The corner of Belascoaín and San Miguel, in Centro Habana, which suffered a partial collapse two years ago where a Community Services worker lost his life. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 May 2022 — A stench spreads through the streets of Havana.
It is not only around the Saratoga hotel, destroyed by Friday’s explosion, whose rubble still covers more than a dozen bodies.
A few blocks away, in Centro Habana, the corners become makeshift garbage dumps, filling the environment with an odor that permeates clothing and skin.
One of them is around the corner from the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital, where a construction container, overflowing with material, is now used to throw bags and bags of garbage into it, some of them full of rotten food.
There are no flowers or cleaning to honor the memory of the Community Services worker who died there that day as a result of the collapse, instead there is a mountain of garbage that no one seems to care about for decades. continue reading
Improvised garbage dump around the corner from the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital, in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)
The building, one of the tallest in that area, is still in oblivion, as it has been for the last forty years. Already in the 1980s, passers-by avoided passing near it, with several collapsed balconies and its broken façade with cracks, and stepped off the sidewalk on that stretch of street.
Now, the danger of a new collapse is joined by the unbearable effluvia of waste.
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We got on a little bus that took us down a rather ugly road, through which we arrived at La Técnica. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 27 April 2022 — In that motel there were rooms and hammocks, which were outside, in the yard, and those with the fewest resources stayed there, sometimes women with children. Juan, the trafficker, would then say: “Come to the room, even if you don’t pay me, it doesn’t matter. Give them food, get milk for the children, I’ll pay for it.” The man showed his gentle side from time to time.
There, I also met three Hondurans, to whom I told the story of Cuba, emphasizing what had happened last year and since Díaz-Canel became president, and they said: “But how can it be? Why don’t you go to the streets?” And I explained to them: “You don’t know what a dictatorship is.” When I finished telling them the story, they felt very sad and identified with the cause. They gave me a lot of support and strength. They were very Christian, they told me: “God is going to help the Cuban people. God is going to liberate them.”
These boys were between 20 and 25 years old and were police officers in southern Honduras, and said that there are no gangs in that area and the agents do not accept bribes. In their case, they left because, like everywhere, there is a lot of inflation and their income was not enough. Their intention was to work for a few years in the US and return to Honduras with money because, according to them, you can live there in peace and tranquility. The North is bad.
I also met another Honduran and we conversed, although he ended up stealing some cigarettes from me. He didn’t even know Cuba existed. They assaulted him in Guatemala and they took everything from him. He had to spend three days there, sleeping on a hammock, waiting for his brother, who lived in California, to send the coyote some money so he could continue. continue reading
I also met three Hondurans there, and I told them the story of Cuba, emphasizing what had happened last year and since Díaz-Canel took over the presidency
I spent four days living practically like a king. Juana took care of me perfectly. I requested what I wanted to eat, and then I told her that I needed a coat, a hat, and gloves, because they had told me that it was very cold further north, especially in Mexico. I gave her 27 bucks and she bought me all of that. I gave her a white shirt, the shirt I left Cuba with. I told her: “Look, I wore this shirt when I left Cuba and I don’t think I’m going to wear it anymore, give it to one of your grandsons.” And she, very grateful, gave me a chocolate and an orange that her son sent.
While I was there, like on the third day, two young women in nurses’ attire came with portable coolers and clipboards and papers, asking who was not vaccinated. They had Moderna vaccines, and Juana was missing the third dose, that is, the booster. “I’m missing the third, can I get it?” she asked them. “Yes, come this way, please sit over there.” And in less than a minute they gave her the dose, and filled out her data… and I kept thinking: “Well, in Cuba, even to get vaccinated you have to stand in line.” She told me that the first few days there was a waiting line to get in, but not anymore. There are many people who have not wanted to be vaccinated, for example Juan and the coyote.
On the fourth day I met two other people: the one who would be my guide, who was called El Gordo (Fatso), and a 17-year-old Honduran girl, Alison, who would come with me to the very border, to the Rio Grande.
At four in the morning, they woke me up and, after cleaning up to leave, they told me that, since I was Cuban, I had to separate myself from the group, to go around a border point before reaching a place called La Técnica, where the Usumacinta River is located, which divides Guatemala from Mexico. Of course, getting charged a lot more than the others. So they put 30 people on a wagon and I went in a car.
They took me to a house about three blocks away, where there was a Cuban in a hammock, and told me to wait with him. I got scared and told myself that something strange was happening, because the guy was a bit mysterious.
According to what he told me, he had lived in Russia for three years and, after falling on bad times, with only the 50 euros that he had arrived with, he began to pick up Cuban tourists at the airport, or those who went there to shop, and set them up in apartments. But then the pandemic came and, since his sister lived in the US, he decided to come here. He explained to me that a Cuban cannot go directly to Nicaragua from Russia, but that he had to return to Cuba. From the same airport in Managua, he had gone directly to Santa Elena, without stopping. He was exhausted.
We were there, talking, when a car came to take us both. The driver also talked a lot with us about Cuba, and he too could not understand how people put up with so much, with so much ruthlessness. The man asked us to carry 20 dollars in our pocket in case the police came, and the trip was very tense. I had to lend the Cuban-Russian the 20 dollars, which he did not have, in case they asked us, because we are Cubans and we have to help each other.
