14ymedio – Page 210 – Translating Cuba

21st Century Fascism and Cuba

All authoritarian caudillos need to match their personal ambitions with a certain dose of ideology. Billboard: “The Party is the soul of the Revolution” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 12 May 2022 — I will try to avoid falling into Godwin’s law, according to which, any discussion on the internet that is prolonged leads to the possibility that someone will call someone else a fascist, or compare them to Hitler and the Nazis. However, in the Cuban context a variation of this law usually occurs. If we examine the debates on social networks, we will find that, in almost all cases, someone will insult another by calling them a “communist,” without ever having read a single page of Capital.

Although it seems obvious, it is necessary to clarify that, beyond the Marxist theories and the rhetoric of those who have claimed to follow their doctrines, communism has never really existed. Marx was closer to Nostradamus than to Hegel. His works might have qualified as mystical lyricism rather than science, but there is always someone willing to take fiction too seriously. The Marxists who survived him would not show such patience for history to take its spontaneous course. If the hated capitalism did not die a natural death, it had to be assassinated.

Lenin modified his readings of the German philosopher as much as he could to make them fit his context. And then Stalin would see to it that all the nightmares that old Marx had refused to speak out loud would come true. If the Soviet experiment did not collapse at that very moment, it was because another monster appeared on the scene that would monopolize universal repudiation: Adolf Hitler.

Fidel Castro triumphantly entered Havana in January 1959. He managed to get a white dove to perch on his shoulder, he swore that he was not a communist to any journalist who asked him the uncomfortable question, he repeated ad nauseam that his revolution was green like the palms, but ended up diving headfirst into the red pool. Was Ángel Castro’s son really a communist? If one examines the phrases of the bearded man, the fascist readings of him immediately come to light.

From the Moncada Statement itself, where he ends with his famous “Condemn me, it doesn’t matter, history will absolve me,” the similarities with Hitler’s Mein Kampf are noticeable . Later, when continue reading

official censorship was regulated in his Words to Intellectuals, Mussolini’s voice would appear behind it. “With the Revolution everything, against the Revolution nothing” is nothing more than an echo of the Duce’s speech: “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State”. Fidel Castro used against his opponents the same derogatory term used by Hitler against the Jews: maggots. And the phrase “Work will make you men” that was read at the entrance to the forced labor camps where homosexuals and religious believers were imprisoned in Cuba, reminds us of the fateful phrase about Auschwitz: Arbeit macht frei.

All authoritarian caudillos need to match their personal ambitions with a certain dose of ideology. And fascism is the one that best suits their tyrannical aspirations, but it is too discredited. The rhetoric of solidarity and social justice sounds more pleasant to innocent ears. But the truth is that Cuba is closer to State Corporatism than to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The poor workers in Cuba have no say in the matter. And the leaders of the Political Bureau are closer to the conservative prototype than to contemporary liberals. To add insult to injury, the infamous Rapid Response Squads are now trying to be replaced by the Red Scarves, a much more blatant carbon copy of the Blackshirts or Brownshirts.

The international left has been running out of causes, after spending its ideological arsenal against globalization. The world is upside down. The great champion of capitalism today is China, a country governed by a communist party. The Asian giant is also the country that pollutes the environment the most, sparing no effort in exploiting and repressing its large population, while surplus value fills their coffers.

The heralded Socialism of the 21st Century, proposed by Chávez, ended up plunging Venezuela into the most painful misery of its history. The Nicaraguan orteguismo [Ortega regime] could not be more despotic, locking up all its political opponents and assuming fraud as the norm. Putin’s Russia shamelessly shows its imperialist face, launching its troops into Ukraine and threatening the planet with nuclear holocaust, while his lackeys applaud him.

The problem of the world today is not left or right, let’s grow up. The problem is authoritarianism, of any color. That is the Fascism of the 21st Century.

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Up to Nine Years in Prison for July 11th (11J) Protestors in Santiago de Cuba

Image of the July 11 protests in Santiago de Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2022 — Four July 11th (11J) demonstrators in Santiago de Cuba have been sentenced to between nine and five years in prison, while a fifth, who was part of the same file, was released with a fine of 3,000 pesos. The trial was held five months ago and some of the defendants had been in pre-trial detention for ten months.

Ibrahim Ariel González Hodelin and Ronal Luis González Ramos, both 22 years old, received the highest sentences, although the Prosecutor’s Office had requested up to 15 years in prison for them for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and attack, according to Cubanet.

The two sentenced to nine years in prison were arrested in the vicinity of Paseo Martí and have been in provisional prison since June 17, according to data from Cubalex.

Joel Tor Caballero, 33, and Frank Ernesto Mourlot Speck, 29, also received five years in prison, both for the crimes of public disorder and contempt. For both, the Public Ministry requested seven years in prison.

On July 11, Caballero was on Paseo Martí when the National Revolutionary Police took the keys to his motorcycle and he began shouting slogans, according to Cubalex. His wife, Daily González, recounted in a Facebook post that they also took all his belongings. Two days later she received a text message on her cell phone: “Daily, tell Joel to call this number urgently, it’s from the provincial DTI, otherwise he won’t be able to drive anymore.” continue reading

In this way he was summoned and arrested, according to his testimony. “Around 1:30 pm a patrol arrived and he was forced to get in, they did not allow me to accompany him, they told me not to worry that they would only interview him and he would return home after three days at most.” However, since that day Caballero has been in the Boniato prison.

“They just killed the illusion I had when I received the news that 10 months of being separated were not enough, but that five years still await us,” González wrote on May 5, when the conviction, dated May 3, was made public.

One of the five, Idalberto Fonden Roma, 24, was the only one released with a fine of 3,000 pesos. For him, the Prosecutor’s Office requested two years in prison for the crime of disobedience.

The sentences of up to 12 years for some 15 demonstrators in Palma Soriano, in Santiago de Cuba, who also participated in the peaceful protests of July 11 last year, were also recently made public.

The latest report by Prisoners Defenders (PD) indicates that there were 1,015 political prisoners in Cuba as of April 2022. The document highlights that in the last 12 months, since May 1 of last year, some 1,218 people have suffered political imprisonment and around 874 remain in prison for the July 11 protests.

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Despite the Controversy, Mexico will Contract for 500 Cuban Doctors and Buy Vaccines Without WHO Endorsement

Mexico will send the new Cuban health brigade to areas of “the mountain of Guerrero.” (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 May 2022 — The Government of Mexico announced this Monday the contracting of more than 500 Cuban doctors and the acquisition of covid-19 vaccines targeted to children two years of age and older.

According to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his daily press conference, these actions are part of the health agreements reached with his counterpart, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, during his visit to the island.

López Obrador said that Mexico has a “deficit of specialists” and there are health workers who do not want to move to remote areas, so Cuban pediatricians will have “the Mountain of Guerrero” as their base of work, one of the most contentious points in the country, not not only because it is the poorest area – with rates similar to those of deep Africa – but also because of the presence of several cartels that dispute the movement of drugs, which make it a permanent source of insecurity, as well as other problems, such as the sale of girls in marriage in some indigenous communities.

In addition, he announced the acquisition of doses of Cuban vaccines against covid that still do not have the endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO), targeted to children. continue reading

When asked about which of the vaccines it would be, he replied: “Abdala, I think that’s the name.” On the Island, a combination of Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus was applied for pediatric patients two years of age and older.

Regarding the possible problems that this aid to Cuba could cause in Mexico’s relations with the United States, López Obrador assured that he has not received “any complaint”: “Whenever I speak with President (Joe) Biden, the issue comes up that it is a relationship between equals and that they are respectful of the sovereignty of Mexico.”

The statements of the Mexican president did not take long to raise negative reactions. “It is an agreement that does not benefit Mexico at all and it is going to cost us, from money from the treasury, to health (if not lives),” the consultant for health issues Xavier Tello said on his social networks. “General practitioners going to do residencies in Cuba. This was already proposed (imposed) since last year and it was a failure,” said Tello, referring to the fiasco of Conacyt scholarships to study on the island.

“This true absurdity is just a way to validate the human trade and slavery that the dictatorship promotes, with the island’s doctors,” said the specialist.

“Politics continues to make Mexico’s health sick,” the internist, infectologist and 2020 National Health Award winner Francisco Moreno Sánchez posted on his Twitter account. “Health problems cannot be solved by contracting for 500 Cuban doctors.”

Laurie Ann Ximénez-Fyvie, a researcher in microbiology, described as “incredible” the decision of the Government of Mexico, just a few days after the Health Institute for Well-being (Insabi) was singled out for forcing doctors to resign who had a contract with another dependency, when this is not stipulated in the law.

The hiring of doctors from the Island has been marked by opacity and controversy. In 2020, brigades were sent, according to the Mexican authorities, in support of the coronavirus pandemic. Schools and public opinion questioned them for not being prepared to face the health emergency, and doing little work, and the fact that their presence cost almost eight million dollars. This Saturday, the Cuban official press itself gave the exact number of doctors it sent to Mexico for that contingency, between 2020 and 2021: 1,479.

To contract for 585 of them, “without title,” as reported in September 2021 by the opposition National Action Party (PAN) Mexico and Cuba “orchestrated a fraud” of 255,873,177 million pesos (about 12,692,940 million dollars) to the detriment of the Mexican health budget.

The coordinator of the PAN in the Senate, Julen Rementería, published documents obtained through the transparency portal specified that for each Cuban health worker Mexico disbursed about 21,700 dollars, while a Mexican doctor earns about 843 dollars at the Mexican Social Security Institute.

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Cuban State Security Prevents Farinas from Leaving Santa Clara After His Trip to Europe and the U.S.

Fariñas was arrested on Tuesday at the airport, upon his return to the Island, and was released after hours of interrogation. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 12 May 2022 — Cuban opponent, Guillermo Coco Fariñas, explained on Wednesday that he has been freed after being interrogated for several hours by security forces upon his return to Havana from a trip to Europe and the U.S.

The 2010 recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought stated on Facebook that it involved a “cohersive interrogation” and that the “punishment” for his political tour will be that he will be unable to leave his city, Santa Clara.

“For those of us who struggle for democracy and freedom in Cuba, it is a right to conduct politics in this way,” said Fariñas, despite his sanction.

The opponent confirmed that State Security agents accused him of influencing U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision not to invite Cuba to the Summit of the Americas.

They also criticized his contribution to the recent declaration of the European Union on Cuba. “For them, that was intolerable,” he added.

Finally, according to Fariñas, they believed that the opponent was behind the coordination of various generations of Cuban exiles and the involvement of business owners in pro-democratic activities on the Island. continue reading

Fariñas was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, as he was leaving Havana’s José Martí International airport, where he had just landed after his international trip.

The opponent was returning to Cuba following a two-month trip — “successful” in his judgement — which took him to the U.S. and Europe, where he met with various political representatives and activists to talk about the situation in his country.

During his trip, the leader of the United Antitotalitarian Front (Fantu) denounced the repression in Cuba, especially as a result of the antigovernment protests of July 11th.

The Sakharov Prize winner stated that the social situation in the country is “a pressure cooker without an escape valve” and that new protests are possible. Fariñas had planned the trip for mid-January, but was unable to travel because he received the Cuban-made vaccines, which are not recognized in the U.S. A month later, he was able to fly.

In recent months, Fariñas had denounced several detentions, sometimes held in a hospital in Santa Clara, where he lives, for unsolicited medical treatment.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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New Head of Spain’s Secret Services had to Leave Cuba in 2009 for Espionage

Esperanza Casteleiro, the new head of Spanish intelligence, spent six months in Cuba at the head of the espionage network on the island. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 11 May 2022 — Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares, the new director of the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI), briefly directed the antenna of the secret services in Cuba in 2009 and had to return hastily to Madrid to avoid expulsion after the arrest of an informant.

According to the data reported this Wednesday by the Spanish digital The Objective, the official arrived in Havana in 2008 without hiding her identity, since she had ceased to be an anonymous agent when she reached positions of responsibility (general secretary of the CNI in 2004).

In June 2008, she was relieved of that position and sent to the island to direct the office of the Spanish intelligence service in Cuba, at a time when an opening under the new command of Raúl Castro was expected.

According to The Objective, the Cuban regime immediately mistrusted Casteleiro and she was constantly watched by the island’s secret service. Her downfall occurred in just six months.

The decision came after the arrest, in February 2009, of Conrado Hernández, a Cuban businessman and delegate of a commercial entity of the Basque Government, when he was going to travel to Spain. continue reading

The arrest was attributed to a case of business corruption, but two weeks later it emerged that Cuba’s economic vice president Carlos Lage, and the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Pérez Roque, frequently visited a property that Hernández had in the current province of Mayabeque.

Those ties served to result in the dismissal of both ministers, whom the Communist Party of Cuba accused of leaking information to the Spanish government about possible changes on the island.

State Security kept surveillance on Hernández, a CNI informant, and had recorded him with Spanish intelligence agents, eating in a Havana restaurant.

Fidel Castro dedicated one of his Reflections to the case , in which he accused Lage and Pérez Roque of allowing themselves to be “seduced by the honeys of power” in the hope of putting themselves at the head of the country, and of having been trapped by the siren’s songs coming from “external agents.”

The Objective states that Casteleiro’s presence in Cuba made him uncomfortable, so the Spanish government chose to withdraw the CNI agents before they were expelled. Casteleiro returned to Spain, while the businessman was tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Last October he received a prison benefit that allows him to serve the rest of his sentence at home.

Casteleiro began her career at the National Intelligence Center in 1983 and has held various positions of responsibility. In 2014 she assumed the leadership of the Intelligence Unit of the CNI in the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime. From there she went to the Ministry of Defense, in 2020, as Secretary of State and was the right hand of Minister Margarita Robles.

Her arrival at the position in the CNI occurs after the dismissal of Paz Esteban, relieved of the position this Tuesday as a result of a case of wiretapping directed at pro-independence politicians in Catalonia. To this espionage, judicially authorized for reasons of national security, illegal interceptions were added, also by the Pegasus system, against the president himself, Pedro Sánchez, and several ministers, including those of Defense and Interior.

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Former Cuban Prosecutor, Seeking Asylum in Switzerland, Insists that the Cuban Communist Party Imposes the Sentences for July 11th (11J) Protests

Raucel Ocaña Parada, former prosecutor of Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2022 — Raucel Ocaña Parada, former prosecutor of Palma Soriano, in Santiago de Cuba, left the island and has requested political asylum in Switzerland, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH). The jurist has denounced in an interview that the sentences against the protesters of July 11th (11J) are developed by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) before the beginning of each process.

“Already, practically when a sentence is issued regarding these issues of people who demonstrate against the Government, the ruling is already prejudged before the trial is held. The prosecutor already knows what they have to say, the judge also knows what they have to do. The bodies that are behind direct the judicial process,” he says in a video released by the OCDH, based in Madrid.

Ocaña Parada has not been in charge of any case related to the protests in his town, since that has been the task of the head of the Palma Soriano Municipal Prosecutor’s Office, the second city to join the protests after the outbreak in San Antonio de los Baños.

The former prosecutor, however, was in the city and has recounted what he could observe at that time. “Several people appeared in front of the government and the party and there they expressed different issues. Because of that, the police acted and, in one way or another, attacked the population. This caused people to defend themselves, a legitimate defense in a state of necessity. Nobody agrees to receive blows just for expressing their rights,” he says.

The prosecutors, according to their testimony, have no autonomy and are subordinate to their bosses. “Generally, the Headquarters coerces and does not support the prosecutor’s proposal. It tells you that some political issues in the country must be taken into account, that one must not be so benevolent and that one must assume a position of punishment, totally repressive.”

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Three Injured in a Gas Explosion in Old Havana

The explosion has left three injured, of which one is already discharged and two have a reserved prognosis. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 11 May 2022 — Three people have been injured by the explosion caused by a gas leak this morning in Old Havana. According to this newspaper, there is damage to doors and windows and inside the house.

The residents of the building, who are waiting two blocks away from the accident, commented that one of the injured is a child who is in intensive care, and that another of the survivors was removed from the rubble.

Yamila Velázquez Fernández, delegate of the 48th constituency of the Jesús María Popular Council, rightly declared to the Cuban News Agency that of those injured, an “adult over 50 years of age with 90% burns and life-threatening ” and an “11-year-old boy with 75% burns on his body.”

