14ymedio – Page 240 – Translating Cuba

‘New Cars’ Given to Cuban Athletes, Who Then Thank Fidel Castro

Among those who received cars this time are the taekwondo player Rafael Alba and the four-time Olympic champion Mijaín López. (HIT)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — A row of shiny cars parked at the entrance of the Ciudad Deportiva (Sports City), in Havana, caught the attention of passers-by on Wednesday. In social networks, an Internet user shared images of the singular scene with a text that read: “Mercedes-Benz for our Cuban Olympic champions.”

The news was confirmed by the JIT digital site this afternoon, which specified that the delivery occurs thanks to “an agreement of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers.” Cars of various makes, not just Mercedes-Benz, were assigned “free of charge” to “renowned sports personalities,” the publication notes.

Among the athletes benefited are Serguei Torres, Fernando Dayán, Julio César La Cruz, Andy Cruz, Arlen López and Roniel Iglesias, Juan Miguel Echevarría, Maikel Massó and Yaimé Pérez, as well as Omara Durand and his guide Yuniol Kindelán, Leonardo Díaz, Robiel Yankiel Sol and Leinier Savón. continue reading

According to JIT, the canoeist Serguei Torres, who was the Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020, spoke on behalf of “the stimulated ones” in an event that brought together several officials in the Sports City: “To express thanks for this gesture, turned into reality in the midst of harsh circumstances for the country, it means recognizing once again the priority assigned to a sport that owes everything to the Revolution and its undefeated Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.”

Also receiving cars this time were the taekwondo practitioner Rafael Alba, the shooter Leuris Pupo, the judoka Idalys Ortiz and the wrestlers Reineris Salas, Luis Alberto Orta, as well as the four-time Olympic champion Mijaín López.

Official media in media also reported the news. It specified that they were “new cars,” and that the Granma discus thrower Leonardo Díaz Aldana, who won bronze in throwing the disc at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, received one of the vehicles. In addition, it was reported that the athlete had received “a Ventus range wheelchair,” donated by the German prosthetic firm Ottobock.

A few months ago, other images of “awards” to athletes generated a wave of memes and criticism on social networks when, on their return from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the athletes received as a stimulus in their community a basket with taro, yuccas, two packages of sausage, a carton of eggs, two bottles of oil, a cake, detergent, deodorant, pumpkin and bananas.

In 2017, a group of Cuban coaches and athletes from eleven disciplines who won medals at the Olympic, Paralympic and World Games received Chinese cars as a “stimulus to honor” and recognition of their results.
____________

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.

Roberto Batista, Author of a Book that Vindicates the Memory of His Father Fulgencio, Dies in Madrid

Roberto Batista is the author of the book ‘Son of Batista’ (Verbum). (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 12 January 2022 — Roberto Batista Fernández will not be able to fulfill his desire to return to a democratic Cuba, where human rights are respected and there is a Constitution based on the division of powers. The lawyer, the son of Fulgencio Batista and his second wife, Marta Fernández, died this Wednesday in Madrid at the age of 74 as a result of pancreatic cancer.

“They cannot operate on the tumor at the moment. While waiting they will administer chemo and in three months there will be a revaluation,” he had written to his friends in September, on the eve of the presentation of Hijo de Batista (Son of Batista) at the Madrid Book Fair, leaving, at the same time, a halo of good humor: “I’m in good spirits.”

This newspaper witnessed his spirit when it interviewed him on the occasion of the publication of his memoirs, which caused no little controversy. In them, he reported on the mixed feelings towards his father, who staged a coup in Cuba in 1952 and was in power until he was overthrown by the Castro Revolution on January 1, 1959. continue reading

‘Bobby’, as Roberto insisted on being called, described Fulgencio Batista as an extraordinary father who breached the constitutional mandate and that mistake “took a heavy toll,” but even worse was releasing Fidel Castro from jail in 1955, acquitting him, months after the assault on the Moncada Barracks.

Born in New York, Roberto Batista returned to that same city at the age of 11, together with his younger brother Carlos Manuel, two days before los barbudos [the bearded ones] entered Havana, and he practiced there for many years as a lawyer.

In his book, he vividly describes the shock of exile and of having that surname. That experience was for him, he repeated insistently, “a wound that never healed and will remain there until I die.”

There will be a wake for him this Thursday from 7:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the funeral home of the San Isidro Cemetery in Madrid. He will be buried there, in the family pantheon, where the remains of his parents and his brother Carlos Manuel lie.
____________

Donating Cell Phone Minutes, a Simple Way to Support Change in Cuba

Wright and Miralles, partners in life, not just in art, told Efe that the purpose of this project is to support the social protest and help people on the Island. (EFE/Wright/Miralles)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 11 January 2022 — Cuban-American artists Antonia Wright and Rubén Miralles have volunteered to support a plan that will keep members of the Cuban opposition connected so they may coordinate amongst themselves and inform on events on the Island through something as simple as donations to pay for cell phone minutes.

Wright and Miralles, known for their art in public spaces, have transformed two benches at strategically located bus stops in Miami-Dade county with text that alludes to political prisoners on the Island, which number more than 500 after the July 11th protests, and “Patria y Vida” [Homeland and Life], the anthem of those demanding political change in Cuba.

