President Diaz-Canel releasing koi, or carp, in 2019 during the reopening of the Botanical Garden.
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 18 October 2021 — After many months, the National Botanical Garden reopened its doors on Sunday. Visitors have to first make a reservation by phone. Entry fees are 10 pesos for adults and 5 for children. The first visitors, encouraged by great fanfare in the official press, found a less exciting experience than was promised.
“The Chinese carp weren’t there. I didn’t see a single one,” says Alian Aramis, a young man who was visiting the park with his family. During a visit in 2019, President Diaz-Canel released the fish, which are actually Japanese, from a tank.
“I was surprised not to see them because before they were always around the wooden grove where people used to feed them. I asked a worker who told me that the caretakers had stolen them during the months the park was closed.”
Food choices are limited: three menus which include a main course of roast pork, pork chops, pork liver, rice with black beans, green salad, a root vegetable, dessert and a soft drink for 300, 200 and 150 pesos respectively. There were also some appetizer and beverage choices. “The food was acceptable and the service was good but how much you spend depends on the person, says Aramis. “I was worried but I didn’t see the missing carp on anyone’s plate,” he jokes.
Although several beverages were available, the ice cream shop was continue reading
closed. A soft drink in a glass cost 5 pesos and a liter of beer goes for 120. “You could buy limited amounts of Coral soda for 3 pesos and bread roll with mayonnaise. If there were six people at your table, you could buy ten packets of low-quality candy eggs for 12 pesos a packet, 4 bags of Pellys chips for 35 pesos a bag and bottle of rum for 325 pesos, if I remember correctly,” says Aramis.
“We were able to visit the Japanese Garden. It’s very peaceful, very nice, but several plant viewing pavilions were closed due to repairs,” reports Aramis, who regrets that the children were not able to enjoy the amusement park to the fullest because several rides, though in place, had not yet been secured to their floors and could not be used.
One of the Botanical Gardens’ main attractions is the Canopy, or tirolesa. Installed at the beginning of last year and opened the following August, the ride is the first of its kind in Havana.*
“I tried to make a reservation but it was no use. They told me it’s booked every day for the entire month of October,” complains Aramis, who could only observe the few lucky souls suspended from a cable beyond. They flew over the almost 800-meter, five-segment course for the price of 300 pesos.
*Translator’s note: The website describes it as “a pulley suspended by cables mounted on a slope or incline…designed so that users are propelled by gravity, sliding from the top of a hill to the bottom on a cable.”
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Denis Solís, on the right, alongside El Funky, on the day of his release this past July (El Funky/Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, October 20, 2021 — The United Nations issued a statement which concluded that rapper Denis Solís as well as Luis Robles Elizastigui, the so-called “young man with the placard”,were detained arbitrarily. The text, dated October 14th, was published Wednesday by Cuban Prisoners Defenders (CPD), the organization which denounced both cases before the Arbitrary Detentions Working Group.
The document states that for both men, the deprivation of freedom “is arbitrary, which contradicts articles 3, 5, 8, 9, 10,11 and 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
As a result, the UN Working Group urges the Cuban Government to “adopt the measures necessary to remedy the situation of Denis Solís and Luis Robles without delay, and in compliance with the relevant international norms, including those set forth in the Universal Declaration,” at the same time it requests that it ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The appropriate remedy, it continues, will not only be the immediate release of Luis Robles, but also to allow them both “the effective right to compensation and other types of reparations, in accordance with international law.”
In addition, it urges the regime to conduct “an exhaustive and independent investigation” of both cases and to continue reading
“adopt relevant measures against those responsible for the violation of their rights.”
The UN also made a declaration regarding the treatment to which Denis Solís, the main subject, was subjected–to which other first offenders were also subjected for participating in the protests this past July 11th, notes the CPD–in which the judge may impose sentences “without the presence of a prosecutor, or lawyer, leaving the accused without knowledge of their judicial conviction.”
With regard to this, the Madrid-based organization reiterated that, “during summary procedures in Cuba, which are more than half of all criminal proceedings and the majority are currently political prisoners on the Island, every single one of the principles of presumption of innocence, due process and the right to an effective defense of those accused is violated.”
“Criminal and procedural legislation in Cuba is in violation of the most fundamental human rights, both the exercise of freedom and the right to justice,” it concludes.
A file on Denis Solís, which included all the irregularities of his legal procedures, was sent to international organizations, including the UN, this past January by Prisoners Defenders. That same month, the NGO included Luis Robles on its list of prisoners of conscience in Cuba.
The detention and incarceration of Solís was the basis for the protests of some members of MSI, who held a hunger strike holed up in their headquarters in Old Havana which lasted over a week. From there, they were violently removed by agents dressed as health workers on November 26 2020, which provoked instead, solidarity among 300 artists who the following day gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture to demand an end to the censorship and a dialogue with authorities.
The placard held by Robles when he was detained on the Boulevard de San Rafael in Havana, last December 4th, also demanded the release of the controversial rapper.
Denis Solís was released this past July, after fully serving his eight-month sentence. Robles, for his part, remains in jail, and last week was denied for a fourth time a change of precautionary measures, provisional prison until the start of his trial, postponed sine die due to the July 11th protests.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Niedas Hernández, 32, defined himself this July as an activist “due to pressure from the regime.” (Facebook)
14ymedio/ Europa Press, Madrid, 19 October 2021 — Luis Mario Niedas Hernández, arrested on July 11 during the anti-government demonstrations in Cuba, has been sentenced to three years in prison, according to Néstor Estevez in the Sancti Spíritus group that he manages on Facebook .
Estevez explained that the sentence was learned this Monday, 18 days after the trial was held, which, according to his testimony, was held under strong security measures and without allowing family and friends access to the oral hearing. A “prestigious lawyer participated in the process, discredited by the regime because not even being innocent did he manage to get his client out unscathed from false accusations and witnesses who are officials of the Sancti Spiritus government,” the activist also accuses.
Niedas Hernández was accused of aggravated contempt, spread of epidemic and instigation of violence and the Prosecutor’s Office had requested six years in prison for him, with the sentence ultimately halved.
Friends and acquaintances of Niedas Hernández maintain that he has been tortured during his stay in the Nieves Morejón prison, where he has also spent fifteen days in a punishment cell.
