14ymedio – Page 234 – Translating Cuba

Cuba’s Language of Power, a Soviet Legacy

Cuban chancellor Bruno Rodriguez during a press conference for foreign journalists after protests on July 11 in Havana. (Captura)

14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, February 1, 2022 — Every time their country’s foreign minister holds a press conference, Cubans do not know whether to laugh or cry. We have become so accustomed to certain expressions that they seem to have been lifted from a template. If we examine, for example, statements issued by the ministry in recent years, we will find the phrase “strong rejections” repeated ad nauseam. Perhaps this is simply a question of poor word choice, or maybe it is due to the overconsumption of an energy drink, but the truth is that officials use the same expression all the time in reaction to any criticism.

Needless to say, the cynicism of “comrade” Bruno is unparalleled in history. His statements after the July 11 protests left everyone speechless. The foreign minister flatly denied that a massive display of popular discontent had occurred, denied that the government was engaging in any form of repression and swore that no minors were being detained. Sir, we were there; we saw it with our own eyes; it was recorded on countless videos! I do not know what is worse: what he says or the way he says it. Rodriguez drives the most dispassionate among us to exasperation with his inability to speak in a steady cadence instead of in his usual staccato.

The Cuban regime believes there is no one on the planet with the moral authority to condemn the repeated violations of human rights that are committed on the island. There is the dictatorship, sitting like a matchmaker on a UN commission that purports to ensure compliance with those same rights. And there it will remain, fanning itself until next year, while hundreds of Cuban mothers weep over their unjustly imprisoned children, while so many activists are harassed and repressed by the political police, while people risk their lives to escape the country at any price. And if anyone in the world dares to point a finger at its tyranny, the regime’s representatives will undoubtedly resort to the perfect strategy for getting out of trouble: whataboutism.

This tactic, devised by the Soviets, was used by the Kremlin to deal with criticism. Its delegates shamelessly responded to any accusation with a question: What about…? This involved citing an example of similar behavior continue reading

in another part of the world. In this way, they lessened the impact of accusations against them, questioned the legitimacy of whoever had made the criticism and momentarily got out of a sticky situation. Whataboutism was a kind of “enchanted shrimp”* used to escape a tight spot.

Of course, this is not the only technique Cuban diplomats copied from their Soviet instructors. Who can forget “the shoe incident” at the 1960 General Assembly? During a discussion on colonialism, the head of the Phillipine delegation accused the USSR of also being a colonial power that subjugated other countries. Nikita Khrushchev then took off one of his shoes and began angrily pounding the table. Fifty-eight years later, a group of Cuban diplomats, faithful disciples of this “flip-flop policy,” shut down a UN event at which the issue of political prisoners was to be discussed.

One of the participants, however, was a distinguished former member of the Young Pioneers, Anayansi Rodriguez. The nightly TV news show, Noticiero Estelar, celebrated her self-assurance at the event as though it were something admirable. Meanwhile, half the world looked on aghast, head in hands. I should clarify that I have nothing against reparterismo.** But it requires an ability to “swing” in a way not taught at the “Nico Lopez” Party School or the Raul Roa Higher Institute of International Relations. Of course, she was later rewarded with the post of vice-minister. It would come as no surprise if, in a few months, she replaced Bruno himself.

Whataboutism is the favored tool of aspiring Cuban diplomats. With absolutely no credible arguments to use in defense a decadent, abusive regime, the only recourse they have is to try to turn the tables. It is undeniable that the regime commits crimes on a daily basis. “But so what? Everyone does it.” And as the world turns, hypocrisy, cynicism and apathy spread like a cancer through the body of civility.

Translator’s notes:
*Reference to a short story for children, “El Camarón Encantado“, by Jose Martí.
** A popular form of street dance music.
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US Urges its Partners to ‘Join in the Demand’ for the Release of Cuban Artist Otero Alcantara

Otero Alcántara during a live broadcast from his home in Old Havana, in May 2021. (Screen capture)

14ymedio/ EFE, Washington/Madrid, 3 February 2022 — The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who had been held incommunicado since January 18, called his family on Wednesday. According to art curator Claudia Genlui in a Facebook post, the leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) “is alive, but very weak and damaged.” The artist “maintains his hunger strike as well as all the demands that led him to such a drastic situation in recent days,” continues Genlui, who reports that he also maintains his position of “giving up the scarce resources he has as a prisoner: visits, calls, provisions.”

“He declares himself innocent and with the right to take, unconditionally, the decisions that concern him, for which he reiterates that the decisions to be able to travel are determined by him alone,” says the activist, alluding to possible negotiations that might culminate, as in the case of Hamlet Lavastida, in the release of Alcántara in exchange for exile. “Luis is a prisoner for being born, being and wanting to remain in Cuba,” says Genlui.

Also on Wednesday, the United States Government demanded the immediate release of the artist and dissident, denouncing that he was incommunicado and without access to his lawyer.

“The Cuban regime has held activist & dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara incommunicado since Jan. 18,” the administrator of the United States Agency for Development Cooperation (USAID), Samantha Power, wrote on Twitter. continue reading

“We urge our international partners to join us & demand his immediate freedom,” she added. Otero Alcántara began a hunger strike in the Guanajay prison in January approximately 20 days ago, according to the MSI.

The activist believes that the Cuban authorities are “keeping him as a bargaining chip” and looking for the right moment to release him if he leaves the country, something that he does not want to lend himself to.

He made this decision shortly after the prosecution rejected his request to change the precautionary measure that weighs on him, and to release him pending trial, after more than six months in preventive detention.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been in prison since July 11, before he was able to join the spontaneous anti-government protests of that day, and is accused of public disorder, incitement to commit a crime, and contempt.

These crimes were charged to him when, in April 2021, he attended a birthday party in which the residents of the neighborhood where he resides ended up singing Patria y Vida. Although he was free pending trial, he was arrested and imprisoned on July 11 when protests began across the country.

In 2019 he was also accused of “insulting national symbols” for a performance with a Cuban flag, although the case was dismissed in 2020.

He has previously carried out two significant hunger and thirst strikes. The first was in November 2020, to demand the release of rapper Denis Solís, and ended when the police stormed the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, where he and other activists were gathered, arresting them and putting an end to the demand.

The second was at the end of April, to demand the end of the siege on his home. State Security entered his home at dawn and transferred him to the Calixto García hospital, where he remained for a month controlled by the security forces without explanation.

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Cuba: Is There Really a U.S. Embargo?

While the communist revolution was nourished by huge annual subsidies from the USSR during the height of the cold war, no one spoke of the embargo. (EFE)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, 3 February 2022 — With regard to the embargo, which the official Castrist press has converted into a lightning rod, it is interesting to share some reflections which, for obvious reasons, will be very different from those launched by communist propaganda.

The truth is, taking advantage of the 60th anniversary of the provision that marked the beginning of this United States policy, which has been maintained for a long time though few remember its origins, the official press has organized a coven of propaganda that never fails to attract attention.

For this reason, without wishing to pontificate on a topic on which thousands of articles, books, reports, statements, etc. have been written, my proposal for this blog entry centers on a simple and easy-to-explain decalogue related to the embargo.

1. From 1960 to 1990 no one remembered the embargo.

While the communist revolution was nourished by huge annual subsidies from the USSR during the height of the cold war, no one spoke of the embargo or blockade, except for those days around the time the Soviet missiles arrived in Cuba, which the U.S. Marines forced to be sent back. When the millions dried up, then, with the Special Period in tow, the old embargo argument was dusted off. And so it is today.

