million Dollars for its Medical Students to Study in Cuba

Some of the medical students supported by a part of the payments that Mexico made to Cuba the students who are studying a specialty on the island. (Twitter/@IPKCuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2022 — Mexico gave 34,000,000 Mexican pesos (1,501,766 dollars) to Cuba, according to a report released by Latinus. The money was transferred in 2021 through the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) to Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, SA, “a company of the Government of Havana accused internationally of human trafficking and forced labor.”

The Cuban company, created in 2011, it is pointed out in the report, exploits various lines of business that range from sending personnel to international medical missions “paid” by the requesting countries, to treatments offered in Cuba under the concept of health tourism.

“In the last three years, Conacyt has cut scholarships, funding for research and budgets for education centers in Mexico” and has allocated these resources to the “Government of Díaz-Canel.” The report states that part of the money received was for the scholarships for Mexican medical students who are studying a specialty on the island.

The scholarships to Mexican medical students to complete their training in Cuba in 2021 was one of the businesses highlighted. Although this year only 172 scholarships out of the 1,600 planned finally materialized, the matter unleashed a controversy that continues in Mexico. continue reading

If the coverage of 1,600 scholarships had materialized, the Government of Cuba would have received a total of 40 million dollars as “tuition” for this program. Contacted by 14ymedio, Alejandra Reynoso Sánchez, a senator from the Mexican opposition National Action Party, stated that “the government is using the Conacyt scholarships to finance the Cuban regime.”

Despite the failure and controversy generated in its first edition, this year Mexico maintained the Conacyt scholarship program to study one of the 13 medical specialties on the island.

What the Cuban Government will receive for each student and specialty, according to the table that appears in euros in the agreement itself, is much more: pathological anatomy, 7,800 euros; general surgery, 12,500; hygiene and epidemiology, 7,800; medical genetics, 12,500; geriatrics, 7,800; rehabilitation medicine, 9,900; intensive medicine, 12,500; internal medicine, 9,900; pulmonology, 7,800; ophthalmology, 12,500; clinical pathology, 9,900; psychiatry, 9,900, and traumatology and orthopedics, 12,500.

The doctors on scholarship, who will receive support of 1,090 euros per month, must cover the cost of medical insurance that ranges from 231 to 753 euros and will be paid “directly.” In addition, students will have to pay 150 dollars for PCR tests and isolation periods.

Before these cases, 14ymedio published various reports about the shady deals between Cuba and the Government of Mexico City for the sending of medical missions from the Island. In July 2020, “the largest deposit was made for these services, corresponding to 135,837,000 pesos to the Marketing Company of Cuban Medical Services, SA.”

The money was transferred to the Cuban regime through HSBC account 4062724620 opened by Banobras, which was canceled in August 2020.

In September 2021, the coordinator in the Mexican Senate of the opposition National Action Party (PAN), Julen Rementería, denounced that high-ranking authorities in Mexico and Cuba “orchestrated a fraud” of 255,873,177 pesos (about 12,692,940 million dollars).” The legislator demonstrated that this was what Before these cases, 14ymedio published several reports about the shady deals between Cuba and the Government of Mexico City for the sending of medical missions from the Island.

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Sentenced to 14 Years For the 11 July Protests in Cuba and on Hunger strike, He is the Father of Two Babies

Gerardo Díaz Alonso, imprisoned for the 11 July protests, along with his wife and one of his children. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 February 2022 — Gerardo Díaz Alonso, one of the protesters on July 11 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, has been on a hunger strike since Friday, protesting that he was sentenced to 14 years for the crimes of sabotage and public disorder.

His wife, Mercedes Sánchez, with whom he has two children – one a year and a half old and the other just 20 days old – tells 14ymedio of “the pain and impotence” she feels seeing her partner in that situation, which she considers “an injustice”. She is also worried because Díaz Alonso “suffers from kidney disease”, and she fears that his body “will not react very well”.

