The Threat of the New Expropriation Law in Cuba: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Expropriation in 1959. (laleftadiario.com)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 31 March 2022 — The Cuban communist regime has announced the forthcoming publication of a Law that will regulate the controversial issue of expropriations in the country.

An issue that deserves special attention, due to the repercussions it presents to the framework of property rights, and the necessary legal certainty that economic agents must have to produce in the economy.

According to a recent report by TheGlobalEconomy.com, Cuba’s risk of expropriation compared to 173 countries in the world places it in 15th place with a score of 6, which is immediately after the highest, of 7 points, shared by 12 countries including Afghanistan, Yemen or Venezuela, among others. Cuba falls out of this first group and is in the second step of the classification along with 14 other countries. More information from this study allows us to obtain an assessment of the importance of expropriations in Cuba.

The new law proposed by the regime to regulate expropriations seeks to put a lock on all the previous experience, and intentionally forgets the contentiousness that has persisted since the nationalizations, expropriations and confiscations occurred  in Cuba during the years 1960 to 1968. continue reading

It is observed that this “forgetfulness” of the legislator is intentional, and confirms that the communist leaders do not have the slightest intention of advancing in the restitution of the private property confiscated in those years, which reached practically 100% of the productive capital of the nation.

This law should have opted for achieving the necessary reconciliation with the owners and their confiscated heirs, but there is not the slightest intention that this should be the case. On the contrary, weak legal foundations are established to regulate expropriation processes, giving the communist state an evident supremacy with respect to other economic actors.

The law that is presented is confusing, has a terrible wording, errors in the enumeration of articles and points, and introduces dangerous repressive elements that show the worst face of communist ideology, contrary to the free and peaceful exercise of property rights by all economic actors.

A good example of this is the reference in the final provisions to the obligation imposed on small farmers to properly maintain, exploit and use the land and their other assets related to agricultural and forestry production, in a clear warning about possible expropriatory processes.

A brief review of the text raises many problems. It treats foreign and national capital unequally in confiscatory processes, does not properly define the assumptions of public utility and social interest that should justify expropriation and does not refer to legal content, maintains forced expropriation with an alternative process and carries out a confusing regulation of compensation payments.

Critically, the main problem with this law — which invalidates it for international purposes and, above all, as a possible instrument to consolidate the foundations of the future of the Cuban economy — lies in the fact that it grants the state an absolute pre-eminence with respect to the non-state actors in the expropriation processes, which borders on the most significant defenselessness, while laying the foundations for a process for which there are serious doubts about the political will to bring it to an end.

A more detailed study of the law will be carried out in the coming days.

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Central Bank of Cuba Extends Term to Change CUC to Pesos or Foreign Currency

The Cuban government has not reported for a long time on how many CUCs (Cuba Convertible Pesos) are still in the deposits of the island’s banks. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 31 March 2022 — The Cuban authorities gave the green light this Wednesday for an extension to settle accounts in CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos). The Central Bank of Cuba announced in a note through its website and social networks that the deadline to convert deposits in the former convertible peso to another currency is now extended to 28 December 2022.

“The at-call savings accounts, fixed-term deposits and certificates of deposit of natural persons will be kept in that currency. During that period the holder will be able to decide whether to convert the account to Cuban pesos or opt for the certificate of deposit in foreign currency, according to the conditions established for this product,” said the statement, replicated by banking institutions throughout the Island.

The automatic conversion to Cuban pesos will be made on December 28 of this year if the holder has not made the change to another currency, be it dollars, euros or any freely convertible currency (MLC), through certificates of deposit, but in no case in cash.

“The collaborators [posted abroad], to whose bank accounts the 30% bonus is applied for purchases in commercial establishments, may request, from the account in Cuban pesos, to convert all or part of the balance they had at closing of December 2020 in their accounts in convertible pesos, to a certificate of deposits in foreign currency,” adds the text. continue reading

In addition, the note states that a representative can be appointed, by power of attorney, to make the changes that the account holder chooses.

Shortly before the start of 2021, the planned changes in the Ordering Task* aimed at putting an end to dual currency were announced. This certified the end of the CUC, comparable to the dollar, which had coexisted with the national currency on the island since 1994 and whose death was announced by Raúl Castro from the beginning of his term, without his being able to find the right moment to execute it.

The Central Bank of Cuba then warned of an adaptation period of 180 days so that those who still had CUCs could get rid of them. The deadline to transform the accounts, on the other hand, was much longer, until this March 30. However, this Wednesday, the extension was announced unexpectedly.

The change occurs just seven days after the same institution recalled that there was one week left to transform the deposits, although it is not the first time that measures related to the CUC have been extended. The exchange of currency in cash suffered at least three postponements, supposedly due to the pandemic.

The Cuban government has not reported for a long time how many CUCs are still in the deposits of the island’s banks, although it is likely to be a small amount, since before the end of the convertible peso was announced, most Cubans had already gotten rid of a coin they practically considered a zombie.

