Priest Alberto Reyes accuses the regime of committing “a silent genocide”
The parish priest enumerated the insecurities of life in Cuba / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 6 October 2024 — The columns published by the Camagüey priest Alberto Reyes every Sunday have made him the spokesperson for Cubans who do not dare to speak publicly. “My words are not a cry of violence; they are not an aggressive outburst,” says Reyes in his text. “I have been thinking” – the title he uses – “that this week I will ask the leadership of the regime to leave.”
The priest, whose open demands to the Government have cost him reprimands from both the Church and State Security, did not hesitate this Sunday to address, not Cubans – as he always does – but the rulers of the Island. “Get out, take all you want and leave this country forever,” Reyes wrote and urged them to do so “before, somehow, things change and you can be tried and accused of crimes against humanity, because what you have done and are doing to the Cuban people is a silent genocide.”
“You are not going to revive this country; you are not going to remedy the lack of fuel nor the instability of the thermoelectric plants; nor are you going to give us back a life without continuous blackouts,” said the priest, who continued to lengthen the list of insecurities that Cubans experience.
Inflation, hunger, shortage of medicines, deplorable medical care, lack of basic supplies, educational damage, agricultural debacle, galloping emigration, accelerated aging of the population and the lack of “a national project” were the reasons the priest gave as the prelude to a social explosion. “Get out, before these people reach the end of their endurance, rise up with uncontrollable fury and carry out the demise of this system by destroying everything they find in their path with blood and fire,” he warned. continue reading
The priest has his ministry in Esmeralda, a town of Camagüey with 30,000 inhabitants
“Every day without light, without water, without food; every day with food for the children spoiled, with the omnipresent scarcity and the desire for freedom. This is what you do with blind and excessive violence,” Reyes stressed.
The priest has his ministry in Esmeralda, a town of Camagüey with 30,000 inhabitants. From his parish, where he was sent for his “problematic” positions, Reyes has denounced the situation of Cubans and the helplessness to which the regime has subjected them. Every anti-government demonstration or protest that has been unleashed in recent years has found in the priest a voice of support.
Last May, the parish priest began to ring the bells of his church 30 times whenever there was a blackout in the town. This newspaper managed to record the bells, which represented the “agonizing death of our freedom and our rights, the suffocation and sinking of our lives.” A short time later, because of a warning from State Security, his superiors forbade him to ring the bells again.
Reyes has not ceased, however, to ask for a change in Cuba, and this Sunday his claim has been forceful: “Live where you want and can do it, so that we too may live.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Line at a Pan-American store, in Cienfuegos / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 7 October 2024 — Surviving in Cuba is a matter of strategy, money and a lot of time to dedicate to hunting for food and basic necessities. Cienfuegos is no exception. And, if at noon there is nothing left to buy in the shops, the normal thing is that during working hours, especially in the mornings, workers run out in search of food, and State companies are left without a soul.
The counterpart of empty institutions are the crowded lines that form in the portals of stores and premises of all kinds. Bakeries, ATMs and agricultural markets have the longest ones.
“The only thing I’ve done at work today is sign the entry card. I left thinking I would solve things quickly, and here I am, waiting to see if I can pick up the bank card I ordered three months ago,” says Tamara, irritated. Although she is at the branch of the Banco Popular de Ahorro, on San Carlos Street, she already has her eye on another line at the La Princesa market to buy cookies for her children’s school snacks. “It’s impossible to do two things at the same time, and when it comes to choosing, I give priority to mine,” she says. continue reading
Tamara has managed to buy the cookies at the market, but the line at the bank is still stalled / 14ymedio
The lines do not originate just from the demand for sought-after products. It also results from the slowness of the salesclerks and officials, who take “all the time in the world” to attend to people. According to Tamara, excessive delays to serve the public are a common denominator, and it’s the same at the box office of the Terry Theater, on the waiting list of the bus terminal, or in the pizzeria of El Prado. “The place may vary. What does not change, in any case, is the terrible customer service.”
Standing in line in the city begins long before eight in the morning. Juan Carlos knows this very well; for some months, he has been saving places in the line outside the Cadeca (Currency Exchange) for those who are willing to pay the price of his time. “I take advantage of the fact that I work as a custodian near here. If I have to spend the early morning awake anyway, there’s nothing better than looking for some extra pesos by helping others,” he explains. He gets no less than 4,000 pesos every time he spends the night awake.
Juan Carlos is dedicated to saving places in the line outside the Cadeca / 14ymedio
Juan Carlos recognizes that, during the day, it is inevitable to be trapped in a purchase or procedure that seems endless. “I leave the Cadeca with a little money in my pocket, but then I arrive, for example, in the post office line to collect my mother’s retirement, or I stand in a very long line to have five or six scoops of ice cream at Coppelia, and the day goes on like that,” he says.
For her part, Tamara has managed to buy the cookies at the market, but the line at the bank is still stalled. “Several people arrived here after me and resolved it quickly with friends who work there. Then you realize that many people sneak in front of you claiming pregnancies, physical impediments, surgeries and all kinds of excuses, and to hell with the rest of us who have been waiting for hours.” Tamara looks at her watch with concern. “My boss doesn’t know that I left, and I’ve been here for a long time,” she explains.
“You come to realize that many people sneak in front of you claiming pregnancies, physical impediments, surgeries and all kinds of excuses” / 14ymedio
When the sun beats down on people who are tired of waiting, a custodian leaves the bank with an announcement that everyone can guess. In other nearby places, the lines are also gradually dissolving, disintegrating from the pressure to return to work or because the products ran out and the shops and markets are closing. “It was to be expected that they would cut the power at any moment. I have lost three hours, and now I will have to come back another day,” says Tamara, resigned. “I should go back to my job, but there won’t be power there either. So, the best thing I can do is go home and take care of things there. Tomorrow will be another day.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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’Still life with a pig’s head’, painted in 1968 by Fernando Botero / CC
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 6 October 2024 — Yes, I also got carried away by nostalgia and went to a Cuban restaurant in Madrid. I’m not going to say which one, because the life of an emigrant is hard, and setting up a business – a pitiful one, but I’m getting ahead of myself – is already quite indigestible. But a fish dies by its mouth and so did I. In general, since I arrived in this country I have led a fairly private life. I have gotten together with few Cubans, more out of my unfriendliness than my lack of patriotism, because abroad there is a taste for the national junk that I fight against like hell.
I will never forget that waiter who, idiotic and melancholic, wanted me to give him a box of Ramón Allones cigars that I had brought from the Island. They were limited edition cigars, in green cedar packaging, a farewell gift – I would never have been able to pay for those jewels – the last one of which I burned down a few weeks ago. But look, the lad didn’t want to smoke. He didn’t tolerate the taste or smell, but he inhaled the butt. He wanted the box, the ark of the alliance, to deposit the remains of his Cubanness. I promised him that I would send it to him as soon as I had a chance.
