Finger Amputated Due to Lack of Antibiotics in Cuba

The only solution to prevent the hand from becoming gangrenous was amputation of the phalanx. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 10 March 2021 — “Mommy, where did you leave the tip of your finger?” asked Yuneidis Cabañas Rivera’s three-year-old son when she returned from the hospital. The young woman lost a phalanx of the middle finger of her left hand after an infection could not be treated in time due to the lack of antibiotics in Cuban pharmacies.

Cabañas was cleaning a frozen chicken last January when she pricked her finger on a bone splinter. At first it seemed only a small wound, but little by little the inflammation and pain began, she told 14ymedio. Cabañas is a resident of the Martí neighborhood, in the Cerro municipality, in Havana.

Four days later, Cabañas could no longer bear the discomfort and decided to go to the emergency room at the Joaquin Albarrán Clinical Surgical Hospital, near her home. The doctor checked the young woman’s finger and recommended that she apply cold water creams and also start a cycle with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. continue reading

But, to the pain suffered by the advance of the infection was then added the discomfort of not finding the necessary medicine in any pharmacy. “We spent three days visiting various pharmacies, but nothing,” laments Mercedes, Cabañas’ grandmother who helped her in the search for the missing antibiotic.

“The government says that we are a medical power but they are incapable of supplying antibiotics,” says Cabañas. “I went to the hospital three more times to change the prescription for another type of medicine, but I didn’t find those either,” adds the young woman who always encountered the same responses in pharmacies: Antibiotics are not coming in.

To avoid crowds in pharmacies, hospital managers have warned doctors that they should not prescribe drugs that are unavailable, but every day it is more difficult for doctors to find a drug that the patient can later buy without major setbacks.

Two weeks after the incident, a friend with medical knowledge who visited Cabañas recommended that she return immediately to the hospital and demand that she be treated “properly”: “If you have to get tough, you get tough but you’re going to lose your finger.”

Back at the Albarrán hospital, the young woman, accompanied by her grandmother, staged “a giant fit.” At first the doctors tried to save the entire finger and admitted her to try cures. There was no type of pain reliever or local anesthetic for the treatments and they were very harsh. “I couldn’t sleep the night before thinking about the procedure.”

Finally, on February 16, doctors could not avoid amputation of the upper phalanx of the middle finger on her left hand, because the infection did not recede and the entire hand could become gangrenous. Along with the loss, Cabañas suffered severe pain without any treatment.

Last December, amid a severe drug shortage on the island, Dr. Emilio Delgado Iznaga, director of Medications and Medical Technology of the Ministry of Public Health warned that the problem would continue for the next 12 months. The country will have “a very tight basic table of drugs due to financial tensions,” the official said, a prognosis that has worsened over the weeks.

Almost two months after the onset of the infection and three weeks after the phalanx was amputated, the area is still red, swollen and painful. Now, the great concern of Cabañas, who has not yet been able to find antibiotics in pharmacies, is that the infection will return and even spread to the entire hand.

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Cuba Postpones Rollout of the Soberana Vaccine

Phase III trials of the Soberana vaccine will involve 44,000 people.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, March 8, 2021 — Rollout of the Cuban vaccine will begin later than had been expected. At the end of December Vicente Verez, director of the Cuban Finlay Institute, predicted that vaccinations could begin in the first half of 2021 but scientific realities have forced him to temper his optimism. He now admits that the vaccinations will probably not begin until the summer.

In an interview on Saturday on the Peruvian radio and television program “Exitosa”, Verez discussed the development of Soberana [Sovereign] 2. The vaccine has just begun Phase III trials, which are scheduled to last three months. The director of the Finlay Institute calculated that it will take another month to certify and produce the vaccine at a higher volume and that vaccinations would begin sometime around July. Asked if he believed it would be possible to be marketing it by August, he indicated he thought that was a realistic date.

Hopes of vaccinating the Cuban population in the first half of this year or, as had been previously predicted, to begin the process in March, have been dashed. The postponement also calls into question the government’s decision not to participate in the COVAX program, an international funding initiative designed to allow countries to acquire cheaper or donated vaccines. Although some wealthy countries have joined the effort, most are contributors to the fund and, as such, have agreed forego any of its benefits in order to allow cash-strapped nations to acquire vaccines at market-rate prices. continue reading

Cuba has not offered an official explanation as to why it decided not to participate in an initiative that would have already allowed it to begin immunizing its high-risk populations — the first COVAX vaccines began arriving at the end of February — as it continues to develop its own treatments.

The interview turned to the topic of exports when the moderator asked about possible shipments of Soberana 2 to Peru. Verez confirmed that the vaccine would would certainly be ready to ship by August. He declined to discuss the purchase price, which is covered by the terms and conditions of the contract negotiated by the parties to the agreement and based on different variables, though he assured the interviewer that it would be very competitive, much more so than vaccines currently on the market.

Clinical trials of Soberana 2 are now beginning simultaneously in Havana and Iran, where they are being conducted by the Pasteur Institute. Verez explained that 44,000 people in the Cuban capital have been chosen to participate, a very large sample size given to the relatively low prevalence of coronavirus on the island compared to the worst-hit countries. This trial’s participants will be divided into three groups. One of will receive only a placebo, the second group will get two doses of Sovereign 2 while the third will be given two doses of the vaccine as well as one dose of Sovereign Plus, a complementary medication announced last week as the fifth vaccine but that, according to Verez, is actually intended to act as a booster.

Though he declined to quantify the efficacy of the new vaccine candidate while Phase III trials are still ongoing, preliminary Phase II results are showing an immune response rate of 84% after two doses (administered twenty-eight days apart). After an additional dose of Soberana Plus, the rate could climb to as much as 95%, though he added, “We have to wait awhile before we know the final results.”

Verez explained that studies to create a new vaccine candidate in Cuba began nine months ago. It uses recombinant protein technology, which involves the reproduction of viral proteins found in the tips of the coronavirus and introduces them into the human immune system so that it learns to defend itself.

Among the questions left unanswered are how well it works in children, a population in which Soberana 02 will also be studied, and how well it responds to the variants strains emerging around the world.

Verez added that analysis of Soberana 1 results is also moving forward quickly though he did not provide any further information. This vaccine is currently in Phase II.

Cuba is also working on Abdala and Mambisa, two vaccine candidates being developed by Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB). The Abdala vaccine is awaiting authorization to begin Phase III trials while Mambisa, which is administered through the nose, is in Phase I.

Covid-19 remains uncontained and the infection rate is not trending downward, as might be expected after a slight tightening of restrictions which, now several weeks later, were obviously insufficient. On Sunday, 858 infections and four deaths were reported, for a total of 5,101 new cases at the end of the first week of March, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

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Cuba’s Poorest Find it Impossible to Pay the Gas Bill

As of January 1st, 2021, and as part of the Ordering Task, manufactured gas service went from 0.11 pesos per cubic meter to 2.50. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Serafín Martínez, Havana, 9 March 2021 — The times when all the burners were lit in a kitchen or of simmering beans for hours are over for many Cubans. Increases in the rate of manufactured gas has redesigned culinary practices and has also put in check the families who cannot pay the new prices, in force since January.

Enma Quiala Povea, 31, a single mother of three and pregnant with another, does not know how she will be able to pay the cost of the “street gas” that she supposedly consumed during the second month of this year.  She just received a 1,000 pesos bill, more than 50 times what she paid last December, and she gets social aid that barely covers the purchase of basic products.

As of January 1st, 2021, and as part of the Ordering Task, the cost of manufactured gas service increased from 0.11 pesos per cubic meter to 2.50. However, the increase is part of a package of increases that also includes new costs for electricity, transportation, and products from the rationed market, which further strains people’s pockets. continue reading

Quiala, a neighbor who lives at Velázquez #514, between Guanabacoa and Melones, in Luyanó, Havana, explains to 14ymedio: “I live with my father and my children and we usually pay between 14 and 19 pesos a month for the gas bill, which is a hundred and some cubic meters per month according to the meter reading”.

