14ymedio – Page 130 – Translating Cuba

Cuba’s Tinima Brewery, in Camaguey, Will be Reopened with Foreign Capital

The Tínima brewery will have foreign capital to produce and market all kinds of beverages. (Forward)

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 February 2023 — Cuba’s Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, announced this Thursday the imminent start-up of seven foreign investment businesses with an impact on the food sector, some of them starting in March. In a meeting with directors of the Ministry of the Food Industry, he insisted on the need to turn to this type of association to alleviate the shortage of foreign currency that prevents the payment of debts.

The new companies mentioned by Gil, who is also deputy prime minister, are for the provision of refrigeration services, the production and marketing of sea cucumbers and the cultivation, processing and marketing of marine sponges, fish and gin.

There is also a mixed company that will produce and market cocoa derivatives and another that will do the same with water, soft drinks, beers and malts in the Tínima factory in Camagüey, which has been brewing beers since 1985. Last July it suffered an ammonia leak due to the breakage of a valve in which there had been no major problems.

The officials pointed out that shrimp, eels – a luxury food intended solely for export to the Asian market – and coffee are other products that should be promoted to foreign investors due to their high demand and important dividends. In the case of the last product there is a lot that will have to be worked on, as the scarcity of coffee is becoming a serious problem for Cuba, forced to import it from all kinds of countries. continue reading

Gil Fernández pointed out that the 2022 food export plan was only 92% fulfilled and this is expected to be much worse due to the “US blockade, high prices, conflicts and natural catastrophes,” he said, without the slightest hint of self-criticism.

However, it clashes with the recognition that this year will be – in his words – “very tense” with the planned figure, which is valued at $232,787,600, an increase compared to 2022. The sectors whose sales are expected to be most lucrative are rum and fish products.

The deputy prime minister, who asked for an assessment of each foreign investment proposal and its contractual conditions very carefully, said that a foreign currency financing plan has been approved for strategic sectors such as tourism, health and telecommunications, and that it would be very useful “to link” with these.

The dependence that the Cuban authorities have on imports to feed the population is both a cause and a consequence of the serious crisis that the Island is suffering, forcing it to buy 80% of the food it consumes abroad.

According to a recent report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP), Cuba is the second country more deficient and dependent per capita on agricultural imports, only surpassed on the continent by Panama.

Fish is the only product that adds up to a negative balance of 1.635 billion dollars, but the rest of the products present scandalous figures.

The cereal deficit was 668 million dollars, while in corn and wheat it was 181 million. The little that goes into fruits and vegetables also marks a negative balance of 109 million dollars in imports and there is another 104 million in vegetable oils. In dairy, the imbalance was 204 million and meat presents a 446 million dollar imbalance.

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Cuban Authorities Confirm the Discovery of the Body, with Signs of Violence, of a Disappeared Person

The body of Guperto Rafael Cánovas Adán, 72, appeared this Wednesday, after five days missing. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 February 2023 — The Cuban authorities have confirmed the discovery of the body of Guperto Rafael Cánovas Adán, a 72-year-old taxi driver from Camagüey who had been missing since February 3, according to his relatives.

The news, which had been circulating on social networks since Wednesday, was officially corroborated by the Ministry of the Interior, which also admits that the body had signs of violence and, without expressing it literally, that the cause of the attack was a robbery.

“The alleged perpetrators were arrested in Havana and the car that had been taken from the victim was seized,” says the statement, reproduced by the official press and its networks.

The alleged perpetrators, of whom no details are known, will be referred to the Prosecutor’s Office to be criminally prosecuted, the note emphasizes.

The journalist from Camagüey, José Luis Tan Estrada, had made the situation known last Saturday, February 4, alerted by the relatives of Cánovas. Two young men and a woman had hired his services as a private taxi driver the day before and he had not returned home since.

On Tuesday, the reporter asked his followers not to spread rumors that could harm the family, but just a day later he himself was able to confirm the news of the discovery of the body.

“Today the people of Camagüey mourn another victim of this wave of violence that has no end,” wrote Tan Estrada, who in the last week has called attention to the multitude of cases that are coming to light of violent robberies and deaths in the province.

The journalist recalled the alleged murder of Yudel López, an employee of an insurance office, who recently went to work on a state electric tricycle and never arrived. continue reading

“They stabbed him until he was defenseless, until they took him to a house and there they finished him off in the most inhuman way that exists. They threw his body in a sack with a stone and threw it into the river. Everything was discovered because the murderers were selling the tricycle in Vertientes and they caught them,” said Tan Estrada, citing a source close to the deceased.

The communicator was also one of the people who provided the greatest follow-up to the case of Leidy Bacallao Santana, 17 years old and murdered by her ex-partner in Camalote. The young woman died at the hands of Elesvan Hidalgo, about 50 years old and with whom she had had a relationship, when she tried to take refuge in the police station in the face of the man’s threats and persecution.

Social networks have caused news of murders and robberies to spread more than in the past, when the state communications monopoly controlled any uncomfortable information. As a result, authorities are increasingly being forced to confirm this kind of information.

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US Returns 21 Rafters to Cuba, Making 1,621 Already in 2023

The US Coast Guard has already made 18 repatriations so far this year. (Twitter/@USCGSoutheast)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 10 February 2023 — The United States Coast Guard Service (SGC) returned a group of 21 irregular migrants to Cuba this Thursday through the port of Orozco, reported the Island’s Ministry of the Interior.