In the morning hours, a doctor accompanied by another official entered the building, although they did not allow people to walk nearby. The residents of the building wait two blocks away from the incident, while a strong operation guarded the area. continue reading

Colonel Luis Carlos Guzmán, head of the Cuban Fire Department, has disassociated this explosion from the one that occurred last Friday at the Saratoga Hotel and which has left 43 dead, two missing and almost a hundred injured to date.

“We must clarify that it has nothing to do with what happened in the Saratoga. Later we will offer more information about the event,” he told the News Magazine Buenos Días, on Cuban Television.

The official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso reported on his social networks that the mayor of Old Havana attributed the explosion to negligence, when its residents left the gas tap open. The firefighters had, according to this version, to turn off the key when they arrived at the building.

“As a result of the explosion at 954 San Nicolás at the corner of Corrales, three people were injured. One of them is already discharged, a child is hospitalized in Juan Manuel Márquez and his father in Calixto García,” he said.

The incident occurred around 5:00 am and material losses were reported in at least three apartments.

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Deaths from Explosion at Havana’s Saratoga Hotel Rises to 43

Debris removal work at the Saratoga hotel. (14ymedio)

Three new bodies were found under the rubble of the Saratoga Hotel on Tuesday, four days after the explosion. With this, the deceased number 43, according to the data revealed by the rescue teams.

Two of the latest victims lived in the building next to the hotel, which partially collapsed. They are Juan Carlos Díaz Álvarez, 55, who was a constituency delegate, and María Consuelo Alard Valdés, 77, according to Inventario. Alard owned a dog that was rescued alive. A third recovered body has not yet been identified, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.

Inventario also added that three hotel workers were still missing: Shady Cobas Mesa, Susel Torres and Yosmany Hernández Temo.

The head of the Fire Department, Colonel Luis Guzmán, told the Cuban News Agency that they continue to search for more victims in the kitchen and dining room areas, in “high-risk” conditions.

The rescue teams detailed that they have searched the multi-family building next to the hotel, which was also heavily affected by the explosion.

Of the 42 fatalities, in the last update, this Monday, the Ministry of Health identified ten of them: Rafael Viga Torres, 50, Luillys Oquendo Díaz, 34, Maylen Quesada Velazco, 31, Aivis Chang Cruz, 45, Yaser Díaz Vázquez, 38, Claudia Castellanos Antuz, 30, Misael Sánchez Mantilla, 48, Leaney Sencio Hechavarría, 47, Juan Carlos Díaz Álvarez, 55, and María Consuelo Álvarez Valdés, 77, all from Havana. continue reading

The latest official report also indicated that the explosion left 96 injured, of which 17 are still hospitalized and 37 were discharged.

As the hours pass, it becomes difficult to maintain hope of finding more victims alive, but the relatives of the disappeared wait in a nearby building.

Among the disappeared, before the discovery of the bodies today, were: Yosmani Hernández, Shady Cobas and Susel Torres, all hotel workers.

Meanwhile, the Cuban Ministry of Tourism assures that the incident will not affect the country as a tourist destination. “Our facilities continue to serve national and international tourists who spend their holidays here with the tranquility and safety that characterizes us,” Ministry spokeswoman Carmen Casals said at a press conference, referring to the Saratoga explosion as “regrettable and sad accident.”

The event occurred on Friday around 10:50 in the morning, in the historic building in Old Havana. According to the main hypothesis, it occured when a truck was supplying liquefied gas to the establishment. The hotel that was a construction site and was scheduled to reopen on May 10.

Among the buildings that suffered the most deterioration is the Martí Theater and the Baptist temple, in addition, the Yoruba Religious Cultural Center and the Capitol have minor damage.

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‘We Should Have Kicked You Out Long Ago’: How the Director of Alma Mater was Fired by Cuba’s UJC

Armando Franco Senén began as director of Alma Mater magazine in 2019. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 May 2022 — Armando Franco Senén, former director of Alma Mater magazine, has broken his silence two weeks after the controversy generated by his dismissal from the publication. In an extensive Facebook post published on Tuesday, the journalist stated that his silence was converting him into an accomplice of the decision by authorities to relieve him of his duties. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Franco presented his version of the events, highlighting that his account is not his opinion, but rather a retelling of the events, which he reproduces in an almost notarial fashion.

On April 26th, the journalist was summoned to a meeting in the office of the Director of Editora Abril, Asael Alonso Tirado, which gave way to an Extraordinary Board of Directors meeting, during which they communicated his “liberation.” In charge were Nislay Molina (Ideologue of the National Committee of Young Communists (UJC)) and Alonso himself, who far from being open to dialogue, communicated that he should await his reassignment.

Only at his insistence did they tell him that “the decision, approved on April 20th, was the result of continuous errors in the magazine’s editorial work.” Franco stated that both looked at a document in which contained the supposed errors, all of which were corrected at the time, according to the journalist, before stating that the rest were the bulk of the magazine’s best pieces during his leadership, he claimed.

“We should have kicked you out long ago, there is nothing more to say, we are doing you the favor of liberating you. You may do as you wish, it is our decision,” was the response the official gave him while Alonso agreed arguing that he had already alerted her to his errors.

“It is a decision that has already been made, we only came to inform,” added the official. continue reading

Faced with the situation, Franco met with his team to inform them of what had occurred and they decided to post on the magazine’s social media the note that publicly announced, without details, his dismissal.

Nislay Molina’s foresight was to call one day later, on Wednesday the 27th, a meeting of Alma Mater staff to inform them, but the director of Editora announced to the magazine’s sub-directors that the meeting would not take place — a decision of the National Bureau — because “there was nothing more to say.” That way of proceeding was what led the bulk of the team to leave, a personal decision, according to Franco, and that affected everyone with the exception of one journalist and the editorial secretary.

