14ymedio – Page 173 – Translating Cuba

The Procession for Our Lady of Charity Draws a Crowd in Havana

“I haven’t seen this street so full of people and with so much emotion since July 11,” said a young man who claimed to have participated in the protests on that day last year. (14ymedio)

Some with candles, with very few sunflowers, that is how the devotees entered the church of the Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre on the corner of Manrique and Salud Streets, in Centro Habana. This Thursday, the day on which the Patron Saint of Cuba is celebrated, inflation has also been noted in the price of sunflowers, the flower that is offered to Cachita (the Virgin’s nickname) because its yellow color recalls the golden mantle worn by her image.

From Galiano Avenue, metal fences and several policemen controlled foot traffic to the church in Havana, where thousands of people attend every September 8 to pay tribute to “the mother of all Cubans.” This year, the date has coincided with a deep economic crisis, which has cut the offerings that are left on the altar at the entrance of the church.

“I only bought one candle and it practically melted in my hand, because it seems that they mixed the wax with tallow. It cost me 50 pesos, but at least I was able to bring something, because the smallest bouquet of sunflowers cost 300,” lamented a young woman who, dressed in yellow clothes, approached the place this morning. “I’m going to have lunch and come back in the afternoon for the procession”. She said goodbye to her friends a while later.

At four in the afternoon, in a crowded church, a mass was presided by Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana. (14ymedio)

At four in the afternoon, in a very crowded church, a mass was presided over by Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of San Cristóbal de La Habana, together with the newly appointed auxiliary bishop of the capital’s Archdiocese, Eloy Domínguez. It was attended by the Spanish ambassador in Cuba, Ángel Martín Peccis.

The prelate said that the Church is the house “of all Cubans, the house of the Mother of God, in this house there is room for us all.” And he added that Cachita “wants peace and harmony for all Cubans.” “With God, everything and without God, nothing,” declared the archbishop during his sermon.

After five in the afternoon, the image of the Virgin appeared at the door of the church and was received with applause, tears and hundreds of raised arms trying to capture the moment with their mobile phones. On the church’s facade, a huge Cuban flag fluttered in the gentle breeze this Thursday. In the crowd, people dressed in alternating yellow and white clothes, some with masks and others with their faces uncovered. continue reading

The procession initially walked down Manrique Street, until it reached Zanja and then turned onto Galiano to join the stately Reina Street, where residents leaned out from the rooftops and balconies to follow the cortege. Some flower petals also fell from the heights as the Virgin passed by, although in a smaller volume than in previous years, when it was less difficult for Cubans’ pockets.

Applause, shouts of vivas a la Virgen and popular tunes like: “And if you go to El Cobre, I want you to bring me a Virgencita de la Caridad” were heard during the tour through one of the poorest and most populated areas of the Cuban capital. Megaphone in hand, on Zanja Street, the Cardinal asked Cachita to pray for “those who have died from Covid, in the Saratoga Hotel accident, and in the Matanzas fire.” The crowd received his words in silence, and then burst into shouts and applause when Juan de la Caridad García added “and those who have died traveling through jungles, rivers and seas, in search of other horizons.”

In Sancti Spíritus hundreds of people gathered and many others joined the procession that began after mass. (14ymedio)

“I hadn’t seen this street so full of people and so full of emotion since July 11,” said a young man who claimed to have participated in that day’s protests last year. The vicinity of the Havana Capitol, especially Galiano, Zanja and Reina streets, were several of the more frequented routes for the protesters, who later gathered around the Cuban Parliament building.

The crowd’s passage was guarded by a strong police operation and the obvious presence of State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes. The first procession after the suspension of public activities forced by the pandemic has also been marked by official edginess after the popular protests of July 11 last year and the demonstrations this summer in various locations in Cuba.

Among the Government’s fears has been that the procession would turn into the scene of some demand for the release of political prisoners, as independent organizations and relatives of those convicted have done in the past.

High prices also affected the devotees of the city of Sancti Spíritus, who had to pay 20 pesos each for roses and candles to be offered at the Church of our Lady of Charity in that city. Hundreds of people gathered at the Church, and many others joined the procession that began after mass. Mobile data network congestion frustrated many who wanted to stream the moment live on social media.

Initially, the procession walked down Calle Manrique until it reached Zanja and then turned onto Galiano to join the stately Reina Street, where residents leaned out from the rooftops and balconies to follow the procession. (14ymedio)

Similar processions were held in other parishes in the country, especially the one that left this Wednesday from the Sanctuary of El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba, where dozens of people participated to celebrate the 410th anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgin. This Thursday, a procession was also held in Santiago, from the Archbishop’s headquarters to the Cathedral.

For the remainder, the day has been influenced from the beginning by the calls for harmony and the desire for freedom for Cuba. The nun in charge of the Association “Daughters of Charity in Cuba,” Nadieska Almeida, published an article on Facebook in which she questioned what was going to happen in Cuba after the day of remembrance of the Virgen de la Caridad de El Cobre. “When it’s all over, what will be left?” she asked.

The nun described the current situation in the country with harsh words: “I see nothing but the same misery, the same repression, the same sadness on the faces of so many, tears like those of the family of the little girl who died in Guantánamo in a school disaster, or those of the relatives of the ones who are dying due to lack of medication, especially dengue fever… and so many more”.

Almeida summed up her plea to Cachita directly, and also by alluding to the ecclesiastical authorities in Cuba: “Give wisdom to the rulers and courage to the Church so that it does not stop proclaiming what is right. And there will continue to be a deep desire for a free, hoping and hopeful Cuba, and that we will continue to believe that it will be possible, and why not?

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Putin’s Buddy Requests Volunteers from Cuba and Other Allies to Fight Against Ukraine

Vladimir Solovyov, right, with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Kremlin)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 September 2022 — Russian television presenter Vladimir Soloviov, one of Vladimir Putin’s “unconditional” friends, considers it essential to form an “international coalition” of Russian allies to fight against Ukraine. Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Iran were some of the nations to which Soloviov alluded.

“I don’t understand why Americans, even if they’re fighting in Grenada, always improvise an international coalition,” he said on Wednesday in his program “Night with Vladimir,” alluding to the US military intervention on the small Caribbean island to reverse a coup d’état supported at that time by Cuba and the then-Soviet Union.

During the landing in Grenada, the Americans were backed by Barbados, Jamaica and other Caribbean nations.

“Why do we deny ourselves that pleasure?” he added, while assuring that the “allies” would be willing to send their troops to support Russia in a counteroffensive against Ukraine in Donetsk. “There are units in Syria very well trained by us, there are people in Africa who support us, there is Venezuela, there is Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran and North Korea,” said the man, whose program is broadcast by the state television station Russia-1. continue reading

Soloviov said that the “coalition” method was being practiced by Ukraine, which now has help and troops from other European countries and the United States.

“If volunteers from all over the world go and fight in Donetsk, why shouldn’t we give them the opportunity to organize and create an international body?” he said, before referring to the International Brigades made up of fighters from several countries, including Cuba, that supported the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.

He added that “our Serbian brothers” are already in Donetsk anyway, so he saw no impediment to “people who want to take up arms” and join them.

Considered one of the main propagandists of Putin’s government, Soloviov is one of the people sanctioned by the European Union after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In his call for a coalition for Russia’s “allies,” the ideologue forgot to mention that Cuba, unlike North Korea, Belarus, Syria and Eritrea, didn’t vote against the UN resolution condemning Putin’s aggression, but only abstained.

In the face of the advance of the Ukranian forces from Kiev, which claim to have liberated over 5,000 square miles, 388 localities and 150,000 people since September 6 in the eastern region, Russian troops have hastily withdrawn from dozens of villages in eastern Ukraine, abandoning large quantities of military equipment on the ground.

According to data provided by the United States, the Russians have suffered 75,000 combat casualties in seven months. The war, described by Putin as a simple “military operation,” has not gone as the Kremlin expected, and there are more and more voices critical of the lack of preparation of the Russian Army.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Jesuits Denounce ‘The Dictatorial Power’ that Forced the Order’s Superior to Leave Cuba

The Jesuit priest David Pantaleón. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 13 September 2022 — The Dominican priest David Pantaleón, a superior of the Jesuits in Cuba, left the island on Tuesday due to the Government’s refusal to extend his residence permit. The Jesuit is already in his own country, according to a source.

The also former president of the Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women was known for his critical assessment of the Regime and for promoting solidarity initiatives with the artists of the San Isidro Movement and, later, with those arrested during the July 11, 2021 protests.

The community celebrated a farewell mass for Pantaleón this Sunday. One of the nuns participating in the ceremony, Ariagna Brito Rodríguez, lamented on Facebook that the priest suffered in his own flesh the “faculties of dictatorial power, without principles or values.”

“They fear the truth; they fear the faces of good and get rid of what bothers them,” denounced Brito, who also said that “those who must be expelled from the country” are those who make up the government, who govern with a heavy hand a people who are “enslaved, punished, whipped and forced to flee.” continue reading

The source consulted by this newspaper specified that, as was said during Mass, Pantaleón was forcibly withdrawing from Cuba, due to the impediments of the Government, which made it clear that “he was no longer well received” on the Island.

He adds that, following, the directors of the Society of Jesus and other ecclesiastical authorities will issue a statement about the situation, which they have wanted, out of respect for the priest and his faithful in Havana, to handle with discretion.

The repression against members of the Cuban clergy has intensified in recent months, through surveillance, blackmail and regulation of travel permits.

From Camagüey, the Catholic priest Castor Álvarez confirmed to this newspaper that he had received the news that a group of nurses from that city had been summoned by State Security, after having taken a photograph with Pantaleón after the Mass of the Virgin of Charity, last Wednesday.

“One of the nurses is a neighbor of the priest,” Cuban layman Osvaldo Gallardo said on Facebook. “At the end of the mass she went with her colleagues to greet him. He blessed them, and then they took a picture.”

Gallardo adds that the headquarters of the political police in that city is located in front of the sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity, where Álvarez celebrated Mass. In addition, it provides an image where you can see an agent recording the procession from the second floor of the building. The priest is still waiting for information about the outcome of the meeting.

Catholics on the Island fear retaliation after the message published on Monday by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, which recommends voting no in the referendum on the new Family Code.

The statement, which opposes several traditionally problematic points between the Church and the State in the family sphere, also contains a criticism of the Regime’s propaganda.

“The information, flowing in one direction without other checks and balances, operates as a conditioning factor, and the vote that derives from it will express, necessarily and inevitably, a conditional will,” the prelates said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Even the Cats Won’t Eat the ‘Shrimp’ Croquettes from a Fish Market in Central Havana

Customers who lined up at the doors of the state fish market in San Lázaro, in Central Havana, could barely believe the product that had been put out for sale. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 September 2022 — “Shrimp croquettes at 57 pesos a pound!” Customers who lined up at the doors of the state fish market in San Lázaro, in Central Havana, could barely believe the product that had been put out for sale this Wednesday.

Since crustaceans have been a luxury at Cuban tables for decades and their production — ironically controlled by the State — is mostly destined for export, the supply immediately aroused suspicion.