2. There is a much more severe internal embargo.

It is the embargo practiced by the communist regime against Cubans, preventing them from having a modern and efficient economic system in which the right to property can be exercised, free elections, the accumulation of assets and wealth, the market as an instrument of resource allocation and free enterprise. This embargo is the one that keeps the Cuban economy impoverished and without a future.

3. An embargo, as such, does not exist; Cuba maintains economic relations with the whole world.

One only needs to observe the data on commercial relations, exports and imports, foreign investment, tourism, etc. Cuba is not limited in establishing economic relationships with whomever it wants, continue reading

as long as it has a need and can offer something in return. Even with the United States, in the form of food and medical equipment for $200 million a year, and more importantly, remittances, valued at $5 billion, from Cubans who had to flee the regime. That has nothing to do with an embargo or a blockade.

4. There has never been an acknowledgment of the events that gave rise to the claims.

One could argue that the revolutionary regime offered to pay legitimate owners for their confiscated property in “junk bonds” backed by the sugar quota provided to the United States, which at that time, could not be met. That is why there has never been a recognition of the damages caused to the legitimate owners by the confiscation of property and much less a willingness on the part of the regime to pay the value of the expropriated assets, as in any other country in the world. The property rights which were the object of nationalization have not died and without a doubt, the claims and acknowledgment of the original owners or their heirs will be fundamental for the return of democracy to Cuba.

5. The United States continues to be the only defender of democracy in Cuba.

The United States has staunchly provided refuge to almost two million Cubans who fled the lack of freedom and prosperity of the communist regime, making it possible for many of them to realize their dreams. Thanks to the United States it is possible to tell the regime in Havana what it is, and what it represents, while observing the shameful and fickle behavior of other democracies, like those of Europe, which sometimes are against and sometimes in favor of the regime. The United States has always stood its ground and that should be recognized. Even bringing Cuban-Americans to the nation’s political institutions, which instills pride and recognizes the value of minorities in that great nation.

6. Three generations of Cubans have grown up with the embargo and they know why.

Escaping the country has been the only outlet for those who detest a forcefully imposed economic and social model which is resistant to change and evolution. For that reason, as soon as people are able to leave the country, they establish themselves in the United States, because despite having been educated about the evils of imperialism, the United States still is and will continue to be, the main reference point for many Cubans. As much as it pains the communist regime.

7. Ideology and propaganda are less and less capable of arguing against the embargo.

The official discourse is being extinguished. The new generations of Cubans do not believe the official language and the obsolete propaganda it exudes. Despite the continuous attacks on the United States and its institutions by the official Cuban press or whomever desires to unburden themselves, Cubans dream of living in the neighboring North, where in addition, they have acquaintances, family, and friends who can help them get ahead. It’s interesting, but it doesn’t occur to any Haitian, Honduran, or Salvadorean to migrate to Cuba; everyone aspires to establish themselves in the United States.

8. The histrionics at the United Nations results in hilarious and irresponsible calculations.

If the calculation of the damages caused by the embargo were actually $144 billion, the revolutionary regime would be making the ridiculous even more absurd by proposing this figure. Let’s think about what that represents, in 60 years, $2.4 billion annually, which is less than one-third of what Cuba receives annually in remittances from the United States. If they wanted to provide figures, they could have put more effort into it.

9. The embargo exists because that is how the communist regime wants it.

There is no room for doubt. It has generated rivers of ink that have allowed Cuba to have something to say to the world, occupy a media space in some newscast. And, above all, to be heard by those who want to fall for it. The David and Goliath of the Bible function in politics and if we consider that neither the end of the cold war, nor globalization, nor the fourth industrial revolution have altered the messages, there is no doubt that the conceptual authors of the embargo, who had an exceptional teacher in Fidel Castro, have been successful in adapting the concept to the times. The regime needs the embargo, just as it needs to identify the United States as an enemy. It is profitable.

10. The embargo served so that some Cubans live much better than others, within Cuba.

There is no doubt about it. The top leaders live oblivious to hardships of an unproductive economy and their pay is more than sufficient to justify the false submission to orders of the singular party. Those with access to dollars, around 30% of the Cuban population with family abroad, may live even better and the regime’s creation of MLC stores [stores that sell goods in hard currency] clearly indicates that it wants to make them privileged so as to access that hard currency.

All these considerations could raise the primary question, which is none other than, is there really a United States embargo on Cuba? Review other similar situations throughout history and you will see how much difference could be produced and which masterful techniques could be used to take advantage of things. The best thing about this is that the embargo, if it exists, has an expiration date: a democratic and free Cuba. And this has never been recognized by the communist revolutionaries. Why would that be?

This article was originally published in the author’s blog, Cubaeconomía.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Without Salary and Without Protection: This is How Cuban Inmates Work in Charcoal for Export

Cuban charcoal is currently one of the most valuable items for export. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 31 January 2022 — They stack the sacks of charcoal on top of the truck, and as the sun gets stronger, their sweat mixes with the soot on their skin. There are dozens of prisoners who work for the State-owned Various Production Company (Provari) in Sancti Spíritus and, although the merchandise they transport is for export, they do not receive any salary for their hard work.

“They don’t pay us a single peso and we know that they sell a ton of charcoal for about 400 euros,” complains one of the prisoners who has been carrying sacks for weeks and also working on the preparation of the ovens, the sifting of the charcoal and the composition of the bags. “This is a job I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and without pay, it’s even worse,” he laments.

“They don’t pay us because they say that we have to see this as one of our benefits, being here working in the open air, because the other option is to go to the Nieves Morejón prison, which is a closed place, a hole,” he explained to 14ymedio. “They tell us that we are privileged and that there are many prisoners in jail who would like to take our place.” continue reading

“They don’t pay us because they say that we have to see this as one of our benefits, of being here working in the open-air, because the other option is to go to the Nieves Morejón prison”

The prisoners are being held at the Banao 6 Work Farm, a former pre-university school converted into a labor camp for inmates that is advertised at its entrance as the Union Reeducation Center. The inmates work in the nearby fields through contracts with Provari, a company managed by the Ministry of the Interior, whose director is Lieutenant Colonel Juan Luis Baffil Rodríguez.

Every month, the prisoners of Banao 6 take out up to four containers full of the product, with a minimum of 18.5 tons each. “It is a long-lasting charcoal, highly appreciated because it burns slowly,” explains the prisoner who complains that they do not have specialized masks to protect themselves, girdles, gloves, boots or adequate clothing. Even the charcoal sifter is an invention by the hands of prisoners.

“We sift by hand, while we move the charcoal on the plates, all that dust that comes out when we remove the carbon and the smaller charcoal pieces that cannot be exported falls on us,” explains the worker. “We should have a professional device for that, but there isn’t one, so we had to make it ourselves.”

“We have practically no means of protection, people come to work in rags and covering their faces with a piece of cloth. Sometimes, at the end of the day, we can’t even see because of all the soot that got into our eyes that are tearing all the time,” explains Juan Carlos, one of the prisoners who works with Provari in Sancti Spíritus.

In Sancti Spiritus, Provari is also dedicated to the production of furniture, cleaning products, insecticides and the assembly of vehicles. Prisons act as intermediaries between the military company and the inmates. In theory, Provari is supposed to provide the prisoners with clothing and tools, and the cost of those supplies is subtracted from the final payment they should receive for their work.

“When we ask, they tell us that Provari is paying the Directorate of Jails and Prisons, but the money never reaches the hands of the prisoners”

However, in the production of charcoal managed by the military in Sancti Spíritus, these commitments are not fulfilled. The inmates work without pay and in appalling conditions, producing three product categories, of which the first and second are exported because they are of better quality, and the third stays in Cuba for state-owned companies, local producers, pharmacies and for sale to private clients.

