14ymedio – Page 87 – Translating Cuba

The Cuban Regime Prohibits Boxer Robeisy Ramirez From Using the Cuban Anthem and Flag in Japan

Cuban boxer Robeisy “El Tren” [“The Train”] Ramírez escaped in 2018. (Twitter/@RobeisyRamirez)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 July 2023 — Cuban boxer Robeisy “The Train” Ramírez will not be able to appear in his fight in Japan this Tuesday with the anthem of the country that gave birth to him and from which he fled in 2018. According to the athlete himself on his social networks, the Cuban embassy in Japan contacted the television station that will broadcast the event, which will take place at Ariake Arena in Tokyo and in which The Train will defend his World Boxing Organization title of featherweight against the Japanese Satoshi Shimizu; the embassy prohibited his use of the national anthem. It is, says the boxer, “a vile attempt at intimidation.”

“I’m a free man,” cried Ramírez, double Olympic champion (London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016), who says that they offered him the U.S. anthem or none at all. “I’m not going to enter with the U.S. anthem,” replied the boxer, annoyed, who couldn’t believe that the Asian promoter accepted the imposition. “If I don’t enter with the one from Cuba, I enter without an anthem. It’s my homeland; what a lack of respect!”

The fighter is grateful that the U.S. opened its doors for him to continue his career but explains that he will not use the American anthem, because “its not what I represent.” In professional fights, the organizers use the hymns of the country from which the fighters originate, although it is not mandatory. On the Cuban Boxing Facebook page, he stressed that “what bothers me the most is that in Japan there are 12 or 15 lackeys and fat people living life who don’t care what the average Cuban is going through, literally living from what his family outside sends him.”

🚨indignación total. Compartan este vídeo por todos lados, que el mundo vea todo lo que hace la dictadura castrista y el sistema comunista. El boxeador cubano @RobeisyRamirez este próximo 25 de julio tendrá una pelea para defender su título mundial en Japón, el régimen castro… pic.twitter.com/tVFRoI2uRC

— Marcel (@Marcel_305) July 24, 2023

Total indignation. Share this video everywhere, let the world see everything that the Castro dictatorship and the communist system are doing. The Cuban boxer @RobeisyRamirez this coming July 25 will have a fight to defend his world title in Japan, the Castro regime… pic.twitter.com/tVFRoI2uRC — Marcel (@Marcel_305) July 24, 2023. The athlete, a native of Cienfuegos, attacked the regime, which, he says, has been pursuing him since he decided, five years ago, to make a career outside the Island. “They demanded that I not use the Cuban flag on my uniform or anywhere else.”

The 26-year-old boxer warned that far from “shutting me up” with this type of intimidation, “they have motivated me more to achieve success and continue to raise my voice and cry out for the freedom of my homeland. Now more than ever, Homeland and Life!“ continue reading

The young man’s coach, Ismael Salas, also joined the protests after the official boycott: “That is a lack of respect from the Cuban Embassy. I say this so everyone can understand what communism is and why I’m against all those communists.”

For his part, the collaborator of Pelota Cuba USA, Yordano Carmona, described as “incredible” that the “tentacles of the Cuban dictatorship” reach all the way to Asia.

Ramírez says that in 2018 he made his best decision. At that time he wanted to leave “so I wouldn’t remain an amateur, but the main reason for my decision was all the problems that happened with the managers of boxing and INDER [National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation], who created them, but every day they got worse,” he told Play-Off Magazine. “All I had left was to leave or go back to Cienfuegos to survive as I could.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

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 Pool Where Cuban Olympic Swimmers Trained Is Now a Garbage Dump

The president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power argued that local authorities can do little because the property is in the hands of Emprestur. (Ahora!)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 July 2023 — The Olympic pool in Gibara, Holguín, has long since left its golden years behind as a training center for Cuban athletes who competed in international events. The lack of maintenance and the passage of two hurricanes have left the facilities in such a state that even the official press echoes it. Today the place is a “macro garbage dump,” in the words of the provincial newspaper Ahora! in a report published this Tuesday.

The text describes the “stumbling blocks” that, for more than 50 years, have affected the Waldimiro Arcos Riera pool, inaugurated in the late 1970s. Located in the vicinity of the Holguin coast, initially it only had stakes embedded in the sea that formed a quadrilateral. These precarious conditions did not prevent Cuban athletes from training and obtaining good results in international events.

According to the newspaper, it was not until 1979 that the facility gained its “Olympic” status, after the local residents themselves carried out “volunteer work” to build the pool. Gibara was already in the middle of a drinking water supply crisis, so the pool remained empty.

Andrés Ricardo Rivas, president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power, argued that the local authorities can do little because the property is in the hands of Emprestur, which is dedicated to the construction of tourism facilities, and they will be in charge of rehabilitating the facilities. He did not say why there is no communication with the state company nor what plans it has to reactivate the swimming center. continue reading

Among the professional swimmers who have trained in the pool are Rafael Leyva, national and Central American champion with the butterfly and free-style technique; Oscar Periche Cardet, goalkeeper of the Cuban national water polo team for more than 20 years and participant in four Olympics; and Juan José Soler González, national swimming runner-up.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike considerably damaged the facilities, but the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) financed its repair using materials with greater resistance to salt water and a pumping system directly from the sea.

In addition to recovering its initial function of sports training, the investment provided for the creation of conditions for the pool to be used by people with disabilities and by children. A significant part of the investment was allocated to lighting the pool, so that it could also be used at night.