The prison director himself called relatives to convince him to stop the hunger strike. Thus, Sánchez was able to see her husband this Wednesday. “His state of health is very delicate,” warns this 23-year-old, who says that the prisoner’s mother, who accompanied her, “became very upset” when she saw him: “He is skinny, his face had no color and she felt faint when she saw the state he was in, she urged him to drink a bit of water, and he accepted”. continue reading

Díaz Alonso told his wife that they had him in a “punishment cell” but that several days after he started the strike, they transferred him to the infirmary because his health had deteriorated

Díaz Alonso told his wife that they had him in a “punishment cell” but that several days after he started the strike, they transferred him to the infirmary because his health had deteriorated.

According to her account, they promised him that this Thursday someone from the Prosecutor’s Office would visit the prisoner”, supposedly, for him to put forward his situation”.

Although the trial was held in December, he did not receive his sentence until January 29^th. The family was unable to get a hold of the judgement until days later, on February 3^rd, which prevented them from appealing. “As far as the Military Prosecutor’s Office, we only had five days”, explains his wife, who complains that the papers arrived late and they were not even notified of the sanction by phone.

The trial, denounces Mercedes Sánchez, “was the worst, they even presented manipulated photos”. The woman says that “only one witness accused him, and he was associated with the police” and that in the only video presented in the trial as incriminating evidence, he “is not shown throwing rocks at anything”, but “standing on a corner”.

Díaz Alonso’s lawyer, continues his wife, argued at the trial that her client “has mental retardation problems”, but far from taking it into account, “they made up many things, and made him look as if he were the worst offender”.

“They said they had made inquiries around the neighborhood, but no official ever went there to do anything”, she continues, “they just made up a circus of lies”. Lies, she laments, “made up by them, as they have done with all the prisoners of 11J, just to find reasons to condemn them”.

“They said they had made inquiries around the neighborhood, but no official ever went there to do anything”, she continues, they just made up a circus of lies”

Her 33-year-old husband was sentenced, along with eight other people: Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díaz (sentenced to 15 years), Leidiana Prohía Guevara (12 years), José Carlos Hernández Barrio (14 years), Yoniel Santana Rodríguez (10 years), José Antonio Cue Monzón (10 years), Enoc Noé Fernández Fernández (10 years), Yasniel Roque Valle (5 years) and Jorge Luis Argüelles Bayate (15 years), who was also charged with robbery with violence.

Three other defendants were not sentenced for sabotage, but for other alleged serious crimes: Alain Roselló Fernández (7 years for robbery with force and public disorder), Jorge Gilberto Carrillo Isaac (6 years for robbery with force) and Reydel Canasí Reyes (7 years for attack and public disorder).

The case of Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díaz, 34, is especially dramatic, since he was also injured during his arrest. The images of that moment, precariously recorded, spread like wildfire on social networks and, ultimately, served the regime to try to discredit him.

On the other hand, another 11J prisoner, William Manuel Leyva Pupo, has also been on an “indefinite” hunger strike since Tuesday. The young man from Holguín, 21 years old and sentenced to 12 years for the crime of “sedition”, sent a telephone message from prison declaring himself a “peaceful dissident” and “arbitrarily in prison”, and argues that he prefers to die before to continue suffering what he calls “subhuman and degrading psychological torture” imposed by the regime on all the July 11 protesters.

Leyva Pupo was already “plantado*” on a previous occasion, just when his trial was held, last January, along with nine other prisoners, in protest about the high prison sentences requested for them by the Prosecutor’s Office. For Leyva Pupo they asked for 18 years, which was reduced to 12 in the final sentence, received this February.

Also on a hunger strike, but without trial and for more than a month, is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The artist, leader of the San Isidro Movement, was arrested on July 11^th, but not for demonstrating, but for a previously charged cause, the same one for which singer Maykel Castillo Osorbo remains in prison. During a party on April 4^th on Damas Street, in Old Havana, in which activists and local residents sang the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life], the police tried to arbitrarily arrest Osorbo, but he refused to get in the patrol car.