Surprisingly, “this February, the gas reading according to the meter rose from the usual one hundred and some cubic meters to 400. That seems impossible, because my father is a Covid essential worker who is always mobilized and there was no additional consumption”

Surprisingly, “this February, the gas reading according to the meter rose from the usual one hundred and some cubic meters to 400. That seems impossible, because my father is a Covid essential worker who is always mobilized and there was no additional consumption,” claims the woman.

“I am aware that if I had spent it, I would have to pay for it, but I am not going to pay 1,000 pesos to allow a collector’s error. I receive 2,860 pesos from social assistance to take care of my children, which is not enough for my living expenses, and I cannot work outside my home. I can’t afford all that money in gas”.

While other rates such as electricity, the cost of contributions to the official press and liquefied gas have been ‘rectified’ after popular complaints, the price for manufactured gas that is consumed in Cuba, especially in Havana, has remained as established in the new economic adjustment policy.

“We are two adults and two children here,” Moraima Ríos, a resident of the Cerro municipality in the Cuban capital, explains to this newspaper. The youngest of her children has cerebral palsy and is bedridden, requiring continuous care, special food preparation and hygiene requiring high gas consumption.

“In this house, our income has practically not changed, because although the fees for the mechanical services my husband performs as a business owner have increased, the resources he needs for his work have increased as well, so now his earnings are practically similar to before but we pay more for everything, including gas.”

“I had to go to complain, but before doing so, I needed to pay the bill, because they told me that the case cannot be reviewed unless the bill is paid in full.”

During the month of February, the family received a bill for 1,260 pesos for the consumption of manufactured gas that month. On the street where they live in the Cerro neighborhood, most of the neighbors “got the same surprise” when they reviewed their accounts. “I had to go to complain, but before doing so, I needed to pay the bill, because they told me that the case cannot be reviewed unless the bill is paid in full.”

Since March began, Ríos barely lights the stove. “I have become afraid of the kitchen because one does not know how much the gas bill will be later,” she explains to this newspaper. “With these cold days I have had to prioritize heating the water to be able to bathe my son, but I cannot turn on the oven in the kitchen or do anything that is not basic”.

When she went to claim the February invoice, a worker from the Manufactured Gas office, managed by the state-owned Cuba-Petróleo warned Ríos that “the country is going through problems with manufactured gas and she needs to save,” so the rise in price was going to “help avoid waste”.

However, the head of domestic fuels at Cupet, Lucilo Sánchez, recently assured the national press that “there are no difficulties” for consumers of manufactured natural gas, which is processed from existing oil deposits in Cuba’s north western strip.

Cuba produces 3.5 million tons of oil per year (22 million barrels), of which 2.6 million tons (16.3 million barrels) of crude oil and approximately 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas are obtained, covering 97% of what is used to generate electricity and domestic gas consumption in Havana.

“I do not understand that one day they say that manufactured gas is guaranteed and that most of it is produced nationally, and the next day they charge us these prices,” claims Ríos. “I can understand that this happens with an imported product, such as food that is not produced in Cuba, but this is something that comes from our own soil, which is owned by the people.” 

“Since the new rates for manufactured gas were established, there has been a notable increase in the influx of customers”

At the Cupet office for collections to the population at Paz Street in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, an official acknowledges the problem.  “Since the new rates for manufactured gas were established, there has been a notable increase in the influx of customers,” she says.

The employee, who prefers to remain anonymous, insists that the high bills are mainly due to customer ignorance and to bad practices in the daily use of gas. “The population has not become familiar with the new tariff of the Ordinance Task of 2.50 pesos per cubic meter of manufactured gas, where there are meters installed”.

“It will take them time to adjust, but each case will be analyzed promptly. If a customer does not have money to pay, they can request the presence of an inspector to check for leaks. But in the end, you will have to pay for your consumption because the objective is to eliminate undue freebies and promote energy savings and efficiency in the population”, advises the employee.

“If I pay this money, I don’t have anything left to buy food for my children, but if I don’t pay, I run out of gas to cook the food they need. What do I do?” Moraima Ríos wonders. “While I make the claim and they check my meter, I run out of money for everyday expenses.” The solution that she has created for the moment is “to trash some of her furniture and build a wood fire in the yard”.

And she concludes: “The neighbors are already complaining about the smell of smoke, but I don’t want to use gas at those prices and with those surprises. Nor the electricity, either, which is also very expensive”.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

“The National Dialogue Will Allow Us to Move from Complaint to Strategic Action”

San Isidro Movement members Iris Ruiz, Michel Matos, Amaury Pacheco and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara spoke at the press conference. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 12 March 2021 — The San Isidro Movement (MSI) explained during a press conference details about the National Dialogue initiative proposed by the Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] platform, inspired by the song by Yotuel Romero, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Osorbo and El Funky.

Iris Ruiz, Michel Matos, Amaury Pacheco and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara participated in the press conference, responding to the question of what they understand as dialogue “in the context of hostility” experienced on the island from the “Cuban dictatorial regime.”

All agreed to call for the exchange but at no time did they point to “the Government” as the main interlocutor. Asked about it by this newspaper, the artists expressed their opinions.

Michel Matos said that “understanding that Cuba is a sore nation with deep scars” he agrees that “a civilized and logical way to carry out a restoration is to dialogue among ourselves.”

“The other alternative that remains to get out of such a terrible situation is one that we cannot allow nor are we qualified to do, which is basically war,” he added. Matos explained that to reach democracy, very diverse processes must be gone through. “I have heard expressions like ‘pack your bags and go’ directed towards the communists and I ask if this is realistic,” he said. continue reading

“How do we expect them to leave? By magic, by their own will, by the intervention of a foreign government, how is that going to happen?” he asked. “In the references that I have in historical terms, each time a dictatorship has ended, it has been under the parameters of agreements, negotiations, road map protocols and an agenda for dialogue where an understanding is reached on a key point that it implies the transition,” he said.

At another point, Matos was more decisive when he said: “I don’t see any other way to transition to a democratic rule of law other than by dialoguing at some point with the current Cuban totalitarian authorities, I can’t conceive of it, we have to be open to the idea of that there can be such a dialogue.”

Matos also mentioned the November 27 demonstration in front of the Ministry of Culture and recalled that on that day “the majority” asked to dialogue with the Cuban authorities. “When that meeting was held, the specific words were said, they spoke of State crime, repression, totalitarianism, kidnapping of the country by State Security, that was mentioned in the framework of a dialogue.”

For his part, Amaury Pacheco said that dialogue “is important” because “it allows us to go from the complaint to the demand, from the demand to the proposal, from the proposal to a program, to a route, to a strategic action.” For the poet “dialogue is conscience, it is freedom, it is restoration, transparency, it is to maintain the character of a position in front of the regime.”

“I think this is a step that has demonstrated the incapacity of the regime. As civil society we have put dialogue on the table and the Government has backed down. This exchange is needed to have a program of how we are going to move because the Communist Party is not going to pack its suitcases and leave. We must plant conscious programs and let the citizens know them, “reflected Pacheco.

For Otero Alcántara there is an extreme radical, which is the Government, “which does not want to dialogue.” As for the “other extreme”, which is also opposed to this process, the artist says that it will be heard. “We know there is a lot of pain,” he declares, while hoping that “the tendency is not to rip off the heads of the communists.” “We have to learn that we all own the word dialogue” because “the national dialogue is happening,” he said.

At another point in the press conference, the members of the MSI referred to the talks on Human Rights that the Cuban government has with the European Union. In this regard, Matos stated: “If Europe is in dialogue with the Government, the island’s civil society must be recognized and be part of that process. Our names must be pronounced at those tables because we are the ones who are constantly suffering the violations of human rights, and we need to be recognized as valid interlocutors.”

Otero Alcántara firmly believes that “change in the country will come from the Cubans” but it should be accompanied “by international factors that are important” and can “form part of that dialogue.”

And he demanded, “the regime does not know what to do with those of us who are pacifists but we have the support of citizens, Europeans have to recognize us as civil society.”

