The Cuban Regime Releases One of the Four Ladies in White Arrested for the ’11J’ Protests

Political prisoner Ángel Mesa Rodríguez was also released on Monday

Tania Echevarría Menéndez was released from prison, but, of the Ladies in White, Sissi Abascal, Sayli Navarro and Aymara Nieto remain in prison / CC

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedi0, Havana, 20 January 2025 — The Cuban government released political prisoner Ángel Mesa Rodríguez on Monday and the Lady in White, Tania Echevarría Menéndez, a day earlier, as part of the regime’s deal with the Vatican to release 553 prisoners. Mesa was serving a 12-year sentence and Echevarría, a six-year sentence, in both cases for participating in the protests in July of 2021 (11J).

“Tania Echevarría Ménéndez is now home, she is the first Lady in White to be released from prison,” wrote the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, on her Facebook profile.

Soler said that there are three other members of the Ladies in White collective who have yet to be released: Sissi Abascal, Sayli Navarro and Aymara Nieto.

Mesa Rodríguez’s release was confirmed to a group of friends by his wife María del Carmen Gort Henríquez, who went to receive him at the provincial prison of Pinar del Río, Kilo 5½, where he was arbitrarily transferred last July, according to her own complaint.

Soler pointed out that there are three other members of the Ladies in White collective yet to be released: Sissi Abascal, Sayli Navarro and Aymara Nieto

Sayli Navarro, recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International (AI), was arrested following the anti-government protests on 11 July 2021, along with her father, historic opposition leader Félix Navarro, who was released from prison this Saturday. continue reading

Also released today were Adan Kiubel Castillo Echevarria, Yarelis Mesa Vazquez, Rolando Lopez Rodriguez, Santiago Vazquez Leon, Jose Antonio Gomez Leon, Yoennis Dominguez de la Rosa and Adel de la Torre, all imprisoned in the context of the demonstrations of June 11, 2021, according to reports from the NGO Justicia 11J.

The Cuban government announced on Tuesday a gradual process of releasing 553 prisoners shortly after Washington announced that it was excluding the island from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism – a designation with serious economic and financial consequences – in an agreement mediated by the Vatican.

Cuban authorities began the process of releases – which do not imply the termination of the sentence – a day later.

Among those released are prisoners of conscience José Daniel Ferrer and Luis Robles, and trans protester Brenda Díaz, another participant in the 11J protests, who was serving a sentence of 14 years and seven months for public disorder, sabotage and contempt.

So far, around one hundred people considered political prisoners have been released from prison, according to various human rights NGOs, specifically 112, according to Justicia 11J , and 114 according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH).

The Cuban government has not made public the list of the 553 people it announced it would gradually release, but it has acknowledged that, as of Thursday, a total of 127 of them have received some kind of extra-penal benefit.

Maricela Sosa confirmed that if they do not meet certain requirements until the end of their sentence, such as “good conduct,” “they can return to prison”

The vice president of the Supreme People’s Tribunal (TSP) of Cuba, Maricela Sosa, confirmed that these people have not been pardoned or amnestied and that, if they do not meet certain requirements until the expiration of their sentence, such as “good conduct,” “they can return to prison.”

In contrast to the 553 people that the Cuban authorities are planning to release, the NGO Prisoners Defenders recorded a total of 1,161 political prisoners in Cuba by the end of 2024, and Justicia 11J estimates that 549 11J protesters were convicted.

This is the first release of prisoners in Cuba since 2019, when authorities pardoned 2,604 inmates. The previous release took place in 2015, when a total of 3,522 prisoners were released as a “humanitarian gesture” in anticipation of the visit of Pope Francis.

In this regard, the priest Alberto Reyes, always critical of the Cuban regime, has lamented on social networks – in line with other opposition members – that those released from prison are being used as “bargaining chips” and wonders what will be the fate of those who have been released, as well as of those who remain in prison.

Reyes also urged the Government to “recognize the right of this people to different political options, to a healthy multi-party system, and to the possibility of defining at the polls the political system they prefer to choose.”

These are the political prisoners released so far, according to the OCDH:

 OCDH:

  • Reynel Pupo Anaya
  • Rolando Gonzalez Arevalo
  • Nidia Goods Walker
  • Jose Antonio Gonzalez Guerrero
  • Aleandry Lettuce Rush
  • Tania Echevarria Menendez
  • Adonis Garvizo Otero
  • Dainier Flowers Olive
  • Yohandry Ripoll Smith
  • Edel Osvaldo Lopez Nodarse
  • Ivan Hernandez Troya
  • Peter Nicholas Leon
  • Maikel Gonzalez Mura
  • Jorge Serrano Alfonso
  • Andy Ortega Murgado
  • Michel Mariel Suarez Munoz
  • Jaime Alcide Firdó Rodríguez
  • Rafael Cutiño Bazan
  • Juan Alberto Matos Maso
  • Mariurka Diaz Calvo
  • Ismel Frank Guanche Acosta
  • Santiago Vazquez Leon
  • Rodennis Avila Corujo
  • Jose Antonio Gomez Leon
  • Adel de la Torre Hernandez
  • John Luis Machado Marrero
  • Jorge Alexander Ilufro Pere
  • Noel Martinez Tapanez
  • Miner Chaviano Mastache
  • Francisco Rafael Villa Tamari
  • Adrian Rodriguez Morera
  • Joel Diaz Hernandez
  • Leylandis Puentes Vargas
  • Yoslen Dominguez Victores
  • Denis Hernandez Ramirez
  • Roberto Jesus Marin Fernandez
  • Robert Michel Marin Fernandez
  • Adrian Echegoyen Espiñeira
  • Rosa Jany Millo Espinosa
  • Felix Navarro Rodriguez
  • Frandy Gonzalez Leon
  • Brenda Diaz Garcia
  • Henry Osmar Sanchez Aparicio
  • Roberto Sosa Cabrera
  • Yoel Consuegra Avila
  • Yoennis Dominguez de la Rosa
  • Yeriel Cruz Perez
  • Yuniesky Jackson Mensu
  • Marcos Antonio Pintueles Marrero
  • Omar Hernandez Calzadilla
  • Yuniel Jorge Fleitas
  • Daisy Rodriguez Alfonso
  • Rolando Fernandez Osorio
  • Lazarus Rodriguez Avila
  • Livan Mediaceja Heredia
  • Frank Ernesto Trujillo Hervis
  • Alexander Paredes Collado
  • Emy Yoslan Roman Rodriguez
  • Jose Manuel Arias Campos
  • Maykel Fleites Rivalta
  • Yismel Alfonso Oliva
  • Gilberto Castillo Castillo
  • Dariel Rosa Perez
  • Manuel Diaz Rodriguez
  • Yusnaira Gonzalez Perez
  • Jorge Luis Liriano Alvarez
  • Johander Perez Gomez
  • Humberto Elias Monrabal Camps
  • Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo
  • Abdiel Cedeno Martinez
  • Yoandry Reinier Sayú Silva
  • Armando Lazaro Merlan Perez
  • Alien Molina Castell
  • Jorge Luis Lugones Lara
  • Gloria Maria Lopez Valle
  • Heriberto Tellez Reynosa
  • Daniel Antonio Diaz Galvez
  • Juvier Jimenez Gomez
  • Yunior Rodriguez Rivero
  • Julian Manuel Mazola Beltran
  • Uziel David Abreu Martinez
  • Iris Belkis Oduardo Rodriguez
  • Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodriguez
  • Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia
  • Jorge Luis Salazar Brioso
  • Lisdiany Rodriguez Isaac
  • Luis Robles Elizasteguis
  • Orlando Pineda Martinez
  • Marlon Brando Diaz Oliva
  • Ciro Alexis Casanova Perez
  • Juan Yanier Antomarchi Nunez
  • Randy Arteaga Rivera
  • Frank Daniel Roig Sotolongo
  • Yandier Garcia Labrada
  • Eduin Rodriguez Fonseca
  • Andro Ledesma Prieto
  • Liliana Oropesa Ferrer
  • Endris Fuentes Zamora
  • Javier Gonzalez Fernandez
  • Arturo Valentin Rivero
  • Rowland Jesus Castillo Castro
  • Dariel Cruz Garcia
  • Donaida Perez Paseiro
  • Mailene Noguera Santiesteban
  • Yessica Coimbra Noriega
  • Queen Yacnara Barreto Batista
  • Livan Hernandez Sosa
  • Katia Beirut Rodriguez
  • Jose Miguel Gomez Mondeja
  • Jorge Gabriel Arruebarruena Leon
  • Lisdany Rodriguez Isaac
  • Magdiel Rodriguez Garcia
  • Rogelio Lazaro Dominguez Perez
  • Cesar Adrian Delgado Correa

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Bedbugs, the Plague That Takes Sleep Away From the People of Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

“I knew this was happening, I had heard many stories, but it’s another thing to experience it,” Yeandris explains to ’14ymedio’

The bed bug or chinch bug has become an unwelcome visitor in many Cuban homes. / Maine Department of Agriculture and Forest Conservation (USA)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 18 January 2025 — The home of 29-year-old Yeandris has suffered tremendous losses, amounting to a quarter of a million pesos. The bed bugs rapidly infesting the city of Sancti Spíritus have not only drained his resources but also stolen countless hours of his time and sleep. “Just yesterday, I had to throw away three mattresses that were still in good condition. There was simply no way to control those bugs,” he confides to 14ymedio.

