Author: 14ymedio

Regime Change in Cuba with Support from a Foreign Power

Fidel Castro with Anastas Mikoyan during a visit to Cuba in 1966. (TASS)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, November 13, 2021 — Those who want to extract the country from the anomaly in which it has found itself for more than six decades are accused of trying to bring about regime change with the support of a foreign power.

Throughout Cuban history there have been numerous changes of government but only three have resulted in regime change. All had the participation or support of foreign powers.

The first and most obvious was the violent eradication of the indigenous community, the archipelago’s original inhabitants, by Spanish conquistadors, who established colonial rule.

The second was the rise of the Republic, which resulted from long years of war for independence culminating in intervention by the United States, which imposed the provisions of the Platt Amendment.

The third regime change formally took place on April 16, 1961 when, in front of a group of his armed followers, Fidel Castro announced the revolution was a socialist one. In his speech he declared, “We will defend this socialist revolution with rifles.” Rifles that — along with mortars, canons and tanks — flowed into the country from the Soviet Union, a foreign power whose history and culture we did not share.

Though Castro made his “proclamation” on that date, the turnaround had begun taking shape a year earlier. On February 4, 1960, Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan travelled to Cuba under the guise of opening an exhibition. During his visit, the first commercial agreement between Cuba and the USSR was signed. It involved the purchase of sugar, the sale of petroleum and machinery, and a loan of 100 million dollars. continue reading

Young Cubans still believed in Fidel but a visit by Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan raised their suspicions. (Courtesy of Alberto Muller)

The presence of Mikoyan, the man associated with the bloody suppression of the 1956 Hungarian revolt, disturbed many anti-communists. After the Soviet leader laid a wreath adorned with a hammer and sickle at the base of a statue of Jose Marti in Central Park, dozens of students from the University of Havana protested by trying to replace the wreath with one displaying the Cuban flag. The peaceful demonstration, the first organized display of opposition since 1959, was violently suppressed by police. About twenty people were detained.

Suspicions that Mikoyan’s presence in Havana was a portent of a communist future alarmed many. But skeptics thought that impossible. Just fifty-two days earlier, when he was testifying at the trial of Commander Huber Matos, Fidel Castro said that the greatest crime the defendant had committed was “to slander the revolution by calling it communist.”

Although the revolution’s confiscatory ambitions had already been demonstrated, particularly after the agrarian reform law which broke up large land holdings, the process accelerated after the Soviet official’s visit, notably with the decision to confiscate the property of those who had decided to go into exile.

Diplomatic relations with Moscow were restored in May 1960. Two months later American-owned Texaco and Esso oil refineries were confiscated as were those owned by Royal Dutch Shell. In August, American telephone and electricity companies along with thirty-six sugar refineries were nationalized. Finally, on October 13, all Cuban and foreign banks (though not Canadian banks) suffered the same fate, as did 382 other large companies that operated textile mills, railways, cinemas, department stores and breweries.

By the end of 1960, Cuba had established diplomatic relations with three other countries: China, North Korea and Vietnam.

In September 1960 Nikita Khruschev visited Fidel Castro at his hotel in New York several days after Castro had attended the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly. Ten days earlier, the Soviet cargo ship Ilya Mietriov, under the command of Adolf Matiukin, had offloaded military supplies that would later be used by militiamen loyal to Castro at the Bay of Pigs.

A policeman fires shots into the air to break up a group of demonstrators offended by a wreath with a hammer and sickle laid at the base of a statue of Jose Marti. (Courtesy of Alberto Muller)

The cargo included the heavy T-34 tank, in which Fidel Castro arrived at the combat zone. Also included was an Su-100 tank from which, legend has it, the Cuban commander-in-chief attacked the Houston, a ship loaded with supplies intended for the men of Brigade 2506.

The invasion force was made up of Cuban exiles supported by the U.S. government who claimed their goal was to restore the 1940 Cuban constitution and prevent a communist takeover of Cuba. Official propanda labeled their efforts as nothing more than an attempt to “recover their properties.”

The process of expropriation that culminated in 1960 mortally wounded Cuban capitalism, which had thrived on the island for fifty-seven years, and represented a political and economic transition to socialism, with the unbridled support of the Soviet Union.

Fidel Castro’s formal proclamation on April 16, 1961 did not follow the protocol such a transformative action required. It was not preceded by debates among parliamentarians (nothing resembling a parliament even existed), it was not discussed among party leaders (a political organization had not yet been created), there was no discussion in the press (all publications were in government hands) and it was not submitted to a referendum. It was done as an irrevocable decision announced in front of his armed followers (something which bears repeating).

Documents have not been declassified that might show the regime change was “cooked up” in Moscow. But the time span between Mikoyan’s visit in February 1960 and Castro’’s to the Soviet Union in July of that year, when an arms deal was finalized, suggests the Cuban side had to provide guarantees that the military equipment would be in good hands.

It is hard to ignore the enormous weight Soviet support had on regime change in Cuba in the 1960s.

Accusations now being made by those in power that anyone who advocates for democracy on the island is supported by “Yankee imperialists” are a reminder that this caricature of socialism was imposed on Cuba with economic and military support from a foreign power — and an imperial power at that — thousands of miles away, with an ideology that does not reflect our traditions.

The decision to seek closer ties to that power affected relations with the United States and Latin American countries, and threatened world peace. It also forced hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee the country and left the majority of the country mired in poverty.

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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.

