14ymedio

Mexico Investigates a Network That Charges up to $10,000 to Take Cubans to the U.S.

Photo of Cuban migrants who were transported in the back of a truck on Mexican roads in the state of San Luis Potosí in Mexico.

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 11 February 2022 – – The Minister of Public Security (SSP) of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí is investigating a trafficking network that charges $8,000 to $10,000 to take migrants to the U.S. border. Between last Wednesday and Thursday, 135 foreigners, 22 of them Cuban, were detained as part of the first investigations.

“It’s a criminal group that is making transfers due to gaps in security to avoid the National Guard checkpoints,” state security spokesman Miguel Gallegos Cepeda tells 14ymedio. Coyotes arrive in the villages and pass migrants off as tourists to avoid suspicion.

Traveling from San Luis Potosí last Wednesday, in the community of Villa Hidalgo, the police located five vehicles that were hiding behind an embankment, so they requested the support of the Army and the National Guard in the face of a possible “narcotics” event. According to SSP information, the drivers accelerated to try to flee but were intercepted by the military.

Six coyotes were traveling in the five vehicles, all from the state of Puebla, and they were transporting 30 migrants: 15 Cubans, including a family with children, 10 Nicaraguans, and 5 Guatemalans. The drivers were arrested and transferred to the facilities of the Attorney General’s Office, where an investigation was opened for the trafficking of migrants. continue reading

“Caravans with dozens of Central Americans are passing through the state. Now there are many Haitians who are trying to find work, but these transfers in vans and trucks are from a network that is beginning to exploit the so-called Gulf route,” Antonio, an agent of the Prosecutor’s Office, told this newspaper.

From San Luis Potosí, explains the official, there are two options to reach the border with the U.S. The first is to go to Monterrey and from there to Nuevo Laredo, on the Tamaulipas border with U.S. territory, and the second is to leave for Saltillo, in the border state of Coahuila, and from there to Piedras Negras to try to reach Eagle Pass, in Texas.

The first inquiries located a group operating in the vicinity of the Palenque archaeological zone, in Chiapas. “Part of this network takes migrants to Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz, then through the municipality of Tierra Blanca until they reach Orizaba, and from there they leave for Querétaro and continue until they reach San Luis Potosí,” Antonio emphasizes.

“The $10,000 dollar charge is not [only] for the transfer through Mexico but from the countries of origin. We hope to finish putting together the puzzle and dismantle this group,” explains the agent.

Last Thursday, state police detected a truck that was speeding in the Potosi municipality of Charcas. After a chase the driver was arrested in the stretch that connects the community of Matehuala with El Huizache. The back of the truck had two levels and was lined with spongy material, and 105 migrants were found there: 28 from Guatemala, 21 from Honduras, 13 from El Salvador, 36 from Nicaragua, and 7 from Cuba.

“This confirmed the modus operandi of the trafficking network. Migrants mentioned that they paid $10,000 to reach the U.S. The coyotes sold them the idea of up to three transfer opportunities in case they were arrested and returned to Guatemala.”

So far they have detained 7 people in the human trafficking network, and investigations are continuing concerning the owners of the secured vehicles.

Meanwhile, in the Yucatán, the Mexican Navy rescued 8 Cuban rafters who were found 12 nautical miles from Puerto Progresso. After being attended to by medical personnel, they were transferred to the remote terminal of Progresso and taken to the National Migration Institute.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Policeman who Murdered the Musician Roldy Polo Pérez in Baracoa Cuba is Arrested

Roldy Polo Pérez at his home in Guantánamo. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 February 2022 — Roldy Polo Pérez, a musician living in Baracoa, died of gunshot wounds to the abdomen this Tuesday in Vega Larga, a town in that municipality in the province of Guantánamo.

As explained by his acquaintances through social networks, the person responsible was a police officer who allegedly argued with the 45-year-old artist in the middle of his own birthday party and shot him in the abdomen. The name and photo of the alleged murderer are circulating on social networks among the singer’s acquaintances.

The official press, after the information was published in independent media, confirmed the news, publishing a statement from the Ministry of the Interior that pointed out that the aggressor was “an officer of the PNR [National Revolutionary Police] who was not on duty” and that he caused the death of Polo Pérez “with his regulation weapon,” after holding “a heated discussion due to personal problems and under the influence of the ingestion of alcoholic beverages.”.

According to this note, the accused is under arrest. The friends and relatives of the victim had demanded on the networks, precisely that the murder not go unpunished due to the fact that a member of the Cuban Police was involved. continue reading

“It is absurd to manipulate and invent versions that have nothing to do with reality, to try to affect the image of the PNR and opportunistically attack the Revolution through subversive enemy means on social networks,” the statement concludes.

The ADN media had access to a video in which the brother of the deceased insisted on holding the official responsible: “They have already killed another by shooting him in the back.” A companion who appears in the images also maintains that when they called the hospital to notify them, no one answered them and, when they finally did, the center told them that the ambulance was broken.

Roldy Polo worked at the Cecilio Gómez Lambert Municipal House of Culture as a promoter, and the staff of that facility has spoken through another of their workers, Liditania Gómez.

“What sad news and we send our condolences to your family and friends on behalf of the Board of Directors of the House of Culture,” he said.

Yunieski Urgellés Rodríguez, sound engineer at Radio Baracoa, also said goodbye to his colleague. “With deep pain we received the unpleasant news that our friend, partner and brother, Roldis Polo Pérez, passed away. The Baracoa culture is in mourning, our deepest condolences to his family and friends. Rest in peace brother, we Cabacú promoters will never forget you.”