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

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Vladimir Putin’s War

Vladimir Putin y Madeleine Albright se reunieron en el año 2000. (CC/Serguéi Vasilievich)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 27 February 2022 — It was the early days of the year 2000. The first major American official who spoke with Vladimir Putin was Madeleine Albright. Mrs. Albright, born in Prague, was then Secretary of State in the second term of the Clinton administration. She recorded her impression of the person who had replaced Boris Yeltsin at the helm in Russia: “He is small and pale, and he is so cold and emotionless, that he could be a reptile”.

She hit the mark with that comment. But she said more, “Putin is ashamed of what happened to his country and is determined to restore its greatness.” She hit the mark again. That’s what just happened to Ukraine. Without having done anything to deserve it, Ukrainians are paying the price for the restoration of Russian greatness. The article by the former Secretary of State was published in the NYT under the title “Putin makes a historic mistake.”

It is ridiculous, for example, to say, as Putin has said, that Ukraine is a Russian invention. Any high school graduate knows that it is the other way around – the idea of imperial Russia arose from Kievan Rus between the 9th and the 13th century. Just as it is foolish to accuse the current rulers of Ukraine of being “Nazis.” If anyone remembers Adolf Hitler, it is Mr. Vladimir Putin, who has no other argument to claim the Donbass than the one used by the Nazis to claim the Czech Sudetes – they were full of Germans. Franz Kafka, for example, lived in Prague, but spoke and wrote in German, although he had the elegance of dying in 1924 at the age of 40, before the Hitlerian whirlwind devastated Europe and, with it, the Jews, who had done so much good to the Old Continent from a technical, scientific, artistic and financial point of view. continue reading

The two eastern regions of Ukraine (Donetsk and Lugansk) were populated – I was going to write “plagued” – by ethnic Russians who communicate in Russian. Since Russian and Ukrainian have a common origin and share the same alphabet, some people think that it is the same language, but it is not true. According to many philologists, Ukrainian language is closer to Polish or Czech than to Russian. In addition, ensuring that Donetsk and Lugansk separate from Ukraine is an unspeakable forgetfulness of the values of the republic, safeguarded by the Minsk Agreements, signed in 2014 and 2015 in the capital of Belarus, the same government that today betrays them.

What is Russia seeking by crushing its neighbor Ukraine with its overwhelming military power? If Putin thinks that by reestablishing the ‘zones of influence’ Russia will be more protected against a nuclear rocket, he has failed to find out (as a CNN analyst said) the current correlation of forces. The fate of Moscow or Saint Petersburg, and of any densely populated Russian city, lies in an unknown silo in Nebraska or Montana and in a GPS with the encrypted address of the site to which it will take its nuclear warhead, fifty times more destructive than the bomb that reduced Hiroshima to ashes in 1945.

Influence is measured nowadays by the quality and price of the objects around us, and none of them are Russian. Indeed, Russia has a third world economy. It has the approximate size of the Italian economy, but with 2.45 times more inhabitants. It is a single producer and exporter of energy, like Saudi Arabia, but without the investment expertise of Arab businesspeople. When gas and oil run out or are replaced by other technology (German scientists are experimenting with neutrinos), Russia – Vladimir Nabokov said in another context – “was a dream I had,” as the filmmaker Jiménez-Leal frequently quotes.

The sanctions will have a devastating effect on Russia’s third world economy. Depriving it of its sources of financing or the markets that buy Russian gas or oil will have a decisive impact in the medium or long term. Especially if an alternative for the supply of gas and oil is achieved and a real agreement is established between the US, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia. This agreement, in turn, must impose very serious sanctions against those who violate the agreement.

Are we close to World War III, as happened in 1962 during the “Missile Crisis”? No, but the reasons for preventing it are the same: Russia would be thoroughly destroyed. It is true that the United States would also be knocked down, but wars are fought to win them, not to lose them or to be half demolished. In the US, where everything is calculated, it is assumed that cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants would be destroyed. Of course, there is an increased risk that a definitive conflict occurs by chance and not by the intention of the involved parties. In the 1960s and 1970s there were at least two occasions when nuclear escalation was very possible. In both cases we were saved by the good sense of a Soviet intermediate-rank operator, who listened to his intuition and did not follow “the rules of engagement.” There is no guarantee that this will happen in the future.