“Within the tiny space, he had to relieve himself, eat, bathe and sleep. An inhuman treatment that violates all the elementary rights of the human being and that makes it clear that in Cuba the laws and international conventions that guarantee dignified treatment of the inmates are not being complied with in Cuba,” continues Estévez, who has also advanced that the family is not considering appealing the sentence “in order not to extend the circus.” continue reading
“We will survive. We will seek justice, we will build a new society, we will rebuild the nation. That will be our revenge,” claims the activist.
Niedas Hernández, 32, defined himself this July as an activist “due to pressure from the regime.” The San Isidro Movement and 27N (27 November) were at the root of his mobilization, first on social networks, which meant the beginning of a campaign against him from officialdom.
“They expelled me from two work centers, one of them through an act of repudiation, and all for, as I said, supporting a just cause from my social networks,” he claimed.
The case occurred a few hours before the presentation of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report began. In the report the Cuban authorities are accused of perpetrating “systematic” arrests and abuses to contain the “overwhelmingly peaceful” mobilizations of July, in the framework of a “brutal strategy of repression” against movements opposed to the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
He wanted to “instill fear among the population and repress dissent,” according to researcher Juan Pappier, after some investigations in which the NGO has interviewed more than 150 people and has consulted documentation, also of an official nature, to determine the scope of what happened.
Cubalex has created a data base of more than a thousand people arrested, of whom more than 500 remain behind bars. A protester, Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, died in the town of La Güinera, after a police officer shot him in the back.
In its report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has identified 130 victims of arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment and abusive criminal proceedings and estimates that “many” of the hundreds of people arrested during the protests have suffered “brutal” abuses during their detention and “dozens” have been prosecuted, without a minimum of guarantees.
Among the abuses detected by HRW researchers are sleep deprivation, beatings, isolation without natural light or threats of retaliation against family members. They has also denounced abusive interrogations, also charged with all kinds of threats and pressure.
For Pappier, the judicial processes have been “a true farce” and are part of a strategy that transcends the anecdotal. “The patterns in these abuses show that they are clearly not the result of abusive conduct by a few officers,” he said.
HRW noted the message that Díaz-Canel sent to the “revolutionaries” when the protests began, so that they too would take to the streets. “The combat order is given,” declared the president, in what would mean the start of an offensive by the security forces and other pressure measures such as restrictions on the Internet connection.
The NGO has identified, among the officials involved in abuses, members of the intelligence services, military, police and brigade members known as ’black berets.’ It also notes that judges and prosecutors have limited themselves to acting as a conveyor belt for the executive branch, facilitating “abusive” processes.
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The organizers of the march ask to remain calm if violent episodes occur. (Capture / File)
14ymedio, Havana, 19 October 2021 — The Archipiélago collective has drawn up a list of instructions for those who want to join the Civic March for Change that it has been called for this coming November 15, a march that the authorities have refused to authorize.
The demonstration will run through the areas indicated by the organizers in each province between 3:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon and, as security measures, Archipiélago recommends going out in groups wearing white clothes, with flags of the same color stored in backpacks to avoid being arrested before to reach the designated exit area. In case of not arriving, the organizers call onpeople to protest in nearby parks or areas.
The group invites people to document the development of the demonstration, although there are precedents of cuts in the connection needed to avoid live broadcasts.
“If there are episodes of repression by the forces of order, never respond with violent attitudes, raise your hands and recite the poem ’I Cultivate a White Rose’ by José Martí,” says the organizing group, which insists on the rejection of any violent act, poster or symbol. “Let us be citizens and no authoritarianism will violate our rights.”
Along the same lines, Archipiélago asks for respectful and peaceful expressions to demand the changes, to observe a moment of silence “as continue reading
a sign of the pain that Cuba has lived, through decades of authoritarianism and the absence of democratic spaces,” to have a gesture for the release of prisoners of conscience and leave a flower on a bust of José Martí.
The organizers also recommend that family and friends be informed of the situation, as well as ending with some collective expression of joy that invites reconciliation and hope.
“In the event of an episode of violence, keep calm and try to dialogue with the alarmed person. Any violent attitude moves away from the spirit of the Civic March for Change, since we must always respond to authoritarianism with civility,” closes the statement, released through the collective’s Facebook page.
Faced with this, officialdom continues to try to curb support for the marches. This Monday, a statement by the Cuban Workers’ Central rejects “the most recent maneuvers orchestrated by ’internal political operators, led and encouraged from abroad,’ which ’announce the intention to carry out a march that they have presented as peaceful and lawful, invoking the Constitution’.”
Hours before, Archipiélago had released a video in which several activists from Havana, Cienfuegos, Santa Clara and Holguín emphasized that the march has no external economic support and that it only seeks the release of the detainees of the July 11 anti-government protests and political prisoners in general, in addition to demanding political changes through democratic and peaceful means and in favor of the sovereignty of Cuba.
“Far from what is said in the official propaganda against the Archipiélago, this group does not receive or will never receive money from a foreign power or support any invasion. We do not want foreign interference, we Cubans are capable of generating ideas to be able to live in a democratic and sovereign country.”
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In line waiting for connection at a hard currency store were seniors who, aware of the store’s frequent problems, had brought their own stools to sit and wait. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 October 2021 — The long line to enter the central La Época store was barely moving this Saturday at noon on Calle San Nicolás y Concordia, in Centro Habana. Since nine in the morning, only 30 people had entered, because of the lack of a connection with the banks to approve payments with magnetic cards in freely convertible currency (MLC).
Very early, an employee announced at the top of his voice what everyone feared: “The system is down.” Along with the shouts of discomfort, some laughter broke out at the double meaning of the message. Then the hours passed. When noon arrived, discomfort grew in the line, in which pregnant women and elderly people were waiting; aware of the store’s frequent problems they had brought their own stools to sit and wait.
“There is no connection,” the line organizer repeated to everyone who asked her, as she held a large number of ID cards in her hand. Her clarification did not prevent protests from arising again and again from the crowd. “Again?” Said a young man aloud. “How many times is the connection going to go down today?” he questioned before the widespread support of the crowd.
“If you pay in foreign currency, the service should be better,” said a young woman who had gone to buy a few kilograms of chicken breast with money that her sister had sent her by continue reading
bank transfer. “You can tolerate this in a store in Cuban pesos, but I don’t understand it in foreign currency.”
