14ymedio – Page 293 – Translating Cuba

To Get a Digital TV Box in Cuba You Need a Ration Book and 1,250 Pesos

A line at the store on the corner of 11th and 4th in El Vedado, Havana, to buy the decoder ’boxes’. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 7 June 2021 — The line stretches for several blocks. There are people sitting on the sidewalk curb, others take shelter under the shade of the trees, and many others take to walking from one corner to another to stretch their legs. They joined the line at dawn, everyone has their ration book with them and they hope to buy the decoder boxes for digital television.

Known as “the little boxes,” the devices that allow you to enjoy a broader range of national broadcasts only appear in dribs and drabs in some state stores and for weeks it has been mandatory to present their rationbook to acquire them. Only residents of the same municipality are entitled to buy in these places.

“My sister-in-law called me at five in the morning, just to tell me they lifted the curfew,” a woman tells this newspaper, while waiting about 200 yards from the store that accepts payment in Cuban pesos at 11th and 4th street Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood. “They are worth 1,250 pesos each, but if I add up the number of hours I have been here it will cost me a fortune,” she laments after noon. continue reading

“No, it is not by the ration book but with the ration book”, clarifies an employee of a store of the Trimagen chain, managed by the Cuban military, which in recent months has sold these devices on several occasions. “We need the notebook to write down who has already bought and thus avoid hoarders and resellers,” he explains. “The problem is that there are households that have more than one television, even that there are several families in the same house and they can only buy one,” he acknowledges.

“Many people have been asking how long it takes between buying one box and being able to buy another, but they have not explained that to us yet. At the moment the data of those who have already acquired it is being archived and if anyone has doubts it must go to the provincial government,” clarifies the worker, who details that in the Trimagen store they are selling” the boxes for the municipalities of Cerro and Plaza.”

Digital television began its first steps in Cuba in 2013, but economic problems have slowed its progress. The authorities recently announced that they are preparing 318,000 Chinese standard digital TV decoders.

Until the arrival of these devices on the national scene, the word “box” was used in popular Cuban speech to designate a rectangular cardboard container where food is traditionally served at parties, cafeterias that sell to go, or situations where diners cannot sit in front of the plate.

With use, the expression “get a box” came to mean reaching something you want, taking advantage of a situation (even sexually) or being taken into account in some distribution mechanism. In April 1980, when more than 10,000 Cubans requested asylum at the Peruvian Embassy in Havana to try to escape from the Island, the phrase gained strength.

Squeezed into the embassy’s garden and on the roof of the building, in a short time the overcrowding of these thousands of people also turned into a humanitarian crisis that the ruling party skillfully handled. The distribution of the “boxes” with food became a moment of fights that the government cameras filmed to present those gathered there as criminals. “To get a box, you had to go over the top of others and beat each other with your fists,” one of those refugees would later recall.

Now, to get a box you need long hours in line, a large amount of money in your pocket and a ration book. Instead of food or a piece of birthday cake , you receive the right to be able to watch official television with better quality.

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Tania Bruguera Mocks the Cuban Government’s Censorship at the Geneva Summit

“Cuba,” a country where nothing works except its political police,” says Bruguera. (Rialta)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana,8 June 2021 – On Tuesday, the artist Tania Bruguera managed to participate in the virtual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, after the Cuban government prevented her doing so the day before by cutting off her mobile data service.

During her speech, Bruguera enumerated several recent abuses committed by the “military dictatorship,” including the impunity of the police authorities for the human rights violations for which they have been responsible, including murder.

The artist described the country where she lives as “an island-prison” and denounced: “It is in Cuba where laws are created to keep the rulers protected and in power and not for the people to live in a safer way. Cuba, a country where nothing works except its political police.”

Bruguera has also been the victim of arbitrary detentions, surveillance and lengthy interrogations, actions organized by State Security at the orders of the Government. In recent months, she has also had to spend days, sometimes weeks, with a police cordon around her home that prevents her from going out. continue reading

“Imagine turning on the television and seeing on the National Newscast your private telephone number with your name next to it and your home address with personal data, while a presenter emphasizes that, in effect, that is your number and that is the place where people can find you,” the artist said about the attacks in the official media, as a result of which, she says, hateful messages from people she does not know reach her phone.

The Summit was organized by a coalition of 25 human rights groups, bringing together dissidents and former political figures from around the world. In statements to 14ymedio, the artist said that her participation in this event was important: “It seemed good to me that the experience of the activists in Cuba could be there and could be told.”

Bruguera managed to bypass the censorship of Cuba’s telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, by sending her speech in an audio message, and she did in both Spanish and English. In it, she noted that this is a country where “independent journalists are persecuted, where citizens’ access to independent media through the internet is blocked, where citizen journalism is penalized to such a degree that if a person publishes a statement on Facebook that is critical of the government, they will be sought out and fined more than their monthly salary.”

In addition, she gave an account of the political prisoners in Cuban prisons who are arbitrarily detained in many cases and publicly defamed by the Government. In these cases, she explained, all are without real legal protection “because their designated lawyer works under direct orders from the Government.”

Bruguera said that “people you know are afraid to let you use the telephone line registered in their name because they know that electronic surveillance is one of the priorities of the Cuban government.” At the same time, she spoke hopefully, because today, she said, Cubans’ complaints “are beginning to be transformed into civic actions.”

She was emphatic: “Today too, while sending this recording, I think about my fellow activists in prison, about the possible consequences of participating in this type of event, about the vulnerability that we feel every day, but there is something that gives me strength because I know it is a collective cry: Homeland and Life.”
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Like Coffee and Rum, Tobacco Disappears from Stores in Cuban Pesos

With the disappearance of tobacco in stores that sell in Cuban pesos, anyone who can’t pay in hard currency has to resort to the black market. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López, Moya, Havana, 3 June 2021 — On the island of cigars and cigar rag (cut tobacco), Cubans find themselves with the dilemma of acquiring packs of cigarettes on the black market or buying them in stores in freely convertible currency (MLC). In state stores and cafeterias, where this product is marketed in pesos, the shortage becomes more acute every day and huge lines get longer.

“I buy cigarettes from people who sell in my neighborhood because they are gone from the stores, but when I went to the Boyeros and Camagüey shopping center, there they were, all brands looking pretty, but in MLC. Tremendous lack of respect”, Jorge, a resident of the Havana neighborhood of Los Pinos, tells us. He adds that he should take advantage of the situation to quit smoking, but that it is quite difficult for him given the daily stress of living in Cuba.