This new group of returned rafters, made up of 17 men and four women, had carried out an “illegal exit” by sea, a criminal offense in Cuba, the statement details.

This is the eighteenth return from the United States so far this year, for a total of 1,621 Cuban migrants returned to the island by the Coast Guard in 2023.

Last Tuesday, the US Coastguard Service handed over to the Cuban authorities another group of 16 rafters, who had been intercepted at sea after two illegal departures.

Cuba insists that it maintains its commitment “to a regular, safe and orderly migration” and insists on “the danger and life risking conditions that illegal departures from the country by sea represent.” continue reading

For several months now, the United States has seen record numbers of migrants trying to cross irregularly at its southern border, motivated, for the most part, by a new unprecedented migratory exodus from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

In the case of Cuba, a total of 224,607 citizens arrived at the southern border of the United States in fiscal year 2022 – October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 – according to the US Customs and Border Protection Office.

At the beginning of the year Washington implemented a policy to welcome 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.

In parallel, the United States will immediately expel to Mexico migrants from those countries who try to cross into its territory irregularly.

Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from US territory.

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The Ideologue of the Cuban Communist Party on the Networks: ‘We Have to Take Away Those Weapons From the Enemy’

Rogelio Polanco this weekend, after being elected as a candidate by Holguín for the next elections. (@RPolancoF)

14ymedio, Madrid, 8 February 2023 — At the age of 57, the head of the Ideological Department of the Communist Party, Rogelio Polanco, feels part of what he calls the “process of gradual and orderly transfer of the main positions and responsibilities of political direction of the Revolution from the historical generation to a new generation,” and from that place he is willing to fight one of the most important battles for the regime: that of ideas.

The official spoke at great length in an interview for La pupila insomne [The Insomniac Pupil], in which he refers to the need for the transformations to be profound, but the detailed explanations make it clear that what changes, in any case, is the form, not the substance. “All our ideological commitment is aimed at reinforcing (…) the foundations of our ideology, based on the thought of José Martí, Fidel Castro and, of course, on Marxism and Leninism,” he explains.

The interview, of more than 7,000 words, leaves little room for the news. Among the few announcements that Polanco makes is the extreme intervention of the new Institute for Social Communication, created in 2021 to replace the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) and about which nothing is yet known. “We are proposing that at all levels and institutions the structures that are in charge of communication have to be hierarchical at the highest level of direction, because communication is a strategic resource,” he says.

Polanco also addresses the transformation that awaits the media of the Island, and that, from his words, will follow more or less the arrival of advertising in the Cuban media, although the official omits the word and prefers to talk about the experience of giving “a greater capacity to reflect the reality of Cuba and also that those media be allowed to have income for their sustainability, which guarantees the creation of better technological capabilities to face this new digital ecosystem.”

He also mentions the changes in the selection of journalism students and the importance of being “better prepared from a professional point of view and also in values,” an issue that is not really new either, since ideological adherence has always prevailed in this university career and its working reality on the Island. continue reading

However, Polanco introduces this alleged battery of measures to deal with what he calls “hybrid war,” a concept already exploited by the ruling party for months and that he develops to exhaustion in the interview. In his opinion, the United States is using the entire network to discredit its “enemies” while exporting culture and capitalism as the only model to follow. In addition, it has the necessary technology, since the companies that manage the algorithm (in clear allusion to Google or Facebook) are on its side.

On the other hand, the discomfort generated by the terrible situation of the world economy in general and Cuba in particular — part of which is induced, he argues, by the blockade [American embargo] and its effects — is used to generate chaos and cause confrontation by the people with the Government. His recipe for fighting all this is as follows: “Take those weapons away from our enemy. Learn to master them and use them for our own goals. We have to master the use of those tools.”

The objective, he says, is to strengthen political preparation at all levels so that “the people increasingly understand and accompany the leadership of the Revolution in the process of development of our nation, socialist construction and confrontation with subversive actions.”

Polanco steps on delicate ground when he talks about emigration. The official recognizes that the number of young people who have left complicates the economic and demographic situation of the country, but affirms that Cubans are migrants like those of any country in the world, who return when they improve economically, even though reality denies it.

“Today, thousands of Cubans live outside Cuba, maintain a normal bond with their homeland and return systematically. Even many actively participate in solidarity actions with their country of origin. Let’s go to what social science and demographic analysts call a circular migration,” he argues after an extensive dissertation on exiles since the 1960s, alluding to the Cuban Adjustment Act and the visas agreed upon and not delivered by the Trump Administration.

In any case, and aware that Cubans are leaving — more than 300,000 to the United States alone in 2022 — he asks that the “personal and professional realization” of young people be stimulated “without denying, of course, that anyone who wishes to emigrate can do so because it is their right.” As he explains, the Cuban Government has created working groups that can “in the short term present some projections of those policies in the field of employment, improvement, housing and other facilities especially aimed at youth,” but the economic, employment and lack of infrastructure data threaten to make any plan useless, no matter how good.

A similar case occurs with some other of Cuba’s achievements that Polanco enunciates. The official speaks of “continuing to strengthen fundamental social conquests” and accurately cites everything that is now in a situation of shipwreck, from education, which is experiencing a full exodus of teachers and students who, if they stay, must resort to a private tutor; to health, in the midst of a crisis of shortage of doctors, supplies and medications; and even sports, following Cuba’s failure in the Caribbean Baseball Series. To reach the zenith, the official exalts the “high level of democratic participation and elevated popular control” that exists on the Island.

