The Myth of Cuba’s Education System

When UNESCO speaks of the high level of education in Cuba, it refers to it as “free,”,. but that does not mean the Cuban system educates its new generations well. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Rolando Gallardo, Quito, 16 January 2022–Determining the quality of the education system in Cuba is a task filled with pitfalls and endless assumptions as it is impossible to access verifiable macro data. So much secrecy incites even more suspicion.

In the Latin American and Caribbean region, we know that the countries with the best educational outcomes are Chile — paradoxically, a window into reviled neoliberalism — followed by Uruguay, Costa Rica and Mexico, according to the list created by PISA testing (Program for International Student Assessment), which measures the application of acquired knowledge in daily life after the completion of mandatory education. Cuba does not appear in the data, for one simple reason: it does not participate in the measurement.

In 2013, the tough nucleus of “21st-century socialism”, Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela, refused to participate in these evaluations. For the governments of these countries, education was considered a strength of the social processes they developed and they preferred their “achievements” not to be questioned.

Without access to government information and refusing to provide data to international organizations, one must ask from where the idea came that Cuba is the point of reference for the best education system in the region. continue reading

The United Nations itself is responsible for presenting the Cuban system as the paradigm, but if one reads between the lines, the indicators highlighted by UNICEF are not reliable evidence of the quality of education.

When UNESCO speaks of the high level of education in Cuba it refers to it as free, but the absence of a cost does not mean the Cuban system educates its new generations well.

While in Latin American countries textbooks are updated, on average, every five years, in the case of Cuban textbooks, from physics to Spanish and literature, these were last updated between 1989 and 1990, with the objective of eliminating Soviet propaganda and strengthening the unique social nature of the Cuban revolution.

Indoctrination in textbooks from preschool through the last year of high school is the only thing that has not varied in Cuba in the last three decades. This can be corroborated by reviewing the Cuban Ministry of Education’s books which have been digitized.

When a rigorous measure of poverty is applied to Latin American education systems and the real impact of the lack of family resources has on the quality of education is understood, one forgets that Cuba transitioned from ranking as the 23rd economy globally, in 1958, to compete with Haiti on poverty indicators since the 1990s when the USSR collapsed.

Cuban civil society estimates that 51% of the population currently lives in poverty and rural and suburban areas are in extreme poverty. The minimum monthly salary is 19 USD, according to the real value of this hard currency on the black market. The annual income per capita for Cubans is 300 USD, similar to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a country where the average family income is so low and access to protein has been difficult since 1990, what can be said about the nutrition students need to face classes in the morning and complete their homework in the afternoon.

Despite the palpable reality in classrooms, UNICEF and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) accept, without questioning, uncorroborated data from the Cuban government about “nonexistent child undernutrition” in Cuba. These types of approaches generate more questions about the role international organizations play in the country.

The starting monthly salary for Cuban teachers is 4,825 pesos (70 USD). To support themselves in the midst of runaway inflation, teachers take on extra work as tutors, for which they charge 100 pesos per session (less than 1.50 USD). Receiving tutoring is not an option for all students, the family’s ability to pay determines who has a greater chance to achieve the best test scores and subsequently secure a university spot in their desired career field. Evidence that the “free” system for all is just a cover for the surreptitious social Darwinism of the system.

The idea we have in Latin America of an average quality education includes the use of the internet and information technologies. In Cuba, this vision is limited to learning the parts of a computer and mediocre use of Microsoft’s Office package. Social access to the internet was approved in the country in 2013 and its use as a resource for research and classwork is a dream which still has not arrived, in accordance with the state policy of maintaining a traditionalist system of education.

The layout of classrooms, the forms of organization, the methodologies, and the promotion of innovation are static and eminently theoretical; in practice, the changes in the last 40 years are barely perceptible. Among the transformations that require a meritorious mention is the implementation of inclusive education policies, which integrated special needs students who formerly were destined for special schools. The first students to be integrated with average students were children and adolescents from reform schools, where they were marginalized as juvenile delinquents until 2003, when they were assigned to regular schools.

Despite these changes, teacher training has had to deal with massive desertion, constant migratory crises, and demotivation as a result of the lack of financial incentives and the declining social recognition of teachers, who are viewed as the spokesmen and spokeswomen of a totalitarian regime and responsible for decades of indoctrination.

Faced with this crisis, in 2000 Fidel Castro opened Emerging Teacher Training Schools, which as their name suggests, train teachers in an accelerated manner. At first, teachers were expected be ready to go to the classroom in six months, later it was after a year. This fix reduced the prominence of university education for teachers and spread the learning weaknesses of these adolescents-turned-teachers.

The dictator’s direct intervention in public education policies resulted in the systematic destruction of the management structure in schools. It reached the point of assuming that a secondary school teacher could teach physics, mathematics, literature, chemistry, and art under the assumption that if “Aristotle could teach his disciples several sciences, integrated general teachers (PGI) could as well.” In the end, the PGI were unable to offer a deep knowledge in anything, though they were required to talk about everything.

Twenty years after the “Emergent Training” disaster, 70% of the teachers in the country at all levels of Cuba’s education system are the result of poor training. When we pay attention to academic training and teaching practices, that should be an indicator when determining the quality of the education provided in Cuba.

Putting these data in the context of the Cuban reality, we should reconsider whether its education model should be the paradigm for Latin America. How many of us would be willing to guarantee free education accessible to all at the expense of our individual liberties? How many parents would choose an ideological education with explicit indoctrination? How many teachers would prefer an education model that is static, traditionalist, in addition to being the lowest paid in the western hemisphere? Some stories are poorly told.

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.

The Nature of Dictatorships

Fidel Castro with former President of the Spanish Government Felipe González and Daniel Ortega. (EFE/File)

“Totalitarian tyranny is not built on the virtues of totalitarians, but on the faults of democrats.”

Albert Camus

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 18 January 2022 — In popular culture there is a well-known a fable, attributed to Aesop, where a scorpion, to cross the river, asks a frog to allow it to climb on its back. Faced with the amphibian’s doubts, the scorpion offers a reasonable explanation: there is nothing to fear, because if it were to sting her, both would drown. The frog recognizes the logic of the argument and agrees to carry it across. But when they are only halfway across the river something unusual happens: the scorpion sticks its stinger in the frog’s back and the poison begins to paralyze his assistant. The frog, fatally surprised, wonders how such a thing could have happened. And the scorpion, before sinking, offers him a crushing answer: I’m sorry, it’s my nature.

