Illegal-Sized Bats, Defective Balls and Blackouts Harm Cuban Baseball

A game last Saturday between the Havana team, Industriales, and Los Gallos de Sancti Spíritus. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, November 20, 2023 — Irregularities in the equipment of Cuban players, caused, among other reasons, by the lack of sports equipment on the Island, continue to hinder the development of the national game. This Saturday, habanero Yoasnier Emilio Pérez was expelled from the match between his team, Industriales, and Los Gallos de Sancti Spíritus for the use of an “illegal” bat during the Elite League.

The sports authorities, who issued a statement denouncing the fact, attributed it to Pérez’s personal indiscipline but did not clarify whether the decision to use an “ineligible” bat responded to the fact that the team did not have the equipment needed for a match of that level.

According to the National Baseball Commission, in the middle of the game the Sancti Spíritus team reported the irregularity, and it was determined that the bat used, in addition to not being registered as eligible, had a rubber grip of greater size than required by the regulations, which influenced the game, because a player could use it to gain a base and put the score in favor of Industriales. continue reading

The game, which ended three to two in favor of Industriales, is considered invalid, said the Commission, which also prohibited Pérez from playing in the rescheduled match with Sancti Spíritus and the following game, both to be held next Sunday

The game, which ended three to two in favor of Industriales, is considered invalid, said the Commission, which also prohibited Pérez from playing in the rescheduled match with Sancti Spíritus and the following game, both to be held next Sunday. The Industriales’ version of the facts, or that of the sanctioned player, is not known.

“Indisciplines” aside, the situation of sports on the Island is painful. Last Sunday, the official newspaper Escambray analyzed the impact on the performance of the baseball players during the daytime hours, a measure that has been decreed to save electricity and that exposes athletes to long hours of confrontation under the sun. Many of the night matches, the team complained, may end up being suspended due to blackouts.

The lack of bats, balls and uniforms has also been a cause of discomfort among the players, who saw the situation get out of control last May when, in a match between Los Elefantes de Cienfuegos and Los Gallos, the first team ran out of bats a few minutes after the start of the game. According to an article published in the official press, the cienfuegueros had previously warned of the lack of equipment, but there was no response from the authorities.

On the contrary, after the “incredible incident,” officials pointed out TeamMate as responsible, an Italian sportswear production company that has been in the news in Cuba for delivering defective balls, delaying deliveries and having links with Antonio Castro Soto Del Valle, son of Fidel Castro. For one ball, TeamMate charges almost twice the cost of the official balls of the Major Leagues of the United States, according to figures from the Cuban Baseball Federation, a price that the regime blames on the embargo.

The lack of bats, balls and uniforms has been a cause of discomfort among the players, who saw the situation get out of control last May in a match between Los Elefantes de Cienfuegos and Los Gallos

In other sports of lesser relevance on the Island, to which a smaller budget is dedicated, the crisis is even worse. This Saturday, Invasor gave an account of the difficulties suffered by basketball students in Ciego de Ávila and how neglect of the sport – which “is not as expensive as others” – affects the future of the game in the country.

The “anger” that coaches and athletes deal with, the media says, starts with not having at least one ball per player to optimize training time. According to Yunier Valdivia, director of the Sports Initiation School (EIDE) of the province, last year the center received thirty balls, but they were of poor quality.

The lack of footwear and ankle socks is another of the urgent needs of the school. Previously, footwear was guaranteed by the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), explains Valdivia. Now, he confesses, “You can only find shoes (…) exclusively in the informal market and for a price of at least 60 U.S. dollars.” The socks have also become the responsibility of the students who, when they find them, prefer to reserve them for competitions at the risk of suffering injuries during training.

The EIDE athletes, however, have had a major problem for decades: the school’s wooden court (tabloncillo) has “holes like it was continually jumped on,” says the director of the institution, Analiesses González.

The “angers” that coaches and athletes deal with, says the media, begin by not having at least one ball per player to optimize training time

At the moment, Gonzalez says, students train in the Giraldo Córdova Cardín Multipurpose Room, “the only one with the minimum conditions in the entire province,” or on concrete courts that increase the risk of injuries due to the lack of flexibility of the floor.

“It’s not just the tabloncilla [flooring], the complete situation of the institution is very complex,” acknowledged the official, who stressed that with the 70 million pesos dedicated to this year’s budget she could not even solve the critical problem of scholarships. The closure of one of the dormitory blocks due to the precarious condition of the bathrooms forces more than 300 students to live overcrowded in another building with the rest of the athletes and prevents the school from increasing its staff.

Repairs to the court and the gym have been included in the investment plan for 2024, but it is difficult to ensure that they will be carried out. Until the State and INDER decide to reinvest the profits of national tournaments and competitions in the sport, the EIDE basketball players and other Cuban athletes will remain in terrible conditions or will choose to leave the country.

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.

Three Officials Enter the List of Repressors for Defending the Cuban Regime in Geneva

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez (second from left) headed the Cuban delegation in the Universal Periodic Review before the United Nations. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 20 November 2023 — Since Monday, the three officials who defended the regime in the most recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the Human Rights Council at the UN, on November 15, are on the list of Cuban repressors prepared by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC). They are the jurist Yuri Pérez Martínez, the lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior Luis Emilio Cadaval San Martín and the doctor Carlos Alberto Martínez Blanco.

The three are classified as “exported repressors,” which are, according to the FDHC in a statement, “those agents of the regime sent abroad to organize, advise or even participate in repression in countries allied with the Government of Cuba, or in the subversion of order in democratic countries.” This includes “diplomats or other representatives of the Government who, from abroad, distort the harsh Cuban reality, spreading official propaganda instead.”

Thus, the organization, based in the United States, has opened a file on Yuri Pérez Martínez, a professor at the University of Havana, for stating in Geneva that the Cuban Constitution, approved in 2019, recognizes the freedoms of expression, assembly, demonstration and association, “without explaining that exercising them entails long prison sentences,” and for ensuring that on the Island the elections are free, democratic and transparent, ignoring that “independent candidates for municipal assemblies are blocked, threatened and repressed, and that the candidates for provincial and national assemblies are approved by a candidacy commission composed of members of organizations controlled by the Government.” continue reading

All three are classified as “exported repressors,” agents of the regime sent abroad

Emilio Cadaval San Martín, judicial advisor to the Department of State Security, for his part, “falsified the reality of the criminal procedure, assuring that arbitrary detentions are prohibited,” in addition to denying the existence of political prisoners in the country, suggesting that those in prison are common criminals who “committed offenses such as public disorder, failure to comply, contempt and sedition.”

