Managua, Caracas and Havana: Migration as a Business

Terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 29 November 2023 — Most of them are men, carrying only a small backpack as luggage. The line to check in at the Conviasa counter at Havana’s José Martí airport moves quickly. The flight goes direct to Managua, but the Nicaraguan capital is only the gateway to a route that will reach the southern border of the United States. Despite the recent sanctions imposed by Washington on the owners and executive of airlines that profit from the Cuban immigration drama, the planes continue to take off towards Nicaragua.

A few days ago Marco de Jesús’s world fell apart. With the tickets, for him and his brother, already purchased from the Dominican company Air Century to travel to Managua, a brief email notified them of the cancellation of that connection. It was one of the first companies to react to the new US visa restriction policy aimed at the airline companies that have been selling migrants from the Island tickets to Central America at “extortion” prices.

For this 38-year-old Havana native, the US penalty could not have come at a worse time. After selling his home and an electric motorcycle, he had managed to raise the more than 4,000 dollars that the two tickets for the short section between Havana and Managua cost him. “We have everything ready to leave and now we are making claims to get our money back,” he says with uncertainty. Although he agrees that such high prices are “an abuse,” he is willing to pay that amount again or more in order to “leave this country.” continue reading

“We have everything ready to leave and now we are making claims to get our money back”

Daniel Ortega’s regime understands well the desperation of Cubans. With the visa exemption for the island’s nationals, which came into effect at the end of 2021, it killed two birds with one stone: taking part of the large dividends left by this constant flow of migrants and, in the process, increasing the pressure on the US border, with the consequent increase in internal criticism of the immigration policy of Joe Biden’s Administration. Ortega filled his pockets with the urgency of some, and put his archenemy from the North on the ropes.

Competing for the pieces of that cake, amassed with the restlessness of thousands of people eager to leave the Island at any cost, others such as the Venezuelan state-owned Conviasa and the Havana regime itself also joined in. Behind the scenes, the Cuban authorities presumably allowed, and turned a blind eye to, the advertisements with supposed tourism packages to see “the Nicaraguan volcanoes,” when everyone knew that these were trips of no return. For two years money flowed into the pockets of all three regimes. No one knows for sure how much they pocketed, but given the cost of each ticket, it could be millions of dollars.

Now, part of the tap has been turned off with the new penalty implemented by Washington, but it is a just a question of time before tricks and detours appear to maintain these lucrative connections. Marco de Jesús and his brother do not want to admit it, but they are just pieces being played with by the three insatiable authoritarianisms when it comes to appropriating resources and for which migration is the new spearhead of their geopolitics.

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Editor’s Note: This text was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Eamon Gilmore and the Many Traps on His Trip to Cuba

Eamon Gilmore, special representative of the European Union for Human Rights, in Manila, Philippines, last March. (EFE/EPA/Rolex Dela Pena)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 20 November 2023 — This week, the visit of the special representative of the European Union (EU) for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, is expected in Cuba. The national context in which the official arrives could not be more adverse. In the midst of the most significant mass exodus in recent decades, with more than a thousand political prisoners and a deep economic crisis, the Island will give Josep Borrell’s envoy multiple headaches. The biggest challenge of his trip will be to avoid the daunting agenda that the Havana regime is preparing for him to prevent him from looking towards the most problematic and painful areas of Cuban reality.

Unlike other times, when information trickled out of the country, Gilmore has had at his disposal countless reports, testimonies and articles from the independent press that detail the magnitude of the repression we suffered. He has also been able to meet with exiles who have told him, first-hand, about the forced banishment, the travel ban that weighs on several dissidents, the threats against the families of those convicted of the popular protests of 11 July 2021, and the twist of censorship represented by the new Social Communication Law, already approved and which will soon come into force.

However, it is one thing to read all those alarming reports and listen to the stories of emigrants, and another, very different, to hear the voices of the victims within Cuba and include in the program contact with the most silenced and vulnerable part of our society.  On the Island, Gilmore will be another guest at the Plaza de la Revolución and will have to adhere to official protocol, which translates into the need to condemn the US embargo, praise public services — even if they only take him to schools and hospitals carefully ‘made up’ for the occasion — and to proclaim the “solid ties” of collaboration between the European Union and Havana. continue reading

Someone who protects Human Rights should go further, escape from the symbolic gestures and red carpets to delve into what ails and frightens a society

But someone who protects Human Rights should go further, escape from the symbolic gestures and red carpets to delve into what ails and frightens a society. If he follows a program in line with his position, Gilmore would not be able to avoid visiting at least one Cuban prison. Immersing himself in this underworld is vital to understanding the total absence of physical and legal guarantees that afflicts the prisoners. Speaking directly with political prisoners and their families would be vital to understanding what is happening on this island.

If the official also used the internet connection offered by the state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, during his stay, he could see for himself the dozens of blocked digital sites, especially those that offer national news without complying with the editorial guidelines of the Communist Party. A walk through the Cuban fields, not to the farms decorated for the eyes of international organizations, but to those of farmers who cannot even buy wire for their fences because agricultural inputs are sold only in foreign currency, would add nuances to his conclusions.