The murder occurs a few days after that of Andy Rencurrel, 30, stabbed last Friday in the Luyanó neighborhood of the Diez de Octubre municipality, presumably due to a dispute over the illegal market for satellite dishes.

Malcolm Álvarez Espinosa was also stabbed to death at the door of his house in Centro Habana last Wednesday. Crime seems to have increased in Cuba in recent months, judging by the wave of murders and robberies and thefts with violence reported through social networks. It is not ruled out, however, that these events have simply come to light with the new avenue offered by the technologies as an alternative to the official media that try to hide this type of news.

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Mothers Will be Able to Claim Food for their Children from Fathers Living Outside Cuba

The new legislation facilitates ways to claim child support internationally. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 17 February 2022 — For the first time, Cuba’s Family Code provides for something never before contemplated in Cuban legislation despite its urgent need: the possibility of claiming the maintenance obligation from a resident abroad. The previous rule was approved in 1975, but despite undergoing numerous amendments, the aspect that would legally allow this type of claim had not been modified.

The Family Code of 1975 established the obligation to give support to children, parents and siblings mutually, but did not contemplate what could happen in the event that one of them resided abroad. Title XI of the preliminary draft, which is currently being debated before being submitted to a referendum, addresses the rules of private international family law and develops economic and property relations between spouses or partners who have formed a de facto union, as well as with children, as well as the maintenance obligation.

The issue was addressed this Wednesday on the State television program Mesa Redonda (Roundtable), which spoke of “transnational families” and featured several experts in private international law.

Although María Ofelia Rodríguez, a researcher at the Center for Demographic Studies of the University of Havana, recalled that migration is a global phenomenon, the weight that this factor has in Cuba was clear and she explains that this planned legal modification has finally been introduced in multitudes of countries but not precisely in one that has around a quarter of its population distributed throughout the world, although the bulk is concentrated in the United States. continue reading

In her review, the specialist recalled the Special Period in Cub and did not waste the opportunity to insist that it is an emigration of an economic nature, completely ignoring the political factor. In this sense, the intervention of Rodolfo Dávalos, professor of Private International Law at the University of Havana, who attributed the migratory phenomenon to “the cosmopolitan nature of the human species,” was also peculiar.

“Today we have an affective union of a Cuban mother with a Spanish citizen, she procreates a child residing in Cuba, the father disregards the obligation to provide food, there is an international family conflict, then, what law is applicable to the conflict? The Family Code offers an adequate solution and establishes the application of Cuban regulations, which is the law of the minor’s domicile,” he explained.

Last January, 14ymedio published a report to address the possible improvements that the new Family Code could bring to grandparents, who on many occasions must take care of the support of their grandchildren because their parents have emigrated, sometimes even to the point of disappearing.

“I also don’t know how the obligations of the emigrated parents are going to turn out, because the girls’ father also emigrated a few years ago and has never sent a penny,” one of those interviewed told this newspaper.

With the new text, it will be possible to claim the maintenance obligation internationally, although it has not yet been explained how it will be articulated. In Spain, as in the example provided on the Mesa Redonda, the body responsible for managing it is the Ministry of Justice through the Subdirectorate General for International Legal Cooperation, to which the required documentation must be sent, including the pertinent judicial decisions and application.

It remains to be clarified how the amount to be paid will be calculated when one of the parents lives outside the island. One of the serious problems with the current child support model in force in Cuba is that it is calculated based on the salary in Cuban pesos, although many individuals have informal incomes or receive remittances that constitute the bulk of their family budget.

After the start of the Ordering Task* and the end of the dual monetary system, the amounts that a parent must pay for child support have become even more derisory compared to the cost of basic products, especially food. If the one who pays the pension lives and receives a salary abroad, it is also pending to know in what currency and through what routes the money will reach the family in Cuba.

*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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Yunior Garcia Requests Asylum in Spain due to the Impossibility of Returning to Cuba

Yunior García Aguilera a few days after his arrival in Madrid. (EFE/Fernando Villar)

EUROPA PRESS (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 17 February 2022 — The playwright Yunior García, one of the most visible faces of the Cuban opposition, has finally chosen to apply for asylum in Spain given the impossibility of returning to the Island, where he would be imprisoned.

“If I were to set foot in Cuba again, I would go to jail, that’s why we decided to apply for asylum,” the opponent told Europa Press. He arrived in Spain with his wife on November 17 thanks to a tourist visa issued by the Spanish government, which authorized him to stay in the country for 90 days.

“What we would like is to return, but it is impossible,” he lamented, trusting that the Spanish government will grant him asylum given his personal circumstances and the persecution he is subjected to on the Island.

García, founder of the Archipelago movement that called for the failed protests planned for November 15 in Cuba, recalled that the case against him is still open and that since his departure from the island the authorities have even proceeded to close the theater group he directed.

“The situation is even worse than when we left,” he stressed, alluding to the fact that this week a total of 20 people, including five minors found guilty of sedition, have been sentenced for up to 20 years in prison for their participation in anti-government protests on July 11.

His plans now include continuing to close ranks among Cuban exiles since “the regime is trying to divide us… We have to ignore the differences, try to establish a more solid alliance and have a concrete proposal for the solution of the conflict in Cuba, not only for the Cubans but also for the international community,” he defended. continue reading

He has also been working to strengthen ties with the opposition in Venezuela and Nicaragua, which included contacts, for example, with the Venezuelan opponent Leopoldo López and the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, but he prefers to maintain discretion “until” these efforts are made because there are ” many interests working so that this union does not take place.”