Along with rum and coffee, two of the other symbols of Cubanness, smoking is no longer affordable for the pockets of the ordinary citizen. In addition, tobacco rose in price on January 1, with the start of the so-called ‘Ordering Task’*, but the rise was the least of the problems for some consumers who had seen the product disappear months ago. continue reading

In addition, tobacco rose in price on January 1, with the start of the ‘Ordering Task’, but the rise was the least of the problems

Many smokers have been forced to stop smoking their favorite brands. Those who preferred Hollywood, now have to turn to Rothman, which late last year replaced the former. But soon after, the Rothmans disappeared from the peso sales and can only be found at US$2.20 a pack. Consumers have had to opt for other alternatives, such as the green Popular or the H. Upmann, but now, those are also scarce and are only relatively easily found in sole proprietorship businesses for up to double their usual price.

Added to the dilemma of not finding the desired cigarettes is the complaint of many smokers about the poor quality of the product. The flavors have changed and sometimes the cigarettes come with little filler or scant glue, so the cork or filter separates from the rest. They also arrive with yellowish spots on the paper, a product of humidity, a sign of improper storage and handling.

“You may find either a stem of the tobacco leaf or a piece of plastic just as easily. It happened to me once, I noticed it because of the burnt cable stink, and almost called the fire department, but before I did, I realized that the smell was coming from the cigarette. After I performed the autopsy, I found a two-centimeters long piece of plastic. I still wonder how that ended up in the cigarette,” a Centro Habana barber told 14ymedio.

On the other hand, the few places where they carry the odd brand, especially “strong”, are hotbeds of desperate people trying to get the product at cheaper prices. “First I went to the Sylvain and there was only blue Popular, then I arrived at the Cupet, at Infanta and San Rafael Streets but they were very crowded, it took over 2 hours to get them and quantities were limited to purchases of 5 packs per person, which means that in four or five days I’ll have to wear out my shoes in search of the darn cigarettes again,” says a worker at La Quinta de los Molinos.

The mixed Cuban/Brazilian Company, Cigarrillos S.A., popularly known as Brascuba and founded in 1995, is the one that supplies stores in foreign currency and, although some prices continue to be unchanged, it has increased others.

At the beginning of last year, company executives declared that, in order to guarantee the constant flow of production and so that “there is no impact,” Brascuba had expanded its portfolio of suppliers and the main raw material, tobacco, came “directly from the Virginia project, in Pinar del Río, and that the company’s partners have contributed to its growth and improvement.” However, months later, reality tells a different story.

Faced with such a shortage, some people who are astute and have good memories, have resorted to the homemade manufacture of cigars, the so-called Tupamaros

Faced with such a shortage, some people who are astute and have good memories, have resorted to the homemade manufacture of cigarettes, the so-called tupamaros. They use the artisanal machines to roll, manufacture and produce cigarettes from different raw materials, such as sweepings or surplus that is usually discarded at the factories, or also by creating the filling from chopped tobacco leaves. Almost any paper can be used, as long as it’s a thin sheet, as long as the glue is a mixture of flour and water.

Francisco, a neighbor of the La Corona Tobacco Factory in Old Havana, performs very well in these tasks. He has dusted off his cigarette machines not used since the late 90’s and, after maintenance, he’s gotten down to business. “The situation has become very difficult, especially for us retirees,” he explains.

“Buying food is already complicated, so being able to smoke is so much worse, that’s why I remembered that I had the little machines to make cigarettes, so taking advantage of the shortage, I started production with what I can resolve. This way, I guarantee mine and sell to people from the neighborhood to recoup the investment and earn a bit of change, although sometimes I also trade cigarettes for sugar, chopped meat or whatever they offer me.”

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

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Cuban Regime Loses Ground in the Battle for Control of the Internet

When Etecsa offered the ability to connect from mobile phones, we were already “Internet users without internet.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 5 June 2021 – An uninvited presence hovered over the spacious room where the eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) was held this April. The Internet was an unwanted and feared guest at the three-day event that took place in Havana. The organization, which governs the destiny of eleven million Cubans and which, for decades, has maintained a tight news monopoly on the island, is now challenged by social networks and memes.

“There should be no room for naivety at this point, nor for excessive enthusiasm for new technologies without ensuring computer security,” said Raúl Castro in the central report that he read to the delegates before leaving the post of general secretary of the PCC. His words displayed the concern that had been felt by the entire Castro leadership for months.

The Cuban government has lost the terrain of the internet for not understanding it, for believing that – as is the case with physical streets or university classrooms – fear and punishment are enough to silence dissent. The emergence in late 2018 and the continued resistance of the San Isidro Movement, which exists both online and on the streets, is a tribute to this failure.

The date of birth of the San Isidro Movement is no coincidence. With the arrival of the web browsing service to Cuban mobiles, in December 2018, an avalanche of popular denunciations, questions and ridicule against bureaucrats, officials and party leaders has been unleashed. As if in this nation, long gagged, we had all begun to scream at the same time, in a howl that mixes indignation, boredom and desire for change. continue reading

However, the history of this chorus of despair heard today on social networks began long before the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) allowed Cubans to connect from cell phones. More than a decade ago, when the first independent blogs appeared on the island, part of a path was traced from which citizens are now beginning to see the fruits.

It was 2007 when the first personal blogs outside the control of Cuban institutions and ministries began to gain visibility on the networks. Generation Y, the blog that I started in April 2007, was for me “an exercise in cowardice” since it gave me a space to describe what was happening in Cuba in a way that was forbidden to me in my civic actions.

Now those times seem prehistoric, times when to publish we had to go disguised as foreigners to a few Internet cafés in Havana where access to nationals was restricted, while high prices were charged to tourists.

Also long gone the days of “tweeting blindly” on Twitter, a tool that, thanks to the possibility of publishing through text-only messages, allowed a thriving community of activists and reporters to have immediate insight into what was happening in the interior of the country. The independent journalism movement, still trying to recover from the repressive blow of the spring of 2003, found in these new technologies a breath of oxygen to grow.

A vibrant alternative blogosphere then emerged that was immediately placed at the center of official attacks, government propaganda smear campaigns, and repressive police operations. But, the main response from the Plaza of the Revolution was to create a captive and controlled blogosphere, which would serve as a sounding board for its slogans: take to the internet with a hammer and sickle in your hands.

Since then, the skirmishes on one side and the other have been countless, but the balance favors the protesting voices. The Cuban regime chose to censor web pages and to create controlled bubbles with substitutes for Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia. Months of work, with professionals devoted to the programming of these parallel networks – resulted in the understanding that the Internet virus had already irremediably infected Cubans.

Despite the high prices for connecting to the web, which are still prohibitive for many state workers, people were peeking into the great world-wide-web and it was then very difficult to try to shrink it back to a ghetto of applications and digital sites associated with the Government. Unlike in China, where party leaders pushed for the creation of a neutered and guarded network very quickly, on this island it took too long for the olive-green elders to recognize the new enemy that was upon them.

By the time the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa offered the ability to connect from mobile phones, on the other side here we were already “Internet users without internet” and we knew the potential of a tool that we had conquered with years of demands and creativity.

