14ymedio

The Mystery of Cuban Cooking Oil Robberies: What Happened between Mariel and the Central Provinces?

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, 21 June 2021 — Four robberies in recent weeks of imported cooking oil intended for delivery to Sancti Spiritus — another six were from containers destined for Villa Clara — has set off alarm bells in the two central provinces’ government offices. The product is in short supply in stores and its price on the underground market has risen sharply, making it an attractive target for thieves, resellers and speculators.

14ymedio received reports that dozens of liters of oil had gone missing from shipping containers while being transferred from the port of Mariel. Thefts like these always follow a consistent pattern: the containers arrive at their final destination with some of the cargo missing, though never enough to be readily noticed.

“So far, the robberies have occurred only when soybean oil is being transported. I have not seen this happening with any other type of oil. We’re not talking about large quantities being stolen because the containers carry up to 140 boxes, with 12 liters in each,” a source close to the case, who prefers to remain anonymous, explained to 14ymedio. continue reading

“All the containers have GPS and the drivers report making stops at the 200 and 250-kilometer marks on the National Highway, in other words between Matanzas, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara,” the source adds. Along this stretch, drivers make stops at the many houses offering food or at state-owned restaurants knows as Conejitos.

“The drivers theorize that thieves open the trucks’ doors while the vehicles are on the highway and remove the boxes of oil,” he says.

The source, who worked for years handling these types of administrative procedures, finds this explanation implausible. There are only three links in the transportation and security chain: the Mariel port personnel who dispatch the oil, the truck driver and the person who receives the merchandise in at its final destination.

The oil being transported to the country’s central provinces carries the label Ecasol, which belongs to a Havana-based company that bottles imported oil. In this case, the oil came from Brazil with the label already applied.

Due to shortages over the past year, vegetable oil shipments have become almost clandestine. “No one trusts the companies in charge of moving it from place to place because too many workers are involved, so it all has to be done under a cloak of total secrecy.”

The one-liter bottles of vegetable oil ultimately end up in local stores where, just a year ago, sales were unrestricted. They can now be bought only with a ration card. Cooking oil, along with detergent and bath soap, are among the most popular and scarce consumer products in Cuba.

“Whoever is stealing the oil already knows what’s in the container,” asserts the source. “These trucks have two-layers of protection: a plastic seal [on the box] and a seal on the bottle that is plastic on the outside and metal on the inside. You need a pair of heavy-duty scissors to open the second seal.”

The source points out that breaking through a truck’s security barriers while the vehicle is in motion “is no easy task, especially if you’re talking about a forty-foot container with no room behind it to sit down.” Another reason for skepticism is the small quantities involved, almost always around forty boxes, though in one of the Santa Clara robberies, fifty-six were stolen. A run-of-the-mill thief “would not risk it for such a small amount. He’d have to steal half the container. And he could even be injured if the driver found out.”

On June 9, seventeen boxes were reported missing from container #TITU991435-0, “the equivalent of 204 plastic bottles of oil,” according to a document filed by a representatives from a group Sancti Spiritus companies whose job it is to confirm whether or not orders are complete upon arrival. The document cites broken seals and quantities not matching those indicated on the shipping manifest.

Vegetable oil is widely used in Cuban kitchens, especially sunflower, soybean and corn oils. It serves as a substitute for lard, which has become increasingly scarce due to a shortage of animal feed.

The country economic crisis and the rise in prices since last January have made the product unaffordable for many. In the eastern provinces a liter of oil goes for about 350 pesos but the price is likely to rise even more due to the shutdown of production plant in Santiago de Cuba, one of the sources supplying the underground market.

Last week the price of a pound of lard reached a new high of 90 pesos in the city of Cienfuegos. The increase was due, in large measure, to the scarcity of oil, which has forced many families to seek out other sources of fat to cook the country’s traditional dishes that include fried foods, sauces and sofritos.

Cubans have once again resorted to frying chicken skin to render out the fat, mixing mineral oil — widely used in industrial processes — with animal fat, and using other cooking methods such as boiling, sautéing and steaming. However, many are still trying to buy oil on the underground market and even from thieves who steal it somewhere between the port and the neighborhood stores.

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The Women of ‘Mr. Joe’s Tenement’ Demand Measures Against Floods

The residents of the “Mister Joe’s tenement,” in Calzada del Cerro, put their furniture and appliances outside after their houses were flooded. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, 29 June 2021 — A group of women went out to protest Monday afternoon at Calzada del Cerro, in Havana, after their homes were completely flooded by the heavy rains of the day. The photograph of three of them stopping traffic on the avenue with their furniture and refrigerators quickly spread through social networks.

“They went out to the street because the tenement was flooded again and everything got wet,” a neighbor in the area told 14ymedio. The women are residents of a tenement known as “el solar de Míster Joe,” after the name of a cafeteria at the entrance, located on Calzada del Cerro, between Auditor and San Pablo.

The women’s protest was broken up by the police, who immediately appeared at the scene, both on motorcycles and in patrol cars. However, according to one of the videos that circulated on the networks, the neighbors and some passers-by supported them when the officers intervened. continue reading

Later, trucks from the state company Aguas de La Habana (Havana Water Company) and the sanitation brigade arrived in the area to empty the building’s water tanks that had been filled with dirty water. Several members of the corps of social workers, dressed in green shirts, also showed up, staying in the area for at least an hour.

By seven in the evening, this newspaper was able to verify that the women had left and only some furniture and electrical appliances remained at the entrance to the site.

El Cerro has several low-lying areas that flood whenever there is rain, and residents have unsuccessfully demanded better a better sewer system from the provincial government. When solutions have been applied, they have been to solve the emergency, never the root of the problem.

In fact, it is not the first time that the residents of this tenement have come out to protest. In December 2018, they also took their furniture out onto the streets after suffering material losses due to the floods.