International institutions have been too ambiguous in the face of openly anti-democratic regimes. It is shameful that the longest-running dictatorship in Latin America occupies a seat on the UN Human Rights Commission and that it will remain there, quietly, until the year 2023. The regime in Havana has brutally repressed popular demonstrations, has acknowledged not believing in the separation of powers, has locked up hundreds of protesters, including children, and has handed out very high sentences much more naturally than it distributes rationed bread. If even more human rights have not been violated in Cuba, it is simply because the Universal Declaration has only thirty articles. It would suffice to say that the mere fact of sharing that document has been considered by the police, on several occasions, as a subversive act.

In Nicaragua, days ago, the scorpions have celebrated their party. Smiling broadly, Nicolás Maduro, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Daniel Ortega pose before the cameras. As it seems a small thing to them to laugh at their own people, now they also laugh at the world and invite a criminal wanted by Interpol to pose with them. Mohsén Rezaí, accused of the attack that left 85 dead and more than 300 wounded in Argentina, held “cordial working meetings” with the Cuban dictator. But it is not surprising that totalitarians in the region celebrate fraud, meet with terrorists or mock democracies. What is outrageous is that legitimate governments feign political dyslexia or ideological strabismus. continue reading

Franklin Delano Roosevelt coined a phrase about ’Tacho’ Somoza, later copied by Henry Kissinger to refer to the second dictator with the same last name: “Yes, he’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” And that is precisely what some democratic governments, with progressive agendas, think about the dictators of the Venezuela-Cuba-Nicaragua triumvirate. Going out to defend them is already extremely scandalous, which is why some leaders opt for a less obvious action: to remain silent.  That complicity might sound like “comradeship” if it were the teenage members of a soccer team, but here it is about world leaders who hold the destinies of millions of people in their hands. And that gang mentality is a dangerous time bomb in a historical context marked by instability and polarization.

An effort must be made to understand the logic of some institutions or governments in their relationship with dictatorships. The Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and Cuba clearly states among its objectives “the strengthening of human rights and democracy.”

Forgive me if I insist here on recalling Aesop’s fable, but it is very clear that said agreement, beyond the strategic and economic interests it pursues, is turning out to be a complete failure.  Poverty and repression in Cuba are growing at a dizzying pace, while any hint of a negotiated solution collapses. The dictatorship strengthens its ties with China and Iran, while Russia threatens to move troops to Cuban soil. The regime does not know how to stay in power by means other than force, meanwhile ordinary people find no way out other than fleeing the country at whatever price.

Riding the scorpion’s back is not a gesture of solidarity, it is a reckless bet. The sting is not only constantly piercing the flesh of civil society, but also threatens the credibility of lavish global institutions, unable to prevent outbreaks in territories where chaos was predictable. What are we playing at? Dictatorships do not hide their nature, why, then, are they still on your back?

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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.

Obispo Street Protesters are Fined and Pressured to Leave Cuba

The demonstrators agreed “to pay a fine but that it be a smaller amount.” (Mary Karla Ares/Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2022 — The demonstrators of Obispo Street, who spent several months in prison, were informed this Monday in Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana, that they will receive an “administrative fine” in order to conclude the judicial process against them.

“Serving prison for the alleged fabricated charges of resistance and public disorder is unfair and also paying such a high amount of money [7,000 pesos] is doubly illegal,” independent reporter Mary Karla Ares, denounced on her social networks. She was arrested last year on April 30 together with Thais Mailén Franco Benítez, Yuisan Cancio Vera, Inti Soto Romero, Luis Angel Cuza Alfonso and Esteban Rodríguez, in an act of solidarity with the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.

Ares specified that the political police let the protesters know that when they pay the fine “automatically” their “immigration restriction would be lifted, which alluded to an invitation to leave the country.” This tactic of the regime with Cuban opponents has been very recurrent in recent months, forcing many to leave the island in the face of threats and warnings of repression.

The political police warned them that “if they do not accept the sanction, the matter will continue to the court and there we would have to comply with what the judge dictates.”

“You take it or go straight to prison and fuck yourself,” Ares adds in her message, which she accompanied with a photo where she appears with her unjustly imprisoned companions and a video where they are heard saying in chorus: “Patria y vida (Homeland and Life). Freedom for the political prisoners. No more dictatorship.” continue reading

Faced with the pressure and blackmail of the instructors, the demonstrators agreed “to pay a fine but that it be a smaller amount.” They will receive a new summons where they will know the “final answer on the value of the fine” to be paid if the Prosecutor’s Office accepts the request, Ares told 14ymedio.

The young woman declared that she was very struck by the insistence of the political police in letting them know that they were going to “lift the immigration regulation” as if it were the most important thing in the meeting on Monday.

The young woman declared that she was very struck by the insistence of the political police in letting them know that they were going to “lift the immigration regulation” as if it were the most important thing in the meeting on Monday.

Of the six activists arrested on April 30, the first to be released from prison was Ares under the measure of “home confinement” after serving almost a month in prison. At the end of September, Thais Mailén Franco Benítez and Yuisan Cancio were released under the same conditions.

After eight months in prison, Inti Soto, Ángel Cuza and Esteban Rodríguez were released on January 4. In the case of Rodríguez, he was transferred from prison to the José Martí International Airport in the capital where he boarded a flight in which he intended to arrive, along with independent reporter Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, in Nicaragua. Managua denied him entry, they said, and after several hours they were admitted to El Salvador and are currently in an unknown destination.

The demonstrators on Obispo Street were trying to approach the house of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was then on a hunger strike, when the Police tried to block their way. At that time, they sat down to protest against what they considered a limitation of their right to free movement and were arrested.

The video, broadcast live from the scene, provoked widespread solidarity with the detainees of that day. Amnesty International was one of the first international organizations to call for the immediate release of these protesters.

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United States is Positioned as the Main Source of Food for Cuba

Chicken consumed in Cuba is still mainly bought in the US (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 17 January 2022 — The US continues to consolidate its position as the leading supplier of agricultural and food products to Cuba by registering a 144.2% growth in its sales in November compared to the same month of the previous year.

Chicken, soybeans, fruit, coffee, ketchup, fresh vegetables and pet food are among the products most purchased by the Island, according to the most recent report of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

The amount went from $11,339,843 in November 2020 to $27,699,046 in November 2021, although when compared to $2,965,515 in the same month in 2019, the growth is even more spectacular, 834%.

If the data of these same exports made during the first nine months of each year are compared, the growth was 85.4% from January to November 2021, when the US sold agricultural products and food to Cuba worth 276,683,109 dollars, compared to 149,209,570 dollars in the same period of the previous year. continue reading

According to the balance of the last 20 years, the US sold these same products to Cuba for a value of 6,572,910,533 dollars, an average of 329 million dollars a year.