Franco emphatically denies the implicated organizations, the Federation of University Students (FEU) and UJC, which attributed his dismissal to a “natural renovation process.” The journalist ensures that he had communicated, with plenty of notice, that he’d leave the magazine in November, after serving for in his position for three years, and that the publication was preparing for that transition, as it was only five months away.

“It does not seem like a natural renovation process as it did not include a new position for me nor a new director for Alma Mater, which did not guarantee the continuity [CHECK: I used this instead of “work”] of the magazine after my release. It does not make sense to make changes for “natural” reasons, while the Editor experiences a crisis of directors and journalists,” he states.

Another one of the big revelations Franco makes is that the version he was told was that FEU, or rather its president Karla Santana, was the one who “provided elements against” its management. It seems they did not like Alma Mater’s “inattention” to the student organization, which the journalist emphatically denies, which the magazine itself serves as proof that universities and university students have been its priority. “Of course, from the point of view of our team.”

Since he was not aware of a single complaint, not even FEU has issued a statement about the events, but they have received support from the university community, the journalists doubts that version. “It is worth asking, to which FEU did Alma Mater fail to respond?”

With regard to UJC, Franco recalled that Aylin Álvarez, its first secretary and a delegate in the National Assembly commented on the matter on her social media. As the journalist explains, almost nothing of what she said is true. Later, Rogelio Polanco, chief of the Ideology Department of the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) and Álvarez met with him, as the official recounted on her social media along with an outdated photograph which suggested a good relationship, though it was from months ago.

According to Franco’s version, Álvarez was surprised, blamed the events on those who criticized her management and praised the magazine’s good results. After the UJC leader’s message was published, in which she added that he had been offered another position.

“It is true that in mid-April UJC proposed I leave Alma Mater to join a new communications project, however, as the first secretary knew, I responded that my intention was to remain at the magazine until November,” he stated.

On Tuesday, May 2nd, a meeting of the outgoing team was held with Álvarez and which they requested that Karla Santana, Nislay Molina and Asael Alonso be present, but they refused. “During the discussion, Aylin Álvarez acknowledged errors were made due to a ’loosening of personal issues’ and she committed to address the issue. As of now, we have not been notified of any results with regard to that.”

As for the PCC, Polanco indicated to the journalist that there wouldn’t be a problem with him and that he would be promoted. “During the last exchange, last Friday, Rogelio Polanco offered me a position, which I respectfully declined, despite it being an option that has a lot to do with my professional intentions,” he stated.

Franco ended his statement thanking those who have supported him and wishing Alma Mater future success. However, he adds that the “current state of the magazine” hurts and he does not understand how or why it reached this point. Franco says that, despite everything, the team has voluntarily collaborated with various media on coverage of the explosion at the Hotel Saratoga and that, moving forward, each will chose his own path. “I only aspire to grow once again, to find reasons to continue trying,” he concluded.

Franco’s exit was very controversial because under his leadership the magazine had experienced a moment of splendor, appreciated by readers and prizes, in which diverse topics, some of which made the government “uncomfortable”, according to some versions. Among its defenders was singer songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, who lamented the position taken by the current authorities.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Migration Part 6 – Encounter with Angel, the Gang Member Who Fled from Crime

Río Usumacinta, que divide Guatemala de México. (14ymedio) — Usumacinta River, which divides Guatemala from Mexico. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 28 April 2022 — The entrance to Mexico was incredibly calm, it was as if we were arriving home. There was also one of these mobsters there, I guess waiting for a payment. After a while, the guide returned with a very modern Nissan and took us to a warehouse to wait.

I met some Nicaraguans there and we started a conversation. They began to tell me about the atrocities that Ortega was doing with the elections. That if the country was screwing up, that if it was soon going to be the new Venezuela, that if they were afraid and decided to go out to try their fortune in the United States… They left with the intention of earning money for two or three years and coming back… which I don’t understand, because if they think that their country is a mess…

We spent a couple of hours until they came to pick us up and took us to Palenque along an incredibly long highway, where there were many túmulos (grave mounds), which is what we call in Cuba police officers acostados (lying down), in other words, ‘speed bumps.’

The man accelerated and I thought: “My God, we’re going to die!” Nobody in the car was wearing a seatbelt: the driver in front, two women next to him, one sitting on top of the other, and four in the back, three Nicaraguans and me, very uncomfortable. At 180 kilometers per hour, if the car hits a stone on the road I would have died, just like that, without saying a word.

After four hours, we arrived at Palenque, which is where we changed trucks again. They kept us parked for about an hour and twenty minutes, the seven of us squeezed together. I was desperate to get off and because of the uncertainty, because the cartels already operate directly over us.

Finally, the truck left and suddenly we went from being alone to joining an immense caravan, so huge that I could not see neither tip nor tail of it: they were all nine-seater trucks, all loaded with migrants.

In Palenque they took us to a warehouse, which is what they call the places where they leave migrants, a three-story, though very narrow house. That place was just horrible, and it disturbed me. There were many Cubans inside. It was drizzling and we went in there, all wet and muddy from the coming and going of shoes, very dirty, very dark, with many children. continue reading

It was drizzling and we went in there, all wet and muddy from the coming and going of shoes, very dirty, very dark, with very many children

The children played with each other on very thin foam mats and the mothers were desperate. One approached us and told us: “Hey, you have to go in, you can’t stay there” because according to what they said, the migra (Immigration agents) and the Federals were constantly passing by and shouldn’t see anyone outside. But in reality, everyone knows what happens there. Everything I saw in Mexico was too much.