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It is Irresponsible to Offer Hope

A shared question: How much longer do we have to wait? (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, 29 June 2021 — The Cubans who inhabit the island receive hope from two sources. From the spheres of power they assure them that everything is under control, that the difficulties are transitory and that the country will not only come to the fore, but that it has not renounced development. On the other hand, it is announced that the end is near and it is almost proclaimed that the present generation will experience the transition to democracy.

The new forecasts on daily life issued by the official media are signs that the dynamics of deterioration no longer comes from stagnation but from regression. The need to present the ration book to buy groceries and cleaning products in stores not governed by the rationing system is just a sign. The fact that in Cuba it is difficult to acquire rum, cigars and coffee is evidence. Not to mention sugar, pork, or beer.

The symptoms of the disaster that foresee a collapse are manifested in the insolent repression that doesn’t hesitate to arrest an artist like Hamlet Lavastida, perhaps as a defiant response to the warnings of the European Parliament or as a demonstration of the fear they have of the new opposition currents. continue reading

It is not the first time that the country’s economic figures have hit rock bottom, nor is it the first time that the bosses have come under the pressure of sanctions. Nor is it new that the compulsion to emigrate finds new shortcuts as irrefutable proof of discontent. But neither is the spark lit to detonate the social explosion, nor do the differences in high places indicate that a fracture is approaching.

Neither the resurrection nor the final collapse are seen on the horizon of events. Every time I hear people say that “hope is the last thing to be lost,” I wonder if perhaps, because we have lost everything, we only have the last resort of hope.

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Residents Release Video on the Shocking State of the ‘Rubber Company Building’

14ymedio, Havana, June 27, 2021 — Residents of the “rubber company building” decided to take further action to draw attention to the deterioration of their building. One resident recorded a video this week that shows water running down walls and her neighbors criticizing inaction from officials. After dozens of complaints to authorities, the official response to their plight has been, “There is no cement in this country.”

The two-story building, which has five apartments on each floor, was built in 1997 to house employees of the Conrado Piña Rubber Company. Located in the Lotería neighborhood of Havana’s Cotorro district, the building has had almost no maintenance for more than two decades.

After years of filing appeals and complaints with numerous state agencies, this week the building’s residents turned to 14ymedio. To illustrate the problem, Marlene Hernández — one of the building’s residents — also created a videotape showing a very badly damaged roof, rainwater seeping into apartments, mold and flooded floors. continue reading

In the video Hernández, who has a law degree from the University of Havana, interviews several of her neighbors, who describe the daily challenges they face as a result of the building’s poor condition. These challenges are especially difficult in the summer months, when rainstorms are more frequent. Ketty, one of the building’s residents, puts it bluntly: “I haven’t been able to sleep because my throat is sore from all the humidity and mold. It’s terrible.”

The woman, who lives with her 10-year-old daughter, describes the situation in her apartment: “There are a lot of leaks. In the bathroom the water comes in through the light fixtures.” She says she has complained “to everyone” and has gone through “all official channels.” The response she has consistently received is that there is no cement. “My daughter cries a lot because she’s worried the roof will fall in.”

Another apartment in precarious condition belongs to 74-year-old Sergio Pedroso. “I live surrounded by water. I’ve lost everything. I live like a dog.” He explains that he does not have the freely convertible currency required to buy cement at the stores that carry it. “I don’t even have enough to buy food,” he says.

Currently, the only options for buying cement are on the underground market, where it goes for more than 1,000 pesos a bag, and at hard currency stores, where it costs $100 and is in short supply. It has not been seen at peso stores since 2018 and is rationed at state-run markets, where only flood victims may buy it.

The cement shortage has not been an issue for the Cuban government, however, which continues building multiple luxury hotels on the island. It is also erecting an enormous concrete flag in front of the American embassy in Havana, on the so-called Anti-Imperialist Platform.

In the seven-minute video, Marlene Hernández describes life in her own apartment, with a floor full of water, plastic sheets covering the furniture and a sofa where three people sleep to escape the constant dripping. The water-stained walls behind her serves as a backdrop.”We’ve been writing for five years, to housing authorities, to the National Assembly, to the Council of State and even to the Communist Party.”

“The replies have been laughable,” she says before launching into a desperate plea for help. “If the authorities are watching this video, let’s hope they find a solution instead of just coming up with excuses.”

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The Price of Low-Cost Housing Construction

The building is located in the Lotería neighborhood of Havana’s Cotorro district. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 23 June 2021 — Residents of the “rubber company building” do not know where else to take their complaints. The two-story edifice, located in the Lotería neighborhood of Havana’s Cotorro district, has ten apartments, five on each floor. It was built in 1997 to house employees of the Conrado Piña Rubber Company.

Residents have been complaining since 2016, when “a little thread of water” first appeared, indicating there was a leak in the roof. Water now inundates both the top and the bottom floors, especially during the rainy month of June.

Residents wrote to the Council of State, to various housing agencies, to the police, to the National Assembly and to official media organizations but none of them offered a solution. They then posted something on Facebook and, finally, someone agreed to answer questions from 14ymedio. continue reading

When construction began on the building, it was the era of the “National Program for Low Consumption of Resources and Energy.” This project by the National Institute of Housing and Energy was an attempt to address the decline in Cuban housing construction after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. It was the end of tall buildings, of pre-fab structures, of slip-formed concrete and all the various types of construction that required large investments.

This program was a product of the Special Period. The cruel joke at the time was that the dwellings built under this program were “low-cost houses for people of little importance.” Nevertheless, they continued to be allocated based on how many labor and social merits a potential resident had earned. In the case of two-story flats, an apartment was not the property of the tenant but rather what was known as a “basic medium,” which meant the company was no longer responsible for maintenance once it handed over the properties.

Things started getting worse at the twenty-year mark, when residents of a half-medium could “disengage” themselves from the company and assume ownership of the property. But a leaky roof does not happen by accident. It can be traced back to the type of construction, the quality of the materials, improper installation or poor maintenance.

The two-story “rubber building” was built in the 1990s to house employees of the Conrado Piña Rubber Company.