Polanco goes into the final stretch of the interview talking about working in networks to reach a youth that is increasingly seduced by new formats rather than by books, and he calls for “generating content to infinity and in a creative way” to compete in the message. “We have to manage to be appropriate in that format,” he summarizes, before ending by making a plea in defense of the emotional, in addition to the intellectual. “Che said that a revolutionary is motivated by great feelings of love. It’s love in all its expression, so we’re still in love.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Artist Michel Mirabal Takes the Immigration Issue to the Venice Biennale

Mirabal goes to the Venice Biennale solo for the first time. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 8 February 2023 — On Tuesday, Cuban plastic artist Michel Mirabal presented his exhibition project at the National Museum of Havana, on a very current theme: “migrations in the world.” He will attend the next Venice Architecture Biennial with this same project.

Mirabal, known as the painter of hands and flags, will display six large installations, six works of painting and two sculptures, in the rooms and the outdoor space of the Loredan palace, an 18th-century building located in front of the Grand Canal of the Italian city of canals.

The project of the exhibition “Architecture of a System” is based on Cuban emigration from all over the world, the artist explained to EFE.

“In recent years due to wars, the displaced have become a very strong phenomenon, and I wanted to draw attention to that. I also want it to be as raw and real as possible, without half measures,” he said.

Mirabal (b. 1974), considered one of the most important current plastic artists in Cuba, is more famous outside the Island than inside, which he says is his source of artistic inspiration, especially its problems. continue reading

In this exhibition, which is accompanied by the art video “Exoduses, causes and consequences,” Mirabal addresses an issue that also concerns his country, where there is “a brutal exodus, more than half a million people who are not there, including many friends, family and my eldest daughter. So I experience it very closely,” he says.

His return to Venice — the city that hosted him with a scholarship between 1999 and 2002 — will be, from May 16 to July 23, the first time he exhibits a solo show at the biennial.

After the exhibit, Mirabal plans a four-year journey through museums, galleries and foundations of countries in Europe, China and Israel, and he also will bring this exhibition to the National Museum of Fine Arts of the Cuban capital, produced by the Spanish company Art Logistics.

Nelson Herrera Ysla, an experienced Cuban art critic, is the curator of this project, which he described as “very complex,” especially because of the requirements of the old Loredan palace, which “has interiors that cannot be touched. This makes it very difficult to place works there.”

He says that at the entrance of the building there will be a metal sculpture made from vehicle exhaust pipes, and in the interior there will be scarecrows, white sheets hanging on barbed wire. There will also be a work that addresses the constant Cuban migration with a group of passports incorporated into paintings by the artist.

Herrera Ysla said that the video art, made by Alejandro Pérez with a soundtrack by composer and pianist Frank Fernández, brings “the image in motion and music” to the exhibition.

About what he expects from this project, Mirabal tells EFE: “I do what I like to do. I’m happy with the result of my work and my colleagues.”

His presence in this Biennial “can be a breakthrough, because I never had the opportunity to be at an event like this. All artists would love to be in Venice, and I think it’s going to be epic,” he says.

Born into a family of artists, Mirabal is a graduate of the School of Design. He studied painting at the renowned Academy of San Alejandro and began painting 20 years ago.

He has participated in more than 50 personal and collective exhibitions in Argentina, Canada, Cuba, China, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico, Panama and Portugal.

His works integrate collections of important cultural institutions and private exhibitions, including the Rockefeller museums; those of Fine Arts of Medellín and Bogotá, in Colombia; the Martin Luther King and Afro-American foundations of New York, and the collections of Gabriel García Márquez, Mohamed Alí, Donald Trump, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones and Carlos Santana, among others.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gang Assaults Bus in Ciego de Avila and Steals Luggage

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 2 February 2023 — Their modus operandi is always the same. After hiding in the bushes, the thieves wait for the bus to stop at the train tracks, jump out, open the baggage compartment and make off with some of the luggage. The railway crossing in the town of Quesada, in Ciego de Avila province, is a dangerous place for travelers and the problem is not a new one.

At about 7:10 Wednesday night, a Transtur bus was en route from Camaguey to Havana when assailants pounced on the bus after the driver had stopped at a railroad crossing. “There were about six of them. They were like ninjas,” read a Facebook post from Ridier Leyva Tamayo, one of the passengers whose luggage was stolen.

After watching what was happening from the window, Leyva got off the bus but was unable to recover his belongings. “I fell behind and they threw rocks at me. I had to go back,” he says. The police were called but officers refused to take action, arguing that they could not leave the vehicle unprotected.

The incident is almost a carbon copy of one that Claudia, a 23-year old resident of Camaguey, and her boyfriend experienced in July after they decided to visit family in Havana. “It was at night and the whole area was very dark,” she tells 14ymedio. “I remember I was in a window seat right above the baggage compartment when the bus stopped.”

Claudia observed four individuals with covered faces emerge from the bushes at the same railroad crossing in Quesada. “They moved quickly, like they had done it many times before. In a few seconds they opened the hatch and took out two large suitcases and a carrying case.” continue reading

“That was six months ago. If it’s still happening, it’s because [the police] haven’t assigned anyone to guard the area in spite of complaints,” she says. Though she was not among those who lost their belongings, she recalls that on the same Transtur bus there was a couple who were going to Havana to catch an overseas flight. “They lost all the luggage they were carrying for that trip,” she adds.