The ordeal of Yeandris and his family began in early December in the Jesús María neighborhood. “We started to notice something itching our legs while we watched television on the sofa in the living room,” recalls the man from Sancti Spiritus. “At first, we thought it was mosquitoes, but it happened most frequently when we sat there. When we examined the folds, wadding, and cushions, they were full of bedbugs.”

The bed bug, or chinch bug, an insect that feeds on the blood of humans and other animals, has become an unwelcome visitor in many Cuban homes. Overcrowding, lack of cleaning products, and poverty have significantly increased its presence in recent years. Outbreaks in provinces such as Santiago de Cuba and Havana have frequently made headlines in the island’s independent media.

“I knew that this was happening, I had heard many stories about, but experiencing it is a whole different thing.” explains Yeandris. Shortly after discovering that the insects were in the sofa, the family realized thad the bugs were invading the beds too. “My mother’s mattress, my baby’s crib mattress, and the one my wife and I share were all infested,” he laments. A computer engineer by profession, the man thought that, as with computer viruses, all that was needed was to find an antidote and apply it to the infected furniture. continue reading

“My mother’s mattress, my baby’s crib mattress, and the one my wife and I share were all infested”

“A neighbor who had gone through the same thing recommended that I go to the community health center in my area to ask for help, from there they sent me to the provincial Public Health office and I spent weeks bouncing back and forth,” he recalls. “During all that time, at my home nobody could even sleep. My son had an allergy outbreak due to the bedbug bites and some of them even got infected and caused sores on his skin.”

The last Christmas at Yeandris’s home was not for celebration. “That morning I couldn’t stand it any longer and I took apart the three beds.” A week earlier, a fumigator recommended by Public Health and paid out of the pocket of the insomniac espirituano, sprayed the entire house, especially the bedrooms. “We thought that was going to solve the problem, but those bugs just multiplied more.”

On December 24th Yeandris took the three mattresses out to the backyard, the family went on a thorough cleaning spree, and exhausted, they crashed that night on the floor with just some blankets. “I never thought it would come to this, but nothing was killing those bedbugs, and after almost a month of terrible sleep, all you want is for the nightmare to end.”

A few days later, with the help of another neighbor, he threw the three mattresses into a nearby dumpster. There, he encountered a scavenger who, despite the warnings, decided to pick up what Yeandris had discarded. ’I take them apart, put the stuffing in bags, and soak them in the river for days,’ the man explained his method to the astonished Sancti Spiritus resident, who advised him not to take such a bedbug-infested nest. ’Then I dry the stuffing in the sun and can rebuild the mattresses,’ he added resourcefully.

“Altogether, with the loss of the nearly new mattresses, the two visits from the exterminator, the sofa I had to throw away, and all the useless remedies I bought, it all costed me nearly 250,000 pesos,” calculates the affected person. “After going through this, I’ve become really paranoid. I don’t want to sit down anywhere anymore.”

“After going through this, I’ve become really paranoid. I don’t want to sit down anywhere anymore.”

Yeandris’s obsession isn’t a sign that he’s lost his mind. In Sancti Spíritus, residents warn each other about places infested by the plague. “You can’t go to the provincial library; the armchairs are full,” warns an internet user in a Facebook group for city residents. “In my neighborhood, a neighbor put her mattress out in the sun to get rid of the bedbugs, and now she’s spread them to all of us. The whole block is infested.”

In May 2023, a similar warning reached local media. Osvaldo Gómez Hernández, deputy director of surveillance and anti-vector control at the Provincial Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, acknowledged the extent of the problem in the province. “It’s hard to eliminate bedbugs, but it’s not impossible. This allows us to offer some home treatments without having to resort to chemical treatments,” the specialist stated in response to citizens’ calls for official intervention to fumigate the neighborhoods.

“I’ve been to the health center three times to get help with fumigation, even if I have to pay a hefty fee, but they never come,” complains another affected resident in the Sancti Spiritus Facebook group. “I had to burn two mattresses and an armchair. I’ve been battling an infestation at my mom’s house for a month, and nothing works because the problem is everywhere. You kill 100 bedbugs in the morning, and by night, 200 more come from the house next door.”

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

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

Political Prisoners and the Chalk Circle

In a joint television appearance, a Cuban jurist and a state propagandist demonstrated that the regime does not even know how to act like it is running a country governed by the rule of law. / Cuban Television

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, January 16, 2025 – The word “all” is one of the most frequently used words in Cuban social media posts these days, a clear reference to political prisoners. Those of us who have been fighting for their release are overcome by a strange feeling, especially since the protests of 11J. The regime has begun to release some of the 553 prisoners it promised the Vatican it would free in exchange for its help in getting Joe Biden to remove Cuba from the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The use of political prisoners as bargaining chips has been common practice when the regime is bartering with its favorite enemy.

Why do I describe it as a strange feeling? First of all, anyone with a shred of humanity would rejoice that so many unjustly incarcerated people might be leaving the hell of Cuban prisons, embracing their families and sleeping in their own beds again. Especially if they should never have been imprisoned in the first place. But walking out of their cells does not mean that they are free. The regime itself has made this quite clear through its spokesperson, Humberto López, and the vice-president of Cuba’s supreme court, Maricela Sosa, who stressed the “benefit of early release.” In other words, this is not an amnesty or a pardon. Once released, the prisoners will still be subject to strict monitoring by the repressive powers-that-be. They could forced back into prison at any time if those who misgovern the country so decide.

Leaving their cells does not mean that they are free. The regime itself has made this quite clear through its spokesperson, Humberto López

In a joint television appearance, López and Sosa demonstrated that the regime does not even know how to pretend it is running a country governed by the rule of law. Ms. Sosa knows all too well that, when it comes to political crimes, the Cuban legal system is a farce. The court’s role has been diminished to that of a paper pusher . The final verdict depends solely and exclusively on what Caesar decides, whether his thumb is pointing up or down. On the other hand, what are we to do? Is this a concession to the pope continue reading

in honor of the Jubilee? How much of a gesture is it really when they themselves claim to have released more than 10,000 prisoners in the last two years? Did Díaz-Canel suddenly convert to Catholicism and now is in a state of ecstasy over the Jubilee? Is it payment in kind for acting as intermediary with the White House? Is it intended as a farewell kiss to Mr. Biden? Or is it something that was due to happen, based on current legislation, long ago? The quagmire that Humberto and Maricela got themselves into is reminiscent of a bad comedy-drama.

Obviously, there are more uncertainties than solid answers. We will have to wait to find out the names of the 553 former prisoners. We will also have to wait and see what the Trump administration does about taking Cuba off the notorious terrorism list. Expectations are that it will be Marco Rubio, even more than Trump, who will take the lead on any decisions having to do with the island. One of the few certainties is that Cuban civil society is completely excluded from this process.

There are several reasons why decisions that affect us are made behind our backs

There are several reasons why decisions that affect us are made behind our backs. For one thing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in any kind of activism within the country, much less full-on opposition. The harsh persecution to which independent opinion makers are subjected in Cuba prevents not only the necessary debate but even simple expression in a public forum or in social media. How can a gagged, impoverished, tightly monitored and constantly threatened civil society empower itself?