The authorities have repeated ad nauseam about the Cuban economy’s need for fresh foreign exchange to enter the country. With this objective in mind, in the middle of last year they began selling food and cleaning products in MLC, which has generated a great popular anger among those who do not have access to remittances or payments in foreign currency.
To prevent the circulation of cash, the Government requires that customers pay in these businesses with magnetic cards issued by national banks, or Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay cards issued by foreign institutions, with the exception of the United States. But this requirement often runs into an obstacle: the fluctuations of connectivity between the terminals that read the card and the bank that must authorize the transaction.
Just a few blocks from La Época, at the Roseland store, the problem was also repeated this Saturday. Sales were stopped and people were very upset outside because the communication system with the bank is intermittent. “There is a connection for five minutes and then it’s down for half an hour. I am at the entrance from early and it is two in the afternoon, how is it possible that they do not have something of quality with the amount of money they make with these stores,” commented a woman .
Like a carbon copy, the scene was similar at Capricho and La Filosofía stores. Already in the department of electrical appliances in Plaza Carlos III, people sat on the floor and long faces were observed all over the place. The cashier swiped the card over and over, until a strip of paper came out indicating that the operation failed.
A call to the customer service numbers of the Metropolitan Bank that operates in the Cuban capital offers few details about the technical reasons for so many ups and downs in the connection. “That depends, it could be congestion problems on the lines,” explains an operator when asked by 14ymedio. “But it may also be that we are doing some maintenance, although in that case it is always announced in advance.”
Another employee, from the Banco de Crédito y Comercio in Havana, attributes the problem to the state telecommunications monopoly. “Most of the time the connectivity problems results from Etecsa failures, but of course, people point to the bank. The worst happens with those who have foreign cards, because not only must the store communicate with our branch, but we have to communicate with the bank outside the country.”
“I can only swipe it three times in a row, then I have to try another one,” explained the vendor in the Plaza de Carlos III to the troubled customers. Everyone was waiting to buy the electric rice cookers that they had just put up for sale after several days without showing up.
A young woman came forward and handed him her card: “Try this one.” This time it took a long time for the paper to come out and the girl was encouraged: “Now if it’s going to happen, I know from experience, when it takes time for the paper to come out, it works.” The clerk looked at her and smiled. “You are already an expert, you are right, you qualified!” The young woman looks at the ceiling with her hands outstretched as the receipt comes out of the device, like someone who has just won the lottery.
It didn’t take long for an uproar to form in the place when it was learned that it wasn’t her turn to buy yet, but the lucky customer had already walked away with her pot in her hands.
Outside, word spread that the system “has worked again,” but a few minutes later an employee poked her head out the door and asked for understanding because the connection with the bank had been lost for the umpteenth time.
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A moment during the demonstrations on July 11th in Santiago de Cuba. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan E. Cambiaso, Panama, October 18, 2021–In March of 2019, after my fourth visit to Cuba, disillusioned and in disbelief, I wrote an article published in 14ymedio where I said, in sum, that the Cuban people had accepted living with shame and without glory and that they were masochists. I was mistaken, because there were moral reserves and civic virtues, which I was unable to see. May this writing be my mea culpa.
Since then, there is too much water under the bridge.
Raul Castro terminated his mandate and passed the baton to Díaz-Canel, the pandemic hit hard and continues to do so, leaving deep scars in the economy, the social fabric, among families and those affected, and in the psyche of individuals. Poverty increased, employment declined, expectations for a better future evaporated. More pain and less hope. The lack of freedom remained, without the meager compensation that had numbed its absence.
This time, poor management resulted in sick people and those who died of suffocation. Without warning, Díaz-Canel found himself confronting circumstances for which all his experience and training left him unprepared, making evident that he he fell short of the stature of a Castro, and in Cuba those who are not, are cursed.
This is how Cuba arrived at July of this year, when the popular protests showed–as will be shown on 15N (15 November) — that, despite the fact that neither the law nor political powers bestow freedom on citizens, the people will express themselves just the same and build their freedom with blood, sweat and life itself.
Inevitably, these cyclonic forces create spaces for people to shout their demands and display the material and spiritual poverty to which they have always been subjected, with the knees of the same arrogant ones as always on their necks. The comrade mutated into a citizen.
Under a tyranny as deep-seated and violent as the one in Cuba, this bravery has enhanced value. It is heroic. Before us is the redefined concept of the “heroic people of Cuba”. From now on they will be heroic because they will not stop until freedom is regained and “toward victory, always” will mean that the fight for individual freedom is inalienable and never-ending, because excess freedom is better than limited freedom.
The same words, another world; the same people, other objectives; the same country, another destiny.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Associations such as Human Rights Watch assure that those detained in the anti-government demonstrations have not only suffered torture and inhuman treatment, but that justice has not been applied correctly. (Screen Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2021 — The Cuban Government will eliminate “pre-criminal dangerousness,” a legal definition that it has been used for years to imprison opponents. The elimination of this ’crime’ has been demanded by international organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Rubén Remigio Ferro, president of the People’s Supreme Court, said on Tuesday on the State television program Mesa Redonda [Roundtable] that the measure is excluded in the new Criminal Procedure Law (LPP), which has not yet been approved. “Criminal law only deals with facts that are crimes established in the Penal Code,” he said in this regard.
Until now, this crime has been used as a mechanism to impose penalties before an anticipated future commission of a crime, in the style of the science fiction film Minority Report.
Pre-criminal dangerousness can also be arrived at after receiving several “warning letters,” a wake-up call that is frequently applied against young people who do not have employment, show critical opinions about the Government or, simply, are unlucky enough not to be liked by the Police Sector Chief in their neighborhood.
Among the other legal novelties announced, the magistrate stressed continue reading
that anyone accused of any crime has the right to have legal assistance “from the very beginning of the process.” That moment occurs when the person is made aware of the charges against him and who is accusing him, something that, on paper, should occur within the first 24 hours of an arrest or within five days if the person is free.
In the event that the defendant pleads guilty to a crime and agrees with the charges and the proposed sanction, a trial may be waived and the court will issue the agreed upon sentence.
The new norm will also establish that no citizen can be deprived of liberty except by the competent authorities, in addition to, the judge assures, “strengthening the presumption of innocence and the right to communicate” with one’s family immediately, common practices in Justice in other countries that are currently not in effect in Cuba and that, at least in theory, should begin to be carried out.
