Cuban Women Most Affected by Violence are Blacks, Mixed-Race and Those Under 35

The highest rates of violence against women are reported in Matanzas, Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantánamo. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 December 2023 — The Attorney General of the Republic, Yamila Peña Ojeda, said at the VII Plenary of the Communist Party of Cuba, held in Havana, that at the end of October 2023, 117 violent deaths of women had been reported on the Island, according to the official newspaper Granma. This figure is higher than the 81 femicides verified by independent platforms such as Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo (YSTC) in Cuba.

The provinces of Matanzas, Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantánamo have the highest rates of femicide, although the official press has not reported these deaths, and only the Girón newspaper published – last November – the data on seven femicides that occurred in the capital of Matanzas.

“Seventy-five percent of these acts occurred in homes shared by couples. Meanwhile, 70 children and adolescents were orphaned by a mother after her death,” said Peña Ojeda, although she avoided defining these “violent events” as femicides.

The general secretary of the official Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), Teresa Amarelle Boué, explained that the Council of Ministers approved a protocol of action for “situations of discrimination, violence and harassment in the workplace,” which she calls “a transcendental step in the attention to violence against women.” continue reading

Amarelle Boué left out important daily and social scenarios where violence against girls, adolescents, women, cis and transgender women is manifested

However, in her speech, Amarelle Boué left out other important daily and social scenarios where violence against girls, adolescents, women, cis and transgender women is manifested. The latter were not referred to in the statement by the FMC secretary nor by the Attorney General.

The analyses presented by Amarelle Boué and carried out by the Women’s Advancement Program show that, currently, 9,579 families live in a situation of violence in Cuba, including 16,116 women and girls.

Of the adolescents and women over 15 years old who are in these violent contexts, 60% are black and mulatto and under 35 years old. Their average schooling is ninth grade, and many of them are also housewives, economically dependent on their male partners.

Amarelle Boué also said that every month an evaluation is carried out to improve the statistics, which are not made public. The monthly assessment is chaired by the Communist Party and put into effect by the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministries of the Interior and Justice.

In 2021, the Cuban authorities announced the creation of a Gender Observatory that includes updated records of femicides and other expressions of sexist violence. Amarelle Boué currently presents its operation as an achievement; however, there is still no public system of statistical information on the subject.

According to the most recent Latin American Map of Femicides, disseminated within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Cuba is the country with the largest increase in the number of femicides

The director of the Gender Observatory added that communication about gender violence in the country has increased through the media and social networks. However, the official press maintains silence when femicides are reported by independent media and platforms.

According to the most recent Latin American Map of Femicides, released within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Cuba is the country with the largest increase in the number of femicides, going from 20 cases in the first half of 2022 to 50 in the same period of 2023, a 150% increase.

Paula Spagnoletti, one of the coordinators of the Map, in conversation with the Télam media, explained that according to YSTC and the Cuban feminist magazine, Alas Tensas, “there is an increase in verifications and not in the number of femicides, since there is no updated official figure that can serve as a baseline and reference point.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

An Expert Denies the Effects of the International Price of Wheat on Bread in Cuba

Wheat flour imported from the José Antonio Echeverría mill. (Empresa Cubana de Molinería)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, December 13, 2023 — The quantity and quality of the bodega (ration store) bread has been at the center of conversations, the official press and the independent media of Cuba for months. Several provinces have recognized in the last year that they are producing less or less weight, and every ship that arrived loaded with wheat “from Europe,” which, despite the tonnage, barely lasted for a few days, has been announced with great fanfare.

The reason given by the authorities has always been the same: the war between Russia and Ukraine has made imports more expensive, but this justification will have to be better explained, since the price of wheat has fallen in international markets. According to the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, “during 2023, the price of wheat in the international market has had an oscillating trajectory with a marked downward trend. The problem with the diminishing ’weight of the bread roll’ supplied to Cubans through the rationing system should be explained in another way. It is not due to an increase in the international price of wheat.”

The problem with the “weight of the bread roll” should be explained in another way. It is not due to an increase in the international price of wheat

The expert responded in this way to the words of Víctor Díaz Acosta, director of the Provincial Food Industry Company in Sancti Spíritus, who last week gave an interview to the official newspaper of the province, Escambray, in which he stated that the price of the raw material had tripled. continue reading

“Today Cuba buys wheat to process because it is cheaper, despite the fact that before Covid and the war between Russia and Ukraine, a shipment of this grain, which provided flour for about 12 days of national production, was purchased for 4 or 5 million pesos, while today it is around 13 million,” he said after talking about the State subsidy for the product.

“It could be that the price of wheat has tripled, but it would be a misinterpretation because the international price of wheat has fallen,” says Monreal. The economist manages the data from the Business Insider website that placed the price of grain at $234.92 per ton that day (December 8), its lowest level since September 28, 2020, when it was $239.50 per ton.

“Since the maximum reached on March 7, 2022 (446.65 dollars per ton), shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, the international price has fallen by 47.4% up to today,” the expert continues, adding that the price increase remained for approximately one year. “It is not a question of how much was acquired before and now there’s ’a boatload’ of wheat,” emphasizes Monreal, who believes the Government should focus on giving explanations, in any case, about transport costs.

Among the answers, there are those who mention the possibility that it’s a matter of “poorly negotiated” freight expenses, which is raising prices three times higher than in 2020.

Monreal also has a debate with another user who reproaches him for not taking into account the embargo. “Although today the price of wheat may be at its lowest value, the wheat that is consumed today is at the price of at least 3 months ago. The only way to have wheat with today’s price would be to buy it in the United States, and that is difficult,” he says. Monreal replies that the product is bought from a neighboring country. In addition, he adds, “the price of wheat in the international market has fallen throughout 2023. The question is not the price of wheat ’today’ but that it is getting cheaper.”

His challenger, identified as William SC, replies that there is no currency for everything Cuba needs to buy and admits that the justifications end when Díaz-Canel makes one of his international tours. “Right there all the justifications disappear. The main cause of the quality of bread is one thing: the malfunction of the socialist state enterprise,” he says.

Right there, all the justifications disappear. The main cause of the quality of bread is one thing: the malfunction of the socialist state enterprise   

Monreal agrees on both things. “That’s what I said. To have foreign currency you have to export, and to have credit you have to have a credit rating. The “bag” of currency does not fall from the sky. It must be created with an internationally competitive economy that generates foreign exchange and saves on imports,” he argues. As far as purchasing capacity is concerned, he adds one more cause. “Apart from the business functioning and decapitalization of the Cuban industry, there is a high balance-of-payments deficit and high foreign debt service that reflect a serious problem of Cuba’s international insertion. This is not resolved with ’high-level’ visits.

The last time the authorities mentioned the arrival of a boat of wheat on the Island was in October. A similar event had not occurred since July, as they themselves acknowledged. With those 23,500 tons “from Europe,” 16,000 tons of flour can be produced, which in turn, according to 14ymedio, will provide 20 days of bread.