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Major Deployment of Cuban Police to Prevent a ‘Secret’ Demonstration

Surveillance on the street where María Matienzo resides, who was detained for a few hours by State Security. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 12 March 2021 — A dozen activists and journalists woke up to find their homes under surveillance and themselves prevented from going out. The reason: an alleged protest action while, they say, they have not called. In Old Havana, around the Capitol, there is a large presence of police and patrol cars, as there is in the vicinity of the Plaza of the Revolution.

The Government thus intends to repress an alleged demonstration denounced on Cuban television news this Thursday by the newscaster Humberto López. The alleged demonstration was reported to have the objective of demanding the release of Luis Robles, a young man who was arrested for holding a sign with the messages “freedom”, “no more repression” and “free Denis,” alluding to rapper Denis Solís.

The activity, according to López, was organized “secretly” from the United States to be carried out by “counterrevolutionaries” in what he described as a “provocation” scheduled for this Friday in the Plaza of the Revolution. continue reading

The presenter recalled, in his usual threatening tone, that resistance, the established crimes of disobedience to authority and contempt, as well as public disorder and enemy propaganda can be charged against citizens who come out to demonstrate. The penalties associated with each of these crimes in the Penal Code — ranging from three months to eight years in prison, in addition to fines — were also shown on screen.

López noted that these crimes are “dormant”, although, as several international NGOs have pointed out, the Cuban authorities resort to them to convict opponents or activists, as happened recently with Luis Robles.

The presenter called out those responsible for this “secret action,” naming pointed to Omara Ruiz Urquiola, Yasser Castellanos, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Abu Duyanah Tamayo, Esteban Rodríguez, Héctor Luis Valdés and Maykel Osorbo. Among this group are those who staged a hunger strike at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement and are the constant target of defamations in the official media.

Ruiz Urquiola, who is currently in the United States, wrote on his Facebook profile: “I am not planning anything that I cannot take part in. I would have liked to have thought about taking the street for Luis Robles.” In the same vein, Otero Alcántara expressed himself, insisting to 14ymedio that none of the members of the San Isidro Movement or those who had been at the headquarters had plans to go to the Plaza of the Revolution today.

The artist also took the opportunity to denounce that both he and his companions have been under surveillance by the political police from the early hours of the morning.

In addition, Carolina Barrero, Luz Escobar and Yamilka Lafita woke up besieged in their homes. When trying to go out into the street, Héctor Luis Valdés, Maykel Osorbo and María Matienzo, whose homes were also under surveillance, were arrested.

“María Matienzo, a journalist from CubaNet, has just been arrested as she left her home. She does not answer the phone. I consider her missing,” denounced the activist Kirenia Yalit, who also published a photograph in which a patrol care is seen standing guard in the block where the reporter lives.

Upon being released, Matienzo declared: “I am an independent journalist and I will cover the news as I understand it. My house is not a prison. Every time they put surveillance on me, I will go to jail.”
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban Society Is Becoming More Critical and Diverse

An act of repudiation against activist Anyell Valdes Cruz and her family is cited in several articles on human rights.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, March 5, 2021 — More repression, more prisoners of conscience and more protests in Havana in February. That sums up the results of data collected last month by various human rights organizations such as the Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC), which counted 159 public demonstrations in that time period. Not only is the figure higher than the 137 recorded in January but, unlike those that took place before the middle of last year, 70% of them were related to political and civil rights issues.

In a statement released this week, the OCC expressed surprise that only 30% of the demonstrations focused on economic or social rights “considering [the severity of] the socio-economic crisis plaguing the country.” In the organization’s view, these protests were, in large part, a response to increases in the cost of living resulting from the country’s recent currency unification.

According to the OCC, the main cause of the increased number of protests in February was “the stubborn suppression of them by a regime that has lost all credibility with an increasingly critical and diverse civil society.” continue reading

Behind the protests is a growing array of key players, says the Miami-based organization. Artists, independent journalists, animal rights activists, self-employed workers, filmmakers and private farmers are being joined by workers from other sectors who have been, “until now, mostly passive.” These include lawyers, architects, doctors, teachers, scientists and accountants, all part of a list of 124 professions whose members are prohibited from being independently employed.

The OCC believes that, given the increasing number and diverse nature of the protests, there is a growing awareness “both inside and outside of Cuba” that “the state no longer assumes any responsibility for the general welfare [of its citizens] or has any respect for basic civil rights.”

By way of example, the statement mentions several former military officers, quoting them as saying “there is no revolution or socialism to defend.” It also mentions the song “Patria y Vida” — released on February 16 by the musical group Gente de Zona, whose members incude Yotuel Romero, Descemer Well, El Funky and Maykel Castillo Osorbo — which quickly went viral.* According to the OCC, the six musicians managed to express “the feelings of ordinary people on the island.” The song’s lyrics state, “And we are not afraid, the deception is over, it is over, there are sixty-two [years of] damage.”

The OCC claims the government “is unable to muster popular support” and “insists on resorting to counterproductive acts of repression and smear campaigns without allowing its critics the right to reply.”

In its February report by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) provides an accounting of the repression: at least 373 actions against human rights activists and independent journalists, of which 120 were arbitrary detentions, sixteen of them involving violent use of force.

State Security’s preferred strategy is to besiege people in their homes, which it did recently to ninety-eight activists. It also routinely relies on threats, harassment, fines, physical attacks, searches, subpoenas and acts of repudiation.

The Madrid-based OCDH stated that “permanent violence continues against the opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, who was the victim of several incidents” including a raid on his house by State Security agents on Friday, February 26.

The organization also condemned an act of repudiation against the family of Anyell Valdes Cruz at her home in Havana, whose facade was painted with the slogan “Patria y Vida”. The participants, who included Kirenia Pomares, the mayor of the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, attacked the house, throwing objects at it in the presence of several minors.

Cuban Prisoners Defenders, which is also based in Madrid, has come up with its own list of prisoners of conscience based on data from February, raising the number of cases to nine. They include Luis Enrique Santos Caballero (a nember of the Opposition Movement for a New Republic and the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance Front), and Yasser Fernando Rodriguez Gonzalez (who has no political affiliation).

The organiztion counted 135 political prisoners, both accused and convicted, as of March 1. When it began compiling these reports one year earlier, there were 127 prisoners on its initial list. Sine then, 53 new cases were been added (an average of 4.4 new cases per month), for a total of 180. Of those, 45 have already been released, the vast majority being prisoners who had completed their sentences. The rest were released due to special or extenuating circumstances.

The situation in February is also the topic of a report by the Cuban Center for Human Rights, which is based in Havana and headed by Martha Beatriz Roque**. Among other things, it notes the presence of local and foreign-based artists at an online event sponsored by the European Parliament which denounced prohibitions against free expression and violations of human rights violations by the regime.

The report’s assessment of the economic situation is blunt. “Currency unification has not had, nor will it have, a positive effect on employment. The country’s economic system has adversely impacted the labor market and limited any positive outcomes it might have had for the population. As a result, neither the elimination of subsidies nor the increase in wages is likely to bring workers back into the state labor market,” says Roque.

Translator’s notes:

*The words, which translate as “Fatherland and Life,” is a play on the well-known Cuban communist slogan “Patria o Muerte” (Fatherland or Death). Also please note, if you are searching for more information on this topic, also search on “Homeland and Life” — the translation of ’Patria’ varies among sources.

** Martha Beatriz Roque is also commonly spelled Marta Beatriz Roque, on this site and elsewhere.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuba’s Marino Murillo: Nothing More to Lose

Cuban Vice-President Mariano Murillo.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 8 March 2021 — Cuban Vice-President Marino Murillo, has returned to the forefront of current affairs to talk about what he considers to be the positive effects of the currency unification and exchange. He insists on the same arguments, and of course, it is his opinion, and of course, respectable, but if he had read any of the nearly 2,000 comments from the Cubadebate survey, he should remain silent in relation to economic matters and the Ordering Task.

More or less the same as his leader, much more concerned with burning himself with the state and the evolution of the economy. One has the feeling that Murillo has been left alone, and that he has no choice but to defend himself by attacking. It will be seen if it is successful.