“In the case of the provisional prison measure [pre-trial custody], it is regulated with greater precision regarding when it can be requested. The bill even incorporates judicial control, the option that lawyers have to request the court to review the legitimacy of that provisional detention,” added Ferro.
The law also provides that the victims of a crime are recognized as parties, which gives them rights that until now they did not have, such as being present in the process, appointing lawyers, proposing evidence and claiming compensation.
Ferro explained that the decisions have been made in order to modernize the Cuban Justice and harmonize it with the international treaties Cuba is committed to, and to ensure that the new laws are in accordance with the 2019 Constitution and the guidelines and have the approval of the experts.
Given the triumphalism of Remigio Ferro, and although he did not mention it on national television, in the new norm there are still repressive variables that are arbitrarily applied frequently against opponents, activists and independent journalists, such as home confinement and the prohibition of leaving the country, classified in the new Criminal Procedure Law project as “precautionary measures.”
In addition, the prohibition of leaving the national territory is formalized on paper. This prohibition is popularly referred to as being regulated*, and until now was not in the law, in cases in which the accused is involved in crimes that entail “material reparations or compensation for damages of high amounts”; in acts “of high injury or social repercussion”; in crimes in which “they have caused serious damage to the country’s economy”; and in “any other case in which there are well-founded reasons that they are going to try to leave the national territory to avoid the process.”
The president of the Supreme Court has assured on several occasions since the July 11 protests that judicial procedures are followed in accordance with the law in Cuba, with all the guarantees due under current law. However, associations, such as Human Rights Watch, speaking on Wednesday, said that those detained in the anti-government demonstrations have not only suffered torture and inhuman treatment, but that Justice has not been applied correctly and they have suffered arbitrary detentions and false trials.
This proven fact calls into question the goodwill that may govern the new law, since it is not the first time that the practice of the courts contradicts the words of the Supreme Court.
The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba added Remigio Ferro to its list of regime repressors in 2019 after the publication of a tweet in which the senior official mentioned the existence of Law 88, also known as the Gag Law, as an instrument to penalize those who “support, facilitate or collaborate with the objectives of [the United States] Helms-Burton Act.”
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.
At El Cochinito salt was presented on small plates because there were no salt shakers and indentations from the fingers of previous customers were visible on the short white piles.(14ymedio)
14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, October 17, 2021 — The almost twenty calls made the previous day to reserve a table at El Cochinito suggested it would be a complicated lunch. Upon arrival, it was impossible to ignore the unusual scene of a woman sweeping the entrance to the restaurant with a giant squeegee.
While we waited for the employees to finish their staff meeting, a few people were lining up at the outdoor cafe to buy bread with cheese and soft drinks, all to go. One employee had the arduous task of walking back and forth from the cafe to the kitchen — I estimate about thirty to forty yards roundtrip — every time a customer placed an order.
El Cochinito, a once glittering, busy and popular state-run restaurant, centrally located on 23rd Avenue in the heart of Vedado, had reopened its doors for in-person dining. The requisite 24-hour reservation can be made by phone or at the restaurant.
Let’s see, my love,” said the hostess, who could not find my name on the reservation list. “Don’t worry. It’s not the first time this has happened. Give me your name, I’ll write it down, then we can seat you,” she says, embarrassed.
The restaurant consists of a somewhat hidden room with a few tables, another cooler, more open room, a garden patio that wraps around an old, leafy tree, and a bar. El Cochinito’s wait staff, most of whom are women, is particularly cordial and professional.
The same cannot be said for the variety or quality of the food. Prices are continue reading
ridiculously high and more akin to those of a privately owned restaurant.
It was hard for me to understand why the garden patio, which has an ample number of tables (a plus if you are trying to prevent the spread of Covid) was closed to the public, especially on an afternoon when the weather in the capital was so pleasant.
A worse surprise was the annoyingly loud noise of a power tool (possibly a drill), which served as the intermittent accompaniment throughout lunch and drowned out the very tasteful music, at an appropriate decibel level, playing in the background.
El Cochinito, a state-run restaurant, has not regained the renown that it had more than 30 years ago, when it was a benchmark of Cuban cuisine. (14ymedio)
Besides having few items, the menu did not provide enough information. Serving sizes in grams were not indicated, forcing staff to approximate those sizes with their hands.
Then came the culinary disaster. I was dumbfounded when, after a 25-minute wait, the starter course, picadera Cochinita, arrived: three absolutely tasteless croquettes made of fried dough with salt sprinkled on top, two balls of stale cheese and two of chorizo. All for the “modest” price of 70 pesos.
Not much was on the beverage menu. The only option for customers who do not drink alcohol was lemonade frappé, whichhad a taste so intensely sour it stung the tongue. A tap beer of average quality was 25 pesos. A bottle of Cristal beer and the orange soda, also in a bottle, were warm. One customer complained to the manager that his bottle of beer had so much foam in it that, after two minutes, its volume had shrunk by half.
Among the main courses, the grilled lobster, or enchilado, for 100 pesos stood out. Unfortunately, the only diners who might be drawn to it would be those who did not know that the meat comes from the head, legs and antennae. “People think that for 100 pesos they are going to get a lobster tail, but it is not like that. That’s why I always warn customers who order it,” said the waitress. “It’s actually made up of by-products, as if the customer wouldn’t notice.”
The restaurant is known for its pork dishes, which are prepared five different ways. I decided on the masas fritas, marinated, deep-fried pork cubes, and roast pork ribs, at 120 pesos each. The masas were dry and flavorless, without a drop of pork fat, only overly lean meat. The pork ribs were more of the same but with cold, stiff and lumpy barbecue sauce served on the side.
The side dishes cost extra and also left much to be desired. The white rice was skimpy and, when black beans came mixed with it, they were on the verge of being uncooked. The sweet potato with mojo was the only root vegetable on the menu, and the mixed salad featured only cucumber, lettuce and beans.
To top it all off, the salt was presented on small plates because there were no salt shakers — indentations from the fingers of previous customers were visible on the short white piles — and the cruets were in storage because they had to “stretch the oil.”
Jam with cheese was the only dessert option, which I skipped because it was the same cheese used in the appetizer.
Coffee before the check was not an option simply because they did not have any.
With drinks, appetizers, main courses and dessert, the bill came to between 700 and 1,000 pesos for two people, which seemed excessive to me given that there was no relationship between the quality and the cost of each dish.