The few who have maintained these accounts face the depreciation of the national currency and, indirectly, of the CUC, since the State is changing it at the official rate of 1×24, also applicable for the dollar, although the banks do not offer the option to buy foreign exchange. To get dollars or euros, the only thing left is the black market at a rate that already exceeds 100 pesos.

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

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‘I Had to Choose Between Exile or Jail in Cuba,’ says Dr. Manuel Guerra Upon Arrival in the US

Dr. Manuel Guerra with his wife Maylén Álvarez, already in the United States. (Facebook/Manuel Guerra)

14ymedio biggerManuel Guerra, a doctor from Holguin , who left Cuba on February 19 for the United States, has requested asylum in that country together with his wife, also a doctor, Maylén Susel Álvarez.

As he himself reported in statements to Martí Noticias, the couple left for Nicaragua, with stops in Panama and El Salvador, and entered the United States from Mexico through border control in Arizona, a month later. On the trip, he says, they learned that in the coming months they will be parents for the first time.

Guerra also confesses that State Security, which had subjected him to an “investigation process” for the crime of “disrespect” and made him go every week “to sign in” at the National Revolutionary Police unit, it was was them who proposed exile.

“Lieutenant Colonel Yiosvany, the second in command of the political police in Holguín, with the subtlety and coldness that characterizes an organized mafia thug, tells me that I could end up in prison and that he would value better the possibility of leaving the country,” details the doctor speaking to Martí Noticias, while explaining that it was his mother who asked him “overcome with tears” that she preferred him “far away rather than in prison… And with the respect that one feels towards a mother, I made the decision to go.” continue reading

Currently, the couple is in Lakeland, Florida, where Guerra’s father has lived for years.

In fact, as he told 14ymedio in a recent interview, the doctor had been waiting a long time for a family reunification immigration process. His status as a resident doctor condemned him to be regulated — that is forbidden to travel — so he tried to leave the country illegally in 2019, was intercepted and the anger of the authorities increased around him.

In that conversation, Guerra narrated that the main reason for leaving the island is that he felt “very alone” in the fight for change, which he joined when he saw people like “Yunior Morales, Saily González or Yunior García Aguilera himself” opposing the regime.

A member of the Archipelago platform, the doctor was expelled from his job at the Nicodemus Regalado Hospital in Holguín and arbitrarily arrested last October, and since then the political police have not stopped harassing him.

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The Cafe-con-Leche-Cubanologists

The Spaniard Ana Hurtado and Mexican Jerónimo Zarco, visiting Cuba last week, invited by the regime. (Twitter/@Ana_Hurtado86)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 30 March 2022 – Their tongues give them away. As soon as they get off the plane they begin to blurt our phrases like “you have no idea what you have here,” “life out there is very hard,” or “with this sun, what more do you want.” While saying things like that, they take some photos in the most hackneyed tourist places, drink a mojito to the health of some guerrilla, and publish a couple of photos on social media with the blue sea as a background.

The café-con-leche-Cubanologists come to explain our own country to us and convince us to accept, here, what they wouldn’t stand for should it happen in their country. With a foreign accent and academic titles that no one can verify, they stand on the peak of their ego and speak to us as if we were tiny ants who don’t understand the need to sacrifice ourselves for a greater good. They throw in our faces that we must sacrifice ourselves so that they can point to a map and say that “utopia” has been installed on this Caribbean island.

When a skinny woman asks them for something to eat on the terrace of a luxurious restaurant in Old Havana, they assure her that gluten is bad for one’s health and that it is best not to eat red meat, while the steak overflows on their plates along with a few slices of freshly baked baguetteThey are the same ones who accuse Cuba’s July 11th (11J) protesters of being violent vandals, while they incite the burning of police cars in their cities and, in their own lives, have thrown more cobblestones than flowers. continue reading

The café-con-leche-Cubanologists question why we complain about power outages if blackouts help prolong the life of the planet; they lament that we insist on having a supply of drinking water when we could drink with our cupped hands from the rivers (they do not know that most of the streams in the country are polluted or dry), and they tell us that we are complainers for demanding shoes for our children when the contact of feet with the earth is the most recommended for energy… health and other theories of the sort.

They love to get close to power. They have a special fascination for being invited to an official reception, allowed to speak in the University of Havana’s Great Hall, and getting a decoration pinned on their lapel. Because these so-called experts on the Island consider us restless and misguided children, who do not know how to value what we have, and who must be dealt with with a heavy hand, very heavy. They like it when dictators help them maintain the colorful vignette of paradise that they advertise on their Facebook or TikTok streams.

Nothing annoys a café-con-leche-Cubanologist more than his own object of study denying him. Like on that day when people came out shouting the word “Freedom” in the streets of the Island, or the growing numbers of those who throw themselves into the sea to escape this system, or when patients show through images and testimonies the profound deterioration of the public health system. This causes them deep discomfort, because their doctoral thesis is not designed to include all possible variables, but a single and unquestionable conclusion.

The café-con-leche-Cubanologists have been declining and are becoming more and more pathetic. Once there were Nobel Prize winners, renowned artists and illustrious professors. But over time, such an occupation has become so painful and unsustainable that they have been deserting en masse, to take refuge in silence or to channel their “talent” towards other geographies. But there are still some, pathetic and pernicious.