Residents describe how, in 1997, a work crew came to install the underlay for a waterproof membrane but never installed the membrane itself, which would have protected the roof. When the sun hit the thin surface of the underlay, it began to crack and water accumulated underneath it.

“We had to remove it ourselves because it only made the problem worse,” says Marlene Hernández, who lives in apartment #6, the first one on the top floor. And she has an another complaint: The roof does not have gutters, so rainwater runs down at a slight incline to its low point, which happens to be over her unit. “If they had let it slope to the edge of the roof, everything would be different, at least for me.”

Hernández has repeatedly posted her complaints on social media sites along with desperate calls for help. Several of her neighbors have joined the pleas on her Facebook page, including Ketty Quesada. “This is unbearable,” she writes. “Are they waiting for the roof to fall in?

The daughter of a neighbor on the floor below Hernández goes further: “I thought Cuba doesn’t abandon its own. Well, prove it with actions before it’s too late and something unfortunate happens.” She notes that the two-story building houses “workers and retirees who have contributed a lot to the Revolution.” She wonders, “Is this how they are repaid?”

So far the site has been visited by three specialists: two from the city agency in charge of housing and another from the community architect. All confirm that the problems are real but note that it is not in their power to fix them.

The consultants report that joints in the roof slabs need to be reinforced with P 350 cement. Agencies that could carry out the work, however, do not currently have this material on hand. The little cement that does come on the market from time to time goes to retail stores whose merchandise can only be purchased with debit cards linked to hard currency bank accounts, which the residents of this two-story apartment building do not have.

The issue of housing is the most intractable problem Cubans face. Finding another patron like the Soviet Union, which subsidized the Cuban state for thirty years, is not an option. Alternative solutions which relied on locally produced materials, do-it-yourself labor, and low-cost construction have only succeeded in degrading the urban environment.

Looking ahead, many hope that one day the forces of productivity will be unleashed and private companies will take over management of the building sector. What is preventing that from happening now are the limitations imposed by the state, which will not even authorize the creation of small and medium-sized housing construction companies.

While the waters find their level, one area in which construction activity is increasing, especially in the capital, is hotels. There is no shortage of tools or materials there. To guarantee quality, even the workers are even imported.

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Despite the Embargo, 10 Million Syringes Are En Route to Cuba from the U.S.

A volunteer participant in Phase 3 of the Abdala vaccine trial in Santiago de Cuba. (Sierra Maestra)

14ymedio, Madrid, 17 June 2021 – To immunize the Cuban population against Covid-19, along with those foreigners going for the “mojito with vaccine” vacation deal, the authorities have figured that between 20 and 25 million syringes will be needed. It is a goal could be within reach, given the donations – almost half the number and despite the embargo – that are coming from the U.S.

It is “Washington’s cruel and immoral embargo,” which is invoked by Edward Asner, American actor and member of Global Health Partners (GHP), an organization based in New York that is coordinating the donations. According to a recent statement by GHP, “the initiative is being handled through the Saving Lives campaign and includes dozens of local and national organizations – including MEDICC, DSA, CodePink [among those promoting the Nobel Peace Prize award to the Henry Reeve medical Brigade], IFCO, and the Center for Cuban Studies.” The group foresees taking around 10 million syringes in containers to “relieve the shortage caused by the U.S. embargo.”

Paradoxically, the association – which since its founding in the mid-70s, has launched various campaigns to fund medical projects in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in addition to Cuba – relies on a U.S. Department of Commerce export permit to realize the donations. The embargo impedes the ability of the Cuban state to buy the material, but at the same time, the American government itself facilitates the acquisition of the product without one cent being paid. continue reading

Asner – winner of multiple Grammies and Emmies, U.S. Army veteran, and fervent socialist – details in his fundraising letter the importance of thanking the Island for all it does for the world through its medical missions and pharmaceutical products. “With this track record and their solidarity, we are in an ideal position to make this syringe campaign a success,” Asner argues.

According to GHP calculations, a donation of $ 1,000 would enable the shipment of 28,571 hospital-grade syringes, $360 would be enough to vaccinate 10,265 people, and $150 would finance the transport of 4,285 syringes to the island’s health centers. To encourage giving, the organization reminds the reader that donations to this cause are tax-deductible.

According to Asner, GHP has already delivered to Cuba more than $190-million dollars in medicines and medical supplies that are in short supply – thus confirming that the distribution is ongoing, despite the embargo.

Europe is expected to send a shipment of similar volume. Europe is believed to be in a position to imminently supply an additional 10-million syringes, the result of a campaign coordinated by the solidarity network mediCuba-Europe, based in Agno (Switzerland) and the participation of member organizations from thirteen European States (Germany, Sweden, Italy , Ireland, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Finland, Norway, Spain and Austria). In addition, there are partner organizations from three other countries, the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands.

“The Cuban Ministry of Public Health has placed an order for 10 million syringes and needles for a total price of $800,000 euros, which we hope to finance thanks to European solidarity and the collaboration of the Swiss Embassy in Cuba (SDC),” reads the introductory text of this initiative.

This is the third campaign GHP have carried out since March 2020. Previously, the network has raised more than 600,000 euros together with 250,000 Swiss francs (about 230,000 euros) from that country’s embassy, in Cuba with which they have acquired fans, laboratory reagents for PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests, and laboratory equipment for the production of vaccines on the Island.

Now, for the syringes campaign, the same embassy has raised about 380,000 Swiss francs, and members of the GHP network continue to gather support. The latest known data has been provided by Sodepaz, a promoter in Spain that aims to supply three million syringes, and on June 10 placed at 2,643,000 the number it can send with its collection. In the European context, the goal of the 10 million may have been exceeded, since as of April 27, it had already garnered 6,500,000 syringes.

MediCuba-Europa boasts that their shipments have contributed recently to the development of five vaccine candidates. “This is a considerable achievement of the health system and of national scientific institutions, which demonstrates not only the high level of quality and strong professional commitment of the island’s research community, but also the will and tenacity of the authorities to guarantee health care and services to the entire population, despite a precarious economic situation exacerbated by the deepening of economic, financial, and commercial measures imposed by the Government of the United States of America – that is, the illegal, arbitrary blockade, inhumane and against international law, as the United Nations General Assembly remembers it every year,” they argue.