This state-run restaurant has not regained the renown that it had more than thirty years ago, when it was a benchmark of Cuban cuisine.
As I was leaving, a foreign medical student, who did not have a reservation, was asking the doorman to let him in. After being told no,”because all the tables are reserved, the young man pointed to the many empty tables in the patio, to which the doorman replied that seating there was not allowed, without further explanation.
I hurried home; I could feel a bit of indigestion coming on.
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It was reported that there will be no water from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Water trucks like the one in the photo supply water. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 19 October 2021 — To the despair of the residents of La Lisa, Playa and Marianao, the Havana Water company said that on Thursday they will interrupt the service in those municipalities “due to maintenance and repairs.”
In a statement published this Tuesday and by the official press, the state company specified that there will be no water from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, and that the arrangements will be made “in the conductors and in the electrical lines that feed the well field of the Ariguanabo supply source.”
Havana Water was responsible for a sinkhole in Lawton, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, which caused an entire building to collapse. According to this newspaper, the huge hole was covered, and what was left of the house was demolished, but the neighbors asked about it do not know what happened to its inhabitants.
On the other hand, the continuous problems of the water supply occur continue reading
at a time of extreme crisis, to which the so-called ’Ordering Task’* and its subsequent monetary unification contributed. Many of the products used for storage and the domestic supply of water have become extremely expensive since the beginning of the year, not only in informal networks but also in stores that only take payment in hard currency.
“It turns out that a water pump for a three-story building is more than 5,000 pesos,” claims Mercedes, a neighbor of Los Sitio, in Centro Habana, who has been suffering water cuts for several weeks. Mercedes says that with such a price, she and her neighbors had to give up the idea of raising money to buy the device that would allow them to bring the the water up from a cistern.
Plastic cisterns and tanks have also also risen in price. We are facing an instability in the supply that becomes even more complicated when considering a population without resources to acquire storage devices
With the announcement of the interruptions foreseen for next Thursday, some have screamed to the high heaves because they have been suffering from the fluctuations of the supply for days without these difficulties being previously reported. “I left Arroyo Naranjo fleeing from the lack of water, because for a week in my house all that comes is a trickle some early mornings,” Luis Lorenzo, a 56-year-old from Havana, tells this newspaper.
“I came to my sister’s house here in La Lisa, because she lives on the ground floor and although the water arrives with little force, it has a little shaft at the entrance of the house that serves to fill the tanks, jar by jar,” he says. “But now, when I was getting the pleasure of bathing every day, she tells me that there is going to be a lack of water here as well. This problem is haunting me.”
In Marianao, it seems that nothing surprises the neighbors. The municipality is “cursed with regards to water,” say its residents. To the neighborhood’s slogan — “Marianao city that progresses” — decades ago the ironic “with a bucket on its head” was added, to refer to the constant need to carry water for domestic consumption from long distances.
*Translator’s note: The Tarea ordenamiento, the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’, 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 many others throughout the economy.
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Users value that electric bicycles serve the same needs as a ‘motorina’ and can even carry passage behind. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 October 2021 – The curious and potential buyers arrived this week at the store that only takes payment in freely convertible currency (MLC) on Infanta Street, in Centro Habana, to see the new electric bicycle marketed by the State.
Gone are the days of the hated Chinese bicycles of the Special Period. Now electric bicycles are in fashion but their price is not within the reach of most Cubans. With a price of 770 dollars (more than 60,000 pesos at the parallel exchange), the LT 4209n is a luxury item in a country of relentless scarcity, but it is an economical alternative to electric motorcycles, called ‘motorinas’, which cost approximately double — up to $2,000 USD in pages like Revolico. The motorinas have reigned in the streets of Cuba in recent years due to the insufficient public transportation system, the shortage of gasoline, the job opportunities they offer and their easy handling.
“Even if I had had enough money to buy a motorina, I would have bought the bicycle anyway,” explains Ernesto, the owner of one of these items, speaking to this newspaper from Sancti Spíritus. He is delighted with his acquisition. “It is cheaper to maintain and, for that matter, it solves the same problem as a motorina: it is for short trips, just like the bicycle. I even carry my wife behind me on mine, without any problems.” continue reading
“The motorina serves the same needs as a bicycle, with either one you can move from here to there,” he said.
In addition, Ernesto continues, the parts are also cheaper and when they break down it costs less to change them. “It is not the same to buy a battery for these, which are small, unlike the one for a motorcycle. And it is not the same to buy a tire for a bicycle as it is for a motorina.”
In early September, the company Caribe Electric Vehicles (Vedca), in charge of assembling the bicycle for sale on Infanta Street on the island, published the first images of the model on its social networks and other digital platforms. During those days, Yuniel admits that he “had his eye” on these cycles, but gave up buying one due to the rise in the exchange rate for in the black market (76 pesos for 1 dollar this Thursday) and the increase in food prices.
Yuniel, age 30, had a plan to get a courier license and look for a way to earn extra money, especially since, at the moment, the Traffic authorities do not require a helmet or a driver’s license to ride this kind of bicycle. Many private businesses in Havana, such as restaurants and pizzerias, hire self-employed people with motorcycles and electric bicycles to make home deliveries.
“In addition, bicycles are easier to store and park,” a Centro Habana delivery woman who bought her electric bicycle abroad told 14ymedio. “And they go a long way, 55 kilometers, similar to a motorina,” she adds about the autonomy of the vehicle.
The technical description of the brand-new model LT 4209 indicates that it has a 600-watt motor, that its battery is lithium, that reaches a speed of up to 30 km/h and that it has a range of 65 kilometers and a weight of 35 kilograms.
Now electric bicycles are in fashion but their price is not within the reach of most Cubans. (14ymedio)
Luis Alberto, on the other hand, is one of the Cubans who prefer electric motorcycles even though they are much more expensive, but he knows that on the island it is not recommended to buy any of these vehicles that are sold in state stores and assembled in Cuba.
“They are low-cost, the batteries, the motor and the regulator box have poor quality. You see it and say: ‘how beautiful’, but they are just facades. You better think well before investing your money in them,” warns this Havanan, who belongs to the Club Moto Eléctrica Cuba. Luis Alberto ordered a motorina for $ 2,000 from an acquaintance who went shopping in Panama last year and insists that he does not regret the “investment.”