Then came everything that followed: the first images in more than half a century of a Cuban presidential caravan being booed by a crowd furious about the official delay in helping victims of a tornado in Havana; the acid mocking of a Commander of the historic Sierra Maestra who came up with the proposal that we eat ostriches to alleviate the chronic food crisis; the disconsolate tears of several families from whom the collapse of a balcony – which had been in danger of falling for years – robbed them of three little girls.

To top off all that mess, the new forms of social criticism have thrown themselves fully into the virtual village and use its tools effectively. The San Isidro Movement and its most visible figure, the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, are practically digital natives to whom chatting, posting on YouTube or putting a live broadcast on Facebook are like breathing.

When on November 27, dozens of artists and activists met in front of the Ministry of Culture to demand the end of censorship and greater creative freedoms, mobiles connected to the web were the ideal infrastructure to narrate the protest. At nightfall, in front of the dreaded state agency, cell phone screens illuminated young, restless faces… full of energy.

Accept, however, is a verb that is not in the dictionary of the Cuban regime and since that November it has unleashed a fierce repressive campaign against these artists, mobilized its most intolerant television presenters, and turned the national media into firing squads against the reputation of its critics.

Since that time there has not been a single day of calm for the Cuban regime, which once strutted to control even whispers. A downpour of citizen criticism, even from those who identify with the official ideology, has fallen on them and threatens to continue to rage as new voices are added. To protect themselves from such acid rain they have tried to respond by displaying their slogans on the social networks… but it hardly works.

On the internet, the regime’s soldiers are effortlessly recognized, lack of spontaneity is paid for dearly, and blocking positions are detected with ease. Like an impromptu performer who sneaks into a high-level dance contest, the steps that the government has taken in the fields of propaganda through the Internet are clumsy, without rhythm and even ridiculous.

It is not in its medium and it shows; because its medium is controlled newspapers and censored television. For Castroism, the internet is a terrain where it is forced to operate but one it does not understand well.

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Editor’s Note: This text was originally published on Rest of World.

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Foreign Correspondents in Cuba: The Fascination with the Dictatorship / Miriam Celaya

A conference at the International Press Center in Havana (Photo: CPI / Twitter)

Miriam Celaya, Cubanet, Havana, 2 June 2021 — One of the most effective pillars that has helped to cement the legend of the “good Cuban dictatorship” has been the work of not a few accredited foreign press correspondents in Havana.

It is not something new. Since New York Times journalist Herbert Matthews’ crush on Fidel Castro in 1957, when he interviewed the guerrilla leader in the Sierra Maestra, many reporters have succumbed to the mythology (and mythomania, it should be added) of the Castro revolution.

Perhaps dazzled by the color and heat of the tropics, the cheerful carefreeness of Cubans, the beauty of the beaches, the refreshing taste of mojitos and the comfort of what, more than the work of being a correspondent, turns out to be a perennial state of paid vacations, the truth is that most of these foreign reporters are more interested in not upsetting the Cuban dictatorial power than in honoring the professional commitment to objectively narrate the reality of what is happening on the Island.

It is not surprising, then, that several press media, among the best known and most prestigious at the international level, echo the supposed technological and scientific advances that are produced in Cuba thanks to the high level reached by Cuban specialists in the shadow of the “Revolution,” or that they don’t extend themselves in praise over the imaginary social security and quality of health care enjoyed by the inhabitants of this Island either, and that they even tear their clothes off against the forever-villain: the US government, with its most deadly weapon, the “blockade,” which has prevented us from reaching greater heights in all categories and occupying our rightful place on the world stage. continue reading

The most recent installment of this type of half-truth journalism – all the more harmful because it selects a fragment of reality but show only one of its faces – is a column authored by Mauricio Vicent, published in the Spanish newspaper El País, dated May 31^st, whose sole title (“Cuba and the United States Return to Times of Confrontation”) constitutes an inexplicable slip by such an experienced writer, given that the confrontation between the Cuban authorities and the United States government has not only been a constant, with brief and scant intervals of truce during the last 62 years, but constitutes the backbone of the foreign policy of the Castro dictatorship and its heirs of today, pledged to “continuity.”

To such an extent, it is of capital importance for the Palace of the Revolution to keep the confrontation embers and the “imperialist enemy” burning, because without this it is not possible to conceive the very survival of the dictatorship, as was definitely demonstrated during the thaw period prompted by the Obama Administration, when Cuban authorities hastily backed off from the dangerous effect of openness and détente offered by the powerful northern neighbor.

Mauricio Vicent, correspondent for the Spanish newspaper El País in Cuba (Photo: El País)

The avalanche of unilateral measures by Obama, which made the embargo more flexible with the intention of favoring the nascent sector of entrepreneurs and Cuban society as a whole, was capitalized on by Havana to establish itself in power without taking real steps towards the freedoms and rights of Cuban citizens. This is a reality that Vicent, who has lived in Cuba for over 20 years, should know by heart. However, his article is not only biased, but chooses to openly attack the new US president, Joe Biden, and side with the Cuban regime.

What is Vicent accusing Biden of? First, of having spent five months at the helm of the US government and having lifted “not a single of the 240 measures adopted by Trump to intensify the embargo” as if the Cuban issue had to be a priority for a foreign president, particularly for the American one, and as if the Cuban side did not have to make any internal moves to try to improve the situation in our own country.

But Biden’s bag of sins is bulkier than that. The El País columnist seems to be irritated both by “Washington’s reproaches” for the human rights situation in Cuba and by the fact that the current US Administration has kept Cuba on the black list of governments that sponsor terrorism or are not doing enough in the fight against this scourge.

To support the position of the Cuban side, Vicent cites the fiery reactions of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, with an arsenal of phrases and cumbersome adjectives which he uncritically seems to agree with, to conclude that “every day returns to the fierce rhetoric from the Trump era, and Obama’s normalization is no longer talked about…”

In order not to skimp on quotes, Vicent also makes use of the American academic William Leogrande, who recalls Joe Biden’s support for Obama’s open-minded policy towards Cuba when Biden was his vice president, plus his campaign promise about resuming the dialogue between the two governments, whose stagnation Leogrande attributes to an unresolved debate that would be taking place between the forces in favor of the policy of rapprochement and those who prefer to maintain pressure on the Cuban dictatorship.

So far, it could be said that Vicent’s position is valid: each one with his own political sympathies, only that you would expect more objectivity from him as a journalist. Because, while his article gives voice and place to the Cuban and US authorities – obviously in favor of the former – at the same time, he conveniently avoids including the claims of dissident artists and activists, whom he does mention in the column.

So, when he speaks of the forced transfer of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara to the hospital, where he spent “almost four weeks as an isolated in-patient,” Vicent fails to allege that it was actually a kidnapping and that this isolation included the artist’s abduction, prevented from having any contact with his friends and colleagues from the San Isidro Movement, deprived of his phone and possibly subjected to medical or other practices not authorized by Otero himself. Vicent also avoids mentioning the illegal arrests, house confinements and police harassment of activists and dissidents, or of all the violent events related to the hunger strike and the subsequent kidnapping of Otero.