Meanwhile, divisions within the exile community continue, as do clashes of ego and unfounded suspicions stoked by Cuban State Security agencies. In Miami, which continues serve as the exiles’ unofficial capital, political polarization has dampened the interest of the United State’s two major political parties in winning the Cuban vote. When partisan differences become so obvious, the ability to attract interest, or to influence decisions, is suddenly lost. Some will think this sounds all too much like teenage love affairs. But politics is not very different from youthful passions, especially in times when emotion reemerges as a potent political weapon.

As for the Cuban diaspora, it is clear that we are fragmented, dispersed, disconnected and powerless to influence the governments of the countries where we find ourselves living.

When Cardinal Beniamino Stella visited Havana in 2023, the papal envoy expressed his intention to negotiate the release of political prisoners. He noted that “those who have to power to talk among themselves should to be able to listen to others.” The key phrase was “those who have power.” The sad truth is that, today, neither the opposition nor civil society in general have enough power to be heard, neither by one nor the other. And that is a fatal flaw.

We are fragmented, dispersed, disconnected and powerless to influence the governments of the countries where we find ourselves living

Crying and complaining will not serve us well. We must roll up our sleeves. Above all, we must put aside our petty differences and focus on the task at hand, the most urgent being to empower ourselves. That means being able to mobilize Cuban society, consolidate leadership, and ensure that our leaders are heard at the highest levels internationally. And not just so world leaders can feel sorry for us. Victimhood always makes for fleeting, inconsequential news. We need to demonstrate to world leaders that we have the potential to change things. It is about consolidating alliances and drawing up firm strategies with international decision-makers. We should be significant enough so that no one rushes in to make decisions that impact us without consulting us first. However, in order for our cause make it onto international agendas, we must first come up with a clear agenda of our own. It should not be one full of sloganeering and shouting. Rather, it should be one that has been carefully agreed upon, with a clear roadmap and concise strategies.

I have saved for last the questions that most concern me at the moment. What will happen to the other five-hundred political prisoners who will not be receiving this “benefit”? How long will they remain in this unjust, inhuman situation? Until the next Jubilee? Will they be the card that the regime is saving for its showdown with Marco Rubio? Will the regime lock up another thousand Cubans next year in order to do another swap? Will we keep going around in circles?
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The Commitment to be Exiled

The decades that have passed and the lack of success in the libertarian proposal have not exhausted the exile

Few pueblos have citizens who have not been able to visit their home country for 66 years. / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 19 January 2025 — The Cuban political exile, like political imprisonment, is, without a doubt, one of the longest and most numerous in the history of humanity. Few countries have citizens who have not been able to visit their home country for 66 years, due to restrictions imposed by a dictatorship.

Of course, we should not confuse exile with immigration. Although both have common characteristics, the political exile is supposed to continue working for a change of government in his country, while the immigrant is seasoned with other motivations.

Exile, for the benefit of the new generations of Cubans who, inside or outside the Island, have been subject to the chronic censorship and misinformation that the dictatorship exercises on every event, is an honorable evidence of the commitment of many Cubans who have never given up on their efforts to overthrow the dictatorship by any means possible, including those that for some are not politically correct.

From the beaches of exile – which are only beautiful when you say goodbye to them, as Jose Martí wrote – hundreds of Cubans have left to bring freedom and democracy to Cuba, dying in combat as happened to many others, such as Armentino El Indio Feria, or going to prison for long decades as was the case of Armando Sosa Fortuny, 44 years in prison in two periods until he died in prison. continue reading

In the United States, as in Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, numerous compatriots have been imprisoned for years.

Many exiles have served long prison sentences outside Cuba for fighting the interests or resources of the tyranny in foreign lands. Here in the United States, as in Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, as far as I know, numerous compatriots have been imprisoned for years, among others, Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, a truly large number of men and women.

There has been no shortage of those who seek to fulfill their duty as exiles by taking the route of U.S. national politics, exemplified by Congressmen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who, within the framework of local politics, like other serving Cuban politicians, have never ceased to attack Castro’s totalitarianism.

Another aspect of the exile that we must mention is the work of the communicators. Many of them, like Agustín Tamargo, Armando Pérez Roura, Salvador Lew and Ninoska Pérez Castellón, have encouraged and promoted the commitment to bring freedom to Cuba, just as there have been editors deeply committed to Cuban democracy, like Juan Manuel Salvat and Nancy Pérez Crespo.

Writers and journalists committed to the rights of all have not been absent. Carlos Alberto Montaner breathed and lived in the pain of Cuba all his life, and we can also write about many others such as Reinaldo Arenas, Ángel Cuadra and Jorge Valls, as well as journalists such as Ariel Remo and Cary Roque.

The decades that have passed and the lack of success in the libertarian proposal have not exhausted the exiles. Many Cubans have been able to make a fortune thanks to their capacity for work and ingenuity, such as Rogelio Cisneros, who has given up his fortune to fight totalitarianism.

The defense of human rights on the part of the exiles has been another constant, as Ricardo Bofill Pages and Reinaldo Bragado Bretaña, two citizens who fought for their convictions on and off the island, always demonstrated.

Nor has human solidarity been lacking either, as has been the case with the management of the Miami Medical Team, headed by Dr. Manuel Alzugaray. The management of this institution is proof that the fight for freedom is not divorced from the most sensitive humanism.

Exile organizations are key to continuing the struggle

Finally, there is the constant work, the endless dedication, the example of perseverance and quiet sacrifice of overlooking potential benefits to advance the democratic cause in which we must believe when founding organizations that assume the commitment to fight to the last consequences, as Nazario Sargent did when founding Alpha 66, Antonio Jose Varona when founding the Junta Patriótica or Jorge Mas Canosa when establishing the Cuban American National Foundation.

Exile organizations are key to continuing the struggle, as exemplified by, among others, the aforementioned Alpha 66 under the leadership of Ernesto Diaz Rodríguez or the Asamblea de la Resistencia coordinated by the tireless Orlando Gutiérrez, who has shown his commitment to Cuba since his adolescence.

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

Without Water, the Main Hospital in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, Is ‘A High-Risk Place for the Sick’

The center is sinking into filth and services are closed while an unbearable stench spreads throughout the building

The hospital was recently the target of criticism for the lack of medical personnel at night. / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 19 January 2025 — “There is no water,” warns a sign in the cafeteria of the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital in Sancti Spíritus. The sign, which hangs at an angle from a blackboard, adds that only “products to take away” are being sold, and its presence is just a small sample of what is happening inside the medical center. Several operating rooms remain closed, specialist consultations are limited and the bathrooms are covered in excrement.

“We can’t even clean the floor because the water hasn’t come on for days,” an employee who works in the emergency room told 14ymedio. “This has affected everything, from the emergency services to the laboratory where the tests are done and the hemodialysis room, which is one of the rooms that has the most problems right now because there are patients in a very delicate state.” The worker believes that in these conditions “the hospital becomes a high-risk place for the sick.”

In the cafeteria a sign warns that there is no water in the center and products are only sold for take-away. / 14ymedio

In the Emergency Room, the smells coming from the bathrooms fill the waiting room. The doctors and nurses seem to have gotten used to the stench after days of it being present, but the patients who have just arrived feel it like a punch in the face. “I came with my husband who is having an asthma attack and as soon as we entered we were stunned. How can a health center be like this?” After waiting for half an hour, the couple decided to return home. “We’ll see how we resolve it, but this is unbearable.”

The hospital, which was recently the target of criticism for the lack of medical personnel at night, has been defended in the official press as a place that “despite the energy contingency” works 24 hours a day and provides excellent service. Last October, a photo report published in the local Escambray newspaper showed surgeons in an impeccable room performing a complex operation, maintenance technicians analyzing samples and a nephrology specialist calibrating modern dialysis equipment. If these images were repeated now, they would not be able to capture the main protagonist of these rooms and consultations: the stench that the lack of water has spread everywhere.

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

Distressed Families Say Goodbye to Their Children Summoned for Military Service in Manzanillo, Cuba

Recruits say goodbye to their families from the bus / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 19 January 2025 — Before the official information was issued about the death of nine young people and four officers in the explosions of January 7 in the Melones military unit in Holguín, other parents, this time in Manzanillo, said goodbye to their children in a forced march towards the Army. From Monday the 13th and for a week, the headquarters of the Combatants Association in the Gulf City became a launch pad for more than a hundred boys who left to fulfill the controversial Active Military Service.

