Translator: Sheilagh Herrera – Page 5

"We Will Not Permit a Single Subversive Attempt," Warns University of the East

Professor René Fidel González García has spent three years appealing the decision through official channels and demanding that he be returned to his position.

14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2019 — Scandal is once again shaking Cuban universities. This Tuesday, the University of the East defended the expulsion of a professor for publishing texts of an “ambiguous” character. René Fidel González García was removed from his position three years ago and recently received a sanction that prevents him from working in any other center of higher education on the Island.

At the center of the controversy for similar previous cases and a turn of the screw in the ideological discourse in schools, the text exposes that since 2012, González’s publications on digital sites like La Joven Cuba, Rebelión, Sin Permiso, and Cuba Posible “were radicalizing to the point where they became the most controversial, contradictory, and disrespectful.”

The declaration considers that starting with the revocation of his status as tenured lecturer and his university professorship he has created “a defamatory campaign” against his alma mater in the east, the “officials of the institution and the Ministry of Higher Education” who do not know “the true elements of the case.” continue reading

The declaration comes a few weeks after the publication of an open letter repudiating ideological censorship and discrimination for political reasons in Cuban universities. The document, dated in August, was signed by almost 4,000 educators and students demanding the end of this type of “punitive sanctions.”

Without alluding to the letter, the text signed by the Board of the University of the East insists that the academic’s publications were creating “confusion for readers about philosophical and political terms, because of the ambiguous and obscure character” they had.

Additionally, the document accuses González of causing students to “affiliate themselves to his positions out of confusion” and attributes to him a negative influence that, in their opinion, prove the focus of the final assignments turned in by students of the class Sociology of Democracy.

The Scientific Board of the University then agreed to exclude those texts or essays from the list of the “results” of González’s research work because they were published in scientific journals that are not registered on “databases of international prestige.”

For their part, “political organizations and organizations of the masses, in their debates and pronouncements, indignantly rejected the position of the educator, his negative impact on professional training and the prestige of a collective firmly committed to the Revolution, like the Faculty to which he belonged,” it adds.

González lost his tenure for committing “acts of moral or social nature” that damaged “his prestige,” specifies the text, which warns that the process was carried out “in strict compliance with the law.”

The professor has spent three years appealing the decision through official channels and demanding that he be returned to his position, from the Attorney General and the Ministry of Higher Education to the president of the Republic, but until now he has not received a response and he has now exceeded the statutory deadlines. His perseverance has found broad support on social media, where professors and students have stood in solidarity with González.

But in their text, the university authorities insist that the professor “maintains a constant will to denigrate and ridicule” the university authorities and the Ministry of Higher Education, which makes clear to the Board that “he didn’t have, nor will he have, the conditions to be a university professor.”

The text regrets the solidarity of certain persons who have heard “a version of the events unfortunately wrongly told and manipulated by René Fidel González García” and others attempting to cut down the institutionalism of the Cuban State and Government.

On September 16, the Minister of Higher Education, José Ramón Saborido Loidi, confirmed the Ministry’s stance by supporting an article by Martha del Carmen Mesa Valenciano affirming that the Cuban university has as its mission to form “before all else, revolutionary and committed professionals.” Additionally, he cited Article 5 of the Constitution, in which it is declared that the Communist Party of Cuba is the top leading political force of society and the Cuban State.

A few hours after the declaration was published, there were already various reactions of protest visible on social media. José Raúl Gallego, a professor of journalism expelled from the University of Camaguey and one of the signers of the open letter in August, described the text as “shameful,” but he also believes that it is “something symptomatic.”

“They can only take out a declaration in the name of the Board, while René is supported by his students, his friends. The abstract, the nameless, the institutional versus the concrete, the selfless.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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"Learning to Demand Our Rights," the Message of a Competition in Cuba

The lamentable state of many homes is a source of maximum concern for Cubans. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, October 1, 2019 — The deterioration of homes, the increase in poverty, the lack of transport, and poor health were some of the daily problems most pointed out by Cubans who participated in the competition How to solve a problem in my neighborhood, organized by the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC) and the app Apretaste.

According to the organizers, more than 60% of the work was related to “the Government’s inability to solve problems in the neighborhood,” which is why many classify it as “inefficient” or “corrupt.” What also stood out was the message of one of the participants, who defended the necessity of “learning to demand our rights” and “not accepting promises without a date of completion and names of those responsible.”

The first prize, of $300, went to Pinar del Rio resident Rolando Pupo Carralero. The competition’s jury also awarded second prizes of $100 to Javier Torres, Miguel Álvarez, and Luz Martínez. continue reading

The high participation in this edition, with more than 500 works presented, was decisive for the decision to increase the prizes, awarding five of $50 and ten of $25.

The winners were: Kristian Calzadilla, Manuel Salina, S. Esgue, Alejandro Martínez, Elisa Hernández, Andrés González, Maivis de Fatima, Giordis Valentín, Susel Fernández, Rossio Suarez, Sandor Chaviano, Cira Vega, Jesús Silva, Frank Correa, and Zaray F. García.

In this second edition of the competition, open to Cubans living on the Island, participants were asked to apply the methodology of conflict resolution to problems they perceived in their neighborhoods.

Among the themes that emerged there were also references to the increase in violence, to restrictions on the self-employed, and to laws that make the development of private initiatives difficult.

The Observatory indicated that, although some Cubans attributed the problems in their neighborhoods to the blockade (i.e. the American embargo), the majority blamed them on the “internal blockade that prevents personal and community initiative to solve problems.”

The organizers are also satisfied by the increase, compared with the first edition of the competition, in proposals of solutions “through self-reliance and with motivation for civil society to find responses to diverse community problems.”

“It’s better to solve things with our own hands and not use our hands to wait for a solution,” they emphasize.

The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts has a mission to expose, educate, and empower citizens ready to take initiative to encourage solving problems that afflict Cuban society.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Several Cuban Activists Arrested During "Performance" In Solidarity With Guillermo Del Sol

Last image distributed by Guillermo del Sol, which shows his physical deterioration. (Alexander Rodríguez Cárdenas)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 September 2019 — This Monday, as Guillermo del Sol’s hunger strike reached 50 days, a group of activists, opposition figures, and independent journalists have made public a letter of support in which they intend to express their “solidarity and recognition” to the activist for his “sacrifice to eradicate one of the most lamentable arbitrary actions committed against our people.” The letter is signed by dozens of people from independent civil society, many of whom are affected by prohibitions on leaving the country like the ones Del Sol is denouncing.