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The Invasion of Ukraine Plunges the Official Cuban Press into Disrepute

Now, the one who remains with these grotesque versions it is because he prefers the information pap, rather than to investigate, question or search further. *op headline: West aligns against Russia which advances in the demilitarization of Ukraine. Bottom headline: Kiev delays negotiations while deploying arms, warns Russia.* (Collage)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 February 2022 — These days, the official Cuban media show off their character of political propaganda, without any adherence to the minimum requirements of journalistic information. Incidentally, they show their servility towards the Kremlin by branding as “demilitarization” what is a cruel invasion of the territory of a country, and they also blame the government of Volodomir Zelenski for the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine.

Luckily, we have independent media and internet access, despite the high prices and multiple blocked sites suffered by the latter. To which we must add, our long training to search for everything that is censored or prohibited, which is put to the test in cases like this, to be able to complete the news that the pathetic State newspaper Granma and the toxic Cubadebate website try to manipulate at will.

Fortunately, but above all because we have pushed the wall of so much information control, we are no longer that people who believed so many lies spread by the media controlled by the Communist Party. Gone are the days when millions of people on this Island swallowed that the idea that sending soldiers to Africa was to pay an “old historical debt” with that continent; or that the last Cubans on the island of Granada had immolated themselves “wrapped in the flag”… or so many other auto-attacks that Castroism carried out to later manipulate the pain of a people and cut even more freedoms from citizens. continue reading

Fortunately, we are no longer the ones who could be so easily banned from reading Moscow News, made to believe that the neighbor in our building was a NATO agent and therefore had to be imprisoned for long years, or be assured that Vladimir Putin is a good-natured leader who just wants to keep the Russians safe.

Now, the one who remains with these grotesque versions, it is because he prefers the information pap, rather than to investigate, question or search further. Now, whoever has not seen the images of the bombs falling on buildings in Kiev, the Russian tanks on their path of destruction and the defenseless population, with their children and their pets, trembling in the subway tunnels while the missiles sound outside, is because he doesn’t want to, because he refuses to know, because he has covered his eyes and ears to the truth.

We are no longer the same nor can they lie to us in the same way, but the official press does not quite realize it.

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The Cuban Government was Slow to Receive the Ukraine’s Representative and its Position is ‘Unacceptable’

Ambassadors from member states of the European Union met with Oleksandr Kalinchuk (first on the right) to express their support for Ukraine. (Twitter/@UEenCuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 February 2022 — An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met this Friday with Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Havana, Oleksandr Kalinchuk, hours after the publication of his complaints against the Cuban authorities in an interview with this newspaper .

In it, Kalinchuk had lamented the silence of the Cuban government towards his country and the isolation in which its diplomatic headquarters had been held since the 2014 crisis, when Russia forcibly annexed the Crimean peninsula.

The Ukrainian representative was finally received by Gisela Beatriz García Rivera, director of Europe and Canada at the Ministry, who reported the meeting on her Twitter account. “We advocate a peaceful and negotiated solution to the conflict and we regret the loss of human lives,” wrote the official, who in a subsequent tweet recognized “Cuba’s historic position of denouncing NATO’s expansion towards the borders with Russia, as threat to global security.”

In a subsequent conversation with AméricaTeVé, the diplomat described Havana’s position as “unacceptable,” but assured that he hopes that the Cuban government will change it. “My message is very clear: please go to the streets, show that you support Ukraine, we can change the position of the Government of Cuba, we can change the joint situation,” he declared. continue reading

The ambassadors of the Member States of the European Union in Havana, who met with Kalinchuk on Friday afternoon , did show their resounding support, expressing “solidarity and support” with the Ukrainian people “in the face of Russia’s flagrant violations of the territorial integrity of his country.”

Kalinchuk had told 14ymedio that relations between Havana and Kiev have deteriorated for more than six years “under pressure from Moscow” and added: “Cuba stopped hearing our voice.”

In his answers, he also mentioned that since the Crimean crisis, there has been no exchange of students or professionals with the Island, when even since Soviet times there has been a frequent flow of travelers.