Like Vedca, another entity that is dedicated to the commercialization of electric cycles is the Ángel Villareal Bravo Industrial Company, from Villa Clara, known as Minerva. Several models of electric bicycles of this brand, assembled on the island, were among the first to be sold in the network of state stores, about four years ago.
The prices then ranged from 850 to 1,375 CUC, recalls from Sancti Spíritus another fan of these vehicles, Miguel. “The most expensive electric bicycle had a screen one centimeter high and three wide that marked the mileage,” he details. “With the advantage that I have never heard that an electric bicycle battery has exploded”, he says, referring to the frequent cases of motorina fires due to the manipulation of their electrical system.
However, Miguel has defined very well the differences between a motorcycle and an electric bicycle.” Motorinas operate at a much higher speed, while this type of bicycle reaches a maximum of 30 kilometers per hour.”
Despite this, electric bicycles are beginning to proliferate everywhere on the streets of the Cuban capital. Vedca, which began operating last year in the Mariel Special Development Zone, is one of the brands most promoted in recent months by the Government and sells electric vehicles ranging from 700 to almost 4,000 MLC.
There are more than a few complaints from Cubans, yes, about prices. “Why is everything [only sold in hard currency] in MLC? Do they pay [wages] in that currency in this country?” Asked a user commenting on a Vedca publication on his social networks where it announced the price of the bicycle. “I am an honest worker and my salary is 2,500 pesos a month. In what year could I buy this type of motor?”
According to official data, in the country there are about 300,000 electric bicycles and motorcycles, between imported and marketed within the island, and a third of that figure is in Havana.
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“All my boxers were worn-out, ugly, and dirty,” recalls Brian. “I couldn’t let the love of my life see me in them.” (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, October 17, 2021 “I am selling six pairs of sexy, modern underwear, used but well cared for,” reads a notice on one of Cuba’s most popular classified ad sites. It informs interested buyers that “they are like new, with firm elastic,” a plus in a country where, for over a year, it has been impossible to buy items like these with Cuban pesos.
Brian began his first sexual relationship last August. Despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, he fell in love with a young woman from Havana whom he met on Instagram. “The first time I saw her photo was like an arrow through my heart,” he says. “I wrote her and we exchanged messages, videos and photos for more than six months.” The big moment for this 18-year-old came this summer but there was a detail that neither of them had thought about.
“All my boxers were worn-out, ugly and dirty,” recalls Brian. “I couldn’t let the love of my life see me in them. I asked my brothers for help but they were already wearing theirs. They depend on the ’mules’* and, since no one is traveling, there’s almost nothing for sale. I checked with my friends to see if any of them could lend me something nice looking but they were all in the same boat.”
In recent years the only things Cubans can buy with Cuban pesos are basic goods and food. If you want to buy clothes, shoes or home appliances, sooner or later you end up either in the hard currency stores or the black market. Even at hotel boutiques, which once tried to attract local customers, items like these are only sold for freely convertible foreign currency.
Sixty-eight-year-old Maria Elena was taught by her parents from an early age to set aside a spare pair of underwear in case she ever had to go to the hospital. For years she kept an untouched continue reading
yellow set in a bottom dresser drawer. “In January I finally had to use it because I couldn’t keep wearing the rags that I had left,” she explains.
“But when I went to put them on, I realized the elastic was a bit worn out. So if I have to go see a doctor and they ask me to take off my clothes, I’ll keep my eyes on the ceiling because I don’t want to see all that down there,” she says.
Her son works on a construction crew and every morning has to change, taking off his clothes and putting on overalls in front of his coworkers. “Sometimes he doesn’t even want to go to work because having to do this makes him embarrassed.”
With the help of his parents, Brian rented a room on the outskirts of Havana. “It had a jacuzzi, breakfast and dinner included for two nights, a flat screen TV and a lot of privacy,” he says. “In the bedroom there was a set of programmable LED lights. So when we were about to start fooling around, I turned them all off because they made me feel ashamed”.
The next day, Brian discovered his girlfriend’s underwear lying on the floor, also threadbare and full of holes. “That drew us closer because we started talking about it and how awful it felt pretending we had something we didn’t have. In the end, knowing that each of us was almost destitute in that respect has made us more honest with each other.”
Two months later the couple have overcome the obstacle of the weathered fabric with the holes. But worn-out bras, panties and briefs can be damaging to one’s self-esteem. “I didn’t sleep with anyone for a year. I couldn’t do it like this. I was ashamed,” admits Claudia, a 40-year-old resident of Matanzas who turned to her city’s informal market.
“Before, people bought one type of underwear that was comfortable and another type that was more suitable for romantic encounters. Now you can’t find either,” she laments. “I had to resort to wearing the bottom half of a bikini that I used to wear only for the beach. It’s uncomfortable because it’s not a fabric designed to be worn all day long but it’s all I have.”
“I myself am embarrassed. Nobody gets undressed in front of anyone else these days, which puts a dent in your love life,” observes Claudia. “It’s not as though I want something with a brand name or fancy. It’d be satisfied just to be able to take off my dress and hope that what’s underneath arouses lust rather than pity,” she laughs. “With this faded, stretched-out bikini, they’re going to send me into retirement.”
A young man who works as a volunteer for a non-governmental group that distributes donated medicine from overseas told 14ymedio that his organization has received many requests from people looking for underwear, especially women. “We’ve gotten messages from girls asking us if we have any panties or bras, or if we can do them the favor of sending them a package. People are desperate to get them but we don’t have any way of helping them. My own underwear is all old and worn out,” he says.
Others take the “skin-to-skin” approach, without worrying about their undergarments. “I think we’ve reached the point where have to figure out if guys love us because we have a pretty bra or if they actually love us,” says 32-year-old Monica, another Havana resident who got divorced in the middle of the pandemic. “He thought I could give him a certain kind of life because, when we met, I had an outfit from Victoria’s Secret that a friend gave me when she moved, but it had nothing to do with my own personal means.”
“Now I prefer to be seen in more modest dress because, at the end of the day, I live in Alamar and I can’t have a partner who gets the idea he’s going to have a comfortable life because he’s seen me in a brand-name bra and is later disappointed. I don’t turn off the lights or do anything else so that he knows right from the outset that I am a woman with little income, so he has to love me the way I am.”