The complex was again destroyed in 2017, when Hurricane Irma, category 5, devastated much of the Holguin coast. Since then, the authorities have done nothing more for the pool, and it ended up becoming a garbage dump that, the newspaper acknowledges, “affects the environment and the neighbors.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

________________

Scarcity and Crime, Today’s ‘Moncada to Attack’ in Cuba, According to President Diaz-Canel

Díaz-Canel resorted to an old political trick and took advantage of the dawn light to begin his speech. (Cuba debate)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 26 July 2023 — Miguel Díaz-Canel’s speech at the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, delivered this Wednesday morning, focused on two points: lamenting the “physical disappearance of the historic generation” that stormed the barracks – although he had Raúl Castro and Ramiro Valdés in front of him – and the anguish of the Cuban rulers, who suffer firsthand from “another Moncada”: inflation and crime on the Island.

The event, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of the rebel attack on two important military enclaves in the former province of Oriente during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, began at five in the morning on July 26th. The Government spared no resources for the tribute, which began with a play of lights on the façade of the barracks recreating – with notable historical inaccuracy – the frontal shooting of the assailants until the building was symbolically collapsed.

Starting from the “ruins” of Moncada, the voice of Fidel Castro and various signs alluded to the “problems” of the Republic. When the show ended, which included congas and declamations, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, José Ramón Monteagudo, noted that the city had complied with the request of Raúl Castro, who in one of his speeches had called for “beautification days” to make Santiago a “beautiful and hygienic” city.

Díaz-Canel resorted to an old political trick and took advantage of the dawn light to begin his speech. He mentioned the Christian apostle Santiago, patron saint of the city, who came to “dress as a mambí” during the independence wars, and the Virgin of Charity, in whose El Cobre sanctuary Antonio Maceo was baptized. continue reading

The Cuban Television cameras tried to offer a solemn profile of the president, who expressed himself with diction errors and voice breaks, as is usual in his public interventions.

“As long as we do not reach a decent degree of prosperity for Cubans, we will have a Moncada to assault,” he summarized, after alluding to the vicious circle that produced the increase in the price of basic necessities and the wave of crime that is sweeping the island.

As expected, Díaz-Canel blamed the problems in Cuba on the United States, which, in addition to the blockade, is determined to organize campaigns “to prevent foreign investment and foreign trade.” In addition, he accused Washington of leading “a pursuit of fuel supplies” to the island, through whose ports numerous oil tankers move, about which Havana does not offer the slightest information.

He spoke little about Fidel Castro, of whom he limited himself to saying that, while his brother was fighting in the Audiencia building, he “ordered the withdrawal.”

Raúl Castro did not go up to the rostrum or receive ovations. Together with a nonagenarian Ramiro Valdés, the soldier did not leave his seat until the end of the event. (ACN)

The rest of his speech was dedicated to Díaz-Canel allowing himself to be applauded by various groups of foreign visitors such as the Pastors for Peace – whose leader, Gail Walker, was present at the even t- the Puerto Rican independence group Juan Rius Rivera, the Caravan of Brazil and several “brigades” of young Belgians and Germans who traveled to the Island for the commemoration.

This time, Raúl Castro did not go up to the rostrum or receive ovations. Together with a nonagenarian Ramiro Valdés, the soldier did not leave his seat until the end of the act and the cameras captured an expressionless face, which in no way resembles that of the 22-year-old who was captured seven decades ago, after the failure of the assault .

____________

Portugal Will Contract for 200 to 300 Latin American Doctors and Says Their Rights Will be Respected

The medical brigades are one of the main sources of foreign currency for the Cuban government, despite being frequently pointed to as systems of forced labor. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Lisbon, July 26, 2023 — The Portuguese government plans to hire between 200 and 300 doctors from different Latin American countries to perform functions in health centers and ensures that all the rights of professionals will be respected.

The Portuguese Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, confirmed these contracts today in an appearance in Parliament, where he clarified that the doctors contracted for will not only be from Cuba, as local media had previously published.

They will also come from Colombia and other countries that have the capacity to export healthcare workers, said the head of Health, who explained that their academic training will be recognized by a Portuguese university and they will enroll in the Portuguese College of Physicians.

Pizarro went to Parliament at the request of the Liberal Initiative, which wanted to question the minister about the hiring of Cuban professionals, since this party alleges that they work abroad in “slavery” conditions, through a Cuban state company that only gives them a part of the salary they receive from the Portuguese State. continue reading

“There are hundreds of companies of this type that operate in Portugal,” replied the minister, who pointed out that the Portuguese State will remunerate foreign doctors the same as Portuguese ones, but admitted that the Government does not control what these companies pay professionals.

And he assured that “human rights will be scrupulously respected.”

During Miguel Díaz-Canel’s visit to Portugal in mid-July, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, had revealed his interest in hiring Cuban doctors after verifying the work that one of these contingents is doing in Italy. Initially, the service would be exercised for a period of three years.

According to the Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias , Rebelo de Sousa explained that the Cubans would collect their money without intervention from the Havana regime. The president said he had asked Cuba for a “different agreement than usual” to also pay those hired directly*. Supposedly, he managed to get the Cuban government to accept it, although the exact terms of the agreement are still unknown.

In addition, the Portuguese Government has already started procedures for these professionals to join the public system as soon as possible, taking into account the various steps that foreigners must go through outside the territory of the European Union before being considered fit.

To be authorized, doctors who come from third countries must undergo several tests, not only in medicine, but also in Portuguese, for example.

It is not the first time that Portugal has resorted to Cuban healthcare workers; in 2009 it welcomed 58 to reinforce the public network in the regions of Ribatejo (center), Alentejo and Algarve (south).

Some sources from the Portuguese Ministry of Health, consulted by the EFE news agency, indicated that the hiring of foreign health professionals is “complementary and transitory” and its objective is “to contribute to the adequate provision of human resources and response capacity” of the National Health Service.

In this sense, “joint work is underway between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.”

According to the data provided by the portfolio, the Portuguese public system had 1,270 foreign doctors in 2022. Local media, for their part, reported that the total number of foreign health workers registered with the College of Physicians was 4,503.