The objective is “to strengthen ties between those of us who want democracy, whether right or left doesn’t matter, we can’t dwell on those differences now because what we don’t have in our countries is democracy,” insisted Garcia. “When we have it perfect, let the right and the left return to their speeches, but now what we are fighting against is dictatorships,” he added.

On the other hand, the opponent insisted on the need to “demolish the myth that there is in Europe and in a good part of Latin America about the Cuban Revolution.”

“It is a product that the regime knew how to sell and that unfortunately many people bought and have been scammed with that myth,” he said. “It is important that people understand that Cubans are suffering” and that what exists in Cuba is a dictatorship, he added.

Regarding his relations with the Spanish political parties, he reiterated his willingness to speak with everyone, although to date he acknowledged that he has not yet spoken with any member of the Podemos Party.

In any case, he trusts that the Spanish political class will be able to talk about Cuba without doing it in electoral terms, “that the parties understand that it is not about using the Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua issue for speeches or internal campaigns.”

“You have to put the human being at the center and understand that these are countries where there are people who are suffering,” he said, insisting that “it is not about political speeches, it is about human beings who do not have freedom or rights.”

“That is the main thing, beyond any ideology or any use that can be made of this issue for partisan interests,” he concluded.

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‘A Grieving Mother is Capable of Doing Anything for her Imprisoned Children’

Yudinela Castro calls for the immediate release of her son Rowland Jesús Castillo, one of the 11J protesters. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 February 2022 — What the State newspaper Granma reports “is a great falsehood, and I don’t care if State Security comes for me and if the police come to my house, that’s a lie.”

This is how Yudinela Castro, mother of young Rowland Jesús Castillo, one of the July 11 protesters tried in Havana earlier this February, reacted to the publication this Monday of a report in the official organ of the Communist Party. In it, is transcribed an alleged audio in which her son regrets having demonstrated on that day of protest. “I witnessed my son’s oral hearing and at no time did he say what the Granma newspaper published.”

“At no time did he state that he felt sorry, he only asked to be given the opportunity to continue his sports career in wrestling, and to help me, a leukemia patient, and to be able to finish raising his son who is now not even two years old,” details the mother, who has already given her testimony to 14ymedio.

“Give me the facility to continue my studies and continue practicing my sport, that’s what he said,” insists the mother. “I am proud of what he did, although I am very upset that I could not be by his side on the day of the demonstrations and had been able to give him the support that he and the other young people who took to the streets deserved.” continue reading

Despite the fact that the authorities told him that he would receive the sentence last week, this did not happen, but he remembers that the Prosecutor’s Office lowered the initial prison request for Rowland Jesús Castillo, from 23 to 12 years.

“During the trial, they tried to make people believe that there was no aggressiveness or violence on the part of the police,” lamented Castro, “but Miguel Díaz-Canel himself gave the order to combat, threw a town into a fight, and my own son received beatings by a police officer from the Aguilera unit.” Others were less lucky: “they were shot.”

In addition, she denounces all the manipulation that the media is displaying at the service of the Government: “The first day that I was able to enter the trial, after being repressed and beaten on the first day, official television approached me to interview me. I asked the journalist if they were going to convey my opinions that I did not agree with the prosecutor’s petition against my son. Then another person came and told me to come into the room, they did not interview me.”

“Perhaps I am not in good health, but I have all the moral strength to continue fighting for my son’s freedom,” she clarifies. “Whatever it takes, I’m not going to get tired until he’s released. He’s not a criminal.”

Castro does not stop showing her discomfort: “I am disgusted not only by the injustice that is being committed with my son but also with this cruel dictatorship that is capable of depriving these young people of their freedom.”

The mother sends a direct message to the repressors: “To all the henchmen who are playing with the feelings of mothers who have their children in prison, I warn you that a grieving mother is capable of doing anything.”

Castro gave thanks for the support she has received from other women in the same case, from the independent press that has given her the opportunity to tell what is happening, and from those outside of Cuba who have supported her in such a difficult cause: “Mothers, although the pain kills us, we have to continue fighting for the freedom of our children.”

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Dispute Over the Satellite Dish Market in Havana Ends With a Murder

Young Andy Rencurrel was 30 years old. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana , 15 February 2022 — Another murder behind the backs of the official media happened in Havana. This time, it is Andy Rencurrel, 30, stabbed last Friday in the Luyanó neighborhood of the Diez de Octubre municipality.

According to the neighbors, the young man was dedicated to installing the cables for the service of illegal satellite dishes, very frequent in the Cuban capital and used to watch foreign channels. In the same area, Rencurrel “competed” with two other individuals, who on February 11 grabbed the young man in the street and “stabbed him” in the back.

“One of the stab wounds hit him in the lung and killed him,” a friend of the victim told 14ymedio, while avoiding giving details about the attackers’ motives, although other sources also point to the possibility of an assault to to take away his belongings which ended in homicide. Rencurrel was an only child and his mother works at the H. Upmann tobacco factory.

The event occurred on Calle Justicia, between Rodríguez and Pérez. “The boy ran two blocks and fell dead and they fled,” says a witness to the events who saw Rencurrel trying to get away and walk a few meters towards the Miguel Enríquez Hospital (La Benéfica).

The two alleged aggressors have already been arrested and are under investigation at the Luyanó police station, according to residents of the area. Although the events occurred in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, Rencurrel lived in Los Sitios, Centro Habana. continue reading

The homicide occurred just three days after the stabbing of Malcolm Álvarez Espinosa, at the doors of his house in Centro Habana, for “a debt” that, according to close friends told this newspaper, Malcolm’s brother had with the aggressors.