Prodigal in epithets when it comes to condemning the US government, he seems to suffer a sudden language impoverishment when he refers to the flagrant human rights violations in Cuba, as if the existence of the much-used “US blockade” – which undeniably affects everyone – justifies police repression and lack of rights of Cubans.

It goes without saying that this journalist doesn’t make any critical mention either – I don’t remember his ever having made it – of the internal blockade of the dictatorship toward Cuban nationals, of the discrimination implanted by the government both towards Cubans who have access to hard currency and those who do not, of the new provisions that force Cuban travelers to pay in dollars for their stay in isolation centers and transportation to their places of residence when they return from a trip abroad, among countless other perversions that have nothing to do with the embargo.

But the greatest offense is that this correspondent, like a sounding board for the official discourse, attributes a political handicap to us Cubans, as if we were a herd, incapable of claiming rights on our own. Perhaps because of that colonial mentality that permeates many children of the old metropolis settled comfortably in Cuba, because of that congenital resentment towards the United States or simply because the hierarchs of the regime also have in their hands the power to keep them in Cuba or to allow them to leave, this foreign correspondent joins others in the assumption that all of us who stand up to the dictatorial power are responding to an agenda imposed on us by Washington.

Everyday Cubans and dissidents, those of us who are actually suffering from both the pressures of the embargo and the repression and twists and turns of the dictatorship, don’t even figure as political subjects in Vicent’s imagination. Reduced to a simple uncomfortable reference, he doesn’t recognize in us the capacity nor the right. His reductionist proposal, which only conceives of the Biden Administration and the Cuban dictatorship as debaters in the solution of the Cuban crisis, mimics the same position that Cubans faced at the end of the 1898 war, when they were excluded from agreements between defeated Spain and victorious U.S.

Vicent concludes that the “blockade” and US politics show that Cuba and Cubans are not interested in the US, and this may be true. Though, at this point he failed to say that he does not care about us either – in short, a foreigner whose stay among us depends on the benefits of the regime – or, what is worse, on the elite that has held the dictatorial power in Cuba for more than six decades.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Cadeca to Issue Pre-Paid Cards in Another Step Towards Dollarization in Cuba

Cash withdrawals using pre-paid debit cards will only be in Cuban pesos (CUP) and only through one bank’s ATM network. (Radio Mambí)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 June 2021 — Cuba’s state-run currency exchange company, Cadeca, has announced “a new service”: prepaid cards in dollars to be used exclusively within Cuba to pay for goods and services in the country’s hard-currency retail network. The new operation, which is not yet available, is an effort to take over cash remittance transfers from Western Union, which recently suspended operations in Cuba.

According to an advertisement shared on Facebook by Cadeca vice-president Alejandro Velazquez, the new prepaid cards will be issued exclusively by the Bank of Credit and Commerce (Bandec) in 200, 500 and 1,000 dollar amounts, though the state-owned company has yet to provide details.

As the ad notes, cash withdrawals can only be in Cuban pesos (CUP) and only through the bank’s ATM network. Withdrawals cannot be exchanged for foreign currency and the bank maintains it is not obliged to return any unused funds. It is not yet known when the cards will go into circulation. continue reading

Velasco also does not indicate where the cards will be available, if Cadeca and Bandec will be directly involved in their sale or issue, or if it will be possible to purchase them online from abroad as can now be done with rechargeable telephone debit cards issued of the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa.

The new service could simplify the purchasing process for those who shop at the country’s hard currency stores, where customers must pay using a pre-paid debit card. Currently, consumers are required to use a card issued by a foreign bank or one obtained by opening a foreign currency account at a Cuban bank, a process that could take weeks.

The Cuban government has set the currency exchange rate at 24 pesos to the dollar — the unofficial rate is at 600 and rising — making it virtually impossible to buy dollars through official channels.

On May 20 Cuban airports abruptly stopped selling hard currency without prior warning. The news came via a message on social media posted by Cadeca a few hours before the decision took effect.

The company claimed that the drop in tourism due to the pandemic resulted in a “significant shortage” of hard currency, adding that, though it had been able to operate normally up to that point, the lack of liquidity had reached an unsustainable level.

The government is now taking drastic action in an all-out quest to obtain hard currency. One indiction of this is the many neighborhood stores that no longer sell merchandise in pesos and will only accept payment in foreign currency, a dollarization of the Cuban economy that is spreading throughout the country.

The number of these state-run stores is growing by the day. The transition is causing consternation among the buying public, who see the change as a sign of economic instability and monetary discrimination. Nevertheless, authorities remain undeterred in their efforts to obtain foreign reserves at any cost.

As of June 5, Cuban residents who who return home through airports at the country’s two international resort hotspots, Ciego de Ávila and Varadero, will have to pay in hard currency for a mandatory one-week hotel quarantine package. Among the reasons given by health authorities is “the need to reduce costs associated with fighting the pandemic.”

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Cuban Government Organizes an Act of Repudiation Against Tania Bruguera

The Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artivism (Instar) denounced what occurred in a press release published on social networks. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 June 2021 — On Thursday afternoon at the headquarters of the Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artivism (Instar), the artist Tania Bruguera received a visit from a group made up of about fifteen people who warned her of the consequences of continuing with her activities and demands. At the head of the collective was a woman who presented the others as “community factors” [i.e. disciplinarians] and told the artist that she has to quit “with the little game” and “the counterrevolution.”

“We have to tell you that it has to end with the ’savage’ horde and the counterrevolution you have here. We are waiting for one of you to come out to face us, but since you don’t have the courage, quit with this here and now,” the woman said excitedly.

“All of you are worms [gusanos], fine,” she continued. “We here in the community are not going to allow, not from you or anyone else, this disaster that you are creating here.” The leader of the group described those present as “revolutionary troops” and maintained that they will not consent to any act of the “counterrevolution” because in this community “there are women and men that can ’make waves’ [be brave],” she added. continue reading

Bruguera told 14ymedio that the group arrived at her house without even knowing what Instar is and believes that what happened was more than an act of repudiation. “It was an alert… something very strange, a threat,” said the artist.

“It is evident that whose who gave them an order didn’t prepare them. It seemed like a rushed and poorly prepared event. What was clear is that there were people willing to strike out and who wanted confrontation. Their objective was to provoke, but in Instar our philosophy is that violence it is eliminated with civic education,” said the artist.

Instar denounced what happened in a statement published on social networks in which it specified that the intention of the group was to speak with Tania Bruguera, but thatat that moment the artist was in a work meeting.

