Cuba’s Unusual Procession of Little Pioneers With the Silver Maces of the Old Cabildo of Havana

Children dressed as Pioneers with the maces of the old Cabildo of Havana, from the 17th century. (Tribuna de La Habana)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, November 16, 2022 — A strange mixture of rites, which have become commonplace in recent years, came together on Tuesday night at the ceremony held at the founding site of Havana, the Ceiba de El Templete, on the eve of its 503rd anniversary.

It was attended by the highest authorities of civil power, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, first Secretary of the Party in the capital, and Reinaldo García Zapata, governor of the city, but also those of the church. Specifically, Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, archbishop of Havana, from whom “the people received a blessing” and who accompanied a procession through the streets surrounding the Plaza de Armas.

However, the most surprising image of the evening — in addition to being extremely worrying if it’s confirmed that the maces are the original pieces — was that of two children, dressed in white shirts and red scarves, the uniform of the Pioneers, holding the maces of the old Havana Cabildo. Made of silver in 1631, they are, according to Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring in his book Havana. Historical Notes, “the oldest works of art in Cuba.”

Both valuables objects are in the custody of the Office of the Historian, founded by Roig and administered until 2020 by the late Eusebio Leal, and they are stored in the former Palace of the Captains General, today the City Museum. It’s not the first time they have been taken out of safekeeping for the same ceremony. continue reading

The official press echos “an emotional letter calling for the conservation of historical heritage,” “warm and simple words” that, says Tribuna de La Habana, “sixth-grade pioneer Laura Hernández García, from Camilo Cienfuegos Primary School, read” at the ceremony.

The ceremony ended, the official press reports, with the song Razo a la Ceiba by Leo Vera, and a concert on the esplanade of El Templete.

Beyond the unease caused by seeing the little Pioneers, ignorant of the historic value of what they carried in their hands, no one is surprised that the celebration of the foundation of the capital mixes ideology and religion.

In 2019, the Cuban regime paid tribute to the priest Guillermo Isaías Sardiñas Menéndez, known as Father Sardiñas, on the 55th anniversary of his death.

Nicknamed the “father of the olive green cassock,” the official press has frequently praised “the coherence between his religious faith and his conviction as a patriot and revolutionary,” although in the historiography of the Catholic Church the mentions of his actions have been more discreet.

But the intersections have not only been between Cuban communist ideology and Catholicism. In 2008, fifty santeros officiated a ritual with drums and animal sacrifices to wish “long life” to Fidel Castro on the day of his 82nd birthday, then convalescing from an intestinal disease.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cuba’s Prime Minister Criticizes ‘Obsolete Mentalities Against Foreign Capital’

Three Cuban ministers witnessed the inauguration of the Mexican pavilion at FIHAV [the Havana International Fair] 2022. (EFE)
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 16 November 2022 — For a second time in a week, the Cuban Government felt the need to affirm that it will fulfill its international commitments and will settle “the delays that exist in the transfers with the exterior.” That is, “from the possibilities of the country,” said the Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, upon inaugurating the Forum on Investments and Presentation on Foreign Investment. A few days earlier and with the same emphasis, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, said the same thing on Cuban Television.

“These are hard years, but we have the conditions and confidence in the country’s ability to anticipate difficulties,” said the prime minister, who assured — no one knows who’s responsible — that the authorities are fighting against “the obsolete mentalities that exist against foreign capital.”

This start explains the data they provided below. Displayed triumphantly, the numbers fall short if compared to expectations. Malmierca explained that between January and October 30th, businesses with foreign capital worth 402 million dollars have been authorized on the Island. Of these, two are located in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) and 13 are hotel administration and marketing contracts.

In 2013, when the ZEDM was inaugurated, it was estimated that it would attract 2.5 billion dollars annually, which gives an idea of the shipwreck.

In 2021, 2.736 billion dollars had been raised in the eight years since its opening, compared to the 20 billion that should have been achieved according to projections. The minister presented yesterday the current balance sheet of foreign Investment: 272 new businesses outside the ZEDM and 51 within, of which 104 are joint ventures, 161 are international economic association contracts and 56 are totally foreign capital. In addition, 15 are in the process of liquidation. continue reading

The failure is evident, and the holder of the portfolio during all this time has been Malmierca himself, who took office in 2009, but the closest thing to self-criticism he pronounced yesterday was: “We have to articulate foreign investment with the Development Strategy, promote new business opportunities and eliminate obstacles,” from which it follows that he sees options for improvement.

The only novelty he announced, however, was the possibility of offering a special taxation regimen and guarantees for renewable energy sources, in addition to opportunities in distributed generation (renewable energies) and new compensation mechanisms.

For the rest, the usual. The minister said that there are “advanced negotiations in more than 50 new projects, with an amount equivalent to 9 billion dollars,” of which we will have to see when they end up being realized, if they are done. There were also no surprises in the sectors of most investment: tourism, food, transport, professional services, trade, construction, industries, energy, biotechnology, health, information technology and mining.

Malmierca also spoke about the progress of the “Foreign Commerce Single Window System*,” which works in most countries although it has been implemented in Cuba for only a year. Between January and September of 2022, more than 204 applications have been processed, and, since the system has existed, cooperation agreements have been signed with more than 15 entities, and 66 interests have been attended to, 27 of them with proposals under negotiation, including those of Cubans residing abroad.

The minister reviewed the most recently approved rules that, in his opinion, improve foreign investment, although the results for the moment are what they are. “The objective is to develop foreign investment businesses in wholesale and retail trade to capture financial resources, expand access to supply markets and obtain advanced management methods, technology and marketing techniques in order to achieve a stable supply of goods and improve the efficiency of trade in Cuba,” he added.

The event presented the new portfolio of opportunities, which includes 708 projects, 30 more than in 2021. There are 101 new ones, including three in the ZEDM, 71 of those that had previously disappeared and 229 that were modified, especially as they affect the business category, the total investment and the description.

Among the novelties, the minister highlighted four projects in the financial banking sector, eight in wholesale and retail trade and 11 “business opportunities” with the private entities presented by local governments. More data: 197 of the proposals are from the food sector, especially in agricultural production, the food industry and the sugar industry.

The FIHAV, meanwhile, continued on a day in which the state press — along with the foreign press, the only press authorized to enter the enclosure — highlighted the presence of more “friendly” countries: Venezuela — more “brother” in this case — and Mexico.

