14ymedio – Page 228 – Translating Cuba

Sentenced to 14 Years For the 11 July Protests in Cuba and on Hunger strike, He is the Father of Two Babies

Gerardo Díaz Alonso, imprisoned for the 11 July protests, along with his wife and one of his children. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 February 2022 — Gerardo Díaz Alonso, one of the protesters on July 11 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, has been on a hunger strike since Friday, protesting that he was sentenced to 14 years for the crimes of sabotage and public disorder.

His wife, Mercedes Sánchez, with whom he has two children – one a year and a half old and the other just 20 days old – tells 14ymedio of “the pain and impotence” she feels seeing her partner in that situation, which she considers “an injustice”. She is also worried because Díaz Alonso “suffers from kidney disease”, and she fears that his body “will not react very well”.

The prison director himself called relatives to convince him to stop the hunger strike. Thus, Sánchez was able to see her husband this Wednesday. “His state of health is very delicate,” warns this 23-year-old, who says that the prisoner’s mother, who accompanied her, “became very upset” when she saw him: “He is skinny, his face had no color and she felt faint when she saw the state he was in, she urged him to drink a bit of water, and he accepted”. continue reading

Díaz Alonso told his wife that they had him in a “punishment cell” but that several days after he started the strike, they transferred him to the infirmary because his health had deteriorated

Díaz Alonso told his wife that they had him in a “punishment cell” but that several days after he started the strike, they transferred him to the infirmary because his health had deteriorated.

According to her account, they promised him that this Thursday someone from the Prosecutor’s Office would visit the prisoner”, supposedly, for him to put forward his situation”.

Although the trial was held in December, he did not receive his sentence until January 29^th. The family was unable to get a hold of the judgement until days later, on February 3^rd, which prevented them from appealing. “As far as the Military Prosecutor’s Office, we only had five days”, explains his wife, who complains that the papers arrived late and they were not even notified of the sanction by phone.

The trial, denounces Mercedes Sánchez, “was the worst, they even presented manipulated photos”. The woman says that “only one witness accused him, and he was associated with the police” and that in the only video presented in the trial as incriminating evidence, he “is not shown throwing rocks at anything”, but “standing on a corner”.

Díaz Alonso’s lawyer, continues his wife, argued at the trial that her client “has mental retardation problems”, but far from taking it into account, “they made up many things, and made him look as if he were the worst offender”.

“They said they had made inquiries around the neighborhood, but no official ever went there to do anything”, she continues, “they just made up a circus of lies”. Lies, she laments, “made up by them, as they have done with all the prisoners of 11J, just to find reasons to condemn them”.

“They said they had made inquiries around the neighborhood, but no official ever went there to do anything”, she continues, they just made up a circus of lies”

Her 33-year-old husband was sentenced, along with eight other people: Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díaz (sentenced to 15 years), Leidiana Prohía Guevara (12 years), José Carlos Hernández Barrio (14 years), Yoniel Santana Rodríguez (10 years), José Antonio Cue Monzón (10 years), Enoc Noé Fernández Fernández (10 years), Yasniel Roque Valle (5 years) and Jorge Luis Argüelles Bayate (15 years), who was also charged with robbery with violence.

Three other defendants were not sentenced for sabotage, but for other alleged serious crimes: Alain Roselló Fernández (7 years for robbery with force and public disorder), Jorge Gilberto Carrillo Isaac (6 years for robbery with force) and Reydel Canasí Reyes (7 years for attack and public disorder).

The case of Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díaz, 34, is especially dramatic, since he was also injured during his arrest. The images of that moment, precariously recorded, spread like wildfire on social networks and, ultimately, served the regime to try to discredit him.

On the other hand, another 11J prisoner, William Manuel Leyva Pupo, has also been on an “indefinite” hunger strike since Tuesday. The young man from Holguín, 21 years old and sentenced to 12 years for the crime of “sedition”, sent a telephone message from prison declaring himself a “peaceful dissident” and “arbitrarily in prison”, and argues that he prefers to die before to continue suffering what he calls “subhuman and degrading psychological torture” imposed by the regime on all the July 11 protesters.

Leyva Pupo was already “plantado*” on a previous occasion, just when his trial was held, last January, along with nine other prisoners, in protest about the high prison sentences requested for them by the Prosecutor’s Office. For Leyva Pupo they asked for 18 years, which was reduced to 12 in the final sentence, received this February.

Also on a hunger strike, but without trial and for more than a month, is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The artist, leader of the San Isidro Movement, was arrested on July 11^th, but not for demonstrating, but for a previously charged cause, the same one for which singer Maykel Castillo Osorbo remains in prison. During a party on April 4^th on Damas Street, in Old Havana, in which activists and local residents sang the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life], the police tried to arbitrarily arrest Osorbo, but he refused to get in the patrol car.

*Translator’s note: *Translator’s note: A ’plantado’ — literally ’planted’ — is a term with a long history in Cuba and is used to describe a political prisoner who refuses to cooperate in any way with their incarceration.

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Vladimir Putin’s War

Vladimir Putin y Madeleine Albright se reunieron en el año 2000. (CC/Serguéi Vasilievich)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 27 February 2022 — It was the early days of the year 2000. The first major American official who spoke with Vladimir Putin was Madeleine Albright. Mrs. Albright, born in Prague, was then Secretary of State in the second term of the Clinton administration. She recorded her impression of the person who had replaced Boris Yeltsin at the helm in Russia: “He is small and pale, and he is so cold and emotionless, that he could be a reptile”.

She hit the mark with that comment. But she said more, “Putin is ashamed of what happened to his country and is determined to restore its greatness.” She hit the mark again. That’s what just happened to Ukraine. Without having done anything to deserve it, Ukrainians are paying the price for the restoration of Russian greatness. The article by the former Secretary of State was published in the NYT under the title “Putin makes a historic mistake.”

It is ridiculous, for example, to say, as Putin has said, that Ukraine is a Russian invention. Any high school graduate knows that it is the other way around – the idea of imperial Russia arose from Kievan Rus between the 9th and the 13th century. Just as it is foolish to accuse the current rulers of Ukraine of being “Nazis.” If anyone remembers Adolf Hitler, it is Mr. Vladimir Putin, who has no other argument to claim the Donbass than the one used by the Nazis to claim the Czech Sudetes – they were full of Germans. Franz Kafka, for example, lived in Prague, but spoke and wrote in German, although he had the elegance of dying in 1924 at the age of 40, before the Hitlerian whirlwind devastated Europe and, with it, the Jews, who had done so much good to the Old Continent from a technical, scientific, artistic and financial point of view. continue reading

The two eastern regions of Ukraine (Donetsk and Lugansk) were populated – I was going to write “plagued” – by ethnic Russians who communicate in Russian. Since Russian and Ukrainian have a common origin and share the same alphabet, some people think that it is the same language, but it is not true. According to many philologists, Ukrainian language is closer to Polish or Czech than to Russian. In addition, ensuring that Donetsk and Lugansk separate from Ukraine is an unspeakable forgetfulness of the values of the republic, safeguarded by the Minsk Agreements, signed in 2014 and 2015 in the capital of Belarus, the same government that today betrays them.

What is Russia seeking by crushing its neighbor Ukraine with its overwhelming military power? If Putin thinks that by reestablishing the ‘zones of influence’ Russia will be more protected against a nuclear rocket, he has failed to find out (as a CNN analyst said) the current correlation of forces. The fate of Moscow or Saint Petersburg, and of any densely populated Russian city, lies in an unknown silo in Nebraska or Montana and in a GPS with the encrypted address of the site to which it will take its nuclear warhead, fifty times more destructive than the bomb that reduced Hiroshima to ashes in 1945.

Influence is measured nowadays by the quality and price of the objects around us, and none of them are Russian. Indeed, Russia has a third world economy. It has the approximate size of the Italian economy, but with 2.45 times more inhabitants. It is a single producer and exporter of energy, like Saudi Arabia, but without the investment expertise of Arab businesspeople. When gas and oil run out or are replaced by other technology (German scientists are experimenting with neutrinos), Russia – Vladimir Nabokov said in another context – “was a dream I had,” as the filmmaker Jiménez-Leal frequently quotes.

The sanctions will have a devastating effect on Russia’s third world economy. Depriving it of its sources of financing or the markets that buy Russian gas or oil will have a decisive impact in the medium or long term. Especially if an alternative for the supply of gas and oil is achieved and a real agreement is established between the US, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia. This agreement, in turn, must impose very serious sanctions against those who violate the agreement.

Are we close to World War III, as happened in 1962 during the “Missile Crisis”? No, but the reasons for preventing it are the same: Russia would be thoroughly destroyed. It is true that the United States would also be knocked down, but wars are fought to win them, not to lose them or to be half demolished. In the US, where everything is calculated, it is assumed that cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants would be destroyed. Of course, there is an increased risk that a definitive conflict occurs by chance and not by the intention of the involved parties. In the 1960s and 1970s there were at least two occasions when nuclear escalation was very possible. In both cases we were saved by the good sense of a Soviet intermediate-rank operator, who listened to his intuition and did not follow “the rules of engagement.” There is no guarantee that this will happen in the future.

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The Invasion of Ukraine Plunges the Official Cuban Press into Disrepute

Now, the one who remains with these grotesque versions it is because he prefers the information pap, rather than to investigate, question or search further. *op headline: West aligns against Russia which advances in the demilitarization of Ukraine. Bottom headline: Kiev delays negotiations while deploying arms, warns Russia.* (Collage)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 February 2022 — These days, the official Cuban media show off their character of political propaganda, without any adherence to the minimum requirements of journalistic information. Incidentally, they show their servility towards the Kremlin by branding as “demilitarization” what is a cruel invasion of the territory of a country, and they also blame the government of Volodomir Zelenski for the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine.

Luckily, we have independent media and internet access, despite the high prices and multiple blocked sites suffered by the latter. To which we must add, our long training to search for everything that is censored or prohibited, which is put to the test in cases like this, to be able to complete the news that the pathetic State newspaper Granma and the toxic Cubadebate website try to manipulate at will.

Fortunately, but above all because we have pushed the wall of so much information control, we are no longer that people who believed so many lies spread by the media controlled by the Communist Party. Gone are the days when millions of people on this Island swallowed that the idea that sending soldiers to Africa was to pay an “old historical debt” with that continent; or that the last Cubans on the island of Granada had immolated themselves “wrapped in the flag”… or so many other auto-attacks that Castroism carried out to later manipulate the pain of a people and cut even more freedoms from citizens. continue reading

Fortunately, we are no longer the ones who could be so easily banned from reading Moscow News, made to believe that the neighbor in our building was a NATO agent and therefore had to be imprisoned for long years, or be assured that Vladimir Putin is a good-natured leader who just wants to keep the Russians safe.

Now, the one who remains with these grotesque versions, it is because he prefers the information pap, rather than to investigate, question or search further. Now, whoever has not seen the images of the bombs falling on buildings in Kiev, the Russian tanks on their path of destruction and the defenseless population, with their children and their pets, trembling in the subway tunnels while the missiles sound outside, is because he doesn’t want to, because he refuses to know, because he has covered his eyes and ears to the truth.

We are no longer the same nor can they lie to us in the same way, but the official press does not quite realize it.

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The Cuban Government was Slow to Receive the Ukraine’s Representative and its Position is ‘Unacceptable’

Ambassadors from member states of the European Union met with Oleksandr Kalinchuk (first on the right) to express their support for Ukraine. (Twitter/@UEenCuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 February 2022 — An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met this Friday with Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Havana, Oleksandr Kalinchuk, hours after the publication of his complaints against the Cuban authorities in an interview with this newspaper .

In it, Kalinchuk had lamented the silence of the Cuban government towards his country and the isolation in which its diplomatic headquarters had been held since the 2014 crisis, when Russia forcibly annexed the Crimean peninsula.

The Ukrainian representative was finally received by Gisela Beatriz García Rivera, director of Europe and Canada at the Ministry, who reported the meeting on her Twitter account. “We advocate a peaceful and negotiated solution to the conflict and we regret the loss of human lives,” wrote the official, who in a subsequent tweet recognized “Cuba’s historic position of denouncing NATO’s expansion towards the borders with Russia, as threat to global security.”

In a subsequent conversation with AméricaTeVé, the diplomat described Havana’s position as “unacceptable,” but assured that he hopes that the Cuban government will change it. “My message is very clear: please go to the streets, show that you support Ukraine, we can change the position of the Government of Cuba, we can change the joint situation,” he declared. continue reading

The ambassadors of the Member States of the European Union in Havana, who met with Kalinchuk on Friday afternoon , did show their resounding support, expressing “solidarity and support” with the Ukrainian people “in the face of Russia’s flagrant violations of the territorial integrity of his country.”

Kalinchuk had told 14ymedio that relations between Havana and Kiev have deteriorated for more than six years “under pressure from Moscow” and added: “Cuba stopped hearing our voice.”

In his answers, he also mentioned that since the Crimean crisis, there has been no exchange of students or professionals with the Island, when even since Soviet times there has been a frequent flow of travelers.

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Cuban Prosecutor Appeals ‘Very Soft’ Sentences in Mayabeque

Alberto García Scull was imprisoned for 14 days and was released on bail pending trial. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2022 — More than two months after their trial, the protesters of 11 July in San Nicolás de Bari, in Mayabeque, have received their sentences, considered very soft by the Prosecutor’s Office, which has appealed them, according to what the artist Alberto García Scull told 14ymedio. García’s sentence amounts to one year and six months in prison for the crimes of “disrespect” and “public disorder.”

Yerandis Reyes Escobar, Leonardo Alfonso Sánchez, William Valera Suárez and Odelys Barceló Serrano are the others convicted in the same case, which accuses those sentenced of “crimes” similar to those others have been charged with in the same province, for example, “expressing denigrating slogans against the presiden”; slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker].” The phrase, the document points out, was “spoken by the rest of the participants” putting “in disrepute the public figure of this authority.”

In the section on proven facts, the defendants are also accused of shouting “loudly” the slogan “policías singaos” that others shouted, which, the court alleges, “caused an undermining of the transcendental work of maintaining order and the tranquility of the population.”

García Scull, specifically, was accused of “insulting national symbols” for dancing “salsa casino” to the rhythm of the national anthem during the July 11 protests, something he categorically denied. “I don’t even know how to dance casino,” he declared in an interview with Hypermedia Magazine. continue reading

The artist told 14ymedio on Tuesday that the demonstration in his municipality took place peacefully and accuses the authorities of being the only violent ones on the day of massive demonstrations throughout the island. “They were people from the Party and the Government, who mistreated a girl,” he says.

García Scull insists that he was only at the demonstration as a spectator, to document what was happening in San Nicolás de Bari.

“Because I’m a videographer, I was doing some recording, so I found myself near the front of the group at times,” he explained to Hypermedia. “In fact, that is why they accuse me of being an organizer. But rather what I did was record with my phone. The slogans that people shouted were: ’we want medicine,’ ’freedom,’ ’homeland and life.’”