Malcolm feels like he has hit the jackpot. A cousin living in Panama sent him a package of briefs whose English-language trademark is a day of the week. “I put on my Saturday today but I wash it by hand as soon as I take it off. It’s not going in the washing machine because I don’t want it falling apart. I take it off then put it away until the next date,” he says smiling.
In addition to the personal vicissitudes, experts warn of other problems. “The social distancing caused by the pandemic, together with the economic crisis, may be creating serious problems in the ways this generation of Cubans meet, interact and love each other,” explains Lazara Echeverria, a social behavior psychologist. “They may be harboring trauma and rejection that will only manifest themselves much later on.”
She adds, “The first experience is very important. If it is marked by complications, by feelings of disadvantage and shame, that will take a long time to overcome. Sometimes things as simple as a pair of briefs or new panties can change the whole experience.”
Translator’s note: ’Mules’ are people who travel abroad and bring merchandise back to Cuba to sell.
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Robles was arrested on December 4 of last year for protesting on Boulevard San Rafael, in Havana. (Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2021 — It is the fourth time that the defense of Luis Robles Elizastigui, known as “the young man with the placard,” has been denied a change in his confinement. In a document provided to 14ymedio by his brother, Landy Fernández Elizastigui, the Provincial Court of Havana considers that “the reasons for this measure have not changed,” and therefore, they will not release Robles before his trial.
Scheduled for July 16, the oral hearing was suspended as a result of the massive protests that occurred throughout the country five days earlier, and, according to Fernández, a set date has not yet been communicated to the family.
Last July, a Facebook page was created with the activist’s name to demand his freedom, a video in which Robles talks about the reasons that led him to be a protestor. “Freedom is the greatest thing that one can have in life and these shameless communists, since they arrived they have cut us off from all kinds of freedoms,” says the young man in the recording. “They have taken away even our freedom to think, they want to rule even what we think.”
Robles, who was arrested on December 4 after holding up with his arms raised, on the Boulevard of San Rafael Street in Havana, a placard calling for freedom, the end of the repression and the liberation of the rebellious rapper Denis Solís, who is accused of “enemy propaganda” and “disobedience”, as confirmed in the legal text of the Provincial Court.
The document also includes the allegations of both the young man’s lawyer and his mother, Yindra Elizastigui Martínez. The first argues that “there are more and more opinions that support the innocence of the accused” and the second, that his son simply spoke out peacefully, “a right that all Cubans have.”
None of this was addressed by the Court. Luis Robles will continue, ten months later, in prison.
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Puffed rice cakes with moringa as an ingredient sale in a store in Guanabo, Havana, in national currency (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Natalaia López Moya, Havana, 16 October 2021– The cultivation and consumption of moringa, one of the last projects promoted by Fidel Castro, would seem like a distant story for many Cubans, if it were not for some products that are still marketed in Cuban pharmacies. Pills, tea and puffed rice cakes made with the leaves of this tree, native to India, are the few vestiges that remain of that plan that made headlines a decade ago.
At Carlos III y Soledad pharmacy in Havana, a bag with dried moringa-filled pills is sold as a nutritional supplement despite the fact that the label leaves very little clarification on the benefits of the product. “They are in high demand and when it comes in they are sold out the same day,” explains an employee to 14ymedio. The woman details that “most of the people who buy it, take it with the aim of maintaining or losing weight.”
That end is far from the wonders that Castro promoted nine years ago in one of his reflections, the writings that he continued to publish in the official press after retiring from public life due to an intestinal problem. “Inexhaustible sources of meat, eggs and milk, silk fibers that are spun by hand and are capable of providing well-paid, shadow work, regardless of age or sex,” he said then of the moringa plants. continue reading
However, with the death of the dictator, little by little the planting and commercialization of the derivatives of this plant have been losing prominence. On the main street of Guanabo, one of the most important beaches in eastern Havana, the counter of the once well-stocked international pharmacy has on display only a few products and some puffed rice cakes with moringa.
Due to the national crisis, all the stores around are empty of merchandise or with very long lines to buy frozen chicken or ground meat. Hence, some visitors staying in nearby private homes venture to buy the cakes. “They are not bad, although a little dry because the employee says that they have been there for a long time and do not sell very well,” explains a visitor to this newspaper.
“I bought them for breakfast because in all of Guanabo we have not found neither bread nor normal rice cakes for when we get up, to be able to put something in our mouths,” she details. The label reads that they are produced in the Sierra Maestra Science, Technology and Innovation Entity, in Siboney, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the city. A local worker, speaking by telephone, says that “now they are not being produced and when we have they are also sold at subsidized prices to employees, but not many buy them.”
The most popular derivatives of the plant are still “moringa packages that cost 21 pesos and that people use for an infusion,” explains a neighbor close to the Carlos III pharmacy. “They tell me that people even use it to add to their meals and to dress salads. I, who am addicted to herbal teas, bought a package to try it and it is not bad. The truth is that when it appears on sale it is gone immediately,” he confirms.
“Not even the production of moringa, of which they spoke so much, has been able to meet the amounts promised,” laments another resident in the area. “When they tell me that they put the tea on sale, by the time I left my house and arrived, it was over. This is already like beef: scarce and you can only get with contacts.”
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Yunior García during an interview with 14ymedio last September, when the government began the smear campaign against him. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2021 — Cuba’s official media deployment against 15N (15 November) and specifically against Yunior García Aguilera, one of the promoters of the marches initially called for November 20 and advanced after the Government decided to place the Moncada Exercise and the National Defense Day for that date. One day after learning the negative response to the planned demonstration, the texts and videos dedicated to disqualifying the convening groups and their leader are multiplied in the press.
Primetime News on Cuban television broadcast a piece in which the mayor of Old Havana, Alexis Acosta Silva, tries to explain that the call to march does not comply with the law due to its illicit purposes. The report links the promoters of the civic march with “destabilizing and anti-Cuban” groups and is signed by journalist Abdiel Bermúdez, a fact that has caused perplexity and disappointment in Yunior García himself.
In a post on his Facebook profile, the playwright and member of Archipiélago laments that Bermúdez, whom he knew as a serious and rigorous journalist, is lending himself to untruths.
“I was happy when the young, rebellious and talented journalist started working on the newscast. I said to myself: at last we will have a professional on [State] NTV, unable to lie. Then we met again on July 11, in front of the ICRT. I was on the side of the protesters, of course. Abdiel looked at me and lowered his head (…) Later I learned continue reading
that he decided to disappear from the place before witnessing the barbarism. I never said a word against him.”
