14ymedio

Five Cuban Political Prisoners from July 11th are on a Hunger Strike

A protester on July 11, 2021, is beaten by agents of the police in Havana. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, January 21, 2022–Five political prisoners, of those detained for the popular protests on July 11th (11J), are on a hunger strike. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, William Manuel Leyva Pupo, Yosnavy Rosell García, Cruz García Domínguez, and Chadrían Vila Sequin are refusing to ingest food, demanding their immediate release, reported Justicia 11J on Friday.

On its Facebook page, Justicia 11J provided updated details about the upcoming trials of 39 J11 protesters, which will take place between January 24th and the 28th. Among the crimes for which they are accused are “sedition, sabotage, public disorder, contempt, assault, and sexual insult,” it states.

The platform [Justicia 11J] denounces that in the trials to date, “we have identified the same patterns: police operations at the tribunals where the trials are held behind closed doors.” A cordon [blocking access to the court], which “constitutes a violation of the right to due process, and an assault on transparency of the judicial proceedings.”

“The authorities only allow one family member per defendant to be present at the trial,” explains Justicia 11J. Activists call upon the prosecutors and judges to guarantee, “justice for the more than one thousand people who ended up arbitrarily detained and who are being subjected to torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment for exercising their right to protest.” continue reading

In order to restore the rights of those arrested that day, Justicia 11J proposes dropping “the charges for which there is no evidence,” dismissing “the cases against protesters which have yet to be charged,” and acquitting those who have been tried, “but who have not yet been sentenced.”

“In the cases of those who have been convicted, but not yet sentenced, promote ex oficio appeals and declare the protesters absolved,” adds the document. “Promote ex officio revision of the proceedings,” and “initiate an investigation against agents of the Ministry of the Interior and the Revolutionary Armed Forces who used excessive force,” were the other recommendations.

The platform [Justicia 11J] reiterates its demand that the Island permit entry to “international organizations such as Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, so they may inspect the state of detention centers across the country.” They also joined the #UEenCubaMiraLasPrisiones [European Union in Cuba Look at the Prisons] campaign, targeting European diplomats in Cuba.

With a demand that foreign press credentialed in Cuba be present at the trials, Justicia 11J completed its report on Friday. The document is accompanied by a list, by province, of the trial dates and the names of protesters who will be tried, their age, and the sentences sought by the prosecutor’s office:

January 24th and 25th, prosecutor Idania Miranda Ferrer, People’s Municipal Tribunal of Jovellanos, Matanzas:

1. Félix Navarro Rodríguez (68), 15 years

2. Saily Navarro Álvarez (35), 11 years

3. Daymelin Abreu Rodríguez (20), 7 years

4. Odrey Rodríguez Lanz (30), 11 years

5. Adrián Echegoyen Espiñeira (25), 7 years

6. Cristian Carlos Contreras Matos (24), 16 years

7. Yoandy Ripoll Smith (32), 16 years

8. Yanelys Rosabal Milanés (36), 9 years

9. Mildrey Mederos Soca (44), 9 years

January 24th, 25th and 26th, prosecutor José Mayo González, Municipal Tribunal of Diez de Octubre, Havana (sedition):

10. Carlos Alberto Hernández Pérez (23), 26 years

11. Elian Seguí Cruz (21), 21 years

12. Mackyanis Román Rodríguez (23), 25 years

13. Juan Piloto Ferro (58), 21 years

14. Alejaime Lambert Reyes (22), 26 years

15. Lázaro Daniel Cremé Bueno (21), 21 years

16. Arielvis Rill Baró (30), 25 years

17. Amaury Fernández Martínez (33), 21 years

18. Rolier Salazar González (36), 21 years

19. Luis Miguel Oña Jiménez (23), 21 years

20. Yaquelin Castillo García (49), 20 years

21. José Luis Castillo De La Torre (56), 25 years

22. Andrius López Fragosa (29), 25 years

23. Liliana Oropesa Ferrer (20), 19 years

24. Dayan Jesús Ramírez Rondón (23), 25 years

25. Osvaldo Lugo Pita (34), 21 years

26. Wilfredo Limonta Mesa (20), 21 years

27. Yurema Ramos Abad (25), 25 years

28. Eris Diógenes Mejías Vinent (21), 25 years

29. Juan Walberto Verdecia Rodríguez (48), 25 years

30. Germán Barrenechea Echevarría (24), 25 years January 25th and 26th, prosecutor Yerandy Calzadilla Dávalos, Municipal Tribunal of Quivicán, Mayabeque:

31. Jorge Martín Perdomo (38), 10 years

32. Nadir Martín Perdomo (37), 8 years

January 26th, prosecutor Daylet Fuentes Morales, Municipal Tribunal of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque:

33. Angel Miguel Martín Caro (50), 12 years

34. Jorge Luis Reynoso Barrios (21), 6 years

35. Omar Valenciano Donatien (25), 6 years

36. Raul Xavier Díaz Pérez (17), 5 years

37. Alain Yamil Sánchez Baluja (21), 7 years

38. Livan Viel de la Peña (19), 7 years

39. Abel González Lescay (23), 7 years

Justicia 11J also explained that of “the 1,379 people arrested in connection with the protests on July 11th, at least 727 remain in detention centers, 71 of them are women and 15 are minors younger than 18 years of age.

Of the 613 people who have been released, many are awaiting trial and were either released on bail as a precautionary measure or are under house arrest.

“A total of 158 people are being tried or have been tried for sedition and 40, for sabotage. Of the 93 people arrested in connection with the Civic Day for Change, on November 15th, nine remain in detention.

Unedited images of the protests on July 11, 2021, in Havana.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Dollar Store Imports Hurt Cuban Soft Drink Factory

The factory, located in Guane, Pinar del Río, has seen how the crisis has reduced the production of its beverages to below 100 million units. (Granma)

14ymedio, Madrid, 21 January 2022 — As Cuba’s domestic soft drink manufacturing declined, the shelves of stores that only take payment in freely convertible currency (MLC) were stocked with similar but imported beverages. The complaint comes from the director of the mixed-ownership company — with a foreign partner — located in Pinar del Río Los Portales, Mario Venero Bencomo, who explains to the official press why the national product is scarce while she strives to convince of the importance of betting on the native industry.

The director reviews the decline in the production of cans and bottles, key in the shortage of Ciego Montero beverages (Tukola, Diet Tukola, Naranja, Soda, Pineapple, Mate) and the Cimex corporation (TropiCola, Cachito, Najita, Ironbeer ), which are produced exclusively at their plant. Los Portales is responsible for the manufacture of containers for 90% of national beverages, but the total number of units has suffered a resounding collapse.