The Law of Supply and Demand Draws Cubans to Garage Sales

Garage sales have exploded since their formal authorization three months ago. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, October 12, 2021 — Clothes, shoes and small appliances, but also electrical outlets, a screw, hair clips, earrings, silicone, an ornamental plant, an old hookah and even a pre-1959 phone book. You can find anything at garage sales, which the government legalized on July 20 and are now proliferating across the island.

“In Cuba you can sell everything because no one has anything,” says a buyer from Central Havana who has become a regular customer at these types of businesses.

Retail merchandise for sale in Cuba’s national currency is in short supply. Increasingly, items such as shoes and clothing cannot be purchased with pesos and not everyone has the dollars needed to shop at the burgeoning hard currency stores. Customers can find products at online classified ad sites such as Revolico but prices there can be astronomical. As a result, garage sales, where prices are lower, have become an economical and pleasant shopping alternative for many Cubans, especially those most disadvantaged.

“Here in Central Havana, people are putting any little spare space to use. It could be a hallway next to a staircase, a tiny corner in a tenement or even empty building. A whole retail network has already sprung up,” say Iris, a vendor who, along with her cousins, has set up shop in a family member’s garage.

In a quick stroll through the neighborhood, 14ymedio found seven such operations.

Though garage sales have operated for years in Cuba — their popularity grew in 2013 after the government outlawed sales of imported goods in private stores, which were supplied by mules importing items from Mexico, Panama and Russia — they took off after being legalized as part of a package of emergency measures intended to calm public discontent after the July 11 demonstrations.

Though local authorities did not initially require sale organizers to obtain commercial licenses or register continue reading

as a self-employed workers, they were required to file permit applications with the Municipal Administrative Council and pay a fifty-peso fee. The fee requirement was subsequently waived on August 12 when the government updated the regulations.

There were, of course, other strict requirements. Items for sale had to be for domestic or personal use only — whether used, pre-owned or new — and transactions had to be carried out in garages, on front porches or in other residential areas in ways that did not obstruct pedestrian or vehicular traffic. The resale of products purchased through the rationed market or in hard currency stores, such as toiletries and food, was prohibited.

Shortages are so acute, however, that there are some laws that not even sixty-two years of total state control can undo, such as the law of supply and demand.

“Everyone comes here,” says Iris of her fellow vendors. “They even sell toiletries the rationed stores sell: low-quality brands like Daily and Lis.” Inspectors do not bother them, she says, because Cubans’ need for basic products is so urgent.

One example is tobacco, a product so difficult to obtain that fights often break out when it goes on sale at state-owned stores. At one garage sale, customers could buy H. Uppmann filtered cigarettes for 160 pesos and unfiltered for 140. (The price is almost double at state stores.) The vendor has the items out on a counter, in full view. “If an inspector comes along, I tell him I’m a smoker and that they’re mine,”  explains the vendor, who asks to remain anonymous.

Augusto, another garage sale vendor from Nuevo Vedado, employs different strategies to avoid being fined. “You have to be very careful about what you display because obviously [the inspectors] are not idiots. They could come and accuse you of selling things illegally” he says. For example, if he has several watches for sale, he will only display one.

Augusto is happy transactions like these are now legal. He and his family, who used to own several tourism-related businesses, have been laid low by the pandemic. They have adapted by selling their personal belongings, in some cases at very good prices. This weekend he is doing particularly very well. “I was dying of boredom being cooped up at home,” he confesses.

The capital is not the only city where this type of business is expanding. Lucretia from Santa Clara says, “My house has a front patio and it’s near Vidal Park so several friends and I organized a garage sale.” For the first one they had very few things: some kitchen towels that her grandmother made, some cables and parts of old laptops they had gathered together, old shoes and clothes they no longer wore. They were better prepared the second time around, collecting everything their relatives had to offer. “We even sold a small children’s bike,” she says. “That time we raised more than 2,000 pesos.”

Another advantage to this type of transaction is the flexible payment options it offers customers. For example, there are vendors who will set an item aside if the customer does not have enough money to pay for it at the moment.

Other conventional businesses also take advantage of garage sales. In Old Havna the owners of a bakery located on an undesirable corner have divided the premises in two. In one half they sell bread, meringues and ground peanuts. In the other other there are clothes, shoes, keys, scissors, locks and a whole arsenal of things.

“That’s how far we’ve fallen” says the Central Havana customer. “These are things humans invented a long time ago but, in the commercial Middle Ages we’re living in now, it’s like a major event.”

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Cuba, The Rope Tightens as November 15 Approaches

Military vehicles on the streets of Havana this week. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 14 October 2021 — They are dressed in civilian clothes and pretend to wait for the bus or to converse on a street corner, but everyone knows that they are segurosos, the popular word applied to agents of the dreaded political police. Their presence has increased in Cuba’s streets since the popular protests of July 11 and is expected to grow even more, as November 15 approaches, the date chosen by the activists platform Archipiélago to carry out a peaceful march.

Using current legislation to their advantage, several young people submitted requests to local authorities — in at least six provinces — to demonstrate on November 20. Those who wrote the text appealed to the guarantees provided by the Constitution to respect the rights of assembly, demonstration and association. In addition, they asked the authorities to order that the country’s security forces provide the protesters with “due protection.” That letter was like stirring up the hornet’s nest.

Immediately, the official spokespeople began to call the organizers of the march “mercenaries of the empire,” some of them have been threatened by State Security, their mobile phone services cut off, and their homes put under surveillance. All the bullets of the assassination of reputation and the pressure on their closest relatives have fallen on these young people to advise them not to continue with such efforts.