In addition, those benches, one located in the center of Miami and another in Hialeah, a city where the majority of the population is Cuban, urge people to send a text message with the word “Cuba” to 56512, through which donations of any amount can be made to “recharge” mobile phones of people on the Island.

“There are still more than 500 Cubans detained. Send mobile minutes to help Cubans organize,” the bench reads, along with the number to be texted, a Cuban flag and “#patriayvida.” continue reading

Wright and Miralles, who are partners in life, not just in art, told Efe that the purpose of this project is to support the social protest and help people on the Island.

Donations will be distributed by Cuba Decide, which defends the right of Cubans to decide which political system they want, because, according to the artists, they can ensure these funds “directly reach those who need them,” without Cuban government intervention.

Rosa María Payá, Cuba Decide’s leader, told Efe that being connected amongst themselves and with the world is fundamental for opposition members and activists on the Island.

“When Cubans are connected, mobilization is much more effective,” emphasized Payá, to signal the important role cell phones played on July 11th, the largest protests on the Island since 1959.

It is also important so they can make known the results of repression unleashed by the Government since then, the situation of political prisoners, and the trials to which those that participated in the protests are subjected, she added.

Cuba Decide has launched a campaign targeting Cuban-American artists and small business owners to volunteer and raise funds to help the cause of freedom in Cuba.

“We appreciate all the friends for their help in elevating the voices of those who have no voice, supporting our movement until we achieve freedom and democracy in Cuba,” adds Cuba Decide on its Instagram account.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

A Ration Store Clerk in Havana Posts Signs So People Will Stop Asking Her if There is Coffee

A ration store (bodega) located on e Street between 23rd and 21st in Havana’s El Vedado district with a sign that says “No coffee has come in.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 January 2022 — “No coffee has come in and no coffee has come in.” The clerk at the ration store on E Street between 23rd and 21st, in Havana’s El Vedado district, has chosen to put up two large signs with these words, as she is tired of saying it over and over again to customers who come in asking about the product, while she has no idea when there will be coffee.

“I put up the signs so that people would be warned,” she says with annoyance, while noting that at the beginning of the year the official press published that the distribution of coffee through the ration book corresponding to January was imminent. “It is not only coffee, there is no compote or milk for children, there are minors who have not had milk since last month,” she adds bluntly.

In another ration store in the same neighborhood, at 27th and A, the picture is the same. “There is no coffee here either,” said the clerk.

Where the product does appear is on the black market, but only now and then. A few blocks from E Street, at the agro-market on 19th and B, this newspaper was able to verify that an informal vendor was offering each package, exactly the same one that is distributed in the family ration basket, at 50 pesos. But residents of the area say that it is not always available in the informal market.

The disappearance of ration-book coffee, and its disappearance in stores that take Cuban pesos or only foreign currency, has coincided with a significant rise in the price of the package that emigrants abroad buy for their families on the island. continue reading

Mayra, a resident of Centro Habana, says in a smiling tone that “her mind cannot function without a sip of coffee.” A few days ago, she was forced to ask her daughter, an emigrant in Spain, to buy her a package from one of the online stores.

Her daughter “flatly” refused, she says, because “a 250-gram package of Cubita or any other brand costs more than $20 on these sites.” For example, one of the stores that offers its merchandise on the Cuballama page, managed from Miami, is selling 250 grams (half a pound) of the El Arriero brand for $25.

“Luckily a friend from the neighborhood, who despite living alone in his house has five more relatives who are now living in the United States still listed on his ration book, sold me the six packages that he received from the bodega last month,” explains Sergio, a resident of Cerro. “Thanks to that I still have coffee. He sells me each packet for 40 pesos because otherwise I would have to give up to 60 pesos for one on the black market.”

Brewed coffee is also absent in private coffee shops. “I go all over El Vedado and Central Havana looking for a place to have a snack and, incidentally, have a little cup of coffee and they aren’t selling it anywhere,” says Madelaine, a housewife who decided to go out this Tuesday to do some shopping in the agro-markets. “Even in the cafés they put the price on the board, but all the shop assistants tell me the same thing: ’We don’t have coffee’.”

____________

The Cuban Prosecutor’s Office Says that Otero Alcántara is a ‘Social Danger and Must Remain in Prison’

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. (EFE / Archive)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 January 2022 — The Prosecutor’s Office has rejected the request for a change in the precautionary measures for the artist and member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, considering that he is a “social danger.” In a statement released this Monday through Facebook, the group reports that the activist’s lawyer has received the notification denying him the provisional release requested almost a month ago and indicating that he must remain imprisoned until the date of his trial.

“This fact does not surprise anyone because it has already occurred historically when they have tried human rights defenders in total arbitrariness. And more recently they continue to do so in the ’performative’ and cruel trials in which the system has sentenced hundreds of Cuban citizens just for exercising on July 11th (11J) their constitutional rights in the public spaces that belong to them,” affirms the San Isidro Movement.

According to the group, the artist is currently “in a total state of vulnerability, sick and every day more psychologically damaged. The damages that the Cuban government has caused him are already irreversible.”