In 2018, with renewed machinery, they achieved a record of 278 million units, a figure that they thought they would exceed each year. But in 2019, with the fuel crisis, which Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel called “temporary,” production fell to 247.9 million. In 2020 covid-19 arrived and with it, everything got worse. That year barely 112 million units were manufactured, not even half of the previous year. And this last one, 2021, a tiny 86 million. continue reading

The project to double the line of plastic bottles, in the making in 2018, foundered sine die.

More figures for the disaster: of canned soft drinks, only 23.5 million units were produced in 2021, which under normal conditions would hardly take a month and a half of work.

Los Portales is the result of an association with the Swiss brand Nestlé, arranged at at the end of the last century. In 1999, its first year of work, it managed to produce 12 million units, and by 2009 it was already making 48 million soda bottles and 153 million cans.

The factory, predictably due to its mixed-ownership category, can boast of having been well equipped technologically. So much so, that Venero Bencomo assures that there is not a single team left from the first factory, reopened from a pre-existing industry. Few Cuban companies renew their technology in an integral way and so that they no longer depend on obsolete machinery from the Soviet era.

However, the director resorts to the embargo to explain some problems encountered over time, a situation that she describes as “harassment” by the United States. As she explains, some companies have canceled contracts or refused to supply spare parts which forced them to abandon the use of necessary machines.

At this very moment, she maintains, there are no parts for the can capper because the supplier company has sold shares to a US firm, now preventing the sale.

Venero Bencomo attributes the drop in production to the shortage of raw materials, most of which are imported. The purchase of aluminum cans and lids, which is “where the most is spent in this factory, from the point of view of annual consumption,” has been weighed down by the serious economic crisis that afflicts Cuba.

Los Portales has solved part of the problem by boosting the line of plastic bottles, which reached 62.6 million units in 2021, not far from the 68 million that is the norm in the industry, he says.

On the other hand, the production of cans was disastrous, with barely 10.6% of the 220 million able to be made.

Venero Bencomo defends her company and assures that it is exemplary, since it has not increased its prices with the Ordering Task* nor has it fired its workers – whose salary exceeds the country’s average several times, in her words – despite the collapse of the industry. “It is better to produce in Cuba. Employment and development are generated, and dependency on foreign suppliers is avoided,” she argues.

To understand how Los Portales holds up in this context, you have to read to the end of the text. The company has chosen to sell to stores that only take payment in hard currency (MLC), tourism and online in order to capture foreign currency and be able to pay its commitments.

By 2022, the production of some 50 million canned soft drinks is expected, more than double what was achieved in 2021. Although it remains to be seen if it is possible to achieve the goal.

Despite the high production, before the 2018 record, the shortage of these products was noted. Already by 2017 the factory explained that it could not cope because consumption was very high. And all this despite the health problems associated with the sugariness of these drinks.

*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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Cuba: Police in Camaguey Arrest Motorcycle Thieves

At least nine motorcycles were recovered by the Ministry of the Interior’s Camaguey office. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, January 14, 2022 — Just two weeks ago the Ministry of the Interior described social media accounts of stolen electric motorcycles as “fake news,” but actions by authorities in Camagüey now contradict this claim.

On Thursday state television reported the arrest of several individuals for theft of motorcycles using violent means. Though it did not provide exact figures on how many cases of theft were recorded in the city, how many people were arrested or when the assaults took place, the news report confirms that there has been a breakdown in “law and order,” something the Government tried to deny on January 2 when it claimed the high level of public safety the country allegedly enjoys is “one of the triumphs of the Cuban Revolution.”

According an agent with the Provincial Criminal Investigative Unit, the perpetrators’ method involves first choosing their victims, then following them at night and, “using violence and intimidation,” robbing them at knifepoint.

Faced with a growing number of victims filing complaints, the police set up a response team to investigate what the television news broadcast described as nine incidents of stolen motorcycles. It is very common in crimes like these for thieves to dismantle the vehicles and sell their parts.

The New Year’s celebrations saw a rise in the number of reported cases of assault, which has alarmed many citizens. Armed robberies, stolen gold chains and cell phones, and the theft of electric motorcycles are some of the increasingly common crimes taking place on Cuban streets.

Some social media posts, especially those by motorcycle clubs, report armed robbery of electric motorcycles. “It’s best to avoid intersections with traffic lights,” they warn. One of the videos circulating online shows a man driving one of these vehicles being assaulted when he stops for a red light. He is thrown to the ground as the thieves ride off with his motorcycle. continue reading

Alvaro Alvarez, member of a Facebook group called All about Electric Motorcycles in Havana, posted an account of how he was assaulted at the stop light at 51st and 76th streets in the Marianao district. According to Alvarez, the assailant, who was brandishing a knife, stole his motorcycle. The victim had been using the motorcycle to support his family by working as a courier.

Alvarez proposed motorcycle owners form a caravan to protest in front of the Attorney General’s office or another public place to draw attention to the crime problem and the growing wave of assaults.

According to the latest official statistics, the Interior Ministry received 468 criminal complaints of armed robbery of electric motorcycles between between January and November of 2021. Only 60% of those, or 281 cases, were resolved and only 186 motorcycles were recovered.

As of January 1, almost 200,000 electric motorcycles were in circulation throughout the country.

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Don’t Fall Into the Trap Again, President Diaz-Canel

Russian President, Vladímir Putin, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. (Estudios Revolución)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 22 January 2022 — A few days ago, Mr. Díaz-Canel, Dimitri Peskov, the Russian spokesman, said candidly, “We think about how to guarantee our own security.” He was referring to statements by Sergei Riabkov, Russian deputy foreign minister, in which he, mumbling, threatened the US with deploying troops and missiles in Cuba and Venezuela if NATO continued to besiege Russia or to supply Ukraine with weapons.

Your job, Mr. President (and that of Mr. Maduro in Venezuela) is not to guarantee Russian security, but rather the well-being of Cubans (and Venezuelans). Something that is far beyond your possibilities, as long as there are no changes in the productive system that this poor country suffers from, but, at least, you can save our compatriots the bitterness of another defeat and the anxiety of losing their lives uselessly.

For that same reason, in October 1962 the “Missile Crisis” broke out in Cuba. You were very young, and you don’t know how the events occurred. The USSR wanted to target the heart of the United States, but John F. Kennedy put his country on a war footing and prepared to fight if there was no other choice.

On that occasion, Fidel Castro sent an encrypted telegram asking the Russian Premier to preventively bombard the United States with nuclear weapons. Nikita Khrushchev replied that he was a fool and dismissed his crazy initiative. Cuba would have remained a smoking, radioactive hole for half a century. It was an operatic ending for a raving madman. continue reading

I was living in Miami then, I was 19 years old, and I took several dozen young Cubans to the US Army with the promise that we would land in Cuba. “Tony” Varona, returning from Washington where he met with JFK advisors, assured me of this and I repeated his words to the boys. Varona was one of the leaders of the resistance, former Prime Minister of democratic Cuba, and a fundamentally honest person. He had a son imprisoned in Cuba after the landing at the Bay of Pigs

Fortunately, that did not happen. We all would have died. The Soviet colonels – there were 40,000 Russian soldiers in Cuba – had tactical nuclear weapons that they could use at will. That was found out many years later. They would have launched them against us, which would have generated an atomic war between the USSR and the United States in a short time.