The report notes that, like every month, the sale of food and agricultural products is authorized by the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSREEA) of 2000 and that it allows direct export to the Island from the US in certain conditions among which is the obligation to pay in cash and in advance.

From the Island it is argued that these sales do not deny the impact of the embargo, since they are carried out in “discriminatory conditions,” according to what the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, said a few months ago.

“These are only unidirectional sales from the United States to Cuba, without the possibility of credit, through the obligation to pay in advance and in cash, and under licenses that the Treasury Department must approve, all of which is incompatible with international trade practices,” claimed.

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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.

Venezuela Increased its Shipments of Fuel and Food to Cuba at the End of 2021

PDVSA export reports noted that supply to Havana in 2021 fell to 56,300 barrels per day. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 14 January 2021 — Caracas increased its shipments to Cuba of gasoline and food in the last weeks of last year, according to documents from the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and data from the financial analysis platform Refinitiv Eikon, cited by the Reuters news agency .

The three shipments, which arrived at the ports of Nuevitas, Matanzas and Havana between the end of last November and the beginning of this year, made a total of 197,000 barrels of gasoline, along with other refined products.

In addition, the documents revealed that in December, the Island received 222 containers and hundreds of bags of food on the ships Icoa Uru and Melba, which landed at the ports of Mariel and Santiago de Cuba.

According to Reuters, the shipments were made when gasoline production recovered in Venezuela with the help of Iran, which supported long-delayed repairs and maintenance work at refineries in the country, which was why the government of Nicolás Maduro had reduced fuel exports to the island since the beginning of 2020. continue reading

PDVSA export reports also noted that supply to Havana in 2021 fell to 56,300 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and refined products and some 73,000 metric tons of petroleum coke.

In the first nine months of 2021, although it continued to receive oil from Caracas, the few arrivals marked several energy crises and long lines at gas stations on the island. This newspaper reported the chaotic situation that was experienced in Santiago de Cuba, where carriers spent hours at the La Cubana service center, located in front of Antonio Maceo square, waiting to fill their tanks.

It was last October when Havana once again registered a slight increase in the volume of fuel, receiving 66,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and refined products, 8,000 more than a month before, while in August it was only 40,000.

Despite the increase, the problems for passenger transport, the low availability of vehicles for garbage collection, the constant calls to save electricity and the reduction of working hours in the state sector have all continued these last months, under the argument that “there is no fuel.”

For Cuba, the shipment of oil tankers from Venezuela responds to the close collaboration between both countries since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999.

Crude flows averaged 90,000 bpd through 2016, and have since declined as a result of low Venezuelan production and US sanctions. Washington accuses Havana of supporting the Maduro regime with intelligence and troops in exchange for fuel.

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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.

If Taro is So Expensive in Cuba its ‘Murillo’s Fault,’ Say the Vendors

Malanga is hard to find in state markets anymore and prices are unattainable for most Cubans. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 January 2021 — “There’s taro, there’s taro!” an informal vendor insistently proclaimed this Thursday at the San Rafael street market in Central Havana. The announcement quickly raised spirits among customers in the crowded surroundings.

In recent months, it is difficult to find in recent months the tuber that is well known to most Cubans since childhood. Boiled, with sauce, mixed with some milk or submerged in a dish of beans, taro is used as a transition food between breastfeeding and solid food, but inflation has made this food disappear, which, until recently, also reigned in fried foods and purées.

“Yesterday you told me 60 pesos a pound and today it’s 70. Does the price go up from one day to the next?” An indignant customer complained to the merchant. The initial expectation was diluted when the buyers learned the price and the seller responded acidly: “It’s not my fault! Complain to Murillo!” As much as the Cuban government has banished the most visible face of the ’Ordering Task’ to his new position in Tabacuba, the population does not forget the person they identify as responsible for the unstoppable rise in prices.

For decades, Taro has been not only a staple children’s diets, but of anyone with gastric problems. Cuban doctors have recommended it for years in purées for hospitalized, sick or elderly patients with swallowing difficulties. For decades, a quantity of this food for the chronically ill was sold on the rationed market, but that is now a thing of the past. continue reading

Now taro is almost exclusively found in privately managed markets. “The farmers want to charge the transporters 29 pesos a pound for taro, because they say that their expenses have increased. In turn, the transporters also want to earn their share,” a vendor explains to 14ymedio. “If taro reaches my hands at 40 pesos or more, how much am I going to sell it for in the market?”

As with most foods, the increase in production costs makes it difficult for the crops to thrive, and taro has its peculiarities. “It demands a lot of water, it likes abundant irrigation,” says Manuel, a producer from the province of Villa Clara.

“Electricity costs have skyrocketed and now I spend much more money to pump the amount of water that a taro field needs,” he details. “Although it is a strong product and you don’t need boxes to move it, right now it’s a headache to buy bags, because the few that exist, when you find them, have also gone up a lot.”

Fuel, another of the products that is frequently in short supply in Cuba, but which has become impossible since 2019, is another factor. “The producer who is in charge of removing their crop from the fields cannot lower the price of 30 pesos per pound, and with that price he is already making losses. I give mine to an intermediary and when he takes it away, it is no longer my problem. He is the one who sets the price in the market,” adds Manuel.

Consumers are annoyed at a rise in prices that especially affects the most vulnerable people in the household. “My mother has been without a dental prosthesis for three years, because first there was no material to make one. Then the pandemic came, and the whole dental issue is almost paralyzed,” explains a resident of the Havana neighborhood of Cerro.

“My mother’s daily meals are purees based on taro or other foods such as pumpkin or sweet potato,” she adds. “At this price I cannot afford it and I am having to look for other alternatives, but they are not very healthy,” she acknowledges. “My daughter is finishing breastfeeding her little girl and she can’t afford these prices to transition her either.”

In private restaurants and digital sites that sell their products to emigrants who buy it for their families on the Island, the product continues to be offered. “Taro puree with a good Creole sauce and crunchy chips,” announces a paladar (private restaurant) that recommends not to stop “trying the fried foods.” To rediscover the flavor that until recently was the star of dishes for the elderly and babies, now you need to have dollars.

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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.