“This is enchanted shrimp, because you need to know what it is,” a man commented sarcastically as he left the establishment with his pound of croquettes. Another woman preferred to pass by: “At 57 pesos? That’s just broth that they add to the flour. Show some respect!”

She wasn’t wrong, as those who have had the misfortune to taste them can testify. “They’re pure flour; they absorb oil like sponges, and from time to time you have to take things out of your mouth that don’t seem to belong to a shrimp,” says a resident from Central Havana. “They look like water in which they boiled some shrimp heads and at best threw in a little flour to hold it together.”

The woman was given the croquettes by a relative and at first she was excited, but the joy lasted only until as she took a bite: “I ended up giving them to the cats, but even they wouldn’t eat them.” continue reading

You don’t need to put them in your mouth to see that they’re not even fit for animals. Their color is grayish brown, similar to the play dough used by preschool children, in part because of the cornstarch they seem to contain.

However, many did buy the croquettes, especially older people. “Aren’t you going to take them?” the clerk insisted to a young man who looked disgusted: “No, thank you.”

Just around the corner, another refusal was presented in the form of a movie scene. From a balcony, an old woman stretched out her arm and threw all the contents of a nylon bag into the street. On the asphalt was what she had rejected categorically and with rage: a dozen shrimp croquettes.

On the asphalt was what she had rejected categorically and with rage: a dozen shrimp croquettes. (14ymedio)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Government Raises Fines for Not Declaring Livestock From 50 to 20,000 Pesos

The fines increase in percentages approaching 40,000%. (Vicente Brito/Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2022 — Farmers who don’t declare their large livestock face much higher fines than the current ones, since the sanctions rise sharply, increasing from a 50 peso fine for not declaring an animal, to 20,000 pesos. The amount had been stagnant since the approval of the 1997 decree that regulated the control and registration of cattle and horses. The authorities said that the fines currently were too low and “didn’t fulfill the purposes for which they were planned.”

The new decree, which updates the previous one, includes up to 15 types of violations that must be punished. Among them, the 10,000 pesos fine stands out, compared to the current 20, in case of not identifying an animal and its confiscation, if it’s demonstrated that the information has been doctored. For years, many Cuban ranchers have declared males and not females to avoid recording milk production and births.

Failure to update deaths, births or shortages of livestock is also penalized with 10,000 pesos, while sales, transfers and other unrecorded operations that involve a change of ownership involve a fine of 5,000 pesos per animal.

The highest penalties, of 20,000 pesos, are intended for those who allow the presence of livestock of any kind on the roads. In this case, the confiscation of the animal is included, another sanction intended for the cases of owners who drive their cattle onto roads or railways so that they are killed, apparently accidentally. This allows them to eat the meat, without having to give explanations to the State.

Giving false information and hiding it, or not counting their animals also carries a 20,000-peso fine. continue reading

Fines of 10,000 pesos will be applied to those who buy or receive large livestock without State authorization, as well as to those who sell or transfer it. The same applies to those who, having authorization to slaughter the cattle, don’t do so in accordance with the rules of execution and the destination of the meat. Allowing grazing on other people’s land is also fined with this amount plus the confiscation of the animal in the case of recidivism.

In addition, there will be fines of 5,000 pesos for those who move livestock from one farm to another if they belong to different livestock registers and don’t have permission to do so. Also for those who have more livestock than what is authorized and those who “are forced to buy animals in excess from landless livestock holders, not to do so.”

The decree was published on August 24 and released by the official press on Monday. Although, according to the authorities, the purpose is to promote agricultural production, it’s still a mere increase in the sanctions that already exist and have been flouted with a subterfuge on the Island for decades.

The obligation to declare cattle was established in Cuba in 1964, and the results have not been exactly successful. Beginning in 1967, a drop in beef production began that has been unstoppable. That year there was 7.1 million head of cattle and since then the fall has been sustained. Since 1986, it hasn’t reached 5 million, and in 2021 only 3.7 million were declared.

The 63 measures launched in April of that year to stimulate food production included the liberalization of the slaughter, consumption and sale of beef, in addition to milk, but few have obtained the required permit, and most prefer to continue selling on the black market, since the dividends are higher.

The authorities also announced the payment in foreign currency for those who exceeded the deliveries over the contracted amount, but the banking problems and the lack of foreign currency, which producers need to buy supplies, have made it practically impossible for them to collect what was promised.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Shortage Reaches the Famous Canteen of the Ministry of Agriculture in Cuba

Ministry of Agriculture, located on the corner of Conill and Rancho Boyeros, in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, 13 September 2022 — “We spent days eating saltines because there’s no rice or food,” complains an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture. The man is considering leaving his job if “lunch continues being so bad” in the institution that governs state production of the Cuban farms, located in a 17-story building on the corner of Conill and Rancho Boyeros, in Havana.

“People believe that since this is the Ministry of Agriculture we must be swimming in abundance here, but there is none,” advises one of the entity’s workers who prefers to remain anonymous. “The last few months have been very difficult, and the cooks have to be inventive in order to serve something.” The greatest deficit is from the products that arrive from the fields.

Although from 2009, then-president Raúl Castro promoted a process of eliminating lunch in state centers, many of the ministries and institutions of the major hierarchy maintained that practice. At a subsidized price, but with little variety and low quality, the employees of these entities receive a daily portion of food to continue their working day.

Now, the economic crisis, which has deepened in recent months, together with inflation and the low productivity of Cuban farms, have put at risk the lunch of these workers, who, until recently, were privileged within the state sector. Guillermo was a cook for many years in a unit of the Union of Young Communists in Havana, and he confirms it.

“When the shortage was already affecting everyone, in my workplace the UJC cadres were still allowed to have a snack, coffee in the mornings and lunch with a protein every day,” he tells this newspaper. “But since the beginning of this year, everything has gone downhill.” continue reading

“Sometimes I thought that they invented meetings, even if they had nothing to say, in order to justify the consumption of rolls, coffee and soft drinks as a snack,” Guillermo explains. “The same day I found out that no more lunch was going to be served, I asked for leave, because what’s the point of being a cook in a place that isn’t cooking.”

In the Ministry of Agriculture, the rigors of the employees’ canteen reached the ears of the head of the branch, Ydael Pérez Brito. “He said that this had to be solved, and how was it possible that there wasn’t any cassava, malanga or sweet potato here to give to people who go to the canteen,” says an employee of the security area of the institution.

The canteen, located on a side wing of the building, which faces Santa Ana Street, is a huge room that for years has been large for a Ministry that has seen its workforce decrease as the state salary is devalued and the prices of basic products rise. “This was built at the time when the Soviet Union sent money, a lot of money,” the source says.

“In this place, food was served that was the envy of any restaurant. The food, vegetables and fruit were plenty, not to mention pork and chicken.” But those trays with varied food options remain only in the memory of the workers who have been in the institution for more than three decades.

“Most people now bring something from home to last all day because many times it’s not worth going down to the canteen,” the worker explains. “But with the bread situation, there’s no guarantee of bringing a snack, so the only choice is to go and see what they serve.”

In recent weeks, the huge room has been emptier of diners and food. “This looks more like a funeral home than a Ministry of Agriculture, because lunch is dead, dead.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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At Least 20 of the 277 Cuban Doctors in Mexico Don’t Have a Defined Specialty

A group of Cuban health workers already in the Mexican state of Sonora. (Facebook/ValledelMayo)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2022 — The Mexican Government published on Tuesday a list of the specialties into which the 277 Cuban doctors are divided from the more than 600 that it intends to import to fill places in remote areas of the country. Of these, 20 don’t appear with a specialty, but with the word “other.”

There are many denunciations claiming that part of the Cuban ’missions’ are composed of agents of State Security, who monitor compliance with the rules to which the rest of the delegation must follow, considered as forced labor by various international organizations.

According to the list released by the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, the 277 doctors are distributed in medical units in seven Mexican states, and “this month another 333 will arrive.”

The Mexican official did not detail the reason why 20 of these health workers don’t have a defined specialty. He only showed an image in which it was indicated that 75 are internists, 73 pediatricians, 59 general surgeons, 14 emergency intensivists, 8 gynecologists, 8 specialists in imaging, 5 anesthesiologists, 5 nephrologists, 5 ophthalmologists and 5 orthopedic specialists.

Last August, Prisoners Defenders, an organization based in Madrid, presented a report alleging that the latest health workers hired by López Obrador are military, some from State Security, and that none are specialists. continue reading

The former deputy and director of the magazine Siempre, Beatriz Pagés, agrees, and she says that doctors’ mission is “more political, more military and more indoctrination than health,” and is based on the objective of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, “to consolidate his autocratic project and guarantee the presidency in 2024.”

About the 277 health workers, on Tuesday the director of the IMSS said that they are already “providing services in 35 municipalities in the states of Nayarit (92), Colima (57), Campeche (49), Baja California Sur (10), Zacatecas (11), Sonora (15) and Oaxaca (43).”

Of the 333 that remain to arrive, he mentioned that they will be incorporated into hospitals located in the states of Oaxaca, Veracruz and Guerrero. The sum would be 610 health workers; that is, 31 doctors would still be missing, since on August 9 he announced the hiring of 641 “specialists in high demand.”

Sources from the Institute of Health for Wellbeing (INSABI) told 14ymedio that Mexico would pay the Government of Cuba $1,308,922 per month, managed by the Cuban Medical Services Marketer.

On Monday, the president of Prisoners Defenders, Javier Larrondo, returned to the attack against the Cuban missions and reiterated, in an interview with CNN, that the regime was left with 94% of the salary of each of the doctors who traveled to Mexico during 2020. “Andrés Manuel López Obrador paid $10,750 for each of the doctors hired for three months,” Javier Larrondo said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One of Those Arrested for the Protests in Nuevitas, Cuba is Accused of Sabotage

Neither his family nor his attorney have been in communication with Jimmy Johnson Agosto since his arrest on September 6. (Justicia 11J)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2022 — With an anonymous phone call, and the possession of pellets and a slingshot as evidence, Jimmy Johnson Agosto, who was arrested last week in Nuevitas, Camagüey for participating in last month’s protests, is accused of sabotage, a crime which is considered aggravated for being against national security.

The 26-year-old’s family confirmed that State Security charged Agosto with this crime for allegedly throwing rocks at a generator there, using [as evidence] pellets that were seized during a search of his home.

“They say what they used on the generator were grinding balls (cement pellets), and rocks like those they found in Jimmy’s house; but there in Nuevitas everyone has that. Even I had them,” the young man’s mother, Isabel Cristina Agosto Grimal, told CiberCuba.

Johnson Agosto was arrested on September 6th when he was returning from an electroencephalogram (EEG) following an episode of epilepsy. At the time, Justicia 11J stated that the arrest happened following an anonymous phone call, which accused him of damaging a store window during the protests in Nuevitas at the end of August.

Hours later, instead of charging him with destruction of property, they charged him with sabotage and put him in pretrial detention as a precautionary measure. continue reading

In a public statement on social media, journalist Annarella O’Mahony stated that the young man’s arrest might be the regime retaliating against her as he is her cousin. “It was a matter of time, and the rope snapped on you, a forgotten kid from the neighborhood, a boy with a huge heart. I have not been able to write you a single line, my good child, but you may live convinced that I am moving heaven and earth for you,” she wrote in a note shared on September 8th.

His family stated that they still have not been able to communicate with him directly since he was arrested and taken to the police station in Nuevitas; he was later transferred to the State Security prison in Camagüey, where he was interrogated for three days without access to an attorney, without changing his clothes, and without the medication he needs to control his epilepsy.

O’Mahony denounced that the Constitution of the Republic had been violated by denying the young detainee due process, “as they usually do with all citizens and political prisoners.”

On Thursday, Prisoners Defenders (PD) reported that in Cuba there are 1,016 political prisoners, 43 arrested in September alone and 904 for protesting on July 11th, 2021.

After the protests in Nuevitas, the largest since July 11, 2021 (11J), there have been hundreds of arrests, including adults and minors “savagely” beaten by security forces, alerted the organization

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Latest Invention of the Cuban Government in the Face of the Egg Shortage: Raising Quail Instead of Chickens

Informal seller of quail eggs in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 September 2022 — The Cuban government intends to “incorporate” quail meat and eggs into the Cuban diet, according to official television on Monday. The goal, in its words, is to achieve “food sovereignty,” the euphemism that they usually use as a synonym for scarcity, which is growing every day.

A few days ago, a report on Perlavisión announced that the production of this bird is increasing in Cienfuegos. Specifically, in the First of January Base Business Unit, in the Cienfuegos municipality of Palmira, they claim to have 39,000 quails at the moment, and they expect to reach 60,000 before the end of this year.

Employees of the provincial Poultry Company explain that each quail lays between 280 and 300 eggs a year, while a hen lays between 240 and 250 eggs in the same period.

Likewise, they emphasize that quails grow quickly and can lay eggs from 45 days of age, while for chickens you have to wait six months. “They are easy to breed, with a good temperament,” and feeding them is cheaper: for one hen that is fed, three quail are satisfied. continue reading

Cubans have been seeing for some time, not without surprise, that both on the black market and on online home delivery sites these eggs are being sold, while the chicken eggs disappear. “Small but tasty, ideal for boiling and placing in a salad, but of course impossible for a tortilla,” says a neighbor of Centro Habana who has bought them at 300 pesos a carton with 30 quail eggs.

The official media praise the product: “Although a third smaller, it has the same kilocalories, the same fat and more protein.” In addition, it has lower cholesterol, “more nutrition, greater digestibility and increases hemoglobin.”

In the face of this, Cubans on the street continue to object. A young man from Havana decided: “It doesn’t produce enough; it’s very small.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The U.S. Embassy in Cuba Publishes on Social Networks a Poster Alluding to ‘Patria y Vida’

Poster by the Cuban artist Armando Tejuca published by the US Embassy.

14ymedio, Madrid, 12 September 2022 — The Cuban artist Armando Tejuca has designed a poster entitled You five nine, Me double two, sixty years of deadlocked domino in reference to one of the phrases of the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life]. In it you can see the poster with the five-nine dark and cracked, while the double two has the colors of the Cuban flag and rises brightly over the other. The image, disseminated by the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the U.S. embassy on the Island, has generated a wide debate among detractors and defenders of the regime.

“Diplomats of the United States, I feel bad for you, you continue to highlight four cats that meow from exile, but without taking them… to come and fight here. On the other hand, your government bets on another group of losers, the dissidents. Here, Revolution takes a while. Homeland or Death, we will win,” writes one user. “It would be an excellent idea for every free Cuban to post and replicate this work so that it can be seen as the wonderful song that inspired it,” another responds.

Among those who have commented from the regime are Oni Acosta Llerena, a very popular music critic on national television, who has asked the embassy to “improve and elevate” its tastes “as soon as possible.” Eduardo Palomares, Granma’s correspondent in Santiago de Cuba, has urged the diplomatic headquarters to give its opinion on the deaths of children by firearms produced in the U.S., the secret documents that Donald Trump had at his Florida residence in Florida or “the imprisonment of Latino children in cages,” among other things.

Many comments accuse the U.S. of being guilty, however, of “boxing in” the Island, which has provoked many responses as well. “Everything comes from the U.S; do you ever see online stores with products from [Cuba] and other countries? Equipment and items of all kinds enter through the shipping agencies, shipments of dollars, the chicken that the people eat is American…. Don’t deceive us anymore. Marxist-Leninist demagoguery is over. Communism is a utopia,” says one reader. continue reading

And although some think it’s wrong for a diplomatic seat to position itself like this in front of the government of the country where it’s located, others have thanked the opposition for its support, as they leave messages like this: “That’s right, that song is an anthem for the vast majority of Cubans who fight for a Cuba free of dictatorship.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Three Cuban Players Resign Due to the Lack of Opportunities and Their Low Salaries

Cuban baseball players Reilandy González, Tony Guerra and Lázaro Emilio Blanco will no longer continue with the Vegueros team. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 September 2022 — Players Reilandy González, Tony Guerra and Lázaro Emilio Blanco resigned from Cuban baseball for various reasons. According to journalist Ernesto Amaya Esquivel, the three athletes were key in the results obtained by Pinar del Río, and “they always stepped up; they showed commitment and dedication to their people.”

González’s absence as a player in the Elite League, which is expected to begin on October 8, was the preamble to a farewell marked by the lack of opportunities. “I decided not to play anymore. I’ve been having results for three years, sacrificing myself, and they didn’t even take me to Curaçao,” the reliever said last Friday.

This player experienced his best moment in the 60th National Series with a balance of 3-1: he saved six games, struck out 45 batters (49 innings), and his clean average was 1.82. With these numbers, González told the reporter, they didn’t call him for any of the pre-selections that year. “I’m not going anywhere to launch the Elite Series or the other National Series,” he lamented.

Another factor that discouraged González was the low salary and the limitations. “We looked at the figures, and in a pre-selection we win more than in the series,” the athlete said. continue reading

Tony Guerra lives in a similar situation. The 24-year-old pinareño formed the team that won the bronze medal in the First Junior Pan American Games that took place in Calí, Colombia (2021). The decision of this athlete, who made a difference with his home runs and gave several victories to the Vegueros team, is surprising.

“We looked at the figures, and in a pre-selection we win more than in the series,” said Reilandy González.”

González and Guerra were joined by the veteran Lázaro Emilio Blanco, the 37-year-old outfielder, who with this decision seems to end his career as a player. In addition to being an active athlete, Blanco has studied automotive mechanics and has a bachelor’s degree in Physical Culture.

These players’ request to leave baseball comes while others continue to leave the island. That exodus to the U.S. doesn’t stop. “In this phenomenon, more than thirty players have arrived in the U.S. from the Mexican border during 2022,” said journalist Francys Romero.

On Saturday, Matanzas’ natural right-handed pitcher, Alain López, arrived in the U.S.. The reporter said that this young man was able to achieve his dream thanks to the fact that he resorted to the “family claim” option and will set himself up in Florida.

López was then “leader in effectiveness of the 2019-2020 National Youth Championship with Matanzas. He participated in nine victories of his Matanzas team in the last National Youth Championship,” according to the portal Béisbol FR!

One day before López set foot on U.S. territory, it was confirmed that the Cuban Juan Carlos Hernández had arrived in Miami. The former Mayabeque player left the Island and took the route of Nicaragua, from where he began his journey until he reached the Mexican city of Piedras Negras, in Coahuila, where, after 25 days, he was able to cross the Rio Bravo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Officials Brag That the Price of Electricity, Ever More Scarce, Does Not Increase in Cuba

Units 6 and 7 of the thermoelectric plant in Mariel, units 4 and 6 in Nuevitas; unit 2 in Felton, unit 4 in Renté, and the one in Otto Parellada are still out of service. (Radio Reloj)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2022 — On Sunday, 83% of homes in Cuba were affected by power outages, which lasted about seven hours on average, according to the reports from Cuba’s Electric Union, which were shared on national television on Monday and a very similar situation is expected today.

According to data published by UNE on its Facebook page — where comments on certain posts are limited — power generations issues were experienced yesterday, with a deficit of 764 MW at night and 850 during the day; tonight a 751 MW deficit is expected and 821 during peak times. That is, if the situation does not deteriorate, because units 6 and 7 of the thermoelectric plant in Mariel, units 4 and 6 in Nuevitas; unit 2 in Felton, unit 4 in Renté, and the one in Otto Parellada are still out of service.

In this context, the state-run press has published an opinion piece by Lázaro Oramas, a member of Cubainformación who lives in Spain, titled Cuba: Electricity Crisis? Or the Effects of War? during which he states, among other things, that despite inflation, “in Cuba electricity prices have not increased” and he compares this to the situation in Puerto Rico, where “with privatized electricity, there are also constant blackouts” and the costs have increased by 60%.

“If in Cuba groups of people protest, desperately, against the power outages, it shows that people ’are in disaggrement with the regime’ and they go ‘to the streets to demand freedom’. However if, in Puerto Rico, the police shoots tear gas at point-blank range at those who protest against the blackouts, or if they hit journalists, why don’t we read the same terms, such as ‘regime’, ‘repression’, or ‘freedom’?” writes Oramas. continue reading

The Puerto Rican electric grid was turned over to a private company in 2020. The system’s instability was evident since 2017 when Hurricane María caused significant damages. Furthermore, the debt had grown at a dizzying speed, which is why the state negotiated with a company to manage and modernize the infrastructure. In April of 2022, a major failure, the cause of which is still undetermined, left half the country without power. The discontent generated by the price increases clashed with the power outage and resulted in the protests which, finally, forced a breach in the contract between the government and Luma Energy.

The situation is far from what happens on the Island, where the power outages and scheduled blackouts are ongoing and are a headache for millions of Cubans each summer, although in 2022 they have become unbearable. The cause, according to Oramas is obvious, “and objective: the technological precariousness of the power plants in a country without hard currency and under a U.S. blockade.”

Several Cuban economists have stated that the investment needed in the thermoelectric plants or in renewable energy would be possible if they would halt hotel development, especially at a time when tourism is declining. But the authorities continue to solely blame the foreigners.

At the end of August, Miguel Díaz-Canel, during a visit to the Fenton power plant where he showed up backed by Raúl Castro, stated that authorities would do whatever was necessary to repair the thermoelectric plant. “It’s easy, taking money planned for hotels, which have occupancy rates of less than 50%, might be a good idea,” stated economist Elías Amor at the time.

That day, the ruler stated that by December, the blackouts would come to an end, but less than 24 hours later, the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, the country’s largest, was out of service. After several very difficult days, during which the power generation deficit was greater than 50%, they managed to stabilize some of the units at different plants throughout the country, which led authorities to be optimistic.

A few days ago, the daily Escambray solicited the opinions of its readers on whether the power outages should be reduced since an improvement was in sight, but things have deteriorated again.

“In Colombia, an oil-producing country with large foreign investments, there are a half million homes without electricity,” Oramas article continues. “In contrast, Cuba’s electrification, according to World Bank data, is close to 100%. Have you read that?” he says. What he does not state is that it rarely functions.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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The Hidden War of Cuba’s Telecommunications Company Against Our Freedoms

An office of the Cuban state telecommunications company Etecsa on Obispo Street, in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 12 September 2022 — “We have not reported any breakages in that area,” the customer service employee of the Cuban telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, answers in a tired voice. It is the fifth time that I have called on the same day to complain because web browsing from my mobile does not work, but Etecsa only gives vague explanations: “Perhaps there is congestion on the network.” Almost four years after internet access on cell phones appeared on this island, staying connected is still a headache.

With more than seven million active mobile phone lines, and rates that allow Etecsa to pocket figures in the millions of dollars each month, anyone would assume that this state-owned company has engaged in a process of investments and improvements over the years that enhance the experience of its subscribers. However, instead of benefits and new functionalities, we Cubans have seen our connectivity to the great world wide web deteriorate in recent months. Like a crab, the Etecsa networks have gone backwards in stability and data transmission speed.

It should be clarified that the impairment of the service is not the same for everyone. In the editorial office of this newspaper, it happens, more and more frequently, that the 4G network that is working at five in the morning disappears by the time dawn arrives, leaving our mobile phones disconnected and practically useless for certain journalistic tasks. Coincidentally, the service is restored in the afternoon or at night, without any company operator knowing what answer to give us about the reasons for the interruption. Something similar happens to other independent journalists, activists and opponents in Cuba, but Etecsa does not respond – at all – to their rights as customers who pay for a service.

Since naivety is the first thing you lose when you live under totalitarianism, we went through those first speculations a long time ago: thinking that maybe it was a technical problem that affected the entire neighborhood; or an electrical storm that damaged the transmission tower of the closest phone line; or a blackout that left the company’s data servers useless. After inquiries and questions, we can only conclude that these difficulties we are experiencing are due to a political decision. continue reading

By the will of a regime that is allergic to the free flow of information, we Cubans must wade through a handicapped internet in which audiovisual files take forever to be published and a long hell to download. Significantly, these difficulties become greater when trying to access networks like Facebook, a platform that has become a wall of denunciations of Cuban citizens and the place where the first images of any popular protest that occurs on the island almost always appear.

“They knocked down the internet, surely they threw it into the street somewhere,” I heard a young woman say from a long line to buy bread several days ago. The woman was right. After several of us in line tried, to no avail, to check our email inbox or chat with a friend, we found out about the demonstration in El Cepem and the demands of a group of residents of that poor community of Artemisa that the police not suppress their attempt to leave the country. The logic of “there is no connection to the web, something must be happening that the ruling party wants to hide” hardens into a certainty with each “coincidence” between the data blackouts and the protest events.

As Etecsa does not respond and has zero transparency about what really happens, the customers of this telecommunications monopoly are left to speculate and connect the dots. We can conclude, for example, that since the popular protests of July 11, 2021 our access to the great world wide web is more precarious. We also assume that the regime’s recently announced agreements with Russia on information technology, along with those previously with China, are not to expand the frameworks of autonomy for Internet users, but rather the contrary.

Along with the censored sites, the mobile service cuts and the censorship of keywords in text-only messages (SMS), Etecsa has been adding layers and layers of new restrictions until leaving us with weighted-down and totally monitored access to the web. Probably inspired by the excesses of Beijing, the Cuban regime has been erecting its own great wall to filter the “pernicious” effects of the free flow of content and intends for this wall to reach a limit where we desist from using the networks as a virtual civic plaza.

While it was 14 years ago I started my blog Generation Y blog with an old laptop and, shortly after, I opened a Twitter account to which I sent blind messages by SMS, it will not be these ups and downs in connectivity that will prevent me from continuing to report on deep Cuba. But I fear that what today are outages and reductions in the quality of service for many Etecsa clients, tomorrow will be jails, beatings and convictions. It’s not about kilobytes, it’s about freedoms.

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The Cuban Migratory Wave is Leaving a ‘Generation Gap’ on the Island

Migrants in Ciudad Juárez waiting for their asylum processes to enter the United States. (Captura)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Jorge I. Pérez, Miami, 9 September 2022 — More than 177,000 Cubans have arrived by land in the United States and more than 5,000 by sea since October 2021, in a new wave of migration from the Island to the North, which already exceeds that of the Mariel Boatlift and is “widening the generation gap.”

The issue will be addressed this Saturday by the conference named “Cuban migrations under totalitarianism and its consequences,” organized by the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory and the group of former political prisoners, the plantados, with the participation of representatives from the different waves of Cubans who have arrived in South Florida since 1959.

It will be attended by Luis Manuel Rolle, who arrived in the United States in 1994 as a rafter at age 16. Today he is a retired captain of the U.S. Army and a specialist in military and geopolitical strategy.

“I will explain from the sociological point of view the generation gap that these migratory waves leave within Cuba,” he tells EFE.

Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency leave no doubt that the current Cuban exodus is out of the ordinary. With less than a month to go before the end of the fiscal year (the new one begins on October 1), 177,848 Cubans have arrived by land. In fiscal year 2021, there were 39,303, and during the 2020 pandemic, 14,015. continue reading

According to Rolle, “it’s the largest migratory wave, including Mariel, Camarioca, the Freedom Flights’ and (Operation) Peter Pan.” In his opinion, “what is happening now is that Cuba has made an agreement with Nicaragua to relieve this pressure cooker” that emerged after the social explosion in July 2021.

“Throwing 177,000 people into the water could have led the United States to an aggressive response. Now we’re seeing that Cubans can go to Nicaragua [without a visa] and from there begin this very dangerous journey to the U.S.,” he says.

“The Government of Cuba is currently in favor of a mass exodus and launches its citizens on a dangerous journey through forests and third countries with human trafficking,” added the author of the YouTube channel Epicentro Global.

For journalist and former political prisoner Pedro Corzo, “we are now facing a gigantic migratory wave, the largest of all and one of the bloodiest due to the insecurity that many Cubans are facing,” he tells EFE.

“We’ve read what is happening in the Darién jungle where so many people are dying and women are being raped and murdered,” says Corzo, who is the organizer of the conference.

Corzo adds that “there is one aspect that we can’t ignore, and that is that over the years these migratory waves are accompanied by thousands of individual exits with different routes and through third countries.”

“Some have been banished, deported and separated from the country where they were born, a despicable amount. We’re going to highlight all that; we don’t want it to be forgotten,” he says.

Irvin Morales, a clinical psychologist who went into exile from Cuba in 1991, tells EFE that “recently, the Cuban migratory patterns have reached levels never seen before.”

“The desperation that this indicates is increasingly pronounced, and any Cuban who thinks that he’s strong enough in mind and body for this journey will take it,” Morales adds.

Last week, the U.S. Joint Task Force for National-Southeast Security (HSTF-SE) stated that it has increased its “operational position” “to face a recent increase in irregular maritime migration that originates in the Bahamas and Cuba through the Florida Straits.”

“The agencies that are part of HSTF-SE are increasing patrols and law enforcement by land, air and sea, day and night,” the federal entity said.

According to official data, since October 1, 2021, U.S. Coast Guard crews have intercepted 5,392 Cubans at sea, compared to the 838 intercepted during the previous fiscal year.

Most of those intercepted at sea are repatriated, unlike those arriving by land that the Cuban Government doesn’t accept back, according to Rolle, “in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Communists are Reluctant to Absolve Mikhail Gorbachev

During his trip to Cuba in 1989, despite the show of diplomacy, Gorbachev and Castro couldn’t hide the abyss that separated their ideas. (EP)

14ymedio, Madrid, 31 August 2022 — “We have seen sad things in other socialist countries, very sad things.” In 1989 Fidel Castro used these words to refer to the process he didn’t want to name: perestroika. More than 30 years later, the official Cuban press has once again ignored, in its report about the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the word that marked the political trajectory of one of the most relevant men in the history of the twentieth century.

Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, reduces the news of the death of the last president of the USSR to a short 14 lines on page two of its printed edition. On its website you have to scroll up to five times to find a brief obituary in which Gorbachev is defined as “the last president of the Soviet Union,” “supreme leader of the country” and “secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”

There’s no space for the mere mention of his role as a promoter of the reforms that changed the Soviet system and ended up putting an end to the USSR. Just one line to call him a “notable and at the same time controversial” figure of the last century. Are there reasons? They must be sought in Prensa Latina, the only state media that mentions the banished word and affirms that the Soviet leader “has legions of supporters and detractors. The former consider him a reformer who brought freedom and democracy to a hermetic country and created the concepts of glasnost (transparency and freedom of expression) and perestroika (reconstruction, reform). For the latter, he is simply responsible for the end of a superpower.”

In Cubadebate, the version is even shorter than Granma’s, although readers have taken charge of stoking the debate. “A great statesman, of enormous courage and honesty, who tried the impossible: to reform the system in the direction of pluralism of opinion and freedom of expression and the press,” says a user of the group, one of those who believe that the USSR was already beyond salvation when perestroika arrived, or point out that it avoided a third world war.

In the face of these, there are contrasting opinions that describe Gorbachev as naive for trusting the United States or — directly — as a traitor. “He forcefully collaborated to stab socialism in the back. May he not rest in peace. He doesn’t deserve it.” continue reading

The division that is reflected today in the media is a mirror of what happened in 1989, when the then-leader of the USSR visited Cuba, his first destination in Latin America. At that time, several opponents received the man of the reforms in Moscow with hope. Elizardo Sánchez, of the Human Rights Commission; Samuel Martínez, of the Pro Human Rights Party; and Hubert Jerez, of the Martí Committee for Human Rights issued a letter in which they described Gorbachev as “one of the great social reformers” of their time and said that “the vast majority of the Cuban people also want democratic changes.”

The Cuban authorities had taken great care in a visit that was as uncomfortable as it was necessary. Castro despised the Soviet change of direction, but he couldn’t afford to snub the head of the Island’s main economic support. Gorbachev was in a similar situation: although he was bothered by the Cuban’s orthodoxy, he was aware of the influence he maintained throughout Latin America, and his enormous symbolic and real power throughout the region.

Gorbachev spoke of the pressure to which the Island was subjected by the “imperialist neighbor,” but he didn’t hesitate to praise the benefits of the reforms carried out in his own country. With “the democratization of all aspects of national life, people feel freer; they want to participate more directly in political problems,” he said.

“We don’t see our approaches as a universal recipe,” he added, a few words that were a respite for Fidel Castro, whose defense against those who insinuated that following in Moscow’s footsteps was a good idea was to say that the same solutions don’t work everywhere.

In the presence of Gorbachev, the commander-in-chief proclaimed that “the unrestricted principle of the sovereign will of each people and country is a golden rule of Marxism-Leninism” and called it “arbitrary, capricious, absurd” to be asked to “apply in a country of 10 million inhabitants the formulas that are applied in a country of 200 million. It’s crazy,” he said.

Despite the evident abyss that separated them, Castro affirmed that “Our relations are going extraordinarily well,” while Gorbi nodded.

In November 2016, when Castro passed away, the Russian was full of praise. “Fidel stood up and strengthened his country during the cruelest moments of the American blockade and with colossal pressure on him. Even so, he was able to get his country out of this blockade to guide it on the path of independent development,” he said. And although he acknowledged that the restructuring of the USSR made Castro “suffer,” he added: “He was an exceptional, unique personality. We have been friends and we remained friends until the end.”

For now, at the hour of Gorbachev’s death, the Palace of the Revolution keeps silent.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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