There was even an episode in which the direct confrontation between a landing of the United States army and the Soviet troops stationed in Cuba was not necessary to ignite the spark. Many years after the incident, it was learned that a Soviet submarine broke through the US Navy’s blockade during the “October Crisis.” It was equipped with a nuclear charge that would have shattered an aircraft carrier and its attack flotilla, a fact unknown to the Americans.

The Americans launched depth charges to bring it to the surface. The submarine had lost contact with its base and its crew didn’t know if the war had already begun. According to the rules for launching an attack, all three commanding officers had to agree: the captain, the first mate, and the second mate. The captain and the first officer thought that the fighting had already begun, but the second mate, named Vasili Arkhipov, didn’t believe in that possibility and persuaded his two companions not to fight back. He was a hero of whom nothing was known until many years later.

In 1962 Marxism-Leninism was actually a vaguely credible option. Nikita claimed that in 10, 20 or 30 years the USSR would be on a par with the US. The Soviets had inaugurated the space age with the Sputnik and “the power of the Soviets plus electricity,” as Lenin wanted, was paying off, especially after the devastation of World War II. There were urban areas that grew at 10% per year.

But it was a matter of ignorance. One had only to read the book entitled Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, written by Ludwig von Mises in 1922 (probably written for Lenin, then in his heyday), about the failure of the price system under socialism, and how it would end up producing a monstrous distortion that would make economic calculation totally impossible. However, in 1962 it was not necessary to resort to reading or theoretical analysis. It was enough to compare the results of the two Germanys to know what would happen in one and the other system after a few years.

In short, Mr. Díaz-Canel, Putin is playing with fire and he’s going to burn himself. The British have sold the Ukrainians hundreds and hundreds of state-of-the-art weapons that are fired from the shoulder at tanks and artillery pieces. Estonia is used to deliver Israel’s Spikes missiles against aviation to Kiev. To direct the presumed war, the US has installed its headquarters in Albania, the most anti-Soviet of the former satellites of the USSR. France, England and the US guarantee that Russia will not use nuclear warheads. NATO under Biden is working reasonably well. What are you going to get into that war for, President? It is a grave for Russia. Do you them to bury you in it?

The size of the Russian economy is roughly that of Italy, but Italians are less than half the population of Russia. Putin is making the same mistake as his predecessors. They see that they have the largest nation on earth (approximately twice the size of the US or China) and from this they deduce that they can develop an empire. In 1991 it was seen to be “Bangladesh with missiles,” as US diplomat Jeanne Kirkpatrick used to say. Only 32% of Russians want to revitalize the empire; 68% presumably want to live better. Like the Cubans, señor Díaz-Canel. Cubans want to pursue their own dreams and not those of the leaders. When will you learn your lesson, president?

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Cuba Receives 84 Buses Donated by Japan and Assembled in Colombia

In this case, the buses belong to the economic and social development program in its Transportation section. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2022 — The poor fleet of Havana buses will have a face lift thanks to the donation of 84 Japanese buses scheduled to arrive on the Island on Thursday.

The Cuban ambassador in Tokyo, Miguel A. Martínez, announced on social networks that the vehicles left Colombia on January 9, where they were assembled by the Busscar company thanks to an agreement with Itochu Corporation and Isuzu Motors. According to official documents, the donation has a value of about 9 million dollars.

The shipment is part of the non-reimbursable financial aid, one of the sections of the agreements that Japan has had with Cuba since 1961. In this case, the buses belong to the economic and social development program in its Transportation section, which plans to take advantage of the “technological superiority of Japan” to help improve and maintain such infrastructure.

The imports, however, will not be enough to cover the shortcomings of the State’s fleet. At the end of last year the bus deficit reached 49% of the total fleet in the capital.

Of 878 buses, only 435 travel the streets of Havana, and many of them do so with serious mechanical and structural damage, as this newspaper has documented in recent weeks. Henry Aldama, head of the Provincial Directorate of Transportation, acknowledged last December to the official press that of the 435 urban buses that left in the morning, fewer than 400 remained on the road by noon. continue reading

In a meeting of the authorities of the capital in which the arrival of the buses was announced, Governor Reinaldo García Zapata demanded better maintenance on the roads along which the routes circulate and promised that the care of the brand new Japanese vehicles will be ensured. The buses are the first to arrive in the country in four years. The official said that the new buses “will make it possible to improve the public service, which has deteriorated greatly in the last stage due to breakages, lack of parts, tires and batteries,” according to the official newspaper Tribuna de La Habana.

The general director of Provincial Transport, Leandro Méndez Peña, explained that the causes of the deterioration in the public transport system were due to “a serious problem with financing and foreign suppliers” that made it difficult to make new purchases and acquire the parts and pieces necessary for the maintenance or repair of damaged buses.

Overuse, improper handling, the quality of the roads and the precariousness of vehicle maintenance have resulted in 443 vehicles out of service, and around 60 paralyzed due to “total breakdowns in the engines,” added Méndez Peña. The rest of the vehicles are not working due to the “lack of tires, batteries, oil filters and even material to cover the punctures.”

Faced with the constant complaints from riders, who accuse the Government of not guaranteeing the necessary fuel for transportation in the capital, the official pointed out that “there is availability to cover the buses that are in operation.”

The new Japanese vehicles will be destined for the Guanabo (59) and Bahía (25) terminals, both located in the peripheral municipality of La Habana del Este. The old buses that currently operate from these bases will be redistributed to the terminals of Diezmero in Cotorro and Fortuna in La Lisa. The remaining municipalities will have to wait for a future donation to meet their transportation needs.

Japan’s cooperation with Cuba, in force for 60 years, intensified from the 1990s with coverage also for community projects for human security and cultural assistance.

The Large-Scale Non-Reimbursable Financial Assistance agreement was negotiated in 2015 and its first project was signed during the visit to Cuba of Japanese Prime Minister Abe in 2016. In April 2019, the first installment of a donation of 100 trucks for the garbage collection .

In February, 13 units of X-ray equipment and 500 units of suction equipment will arrive as part of these agreements. In addition, last October, Tokyo sent 44 ultrasound stations manufactured by Fujifilm to the island for the diagnosis of various pathologies.