“When we ask, they tell us that Provari is paying the Directorate of Jails and Prisons, but the money never reaches the hands of the prisoners,” claims another of those affected. “Some say one thing and others another, but in reality, we are the ones who do not receive anything.”

This is not the first time that Provari has been at the center of the complaints. In 2014, it had already been singled out for using “slave workers” who worked “with little security” and received low wages or were paid nothing, according to an extensive article published in El Nuevo Herald.

That same year, reports circulated that the Swedish chain Ikea and a company from communist Germany had contracted in 1987 the state-owned Export-Import Company of Technical Supplies (Emiat) to use the labor of prisoners in the manufacture of furniture. The quality of the products already made was not good, according to several documents found in the Stasi archives.

After that scandal, Emiat’s relationship with Provari, created during the economic crisis of the 1990s as a provider of labor, was made public. This gives prisoners the chance to “integrate into useful work for society,” an employee of the Emiat office in the Havana municipality of Marianao explains by phone to 14ymedio.

Both Emiat and Provari are part of the list of entities penalized by the US Department of State and commercial links with them are banned for North American companies. However, in 2015, Provari presented its catalog for foreign investment in Havana, which includes the production of charcoal, aerosols and disposable items.

“You’ll stand out if you don’t want to do it, and that can affect the time you have left in jail, if they give you a reduction or not for good behavior. It’s practically mandatory”

The exploitation continues, and several inmates consulted by this newspaper allege that they cannot say “no” when they are assigned to work in the charcoal. “You’ll stand out if you don’t want to do it, and that can affect the time you have left in jail, if they give you a reduction or not for good behavior. It is practically mandatory because I have not met anyone who has refused, nobody wants to mark themselves like that,” says one of them.

“Before, we also worked in agriculture, which is hard but not as hard as charcoal, which destroys your health. There are people here who can’t even sleep at night because of coughing after carrying sacks all day,” he adds. “But in this area, there is more and more land dedicated to charcoal so there are not many options.”

The production of charcoal for international sale has increased in recent years in Cuba and the central provinces, such as Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus, have jumped on the bandwagon of growing their local production, especially from marabou, an invasive weed that has spread through Cuban fields and seriously limits the cultivation of other plants.

The charcoal that is made on the island is obtained from the artisanal method of heaps, by which the wood is stacked on the ground and covered with earth. Experts extol the good qualities of the Cuban product for its “glossy black color, metallic sound to the touch, absence of carbon, ashes or other particles.”

Charcoal is sold in Europe for 400 euros per ton and its export grows year after year. In 2013, 70,200 tons left the Island for Germany, Belgium, Canada, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Israel, Portugal and Turkey, a significant increase in relation to the 40,000 tons of 2012.

Cuban charcoal already packaged for sale. (ACN)

The Ministry of Agriculture has even confirmed that after tobacco, charcoal is the item that brings in the most foreign exchange from its sale abroad and currently production is close to 80,000 tons per year.

In 2017, the first export of charcoal from Cuba to the United States was announced with great fanfare through the company Coabana Trading LLC, a subsidiary of Reneo Consulting. In an agreement signed with the state-owned Cubaexport, the operation marked “the beginning of a new era of trade between the US and Cuba,” Scott Gilbert, president of Reneo Consulting, said at the time.

Shortly after, a video filmed by activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in the Río Cauto municipality denounced the exploitation of the prisoners of the Jucarito prison who worked in the production of charcoal, also managed by Provari.

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Havana’s Most Desired ‘Japanese Ladies’* Still Don’t Appear

The keys of the buses donated by Japan were delivered last Saturday, but they still are not circulating through the streets of Havana and no concrete date is set. (RHC)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 February 2022 — “Well, finally the new buses, what? Are they running or not?” a passenger asked the driver on the A40 route last Tuesday, arriving in Guanabo, where the journey ends. “They say Saturday,” he replied. Skeptical, a girl who was about to get off murmured: “Everyone knows how things work in this country, I doubt very much that we will see them anytime soon.”

So far, the passenger’s prediction is fulfilled. The 84 Japanese buses that arrived on January 13 to renew the beleaguered Havana fleet are still not circulating despite the fact that the governor of Havana, Reinaldo García Zapata, asked to speed up putting them in service.

The terminal of the beach town of Guanabo, located in the municipality of Habana del Este, is one that will benefit the most from the acquisition of the new Isuzu models, since of the 84 Japanese buses, 59 are destined for this base.

A week ago, the A40 line stop located in front of the Havana Wall roundabout, on Desamparados street, was overwhelmed with people. Everyone waited with uncertainty for one of the brand new buses to arrive at any moment, but the same old ones kept showing up.

Already inside one of the old units, visibly deteriorated, the problems began, this time due to capacity. At the stop located in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a transport inspector stopped the bus and demanded that the driver who stopped board more passengers.

“The bus is already full and we are in a new wave of covid,” the driver replied, but the inspector, standing in front of the bus and hitting the vehicle with his fist, insisted on increasing the number of passengers. continue reading

A police officer who was heading to her house made her way from the back of the vehicle to try to calm things down. Two plainclothes officers also ran to the scene to help avoid a fight breaking out.

Citizens continue to travel packed in tight while they wait for the long-awaited buses to be put in service. (14ymedio)

The altercation ended when the driver, very upset, ended up opening the doors for everyone waiting at the stop to enter. “Let everyone get on and now. Let’s die with the omicron,” he protested before starting off visibly grumpy. The passengers, overwhelmed by the crowd, hoped that the journey would be short. “I hope that it won’t be long before they put the new buses on, because we look like sardines in a can,” said one of them.

At the height of Alamar, after about 30 minutes of travel, a worker from the company got on and told the driver that the new vehicles from Japan would be working on Saturday, January 29, although he had doubts about it. “We’ll see, because there aren’t even enough drivers,” he said. According to what he had heard, the transport company was trying to solve the problem by looking for drivers from other bases who were classified as ’interrupted’ (temporarily unemployed workers), “although it is difficult for many to show up, because of how far Guanabo is from the rest of the city.”

Finally, on Friday, January 28, and coinciding with the birthday of José Martí, the official press published an article about the long-awaited buses with the title ’Urban buses donated by Japan are ready’. At the event were Hirata Kenji, Japanese ambassador to the island, and the governor of Havana, who presided over the formal delivery of the Isuzu fleet on the Tarará esplanade.

Symbolically, the keys to ten of these vehicles were handed over at the event.

But Saturday arrived and at the A40 stop there was no trace of the desired buses. “They waited for Martí’s birthday to deliver the buses. They make a circus of everything, to see if it is true that they are rolling today,” said a passenger waiting for the vehicle.

Long minutes later, a bus made the turn around the roundabout, again one of the old ones, to the disappointment of those who were there. A pastry vendor stationed in the area of the crowded stop explained to those present that, despite the fact that a transport inspector had assured him that the new buses would start rolling this Saturday, he had been there for hours and none had appeared. The driver of the route admitted not knowing anything about the new vehicles.

Felicia, an EcoTaxi tricycle driver in the capital, says that last weekend she preferred to rent a car to go with her friends to Guanabo beach, even though they charged 100 pesos per person. “We got to the stop, and it was insane, there were a lot of people,” she explains. “If the problems of transportation and food are not resolved in this country, a social explosion larger than that of 11J will arrive very soon.”

This Monday, the official press mentioned the issue again to affirm that they are working “intensely” to put new vehicles in service as soon as possible. The note explains that the technical inspections and other operational requirements have been carried out without problems, however, the obstacle lies in the poor training of the personnel in charge of driving the vehicles.

