David Beckham, Qatar and the Cuban Doctors

Island officials and local authorities in a hospital in Qatar where Cuban health workers work. (Cuban Ministry of Public Health)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 20 March 2022 –David Beckham is a great English soccer player. He is 46 years old. He started playing professionally at a very young age for Manchester. He retired at 38. He was in the Real Madrid team and there he learned to speak some Spanish. It was then when I knew his name. He is half businessman and half Jewish, although he was not raised Jewish. (His maternal grandfather was Jewish). He has just signed a juicy contract for public relations with Qatar for 277 million dollars. The deal includes promoting the 2022 World Championship, but it will be for a decade. The championship will be played in Doha, the capital of Qatar, at the end of this year.

When UK-based human rights activist Peter Tatchell (he was actually born and raised in Australia, where he was a Labor Party candidate for MP), found out, he lamented that Beckham, just for money, lent his name and well gained prestige to mortify LGBTQ people, linking himself to a government that has in its criminal code penalties of up to five years in prison against two adults of the same sex who consent to have sexual relations.

However, Beckham has a much more serious problem with the State Department. Especially, when we have seen the enormous importance that today is given locally, nationally and internationally to sanctions for repeated violations of the law. In this case, it is a serious crime that the United States and other civilized nations take very seriously – “Human trafficking,” as it is shown in Conchita Sarnoff’s book Trafficking, focused on the Jeffrey Epstein case.

This includes child prostitution, importation of illegal immigrants, and the hiring of people under a semi-slavery regime. With the aggravating circumstance that the first two crimes are promoted and committed by lone criminals (for example, human traffickers known as coyotes), or mafias that fight ruthlessly and fiercely to establish a territory, while the third crime is carried out by necktie-wearing executives in governments interested in doing themselves ideological favors, or by simple and brutal corruption, or by a sum of the two elements, defying the agreements signed within the International Labor Organization.

They call it “The Cuban Hospital of Qatar” and there is not the slightest exaggeration in that name. The 475 doctors, nurses and technicians who operate the institution are Cuban. Why are they all Cuban? Perhaps to watch them better? Or so that there is no “foreign” witness to their violation of the laws? The first breach of the rules is that everyone has had to hand over their passports to the “comrade in charge of Security.” That is totally prohibited. There he is known as “Manolo el de la Seguridad” (Manolo from Security.) It is a false name. It could be “Felipe, Carlos or Agustín.”

I read parts of an extensive article from The Guardian, a UK newspaper known for its leftist position. The headline says, “Cuba’s secret agreement with Qatar that allows Cuba to keep 90% of the salaries that Cubans receive.” That is “trafficking” in my dictionary. That is to sustain a regime continue reading

incapable of sustaining itself, a regime that survives exporting and exploiting its professionals.

The same newspaper affirms that it is a great deal for Cuba, which receives between 6 and 8 billion dollars annually from this business, much more than it receives from tourism. Cuba does not have to import sugar (yes: sugar) from the neighboring Dominican Republic. It does not need supplies or to treat foreigners like royalty. It is perfect for supporting dictatorships. To the extent that North Korea also has a place reserved for medical tourism in Qatar. And it is known that Belarus tyrant Alexander Lukaschenko also wants to participate in the health “business.”

In Cuba, during the times of slavery, “decent” people took the youngest and most beautiful black women (some of them minors) to brothels to exploit them. They put a price on them and the income that the girls produced was divided 50/50 between the brothel and the owners of the black girls.

Some “owners,” such as the mythical Julián Zulueta (“I have become rich buying whites in Spain and selling blacks in Cuba,” he said), owner of 2,000 slaves, a believer in labor incentives, reserved 5% or 10% so that the prostitutes could buy their freedom from them.

This leaves the evaluation of the operation “The Cuban hospital in Qatar” exactly in the same position as before 1886 (the year in which slavery was finally abolished). Some doctors, paramedics and technicians think that 10% is much more than what they earned in Cuba, just like many 19th Century prostitutes believed that it was better to be in the brothel than in the houses and in the sugar fields, exposed to the beatings, and with no hope of ever being free. It is a variation of the “Stockholm syndrome.”

The place where the transaction takes place has changed, but not its essence. The Cuban government knows that what it is doing is very wrong. It must change its ways. It cannot continue to exploit Cuban professionals with the blind complicity of countries like Qatar. I hope that David Beckham explains to them promptly what is happening at the Cuban Hospital, and that they begin to pay these professionals directly and not through the Cuban government.

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Anamely Ramos Stands with Photos of ‘Osorbo’ and Otero in Front of the Cuban Embassy in Washington

Art curator Anamely Ramos continues her protests in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington. (Facebook / Anamely Ramos)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 13 March 2022 — “Enough of allowing a dictatorship to set the rules,” said art curator Anamely Ramos, who announced last Friday that she was camping out in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington. “It is my right to return to Cuba. My home is there.”

Ramos, who was prevented by the Cuban regime from returning to Havana, has been posting images of political prisoners Maykel Osorbo Castillo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara since last Thursday in front of the Cuban diplomatic headquarters. That day, she shared photos and posted messages on her Facebook account: “Carry your shame!”

In addition, she announced her departure from the San Isidro Movement a few days ago and recited the beginning of the poem Dos Patrias by José Martí by pointing out: I have two motherlands: “Cuba and the night. Or are the two one?”

On Friday she reinforced her protest on her social networks, just hours after posting a message informing that the rapper’s lawyer “received notification that the trial process would begin.”  The imprisoned man has been waiting for his trial since he was arrested last May 18th, accused of “attack,” “public disorder” and “evasion of prisoners or detainees” for some events that occurred on April 4th. continue reading

“Enough already of allowing a dictatorship to set the rules,” said art curator Anamely Ramos

The art curator announced that the police prevented her from “placing the photos of the prisoners on the fence” of the Cuban embassy and she then decided to “wallpaper” a campaign tent where she spends the night. “The lives of those inside Cuba depend on how much we can push. We can do it less dangerously”.