The presence of 63 Venezuelan companies with exportable offers “represents a sample of the unwavering brotherhood between Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” said the Venezuelan Minister for National Trade. The sectors with the greatest presence are agro-industrial, construction, food, beverage, culture, wood, industrial, multisectoral, chemical, services, textile, promotion agencies, government, air, marketing and telecommunications.

As for Mexico, three ministers visited its pavilion this Tuesday: Rodrigo Malmierca, Juan Carlos García Granda of Tourism, and Eloy Álvarez of Industries. “President López Obrador has expressed very clearly that we don’t need to talk so much, we have to do things directly, and he has demonstrated this in all the steps we have been taking,” Malmierca said.

In addition, the Mexican ambassador, Miguel Díaz Reynoso, told the press that “the political, diplomatic climate, the context of broad collaboration and the personal affection between Mexico and Cuba favors” an increase in the country’s investments, which participates with 40 companies in the agro-industry, construction, maritime logistics, information technologies, tourism and textile sectors.

One of them, the Publishuttle Marketing Company, signed contracts with two Cuban naval supply and boat charter companies during the event.

“The change has been seen (in the policy towards foreign companies in Cuba), and there is a lot of support from the Embassy. It has been a good experience,” José Francisco Padrón, CEO of Publishuttle, told EFE.

The press agency highlights the treatment given to Mexico compared to the one given to Spain, Cuba’s second commercial partner. It had one of the largest delegations at the event, but the Spanish entrepreneurs were not visited by any senior official, although the press took a multitude of photographs, especially of the coffee makers and pots and pans of the well-known Magefesa brand.

The country brought 80 companies, fewer than the 110 at the last FIHAV, held in 2019.

“We want a prosperous Cuba, a Cuba in which the economy works, and after covid (…) the situation is not easy, but Spanish entrepreneurs are here,” said Ambassador Ángel Martín Peccis.

*Translator’s note: National Single Window systems allow traders to submit all import, export, and transit information required by regulatory agencies via a single electronic gateway, instead of submitting and processing the same information numerous times to different government entities, including some that are automated and others that still rely heavily on paper. (Source: World Bank)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

With Rented Ration Cards, the ‘Coleros’* of Luyano, Cuba, Gain Power Once Again

Residents of Luyanó complaining that authorities have turned a blind eye to irregularities between employees and ‘coleros’.* (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, 13 November 2022 — Peace did not last long in the store on Melones street in Luyanó, Havana, where following the death of an elderly man on November 1st, a network of corruption between employees and coleros* was uncovered.

The employees, according to residents of the area, had a team of 15 people who were allowed to purchase what they wanted and would bring the employees lunch, coffee, sodas and snacks. Following the scandal, new agents from a group to “fight against coleros*” (LCC — for lucha contra coleros) were sent to the establishment, and on the first day at least they made it clear, with a sermon to the masses, that they were “impenetrable” to corruption, and that people should abstain from trying to bribe them with handouts.

“Due to the blow up, at the end of last week, coleros were not visible near the store, but by Tuesday they began to emerge from their caves,” says María, who for months has endured the shortages and corrupt practices on Melones street. “That day, we began to see the ‘scams’ again,” she said. “The same people as always” took the first 20 spots and people who were there since the early hours of the morning began to complain. Without success: “When the LCC begin to collect the ration cards, the coleros act tough. Most of those standing in line don’t say anything because they are older people who do not want to confront that type of element.”

To top it off, they nearly had to mourn another life: an elderly woman fainted in the middle of the crowd and had to be cared for by a doctor. “At least they gave both of them the opportunity to shop before their turn.”

Another day, when sausages were for sale, people rose up when they were informed that there were only a total of 50 units to be sold. Neighbors say that someone called the authorities, that one police officer “was disrespectful to a young man,” and that both “ended up tangled in punches.” continue reading

María cannot understand how just a week after the operation the authorities once again turn a blind eye to the “irregularities.” “How is it possible, if the law says that you may only buy for your household, and you must have the ID card for that household, and they are buying at all hours and everyone knows them.”

Area residents infer that the coleros operate with what they call “rented ration cards”– someone gives them their ration card, and then they stand in line for that person in exchange for half the products; that way, the ration card holder is guaranteed at least the other half.**

In the “mincemeat” line, a lieutenant had to come and help organize it along with one of the new LCC members and one of the residents complained about the situation with the intimidating hoarders, “And you guys are scared, what are you scared of? Get them out of here, don’t let them in!” recounted María. “People said, Well, if they are the police and don’t get involved and they know the people who are skipping the line, how could they be sending elderly people to confront them?”

“Tremendous snitching, that is what is going on here!” said María who yelled at one of those “elements” whom everyone knows.

At another point, she narrates, an official arrived, “someone from the government who arrived in one of those motorcycles, went into the store for a while and later they all came out laughing.” It seems, says María sarcastically, that “the impenetrables have already been penetrated.”

Although they don’t say it out loud, says the woman, everyone in the neighborhood understands clearly. “Everyone leaves displeased saying, ‘How could this be?’ that it’s always the same, people feel insulted,” says a nurse who after her shift was trying to get some hot dogs. “In the end, the situation is taking on the same tone as with the other group.”

On Friday, one of the three days of the week when chicken “arrives,” it was chaos once again in the line at the store on Melones, and once again, the police had to restore order. Again this week, María is unable to buy her little package of chicken: “What’s the point of changing the team, the corruption problem will be the same with the LCC.”

Translator’s notes:

*”Coleros” — from the Cuban word for line, ’cola’ (literally ’tail’) — are people who make a little money by standing in line for others, who pay them ’under the table’ (called ’on the left’ in Cuba). The practice is widespread, and illegal.

** Lines in Cuba can be hours and even multiple days long, which is why the ’coleros’ play an important role for those who pay them.

Translated by: Silvia Suarez

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

16.537 Pesos für ein einfaches, in Kuba hergestelltes Mobiltelefon

Das kubanische Mobiltelefon GDM-MB10 wird mit einem Android-Betriebssystem ausgestattet sein. (Gedeme)

Note to our English language readers: As an experiment, TranslatingCuba is going to post other language translations in among the English language articles. Should there be enough translations to warrant it, we will create a new site for a new language.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havanna, 15. September 2022 — Ab nächsten Montag können Kubaner ein von der Computerfirma Gedeme entwickeltes Mobiltelefon kaufen. Das Gerät mit der Bezeichnung GDM-MB10 wird am 19. September in den Handel kommen zu einem Preis von 16.537,50 Pesos, der online über die Plattform EnZona bezahlt werden muss.

