14ymedio – Page 227 – Translating Cuba

University of Havana Offers Unrestricted Admittance Even if Students Fail the Entrance Exam

Archive image of the University of Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 28 February 2022 — All Cuban high school graduates who want to continue their studies at the university level will be able to do so this year even if they fail the entrance exams. This is how René Sánchez Díaz, an official from the Ministry of Higher Education, informed the official press as he boasted that everyone “will be able to obtain university degrees.”

The results of the entrance tests will only determine the order of the ladder for granting the available places, he specified.

The first group of students who will have the right to choose a university career will be those who have passed the exam with a minimum of 60 points, then those who have failed, and then the pre-university graduates who did not take the entrance exams

Lastly, graduates from Technical and Professional Education, from the Worker-Peasant Faculty, as well as from previous pre-university courses and other cases “assessed by the Provincial Admittance Commission” will be placed. continue reading

Reynaldo Velázquez Zaldívar, another director of the Ministry, clarified that, for now, this measure is of an “exceptional” nature, without specifying the reasons that have led them to take it

The new school year will begin on 18 April 2022 and will run until 3 February 2023, for a total of 35 weeks, which is nine weeks fewer than the duration of an ordinary course.

Reynaldo Velázquez Zaldívar, another director of the Ministry, clarified that, for now, this measure is of an “exceptional” nature, without specifying the reasons that have led them to take it, and assured that the number of places offered is 100,022, 9,000 more than the last year.

This increase in places contrasts with the notable decrease in the number of students getting a university degree. According to official figures, in the 2019-2020 academic year, 88,000 students entered Higher Education, compared to 90,691 in 2015-2016.

The official decision is reminiscent of what happened in the 70’s and 80’s in Cuba, when University education was accessed without tests and when only the students’ grades in their exams during the course were taken as a reference for the ranking.

The consequences of the abolition of these meritocratic customs, together with the indoctrination that has accompanied education for more than 60 years, have caused the quality of university studies to decline, something recognized even by Cuba’s own authorities.

This same Monday, in a note published in the newspaper El Invasor about the malfunction of State companies, an official from the University of Ciego de Ávila stated that they had detected “training problems in Cuban standards in university education itself”.

Since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to affect the Island, students of all levels have attended classes virtually, through national television

Starting in the 1990’s, with the acceptance of the dollar in Cuba, university courses began to suffer a strong devaluation relative to trades where foreign currency could be acquired, especially in the tourism sector, even if the jobs required little training, such as cleaning in hotels.

In any case, the scheduled dates for the entrance exams are March 1^st, 4^th and 8^th (for the subjects of Mathematics, Spanish and History, respectively), with an extraordinary call for those who, justifiably, cannot attend those first days, which will be held on April 4^th, 6^thand 8^th.

Since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to affect the Island, students of all levels have attended classes virtually, through national television. After health authorities and the Government decreed a relaxation of the measures, classes have restarted in person and programs have been adjusted so that students can make up for lost time.

Higher education students were the first to join classes last year. They did it virtually through a platform created specifically for university students. This way, they were able to attend some classes that had been postponed due to the closings.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Díaz-Canel Meets With the Canadian Sherritt Company to Expand its Energy Activities in Cuba

Díaz-Canel meets with Leon Binedell. (Granma)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 6 March 2022 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel met in Havana with the president of Sherritt International, Leon Binedell, to talk about the participation of the Canadian company in the island’s economy and the energy sector.

As published this Saturday by the official newspaper Granma, the meeting addressed Sherritt’s participation in the development of “activities such as mining, oil prospecting and power generation.”

Sherritt, one of the foreign entities with the greatest presence on the island, operates in a joint venture in the Moa mining area, in the province of Holguín.

In a previous visit to Cuba in November 2021, the executive of the Toronto-based company said that he intended to increase nickel production in Moa to continue exploiting the deposits for “several decades,” according to official media.

That mining complex produced 31,506 tons of nickel in 2020, lower than the forecast figure of 33,000 tons for that period.

Sherritt is also working on the exploration and drilling of crude oil on the northern Cuban platform, in conjunction with the state-owned company Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet).

The Canadian company has a more than 20 year presence in Cuba and is considered one of the largest foreign investors in the country.

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In Havana, the Demolition of the Moscow Restaurant Goes Ahead at Full Speed

Passers-by walking along La Rampa this weekend are amazed at the jumble of steel that has been left behind. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 March 2022 — If something is going at full speed in Cuba, it is the construction of hotels. While the country seems to move in slow motion in other sectors, rooms for tourists continue to grow throughout the Island. In the heart of El Vedado, in Havana, the dilapidated structure of the Moscow restaurant is being rapidly demolished to make way for accommodations which will be managed by the Cuban company Gran Caribe and the Spanish company Be Live.

Passersby walking along La Rampa this week are amazed at the jumble of steel that has been exposed as the walls of a building that was damaged in 1989 by fire are removed. Since then, the building has been closed to the public and turned into a garbage dump, a makeshift dormitory for the homeless, and a den for stray cats.

Now, there is no shortage of jokes about the pace of the works or allusions to the moment in which the Moscow restaurant is being demolished. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has coincided with the demolition of the emblematic construction and Havanans take advantage of the coincidence to air their criticism of the Kremlin’s actions, which has met with popular rejection on the island despite the support given by the Cuban regime.

With its surrounding fence, its “construction site” signs and its exposed beams, the Moscow restaurant can also be seen these days as a metaphor for Vladimir Putin’s international isolation, for his colossal loneliness.

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Aeroflot Flies This Weekend to Return Russians and Cubans to Their Respective Countries

Russian Tourists in the Cancun Airport in Mexico. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 6 March 2022 — After spending more time than planned in Cuba, Russian tourists began to return to their country this weekend, thanks to the Aeroflot airline making special flights to the island and the Dominican Republic, according to the Juventud Rebelde newspaper.

The delay is due to the suspension of permits to fly over US, Canadian and European airspace imposed on Russian airlines, after the invasion of Ukraine.

Residents on the island are accepted on flights from Russia, but from Cuban airports domestic passengers will be admitted only after all Russian tourists have a seat, the Aeroflot airline said.

This weekend, some 400 Russian tourists left the Cancun airport, in Mexico, for Moscow, Russia, after more time than expected on their trips.

Five days after the Russian invasion began, the Association of Russian Tour Operators (Ator) reported the suspension of trips to Latin America and the Caribbean. That day, Aeroflot announced that it was stopping its transatlantic flights to Mexico, the United States, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. continue reading

Russian tourists in Cuba had to send the embassy an email, individually, with their name and surname, passport number, date of entry to Cuba and arrival flight number, expected departure date and flight number, airport and, if there is one, the tour operator.

The Cuban Airport and Aeronautical Services Company (Ecasa) broadcast a message on its Telegram channel last week, announcing that the Nordwind airline company would maintain flights from Russia to Cuba and vice versa, with specific instructions for Cubans.

This message indicates that Cubans will be accepted on return flights from Russia to the Island, while “from Cuban airports, Cuban passengers will be accepted only after all Russian tourists are accepted.”

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Nine Cubans Seeking Political Asylum in the EU Get Caught Up in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

The migrants have been held since January 6 at the migration center located in Nikolayev, Ukraine. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 4 March 2022 — Early this Thursday morning, at 3:45 a.m. “the explosion of a bomb woke us up,” Diosdeny Santana told 14ymedio. “Here it is already afternoon and the whole day we have heard bombings.” This activist from the opposition Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) has been held since January 6 along with eight other Cubans in the migration center located in Nikolayev, Ukraine.

On February 24, just the day they were going to be transferred to Serbia to continue their journey in search of “political asylum in Italy, Spain or Germany,” Russia began the military deployment against Ukraine. “The war has caught us here,” says this 37-year-old Cuban. “Civil aviation is stopped dead and there is no transport,” the authorities have informed them.

“We know that there is a military attack and that it is Russian,” explains Santana, who has sent América TeVé and Telemundo videos with fighter planes flying over and bombing near the place where they are. “What we hear, from what little we understand, is that this place is surrounded by Russians.”

On last Wednesday, Russian troops increased the pressure on the siege on Mariupol, a strategic city located in the Donetsk region and bathed by the coast of the Sea of Azov, as is the case with Nikolayev, while they already control Melitopol, in the region of Zaporozhie, published EFE. continue reading

“We trust that some government will listen to us and help us leave, the Cuban exile in Miami, human rights,” implores Santana, who on October 27, 2021, left the island via Moscow, because “I couldn’t travel to the United States because of the covid problem in Cuba.”

The group, made up of José Antonio González Corralez, Luis Arberto González Pérez, Yosiel Hernández Ramírez, Luis Miguel Reyes Romero, Raicel Sedeño, Iris Dali Tobal, María Fernanda and Rannelys Trujillo Gort, is gripped by fear and nerves, says the activist. “We have the suitcase packed, because we have to run to the tunnel every time a siren is heard.”

José Antonio González, who emigrated the same day as Santana, tells 14ymedio that after entering Ukraine they were “detained by the border guard in Kharkov, the country’s second largest city, because fatigue and the cold got the best of us. In the end After seven days we went on trial and each one of us was fined 400 dollars.”

The nine migrants, González explains, were taken to a second trial where a translator was assigned to them. They warned them not to ask for political asylum during this process, “that this would be in the refuge they would send us to later” and in which they would have a lawyer.

Originally from Pinar del Río, this 36-year-old Cuban says that this Friday they sent a letter to Amnesty International and another human rights organization. “They have just informed us that there is a truce,” he says, referring to the humanitarian corridors agreed by Moscow and Kiev in the negotiations, “but they do not know how long it will last. At any moment they start attacking and this turns into hell. We fear for our lives. We want them to help us get out and we continue on our way.”

González left the island months after having participated in the demonstrations of July 11 and before the police siege. “We are good people. We are not murderers, if we leave Cuba it is because of the regime.”

The activist Diosdeny Santana, who has been in prison for expressing his opposition to a government that for “62 years has been destroying its people,” points out that Cubans do not emigrate for pleasure. “On July 11, people took to the streets demanding freedom, homeland and life. And the dictatorship sent out its people to repress them.”

That way of showing itself as a repressive dictatorship, Santana assures, is the same that it has exhibited before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “This is terrible. Maduro in Venezuela, Ortega in Nicaragua and Cuba are on Putin’s side.”

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Liudmila Ulitskaya: ‘Putin Has Gone Mad, All This is The Act of a Man Who Has Lost His Mind’

The Russian writer Ulitskaya affirms that her compatriots are invaded by “great shame and the feeling of witnessing a profound misfortune”. (Maria Teresa Slanzi/ Anagram)

14ymedio, Jorge Ferrer, Barcelona, 4 March 2022 — Lyudmila Ulitskaya, the living great lady of Russian literature, picks up the phone in her apartment at 27 Krasnoarmeiskaya Street, northeast of Moscow. Ulitskaya doesn’t live in just any building. It is one of the blocks of the The Soviet Writer complex , built in the early 1960s, when the thaw of Nikita Khrushchev promised happier years for Soviet arts.

Writers, translators and artists as notable as Mikhail Bakhtin or Vasili Aksionov, Bulat Okudzhava or Irina Ehrenburg, have lived in these apartments, from whose windows Liudmila Ulitskaya looks with a mixture of curiosity and resignation at the crows that walk through the courtyards.

Unlike the vital Liudmila with whom I have talked on other occasions, now I notice she is dejected. A despondency produced not so much by years (she celebrated her seventy-ninth birthday last week), but by days. The days we are living. The author of Sónechka and Yakov’s Ladder, an eternal Russian candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a moral reference for the opposition to Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism.

The war unleashed at dawn on February 24 has plunged her into a fierce depression dominated by shame, a feeling shared by many Russians in the face of the fratricidal war launched by the Kremlin against a country so close, culturally, emotionally and idiosyncratically, like Ukraine.

José Ferrer, 14ymedio. I am sorry to have to call you at such a sad time, Lyudmila.

Ulítskaya. It’s a terrible, terrible moment.

Ferrer. I read right now that the Russian tanks are seven kilometers from Kiev. Could we imagine something like this a couple of weeks or months ago?

Ulítskaya. We could never imagine something like this. All this seems like a horrible dream, a nightmare. As if one were to wake up and all this terrible vision could suddenly disappear. continue reading

Ferrer. Your generation thought that they would never experience a war again…

Ulítskaya. I was born in the days of the previous conflict (in 1942). Those of us who were born then were certain that we would never know another war. But unfortunately, it has not been so.

Ferrer. Can you share with us your personal impression, your emotions now?

Ulítskaya. This is a war that, however it ends, will only bring defeat. A moral defeat. I think that in the end Ukraine will not be conquered, that it will offer some kind of resistance. But the immense moral failure that all this entails is undeniable.

Ferrer. Many Russian intellectuals, writers, theater people, music… are positioning themselves against the war…

Ulítskaya. The people around me are absolutely unanimous in their protest against the war. We are all overwhelmed by great shame and the feeling of witnessing a profound misfortune.

Ferrer. That feeling of shame I perceive everywhere, also among my Russian acquaintances…

Ulítskaya. It is that this is unthinkable. Putin has gone mad. All this is the act of a man who has lost his mind and must be admitted to a psychiatric hospital immediately.

Ferrer. What would you say to your readers, who are also in shock?

Ulítskaya. I want them to know that I am in a state of total, absolute drowning, and mired in pain and shame.

Ferrer. Do you think that something will change in Russia from now on, that we may be facing a point of no return in the attitude of the people of culture towards the government of Vladimir Putin?

Ulítskaya. That I do not know. Look, what we are experiencing now is such unprecedented shame… An entire country plunged into disgrace that will cost us a lot to overcome.

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Editor’s Note: This interview has been published by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo . We reproduce it with the permission of its owners.

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Helping Ukraine Today is Saving Europe in the Future

Millions of Ukrainians woke up to the sound of air-raid sirens and explosions. (EP)

Ukraine Support Group (via 14ymedio), Kiev, 4 March 2022 — On February 24, Russian troops invaded the free and independent territory of Ukraine and bombed its cities. The attack took place in the early hours of the morning, when the civilian population was still asleep. Millions of Ukrainians woke up to the sound of air-raid sirens and explosions.

Fierce fighting in Ukraine has been going on for a week now, but the Russian invaders are not going to stop killing. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, more than 2,000 civilians have died in the last seven endless days of war, 21 of them children and adolescents. Unfortunately, the number of victims of Russian aggression is growing every minute.

The Ukrainian nation is forced to fight one of the strongest and largest armies in the world. Today Ukraine is a shield for all European territories, their inhabitants and their children. It is important for us to understand that the Kremlin will not stop at Ukraine as it intends to expand its war further west. It is now our direct duty to stop its atrocities.

How can we do this? continue reading

At this very moment, the people of Ukraine need help of any kind, especially financial. Visit this site to see the list of official organizations involved in fundraising for Ukraine. Donations go directly to organizations that provide medical care to the injured, and humanitarian support to people who have lost their homes and families.

In addition, money is needed to replenish the military reserves of the Ukrainian army and to obtain resources to protect the Ukrainian people from the Russian invaders.

Another way to help is to join the International Legion for Territorial Defense of Ukraine during the martial law period. On March 1, 2022, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, approved a visa-free period for foreigners who wish to help repel the Russian attack, defend international security and protect the values of our civilization.

More than 16,000 people have already joined the International Legion. Among them are former soldiers, rescuers, military doctors and civilians from the Netherlands, UK, Canada, USA, Sweden, Japan, etc. Volunteers from all over the world are coming to join the Ukrainian soldiers against this criminal war in the 21st century.

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Knife in Hand, Man Chases Thief Through the Streets of Havana

Members of the Police and the Armed Forces arrived at Águila Street in the municipality of Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 3 March 2022 — The Cuban streets are becoming more and more like a Saturday movie, with action, obscene language and violence. This Thursday, members of the Police and the Armed Forces arrived at Águila Street, in Centro Habana, after a great uproar occurred in the place when a citizen turned himself in to the uniformed men who were guarding a line to buy cigarettes.

The man came running to the corner of the Roseland hard currency store, while being chased by another with a knife in his hand. The individual who was running behind him claimed that the young man who was speeding had forced the door of his vehicle to steal it.

The attempted robbery occurred in broad daylight in the central and busy Neptuno street where the car was parked and was foiled by the owner who caught the criminal red-handed. He immediately took out the knife and began the chase, mimicking the films where a protagonist takes revenge by his own hand, without waiting for the authorities.

The perpetrator preferred to flee and give himself up to the police before being stabbed and, as in a movie script, the scene ended with people in line cheering the man with the sharp knife, who bragged that he had no intention of killing anyone, reported the failed robbery. The thief was taken away in a patrol car and people returned to the routine of lining up to get something to smoke.

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Mother of a Young Cuban Accused of Sedition Arrested on Charges of Contempt

A leukemia patient, Castro had to spend “a week in hospital in January and it was quite serious because she fainted as a result of toxoplasmosis.” (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 March 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of young Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, who faces a 12-year prison sentence for demonstrating on July 11, has been transferred to the 100 y Aldabó prison. As reported on his social networks by the activist Arián Cruz, Tata Poet, Castro “has been charged with contempt” after six days of investigation.

Last Thursday, the woman had initially been taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana where, Cruz denounces, that they returned to Castro “to psychologically torture her under forced interrogations.”

Days before, on February 17, José David Hernández and Misleydis Rodríguez, her friends and activists from the Opposition Movement for a New Republic were also arrested after a State Security search of their home.

A leukemia patient, Castro had to spend “a week in hospital in January and it was quite serious because she fainted as a result of toxoplasmosis,” the activist had noted in another post, in which he also specified that every day she must take “a series of medications that they did not let him give to her” when he went to inquire about her the first time. continue reading

“I would like to point out that this sick mother was arbitrarily arrested at her home, that she did not show any resistance, and that despite knowing that her arrest was unjust and illegal, she decided to cooperate and go with them to what was supposed to be ’a interview’, that’s how State Security loves to call these repressive, repulsive, and criminal interrogations,” Cruz said.

Last Friday, a habeas corpus petition was delivered in favor of Castro to the People’s Provincial Court of Havana. As Cruz detailed this Wednesday to 14ymedio, they have not yet received a response from the court, but they have already hired a lawyer for Yudinela Castro.

Since her 18-year-old son was taken to jail, Castro has denounced each of the injustices that have been committed against the young man and has not stopped demanding his freedom. She has also denounced “the lies” the regime told in the trial that was held against her son Rowland, accused of sedition and with an initial prosecutor’s request of 23 years, later reduced to 12.

On several occasions, Castro has been arbitrarily detained by State Security officials for interrogation, but she has always reiterated that “whatever it takes” nothing will stop her in her fight to achieve her son’s freedom.

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A Flight of the Russian Airline NordWind Arrives in Cuba on Wednesday

NordWind is the only airline that has maintained the schedule of its flights between Russia and the Island after the invasion of Ukraine. (Norwind Airlines)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 March 2022 — The closure of the airspaces of Canada, the US and Europe is forcing Russian airlines to modify their usual air routes. This is the case of Nordwind Airlines flight 353 that left this March 2 from Sheremétievo airport (in Moscow) and will arrive at 5:42 pm Cuban time at Juan Gualberto Gómez, in Varadero.

The Boeing 772 of that Russian company took off at 11:03 am Moscow time and is now flying over the Atlantic on a route that avoids the forbidden skies of Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. The trip will take 14 hours and 39 minutes, two hours longer than usual. The plane had to fly towards the North Pole to avoid the air corridors of the Scandinavian countries, and then resume its route towards the southwest.

Nordwind has another flight on the same route scheduled for this Thursday.

The Cuban Company of Airports and Aeronautical Services (Ecasa) broadcast a message on its Telegram channel, communicating that the Nordwind airline will maintain flights from Russia to Cuba and vice versa, with specific instructions for Cubans.

Nordwind is the only airline that has maintained the schedule of its flights between Russia and the Island, after three other airlines suspended their trips on Monday.

The airline travels to Cayo Coco and Varadero, and in its schedules it maintains trips for March 4 and 8, from Moscow to Cayo Coco, and on March 5 from Moscow to Varadero.

It is also scheduled to leave from Cayo Coco on March 4 to the Sheremetyevo airport.

This Monday, the companies Azur Air, Aeroflot, and Royal Flight canceled their flights to Cuba from Russia, due to the closure of European airspace, a measure taken by the 27 European Union nations in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The route that Nordwind makes to the Island is similar to the one that Azur Air made this Tuesday between the Moscow-Vnukovo international airport and the La Romana airport in the Dominican Republic, through the North Atlantic. For this Wednesday there are two scheduled flights with that route and one more for Thursday.

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Government Opponent Guillermo Farinas Says Cuba is in a ‘Battle Situation’

The director of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), Alejandro González, together with the Cuban government opponent Guillermo Fariñas. (EUROPE PRESS)

Europa Press (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 4 March 2022 — The prominent Cuban government opponent Guillermo Fariñas has detailed this Friday that there is not “sufficient capacity in Cuba for so many political prisoners” and has claimed that the country is experiencing a “battle situation,” something that he considers “good to know.”

In a press conference organized by the Cuban Human Rights Observatory (OCDH) in Madrid, the dissident explained that currently “the most essential” part of the situation in Cuba is “the high level of social protests” that are taking place, especially against as a result of the demonstrations of July 11, which has led to the indictment of almost 800 people.

Thus, he highlights the attitude, especially, of the younger population, who are in a “confrontational position” and carry out vandalism or urban guerrilla acts, burning down fundamentally state-owned premises, as he explained.

“It is good that it is known that Cuba is in a battle situation,” he clarified before pointing out that the main groups in power are experiencing “problems.” “There is a group that is disappearing for obvious reasons, that of the generals of the Army Corps. The dynamics of confrontation make the foundation of their group repression,” he said before saying that the Cuban people “are being ignored.”

The Cuban people “do not have the right to power, to opinion, to prosperity, to free enterprise… Because the creation of small businesses is generally carried out by relatives of people with a high political profile in support of the Government,” he lamented. In this sense, he has stated that from the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (Fantu), an organization he leads, we find ourselves before “a military junta, which sometimes wears civilian clothes but every time we go to investigate it becomes military.” continue reading

Fariñas affirmed that this, “added to the fact that the young and not so young spontaneously took to the streets, makes them afraid of losing all their earnings in convertible currency… That is why we find ourselves in a situation of real repression. Because they have come to understand that the people who are protesting must be picked up and taken away, withdrawn, threatened (…) and the repression continues,” he said.

In addition, he stated that since 1980 there had not been such a high number of political prisoners –currently around a thousand — which shows that “they are willing to use the ultimate consequences to maintain their power… It is important that the Cuban nation is seen as a single entity,” he added.

“When the other social outbreaks that are going to occur occur,” he says in relation to a situation that he considers unsustainable, we will have “a high-pressure cooker with no escape valve because there is a quarter of the population that can receive aid, but the other three quarters don’t, and those are the ones who are protesting.”

The opponent stressed that this is the message that he has comuicated to the European Parliament during his visit this week to Brussels, where he has met with the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and has stated that it is important to protect those who have defended the cause even from the European institutions.

“Europe is under attack. It is now at the level of Ukraine but it is not known where it will end,” he stressed in relation to the Russian invasion of the territory, which began more than a week ago.

Likewise, he pointed out that “friends must be seen especially in these circumstances” and has defended that the opposition has tried to sit down with all political groups, “even with those who call us mercenaries.”

In Spain, he insists, United We Can and the United Left have refused to meet. “If they had wanted, we would have debated. (…) We do it with anyone, because if we are capable of dialoguing with those who oppress us, we do it with everyone because we are representing the entire Cuban society, and there are different spectrums.”

Fariñas applauds, in turn, the possibility of having signed the Madrid Charter in defense of freedom and democracy, a document prepared by the Disenso Foundation and led by the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal. For the opponent, the current situation in Europe could lead to changes when dealing with the Cuban reality, especially from the European Union: “It is indisputable that the fact that the president of the European Parliament has decided to meet with us highlights the importance of this visit.”

Regarding his experience as an opponent, Fariñas admits that “he has always had problems… Those of us who put our bodies. We have to take the risks because it’s been 63 years of dictatorship,” he stressed before emphasizing that “it is indisputable that there will continue to be reprisals.”

Likewise, he has expressed that “there is no capacity for so many political prisoners… it is not convenient for them to have 7,000 prisoners because the prisons become unmanageable… I have been imprisoned three times and a political prisoner really destabilizes the system because he is always protesting, that is the function of a political prisoner. So, the tactic is to threaten and destabilize families and threaten relatives (…) to beat and torture so that people leave (the country). That way they get rid of the problem.”

Fariñas affirmed that this “decimates the internal opposition, which currently does not have the muscle or the amount that it had before because people need to survive, and that should not be criticized, but we believe that the work to be done is political proselytism with those people who can’t leave [the country] or don’t have the capacity to do so and are unhappy.”

In this sense, he claimed that what is important is not so much “taking to the streets” but to give arguments “to the dissatisfied people so that they are the ones who take to the streets” and he said that they aspire to a “democratic transition,” something that “historically it begins with the release of political prisoners… It is the first step to negotiating with a tyranny.”

Alejandro González Raga, director of the OCDH, who also attended the meeting, stressed the need to “emphasize that the families of political prisoners are also suffering terribly… [The regime] does not want the real dimension of the repression to be known,” he stressed, while warning that “the persecution of mothers, fathers and friends of the detainees is tremendous,” a “truly dramatic” situation.

Thus, González makes an appeal to Europe, which he has urged to “make a decision on which side they want to be on,” whether “on the side that oppresses or on the side of the oppressed… Europe now has this great responsibility,” he insisted, while detailing that Russia is “one of the few allies the regime has left.”

In addition, he ventured that the conflict in Ukraine “will cause a rethinking of relations” at the international level, which may be “positive” for countries like Cuba, although he has recognized that, for the moment, “the regime prefers to be against the European Union.”

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More Than 400,000 People in Cuba are Affected by the Drought

The reservoirs of the Island are filled at only 52% of their capacity.

EFE/ 14ymedio, Havana, 4 March 2022 — A severe drought has left more than 400,000 people in Cuba without water supply, state television reported Thursday. The provinces with the greatest scarcity are the eastern Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey, as well as Havana.

In the report, the president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), Antonio Rodríguez, warned that the forecasts indicate that it will rainfall will be below average in March, April and possibly in May.

Holguín is one of the provinces most affected because its surface and underground reserves have decreased in the main city and some of its municipalities, such as Gibara and Rafael Freyre, are facing the main limitations with the water supply.

The report indicated that as of the beginning of March, more than 67,000 people in Holguín are affected by the water service. continue reading

The island’s reservoirs are filled at only 52% of their capacity, which represents some 815 million cubic meters of water less than the average for these dates.

To mitigate the situation, actions are carried out in conductors and networks, interconnections of systems, increase in pumping stations, drilling of wells in order to incorporate a greater volume of water in the areas affected by the low levels of rainfall that have caused the drought.

However, in most cases the repair work is insufficient and only patches that do not improve supply. The authorities have admitted for years that the water lost through leaks is enormous. In 2015, the press claimed that the amount was around 3.4 billion cubic meters.

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European Union Concerned About ‘Severe’ Sentences Against 11 July Protestors in Cuba

The Cuban press reported on the Holguín trials this Monday for the first time, two weeks after the sentence was known. (LP)

EFE/14ymedio, Brussels, 1 March 2022 — The European Union expressed its concern on Monday over the “severe” sentences of up to 20 years in prison handed down against twenty demonstrators who participated in the anti-government protests on July 11 in Cuba.

“We are concerned about the severe sentences imposed,” said the European Commission’s foreign spokesman, Peter Stano, on his official Twitter account.

The spokesman for the European External Action Service (EEAS), headed by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, urged the Havana authorities to “respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression.”

“Transparency and respect for due process must guide the trials related to the July 11 protests,” Stano stressed.

On July 11, the largest anti-government protests in decades took place in Cuba, spontaneous and massive demonstrations linked to the serious economic crisis that the country is going through and demands for freedom. continue reading

Last week, Cuban Justice, in a ruling by the Provincial Court of Holguín, sentenced 20 protesters for sedition, including five minors, to between five years of limited freedom and 20 years in prison.

The Government of the Island did not publicly disseminate these sentences and the official media had not reported on this case until late on Monday when the official press released a Prensa Latina note generically titled Trial in the province of Cuba, highlighting violence after disturbances, which did not detail either the sentences nor the crimes for which the defendants were tried.

The text speaks of alleged evidence presented that demonstrates the involvement of the United States in the protests, affirms that the accused were repentant and that the right to defense was guaranteed, contrary to the versions that the protesters, through their families, have maintained at all times.

In a recent document, the Attorney General’s Office reported the prosecution of 790 people for acts related to the July 11 protests. Of the total number of defendants, 55 are between 16 and 17 years old.

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The Trade of Nostalgia

Stories like this, sudden and bloody, of nostalgia and affection for what was lost. People who talk about what they didn’t have and what they wanted. (DC)

- With this text, the author, originally from Villa Clara, inaugurates his collaboration with ’14ymedio’. He requested asylum in Spain after giving up the Italo Calvino Award for El fin del juego (The End of the Game).

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 27 February 2022 — I have him in front of me, calm and austere, in a café in Madrid. He is a hard-boned guy with an old jacket and a broken nose, as a reminder of an old fight. Your country is not easy – he tells me – I tried to stow away there several times, to find out. To understand. Once I arrived along the coast — he pauses and sips his tea — with a new passport and on a boat.

Those were the hard years, and to see myself with so and so should be in a hotel, publicly. I had been a war correspondent and had a nose for who was watching me. After interviewing one of those characters, an exceptional and dangerous man, a waiter recognized me and I stormed out of there. The car was going full throttle and behind it the police, howling like in the movies. Traffic lights magically turned green.

I eluded them, but a few days later they managed to grab me alive and gave me a most educational beating. In a briefcase was my camera and other equipment. They took everything, including the deferred seaman’s passport.

I arrived at my embassy with a blood-stained shirt and a boxer’s face. They gave me a piece of paper with which I could file the complaint. The station secretary, a skinny and skittish girl, was waiting for her boss’s look to type the statement. What would those chimpanzees, with their rudiments of Havana karate, imagine I was carrying the cassettes of my report hidden under the seat of the car?

You were already an old dog, I tell him. An old dog — he repeats, smiling — just the same. continue reading

In the end I found her again – he adds, as he wraps the scarf around his neck. Who? The secretary of the station, who managed to leave the country and escape from her husband, a guy with airs and contacts who wouldn’t let her leave. But she made it, you see: the world is a handkerchief. She detailed her life to me, as I have now done with you.

If I had to count all the shipwreck stories I’ve ever heard.

Stories like this, sudden and bloody, of nostalgia and affection for what was lost. People who talk about what they didn’t have and what they wanted. People who, like me, have nothing but words and that is what they take everywhere. Words, laughter and cigar smoke – which is what I feel like now, to accompany the conversation of a friend, who says goodbye and hugs me.

I will have to tell this sometime, I say. And that’s what I’m doing here and now. Everything new is timid and, to some extent, crooked. However, I want to make this commitment to writing, calibrate it, measure the limits of my voice. I think of all those who preceded me in the Shipwrecks that give this column its name, coming from the sea and marked by calamity.

The island bites them but also gives them a reason for writing. It offers them small consolations: cigars, books, friendship, the rituals of good eating, the enigma of the Creole phrase, a whole literature and a destiny. In short, it offers them nostalgia as a trade and words as anesthesia.

I am going to talk about all this, if you allow me to place here the only valuable thing I have: my memory and the memory of others, which I have accessed through voice and books. Shipwrecks of existence that end up on paper, mediated by tobacco and rum that warms the soul, as in Conrad’s novels.

Here we will see each other – I hope – from time to time, in this room that I would like to imagine as an antique shop or a cafe. Two armchairs to talk, an ashtray to flick the words into and soft music, if possible a bolero. This being the case – with a good wind and better fortune – this shipwreck will not be so bitter.

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Axel Inaugurates First LGBTQ+ Hotel in Havana

The chain will open its hotel in the Telegraph building founded in 1860. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 March 2022 — Axel Hotels is opening its first LGBTQ+ hotel in Cuba this Tuesday, the Telégrafo Axel Hotel La Habana, as confirmed by the company. Its inauguration was initially scheduled for the end of 2020, but the pandemic has been delaying the operation.

In mid-2021, the possibility of opening the establishment was mentioned again, but the most serious wave of covid-19 arrived at that time to complicate things until now.

The Telégrafo Axel Hotel La Habana has 63 rooms and, as of today, its doors are already open to anyone who wants to stay or visit it. The establishment is located next to Cuba’s National Capitol, the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of the Revolution.

In addition, it has a restaurant and a lounge bar, both with a broad gastronomic concept with different options, along with a rooftop deck with a pool and a menu of snacks and drinks. It also has a wellness area with different fitness activities and saunas.

The founder of Axel Hotels, Juan P. Juliá, has affirmed that this new hotel represents a great advance within the city, as it is the first gay hotel in Havana, although it is not the pioneer on the island. continue reading

In 2019, Cuba opened its first LGBTI-friendly hotel, specially designed to meet the leisure expectations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people, in Cayo Guillermo. In this tourist area of sun and beaches is the Hotel Gran Muthu Rainbow Cayo Guillermo, a category 5 also belonging to the Cuban company Gaviota, operated by the chain of Asian capital MGM Muthu Hotels.

Juliá foresees that Cuba will continue to be one of the tourist destinations par excellence during this recovery, which means “a great moment for the opening.”

Her opinion coincides with one of the forecasts included in the accounts of Meliá Hotels International, presented this Monday in Spain, in which a significant growth in activity in Cuba is managed compared to the first quarter of 2021.

The Majorcan hotel company closed 2021 with losses of 192.9 million euros, after a reduction of 67.6% compared to 2020, due to restrictions on mobility derived from a pandemic that is beginning to give signs of letting the tourism sector, one of the most affected, breathe.

Its CEO, Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, pointed out that the results show “a clear trend towards the recovery of the sector,” with a very significant increase in the company’s income “quarter over quarter” despite the impact of the omicron variant in December and first days of 2022.

In 2021, the operating income and capital gains of what is considered Spain’s largest hotel company grew by 70.8% compared to 2020, standing at 902.4 million euros compared to 528.4 the previous year, while operating expenses decreased by 13.6%, to the sum of 771.6 million compared to 2020.

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