The mystery about when they will start circulating is still hanging. “The new buses haven’t come out. I imagine they won’t take that long, but I don’t even know when they’ll come out,” explained a worker at the Guanabo bus stop this Monday to 14ymedio. “We have to wait for the official information that announces the day to start up. For now, we have to keep going with the old ones.”

*Translator’s note: Bus, or in Cuban Spanish “guagua” is a feminine noun.
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The Slavery of Cuban Grandparents, Dedicating All Their Days to Their Grandchildren and Standing in Line

Around 20,000 minors in Cuba live only with their grandparents, since the parents have emigrated, are on official missions abroad or have other jobs. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 February 2022 — “The only thing I have left of my son are my grandchildren and I haven’t been able to see them for three years,” laments Abigail Rojas, 68, a resident of the city of Guantánamo. In 2015, her son lost his life in an accident at work after suffering an electric shock. Shortly after, the young man’s widow moved to Havana, remarried and cut ties with the family of the deceased.

Beyond the well-worn issue of same-sex marriage, the focus of attention on the Family Code — the debate on which began this Tuesday in 78,000 meeting points distributed throughout the Island — the draft bill provides rights for grandparents who, if they do not remain a dead letter, could solve some of the problems that older people in Cuba suffer the most.

“At first I saw the photos of my grandchildren on Facebook, but then she made her account private and I couldn’t keep watching how they grew up; the youngest is seven and the oldest is nine years old,” Rojas details. “I don’t know her address or her phone number in Havana because she has never given it to me, I know they haven’t left the country because recently a friend of mine ran into them on the street.”

“Why don’t I have the right to visit my grandchildren?” asks the grandfather. “If my son were alive, he would have the right to have the children with him for a few days, but since he died, the mother thinks that she no longer has to maintain the relationship with the paternal grandparents.” Rojas fears that “one day they will prepare the trip, leave Cuba and I will never see them again.” continue reading

The current Family Code, which dates back to 1975, provides that in case of separation, communication with “that of the parents to whom the custody and care of the minor children is not conferred” is preserved. With the current one, it is mandatory that parents respect and facilitate the maintenance of a system of “family communication with their grandmothers and grandfathers and other relatives or people with whom they have a significant affective bond.”

In addition, this thread of contact is considered, in article 156, a right for grandparents.

The population census carried out in Cuba in 2012 revealed that on the island 64% of families live with an older adult and most of these develop a “grandparent role.” Around 20,000 minors in Cuba live only with their grandparents, since the parents have emigrated, are on official missions abroad or have other jobs. The figure may have increased considerably in the last decade.

The new Family Code was hyped as “more inclusive of the elderly.” This is what Dr. Fernández Seco underlined in the official press, adding that it is a project that “is essential to improve the quality of life and the rights of older adults.”

As explained by the specialist, the content of the current proposal highlights “the greatest autonomy for an inclusive old age,” since it will allow the elderly to determine the person who will care for them or support them in legal, personal and patrimonial matters, as well as “the free development of personality” in old age.

It is precisely this right that is in question due to a cultural dynamic that the country has made its own and according to which the elderly see their right to enjoy this period of their lives curtailed because they have to take care of their grandchildren as if they were their children.

Lázara remembers her grandmother taking her to school, cooking for her, and attending parent meetings. Since then, more than 40 years have passed and she now has two grandchildren who are “full-time workers.” With no time for anything other than standing in line and taking care of children, she trusts that the new Family Code supports grandparents, a forgotten part of the rights within Cuban homes.

Until a couple of years ago, Lázara attended the activities of the Circle of Grandparents organized by the polyclinic in her area, but the arrival of the pandemic interrupted those activities and now “everyone is at home or lining up all day,” she acknowledges. The rigors of isolation and the economic crisis have represented a severe blow for those over 60 on the Island.

“I spend my time in lines and I don’t even have time to dye my hair,” she tells 14ymedio. “I feel sorry for my children because they are trying to make a living, but nobody asks me if I want to dedicate myself to my grandchildren and lines all day, it’s like it’s something I have to do and that’s it. My life is to support them, but that does not carry a salary, nor vacations nor rest.”

Veronica, in her 70s, used to sing in a choir to pass her free time. She lives with her daughters in a colonial house in Old Havana and the care of one of her granddaughters falls on her shoulders. “She practically has no personal life, she can hardly ever do what she likes, which is to go to the activities of the elderly to dance, sing, have fun in the choir,” admits one of her daughters.

The child’s parents signed her up for Spanish dance classes but it’s up to her grandmother to drop her off and pick her up at each session. “She is a total slave, after she raised her children, now she is raising her granddaughter,” laments the woman, who can do little to relieve her mother of the workload imposed on her by her sister and her husband.

“My sister always wants to leave the girl with my mother who has a spinal disease and cannot stand for long. With the pandemic, they could not send her to school and since my sister did not want to stop working, it was my mother who had to take do of all the childcare, cooking and everything else.” In the end, she “ended up at the doctor’s with a pain crisis that lasted for months.”

Marcelo is 78 years old and has been in charge of his two granddaughters since his daughter emigrated through the Darién jungle to arrive in the United States in 2015. “The first three years I had to support the two girls out of my own pocket because my daughter couldn’t send any money and now, when she manages to collect something, she sends it but there is no frequency or a fixed amount,” he laments.

The pensioner has had to assume everything. “The girls became teenagers and I have even had to stand in line to buy their ’intimate’ supplies at the pharmacy, take them to the doctor, keep up with how they are doing at school. When I thought I had finished all this with my daughter, I had to start over with my granddaughters,” he laments. “Everyone thinks it’s normal, that this is what I should do.”

Thus, at this point in life, Marcelo has to perform magic to support himself and his two granddaughters with a pension of less than 2,000 pesos. “Every time I’ve gone to look into receiving some kind of state financial aid, they tell me that this is contemplated for mothers but not for grandparents, so I hope that with the new Family Code I have some right of that type.”

“I also don’t know how the obligations of the emigrated parents are going to turn out, because the girls’ father also emigrated a few years ago and has never sent a penny,” he explains to this newspaper. “In other words, I have all the responsibilities with the two girls but almost no rights over them because I am the grandfather and after more than five years raising them, if one of the parents wants to take them, I have no power to oppose or demand certain conditions for them to leave the country.”

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Mother of 11 July Protestor Released, While Cuban Prosecutor asks for 23 Years in Prison for her Minor Son

Demonstration of activists and relatives in the Juan Delgado Park in Havana, in favor of the 11J prisoners tried in the court of Diez de Octubre this week. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2022 — A total of 14 people were arrested this Monday for demonstrating in favor of those arrested on July 11, who are being tried this week in the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, in Havana. Many of them were beaten, according to the Justicia 11J group based on information from several witnesses, “including an old woman and an 18-year-old girl.”

According to the organization in a Facebook post, the art historian Carolina Barrero, who was reported missing for several hours, was at the La Lisa police station, and Camila Rodríguez, coordinator of Justicia 11J, was at the San Miguel del Padrón station, “under interrogation and threats of being accused of ’public disorder’.” The activists were released on Tuesday afternoon.

Hours earlier, the rest of the detainees had been released, including Yudinela Castro, mother of the minor Rowland Castillo Castro who was imprisoned for the 11J protest (with the prosecutor requesting a 23-year sentence), and the activist Daniela Rojo, who was also imprisoned for the July demonstrations. continue reading

Numerous relatives of Duannis León Taboada, who faces a prosecutor’s request for 21 years in prison, were also arrested: Daniela Aracelis León, Melanie Lilian Rodríguez Taboada, Raisa Belkis Ortiz González, Lisandra de la Caridad González Ortiz, Lilian Yudisleidys González Ortiz, Nélida Oleida Ortiz González and one more close friend whose name was not disclosed.