Cubans know that Murillo is not telling the truth when he insists that the currency unification and exchange is a fundamental measure to encourage the development of the country’s productive and business sector. Raúl Castro never imagined that what began to be talked about in the so-called “guidelines” could end like this. In fact, the currency unification and exchange could have been a good thing for the economy, but it should have been done well. continue reading

Perhaps for this reason, many are convinced that before, with the two currencies, people lived better, within the precarious scarcity that characterizes the Cuban economy. Even companies that have seen their balance sheets become insolvent from one day to the next, miss the times of the fictitious parity, the dollar, the Cuban peso and the convertible peso.

Nor is it true that in these two months the currency unification has served to highlight the innumerable distortions that existed in the national economy, which were not noticed before, and now, with the Ordering Task, they are identified as problems and conditions are created to solve them. Murillo is not telling the truth on this matter either.

The problems from before have continued, and gotten worse, and the Cuban economy and society, accustomed to living with them, has been shocked to see that the changes could be made and that things could get worse. Murillo should speak clearly, identify what international pressures are behind the Ordering Task, if any, and above all, because the decisions of the Communist Party are put before the needs of the population. With statements of this type he would ensure his political future much more than with what he is doing.

It is also a surprise that all this information provided by Murillo has come out on his Twitter account and then later, the official press takes charge of continuing the dissemination. The order of factors, in this case, may be altering the result, because no one doubts that it is an action by Murillo directed at his colleagues from the Communist Political Bureau which, after the publication of the Cubadebate survey, is possible. The normal thing for a minister with the power that Murillo has had is not to go around entangling with social networks, but to call a press conference or any other formal act, which would surely achieve a quorum of international press delegates.

But again, going back to the core of the information, the monetary and exchange unification of the Ordering Task could have been implemented without the need to muddy the aspects related to subsidies and gratuities, salaries and pensions or price setting. The one that comprises a lot, little squeezes, and the bet on the centrifugation of so many elements in what should be a simple process of currency exchange, has led Murillo to a critical situation because everyone blames him for the failure. Releasing him from his position could be a gift, thinking about what may come next.

If it had been limited to facilitating the circulation of the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), with its corresponding collection period of six months, and the establishment of a single exchange rate of 1 dollar for 24 Cuban pesos (CUP), it would have had much more success in reordering the economy, and the results would be much better (for now, inflation need not have skyrocketed in this way). Acting with prudence and rigor, the objective of encouraging the development of the productive and business sector of the country would have been more achievable, without the need to put many companies into insolvency.

On the contrary, the state business system and the majority of private entrepreneurs have been shaken by the regime’s decisions regarding the Ordering Task, making it difficult to transfer production costs to prices and thereby further limiting the  productive supply.  The general opinion of the companies is that now they are in a much worse situation than before, and the feeling “each man for himself” has spread like wildfire through the weakened Cuban economy. Most people also believe that it is much worse now than it was at the end of 2020.

Murillo is pleased with the rate of collecting the CUCs that were in the hands of the population, because the process is proceeding at a higher rate than expected; to date, 57% of the total has been collected. And why isn’t it going to go fast, when the only thing that people want is to get rid of their CUCs because they are no longer worth anything. Another merit turned into a bungle by a lousy design of the devaluation process that has ended up dragging to the CUP the weaknesses that the CUC had and that are now visible.

And to top it all, Murillo says that an important achievement of the Ordering Task has been the increase in people seeking work and the fact that most find it where wealth is generated, citing that 72% have been employed in the business system. We have already had occasion to comment on this issue. That people have to look for a job, as it is, says little about a favorable economic situation, since it indicates that the economic situation is difficult and all family members have to pitch in and contribute a salary.

This is anything but positive. Especially if half go home without a job, because the provincial directorates have not been able to facilitate the search task. Against Murillo, this increase in the active population, which clashes with the trends of recent years, is not at all favorable, and good proof of this is that less than 35% of those who find employment do so in companies, because that 72% has to be calculated on the 50% who get a position, which is half of those who go to the provincial directorates.

So not so fast. The only labor market result that Murillo cites leaves much to be desired. Higher wages, moreover, are already being driven by inflation and will soon cease to be attractive. For how long can the staff of the bloated state companies be maintained? Murillo does not know. Perhaps because he does not intend to be there when that happens. Nothing more to lose.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

La Epoca Opens its Doors for Dollars on March 8th With a Very Long Line Waiting

On the corner of Galiano and Neptuno, in the centre, the place has been typical of a location with the most shops per square metre in all of Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, March 8th, 2021 – For weeks now, it has been known that the shop La Epoca, in Havana, was going to open its doors this Monday, and in dollars. And everybody has known that to be able to get in there you would have to join the line several days beforehand. This time the International Woman’s Day gift will arrive wrapped in greenbacks.

The morning of March 8th arrived, cold and humid, and with strong gusts of wind in the Cuban capital. But, in spite of the bad weather, and before the clock struck seven, the line to get in La Epoca was already nearly 1,000 feet long. Most of the people had spent days getting themselves organised to enter one of the most emblematic shopping centres  in the city.

At that time, the police got the shoppers to go three blocks back from the main entrance of the place, to avoid crowd build-ups outside of the markets. But the distance and the fact that they could not see the entrance door, increased their anxiety and their fear of possible irregularities, and gatecrashers. continue reading

Situated on the downtown corner of Galiano and Neptuno, the shopping centre has symbolised one the areas with more shops per metre than anywhere in Cuba. With its breathtaking window displays, now hidden by metal shutters, its escalators which haven’t worked for years, and its several floors which used to be full of merchandise, La Epoca lived up to its name and became a symbol of business effort in the city.

But today’s La Epoca has little resemblance to its previous glamour. Two workmen up on a scaffold were still touching up the facade while the line was getting longer on Monday, the police keeping a close eye on the line and, at nine in the morning, the business still had not been able to open, producing protests and frayed nerves in the line. The agitation led to several trucks with black-capped troops arriving at 10 am to try to control the chaos.

The police make those waiting in line move three blocks back from the main entrance to the shop (14ymedio)

Many of the people waiting outside were women. “I came to see if I could get some cheese and yogurt for my kids, because the price of these things on the black market is more than I am prepared to pay,” 14ymedio was told by Yamile, a 42 year old woman from Havana. “But, to tell the truth, if I had thought about all the time I was going to waste here, it wasn’t worth it.”

Aymara is another one who spent days standing in line. The worst part has been hiding from the police patrolling the area in the early morning to enforce the strict curfew imposed by the city because of the pandemic. Between nine at night and five  in the morning, you are not supposed to be out in the streets, so they had to look for other ways to avoid losing their place in line.

“We used a digital line, and, although every day you have to come to confirm your place at six in the morning, the rest of the time you do it through Whatsapp and also on a physical list held by the first people in the line,” explained a young woman. “And I have made all this sacrifice because I was told there is a much greater selection of things in this shop than the others and that they are going to open up with everything.”

But Aymara says she’s tired of waiting all this time and worn out by the situation. “I told my mama not to send me not one dollar more, because instead of sending me money to spend in these shops where everything is expensive and poor quality, she should save the money there so I can get out of this country, I cant stand any more.”  The people around her agreed with her.

“And it isn’t worth going to the other dollar shops either. They have created a resellers mafia, employees who get paid to let their friends, or the coleros*, in first,” complains Luisito, who lives in nearby San Miguel Street. He tells me he started to wait in the line last Wednesday, when “a neighbour went past taking names of people who wanted to get in when the shop opened.”

“They told us early on that they were only going to open up the food market, home appliances, and perfumes”, says the man. “But nobody knows exactly because there is no notice or any detailed information on which parts of the shop are open this Monday. The blind leading the blind.”

After 11 in the morning, some employee came out and spoke to the people at the front of the line and said: “The shop isnit ready. Its going to open but we are still putting stuff on the shelves. The appliance section won’t be open today, but we’re doing everything we can to open the market”. They took the ID cards from the first people in the line.

Luisito wants to buy “detergent, some beans which have disappeared from the shelves of other shops, and a bag of milk powder”. But, from the start no-one has been clear about the new way of selling stuff in freely convertible currency. “Some people thought it was going to be a national currency. A bit naive. Been a long time since they opened any new peso shops in the city, hasn’t it?”

