14ymedio – Page 179 – Translating Cuba

More Police and Arrests and Fewer Blackouts to Calm Things Down in Nuevitas, Cuba

Moment in a video during the second protests in Nuevitas, in the early hours of Saturday, in which protesters are seen facing an agent. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 August 22, 2022 — The Camagüey city of Nuevitas, a protagonist on Thursday and Friday of the largest demonstrations in Cuba since July 11, 2021, wakes up on this repressed and silent Monday. Throughout the weekend, its inhabitants had their Internet access restricted, and the streets were patrolled by police, soldiers and civilian agents.

Eyewitness testimonies about the protests, published on social networks, have been deleted. Thanks to these videos, it was possible to observe the crowd that made up the demonstrations, where along with demanding an the end of the blackouts — “turn on the power, dickhead” – they shouted other high-sounding slogans, such as “freedom” “homeland and life” or “Díaz-Canel, motherfucker, the people are tired,” and sang of the national anthem.

There is also no trace of what happened in Nuevitas in the official press. The provincial newspaper Adelante limited itself to announcing this Sunday a new “energy schedule,” inferring that there will be fewer blackouts.

In an attempt to appease the spirits of the population, they also reported that the Diez de Octubre thermoelectric plant, in Nuevitas, which had stopped working due to breakdowns, “synchronized” two of its units to the National Energy System. The title of the note published on Saturday, Thermoelectric unit of Nuevitas integrated into the national generation of was, however, misleading: both blocks later, were again “off-line” because of problems with the boilers, and the only unit that works in the plant is the VI.

Some official media did allude to the protests on their social networks, only to dismiss them. Thus, Radio Nuevitas reproduced on Facebook a publication that calls peaceful demonstrations “disruptions of public order, always encouraged from the outside to incite hatred, popular discontent and violence.” continue reading

The text, signed by Pedro Alexander Cruz Moiset of Radio Cadena Agramonte, extends to the opinion that “none of those who call for a regime change in Cuba have lived under capitalism, much less delved into the history of capitalism.”

The author suggests that “rather than inciting hatred, the call must be for unity, discipline, order, the collective search for the solution to the real and objective problems that the nation is experiencing,” and ends by calling for “the defense of the Revolution and its conquests” with the slogan “homeland or death, we will win.”

The publication was strongly criticized in the comments. “You have to be really cold to blame others for what happens in Cuba! Enough is enough! No one believes you!” writes Indira C. Martínez. “Be ashamed of your complicity and do real journalism!” asks Gissel Herrera.

A Cuban woman, resident in Miami, Alina Jalil, argues: “They could say that Cubans were asleep because there was no internet, and they barely had communication with the outside world, buddy! But now? It’s shameful that they publish this! Who is that note for?”

And the Havanan Niurvis Delgado says: “The people are tired of so many unfulfilled promises. They protest to ask for change and demand that they be heard, because they know that there’s a better life and that what they lead is not life,” while encouraging: “We are all Neuvitas! Poor, brave people!”

Meanwhile, Justicia 11J reported that the relatives of Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, La Chamaca, were informed by the police of Nuevitas that the 21-year-old girl was transferred to Camagüey. “We don’t take this information for granted until Mayelín makes the regulation call that would put an end to her disappearance,” clarifies the legal platform, which registers a total of 42 detainees in the protests that have occurred on the Island since the beginning of the “scheduled blackouts” in mid-June.

On Sunday, the organization mentioned ten others arrested for the demonstrations in Camagüey. Two of them are José Armando Torrente and his wife, parents of Gerlin Torrente Echevarría, the 11-year-old girl who along with two others was assaulted by security forces in the early hours of Saturday.

In addition, they report that the hairdresser Josué Nápoles Sablón, El Nene, and six demonstrators from the peoples council of Camalote were arrested: Yasmani García Ramírez, Michel Escalona Ramírez, Kenay Perdomo Soria, Héctor Curbelo, José Antonio Rodríguez and Richard Conte Betancourt.

Finally, they confirmed the arrest of Julio Gil de Montes, related, says Justicia 11J, “to his critical statements about the first secretary of the Party in Camagüey.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Every Man for Himself, Blackouts are Growing in Cuba and so is the Market for Generators

Since August 15, Cubans are allowed to import up to two power generators without commercial purposes. (CMKX Radio Bayamo/Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2022 — “Noiseless and efficient,” according to the text that accompanies the photo of a power generator that, for about $4,000, promises to exorcise the demon from the blackouts. The most precious status symbol on the Island is a device that keeps appliances running when the government cuts off the power. Only surpassed by a plane ticket to emigrate.

The energy deficit, due to the poor state of the thermoelectric plants and the lack of fuel, has plunged Cubans into darkness. In large areas of the country, electricity appears for only a few moments, not exceeding ten hours of service per day. Cooking, cooling off or being able to drink a glass of cold water depend on running devices that invariably need power.

Since August 15, with the easing of customs measures, Cubans can import up to two generators with a maximum power of 15,000 watts without commercial purposes. The duty payment may vary depending on the capacity of the device and whether the traveler brings in other goods that are also taxed, but that small opening has been enough to trigger the market for generators.

Ibrahim has been traveling to Panama for six years to import household appliances. “The pandemic almost put me out of business because I couldn’t travel for some time, but now I’m back on track,” he tells 14ymedio. “The most profitable thing right now is to bring in generators, because people are desperate and pay well for them. If you don’t have a generator, you don’t have quality of life.”

Those who don’t have the resources to buy one appeal to ingenuity: blades of a fan that are driven by pedaling a bicycle, improvised beds in the doorway or on a terrace to take advantage of even the smallest breeze in the early hours of the morning, and the traditional hand fan that serves to refresh the skin and scare away mosquitoes are just some of the ways, but they are only palliative and barely calm the discomfort. continue reading

Living in the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, Ibrahim’s clients are middle-income people, often with families abroad who can help them with their expenses and who don’t want to go through the blackout without being able to turn on at least one fan, a rice cooker or a television. “I haven’t left Cuba yet, and I already have six orders for generators.”

“The most in demand right now are those that use both gasoline and propane, because there’s no guarantee that one of the two can always be bought. Diesel ones also have their market,” he explains to this newspaper. “The problem is that now it has also become a problem to get the fuel, so buying the device doesn’t end the problem,” he admits.

Among Ibrahim’s clients are families who seek to ease domestic life during power outages but also some entrepreneurs. “I have people who can’t afford to lose power because valuable merchandise will spoil, or they’ll lose a lot of money because they can’t work.” As an example, he mentions “informal shrimp and lobster sellers,” in addition to a home beverage business that sells its products online and promises them “always cold.”

The prices vary. Ibrahim sums it up: “For every watt I generate you pay me a dollar. But if it’s a powerful generator of more than 4,500 watts, I can provide it, and there are discounts that make the price cheaper. If, in addition, the client wants it to be home-delivered, that can be arranged.”

But it’s not all a matter of money when it comes to acquiring one of these devices that saves you from darkness and heat. “My brother has been insisting that I buy one for a long time, but I live on a street where everyone is a big gossip,” laments Juan Carlos, a resident of the city of Alquízar. “If, in the middle of a blackout, the only house that is illuminated is mine, people will start talking.”

Juan Carlos runs a modest business selling fresh cheese and yogurt. Most of his business is informal, and he’s afraid to keep his lights on when the neighbors can’t even see their hands. “The least that can happen is envy, and the worst is the thieves, who might think I have a lot of money because I have a generator.”

The theft of these devices is becoming more frequent. “In the early hours of the morning they took the generator that we had secured behind a padlocked fence,” a resident of El Vedado, who managed to use her generator for only a few weeks, explains to this newspaper. “It was wonderful, although a little noisy,” she says. “We never filed a complaint with the police because we had bought it on the black market.”

Ibrahim doesn’t want to import a generator for his family. “My thing is to make money to get my wife and my two children out. If I have to spend that time fanning myself with a piece of cardboard, I’ll do it.” In advance, he already knows what devices to bring to the island in the first days of September. The classified ad he has put in several places shows a large generator, with wheels and accompanied by a phrase: “Sleep all night without worrying about blackouts.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Police Thwarted Andy Garcia’s Release from Prison and His Exit from the Country, His Family Denounces

Family members of Andy García Lorezno, one of those arrested for July 11th (11J), in front of his home in Santa Clara. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 19, 2022–Andy García Lorenzo, one of the men prosecuted for last year’s ’11J’ (11 July) protests in Santa Clara, was punished once again for his activism. The young man was transferred to a maximum security prison known as El Pre, his sister Roxana denounced on Thursday after the order for him toserve his sentence in a labor camp was revoked.

“That is what they told us, but we’re not sure of it,” said the young woman, who reminded us that it is not the first time State Security has lied to the family.

García Lorenzo’s transfer occurred just two days after his family denounced that the 24-year-old was “in poor health.”

“As of yesterday, my brother had not eaten for two days,” stated Roxana García during a live stream on Facebook, during which she said that Andy was in prison “in terrible conditions, without food. Most likely he hasn’t eaten anything. We don’t really know what is happening with him, what the justification was for his transfer, under what conditions, and in what manner.”

In the video, the young woman addresses State Security and revealed that the family “was preparing itself” because Andy would be out “soon” and the family would leave the country with him. “You have shown us that you will do everything possible to try to break up the family,” she said, but “Andy’s family will be around him for quite a while.”

Since García Lorenzo was arrested on the afternoon of July 11, 2021, Roxana as well as her husband, Jonatan López, and both of their fathers, Nedel García and Pedro López have been very actively defending 11J political prisoners and on several occasions have denounced the harassment of the political police.

The young man was sentenced to four years in prison for public disorder, contempt, and assault during a trial held on January 10, along with 15 other protesters. He was supposed to have served that time interned in a correctional labor camp known as El Yabú. continue reading

Before going to that center, García Lorenzo was able to spend close to two weeks at home while awaiting the paperwork to enter the penal system, but the joy was short-lived; after spending two days with his family, he was arrested on the street, while riding a motorcycle with his father, and transferred to the camp.

According to reports by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), Andy García Lorenzo’s case is another one among many opponents who endure terrible medical care in prison. On Friday, the Madrid-based organization demanded the International Red Cross and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions be allowed to visit Cuban prisons.

The Observatory allegedly received “information of health conditions that have occurred or have been aggravated among political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. In several cases, the allegations include indifference on the part of prison authorities or the lack of appropriate treatment for their illnesses.”

In addition to García Lorenzo, the Observatory has registered the cases of Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, “with facial paralysis following threats and intimidation by prison authorities”; Maikel Puig Bergolla, who suffers from diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and a skin infection; Félix Navarro, also diabetic and who has been infected with COVID-19 twice, experiencing drastic weight loss and infections.

The organization adds to that list prisoners Yuri Valle Roca, Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo, Dayron Marín Rodríguez and Walnier Aguilar Rivera. “From past experience,” it concludes, “we know the experience in the regime’s prisons has been nefarious for the physical and mental health of many Cubans.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Experts Say the Pollution Levels of the Matanzas Fire are ‘Low’

Remains of the fire at the Supertanker Base of the port of Matanzas (Cuba). (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, August 22, 2022 — The serious fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base threw out “low” levels of pollutants, the Cuban authorities told the official press on Sunday.

Oscar García Martínez, delegate of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment in Matanzas, said that the main effects are “air quality, as in any fire” and that the measured levels “do not compromise human health.”

The accident, which began on August 5 and lasted almost a week, claimed the lives of 16 people, some of them young people who were undergoing compulsory military service, and injured 146, 17 of whom are still hospitalized.

“Everything indicates that what happened in the fire doesn’t seem to have compromised any aspect for the future,” García Martínez said without showing exact figures. The Government expects to have an environmental impact assessment by September. Scientific research, the official said, continues. “If we know anything new, we will inform you,” he told the newspaper Girón. “If any indicator is altered, we will analyze it and follow up on it.”

The specialist said that the samples taken in Matanzas Bay, near the industrial area where the disaster occurred, “corroborate visually that there is no damage right now.” continue reading

He pointed out that “we had never experienced a spill (of crude oil) associated with a fire,” and research on its effects covers aspects related to soil, agricultural production and traces in livestock milk — a series of elements to ascertain the real magnitude of the impact of the fire, the largest recorded on the island.

This analysis stage, planned for two months, could be extended up to two more years with other parameters, “to reassess soil, vegetation and food chains,” he added.

Although he considers that “the danger has already passed,” because the focus that caused the increase of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, among other substances, in the atmosphere “disappeared,” he estimates that the emanations are in the usual range in Matanzas.

Four of the eight tanks of the storage base, the largest facility of its kind in Cuba for receiving and storing crude oil, burned completely, causing explosions, flares of hundreds of feet and a curtain of smoke that reached neighboring provinces such as Mayabeque and Havana, located more than 60 miles to the west.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Why Nuevitas?

The Municipality of Nuevitas north of Camagüey, Cuba. (Radio Nuevitas/Facebook)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 22 August 2022 — The disproportionate repression against the protests of July 11 of last year had a very clear objective: to prevent people from again taking to the streets to demand democratic change in Cuba. The excessive prison sentences handed down by the courts also sought to send a message of terror that would paralyze any manifestation of dissent. However, the method of instilling fear did not work, and last Friday the residents of Nuevitas, in Camagüey, once again showed civic muscle by chanting “freedom” and “the people united will never be defeated.”

For two consecutive days, social outrage materialized in loud demands, the banging of pots and pans and defense – in the face of police violence and arrests – among residents who exercised their right to public and peaceful demonstration. What has followed is the old script of a dying regime that knows it does not enjoy the support of the people. A strong operation was deployed in that Camagüey municipality, especially in the Pastelillo neighborhood, where the most intense protests took place. There is already talk of dozens of arrests, a militarized town and the blocking of internet access.

In the midst of this stand-off between the libertarian desires of the citizens and the police tonfas, the question arises as to why the most important popular outburst after 11J — the 11 July 2021 protests — has happened precisely in Nuevitas. With its seaport, the city has the cosmopolitan influence stemming from a long interaction with sailors, and was shaped by trade between worlds, its coastline and its customs activities. In the 1960s, some guerrillas who had just come to power decided to turn it into the “industrial city” of the country, a Caribbean icon of development and modernity.

A factory making barbed wire factory, another making cement, a thermoelectric plant and a plant dedicated to the production of fertilizers were part of that dream of innovation. In those years, there were those who packed their bags in other provinces of Cuba and moved to Nuevitas, believing that if socialism was going to bear its first fruits of prosperity and bonanza somewhere, it would be in that piece of land with the smell of the sea. But the bubble burst at the end of the 1980s, when the Soviet subsidy, essential to maintaining that showcase, began to fade.

After that, everything has gone downhill for Nuevitas. Deterioration of its infrastructure, industries shut down or operating at half strength, inflation, salaries that are not even enough to cover the first week of the month, the exodus of its young people, food shortages, few continue reading

recreational opportunities and power cuts. The blackouts this summer gave the final blow to a population tired of cutting back on their dreams. Those who took to the streets on August 19 were, for the most part, the children of those who were made to believe that this beautiful seaport could only experience better times, evolution and splendor.

Those who banged on their pots and shouted insults at Miguel Díaz-Canel are the ones who grew up seeing how the sugar mills in the area were dismantled little by little, observing the decline in the flow of ships in the port, the dwindling of products in the markets and the money ever scarcer in their pockets. They, who were going to be the engineers and technicians who would enjoy the abundance of Cuban communism, are now segregated for not having foreign currency and must ask their emigrant relatives to help them buy whatever they need, from a liter of vegetable oil to a fan to alleviate the heat.

It is no coincidence that it is Nuevitas that is the epicenter of social unrest. They made them believe that they would touch the technological peaks, but now they spend more than ten hours a day with blackouts, they fan their children through the night so that the mosquitoes will allow them to sleep even a little ,and they press their faces against the windows of the stores that take payment only in Freely Convertible Currency to observe everything that they cannot acquire. What was going to be the “Industrial City of the Island” is today the best reflection of the national disaster.

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One Day, Cubans Will Find Out How Cowardly Fidel Castro Was All His Life

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 13 August 2022 — In the midst of the tragedy of the oil tank accident in Matanzas, Cuban President Díaz-Canel made some triumphalist statements modeled on the speeches of the former Maximum Leader. The declarations almost coincide with a birthday of Fidel Castro, a man whose regime is still in power on the basis of repression, propaganda and the iron control of information.

Unfortunately, many important events in Fidel Castro’s life are not known by millions of Cubans and have never been published in the pages of the State newspaper Granma.

For example, that he never entered the Moncada Barracks. He was in a car that was taking him to the scene to assume command of the attack. He was accompanied by several revolutionaries, including Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, who, upon arriving at the barracks, where the shooting could already be heard, hurried to join the combat, where he was wounded. Years later, Arcos became Ambassador of the Revolutionary Government in Belgium and was later sent to political prison for dissenting from Fidel’s new course.

He swam away, leaving his companions behind who were captured by the Cuban Navy.

That Sunday, July 26, 1953, inexplicably, the future Comandante en Jefe did not get out of the car and did not enter the barracks.

Many of those men died there, obeying his orders, while he fled to hide under the cassock of the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Enrique Pérez Serantes, who saved his life.

It was not the only time that Castro staged a “tactical retreat” by abandoning others.

Two weeks after his 21st birthday, at the end of August 1947, during the expedition to Cayo Confites, where he was training to overthrow the Dominican dictator Leónidas Trujillo, Fidel Castro took to his heels. In other words, he fled by swimming, continue reading

leaving his companions behind, who were captured by the Cuban Navy.

Many years later, in Washington, I had dinner with the former Cuban ambassador to Colombia, Dr. Guillermo Belt Ramírez, and his wife, Cuquita. Belt told me about the events of the Bogotazo in April 1948, the insurrection in Colombia following the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. According to Belt, Fidel, with his high-sounding speeches, encouraged young
Colombians to assault several police stations, but faced with the offensive by the Colombian Armed Forces and fearful for his life, he took refuge in the Cuban Embassy.

In the midst of the crisis there were no commercial flights from Bogotá to Cuba, but Fidel insisted that they would kill him if he left the diplomatic headquarters. In the end, the ambassador was able to get him on the only available flight: a cattle cargo plane. There, among the mooing cows, the future Maximum Leader departed for Cuba. Perhaps that trauma explains the comandante’s peculiar attachment to Ubre Blanca, his favorite cow.

According to official propaganda, the commander-in-chief’s bravery was legendary. But not enough for him to get close to Batista’s troops.

According to official propaganda, the commander-in-chief’s bravery was legendary. But not enough for him to get close to Batista’s troops. Hidden in his lair in the Sierra Maestra, between 1957 and 1958, he killed the “casquitos,” young peasants enlisted in the Batista army from far away, with a rifle with a telescopic sight. There are the photos, in the Museum of the Revolution, if anyone doubts it.

As for the unfortunate Argentine Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, when he was surrounded by members of a Bolivian army in 1967, at that time advised by the CIA, and without the support of the peasants or the Bolivian communists, Fidel let him die, without doing anything to save him.

In the fall of 1958, Fidel sent commanders Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos hundreds of miles to capture the city of Santa Clara, while he awaited the outcome of the battle in the Sierra Maestra, where he was caught sleeping by Batista’s flight on January 1, 1959.

Castro lingered a week on a victorious march, much like Benito Mussolini’s march to Rome. Acclaimed by crowds, including nuns, he arrived in Havana on January 8, accompanied by Commander Huber Matos, whom he would later sentence to 20 years in prison for daring to resign due to communist infiltration of the Rebel Army.

In the case of Grenada in 1983, Fidel ordered the Cuban forces not to surrender, to fight to the death. Castro´s press published how those Cubans, following Fidel´s orders, died holding their weapons, embracing the lone star Cuban flag.

In Angola and Ethiopia, it never occurred to Fidel to visit his troops in war zones, as did American presidents who went to fraternize with their soldiers in Vietnam.

It was not until after it became known that the head of the Cuban forces, Colonel Pedro Tortoló Comas, faced with the overwhelming push of the US forces that invaded that Caribbean Island where they, the Cuban forces, intended to replicate the Cuban revolution, decided to save Cuban lives and ordered their surrender. Due to his common sense, Colonel Tortoló, upon being repatriated, was reprimanded by Fidel and, after being demoted to the rank of common soldier, was sent to Africa to fight for having ignored the whims of the revolutionary leader. Never again did his name appear in the pages of Granma.

I am thinking of the case of other characters, such as Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler or Francisco Franco, who are also objects of propaganda deification. As in those cases, the story of Fidel Castro will one day also be known by the new generations in Cuba.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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General Blackout in Havana Due to an Alleged Breakdown in a High Voltage Line

Havana was almost in complete darkness, seen from Nuevo Vedado on Thursday night. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 2022 — A power outage left all of Havana in the dark on Thursday night. Shortly after 9:00 pm and neighborhood by neighborhood, the Cuban capital went out, with a few exceptions: Diez de Octubre, San Miguel, Cerro, Central Havana, Old Havana, Beach, Marianao, Boyeros. From the 14th floor of the editorial office of this newspaper, the panorama was as impressive as a satellite image of North Korea at night.

Not even government offices, such as those located in the Plaza de la Revolución, nor emblematic places, like the Capitol, La Cabaña or El Morro, were lit. And areas where, until now, they hadn’t taken away their power, such as neighborhoods near hospitals, were also without electricity.

Around 10:00 pm, the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) communicated what all Havanans knew: that a large part of the municipalities in the capital were “affected without electricity service.” Likewise, it clarified that “this impact on electricity service” was not related to “the energy deficit and scheduled blackouts” and that the causes were being investigated. The UNE had no idea what had happened, and that was very worrying. continue reading

Under normal conditions, a technician knowledgeable about the energy system explains to 14ymedio, the electricity company has a way of knowing in real time where a breakdown happens and, therefore, what caused it.

“However,” he ventures to say, “if the three sources of power in Havana are turned off, they have no way of knowing where the breakdown is or what happened, because if everything goes down, everything goes out.” And he says: “Something serious, but really serious, happened there.”

Once service was restored, two hours later, the UNE said that the problem had been due to “a breakdown in the 110 kV [kilovolt, high voltage] lines, which affected several substations that feed an important part of the city.”

The explanation didn’t satisfy the citizens’ suspicion. Sources for this newspaper also reported blackouts in Varadero, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba.

“I don’t remember a blackout of this magnitude without a hurricane,” said a concerned neighbor in Central Havana, where you could hear the distinctive racket of children playing outside the tenements and buildings.

Comments on Telegram in response to the brief statement of the UNE were limited, but some managed to express their indignation. “Everyone to the street! Cuba is one big block of poverty,” said the user Dama Bautista.

In fact, from the isolated screams in the middle of the night, it was inferred that many habaneros had their pots and pans ready to bang on in the midst of the darkness. Luyanó was the only place where, so far, some neighbors have carried out a protest, as reported in videos on social networks.

From the black beret patrols [Army Special Forces] that sources from San Antonio de los Baños report to this newspaper having seen “looking for a road to Havana,” it’s understood that the fear of a saucepan demonstration in the capital was spreading among the authorities.

Before that happened, and while crazy rumors about the leaders’ flight from the country began to circulate on social networks, around 11:00 pm the light returned.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Nicaragua Sends a Ship with Food to Cuba

Archive image of the Nicaraguan ship AC Sandino, sent this Thursday to Cuba. (EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Managua, 19 August 2022 — The Government of Nicaragua announced on Thursday that it sent a ship with food to Cuba, as an act of solidarity “with Cuban families.”

The ship Augustus C. Sandino, with a Nicaraguan flag, weighed anchor in the early hours of Thursday from the river port Arlen Siu, in the Autonomous Region of the South Caribbean (RACS), and headed to the Island, said the Executive Branch in a press release. Nicaraguan authorities expect the Sandino to arrive next Monday at the port of Mariel (Artemisa), about 30 miles from Havana.

This is the second shipment of aid granted by Nicaragua to Cuba so far in 2022, and the fifth since the street demonstrations of July last year on the island due to the lack of food and medicine, which has reached unprecedented levels. continue reading

The Government of Nicaragua didn’t give details about the type or quantity of food sent to Cuba this Thursday. In previous shipments, Nicaragua gave Cuba rice, beans, oil, coffee and other goods.

The governments of Nicaragua and Cuba have had close relations during the times when former Sandinista guerrilla Daniel Ortega ruled the country, first from 1985 to 1990, and then from 2007 up to the present.

Nicaragua and Cuba are part of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), led by the Island regime and chavista Venezuela.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Old Cheater and the Suspicious Guajiro Negotiate the Crisis in Cuba

This Thursday morning an old woman rehearsed an apology for taking a pound of rice without paying from the improvised point of sale located in the park on Carlos III and Belascoaín streets. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 August 2022 — With a paper cup in his hand, a man with a tanned face approaches those who pass through Havana’s Central Park. “My daughter suffered an accident yesterday and I need to buy her medicines,” he explains. He has been repeating the same story for years, which he seasons with more lurid details as the economic crisis worsens. A few feet away, a shaved-ice seller cursed because he had been paid with a five-peso bill as if it were 500 pesos. This very common counterfeiting swindle is due to the recent arrival of high-denomination banknotes whose colors resemble lower-value banknotes.

Upon hearing this story, the colleague who helped him push his cart also took the opportunity to talk about the scam he suffered in transfers through his mobile phone, which cost him his whole telephone balance. “You can’t trust people; they say one thing and then try to stab you in the back,” he said.

The feeling of mistrust spreads everywhere, and the most notorious scams of the Special Period are again recounted with fear. From steak made from a carpet to pizza with condoms masquerading as cheese, the urban legends of street fraud return in force to everyday conversations.

But beyond these milestones of deception, the small scam or apparent naivety is the one that’s most widespread on the Island.

This Thursday morning an elderly woman rehearsed an apology for taking a pound of rice without paying from the improvised point of sale located in the park on Carlos III and Belascoaín streets. “Mijo, give it to me and I’ll go right away to the ATM and bring you the money,” the lady repeated several times, but the merchant didn’t buy it. “Go and come back with the 50 pesos and then I’ll give you the rice,” the farmer responded categorically, adding in a lower voice: “I may be a guajiro but I’m not stupid.”

The deception also spreads to private cafes: snacks that show a slice of ham only on the outside but inside are empty, and presumed natural juices that are sold at exorbitant prices and are actually artificial concentrates mixed with water. However, the champion pickpocket is still the State: meat slices that don’t even have the memory of animal origin but continue reading

are marketed at the price of gourmet food, all-inclusive tour packages where you have to take a glass with you because in hotels they don’t have the packaging to serve drinks, and an internet access service, among the most expensive in the world, which barely guarantees a few hours.

The corner scammer justifies his villainy by pointing to the constant economic crimes committed by the ruling party. He himself is a victim of voracity and state inefficiency. “My old lady, if she goes to the cashier now to get money, she will return tomorrow because there’s a blackout and they’re out of service,” joked another customer from the point of sale on Carlos III Street. The crisis can lead to scams but, at the same time, it’s noticeable that people are more suspicious and don’t allow themselves to be scammed so easily.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: They’ve Militarized Nuevitas and Cut Off Internet Access to Prevent New Protests

Police repressed the protests in Nuevitas on Friday night. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 August 2022 — Nuevitas, Camagüey spent the day on Saturday under a heavy police operation, with restricted access to the internet and the streets patrolled by police and the military. Protests against the long power outages occurred on two consecutive days last week in that city.

Justicia 11J reported the “violent” arrest of José Armando Torrente on Saturday for his alleged participation in the protests in the Pastelillo neighborhood. The organization warned that “there is audiovisual evidence of aggression against his 11-year-old daughter, Gerlin Torrente Echeverría and another girl who was with her on Friday night, when police repressed the protesters.

Justicia 11J also stated that Gerlin’s mother was violently arrested but freed on Saturday night. Meanwhile, police have interrogated 21-year-old Fray Claro Valladares for his participation in the protests and also a 21-year-old young woman, known as La Chamaca, for live streaming the protests on Facebook.

According to Justicia 11J, José Armando Torrente was arrested in Nuevitas. (Courtesy)

On the other hand, arrests have also been reported in the area of Camalote, 52 kilometers from Nuevitas in the same province of Camagüey, where on Friday residents joined protests against the blackouts. Authorities avoided shutting off power on Saturday night in that municipality, according to neighbors who confirmed this to 14ymedio. continue reading

Although Justicia 11J is still verifying the information of those arrested, on social media they have published a list of at least six people arrested for participating in Friday’s protests. Among those arrested is Yasmani García Ramírez, who appears in several videos speaking to the rest of the protesters.

“It is worth fighting for a humble people who are paying for the blackouts in Cuba, suffering because their money is worthless to buy at the store, that is true, what everyone should know: we are living human misery. . .we are the most miserable country in the world. We’re all here demanding our rights as people, as citizens,” he is heard saying in a video where he is identified as Yasmani García and he ended by yelling, “Díaz-Canel, motherfucker!”

After his arrest, a video of his mother, Rogelina Ramírez, was shared; she confirmed her son’s arrest and stated that he only demanded his rights. “My son is only defending children, young people, those young people who like him have rights. Once children in this country turn 7 years old, they no longer have milk. At 7 years old they stop having breakfast and only have a packet of coffee mixed with seeds, which is what they can have before going to school,” says the woman.

In, Camalote, an area close to Nuevitas, Yasmani García Ramírez was also arrested (Facebook).

Yasmani García’s mother also criticized the inequality in access to food and that most people cannot access Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) stores. “There is always a part of society which benefits, benefits from that money that comes from abroad.”

According to the names shared on social media, Michel Escalera Ramírez, Kenay Perdomo Osorio, Héctor Curbelo, José Antonio Rodríguez Vega, Richard Conté Bigeltaf were also arrested in addition to an unidentified woman who had been beaten for demanding her son’s release.

The protests in Nuevitas began on Thursday night with shouts of “the people are tired.” Hundreds of neighbors took to the streets yelling slogans of freedom and demanding electricity. That day they also threatened to return to the streets if the authorities cut off the power again. By the light of their cell phones, those people held the largest protest since July 11th, which was repeated on Friday, this time with police presence.

Since Friday, the residents of Nuevitas reported its militarization. “All day they filled the town with black berets [Army Special Forces] who passed slowly in their vehicles down each street to intimidate us,” denounced a young protester, anonymously, on Saturday.

Justicia 11J reported 59 protests in response to blackouts in different neighborhoods throughout Cuba between June 14th and August 4th. The energy crisis affecting the Island has been increasing since June and, since July, the blackouts last between 10 and 14 hours a day.

The provincial government of Camagüey reported a new schedule of outages in the province of up to six hours by blocks. For Sunday, the state-run Unión Eléctrica expected a deficit of at least 34% in the electric power it generated.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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What’s Going to Happen with Cuban President Diaz-Canel’s Foreign Exchange Market?

Cubans spend inordinate amounts of their time waiting in lines, while supplies run out before their turn comes. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 18 August 2022 — It’s difficult to answer this question. With the dollar in the informal market above 130 pesos and rising, Cubans see with concern how access to the currency that allows the purchase of basic necessities and services, which are not accessible in national currency, becomes increasingly complicated. And to curb these fears, the Ministry of Economy and Planning has decided to publish on its website a note that it says is “explanatory” but that confirms how clueless the leaders of the Cuban economy are on all these issues.

If a caveat is allowed to be introduced from the first moment, the informative note says that “the foreign exchange market is the space where foreign currency is bought and sold, which allows the national currency and foreign currencies to be connected” and well, here the first “technical” error occurs when affirming that the market is a space.

It’s not true. Economic science says the opposite. It’s not a physical space, it’s something else. To associate the market with a spatial and even temporary reference is to trivialize something that operates so that millions of decisions by economic agents, expressed in terms of supply and demand for all products and services, reach a simultaneous balance that leaves everyone in a better position. And it’s not necessary for it to have any “physical space.”

Then the equilibrium price of this market, somewhat different from the price of malanga or yam, which establishes the exchange rate between the different currencies and the national currency, depends, as in any market, on the position of supply and demand for foreign currency. As the ministry’s note points out, in this market, “the providers of currency are export companies, foreign visitors, recipients of remittances and other agents who receive foreign currency, while the demand comes from agents of the economy who need to import, travel abroad or who require foreign currency for other purposes.”

I certainly don’t get their accounting. Does the ministry really believe that these are the only providers and demanders of foreign currency? They fall short and leave out more than 80% of operators. In this market, if demand exceeds supply, the exchange rate of the national currency will fall, and vice versa. continue reading

But really, the exchange rate market is much more than that, and Cuban communists don’t seem to be clear in their note about the true meaning of the exchange rate, which is nothing more than the factor that establishes a relationship between the value of the national economy and that of other, foreign economies.

They talk about the connection of the productive agents with the outside world, both for their needs for input through imports and for the sale of their production through exports. But there is much more to that relationship between internal and external supply than these commercial issues, and not taking them into account is another big mistake. For example, access to financial and capital markets is a matter of primary relevance and doesn’t appear anywhere in the note.

The recommendation, therefore, is that rather than taking into account supply and demand, attention must be paid to a series of variables and indicators that influence the determination and evolution of the relative prices, which are the exchange rates.

And to do this, an exchange rate policy must be designed that is related to and, at the same time, serve the achievement of the rest of the objectives of the national economic policy. The question is, does anyone know what those objectives are and what is supposed to be achieved? We’re in bad shape.

There are few things that are true in the ministry’s note, but one of them, perhaps the most obvious, is to recognize that the market and its exchange rate have an influence on all the prices of the economy. But the influence is much more than that, and as is being seen in Cuba, its greatest effect on prices is inflation, which is pushed upwards, unfairly, depending on the access to foreign exchange by different sectors of the population.

But, in turn, rising inflation deteriorates the exchange rate; therefore, the interdependence between the two poses a danger to achieving exchange-rate stability and controlling inflationary pressures. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

While Cuban communists try to find the answer, the conclusion is that when an exchange market is inefficient and doesn’t function properly, it generates distortions that prevent the fulfillment of the aforementioned objectives, limiting productive capacity, economic growth and development of the country. They should get to work as quickly as possible.

As for the legal or illegal access referred to in the informative note, of economic agents to foreign exchange, offering security, confidence and transparency, there is a clear commitment to putting an end to the only market that has worked since the entry into force of the Ordering Task* (and therefore, the foreign exchange market), which is the informal one, which began exchange services as soon as the Central Bank, bank branches, official exchange offices and airport offices stopped doing so. Aggression towards the informal market is a real threat that can pose an eventual repression of people engaged in these activities, which would not only be unfair, but also inefficient. Who is going to sell dollars in Cuba?

The note insists on the need to create and develop an official exchange market for the Cuban economy, but this is counterproductive, since it doesn’t seem necessary to remind government leaders that this market already exists. It was defined with a fixed official exchange rate of 1X24 and entered into force on January 1, 2021, with the beginning of the ordering task (it was one of the measures included).

Therefore, recreating what has already been created is a meaningless double back that should be translated into reality, which is none other than assuming the failure of the first launch and announcing this second, which looks like it won’t end well. For now, the regime begins to operate only with an exchange rate, which they say is “economically substantiated” but only for foreign exchange transactions and at only one address for the purchase of foreign currency. The sale is neither there nor is it expected.

The note attributes to the foreign exchange market two functions that, at this point, look like a chimera. The first is to ensure that the national currency allows access to all the goods and services of the economy, and to this end, dollarization is eliminated. This is a difficult issue as long as the regime itself continues to support and encourage the stores that sell in MLC [freely convertible currency].

The minister declared in the national assembly that 70% of the country’s monetary circulation moves in Cuban pesos, while the remaining 30% do so in MLC. Returning to stability positions from these levels can be much more complicated than it seems. Dollarization and stores in MLC are a business for the regime that will hardly change.

The second function is to ensure macroeconomic balance. This is the one sensible thing contained in the information note, but we are very afraid that it’s quite impracticable. The note says that progress must be made in reducing the fiscal deficit and monetary issuance. Perfect, what prevents the communists from lowering the deficit of 11% of GDP reached in 2021, more than double that of 2019?

There is no COVID-19 cost that justifies an expansion of spending of this magnitude, whose objective, as seen, has been to sustain GDP growth by 1.3% in the budgeted sector, while productive activities remained inert.

The note also refers to other functions, such as an alleged resizing of the state sector based on greater efficiency and effectiveness of public spending, and the control of wages without productive support, excessive profits and payments to private individuals, among other factors. It’s hard to believe that the foreign exchange market can be used for all this, but if they say so, let them do it, because it’s necessary to put order as soon as possible in an economy that doesn’t work.

The note concludes by pointing out that the ultimate goal should be to constitute an exchange market for the entire economy with a single exchange rate that guarantees the connection with foreign currencies of the national currency. In fact, this scenario, described in these terms, has not been presented in Cuba in a stable way since 1959.

Before that date, it should be remembered that the dollar and Cuban peso were on parity; that is, they were quoted at the same value. The same regime that started in 1959, which is still in power in 2022, makes no presence of facing this issue.

And they recognize that the implementation of the foreign exchange market is only a small part “of a much larger scaffolding, where no isolated measure alone will bring satisfactory results.” I totally agree. Once again, the lyrics seem well written, but then, as in so many other times, the music is out of tune. What a pity. The foreign exchange market will be another problem in a not very long time.

*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” (tarea ordenamiento) is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Wide Deployment of Cuba’s Repressive Forces Fails to Prevent Another Protest in Nuevitas

Protesters warned that if the electricity was cut off again, they would take to the streets again. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 August 2022 — For the second day in a row, this Friday night and during part of the early hours of this Saturday, the residents of Nuevitas, Camagüey, returned to the streets in protest over the long blackouts. The demonstration in the neighborhood of Pastelillo was repressed by the police, who arrested and struck several participants. The following videos were broadcast live.

Banging on pots and pans [a cacerolazo] and shouting “turn on the current, asshole,” “freedom,” “hey, police dickhead,” and “we don’t want more misery,” dozens of people demanded that the electricity be restored. The images show numerous police and military vehicles coming close to the demonstrators and the police attacking some of them, including at least two little girls who reported being beaten by uniformed personnel.

The demonstrators also shout “the people, united, will never be defeated” and say that several plainclothes police were in the crowd. “Those are children, they’re children,” one of the women who protests screams when the police attack a group marching down the street.

“All day the town filled with Black Berets [Army Special Forces], who passed by slowly in their vehicles on every street to intimidate us,” says a young protester who prefers anonymity. “They thought that by scaring us we wouldn’t go into the street, but we had already told them that if they took away our light again, we would protest again.”

“They also cut off our Internet for several hours, which is why there are many people who haven’t yet been able to publish their videos of the repression. The plainclothes policemen began to throw stones at people, and that made people angrier,” he explains. “Neighborhood Number 1 also took to the streets,” he adds. continue reading

According to another netizen, the police focused a spotlight on the entrance bridge to Pastelillo to “blind the demonstrators” and try to control the situation. “And they stoned the crowd, the ground was covered with stones,” he said.

In a video posted on YouTube, several neighbors are seen arguing heatedly with a policeman and another man who apparently identifies himself as a “secretary” of the Communist Party. Residents say that “in Havana they don’t cut off the power like they do here” and the official responds that with the protests “what Nuevitas is doing is an embarrassment.”

“It’s true that the police came to attack people here,” says a resident. “Did they come today to look good?” asks a woman who describes the assault on an 11-year-old girl. “You may have a generator in your house but we don’t. We’re stubborn,” adds a man who has “two children who can’t sleep.”

This protest comes a few hours after hundreds of people took to the streets in that same Camagüey city in a demonstration not seen in Cuba since July 11, 2021.

#Urgente | #Compartan La manifestación de este viernes en #Nuevitas por los #apagones, fue reprimida por la policía que arrestó y golpeó a varios participantes, según videos transmitidos en vivo o grabados desde el lugar. Más información en https://t.co/i96XEeJmqq pic.twitter.com/7AlYlZ52Pk

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) August 20, 2022

Text: #Urgent | #Share – This Friday’s demonstration in #Nuevitas for the #apagones [blackouts], was repressed by the police who arrested and beat several participants, according to videos broadcast live or recorded from the place. [Note: The little girls screaming in the video — striped shirt and red shirt — in a video recorded shortly after this one described what happened to them and showed their injuries.]

The protest, as observed in numerous videos shared on social networks, was massive, illuminated by the flashlight of cell phones and motorcycle headlights, and accompanied by banging on pots and pans, horns, clapping and shouted slogans.

According to what residents of Nuevitas told 14ymedio, the demonstrators went to the headquarters of the local Communist Party, a building that was illuminated in the middle of the darkness of the power outage, and there they cried out: “If you remove it again, we go to the streets again,” “we want freedom” and the traditional “the people, united, will never be defeated.”

Although the police arrived, “They practically couldn’t do anything, because it was a sea of people.” Immediately, he says, they turned on the power. “They were afraid of us,” the source said.

To respond to the popular protest, the regime organized a march on Friday, with Cuban flags, photos of Fidel Castro and the old slogan Pin pon fuera, abajo la gusanera,* a slogan that gained strength in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift and that was used against Cubans who decided to leave the country.

In the official counter-march, an official said that Nuevitas had the “heart and balls” to defend the Revolution.

*Translator’s note: Get out! Down with the worms!

Translated by Regina Anavy

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To the Cry of ‘The People Are Tired’ Nuevitas Registers Largest Protest in Cuba Since 11 July 2021

Massive night demonstration in the early hours of Friday in Nuevitas, Camagüey. (Captura/Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 2022 — Hundreds of people took to the streets early this Friday in Nuevitas, Camagüey, in a demonstration not seen in Cuba since July 11, 2021.

The protest, as seen in numerous videos shared on social networks, was massive, illuminated by the flashlight of cell phones and motorcycle headlights, and accompanied by banging on pots and pans, horns, clapping and shouted slogans.

Along with the cries calling for an end to the blackouts – “turn on the current, dickhead” — shouts of “freedom” and “homeland and life” also resonated. Some citizens yelled that irreverent slogan repeated on July 11 — “hey, you police dickhead” — and others, also like that Sunday last year, sang the national anthem at the top of their lungs and in unison.

“Díaz-Canel, singao*, the people are cansao*,” the Camagüeyans also chanted, thus adding a new slogan to the expression of popular discontent.

According to what resident of Nuevitas tell this newspaper, the demonstrators went to the headquarters of the local Communist Party, a building illuminated in the midst of the darkness of the power outage, crying out: “If they cut the power again, we will throw ourselves into the streets again,” “we want freedom” and the traditional “the people united, will never be defeated.”

The police arrived at the scene, says one of the participants in the protests, but “they practically couldn’t do anything, because this was a sea of people.” Immediately, he says, they turned on the power. “They’re scared of us,” he adds.

The demonstration in Nuevitas occurred shortly after the return of electricity to Havana, which was almost completely in the dark for two hours due to an alleged breakdown in a high voltage line, according to the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba.

Despite the indignation in Havana, only some residents of Luyanó banged on their pots and pans before power was returned. continue reading

Places are being added to the map of night protests over the blackouts, which the NGO Justicia 11J estimates at more than fifty since the scheduled power cuts began in mid-June, and for which, the legal platform said, there are about thirty people under arrest.

In Nuevitas, Luyanó, San Antonio de los Baños, Güira de Melena, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Río they know one thing well: if they protest, the light returns.

*Translator’s note: In English,”Díaz-Canel you motherfucker, the people are tired” loses the rhyme.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Composers of “Patria y Vida” — Homeland and Life — Will Receive the Medal of Freedom

The duo Gente de Zona flanking Yotuel Romero, in a scene from Patria y Vida. (Yotuel/YouTube/Captura)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, August 16, 2022 — The composers of the song Patria y Vida will be recognized with the Medal of Freedom that will be awarded to them by the Latino Composers Hall of Fame (LCHOF) at the welcome gala for its new members, which will be held on October 13 in south Florida.

This new award created by the LCHOF will end up in the hands of Yotuel Romero, Beatriz Luengo, Descemer Bueno, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Castillo Osorbo, Alexander Delgado, Randy Malcom Martínez and DJ El Funky, the composers of the song, which became an anthem for the opposition inside and outside Cuba.

The song, which was the soundtrack for the popular protests of July 11, 2021, has received, among others, the Latin Grammy Award for Best Song of the Year.

The Medal of Freedom will be one of the La Musa awards that will be presented at the LCHOF ceremony, which will take place at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, south Florida, and they will also celebrate their tenth anniversary, as announced on Monday by Billboard magazine.

The LCHOF, based in Miami Beach, will welcome its new members, including the Dominican, Johnny Ventura, who died in July of last year and who, posthumously, will join this room that brings together and pays tribute to the great figures of Latin music. continue reading

The other distinguished people in this year’s event will be the producers, Desmond Child and Rudy Pérez, both founders of the LCHOF, as well as the composer, Tony Renis.

The ceremony will also recognize the Mexican, Emmanuel, who will receive an award for his artistic legacy, and the Puerto Rican, José Feliciano, who will receive the Song of All Time award for his immortal theme Feliz Navidad.

Manuel Alejandro, from Spain, and the Venezuelan, Elena Rose, will be among the musicians awarded at the gala, as well as the executives of the music and entertainment industry, Gustavo Menéndez, Walter Kolm and Eddy Cue.

According to Billboard, the gala will be hosted by the Peruvian-American actress and singer, Isabela Merced, and artists such as Emilio and Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano, Draco Rosa, Erika Ender, La India, Luis Figueroa, Yotuel and Gente De Zona, among others, will perform.

As in previous years, the composers selected this year to be part of the Latino Composers Hall of Fame have been chosen from a group of nominees by a committee of figures and leaders of the music industry.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Nostalgic Tour of the Closed Hotels in a Havana Without Tourists

A crossbar keeps the doors of the Hotel Sevilla completely closed. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 20 August 2022 — I walk up and down Obispo, the main street in the historic center of Old Havana that has been, for decades, a commercial and tourist artery of unparalleled importance on the Island. Now, the main hotels located on that street are closed and without visitors, a situation that extends to other areas once full of people with sunglasses and souvenir sellers.

With its large central courtyard and stately entrance, the Florida hotel offered a colonial experience in Old Havana, close to the nearby bars and restaurants. But after the pandemic, its doors didn’t reopen, and now it seems like an empty shell that the custodians are trying to preserve from deterioration.

Nearby, the Ambos Mundos hotel attracted travelers last August under the magnetism generated by the American writer Ernest Hemingway, who stayed in one of its rooms. But neither on its extensive terrace on the fifth floor, nor in its colorful lobby nor in the old elevator are the voices of guests heard anymore. The place is also “temporarily closed” by thick chains at the entrance of the mythical building.

The employees of the Armadores de Santander hotel, on Luz street, pounce on clueless passers-by, no matter if they are foreigners or Cubans, to pressure them to have lunch. It’s the only way to guarantee a tip, however small it may be. And if the would-be future diner refuses to read the menu, he can earn a couple of insults. continue reading

With humility, the custodian of the once-imposing Telegraph hotel has heard that “they plan to open it soon, perhaps in October, but who knows.” Another worker, on his knees next to the service door, confesses to praying “to the eleven thousand virgins” for the hotel’s prompt reopening.

The doors of the famous Hotel Sevilla — where the protagonist of the novel Our Man in Havana is recruited to be an agent of the British secret service — are blocked by a strong crossbar. The shops of the commercial arcade, which communicates with the establishment through a gate on Prado Street, are open. The gate, of course, is closed, and a Creole “spy” guards it.

Another complete closure, with sticks used as crossbars to immobilize the door, is the Plaza hotel, still majestic on its corner of Zulueta street, guarded by Virtudes and Neptuno. For its part, the Gran Hotel Bristol, located on Teniente Rey a few feet from the Capitol, is still waiting for its opening, announced with great fanfare by the authorities.

Covered furniture and a chain on the door of the Ambos Mundos hotel. (14ymedio).

In another hotel colossus, the Inglaterra, the clientele is in search of lunch at any price. But there are no tourists, only Cubans: a bad sign for the waiters who hope for a tip.

Also on Prado, the Parque Central hotel awaits in vain the arrival of sweaty and hungry foreigners. The restaurant staff sees time go by extremely slowly and arranges the suitcases of some customers, who are leaving very soon.

The Deauville hotel, on Galiano and San Lázaro, has not reopened since its closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Through its windows, a brigade of workers was observed this week repairing the entrance. Asked about the date of reopening of the establishment, someone who looked like the construction manager limited himself to making a gesture with his hand while venturing: “At least until next year, I think.”

The luxurious Paseo del Prado hotel, recently acquired by the Canadian firm Blue Diamond, is open but “uninhabited.” The company’s aggressive campaign to get hold of different establishments on the Island contrasts with the calamitous state of tourism. The same goes for the Packard, where you can see few guests in the lobby and just two foreigners in the “infinity pool.”

After the pandemic, the doors of the Florida hotel didn’t reopen. (14ymedio)

No traveler enjoys staying at the Manzana Kempinski hotel, which is open but under repair. The noise of cranes and excavators makes the summer bitter for customers, who also don’t enter the very expensive boutiques on the ground floor of the building.

Businesses that fed on tourists staying in Old Havana have also closed. Café París, on the corner of San Ignacio and Obispo, is in absolute silence. This place, where the songs of the Buena Vista Social Club were repeated all day like a stuck record, hasn’t returned to toasting with its “baptized” drinks of distilled rums, and nor is there work for the musicians, who earned endless tips under its roof.

Some boys joke that in La Mina [The Mine] “nothing is exploited anymore.” In better times, the restaurant workers lived up to its name by excavating the pockets of tourists. It’s said that serving drinks on that corner of Obispo and Oficios Street was a guarantee of ascending two levels in social class. Some bartenders literally became millionaires by dispatching watered-down mojitos and low-alcohol cuba libres.

Indispensable in the national cartography of alcoholism, La Bodeguita del Medio looks more like a deadly dump than the gastronomic legend it was. A brief reading of its menu, with pork at 1,050 pesos and Cuban-style lobster at 700, is enough for the customer to opt for fasting.

It’s better to go to La Vitrola, a private restaurant whose terrace expands onto the Plaza Vieja. But not even all tourists dare to eat there, where the combination of several monthly salaries — for a Cuban — is not enough for a lunch.

Some hotels that are still open offer lunch service to Cubans and foreigners. (14ymedio)

If the body demands at least one sip of coffee, it won’t be possible to go to El Escorial, whose employees devour their food while playing with their cell phones. Once he gives up on decent food, the necessary infusion and the unfindable cigar, the hungry pedestrian will stumble upon the less touristic circles of Havana’s hell: the killer money changers of Cathedral Square, the dying pigeons on San Francisco, the horde of taxi drivers with improvised carriages, and the foreign exchange sellers, who complete the fauna of the historic center.

There is no choice but to abandon the area, where the remains of the past of a sparkling, effervescent, tropical city are fading. It’s a Havana that exists only in old photos and in the silhouette of its closed hotels.

Opposite them, suspiciously, rise the construction of luxury hotels that doesn’t stop, like the brand new Grand Aston or the so-called Torre K, highly criticized by the specialists. The origin of the funds for these works, carried out by the Gaesa military conglomerate, remains opaque.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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