January 1959: Batista Left, Fidel Hadn’t Arrived, and the Boy Scouts Directed Traffic in Havana

The cops had vanished and the Boy Scouts were directing traffic at one of the most important intersections in the capital. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 5 January 2021 — Neither my friend Guillermo nor I was bothered by the northerly, the winter front that for a few days had been throwing the waves against the wall of Havana’s Malecón. The two of us, ages 13 and 14, were happy directing traffic at one of the most important intersections in the city. Traffic lights at that time were not automatic and required a police officer to change the lights manually.

The police, both the traffic police and the other, the one that persecuted, tortured and murdered young people who opposed the Fulgencio Batista regime, had disappeared as if by magic. Meanwhile, Fidel (everyone called him simply that) had declared Santiago de Cuba the capital of the nation and in a speech advised calm, congratulating all Cubans for the historic moment we were living, and asking the boy scouts to be the policemen in the capital.

It would take a whole week until he, with his rebel army, which was taking on many recruits as he passed through the towns and cities that applauded him deliriously, entered Havana with Huber Matos and Camilo Cienfuegos, one on each side.

We were happy. The country, the people, even the children, sensed that something very good had happened. Havanans laughed seeing us so serious, with our very short shorts, directing traffic. The ladies from the building across the street brought us lemonade with ham and cheese sandwiches.

Hope was reflected in the faces, in the comments, in the expectation of those people who believed continue reading

in Fidel Castro. Who, except for Batista, who accused him of being a communist, would doubt that he would reestablish the Constitution of 1940, which would eradicate corruption, abuse and press censorship? Fidel had promised that never again would a mother cry for a son in political prison, and the flights with the exiles were already landing in Rancho Boyeros.

Cuba was a party. The people of Havana had enjoyed another Christmas Eve with roast pork, Hatuey beer, yuca with mojo sauce and black beans. They had eaten the nougat, the coconut sweets, and the guava shells, and the flags were waving on the balconies on the eve of the arrival of the heroes.

Later, with dizzying speed, other things would come: the imprisonment and even the execution of some of the heroes that I saw on the television screen along with Fidel and the delirious people. Ideological radicalization and intolerance was imposed by force among Cubans. Our people were subjected to Soviet military interference and hatred to the death was sown on our American neighbors.

But in that first moment we were happy. Cuba seemed to have awakened from a nightmare which, however, was just about to begin. In this January of 2022, after 63 years have passed, I remember everything vividly, how we innocently changed the lights of the traffic signals: from the green of hope to the yellow of suspicion to the red of repression.

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The Deadline to Change CUC to Cuban Pesos Expires This Thursday

It does not seem that there are many CUCs left in circulation to be exchanged, but if this is the case, run to the nearest bank and say goodbye. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, 30 December 2021 — Well, we have come to the end of a very difficult and complicated year for all Cuban compatriots. The deadline is looming for people who still have convertible pesos, CUC, in cash, to exchange them for Cuban pesos (CUP) in compliance with the central measure of the Ordering Task*, which was to put an end to the monetary duality that existed in Cuba since the 1990s.

concise note in the State newspaper Granma said that “the Central Bank of Cuba reminds the population that commercial banks will continue to exchange convertible pesos (CUC) for Cuban pesos (CUP) in cash at bank branches until this Thursday, December 30, the date on which the period of 180 days granted in Resolution No. 178 of June 15, 2021 to carry out this operation expires, as published by that institution on its website.” It does not appear that there are much CUCs left in circulation to be exchanged, but if so, run to the nearest bank and say goodbye. It’s over.

However, a period remains open, until March 31, 2022, so that the accounts in convertible pesos of on demand savings, time deposits and certificates of deposits of natural persons are kept in that currency, so that the holder of the same can decide whether to convert them to Cuban pesos or decide to opt for a certificate of deposit in foreign currency, according to the conditions established for this product.

And it is over. In this way, without fanfare, the dual currency CUC (Cuban convertible pesos) and CUP (Cuban pesos) — which according to communist leaders created serious problems and distortions to the functioning of the economy — had to be put an end to, saying goodbye without further ado.

However, at the same time, shadows of threat are emerging in the Cuban monetary landscape that are causing much more serious damage, with important consequences in terms of continue reading

inequalities and that point to a new scenario, not of duality, but of monetary multitude, with the formal and informal acceptance of the freely convertible currency (MLC), and of the main international currencies in all types of transactions.

In fact, although there are no official data, the circulation of currencies has reached significant proportions in the Cuban economy in recent months and the objective of the communist leaders to unify transactions in a single currency, the Cuban peso, is sailing against the wind, without realizing it. Now, in addition, the country is facing the threat of inflation, which at the end of the year will hit an interannual rate of 70% (in 2020 it was 18.5%).

So how did this situation come about?

The answer is simple and easy to understand. In a matter of months, there has been an absolute mismatch between the currencies that enter the country and the national currency in circulation.

The former is easy to understand.

Tourism, the main source of income, has plummeted from the 4.7 million level in 2019 to the 500,000 level in 2021, after the strong hit in 2020. Some communist leader has pointed out that the loss of income exceeds two billion dollars, but it is possible that it was much more. The paralysis of tourist activity is absolute and the prospects for the high season of 2022 do not seem favorable, due to the explosion in the Covid-19 omicron variant circling the world.

Foreign investments have once again had a disastrous exercise, because international capital already has two destinations in Central America and the Caribbean that are much more profitable and receptive than the Cuban communist regime: the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. The prospects for Cuba are not good and Malmierca’s announcements of alleged reforms of Law 118 indicate that the authorities know that the model is exhausted and they have to react by opening spaces for foreign capital.