To Yanaisa, her son’s farewell reminds her of her father’s stories about the Army. “He was not an internationalist, but he was often mobilized when I was a child. He told my brother that the Army would make him a real man. Now, with everything that has happened, he hardly talks about it. He just says that he has to know how to take care of himself. I don’t want my son to become a ’man.’ I just want him to get out of there soon,” she explains to 14ymedio.

For 45 days, the young recruits are subjected to basic training and then transferred to the planned regular units, which vary according to the needs of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. In Granma Province, after the initial stay in Jiguaní, they are transferred to units such as Managua, in the west, or Los Guineos, in the municipality of Guisa, in the same province. However, the greatest fear of families is not the distance. continue reading

In Granma Province, after the initial stay in Jiguaní, they are transferred to units such as Managua or Los Guineos / 14ymedio

“Being a soldier is not like having a scholarship. There are people who think it’s almost the same but it’s not like that. No one really knows what’s going on there. Now everyone is surprised by the explosions in the tunnels, but they happen everywhere in Cuba. In addition to the mistreatment by most officers, they also spend bad nights, there is hunger… If someone likes it and wants to dedicate themselves to the military then it’s not a problem, but they give the rest of us more work and to a large extent, at least for me, it was a waste of time,” recognizes Rody, who accompanied his family to say goodbye to his cousin.

The resistance of family members and young people themselves to joining the army despite the perks offered them is increasingly evident. “Now they are boarding the bus, but the bad side comes quickly. I try to encourage my sister… but it’s hell” says Rubén, 53, annoyed, to another man sitting next to him in the park while they wait for his nephew’s bus to leave.

“I myself know a guy who came out partly unhinged. It was in the early 90s. We were cleaning the rifles on one of those long tables and one fired a shot because no one had checked the chamber. We weren’t sitting face to face, but in zigzag, but the bullet buzzed near his head. It affected his hearing for a while, but especially his mind. He started thinking about what had happened and almost went crazy. Although it was almost time for them to discharge us, they didn’t discharge him, they just changed his position,” the man recalls.

The resistance of family members and young people themselves to join military service is increasingly evident / 14ymedio

In the past, one of the most attractive options for military service was to be selected as a firefighter. However, after the catastrophe at the Matanzas Supertanker Base and the fire shortly after in the local Fishing Combo, the dangers of that work were exposed.

Rebeca, who does not hide her anger, speaks in front of the group of parents and recruits waiting for the buses: “I don’t care what others say and I told them so. They can call him soft, criminal… What matters to me is that he take care of himself. This is mandatory, but if they send him to do something strange, don’t do it. He can sit on the floor and be imprisoned. I prefer him in prison and alive than in a little box. I don’t even want to think about that. Look at those mothers in Holguín, who have not even been able to bury their children. I’ll die if something like that happens to me!”

In 2022, one year after the 11J protests, the regime declared to the United Nations that “children are not recruited and will not be recruited in Cuba.” The words of the Foreign Ministry official echoed in the minds of many parents, who know that the affirmation and replacement of “Compulsory Military Service” by “General Military Service” or “Active Military Service” are just euphemisms. Under the acronyms hides the forced incorporation into a military entity that is increasingly rejected by the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Félix Navarro Celebrates the ‘Battle’ of Three Ladies in White Still Imprisoned by the Cuban Regime

Félix Navarro (2nd from R) and his family, shortly after his release from prison was announced this Saturday. / OCDH

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 January 2025 — Opposition leader Félix Navarro has been in prison since 11 July 2021 (11J). Almost four years later, as part of a deal between the Cuban regime and the Vatican to release 553 prisoners, he was granted conditional release this Saturday. He left the Agüica prison in Matanzas with the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen to his daughter Sayli Navarro, imprisoned for also participating in the mass protests.

Among the “many visits” and calls that besiege him to celebrate his release, he spoke to 14ymedio. “If I didn’t have this family and the brothers who have surrounded me in Cuba and around the world, I wouldn’t have been able to leave prison,” he says. “I found the family to be very well and very united.”

As of November 2022, he was allowed to see his daughter Sayli, a prisoner in the Matanzas Women’s Prison, who was transferred every 45 days to meet her father in the Agüica prison – almost 100 kilometers away – for two hours. There she had to talk to her in front of her guards, in an office.

As of November 2022, he was allowed to see his daughter Sayli, a prisoner in the Matanzas Women’s Prison,

“I always see her thin. The food situation [in Cuban prisons] is always bad. But [she has managed to mitigate it] thanks to friends and brothers in the struggle, with visits every 15 days,” he says. At first, when his jailers continue reading

suggested he call his daughter, Navarro rejected the offer. “You put her in jail,” he told them. Finally they decided to take him to her.

Navarro believes that his daughter, as well as other political prisoners such as Sissi Abascal and Tania Echevarría – all three of whom are Ladies in White – “have fought the battle that they have fought.” “We would not have wanted to go through this situation, but we are amazed at how these three women have behaved.”

In prison, only two other people could visit him at a time and every 50 days. His family and friends had to rotate. “There was always one of my brothers or nephews there. Anyone with the surname Navarro or Rodriguez could go in, that was the way,” he says.

His jailers were inflexible with this rule. Opposition member Iván Hernández Carrillo, for example, was not allowed in even though Navarro considers him his “blood brother” because – political activism aside – he did not have his last name. “However, he accompanied my family many times,” he says. “I told Iván: ’My brother, I need you not to let yourself be provoked in the street so that they don’t take you to jail.’ If they had put Iván in jail, what would be lost would be an army.”

In 2016, Navarro was diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that caused him to endure difficult days in prison.

In 2016, Navarro was diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that caused him to endure difficult days in prison. Now, he says, he has “low blood sugar levels,” although he does not consider that he is going through a critical moment. “Sometimes I lose consciousness, I can’t get out of bed. Diabetes knocked me out once at midnight and other times at dawn. I don’t remember anything that happened during that time.”

He has been unconscious for one to two hours. In prison, his diet contributed to the worsening of his illness and did not meet the requirements to maintain his sugar level. “The last visit I had was on December 6. Since then I have gained five kilograms and I have not had any more lows. However, this Sunday I ran out of medicine and I could not talk to my family either.”

Navarro thanked his “brothers in exile” for the visibility given to his case, in particular the Rescate Jurídico Foundation and its president, Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriña, a “Cuban patriot,” Navarro describes. He also thanked the Cuban American National Foundation. He celebrates the release on Thursday of José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, whom he describes as “a lion, a great man.”

At midday on Saturday, the organization Prisoners Defenders reported 89 releases, “the vast majority of which were conditional releases that had been due to them for some time and had been denied.” The government, for its part, said on Friday that it had already released 127 inmates , a figure that has sparked controversy and indicates – if true – that there are a large number of common prisoners who have been discreet about their release. Of these, only about 50 were political prisoners.

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The Opening of the Hotel in the Controversial K Tower in Havana Is Delayed

As ’14ymedio’ confirmed, the works are not yet finished.

The scene that ’14ymedio’ found this Thursday showed the building, scaffolding and cranes closed and workers lying on the sidewalk. / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Jose Lassa, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The opening of the Iberostar Cuba Selection, which occupies the controversial new skyscraper at 23 and K, in Havana’s Vedado, did not occur on January 15, as announced by Havanatur, which promotes the hotel managed by the Spanish firm. Nor did it take place on the 16th, since on Thursday the building remained closed, with scaffolding, cranes and workers lying on the sidewalk, as 14ymedio was able to confirm.

Asked when the work will be finished, the workers shrugged their shoulders: “We only know that the opening has been delayed, they say it will be on the 20th or so.” Although neither the Iberostar website nor that of the state agency Havanatur indicate a date, some tourist reservation sites do: starting on February 1, they are offering rooms from $483 to $959 per night.

Meanwhile, Cubans are increasingly criticizing the state’s investments in five-star tourist facilities. The latest thing that has provoked this is the hydraulic works that have been going on for weeks on Boyeros Avenue, without any government information, heading towards the neighborhood where the new luxury hotel is located, and about which the official press finally made a statement two days ago. continue reading

Although neither the Iberostar nor Havanatur websites indicate a date, some tourist reservation sites do: this coming February 1st. / 14ymedio

The new ‘Marino Palatino’ pipeline, was created, Cubadebate explained, and is intended to “replace a network of aging pipelines that has caused constant breaks and leaks, affecting approximately 72,250 inhabitants of the Cerro and Plaza de la Revolución municipalities.”