The Island’s government has not wanted for aid from Latin America either. Albeit more modest, the region’s campaigns have managed to collect almost five million syringes from different countries, as confirmed to Prensa Latina by Humberto Pérez of the board of the Martiana Association of Cuban Residents of Panama (AMCRP).

The Panamanian organization raised money from Cubans, pro-Castro groups, unions, politicians, businessmen, and parties in countries such as El Salvador, Bolivia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and Uruguay.

“On April 3, we sounded the call in Panama, based on an idea that emerged in Canada last year,” said Pérez, who collected 900,000 syringes from his country alone that have already been arriving in Cuba.

Thus the idea proceeded from the north of the continent, which has also collected almost two million more of the product. The campaign started in Canada on January 8 and already by April 1 the Canadian Network of Solidarity with Cuba announced the arrival of 1,920,000 syringes.

Nor is Argentina absent, having on June 1 sent a shipment of 380,000 syringes and 359,000 needles to Havana. “The contribution of the Argentine Movement of Solidarity with Cuba (MasCuba), the Union of Cuban Residents in Argentina (URCA) and other groups sensitized to the Cuban cause, was fundamental to the ability of carrying out this work, which is of a deeply human nature,” said the Cuban official press.

Although possibly one of the most peculiar campaigns is the one that comes from a pro-Castro YouTuber and blogger known as Guajiro Citadino, who raised about $10K for syringes through a project which, curiously, he named “Patria o Muerte” [“Homeland or Death“].

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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Cuban Artist Hamlet Lavastida Detained in Villa Marista and ‘Under Investigation’

Lavastida returned to the Island after completing his residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2021 — The Cuban artist Hamlet Lavastida is being held in Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana, and is under an “investigation process,” according to what the authorities told his mother by telephone on Saturday night.

Lavastida returned to Cuba from Germany on June 21, after finishing his residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien gallery, Berlin, and had already completed the regulatory isolation for Covid-19 in one of the centers authorized by the Government in the Flores district.

His friend, the poet Katherine Bisquet, denounced from the early hours of this Saturday the presence of State Security in the isolation center and said the artist had not gotten in the taxi that was waiting for him to get home. continue reading

“Right now the artist Hamlet Lavastida, after his arrival in Havana six days ago, is on his last day in the isolation center for Covid, in Flores, in the municipality of Playa. Hamlet called me half an hour ago to notify me of Security agent Darío’s the visit to the center,” Bisquet wrote on his social networks.

Lavastida is one of the most relevant artists of his generation and in recent months he has maintained a front-and-center position against the regime by denouncing the repression that his Cuban colleagues have experienced, especially since last November 27. Between 2011 and 2015, Lavastida lived outside the island and was prohibited from entering the country as a result of his public statements that upset the authorities.

The host of the national television newscast, Humberto López, mentioned Hamlet Lavastida in his February 8 broadcast, titled: How to finance subversion in Cuba. López showed a screenshot of an idea that the artist had proposed, and it consisted of making some designs for the banknotes. The presenter did not mention, in this case, that this idea was considered a crime, but wondered to what extent the action could become “harmful” for society.

Dozens of Cuban artists, both inside and outside the island, have denounced Lavastida’s arrest on social media. One of them was Lester Álvarez, who affirmed that the only reason why Lavastida is under arrest today is for “freely expressing his opinion on the authoritarianism of the Cuban government.”

“His dignity and extraordinary talent lacks any duplicity and once again demonstrate the truth of his position against Cuban government crime,” added the visual artist, who lives in Spain.

His colleagues Camila Lobón, Julio Llopiz-Casal, Carlos Lechuga, Carlos Aníbal Alonso, Raychel Carrión, Reynier Leyva Novo, Coco Fusco, Carolina Barrero, among others, have also demanded the artist’s release.

According to filmmaker Carlos Quintela, Lavastida “has always been a frank guy” and there is no need to investigate “what he himself has made public.”

“His convictions have always been very clear, I even think that when we studied Japanese together in the Hitoshi chair at ISA we learned to say: ‘Down with the Cuban dictatorship,'” Quintela recalls.

In 2018 Lavastida participated in the Biennial 00, convened by Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara from the Museum of Dissidence, along with other artists such as Tania Bruguera, Gerardo Mosquera, Celia & Yunior, Alexander Arrechea, Ernesto Oroza, Jesús Hernández Güero, Lázaro Saavedra, Chino Novo and Henry Erick.

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With Almost 2,700 New Covid-19 Cases in One Day, Cuba Breaks its Infection Record Again

Since the pandemic began in March of last year, Cuba has detected 182,354 positive cases. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2021 — Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health reported 2,698 new Covid-19 infections this Sunday, a figure that is the highest daily number of cases detected, exceeding the previous high of last Friday, of 2,464.

Since the pandemic began in March of last year, Cuba has detected 182,354 positive cases, according to health authorities, who also confirmed that the fatalities left by Covid-19 amount to 1,219, ten of them in the last 24 hours.

The provinces with the most critical health crises are Matanzas, Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey and Ciego de Ávila. These provinces added 1,173 cases this Sunday.

In Matanzas, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, met with local leaders on Sunday “to analyze the complicated epidemiological situation” of the territory and “the main measures to be reinforced to face the pandemic,” reported the health authorities on Twitter. continue reading

Matanzas, in the last seven days, registered 2,158 infections with a record this Sunday of 657 cases. Among those confirmed in the last week are people who have already received all three doses of Cuba’s own candidate vaccine Abdala.

The provincial authorities recognized that among the main causes of the rebound are “the lack of control at the municipal and provincial borders, relaxation of the investigations, work centers where the necessary hygienic protocols are not taken, and crowds in the streets.”