Health is one of the sectors that has caused the most complaints in the last year, marked by a crisis in emergencies, especially in maternity and obstetrics, due to the lack of resources. Faced with pressure from the sector, the Portuguese Government has found an alternative in health contingents.

For the Cuban government, medical brigades sent abroad are one of the main sources of foreign currency for the, despite being frequently pointed to as systems of forced labor by international organizations such as Human Rights Watch or Prisoners Defenders. The United States also included Cuba in the list of countries that violate human rights.

The Cuban government has also been accused of using the contingents to maintain its influence in allied countries, such as Mexico, Italy, Qatar, Brazil, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) calculated that, in 2021, the Cuban State collected 4.349 billion dollars for the export of health services to foreign governments.

In contrast, on the island, health services are deteriorating, not only due to a lack of health professionals, but also due to the shortage of basic medicines, which the government in Havana attributes to financing problems and the international supply of raw materials. On the other hand, infrastructure modernization investments are focused on tourist complexes, the bet to activate the compressed economy, while complaints about the precarious conditions in hospitals are increasingly frequent on social networks.

*Translator’s note: The common arrangement to date has been for foreign governments to pay the Cuban government directly for each worker, and from this the Cuban government pays each worker only a portion of the total — in some cases as little as 10% — and retains the rest.

____________

Habana Libre Hotel Recovers its Sign, Battered and With an Incomplete Background

The structure that supports the recognizable letters, lowercase and blue, is not finished and is missing panels. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Four years after having barely six letters, the sign on the roof of the Habana Libre hotel, located on the vital corner of L and 23, in El Vedado, is once again complete.

The sign went from “bana Libre” to “na Libre” and from there to “a Libre” in 2019, before the covid-19 pandemic.

The authorities have not announced its restoration, but neither have they given explanations in all this time in which Havanans have seen the emblematic sign crumble, like a metaphor for the Island.

The old Hilton, destined to be one of the most luxurious on the continent, opened its doors in 1958 and was the enclave from where Fidel Castro ruled the country during the first years of the Revolution. Nationalized two years after its inauguration, the building, with 27 floors and an initial investment of 28 million dollars, has gradually languished until it reached a debacle that touched its adjacent premises, both the cafeteria and the candy store.

The recent arrangement, moreover, has not been complete, since the structure that supports the recognizable letters, in lowercase and blue, is not finished and is missing panels. A passerby who this Wednesday noticed the change at the top of the establishment, managed to comment: “Tremendous bungle, as always in this country.”

Nationalized two years after its inauguration, the 27-story building has gradually languished until it reached its current debacle. (14ymedio)

____________

Cuba: The 26th of July of History and Propaganda

It stands to reason that all the attackers who died did so believing that the action was an effort to restore the Constitution and all liberties. (Archive)

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 26 July 2023 — On this anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks on 26 July 1953, it is logical to assume that the official statements and the government press conform to the guidelines drawn up by the Communist Party of Cuba, the supreme institution of the nation. Foreign admirers, almost without exception, will accept them as irrefutable truths, and in Cuban universities anyone who dares to ask uncomfortable questions will risk his university career and his freedom.

But in the forbidden books of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Carlos Franqui, Reinaldo Arenas, Luis Aguilar León and other banned intellectuals, the Cubans of the future will discover another reality. And the Cubans on the Island who today manage to read some of these clandestine texts, or a copy of History will absolve me written by Fidel Castro during his years in prison, will glimpse myths, half lies, mysteries and falsehoods.

Totalitarian regimes write and rewrite history: they eliminate dates, events, names, photographs, letters… It is a sad reality that George Orwell masterfully described in Animal Farm, that other book outlawed in the former Soviet Union and its European satellites, and today highly dangerous in Cuba, China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.

But let us go back to that fateful summer morning when the young soldiers were dozing soundly, recovering from the carnival festivities in that barracks in Santiago, the second most important city on the island. The Moncada barracks were more than 800 kilometers away. from then military dictator Fulgencio Batista, who was in Varadero.

What was the reason for that assault? What did those young people, mostly from Pinar del Río, who trusted Fidel, and until a few hours before and knew nothing about the danger they were going to face, intend to achieve? continue reading

Of the nearly 134 attackers – plus the other 28 who on the same day attacked the barracks in Bayamo – 68 died that day and the following, during the “hunt” in the mountains, 48 escaped and managed to hide, 32 received sentences from seven months to 15 years in prison and 19 were found not guilty. Many of the soldiers of the army of Santiago who were killed, were young recruits, as young as 16.

It is logical to think that all the attackers who died did so believing that the action was an effort to restore the Constitution and all freedoms, including multi-party elections, separation of powers, a rule of law and a press that did not fear Batista’s periodic censorship. There are more than a thousand political prisoners in Cuba. now, for asking exactly those same things.

The 26th of July 1953 is far from the official version.

In those days, the future top leader claimed not to be a communist, insisting that his ideals were strictly democratic. For example, in Washington, on April 19, 1959, before the North American Association of Newspaper Editors, Fidel said: “I am not a communist, nor do the communists have the strength to be decisive in my country.” A few weeks later, on May 8, the newspaper Revolución published the following statements: “I don’t know how to speak… Can anyone think that they covered up dark designs, that we have ever lied to the people? Why this determination to accuse our Revolution of what it is not? If our ideas were communist, we would say so here.”

Regarding the nature of republican Cuba, in his defense before the court that sentenced him to 15 years in prison – of which he served 22 months – Fidel said: “There was a Republic. It had its Constitution, its laws, its liberties; president, congress, courts; everyone could meet, associate, speak, and write with complete freedom. The government did not satisfy the people, but the people could change it and it only took a few days to do so. There was a public opinion, respected and abided by , and all the problems of collective interest were discussed freely. There were political parties, doctrinal hours on the radio, controversial television programs, public events, and the people throbbed with enthusiasm. (…) That people had suffered a lot, and if not it was happy, it wanted to be had a right to be. It had been deceived many times, and it looked back with real terror. it wanted a change, an improvement, an advance, and it saw it near. All its hope was in the future.”