Without mentioning the K Tower – something that some commentators do, however, mention at the bottom of the article – the media acknowledges, speaking of the “population increase in the area” on “an already weakened system, increasing the need for drinking water”: “The hotel development planned in the area poses a challenge by further increasing demand.”

The building, first popularly known as the “López-Calleja Tower” – named after the late head of the military conglomerate Gaesa, owner of the facilities through one of its subsidiaries, Grupo Gaviota – and then as Torre K, has been surrounded by controversy since the moment its construction was announced in 2018. It represented, from the start, a waste of resources in an impoverished country.

As the building was being built, and with tourism at its lowest levels, technical criticism also began. Several architects pointed out the “mistakes” of the project, including the “pretentious gigantism,” the “insulated glass” that is dazzling in a tropical country, and the poor orientation of the hotel, with no views to the north, which would have been the best façade to orient the rooms so that they do not suffer from “that Caribbean sun that costs a lot of energy and money to cool.”

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No Cuban Received US Humanitarian Parole in December and Almost 1,000 Are Waiting for a US Travel Permit

A total of 970 Cubans have not yet been processed to travel to the United States / Mario Vallejo

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, January 16, 2025 — In the last two months of 2024, no Cubans arrived in the United States through the Humanitarian Parole Program. Four days after Republican Donald Trump takes over the presidency, the program that came into force in 2023 and authorized travel for 110,970 citizens of the Island seems to be experiencing its sunset. Of that total, 970 people have not yet been processed to travel.

The figures offered by the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are overwhelming: in December 10 Cubans received travel authorization, however, they have not been able to finalize their transfer due to the lack of available commercial flights and logistical problems.

For about two years, the program has facilitated the legal arrival in the US of 531,690 Cubans, Haitians (213,150), Nicaraguans (96,270) and Venezuelans (120,760), but their stay in the country is temporary; that is, they are granted parole for two years. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Univision that these migrants “have 24 months to change their permanent status to any other available legal program, including asylum.”

The DHS stressed that “those who are not granted asylum or other immigration benefits will have to leave the United States at the end of their authorized probation period or, generally, will be placed in deportation proceedings after the probation period expires.” continue reading

Among those who were able to travel in December were 10 Venezuelans. In November, 10 Venezuelans, 10 Nicaraguans and 30 Haitians arrived in the United States.

In almost two years the program has favored the legal arrival in the US of 531,690 Cubans, as well as Haitians (213,150), Nicaraguans (96,270) and Venezuelans (120,760)

The decrease in the numbers came after the accusations of fraud reported between last July and August. On July 6, the program was suspended for Venezuelans and, days later, for other nationalities, until introducing the necessary changes to avoid irregularities. Among those detected were blank forms in the system, false phone numbers, postal codes that did not exist, social security numbers of dead people, repeated texts in thousands of applications and people who presented their documents more than once.

In August, the delivery of sponsors’ fingerprints and a more thorough review of applicants became mandatory, which reactivated the mechanism. However, for the US Congress, the program promoted by the Biden Administration is a “disaster plagued by fraud.”

In terms of CBP One application figures, almost 44,000 people were processed at ports of entry in December. From January 2023 to the end of December 2024, more than 936,500 people successfully scheduled appointments, mainly Venezuelans, Cubans and Mexicans.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Energy Collapse in Cuba Has Its Origin in Fidel Castro’s Commitment to Generators

The same mistake is now being made with Chinese photovoltaic parks, which are doomed to failure.

Generators in Camagüey / ACN

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Especialista Zea, Havana, 13 January 2025 — When the Island was plunged into the first total blackout last year on October 17, both the population and the technicians of the National Electric Union (SEN) wondered if the collapse could have been avoided. The negative answer, after decades of technological carelessness, has its roots in the so-called Energy Revolution, whose promises of stability were never fulfilled.

In obedience to the penultimate utopian idea of an elderly Fidel Castro, the country was “remotorized” in 2006. The generators, newly installed to cover the demand, briefly supported the National Electrical System (SEN). This solution lasted five years, the same time period as the warranties on the equipment.

One by one, the generators began to present problems. The collapse was coming, and for anyone who had technical knowledge of the matter, it was more than predictable. It was a support technology for a system that – mortally wounded after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Special Period – entered the new century in conditions of maximum precariousness.

The SEN already operated with less than half of its total generation capacity, and the authorities, against all logic, made the generators assume much of the country’s consumption needs. Once the warranties on the equipment expired, without economic means to buy new parts or carry out the essential maintenance, the Energy Revolution followed the same path of failures and improvisations as the other Revolution. continue reading

The obsolescence of many generators and the total loss of others caused the greatest alarm in the western region, the one with the highest demand

All equipment suffers wear and tear. Without maintenance and with sustained operation, any system goes down. While the generators were carrying national demand, the thermoelectric plants – whose condition can be followed every day in the UNE reports – also deteriorated more and more.

The obsolescence of many and the total loss of others caused the greatest alarm in the western region, the one with the highest demand. The typical example is the Otto Parellada, known as Tallapiedra, although the breakdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas has also been emblematic and was the official cause of the collapse of the SEN in October.

Faced with the debacle of its two energy pillars, the authorities created the illusion that the problem – a daily deficit that exceeds 1,000 megawatts (MW) – could be solved by installing solar panels supplied by China. As in 2006, it was possible to predict that the generators would not last long without maintenance or spare parts, and we can now see the failure of the photovoltaic parks coming.

To generate a single MW, between 3,000 and 4,000 optimal quality solar panels are needed. It would be necessary to cover 20,000 square meters of surface to reach that figure and have battery banks – an additional cost that Cuba has not mentioned – so that the stored energy is usable when the hours of sunshine pass, which coincide with those of higher consumption. In the current economic conditions of the country, a project of that caliber is not viable.

It is true that photovoltaic energy is ecological and does not depend on the use of fossil fuels, but it involves constant maintenance of the sites, which the Cuban authorities have shown, historically, unable to sustain.

Improvisation and the lack of long-term planning remain the slogan, despite the fact that without a stable SEN Cuba will not have a functional industry or a break from the blackouts. While the Energy and Mines authorities always allude to a strategy to get out of the quagmire, the reality speaks for itself.

On January 7, for example, the State newspaper Granma announced that China had come to the rescue of 38 diesel generators by sending “aid” in the form of spare parts: “radiators, motors and other necessary components to be able to recover the equipment that is damaged.” However, the repair will not be effective until February, nor will it provide the 58 MW that, in theory, it is capable of generating.

The only possible truce does not come from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but from the climate, more benevolent in these first two months of the year

The shipment was not enough for all the provinces. Ciego de Ávila, Artemisa and Mayabeque will have to wait for the next aid package to repair their generators. Hua Xin, China’s ambassador to the Island and architect of the rapprochement between the two countries in recent months, assured that his country’s goal is for the SEN to “recover” the 400 MW lost from the deterioration of the equipment.

To what extent does this “aid” solve the Cuban energy problem? Will it end the blackouts? The answer is again negative. The country needs 3,000 MW per day to meet its demand, avoid collapse and put an end to the blackouts. The only possible truce does not come from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but from the climate, more benevolent in these first two months of the year.

When this period of low temperatures ends and the tropical heat returns, the use of air conditioners and fans will again cause blackouts. The SEN needs fuel and spare parts, two pending issues that the Government has not resolved. The generators that run on fuel oil could also be reactivated and recovered, but everything has a high economic cost that the authorities are not willing to pay.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, but to turn on that light it is necessary for the country to manage to sustain 50% of its generation capacity, while recovering – with maintenance and new equipment – the other half of the SEN.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Leaving Prison in Cuba Does Not Mean Being Free

“They have left the small prison to enter the big prison,” said an elderly woman on Thursday

Dariel Cruz García, with his mother, Yaquelín Cruz García, this Wednesday, after his release from prison 1580 in Havana. / EFE/ Ernesto Mastrascusa

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 17 January 2025 — In the last few hours, more than thirty Cuban political prisoners have been released. The number is just a small part of the 553 people who will be released from their cells after the agreement between the Havana regime and the Vatican which led to the United States removing the island from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. On this side of the bars, the prisoners are awaited by their families but also by a country where dissent continues to be a crime.