Das Mobiltelefon wird ein sechs Zoll großes, hochauflösendes Display, eine Speicherkapazität von 32 Gigabyte und 3 Gigabyte RAM haben. Als Betriebssystem kommt Android 10 zum Einsatz und es wird über zwei SIM-Kartensteckplätze verfügen. Der Akku hat eine Kapazität von 3.200 Milliampere pro Stunde, die Frontkamera löst mit 5 Megapixeln auf und die Rückkamera mit 8 Megapixeln.

Im Mai 2021 brachte Gedeme eine Mustermenge von 6.000 Stück in Umlauf, um den Prototyp zu testen, an dem sie sechs Jahre lang gearbeitet hatten. Ursprünglich sollte das Telefon mit einem eigenen, an der Universität für Computerwissenschaften (UCI) entwickelten Betriebssystem laufen, doch schließlich wurde Android 10 installiert. continue reading

Die Zeitung Juventud Rebelde verkündete damals den “Erfolg”, den sie einer “auf die Bedingungen unseres Landes zugeschnittenen Architektur mit Software und Systemen, die von nationalen Institutionen entwickelt wurden”, zuschrieb – ein Versprechen, das Gedeme letztlich nicht halten konnte.

Zum damaligen Zeitpunkt kündigte das Unternehmen drei Modelle an: das GDM-T22, das GDM-N23 und das GDM-A21L mit sehr bescheidenen Merkmalen, die bei Technikern und Enthusiasten eine Flut von Spott und Kritik auslösten.

Seit der Ankündigung des Verkaufs im Jahr 2021 wurden zahlreiche Zweifel geäußert, nicht nur an der Qualität der Telefone, sondern auch an der Währung, in der sie verkauft werden sollen. “Das sind chinesische Handys, die in Kuba zusammengebaut werden”, schimpfte ein Kommentator, während andere forderten, sie zu “erschwinglichen Preisen” zu verkaufen, “die für die gesamte Bevölkerung zugänglich sind”.

In der Zeitschrift Trabajadores, die ebenfalls auf die Nachricht einging, forderte ein Nutzer, dass man Studenten und Professoren, die während der Pandemie von zu Hause aus arbeiten müssen, “den Einkauf erleichtern müsse, da die Kauf- und Zahlungsmechanismen nicht denen entsprechen, die derzeit von Etecsa und den MLC-Shops verwendet werden”.

Obwohl die Nachricht in den sozialen Netzwerken des Unternehmens kaum Auswirkungen hatte, haben mehrere Nutzer bereits darauf hingewiesen, dass der Preis des Mobiltelefons, das am kommenden Montag auf den Markt kommen wird, nicht seinen Funktionen entspricht. Es sei weder ein High-End-Handy noch habe es ein eigenes Betriebssystem.

Auch die Tatsache, dass in einer Zeit extremer staatlicher Überwachung ein Telefon verkauft wird, das von einem staatlichen Technologieunternehmen zusammengestellt und bearbeitet wurde, lässt durchaus Verdacht aufkommen. Willkürliche Internetsperren und die Verwendung vertraulicher Telefondaten, die Etecsa der Staatssicherheit bei Gerichtsverfahren zur Verfügung gestellt hat, sind einige der Argumente die gegen das GDM-MB10-Telefon sprechen.

“Das muss natürlich mit all den Spionage-Gadgets zusammenhängen, “, scherzte ein junger Informatiker am Donnerstag, als er von dem bevorstehenden Angebot erfuhr, und empfahl mit Nachdruck: “Niemand, der etwas zu verbergen hat, sollte eines dieser Telefone kaufen.

Übersetzt von Andreas B. Lindner

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

The US Border Patrol Takes 256 Cuban Rafters into Custody in Two Days

Arrival in Florida of a boat with 21 Cuban balseros [rafters]. (Yandy’s Lawn Maintenance/Facebook/Screen capture)
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2022 — On Tuesday, the US Border Patrol took into custody 150 Cuban balseros [rafters] who had managed to disembark in the United States. According to the chief officer of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, these people are the ones who in the last two days managed to “touch land on remote islands outside the Florida Keys.”

Slosar shared on his social networks a video in which Island nationals are seen being taken to migration stations where they are given the opportunity to demonstrate “credible fear.” If they convince the judge, they can pay bail and apply for asylum. In the best case, they are released and given a document that legalizes their entry into the country.

On Tuesday morning, a raft with the inscriptions Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] and Ok arrived at Smathers beach, located south of Key West. The agents found 21 migrants from Havana. “The investigation is underway,” Slosar said.

The Facebook user identified as Yandy Katie shared on his account the video of another arrival of a boat, also with 21 nationals from the Island, among whom were three women and 18 men, who, after touching the ground, ran away: “Don’t worry, you’re already here,” one of the witnesses is heard saying. continue reading

The exodus of balseros continues to increase this month. On Monday, Slosar documented that 85 other balseros, including 10 minors, were placed in custody after disembarking last weekend in various parts of Florida.

These arrivals of balseros were announced on the same day that the Governments of Cuba and the United States held a second meeting in Havana to address the migration issue. According to a statement from the US embassy on the Island, “problems that have been obstacles to meeting the objectives of the agreements” were identified.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard repatriated 91 Cubans on board the ship Richard Etheridge on Monday. The Lieutenant of District Seven, E’bria Karega, urged the balseros to “reconsider their decision before going to sea, since sometimes it is very dangerous.”

Since October 1, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 1,920 Cubans. Through its social networks, the institution pointed out that last Monday they prevented three other rafts from continuing their journey to Florida.

According to official figures, so far in November, 318 Cubans in five groups have been repatriated. District Seven non-commissioned officer Nicole Groll detailed that eight migrants have died this month in their attempt to reach the United States illegally.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

October Rains Don’t Alleviate the Critical Situation of Cuba’s Reservoirs

Faustino Pérez Reservoir, in Guantánamo. (Granma)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 15 November 2022 — The reservoirs of Guantánamo province are in a critical situation. According to an article in the official newspaper Venceremos, in all they accumulate 29,851,442 million gallons of the 88,233,466 their million capacity; that is, they are only filled at 33%.