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Rock is Thrown Through the Window of a Havana Phone Store Last Night

The office of the State telecommunications company Etecsa on Obispo Street, in Old Havana, this Tuesday, with boards on the windows. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 March 2022 — No one saw anything and few are talking, but the truth is that this Tuesday the office of the State telecommunications company Etecsa on Obispo Street, in Old Havana, woke up with a broken glass.

“They have already begun to break the windows of the Etecsa offices that sell in MLC (hard currency),” said the activist Ángel Cuza in a video transmitted through Facebook, while government Criminalistics agents were observed placing boards in the windows.

A curious customer who came in to buy a phone card asked the employee: “Are you going to fix it here, I see that you are boarding up the window?” The young woman replied: “No, no, it’s that there was an incident and they put that there until they change the glass.”

A neighbor residing on Havana Street, a few meters from the Etecsa office, told this newspaper that “at dawn we heard a noise but we didn’t look out.” The man, who prefers to remain anonymous, says that “this area is very noisy and until the wee hours you hear a lot of noise, music and voices, so we didn’t think it was important.”

The next morning, when he went downstairs, he found “a strong police operation and everyone commenting that someone had thrown a stone at the Etecsa window.” continue reading

Obispo Street, a pedestrian street widely used to walk through the historic center of Havana, “was practically blocked by the police and a criminalistics car.”

“They were asking the neighbors if anyone had seen something, but the same thing happened to everyone as had happened to me, I was sleeping at the time everything happened, which I calculate was around three in the morning, because I woke up and then I had a hard time falling asleep.”

The neighbor insists that “people were not very cooperative with the police because nobody here wants to be a snitch,” but he thinks: “That window was an ostentation with its very expensive telephones that nobody can buy, the strange thing is that no one threw a rock through it earlier.”

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Diaz-Canel Calls For Extreme Measures in the Face of the Covid Increase in Cuba

The usual crowds that gather in Cuba favor contagion, on the rise in recent days. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 30 March 2022 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called for extreme sanitary measures to prevent a new wave of COVID-19 infections despite the progress of the massive immunization campaign, the official press reported on Tuesday.

According to the official Granma newspaper, during their weekly meeting with Díaz-Canel, scientists advising the government predicted a progressive increase in confirmed cases and hospitalizations.

The Island has recorded between 600 and nearly 1,000 new daily cases in recent days, after they stabilized at around 500 at the beginning of the month, but far from the figures of the highest part of the last great wave in July and August of last year, when infections reached 9,000 per day.

Cuba has accumulated a week without deaths related to the disease during the month of March.

These results, the scientists pointed out, are due in part to the coverage of the immunization campaign with the three vaccines produced and developed in the country.

Nearly 10 million people, of the 11.2 million inhabitants of the Island, have received the complete immunization schedule with local vaccines. This is 95% of the vaccine-eligible population. In addition, 6.2 million Cubans have received the booster dose.

However, cases have been increasing in recent days and experts attribute this situation to the relaxation of precautions among citizens.

In this sense, the experts warned that “the provinces of Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila have remained the epicenter of the epidemic this year.”

Following the latest epidemiological reports, the authorities have sent teams of specialists to the most affected territories to assess the situation in order to avoid new strains on the health system.

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A CTDC Proposal for Reconciliation in Cuba: Amnesty for Political Prisoners and Authorities

A group of demonstrators in Havana during the protests on July 11, 2021. (Marcos Evora)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 30 March 2022 — The opposition group Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) presented a proposal this Tuesday for an amnesty law that would favor both those detained for the July 11 (11J) protests and Cuban public officials and officials.

The organization disseminated its proposal with the hope that the National Assembly would take it on as a popular legislative initiative — something contemplated in the 2019 Constitution — and approve it.

Neither the Cuban Legislature nor the official media have commented on the matter so far. In the exile and the opposition, the initiative has sparked controversy.

The Amnesty and Decriminalization of Dissent in Cuba Bill, provided to the media by the CTDC, seeks a “general and full amnesty” for anyone investigated or accused of counterrevolutionary activity, against State Security or the socialist system. continue reading

The proposal expressly refers to the anti-government protests of July 11, but calls for this measure of grace for all those prosecuted as “counterrevolutionaries” since 1959.

It also offers amnesty to “authorities, officials and law enforcement agents” who participated in the persecution of activities classified as counterrevolutionary, provided that they had not committed “crimes against humanity or serious violations of human rights.”

Officials and public officials and those of the Communist Party of Cuba who cannot be charged with crimes against humanity or human rights violations would also be covered.

The objective of the CTDC, according to the initial arguments of its proposal, is that this law be “a first step towards the national and political reconciliation of all Cubans.”

The proposal differs substantially from the one released last Friday on Telegram by the jurist Sergio Osmín Fernández on behalf of the Amnesty platform in Cuba.

Osmín Fernández’s petition calls for amnesty for the July 11 demonstrators and for all those imprisoned for “exercising the fundamental freedoms of human beings in opposition to totalitarianism” or for political activities since 1959.

“This law does not grant amnesty” to those who “perpetrated human rights violations and inflicted serious damages,” says article 2.2 of this proposal.

In addition, Osmín’s argument, where he speaks of “repression” and “totalitarian regime,” condemns the fact that the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, gave the “combat order” on television on July 11 to confront the protests.

The two initiatives have sparked debate between dissidents and opponents, focused on the differences between the two proposals and their repercussions.

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There Are Not Enough Notaries to Serve the Thousands of Cubans Who Are Leaving the Country

The massive exodus of people leaving Cuba has increased the paperwork workload at notary services in recent months. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 29 March 2022 — It is half an hour before six in the morning and five people are already sitting on the stairs that give access to one of the most central notaries in Havana, a few meters from the Coppelia ice cream parlor. The massive exodus in recent months has increased the need for procedures in these places, all under the control of the Cuban State.

“This is the second time I’ve come in the same week because the previous time I was missing some documents,” explains Marianela, one of the clients who arrived at the place before dawn, speaking to 14ymedio. “What I want is get a power of attorney so that my son can sell my house when I am out of the country,” she details.

As the notary’s opening hours approach, dozens of people continue to arrive to join the line. Many of them will leave the place without even being able to enter, because the number of cases that are seen each day is very limited. “This is full from Monday to Friday and if it were to open on Sunday, it would also be full that day,” Marianela jokes.

The notary power that the woman seeks to make will give her son full power to sell or exchange his mother’s home when she has already emigrated. “I did everything to sell it before I left but I couldn’t because people are out of money so he’ll have to take care of it,” she explains.

In the line, most of the clients are for procedures related to housing: powers of attorney, transfer of rights over a property, donations or purchases. Many also have in mind to leave the country and “get their affairs in order” before getting on a plane. “This is like going to a better life but in a good way, that you have left everything arranged for those who stay.” continue reading

In the same municipality, on Calle 10 almost at the corner of 15th, another notary’s office shows the same panorama since dawn. On a wooden trunk resting on three stones, the clients have improvised a bench that is already full before the sun rises. With the first light of day people continue to arrive and when the place opens its doors they only let in five at a time.

But the long, slow line is not the only obstacle. “We lack the notary paper, we have to improvise,” admits an employee of the place. A few meters from there, a private business has the solution. “We have A3 format sheets on which we print the lateral stripes of the same color that the notary’s office requires,” promotes one of the employees.

“When people arrive and see that they need several copies of a document, they immediately shout to the sky because they say they don’t have paper for copies, that’s when we ’save the campaign’,” he explains. “They have had a paper problem for months because the demand for documents has grown a lot.”

“It is not only because of the issue of leaving the country, but because we were closed for a long time due to the pandemic,” adds Carmen, an employee of a notary’s office in the municipality of Cerro. “In mid-2021, all registry and notary services were suspended in Havana and that caused many cases to accumulate that we are now trying to process.”

The measures then included the suspension of the Property Registry services, foreign investment and commercial companies, as well as the Mercantile Registry. From the Civil Status Registry, only the registration of births and deaths remained operational.

“The cases postponed by the coronavirus have been added to the high demand for procedures from people who are leaving the country and want to sell their house, donate it or leave it in a power of attorney so that someone else can take care of it,” adds the worker. “To that is added that there are almost no resources coming to us for all this.”

Not only is the notary paper missing, but “the printer ribbons are very worn and there are times when we deliver a document that can hardly be read,” she admits. “People complain but notaries should be given a medal for continuing to work in these conditions.”

There is no shortage of those who make the high demand for notary processes a way of making a living. In the municipality of Diez de Octubre, Yaquelín and her brother dedicate themselves to the business of standing in the lines to enter the premises and selling their places to some desperate customer who arrives trying to get out as soon as possible.

“To be among the first five who enter when they open costs 500 pesos; places further back in the line can be about 300,” she explains to a troubled Havanan who has a flight date for next week and wants to “finish the paperwork as soon as possible,” for the sale of a house. The man doesn’t even try to haggle and they agree that this week Yaquelín will stand in line for him.

“Don’t waste time, I’ll do all the notary and certification paperwork for you, you only have to go to an office when you have to sign something,” a savvy merchant offers his services on various digital sites. His fees can exceed four figures but he says he has “a lot of clients.”

“People have to deal with everything at the end, they have the ticket to leave, they have to organize a lot of things and they don’t have time to stand in these lines since dawn. I make it easy for them not to spend their last days in Cuba standing outside a notary’s office,” he says. “I save them time and trouble.”

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Lawyers and Compensation Instead of Militiamen and Confiscations in Cuba

Expropriation in 1959. (laleftadiario.com)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 29 March 2022 — The recently announced Law of Expropriation for reasons of Public Utility or Social Interest has notorious differences with the abundant legislation on this matter. Here we no longer speak of confiscation as punishment or revenge, as in the laws enacted between 1959 and the mid-1960s. However, when the 18 causes that justify an expropriation include “ensuring internal order or interest in guaranteeing national defense and security” it is understood how far this concept can go.

The confiscation of property without compensation appears in the preliminary draft of the new Penal Code defined as an accessory sanction and can be applied to at least a dozen typified crimes. But this text does not speak of confiscation, but of expropriation.

The new law includes details on how to compensate those affected by a duly justified expropriation and establishes a process in which there is a right to refute the arguments of the State objecting to the reasons of public utility put forward.

But said objection does not proceed when the public utility is based on the execution of public works, the construction of low-income housing, the execution of programs for economic and social development, the sustainable management of the environment and, of course, also unobjectionable are reasons founded on the assurance of internal order or national defense and security. continue reading

What then is left? The affected party must demonstrate that it would be more convenient for the State to expropriate other properties than his own. However, what draws the most attention and has raised questions and disagreements is the difference in compensation for foreign investors, who can set the value of what is expropriated “by mutual agreement”; if no agreement is reached, the price is set “by an organization of international prestige in business valuation.”

One of the most striking details is observed in Chapter 10, where the possibility of reversing the expropriation is mentioned if, within a period of three years, the corresponding authority does not allocate the expropriated asset for the purposes expressed in the declaration of public utility. In that case, those affected can go to the same court where the expropriation was ruled and request reversion, paying “its fair price.”

If a clause like this had appeared in other confiscatory or nationalizing decrees, perhaps there would not be so many idle lands infected with marabou or so many commercial establishments turned into ruins.

Article 54 defines that when the interest in the expropriation derives directly from a public calamity or for reasons of ensuring internal order or national defense and security, and there is an urgent need to occupy the property, “the corresponding authority may take immediate possession of those necessary to satisfy that purpose, without prior formality or other diligence, regardless of whether the process to determine compensation is followed.”

Article 10 specifies who has the authority to declare the public utility or social interest of a property for expropriation purposes. Listed in descending hierarchical order it ranges from the Council of Ministers to the Municipal Administration Councils and the directors of the Offices of the Special Development Zones. It is specified that for the expropriation of foreign investments the declaration of public utility or social interest is the exclusive right of the Council of Ministers.

Every time a new law is enacted, citizens ask themselves what is their public utility, what is their social interest. It gives the impression that the State has an imminent compliance plan to carry out numerous public works, build hundreds of thousands of houses, or carry out programs for economic and social development, or for the sustainable management of the environment, which provoke the need to expropriate land, houses and other spaces. But the economic reality of the country shows no signs that these projects are on the State calendar.

Perhaps the only intention is to reassure foreign investors that they will not be dispossessed of their properties in the middle of a fervent speech, as was done in October 1960, when more than 300 large companies and all the banks were liquidated at a stroke of the pen.

In this law there is neither revolutionary passion nor righteous spirits. The exploitation of man by man and the recovery of our wealth are not invoked. This time it will not be rude men dressed as militiamen entering the offices announcing the nationalization, but young lawyers with good manners to discuss the terms of the indemnity.

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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.

Cuban Authorities Blame ‘Electrical Failure’ to the Burning of Five School Buses

The fire occurred around 3:00 p.m. on Saturday in the bus parking area, burning four of the Chinese brand Yutong and one Diana. (Cybervat)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 March 2022 — The strong rumors unleashed by a fire that last Saturday burned five school buses in Cojímar, East Havana, have led the authorities of the Ministry of Transportation to publish a note in which they attribute the fire to an electrical failure that occurred while one of the buses was being repaired.

“Unable to put out the fire, due to the strong winds at that time, the flames spread, reaching four other buses that were parked in the area.

Work continues on the investigations, to delve into the causes that generated this unfortunate event,” says a brief statement from the Automotive Transport business group.

The fire occurred around 3:00 p.m. on Saturday in the bus parking area, four of the Chinese brand Yutong and one Diana. The event, published on  Facebook, led to multiple speculations by those who considered it an act of sabotage and who questioned the effectiveness of the firefighters who did not arrive quickly enough to prevent the burning of five vehicles. continue reading

The assumptions have not stopped in the same forum, where a user has raised the possibility that more vehicles are burning lately. Although there is no real data to verify it, the dissemination of this information through networks can support the theory. Among the answers, some raise the poor quality or adulteration of the fuel, the shortage of fire extinguishers where there should be some, or poor repairs with cables spliced ​​without much knowledge.

The explanations have not calmed the users of that page, which tracks all kinds of incidents related to traffic and vehicles, or the business group. In both there has been a crossover of accusations between users who defend the work of the company and those who question it, those who believe that the news is being managed with transparency and those who consider that the power failure is an excuse to hide attacks that put the government on the ropes.

What the majority seems to agree on is that the buses that were next to the one that burned initially could have been saved if they had had tires, but the fact of lacking them complicated moving them.

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Cuba Strengthened its ‘Machinery to Control Freedom’ After the July 11th Protests, According to Amnesty International

The Police continued with the arrests, days after the beginning of the protests in more than 40 cities throughout the Island. (EFE)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), London, 29 March 2022 — Cuba intensified “its machinery to control freedom of expression and assembly” during 2021, a year marked by the July 11th (11J) anti-government protests, Amnesty International (AI) denounced in its annual report on human rights.

The London-based organization emphasized what it called “repression” during and after the demonstrations. AI noted that, according to the NGO Cubalex, 700 protesters remained in prison at the end of 2021.

The document reviewed the reactions of the Government during last July. It says that in those days “the authorities interrupted the Internet service and frequently blocked instant messaging applications.”

AI went further and criticized the crimes with which some detainees have been accused — such as public disorder, resistance, contempt, incitement to commit a crime and damage — which it described as “incompatible” with “human rights standards.”

According to the Cuban Attorney General’s Office, 790 people have been prosecuted for the July 11 protests, of which 55 are between 16 and 17 years old. The minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16. continue reading

Just a few days ago, AI asked to enter Cuba to follow the trials against the accused protesters. So far, no response has been received from the country’s authorities.

Cuba, as previously noted by AI, is the only country in the American continent in which it is not allowed to enter.

Since the end of 2021, different trials have been taking place for the anti-government protests of July 11 and hundreds of people have already been sentenced.

On March 16, one of the last sentences released, 127 people were sentenced to a total of 1,916 years in prison for acts related to the events of that date at the corner of Toyo and La Güinera, two humble areas of La Havana.

The defendants, investigated mainly for sedition and theft, were accused of “serious disturbances and acts of vandalism, with the purpose of destabilizing public order, collective security and citizen tranquility,” according to the Supreme Court.

In addition, AI denounced that the opponents were subjected to “physical surveillance” in front of their homes and, if they were arrested, they ended up in “incommunicado detention.” It also led to “widespread reports of ill-treatment.”

The organization paid special attention to cases such as that of Maykel Castillo, co-author of the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life], the anthem of the 11J protests, and that of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), both arrested last year. AI considers the two “prisoners of conscience.”

Finally, the chapter on Cuba in the NGO’s annual report covers the country’s economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic, which has left behind “a shortage of food, basic medicines and other essential items.”

The NGO clarified that although the US “blockade” of the island violates “the economic, social and cultural rights” of Cuba, this did not “nullify the country’s obligation to guarantee” the basic rights of its population.

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Cuba’s State Fuel Company Attributes the Shortage to a 65 Percent Increase in Demand

In the Cupet gas station at 31st and 18th, in the Havana municipality of Playa, for example, the line of vehicles reached 42nd street this Wednesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 28 March 2022 — The Cuba-Petroleum Union (Cupet) justified this Saturday the shortage of gasoline and diesel by the 20% increase in consumption in March compared to January and February. The statement from the state monopoly adds that the demand grew up to 65% last week, which led the authorities to ration fuel in several provinces.

The oil company wanted to “update” the situation and affirmed that the “affects” have been reduced by more than 60%, but that availability will continue to be “complex,” officialdom’s euphemism for scarcity. Five days ago there were problems in 350 service stations, 26% of the total, according to the note, but Cupet and its workers are making an effort – “with the special motivation of the company’s 30th anniversary” – to restore stability in the service.

Users, however, have not seen the situation clearly, since the statement talks about a problem that is not resolved without detailing what the problem is. In the comments to the note in Cubadebate, the company has responded that the shortage has been due to several causes, including the already known one of reinforcing the electric generator and that “in the face of uncertainty, consumption has increased.”

Some users have noted that in recent days there have been rumors of all kinds about fuels, from that it was going to be marketed in dollars to that the price is going to rise or, of course, that the supply problems are aggravated by the global crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions on Moscow. This accumulation of circumstances would have made the population fearful and triggered sales, although there is no shortage of people who mention hoarding. continue reading

Many commentators have lamented that the gas station workers commit irregularities in the sale and sometimes say that there is no fuel, and then they sell it ’under the table’, and other times they fill more than what is established in exchange for a bribe, in addition to charging improperly or being closed in hours when they shouldn’t be. In all these messages, Cupet has disregarded and asks complaints be directed to Cimex, which is responsible for the gas stations.

Cupet says in the note that thanks to the help “of the fuel distribution cars of the Organisms of the Central State Administration” they have been able to ensure 15% of the distributed volumes, filling between 30 and 50 daily teams.

But the messages on Cubadebate insist on supply problems that not only continue today but go back a long time. “I don’t know of other places, but the gas stations in the municipality of Mayarí, in the province of Holguín, have never had fuel, neither before nor after those inconveniences they speak of. There has been a shortage here for a long, long time,” says one commenter on social media.

“Well, I’m working and in Viñales there hasn’t been a special for more than 3 days. There isn’t in Los Palacios or Soroa either,” says another.

“I have acquired a gasoline electric generator, marketed in MLC [freely convertible currency] by the Cimex chain in Camagüey. When going to get 10 liters of gasoline from the Servicupet there is an directive that the sale in containers is not allowed and the only sale is allowed to motorcycles or vehicles. I don’t have a motorcycle or a car. I would like someone from Cimex to tell me what to do in my case, where do I go, who do I complain to, what do I do with the generator that cost me quite a lot and now I can’t use it,” protests another.