Illegal satellite dishes have been a widespread source of news and audiovisual consumption for more than two decades in the Cuban capital. As a general rule, the owner of the antenna and the set-top box installs cables to several nearby houses and charges a monthly fee to customers who connect their television to the device.

The price ranges between 250 and 500 Cuban pesos per month, depending on the number of channels and the autonomy that each client has to configure the programming they want to see. Although the police make frequent raids to detect the satellite dishes and coaxial cables that carry the service, the “antenna business” has never been dismantled.

Hidden inside a false water tank, behind a clothesline placed to cover the device and with cables that run inside water pipes, under the asphalt of the streets or from balcony to balcony, the signal from these satellite dishes weaves a very extensive network in municipalities such as Centro Habana, Cerro, Diez de Octubre and Old Havana.

In these areas, it is common for residents not to consume the official television schedule and for young people to have grown up watching US channels such as Telemundo 51, América TeVé, ESPN and Univision.

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In Cuba, to Buy Diapers You Have to Prove You Have a Child

The Cuban state store La Borla put diapers on sale this Friday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 February 2022 — There was considerable tumult this Friday at the gates of La Borla, in Galiano between Salud and Reina, in Centro Habana. The state store, which takes payment in pesos, put diapers on sale, an item that has disappeared in national currency; but not everyone who went to the store could buy them.

Only those with a ’minor’s card’ and one which proved with the curnames, that the baby who was to be the recipient was the buyer’s child, or that the mother was pregnant, was it possible to buy second-stage diapers (for babies from from 11 to 16 pounds ) and at a price of 265 pesos each package.

This caused a dispute between the fifty people waiting at the entrance and the store administrators.

Some of the customers in line argued that they live in the interior, were not carrying the minor’s identification with them. Given this, one of the women who guarded the door replied that “everyone says the same thing” and, later they “resell” the package for 500 pesos.

And the employee was inflexible, declaring loudly: “I don’t care if he’s from the countryside or from Matanzas, if he doesn’t bring the minor’s card, it won’t happen. They said it on television: disposable diapers with the minor’s card, I’m not going to argue with anyone.” continue reading

This newspaper discovered that in front of La Borla, in the El Curita park, there was a man dealing in packages of newly purchased diapers. “I’m not saying it won’t happen, compañera,” protested another customer, who tried to explain that he is from Pinar del Río, that he works in construction in Havana, that he did not carry his son’s card and that he needed to buy diapers. “What do I do now?” he implored.

“And even if you didn’t have a child or it was someone else’s,” another buyer told her. “Why can’t we buy the diapers we want?”

Diapers for children and adults have been for years a product that fluctuates in the Cuban market. That is why families resort to solutions such as washing and later reusing already used disposable diapers, buying padding to make their own versions of these necessary protectors or converting large sizes into small ones and vice versa, with the help of the use of duct tape and other tricks.

The first cellulose and polymer diapers that were sold in Cuba arrived with the economic opening of the 1990s and the dollarization of the economy. Until that moment, in the homes of the Island only cloth ones were known, which had to be washed after each use. With the commercialization of disposable diapers, many Cuban women were able to spend less time in front of washing machines and tubs.

However, at first, the sale of these accessories was only in dollars or convertible pesos, which made them a status symbol that only families that received remittances or had economic income in foreign currency could afford.

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Two Cuban Journalists Are in an ‘Irregular’ Situation in Mexico But Will Not be Deported

Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho at the San Salvador airport, last January. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 February 2022 — Independent journalists Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, who left Cuba at the beginning of January under pressure from the government, are in Mexico and will not be deported, a Foreign Ministry source confirmed to 14ymedio.

“Their situation will depend on the migration process they follow,” said the member of the Foreign Ministry, who was emphatic: “The refugee status is a possibility, but they will not be expelled, that is a fact.”

The communicators entered the country irregularly, so on January 18, they were detained in Mexico City and taken to the Las Agujas immigration station, located in the Mexican capital.

“Héctor Valdés was given a job and left on February 6,” the National Migration Institute (INM) told this newspaper. The journalist says that he is currently in the border state of Chiapas, where he hopes to initiate the procedures to regularize his immigration status. The document that was granted gives him a period of 20 calendar days to leave the country.

As for Esteban Rodríguez, a brief statement explained that he will remain in Las Agujas due to “a court order while his situation is resolved.” It is expected that, once the office is granted, he will move to the Mexican border with Guatemala. continue reading

The journalist had a shelter, but this Friday he requested refuge, so he would leave the place in the next few hours. “Faced with this situation, it will depend on the solution that is granted… The status of refuge is a possibility, but they will not be expelled, that is a fact,” they confirmed.

The version obtained by 14ymedio coincides with the one provided by the Mexican government, which through the Twitter account of the National Migration Institute (Inami) has explained the situation of the two migrants.

“The INAMI acts in accordance with the law and human rights in the case of two Cuban journalists who entered the country irregularly, one of them has an injunction and will remain housed in the Immigration Station of Mexico City by court order which resolves his situation,” indicates a first message.

“Meanwhile, the other person was granted an exit document that allowed him to leave the Mexico City Immigration Station on February 6,” he says, referring to Valdés Cocho.

This Thursday, several activists sounded the alarm about the situation of both journalists. The academic Mabel Cuesta circulated a message on Facebook in which she stated that both were in prison and that their situation was precarious, to the point that the activist organized a collection to help Valdés Cocho, whom she had contacted.

Valdés Cocho and Rodríguez left Cuba for Nicaragua in the first week of January, but were stranded at the El Salvador airport when they were going to board their flight to Managua, because, they said, the Nicaraguan authorities had rejected them.

After a mobilization of activists and diplomats, both managed to get El Salvador to admit them into the country until their immigration situation was resolved. However, the two journalists abandoned the refugee process and chose to leave the country, thus acquiring an illegal immigration status, which is why they have been detained in Mexico.

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Anamely Ramos and the Family Code

The State should provide its citizens with access to material resources and legal protection so that this essential requirement that defines the family is fulfilled: the union. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 February 2022 — Perhaps one of the most notable absences from the released versions of the new Family Code is what refers to the unity of its members. The right to live together, the right not to be arbitrarily separated. The State should provide its citizens with access to material resources and legal protection so that this essential requirement that defines the family is fulfilled: union.

It would be unreal, even demagogic, for the State to promulgate that it will guarantee the material resources so that people can live with dignity under one roof. At most it could promise to continue working in that direction. Where it does have its hands free is to legislate in favor of rights. The consequences of the “criminal blockade” [i.e. US embargo] do not intervene there, nor do the pandemic, nor natural disasters.

In the current immigration legislation there are two articles that directly affect the family: Article 24 , which regulates the right of Cuban citizens to return to their country, and Article 25, which establishes rules to be able to leave the country.

The Achilles heel of both articles (or better said, the sword of Damocles) is that in order to strip the citizen of what is a constitutional right (Article 52), it is not required that such a decision be made in a court where the person can count on the necessary procedural guarantees, that is to say: evidence of what you are accused of, a lawyer to defend you and the ability to appeal.

The recent ban on Anamely Ramos from entering the country is based (as a regime spokesman has argued) on a presumption of guilt that has not been subjected to the scrutiny of a competent court. It is the first case where this measure is applied to someone who has not exceeded the limit on stays outside the country, which is the only paragraph that allows the entry ban to be applied automatically (although unfairly). continue reading

The threat this constitutes is enormous. If this precedent is set, from now on any father of a family, a son or mother, would run the risk of seeing their family ties broken without being able to do anything other than cry or protest.

If an accusation as serious as having organized, stimulated, carried out or participated in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State” can have legal consequences on a citizen without the intervention of a court, it should be withdrawn from Article 1 of the Constitution, which defines the country as “a socialist State of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of all.”

If the Family Code were to include in its articles: “Every Cuban citizen has the right not to be arbitrarily separated from their family,” the aforementioned articles of the immigration law would have to be repealed, or at least modified.

It is only sixteen words. Under its protection, doctors, athletes, civil servants and other “deserters” could return to their country without fear of being turned back at the airport. Similarly, other Cubans who bear the stigma of being ’regulated’ — prevented from leaving the Island — could reunite with their loved ones outside the Island. The right to be together must be recognized for Cuban families wherever they live.

If the arbitrariness committed against Anamely Ramos served to promote this proposal in the public debates that take place with regards to the Family Code, if the proposal were massive and taken into account, if the rectification is made, this girl would have to be received with the honors of a national heroine.

One doesn’t even have to be very brave to ask to speak at one of these assemblies and calmly say: I propose that the Code include the following: “Every Cuban citizen has the right not to be arbitrarily separated from their family.”

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Article 24 of the Cuban Migration Law Was Applied to Anamely Ramos, Suggests Humberto Lopez

The case of Anamely Ramos has generated a whole mobilization of activists in exile, international organizations and politicians from the United States. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 February 2022 — The Cuban regime has not ruled on the ban on entering Cuba issued against the activist Anamely Ramos, but Humberto López, presenter on Cuban Television and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, did. He did so by commenting on a Facebook post by Ramos herself, with 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.”

The Ramos case has generated a whole mobilization of activists in exile, international organizations and politicians from the United States.

Ramos, who was not allowed to board an American Airlines plane bound for Havana this Wednesday at the Miami airport, held a public protest at the Versailles restaurant after being forced to leave the terminal, to exert pressure on what she considers to be a violation of her right to return to his country of origin. Ramos refuses to request asylum in the United States and insisted that she will continue demanding to return to Cuba, the country where she has her residence. continue reading

The mayor of the city, Daniella Levine Cava, came to Versailles to show her support and talk with Ramos about what happened. “Cuban artist Anamely Ramos deserves the right to return home and denounce the human rights abuses that occur in Cuba. I am with her and all Cubans. The time for freedom is now,” Levine Cava wrote on her Twitter account.

US Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols called the action “another cowardly attempt” by the regime that seeks to “intimidate its own citizens and crush dissent.”

In addition, the United States Embassy in Cuba tweeted: “What kind of government does not allow its citizens to return to their homeland?” adding: “The world of the 21st century must demand that the regime put an end to this cruel policy of exile.”

Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart also showed support for the activist and member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), who described the regime’s action as “banishment” and recalled the meeting he held with her a few months ago with the aim of denouncing the situation of the protesting rapper and political prisoner Maykel Osorbo, as well as that of other political prisoners on the Island.

“The Castro family and their dauphin Diaz-Canel continue to administer Cuba as their private farm, choosing who has permission to enter. But this is how they show how afraid they are of the voices that denounce the lack of freedoms on the prison island. Cowards!” expressed Cuban-American congresswoman María Elvira Salazar in a tweet.

Rosa María Payá, the Cuban opposition founder of the Cuba Decide platform, directly accused American Airlines of working from Miami “for the Cuban dictatorship.”

“Outrageous that American Airlines executes the arbitrary order to prevent Cuban resident citizens with valid documentation from returning to their country, violating fundamental human rights and Cuban laws themselves,” Payá added on her social networks.

For her part, Erika Guevara-Rosas, director of Amnesty International for the Americas, pointed out that “Díaz-Canel’s fear of voices with the legitimacy to denounce human rights violations is evident” and for that reason he “imposes an illegal prohibition of entry” on Anamely Ramos, “Cuban citizen and prominent leader of the MSI.”

Juan Pappier, an investigator for the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, wrote about this case that the organization he represents “repudiates this abuse” and defends Ramos’s right to “return to her country of origin, it is a human right.”

The Center for a Free Cuba also issued a statement denouncing that “denying Anamely Ramos her right to return to her homeland is not only a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also violates current Cuban legislation, demonstrating the tyrannical nature of the Cuban regime.”

The NGO Democratic Culture published an open letter addressed to the American Airlines company rejecting the prohibition action against the activist and describes it as a violation of article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the right to freedom of movement.

In Mexico, Cuban activists and colleagues of Ramos called this Thursday for a protest in front of the Cuban Embassy to denounce “the Cuban regime’s policy of exile.”

For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba issued a statement this Thursday in which it denounced that the Ramos case “is a flagrant and absolute violation of the Constitution” in force on the island, and “of the principle of constitutionality that should govern any act or public conduct of the organs of the State.”

They also warned that what happened with the activist is “a matter of the greatest gravity, that all Cubans should take very seriously and that deserves a harsh condemnation on our part and on the part of the international community.”

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Descemer and Emilio Estefan: ‘Patria y Vida’ Symbolizes the Unity for Freedom in Cuba

The composers of ’Patria y Vida’ are now celebrating the first anniversary of a leading song in Cuba’s recent history. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio)– Musicians Descemer Bueno and Emilio Estefan told EFE on Tuesday that the song Patria y vida [Homeland and Life], which has become an anthem of the struggle for freedom in Cuba, represents the unity of the Cuban people in favor of a dream, that of recovering freedom on the island.

“A year ago a song was born through unity, a unity that captivated people with a message, a slogan, a vision of the future, all in one song. Through the very inspiration of the verse that each one contributed and seduced all those whose hearts pound to see a different Cuba,” said Descemer Bueno, one of the six performers and composers of the song.

The famous musician and producer who has lived in Miami for decades agreed with him, indicating that in the “heart” of the exile and dissidents “there is only one country” and they all want freedom in Cuba, as demanded by the authors of the song.

On February 16, 2021 the video with the song was posted on YouTube as just one more music release of the day, but it ended up becoming the anthem of the historic protests that broke out in Cuba on July 11, 2021.

Descemer said that this song, winner of two Latin Grammys, including Song of the Year, “was born to remain in history as the tattoo on the body of freedom.” continue reading

But not without risk, because, as Estefan himself pointed out, the “courage” shown by the singers of the song (Yotuel Romero, the duo Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, El Funky and Maykel Osorbo) was great, because, he said, it is one thing to protest from exile and quite another to do it from the island itself.

A good example of this is that the rapper Osorbo is still imprisoned in Pinar del Río for “attempting public disorder and eluding.”

But even so, Estefan stressed, they broke the “chain” and sent a message of “hope” that the young people of the island embraced and encouraged them to take to the streets in protest.

He celebrated the fact that in this case the authors realized that “it is not about oneself, but about leaving a legacy of freedom to the country,” and said he was “very proud” of what they did.

“This is a historic moment, a rebellion of people who were born on the island and who have reached a point where they cannot resist what is happening,” said Gloria Estefan’s husband, singer of songs about Cuba such as Mi Tierra, Oye mi Canto and Cuba Libre.

Estefan said that in the future there will be other examples like those experienced on the island in the past year, but not only with music, but also with displays of “rebellion” in the streets: “You will see that the music will continue, that people will have more courage.”

Because the music producer believes that on the least expected day the protests of last summer will be repeated on the island “but in a more massive way,” and on that day the Cuban people will give a “great example to the world of how a country recovers.”

Meanwhile, Descemer believes that Patria y vida represents their struggle for freedom throughout the world and allows them to “have expectations and hopes”.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Caribbean Mexican Authorities Are Alerted About More Cubans Arriving by Boat

Photo of the boat abandoned on the beach known as The Secret, on the Mayan Riviera. (Facebook/Quintana Roo Panorama)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 16 February 2022 — Authorities from the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo were advised by the National Migration Institute (NMI) of the arrival of Cuban balseros [rafters] to the Mexican Caribbean. Last Wednesday, a boat was abandoned on the beach known as “The Secret” on the Mayan Riviera.

The Secret beach is 30 miles south of Cancún, so the “crew had to have help leaving the place in vehicles,” Raúl Tassinari, the police chief, told 14ymedio. “They had adapted a car engine, and we even found containers of gasoline and clothing.”

The discovery of the arrival took place the same day that representatives of the National Migration Institute (NMI) had a meeting with personnel from the Cuban Consulate in Cancún, in which they talked about cooperation and coordination in respect to migratory matters. Tassarini reported that in February alone they had reports of three events related to Cuban rafters.

“The Navy was informed of the vessel so that it could be secured, and the port captain and Immigration were also notified,” emphasizes the officer, who doesn’t rule out the deployment in the coming days of elements of the National Guard and the Army to stop the entry of migrants through Quintana Roo.

According to figures from the NMI, the state of Quintana Roo has become a route for the illegal entry of Cubans in recent years. Between October and December 2021, 29 rafters who arrived at Isla Mujeres were detained. Of 60 Cubans detained in that same year, 45 were deported and 15 received legal advice to obtain refuge. continue reading

The boat used by Cuban rafters is found abandoned on the eastern coast of the island area of Isla Mujeres and serves as a tourist attraction.

On February 12, another boat was abandoned on the eastern coast of the island area of Isla Mujeres, at the height of the Colegio de Bachilleres. The state police confirmed to this newspaper that the migrants “got into a truck, so the surveillance cameras are already being checked.” The island’s natives left medicines, 200-liter drums, canned food in bags, as well as men’s and women’s clothing on the raft.

Ten days earlier, personnel assigned to the Fifth Naval Region rescued seven Cuban rafters, who were shipwrecked 43 nautical miles northeast of Isla Contoy. The migrants were transferred to the Puerto Juárez naval station. A Migration source indicates that this group would be deported.

Last January, members of the Navy in the city of Cancún detained seven Cubans on the boulevard near the Plaza Kukulcán shopping center, after the undocumented immigrants were captured by the video surveillance cameras of the C5 Security Complex. The alert of the arrival of rafters was also extended to the state of Yucatan, confirmed the Mayan Riviera official.

Collaborate with our work: The 14ymedio team is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the profound reality of Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diaz-Canel, a Continuity without Charisma, Historical Weight, or ‘Ashe’

Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. (Cubandebate)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 16 February 2022 — The Cuban dictatorship laid its foundations on the charisma of Fidel Castro. Beyond what fans or detractors may argue, it is undeniable that the bearded man had qualities for oratory, knew how to channel the frustrations of an era in his favor, and was an unparalleled demagogue.

It is difficult to understand how a people quite alien to the ideology of the hammer and sickle embraced Marxism without much resistance. But it could be explained with that guaracha that sounded in the Cuban streets of the 1960s: “If Fidel is a communist, put me on the list.”

Fidelismo became a kind of religion, whose cornerstone would be the cult of the commander in chief, maximum leader, caballo, caguairán, etc. The white dove on his shoulder, his face on the cover of Bohemia magazine as if he were a Christ, his stature and his olive green uniform reinforced the magical halo. And the legend of him spread beyond the borders. He was, for many in the world, a kind of revolutionary messiah.

Despite the ferocious proselytism committed to consolidating his myth, for a good part of Cubans it was quite obvious that the country was headed for disaster. Already at the beginning of the nineties the song that marked the popular vision towards the figure of him was another. And this time it was not a guaracha, but a criollo rock: “That man is crazy.”

Raúl Castro had the good sense to understand that he did not possess a drop of his brother’s charisma. He focused his efforts on being discreet, pragmatic and open. He based his power on the so-called “historical weight.” For some, the administration of the Army general has been the least bad moment that the country has experienced since the Special Period. However, his motto, Without haste, but without pause found so many potholes along the way that the dream of copying the Chinese and Vietnamese ended up getting bogged down. continue reading

The dictatorship urgently needed to find a successor. Raúl had swept away the team that had been near his brother. Those guys from the Battle of Ideas committed the deadly sin of seeing themselves as heirs to the throne. Raul, el chino de La Rinconada had his own list, unrelated to that of Punto Cero [Fidel’s estate]. Raúl personally acknowledged having experimented with a dozen candidate dauphins. Until, finally, one of those test-tubes met his expectations: Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

The blond from Las Villas had been holding his breath since he learned he was on the way to the crown. It was obvious that he had microphones and cameras even in the toilet. And that prolonged apnea not only turned his hair gray before its time, but also removed all human expression from his face. Díaz-Canel is incapable of delivering a fluid speech without looking at the notecards that accompany him in all of his interventions. When he has gone a millimeter from the script, he has made mistakes like the one where he stated that “lemonade is the basis of everything.”

Without charisma, or historical weight, Canel had no other option but to choose the least revolutionary motto imaginable: We are Continuity. For a people that cried out for the word “change,” continuity was a bucket of cold water. Nor has ashé (that Santeria concept associated with luck) accompanied it. The sad crash of a plane, the Havana tornado, the collapse of a bridge over the Zaza River and the covid-19 pandemic do not point to the blessing of the orishas.

When it comes to nicknames, he hasn’t been lucky either. In Holguín, when he was first secretary of the Party and insisted on preventing the farmers from bringing milk into the city, he was baptized Miguel “Díaz-Condón [condom].” Later, influencer Alex Otaola would rename it “El Puesto a Dedo [hand-picked].” And finally, from the rapper Maykel Osorbo, the former porn actress Mía Kalifa, to a choir shouted in the streets and labeled on the walls, they have given it the not very friendly name: “El Singao* [motherfucker].”

There is no need to recount in detail the disaster of the Ordering Task*. And to make matters worse, the “combat order” after the social outbreak of July 11 already places him as an irredeemable tyrant. Raúl Castro is probably banging his head against the walls wondering how the hell he came up with such a designation. It is useless that Díaz-Canel’s new slogan is To Cuba, put some heart on it. With such symptoms, the myth of the Cuban Revolution, in his hands, goes in free fall towards cardiac arrest.

Translator’s notes:
*Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and other measures.
** ‘Díaz-Canel, el singao’ roughly rhymes.

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Cuban Regime Prohibits the Return of Activist Anamely Ramos

Anamely Ramos in New York last winter during a protest for democracy in Cuba. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 February 2022 — Art curator Anamely Ramos was unable to return to the Island as planned after spending more than a year away from the Island studying for a doctorate in Mexico. The activist and member of the San Isidro Movement was unable to board her American Airlines flight because Cuba refused her entry.

Hours before boarding her flight from Miami, Ramos recorded a video in which she said that she fears what might happen to her upon her arrival in the country and asked international organizations and the press “to cover the event.”

“I left Cuba in January 2021, I went to study for a doctorate in anthropology at the Ibero-American University of Mexico (Ibero), I left of my own free will,” she says in a video to which this newspaper had access.

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.

However, the activist had warned the Cuban government that there was currently no place to which they could expel her since her Mexican study visa has expired and her tourist visa for the US is temporary and for a single entry. “I mean, they can’t legally take me anywhere, I want to make that clear for whatever happens in the future.” The activist has stated that she plans to stay at the airport until a solution is reached. continue reading

Ramos had asked the international human rights organizations not to believe the narrative that the Cuban Government could unfold against her and argues that she has not only worked for many years in the country, been a university professor and belonged to the academy, but also plans to contribute to the Cuban society of the future.

Anamely Ramos reflected before the sea before returning to Cuba. (Facebook)

The curator hoped, once she arrived in Cuba, to be able to renew her passport, request the documentation she needed and leave the island whenever she wanted, for example, to see her son who lives abroad.

“I hope to be able to lead a normal life, with mobility within my country, I hope not to be imprisoned in my house, I hope not to have constant surveillance and I also hope to accompany the people who are in a situation of vulnerability today, many of whom are my friends, they are my family like Maykel Castillo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who are sick, who are in prison,” she had explained. “I know who I am and that I am also going to Cuba to accompany those people. Power knows it and that is why I am afraid,” she said.

Ramos advanced that she does not plan to abandon any of her activities to be safe and claimed her right to return for a “strictly citizen” issue.

“I also ask for accompaniment so that any violation of any of these rights is condemned by the international organizations that must ensure the defense of human rights, by the press and by the democratic governments of the world,” the activist concluded.

Ramos had communicated her decision to return through social networks, in which she claimed to feel happy. “I know the country I’m going back to but still I know I’m going to freedom,” she wrote.

Ramos explained that one of her last glances before leaving for the Island had been to the sea. “What the sea unites, man should not separate. There are too many sad stories associated with that sea, it must be filled with happy things.”

The curator, who had a few words for her son, said that it was above all for him that she must return and that despite the fact that the regime has power, it should feel daily shame for how it has it. “They feel safe, but that security is made of cardboard. They have generated horror and that horror will reach them. Our power brings together and theirs expels. Let’s concentrate on bringing together,” she added shortly before learning that she could not return to Cuba.

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Cuban Journalist Held at the Bogota Airport is Given a Safe Conduct

Yailén Insúa Alarcón and her partner, Boris Luis Ramos Salgado, at the El Dorado airport in Bogotá (Colombia). (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 16 February 2022 — The same day that the activist Anamely Ramos was prevented from boarding a plane to Cuba, the journalist Yailén Insúa Alarcón celebrated that a judge ruled in her favor not to be returned from Bogotá to Havana. Both women are part of a migratory drama, the arbitrariness of a power that, as punishment, both confines within the national borders and expels from the Island.

“A judge has ruled in our favor, so that we can leave El Dorado airport in the next 48 hours,” Insúa tells 14ymedio from the Colombian capital. “A few minutes ago our lawyer notified us that the judge had issued a ruling for us to wait for our request for asylum in Colombian territory.”

The former director of Cuban Television’s Information System, who has lived 11 days of ordeal in the airport facilities, with the fear of being deported to the Island at any moment, only has words of gratitude: “Colombia has already begun to welcome us like we are its children, although the process can take up to two years.

The couple is still at the airport, but not for long. “Our lawyer is fighting to see if they can get us out today, but if it can’t be now, tomorrow I’ll be able to sleep in a bed,” she details. “Bogotá is unknown, I have great expectations, I still don’t know what I am going to do, but I have had the support of many colleagues and I am sure that everything will turn out well.”

“We are going to make our lives here, in this city that is going to take us in,” she stresses. “All my colleagues know what has happened and they have given me incredible support and solidarity, this guild is very large and has reached out to me.” continue reading

Her family in Havana still doesn’t know. A couple of calls to her mother, a teacher and school principal, and the father of her 13-year-old son, only yielded the sound of unanswered rings. “I think they will find out through the press,” she points out, aware of the telecommunications problems that hamper contact with Cuba.

In the similarities and differences with the case of Anamely Ramos, Insúa is conclusive: “There is a common axis, which is the Cuban regime and its long tentacles, which either expel you from the country or deny you entry, because we citizens who express opinions are like a thorn to them.”

“They are looking for a way to put together that immense repressive domino game they have and to move the tiles as they please,” Insúa points out. “Anamely Ramos is an example of a woman, one of the most courageous that Cuba has given us in a long time, and I know that this will not discourage her. As soon as I saw what happened to her, I sent the news to our lawyer so he knew what the Cuban regime is capable of.”

To fight against it, she believes, journalism is urgent. “I have seen many stories of Cubans stranded in this airport looking to leave for Nicaragua and other places and I think these stories have to be told, they are very necessary.”

When she leaves the airport, today or tomorrow, Insúa has one goal: “enjoy the sun… In this time I have only seen it through the windows and I want to feel it on my face and on my skin. At last I am going to breathe the air of freedom.”

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