A few days after the missive was delivered, the ruling party pulled out of its sleeve the announcement that a national military exercise continue reading

was going to be held on the proposed date of the demonstrations, in clear response to the activists’ request. But they were not intimidated and brought the call to march forward to November 15, and submitted the documents to the local leaders again. This Tuesday, the government’s response has been categorical: it considers the initiative to be “illegal” and calls it a “provocation for regime change.”

In this way, officialdom acts with no surprises, but it is also committed to a dangerous position. The Plaza of the Revolution has chosen not to allow even a millimeter of public dissent, it wants to extend for more time these 62 years without legal marches of citizen disagreement, without workers who can take to the streets demanding better wages, or political opponents who show in a plaza their criticism of the Executive. Castroism has decided to continue showing itself unbreakable.

However, a Japanese proverb says that “the bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.” Not giving in, not choosing to permit the march and locking oneself into intransigence can be one of the gravest mistakes leaders make in the system’s death throes. After the demonstration of popular exhaustion that Cubans staged in the summer, choosing the heavy hand and repression is like shooting oneself in the foot. They could be accelerating their downfall and, in the worst case, leading the country into civil war. In a nutshell, they don’t know what they’re doing.

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This text was originally published on the Deutsche Welle website for Latin America.
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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.

‘Imperialist Agencies, AFP and EFE Incite a Social Uprising’ in Cuba

The Cuban government intends to prevent 15N (November 15th) from becoming the new 11J (July 11th). (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, Cuba, October 14, 2021–Three European media outlets have been added to the list of imperialist press headed by CNN. British media chain BBC, the Spanish agency EFE, and the French France Presse “do not tire of inciting from within their pages a social uprising that would justify the much desired military intervention from the White House,” signaled the official newspaper Granma this Thursday.

The state-run press, which now intends to deactivate 15N (15 November) by broadcasting the message that it does not have support from within the Island, accused these international media outlets, which also include the Miami-based daily, el Nuevo Herald, of “legitimizing the provocative actions of internal mercenary ‘pacifists’, blind with hate and vengeance”. In addition, Granma classifies these agencies and television chains as mainstream, despite the fact that in Cuba communications channels are controlled by the State and the dominant press is theirs.

In the same, rather long article titled, The counterrevolutionaries will not have a platform in Cuba, the daily uses various testimonies of farm workers who oppose the marches and praise the Revolution and Fidel Castro.

“We will not allow them a new July 11th,” begins the text. The phrase is attributed to a farmer from Playa, in Havana, although it sums up the authorities’ decision to impede the civil marches organized by the Archipiélago collective for the 15th of November, moved forward as the initial date–November 20th–coincided with National Defense Day.

Several messages shared on social media maintain that the Government intends to mobilize Cuban citizens against the marches through two means: continue reading

virtual and physical. Archipiélago published several screen grabs that presumably show messages from university group chats attempting to organize an online strategy to support other efforts.

On Whatsapp, users carefully study the speech of artist Yunior García, one of the organizers of the marches, and also an organizer of Archipiélago itself, to “deconstruct his speech.” The objective, according to one message, “is not to prevent the march but to prevent more people from joining”.

Another screen grab circulating among organizers contains messages from a young high school student who confirms that in his school they have been obligated–though he adds that he and one other student refused–to join “rapid response groups” which will carry sticks to defend themselves. In the exchange, the student maintains that they were told that on the 15th, they should also wear an armband.

Though the source of both messages is unknown, at Archipiélago they do not doubt their veracity and though they fear the regime’s response, they will maintain their position to the end. “On November 15th our personal decision will be to march civilly and peacefully for our rights. Facing authoritarianism we will respond with civility and more civility”, they said on Wednesday.

The idea is to demotivate those who are questioning whether they will join the march, at least, that is what is all over today’s Granma article. With other testimonies they intend to add the support of laborers and farmers, united for the Revolution.

“The primary mission of farmers, to wave our flag and our accomplishments very high, is to continue producing food. That should be how we resolve our problems today,” signaled one of the producers of the Havana-based cooperative. Its president joins the discussion. “With the victory of ’59 our sector gained rights, prestige and morale. Now it is our duty to comply with the Revolution, producing, offering nourishment to the people.”

The sector is held as an example by Granma that true patriots are those who work to feed cubans, thus they highlight that this cooperative has surpassed its production target this year, achieving 123% of the planned production.

“The majority of us are in favor of revolutionary work. I am convinced that our young people have the same opinion. Twenty or thirty young people who work with me share my ideals because we’re all trained under the wings of our socialist society, with its defects, but essential,” says the cooperative’s large-scale milk producer, although this product is scarce and in Havana, for example, they’ve had to restrict access to milk and dairy products.

The Communist Party’s daily paper also approached the National Center for the Production of Laboratory Animals, where it apparently encountered many others opposed to the demonstrations on 15N from laborers to whom “the much-demanded march seems shameful, nothing more than another strategy with no benefit for the people.”

“They tried to defeat us in Girón (Bay of Pigs) and they continue trying to this day, with the economic blockade and all their measures, but they have not been able to handle us. They’d choose to ignore our years of history, as a result, they don’t learn that Cuba will never surrender,” says the chief of the company’s Technology Surveillance Department.

Granma has also found a young woman, 24, who, in contrast to many of her generation who have chosen to leave the Island, chose to praise the State model imposed for more than six decades. “As militants, as workers who have seen the revolutionary actions and vocation which the Cuban people have maintained for more than 6o years, we will always follow the ideals of Fidel.”