In addition, Arian Cruz Tata Poet, Alexander Hall and Leonardo Romero were detained for a few hours at the El Cotorro station.

The peaceful demonstration, which took place in the Juan Delgado park, where participants held hands in prayer and shouted slogans such as “freedom” and “they are heroes,” “was immediately answered with repression,” says Justicia 11J.

The platform claims to have received testimonies that the defendants, “moved by the support, joined in the protest by hitting the floor of the truck in which they were being transported back to prison and shouting ’freedom’.”

There are 33 demonstrators accused of “sedition” for protesting on 11J at the corner of Toyo, the place that presented the most iconic image of that day: a young man waving the Cuban flag while standing on an overturned police car.

This group includes six minors under 18 years of age, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requests sentences of between 13 and 23 years in prison: Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, Kendry Miranda Cárdenas, Brandon David Becerra Curbelo, Nayn Luis Marcos Molinet, Lázaro Noel Urgelles Fajardo and Giuseppe Belaunzarán Guada.

Far from heeding the calls of civil organizations regarding the violation of the rights of these minors under 18 years of age, the authorities continue to emphasize that the legal age of majority in Cuba is 16 years of age, and they mention the cases of protests by young people in The United Kingdom or the United States, without alluding to the fact that in no case, in those countries, have minors faced long prison sentences for throwing stones.

Also without mentioning these trials, but in a clear allusion to the discontent of young Cubans, Miguel Díaz-Canel said this Monday, at the first Council of Ministers of the year, that they will launch “a program of care for children and youth, where a more cultured, elevated, comprehensive response is demanded from all the institutions involved in the education and training of the new generations.”

The president also highlighted the role of the Communist Party of Cuba “in the defense of the socialist homeland, in safeguarding order and citizen tranquility, and as the superior leading force of society and the State,” with two objectives: “unity and continuity.”

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‘I Will Never Abandon My Son,’ Warns the Mother of a Young Cuban Accused of Sedition for July 11th (11J)

Yudinela Castro demanded the immediate release of her son, Rowland Jesús Castillo, one of the July 11th (11J) protesters. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 February 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, one of the 33 defendants being tried this week in the Municipal Tribunal of Diez de Octubre for his participation in the July 11 protests, answers every call to her cell phone on Wednesday. “I am here to denounce what is happening,” she assured 14ymedio.

The young man is facing a 23-year sentence sought by the prosecutor for sedition, one of the longest faced by those in the group which protested near the corner of Toyo in Havana, against whom the proceedings began on Monday. “I will continue fighting for his freedom, whatever it takes,” clarified his mother. On Wednesday she’s had her phone on all day, she says, because she does not feel well — she has cancer — and she couldn’t go to the trial. Thursday, she will return to the tribunal.

Monday she was near Juan Delgado Park along with other mothers, in peaceful protest, “We said several prayers while holding hands, for our children.”

The day ended with Castro’s violent arrest and that of 14 other people, among them family members of the accused and activists who arrived to support them. “Around four in the afternoon we saw the trucks, which would be used to transport the guys, approaching. Then a bus arrived, in which they transported those of us arrested at the park.” continue reading

Some of those were taken to Villa Marista, she says, and others like herself to the San Miguel del Padrón police station. “We had to wait until 11 at night for the State Security agents to interrogate us. One of them, agent Denis, told me that I was associating with counterrevolutionaries and terrorists.”

The mother stated that she was unable to access the courtroom on Monday, “due to pressure from State Security,” although her husband went in her place (they only allow one family member of each defendant to attend, which has been denounced by civil society organizations on the Island and abroad) and that finally on Tuesday, she was present.

“Agent Denis also threatened to send my son to a prison in Guantánamo, very far from Havana, when he was indicted. He said that if I continue demanding and protesting, that’s what would happen, so I responded that wherever they send him outside of Pinar del Río, Santiago de Cuba, or the Isle of Youth, I’d go there as well. If I need to move to Guantánamo, I’ll go. I will never abandon my son,” clamored Castro.

With regards to the trail, she says that on Monday they presented testimonies of the accused and on Tuesday, the statements of the police officers who participated in repressing the protests that Sunday. “The testimonies of the police officers were incoherent, one criminal investigator was even admonished by the courtroom secretary for his despotic attitude,” she said. She continued, “The young people’s defense attorneys asked this official many questions to the point where he decided to leave the courtroom, and not continue testifying.”

Although Yudinela Castro lives in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, the events for which her son is being tried are related to the neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Diez de Octubre, where the young man’s father lives, and with whom he spends several days each month, especially when his mother’s health suffers a relapse due to her oncological condition.

“I know almost all those kids because they’ve been friends with my son since they were little,” she says. “They are good kids and now they are in the Occidente de Guatao Juvenile Prison.”

On Tuesday at the tribunal, she says, they played a video to show that those who are being tried were present at the protests. However, she says, “they did not play the other parts I’ve seen on the cell phones of people who filmed on the street near Toyo, which show the police shooting.”

“My son cannot spend another day in that prison, enduring all of the necessities of a prison in Cuba,” she claims. “After I raised my voice requesting his freedom and they arrested me in a violent manner, yesterday they allowed me to see him for 20 minutes, they granted me that possibility because I protested. Otherwise, they would not have given me that.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Graffiti, Demonstrations, and Even Masses: Forms of Protest during the Month of January in Cuba

Some of the anti-government protest signs which appeared on the streets of Cuba in January. (Cuban Conflict Observatory)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2022 — Growing repression in Cuba has not prevented anti-government demonstrations. According to the latest report from the Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC), a total of 275 protests occurred in January, the majority (175 or 65%) of which were politically motivated, and among them, 160 had to do with prisoners detained as a result of the July 11th (11J) protests.

“This is highly significant if you consider that since July 11, 2021, Cuban society has endured state terrorism, the extent, brutality, and magnitude of which had not been seen before the largest national rebellion,” states the OCC in its report. “As evidenced in the ongoing trials, any peaceful participant of the protests–even if they are a minor and only expressed themselves on social media–could be sentenced to between 5 and 20 years in prison.

The protests, the Observatory explains, have manifested themselves mostly as “individual or small group actions,” such as painting graffiti or signs, celebrating masses, or posting videos and photos on social media. This strategy has the goal, says the organization of continuing to have “visibility and impact,” while limiting “the risk of repression faced by its implementers.”

The Miami-based NGO compares these figures with those of June 2021, when 240 protests occurred. “The number of monthly protests is an indicator of governability, but the current psychological and material context in which they occur confers immediate severity upon them,” argued the Observatory, which assures that “the hyperinflation predicted by economists is a bad omen” for the government in 2022. continue reading

Last month, the number of protests for economic and social reasons reached over a hundred. These were focused, the organization states, on “the inflationary consequences” of the “Ordering Task*” and the “denunciations” of GAESA, the military conglomerate whose ’tsar’, General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, was revealed to Cubans, according to OCC, but also focused on citizen insecurity and domestic violence.

In this regard, the report stresses the “wave of crime” affecting the Island, exemplified primarily in the number of thefts reported on social media and the independent press, the control of which “the State seems unable or uninterested in prioritizing.”

The OCC highlighted the victory of two of the protests in January: one in Santiago de Cuba, where they closed a pediatric nephrology center and assigned the building to “an unidentified person or entity,” which resulted in the return of the house to the Ministry of Public Health; and the other was the response of the same ministry, which improved supply issues in the Clinical Surgical Hospital in Havana following the appearance of accusations in the independent press.