Everyone knows that Madrid is the new Miami. The lycras and flip-flops, the despicable “asere qué bolá” (whasup, dude?) that any Cuban offers as a password of origin, the watering hole and the gossip, have taken possession of Chamberí, Puerta del Sol and Barajas. In the clueless Spanish imagination, Cuba was at first a land of promise, then a communist paradise and now – as in Dian Fossey’s famous book – a good place to have a mojito among gorillas. My newly arrived compatriots fervently cultivate their image of the noble savage, or at least the savage part. They change country, but not what’s inside their heads. continue reading
I paid the price of being waited on in my accent and enjoyed tiny portions: socialist, regulated by the ration book
It is not illogical, therefore, that if someone opens a Cuban restaurant in Madrid, they proceed to recreate our misery on a gastronomic scale. I was – unpleasant journey in time and space – in a Havana restaurant, in an inn with peeling walls, Cuban bric-a-brac, photos of the Capitolio and el Morro. I paid the price of being waited on in my accent, I waited in vain for a glass for the beer – Crystal, packaged in Holguín! – and I enjoyed tiny portions: socialist, regulated by the ration book.
Of course I deserved it. A few blocks away there were two Asturian restaurants where I would have felt at home. Not because Asturias is for me a gastronomic homeland – which it almost is – but because a well-made stew of beans, pork and other ingredients will always remind a Cuban of his origins; a slice of quince with cheese or a rice pudding, grandma’s desserts; a grape liqueur with a cigar, the perfect ending to a lunch.
There was something sumptuous and generous in the Creole, something that the Regime castrated and that the exile should have preserved. Why do Cubans travel to Spain asking for hamburgers and Coca-Cola? Why have they been saving to buy a car the first year when there is so little need here? Why the rush to forget the best of the country and cultivate the most rude, the vulgarity inherent in Castroism, the impudencence of the “New Man“?
I was looking for an experience that would bring me closer to my past, and they made the present bitter
That Madrid restaurant was a perfect summary of all that. Dishes, the basics: tasteless stews, steak, tostones, dry congrí. I was looking for an experience that would bring me closer to my past, and they made the present bitter. It’s useless to ask for explanations or hit the table – plastic, of course, no stools – with your fists. There it was the Government’s fault; whose is it here? To the “lacón,*” laconic questions, Lezama would say.
Where can Cuba find itself? For a long time I thought it was in books, but looking for a country in the library, without a real experience, is an exercise in archaeology. A bolero is heard and forgotten; a cigar is smoked; a language is used; a son lives not on the Island that his parents abandoned but on another continent, under its flag.
I don’t think the Cuban, in his usual light-heartedness, will notice that this gentleness now means very little. Does anyone care? Not me; now you know. Over time one finds grace for oneself if not elsewhere. If I went back, I would be a stranger. If I stay here, there will always be an air of provisionality wherever I am. Almost an act of cheap magic, a snap of the fingers, and I left, as I vanished from that Cuban restaurant in Madrid. Wasn’t that what Martí was referring to before pronouncing, in the swamp, his best spell? “I know how to disappear.” And he did.
*Translator’s note: A “lacón” is a pig’s head; hence, the play on words.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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“The place to which I dedicated most of my life is today the tomb of Cienfuegos culture”
Located between Prado and Santa Cruz streets, the building is an emblematic element of the architectural landscape of Cienfuegos / 5 de Septiembre
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 5 October 2024 — At least since the pandemic, Hilda feels that her workplace, the beautiful eclectic-style library of Cienfuegos, is a mansion that only she and her colleagues inhabit, for eight hours a day. Not only are fewer and fewer readers and students visiting, but hardly any efforts are made to make the institution part of the cultural life of the city again. “There are times when I walk through the corridors and the reading rooms and I don’t find a soul. Neither students who come to do homework nor researchers who are looking for manuscripts, and much less readers who want to borrow a book,” the cienfueguera, who after her retirement was again hired by the Roberto García Valdés library, tells 14ymedio.
Located between Prado and Santa Cruz streets, in the historic center, the building is an emblematic element of the architectural landscape of Cienfuegos. “It is a pity that this heritage jewel is being lost among the dust of old books, which in most cases no one consults due to their deterioration and obsolescence. To that must be added the continuous loss of valuable bibliographic funds,” laments the woman, who states that many volumes, considered valuable, have been lost due to theft or carelessness.
Most of her colleagues, who spend their days as bored as Hilda, have even lost interest in their work. “Many of today’s librarians don’t even know the history of the place where they work. To top it off, when a reader arrives, he usually can’t find what he wants because the librarians don’t know the catalog very well or do not pay attention to what the visitor wants,” she reflects. continue reading
Most of her colleagues spend their days as bored as Hilda / 14ymedio
Martha, a younger worker, agrees with Hilda that the work of the library is deficient but attributes the loss of public interest in part to other issues. “Nowadays Google search engines have an answer for almost anything. So the users decide not to waste their time with employees who show apathy and a noticeable ignorance of their work,” she says.
The employee believes that not only the budget but also the difficult economic situation and the frequent blackouts affect the visitors. “It is easier to access the Internet than to go to our lounges that, as if that were not enough, have few comforts. We have fallen far behind in terms of new technologies. We have not been able to offer attractive alternatives,” she says.
The discouragement of workers is also a sensitive issue. “The low salary offers little incentive, and professional motivation is scarce. Library Science is a very nice career, but to exercise it requires indispensable means. While everything in the world is digitized, we are still looking for pieces of cardboard to replace the torn files. The demotivation begins in here and has a negative impact on visitors,” says Martha, who confesses that even the working day has been reduced by half, because the library is dead in the afternoon.
“Our impact on the population is decreasing significantly. If we convene a book club or social gathering in the library, there will be only two or three attendees. We have had to organize directed visits of students, but even so, the statistics do not favor us,” adds the worker, who predicts that the disuse will accelerate the deterioration of the building, which is more than 100 years old.
The reading rooms remain empty all day / 14ymedio
Inaugurated on December 31, 1921, the building was originally the headquarters of the Society of Instruction and Recreation, Liceo de Cienfuegos. It was not until 1962 that it became the provincial library, nourished with the funds of the city’s old house of books. The building was even named a Cultural Heritage of Humanity Site.
“We never talk about the Republican stage (1902-1959), and it turns out that even the buildings where the institutions are located are works made by capitalism. It was nice to see the collection of books that existed in the early 60s. Everything was so well taken care of that it is impossible to compare it with the state in which it is today,” says Hilda, who could see in her beginnings as a librarian something of the former splendor of the Roberto García Valdés library.