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Cuban Family Submits a Complaint to the Governor of Villa Clara for ‘Systematic Harassment’

Roxana García Lorenzo, Andy’s sister, and her partner, Jonatán López, with the letter delivered to the governor of Villa Clara this Wednesday. (Facebook/Roxana Garcia Lorenzo)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2022 — The family of Andy García Lorenzo, one of the prisoners for the July 11 (11J) demonstrations in Santa Clara, delivered this Wednesday a letter addressed to the governor of Villa Clara, Alberto López Díaz, to denounce the “damages” that he is causing them. the “systematic harassment” to which he is being subjected.

Signed by Roxana García Lorenzo, Andy’s sister, her partner, Jonatán López Alonso, and her parents, Pedro Osvaldo López Mesa and Yenia Alonso Melgarejo, the letter, to which 14ymedio had access, says it is based on the “right to complain ” enshrined in Article 61 of the Constitution “and as a preliminary step in the face of a possible lawsuit and subsequent access to competent human rights organizations.”

The family members insisted that Andy García is “a peaceful protester” of the 11J protests and that he is deprived of liberty due to the “combat order” issued by Miguel Díaz-Canel. “It is in our ethical principles as well as in the exercise of freedom of expression, a human, universal and inalienable right, to defend it and denounce violations against it,” they say in the text.

In their letter, they complain to Governor López Díaz that they are being victims of “harassment by the operational officers of Section 21 of the General Directorate of Counter-Intelligence.” As an example, they cite the most recent altercation: being arrested on January 14 by an agent when they were going “peacefully” to the headquarters of the People’s Provincial Court of Villa Clara, where Andy García and other defendants were being tried. continue reading

“It happens that we were intercepted on public roads by an operational officer, dressed in civilian clothes and without identifying himself, on his motorcycle license plate B58394,” they detail, “who without an arrest warrant and without informing the reasons for the arrest made us get off the means of transport and led us to a patrol car of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), which took us to the Provincial Criminal Processing Unit.”

There, they continue, they were held for about ten hours and were “interrogated in a coercive manner, without recording equipment and without legal representation.” Roxana García, Jonatán López and Pedro López were fined 3,000 pesos under Decree Law 370 of 2018, known as the “scourge law.” The first two, in addition, and by the same rule, had their mobile phones confiscated.

With regards to this they will present “the claims before the competent authority,” says the family of Andy García, who asserts that the harassment by the State Security “is causing us serious damage, harm and affecting our mental health.”

As reported by Roxana García on her Facebook wall , the authorities received the letter assuring that they would give a response.

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Cuba: The Mother of a Young Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison Denies it Was for Throwing a Rock at a Store

14ymedio, Havana, January 20th, 2022 — The five-year prison sentence, which the Provincial Tribunal of Sancti Spíritus announced against Leodán Pérez Colón was for “associating to commit a crime” and two counts of “contempt”; none of the charges were for throwing a rock at a store, explained his mother, Elizabeth Colón Peña, who attended the trial at the end of December, speaking to 14ymedio.

“He did not go out on July 11th, but he live-streamed from the house, which they considered contempt because he addressed the president in a very bad way while he spoke on television,” explained the woman. The video, or a segment of it, was used by state-run television to discredit those arrested for the protests.

Another contempt charge and the charge of associating to commit a crime were also imposed upon the young man around July 16th, when they arrested him, says Colón Peña, who has not received a copy of the sentence.

Néstor Estévez, an activist from Sancti Spíritus, who currently lives in the United States, insisted on Wednesday during a live-stream on social media that “throwing the rock through the window” never happened, and he took responsibility for sharing it, “when it all started, everything was based on testimonials and talk.”

During the live-stream he also emphasized that Leodán Pérez is not “a person we can point to as someone who threw a rock through the window of an MLC [hard currency] store.” continue reading

“The official record of what occurred in Sancti Spíritus says that some young men were arrested for throwing rocks at a store and we later learned that they were other people,” he declared.

Wednesday this newspaper reported on the Provincial Tribunal’s decision, which sentenced Leodán Pérez Colón to five years deprivation of liberty, Yoanderley Quesada to two years, and Yoel Castillo to 1 year and 8 months.

The note mentioned that the three young men were tried on December 27th and their sentences were expected on January 13th, but it was postponed by a week, denounced Colón Peña. Furthermore, Leodán Pérez’s mother believes the delay is punishment and torture for the family members. Her son was the only one who was in pre-trial detention, whereas the other two defendants, now convicted, had been out while they awaited trial.

Pérez Colón was arrested on July 16th at his home on Independance Street, between Tirso Marín and Frank País. The young man was with several companions, who were also arrested, and who according to Néstor Estévez, behaved improperly during the trial “trying to implicate their friends to save themselves.”

According to his family members, Pérez Colón was accused because of those two Facebook live-streams asking Miguel Díaz-Canel to resign so his country could “prosper,” although the authorities considered it contempt, associating to commit a crime and acts against State Security.

Yoanderly Quesada, who considers himself a brother to Pérez Colón, was accused, in turn, of “conspiring to reactivate the protests,” while Yoel Castro is the only case not registered on the lists of those arrested for J11.

According to Estévez, of the 42 arrested in the province, only one went out to protest, Luis Mario Niedas Hernández, who was convicted in October and sentenced to three years in prison, half of what the prosecutor was seeking for “contempt, propagating the epidemic and instigating a crime.”

Alexander Fábregas, the fifth one sentenced in Sancti Spíritus since the summertime protests, was taken out of his home and tried nine days later; he was sentenced to 9 months deprivation of liberty.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Police in Cuba find Child’s Body, Yosvany Villar Who Disappeared a Year Ago

Yosvany Villar Ávila was 14 years old the day his family saw him for the last time on the corner of his house. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 January 2021 — Yosvany Villar Ávila, the 14-year-old boy who disappeared in Havana in December 2020, was found dead on Friday in La Loma de Chaple after the alleged murderer confessed, according to this newspaper’s sources. His mother, Airovis Ávila Pérez, confirmed the news to 14ymedio and added that this Monday she will go to legal medicine and will be able to take the body. There will be a wake for the boy and he will be cremated that same day in the Cuban capital.

A week after this newspaper reported the minor’s case, the authorities reactivated the case. On Thursday, Ávila explained, “Ariel’s family,” the neighbor she had named as a suspect in her son’s disappearance, was summoned to testify, after the discovery of the body. The 29-year-old man has been in 100 and Aldabó prison for several months awaiting trial for a similar matter.

“Yes, it was Ariel, we mothers made little mistakes,” the mother told 14ymedio . She insisted to officers from the beginning of the investigation that her son had been seen talking to that neighbor the day he was lost. Months later, when she learned that the man was in prison for allegedly attempting to rape a minor, her suspicions grew stronger. “I told the head of Attention to Minors from the first moment, but he told me that he could not suspect that man if there was no evidence,” she declared disappointed. continue reading

Ávila Pérez denounced in an interview with 14ymedio that her son had disappeared more than a year ago without the authorities having done, in her opinion, everything possible to find him. The delays and the lack of information on the development of the investigation were also among her complaints.