There are also those who have complained that the standardization mentioned in the note has not reached their locality. “The 60% is in Havana because here in Perico, Matanzas, five days ago not a single drop of gasoline was sold to individuals, only to rental and state cars.”

The breakdown in the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest in the country, together with that of Mariel, which burned down on March 7, are part of the origin of the crisis experienced with fuel in the last week. The authorities affirmed that the exit of the plants from the National Electric System forced fuel to be rationed to ensure the public transport service and fill the generators, which are high consumers of gasoline. This could also spark fear in the population who prepared to fill their tanks.

However, the problem, as the comments to the note demonstrate, goes back a long way and already in 2019 it manifested itself with great crudeness when the US sanctions on Venezuelan oil were increased, making it difficult to send quantities from Havana’s main partner to the Island. This reduced availability, which had already diminished due to the crisis in Venezuela and its great drop in oil production in the last twenty years.

Cupet assured this January that the national production plan had been fulfilled in 2021, good news because it had been in decline for a decade. But no data was given on the amounts extracted or what the forecast was. Osvaldo López Corso, Cupet’s head of Exploration, said that the drop in the last ten years was around 3% to 7% per year.

Jorge Piñon, a Cuban expert in energy policy at the University of Texas, has told Agence France Presse that the drop is 20% compared to 2010 and the supply of crude oil and fuels from Venezuela exceeded 100,000 barrels per day, in 2016, with “an average last year of 56,000 barrels per day.”

Cuba uses domestic crude oil (44%) and its accompanying gas (8%) to generate the electricity it needs for the economy and domestic consumption, according to the authorities themselves. The largest deposit is in a strip located between Havana and Varadero, where 99% of the oil comes from, although they have been prospecting for years and seeking outside help to locate others.

It is estimated that Cuba can produce 22 million barrels a year, a tiny amount compared to the 130,000 barrels a day (47+ million a year) it needs for consumption.

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Five Members of the Same Family in Prison for July 11th Protests in Santiago de Cuba

Dairon Labrada Linares, in the center of the image, with Iván Arocha on the left and Eduardo Reinaldo Machado Arocha on the right. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 28 March 2022 — Five protesters from the same family have been sentenced to prison for the protests in El Caney, Santiago de Cuba, on July 11. Along with them, there are three others convicted in the same case, with sentences of between 5 and 12 years in prison. Only one is released from jail and must pay a fine of 4,000 pesos, Radio Televisión Martí reported, after speaking with Dairon Yunior Labrada Linares, one of those involved, now on provisional release.

“Currently in prison are my uncle Iván Arocha Arocha, my cousin Iván Arocha Quiala, and like them are Eduardo Reinaldo Machado Arocha and Enrique Ferrer Echeverría,” said the young man, who has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

The latter, Enrique Ferrer Hechavarría, received the harshest sentence, 12 years in prison. He is followed by Iván Mauricio Arocha Arocha (10 years), Iván Arocha Quiala (10 years), Eduardo Reynaldo Machado Arocha (9 years), Dairon Yunior Labrada Linares (7 years), Abdiel Cedeño Martínez (6 years), Yusnaira González Pérez (5 years) and Luis Ibarra Hernández (fine of 4,000 pesos).

The group came out on July 11 to protest and has been convicted of the crimes of public disorder, attack, contempt, aggravated contempt for the figure of the president and the spread of epidemics. Those who have received the most years in prison are also considered guilty of prison escape, resistance and instigation to commit a crime. continue reading

“This process has been illegal, because they attribute non-existent crimes to me, and it was manipulated by the prosecutor, the instructor and the false testimonies of the police officers and witnesses of the Prosecutor’s Office. Like the other relatives and friends of mine to whom they impute crimes that they did not commit. When we protested, we didn’t think they were so serious, because we only asked for freedom, medicine, food, because of the scarcity that is affecting us,” Labrada Linares, 23, told the Miami-based television station.

At the end of January, Dairon had accused the police of having “violently” detained him along with Iván and Eduardo Reinaldo, “young people of 26, 23, 24 years, all useful to society because we have steady jobs,” in El Caney park while a peaceful demonstration was taking place due to “disagreements” with the social system.

“The violence was on the part of the authorities because the whole time we were being beaten, even with sticks and pepper spray. Only we know what we suffered so much abuse,” the young man lamented on Facebook. He also accused the courts of delay, since some of his friends and relatives had been deprived of liberty for more than 200 days.

The sentences with higher penalties for the events that occurred on July 11 have been coming out bit by bit since the beginning of the year. That day and the following, at least 1,500 people were arrested, although the figures are difficult to verify. The first summary trials were held at the time, and were mostly settled with fines and small prison sentences, but the cases considered more serious by the authorities, of people who are accused of generating violent altercations, have taken months of investigation.

According to data from the Prosecutor’s Office, 790 people will be prosecuted for the protests, 55 of whom are between 16 (criminal age of majority in Cuba) and 18 (legal age of majority).

In mid-March, the highest sentences to date came out, 1,916 years in total for 128 people who received between 6 and 30 years in prison for the demonstrations on the corner of Toyo and La Güinera, in Havana. Many of those accused in these files were exposed to penalties for sedition, the most serious charge faced by those prosecuted for 11J.