The text urges the activist to take care of his health, although the signers respect the decision he has made. “Today marks 50 days since your hunger strike began and we are very worried about the accelerated deterioration of your health, which makes your life more fragile every minute. We want you to protect yourself, we want you alive to achieve along with us our final objective, which is to enjoy a free Cuba like the one our Apostle dreamed of. Without you there, the freedom that we will inevitably win will not have one of its best sons raising its flag; but know that we respect your will and we will continue supporting you.” continue reading

Óscar Casanella was arrested this Sunday, along with five activists, for an action aimed at supporting Del Sol. (Michel Matos)

Adrian del Sol, Guillermo’s son, told 14ymedio first thing on Monday morning that his father remains in critical condition. “Now it’s 50 days on strike and counting 10 after they gave him serums. On that day he was denied healthcare, State Security practically dragged him out of the bed as he was still hydrating, toward a police car to leave him here at the house. For me it’s a show of force to humiliate. He’s getting weaker and weaker, the doctor comes but she doesn’t take his vital signs.”

The activist’s son indicated that both he and his father know about the letter of support and believe that “it’s good;” his father is grateful, he added, “for the support and concern” of everyone who signed it, but he maintains his decision to continue on the hunger strike.

Yesterday, four activists and two independent journalists were arrested in Havana when they were attempting to meet to carry out a performance in solidarity with Guillermo del Sol. The group had planned to wear paper masks with photos of the face of the opposition figure from Villa Clara and walk in the area around the Coppelia ice cream parlor on the centrally located corner of 23 and L, in El Vedado, to support Del Sol’s protest against the prohibitions on traveling that Cuban authorities impose on dissidents.

Those arrested were Iliana Hernández, Oscar Casanella, Pablo Morales Marchan, Yunia Figueredo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and Michel Matos. The last three were released a few hours after the arrest.

Yunia Figueredo, who was in the Regla police station, was released at four in the morning this Monday. Before arriving there, she had been in Guanabacoa along with Hernández, who remains detained there first thing Monday morning, as her mother confirmed to this newspaper.

The artist Otero Alcántara, one of the first released after the arrest, explained to 14ymedio the circumstances in which the events occurred. “We were on the corner of Yara waiting to begin. Then a patrol car arrived with two police officers and a Lada with three oppressors of those who go after Iliana. They took her and, as Óscar protested, they took him too,” he explained after being released.

“Michel Matos and I were also there protesting. We began to film their arrest and one of the oppressors fell on me to try to take away my phone. They swatted at Michel to do the same to him and threw him to the ground. Then they handcuffed me, they took me in the Lada with particular bodywork, and they took us to [the police unit located between streets] 21 and C. They were never able to take away my phone,” he adds.

“For whoever says that in Cuba arrests aren’t arbitrary. Simply seated on the grounds of the cinema Yara Iliana Hernández, Oscar Casanella, Michel Matos, and this writer, they took us prisoner in front of the entire public on the corner of 23 and L, without previous identification nor legal recourse,” reported Otero Alcántara on his Facebook account with a photo of the police patrol that participated in the arrests.

“We were simply talking about a performance in favor of accompanying our brother in the fight, Guillermo del Sol, hunger striker in defense of the activists ’regulated’ from leaving Cuba. We continue in the fight,” he added.

Guillermo del Sol was brought a few days ago to the Arnaldo Milián hospital, in Santa Clara, because of the deterioration of his health, according to the most recent information. There he received intravenous hydration, but the following day two uniformed officers brought him again to his home.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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"Regulated Ones" on a War Footing

Since 2018 the strategy of informing activists of their “regulated” status at the moment of reaching the immigration counter has become more common. (EFE)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, September 25, 2019 — The list of Cuban citizens whom the Government has labeled as “regulated” by now includes 150 people. This mechanism, with which the authorities arbitrarily restrict the free movement of activists, journalists, and opposition figures in general, has been consolidated in two years as a regular repressive method.

The free movement of persons is enshrined by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as Article 52 of the Cuban Constitution. Although in both cases, and in all states, it is a right subject to regulations, the Government of Havana applies its regulations in an arbitrary manner, limiting the room for maneuver of those affected, which can sometimes make them face the judicial avenue and other times turn to activism.

That’s the case for the reporter from the magazine El Estornudo, Abraham Jiménez Enoa, who since June 2 of 2016 has been subject to a migratory regulation from the Ministry of the Interior. As appears on a document, this prohibition is valid until the same day in 2021. These five years are what the State considers he “owes” for having been part of the program of “inserted cadets.” The program allows cadets assigned to the Ministry of the Interior to attend (“be inserted into”) university programs in lieu of other duties. Jiménez Enoa was able to study journalism through an agreement for which he would afterward complete five years of social service, which is why he is not allowed to leave Cuba and has no option to turn to. continue reading

For the reporter, the mode in which the Government impedes “the free movement of individuals is worthy only of dictatorial and totalitarian systems” and he believes that it is “another proof that in Cuba the Government violates many human rights.”

“The idea is to punish and intimidate those who dissent, put the lash to their shoulders. If the internet has brought anything to us Cubans, it’s the possibility to show the Island that many people don’t know. An Island where, sometimes, they force you to remain trapped there for raising your voice and confronting the regime,” Jiménez tells 14ymedio.

Katherine Mojena, a member of the opposition organization Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), has been “regulated” since December of 2016.

“From then until now they have prevented me from leaving Cuba on more than five occasions. Just now I was selected to participate in a training program on how to confront and report on gender violence. It will take place in the United States and it’s directed by Washington’s embassy in Havana. When I went to ask, I was still ’regulated’,” says Mojena.

The activist assures that during several exchanges with State Security they have told her that “the condition” for letting her leave Cuba is that she remains “permanently” in any other country. “My husband Carlos Amel Oliva and I have categorically refused that. This is my country and they are the ’surplus’ ones,” she believes.

In her opinion, there are many factors influencing the Government’s decisions on a person’s movement.

“It’s not my goal to cause harm with this comment but, in our particular case, this long time with this restrictive measure of the dictatorship is a kind of recognition of how unyielding we have been with our activism. Peaceful but firm in favor of freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights in Cuba.”

Mojena believes that it is necessary to fight from within the Island, which is the path she has chosen and she will not accept conditions. “They can ’regulate’ me, arrest me, rob my home, like they have done, and even put me in prison. I’m ready to face them. Amel and I, and also the ’regulated’ activists from Unpacu, we prefer for Guillermo del Sol to stay alive and we recognize the great and exceptional sacrifice he is making in the interests of all the victims of this arbitrary measure.”