Luckily, the driver took us to his house, which was on the outskirts, and had one of these empty warehouses, so we were the only ones there. His wife was very friendly, she treated us very well. She made us some fried fish and she gave us a drink. They would say to me: “Look, Cuban, try this fruit.” On the farm they had pigs, birds, rabbits, everything. There, I ate fruits that I had never eaten in my life, fruits I didn’t even know existed.

We slept in a bed each, with air conditioning, though I was already beginning to feel the Mexican cold.

The next day was February 14^th, the Day of Love and Friendship, and they had a celebration with streamers and tequila. They gave me beers from Mexico to try and they asked me about Cuba. I wanted to be more discreet there, but I told them a few things. That man belonged to a cartel, according to other migrants, of the Zetas, and God knows what things he must have done, because he had a good position within the cartel. All in all, that man was very sympathetic to the Cuban situation that I was telling him about: he didn’t know anything and he told me that he hoped everything would happen soon, because Cuba must be a beautiful country.

They were planning the route to go to Cancun, because from Palenque they distribute migrants to Villahermosa and to Cancun

That night, three Cubans arrived, two young girls and a young man, who were surprised to find out how quickly I had gotten there. They were planning the route to Cancun, because from Palenque they distribute migrants to Villahermosa and to Cancun. There, they had to board these famous Mexicali flights, from where you cross the border on foot. In other words, there is no river there, they open a small door for you, you cross and you are already in the United States.

The next day, the man calls and tells his wife to get ready, because there are 80 Cubans on the way to the house. And I couldn’t believe it, there was hardly room for 30! But I started organizing with her and I even helped make food for everyone, and they thought I was one of them, and I had to tell them that no, I was just another Cuban.

There, because the world is as small as a handkerchief, I found a person who stood in line at Trimagen, a store in my Havana neighborhood. The man started talking to me. He used to stand in line holding places for others, for a fee, but that the pandemic… “you know,” and the son was in the US, so he and his wife managed to get money to get out. That entire group, all 80 of them, went by way of the Cancun visa. They protested a lot, because they said that they were treated like cattle and they had paid a lot of money: some about 5,000 dollars, others 7,000 dollars. Each one is different.

Among the 80, there was one who turned out to be Uruguayan, with his heavy accent. So I asked him. This guy traveled to Cuba in 2021, and while he was there, he decided to get a Cuban identity. He did not want to explain to me how he did it, only that it cost him 11,000 dollars, and he told me that in this way, he could get the benefits that we Cubans get, to stay in the United States. He had gone out into the streets on July 11^th, but not to protest, just to watch. That’s what the Uruguayan said, but Alison and I speculated that he had some problem in his country, or that he was a fugitive. He seemed like a nice person, but you never know.

That afternoon they finally took us to Villahermosa. The caravan was composed of about eight vehicles and we were evading some controls, but the truth is that everything went great, everyone was talking: the driver, Alison and the three Cubans.

There were two Nicaraguans who were indeed quieter. The driver also thought that Cuba was the pearl of the Caribbean, but one of the girls told him that she was from Las Tunas, where she worked as a teacher, and her income was not enough to feed her son. The driver said: “Well, but if they live on an island, they must have fish, they have to have fish.” I laughed.

We told him that there was a dictatorship in Cuba, and he said that he had lived through hard times in Mexico, but he had never had to worry about what he was going to eat tomorrow.

I left that car quite depressed, after remembering so many things about my country, but I arrived in Villahermosa at a warehouse and since then I haven’t seen any more Cubans. It was a very large and very nice house, very modern, in which I spent four days with 50 or 60 Hondurans. Every morning, the managers brought us food and we distributed the housework to each other: some cleaned, others cooked, others tidied up… The only thing we couldn’t do was be on the porch, in case they saw us.

The driver kept saying: “Well, but if they live on an island at least they must have fish, they have to have fish” I laughed

In one of the rooms where I had to sleep in that house, we had some of these mats that have a blue lining, like a swimming pool, with a quilt, and in each room, for example, 12 or 13 people slept in mine, the men below and the women above, separated.

I thought, since there were no Cubans, who was I going to talk to? but it was very nice. “Look, a Cuban,” many said, because they had never seen a Cuban. In fact, I think not one of them had. Then they began to ask me things and we talked and we had a lot in common. That group arrived at the border together and we helped each other a lot, all the time.

I made a lot of friends with Ángel. He was 21 years old and had two small children, that’s why he identified with me, because I also have two. He told me that he was from northern Honduras, a large area of San Pedro Sula and its surrounding towns, where a lot of gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, operate. Ángel became acquainted with the wrong people and ended up being a hitman. He made it clear to me that he did not kill, that he was a driver.

Then he told me that he had to lead the hit men to kill people and once they had to kidnap one on the orders of his brother, apparently because of a drug problem. The brother paid about 10,000 dollars not only to have his brother killed, but to be tortured. He wanted the brother to be hung in one place and skinned alive. When he saw that, he couldn’t stand it and had to leave so he could vomit.

Then they began to ask me things and we talked and we had a lot in common. We and that team got to the border together and we helped each other a lot, all the time.

He saw horrible things, one of the other rival gangs had problems with him and, in the end, he ended up talking to his hitmen friends to go kill all those who were threatening him. So he finally did, he ended up firing a gun and killing, killing people. And for that reason, he left. He first went into hiding, and left after a month.