Like tourism, income from the sale abroad of medical, professional, trainers, and all kinds of services have come to a sharp stop, proving to the regime that, even in difficult times in terms of public health, this type of business has its limits and cannot grow continuously, as countries react to their shortcomings and seek more effective solutions to solve problems.

Merchandise exports have collapsed because of the uneven evolution of world markets and supply chains, in which the communist regime has never had the slightest intention of participating. In fact, Cuba has not even managed to integrate itself into Chinese foreign trade.The self-exclusion from global trade practiced by the communist leaders  and their commitment to bilateral agreements and agreements with countries of similar ideology, more typical of the cold war, is a brake on development and the external competitiveness of the economy.

Remittances have not given cause for joy either, despite the fact that they are the only component that injects foreign currency, specifically dollars, into the national economy. But even in this case, the regime, by prohibiting deposits in this currency as of the summer, has shot itself in the foot, pushing remittances into the informal economy realm or into stores in MLC using tricks to collect revenue from trade margins.

Last but not least, since debts with international creditors (the Paris Club) have not been paid, access to financial markets is closed, which prevents obtaining financing other than through subsidies or donations, the money for which goes to programs with little economic and social impact such as agro-ecology or local development.

Thus, the scarce inflow of foreign currency encounters a disproportionate increase in the issuance and circulation of the internal currency, in this case, the Cuban peso.

The uncontrolled monetary expansion, for which the Central Bank of Cuba and the Government have direct responsibility, is due, on the one hand, to the needs for the conversion of the CUC (which is exchanged at 1-to-24 on the dollar), generating an artificial expansion of Cuban pesos. This has generated in Cuba one of the highest percentages of M2 (money supply) relative to GDP in the world, 121%, and the reduction seems problematic.

On the other hand, the uncontrolled expansion of Cuban pesos has its origin in the overflow of the public deficit, which is probably close to 20% of GDP, despite the fact that investments have been reduced, recklessly and irresponsibly. The expansion of the public deficit caused by expenses that grow well above income expands the amount of money in Cuban pesos and distorts the internal balance of the economy.

To all this must be added the consequences of the inflation caused by the Ordering Task. A Cuban who changed his CUC to pesos on January 2 of last year would have obtained almost double the purchasing power for the same CUC changed to pesos on December 2.

The galloping inflation of 2021 erodes the purchasing power of salaries and pensions, and the same can be said of on demand savings deposits, time deposits and certificates of deposits in CUC, which if they continue to be held until March without being exchanged for Cuban pesos, will probably be worth much less than theyare now, because inflation will continue to advance, to the extent that there is no single measure the regime might take to solve the problem.

In fact, the inflation that is hitting and will hit the Cuban economy is a direct consequence of the mismatch between the hard currencies and the national currency in circulation. Good proof of this is that the fixed exchange rate of the 1-to-24 pesos against the dollar could not be sustained by the authorities. In the informal markets the rate for these transactions is at a much lower level, with 70 Cuban pesos required to obtain one US dollar. Maintaining a fixed exchange rate under these conditions and with a year-on-year inflation of 70% is a suicidal decision. The authorities must devalue the peso and do it with courage, imposing budget adjustments that facilitate the expansion of the private sector, the only one that can lead the Cuban economy out of this vicious circle derived from the obsolete and crisis-ridden communist social model.

Seen from this perspective, the balance sheet of monetary unification has been a real disaster in terms of its implementation. Cubans have to operate with a weak currency, in which confidence has been lost and that nobody wants, despite the fact that it continues to be the main currency in the economy as a whole (wages, salaries and pensions are paid in Cuban pesos). On the other hand, a space has been created for alternative trade in foreign exchange and MLC (freely convertible currency) that applies to goods and services that cannot be purchased with pesos and this generates an additional demand for foreign currency that, as has been indicated, is not offset by the offer. The last has been the slogan for state companies, selling their products for domestic consumption in hard currency, to customers who are paid in Cuban pesos.

What was intended to be corrected with the Ordering Task has deteriorated to levels difficult to explain or justify, and meanwhile Cubans must prepare to live dangerously in 2022. A year that, like the one that is ending now, is going to be very complicated and will have very negative consequences to the lives and prospects of families, accentuating the enormous social inequalities and deteriorating the living conditions of the vulnerable. The communist social model of the 2019 constitution has to be modified because it does not work. We will see this throughout the year. The budgets of Señora Bolaños do not give more, the plan of Minister Gil will not be fulfilled, tourism will not work in the high season, and only humanitarian aid can serve to alleviate the situation.  And so it will be seen.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on the author’s blog, Cubaeconomía.

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Prisoners Defenders Identified 842 Political Prisoners in Cuba, ‘A Fraction of the Actual Total’

A group protesting the Cuban Government in front of Spain’s Congress, this past September 8th in Madrid. (Europa Press)

14ymedio biggerEUROPA PRESS/14ymedio, Madrid, January 4th, 2022 — On Tuesday, Cuban Prisoners Defenders denounced that in 2021 a total of 955 people have been included in their list of political prisoners, they also alerted that the figure “is only a fraction” of the total.

In a report, the organization detailed that in January 2021 it was aware of 138 political prisoners and that from then until the end of December, another 817 political prisoners have been added.