According to the article, more than 76,000 people are at risk of drought, “due to the partial or total depletion of 32 sources of supply in the municipalities of El Salvador, Imías, Maisí, San Antonio del Sur, Guantánamo, Manuel Tames and Niceto Pérez.”

The increase in rainfall since last month, says José Antonio Reyes, an official of the Hydraulic Utilization Company, is hardly a relief. The “more than 3,698,409 million gallons” that fell, says the provincial newspaper, is “a welcome but insufficient figure,” which does not fill “even half” of the storage capacity.

The information details that the reservoir that received the most water was that of Jaibo (1,585,032 gallons), but that this was “in part due to the total restriction of its deliveries,” followed by Faustino Pérez (1,056,688), which supplies the city of Guantánamo, with 203 gallons per second.

The La Yaya reservoir, continues Venceremos, only gained two million gallons, with a capacity of 160 million, and is at 32% capacity. This dam supplies the agricultural areas of Guantánamo, Niceto Pérez and Caimanera.

In any case, the official press blames the situation on the fact that “the rainfall maintains irregularities,” which “have benefited above all the upper areas of the municipalities and not to the same extent the receiving basins that contribute to the reservoirs.”

The easternmost of the provinces is the one with the most problems of drought and desertification. That, together with the strong emigration to the western part of the Island, has extended the saying that “Guantánamo is a desert.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cuban Rower, Taekwondo Martial Artist and Baseball Player Escape in Mexico

With the escape of these athletes, there are now 49 Cubans who have abandoned their teams abroad in 2022. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2022 — Mexico is again an escape platform for Cuban athletes, in this case the taekwondo martial artist Yamitsi Carbonell, the rower Boris Luis Guerra and the baseball player Miguel Flores. As usual, the official press called them “traitors” to their team and “their country.”

The bad news came for the regime on Sunday, when the Jit sports site confirmed the escape of Carbonell, who was part of the team that represents Cuba in the Taekwondo World Championship, which is held in Guadalajara between November 13 and 20. The woman from Santiago left the national delegation as soon as she arrived in Jalisco.

Carbonell was a team leader in the 160 lb. category. Her most outstanding participation was at the Pan American Games in Lima in 2019, where she took fifth place and, locally, last June won the silver medal at the Havana Taekwondo Open.

The Island squad was left with eight athletes led by the Olympic bronze medalist and current world champion in taekwondo, Rafael Alba, and the outstanding Akely Matos (119 lbs.), Kelvin Calderón (163 lbs.), Yarobis Michael Castañeda (176 lbs.), Guillermo Enrique Pérez (192 lbs.), Dalila Oneida Villamil (101 lbs.), Tamara Robles (117 lbs.) and Arlettys de la Caridad Acosta (137 lbs).

Carbonell’s abandonment was joined by the escape, this Sunday, of rower Boris Luis Guerra. The Havanan escaped from the group of 15 athletes who have been concentrated since November 1 in Mexico City and are developing their training on the Virgilio Uribe Olympic track for the Central American and Caribbean Championship that will begin here on November 23 in El Salvador. continue reading

Guerra, along with Adrián Oquendo, won the silver medal in double pairs of short oars at the Pan American Games in Lima 2019; in September, he reached the quarterfinals in the same category with Carlos Andrei Ajete, in the World Rowing Championship, in the Czech Republic.

After the flight of Guerra, the president of the Cuban Rowing Federation, Ángel Luis García, highlighted the presence of the Olympic medalist in Tokyo 2020, Milena Venegas, and the Pan American medallist, in Lima 2019, Carlos Ajete, as the athletes who lead the representation.

This Tuesday, the escape of baseball player Miguel Flores was also confirmed. According to journalist Francys Romero on his social networks, the member of the Under-18 team slipped away an hour before boarding the flight at Mexico City International Airport bound for Havana. “He is the 49th athlete to leave a delegation in 2022,” Romero stressed.

The left-hander was highlighted by the reporter as “among the best prospects of Under-18 baseball in 2022, backed by a fastball between 88-90 miles per hour and dreamlike numbers in the National Championship of the category.”

In recent months, there have been defections of Cuban athletes from various disciplines – mostly baseball — to which have been added boxing, volleyball, Greco-Roman wrestling, handball and athletics. Official data estimate more than 800 athletes who have left Cuba in the last decade.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Thousands of Cubans in Pinar del Rio are Still Without Electricity Almost 50 Days After Hurricane Ian

Two women try to repair a home in San Juan y Martínez after Hurricane Ian. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 14 November 2022 — Pinar del Río’s recovery work after the passage of Hurricane Ian never ends. It has been almost 50 days since the hurricane landed in La Coloma, one of the westernmost points on the Island, and there are still 3,673 people without electricity, according to the latest update published this Sunday by the Electric Company in the province.

Pinar del Río has, according to official data, 235,311 customers, of whom 231,638 (98.44%) have recovered electricity. But in San Juan y Martínez, the tobacco cradle of the Island, and San Luis, most people continue to be without service.

“We buy food for one day, because if you do it for two or three days it spoils. We have to go to Pinar del Río (22 kilometres away) and get it ’from the left’ [’under the table’] or pay for it in MLC (freely convertible currency) because at the bodega (ration store) there isn’t any,” a resident from San Juan y Martínez told the Spanish agency EFE this weekend.

In her house, where the kitchen — like so many in Cuba — is electric, she has been buying coal and oil or cutting firewood for more than a month to be able to cook.

But this is not the only one of the shortages that this report has mentioned about the situation in Pinar del Río. José Ariel continues living in his half-fallen-down house and with no electricity. The pinareño received his first government visit one day before being interviewed by EFE, and the result couldn’t have been worse. continue reading

“We said we needed cement but (they said) there was none. They told us: ’you already have a roof, you already have a home’, and they don’t give you anything,” complains this fisherman who managed to put up some zinc plates as a roof with the help of neighbors and now must nail wood over the windows to cover the holes.

“We paid about 2,500 pesos for some pipes that arrived,” he added. In his case, the power came back two weeks ago, but the rest is a disaster.

Caridad Martínez, a 79-year-old resident in San Juan y Martínez, survives by selling honey in the doorway of her house. She explained that her bed is soaked because she can’t get any cement to plaster her ceiling.