The shops selling in pesos are almost empty. Bottle of water, packs of dried fruits which look old, and extremely expensive bottles of tequila are all that is offered in a shop a few yards away from La Epoca. “They’ve been unloading trucks and trucks of stuff since early morning,” said an employee of the shop with nothing in it, indicating the new dollar business.

“Here they seem to have forgotten to stock up on the things that are going to these stores” complains an employee of the state store. “When customers ask, all I can tell them is to cross the street and buy things in the dollar stores.” She is interrupted by the shouting around La Epoca and she looks around to see what’s happening.

“It’s disrespectful. People are paying in a strong currency and they still think they are at liberty to hang about before they open the doors. It’s ten in the morning, and it.s cold.” “Why don’t they open up?” shouts a man who is there with his partner at the front of the line. The people up front are having a row with the police accusing them of “sneaking people in.”

In nearby Concordia the police start to separate out the first group who are going to go in, but time passes and their relieved faces change to frustration at the delay. It’s eleven in the morning and still nobody has managed to get in La Epoca.

*Translator’s note: Coleros are people paid by others to stand in line for them.

Translated by GH

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

There Are Some 112,000 Hidden Rich People in Cuba, 1% of the Population

The interior of Casa Vida Luxury Holidays, which Raúl Castro’s granddaughter, Vilma Rodríguez, rents as a tourist accommodation. (Airbnb)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 10 March 2021 — Beyond the fury unleashed on social networks, the appearance of Fidel Castro’s grandson, Sandro, showing off while driving a Mercedes Benz has exposed an issue about which little is known in Cuba: the figures relating to inequality. The data, impossible for the public to find, would reveal a gap difficult to justify for a government that, over 60 years ago, made a revolution to abolish social classes.

Although it has been clear for years that there are inequalities in Cuba based on professions (artists or athletes who went abroad), currency (the arrival of the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) and remittances versus those who must live on a state salary paid in national currency) and, more recently, employment status (self-employed versus state workers), there are no numbers that allow us to establish the dimensions of the gap, as Deutsche Welle has found in Spanish in an extensive article in which it has sought the voices of economists who provide insight about this issue.

According to Ricardo Torres Pérez, professor and researcher at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy (CEEC) at the University of Havana, the number of rich people in Cuba may be around 1%, some 112,000 people, representing approximately 30,000 households. According to this expert, they are distributed among civil servants, small businessmen, farmers and artists. continue reading

The numbers are hidden and in Torres Pérez’s opinion, it is no coincidence that the few studies that exist are not public and are “very focused on certain communities.” Although he acknowledges that the phenomenon is not investigated, much less to regarding those who are in circles of power, he believes there is not a precise count of the entire privileged population is not there.

Because what is it to be rich in Cuba? For Torres, having a “large house in specific areas, a modern car, frequent trips abroad, including for pleasure, and the satisfaction in quality (not quantity) of basic needs.”

“Except for a very small group, the rest of the civil service nomenclature does not enjoy exorbitant privileges, and the reason may be that Cuba is a fairly poor country,” he says. In his experience, most officials, including those in the government, have no wealth of their own beyond their home and an old car.

“The day they leave their positions, they become fairly average citizens. And this explains why, although only in part, they cling to their positions: because it is the only way to have a significantly different standard of living from the country’s average and not have to worry about a lot of problems,” he tells Deutsche Welle.

The Cuban economist explains that Cuba’s own economic structure already differentiates the ways of measuring wealth. While in the rest of the world millionaires tend to be millionaires because of their wealth, or politicians amass money from corruption, in Cuba many of the privileges cannot be monetized and the equity value is measured in a complex way by the age of many possessions. But in addition, Torres points to another issue, the importance for senior officials of being able to escape regulations.

Another of the economists consulted by Deutsche Welle, Mauricio De Miranda Parrondo, a professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia), agrees with this opinion, and considers that wealth in Cuba should be measured largely by the ability to have what the majority do not have. “Enjoying goods or services that are not available to the rest of society marks privileges. And, in some cases, that could mean being considered rich in Cuban society, although not by international standards, in which, normally, wealth and economic privilege are associated with business property, real estate, or land.”

De Miranda Parrondo notes that, in the absence of public studies on income distribution and with the impossibility of conducting surveys independently, it is impossible to determine the proportions of inequality, although he believes that calculations could be made. They do not appear in the Social Panorama of Latin America prepared annually by ECLAC, since the Cuban government does not provide the necessary data.

Pavel Vidal, also an economist based in Colombia, adds another complexity. “We know that the reforms widened the levels of inequality, with individuals in the private sector earning around 10 times more than those in the state sector.” In his opinion, the complicated thing is to establish the influence of access to privileges and he points out that the income of mixed and foreign companies is very high, while hiring in this sector is controlled by government agencies*. “But there is no information on what that implies,” insists Vidal.

De Miranda Parrondo agrees that in the private sector you can access better salaries, but on the other side of the balance is the tax burden**, the risks faced by the self-employed, and the submission to greater control. In addition, with the exception of those who are well connected to the Power, they cannot benefit from the privileges granted by corruption or, in other words, the exemption from the controls that an official may have over them.

In so-called socialist societies (in which egalitarianism has been elevated to a value, although it was not for the founders of Marxism, because equality is not equal to egalitarianism), Mauricio De Miranda insists, that is a problem: “It wouldn’t be in  capitalist or feudal societies, where privileges are part of the system, but it is in a society that calls itself socialist.”

Translator’s notes:

*As a rule, foreign companies operating in Cuba must hire through the government, which then collects the payments for the workers and passes on only a portion of that sum to the workers themselves.

** Commonly, licenses for self-employment come with a base monthly tax burden, regardless of income (or profit), plus additional taxes on income. For a license holder who cannot pay the monthly base tax (for example a private restaurant closed because of Covid), the only option is to surrender the license.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Russia’s Reflexive Control in Cuba and Venezuela

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro. (Kremlin)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, José Azel, Miami, March 9, 2021 — Reflexive control is a disinformation strategy developed in Russia, in which “specifically prepared information is transmitted to opponents to encourage them to voluntarily make a decision desired by the initiator of the action.” All of the available original literature on reflexive control is written in Russian, a language I don’t know. For that reason, the following argument relies on publications in English.

Psychological studies show that when the brain is repeatedly exposed to the same piece of information, it begins to perceive it as true and discards contradictory evidence. The pioneer of the concept of reflexive control, in the 1960s, was Vladimir Lefebvre, a Soviet psychologist and mathematician. Reflexive control is based on a special type of influencing action: a sustained campaign that exposes an opponent to information selected so that he ends up “voluntarily” making the decisions that the initiator desires.

Reflexive control is taught in Russian military schools and in training programs, and it is conceived as a national security strategy. A key concept of reflexive control is that an opponent receives specific and predetermined information with the explicit objective of controlling the decision-making process. Unlike Western concepts of perception management, reflexive control seeks to control, not just manage, the perception of an opponent. continue reading

For example, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union convinced the United States that Soviet missile capacities were much greater than they really were. Using a series of disinformation techniques, the Soviets created an illusion of military power that forced the Western governments to devote more time and resources to their armed forces. Recently, in 2014, Russia confounded NATO and Kiev with its lightning success in Crimea. In three weeks and without firing a shot, the Ukrainian army turned over all its military bases in the Crimea.

On a research trip in 2019, I personally witnessed Russian techniques of reflexive control widely disseminated in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, where Russia seeks to stoke its ethnic minorities.

Additionally, during the 2016 American presidential election, Russia used techniques of reflexive control with the hope of manipulating our electoral decision-making process. Russia’s objective wasn’t to aid a determined candidate, but rather, fundamentally, to undermine our democratic political system.

The specific mechanisms of reflexive control are complex, but the strategy strives to imitate the reasoning of an opponent to encourage a decision that is unfavorable to the opponent himself. Specifically, it attacks our moral and physical cohesion to stir us to make decisions against our own interests. The Russian military theorist Colonel S. A. Komov has described the following basic elements of reflexive control:

Distraction: Create real or imaginary threats to force opponents to modify their plans.

Overload: Send with frequency a great quantity of contradictory information.