“Work is being done, but we have to wait,” the policemen repeated to the woman, without giving her any new information. Annoyed with the delays, she filed a complaint with the Office of Attention to Citizenship in the Plaza de la Revolución. But the answer she expected never came.

The first phase of the investigation barely lasted a week and, according to Ávila Pérez, when she asked Aguilera’s unit for an explanation and demanded that they continue the search, they told her that it had not been possible “because there was no fuel” for their vehicles. The minor’s mother returned home with the promise of the uniformed officers that they would call her when they resumed the investigations, but they never did. Now, her worst suspicions have been confirmed.

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Prosecutor’s Office Asks for 15 Years in Prison for a Cuban Writer for July 11th Protest

The writer and activist María Cristina Garrido faces 15 years in prison in the trial in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.[Hand: No More Violence Against Women] (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 January 2022 — In San José de las Lajas (Mayabeque) a trial began this Thursday against seven July 11th (11J) protesters, including the writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez and her sister Angélica, for whom various activists have mobilized in recent hours.

Those responsible for Ilíada Ediciones informed through their networks that the income from the sales of Garrido Rodríguez’s book Examination of Time will go entirely to the author, “who, a long time ago, became an activist in Cuba for the defense of human rights and the human rights of women,” detail the editors.

For her, the Prosecutor’s Office asks for 15 years, for the crimes of “attack,” “disrespect,” “resistance,” “public disorder” and “organization to commit a crime.” In statements to 14ymedio, Garrido’s husband, Michel Valladares Cala, described the trial as a “circus,” in which he even insists that the prosecutors exposed the contradictions that the police officers incurred in offering their testimonies. “They haven’t told a single truth, a pure lie, a pure contradiction between them,” says Valladares, who says, however, that the lawyers “are working well.”

For the writer’s sister, Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, prosecutor Ruth Rodríguez Reina asks for a 10-year sentence. The rest of the defendants are: continue reading

– Giorbis Pardo del Toro (37), 18 years
– Alexis Pedro Acosta Hernández (45), 13 years
– Yanet Sánchez Cocho (39), 10 years
– Patricia Lázara Acosta Sánchez (20), 7 years
– Osmany Hernández Rodríguez (34) , 6 years

In that same court in San José de Las Lajas, the process against the 11J demonstrators in Batabanó was carried out, ending on Tuesday, although initially it was expected to end on Wednesday.

In it, there was no change between the requests of prosecutor Ariagne Pérez Pérez, recently included in the list of repressors of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC):

– Vladimir Castillo Llanes (26), 14 years
– Jorge Yenier Ortiz Aguilera (31), 10 years
– Rogelio Lázaro Domínguez Pérez (26), 8 years
– Manuel Velázquez Licea (39), 8 years
– Alien Molina Castell (38), 7 years
– Mailene Noguera Santiesteban (34), 6 years and 6 months
– Humberto Monrabals Camps (65), 6 years
– Arturo Valentín Riverón (48), 6 years
– Enmanuel Robles Pérez (32), 6 years
– Jesús Pérez Quintero ( 27), 5 years of correctional work with internment
– Emelina Pendás Rodríguez (46), 5 years of correctional work with internment
– Yusmely Moreno González (42), 3 years
– Danger Acosta Justi (43), 3 years
– Sergio Enseñat Valladares (29), 1 year of correctional work with internment
– Yaroski Amat Salabarria (38), 1 year and 6 months of correctional work with internment

On the other hand, three young people arrested for demonstrating on July 11 and tried in Havana this week have seen their sentences reduced by the Prosecutor’s Office. Nelson Néstor Rivero Garzón and Emiyoslán Román Rodríguez are 17 years old and the other, Yensy Jorge Machado González, 18.

From 15 years in prison requested by the prosecutor of the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, Mabel Palacios Aties — also included in the list of repressors of the FDHC — the judges reduced the possible sentence to 7 years, reports Radio Television Martí with the source being the father of one of the defendants.

The high prison sentences for the rest of those prosecuted in that court are ratified:

– Elieser Gordín Rojas (42), 27 years in prison
– Roberto Ferrer Gener (48 years), 20 years
– Santiago Vázquez León (21), 20 years
– Yosney Emilio Román Rodríguez (25), 20 years
– Carlos Luis Águila Socarrás ( 34), 20 years
– Frandy González León (27), 20 years
– Adonay López López (34), 20 years
– Harold Michel Mena Nuviola (28), 20 years
– Jaime Alcide Firdó Rodríguez (21), 20 years
– Alejandro Bécquer Arias (23), 20 years
– Amaury Leyva Prieto (29), 20 years
– Julián Yasmany Díaz Mena (34), 20 years
– Raudel Saborín González (24), 20 years
– Juan Carlos Morales Herrera (49), 20 years
– Eduardo Alvarez Rigal (31), 20 years
– Yasiel Arnaldo Córdova Rodríguez (25), 20 years
– Yeiner Ibáñez Boude (19), 18 years
– Frank Daniel Roig Sotolongo (19), 15 years
– Yasell Guerra Campos (19), 15 years
– Marcos Antonio Alfonso Breto (19) , 15 years

The trial held in Havana was scheduled to last until Friday, but it ended on Tuesday, explains Cubalex, because “they had no evidence and they finished it earlier, just like the one in Batabanó.”

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International Jazz Plaza Festival Kicks Off in Cuba with Nachito Herrera and Bobby Carcasses

The Cuban musician Nachito Herrera, who lives in the US , in an image released by the Foreign Ministry. (Twitter/@CubaMINREX)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2022 — OnTuesday, the Cuban pianist and composer Nachito Herrera and Jamaican saxophonist Bobby Carcassés inaugurated the 37th edition of the International Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana.

As reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its social networks , thanks to the efforts of Herrera, who lives in the United States, a donation of hospital supplies and musical instruments arrived in Cuba.

The inaugural gala, held in the Avellaneda hall of the National Theater, began with a performance by Herrera, who performed songs such as Stella By Startlight, Poturrí de cha cha cha, Guaguancó para Chano and West Side Latin Jazz together with the Habana Jazz orchestra.

Next it was the turn of Carcassés and the Big Band Afrojazz, who exhibited From blues to timba-from timba to jazz, with a review of their classics.

The event, held following health measures due to the covid-19 pandemic, was attended by other jazz names on the island, such as César Pupy Pedroso, Dagoberto González, Frank Fernández, Tomás Ramos, Juan Carlos Villega, Zule Guerra, César López and Orlando Valley. continue reading

Concerts by musicians such as Ray Lema, Laurent De Wilde, Carlos Sarduy, Alain Pérez, Oliver Valdés, Dayramir, Dean Torrey, Juan Chiavassa, La Valdés, Alejandro Meroño and Júpiter Project are expected on half a dozen Havana stages until this Sunday.