In her message, she stated that “the intention of the dictatorship is to isolate them alone inside. We cannot leave them.”

In a previous message, Ramos recalled that “the UN has already ruled that Maykel must be released,” but the regime decided to put him on trial. “It does so even as Maykel’s health worsens and we remain without an accurate diagnosis.”

About the conditions in which they keep the rapper, Ramos reiterated that “the cruelty of the dictatorship has no limits. She stressed: “Cuba will put on trial a person who is sick, who is innocent and that the UN itself demanded that he be released.”

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Cameras in Every Corner and Sky-high Prices in a New Hotel Owned by the Cuban Military

Hotel Grand Aston La Habana, located on the Malecón, between 1st and D. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 March 2022 — The employees of the luxurious Grand Aston La Habana hotel, inaugurated this Thursday on the Malecón, between 1st and D, received the few clients this Friday between bows. “Come in, ma’am,” said one of the employees offering antibacterial gel, while two others joined their hands and bent their body over Japanese style.

All of them introduced themselves with their names before addressing those who entered, an unusual deference in a country where familiarity with strangers has long been generalized.

Not surprisingly, the establishment is presented on its website as “a refuge where you can relax and recharge, while experiencing its glamour.” Thanks to the site, it is possible to know that the cheapest room costs 179 dollars per night, those with sea views, 244 dollars, and the most luxurious, located on the upper floors and with “VIP” service with “improved continental breakfast,” go as high as 282 dollars.

Similarly, the site claims to have “an infinity pool” whose view merges with the sea, a spa that offers “Asian healing techniques” and a restaurant on the 25th floor from which to watch the sunset. None of this, however, can be seen by anyone who is not a customer of the hotel, unlike what happens in any other establishment of this type in the world. continue reading

“Oh, no, ma’am, at the moment external customers cannot access the pool,” insisted the receptionist, after a call to her superiors, speaking to a customer who insisted on enjoying breakfast with a view. “Later on I think so, keep calling,” she asked, while she summoned her to breakfast on the terrace, which opened at 11:00 in the morning.

“At first they tell you yes you can eat, but when you talk to them and they realize that you are not a foreigner, the answers change,” said Alberto, a Havanan who, together with a friend, tried the coffee on the hotel terrace this Friday.  “It’s a mistreatment that they don’t let you in the pool,” he lamented.

This young man finds it striking that, despite the gigantic size of the establishment, neatly decorated in a style reminiscent of the original buildings of El Vedado, where it is located, there is no shopping center. “I don’t know if they want to separate external customers, as they call them, who are the ones who generally go to shop at those stores,” he sneered. “It seems that they want to distance themselves from us fifth-class citizens.”

But if something caught his attention, it was the number of cameras scattered around every corner. “It’s very uncomfortable,” he confesses. “You feel watched, harassed. It looks more like a military unit than a hotel.”

Only four hotel clients could be seen this Friday, all foreigners, and of them, two women who, just one day after it was inaugurated, were already leaving with their suitcases. (14ymedio)

On the terrace, the prices did justice to the name of the restaurant: Oro (Gold). Although a cappuccino, for example, costs “only” 143 pesos, the simplest cocktail, with rum, goes for 350 pesos, an “iced submarine” it is 520 pesos and other drinks made with wine reach 620 pesos. Payment must be exclusively by card.

If you ask for food, the cost is unaffordable. “Croquettes at 500 pesos plus 10 percent,” another source who tried the place told 14ymedio. “They’re called ’sweet’ on the menu and they should be called ’killers.’” And he concludes: “They don’t even have a natural juice on the menu, just ten or twelve things through the roof.”

Only four hotel clients could be seen this Friday, all foreigners, and of them, two women who, just one day after it was inaugurated, were already leaving with their suitcases.

As happened with the Axel Hotel Telegraph, and despite the hype with which it was announced in the official press, the Grand Aston was not ready to open its doors on March 15 — the day that the employees told to this newspaper that it would open — but rather two days later. On Tuesday, several workers were still putting the finishing touches on the place, which did not allow entry.

The opening of this hotel in the capital, with 600 rooms and unattainable prices for national pockets, shows that the Cuban Military-run Business Administration Group SA (Gaesa) does not give up its efforts to increase hotel capacity this year, up to almost 85,000 more rooms, 5.7% more than the previous year, despite the fact that the figures indicate that tourism in Cuba is going through a debacle.

The military conglomerate has partnered this time with the Indonesian company Archipiélago International, which has four other accommodations on the island: Aston Panorama in Havana, Grand Aston Cayo Las Brujas in Cayos de Villa Clara, Aston Costa Verde in Holguín and a large resort in Varadero.

Two of them, by the way, the one in Varadero and the one in Villa Clara, were sanctioned by the US in 2019 for violating the provisions of the embargo on Cuba.

With the Grand Aston Havana, the Asian company promises “uniquely designed architecture” and “a modern lifestyle.” “The modern life of another city, other than this one,” laments Alberto. “Another city, in another part of the world.”

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Dutch Diplomat Bastiaan Engelhard Awarded for his Support for Freedom in Cuba

Bastiaan Engelhard (right) with the journalist Luz Escobar and the artist Julio Llopiz-Casal. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 18 March 2022 — Dutchman Bastiaan Engelhard has been awarded the Prize for Diplomacy Committed to Human Rights in Cuba, which is awarded every year by the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (Cadal).

The news was made public this Friday by the organization, which with this award aims to recognize the work of accredited diplomats on the island whose work has been characterized by their support for those who fight for democracy in Cuba and their defense of the human rights.

Engelhard, deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Havana, was widely chosen among the diplomats nominated by a group of activists called by Cadal to serve as the jury.

Independent artist Iris Ruiz, from the San Isidro Movement, noted that the Dutchman “provided support to independent activists and journalists even in the most complex scenarios,” including “house arrests,” circumstances “in which he was present.”