Paralysis: Create the perception of an unexpected threat to a vital interest.

Exhaustion: Force opponents to undertake useless operations.

Deceit: Force opponents to relocate assets in reaction to an imaginary threat.

Division: Persuade opponents to act against common objectives.

Pacification: Convince opponents that military actions carried out are only inoffensive training exercises.

Deterrence: Create a perception of superiority.

Provocation: Force opponents to take measures against their own interests.

Suggestion: Offer information that concerns opponents in a legal way, morally, ideologically, etc.

Pressure: Offer information that discredits opponents in the eyes of the people.

My readers in the south of Florida will recognize these techniques as those used by experts in the Cuban and Venezuelan governments under Russian tutelage. For decades, Cuba and Venezuela have successfully used reflexive control to distract, overload, paralyze, exhaust, deceive, divide, pacify, deter, provoke, suggest, and pressure their respective oppositions.

As a consequence, these citizens rarely unite cohesively to fight for their fundamental political liberties. The reflexive control apparatus has managed to control the decision-making process so that the popular point of view rests more on the economy than on politics. Today, the majority of criticisms and actions against the Cuban and Venezuelan governments emphasize the economic misery that the regimes create, instead of the freedoms they suppress. The people’s choice, incited by reflexive control, has morphed into fleeing, not fighting.

To my consternation and sadness, in these societies the discouraging observation of the Roman historian Sallust is evident: “Few men desire liberty; the majority of them only want a just tyrant.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

New Tourist Offer in Cuba: ‘Homeopathic’ Holidays’

One of the promotional images on the website of the Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, SA aimed at tourism. (SMC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2021 — Interferon, homeopathic products, tai-chi, acupuncture and dance therapy are some of the new tourist offerings in Cuba framed as “health services,” which are, more than ever, a claim for one of the sectors most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The travel agency Taíno Tours, belonging to the state Havanatur, offers several packages from Mexico, at between 200 and 400 dollars a week in Varadero hotels “to prevent diseases and health problems” whose star therapies are Interferon, PrevengHo-Vir and Biomodulin T.

These are pharmaceutical products promoted by the Cuban authorities since the beginning of the pandemic to prevent the coronavirus and other infections but which, according to independent analyses, have no scientific consistency. While there are no published results for Interferon and Biomodulin T, PrevengHo-Vir is, directly, homeopathy. The island, on the other hand, has been facing a dramatic shortage of medicines for months

Despite this, Taíno Tours says that it makes “the wisdom and experience of Cuban scientists and health professionals available to travelers to improve their quality of life,” combining “a pleasant stay with one or more programs to prevent diseases and health problems.” continue reading

Program 1, for example, costs about $270 for a full week and includes, among other things, “self-care services,” “dance therapy,” “digital manuals,” and “lots of tips.”

Program Number 2, for $295, “stimulates the immune system with biological immuno-modulators in people with gradual deterioration of the immune system caused by aging (over 60 years) or in patients with chronic diseases of risk.” These travelers are given a 10 ml bottle of PrevengHo-Vir and are administered Biomodulin T “for the prevention of infections, including SARS-CoV-2,” says the agency’s advertising, which tells the tourist “You must transport the Biomodulin T in a thermos to keep the product at a temperature of 2 to 8 degrees.”

The same products added to Nasal Interferon alpha 2b are offered in Program 3, for nearly $400 a week.

Other packages include tai-chi, acupuncture or yoga classes, for almost $350, or dermatological treatments by Cuban Center for Placental Histotherapy, for about $272.

As options, more serious services are offered, such as psychotherapy, medical consultation or dental treatment, from advice on health issues for $25 to “general intensive whitening of all teeth” for $150, as well as another alternative treatment, ozone therapy, $140 for seven sessions.

The prices of the packages do not include plane fares, as an employee of Taíno Tours clarified to 14ymedio, which cannot offer it either. “I do not know if you have the possibility of buying the flights separately, because apparently right now Viva Aerobus was only leaving every 15 days, but today they sent us another notification that will see another readjustment and it will probably be one every month,” he told this newspaper. “The priority is to find spaces on the flights for certain dates and to be able to sell the package to make the arrangements in Havana.”

When asked if it is mandatory to take the medications included in the package, the operator answered yes, although she did not have precise knowledge. “It would already be reviewed if there are any restrictions or simply a response letter is prepared clarifying that any situation that happens is your responsibility,” he reported.

The sale of medical services, the island’s main source of foreign exchange through its foreign ’medical missions’ program, is not new to tourists. For years, Terminal 3 of the José Martí Airport in Havana has been covered with advertising from the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company offering “healthy vacations,” “executive check-ups” and “psychological investigations” at prices equivalent to private healthcare in any capitalist country.

The pandemic has been lethal for tourism, one of the main engines of Cuba’s precarious economy — of the more than 4 million visitors expected for 2020, it only received around 1 million — but it is serving as an opportunity for a country that it has always been presented as a healthcare power.

A few weeks ago, the state agency Cuba Travel began offering “Covid packages,” with PCR tests included, to spend a week of vacation — and quarantine — in different hotels on the island, at prices between 250 and 600 dollars.

Before, in January, the authorities had launched the campaign “Beaches, Caribbean, mojitos and vaccine” as a claim, although this Saturday the director of the Finlay Institute, Vicente Vérez, acknowledged that the most advanced vaccine candidate, Soberana 02, will not be operational before summer.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘An Act of Repudiation With Music’ is the Official Response to ‘Patria y Vida’

The topic was premiered on the YouTube channel of the official government site Cubadebate. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 March 2021 — The Cuban government’s musical response to the video clip Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life) has not been long in coming. Two weeks after the release of the song, which harshly criticizes the regime in Havana, the island’s official media have broadcast this Monday Patria o Muerte por la Vida (Homeland or Death for Life) a replica to the rhythm of the conga and loaded with slogans.

The theme premiered on Cubadebate’s YouTube channel sung by the troubadour Raul Torres, the singers Annie Garcés, Dayana Karla Divo and Monier, along with rapper Yisi caliber. They all sing and dance with the Cuban flag in the background.

The title of the song, a slogan devised by Fidel Castro more than six decades ago, is a clear answer to the theme Patria y Vida, a collaboration of the duo Gente de Zona, Yotuel Romero and Descemer Bueno, with the musicians Maykel Castillo Osorbo and El Funky, which has caused a furor in the networks and is spread clandestinely within Cuba. continue reading

Torres, dressed in a guayabera, is the author of lyrics that constantly allude to the artists who participated in Patria y Vida : “It makes the shit profitable / The empire’s foolishness / It makes it profitable to lie / and confuse the people,” it says and assures that “the Revolution has more than 62,000 millennia left.”

The musician also does not miss an opportunity to advertise the vaccine candidates Soberana and Abdala. “Say what you want about me, all of it, I’m vaccinated. To the machete with Mambisa,” he warns.

“The lyrics are disgusting, they incite hatred, but I must say that they thought well of the music to get it out,” a musicologist told 14ymedio after seeing the video clip. “If this is the answer, I don’t think it will become a viral phenomenon as it happened with the other song. What young man is going to want to have all those slogans on his cell phone?”

The lyrics had already been published on February 18 by Cubadebate, which warned that it was a about a theme against an “anti-Cuban song.” “They have lost face again / The offenders of the people,” it says in one of his stanzas.

After seeing the video, highly criticized in some sectors on social networks, a Cuban singer who preferred not to identify himself told this newspaper: “That conga is actually a repudiation rally with music.”

Some network users have pointed out that the video clip tries to respond to that of Patria y Vida through symbolism. Thus, it resorts to the presence of numerous women, absent in its antagonist; the use of greater luminosity in front of the dark environment of Patria y Vida and the size of the flag, greater in the regime’s version.

In just two hours, the audiovisual accumulated  more than 10,000 views on YouTube and more than a thousand “I do not like” in contrast to about 90 “I like.” According to the note that accompanies the video clip, the premiere on national television was scheduled for this Monday on the Roundtable TV program.