Finally, Dr. Carlos Alberto Martínez Blanco, says the Foundation, “offered, based on official statistics, an idyllic picture of today’s dysfunctional public health system in Cuba, blaming the U.S. embargo for the shortcomings.” At the same time, the official “omitted information such as the enormous disproportion between investments in health and tourism, the dispossession and surveillance of which Cuban medical collaborators abroad are victims and the criminal policy of keeping the population defenseless against COVID-19 for almost a year while waiting for a Cuban vaccine to be ready.”

The three officials join the same register of repressors where, for example, two officers of the Border Guard Troops are found responsible for the sinking of a boat in Bahía Honda, Artemisa, where seven people died, including a two-year-old girl in 2022, as well as several officials in charge of the repression of peaceful protests and even Alberto González Casals, director of the International Press Center, in charge of foreign journalists.

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.

Cuban Ethnologist Natalia Bolivar Dies in Havana at the Age of 89

Researcher and essayist Natalia Bolívar studied African traditions and beliefs in Cuba as an anthropologist and ethnologist. (Prensa Latina)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2023 — Cuban ethnologist, writer and painter Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui died this Sunday in Havana at the age of 89, according to the official press. The cause was not specified. With the death of the expert in Afro-Cuban religions, the Island loses one of the most versatile intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Born in the City of Havana on 16 September 1934, in a well-to-do family, she studied ballet as a child and was a swimming champion at the Biltmore Yacht Club. She studied at the American St. George School in the Cuban capital and then enrolled in the Sacred Heart Catholic center, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Letters.

In the early 1950s, Bolívar took numerous courses in Havana and New York in Chinese, Spanish and Cuban art history. She began to feel attracted to anthropology and especially to Afro-Cuban culture, which she glimpsed very early thanks to her nanny, Isabel Cantero.

“She heard the stories of her mother, of Congo origin, and in those stories everything had life, and we went to sleep with those stories,” she recalled in an interview

“She heard the stories of her mother, of Congo origin, and in those stories everything had life, and we went to sleep with those stories,” she recalled in an interview. “I caught the bug of studying Afro-Cuban culture from her.” continue reading

Her passion led her to work at the National Museum of Fine Arts, as a guide and interpreter of English and French. Then she went to the Cuban Ethnology room of that institution, where she shared research with Lydia Cabrera. Hand in hand with the author of El Monte and the anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, she trained on topics such as research methodology, ethnography and Afro-Cuban ethnography.

Along with anthropology, Bolívar gained political awareness and at the end of the 1950s joined the Directorio Revolucionario to fight against the dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista. She was part of the organization when several of its members tried to assassinate the dictator in the Presidential Palace, an action that failed.

In July 1958 she was arrested and tortured in the dreaded Bureau of Investigation of Havana. After being released, she took shelter in the Brazilian Embassy but finally left and went underground.

In July 1958 she was arrested and tortured in the dreaded Bureau of Investigation of Havana. After being released, she took shelter in the Brazilian Embassy but finally left and went underground

In January 1959, with the coming to power of Fidel Castro, leader of the Movimiento 26 de julio, the figures linked to the Directorate took a back seat in the power networks. Bolívar was appointed director of what is now called the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Napoleonic Museum, the Decorative Arts and the Numismatic Museum.

From there she developed a frantic career that took her from advising films and plays, to giving lectures, publishing several anthropology books and organizing numerous exhibitions. However, her religiosity led her to experience difficult moments in the decades of greater atheism of Castroism.

Among her books, titles such as The Orishas in Cuba stand out, a volume that suffered censorship for years before reaching bookstores. Her works include Ituto: Death in Afro-Cuban Myths and Rituals; Opolopo Owó: the Divinatory Systems of the Rule of Ocha; Myths and Legends of Afro-Cuban Food and Holy Cuba.

In recent years, her criticism of the administration of the regime also rose in tone, and on several occasions she lamented the authoritarian drift of the Cuban leaders.

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.

To Sleep in Havana and Wake Up in Moscow

Ibargüengoitia was awarded, like so many promising young Latin Americans, by Casa de las Américas. (X/Casa Estudio One Hundred Years of Solitude)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 19 November 2023 — As with almost everything deep or interesting in Mexico, very few young readers in my country know Jorge Ibargüengoitia. Don’t panic: the cult of the writer with an arduous surname – which no one forgets to mention, and neither do I –  died along with 180 other people 40 years ago, when the plane in which he was traveling crashed near an implausible Madrid town, Mejorada del Campo, while the captain thundered “shut up, gringa!” against a robotic stewardess.

In 1963, Ibargüengoitia was awarded, like so many promising young Latin Americans, by that pretentious insane asylum that is Casa de las Américas. Thanks to the devastating chronicle he published after his visit, Cuba is perhaps the only country that forgot him on purpose and by ministerial decree, and not like the rest of the world, by carelessness.

As with so many things, I didn’t find a title of his again until I left the country of prohibitions

My first reading of Jorge Ibargüengoitia was Instrucciones para vivir en México [Instructions for Living in Mexico]. It was offered to me by a Mexican friend, at a time in life when I needed to be instructed, or at least initiated, in that complex profession. The planned trip never happened, but Ibargüengoitia remained in my memory. As with so many things, I didn’t find a title of his again until I left the country of prohibitions. It was Revolución en el jardín [Revolution in the Garden], in the edition of Reino de Redonda, whose prologue – by Juan Villoro – alludes to Ibargüengoitia as a man “with an astronaut’s haircut.” continue reading

That anthology contains the story of the problematic trip to Havana, where the writer arrived in 1964, to collect the prize for his novel Los relámpagos de agosto [The Lightning of August]. The previous year he had won the theater prize. He was named  and invited, caught a cold and returned to Mexico anesthetized by a bottle of Bacardí. He had spent fifteen days on the Island, with his passport confiscated by the cheerful jailers of Haydée Santamaría. The stench of Marxist optimism dissipated as soon as he saw his Latin American colleagues in the lobby of the Havana Libre, “discussing the future of humanity, trying to decide which cabaret they were going to.”

He soon understood that the former Hilton, converted into Fidel Castro’s burrow, was an allegory of the entire country. On the lower floors, the humble winners of the socialist emulation or the delegates to some plebeian congress; then, the Russians and the artists bewitched by the olive green utopia; and in the dome – “the Olympus” – select guests from capitalist countries, such as the English and German executives of Mercedes-Benz, in addition to the caudillo himself.

If the official State newspaper Granma interviewed him, it was not to ask him about his literary method, but to clarify that in Havana there was “a very important writer, who was called Jorge Ibargüengoitia and admired by the Cuban Revolution.” Then came an irritating expedition to Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Santa Clara. On that trip he met Samuel Feijóo, who told him that none of his students had ever touched a Historia del Arte [Art History]. (I, who knew several of those students fond of doodling, can confirm it.) He didn’t have to tell Ibargüengoitia twice, and the Mexican writer left Las Villas convinced that Feijóo was at the zenith of his career: “He had managed to gather a collection of quite complex shit.”

