‘If You Eat the Sows Before Taking the Offspring, You End Pig Production’

This year the province of Holguín it is barely expected to reach 2,566 tons of pork, compared to the 8,625 planned. (Granma)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 30 November 2021 — The state swine company Holpor, located in Holguín, has resurrected the recipe for liquid feed for pigs, which was discontinued since the Special Period, with the aim of making the animal’s meat cheaper and increasing its production. This year it is barely expected to reach 2,566 tons of the product, compared to the 8,625 planned, which is already very scarce for what the province demands

On Monday, Bismark Millán Maceo, current director of the state company, explained in the state newspaper Granma that the current price of dry feed is currently reaching 8,000 or 10,000 pesos per ton and that, even when it is the lowest cost, the figure reaches at least 3,000 pesos. Against this, the same amount of liquid feed will cost between 1,500 and 2,000 pesos according to the company’s calculations.

To make this food again, the company will have to start up the liquid feed plant, dismantled in the 90s due to the crisis of that time. Millán considers it sensible that production stopped at that time, but not that the equipment was dismantled and sold to other companies, including the recovery of raw materials.

However, both he and the general director of the company, Yosvel Sarmiento Peña, are in favor of the recovery of the industry, which is part of the projects that the Government has going out to 2030, since, in its opinion, it will lower costs of pork production.

The prices of dry feed have tripled compared to before the pandemic. As an alternative, Holpor is making feed with domestically produced corn, but the quantity falls short. “Currently, we are producing about 300 or 350 tons of dry feed per month, but we have the technological capacity to reach 2,000 in the same period.” continue reading

If the recovery plans for the liquid feed plant work, it will be possible to “have an alternative feed of high nutritional value for the pigs, basically obtained from the processing of agricultural crop residues and waste collected in social institutions, as well as in tourist facilities,” they explain.

The recovery of the State pig farms that were not exploited for a long time is one of more than 60 government initiatives to stimulate food production.

The company does not rule out being able to sell very young pre-fattening pigs to private producers who in the last year have suffered the interruption of the breeding and breeding chain due to the lack of food for the animals. Individual producers from Alquízar, in the province of Artemisa, explain to this newspaper that once the breeding line is cut it is very difficult to resume pig production.

“Once you eat the female before breeding her and taking her offspring, everything is over,” details El Pana, an Artemiseño producer who dismantled his pig pen more than a year ago due to lack of feed. The sale of young specimens by the State is already made to cooperatives and state farms but it is still under study to extend it to private ones.

Holpor intends to recover in Moa ten warehouses with a capacity for 5,000 heads that will be added to the 22 warehouses whose covers were restored at the Cuba Sí 1 fattening site in Holguín, which admits a similar number of animals.

The recovery of the liquid feed plant, a task that should be completed in 2023, will cost 7,000,000 pesos, although, they say, it will produce 95 tons per day. But the Communist Party newspaper already warns of the difficulties to finish it in the estimated term “because today only the battery of six tanks that was saved because they used it to store honey, as well as the laboratory premises, are in operating condition. It was preserved because they turned it into a semen center that, as is logical, will be relocated to other locations.”

For now, the process is in its initial phase and a boiler manufactured in Havana has been acquired, something rthe newspaper found remarkable, praising the ability to having been able to buy a Cuban product for its industry.

In addition, Holpor had set his sights on another possible place with similar characteristics: the old comprehensive pig farm in the municipality of Cueto. According to the company’s calculations, recovering this place, which was a victim of pillage after its closure, would allow the introduction of some 1,800 breeders, “which would be decisive for the meat increase plans.” Of course, part of them would not be precisely for Cubans, since the company plans to allocate an indeterminate amount to the “tourist pole that emerges in the Antilles.”

This plant would also be supplied with food waste from the hotel complexes in operation and the residues from the Cueto and Mayarí crops. But the Provincial Delegation of the Institute of Hydraulic Resources did not authorize it, considering that it would contaminate the Nipe dam, so Holpor is studying solutions to overcome that obstacle.

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Contaminated Drinking Water in Santiago de Cuba Sickens More than 70 People with Diarrhea

Overflow of sewage waters in Mariana Grajales Avenue, in Santiago de Cuba. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 30 November 2021 — The residents of the South Central Popular Council, of the José Martí Urban Center, in Santiago de Cuba, swim in black waters. The situation is such that more than 70 people have fallen ill with diarrhea.

OnSunday, official journalist Cuscó Tarradell explained that on the afternoon of November 25 “there was a partial contamination” of the drinking water that is supplied in eleven districts of the South Central Popular Council, belonging to the José Martí Urban Center.

According to Tarradell, when trying to fix an obstruction in Avenida de las Américas, an excavation damaged the main water pipe, which together with a breakdown of the sewage network in the same place, caused a “crossing of the networks” and the consequent contamination of clean water pipes.

Despite the large number of people admitted to the hospital, the journalist assures that they were tested for cholera and were negative. Tarradell also says that on that same day, the contamination was eliminated and the fault repaired.

“We began to notice that the water that came through the pipe had a bad smell but it did not seem to be anything new to us because here it is often dirty,” Norma del Toro, a neighbor of the area most affected by the spill, explains to 14ymedio. “Luckily in our house we boiled the water but in this block several families had diarrhea.” continue reading

“For years here we’ve have to boil and then filter the water or buy it from the water carriers who bring it from places where it is cleaner,” explains the retiree. “You cannot trust the service and in houses where there are children or the elderly, it is best to buy it or take extreme measures.”

However, residents of the place published photos and videos in which they show that the situation is neither new nor limited only to the José Martí Urban Center. In one of these images, for example, Mariana Grajales Avenue is seen at the other end of the city flooded with sewage waters.

“Why is our city in this catastrophic situation?” the administrators of the Facebook group Turismo por Alcantarillados deSantiago de Cuba asked in a post. In it, they say that they had contact with a director of the state Aqueduct and Sewerage company, who wanted to remain anonymous, and who responded that the problem of the water system is “very complicated” because the sewerage system is very old.

“Some parts are more than 100 years old, others never foresaw the growth of the city and the growth plans have not counted on the adaptation of a new system for the final disposal of liquid waste,” this official is quoted in the publication. He also said that only a few of the breakdowns could be repaired “in the very long term” and with the risk of “new and greater breaks” in the meantime.