At the beginning of last April, after reports published on social networks about several sudden deaths in the Matanzas municipality of Jagüey Grande, the Health authorities were forced to release a statement that sought to deny the alleged deaths from “fulminant pneumonia.” They insisted that that territory had registered an increase in positive cases of Covid-19.

A few days later, the Ministry announced that “five variants and six mutational patterns of 614 (the initial Wuhan strain)” had been found on the island. The strains from South Africa and California, the ones with the highest penetration in the country, were confirmed as “highly contagious and highly associated with increased mortality.”

In other provinces such as Santiago de Cuba and Artemisa, local authorities have chosen this week to prohibit the entry and exit of people as one of the measures to stop the rise in infections.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, there are currently 38,924 patients admitted to hospitals, of them 8,447 are suspected of being infected, 18,294 are under observation and 12,184 people are confirmed with the disease. Of those confirmed in the last day, 2,579 were contacts of confirmed cases; 37 patients arrived from abroad and 82 had no specified source of infection.

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Cuba’s Electrical Union Announces Daily Four Hour Blackouts This Summer in Cuba

Cubans will spend four hours daily without electricity for an indeterminate time that could last until August. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 June 2021 — Electric power cannot ‘lift its head’ and jumps from one crisis to another. It has only been a month since supply issues in May led to the suspension of work in non-essential businesses and now the Electrical Union is warning that the Cubans will face four-hour daily blackouts.

“As reported on Saturday, the 19th of this month, the technological limitations in the thermal generation blocks, together with the units that need maintenance, led to the breakdowns that occurred in recent hours, and the limitations on the distribution of fuel to the generator groups of the distributed generation have affected electricity service,” the state company said on Wednesday.

The different provincial delegations of the electricity company communicate daily the regulated zones and schedules in an impossible attempt to calm the population, which trembles at the possibility that the situation will continue during July and August, months with infernal heat when, especially at certain times, it can be unbreathable to live without a fan or air conditioner. continue reading

The fears are not unfounded. Lázaro Guerra Hernández, technical director of the Electricity Union, said on television that “in the summer months, basically in August,” there could be better conditions to “cover the demand and minimize the effects on the electricity service.”

The engineer argued that the problems are caused by the limitations in the generation capacity of thermal plants and engines that run on fuel, the Island’s major sources of energy.

“Five blocks have been designated to organize the service so as to, in some way, guarantee that each circuit is not affected for more than four hours,” he apologized.

The Electricity Union assures that it is working “uninterruptedly” to solve the breakdowns and apologizes for the inconvenience, but none of this has appeased Cubans, who complain about a service that has become more expensive in recent times and whose quality is far from the minimum requirements.

At the beginning of the year, with the start of the Ordering Task,* the rise in the electricity rates came into force, which was lower than initially expected precisely because of the discomfort raised by the announced figures. The amounts, in any case, have remained high for the majority of Cubans, even more so considering the frequent problems in receiving supplies.

The National Office for the Control of the Rational Use of Energy has been urging for almost two years to reduce consumption with the “Save Now” campaign, but the pandemic and prolonged stays at home have frequently prevented meeting the objectives. The majority of consumption comes, in any case, from industries and not from small consumers.

The lack of fuel, which arrives in smaller quantities from Venezuela despite constant shipments, is affecting electricity generation and the plan to replace production with green energy is slow, even more so than in many other countries, since that citizens have little opportunity to manage their own consumption with solar panels, due to the difficulties in importing them, and wind farms are a long-term strategy.

The Government intends to change its energy matrix by 2030 with the intention that 2% of the island’s energy (around 2,300 megawatts) will come from renewable sources, mainly from bioelectric plants and solar parks. Meanwhile, Cubans continue to live with the blackouts.

*Translator’s note: The so-called ‘Ordering Task’ (Tarea ordenamiento) 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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Scooter Owners in Santiago de Cuba Want Licenses for ‘Carrying Passengers’

“What is within my reach as a means of income is my electric motorcycle,” says this Santiago resident who left state employment decades ago. (L. Ribot)

14ymedio, Alberto Hernandez, Santiago de Cuba, 24 June 2021 — At 65 years of age, Alberto is far from being able to enjoy retirement. His greatest aspiration at this time is for authorities to legalize private transportation for all kinds of motorcycles. “What is within my reach as a means of income is my electric motorcycle,” say this Santiago resident who left state employment decades ago and who each day encounters more difficulties in sustaining himself economically.

“I am an engineer, and I stopped working for the State in 1993, during the Special Period. Then I was only earning 280 pesos [a month], which equaled 2.33 dollars. For that reason I dedicated myself to looking for my daily bread illegally in the streets, in different types of businesses,” he explains. “Today, after almost three decades and with the monetary reorganization, I find myself in a complex situation economically, having no legal income or retirement.”

The third stage of registration of mopeds and electric motorcycles began on the Island on June 7 and will run until December 31, 2022. Owners of scooters [called ‘motorinas‘ in Cuba] did not have to register but now they do, and they must get the driver’s license and license plate. continue reading

Alberto already went through the process, the same one that is required of those who get about with gasoline engines, and he has everything ready. But the permission to operate as a private carrier with these vehicles does not exist.

“Incorporating scooters into passenger transportation would be a good way out of my financial situation and an economical alternative for those without a job, like me,” he argues. “Including electric transport, it would be a great help at those times in Santiago de Cuba when gas is scarce, something that has been happening often.”

The only electric transportation authorized for cargo and passengers is tricycles, which can carry out this activity since April 1 of this year, according to a rule by the Ministry of Transportation.

“I wish they would give me a transportation license to carry passengers on my wife’s scooter in my free time, since I work as a custodian one day and rest two,” says Oscarito, who works in a state parking lot and also needs extra pay at a time in which the crisis has become even worse, and the work regulation has increased the cost of living in Cuba.

“I urgently need another source of income, because since prices increased, I feel suffocated, and the salary barely counts. In my job they keep an electric tricycle, and this equipment they do allow to operate as private transportation,” he emphasizes and asks why the same treatment is not given to scooters.