On this 26th of July, what better way to honor the Cubans who died that day, 70 years ago, than to reflect on those words. God willing that many Cubans remember that message from Fidel, including opponents on the island and in the diaspora, and the bishops, members of the Assembly of Popular Power, the Armed Forces, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), the Council of Ministers and publishers of the state newspaper Granma. For the good of Cuba and of all Cubans.

____________

Reopening of Havana’s Jalisco Park Postponed Without Explanation

The entrance to Jalisco Park now looks freshly painted in bright colors. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Showing sadness in the children and anger in the parents, the faces of the Havanans who approached Jalisco Park this Wednesday, at the corner of 23 and 18 in El Vedado, spoke for themselves when they saw it closed. The authorities had been announcing days with hype and cymbals for the July 26 the reopening of the emblematic park, which will be privately managed from now on .

However, just on Tuesday night, Tribuna de La Habana reproduced an “informative note” saying that the reopening was postponed to Saturday the 29th at nine in the morning. The text did not offer any reason, despite including as a source Alexander Manent Espinosa, administrator of the Beijing non-agricultural cooperative that will manage the recreational complex “in the lease modality.”

With such short notice and in a little-read publication, dozens of families found out at the gates of the place this Wednesday, the second holiday of the week dedicated to commemorating the frustrated assault on the Moncada barracks.

There was only one child roaming the park, apparently the son of one of the employees or the owners. (14ymedio)

“Papi, it’s not open, what are we going to do, let’s go,” a father told his son patiently as he let himself be dragged by the hand. continue reading

In a worse situation was a young mother who arrived with her child from Guanabacoa, overcoming the serious shortage of transportation. “I’ve had a tremendous amount of work to get here and now I don’t know what I’m going to do with the little one, everything here is a lie,” lamented the woman, who tried to comfort her son, remorsefully. Another passerby suggested that she take him to the Coppelia ice cream parlor. “Yeah, man, the line when I passed there was endless,” she told him.

Both the gate and the fence of Jalisco Park now look freshly painted, in bright colors. From the outside, one could see the new games that the park will have, decorated with motifs of the popular children’s character Elpidio Valdés, but deflated, as were all the other stopped mechanical attractions. There was only one child roaming the place, apparently the son of one of the employees or the owners.

Several workers were setting up some tables in the back, where the food services area will be. (14ymedio)

Several workers were setting up some tables in the back, where the food services area will be. Here, the official press announced, there will be an ice cream parlor and a cafeteria, where “you can taste everything from light foods such as sandwiches and picadera (cheese balls, croquettes), to fried chicken, pizza and spaghetti.”

In its note, Tribuna de La Habana also reported that access to the park alone will cost 50 pesos per person, whether adult or child, and that at the same box office people will have to purchase tickets to ride the attractions, at 30 pesos each. except for those called the Bull, the Surfboard, and the Eurobungee, which will cost 50 pesos each.

In addition, there will be various shows on weekends, including “the presentation of the children’s theater company La Colmenita.”

“I’ve had a tremendous amount of work to get here,” lamented a woman who arrived with her son from Guanabacoa. (14ymedio)

None of that is yet reality. For now, the only happy person in the immediate vicinity was the owner of the ice cream parlor across the street, who, seeing the crowd, opened despite it being a mandatory rest day.

“We’ll see on Saturday, because everything is like that here, they announce an opening day and it’s never the day they announce,” a grandmother with her two granddaughters was complaining as they walked away from the park.

____________

Cuban Opponent Otero Alcantara Confirms he Lifted His Hunger Strike After Weeks Incommunicado

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara in a file image. (EFE)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Cuban opponent Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, in prison since 2021, lifted the hunger and thirst strike that began on July 6, sources close to the artist confirmed this Tuesday.

Otero Alcántara himself confirmed the news to his relatives through a telephone call from the Guanajay prison, where he is serving the sentence imposed on him in 2022 for the crimes of outrage against national symbols, public disorder and contempt.

It was the first time that the artist had communicated with his loved ones since July 6, which had caused concern about his state of health.

The art curator Yanelys Núñez told Diario de Cuba that, in her call, Otero Alcántara told her that he had been eating again for days, but that he still did not feel well physically or mentally .

“They were difficult days because he felt that his body was spiraling out of control with the strike,” said Núñez, who added that the opponent is already together with the other prisoners.

This is the sixth strike by the leader of the San Isidro Movement, who has been imprisoned since 11 July 2021 (11J), when he tried to join the anti-government protests that broke out that day in the country, the largest in decades.

In a previous protest, in April 2021, Otero Alcántara, 35, spent more than five days on a hunger and thirst strike, for which he was admitted to a Havana hospital.

Time Magazine included him among the 100 most influential people of 2021, while Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.

In an interview with EFE published this Sunday, the art curator Claudia Genlui spoke about the conditions in which Otero Alcántara lives in prison. “There are days when he is in a better mood and there are days when it is difficult to accept this whole situation, especially when it is known that he is innocent,” said the activist.

In addition, she denounced the “constant psychological pressure” suffered by the opponent by State Security and the added “health problems” he suffers from prison conditions.

“Luis is a very strong person. He has incredible resistance and that keeps him afloat. He clings to art a lot, he is always creating,” he said.

____________

If Cuba and the Cubans Aren’t Doing Well, ‘It’s Not the Fault of Tourists,’ a Spanish ‘Influencer’ Defends Herself

Some Cuban “influencers” have strongly criticized the visit of young Spaniards to Cuba, accusing them of “romanticizing a dictatorship.” (Facebook/Enjoy Travel Group)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2023 — The Spaniard Marina Rivera, who was one of the more than twenty influencers who arrived in Cuba this July to promote tourism, invited by the travel agency Enjoy Travel Group, published a video on her Tik Tok profile on Wednesday to respond to the accusations of “white-washing the dictatorship” by many of her followers and Cuban content creators.