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been in the Guanajay prison, Artemisa, since the July 11 protests. The artist was accused of public disorder, instigation to commit a crime and contempt 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. Although he was at liberty awaiting trial, he was detained during the summer protests when he was sent to prison.

In addition, in 2019 he was also accused of “outrage against national symbols” for a performance with a Cuban flag, although the case was dismissed in 2020.

“It is regrettable that the arbitrariness to which Luis Manuel is being subjected continue reading

continues. The cruelty towards him continues by the agents of the Cuban state. Luis is an artist, a human being who has not harmed anyone, he has only made use of his right to freedom of expression to raise your voice for all of us,” adds the message published yesterday by the MSI.

The post adds that the artist is relieved since he knows that Esteban Rodríguez is out of jail despite the forced exile to which he is subjected, but that “his concern for Maykel [Castillo Osorbo] increases with each passing day, mainly because he also is sick in prison.”

The repression that the State has exercised since 2018 against Otero Alcántara began to worsen 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 the police, on November 26, storming the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement in Old Havana, where the members of the group were entrenched, 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 for solutions from the authorities of the sector. Two months later, the events led to a new dispute in which officials ended up coming to blows against the protesters.

At the end of April, Otero Alcántara once again declared a hunger and thirst strike to demand an end to the police siege of 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 explanations.

The artist was considered one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine.

____________

July 11th Protesters in Artemisa, Cuba Receive Sentences of Up to 12 Years in Prison

Eddy Gutiérrez Alonso was sentenced to 8 years in jail. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 9 January 2022 — For the crimes of public disorder, contempt, assault, and insulting national symbols, 13 protesters who participated in the peaceful protests on July 11th (11J) in the municipality of Artemisa, were sentenced on Friday; sentences ranged from 4 years of ’limited liberty’ to 12 years in prison.

The trial was held at the end of November in the courtroom of the People’s Provincial Tribunal of Artemisa, the province where the first popular protests occurred, in the municipality of San Antonio de los Baños. During the trial, family members denounced the fabrication of crimes and the use of false witnesses, used by the prosecutor to seek longer sentences.

Luis Giraldo Martínez Sierra (27 years old) received the longest sentence, 12 years in prison, followed by Yeremin Salcine Jane (31 years old), with a 10-year sentence. Victor Alejandro Painceira Rodríguez (26 years old) was sentenced to 7 years and José Alberto Pio Torres (28 years old), Iván Hernández Troya (25 years old) and Yoslen Domínguez Víctores (33 years old) were all sentenced to 6 years.

Javier González Fernández (34 years old) and Alexander Díaz Rodríguez (41 years old) will have to spend 4 and 5 years in prison, respectively, while Eduard Bryan Luperon Vega (21 years old) and Yurien Rodríguez Ramos (42 years old) were sentenced to 4 years of forced labor without internment.

For his part, Yoselin Hernández Rodríguez (39 years old) faces a sentence of 5 years of ’limited liberty’, while Leandro David Morales Ricondo (23 years old) faces a 4-year sentence of the same. continue reading

In the case of young Eddy Gutiérrez Alonso (24 years old), the sentence was 8 years behind bars. “I was crying all night. For going out to protest he must spend 8 years in prison,” his girlfriend, Rachel, became indignant during the conversation on Friday, after learning of the tribunal’s decision. “I’m very depressed with all of this, I still have not processed the sentence.”

The document which describes the sentences, to which we had access, was issued on December 27, 2021, but the political prisoner’s family members and defense attorneys received it on Friday. It is signed by the judges of the Municipal Tribunal of Artemisa, Yurisander Diéguez Méndez, Ernesto Amaro Hernández and Leonel Llerena Díaz. Furthermore, it should be stated that all of those tried were given joint penalties for various crimes.

Of all those accused, it is said that “they walked in the middle of the public road, obstructing all traffic,” on several municipal streets in Artemisa. As they walked, “they raised and agitated their hands, so people would follow them,” while also “screaming ’police dickheads’, ’police motherfuckers’, and Díaz-Canel motherfucker’,” this last phrase directed at President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, “which exacerbated the spirits of those present and contributed to other people joining.”

Among the accusations against Luis Giraldo Martínez Sierra, the tribunal said it took into consideration his decision to “snatch from a government official” a Cuban flag, “which deserves respect for all it represents and the implicit honor it carries and in lashing out against the said symbol, demonstrated total irreverence.” The “facts” are described as “severe” because he also “decided to snatch the national symbol from the hands of a woman, physically smaller than him, shows a level of aggression on the part of the accused.”

With regard to Yeremin Salcine Jane, the judges considered “his active role in citizen disorder,” that he “uttered demeaning phrases against government officials,” in addition to “assaulting agents who were there to fulfill a mission, for which he hit and intimidated one truck driver so drivers would abandon their attempt to drive on, acts which resulted in marked violence and aggression in the public roadway.”

Of Eddy Gutiérrez Alonso, they stated that “in addition to disturbing the peace and offending government officials, he assaulted agents who were trying to contain the crowd’s illegitimate advance, for which he hit, threw a jar and intimidated the driver,” of a military truck, “so he would be unable to continue driving.”