According to the text, all these voices “are not a manipulated minority”, but just in case, the government won’t divulge which side the majority supports.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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A Cuban is Among Four ‘At Risk’ Journalists Welcomed to Madrid for Three Months

Cuban Waldo Fernández, one of the participants in the IV Temporary Reception Program for Latin American Journalists of Reporters Without Borders. (Screen Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 8 October 2021 — Cuban Waldo Fernández is one of the four journalists who will participate in the IV edition of the Temporary Reception Program for Latin American Journalists, along with the Colombian Óscar Parra, the Mexican Teresa Montaño and a Nicaraguan who does not want to publicize her name for safety reasons.

The program was created by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Spain section, for professionals at risk to move from their hostile environments and settle in Madrid for three months, where they will receive psychological support and training. For this, they have the collaboration of the City Council of the Spanish capital, headed by Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida, of the Popular Party.

During their stay in Spain, the four reporters will not only attend courses, but will also share, in the media and universities, their experiences in their countries, where they are harassed or threatened, either by the State or by criminal groups.

Waldo Fernández is the editor of the independent newspaper Diario de Cuba, and for this reason he has suffered threats from State Security. continue reading

María Teresa Montaño, meanwhile, was fired from her job after publishing corruption schemes in the state of Mexico (bordering Mexico City), such as the secret award of pensions to former governors.

As for Óscar Javier Parra, he directs the journalistic portal Rutas del Conflicto, which has received important awards, such as the Data Journalism Award, in 2017. He has open judicial processes and receives threats from the Army due to his coverage of the massacres committed in Colombia.

The four journalists were selected from among fifty candidates, because of “their high professional profile and the severity of the threats to their security,” according to RSF.

This program, which will run from this October to the end of December, is “the most eloquent incarnation of what freedom of the press means and an example of the all too often difficult conditions in which many of our colleagues in Latin America must carry out their search for the truth,” said the president of the Spanish section of RSF, Alfonso Armada, during his presentation.

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Cuba’s Minister of Education Says Vaccines Will Not be Mandatory to Attend Classes

More than 70,000 children and adolescents have been infected with the coronavirus in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 13 October 2021 — Cuba has resumed the 2020-2021 school year with the progressive reincorporation of students in classrooms depending on the mass vaccination process against covid-19 and with the priority of hygienic-sanitary measures, said the Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez on Wednesday. The official also said at a press conference that it will not be mandatory to get vaccinated to attend classes.

On November 15, more than 1.6 million students will attend school to close the 2020-2021 school year, and will then start the next year in March 2022, after modifying some aspects of the curriculum.

The minister pointed out that compliance “with all the rigor” of sanitary measures in educational centers is maintained to avoid covid events, such as the mandatory use of a mask, social distancing, frequent hand washing and the use of disinfectants.

The completion of the three-dose schedule with the Cuban vaccines Soberana 02, Abdala and Soberana Plus has been the previous step for the staggered resumption of the 2020-2021 school year in person since October 4, explained Velázquez.

He also indicated that the family decides whether the child is vaccinated or not and clarified that even without being immunized they have continue reading

the opportunity to attend classes, but in the event of a positive case of COVID-19 they will remain in isolation.

On October 4, more than 84,500 students in the last year of high school, pedagogical teaching and professional technique, rejoined educational institutions after spending several months receiving teleclasses.

The 2020-2021 academic year was restarted gradually and in person in all the country’s provinces, except in Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus, Las Tunas and the Camagüey municipality of Santa Cruz del Sur, due to the complex epidemiological situation in those zones.

A year earlier, classes had been resumed in person in almost all the provinces but they were suspended a few months later due to the rise in positive cases of covid-19 in the country, so teleclasses were returned to.

The Ministry of Education then developed a teaching program through television that has generated complaints, disagreements from relatives and even sanctions from the authorities. In Santiago de Cuba, a fine of up to 2,500 pesos had to be faced by the parents of students who did not transcribe the content of the teleclasses.

The Education authorities have communicated that they have the aspiration to return to a regular school period from September to July, complete and in person, for the 2023-2024 academic year.

More than 70,000 children and adolescents have been infected with the coronavirus in Cuba since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the island’s health authorities.

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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.

One Hundred Relatives of the 11 July Detainees in Cuba Request the Mediation of the Catholic Church

Repression of the political Police against demonstrators of the protests of July 11, 2021 in Havana. (Marcos Evora)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2021 — A group of relatives of people detained and accused by the Cuban authorities after participating in the anti-government protests on July 11 on the island have asked the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba (COCC) to intercede for their release.

“We are addressing the ecclesiastical authorities to ask for their immediate and formal intervention in order to achieve the liberation of all Cubans who exercised the fundamental right to freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration,” says the text of the letter, released by the opposition forum Estado de Sats on their website.

The letter, which has so far collected a hundred signatures, urges the hierarchy of the Cuban Catholic Church to accompany them “in this urgent need to do justice, to do good, to defend that good is done as stated in the Social Doctrine of the Church.”

Three months after the peaceful protests of 11J in Cuba, “mothers, wives, daughters and relatives of those detained and persecuted, we express our deep complaints and concerns about the situation and state of our loved ones,” the signatories state. continue reading

In their petition, they allege that their relatives are imprisoned “for exercising the elementary right to peaceful demonstration” caused by “a long and acute general crisis facing our country” and which threw thousands of Cubans into the streets “to demand respect for their rights and freedom.”

Estado de Sats accompanied the publication of the letter with an invitation “to all the relatives of those arrested and accused of participating in the July 11 demonstrations to join their signatures and support for this necessary and legitimate request to the Church.”