Ángel has a brother who lives in California who was helping him get out of that movie set environment. As much as they tell me, I can’t imagine something like that in real life.

The thing about the gangs in Honduras is terrible. I heard horrible things about that country, like if you wear a specific shoe worn by Gang 18, without being a member, they will shoot you, or that you can’t drive by with tinted car windows… Alison, the girl who travels with me, is 17 years old and has lived there all her life, but someone who was involved in a gang took an interest in her and ‘made her life a yogurt’, as we say in Cuba [made her life impossible]. He chased her, tried to rape her… Then she told her father, who has lived in the US for 13 years: “Daddy, I need you to get me out of here, because they are going to rape me.” And he, of course, did the impossible to get the money.

Tomorrow

To Mexico City, a 17-hour bus ride, standing.

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Massive fumigation in Some Havana Neighborhoods to Fight Dengue Fever

Fumigation this Monday in the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 May 2022 — Years ago, before the economic crisis gripped the island, fumigation in Havana to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito was done house by house, with prior notice, on a certain day in the summer. Those days will not return.

Now, the fight against the insect responsible for the transmission of diseases such as dengue fever, Zika, and chikungunya is done in neighborhoods spontaneously, with vehicles that fill the air with poison and gasoline (the indicated product contains 25% of cypermethrin diluted in petroleum as a solvent). This is how it was this Monday in the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado.

“I haven’t seen fumigation like this in many years,” says a resident in the face of the pestilent smoke. “Dengue must be thriving.”

The Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, recently acknowledged that there is an outbreak of the disease throughout the country, although he assured that the Government is “in a position to reverse the situation.”

In any case, the Island’s own health authorities recommend that after fumigating, the product be left for almost an hour. “If we don’t leave the house closed for 45 minutes after the treatment is applied, the mosquito leaves, the microdrop doesn’t fall on top of it — the mechanism that causes its death — and we have lost time and fuel and, what is worse, the mosquitoes and the focus of their transmission remain,” Carilda Peña García, the National Director of Surveillance and Vector Control of the Ministry of Health, explained last year during the campaign to fight Aedes aegypti. How is this condition met outdoors?

Fumigation has also been the target of popular criticism for the frequency with which campaign operators steal part of the product or fuel and replace them with mixtures that do not fulfill the function of exterminating insects, in addition to causing greater allergic reactions in people.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Escapes of Cristian Solenzal and Yolanda Cordero Bleed the Cuban Wrestling Team

The athletes Yolanda Cordero and Cristian Solenzal were the last to desert the Cuban wrestling team in Mexico. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 May 2022 – For five Cuban athletes the bay of Acapulco represented the perfect opportunity to defect. Cristian Solenzal and Yolanda Cordero were the last two fighters who left the delegation that traveled to Mexico on Sunday to participate in the Pan American Wrestling Championship, revealed SwingCompleto.

“The exodus of Cubans transcends any category or branch of society,” journalist Francys Romero published after learning that the first “undisciplined” – the term the regime uses to describe ‘deserters’ — was the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic champion and two-time champion World Cup Ismael Borrero.

The flight of talents continues to bleed the sport on the Island. The directors find no other argument for the defections than to point out that those who are the protagonists are committing a “serious indiscipline” and “leaving aside the objectives of their team heading to the Games 2024 Paris Olympics.”

The first defeats for the delegation, made up of 18 athletes, came with the defections of Borrero and Leonardo Herrera (60 Kg) and Amanda Hernández (53 Kg) from Pinar del Río, two young talents who will seek to grow in their sport outside the Island. continue reading

Solenzal escaped before his bout against the Peruvian Sixto Miguel Auccapina. The native of Sancti Spíritus was one of the strong cards to get his ticket to the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile 2023. Sources consulted by 14ymedio assure that the man from Sancti Spíritus had in mind to continue his career in the United States, so they do not rule out that he headed to the border to apply for asylum.

The abandonment of Amanda Hernández occurred after suffering a defeat against the Mexican Alejandra Romero. The native of Granma Province left from the team before her planned return to Cuba.

The Island won ten medals in the fights, divided between the Greco-Roman styles with three gold and one silver; the women got one gold and one silver; and in the free category two silver and two bronze.

Added to these cases is the escape, this Monday, of baseball player Crisptohfer Pérez. Communicator Francys Romero confirmed the arrival of the outfielder in the Dominican Republic. “As a senior in 2019, Perez batted .390 (39 hits in 100 at-bats) with three doubles, five triples, and 29 RBIs, racking up just four strikeouts.”

The young man joined the Cuba team in lower categories and was a starter in the U-15 (15 and under) World Cup held in Panama during the summer of 2018. “In the current Cuban Youth Championship in 2022, he was the leader in hits on his Pinar del Río team with 12 and batting .387 (12-for-31) with a double, a triple and seven RBIs,” Romero noted.

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Cuban Civil Defense Denies That a Gas Leak Occurred in Havana

Civil Defense’s denial of a leak generated angry comments from residents in places where the intense smell of gas was reported. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 May 2022 – On Tuesday, Cuban Civil Defense has denied reports of an alleged gas leak in Havana. The entity responded to complaints of a strong smell of gas in various areas of the city claiming that it was “false news” spread by “unscrupulous people.”

From the early hours of the morning, reports of an intense smell of gas began to be published on social networks in numerous Havana neighborhoods, essentially in the municipalities of Old Havana, Centro Habana and Plaza de la Revolución.

Marieta, a resident of Centro Habana, confirmed to 14ymedio that, since Tuesday night, in her neighborhood she has felt “a strong smell of gas, sometimes it dissipates but comes back again.” Concerned about the explosion at the Saratoga hotel, she called the Fire Department command post in the capital.