“The government actions and omissions further weaken governability instead of strengthening it,” stated the Observatory, which asserts that “imposing a system of terror, hardening the penal code, continuing to limit private entrepreneurship and increasing control over food production are deepening the conflict.” They conclude, “The protests are simply the symptoms of the systematic disease which consumes Cuban society.”

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

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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For 3,000 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Water Comes Once a Month

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 February 2022 — The lack of water supply in some areas of Pinar del Río has reached a point of insanity. For up to 30 days at a time, 3,000 people in several municipalities in the province’s capital are without any water supply, according to Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez, president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) who visited the area on Tuesday.

The official went to Pinar del Río to announce that the arrival of nine pumping teams, of the 51 teams on the Island, is expected to improve the situation of the territory, which is today the most damaged on the island, although Villa Clara did not lag far behind

Three of these teams will go to the main pipelines, one to the community of Briones Montoto, another to Los Palacios and a fourth will work on re-pumping in the city of Pinar del Río, although no date was given for when families affected by this situation might hope for improvements.

The identified culprits are fundamentally two, the US “blockade” and the “disorderly growth” of the population. “If it were orderly, it would have its infrastructure and we would not have that problem. The analysis points to around 26 settlements that have grown and that today do not receive the service,” said Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman. continue reading

To alleviate the problem, a comprehensive intervention is necessary that includes the pipeline, the distribution network, the storage network and the interior networks that supply the homes.

Workers repair a pipeline in Pinar del Río in 2019 (Juventud Rebelde)

According to Rodríguez Rodríguez, the Council of Ministers approved giving priority to Pinar del Río and Villa Clara in a loan granted by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment. “This will be a source of financing that will allow us to not only to carry out the investment works, but also to sustain them and guarantee the training of the personnel,” who will operate them in the long term

This last issue seems to be of vital importance since the official explained that the pumping equipment that will arrive soon will be assembled and checked by the Water and Sanitation company to ensure its proper functioning since “not a few of those previously supplied have burned out,” according to the provincial newspaper Guerrillero, which did not add who was responsible for these events.

According to the authorities, 1 contract with the University of Pinar del Río will guarantee the improvement of the management processes of the Aqueduct Company and its municipal division.

Serious supply problems force more than 4,000 people to be supplied with tanker trucks, known as pipas, of which more than 3,000 have “cycles of more than one month,” which is how the Cuban bureaucracy describes the frequency with which, in this precarious way, a service as basic as water is delivered.

Less serious, by comparison, seems to be the situation in Mantua, where it is planned to build a pipeline which will and receive water from tanker trucks roughly very seven days. People living in Herradura and Entronque de Herradura experience the same ’drought’ conditions and interventions are also planned there.

Guerrillero notes that the province constructed a 30-inch pipeline last year, replacing one section with another to eliminate deliveries en route and the worst sections of the 36-inch conductor were eliminated to be able to carry water to the city. Judging by the results, it does not seem that the plan is going very well

In 2021, works of more than 4.5 kilometers were carried out on the main pipeline, in addition to 20 kilometers of networks and pipes that have improved supply, according to the official press, “although difficulties still prevail,” they admit. For this year, 418 interventions are planned, of which 148 will be in the provincial capital “as soon as possible.”

On the Island there are problems in more than 240 of the pumping stations, as evidenced by the usual lack of supply in towns ranging from the capital to small rural towns where water is conspicuous by its absence.

However, Cuba has been exporting engineers to South Africa for almost 10 years to help the Department of Water and Sanitation fight that country’s infrastructure problems and share their knowledge.

In turn, the Cuban state-owned company for the maintenance and repair of hydraulic works and the Spanish electrical supply company ERKA recently joined forces in order to offer “comprehensive services to water and sanitation systems in Cuba.” The agreement also provides for diagnosis, construction, repair, rehabilitation, assembly, start-up and after-sales services, as well as a guarantee on networks and facilities on the Island.

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Religious Fundamentalism in Cuba Does Not Represent a Threat to the Regime

Adiel González Maimó, 31, belongs to the Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba (FIBAC). (Jancel Moreno)

14ymedio, Javier Roque Martínez, Havana, 1 February 2022 — Adiel González Maimó, English teacher, theologian and leader of one of the communities that make up the Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba (FIBAC), is proof that the Protestant faith is compatible with the defense of LGBTI rights.

At the age of 20, he realized that “he could be a Baptist Christian and love another man without being condemned to hell” within this denomination, which belongs to the official Cuban Council of Churches and is the only one that ordains women.

González, included among the most influential queer people of 2021 by the Cuban platform 11M , speaks in this interview about the relationship between churches and the State and the Family Code bill, which recognizes rights long demanded by the LGBTI community , whose debates begin this Tuesday.

14ymedio. How do you foresee the participation of conservative religious activism now in February, when the Family Code is discussed? Will it be an activism on the same level as the one that occurred during the discussion of the Constitution?

Adiel González Maimó. I believe that the activism against the Family Code is going to make itself felt. In fact, they are already organized around the campaign for a school without gender ideology. And after their partial achievement on this issue (Ministerial Resolution 16/2021 whose application was postponed) they are now going to focus on the Family Code.

They are going to oppose the issues of same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, assisted reproduction for same-gender couples, and supportive gestation, which are rights that are directly linked to the LGBTI community, and also [against] an issue that they worries a lot, which is that of parental responsibility. Those are going to be the points that they are going to focus on.

What probably won’t happen is that these churches launch large demonstrations in the streets. First because of the health situation. And, second, because I believe that we are not going to see events like these in Cuba again for a long time, at least not anything of a character contrary to the Cuban Government or to any of the initiatives of the Cuban Government.

14ymedio. In 2018, during the debate on the new Constitution, many churches managed to organize and pressure the State, especially to prevent the recognition of the right to equal marriage. What weight did this have in the visibility that Christianity has gained since then?

AGM. Undoubtedly, 2018 marked a before and after in terms of the visibility of conservative and fundamentalist Christianity. That year something unprecedented happened: different denominations, which generally do not have such close ties – at least institutionally – and that generally do not come together for almost anything, created a united front against article 68. That was a historic event. We are talking about the largest Protestant Churches: the Baptists, the Pentecostals, the Methodists, who formed a front that I call anti-LGTB because, basically, their opposition was to same-sex marriage. continue reading

14ymedio. Some religious groups claim that they actually campaigned more broadly for individual rights, but that all the attention went to the issue of same-sex marriage. Do you think this is a fair claim?

AGM. Their opposition was to same-sex marriage. This was the case, regardless of whether within these Churches there were pastors who advocated a multi-party system or the direct election of the president. There are pastors in the Methodist Church or in the Western Baptist Convention, for example, who have positions contrary to the prevailing political, economic and social system in Cuba, but that does not mean that these are the positions of the denominations. That has to be completely separated. The common agenda was against article 68, not against the Communist Party.

14ymedio. After that, the Alliance of Evangelical Churches was created, an independent organization that in some way challenges the Council of Churches of Cuba. That was also historic.

AGM. Yes, but it was something very ephemeral. The Alliance arises against the Council of Churches, because the Council never ruled against article 68: it gave its members the freedom to freely decide what position to take. The Alliance then arises, but it fractures shortly after because the agenda seemed to take on a more political nuance, different from the traditional anti-LGTBI. So some denominations decided to leave. They never said it publicly, but it is clear that one of the causes was the marked right-wing character that some leaders of these fundamentalist churches were taking. That is why others decided to separate, so that one thing [would not] mix with the other. None of this was explicitly stated, but I read it between the lines.

14ymedio. What do you mean when you say that it began to disintegrate due to the right-wing character of some of its leaders?

AGM. Because its founding leaders had well-known public relations with figures such as Teo Babun and the Evangelical Christian Humanitarian Outreach for Cuba (ECHO-Cuba), an organization considered subversive by the Cuban government and linked at the time to the Donald Trump government.

That is why it was known that this initiative was not going to prosper. And so much so that, three months after its foundation, one of the denominations that created it, the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, left, and with certainty the pressure from the Cuban authorities was a determining factor in this decision.

14ymedio. Do you think then that the Alliance has been a failure?

AGM. I think so. Nothing has been heard of this organization for a long time. They have made no more pronouncements, not even in the face of the events that have occurred in the country in recent months: the demonstrations of July 11, the proposal of [a demonstration on] November 15 or the presentation of the Family Code itself and its approval in the Assembly in December 2021. Nothing has been heard from that organization and I do not think it will be heard from again, unless they are reactivated now, during the popular consultation on the Family Code, where it is proposed to approve equal marriage and other rights that favor the LGBTIQ+ community, which is the only concern of this type of organization.

14ymedio. Is it fair to attribute the non-inclusion of same-sex marriage in the Constitution only to the effect of the campaigns carried out by conservative religious groups, or do you think it was also an issue that divided the ruling party and even society in general?

AGM. No. The non-inclusion of same-sex marriage in the 2019 Constitution was not only due to the campaign unleashed by fundamentalist churches, although it was a key factor. Hetero-patriarchy is an evil that survives in Cuban society, despite the advances that have been achieved in recent decades. That evil was presented with great force in the popular debates around the Constitution and what was then article 68. And, at the same time, it is not a secret to anyone that there was opposition within the leadership of the State and the Cuban Government, in the Communist Party itself and even in the National Assembly of People’s Power.

14ymedio. Several Latin American countries are registering an accelerated growth of the Neo-Pentecostal fundamentalist Churches. Do you think it is the same in Cuba?

AGM. Neo-Pentecostalism is not yet a numerically powerful force in Cuba, as far as I know. Here fundamentalism is more visible in Churches with a longer history of presence and work in our country: the Western and Eastern Baptist Conventions, the Methodist Church, the Evangelical League, the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church and other Pentecostal denominations that have been working in Cuba since the 1950s.

14ymedio. Why do you think Christian fundamentalism has gained strength in Cuba? What are the causes behind this strengthening?

AGM. It was in the 90s of the last century when this phenomenon manifested itself with greater force and visibility. It was the time of the boom of religious practice in Cuba, and not only within Christianity. The reasons are diverse, but without a doubt the collapse of the socialist camp and the infamous Special Period, with all its shortages and challenges, prompted people to seek refuge from the collapse of the entire philosophical and life system they had believed until that moment, with all that this implied in the economic, political-social and ideological spheres. Since then, within the religious sectors that have grown most steadily, the conservative and fundamentalist churches stand out. This is also the case in the rest of Latin America.

In these churches, spaces for socialization and empowerment are created, especially for young people, something that I see as positive. At the same time, many of them emphasize prosperity and economic well-being, all favored by simplistic and sensationalist messages and activities where technology and social networks play an increasingly important role. And in a country like Cuba, where social inequalities and deficiencies in a large part of the population are increasingly pressing, the existence of these spaces of hope and even of escape from daily problems is, without a doubt, attractive.

AGM. Would you say that it is the poorest people who are approaching the Protestant religion?

AGM. In these Churches, the experience of faith is promoted more than critical logic, and that may be a reason why the less favored groups of society, say the poorest, with the lowest (levels of) education, join them. That is a reality, although it hurts to admit it. But this does not mean – because there is sometimes a cliché – that these churches are filled only with marginalized people or groups. That is not entirely true. In these Churches there are also many professionals and educated people, which speaks of the complexity of this phenomenon.

14ymedio. What worries you most about the advance of fundamentalism?

AGM. The point is that the Christian fundamentalist system of thought is uncompromising. It shows an inability to dialogue and refuses to accept alternatives or criticism of their way of understanding a doctrine or another aspect of reality. In addition, it defends the hetero-patriarchal model of family and society. For this reason, it is capable of violating the human rights of communities such as LGBTIQ+ and women.

14ymedio. Several Protestant pastors were imprisoned or repressed after 11J. Do you see a greater distancing of the Churches from the Government since then, including a greater confrontation?

AGM. I do not think there is a [greater] distancing of the denominations from the Government. There were pastors repressed or imprisoned for demonstrating on July 11 and there was a solidarity movement of some other pastors towards them, but since they were released, everything has remained there.

There are Churches whose beliefs do not coincide with the positions of the Cuban Government in many aspects. These Churches have generally declared themselves apolitical. But this is a position of distancing, not of confrontation, although there are pastors who do confront each other more openly. That has been the case historically and has not changed since July 11th.

14ymedio. But some of the Churches that are not recognized by the State have been more activist.

AGM. There are other minority groups, also fundamentalists, who have maintained a position of more opposition, of confrontation, but they are small groups.

And, at the same time, there is a third side: that of the Churches, pastors or ecumenical movements, whose beliefs have points in common with the Cuban Government: groups within the Presbyterian Churches, the Fraternity of Baptist Churches, some independent ones, institutions that belong to the Council of Churches. They are the ones who met with President Díaz-Canel. These groups make criticisms, but they don’t walk away.

14ymedio. Do you think it is possible that Christianity has a relevant role in the opposition to the Cuban regime (as Catholicism had in the fall of communism in Poland, for example)?

AGM. I don’t think so at all. The Churches and their members have different positions regarding the political-social system that exists in Cuba today. Some offer explicit support, without the slightest doubt, although with criticisms of the system; others with a tacit opposition, not open; and, to a lesser extent, an explicit confrontational opposition with the government. But, at the same time, the denominations have interests to take care of so as not to lose their capacity for work and dialogue with the Cuban authorities. That is an inescapable reality, no one can ignore it.

So, yes: opposition initiatives exist, dissidents within the Christian sector exist, as they exist in society as a whole; but at the moment I don’t see it as something significant, something that will make a big difference, beyond the traditional opposition to the approval of rights for the Cuban LGBTIQ+ community.

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Editor’s Note: This work was supported by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IPWR), written by Javier Roque Martínez and edited by 14ymedio. The IPWR is an independent, nonprofit organization that works with the media and civil society to promote positive change in conflict zones, closed societies, and countries in transition around the world.

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U.S. Pears for Sale in Cuba, but Only to Those with Hard Currency

The pears being sold are of the Anjou variety, grown in Oregon and Washington and distributed by CMI Orchards (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, January 31, 2022 — Plump, clean, green pears were for sale on Monday at Galerias Paseo de El Vedado, a hard currency store in Havana, for $0.90. One surprised customer’s face said it all when saw the sticker indicating the fruit’s origin. “American pears in Havana?” she asked the store clerk as she pondered the product. “Yes, yes,” he said. “They’re very good. Nice and sweet.”

The woman, a fifty-year-old who has lived with the U.S. embargo her entire life, asked incredulously, “Can these be imported under the blockade?”

The pears were of the Anjou variety, grown in Oregon and Washington and distributed by CMI Orchards, one of the latter state’s largest producers.

In spite of their high price, the customer could not resist and decided to buy five. “I hope they’re worth it considering how expensive they are,” she sighed as she wandered off with a full shopping bag.

The government as well as official media outlets routinely blame the U.S. “blockade” for all the island’s economic woes without ever mentioning that the country can import American food as well as medicines as long as it pays for them in cash. In fact, the United States is Cuba’s largest supplier of chickens.

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Cuba’s New Penal Code Maintains the Right to Kill

In most cases, the death penalty is applied in the name of defending the interests of the State and the legitimacy of its institutions.

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 31 January 2022 — The death penalty, by firing squad, appears as one of the applicable sanctions in 28 articles of Cuba’s new Penal Code, still pending approval. Also included among the main sanctions are deprivation of liberty, correctional work with and without internment, home confinement, service for the benefit of the community, limitation of liberty, fine and reprimand.

Of all of them, the only irreversible sanction is death and it is imposed, leaving the accused with the hope of reducing it to a life sentence or 30 years in prison, as has happened since an imprecise moratorium was introduced, 19 years ago.

In most cases, this sanction is applied in the name of defending the interests of the State and the legitimacy of its institutions.

This is how it is expressed in the articles numbered from 112 to 116 that refer to the participation in an armed aggression under a foreign flag or engaging in espionage; article 119 typifies the different variables of an armed uprising with the purpose of changing the Constitution or the Government; 121, for those who organize or participate in a social revolt; 123, foresees the action of armed forces insubordinate to the central command or a palace coup, and others where mercenaryism, the violation of maritime or air space, the use of chemical weapons or explosives are mentioned. continue reading

Of particular interest is what is specified in Article 154, according to which the death penalty is imposed on “whoever executes an act against the life, bodily integrity, freedom or safety of any person who, due to the nature of the activities carried out, enjoys relevant recognition in society, or against their closest relatives.”

These crimes against the powers of the State probably do not excite the public enough to provoke enough approval to apply the death penalty; perhaps for this reason, as a “righteous bait” that will surely have the unrestricted support of the population, Article 344, refers to the murder of a person, and becomes explicit when narrating the presumed aggravating circumstances that would justify a sentence to the firing squad.

Among the aggravating circumstances is mentioned that the act has been committed for a price, reward or benefit of any kind; if it has been carried out against a person who is notoriously incapable of adequately defending himself; if it has been motivated by gender discrimination; if the suffering of the victim causing other unnecessary harm deserving execution for the crime; if it involved premeditation; and if, when executing the act, it was done knowing that, at the same time, the life of another person or persons was in danger.

Other aggravating details are added, such as acting out of sadistic impulses or brutal perversity; having illegally deprived the victim of his liberty before killing him; committing the murder with the motive or occasion or as a consequence of committing a crime of robbery with force on objects, robbery with violence or intimidation of people, corruption of minors or sexual assault. It is difficult not to want to punish these atrocities with death.

Once social acceptance of the State’s right to legally kill a citizen is achieved, a dissuasive weapon of enormous power has been achieved to prevent any destabilizing action.

The subject is thorny.

At the end of 2002, the Moderate Opposition for Reflection Roundtable published a Charter of Rights and Duties for Cuban citizens. The first article of that charter, which undoubtedly intended to inspire a new Constitution, stated: “Every Cuban has the right to life. No Cuban may be sentenced to death or executed.” In the debates that arose between various civil society organizations, the most controversial point was precisely that of the abolition of the death penalty.

As a spokesperson for that project, I had the opportunity to hear numerous arguments for and against. I remember what a passionate father of a family used to say, whom I will call Juan Martínez out of elementary discretion: “If someone rapes or kills a child of mine, he deserves the death penalty.” And someone replied: “And what happens if it is your child who rapes or kills another? Do we have to put in the Bill of Rights that the death penalty is correct if the child of Juan Martínez is the victim, but If it turns out that that child is the perpetrator, then it does not proceed.

There was a dramatic silence in the small room where the issue was being discussed. When the controversial point was put to the vote, everyone was in favor of the proposed wording, including the vote of Juan Martínez.

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Petition to the European Parliament to give the Sakharov Prize to the Cubans of 11J

The Council believes that this recognition of 11J would be “a strong message in times of democratic uncertainty.” (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Madrid, 31 January 2022 — The Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba has proposed to the European Parliament that it award the 2022 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression to José Daniel Ferrer, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Félix Navarro Rodríguez as representatives of the July 11th Demonstrators from the spheres of politics, culture and civics and humanitarian empathy.

In a statement signed by its four vice presidents, Marthadela Tamayo, Manuel Cuesta, Juan A. Madrazo and Iris Ruiz, and its Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Elena Larrinaga, the Council believes that this recognition would be “a strong message in times of democratic uncertainty,” and believes that, although the protests last July were spontaneous and nobody had to call them, these three leaders have promoted demands over time that have planted in Cubans the spirit that took them to the streets on that day.

“The three went out to unite and lead, if that were the case, the demonstrations in their respective territories. That is why they were imprisoned exactly on that day or on another,” adds the text, which also recalls that the three are in Cuban prisons. “In the fleetingness of their attempt to accompany the citizens in these days, they communicated the new social fact of Cuban civic and political life: leadership is not in the constituted power, but in the power to be constituted.”

The Council reviews the relationship of each of the candidates with the events of 11J. In the case of Félix Navarro Rodríguez, the citizens managed to prevent his arrest; Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara called on protesters to come out when he saw that protests had already broken out in some cities and he was arrested near the Malecón in Havana; while José Daniel Ferrer marched and was arrested in his city, Santiago de Cuba, where he was being cheered by those demonstrating alongside him. continue reading

“Many protesters are in prison today; these leaders are with them,” claims the text, which ends by assuring that “giving them the 2022 Sakharov Prize would distinguish both the Cuban people and three of its best leaders in a single act of recognition to the new democratic citizenships.”

The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize since 1988, and it is an award named in honor of the Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, which recognizes exceptional individuals and organizations in their defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Endowed with 50,000 euros, since its creation it has been received by personalities such as the South African leader Nelson Mandela, the young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, the Spanish platform ¡Basta Ya! and, this last year, the Russian opponent Alexei Navalni.

In Cuba, the Ladies in White and Guillermo Coco Fariñas have won the award. Fariñas and Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, recently threatened to return the prize if the European Union does not change its policy towards Cuba.

“The Sakharov Prize must be a commitment by all parties to never use diplomatic silence in the face of human rights violations and, even less, in the face of crimes against humanity,” they said in two letters sent to the community institutions.

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In Cuba, Bread and an Ideological Circus for Jose Marti’s Birthday

The animators of the activity invited children and young people to repeat slogans and sing political songs, although without much success, since most of them were focused on reaching for something to put in their mouths. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 January 2022 — “What a way to have bread here!” said a resident of Infanta Street in Central Havana, speaking sarcastically this Friday while waiting to shop at one of the improvised kiosks in Martyrs’ Park where, for the 169th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, the government held a political act accompanied by a food sale.

“I hope they continue to do these fairs, but in the neighborhood bakeries they have a hard time,” added the woman standing on a corner located a short distance from where the teenage Martí was sentenced by the Spanish colony to forced labor in the quarries of Saint Lazarus.

Very early in the morning, the park was decorated with July 26th flags, which had nothing to do with the birth of the national hero, while elementary and high school students were brought to the place to create a supposed crowd that commemorated the date. The animators of the activity invited children and young people to repeat slogans and sing political songs, although without much success, since most of them were focused on reaching for something to put in their mouths. continue reading

The main attraction of the celebration was concentrated in two tents where they offered snacks and bags of bread, an increasingly scarce product on the Island where the lack of flour and other ingredients hits production hard. Nor was it enough to be there. Those who wanted to buy had to form a huge line and as soon as the products were sold out, the rest of the crowd left the place.

“The bread is done, the activity is done,” said one of the last attendees to leave Martyrs’ Park, having barely managed to buy two loaves of bread with their corresponding croquettes.

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