Among those who have left the cells are internationally recognized opponents such as José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, citizens who only protested peacefully in the streets such as Luis Robles, known as “the young man with the placard,” and very poor people from the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera who on 11 July 2021 (11J) demonstrated demanding change and chanting the word “freedom.” It is expected that in the coming days more locks will be removed and other dungeons will be opened.

The joy, however, has been dampened. Organizations that have been working for years on a database of political prisoners warn that there are more than a thousand people convicted of these crimes on the island. To these alarming numbers we must add that the current releases are not full freedoms but a partial measure with serious limitations on rights. If those who benefit from this decision incur in any “indiscipline,” they can be returned to prison. Hanging over their heads is the return to the locked cells, the meager rations of food and the mistreatment of the guards. continue reading

For those less known and therefore barely protected by international visibility, everything will be more difficult.

The lives of these prisoners will also be very difficult in a nation that has experienced an intensification of controls and official intolerance in recent years. With an economic crisis that seems to have no end, a mass exodus that also does not stop and a ruling elite anchored to ideological continuity, walking through Cuban streets is not very different from spending the days in a prison. “They have left the small prison to enter the big prison,” said an elderly woman on Thursday standing in one of those endless lines to buy food. The rest of those waiting in line nodded in silence.

For those less known and, therefore, barely protected by international visibility, everything will be more difficult. For example, Yaquelín Cruz García, mother of Dariel Cruz García aged 23, told me this Thursday how she experienced the first 24 hours after the release of the young man, convicted for the 11J protests. The woman says that she is happy to finally have El Bolo, as his friends also know him, at her side, although she fears that “something will happen and they will want to put him back in jail.”

Cruz García feels that the anxiety continues. “He is under a conditional release regime and he has to follow the rules imposed on him,” explains the mother. “If my son had been given total freedom and could leave the country, I would do everything possible to get him out of Cuba as soon as possible, even if it were to go to Haiti,” she says. Her fear is not exaggerated. An invisible shackle surrounds the ankle of all the released prisoners.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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Of the 127 Prisoners Released by the Cuban Authorities, Only About 50 Are Political Prisoners

Sosa Ravelo clarified last Wednesday that the measure is neither an amnesty nor a pardon /  Televisión Cubana

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The Cuban government has so far released 127 prisoners of the 553 who, after a negotiation with the Vatican, they promised to release on January 14. The number was provided by Maricela Sosa Ravelo, vice president of the Supreme Court, to the spokesman for the regime, Humberto López, and is much higher than the 50 political prisoners registered up to Friday by the Prisoners Defenders organization. It is expected that there will be a significant number of common prisoners who have been discreet with the news of their release.

Interviewed at the Court’s headquarters, Sosa Ravelo explained that, of the 127 released between Wednesday and Thursday, 121 are on conditional release and six have extracriminal leave. The former are subjected to “a trial period” in which former inmates must meet certain conditions, maintain “good behavior” and be linked to a workplace or school, until the time of the sanction ends.

The six extracriminal licenses, on the other hand, were granted “for illness” and other reasons that prevent the inmate from staying in prison, although Sosa Ravelo did not give more details about the cases.

The six extracriminal licenses were granted “for illness” and other reasons

There have been releases “in all Cuban provinces,” López said. Each person has had a meeting with an enforcement judge who has explained their legal situation during their “trial period.” “The process will continue in the coming days,” López said. The Prosecutor’s Office will have to offer its opinion on each case raised, said Sosa Ravelo, “and it can be favorable or unfavorable.”

Some organizations, such as Justice 11J, doubt the “relatively high number of people” that the Supreme Court claims to have released. The NGO claims that it has documented 39 releases, “all political prisoners.” continue reading

Sosa Ravelo was interviewed for the first time last Wednesday by López himself about the implementation of the measure. In her speech she clarified that it is not an amnesty nor a pardon, since they “entail the total extinction of the sanction,” which will not happen in these cases. If they don’t meet their “obligations,” she warned, they could go back to prison.

Those on the list were prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes

Those on the list were prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes. These, she said, are “real crimes such as theft and robbery with force. There are threats, there are injuries, there are disorders. There are also some people who were punished for sedition, but sedition is not a political crime.”

Among those released this Thursday was José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), locked up in the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, since the day of the nationwide protests on 11 July 2021.

Ferrer, in his first speeches, said that he refused to sign a document that was presented to him before his release: “I was kicked out of prison because I do not accept conditional release.” In addition, he said that he would not accept impositions of any kind by the regime, and said he felt “embarrassed for other people” about the agreements that allowed the prisoners to leave.

Another of the most anticipated releases was that of Luis Robles Elizastigui, known as “the young man with the placard” for having protested with a sign on the Havana boulevard of San Rafael, in December 2020. Robles, 20, was serving his sentence in the maximum security prison of the Combinado del Este, in Havana, and he received a brief pass in February last year.

Dariel Cruz García, 23 years old, is on conditional release for participating in the La Güinera protest on July 12, 2021

Dariel Cruz García, 23 years old, is on conditional release for participating in the La Güinera protest on July 12, 2021, and his mother told 14ymedio that she fears for her son’s future: “In this neighborhood anything can happen, because here in Cuba the situation is very bad and they want to put him in jail again.” “If my son had been given total freedom and could leave the country, I would do everything possible to get him out of Cuba as soon as possible, even if it is for Haiti,” she added.

Only through the interviews with Sosa Ravelo has the Cuban regime given the little official information that exists about the released. Humberto López, in fact, has downplayed the impact of the issue and has said that the releases occurred “systematically” in Cuba and that this process is “one more.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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José Daniel Ferrer Challenges His Jailers: ‘You Will Be Prosecuted in the Future’

José Daniel Ferrer, after his release, with his family: his wife, Nelva Ortega, and his children Daniel José and Fátima. / 14ymedio/Courtesy

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The phone has not stopped ringing all afternoon. Yesterday, José Daniel Ferrer was released from the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba, and he has not stopped giving interviews. Finally, I hear his voice on the other end of the line. He has the same firm and kind tone that I remember. Dungeons and mistreatment do not seem to have taken away either his energy or his sanity. We started talking as if just yesterday we had to pause this conversation that I now share with you.

“Right now I feel a bit sad because I have not been able to attend to everybody who has wanted to talk to me,” he acknowledges, overcome by the many phone calls. Leaving prison is an overwhelming experience. The sounds cease to be just the squeaks of the bars and begin to be familiar voices. The light changes and thee are no longer shadows but blinding flashes of light, and one’s body still does not know how to move, although the space is as small your own house. The veteran opponent has experienced those sensations many times, but they still affect him.

Ferrer has been welcomed not only by his relatives and neighbors but also by the blackout. “Now I have a rechargeable lamp because shortly after I arrived the electric power went out.” The Cuba that he has found on this side of the prison walls is a much more economically deteriorated country with fewer hours of electricity. “Even so, despite everything, I have already been able to hug some brothers in the struggle, physically and virtually, through the internet,” says the untiring leader of Unpacu. continue reading

Although the days in captivity were full of bad moments, Ferrer also tells how humor served him to deal with his jailers

Although the days in captivity were full of bad moments, Ferrer also tells how humor served him to deal with his jailers. “I once heard on the Round Table  [State TV program] that the Minister of Agriculture wanted to improve egg production with more political and ideological work for the workers in the sector.” When the guards approached him that day, he could not miss the opportunity: ’By now you’ve heard that the chickens have to understand that they must work harder to lay eggs.’ They didn’t even crack a smile.

Every moment of this conversation, the voice of a small child is heard on the other side of the phone. Ferrer’s son, Daniel José, demands the attention of a father with whom he has spent very little time due to the rigors of prison and the isolation to which the political prisoner was subjected. “I’m coming now,” the father tells him, continuing to intersperse sentences about his time behind bars while attending to the little one’s demands. You can imagine him with the cell phone in one hand and a toy in the other, trying to distract his son.

His daughter Fátima, 20 years old, has also arrived from the community of Palmarito to see her father. He has been able to speak with part of his family exiled in the United States and talked to his sister Ana Belkis Ferrer, who during this time kept an updated report on what Ferrer was going through in prison, the denied family visits and the deterioration of his health. “I still need to talk to my brother, my mother and my other children, but I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” he says.