It is worth recalling the role of the Catholic Church in the Black Spring of 2003, when 75 Cuban activists were sentenced to between 15 and 27 years under the Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Cuban Economy (known as the Gag Law).

Years later, the Church achieved the release of the prisoners who agreed to leave Cuba and an extra-criminal license for the 12 who refused to do so, as was the case of Marta Beatriz Roque and José Daniel Ferrer.

The unprecedented protests that broke out on June 11 resulted in a dead protester and a wave of arrests of hundreds of participants and the main leaders of activism on the island, such as José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement.

Various organizations have documented more than a thousand detainees and as reported by the authorities, 62 people have been tried, mostly for the crime of public disorder — 53 of the defendants charged — although there are also accusations of “contempt,” “resistance” or “instigation to commit a crime.” In San Antonio de los Baños, where the peaceful protests began, the Prosecutor’s Office asks  between 6 and 12 years in prison for the 17 people who are being tried.

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Promoters of the 20 November Marches in Cuba Denounce ‘The Threat of Tanks’

Military exercises in an artillery unit of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. (EFE)

Site manager’s note: This article was published in 14ymedio before the date for the opposition marches was changed to 15 November.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 8 October 2021 — With the alibi of the celebration of National Defense Day, the Cuban Government will militarize the country on November 20, coinciding with the marches called by the opposition in different provinces. The Archipiélago collective, the main promoter of the protests, will make its reaction public starting at 3:00 in the afternoon this Friday.

“Given the civility of our march called in due time and form for November 20, they respond with the threat of tanks. In case anyone still had doubts about the authoritarian and violent character of those who control power in Cuba …: Total militarization of the country from November 18 to 20. We will continue firm on the path of civility and peace. Arms, no. Rights!” wrote Yunior García, leader of the group and the demonstrations.

The Ministry of the Armed Forces reported on Thursday night, through a statement, the convocation of two days of military exercises, from November 18 to 20, which culminate that last day with the National Defense Day.

“Considering the improvement of the epidemiological situation in the country, the Moncada Exercise will be held on November 18 and 19,” the information indicates. continue reading

According to the official website Ecured, “the exercises conventionally known as Moncada play a very important role. These constitute the highest and most complex form of preparation of the chiefs and the command and management bodies, between one Bastion Strategic Exercise and another.”

Each year, military exercises are held at that time of year, although the dates chosen now must be interpreted, according to the opposition, as a clear response to the demonstrations. In addition, Moncada Exercises are of a higher level than traditional maneuvers and are usually announced much longer in advance.

The Moncada military exercises have been carried out sporadically with the objective of “increasing the level of preparation and cohesion of the leadership and command bodies at all levels, the troops, the economy and the population.”

The first time they were held was in 1980 — the most prominent were in 2007 and 2008 — and they are generally convened as a call to the United States “not to underestimate” the Cuban people.

The organizers of the protest have presented requests to the provincial governments in various territories of the country, with lists of signatures of people who supposedly support these actions, although there have already been reactions in the population due to the presence of apocryphal signatures.

The marches of November 20 were called two months in advance, taking into account that the 15th of the same month has been marked as the date the pandemic is expected to be controlled and there is a plan to reopen the country to tourism and educational activities will be resumed.

The organizers chose to follow the legal channels to request authorization, complying with the health measures, indicating the routes through which the marches will take place and pointing out that no national or international law prevents them from demonstrating peacefully. The group calls for freedom for political prisoners and the resolution of differences between Cubans through democratic and peaceful means.

However, so far the conveners have not only not received a formal response, but their intention to send the documentation has been hampered in some cases. The applicants have reported being threatened, harassed and defamed.

In addition, informally, State Security advised the government opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa, during an interrogation, that the marches would be prohibited.

At the moment, this call for the Moncada Exercise seems tailored to intimidate the organizers who warned of their intention to march even if they did not obtain a response to their requests.

The marches are called to take place in Havana, Holguín, Santa Clara, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Cienfuegos, Las Tunas and Pinar del Río.

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Government Calls Planned 15 November (15N) Marches a ‘Provocation for a Regime Change’ in Cuba

Protesters on a street in Havana on July 11, 2021. (Marcos Evora)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2021 — On Tuesday, the Cuban government described as “illegal” and a “provocation” the Civic March for Change called by the Archipiélago platform, scheduled for November 15. That is the “official response” that the Municipal Assemblies of Old Havana, Consolación del Sur, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Nuevitas, Las Tunas, Holguín and Guantánamo announced this Tuesday to the promoters of the demonstration.

“Article 56 of the Constitution, which is mentioned [in the organizers’ letter regarding the planned march] as legal support, establishes among the requirements for the exercise of the right to demonstrate the legality and ’respect for public order and compliance with the regulations established in the law’,” say the officials of all those cities in a text contained in eight individual letters, which assert: “As for the legality, legitimacy is not recognized in the reasons given for the march.”

They then resort to the usual argument of the foreign “enemy”: “The promoters and their public projections, as well as the links of some with subversive organizations or agencies financed by the US government, have the manifest intention of promoting a change in the political system in Cuba.”

The proof of this, according to officialdom, is that “as soon as it was announced, the march received public support from US legislators, political operators and the media that encourage actions against the Cuban people, try to destabilize the country and urge military intervention.”

The promoters of the demonstration, however, have been very emphatic about the peaceful nature of the call to march, asking potential participants continue reading

to distance themselves from provocation and eventual violent actions. Avoiding confrontation was precisely one of the reasons that pushed the Archipiélago group to advance the march to November 15, after the Government declared November 20, the original date for the activists’ action, “National Day of the Defense.”
Both the first call and the change of day were announced at the headquarters of the National Assembly. Keeping it the same day, Yunior García, one of the most visible faces of the proposal, had said, implied a “great responsibility on his shoulders.” It would be throwing, he asserted, “young people in the middle of an army, something extremely risky.”