According to Víctor Díaz Acosta, the Sancti Spíritus company received 42 tons a month in other times, of which 28.4 went to the regulated bread and the rest to other products; currently everything has to go to bread. “This province was the first to sell something other than the bread of the regulated family basket in a bakery, but we reiterate that Alimentaria has not renounced its main social purpose: to produce bread for the bodega,” he added.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

‘When I Was at My Peak, They Gave Me Everything. Now What?’ Says a Former Cuban Boxer

Hernández says that he had several opportunities to leave the Island but decided to stay. (Trabajadores)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 5, 2023 — “When I was at my peak they gave me everything. Now what?” The claim of Ariel Hernández Azcuy, a 53-year-old former boxer and two-time Olympic champion of Cuba, is nourished by his desperation. After his retirement, he says, the Cuban authorities stopped paying attention to him, and with the 7,200 pesos that they allocated to him as payment for a lifetime in the ring, he barely has enough to live.

The interview with the athlete, published in the official newspaper Trabajadores, makes clear Hernández’s disappointment with the system. “Money is not enough. Everything is very expensive. We have to meet with someone from the Government to fix it. It’s not a matter of politics but of necessity. People from the Athletes’ Attention Commission have come here, but they don’t decide anything,” he complains.

In an attempt to find this institutional abandonment logical, Hernández lists his achievements: two Olympic golds — Barcelona, 1992 and Atlanta, 1996 — two youth world titles, the first of them at just 16 years old, and, in the World Boxing Championship, two golds (1993 and 1995) and one silver (1997).

He argues that “it’s time to remind the press.” The helplessness, however, is palpable, and old age in those conditions has led him on unexpected paths. “I am a custodian in a private business. Before I worked at Finca Holbein Quesada (training center for Olympic athletes) and then here in La Lisa,” he summarizes. continue reading

“I am disgusted with the Inder [National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation]. I’ve been trying to get them to change my apartment for years. They come and take note, but I’m still at the top of the building,” he explains, alluding to the physical problems that often make it difficult for him to climb the stairs. “They give houses to people with less results,” he adds, while alleging that the situation causes him “a lot of anger.”

We have to do more for the sport. Something is wrong. The athletes are leaving, and I don’t know why

“I am the best (in the category of) 165 pounds that has gone through Cuban boxing. The results say so,” he explains, while the journalist attributes the outburst of pride to Hernández’s dissatisfaction with his career. “I was able to be a three-time Olympic champion like [Teófilo] Stevenson,” another Cuban boxer who was the second athlete in the world to hold that title. Hernández doesn’t give up and launches another attack: “Even he believed it. Even in the 179-pound (competition), I would have triumphed as a professional! It’s a shame that I didn’t get that chance.”

What the State owes him for his years in the ring – where he experienced “tension and danger” – is not limited to his additions to the Island’s medals. Every year he dedicated to sport and the aftermath that boxing left in his life should also be rewarded, says the former athlete. “Boxing took away my youth. I went from being a child to an old man,” he explains. “When you’re a child, you take it as a game, but if you get involved, you know what it costs. You have to leave family, fun, women, everything.”

The pressure of the sport, he says, also brought him bad times. “Cutting off so much of your youth leads many to throwing themselves into drinking. When they retire, they feel helpless. It’s hard,” he says, based on his own experience. “I fell into the world of drinking. I recognize it. I entered a circle of parties and music. I didn’t go that far because I reconsidered,” he adds, although he admits that not everyone can recover.

“You get into that world. You lock yourself in your house, in your mind, you are alone (…). In addition, if they don’t give you what you deserve, it’s even worse. Nobody comes to you. Not even those you thought would. It’s like they used you,” he adds. When old age arrives, he continues, the situation doesn’t improve. “The past doesn’t matter. No one remembers,” says Hernández.

The former boxer doesn’t just talk about the disenchantment of his contemporaries. The situation with young athletes, marked by escapes and widespread discontent, has also reached his ears. “We have to do more for the sport. Something is wrong. The athletes are leaving, and I don’t know why,” he emphasizes.

He himself, he says, had the opportunity to leave and seek his fortune elsewhere. “They even offered me money, but I couldn’t fail that guy” he says, referring to Julio Mena, his “trainer, father, friend and brother.” The Revolution, however, did not thank him for the sacrifice in the same way. Sometimes, he reflects, “the blows of life hurt more than those in the ring.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The Mexican Film ‘Tótem’ Triumphs at the Havana International Film Festival

With the award ceremony, the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema concludes in Havana. (Prensa Latina)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 17 December 2023 — The Mexican film Tótem, by Lila Avilés, was the big winner at the awards gala of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana after obtaining three awards this Friday.

The Mexican film won the Grand Coral for Best Screenplay, Best Fiction Feature Film and Best Artistic Direction on the awards night of the 44th edition of the festival. The Argentine Los delincuentes, [The Delinquents], by Rodrigo Moreno, also won three awards: Best Direction, Best Photography and Best Editing.

The award ceremony, held at the Charles Chaplin cinema, was the culmination of the festival, which, since December 8, has screened hundreds of films in the Cuban capital and officially ends on Sunday.

Among the recognitions was the victory of El mundo de Nelsito [Nelsito’s World] in the category of best poster, by the Cuban Vladimir Pérez. Also, in the second edition of the Arrecife award, for the work that best captures the reality of the LGBTIQ+ community, the award went to the Franco-Colombian Transfariana, by Joris Lachaise. continue reading

With the slogan “Lights, Camera, Action!” the event had 199 films selected for competition from a total of 19 countries – the most represented were those of Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile – in categories such as fiction shorts, debuts, documentaries and animated works.

There were also tributes made to the Cuban filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, co-director of Fresa y chocolate [Strawberry and Chocolate], the only film on the Island nominated for an Oscar, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of its premiere in 2023; the Spanish-Mexican director Luis Buñuel; the French actor and director Max Linder and the Cuban cartoonist Juan Padrón.

With the slogan “Lights, Camera, Action!” the event featured 199 films selected for competition from a total of 19 countries

Within the framework of the festival, the Center of the Cuban Film Poster was inaugurated, a place that exhibits part of the collection inscribed in May in the list of Memory of the World of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This edition of the festival was under the shadow of the clash between the film sector and the Cuban Government.

The discomfort in the guild became evident after the censorship of the documentary La Habana de Fito [Fito’s Havana], a work directed by Juan Pin Vilar – which recalls the anecdotes in the Cuban capital of the Argentine artist Fito Páez – at the beginning of the year, and the broadcast in June of a non-definitive version of that film on state television, without the authorization of its director.

These two events marked the appearance this summer of the independent Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers (ACC), which denounced the censorship of two of its films at the festival.

During the festival, at least two filmmakers complained about the situation of the guild and the attitude of the cultural authorities.

After the screening of Landrián – a documentary about the work of Nicolás Guillén Landrián, one of the pioneers of Cuban cinema, who ended up in exile – its director, Ernesto Daranas, said that censorship is exercised in Cuba “still today.”

Similarly, the director Orlando Mora Cabrera, in the presentation of his short, Brujo amor [Sorcerous Love], said the Havana festival “should be a more plural, more inclusive and more fair space. When it is censored, not only is the artist excluded but the voice of the people is also silenced.”

Translated by Regina Anavy 

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

Against the Warrior Anti-Semitism of the Cuban Regime

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Jacobo Machover, Paris, December 17, 2023 — Sad and terrible realization: Cuba leads the most virulent anti-Semitism in much of the world, outside Arab and Muslim countries. The most rancid insults to Israel and the Jewish people are pronounced without the slightest embarrassment by Mariela Castro, the daughter of Raúl Castro; Aleida Guevara, daughter of the Argentine guerrilla and murderer Ernesto Che Guevara; and the puppet president Miguel Díaz-Canel, hand-picked by Raúl Castro.

Cuba doesn’t even try to hide the anti-Semitic feeling behind an “anti-Zionism” that condemned the State of Israel but not all the Jews. Proof of this is the statement of Aleida Guevara in a video broadcast in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, where she went to offer her services with her own program to a television channel close to the Islamist terrorist organization Hezbollah: “Today you [Israel] are becoming the worst of humanity. Is that what you want for the new generations? Is that what you want to be remembered for in the world as a people of Israel and a Jewish people?”

Note that “let it be remembered” means, delicately, that these people do not have the right to exist, without distinguishing between the Jewish State and the diaspora scattered around the world. Aleida follows in the footsteps of her father, a doctor who liked the taste of blood more than the vocation to heal his fellow human beings: “I am a pediatrician and I can act. There is no problem at all. But on top of that, I’m a pretty good shot. I have a good aim and am militarily trained, because I come from a military school. Therefore, I am at your disposal.” continue reading

She doesn’t even try to hide that anti-Semitic feeling behind an “anti-Zionism” that condemns the State of Israel but not all Jews

Guevara’s daughter, the imposing and unpresentable Aleida, therefore incites people, using her still mythologized surname, to armed “resistance” against Israel, without the slightest reference to the infamous massacre perpetrated on October 7 against young people who were celebrating and pacifists from Israel and all parts of the world. She doesn’t mention her buddy and close friend, Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of Raúl and niece of Fidel, a “deputy” in the National Assembly of People’s Power (yes, like her), who has a reputation for being more liberal than other leaders in Cuba for “defending” the homosexuals, once persecuted mercilessly by her uncle and father.

Aleida also advocates the use of weapons against “imperialism” (Zionist, of course): “The Intifada has symbolic value in the Palestinian resistance, but imperialism can no longer be confronted with stones, nor with words, nor by diplomatic channels.” As for Díaz-Canel, it should be noted that he personally attended a demonstration of Palestinian “medical students” in Cuba (who also follow an ideological and military formation, like all foreign “students” in Cuba).

The small Jewish community that remains on the Island (the vast majority went into exile in the years following the revolution) had the courage to protest against the words of Mariela Castro, remembering the victims of October 7 and the hostages who still remain in the hands of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terrorist groups such as the FPLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), allies of Castroism.

The small Jewish community that remains on the Island had the courage to protest against the words of Mariela Castro

The terms of its protest have nothing to do with the belligerent speeches of the government leadership: “We regret and feel the pain of every child, woman, man, every innocent person who dies in this war against terrorism, not only because of the war but also because of being forced into war zones as human shields of Hamas.” After decades of being reduced to silence and tacit approval of government policy, the Jewish community has finally reacted.

The Castro-communist regime’s support for the attempts to make Israel disappear from the map is not new, and not just with words. In 1973, the Castro brothers sent troops to Syria, the country of Hafez Al-Asad, father of the current butcher-dictator of his own people, to fight Israel at the time of the Yom Kippur war, as well as military instructors to the Palestinian camps of southern Lebanon, while thousands of fighters (often presented as “students”) were trained on the Island. And in international forums, Cuba was (and continues to be) in the front row to condemn Zionism as “racism,” at the head of all anti-imperialist countries.

However, Fidel Castro, almost at the end of his life, criticized the then Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad for wanting to eradicate Israel from the face of the earth, believing that the Jewish people were the ones who had suffered the most in the history of the world, while his half-brother Raúl Castro officiated at a synagogue in Havana, lighting a candle during the celebration of Hanukkah … intimate contradictions of the great dictators…

One of his disciples, the Venezuelan commander Hugo Chávez, followed the example of his Cuban mentors, vomiting his sinister diatribe in 2010, following an Israeli attack on “humanitarian” ships that were heading towards the territory of Gaza, controlled since 2005 by Hamas: “I take the opportunity to condemn again from the bottom of my soul and my viscera the State of Israel. Damn you, State of Israel. Damn you. Terrorists and murderers. And long live the Palestinian people. Heroic people, good people.”

It should be noted that all those who support the Hamas terrorists are mostly the same as those who support Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine

The late Chávez did not know how to control himself, opposing the “good” Palestinians against the “bad” of Israel. As did Maduro, the Colombian Petro, the Chilean Boric, the Bolivian Arce, the Nicaraguan Ortega, the Brazilian Lula, the Mexican López Obrador, the Argentines Fernández and Fernández de Kirchner, already replaced by Javie Milei, whose position on the conflict is radically different from that of his predecessors, in proclaimed support of Israel.

It should be noted that all those who support the Hamas terrorists are mostly the same as those who support Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, led by its admirable Jewish president Volodimir Zelensky, who is on the side of Israel and its people, a democracy like Ukraine, despite the current government of Benyamin Netanyahu, held hostage by some of his ministers, the ultra-orthodox religious, and his guilty ineffectiveness in defending his citizens on that atrocious day of October 7. Netanyahu’s power is now, however, limited by the members of the “War Cabinet,” in which his centrist opponent, General Benny Gantz, is prominently featured.

Who knows what can arise from the horror, this time caused by the killing of Jews and also by the Israel Defense Forces’ offensive that causes infinite civilian deaths? Some attempt at peace? It was the case after the Yom Kippur war thanks to the agreement with Egypt, then led by Anwar Sadat, assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood; of the Gulf War of 1991, which gave rise to the Madrid conference on the Middle East; the first step towards the Oslo Accords of 1993, signed by Yitzhak Rabin, Shimón Peres and Yasser Arafat, under the impulse of Bill Clinton; or after the transfer of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, by the Abraham Accords with several Arab countries, driven by Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

It only remains, in this black period for the history of humanity and for the conscience of free men and women, to take up the words of Rabin, killed by an Israeli extremist in 1995, as a cry of hope: “Enough blood!”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The Maya Train, Mexican President Lopez Obrador’s Flagship Work, Used Only 7,000 Tons of Cuban Stone

The Tren Maya (MayaTrain) inaugurated this Saturday in Mexico was delayed because the tracks had to be changed manually. (X/@GobiernoMX)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/EFE, Mexico, December 17, 2023 — With a delay of almost four hours on one of two routes, the first section of the Tren Maya was inaugurated this Saturday, which connects Campeche (state of the same name) and Cancun (Quintana Roo). In the first 293 miles of railway infrastructure, 7,000 tons were used of the 200,000 Cuban porphyria stones that the Government of Mexico would buy from Cuba. The Cuban business failed due to the lack of ports with infrastructure for unloading the Rajón stone and the high cost of transferring it from the Island.

The Mexican government intended to unload the stone in Puerto Morelos. However, the anchor of the ship Melody, in which 20,000 tons of stone from Cienfuegos were transported, damaged a coral bank of the Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve, an area established for marine biodiversity, which forced part of the unloading to be aborted.

Last June, the director of Apiqroo, Vagner Elbiorn Vega, explained that three operations were carried out because the depth in this port is 14.8 feet, which caused logistical difficulties and additional operational costs. The Melody was still on the high seas with 13,000 tons of Cuban stone, and the ship Gazibey with 17,000. The fate of this stone is still unknown Faced with the complaints of environmental groups about the damage caused in the region and several legal protections to stop the work, the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador shielded the information. continue reading

The first section of the Tren Maya goes from Campeche to Cancun. (X/@GobiernoMX)

Group Indi, one of the most important builders in Mexico, partnered with Santo Domingo Inversiones, which “served as an intermediary” with Cuba in everything related to the acquisition of the Rajón stone that would be processed in Mexico to obtain ballast.

In May, Santo Domingo Inversiones offered General Gustavo Vallejo, head of the Felipe Ángeles Engineering Group, responsible for Parts 5 North, 6 and 7 of the Maya Train, stone material from Cienfuegos. The company’s proposal consisted of the sale of 1.2 million cubic meters of Cuban ballast at a price of $143 per cubic meter, which could change by having Grupo Indi as a partner.

The transfer of the Rajón stone was done by the maritime and commercial services company Mide, which complained that having a ship anchored cost it losses of 100,000 dollars a day. Because of the lack of a landing area, the business with Cuba fell apart and left a debt of almost 8,000,000 dollars.

After Cuba ceased to be the option for the supply of stone, the Veracruz-based company Osoialfa became the main ballast supplier for the Tren Maya, with more than 500,000 tons of stone transported to the main landing points.

The train, which will travel through the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo, had setbacks this Saturday because the of track switching systems are not automated.

The first commercial trip of the also-called “Rolling Jaguar” occurred a day after the inaugural tour of the first of three stages of construction with the presence of President López Obrador.

VIDEO | The inaugural trip of the Tren Maya from Campeche to Cancun ended. It lasted 9 hours 28 minutes because four trips were scheduled on a single track.  The track switching systems are not automated, which caused a delay in the 3-hour itinerary.

However, the route still does not make stops at several of the planned intermediate stations, something that will be solved in the coming months, according to the authorities.

Everything went according to what was planned on the first train scheduled to leave Cancun at 7 am local time. However, for the second convoy, which was expected to leave at 11 am, the passengers had to wait up to four hours to be able to board the Xiimbal train.

A worker of the Tren Maya, as EFE verified, clarified that it was a “technical failure” of the Alstom company, in charge of the construction of the railways, while assuring that the public company that attends to tourist transport “is not responsible for this breakdown,” and he apologized.

He insisted that this type of experience does not represent the Tren Maya brand and added that “no one is perfect.”

According to López Obrador, the project will bring prosperity to one of the most historically forgotten areas of the country: the Mexican southeast.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Five Cuban Handball Players Escape During a Championship in Mexico

The Cuban youth women’s team during the Handball Pre-Championship in Mexico City. (Mexican Olympic Committee/Instagram)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 16 December 2023 — Five Cuban athletes from the women’s youth handball team, which was in Mexico for the World Championship, left the delegation this Friday. With them, the number of athletes who have abandoned the Island’s representation at international events during 2023 rises to 75.

According to journalist Francys Romero on Facebook, the athletes were Nadira Mesa, Daniella Chávez, Sol Perelló, Reina Ramos and Naila Borrero, members of the Cuban team in the Pre-World Championship of the International Handball Federation for North America and the Caribbean, which took place in Mexico City between December 9 and 13.

This event was held as a qualifying stage for the intercontinental event that will take place in North Macedonia in 2024. During the third day of the competition, Cuba defeated the Mexican team, but Mexico won the contest. continue reading

The escape of these athletes adds to a long stampede of Cuban athletes who see official trips abroad as a safe and economical way to leave the country in search of better work and economic options.

During the last month of November, 14ymedio reported the escape of 21 of the 412 members of the Cuban delegation that attended the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile

During the last month of November, 14ymedio reported the escape of 21 of the 412 members of the Cuban delegation that attended the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile, including six hockey players, a basketball player, a hurdler, three rowers and five athletes whose specialties are unknown.

In the July-September quarter of this year, the escape of nine judokas was reported, including the bronze medalist in the World Judo Championship Budapest (2017), Kaliema Antomarchi.

In the Round Table program on Cuban Television, José Antonio Miranda, general director of High Performance of the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) said that up to September 2023, 191 athletes had ended their relationship with the sports authorities.

The number of athletes who have fled from Cuba in the last decade comes to 1,053. Among the most recent names on the list are the taekwondoka Yamitsi Carbonell, the rower Boris Luis Guerra and the baseball player Miguel Flores, as well as the 2022 youth world runner-up and bronze medalist at the Central American Games in weightlifting, Elizabeth Reyes Entenza.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

November Rumors in Cuba: Diaz-Canel’s ‘Liquidation’, Healthcare Debacle, Crime Unleashed

The situation – all the rumors coincide – is worse than ever, especially in the health and security aspects of both the countryside and the city. (OnCuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/Yucabyte, Havana, December 16, 2023 — Cuba is plummeting, and the first head to roll could be that of President Miguel Díaz-Canel. As he finishes without a single success to his credit, in what should have been his “better year” — he had promised it at the end of 2022 — the rumors collected in November by 14ymedio and Yucabyte foresee a conspiracy to “politically liquidate” the president after the death of his protector, Raúl Castro, which some see as imminent.

Díaz-Canel faces, say several Internet users, is becoming an imminent social outcast. The catalyst for his removal from office, they add, will be the power struggle that will follow the death of the last “historic” generals. The families that make up the leadership will change the rules of the game, and the current president, with no one to protect him, will have to cede the powers that the regime has offered him in favor of new candidates.

Although rumors do not indicate that this “transition” will be violent, they do expect a “large-scale repression” if Cubans take to the streets to demand a change, as happened during the protests of 11 July 2021. Since then, some say, the Government has had time to prepare “exits” to the crisis, which include Díaz-Canel as a scapegoat in the face of popular discontent. continue reading

If what is already known as “fraudulent change” does not work, they speculate, the authorities have drawn up a Plan B: the rapid response paramilitary brigades, composed of recruits from the eastern provinces who have been offered homes and work in Havana, in order to guarantee their loyalty to the regime.

The situation – all the rumors agree – is worse than ever, especially in the health and security aspects of both the countryside and the city. The contrast of conditions offered to national patients and the “luxury” services that the Island allegedly provides to foreign “guests” is one of the most talked-about situations in November.

The video of a woman giving birth on a sidewalk, supposedly in Cuba, was shared and soon went viral

The rumors that doctors require pregnant women to have a list of supplies before being admitted to the hospital, or that they are given identification bracelets and documents to give birth in their homes, are eloquent. The video of a woman giving birth on a sidewalk, supposedly in Cuba, was shared and soon went viral.

Meanwhile, the information that a senior official of the United Left Movement, from the Dominican Republic, had an operation on the Island aroused a barrage of criticism. Especially since the individual returned to his country praising the “excellent state” of the “well-equipped Cuban clinics.”

In the absence of reliable information about the drug business, rumors indicate that it is booming. After the recording of a young man convulsed allegedly by an overdose of fentanyl or a similar drug called a “chemical,” several rumors pointed to one of the people who “moves” it in the capital. This is an individual identified as Yasmani El Moncada, who, according to some commentators, works as a police informant. His link with the Ministry of the Interior has allowed this trafficker to survive numerous raids, some users say, as happened recently. El Moncada, arrested during an operation this month, was released two days later. Each gram of the “chemical,” they calculate, costs between 150 and 200 pesos.

Violence and insecurity in the streets of the country continue to grow and give rise to many rumors, which are fed even in the very profiles related to the Cuban police, despite their attempts to minimize the facts. The incidents reported mainly affect rural areas, where thieves campaign for their respect, while numerous robberies in state warehouses and assaults on motorcyclists to steal their vehicles are reported.

Each time, without being confirmed, more armed assaults and violent robberies are mentioned, which end, not infrequently, in the death of the victim. In addition, the rumors describe in great detail several “techniques” of scammers. One of the most “picturesque” is that of a child who pretends to be abandoned on the road. Whoever offers to takes him home will discover that the parents aren’t there but a gang ready to assault him is.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Only an Adjustment Plan and Monetary Reform Can Stop Cuba’s Growing Fiscal Deficit

Prices in the markets follow an endless escalation that especially affects national products, such as beans. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 14 December 2023 — The increase in the fiscal deficit of 2023 by 44.4%, announced this Wednesday by the Cuban Government, arouses unfavorable comments from several independent economists, who regret the lack of a plan to fight against an inflation of 27% so far this year. According to the decree that modifies the State Budget, the deficit will reach 98 billion pesos instead of the 68,000 expected (4,083 and 2,833 million dollars, respectively, at the official exchange rate).

The public debt contracted for this year is set at just over 151 million pesos, around 6,296 million dollars, again taking into account the official change. This figure is, as explained by the Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro, the sum of the deficit, the amortizations of debts that were due in 2023 and the “activation of letters of budgetary guarantees and other securities issued as a result of the monetary and financial order that corresponds to that year.”

“Although there are still no estimates of the 2023 Gross Domestic Product,” said economist Pedro Monreal in his X account, “it is likely that Cuba’s fiscal deficit would be close to 15% of GDP, which is terrible news and would confirm the persistence of an inflationary macroeconomic environment.”

The expert uses the figures of the last Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, which placed the national GDP at current prices in 2022 at 633,442 million pesos (26,393 million dollars). With those figures, the fiscal deficit would be 15.4%, although the Government contemplated a GDP growth for this year of 3%, which seems impossible to meet. continue reading

Monreal was aware of the decree’s content since the official press reported that this was one of the topics discussed in the Council of Ministers, since, he warned, it was clear evidence that the planned goal was not going to be achieved.

“The biggest deficit has been explained by resource limitations and effects on income raising, something that is usually the result of weaker economic growth than initially estimated. CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) predicted a growth of 1.8%, lower than in 2022 (2%),” Monreal stated.

The economist and professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia), Pavel Vidal, published an article aimed at analyzing the situation on the occasion of the announcement of the modification of the deficit. “Today it would be necessary to lower the fiscal deficit from 11 to 3% of GDP. Therefore, we are talking about a stabilization program that is much less drastic in budgetary terms than the one applied in the 90s, but a little more acute than that of 2009,” he wrote on Tuesday.

Vidal explains that the adjustment plan of the Fidel Castro Government during the Special Period included economic opening to tourism, remittances, foreign direct investment, self-employment and agricultural markets. “Much of the economic activity of the state sector was decentralized, and the tourism industry, nickel and other export items of primary goods were promoted,” he says.

Years later, he continues, during Raúl Castro’s mandate, “other partial reforms were introduced in agriculture, foreign investment and the private sector, and restrictions on housing and car markets, consumption and travel were eliminated.”

But on this occasion, Vidal urges, it is necessary to address an issue that has not been directly discussed: the exchange rate adjustment. “The unification of exchange rates and formal convertibility has to be a priority, because it is indispensable to reactivating productive activity, encouraging exports and the substitution of imports,” he says.

In his opinion, monetary reform must be faced – something that the authorities have announced for a long time but without specifiying the steps to be taken. It is essential to give access for agriculture and private businesses to the formal foreign exchange market, which is the only way to be able to “play a leading role in the economic reactivation and the substitution of imports.”

It is also necessary that State, mixed and foreign companies have a favorable exchange rate that motivates them and allows them to raise salaries and, of course, that allows Cubans, with guarantees, to invest abroad.

“Even the traditional allies of the Cuban government, such as Russia, China and Mexico, would like to see reforms and adjustments in the Cuban economy so that their credits and investments can generate a financially sustainable impact,” Vidal says.

In his article, full of proposals, he reminds the Government that it will hardly be able to improve the situation if it continues to “extract rents and decapitalize the few profitable state companies.” The economist calls for a strong adjustment that should not necessarily go through reducing spending on education, health and social assistance. “The availability of resources to serve these areas will depend on the ability to generate tax savings in other areas of budgeted activity, in the unproductive state business apparatus and in the policy of universal subsidies,” he adds.

“No organizational framework for the state company can be effective with the excessive scale presented today by this State] sector plagued by zombie organizations*. The corporate and budgeted State sector must be significantly resized if a real and sustainable solution to the fiscal deficit is to be found,” he concludes.

The recipe is somewhat related to the draft State company law, leaked last Monday, in which a mechanism inspired by the Chinese model was activated that includes the creation of a superministry called the National Institute of State Business Assets that will be at the head of all entities in the sector. In the Chinese case – which, for the moment is very different, due to the opening of the Asian country to a sui generis capitalist model – a similar institution led to a strong concentration and reduction of State companies.

However, this rule, which was to be approved in the next ordinary session of the National Assembly, seems to have been postponed, according to an official note from Parliament that outlined the issues that will be addressed and in which it was not included. “Cuba’s state enterprise law goes to the ’freezer’,” Monreal warned on social networks. If so, the reason is unknown.

*Translator’s note: “A Zombie Company is a corporate entity with very limited cash flows, only sufficient to pay the interest on the debt borrowed but not the principal amount of the loan. The revenue generated by the business operations only covers the fixed routine and operating costs, and thus a Zombie Company is dependent on the bank/government for its bailout.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

A Cuban Family of Nine Is Rescued in the Mountains of Tijuana After Trying To Reach the United States

Members of the Beta Migration group in the mountainous area of Tijuana to Tecate. (X/INM)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mexico, December 15, 2023 — A family of nine Cubans got lost last Wednesday in the mountainous area from Tijuana to Tecate in the Mexican state of Baja California, in their attempt to reach the United States. The migrants managed to make a phone call to the city council to ask for help and were rescued.

The municipal director of care for migrants, Enrique Lucero Vázquez, told local media that between October and December of this year, they have rescued 31 people. The National Institute of Migration (INM) took care of the Cubans, and their legal status was not reported, only that they would be transferred to the immigration station located in the state.

It is not known if the Cubans were abandoned by people leading them. The route is widely used by coyotes to bring migrants to the United States. In recent months, according to the head of State Migration, David Pérez Tejada Padilla, between 200 and 300 people crossed illegally through this route. “These are the figures provided by the Border Patrol; I am also impressed by the data,” the official told El Sol de Tijuana. continue reading

The authorities have a map showing the main illegal crossing points, among which are, in addition to the area of Tijuana and Tecate, the canyons of the Matadero and the Plaza Monumental, in Playas de Tijuana.

Figures of the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees by country. (COMAR)

This week the Government of Mexico admitted that irregular crossings increased by 31% between December 1st and 7th, compared to the same period last month. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, most have been in Tucson, Arizona (19,935), Del Río, Texas (15,702) and San Diego, California (12,062)

At the same time, irregular crossings of unaccompanied minors increased by 11% between October and November of this year, from 11,522 to 12,806, respectively. On the other hand, the detentions of family units decreased by 2% between October (106,290) and November (104,227).

The flow of Cubans through Mexico remains constant. According to data from the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar), migrants from the Island represent the third group with the highest number of applications, with 17,686, only below Hondurans with 40,142 and Haitians with 43,459.

On their journey through Mexico, numerous Cubans have died. The most recent case is that of Yariosqui Meriño Betancourt, from Guantánamo, who died of a heart attack last Wednesday. He was living in the municipality of Jalapa, Nueva Segovia (Nicaragua), and he left three weeks ago to settle in the United States. He was 30 years old and passionate about bodybuilding

Through a video, the Yariosqui Meriño’s sister, asked for help to collct the 5,000 dollars hat she needs to return his body to Guantánamo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Fire in the Forge

Alexis Triana was appointed president of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry on November 9. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 14 December 2023 — Two speeches, completely opposed, have marked these days of the film festival in Havana. On the one hand, we have the inaugural words of Alexis Triana, the appointed official at the head of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC). On the other, those of the filmmaker Ernesto Daranas, in the presentation of his feature film Landrián.

Daranas spoke with the authentic humility that characterizes him. Behind his slow tone was all the firmness of the artist who does not resign himself to obedience and silence. The renowned director of films such as Los dioses rotos, Conducta and Sergio y Sergéi, publicly condemned exclusion and censorship, those “great stigmas of Cuban culture and society in general.” The director dedicated the presentation of his documentary to the Assembly of Filmmakers and to all the colleagues and compatriots who have been the object of injustices. His words, simple and direct, were widely applauded, shared and commented on by thousands of Cubans on their social networks, although the official media prefer to pretend that they were never said.

Those same media, on the contrary, have not lost a minute in spreading the speech of official Alexis Triana to the point of exhaustion

Those same media, on the contrary, have not lost a minute in spreading the speech of official Alexis Triana to the point of exhaustion. The new commissioner of the ICAIC used the pompous, laudatory and demagogic style that he has been rehearsing in all his years as an employee of the bureaucratic apparatus. The people of Holguīn know well that declamatory intonation that he used to throw from the balcony of La Periquera, always losing his voice, as if he were a mixture of Republican mayor and revolutionary cheerleader. continue reading

Alexis has spent his life trying to prove that he is a loyal cadre; maybe that’s why he insists on imitating Eusebio Leal, without ever achieving his popular eloquence. This time, the one he did manage to imitate perfectly was Lindoro Incapaz, a humorous character who represents the typical official on the Island.

Alexis belongs to the list of those who were humiliated and defenestrated by their own leader, when they suffered from that disease called youth, something that is usually healed over time. And he was cured, definitely. Rebellion aged him; being candid gave him gray hair, and male menopause made him immune to having a free spirit. Today, he is an older man who has worn so many masks that he no longer remembers his true face.

But Alexis is a smart guy, I admit that. He knows perfectly how to manipulate his audience with figures and statistics, anecdotes retrieved from the drawer, flamenco movements of his right hand and the occasional emphasis on key words. Aware of the participation of a good number of progressive filmmakers in the festival, he used a “left-wing” rhetoric, according to the eighties manual, for the attending veterans; he drew out of his sleeve a feminist wink to the guest filmmakers and recited a “they, they, they, they” for the youngest. He spoke, of course, of “imperialism” and “cultural colonization,” although this time he preferred to leave the word “blockade” on the desk of his new office.

Those who know him well, know that Alexis had four drinks when he gave the speech. It was noticeable in certain slurred vowels and in the continuous skating with words where “S” and”R” abounded. Alexis would be able to spend the entire ICAIC budget to subsidize epic drunkenness. Then he will disguise some buddy as an Eskimo to say, with all the grandiloquence of the world, that the new Inuit cinema has finally arrived at the Havana festival.

He spoke, of course, of “imperialism” and “cultural colonization,” although this time he preferred to leave the word “blockade” on the desk of his new office

 Alexis’ mission in the ICAIC is clear. He’s a fumigator. He comes to clean the disobedient guild of “vectors” and fill the movie theaters with smoke. He doesn’t care about the quality or transcendence of the works. He wants to show off figures and some small blow for effect, although his ego is usually depressed by his being reduced to a simple official. When he talked about Alfredo Guevara and Wikipedia, he was actually talking about himself, with notable emphasis on the “we” when he mentioned cultural managers and promoters. It hurts that they see him for what he is: a bureaucrat.

Alexis may have a coefficient above the average of the cadres that populate the office ecosystem, although that is not difficult. Bureocrats don’t have dreams, only tasks. For Cuban officials there is no word for future; their mission is to stretch the past, disguising it as the present. His speech should not have been called “The fire is still in the forge,” but rather, “I’m still blowing smoke.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Ukraine, Cuba and the World

Results of the vote on a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations headquarters, in March 2022. (EFE/EPA/Justin Lane)

14ymedio biggerFrank Calzón, Washington, 12 December  2023 — The temperature plummeted last night, and rain mixed with snow covered the sidewalks. The trees are already naked of their leaves, forming a multicolored carpet in the gardens of the Capitol.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has just arrived in Washington to meet immediately with senators and congressmen and with President Joe Biden, who continues to pressure the legislature to approve military aid to Kiev.

The Ukrainian leader disconcerted Vladimir Putin, who hoped to enter Kiev victoriously in a matter of weeks. The war had begun, and the expectation was that the Ukrainians would not be able to stop the advance of the Russian army. Several governments offered Zelensky a plane to leave his country. But the resistance of the Ukrainians surprised Putin and the world.

In a speech at the U.S. National Defense University, a day before the planned visit to the White House, the Ukrainian leader said: “We know what we have to do, and you can count on Ukraine, and we hope the same, to be able to count on you.” continue reading

In the press and in the official world of Washington, D.C., the high cost of military aid that Ukraine needs in order not to become a satellite of Moscow is discussed. Beyond the geopolitical consequences, if Russia manages to occupy Kiev, the U.S. and Europe would have to considerably increase military budgets.

The crisis in Ukraine has forced specialists, academics, senators and congressmen to examine the role Iran, China, Syria and Cuba play in the conflict

The crisis in Ukraine has forced specialists, academics, senators and congressmen to examine the role Iran, China, Syria and Cuba play in the conflict.

The hundreds of young Cubans in the Russian army fighting in Ukraine are part of that analysis. The State Department accused Havana of distributing Russian disinformation around the world and of serving Moscow’s interests in international organizations.

Cuba, several diplomats point out, fought against all odds so that Russia was not expelled from the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, but its departure was approved by the United Nations General Assembly, the same assembly that has often criticized the U.S. embargo.

Recently, Sweden said it has evidence of the use of torture in Cuba and has requested that the European Union suspend the economic agreement with the Island, arguing that it does not comply with the human rights obligations that are part of the treaty. For Europeans, Cuba’s alliance with Putin in Ukraine is important, and few believe that Havana did not know about the flights taking hundreds of young Cubans to Russia.

These are difficult matters but not impossible to solve. The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed his concern when Russia was expelled from the Human Rights Council, saying that Cuba’s enemies would also try to expel Cuba from the international organization.

But Cuba has powerful allies: China, Iran, Syria and Russia, among others. It can count, at least in Latin America, on the votes of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia and several nations of the English Caribbean. The newly elected governments of Argentina and Ecuador add to the opposition to the Cuban regime of Uruguay, Costa Rica and some Central American countries. Neither Havana, nor Caracas nor Managua was invited to the inauguration in Buenos Aires, where prominent figures, including the King of Spain, gathered. Among the guests was the journalist and now representative to the Chamber, the Cuban American María Elvira Salazar.

The vote in the General Assembly to expel Cuba from the Human Rights Council, if it happens, will be secret. But speculation has already skyrocketed.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

‘Fama y Aplausos’, the 20 Story Havana Building That Has Become a Hell

The current description is far from what the 20-story massive structure looked like two decades ago. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 December 2023 — A quick touch with the index finger and middle finger on the shoulder is the key to knowing that the building known as Fama y Aplausos (Fame and Applause), on the corner of Infanta and Manglar in Havana, is the home of important official spokespeople who handed out national awards of various categories to figures who stood out during the ideological offensive at the beginning of this century: the Battle of Ideas.

“This is no longer what it was, nor does it look like it did when I moved here,” a plastic artist who has lived in the place since its inauguration and prefers anonymity tells 14ymedio. “Not only has the entire building deteriorated, the area, which was always a little controversial because of the neighborhoods nearby, has become very dangerous. At night no one goes out or receives visitors. They lift weights.”

A tour of the surroundings is enough to see the mountains of filth, the streets full of potholes, the peeling walls and the dirty perimeter wall with cracks. On a corner, a poster with an image of José Martí highlights one of his phrases: “This is a virtuous time and you have to melt into it.” A few meters from the exterior gardens of the building, there are only mud and weeds left.

The streets full of potholes, the peeling walls and the dirty perimeter wall with cracks. (14ymedio)

The nearby Pan-American store that even attracted residents of other neighborhoods for its “good assortment” is now a place that only sells products for the so-called ’released module’ — that is food and other items sold outside the ration system — as 14ymedio was able to verify this Wednesday. A bored custodian still remains in Fama y Aplausos, a remnant of the old team that guarded the place. continue reading

But the current description is far from what the 20-story building looked like two decades ago. Immaculate corridors, elevators that were quickly repaired when they broke, a reception area on the ground floor that made the visitor give chapter and verse about the person he was visiting, lights on the outside and an immaculate white paint on the facade stoked the curiosity of nearby neighbors.

Randy Alonso, director of Cubadebate, and Rosa Miriam Elizalde, main spokesperson for the media war against the independent press, were among the beneficiaries of an apartment in the building. They were chosen to receive the award for flattering, putting on makeup and lying. Of those “illustrious” inhabitants there are hardly any left, because they passed “to a better life” and now enjoy independent houses in more select neighborhoods.

Among the current residents, of course, there are figures of the plastic arts, outstanding filmmakers, troubadours who have supported with their music many political acts they were called to support. For them, however, the Infanta y Manglar building is not the same place “that made it seem like you were in another country,” according to a neighbor, but a real hell of accumulated garbage, dark corridors, broken elevators and a total absence of cleaning personnel.

A long text, published by art critic Jorge Rivas on Facebook, complains that “dozens of people, among these sick and disabled children and the elderly, are practically stranded in their respective apartments due to the impossibility of going down the stairs.” The breakdown, 20 days ago, of one of the elevators, and the exit from service, years ago, of the other, have left them in that situation. But moving from the bottom up is not the only problem.

“Almost all the floors are totally dark, the cleaning staff left en masse, there is trash everywhere, including a gigantic garbage dump that the Company of Comunales maintained for months in front of the place,” adds Rivas, who regrets that the management of the property passed, years ago, from the hands of the state-owned Habana Inmuebles to the Provincial Directorate of Housing of Havana, which barely has the resources to maintain it. “It only mismanages what was once a respectable building,” he says.

Rivas clarifies that although “ministers, deputy ministers and other ’important’ managers, of a high ’level,’ who in the past urged everyone to maintain order, no longer live in the place, but “great personalities of culture, journalism and sports continue to reside in the building, among them national award winners and medalists, but above all, there are human beings, women, children and the elderly who live here.”

Rivas categorizes everything that happened as a “public shame” for a building that was popularly described “as Fame and Applause and that now is called the Building from Hell.”

But this is not the first vicissitude that the property experienced. For more than a decade, the corner of Infanta and Mangrove showed an unfinished ’pile’, which was stuck with the arrival of the Special Period and the end of the microbrigades, supported by the Soviet subsidy.

The bricklayers who started by raising the foundations with the illusion of obtaining an apartment in the property saw how their project for a home was going to end. The building became one of the many modern ruins, like other unfinished works, that were seen in the Havana of the Special Period.

On a corner, a poster with an image of José Martí highlights one of his phrases. (14ymedio)

At the end of the 90s, the nearby neighbors saw the return of the cranes, the trucks with cement and some builders who would not reside there after the inauguration. Instead of the original micro-brigades, the owners would be selected for their political, artistic or journalistic merits.

In the middle of the official campaign to bring the child Elián González back to Cuba, some voices stood out that immediately saw their enthusiasm compensated with the key to a new home in the place. That’s when it began to be known as Fame and Applause, because singers, film directors, cartoonists, ministers, reporters and actors began to move in.

For many of those beneficiaries, obtaining their own home made them even more committed to the official discourse, and their public projection increased a few degrees in unconditionality. The illuminated parking lot on the ground floor of the building was quickly filled with modern cars that came to complete the already bulky privilege of an apartment.

However, the exodus in the artistic and intellectual sector, the proximity of several slums that were not to the liking of the residents and the rise in la nomenclatura that allowed some to move to El Vedado, Miramar and Siboney caused several casualties among the most illustrious inhabitants.

The other part was the passage of time, laziness and the lack of maintenance. The property that was once considered a medal for its inhabitants now has more problems than joys. Gone is the fame; not even the applause remains.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Four Families Are Removed From a Building About To Collapse in Central Havana Due to the Last Rains

This afternoon several demolition teams were working on removing the parts of the facade that were still in danger of falling. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 13, 2023 — The four families who still lived in the building that, in the early hours of this Wednesday, partially collapsed on the corner of San Lázaro and Perseverancia, in Central Havana, were evacuated, as confirmed by 14ymedio. This afternoon several demolition teams were working on  removing the parts of the facade that were still in danger of falling.

The building, which had already suffered other collapses in the past and was in a terrible state of construction, lost part of the facade this morning during the intense rains that hit the Cuban capital. The collapse was one of the greatest fears of its inhabitants who, repeatedly, had denounced the disastrous situation of the building and demanded an institutional response.

San Lázaro Avenue was still closed to traffic after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and the police guarded the surrounding roads to prevent the passage of people near the place of the collapse. “We are trying to do it very carefully so as not to damage the adjoining building, and we believe that there won’t be problems,” one of the workers of the demolition brigade told this newspaper. continue reading

A crane, from the Chinese brand ZoomLion, hoisted a cage with employees who, once on top of the property’s roof, proceeded to evaluate the condition of the building. (14ymedio)

A crane, of the Chinese brand ZoomLion, hoisted a cage with employees who, once on top of the property’s roof, proceeded to evaluate the condition of the building. Although humidity remained in the environment, the rains gave a truce to the Cuban capital in the afternoon, a moment that state employees also took advantage of to work on the remains of San Lázaro and Perseverancia.

The building was not the only one affected by the rainfall on that important Havana avenue. At number 413 of San Lázaro, between Campanario and Manrique, another building suffered the collapse of part of its balconies and cornices. The property had also experienced a previous collapse and is still inhabited by several families despite the deep degree of damage to its structure.

The building was not the only one affected by the rainfall on that important Havana avenue. (14ymedio)

On the same street, fragments of a building located in the vicinity of Galiano Street, a busy area, fell on the road.

The proximity of the sea, with its frequent coastal floods, the incidence of saltpeter and the strongest winds of the coast have contributed, along with state laziness and lack of maintenance, to the ruin of many buildings on San Lázaro Street.

The damage extends to the whole avenue, from its beginning near the Malecón to its end in front of the steps of the University of Havana, but it is the section from Paseo del Prado to Belascoaín that is the most affected. It is precisely in that area that the building that partially collapsed this morning is located.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The Most Expensive Ice Cream Shop in Havana Opens Its Store for Christmas

Bright and well stocked, the ice cream shop replaces the old BimBom at the gates of the Malecón. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, December 14, 2023 — Christmas has brought a gift in advance for those who can afford it, like everything today, in the frustrated revolutionary utopia. Bueníssimo Soderia Gourmet, the new ice cream-sweet shop that succeeds the old BimBom in the Havana neighborhood of El Vedado opened its doors this Wednesday, two months after beginning sales from a cart in front of the premises, on Infanta and 23, then under construction.

“They have made it very beautiful, very beautiful,” said Rachel, a customer attracted by the Christmas atmosphere and the dedicated workers, dressed in reindeer hats, and Santa Claus himself, who approached the door to stop the curious from pushing. “It’s already open, you can now come in,” they were kindly urged from the street.

The refrigerators with rotating sweets caught everyone’s attention, until they saw the prices. (14ymedio)

Decorated in black and white, the glass refrigerators stood out with spinning cakes and desserts, all very bright and well air-conditioned. “You can see that they use a lot of quality ingredients,” Rachel said. “Everything looks good and tastes good, too!” She exclaimed, highlighting how delicious the ice cream was. Her bill: 955 pesos for a glass dish with three scoops, served in an oval shape with a little syrup and a vanilla cupcake (panqué). continue reading

Attractiveness and novelty played a part in the premiere of the Bueníssimo Soderia Gourmet, which has adopted as its motto Esto Está Bueníssimo (This is really good), which shines on its facade. Inside you could see quite a few customers, and many  were shocked to see the price range. One scoop of ice cream, which in October sold in a paper cone on the ground level for 195 pesos, rises now, inside the premises, to 220 pesos, and this is the most economical item. Most of the sweets, some tiny, exceed 200 pesos, and others cost 700, like the tocinillo del cielo, a pudding made with egg yolk and syrup.

“Well, nowadays everything is like this, prices through the stratosphere,” said a customer who was waiting for his turn to order. “I can imagine the investment that those people have made here. They have made it very nice; to be honest, they can’t charge cheaper than that, I guess,” he said with resignation. The experience, he explained later, was worth it, because the quality is higher than its closest competitor on the street, Monte Freddo.

The ice cream, he explained to 14ymedio, is somewhat cheaper there, 400 pesos for two scoops, but not as good in terms of originality and taste. “The desserts here are different; I haven’t seen them anywhere else. The ice cream is the Italian type, with flavors that are not tropical.” Stracciatella and amareto alternate with traditional chocolate and strawberry, either in a cone or in a glass dish.

The workers, in Christmas outfits, go out to invite the curious to stop by. (14ymedio)

“Look, I’m sick,” Mario, a client on a medical diet after a recent illness explained to the saleswoman. “I can’t eat anything that has cream, custard, none of those things. The sweet has to be as simple as possible, without additives, without any filling,” he explained. “The employee was quite kind and recommended everything to me,” he told 14ymedio after finishing his sweet, a small caprice after several days in a hospital.

Accustomed to the shortages of state shops and the laziness of their employees, the people were thankful for the new place, revived under private management in an environment that took wings in the 90s, when young people and the LGBTI group began to frequent this area between the Malecón and 23rd Street, making it a meeting point of the capital.

The BimBom, which occupied the premises until the pandemic and the Ordering Task* finished off the city’s idleness, has found a successor that is made to the new measure of Havana: for the newly rich and tourists.

*Translator’s note The  Ordering Task is a collection of measures that included eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy. 

Translated by Regina Anavy

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