The singer-songwriter Raúl Torres has become the official musician closest to the Cuban Government and his presence at public events is frequent. He is the author of Cabalgando con Fidel, a song that sounded widely in the official media after the death of the former president. He also composed El Último Mambí, in honor of Raúl Castro; and El regreso del amigo, written for Hugo Chávez.

For its part, the song Patria y Vida continues to grow in popularity, with more than 2.5 million views on YouTube since it was released two weeks ago. In social networks, the phrase has become a label and has also been painted on some house facades and walls in some cities.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Locked Up in My House by the Cuban Political Police on March 8

State Security agent who, this March 8, prevented Luz Escobar from leaving her house. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 8 March 2021 — As soon as the sun came up I got into my usual routine: making coffee, checking the news and starting my work as an independent journalist in a country that does not tolerate freedom of the press.

Sometimes there are days of long hours glued to the keyboard, other days are hours in the field, in “the heat of it” as a colleague says. Today was one of those days to review pending notes and organize the agenda for the week. But in Cuba there is a routine that nobody stops: going out to buy daily bread. Well, hardly anyone.

At the stroke of nine in the morning I grabbed my wallet, ration book, a bag, and headed out to the bakery. When I went down, a State Security officer was again at the entrance of the building to prevent me from going out into the street. He was the same one as on other occasions but, this time, he was accompanied by two women in the uniform of the Ministry of the Interior, tight shirts and olive green miniskirts. continue reading

“Luzbely, you can’t go out today,” the man told me, blocking my way when he saw me ready to cross the door. This time I didn’t answer him or ask him anything, I turned around and waited for the elevator.

“Oh, by the way, congratulations,” said the officer. Since he was wearing the mask, I didn’t detect if he said it sarcastically, but judging by the tone of his voice, he was more nervous than anything else.

In Cuba it is routine on a day like today to hear a congratulation for Women’s Day from every man who passes you by, even if he does not know you.

State Security officials have been harassing me for years, even long before 2014, when I decided to be part of the 14ymedio teamHowever, the open and direct fire against me began when I began to sign aticles, interviews and reports that bring to light the reality that power wants to hide.

In addition to locking them in their homes whenever they want, the political police use a repressive arsenal against women who work in independent media: arbitrary arrests, bans on leaving the country, threats to family and friends, and jail. They have threatened me about my daughters through the State Security Office for minors, using collaborating neighbors who have given false testimonies. They have harassed people close to me to try to scare them away.

All this happens before the eyes of my daughters, who today are already 11 and 13, and I find it impossible to hide what is happening to me. It hurts me tremendously that creatures who don’t understand half the adult world are subjected to states of siege under threat, so I try to explain as best I can. “Your mother writes about things that bother the government a lot and that’s why these things happen,” I tell them.

Also on the horizon is the violence of an act of repudiation like the one against Anyell Valdés recently; State Security has shown that it has no limits when it comes to exercising violence against women and their children.

We are running out of time and our children grow up and soon they will have to experience the repression in the first person. I experienced it as a daughter, now as a mother and a journalist, but I do not want, under any circumstances, for my daughters to also have to suffer this same thing in their own flesh.

That my daughters have found the strength to face it does not lessen the pain. They are the fuel to continue doing what I do, my motivation to fight for the better country that we all deserve.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Holguin Residents Unite to Protect a Seller of Agricultural Products

The events happened on Mario Pozo Street in the Luz neighborhood, in Holguin. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2021 — Several residents of the Luz neighborhood, in Holguín, prevented two inspectors from seizing several agricultural products sold by a vendor on a corner of Mario Pozo street, according to a footage released Monday on social networks.

Two videos posted on Facebook record how neighbors got together so the merchandise was not taken, which included several products that cannot be found in state markets. The inspectors, dressed in blue long-sleeved shirts, demanded the presence of the stall owner, but no one responded to the call.

“They want to confiscate everything from an unfortunate man who sells and he is the one who resolves things for us here in the neighborhood. How long is the abuse going to go on,” said a neighbor who apparently recorded the materials with her mobile phone. “That man has a sick daughter,” commented another, when she learned that the police had been called. “And he doesn’t even have the money to take her to Havana to be seen,” she added. continue reading

Peppers, strings of garlic and onions, tomatoes and cucumbers, among other products, were on a table that local residents surrounded to protect it. “No one is going to take anything here”, “the situation here is terrible, we are going to help each other”, “we are like cats and dogs, this does not give more,” the neighbor who registered the incident.

“Strength is in union. Rise up,” the woman said while other people collected the products, to safeguard the merchandise from the police. “If we unite, all this does not happen, it is an abuse.” “They want to confiscate everything, from the one who solves us in the neighborhood,” he protested.

“We are going to fight to be better because what is lacking here is humanity, there is no humanity. Damn, why are we going to disgrace a man,” warned the neighbor as the inspectors left and immediately asked for applause and everyone present obliged her. “This is how we have to be: united.”

After collecting all the merchandise from the sales table to move it inside their houses, several neighbors shouted “we won” and applauded the solidarity action.

The scenes of people in the streets defending private sellers from fines or seizures of their products are increasingly frequent, despite the fact that the media constantly blame the self-employed for raising the prices of goods or hoarding food from stores to later resell it.

At the end of February in Caibarién, Villa Clara, a sweet seller staged a protest after being fined 2,000 pesos. The man climbed on the roof of his sales cart, in the middle of a public road, and around him dozens of people from the town gathered to show their support for the self-employed seller.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

“Cuba has Helped to Bleed Dry Venezuela, the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg”

Hugo Chávez with Fidel Castro in Havana, in 1994. (Prensa Latina)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid | 27 February 2021– Throughout the past five years journalists, behind the pseudonym Diego G. Maldonado, documented in detail, with direct sources, newspaper archives and cross-public data, to what extent Cuba has blood-sucked Venezuela dried, stretching to the recesses of the Armed Forces and intelligence services. The result of this research is La Invasión Consentida (Debate) [The Authorized Invasion (Debate)], published at the end of 2019 in Mexico, and currently in Spain. Its authors answer, via e-mail to maintain safety, 14ymedio’s questions.

14ymedio. When did you think it was time to write this book?

Maldonado. The issue always caught our attention and the attention of so many people because of its political implications, and because we have never before seen Venezuelan Government’s attachment to another country, and so much deference from a president to another government. But we began to think about thoroughly investigating the relationship between Venezuela and Cuba in 2013, after the death of Hugo Chávez. The fact that the president had decided to receive treatment in Cuba rather than in his own country and that he agonized there, was quite revealing of the dynamics he had established with the Government of Cuba.

14ymedio. The book begins in 2009, “Year 10” of the Bolivarian revolution, and ends a decade later. What are the main data that show that in this time everything had gotten worse in Venezuela?

Maldonado. All socioeconomic indicators show that the situation has worsened. Venezuela is today one of the poorest countries in the region. We have had years with the highest inflation in the world, the national currency has practically disappeared, public services have collapsed, monthly salaries, which in 2019 were equivalent to about 8 dollars, today are less than one dollar a month, and more than five million people have left the country. Venezuela was one of the main oil exporters, and today the industry is ruined. You live through the unimaginable: in a country used to having the cheapest gasoline in the world – it cost less than water – there is a shortage of gasoline, and it’s now dollarized. The book details the crash of the economy. continue reading

During that decade, the political field circle was closed. For students of the process, it was clear that fraud and imposition would come by force once the popularity of Chavismo ended. Chavismo summed it up in the slogan “they will not return.” During a decade, we went from the 2009 approval of the indefinite reelection to Maduro’s great fraud in the electoral farce of 2018. In 2015, we saw the last free elections, when the opposition won the qualified majority in Parliament. From then on, with unbeknownst to the Assembly, the Government permanently removed its mask.

14ymedio. In the first pages, we see Chávez say: “Cuba is part of this homeland, of this union […] the infinite Cuba we love. For Cuba we cry, for Cuba we fight, and for Cuba we are willing to die fighting…”, but that outburst did not always exist. The Chávez of the first hour was the one who said: “I am not a Marxist but I am not an anti-Marxist. I am not a communist but I am not an anti-communist.” What was the beginning of Hugo Chávez’s idyll with Cuba?

Maldonado.There may have been a romantic idea of the Cuban Revolution since his youth, but it is very likely that the idyll, as such, began in 1994, when the Cuban Government invited him to the Island, receiving him as a celebrity. It was reinforced from 2002, after the coup, when Chávez decided to entrust Cubans with intelligence tasks to protect themselves against future military conspiracies. The Chávez of the first hour was a presidential candidate and a rookie in power, aware that the Cuban dictatorship was frowned upon among Venezuelans and, strategically, he navigated in ambiguity during the 1998 election campaign and in his two first years of government, when he presented himself as a politician with no other ideology than Bolivarian jingoism.

14ymedio. And vice versa? It is clear in the book that Fidel’s appetite for Venezuela – or Venezuelan oil – coincides with the beginning of the Revolution. The rivalry between Rómulo Betancourt and Castro as two opposing Latin American figures is very interesting: both liberated their countries from dictatorships, but one was a democrat who consolidated his country, and the other, a dictator who destroyed his. When does Castro discover that Chávez can be useful to him?

Maldonado. Everything indicates that it would have been starting in 1994, when Castro received him at Havana airport with State honors, and with greater security in 2000, when he signed the first major bilateral cooperation agreement, which guaranteed Cuba an oil supply under favorable terms and opened the door for all kinds of business.

14ymedio. The substance of the book, from its title, is that the Cuban regime entered Venezuela but not vice versa. Cuba has everything, oil, armed forces within the Venezuelan intelligence apparatus, and Venezuela?

Maldonado. If truth be told, Venezuela has never had any kind of influence on the Cuban government or its decisions. Maduro could not even prevent them from confiscating his participation in the Cienfuegos refinery, reactivated with Venezuelan funds during Chávez’s time. Nor in the Cuban Armed Forces. No Cuban officer is suitable for a Venezuelan one. Venezuela’s role against Cuba is completely passive.

14ymedio. It is known about the medical missions and the oil, but not the entire network of interference. What were you most surprised to discover?

Maldonado. It is a difficult question. Throughout the investigation, many things surprised us, but there were some that struck us in particular. For example, the Chávez government paid Cuban instructors, who had never left Cuba, to come to teach Venezuelan culture and to work on a supposed program to strengthen national identity. The Culture mission, designed in Cuba and bought by Chávez, was one of the grossest political indoctrination operations in poor neighborhoods. It was surprising to hear a Cuban say that he had taken a 15-day course to teach our traditions here as if it were a course in origami.

It was also shocking to discover that in a country with unemployment and underemployment problems, the Government was paying Cuban drivers and tractor operators to carry out land work, or that it imported workers, administrators and secretaries, and even clowns from Cuba, or that Fidel would personally take charge of the purchase of medical equipment for Venezuela and when spare parts could not be bought due to the embargo on Cuba, or that Venezuela would buy old dismantled sugar mills from Cuba as if they were new. There are many more things, but the saddest thing was discovering the scope of Cuban penetration in the Armed Forces and the submission of Venezuelan officers.

14ymedio. María Werlau’s book Cuba’s Intervention in Venezuela: A Strategic Occupation with Global Implications has the same purpose as yours, with the difference that your sources are not only bibliographic, but direct. Where did you find it most difficult to find these people?

Maldonado. There were many difficulties due to the fear that exists to speak about the subject on the part of Venezuelans and Cubans. It is understandable, but the investigation took five years, a long time. Many Cubans who worked in Venezuela and who escaped to other countries refused to give us their testimony for fear that we were agents of the Venezuelan or Cuban governments. Many Venezuelan public employees had great reservations against speaking and did not tell everything. The phone was blocked many times. The biggest difficulty was overcoming fear. Fortunately, some trusted that we would not reveal their identity and offered us valuable clues, information and testimonies to put the puzzle together.

14ymedio. Another thing that is not discussed so much is the working conditions of Cubans in Venezuela. Could you elaborate on this from your experience with the sources?

Maldonado. Certainly, this is not discussed a lot, and it is regrettable because, with the open complicity of the Venezuelan Government and those of other countries, Cuban workers are exploited by Havana, monitored and subjected to a semi-slavery regime. The book dedicates a chapter to explain their situation. They earn a tiny fraction of what Venezuela pays the Cuban government for their work. Out of $10,000 a month, they will only see $300, and the Cuban Government keeps the rest. The case of computer scientists is disgraceful, because Cuba charges for an hour or two what it pays them in a month. They accept it because it is ten times more than what they would earn in Cuba. It is unfortunate for a country to obtain its principal source of hard currency from the exploitation of its citizens’ work, in what Havana denominates “exportation of professional services”, which the world perceives as a legitimate and very normal activity.

14ymedio. In the book, you also show that the history of Cuban meddling in Venezuela is also a history of corruption.

Maldonado. Clearly. All agreements – there are thousands – are confidential, and there is no way to subject them to public control or scrutiny. Neither Cuba nor Venezuela are accountable. Many transactions have been made through companies in tax havens. In fact, some things have become known through document leaks like the Panama Papers. It has been possible to document the losses in some failed joint ventures for the amount that was allocated in the budget, but so far, it is impossible to have a global idea.

14ymedio. Despite the shortage in Venezuela, denounced by the opposition and international organizations, the Maduro regime continues to send fuel to Cuba. Why?

Maldonado. It is unusual that a country that subsidized Cuba, its greatest benefactor in recent years, ended up owing the Island. A government that is not capable of guaranteeing food for its own population, or public services or medicines, and that no longer even manages to produce gasoline to satisfy domestic demand, despite having the largest oil reserves in the world, has gone so far as to import gasoline to send fuel to Cuba.

What is Venezuela paying Havana? We can speculate, but there is no way to see the bill, to know what Cuba is charging, because both governments hide it with zeal. The only thing that is clear is Maduro’s relationship of dependence and vassalage towards the Cuban government. Chavismo turned Venezuela into a satellite of Havana.

14ymedio. Sometimes alarm voices are heard in other countries (such as Mexico, with López Obrador, or in Spain, with the Podemos party of Vice President Pablo Iglesias), who say “could this become Venezuela”? Do you think they are founded?

Maldonado. Each country has its specificities. They are fears that are latent but that we would have to document thoroughly in order to be able to give a proper opinion on whether they are founded or not. There are populist attitudes everywhere.

14ymedio. What are the red flags? How does a prosperous and democratic society start to rot?

Maldonado. I would say that the crisis of political representation, such as apathy or lack of confidence is a warning sign for anyone. Why do the citizens of a certain country stop believing in its institutions, in justice, why does part of the population begin to hear mermaid songs? In the case of Venezuela, the traditional parties took democracy for granted, they did not know how to renew themselves, they stopped meeting the demands of the majority, and they also engaged in personal political revenge. That, not counting the tremendous damage inflicted by corruption. It is not easy to notice the precise moment when the snowball begins to roll downhill.

14ymedio. “Well, Venezuela is not Cuba.” Do you agree with this statement?

Maldonado. Each time, there are fewer and fewer people who say that. In fact, we haven’t heard it in a long time. Venezuela is not Cuba – let’s say that technically there is one difference or another – but it is quite similar. Both countries share a lack of liberties and economic precariousness. And their peoples also share a lack of hope. That, perhaps, is the worst. The Venezuelan government has gone to great lengths to destroy what was once the richest country in South America, and the Cuban government has helped to bleed the goose that laid the golden egg.

14ymedio. Did Hugo Chávez die in Venezuela?

Maldonado. Due to the opacity with which everything was handled, Venezuelans have no certainty as to where his physical death occurred. We do not know if he took his last breath at Havana’s Cimeq or at Caracas Military Hospital, as the Venezuelan Government swore in March 2013. But, for all intents and purposes, the Hugo Chávez we knew died in Cuba. We saw him alive there for the last time. On that island, to which he gave everything, he disappeared forever.

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Editing Clarification: María Werlau, author of Cuba’s Intervention in Venezuela tells us that “it is incorrect” to say that her book is based “only on bibliographic sources.” “[My] book cites numerous direct sources as well as other publications of my authorship that were developed with direct sources”, she adds in an email sent to the Web.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.