14ymedio

‘Cuba Will Either Have a Free Cinema or None at All,’ Says Cuban Actor

García said his young colleagues had renewed his faith and taught him how to “fight for ideas that you believe in.” (Captura/Asamblea de Cineastas)

14ymedio, Havana, August 3, 2023 — During Tuesday’s opening ceremony at the Gibara International Film Festival in Holguín province, Cuban actor Luis Alberto García dedicated his Lucía de Honor award to the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers. In a controversial acceptance speech, which was ignored in official media coverage of the event, the artist alluded to the ability of young filmmakers to explore utopian visions, concluding his remarks by saying, “We will either have a free cinema or none at all.”

García, who in recent decades has emerged as one of Cuban cinema’s most prominent figures, alluded to the tension between cultural officials and the Assembly, with which he has been involved since Televisión Cubana broadcast an unauthorized, censored version of Juan Pin Vilar’s documentary La Habana de Fito (Fito’s Havana). “For now, it doesn’t matter that they don’t understand it. For now, it doesn’t matter that there are suspicions, that they make us invisible. I want to share my prize with all those girls and boys,” he said.

“When you believe in something, you have to fight,” he added, saying that the organization’s young members had renewed his faith and taught him how to “fight for ideas that you believe in.” Attendees at the event reponded with applause.

“The young have an immense ability to dream and to bring utopian visions to life,” he said in reference to Humberto Solás, founder of the Gibara Poor Film Festival and director of the iconic Cuban film Lucía, for which the award was named.

Solás was only 27-years old when he directed the film, which García recalled was “barely five months after the events of May 1968 in Paris,” a reference to a series of protests led largely by students, intellectuals and artists, and which had wide cultural repercussions throughout the world. continue reading

In his speech García also alluded to several Holguín artists: the writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante — a critic of Fidel Castro who was born in Gibara and exiled in 1965 — the painter Luis Catalá and the documentarian Armando Capó, both of whom were also born in the town of Villa Blanca de los Cangrejos.

“This is the place [Solás] chose and which, fortunately, you are keeping alive because dreams are kept alive,” he added in his tribute to the festival’s organizers. The event, inaugurated by Solás in 2003, followed the Cuban economic debacle of the 1990s and was dedicated to the concept of a “poor cinema.”

Solás, known for making “the most expensive flims in Cuban cinema,” nevertheless championed the idea of films made on modest budgets, explained Sergio Benevento Solás, the director’s nephew and current festival president.

The festival quickly positioned itself as somewhat of alternative to another film festival — New Latin American Cinema — held in Havana. Over the years it gained prominence, swapping out “poor cinema” in its name for “international.” The local tourism industry has also benefited from the arrival of hundreds of foreign filmmakers who come to Gibara for the yearly event.

Last August, 14ymedio interviewed one of the young attendees at the event who described the festival as “an oasis in the middle of the desert in which we find ourselves.” At that time, the exodus of important Cuban filmmakers from the Island and the lack of resources impacted the festival, which has often been treated as an “official vacation” and paid for by the state.

Also receiving a Lucía de Honor award was costume designer Violeta Cooper, who worked on several Solás films including Honey for Ochún and The Century of Lights. Also honored was the actor Jorge Perugorría,* creator of the Lucía awards and honorary president of the festival, who did not attend the ceremony because he is currently working in Spain.

For its part, the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers, which includes most notably Fernando Perez, have taken increasingly firm steps. The controversy surrounding La Habana de Fito led officials from the Communist Party and the Ministry of Culture to meet on several occasions —not without friction — with the filmmakers. The tension ultimately led to the dismissal of the president of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), Ramón Samada, and the revival of several of the most important positions in Cuban cinema.

*Translator’s note: Arguably, Cuba’s most famous living actor, most notably for his role in the 1993 film Strawberry and Chocolate.
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Cubans Will Have Water Before Fidel Castro’s Birthday, Authorities Promise

14ymedio, Havana, August 3, 2023 — The water pumps that Havanans eagerly awaited to alleviate the chaotic situation of this service in the capital have already arrived. In Havana, 18 will be installed, as announced on Wednesday by the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) and reported by the official press. In addition, another four will go to the Isle of Youth. The breaks, deficiencies and failures in the system have already affected more than 80,000 people, according to the authorities.

The works began this Tuesday with the incorporation of the first two pumps in the capital, and in the coming days more devices will be placed in the most affected pumping stations, which is expected to benefit the coastal municipalities of Cojímar and Guanabacoa.

The authorities estimate that the water supply in La Lisa, Playa and a part of Marianao should also improve, for which the supply systems of Rincón 3 and Mauline are expected to alleviate the “critical state” in which the Ariguanabo basin is located, on which these municipalities depend.

Both the officials of Aguas de La Habana and the Communist Party promise that the work will be ready before August 13, “for the birthday” of Fidel Castro. They also announced the execution of several hydraulic projects in Matanzas, of which they did not give details.

As for the Isla de la Juventud, a 10 liters per second pump has already been installed to benefit the towns of Juan Delio Chacón and Comunidad 53. Equipment will also be installed – with a capacity of 20 to 30 liters per second – in La Luminous Source, Faith and Guanábana. continue reading

Given the precarious situation of the service, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, Party secretary in Havana, acknowledged that “the people have demanded water, as is logical,” but believes that the arrival of the new equipment in the country will bring “stability” in the supply, although “it will not solve all the problems.”

The official newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, which reported the news on Wednesday, did not specify the origin of the pieces, which were already known to come “by boat.” However, officials from the Isla de la Juventud assured that it is an “import program” that is one of INRH’s priorities to improve the situation in the country.

Another of the most affected supplies, and which cannot be solved by the authorities, is electricity. The Electric Union reported this Thursday, on its usual part, the explosion of a transformer in the Havana municipality of La Lisa and another 33 complaints pending resolution in the capital.

This newspaper recently documented the situation that Cubans are experiencing before a company that claims to have no resources even to “repair a cable.”

Stephany Novo Castro, from Centro Habana, told 14ymedio that she had contacted the Unión Eléctrica to report “a down phase” that had cut off the electricity flow to her home . After the technicians arrived, they told her that the problem, which kept her without power for a week, not only was not the company’s “responsibility,” but that, even if they wanted to repair it, they did not have the materials to do so. For Novo, after hiring a private electrician and buying the necessary meters of cable, the arrangement cost her “three salaries.”

On July 24, a dozen residents of Centro Habana who had been deprived of electricity and water for days, staged a sit-in in Belascoaín and San Lázaro, which cut off traffic in the area. The rapper Eliexer Márquez El Funky , who broadcast a video of the protest on his social networks, pointed out the presence of two policemen who approached to talk with the ’plantados’.

“They don’t let anyone through, they say they have been without power for more than three days,” said El Funky, while a resident in the area replied that the problem is even greater. “It’s been 10 days and nothing and no one solves the problem for us. The food is spoiling; the children barely sleep at night. The refrigerators don’t work. The Electric Company comes and, supposedly, fixes the problem. It only lasts for 20 minutes when the electricity starts again. Enough, we are not sheep, just hard-working human beings and we need to live as people,” replied one user.

The malfunctioning of these essential services is one of the main sources of discomfort among the population, which complains about the constant failure of the services and the lack of solutions on the part of the authorities.

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Cuba: From Maleconazo to 11J, the Road From Civic Childhood to Maturity

Demonstrators occupy Galiano street in Havana during the Maleconazo on August 5, 1994. (Karel Poort)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Havana, 5 August 2023 — Some were in rags, others wore masks. Some were screaming to get on a boat in Havana Bay and emigrate, others took to the streets throughout the entire island to try to change the country so as not to have to head somewhere else. In the 27 years that elapsed between the popular protest of the Maleconazo, on 5 August 1994, and the massive demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J), Cubans went from civic childhood to maturity. One only has to review the images of both moments to notice the tremendous change that took place in our society.

While on that morning in August the trigger was the cancellation of the trips on the Regla ferry and the impulse was given by the desire to escape the country, on 11J the cry of the streets was clearly libertarian, anti-government and socially fed up with the political and economic model imposed six decades ago. Better structured, with more consensual slogans and a democratic spirit, the protesters of two years ago were also the children and grandchildren of those who previously taken to the Malecón avenue and were beaten by the Rapid Response Brigades and by the builders of the Blas Roca contingent.

Dispersed, without leadership and overwhelmed by hunger, those who led that initial social explosion were undoubtedly more than brave. It was the first public revolt against the Cuban regime in a long time and it seemed that the indoctrination machinery and the political police had already managed to eradicate all civility from the people on this Island. It was a revolt of despair, chaotic and doomed to failure due to its lack of of organization and the mousetrap that the coastline became when the shock troops advanced on the crowd. They couldn’t do better. They didn’t know how to do better.

Despite the many differences, several common threads unite both moments. Repression was the response in both cases. While in that distant summer the oppressors disguised themselves in civilian clothes, on 11J they left modesty aside and went out to beat and arrest with all their paraphernalia of uniforms, shields and weapons. While in that cry in the middle of the Special Period it was Fidel Castro who led the crushing of citizen discontent, and only approached the Malecón when they had already managed to control the situation; In 2021, that disgraceful role fell to Miguel Díaz-Canel, who gave the “combat order” from an office and behind a desk, and unleashed the hunt for the protesters. continue reading

However, the main connection between the Maleconazo and the 11J protests is neither the behavior of the regime nor the fact that neither of the two explosions achieved democratic change on the island. Both dates are linked by something deeper and more decisive. Not only did they show Cubans’ rejection of the system, but they also evidenced the evolution of a society whose desire for freedom has not been curtailed.

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Juan Pin: ‘The Fact That There Are No Tomatoes in Cuba Has Nothing To Do With the Blockade’

Pin Vilar speaks out against the decisions made by the cultural authorities and warns that this could even lead the country to lose a lot of money in court. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Carlos Espinosa, Havana, August 2, 2023 — The unauthorized broadcast of the documentary La Habana de Fito, by director Juan Pin Vilar (Havana, 1963), in a Cuban state television program this June it has raised a storm inside and outside Cuba and provoked a closing of ranks of filmmakers against the Ministry of Culture.

The presentation of the most recent film by Pin Vilar – its filmmakers warn that it was not the definitive version – based on a series of interviews with the Argentine rocker Fito Páez, did not come out of nowhere.

In the program that published the documentary – in which the musician touched on sensitive issues such as the death penalty on the island – state television commentators criticized the artist’s words and insisted that he is “misinformed” about the country. Months before, the screening was canceled without prior notice in a Havana theater.

In an interview with EFE, Pin Vilar railed against the decisions made by the cultural authorities – “they have made a mess” – warning that this could even lead the country to lose a lot of money in the courts (the film still does not have permission from Sony) and regretted the censorship to which the sector is subjected.

According to Pin Vilar, Cuba’s Vice Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas, “called him an hour before” to inform him of the broadcast of the program, despite the fact that the director had not given him permission in a previous phone call with the then director. of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), Ramón Samada, now dismissed.

“I told him that he had to consult (…) my producer, who is in Buenos Aires, and the distributors (also in the Argentine capital) said no (…) (I) explained to them that this could interrupt the route [of the tape] at festivals (…) However, they, in their heads like little and abusive children, said: “We’re going to put it on anyway,” the filmmaker condemned.

This episode was the seed that led to the creation of an independent assembly of filmmakers, whose first manifesto was signed by hundreds of people – among them Fernando Pérez and Jorge Perugorría – and the tacit support of cultural figures historically linked to the Cuban Government, like Silvio Rodríguez. continue reading

The assembly has sought since then to dialogue with the Ministry and has pushed an agenda that aims to end censorship, give filmmakers greater creative freedom and establish a film law.

However, this did not stop a pro-government barrage against Páez – and Pin Vilar – for having been critical of the island’s leaders and, among other things, insisting in the media that the Cuban state cannot blame the US economic embargo for all its ills.

“What astonishes me is not the censorship, [but] what liars they are (…) They begin to create a narrative trying to mix me with the counterrevolution, saying that the ideas that I use in the documentary coincide with a campaign against Cuba,” he says in an ironic tone.

Pin Vilar would not take even one comma away from the critics of the author of iconic songs like El amor después del amor [Love after love] against the Government.

“I am one of the people, like Fito, who thinks that the blockade is a damage that really exists. There is a financial persecution against Cuba… but the fact that there are no tomatoes or that three idiots make that decision (to censor the documentary) It has nothing to do with the blockade,” he concludes.

Nor does he understand those who, from the pro-government circles, justify decisions like the one made with his tape, arguing that Cuba is at war with the US: “It is unacceptable for a young man with half a brain to think that we are at war.”

What happened with La Habana de Fito, as well as the reaction it has provoked from the government – in recent weeks a working group was created to meet the union’s demands – does not give Pin Vilar much hope of change.

“Revolutions are made so that there are freedoms. That is why they triumph (…) Why you do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s the French, the Mexican, the Cuban, anyone. So, to the extent that those revolutions are becoming conservative, they are drifting into dictatorial States, because there is nothing more dictatorial than the conservative,” he argues.

The filmmaker also lamented the brain drain in Cuba, among other things, motivated by actions like the one he suffered with his feature film.

“The most brilliant of my generation are gone, like the most brilliant of this one. Instead of making a critical cinema and a cinema that mentions reality, [they try to make] a contemplative, silly cinema that doesn’t get anywhere,” he says.

The director is not afraid of possible reprisals for saying what he says without mincing words. Though he does admit that he has “concern” and “uncertainty.”

What leaves him calmer and more satisfied is the avalanche of solidarity that has overwhelmed him in recent weeks, especially from young people he doesn’t even know.

“It does excite me because that tells me that the solution to the problems or that the change, as some call it, is possible and probable from Cuba. Not from agendas induced from anywhere in the world, but from Cuba,” he concludes.

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Cuba’s Director of the Classical Ballet Complains That Her Dancers Are Only Talked About When They Flee

Regina Balaguer, in the presentation of the National Ballet of Cuba in Madrid. (Casa América)

14ymedio, Madrid, August 2, 2023 — There are only four days left for the Classical Ballet of Cuba (formerly Ballet de Camagüey) to finish its tour of Madrid, where it has presented Swan Lake since the beginning of July after its performances in Barcelona. The question, as in any trip of this nature, is whether the entire body of dancers will return to the Island, a question that offends its director, Regina Balaguer — also a deputy in Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power — who gave an interview to the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial in which she talks about the regime’s relationship with artistic discipline.

“We did a tour in 2018 and no dancer stayed behind. We all returned to Cuba. Those are things that are not talked about much. They always talk about the one who stays or the problem,” answers Balaguer, to whom the editor submitted a multitude of questions related to the policy that the official wanted to avoid. “We come to Spain and any country to show our art, to do culture, and not to talk about politics,” she reiterates.

The director of the Classical Ballet, however, is the first to mix both topics, although spurred on by questions from Ana Ramírez, the journalist, who urges her to talk about the diplomatic use of dance. “The ballet took root very soon in Cuba with the figures of Fernando, Alicia and Alberto Alonso. Since the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel himself approached them to give them all the support they needed to have a company,” she says.

The official explains that the cultural policy – which she attributes entirely to Fidel Castro – has made an art as elitist as ballet a cross-disciplinary one on the Island, thanks to the free system in which there are even vocational workshops in which there are no aptitude tests – “everyone who wants can enter.” In this way, whomever progresses, becomes professional; whomever does not, becomes a spectator. continue reading

In long passages, Balaguer exposes to the Madrid milieu – resorting to mythological remarks, such as the one at dawn when Castro appeared before Alonso with an offer of $200,000 to open the company – the characteristics of the ballet on the Island, inherited from its founders. The official affirms that femininity in the dancer and masculinity in the dancer emerge in the Cuban school, also marked by the Latino character.

This journalist consulted about it with the dance critic Roger Salas, who writes for the newspaper El País, and obtained a devastating response. “As much as the story is embellished politically, the Cuban school of ballet is nothing more than a continuation of the North American school,” he explains. The expert adds the training of Alonso in the US (with Soviet influence) and the very high American percentage (60%) of the members of the first ballet.

The interview continues to delve into the path of politics by reminding Balaguer that in 2022 she denounced the importing of Chinese shoes that were of no use to her students. “We have thousands of boxes of shoes that are not useful,” she protested on that occasion. The deputy denies that that statement, pronounced before Parliament, was a complaint. “What we proposed is that we have to be objective with the things we do. Art education is expensive, but it is free in Cuba,” she underlines.

Balaguer insists that everything in Cuba is free and stresses that, in this case, dance is an expensive discipline “and the State assumes it responsibly… I think that the Ministry of Culture and the Cuban State have been very receptive. As always, they are taking a step forward,” she praises.

But the journalist insists on talking about Chinese slippers. “Those things can happen when material is imported. But the most important thing is that we are here to show Swan Lake,” Blalaguer escapes again, not wasting the opportunity to consider that all the countries in the world have economic problems in these moments.

“Have you solved that problem with the shoes?” asks the editor for the third time. The debate closes with “Of course. Everything is discussed and little by little it is resolved” and the insistence that the will of the State is the best and the controversial shoes arrived during the pandemic, when the inconveniences were, for everything, extreme. The footwear for the professionals is manufactured in the company’s workshops – the imported ones are for schools – but the text recalls when, in the 90s, the dancers themselves mended their costumes and with great difficulty were able clean the toecaps with the bad adhesive that was sold on the island.

When Vigensay Valdés took charge of the National Ballet of Cuba — the first important company on the island — in 2019, there were 40 dancers who had requested asylum in the US and other countries, according to figures from the Cuban Classical Ballet. of Miami. Barely a year ago, in another sphere of dance, a highly commented on mass desertion took place when at the end of July eight members of the Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba company left the delegation and stayed in Spain, after finishing the presentations of their tour of Europe.

Balaguer, however, refuses to see it. “They don’t talk about the fact that we did a tour in Spain and Switzerland, and nobody stayed.(…) I think that sometimes you don’t just have to talk about the problems, the ugly things or the inconveniences, but also the positive things.”

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Uruguayan Diplomats in Cuba Are Asked to Meet with the Opposition ‘For Reciprocity’

The Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, has denounced the violation of human rights in Cuba in several international forums. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, August 3, 2023 — The Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (Cadal) sent a letter on Thursday to the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, requesting that he instruct his diplomats in Cuba to talk with the opposition to the island’s regime. The organization also urged the president to invite a “representative group of the opposition” to his Embassy in Havana, on the occasion of Uruguay’s national holiday, on August 25.

Gabriel C. Silva, international human rights activist and general director of Cadal, proposed to the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs that its diplomats in Cuba maintain “regular contacts” with activists and opponents throughout the island, either at their homes or in agreed upon places.

The request, says the statement, is based on the principle of reciprocity between the two nations. “Taking into account the active and public relationship that the Cuban Embassy in Uruguay maintains with political leaders opposed to the Government of Lacalle Pou, it is therefore appropriate that the Oriental Republic of Uruguay also include the opposition in its relations and ties in Cuba,” wielded Cadal.

Although the Cuban State harasses and makes its opponents invisible, considering them “illegal,” it is not the role of a democratic country like Uruguay “to extend the illegality that the one-party regime imposes on them,” it added. continue reading

According to Cadal, this type of exchange would be beneficial to address the political reality of the Island without an ideological bias imposed by the official discourse. This is what, for example, the diplomatic corps of European countries “whose standards of democratic institutions are comparable to those of Uruguay” do.

Taking these States as a model, the organization asks Lacalle to receive opponents such as journalist Yoani Sánchez, political activist Manuel Cuesta Morúa and relatives of political prisoners at his Embassy in Cuba during Uruguay’s national holiday.

The Cuban Embassy in Uruguay carries out similar activities with opponents of the Lacalle government, according to the organization. On July 27, the Uruguayan Anti-Imperialist Committee of Solidarity with Cuba and the Peoples of the World invited politicians and union leaders belonging to the diplomatic corps accredited in the country, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks, in Santiago de Cuba.

Cuban diplomats also establish frequent contact with Uruguayan activists, politicians, parties and artists. For this reason, the statement concluded, “the Government of Cuba will have to accept – according to the principle of reciprocity – that the diplomats of the Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in Havana maintain exchanges with leaders of the Cuban democratic opposition.”

Under the Lacalle government, Uruguay has been one of the countries that has most pointed out the lack of democracy and the violation of human rights by the regimes of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Last January, during the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), the president asked that the event not be turned into a “club of ideological friends,” since the existence in the region of “ideological friends that do not respect democracy, institutions or human rights is clear.”

During the previous Summit, Lacalle himself starred in an altercation with the Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel by reciting a fragment of the song Patria y Vida, which became the anthem of the popular protests of July 2021.

More recently, on July 28, the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly approved a motion against the Cuban regime for the systematic violation of human rights and in favor of the release of more than a thousand political prisoners on the island. The proposal, presented by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), was approved with 34 deputies in favor and seven against.

Everything indicates that the regime’s efforts to launder its international image continue without bearing fruit when two of the best-established democracies in Latin America point to Cuba as a non-democratic government. Along with Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica are two of the three full democracies in Latin America, according to the British magazine The Economist, which also included Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba in the list of countries with less democratic systems in the region at the beginning of 2023, placing them at the bottom of its ranking.

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NGO Reports that July 2023 is the Month with the Second Most Protests in Cuba Since July 2021

Protest in Villa Clara over the lack of electricity. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2023 — The Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) registered a total of 589 protests on the island in July. The figure, which represents an increase of 124% compared to the same month of the previous year, exceeded by 175 incidents than those counted in June of 2022. Except for the months of October (with 589 protests) and December (with 692 protests) in 2022, this month has been the month with the highest rate of public demonstrations reported by the platform since 2021.

Havana was designated as the most active territory in the country, with 216 protests, 44 more than in June. However, the OCC warned that the rates of protest had increased throughout the country, including the Isle of Youth. This pattern had already been generated in the report for the month of June, when the document reported that the presence of “expressions of protest” throughout the Island constituted a sign of general disagreement with the state administration.

Other territories with high numbers were Holguín, with 36 cases, Guantánamo, with 27, and Santiago de Cuba, with 26. All of them belong to the eastern part of the country, a region that has been presented by its inhabitants as the most abandoned by the Government and the institutions.

Of the almost 600 events, 327 (55.5%) were linked to civil and political rights, with a predominance related to cases of repression (146) against political prisoners, influencers, opponents, activists, independent journalists and ordinary citizens. Of these protests, 143 were direct challenges to the repressive authorities, which achieved that for “for the first time,” according to the platform, that this indicator was “remarkably close to that of protests for repressive acts.”

Some of the cases referred to by the Observatory were the suspension of visits to the political prisoner Maykel Castillo Osorbo in the Kilo 5 y Medio prison, the disclosure of personal calls by the independent journalist Camila Acosta on Cuban Television and the dismantling of a protest of 20 women who tried to demonstrate in the Plaza de la Revolución to demand milk for their children. continue reading

In the same category, some 46 protests involved graphic media such as memes, videos, graffiti or photographs.

Regarding economic and social rights, the demonstrations due to citizen insecurity numbered (74), disagreement with public services (68), lack of food (41), deterioration of the public health system (40), homelessness ( 31) and housing problems (10). The total number of events held for these reasons was 262 demonstrations, 43.9% of the total.

As quantified by the OCC, protests related to civil rights exceeded those calling for economic improvements by 11% this July. The previous month, however, the population reacted 10% more to violations of economic rights than to civil rights.

The report includes the “direct criticism” of some figures in the Cuban intellectual sphere, such as the economist Pedro Monreal, the comedians Ulises Toirac and Rigoberto Ferrera, and the writer Leonardo Padura, who “vented their anger after being affected by the multiple aspects of the general crisis.”

Other protests that had great visibility were the sit-in by a dozen residents of Central Havana who had been deprived of electricity and water for days, the confrontation between the Assembly of Filmmakers and officials during their meeting at the Chaplin Cinema, and the cacerolazo [protests by banging on pots and pans] during a blackout in the capital’s municipality of Diez de Octubre.

For its part, the Cubalex platform recently published a report on violations of criminal protection rights by the island’s courts since 1959.

The organization claims to have registered at least 767 cases of people sanctioned for political reasons in the last 64 years. With the testimonies, Cubalex explains that it has been able “to frame especially the stage from 1959 to 1979 to delve into the political and judicial procedure of the Cuban State regarding the history of discrimination for political reasons, the persecution of people for cataloged political crimes as counterrevolutionaries and the classification of the so-called ’crimes against State Security’.”

In turn, the organization denounces the progressive closure of legal channels that allow criminal protection from the Government of Fulgencio Batista to the present. The current Constitution, it points out, “cannot be reformed by popular initiative” either, since “it declares any action taken against the socialist system illegal, and authorizes the use of any means, including armed struggle, against whoever tries to modify that system.”

The platform warns that the results presented are partial and ensures that it is working on the individual analysis of each case, as well as on the evolution of the constitutions and criminal laws that were in force in the period, including the current Constitution.

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The Spanish Electoral Hangover Seen From Latin America

Members of the Popular Party greet supporters at the popular headquarters in Madrid after the results of the elections were known. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 29 July 2023 –The days have passed since the voters went to the polls on July 23 in the elections for the General Courts of Spain. However, the fact that the negotiations to reach a majority to govern will continue for several weeks is keeping millions of citizens on edge on this side of the Atlantic as well. The Popular Party won, but insufficiently, and it is most likely the Socialist Party will retain power. In any case, the Iberian country, now holding the rotating presidency of the European Union and with strong ties to Latin America, is committed to a more active position with our hemisphere, but its internal fractures hinder that role.

The recent summit of the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), held this month in Brussels, showed that Madrid is unable to concentrate on structuring a solid and long-term strategy for Latin American countries. With a common past and a community of Spanish citizens that is growing every day in this part of the world, thanks to the Democratic Memory Law, popularly known as the new Grandchildren Law*, the European nation should play a much more active diplomatic, economic and political role in the region. However, its internal partisan fights prevent it from realizing, in all its dimensions, the importance of paying attention to what was formerly called the New World.

Faced with a presidency in the Moncloa Palace that is weak in the Latin American arena, regional authoritarianisms are gaining a voice on international stages. The EU-Celac Summit made it clear that Spanish firmness or lukewarmness is decisive for the confluence between the 27 European countries and the 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries. When Madrid is immersed in its own affairs and fails to realize the importance of its leadership beyond the seas, all of old Europe resents its links with this continent. Spain is key, and the grudges of the past — from colonialism to slavery — should not dissuade it from its leadership in America. If it does not assume that role, China and Russia are eager to dispute it and area gaining ground. continue reading

Local dictatorships rub their hands when Moncloa becomes invisible and self-censors. Right now, while the formation of a government is unknown in Madrid and many fear that there will be a repeat of the delay after the 2019 elections, each day of indecision is a gift for those in Latin America who prefer a weak, distracted and apathetic Spain. On the list of those interested in a context in which uncertainty continues are the regimes of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. They know that while Madrid is staring at its navel to define and form a cabinet, it will not have the time or energy to denounce the violations of human rights suffered by millions of people in this part of the planet.

A weak Spain, incapable of raising its voice in international forums so that the freedoms of Latin Americans are respected, is the one that suits the great civic predators of this continent. Madrid must know, and act accordingly, the fact is that it is not just a question of diplomacy, but, essentially, of internal politics given the large number of its citizens who live in these lands. Its distractions are our pains. Its lack of leadership, our condemnation.

*Translator’s note: The law defines provisions under which descendants of Spanish citizens in Cuba and elsewhere can apply for and receive Spanish citizenship.

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Lack of Cash Makes Cubans Desperate: ‘I’ve Gone Out in the Street to Fight for Pesos’

ATM this Tuesday, August 1, in La Linea, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, August 1, 2023 — The line at the Banco Metropolitano ATM on Marino y Conill street, in Nuevo Vedado, was abuzz this Tuesday. To the number of elderly people in the neighborhood, who were waiting to be able to extract their pension payment, were added neighbors who came from Calzada del Cerro and 26th Street because the ATMs in those areas did not have cash.

The situation was not exclusive to those parts of Havana. On Línea in El Vedado the appearance of the line at the ATM was more like a mob than an orderly line. The fight for cash reaches higher levels every day in a country where electronic transactions are still scarce, both due to the size of the underground economy and the lack of online connectivity, as well as to the population’s rejection of having their movements monitored.

“Cash is what you buy food with and buy everything you need. When you go to a small business to buy a bag of milk, if it’s worth 2,000 pesos you have to pay it in cash, because the seller doesn’t want you to do it with transfer,” laments a woman from Havana in line at the branch. “If you are going to eat in a restaurant, the same thing happens. If you are going to take a private taxi, because transportation is terrible and you have to resort to private ones, you have to pay in cash. Everything is like that.”

In Nuevo Vedado, the Marino y Conill ATM was also mobbed by people on August 1st. (14ymedio)

Among the tumult there are many who are back for a second time, because the day before they couldn’t get a penny, but Rachel can’t wait. This afternoon a vet is going to operate on her cat and only accepts payment in pesos. “I have gone out to fight in the street, after a woman I buy currency from changed my euros, and now see what I have to do to get it, what line to get into or how to resolve the bank or the ATM to be able to get it, because it’s a considerable amount that I need,” she says worried. continue reading

The currency exchange, she adds, had to be done through a bank, because the person who sold her the currency refused to exchange it in cash. Any operation that moves illegally is bound to be carried out in cash and that is where most of the island’s activities materialize. Banking operations are controlled by banks, all of them state-owned, and no one who provides services outside the law wants to be exposed to oversight of their actions.

The poor state of the ATMs, which often do not work, and the large number of areas on the Island that still do not have a 4G connection, prevents payment through electronic gateways which work from mobile applications, and ends up complicating the situation.

Although the State has done everything possible to run the economy through the banks, they have only managed to do so in the state sector where, many times, citizens do not find their needs satisfied or the quality is so low that they flee in terror to the informal market.

Customers must use electronic means of payment, chip cards, national and international magnetic strips “that operate in the country,” electronic pins through Transfermóvil, rechargeable chip cards or disposable prepaid cards. The latter, they detailed, “have undergone technological improvements,” such as the “possibility of carrying out partial and total transactions, unification at the time of the transaction of up to five cards in one, and the incorporation of the QR code both for downloading and for return, which is ensured by means of a scanner that speeds up commercial processes.”

To implement the new forms of payment, they say, Cimex “has designed an information program for its customers and training for contact personnel and sales assurance,” which shows the island’s shortcomings in this regard.

This Monday, in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, the program for the “banking-ization” of the country was approved, the details of which are still are unknown and will be expanded in the short term.

According to the official press, “work has been carried out on the subject in recent months and includes a set of measures to gradually encourage the use of electronic collection and payment channels in the national territory.” The note, published in Cubadebate, adds that more details will be given shortly “on this process of vital importance for the Cuban economy.”

But a good incentive will be needed to recover a sector that, contrary to what the authorities claim, is losing ground and is far from advancing. “As the ATMs have emptied, the sellers and merchants that until now were accepting transfers have begun to reject them, because they are afraid that their account is full of virtual money but they cannot extract it,” explains a neighbor who is racing to get his last 300 pesos while looking for an ATM to extract more.

The lack of paper money on the Island is not new. Throughout 2023, the shortage has worsened and has not been resolved and it is already notable that there are difficulties in paying salaries or extracting cash. In May, the Minister of the Economy, Alejandro Gil, admitted before the National Assembly that the galloping inflation in which the country has settled into since the Ordering Task* has led to this shortage of banknotes in bank branches. The economic situation is so precarious that it is not feasible to print new bills with higher denominations to solve the situation.

The big winners are currencies, specifically the dollar and also the euro (which exceed an exchange rate of 230 pesos in the informal market), because in the absence of pesos, many carry out their operations directly in another currency. “Many prices are already automatically changing to dollars,” adds another customer in line at the cashier. “I know of several different operations, from food purchases to hardware stores to other services, that already, in recent days, the person offers the good or service in foreign currency because it already assumes that the client will not have the cash.”

*Translator’ Note: The “Ordering Task” [Tarea Ordenamiento] is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

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Drivers of Buses Leased from the Cuban State Ask for More Freedom to Decide Their Own Routes

Obtaining sufficient capital to cover their expenses and recover the initial investment requires, in many cases, that drivers operate out-of-contract routes. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, August 1, 2023 — The 124 state buses leased by individuals in Holguín have managed to transport five million passengers in two years. However, the drivers, who have had to repair and condition the vehicles with their own money, lament the rigidity of the authorities, who do not allow them to make trips on their own once they have completed the required daily work plan.

After Resolution 270 of the Ministry of Transportation, which allows state entities to lease disused vehicles to individuals and companies that wish to use them for a social purpose, went into effect in 2021, the Holguín authorities decided that, of the 591 vehicles that the province had, only 179 met the requirements to circulate under this management model, according to what the province’s Transportation company told Cubadebate.

Of these, they finally ended up leasing just over 120 buses, most of them in need of minimal repairs, such as changing tires or batteries, which cannot be found in the state market, according to the company itself.

The cost of these arrangements is borne by the drivers, who also pay out of pocket for the salary of the helpers they need, the taxes required and the fuel used by the vehicle, which the State sells – in rationed quantities – at 13.99 pesos per liter. continue reading

In return, the authorities require drivers to pay the transport company between 12,000 and 15,000 pesos per month, since they estimate that each urban route bus can collect between 22,000 and 30,000 pesos. In the case of the “semi-bus” – a truck reconditioned for transport generally in rural areas – between 5,000 and 9,000 pesos must be paid, for an estimated profit of up to 14,000 pesos.

Obtaining sufficient capital to cover their expenses and recover the large investment they made to put the vehicle into operation requires, in many cases, that drivers operate out-of-contract routes, once the company’s plan has been fulfilled. However, the authorities, wary of the additional profits, have required individuals to apply for special permits whenever they wish to carry out other work.

Faced with this position, drivers have been dissatisfied and request more autonomy.

Roger Ramírez, one of the drivers interviewed by Cubadebate, appears as the owner of a Diana bus that runs the route between Mayarí and Holguín for 50 pesos a ticket. According to his account, Ramírez operates urban tours of the main city until it is time to make the return route. “All of this benefits the people. And, of course, me.” However, he does not understand the need for so many obstacles when, without his investment, the vehicle would be idle in a state garage.

The company, for its part, has argued that the lack of order has led on several occasions to breaching the terms of the contracts. And, although they understand that the lack of fuel and the obstacles have hindered the collection of the initial budget of the drivers in the expected time, they estimate that “the most important thing is compliance with the social project under which the contracts were made.”

According to the authorities, among the infractions are the absence of the drivers on days when the route must leave the route, the deviation from the route plan to carry out other “runs” and the violation of the established price of the ticket, which they consider a serious offense.

The company believes that the problems lie in the fact that many of the drivers entered the business without being aware that they are now “public servants” and thought that they would “do whatever they want.” Some of the drivers, they say, behave rudely or dress in “shorts and t-shirt,” ignoring the dress rules and the respect towards the passenger that their new role demands.

For this reason, the entity has had to cancel the contracts of two individuals who accumulated “several indiscipline, including deviating from an agreed route and taking a trip to the beach” or being absent without prior notice knowing that the vehicles have a global positioning system (GPS).

Despite the difficulties, the authorities admit that the leasing of disabled state vehicles has been a positive and has eased the transport crisis. Before the resolution was approved, there were days when “only nine or ten cars operated,” Wilmer García, director of the institution, told Cubadebate. The fact that more than 120 now operate represents a notable improvement for the 200,000 Holguin residents waiting at the stops in the province, according to the official.

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The Right to Die or How Far Individual Freedom Goes

The writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner during a conference in 2018. (Sergio Santillán Díaz/YouTube/Screen capture)

14ymedio, Grace Piney, Miami, July 31, 2023 — In his last text, the writer Carlos Alberto Montaner calls for a debate on the right to assisted death: euthanasia.

Years ago, we had this conversation because we had a friendship full of confidences and complicity. Sometimes it happens between a writer and the editor of one of his most intimate texts.

He promised to “warn me” and I promised to write this text.

On that occasion, in the living room of my house in Madrid, with a cup of tea in hand while we edited La mujer del Coronel [The Colonel’s Woman], he said that he had a pistol ready to use if the time came.

The edition of that text had him exultant with joy. I never saw him so fully happy! Not a person spoke in the midst of life’s potholes.

I told him, “There are more civilized ways. Imagine the scene where your family finds a body mangled by the impact of a bullet. Do you really want that?”

Arguments of a religious nature made no sense to him. He enjoyed the exchange with me especially because I am Catholic, a person of faith, committed to God and to the Church. He could be very provocative because he was a debater by nature, even after he died. continue reading

Montaner had undergone surgery and had a pacemaker; he was a cancer survivor and was keeping the possible effects of diabetes at bay. At the time, those were his ailments, which he “cherished dearly,” as he used to say.

More than ten years ago, and he already felt ready to go! He said that he was already fulfilled, that he was at peace.

He lived more intensely than you can imagine because, in addition to real life, he had the infinite world that literary creation gives us. Montaner was a man of his word(s) and commitments.

Much more is known about his work as a journalist and as a political scientist, but his true passion was narrative. He was sorry he hadn’t been able to spend more time with it.

He even lived through assassination attempts because, although he was a very public person and had many friends, he also had many (and dangerous) enemies. He knew Death and had a cordial relationship with her.

I never saw him acting on impulse and I know that he was not pushed by pride of not wanting to depend on anyone. It was more than that. It was an assumed decision: If he could decide, he would put an end to his life. He also knew that he would end his days in Spain; he trusted in Spanish healthcare and loved Madrid.

Asking for a dignified death is an act of individual freedom and respect for life, for the life lived and for the people with whom it was lived. It is an act consistent with his idea of individual rights. That is the basis of his reasoning.

Dear reader: Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing you to suicide, nor is Montaner. Life is beautiful and you can always find reasons to live. But, when life outweighs death, deciding to touch the button that turns it off should be a recognized right as such.

Assisted dying does not apply to people who got bored with this life. Technically, it is not a suicide. And it’s not dispensed like over-the-counter aspirin.

In Spain, the application is submitted to a registered doctor. Study the case and submit the request for evaluation by a consulting physician who will probably be a specialist in the causative disease.

According to the law, approved in 2021, three conditions must be met:

The person must be a Spanish citizen or resident for more than one year in Spain; he must declare that he requests help freely, without external pressure; and the determinant: the person suffers from a serious and incurable disease or a serious, chronic and disabling condition, which must be certified by the responsible doctor.

Finally, the case is presented to a commission that appoints a doctor and a lawyer who examine the clinical history and the application.

The process can take a month and, if the opinion is positive, the person determines the day, time and place of death.

The person decides whether to drink a Pentobarbital syrup; or whether to turn the key that opens the intravenous route to a serum with the medicines; or to ask them to put you to sleep and have the medical team take care of everything.

Between two and five minutes after application, the drug begins to take effect and induces a deep coma, which leads to death. The process is safe (unequivocally causes death) and is painless.

Do you know how many suicides occur each year in developed countries? Most of them violently, entailing enormous suffering. And, apart from that, there are the unsuccessful suicide attempts, which leave sequelae with which living becomes more difficult.

I am glad that Montaner has resorted to the most civilized route.

The fact that euthanasia is not legal in the United States forced him to return to Spain “to die.”

Could you believe that there are “tourist” routes to die, that there are people who expressly go to countries where euthanasia is legal in the hope of having a peaceful… and legal death?!

In the United States, it is legal to own weapons and use them to kill in self-defense; it is the death penalty (which is carried out by injecting a cocktail of drugs) and it is abortion.

It is legal to withdraw life support when the patient is brain dead and must be approved by a family member or designee.

However, having made a suicide attempt could deny access to a method, and death by suicide nullifies the benefits that the family could receive if the deceased had life insurance.

In short, it is legal to determine the death of another but not one’s own.

The only possibility to decide is to refuse to receive cardiorespiratory resuscitation in case of accident or illness and you are conscious when you arrive at the hospital and declare this.

The United States is probably not ready for this debate. But American society has several pending issues regarding the right to life and death!

Assisted dying implies passing from life to death calmly, without pain and in peace. It implies that families prepare for the process and to get over it in a better way.

Respect for individual freedom must recognize the right to decide to die with dignity, without pain and without suffering.

I will miss Montaner for the rest of my life, as well many of his friends. But I will defend his right to die even if I disagree with his decision.

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Editor’s Note: Another version of this text has been published by the author in El Nuevo Herald this Sunday.
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New Design Law Prohibits Using Cuban Symbols Without Authorization From a State ‘Advisor’

The new National System will supervise all the creation processes of any graphic or visual communication material. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, August 2, 2023 — Far from freeing the economy and easing state restrictions on private individuals from, the government insists on enacting laws that further control the Cuban economy. This Tuesday the Official Gazette published a decree of the Council of Ministers that regulates industrial design and visual communication in Cuba. The law, which provides for the creation of a National Design System, prohibits the unauthorized use of the Country Brand and the Cuba Image, and aspires to become a guarantor of the “values forged by the Revolution.”

Although the National Design Office – the body that until now was in charge of the work of designers – will continue to be active, the new National System will supervise all the processes of creating clothing, furniture, printed or virtual publications, machinery and any graphic or visual comunication.

However, the symbols and images that the State considers to be part of the national identity may not be used in any work without the permission of an “authorized authority,” a warning already included in the controversial National Symbols Law.

Among the principles enumerated in the decree, the “preservation of the values forged by the Revolution” is also insistently included, although it suggests that it will also defend “non-discrimination” against designers and their protection against “distinctions that are harmful to human dignity.” However, the document does not clarify how anyone who attempts with their designs to go against the “social project” of the regime will be penalized. continue reading

The Minister of Industries, Eloy Álvarez, attached to the decree an evaluation regulation that will allow the “advisors” of the National Design Office to require the company directors to modify or stop the production of products that they consider “not acceptable.”

The authorities will also have the last word in awarding prizes to designers, financing and international collaboration, the approval of regulations and the ease of access to certain services.

In addition, “expert” commissions will be created to control not only the products and services but also their application within the country, their value as exportable goods, prices and rates, and their quality.

Foreign companies, like national ones, will have to obey the new regulation if they intend to change their image or brand while operating in Cuba. The rule also affects small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and self-employed workers, since there are no exceptions based on the type of management.

As for design professionals, to be recognized as part of the National System they will have to first register in the National Registry of Visual Designers and Communicators. This guarantees, the document alleges, that their copyrights and intellectual property rights are respected.

With the new project, the Government puts the entire industry under its command. Despite the fact that the decree may notably affect the work of hundreds of designers in the country, the official press has not yet published its contents.

However, already on social networks some profiles related to the Government have asked that the advance of brands that, they consider, represent a “return to capitalism” be “stopped.”

Facebook commenter Diego Funes-Álvarez saw “high danger” in the fact that an old sign for the Esso gas station was hung in the middle of Calle 12, in Havana. “It is sad to think that in the popular imagination this type of banner is still considered a symbol of prosperity,” he lamented, in the middle of a diatribe against the Coca-Cola posters that some owners put up in “little bars in Old Havana.”

Funes-Álvarez concluded his publication by asking for an express prohibition of the “good propaganda” of capitalism. The new Decree on Design supports him.

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Two Hundred Cubans in Sancti Spiritus Lose Their Fixed Telephone Lines for Non-Payment

Etecsa reports an increase in customers in Sancti Spíritus who have failed to pay their bills and, therefore, are disconnected from the service. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 August 2023 — The numbers of disconnected users of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) in the province of Sancti Spíritus are revealing both of the economic crisis that the island is going through, and the emigration that does not stop. Up to 200 customers have lost their landline, Escambray reported this Wednesday, due to delays in bill payments.

Miladys González, head of marketing for the state monopoly in the province, specified that 60% of these are concentrated in the municipalities of Sancti Spíritus and Cabaiguán. Most of the cases correspond to “closed houses,” continues the official, who has not alluded to the unstoppable exodus for almost two years.

In addition, the provincial newspaper reports, there are 150 customers at risk of losing service because they are more than three months late in paying the account, the majority reported in Sancti Spíritus, Trinidad and Jatibonico.

The data is disclosed two months after a resolution went into effect that obliges Etecsa to disconnect the telephone lines, with prior notice to the owner, after 30 days from the due date of the unpaid invoice. continue reading

The rule provides that the connection can be restored 24 hours after the user pays the total debt before 180 days have elapsed since the due date.

If those six months elapse without payment being made, González continued, Etecsa proceeds to cancel the service. In this case, the norm dictates that the client be notified with a minimum of 72 business hours at the registered address through a notice that is delivered “to the person who is in the place at that time,” regardless of whether he is the owner or a representative.

If the customer wants to maintain the service, Etecsa warns that the reconnection entails an additional “cost” that will be charged on the next bill.

González acknowledged that the company is also facing a shortage of paper and other supplies that makes it difficult for it to distribute printed invoices, for which reason he calls on customers to subscribe to receive the document by email, or alternately they must contact Etecsa through its 112 call center number or in the Transfermóvil application.

Although the number of mobile lines in Cuba is approaching eight million and far exceeds the little more than a million fixed lines, cell phones have not yet completely displaced the landline, which continues to be one of the main communication channels for many families, mainly in rural areas.

To this is added that in order to contract for the ’Nauta Hogar’ home internet connection service, which is provided through fiber optics, the customer must have a fixed telephone line. Without it, the customer has to make do with surfing the web through the mobile data service, with its congestion, speed oscillations and frequent hangups.

Also in the cities and towns there are small businesses that cannot afford the cost of a mobile line. This is the case of Antonio, an upholsterer in Nuevo Vedado, the commercial center of Havana, who makes all the agreements with clients through the cable line.

Every Cuban who has experienced it in recent years has an anecdote of how “hereditary” lines have been able to be sold to the highest bidder. This is how Lucía, a resident of Luyanó, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, remembers the relief she felt when she got rid of her landline phone. She was one of two residents in the area who had the device and, therefore, “the neighbors believed that she was obliged to serve them.” With the decriminalization of the dollar, she sold the connection for 600 dollars and with that money she sent out for repairs a refrigerator that had been damaged by constant blackouts.

“We went back to drinking cold water and we were able to store food, and I also bought some clothes for my children,” she recalls to 14ymedio. Another resident of Santiago de Cuba tells this newspaper that in 2014 he sold his fixed line for 400 dollars and with that money he paid for part of the trip to leave Cuba from the island.

Given the complex process to obtain authorization for a fixed connection, a home with this service has added value and an owner can ask for more money for the property if he wants to sell or rent it. In electronic commerce platforms, it is also common for Cubans to offer telephone lines, at prices ranging from 300 to 500 dollars, as can be seen on the Revolico digital buying and selling site.

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Cuba’s Central Bank Prohibits Private Businesses from Withdrawing Cash from ATMs

ATM at the Banco Metropolitano branch located in Belascoaín and Zanja, Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, August 2, 2023 — The “bankification” of the country, just approved this Monday by the Council of Ministers, reflects the lack of liquidity of the Cuban State, and will begin to take effect as of this Thursday, “gradually,” with the announcement of a group of measures by the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC).

From now on, said Alberto Quiñones Betancourt, vice president of the institution, in statements reported by the official press, “all collection and payment relationships between economic actors must be based on the payment methods established by the BCC, prioritizing electronic channels.”

Among the measures, which will also be published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette, is the prohibition on “economic actors” — that is, private companies — withdrawing money from their fiscal account. For these companies the daily maximum allowed in each banking operation is 5,000 pesos.

Only cards “associated with pensions, savings accounts, salaries, bonuses, etc.” may be used at ATMs, that is, from natural persons.

In addition, the obligation is established that all businesses that provide goods and services have “electronic means of payment” and that private companies have contracted “the services of the payment gateways or POS.”

One of the premises of the new measures, they concede, is “to encourage the use of bonuses.” For example, this Wednesday, before the BCC issued its statement, the telecommunications monopoly, ETECSA, announced a 10% savings “by paying for telecommunications services through Transfermóvil.” continue reading

Similarly, this Tuesday, the state corporation Cimex reported that from September 1 to October 31, it will “gradually” eliminate cash payments at gas stations in the country.

Quiñones Betancourt, without referring to either the scarcity of cash or the size of the underground economy, limited himself to saying that “this process of progress and duality is determined by the experiences accumulated in Cuba and from the existence of a group of conditions that allow progress.”

“These channels allow for safer, faster operations, and it is important that they provide an economic benefit for the population,” insisted the vice president of the BCC, who did not mention the lack of connectivity, the frequent power cuts that prevent the terminals from operating at all, and something getting more and more under the skin of Cubans: the rejection of having their movements controlled.

Although the official assures that they are “accelerating a process adhering to international standards, since electronic payments are a daily part of the lives of the citizens of any country,” what Cubans fear is that this will mean the freezing of their accounts.

Before the Council of Ministers on Monday, in recent weeks, there have been numerous testimonies received by 14ymedio from citizens who have not been able to collect transfers in foreign currency. For this, the usual system is to make a “cash reserve” with the bank branch, which involves signing up for a list and being called when the money is available.

A retiree from Centro Habana has been trying for two weeks to collect what her son sends her from Madrid and, in response, her bank repeats that they “do not have” euros. Another resident of the Havana municipality of Playa, with two children in Italy, was told that “this option” is “on hold until further notice.”

A resident of Varadero, Matanzas, tells this newspaper in detail that when he went to withdraw money from his account in euros at the Banco Popular de Ahorro, the employees told him that “they were not allowing cash to be withdrawn from the foreign currency accounts, not even for ’reserve balances’.”

When asking for explanations, the staff assured him that “it was not a problem of availability, that there were euros in the bank,” that it was “a general measure of the Central Bank that prevents foreign currency from being extracted in cash from the accounts.”

“The conclusion I draw is: despite having money, they are not going to give it to me,” laments the man from Matanzas. “Of course I was very upset with this situation, since that money is mine. It has arrived from abroad as a remittance. I have not invented it from the air. What I receive in that account is euros, and on my MLC [‘freely convertible currency’] cards* I receive dollars from abroad.”

The worst thing for him is that he can only withdraw from that account at the Varadero branch itself and cannot use it to buy at the stores that only take payment in MLC, that is in foreign hard currencies. “The only way I have to withdraw from that account is at that branch, so if they don’t let me withdraw it, then they have kidnapped my money,” denounces the man. “This is a robbery, without a doubt, they do not want the people to get their money.”

*Translator’s note: The ‘fine points’ of currencies in Cuba are too complex (and ever changing) for this footnote. Briefly, however, an entire network of state-run businesses in Cuba only take payment in ‘MLC‘ (moneda libremente convertible), ‘freely convertible currency’. This foreign currency comes to Cubans as remittances from abroad, which they can collect at cadecas — currency exchanges. However, Cubans do not collect paper dollars or euros; they can only collect it in the form of debit cards, and the balances on the debit cards can only be ‘spent’ at the MLC stores. In addition, unspent balances cannot be recovered or converted into Cuban pesos. In this way the Cuban state takes control of all the remittances sent from abroad, keeping the balances until they are spent, and assuring that when they are spent they are only spent in State-run businesses.

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Prices for Illegal Satellite Dish Services in Cuba Skyrocket

Satellite dishes give Cubans access to a variety of foreign TV channels. (Sincable)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 30 July 2023 — Inflation continues to take its toll on Cuban pocketbooks. In addition to increases in the cost of transportation and food, the fees families pay to watch foreign television programs via illegal satellite dishes are also going up, doubling in some Cuban neighborhoods to as much as 1,000 pesos a month.

“I can’t afford it so I told the boy who installed the cable to take it out,” says Maritza, a retiree in Central Havana’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood who has been enjoying the service for more than a dozen years thanks to wiring hidden in a fake water pipe leading to her house. The densely populated borough has one of the capital’s highest concentrations of satellite dishes.

“One day I learned the price was suddenly going from 250 pesos, which I had been paying, to 500 pesos.” Maritza complains. “I can’t afford something like that on my 1,400-peso monthly pension.” The service gave her access to variety shows, soap operas and “all the things having to do with Cuba such as the news programs on channel 41 [America TeVe].”

Costs are skyrocketing even more for suppliers whose cables are apt to be cut, stolen and resold on the black market, a growing practice on Havana’s rooftops. To replace their stolen wiring, satellite owners must shell out hard currency or turn to friends and family members overseas willing to use their Visas or Mastercards to buy it from online stores that ship to the island.

In Luyanó, an area in the Tenth of October borough, prices have risen even more. “There are packages that cost 800 pesos a month and others that cost 1,000 depending on the number of channels you choose,” says Dayron, a young man who acts as a broker between local customers and the owner of two powerful satellite dishes. “Everything has gone up and so everything costs us more,” he explains. continue reading

He points out that, in addition to maintenance costs, there are costs for the electricity needed to operate the devices, for DirecTV activation cards and for the cables that deliver the programming to customers. If owners of satellite dishes do not want to be reported to the authorities, government inspectors must also be paid to “turn a blind eye.” And to keep the most politically extreme neighbors from “wagging their tongues,” they are provided the service for free.

Though satellite dishes have been in the censors’ crosshairs for decades, efforts in Havana to root them out them have decreased significantly in recent years. After mass protests on 11 July 2021 (’11J’), however, the Cuban regime redoubled its efforts to crack down on the devices in order to prevent images of anti-government demonstrations from being disseminated.

Police operations aimed at finding the devices became so frequent that, in large areas of the city, satellite dish owners decided to suspend operations and wait for conditions to improve. Little by little, they reconnected customers and brought back their schedule of miniseries, movies, and reality shows.

These antennas are most commonly found amid Central Havana’s crowded streets and densely packed rooming houses. Among the first high-tech devices, they changed the way media was consumed on the island in the 1990s. They were followed by the paquete [’weekly packet’], the USB memory stick and, for nearly the last five years, the mobile phone internet connection.

More recently, however, satellite dishes have faced a new competitor: streaming services such as Netflix. Many Cuban emigrés subscribe to the service overseas and share their access codes with family members on the island. In some cases, the relatives in Cuba have a Fire TV device, or something similar, that allows them to enjoy a wide range of programming options on their televisions.

But connectivity problems, the high cost of web browsing and slow internet speeds limit the possibilities for watching movies or miniseries using these devices. In the poorest neighborhoods, satellite antennas still reign supreme because of their reliability and low cost, a situation that could change with the current rate increases.

“The greatest demand is for programs from Miami from [broadcasters such as] America TeVe, Telemundo, Spanish-language CNN and others that offer miniseries, documentaries and soap operas,” says Dayron. “Most of customers have told us they want to continue with the service even though it will cost more. “They’re already hooked and what they really don’t want, above all, is to go back to watching Cuban television.”

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