Guillermo del Sol, 53, has been on a hunger strike since August 12 and insists that he is determined to fight the arbitrary practice of the Cuban Government of “regulating” nonconformists.

Others have opted for the legal route. That is the case of the opposition figure Abdel Legrá Pacheco, for whom Immigration authorities suspended the prohibition on leaving the country after he brought a lawsuit before the provincial court of Havana.

The reporter Boris González Arenas also turned to the law to confront the prohibition on leaving that was imposed on him in June. “I already missed a trip to Panama, to Colombia, an invitation to participate in ASCE, in the United States, and finally, another to the United Kingdom, where I was invited by the British parliament,” he told this newspaper.

“I presented a request to Roilan Hernández, the legal person in charge of immigration. The current Cuban Constitution has a rudiment that isn’t habeas data [although it is similar], but through which one can ask the State about the information that it has about him. I asked Immigration to know the reason for my ’regulation.’ Of course there was no response. I went to the military prosecutor, to sue for Hernández’s abuse of authority, and it passed the case to the Attorney’s Office of the Ministry of the Interior, which has not yet answered me.”

In January of 2013 a Migratory Reform went into effect which significantly liberalized the processes for traveling outside of the Island, with the old “exit permit” being eliminated, but with the passage of years the list of opposition voices who cannot leave the country has been growing. At the beginning, State Security prevented dissidents from traveling via arbitrary arrests.

Since 2018, however, the strategy of informing activists of their “regulated” status at the moment of reaching the immigration counter has become more common.

After the modifications made by the Decree-Law 302 in October of 2012, immigration authorities have the capicity to deny certain citizens the issue of a passport or prevent them from leaving the country.

The law provides for various cases: being subject to a penal process, having an outstanding fulfillment of a penal sanction or security measure, being in the course of fulfilling Military Service, or being considered “a work force qualified for the social and scientific technical development of the country.”

However, where more discretion applies is in reasons “of public interest or of National Defense and Security.” The lawyer Eloy Viera maintained in an article published in El Toque that he opposes the use of vague concepts like Defense, National Security, or Public Interest to justify the limitation of rights by immigration authorities. They are variables “that are used with impunity to limit fundamental rights.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Cubans in the US: Richer Than Other Hispanics but Speak Less English

The foreign-born Cuban population living in the US has risen 50%. (Luigi Novi)

14ymedio, Havana, September 18, 2019 — Cubans residing in the US in 2017 rose to 2.3 million, according to a study published this Monday by the Pew Research Center, which relies on data from the last available census in the country. The figure includes both those born on the Island and descendants of Cubans.

With this quantity, Cubans make up the third-largest population of Hispanic origin in the US, 4% of the total. Another significant figure that the data analysis reveals is their spectacular growth, from 1.2 million in 2000 to 2.3 million in 2017, an increase of 84%. Additionally, the foreign-born Cuban population living in the US has increased 50%, from 853,000 in 2000 to 1.3 million in 2017. The largest group in the country is Mexican, made up of 36.6 million, 62% of the Hispanic population.

The comparison of the data of the Cuban community with the Hispanic whole reveals other realities. Only 33% of the whole were born abroad, while among Cuban-Americans, it’s 56%. And 43% of the foreign-born Cubans have been in the US more than 20 years, and 58% of them are American citizens. continue reading

In the educational realm, 27% of Cubans over 25 have obtained a college degree, compared with 16% of Hispanics. Islanders also have a 38% probability of getting a college degree compared with 23% of Latinos.

Consequently, Cubans also have higher incomes, with a median of $28,000 annually compared with $25,000 for Hispanics as a whole. The amount rises to $35,000 for Cuban full-time workers, slightly more than the $34,000 for the whole.

The same outlook transfers to poverty, which affects 19% of Hispanics compared with 16% of Cubans, an average of the figures for those between those born in the US (14%) and abroad (17%).

The economic figures also impact home ownership, with a rate of 51% for Cubans and 47% for Hispanics. Cubans born in the US are homeowners at a greater rate than those born abroad (55% compared with 50%).

By concentration, the Cuban population is found mainly in Florida (66%), California (5%), and New Jersey (4%); and its average age (40) is older than that of Americans (38) and, especially, Hispanics, the youngest group of those assessed, with an average of 29 years.

Cubans born abroad marry more than Americans (49% compared with 37%), although without including place of birth, the number of married is 45%, less than Hispanic Americans, with 46%. In the same way, Cubans have lower rates of fertility than the Hispanic whole, with 5% compared to 7%.

Regarding language, Cubans seem less inclined to change it than the rest of Latinos. Around 70% of Hispanics in the US older than 5 only speak English at home or speak English at least “very well,” compared with 61% of Cubans.

Regarding adults, 64% of Hispanics are fluent in English, a quantity notably greater than the 55% of Cubans who have the same fluency.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Hunger Striker Guillermo del Sol Taken to Hospital

After 40 days on a hunger strike, Guillermo del Sol has been taken to the Arnaldo Milián Castro hospital in Santa Clara. (Facebook/Iliana Hernández)

14ymedio, Havana, September 20, 2019 — After 40 days on a hunger strike, the journalist and religious activist Guillermo del Sol was taken this Friday at midday to the Arnaldo Milián Castro hospital in Santa Clara, where he lives.

Del Sol is in critical condition after 40 days without consuming food, as his son Adrián del Sol Alfonso informed 14ymedio. “We just got to the hospital because he had a relapse, almost a faint, now he is under observation but they haven’t yet given him anything, neither serum nor any other treatment,” he pointed out.

This Thursday an official from State Security visited the family’s home, in Santa Clara, but “came not to negotiate but rather to harass,” he notes. continue reading

Del Sol made the decision to stop eating on August 12 after Immigration officials at the Havana airport told his son that he couldn’t leave the country. The activist then began a hunger strike to demand an end to the arbitrary actions against 150 “regulated” dissidents. (“Regulated” is the term the government uses to define those forbidden from traveling outside the country.)

“Last night my father didn’t sleep well, in the last 72 hours he has gone into a complicated state due to the deterioration of his health, by now it’s 40 days of starvation, on hunger strike,” explains his son. “His parameters are completely unbalanced, the doctor is coming every day now.”

“Yesterday he spent the night wanting to vomit, it’s difficult for me to communicate with him, he is no longer articulate, sometimes I ask him something and he doesn’t respond.” The young man explains that Del Sol remains in bed and awake. “I’m very worried about his situation and his health,” he reiterates.