Regarding the truck, the document also mentions the vehicle is a HOWO, “olive green, with ’PNR’ on its front doors, referring to the National Revolutionary Police, and belongs to the Military Unit 5274 Brigade of Prevention Troops of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Havana.”

Some of the accused, “lay on the ground to prevent the truck from advancing,” described the sentencing document. “Later, they stood in front” of the vehicle and “with their hands, lashed out against the vehicle and its occupants, striking the front of the vehicle, Eddy joined in, forcefully striking the passenger side door of the car several times with a closed fist and damaging it.”

The document continues, while the truck was turning a corner onto another street, Eddy “grabbed a plastic bottle from the floor and threw it into the cab,” in the direction of the driver, “without injuring him.”

In another part of the country, Matanzas province, another trial resulted in six-year jail sentences for Tania Echevarría, Leylandis Puentes Vargas, and Franciso Rangel Manzana for protesting on 11J in the municipality of Colón, reported Radio Televisión Martí this Saturday.

Manzano and Puentes, members of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, have been in prison since July 11th.

The families of the 13 people sentenced in Artemisa, as well as those of the opponents in Colón, have said they will appeal the sentences imposed on the political prisoners.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

The Cult of Fidel Castro Grows to Drown the Echoes of the Protests in Cuba

Monument to Fidel Castro inaugurated in La Parra, Cienfuegos. (Granma)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Panama, 10 January 2022 — A sculpture in the shape of a hand that comes out of the ground, a full-body relief, a pilgrimage with his photo and the reissue of a book with interviews are part of the new wave of a cult of personality that has Fidel Castro at its center. As the regime feels itself up against the ropes more and more, it raises the ghost of a man that Cubans have been questioning and forgetting at rapid pace in the last five years.

“Who is that, mamá?” her five-year-old daughter asked a friend who barely turns on the official television but who, in a slip, tuned into the newscast when Castro’s bearded and aged face appeared during a speech at the opening of this century. Rejection, indifference and forgetfulness spread among the younger generations relative to those who aspired to fuse his figure with the concept of nation.

This distancing has been viewed with concern by the current leaders, who, in the absence of any results to show, only have left to elevate Castro to a mystical dimension. The man who promoted the destruction of religious altars, fueled the stigma against scapulars, and fueled the rejection of baptism is now treated by his sycophants as a prop saint who is taken out for a walk in political processions. continue reading

The Cuban system has no ideology left, and any vestige of social justice has long since evaporated. The current faces of power lack charisma and some are true examples of the opposite, such as the mediocre Miguel Díaz-Canel, the silent Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja and the tedious Bruno Rodríguez. With that squad of gray people there is no way to ignite any spark in the hearts of the people.

So the official propagandists have launched a crusade: reverse popular discontent and drown out the echoes of the July 11 protests by inaugurating monuments in memory of Fidel Castro or centers where his shoes are exhibited, and repeating his name in every public discourse. They have even attributed to him the initial impetus for the creation of vaccines against covid-19.

They repeat the script that once worked for them.

However, times differ. Castro can no longer instill terror, a skill which many believed to be the underpinning of the primary ‘gift’ of his leadership. It was not his long hours in front of the microphone — in which he ended up speechifying and contradicting himself; nor was it his body shape — taller than the average Cuban; much less his supposed wisdom — a myth created from which he spoke boldly of everything and had groups of advisers who prepared extensive summaries. No, Castro’s influence over millions of people on this Island rested on fear.

People feared that one morning he would wake up and dictate a measure to eradicate a type of market, confiscate large tracts of land or launch an offensive that would destroy the last vestiges of private entrepreneurship. Inside their homes people trembled because a phrase said in the wrong place could lead a son or a mother to a prison cell, where the “revolutionary justice” that Castro bestowed without mercy would end up destroying their lives. The fear was so great that countless nicknames were invented so as not to say his name and even the pronoun “He” was reserved for him in conversations, to relieve the panic of pronouncing his eleven letters.

No, that fear does not suddenly return at banners and sculptures that recall it. That fear was left in the past and the current paroxysm that the cult of personality around Fidel Castro has reached is causing mockery and boredom. His political heirs are creating a network of monuments, which not only contradicts the last will of their late leader, but is already in the crosshairs of social anger.

The people love to bring down the altars to those who believed themselves worthy of being on them.

____________

Cuba Exceeds 1,000 Covid Cases and Changes the Isolation Protocols

Cuba currently has 3,803 confirmed active covid-19 cases. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 6 January 2022 — With 1,429 new positive cases for covid-19 reported this Thursday, Cuba exceeded one thousand infections registered in one day, a figure that the Ministry of Public Health had not reported since last October 25 when it reported 1,210 patients.

With the increase in cases — this Thursday there were 462 more than yesterday — the authorities, without giving many details, have outlined what would be a new protocol for the locally-related infected that involves the voluntary isolation of the sick at home.

“The protocols establish that all those who are vaccinated, the symptoms are generally almost none and the home confinement system must be strengthened,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on Tuesday at a meeting where the behavior of the pandemic was analyzed. “We cannot count on the school buildings, the universities, the tourist facilities that we used to isolate at other times.”