The solution, according to this manager, “is totally out of financial possibilities, because it would require millions in an investment as large and expensive as completely renovating 80% of the city’s sewage system, which is totally unaffordable.”

The group asserts that they have documented the overflows in Santiago de Cuba for decades, and that their page had 1,167 members in just the first month of its creation. “What has motivated such rapid growth in our group?”

The overflowing of the sewage is compounded by the abandonment of garbage collection by the authorities, a situation documented by this newspaper half a year ago, and which causes continuous outbreaks of scabies, lice and dengue.

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In Cuba, The Condoms Also Come From Miami

On World AIDS Day, the day that the fight against HIV-AIDS is celebrated, complaints about the lack of condoms are mounting. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 December 2020 — Numerous citizen initiatives have arisen with the disinterested and laudable support of Cuban emigrants, mainly based in Miami, who, in addition to bringing medicines and medical supplies to the island, have included the sending of condoms that are distributed free of charge by activists, however the effort is not enough to reach everyone.

On the day the fight against HIV-AIDS is celebrated, complaints about the lack of condoms for sale in state establishments are increasing. “You go to a pharmacy and there aren’t any, you look for them on the classifieds site and a single condom can cost up to 40 pesos, a real madness,” a young man from Havana told 14ymedio.

Several citizen initiatives have emerged with the support of Cuban emigrants. (14ymedio)

“It is more expensive to buy three condoms in the informal market, than to pay rent,” says a young woman to her friend outside a pharmacy located on Avenida Carlos III. “My boyfriend can’t find them and they’re so expensive he can’t afford them, so we’re not using them and that’s what God wants,” she said anguished.

“We are in a country where the main weapon to stop the disease, which is the use of condoms, does not exist right now,” was one of the comments that could be read today on the social network Facebook, where Cubans criticized the poor performance of the State to comply with delivery plans to businesses.
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Desperate, Cubans Crowd to Buy Mincemeat and Beef Belly

Workers from a meat company offered their products outside the Gedic headquarters. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 26 November 2021 — Almost a hundred people lined up this afternoon in front of an improvised platform that workers from a meat company set up outside the main headquarters of the Construction Engineering and Design Business Group (Gedic) in the Cerro municipality, in Havana.

At first they offered their products only to the workers of that company, led by Antonio Guerrero, one of the five Cuban spies who served jail time in the United States and who were later exchanged during the diplomatic thaw with the Barack Obama administration.

At the end of the sale to the Gedic workers, and in view of the fact that there was still merchandise left, they decided to take the platform out to the street to offer the residents of the place the mincemeat at 55 pesos per pound, the belly at 25 and the blood sausage to 35.

Word spread immediately in the neighborhood, an area with low-income families. Faced with the shortage of products in the freezers, many people ran to reach a privileged position in the line. continue reading

The number of interested parties forced the sellers to set up two scales to speed up the sale. Employees constantly asked customers for patience and calm, as they began to protest before those who tried to sneak in line, fearful of not reaching the small amount of meat available.

“What is that? Do you eat that?” yelled a lady pointing to the belly that looked quite dirty inside a plastic box. “Yes, ma’am, you give it a boil, remove the dirt and hair, and there you have meat to eat,” replied one of the workers in a mocking tone.

Others complained about the quality of the mincemeat, which at first glance seemed to have a lot of skin and water. “Gentlemen, listen up, I’m going to give you a lesson,” shouted a woman who seemed to be in charge of the sale. “The liquid in the picadillo is a preserve, you have to cook it with little water and try not to put too much salt because it is already highly salted.”

In industrial processes, the lady continued to explain, this preserve is used “to maintain the quality of the mincemeat.” Regarding the skins, she explained, “that is beef from Peru, which comes in pieces and was ground in front of us, so I assure you that it is of tremendous quality.” Turning to one of the men who came with her, she said in a low voice: “Well, they didn’t have much choice, because this meat is only for sale in MLC [freely convertible currency] stores.”

A boy who was able to buy said to one of the dispatchers: “We must take advantage of these opportunities, so give me two pounds of blood sausage. My mother-in-law is a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and will have to make a pact with the Lord, because these times are not picky,” he joked.

Despite everything, many returned home unable to buy. “They should have let me buy first, the desire I have to eat a good mince of beef,” was the regret of an older woman who with her cane dragged herself away with her empty bag.

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Bus Hits the Manzana Kempinski Hotel in Havana

Bus crash this Wednesday at the Manzana Kempinski Hotel, in Havana. (14ymedio) 

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 November 2021 — A public transport bus on route P8 hit the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski in Havana on Wednesday, just in front of Central Park, leaving seven minor injuries. The vehicle, a Chinese brand Yutong bus number 604, collided at 5:00 in the morning with one of the columns and knocked it over completely.

At the stroke of nine in the morning, experts from the Ministry of the Interior were there, trying to determine the causes of the event, and a crowd of passers-by gathered around.

Line P8, which goes from Villa Panamericana to Reparto Eléctrico, in the capital, is highly trafficked, but at that time, the driver was going back to the Calvario terminal. There were only two minor injuries, according to the Granma newspaper, which cites Juan Caballero Martínez, director of the Provincial Transportation Company. continue reading

According to “preliminary information” offered by the authorities in the official press, “the cause of the accident was a technical fault in the direction of the vehicle, which caused the driver to lose control of the car.”

In the images taken by this newspaper, the presence of hotel managers and workers wearing helmets and vests is also notable.

“The column is not a support column, it is an adornment column,” an industrial engineer who was part of the group of onlookers who came to the place explains to 14ymedio , right where there are several luxury boutiques, on the ground floor of the hotel. “It is original but it does not have a concrete base with steel, it is simply cement and a water pipe. This column is not supporting the weight of the building.”

Column of the Hotel Manzana Kempinski damaged in the accident. (14ymedio)

However, another source consulted, a civil engineer who has worked since 2013 in the Office of the City Historian on restoration projects, explains that “it is not a decorative column” and points out that “it is structural” and supports the weight of the wall on top of it.

“The fact that it has a pluvial in its interior does not make it decorative. The column is made of stone with mortar, as was typical of the time in which the building was built. Throughout the ground floor there are steel beams of more than 20 cm of peralto embedded between bricks, which are supported from column to column and those are the ones that resist the load of the walls of the upper floors,” says this professional who collaborated in the restoration of the property.  The accident aroused all kinds of opinions among the neighbors, who allowed themselves to speculate what could have happened. “I don’t understand how fast it was going to crash like this,” said one of them. “I would not want to be in the shoes of that driver, here you cannot come at 50 kilometers per hour, you have to come at 20 or 30.”

“People had to go out the window because no one came to help them,” said another. “They say here that the driver fell asleep but they still haven’t said anything officially. What a pity, a hotel that not long ago was completely repaired.”

The Manzana Kempinski is a luxurious hotel inaugurated in 2017, the first 5-star Plus, which the residents of the area call “the spaceship.” Located in the old Manzana de Gómez, the accommodation is designed for a type of tourism with high standards, far removed from the reality of the streets.

For this reason, it was the subject of several performances by the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. In one of them, he organized a raffle so that any Cuban could spend a night in the exclusive establishment for 2 CUC the ticket. In another, he photographed himself with a huge mace a few inches from the window of the Giorgio G. VIP store in the gallery.

The artist, in prison for four months, did not cause any damage, unlike this Wednesday a state transport vehicle.

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Repression and Internal Disagreements Cause Resignations in the Archipielago Group

Policemen in the streets, arrests and acts of repudiation marked the day of 15N  (15 November) in Cuba.  (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 24 November 2021 — After the surprise arrival in Spain of Yunior García Aguilera and his wife, Dayana Prieto, on November 17, the Archipiélago platform, which the playwright helped create, is experiencing difficult times.

The harassment and repression by Cuban State Security since the call for the Civic March of 15N, (15 November) finally frustrated by the regime, are joined these days by the group’s desertions and criticism of the departure of García Aguilera.

One of the casualties is that of Daniela Rojo, who this Wednesday announced her resignation as coordinator of the platform. The young woman from Guanabacoa, the mother of two small children, who was kidnapped by the political police on November 12 and spent five days in a house of the Ministry of the Interior under the custody of several agents, now describes her decision to separate from the platform as being for “personal and family problems”.

In a post published on her Facebook wall, Rojo said that she has not had any run-ins with members of the opposition group. “My departure from the Archipíelago has nothing to do with a change in my ideas or in my political position,” she said, “but I need to shelter my family, the ones that have suffered the most from this process, especially my children.”

The activist has been one of those most harassed by State Security, which has imposed fines and summoned her to various interrogations. For participating in the demonstration on July 11, she spent 23 days in prison. Earlier this month, she was summoned for an “interview” with the Organ of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for attention to minor children to allegedly show interest in the way she raises her children,” a very subtle form of emotional blackmail that would understandably make any mother give up,” she considered. continue reading

“I will use my time to collaborate in other functions, to be useful as well, but perhaps not as persecuted by State Security as Archipíelago is at the moment,” explained Rojo, who expressed her “respect” for those “who continue in that and all of the projects of the cause of the freedom of Cuba.” And she concluded: “I will continue to advocate from my trench for a plural and democratic Cuba and especially for the release of all political prisoners.”

Before her, on Saturday, Professor Leonardo Fernández Otaño, also moderator of the platform, publicly announced his departure from the Archipíelago, and confessed not sharing “a group of political actions carried out by Yunior García Aguilera since his departure from Cuba.”

“I have always lived the platform as a horizontal and consultation space, but my exercise of criticism was taken as a negative attitude by a good part of the members, which I respect as their genuine intellectual right, but I do not believe that it is democratic or healthy,”  he lamented on his social networks.

In any case, his resignation is, he insisted, a “personal exercise” and “free from all pressure,” driven above all by his social vocation to build “the Cuba house.”

Fernández Otaño was also one of those arrested on June 11, when he demonstrated, along with García Aguilera and other activists, at the corner of 23 and M, in front of the building of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, in El Vedado, to demand 15 minutes on national television. All were violently arrested and most spent two days in custody.

In addition to being the moderator of the platform, the young professor was also the main coordinator of Ágora, the space for debate that Archipíelago has on Telegram, a responsibility that he also abandoned.

“Today I feel that I have to go back to my books, offer my ear and word to many mothers who are expecting their children,” he said. “The vocation that led me to enter the Archipíelago is still alive as the first day: the intention to support the construction of the social fabric, ask for the release of prisoners and encourage citizen reflection, but I believe in the finite.”

Among those detainees is Humberto Bello, the first protester to take to the streets on November 15. The young man has been processed in a summary and secret trial, in which he has been sentenced to one year in prison, according to the complaint made by the Cubalex legal organization this Tuesday.

A source close to a member of the Archipíelago, who prefers to remain anonymous, details that the pressure from the political police has reached the activists’ family and friends, and that they are focused on many opponents making the decision to leave the country. “They suggested that I speak with the person I know on the platform to promote his departure from the country,” he says. “They also offered me to go to a hotel with that person with all expenses paid during the days of the protests, and thus get them away from the streets.”

At the same time, and after a few days of stupor, the criticism against García Aguilera and Prieto’s decision began to harden.

The art historian Carolina Barrero, a member of the group 27N – as is Yunior García Aguilera — was forceful on her social networks. “What has happened is one of the most irresponsible acts in the history of rebellion in Cuba before and after ’59,” she wrote, without mentioning the name of the playwright at any time.

“It has been said that it is human to be weak, that it is human to break, and yes, one also has the right to be a coward. But if you are, you do not put the trust and responsibility on yourself to sustain the desire for freedom of a whole country, if you cannot hold your pulse, if you abandon yourself at the precise moment you have to be,” Barrero said, and added: “It was not difficult to wait fifteen days to leave or do it fifteen days before. Because from the human point of view I also say that the image in which a visa is collected on the same day and in the same place where it is called to march is incomprehensible.”

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Charcoal for the Christmas Chicken, Offer Cuban Markets Lacking Pork

Before, on the sign that hangs in the agricultural market on Sitio Street, in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro, it said “Charcoal for your piglet”, but now tthere is no pork. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 23 November 2021 — “Pork leg imported from the United States, ideal for Christmas dinners,” reads the ad on one of the many digital sites that promotes products for Cuban migrants to buy for their relatives on the island. This year the popularly called “national mammal” will come from abroad in the face of the collapse of local production.

Just as Cubans said goodbye to nougats, grapes and cider to see in the new year, this time it is the turn of the traditional pig on December 31 to say goodbye. The fall in supply and the rise in the price of meat means that many families will choose to make a meal with chicken or minced meat on those dates.

El Pana, a private producer from Alquízar, assures that “this could be seen coming.” With a large clientele – which included private restaurants and rental houses – the entrepreneur has been offering “not a single rib” for more than a year, he explains to 14ymedio. Although the closure of Havana’s borders due to the pandemic hit his business hard, the reason for the decline points the other way.

“The guajiros stopped breeding and the females that had to be put on for the mount a few months ago did not put on,” laments the merchant. “This is a chain and when it is interrupted it becomes a problem to start breeding again,” he details. “For two years, when the lack of feed made it more and more difficult to keep the animals, there were producers who left the business and who no longer want to return.” continue reading

“I myself took apart the corral, and the irons that I was using to hold the fences, I used them in something else. The people who live near me did the same, and now they would almost have to start from scratch, so I don’t think the lack of pig is going to be fixed soon, this is going to take a long time to get back to how it was before.”

The chain El Pana is talking about also includes sausage producers, food outlets that based their menu on pork steak or fried dough, as well as all those that offered spices, citrus fruits and charcoal for seasoning and cooking ” the pig of 31,” as it is also popularly called.

Before, a sign in the agricultural market on the street, located near Collado, in the Havana neighborhood of El Cerro, said “good charcoal is sold for your piglet”, but it had to be changed and now it promotes the product for cooking “pollón” because, it jokes , “the piglet is lost and fleshy.” Among the customers who stopped in front of the ad, there was no shortage of ironies about the possibility that even the chicken (pollo) will disappear in the coming weeks.

“Soon it will be for the mincemeat, because the chicken is also being lost,” lamented a young man who claims to have seen more assortment in the market compared to other weeks, although it was fundamentally a greater supply of roots, vegetables and fruits, as the precious pork keeps coming in drippings and there are days when it doesn’t even show up.

“I bought a pound of pork steak for 200 pesos; if they had told me a few years ago, I would have believed it was a lie,” another Central Havana neighbor told this newspaper. “December has not started and the pig is already very expensive and missing. Before, this happened to people who left it for the end, those who were late in buying and wanted to have their leg in the last week.”

However, the woman believes, “now it is not even worth being cautious because since the beginning of the year the pig has been very expensive.” Her family will opt “for another meat, preferably chicken or mutton, if it appears.”

While in other countries it is customary to eat a turkey or roast a lamb, the star of Cuban Christmas is the pig. Along with black beans, rice and yuca with mojo, the pork dominates the tables. With its preparations, it also generates several family rituals, such as cutting the shoulder, frying the chicharones and preparing the mojo (marinade) for the meat.

“Chicharrones can also be made with the skin of the chicken,” says a clever family man who is already preparing for the change. “I’m not going to wear myself out looking for a piece of pork, now all my energy is going to go to see if instead of chicken drumsticks I can at least buy my family some breasts.”

But the breast is one of the pieces least likely to appear in the markets in Cuban pesos. “In foreign currency stores, people sleep in line all night to buy a box of breasts and those who have family outside buy it online,” he laments. “But I’m going to look for it even under the stones.”

“The trick is to cook it in the oven and put a piece of charcoal next to it,” he recommends, resigned. “Nothing to envy the roast suckling pig.”

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The Battle of the Grammys and the Example of Spain

The creators of ‘Patria y Vida’, with the exception of Osorbo, incarcerated in Cuba, collect the prize. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 29 November 2021 — The Cuban regime turns everything into a ridiculous battle. It’s incapable of looking at itself in the mirror. It fears the image of octogenarians defeated by life and takes on a heroic vision of them. Right now, it has transformed the 2021 Latin Grammy awards into an epic struggle against Yotuel, Maykel Osorbo, who is jailed, Descemer Bueno, Yadam González, El Funky, Gente de Zona, and Beatriz Luengo. Why? Because they are the authors or the performers of Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] (“Chancleta Records”), and because the organizers, in all fairness, chose that song as the best and the most outstanding of the year. At the same time, they received the Award for the “Best Urban Song” of 2021.

They weren’t even the only Cubans to win a Grammy. Gloria Estefan and the Aragón Orchestra also received one. Gloria Estefan won the “Best Tropical Album of the Year” award with Brazil-305, while the Aragón Orchestra, founded in 1939, 20 years before the Cuban Revolution arose, received the “Best Traditional Tropical Album” award for its Cha-Cha-Cha: Homenaje a lo tradicional (Tribute to the traditional.) The news surprised the members of the orchestra, according to Rafael Lay, its current director and son of one of the founders, although the sound quality was achieved in Los Angeles thanks to the efforts of Isaac Delgado and Alain Pérez, two excellent and charismatic performers.

Let’s look at the sequence of events. First, the clash with the San Isidro Movement took place. A group of very poor young artists, separated from political power, appeared in good faith at the Ministry of Culture to speak with the Minister. Their petition was not granted. Months later, the civic protests of July 11 occurred. Thousands of people rose up across the country. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to connect the two events. Finally, on November 15, the civic association “Archipiélago” took over. It was provisionally led by Yunior García Aguilera, who ended up exiled in Spain, and who offered a magnificent explanation of these phenomena delivered at a press conference. continue reading

The fact that the “Song of the Year” award has been given to Patria y Vida should have told the revolutionary leadership that its message smells like mothballs. It’s very old. Twenty or 30 years ago they would have awarded a song based on the motto Patria o Muerte [Homeland or Death], and it would have been awarded by a kid wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt, but today it is unthinkable that something like this would happen.

On January 1st the 63rd year of that revolution and that regime will begin! Of course, they can remain at the helm, but how long? General Francisco Franco died in bed like Fidel, as will likely happen to Raúl, but what they will not prevent is that the young generations completely modify the political course of the country. It has always been that way in world’s history.

Franco had carefully supervised the education of his successor in the executive power – the king – to ensure there would be no surprises. Even in Parliament – which at that time was called “the Cortes” and was made up of tercios, as the fascist manuals indicated – there were some fierce parliamentarians who made up “the 40 of Ayete.” They were known like that after the small palace in which they used to meet, very close to San Sebastián, in the Basque country, Franco’s residence in some summers. It was the group of Franco supporters that, supposedly, would resist any attempt to change. Only that at the head of “the 40 of Ayete” was no other than Adolfo Suárez, the man who, together with the king, led the transition once Franco died.

Neither King Juan Carlos nor Adolfo Suárez betrayed Franco. Or, if they did, they had to choose one of two conflicting loyalties: the one they owed to the old Caudillo who had personally elevated them, or the one they owed to the new generations who had not actively participated in the civil war, just like themselves. Both Juan Carlos de Borbón and Adolfo Suárez were products of World War II, or, in any case, of the Cold War that was then being fought. They chose to lead their compatriots to modernity and extract them from the first part of the 20th century to which the Generalissimo of Spain had dragged them.

I don’t know how the example of Spain can be ignored, despite the fact that, from an economic point of view, the last 15 years of the Franco regime were splendid. Cuba has a golden opportunity to correct the wrong course taken in 1959. All it has to do is rectify, consult society, and go, as Oswaldo Payá pointed out, “from the law to the law.” Otherwise, the country may fall into another stage of unnecessary violence.

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In Prison, Osorbo is Punished for Expressing Gratitude for the Grammys Awarded to ‘Patria y Vida’

One of the audios sent by Orsorbo from jail was to express his gratitude for the Latin Grammys for ’Patria y Vida’.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, November 27, 2021–Rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, jailed for the six months, had his phone calls suspended for three months as punishment. As art curator Anamely Ramos explained on Friday, the motive was the recorded messages the artist has been sending from jail.

One of them was the one he sent in regards to the Latin Grammy gala on November 18th, where the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] on which Osorbo collaborated, won the two awards for which it was nominated.

Ramos stated that on Wednesday Castillo received a visit from his lawyer in the maximum-security prison of Kilo Cinco y Medio in Pinar del Río, after several days without news of the rapper. “This is how we confirmed that he is still there,” wrote the curator, a member, as is the rapper, of the Movimiento San Isidro (MSI).

“Maykel’s voice is unbearable for those in power, even though his body is imprisoned. With this, they only show their fear and how little authority they have left,” shared Ramos who stated that at first they punished Osorbo by denying him phone calls for one month, but when they called him to confirm the disciplinary measures that would be imposed, he wrote “Patria y Vida” below his name, for which the punishment increased to three months.

“A three word sentence is also unbearable to them,” denounced Ramos. “Three words have the power to leave an entire state without recourse, other than violence. Three words: each one a month of isolation for Maykel. They are shameful.” continue reading

Ramos insisted that Osorbo is “unjustly imprisoned” and sick. “Under these conditions, to keep him isolated is doubly grave. Now how will we know his state of health?” she asked.

“Taking away a prisoner’s phone calls for an audio expressing gratitude for a prize he won for his talent and his effort and which is a prize for all of Cuba (which does not belong to you), is a cruel act and an embarrassment in the 21st century,” she asserted, and then stated that the Cuban prison regulations violate “the Mandela Laws and are contemptuous of human dignity and life.”

Osorbo was detained on May 18th of this year and at the end of that same month was transferred to Kilo Cinco y Medio, a maximum-security prison. He is accused of “assault”, “public disorder” and “evasion” for what occurred on April 4th at a protest on Damas street in front of MSI’s headquarters, when police attempted to arbitrarily arrest him and he refused to get into the patrol car.

 Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Fabricated Charges and False Witnesses Against July 11th Protesters in Artemisa, Cuba

Photo of People’s Provincial Tribunal in Artemisa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, November 28, 2021–“Prepared testimony” and contradictions predominated the three days of trials against 13 young protesters in the Criminal Court of the People’s Provincial Tribunal in Artemisa, according to family members. “There is an extraordinary contradiction among the prosecution’s witnesses,” Roberto Rodríguez, who attended the trial, assured 14ymedio.

The young people, who did not have prior criminal records, have endured finger pointing and comments for participating in the massive marches on July 11th in the province where the first popular protests began. During the trial, the fabricated accusations were evident as were the false witnesses with which the prosecutors sought long sentences. The sentencing is expected within 15 days.

In Yeremin Salsine Janés’s case, he could be sentenced to 14 years in prison. During his detention and his transfer to the maximum-security prison in the municipality of Guanajay, the 31-year-old man received beatings, which resulted in head injuries, according to sources close to the family.

“It has been tense, inhumane and cruel to see, on the first day, one of the young men hav a panic attack because he didn’t have his medication, seeing his brother with high blood pressure transferred to the hospital in a patrol car. And then he spent a long, torturous night waiting until dawn to continue the trial,” relayed Rodríguez, speaking about the arbitrary nature of the processes within the People’s Provincial Tribunal. continue reading

For Eduardo Gutiérrez Alonso, who remains in provisional custody at the Técnico y Guanajay and faces charges for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and assault, the prosecutor seeks 12 years in prison. The trial against him has been plagued with irregularities, denounced a family member. The witnesses confirmed that Eddy was wearing shorts and a red T-shirt. “That is not so,” refuted a source close to the accused. “In the videos and the evidence presented, he is dressed in black and wearing slacks.”

The streets of Artemisa’s Provincial Tribunal have been militarized, stated family members of the young men. (14ymedio)

The tension of the first day of the trial was followed by intimidation the following day when family members of those detained were received with “militarized streets,” which caused the first shock. The second occurred within the courtroom, when pepper spray carried by one of the policemen exploded.

“The sad thing is that in our affected state, to evacuate the prisoners they wanted to handcuff them, then they removed them from the courtroom, washed their faces and helped them,” and one man with asthma required oxygen. That day one of the accused with epilepsy “suffered a crises and had a seizure.” We learned this person had already experienced a similar situation in prison.

Last Wednesday, after the presentation of evidence, the defense felt confident that, “the prosecutor did not have a case.” The defense pointed out the lies told by the prosecutor and witnesses, in which “the manipulation was plain to see.”

Family members demanded “freedom and justice” for Javier González Fernández, Alexandre Díaz Rodríguez, Yurien Rodríguez Ramos, Eduard Bryan Luperon Vega, Eddy Gutiérrez Alonso, Victor Alejandro Painceira, Yeremi Salsine, José Alberto Pio Torres, Leandro David Morales, Luis Giraldo Martínez, Iván Hernández Troya, Yoslen Domínguez, and Yoselin Hernández. They also demanded that authorities cease “the citations and persecution.”

To date, several independent organizations have documented 1,283 detentions resulting from the protests on July 11th and 42 convictions in summary trials. Of this total, at least 540 remain in prison.

In one report, the Cubalex legal information center, expressed special concern for “the use of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people” and reported that prior to July 11th, Cuban Prisoners Defenders had registered 152 political prisoners.

 Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Rapper Denis Solis Leaves Cuba

The rebellious rapper Denis Solís, captured at the Havana airport, in one of the images released by anonymous accounts at the service of the Cuban regime this Sunday. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 29 Noviembre 2021 — The rebellious rapper Denis Solís, who was released from jail in July after an eight-month sentence for contempt which was decreed in a summary trial, has left Cuba. After speaking with an uncle of the artist, Vladimir Lázaro González, 14ymedio was able to confirm that the trip took place on November 27 and the flight was destined for Moscow, and then headed to Serbia. “He left with his daughter and a cousin,” His uncle said.

The art curator Anamely Ramos later posted in her social networks that she has been able to talk with Solís, who is already in Serbia, and the decision was “personal and family… driven by the harassment to which he has been subjected since he was released from prison in July.” At the moment, the rapper does not want to give more details but has announced his intention to do so shortly.

The news had been disseminated this Sunday by anonymous accounts at the service of the regime, which announced that the destination of the activist, a member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), was Serbia. In the official posts, the information was accompanied by images that show Solís at the José Martí International Airport in Havana, carrying a suitcase and accompanied by family members.

The arrest and imprisonment of Solís, in November 2020, was the origin of the protest of some members of the MSI, who gathered on hunger strike at the headquarters of the group, in Old Havana, for more than a week.

They were violently evicted from there by State Security by agents dressed as healthcare workers on November 26, which in turn provoked the solidarity of more than 300 artists who, the next day, gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture to request a dialogue with the authorities, and thus creating the 27N (27 November) Group. The anniversary of those events is this weekend. continue reading

Subsequently, on December 4, Luis Robles was arrested December 4th on Boulevard de San Rafael in Havana holding a placard demanding the release of Denis Solís. Robles has not been released from prison, and almost a year later is still awaiting trial.

So far, Solís has not made any statements about his trip, and neither has any member of the MSI, inside or outside Cuba. It is not known if it is temporary or migratory.

It is not by chance that the main party interested in spreading the news is the Cuban regime. The recent release of the artist Hamlet Lavastida in exchange for his exile in Poland , where he traveled accompanied by his partner, the poet Katherine Bisquet, made clear the regime’s strategy toward opponents engaged in the most recent movements.

Members of MSI and 27N who are outside Cuba at present include Tania Bruguera, Camila Lobón, Claudia Genlui, Alfredo Martínez and Yunior García Aguilera. García Aguilera, through the Archipiélago platform, had called for the Civic March for 15 November, which was ultimately frustrated by the actions of the authorities.

Also outside of Cuba is Eliexer Márquez, known as El Funky, one of the performers of Patria y Vida, who from Miami declared: “Be clear that my objective is called Maykel Castillo Pérez (El Osorbo), my brother, and I will do what I can and do the impossible to support his freedom as much as that of all prisoners unjustly held. I am here today on behalf of the San Isidro Movement and without forgetting my brothers Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Esteban Rodríguez and Anyelo Troya because I am in a country of freedom and it is a right to express yourself. This starts now. ”

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Cuban Journalist Asks the Police to Go After the Thieves and Not the Activists

Journalist Ely Justiniani Pérez , on her social networks, questioned the inability of the Cuban police to deal with robbery cases. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 November 2021 –The robberies and the ineffectiveness of the Cuban police were exposed this Friday by journalist Ely Justiniani Pérez. “Three robberies on my block in less than a week,” she wrote in a post. There, she regretted that the authorities had not “done anything”: neither taken fingerprints nor followed up on the cases.

“What should be done? Put up a sign that says ‘patria y vida’ (homeland and life) or ’down with I don’t know who’, so that they put a little surveillance in the area?” asked the collaborator of independent news sites such as El Toque and La Joven Cuba, in clear allusion to the opposition slogans. Justiniani explained that the thief entered the house of an elderly woman who lives alone, and believes: “That means that he was in danger of death.”

The journalist addresses the authorities noting that the police officers’ salaries “are paid by the people,” and that their role “is not precisely to go after activists and young people with different political ideas,” as has been evident in the marches on July 11 and the frustrated one on November 15. “Do your real work, recontra,” she demanded.

Last October, Amanecer Habanero announced six robberies in a week committed in the El Vedado neighborhood, where the police implemented an “evasive tactic,” taking hours and even days to gather evidence continue reading

at the scene of the crime if it is common crimes. “People feel unprotected, thieves know it,” was the feeling of the robbery victim, Aniusca Labrada.

This crime wave occurs on the island, according to the Numbeo platform, which is a company registered in Serbia and founded by a former Google software engineer, and which in 2020 ranked Cuba as “the safest country in the Americas,” with a crime rate of 29.02% and safety of 70.98%, surpassing Canada and the US.

Given the silence of the official media, the thefts are reported through social networks. “One problem is that many people do not report because when they do, the police ask them for papers on the stolen objects,” one user told this newspaper. “If they are electrical appliances (properties or import papers), as there is so much illegal sale, people fear that they will end up going from accuser to accused.”

Thus, it is difficult to know the real incidence of these acts, because many times the victims choose to remain silent and, if anything, reinforce the security of their homes after suffering a robbery: buying bars, new locks or surveillance cameras. “I once reported a robbery and then I couldn’t leave the country because I was in the middle of a police investigation,” adds a woman from Havana who had a flat-screen TV and a laptop stolen from her apartment .

“When I went to leave through the airport they told me that I could not and when investigating it was my name was in the investigation file, so I withdrew the complaint because they had not caught the thief and to top it off I was receiving double punishment, I was left without my belongings and lost the money I paid for my ticket.”

Another of the most common thefts in Cuba is motorcycles, which leads the owners to organize a “hunt” for the thieves. Yoan Rosquete, for example, through Facebook “put baited motorcycles to catch them red-handed.” There are also groups in which the spoils are denounced.

To this must be added assaults, such as the one on November 10, when a medical student was threatened with a knife to steal her cell phone. The event occurred in the Ciudamar neighborhood of San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, and was captured on video .

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A Member of Cuba’s San Isidro Movement Requests Asylum at the Zurich Airport

The reporter and activist Alfredo Martínez Ramírez. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 November 2021 — Right now, the Cuban reporter and activist Alfredo Martínez Ramírez planned to be leaving the Zurich airport, where he arrived last Thursday, to enter a refugee center in Switzerland, the country where he has requested asylum after months of persecution and harassment in Cuba. However, he will have to wait until the end of this week, according to what the Swiss authorities just informed him.

Martínez is not one of the visible faces of the Cuban opposition, but he has been an active member and is loved by his colleagues, and this Sunday he received from exile the birthday wishes of the members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), which he has collaborated with since 2019.

“Now I have to prove all the repression against me. Right now I am in the airport refuge and from here they are going to take me to the city refuge. Tomorrow is the fifth day since I have been here and the asylum process has a five month delay,” the activist told 14ymedio this Monday .

Martinez had had his ticket to freedom since February, but the pandemic thwarted his departure on numerous occasions. Finally, last Thursday, he boarded a flight from Havana that, after a brief stopover in Cancun, left him at the Kloten Airport, where the immigration police followed up on his request.

“They had me in a room for about three hours checking all my data, my criminal record, they took all my documents, right now I am without a passport or identity card. I have a green paper, which is a permit to be at the airport without documents,” explains the activist by telephone.

Although he describes the situation as “terrible,” he claims to be well and properly cared for. “They have treated me very well. I have had a bed and food, but it was difficult, I had to explain in detail what I was doing in Cuba,” he says.

His first arrest in Cuba occurred on October 10, 2020, during a concert against police violence at which he was arrested by agents who dragged him around San Isidro for five blocks before taking him to the Marianao station. “It was the first time I met agent Darío.” continue reading

It was not, however, his first encounter with the Cuban forces of order, whom he had known as a collateral victim. His partner was a freelance journalist, which began to out the pressure on him. So, for example, he lost your rental home.

The practice of pressuring the landlord to terminate the contract with a tenant in the opposition has not been unusual in Cuba. It happened to him on two occasions, the second when he shared a house with the art curator Anamely Ramos, with whom he also collaborated on a project that called for the release of imprisoned activist Silverio Portal. Getting involved in the San Isidro Movement press group was definitely a turning point in his life.

“I had to help my friends, Katherine [Bisquet], Camila [Lobón], Carolina [Barrero], whom I met 10 years ago, when none of us were thinking of doing this kind of political activism, and I took it as something very personal,” he says.

On November 27, when he was already a contributor to the independent publication Tremenda Nota, he participated in the protest in front of the Ministry of Culture and was one of the 30 chosen to participate in a meeting that the authorities sold as a will for dialogue. Since then, his engagement has become a priority.

“I was in the group to help political prisoners, bringing meals for the ‘Where you fall I raise you’ campaign, medicines for the MSI medical kit and keeping my friends communicated and fed. That cost me a lot, because it bothered State Security that I was helping them,” he says, adding that they tried to prevent him from visiting Carolina Barrero on multiple occasions.

“They were not going to take from me a friendship of so many years. How could I not go help her if she was alone and I know she was having a bad time? She was besieged [surrounded by State Security] for more than 200 days, without food, without anything, how am I going to leave her alone in that,” remember.

Already then, when he accumulated several arrests, he bought a ticket to leave Cuba on February 8, but the restrictions due to covid-19 were joined by another issue. On January 27, he was arrested before the Ministry of Culture when the police violently dissolved the sit-in that several artists were holding after paying tribute to José Martí on the eve of the 168th anniversary of his birth.

“In that arrest they made me sign a letter in which I had to renounce all activism and pass on information to them, something that I denounced when I left. But I couldn’t handle those prohibitions and I broke everything I signed. They got very upset with me, because I continued doing my things. For me those papers are worth nothing; I signed at that moment because I was leaving in 10 days,” he adds.

After July 11, the harassment moved on to his family, which State Security began to pressure to force his departure. “They have not stopped insisting that I leave. They never ’regulated’* me , they even insisted on buying me a ticket, but I always said no, that I didn’t want anything from them,” he explains.

Martínez leaves Cuba convinced that his low profile has helped fulfill his objectives and, although he is grateful for the voices that lead activism, he claims his place. “I have always liked to be behind everything, to really help, without being in the foreground, because it does not interest me. I do not want to say things that are already more than said, but to carry out actions. That is my goal.”

*Translator’s note: ’Regulated’ in this context means forbidden to travel.

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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.

One Year in Prison for an Opponent from Los Arabos Who Dressed in White on 15 November

Jose Hernández López was one of those arrested in a park in Los Arabos when he took to the streets on November 15 wearing a white shirt. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 November 2021 — Last Thursday, the Municipal Court of Los Arabos, in Matanzas, sentenced the opposition José Hernández López to one year in prison for the events of 15N (15 November), according to information from the opponent Martha Beatriz Roque speaking to 14ymedio. The former ’Black Spring’ political prisoner explained that the activist was prosecuted for the crimes of attack and contempt, and not for disobedience, as the prosecution had initially indicated.

Hernández López was one of those arrested in a park in Los Arabos when he took to the streets on November 15 wearing a white shirt. A police officer approached him to demand that he change his clothes but the activist refused and the officer proceeded to arrest him.

The Archipiélago platform had called a “Civic March for Change” on that date, which was joined by activists and citizens, but the few who managed to go out on the streets that day were arrested. Most suffered a strong surveillance by State Security and a police cordon around their homes.

According to the opponent and independent trade unionist Iván Hernández Carrillo speaking to Radio Martí, the court where Hernández López was tried “was taken over by the Military Forces of the Political Police and the National Police, in addition to paramilitaries and rapid response brigades and no access to family members was allowed. continue reading

Hernández Carrillo, who was convicted during the Black Spring of 2003, considers it “unacceptable” that the international community continues to observe the violations committed by the island’s regime and that “they do not take serious measures with the Cuban dictatorship.”

Another of those arrested and sentenced for the day of 15N is Humberto Bello, who was processed in a summary and secret trial, in which he has been sentenced to one year in jail. The Cubalex legal information center has compiled a database of those convicted in relation to 11J (11 July) and 15N, and has demanded “immediate dismissal” of all the cases in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office.

Cubalex and the Justice 11 platform have also asked for the support of civil society, as well as that of the independent press and all those who can share information and details of these judicial processes in order to denounce them and sensitize the international community to the issue of political prisoners in Cuba.

To date, these organizations have documented 1,283 detainees as a result of the July 11 demonstrations. Of that total, at least 540 are still in prison and they report that they have verified 42 convictions in summary trials.

In the report, Cubalex showed special concern about “the use of the charge of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people” and noted that before July 11, Cuban Prisoners Defenders registered 152 political prisoners.

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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.

‘Cubadebate’ Tries to Give Lessons in Journalism to the International Press

The international press could not get any closer to Yunior García Aguilera’s home on November 14, when the police kept him under siege to prevent him from being able to march as he intended. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 26 November 2021 — On Friday, two weeks after the Cuban government withdrew the credentials of the EFE agency journalists without explanation, the State website Cubadebate published an extensive article intended to justify the measure, which it attributes to the “prominent role” of the Spanish media in the “manufacture of news.”

The official website makes it clear that the coverage of 15N (15 November) by EFE and CNN, to which they also dedicate half of the text, was not to their liking, more than enough reason, apparently, to prevent journalists from exercising their profession.

The note, titled CNN in Spanish and EFE on Cuba: Naivety or collusion? begins by explaining to readers how a political situation can be narrated in many ways and shown from different angles, forming a particular perception of the facts and generating in the receiver a specific political position. The media have, it adds, the duty to show reality so that citizens can consciously choose their sources and build their version of events.

Cubadebate’s journalistic theory class fits perfectly with the one that would be taught in a journalism school, but only up to that point. Next, the official media makes it clear that the only perception allowed in Cuba is theirs and that any method is good if it prevents the public from forming another point of view.

The digital medium, directed by Randy Alonso — self-defined as a ‘Fidel Soldier of Ideas’ — accuses EFE of “biased and tendentious actions,” specifically due to continue reading

the informational treatment given to the the 15N marches. According to Cubadebate, “the media usually report on events in progress or that have already had an outcome,” but both CNN and the Spanish agency “as of several weeks before November 15, already systematically ’reported’ on the alleged situation of instability in Cuba and about mobilizations that had not yet occurred and a ’strong government response’.”

In addition to forgetting that, for officialdom, the mere calling of an opposition march, by means of a request presented in the institutions and in accordance with the law, was news because it was an unprecedented event, Alonso ignores his site’s own practices. A quick search is enough to verify that Cubadebate has reported calls for marches against “imperialism” and the blockade on many occasions before they occurred. They have also advanced announced events, fulfilling the function of the press, such as the reopening of the country after the pandemic, the production of vaccines and the attraction of investments, even if the latter did not come to pass.

Cubadebate not only points out what EFE should not have published, but also indicates what it should have done, such as talking more about vaccines, improvements in the pandemic, and the reopening to tourism. In this case, the little analysis carried out by the official media is easily perceived, since the agency offered – and continues to do so – the daily data of the pandemic through the press conferences of Dr. Francisco Durán. Those cables also contained information on vaccinations.

Nor has the Spanish agency spared news about the Cuban-developed vaccines Soberana and Abdala, even praising an effectiveness that has only been tested on the Cuban side, as in the note entitled “The effectiveness of Cuban formulas opens hope for the first Latin American vaccine” and many others that one can locate in seconds with the help of a search engine. The same happens with the reopening of tourism.

On Saturday, November 13, the Cuban government withdrew the accreditations of the entire EFE team on the island and, hours later, returned two of them. Cubadebate insists that two members of the team kept their credentials the entire time and were able to work, without giving any reason why the limitation or cut is justified.

In fact, the official media considers it a demonstration of government benevolence that the agency published three articles between November 12th and 15th, and 16 more articles on the day of the call to march and that the two authorized reporters were able to “move and actively report.”

It can be assumed that they were very active to be able to maintain the publication rhythm with such a decrease in the team which, to this day, it is still very limited, despite the fact that it recovered.

Efe now adds this warning note in all their cables. “The decisions of the Cuban authorities in recent months have decimated the team of the Efe delegation in Havana, where currently only two journalists can continue to carry out their work. Efe hopes to be able to recover its information capacity on the island in the coming days.”

Cubadebate also points out that the relevance of EFE, the world’s leading news agency in Spanish, is one of its concerns, and highlights some information that, in its opinion, it should not have disseminated. This includes reports related to the arrests, the arrival of Yunior García Aguilera in Spain, and even the withdrawal of the credentials, which apparently have “political intentions.”

Although this Friday’s note devotes ample space to deploring the activity of CNN in Spanish, this channel does not have an office in Cuba, although its headquarters in English does have a representative, whose ambiguity towards the Cuban regime has been pointed out on several occasions.

What is new this time is the head-on confrontation with the Spanish state agency, which had been established normally on the island for 40 years and which it now accuses of having a line similar to that of the US television as an “expression of a coordinated strategy by the large media.of the international press to make viable the policy of the North American Government against Cuba and achieve the final objective of destroying the Revolution and producing a ’regime change’.”

Press associations and governments around the world rejected the Cuban authorities’ decision to withdraw the credentials of EFE journalists, and the agency’s leadership accused the Plaza of the Revolution of demonstrating “an unequivocal will to destabilize” its work.

“The harassment of the agency by the Cuban authorities is serious and sibylline,” EFE president Gabriela Cañas said last week. The Spanish Government might also respond to the note, since EFE is a company in which the State is the main shareholder. Two ministers, Foreign Affairs and Presidency, have already demanded the return of the accreditations and, even, summoned the Cuban charge d’affaires in Spain, who declined to attend the urgent meeting claiming to have covid.

Cuban officialdom, however, does not back down and in its article today threatens to continue to wage war on the press. “Our battle against such petty interests is prepared, right on the same terrain where they intend to fight it to deprive us of the freedom and the independence conquered based on a lot of blood from worthy Cubans.”
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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.