“I didn’t think this would be necessary, but let’s talk about Cuba,” the influencer begins her three-minute video in which she exposes, above all, that both she, the rest of the group and her agency had not been paid for the trip that was made to promote the recently inaugurated Barcelona-Havana flight. “We weren’t paid a euro for anything. They just invited us on the trip,” she says.

Rivera also explains that she is not to blame for the socioeconomic and political situations of the countries she visits and that many have a lack of “freedoms and rights and have horrible political situations, but that is not the fault of tourists.”

Marina Rivera also compared the Cuban regime to the Franco dictatorship: “In Spain we had 40 years of dictatorship, and some of us lived from tourism. It’s exactly the same in Cuba. People live from tourism. And thanks to all those tourists who came to Spain during the dictatorship, a lot of people were able to eat. We wanted to do the same thing through tourism to Cuba.”

“We enjoyed the Island and left money in local businesses,” concludes Rivera, who said that the group of influencers had distributed medicines, water, sweets and money among the people of Havana, and added: “We were not going to say this because we did it in a disinterested way. For example, the Twin Melody gave away 400 euros in cash to the street children.” continue reading

Some Cuban influencers, such as Claudia Tropiezos and Royniel2, have strongly criticized the visit of young Spaniards to Cuba, accusing them of “romanticizing a dictatorship.” They were joined by the Cuban Dina Star, who has lived in Madrid for two years, who, after publishing a video on the subject on YouTube, was invited to the Spanish program Todo es Mentira [It’s All a Lie]. This same program witnessed, during the July 2021 protests, how Cuban State Security arrived at the YouTuber’s residence in Havana to take her to the Zapata and C station while she broadcast live.

Diego Moreno, executive director of the talent agency Nickname, which represents the influencers who traveled to Cuba, was also invited to the program, broadcast on July 18.

Moreno explained that the influencers were invited by the travel agency Enjoy Travel Group, based in Barcelona, which had also previously hired them to promote air routes to countries such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic and the Maldives. He also said that none of the influencers “has received one single cent.” He admitted, however, that all costs of lodging, transportation, food and events were covered by the tour operator agency that, as part of the contract, demanded a non-defamation clause. Outside of that paragraph — which is very common in promotional contracts, according to the director — “there was no limitation of any kind.”

The representative also recalled that many of the Cubans with whom they had contact on the Island were grateful for their visit and for the fact that they were promoting the country as a paradise destination. “The people who are in Miami are the ones who are criticizing and trying not to promote tourism.”

Faced with Moreno’s version, the Cuban influencer argued that she did not doubt that people would receive them gratefully. “If you spend the money in a private restaurant or if you record videos of the people who dance from sunup to sundown on stilts, they will thank you with a smile from ear to ear,” she replied while explaining that the real problem was in promoting tourism that does not benefit the common Cuban. “Promote a natural tourism; don’t go to five-star hotels built by the Government. Go to private homes, soak up the real Cuban culture and not the one they show you,” the young Cuban concluded.

In an attempt to placate the debate, Nickname’s representative commented that the influencers were inexperienced young people who had come to confuse Ernesto Guevara’s monument in the Plaza de la Revolución with an image of Diego Armando Maradona. “I think the influencers aren’t really that ignorant, because one of them offered to look for ways to help people in Cuba,” was Dina Star’s response.

Both representatives of the agency and the influencers themselves have explained that it is not the job of these young people to show the political situations or the shortcomings of any country because they are not journalists, who are required to be truthful and responsible with the content they disseminate.

Translated by Regina Avany

____________

In Order To Keep Functioning, Cuban Factories Are Using Oil Residue

The Cienfuegos Petroleum Refinery sends the oil sludge to the cement factory for use as fuel. (@CanalCaribeCuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 July 2023 — The energy crisis that turns Cubans upside down has also forced state industries to look for alternatives to keep their boilers operating. This is the case of the Cienfuegos Cement factory, which uses oil sludge residue obtained from the oil refinery in this province, the largest in Cuba.

The general manager of the company, Irenaldo Pérez, explained to Prensa Latina this weekend that the provincial refinery transfers the waste resulting from the production of liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, diesel, turbo fuel and fuel to the cement plant.

The official said that this waste can also be used in smelters and sugar mills — large consumers of fuel — which, precisely because of the widespread shortage on the Island, have had to stop their production lines repeatedly. Without detailing the volume of the sludge obtained from the oil plant, the official news agency assures that its use reduces the “considerable dependence on imported fuel” while compensating its environmental footprint by eliminating potential sources of pollution.

Cuba shows slow progress in the diversification of its power generation matrix, which is highly dependent on crude oil. The Government promised in 2014 that renewable generation — which at that time accounted for 4.3% — would represent 24% of the installed capacity by 2030, but by the beginning of 2022 it had barely reached 5%. continue reading

In addition to the energy crisis, Cuban families are facing greater interruptions in drinking water service. The provincial newspaper Periódico 26 acknowledged on Monday that Las Tunas shows one of the biggest delays on the Island in terms of the installation of the most effective equipment for water supply. In the province, 146 stations were expected to enter operations in October of this year, but the meager results to date — only 22 have done so — warn that this goal will not be met.

Of the few facilities, not all are in operation, warned Óscar Carralero, director of the Provincial Aqueduct and Sewerage Company of the province. The official explained that three of the new stations already have electrical problems due to control failures, and two cannot be activated because the networks have not received maintenance for years or are not available due to theft.