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Cuban Prosecutor Appeals ‘Very Soft’ Sentences in Mayabeque

Alberto García Scull was imprisoned for 14 days and was released on bail pending trial. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2022 — More than two months after their trial, the protesters of 11 July in San Nicolás de Bari, in Mayabeque, have received their sentences, considered very soft by the Prosecutor’s Office, which has appealed them, according to what the artist Alberto García Scull told 14ymedio. García’s sentence amounts to one year and six months in prison for the crimes of “disrespect” and “public disorder.”

Yerandis Reyes Escobar, Leonardo Alfonso Sánchez, William Valera Suárez and Odelys Barceló Serrano are the others convicted in the same case, which accuses those sentenced of “crimes” similar to those others have been charged with in the same province, for example, “expressing denigrating slogans against the presiden”; slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker].” The phrase, the document points out, was “spoken by the rest of the participants” putting “in disrepute the public figure of this authority.”

In the section on proven facts, the defendants are also accused of shouting “loudly” the slogan “policías singaos” that others shouted, which, the court alleges, “caused an undermining of the transcendental work of maintaining order and the tranquility of the population.”

García Scull, specifically, was accused of “insulting national symbols” for dancing “salsa casino” to the rhythm of the national anthem during the July 11 protests, something he categorically denied. “I don’t even know how to dance casino,” he declared in an interview with Hypermedia Magazine. continue reading

The artist told 14ymedio on Tuesday that the demonstration in his municipality took place peacefully and accuses the authorities of being the only violent ones on the day of massive demonstrations throughout the island. “They were people from the Party and the Government, who mistreated a girl,” he says.

García Scull insists that he was only at the demonstration as a spectator, to document what was happening in San Nicolás de Bari.

“Because I’m a videographer, I was doing some recording, so I found myself near the front of the group at times,” he explained to Hypermedia. “In fact, that is why they accuse me of being an organizer. But rather what I did was record with my phone. The slogans that people shouted were: ’we want medicine,’ ’freedom,’ ’homeland and life.’”

Arrested on July 13, he spent two weeks incarcerated in the so-called “AIDS prison” in San José de Las Lajas, Mayabeque, where he also denounced having suffered torture: “They beat us during interrogations, they put us against the wall, they stripped us If someone took their head off the wall, they put your head against the wall. Many people were beaten very badly.”

Fourteen days later, on July 27, he was released on bail pending trial.

“Our entire process is basically the same as what has happened throughout Cuba: trials with people lying, false witnesses,” García Scull tells this newspaper. “The investigation that they did to us was totally incorrect. In fact, what they say about me is not at all similar to the type of personality that I have. It has nothing to do with my way of being or with my way of acting or my attitude towards society”.

García Scull and his fellow protestors convicted are now awaiting the pending appeal of the Public Ministry. Although most of the sentences that the courts are issuing on the trials related to 11J are lower than those demanded by the Prosecutor’s Office, there are few occasions when it announces the filing of an appeal. There is a precedent in Isla de la Juventud, where the body appealed the acquittal of three protesters and the reduction of the sentence from five to three years to a fourth. The decision is still pending.

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Russia Extends Payments on Cuba’s Debt to 2027

Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, negotiator of the Cuban debt, with the Vice President of the Russian Government, Yuri Borisov. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

EFE/14ymedio, Moscow, 22 February 2022 — The Russian Duma ratified today the regulations that allow an extension of the payments of Russian credits granted to Havana until 2027. The moratorium had been planned since last October and was confirmed after the corresponding document was presented to parliament by the Russian Government , as reported by the legislative body on its website.

As already advanced, Russia considers the extension will not have a significant impact on the restructuring of the debt, since the deficit due to non-payment is 57 million dollars, but between 2022 and 2027 Cuba will return what it owes, in addition to 11 million dollars in interest for the delay.

The document approved today establishes that the last payment must be transferred by December 15, 2027.

Between 2006 and 2019, Russia offered Cuba export credits worth 2.3 billion dollars to finance projects in the fields of energy, the metallurgical industry and transportation, as well as for the supply of goods necessary for the development of the economy of the island.