His could not miss on his trip the crowded airport hall where hundreds of men, most of them young and with light luggage, are preparing to board a plane to Managua to begin the migratory route. The failure of the model imposed more than six decades ago is summarized in those Cubans who leave seeking economic improvements and freedoms.

To the list of actions, Gilmore could add the surprise arrival at a ration market with its many flies and few products, in addition to the emergence of one of those businesses, which have appeared everywhere, where the price for thirty eggs is equivalent to one monthly salary. To top it off, a walk through a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana is recommended, full of  people “illegal” in their own country, lacking drinking water service and opportunities.

All this and more would give the special representative of the European Union for Human Rights a complete and realistic vision of what we Cubans are experiencing. But between the traps of the official agenda and the timorous European diplomacy, it is possible to foresee that Gilmore’s visit will remain just one more, without ramifications for our citizens. After all, he is only in office for a brief period and the Cuban regime surpasses him with its 64 years of repressive experience.

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Editor’s Note: This text was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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 ‘Regulated’ and the Banished: The Great Absentees from the Cuban Government’s Meeting with Emigrants

The objective of the regime is clear: to convince those it once called “scum” and “worms” to put their hands in their pocket and invest in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 16 November 2023 — Ten years have passed since the immigration reform came into effect, which abolished the unpresentable exit permit that Cubans needed to travel outside our country. However, the rights to free movement have not been fully restored and measures such as “regulation*” and forced exile have allowed the regime to use the prohibition of entering or leaving the country as a mechanism of political control and penalization against critics.

This weekend, at Havana’s Palace of Conventions, the Conference on the Nation and Migration will be in session. The event has not been held for 19 years, and dozens of emigrants residing in various countries are invited but united by the same posture: the lack of criticism of the authoritarianism of the Cuban regime and silence in the face of human rights violations on the Island. The representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will feel comfortable in front of an audience that will applaud a lot and demand little.

Although official voices have stressed that there will be no taboo topics at the Conference, it is likely that there will be any mention of the injustice suffered by dozens of activists, opponents and independent journalists who are “regulated” and prevented from leaving Cuba in retaliation for having exercised their right to dissent and free expression. Nor will the names be mentioned of those who, during a trip abroad, have encountered the enormous punishment of being prevented from boarding a plane back to their homeland, even though they had not been away more than the regulatory 24 months that current legislation establishes as a limit before losing residency on the Island. continue reading

Neither the regulated nor the exiled will have representation at the meeting and, almost certainly, none of the guests will dare to allude to their cases.

Neither the regulated nor the exiled will have representation at the meeting and, almost certainly, none of the guests will dare to allude to their cases and demand that such sanctions be put an end to. So, if two of the biggest violations of immigration rights that are committed on this Island are not going to be discussed and eliminated during the days of the Conference, what is the purpose of such a meeting?

The objective of officialdom is more than clear. Convince those it once called “escorias” [scum] and “gusanos” [worms] to reach into their pockets and invest in Cuba. To coax their money out of them, they will tell them that  changes in immigration policy are coming, that one day, even, the word “emigrant” will no longer be used to define compatriots who live scattered around the world, and they will enumerate all the supposed steps towards flexibility that have been taken in recent years to cross, in one direction or another, national borders.

Once the Conference is over, the Foreign Ministry will put aside its smiles and will return to talking about “the haters” and “the frustrated”, it will focus its attacks on that country that thousands of Cubans have chosen to live in, and of which so many already have citizenship, and will reinforce its speech in the plaza sitiada — the besieged square — in which dissent is treason. At home, dozens of Cubans will continue to postpone hugging their siblings, their children, their mothers, because an absurd system prevents them from boarding a plane to reach them.

*Translator’s note: The Cuban Government has chosen the term ‘regulated’ to refer to those who are forbidden to leave the Island.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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 ’11J’ Prisoner is Transferred to the Melana Del Sur Prison After Protesting Abuses

Layda Yirkis Jacinto and her son, the political prisoner, Aníbal Yasiel Palau Jacinto. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 31 October 2023 — “Only today did I have faith in my son’s life,” Layda Yirkis Jacinto told 14ymedio, ref erring to her child Aníbal Yasiel Palau Jacinto, sentenced to five years in prison for participating in the popular protests of 11 July 2021 [’11J’. The political prisoner was transferred this weekend to a prison in Melena del Sur in the province of Mayabeque.

“It’s a Castro dungeon, you have to call things by their name,” the woman emphasizes. Palau, age 28, was transferred from the Quivicán prison along with fellow ’11J’ prisoner, Juan Enrique Pérez Sánchez. “We didn’t know that they had been transferred, I found out yesterday because another inmate called me, it was only when my son called me today that I found out that he was in Melena 2 prison.”

“Aníbal has been without shoes for a week, because he adopted this position as a form of protests against the repression they maintain against the 11th of July prisoners inside the prisons,” explains Jacinto. “The political prisoner Roberto Pérez Fonseca had adopted the same decision days before also due to the abuses of the guards.”