Therefore, the manager recognizes, they do not yet represent “improvements in the community,” which maintained the “dream of receiving water in the short or medium term in a stable way.”

In its report, Periódico 26 points out that several stations with a capacity of 10 kilowatts are being installed in remote areas with a small population, where families had reported that the pumping devices had been broken “years ago” and they could only receive water from tanker trucks.

However, the work is not progressing given the shortage of materials to make the assemblies for solar panels, said Marco Antonio Sánchez, a specialist of the Provincial Directorate of Aqueduct and Sewerage. They also don’t have enough fuel or means of transport to take the supplies to remote areas.

“We feel a little alone,” complained Sánchez, who explained that the authorities are committed to projects, but at the time of finalizing the assembly, they lack resources that depend on other industries. “Advancing like this is more complex,” he said.

The newspaper, however, is optimistic that, once the 146 stations are installed, there will be a savings of 73,000 kilowatts of electricity, and an improvement in water service for 11% of the households in the province.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Three Detainees Are Prosecuted for the Murder of a Photographer in Eastern Cuba

In the image, one of the motorbikes and some belongings stolen from the photographer Orlando Tamayo. (Facebook/Edwin Levis)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 July 2023 — The Ministry of the Interior of Guantánamo province announced, in a brief statement, the arrest last Saturday of the murderers of photographer Orlando Tamayo Guevara. The three detainees, whose identities have not been revealed by the authorities, were found in possession of money and two electric motor bikes belonging to the victim.

The information, disseminated on Facebook by the government official Edwin Levis, emphasizes that the three were captured “in less than 24 hours” and that they “admitted their direct participation” in the murder of Tamayo, who owned Burlesque Studio. The aggressors will be prosecuted for homicide.

Levis published images of the stolen objects including backpacks, a pair of sneakers and some plastic bags stolen from the photographer’s residence, 703 Máximo Gómez Street, between Narciso López and Jesús del Sol in the city of Guantánamo.

On social networks, users who reacted to the publication about the crime are asking for justice. “Enough regarding with pity all those who murder, assault and want to implant disorder, fear and anxiety,” said Javier Barrientos, a resident of Guantánamo. Other more radical comments, such as from the habanera Ofelia Rosa Díaz Velázquez, asked for the “death penalty” for the confessed murderers. continue reading

The Commission on Constitutional and Parliamentary Legal Affairs, meeting on July 18, offered figures for crime on the Island and the ones that they consider a priority. The homicides were not on the list. Last June, however, the Government revealed that violent crimes accounted for 8.5% of the total illicit activities that took place in the first half of 2023.

Days before Tamayo’s murder, Cuban authorities reported the capture of three people involved in the murder of radio announcer David Alexis González Joseph, also originally from Guántánamo. The collaborator of the official radio station CMKS was killed inside his home on April 26.

In an editorial published last June, the official newspaper Granma said that these cases are “shamelessly magnified or manipulated by digital enemy websites.” For the regime, the information “stimulates” an alleged scenario of instability that seeks to “discredit Cuba’s international prestige as a safe tourist destination, in order to hit one of the country’s main economic sources.”

Recently, before the National Assembly, Miguel Díaz-Canel said that there is an “imperial commitment” to fabricate a climate of tension and citizen distrust that erodes “popular unity” in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

A Dozen Residents of Central Havana Protest the Lack of Electricity and Water

This Monday, one of the State Security motorcycles remained in the area as a warning, as this newspaper was able to verify. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 24, 2023 — The presence of a State Security motorcycle was the only trace this Monday morning of the protest that took place on Sunday night in Belascoaín and San Lázaro, in Centro Habana .

A dozen people managed to interrupt traffic by sitting across the street until two policemen showed up in the area and talked with los plantados, a gesture that has circulated through the social networks of a multitude of Cuban activists after the rapper Eliexer Márquez El Funky broadcast a video in which the brief demand is filmed.

The musician shared the images on his Facebook profile and asked the residents of the area for confirmation of the facts. Some of them fact-checked but the reason for the protest remains unclear.

“They don’t let anyone through, they say they have been without power for more than three days,” said El Funky, while a resident in the area replied that the problem is even greater. “It’s been 10 days and nothing and no one solves the problem for us. The food is spoiling; the children barely sleep at night. The refrigerators don’t work. The Electric Company comes and, supposedly, fixes the problem. It only lasts 20 minutes that the electricity starts again. Enough, we are not sheep, just hard-working human beings and we need to live as people,” replied one user.

According to other comments, the lack of running water was the demand of those who protested last night. “I just passed by and there are a million police patrol cars from the dictatorship and patrol motorcycles, everything seems to indicate that they dissolved the small protest for water,” said another commentator. The controversy grew in the rapper’s publication among those who criticized the magnitude of the ’sit-in’. continue reading

“If everyone is dealing with this shit, why don’t they all come out? Why are there always 10 or 20? Shit, everyone come out!” lamented one of the many who called for Cubans to unite to face the painful circumstances caused by the Government’s ineptitude .

👉🏼Una docena de vecinos de Centro Habana protestaron por la falta de luz y de agua este domingo

👉🏼El único rastro hoy lunes en Belascoaín y San Lázaro era la presencia de vehículos de la Seguridad del Estado. Aquí la nota completa: https://t.co/PAIBdLIodz pic.twitter.com/OKrCpGUWw7

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) July 24, 2023

This Monday, one of the State Security motorcycles remained in the area as a warning, as 14ymedio was able to verify. The neighbors, however, were reluctant to comment on what had happened, but they did affirm that light has not been lacking on that particular corner recently and this morning several of the houses located in the area had their light bulbs on.

The place of the protest, located in the neighborhood of San Leopoldo, is one of the most densely populated areas of the Cuban capital. Without the historical appeal of Old Havana or the glamor of El Vedado, the municipality of Centro Habana has been passed by in investments and improvements to its infrastructure.