Miguel Angel, owner and driver of an electric motorcycle, laments that his machine, having the same appearance as a gas-powered motorcycle, is excluded from this type of license only because it runs on electricity. “My scooter is a Puma of the same model as the gasoline Puma, and even so they have not authorized me to carry passengers,” he protests.

In an absence of regulation, there are those who risk taking action without having any license. “I bought an electric Puma with the idea of doing business with it. I use it for carrying passengers and I always have to look out for the police, but so far I have been lucky,” says Rodolfo, a 52-year-old driver who refuses to wait for a legal change.

“I wish they would authorize private transportation for those of us who have scooters, to be able to work legitimately, but I can’t take it anymore with the slowness of those who make the laws in this country.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

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Cuban Bishops Condemn Teaching of ‘Gender Ideology’ in Schools

The bishops ask that sexual education be supervised by parents and that they “be able to choose for their children the pedagogical style, the ethical and civic contents and, if they wish, the religious inspiration with which they want to raise them.” (Andrew Anderson)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 June 2021 — On Sunday, the Cuban bishops released a message in which they demand that the right of parents to educate their children be “recognized and respected,” especially in matters of sexuality and ethical or civic content.

The demand is based on what they consider an attempt to introduce “the so-called ’gender ideology’” into Cuba, based on the publication of a government resolution that approves a comprehensive sexuality education program in the National Education System, with a focus on gender and sexual and reproductive rights.

The standard was endorsed last February and will be integrated into the curriculum at all levels in the coming year. In it, education on sexual and reproductive rights, sexual diversity and a gender approach is defended, which, in the opinion of the bishops, is far from Cuba’s history and cultural tradition. continue reading

The Catholic Church believes that this issue concerns parents and calls for a “broad and participatory” debate in which everyone can learn and have an opinion on the matter. In the Church’s opinion, “’gender ideology’ has the pretense of being scientific knowledge” but “it is a closed system of thought” that “teaches that a human being, even from his earliest age, could choose his own sexual identity, regardless of the biological sex they were born with. ”

For this reason, they ask that sexual education be supervised by parents and that they “be able to choose for their children the pedagogical style, the ethical and civic contents and, if they wish, the religious inspiration with which they want to raise them.”

“Let us not get discouraged when, at times, everything around us seems to go against the family institution. Let us not lose our strength when we have to swim against the current,” they ask.

The message, which was issued on Father’s Day, calls on the Ministry of Education to reconsider the content of the rule and considers that it may have “serious consequences” in the training of minors and “an inevitable conflict in the conscience of a significant number of parents, teachers and students” for “being subjected to teachings that contradict their deepest convictions.”

The bishops review Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love) on love and the family, which he published in 2016 and in which he criticized that there were “educational projects and legislative guidelines that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically unrelated to biological diversity between men and women.”

The text was very controversial at the time, for inviting the divorced to again take communication, and being in favor of “a positive and prudent sexual education” for minors “as their age advances” and “taking into account the progress of psychology, pedagogy and didactics” although it questioned what was being done.

The Cuban bishops have positive words for other norms approved by the authorities to protect the family, and they refer specifically to “laws (…) such as the one that allows working women to enjoy facilities at their work during the time of their maternity; the effort made to reduce infant mortality; guaranteed vaccines for every child at birth; that children have school and medical care; and that grandparents have their Homes for the Elderly and their University for the Elderly, among others.”

In its message, the high clergy also spoke to the families that have suffered the scourge of the Covid-19 pandemic and for those who, in addition to their own families, care about their community and help the elderly, prisoners and drug addicts.

“We cannot fail to recognize with regret that Cuban families have been suffering various attacks,” says the letter, which considers the lack of medicine, housing and food among the great evils, along with divorces and abortions. “We Bishops want all of us, as citizens, to be more effectively involved in solving these evils.”

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In Cuba, Pinar del Rio Police Increase Operations Against Resellers

According to the authorities, in recent days a score of coleros have been located, mainly linked to the resale of products that are sold in stores in freely convertible currency. (Ministry of Interior)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 June 2021 — It is not new that the Cuban state’s battle against resellers, acaparadores (hoarders), and and coleros (people who stand in line for others), has moved into digital territory, but it grows in the heat of the expansion of the internet and the shortage of products. In Pinar del Río, the number of police operations against sales through social networks now rises to 15 a week, the result of a hundred complaints in the same period, as announced this Thursday by Colonel Julio Díaz Rodríguez, delegate of the Ministry of Interior in the province.

The officer participated in a meeting of the group in charge of supervising the ’Ordering Task’* in the province, which was attended by Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa. Díaz revealed that more than 500,000 actions have been carried out, of which at least 1,000 were related to hoarding, and that about twenty coleros have been located, mainly linked to the resale of products that are sold in stores in freely convertible currency (MLC).

The meeting also spoke of 3,261 price and rate violations among state and private workers who fail to comply with Decree 30 published at the end of January. The authorities highlighted that in the municipality of Pinar del Río there is a trend to increase fines for this type of infraction. continue reading

Since last year, the Government has carried out a fierce persecution against the informal market as a result of the acute economic crisis that the country is experiencing due to the pandemic. The official media have echoed the police operations while the authorities do not miss the opportunity to hold the violators responsible for the worsening of the shortages and to issue warnings.

Specifically, a television report broadcast from Pinar del Río last August, detailed the offensive against an informal merchant who used Facebook to promote her merchandise, most of it imported. The seller , prosecuted for the crime of “illegal economic activity and bribery”, used sites or forums on the internet “to promote the sale of these products.”

On December 31, 2013, the sale of imported clothing, footwear and other products was prohibited in Cuba. Until that moment, a growing private business of sale of merchandise from countries such as Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua and Haiti spread throughout the island. The activity had proliferated under the protection of the “dressmaker” or “tailor” licenses. The ban on this trade plunged thousands of sellers into the black market.