Currently, 842 remain, according to Prisoners Defenders who reiterated that this number constitutes between 40% and 50% of the real number, the verification of which “simply cannot be accomplished” by any organization.

Of these 842 cases, 700 correspond to the repression of 11J (July 11) and 15N (November 15) in Cuba, “an estimate 40% lower than the total generated by the wave of repression, as it is impossible to know the cases among the population,” they emphasized. Of the total, 107 are women.

Among them, are included 26 minors–aged 14 to 17 years–and 50% of them, 13 minors, are accused of sedition. In all, 132 verified political prisoners have been processed and charged with sedition, according to the organization, which stated that 387 have already been sentenced; 137 received sentences longer than 10 years in prison. continue reading

The 842 verified political prisoners are divided into Convicts of Conscience, Convicted Persons of Conscience, and others.

“Convicts of conscience” number 545 and Prisoners Defenders highlights that they are imprisoned “only for reasons of conscience, that is, for strictly exercising their most fundamental human rights, with charges that are proven false and fabricated, or of a non-criminal nature, absolutely related to their way of thinking.”

A total of 205 are Convicted Persons of Conscience, “who are subjected to prosecutorial processes or judicial sentences of forced domestic labor, measures that limit their freedom, conditional release under threat and other limitations to their freedom, including those that are subject to firm sentences which are not executed.”

In this regard, they indicate that the Government of Cuba, “in addition, habitually revokes these and imprisons activists who do not cease their pro-democracy activities, as we have seen month after month for years.”

Lastly, another 92, “Other Political Prisoners,” do not fit squarely into any of the aforementioned categories, but are held in a political prison.

Translator: Silvia Suárez

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A Bus Travels Through Havana With a Missing Wheel and Nothing Happens

A Yutong-brand bus transporting some workers from the AICA laboratories back home was running with one tire missing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 4 January 2022 — The lights of the bus that covered route A3 in Havana last night were barely shining ten meters ahead. “Look, there is the long one and you can hardly see anything,” the driver complained. “The head of the base told me that the mechanic had fixed it, but nothing, this does not work, so I do not know what changed,” he said annoyed, but although the visibility was so limited, he did not seem to fear for the trip. “I know the route like the back of my hand.”

The driver’s assistant, in charge of collecting the fares, also helped to put the gears with the lever. “Help me for a while because this is tiring,” asked the driver. “As you can see, this bus is ramshackle, the gearbox is bad and I drop second and third gear, so you have to keep a steady hand pressing the lever when these gears are engaged,” explained the driver before the unusual scene that threatened the passage.

The breakdowns of buses are a constant in Havana. (14ymedio)

These anomalies illustrate the state of the public transport equipment in the capital. “Of the 878 buses that the capital owns, 435 are in use, which represents 49%,” Leandro Méndez Peña, general director of Transportation in Havana, recently explained. continue reading

The official added that one of the solutions to optimize the shortage of vehicles was to authorize a greater capacity as long passengers wore their masks correctly and the buses were constantly sanitized. These measures, far from solving the problem, were the breeding ground for a series of thefts of cell phones and wallets to be unleashed inside the crowded buses.

Nor has the hygiene maintenance measure been visible. Many vehicles move around the city with a notorious filthiness and, in some cases, the breakdowns are patched with flagrant precariousness, as in the case of a bus that used old cardboard to cover holes in the floor, as 14ymedio was able to verify in a journey the last week.

Sometimes old cardboard is used to cover holes in the floor. (14ymedio)

Split seats, doors and windows without hinges or boarded up with metal plates in the absence of glass and the articulated accordions totally smashed are images that are repeated on any of the routes that travel through Havana every day.

On the afternoon of this Monday, a Chinese made Yutong-brand bus that was transporting some workers from the AICA laboratories back home circulated along Cerro Avenue, awakening murmurs among several passers-by who were stunned when they realized that one of the rear tires was missing.

“I was standing with my daughter trying to catch a bus to Esquina de Tejas, when I saw that it stopped in front of me to drop off two workers from the company,” a resident told 14ymedio. The driver of the state vehicle closed the door just as the man asked if he could take them.

“At that moment I got a little upset, because the bus was almost empty.” However, when he noticed that one of the tires was missing on the right double wheel on the rear axle, he changed his mind. “I am surprised that he can drive in those conditions,” said a passerby. Meanwhile, he commented to his little girl: “We will wait a little longer, sometimes what happens is serendipitous, and that bus can crash at any time.”

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Jose Marti’s Smile

There is still much to write about Martí’s laughter, although only one photo remains where he hints at a timid grin before the camera.

I saw it, I saw it coming that afternoon
I saw him smile in the midst of his grief

José Martí, The Political prison in Cuba

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 4 January 2021 — What was José Martí laughing at? History tends to encircle its heroes in a marble seriousness that prevents us from any profane approach. Fortunately, in recent years articles have been appearing that investigate more intimate areas of the biography of “the Apostle.” With less shyness, they dust off insights about his sexuality, his illnesses, and other controversial aspects of his life. However, almost nothing appears on a subject that could offer us a more complete and humane vision of the most universal of Cubans: his sense of humor.

It is true that Martí’s life was marked by suffering. When he was barely twelve years old, he lost his little sister María del Pilar; and later Lolita. He had to face his father’s severity early on. It was impossible for him to show indifference to slavery and the lack of freedom of his homeland. He suffered prison at sixteen. He went into exile before he was eighteen. He had to endure for the rest of his life the consequences left by the shackles. He suffered from a disease (sarcoidosis) that harassed him until his death. He was almost never able to enjoy his son’s company and had to accept the complaints and claims of his family, who never fully understood his obsessive dedication to the cause of independence.