The regime mentions none of this in its cloned municipal letters, which conclude by saying “the announced march, whose organizational scheme is conceived simultaneously for other territories of the country, constitutes a provocation as part of the ’regime change’ strategy, rehearsed in other countries,” without specifying which strategies or countries it specifically refers to.

In the document, the authorities cite Article 45 of the Constitution (“the exercise of people’s rights is only limited by the rights of others, collective security, general welfare, respect for public order, Constitution and the laws”) to subjugate it to Article 4:” The socialist system that this Constitution endorses is irrevocable,” therefore,” any action taken against it is illegal.”

Since the approval of the new Constitution, Article 4 has been singled out by various human rights groups and independent organizations, which consider it, together with Article 5 — which enshrines the superiority of the Communist Party in the management of the country — as a lock to avoid political reforms on the island.

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Cuba: On 15 November ‘We Will March Civilly and Peacefully for Our Rights,’ Responds Archipielago

People peacefully demonstrating on July 11th, 2021 in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, October 12, 2021–“On November 15th our personal decision will be to march civilly and peacefully for our rights,” responded Archipiélago to the Cuban Government’s decision to reject the Civil March for Change scheduled for that day, considering it “illegal” and a “provocation for regime change” on the island.

“The regime’s response demonstrates, once again, that rights do not exist within the Cuban State, that they are unwilling to respect even their own Constitution and violate the human rights of the Cuban people,” adds the collective in a message published this Tuesday on its social media platforms.

Members of Archipiélago also insisted that the authorities’ decision “has ridiculed their own president of the Supreme Tribunal, who said that Cuba would respect the right to demonstrate,” for which they classified the government response as a “crime” and branded it “full of falsehoods, defamation, and lies”.

Through the municipal assemblies of the cities that were notified in writing of the march by members of Archipiélago, officials announced this Tuesday their response to the demonstrations.

In the document, the regime confirmed that it does not recognize the “legitimacy of the reasons given” for the peaceful protests. Furthermore, they repeated the standard argument of the foreign “enemy” by stating that the organizers of the march maintain “ties” with subversive organizations or agencies that are continue reading

financed by the United States Government, and “have the stated intention to promote a change to the political system in Cuba”.

Upon learning of the Government’s position, Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos (OCDH) condemned the prohibition of the marches and “reclaimed the right of Cubans to demonstrate”.

“The official argument itself makes clear the antidemocratic nature of the current system in Cuba and that the ink is still wet on the Republic’s new Constitution, created without endorsing fundamental rights and the few it confers are denied arbitrarily by executive powers,” stated the organization in a communication disseminated this Tuesday.

OCDH called on the European Union, “to condemn this clear violation of human rights in Cuba, which are incompatible with the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and the European Union.”

In the document, OCDH also demands that the Government of the Island accept, “the challenge of listening to its citizens.”

“It did not do so on July 11th, when the president called for combat and confrontation among Cubans, and it is not doing so now as it prohibits the civil march scheduled for November 15th.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Officials Station Rapid Response Brigades Near Key Government Sites

On Tuesday, police and State Security agents patrolled the area along 19 de Mayo Street between Ayestaran y Amezaga streets in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, October 12, 2021 — The Rapid Response Brigades (BRR), the regime’s shock troops, were mobilized on Tuesday after the Cuban government refused to to allow a public march on this coming November 15. In neighborhoods where the July 11 demonstrations were most intense, state-employed workers, police and State Security agents were sent in to patrol the streets.

The presence of the BRR at Aranguren and Ayestaran streets, one of the busiest intersections in in Havana’s Cerro district and one of the closest to Plaza of the Revolution, has created a “tense atmosphere” according to Yulieska, an area resident. Even activity at the neighborhood’s underground market has been curtailed as people wait for the heavy security presence to diminish.

On July 11 a huge cordon of police, State Security agents, soldiers and young military draftees prevented demonstrators from reaching the Plaza of the Revolution. Hundreds of Cubans marched through the streets from Old Havana to Cerro before being stopped by security forces. Hundreds of people were arrested during the incident and some were injured.

“It’s a very protected area because they want to stop people from getting to the Plaza in the event of a protest,” explains Yulieska.

The Plaza of the Revolution complex houses the Palace of the Revolution and presidential offices, the Cuban government and the Cuban Communist continue reading

Party Central Committee. Adjacent areas are home to important ministries such as the Armed Forces, Interior, Communications, and Economy and Planning.

The Plaza, a enormous open space flanked by a tall tower and presided over by a statue of Jose Marti, has served as the stage for large rallies and official events for decades. For this reason, the government is trying desperately to prevent hundreds or thousands of people from gathering in an area that it sees as a symbol of the massive popular support that the regime enjoyed in its early days.

In other districts such as Central Havana, the pinch point of the July 11 protests, and in other neighborhoods such as Vedado, residents confirm the visible presence of State Security agents and plainclothes policemen. At Martyr’s Park, Infanta and San Lazaro streets, and the area around the Yara movie theater, many security personnel can be seen.

During the July 11 protests, officials mobilized the BRR along with workers and young military recruits. They were given sticks and baseball bats to confront thousands of demonstrators calling for freedom.