In September of last year, the police in Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus, exposed last year a network that sold basic necessities on digital platforms. One of the ten defendants was sentenced to ten months of deprivation of liberty for “illicit economic activity.” The authorities also identified 28 coleros, who were give official warnings.

In the same province, months before this operation, the newspaper Escambray published a report saying that the police had identified 89 coleros, who were prosecuted or warned. It also referred to the dismantling of a network of 14 hoarders, who sold personal hygiene products, food and also household electrical equipment, items that are sold in stores that only take MLC. On that occasion, three people were accused of illicit economic activity and disobedience.

In December 2020, the newspaper was able to capture on video a raid in the capital carried out against informal vendors who offered cleaning products and household supplies in the municipality of Centro Habana. They carried out the operation on the corner of Neptuno and Galiano, two of the capital’s main arteries where the black market is a very common activity.

#Cuba | En la céntrica esquina de las calles Neptuno y Galiano en La Habana las autoridades hicieron una redada policial contra vendedores informales que ofertan, especialmente, productos de aseo y útiles domésticos. Manténgase informado con nosotros. pic.twitter.com/NqpricB9DU

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) December 1, 2020

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Cubans Selling Their Few Belongings to Fly to Moscow: ‘I Prefer Putin’s Russia’

Clara Elsi Felipe, Juan Carlos de la Cruz, Pavel Roque, Marco Antonio Herrera y Rafael Casete, Cuban migrants in Russia. (El País/María Sahuquillo)

14ymedio, Havana, June 19, 2021 — The economic crisis and pandemic-related travel restrictions have turned the compass of Cuban emigration towards Russia, which offers two advantages: there are no visa requirements and there are several flights there a week. As a result, thousands of Cubans are traveling to Moscow, hoping either to stay there permanently or to continue on to another European country.

“I don’t want to live through another Special Period like the one in the 1990s. I don’t want to think about having to eat my cat if things keep going this way,” says Raudel, a 35-year-old man who on Thursday was looking into buying tickets between Varadero and a Russian airport. “I have a cousin there who will help me get started,” he tells 14ymedio.

“He told me I’ll be getting there at a good time because it’s summer. But before temperatures drop, I have to look for a place to live and find a job, though it will be illegal,” he explains. Raudel does not speak a word of Russian or any language other than Spanish. “I’ll learn it onsite, which is the best way, by interacting with people,” he says. continue reading

However, testimonies from hundreds of Cubans who have been living in Moscow for a few years — people either waiting to legalize their status or to continue their migration to the European Union — paint a picture quite different from the one Raudel imagines. Last year, a group of Russian citizens launched an online campaign to alleviate the suffering of several Cubans stranded on the streets of Moscow.

The pandemic has created an unexpectedly precarious situation for these migrants as well as for the “mules” who come to Russia to buy merchandise to resell on Cuba’s informal market. Some end up living on the streets or in apartments with no heat, conditions which make surviving the harsh Russian winter difficult.

“We, as Moscow residents, appeal to Moscow’s government and the Cuban Consulate in the Russian Federation to provide accommodation at little or no cost in student housing in the Moscow region for fifty Cuban citizens who have been unable to fly home due to pandemic,” the text reads.

“At this time, people are being evicted from their apartments, some have been living on the street for a month,” it adds. “The Cuban embassy does not have financial means to provide housing for its citizens [and this] is an opportunity to safely house these Cubans in student residences.”

Among those stranded are entire families, including minors, who liquidated everything to set forth on this expedition. They were not told, before leaving Cuba, of the strict border controls between this vast country and eastern Europe, of the hard ice they would have to cross to reach the Bering Strait or of the difficulties of learning Russian.

Several cases of human trafficking have been reported in which Cubans were met at International Sheremetyevo Airport, housed for a short time by an extensive network and put on fishing boats which took them across the Bering Strait to Alaska. Some were intercepted en route. Others — no one knows how many — may be resting under the ice in one of the coldest regions on the planet.

The same level of despair can be seen today. “I am selling rubles at 74 Cuban pesos, for your trip to Russia,” reads one posting on several of the island’s digital classifieds sites. Now that Cubans can no longer deposit dollars in their bank accounts, informal moneychangers are fishing in troubled waters. They even offer to convert American currency into thousands and thousands of Russian banknotes.

“Flights from Varadero to Moscow with accommodation, accompaniement and advice included. I am Cuban and can help you get to this great country and guide you on how to stay or continue elsewhere,” says an ad that appears in several Telegram groups. The offer includes room rental for about $ 40 a day, contact with people who supposedly “organize the documents” and legal help.

But before flying to Russia, the island’s residents must first show that they have made a pre-paid reservation to stay at a Covid confinement hotel upon their return. “The money adds up. It’s one more expense,” says a young woman in the same Telegram group. “But it’s the price of freedom. When you are desperate, you go to any length and you somehow find the money, even if there isn’t any, which is the case with me.”

“I’m going to try it because I have nothing to lose,” she adds. “I live with my grandparents and right now there’s nothing to eat at my house. If I don’t go, who will help them?” It should be noted that slave labor and forced prostitution networks are often hide behind posts like these.

“If it’s a choice between having to sleep with the butcher so he’ll sell me some eggs or going to Moscow, I’ll go to Moscow, the young woman writes. “I wasn’t alive during the Special Period but, based on what everyone has told me, it’s not something I want to experience.” So far, she has sold her mobile phone, laptop and a “living room suite” to pay for the trip.

“I prefer Putin’s Russia,” she says, although, like most of those who set out on this journey, she does not speak the language, has little knowledge of the country and does not even have a relative or friend to support her once she gets there.

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Cuban Reporter Covering the Rape Case of a Minor Arrested for 24 Hours

The journalist was arrested this Thursday around two in the afternoon outside the Western Army Military Court in Arroyo Naranjo. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 18 June 2021 — Writer Jorge Enrique Rodríguez, a journalist for Diario de Cuba and a collaborator of the International Institute of Artivism Hannah Arendt (Instar), was released this Friday after being detained for 24 hours.