“It is common for neighbors of our headquarters and other Cuban citizens to contact us for matters related to the neighborhood or personal situations. However, this number of people has never come together, they have always identified themselves with their names and the matter to be discussed, and, above all, they have never filmed us from the opposite sidewalk, as happened in this case and is recorded in the attached video,” the note states.

In the recording you can see the visual artist Camila Lobón, one of the coordinators of the space, greet the group through a grating. Lobón asks that they identify themselves as she does not recognize them as neighbors of the neighborhood. “Only then did they say, without further details, they were ’from the community of the Cathedral’, where our institute is located,” the post clarifies. When Lobón realizes that there is a person filming from the sidewalk in front, she also begins to record the second part of the conversation.

“It is obvious that these are acts planned by the Government, they do arise spontaneously or from the conscience of the citizens. The woman who launches the threats initially confuses Aminta D’Cárdenas, one of our coordinators, with Tania. Then she rectifies it can calls her ’ringleader’,” the post says.

According to Instar, none of the residents of the neighborhood participated in this act and greeted the members of the institute “kindly” when they left the headquarters minutes later.

Last week, the presenter Humberto López once again dedicated one of his TV programs to Bruguera, 27 N, and other activists, accusing them of having ties to the government of the United States and receiving financing from that country.

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Otero Alcantara Leaves Havana Hospital After a Month of Forced Confinement

Screen captures of a video that Otero Alcántara made when he left Havana’s Calixto García hospital this Monday. (Collage)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 31 May 2021 — “I am relatively well, from a physical point of view but, emotionally, [I am] worried about all my brothers,” Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara told CubaNet Noticias shortly after leaving Calixto García Hospital. The artist announced that health “tests” will be carried out outside the “control of State Security.”

The chronology of what he has lived through in the last four weeks begins to become clear. After arriving at the hospital on May 2^nd, he spent a week drinking fluids “so I could be aware of what was happening with me at that time” and “to be able to think,” as he arrived at the health center “despondent,” he clarifies.

“A week after I was there, once again I started my hunger and thirst fasting,” he said. About a week after, he called off the strike and stated that for about 15 days he has been eating again, and that he has also hydrated.

He also said that, before issuing opinions on everything that the political police have published about him during his imprisonment, he prefers to see all the videos that they leaked and what they have said about his family: “I want to see everything that is happening, get updated to be able to judge what went on.” continue reading

“A week after being there, once again I started my hunger and thirst fasting”

In relation to one of the videos where he seemed to be very thin and which caused concern among his friends, he insisted that he spent about eight days without eating and drinking water, and “of course, he was emaciated,” he said.

“All my friends have to be on the street. State Security had a meeting with me before leaving, they warned me of a thousand things, but my friends have to be on the street now… We are connected,” said the artist, referring to the phrase that has become his life motto.

Shortly before, a note from the Provincial Health Directorate had reported that the medical team treating him had decided to “have him discharged from the hospital today.” The official note added that “during his hospital stay, his progress has been favorable, with clinical and laboratory parameters that are all within normal ranges.”

In addition, the note specified that for several days he “has been on a free diet, which meets nutritional needs” and that this has allowed for “weight gain and requirements for recovery of his energy.”

Otero Alcántara’s family was putting pressure on health personnel to achieve this goal. The artist had been held in the hospital for 29 days without being able to communicate with his friends and was only seen through manipulated videos, which were released by State Security.

Family sources confirmed to 14ymedio that the health authorities of the hospital had communicated that this Monday they were going to discharge the artist. At first, the family assumed that Otero Alcántara was going to leave the medical center last Friday, however, “that did not happen.”

The artist had been held in the hospital for 29 days without being able to communicate with his friends and was only seen through manipulated videos

Relatives said they went to Calixto García Hospital but they did not discharge him and the doctors reported that they would do so this Monday. In addition, they insisted that the activist would not return to his home on Damas Street, in the San Isidro neighborhood, Old Havana municipality.

“When he gets hold of a phone, Luisito is going to tell everything that happened, he is going to denounce everything and he will continue to be a plantado (an uncooperative prisoner),” Enix Berrio, who is Otero Alcántara’s close friend, told 14ymedio.

Some family members, Berrio assures, are upset with the actions of State Security and the authorities, who “have manipulated” the situation “at will… Initially, personal experience led them to believe that they were going to help Luisito and that we are the bad guys, that we wanted to drag him to hell, but the family verified that the G2 is a string of manipulators and that they are affecting Luisito,” he admonished.

Otero Alcántara went on a hunger and thirst strike on April 25^th to demand that his rights be respected, after a month of police siege to his home. The activist also demanded the return of his artistic works or compensation for those that were destroyed by the political police.

After several days of fasting, in the early morning of May 2^nd, he was taken from his home against his will to the Calixto García Hospital. During his stay at the hospital, he had no communication with his colleagues at the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and very little with his family.

In addition, a police cordon guarded the surroundings of the Havana hospital. Although at the time of his admission the authorities confirmed that he was being admitted due to “referred voluntary starvation,” a few hours later they leaked the results of an analysis that supposedly were his vitals and that described a good state of health, even suggesting that one of the values was high due to high consumption of meat.

The government’s propaganda apparatus has not stopped campaigning to discredit Otero Alcántara, accusing him of receiving instructions and financial support from abroad

During all the time he was held at the Calixto García, the political police published several videos of the artist, possibly filmed without his consent. At all times they alleged that he was in good health, without giving explanations about the reasons for his hospitalization.

The government’s propaganda apparatus has not stopped campaigning to discredit Otero Alcántara, accusing him of receiving instructions and financial support from abroad, while international organizations have expressed concern over the kidnapping of the artist.

Amnesty International declared him a “prisoner of conscience” on May 21^st and urged President Miguel Díaz-Canel to release him “immediately and unconditionally.” They also demanded that he should receive medical care of his choice, periodic visits from his family and friends, not be tortured or suffer any other type of mistreatment, and have access to lawyers of his choice.”

The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC) insisted that it is prosecuting “as violent repressors… those people who are cooperating with State Security in inflicting temporary or irreversible damage to Otero Alcántara at the hospital.” The executive director of the NGO, Juan Antonio Blanco, noted that the Cuban regime has already used “corrupt doctors and nurses in the past to torture using electroshocks, drugs and other practices.”

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Cuba’s ‘Man With the Flag’ Continues to US After Detention in Columbia

“We are in Colombia now and we continue on our way to the United States, I will report as we go,” Llorente told ’14ymedio’. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 June 2021 — Daniel Llorente Miranda, known as “the man with the flag” since, in 2017, he ran holding the United States banner in the Plaza of the Revolution during the May 1 parade, was released this Sunday in Caracas after spend nine days in detention, along with his son, for having entered Venezuela illegally.

Both were deported this weekend to the border with Colombia. “Everything is fine, we have already left Venezuela, we are in Colombia now and we continue on our way to the United States, I will report as we go,” Llorente told 14ymedio.