“He also mediated and echoed the demands for cultural rights and the free expression of artists and intellectuals before the Cuban Government, and showed his personal concern in each case of arbitrariness in relation to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and the San Isidro Movement,” Ruiz detailed. continue reading

Dagoberto Valdés, from the Center for Coexistence Studies in Pinar del Río, stressed that Engelhard “accompanied and helped numerous activists” and that “he established direct and effective communication with independent journalists, opponents, and civil society groups.”

“His open, systematic and intelligent commitment to human rights activists, cultural actors and the pro-democracy community has made a difference in recent years,” declared Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for the Progressive Arch.

Reinaldo Escobar, editorial chief of 14ymedio, explained that the Dutch diplomat was chosen because in the midst of the persecution of civil society activists and independent journalists, “he made an appearance at their homes to support them and find out how to help.”

Similarly, Camila Acosta, a reporter for CubaNet, emphasized that Engelhard “was one of the diplomats in Cuba who was most supportive of independent activists and journalists” and said that “periodically he communicated with several of us, invited us to the residence or embassy to activities or closed meetings.”

The honoree, for his part, thanked the jury for the award. “Each one of them works hard for freedom in Cuba,” he said. “Not only for freedom of expression, of the press and artistic freedom, but also for having the freedom to create an initiative independent of the State, form a new foundation or be able to protest on public roads. To enter and leave their own country freely. These are not privileges, they are universal rights, embodied in laws and treaties, but unfortunately not respected.”

And, he denounced: “We still see with sadness how the arbitrary arrests continue, people leaving their homeland, the regulated [forbidden to travel], acquaintances imprisoned or under house arrest.”

Engelhard, who studied economics before being assigned to Cuba in 2017, worked at Dutch diplomatic missions in Mozambique, Brazil and Central America. In addition, he worked as a political adviser in the Delegation of the European Union in Guatemala.

This is the second diplomat from the Netherlands to receive this award, after Caecilia Wijgers, who received it in 2009-2010 together with a colleague from Sweden, Ingemar Cederberg, and another from Germany, Volker Pellet.

In its seven editions, between 2003 and 2021, 15 diplomats have been awarded for their work committed to human rights in Cuba, “one of them anonymously,” says the organization.

Cadal has also awarded Chilean writer Jorge Edwards, author of Persona non grata, for his pioneering work in supporting dissident intellectuals in the early years of the Cuban Revolution when he was Chile’s chargé d’affaires in Havana.

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Rosalia, a Forgotten Hamlet in the Center of Cuba

One of the homes in the forgotten Rosalía hamlet, in Camajuaní. (Yankiel Gutierrez Faife)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní (Villa Clara), 19 March 2022 — Rosalía is a rural area in Camajuaní, poor and in decline, like so many small towns in Cuba. This place, full of history, was prosperous thanks to the sugar industry, but today is almost abandoned by its population, despite its good land and cool climate.

In its best times, the place in the province of Villa Clara had a center for the collection of its production and a railway, with its switch, which today is just ruins; there was an infirmary for small aid, which disappeared and even the primary school has been threatened with disappearance. The place is so small that it only has one road with the occasional bog, which makes it difficult for its citizens to circulate.

Transportation is by family carts and bicycles, but not everyone has one. Years ago there was a public bus with several daily frequencies, but over time it decreased and it only came “when it could.” After the pandemic, it was eliminated and has left residents without any means of transportation.

Every morning some children, young people and adults are seen at the door of the bodega, next to the embankment, hoping that someone driving by will kindly do them the favor of taking them to Taguayabón, the neighboring town, where their schools are and where there is the highway that connects Camajuaní and Remedios. continue reading

Elisa is one of those few young women with a bicycle and every day, at 5:00 am, she pedals the four kilometers to reach the highway, where she will board a transport to get to her work as a seamstress.

Like her, there are other women who work in the outskirts and take their children to school by bicycle.

Those who decide to stay in Rosalía continue to farm and keep their cattle. (Yankiel Gutierrez Faife)

The oblivion in which Rosalía has been left makes many of its inhabitants think of migrating, even four kilometers away, to Taguayabón, where life becomes easier.

Others, despite the shortcomings, are committed to continuing to keep their farms full of crops, cattle, horses, birds or beehives. This is the case of Lele, as his neighbors affectionately call him, a man who has been a beekeeper for 10 years and, between September and November, loads his oxcart with the tools to collect honey.

Lele delivers his product to the State, which will export it to the European market and Rosalía’s honey will end up being sold in a German market at a price that the beekeeper cannot even imagine and of which he receives a minimal part.

Juan, another resident of Rosalía, survives thanks to the small farm inherited from his grandparents and his crops of cassava, peanuts and, sometimes, beans, which help him feed his family and face the widespread shortages on the Island.

In the countryside, products such as oil, which reaches 600 or even 700 pesos when it is found, are even more scarce than in the cities.

Despite all the difficulties, Lele, Elisa and Juan have made the decision to continue with their lives in Rosalía and have resisted the temptation to move to Taguayabón, as many of their neighbors have done in search of services that no longer exist in their little hamlet.

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Cuba’s Official Year-on-Year Inflation Stood at 23 Percent in February

A Cuban woman paid 5 pesos a pound for potatoes in February, since  the price increased. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 19 March 2022 — Year-on-year inflation rose 23.03% in Cuba in February, according to a statement from the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei).

As official media reported this Friday, the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) compared to January was 0.90%, according to official data, which does not include the fluctuations experienced by the island’s extended informal market.

Thus, the inter-annual CPI in February, although high, is significantly lower than in January, which the National Office of Statistics and Information placed at 54.82%.

Accumulated inflation so far this year stands at 1.05%, when at the same point in 2021 it was at 45.65%. continue reading

By categories, recreation and culture rose 61.90% in inter-annual terms in February, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages (41.87%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (23.67%) and restaurants and hotels (14.72 %).

Only the prices in the health category registered reductions, falling by 10.36%, according to the same office.