According to Claudia, the driver said this happens frequently. He tried keep the stop as short as possible but described how once he stopped very briefly only to later be pulled over by police and fined for it.

She believes the thieves are still operating the same way at the same location because, she says, “There are no repurcussions. The police are there for other reasons. They’re there to make sure that the driver is not selling milk on the black market, or that some farmer is not earning a little money selling his products on the side of the road, not to catch these criminals.”

Numerous individuals have left comments under Leyva Tamayo’s social media post, complaining about police misconduct. “I think inaction by the police is the reason crime keeps increasing. They’re not under any real pressure. I called them about a robbery and they showed up an hour later, after it was all over,” complains Onaldo Paján.

“What it is is robbery and no one is doing anything about. Every day it gets worse,” writes Maidelyn Cruz, who suggests avoiding travel at night. Not only do you have to be an artist to avoid all the potholes in Central Highway, she claims, but “the ’ninjas’ have gotten stronger.”

She refers to the thieves as ninjas because of their stealth and speed. They also frequently rob trains, stealing merchandise and passengers’ belongings from freight cars. “They have keys to everything. A locked door is no problem for them,” warns an employee of Ferrocarriles de Cuba, a man who has worked in the rail transportation sector for a quarter of a century.

“They look for interprovincial buses to attack at railroad crossings. They also watch us when we stop to switch train tracks or when we’re waiting for another train to go by. We have no life. They’re just as willing to steal cement as sugar. On passenger trains, people sleep with their briefcases strapped to their feet or arms.”

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In the Absence of Wheat, Artemisa Will Have a Cassava Flour Factory

Managers expect the cassava flour plant to start operations this month. (El Artemiseño)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2023 — The Ceiba Citrus Company, located in Caimito, Artemisa, has bet all its cards on the construction of a new cassava flour factory. However, despite the investment required by the plant, its managers cannot guarantee that the harvest of the tuber on the Island will live up to their expectations.

Alejandro Valdés, general director of the factory, told the provincial newspaper El Artemiseño that they are working “without rest” in the assembly of the machinery, with an initial production capacity of 440 to 2,645 pounds per day. In full operation, the manager said, the technology will allow obtaining one ton of flour for every two of fresh cassava.

The operation will require a stable supply of the tuber and, although the amount required for the premiere of the factory is assured, Ceiba does not have guarantees that the national production of cassava can keep up with it. Within a year, at least the planting of 740 acres will be required to maintain the industry, with a yield of between 16 and 20 tons per acre.

The machinery is a donation from the Sustainable Agriculture Support Project (PAAS), implemented with the support of the Swiss Development Agency and the Dutch NGO Hivos, dedicated to strengthening agricultural production on the Island. Valdés said that since June last year they have been “immersed” in the assembly, but acknowledged that there were delays because they did not have the “relevant capacity” to handle the technology, which has led to “variations throughout the process and has been a very useful learning process.” continue reading

The shortage of materials has made it difficult to meet the deadlines, added Orestes Leiva, administrator of the new industry, who expects the plant to be ready between February 15 and 20, if the entry of materials remains stable.

Valdés explained that the machines will cover the entire process, from the transport of the cassava to its cleaning in a tank where some blades will remove its skin. Then, it will be moved to a grinder and dried in an oven at about 400 degrees, in order to finally grind and pack the flour.

Cassava derivatives have served as an alternative to the scarcity and increase in the price of wheat and other cereals on the Island, mainly for the preparation of bread that is distributed in the ’normal family basket’ [through the rationing system]. Its high starch content makes it a healthy food. It’s also used by industries for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and can even be used to replace malt in beers.

However, its use in baking has not achieved popular acceptance, which points to breads made with a mixture of the tuber and wheat flour as less durable, with a darker dough and variations in flavor. For most consumers, the use of cassava for these purposes results in a lower quality food.

Sergio Rodríguez Morales, director of the National Institute of Tropical Food Research (Inivit) of the Ministry of Agriculture, told the official newspaper Granma that the cultivation of cassava has had several “significant advances” but insisted that it falls short in meeting the demand for human, animal and industrial consumption.

Currently, Cuba has about 111,000 cultivated hectares of cassava, the highest area in history, although the goal of the Ministry of Agriculture is to reach 494,210 acres in the “shortest possible period,” the technician said.

The article in Granma, published last November, refers to the fact that producers see more profitable income in the cassava with the sale of 220 pounds at 350 pesos. Raidel García, a farmer from Camajuaní, considers it a plant that is “irreplaceable in current times” because it is harvested throughout the year and survives without irrigation and application of fertilizers.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Loses its Way After Five Consecutive Losses and is Eliminated From the Caribbean Series

Another failure for Cuban baseball in the Caribbean Series after the Island was eliminated. (*Cubadebate*)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — Cuba is still without a compass in the 65th Caribbean Baseball Series “Gran Caracas 2023.” On Tuesday it suffered one more defeat against Puerto Rico (4-3), the fifth in a row, and was eliminated from the series that takes place in Venezuela. A single by Emmanuel Rivera to center field was enough for the Puerto Ricans to give a setback to the Island as a whole in the lower part of the ninth.