“We must appeal for a responsible isolation in the homes and that each person knows how to take care of themselves in order to take care of their family and others,” added Marreño, who also insisted on maintaining other measures such as the use of a mask and avoiding crowds of people, but yes: “keeping the economy active” is a priority. continue reading

The provinces that reported the most cases this Thursday, according to health authorities, are Pinar del Río (251), Matanzas (166) and Camagüey (163). However, in others such as Havana, which last week registered fewer than 100 daily, an increase is already being seen in health centers.

“La Covadonga (Salvador Allende hospital in Havana) is already full with covid patients and they dedicated that hospital only for patients with the disease,” a medical source in the capital told 14ymedio.

Until December 31, the suspects were given an antigen test and were admitted, but given the increase in patients, says the same source, “isolation centers will not be enabled as in previous months and the authorities have opted for admission In the home”.

Faced with this new government policy, the health worker warned that “they are not doing PCR and the antigen tests are limited, they are only for pregnant women and children under 2 years of age. The established thing is to do tests through biosensors and in this case the results take three or four days and sometimes you don’t even get the results.”

The increase in daily and active cases is a response to the presence of the omicron variant in Cuba, where experts speak of the beginning of “a new wave of infections” with the increase in the incidence of the disease, but not of fatality.

However, president Miguel Díaz-Canel, during the meeting last Tuesday, emphasized that it will not act as in past months. “Now we must give importance to the home quarantine, but it has to be an adequate, precise, deep, efficient.”

Cuba currently has 3,803 confirmed active cases. Since the pandemic began, 970,567 patients with the disease have been diagnosed and 8,325 people have died, one of them in the last day.

____________

El Salvador Reaffirms its Support for the Two Cuban Reporters Stranded in the Country

Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho offered statements to the press as they left the San Salvador airport. (Twitter / @ R_Cucalon)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 January 2021 — “We are going to support them to do whatever they want to do,” says the Foreign Minister of El Salvador Alexandra Hill in relation to independent journalists Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, who were admitted to the Central American country last Wednesday after being forced to leave Cuba.

The position of the Government of El Salvador towards the reporters occurred after it was learned that President Nayib Bukele took an interest in them and gave the indication that they be allowed to enter El Salvador, Hill told the Nuevo Herald on Friday .

“We are doing everything humanly and institutionally possible to welcome them, to give them all the alternative solutions,” explained the diplomat. The diplomat added that staying in her country was an alternative and that the journalists “cannot and do not want to return to Cuba.”

“Anyone exiled from their own country is abominable to us and is an example of what the Cuban regime is doing with its own citizens.” continue reading

In the few hours that they have spent in El Salvador, they received a medical check-up and have had conversations with the Foreign Ministry.

At dawn on January 4, Valdés and Rodríguez, reporters for the independent newspaper ADN Cuba and members of the San Isidro Movement, boarded a Copa flight in Havana that made a stopover in Panama City. Their final destination was Nicaragua, but at the Panamanian airport, they were informed that they would not be allowed to enter Managua.

The air route also had a stopover in El Salvador before continuing to Nicaragua. At the terminal in the Salvadoran capital, more than 24 hours passed before the authorities decided to admit them “while they were being given humanitarian assistance and their immigration situation was resolved.”

Esteban Rodríguez had spent eight months in prison since, on April 30, 2021, he tried, along with other protesters, to approach the house of artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was on a hunger strike. When the police tried to block them, the group started a sit-in to protest against what they considered a limitation of their right to free movement, but they were arrested.

Cuban authorities took Rodríguez to the Havana airport early Tuesday morning directly from prison. Valdés said that he was also taken to the same terminal, where they were both told that they were expelled and that they could never return to Cuba.

The journalists reported that they were forced to make the decision to leave their country and that their intention was to stay in Nicaragua for a few days before ending up at the place where many Cubans arrive “fleeing the terror perpetuated by a totalitarian system.”

Upon leaving the Salvadoran airport, Valdés wrote on his Twitter account along with a photo that recorded the moment: “This was the image where a nightmare created by a system lacking ethical and civic principles like the Cuban regime ended. Thanks to President Nayib Bukele for his solidarity at a time when we were not seeing any light. Thanks to the Salvadoran people. Thank you.”

____________

Dozens of Cubans Demand a Ticket to Nicaragua in Front of the Conviasa Office in Havana

A group of Cubans this Thursday in front of the Conviasa office in the Miramar Business Center in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 6 January 2022 – “We want a flight date,” dozens of Cubans shouted at the top of their lungs as they gathered this Thursday morning in front of the office of the Venezuelan airline Conviasa in Havana, which is in charge of selling flights between Havana and Managua.

As the days go by, the desperation of Cubans to find a ticket and be able to fly to Nicaragua grows. “Today we almost broke the windows of this place,” says one of the customers who, filled with resentment, spent the afternoon in front of the office located in the Miramar Business Center. The man in his 30s, along with other people, continued to sit outside the building.

“Here you have to come every day, sir, they are going to add flights and more flights,” says another woman sitting a few meters away, very hopeful that she will soon fly to Managua.