Performances by Dominic Miller, Sebastián Carmelo Armas, Julián Carrea, Virginia Guantanamera, Roberto Fonseca, Ernán López-Nussa, Kono and the boys from Cuba, José Portillo and Rodrigo Sosa, are also scheduled.

In the international arena, the names of the Dutchman Mike del Ferro, the Finnish Pekka Pyikkanen, the Swedish Jacob Karl Anders, the Argentine Javier Malosetti, the Spanish Francisco Armas, the Belgian Mari Bel and the Slovakian Radovan Tariska stand out.

The closing gala, also in the Avellaneda room, will be led by Germán Velazco, who will include among his guests José Luis Cortés, César López, Javier Zalba, Jorge Reyes, Héctor Quintana and Adel González.

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Control of the Internet and the Rounding Up of Indigents Mark Cuban President Diaz-Canel’s Visit to Sancti Spiritus

A police operation in Sancti Spíritus. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 20 January 2022 — The city of Sancti Spíritus woke up under a disproportionate police operation this Thursday due to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s visit to the province.

According to several locals, the 3G internet service began to fail the day before and hardly anyone could communicate that night. In addition, some residents confirmed to 14ymedio that on Wednesday morning they picked up the mentally ill and homeless from the El Hueco neighborhood in the Kilo 12 neighborhood in a bus and took them to an unknown destination.

Since the early hours of this Thursday, there was police surveillance every 50 meters on the Central Highway. The presidential entourage later passed by. As he passed, small scattered groups shouted revolutionary slogans and applauded. “Who are those who applaud?” asked a neighbor and another replied: “I don’t know who they are, I’ve never seen them in my life. They’re not from around here.”

Telephone exchanges in the city were also under guard. As one of the workers for the State telecommunications company Etecsa explained to a resident: “In the event of any incident occurring due to the president’s visit, the uniformed officers should proceed to immediately disconnect communications.” continue reading

Agents from the police and State Security also arrived at the Cupet in the Chambelón neighborhood very early this Thursday morning. In this area there are always many black market street vendors, including those who sell cigarettes, but the officers stopped the sales and quickly emptied the place, including of passers-by.

“You have to clear the area, withdraw from the place,” the police said. The people had to walk about two kilometers from the Cupet and they were not allowed to use the Central Highway to get away, they had to walk through neighboring streets. In addition, they were not allowed to make calls and ordered to keep their phones down under the threat of being confiscated. According to several neighbors, Díaz-Canel was at that time in a visiting house a kilometer from the place.

At another time, at the Rancho Hatuey hotel, to the north of the city, local residents could see from the street many official vehicles and part of the entourage eating food. “For them there is food and drink,” said a man from Sancti Spiritus who was passing by ironically. “That table must be about 20 meters long,” he detailed.

The Twitter account of the Cuban Presidency announced that the president’s stay was part of a comprehensive visit by the Secretariat of the Central Committee to the province “to review how much has been done” since the eighth congress of the Communist Party. Meanwhile, the official press reported the tour between fanfares and poetic phrases such as: “To know first-hand the heartbeat of a community,” the president arrived in Sancti Spíritus, according to the local newspaper Escambray.

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Cuba’s ‘Ordering Task’ Triples the Price of Milk and Cheese in Sancti Spiritus

All dairy products, including cream cheese, natural yogurt and soy yogurt, have also increased in price in Sancti Spíritus. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2022 — The price of fresh cheese, or frescal, as they call it in Sancti Spíritus, has increased three or four times since November, and that of ice cream has doubled. People are very upset, according to an article in the Escambray newspaper on Tuesday, asking those responsible for the industry what has turned the product into a kind of white gold, as the report calls it.

However, the answers found do not seem very satisfactory, since Ariel Fernández Martín, director of the Business Group for Commerce and Gastronomy in Sancti Spíritus, because the repercussions of the increase in demand are relative, as Coppelia continues to sell ice cream scoops, even if they are at 7 pesos.

“We are sure that it is a preferred food for the preparation of dishes or snacks, but the rise in price also affects gastronomic services, since now a pizza can cost 40 pesos or more and the demand decreases,” says the official, speaking of both fresh and liquid. “However, in the case of ice cream, although the population complains, acceptance is maintained and everything offered for sale is bought.”

Fernández Martín admits that there are many reproaches regarding the quantity, which in the opinion of people from Sancti Spiritus has been significantly reduced despite the fact that the price is skyrocketing. But this is not related, he maintains, to prices or the scarcity of the product, but rather to the refrigeration capacity. continue reading

“Dairy has difficulties with the initial chilling that must be given to this product. When it arrives at Coppelia our refrigerators are being maintained, so we have had to sell it in containers, without table service, almost wholesale, so that it sells quickly. Only what they bring from the Trinidad factory is arriving with the required level of cold,” he says.

For the rest, dairy products are doing great, according to his testimony: cream cheese, natural yogurt and soy yogurt have also increased in price, up to double, and that has not stopped them from selling. “This is also affected by the fact that they are sold in small sizes and that the price increase was twice its initial value,” he says as an advantage, probably because the rest of the increases are much worse.

Fernández Martín explains that the current price of frescal is 187 pesos per pound in the Ideal markets, very high, he admits, because production is more expensive than usual.

In the informal market, a pound of fresh cheese, known as “queso de guajiros” (farmers’ cheese) is sold for over 300 pesos.

The demand for imported cheeses, such as gouda, has also made prices shoot up, for a product which, at the moment, is only sold in stores in foreign currency or through on-line sites used by people abroad to purchase products for their families and friends in Cuba. A block of a little more than three kilograms of German or Dutch gouda exceeds 3,000 pesos on the informal market.

Rolando Contreras Sosa, general director of the Río Zaza Dairy Products Company of Sancti Spíritus, justifies the price increase through the increases in the payments to the producers. In the month of December, and with the application of the measures of the Tarea Ordenamiento (Ordering Task)*, he explains, a liter of milk began to sell for 20 pesos, compared to the 7.50 it had sold for in 2021.

The increase responded to the complaints of the producers, who have seen how absolutely everything necessary for the manufacture of cheese rose. In addition, the industry suffers from the same ills, from water and diesel to workers’ wages or imported raw materials, which have become more expensive.

“We must bear in mind that to obtain a pound of cheese in the industry, six liters of milk are used, if collateral expenses are added to this, then the cost of a pound is around 134 pesos, to which we only add the 10% of the value,” he details. That 10% is the maximum allowed for profits. The rest, says the official, is for the State Empresa de Comercio (Trade Company), in taxes.