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Cuban Sugar Harvest in Ciego de Avila Winding Down Because Chinese Operators Haven’t Arrived

The blame for the delays in the harvest in Ciego de Ávila is also due, says Azcuba, to the “interconnection” of the Ciro Redondo power plant with the bioelectric plant. (Invasor)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 24 March 2022 — Sugar production in Cuba this year seems unable to overcome the worst prospects. In Ciego de Ávila, the authorities have reported several “breaks” in two plants that limit “the parameters of efficiency and productivity.”

Eduardo Larrosa Vázquez, an official of the State’s Azcuba group in that province, declared to the official newspaper Invasor that 600,000 tons of cane remain to be harvested, which “makes compliance with the previously conceived harvest very tense.”

The blame for the delays is also due, according to the state director, to the “interconnection” of the Ciro Redondo power plant, known as “the Colossus of the Center,” with the bioelectric plant installed on the Island in 2020.

The authorities reported just a few days ago that the bioelectric plant was experiencing difficulties due to the lack of biomass from marabou and bagasse, precisely because Ciro Redondo, who supplies it with this material, does not have enough cane available.

Until the third week of March, 225,000 tons were milled in Ciego de Ávila and more than 60,000 were “linked” to Sancti Spíritus.

According to Larrosa Vázquez, the “technical flaws” in the boilers produced this month have caused the Ecuador plant to operate at 56% of its power and on January 1, at 63%. With this, the performance in the province is at 58% of its capacity. continue reading

Once the breakdowns have been resolved, the official assured, “an improvement in the efficiency parameters” is expected in April.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke about the harvest this Monday. The hand-picked president described the current sugar harvest as “bad,” but stressed that the sector, historic for the country, “cannot disappear.”

Díaz-Canel chaired a meeting with regional leaders of the Communist Party in which, among other issues, progress in the sector was analyzed, and he said that the face of the harvest must be “changed,” for which it will be necessary to “over-perform” the planting plan.

Last February, during a visit to the province by the deputy prime minister, Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, a disastrous result in the sugar harvest was already predicted. The official then verified that the investment of more than 330 million pesos that was made at the beginning of the year to start grinding at the Ciro Redondo mill had not been of any use.

The authorities had scheduled 11 previous actions that had to be carried out to achieve the objective, but none had been carried out. Six of them, Invasor reported, “have no solution,” since they were in the hands of Chinese operators who should have arrived on the Island and did not.

The problems have accumulated in such a way that as of 2022 there is even a lack of marabou, a species that is characterized by being invasive. The province began a planting program to fill the gap, but the newspaper reported in February that there are 3,724 hectares planned for it, of which only 307 had been planted.

In 2021, Cuba closed the worst harvest in its history in more than a century, worse than the previous year, which had also set a negative record, and Ciego de Ávila barely met 11% of the forecasts, that is, a total of 200,000 tons of cane remained uncollected.

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Poisoning of Five Cuban children in Matanzas Generates a Debate on Social Media Due to Lack of Detail

The intoxicated children were taken from the municipality of Jovellanos to the Eliseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2022 — Five children from Matanzas suffered poisoning this Monday that caused respiratory problems. The children were transferred to the Eliseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital in that city, and four were discharged on Tuesday afternoon, Periódico Girón published on its Facebook wall.

“There is still one girl who suffers from bronchial asthma. Her state of health is positive and without any complications, but it is necessary to keep her under observation for a little longer,” according to the director of the institution, José Hernández Hernández.

The children, from the municipality of Jovellanos, according to the local media, “entered with the diagnosis of obstruction of the respiratory tract.” The official Cubadebate site published that the minors had “ingested some strong chemical,” but without detailing the substance or the place of the incident, which caused numerous questions on social networks.

“Airway obstruction is not the same as inflammation or bronchospasm or spasm of the glottis due to inhalation or aspiration of toxic substances,” stressed Alberto Roque, who studied at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Havana. “Finally, which toxins? Who was responsible? Was it accidental or intentional?” continue reading

Calixto Rodríguez Machado commented: “The truth is that the information is crooked, crooked. Are they from the same family or from different homes? Was it at school or another institution? What substance did they take or inhale, should we assume it was chlorine?”

The Cubadebate note does not answer any of these questions and limits itself to collecting the symptoms produced by intoxication with certain chemicals, “among which chlorine is included, difficulty breathing (inhalation), inflammation of the throat, pulmonary edema, sore throat, pain or burning in the nose, eyes, ears, lips or tongue, burns in the digestive tract, abdominal pain, vomiting, burns, irritation and hypotension (low blood pressure).”

In addition, the official website recommends, as a parent, to keep “chemical products out of the reach of children” and “do not mix chlorine products with other cleaning substances, acids, vinegar, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia.”

Hours later, the hospital staff specified that “the children, between five and nine years old, were playing in the Horacio Rodríguez neighborhood when they decided to play the dangerous ’game’ of who could resist chlorine inhalation longer with a found bottle, which caused shortness of breath, as a result of which they were taken to our institution.”

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