The journalist was arrested this Thursday around two in the afternoon outside the Western Army Military Court in Arroyo Naranjo, where the trial was held against six people accused of sexually abusing a child under 13 years of age, which took place in September of last year.

Rodríguez, who had not been heard from in 24 hours, tells 14ymedio that he was taken to the nearby El Capri station. “Members of the family of those involved were outside, and very aggressive,” he says. “All this time, they have said that the fault lies with the girl and her mother because they uploaded the complaint to social networks. When verifying that I was the journalist who was following the case, they got their contacts involved. A patrol car arrived immediately, one of the relatives approached it and the officer apparently called State Security. A few minutes later a female officer arrived, arrested me and took me to the station.” continue reading

When he arrived at the station, the journalist continues, he asked the reason for his arrest, and they answered that “it was because he was taking photos,” but Rodríguez denies it: “That is false, it was all a story the family of the accused made up.”

The girl’s mother, Cleida García Díaz, tells this newspaper that she herself has now “received death threats”

The girl’s mother, Cleida García Díaz, whom Cenesex (National Center for Sexual Education) contacted to investigate her case after the complaint she made in independent media, assures this newspaper that right now she has now received “death threats.”

“It was around seven o’clock at night when I left at the end of the trial, and all the relatives of the six accused were outside and they insulted me and told me that they were going to kill me,” he says. “The police officers who were there asked me to get in the car quickly, I did so and we immediately left.”

She also says that her husband had to be taken through the back door of the court, “through the exit where the prosecutors leave,” because the situation at that time “got ugly… Immediately, the whole block was full of patrol cars because the family members became very aggressive,” she points out.

The woman, who lives in the municipality of El Cotorro, in Havana, says that she filed a complaint about the threats, so that the police would be aware of everything and record the facts. “Now I rarely go out because I have a newborn baby, but I told them that I was not going to hide. What happened was very serious, they attacked me when I was leaving the court with my baby in my arms and they threatened me, it was horrible.”.

The woman, who lives in the Havana municipality of El Cotorro, says that she filed a complaint about the threats, so that the police would be aware of everything and record the facts

García specifies that the prosecutor’s office is asking for 21 years and six months for the three defendants who were undergoing military service at the time of the attack against his daughter, and 21 years for the other three, but the final sentence won’t be determined until July 5^th.

“I spoke the whole truth in court: that my daughter was threatened and harassed by these men. At the trial they reproached me because I made a complaint to the independent press, but I told them that I did it and that I do not regret it, because at that moment all the doors were closed and no one was giving me any answers. Where was my country at that moment that abandoned me like that?” she cries out.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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The Dollar Remains Legal in Cuba though Banks No Longer Accept Cash Deposits

Customers wait in line outside a bank amid uncertainty created by an announcement that cash deposits of dollars would no longer be accepted. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, June 21, 2021 — Some of the unknowns that have hung over the island in the last ten days began to lift today, which marked the start of a suspension on certain types of dollar transactions. Though banks will no longer allow customers to make cash deposits of U.S. currency, the dollar remains legal tender and is so omnipresent in the lives of Cuban citizens that it is reasonable to think it will enjoy a long life on the informal market, especially because foreign visitors who arrive on the island with this currency sustain it.

Cubans still believe it is safe to hold dollars because, come what may, U.S. currency remains the universal standard for the time being. Conversely, the convertible peso virtually disappeared, at least officially, months ago. It has been gone from everyday life even longer than that, in anticipation of its eminent demise.

As for the Cuban peso, its value overseas is zero, a victim of inflation caused by the country’s ongoing economic and financial crisis. Not even government officials seem to have faith in it. Paradoxically, they now require Cubans to use the dollar even when purchasing the most basic consumer products. continue reading

On June 10 authorities announced that banks would no longer accept cash deposits in dollars, claiming the government has been unable to use the banknotes it has been accumulating due to international sanctions. Banks will, therefore, only accept deposits and transfers in other currencies as of June 21.

A couple of days later, the vice-president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Francisco Mayobre Lence, said in a TV interview that tourists would no longer be able to change cash dollars. They will need a different currency to pay for expenses or will have to use one of the international credit cards accepted on the island. (The U.S. embargo prohibits the use of cards issued in the United States.)

The state-owned Cuban currency exchange company, Cadeca, has also begun selling pre-paid cards in 200, 500 and 1,000-dollar denominations at its bureaus in resort destinations. Cuban customers can buy them by first presenting a passport, which must be renewed every two years. Dollars are still legal, however, and it is quite possible that travelers will continue introducing them as cash into the country’s economy.

Tourists buy a large number of alternative products and services — from guided tours to private taxi rides to black market cigars — which private entrepreneurs (whose existence only recently became legal) sell them for dollars.

Most of these activities are illegal but the practice is open, widespread and generally tolerated, even though the number of American visitors, who are usually the ones carrying this currency, remain very low.

Cuban-American visitors to the island can be also be relied upon to carry cash remittances into the country which they would have previously sent from overseas. Those dollars will end up on the black market, where ’mules ’and would-be emigres are eager to acquire them, though at the moment the only destination to which anyone is allowed to travel is Russia.

While many people began waiting in line outside banks at dawn on the day after the government’s announcement, there was no indication of a huge rush to unload the currency.

“Why should I keep this money if I won’t be able to use it after this date?” asked a young man waiting outside the entrance to branch bank on June 11. He was one of many who were there to hand over their savings in an operation reminiscent of the so-called houses of gold and silver.

In the 1980s people exchanged their jewelry and precious gemstones at these government-run stores in exchange for vouchers which they could use to buy clothing, footwear and home appliances.

Last Thursday there was also a run on euros in Miami, which were already in short supply in many of the city’s branch banks. They saw a stampede of Cuban immigrants eagerly buying euro coins to send to their relatives on the island. However, many Cubans there remain cautious. The euro is not experiencing the meteoric rise that was predicted on the first day, nor are dollars flying out of peoples’ hands. Instead, most are waiting to experience firsthand the tangible absence of a currency that has ruled their lives for so long.

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