Cuba is going through a serious economic crisis due to the combination of the pandemic, US sanctions and errors in national macroeconomic policy.

The situation is characterized by scarcity, the partial dollarization of the economy and a sharp increase in prices.

According to official figures, inflation in regulated commerce was around 70% in 2021 as a whole. Some estimates put the figure in the informal market at around 500%.

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Mother of Young Man Sentenced to Prison for July 11th is Hospitalized After a Suicide Attempt

A change of precautionary measure was approved for Castro on March 10 after she was detained for almost 15 days by State Security. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 March 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of the 18-year-old political prisoner Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro and a protester on July 11, has been admitted to the Julio Trigo hospital in Havana, after she made an attempt on her life. According to family sources confirmed to 14ymedio , Castro is out of danger.

“She is already recovering. She is under treatment in the Julio Trigo psychiatric ward,” says María Teresa Pérez, Castro’s mother. The woman, a leukemia patient, has also suffered several crises due to this condition in recent months.

A change of precautionary measure was approved for Castro on March 10 after she was held for almost 15 days by State Security in the Cuban capital. She is currently under investigation for an alleged crime of contempt.

She had been arrested on February 24 in the morning hours, activist Arián Cruz, Tata Poet, reported then, explaining that she was transferred to Villa Marista, a center known as the State Security headquarters in Havana. Cruz later reported that, after six days of investigation, the mother had been presented with “contempt charges.” continue reading

Since her son was taken to jail, Castro has denounced each of the injustices that have been committed against the young man and has not stopped demanding his freedom. In an interview with 14ymedio, she reported threats from State Security if she continued “demanding and protesting” in favor of the young man.

She has also denounced “the lies” of the regime told in the trial that was held against her son Rowland, accused of sedition and with an initial prosecutor’s request of 23 years, later reduced to 12.

On several occasions, Castro has been arbitrarily detained by State Security officials for interrogation, but she has always warned that “no matter what it costs” nothing will stop her in her fight for her son’s freedom.

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Havana’s Ecotaxis Will Hire 25 Drivers for the New Routes in Boyeros

In the center of Havana currently 23 Ecotaxis operate. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2022 — The Ecotaxis network is looking for 25 new drivers in Havana. According to the State newspaper Granma, the drivers will operate the new routes that will connect Fontanar, the Abel Santamaría neighborhood and Wajay, in the municipality of Boyeros.

The current drivers, who go from the National Bus terminal to the train station, say they need assistants who can replace the drivers when they are not there.

The lack of personnel means that in Havana there are “eight vehicles not operating,” one of the drivers tells this newspaper.

The Taxis-Cuba company, in charge of electric tricycles, highlights that those who apply must, among other requirements, be between 18 and 50 years of age, have no criminal record and have a motorcycle and car license, in addition to  three years driving experience in at least one of the two categories.

The current employees report that the experience they are asking for is about five years, and that to apply for the job “you have to go to Ayestarán.”

As this newspaper reported five months after the Ecotaxi service was inaugurated in October 2020, the taxi fare costs four pesos and each tricycle can carry six passengers. Thus, in a trip, a driver can earn 24 pesos, which adds up to 432 after completing the 18 trips of the day. continue reading

However, the license holders must deliver 125 pesos to the company and subtract 10% from the difference, which goes to the National Tax Administration Office. The assistants, in addition, must give 300 pesos to the company and this reduces their income (132 pesos).

The leased transport company ensures that each driver travels 100 kilometers on average, during eight working hours, but that “income depends on the capacity and commitment to work.”

“In 2021 alone, more than 92,200 trips were made and just over 724,160 passengers were transported, without emissions of polluting gases into the environment,” the company proclaims.

In the center of Havana, 23 vehicles of this type currently operate, and most of their drivers previously belonged to the Cocotaxis tourist line.

The Ecotaxi project, financed mainly by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to “promote the empowerment of women” — is why all the drivers are women — has been criticized for not being as “green” as announced in the posted advertisements.

The solar panels that are supposed to be used for recharging are still not working, and the batteries are recharged connected to the national electricity system, which is supplied by 95% fossil fuels.

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Panama Exempts From Transit Visas Cubans Who Return to the Island

Hundreds of Cubans stood outside the embassy soon as they learned of the new requirement demanded by Panama to transit through its territory. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana 17 March 2022 —  The Government of Panama has established a new norm for Cuban citizens that exempts them from the obligation to carry a visa to travel through the territory of that Central American country upon their return to the Island.

Under the signature of the Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo, and the Minister of Public Security, Juan Manuel Pino, the new text published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette, modifies the previous provision, which since March 8 required a transit visa for all Cuban passengers and crew.

This Executive Decree also includes in the exception of the requirement to obtain visas to citizens who have Valid Residence or Multiple Visa, previously used in the State that granted it, valid for no less than six months at the time of transit, by other countries.

In this group are the current residents or those with multiple visas issued by the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Singapore and the member countries of the European Union. continue reading

The measure will not serve to satisfy the population that, since last week, has been experiencing the imposition of transit visas for Cubans who pass through Panama, since most of them are looking to leave Cuba.

Hundreds of people who had purchased a ticket to emigrate to Nicaragua, which maintains the visa exemption for Cubans, were surprised by the new requirement. One of the few ways to get to Managua is through Copa Airlines, which stops in Panama, especially since Costa Rica, in February, also began to require the transit document.

For at least four days, many Cubans crowded as close as the Police allowed them to get to the diplomatic headquarters of Panama, where they demanded solutions and answers.

The director of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Ernesto Soberón, insisted that he would mediate to relax the demands that initially came into force immediately, although new dates had been established later to try to calm travelers.

Cubans who planned to travel between March 16 and 31 must reschedule their flights with the Copa airline, which offers connections at times for two or more months, and process their visas, which cost $50.