Revolution in the Garden’ diagnoses, with the perplexity that the Mexican never abandoned, everything that in 1971 Jorge Edwards detected in ’Persona non grata’

Revolution in the Garden diagnoses, with the perplexity that the Mexican never abandoned, everything that in 1971 Jorge Edwards detected in Persona non grata. And he did it first. No drama or bad feelings, no fear when Havana barked and bit and those who went to bed there suddenly woke up – after several magical passes of Castro – in Moscow. His fundamental lesson for literature is to write from lack of inhibition and wit, without the coarse humor that characterizes the Latin American, a level that was only achieved in Spanish – and not always – by Cabrera Infante, Eduardo Mendoza and two or three characters from Bolaño.

After several decades as a writer “for a select minority,” as he defined himself, the man with the cosmonaut’s haircut is finally getting his moment. From a cult author he has become a classic, but in the sense that he – too awake to fall into the trap – wished to interpret: “One who finishes off a tradition and renders it useless.”

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.

Hamas and ‘Che’ Guevara, Icons of Western Progressives

The Committee of Solidarity with the Peoples and the Inter-Peoples Association in a demonstration of support for the Palestinian people. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Clara Riveros, Bogota, 19 November 2023 — A lot of blood and ink have flowed in the Middle East since the terrorist attack on Israel, on October 7, by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, supported by Iran. Many images that are difficult to process and forget. Hundreds of civilians brutally murdered. Women kidnapped and raped; young people who were at a party surprised and sprayed by bullets; minors sleeping in their homes with their families, taken out of their beds, kidnapped, remain missing, many orphaned children, and parents killed.

All of them were civilians. What came next, with the civilian population in Gaza, at the mercy of all the fireworks, has been no less devastating and painful.

In the meantime, various demonstrations, celebrations and even claims of barbarism have taken place. They consider it another act of Palestinian resistance against Israel. It is naive to expect something different when entire generations have grown up indoctrinated in fanaticism and hatred, daydreaming of the annihilation of Israel. Hence the applause for the actions of the terrorists and the glorification of martyrdom and Islamist barbarism.

Palestinians and their supporters scattered around the world have resisted condemning such an abominable massacre and, instead, have shown themselves ready to give unsolicited lessons from an alleged moral superiority, embedded in religiosity no matter how progressive and atheist they say they are. continue reading

Meanwhile, various demonstrations, celebrations and even claims of barbarism have taken place. They consider it another act of Palestinian resistance against Israel

How to define and conceptualize the self-styled progressive left, feminism or LGBT groups that have been supporting, in the name of the Palestinian cause, a terrorist and fundamentalist group? Activists have participated in meetings and waved their flags, banners and symbols accompanied by slogans such as “Allah loves equality.” A pathetic but efficient postcard of reality and the world in which we live and that recalls the cult of Che Guevara by Western progressives.

The staging of Hamas is, without further ado, the crystallization of the thought and doctrine of the Argentine guerrilla leader and revolutionary – who served as a model and inspiration for Arabs, Africans, Asians and Latin Americans – whose ideology reads: “Hate as a factor of struggle, intransigent hatred of the enemy, which pushes beyond the natural limitations of the human being and turns him into an effective, violent, selective and cold killing machine.” Wasn’t the operation of the Hamas Islamists an implementation of that manual combined with their religious extremist mission that induces martyrdom and annihilation?

Everything goes for the cause, a cause that, increasingly, raises questions about its viability. Does the world need a new Islamist dictatorship? Hamas’ mission proves that it is not just a land conflict. It is a bet on all or nothing, via the combination of all forms of struggle. At the bottom is the religious conquest and destruction of Israel. Islamist obscurantism and its proven capacity for devastation are not only out of the question but are already felt all over the planet.

Islamist obscurantism and its proven capacity for devastation are not only out of the question but are already felt all over the planet

Anti-Semitism in the world today is more unveiled, without makeup, without nuances to confuse; on the contrary, it has more verve and power after the October 7 massacre. “Progressives” in Europe and the Americas have filled the streets endorsing the instrumental character of terrorism, naively calling it (or not) “resistance.”

These facts coincided with my reading of The Shipwreck of Civilizations, by the Lebanese writer and prolific thinker Amin Maalouf, who analyzes and explains different events that occurred during the twentieth century, on that side of the world. It’s a remarkable essay for understanding that the facts transcend his homeland, the Levant, and that the repercussions go beyond the Arab Islamic world. As he had already shown a few years ago in Identity Killers, the author is forceful in rejecting the community, identity and/or religious specificities that promote totalitarianism and destroy universal fundamental values that dignify humanity.

“In a world in which an identity hotbed prevails, we are all necessarily traitors to someone, and sometimes to all parties at the same time (…). Homogeneity is an expensive and cruel chimera. You pay a very expensive price to get to it; and in the event that it is ever reached, it is even more expensive (…). I will never stop opposing the idea that populations that have different languages or religions would do better to live apart from each other. I will never decide to admit that ethnicity, religion or race are legitimate foundations for building nations (…). How many regrettable failures, how many butchers and ’purifications’ will we have to witness before that barbaric approach to identity issues ceases to be considered normal, realistic and ’in accordance with human nature’?”

Hopelessness and the Arab option for self-destruction, says Maalouf, became evident in 1967: “It was on Monday, June 5, 1967, when Arab desperation was born

Maalouf recalls that the Arab world was not always what we see today; there was a time when countries such as Lebanon and Egypt were epicenters of cultural effervescence and liberal life. Sadly, these processes were truncated and failed over the years. Also there were heroes with feet of clay in the style of the Peronists and Chavistas, keeping the proportions of time and space. Contingency, personalism, leadership and populism allowed them to take power and a place in History, while other names were forgotten and relegated by their openness, moderation and vision of Western modernity, freedom and democracy.

Hopelessness and the Arab option for self-destruction, says Maalouf, became evident in 1967: “It was on Monday, June 5, 1967 when Arab desperation was born.” The Six-Day War, with the consequent Arab failure, marked the decadence and state of mind of both the victors and the vanquished. If the Arab power was liquidated and struck down in less than a week, the Israeli has not been able to manage and administer its victory properly and magnanimously, says the author. “A peace of the brave can only be agreed between adversaries who respect each other.” Consequently, “the road to peace, which was already narrow and very rugged, is now blocked.”

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.