“Last Saturday they tried to force him to put on shoes so he could use his right to a phone call but he gave up the call and stayed barefoot.” In Melena 2 prison, Palau “maintains his protest and is very aware of what he is doing, he has a very firm character and he does not like injustice.” continue reading

Aníbal has been without shoes for a week, because he adopted this position as a form of protests against the repression they maintain against the 11 July prisoners

Of the other transferred prisoner, Juan Enrique Pérez Sánchez from the municipality of Vegas, in the same province, she reports: “he has not yet been able to communicate with his wife Dayana, she still does not know about his whereabouts, although my son told me that they were transferred together.”

From that day that changed their lives forever, Jacinto remembers that although the family is from San José de las Lajas, Palau was in Güines on Sunday, 11 July 2021, where he lived at that time. “He went out to demonstrate peacefully, like thousands of Cubans did in more than 300 points throughout the Island. On Monday the 12th he went out again to protest in the park.”

The young man’s arrest on that second day was brutal: “They beat him, gave him electric shocks and more than six black berets attacked him from behind, in addition to State Security officers dressed in civilian clothes with sticks. They hit him from the head down to his feet, they even sicced the dogs on him,” she remembers. “They disappeared for 17 days.”

“When I heard his voice for the first time, after that beating, he told me that he had received mistreatment, beatings and torture,” she details. “But during the trial against him, they never talked about the 12th of July, when they kidnapped him from the streets. In that rigged circus that the court set up, they invented a crime of attack that he never committed.”

“According to officer Yenislandi Medina Hernández, from State Security in Güines, my son attacked him, which is absolutely false. That man brought two police witnesses to trial but one said that he never saw Aníbal throw a stone and everything was “without evidence. Of the two years they asked him for, he ended up sentenced to five years in prison, although in the middle of the trial they had even asked for 12 more years for a robbery with force.”

“My son participated in the events at the Panorama store in Güines that same 11th of July, because he entered the store and came out through a broken window, although he did not break it, he did not throw stones. He came out with a bottle of oil and a kilogram of rice in his hand because, although he later told me that he didn’t need it, he felt that stores [that only take payment] in MLC [freely convertible currency] outrage the population, they don’t solve their problem.”

“When I heard his voice for the first time, after that beating, he told me that he had received mistreatment, beatings and torture”

“Since he has been in prison he has maintained his demand for freedom and considers that the ’11J ‘prisoners are innocent. In the Quivicán prison he was one of those who started a hunger strike by several political prisoners demanding their rights. We are anti-communists,” explains Jacinto.  “After that they tried to separate them to silence them.”

“They have also put pressure on me, they besiege my house, they threaten me when I go to visit him in prison. In Melena a guard told me that he was going to call the police because I complained that he threatened my son with spraying him in the mouth because Hannibal shouted ‘Patria y vida!’ Because he behaves as if he were free even though he is in prison.”

“When he called me this morning he asked me to denounce his situation. When they were transferred they were put in handcuffs and chains on their wrists and ankles. They threatened to send him to a prison in Guantánamo, but he is going to remain firm because he is fighting for freedom.” The mother’s conclusion is forceful: “¡Basta ya de abuso!” Enough of the abuse!

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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, Venezuela and a Hurricane Called Maria Corina Machado

María Corina Machado’s candidacy will be reviewed this week by the Prosecutor’s Office in Venezuela. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 30 October 2023 — I met her in Madrid almost ten years ago. Hyperactive and direct, María Corina Machado was at that time one of the many figures of the Venezuelan opposition who were trying to insert themselves into the political scene after the death of Hugo Chávez. From that time until today, her country fell into the abyss of chronic crises and my Island contributed to that fall by sucking thousands of barrels of crude oil from Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), which propped up the Cuban regime.

In that decade, Machado went through everything: the hard times and the bad times, never better said than when her main opponent, Nicolás Maduro, systematically cut off all avenues for an electoral and peaceful solution to his unpopular mandate. Surveillance, the assassination of her reputation, internal struggles between the opponents themselves, and much more, has been experienced by this woman who, last weekend, was chosen to face the heir of Chavismo at the polls. Her chances of being reinstated for the elections and competing for the presidency, with guarantees and security, are minimal, but hopeful.

All of us who were born under authoritarian political models know that no dictatorship is willing to risk its continuity at the polls

All of us who were born under authoritarian political models know that no dictatorship is willing to risk its continuity at the polls. If one thing is a part of the catechism that tyrants learn very early, it is that they should never allow dissidence or a ballot to distance them from the honey of power. History has excellent examples of resounding failures when a vain autocrat believed that he could subject his permanence in the presidential chair to elections, and ended up losing. continue reading

Maduro knows well what would happen if Machado wins. Not only will he have to leave the Miraflores Palace and hand over to public scrutiny the economic sectors that he has kept under lock and key, but he has a good chance of ending up on trial and behind bars for the atrocities committed during his administration. Like the rider on the tiger’s back, he is aware that if he gets off, the beast will devour him, but it is increasingly difficult for him to keep his legs clinging to the torso of the restless animal.

María Corina Machado has the most difficult months of her life ahead of her. Media attacks, legal accusations, hostility from competitors and physical dangers, all will intensify. Havana will also deploy its classic script that a CIA agent seeks to return Venezuela to the “neoliberal past” and, most likely, the political police of both countries will work together to try to destroy her image, prevent her name from appearing in the electoral process, and frighten her voters. Now, she is public enemy number one of both regimes.

What Castroism is risking with Maduro’s departure is no small matter. This year, oil shipments to Cuba average 57,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela

What Castroism is risking with Maduro’s departure is no small matter. This year, oil shipments to Cuba average 57,000 barrels a day from Venezuela. Despite the prominence gained by Mexican crude oil, led by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Caracas continues to be an essential support for the failed Castro model that fears that electrical blackouts, inflation and lack of freedoms will again light up the streets of the Island, as occurred on July 11, 2021.

María Corina Machado, the international community that calls for a democratic electoral process in Venezuela, and the voters who seek change in a country that has run out of illusions, are right now at the center of the concerns of the Cuban regime. The machinery of the political police greases its mechanisms to attack her with everything it has. It remains to be attentive and wish luck to the leader of Vente Venezuela. She’s going to need it, y mucho.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Cachita, the Sea Is Beautiful, and the Wind…

The doll that represents the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, remained this Thursday on the marble of a bench in La Fraternidad Park. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 26 October 2023 — Cachita, the sea is beautiful, and the wind arrives somewhat autumnal this October in Havana. Dressed in yellow, the doll that represents the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, remained this Thursday on the marble of a bench in the Parque de La Fraternidad, a few meters from the Capitol in Havana. The downward gaze, the necklaces hanging from her neck and the knotted scarf on her head complete the peculiar scene. But the image is not alone.

You can show the doll and promise a client that ‘a trip is in the offing’

A few meters away, absorbed in the hustle and bustle of survival, the owner of this representation, also of the orisha Oshún, haggles over the price of a peanut nougat with a passing merchant. She, who sells her services as a fortune teller, card reader and prophet, encounters everyday uncertainty in Cuba. She can show the doll and tell a client that “a trip is in the offing,” but she admits she is incapable of predicting the price of a dollar on the black market or deciphering the vagaries of the Havana oil refinery.

The prophets of doom live in difficult times on this Island. They focus on the uncertain future or answer the current questions of their clients. Tomorrow doesn’t matter where now is so urgent. So a doll representing Cachita remains dressed and made up on a park bench, while the owner of the image immerses herself in a world where prayers, cascarilla and rosaries can do little to help her.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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 UN and the Fragile Confidence in International Organizations

United Nations Human Rights Council. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 19 October 2023 — A few days apart, two pieces of news showed the most hopeful and the most disappointing side of the United Nations (UN). At the beginning of October, the Security Council of this international organization approved sending more than a thousand police officers to Haiti, under the direction of Kenya. The arrival of these uniformed officers seeks to stop the spiral of insecurity and violence that has overwhelmed that Caribbean country. Many Haitians hope that the mission will make the armed gangs that control large territories lose ground, although the shadow of doubt already hangs over the effectiveness and moral integrity of the Kenyan police.

Beyond the controversy surrounding the mission in Haiti, there seems to be a consensus on the urgency of taking action. However, that same UN that feeds the expectations of improvement in more than 11 million people has, this same month, once again disappointed another part of the planet’s inhabitants after the results of the votes to join the Human Rights Council. The presence among its members of regimes that openly prey on civil and political liberties, such as China and Cuba, is a bucket of cold water thrown in the faces of activists, human rights defenders and organizations that have reported the repressive excesses committed in both countries.

The UN, which sows confidence that international organizations can save lives and guide nations on the verge of social disintegration, stands as its own nemesis by leaving the impression of being more of a conclave in which dark interests and authoritarian lobbies prevail as they please. In its spacious halls, both Beijing and Havana show great ability to pull the strings of economic and diplomatic blackmail, at their convenience. If one does it, for the most part, based on economic pressures – made possible thanks to China’s extensive investment network on several continents – the other uses its medical missions and ideological camaraderie to gain support. continue reading

Like grains of sand falling in a clock, every second – in some corner of this world – an individual loses faith in what the United Nations can do to improve their lives and those of their loved ones. There is no return from that distrust. Those who no longer believe in the UN are very unlikely to do so again. But no one can be blamed for so much suspicion and rejection towards an entity gripped by bureaucracy, clumsy in the face of the challenges imposed by the times we live in, and permeated by rivalries and alliances more focused on the confrontation between political blocks than on the search for well-being of citizens.

With two wars currently underway, the UN has not even been able to fulfill its founders’ dream of preventing new wars. Does that failure in its main reason for existing mean that it is time to create a new conclave? Better not to jump too quickly to conclusions. The forces to put an end to the United Nations have also intensified in recent years and an international scenario without this organization would benefit authoritarianism and armed confrontations even more. What to do then? Expand the work of the organization in peace missions and humanitarian work; stop the advance within it of dictatorships and nepotism. Is there time left to achieve it? Little, very little.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Heberto Trades a Ram for a Suitcase to Leave Cuba With His Family

The family will embark on a migratory route that will take them from Brazil to the southern border of the United States. (14ymedio)

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14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 10 October 2023 — His entire life has passed between two Cuban territories: the current province of Artemisa and the city of Havana. But this October Heberto, his wife and his little daughter will make the leap to another geography. The family will embark on a migratory route that will take them from Brazil to the southern border of the United States. “This is what we have resolved,” he says, hardly giving importance to the thousands of kilometers that separate the point of entry to South America and the final goal.

“We needed a large suitcase and a small one,” he says. “With the big one we are going to leave with our daughter’s things packed, but it’s possible that along the way we will have to commit to just the little one because we will have to cross complicated areas.” A seller of cheese, guava pods and yogurt, Heberto has been traveling for years from his native Alquízar to the area around the train terminal on Tulipán Street to offer his products. In that same area he closed a deal this week: a large suitcase for a sheep.

“A former customer had the suitcase and needed the meat, so in a few minutes we settled it,” he details. “Then he told me that if I got him a large, well-cured cheese, he could also give me in exchange one of those carry-on bags that go in the cabin of the plane.” One gains food at a time of inflation and rising costs of basic products, the other gets a good pair of solid suitcases  — plus “with wheels” — that will help him in his efforts to emigrate. continue reading

The neighborhood around the small station, however, loses one of its most reliable merchants. For two decades, Heberto has cultivated a loyal clientele that values ​​his merchandise. His catalog has undergone variations over the years but has never been interrupted “except during the pandemic,” he clarifies. “There was a time when I also dedicated myself to selling cremitas de leche (condensed milk fudge), but that is no longer possible because there are fewer cows in my area.”

“Then tilapia gave me a lot of business, but that also fell out of favor because there is no food to feed the fish in the dams.” Pork was one of his star items, until “the guajiros of Alquízar slaughtered the pigs because they had no food to give them and the people who raise them now do it for family consumption.” In recent times, he rounded out his list with some fruits, okra, some Creole rice and the occasional piece of mutton. The exact product that, this time, has been turned into the suitcases that will help him fulfill his dream of “leaving this country as soon as possible.”

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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 ‘Committee for the Defense of the Revolution’, a Parapolice Organization Lacking Empathy With Cuba’s Crisis

A sign in Yoani Sánchez’s building in Havana asking for ‘from a clove of garlic’ to support the upcoming celebration.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 September 2023 —  “From a clove of garlic,” says the poster that has been placed on the ground floor of our building in Havana to call for donations of resources for the celebration of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). The parapolice organization, which is experiencing its lowest moments, plans to celebrate its 63rd anniversary in the midst of a deep crisis that especially affects access to the most basic foods. The commemoration of its birth also comes accompanied by its tenth congress, which will be held starting this Wednesday despite the red numbers of the Cuban economy.

While measures are dictated to shorten working hours, disconnect refrigerators and air conditioning devices during certain hours of the day, the CDR spares no resources to bring together its managers, show off its political muscle and celebrate birthdays and a congress in the same week. It would be very annoying if it weren’t for the fact that the organization that was created to monitor and control Cubans at the neighborhood level does not enjoy any popularity these days and few give it even a thought. Like an unburied corpse, it stumbles around waiting for the last shovelfuls of dirt to be thrown on it from above.

A resident looks with curiosity on the sign posted by the CDR. (14ymedio)

Aware of the death of the once giant of family and domestic espionage, many of its former defenders have slowly withdrawn from the responsibilities at the head of the CDR. Those who a few years ago, in our building, knocked on our door with enthusiasm asking for some yuccas, some malangas or some onions for the watered-down soup – renamed “caldosa” [stew] in the official language – no longer even appear. They have their own personal dramas to endure and they know that the CDR will not be there to help them stretch their pension, convince vendors to lower the price of their food or arrange medications for them.

However, in my house we are going to offer more than a clove of garlic for the occasion. We are willing to get rid of a complete head that will stave off an organization that has only brought division and fear to the lives of Cubans. Like a vampire thirsty for other people’s intimacy and that feeds on anyone who has ideas of their own, we are going to hang a complete string on the door… to scare it away.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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, A Container Economy

Th Seaco brand container has been placed a few yards from the Factor y Final Immigration and Alien Office in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 12 August 2023 – Huge, refrigerated and with seals that reveal its journey through the seas of the world, this is the container that has arrived in our Havana neighborhood. The elongated mass has become, in a few days, the center of rumors, hopes and criticism. “It belongs to a small private business owner who brought it to sell frozen chicken,” a neighbor tells me. “It will also offer sausages, soft drinks and beers,” says a pensioner who lives right across from the container. “I’m sure it will put prices through the roof,” speculates another old woman.

In an area with numerous buildings of more than 12 floors and few supermarkets, the Seaco brand container has been placed on the sidewalk a few yards from the Factor y Final Immigration and Alien Office, a place feared for having a jail for foreigners and a processing center for deportees. “You have to have a lot of courage to put something like this in the face of ‘these people’,” says one of the young men who spends most of his days on the bench in a nearby park. “It has to be a someone with pull, an ex-military man,” he concludes.

In a short time, all kinds of legends have been woven around the deposit. What is being said shows much of the apprehensions and hopes of Cubans with micro, small and medium-sized companies [MSMEs], authorized just a couple of years ago. There are those who believe that when the box’s doors open, they will no longer have to travel to Centro Habana or El Vedado to buy a package of frozen chicken. “It will be expensive but at least it will be close,” a former microbrigadista [micro-brigade member] who helped build our concrete block tells me with relief.

The container has also increased the animosity. Its gleaming appearance stands very close to the rationed market’s butcher shop, whose refrigeration broke years ago and whose supplies are dwindling, with its long line of people with long faces and poor wages. “Retirees won’t be able to buy there,” concludes a woman who tries to survive exclusively on her pension of 1,400 pesos a month. Without relatives abroad or illegal businesses, the woman has no chance of paying an MSME more than 1,200 CUP for a kilogram of milk. continue reading

Although there are places in the area that once functioned as stores that took payment in convertible pesos and, previously, as markets for products that arrived from Eastern Europe during the days of Soviet subsidy, no one puts their hopes in these shops anymore. People know that now the most dynamic sale and the one with the greatest variety on offer is the one that is done in a corner, on the sidewalk, in an improvised kiosk or from the truck itself. The Cuban economy has come to center on these containers.

The container has also made the hatred grow. Its gleaming appearance stands very close to the butcher shop of the rationed market, its refrigeration broken years ago. (14 and a half)
The container has also increased the animosity. Its gleaming appearance stands very close to the butcher shop of the rationed market, whose refrigeration broke years ago. (14ymedio)

“I am selling a container of vegetable oil,” “Place your orders now fpr the container that will arrive in the second half of August,” “We offer a professional transfer service for your container to any part of Havana,” “No retail, purchase the full container or there is no deal,” are phrases that are read on Facebook groups, on classified ad sites and on WhatsApp lists where imported goods are promoted. The store experience: grabbing the cart, strolling through the shelves and choosing the product has become superfluous. Goods are bought blind, most of the time in closed boxes that list the weight on the outside, with some phrases in another language and a haughty rooster drawn on them. “You have to buy the whole box of chicken quarters,” an Internet user who inquires about the amounts is told.

Also, more and more frequently, purchases are made in foreign currency. “We are MSMEs with home service. Order through the website. Payment in dollars, euros and MLC (freely convertible currency). Your family can make the payment from abroad by Zelle, transfer or Bizum,” reads the advertisement of a business with a catalog that ranges from juices, through alcoholic beverages, to LED light bulbs. In the main premises, a dozen neat containers store the merchandise that has just arrived from the Port of Mariel. “Everything of quality and brought from abroad,” the merchant boasts.

If you were able to photograph Havana from above and put a red mark on each container that serves as a ‘vending machine’, the city would appear to have developed chickenpox. A rash of improvised businesses that, wherever they are placed, set off that popular fever that mixes discomfort and hope. “Did they already put a container in your neighborhood?” a friend I haven’t seen in a while greets me. “In mine there are about four,” he tells me without waiting for an answer. “Now people are no longer aware of when the rice arrives at the bodega, but when the ship with the next container comes.”

The dreams of millions on this Island now have a rectangular shape, a metallic surface, and they weigh, they weigh a lot.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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: From Maleconazo to 11J, the Road From Civic Childhood to Maturity

Demonstrators occupy Galiano street in Havana during the Maleconazo on August 5, 1994. (Karel Poort)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Generation Y, Havana, 5 August 2023 — Some were in rags, others wore masks. Some were screaming to get on a boat in Havana Bay and emigrate, others took to the streets throughout the entire island to try to change the country so as not to have to head somewhere else. In the 27 years that elapsed between the popular protest of the Maleconazo, on 5 August 1994, and the massive demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J), Cubans went from civic childhood to maturity. One only has to review the images of both moments to notice the tremendous change that took place in our society.

While on that morning in August the trigger was the cancellation of the trips on the Regla ferry and the impulse was given by the desire to escape the country, on 11J the cry of the streets was clearly libertarian, anti-government and socially fed up with the political and economic model imposed six decades ago. Better structured, with more consensual slogans and a democratic spirit, the protesters of two years ago were also the children and grandchildren of those who previously taken to the Malecón avenue and were beaten by the Rapid Response Brigades and by the builders of the Blas Roca contingent.

Dispersed, without leadership and overwhelmed by hunger, those who led that initial social explosion were undoubtedly more than brave. It was the first public revolt against the Cuban regime in a long time and it seemed that the indoctrination machinery and the political police had already managed to eradicate all civility from the people on this Island. It was a revolt of despair, chaotic and doomed to failure due to its lack of of organization and the mousetrap that the coastline became when the shock troops advanced on the crowd. They couldn’t do better. They didn’t know how to do better.

Despite the many differences, several common threads unite both moments. Repression was the response in both cases. While in that distant summer the oppressors disguised themselves in civilian clothes, on 11J they left modesty aside and went out to beat and arrest with all their paraphernalia of uniforms, shields and weapons. While in that cry in the middle of the Special Period it was Fidel Castro who led the crushing of citizen discontent, and only approached the Malecón when they had already managed to control the situation; In 2021, that disgraceful role fell to Miguel Díaz-Canel, who gave the “combat order” from an office and behind a desk, and unleashed the hunt for the protesters. continue reading

However, the main connection between the Maleconazo and the 11J protests is neither the behavior of the regime nor the fact that neither of the two explosions achieved democratic change on the island. Both dates are linked by something deeper and more decisive. Not only did they show Cubans’ rejection of the system, but they also evidenced the evolution of a society whose desire for freedom has not been curtailed.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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 Spanish Electoral Hangover Seen From Latin America

Members of the Popular Party greet supporters at the popular headquarters in Madrid after the results of the elections were known. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 29 July 2023 –The days have passed since the voters went to the polls on July 23 in the elections for the General Courts of Spain. However, the fact that the negotiations to reach a majority to govern will continue for several weeks is keeping millions of citizens on edge on this side of the Atlantic as well. The Popular Party won, but insufficiently, and it is most likely the Socialist Party will retain power. In any case, the Iberian country, now holding the rotating presidency of the European Union and with strong ties to Latin America, is committed to a more active position with our hemisphere, but its internal fractures hinder that role.

The recent summit of the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), held this month in Brussels, showed that Madrid is unable to concentrate on structuring a solid and long-term strategy for Latin American countries. With a common past and a community of Spanish citizens that is growing every day in this part of the world, thanks to the Democratic Memory Law, popularly known as the new Grandchildren Law*, the European nation should play a much more active diplomatic, economic and political role in the region. However, its internal partisan fights prevent it from realizing, in all its dimensions, the importance of paying attention to what was formerly called the New World.

Faced with a presidency in the Moncloa Palace that is weak in the Latin American arena, regional authoritarianisms are gaining a voice on international stages. The EU-Celac Summit made it clear that Spanish firmness or lukewarmness is decisive for the confluence between the 27 European countries and the 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries. When Madrid is immersed in its own affairs and fails to realize the importance of its leadership beyond the seas, all of old Europe resents its links with this continent. Spain is key, and the grudges of the past — from colonialism to slavery — should not dissuade it from its leadership in America. If it does not assume that role,  China and Russia are eager to dispute it and area gaining ground. continue reading

Local dictatorships rub their hands when Moncloa becomes invisible and self-censors. Right now, while the formation of a government is unknown in Madrid and many fear that there will be a repeat of the delay after the 2019 elections, each day of indecision is a gift for those in Latin America who prefer a weak, distracted and apathetic Spain. On the list of those interested in a context in which uncertainty continues are the regimes of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. They know that while Madrid is staring at its navel to define and form a cabinet, it will not have the time or energy to denounce the violations of human rights suffered by millions of people in this part of the planet.

A weak Spain, incapable of raising its voice in international forums so that the freedoms of Latin Americans are respected, is the one that suits the great civic predators of this continent. Madrid must know, and act accordingly, the fact is that it is not just a question of diplomacy, but, essentially, of internal politics given the large number of its citizens who live in these lands. Its distractions are our pains. Its lack of leadership, our condemnation.

*Translator’s note: The law defines provisions under which descendants of Spanish citizens in Cuba and elsewhere can apply for and receive Spanish citizenship.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

A Hot August is Coming in Cuba

In Cuba, those who did not plan to emigrate are already beginning to pack their bags. Our building is getting emptier and emptier. (14ymedio)

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14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 1 August 2023

Access to the internet barely functions.

The ATMs are almost out of cash.

The Electric Union announces an increase in blackouts.

It is better not to go near the hospitals because there are no serums for hydration.

Bus stops have become places for long waits.

There are neighborhoods where garbage has not been collected from the streets for weeks.

Thousands of residents in this city have not received water through their pipes for more than a month.

One cannot go out on the street after certain hours because between the lack of public lighting and crime, there is no safe place.

The Cuban peso is worth less and less and food costs more and more.

Those who did not plan to emigrate are already beginning to pack their bags. Our building is getting emptier and emptier. Even the seasoned militants of the Communist Party and the most frenzied members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution have headed north.

The political prisoners are still behind bars and the alleged negotiations for their release are in the realm of speculation.

Independent journalism is left, every day, with fewer reporters on the street on the Island.

Activism is undermined by exile and repression.

The leaders of the Communist Party have less and less shame and demand “creative resistance,” where the people must put up the resistance while they continue “creating” large profits for their pockets and those of their family clans.

Fear spreads but anger too.

August, our cruelest month, starts hot, hot, hot.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

In the Midst of the Heatwave Cubans Can’t Even Find a Free Glass of Water on the Street

I am concerned that while the heatwave makes daily life in Cuba more difficult, some gentlemen in guayaberas without a drop of sweat dedicate themselves to spreading slogans. (14ymedio)

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14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 24 July 2023

I am concerned that not enough emphasis is being given in the national media to warn of the dangers of these high temperatures.

I am concerned that there isn’t a place in the whole city where you can get a free glass of water.

I am concerned that there are hardly any working water fountains left in Havana.

I am concerned that having a fan on for a few hours each day is a luxury that many families cannot afford.

I am concerned that sun creams are only sold in hard currency.

I am concerned that there are hundreds of thousands of Cubans who have not received water through their pipes for weeks.

I am concerned that bottled water is often more expensive than beer.

I am concerned about all the bedridden people who, with these temperatures, do not have access to disposable diapers, wet towels, or an air conditioner.

I am concerned that having an iced drink on the street will become too much for the pocketbook.

I am concerned that in hospitals families have to bring a fan to cool the patient.

I am concerned that those who work from dawn to dusk are not issued hats, long-sleeved shirts and other supplies to protect them from the sun.

I am concerned about so many felled trees in the Cuban capital, so many squares without any shadows.

I am concerned  that we believe that we are used to the heat, that the tropics run through our veins, and we do not see the dangers of the high temperatures that we are experiencing.

I am concerned that so many people may be dying as a result of the excesses of the weather and we do not know it.

I am concerned that while the heatwave makes daily life in Cuba more difficult, some gentlemen in guayaberas — without a drop of sweat — dedicate themselves to spreading slogans from their air-conditioned rooms, calling for “creative resistance” with a mojito in hand, and under the umbrellas by their pools, demand that we give up every last drop of our efforts.

I am concerned.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.

Raising Fish at Home, the Malevolent Brainchild of a Cuban Minister to Solve the Food Shortage

Cuban Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia. (@AsambleaCuba/Twitter)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 22 July 2023 — A few days after standing in a very long line, I had to walk through the streets of the San Leopoldo neighborhood in Havana, avoiding the bodies of dead chicks, thrown from the balconies, with their necks outstretched and their feathers still a tender yellow color. I had spent a whole morning in line to buy those tiny beings who, according to the official discourse, were going to save us from famine.

Only one of those chicks survived two weeks in our house. He died malnourished and sick, due to our inexperience as poultry farmers and the lack of food to give him. We couldn’t take a bite of that starving, gray creature, perhaps because it had ended up looking too much like us. Three decades later, the nightmare repeats itself, but this time with the breeding of fish.

Cuba’s unpopular Vice Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia has summoned us, speaking before the National Assembly of People’s Power, to create ponds in our backyards and dedicate ourselves to aquaculture. I am not going to dwell on the authoritarian and despotic tone with which he has launched his demand, because it is the typical way in which the bureaucrats of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) speak to us, as if they were addressing soldiers and not citizens, as if the country were an immense barracks and we were Compulsory Military Service recruits.

Tapia, who has left the worst of reputations – for being inefficient, corrupt and oppressive – wherever they have placed him as leader of the PCC, has not the slightest idea of ​​what he is ordering us to do. According to his explanation, in a few square meters we could create the pond that will take us out of the crisis and make our kitchens overflow with fish and our plates with fins. In a country with a serious problem of housing overcrowding, thinking that families can have space for something like this exceeds naivety to become evil. continue reading

To this we must add the issue of water. In a nation where thousands of homes only receive their water through tanker trucks and the pipes of so many homes have not seen a single drop for months, it would be worth asking Tapia how we are going to fill the pond. If they have made life difficult for those who built a little pool in their patio to cool off in summer, then what will they do to someone who dares to create a lagoon with tilapia and clarias.

But the main difficulty lies in the food. Tapia, from his bureaucratic ignorance, must think that fish live off the air. If families do not have enough to give their children a snack, what food will they have to satisfy the hunger of the small fry that will not grow without nourishment, will not mature, and will not be ready to – in turn – be devoured by us. All his words are complete and utter nonsense or, worse still, a villainy launched by a man who obviously does not have to dedicate himself to fishing on his terrace to be able to eat snapper whenever he wants.

I have no doubt that there are already neighbors in my building who are calculating the quantity of tench that could fit in the huge water tank that supplies our 144 apartments. Perhaps some seasoned cederista* will take the initiative to turn the deposit into a spawning, rearing, and fattening industry. Voluntarism can lead to these extremes, but decades of failure have already proven that animal food does not spring from will.

Like those chicks from my adolescence, in the Special Period, it will begin to rain scrawny fish from the balconies and rooftops. They will fall to the street, without anyone daring to pick them up, too similar to ourselves to touch them.

*Translator’s note: The term ‘cederista‘ derives from the initials C-D-R for Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, and is used to designate a member of that organization.____________

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 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.