The brigades were conceived and created in the early 1990s to serve as a paramilitary police force that would allow the regime to control outbreaks of popular unrest. In an effort to avoid the image of men in uniform taking repressive actions against civilians, Cuban officials formed these “brown shirt” brigades as a first line of defense against public protests.

The BRR have played a prominent role in acts of public repudiation against dissidents and activist groups, most notably the Ladies in White. But they first came into their own in August 1994 when, together with police and construction workers armed with sticks, they confronted demonstrators during the popular revolt known as the Maleconazo — the Malecon uprising — which led to the so-called Balsero [Rafter] crisis.

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Cuban Dissident, Jose Daniel Ferrer, is Held in an Isolation Cell Despite Health Issues, his Family Denounces

The meeting took place “under the custody” of prison guards. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, October 9th, 2021–Dissident, José Daniel Ferrer is currently held in isolation and is suffering health issues, according to his son, the only family member who has been able to visit him since July 11th when he was arrested and subsequently transferred to Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba.

José Daniel Ferrer Cantillo, the son of Union Patriótica de Cuba’s (Unpacu) leader, was able to contact the former Black Spring prisoner last Friday during a 20-minute visit “under the custody” of prison guards, the dissident’s sister reported, Ana Belkis Ferrer García, on Facebook.

“Around 5 pm yesterday, Friday, October 8th, 2021, they allowed a brief visit by one family member; thanks to God and the demands of so many supportive people to whom we are eternally grateful, we confirmed that at least for the moment José Daniel is alive”, she wrote.

She added that her brother is currently locked in a “minuscule isolation cell, where he remains under inhumane and degrading conditions, semi-nude as he is only allowed undergarments,” denounced his sister, who alerted that Unpacu’s leader is “in very poor health”.

Ferrer is suffering from “extremely high” blood pressure and “could barely speak to his son” because, since the day before the meeting, the dissident has been experiencing “severe headaches, chills, body aches, and shortness of breath to such a degree that continue reading

he requested another Diclofenac [an NSAID] injection.”

With the support of human rights activists, a few weeks ago the dissident’s family initiated an intense social media campaign demanding that authorities provide “proof of life” of Ferrer García. His sister also insisted that the life of the dissident is in the hands of Raúl Castro and Díaz Canel.

José Daniel Ferrer is serving a four-year prison sentence imposed by a tribunal in February of 2020 for the alleged crime of “injuries and deprivation of liberty” against a third person. Up until the moment of his arrest, Unpacu’s national coordinator had been serving his sentence as amended, in 2020, to allow him to serve it under house arrest instead of in prison.

The Popular Provincial Tribunal of Santiago de Cuba justified its decision, on the grounds that Ferrer maintained an “attitude contrary to the requirements to which he must comply” because he had not secured employment and, on various occasions engaged in, “incorrect and defiant behavior toward authorities who were fulfilling their functions.”

The dissident has been subjected to permanent repression for many years and has been recognized by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which awarded him the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.

Last August, Amnesty International (AI) named him a prisoner of conscience along with artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Hamlet Lavastida; independent reporter Esteban Rodríguez; activist Thais Mailén Franco Benítez; and rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo. Lavastida and Franco Benítez were both freed in recent days; however, Otero Alcántara, Rodríguez and Osorbo remain incarcerated.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Buying New Shoes, Another Mission Impossible in Cuba

A display at the Sport shoe store in Havana’s Carlos III shopping mall (14ymedio).

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 October 2021 — Sandra stands at the display window of the Sport shoe store in Havana’s Carlos III shopping mall, where a long line has formed outside. On display are the two cheapest pairs of children’s tennis shoes, for $22.50 and $22.68 respectively.

They are not brand names, and outside of Cuba they would be considered inexpensive, but they are not easy to get for most Cubans because they are priced in foreign currency. But at least they are in style, easy to wash and could potentially be worn in physical education classes.

The school term just started and Sandra’s two children need footwear. She herself has not had a decent pair of shoes for a long time either but there are only thirty dollars on her hard currency debit card, which she had to buy at the exchange rate of 75 pesos to the dollar. In other words, 2,250 pesos, almost a full month’s salary. She thought about buying some handmade shoes at a craft fair but the ones sold there are expensive and the styles are more traditional.

Though she was hoping to pay for the shoes out of her meager budget, they are beyond her means. She will have to give up her place line because, for now, she cannot afford them. She will have to make do with some used ones her neighbor is selling. “There’s no other option. We’ll have to settle for continue reading

the ones Mercedes has,” she says with a sense of resignation. “They are a little big for my son but the ones for my daughter fit like they were made for her.”

Though students are required to wear uniforms until the end of middle school, differences in social status and purchasing power has always been expressed through the quality of footwear, backpacks and the snacks students bring to school. Converse brand shoes, a Vans backpack and a can of cola at recess are signs a student is from a family with financial resources or with relatives overseas.

Conversely, showing up on the first day of school wearing the same tennis shoes as the previous term, carrying books in a mended bag or having bread with oil as a snack are markers of a student from the lowest socio-economic classes in the eyes of inquisitives classmates. So much so that children and adolescents often pressure their parents to project a high-status image.

The differences could become even more accentuated in the coming months. Due to a shortage of raw materials used to make them, the Ministry of Education is relaxing rules on school uniforms. Students will be allowed to attend classes in conventional clothes, a situation that could encourage the “fashion catwalk” trend in educational centers.

With his job on hold due to the pandemic, Sandra’s husband is in limbo, neither employed nor unemployed. He collects 60% of his regular salary as he waits for things to get better. If it was hard for the couple to feed and dress their family on two worker’s salaries, it is impossible on one and a half.