In an interview with this newspaper the activist had predicted that the Cuban authorities would remain silent until he was dying. “That’s if they don’t decide to let me die. But it depends on them,” he argued. A situation that appears to be happening.

The official from State Security who visited him on September 19 came in civilian clothing. “He came to criticize, to reproach the actions that we are taking,” says Adrián del Sol Alfonso. In the first 27 days without eating food, the activist lost 21 kilograms in weight.

It’s not the first time that Del Sol has declared himself on hunger strike. The last one culminated on May 20, 2017, after more than twenty days without eating food as a demand that he be returned some film equipment that the police had confiscated. On that occasion, the independent journalist and Evangelical pastor achieved his demand.

“I know that demanding an end to the arbitrary regulations of the 150 ’regulated’ people that we have been able to count seems like madness and that demanding only the reversal of that condition for my son would have been easier,” assured Del Sol a few weeks ago, but “the world has to know that the Cuban government is trying to turn our borders into bars.”

This Friday, the activist obtained a victory by achieving the objective of a petition that he started on the platform change.org to collect signatures supporting the removal of the director of Radio and TV Martí, Tomás Regalado, who just resigned. Del Sol assured that many Cubans lamented that the broadcaster was no longer fulfilling its real function but was rather dedicating itself to placating “personal questions” of its director.

In recent years Cuban authorities have used travel restrictions as a repressive strategy against activists, opposition figures, and independent reporters. The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation has denounced this practice, and on social media the demand is expressed with the hashtag #Ni1ReguladoMás (Not One More Regulated), which helps to raise awareness in public opinion and pressure Cuban authorities.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Several Years in Prison for Self-employed Cuban Who Bought 15,000 Apples

The purchase of the apples occurred at La Puntilla Mall, which is located in the Miramar neighborhood in Havana.

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, September 17, 2019 — The seven people involved in the buying and selling of 15,000 apples at the store La Puntilla, in Havana, who were denounced last year by a Party-liner blogger, received sentences of seven months to six years in prison for the crimes of bribery and stockpiling, according to the judicial sentence to which 14ymedio has had access.

The trial occurred in June but nothing has been known until now since the official press has not responded to the matter. This media outlet learned about the sentence thanks to a relative of one of the convicted.

A text published in September of 2018 under the title Robbery in La Puntilla: It’s necessary to go further, criticized “the complicit indifference of employees.” The report was also published by the website Cubadebate and generated an intense controversy. continue reading

Nine months after the incident, on June 17 of this year, the accused were convicted of the crimes of bribery and stockpiling of a continuous nature. The trial, oral and public, took place at the Business System Region Military Court in Havana, due to the fact that the market where the events occurred is managed by the Cimex corporation, a business of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).

Among the defendants were state employees Rafael Tápanes Montalvo, Adonis Semanat Ortiz, and Joel Muñiz Lorenzo, in addition to self-employed workers Luis Eduardo Bruzón Mesa, Alexis Hechavarría Guerra, Raudelis Ramos Mejía, and Eliecer Samada Hechevarría, who bought the apples.

Tápanes Montalvo was a salesman at the Tropicola Warehouse Base which supplies the FAR’s holdings, while Semanat Ortiz worked at La Puntilla warehouse. Both were sentenced to 6 years in prison and the severity of their sentences was due to their working relationship with FAR companies.

Tápanes Montalvo was accused of the crime of bribery because he advised self-employed people via text message about the time and place of apple sales. In exchange he received 20 CUC and minutes for his cellphone, according to the district attorney. The defense insisted that the employee gave that information to facilitate management for the merchants but that he never asked for money in exchange.

The sentence signals that because of the positions that Tápanes Montalvo and Semanat Ortiz occupied in their workplaces, both were considered “public officials,” which means more severe sentences. “As special individuals, they should have prevented corrupt officials from being able to break the barrier of honesty and integrity that must characterize a public employee.”

For his part, Muñiz Lorenzo worked as a driver for Plaza Carlos III and used the state-owned vehicle he drove for apple deliveries, for which he was sentenced to seven months in prison, but he was released after the trial because he had already completed his sentence in pre-trial detention.

The self-employed were accused of speculation and stockpiling and were sentenced to between 3 and 4 years of prison. Stockpiling is a crime regulated in article 230 of the Cuban Penal Code and punishes whoever retains in their power or transportation merchandise or products “in evident and unjustifiably greater quantities than those required for their normal needs.”

However, in the trial it was specified that all the self-employed had their documents in order and correctly paid their taxes. Ramos Mejías, for example, had authorization to deal in light foods and a permit from the administration of the Municipal Assembly of Popular Power of Guantanamo.

The lawyer Miguel Iturría, who works with the Legal Association of Cuba, warns that some jurists believe that the crime of stockpiling “is reserved only for regulated products whose acquisition is limited” but in judicial practice it has been applied frequently against clients of free markets like stores that trade in convertible currency.

“If someone goes to a public establishment to buy 40 or 50 floor cleaning cloths, a product that disappears frequently, he is sold them in the state business and upon arriving home or on the street he is arrested, accused, and, subsequently, punished,” warns Iturría, for whom this “situation is an absurdity.”

For years, since its reappearance in the 90s, the Cuban private sector has demanded access to a wholesale market that would allow them to buy large quantities of products at preferential prices. Despite official promises, they have only opened stores where one can acquire certain products at wholesale but without economic advantages.

Frequently customers of retail stores complain that the entrepreneurs hoard basic essentials like bread, oil, flour, and milk. In the official press they are blamed for the shortages of some merchandise and complaints against those who buy large quantities of food and other products are published.

According to a witness of the trial against the seven people penalized, only three of them presented appeals before the court, which have not yet been ruled on.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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European Tourism in Cuba Records a Steep Drop and Hotel Occupancy Plunges

In the colonial city of Trinidad the fall in number of visitors is experienced most dramatically in local businesses. (M. Wong/Flickr)

14ymedio, Havana, September 14, 2019 — Tourism, one of the few dynamic branches of the Cuban economy, is also in crisis. Official statistics published this Saturday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) do not yet reflect the plunge in American visitors since July but do reflect a substantial fall in European travelers between January and June of this year.

Although it’s true that the number of tourists from the US increased some 40% in the first half of 2019 (from 266,185 in the same period in the previous year to 372,669), it’s necessary to stress that this increase is solely attributable to trips on cruise ships and, additionally, it is temporary given that Washington prohibited them in June so that Havana would cease its interference in Venezuela and its support for Nicolás Maduro.

In a statement made in July, the Minister of Tourism himself, Manuel Marrero, explained that the suspension of cruises would affect “more than 560,000 Americans in the rest of the year,” which allows one to predict a total collapse of the only sector of tourism that was expanding. continue reading

Since the prohibition on cruise ships, the arrival of foreigners in Cuba has decreased at least 20% according to official figures, although some economists believe that the percentage is even greater.

Official figures were just published on international tourism in Cuba in the first half of 2019. Compared with the same period of 2018, visitors increase (+2.4%), revenue barely increases (+0.2%) and the occupation rate is reduced (-6.8%) pic.twitter.com/IYGLrbb4qR

-Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal)

Canada continues to be the primary source of visitors (more than 725,000 in the first half of the year), with a slight growth of 1.1%, while Cuban-Americans (305,680) are in third place and are the only ones to register a significant increase (6.4%).

On the other hand, the five main European clients are losing interest in Cuba: France (-10.3%), Germany (-10.4%), England (-17.8%), Spain (-15%), and especially Italy (-25%). Nationals of those countries totalled more than 516,000 in the first half of 2018, but only 437,000 in the equivalent period of this year.

Despite the decrease in European visitors, the total arrival of tourists grew 2.4%. However, revenues only increased 0.2% (as always, ONEI doesn’t say anything about the costs of running hotels, which doesn’t allow one to know the true earnings of the State in that sector).

Even more worrying for the Government is the fact of the occupancy rate in hotels, which fell 6.8% and is at 43.6% total capacity. This means that almost six rooms out of every ten have remained empty during the first half of the year.

The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who follows the situation closely via his blog and his Twitter account, predicts that the occupancy rate will continue falling in the second half of the year, and calls into question the official policy that bets on the construction of new hotels for international tourism.

“There is a contradiction between the depressed hotel occupancy rate and the increase in hotel capacity, which should grow with more than 4,000 new rooms in 2019. Unless it is explained in a conclusive manner, the enormous investment that implies doesn’t seem justified,” he points out in an analysis of the latest figures from ONEI.

These results do not come at the best time for the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who faces a severe crisis caused by the poor management of the economy, the increase in sanctions from the United States, and, above all, the collapse of his Venezuelan ally and benefactor.

This week Díaz-Canel has called on Cubans to be prepared for more sacrifices and hardships. To get out of this “temporary situation,” the leader has promised that tourism will have an important role. ONEI’s figures do not seem to indicate that the economic recovery will take that route.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Diaz-Canel Defines the Current Energy Crisis as a "Temporary Situation"

To dispel fears of a food shortage, like the one that occurred at the beginning of this year, Díaz-Canel said that “the issue is essentially energy.” (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, September 11, 2019 — President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke this Wednesday about the problems with the arrival of fuel to Cuba that are affecting the day to day life of the Island, although he ruled out that it is a second Special Period, similar to the crisis of the 90s that left a traumatic memory among Cubans.

In a television appearance transmitted by several channels, the leader alluded to the complex energy situation the country is experiencing, although he avoided using the word “crisis” and assured that after the arrival of a ship with petroleum, on September 14, the tension will be relieved, but he pointed out that he wasn’t going to say “where it comes from.”

For several days complaints and reports about an abrupt fall in the number of buses circulating through the country reached social media. Images of people waiting for hours at bus stops, and popular rumors of a possible economic collapse similar to the one a quarter century ago, multiplied. continue reading

“It’s a temporary situation and we want the population to have all the elements,” clarified Díaz-Canel, who attributed the problem to the worsening of pressures by the American administration on the Island. “’They want to ’cut off our light and air,’ as we say in good Cuban,” he added.

After the arrival of the oil ship on the 14th, new shipments will not reach the Island until the end of September, so “adjustment and savings measures” must be taken so that the fuel that comes this week “lasts until” more arrives at the end of the month. “We are going to work with the fuel that has already entered the economy,” insisted Díaz-Canel.

To dispel fears of a lack of food like the one that occurred at the beginning of this year, Díaz-Canel said that “the issue is essentially energy, with some related to fuel, and for that reason we are going to explain the impacts. It’s not a shortage, we have food at the ports.”

“This scenario obligates us to take measures to get out of this temporary situation, to minimize the impact on prioritized services and optimize the use of fuel,” he detailed.

In recent days some companies have been forced to cut transport services for their employees in face of the low availability of fuel. In his appearance the leader called on drivers of state cars* to stand in solidarity. “All state cars must stop at the stops,” and pick up people waiting for a bus, especially at rush hour.

“We have to take satisfactory experiences applied in the Special Period when it comes to solutions for transportation,” warned Díaz-Canel, who recalled the changes in working hours that were imposed in those years and called for a “leveling” of electric spikes to avoid excess demand at the times of greatest usages of energy in the residential sector.

The formula most repeated by the leader to get out of the crisis was appealing to savings, sensitivity, and popular vigilance. Díaz-Canel called on the population to be alert so that no one speculates, hoards, or raises prices.

Díaz-Canel tried to calm the popular mood and reminded that Cuba produces 40% of its needs in petroleum, and ruled out possible “blackouts” ahead of the new fuel shipment next Sunday. The minister of Economy and Finance, Alejandro Gil Hernández, also assured that the supply of liquified and natural gas is guaranteed until the end of the year.

The Economy minister called for a paralyzation of certain services that are not at the moment a priority in order to guarantee others that are essential. The official assured that they were going to guarantee activities that directly affect the wellbeing of the population, like the distribution of food and passenger transportation.

However, the minister of transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, announced that there will be adjustments in the train schedules and that “not everyone will be able to travel the day they want.” “We are going to readjust the departures of domestic trains, without canceling departures but we are going to space them out in time,” he asserted.

*Translator’s note: This kind of informal “ride sharing” is long-standing in Cuba, in the face of decades of limitations in passenger transport of all kinds.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Mogherini’s Visit Coincides With Dozens of Arrests

The European Community, represented by Mogherini, has reiterated its support at the Plaza of the Revolution on this trip.

14ymedio, Havana, September 11, 2019 — Dozens of activists arrested this weekend during the framework of Federica Mogerini’s visit to Cuba continue to be detained in bad conditions, their families report. This Monday night, Katerine Mojena, wife of the Carlos Amel Oliva, the youth director of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) , reported that he as well as the leader of the opposition organization, José Daniel Ferrer, were in the cells of the first police unit of Santiago de Cuba.

“No washing and in the same clothes from two days ago. With very little and disgusting water and food. They’ll be there for 5 days until it’s decided if they’ll go to prison or not,” reported Mojena on social media. Mojena, also an activist, who has seen the authorities arrest her husband twice in four days, has rejected the position of the European Union in its relations with Cuba, even more so as the arrests made coincided with the visit of its chief of diplomacy. Several of the detainees have already been released with fines from 500 to 1,500 CUP.

“Outrageous that the EU negotiates with a dictatorship that mobilizes its soldiers to stop its citizens from marching with a sunflower in hand,” lamented the opposition figure on Twitter. continue reading

In a video filmed by the Unpacu leader, José Daniel Ferrer, Oliva is seen walking on a street with a sunflower in his hand and a military vehicle abruptly arrives with several people in uniform. The live social media transmission was cut off after that.

According to what Mojena told this newspaper, Ferrer, Amel, Jorge Cervantes, and Carlos Oliva Rivery have all been in detention for 48 hours by now. In the case of Ovidio Martín it’s 72 hours, because he was arrested in a raid carried out on his home on the 7th. There are currently 23 activists who have not been released and it is unknown in which unit the majority is being kept. Additionally, the operation continues, more reinforced in the three homes that make up the headquarters of Unpacu in Altamira.

Ernesto Oliva explained to 14ymedio the circumstances of his arrest and that of his colleagues. “On the 8th, when we were leaving the José María Heredia cell of Unpacu to demonstrate, around six activists. About 10 officials from State Security were near the door and, when we went out, they made a circle to prevent us from reaching the street. There we started to demonstrate and they called for reinforcements.”

According to the activist, who was released within a few hours, some thirty minutes later about twenty more officials arrived, all in plain clothes, in a State truck. “There wasn’t a single one in uniform, neither police nor military, the method was out of the ordinary. The agents in civilian clothes put us in the truck. Some residents said that among them there were even police from the PNR (National Revolutionary Police) in plain clothes. They took us to the old school, Frank País teacher training, which is now a school for cadets, and there they split us up, sat us down at desks, and denied us food and water,” he reviews.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), headquartered in Spain, which in recent days has reiterated its petition to the EU to put an end to the Agreement of Political Dialogue and Cooperation with Havana, has called on Mogherini to condemn the arrests.

“You cannot remain silent. While a discussion on human rights is being staged, José Daniel Ferrer, Jorge Cervantes, Zaqueo Báez Guerrero, Ovidio Martín, Carlos Amel Oliva, and Carlos Oliva Rivery remain detained, all coordinators of the Patriotic Union of Cuba,” it expressed in a statement.

Also against the Agreement is the leftwing activist and ex-diplomat Pedro Campos, who believes that Mogherini “seeks the opening of Castroism to foreign capital and eliminating the internal blockade, to hide the true depths of the EU-Castro agreement,” which, he believes, is “to help the dictatorship economically and to burnish its international image of violators of the human rights of the Cuban people.”

Since the arrival last weekend of the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the threats, arrests, and suspension of cellphone service have multiplied against activists to prevent a peaceful protest planned for Sunday.

Mogherini has made an official visit with an agenda filled with meetings and in which the absence of meetings with the opposition has bothered that sector. If someone was waiting for a shift in the European policy, nothing is further from reality, given that the community block has reiterated its support at the Plaza of the Revolution.

“We are available to the authorities and to the Cuban people to share our experiences and offer financial support,” declared Mogherini this Monday in Havana.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Police Take the Journalist Roberto Quinones to Prison

Roberto de Jesús Quiñones was taken to prison on September 11, 2019. (Cubanet)

14ymedio, Havana, September 11, 2019 — The journalist Roberto Quiñones was arrested this Wednesday and driven to jail by the police, after he didn’t report on September 5 to the provincial prison of Guantanamo to complete a one-year sentence.

Three National Revolutionary Police (PNR) agents arrived at Quiñones’s house after four in the afternoon and arrested him, as his wife Ana Rosa Castro detailed to the information website Cubanet.

“Roberto was prepared. He had his things gathered, so they wouldn’t delay in taking him. They told him that he had the right to a phone call, that way he would give me the details of his exact location. Later they informed me that they took him to the provincial prison,” added Ana Rosa. continue reading

Recently, Quiñones had announced that he would not report voluntarily to the prison. “The president of the court that sanctioned me and the judges of the provincial court that did the other setup of a staging of a supposed act of justice, insisted that I am a dangerous citizen, I have thought that in that case the best thing is to wait for them to come arrest me in my own house,” he argued.

The independent journalist and contributer to Cubanet was sanctioned on August 7 for the crime of resistance and disobedience. He received a sentence of a year in prison substituted for correctional work with internment, during a trial held in the Municipal Court of the city of Guantanamo.

The journalist’s arrest occurred on April 22 while he was waiting to cover the trial against the pastors Ramón Rigal and Ayda Expósito, who refused to send their children to school and opted for the method of teaching known as homeschooling. According to their testimony they were beaten by officials during the arrest.

This month, the US government condemned the prosecution of the reporter. “We urge the Cuban regime to immediately release Mr. Quiñones and cease the abuse and mistreatment against him,” said the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in statement.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) also critized the Cuban Government and demanded that it suspend the punishment and “not continue trampling human rights.”

At the end of August Quiñones was awarded the Patmos Prize for Religious Liberty, which the Patmos Institute gives out. The organization recognized the Catholic layman because “in a very critical period for Cuban civil society in general, including for churches, where the majority prefer to remain silent (…), he decided to be the exception and live against the current.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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Jose Daniel Ferrer Arrested Along With Other Activists in Santiago de Cuba

The activist Katerine Mojena reported via Twitter the siege around her house.

14ymedio, Havana, September 8, 2019 — An attempt to participate in the protest organized for this Sunday ended with ten activists arrested in Santiago de Cuba, among them the opposition figure José Daniel Ferrer. The dissidents were violently arrested outside the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), as residents of the area reported to 14ymedio.

Ten people left the building around 10 in the morning, the hour scheduled to begin the protest organized by Unpacu and Cuba Decides in response “to the increase of repression against the peaceful opposition and the citizenry,” but outside the place a strong police operation prevented them from passing.

“There are black berets and a strong police operation in the entire neighborhood,” a neighbor who lives a few meters from the Unpacu headquarters, who preferred to remain anonymous, detailed to this newspaper. “They went down and they didn’t last even a minute on the street because they were on top of them,” he adds. Among the arrested was José Daniel Ferrer Cantillo, 16, son of the opposition leader. continue reading

José Daniel Ferrer, Carlos Amel Oliva Torres and dozens of #UNPACU activists and advocates of #CubaDecide in several provinces of the country arrested. Zaqueo Báez disappeared in Havana. The dictatorship attacks demonstrators.

pic.twitter.com/14RwyLrY7L — Katerine Mojena (@KataCuba) September 8, 2019

A little earlier Ferrer, an ex-prisoner of the Black Spring had warned on social media of the possibility of being arrested. “If we don’t publish or respond to your messages, it’s because we are incommunicado. And at the latest at 10 AM, we will be arrested,” he wrote.

Ferrer also explained that the whereabouts since Saturday of at least 30 activists from the organization are unknown. “We don’t know where they have them. The families don’t know their whereabouts. There will be more arrests as 10 AM gets closer. At that time we will go out to the streets in many places,” he announced.

For her part, the activist Katerine Mojena reported via Twitter the siege around her house. “I’m surrounded by soldiers. Alone in a house with my two little ones. They’re threatening to assault my home. That’s what the dictatorship fears, a mother who confronts them peacefully,” she wrote.

Other members of Unpacu also reported operations around their homes, threats, and suspension of their cellphone service since long before the scheduled time to carry out the protest, on the day dedicated to the Patron of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre.

The organizers had called for going out to the streets with a sunflower or a yellow article of clothing, symbols of Chachita, as the Charity of El Cobre is popularly known. This Sunday also coincides with the eve of the holding in Havana of the Joint Council of the Cuban Government and the European Union, which the high representative of foreign policy, Federica Mogherini, will attend.

In Miami, Rosa María Payá, leader of the Cuba Decides project, participated in a meeting in the Shrine of the Charity of El Cobre and alluded to the future of the Island, which she defined as “beautiful [because] it’s a Cuba that we are creating among all of us, not just activists and opposition figures,” the dissident told a group of people gathered outside the church.

#Demonstration massive concentration of Cubans at the Shrine of Charity in support of #CubaDecide and #UNPACU pic.twitter.com/zb18D19D8K

— FNCA (@voiceofcanf) September 8, 2019

The two organizations who called for the protest also expressed their solidarity with the Ladies in White movement, independent journalists and artists, defenders of religious liberties, LGBTI activists, and all peaceful organizations.

Both Unpacu and Cuba Decides asked for an end to police abuses, prison sentences for political motives, violations of the right to enter or leave the country, bad treatment and torture in prisons, police raids on homes of dissidents, and violent arrests, in addition to the harassment of activists.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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On A Hunger Strike to Denounce the Situation of the 150 "Regulated" in Cuba

The activist Guillermo del Sol decided to stop eating as a protest against the violations on freedom of movement. (Cortesía)

14ymedio, Ricardo Fernández, Camaguey | September 7, 2019 — Guillermo del Sol, 53, has committed himself to fighting against the Cuban Government’s arbitrary practice of “regulating” nonconformists by prohibiting them from leaving the country. Twenty-seven days ago he began to fulfill his promise with a hunger strike, which has made him lose 21 kilos, he says via videoconference from his home in Santa Clara.

“It’s not a matter of getting my own benefits,” clarifies Del Sol, who takes the opportunity to cite one of the most well-known verses of the Cuban national anthem of “dying for the homeland is living.” He speaks slowly, taking long pauses to take a breath and recuperate the little energy that the long fast is leaving him. Since he began the hunger strike, he assures, he has only consumed water.

He made the decision to stop eating on August 12 after Immigration officials at the Havana airport announced to his son, Adrián del Sol Alfonso, that he couldn’t board a flight to Trinidad and Tobago, where he was going to participate in an event on religious freedom. The young man found out that he was “regulated” after going to the airline’s counter and checking in his baggage; “regulated” is the euphemism used by the Cuban government that means a person is forbidden from leaving the country. continue reading

That same day, father and son carried out a peaceful protest in the terminal area, which ended with the arrest of both. They were brought to the National Revolutionary Police unit of the Boyeros municipality, where they were fined and later released.

“Indignation, that’s what I felt when I saw that they were treating my son like a terrorist at the border,” explained Del Sol to this media outlet. “Then I understood what so many young people, journalists, religious people, and people whose only crime is thinking differently from the regime are experiencing. It wasn’t only my son who was being humiliated. In front of me I was seeing that sector of Cubans who live according to their own principals and pay for that audacity with being prohibiting from traveling abroad.”

The practice of preventing activists, independent journalists, and political opposition figures from leaving the country has become more common in recent months as a form of repression. International organizations and human rights groups in Cuba have warned about the situation, but authorities continue arbitrarily denying freedom of movement to citizens.

Guillermo is a member of the Old Catholic Church, declared illegal by the Office of Attention to Religious Affairs, attached to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. Additionally, he directs the independent press agency Santa Clara Vision. He knows that his health is delicate, because he suffers from diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and respiratory problems, but he is determined to continue on the strike.

In more than three weeks without food, he has suffered considerable weight loss, a gradual fall in blood pressure, and pain in the kidneys, legs, and joints. With great difficulty he reads the Bible and converses with friends who visit him.

It’s not the first time that Del Sol has declared himself on a hunger strike. The most recent ended on May 20, 2017, after more than twenty days without food as a demand for him to have some film equipment that the police had confiscated returned to him. On that occasion he achieved his demand.

“The Cuban authorities are going to be silent until I’m dying, that’s if they don’t decide to let me die. But it depends on them,” he says, unhurried, sure. “The only one who comes is the doctor from the office who checks on me in the mornings and informs the agents from State Security about my health.”

In his current situation he tries not to make any physical efforts and his son helps him bathe, in addition to remaining seated until the exhaustion forces him to lie down. “I try to save energy because this is a matter of time.”

He explains that he has received the support of many opposition organizations but laments that “certain religious organizations that suffer from the regulations have not declared themselves.”

“I know that demanding an end to the arbitrary ’regulations’ of the 150 ’regulated’ people that we have been able to count seems like madness and that demanding only the reversal of that condition for my son would have been easier,” he recognizes, but “the world has to know that the Cuban government is trying to turn our borders into bars.”

On social media, that demand is expressed with the hashtag #Ni1ReguladoMás (Not One More Regulated), which helps to raise awareness in public opinion and pressure Cuban authorities to “lift this arbitrariness,” emphasizes Del Sol.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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US Limits Remittances, But Not for Cuban NGOs or the Private Sector

The recipient of remittances cannot be an official of the Cuban Government. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, September 6, 2019 — Cuban-Americans can only send $1,000 every three months to their family members in Cuba according to the new rules announced this Friday by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury of the United States. However, the restrictions will not be applied to NGOs nor to the Island’s private sector.

The amendments, which are added to the regulations on Cuban assets implemented in recent months by Donald Trump’s administration, had been announced in April and will go into effect on October 9.

The new measures also eliminate donations, which would permit American citizens to send money to friends living on the Island. continue reading

The recipient of the remittances cannot be an official of the Cuban Government, a member of the Communist Party, or a close family member of one of these, explains the statement, although OFAC doesn’t explain what mechanisms it will employ to verify the political or military links of each recipient.

On the other hand, the private sector and NGOs on the Island will not be subjected to those limitations.

The OFAC document stresses Washington’s political will to favor the growth of a private sector independent from the Cuban Government. For that reason there will not be restrictions on sending remittances to self-employed people and certain NGOs, like Churches.

The small Cuban private sector is made up of a little more than half a million people and is developing especially in the sectors of restaurants (“paladares”), tourist lodging, and transportation.

“We are taking additional measures to financially isolate the Cuban regime. The United States holds it responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people and the support of other dictatorships throughout the region, like the illegitimate regime of Maduro,” warned the secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin.

“Through these amendments, the Treasury is denying Cuba access to strong currency, and we are checking the bad behavior of the Cuban Government as we continue supporting the people of Cuba who are suffering so much,” says the official notice.

“These actions mark a continuous commitment to implement the president’s policy on Cuba,” adds the statement. Previously, in June of 2019, OFAC suspended permission for cruise ships and further restricted non-family trips to Cuba by prohibiting educational and so-called people-to-people trips.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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More than Half of Artemisa Schools are in Bad Conditions as the School Year Begins in Cuba

The biggest constructive efforts regarding materials and labor have been concentrated in the construction of the province’s university. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Bertha K. Guillen, San Cristobal, September 4, 2019 — The enthusiasm to see classmates again and tell stories about their vacations has not prevented Artemisa’s students from seeing the deterioration of the schools to which they returned this Monday. The schools welcomed their students with an evident lack of paint, broken pipes, half-functioning toilets, and damaged school furniture.

The 2019-2020 school year has started in the province with 52.7% of facilities in poor conditions and a deficit of 1,347 teachers. The increase in number of students compared with the previous year, the exodus of teachers, and the limited quantity of graduates in education have aggravated the situation.

Educational authorities insist that they will try to reverse this situation with teachers contracted by the hour and with an increase in the teaching load and students per teacher, according to statements to the local newspaper El Artemiseño by the provincial director of Education, Caridad Cruz. continue reading

Combat High School in Rio Hondo. (14ymedio)

The parents of school-age children are worried because the problem is growing as the months pass and other teachers could leave the classroom, but right now, the priority is the problems with infrastructure in the schools.

Artemisa is in first place in terms of deterioration in schools. More than half of its facilities have been evaluated from fair to bad, double that in Matanzas (25.4%), Sancti Spiritus (25.3%), Havana (22.5%), and Holguin (19.7%), according to data provided by Francisco Navarro Gouraige, director of investment at the Ministry of Education.

The main damages are concentrated in the woodwork of windows and doors, the furniture, bathroom furnishings, sanitary and hydraulic pipes, electric work, and the lighting systems.

Despite everything, the school year began with 385 schools in the province taking in 80,215 students, 1,078 more than the previous year. The salary increase that went into effect in August brought back to the province around 500 teachers. However, the number of departures remains high. Meanwhile the number of graduates from education programs entering the workforce was only 46.

“I read in El Artemiseño that, with the salary increase, 102 of the 197 teachers who asked for leave at the end of last year changed their minds, but people are tired of the bad conditions in which we work, the strictness with which you have to follow orders that have more to do with politics than educating, and the indoctrination, so many leave, it’s just that those figures are barely publicized,” Magalis Rodríguez, a teacher with more than 38 years of experience who preferred to definitively retire, tells this newspaper.

“The biggest motivation to go back is the pension, with the salary increase the number is now a little higher than what we could get if we work for ourselves,” says Rosario, a primary school teacher who is trying to go back to teaching after five years of taking care of children as a self-employed worker.

With their eyes set on a pension according to the new salary scale, many teachers close to retirement age will stay for a short period in the classroom. “As soon as I have the possibility to retire with a little more money I’m leaving,” a teacher who preferred to remain anonymous tells 14ymedio.

The biggest deficit in educators is in high schools, especially in subjects like chemistry and mathematics. The latter is one of the subjects with an obligatory examination to enter any university in the country, which is why many parents have decided to turn to private teachers to complement what is learned in classes.

“Last year was chaotic, the lack of teachers almost cost the school year for a group of students. Of six classes per week in a subject they only give two, many teachers leave in the middle of the year to transfer to the Faculty of Medical Sciences, where they work less and the salary is the same. This year I’m already paying teachers [to tutor my child], we can’t risk failing the entrance exams for university,” says Felicia, mother of a twelfth-grade student.

Combat Urban High School, in San Cristobal, displays a devastating view, but not different from the rest of the municipality’s schools. More than half of the windows are totally destroyed, the perimeter area of the entrance is in bad condition, trash is accumulated in every corner, and students avoid entering the bathrooms.

Parents of the students, worried about their children’s continued stay in such precarious conditions, have taken on some of the maintenance work.

Ground level at the Faculty of Medicine. (14ymedio)

“They told us that each of us is responsible for fixing the desk and chair of our children. We have also had to coordinate to replace the missing slats on window blinds, bring in lightbulbs, paint the classroom, and try to make the environment a little nicer, because in these conditions no one studies,” explains Yusimí, one of the mothers who since Monday afternoon has already seen to these tasks.

In Artemisa, only 37 schools have been repaired, and the students of two schools have been relocated for a major repair. However, the greatest efforts regarding materials and labor have been concentrated in the construction of the province’s university and the pedagogic institutes that are opening their doors this September.

“The partial repairs have been left in the hands of the teaching staff of each school and the administration boards of each municipality, the province’s priority is educational,” insists a worker from Provincial Education.

“Without resources you cannot work. If there’s no cement, wood, or even the barest essentials to unblock the bathrooms, the brigade can’t do anything, nor the teachers, we’re not magicians,” stresses one of the brigade workers staying at Combat High in Rio Hondo.

The administrative staff tries to minimize the importance of the matter. A father worried about the situation received this response from an employee who tried to reassure him: “The school isn’t falling down.”

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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