García regards the report as biased and reproaches the reporter for not having contacted him to find out his version; and admits that “if Abdiel had been consistent with his career and with the values of honest journalism, perhaps today they would also call him a” mercenary.” If instead of going to the NTV, he had chosen independent journalism, his name would also be linked to the CIA.”
The young man also refers to the broadcast of the program Con filo, which dedicated its 15 minutes to criticizing the 15N marches on the grounds that they are supported by people whom they consider terrorists, criminals and US agents, among whom and especially prominent is the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba José Daniel Ferrer, detained since July 11 for the umpteenth time, the artist Maykel ’Osorbo’, and the exiled Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, spokesman for the Cuban Democratic Directorate and member of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.
The program briefly reviews the biographies it has produced of the three, highlighting moments in which they demand US interventions in Cuba or resort to methods that are not necessarily peaceful. With regards to Ferrer it referenced the episode of 2019, when the opponent appeared to injure himself during an interrogation.
Con filo also questions García for having taken a course at the Madrid headquarters of Saint Louis University called Dialogues on Cuba, where he allegedly addressed non-violent techniques of struggle against oppressive regimes such as those that gave rise to the color revolutions of Eastern Europe and the Arab Spring.
The first official media to accuse the playwright for having taking this course was Razones de Cuba, which also dedicated a somewhat elegant article to him this Wednesday entitled Yunior, instead of a dove, a crow. In it, he accuses him of being “the bastard son of a decadent and vulgar bourgeoisie” and advocating a “blatant annexation with the United States,” something that, to date, García has never demanded.
Other media also points to Maykel Osorbo and Eliecer Ávila as friends of the Archipelago spokesman and ends with two threats, one to the Cuban people warning them of “what awaits them” if the Revolution falls — the descendants of Batista to want “their lands and properties,” those that were expropriated more than half a century ago — and another to the playwright: “Yunior, be careful you don’t end up living on the street, maybe not, and you guaranteed your little piece of silver, confess that you walk without morals. Your Peace instead of a Dove is a Raven!”
These types of campaigns that attack the reputation of opponents, activists or anyone who denounces actions by the Cuban authorities are frequent. In recent years, the official Cuban press has focused on attacking independent journalists or bloggers living within Cuba, to stigmatize them without the right to reply.
The national daily press has not wanted to stop chewing over the matter and publishes the response to the marches on the State website Cubadebate and inthe State newspaper Granma , where there is also an editorial entitled Reason is our shield. The results have been uneven in the two most popular official newspapers and, while the online media accumulates a mountain of more than 220 comments among which it is difficult to find any defense to the celebration of the marches, the case of the Communist Party newspaper is more striking.
Among the — only 21 — users who have responded to the Granma text, there are at least five supporters of authorizing the demonstrations because of their commitment to be peaceful. “If it is peaceful, it must be allowed, we are all Cubans. We must respect each other even if we do not think the same,” says one commentator.
“Please do not mix one thing with another. The march is not illegal. Not everyone thinks the same and it is normal and correct that people have the right to express themselves peacefully,” adds another.
García, in his post last night, makes his position clear despite the many attacks that in just 24 hours have been added to the prior ones. “See you on November 15. I’m no longer afraid of the garbage trucks, the ’black shirts’, the sticks they hand out in each workplace, or the dictatorship. And yes, I already use the word DICTATORSHIP. There are words that you don’t dare to mention until you see them naked, in front of you, like today.”
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The population most vulnerable to covid-19 in Cuba is those over 50 years of age. (Twitter / @ CIGBCuba)
14ymedio, 17 October 2021,Havana — The population over 50 years of age continues to be the most vulnerable to covid-19 in Cuba, which this Sunday presented a slight increase in cases after a week of decreases. Some 21 deaths were reported from the coronavirus and of those, 20 of the were people over 50. Based on the figures from the Ministry of Health, covid killed 194 adults in the last week.
As of 16 October, 23,920,914 doses of candidate vaccines have been delivered on the island and 6,689,090 of the 11.2 million inhabitants have completed the three-dose regimen. Despite the fact that a decrease in the numbers of patients with covid-19 has been reported, 255 are currently in intensive care; of these, 88 are in critical condition and 167 are serious.
The provinces of Pinar del Río with 389 cases, Camagüey (337), Sancti Spíritus (318), Holguín (290) and Las Tunas (201) maintain the highest number of infections by the SARS-CoV-2 virus of the 2,197 new cases registered on Saturday. In Santiago de Cuba, of 47 who died, four victims were reported to have succumbed to complications derived from the coronavirus.
Intoxicated by the decline in figures, the official press reported continue reading
that “the number of cases decreased by 9% and in terms of active cases, the decrease was 14.6%.” With this argument, the First Deputy Minister of Culture, María Elena Salgado Cabrera, proposed the reopening of activities and holding of events.
These activities include “re-establishing the rehearsals of theatrical, musical and dance groups, with specific prevention regulations”; in addition to the “controlled reopening of the recording studios, the programming and operation of the Houses of Culture, theaters and cinemas.”
The plan contemplates starting with “the theatrical presentation in a staggered manner, using small-format works and repertoires or other variants that do not require greater physical contact between the artists.”
This also implies that “those groups and companies that already have one hundred percent of their artists vaccinated with the three doses against covid-19 will resume their functions; and the sale of tickets to the theaters will be held days before the function, in order to avoid crowds.”
Theatrical capacity will be handled with “30 to 40% of the total capacity.” Salgado Cabrera also proposed “to open all bookstores, libraries, museums and galleries during normal hours.” Which would imply the adoption of hygienic measures, limiting the number of participants and guaranteeing physical distancing.
And faced with the planned arrival of tourism in mid-November, the important thing for the Government is to “establish strategies” for the arrival of foreign and Cuban visitors. The concern is simmering; in September alone, this newspaper announced that the disaster affects this sector, first of all, in direct jobs. Of the 111,033 tourist workers, only half, 55,832, have returned to their jobs, while 2,950 are working remotely.
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14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 18 October 2021 — After many months, the National Botanical Garden reopened its doors on Sunday. Visitors have to first make a reservation by phone. Entry fees are 10 pesos for adults and 5 for children. The first visitors, encouraged by great fanfare in the official press, found a less exciting experience than was promised.