“We no longer have the old book sections for Adults, Art, Music and Youth. Even Extensions, which was in charge of taking the reading material to the most diverse places, ceased to exist,” the woman recalls. “Regrettably, the place to which I dedicated most of my life is today the tomb of Cienfuegos culture.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A group of Cuban specialists being received in the state of Hidalgo (Mexico) / Facebook/Coordination IMSS Bienestar Hidalgo
14ymedio, Mexico City, 6 October 2024 — The Government of Mexico pays $5,188 per month for each of the 3,101 doctors it hired from Cuba to offer services in rural areas. The expenditure amounts to a total of 16,087,988 dollars each month. A large part of the money is used to cover transport services, food and lodging for doctors, the newspaper Reforma reported this Sunday.
Of that monthly payment, most of it – 4,015 dollars – is intended for food, lodging and transportation for the health workers, which represents an annual delivery of 149,406,180 dollars to cover only the per diem allowances of the Cubans. The media does not mention whether similar amounts will be paid for the 5,000 doctors that Mexico plans to hire.
The figures offered by Reforma, however, only add data to a well-known and criticized reality in the Mexican medical union: the Government prefers to pay foreigners rather than its national doctors.
In 2022, Mexican nurse Ricardo Rivas said that, for the 60 Cuban specialists who had arrived in the state of Nayarit, they were guaranteeing “accommodation, food and transportation,” in addition to meals, while for national residents they had eliminated “the food service” in hospitals. continue reading
Later, in February of last year, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) was called out for granting 43 Cuban specialists, sent to Michoacán, lodging in a double room that included “breakfast and buffet lunches,” in addition to “a la carte” dinners. The gift generated controversy among Mexican doctors and residents, who lack these free services.
Two Cuban doctors are located in the town of Mitepec, in the Mexican state of Puebla / Facebook/Dr. Olga Rosas Parra – Official
The same newspaper reported that the Andrés Manuel López Obrador Administration, which ended on October 1, favored four companies with contracts “for the logistics required by the doctors.” The company Pigudi Gastronómico, specialized in banquets, was the main beneficiary.
The last week of September, three other contracts were unveiled – if effect between July 2022 and 2023 – for which Mexico paid 23,227,156 euros for 610 specialists on the Island.
An official of the Institute of Health for Welfare (INSABI) – created by the López Obrador government to provide health assistance and free medication – told 14ymedio in 2022 that the Mexican government paid the Cuban government 2,042 dollars per specialist and 1,722 dollars per general practitioner.
Months later, it was specified that the person in charge of the logistics of the Island’s doctors in Mexico is Neuronic Mexicana, a subsidiary of Neuronic S.A Cuba. This company has been, since 2018, the representative for the products and services of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry of the Island and is under the presidency of Tania Guerra.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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“In no other country in the world is energy information given daily to the people,” said Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines
The PVT Clara, which sails under the flag of Panama, set sail from Russia on September 14 / Vesselfinder
14ymedio, Havana, 5 October 2024 — “No Russian ship with fuel is arriving in the country.” With that categorical statement, Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, denied this Friday that the PVT Clara tanker, coming from the port of Kaliningrad, had docked in Havana. The statement is surprising, since the ship – as indicated by maritime tracking applications – arrived on the Island on October 2, and this Saturday, now leaving, it had just passed through Cuban territorial waters.
The official press waited for the ship to leave Havana Bay to publish a special “podcast” on the energy situation, because – they pointed out – the “concerns of the population” have increased. The PVT Clara, which sails under the flag of Panama, set sail from Russia on September 14 and arrived on the Island last Wednesday. Its capacity is 20,831 tons.
In his speech, the minister assured that he is aware of “everything that is published and the comments” on social networks and in “national and official media.” “We even argue,” he added. “There are many comments that sometimes we can answer, and there are others that are very sensitive; we delay because we have to do a good analysis. Let’s remember that we have an enemy,” he said.
The ship arrived on the Island on October 2 and on Saturday had just passed through Cuban territorial waters / Vesselfinder
De la O Levy spent several minutes criticizing the “enemy” that “analyzes word for word” all the official statements to “provoke the population.” “They make that kind of insinuation to wait for an answer,” he said, continue reading
clarifying that he would not say anything unless it was a question from an “official” media. “And always analyzing what can be said,” he warned, knowing that the Social Communication Law, in force since this week, obliges leaders to offer the information requested by the official press.
“The Electric Energy System is a strategic issue, both for electricity and fuel, and that’s why it is very sensitive,” the official continued. He explained that he spends a lot of time reading “the opinions, the comments, the things that are written – the vast majority very correct and with concerns, some with suggestions, others looking to see what the future will be like.”
The daily report that the Electric Union offers on Cuban Television, said the minister, reports “what happened and what is going to happen, that is “its goal.” “It is a program of moments of crisis,” he admitted, praising his own initiative, because “in no other country in the world is energy information given daily to the people.”
“The situation is so tense that anything that happens during the day now varies the prognosis”]
But the program does not satisfy Cubans either, the minister complained, because “many people” think that the announced electricity deficit does not correspond to the severity that is experienced day to day. “It’s just a forecast,” he justified. “The situation is so tense that anything that happens during the day now varies the prognosis.”
Next, he listed the factors that can fail: from a component of a thermoelectric plant to the patanas – the recent fire in one of them caused the death of two Turkish workers in Havana. Everything depends on “the ships, railways, road transport of fuel, lubricants, spare parts and almost all the organizations involved in the country’s economy.”
But De la O Levy went further: “When you don’t have fuel reserves, any small detail counts: a ship that is delayed or a swell that prevents the docking of a ship causes fuel unavailability. That happens to us very often because we don’t have back-ups for our tanks. That’s why deviations from the morning forecast occur with respect to what really happens.”
Cuba is experiencing one of the many peaks of the energy crisis so far this year. The same day that the PVT Clara arrived in Cuba, the Reuters agency revealed the collapse of oil shipments from Venezuela, Havana’s main energy partner. Caracas sent 22,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to Cuba in September, a considerable drop compared to 33,700 bpd in June, the last month recorded.
This is a long way from the 56,000 barrels per day that Venezuela sent in 2023, thanks to the agreement signed in 2000 by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. To compensate for this reduction, but without reaching the levels necessary to remain stable, the Island has increasingly resorted to the help of Russia and Mexico. The result: long blackouts that, for months, have not given the Cuban people respite.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The reason for this strike is the lack of cash in the banks
The widespread opinion among provincial farmers is that the problem of non-payments will get worse / Escambray
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 5 October 2024 — Although the udders of the cows continue to give milk in Sancti Spíritus, the farmers of the province refuse to continue selling their production to the State. The reason for this is the lack of cash in the banks, which prevents them from receiving payment for the product. Without paper money, the farmers refuse to fulfill their commitments to the official companies.