Russia Sends 24 Tons of Aid to Cuba and, for Now, Doesn’t Speak of a Military Deployment

A Russian shipment of donations to Cuba with 24 tons of medical material. (Embassy of Russia in Cuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 14 January 2021 — Russia has sent 24 tons of medical aid to Cuba, including syringes and protective equipment for health workers. The information was offered by the Eurasian country’s own embassy on the island in a Twitter message that it published a few hours before also sharing the news of a possible deployment of its troops in Cuba and Venezuela in the framework of the confrontation with NATO.

“Russia donated humanitarian aid to Cuba that includes multipurpose medical protective suits and injection syringes with a total weight of almost 24 tons,” says Thursday’s tweet, which is accompanied by images of the cargo.

Last year, during the summer months and coinciding with the worst moment of the pandemic on the island, Russia sent tons of humanitarian aid, divided between food and medicine or medical supplies.

In August, a shipment of 41.5 tons of food arrived, made up of wheat flour, canned meat and sunflower oil. A month earlier, 88 tons entered, also of food, personal protective equipment and more than a million masks. continue reading

In addition, Russia has also sent respirators and oxygen concentrators and their help was very relevant at a time when the island was going through a crisis due to gas shortages, essential for respiratory care, including the need caused by covid.

In mid-August, a Russian military team brought in and helped set up a medicinal oxygen plant, according to authorities, in just half a day, at a Cuban base.

“Having put it into operation gives us another guarantee and helps a lot,” said Miguel Díaz-Canel, who attended a propaganda act to supervise the situation and praised those who made “the heroics of putting it into operation in record time possible.”

Russia and Cuba have revitalized the good relations that already existed during the time of the Soviet Union in recent years. The greatest aid is produced in the financial field, where the country has forgiven the Island 90% of the debt resulting from an agreement during the mandate of Raúl Castro.

Cuba is seriously behind on payments of the remaining amount, which had to be returned in easy installments, but Havana stopped paying it in 2020. However, last year, the parties agreed on a two-year moratorium for its return.

Russia considered that the restructuring of the debt would not have a significant impact, since the deficit due to non-payment is 57 million dollars, but between 2022 and 2027 Cuba will return what it owes, in addition to 11 million dollars in interest for the delay.

As a background to this constant exchange, the possibility of Russia deploying troops in Havana and Caracas appeared yesterday to put pressure on the US in the negotiations it is carrying out with NATO.

Russia opposes the expansion of NATO to the east and that organization defends that small countries can join the alliance if they wish and meet the requirements.

This Friday, during his usual press conference at the beginning of the year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned the US and NATO that “he will not wait forever” for a response to his demands to establish legally binding security guarantees to prevent expansion and deployment of weapons near its borders.

“We are waiting for a written response from our colleagues. We believe that they understand the need to do it immediately, and to do it in writing. We will not wait until forever,” he said, in his press conference at the beginning of the year.

Asked about the alleged strengthening of its military presence outside its borders in case its demands are not met, Lavrov replied that Russia has “extensive military ties with our partners and allies and we have a presence in various regions of the world.”

“This is a matter of bilateral relations,” Lavrov said, referring to yesterday’s statements by Sergei Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister and representative in the negotiations with the US in Geneva.

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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.

Cuba’s Director of the International Press Center Joins the List of Repressors

Alberto González Casals, standing on the right, with a delegation from the Cuban Foreign Ministry, during a working visit to Spain in 2018. (Minrex)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2022 — Alberto González Casals, director of the Cuban International Press Center (CPI), has been included by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC) in its database of repressors.

In a statement issued this Thursday, the Miami-based organization details that they have included González Casals as a “white-collar repressor” and as an “’export’ repressor.”

The first, for being “directly responsible for executing the orders of the Ministry of the Interior regarding the withdrawal of credentials to work in Cuba from journalists from the Spanish agency EFE,” and the second, “for having been part of the Cuban intervention in Venezuela, helping Havana to reorganize the country’s intelligence and counterintelligence services in its favor.”

They also detail that González Casals, responsible within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the foreign press since 2017, is a lieutenant colonel of the Intelligence Directorate who has worked “with diplomatic cover in countries such as Angola, Venezuela and the United States.”

The Foundation recalls that last November 13, five members of the agency were summoned to the CPI to have their credentials withdrawn, arguing that EFE “had put its editorial line at the service of the counterrevolution.” continue reading

In reality, what bothered the Cuban government, in the opinion of the FDHC, was that the Spanish agency, “fulfilling its obligations of journalistic objectivity, had covered the historic protests of July 11 and 12 (11J) in Cuba and was already covering the preparations for the march that had been called for November 15.”

The NGO asserts that the reprisals against EFE are part of the “information blackout” imposed by the regime after the 11J demonstrations. “The information blockade includes more censorship of the official media, additional pressure on foreign correspondents accredited in Cuba and more reprisals against the independent press,” the Foundation said, to which it adds selective or total cuts to the Internet service within the island. .

“The CPI, in the best Stalinist tradition that violates international human rights conventions, filters foreign journalists and rules out the accreditation of those it considers critical,” the statement asserts.

“In order to carry out journalistic work in Cuba, it requires a D-6 visa that can be suspended, revoked or not extended, including the expulsion of the correspondent from the country if it is believed that they have carried out ’inappropriate actions or actions outside their profile and work content, as well as when it is considered that they have lacked journalistic ethics and/or does not comply with objectivity in their offices’.”

The Foundation denounces this strategy of the Díaz-Canel government, while hoping “that EFE does not fold to it or close its presence in Cuba.”

A few days ago, the database of repressors had been updated with the names of a dozen prosecutors, in addition to a judge, participating in the trials of the 11J protesters, which will conclude tomorrow in several cities in the country.

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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.

Three Cuban Activists are Detained in Havana for Denouncing July 11th Trials

Activists Carolina Barrero, Daniel Triana, and Arian Cruz were detained at the entrance to the People’s Supreme Court in Old Havana. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2022 — Three new trials of July 11th (11J) protesters in Cuba are being held this week. According to a report from Justicia 11J they will take place for 45 defendants in Mayabeque and in Havana.

Due to a lack of information from Cuban authorities, civil society organizations and family members of the prisoners continue to provide information about the 11J trial proceedings.

Activists Carolina Barrero, Daniel Triana and Arian Cruz, who arrived at the entrance to the People’s Supreme Court on Obrapía and Aguiar in Old Havana, “to protest” the trials and in solidarity with families of the detained, were themselves arrested on Monday morning.

Inside the patrol car, the young people repeated this verse from the poem by José Martí, Pour Out Your Sorrows, My Heart:

Oh poem, they speak of a God
A host where the dead must go
Oh poem, we’ll be saved together
Or felled by a single blow!

Furthermore, they yelled slogans such as: “justice for the people,” “freedom for political prisoners,” “end extreme cruelty,” and “down with the empire of fear.” continue reading

The prisoner facing the longest sentence, 27 years, is Elieser Gordin Rojas, who will be prosecuted in the trial that begins on Monday and will end on Friday in the Municipal Tribunal of Diez de Octubre, in the capital.

There, they will also try two 17-year-old minors: Nelson Nestor Rivero Garzón and Emiyoslán Román Rodríguez, for whom prosecutor Mabel Palacios Aties — recently included on the  Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba’s list of oppressors — seeks 15 years in jail.

During the trials last week in Havana and Holguín, “in response of to pressure from civil society,” wrote Justicia 11J, “the sedition charges were dropped and the sentences sought by the prosecutor were reduced for 12 minors younger than 19 years old.”

“It is not yet clear which charge would be imposed in its place, and therefore, whether the maximum penalties would still be applied,” continued the statement from the group, linked to the NGO legal platform Cubalex, which is unaware of whether these measures “would also apply to those younger than 19 years of age who were tried in December in Havana, and who are still awaiting sentencing.”

Ten prisoners in Holguín against whom the prosecutor upheld its request for very high penalties initiated a hunger strike after their trial ended Friday.

Prosecutors are also seeking 20 years in prison for sedition during trials this week in Havana for no fewer than 19 defendants: Roberto Ferrer Gener, Santiago Vázquez León, Yosney Emilio Román Rodríguez, Carlos Luis Águila Socarrás, Frandy González León, Adonay López López, Harold Michel Mena Nuviola, Jaime Alcide Firdó Rodríguez, Alejandro Becquer Arias, Amaury Leyva Prieto, Julián Yasmany Díaz Mena, Raudel Saborin González, Juan Carlos Morales Herrera, Eduardo Álvarez Rigal and Yasiel Arnaldo Córdova Rodríguez.

In the capital, Yeinier Ibáñez Boude, for whom prosecutors are seeking 18 years, will also be tried, along with Frank Daniel Roy Sotolongo, Yassell Guerra Campos, Marcos Antonio Alfonso Breto and Yensy Jorge Machado González, who face 15 year sentences.

Another 22 protesters will be prosecuted in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, 15 of them between Monday and Wednesday and the rest on Friday.

For the first group, prosecutor Ariagne Pérez Pérez seeks between one year of forced labor with internment (in the case of defendant Sergio Enseñat Valladares) and up to 14 years in prison (in the case of Vladimir Castillo Llanes). In addition to them, Jorge Yenier Ortiz Aguilera, Rogelio Lázaro Domínguez Pérez, Manuel Velázquez Licea, Alien Molina Castell, Humberto Monrabals Camps, Arturo Valentín Riverón, Enmanuel Robles Pérez, Yusmely Moreno González, Danger Acosta Justi, Yaroski Amat Salabarria, Jesús Pérez Quintero, Emelina Pendás Rodríguez and Mailene Noguera Santiesteban.

The defendants who will be tried on Friday are María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez, Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, Alexis Pedro Acosta Hernández, Giorbis Pardo del Toro, Osmany Hernández Rodríguez, Yanet Sánchez Cocho and Patricia Lázara Acosta Sánchez, for whom prosecutor Ruth Reina Rodríguez seeks between 6 and 18 years in prison.

In its most recent report, Justicia 11J denounced the conditions in which those jailed for the massive peaceful protest on that Sunday in July are being held. “We denounce the appalling health conditions in Cuban detention centers,” warned the organizations, “and we raise the alarm about the ill-treatment, which the prisoners continue to denounce.”

As an example, the group shared a letter, dated July 17th, written from prison by Mailene Noguera Santiesteban, who is facing up to a six year sentence in San José de las Lajas; it details the violence with which she was detained, “dragged on the floor” between blows.

“They dragged me and would yell “pig, louse, where are the clothes and money the Americans send you, look how you’re dressed,” she said. “I was almost naked, as they entered my house in the middle of the night and upon taking me and my husband [Manuel Velázquez Licea] left my 8 year old son completely alone.”

Justicia 11J logged a total of 1,377 people arrested for the July protests, of which 727 remain in jail, including 70 women and 15 minors. At least 361 have been tried in “either summary or ordinary trials”.

The first mention of these trials by the state-run media appeared on Monday, for the purpose of launching the new judicial year. “In the same way, it is our responsibility to judge those who, acting as peons in the subversive attack and the destabilization attempts by enemies of the Revolution, they committed acts of vandalism, violent aggression against authorities and officials, and other serious crimes,” mentioned the People’s Supreme Court president, Rubén Remigio Ferrio, according to the state newspaper Granma.

This is the same judge who this past July spoke much more conciliatory words, “Diverse political opinions, including those of a political nature that differ from the prevailing politics in the country, do not constitute a crime, thinking differently, questioning what is being done, that in and of itself does not constitute a crime. Furthermore, protesting, far from constituting a crime, constitutes the people’s constitutional right.”

Nonetheless, for a long time, Remigio Fierro has been considered a hard-line partisan and, for this reason, has been included on FDHC’s list of Cuban oppressors since May 2019.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Safety Concerns Force Cuba’s Restaurants to Cut Back on Home Deliveries

Recently, reports of robberies and assaults, perpetrated mainly on motorcyclists, has frightened many owners of these types of vehicles.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, January 10, 2022 — El Biky did not have a single empty table on Saturday night and no one seemed worried about his or her safety on this normally busy corner of Infanta and San Lazaro streets in Havana. No one except the staff at this well-known restaurant, which has decided to suspend nightime home deliveries so as not to expose their drivers to the ever growing number of attacks in the capital.

One employee’s explanation left Vilma, a customer who had called to place an order, speechless: “The motorcycle couriers have created a crises over all these assaults. They’re afraid to deliver at night.”

“I was told you delivered until 7:00 PM. It’s only twenty past seven and all I want is a cake. Can’t you ask one of the drivers to deliver it to me?” pleaded Vilma over the phone. But she could not twist the employee’s arm. He told her that the new schedule, which took effect at the end of last year, was the result of “constant complaints by motorcycle couriers.”

The restaurant is located in Vedado, one of the most centrally located parts of the city, near the Malecon. Nevertheless, last weekend the neighborhood surrounding the restaurant was devoid of pedestrians and vehicles, a situation which further frightened motorcycle couriers.

Since the final days of 2021, reports of robberies and assaults, which have been perpetrated mainly on motorcyclists, has frightened many owners of these types of vehicles. The response by cafes and privately owned restaurants, which managed to stay afloat during the most difficult months of the pandemic by offering home delivery, has been to shorten delivery schedules. continue reading

La Rosa Negra, a privately owned restaurant in Havana’s Nuevo Vedado district and popular for its moderate prices, posted this on its Facebook page on December 29: “For reasons of safety we have decided to reduce the hours during which our home delivery service will be available.”

The restaurant’s management said it would not be making deliveries after 8:00 PM. The next day, however, it announced the cut-off would be 6:00 PM, to coincide with the summer nightfall.

It is not just the increasingly common robberies of motorcycles on Cuban streets that the couriers fear. They also risk having their deliveries stolen, or falling victim to the “customer trap.” In this case, someone posing as customer will request a home delivery and ambush the courier upon arrival, taking everything he is transporting, including the vehicle.

“You need four eyes on the street at all times. Driving a motorcycle comes with the threat of physical harm. If they come at you with a club or stick, you have no way to protect yourself,” says Yantiel, a courier who freelances both for a privately owned restaurant in Playa and for Mandao, an popular online service that offers a variety of products through its mobile app.

The delivery schedule cutback has had a big impact on these restaurants’ bottom line. “We get most of our orders close to dinner time. If we can’t make home deliveries at that time, we earn a lot less,” admits the owner of one cafe in Central Havana which delivers pizzas throughout the capital.

But even in daylight hours, couriers take precautions. “I don’t go inside anyone’s house. I don’t go to any floor in an apartment building. And I carry this with me,” says a young man who opens a compartment at the rear of his motorcycle to show 14ymedio the metal pipe hidden inside.

Authorities have not have not officially commented on the increase in assaults though the Ministry of the Interior did issue a statement saying that complaints about this on social media, in particular those related to the theft of electric motorcycles, “are events that occurred in previous years or are fake news.”

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Ten July 11th Prisoners in Holguin, Cuba Begin Hunger Strike Protesting the Sentences Sought by the Prosecutor

Police deployed outside the tribunal in Santa Clara where, this week,  July 11th (11J) protesters were tried.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 15 January 2022 — Ten prisoners in Holguín, for whom the prosecutor maintained its request for very high sentences went on a hunger strike following their trial for the July 11th  (11J) protests. This was reported by Dr. Alejandro Raúl Pupo Casas on his social media, alerted by the mother of one of the defendants, William Manuel Leyva Pupo, a relative of the doctor.

For this 20-year-old, the prosecutor sought 18 years, and the same for Reymundo Fernandez Rodríguez, Jorge Luis Martínez García, Marcos Antonio Pintueles Marrero and Yoel Ricardo Sánchez Borjas.

The same source warned that the prisoners’ families will join their protest, although she did not name the other prisoners who were on hunger strike.

The sentences will be officially handed down on February 11, according to messages shared on Facebook by family members of the accused, and they all take for granted that the judges will bend to the prosecutors’ requests, as is usually the case in political trials. continue reading

Three other trials for 11J also ended on Friday in Santa Clara, Havana, and Mayabeque.

In this city, the news agency Efe reports that according to family members of the prisoners, a trial was held without the families’ prior knowledge.

For now, we know that in Holguín is where they requested the harshest sentences for July 11th protesters accused of “sedition”. Prosecutor Fernando Valentín Sera Planas–included on the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba’s list of oppressors along with dozens of his colleagues–sought 30 years in prison for Miguel Cabrera Rojas, Yosvany Rosell García Caso, José Ramón Solano Randiche and Iván Colón Suárez for the crime of sedition; 28 years for Maikel Rodríguez del Campo and Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo; 25 for Cruz García Domínguez, Miguel Enrique Girón Velázquez and Yasmany Crespo Hernández, and 22 for Yoirdan Revolta Leyva.

The only woman facing such high penalties in Holguín is Jessica Lisbeth Torres Calvo, for whom they are seeking 27 years, the same as her current age.

We are also aware of four minors tried for the same crime–Yeral Michel Palacios Román, Ernesto Abelardo Martínez Pérez, Ayan Idalberto Jover Cardosa and Keyla Roxana Mulet Calderón–the original request of 15 years was reduced to between five and seven years.

During the last day of the trials, State Security stepped up its harassment of the prisoners’ friends and family who have publicly protested.

In Santa Clara, where 16 protesters were tried, activist Saily González was detained for several hours, as were family members of Andy García Lorenzo, arrested in the morning, they were heading to the tribunal, as they did every day since the start of the trial on Monday.

According to sources close to Saily González, her arrest occurred when she was headed to present a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of García Lorenzo’s familyAll of their phones were confiscated and they were each assessed a fine of 3,000 pesos. “She was very agitated, crying, they took her phone, the hard drive on which she had the habeas corpus document, her earphones. Now neither she nor Andy García’s family has a way to communicate,” reported activist Víctor Arias, whom González visited following her release at 7 pm sharp.

Arias also confirmed that Andy García’s sister, Roxana, and her partner Jonathan López were released, but he alerted that his father, Pedro López, “left the interrogation and there is still no news from him.”

Andy García’s family has been one of the most active in denouncing the irregularities of the trials in which, they assure, the prosecution’s witnesses lie. According to Tayri Lorenzo, the young man’s mother, in the courtroom in Santa Clara one of them said that State Security negotiated a fine for him in exchange for his testimony to implicate the accused.

They are not the only ones suffering harassment by the political police. Yudinela Castro, the mother of Rowland Castillo, a 17-year-old accused of “sedition” and for whom the prosecutor seeks 23 years of deprivation of liberty for participating in the 11J protests in Havana, told 14ymedio that State Security has been pressuring her not to denounce her son’s situation.

“Yesterday I received a summons, I was not at home but they called my phone and left it under my door. It was around midnight,” she said. She was so bothered to see that paper as she arrived home, that she ripped it up.

The civilian agents who identified themselves as Ignacio and Elías, she continued, always tell her they are going to accuse her of “contempt or sedition” for what she posts on social media and the declarations she has made to the press. “They tell me I am associated with terrorists and counterrevolutionaries.”

Castillo, incarcerated in Occidente’s Juvenile Prison in El Guatao, is from Mantilla and the Sunday of the protests, he was arrested on the corner of Toyo in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, one of the epicenters of the protests and a place where a patrol car was overturned.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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‘Prosecution Witnesses Lie,’ Warned Family Members of Those on Trial in Santa Clara for the July 11th Protests in Cuba

The trials of July 11th (11J) protesters in Santa Clara continued on Wednesday. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — The fabrication of evidence and manipulation of witnesses have marked the last hours of the trials taking place in Cuba for the July 11th protesters. The oral arguments against the protesters taking place in the city of Santa Clara remain the center of attention for family members, human rights organizations, and the independent press.

Among the denunciations of family members, which emerged on Wednesday, one witness said that State Security negotiated with him and would impose only a fine in exchange for his testimony accusing those arrested in that city during the massive protests that took place six months ago.

Tayri Lorenzo, the mother of political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo, one of those on trial this week, told Saily González on Facebook from outside the Provincial Tribunal of Villa Clara, that prosecution witnesses “were lying” and “slandered” the defendants.

Only a few family members of the protesters have been able to attend the trials and, as a result, the accounts of what occurs inside the tribunals can only be reconstructed in a fragmented way, according to the few relatives who have been able to access the courtroom.

García’s mother assured us on Wednesday that they took one prisoner to the tribunal so he could testify and he “said he gave his first statement [against the protesters] because he was coerced by State Security and negotiated his release and [they ensured] he would be set free with a fine of 1,000 pesos if he implicated someone else.” continue reading

She confirmed what she heard from the prisoner himself: “There were many witnesses to what I am saying. With regard to that, the prosecutor was left without any arguments. The judge speaks very softly, we realize that everything is written,” ahead of time.

She also said that during the trial they are “emphasizing” that the protesters yelled phrases such as “down with the revolution,” “patria y vida [homeland and life]“, “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker],” “dickhead police” and other defiant slogans.

On the other hand, García’s mother reproaches that other demands made by protesters were not mentioned: “That the people were demanding food, that the people are hungry, the need for food, that the people do not want repression, they want freedom. They did not emphasize that, only their offenses.”

Regarding her son’s case, Lorenzo confirmed that the official who led the young man’s proceedings, Yadian Cárdenas, told the family that “Andy was not involved in violent acts at any moment,” but did not provide details about those moments.

However, the prisoner’s sister, Roxana García Lorenzo, was able to attend Wednesday’s trial and she told the family that the official himself “testified against Andy saying that he was always inciting violence, which is a lie. There is not a single video of this. The attorneys requested permission to show the videos, but they say that due to technical issues they are not available. We have all the videos and none shows Andy hitting, on the contrary, he was always avoiding violence,” said the young woman.

During the interview with Saily González, Roxana García Lorenzo denounced that at one of the police stations where she was held for hours along with her boyfriend in October, they were shown videos where her brother defended the agents who were there to preserve order, asking other protesters not to assault them and advocating for a peaceful protest.

At that moment, says the young woman, she asked to copy the videos but the request was denied by police and they justified it by saying that only defense attorneys had access to the evidence. However, “[García’s] attorney did not have access to the videos,” to prepare his defense, she denounced on Wednesday.

She also mentioned the official, Yadian Cárdenas, who during the trial told her that García was “assaulting and offending the police and inciting violence” the entire time. He also said the young man was “the leader” of the protests but “leading a protest is not a crime, but they do treat it as a crime. . .The prosecutor is bringing witnesses who work for them,” she said.

In Santa Clara, in addition to García, 15 more young people are on trial for crimes of public disorder, contempt, and assault. Wednesday the strong police perimeter continued around the Provincial Tribunal of Villa Clara, reinforced by special brigade agents and the State Security. Trials were also being held for 11J protesters in three other cities throughout the country.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Prosecutors in Holguin, Cuba Drop Sedition Charges Against Four Minors who Participated in July 11th Protests

Caption: In contrast to the reduced charges for the minors, harsh penalties await the adults accused of sedition for the peaceful protests of July 11th (11J). (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 14 January 2022 –The initial results of the clamor, both within and outside of Cuba, against the long sentences sought for the July 11th protesters were seen on Friday. The prosecutor’s office in Holguín, Cuba, dropped sedition charges against minors.

One of the defendant’s sisters, who prefers not to give her name, confirmed it to 14ymedio. “My brother is not a minor and attorneys requested that the sedition charges against all of those accused be dropped.”

The four minors, younger than 18 years of age, who were facing sentences of 15 years in prison in Holguín are: Yeral Michel Palacios Román, Ernesto Abelardo Martínez Pérez and Ayan Idalberto Jover Cardosa — all 17 years old — and 16-year-Keyla Roxana Mulet Calderón. Sentences for them would be reduced, they said, without specifying their sources, to five years in some cases and seven years in others.

The Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directory (DDC) had demanded that democratic governments and foreign investors take “decisive steps” in response to the trials of minors for 11J.

Similarly, in a statement published on Friday, it had demanded that human rights organizations denounce, “the serious violations occurring in Cuba against children.” continue reading

The DDC reported, using data from Justicia 11J, that “at least 45 minors were arrested in July when the people led a civic uprising which resulted in more than 1,355 arrests.” Of the minors who were detained, 29 were freed, some on bond, and “14 are in political prison.”

In contrast to the reduced charges for minors, harsh penalties may await the adults. In Holguín, prosecutor Fernando Valentín Sera Planas, who along with another colleague was recently added to the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba’s list of oppressors, sought 30 years in jail for Miguel Cabrera Rojas, Yosvany Rosell García Caso, José Ramón Solano Randiche and Iván Colón Suárez for the crime of sedition.

This crime, with which 121 protesters are being charged, according to data collected by Justicia 11J, is described in Article 100 of the Cuban Penal Code for those who “tumultuously and in concert, expressed or tactical, use violence, disturb the social order, elections or referendums, or impede the execution of any sentence, legal order or other measure dictated by the Government, or by a civil or military authority exercising their respective functions, or refuse to follow them, or make demands, or resist fulfilling their duties.”

The severity of the sentences contrasts with those received in the past for others who “disturb the order” and “use violence.” For example, the brothers, Fidel and Raúl Castro, who for their 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks, were sentenced to 15 and 13 years in prison, respectively but only served 22 months, after which they were absolved by dictator Fulgencio Batista, or Frank País, who was absolved in 1957.

Another difference: contrary to those revolutionaries whose actions resulted in deaths, 11J protestors did not produce any victims, so the “violence” they used remains to be seen during the trials, which various organizations have denounced for their lack of due process.

In addition, not only in other countries but within the Island itself, penalties this harsh are reserved for serious crimes such as murder, aggravated rape or terrorism.

Meanwhile, the official press is completely silent with regard to these trials. Justicia 11J denounced that “none of the Cuban authorities’ propaganda channels have reported until now on the ordinary trials of at least 223 protesters.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Private Construction of Homes Compensates for the Inaction of the Cuban State in Sancti Spiritus

The authorities say that the construction of new houses is ‘saved’ thanks to the push of private efforts and, although they do not give figures on how much expectations are exceeded, the number is assumed to be high. (Escambray)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — The housing built by individuals has exceeded what was agreed in the 2021 plan in Sancti Spíritus, while the State fulfilled just over half of what was agreed. The provincial director of Housing, Néstor Borroto, told the local newspaper Escambray that new housing is ‘saved’ thanks to the push of private efforts and, although he does not give figures on how much expectations are exceeded, the number is assumed to be high.

In February 2021, the plan for the year was announced which added 1,441 new properties to the precarious Sancti Spiritus housing stock. Of these, 993 had to be by private initiative, including 452 basic housing cells (CBH) of about 25 square meters (270 square feet). The remaining 448 would be carried out through state channels.

Borroto now places state homes delivered at 55%, some 246 homes, and 56% of CBHs delivered by the state (253 units). “It is not the same for private initiative housing, which exceeded the agreed figure,” he said, but without detailing by how much.

The article begins by saying that “despite complying with the delivery plan for new works,” the State did not meet its targets, from which it can be deduced that the planned 1,441 could be built thanks private initiative. If the figures provided by officialdom are correct, the state had to build almost a thousand houses, almost double the 541 it actually built.

The official attributes the breaches to the pandemic, which caused a high number of people in the construction sector to be infected, which affected the final result; and to the US sanctions, which are the origin of everything: lack of resources, inability to produce materials and a shortage of fuel with which to transport them. continue reading

Inflation is also mentioned as one of the causes, since, according to the text, “at the beginning of the year there was no budget to defray the expenses of those subsidized with the increase in the prices of construction materials.”  But the worst thing is that nothing bodes well for the situation to improve. Borroto explained that the housing plan for 2022 has not yet been established, but since it will have to include what has not been done in 2021, especially with regard to CBH, things get complicated.

The problem has been dragging on for years. According to the data, of the 2,752 CBHs approved from 2012 to date, 141 are still pending and, in addition, there are 508 unbuilt homes for those affected by meteorological events, with Sancti Spíritus being one of the provinces that suffers the most from the effects of climate change, according to the authorities. For this reason, the article indicates that more and more efforts will have to be made if the serious housing problem is to be resolved.

The experts, adds the official newspaper, ask that disused premises be adapted instead of new construction, as an alternative to the large amount of resources that are needed for it. Some 22% of the homes in the state plan were built in this way, saving money, supplies and earthworks.

In addition, they also point out that the lack of materials will continue and ask that construction techniques continue to be used with clay brick and zinc roofing, as opposed to concrete roofing, which would be more scarce. Last November, Vice Prime Minister Ramiro Valdés reproached, in Sancti Spíritus, those who resisted using these materials and more “natural and traditional methods” in favor of newer and more resistant ones.

The official also blamed corruption officials when assigning houses that are concluded without being finished or with poor quality and violations in the granting of subsidies. In addition, it also pointed out that numerous materials were stolen for resale.

“Very often the construction materials do not reach the population, we lack exchange with the people and popular control over these processes; we must pay more attention to the states of opinion of the people, but we cannot allow them to divert [i.e. steal] resources to the places they were not assigned to.”

Many of these thefts end up being produced by the scarcity of materials, which not only does not allow the completion of new works, but also prevents the repairs of faults in existing ones. At the end of February, the director of the Siguaney Cement Company, in Sancti Spíritus, revealed that the Government had given the order to send gray cement to stores that only take payment in freely convertible currency (MLC) instead of exporting it as was done before, so that it was assured that it would stayed in the country. However, the prices in these establishments are unattainable for many Cubans, not to mention those who only have national currency.

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Cuba’s Family Code, Including ‘Gestation Solidarity’, Is Ready for Review

A recognition within Cuba’s new Family Code is “full equality between women and men”, including “care among all members.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2022 — Cubans now have the new Family Code available for review, which will be submitted to popular consultation between February 1 and April 30. The text, which was approved in its twenty-third version by the National Assembly on December 21, was published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette.

In it, as announced in the previous version of the document, same-sex marriage is recognized, defining it as “the voluntarily agreed union of two people with legal aptitude for it, in order to live together, on the basis of affection, mutual love and respect.”

Similarly, the de facto union is included, “established between two people for the purpose of carrying out a life project in common, sustained by affection, in a lasting or stable way.”

Another recognition within families in the new provisions is “full equality between women and men, equal distribution of time spent on domestic work and care among all family members, without overloading any of them.”

The new Family Code, which will replace the previous one, from 1975, “breaks paradigms” and is based on “inclusion,” said Leonardo Pérez Gallardo, professor at the Law School of the University of Havana. continue reading

Thus, in the first pages the right to “full development of sexual and reproductive rights in the family environment is recognized regardless of sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability status or any other personal circumstance,” although, the document specifies, “age-appropriate.”

The Code, as was also known from the previous version of the bill, eliminates child marriage, which until now was allowed in Cuba with parental permission from the age of 14 for girls and 16 for boys.

One of the most striking novelties of the new civil norm is the recognition of the right to form a family and, with it, assisted reproduction and, notoriously, “solidarity gestation.”

Also called surrogacy, which consists of implanting a fertilized egg in a “surrogate” woman, who has no biological relationship with the future child, is a very controversial option, allowed in very few countries. It is only regulated in Canada, some US states, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Greece, UK, Australia, and India, and subject to many conditions.

In the case of the Family Code that will be subject to debate, it is established that “it proceeds between people united by family or emotionally close ties, for the benefit of women with some medical pathology that prevents them from pregnancy, sterile people, single men or couples of men, provided that the health of those involved in the medical procedure is not endangered.”

Foreigners are not excluded in the rule, with which it is understood that they may resort to this process, for which, according to the text, “any type of remuneration is prohibited.” The exception to this is “the legal obligation to provide food to support the conceived and compensation for expenses generated by pregnancy and childbirth.”

In any case, determines the new Code, the parties require “judicial authorization.”

For a judge to grant this permission, they will take into account, among other requirements, that “the use of another assisted reproduction technique has been exhausted or has failed,” and if “the best interests of the girl or boy that may be born have been taken into account,” the full discernment and good health of the future pregnant woman and that she has not previously undergone a similar process.

The Cuban Government has not yet reported when — after the Code has been the subject of popular consultation — it will be submitted to a referendum.

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