There was a huge number of Cubans, at least 40 or 50, with two or three guides who seemed to be bull-fighting Cubans, because as someone in Palenque told me, we are a bit undisciplined. (14ymedio)
The driver told us: “Take these 100 quetzals. If the policeman says something to you, give them 100 quetzals, and if they want more money, give him the 20 dollars and that’s it. There is no more money and then it’s OK for them to kill you.” He told us, just like that.
Luckily, we only found a small checkpoint and the driver said: “Hello, I have two little boxes here. I’ll give you this. It’s all I have, because there may be more checkpoints ahead, if I give it all to you now, I can’t then give it to the others, and look, it’s just two little boxes”. The policeman told him, “Ok, no problem, go ahead.”
Later, when we were bordering the mountains, we had a motorcycle in front of us that was warning us of where there were policemen or cars, then, we would avoid them by turning on a different block. Although it was quite a harrowing journey, I saw some truly beautiful scenery. The geography of Guatemala, in general, is spectacular. If it hadn’t been for the danger we were in…
In the end, we arrived at a little town with barely three houses, and he stopped the car at a grocery store, which are small stalls that are in front of the houses where they sell everything. We went in and bought some chips, some juice and some soda crackers before continuing. We were very close to La Técnica.
“Take these 100 quetzals. If the policeman says something to you, give them the 100 quetzals, and if they want more money, give them the 20 dollars and that’s it”
There, a man got out of a thicket and almost scared me to death. This guy explained to us that we had to walk approximately one and a half or two kilometers, but not to worry, there was no slope to climb, that everything was flat, but please, we had to walk as fast as possible. On the other side, a man would be waiting for us on a motorcycle to take us to the wagon where the others were going.
We crossed two pastures with barbed fences and some huge cows. One stared at us and the man told us: “Stay still, because if you run, he will come after you.” Finally, we arrived where the motorcycle was. I had kept the 200 quetzals that I had in my pocket where I keep my cell phone, but I had taken it out to film videos and the bills must have fallen on the road.
When El Gordo asked us for the money, of course, I couldn’t find it. So I had to give him those 20 dollars from before, which the Cuban-Russian had already returned to me, and we got on a little bus that took us down a rather ugly road, through which we arrived at La Técnica. It is a place that might seem touristy, but in reality, it is full of migrants: a good number of those who try to reach the United States cross through there.
They sit down on a ladder and charge you a tax. If you don’t pay them, you don’t cross. Or you get shot. (14ymedio)
We had lunch in that area, in a restaurant on the way down to the river, and immediately a man came and asked us for unlocked phones. There, we changed the phone lines that we brought, mine from Nicaragua and Alison’s from Honduras, to an already configured Telcel line, with mobile data and everything.
There was a great number of Cubans, at least 40 or 50, with two or three guides who seemed to be bull-fighting Cubans, because, as someone in Palenque told me, we are a bit undisciplined.
The tickets to go to Mexico are sold there. I don’t know how much they cost, because our guide bought them. It is controlled by a cartel that manages the passage of migrants.
Our guide knew them: “Hey, guys! What’s going on? I’ve got two little boxes here.” He paid them and we were able to take one of those boats, like a very large wooden canoe, with an outboard motor. Then we crossed the river, which had a very strong current. The landscapes were beautiful and I was able to enjoy them. We crossed to the other shore without any more incidents.
Tomorrow:
Encounter with Ángel, the gang member who fled from crime____________
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The Entrevoces choir is directed by Digna Guerra. (Youtube)
14ymedio, Havana, 4 May 2022 — At least eight members of the Entrevoces chamber choir, belonging to the National Choir of Cuba, stayed in Spain, where they were touring Tenerife. According to sources from 14ymedio, five of them stayed on the Canary Island and three in Madrid, without further details of their flight being known so far.
The choir, founded in 1981, is directed by Digna Guerra, deputy of the National Assembly of People’s Power. Their trip to Tenerife, on the occasion of a tour that began last year to celebrate their 40th anniversary, was being covered by the local press, which defined the group as “a mixed vocal formation that stands out for its excellent interpretation of music from all eras and styles, from Spanish, English and Italian Renaissance polyphony to contemporary music, black spirituals, Latin American folklore and Cuban music in general.”
On April 25, the choir was received at the Arona town hall, in the south of the island, where the mayor highlighted the ties that unite Canarians and Cubans. “Today we are not politicians sitting in this room, but blood brothers together, thanking you for this opportunity, excellent ambassadors of Cuban music,” said the mayor, who has family in Camagüey.
In that institutional act, Entrevoces performed a choral version of Chan Chan, by Compay Segundo, and, after a tour of the municipality with the councilor for culture, received several books published in Arona about Havana. continue reading
The group had two other concerts scheduled, one at the Leal Theater in La Laguna and its last performance, on Friday night, at the Auditorium of the University of La Laguna.
The official Cuban press had echoed the performances and acts carried out by the choir in the Canary Islands, but nothing has been said so far about the fact that almost half of its 18 members have decided to stay in Spain and never return to the Island.
This Tuesday, the Greco-Roman wrestler Ismael Borrero, 30, left the wrestling delegation that will compete starting this Wednesday at the Pan American in Acapulco, Mexico.
The information was confirmed by Francys Romero, a Cuban reporter specializing in baseball and residing in the US who has become one of the largest sources of escapes of athletes from the Island at sporting events. Among the mounting cases of defections he has uncovered is the departure of half of Cuba’s baseball team that played in Mexico’s under-23 tournament last year.
Borrero was Olympic champion in Rio 2016, in 59 kg, and twice World champion. In the last games, Tokyo 2020, he was 11th at the weight of 67 kg. His departure has been disclosed by the official press, in this case the weekly Jit, which reported that “the arrival [of the team to Acapulco] was marked by the abandonment of the delegation by the Greco-Roman wrestler from Santiago Ismael Borrero, Olympic champion and twice at the world level. Borrero’s decision constitutes a serious indiscipline within the Cuban sports system and sets aside the objectives of his team in this competition and in the four-year period leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.”
Romero, accustomed to recounting more and more athletes leaving the Island, is the first to be amazed at the alarming increase in recent months. “The exodus of Cubans transcends any sport and category at this time,” he said on his Facebook profile. There was more irony in the conversation with the source from the world of song who confirmed to 14ymedio the ’escape’ of the choir: “This Revolution is great, how it exports talent.”
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Amanda Hernández left the delegation of the Cuban team in Mexico. (SwingCompleto)
14ymedio, Havana, 8 May 2022 — The withdrawals of Cuban athletes Ismael Borrero, Leonardo Herrera and Amanda Hernández between May 3rd and 7th mark the performance of the delegation that is participating in the Pan American Wrestling Championship, which takes place in Acapulco (Mexico).
The last escape was this Saturday and the 24-year-old from Pinar del Río starred in it. An action that was branded by the official press as “serious indiscipline.” The young woman did not show up for her commitment to Colombian Sandy Yalixa Parra in the 53-kilogram category. “Sources from coach Daniel Gómez confirmed her abandonment,” published SwingCompleto.
Hernández, who in his most recent departure from the Island, in 2018, had achieved seventh place in the Ivan Yariguin Russian tournament, organized by United World Wrestling (UWW), also participated in the 2014 Pan American Youth Championship and won a bronze medal in the 2016 edition of this championship.
The sports publication pointed out that so far this year, the exodus of athletes adds up to “more than a dozen” of those who have dared to break ties with Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation. continue reading
Of the Cuban delegation that arrived in Mexico on May 3, 15 athletes remain. Just that day it was reported that the Olympic champion and two-time world champion, Ismael Borrero, had separated from the group.
The decision of the man from Santiago was a blow to the regime, which pointed out the indiscipline and said he set aside “the objectives of his team in this fight and in the four-year period towards the Olympic Games in Paris-2024.”
As soon as the news of Borrero’s flight was released, the escape was confirmed of Leonardo Herrera, the athlete who had been chosen to replace the Olympic champion Luis Orta, who is training in the Mexican state of Querétaro as part of his preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The weekly Jit confirmed the three withdrawals as part of its report on the gold medal won by Yaynelis Sanz in the 57-kilogram category and the silver medal won by Hangelen Llanes on Saturday.
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The explosion at the Hotel Saratoga in Havana left at least 27 dead and 81 injured. (14ymedio)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 8 May 2022 — The lifeless body of Cristina López-Cerón, the Spanish tourist who died in last Friday’s explosion at Havana’s Saratoga Hotel, will arrive in Spain at the end of this week, according to sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Spanish ambassador in Cuba, Ángel Martín Peccis, and the Spanish consul in Havana, José Antonio Hernández, who from the first moment have taken charge of the procedures, try to speed up all the procedures to be able to transfer the body of the victim, age 29 and a native of the Lugo town of Viveiro.
Her romantic partner, César Román, with whom she lived in As Pontes (A Coruña), where she is from, continues to be admitted to a hospital in Havana, where he arrived in a very serious condition, for which he had to undergo immediate surgery.
Regarding his state of health, sources from the medical team that are treating him say that it is too early to know how the 30-year-old will evolve, so we still have to wait a few days to see his progression.
Both Spaniards, who were on vacation in the city, were just outside the Saratoga Hotel when the strong explosion occurred, at the time that a tanker truck was supplying liquefied gas to the establishment.
As a result of the explosion, at least 30 people died and another 84 were injured to varying degrees, although these figures could still increase as the work of clearing the area progresses. continue reading
The blast wave caused a section of the seven-story hotel to collapse, and the facade of the first three floors to detach, causing a shower of debris on the sidewalk and a large column of smoke, which was visible in much of the capital.
Local authorities point out that the most likely hypothesis to explain this tragedy is that the explosion was due to a crack in the hose of the tanker truck.
This luxury hotel, which had been closed for two years due to the pandemic, was going to reopen its doors next Tuesday.
Faced with the tragedy, the king and queen of Spain sent a message of “sadness and consternation” and deep regret to the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“United with the pain of the friendly Cuban people,” affirm Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who wanted to show all their “support and solidarity to the families of the deceased and best wishes for the recovery of the injured,” they state in the message.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis asked for prayers this Sunday for the victims of the Saratoga Hotel explosion “so that Christ guides them to the father’s house,” while requesting that “support be given to the relatives.”
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Store in Havana’s Plaza de Carlos III where this Wednesday they they offered rubber bike tires for sale at 5.33 dollars each. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Mercedes García / Juan D. Rodríguez, Sancti Spíritus / Havana, 4 May 2022 — The shortage of bicycle tires drives Cubans from the provinces crazy, where there are no transportation options like the ones that still exist in a city like Havana. These days, in Sancti Spíritus, acquiring a single tire can cost up to 4,200 pesos. And only in the informal market.
“Here they never offer tires for sale and everyone has a bicycle,” says Rayner, who lives ten kilometers from the center of Sancti Spíritus and, as he says, “either you go by bus, which passes by twice a day, or you go on foot.” The young man says that this same Tuesday he paid 3,600 pesos for the tire for the front wheel that he needed, his income for the entire month.
The tires of his bicycle, which is eight years old, could not perform anymore, having been repaired with bits of shoes and rubber over and over.
Four months ago, he bought the tire for the rear wheel and it cost him 4,000 pesos, “and almost crying to the man who sold it to me, because there aren’t any,” he tells this newspaper. Since then, he has been saving for the front tire.
Meanwhile, in the Cuban capital, this Wednesday, a long line formed at a state store in Plaza de Carlos III where they had put out rubber tires for sale, for $5.33 each. continue reading
The customers who came out of the store did not carry one or two, but many. “Here I never see anyone on a bicycle,” commented a woman who passed by the place, surprised. “These are most likely going to be taken to the countryside to sell.”
Tires suffer great wear and tear in Cuba, not only because of the frequent use of bicycles as a means of transportation, but also because of the poor condition of the streets and the terrible condition of the brakes in many of these vehicles, which forces their drivers to brake by rubbing the tire with the sole of the shoe.
Streets with large areas where the asphalt is missing and plenty of potholes are common throughout the Island, but in the cities and country towns the situation is even worse. Also objects on the road, such as broken bottles, pieces of metal and even nails add greater risks. Hence the need to have frequent spare parts to replace the tires that are deteriorating.
To this we must add that the bicycle is also a means of family transportation, frequently used by street vendors to cover a wider area of potential customers, or an improvised moving truck, and it is also common to add motors to increase speed, an ingenuity that is popularly known as riquimbili. [For photos, see here.]
The bicycles transformed into light motorcycles, after adding an engine, also consume the useful life of the tires more quickly. But not all the ones that are sold are of good quality, the least valued are the so-called Creole rubbers, of domestic manufacture, while the imported ones can cost much more in the informal market.
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Activists and relatives demonstrating in the Juan Delgado Park in Havana, in favor of the July 11th (11J) prisoners tried in the Diez de Octubre court in February 2022. (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 8 May 2022 — In the film Nadie Escuchaba [Nobody Heard] about the Cuban political prisoners by the great filmmaker Néstor Almendros, there is a segment of just two minutes with an old woman, which this Mother’s Day makes our hearts tremble. Clara Abraham, Boitel’s widow, recounts with infinite sadness the last days of her son Pedro Luis in a cell in the maximum security pavilion of the Castillo del Príncipe in Havana. The story is also collected by Guillermo Cabrera Infante in his masterful work Vista del Amanecer en el Trópico [A View of Dawn in the Tropics].
Pedro Luis Boitel, was “a student leader who had fought against the previous regime” but in disagreement with the course of the revolution he began to conspire and “was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1960, but in 1972 he was imprisoned” and died without medical assistance.
“I spent twelve years fighting to save my son, so that he would die like a dog… I didn’t know where he was… where he was buried. They beat me up. I was imprisoned for eight hours, when they told me: ’Your son he’s dead, we’ve already buried him’…45 days without medical attention. Do you know what it’s like not to give a mother her corpse? Yesterday we 12 women went to take some crowns and a mob of more than 300 people came out from behind the tombs … they came here in need, I had to throw them out of this house.”
In Almendros’ film, she is asked a question about forgiveness, to which the old woman replies: “I have to forgive. It’s very difficult for me, but I have to forgive.”
Unfortunately, in the history of the Cuban nation there have been other mothers and other prisoners. Leonor Pérez, the mother of José Martí, also knew the impotence of seeing the unjust conviction of her teenage son, and tried to obtain a pardon. To try to alleviate the pain of the sore that would never completely heal, as a result of the shackle they put on his leg, Doña Leonor made him a pillow that Martí remembered all his life. Those were other times, but then the relatives of the prisoners also arranged pardons and were allowed to bring them some supplies. continue reading
In the 20th century, Lina Ruz de Castro got the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba to intercede with the authorities of the Batista regime to guarantee the life of her son Fidel, who was hiding in a farm near the city after the attack on the Moncada barracks. After the trial, where Fidel made the statement that he would later rewrite in prison with the title History will absolve me, his mother dedicated herself to mobilizing the living forces of the country: the bishops, the press, civic, professional, artistic, and cultural organizations, and the senators and representatives of parliament to obtain an amnesty for all political prisoners, including her son who served two years of a 15-year sentence. Several governments, including the United States, welcomed the move.
Is it possible that a similar management can be carried out in today’s Cuba? Will there be bishops, embassies, international personalities, writers, artists, executives of foreign companies with representation on the island, mothers of government officials, members of the National Assembly of People’s Power who ask General Raúl Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel to decree a general amnesty so that the men and women in political prison are released and reunited with their families?
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State of the El Calvario church after the explosion of the Saratoga hotel. (Facebook/Adiel González Maimó)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2022 — The explosion that destroyed the Saratoga Hotel this Friday in Havana has also affected numerous buildings around it. One of them is the El Calvario church, headquarters of the Western Baptist Convention, which lost its roof as a result of the explosion
In a statement made public in the afternoon, the Baptist Convention reported that they were prevented from entering their offices, despite the fact that, they say, “they have not suffered material damage.”
“We still do not have an exact idea of the magnitude of the damage to our building,” they pointed out, and were grateful that none of their employees who were in the building at that time suffered injuries.
In addition, they indicated that they await “the diagnosis of a commission that evaluates the structural damage.” continue reading
The explosion affected buildings several blocks away from the Saratoga Hotel, such as along busy Monte street. (14ymedio)
In the images broadcast from inside the temple, serious damage to the ceiling, walls and furniture of the premises is seen.
The detonation affected places several blocks away from the scene of the incident, such as Monte Street, where several stores had broken glass.
The nearby Teatro Martí, inaugurated in 1884, also suffered damage according to reports to this newspaper from local workers. The facility, restored in 2014, housed in 1901 the Constituent Convention that established the Republic of Cuba.
The damage also extends to the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, located on the same block as the hotel. The center occupies a large building with a busy portal.
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Screen capture of the 16-second video in which workers from state-owned Prodal company, in Havana, shout: “Long live the sausages!”
Alexis Romay, New Jersey, 30 April 2022
In Cuba, the Worker’s Union
is just a branch of the State.
It doesn’t allow debate.
It curtails any reunion
of people seeking communion
of ideas by themselves,
while there’s no food on the shelves,
and there’s widespread condemnation
of the Party as the indignation
of the Cuban people swells.
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Author’s note: This text is my recreation and condensation, in English, of my décimas published this week in the Spanish edition of 14ymedio. Remember, this post —part of Ideological Deviation, my weekly column— is considered a crime by the Cuban government.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The concern has affected even those who did not suffer direct damage but fear that the tremor has damaged other buildings in the area. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 May 2022 — Barely 24 hours after the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel in Havana, the area still looks like a battlefield and there are already 32 dead, 19 missing and 56 injured. A police cordon surrounds the area from the Parque de la Fraternidad to prevent pedestrians from passing through and the rescue brigades work against the clock to find survivors under the rubble.
The confusion of the first moments has been replaced by anguish. In the whole city there is no talk of anything else. In lines, at family tables and on urban buses, the theme is the explosion in a hotel that until a few days ago was a symbol of tourist glamor and has now become synonymous with tragedy.
Each one has a story to tell. Like that of the employee who left the building just a few minutes before the explosion and she was paralyzed when she felt the noise behind her back. Or the one of the woman who cries next to the yellow tape that says “PNR* Do Not Pass, Keep Out” because her godmother, 78 years old, and the old woman’s puppy are under the rubble.
List of the 26 deceased identified so far. (Cuba Ministry of Public Health)
There is also the young man who points to the building on one side of the hotel that suffered considerable damage in the explosion and fears that Juan Carlos, a neighbor on the second floor, has not given proof of life since yesterday morning. The testimonies are mixed and there is no shortage of those who reach the groups and, conveniently, release some rumor where the words “enemy” and “attack” are always present, although the official version has insisted that it was an accident. continue reading
State Security agents, dressed in civilian clothes, are also deployed throughout the area. They are detected by their incisive gaze with which they register everyone who takes photos or records the scene of a building with its beams exposed to the air, and the rescuers with their faces getting longer as the hours go by.
The independent reporter Ángel Cuza, who broadcast live from the Saratoga hotel what was happening after the explosion, was arrested by the political police along with the activist Pedro Quiala this Friday afternoon. Both were transferred to Villa Marista, a place known as the State Security headquarters in Havana. The Cuban Human Rights Observatory condemned the arrests as arbitrary. Cuza was also one of the activists who protested on Obispo Street on April 30, 2021.
In the elementary school near the Saratoga Hotel, which also suffered many damages, a side door has been set up so that parents can collect the backpacks and other belongings of their children who were evacuated after the explosion. Some have approached early but crossing the security cordon is tortuous and many fear that the structure of the Saratoga could collapse at any moment.
The concern has spread even among those who did not suffer direct damage but fear that the tremor has damaged the other buildings in the area, a neighborhood with numerous tenements packed with residents, many of which are in a deplorable architectural state. In the central street Monte, some have not even wanted to sleep at home.
María Julia, a 58-year-old from Havana, tells this newspaper that she decided to spend the night at her daughter’s house. “There was a tremendous noise and everything shook here, the paintings on the walls and even some glasses that I have in a display case,” she explains. “This house has a very bad roof and columns and now I am afraid that this shaking has made things worse.”
The feeling is that the explosion is pouring rain on the long list of calamities that have hit Cuba in recent years. “This is going to be a hard blow to tourism,” says Ismael, an employee of a state cafeteria on Obispo Street. “Now that it seemed that we were going to start attracting more visitors, this happens to us.”
The feeling is that the explosion is pouring rain on the long list of calamities that have hit Cuba in recent years. (14ymedio)
This Saturday also coincided with the eve of Mother’s Day, a very popular date on the island. The hotel is located in a very commercial area where hundreds of anxious customers have come to try to buy products for the celebrations of this Sunday, where traditionally there is a family dinner and gifts are given to mothers.
However, together with the police cordon that prevents access to a wide area around the hotel, the shortage of products in local stores was setting the tone this morning. This newspaper was able to verify the long lines around several state stores on Reina, Galiano and Monte streets to try to buy food, drinks and some gifts.
Some have approached the site since the early morning but crossing the security cordon is tortuous. (14ymedio)
*PNR = National Revolutionary Police
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The cloud of smoke from the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel was visible from the Plaza of the Revolution municipality. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 7 May 2022 — It sounded like thunder, but when I looked out from the balcony, the sky was clear. I scanned the city with my eyes and a huge mountain of smoke was rising in the area of Old Havana. Instinctively I looked at the clock, it was 10:52 on the morning of Friday, May 6. We didn’t know what had happened, but it was serious. In the Editorial Office of 14ymedio we quickly wrote the first journalistic note that warned the world that an explosion had shaken Havana. We initially thought it was in the area around Havana Bay.
A few minutes later the first images arrived and our reporters approached the place. The event was taking shape: the Saratoga Hotel was enveloped in a cloud of dust and the surroundings were full of debris. People took pictures with their mobiles and reported from the vicinity of the building which, until recently, was an architectural beauty that adorned the city and now had been reduced to a jumble of iron and ruins. For almost an hour the official press did not react.
Citizen journalism and the independent media negotiated those long minutes very responsibly. Despite the bomb and sabotage rumors circulating in the streets, my colleagues kept a professional pulse and tried to check every sentence published. It was difficult, because when the official newspapers began to publish about the incident, they often mixed facts with speculation, truth with lies. The biggest hoaxes were from the account of the portals controlled by the Communist Party.
The television coverage was nefarious. Unprepared announcers who improvised by confusing the Saratoga Hotel with the Capitol building, who pronounced someone “dead” just by watching screen as they removed a body on a stretcher, as if they were doctors who can determine who is alive and who is not. And ideology everywhere, trying to kidnap human solidarity, painting as partisan the support that people gave to the most suffering. continue reading
To make matters worse, Miguel Díaz-Canel did not miss the opportunity in front of the microphones to attack the independent media, which he accuses of spreading rumors and lying about what happened. Instead of making a speech based on the harmony and unity that tragedy brings, he preferred to use the moment of pain for his old battle against dissidence. The mediocre man that he is once again demonstrated that he does not have one iota of the greatness of a statesman.
Without our work and that of so many citizens who reported from the place, the news would have taken much longer to be known and solidarity would have been delayed for a time that was vital for the victims. Accusing the press is a vile act of politicking in the midst of tragedy, an attempt to use emotions to denigrate journalists.
We would have preferred, of course, that this Friday morning, the news that shook us and forced us to work almost 24 hours straight would have been happy and hopeful. But in the face of the catastrophe, our journalistic policy is transparency, professionalism and respect for those who suffer, without being moved at all by the vanity of having a scoop.
Make no mistake, Díaz-Canel, the independent press has been essential in the first hours of this unfortunate event. Without admitting it, you read us, copied us and even took entire sentences from our articles. While the mouths from outside insulted us, inside their air-conditioned offices they completed many of the details of this drama through us.
We offer out condolences and we accompany those who have lost a loved one, who have a family member fighting for life in a hospital or who are still trapped under the rubble. Know that we will not rest in our journalistic duty until we publish every detail about what happened, we will insist on a transparent investigation without political manipulation. We will be, as always, on the side of the victims.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Daniel Joel Cardenas and Marbelis Vazquez. (Courtesy)
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 6 May 2022 — Before the pandemic, Marbelis Vázquez and Daniel Joel Cárdenas managed La Guarapera Velázquez, a private business with which they dreamed of making the money necessary to emigrate. But instead of starting a new life in another country, the husband is now in prison for the July 11th (11J) protests in Cárdenas (Matanzas).
The last name of Daniel Joel, 34, seemed predestined to merge with the municipality where he lived and not just because they were exactly the same. His acquaintances also nickname him El Cárdenas and since January he has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for demonstrating in the streets of his city where one of the most intense protests of that day took place.
That Sunday dawned calm and the family had plans to go to the beach. The afternoon would be full of sand and waves, but it turned into screams and police operations. First, Cárdenas and Vázquez learned that people were protesting in the centrally located Calle Real following the spark of indignation that had ignited that same day in San Antonio de los Baños (Artemisa).
Later, the screams came closer to his home, when dozens of neighbors raided a gas station store. The economic crisis, the lack of freedoms and the rigors of the pandemic pushed the people of Cárdenas to the limit. The most repeated cry around that gas station was “hunger!”, a roar that mixed with the sound of breaking glass.
Close to the resort of Varadero, Cárdenas is considered by the authorities to be an area with high incomes and the only stores with stocked shelves are the ones that take payment only in freely convertible currency (MLC). It also has a tradition of being “un pueblo gusano*” – a ‘worm’ town — where many do not sympathize with the system. It is not for nothing that some of the most symbolic images of 11J came from there. continue reading
When they heard about the protests, the couple weighed what to do. In a few weeks their dream of emigrating could materialize, but they decided to leave home and go to the gas station. There, Cárdenas met several friends who had come from the protest on Calle Real, the first police patrols were also beginning to arrive and stones were raining against the shop windows.
People took what they could, but the food often fell out of their hands, as Vázquez now recalls. The husband tried to carry some mayonnaise jars that someone had dropped outside the premises but finally gave them to a friend, says the wife. She adds that in the video shown by the official media she is seen throwing a stone, but on already broken glass.
The police siege continued to increase and Vázquez says that Cárdenas returned to his house. The family got ready and left for the beach. The initial plan was no longer to swim and play in the sand but to see if, after the popular protests, boats would arrive from Florida to pick up relatives. But no boat arrived and the “combat order” given by Miguel Díaz-Canel had already unleashed repression throughout the island.
Two days passed. It was around eleven o’clock in the morning on July 13 and Cárdenas was in the living room with his twin sons. The screeching of tires from a truckload of uniformed men startled him. Then came the chaos: screaming, barking dogs, shoves and gunshots. The scene was captured by Vázquez’s mobile phone, which also captured the testimony of her husband’s pool of blood on the ground.
Those minutes that seemed like an eternity have been narrated in diametrically different ways. In the woman’s version, the uniformed special troops shot her husband, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head. The projectile did not penetrate the skull but traveled through the back of the scalp on the left side, leaving a dark furrow.
In the video that Vázquez recorded and spread on social networks, shots are heard and we see one of the soldiers, who had sneaked into the house through the patio, brandishing a short weapon and entering the room where the wife is, with one of her children in her arms.
The man was also hit in the chest and back. The door of the house was seriously damaged by the violent irruption of the s0-called black wasps. “They had no mercy on my husband or my children,” says Vázquez. “I still close my eyes and remember that moment. My children carry with them a trauma that they will never forget,” she reflects.
In the version broadcast by the official newscast, the story does not include shots, but instead shows Cárdenas walking through what appears to be a detention center for a few seconds and then, already sitting on a chair, facing the camera, he affirms that he is on Friday July 16. With these images, the government sought to deny the alleged gunshot wound.
However, Vázquez replies that during the recording her husband showed his bruises on his chest, which were not included in the report, and they did not take pictures of the wound on his scalp, which, the wife details, never received sutures and measures about 12 centimeters. The physical damage would also be accompanied by an offensive against the reputation of Cárdenas.
“The trial against him seemed to be that of a dangerous criminal,” says the woman. During the three days of last December that the oral hearing lasted, the defendant was transferred cuffed by his hands and feet. “A whole circus set up with false witnesses,” she laments. The devastating sentence: 15 years behind bars for sabotage, public disorder and spread of epidemics.
The authorities tried to build a case against Cárdenas for allegedly paying minors to participate in the protests. The teenagers, neighbors who shared with the man a taste for raising pigeons, were arrested and pressured, but refused to testify against him. Now, they are still prisoners and their relatives avoid denouncing it for fear of reprisals.
“My husband’s current situation is heartbreaking.” Cárdenas is in the maximum security prison of Agüica, in Colón. “In each visit there is always a new regulation or some unforeseen change. They do not give the prisoner the opportunity to communicate with relatives because, according to the guards, the telephones are broken. They even have German shepherds inside the visiting area, sowing terror.”
“We had a very nice life and dedicated ourselves to raising our children.” In the house there is a dovecote, because the man was associated with a pigeon federation. “My husband is not a thief or a criminal as they expressed in the trial, we fought hard to put food on the table for our children.”
Cárdenas “fed the children and bathed them so that I could rest, because having twins is exhausting. Now I have to face the care of my children alone.” Vázquez confesses: “When we visit him in prison I tell them that he is there studying. They believe that their father is in a school, not in prison.”
*Translator’s note: The term gusano — meaning worm or maggot — is a derogatory first applied by Fidel Castro to ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and those who wanted to leave Cuba.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Hotel Saratoga, in Habana Vieja, after the explosion. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2022 — The Cuban government lamented, this Friday afternoon, the death of 22 people, “including a pregnant woman and a child” due to the explosion of the Saratoga hotel in Havana.
In a press conference held by the medical authorities, it was detailed that there are three children in critical condition, two in serious condition and nine are in care. In hospital institutions there are 42 hospitalized adults, 18 of them in serious or critical condition.
The medical report also indicates that of the 56 injured reported so far, ten adults and three children have undergone surgery.
After a preliminary report from a meeting with the main leaders of the country, the authorities said that they are focused “on the care of the people, the relatives of the deceased and also those who are hospitalized.”
At the meeting, presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel, the situation associated with the explosion was updated, the Cuban Presidency reported on its Twitter account, adding that “work continues to assess the state of the hotel structures and surrounding buildings.”
The explosion, which occurred this Friday morning around 10:50, has destroyed the Saratoga hotel, in Old Havana. The neighboring residential building is seriously damaged and the nearby school has lost its doors and windows. continue reading
A small shop on the ground floor of the hotel was reduced to rubble.
The official media report that the injured were taken to the Hermanos Ameijeiras, Calixto García, Manuel Fajardo and Miguel Enríquez hospitals. In addition, 13 people are missing. Five elementary school children were slightly injured.
Díaz-Canel went to the scene, accompanied by the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and the President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo.
The causes of the event are unknown. It destroyed several floors of the building, located very close to the Capitol, but the Cuban government says that it took place while liquefied gas was being loaded. “Liquefied gas was being supplied to the hotel. The cook smells gas, checks the connections and discovers that there was a crack in the supply hose,” Cubadebate published based on a source: Alexis Acosta Silva, mayor of Old Havana.
In the afternoon, a news special on Cuban television showed how the wrecked vehicle was removed from the rubble.
The Saratoga was closed for repairs and its reopening was scheduled for this coming Tuesday, May 10. One of the sinister hypotheses received by a hotel employee by 14ymedio is that oxygen tanks that were being used in welding inside the works exploded.
The president of the Provincial Defense Council, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, said forcefully that “we are talking about an accident” of which “the causes are being investigated” and that “we are not talking about an attack or anything like that.”
The official website Cubadebate, which had suggested that the events could be due to the “transfer of liquefied gas from a truck”, reports five dead and 25 injured, as a “preliminary” count of victims. The hospitals that are receiving the wounded are Hermanos Ameijeiras, Calixto García, Manuel Fajardo and Miguel Enríquez.
State Security deployed an operation to try to remove the hundreds of onlookers who were crowding the Parque de la India, given the risk of the structure collapsing, and several residents of the neighborhood reported the internet service being cut off.
The area is one of the busiest in Havana, with several bus stops and a constant movement of people, many of them tourists. Around the affected building, in addition, there are numerous properties that are in a dire state. The detonation reached premises located several blocks away, such as on Monte Street, where broken glass was observed.
Cuban television news showed how the wrecked vehicle was removed from the rubble. (Capture)
From the tall buildings of Nuevo Vedado, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, where the noise was heard loudly, the smoke could be seen. Instantly, sirens from firefighters and military vehicles sounded in the area.
The Saratoga, founded in 1933, is one of the most emblematic hotels in the city. Located in a 19th century building, it was last restored in 2005 and is categorized with five stars. Decorated in art deco style, numerous personalities who have visited the island have stayed there, such as Madonna, Beyoncé and high-ranking officials from other countries.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Unpacu activist Alfonso Chaviano Peláez, who died this Wednesday. (Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2022 — The activist Alfonso Chaviano Peláez, of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) and promoter of Cuba Decide, died on Wednesday in Santiago de Cuba.
As detailed by Ana Belkis Ferrer on Twitter, Peláez had recently been arrested, “violated and threatened by Castro hitmen.”
Chaviano Peláez himself recounted on April 15 that he had been arrested at the Unpacu headquarters when he was about to receive food for the needy. In a video shared on YouTube, the activist reported that a police officer “in a very violent way” forced him to get in a patrol car and took him to the military hospital.
“All these moves have been with pressure on my forearms and they always left me very sore,” Peláez said in his message, published two days after his arrest.
In his history, the activist had already accumulated other arrests and suffered from a lung disease that had forced him to undergo a tracheostomy. continue reading
On the other hand, the daughter of Eldris González Pozo confirmed that her father underwent emergency surgery, after suffering a heart attack on May 3 at the Boniato prison and while waiting to be transferred to the Confianza correctional facility.
According to what Evelin González told Radio Televisión Martí, while he was being treated “for his leg problem,” González Pozo vomited blood and fainted, they operated on him quickly and he is “serious, but stable.”
González Pozo is a self-employed person sentenced to three years in prison for the crimes of assault, contempt and disobedience. A member of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, he went on a hunger strike in April last year to protest his arrest.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Yoan de la Cruz broadcast the July 11 protests live. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 6 May 2022 — Yoan de la Cruz was released this Friday after almost 10 months in prison, family sources and friends confirmed to 14ymedio. After the appeal, the young man’s sentence of 6 years in prison was changed to 5 years in prison without internment.
The young man, who on July 11 made the live broadcast of the first protests in San Antonio de los Baños that spread throughout the country, had received a sentence of 6 years behind bars last March after three months of the trials of the protesters in San Antonio de los Baños.
Until the day of his trial, Yoan remained almost incommunicado in Melena del Sur prison, Mayabeque, where it had been said that he would serve the rest of his sentence. “As a mother I feel like dying, it’s very sad and hard what you feel for so much injustice, but God is great and one day so much injustice will be paid for,” his mother Maribel Cruz wrote on March 22.
The case of Yoan de la Cruz caused a wide mobilization in the social networks of organizations, family and friends since he was arrested on July 23. The main argument for his defense was the strictly peaceful presence of the young man at the demonstration. continue reading
“He didn’t do anything for them to ask for that many years. The only thing he did was film,” his mother said in a message broadcast on social networks in different groups. “He is a very good boy. The whole town loves him.”
At the end of last month, six young people convicted of the 11J anti-government protests in Holguín also had their prison sentences commuted to house arrest, according to the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD).
The association, based in Spain, broke the news through a brief tweet in which it indicated that the beneficiaries are Keyla Roxana Mulet Calderón, 16 years old at the time of her arrest, Samuel Torres Durán, Yeral Michel Palacios Román, Ernesto Abelardo Martínez Pérez and Ayan Idalberto Jover Cardosa, all under 18 years of age on 11J.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 May 2022 — A stench spreads through the streets of Havana.