At the beginning of 2020, Cuba practically stopped paying on what it owes Russia, thereby increasing its debts to Russian commercial banks and export entities. continue reading

At the request of the Cuban side, which asked to review the payment conditions of these loans and in correspondence with the decision of the Russian Government on August 7, 2021, the corresponding intergovernmental protocols were signed to extend the payments.

The ratification takes place in a delicate international context due to fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, to which NATO threatens to respond militarily. This January, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov did not rule out in an interview Moscow’s interest in deploying military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela, something that provoked a strong reaction in the West.

Shortly after, Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had a telephone conversation. Last Friday, Yuri Borísov, Russian deputy prime minister, finished a tour in Havana that had stopped in Caracas and Managua the previous days. During the visit, all partners confirmed their intention to increase cooperation, including military cooperation.

During his mandate, Raúl Castro achieved the cancellation of 90% of the debt that Cuba acquired during the time of the Soviet Union and still owed to Russia. Mexico forgave 70% of the 487 million dollars that it had lent to the Island and Japan forgave almost one billion dollars of an old debt in 2014. For their part, Vietnam and China also forgave part of their debt, but it has not been informed of these amounts.

The Island has failed to comply with several of the forgiveness agreements for part of these defaults. In August 2020, Argentina claimed 2.7 billion dollars from the Cuban government that it had been owed since the 1970s. On the same date, Spain formally stalled the debt cancellation agreement that it had reached with Cuba in 2015, which affected outstanding payments for a total amount of 201.5 million euros.

In June of the same year, the countries that make up the Paris Club offered Cuba a one-year moratorium for the payment of its debt (Havana had requested a two-year margin and exemption from sanctions for late payments due to the coronavirus pandemic), although that year has already passed.

The island’s external debt amounted to 18.2 billion dollars in 2016, the last year that the island reported official data, and since then the figure has increased substantially, according to several Cuban economists.

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Interview with the Ukraine’s Representative in Havana: “The Cuban Government Does Not Speak to Us”

The Ukrainian diplomat Oleksandr Kalinchuk. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 25 February 2022 — While European diplomats and those from other countries close ranks in solidarity with the Ukrainian Embassy on the island, the Cuban authorities keep their distance and reiterate their support for Russia in the official media.

In a day full of tensions, with the Russian troops already in Kiev, Oleksandr Kalinchuk, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Cuba, has responded exclusively to questions from 14ymedio about the situation in his country and Havana’s position.

[Note from TranslatingCuba: The interview was conducted in English and is presented here in the original.]

14ymedio: Since the beginning of the Russian invasion have you received any call from Minrex [Ministry of Foreign Affairs]?

Oleksandr Kalinchuk: Unfortunately, despite repeated requests to talk or meet with representatives of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no letters, no calls, no meetings have yet taken place.

14ymedio: How did Minrex treat you until recently? Have you noticed any change?

Kalinchuk: Since 2014, Ukrainian-Cuban relations have deteriorated. This, of course, happened under pressure from Moscow. The Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Havana was in a kind of isolation — without access to the media, to meetings with officials. Cuba stopped hearing our voice.

14ymedio: How many Cubans are there currently in Ukraine?

Kalinchuk: I would like to note that even in Soviet times and until 2014, we had a significant flow of travelers — both students and professionals (especially engineers), and ultimately tourists. Since 2014, no Cuban student has gone to study in Ukraine. A relatively small number of Cubans live in Ukraine, but these Cubans are bold and determined — they are not afraid and have repeatedly protested near the Cuban embassy in Ukraine.

14ymedio: What can Ukrainians living in Cuba or Cubans with ties to your country do in order to receive information about their families in Ukraine?

Kalinchuk: We accept such appeals by email emb_cu@mfa.gov.ua or by phone +5354295131. I ask everyone who will apply to prepare clear information about the last place of residence in Ukraine of relatives and friends, their contacts. And, unfortunately, I must warn that the answers will not be quick. But we will not leave anyone, we will not forget about anyone. continue reading

14ymedio: Have you received any expression of solidarity and support from behalf of the Cuban civil society or from the Cuban people?