Migration Conferences for Castroism

Those first conferences were aimed at dividing the exiles from the mass of migrants who were not political. (Presidencia de Cuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, November 18, 2023 — The ability of the Island totalitarianism, despite its long agony, to develop strategies that to some extent extend its existence is really remarkable, a reality that is evidenced by the call for a Fourth Conference on the Nation and Emigration, two concepts that the dictatorship interprets at its convenience.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Castroism, in this conference and the previous ones, continues to attribute to itself the representation of the nation. Fidel Castro, from the day of the insurrection victory, on January 1, 1959, made public his claim to synthesize the nation and his Government in his person, as if he were a kind of trinity that symbolized what was most transcendental, the homeland.

Castroism, when it was politically convenient, galvanized its supporters by selecting those who went abroad and opponents as the enemy to hate. Yes, to hate. A simple act such as leaving your country in search of a better life was described as treason, and the traitor could not even give away his belongings. These were confiscated, and he was warned that he could not return to the abandoned paradise. continue reading

Undoubtedly, this manipulation of the environment, to the point of turning it into a lie, has yielded great fruits.

Undoubtedly, this manipulation of the environment, to the point of turning it into a lie, has yielded great fruits. A notable part of the population voluntarily bowed to the regime, while another sector, no less relevant, confronted it or decided to leave the country, with all the official repudiation that both actions implied.

To top it off, a revolutionary could not correspond with an exile, particularly if the exile resided in the United States. I remember a lady who said to her crying sister: “Don’t write to us because that could harm us.” However, a few months later, she was asking for assistance through their mother. That double standard has always been there for those who obey the Government.

The regime’s propaganda apparatus worked intensively on the population to incorporate into the popular creed the certainty that Fidel, the Revolution and Cuba were the same thing, so much so that the supreme dictator said: “Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world, which is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism.”

Those first conferences were aimed at dividing the exiles from the mass of migrants that did not declare themselves politically. In those times, potential aid did not matter; the one who left the Island, unless they showed regret and collaborated with the Government, was still an enemy.

The dictatorship believed that it could be self-sufficient and that the population was willing to die of hunger for the dreams of its pharaoh

Then, the dictatorship believed that it could be self-sufficient and that the population was willing to die of hunger for the dreams of its pharaoh.

From now on, other rules will apply. Exiles will be able to mutate into emigrants if they are willing to rehabilitate themselves by investing in Cuba. Of course, you should not worry that the conditions of the country are more chaotic than when you abandoned it, and that your assets could be confiscated by decree, due to the chronic lack of legal security.

Trusting the Cuban regime is a crass mistake. The mental structure of its leaders has only known how to take advantage; hence, they changed national sovereignty for the billionaire Soviet subsidies, which, after the USSR was exhausted, they would associate with a military coup until leading Venezuela into bankruptcy.

Throughout these more than six decades the regime has squandered billions of dollars, without forgetting that a good part of this fortune was wasted by the heirs of the ruling class or is in the bank accounts of corrupt officials.

That money does not only come from the Soviet and Venezuelan funds. There is also money from foreign investors who trusted the promises of Castroism, particularly from Spanish businessmen, although these had their investments guaranteed by Madrid, a condition that emigrants who invest will not have.

The Castro-Díaz-Canel Government is only trying to survive. The principles went to the garbage can of History, as the maximum leader liked to say. Yesterday’s enemies become allies if they are able to pay the toll assigned to them. For Castroism, even in the life of its commander, everything has a price, which many of us are not willing to pay.

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 Woman Is Murdered in Havana by Her Ex-Partner, a Prisoner Who Was Released

So far this year, 76 women have been victims of sexist violence on the Island. (Cubanos por el Mundo/Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2023 — A woman identified as Sarai died this Saturday and her mother was seriously injured in the municipality of Cerro, Havana, after a knife attack by Sarai’s former partner, an inmate who had been released from prison hours earlier.

As CubaNet was able to confirm, the events occurred on Salvador Street, between Parque and Bella Vista, in the Popular Canal Council of the municipality of Havana. Sources told the digital media that Sarai’s brother was also injured, although “it is unknown” if the injuries he received “represent a danger to his life.” The mother of the deceased was admitted to the Calixto García Hospital and is reported to be in serious condition.

Videos circulating on social networks showed that the femicide occurred on Saturday afternoon and that a crowd of neighbors and several police officers arrived. continue reading

Previously he had threatened and attacked her, but she did not report it out of fear. Now he was released and has killed her

“She had broken up with him and he didn’t accept it. He is a very violent man,” said a neighbor, who added that the woman had received previous threats from the killer. “Previously he had threatened and attacked her, but she didn’t report it out of fear. Now he was released and has killed her,” she added.

So far this year, 76 women have been victims of sexist violence on the Island, according to the 14ymedio record, which matches the list of independent platforms. Just a week ago, Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo verified the femicide of Ana María Laria, in Playa de Guanabo, Havana, on September 22, and that of Maylin Fernández Sánchez, 43,  between November 4 and 5 in Güines, Mayabeque.

The sexist murders registered to date independently – in the absence of official statistics – represent more than double those quantified in 2022, a total of 36. The activists insist that a “state of emergency for gender-based violence” be declared and regret that the Government has not taken action in this regard.

In addition, they advocate for a comprehensive law against gender violence — machista murder is not listed in the Criminal Code — and the implementation of protocols to prevent these events, as well as the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women and their children who are in danger.

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 Cuban Regime Seeks Its Salvation in the Investments of Emigrants

La Carreta restaurant, located on 21st Street on the corner of K, in the heart of El Vedado, in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 19 November 2023 — Those who for decades were called “worms,” “traitors” and “counterrevolutionaries” have become the great hope of the Cuban regime to save the disastrous economy. A main objective seems to guide the Government of Cuba at the conference it is holding with emigrants this weekend in Havana: to attract them to invest in the Island and legalize a process that has already begun stealthily with small entrepreneurs from the diaspora.

Despite Cuban law and the U.S. “embargo” that prohibit it for the time being, several exiles have opened businesses in Cuba using the names of residents on the Island and, in some cases, in association with local authorities. Among them are the private restaurants La Carreta, Antojos and some others in Havana, in addition to the Diplomarket shopping center, all controlled by U.S. residents, with the approval or participation of the regime.

Although he did not allude to the current situation, the director general of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ernesto Soberón, spoke openly in an interview with Juventud Rebelde last Sunday.

Similarly, Reuters confirmed it by quoting a “senior official” of the Foreign Relations Ministry: “Cuba wants to take advantage of its growing population abroad in search of new investments that boost the economy.” continue reading

Despite Cuban law and the U.S. “embargo” that prohibit it for the moment, several exiles have opened businesses in Cuba using the names of residents on the Island and, in some cases, in association with local authorities

In the Nation and Emigration Conference, the first in 19 years, more than 400 people are participating, many of whom — no less than 40%, according to Soberón — have double residence, in Cuba and abroad. (According to the EFE agency, most of the participants whose identities transcend national boundaries are people linked to solidarity with Cuba groups abroad). “This did not happen before, which is the result of the modification of the Constitution that now recognizes effective citizenship, and there can be several,” the official insisted, talking about the 2013 constitutional reform.