The argument is refuted by a reader who comments on Escambray’s article and says he has consulted with other producers from different countries in areas with similar temperatures. “Everyone without exception says they get a pound of cheese with less than 4 liters of cow’s milk. Either the factory you run is extremely inefficient, or you don’t adjust to reality,” he snaps.

The company insists that it contains the price as much as possible and that it will do so more when circumstances allow it, something that seems very far from being achieved with the 70% inflation that weighs on the country.

Contreras Sosa adds that the prices in the province are higher than those of others in its environment for reasons attributable to manufacturing, such as the use of diesel boilers instead of fuel oil ones — which are cheaper — or the long journeys that must be made . “[It depends] on the type of technology used and let’s remember that ours is very obsolete and consumes a lot of energy. Only in the La Sierpe industry is cheese made at a low cost, because it is practically made by hand,” he alleges.

Most of the comments that the note has garnered are critical of the explanations. Some ask that wages rise to the level of rich countries, since the price of cheese is comparable. Others demand the rapid intervention of politicians or demand that milk be used for children and the elderly instead of wasting it on a product that may not have outlets due to its high price. A self-employed worker alleges that six inspectors visited him to ask him to lower prices and ironically sneered: “Now it’s laughable, coming with this. Wages didn’t go up like that. Cheese from 17 pesos to 187 pesos… I’ll have to go up like this to to be able to give my girls bread for their snack in elementary school. This economy is a disaster.”

“A lack of respect for the working people, that we are already tired of the fact that our wages do not even give us enough to eat decently. The truth is, they have disgraced the country with all this rearrangement. No change they make has benefited the people,” says another reader indignant. Although Escambray ends the text with a nice poem, the population does not seem to be joking.

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78 Cuban Doctors Brought Home From Haiti After the Kidnapping of a Doctor

Daymara Pérez, originally from Las Tunas, lived in Haití for three years. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 January 2022 — One of the criminal groups that control Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, kidnapped Cuban doctor Daymara Helen Pérez Alabedra on January 13, according to a note published in Vant Bef Info this Tuesday. “The kidnappers are demanding $100,000 in exchange for her release,” said Fred Jasmin, director of the Notre Dame hospital in the southwestern city of Petit-Goave, where Pérez worked, while living in the neighboring city of Grand-Goave.

The healthcare worker, originally from Las Tunas, was intercepted by armed men in the commune of Martissant, south of the Haitian capital, a source confirmed to the Sputnik news agency.

In protest of the kidnapping of the doctor, businesses and schools in Petit-Goave were closed this Wednesday. The protesters demanded Pérez’s release; while another group of protesters formed barricades with tires that they set on fire and blocked National Route 2 with trucks, the only road that connects the town with the south of the country.

According to Le filet info, with sources close to the medical brigade, the Cuban government decided to reduce the delegation of doctors deployed in that country and repatriated 78 health workers. This information was replicated on social networks and by other media such as Free Haiti and TAK509, in addition to former first lady Michele B. Duvalier, who stressed that the Cuban government is not going to pay the ransom. continue reading

However, the general director of the Haitian Ministry of Health, Lauré Adrien, denied the information to the local press and maintained that a charter flight left Port-au-Prince with 28 people on board, of whom 18 were Cuban health workers who had completed their mission and another 10 were going on vacation.

Adrien added that there are about 300 members of the Cuban medical brigade currently working in Haiti. The Cuban embassy in Haiti indicated through its Twitter account that the health worker “traveled to Port-au-Prince for private matters,” although it is unknown how she ended up residing in the country and if she was ever part of the brigade. The diplomatic headquarters added that its staff “has remained in communication with her family, with the aim of providing the necessary support and contributing, as far as possible, to her release.”

Two days after Pérez’s kidnapping, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry acknowledged that the armed gangs had extended their domains, leading to an increase in kidnappings and massacres in popular neighborhoods. According to official records, at least 1,000 people were deprived of their liberty in 2021.

In mid-December of last year, Cuban engineers Andrik Alfredo Abad Reinosa and Enides Galano Silva were kidnapped on their way to do paperwork at the Immigration Office in the Haitian capital. At that time it was reported that the Autoplaza company was negotiating with the kidnappers and, according to the Sputnik agency, their release was achieved on January 3.

In Kenya, surgeon Landy Rodríguez Hernández and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera Correa continue to be held by kidnappers. The Cuban doctors were intercepted by alleged members of the Somali jihadist group Al Shabab on April 12, 2019, when they were on their way to work at the hospital in the city of Mandera, in northeastern Kenya and on the border with Somalia. There is no news of their condition, beyond the promise of the Kenyan government to guarantee a “safe release.”

Editor’s Note: We have corrected the name of the Cuban health worker kidnapped in Haiti, which local media erroneously identified as Taimara Heles Jeres Alavedra. The correct name is Daymara Helen Pérez Alabedra.

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The Desperation to Flee Cuba Provokes Turmoil in the Lines for Visas

Security patrols guarding the Colombian Embassy in Havana, in the municipality of Playa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 January 2022 — The desperation of Cubans to leave the island is becoming more and more evident. Some thirty people staged an altercation this Wednesday at the gates of the Colombian consulate in Havana when they were informed that their transit visas, necessary for the trip they intend to to Nicaragua via Bogotá, were not ready.

Some of them travel this Thursday, but the officer — a Cuban, not a Colombian — who guards the consular headquarters no longer let them pass. “I’m going to say it once, I’m going to hand over 44 passports. When I finish with this list, everyone can go, because we’re not going to serve anyone else,” he said harshly.

The discomfort grew when a security agent joined the official, who tried to dispatch them in a bad way. “Outside the man’s list, everyone who is not included there, please have to leave the area, you cannot loiter around here and the embassy’s decision is irrevocable,” he told the crowd, making it worse. “Everybody sleep and rest, I’m very sorry but nothing is going to be done,” he insisted.

Faced with the agent’s attempt to get them off the street as well, one of the men who were waiting rebelled: “If in the end they won’t attend to me, I’m going to stay because I haven’t bothered anyone and they can’t prevent me.”

The agent looked surprised at the man, who repeated firmly: “You are violating our rights; we can’t be inside the embassy, but we can be outside here, no one can tell me that I can’t be here. I’m leaving today, but the day before my trip I am going to stand here.” continue reading

The discussion repeated the scene from the day before, when, a witness told 14ymedio, the police evacuated the place after a nervous breakdown by a lady who is traveling soon.

What happened in front of the Colombian embassy is not the only sign that, now more than ever, the exodus is unstoppable. The main destination is, of course, the United States, and the springboard is Nicaragua, which last November established a “free visa” for Cubans.