The three-run rally at the top of the second inning was useless. With singles by Yosvani Alarcón, Rafael Viñales, Carlos Benítez and Yordanis Alarcón, Cuba moved ahead 2-0. Thanks to another single by Yunieski Larduet, the Island was winning by 3-0.

In the fifth inning, Puerto Rico scored thanks to two runs after a single by Daniel Ortiz, a triple by Roberto Enríquez and another single by Bryan Torres. In the ninth inning, the triumph over Cuba took place.

Puerto Rico put the game “under protest.” Puerto Rico’s manager, Mako Oliveras, alleges that on the roster that Cuba delivered, the name of Andy Rodríguez appeared instead of Andy Vargas, although it seems that it was all a mistake. continue reading

“I am not happy about Cuba’s defeat but I knew it was going to happen, because Cuba’s performance has been embarrassing,” commented Swing Completo journalist Daniel de Malas.

There had to be four consecutive defeats of the Cuban team in the Caribbean Baseball Series, one of them 20-3 by the host Venezuela, before a pro-government news source like Cubadebate would accept that Cuba “should have been backed up with quality baseball players.”

The publication took place after the 5-4 stumble before Colombia. We must “bring no less than eight reinforcements to this club tournament; all countries go with the best,” the same medium published.

The game against Venezuela evidenced the shortcomings of a Cuban team that came to this event with confidence in its pitchers, although “they weren’t very high-profile, except César García and Leandro Martínez,” said manager Carlos Martí prior to the competition, with experience in these battles in 2017 and 2018. “We won with them in Cuba and we are going to fight here,” he proclaimed.

“You always have to be careful with the story,” journalist Francys Romero wrote on his social networks. He recalled that “Cuba’s teams in the Caribbean Series were full of stars between 1950 and 1960.”

The reporter regretted that “after six decades, these Cuban teams are drawn up to motivate a trip for a championship under the sun. They don’t even have reinforcements. It’s painful.”

The Island opened its participation in the current edition of the Caribbean Series with a triumph against Curaçao (3-1). And from there, defeats accompanied the team. The first was against the Dominican Republic (3-1) and then against Mexico (6-5). After the resounding defeat of Agricultores, the team that represents the Island in the Caribbean Series, against Los Leones de Caracas (20-3), Cuba was surpassed by Colombia (5-4), and this Tuesday by Puerto Rico (4-3).

Cuba had not suffered such an embarrassing stumble since February 8, 1977. On that occasion, the representative of the Dominican Republic (Tigres del Licey) connected with 23 hits in a Caribbean Series game, according to the statistical firm Quality Sports.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Cuban Who Pretended to be a Baseball Player and Scammed $6,600 in the Dominican Republic is Arrested

The Dominican Republic Police arrested Cuban Alejandro David Hernández Castro, accused of committing fraud in three shops. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2023 — The National Police of the Dominican Republic arrested Cuban Alejandro David Hernández Castro on Wednesday for defrauding businesses of 6,612 dollars (376,128 Dominican pesos). According to a report, the detainee, who posed as a baseball player, used a bottomless bank card in three establishments to pay for food and get a tattoo.

Upon learning of Hernández Castro’s arrest, the people who were scammed came to ratify the complaint. A Dominican woman, whose name was omitted, accused the detainee of “consuming food and drinks in the company of several people” in the restaurant located on Mustafá Kemal Street, in the Naco expansion. The bill was $940 (53,528.20 Dominican pesos), which he paid with a card issued in the United States.

According to the Dominican authorities, the card with which “apparently” Hernández Castro paid “is from a US financial institution in which the digital verifone (payment platform) approves payment, but the money never arrives in the account of the commercial establishment.”

The National Police said that the Department of Investigation of Crimes and High-Tech Offenses investigates this type of fraud.

Another accusation against the alleged 22-year-old baseball player was made by the owner of a nightclub. He said that Hernández Castro, in the company of several people, consumed different drinks during his stay in the club, and his bill amounted to 5,273 dollars (300,000 Dominican pesos). The scam was similar to that used at the restaurant. continue reading

A tattoo artist also identified Alejandro David as the person who entered his establishment in the Los Prados sector and presented himself as a baseball player who would be recruited by a Major League team. The alleged athlete asked him to tattoo an image on his back and ended up defrauding him of 400 dollars (22,600 Dominican pesos).

Hernández Castro was arrested while crossing 27 de Febrero Avenue at Abraham Lincoln, in the National District. At the time of the arrest he did not have any identification, and the police later found two false passports among his belongings.

It was also learned that the detainee entered illegally on a raft. The journey was from Haiti, so he was undocumented in the Dominican Republic.

The detainee is under the control of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Naco National District, for the corresponding legal purposes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Has Used Less Than 3 Percent of the Nine Million Abdala Vaccines Purchased from Cuba

In the Yucatan, 3,917 Covid vaccine doses were administered between January 9 and 31. (Twitter/@desdebalcon)

14ymedio, Mexico, February 7, 2023 — Since December 21, the health authorities in Mexico have applied only 262,540 doses of the Abdala vaccine to reinforce the coronavirus schedule. This amount represents less than 3% of the nine million doses Mexico bought from Cuba, despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet approved the emergency use of that vaccine, and there are no studies that certify it “as a booster” against COVID-19.

According to official data, 116,186 vaccines were administered in Mexico City between December 21, 2022 and January 26. This figure generates some suspicion, since the same Ministry of Health in the capital had reported on the 24th of last month the application of the vaccine to 84,515 people. In 48 hours, 31,671 residents of the capital were vaccinated.

According to information obtained from six state health centers and Mexico City, without specifying the number of people to whom the vaccine has been provided or the progress of the scheme, some figures were obtained on the application of Abdala.

The Secretary of Health in the state of Chihuahua, Felipe Sandoval Magallanes, confirmed that of 180,000 doses of Abdala, “only 10,000 doses have been given ” and admitted that it has had little acceptance in the population, so he asked that he be “given the benefit of the doubt.” continue reading

The Cuban vaccine was a failure on immunization day in the Yucatán. There was little demand, and between January 9 and 31, only 3,917 people were interested in receiving the dose.

A similar case occurred in the state of Oaxaca. Almost a month after the start of the day of boosters against COVID-19, this newspaper confirmed that as of last February 3, only 27,811 of the 139,300 vaccines they received from the Mexican Government had been used.

In Baja California, 40,000 units of the Cuban vaccine have been supplied since its delivery in December last year, and 104,600 doses arrived in this state. In Veracruz, only 30,000 biological products from the Island have been injected.

The purchase by Mexico of nine million doses from the Government of Cuba has generated distrust among the population and has been questioned by Mexican specialists.

“Abdala contains aluminum hydroxide as an adjuvant, which is not done for other vaccines against covid-19, since it decreases their effectiveness,” said the infectologist and 2020 National Health Award winner, Francisco Moreno Sánchez.

Health consultant Xavier Tello told the Latinus portal that, given the new variants of the coronavirus, “the recommendation is to use bivalent vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna.” He questioned the use of Abdala, which was acquired by Mexico to reinforce the regimen against SARS-CoV-2: “How do you use a vaccine that no longer works as a booster?”

Meanwhile, other vaccines (based on messenger RNA) have used the complete spike protein (S), which induces defenses in areas where there are mutations. The American Chemical Society warned at the end of 2021 of the possibility that vaccines based on the S protein (Pfizer or Moderna) could fall short if the strategy was not diversified. Since then, pharmaceutical companies have been studying the situation and the possibility of improvements.

Tello told the same media that “Cofepris [Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks] made the decision that this vaccine be approved for emergency use in Mexico as a primary vaccination, which means that a person who is not vaccinated is the one who receives that dose.” He insisted that “there is still no approval” for the use of Abdala “as a booster.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Alert in Cuba to the Presence of Avian Influenza and the Risk for Breeding Birds

“The virus was detected in wild birds at the Havana Zoo,” reports Cenasa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — The National Animal Health Center (Cenasa) has released a brief note in which it officially declares, before the World Organization for Animal Health (WHOA), the presence of avian influenza in Cuba.

The entity, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, reported that “the virus was detected in wild birds of the Zoological Garden of Havana, located on Avenida 26, municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.”

Cenasa assured that “the corresponding health measures have been implemented to contain the virus, such as quarantine and the temporary closure of the Zoo,” in addition to keeping the population “informed about the evolution of this event.”

Health authorities recommend immediately informing the official veterinary service of any locality if an increase in the mortality of farmed or wild birds is perceived.

Last December, Cenasa had already warned about the possible appearance of viral infection on the Island and clarified that “since 2021 the animal health situation is quite complex due to the appearance of multiple outbreaks around the world.” Faced with this, he advised extreme surveillance mechanisms to prevent it from reaching the country, although he considered the threat as serious. continue reading

Among Cenasa’s recommendations were avoiding the contact of wild birds with poultry breeding, implementing extreme biosecurity measures in poultry facilities and prohibiting the transfer of sick birds. The institution also advised hunters not to take captured birds home and to disinfect everything used in their capture.

The World Health Organization then warned that some subtypes of the virus (H5 and H7) of type A can be highly pathogenic and cause serious disease in birds that can spread quickly, resulting in high mortality rates in different species.

Although it’s uncommon, certain strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza have the ability to infect humans, representing a threat to public health. The main risk factor is direct or indirect contact with infected animals or with environments and surfaces contaminated by feces.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Embarks on a Crusade to ‘Rectify’ its Diminished Coffee Production

The provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma produce 90% of national coffee, according to the official press. (Venceremos)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 February 2023 — Cuba is on a crusade to increase the productivity of its coffee with the renovation of 316,295 acres, of which 67% will be for the cultivation of Robusta, a bean that has less demand in specialized markets and that is bought at a lower price than the soft and sweet Arabica. However, even the Cuban aromatic cannot compete with its Caribbean peers with a production that has been reduced by more than half in the last 30 years.

Felipe Martínez Suárez, director of the Agroforestry Experimental Station, located in the mountainous municipality of Tercer Frente, in Santiago de Cuba, explained to the official newspaper Granma that a team of researchers is working on the recovery of 46,950 acres of Robusta and another 22,240 acres of Arabica. The official explained that it is not about new crops, but about “rectifying the coffee” with the pruning of young branches, changing the canopies and reseeding only when necessary.

The projection is optimistic, he added, and he plans to obtain 25,600 tons of coffee with these measures, two tons for each acre cultivated in the province, which has the highest production nationwide. “We have four years to do all that; otherwise we will not have the amount needed in the country by 2030,” he said.

Coffee activity is mainly carried out in nine provinces: Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Granma represent 90% of national production; in the central region. Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara contribute 7%; and in the west, Artemisa and Pinar de Río provide the remaining 3%. continue reading

Martínez Suárez explained that the coffee development program does not seek to expand the cultivation areas, but to increase yields and improve the infrastructure that currently allows four tons per hectare of Robusta coffee and 2.79 tons of Arabica. “Innovations” such as the use of biotechnology are also required, preventing the planting of new beans and grafts in the field.

Cuba recorded its best harvest in 1961, when it reached 60,330 tons of gold coffee, but since then production has been decreasing, to the point that in the 1970s and 1980s it was reduced by almost two-thirds and placed at 21,863 tons. The decline of the sector continued in the 90s and the 21st century, and by 2021 it barely reached 8,900 tons.

With this production, the Island falls below its peers in the Caribbean. According to the International Coffee Organization (OIC), Cuba obtained 130,000 sacks of coffee (of 132 pounds) in the 2019/2020 harvest while producers in the Dominican Republic reported 402,000 sacks and Haiti, a country with great problems of food insecurity, produced 347,000 sacks.

The production of the Cuban aromatic of the 2019/20 cycle was the highest since the 2008/2009 harvest, when 133,000 sacks were produced. The result, however, is 3.1 times lower compared to the 414,000 sacks obtained in the 1990/1991 cycle, the last year available in the OIC database.

In other words, Cuban coffee production has fallen by 68.5% in the last three decades.

Martínez Suárez acknowledged that the harvest is insufficient to meet domestic demand, and a “million-dollar amount” is allocated for import, so, he promised, “significant volumes” will be allocated from the new production for social consumption and distribution in freely convertible currency stores.

According to their projections, 14,000 tons of the bean will be for the regulated (rationed) consumption of Cuban families, 5,000 for export and 2,000 tons for the cafes of the gastronomic network.

These results are conditional on the sector being able to obtain agricultural inputs to nourish plants, such as biostimulant and fertilizers, the official added. “While they do not reach all the required volume, growth will be more effective with cultural attention,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For ‘Health Reasons’ Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara Suspends His Hunger Strike

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2023 — Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who is imprisoned in the maximum security prison of Guanajay (Artemisa), informed the curator Claudia Genlui that “for health reasons” he decided to suspend the hunger strike that he had been on for nine days to demand his freedom.

The information was shared by the curator through the Facebook account with the name of the founding artist of the San Isidro Movement (MSI). In the publication, it is made known that this strike that began on February 1, is the fifth that he has taken on as an “exercise of protest and act of desperation in the face of the arbitrary acts, blackmail and limitations with which the Cuban State Security tries to torture him.”

The activist denounced that the regime’s threats against Otero Alcántara have been constant and on several occasions the Government has informed her that “he will not leave prison nor will he be treated as a common prisoner” and all for the fact of thinking and being consistent with his ideas of freedom

The MSI leader told Genlui that “his situation inside the prison is more rigorous and unfair,” and that the treatment he receives is the one that “is given to a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment.” Although he acknowledged that he is exhausted, “his mind and body try to resist.” He knows that it is important to stay alive, “because this is not over. Cuba will be free and he will be there to see it,” adds the curator.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara “is in critical condition and has lost vision in one eye,” denounced the Cuban lawyer Faisel Iglesias, based in Puerto Rico , through a live broadcast. In Cuba “there are no procedural guarantees” and that for this reason Otero Alcántara “is in jail without the due process of law having been complied with,” said the defender, noting that the artist did nothing more than “express himself freely.” continue reading

The lawyer lamented that on the Island “no one can be guaranteed due process because for it to exist there must be a Constitution legitimately endorsed by the citizens in a free State, without pressure, without any coercion.” Iglesias commented that in Cuba “no vote is free, everyone is coerced by pressure from the party by pressure from the State.”

He asked to echo the injustice that Otero Alcántara lives through and to mobilize the Cubans who are in Miami and those who meet at the Versailles restaurant in that city. “Hold demonstrations in front of the different consulates of the countries that have diplomatic relations with Cuba, at the consulate of Spain, at the consulate of the Dominican Republic. Please, demand and advocate for the freedom and health of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.”

For her part, Genlui warned last Tuesday that the artist “could barely speak.” And she denounced State Security for “ignoring once again” the striker status of the leader of the San Isidro Movement. “It is the responsibility of the dictatorship, whatever happens to Luis Manuel.”

Last June, the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic released a statement from the Popular Municipal Court of Centro Habana in which it was reported that the sentence for Otero Alcántara was five years in prison for the crimes of outrage against the symbols of the homeland, contempt and public disorder.

The artist has been in jail since July 11, 2021, when he was arrested before being able to join the spontaneous anti-government protests that took place that day throughout the Island.

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Cuban Activists Denounce ‘Political Violence’ in a Letter to Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez

Her visit represents an “invaluable opportunity” to “strengthen the ties of friendship” in “the new era of political relations” between the two countries, Márquez said. (Cubadebate)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 9 February 2023 — The Citizens Committee for Racial Intergration (CIR) denounced the “political violence” against independent activists in a letter directed to the vice president of Colombia, Francia Márque, who began a visit to Cuba this Thursday.

“A considerable part of the activists today deprived of liberty are women and Afro-descendants, marked by political violence,” said the letter published on the committee’s social networks.

The anti-racist organization also recognized the “high commitment in the defense of human rights” of Marqué, who serves in the Government of Colombian president Gustavo Petro.

“We appeal to your social sensitivity and your high commitment to the defense of human rights, and to the eradication of structural inequalities, in order to convey our concerns to the Cuban authorities,” the CIR indicated.

“Here, like you in our sister nation (Colombia), we risk our lives every day, until dignity becomes customary, for the common good,” they added.

Márquez traveled to Cuba this Thursday to inaugurate the Havana International Book Fair, dedicated this year to Colombia.

Her visit represents an “invaluable opportunity” to “strengthen the ties of friendship” in “the new era of political relations” between the two countries, the Colombian Vice Presidency explained in a statement.

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The United States has Repatriated 5,576 Cuban Rafters in More Than Three Months

The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 16 Cubans on Tuesday. The photo shows one of the patrol boats on the high seas. (Twitter/USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 8 February 2023 — The first week of January, Landry González and 16 other Cubans landed in Florida. The American dream that he thought he had achieved still seems far away. According to Voice of America (VOA), they did not give him a chance for a credible-fear interview; they gave him a release order that establishes conditions such as attending hearings in the immigration court.

“I was unlucky to be given the I-220A,” lamented this 38-year-old Cuban. “Three friends who arrived a year ago received parole, and my brother, who arrived in 2016, received all the benefits,” he told VOA.

Since the beginning of the year, the rafters who manage to land are being given an expedited deportation order, the verdict issued by a judge for the expulsion of a person but which can be reversed with legal advice. This order has an expiration period of 60 days. Hence, many Cubans do not know if they will really be deported or if they will be able to opt for another solution, because this period of time has not yet expired for them.

On form I-220A, Immigration lawyer Rosaly Chaviano explained that people “can apply for asylum and try to prove a case of credible fear, but their asylum will be pending, and they will have to renew their work permit every two years until they eventually have an interview date, if they are approved.”

The United States has reiterated since the end of last year that any rafter who is arrested on his journey will be returned to his country of origin. In mid-January, the Secretary of National Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, insisted: “Cubans and Haitians who go to sea and disembark in the United States will not be eligible for the parole process and will be subjected to deportation procedures.” continue reading

We flew along with the Coast Guard on one of their life saving missions as they searched for migrants in distress in the Florida Straits@USCGSoutheast @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/upHKoU4lgR — Cristian Benavides (@cbenavidesTV) February 8, 2023

On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 16 Cubans aboard the Issac Mayo ship. According to official figures, since October 1, 2022, the US authorities have thwarted the crossing of 5,576 rafters.

The agency stressed that the “ships that patrol the Florida Straits, the Windward Steps and Mona, prevented more than 100 rafters” from disembarking in the United States between January 27 and February 3. This Wednesday the Coast Guard shared a video of the overflights that are carried out to locate migrants on the high seas.

Some of these attempts by Cubans to reach the United States have ended in the Bahamas, the Royal Defense Force reported last Thursday.

We flew along with the Coast Guard on one of their life saving missions as they searched for migrants in distress in the Florida Straits@USCGSoutheast @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/upHKoU4lgR

— Cristian Benavides (@cbenavidesTV) February 8, 2023

According to official data, 59 Cubans have been detained in the Bahamas so far. On Tuesday, the Telemundo journalist, Jany Gonzalez, shared on her social networks that 31 of these people who left the Island on December 31 on a raft have already been presented to the Court and are waiting to be deported.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported on Tuesday that the number of arrests of migrants trying to cross the southern border of the United States irregularly reached its lowest point in two years in January.

The authorities attribute this decrease to the extension, at the beginning of January, of Title 42, a controversial health regulation, to allow the “hot” expulsions of Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants.

As of January 31, the arrests of people of these three nationalities, along with Venezuelans, who have been subject to Title 42 since October, decreased to an average of 95 per day, a drop of 95% compared to the 1,231 daily arrests that were reported at the beginning of the month, a DHS official said.

“In January we saw the lowest number of arrests by the Border Patrol since February 2021,” the official said.

The use of Title 42 by Joe Biden’s government has been widely criticized by human rights organizations and even by some members of the Democratic Party.

“On the ground, at the border, it’s very clear that many people of those four nationalities wait on the Mexican side and desperately try to get an appointment for requesting asylum with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which cannot meet the demand,” Yael Schacher, director for the International Rescue Committee, told EFE.

Many people, in her opinion, are in danger or struggling and are willing to risk crossing the border instead of surrendering, as they would have done before being subject to Title 42.

At the end of January, a group of 80 Democratic congressmen, led by Senator Robert Menéndez, asked to reverse the decision to expel people from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti who cross the border with Mexico. “Title 42 is a mockery of national and international law.”

The Biden government has defended itself from criticism, insisting that it must continue to implement that program by order of the Supreme Court, which in December accepted a request from about twenty states governed by Republicans and determined that Title 42 should remain active.

In addition to the expansion of the regulations, which restrict access to asylum at the border, the Government plans to impose a five-year ban on entry into the United States on people who cross the border irregularly.

The regulations, inherited from the mandate of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), have allowed more than 2.5 million arrests since it came into force in 2020, according to data from the International Rescue Committee.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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