Soberón added to this the measures taken last July – the extension of the validity of ordinary passports from six to ten years, the elimination of the mandatory extension every two years and the reduction of the price to apply for it – as part of the same strategy of approaching Cubans abroad. He did not name another one, which many consider as an extension of the penalty applied to most nationals who left the country: the requirement to show the Cuban passport for exiles before 1971, who were exempted from the perpetual control exercised by the political police over the emigrants).

Most have set up hotels, restaurants and other shops, many of them with remarkable success

The authorities now publicly insist that Cubans abroad must invest in their country of origin, but the truth is that it has been happening stealthily for years.

Most have set up hotels, restaurants and other shops, many of them with remarkable success. One of them is Frank Cuspinera Medina, vice president of Las Américas TCC Corporation, based in Miami, a group to which Diplomarket belongs, called, sarcastically, the “Cuban Costco.”

Cuspinera Medina is domiciled in Florida but also in El Vedado. His name appears in a letter that several Cuban entrepreneurs sent in 2021 to U.S. President Joe Biden, asking him to lift the sanctions against the Government of the Island, which harmed their businesses. In the letter he did not appear as a member of Las Américas, but of Iderod Servicios Constructivos, based in Cuba.

This last firm is not on the list of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) of the regime, but it is a company with his name, Cuspinera SURL LVI, dedicated to “providing e-commerce platform services,” the same as a branch of Las Américas TCC.

Al cubano Obel Martínez, dueño de La Carreta, le fue concedida la nacionalidad estadounidense. (Facebook)
Cuban Obel Martínez, owner of La Carreta, was granted US nationality. (Facebook)

Reinaldo Rivero is another Cuban resident in the U.S. with a tentacle in Havana: although his business is registered in the name of his mother, he is the real owner, with a foreign partner, of the busy Antojos restaurant and bar and a security agency that serves the establishments of the Espada Alley, on Peña Pobre Street in Old Havana.

A third name, with a dazzling triumph, is Obel Martínez, owner of La Carreta. Remodeled and with a rich gastronomic offer, the emblematic restaurant of El Vedado reopened in private hands last June and immediately became a place among the habananeros for the emerging middle class.

By then, Martínez had opened another business, Mojito-Mojito, in the heart of Old Havana, praised on travel pages for the owner’s enthusiasm and kindness.

His signature is in place 5,639 of the registration of MSMEs with the name Mojito Martínez and was approved in the last quarter of 2022. Precisely in December of that same year, Cuban Obel Martínez was granted U.S. nationality. In fact, according to a close source who requests anonymity, he continues to retain his residence in Miami, Florida.

“Obel fled from Castroism and now lives from it, enjoying at the same time all the benefits and opportunities of the American dream: he plays at capitalism from Havana, with the support of the local authorities,” says the same source, who echoes the discomfort created by this situation in some sectors of the regime itself, particularly within the Communist Party of Cuba, where there is a debate about the privileges granted to this new class of businessmen.

As a local development project, the source adds, Obel received a loan of 10 million pesos from the municipal government, specifically at the 250 branch of the Metropolitan Bank, located on Línea Street in El Vedado. As confirmed by official television in a report last September, La Carreta “was restored thanks to the collaboration with the government of the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.”

Obel fled from Castroism and now lives from it, enjoying at the same time all the benefits and opportunities of the American dream: he plays at capitalism from Havana, with the support of the local authorities

The governor of the municipality, Rolando López Jiménez, explains that “he assumed the responsibility for rescuing the facility to provide a better service,” in addition to facilitating the hiring of employees and rehabilitating the apartments located above the establishment.

Obel Martínez does not appear in the report, but 14ymedio has verified that he is the one who receives the clientele of both La Carreta and Mojito-Mojito, presenting himself as the owner.

Cuban law does not allow a U.S. citizen to own a company on the Island, although the words of Ernesto Soberón in Juventud Rebelde suggest that this is about to change. However, there is another greater inconvenience, if possible: according to the embargo laws, as a U.S. resident a person is also banned from doing business in Cuba, unless they have a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

So far, the only American who has OFAC’s permission to establish a company in Cuba is John Kavulich, and he keeps his business secret, in addition to Hugo Cancio, from the online shopping site Katapulk, who has obtained a license to export vehicles from the United States.

As U.S. Treasury officials explained, following a meeting of Cuban businessmen in Miami last September, several conditions must be met in order not to break the law. Entrepreneurs residing in Cuba cannot create companies in the U.S. to sell their products or buy goods directly from U.S. companies. Similarly, Cuban-Americans cannot establish businesses on the Island unless they achieve permanent residence in the country through repatriation.

Cuba has been hoping for months that the U.S. will approve measures to help the MSMEs on the Island that, far from materializing, do not cease to provoke controversy.

Cuba has been interested for months in the U.S. approving measures to help the MSMEs on the Island that, far from materializing, do not cease to arouse controversy

Without going any further, on November 8, Senator Marco Rubio questioned the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, about the fact that Cubans who arrive in the U.S. and seek refuge end up living between the two countries.

“You’re supposed to be fleeing political persecution, so you are automatically a candidate to receive money for being a refugee, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid,” said Rubio, who compared the privilege of Cubans who can obtain these benefits after one year to the situation of refugees from other countries who have to wait five years.

“Some return to Cuba for three months at a time, and they have only been here for a year. How, if you are fleeing persecution, can it be that a year later you spend the summers in Cuba? How can it be that you travel between six and eight times a year to Cuba? I have never heard that people who flee persecution return to that place repeatedly. There’s a problem here, isn’t there?” said the Republican senator.

Perhaps Cuba will take immediate measures to regularize the situation of its businessmen with dual nationality. It is less clear that the U.S. will do so with respect to the embargo restrictions. What is a fact is that the owners of these companies continue to operate without problems.

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.

Cuban Political Prisoner Felix Navarro Is Transferred to a Hospital in Matanzas

The opponent Félix Navarro is “in a delicate state of health, is 70 years old and has several chronic diseases.” (Muad)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2023 — The political prisoner Félix Navarro was transferred this week from the Agüica prison to the Faustino Pérez hospital in Matanzas. The health of the opposition leader, coordinator of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, had deteriorated in recent weeks, according to family reports.

Navarro’s wife, Sonia Álvarez, showed up this Friday morning at the police station of the municipality of Perico and “asked to speak to a State Security officer,” activist Annia Zamora told 14ymedio. “They told her that he was in the hospital for a medical check-up, but we don’t believe that version. He is in a delicate state of health, is 70 years old and has several chronic diseases.”