Kalinchuk: Answering this question, I am overwhelmed by a wave of emotions. You know, our embassy has now started receiving not only letters and calls of support from Cubans, but ordinary Cuban citizens are also asking us to come and defend Ukraine with weapons in hand. Believe me, for those who now live in Cuba — even to say so is a big risk.

14ymedio: How do you see the way Cuban state media has covered the entrance of Russian troops into Ukraine?

Kalinchuk: You see, because the positions of the Cuban government and the media here on the island are always the same. These weak and unsuccessful attempts to justify the barbaric invasion of Russian troops into the territory of a sovereign peaceful state look comical. I am convinced that the Cuban people, courageous and able to analyze the facts, perceive these reports as unsuccessful propaganda.

14ymedio: Do you expect any change in the relations between Havana and Kyiv in the short term?

Kalinchuk: Let me answer not what I expect, but what I hope for. I hope that the Cuban government will finally understand that Russia is an aggressor, an occupier.

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Pitched Battle to Buy Cigarettes in Havana

The line to buy cigarettes was at the Cupet store on Calle Infanta in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 25 February 2022 — “Every time they put out cigarettes here it’s our own Ukraine war on the block.” With sarcasm, a resident of Centro Habana commented on the great scandal that occurred at noon this Friday at the corner of San Francisco and San Rafael, in the middle of a line to buy cigarettes at the Cupet store on Infanta street.

An argument between several who were waiting escalated until it reached bad words, shoves and blows. To disperse the tumult, several police cars and a police van arrived.

“I don’t know if it’s business or it’s the desire to smoke that drives people crazy, but the most advisable thing is to stay away from this flammable mob,” lamented another resident in the area, who does not understand why the lines of smokers get so violent.

The price of a box of cigarettes in the informal market in Havana exceeds 160 pesos depending on the brand, and often the sale of the product in pesos in state establishments must be monitored by police and military.
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Cuban Baseball Player Spends the ‘Saddest Night Of His Life’ With His Family in a Kiev Shelter

Raidel Arbelay Becerra spent this Thursday with his family, his wife and two children, in a shelter near Kiev. (Raidel Arbelay)

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico, 25 February 2022 — Cuban Raidel Arbelay Becerra spent “the saddest night of his life” in Kiev with his family, his wife and two children, he tells 14ymedio. This Thursday, while reporting on the presence of Russian troops in the Ukrainian capital and the bombing, a drone was shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force. The aircraft “fell 70 meters from our house and we made the decision to flee.”

Arbelay heard on the news that in the first 24 hours the Russian military deployment caused the death of 137 Ukrainians. “War has neither friends nor winners, only losers, families in mourning, mothers without children and much more,” he stresses.

The athlete arrived in Ukraine in 1996, where he met several Cubans — at least 70 are in Kiev — and “right now we are all tense because it is expected that this Friday night the city will be attacked by the Russian aggressor.” He knows that some migrants have sought refuge in the capital’s suburbs; and others, like him and his family, in the basements of houses. continue reading

Through Ukraine’s presidential spokesman, Sergei Nikiforov, Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed that they agreed to hold negotiations on the ceasefire and peace, according to RT. “There is a lot of misinformation,” says Arbelay. “This Friday we hope to leave for the area where they are not bombing.” The athlete’s plans do not change, he seeks to reach the border with Poland with his family.

In this conflict, the Cuban authorities have reiterated their support for Russia in the official media. “I am ashamed of the Government of my country”, expresses an annoyed Arbelay. He does not understand why the island supported “the decision of the Russian president to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk.”

The Cubans who are in Kiev, the player insists, have not received assistance or support to transfer them to safe areas. “The embassy hates us.” The situation at the moment is difficult, but we try to “stay very close.”

Arbelay’s children have spent an uneasy night. “They don’t understand much about the reason for this war.” The calls received by people who share the shelter in a friend’s house, confirm “shots and explosions in Oblon,” a residential neighborhood of Kiev, in addition to “battles in Dymer and Ivankiv.”

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