“When I got home I had such a rush of adrenaline that I felt I was 18 years old”

“When I got home I had such a rush of adrenaline that I felt I was 18 years old,” he admits, although he also remembers that he must avoid those bursts of enthusiasm because he has problems with blood pressure and needs to medicate himself with Enalapril to keep it from rising. “The adrenaline has already returned to its place and I’m 54 years old again,” he says. His body, suffering from the confinement, poor diet and lack of sunlight, now sets the tone, marks the pace.

In the book that Commander Huber Matos wrote after leaving prison, where he spent 20 years denouncing the communist drift of the Fidel Castro regime, he describes a scene in which he got up to go to the bathroom and came across, for the first time in two decades, a mirror that showed him his full body. In the pages of Cómo llegó la noche [How the Night Came], the former political prisoner described the surprise of seeing a graying and aged man who looked into his eyes. Ferrer also is now rediscovering his image, specifying the contours that the dungeon blurred, visually recomposing his anatomy.

Despite the mistreatment, for his jailers he had words loaded with future projections on his last day in prison. “The democratization of Cuba is also good for you,” he told them before leaving, with a knowing and ironic wink that the guards did not expect: “Vote for me for the presidency because I know that your salary is not enough and you are going through hard times.”

“I know that you have to deal ‘on the left’ in order to survive,” the opponent continued to explain to them

“I know that you have to deal ’on the left’ in order to survive,” the opponent continued to explain to them, while making with his hand the gesture that in the Cuban streets is used for the act of stealing and diverting resources from the State. In a prison, the boss, the jailers and even the workers lower on the scale take home food and other resources intended for the prisoners in order to support themselves day to day. That truth, as big and solid as the walls of a prison, cannot be denied, so there was a prolonged silence after Ferrer’s words.

“Just go home,” the officers almost begged him before the dissident’s diatribe. An annoying prisoner must be worse than a stone in the shoe for some guards who are not used to being warned that the regime they defend with their weapons and uniforms can fall like a fragile house of cards at any time. The henchmen must believe that their impunity is eternal, because imagining a future in which they are accountable puts them in front of another mirror, that of responsibility.

“The days they were going to beat me up, they took the highest-ranking officer of Mar Verde out of the environment, so that later I could not say that he was aware of that mistreatment,” he recalls. “Yesterday he told me to just go home to my wife and son and stop protesting.” But Ferrer took it calmly and wanted to make it clear that he did not accept any blackmail linked to the release of political prisoners after the talks between the Cuban regime and the Vatican, in parallel with the announcement made by the Biden Administration to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

“I want my things, my books, my writings, my verses,” the prisoner claimed. “I was writing quatrains. A few days ago I finished the first part of one that was about braggarts, those people who claim to have a courage that they don’t have: ’Juan, in a bar in Havana / under the effect of rum / without a weapon, kills a lion / on the African savannah’.” The night before the release Ferrer had finished the last verse: “Juan, without the drunkenness / just by seeing a mouse / his heart stirs / and the whole of Havana runs.”

“Yesterday he told me to just go home to my wife and son and stop protesting “

“When I got up this Thursday, one of my sources inside the prison warned me that Mar Verde was full of officials from all over Santiago de Cuba. ’There are also some from State Security, and it is being said that you are going free, that they are making preparations’.” Shortly after they informed him that it was a “conditional freedom,” which Ferrer refused: “I do not accept conditions; they can give me all the warnings they want but I’m not complying with them.”

The prisoner sent them a defiant message: “You will be prosecuted in the future and you will be convicted of all this, but I can assure you that you will not have to face the hunger, bedbugs or tuberculosis that we political prisoners have to suffer in Cuba.” Finally “they threw me out of there. They didn’t let me pick up my toothbrush, family photos or my books, nothing.”

Outside, his wife Nelva Ortega Tamayo and their little son were waiting for him. For her he has only words of gratitude. “She has gone through very difficult times while I was in prison: she lost her mother and recently her grandmother also died,” Ferrer adds. “It’s one of the hardest things about being in prison, that helplessness of not being able to be there for loved ones in the most complicated moments to encourage and support them.”

Now, Ferrer plans a visit to Havana, where he has a daughter he hasn’t seen since before the pandemic. The last part of the conversation is to remember our time of meeting as friends. A pizza eaten in company, a hug given in a hurry, a few laughs between personal testimonies. “See you, my brother,” he says in closing, as if we had paused our conversation a few hours before and only resumed it to catch up with the latest details: the news to which anecdotes, future projects and even verses are always added.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Opposition Leader José Daniel Ferrer Released From Prison After Negotiations Between the Cuban Regime and the Vatican

José Daniel Ferrer’s release from prison, like that of Luis Robles, was one of the most anticipated since the Cuban regime’s announcement on Tuesday 

The opponent José Daniel Ferrer, in an image shared this Thursday, the day of his release, on social networks. / X/@jdanielferrer

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 16 January 2025 — José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), was released from prison this Thursday. “I don’t know the conditions, if it was under extracriminal license, if it was parole, I don’t know, but they say he’s going home,” Carlos Amel Oliva reported in a video broadcast by the Prisoners Defenders organization, and confirmed by the opponent’s sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer.

The dissident’s wife, Nelva Ortega, had been called the day before by the authorities to appear this morning at the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, where the opponent had been imprisoned since July 11, 2021.

In his first statements after his release, to Martí Noticias, Ferrer said: “I was kicked out of prison because I don’t accept conditional release.” The authorities, in any case, warned him that “if he does not comply with the rules of socialist society” they will “try him in court again.

I was kicked out of prison because I don’t accept conditional release”

The leader of Unpacu said that, although he has health problems, none affects his “desire to continue fighting for democracy and human rights.” “I’m ready, I’m going to continue doing what I’ve always done,” he said, while asking the opposition to “be more united than ever.”

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Ferrer said he felt “embarrassed over this agreement, for the way in which the Biden administration and the Vatican have handled it.” And he continued: “According to the terms of the statement published by the regime, it seems that they have just defeated them in three rounds, as if by chance they decided to give freedom to the 553 prisoners.”

“If Biden and the Vatican don’t deny this, they are playing the game of a bully similar to Pablo Escobar, who does what he wants, an ally of Nicolás Maduro and Vladimir Putin. They [the Regime] boast that both Washington and the Pope have done what they wanted. They have no respect.”

In the same way, he estimated: “If the regime has not eliminated me like Oswaldo Payá, it is thanks to the solidarity of the European members of Parliament and the good press of the free world.” continue reading

For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, of which Ferrer is president, celebrated this Thursday, in a statement, the release of the opponent, and “deeply thank the role of the Vatican in its mediation for this important step.” However, it clarified that other prisoners, such as Félix Navarro, 71, should also be released.

“The current releases are no more than a form of imprisonment without bars”

“We reiterate our urgent call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and the decriminalization of dissent in Cuba,” they insist in their text. “Freedom cannot be conditioned. The current releases are nothing more than a form of imprisonment without bars, where rules of ‘good behavior’ are imposed.” “In reality, this means that anyone who exercises their right to freedom of expression will be sent back to prison to serve the rest of their sentence.”

In any case, the release of Ferrer, like that of Luis Robles Elizastigui, also this Thursday, was one of the most anticipated since the Cuban regime announced, on Tuesday night, that 553 people would be released from prison as part of a negotiation with the Vatican.

An hour earlier, President Joe Biden’s order to remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism had been made public, in addition to other measures, which the Island has done everything possible to dissociate from the release of prisoners.

Ferrer had been locked up in Mar Verde prison, without trial, since 11 July 2021, when he was arrested before being able to join the massive demonstrations of that day. His situation in prison, subjected to all kinds of abuse and harassment, has been denounced on numerous occasions not only by his family and by non-profit organizations such as Amnesty International and Prisoners Defenders, but also by international governments, including the United States and the European Union.

On November 18, the opponent had to be admitted to the hospital of the Santiago de Boniato prison after being beaten in Mar Verde

On November 18, the opponent had to be admitted to the hospital of the Santiago de Boniato prison after being beaten in Mar Verde by prison staff. His wife, Nelva Ortega, was able to see him in early December, for the first time in more than 20 months, during which he had been systematically denied a marital visit.

However, they did not give him access to the food that his family had brought, and he declared a hunger strike.

The dissident leader, part of the group of prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, with a death sentence commuted to 25 years in prison, was released after eight years thanks to the efforts of the Vatican and the mediation of Spain. Since then, he never left his dissident work at the head of the Unpacu or, as a consequence, stopped being harassed by State Security.