Zamora, mother of the political prisoner Sissi Abascal, recommended that people “be attentive and denounce the situation” of the opposition leader. Navarro’s daughter, the Lady of White Sayli Navarro, is being held in La Bellotex prison, in Matanzas, for participating in the popular protests of 11 July 2021 (11J).

Félix Navarro, who was sentenced for the crimes of “assault” and “public disorder” to 9 years in prison just for going out to demonstrate on 11J, has experienced a deterioration of his health, worsened by diabetes and the lung injury he suffers, and added to the several hunger strikes he has carried out in  prison to demand his release. continue reading

In July and September of this year, the opponent, former prisoner of the 2003 Black Spring, suffered several fainting spells in the Agüica prison

In July and September of this year, the opponent, former prisoner of the 2003 Black Spring, suffered several fainting spells in the Agüica prison. He recently needed his family to take antibiotics to the prison to treat a skin infection, and he still has consequences from COVID-19, which he suffered two years ago.

In July 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in favor of Navarro, noting that he was in a “grave situation and at urgent risk of irreparable damage to his rights in Cuba.”

Relatives and lawyers then told the IACHR about the difficulties they have faced in maintaining contact and visits as well as obtaining information about his detention and health conditions.

After analyzing the allegations of fact and law, the IACHR considered that the information presented showed that Navarro was in a situation of gravity and urgency, and it asked the Government of Cuba to “adopt the necessary measures to protect the right to life” of the opponent, a complaint that has not yet been answered.

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.

Cuban Players ‘Were Not Invited’to the Caribbean Series, Admits the Regime

Cuba was present at the 2022 Caribbean Series, held in Venezuela, when the number of invited teams at the time was eight. (Ricardo López Hevia/Granma)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, November 16, 2023 — The Cuban baseball team was left out of the Caribbean Series, which will be held in Miami next February, a key event for regaining the prestige of the national team after a year marked by desertions and mediocre performance. The players of the Island “were not invited,” said the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, Juan Reinaldo Pérez, during a press conference at the Latin American stadium.

Juventud Rebelde journalist Guillermo Rodríguez asked the manager about the next steps for the Cuban team in the international arena and received confirmation that the Island will not be part of the competition.

The news was confirmed in the X account of the Federation itself, which added that it continued to summon the “players (Cubans) inserted in other leagues,” as already happened in the World Classic, to alleviate the shortage of players of the so-called Team Asere. The team “maintains its aspirations to participate in 2025,” the agency noted. continue reading

This April, the ESPN network pointed out that the Caribbean Series had limited the participation to six teams, preferring to invite Nicaragua and Curaçao rather than Cuba. Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which are part of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, will also play and, by membership rights, are obliged to participate in the tournament.

The team “maintains its aspirations to participate in  2025”

As for the Elite League of Cuban Baseball, which the Island is currently celebrating, Pérez said that the team that wins will have the right to participate in an important Antillean Cup to be held in Puerto Rico, to which Cuba “was invited,” along with the Dominican Republic, although they still have to negotiate with the organizers the details of the trip.

Cuba was present at the 2022 Caribbean Series, held in Venezuela, when the number of invited teams at the time was eight. Although it did not obtain any notable results, the Cuban national team expected to attend the event this year, a disappointment that Pérez did not hide during his press conference.

Several experts have attributed the rejection of the Cuban national team by the organizers of the Series to the controversy over the presentation of Team Asere in Miami, during the last World Classic. The Cuban regime launched a campaign to politicize the meeting, to which the Cuban emigrants in Florida responded with protests against the presence of the Cuban national team.

In addition, Cuba’s performance during the last Caribbean Series was well below the level of the event. The Agricultores – winner of the Elite League of 2022 and entitled to play in the Series – made up of players from Las Tunas and Granma, suffered six defeats and won only once.

The Cuban Federation, specialists have also pointed out, is taking steps towards the reissue of a new Team Asere, a desperate strategy that seeks to counterbalance the escapes of Cuban athletes and improve the Island’s performance internationally. The Premier 12 international tournament, whose venue is not yet known, is the goal of the Cuban directors and the reason why they are urgently summoning Cuban players who already play as professionals ’on the other shore’.

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.

Departures, Blackouts and Rain Are a Curse for the Elite Baseball League in Cuba

The fourth game between the Sancti Spíritus and Matanzas teams was suspended due to a blackout in the stadium. (Maikel Martín)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2023 — A blackout due to an electrical failure in two lighting towers of the José Antonio Huelga stadium forced the fourth game between Sancti Spíritus and Matanzas, as a part of the subseries of the II Elite League, to be suspended this Thursday. The start of the match had been delayed by the rain, which has affected the Island in recent days.

The game was suspended when the epirituanos had the advantage of a run. “The agreement was that they would pitch: the right-handed Albert Valladares for the Gallos and the left-hander Denis Quesada for the Crocodilos,” journalist Maikel Martín Gallego told the official newspaper Escambray. The match will resume when the Yayabo team visits the Victoria stadium in Girón, Matanzas, the Athens of Cuba, he says.

The rain also forced the reprogramming of last Tuesday’s game between the Leones de Industrialies and the Avispas of Santiago de Cuba, which will take place at the Guillermón Moncada stadium, journalist Boris Luis Cabrera Acosta reported on his social networks.

In recent days, the Santiago capital suffered heavy rainfall that affected the east of the Island and left severe damage in the neighboring province of Holguín. continue reading

Cuban baseball is experiencing a nightmare to which the curse of blackouts has also been added, although this was predictable. Despite the constant power outages suffered on the Island, national commissioner Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo announced at the beginning of this month that games would begin from 6:30 in the evening, with the exception of the 26 de Julio stadium in Artemisa, where the matches are scheduled at 1:30 pm.

The rain also forced the reprogramming of last Tuesday’s game between the Leones de Industriales and the Avispas de Santiago

Cuban baseball hasn’t managed to exorcise the evils left by the escape of athletes, which is reflected in the local tournament. The second edition of the Elite League was unattractive for 24 players who declined to participate for different reasons before its start on November 7, while another 20 athletes were dropped.

The incentive that the winner of the tournament will represent Cuba in the Antillean Cup of Puerto Rico is no longer enough. The posture of the athletes had repercussions. Pérez Pardo, from the Baseball Federation of Cuba and the director of the Elite League, Carlos Martín, warned that with respect to “those athletes who do not want to play in the League or another national tournament, their attitude will be taken into consideration when we form a national team.”

Athletes prefer to leave the Island in the search to sign with a major league club in the United States. This was the case of Cuban picher Marlon Vega, who a few weeks ago traveled to Mexico and this week signed a contract with the Mayos de Navojoa in the Pacific League.

Leodan Reyes, who asked for his leave from baseball last year, reached an agreement on Sunday with the Washington Nationals. According to journalist Francys Romero, the native of Pinar del Río will receive a bonus of $60,000 when he signs his contract on January 15.

Without figures of brilliance and luster, the Cuban fans have shown their apathy by being absent from the stands in the II Elite League. “After each inning, the stadiums seem to sigh with a notorious absence, giving the final touches to an unusual landscape that invites reflection,” Play-Off Magazine published. “The decision not to go to the stadium is an echo of dissatisfaction, a mute cry that reverberates through the corridors, reminding us that baseball is more than a game: it is a symbolic pact between the stands and the sacred ground.”

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.

On Cuban Television, a Government Minister Does a Balancing Act To Guarantee the ‘Basic Family Basket’ in December

December rice deliveries will be made as the product arrives on the Island.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2023 — A senior Cuban government official appeared this Thursday on State TV’s Roundtable program to try to reassure the population. Despite the widespread shortages in the country, the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Trade, Yosvani Pupo, said that the ’basic family basket’ for the last weeks of the year is guaranteed, although there could be transport problems.

Pupo began his presentation by alluding to the most demanded product in recent months: rice, whose absence has caused discomfort among the population, which considers it an essential product. The outlook for the grain, however, does not bring good omens. In Pinar de Río, Camagüey and Granma, one pound per capita corresponding to October still remains to be delivered, of the seven that are delivered monthly.

By November, about to end, rice is still in the “distribution process.” The official tried to alleviate the news by insisting that in the ports of Nuevitas and Santiago de Cuba there are ships unloading the imported grain. He admitted that “delivery may be delayed” due to the heavy rains in the east of the country. “But the seven pounds of rice for the month of November are in the country and in the process of distribution,” he insisted. continue reading

In the ports of Nuevitas and Santiago de Cuba there are ships unloading the imported grain

In the case of the December quota, Pupo said that deliveries will be made that same month as the ships arrive on the Island, although he hopes that at the end of 2023 there will be no more “debts to the population” to be paid.

As for another missing product, coffee, the manager guaranteed the delivery of “November’s consumption within the month.” “The imported raw material in the country and the domestic production are enough to respond to December’s consumption. The coffee is totally safe for these months,” said the leader, who confirmed the start of distribution in Havana, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus and Santiago de Cuba.

The sugar, whose delivery went from four to three pounds per month in September, will return in December to the initial amount, because “there is a total guarantee of that product,” the minister stressed. The total of the three pounds planned in October was also delivered, and for November the quota of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Havana is being “completed.” These delays, he justified, are due to the fact that the sugar must be transported to those provinces from the production site.

Also the quota of salt, nationally produced and usually transported from Granma or Las Tunas, is covered for the rest of the year, Pupo clarified. Although he did not reveal what stage of distribution the product is in, he did warn that in Santiago de Cuba they have “fallen behind” with the delivery.

“Depending on the logistics, 10 ounces per capita are guaranteed for the months of November and December, but we will deliver 20 ounces in unison,” he added speaking about the delivery of imported peas, absent at least since September in the bodegas (ration stores) of Pinar del Río, Camagüey, Holguín and Granma.

Finally, the minister referred to the deliveries of modules donated through the World Food Program

Finally, the minister referred to the deliveries of modules donated through the World Food Program, such as peas, rice and oil.

“Three distributions have been made, two of them to family nuclei, and the third to people in vulnerable situations and pregnant women. There is a fourth distribution in process, aimed at people in vulnerable situations, pregnant women and children, which have only to be completed by Pinar del Río and Matanzas; and a fifth delivery has also been scheduled, which must begin in the eastern provinces before the end of the year or in the first days of January,” he said, alluding as an achievement to the delivery of bags of up to 18 pounds of food.

What the Minister of Internal Trade did not make clear in his speech were the plans to guarantee the basic basket in 2024 – taking into account the poor performance of his portfolio – or if he plans to continue blaming the fuel crisis.

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.

About Cuban Cooperatives: Playing With Fire

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel attends the XIV International Meeting of Economists on Globalization and Problems of Development

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 16 November 2023 — The Cuban communists, since the early days of Fidel Castro, never willingly accepted the phenomenon of the cooperative movement and never gave it the deserved space it should have had, especially in the agricultural sector.

The origin of cooperativism in Cuba after the revolution was precarious. The few farmers who retained small plots of land, after the structural transformations of the so-called “agrarian reform,” understood that cooperativism could be a determinant of the productive efficiency of their lands.

And so a system of small cooperatives emerged on the Communist Island, of local implementation, which soon fell under the political control of the regime through the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP). Immediately the communist leaders were at the head of these cooperatives, and any possibility of development, growth or improvement of these entities fell into oblivion. For more than 50 years, the Cuban cooperative sector was the closest thing to a private initiative in the Marxist interventionist desert, and therefore, it never managed to take off.

Sixty years later, the existing economic model on the Island still does not accommodate the cooperative movement, which struggles to occupy positions of power without success. And now, it has occurred to the communist leaders that cooperativism, in addition to being oriented to producing food and goods and services, has to be dedicated to a continue reading

participatory task that they call “community transformation.” To that end, “cooperatives must have a humanistic approach and social responsibility for the environment.” Unfortunately, we are very afraid this will give the death blow to the sector.

The hilarious idea that cooperatives be in charge of community transformation and that they are responsible for the environment, arose precisely during the second day of the XIV International Meeting of Economists on Globalization and Problems of Development, which is being held at the Convention Palace in Havana. Colleagues want to believe in it, but they can’t. They know that the economic model is useless, and they propose its replacement, but then they dedicate themselves to these flowery games that do not lead anywhere because they only serve those who run the country and reject any real change. It should not be expected that any leader put to sleep by these messages will take sides so that the cooperatives produce more and serve the interests of the population.

The Support for Agricultural Intercooperation (Apocoop) project cited by the state press, establishes a route “to strengthen the development of agriculture and the social responsibility of cooperatives for their environment” and has an active presence in four provinces of the country – Artemisa, Sancti Spíritus, Las Tunas and Guantánamo – benefiting a population of more than one million inhabitants, of which 46% are women.

The question is immediate: has anyone in those four provinces seen their diet improved with Apocoop? Do you eat more and better? It would be good to get that information, because otherwise, we return to the debate about the means or the ends, which the communists like so much, but which does not serve to produce more and better, which is what the country needs.

Apocoop has served to contribute, they say, about a million pesos, which has been destined to “improve the living conditions of the communities in which they are located, mainly with the rehabilitation of basic service spaces and the realization of local food self-sufficiency.”

The immediate question is, what about the necessary capitalization for cooperatives to be able to invest more and better, and continue to grow? Does it vanish in “help”? It should be remembered that nothing is free, and that if a group of workers join to promote a cooperative, their objective is to improve their economic and social situation; that is, to earn money and make their project profitable.

Let’s imagine what can happen if the local communist leader tells them to forget that, the money has to be allocated to social and community responsibility. When the cooperative members see that this happens two years in a row, the cooperative is over and everyone goes home. And then they talk about the blockade of the United States, when the real blockade is internal.

There was also talk of promoting “other regulatory frameworks that lead the path of cooperativism and the promotion of second-degree cooperatives with powers to diversify their activities.” As it is unknown what regulatory framework they are talking about, in these cases it is better to leave things as they are before embarking on changes that may end up giving worse results.

It seems to me that the representatives of cooperatives from Mexico and the Dominican Republic attending the event took a fairly objective impression of the daily reality of the Island, in case there was any doubt, along with the entrepreneurs who visit international fairs and competitions on the Island but never return.

Communist leaders have no remedy. They don’t even trust cooperatives anymore. They want them submissive and obedient. They play with fire.

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.

Faced With the Alarming Shortage of Rice, the Cuban Authorities Want To Prepare the Idle Land

Of the 24,700 acres for rice planting in the province, the Agroindustrial Grain Company only has the capacity to attend to 17,300. (El Artemiseño)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, November 16, 2023 — The rice production in Artemisa is barely enough to cover the “basic family basket” sold in the ration stores of two municipalities, Candelaria and San Cristóbal, and a part of the provincial capital, the local authorities recognized on Thursday. Officials no longer know what to do to get the 1,500 tons of grain they need monthly, in a context of everyone for himself, where the State has asked each locality to redouble its “self-management.”

According to El Artemiseño, it is expected that the collection, this winter, of what was sown during the last spring season (2,470 acres), will be about 2,000 tons. That amount, which barely covers a month’s consumption, will not be enough to feed the 454,741 consumers in the province, who require about 18,000 tons per year.

The missing amount, the officials assure, will be imported, but the lack of resources and financing make purchases in the international market irregular and dependent on the state budget that, reduced as it is, uses all kinds of methods to try to raise national production.

Hence, the Agroindustrial Grain Company José Martí (EAIG), located in Candelaria, and Azutecnia – a branch of the Azcuba sugar group – have sent their workers out to “weed” 38 miles of irrigation channels in the rice fields. continue reading

At the moment, 15.5 miles have been cleared, Ariagny Pérez, director of EAIG, told the newspaper, and he said that several farmers in the area have joined the task of reconditioning the fields.

It is expected that the collection, this winter, of what was sown during the last spring season (2,470 acres), will be a scarce 2,000 tons

Of the 24,700 acres available for rice planting in the province, EAIG only has the capacity to attend to 7,000, said Pérez, who did not explain why only 17,300 were planted last spring when the company has the resources to cover seven times that amount.

In total, Cuba needs about 700,000 tons of rice per year for the population’s consumption and, although the aspiration for 2025  is that more than half that amount (538,000 tons) will be produced in the country, the reality is still the importation of what’s missing, and Artemis, with its low productive capacity, is far from contributing to that reality.

In recent months, the shortage of rice in the ration stores has been one of the most frequent complaints of the population. At the beginning of November, only three pounds of sugar per person per month had arrived in several municipalities of Havana, while the rest of the products – including rice – were conspicuous by their absence.

Several articles published in the official newspapers were quickly launched to ensure that everything was fine and that the delay in the rice delivery was due to the distribution problems that, between the lack of fuel and the heavy rains in the eastern provinces, had prevented unloading the grain from the ship that supposedly was waiting for better weather in the Bay of Havana to go to Santiago de Cuba.

The promises of the regime, however, did not calm the population, which attributed the lack of the grain to the State’s custom of achieving “the day-to-day.” Another article published this week in Vanguardia reported another “contingent” and “solidarity” measure: at the request of the Communist Party, that the rice farmers of Villa Clara, with long faces, donate the pounds of rationed rice which would ordinarily be their share to a care center.

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.

Lobsters Flee the Isle of Youth Due to ‘Climate Change’ Says a Cuban Official

Not everything depends on Nature, but also on the “breakdown of the boats.” (OnCuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, November 16, 2023 —  The explanation of the director of the Pescaisla company, Ramón Contino, for the debacle of lobster fishing on Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud [Isle of Youth] lasted a short time on the YouTube channel of the official telecenter Islavisión. The 50% drop in production, the official said, is due to the fact that seafood also “emigrate,” fleeing the unfavorable climate.

“It’s climate change, the high temperatures of our waters,” Contino explained in the recording, which was deleted by Islavisión. “The island’s continental shelf exceeds 95 degrees (F), and the lobster migrates to deeper waters,” he added.

Saddened by the failure of the company, Contino said that not everything depends only on the natural factor but also on the “breakdown of the boats,” which have been demanding maintenance for years. However, the “significant decrease in capture,” the manager insisted, has more to do with causes beyond his management or the workers’ effort, although, he acknowledged, the budget allocated to his company “has decreased.” continue reading

The seafood processing company on the Isle of Youth, which packs lobsters to export and supply hotels, has been the first to complain. Pescaisla has delivered half the product this year compared to other years — an amount that the official press did not reveal — which will have a notable impact on the economy, Contino lamented.

His strategy: “Betting on an improvement in weather conditions,” he concluded, shrugging his shoulders

The international market and Cuban hotels will be left without the three products offered by the Isle of Youth: pre-cooked and raw whole lobster, frozen tails, and tail and head combinations, sold mainly to Asian buyers.

His strategy: “Betting on an improvement in weather conditions,” he concluded, shrugging his shoulders while the report showed images of better times: hundreds of boxes of lobster, which in 2023 are not reaching the processor.

With the results exposed by its directors, the Isla de la Juventud has become the wallflower in Cuban lobster production, one of the few that goes at full speed in the country. Several reports in the official press, published in recent weeks, have celebrated the success of shellfish fishing on the coasts not far from the Isla.

At the antipodes of the situation exposed by Contino is the overcompliance of the Fishing Company of Santa Cruz del Sur, in Camagüey, which on November 6 was proud of having captured the 250 tons of lobster of its annual plan and being in search of more seafood.

With more than 10,000 pesos of monthly salary, in addition to additional payments, Camagüey fishermen say that they have also had difficulties. The obstacle, however, didn’t have to do with the “emigration” of the lobsters but with the lack of fuel, which affected fishing routines.

Despite everything, they clarified, the shrimp industry – and the fishing industry in general – can be considered successful. The explanation is the recipient of the merchandise, which rarely reaches the tables of Cubans: the binomial formed by tourism and export, which makes the profits translate into dollars and not into the squalid Cuban peso, unable to move the gears of any industry on the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy 

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