Arrested on July 13, he spent two weeks incarcerated in the so-called “AIDS prison” in San José de Las Lajas, Mayabeque, where he also denounced having suffered torture: “They beat us during interrogations, they put us against the wall, they stripped us If someone took their head off the wall, they put your head against the wall. Many people were beaten very badly.”

Fourteen days later, on July 27, he was released on bail pending trial.

“Our entire process is basically the same as what has happened throughout Cuba: trials with people lying, false witnesses,” García Scull tells this newspaper. “The investigation that they did to us was totally incorrect. In fact, what they say about me is not at all similar to the type of personality that I have. It has nothing to do with my way of being or with my way of acting or my attitude towards society”.

García Scull and his fellow protestors convicted are now awaiting the pending appeal of the Public Ministry. Although most of the sentences that the courts are issuing on the trials related to 11J are lower than those demanded by the Prosecutor’s Office, there are few occasions when it announces the filing of an appeal. There is a precedent in Isla de la Juventud, where the body appealed the acquittal of three protesters and the reduction of the sentence from five to three years to a fourth. The decision is still pending.

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Russia Extends Payments on Cuba’s Debt to 2027

Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, negotiator of the Cuban debt, with the Vice President of the Russian Government, Yuri Borisov. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

EFE/14ymedio, Moscow, 22 February 2022 — The Russian Duma ratified today the regulations that allow an extension of the payments of Russian credits granted to Havana until 2027. The moratorium had been planned since last October and was confirmed after the corresponding document was presented to parliament by the Russian Government , as reported by the legislative body on its website.

As already advanced, Russia considers the extension will not have a significant impact on the restructuring of the debt, since the deficit due to non-payment is 57 million dollars, but between 2022 and 2027 Cuba will return what it owes, in addition to 11 million dollars in interest for the delay.

The document approved today establishes that the last payment must be transferred by December 15, 2027.

Between 2006 and 2019, Russia offered Cuba export credits worth 2.3 billion dollars to finance projects in the fields of energy, the metallurgical industry and transportation, as well as for the supply of goods necessary for the development of the economy of the island.

At the beginning of 2020, Cuba practically stopped paying on what it owes Russia, thereby increasing its debts to Russian commercial banks and export entities. continue reading

At the request of the Cuban side, which asked to review the payment conditions of these loans and in correspondence with the decision of the Russian Government on August 7, 2021, the corresponding intergovernmental protocols were signed to extend the payments.

The ratification takes place in a delicate international context due to fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, to which NATO threatens to respond militarily. This January, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov did not rule out in an interview Moscow’s interest in deploying military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela, something that provoked a strong reaction in the West.

Shortly after, Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had a telephone conversation. Last Friday, Yuri Borísov, Russian deputy prime minister, finished a tour in Havana that had stopped in Caracas and Managua the previous days. During the visit, all partners confirmed their intention to increase cooperation, including military cooperation.

During his mandate, Raúl Castro achieved the cancellation of 90% of the debt that Cuba acquired during the time of the Soviet Union and still owed to Russia. Mexico forgave 70% of the 487 million dollars that it had lent to the Island and Japan forgave almost one billion dollars of an old debt in 2014. For their part, Vietnam and China also forgave part of their debt, but it has not been informed of these amounts.

The Island has failed to comply with several of the forgiveness agreements for part of these defaults. In August 2020, Argentina claimed 2.7 billion dollars from the Cuban government that it had been owed since the 1970s. On the same date, Spain formally stalled the debt cancellation agreement that it had reached with Cuba in 2015, which affected outstanding payments for a total amount of 201.5 million euros.

In June of the same year, the countries that make up the Paris Club offered Cuba a one-year moratorium for the payment of its debt (Havana had requested a two-year margin and exemption from sanctions for late payments due to the coronavirus pandemic), although that year has already passed.

The island’s external debt amounted to 18.2 billion dollars in 2016, the last year that the island reported official data, and since then the figure has increased substantially, according to several Cuban economists.

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Interview with the Ukraine’s Representative in Havana: “The Cuban Government Does Not Speak to Us”

The Ukrainian diplomat Oleksandr Kalinchuk. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 25 February 2022 — While European diplomats and those from other countries close ranks in solidarity with the Ukrainian Embassy on the island, the Cuban authorities keep their distance and reiterate their support for Russia in the official media.

In a day full of tensions, with the Russian troops already in Kiev, Oleksandr Kalinchuk, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Cuba, has responded exclusively to questions from 14ymedio about the situation in his country and Havana’s position.

[Note from TranslatingCuba: The interview was conducted in English and is presented here in the original.]

14ymedio: Since the beginning of the Russian invasion have you received any call from Minrex [Ministry of Foreign Affairs]?

Oleksandr Kalinchuk: Unfortunately, despite repeated requests to talk or meet with representatives of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no letters, no calls, no meetings have yet taken place.

14ymedio: How did Minrex treat you until recently? Have you noticed any change?

Kalinchuk: Since 2014, Ukrainian-Cuban relations have deteriorated. This, of course, happened under pressure from Moscow. The Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Havana was in a kind of isolation — without access to the media, to meetings with officials. Cuba stopped hearing our voice.

14ymedio: How many Cubans are there currently in Ukraine?

Kalinchuk: I would like to note that even in Soviet times and until 2014, we had a significant flow of travelers — both students and professionals (especially engineers), and ultimately tourists. Since 2014, no Cuban student has gone to study in Ukraine. A relatively small number of Cubans live in Ukraine, but these Cubans are bold and determined — they are not afraid and have repeatedly protested near the Cuban embassy in Ukraine.

14ymedio: What can Ukrainians living in Cuba or Cubans with ties to your country do in order to receive information about their families in Ukraine?

Kalinchuk: We accept such appeals by email emb_cu@mfa.gov.ua or by phone +5354295131. I ask everyone who will apply to prepare clear information about the last place of residence in Ukraine of relatives and friends, their contacts. And, unfortunately, I must warn that the answers will not be quick. But we will not leave anyone, we will not forget about anyone. continue reading

14ymedio: Have you received any expression of solidarity and support from behalf of the Cuban civil society or from the Cuban people?

Kalinchuk: Answering this question, I am overwhelmed by a wave of emotions. You know, our embassy has now started receiving not only letters and calls of support from Cubans, but ordinary Cuban citizens are also asking us to come and defend Ukraine with weapons in hand. Believe me, for those who now live in Cuba — even to say so is a big risk.

14ymedio: How do you see the way Cuban state media has covered the entrance of Russian troops into Ukraine?

Kalinchuk: You see, because the positions of the Cuban government and the media here on the island are always the same. These weak and unsuccessful attempts to justify the barbaric invasion of Russian troops into the territory of a sovereign peaceful state look comical. I am convinced that the Cuban people, courageous and able to analyze the facts, perceive these reports as unsuccessful propaganda.

14ymedio: Do you expect any change in the relations between Havana and Kyiv in the short term?

Kalinchuk: Let me answer not what I expect, but what I hope for. I hope that the Cuban government will finally understand that Russia is an aggressor, an occupier.

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Pitched Battle to Buy Cigarettes in Havana

The line to buy cigarettes was at the Cupet store on Calle Infanta in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, 25 February 2022 — “Every time they put out cigarettes here it’s our own Ukraine war on the block.” With sarcasm, a resident of Centro Habana commented on the great scandal that occurred at noon this Friday at the corner of San Francisco and San Rafael, in the middle of a line to buy cigarettes at the Cupet store on Infanta street.

An argument between several who were waiting escalated until it reached bad words, shoves and blows. To disperse the tumult, several police cars and a police van arrived.

“I don’t know if it’s business or it’s the desire to smoke that drives people crazy, but the most advisable thing is to stay away from this flammable mob,” lamented another resident in the area, who does not understand why the lines of smokers get so violent.

The price of a box of cigarettes in the informal market in Havana exceeds 160 pesos depending on the brand, and often the sale of the product in pesos in state establishments must be monitored by police and military.
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Cuban Baseball Player Spends the ‘Saddest Night Of His Life’ With His Family in a Kiev Shelter

Raidel Arbelay Becerra spent this Thursday with his family, his wife and two children, in a shelter near Kiev. (Raidel Arbelay)

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico, 25 February 2022 — Cuban Raidel Arbelay Becerra spent “the saddest night of his life” in Kiev with his family, his wife and two children, he tells 14ymedio. This Thursday, while reporting on the presence of Russian troops in the Ukrainian capital and the bombing, a drone was shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force. The aircraft “fell 70 meters from our house and we made the decision to flee.”

Arbelay heard on the news that in the first 24 hours the Russian military deployment caused the death of 137 Ukrainians. “War has neither friends nor winners, only losers, families in mourning, mothers without children and much more,” he stresses.

The athlete arrived in Ukraine in 1996, where he met several Cubans — at least 70 are in Kiev — and “right now we are all tense because it is expected that this Friday night the city will be attacked by the Russian aggressor.” He knows that some migrants have sought refuge in the capital’s suburbs; and others, like him and his family, in the basements of houses. continue reading

Through Ukraine’s presidential spokesman, Sergei Nikiforov, Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed that they agreed to hold negotiations on the ceasefire and peace, according to RT. “There is a lot of misinformation,” says Arbelay. “This Friday we hope to leave for the area where they are not bombing.” The athlete’s plans do not change, he seeks to reach the border with Poland with his family.

In this conflict, the Cuban authorities have reiterated their support for Russia in the official media. “I am ashamed of the Government of my country”, expresses an annoyed Arbelay. He does not understand why the island supported “the decision of the Russian president to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk.”

The Cubans who are in Kiev, the player insists, have not received assistance or support to transfer them to safe areas. “The embassy hates us.” The situation at the moment is difficult, but we try to “stay very close.”

Arbelay’s children have spent an uneasy night. “They don’t understand much about the reason for this war.” The calls received by people who share the shelter in a friend’s house, confirm “shots and explosions in Oblon,” a residential neighborhood of Kiev, in addition to “battles in Dymer and Ivankiv.”

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Plastic Artist Ernesto Rancano Dies in Havana

14ymedio, Havana, 25 February 2022 — The plastic artist Ernesto Rancaño died this Friday afternoon in Havana, at the age of 53, a victim of cancer, reported the National Council of Plastic Arts. Rancaño was born in the Cuban capital in 1968 and graduated from the San Alejandro Academy in 1991.

Several personal exhibitions in Cuba, Spain, the United States, England, Colombia, Panama, Mexico and the Dominican Republic stand out in his curriculum. In addition, he was part of more than fifty collective exhibitions and participated in the creation of murals together with other artists.

Some pieces by Rancaño are part of the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts of the Island, as well as that of Cernuda Arte, in Miami, and Nina Menocal, in Mexico. continue reading

His works have illustrated several publications from various publishers. His series Mal, Buenos [Bad, Good] and Abrazos Prohibidos [Forbidden Embraces] “received the warmest reception from the public and praise from specialized critics,” Cubadebate stated.

Rancaño, along with Alexis Leyva (Kcho), was part of the Martha Machado Brigade, which is dedicated to reaching areas affected by hurricanes with artistic projects and material aid. He was also a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba since 1995.

Rancaño’s works are part of permanent collections in Panama, Mexico, Jamaica and Spain.

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‘Cuba Cannot Become, Once Again, a Vassal State of Putin,’ Protests the Opposition

Miguel Díaz-Canel this Wednesday with Viacheslav Volodin, president of the Russian Duma. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

14ymedio /EFE, Madrid, 24 February 2022 — The Cuban government is silent in the face of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which occurred while the official accounts of the Executive shared messages and images of the meeting between Cuba’s president and the head of the Duma of the Eurasian country, Viacheslav Volodin, on their social networks. visiting Havana, the second high-level visit in less than five days.

Speaking out is the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, which has published a statement in which it asks that Havana not legitimize Putin’s behavior. “Cuba cannot become, once again, a diplomatic vassal state of Putin,” it demands.

The statement – signed by vice presidents Marthadela Tamayo González and Manuel Cuesta Morúa, in addition to Elena Larrinaga de Luis, first vice president of the Secretariat for International Relations – says that “Putin has blown up the Budapest and Minsk Agreements that contemplated the commitment to the political independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as the prohibition, among others, of offensive operations on its territory.”

The organization notes that Cuba is a small country that cannot be on the side of a State that violates the United Nations Security Charter and violates the integrity of a member State. “The genuflection does not dignify us as a nation,” they point out. continue reading

Miguel Díaz-Canel, oblivious to reality, tweeted messages about his meeting with Volodin in the first hours of the invasion. “I received with great pleasure Viacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the Russian State Duma, at the Palace of the Revolution. We highlight the excellent state of bilateral relations and the will to consolidate the high level of political dialogue and exchanges in various sectors,” the president wrote on his official Twitter account.

Volodin and the president of the National Assembly of Cuba, Esteban Lazo, previously advocated raising their dialogues to a higher level during a meeting, according to the state-run Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) news agency.

Lazo thanked the State Duma for ratifying the eight protocols on the modification of intergovernmental credit agreements from his country to Cuba, signed in August of last year, and pointed out the will to continue strengthening the high level of political dialogue and exchanges in areas of common interest, according to state media.

“We can draw up a joint strategy in various fields, exchange experiences and review what we can work on together,” he added.

For his part, the president of the Duma proposed creating a high-level interparliamentary commission and invited the president of the Cuban Assembly to participate in the International Forum on the Development of Parliamentarism.

Volodin thanked his Cuban counterpart for “his rejection of the interference in Russia’s internal affairs, the propaganda and communication hysteria” against his country by the United States government, and the “expansionist policy” of NATO. The statement came just hours before Russian attacks on Ukraine began.

Hours earlier, Díaz-Canel shared on Twitter the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in which “a diplomatic solution through constructive and respectful dialogue” is advocated. However, he has not yet recognized the independence of Ukraine’s self-proclaimed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, as Putin is demanding.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry blamed Washington in the text for threatening Russia and manipulating the international community in the face of an alleged “imminent massive invasion” of Ukraine that has finally taken place.

Havana added that the United States “has supplied weapons and military technology, has deployed troops in several countries in the region, has applied unilateral and unjust sanctions, and threatened other reprisals.”

Cuba also noted that already in 2014 it warned about the dangers of what it considers an “anti-Russian propaganda campaign.” At that time, during the crisis in Crimea, a Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, Havana pointed out that “alarming events were taking place in Ukraine.”

Four days ago, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized the “propaganda hysteria” of the United States against Russia in the context of the Ukraine crisis, one day after the visit to Havana of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borísov .

That trip came after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made statements about his country’s interest in deploying military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela, something that provoked a strong reaction in the West.

Diaz-Canel and Putin then spoke by phone about “bilateral trade, economic and investment cooperation,” while Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov denied that they were discussing any military-technical cooperation or establishing Russian bases in Cuba.

This Tuesday, Russia ratified the restructuring of Havana’s debt with Moscow of 2.3 billion dollars until 2027.

Borisov and Volodin’s visit demonstrates the importance that both countries attach to their bilateral relationship and the attempt to restore the close cooperation they had until the disappearance of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The next stop for the parliamentary delegation headed by Volodin is Nicaragua, another of Russia’s Latin American allies.

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Cuba Must Import More than 500,000 Tons of Rice this Year

Imported rice from Uruguay is the favorite of Cubans. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 22 February 2022 — In the recent donations arriving in Cuba, there is no lack of one product: rice. The most recent shipment of this type was 300 tons purchased in Colombia by the Chinese company Yutong and destined for Havana. A drop in the middle of the ocean, since the island needs 700,000 tons of rice per year and this year it expects to harvest only 180,000, according to a report published in the State newspaper Granma that analyzes the problems in obtaining a product that is basic in the national diet, culturally and nutritionally.

Cubans have already learned the amount necessary to cover the demand for the basic basket and social consumption, but not even in its wildest dreams is the Island in a position to even reach half of that. The best recent historical year was 2018, when 304,000 tons were produced, but by 2019 there was a sharp drop, with 246,700 tons. With the pandemic the free fall accelerated, with 162,965 tons in 2020 and about 120,000 in 2021.

If the forecasts of the Ministry of Commerce were to be achieved this year, one could almost speak of a milestone, and the aspiration of the national rice program, which targets 600,000 tons to be contributed by the Cuban industry in 2030 — 86% of the annual demand — would be quite a miracle.

With such national production data, Cuba has no choice but to import, but this is not an easy task either. According to the deputy prime minister and head of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, in the international market rice has gone from 468 dollars a ton in 2019 to 633 dollars today. It would cost Cuba more than 316 million dollars to import the 500,000 tons of rice it needs to meet domestic demand this year. continue reading

“For the Cuban family, this complex economic context implies having to continue to deal with the tensions generated by not having the availability of unrationed rice on the open market,” warns the official press.

Antonio Rodríguez Mojena, president of a cooperative belonging to the José Manuel Capote Sosa company, in Granma province, and interviewed for the occasion, believes that the 63 measures approved by the Government last April to improve agricultural production have been useful but still very insufficient, since the high cost of soil preparation, the use of machinery and the prices of inputs and services have harmed the sector.

“Profits are low, which does not compensate for the sacrifice of a campaign, nor does it encourage us to continue growing in areas. On the other hand, it can also become a breeding ground for the illicit sale of part of the harvest,” he adds.

Maikel Suárez Torres, director of industry of the state company, explains that, although they met the forecasts for meat, milk, fruit and charcoal, the year closed with 20 million in losses due the production of rice.

The purchase price to the producers rose and at the same time the state subsidy for grain was lowered, which generated very bad results. “If we take into account that the sale price of rice is centralized and that the industry also assumes 10% of the payment for impurities in the grain, together with the increase in the price of electricity and expenses for fuel, inputs and workers’ wages, the result is that the more rice we sell, the more losses we have as a company,” he explains.

The text of the official newspaper of the Communist Party softens the fateful data by putting forward the story of a producer from Río Cauto, Granma province, who claims to have emerged successfully from a disastrous campaign. The farmer, Antonio González Guerra, argues that it is necessary to know how to take advantage of the new government policies, although his case seems more like an exception than the rule, as evidenced by the data in the report.

“The policy must be grounded. There are the 63 measures and the will of the country’s top leadership to comply with them, but the challenge is to ensure that what is stipulated in the papers becomes a reality in the productive bases,” he says.

Next, the problems of the sector are detailed, among which they cite the mismanagement of some companies. “It cannot be that for a company to comply with the payment to its workers or avoid losses, the alternative is to raise four, five or more times the price of the bad service that it already provided to the producer. In the end, it is the crop that bears with that inefficiency that increases costs and affects yield per hectare,” says González Guerra.

The State will allocate 447 million pesos to the cultivation of rice for this campaign, but even with that it will not reach a quarter of what the country needs.

In addition, the donated rice does not entirely satisfy Cuban consumers. As a general rule, the product that arrives by this route is of low quality, with many broken grains and a ’sticky’ quality, a characteristic that is not appreciated on Cuban tables where the shelled composition is preferred, essential to make the Moors and Christians, Island’s typical rice dish — known as ’Moors and Christians’ — the other component of which, beans, is also scarce.

The increase in the price of substitutes such as taro, cassava and sweet potatoes, together with the drop in the presence of potatoes in the markets, have contributed to increasing demand and the price of rice, which at the end of last year came close to 100 pesos a pound, an amount not seen since the crisis of the 1990s. Now, in traditional rice-growing territories such as Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, the grain remains above 50 pesos a pound in the markets.

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Silence in Front of the Russian and Ukrainian Embassies in Cuba, Separated by 400 Meters

Diplomatic headquarters of Ukraine located on Fifth Avenue, in the municipality of Playa, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 February 2022 — “No to war” and “Fascist Putin” are some of the cries that are chanted on this day in front of Russian embassies around the world to condemn the invasion of Ukraine that began at dawn this Thursday. This is not the case in Havana. The area around the emblematic diplomatic headquarters look deserted, nobody with a loudspeaker or a poster, nobody condemning the war that has begun.

Nor is there a single Cuban offering messages of support in front of the Ukrainian diplomatic headquarters, on Fifth Avenue, about four hundred meters from the Russian one. Located in an area where almost all the houses are embassies or state institutions, a highly guarded place with few neighbors, the house was totally closed this Thursday and nobody was seen around, not even the guards.