In San Leopoldo, a strip adjacent to the Havana malecón, problems in the water supply have been dragging on for decades but have worsened over the years. Meanwhile, the problems multiply: the deterioration caused to the hydraulic network from the proximity to the sea; the continuous coastal flooding derived from the hurricanes; and the population growth of the neighborhood.

Last weekend, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, celebrated in one of the parliamentary sessions that the energy situation this summer is better than the previous one. The official stated that “the effects” in the first week of July 2022 amounted to 35,934 Mw/h, compared to 1,290 Mw/h in the same period this year, 96% less. “The second week of this month of July is also much better than the previous one,” he assured.

In addition, the minister took the opportunity to tell that two Turkish floating power plants have left the Island this year, when the contract expired. One of them, Irem Sultan, left Cuba in April, just a few weeks after arriving in Santiago de Cuba, where iy had allegedly been assigned to minimize the energy deficit that severely affected central and eastern Cuba in the first four months of the year.

Despite the improvement revealed by the authorities, the problems with electricity remain constant. Last week, Stephany Novo Castro, from Havana, denounced that a cable failure had lept her home, in Los Silos, Centro Habana, without power for at least six days.

____________

Anamely Ramos and Claudia Genlui, the Voices from Exile of the Cubans Otero Alcantara and Osorbo

Otero Alcántara (back) and Maykel Castillo (front) in Havana, when they were still free. (Anamely Ramos)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Palop, Havana, July 24, 2023 — They talk about the exhaustion, the psychological damage, the pain of their exile, but also the need to remain strong for Cuban artists and activists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo, both in prison in Cuba.

In an interview with EFE, Cuban human rights defenders and art curators Anamely Ramos and Claudia Genlui explain the ups and downs of their situation – between frustration, uncertainty and hope – forced to live outside the island during the imprisonment of two close friends, colleagues in the dissident San Isidro Movement, who are considered “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International.

“We survive one day at a time, one week at a time, and one call at a time. And more than anything, try to stay strong, because something is clear: they see us as support and the least I feel that I can do is be strong for when he calls or for when he falls, to be there,” confesses Genlui.

This Cuban, who left her country almost two years ago, speaks twice a week with Otero Alcántara. The artist was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022, for insulting the symbols of the homeland, contempt and public disorder, although he was taken to prison when he tried to join the antigovernment protests of 11 July 2021 (11J). continue reading

Osorbo, who had been arrested two months earlier, was sentenced to nine years in prison for contempt, assault, public disorder and defamation of institutions and organizations, and heroes and martyrs, in a process questioned by human rights NGOs.

He is one of the authors of Patria y vida [Homeland and Life], the song critical of the Cuban system that paraphrases Fidel Castro’s slogan “Patria o muerte” [Homeland or Death]. Patria y vida became the slogan of the opposition and the 11J protests.

Juan Pappier, acting deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch (HRW), applauds that Ramos and Genlui have “bravely raised their voices” for their colleagues. “If it weren’t for them, we would know much less about the humiliation to which these political prisoners have been subjected,” he adds.

Otero Alcántara and Osorbo, he continues, played a “leading” and “crucial” role in the protests in favor of democracy. “The regime has them imprisoned because it fears that with their art and music they can mobilize more Cubans to demand freedom,” he points out.

Ramos left for Mexico to study for a master’s degree after 11J and, when she tried to return to the island, she was denied entry without explanation, despite being within her rights as a Cuban citizen. She has been stranded in the United States ever since.

“I am still trying to adapt to being here. It has been a very hard process for me, because it was a forced exile, practically a banishment. Cuba is not giving in, it simply wants us out, as far as possible from the space of action and internal influence,” she says.

Ramos and Genlui agree when recounting the mood swings of Otero Alcántara and Osorbo in prison and how they influence them.

“There are days when he is in a better mood and there are days when it is difficult to take on this whole situation, especially when it is known that he is innocent,” says Genlui speaking of Otero Alcántara, and she denounces the “constant psychological pressure” from Security of the State and “health problems” due to prison conditions.

“Luis is a very strong person. He has incredible resistance and that keeps him afloat. He clings to art a lot, he is always creating,” she says.

Ramos, in a similar way, sees how the spirits of Osorbo –who a few days ago sewed his mouth shut in protest against ill-treatment in prison — “are changing all the time,” weighed down at times by illnesses, the “violence” in prison and “state security visits to humiliate him.”

Sometimes impotence appears. “When Maykel calls one day and tells you: ’Record this audio for me and keep it in case something happens’. ’But hey, what can happen?’ ’No, no: now I can’t explain it to you. Keep it there in case something happens ’ And when you hear him recording it, it’s a terrible scenario and you can’t do anything,” explains Ramos.

Going forward, everything is uncertainty. According to Ramos, there is the possibility that they will be released on the condition that they leave the country. Or that they remain in prison indefinitely, even beyond their sentences.

Genlui stresses that accepting freedom with exile, with the “psychological damage” it entails, “has been very difficult” for Otero Alcántara: “It is something that he still finds difficult to assimilate, beyond the fact that he sees it as the only alternative.”

“I really don’t know how Maykel is going to survive exile. It is to take the person completely out of the only comfort zone they have managed to have, from the affections they want to maintain and where they want to live. And take them out of the destiny that has been built. It is removing the person from the meaning of life that he has managed to find,” explains Ramos.

From abroad, both continue to disseminate the work of Otero Alcántara and Osorbo, and engage in activism in online networks so that the situation of the prisoners does not fall into oblivion, although they are aware of the difficulties of keeping their condemnation alive.

They consider that Cuba is “a factory for political prisoners” and fears that these prisoners could end up being used as a bargaining chip in some kind of international agreement. “The repression has not stopped,” they warn: “11J is not over. 11J is not history. 11J is happening. And if there is a protest again, the violence could be much greater.”

Ramos also refers to the problems to connect, from abroad, “with those who are inside” in Cuba and warns of the risk of exile “idealizing, even the evil.”

____________

The Murder of Ruselay Castillo Matos Brings Femicides in Cuba to 54 in 2023

In the absence of figures and official records, gender platforms and independent media continue to report the occurrence of femicides on the Island. (Facebook/Ruselay Castillo)

14ymedio, Havana, July 24, 2023 — The platform Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTC) [Yes I Do Believe You] confirmed this Thursday the femicide of Ruselay Castillo Matos, murdered on July 18 in Cárdenas, Matanzas. With her death, the number of victims of sexist violence on the Island rises to 54 so far this year.

According to the observatory, the young woman, 31 years old and a resident in the town of the Humberto Álvarez, was murdered by her partner. Castillo, a housewife and native of the town of Santa Marta, was the mother of two teenagers.

In the absence of figures and official records, gender platforms and independent media continue to report the occurrence of femicides on the Island. Recently learned of is the death of Leidy Mariam Durruty García, 32, who died on July 16 in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.

The newspaper El Vigía de Cuba, which initially reported the incident, told that the event occurred when Durruty García was returning from a piano-bar at dawn, a moment that her ex-husband took advantage of to attack her with a knife. The attacker, according to the media, voluntarily turned himself in to the Police. continue reading

The murderer has been identified by the name of Luis Socarrás, also 32 years old and born in Santiago de Cuba. A neighbor of the victim explained that the couple had an unstable relationship with successive reunions in which violence sometimes mediated.

The Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs of the Parliament, in a session held on July 19, pointed out gender violence as one of the crimes to which the Prosecutor’s Office devotes the most attention and efforts, but this was the only criminal category for which they did not offer figures or statistics.

This March, the Federation of Cuban Women announced with great fanfare the creation of a Gender Observatory that will include updated records of femicides and other expressions of sexist violence. However, the institution has not commented on the wave of sexist violence that the Island is suffering and that is close to doubling, in half a year, the number of femicides for all of 2022.

____________

A Week-Long Holiday to Celebrate July 26th Outrages Cubans

The line at the ATMs at the Infanta Branch of Banco Metropolitan in Centro Habana closed on Tuesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 25, 2023 — Several concerns arose immediately among Cubans upon learning that July 26th holidays would be extended. The holiday commemorates the frustrated assault on the Moncada barracks, in Santiago de Cuba, by Fidel Castro in 1953. So the banks will not open? What will happen to the procedures in public offices? Taking a full week off amid the country’s disastrous production numbers?

The concerns were observed in the comments on the notes in the official media, last Saturday, reporting that for the seventieth anniversary of the event not only would July 25, 26 and 27 be holidays, but also “the convenience of declaring Friday the 28th as a non-working day was evaluated.”

“A non-working week! I hope that by 2024 we will overcome that, it is work and productivity time,” expressed the on-line commenter Cocuyo. Along the same lines, Ruffini opined: “Too many rest days affect the economy.”

More vehement was Ángel: “How do they do that, if what the country needs is for it to produce, uninterrupted. I don’t really know what they are thinking about.” And also Oslaida: “We all like to rest, but they just called for more production, how? With practically no work for a week? I don’t understand, with so many people who make a living from their business and illegalities.” continue reading

Leonardo made his anguish over the scarcity that the country is experiencing very clear: “Why more non-working days for more adverse situations, nothing comes to the butcher shops, to the bodegas and everything is closed. Before it was rest and parties, now there are worries”.

Others complained about the closed offices, already a bureaucratic hole of negligence and inefficiency. Thus Alice: “The one who has an appointment at the notary’s office set aside for an application, when are they going to get it?”

“To have ATMs you have to have them filled all the time, not let them run out of money right away,” lamented a woman at the Belascoaín and Zanja branch, the only one open today in the municipality of Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

However, the main concern had to do with the banks. “Will the bank guarantee the money in the ATMs for those days?” Victoria asked. “Is it possible to direct people that with the crisis we have to acquire cash for specific expenses, if the ATMs do not work?” suggested Francisco Martínez Rodríguez. “There is no money in the ATMs, nor is there anyone to refill them. A week of monetary fasting?” User Sachiel exclaimed.

The Banco Metropolitano issued a note this Tuesday to inform which branches will be open in the capital during these four days, starting with this Tuesday, and only part-time.

At the markets, open only until two in the afternoon, the mood was also tense. (14ymedio)

In the streets of Havana, the annoyance and restlessness in front of the ATMs is more than evident. The ATMs visited by this newspaper have lines of more than half a block, all of them with people complaining.

“To have ATMs you have to have them filled all the time, not let them run out of money right away,” lamented a woman at the Belascoaín and Zanja branch, the only one open this day in the municipality of Centro Habana, and then only until 12:30. She, like many in line, fears that when the bank closes, the money in the ATMs will run out. “And this one, for example, doesn’t open until Friday,” she stressed. Another man replied: “We already battle every day when all the banks are open, imagine now.”

Meanwhile, of the three Infanta ATMs only two were working.

In the outdoor food area of Plaza de Carlos III, the discontent was due to the limitations on allowing people to buy hamburgers (two per person and at 90 pesos).

The warning from the authorities, which additionally recommends “using electronic payment channels for the acquisition of goods and services,” has only further got people fired up. “They want to computerize the country and make payments electronic, but Transfermóvil and EnZona have failures all the time,” said a young man in the same line.

In the markets, open until two in the afternoon, the outlook was also tense. In the outdoor eating area of the Plaza de Carlos III, the discontent was due to the limitations on allowing people to buy hamburgers (two per person and at 90 pesos). In this regard, a woman protested: “Today they are working at their leisure, as they want, as if the country did not have the same hunger today, which is a holiday.”

____________

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: