14ymedio – Page 190 – Translating Cuba

In Spite of the Disastrous Situation in the Country, President Diaz-Canel Only Sees Successes in Cuba

Raúl Castro arrives at the ceremony of July 26th, supported by Díaz-Canel and the First Secretary of the Party in Cienfuegos. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 July 2022 – – The day started off complicated in the editorial office of 14ymedio in Havana. Several members of the team awoke to no internet connection and started to look for alternative ways to reach their readers. They concluded, with resignation, that the reason for this was that Etecsa [the Cuban State owned telecoms company] had cut off communications from activists and independent journalists on July 26th, the day Cuban officialdom celebrates the anniversary of the assault on Moncada prison, or, the Day of National Rebellion, as they prefer to call it.

Hundreds of miles away, in Cienfuegos, Díaz-Canel gave his speech: “Democracy, popular participation, humanism, creativity, innovation, commitment, ideals and revolutionary passion are what today define the Cuban Revolution, and social justice continues to be our guide.” He didn´t say anything about freedom of the press or the selective cuts in internet service.

The Head of State appeared in the city’s Plaza Cultural, where, according to the State news and media website Cubadebate, over 10,000 people had gathered, and lent his arm to Raúl Castro, who was also supported by the First Party Secretary in the area, Marydé Fernández López, so he could walk to his place of honour. From there he enthusiastically waved the red and black flag and listened to the words of his successor, who had not even been born on the date in question, but whose speech was focussed on the preceding century.

Díaz-Canel defended Fidel Castro´s claim in La Historia me absolverá [History Will Absolve Me], as a remedy for the “amnesia” that “imperial logic” attempted to impose, and spoke of “material pressures” intended to push back the “the spirit of resistance and to make the Cuban people forget the reason for the socialist revolution of the poor, with the poor, and for the poor.”

While Cuban people cross the island seeing the empty stores closed down, or some forklift driver comes up with a black market product, Díaz-Canel went on about a period when Cubans owned no houses or land, the negroes and mestizos were marginalised, women had no rights and were hopeless and hungry. Although he could have been talking about this Tuesday July 26, 2022, he was in fact referring to the mid-twentieth century. continue reading

During the day they announced a more than 10% shortage of electricity, although early in the morning the television broadcast the official ceremony without problems. In any case, Díaz-Canel, found himself able to refer to the power cuts, and asked the Cubans, even though they thought there was nothing worse than the blackouts they had to put up with every day, “to understand that the US blockade is the root cause of our economic difficulties.”

The leader didn’t get everything correct. He mentioned the great Cuban sporting achievements, while the rate of absconding of athletes is higher than ever, then he want on to the low level of infant mortality in a year in which we have seen catastrophic statistics in the island. He mentioned citizen safety on a day when we know there are up to 10 daily cattle thefts in Ciego de Ávila, and, why not, the health situation, a few days after the lack of nearly half the basic necessity medicines was reported.

In his speech, the President also referred to the new recently-approved norms which put Cuba “in the vanguard of respect for rights and guarantees,” although he didn’t mention the Penal Code, or the Communications Law, although he did mention the Family Code, one of the few norms adopted by the government — if not the only one — which the international community can view positively and which will be subject to a referendum in September.

Díaz-Canel also thanked the Heads of State who had shown support for Cuba, among which he particularly mentioned Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican leader, who is apparently gaining in the appreciation of the Cuban regime in comparison with Nicolás Maduro, who did not get a mention in spite of the relationship of more than two decades between Caracas and Havana.

Lastly, Díaz-Canel said “delinquency weakens social work and corruption eats away at everything” and stressed the need to fight it. “If we had given in after Moncada, after Granma, if we had accepted the idea of defeat, we would have been defeated, but that never happened and that must always be our attitude”, he concluded

Translated by GH

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Coyotes Kept Five Cubans Hidden in a Feed Store in Central Mexico

Angélica María Rodríguez Varela and Ismael Meléndez Castro are held incommunicado at the Las Agujas migration center. (Collage)

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 25 July 2022 — A warehouse intended to store feed was used by coyotes as a hiding place for migrants. In the building located on an embankment far from the town of San Miguel de la Victoria, in the State of Mexico, 225 undocumented people were found last Saturday, five Cubans among them.

Angélica María Rodríguez Varela, Isael Meléndez Castro and Junier Blanco Hernández, all of Cuban nationality, were transferred to the Las Agujas migration center, in Mexico City. Migration agents told them that they would be deported.

Rodríguez and Meléndez, originally from Pinar del Río, and Blanco, from Havana, sent their testimonies to our editorial staff. The 26-year-old girl with Passport K523299 said she was afraid that she will be repatriated to the island where she has suffered threats for demonstrating against the regime.

Meléndez, who studies at the University of Computer Sciences, told us that he was forced to leave Cuba after the harassment he suffered for participating in the demonstrations of July 11, 2021. “They accused me with false testimony and wanted to put me in prison,” he told 14ymedio.

Blanco asks to be allowed to continue on their way to the United States, where “we can ask for asylum.” The habanero stressed that they have not committed any crime and that their only fault was not to wait any longer in southern Mexico to complete the application process for a free transit laissez-passer.

Minutes after they were arrested by members of the National Guard and Migration, the Cubans had their cell phones confiscated and are now being held incommunicado at the Las Agujas station. continue reading

The case reached the ears of migrant defense attorney José Luis Pérez, who processed an amparo* so that they can be released and avoid any attempt at extortion by Migration agents, which happens often with undocumented migrants, mainly Cubans.

The detention of Cubans in the Migration Center “has become a means of raising money for the coffers of officials,” stressed the lawyer, who is based in the border state of Chiapas.

A statement from the National Migration Institute indicated that the 225 undocumented migrants were overcrowded and waiting to be transferred by the coyotes to the U.S. border. “People were rescued from a place where there was no light, and several children were found among blankets and backpacks without any hygiene measures,” an agent told 14ymedio.

Among the migrants detained are 194 from Guatemala, 14 from Honduras, nine from Nicaragua and three from El Salvador. The Guatemalans and Salvadorans will be returned to the south of the country.

Since October 2018, and despite the tightening of surveillance on the southern border of Mexico, thousands of migrants from Central and South America, but also from Cuba, Haiti and various African and Asian countries have entered Mexican territory with the aim of reaching the United States.

Coyotes look for routes for foreigners and sometimes park them in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla and the State of Mexico as an intermediate stop on their journey to the United States.

The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection Office has intercepted more than 1.6 million people so far in fiscal year 2022, which began last October.

In addition, Mexico received a record of more than 58,000 applications for asylum in the first half of 2022, an annual increase of almost 15%, according to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance.

*Translator’s note: An ’amparo’ is a request for protection

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Large Deployment of Security Forces on the Eve of July 26 in Cuba

The people of the capital have noticed an unusual operation of the ‘black berets’ mainly in highly populated municipalities such as Central Havana and Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 25 July 2022 — On the eve of July 26, the date of the celebration of the Cuba regime, and with an atmosphere full of protests over the long blackouts in the country, the streets of Havana woke up this Monday guarded by the Special National Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior known as the black berets.

The people of the capital have noticed an unusual operation of this repressive force mainly in highly populated municipalities such as Central Havana and Old Havana, while the country experiences three holidays from today until the 27th for the celebrations of the Day of National Rebellion (July 26), on the 69th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

Among the most guarded areas are the vicinity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, on Carlos III, between Oquendo and Soledad. It’s a strategic installation in these times of blackouts throughout the country, scheduled by the Electrical Union, which depends on this ministry. One of the offices of this state company in the province of Mayabeque was partially set on fire by protesters, who filmed the event late at night.

Two ’black berets’ in Fraternity Park in Havana on July 25, 2022. (14ymedio)

On another corner of Carlos III, between Soledad and Castillejo, very close to the ministry itself, a truck of the Special Brigade was guarded by several agents. The vehicle, with the number 1532, serves to transport the military, as was recorded during the days after the protests of July 2021, when the regime deployed its repressive arsenal and mobilized caravans in several cities. continue reading

In this area there is also Plaza Carlos III, one of the largest shopping centers in Havana, popularly known as “the palace of consumption.” For several years it has been the commercial lung of Central Havana, especially in the neighborhoods of Pueblo Nuevo, Cayo Hueso and Los Sitios. Both in this establishment and in other state centers you can also see the operational guards of police, other special forces and State Security officers dressed in civilian clothes.

But the ones who have attracted the most attention in the last few hours are the black berets, with their black uniforms and their inquisitive looks, as they observe the atmosphere in central areas of the capital and even walk with dogs guarding streets and busy squares such as Fraternity Park. Some residents report to this newspaper that when they approach this brigade, they prefer not to be using their cell phone because even that action provokes suspicion among the military.

One of the trucks in which the ’black berets’ move is located on Carlos III, between Soledad and Castillejo, in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

Because of the violence unleashed by the regime during the arrest and imprisonment of the demonstrators on July 11, 2021, the black berets together with the minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Álvaro López-Miera, are considered responsible for “serious human rights abuses.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Father of Young Man Arrested in the Caibarien Protests Calls for His Release

Dayron Garcia’s arrest was violent and his father believes he will have to stand trial. (Cortesía)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 July 2022 — Dayron Yarisbel Garcia Bolaños was arrested Friday morning after participating in protests over extended power outages in Caibarién, a town in Santa Clara province.

“They went looking for him. When the police approached him, they handcuffed him, threw him on the floor and put him in the car,” says Mario Luis Garcia Marrero, Dayron Yarisbel’s father. “There were more than 1,500 people marching but he and another girl were the only ones arrested.” He insists his son’s arrest was very violent and happened in front of the young man’s mother, who recounted what happened.

As his son was being detained, Garcia Marrero was careful to remain inside his home, which was very close to the demonstrations. Both he and Dayron Yarisbel, a brother and some close friends had received warning letters from the police for having participated in the July 11 protests.

Dayron Yarisbel’s arrest took place after 1:00 AM, after which he was transferred to the Caibarién police station. Garcia Marrero reports a young woman was also arrested that night but was later released after paying a fine. His son, however, is still in prison and may face prosecution.

After learning of his son’s arrest, Garcia Marrero went to the police station and was told the case was being turned over to the public prosecutor’s office, which will be in charge of filing a formal complaint. Depending on the charges against him, such as “public disorder,” his son could be fined or spend up to three years in jail. continue reading

With regard to Friday’s protests, Garcia Marrero says, “Things are tense in Cuba because of all the blackouts. Here in Caibarién everything had been quiet but that night, when they turned off the power at midnight, the town started gathering at Güira Park.”

Protestors began banging pots. “It was like a carnival,” he says. They later joined another group who were doing the same thing at the town’s seawall.

No sooner had Dayron Yarisbel heard the sound of clanging pots than he left for the demonstrations. Garcia Marrero later followed and was told that his son had been taken into custody. “They didn’t arrest him at the seawall. They arrested him at his mother’s house,” some distance from the site of the protests. Power was restored in the town shortly the start of the demonstration.

“I didn’t think the protest was going to take place but it began in different areas and everyone came together and ended up at the seawall,” he says. In addition to banging pots and pans, they could also be heard shouting, “Turn on the power. . . Díaz-Canel is an asshole. . . Freedom!” and “Homeland and Life!” as can be heard on videos posted on social media

Though many people took part in the widespread July 11 protests last year, it was women who particularly stood out during Friday’s demonstration, calling on others to join them in defending their children against the country’s precarious economic situation. According to some residents, a teacher at a local school received a police summons for participating in the protest.

Garcia Marrero fears his son will be imprisoned though he insists, “He didn’t do anything.” He believes there will be further reprisals if the young man ends up in prison because, he says, “I myself am not going to stay here.”

Garcia Marrero describes Caibarién, a fishing port, as a town in bankrupcy — like the rest of the country — that has been hit with both covid and dengue fever.

On several occasions Dayron Yarisbel has tried to leave the country illegally. His father says that, on one of those occasions, he was detained for five months in the Bahamas after being intercepted on a raft.

He is currently working in construction with his uncle but believes, according to his father, that he has no future in Cuba. “He’s always hoping for a chance to leave. In one attempt the boat hit a reef and they all almost drowned. There were six of them,” says Garcia Marrero.

Dayron Yarisbel’s hope is shared by many young people in Caibarién. “Two or three days ago, one of his friends, who was always here at my house, arrived in the United States. Him and four others. They set off on a boat they made themselves out of sheet metal. They were met by Cuban border guards but fortunately they were allowed to continue and arrived safely,” he says. “A lot of young people are leaving or are thinking of leaving.”

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Four Cuban Paralympic Athletes Escape in the Mexican city of Monterrey

Paralympic sprinter Christian Guillen, one of the four escapees in Monterrey. (Granma)

14ymedio, Mexico, 20 July 2022 — Paralympic athletes Christian Guillén, Elvis Nules, Lázaro Yarlo Rodríguez and one more who was not identified left the entourage that had travelled to the Mexican city of Monterrey to participate in the Mexican Paratletism Open. According to Play-Off Magazine journalist Leonardo Ruiz, the escape occurred on Monday night, the same day that the entourage arrived.

Of the escaped group, sprinter Christian Guillén stands out. At the beginning of July, he shone at the Grand Prix held in Tunisia, after winning in the one hundred meters with a time of 11.23 seconds, and in the 400 meters with a time of 51.15 seconds.

The team traveled to Monterrey to participate in the Mexican Paratletism Open, which will take place between this Thursday and Saturday, an event that provides points for the Paralympic ranking.

“The objective is to carry out the medical-functional classification, a study where the degree of disability is determined for the location in the categories,” Jorge Reynaldo Palma, a methodologist from the Inder Department of Sport for People with Disabilities, told the official media Jit before the trip.

Among the figures of the team are the gold medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Robiel Yankiel Sol, and the double Paralympic champion in 100 and 200 meters in Rio de Janeiro 2016, Lenier Savon.

The escape of these athletes is announced just on the day the regime said that it suspended for life baseball players Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Ávalos, who saw their escape attempt frustrated in Mexico and who, after being arrested by the Mexican authorities, were returned to the island. In addition to punishing Javier Carabeo and Yulián Quintana with two years without being able to play, they are accused of an attempt at abandonment in 2021.

While the Paralympic athletes were planning to escape in Mexico, the National Boxing Commission in Cuba announced the expulsion of Olympic boxing champion Andy Cruz, on the grounds of his “repeated indiscipline.”

Escapes continue to bleed Cuban sport. One of the most recent abandonments was that of Yiselena Ballar. The Cuban javelinist took advantage of her arrival in Miami and left the team that would participate in the 2022 Eugene Athletics World Cup.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Vietnam Donates 750 Tablets to the Cuban Assembly in Support of ‘Its Just Revolutionary Cause’

14ymedio, Madrid, 20 July 2022 — The Parliament of Vietnam has given 750 tablets, two servers, a storage device and two multifunction printers to the National Assembly of People’s Power to improve operational efficiency and in support of the “just revolutionary cause of the Cuban people.”

Tran Thanh Man, vice president of the Vietnamese National Assembly, presented the gift on Wednesday to Orlando Nicolás Hernández Guillén, the island’s ambassador to the Asian country, who thanked him for the donation and praised Vietnam, which “has always been side by side with Cuba.”

Hernández Guillén again accused the United States of damaging Cuba’s economic activity, specifically with regard to foreign trade and foreign investment. “No citizen or sector of the economy escapes the effects derived from this unilateral policy,” he insisted.

There was no shortage of mentions of Fidel Castro and his visit to the country 49 years ago. “Fidel, like Martí at the time, knew, with exquisite sensitivity, how to assess the high human and moral value of the [Vietnamese] people and engender a feeling that to this day keeps us united,” said the Cuban ambassador.

Thanh Man, for his part, responded that Castro’s phrase was “deeply engraved in the hearts of generations of Vietnamese,” referring to his words on that visit in September 1973: “For Vietnam we are willing to give even our own blood.”

The official followed the path of emotion and quoted Ho Chi Minh, in frank competition with Castro: “Vietnam and Cuba are separated by thousands of kilometers, but the hearts of the two countries are as close as brothers and sisters.”

The Cuban ambassador said that the Cuban authorities are waiting for the next official visit of the president of the National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hu, and that they want to continue the path of cooperation that they have maintained for almost half a century.

Vietnam and Cuba maintain close commercial, economic and political ties, although in recent years their economic models have gone in different directions. The Asian country abandoned the Marxist planned economy and became a socialist market economy, a formula more similar to China.

Since then, the Vietnamese economy began to flourish, and now it is this country that provides aid to the island. The joint agricultural program allows Cuba, for example, to invest less in rice imports, since it receives about 5,000 tons of Vietnamese grain every year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Parliament Approves the Final Version of the New Family Code

March against homophobia and transphobia in Cuba (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, July 22, 2022 — The National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP, unicameral parliament) of Cuba unanimously approved this Friday the definitive version of the so-called Family Code, which will be submitted to a popular referendum on September 25.

The deputies supported version 25 of this legislative package to regulate interpersonal relationships, which includes equal marriage, adoption by homosexual couples and surrogacy (“solidarity” in this text).

The regulations went through an extensive popular consultation between February and April, in which 6.4 million people participated, said the Cuban Minister of Justice, Oscar Silvera, before the plenary of the ANPP, among whom were the president of the country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and his predecessor, Raúl Castro.

Silvera explained that as a result of this popular consultation, “47.93% of the general text and 49.15% of its articles were modified.”

If approved in September, the Family Code will replace the regulations in force since 1975.

The Family Code is the only regulation submitted to a referendum among the 70 updated after the new Constitution of 2019, including sensitive laws like the new Criminal Code. continue reading

During the consultation, 336,595 votes were recorded, and 434,000 proposals were collected. Silvera indicated that 61.9% of citizens pronounced themselves in favor of the code.

The Government has deployed an important media campaign that is flooding television screens and newspapers, and there are even special programs dedicated to explaining every detail of the 471 articles of the Code, in order to get majority support.

The new Family Code has generated controversy among those who don’t accept gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, such as some religious groups.

It is also rejected by some feminist groups that demand a specific law on gender-based violence and the criminalization of femicide. The Government says that there are already laws that punish these crimes.

Some opponents and activists have also taken a stand against this regulation because it comes from the Government.

No surveys on the degree of support for the Family Code have been disseminated among the Cuban population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Appeal of Daniel Joel Cardenas’ 15 Year Sentence for July 11th Protests in Cuba is Denied

Daniel Joel Cárdenas is in the maximum security prison of Agüica, in Colón. (Hyper Media Magazine)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 July 2022 — Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díez, sentenced to 15 years for the protests of July 11, 2021 in Cárdenas (Matanzas), was denied the appeal filed on January 9. According to Marbelis Vázquez speaking to 14ymedio, the lawyer let her know that they had rejected the appeal and that the original sentence of 15 years was maintained.

“I want to say that this six-month wait has been in vain,” Vázquez lamented. “They didn’t even give him a chance for rectification, to give him another hearing,” she declared, before entering the visiting area of the maximum security prison in Agüica, in Colón.

Cárdenas, who during his detention by uniformed special troops, three days after 11J (July 11th 2021), was wounded in the head by a shot and received blows to the chest and back, is in prison for the crimes of sabotage, public disorder and spread of epidemics.

“Now the sentence is final and I am truly disconcerted,” Vázquez explained to CubaNet. The hope of being able to change the fate of Cárdenas was buried after the lawyer’s call. “My children are going to grow up without that father’s love, without a united family, incredible, all this they are doing is unfair.” continue reading

In the video that Vázquez recorded the day of the arrest and that she spread on social networks, military personnel are seen carrying small arms while entering the house to arrest Cárdenas.

“They had no mercy on my husband or my children,” Vázquez said in an interview with 14ymedio last May. “I still close my eyes and remember that moment. My children carry with them a trauma that they will never forget.”

During the three-day trial, from December 8 to 10, Cárdenas was treated as “a criminal.” They took him, handcuffed and in leg irons, to a trial that, for Vázquez was “a staged circus with false witnesses.”

The activist Salomé García Bacallao published on her social networks that “the military prosecutor’s office did the same thing with those accused of sabotage in Colón, Matanzas. They also did not have an oral or in person hearing.” And she noted that “firm sentences without change” were given. One of them, that of Rolando Sardiñas, el Koka, was 12 years in prison. “Another violation of due process.”

Aylín, Sardiñas’ sister, indicated that “there was no reduction in the appeal” of the sentence, even though there were irregularities and they charged him with that did not correspond to his actions.” Not even an oral hearing. “Who will give him back those years that they have decided take away?” she wondered.

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Cuban State Security Used a Common Prisoner to Harass Otero Alcantara in Prison

Manuel Luis Otero Alcántara in front of the Havana Capitol during a day of protests. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 July 2022 — The Cuban opposition figure and artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara informed his family on Wednesday that he is suffering “harassment” by a prisoner in the Guanajay maximum security prison. According to the curator Claudia Genlui, the inmate has a 51-year sentence and State Security has instructed him “to attack Luis Manuel.”

Until now, Genlui said, Alcántara was isolated and “without even being able to access sunlight.” Also, as he is “grounded” due to the hunger and thirst strike he had started, he was prohibited from making phone calls. However, he was recently transferred to a shared cell and “the provocations have been increasing.”

The leader of the San Isidro Movement had already deposed the hunger strike that began on July 4 to demand his release, due to his delicate state of health. “It is evident how State Security tries to provoke a conflict in which Luis Manuel is affected,” Genlui said in his statement.

The inmate’s hostility is now added to Alcántara’s physical weakness, although “Luis has tried to avoid problems.”

“Precisely because of the visibility he has and his importance in the thought process of Cuban civil society, Alcántara is in constant danger, not only that they may try to complicate his sentence and leave him in prison for more years, but also his mental health and physical integrity,” Genlui added.

From prison, Alcántara assured that “he is not in a camp, he is suffering, he is under torture and his life is in danger.” continue reading

Genlui launched a demand to the international human rights organizations, so that they do not remain indifferent to the violation of elementary norms being suffered by the artist, because frequently “in the face of the Cuban dictatorship they look the other way and remain with their arms crossed.”

Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021 and tried ten months later, along with Maykel Castillo Osorbo, who had been detained since May of that same year. The sentences imposed were five years in prison, in the case of Alcántara, and nine for Castillo.

The health of both prisoners has been pushed to the limit during the period of imprisonment. Otero Alcántara reported having lost the sight of one eye, while Osorbo is suffering from an undiagnosed illness, according to his relatives. “Luis’s time in prison is not ours. He suffers and lives the fullest days of torture,” Genlui wrote, referring to the artist’s physical and mental wear.

After blaming the regime for any bodily or psychological damage that might occur to Alcántara, Genlui demanded “concrete actions for his freedom,” since, as the artist himself has declared, “leaving Cuba, exiled, stripped of everything, is not a option.”

State Security has proposed on several occasions, both to Alcántara and Castillo, exile as an alternative to prison, but both opponents have refused: “That is precisely the ’solution’ that the dictatorship that we ask for is seeking.”

During the last year, and given the imminence of new protests, the Cuban government has tried to dismantle the opposition on the island, forcing exile or imprisoning its main representatives, such as Hamlet Lavastida, Katherine Bisquet, Anamely Ramos, Carolina Barrero, Yunior García and, more recently, Saily González. Alcántara and Castillo, however, have rejected any negotiations with the regime and have insisted that they will not leave Cuba.

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Death by Sepsis of Newborns in Three Hospitals is Investigated in Santiago de Cuba

“The ministry says that he will be in Santiago for a long time. We are the province with the most deceased children,” said one of the sources consulted by ’El Chago’. (Cuba time)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 July 2022 — A commission from the Ministry of Public Health is investigating the death of at least 64 newborns in Santiago de Cuba, supposedly due to sepsis contracted in the hospital. According to a source consulted by El Chago, a Facebook page dedicated to that Eastern province, the deaths were recorded during the first six months of this year and “are associated with possible gaps in epidemiological surveillance,” related to “hospital dynamics ” and even “possible violations of hygienic-sanitary regulations.”

The publication does not reveal the specialty of that source, who also said that “the history of maternal infections is not ruled out, although this problem has become less common because women are examined during pregnancy.”

Similarly, it mentions three hospitals in which cases of infection could have occurred: Tamara Bunke Bider, Materno Sur (Clínica Los Ángeles) and Pediatric Professor Sur Dr. Antonio María Béguez (La Colonia).

“The complexity of the situation with the epidemic emergence of sepsis” caused, continues the note, by the neonatologies of the first center being transferred to the Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso hospital, known as the Surgical Clinic, and those of the second, to another floor. “At the Clinic they later put them in another room,” El Chago also details.

The post explains that nosocomial sepsis is a “frequent pathology” that can occur for different reasons, such as “gestational age,” “severity of the disease,” “use of antimicrobials,” “parenteral nutrition,” ” repeated invasive procedures such as central venous catheters” and “assisted ventilation. Only in last place do they put the “natural immunological immaturity of newborns, as well as the coexistence of other factors such as low birth weight and prematurity,” although the international pages of pediatrics indicate it as the main factor that predisposes the newborn to sepsis is infection in its bloodstream.

The contagion can quickly lead, “to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, a serious and generally fatal event if it is not detected early.” continue reading

Another source, whom he does not identify by name or specialty, told El Chago that although syringes and gloves “have been in short supply,” “we have not had a lack of antibiotics” and “incubators and fans have never been lacking.”

What this source does denounce is that the human staff “has been exhausted”: “Early mornings awake and often the next day without relief, the neonatologists are leaving, some were in their homes covered by the law, others on [foreign] mission, or left the country in the mass exodus, and not counting those who get sick, or go on leave, that’s why sometimes there has been an overload of work for the few who are here”.

To this, he adds: “The PAMI [Mother and Child Care Program] takes you away and puts you to work wherever it wants, because, according to them, we are its human resource. This year too, the specialty has suffered casualties of several residents due to arbitrary decisions of many of the bosses. There are two work teams here, those of closed services and the open one, and they exchange them because they decide to, and although they are all neonatologists, each one has specialized in something they know more deeply.”

The same source concludes: “The ministry says that it will be in Santiago for a long time. We are the province with the most deceased children. They are reviewing all the polyclinics and maternity hospitals. The children come in with mild symptoms and they get complicated in the therapy of La Colonia.”

Despite the fact that the health commission is ministerial, neither authorities, nor officials, nor the official national press nor that of the provinces have provided information in this regard.

The case comes to add tension to the former jewel in the crown of the regime’s propaganda, the Health system, which has been struggling, in recent days, with a worrying increase in serious cases of dengue and a rebound in covid-19 infections.

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Castro, Another Member of the Argentine Military Junta

Fidel Castro harangues the crowd. (Archive)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 24 July 2022 — Fidel Castro was a legal opportunist. A fundamentalist of power and obviously an unscrupulous subject. His indisputable talent guided him to the conquest of power and its preservation; in both projections he had a resounding success. He was the dean of Latin American dictators and the one who governed the world the longest: 49 years and 8 days, according to a recent exhibition.

On the other hand, although Castro always tried to present himself as a civilian leader and incessantly attacked the military governments of the hemisphere, which he described as gorilla regimes, he maintained close relations with various uniformed caciques.

One of the first was General Juan Domingo Perón, about whom Castro wrote. “We are very grateful to General Perón, he was the first to recognize us. He sold us those cars that we still have, those Fords that are still around. He sold us wagons for our railroads. We are very grateful to him. We have always been friends of the Peronists. Perón seriously wounded the snake (the US says so) although he did not kill it.”

This was the origin of the more than 2.7 billion that Cuba owes to Argentina and the basis, perhaps, for the close relationship of the Military Junta of that country with the Cuban dictator, despite the fact that the defenders of the Cuban regime in that country accuse the military of thousands of disappeared. Bad memory is everywhere and those who best represented it were the Fernández-Kirchner couple.

Argentina was a target of Castro’s subversion. However, several years ago the secret links that existed between the Argentine Military Junta and the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro were discovered, a relationship that was denied by the supporters of Castroism. In 2003, however, Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, a former political prisoner of Cuba’s Black Spring, published a book [La Falsa Imagen de Fidel Castro (En Colores): Evidencias Irrefutables], which I do not intend to comment on, in which he graphically demonstrates that these relationships existed and were beneficial for both. continue reading

The book presents graphic testimonies of the unusual relationship, not exceptional, if we remember the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, signed in Moscow seven days before the Nazi invasion of Poland, which resulted in the partition of that country between Berlin and the Kremlin. In other words, the opportunism of the Caribbean leader was inspired by the example of two of his teachers, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

Among those blessed by Pope Castro, not to be confused with Francisco, despite his human relationship with the executioner Raúl Castro, was the Peruvian general Juan Velazco Alvarado, who led a military coup against President Fernando Belaunde Terry and established an iron dictatorship that Castro distinguished with his visit, to the extreme that months later a large delegation of high-ranking Peruvian soldiers attended the Cuban military maneuvers called “Ayacucho 150” in which the dictator Castro said, “And in Peru Today, as in Cuba, Yankee imperialism no longer dominates!”

Velazco Alvarado was followed by two Panamanian soldiers, Omar Torrijos and Manuel Antonio Noriega, who for Castro were good dictators due to the close relations he had with both. These rulers, like his mentor, did not hesitate to crush the opposition.

However, the most productive military man for Castroism was Hugo Chávez Frías. The Venezuelan coup leader, affirms journalist Alexis Ortiz, was the bridge of salvation for Cuban totalitarianism when it lost the multimillion-dollar subsidy from the former Soviet Union. The Castro state, sucker by nature, found in Chávez and Venezuela the necessary cornucopia to survive, despite the fact that the Cuban model was already exhausted by that time.

However, in my opinion, the most aberrant relationship was that of the Argentine Military Junta with Castro, as Felipe Fuentes’ book demonstrates. Supposed ideological enemies allied themselves to avoid being condemned in international instances for their systematic violation of human rights but, even more monstrous, is that the relatives of those who attribute thousands of disappeared and murdered to that Military Junta, defend the legacy of Castroism.

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There Will Be No Foreign Investment for the Private Sector in Cuba

One has to worry about what the communists don’t know how to do, which is nothing more than creating a favorable environment for the prosperity of business. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 23 July 2022 — In recent days, we have witnessed a torrent of measures by the Cuban regime to get the economy of the island out of the vicious circle in which it has been locked by the communist economic model that the authorities are stubbornly determined to apply.

And of all the ministerial hodgepodge of proposals, some hilarious ones such as the recovery of the “microbrigades” or the “in-person learning” reminiscent of the revolutionary old days, those related to foreign investment in Cuba have undoubtedly been the ones that have received the most attention — in some cases, resulting in undesirable confusion.

The person responsible for this mess has been the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, who reported in the National Assembly on the activity of his department, exemplified in the negotiation of 57 projects with foreign capital in prioritized sectors of the economy, valued at almost $5 billion, all of them still without a materialization date.

Malmierca, immune to discouragement and the fact that the application of Law 118 on foreign investment has been a resounding failure since 2014, told the deputies that “if you work well and make an effort, we have the conditions to attract more foreign capital despite the existing difficulties,” with less conviction than what these words really say.

The difficulties, in line with the official argument of the regime, come, of course, from the ‘blockade’, but also, and here comes the interesting thing, from what Malmierca called “works that depend on us, including delays in the procedures and the lack of preparation in the negotiating groups.”

Actually, if those were the obstacles to the development of foreign investment in Cuba, there could be some hope, but when you compare the Cuban experience since 2014 with that of, say the Dominican Republic, you can understand why foreign capital turns its back on Malmierca and, nevertheless, lines up to be able to enter the neighboring Caribbean island.

Trying to attract investment only with a law is a waste of time. First, you have to worry about what communists don’t know how to do, which is nothing more than creating a favorable environment for business prosperity, so that people can increase their standard of living and companies can operate freely. In Cuba, that is simply impossible, and therefore, not because of laws or obstacles, foreign investment passes it by. continue reading

But Malmierca knows how to catch attention and that is why, after recognizing that the management of his department leaves much to be desired (at the end of last year, 285 businesses had been approved in Cuba since 2014, 49 located in the Mariel Special Development Zone and 29 reinvestments), he announced that “about seven foreign investment projects linked to forms of non-state management are being studied, and the relevance of approving businesses in domestic trade is being analyzed.”

The deputies of the Assembly, who at that time were sleeping peacefully, felt a small convulsion. Some even used their mobile phones to say that Malmierca was thinking of authorizing foreign investment in the private sector. People couldn’t believe it.

So when the minister changed the subject and began to talk about the virtues of the unique digital window and the measures to attract foreign capital at the municipal level, everyone’s interest was in that mention of the possible entry of foreign investment into private businesses — something that, until now, had been banned. Everyone wanted more information, but the deputies of the Assembly rarely bother the top leaders of the regime, so it would be best to wait.

Little by little, the State newspaper Granma’s headline summary of the news — “There are possibilities of attracting more foreign capital” — began to run from mobile to mobile. Yes, but how would that idea be translated into reality, in view of the experience since 2014? It seemed evident that Malmierca was proposing an update of the policy for attracting foreign investment in Cuba and its flexibility in favor of more profits, as well as the actions being taken to encourage and improve this mechanism, but was there really a will to open foreign capital to the private sector?

Malmierca had said that the reforms that were going to be introduced would in no case mean that “the socialist character of our government would be violated,” but someone saw that the portfolio of opportunities for foreign investment had included, among other options, small projects and 60 others that emerged from the territories. They were no longer the great millionaire pharaonic projects that used to frighten foreign investors for the mobilization of required financial resources.

But so far, nothing more. The natural date would be the 38th Havana International Fair (Fihav-2022) to be held in November. Apparently someone said that there were preparations being made “for exceptional projects, and the strategic axes of the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030 will be taken into account.”

And reading the news, someone said they had mentioned it. Granma reported “the minister pointed out that another flexibility of the policy is the possibility that the more than 4,000 forms of non-state management can work with foreign investment, in accordance with the provisions of the law.” That’s it. This is the key to authorizing the entry of international capital into the private sector, but it’s advisable to read it in detail and to not be in a hurry.

“Working with foreign investment” is not well known and is not the same as receiving foreign capital and offering a stake in it, by the way, which at no time is mentioned. These are very different things, and until the proposal is outlined, you have to understand the first version: “work with foreign investment.” And that’s not nothing.

Then there are the dangers that aren’t obvious. If Malmierca wants there to be foreign investment in the retail sector, the first thing that has to be achieved, and this seems almost impossible in the Cuban economy, is that there are products to be sold and bought and also purchasing power to do so, and it doesn’t seem that these two parameters are currently in the reality of trade and the retail trade circulation of the Cuban economy.

Little by little, people calmed down. No one should expect any change in the foreign investment policy because the communist regime’s nature is to have absolute control of the economy and to prevent the accumulation [of profit] and the prosperity of private businesses. There will be no foreign investment in the private sector, at least with the 2019 communist constitution in force. The alarms stopped going off. It’s very difficult to get out of the vicious circle of the Cuban economy.
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Note from 14ymedio: This article is reprinted with the permission of the author. I was originally published in Cubaeconomía.

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Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Give Him Death’

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 22 July 2022 — It has been 10 years since Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero were assassinated in Cuba. It was July 22, 2012. We’ll get to that later. Ángel Carromero, a Spaniard, and Aron Modig, a Swede, were, more or less, witnesses to the murder. Carromero was a delegate of Nuevas Generaciones (New Generations,) the youth organization of the Spanish Popular Party, and Modig was the president of Sweden’s Young Christian Democrats.

A few days ago, I received an excellent book by David E. Hoffman, Pulitzer Prize winner and editorialist for The Washington Post, GIVE ME LIBERTY: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and His Daring Quest for a Free Cuba. The Pulitzer Prize is a guarantee that Hoffman knows how to investigate. He wouldn’t buy a pig in a poke.

For those unfamiliar with American history, “Give me Liberty” is a famous speech Patrick Henry delivered at St John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, on March 23, 1775, as the American Revolution was brewing. His words, which electrified the audience, ended with a well-known phrase in the country, “Give me Liberty… or give me death.”

The very well researched work, especially regarding the history of Payá, was sent to me by John Suárez, who replaced Frank Calzón, the founder and soul of the “Center for a Free Cuba,” a think tank devoted exclusively to freedom for Cubans. Perhaps it is the only one of its kind in a city where think tanks abound.

As I was saying, Give me Liberty convinced me of what Ofelia (Payá’s widow) and Rosa María (Payá’s eldest daughter and founder of “Cuba Decides,” a formidable collaborator in her father’s work) had already warned me about, that the regime assassinated Oswaldo and Harold, although it was not what Raúl Castro intended to do. He wanted to scare them, not kill them, but he condoned the action as soon as it was done. For Fidel and Raúl it was obvious where their loyalties lay. Hence the brutal cover-up, as always happens – the episodes of the sunken ships with their cargo of innocent children, the “13 de Marzo” and the “Canímar,” and the executions of General Arnaldo Ochoa and Colonel Tony de la Guardia et al, are the best known, but not the only ones.

Cuban secret services, organized and trained by communist Germany’s Stasi in the 1960s and 1970s, have conspicuous and invisible ways of carrying out the persecution of any targeted individuals on the island. They wanted to give a lesson to the “arrogant Europeans” that were on the island to train Cubans in the details of the transition, so they chose the “conspicuous” formula.

A conspicuous vehicle, typical of the fearsome Cuban State Security, a red Lada, which followed them for a long time during the journey, even hitting the rear end of their car, causing the accident that would result in the death of the two Cubans (what a coincidence!) continue reading

It was not the first time that Oswaldo Payá had been followed conspicuously. An associate of Payá stated that days before the assassination of the opposition leader, together with Harold Cepero, they used the same procedure to try to instill fear in Payá, only that on that occasion they overturned his vehicle, and the car was left with the tires facing up.

That is why State Security (the Cuban political police) exhibits erratic behavior. On the one hand, they did what they have always done, what internally they felt authorized to do – terrorize dissidents. But in this case both people were killed.

If they died on the spot, or if they were killed later, in both cases there is a cover-up and very suspicious behavior. Mary Anastasia O’Grady, a great expert on Cuban affairs, insists that he was assassinated in an article (“How did Oswaldo Payá really die?”) published in the Wall Street Journal on April 7, 2013.

Why do they deny the family the opportunity to examine the body and perform an autopsy? Why don’t they respond to the accusations made by the jurists of “Human Rights Watch”? What is the point of refusing to share the evidence with supporters and opponents if they have it at hand and it is a golden opportunity to shut up the opponents of the Cuban revolution for many years?

No one believes the story of the “revolutionary arrogance.” When it has been necessary, they have lowered their heads and swallowed their pride. Both are already dead, and the story can be told. Fraga Iribarne told Fidel Castro that they were going to hang him by the testicles if he did not change his behavior. Fidel left Galicia that early morning, but he did not reply to Fraga. He swallowed his response.

Today, and since the Chavista charity ended, the country has worsened and has become a pigsty due to the lack of every basic item (electricity, medicines, drinking water, food), to which is added the presence of dengue fever, Covid and of other similar misfortunes, as if the seven plagues of Egypt affected Cuba.

Ultimately, what Oswaldo Payá proposed with the “Varela Project” is extraordinarily valid. In 2003, 19 years ago, he proposed going “from the law to the law,” taking advantage of a space left by the current legislation to ask the nation if it insisted on communism or if it evolved towards other more intelligent and sensible ways of organizing coexistence. At that time Fidel Castro was still alive and, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity that his opponent gave him to rectify, he came out with a rude remark and accused him of being “the CIA by other means.”

He did not give him freedom. Instead, he gave him death.

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Cuba: Electrical Power Restored in Jaguey Grande and Caibarien Shortly After the Start of Protests

Protests on Friday morning in Jagüey Grande, a town in Matanzas province. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 July 2022 — Electrical power blackouts led to at least two protests in Cuba during the early morning hours of Friday: one in Jagüey Grande, a town in Matanzas province, and the other in Caibarién, in Villa Clara province.

According to accounts posted on social media, protestors also demonstrated by banging pots in Caibarién’s Lili de Sagua la Grande neighborhood. A similar event is reported to have taken place in Morón, a town in Ciega de Avila province, though no photographs were available of either demonstration.

However, multiple videos of the protest in Jagüey Grande show dozens of people, dimly lit by cell phones, marching through streets to chants of “freedom” and “turn on the power,” with some also shouting “everyone into the streets.”

“Look at this neighborhood. It’s abusive,” someone can be heard saying amid the din of shouts and pot banging.

Two protests were reported in Villa Clara. Though there are no photos documenting the one in Sagua la Grande, some posts claim power was restored a few minutes after the start of the demonstration.

La falta de luz ha vuelto a desembocar en al menos dos #protestas durante la madrugada de este viernes en Cuba https://t.co/5RBqUgnNuM pic.twitter.com/uTe3kyRtad

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) July 22, 2022

An electrical power shortage led to at least two early morning protests in Cuba on Friday.

Power was also restored in Caibarién after protestors could clearly be heard shouting “turn on the power,” a slogan that has become popular since students at the University of Camagüey adopted it during protests on June 14. continue reading

There has been a constant stream of comments on social media since photos of these protests began circulating. Another protest took place in Pinar del Rio just a week ago. All the demonstrations have been peaceful, made up mainly of people banging metal pots, and quite large relative to the limited size of the towns in which they occurred.

Though some social media posts have called for Cubans to storm hard-currency stores, hotels and even government installations, like protestors in Sri Lanka did, most have urged demonstrators to be cautious, march peacefully and document their actions on cell phone videos so no one can accuse them of violence.

So far, there has been no official response to the protests other than a statement regarding the events in Palacios that said the people have a right to express their discontent and that critics in Miami have exaggerated the scope of the demonstrations.

The government continues to ask for patience as it deals with an unusually bad electricity shortage. The public is aware there is no short-term solution — officials themselves have said so — but is demanding the burden at least be shared equitably.

Cubans are aware that, though the capital is experiencing outages and blackouts, the provinces are suffering even longer periods without power, a situation which is becoming increasingly obvious. What is not known is how officials will find a way to mollify a population experiencing so many plagues — heat, hunger, dengue fever and covid, all at the same time — and with so little left to lose.

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No Surgeon Operates in Cuba Without the Money From Miami and the Bribes for the Staff

Surgeons in Santa Clara, Cuba, also treat patients from Ciego de Avila and Cienfuegos. (Arnaldo Milián Clinical-Surgical Provincial Hospital)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 July 2022 — For every surgery that is performed in Cuba, someone is paying a lot of money in Miami. Without dollars, imported medicines and bribes, there is no one to operate, says Julia, a 68-year-old from Santa Clara who suffers from breast cancer. Thanks to her son, who lives in Florida, she has passed with luck, although not without disappointment and negligence, through the different stages of treatment.

Since her diagnosis at the end of 2021, Julia has had to send her son complex lists of medicines, equipment and serums that oncologists require. The “medical power” recommends that patients search for a guardian angel beyond the borders of the Island. If they do not find one, they always have to ask for the symbolic question, “who’s last in line,” and then join the line themselves, a line lasting two or three years, to enter the operating room

“Gloves, scalpels, rolls of gauze, adhesive tape, swabs, catheters…” lists Julia, who has lost count of everything she should ask of her son. “Before the operation, you have to take the ’package’ to the doctor so she can sterilize it. But be careful: if you get sick and an emergency case arrives, they use someone else’s material without inconvenience and everything goes to hell.”

In addition to the anguish of the disease and the operation, patients who manage to get past the entrance of the operating room must face other surprises. “My sister accompanied me in the first operation, of minimal access,” says Julia. “Everything was faded and the machines were very old. To top it off, my sister saw blood and flies on the operating room floor, and she immediately went to complain.”

“Do you know what they answered?” Julia recalls, indignant: “Don’t worry, ma’am, those flies are sterilized.”

There are only two anesthesia machines in the Santa Clara operating rooms. Even that does not guarantee correct treatment. Julia, for example, was injected with lidocaine, the anesthetic used by dentists, and she had to ask for the dose to be increased on more than one occasion, because she felt the cut of the scalpel. continue reading

But if the operation is painful, chemotherapy is no less so. In Santa Clara, patients from Ciego de Ávila and Cienfuegos must also be treated, so it is common that there are not enough serums for everyone.

Julia was able to receive them through a catheter also imported. Chemo forces the patient to urinate several times, which is why the catheter is so necessary: it allows walking without affecting the flow of serum. However, when she was no longer able to get a catheter, she was given so-called “mochitas” or “butterflies,” whose needle was too fine and prevented her from leaving her seat to go to the bathroom.

They even injected other patients with a regular needle, the kind used in syringes, to which they directly connected the serum cable.

Some doctors take advantage of the wait and recite, as in a restaurant, the prices of the supplies that are missing. A patient from Taguayabón, a rural town near Camajuaní, took home a detailed inventory for when she had the operation: the catheter at 1 dollar; the saline at 700 pesos; a syringe at 30; suture threads can be obtained at 250 and a dressing at no less than 60; the bandages are more expensive, at 600. The final figure produced vertigo.

Julia’s husband, in his 70s, thought he would have enough patience to wait his turn, already delayed two years. His hernia in the testicles became more complicated during the pandemic and he understood that he couldn’t take it anymore.

A friend brought him up to date on fees: $100 for the lead surgeon and another $50 to “touch” the assistant. “Which doesn’t include,” he warned, “the equipment, the anesthetic, and everything else.” Even with all this, the man had to resort to the usual gifts and intercessions.

Both Julia and her husband have undergone surgery and are awaiting further treatment. Their medicines come from Miami and are sent from there with a lot of work, because they have to go through personal intermediaries.

Another privileged option is being treated at the Santa Clara Military Hospital, reserved for personnel from the apparatus and members of the Armed Forces. “They are repairing it,” says Julia, “because they have the money. But the hospitals of ordinary Cubans will continue as they are.”

Although less serious, a foray into the dental clinic can be as painful as an operation. It always starts with a toothache, says Rubén, also from Taguayabón. “One endures a few days, without antibiotics or painkillers, lying in bed or however you can.” Rubén decided to go to the nearest polyclinic, in Camajuaní, to appeal for emergency care. Nothing: there were no anesthetics.

When anesthesia does not show signs of appearing for weeks, dentists resort to Analdén ointment, as long as the patient agrees. The pain, both in the nerve and in the gums, is horrendous.

But Ruben was lucky. Some friends “resolved” an appointment for him in Santa Clara and he was able to get his tooth extracted. “Of course, I had to bring a little thank you gift,” he continues. “As soon as I went out I bought the dentist a can of soda for 200 pesos and bread with ham and cheese for 50.” This is a classic “in-kind” gift, but medical staff prefer cash gratitude.

In Santiago de Cuba the same story is repeated. The odyssey begins with the blood donations required by the Cuban health system to carry out the surgical intervention and does not end until the patient is recovered.

Armando had a colostomy last February. Although it was scheduled for two months before, due to lack of medical supplies, the surgery was delayed. The doctor who treated him warned his relatives that, in addition to surgical gloves, anesthesia and a nasogastric tube, they did not have the ostomy bags for the bowel movements that the patient needs for life.

Over time, and due to the intervention of medical friends, Armando was able to enter the operating room because “anesthesia appeared and the other things he needed” to be operated on, says the 67-year-old man from Santiago, specifying that he received a package from abroad with dozens of colostomy bags that he required, in addition to tape, painkillers, gloves and even cotton.

Another requirement that delayed Armando’s surgery was blood donations. He has blood group O negative and although his family got the donors, it was almost impossible for the volunteers to donate because there were no bags to collect the blood.

In the Blood Bank, located in the vicinity of the Juan Bruno Zayas General Teaching Hospital, they assigned about 20 collection bags per day and the business of selling donations prevented Armando’s case from being resolved through official channels. Once again, “a divine hand” had to intervene, the man sarcastically says, so that the medical supply would appear and he could finally go to surgery. However, a relative also sent him four bags from another country so that they could donate the blood.

But Armando is hypertensive and, after being operated on, while in a hospital room, his blood pressure went up. The sphygmometer used by all the medical rooms on the third floor of Juan Bruno Zayas was damaged and his family had to bring one from his house to measure his pressure. So he also had to do with almost all the medications because the hospital does not provide something as basic as a dipyrone (an NSAID).

Incredible as it may seem, these are the “lucky” stories in their ending. But most of the elderly in need of surgery or systematic care in Cuba have already resigned themselves to the pain and the silent degeneration of their illnesses. They are the same ones who sleep at the entrance to the island’s pharmacies, to get the antibiotic or painkiller strips that later, even if they need them, they will have to resell to earn a living.

“Public and free.” With these adjectives he defines the system of the island’s health system, increasingly dependent on bribes, “leverage” and the pockets of exiles.

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