The reaction in countries like Poland, the United States, Germany, Spain and France was immediate, hundreds of citizens took to the streets early in the morning asking Vladimir Putin to put an end to the attacks. Some exiled Cubans were present at the protest at the Russian embassies in Madrid and Paris. A hundred Ukrainians gathered there since morning. Something similar happened at the consulate of that country in Barcelona.

The same scene was repeated at the gates of the Russian Embassy in Rome, where the demonstrators had banners denouncing the military action and Vladimir Putin, promoter of the war.

Also in Prague and other Czech cities a series of demonstrations have taken place in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to show support for Ukraine and, in addition, another one was announced for this Friday in Wenceslas Square with the slogan: enough war in Ukraine.

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Cuban Opponent, Silverio Portal, is Released from Prison After Completing His Sentence

The opponent filmed a video along with his wife, Lucinda González, in which he thanked all those who have been supporting him during this time.

14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2022–Activist Silverio Portal, leader of Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID), was released on Monday after fully serving his four-year prison sentence for contempt and public disorder.

“This is the letter, releasing me from the little prison, to the big prison. Homeland, life, and liberty,” wrote Portal on his Facebook profile along with an image of the document certifying his release from jail.

The opponent filmed a video along with his wife, Lucinda González, in which he thanked all those who have been supporting him during this time. “Silverio and I know we’ve never been alone. Only thanks to you have we triumphed,” said González.

Document that certifies the release for completion of the sentence of Silverio Portal. (SP)

“This shock now, going out into the street and seeing how things are is making me a bit nervous,” added the opponent, who seemed happy to be home, although he announced that what he most desires is “freedom for the Cuban people.”

“We only want life, homeland and liberty, that is our motto since July 11th,” insisted González, to which Portal added being dismayed by the number of people imprisoned since last summer’s anti-government protests. continue reading

The 73-year-old activist was sentenced to four years in jail in 2018 for the alleged crimes of public disorder and contempt, charges frequently used by authorities to incarcerate opponents.

A short time after going to prison, he suffered a stroke which left one side of his face paralyzed and required medical treatment for two cerebral hemorrhages, the result of his high blood pressure.

In mid-2020, Portal experienced partial loss of vision, apparently caused by a beating he received from the prison guards.

The opponent has been one of the political prisoners who has received the most international support recently. At least 150 opponents signed a letter in his favor demanding his release and the UN, the European Parliament, the Inter-american Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International, in addition to the governments of countries such as that of the United States, demanded his immediate release.

On December 1, 2020, Portal received an “extracriminal pass” due to his health condition, which allowed him to return home; however, exactly one year later he was sent back to prison to complete his sentence, as expected, although the opposition considered it punishment for declaring his intentions to participate in the Civic March for Change called by Archipiélago for November 15th. He completed his sentence on February 19th.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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OZT, the Three Letters that Became a Nightmare for the Cuban Regime

A book of condolences for the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, at the headquarters of the Ladies in White on Neptuno Street, in Havana, in February 2010. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 23 February 2022 — In times when everything goes very fast and every minute a new topic of debate or conflict arises on the social networks, it is sometimes difficult to imagine that twelve years ago three letters created the first viral hashtag on Twitter that came out of Cuba. Then, the initials of the name of Orlando Zapata Tamayo won the pulse of official censorship, repression and the computer police.

That 23^rd of February 2010, when the opponent died, after a long hunger strike in prison, the use of digital platforms was in its infancy on this island. The few of us who used the Bluebird’s platform did so blindly, sending phrases through text-only messages (SMS). We could not see if they were finally published, read the answers given by other Internet users or know the final scope of those characters.

Despite all the obstacles, in a few days we managed to get the outrage over the dissident’s death into the world’s news, parliamentary and civic agendas. Politicians, deputies, artists and priests demanded an official response to the injustice of a man languishing for more than 80 days in a prison, without tasting food, under the cruel gaze of his guards.

The hashtag #OZT became a nightmare for a Cuban regime that deployed its militants on the networks to try to silence that cry. Right after that moment, the Plaza of the Revolution undertook the massive creation of online soldiers, popularly known as clarias (catfish). But for at least a few hours, those most dispossessed of resources and technology won the game of dissemination. continue reading

Now, despite the high prices charged by the State telecommunications company Etecsa, and the common connection failures, more than seven million* Cubans have a mobile phone line and more than five million connect to the web through their cell phones. In the virtual square, Cuban civil society has one of the few places to meet and express itself, although in recent years criminal punishments and fines for issuing dissenting opinions have multiplied.

There has also been a proliferation of clashes, bickering, sterile fights between people who seek the same thing: a free and democratic country. That confluence of 12 years ago, around just three letters and a deceased body, seems like a thing of the past. And yet, part of these possibilities that we have today arose on a Tuesday when we learned that a man had stopped breathing. The San Isidro Movement, 27N [27 November] and the social explosion of 11J [11 July] were also born from a Cuban who refused to eat anything until he died.

*Translator’s note: Cuba’s on-Island population is 11.3+ million.

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