Cuba: The Mother of a Young Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison Denies it Was for Throwing a Rock at a Store

“He did not go out on July 11th, but he live-streamed from the house, which they considered contempt because he addressed the president in a very bad way while he spoke on television,” said Pérez Colón’s mother. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, January 20th, 2022 — The five-year prison sentence, which the Provincial Tribunal of Sancti Spíritus announced against Leodán Pérez Colón was for “associating to commit a crime” and two counts of “contempt”; none of the charges were for throwing a rock at a store, explained his mother, Elizabeth Colón Peña, who attended the trial at the end of December, speaking to 14ymedio.

“He did not go out on July 11th, but he live-streamed from the house, which they considered contempt because he addressed the president in a very bad way while he spoke on television,” explained the woman. The video, or a segment of it, was used by state-run television to discredit those arrested for the protests.

Another contempt charge and the charge of associating to commit a crime were also imposed upon the young man around July 16th, when they arrested him, says Colón Peña, who has not received a copy of the sentence.

Néstor Estévez, an activist from Sancti Spíritus, who currently lives in the United States, insisted on Wednesday during a live-stream on social media that “throwing the rock through the window” never happened, and he took responsibility for sharing it, “when it all started, everything was based on testimonials and talk.”

During the live-stream he also emphasized that Leodán Pérez is not “a person we can point to as someone who threw a rock through the window of an MLC [hard currency] store.” continue reading

“The official record of what occurred in Sancti Spíritus says that some young men were arrested for throwing rocks at a store and we later learned that they were other people,” he declared.

Wednesday this newspaper reported on the Provincial Tribunal’s decision, which sentenced Leodán Pérez Colón to five years deprivation of liberty, Yoanderley Quesada to two years, and Yoel Castillo to 1 year and 8 months.

The note mentioned that the three young men were tried on December 27th and their sentences were expected on January 13th, but it was postponed by a week, denounced Colón Peña. Furthermore, Leodán Pérez’s mother believes the delay is punishment and torture for the family members. Her son was the only one who was in pre-trial detention, whereas the other two defendants, now convicted, had been out while they awaited trial.

Pérez Colón was arrested on July 16th at his home on Independance Street, between Tirso Marín and Frank País. The young man was with several companions, who were also arrested, and who according to Néstor Estévez, behaved improperly during the trial “trying to implicate their friends to save themselves.”

According to his family members, Pérez Colón was accused because of those two Facebook live-streams asking Miguel Díaz-Canel to resign so his country could “prosper,” although the authorities considered it contempt, associating to commit a crime and acts against State Security.

Yoanderly Quesada, who considers himself a brother to Pérez Colón, was accused, in turn, of “conspiring to reactivate the protests,” while Yoel Castro is the only case not registered on the lists of those arrested for J11.

According to Estévez, of the 42 arrested in the province, only one went out to protest, Luis Mario Niedas Hernández, who was convicted in October and sentenced to three years in prison, half of what the prosecutor was seeking for “contempt, propagating the epidemic and instigating a crime.”

Alexander Fábregas, the fifth one sentenced in Sancti Spíritus since the summertime protests, was taken out of his home and tried nine days later; he was sentenced to 9 months deprivation of liberty.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Police in Cuba find Child’s Body, Yosvany Villar Who Disappeared a Year Ago

Yosvany Villar Ávila was 14 years old the day his family saw him for the last time on the corner of his house. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 January 2021 — Yosvany Villar Ávila, the 14-year-old boy who disappeared in Havana in December 2020, was found dead on Friday in La Loma de Chaple after the alleged murderer confessed, according to this newspaper’s sources. His mother, Airovis Ávila Pérez, confirmed the news to 14ymedio and added that this Monday she will go to legal medicine and will be able to take the body. There will be a wake for the boy and he will be cremated that same day in the Cuban capital.

A week after this newspaper reported the minor’s case, the authorities reactivated the case. On Thursday, Ávila explained, “Ariel’s family,” the neighbor she had named as a suspect in her son’s disappearance, was summoned to testify, after the discovery of the body. The 29-year-old man has been in 100 and Aldabó prison for several months awaiting trial for a similar matter.

“Yes, it was Ariel, we mothers made little mistakes,” the mother told 14ymedio . She insisted to officers from the beginning of the investigation that her son had been seen talking to that neighbor the day he was lost.  Months later, when she learned that the man was in prison for allegedly attempting to rape a minor, her suspicions grew stronger. “I told the head of Attention to Minors from the first moment, but he told me that he could not suspect that man if there was no evidence,” she declared disappointed. continue reading

Ávila Pérez denounced in an interview with 14ymedio that her son had disappeared more than a year ago without the authorities having done, in her opinion, everything possible to find him. The delays and the lack of information on the development of the investigation were also among her complaints.

“Work is being done, but we have to wait,” the policemen repeated to the woman, without giving her any new information. Annoyed with the delays, she filed a complaint with the Office of Attention to Citizenship in the Plaza de la Revolución. But the answer she expected never came.

The first phase of the investigation barely lasted a week and, according to Ávila Pérez, when she asked Aguilera’s unit for an explanation and demanded that they continue the search, they told her that it had not been possible “because there was no fuel” for their vehicles. The minor’s mother returned home with the promise of the uniformed officers that they would call her when they resumed the investigations, but they never did. Now, her worst suspicions have been confirmed.

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Prosecutor’s Office Asks for 15 Years in Prison for a Cuban Writer for July 11th Protest

The writer and activist María Cristina Garrido faces 15 years in prison in the trial in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.[Hand: No More Violence Against Women] (Facebook)
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 January 2022 — In San José de las Lajas (Mayabeque) a trial began this Thursday against seven July 11th (11J) protesters, including the writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez and her sister Angélica, for whom various activists have mobilized in recent hours.

Those responsible for Ilíada Ediciones informed through their networks that the income from the sales of Garrido Rodríguez’s book Examination of Time will go entirely to the author, “who, a long time ago, became an activist in Cuba for the defense of human rights and the human rights of women,” detail the editors.

For her, the Prosecutor’s Office asks for 15 years, for the crimes of “attack,” “disrespect,” “resistance,” “public disorder” and “organization to commit a crime.” In statements to 14ymedio, Garrido’s husband, Michel Valladares Cala, described the trial as a “circus,” in which he even insists that the prosecutors exposed the contradictions that the police officers incurred in offering their testimonies. “They haven’t told a single truth, a pure lie, a pure contradiction between them,” says Valladares, who says, however, that the lawyers “are working well.”

For the writer’s sister, Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, prosecutor Ruth Rodríguez Reina asks for a 10-year sentence. The rest of the defendants are: continue reading

– Giorbis Pardo del Toro (37), 18 years
– Alexis Pedro Acosta Hernández (45), 13 years
– Yanet Sánchez Cocho (39), 10 years
– Patricia Lázara Acosta Sánchez (20), 7 years
– Osmany Hernández Rodríguez (34) , 6 years

In that same court in San José de Las Lajas, the process against the 11J demonstrators in Batabanó was carried out, ending on Tuesday, although initially it was expected to end on Wednesday.

In it, there was no change between the requests of prosecutor Ariagne Pérez Pérez, recently included in the list of repressors of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC):

– Vladimir Castillo Llanes (26), 14 years
– Jorge Yenier Ortiz Aguilera (31), 10 years
– Rogelio Lázaro Domínguez Pérez (26), 8 years
– Manuel Velázquez Licea (39), 8 years
– Alien Molina Castell (38), 7 years
– Mailene Noguera Santiesteban (34), 6 years and 6 months
– Humberto Monrabals Camps (65), 6 years
– Arturo Valentín Riverón (48), 6 years
– Enmanuel Robles Pérez (32), 6 years
– Jesús Pérez Quintero ( 27), 5 years of correctional work with internment
– Emelina Pendás Rodríguez (46), 5 years of correctional work with internment
– Yusmely Moreno González (42), 3 years
– Danger Acosta Justi (43), 3 years
– Sergio Enseñat Valladares (29), 1 year of correctional work with internment
– Yaroski Amat Salabarria (38), 1 year and 6 months of correctional work with internment

On the other hand, three young people arrested for demonstrating on July 11 and tried in Havana this week have seen their sentences reduced by the Prosecutor’s Office. Nelson Néstor Rivero Garzón and Emiyoslán Román Rodríguez are 17 years old and the other, Yensy Jorge Machado González, 18.

From 15 years in prison requested by the prosecutor of the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, Mabel Palacios Aties — also included in the list of repressors of the FDHC — the judges reduced the possible sentence to 7 years, reports Radio Television Martí with the source  being the father of one of the defendants.

The high prison sentences for the rest of those prosecuted in that court are ratified:

– Elieser Gordín Rojas (42), 27 years in prison
– Roberto Ferrer Gener (48 years), 20 years
– Santiago Vázquez León (21), 20 years
– Yosney Emilio Román Rodríguez (25), 20 years
– Carlos Luis Águila Socarrás ( 34), 20 years
– Frandy González León (27), 20 years
– Adonay López López (34), 20 years
– Harold Michel Mena Nuviola (28), 20 years
– Jaime Alcide Firdó Rodríguez (21), 20 years
– Alejandro Bécquer Arias (23), 20 years
– Amaury Leyva Prieto (29), 20 years
– Julián Yasmany Díaz Mena (34), 20 years
– Raudel Saborín González (24), 20 years
– Juan Carlos Morales Herrera (49), 20 years
– Eduardo Alvarez Rigal (31), 20 years
– Yasiel Arnaldo Córdova Rodríguez (25), 20 years
– Yeiner Ibáñez Boude (19), 18 years
– Frank Daniel Roig Sotolongo (19), 15 years
– Yasell Guerra Campos (19), 15 years
– Marcos Antonio Alfonso Breto (19) , 15 years

The trial held in Havana was scheduled to last until Friday, but it ended on Tuesday, explains Cubalex, because “they had no evidence and they finished it earlier, just like the one in Batabanó.”

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International Jazz Plaza Festival Kicks Off in Cuba with Nachito Herrera and Bobby Carcasses

The Cuban musician Nachito Herrera, who lives in the US , in an image released by the Foreign Ministry. (Twitter/@CubaMINREX)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2022 — OnTuesday, the Cuban pianist and composer Nachito Herrera and Jamaican saxophonist Bobby Carcassés inaugurated the 37th edition of the International Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana.

As reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its social networks , thanks to the efforts of Herrera, who lives in the United States, a donation of hospital supplies and musical instruments arrived in Cuba.

The inaugural gala, held in the Avellaneda hall of the National Theater, began with a performance by Herrera, who performed songs such as Stella By StartlightPoturrí de cha cha cha, Guaguancó para Chano and West Side Latin Jazz together with the Habana Jazz orchestra.  

Next it was the turn of Carcassés and the Big Band Afrojazz, who exhibited From blues to timba-from timba to jazz, with a review of their classics.

The event, held following health measures due to the covid-19 pandemic, was attended by other jazz names on the island, such as César Pupy Pedroso, Dagoberto González, Frank Fernández, Tomás Ramos, Juan Carlos Villega, Zule Guerra, César López and Orlando Valley. continue reading

Concerts by musicians such as Ray Lema, Laurent De Wilde, Carlos Sarduy, Alain Pérez, Oliver Valdés, Dayramir, Dean Torrey, Juan Chiavassa, La Valdés, Alejandro Meroño and Júpiter Project are expected on half a dozen Havana stages until this Sunday.

Performances by Dominic Miller, Sebastián Carmelo Armas, Julián Carrea, Virginia Guantanamera, Roberto Fonseca, Ernán López-Nussa, Kono and the boys from Cuba, José Portillo and Rodrigo Sosa, are also scheduled.

In the international arena, the names of the Dutchman Mike del Ferro, the Finnish Pekka Pyikkanen, the Swedish Jacob Karl Anders, the Argentine Javier Malosetti, the Spanish Francisco Armas, the Belgian Mari Bel and the Slovakian Radovan Tariska stand out.

The closing gala, also in the Avellaneda room, will be led by Germán Velazco, who will include among his guests José Luis Cortés, César López, Javier Zalba, Jorge Reyes, Héctor Quintana and Adel González.

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Control of the Internet and the Rounding Up of Indigents Mark Cuban President Diaz-Canel’s Visit to Sancti Spiritus

A police operation in Sancti Spíritus. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 20 January 2022 — The city of Sancti Spíritus woke up under a disproportionate police operation this Thursday due to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s visit to the province.

According to several locals, the 3G internet service began to fail the day before and hardly anyone could communicate that night. In addition, some residents confirmed to 14ymedio that on Wednesday morning they picked up the mentally ill and homeless from the El Hueco neighborhood in the Kilo 12 neighborhood in a bus and took them to an unknown destination.

Since the early hours of this Thursday, there was police surveillance every 50 meters on the Central Highway. The presidential entourage later passed by. As he passed, small scattered groups shouted revolutionary slogans and applauded. “Who are those who applaud?” asked a neighbor and another replied: “I don’t know who they are, I’ve never seen them in my life. They’re not from around here.”

Telephone exchanges in the city were also under guard. As one of the workers for the State telecommunications company Etecsa explained to a resident: “In the event of any incident occurring due to the president’s visit, the uniformed officers should proceed to immediately disconnect communications.” continue reading

Agents from the police and State Security also arrived at the Cupet in the Chambelón neighborhood very early this Thursday morning. In this area there are always many black market street vendors, including those who sell cigarettes, but the officers stopped the sales and quickly emptied the place, including of passers-by.

“You have to clear the area, withdraw from the place,” the police said. The people had to walk about two kilometers from the Cupet and they were not allowed to use the Central Highway to get away, they had to walk through neighboring streets. In addition, they were not allowed to make calls and ordered to keep their phones down under the threat of being confiscated. According to several neighbors, Díaz-Canel was at that time in a visiting house a kilometer from the place.

At another time, at the Rancho Hatuey hotel, to the north of the city, local residents could see from the street many official vehicles and part of the entourage eating food. “For them there is food and drink,” said a man from Sancti Spiritus who was passing by ironically. “That table must be about 20 meters long,” he detailed.

The Twitter account of the Cuban Presidency announced that the president’s stay was part of a comprehensive visit by the Secretariat of the Central Committee to the province “to review how much has been done” since the eighth congress of the Communist Party.  Meanwhile, the official press reported the tour between fanfares and poetic phrases such as: “To know first-hand the heartbeat of a community,” the president arrived in Sancti Spíritus, according to  the local newspaper Escambray.

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Cuba’s ‘Ordering Task’ Triples the Price of Milk and Cheese in Sancti Spiritus

All dairy products, including cream cheese, natural yogurt and soy yogurt, have also increased in price in Sancti Spíritus. (Escambray)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2022 — The price of fresh cheese, or frescal, as they call it in Sancti Spíritus, has increased three or four times since November, and that of ice cream has doubled. People are very upset, according to an article in the Escambray newspaper on Tuesday, asking those responsible for the industry what has turned the product into a kind of white gold, as the report calls it.

However, the answers found do not seem very satisfactory, since Ariel Fernández Martín, director of the Business Group for Commerce and Gastronomy in Sancti Spíritus, because the repercussions of the increase in demand are relative, as Coppelia continues to sell ice cream scoops, even if they are at 7 pesos.

“We are sure that it is a preferred food for the preparation of dishes or snacks, but the rise in price also affects gastronomic services, since now a pizza can cost 40 pesos or more and the demand decreases,” says the official, speaking of both fresh and liquid. “However, in the case of ice cream, although the population complains, acceptance is maintained and everything offered for sale is bought.”

Fernández Martín admits that there are many reproaches regarding the quantity, which in the opinion of people from Sancti Spiritus has been significantly reduced despite the fact that the price is skyrocketing. But this is not related, he maintains, to prices or the scarcity of the product, but rather to the refrigeration capacity. continue reading

“Dairy has difficulties with the initial chilling that must be given to this product. When it arrives at Coppelia our refrigerators are being maintained, so we have had to sell it in containers, without table service, almost wholesale, so that it sells quickly. Only what they bring from the Trinidad factory is arriving with the required level of cold,” he says.

For the rest, dairy products are doing great, according to his testimony: cream cheese, natural yogurt and soy yogurt have also increased in price, up to double, and that has not stopped them from selling. “This is also affected by the fact that they are sold in small sizes and that the price increase was twice its initial value,” he says as an advantage, probably because the rest of the increases are much worse.

Fernández Martín explains that the current price of frescal is 187 pesos per pound in the Ideal markets, very high, he admits, because production is more expensive than usual.

In the informal market, a pound of fresh cheese, known as “queso de guajiros” (farmers’ cheese) is sold for over 300 pesos.

The demand for imported cheeses, such as gouda, has also made prices shoot up, for a product which, at the moment, is only sold in stores in foreign currency or through on-line sites used by people abroad to purchase products for their families and friends in Cuba. A block of a little more than three kilograms of German or Dutch gouda exceeds 3,000 pesos on the informal market.

Rolando Contreras Sosa, general director of the Río Zaza Dairy Products Company of Sancti Spíritus, justifies the price increase through the increases in the payments to the producers. In the month of December, and with the application of the measures of the Tarea Ordenamiento (Ordering Task)*, he explains, a liter of milk began to sell for 20 pesos, compared to the 7.50 it had sold for in 2021.

The increase responded to the complaints of the producers, who have seen how absolutely everything necessary for the manufacture of cheese rose. In addition, the industry suffers from the same ills, from water and diesel to workers’ wages or imported raw materials, which have become more expensive.

“We must bear in mind that to obtain a pound of cheese in the industry, six liters of milk are used, if collateral expenses are added to this, then the cost of a pound is around 134 pesos, to which we only add the 10% of the value,” he details. That 10% is the maximum allowed for profits. The rest, says the official, is for the State Empresa de Comercio (Trade Company), in taxes.

The argument is refuted by a reader who comments on Escambray’s article and says he has consulted with other producers from different countries in areas with similar temperatures. “Everyone without exception says they get a pound of cheese with less than 4 liters of cow’s milk. Either the factory you run is extremely inefficient, or you don’t adjust to reality,” he snaps.

The company insists that it contains the price as much as possible and that it will do so more when circumstances allow it, something that seems very far from being achieved with the 70% inflation that weighs on the country.

Contreras Sosa adds that the prices in the province are higher than those of others in its environment for reasons attributable to manufacturing, such as the use of diesel boilers instead of fuel oil ones — which are cheaper — or the long journeys that must be made . “[It depends] on the type of technology used and let’s remember that ours is very obsolete and consumes a lot of energy. Only in the La Sierpe industry is cheese made at a low cost, because it is practically made by hand,” he alleges.

Most of the comments that the note has garnered are critical of the explanations. Some ask that wages rise to the level of rich countries, since the price of cheese is comparable. Others demand the rapid intervention of politicians or demand that milk be used for children and the elderly instead of wasting it on a product that may not have outlets due to its high price. A self-employed worker alleges that six inspectors visited him to ask him to lower prices and ironically sneered: “Now it’s laughable, coming with this. Wages didn’t go up like that. Cheese from 17 pesos to 187 pesos… I’ll have to go up like this to to be able to give my girls bread for their snack in elementary school. This economy is a disaster.”

“A lack of respect for the working people, that we are already tired of the fact that our wages do not even give us enough to eat decently. The truth is, they have disgraced the country with all this rearrangement. No change they make has benefited the people,” says another reader indignant. Although Escambray ends the text with a nice poem, the population does not seem to be joking.

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and others. 

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78 Cuban Doctors Brought Home From Haiti After the Kidnapping of a Doctor

Daymara Pérez, originally from Las Tunas, lived in Haití for three years. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 January 2022 — One of the criminal groups that control Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, kidnapped Cuban doctor Daymara Helen Pérez Alabedra on January 13, according to a note published in Vant Bef Info  this Tuesday. “The kidnappers are demanding $100,000 in exchange for her release,” said Fred Jasmin, director of the Notre Dame hospital in the southwestern city of Petit-Goave, where Pérez worked, while living in the neighboring city of Grand-Goave.

The healthcare worker, originally from Las Tunas, was intercepted by armed men in the commune of Martissant, south of the Haitian capital, a source confirmed to the Sputnik news agency.

In protest of the kidnapping of the doctor, businesses and schools in Petit-Goave were closed this Wednesday. The protesters demanded Pérez’s release; while another group of protesters formed barricades with tires that they set on fire and blocked National Route 2 with trucks, the only road that connects the town with the south of the country.

According to Le filet info, with sources close to the medical brigade, the Cuban government decided to reduce the delegation of doctors deployed in that country and repatriated 78 health workers. This information was replicated on social networks and by other media such as Free Haiti and TAK509, in addition to former first lady Michele B. Duvalier, who stressed that the Cuban government is not going to pay the ransom. continue reading

However, the general director of the Haitian Ministry of Health, Lauré Adrien, denied the information to the local press and maintained that a charter flight left Port-au-Prince with 28 people on board, of whom 18 were Cuban health workers who had completed their mission and another 10 were going on vacation.

Adrien added that there are about 300 members of the Cuban medical brigade currently working in Haiti. The Cuban embassy in Haiti indicated through its Twitter account that the health worker “traveled to Port-au-Prince for private matters,” although it is unknown how she ended up residing in the country and if she was ever part of the brigade. The diplomatic headquarters added that its staff “has remained in communication with her family, with the aim of providing the necessary support and contributing, as far as possible, to her release.”

Two days after Pérez’s kidnapping, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry acknowledged that the armed gangs had extended their domains, leading to an increase in kidnappings and massacres in popular neighborhoods. According to official records, at least 1,000 people were deprived of their liberty in 2021.

In mid-December of last year, Cuban engineers Andrik Alfredo Abad Reinosa and Enides Galano Silva were kidnapped on their way to do paperwork at the Immigration Office in the Haitian capital. At that time it was reported that the Autoplaza company was negotiating with the kidnappers and, according to the Sputnik agency, their release was achieved on January 3.

In Kenya, surgeon Landy Rodríguez Hernández and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera Correa continue to be held by kidnappers. The Cuban doctors were intercepted by alleged members of the Somali jihadist group Al Shabab on April 12, 2019, when they were on their way to work at the hospital in the city of Mandera, in northeastern Kenya and on the border with Somalia. There is no news of their condition, beyond the promise of the Kenyan government to guarantee a “safe release.”

Editor’s Note: We have corrected the name of the Cuban health worker kidnapped in Haiti, which local media erroneously identified as Taimara Heles Jeres Alavedra. The correct name is Daymara Helen Pérez Alabedra.

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The Desperation to Flee Cuba Provokes Turmoil in the Lines for Visas

Security patrols guarding the Colombian Embassy in Havana, in the municipality of Playa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 January 2022 — The desperation of Cubans to leave the island is becoming more and more evident. Some thirty people staged an altercation this Wednesday at the gates of the Colombian consulate in Havana when they were informed that their transit visas, necessary for the trip they intend to to Nicaragua via Bogotá, were not ready.

Some of them travel this Thursday, but the officer — a Cuban, not a Colombian — who guards the consular headquarters no longer let them pass. “I’m going to say it once, I’m going to hand over 44 passports. When I finish with this list, everyone can go, because we’re not going to serve anyone else,” he said harshly.

The discomfort grew when a security agent joined the official, who tried to dispatch them in a bad way. “Outside the man’s list, everyone who is not included there, please have to leave the area, you cannot loiter around here and the embassy’s decision is irrevocable,” he told the crowd, making it worse. “Everybody sleep and rest, I’m very sorry but nothing is going to be done,” he insisted.

Faced with the agent’s attempt to get them off the street as well, one of the men who were waiting rebelled: “If in the end they won’t attend to me, I’m going to stay because I haven’t bothered anyone and they can’t prevent me.”

The agent looked surprised at the man, who repeated firmly: “You are violating our rights; we can’t be inside the embassy, ​​but we can be outside here, no one can tell me that I can’t be here. I’m leaving today, but the day before my trip I am going to stand here.” continue reading

The discussion repeated the scene from the day before, when, a witness told 14ymedio, the police evacuated the place after a nervous breakdown by a lady who is traveling soon.

What happened in front of the Colombian embassy is not the only sign that, now more than ever, the exodus is unstoppable. The main destination is, of course, the United States, and the springboard is Nicaragua, which  last November established a “free visa” for Cubans.

The stories multiply throughout the country. In the capital, Rosa María has already sold her house and other properties and only kept a few clothes. While waiting for her flight to Managua, scheduled for next month, she is staying at a sister’s house. Her plan is, together with her children, to reunite with her husband, who is already in the United States.

In Sancti Spíritus, on an entire street in the San Luis residential area, almost all the young people have sold their motorcycles and their belongings to leave the Island.

“Never before have I known so many people leaving, not even during the Rafter Crisis,” said a resident of El Vedado when, on Tuesday, she saw the line with hundreds of people waiting to enter the Immigration and Aliens offices on Calle 17, between J and K, which issues passports.

“I’m tired of living here, I need to leave because there is no future in this country, and in order to have something you have to live with a rope around your neck all the time,” Alejandro, a 40-year-old Cuban who is waiting to get a passport for the first time, told this newspaper.

In his case, his journey north will be a little more convoluted. According to him, he wants to use his savings to travel to Russia to buy articles to bring back and sell in Cuba. If everything goes well, and with the money he collects, he plans to leave for good. “What I want is to go to the United States, via Nicaragua, but I need more money to achieve it,” Alejandro asserts.

Tickets to Managua have been selling for prices ranging from $1,500 to more than $3,000.

José, who is also waiting in line for his passport, lives in Sancti Spíritus, and reports that he has sold his house and a car to leave with his family, including children. “This decision has not been easy to take, but it has been necessary,” he argues. “Here I go out with 2,000 pesos to the street and return with practically nothing for my children.” He does it for them, he says, because “the years go by and nothing changes, we are getting worse and worse.”

Others, like Kenia, instead of going to the US, will head for Europe. A Spanish citizen and with a brother living in France, this will be her final destination. Until now, she has had to pay for two extensions of her passport for a value of 500 pesos each.

“We gave my uncle a power of attorney to take care of my husband’s house for at least two years, in case something goes wrong and we decide to return,” she explains, crossing her fingers. “In Paris we have the possibility of working thanks to friends of my brother. He will pay for the tickets and then we will repay the loan.” And she confides: “I hope we can get ahead there, because there is no one who can stand this.”

A block further from that place, on the corner of 17th and J Street, there is a similar tumult among the crowd in front of the La Rampa University Polyclinic, where PCR tests are carried out for Cubans who intend to travel abroad, to prove that they are not infected with covid-19.

Without mentioning the long lines at the doors of the polyclinics, the Havana authorities determined that as of this Wednesday the PCR tests and the antigen tests for “people who will temporarily or permanently leave the country” will be carried out in the municipality of residence of the interested party. To do this, Tribuna de La Habana reports, they will need to present their identity card, travel ticket and passport.

Between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm they will take the samples, and will deliver the results between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm.

Cubans who do not live in Havana but are in the capital waiting for their departure through the José Martí airport, says the official note, will be tested “according to the municipality where they are residing before their departure abroad.”

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Moscow Does Not Rule Out Military Deployment in Cuba and Venezuela if US ‘Provokes Russia’

In recent weeks something like 100,000 Russian soldiers have concentrated on the border with Ukraine (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/EFE, Havana/Moscow, 13 January 2022 — Russia has upped the stakes in its standoff with the West and warned that it is not ruling out a military deployment in Cuba and Venezuela if the United States ramps up pressure on the Ukraine issue.

It occurred on Thursday when Sergei Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister and representative in the negotiations with the US in Geneva, said in televised statements that he could neither confirm nor exclude the possibility of his country establishing a military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela.

As reported by the AP, Ryabkov told Russian television station RTVI that “everything depends on the actions of our American counterparts,” adding that President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia could take military-technical measures if the United States acts to provoke Russia.

Ryabkov said, moreover, that major differences in the strategies of the two sides cast doubt on the continuity of the negotiations, not least because the United States and NATO rejected Moscow’s main demand: a guarantee that the alliance will not incorporate Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. continue reading

He also claimed that the negotiations “failed” due to sharp disagreements on Moscow’s key demands. “The talks were launched to receive specific answers to specific main issues that were raised, and disagreements remained on those main issues, which is bad,” he had said earlier at a press conference.

Peskov warned of a total breakdown in relations between the two countries if the proposed sanctions against President Putin and other prominent civilian and military leaders are adopted. The measures, proposed by U.S. Democrats, would also affect major Russian financial institutions if Moscow sends troops to Ukraine.

On the other hand, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed on Wednesday to lower the tension between Ukraine and Russia, although it offered itself as the forum for dialogue in which Western countries and Moscow can try to find common ground.

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who assumed the yearly chairmanship of the OSCE, proposed to revitalize contacts in this body, in which 57 states participate, in order to reduce the tension between Ukraine and Russia.

The West accuses Russia of concentrating around 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border in recent weeks, in preparation for a possible invasion, an intention denied by Moscow.

The OSCE was created during the Cold War precisely to foster dialogue between blocs and is the only organization dedicated to security in which the United States, the countries of the European Union and Russia are seated at the same table.

Ukraine has dominated this week’s talks between Russia and Western countries, but was not present at either the negotiations in Geneva between Washington and Moscow or those in Brussels between NATO representatives and the Kremlin.

Ukraine, as a member of the OSCE, did participate Wednesday in the first meeting of the organization’s Permanent Council in 2022, where tensions were addressed but no progress was made, except for a commitment to maintain dialogue.

In this context the Russians recalled that the United States promised the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, that NATO would not advance “one inch” eastward if a unified Germany remained in the Atlantic Alliance.

This promise was made to Gorbachev in 1990 by then Secretary of State James Baker, said Alexandr Lukashevich, Russia’s representative to the OSCE, during a press conference in Vienna today, broadcast live on Russian public television.

Baker repeated that promise the same year to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Lukashevich said.

The Kremlin has been insisting for months that NATO deceived it with its expansions in 1999 and 2004, which would prompt Moscow’s demand to veto the accession of Ukraine and Georgia.

During his address to the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday the Russian diplomat accused  the West of being to blame for the degradation of the situation in Europe because of its policy of containment of Russia, and he denied that there was any progress in strategic security.

“Unfortunately, we have not received from our partners an adequate response or any reaction to our proposals,” he noted and admitted that everything points to the fact that Moscow will not receive a “constructive reaction” in the future.

He expressed disappointment that today’s entire discussion revolved around the “alleged threat from Russia,” which Ukraine accuses of preparing an invasion of its territory.

“We are not posing an ultimatum and we propose to solve the problems that have arisen between Russia and other countries, and to find a compromise in this regard. We expect a reaction from our partners in a short period of time; it is not a process of months and years,” he noted.

On Wednesday the United States supported the OSCE as the essential forum for lowering tensions with Russia and securing peace in the region, but warned that it will not accept “blackmail” from Russia or its demand to maintain “spheres of influence.”

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Another Baseball Player Joins the List of ‘Escapees’ from the Cuban National Series

Wilfredo Aroche, 37, played 13 seasons with the Industriales team. (Photo credit: Tribuna de La Habana)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 18 January 2022 — Four days before the start of the 61st National Series, the desertions continue to multiply in Cuban baseball — this time, from Havana’s Industriales team. Veteran Wilfredo Aroche, 37 — with 13 seasons playing for the “Blues” — left the country to try his luck in Italy.

The player signed his own, independent contract with the Italian Baseball League, according to the sports site SwingCompleto. Aroche had been practicing in the Italian circuit in recent years, but this time he left Cuba without permission from the Cuban sports authorities. This caused the immediate suspension of the 61st Series.

This loss for the Industriales makes a dent in the team’s regular lineup and puts its captain, Guillermo Carmona — who considered Aroche a key piece — in check. Now, they’ll have to move the bench to replace the shortstop with less than a week to go before the tournament.

For the moment, Carmona will have to settle for 39 men on the team. Aroche was already in the roster, which impedes his replacement, according to the rule approved by the sports authorities. continue reading

Industriales, the capital city’s team, has been heavily bleeding talent for years. What was once an impetuous team that competed for the top spots in the national league has become one of the main sources of departing athletes, thus diminishing its quality and the enthusiasm of its followers.

“The situation leaves a lot to be desired for baseball fans in this country,” stated Dairán, a connoisseur of Cuban baseball, speaking to 14ymedio.  “Our baseball was one of the best in the world, and now it isn’t worth a penny. To a great extent, this is because of the constant departures of the best players to other countries where they are paid what they should be,” added the young man, who resides in Cerro [a borough of Havana], very near the Estadio Latinoamericano.

The 61st series is being hit by players unexpectedly leaving as well as outbreaks of Covid-19 among the personnel. Barely a week ago, two young players in the Camagüey team — Yosimar Cousín and Yunior Tur — were discharged for “non-appearance at the conference,” according to sports authorities. Meanwhile, on the east side of the Island, the Holguín team was forced to quarantine its players after five of them tested positive for coronavirus.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison 

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Five Years in Prison for a Young Man from Sancti Spititus for Calling for the Resignation of Cuban President Diaz-Canel and Stoning a Store

The young  man Leodán Pérez Colón was arrested on July 16 for acts unrelated to the 11J protests. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 19 January 2022 — Three young people from Sancti Spíritus have been added to those sentenced to prison for acts linked to the July 11th (11J) protests in Cuba. The Provincial Court made public this Tuesday the sentences for Leodán Pérez Colón, who received 5 years in prison, Yoanderley Quesada, 2 years, and Yoel Castillo, 1 year and 8 months.

The three young people were tried on December 27 and their sentencing was scheduled for January 13, but it was postponed for a week, according to the mother of the main defendant Elizabeth Colon Peña, who described the delay as punishment and torture of the relatives. Her son was the only one who was in pretrial detention, while the other two convicted had been released pending trial.

Leodán Pérez Colón was arrested on July 16 at his home, located on Calle Independencia, between Tirso Marín and Frank País. The young man was with several colleagues, who were also detained and who, according to Sancti Spiritus activist Néstor Estévez, behaved improperly during the trial “trying to implicate their friends to save themselves.”

According to his family members, Pérez Colón was accused of making two direct calls through Facebook asking for Miguel Díaz-Canel to resign so that the country could improve, although the authorities considered it contempt, criminal association and acts against State Security. continue reading

According to the list of prisoners kept by the Justicia 11J collective, Pérez Colón was detained “for events after July 11,” when “they took him out of his house accusing him of throwing stones at a nearby MLC (hard currency) store.” The young man was accused of criminal association, resistance and aggravated disobedience, according to the registry.

Yoanderley Quesada, who considers himself the brother of Pérez Colón, was accused, instead, “of conspiring to reactivate the protests,” while Yoel Castillo is the only case not documented in the lists of prisoners for 11J.

According to Estévez, of the 42 detainees in the province, only one went out to protest, Luis Mario Niedas Hernández, who was sentenced in October to three years in prison, half of what the Prosecutor’s Office requested for him for “disrespect, spread of epidemics and instigation to commit a crime.”

Alexander Fábregas, the fifth of those sentenced in Sancti Spíritus as a result of the summer protests, was taken from his home and tried nine days later, and was sentenced to 9 months in prison.

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Cuban Workers Will be Able to Denounce Labor Abuses in a Telegram Chat

‘Decent Work’ is used to obtain information, for example, about how many vacation days a worker is entitled to, but also to denounce their working conditions. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 18 January 2022 — The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) and the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba (ASIC) have created a tool to respond to users about the rights of workers in Cuba.

The service, presented in Madrid this Tuesday, is called “Decent Work” and can be interacted with through an automatic chatbot on Telegram. As explained by the OCDH, those interested should simply search for @dignotrabajo in the search engine of that messaging application and, when it appears, join the group.

The tool is not only used to obtain information – for example, how many vacation days the worker is entitled to, if he/she could do the work remotely, in what situations a dismissal can take place or what Cuban regulations affect the job. In addition, “It will also allow any complaint of discrimination or abuse, in the workplace, that violates the rights or dignity of a Cuban worker,” the organization details in a statement. continue reading

Within the group, a menu allows you to choose between three options: “ask and receive information,” “report” or “request contact.” In any case, the OCDH specifies, they will attend to the claims “directly and personally” and will be informed of the “circumstances or situation” of the interested party’s work environment.

“If you report, remember to clearly explain the reason and the context,” the NGO asks in a video, in which it clarifies that personal data will be treated “with the greatest privacy.” In addition, they advise “clearing the chat history, in addition to the usual security measures you employ.”

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Little Sugar Cane and Many ‘Adversities’ in the Holguin Harvest

The harvest should have started in November, but it started late in December. (DC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 17 January 2022 — The López-Peña sugar mill, in Báguanos, Holguín, should have produced 13,000 tons of sugar this February, but it only has 30% of the planned plan to date, according to Reina Salermo Escalona, ​​director of provincial coordination of Azcuba in Holguín.

The official attributes the delays, which are widespread in the province due to the lack of rain and problems with the machinery, to “technical difficulties in the industrial process,” reports the provincial daily Now on Monday.

Two other plants in trouble are the Cristino-Naranjo, located in the municipality of the same name, and the Fernando de Dios, in Báguanos, which have just started grinding, just eight days ago the first and six the second. The “lack of inputs” and, once again, problems with the machinery, have meant that work could not be done in the last month of the year, raising fears of a new disaster for the harvest.

There is still another plant, the Urbano Noris, which alternates its jobs with the López-Peña. This is currently preparing the boilers to start their task next month. continue reading

The objective is to produce 92,000 tons of sugar in the province, with priority to 25,000, say the authorities, of the basic basket. For this campaign, 11,039 hectares of cane were planted last year, of which it is intended to grind 1,060,000 tons, 80% of the plan.

This 2022, 16,000 hectares must be planted in the province, of which 3,5000 must be between January and April, since the raw material is needed for 2023 and the rest for 2024.

According to the official newspaper, there are 87 “productive forms” that contribute their crops to the production of the product in Holguín and now they have the “additional motivation of the increase in the price of cane per ton.” However, considers the text, the work still needs to be perfected.

Although the price of cane has risen, as Now indicates, so has everything necessary to produce it, from supplies to fuel or electricity, among others, so not everything is motivation for the peasant who, furthermore, does not Nor can he benefit from a profit margin that he does not have left, since inflation has also made current expenses more expensive.

Even so, the newspaper believes that the technical force is well disposed, both to grind the cane and to combat “the adversities that are exacerbated by the cruel blockade imposed by the United States.” The blockade song could not be missing , which, however, appears in the last line of the article, as a ritual denunciation.

Last week it transpired that Cuba was once again having the worst harvest in a century. Ciego de Ávila barely executed 11% of the forecasts and a total of 200,000 tons of cane were left unharvested. The previous harvest barely 816,000 tons of sugar were obtained, 68% of the 1.2 million expected and this year, according to Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, deputy prime minister, said in November, worse data was expected . “The industry has more or less collapsed. The situation is worse this year than last and it will take time to turn it around.”

The Granma newspaper indicated this Saturday that the Industrial Technical Services Company (ZETI) is trying to adapt by working on some products that can help recover the important product. For this, chains are manufactured for cane and bagasse conveyors, turbines, vacuum pumps, fans, etc. are repaired. In addition to automating systems, updating software and building collection centers or repairing technological equipment.

And while the official press boasts of industrial preparation to alleviate the situation, the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba convened the volunteer work days until the next day 23, emphasizing that the efforts this time are directed at food production, cane planting and harvest sugar bowl

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Kidnapped Animals, Stolen Crops, the Nightmare of the Cuban Farmer

Another unusual crime is the kidnapping of animals: “They kidnap the animal and then call the owner to tell him that if they want the animal back they have to pay.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 17 January 2022 — The wave of robberies in Cuba not only affects the cities but also the countryside, and complaints are multiplying inside and outside social networks. A family from Sancti Spíritus tells this newspaper how 50 quintals  (11,000 pounds) of black beans were recently stolen, valued at 6,500 pesos per quintal. It is the third time in a year they have suffered a robbery.

“The police came and did not take fingerprints, they did not do their job right,” Luis (not his real name) denounces to 14ymedio. “The only thing they did was ask if we heard something, if we suspected someone; they work with the information you give them, not with what they can look for.”

The thieves, says Luis, broke into the door of the warehouse where they kept the beans, next to the house where they live, and the family did not sense a thing. The next day they saw that the 50 quintals were missing. “One part we had already sold and the other was for us to plant the next crop,” details the farmer.

The first time it happened to them, the thieves “went into the house and took all the kitchen appliances” and they had to install bars, says Luis. The second time, the bars did not stop the assailants, and they took all the bags of fertilizer for fumigating the beans. “Only a farmer knows how difficult it is to get that,” he laments. continue reading

The farmer has no hope that the police will solve the case: “On another occasion they robbed us, they left evidence, hair, blood, and they didn’t catch anyone, much less now.”

Luis hides his name and his place of origin because he fears reprisals from the government. “My family doesn’t want to make a complaint, because the State wants the farmers to sell them their crops this year despite the fact that they did not support them with anything. They didn’t sell them a pair of boots, not even fertilizer,” he explains.

“With electricity prices so high, to be able to use the electric turbines most of the farmers did not sell anything to the State, nor did they pay taxes.” If the complaint is made public, he is afraid of what might happen. “They can focus on us and see that we do not meet our commitments with the State, although almost nobody did.”

But robberies are not the only crimes in the rural areas of the Island. Another unusual crime is the kidnapping of animals. “They kidnap the animal and then call the owner to tell him that if they want the animal back they have to pay,” says Antonio, another farmer from Sancti Spíritus. “They have already done it with cows and horses.”

For Manso, 78, a producer in Villa Clara, the wave of robberies “is nothing new.” Every year he and his family face the looting of part of their crops, cultivated fields or infrastructure. “They even take the wire from the fences, so one day you think your fields are guarded and when you get up there’s no fence.”

Manso has been robbed of barbed wire, posts, seeds and animals. One day, the thieves came closer and carried off an iron pot that had been in the family for three generations. “It was not a small thing, in that pot we used to make ajiaco as well as to make soaps with mutton fat.”

Animals, especially sheep, horses and cows, are targeted by looters. To the point that ranchers have to organize night shifts and have improvised firearms from metal pipes. Owning an old rifle, in a country where they have not been sold for more than half a century, can make a difference.

“This rifle belonged to my father and I keep it, you have to improvise a lot for it to shoot but the best thing is that it intimidates. Here in this area everyone knows that we are armed and they respect us a little more,” a producer in the agricultural area of ​​San Juan and Martínez told this newspaper.

The farmer, who dedicates a good part of his land to the tobacco harvest, also has a plot dedicated to root vegetables and beans. “The things that are stolen the most in this part are tools, animals and everything they come across. If you leave a saddle outside, they steal the saddle; if you happen to go to bed with clothes on the clothesline, they also take them.”

“Here to steal, a few days ago they took a pair of rubber boats that belonged to me and that were all shabby, from my son they took several sacks with seeds that he was going to plant and one day they even took the dog’s collar and we don’t know how it happened because he barks at the sight of people he doesn’t know.”

“Here you can no longer sleep through the night, there always has to be someone watching,” acknowledges the producer. “We have to keep an eye on the old tractor all the time because they steal your oil and when you wake up, the tank is empty and the tires or rims are stolen to use to leave the country.”

A Catholic priest, who lives in the countryside, reflects on the pain that the looting causes: “They steal everything that represents the center of a family’s life, even coal, some rice, a piece of wire.” And there is no authority that protect the farmers.

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‘The Cuban Government is Slowly Assassinating’ Otero Alcántara in Prison

Otero Alcántara was declared a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2022 — Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has rejected the rights he has as a prisoner because he considers that he should not be one, according to art curator Claudia Genlui, who was able to speak with him in what he says was “his last call.”

“He called to communicate, briefly but firmly, that he is at the limit,” the activist wrote on her Facebook profile.

Genlui affirms that the artist and member of the San Isidro Movement, who has been in the Guanajay prison, Artemisa, for more than half a year, had hopes that the precautionary measure of provisional freedom that he requested last December would be accepted, but it was denied by the Prosecutor’s Office, which considers him to be a “social danger.”

“With the denial of this request, the regime demonstrates once again that its only intention is to humiliate him, to treat him like a criminal when he is not,” says Genlui, who warns that there will be no more opportunities to save the artist, who is at the limit. “He himself has said BASTA (sic. – ‘enough’),” she adds.

Otero Alcántara has refused, according to this information, to receive visitors, food and calls. “It’s over. He knows, like all of us, that being in prison is not a dignified option, that his freedom is being manipulated by State Security and that they are keeping him as a bargaining chip. The path that Luis Manuel has taken is not for that, he will only leave Cuba as a free citizen when he decides and with the ability to return when he wishes. That is a right,” says the art curator. continue reading

The negotiations for Otero Alcántara to be released have been going on for months, according to the artist and activist Tania Bruguera, speaking from the United States, where she is now living temporarily. Bruguera said in October that an attempt was being made to reach an agreement such as the one that led to the departure from Cuba of the artists Hamlet Lavastida and Katherine Bisquet, who went to Poland after being released from prison in exchange for their exile.

However, the stumbling block in this case, according to Bruguera, has been Otero Alcántara’s refusal to accept a release in exchange for leaving the country, a situation that also the case with the rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo.

“The Cuban government is slowly assassinating an artist who has only shown us light, who has built that hope to which we cling today. Now more than ever he needs us, trusts in us,” Genlui added in her post on Tuesday, in which she ensures that she will continue to report any news.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been in prison since July 11 and is accused of public disorder, incitement to commit a crime, and contempt. These crimes were charged to him when, in April 2021, he attended a birthday party in which the residents of the neighborhood where he resides ended up singing Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life). Although he was free pending trial, he was arrested and jailed on July 11 when protests began across the country. In 2019 he was also accused of “insulting national symbols” for a performance with a Cuban flag, although the case was dismissed in 2020.

The repression against Otero Alcántara that the State had exerted since 2018 hardened in November 2020, when he began a hunger and thirst strike together with several activists to demand the release of rapper Denis Solís. The action ended with the police raid on November 26 at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Old Havana, where the members of the group were meeting, and the arrest of the 14 activists who were inside the building.

This event prompted the protest of a group of artists and intellectuals on November 27 at the entrance of the Ministry of Culture to ask the authorities of the sector for solutions. Two months later, the events led to a new dispute in which the officials ended up dealing blows to the protesters.

At the end of April, Otero Alcántara again declared a hunger and thirst strike to demand an end to the police siege outside his home. State Security entered his home at dawn and transferred him to the Calixto García hospital, where he remained for a month controlled by the security forces without explanation.

Last year, the American magazine Time named the artist one of the 100 most influential people of 2021.

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