When the Cuban government eliminated its tax on the U.S. dollar and expanded the sale of food and personal hygiene products in July 2020, it did so with the promise that it would be a temporary measure, that the number of these stores would be limited and that they would only sell “high-end” products, as President Miguel Diaz-Canel described them.

More than a year later, and most notably after currency unification rollout in early 2021, most the country’s major retail outlets have become hard currency stores. You can get everything there from cigars to flip-flops, from shampoo to a rice cooker. The other option is the black market but prices there are even more exorbitant.

“I bought what I need for my daughter’s school from a woman who brought merchandise in from overseas. It cost me 3,000 pesos for the shoes and 2,000 for the backpack,” recounts another customer waiting in line to buy a bag. “But now I can breath easy, at least for a few months.”

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In Cuba, a New Reason to Line Up: To Buy Plastic Bags at 1 Peso to Sell Them for 4

Queue to buy nylon bags, at 17 y K, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerThe ritual of the line was extended this Tuesday to anyone who wanted to buy plastic bags. A long line dawned at the 17 y K food market, in the Havana neighborhood of El Vedado, where a jaba — a flimsy plastic bag — sold for one peso.

“They have already handed out the ‘tickets’ [that mark the places in line],” a woman told a man who came asking who was last in line. “Is this new? Now they also handing out turns to buy bags?” reproached the newcomer.

Shortly afterwards, in a corner of the central market, several street vendors hawked jabas at 4 pesos each. Some shoppers, who preferred not to line up, approached hesitantly and, in the end, ended up buying the bags at the black market price. continue reading

In a corner of the central market, several street vendors hawked the plastic bags at 4 pesos each. (14ymedio)

“Cuba is fighting climate change, we will get to the disappearance of plastic bags before anyone else,” said a woman sarcastically after buying five bags for 20 pesos.

The popular jabas are rarely seen in the state’s network of retail stores. They are absent not only from stores where people can pay in Cuban pesos, they are also scarce in hard currency stores, where the customer has to bring their own bags so as not to have to carry the products in their hands.

In Cuba, it is very common to find elderly or retired people selling plastic bags at the door of agricultural markets, bakeries and other businesses, and in this way to be able to have an extra income.

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Raul Castro and ‘His’ National History Award

Miguel Díaz-Canel collected an award which the undeserved winner himself had the modesty not to collect. (Granma)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor, Valencia, 11 October 2021 — The cult of personality of the Cuban revolutionary leaders provides, from time to time, hilarious information. Giving the National History Prize to Raúl Castro is that kind of macabre joke that comes from the communist island. Seeing Díaz Canel in a photograph in Granma, holding a large sign, where the name of the old revolutionary now retired from civil and political life appears, in a gesture of worship and, at the same time, of admiration, does not go unnoticed by anybody.

Good is what is good, but without a doubt we must ask ourselves: What reasons could exist for granting someone who is neither a historian nor has any idea of this discipline of social sciences a prize of these characteristics? How far do we have to watch the Island fall to the bottom, with these kinds of outbursts that are difficult to explain or justify?

The Cuban communist leaders are so used to doing whatever they want, without demanding any responsibility, that in this case they have overstepped the brakes. And turning Raúl Castro into a National History Prize winner, a historian, is a cruel joke, alien to any standard of reference and that turns this award, like everything they touch, into ashes. A pity, because surely other recipients of it and of the plethora of awards and medals will deserve them, but this is not the case with Raúl Castro.

In addition, the date chosen for the award, October 10, a key date in the history of Cuba that the communists strive to paint differently from how it really happened, and the collaboration of the Union of Cuban Historians are two ingredients with which it is intended to give the award and its recipient a recognition that has no justification.

As in all these cases, among the merits attributed to Raúl Castro by the jury is having lived. Basically, because the old revolutionary did not prepare a thesis, or research, article, document, or even letter or memo of continue reading

any value for history. Having lived “more than half a century as an exceptional protagonist of our history” is more than enough merit.

But in reality, of those 50 years, Raúl Castro lived more than 40 under the protective wing of his brother, without that projection that he wants to be recognized, so there is no justification for this merit. On the other hand, the jury believes that it obscures the second recognized merit, of which I insist, there are few references, and that it is “his permanent work in the interest of investigating and disseminating more and more, to which he has contributed through articles, books and speeches, among others.”

Raúl Castro has proven to be much more elegant than the cast of sycophants headed by Díaz-Canel who have managed the award for him, and for that reason, he did not even go to pick up the “diploma painting” with which Díaz Canel appears all happy in the photograph the State newspaper Granma, as if the prize was his.

Castro’s absence from the ceremony. held in the Great Hall of the University of Havana, may be saying several things and all of them are very important.

First, that he is fed up with everything and that he has no interest in returning to the arena.

Second, that he is unwilling to give more explicit public support to his dauphin, Díaz-Canel. That he was probably wrong in designating him, and that now, in difficult times when the national economy collapses, society protests and the leadership’s fear is on the rise, Fidel Castro’s brother is not going to show his face to protect anyone in an essay of the famous saying that “each must bear their own fate,” which can end in “every man for himself.”

Raúl Castro is not a historian, that is more than evident, but he is not stupid either, and he knows that in these moments in which the Homeland is facing a process that can lead to the democratic changes that Cuba needs, it is not advisable to make mistakes. His idea must be to pass away without suffering a political change that he does not want, but that he knows, precisely because he has lived for so many years, that it is very close and that it cannot be stopped.

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This text was originally published on the blog Cubaeconomía by the author, a Cuban economist living in Spain.

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