Martí was, in the full sense, a serious man. The colors of his clothes reflected the mourning for his homeland. And the iron ring was perhaps the closest symbol to his character. He himself acknowledged, in response to an article that tried to discredit him, that “the tone of a joke was foreign” to him. However, on a painful occasion he would write to his friend Manuel Mercado: “I smile at myself in all my sadness.”

And he is someone who grew up with six younger sisters, who enjoyed from an early adolescence the very creole humor in Cuban theater, who adored children’s smiles. Someone who, in short, had such a deep affection for spirituality, he could not deny himself the pleasure of laughing and making others laugh. continue reading

Martí, with his closest friends, knew how to make fun of himself. There is a carefreeness in his drawings that points to sympathy. Even in the caricature, the comedy flashes. In a letter to his beloved Fermín Valdés, he talks about his ears. He alleges that the reason that they were separated from his face “more than normal” was due to his teachers pulling on them. Knowing how to make fun of yourself is usually an indication of a healthy sense of humor.

Nicknames or nicknames were not lacking either. The Master’s singular oratory reached evangelical tones. This not only brought him thousands of fans, but also the odd mockery. Since his youth, in Spain, he earned the nickname “Cuba cries” due to an incident where, after saying that phrase, a map of Cuba fell on his head. Martí himself, in a letter to Rafael Serra, says: “I remember that, in the session of the casinistas [socialists who met in casinos or clubs], I burst out with something like Cuba cries … and since then I was left with the nickname among Cubans from Madrid.”

In his work words such as “laugh,” “joke,” “comedy,” “laughter” appear repeatedly. There is in his bibliography a torrent of critical comments about comedies that you read or saw on stage. Ironies, jokes and phrases that seek to elicit smiles from the recipient appear regularly in his letters. A black humor, rarely seen in his literature, suddenly springs up in his chronicle of a jungle trip to Guatemala.

There is still much to write about Martí’s laughter, although only one photo remains where he hints at a timid grin before the camera, breaking his usual seriousness. Martí would speak of Dickens as if he were referring to himself: “Laugh with tears in his eyes; or cry with laughter on his lips.” That, perhaps, is the best definition of Marti’s sense of humor, always a mixture of anguish and joy, or vice versa.

During these “festive” days, many Cubans have expressed their sadness at the repression and the hundreds of political prisoners who could not be close to their families. But pain should never take away the possibility of hope. That inextinguishable ray of light was surely the reason why Alfonso Reyes would describe Martí as “a son of pain, who never lost his smile.”

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Covid Cases Continue to Grow in Cuba, Especially in Matanzas and Pinar del Rio

There have been no deaths in Cuba from coronavirus since December 31, but there are 21 serious and four critical in Cuban hospitals. (EFE / Ernesto Mastrascusa)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2022 — Covid19 cases continue their rise in Cuba, which this Tuesday adds 673 positives, 117 more than the previous day. There have been no deaths since December 31, but there are 21 seriously ill and four critical in Cuban hospitals.

By provinces, Matanzas with 105 and Pinar del Río with 107 are the most affected, followed by Havana, which despite its 70 infections has a lower incidence due to its high population, and Las Tunas, with 59. In the intermediate group are Holguín (53), Cienfuegos and Artemisa (45 each), Sancti Spíritus (39), Camagüey (31), Villa Clara (28) and Mayabeque (24). At the tail, with fewer cases, are Granma, with 15; the Isla de la Juventud Special Municipality, with 8 and Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, with 3 each.

The increase will foreseeably continue as a consequence of the increase in mobility and gatherings for the Christmas holidays, as well as the cases of the contagious omicron variant, which is already present in 12 of the country’s provinces.

Santiago de Cuba, despite being one of the provinces that reports the fewest cases, joins Sancti Spíritus on Tuesday, which already announced new restrictive measures last Friday. The eastern province also prohibits activities that can gather crowds and suspends activity in nightclubs as well as continue reading

bars and restaurants without ventilation. In addition, single-use materials (tablecloths and napkins) should be used in these premises whenever possible.

On Monday, Raúl Leyva Caballero, director of Prosalud in the capital, made the announcement that the Santiagueras Nights are no longer being celebrated and that the food products that are sold in this traditional activity on Saturdays will be offered in the shops and gastronomic places of the city .

All facilities must have, as usual, hypochlorite and shoe cleaners, hygienic measures that, although they can be a support to the fight against coronavirus, have proven ineffective since, more than a year and a half ago, it was definitely concluded that covid-19 is spread mainly through the air.

Leyva Caballero asked that the sale of staple products be organized again in the ration stores, markets and workplaces, in addition to demanding that the acceleration of booster shots.

As for travelers, they are required to prove the complete vaccination schedule and a negative PCR in the 72 hours prior to the trip. In the case of Cubans who reside on the island and are not vaccinated, or have not completed the scheme, they must take a test upon arrival and pass mandatory quarantine in a hotel, with the cost of accommodation and transportation at their own expense. After seven days a new test will be carried out which, if negative, will allow them to leave on the eighth day.

The rebound in coronavirus cases has been shaking the world in recent months. This Tuesday there have been some record numbers in the American continent, with the US at the forefront, reporting a million cases in a single day.

Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Panama also stand out for their high contagion data, as the omicron variant spreads, which to date seems to results in less serious patients and shorter illnesses, but whose rate of spread is so worrying that, at the same time, it increases the chances of serious cases and strains the health systems again, and is causing a high number of employees to leave work, with consequences in many countries that could reach Cuba, if the trend is confirmed.