According to his account, on May 21 at around six in the afternoon when he arrived with his son at a hotel in Caracas where they planned to spend the night before continuing on their way, they were detained along with other Cubans by members of the Special Actions Forces (Faes).

“We were accompanied by two friends of ours who are also Venezuelan police officers and we had met them on the bus that went from Bolívar state to Caracas. Someone betrayed us, we believe it was the bus driver. It was State Security that one that stopped us at the hotel, then took us to the station.” continue reading

Llorente explains that in the police station they were treated well, “and with respect,” he added. “We were there until Monday the 24th when they transferred us to immigration and they left us there until Sunday the 30th, when we were released.”

The Cuban and his son Eliécer met up in December in Guyana where the opponent had resided since May 2019, when, according to his testimony, he had to leave Cuba due to “pressure” and “threats” from State Security.

The activist spent more than a year in Havana’s Mazorra Psychiatric Hospital. He was transferred to the medical center by the political police after crying out for “freedom for Cuba” while running with the US flag in his hands and the Cuban flag on his short, a few yard from the rostrum where then-President Raúl Castro was seated and in front of the accredited press and foreign guests.

Llorente, born in 1963m graduated in engineering in the former German Democratic Republic, and became popular for his activism after the diplomatic thaw between Havana and Washington.

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In Cuba the Use of Solar Energy Depends on the State and China

The Cuban government sees solar energy as a way to take advantage of a natural resource the country has abundance but investment remains a major hurdle. (Radio Progreso)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 May 2021 — China will donate 5,000 solar panels to Cuba for use in rural parts of the country. The panels have yet to be delivered but a symbolic handover took place on Monday at a ceremony in Guangzhou attended by Denisse Llamos, the Cuban consul general in that city.

Llamos thanked the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment for the donation, praising China’s involvement in the fight against climate change despite the fact that the Asian giant remains the world’s biggest polluter and promised to reduce emissions only a year ago.

China’s sudden environmental awareness began in 2020 when it announced a shift in policy and committed to one of the world’s most radical reductions in air pollutants. The world’s two largest economies, the US and China, account for 43% of the world’s emissions. continue reading

Since Xi Jingpin announced a new commitment to fighting climate change, Cuba has also ramped up its rhetoric on this issue. On accepting the donation in Guangzhou, the consul general described the gesture as “a sign of successful cooperation between the two socialist nations” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Cuban representative attending the event emphasized that multilateralism and global cooperation are the only options for confronting climate change.

China will also supply the island with 25,000 LED bulbs “to address electricity problems of families in remote rural areas.”

The collaborative relationship in solar energy between Cuba and China, however, predates the environmental interest recently expressed by both nations, which three years ago inaugurated the Pinar 220 A2 photovoltaic solar park.

The installation consists of 15,500 solar panels manufactured by the Chinese firm Yingly and operates between 8:00 AM and 7:00 PM. According to a 2019 report issued by the Xinhua agency, the plant was delivering roughly 4.4 gigawatts of power per hour to the Cuban National Electric System.

Trade between the island and the Asian economic giant has declined in recent years due to the Cuban regime’s unpaid debt to Peking. For example, imports of Chinese goods fell 40% in 2020, following a trend of the last five years.

The Cuban government sees solar energy as a way to take advantage of a natural resource the country has abundance but investment remains the major hurdle in building the infrastructure needed to harvest a solar energy.

Before the pandemic, the island had planned to build sixty-five facilities of this type while another fifteen were under development. These would have increased the current power supply by 42 gigawatts, or about 1.15% of national consumption.

Late last year The Cuban Electric Union (UNE) acknowledged that it was unable to guarantee production of photovoltaic for retail sale to the public. Imported devices like these can cost between 200 and 1,000 pesos for panels ranging from 900 watts to fifteen kilowatts.

According to data from the state-owned energy company, five 260-watt devices are required to meet the energy needs of a home with an average monthly consumption of 185 kWh.

In mid-March, executives of the Cuban customs service and UNE announced a prompt lifting of tariffs, which the electric company said was responsible for the current shortage. However, this has not yet happened.

Currently the government is selling photovoltaic systems for hard currency in online stores targeted to Cubans living overseas who make purchases for family on the Island. For example, a 270-watt solar panel is selling on Bazar Virtual, a site belonging to state-owned Copextel, for $2,549.02.

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The Cuban Baseball Federation Suffers From Historical Amnesia

Kiele Alessandra Cabrera during her intrusion on the field of the Palm Beach stadium during the game between Cuba and Venezuela. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 1 June 2021 — The writer Eliseo Alberto Diego, known as Lichi, used to say that “history is a cat who always falls on her feet.” The Cuban Baseball Federation should be warned about this ability of the past to stand up, a way of avoiding silence and manipulation.

The official entity has protested the events that occurred in this Monday’s pre-Olympic baseball game between the teams from Cuba and Venezuela. In an exalted note, it describes as “unacceptable that characters contrary to the spirit of a sporting event attempt against the team’s concentration.”

The tantrum is in response to the posters with the phrases “Homeland and Life,” “Free Cuba,” and criticisms of Miguel Díaz-Canel, that were displayed in the stands of the West Palm Beach stadium during the live broadcast of the game, displays that Cuban State television was unable to prevent from sneaking into the Tele Rebelde channel. But it turns out that what happened yesterday is part of a civic tradition of baseball field protests that the regime itself praised when they occurred in Republican era Cuba. continue reading

On December 4, 1955, a group of young people threw themselves onto the field of the Cerro stadium while a game was being played between teams from Havana and Almendares. They carried a banner with demands against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, with the moment captured by the television cameras broadcasting the ballgame, allowing the images to reach the screens of thousands of spectators throughout the island.

According to the official Cuban discourse, that action was more than justified, and they constantly recall it as a revolutionary feat. But with regards to what happened this Monday, they reproach the Florida stadium guards for not having acted “as established by the security protocols”…

The story is nothing other than a feline with a penetrating gaze that flips in the air and ends up landing with its nails on the susceptible skin of those who want to hide and distort it.

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Otero Alcantara: ‘The Torture I Suffered Was Psychological’

Otero Alcántara spoke with ’14ymedio’ after being discharged this Monday after four weeks in solitary confinement in a hospital in Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 1 June 2021 – Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara does not plan to pause or take a rest in his art or his activism. A few hours after leaving Calixto García Hospital, where he has been for almost a month without hardly any outside communication, he told 14ymedio that he is now ready to demand freedom for the activists in prison as a result of the April 30^th protests on Obispo Street in Havana, and for Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Castillo accused of attack, contempt and resistance, who has been in prison since Monday.

“My grandmother died, I came here to be with my family, also because this was where there was a landline phone, arriving at my house Damas Street without a cell phone I was still incommunicado,” says the artist, who had just left the hospital. He went to his family home, in El Cerro, to spend at least two days in their company. Otero Alcántara is clear and begins by confirming that, when they took him out of his home in the early morning of May 2 to take him to the hospital, they did so “by force” and “handcuffed.”

14ymedio. What was your arrival at the hospital like and how did your hunger and thirst strike end?

Otero Alcántara. When I arrived, I let them give me an IV so I could be aware of what was happening, because I was very weak. The next day I started drinking water, they gave me juice and some milk. A week passed and the following Monday I started the thirst strike again, the hunger strike was continuing. Then a fortnight ago, I started eating. Now I’m upset but okay, they are seeing the end. continue reading

14ymedio. What was your daily routine at Calixto García?

Otero Alcántara. I spent all morning drawing or reading and in the morning they took my vital signs. Right now, talking about this is complex. I could say that I was tortured this way and that, but it would be dishonest. The torture I suffered was psychological. They kept the light on 24 hours a day, there was always a military man next to me, and if I spent more than 5 minutes in the bathroom he was knocking on the door. It was terribly cold the whole day and there was the fear that at any moment they can take you to another place. Plus the isolation. All that was torture.

My family was not allowed in when they wanted, when I saw them it was from a distance, like ten to twelve feet away. Of the four or five times that I saw my sister or my aunt it was at that distance, only once were we able to see each other up close and give each other a kiss and a hug, but only for five minutes, no more than that.

14ymedio. Were you always in the same room or were you transferred from time to time?

Otero Alcántara. I was in the Rubén Batista room the whole time. The three times they took me out was for those famous walks, which were supposedly to catch the sun but were actually for them to film me. The prisoners go out to sunbathe every day, but I was under air conditioning 24 hours a day and they took me out once a week, that was premeditated.

14ymedio. The video in which you go outside with Dr. Ifrán Martínez, how was it arranged? How was your relationship with the doctors?

Otero Alcántara. The video was a conscience act. I understood that I had to send a message to people, I had to say something. The doctors who were there waiting for me were the ones that State Security selected, and valued certain characteristics. They were directed to behave in a certain way, they could not spend much time with me and they recorded on a piece of paper when they arrived and left with their name and position. Those doctors had a certain chance to talk to me. Ifran brought me books, I read 12 books in that month. They also brought me pens and paper and I began to draw pictures. I drew a lot, although with the fear that State Security would take it away from me.

14ymedio. How strict was the operation around you?

Otero Alcántara. Everything was very well controlled by State Security, they were there constantly. Dr. Ifran was concerned because his face had already appeared on television, and here everyone knows that this means he may have 10 days, 20 days or two years left. I feel that they are concerned, because their children do not want their father to be the one who was later found to have tortured Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. I noticed that they wanted to make very clear the difference between them and State Security and to emphasize that they were there because they were given the mission to save me. The hospital was totally taken over by State Security, I think that was the way they found to keep me under control.

14ymedio. How did you come to leave the hospital?

Otero Alcántara. My uncle went to the hospital to get me and a car brought us here. Now I have freedom of movement to go wherever I want. My house on Damas Street still has the police on the corner and I want to cool down (lower the temperature in) the neighborhood. Before leaving, the State Security officials told me that they have my mobile phone, but that they would not give it to me at that time because it had been left in another place and they assured me that they would return it to me, along with the works that they took from my house.

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The Six Cuban Activists Arrested on Obispo Street Have Been Transferred to Prisons

The communicator and activist Esteban Rodríguez, together with the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 28 May 2021 — With last Wednesday’s transfer of the communicator and activist Esteban Rodríguez to the Valle Grande penitentiary, there are now six activists jailed awaiting trial for their participation, on April 30 in Obispo Street in Havana, in an act of solidarity with the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The information was confirmed this Friday to 14ymedio by Rodríguez’s wife, Zuleidis Cepero.

That same day the independent journalist Mary Karla Ares was also transferred to the Guatao prison, according to her mother, Marisol González, speaking to this newspaper. The authorities accuse the peaceful protesters of the crimes of public disorder and resistance, which, according to the Cubalex Legal Information Center, can mean sentences “from three months to five years of deprivation of liberty.”

In addition to Ares and Rodríguez, the activists transferred to prisons include Thais Mailén Franco, Inti Soto Romero, Yuisán Cancio Vera and Luis Ángel Cuza. Last week Amnesty International called for the immediate release of these protesters and emphasized Ares, who broadcast the protest live on Facebook.

For his part, rapper Maykel Osorbo Castillo, who was arrested at his home on May 18, remains unaccounted for. In response to a habeas corpus petition filed in his favor, it was only known that the artist is in provisional prison accused of “disobedience, resistance and contempt,” but the place where he is being held remains unknown. continue reading

In response to this situation, on Friday the United Nations Committee Against Forced Disappearances asked the Cuban Government for news of Osorbo’s whereabouts. “The Committee requires the urgent action of the State [Cuba] to adopt all the necessary measures to search and locate Mr. Maykel Castillo Pérez and protect his life and personal integrity, in accordance with its conventional obligations,” said the organism of the UN in response to a complaint from the NGO Cuban Prisoners Defenders (CPD).

The UN letter asks Havana to “inform the relatives of Mr. Castillo Pérez about the place of his deprivation of liberty, as well as the charges against him,” and, appealing to the Convention for the Protection of All People Against Forced Disappearances, also asks that “he can communicate with his family, a lawyer or any other person of his choice and receive their visit.”

The demand is addressed to the Cuban ambassador in Geneva and gives the government of the island until June 11 to respond to their “concerns and recommendations.”

In recent weeks, Osorbo has been subjected to an intense police siege and has been detained without reason on several occasions. The 37-year-old artist, together with Yotuel Romero, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno and El Funky, composed the song Patria y Vida, which has exceeded five million views on YouTube and has become an anthem for the opposition both within and off the island.

This Thursday, CPD launched a manifesto in support of the artists participating in the song Patria y Vida — who have been besieged by the Cuban Government in recent weeks — in which they ask for an end to the repression.

The demand emphasizes the critical situation in Otero Alcántara, who has been in solitary confinement at the Calixto García hospital in Havana for 26 days.

Several European Parliament Deputies also signed a letter requesting that a Delegation of the European Union (EU) visit Otero Alcántara in the hospital. The letter, written by Dita Charanzová, vice-president of the European Parliament, is addressed to Josep Borrell, high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Prisoners Defenders, based in Madrid, also notes the case of the detainees from the Obispo Street protest and of Eliexer Márquez El Funky, who was also detained for a few hours, on May 18, and subjected to “a precautionary measure that prevents him from leaving his home freely.”