“They told me that there was no need to give me anything,” said the retiree, also outraged by the resellers who proliferate on networks trying to sell the construction materials they manage to obtain illegally at unbearable prices. “They’re not ashamed; look, it’s already difficult to get things, but this is taking advantage of people,” she said.

The Government recently recognized that it would be very difficult for it to obtain in the short term all the materials for the reconstruction of the more than 108,000 homes partially or totally destroyed by the hurricane, and that only 7,000 have been repaired.

“More than a month after the hurricane, we are still discussing the same problems that we addressed on the first day,” Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power, said last weekend in one of the many visits that the leaders have made to the area, possibly in an attempt to calm the waters.

This same Sunday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel sent a message to piñareos via Twitter that contrasts with some of the eye-witness reports that the neighbors post on social networks, in press comments or in complaints to the press.

“The recovery from the effects caused by Hurricane Ian continues. In Cuba no one is left homeless,” the president said, sharing a tweet from the Minister of Energy and Mines in which he had written: “We continue to work until we reach everyone. Our workers have experienced the affection of a people who know about solidarity and commitment.”

Vicente de la O Levy, head of the branch after the dismissal of Liván Arronte, indicated that as of Saturday, 97.74% of customers already had electricity, and the linemen from Santiago de Cuba, who have for weeks been trying to recover the fallen poles and the miles of cables destroyed in Pinar del Río, have been advancing.

“What I still don’t understand is why they haven’t restored the electricity in Mantua, which has the generation plants for the municipality. They should do something, because we know that they use the profits like they want,” a Facebook user claimed, writing about the province’s electricity company.

“Please, can anyone tell me when they are going to turn on the power in the Pepe Chepe neighborhood like they did at La Espa?” says another. “Will they deign to pass at least through the P 990 circuit on Sol Street? With so many brigades distributed in Pinar, some could at least pass through here,” adds another.

And the worst thing is that the day the power arrives pinareños know that their problems, , will be far from over, as another user said. “They are working like crazy to reach 100% so they can start with the scheduled blackouts.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

In Matanzas, Cuba, Alarms Go Off for Milk and Sugar Unfit for Human Consumption

Appearance of the sugar in Cárdenas sold in poor condition. (Telebandera)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2022 — It’s a bad weekend to talk about food sovereignty. Matanzas residents, los matanceros, have been the first to complain to the authorities about the future law that aims to protect the right to food, after several days of new trouble in that area.

The neighbors went to bed this Sunday with the news that the milk from three areas of the provincial capital, Naranjal, Matanzas Este and Peñas Altas, had been spoiled by a massive breakdown whose causes are still unknown. As announced by the Dairy Products Company of Matanzas, the facts are being investigated, since the milk arrived on Sunday afternoon and had been pasteurized.

According to the official explanation, the milk would begin to be replenished from 6:00 in the evening of the same day, and it would  be pasteurized as well. But there is no powdered milk that can replace the lack caused by the losses, which “makes it impossible for this response to be in the shortest possible time.”

“The truth is that only we mothers know what we are going through with this issue. The same thing happens every night, when the children fall asleep exhausted from crying because they didn’t have any milk to drink before bedtime. It’s in short supply, and they tell you it will be replaced tomorrow,” said a Facebook commenter. She was not the only one who complained about the delay.

“Here what is ’broken’ is the schedule, which is the same at 12 p.m. as at 6 p.m. Anyway, it’s playing with something that is a delicate matter for a child,” says another.

“What about the diet of the sick, especially of people on a special diet, or bedridden? Here, in Matanzas, the provincial capital, someone retired a year ago and they never gave him more information. Now it’s happening in the villages of the interior. Where is that food sovereignty that they mentioned on TV? It’s the same old thing, another gross joke and poorly told,” a mother reproaches. “Yeah, and with a stylish name: ’food sovereignty, culture of resistance …’ It’s the latest trend to adorn the same shit or worse,” another replies, annoyed.

For decades, Cuban leaders installed in the population the idea that milk was an essential food that should be consumed daily by children and adults. Fidel Castro had his own obsession with the product, whose cult hit the roof with Ubre Blanca [White Udder], the cow that entered the Guinness record book by giving more than 100 liters of milk in three milkings in 1982. continue reading

Fidel’s successor, General Raúl Castro, promised in 2007 that it was necessary to “produce milk so that you can drink all you want,” when already in that year it was known that calcium (the element that makes dairy products important for the diet) is found in many other foods, including all dark leafy vegetables, except spinach. However, the policy has led generations of Cubans to experience the loss of each drop of milk as a greater drama than that of cabbage, which contains the same nutrient.

The disgust has been added to the one already dragged up by the matanceros for the “fragments of non-soluble foreign matter” found in the sugar of this month’s family ration basket. State television confirmed that the images broadcast by users on social networks of the product mixed with blackish particles were real. After taking a sample to the laboratory of the Municipal Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology of Cárdenas, “the presence of objectionable particles (pieces of materials that vary in size and quantity) was confirmed.”

Dr. Bella Canosa Besú, director of the laboratory, said that the product will be certified throughout the province, and its sale will be gradually restored depending on the result of the analysis.

An article published in Telebandera made it clear that “according to specialized standards, under current conditions, that food product is not suitable for human consumption,” and it asks consumers who have sugar of that type to return the product in poor condition, as explained by Heykel Vázquez Moreno, deputy director of the Municipal Trade and Gastronomy Company.

The entity has been forced to stop the sale and carry out the sampling investigation at each bodega (ration store) to determine where it can be sold again.

“All the raw sugar that has been marketed for months in several bodegas in the city of Matanzas is simply not suitable for consumption. There are a lot of foreign particles, some of them metallic and others whose composition is unknown, and so we consume it, without knowing the effect on our health and that of our children. Now by a complaint the sale was paralyzed, and if you  don’t complain it’s not detected, because there is no effective system to control food production and sales to either the private or state sector. Hopefully the matter will be reviewed, and the quality of the sugar that is marketed to the population will be improved. It’s the only sugar we can consume because there is no other market where we can buy it,” summarized one of the many comments of outraged matanceros.

Although a similar event has not yet occurred in other provinces, another user says that in Villa Clara the situation is not far from that of Matanzas. “Here the sugar, for Villa Clara, the bean seeds sold… they look like horror stories. Now who is responsible for the fact that the sugar has arrived at the bodega? And what will happen if there are people who have consumed it, including children? We are living in horrible times, Cubans against Cubans, envy, products in bad condition, high and abusive prices, and still the prices of MLC stores [which only take payment in foreign currency] continue to rise and so far no one responds. In conclusion, I don’t know how much more Cuba can take,” he says.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cuban Feminists Promote a Campaign for a Comprehensive Gender Law on the Island

 

At least 29 femicides have occurred in Cuba so far in 2022, according to reports released on social networks and in newspapers. (Alas Tensas)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 November 2022 — A campaign promoted by activists of the Cuban Feminists’ Network platform will start this Monday on social networks in order to raise awareness of the “urgency” of having a Comprehensive Gender Law on the Island.

“We do not want more gender violence,” they said this Sunday when disclosing the campaign, in which they invite you to upload videos with stories, messages and short promotional texts on social networks and thus join the campaign they promote with the hashtags “We have a name” and “Gender law now.”

The initiative also calls for the signing of the campaign petition through the leydegeneroya.org website during the 16 days of activism they plan to develop from November 25 to December 10.

“The idea with our campaign is to involve the entire Cuban society and raise awareness of the urgency of having a gender law in Cuba,” the activists explain and clarify that “it’s not a campaign only to involve women.”

The Women’s Network says that “we cannot wait for 2028,” referring to the date scheduled for the next legal provisions to be approved by the National Assembly of Peoples’ Power on the Island. continue reading

“We can’t keep waiting or allow more women to die. We need a law that protects them,” says this platform, born in 2019, which among other objectives aims to train women, coordinate the visibility of the women’s movement in networks and actions for their defense, and defend their rights and empowerment to end sexist violence.

The Cuban Women’s Network and other independent platforms such as Yo Sí Te Creo (YSTC) [Yes I Believe You] in Cuba and the Cuban feminist magazine Alas Tensas insistently demand the existence of a law in the matter by observing an increase in acts of gender violence in the country.

These groups have reported 32 cases of femicides in Cuba so far this year.

In the first half of the year, 24 women died violently; there were four attempts at aggression and a vicarious murder [committed during another crime] was verified, according to YSTC, which, together with other organizations, collects these data in the absence of an official count.

In comparison, this group verified 36 femicides in the year 2021, and 32 in 2020, including four vicarious murders.

Femicide is not criminalized in the current Code, and there are no shelters for victims of abuse, nor a comprehensive law against sexist violence.

The new Criminal Code, approved on May 15, which enters into force next December, contemplates gender-based violence but does not criminalize femicide.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cuba: What Food Sovereignty is Marrero Talking About?

Empty stands in one of Havana’s markets. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor, Valencia, 14 November 2022 — Food sovereignty happens to be one of the new chimeras of the Cuban communist regime. Prime Minister Marrero was invited to outline the main points of the policy in this area during the virtual “International Forum on Hybrid Rice Assistance and Global Food Security.” The truth is that he must be hard nosed for this.

Marrero is the Cuban regime’s prime minister and, as such, carries a certain level of responsibility in a country where rice production has declined continually in the last years, to such an extreme as to depend on donations from Vietnam to meet the basic needs; he is giving lessons to the world on how to produce hybrid rice. To cite a few data points from the annual reports of the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI), in 2014 Cuba produced 584,800 tons of rice, production in 2021 (the last data point) was 225,786 tons — a spectacular decline of 61% in a product that is staple of daily food consumption among Cubans. And Marrero is giving lessons to the world on hybrid rice. I insist, no one understands anything.

The Cuban communists lack stage fright due to their total lack of responsibility. Since they do not respond to an electorate in periodic and pluralistic elections, they do not understand about being held accountable for their management. Marrero spoke in front of the world of food sovereignty, no less, saying that for Cuban communists it consists of “reducing dependence on imports, strengthening productive capacity, use of science, technology and innovation, and developing efficient and sustainable food systems at the local level.” At no point did he attribute food sovereignty to eating food in sufficient quantities every day. That does not matter.

As of now, the regime’s position is brilliant on paper and the political discourse, but impractical under the economic model in place in Cuba. This national plan for food sovereignty and improved nutrition education will result in nothing. Just as, with the same ration card and the eternally long lines at the bodegas. continue reading

Marrero’s discourse has been an exercise in irresponsibility no matter how we look at it. It began, why not, blaming the United States embargo/’blockade’ for the difficulties in meeting the goals of food sovereignty in Cuba. In his presentation he denounced that the embargo/’blockade’ has as its goal to “provoke hunger and desperation among our people,” and that it not only “violates our right to development, but also our right to life.” The same old story. Perhaps he should have referred to that internal embargo/’blockade’, which is what truly impedes — for the barriers, obstacles, and prohibitions of the marxist economic model — development and prosperity for Cubans. But, none of that.

In reality, food for Cubans has been an instrument of power and control for the communist regime since it launched the ration card. At that time, when stores in Cuba were well stocked, the reasons given were the same ones offered for why the basic food basket is now regulated: to prevent consumers’ freedom of choice, freedom to buy and sell, the function of a free market of supply and demand.

Communists replaced that structure with a centrally planned economy, an idea that came from a few bureaucrats which are allowed to prevail over the rest of the citizenry and are assumed to know better, can plan the daily needs for fats, calories and protein of each citizen, and cap prices at their whim. And here is where the origin of the disaster lies. Because none of what is planned can turn out well and, systematically, the system enters into crisis and emerges from the shortages, the queues, the misery and the desperation. It has been known for a long time that communism is incapable of providing these kinds of solutions.

And clearly, before having to respond and not knowing how to do so, Marrero did what the communists always do, throw balls out of bounds and waste time. As, for example,  when he stated “enough food is produced globally to feed everyone, but it is wasted, unsustainably, and its distribution is inequitable.” Perhaps, he should understand why this phenomenon occurs, behind this, there are grants and subsidies provided by many governments to agricultural producers, which end up producing inefficient results.

That is, inappropriate public policies of states to maintain the agriculture and livestock sectors end up creating these excesses, which in the long term, are nothing more than a waste of public funds. The problem is that, in Cuba, the agricultural sector does not function, not even with that waste. Here, the issue lies in property rights, which prevent producers from keeping the income generated by their exploitation of the land.

Not wanting to look bad in his presentation, and not knowing the mechanisms of agricultural over supply, Marrero stepped in it once again and bemoaned that “efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms, and to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030 are backsliding.” But, what does Marrero know of those efforts? Is it that he has some data on emigrants who year after year request to move to the communist paradise he leads?

It is all well and good on paper and speeches, but what is Marrero doing to end hunger in Cuba, which is ever worsening? It is no longer only a matter of shortages, but prices. The inflation rate of food prices reached almost 60% in September, 20 points higher than the median. Not only do Cubans not find the food they want to consume in the stores, but for the little they do find must pay excessive prices. Marrero should respond to this. It is his responsibility.

Then the time came for the acknowledgments, basically referring to China. The same as always: “donations of machinery and materials for agricultural production to improve the productive system as well as the academic exchange in areas such as farming hybrid rice in saline soil, especially relevant when facing the adverse effects of climate change.” And we all know how this all ends.

And, why not, he dedicated part of his speech to exalt “China’s positive contributions of food security materials at a global scale, considering that with only 9% of the planet’s arable land, it feeds close to 20% of the world population, and its successes in the fight to eradicate extreme poverty.” He should copy the Chinese recipe and let go of the less practical reflections. The Chinese gave land rights to agricultural producers and, thanks to that, decades ago left behind the scenario of hunger like the one in Cuba.

It is all the same. Now it is time to praise the new associate, as soon as Russia remained on the sidelines due to the war in Ukraine. Marrero turned it into Chinese public relations before a Latin American audience, launching all types of praise on the China-Latin America Center for Innovation in Sustainable Agriculture, an organization dedicated to providing Chinese funding to industry, universities and research institutions as part of the Chinese strategy to penetrate the continent. Beware.

Finally, Marrero took the opportunity to lecture on things of which he knows nothing, such as, for example, overcoming the painful human drama that is hunger which, according to him requires “transforming, urgently, radically and sustainably capitalism’s irrational and unsustainable patterns of production and consumption so humanity may save itself.”

It is a joke in poor taste for someone who has demonstrated his absolute inability to solve the hunger problem in his own country with a communist model to target capitalism and blame it for doing the same. Marrero should know that the Cuban mules that supply merchandise from Haiti to well stocked stores are surprised when they confirm how in that country there is relative abundance of food, and what’s more: at low prices, even for Cubans.

Years ago, FAO erred in allowing people like Marrero to talk before the world and to say such nonsense about food sovereignty such as what he presented in his speech. Taking responsibility, not at all. Stubbornly holding onto the same, useless, communist ideas, absolutely. And yes, incapable of seeing the plank in their own eye.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the Cubaeconomia blog and we have reproduced it with permission from the author. 

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

One Report Points to An Increase in the Number of Political Prisoners in Cuba to 1,027

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 November 2022 — Prisoners Defenders (PD) documented 27 politically motivated arrests in October in Cuba, bringing the total number of Cubans who remain in jail to 1,027. In its most recent report, released on Friday, they also denounced that the population on the Island is “massively fleeing repression.”

The Madrid-based NGO, signals the Cuban regime as one of the few in the world that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine and that this alliance between Havana and Moscow has not improved living conditions for Cubans who continue to suffer long blackouts, shortages and an unprecedented migration crisis.

Most of the new arrests are linked to the protests that took place at the beginning of October this year, states PD, and were due to the collapse of the National Electric System following the passing of Hurricane Island on the western part of the Island.

Although most of the protest documented by PD correspond to the months following the mass protests of July 11th (11J), the number of prisoners has increased significantly since the beginning of 2022. continue reading

The number of prisoners increased from 591 in November 2021, with 684 arbitrary detentions in 2022 for a total of 1,275 prisoners of conscience. Of these, 247 were released under “severe threats and mainly for fully completing their sentences,” leaving 1,027 still serving sentences of up to 30 years.

In its report, the organization included 34 minors — 29 boys and 5 girls — who are serving sentences or are being criminally prosecuted. At least 15 have been sentenced to five years in jail for the crime of sedition, which has been used to prosecute dozens of protesters.

The sedition charge affects another 180 Cubans, of whom 175 have been sentenced, on average, to 10 years of deprivation of liberty. Another 743 prisoners, described by PD as prisoners of conscience, have been sentenced to jail.

The organization specified that, included in its list, are 121 women with convictions that are either political or of conscience. This group excludes transexuals who are being held among male prisoners, totally disrespecting their rights, where they endure “indescribable situations due to their sexual identity.”

Similarly, another NGO, Justicia 11J, has documented 162 arrests of protesters who participated in 202 public protests between August and October 2022. Of these, five are younger than 18 years of age — the minimum criminal age in the country is 16 years — and 78 remained in detention as of the beginning of November.

In the last three months protests were documented in 14 of the Island’s 15 provinces where there were at least 55 protests and in Matanzas where 19 were verified.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Spain Offers Residency and Training to Cuban Descendants of Zamora Residents

Main square in Zamora, Spain

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 10 November 2022 — In an effort to attract residents to an area suffering from population loss, the autonomous regional government of Castille and Leon announced on Tuesday the Reto Zamora program. It will provide Cuban families whose ancestors emigrated from Zamora , a province located in the country’s northeast, the opportunity to resettle there.

With a budget of 500,000 euros, the project will offer contracts and Spanish residency to fifteen to twenty families — descendants of Zamorans who emigrated to Cuba, Mexico or Argentina — who agree to work in the province as caregivers.

“All of them will receive the training necessary to work as personal caregivers. Once here, they will also be able eligible for further training to work in institutional settings,” said Isabel Blanco, a counselor at Family and Equal Opportunities.

The families will receive economic support for the first three months of their residency. They will receive help securing housing, with guidance from the local and regional governments. The costs of travel to Spain and to the province – an hour and a half by high-speed train from Madrid, or three hours by bus – are also covered by the program. continue reading

In return, participants must commit to living there and work as caregivers. In essence, the applicants will be part of another project, Network Care, that has been operating for months. It seeks to offer individualized care to the elderly, the dependent, disabled or chronically ill in group and private homes.

Blanco explained that that 25% of those hired to work as caregivers in rural communities are immigrants, so the integration of both plans updates the strategy while bringing international attention to the Spanish province, which has been in a demographic crisis since the 1960s.

Maria Antonia Rabanillo — president of the Council of Spanish Residents in Cuba, the Association of Castilian and Leonese Societies, and the Zamoran Colony of Cuba — explained during a visit to Zamora that there are some 2,000 inhabitants on the island with roots in the province.

According to the National Institute of Statistics, 9,712 of the 183,676 Castilians and Leonese living abroad reside in Cuba.

Zamora, 255 kilometers from the capital, is the province with the highest median age, fifty-one years, in the country. With only fifteen inhabitants per square kilometer, many in villages with less than 100 inhabitants, it is also one of the areas with the lowest population density.

Among its advantages, however, is the cost of living, with home prices being the cheapest in the country. It also has important natural attractions, such as the Sierra de la Culebra, known as one of the “lungs of Spain,” and Lake Sanabria, originally Europe’s largest glacier.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Canada is Asked to Sanction Diaz-Canel and Others for the Repression in Cuba

The statement lists the repressive sentences handed out to demonstrators of 11J and declares that there were so many arbitrary detentions that Cuba is now “the principal jailer of the Americas”. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 14 November 2022 — On Monday the organisations Democratic Spaces and Cuba Decide asked the Canadian government to sanction the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel and a further nine officials, as well as the bodies known as the boinas negras (black berets) — the National Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior; and the boinas rojas (red berets) — Prevention Troops of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, for being “responsible for grave violations of human rights, especially after the peaceful protests of 11 July 2021“.

In the list are the ministers: Álvaro López Miera and Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, police bosses like Óscar Callejas Valcárcel and his deputy Eddy Manuel Sierra Arias; and higher officials Pedro Orlando Martínez Fernández, Roberto Abelardo Jiménez González, Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, Andrés Laureano González Brito and Romárico Vidal Sotomayor García.

In a joint communique, both organisations offer a reminder that the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, expressed his concern after 11J for “the violent repression of the protests by the Cuban regime”, condemned “the detentions and the repression of the authorities against peaceful demonstrators” and affirmed that “Cubans have the right to express themselves and to be listened to”.

Now, the NGOs are asking Ottawa to accompany “with action” the condemnation of the repression of the 2021 protests that he made, and that, just like the United States, they impose “a series of selective sanctions on the Cuban officials and bodies which are responsible for the violations of human rights”. continue reading

The communique lists the repressive sentences handed out to demonstrators of 11J and declares that there were “so many arbitrary detentions that Cuba is now the principal jailer of the Americas”.

Between 2,000 and 8,000 people were detained in the months which followed 11J, and, up until 31 October this year, there were 1,027 people still in prison, among them 34 minors.

Democratic Spaces and Cuba Decide also remind us that Human Rights Watch confirmed the systematic use of “arbitrary detention and ill treatment of  detainees, and penal processes full of abuses” by Cuban officials.

It’s not the first time that Democratic Spaces has approached the Canadian Parliament with a demand for respect for human rights on the Island. Their leader, the Cuban Michael Lima, has made various requests for Ottowa to take measures.

The most recent of these was launched in October last year and asked the Canadian Executive to request the Cuban regime to liberate “immediately and unconditionally all those detained and imprisoned for exercising their freedom of expression and of peaceful gathering” after 11 July and that they unite with the request by Amnesty International and the UN to demand the release of José Daniel Ferrer, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Esteban Rodríguez, Maykel Castillo Osorbo “and all prisoners of conscience in Cuba”.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cintas Foundation Award for Cuban Artist Sandra Ceballos

Sandra Ceballos has won the Visual Arts Scholarship. (ADN)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2022 — The Cintas Foundation has awarded their annual scholarship of 20,000 dollars to three Cubans: Sandra Ceballos, visual artist, Armando Lucas Correa, writer, and Rodrigo Castro, composer.

The only one of these three to currently reside in Cuba is Ceballos, who, aged 61, is one of the most recognised of all Cuban artists internationally. Born in Guantánamo and a descendent of Spaniards who emigrated after the Civil War, she studied painting, sculpture and engraving at the School of Plastic Arts of the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Art, from where she graduated in 1983.

Among her most important awards are a mention in the Painting category at Salón Playa ’85 and the national finals of the Juan Francisco y Elso Contemporary Painting awards, 1995. She has been an artist in residence in New York (1997) and Basel (Switzerland) in 1998. She has had works exhibited not only in Cuba but in Mexico and the United States, and has achieved both collective and individual exhibitions in dozens of other countries.

Ceballos is also a well known feminist activist — she collaborates with [Cuban feminist magazine] Alas Tensas (Taut Wings), is an animal rights campaigner and has taken part in demonstrations supporting the San Isidro and 27N Movements in Cuba. Nevertheless, it has been her work as a promoter of culture at Espacio Aglutinador (Unifying Space) – the independent art gallery that she hosts in her house in El Vedado – which has garnered her the greatest respect amongst young creatives on the Island.

Armando Lucas Correa, on the other hand, lives in New York, and, although he has been awarded the scholarship for his dedication to writing, he’s also a journalist. He began that work on the Island, where he was editor, in 1988, of Tablas, a national magazine of theatre and dance with main office in Havana; before that, he graduated from the University of the Arts, Cuba (Higher Institute of Art) and then obtained a postgraduate degree in journalism from the University of Havana. continue reading

From there he went to USA where he was editor of The New Herald. In 1997 he moved to New York to write for the magazine People en español and became editor in chief in 2007 until 2022. His first novel was La chica alemana (The German Girl), which was translated into 14 languages. Next, in 2019, came The Daughter’s Tale, and he is now preparing for the launch of The Night Travellers in 2023.

Lastly, Rodrigo Castro is a composer and lives in Miami. The musician has a broad career trajectory which includes his experiment for orchestra, La Gaviota (The Seagull) in which he tackles the “long history of ideological divisions” which have marked Cuban culture over the past half century.

The Cintas Foundation was created through funds donated by Óscar B Cintas (1887-1957), Cuban ambassador to the United States and patron of the arts, and has been giving awards since 1963. The shortlisted finalists are selected by a jury of experts all of whom who enjoy international reputations.

In the last fifty years these awards have honoured the achievements, in a range of diverse categories, of great Cuban artistes like Félix González-Torres, Teresita Fernández, Carmen Herrera, María Martínez-Cañas, Oscar Hijuelos, Andrés Duany, María Elena Fornes and Tania León. After receiving their award the winners become a part of the ’Cintas Collection’, through donating one of their works to the Foundation.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso 

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.