Some countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain have reduced the quarantine measures, as well as when verifying that the new variants have shorter infection times and, therefore,  two week or ten day isolations is not necessary, as was previously maintained.

In addition, this Tuesday a new variant of covid-19 from Cameroon was identified in France, now known as IHU by the acronym of the University Hospital Institute of Marseille that has formally discovered it, derived from another whose first cases were detected in the Republic of Congo in September.

This new variant has left a dozen cases in the city of Marseille and contains 46 mutations, even more than omicron, although there are not enough infections yet to draw conclusions about it.

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Neighbors Talk About ‘Antecedents of Sexist Violence’ Against Murdered Woman in Cuba

In 2021, more than 30 women died of sexist violence, according to the records of independent associations. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2022 — A mother of two grown children, Maylén Guerra García, who worked as a custodian at the Chiquitico Fabregat sugar refinery, in Remedios (Villa Clara), was murdered by her partner on January 2, according to information published by Alas Tensas magazineIt is the first femicide of the year registered on the Island.

According to the publication, the attack occurred in the house where they lived, and the woman bled to death “from multiple injuries.” Neighbors consulted commented that there was a “history of sexist violence in this relationship” and that “screams and arguments” were frequently heard inside the house.

Alas Tensas reiterates the “urgent call” to the country’s authorities “to take a strong position in the face of these events” and insists “on the need for community action to denounce sexist violence” and thus ensure that “the names of the victims do not fall into oblivion.”

As they highlight, it is precisely in these rural areas that women are most continue reading

vulnerable, “not only because of machismo but because of the high level of vulnerability in which they find themselves.” They point as an example to the lack of employment that could make women financially independent, of shelters for battered women, and of preventive actions that must be carried out from childhood.

At the beginning of December, Alas Tensas reported the femicide of Yoanka, a woman who “was in her 40s and had three daughters in her care.” They detailed that she was a neighbor of the Ciudamar neighborhood, in San Miguel del Padrón, and that the aggressor was her partner.

The publication then demanded that the Federation of Cuban Women and the authorities concerned themselves “about this silent pandemic” and denounced that in 2021 about thirty women were killed in femicides.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Two of Cuba’s Obispo Street Protesters Are Released After Eight Months in Prison

Protesters on Obispo Street in Havana on April 30, 2021. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 January 2022 — The activists Inti Soto and Ángel Cuza, two of the six protesters arrested after the April 30 sit-in on Obispo Street in Havana, were released on Tuesday, after eight months in prison, confirmed Mary Karla Ares, an independent journalist also arrested during the protest, told 14ymedio.

Cuza was in the Combinado del Sur prison in Matanzas. “I just spoke with him, really he hasn’t even come home, he’s on his way. I’ve been in contact with him all this time and now he called me to break the news,” Ares said.

For her part, Soto’s wife, in conversation with this newspaper, said that the activist was released on Tuesday afternoon and has been in the Taco Taco prison, in San Cristóbal, Artemisa. “We are happy, but very nervous. We are on our way to pick him up because he called us to go and get him,” she explained. Last September, activists Thais Mailén Franco Benítez and Yuisan Cancio were also released. Previously, in May, Mary Karla Ares had been released from prison. They are still keeping reporter Esteban Rodríguez in prison; his family has no news about when he will be released.

In their protest, the protesters tried to approach the house of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was then on a hunger strike, when the Police tried to prevent them. At the time, they sat down to protest against what they saw as a limitation of their right to free movement and were detained.

The video, broadcast live from the house, sparked broad solidarity with the detainees of that day. Amnesty International was one of the first international organizations to call for the immediate release of these protesters.

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Fights for the Food Mark New Year’s in Cuban Hotels

A group of customers reaching for grapes at the Grand Memories Hotel in Cayo Santa María, Cuba. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2022 — “Scammed.” That’s how Giselle Muñoz feels after spending the end of the year at the Hotel Grand Memories in Cayo Santa María, north of the province of Villa Clara. The Cuban woman tried to break out of the routine on December 31st and only found shortcomings and disappointments at every step in the state-owned hotel, as reported on Facebook in a text accompanied by a video.

Organizational problems were added to the supply problems of the five-star and all-inclusive hotel, as it describes itself on promotional pages. After waiting hours for the room to be available, Muñoz says on her Facebook profile that when she entered she found that it was occupied. “Luckily no one coming out of the bathroom naked or in another more embarrassing situation.”

“I quickly left and went back to the desk,” continues Muñoz, adding that she was able to settle in with her family at 7 pm in another room. “The air conditioning did not cool, the refrigerator did not cool, the shower did not have hot water, the television did not have a remote control nor was it watchable because it had a split screen, and the bedding smelled like a mouse nest,” she describes.

The young woman, a resident of Sancti Spíritus, went back down to the reception and asked to speak to the hotel managers: “So that they would give me my money back because it was December 31st and I had not yet settled in the hotel. They told me they couldn’t do it, the most they could do was give me a few more hours to stay on the day of my departure.”

Even with much disgust, Muñoz had no choice but to go to continue reading

the end of the year dinner that the hotel had prepared, but if she thought for a second that the stumbling blocks were over, she quickly fell into a rage. The shortages that are spreading through the island’s markets has also reached the hotels.