“We are not selling tickets. We have reported that sales are suspended for the moment, it is what we have reported all the time,” said an airline employee on Thursday, adding that at the moment they do not know when the tickets will go on sale again. She assumes, she said, that “until the reprogramming progresses,” although she also commented that company authorities in Caracas, Venezuela, were meeting to “see what solution they could come up with for the problem.” continue reading

On December 6, in the same commercial office, Conviasa employees specified that starting on January 1 they would begin to sell tickets for the Havana-Managua-Havana route normally. Then they detailed that prices ranged from $500 to $1,000 in freely convertible currency (MLC).

The frequencies were scheduled for Wednesdays and Saturdays, with the first flight leaving on December 15. In the first trips they were accommodating “people who had already bought the ticket” before flights were suspended due to the pandemic, said an employee. “In case of no-show, tickets will be sold to those in the normal line.”

Customers, looking forward to January 1 and to better organize themselves have, since then, began signing up for waiting lists started by Conviasa staff in mid-December.

Representatives of the airline reported that at the moment the website is not selling tickets from Havana and that they will only be able to make the connection through Panama City-Managua-Panama City. This newspaper was able to verify that there are flights available between these two cities on Mondays and Saturdays in February for a cost of 750 dollars which includes a 10 kilo carry-on and a hold luggage weighing 23 kilos.

“We come every day and this here remains hot,” says another customer who was staying in in front of Conviasa Thursday afternoon. “And because of what happened today they even put agents in plain clothes to take care of this [the office]”, but that will not prevent him from continuing to search for information and from being able to buy his ticket, he assures.

Since, on November 23, the Nicaraguan government established a free visa for Cubans , getting a ticket to Managua has been the main concern of many who see, in the Central American country, the escape route in the midst of the severe political crisis and economic activity that crosses the Island and that has deepened in the last two years.

____________

Cuba Almost Doubled its Chicken Imports from the US in 2021

Chicken sales from the US to Cuba are growing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 January 2021 — In the absence of domestic pork and despite the “tightening of the blockade” that the Government invokes from time to time, Cuba almost doubled its chicken imports from the United States in 2021.

Between January and November of last year the country bought 252.8 million dollars worth of American chicken meat, according to data from the Department of Agriculture released by Washington and shared this Friday by Cuban economist Pedro Monreal.

The value of US chicken imports in that 11-month period is 76% higher than the total purchases for the entire previous year, which reached 143.7 million dollars. Chicken was once again the highest volume food that the US sells to Havana with 276,774 tons as of November.

A record was set in April when more than $30 million worth of chicken was bought. September was the month with the lowest imports (almost $17.6 million worth), and there was a rebound in November, with more than $25 million in sales. Most likely, the data for December, which will be announced later, are also very high since, given the shortage of pork for the Christmas holidays, the Government invited the population to consume chicken. Once the December sales are included, everything indicates that Cuba will have bought almost twice as much chicken from the US in 2021 than it did in 2020. continue reading

In addition, there was a slight increase in the value of the price per kilo from 0.93 US cents in October to 0.94 a month later. However, the rise in the price of this product had been increasing since months earlier. In August a kilo was going for 0.86 cents and by September it was already 0.89. Chicken is sold in state stores, where it is scarce, for 90 pesos for a 2-kilo bag and, in the informal market, it goes for 350 pesos for the same amount.

“Poultry meat is, by a considerable margin, the number one food imported by Cuba, and it is a product for which there is very little supply capacity of domestic origin,” Monreal wrote at the end of the year, based on recent statistics from the Government of the Island that indicated an annual expenditure of 319.2 million dollars in imports of this meat, which comes from the United States and Brazil.

At the end of October, US food exports to Cuba had doubled in the last year and increased by six-fold in the last two years. Purchases amounted to 22,271,632 dollars, 91% more than in the same month of 2020, when the amount amounted to 11,607,415 dollars, and 501% more than in October 2019, when the amount was 3,704,369 dollars.

The data, extracted from the advance of a report by the Economic and Commercial Council, revealed that the products most bought by the Island from its northern neighbor continue to be chicken (frozen hindquarters, breast and thighs), calcium phosphate, rice and fruit.

Between 2001 and 2020, Washington sent 2.48 million tons of chicken meat worth 2,088 million dollars to Havana.

According to a report by the US International Trade Commission published in April 2016, the country is among the top ten suppliers of food products to Cuba thanks to the 2000 rule that allows it to carry out direct commercial imports of some foods and agricultural inputs, as long as they are paid for in advance and in cash, due to the prohibition of granting credit to the Island in accordance with the embargo laws.

Despite this, chicken, one of the most purchased foods at the national level, still does not reach the population regularly and sufficiently, and people are forced to spend hours in lines to be able to stock up on this product. In addition, in the last two years, chicken has also become one of the most sought after foods in markets where pork appears less and less and at stratospheric prices.

____________

A Wall Threatens to Collapse a Few Yards from Havana’s Historic Cemetery

The deteriorated sidewalk blocking her passage left a woman resigned to waiting for the traffic to slow down to cross the street. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 8 January 2022 — The collapses and deteriorated houses are not only a thing in Old Havana; just two wooden supports support the weight of a wall in poor condition on Zapata Street that borders the Colón Cemetery, in El Vedado. Passersby constantly pass through the area and this Saturday, an old woman — cane in hand — was walking a few inches from the dangerous wall.