“They are making fun of us apparently. On the one hand they tell us that we must comply with the rule of delivery, that this is a strategic sector for the country, and on the other they don’t give us our money,” a member of a dairy cooperative with more than a dozen farms located on the outskirts of the capital tells 14ymedio. “You can’t do that,” says the farmer, who prefers anonymity, with annoyance.
Each producer has a mandatory amount of milk that they must sell to the State company Combinado Lácteo Río Zaza, according to the number of animals they have and the average yield they have shown in recent years. Each liter of milk within that rule is paid at 75 pesos, and for each one that exceeds the assigned amount, the farmer will receive 38 pesos.
At the time of paying its debts, the Combinado deposits in the bank, either physically or electronically, the amount allocated to each cooperative. That money must be withdrawn from the bank branch by the administration of the cooperative, which will be responsible for distributing the income among its members according to what is contributed by each one. But “the umbrella gets jammed when it comes to releasing the money,” complains the farmer from Sancti Spíritus. continue reading
Being outside the official umbrella is also very complicated. Throughout the province there are 32 agricultural cooperatives that encompass most of the producers of meats, vegetables, fruits and milk. In the case of the cow owners, the pressures to join the cooperative system, the constant controls of the inspectors and the recent census of their animals make it almost impossible for them to exist outside the mechanism of State deliveries.
For the owners of cows, it is almost impossible to exist outside the mechanism of milk deliveries to the State
Last July, the Governor of the province, Alexis Llorente, said on the local radio that the “contracting of milk” with the farmers had been completed and exceeded 6 million liters. The official pointed out the indisciplines of the producers as one of the problems they had to overcome to comply with the annual plans but did not allude at any time to the situation of payments to farmers who were already in crisis at that time.
“The bank has been empty for months. It doesn’t have cash to give to the cooperative, and people don’t want electronic money because you have to pay for everything here with a wad of bills in your hand,” adds the farmer. “From the pound of rice that I have to buy to feed my family, to the salary of my employees, the money has to be tangible, not numbers on a mobile screen.”
After four months of delays and in view of the fact that the banking situation does not seem to be resolved in the short term, producers such as Mario, his name changed for this report, resident in the municipality of Jatibonico, has also joined the work halt. “I’ve been selling milk on my own for a couple of weeks; anyway, I don’t do business to sell it to the State because the payment is bad. That same liter of milk that I deliver after fulfilling my commitment, which they only pay me at 38 pesos, I sell on the street at 120,” he says.
It doesn’t seem that the banking situation will be resolved in the short term
The People’s Power delegate of the area “called a meeting to scold the farmers,” says the man. “He told us that we could not continue selling milk on the outside, but it fell on deaf ears because we live from what we manage to sell, and if the State does not pay us what are we going to do? Starve to death?”
Most of the milk that the State buys is distributed through the rationed market, for children under 7 years of age and people with specific medical diets who have the product allocated to them. The rest is sent to nursing homes and children’s daycare centers, where the food supply has suffered multiple oscillations in recent years.
Now, the most widespread opinion among provincial producers is that the problem of non-payments will get worse. “There is often no money even to pay doctors and teachers, who have to go to the bank several times to see if they can get their salary. Imagine what’s going to be left for us. Everyone wants to drink a glass of milk but that takes effort and expense; you don’t get milk from a cow by whispering in her ear and telling her that she has to fulfill the plan.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The online news source did not reveal the identity of any of those affected “to avoid further reprisals”
In recent months, several ’Cubanet’ collaborators have suffered outright harassment by State Security / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2024 — A group of journalists and Cubanet collaborators has suffered “threats, intimidation, arrests and confiscation of work assets and money in recent days.” This was announced by the online news source in an alert published this Thursday, warning about the Regime’s “repressive escalation” after the new Social Communication Law went into effect this week.
Cubanet did not reveal the identity of those affected, “to avoid further reprisals,” but it reports that they were threatened with ” prison sentences” and consequences for their families. They have also been filmed by agents for hours – something they describe as “psychological torture” – and had their electronic devices and money taken away from them.
Although it admits that this is a “common tactic” of State Security, Cubanet draws attention to the “increasing wave of harassment,” not only against independent journalists but also against opponents who publicly denounce the country’s crisis.
The objective of the political police – “to suppress critical voices and avoid the dissemination of information not controlled by the State” – remains the same, but with the entry into force of the law the State has one more legal tool to repress, Cubanet points out. It is a “new instrument of the Cuban authorities to limit freedom of expression and access to information,” which has been condemned by several international organizations, such as the Inter-American Press Society. continue reading
The objective of the political police is to “suppress critical voices and avoid the dissemination of information not controlled by the State”
The truth is that, despite the law’s entry into force, the situation of the independent press remains as vulnerable and dangerous as that of the previous day. The exercise of non-state journalism was already punishable by the Constitution, the Criminal Code and Decree Law 370.
Responses cannot be demanded from leaders – a right reserved for State reporters – and any critical information provided is considered an act of “communicational aggression that takes place against the country” or an instigation to “terrorism and war in any of its forms and manifestations, including cyberwar.” Nor does the law provide new penalties, since it does not mention possible sanctions for those who break the law and refers to other documents to resolve each case.
Despite this, several independent journalists have already published statements on their social networks that imply that they have been intimidated and forced to resign from their work. This was the case of Yennys Hernández and Annery Rivera – collaborators of several media such as Periodismo de Barrio and Cuba Próxima – who said this Thursday that they would not “collaborate and/or participate in any media or project of an independent nature and/or considered subversive or contrary to the interests of the Cuban government.”
The situation is similar to that which occurred in September 2022, when at least 16 members of the El Toque team living in Cuba were forced to resign from their work on the newspaper. At that time, its managers denounced the “sick insistence” of the Cuban political police to obtain “confessions” on video from the journalists, which they then manipulated and broadcast on Cuban Television.
In recent months, several Cubanet collaborators have suffered outright harassment by State Security. This was the case of the Camagüeyan journalist José Luis Tan Estrada, who on Thursday held State Security responsible for “anything” that happened to him after the Regime’s “repressive escalation.” On the eve of the anniversary of the 11 July 2021 protests, Tan Estrada was arrested and interrogated. He was forbidden at that time to attend public places under the threat of going to prison for disobedience and contempt, or to publish statements about the date on his social networks.