“No pork, no food, practically, no staff to serve and supply the number of customers,” describes the young woman speaking about what she experienced in the restaurant. She also remembers that “people were anxiously waiting for apples and grapes,” because, she insists, customers paid for “a nutritional supplement that included fruits, fruits that I never saw.”

“Several people had to go into the kitchen to demand the food and fruits and then a cook came out to distribute a sad box of grapes for so many customers,” as can be seen in a video that Muñoz shared on her social networks, which she did, she said, “so that no one dares to say that it is a lie.”

“There were blows, shoves and everything never seen before over a handful of grapes, which in the end all fell to the ground because the same people broke the box trying to take them away.”

“It is unnecessary to remember that money is very hard to get to throw it away like that, it is not five pesos, it is a lot of money,” insists Muñoz.

On December 24 , another customer who identified herself as Rachel Cruz on the Tripadvisor platform, also complained about the poor quality of the food and the organization at the Grand Memories in Cayo Santa María. According to her account, her visit on Christmas Eve turned into a “nightmare,” into “complete madness.”

“My girls were knocked down to get an apple from the buffet. For my little boy there was nothing suitable for his food. We tried to go to eat and we spent three long hours in the endless lines. You asked for something and it had run out. The food was cold and poorly prepared,” she describes. “Terrible, I do not recommend it to anyone.”

Something similar happened to Gina, who worked hard all year in 2021 in her position in a Miami pharmacy with the illusion of saving for the end of the year with her family in Cuba. The plan seemed perfect: sun and sand on the most famous beach in Cuba, Varadero. Along with her brother, two nieces and her mother, the emigrant arrived in the last week of December at the Roc Arenas Doradas hotel in the Matanzas peninsula.

“I spent the four days lining up, lining up for the buffet, lining up for breakfast and lining up at the reception to leave my complaints,” Gina laments. The hotel, managed in a mixed way by the Cuban State and the Spanish chain Roc Hotels, has four stars that some clients question. “It gave me the impression that they had accepted more guests than the amount of food they had available.”

“The very limited food options and the very poor preparation, but the worst thing for me was to see that as soon as they noticed that I was a Cuban living in Miami, they treated me very differently from how they spoke to my mother, my brother and my nephews.” For Gina, “it was frustrating that I was going to get a rest and give my family a fun time but we ended up fighting for the food and stressed by the lines.”

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2022, The Year That Forecasts Will be Useless in Cuba

Twelve months ago, on another January 1st in 2021, no one could calculate that the Cuban streets were going to be filled with a river of people demanding freedom, on June 11. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 January 2022 — Cubans have said goodbye to one of the most difficult years in their memory, to enter, this Saturday ,into a period full of many uncertainties. Hundreds of political prisoners, the economy bottoming out, a massive exodus in process, and a pandemic that has not yet ended complete a gloomy outlook for the Island. With these variables, the scenario is unprecedented and any exercise of prediction is useless.

Twelve months ago, on another January 1 in 2021, no one could calculate that the Cuban streets were going to fill with a river of people demanding freedom. July 11 (11J)was the largest and most extensive popular demonstration that has occurred in the history of Cuba. Neither the mambises in their independence struggles, nor the students in their confrontation against Gerardo Machado nor Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra had a similar number of followers.

However, the spontaneity and horizontality of the 11J, which was its greatest virtue because it prevented it from being aborted or beheaded in its first hours, was also its greatest weakness. Lacking a script and leaders, the protesters of that day were cornered by the police forces, they did not manage to reach the nerve centers of power and they did not summon the military and police to join them.

However, the regime went into “panic mode” and responded in the only wat Castroism has known how to do in its more than six decades of clinging to power: with repression, trying to rewrite the narrative of what happened and shielding the streets of the entire country with uniformed men. Any illusion that mass protest would force the regime to open up economically or politically has been dissolving as the months go by.

Instead of preparing a program of flexibilities, decreeing an amnesty for political prisoners and launching a program to unlock the productive forces, the Communist Party has preferred to entrench itself. Miguel Díaz-Canel has become one of the most unpopular rulers in national history, some even place him in the first place of the bad ones. continue reading

Can an economically exhausted regime, forced to be in a permanent state of emergency to avoid another uprising and devoid of any political mystique, survive for long? The answer varies depending on the degree of consideration for its people that each group in power has. In the case of the Cuban leaders, it has become clear that nothing stops them in their clear obsession with maintaining power.

That stubbornness and lack of grandeur are a combination that does not herald a peaceful end to a system that in 63 years has destroyed the nation, generated a bloated diaspora, lobotomized millions of students through school indoctrination programs, and sunk the economy to unbearable levels. They are not going to let go of the helm of the national ship to make things better, that is the message that they have sent with force in the last months.

But the current model has no future. Even if they manage to prolong its life artificially, it is doomed. The possibility of a sponsorship, in the style of the Soviet Union or Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, is not on the horizon. The loss of young professionals that will accelerate in the coming months will further undercapitalize the labor force in an aging country and Díaz-Canel will not be able to reverse the animosity that people have towards him with his clumsy rhetoric.

Will this be the first day of the last year of Castroism? Many wonder in the streets and houses of this Island. It is possible, but right now we cannot know.

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A Leather Goods Store with Two Employees and One Pair of Shoes in Central Havana

At La Reina leather goods there was only one pair of sandals for sale this Monday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 January 2022 — The “special offer” was actually the only one and flawed. In the La Reina leather good store, belonging to the Caribe chain of stores and located in Centro Habana, they only sold, this Monday, one pair of female platform sandals with a broken strap. The rest of the displays, dozens of them, were empty.

Located on the popular corner of Reina and Galiano, the place occupies a large air-conditioned space surrounded by elegant stained glass windows that remain deserted.

“There they sold some Brazilian Piccadilly brand shoes, they were a bit expensive, but they lasted because they were strong,” Marta, a former client of that business, told 14ymedio, who sold her products in the now defunct convertible pesos. “There were for all types of people, from the smallest to the highest numbers and they also sold umbrellas, bags and other merchandise.”

Located on the popular corner of Reina and Galiano, the place occupies a large air-conditioned space. (14ymedio)

Now, in the center of the store, two workers use their mobile phones to kill the hours that pass without interacting with the public.

“We only have that pair that you see there, it’s size 40, so they don’t work for you,” said one of the shop assistants to a lady who came looking for an offer. The woman asked when merchandise would come again. “God only knows,” replied one of the shop assistants.

Leaving the establishment, the woman complained: “What is the logic of keeping this place open paying for air conditioning and electricity and the salary of two people, just to sell a pair of half-torn shoes?”

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US Government Fines Airbnb for Violating Cuban Embargo

As of April 2016, Airbnb had a network of 4,000 rental homes visited by more than 13,000 Americans. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 January 2022 — The United States government will collect a fine of $ 91,172.29 from the home rental company Airbnb for violations of the embargo against Cuba, according to a statement published Monday by the Treasury Department.

The company agreed to settle the amount due to “its potential civil liability for apparent violations of the sanctions against Cuba administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC),” the document said.

Although OFAC explained that the violations were not serious and have already been clarified, they included apparent payments related to American guests traveling for reasons other than the 12 categories authorized by OFAC, as well as the failure to maintain records associated with transactions with Cuba.

After reaching an agreement, Airbnb reported that it will address “its deficiencies in compliance with the sanctions” and implement “additional commitments designed to minimize the risk of the recurrence of similar conduct in the future.” continue reading

Among the immediate actions, it will implement an IP blocking regime for the granting of permits to people located in Cuba who act as hosts on the platform and thus prevent transactions with that category from being carried out.

The company also proposes to collect information on the country of residence and the payment instrument of its users, in order to determine if “they are nationals or residents” of the Island, as well as guarantee that the hosts certify that they are private entrepreneurs and not “Cuban government officials or members of the Communist Party.”

After the start of the thaw between Havana and Washington, the US-based platform began its operations on the island in April 2015 with homeowners and private rental rooms. At first, it began with reservations for American or Cuban-American travelers and, 12 months later, it expanded its market to tourists from all over the world.

As of April 2016, Airbnb had a network of 4,000 rental homes in Cuba visited by more than 13,000 Americans. According to company data, they have leases in 40 cities and towns on the island, with a third of their supply outside of Havana, in cities such as Trinidad, Viñales, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas and Cienfuegos.

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Cuba Archive Demands Justice and Freedom for Prisoners on the 63rd Anniversary of the Revolution

A young man is arrested by police and State Security agents during the July 11th protests in Havana. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 2 January 2022 –This Saturday, the organization Archivo Cuba (Cuba Archive) launched a petition on Change.org in solidarity with the Island, in which they demand justice for the July 11th prisoners and freedom for the Cuban people.

The initiative was published, intentionally, on the first of January, the sixty-third anniversary of the Revolution, “the regime which has unleashed fierce injustice, repression, misery, and desperation upon the Cuban people,” said the Miami-based NGO in a statement shared Saturday.

In it, they request “three minutes”, the time it takes to read and sign the petition on Change.org, “for 63 years of dictatorship.” They celebrated that another initiative on the same platform, one which advocated for reducing the sentence of Cuban truck driver Rogel Aguilera, sentenced to 110 years in prison in the United States for an accident in which four people died, had resonated and that finally, Colorado’s governor, Jarid Polis, reduced the young man’s sentence to 10 years. “Evidently people sympathize with victims of injustice,” offered the organization led by María Werlau.

The petition states that faced with “the largest public anti-government demonstrations in the last half-century” in Cuba, on July 11th, with thousands of citizens spontaneously demanding freedom and improved living conditions, the Cuban State responded with “fierce repression: arbitrary arrests, trials without due process, layoffs from work, forced exile, and all sorts of persecution and threats.” continue reading

At the same time, they considered the work of the Work Group for J11 Justice, which reported “at least” 1,334 detentions on that day, including 45 minors between 14 and 17 years of age, and 708 people remain incarcerated. “Around 200 have been sentenced to long years of prison, many for up to 20 to 30 years, and hundreds more face similarly absurd punishment,” states the petition.

“Cuban laws discriminate politically in open violation of fundamental rights and thousands more Cubans are incarcerated for alleged common crimes or crimes against State Security and for ’pre-criminal social dangerousness’* [sic] with the purpose of maintaining social-political control,” denounced Archivo Cuba, which exclaimed, “It’s time for this to end!”

As a result, from the Cuban Government they demand, to begin with, the unconditional release of all political prisoners and the dismissal “of all judicial and investigative processes for political reasons.” In addition, they request information on those in custody, “for public demonstration, pre-criminal social dangerousness, and other political causes, as well as access to the public records of tribunals and detention facilities.”

They also request that the United Nations Special Rappoteur on Torture and international human rights organizations have access, for inspection, to detention centers on the Island, selected “without prior notice.”

Lastly, they demand the “dismantling of the repressive apparatus,” the “repeal of all laws and regulations penalizing the free exercise of civil and political rights,” and the “urgent start of a transition process toward a multi-party democracy that guarantees the free exercise of the people’s sovereignty under the rule of law.”

They also ask governments around the world to impose on the Island an embargo on the sale of arms and “equipment used to repress,” as well as sanctions on Cuban officials “including prosecutors and judges,” who lend themselves to repression, and that they cease any actions “that legitimize, fund and support the dictatorship.”

Finally, they request the international community send humanitarian assistance to Cuba “without intermediation of the government until it becomes a legitimate representative of the people,” and they conclude the petition with the motto of the protests, taken from the song with the same name: “Patria y Vida“.

*Translator’s note: ’Pre-criminal social dangerousness’ is the ’crime’ of being someone who may commit a crime in the future.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Brigadier General Humberto Francis Pardo, in Charge of Fidel Castro’s Security, Dies

General Humberto Francis Pardo, who died this Monday in Havana. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar / Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 December 2021 — Reserve Brigadier General Humberto Omar Francis Pardo died this Monday in Havana, as 14ymedio confirmed on Tuesday. His body, which will be cremated, is at the Calzada y K funeral home, located at Calzada number 52, in El Vedado. A source close to the family told this newspaper that the military man had suffered from Alzheimer’s for years.

He was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1945 and studied in the Soviet Union between 1965 and 1969, according to the Internet forum Secretos de Cuba. “When he returned to Cuba, he carried out military missions, at least in Angola, Ethiopia and Nicaragua,” says this website.

As brigadier general, Francis Pardo was in charge of the the Ministry of the Interior’s Personal Security Directorate, the invisible apparatus with the most power on the island, and was in charge of Fidel Castro’s security. He had under his command the “elite” brigade that has more than 3,000 troops, “shock troops” to face protests.

Considered one of the most powerful Cuban military personnel, Francis Pardo was replaced from his duties as Head of the General Directorate of Personal Security (DGSP) in August 2016. Raúl Castro replaced him with his grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, son of Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, the “czar” of the State company Gaesa. continue reading

Until that moment, within the military scheme, General Francis at the head of the DGSP commanded an anti-attacks brigade that was made up of snipers and experts in all types of explosives, in addition to the counterintelligence service, which in coordination with other State agencies controlled all the information of that brotherhood, the family circle and friends. Vice Minister of the Interior under Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, the military man was also in charge of an international relations department that coordinated with other secret services visits to Cuba by persons of interest and personalities.

General Francis was awarded the Order “June 6” of the First Degree in recognition of 55 years of accumulated service in the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior. His “consecration, skill and reliability performance, fundamentally in the organization and direction of protection activities for the main leaders,” of the Cuban regime was highlighted.

All the official reactions after the death of Francis Pardo were published long after 14ymedio reported the death of the soldier. The first communiqué was released by the Interior Ministry, which specified that Francis Pardo had “a brilliant record of service in protecting the physical integrity” of the main Cuban leaders and “in defense of the Revolution.”

It also noted that “his remains were on view” at the Calzada and K funeral home, “for a subsequent ceremony with the corresponding military honors.”

For his part, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on his Twitter account described Francis Pardo as “a brave combatant of Personal Security,” who was “head of that troop of loyalists during 30 of his 56 years of service in the Ministry of Interior, under the orders of Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl.

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Cuba Acknowledges High Transmission of Omicron Variant and Decrees New Restrictions for Travelers

The Ministry of Public Health recognizes that “the trend is an increase in infections,” specifically a 34.8% increase in Cuba in the last week. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2021 — The Cuban health authorities have decided to establish new restrictions due to the increase in infections in recent days. Some 241 new cases of covid-19 were reported yesterday, almost 100 more than the previous day, and this Thursday the trend continues, with the record 328 cases.

In addition, after several days without deaths related to the coronavirus, there is a reported victim, although he had testicular cancer with brain metastasis, a serious comorbidity.

The Ministry of Public Health recognizes in a statement published this Thursday that “the trend is an increase in infections,” specifically a 34.8% increase in Cuba in the last week, and notes “the high power of dissemination” of the omicron variant , “which has the capacity to double the number of cases in just two or three days,” and which has expanded to 110 countries.

On the island, 72 people who are reported to be infected with this strain have been identified, spread over 12 provinces. “Most are imported cases, although patients who have had contact with these people have already been diagnosed,” says the Health Ministry’s text. continue reading

For this reason, from January 5 there will be new regulations, which mainly affect international travelers.

Now, they will have to present a complete vaccination scheme upon entry to Cuba, in addition to a negative PCR within a maximum of 72 hours.

For travelers “from high-risk countries,” the statement said, “random” surveillance will be increased.

The most restrictive measures, despite the fact that in the United States and Europe the infections are growing exponentially, will affect those who come from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi and Eswatini, who will be subjected to a PCR upon arrival to the Island and will have to do a mandatory eight-day quarantine in a hotel “destined for that purpose.” Travelers will have to pay for it out of pocket along with transportation. On the seventh day, a new test will be performed, which, if negative, will allow them to be discharged from quarantine.

The same is established for Cubans residing on the island who do not have a vaccination scheme, the regulations specify.

If a traveler who arrives on the island tests positive for covid-19, he will be admitted to a health center, and all his direct contacts, isolated in special centers or “at home, as long as the necessary conditions exist and compliance is guaranteed.”

As for the rest of the population, “mass activities that generate crowds of people” will be prohibited, without specifying whether this includes the daily and very long lines to buy food.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.