“Grandma, stay away from there, it could fall at any moment,” a young man advised the lady, but the wall was not the only problem. The deteriorated sidewalk blocked the passage of the woman who ended up resigned to waiting for the traffic to slow down to cross the street.

Zapata is not just any avenue. A few yards further on it approaches the Plaza de la Revolución and is a frequent route for official vehicles. Now, from the closed windows of their air-conditioned cars, the Cuban leaders will see the wooden shoring and some walkers risking their lives near the deteriorated wall.

____________

Family Members of Those Arrested on July 11 in Cuba Plea with EFE to Cover Their Trials

Family members of political prisoner Andy García joined the #EFECubreLosJuicios [EFECovertheTrials] campaign. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 January 2022 — The Cuban activist and businesswoman Saily González Velázquez, along with others such as Salomé García Bacallao, and family members of those detained on July 11th (11J), have started a social media campaign for the Spanish news agency, EFE, to cover the prisoners’ trials.

“There is still time for foreign press credentialed in Cuba to cover the trials of political prisoners. Several family members and activists have already joined the campaign [with the hashtags] #EFECubreLosJuicios [EFECovertheTrials] and #SOSCuba. Let’s support them,” said González on Twitter from Santa Clara, where she works in the private sector.

For her part, García Bacallao, emphasized that “from January 11th through the 14th four children will be tried in Holguín for the political crime of sedition,” and until now, the Spanish agency “has not covered a single ordinary trial of more than 200 July 11th protesters.”

Activists and citizens on the Island have joined the initiative on social media using the hashtag #EFECubreLosJuicios as a way to demand the agency inform on the legal proceedings, during which some have received sentences that exceed 20 years in jail. continue reading

González explained to us that she shared the idea with a WhatsApp group that brings together family members of those detained on July 11th and civil society actors. “Every once in a while initiatives to support political prisoners are presented there and it occurred to me to launch this campaign to raise the visibility of the situation, since we already know we have no other way to help them because, in Cuba, the legal tools that would allow us to help them do not exist.”

Furthermore, she says the campaign is based “on the responsibility that EFE has, as an international press agency credentialed in Cuba, to cover these trials,” and because it is often “picked up by other European media.”

Over twenty family members have joined the initiative, says González. “We hope more will join because the important thing is to pressure EFE to respond, if not, to make it clear that the agency is being complicit with the dictatorship and to show the lack of mechanisms available to Cuban civil society and family members of political prisoners to achieve justice.”

Jonathan López Alonso, a relative of political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo, said that what they intend to accomplish with this campaign is “for these communications channels which are credentialed in Cuba and do not do their job, to do it.” This young man’s trial will take place on January 10th and he is accused of public disorder, contempt, and assault.

“They hardly cover any of what the opposition and civil society do in Cuba. EFE covered what happened with Yunior García Aguilera in November when his home was under siege, but it is unjust that they covered that and not this. Why don’t they also do this with the trials, which is so important when they seek sentences of up to 25 years?” denounced López.

Bárbara Farrat Guillén, mother of 17-year-old Jonathan Torres, who has been in prison since August 13th awaiting trial for his participation in the 11J protests, also joined the campaigned, as did activists Daniela Rojo, Camila Rodríguez, and Leonardo Fernández Otaño. The latter, on his messages of support, also makes demands of other international press agencies such as AP, Reuters, AFP or television station CNN.

Although support for the initiative is growing, activist Saily González regrets that family members “still have not decided whether to speak publicly,” and they resist “using the few mechanisms we have to exercise our rights or at least try to,” because in her opinion it is something civil society “would love to” support.

“Family members are not accustomed to using the available mechanisms, almost no citizen here in Cuba is; first of all, they don’t know what they are, they do not perceive themselves as citizens with rights. While they decide, we will continue occupying our own social media, because the streets may belong to the revolutionaries, but social media belongs to us,” she confirmed.

Last November, Cuban authorities rescinded the press credentials of EFE journalists in Cuba, in the lead up to the so-called “illegal” Civic March for Change. Later, some of the credentials were reinstated; however, according to the agency, its delegation in Havana is depleted and it needs its entire team to return to work.

Since then, EFE warned its subscribers that the decision of the Cuban authorities in the last several months “have decimated the delegation’s team,” in Havana where currently, “only two journalists can continue working.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

An Athlete Missing, Another Escapes, a Covid Outbreak, Cuban Baseball Today

Yunior Tur was excluded by coach Eriel Sánchez from the national baseball team. (Instagram / Yunior Tur)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 January 2021 — Cuban baseball is in crisis. This Friday it was revealed that Yunior Tur, one of the best pitching prospects, has been missing for two days, and the abandonment of Eriandy Ramón, the third athlete to escape since the start of 2022, and six players from the Las Tunas team were all confirmed, while two members of the coaching staff have covid-19.