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“Signatures are not Patrimony,” Insists the Manager of La Bodeguita del Medio

La Bodeguita del Medio, which is sold to tourists as “the cradle of The Mojito,” is located on Empedrado Street, a privileged place in Cuba’s capital city. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, 26 May 2021 — The image of La Bodeguita del Medio without the thousands of signatures on its walls, which were part of its character, surprised locals and strangers. A few days ago, Robin Pedraja, creative director of the art magazine Vistar, shared photographs of the restoration of the premises on social networks and wondered who had the idea to erase “all that patrimony.” Many customers showed their rejection of a work that, according to various opinions, has resulted in the iconic place losing part of its identity.

“The signatures are not patrimony,” disagrees José Miguel Pumarada Fernández, manager of the premises, in an interview with 14ymedio. The official maintains that the premises have already undergone three renovations and argues that this intervention was necessary, due to the poor condition of the place.

“There were leaks everywhere, customers were eating and water was dripping on the tables, there was a lot of dampness. Paintings were falling off the walls because the plaster was decayed, the dampness was high and this was part of the complaints from customers who visited the establishment,” he says. continue reading

“There were leaks everywhere, customers were eating and water was dripping on the tables, there was a lot of dampness. Paintings were falling from the walls because the plaster was decayed”

Pumarada explains that three years ago the moment to start the repairs was expected, preserving everything that is considered a patrimony asset, including museum objects. “The signature book, all the framed photos – dating from the 40’s and 50’s – the house structure and its architecture, the wood, all of this was respected.”

The manager, who has been in charge of the emblematic place for seven years, adds that the City Historian’s Office door was the first one they knocked on to start the work, and although for no apparent reason he (the Historian) did not oversee the work, they have “all levels of approval” of the Monuments Commission.

However, a specialist of the Master Plan of the Office of the City Historian consulted by this newspaper affirms that he was not aware of the remodeling, but considers the elimination of the signatures “regrettable and a violation” and defends that such interventions should be controlled. “If they erased everything, it’s terrible. It’s an iconic place, it’s not just any tavern.”

Salomé García, a graduate of Plastic Arts from the Higher Institute of Art, considers that this intervention is part of “the iconoclastic offensive of the Cuban State” against patrimony

Salomé García, a graduate of Plastic Arts from the Higher Institute of Art, considers that this intervention is part of “the iconoclastic offensive of the Cuban State” against patrimony.

“This is a location of State/public property, and of high patrimonial value. The contracts for these interventions (and for many others) should be public tenders. In addition, these are interventions that should be covered in the press due to their relevance, that way, misrepresentations would be avoided,” adds the specialist, who is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Assets at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

It is not the first time that La Bodeguita del Medio has remodeled its interior. In 1997, there was a physical attack against the facility, along with other tourist places such as the hotels Tritón, Chateau Miramar and the Copacabana, and part of it had to be restored and its walls painted, recalls Pumarada, who stresses that this establishment has been in operation for 78 years.

This year’s repair was necessary, he insists, because the walls had several cracks that needed to be sealed, in addition to adding strength and security. “We used the same color paint as before and everything else remained intact.”

Currently, and complying with the rules to control the pandemic, the La Bodeguita del Medio Bar remains closed, although it keeps open “a little store” on one side of the premises where food is sold.

“Any bite from a seedy inn is better than these. I was hoping they were of higher quality since this place is what it is, but it is a sandwich from a community dining room”

“The only thing they are selling are ham sandwiches at 25 pesos each,” a local resident told 14ymedio. “But they don’t have enough, only 30 loaves. According to what some workers said, whatever is in the inventory is sold,” says the Havana resident who decided to buy four sandwiches and ended up outraged. “Any bite from a seedy inn is better than these. I was hoping they were of higher quality since this place is what it is, but it is a bite from a community dining room.”

La Bodeguita del Medio, which is sold to tourists as “the cradle of The Mojito,” is located on Empedrado Street, a privileged place in the capital, a few steps from the Plaza de la Catedral, in Old Havana. This area belongs to the Historic Center, and in 1982 it was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.

The property had long since lost the best it had: to become a place for the national bohemian, for the regulars of the patio. Since it was dollarized and became a place with fast food for tourists, it lost its most important asset, and it was not its signatures, but its identity, its hallmark.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Cuban Authorities Abandon Santiago de Cuba to Its Fate

The disastrous hygienic-sanitary situation that Santiago de Cuba is going through reflects the inability of the authorities to solve basic problems. (Alberto Hernández)

14ymedio, Alberto Hernández, Santiago de Cuba, 30 May 2021 — Santiago de Cuba, known for its carnivals, its suffocating heat and the hospitality of its people, today presents a bleak panorama. The city is depressed by hunger caused by the shortages of all kinds of food, the diseases that are becoming more frequent every day due to the lack of medicines which have been missing for months, and now, as if that were not enough, the accumulation of all kinds of waste in its streets.

The inhabitants of the city wonder what happened to the sound, sometimes annoying, of the bell that announced the arrival of the garbage trucks, after which everyone rushed to put out the waste stored in their houses. The trucks just vanished, as if by magic. Now, the waste is simply stuffed in sacks and dumped in the first corner, or hung from any tree, forming what is known as micro-dumps. The containers that were once, long ago, distributed throughout the city, simply disappeared and are now an endangered species.

Given the worrying situation and the daily criticism of the population, the Government, advised by the directors of the public company Servicios Comunales, which is in charge of cleaning the city, explain that the main problem is the breakdown of the waste collection trucks (together with the lack of fuel, tires, batteries, various spare parts and endless excuses). But, how is it possible that individuals keep their vehicles – dating from the 40s or 50s – in good condition and state companies, with all the tight control of resources, cannot guarantee that a fleet of a few dozen trucks will remain in operation? When it is wanted, it is resolved, and when it is not, a good justification is sought, as the saying goes. continue reading

Comunales, taking the situation into account, has supposedly hired some 325 animal-drawn carts to sanitize the city and thus compensate for the lack of trucks. I say supposedly because, if those 325 wagons were working every day, we would not have that chaotic panorama now presenting in the city.

The inhabitants of the city wonder what happened to the sound, sometimes annoying, of the bell that announced the arrival of the garbage trucks. (Alberto Hernández)

To top it all, there are now record levels of Covid-19 cases in the city, and hundreds of micro-dumps on any corner complicate the situation. The coronavirus has joined other pests that plague the Santiago population and that are closely related to poor hygiene, such as scabies, lice, and dengue fever, the latter transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that has as a breeding ground the many open air waste dump.

In addition, the sewers are clogged and, instead of evacuating wastewater, they expel it to the public thoroughfare, as is frequently observed in the lowest points of Santiago de Cuba.

Ignoring hygienic risks, more and more people “dive” into landfills looking for any of the sorts of things that will help them survive. Driven by hunger and despair, many inhabitants even take refuge in garbage dumps.

The disastrous hygienic-sanitary situation that Santiago de Cuba is going through reflects the inability of the authorities to solve the basic problems of Cuba’s second city. The capital of the East is today the shadow of what it once was.

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