“That smell is now affecting the city, several municipalities because that is part of a job that is done from time to time. The substance called methyl mercaptan is injected into the gas, which is what gives the gas its smell so that people can detect the leaks and others,” explained the official from the Fire Department who took the call at 105, a number authorized for emergencies. continue reading

“That substance was injected and that is why it has a strong smell. It seems that there are broken pipes on public roads and it is also spreading through the sewers. But the smell is affecting several municipalities. There is no danger or anything,” the firefighter added, when explaining that the gas [alone] does not have an odor and it proceeds in this way every “now and then.”

However, both Marieta and many of her neighbors question why this operation has not been announced by the official media and express their concern because if they smell such a strong odor, it indicates that there are leaks in the pipes and sewers.

The denial of the Civil Defense generated angry comments from residents in places where the intense smell of gas was reported. Most of the response messages regretted the Civil Defense describing the people who reported the situation as “unscrupulous.”

After the wave of concerns, Canal Caribe published on its social networks that on Tuesday night Primetime News will clarify “the situation regarding the possible gas leak in Havana associated with the events at the Saratoga hotel,” by sharing a publication by Humberto López where it is states that several journalists will address the issue.

In El Vedado, on Tuesday morning, some state workplaces were evacuated, including the Pedro Borrás Pediatric Hospital located at 27 and F, as confirmed by several neighbors to this newspaper.

The Manufactured Gas Company, for its part, reported that “in recent days attention to reports of possible gas leaks has been reinforced, including creating 15 brigades with the necessary means and equipment for this.”

The entity also assured that its workers “are on call 24 hours a day to respond to all calls or situations that arise” and published several communication channels in case leaks arise: “Reports must be made to the usual telephone numbers: 72045252 , 72045253, 72076769, by WhatsApp and by SMS to the number +5352809319, and through the Telegram channel: t.me/EGMATC, so that the specialists can visit the place and assess the situation.”

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Doctor Alexander Pupo Casas Fulfills his Goal of Leaving Cuba

Alexander Pupo Casas upon his departure from Cuba this Sunday. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 May 2022 — Cuban doctor Alexander Pupo Casas left Cuba this Sunday, as he himself announced on his social networks. The doctor published an image at the foot of the InterCaribbean Airways plane with the text “Goodbye, my beautiful Cubita.”

According to the independent newspaper CiberCuba, which was able to contact Pupo Casas this Monday, the doctor is now making a stopover in a country that he did not want to reveal so as not to give details to the immigration authorities of the route he plans to follow. “My whole family stayed in Cuba. God allow me to at least see them again one day,” he said.

“I would never allow my roots to be affected by a new status quo. What I wish would go away is the pain in my chest since I boarded the plane. I have never felt like this,” he said on his Facebook profile.

Pupo Casas had asked for financial help almost a month ago through his social networks to be able to leave Cuba, a decision he made when he was aware that he would not be able to practice his profession on the island.

Shortly after finding himself off the island and without specifying which country he had arrived in, the doctor shared a video on his YouTube channel where, with a broken voice, he stated that he was leaving Cuba “with a knot in his heart… My heart is broken, totally broken, I hope that with the passing of the hours this pain will improve.” continue reading

“Leaving Cuba for me has been the worst thing that could have happened to me in the world, having to leave my country, but I have the hope that one day I will be able to return when I am free or to fight to be free,” Pupo said.

The doctor resigned from his job at the Ernesto Guevara hospital in Las Tunas, where he was doing his residency in Neurosurgery, after denouncing that they planned to expel him to relocate him to another destination for having criticized the regime on the internet.

“I am leaving medical services in Las Tunas, but not medicine. I will continue working tirelessly to improve as a doctor and as a person. I will be waiting, and I will provide my services one day in any hospital that requests my help, but without imposing a political thinking or an ideology that I don’t believe in,” he said in September 2020, when he still had hopes of being able to move forward in the country.

However, last month he publicly admitted that there was nothing to be done. “I was hoping that something would happen that would prevent me from having to leave my country. I like living here, not under this regime, but I like my country and I had to take some time to reach the conclusion of emigrating,” he recounted.

The doctor tried to make a living in different alternative ways, including the sale of audiovisuals or USB flash drives, but ended up giving in to the evidence that, under the current circumstances, it would be impossible for him to continue. “I haven’t been able to work here for more than two years. I don’t have family abroad and I’m appealing to my supporters. I don’t have property in Cuba to finance my departure from the country.”

Thus, the doctor joins the long list of Cubans who leave Cuba not only because of economic difficulties, like so many thousands in recent months, but because of harassment by State Security.

Before him, Alexander Figueredo, also a doctor, left the island, although he was initially prevented from boarding a flight to Nicaragua, where he was scheduled to begin his journey, like thousands of compatriots since Daniel Ortega abolished the visa requirement for Cubans. The doctor, expelled from his job in April 2021 for criticizing the state of the health system, which the regime considered caused “moral damage,” left Cuba although his whereabouts are unknown, since he did not want to reveal it.

In March it was Manuel Guerra, a doctor at the Nicodemus Regalado Hospital in Holguín, from which he was expelled for his activism in the Archipelago, who left the island for the United States, where he has settled with his wife.

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Every Corner in Havana Where Buildings Collapse Becomes a Garbage Dump

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.

But perhaps the most impressive is the one located on the corner of San Miguel and Belascoaín, an abandoned corner since the building partially collapsed on 18 July 2020.

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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