Tur was excluded from the patriot team assembled by manager Eriel Sánchez for the U-23 World Cup that took place in the northern state of Sonora (Mexico) last September and represented the worst bloodletting in Cuban baseball with 12 players fleeing. The athlete, like Yosimar Cousín, was questioned about “discipline” and “patriotism,” a veiled allusion to his possibility of defecting abroad.

Under the same arguments, Tur was excluded from the representative who participated in the I Junior Pan American Games held in Cali, Colombia. To which was added the refusal of the Cuban Federation to be hired by the Mexican ninth of the Charros de Jalisco.

“The closer Yunior Tur is a loss for Santiago de Cuba,” columist Yirsandy Rodríguez of Play off Magazine shared in his social networks. “Now the Wasps are going to have to totally reconfigure their bullpen. And obviously hope their starters can go far enough in every game.”

The disappearance of the player born in Santiago de Cuba, and the fact they he does not answer calls on his mobile, has led to rumors of continue reading

a departure from the Island. “A possibility that was always on the minds of the fans of the Santiago team and of the fans of the pitcher himself,” according to Swing Completo.

Amid speculation about the whereabouts of Tur, the third abandonment of the Island was confirmed in January 2022. Eriandy Ramón joined the escapes of José Ramón Alfonso Jr. and that of Orestes Reyes. The three are in the Dominican Republic from where they will continue their preparation in search of an opportunity with a Major League team from the USA or Canada.

Ramón stood out as second baseman in the U-15 World Cup that took place in Panama in 2018, where he had four hits, scored three runs and had three strikeouts. “He bunked with Dyan Yamel Jorge, who is about to sign with the Colorado Rockies,” stressed journalist Francys Romero in FR Baseball. “From that 2018 team, nine players have already emigrated out of a total of 20, which shows that the Cuban player between 13-19 years old still does not see a future on the island.”

To this we must add that since the end of 2021 Alexis Pérez Leyva, director of Sports in the province of Las Tunas, confirmed that a player from los Leñadores had symptoms of coronavirus and there are currently six players and two technicians with the disease, according to Periódico 26.

These infections are part of the 1,946 positive and 5,218 active cases, which the Ministry of Public Health reported this Friday. Cuba has diagnosed 5,219 new cases in the last 14 days, according to official data.

____________

Not Only Buses Travel the Streets of Havana With One Wheel Missing

In the image, a truck of the Communal Services company of Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 8 January 2021 — Trucks and buses that circulate with three tires on the rear axle, instead of four, are no longer an exception on the streets of Cuba. Given the lack of spare parts, exacerbated by the economic crisis of recent years, state services have chosen to keep their cargo or passenger vehicles in operation even when they do not meet the minimum safety conditions.

First it was a Yutong bus that transported workers from the AICA laboratories without one of its four rear wheels, and this Friday a photographer from 14ymedio ran into a truck belonging to the state company of Communal Services of Havana in the same conditions.

Parked very close to the Ayestarán road, the vehicle, which is dedicated to transporting debris — large volumes of garbage or remains from tree pruning — was missing one tire.

“The lack of one of the traction tires causes complete instability,” warns Antonio, a mechanic with more than ten years of experience in the Mercedes Benz company workshops in the capital. “It can cause losses in the steering of the vehicle and, if that tire is overloaded and bursts, the vehicle can tilt to one side and cause an accident.”

The design of these axles “is planned in this way to support a certain weight,” explains the specialist auto mechanic. It is a danger, he continue reading

insists, that the vehicle is in this state because “when one of these tires is missing, the remaining one is overloaded, even causing the suspension of the vehicle to be affected as well.”

Antonio warns that “there are some vehicles that serve tourism — a prioritized sector in Cuba — with bald tires and repaired steering. Imagine that it could be left for other vehicles!”

Javier Valdés worked for a time in the workshops of the extinct Fénix limited company, linked to the Office of the City Historian, in Old Havana. After emigrating a few years ago, he acquired a small trucking company in South Florida.

“Applying my knowledge as a professional mechanic, a heavy vehicle that transports people or cargo should circulate with all the wheels with which it was manufactured,” says Valdés. In his experience, “the lack of one of these tires can cause the vehicle to lose alignment and therefore the suspension is out of adjustment, the wheels wear out, or a tire explodes.”

In the event that the vehicle runs without weight “missing one of the wheels of the rear pairs,” Antonio details that “everything will also depend on the physical quality of the remaining tire, but it is not at all recommended that they move on the road in these conditions.”

If it has the axels for it, it’s better have two tires, Javier insists: “I do not recommend that any vehicle travel the roads if it is missing a tire, and even less the roads of Cuba which are full of potholes, which is also a factor that directly affects the tire resistance.”

Each vehicle is designed to fulfill its function as it should, and in this sense, the mechanics agree that “if the design of a truck foresees a maximum load weight of 50 tons, with one less tire, this capacity is greatly reduced.”

In Havana, the deterioration of the vehicle fleet was recently recognized by Leandro Méndez Peña, general director of Transportation in the capital, who recognized, for example, the existence of a severe deficit in public transportation by pointing out that only 49% of the total bus fleet is in operation. The situation is visible to all and, on any street in Havana, vehicles appear that are not fit to circulate.

____________

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: