14ymedio – Page 182 – Translating Cuba

In Artemisa, Cubans Mobilize Against the ‘Off-Again On-Again Current’

These demonstrations join the many that have already occurred in recent days in several places on the island, such as Santa Clara, Bejucal, Holguín, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Río. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2022 — If Cubans have learned anything since the Government began to apply the scheduled power outages, it’s that if they protest, the light returns. This happened on Wednesday night, when the pounding on pots and pans [the cacerolazo] occurred again in San Antonio de los Baños and Güira de Melena, both in Artemisa.

In San Antonio, resident sent this newspaper a video — which is an almost completely black screen with brief flashes of light — in which you can hear the noise in the middle of the darkness, and the usual shouts of “turn on the power.” The protest lasted about half an hour, until the light was turned on, around nine at night.

“The electricity should have returned at 8:00 at night, but at 8:20, it still wasn’t on. They turned it on because of the protest,” says a resident in this Artemiseña city, which on 11 July 2021 was the first to take to the streets.

“In the Hospital zone, they protested until the lights came on, and then they didn’t take the power away” explains a man, referring to the demonstration the night before, when neighbors of that area and other neighborhoods took to the streets. “But they don’t want to give the same hours to us, and it’s not fair,” he laments indignantly.

In neighboring Güira de Melena, a resident confirmed to 14ymedio that a similar protest took place on Wednesday night in the city center, the fourth in less than a week. “Today it has been extreme with the power; they turned it on at half past eight after five hours, and so far they have turned it off it four times,” said this source, which ironically calls it the “off-again on-again current.” continue reading

Sancti Spíritus joined the protests this Wednesday, a city until now ‘conformist’ — that is going along with the regime — despite being one of the most punished by the blackouts, among other things for being one of the first where these measures were decreed.

On Wednesday night, a collaborator of this newspaper heard the conversation of the policeman who was in charge of the guesthouse in Sancti Spíritus that is dedicated to the cadres of the Communist Party. The agent told his interlocutor that there had been a demonstration, and that they were sending him the photos of some people “they had detected” at the protest.

From this conversation it was inferred that State Security had been alerted that there would be a protest in front of that official building and that, thanks to the cacerolazo, they turned on the light immediately, before the scheduled time.

These demonstrations join the many that have occurred in recent days in several places on the island, such as Santa Clara, Bejucal, Holguín, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Río.

As a result, according to Justice 11J, a total of 57 people have been arrested, 33 of them still in police custody. The legal platform, created to follow up on the hundreds of defendants after the demonstrations of July last year, has registered about 60 protests on the island over power cuts since June 14.

On Wednesday, in addition, “all citizens tired of being trampled on” in Holguín were urged to demonstrate against “this abusive regime.” “When the authorities appear and try to stop us, let’s unite more than ever; no one falls out during the march, no one gets in a patrol car, no one abandons anyone,” says an anonymous text disseminated through private messaging channels. It’s not known, so far, if the call was successful.

Anyway, the inhabitants of the island are fed up with this situation and are outraged by the crazy solutions proposed by the official websites. The Electric Union of Havana asked Cubans through a post on Telegram to save electricity when the power is on. “The rest of the customers in other blocks would be very helpful at this time if they save and decrease the amount of time the customers of block 4 are affected,” they wrote.

In the face of this, Cubans sharpen their ingenuity. A resident of Luyanó, for example, told this newspaper that when the light goes out in her “block,” a neighbor of the adjacent building, which now belongs to another demarcation, “gives me an extension cord when she has light so that I can connect a fan.” When she is the one who has electricity, she does the same with this neighbor. “Solidarity between the blocks,” she jokes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Wasting Electricity to Take Revenge on the Blackouts and the Cuban Regime

As a quiet revenge, squandering is also a form of protest. (EFE)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 19 August 2022 — María de los Ángeles spent the hours after the electrical service returned to her Los Sitios neighborhood in Centro Habana with her balcony doors open and the air conditioner turned on. Like many Cubans, the 64-year-old refuses to save energy in the short time that she enjoys the supply, as a way to get even for long blackouts.

Despite the fact that the official media are full of phrases that call for saving as much electricity as possible, the energy sector is experiencing the same situation as so many other state services in Cuba. People tend to lash out at official inefficiency by wasting water, gas, or kilowatts when they finally reach their home. As a quiet revenge, squandering is also a form of protest.

“In my house they turned off the electricity from ten in the morning to two in the afternoon and then again at night,” María de los Ángeles tells 14ymedio. “When I saw that the light bulbs came on, I didn’t turn off any of them, so I left them on all morning.” In the block where she lives, many others did the same. “I’m not the one who’s going to save electricity for these incapable people,” she stresses.

The predatory nature in the face of these services dates back to the time when the Cuban regime widely subsidized the supply of electricity, water and gas. Keeping the television on all day, never turning off certain lamps or leaving the stove burning permanently so as not to use up matches became very widespread practices. The official discourse even flirted with the idea that at some point in “the construction of socialism,” all of this would be guaranteed free of charge to the population.

But the other side of the subsidies has been the deterioration of the country’s infrastructure, which forces thousands of families to carry water from distant places, improvise an electrical supply through a ‘clothesline’ — wiring extended from somewhere else — or cook with firewood for lack of other fuels. The mixture of free services and deficiencies gave way to a very peculiar consumer: the predator of all kinds of public service. continue reading

“In my house we have electricity for six hours a day,” says Raudel, a young man from the city of Alquízar, in the province of Artemisa. “The time we have electricity, we have to do everything: turn on the water pump, cook, try to refrigerate the food so that it survives the next blackout, iron, wash, charge our mobiles and enjoy something on TV.”

Curiously, the last electricity bill that Raudel received, already in the midst of the energy crisis, was very similar to the one from a year ago, when he paid about 3,000 pesos a month for the service. “The bill isn’t lower because we can no longer stand it when the electricity comes on. I tell my children to do whatever they want. If they want to have the room air conditioner on all that time, let them do it. If they want to make a pizza in the electric oven, let them do that too.”

Raudel has a small lathe workshop, where he also does blacksmithing and metal welding. “I hadn’t worked much for years because the cost of electricity skyrocketed, but now I don’t limit myself. Sometimes I use the current all night,” he admits.

Last year, when the energy crisis had not yet reached its present serious situation, the official newspaper Granma recommended “freezing bottles of water at night and leaving them out during the day, so as not to have to open the refrigerator as often,” and also “put together as many pieces to iron or wash.” However, to the extent that blackouts have increased, the reaction of consumers seems to be going in the other direction.

“When I was a child I was part of the Click Patrols and I was obsessed with checking my house if there were any light bulbs turned on unnecessarily,” recalls a resident of the city of Sancti Spíritus. “But over time I began to wonder where all that energy I was saving was going to end up, if the service was becoming more expensive and of poorer quality.”

Julio, a neighbor from Santa Clara, thinks the same. “There is talk of saving, but is it worth saving? They will continue to turn off the electricity and live well themselves, without suffering the many needs that we people have. They, those of the Government, do not have blackouts.” Julio considers the wastefulness as a silent protest. It is the only thing that can be done “from home and without ‘pointing to us.’ A grain of sand against those who misgovern this country.”

“Seeing those photos of Havana completely dark,” says the man, “where the only thing that is lit up are the hotels, gives an idea of what is happening in Cuba.”

The times are not the same either. From the 1980s when Cubans had a few electrical appliances, it has passed to the current moment in which cooking food depends in many homes on rice cookers and electric pressure cookers, frying pans, fryers and ovens* all of which must be connected to an electrical outlet. The number of telecommunications devices has also skyrocketed.

“Three people live in my house, each one with a cell phone, we also have a tablet and a laptop,” lists the Sancti Spiritus woman. “When the electricity comes on after a blackout, you have to connect all that immediately to have it charged when the power goes out again. Also, two rechargeable lamps that we use to avoid being in the dark have to be charged.”

The Electric Union of Havana made a recent call to lower consumption in order to alleviate the blackouts in the city: “The rest of the customers of the other blocks would be greatly benefitted at this time if we save and it will reduce the time the customers of block 4 are affected,” wrote the state monopoly on its Facebook account, a text that provoked a barrage of insults from consumers. Most openly declared that they were not going to monitor a consumption they paid dearly for and that was not stable.

One commenter summed up her challenge: “I do iron with the air conditioning on and use the hair dryer for towels. I do what I want with the electricity I pay for.” The Internet user received dozens of messages of approval and sympathy from those who also use their light switches as revenge.

*Translator’s note: These single purpose appliances were pushed by the government over the years, as ways to save electricity compared to major appliances.

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Miami Pharmacies are Increasingly Supplying Cubans on the Island

The lack of medications in Miami and other Florida cities seemed unusual, but it has already become a daily occurrence. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 18 August 2022 — The old emigrant joke about Miami, Cuba’s last province, threatens to become a reality. Some medications are becoming scarce in the big city of Florida. “When I go to a pharmacy, they tell me that they’re out of medicine, that people took everything to send it to Cuba,” complains Enrique, who has been residing in the United States for ten years.

Enrique has toured the pharmacies of the city to put together a package of medical supplies. His mother in Cuba has been undergoing breast cancer treatments for a year and will now face an operation in Villa Clara. Distressed, Enrique understands that his family’s only hope is for him to get the necessary medications and equipment, because, according to the warning of Cuban doctors, “there is nothing here.”

Telephone in hand and driving through the streets of Miami, Enrique consults the list sent to him by his relatives. “Every time I go to a pharmacy they tell me the same thing: they know what to sell me, because all Cubans ask for the same thing, but there isn’t any. The demand is so great that even here things are in short supply,” Enrique laments.

“What is most ’lost’,” he explains, “is the thread for sutures, surgical gloves and anesthesia.” Enrique’s inventory is meticulous. What is missing in one pharmacy must be “hunted” in another, even if it’s in a different city. The operation requires two types of suture thread, thinner for the inside and another kind to close the wound. He needs to get 18 or 20 caliber catheters, which are needed for transfusions and serums.

“Five packs of cotton swabs, four bandages, cotton, 20 compresses, syringes, several rolls of tape, two packages of saline solution … and that’s just the beginning,” Enrique says. The “Cuban” doctor is so visible that, if it weren’t for the fact that they manage to get him the Surgivac drainage equipment, there would be no way to buy it. “It cost me 180 dollars,” says the man, who also paid a good amount for the intravenous anesthetic Propofol and the iodized povidone. continue reading

“Then will come the long recovery process,” he adds, “and my mom will need more gauze and cotton, an elastic bandage with pins, a larger bandage to cover her torso and compresses for each treatment.”

A doctor friend is the one who prepares the list, which Enrique’s mother then sends him. The Cuban health workers themselves admit what they have and what they don’t. “And they have less and less. The Government has already gotten used to the fact that we will do anything to get our relatives operated on. It’s either yes or yes: who’s going to let his mother die for not sending her medicines?”

Like Enrique, many Cubans living abroad are between a rock and a hard place. They don’t have any way to quickly ask for reunification with their relatives, and they’re not willing to subject them to the hard journey through Central America to the U.S. border. “It’s a desperate situation,” says Enrique.

A new message comes in on the phone. His mother is waiting for her turn in the oncology area of the Santa Clara Clinical Surgical Teaching Hospital. As the center ran out of water, a noisy pipe pumps in the liquid and prevents patients from resting. Those who come to be treated avoid the puddles and cables that flood the reception area, so that a slip doesn’t turn into a hip fracture or worse.

“Next week I’m leaving for Cuba,” Enrique concludes. “That means that my suitcases not only carry the medicines and equipment, but also a pair of flip-flops for my mom, two night gowns, clothes for cousins, cookies, preserves, jams, whatever it takes to ’sweeten’ a little everything that is happening.”

The drug deficit in Miami and other Florida cities seemed like an unusual situation, but it has already become a daily occurrence for Cubans living in the United States. Phenomena such as “resolving” how to find products, waiting several hours to make a purchase and the mistreatment of pharmacists and sellers resurrect the worst nightmares of Cuban exile. The Government of the Island, meanwhile, continues to proudly brandish, and through the export of its own health workers to other countries, the label of “medical power.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Archive Proposes to Dissolve the Government and Organize a Democratic Transition

Until elections are held, Cuba Archive recommends provisionally maintaining the State’s administrative structure. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2022 — Cuba Archive, an organization incorporated in Washington, D.C., started a petition on Thursday, Cuba libre: Compromiso de transición a la democracia [Free Cuba: Commitment to a democratic transition], on Change.org, and invites “all Cubans and Cuban organizations,” on the Island and abroad, to join a national “civic commitment” with a view toward a democratic transition.

The petition, which already has more than 100 signatures, presents a “peaceful change toward an organized state under the principle of democracy”, which would propose a solution to the crisis which currently affects all levels of life in Cuba.

With four main targets, Cuba Archive’s petition proposes to residents of the Island a process of “resistance, civil disobedience and non-cooperation” with repressive state institutions, as well as a “national debate” characterized by a variety of opinions.

It also challenges the regime to “dismantle repressive organizations and to make a peaceful transition viable” and for public officials to preserve state archives, which will be indispensable for the Island’s democratic future. Lastly, it demands that the international community not “extend credit or material assistance” to the government, except for humanitarian assistance provided through independent organizations.

In addition, Cuba Archive calls on “Cubans of good faith,” including civic and religious leaders, public figures, intellectuals and artists.

According to the organization, Cubans should look to the Constitution of 1940 as a reference to restructure the Cuban legal sphere, so long as the articles considered “exclusionary or impractical for the times” are removed.

A set of 19 recommendations round out the petition. Together, these provide the backbone for a well-defined program for a democratic transition on the Island. The proposals include naming a provisional government “of limited duration,” the members of which will not be eligible to hold office during the first free elections. continue reading

Special powers will be conferred upon the provisional government to restore fundamental citizen rights, repair the administration of the country, and plan for general elections within 24 months. Furthermore, it will be responsible for drafting a new Constitution for the Republic.

Another one of the recommendations is the prohibition of the death penalty, violence and vandalism against public property and public goods.

With regard to the Communist Party, the petition does not specify if it will be outlawed or not, but clarifies that the abolition of its influence and control over the state is indispensable for the transition toward democracy. The political police and all repressive organizations, which take direction from it, will also be dissolved.

Cuba Archive proposes the dissolution of the current government apparatus, declaring its members unfit and replacing all government officials. However, until elections are held, it recommends provisionally maintaining the state’s administrative structure.

It emphasizes that members of the military and government employees who have not committed “crimes against humanity such as torture, murder, forced disappearance and prevarication” may form part of the new arrangement, so long as their innocence has been validated through judicial mechanisms.

The legalization of organizations and political parties prohibited by Castroism, as well as the release of prisoners of conscience will be indispensable measures for guaranteeing a democratic future on the Island; so too will the repeal of laws that go against human rights, especially the rights to “self-determination, conscience, expression, press, information, association, assembly, movement, organization, privacy and religion.”

With this goal, it aims to prioritize “the dismantling of state monopolies over the press, education and communications”. The organization also describes possible lines to follow for agricultural, economic and trade development.

In the international scope, one significant recommendation is to suspend the refuge which the current government provides to “foreigners with ties to terrorism, drug trafficking and other activities which run counter to the good of the nation.”

This measure is in line with new legislation on the extradition of American fugitives on the Island, introduced on August 3rd in the U.S. Congress by Senators Bob Menédez and Marco Rubio.

Cuba Archive, also known as the Free Society Project or Archivo Cuba in Spanish, describes itself as a non-profit organization founded in 2001 to promote human rights on the Island through research and information. Its advisory board includes Cuban intellectuals such as Pedro Corzo, Enrique Encinosa, José Conrado and Carlos Alberto Montaner.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Through a Traffic Ticket, the Mexican Police Discover a Coyote Taking Seven Cubans to the United States

The group of seven Cubans, one woman and six men, were handed over to Migration. (Captura)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 18 August 2022 — Police from the Mexican municipality of Monterrey arrested a coyote on Wednesday, who had charged seven Cubans 21,000 pesos ($1,050) to take them in a van to the state of Coahuila, from where they planned to cross the Rio Grande to reach El Paso, Texas.

The smuggler, identified as José Ascencio, was stopped for driving a van with polarized glass, which is cause for a fine, according to state traffic regulations. “When he was arrested, the driver left the van but couldn’t avoid the inspection, exposing a woman and six men of Cuban nationality,” Officer Cerón, of the municipal police, told 14ymedio.

Authorities from the National Institute of Migration (INM) took charge of the Cubans, who couldn’t verify their legal stay in the country, so they were transferred to a migration center. They will have a safe conduct pass to leave the country within 20 days, and if they’re arrested again they will be deported.

“They opened an investigation on the driver for smuggling and human trafficking, and the Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Migration Affairs will follow up on the case,” explained the municipal police.

The van with the Cubans was intercepted on Bernardo Reyes Avenue, in a marginal area of the state of Nuevo León, where the passage of migrants predominates due to the proximity to the Central Bus Station and several hostels. This point is three hours from Coahuila.

According to figures from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior, 8,496 migrants were detained in Nuevo León, including 325 Cubans, in the first half of the year. These people are locked up at the Zozaya immigration center, in Guadeloupe, a site that has been denounced for human rights violations, extortion and threats by immigration agents. continue reading

The Cubans, Claridad Falcón Roque, Adrialys Caamaño Domínguez, Alejandro Lázaro Falcón Roque, César Mulet Marrero, Brian Michel Tasé Duarte and Dianet Ruiz Herrera, who spent more than a month in Zozaya, were released after paying about $1,000, although they had an amparo* granted by a judge.

The inconsistent treatment against Cubans in immigration centers has been a constant in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This newspaper received a complaint about the arbitrary detention of a family from the Island in the state of Puebla.

Yenisleidy Hernández Sánchez, Maikel Presno Sosa and their two sons, Eimis and Maikel Andrew, were imprisoned for more than a week at the immigration center, said lawyer José Luis Pérez Jiménez. “It’s evident that this is a violation of the human rights of detainees and Article 111 of the Migration Law,” since the agents imposed on them the payment of 10,000 pesos for their release, which is not stipulated in any immigration rule.

The irregular transfer of Cubans is encouraged by the Migration Unit, which has delayed the delivery of transit visas for up to 30 days. Some, such as in the state of Chiapas, are being deceived with the delivery of a humanitarian visa in the municipalities of Unión Juárez, Tuxtla Chico and Suchiate, near the border with Guatemala.

But the reality is that, since July, the only document that Migration is granting is a transit visa, which guarantees a regular stay for 30 days.

*Translator’s note: An amparo is a decree guaranteeing constitutional protection of rights.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government Identifies Four Young People in Military Service Killed in the Matanzas Fire

The authorities have released a list with their names and photos. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2022 — On Thursday, and without giving details about the age and exact function of the 14 men who died on August 6 in the explosion of one of the tanks set on fire in Matanzas, the Cuban authorities identified the victims.

Faced with the silence of the Government since the accident occurred, family and friends identified some of the deceased on social networks and independent media. But only today has the official Cuban press released a list with their names and photos, but without their ages; at least four of them were recruits of active military service.

The young people going through military service, described as soldiers by the official newspaper Granma, are: Leo Alejandro Doval del Prado, Adriano Rodríguez and Fabián Naranjo Nuñez, from Matanzas, and Michel Rodríguez Román, from Mayabeque.

Leo Alejandro Doval del Prado, 19, had been presumed dead by his aunt Yunia Doval and other relatives. “I don’t love you as a hero, my boy, I prefer you as a coward!” Doval wrote on Facebook. “I have always admired your values, and we, your family, know that you are not one of those who run, without imagining that today I would prefer you to have fled. I would feel the same pride if you came home now saying that suddenly you became cowardly, rebellious, defiant and got off the fire truck, because in the end, you would not be one of them.” continue reading

Days ago, official journalists mentioned Michel Rodríguez Román, 20, among the deceased, but then deleted the information. Resident in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque, he was serving in Fire Command number 3 of Juan Gualberto Gómez airport in Varadero.

Another of the deceased is Fabián Naranjo Nuñez, initially also identified in his relatives’ posts on social networks. The young man, of unknown age, did his military service in the same fire command. “We don’t know anything about this boy. Please, if anyone sees him in any of the hospitals, let us know,” Yanelys Naranjo González wrote on Facebook.

The Cuban authorities concluded on Wednesday that it’s “impossible to identify absolutely” the bone remains found in the fire area. Jorge González Pérez, president of the Cuban Society of Forensic Medicine, pointed out that — despite the fact that they cannot undergo a DNA test due to the degree of calcination — they believe that the fragments correspond to the 14 missing people.

In this group there are also Pablo Ángel López Martell, Rolando Oviedo Sosa, Osley Marrante Guerra, Luis Ángel Álvarez Leyva, Andy Michel Ramos, Osmany Blasco Sosa, Raciel Martínez Navarro, Diosdel Nazco, Areskys Quintero and Luis Raúl Aguilar Zamora.

González Pérez said that it’s also impossible to know if each of the 14 groups of bone remains belong to each of the 14 missing separately.

In addition to these victims, two deaths had already been reported, firefighters Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, 60, and Elier Correa, 24 years old.

The last report of the Ministry of Public Health on the accident records, in addition to the deaths, 130 injured people, of which 18 are still hospitalized and 112 discharged.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Faced with the Difficulties of Life, Santeria Spreads in Cuba

As happened in the Special Period, religion regains a kind of “anesthetic” status on the Island. (Yoruba Cultural Association)

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Izquierdo, 17 August 2022 — Like a young fortune teller or a sorcerer out of A Thousand and One Nights, in Omar’s memory are rites, spells, stories and words, mixed in ancient languages. Talkative, with toasted skin and wide-open eyes, he lives among books and sacred objects of the the Regla of Ocha.*

Omar has tried to understand Santeria from practice, respect and rationality. Devoid of fanaticism and open to dialogue, there are few people in Santa Clara — a city that’s a labyrinth of beliefs — with whom you can talk so seriously about the Afro-Cuban religious universe.

“Although I warn you,” he says, “that I will only talk about Ocha, because Palo Monte and abakuá, also of African origin, are two topics in which I have no life or book experience.”

In this conversation with Omar, I’m trying to learn why Cuban celebrities and politicians are so interested in Santeria and what the “state of health” of this religion is on the Island. It’s continually intriguing that there are pro-government factions and “independent” babalawos [high priests] who predict the government’s imminent fall.

Politics, religion, fear, honor among initiates, superstition, the usurpation of ritual elements by State Security to frighten dissidents… the list of topics would exhaust the serenity of a reasonable interlocutor. But Omar is patient, like an elderly sorcerer, and he begins to look for the causes of the problem.

“The Afro-Cuban religion is everywhere,” he says. “It penetrates jargon, gestures and imagination; it molds national beauty, and even gives shape to the worst in Cubans, in a process where many elements are replaced by others of disturbing origin.”

“The first sign of this ‘mess’,” Omar explains, “can be found in what someone called the baby boom of the babalawos in the eighties and nineties.” This boom occurred thanks to Miguel Febles (1910-1986), a santero who “reduced” the rigorous controls to be initiated into the religion. continue reading

The center of consecration of a babalawo is the “foundation,” an orisha or fetish on which the ceremony is performed. Before Febles, the number of foundations was very small, and to initiate a new babalawo the fetish had to be loaned or rented, often from one city to another.

“Febles relaxed the rigor for delivering the fetish,” says Omar, “in favor of the economic capacities of those who intended to receive it. That guaranteed an arithmetic growth in the number of consecrations.”

The babalawo had traditionally been formed according to criteria very similar to those of Freemasonry: he must be heterosexual, “wise,” a good son, father and husband, with availability to advance in the study of religion. But, after the reform of Febles, that ideal was blurred, and “people of a very diverse nature began to be consecrated, among whom were many foreigners, thugs, pimps and people from different professions.”

Santería, practiced in a more or less orthodox way by many Cubans, also faces the mass exodus experienced by the Island. (14ymedio)

The Special Period and the new millennium brought more changes to the Regla de Ocha: initiations became more expensive, a process of commodification began — monetary benefit rather than spiritual profit — and santeros immersed themselves in a kind of “success model.” Not to mention the “invention” of orishas to attract tourists who were looking for an “exotic” and Creole religion.

“In this new dynamic,” Omar laments, “people ask for three fundamental things: solving love problems with witchcraft or sorcery; spiritual cleansings to improve personal luck; and magical protection to deal with justice.”

He adds that “the hazardous living conditions faced by Cubans condition the search for security on the esoteric level, precisely because they want to control the chaos that is experienced daily through the intervention of magic.”

Omar refers, not without discomfort, to Cuban artists who have made Santería a kind of “seal.” “Luna Manzanares became iyawo [an initiate of Santeria] during Fidel Castro’s pharaonic funerals,” he says, “knowing that an iyawo is prohibited from participating in funeral activities or entering cemeteries.”

“Kimiko and Yordi made their most famous video, El Campeon [The Champion], dressed as iyawos, even though they knew that in their state it’s taboo to take photos or appear in a video. But these artists did nothing more than reproduce what Chacal and Yakarta had done at other times, and many others. Today the timberos celebrate with musical themes their access to the most misogynistic and exclusive cult of Ifá, according to the trend that Adalberto Álvarez began when he became a babalawo.”

Omar doesn’t speak of the “approach” of the leaders of the Communist Party to Santeria, considered as an “unofficial religion” by the Central Committee, nor about the “saints” attributed to Díaz-Canel and other government figures. “I had no idea that elements of the Ocha, such as animals, were used to threaten or scare dissidents. That amazes me!” he says, when asked about the dismembered birds in the doorways of several opposition houses.

“But don’t be fooled,” Omar warns, “the visibility of the practice has nothing to do with its good conservation.”

As happened in the Special Period, religion once again acquires a kind of “anesthetic” status on the island in the face of the difficulties of life. People pray, look for answers, trust the “beyond” and consult all kinds of divinatory mechanisms to know how much longer they have to “resist.”

On the other hand, the Government has made every effort to assimilate and organize, according to its parameters, the religious panorama of the island. Entities such as the Council of Churches of Cuba and the Yoruba Cultural Association have an agenda defined by State Security, according to a recent report by the organization Prisoners Defenders, based in Madrid.

Santería, practiced in a more or less orthodox way by many Cubans, faces not only the internal division and infiltration of the G2, but also the mass exodus that the island is experiencing. The response given by babalawos and their believers to this phenomenon and their rigor or flexibility in the new rites, celebrated beyond the Island border, will largely determine the survival of this religion, which has several centuries of antiquity and tradition in Cuba.

*Translator’s note: La Regla de Ocha combines the Yoruba religion, Catholicism and Espiritismo, which allows communication with ancestors through prayer. The saints of Regla de Ocha are called orishas.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Fire at Cuba’s Supertanker Base is Out. Good. Now What?

The smoke from the four burning storage tanks, of the eight at the Supertanker Base. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 12 August 2022 — Nearly a week after the fire started in the industrial zone of Matanzans, it is more than evident that the Cuban communists have been overwhelmed by this catastrophe, for which there was no organization, nor protocols, or anything like that.

The state-run communist press, attempting as always to appear in the best light, accused the free press, the objective press, social media, i.e. us, of not speaking of heroism and of harassing when there was uncertainty. They also accused us of using the terms “failed state” and “country in crisis.” Let’s see how unaccustomed to criticism the Cuban communists are. They prefer to die while killing, but something makes them think they must spin a fine web or the whole thing will collapse.

It would be good, now that the fire is under control, it they would investigate, with utmost transparency, responsibilities for what occurred, and purge those who are not up to the circumstances. It would be an exercise in credibility, transparency, and responsibility to the Cuban people, and the entire world.

In case this would happen again, we must determine whether the operation was carried out correctly, if the available resources were on par with the needs, the true reach of international aid, the people affected and the solutions to be taken; in short, to learn from experience so that if it were to happen again they won’t spend a week carrying out activities that were mostly failures.

This is the direction that Diaz-Canel’s revised discourse should take, before one of local communists in charge, audacious and bothersome, such as Sucely Morfa, steps in. It is a piece of advice for Díaz-Canel to tell the truth, rather than ’wandering the hills of Úbeda’*, and to take the bull by the horns or there will be a Sucely who will do it for him, in spite of the imposed hierarchy among communists.

And, take note that I’ve said Sucely Morfa and that it did not cross my mind that the role should be played by Prime Minister Marrero, Provincial Governor Sabines or Vice President Morales Ojeda. They are for other things. Díaz-Canel should watch the youth, divine treasure, because the conga that will replace him will emerge from there.

I know that in politics decisions must be made at two levels. In the short term, facing the gallery to appease the Tyrians and Trojans*, one must do what is necessary to avoid turmoil. In the medium term, investigate and purge those responsible, however painful. continue reading

Díaz-Canel’s discourse belongs entirely on the first level, like when he gave his support to the colleagues of several organizations, especially drivers, or appreciated the international air and naval cooperation. That discourse has reached its end, it no longer makes sense, and now we must begin to demand responsibilities if things, as all indications are, have not been handled well.

This agenda compromises Díaz-Canel, who at the same time must be wondering what he will do with the supertanker base and must lay a foundation for recovery without resting on his laurels.

And then, official data will not cease to surprise, day after day. The Minister of Public Health said that as of Thursday, 130 people had been injured and treated, including two firefighters who were admitted to the hospital the day before for mild intoxication due to smoke inhalation. Only one death, 24-year-old Elier Correa Aguilar, providing services in the Firefighter Corps, although he was from Granma province. Twenty-three patients remain hospitalized, two were re-admitted to the hospital for follow up. Four patients remain in critical condition, two critical and 17 serious. We must thank God the disaster didn’t cause more harm, which is why it is so important to investigate and find the missing.

It is also surprising that the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment continues to state, with satellite images and radar, that it is not possible to detect the cloud, as it has disbursed. This is perhaps the worst possible scenario, rather than calculating its toxicity and effect on air quality. The longer it takes, the worse it will be. And they will need to prove the impact not only on air, but also on rain, vegetation, the soil and grasslands, in the medium and long term. A disaster from every viewpoint.

With the fire out, for which we should all be glad, the time has come to carry out equally important work, before the applause and the doling of awards puts an end to what occurred in Matanzas. These are new times that are not related to the evils of revolutionary times. A final piece of advice for Díaz-Canel: beware of Sucely Morfa. It has begun.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

*Translator’s note: ’Wandering the hills of Ubeda’ is a very common Spanish expression, from the 13th century, meaning going off on a tangent, losing the thread, failing to focus on what matters.

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Andy Garcia’s Family Denounces That the 11J Political Prisoner is ‘in Poor Health’

Andy García Lorenzo was sentenced to four years in prison in a trial held on January 10 in Santa Clara. (Facebook/Roxana García Lorenzo)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 August 2022 — Andy García Lorenzo, one of the protesters imprisoned on July 11, 2021 in Santa Clara, “is in poor health and hasn’t received the medical care he needs,” his sister Roxana García Lorenzo reported on social networks. The young man is isolated in the infirmary of El Yabú, the labor camp where he is serving his sentence, on the outskirts of the municipal seat of Villa Clara.

“We don’t know if it’s something he ingested,” García Lorenzo clarified in a live broadcast. On August 13, Andy had “more than six consecutive episodes of vomiting and diarrhea in less than half an hour,” according to the family, after receiving a call from Andy on Wednesday.

After presenting these symptoms, the other inmates “began to yell at the guards to help him and they were ignored” for a half hour. The young man at that time was inside one of the dormitories, and only after two hours was he taken to a hospital.

“He said that his mouth twisted, his tongue went backwards, he was short of breath, and he didn’t have the strength to get up,” said García Lorenzo. “All this was not reported to the family; we just heard about it now, and it happened a few days ago.”

The political prisoner “hasn’t eaten for two days,” he told his family, “not because he is plantado*” on a hunger strike, but because “the diet he was given isn’t enough” to prevent him from getting sick again. “And we family members aren’t even allowed to bring the medicines or the food” he needs.

García Lorenzo also reported that his brother no longer has rehydration salts and has not been given medication in prison. “He was in the infirmary, and no one even asked him how he was doing. He was put in the ambulance by the inmates themselves,” since no prison worker helped him. continue reading

“Andy told me that it was the closest moment he has been to death, that it felt like he was really going to die, and even we didn’t know anything,” the young woman said.

García Lorenzo said that his brother “is innocent and shouldn’t be in prison. His life is in danger.” He also said that the young man “has a family that will stand up for him.”

What happens to Andy is going to have “a political cost,” he warned, “because we aren’t going to shut up.” He added that his family is tired of “so much misery, so much repression and so much mistreatment.”

Andy García Lorenzo, 24, was sentenced to four years in prison on January 10, along with 15 other protesters who took to the streets on July 11, 2021. The prosecutor proposed an initial sentence of seven years in prison for public disorder, contempt and assault.

After an appeal made at the end of May, Andy was “temporarily released,” pending “continuing to serve his sentence in a labor camp. Despite the joy of the moment, the García Lorenzo family understood that their struggle for Andy’s freedom was far from over. A few days later he was arrested in the street, while traveling with his father on a motorcycle, and transferred to El Yabú.

Since he was arrested, his family has been one of the most active in the defense of the July 11 political prisoners and has repeatedly denounced the harassment they have suffered from State Security.

*Translator’s note: Plantados [literally ’planted’] are the “immovable” political prisoners who refuse to participate in rehabilitation programs of political education and manual labor. They are usually given the harshest punishments.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Venezuela Will Rebuild the Matanzas Fuel Tanks it Built for Cuba in 2012

Specialists at the site of the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base. (Periodico Girón)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 August 2022 — Venezuela will once again invest in the Matanzas SupertankerBase, where half the fuel tanks were destroyed after the gigantic fire that lasted several days. Nicolás Maduro, reports Prensa Latina, announced on Sunday that he will support the reconstruction of the stricken facility and that he has already instructed the Ministry of Petroleum to do so.

In an act of commendation for the 43 firefighters and experts from the state-owned PDVSA sent to Cuba to mitigate the fire, the Venezuelan president reiterated his country’s solidarity with the Island, from which he has mainly received doctors and military training in exchange for oil since 1999.

“Cuba knows that it has our scientific, technical, engineering and worker support,” Maduro said in statements to the official Cuban press. “Contact the Cuban oil and energy authorities to begin the reconstruction design of the Supertanker Base in Matanzas,” he ordered.

Both Venezuela and Mexico sent dozens of flights with personnel and material aid to help stop the flames, which remained uncontrolled for five days, until the fuel from the tanks was consumed.

The Cuban authorities have focused on extolling that aid but still haven’t provided the list of the 14 people they continue to call “the disappeared.” Nor have they mentioned the environmental consequences or the total cost of the disaster, which began on August 5, due to a lightning strike according to the official version. continue reading

So far, the Government has recognized only two deaths: firefighters Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, 60, and Elier Correa, 24. Of the 132 injured in the fire, 18 are still hospitalized: four in critical condition, five serious, and nine, “under care.”

Although the industrial enclave of Matanzas where the Supertanker Base is located dates back to the 1980s, when it was built with money from the Soviet Union, the damaged tanks are very recent, from 2012, and were constructed with the economic and technical support of Venezuela.

In a 2020 publication, some specialists warned of the danger of storing fuel for more than two months, referring to the conditions in which the reserves stored by Petróleos de Venezuela are held, in tanks similar to those of the Matanzas Base.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: The Seven Lives of Revolution the Cat

Four years after Fidel turned to dust, his name lives on in a new dynasty. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, August 16, 2022 — Does the Cuban revolution still exist? For some it ended at the exact moment Fidel Castro delared it to be Marxist. In the pages of Bohemia years earlier he had accused Fulgencio Batista of being the communists’ candidate in the 1940 election, of being photographed with Blas Roca and Lazaro Peña. Socialists writing for New York’s Daily Worker criticized the assault on the Moncada Barracks, characterizing it as a fool-hardy adventure, a provocation, a putsch. Even a far-left Chilean journalist claimed the events of July 26 had been organized by the CIA.

In his biography, History Will Absolve Me, Fidel makes no mention of Marxism. In interviews with journalist Herbert Matthews in the Sierra Maestra, he would deny that Marxist ideas played any role in his movement. And after taking power in 1959, he would again swear before the press and the entire world, in Spanish and in English, that he categorically rejected communism. To associate him with that ideology, he said, was “a smear campaign.”

But Eisenhower’s less-than-polite welcome during Castro’s visit to the United States would motivate Khrushchev to send an emissary. The revolution’s red shift was not borne of conviction, much less of popular demand. It was the result of a bruised ego. It was also the pragmatic solution of a street fighter. If he was going to take on the neighborhood bully, he had to join forces with another bully of the same weight and size as that of his enemy.

In December 1961 Fidel Castro not only betrayed all his democratic promises, he also killed off his “green as the palm trees” experiment, turning it into something else.

Thus began another revolution, one that aroused the sympathy of many leftist intellectuals, who saw in it the chance to cleanse socialism of its Stalinist stain. “It will be different in Cuba,” they claimed. Their enthusiasm would wane in 1968, however, when the bearded lover exposed his hairy chest. The Revolutionary Offensive to nationalize all of Cuba’s remaining small businesses was irrational and extremist. Censorship of poets was rampant. Che died disheveled and alone in a Bolivia that he neither knew nor cared about. Fidel supported Soviet tanks’ rolling into Prague. That year marked the end of another revolution: the romantic one. continue reading

A new constitution in 1976, a carbon copy of the bureaucratic Eastern European model, consolidated the state. Cuba had officially become a satellite, with the constitutional text itself serving as the marriage contract. The rhetoric and liturgy of the Leninist creed reached their climax in a country that, just a few years earlier, did not know how to say tovarisch (comrade) or spasiva (thank you).

Seemingly solidified, the regime managed to survive the 1980 Mariel crisis but would again be in mortal decline by the end of the decade. Perestroika and glasnost had supporters among the population but the nation’s leaders were not about to give up even a millimeter of their absolute control. The firing-squad execution of General Ochoa, a Hero of the Republic, along with three other officials sent a loud and clear warning. Not long after, General Abrahantes, a former interior minister and head of Fidel’s security detail, died in prison. As far as the Cuban public and the world at-large were concerned, it all had something to do with drugs. For reformist factions within the palace, it was an ultimatum.

So began the fifth life of a cat named Revolution. Like a feline on a hot tin roof, tired and bleary, it had to survive. People took to the streets for the first time to challenge the regime. They later took to the seas on anything that would float. After the economy hit bottom, strategists revived Bastista’s dream of filling the country with hotels. There was no miracle capable of multiplying the loaves and the fishes. Only the problems and the prostitutes multiplied.

A new feline life-cycle began when Castro took off his uniform and put on a suit to receive the pope. With Chavez, Evo, Correa and Kirchner in power, it was a new period of optimism: the Pink Tide. The cat thought it would live forever.

But death brought an end to that period too. Four years after Fidel turned to dust, his name lives on in that of a new dynasty. Except that New Man turned out to be just as clumsy as the Golem in Jorge Luis Borges’ poem. And today, lying in literal darkness, the cat counts out its days.

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The Hippies of Playita 16 in Havana Have Left, the Invader Now is Garbage

La Playita 16 has never been a place that is well cared for by the authorities. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 16 August 2022 — “Don’t take off your shoes!” a mother yelled, this Monday morning, to her newly arrived son at Playita 16, a piece of coastline west of Havana that serves as consolation for those who cannot afford a trip to the white sands of Santa María del Mar or Boca Ciega, in the eastern part of the city. The precaution of keeping his shoes on is not only because of the sharp rocky stretch that appears before reaching the water, but also because of the garbage that fills the area, bottle tops, empty cans, paper and other waste.

An employee wipes a damp cloth over the counter of a coffee shop a few meters from the waves. There are barely a couple of customers in the place because, despite the heat, the high prices for beer and soft drinks scare away thirsty bathers. A young man asks the woman if the Comunales company — the public services provider — ever goes through the place to collect garbage. “Ah, I don’t know. This is my little piece and it’s clean,” she replies as she shrugs. Outside, the heap of varied packaging covers the ground, gleaming in the August sun.

La Playita 16 has never been a spot that is well cared for by the authorities. Rather, it is a vexing place where, in the ’70s, hippies, rockers and all kinds of people considered “uncomfortable” by the Cuban power structure and its desire to “parameterize” any hint of diversity, congregated. In that piece of coast in the municipality of Playa, the police were fattening themselves by issuing fines and taking away the long-haired youths. Also from there, innumerable and rustic boats departed during the 1994 Balseros [Rafters] Crisis.

Then, at the end of the last century, dollarization began to change the face of this coastline lacking sand and umbrellas. The appearance of several kiosks selling drinks and food attracted other visitors who alternated looking at the sunset with a cold drink or a slice of pizza. Perhaps from those years there are still some more gentrified bathers who parade their bathing suits, their colorful towels and their purebred dogs around the place, but they are few. Most of them have migrated from the beach or the country.

This Monday, almost at noon, despite the harshness of El Indio and his arrows, a drunk who spent the night on the concrete road continued to snore. Some children frolicked on the shore and a lady watched the horizon from under the protection of a huge hat. Around them, the torn bags, some tetrapack boxes that once contained juices or small doses of Planchao rum, and the empty bottles were also part of the scene.

A piece of cardboard flew from a nearby bench to land on one of the waste piles, right next to a couple with a baby stroller who were taking a photo with the little one’s red cheeks in the foreground, behind the already blue sea, and to the side was the motley mountain of debris.

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Young Doctor From Santiago de Cuba is Murdered in a Mexican Hospital

Ernesto Oliva Legra, the Cuban doctor murdered in Ecatepec, Mexico. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 August 2022 — Ernesto Oliva Legra, a 32-year-old Cuban doctor from Santiago de Cuba, was killed in Ecatepec, Mexico, in a shooting that occurred early Friday morning at the hospital where he worked. Along with him, two women were also shot.

The news, reported by several independent media, was released on social networks. Specifically, due to a Facebook post from Edgar Martínez Aguilar, who indicated that the deceased, who had arrived at the ISSEMYM Hospital in Ecatepec, was in that municipality in the State of Mexico, bordering the Mexican capital, known to be one of the most violent in the country. The condolences of his relatives also confirmed his death.

“My cousin left Cuba for Mexico, to be able to progress and looking so young, they have shot him,” Yarine Yoa Matos lamented on her Facebook wall. According to the El Chago news page, the young man from Santiago had been in Mexico for three years.

On Saturday, the local press was reported that the doctor had been “severely wounded” with a bullet in the head in an attack on the Maternal and Child Clinic in the Tierra Blanca neighborhood, and that a nurse named Abigail and a 60-year-old patient had also died. continue reading

Two armed subjects, details the note in El Sol de Toluca, arrived at the health center around 3:30 in the morning and asked “for a woman,” after which they began to shoot and hit the three victims.

The event coincides with the importating of 500 Cuban healthcare workers from the Island to Mexico, to remote areas of the country, such as the Mountain of Guerrero, which are not only extremely poor but where violence, as a result of the dispute between drug cartels, rages with impunity.

These doctors, a source from the Health Institute for Welfare (Insabi) explained to 14ymedio, will receive a salary similar to their Mexican counterparts, between 41,784 pesos (2,042 dollars) and 35,237 pesos (1,722 dollars) per month. With the usual opacity in these cases, the same source indicated that “it has not been established whether the money will be received by them or through the Government of Cuba,” and that “lodging and food will be covered by the municipal authorities [of the cities] where each hospital in which they will work is located.”

The Havana regime continues to bet on the export of medical services – its main source of income – to alleviate its diminished economy.

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Despite Threats From Plainclothes Agents, Cubans in the Provinces Protest by Banging on Pots and Pans

Arrival of repressive forces to prevent the protest on the night of August 9 in La Esperanza, Cienfuegos. (Justice 11J/Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, August 17, 2022 — Cubans banged on pots and pans again on Tuesday night in protest against the long blackouts they are suffering. In San Antonio de los Baños, where the protests of July 11, 2021 began, the noise was heard in the neighborhoods of Hospital, El Palenque, La Punta and La Placita, among others.

“After ten hours without electricity, we were supposed to have power between eight and eleven at night, but our service was cut off again at about ten,” María de los Ángeles Alfonso, a resident of San Antonio, explains to 14ymedio. She joined the demonstration when she “heard the banging in the distance.”

“I went out with my daughter, and we started shouting to get the lights back on; we also shouted ’freedom’. A little later, some plainclothes police arrived on motorcycles and asked us to go home,” she explains.

The officials told the residents that they were “giving pleasure to the enemy and the empire,” but the warnings didn’t persuade them to go home and stop the cacerolazo.* “I told them that for me the enemy was the one who wouldn’t let me live a normal life,” says Alfonso.

Despite being threatened with consequences if they persisted, “no one went home, and they continued to bang,” Alfonso says. “We almost had another blackout in the early hours of the morning, and these are holy hours when they don’t cut off the electricity. So demanding works.”

Through social networks, the usual medium in these cases, some videos were published where you can hear, in complete darkness, the beating on metal. Reports also include a cacerolazo on Tuesday night in the Pekin neighborhood of Güira de Melena, the third protest in less than a week in this municipality of Artemis province.

To the cry of “Homeland and life!” dozens of residents in the city of Manzanillo, in the province of Granma, also took to the streets to protest continue reading

this Tuesday against the power outage. The demonstration forced the authorities to reinforce the police presence around the government headquarters, as reported on social networks by neighbors.

This demonstration joins the many that have occurred in recent days in several places on the island, such as Santa Clara, Bejucal, Holguín, Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba and Pinar del Río.

As a result of these protests, a total of 57 people have been arrested, 33 of them are still in police custody, according to a statement from Justice 11J published on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

The legal platform, created to follow up on the hundreds of defendants after the demonstrations of July last year, has registered up to 59 protests on the island over power cuts since June 14.

Likewise, since they published their first report on the subject on August 4, as of this Tuesday, the organization counted 15 more protests.

“Despite the fact that the new events have been mostly peaceful (we have verified only one incident of property damage), we note the escalation of state violence,” they said in their text, which reports that there was “intervention by repressive forces to contain concentrations of people” on August 5 in Martí Park, and on August 9 in the La Esperanza neighborhood, both in the city of of Cienfuegos, and on the 8th in the Alcides Pino neighborhood in Holguín.

In La Esperanza, in addition, “people reported that they beat protesters and that a pregnant woman was arrested.”

They also warn that in San José de las Lajas (province of Mayabeque), where there were cacerolazos on August 1 and 12, agents from the Ministry of the Interior threatened the demonstrators with “years of prison.”

Justice 11J has had access to two judicial decrees imposing a precautionary measure for the crimes of public disorder and contempt issued by the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office of Palmira (Cienfuegos), which include information on 16 people, 12 with a measure of pretrial detention.

*Translator’s note: Cacerolazo is a word coined for demonstrations where people go out on the street, or from their doors, windows and balconies, and bang on “casseroles” (pots and pans) to protest.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Banks, Defeated by the Black Market for U.S. Dollars

Up to 130 Cuban pesos are paid per dollar outside the official banks. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2022 — The price of the dollar continues to rise in Cuba’s informal market after the entry into force of the new foreign exchange rates decreed by the Government two weeks ago. There is no change in this trend after Monday’s announcement on State TV’s Roundtable show, of an alleged opening to foreign investment in trade under the control of the State.

Up to 130 pesos is paid per dollar outside the official banks, according to the independent media outlet El Toque in its daily chart. The euro has the same value in the informal market, and the freely convertible currency (MLC) reaches 134.5 pesos.

On August 3, the Government, desperate and in the midst of the worst economic crisis in the country’s history, announced the purchase of cash dollars at 120 pesos instead of 24, and as of August 9, Cubans can already withdraw national currency at ATMs with this exchange rate. Since Tuesday, one can also transfer funds through magnetic cards in MLC to accounts in pesos with the new exchange rate.

However, the rise in foreign exchange is dragging with it the prices of many products that are sold in the private market and also in the informal market in Cuban pesos (CUP). continue reading

“The bag of bread that I bought at 70 pesos last week already on Saturday cost me 90,” laments a neighbor of Los Sitios, in Central Havana. “The saleswoman says that they have to buy the euro to deposit it and then buy the flour in MLC, so now it costs them more.”

Goods such as soft drinks, juices and beer, which can only be purchased at the MLC rate to supply private businesses, are also increasing in price in private restaurants and cafes. The 12-oz. can of imported beer that was bought a couple of weeks ago at 200 pesos, is now around 250. Also the main dishes based on chicken, fish or seafood have increased their prices in the paladares, “private” restaurants.

For its part, the real estate market is increasingly expressing its prices in foreign currency, in the face of the instability of the peso. On classified sites, ads for homes for sale most often carry the amount in dollars, with the warning “to be paid in the United States.” Others clarify that “if you don’t have euros in hand, don’t even call.”

The best offer in the informal foreign exchange market contributes to further lowering the little enthusiasm that customers had to sell euros and dollars in bank branches. On Monday, an employee of the Metropolitan Bank located on the ground floor of the Ministry of Transport in Havana asked, on several occasions, while organizing the line in front of the office, “Is anyone here to sell foreign currency?” No one answered.

A few meters from that branch, a private cafeteria offered a more favorable exchange rate. “We accept payment in dollars, one at 130,’’ explained a young man to a couple of customers who wanted to pay with a ten-dollar bill. “We will give the change in pesos, of course,” the employee said. “Much better than at the Bank, where they are still asleep and haven’t raised the price.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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