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In Havana Appointments for Mexican Visas Appear to be ‘Sold Out’ in Less Than a Day

Attention to the public in the last two years at the consular headquarters has been repeatedly interrupted due to the spike in coronavirus. (Archive)

14ymedio bigger 14ymedio, Havana, 14 March 2022 — Hundreds of Cubans denounced this Monday that they could not access the website set up by the Mexican embassy on the island to request a consular appointment for the month of April. The diplomatic headquarters announced at the beginning of the month that from Monday, at 4 pm, the new procedures could be scheduled. By 6:00 am on Tuesday, the appointments appear exhausted

Yesterday, the new web address announced by the embassy, ​​citacuba.sre.gob.mx, had difficulties loading and was displaying messages such as “connection failed,” “error 20.”. Other problems were being able to enter user data but then not being able to continue.

“It’s always the same. And this has been denounced even in collective letters to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and nothing happens,” the Cuban journalist based in Mexico, José Raúl Gallego, complained on his Twitter account, showing screenshots with failed attempts to access the site.

“Corruption continues with total impunity,” added Gallego, in a clear allusion to the usual complaints about the illegal sale in Havana of consular appointments, which can cost up to 1,500 dollars. continue reading

In the last two years, services to the public at the consular headquarters have been repeatedly interrupted due to the spike in coronavirus in both Cuba and Mexico. In January 2021, the Mexican government decided to suspend “until further notice” all consular and immigration services. It was not until the end of last December that Mexico notified that it would enable appointments for the first days of 2022 and only for legalization of documents and visa applications.

Several Cubans residing on the island, who are undergoing family reunification processes, have also denounced that the opening of appointments has coincided this Monday with “one of the worst days of internet connection.”

“The connection has deteriorated in recent weeks, it’s slow, there are constant crashes when browsing the web on mobile phones, but today it’s gone to extremes,” one of those affected tells 14ymedio. Users on the island “find it doubly difficult to make an appointment,” on the one hand, they insists, “the site is collapsed,” but on the other, “Cubans’ Internet access is very limited.”

Despite these drawbacks, poor service from the Consulate was already a constant before the pandemic. Getting an interview at the embassy was always difficult due to problems in the electronic system, delays with applications, or the resale of appointments on the informal market.

Cubans initially had to go to the site of the National Migration Institute to schedule a date, but the Embassy created the Appointments-Cuba page in the Mexitel system at the beginning of 2020 to speed up the procedures.

However, several independent media have reported that the number of appointments remains limited and intermediaries continue to charge excessive amounts of money to those who want to arrange one.

For the month of April, only 1,217 appointments for visas and legalization of seals and signatures were enabled, according to the embassy. “Appointments for the month of May will be opened at a later date,” it informed.

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In 2021 Cuba Detected the Highest Number of Dengue Mosquitos in 15 Years

The ’Aedes aegypti’ mosquito, responsible for the transmission of dengue and zika viruses. (James Gathany)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana 17 March 2022 —  In 2021, Cuba detected the highest number of breeding sites for the mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus in the last 15 years, as confirmed this Wednesday by the Island’s Ministry of Public Health.

In a statement, the Ministry indicated that 71.1% of the mosquito breeding sites were detected in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Villa Clara.

In addition, the highest incidence was found during the months of June, September and October of last year.

The Ministry’s press release clarifies that, as of September, dengue cases were reduced by 29.3% compared to 2020, although without citing the figures.

In addition, it reported that the presence of the mosquito that transmits the viral disease has been increasing since 2007. continue reading

On the other hand, the health authorities point out that there are no records of other arboviruses — transmitted by insects, such as the mosquito — such as chikungunya and zika since 2019 and 2017, respectively.

They also alerted to the fact that that in seven out of ten cases, larvae of the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are detected in water storage tanks.

According to the Ministry, during 2021 in the American continent, 1,173,674 cases of dengue, 131,630 of chikungunya and 18,804 of zika were detected.

In January, a pilot trial of a nuclear technique by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) culminated in Cuba with almost 1.3 million mosquitoes, and managed to reduce the population of the Aedes aegypti species by up to 90%.
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Almost 2,000 Years of Jail Time for 128 of the July 11 (11J) Protesters in Cuba

Moment when several young men overturned a patrol car at the corner of Toyo, Havana, on July 11th (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2022 — In contrast to the previous trials of July 11 protesters, in which the final sentences were lower than those sought by the prosecutors, the Diez de Octubre Tribunal in Havana, which tried 33 people on January 31, has been relentless.

Thus, it has sentenced Brandon David Becerra Curbelo, 17 years old at the time of his arrest that Sunday, to 13 years in prison when the prosecutor sought five years without internment.

His sentence is one of 128 made public on Wednesday and reflects the harshness of Cuban tribunals against the 11J protesters. The sentences communicated by the People’s Supreme Court are those related to protests at the corner of Toyo and La Güinera in Havana and the jail time received by the defendants adds to no less than 1,916 years.

The convicted were grouped into six cases, tried between December 14 and February 3 for which 129 people were processed, only one was absolved and another received 4 years, “of correctional labor without internment.”

The note shared by the Supreme Court states that the accused had committed and provoked “grave disturbances and acts of vandalism with the objective of destabilizing public order, collective security, and citizen peace.” continue reading

In the cases of the protests on the corner of Toyo, they state being able to demonstrate that the accused intended to “violently subvert the constitutional order. They launched stones and bottles against several officials, agents of interior order, installations of the National Revolutionary Police, patrol cars; they overturned a motorcycle and cars belonging to the Municipal Assembly of the People’s Power and caused injuries to other people and serious material damage.”

Those protests provided the most iconic image of that day, an overturned patrol car and a young man atop it with a Cuban flag, which has become irrefutable proof for tribunals of violence, which they attribute solely to the protesters.

With regard to the events of La Güinera, the document states that the neighbors accused “went to the streets in that area and called for passers-by and neighbors to join them; they threw stones, sticks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at agents of the Ministry of the Interior and other employees of state institutions who were present, whom they injured. For several hours, those who were tried also surrounded the National Revolutionary Police station in the Capri neighborhood.

The statement did not, at any point, mention the death of the young protester, Diubis Laurencio Tejada, shot in the back by police.

In addition, the tribunal states that the events were organized, despite the fact that the protests occurred spontaneously in San Antonio de los Baños (in the province of Artemisa), and then began to be replicated throughout the rest of the country, encouraged by seeing others on social media. Similarly, it considers their occurrence during the pandemic, when exceptional measures were in place to avoid crowds, an aggravating circumstance.

As is customary, the statement highlights that the procedures adhered closely to the law, despite the numerous claims, by not only opposition groups and human rights organizations, but also international and independent organizations, that they violated rights.

Those who received the harshest sentences were Dayron Martín Rodríguez and Miguel Páez Estiven, sentenced to 30 years in prison; Wilmer Moreno Suárez, to 26; Roberto Pérez Ortega, Luis Frómeta Compet and Asley Nelson Cabrera Puente, to 25 years.

With 23-year jail sentences are Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, Ángel Hernández Serrano, Yerandis Rillo Pao, Oscar Luis Ortíz Arrovsmeth, Robert Orlando Cairo Díaz, Denis Ojeda Álvarez, Yoandry Reinier Sayu Silva and Yoanky Báez Albornoz.

Lázaro Zamora González, José Luis Sánchez Tito and Frank Aldama Rodríguez, received 22 years in jail; and Roland Vázquez Fleitas, Henry Fernández Pantera and Juan Emilio Pérez Estrada, 21 years.

Finally, Katia Beirut Rodríguez, Fredy Beirut Matos, Alexander Guillermo Martínez Amoroso, Dianyi Liriano Fuentes, Alexis Sosa Ruiz, Orlando Carvajal Cabrera, Jorge Vallejo Venega, Ronald García Sánchez, Alexis Borges Wilson, Donger Soroa González and Alexander Ayllón Carvajal, were sentenced to 20 years.

The list continues naming the many sentenced, in descending order down to 6 years, the shortest of the jail sentences imposed. And finally Nelsón Nestor Rivero Garzón is the only one whose sentence was commuted to correctional labor without internment.

The president of the Spain-based Prisoners Defenders, Javier Larrondo, told the Spanish agency EFE that the sentences were a “barbarity” and were exemplary in nature since the “large majority were peacefully protesting.”

The judgments issued in the first instance may be appealed to the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, the Provincial Tribunal of Havana revoked the sentence of two years of correctional labor without internment for José Díaz Silva, leader of the Opposition Movement for a New Republic (MONR), and arrested him on March 3rd.

According to the sentence, the activist violated the sanction imposed in July 2021, when he threatened a neighbor who entered his yard to steal plantains. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that he has been fined six times and has a “warning” for “meeting with people whose social conduct caused the neighbors discomfort.”

On this subject, Prisoners Defenders stated that “the Cuban regime did not stop until they jailed activist José Díaz Silva.”

COMPLETE LIST OF THOSE SENTENCED

With 30 years in prison: Dayron Martín Rodríguez and Miguel Páez Estiven.

With 26 years in prison: Wilmer Moreno Suárez.

With 25 years in prison: Roberto Pérez Ortega, Luis Frómeta Compet and Asley Nelson Cabrera Puente.

With 23 years in prison: Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, Ángel Hernández Serrano, Yerandis Rillo Pao, Oscar Luis Ortíz Arrovsmeth, Robert Orlando Cairo Díaz, Denis Ojeda Álvarez, Yoandry Reinier Sayu Silva and Yoanky Báez Albornoz.

With 22 years in prison: Lázaro Zamora González, José Luis Sánchez Tito and Frank Aldama Rodríguez.

With 21 years in prison: Rolando Vázquez Fleitas, Henry Fernández Pantera and Juan Emilio Pérez Estrada.

With 20 years in prison: Katia Beirut Rodríguez, Fredy Beirut Matos, Alexander Guillermo Martínez Amoroso, Dianyi Liriano Fuentes, Alexis Sosa Ruiz, Orlando Carvajal Cabrera, Jorge Vallejo Venega, Ronald García Sánchez, Alexis Borges Wilson, Donger Soroa González and Alexander Ayllón Carvajal.

With 19 years in prison: Duannis Dabel León Taboada, Adael Jesús Leyva Díaz, Lauren Martínez Ibáñez and Kendry Miranda Cárdenas.

With 18 years in prison: Odet Cruzata Hernández, Reinier Reynoso Valdes, Jesús Enrique Vázquez Cabrera, Marlon Brando Díaz Oliva, Dayán Gustavo Flores Brito, Oscar Bárbaro Bravo Cruzata, Yussuan Villalba Sierra, Ricardo Duque Solís, Francisco Eduardo Soler Castaneda, Elieser Gordín Rojas and Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro.

With 16 years in prison: Carlos Paul Michelena Valdés, Daisy Rodríguez Alfonso, Amaury Leyva Prieto, Kevin Damián Frómeta Castro, Juan Piloto Ferro and Luis Miguel Oña Jiménez.

With 15 years in prison: Felipe Almiral, Elier Padrón Romero, Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez, Amalio Álvarez González, Luis Armando Cruz Aguilera, Oriol Hernández Gálvez, Edel Cabrera González, Roberto Ferrer Tamayo and Harol Michel Mena Nuviola.

With 14 years in prison: Adán Kiubel Castillo Echevarría, Adrián Oljales Mora, Yunaiky de la Caridad Linares Rodríguez, Juan Carlos Morales Herrera, Amaury Fernández Martínez, Carlos Alberto Hernández Pérez, Andrius López Fragosa, Osvaldo Lugo Pita, Juan Walberto Verdecia Rodríguez and Lázaro Noel Urgelles Fajardo.

With 13 years in prison: Yunior García Vizcay, Carlos Luis Águila Socarrás, Adonay López López, Julián Yasmany Díaz Mena, Eduardo Álvarez Rigal, and  Brandon David Becerra Curbelo.

With 12 years in prison: Karen Vázquez Pérez, Franyer Abad Dumet, José Luis Castillo Bolaños, Yan Carlos Martínez Bonne, Freidel Ramírez Castillo, Jarolkis Suárez Rojas, Idael Naranjo Pérez, Jesús Ramón Rodríguez Pérez, Yosney Emilio Román Rodríguez, Raudel Saborín González, Yasiel Arnaldo Córdova Rodríguez, Rafael Jesús Núñez Echenique, Elyán Seguí Cruz, Mackyani Yosney Román Rodríguez, Alejaime Lambert Reyes, Rolier Salazar González and Yurema Ramos Abad.

With 11 years in prison: Jaimel Alcide Firdó Rodríguez, Alejandro Bécquer Arias, Arielvis Rill Baró, Yaquelín Castillo García and José Luis Castillo de la Torre.

With 10 years in prison: Leoalys de la Caridad Valera Vázquez, Yunan González Terry, Raynel Mayet Frómeta, Brayan Piloto Pupo, Giuseppe Belaunzarán Guada, Santiago Vázquez León, Lázaro Daniel Cremé Bueno, Dayán Jesús Ramírez Rondón, Germán Barrenechea Echavarría and Eris Diógenes Mejías Vinent.

With 9 years in prison: Frank Daniel Roy Sotolongo, Yassell Guerra Campos, Marco Antonio Alfonso Breto and Liliana Oropesa Ferrer.

With 8 years in prison: Dariel Cruz García, Juan Yanier Antomarchi Núñez, Yurileydis Soler Abad, Félix Jesús Armada García, Eloy Bárbaro Cardoso Pedroso, Yoilán Limonta Mojena, Yosnel Daniel Castro Fernández and Frandy González León.

With 7 years in prison: Rubis Carlos Vicet Padilla, Emy Yoslán Román Rodríguez, Yensi Jorge Machado González and Wilfredo Limonta Mesa.

With 6 years in prison: José Antonio González Guerrero and Yeinier Ibáñez Boudet.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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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.

‘I Left Cuba Because I Felt Alone in My Struggle,’ Says Dr. Manuel Guerra

Dr. Manuel Guerra, in a recent image, already off the Island. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 17 March 2022 — Every day it is more common to go to a doctor’s office and hear “we don’t have a doctor, you’ll have to come another day.” The exodus in the Public Health sector is increasing despite the obstacles that the Cuban Government puts up to prevent the bleeding of white coats. One of the most recent to emigrate has been Manuel Guerra, an obstetrician and critic of the regime.

A member of the Archipiélago platform expelled from his job at the Nicodemus Regalado Hospital in Holguín and arbitrarily arrested last October, Guerra recently left the island with a stopover in Nicaragua, trying to leave the repression behind and with an eye toward exercising medicine in freer circumstances.

Now, in a country that he prefers not to mention in order to avoid the long arm of State Security, the doctor admits that his dream of a democratic opening on the Island has come true. “My mother called me a dreamer and I had hope, even before July 11, that there could be an imminent change in Cuba, because society was expressing itself.”

The doctor tells 14ymedio that he dared to express his questions publicly when he saw people like “Yunior Morales, Saily González and Yunior García Aguilera himself ” opposing the regime. “They have been raising their voices and joining forces against the dictatorship for some time now.”

But his entry into activism came with a personal history of struggle. Guerra had been waiting for years for a family reunification immigration process with his father, who lives in the United States. His status as a resident doctor condemned him to be ‘regulated’ – forbidden from leaving the country so he tried to leave the country illegally in 2019, was intercepted and the anger of the authorities increased around him. continue reading

For decades, when a doctor announces that he plans to emigrate or is caught in the act of doing so, he knows that he will be placed in the hospitals with the lowest resources, the most deteriorated consultation rooms, with long shifts, cases that few want to attend and the hours in an emergency room doing sutures.

Guerra’s case was no different, but his passion for his profession made him face the challenge with professionalism and put aside his plans to emigrate. However, he acknowledges that “we don’t have even the most basic medicines in a hospital. We don’t have painkillers, we don’t have antibiotics.” Despite his problems, he continued with his specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

His anecdotes of the Cuban health disaster would fill several volumes: “I had to suture a patient, after giving birth, without anesthesia.” However, he warns that in addition to the resources “to be a doctor you have to have human quality, you have to be on the side of the people, of the people who suffer. The doctor has to be fair, first of all.”

And that sense of justice led Guerra to show his solidarity with his colleague Alexander Raúl Pupo Casas, who was defamed by official spokesmen for publishing his critical opinion about the political situation on the island and resigned from his job at the Ernesto Guevara Hospital of Las Tunas, where he did his residency in Neurosurgery.

The obstetrician regrets that Pupo’s example has not spread among health personnel. “If only the Cubans would take a semi-critical position, but except for a few who have the decorum that many do not have, Cuba has a submissive people, a cowardly people,” he lamented.

“It is true that the oppressive regime is arbitrary, totalitarian, harmful to the mental and physical health of all our brothers and sisters, but we are the ones who have allowed it.” On his migratory journey he has met many Cubans: “I have seen a mother with a three-month-old girl in her arms and 74-year-old diabetic patients jumping the border, crossing the mountains.”

The days before boarding the plane were a whirlwind. He details that the pressures of the political police grew. After his arrest in October, he “felt alone, literally alone.” When he left the police station where he had to sign the dismissal of that process, his wife and his mother were just waiting for him. “And so I decided to leave the country.”

During these months, he heard from State Security agents everything from veiled threats against his family to phrases calling him to leave the Island or he would be imprisoned. Shortly after, the authorities withdrew the travel ‘regulation’ that weighed on him and, in an expeditious manner, they also renewed his passport.

Until the last moment, a few meters from the boarding gate at the Havana airport, the political police pressured him to sign a document retracting his publications critical of the regime, but Guerra refused. Those minutes until the plane took off were the longest of his life.

Returning to Cuba seems impossible in the current circumstances: “Now I’m a realist, I’m not a silly dreamer. I know it’s very difficult for them to let me in again, I’d have to be totally silent and not talk anymore, which I am never going to do.”

Guerra practices his English and thinks about the day when he can put on his white coat again and practice his profession. Meanwhile, in a hospital in Holguin, his hands are no longer there to receive a newborn baby, give the first spank of life and show an exhausted but happy mother that new being that has arrived to inhabit a home and an island.
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The Number of Foreign Tourists in Cuba Quadruples in January

Hotel Grand Aston La Habana, recently built by Gaesa on the Malecón. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 March 2022 — The number of foreign tourists who visited Cuba in January was almost four times higher than the same month of the previous year, when the figures sank due to covid-19.

As published this Saturday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the number of international visitors rose to 134,661 in January, compared to 35,842 in the first month of 2021.

The strong increase is linked to the global recovery from the pandemic, both in Cuba and in its main tourist source markets, and contrasts with the evolution in 2021 as a whole.

The ONEI estimated 573,944 international travelers as the number who visited Cuba throughout last year, which represented a decrease of 60% compared to 2020.

The figure for the whole of 2021 represents a quarter of the official projection at the beginning of the year, which was around 2.2 million visitors, and very far from the between 4 and 5 million annual tourists  prior to the pandemic. continue reading

The Ministry of Economy and Planning estimates that this year some 2.5 million international visitors will travel to the island, who should contribute some 1.159 billion dollars to the Cuban economy.

Cuba, which reopened its borders in the middle of last November after the closure forced by the pandemic, sees tourism as a priority sector. This is its second largest item of gross domestic product (GDP) and its third largest source of foreign currency, behind the sale of medical services to other countries and remittances sent primarily from Cubans abroad to their families on the Island.

The state tourism sector expects to end this year with 84,906 rooms, 5.7% more than the previous year, despite the pandemic. As this newspaper has confirmed, the construction of new hotels is going at full speed.

In Havana’s Vedado, for example, the dilapidated structure of the Moscow restaurant is being rapidly demolished to make way for accommodation to be managed by the Cuban company Gran Caribe and the Spanish company Be Live, and ten days ago the Telégrafo Axel Hotel was reopened as the first LGBTI friendly establishment in the capital.

Despite coronavirus restrictions, a lack of tourists and a shortage of construction supplies across the country, the Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (Gaesa), the military conglomerate, has not stopped its massive projects. One of them is the one that is being built at 25th and K, in El Vedado, a luxury hotel that is projected as “the tallest of its kind in Havana” and that aims to reach 42 floors and 154 meters in height. .

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With No Packaging for its Adulterated Coffee, Cuba-Café Asks Consumers for Patience

For at least the next two months Hola coffee with not be sold in its usual packaging, which has to be imported. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, March 14, 2022 — Hola-brand coffee, an essential consumer item which can be bought using a ration card, will available for sale — at least through March and April — in a clear polyethylene sleeve instead of its usual screen-printed bag. Delivery delays of its imported packaging have kept the product off store shelves, so officials have settled on this temporary solution. They made the announcement in order to allay any doubts about the authenticity of their coffee, which is mixed with dried peas, something the packaging label does not mention.

The announcement — made to the official press by the director general of Cuba-Cafe, Daniel Cobas Cheda — was not enough to calm public discontent. The statement, first published in Tribuna de la Habana  and later posted on the official website Cubadebate, has generated numerous comments reflecting consumers’ frustration, especially over the island’s heavy dependence on imports, which now also includes the packaging in which coffee is sold.

“So even plastic has to be imported? Can’t we manage to produce a plastic bag in this country?” asks one reader. “Besides reducing imports, it would confirm the product is authentic.”

“If they want to reduce imports, why are they putting a product that everyone knows is low-quality in a plastic wrapper? These are unnecessary expenses. If it’s all for domestic consumption and is not a high-quality product, then put it in packaging made here,” reads another comment along the same lines. continue reading

This issue is one that has also been raised by Cubadebate readers. Even some of those who describe themselves as “revolutionaries” believe it is outrageous that a product of such low quality could even be called coffee. “I consider it insulting that the statement above claims this will clarify any confusion about the product’s authenticity. This product ceased to be authentic “COFFEE” a long time ago. Now it’s just a powder with an unpleasant odor and an unbearable taste that seems to be something other than what it claims to be: coffee. I think that you should have a little more respect, of which you clearly have none, for hardworking people who have sacrificed and dedicated themselves to the work of the Revolution. Thank you,” writes one reader.

Multiple comments focused on the argument that what is being sold is not really coffee, and has not been for some time. “After reading this news, I realized no one respects anyone anymore. Cuba-Café, or perhaps we should call it Cuba-dried-pea, has no repect for its customers or for itself. This is a company incapable of guaranteeing something as basic as its brand’s reputation. Of course this is only for the domestic market. They would never dare export this.”

Hola’s directors acknowledge that, for the past two years they have been blending the coffee they sell locally with 50% dried peas. The International Coffee Organization states, however, that any product that contains more than 5% of another ingredient cannot be classified as coffee.

The former general director of Cuba-Café, Antonio Aleman Blanco, explained in an article in the official press the the formula, “which is no secret, is 50% Arabica or Robusta coffee beans and 50% dried peas.”

One of those who posted a comment was happy to learn that the product will at least be available again but has not given up hope that one day it will be better: “Good decision. There are other products out there that we can’t buy because of packaging. What’s important now is that it gets here. How? It doesn’t matter. Now my question is: Will we one day be able to drink 100% Café Cubano coffee?”

Few could resist the chance, however, to get in an ironic jab. “What a shock! For a moment I thought we’d be getting pure coffee again,” someone wrote. “Right now they give you peas, beans and rice and say, ’Innovate and like it,’” added another.

Once the plastic packaging arrives in the country, says Cobas Cheda, Hola’s coffee-and-pea blend will return in its usual format.

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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.