The stories multiply throughout the country. In the capital, Rosa María has already sold her house and other properties and only kept a few clothes. While waiting for her flight to Managua, scheduled for next month, she is staying at a sister’s house. Her plan is, together with her children, to reunite with her husband, who is already in the United States.

In Sancti Spíritus, on an entire street in the San Luis residential area, almost all the young people have sold their motorcycles and their belongings to leave the Island.

“Never before have I known so many people leaving, not even during the Rafter Crisis,” said a resident of El Vedado when, on Tuesday, she saw the line with hundreds of people waiting to enter the Immigration and Aliens offices on Calle 17, between J and K, which issues passports.

“I’m tired of living here, I need to leave because there is no future in this country, and in order to have something you have to live with a rope around your neck all the time,” Alejandro, a 40-year-old Cuban who is waiting to get a passport for the first time, told this newspaper.

In his case, his journey north will be a little more convoluted. According to him, he wants to use his savings to travel to Russia to buy articles to bring back and sell in Cuba. If everything goes well, and with the money he collects, he plans to leave for good. “What I want is to go to the United States, via Nicaragua, but I need more money to achieve it,” Alejandro asserts.

Tickets to Managua have been selling for prices ranging from $1,500 to more than $3,000.

José, who is also waiting in line for his passport, lives in Sancti Spíritus, and reports that he has sold his house and a car to leave with his family, including children. “This decision has not been easy to take, but it has been necessary,” he argues. “Here I go out with 2,000 pesos to the street and return with practically nothing for my children.” He does it for them, he says, because “the years go by and nothing changes, we are getting worse and worse.”

Others, like Kenia, instead of going to the US, will head for Europe. A Spanish citizen and with a brother living in France, this will be her final destination. Until now, she has had to pay for two extensions of her passport for a value of 500 pesos each.

“We gave my uncle a power of attorney to take care of my husband’s house for at least two years, in case something goes wrong and we decide to return,” she explains, crossing her fingers. “In Paris we have the possibility of working thanks to friends of my brother. He will pay for the tickets and then we will repay the loan.” And she confides: “I hope we can get ahead there, because there is no one who can stand this.”

A block further from that place, on the corner of 17th and J Street, there is a similar tumult among the crowd in front of the La Rampa University Polyclinic, where PCR tests are carried out for Cubans who intend to travel abroad, to prove that they are not infected with covid-19.

Without mentioning the long lines at the doors of the polyclinics, the Havana authorities determined that as of this Wednesday the PCR tests and the antigen tests for “people who will temporarily or permanently leave the country” will be carried out in the municipality of residence of the interested party. To do this, Tribuna de La Habana reports, they will need to present their identity card, travel ticket and passport.

Between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm they will take the samples, and will deliver the results between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm.

Cubans who do not live in Havana but are in the capital waiting for their departure through the José Martí airport, says the official note, will be tested “according to the municipality where they are residing before their departure abroad.”

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Moscow Does Not Rule Out Military Deployment in Cuba and Venezuela if US ‘Provokes Russia’

In recent weeks something like 100,000 Russian soldiers have concentrated on the border with Ukraine (Screen capture)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana/Moscow, 13 January 2022 — Russia has upped the stakes in its standoff with the West and warned that it is not ruling out a military deployment in Cuba and Venezuela if the United States ramps up pressure on the Ukraine issue.

It occurred on Thursday when Sergei Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister and representative in the negotiations with the US in Geneva, said in televised statements that he could neither confirm nor exclude the possibility of his country establishing a military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela.

As reported by the AP, Ryabkov told Russian television station RTVI that “everything depends on the actions of our American counterparts,” adding that President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia could take military-technical measures if the United States acts to provoke Russia.

Ryabkov said, moreover, that major differences in the strategies of the two sides cast doubt on the continuity of the negotiations, not least because the United States and NATO rejected Moscow’s main demand: a guarantee that the alliance will not incorporate Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. continue reading

He also claimed that the negotiations “failed” due to sharp disagreements on Moscow’s key demands. “The talks were launched to receive specific answers to specific main issues that were raised, and disagreements remained on those main issues, which is bad,” he had said earlier at a press conference.

Peskov warned of a total breakdown in relations between the two countries if the proposed sanctions against President Putin and other prominent civilian and military leaders are adopted. The measures, proposed by U.S. Democrats, would also affect major Russian financial institutions if Moscow sends troops to Ukraine.

On the other hand, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed on Wednesday to lower the tension between Ukraine and Russia, although it offered itself as the forum for dialogue in which Western countries and Moscow can try to find common ground.

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who assumed the yearly chairmanship of the OSCE, proposed to revitalize contacts in this body, in which 57 states participate, in order to reduce the tension between Ukraine and Russia.

The West accuses Russia of concentrating around 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border in recent weeks, in preparation for a possible invasion, an intention denied by Moscow.

The OSCE was created during the Cold War precisely to foster dialogue between blocs and is the only organization dedicated to security in which the United States, the countries of the European Union and Russia are seated at the same table.

Ukraine has dominated this week’s talks between Russia and Western countries, but was not present at either the negotiations in Geneva between Washington and Moscow or those in Brussels between NATO representatives and the Kremlin.

Ukraine, as a member of the OSCE, did participate Wednesday in the first meeting of the organization’s Permanent Council in 2022, where tensions were addressed but no progress was made, except for a commitment to maintain dialogue.

In this context the Russians recalled that the United States promised the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, that NATO would not advance “one inch” eastward if a unified Germany remained in the Atlantic Alliance.

This promise was made to Gorbachev in 1990 by then Secretary of State James Baker, said Alexandr Lukashevich, Russia’s representative to the OSCE, during a press conference in Vienna today, broadcast live on Russian public television.

Baker repeated that promise the same year to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Lukashevich said.

The Kremlin has been insisting for months that NATO deceived it with its expansions in 1999 and 2004, which would prompt Moscow’s demand to veto the accession of Ukraine and Georgia.

During his address to the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday the Russian diplomat accused the West of being to blame for the degradation of the situation in Europe because of its policy of containment of Russia, and he denied that there was any progress in strategic security.

“Unfortunately, we have not received from our partners an adequate response or any reaction to our proposals,” he noted and admitted that everything points to the fact that Moscow will not receive a “constructive reaction” in the future.

He expressed disappointment that today’s entire discussion revolved around the “alleged threat from Russia,” which Ukraine accuses of preparing an invasion of its territory.

“We are not posing an ultimatum and we propose to solve the problems that have arisen between Russia and other countries, and to find a compromise in this regard. We expect a reaction from our partners in a short period of time; it is not a process of months and years,” he noted.

On Wednesday the United States supported the OSCE as the essential forum for lowering tensions with Russia and securing peace in the region, but warned that it will not accept “blackmail” from Russia or its demand to maintain “spheres of influence.”

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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