For his part, Luis Robles Elizastigui, called the “young man with the placard” and arrested for holding up a sign on the central Boulevard San Rafael in December 2020 calling for the release of rapper Denis Solís, was serving a five-year sentence in the Combinado del Este maximum security prison, in Havana.

The 30-year-old activist has suffered several health problems since he entered the prison.

His mother, Yindra Elizastigui, one of the most active in demanding the freedom of her son and all political prisoners, expressed her bittersweet feelings on her social networks. “Today inside, from the sadness and consternation that my family is experiencing, taking into account the unjust confinement that my son Lester and my son-in-law Alejaime Lambert Reyes are still suffering, and the hospitalization of the father of my children, who is in intensive care due to a cerebral infarction, a ray of light has come to us,” she wrote about the release of Robles. She indicated “that he is only four months and days away from his total release” and apologized for not being “as expressive as usual.” “I need you to understand our pain,” she explained.

Just in February of last year, long after what he was due, Robles received his first prison pass and was able to return home to visit his family. The 30-year-old activist has suffered several health problems since he entered the prison, which have been reported by his mother, in addition to mistreatment, and ophthalmological and gastric complications. He has also been denied appropriate medical assistance.

Little by little, without much official information and through, above all, social networks, the names of those released from prison have come to light. The Cuban government did not give further details about them, nor for what crimes they were convicted, nor if they are, effectively, political prisoners.

Dariel Cruz García, another of those released from prison on Wednesday, belongs to the latter group. His mother, Yaquelín Cruz García, tells 14ymedio how he has spent these first 24 hours in freedom. The woman says that she feels “good and happy” to finally have El Bolo by her side, as he is known in the neighborhood, although she fears that “anything can happen, because here in Cuba the situation is very bad and they want to put him back in jail.”

The anxiety over her son continues. “He is on probation and has to follow the rules imposed on him,” she explains. “If my son had been given total freedom and could leave the country, I would do everything I could to get him out of Cuba as soon as possible, even if he goes to Haiti,” she says. “Today they already summoned him to the police station, and until the moment his sanction ends, he has to walk the line so they don’t put him back in prison.”

“He is on probation and has to follow the rules imposed on him”

Cruz García, now 23 years old, was arrested on July 16, 2021, after participating on July 12 in the demonstrations that took place in La Güinera, in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, where the only death of the 11J recognized by the authorities, Diubis Laurencio Tejada, took place at the hands of the police, who went unpunished. With a prosecutor’s request for 15 years in prison for sedition, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and managed, through a cassation trial, to be temporarily released with a change of sanction to correctional work with internment. Finally, he received a sentence of 5 years of correctional work with internment.

On Wednesday, the vice president of the People’s Supreme Court, Maricela Sosa Ravelo, clarified on state television that the measure is not an amnesty or a pardon, words that, in fact, do not appear in the statement issued on Tuesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the official’s explanation, amnesty and pardon “entail the total extinction of the sanction,” something that does not happen in these cases.

In an interview with the spokesman for the regime, Humberto López, Ravelo said that, on the contrary, these prisoners have been given “benefits from early release.” If they do not fulfill the “obligations,” he warned, they could go back to prison. Those on the list were prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes, which he listed: “Historic crimes such as theft, robbery with force. There are threats, there are injuries, there are disorders. There are also some people who were punished for sedition, but sedition is not a political crime.”

The crime of sedition, for example, was the one charged against the 11J demonstrators who received the highest sentences, up to 20 years in prison (later reduced in some cases).

Los excarcelados conocidos hasta el momento son:

The released prisoners, as of now, are:

  • Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista
  • Lisdani Rodríguez Isaac
  • Mailene Noguera Santiesteban
  • Yessica Coimbra Noriega
  • Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro
  • Dariel Cruz García
  • Donaida Pérez Paseiro
  • Liván Hernández Sosa
  • Katia Beirut Rodríguez
  • José Miguel Gómez Mondeja
  • Jorge Gabriel Arruebarruena León
  • Magdiel Rodríguez García
  • Rogelio Lázaro Domínguez Pérez
  • César Adrián Delgado Correa
  • Liliana Oropesa Ferrer
  • Endris Fuentes Zamora
  • Javier González Fernández
  • Arturo Valentín Rivero
  • Randy Arteaga Rivero
  • Luis Robles Elizastigui
  • José Daniel Ferrer García
  • Jorge Luis Salazar Brioso
  • Lisdiany Rodríguez Isaac
  • Orlando Pineda Martínez
  • Marlon Brando Díaz Oliva
  • Ciro Alexis Casanova Pérez
  • Juan Yanier Antomarchi Núñez
  • Frank Daniel Roig Sotolongo
  • Yandier García Labrada
  • Eduin Rodríguez Fonseca
  • Andro Ledesma Prieto
  • Iris Belkis Oduardo Rodríguez
  • Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez
  • Yunior Rodríguez Rivero

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

Venezuela: Democracy Versus Dictatorship

Maduro and his criminal associates are aware of the wide popular support that González and Machado have earned with their perseverance, boldness and decorum.

Nicolás Maduro during his swearing-in as president of Venezuela on January 10, 2024 / @DiazCanelB/X

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 12 January 2024 — January 10 was a turning point for Venezuela. Regardless of the results of that day, the country will not be the same. The victory of democracy would be an invaluable benefit for everyone, but even if this does not take place, the constant effort and willingness to risk both life and freedom for a just cause are signs of an edifying patriotism.

In the face of an eventual triumph of democracy, which will be an uphill battle, the supporters of the dictatorship will create chaos. Castrochavism does not rest, unless it is absolutely defeated.

The display of dignity and courage of President-elect Edmundo González, María Corina Machado and their allies give impetus to their supporters and makes their enemies tremble. They demonstrate that it is possible to resist and get close to victory, an example that must reinvigorate those of us who suffer from these dictatorships.

Venezuela has historically been one of the protagonists of the continent since the time of the Liberator

After January 10, it is expected that the contenders will assume roles that are even more antagonistic. The confrontation between repression and resistance will become more acute, and I do not think, to the detriment of the country, that the hostility will be switched off and extinguished. continue reading

Both the autocracy led by Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, and the democratic proposal of elected-president González and María Corina Machado mean that Venezuela is at an unprecedented crossroads for the country itself and for the hemisphere. The country has historically been one of the protagonists of the continent since the time of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator.

The situation of Venezuela is unique. It suffers from a dictatorship that calls for elections, loses them for not having the support of the people and, despite controlling the electoral machinery, cannot appropriate the voting records. Meanwhile, they face an opposition capable of resurrection after being practically deceased, thanks to the electoral feat of González and Machado, who restored the hope of change in the people, a feat almost as important as the restoration of democracy.

All Venezuelans – the opposition, the Government and people in general – are risking their future. The parties have a great responsibility, which is why we must all take sides in the trench we have chosen. We must fight hard; concessions cannot be made, and the factions in conflict must be convinced that there is no second chance.

González and María Corina Machado must be strong in their proposals. There is no room for hesitation or concessions to the enemy. The fight will be very difficult, and they must be prepared to confront the evil of Castrochavism, which, with the loss of power at risk, can resort to its entire criminal arsenal.

Maduro and his criminal associates are aware of the broad popular support that González and Machado have earned with their perseverance, boldness and decorum. They know that if they respect the popular will they must leave the Government, whatever the consequences.

The people elected González and repudiated the continuity of Castrochavism, which has caused vast and profound destruction Venezuela

There is no doubt that González has justice on his side. The people elected him and repudiated the continuity of Castrochavism, which has caused vast and profound destruction in Venezuela, but we should all be aware that good intentions by themselves do not lead to the materialization of our ideals. Many tools are needed, and González has shown he is alert by sending a message to members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, asking them to comply with their constitutional duty and reject any attempt at usurpation of power by the dictator, Nicolás Maduro, alluding to the 1999 Constitution, promoted by the autocrat Hugo Chávez Frías.

Edmundo González has completed an international journey of awareness in democratic countries. He has met with many other leaders who will hopefully tell their diplomatic representatives accredited in Venezuela to accompany him in the presidential ceremony, while María Corina Machado and her supporters have mobilized the people so that they can ratify the vote they cast on July 28.

However, we know that Maduro will not lack puppets, that he will have anti-democratic allies from Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, Honduras and Mexico, among others, which is why freedom is in danger.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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