However, Tan Estrada told the story of his arrest on his Facebook page. While connecting to the Internet in the Agramonte park in the city of Camagüey, he was approached by a political police officer who arbitrarily arrested him. He was transferred in a patrol car to the Third Monte Carlos Unit of the National Revolutionary Police where he was intimidated. “They gave me a warning letter, which I didn’t sign,” he said.
Journalist Camila Acosta and her partner, the writer Ángel Santiesteban, have also been harassed on several occasions for denouncing the involvement of State Security in the crisis that for nine months shook the leadership of Cuban Freemasonry. Acosta is responsible for the first reports on the theft, last January, of 19,000 dollars from the office of Grand Master Mario Urquía Carreño.
Acosta’s coverage of several meetings of the Freemasons put her in the crosshairs of the offensive that several Regime spokesmen, such as the so-called Cuban Warrior, carried out against the independent press. The Cuban Warrior not only tried to discredit Acosta’s work but also her personal life, spreading rumors and false information.
Acosta’s coverage of several meetings of the Masons put her in the crosshairs of an offensive from several of the Regime’s spokesmen
Santiesteban, for his part, was briefly arrested in July and accused by the official YouTuber of “revealing Masonic matters to the profane,” that is, to those not initiated in the order. Acosta denounced the arrest as “a direct affront to Freemasonry” and accused the police of giving the protest of July 23 – in which the Freemasons demanded explanations for the robbery – “a political connotation” to justify the arrest of several Freemasons critical of the Regime, such as Santiesteban.
The Cuban Warrior also launched the now usual accusation against Acosta and Santiesteban: that every independent journalist is an undercover agent of the CIA.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Each municipality will be sponsored by a ministry so that garbage collection is carried out regularly
The garbage has become part of the church of San Nicolás de Bari y San Judas Tadeo / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2024 — That Cuban PresidentMiguel Díaz-Canel walks through the neighborhoods of Havana to admire the titanic garbage dumps populating the city seems more like a rumor than a reality. This Friday, the official press reports the president’s excursion in the streets of the capital the day before, specifically to the Diez de Octubre neighborhood, where they say that the authorities have found “the formula” to contain the waste.
Freshly arrived from a tour of Las Tunas and Holguín, Díaz-Canel claims to have visited the Havana municipality to verify the “good reports about the work that is being done” thanks to the sponsorship of the ministries of Agriculture and Labor and Social Security, in addition to the watchful eye of the Central Committee of the Party. The strategy, repeated on countless occasions, is to demonstrate that only with the direct intervention from the summit are orders fulfilled at the local level. Díaz-Canel baptized the new State crusade as the “garbage issue contingency.”
So far, “they have managed to recover parks previously full of garbage, stabilize the collection of solid waste, paint trash containers and clear the ground of invasive grass,” lists the state newspaper Granma, saying that in the coming weeks there will be other visits by the president to the municipality to “know the experience” and replicate it in other areas of the capital that will be, in turn, supported by other ministries.
“Today you see parks that were once sadly converted into micro-dumps, full of children, older adults, students doing physical education. It is a different atmosphere at any time of the day in these parks. Although there is still a lot to do, we have to continue gaining in the culture of detail,” President Lisara Corona, first secretary of the Communist Party in the Diez de Octubre neighborhood, described in a poetic tone. continue reading
Finally the local government got down to work and planted trees, painted containers and “recovered institutions”
Finally, the local government got down to work and planted trees, painted containers and “recovered institutions,” said the official, who, however, is not satisfied and says that the population must get involved. “We have added the work centers and given them the tasks of clearing the ground, beautifying, painting and adorning their facades with our symbols. But we still feel dissatisfaction.” For the changes to last, she said, the neighbors themselves must get involved.
Nor did she overlook the private companies, which she accused of monopolizing the landfills arranged for the residents. “A lot of waste is generated, especially cardboard, which they sell to the Raw Materials Company. Today it all goes into the containers used by the population,” Corona said.
The leader tried to show Díaz-Canel that she works hard and that State institutions “do not have to be ugly, dirty or covered with grass. That does not depend on resources; it depends on the will to transform, to have a beautiful, pleasant place, to love the city and have a sense of belonging to the municipality where we live.” The inability to collect the 30,000 cubic meters of garbage that the city produces daily, without fuel, trucks or workers, was overlooked.
From Díaz-Canel, only one sentence, with the usual voluntarism, was reflected in the article: “We should never stand idly by; what is being done now shows that we can organize ourselves and do things well.”
“One would never see this in front of MININT or some other important Government building”
While working on other “fronts” such as foreign investment, teams of workers are mobilized in the capital to clean the city, says Granma. This Friday, however, 14ymedio visited one of the largest trash dump sites in the capital, located at the confluence of San Nicolás and Rayo streets, in Central Havana.
A mountain of garbage surrounds the church of San Nicolás de Bari y San Judas Tadeo, the latter very popular in Cuba for being considered the patron saint of difficult causes. The families of the prisoners, the rafters lost at sea and the migrants who take the “volcano” route (through Nicaragua) pray and frequently carry candles.
The garbage, which has merged with the uneven architecture of the block, seems to form plazas and gazebos around the buildings themselves. The waste not only overflows from the containers and covers the entire facade of the church – obstructing doors and windows – but also, there are old frayed shoes hanging from the electric wires.
The trash has attracted numerous dumpster divers, who pile up around the containers looking for trinkets and food. “One would never see this in front of the MININT (Ministry of the Interior) or some other important government building,” complains a neighbor. “It’s here because no one cares about the faithful who have to pray the Hail Mary while they swallow flies.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The official press woke up this Friday with alerts about the problem in almost all the provincial newspapers
A group of divers installs an underwater pipeline to improve the supply in Havana / Aguas de La Habana
14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2024 — Along with blackouts and shortages, the lack of water has completed the triad of the crisis in Cuba during the last year. The official press woke up on Friday with alerts in almost all the provincial newspapers attesting to the debacle. Aware of how little has been done and with the usual voluntarism, Deputy Minister Inés María Chapman asked the employees of the sector to “work quickly” to solve a problem that is now urgent.
Chapman traveled to Santiago de Cuba this Friday to check the state of a project that, in theory, will solve the supply problem that affects 85% of the inhabitants of the provincial capital and two neighborhoods of the municipality of San Luis – Paquito Rosales and Dos Caminos – for a total of 15,000 inhabitants. The minister did not spare scolding or utopian requests: “We have to multiply and create work groups, because, in the midst of this complex situation, the priority has to be water,” she said.
The eastern province has shut down its water treatment plant for a general maintenance that is not progressing according to plan. Local leaders said that in some neighborhoods of the city water can only be supplied every 20 days and that the situation has generated “annoyance.” The installations, in addition, suffer from multiple “leaks and other deficiencies,” such as damaged valves. continue reading
The San Luis pipeline, 10.7 kilometers long, should be finished by October 10, but there are no guarantees that the deadline will be met. The Government spent, said one of the engineers, 38 million pesos, because the area had “historic problems” with the supply.
In Cienfuegos, on the other hand, the press tells readers that the water problem is “temporary”
In Cienfuegos, on the other hand, the press tells readers that the water problem is “temporary” – the word with which Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel designated the crisis in 2019. There will continue to be “instability in the pumping schedules,” and a “bad handling of the valves” has been detected.
According to the Empresa de Acueducto in the province, “more than 24,000 Cienfuegans are affected, due to the drought, breaks in pumping equipment and exits from the grid, the latter everywhere and in plain sight.” The number of temporarily sealed leaks gives the measure of the state of the pipes: 2,495, and they are “not always suppressed with the required quality.” Some even have remarkable proportions, capable of affecting 8,000 people, according to Acueducto.
The territory also suffers from drought, so the news of the breakdown of five pumps was the straw that broke the camel’s back. For weeks, entire municipalities, such as Aguada de Pasajeros, were left without water. Managers are now asking the Government for “spare parts and fittings” in addition to more fuel.
“There are projections for a lot of investments,” officials say. There is money to rehabilitate the pipes of Damují and Paso Bonito, and install one in Rancho Luna. But everything is in the process of “getting started.” There will be no short-term solutions.
As for Havana, where the situation has been stagnant for months, the press has made regular reports on the hydraulic crisis. Recently, the capital newspaper says, a pump was repaired to send 400 liters of water per second to the Central Aqueduct System.
The newspaper published photos of the bulky installation, with divers assembling the pipe and replacing the broken segments. “The recovery and assembly of the equipment was a challenge since its dimensions and weight required high technical skill and operational rigor.
The newspaper published photos of the cumbersome installation, with divers assembling the pipe
Divers and hydraulic system specialists worked together to fix the equipment connected to the electrical energy systems and the pipelines,” explained Tribuna de La Habana.
There is a long way to go, however, for the improvements to be felt in homes, where blackouts also affect the arrival of water. Sara, a resident of Nuevo Vedado, an area that has suffered blackouts at least four hours every day, told 14ymedio. Without electricity, the water can be in the cistern of the buildings, but it will not reach the tanks without the help of the pumps.
Sara does not have false hopes about the supply. “This is like a sickly old man who has a disease and when he recovers no longer returns to the point where he was, but continues downhill to the coffin,” she laments.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Judoka Dayle Ojeda trains at the Specialized High Performance Center in Benimaclet, Valencia / Facebook/Dayle Ojeda
14ymedio, Havana, 5 October 2024 — Cubans Dayle Ojeda and Ayumi Leiva expose the reality of judo on the Island, the sport that has been awarded 37 medals (six gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze) in the Olympic Games. Only “the top figures travel” to international events, and Ojeda told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that she received a minimum wage and needed the help of her parents to survive in this very poor scenario. She only had two paths: “leave the country or leave the sport.”
Ojeda, a competitor in the 78 kilograms category, faced the phantom of the four-time Olympic champion (Tokyo 2020, Rio 2016, London 2012 and Beijing 2008), Idalys Ortiz. With Ortiz at the front, Ojeda had little chance of excelling. “There were no resources for anything; there was no way to develop a sports career, and I had no means to live.” That was the reality for the 31-year-old judoka.
The habanera was part of the team that between May 6 and July 26 supported the training of the athletes qualified for Paris 2024. However, she had a plane ticket to return to the Island on the same day of the opening ceremonies. Minutes before boarding she knew it was time to separate from the group.
“I was nervous, I looked back in case they followed me, I didn’t know what would happen,” she told El Mundo. Some friends picked her up at the airport; then she boarded a bus to Barcelona and stayed there a few days, before traveling to Valencia to meet Ayumi Leiva. continue reading
In her sporting career, Ojeda has won a national championship, two runners-up in the open Pan Americans of Varadero, in addition to participating in the Grand Slam of Paris and Dusseldorf. With these credentials she was received at the Specialized High Performance Center in Benimaclet, where Olympians Salva Cases and Tristani Mosakhlishvili Tato train.
Ayumi Leiva adds four events with medals as a Spanish judoka / Instagram/@ayumileiva
The Cuban athlete has a place offered to her by the Valencian Judo Federation; in addition, they help her with living expenses and training material, but she urgently needs to compete and win. She knows that it would be a key point in her training to be able to obtain Spanish naturalization. “I would love to be able to go to the next Olympic Games and give back to Spain all the help it is giving me.”
The humiliations and threats led Ayumi Leiva to flee in 2022 from the Cuban judo team, while making a stopover in Madrid on her way to Cali (Colombia). “In my first junior competition, they forced me to sign a paper saying that I promise to come back with a medal,” she told the Spanish sports newspaper AS. “If I didn’t sign, they would kick me out of school,” she added.
The 22-year-old judoka reported that “the whole time (in Cuba), you had to put up with the mistreatment of the coaches.” As an athlete “you couldn’t have an opinion, you couldn’t ask for anything, they humiliated you; I endured, but I couldn’t stand it.”
Leiva separated from the group of judokas and asked for political asylum from the passport control police. Due to her condition and lack of money, she spent three months in a Red Cross facility. At that time she wrote to coaches Sugoi Uriarte and Laura Gómez and agreed to meet with them at the Benimaclet High Performance Center.
In July 2023, she was granted Spanish nationality. Since then she has won four medals in the 52 kilogram category: bronze in the Grand Slam of Antalya (Turkey), the Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam and the Madrid European Open, and silver in the Grand Prix of Zagreb. She has her sights set on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, defending the flag of Spain.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Every minute, in any Cuban town, an old man who is skin and bones, of indeterminate color because of the dirt, dragging his feet without strength, comes into view / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 October 2024 – The official newspaper Victoria, from the Isle of Youth, has joined the commemoration, this October 1, of the International Day of the Elderly; that is, the elderly and older adults. Established by the United Nations in 1990, the date aims, in the words of the organization itself, to “respond to the opportunities and challenges of the aging population in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages.”
As far as Cuba is concerned, the elderly are, in fact, a fundamental bracket of the population. Not only because there are ever more of them and will be even more – according to official data, in 2023 they totaled almost two and a half million, almost 23% of the census – but also because of their very poor living conditions.
On the frontispiece of its digital cover, it placed the slogan “International Day of the Elderly,” accompanied by two images of older people / Capture / Victoria
Every minute, in any Cuban town, an old man, all skin and bones, of indeterminate color because of the dirt, comes along, dragging his feet without strength, or in a wheelchair: the living dead, man or woman. Some sell fourth-hand trinkets; others simply ask for alms. There are those who don’t even have the strength to raise their hands and pick up the coin. They are the living image of the country today, marked by scarcity and exodus. continue reading
However, this is not the image offered by the Victoria newspaper, which does not even dedicate a written text to the subject. Instead, on the frontispiece of its digital cover, it placed the slogan “International Day of the Elderly,” accompanied by two images of elderly people: one, of a couple, man and woman, hugging each other; another, the same couple, even older, hugging their grandchildren. In both, the figures are white and well-fed, with a non-tropical background, smiling serenely. Both are created by artificial intelligence. Not in vain: only in a virtual world is there a healthy and happy Cuban old person.
Some sell fourth-hand trinkets; others simply beg for alms / 14ymedio
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Cuban doctors returning from South Africa are received in Havana in 2021, after serving during the Covid-19 pandemic / EFE
14ymedio, Madrid, 2 October 2024 — The hiring of Cuban doctors is, once again, a source of controversy in South Africa. As was revealed in the local parliament last week, the Gauteng Department of Health – the province where Pretoria and Johannesburg are located – mistakenly continued to pay, for one year, seven Cuban health workers who had already left the country.
The specialists, who were part of a group of 28 hired in 2020 to help at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, ended their contract on May 14, 2021, but continued to receive their salary until the same date the following year. In total, the province paid more than 3.9 million rands (about 225,000 dollars); that is, 557,000 rands for each person (more than 32,000 dollars).
Of that amount, said the provincial head of Health, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, 1.2 million rands were recovered, but not yet the remaining 2.7 million. To do this, the authorities say, they have contacted the Cuban government, which has not publicly commented on the issue. Nor has the Cuban government given details of where they deposited those salaries, if inside or outside the country, or to whom; if in an individual way, to each worker or to the Marketer of Medical Services, the usual intermediary between the Regime and the contracting countries. continue reading
The authorities also excused themselves by saying that the officials who extended the contracts claimed not to have been aware that the Cuban professionals were no longer in South Africa.
“Someone made a mistake. It could be a crime, in fact”
“There was an overpayment that was made as a result of the extension of the contracts of those health workers without following the required process,” Nkomo-Ralehoko said on television. In addition, “Someone made a mistake. It could be a crime, in fact, but investigations have been carried out, so we will definitely take action in this regard.”
The data was revealed last week in a written response to South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, persistently critical of the Government for the import of specialists from the Island. Jack Bloom, a member of DA who has been overseeing and denouncing the hiring of Cuban doctors for years, described in a statement as “outrageous” the fact that the missing money has not yet been recovered – “more than two years after it was squandered” – and complained that the responsible officials “have not yet been sanctioned.”
For Bloom, what happened is “one more example of the deep incompetence and possible corruption in this department.” There is no reason, says the opposition politician, “to hire Cuban doctors when so many local doctors are unemployed.”
Last April, DA managed to get the Gauteng government to reveal what it had paid annually for 11 health workers from the Island: approximately 14.3 million rands or 750,218 dollars. The authorities then detailed the spending by district: in Johannesburg, 4,788,600 rands ($251,328), for four doctors; in Sedibeng, 2,833,917 rands ($148,754) for two doctors; in Thelle Mogoerane, 1,642,858 rands ($86,224) for one doctor; and in the Tembisa Hospital 1,197,150 rands ($62,845) also for one.
At the beginning of 2024, South Africa put at 700 the number of national doctors who did not get a job in the public sector, a figure that, according to the Government, has improved compared to last year, when the number was 800.
What happened is “one more example of the deep incompetence and possible corruption in this department”
In 1996, South Africa and Cuba signed a bilateral agreement for the implementation of the Nelson Mandela/Fidel Castro Medical Collaboration Program. “The program was established to address the excessive concentration of health personnel in urban areas and in the exclusive private sector, as well as to increase the number of qualified health professionals,” said the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, during a parliamentary debate on Cuba.
The matter, however, has been the result of countless controversies over the years. One of the most recent was linked to a donation of three million dollars (50 million rands) from the Government of South Africa to Cuba that has remained blocked by the courts since October 2023, when a judge ordered it stopped until a legal scrutiny was properly carried out, since it was adopted without a quorum in the advisory committee.
It is not the only case that has generated friction between the Government and the opposition. The sending of engineers and additional doctors during the pandemic – for which at least 14 million dollars were spent – have caused different controversies, in addition to the one in 2021 concerning a party held by several South African students at the University of Villa Clara, which ended in blows by the Cuban Police, who said they had received an “out of control” report that forced them to intervene.
Another major scandal was the sale of interferon alpha 2b, whose purchase was not authorized by the pharmaceutical authority of South Africa but was acquired with the consent of the Armed Forces, under the category of a “defense weapon” by believing – they claimed – that Covid-19 could be a bacteriological attack. The amount paid for that product amounted to more than two million dollars, which would have been much more if two subsequent shipments had not been canceled.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Law of Social Communication, which has just entered into force, targets officials who refuse to “give answers” to the regime’s journalists
Staff, journalists and PCC ideologues must attend a training seminar on the law / Venceremos
14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2024 — The Cuban press wakes up this Thursday celebrating the entry into force of the Law of Communication, approved by Parliament last June. For Escambray – the newspaper of the Communist Party in Sancti Spíritus, which publishes an enthusiastic article about it – there is no better news than knowing that the leaders, who until now have ignored the responsibility of offering information to the population and the media, will not be able to “avoid the consequences.”
From this Wednesday until next Friday, the heads of the ideological departments of the Party in each province, accompanied by journalists, must attend training sessions to “deepen the study of the Social Communication Law and achieve its intelligent, consistent and distortion-free application.”
They must “respond with immediacy, opportunity, transparency and veracity, particularly to facts and situations that by their nature, sensitivity and public connotation demand urgent communication with the population,” according to the law.
Escambray says that for each “infraction” there will be fines of between 3,000 and 30,000 pesos
Escambray says that for each “infraction” there will be fines of between 3,000 and 30,000 pesos, but it clarifies that “the logical thing, the reasonable thing” is for the leaders to comply with the law and avoid those extremes. It’s especially important for “managers and officials who have been on the left foot with social communication,” if they don’t want to get into trouble.” continue reading
The warning, in a more overlapping way, is repeated in many provincial newspapers and even in the State newspaper Granma, which celebrates its 59th birthday this Thursday. Granma, founded in 1965 after the suppression of media such as Hoy and Revolución – which, with various approaches and loyal to Fidel Castro, were still considered “free press” – recalls that since then its “commission” was “to disseminate the work of the Revolution.” This precept is repeated by the Law of Communication, which again insists that anyone who discredits the Regime can be sanctioned.
“The Social Communication System acts in accordance with the socialist State principles of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign; the expression of the thought and example of Martí and Fidel; and the ideas of social emancipation of Marx, Engels and Lenin,” clarifies Article 5 of the document.
The new law barely affects the independent press, which is patently illegal according to the Constitution itself
The new law barely affects the independent press, which is patently illegal according to the Constitution itself, the Criminal Code and other laws that limit freedom of expression and the press, including Decree-Law 370. Therefore, “the legal obligation of managers, officials and employees of State bodies, agencies and entities to provide the information requested by journalists and managers of media organizations,” is an exclusive right of the State media.
The work of the independent press is considered an act of “communicational aggression that takes place against the country” and an instigation to “terrorism and war in any of its forms and manifestations, including cyberwar.”
The Law of Social Communication, which includes the obligation to register a medium in the national registers – something that would be denied to anyone “against the Revolution” – contemplates a regimen of sanctions for those who violate any of its precepts. For the independent press, however, the Criminal Code approved in 2022 remains, which provides for the punishment of ten years in prison for anyone who receives funds or finances “activities against the State and its constitutional order.”
In fact, not only can any independent media not, like the official media, demand answers from the leaders and institutions of the country, but their work is directly considered an act of “communicational aggression against the country” and an instigation to “terrorism and war in any of its forms and manifestations, including cyberwar.”
The Law of Social Communication does not include the possible sanctions that infringing these precepts would entail – which creates a legal vacuum that can be taken advantage of by the regime’s courts – and vaguely refers to other legal instruments (“The non-compliance with what is regulated in the previous article implies the requirement of responsibility, in accordance with the laws and other regulatory provisions”). The Criminal Code approved in 2022, for example, provides for the punishment of ten years in prison for anyone who receives funds or finances “activities against the State and its constitutional order,” something similar to some of the provisions in the Law of Social Communication.
It will be enough to contravene the law to make a comment or react to a publication that is considered to have the “objective of subverting the constitutional order”
For the population, the worst part remains. In practice, it will be enough to make a comment or react to a publication that is considered to have the “objective of subverting the constitutional order” – another ambiguity – to contravene the law.
Article 51 contains a no-less-disturbing section that calls for “implementing and informing users of the self-regulation procedures that avoid publications that violate the provisions of the Constitution, this Law and other normative provisions on this matter,” from which it follows that Cubans will also be told what they can and cannot share, applaud or complain about on their social networks.
Some citizens have already been investigated for their publications, as stipulated in Decree-Law 370. This is the case of the opponent José Manuel Barreiro Rouco, arrested in June last year for sharing memes that affect “the honor and integrity of relevant figures of the Cuban Revolution,” including President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Barreiro finally had his trial in early September in the Provincial Court of Cienfuegos. The Prosecutor’s Office requested a sentence of two and a half years in prison for the crimes of contempt and illegal possession and sale of dollars.
In August, Samuel Pupo Martínez – who was imprisoned for two years, eight months and 21 days following the demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (’11J’) – was threatened by State Security agents to be returned to prison for his posts on social networks. The posts that sting the Regime, for which he was forced to sign a warning, are, in the words of the authorities, proof that Pupo is “prone to commit a crime of propaganda against the constitutional order.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The 31-year-old offered transvestite shows in the restaurant
Luis Miguel Llanta was 31 years old / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 2 October 2024 — Luis Miguel Llanta, 31, who worked as a transvestite with the stage name Gia D’Yenifer in the restaurant he owned, El Patio de Olga, was murdered this Tuesday in Santa Clara by another man with whom he had a relationship. The news was confirmed to 14ymedio by Kiriam Gutiérrez Pérez, a friend of the victim. The actress posted the event on her Facebook page, without giving details of the event.
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“Luis Miguel was murdered by a boy with whom he had an informal relationship a while ago. His friends say that there was blackmail and that’s when Luis broke it off. The boy demanded money that Luis Miguel did not want to give him and yesterday summoned him to his house around 11 in the morning and murdered him,” Kiriam Gutiérrez said on Wednesday.
The neighbors say there was blackmail. The boy demanded money that Luis Miguel didn’t want to pay him
The aggressor’s home is next to Llanta’s sister’s, and it was she who heard screams and called their mother. The two entered the house and found Llanta’s body, “wrapped in a sheet under the kitchen table,” Gutiérrez said. The aggressor confessed the fact, and his own mother called the police. Later he left the neighborhood “looking for a suitcase.” According to the actress, “it seemed that he had intentions of dismembering the body and burying it or dispersing it.”
Gutiérrez Pérez pointed out that Llanta was a very dear person “for the entire LGBTI community, for his neighbors and for his workers,” and that he “helped everyone.” “Many times he fed people in need and didn’t charge them. He was one of those people that friends always turn to. He was always unconditional with me. In the middle of the pandemic he was attentive to everything that happened. He always supported me,” said the actress. continue reading
The death disrupted the community of Santa Clara and his friends on social networks. People close to the 31-year-old regretted the incident and demanded justice for the homicide. “Oh, my sister, Luisa, as we called you, ’The [female] Cousin.’ You have left us in the worst way possible, which is when they take away your life,” wrote the user Crîs Dîamond.
The death disturbed the community of Santa Clara and his friends on social networks. People close to the 31-year-old regretted the incident and demanded justice for the homicide
Although there are no official figures on the number of murders on the Island, independent organizations and media have documented the trend of this crime in Cuba. In August alone, at least 22 people (almost one every day) were killed in the country in 11 provinces of Cuba – including three femicides – according to Cubalex. That number of homicides equals the one recorded last March, which was, until now, the month with the most homicide victims so far in 2024.
In addition, according to Cuba Siglo 21, in a report on public safety, the monthly average of homicides on the Island during the first half of this year was 15 cases, with a total of 91 murders in that period, 22 of which occurred in March.
Also, El Toque estimated, in an investigation carried out in August, that more than one person per day has been murdered in Cuba,, at least, in the last five years.” The study took the population figure of 2023, published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (from more than 11,000,000 inhabitants, in 2019, to 10,055,968, in December 2023), and calculated the rate of intentional homicides at 4.97 percent.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Havana, 6 October 2024 — The columns published by the Camagüey priest Alberto Reyes every Sunday have made him the spokesperson for Cubans who do not dare to speak publicly. “My words are not a cry of violence; they are not an aggressive outburst,” says Reyes in his text. “I have been thinking” – the title he uses – “that this week I will ask the leadership of the regime to leave.”
