About 400 Chickens Drowned in the Storm in Artemisa

With the strong winds of this weekend, the chicken coops lost part of their roofs / Cubadebate

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 25 March 2024 — The Poultry Company of Artemisa reported on Monday the death of 400 birds in the Ciro Redondo unit, due to the storm that hit the western provinces this weekend. The poor condition of the roofs, which were detached by the strong winds, caused water to enter the chicken coops and some of the birds to drown, the official press explained.

As the provincial authorities told El Artemiseño, “due to the heavy rains and the poor condition of the roofs, it was impossible to prevent some birds from getting wet.” The greatest damage is reported in the José Martí unit, where five warehouses have holes in the roofs, 500 zinc tiles were lost and “damage to the steel structures was reported.”

The greatest damage is reported in the José Martí unit, where five of the warehouses have holes in the roofs   

“At the moment, the workers of the Artemiso poultry farm are in the recovery phase with the tiles that were blown inside and outside the perimeter of the units,” the media added. continue reading

Although the authorities did not offer data about the performance of the poultry industry in the province, the loss of several hundred birds cannot be good news for a company that, at the end of 2023, reported a decrease of 80 million eggs compared to the production of 2020, when they reached 185 million.

“We have 80 million fewer eggs, 50 million because we have fewer chickens and the rest because of low efficiency, since over 70% of the birds are in their second production cycle,” Luis Alberto Hernández Blanco, director of the company, told Cubadebate at the time.

Production was also affected, according to Hernández Blanco, in the months of July and August, when “the food consumption of birds almost reached zero and “the company fell from 62% of position to barely 16%.” “From 300,000 eggs a day we went to 17,000,” he said, and although the company managed to recover, it never attained the level it had before the crisis.

The Irregular deliveries of raw materials, the low quality of the chicken feed and the difficulties in the production of egg cartons are the worst problems that the industry faces, not only in Artemisa but also at the national level.

A credit of 4 million pesos granted by the provincial government last year demonstrates what the industry could achieve with the support of the State

A credit of 4 million pesos granted by the provincial government last year demonstrates what the industry could achieve with the support of the State: in a short time the units acquired better feed, which raised the positions by 70%, and the company sold almost 4 million cartons in the capital city alone. However, far from boosting national production, famous for its “depressed” and “decrepit” chickens, the Government decided to import eggs from Colombia.

After the negotiations began last July and the health certifications were approved in December, the Colombian Agricultural Institute sent the first batch of eggs to Cuba at the beginning of March: two containers, 40 feet each, with 17,280 boxes of 30 units – 518,400 eggs in total. The State has not pronounced on the purchase of this product, nor the price it will have in the Cuban market, where the eggs that arrive on the tables of Cubans are rationed in the bodegas (ration stores), five a month per person.

In the informal market, where inflation and hunger set the rules, a carton of 30 eggs costs 3,000 pesos, a figure well above the average monthly salary.

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.

Spanish Agency Announces a Competition to Rehabilitate Havana’s Galiano Street

View of buildings along Havana’s Galiano Street, whose facades would be restored as part of an urban renewal project / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 22 March 2024 — Plans to restore iconic Galiano Street in Central Havana seem serious this time around, at least for the impoverished block between Virtudes and Conde Cañongo. On Thursday, the local government publicly solicited proposals for the “recovery, maintenance and restoration of the facades” of the buildings in this area.

It is a highly unusual but understandable move given that the area is part of the so-called Galiano Street Comprehensive International Revitalization Cooperation Project, financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

The buildings whose facades would be restored are numbers 201 to 211 on the east side of the street and 202 to 212 on the west. Not included is number 210, which the official press release describes as being in very bad condition. continue reading

In a visit to the site on Friday, 14ymedio learned that the building, whose address should be 210 since it is on the even side of the street but which is mistakenly numbered 211, is in ruins though it is still inhabited on the ground floor.

The building, whose address should be 210 since it is on the even side of the street but which is mistakenly numbered 211, is in ruins though it is still inhabited on the ground floor

The area is known for its nightlife — bars such as Cumbaking, 212 and V&S are located there — and as a hotbed of fistfights, drug dealing and prostitution.

The stretch includes precarious apartment buildings such as those at numbers 201, 204 and 205, which has a state-owned store, La Cancha, on the ground floor, that has been rented out to small private vendors, popularly known as merolicos.

Another building, number 208, retains its original Sevillian tiles, remnants of a more glorious past. Built in the 1930s, it once belonged to José Alvarez Ruiz, a businessman whose initials can still be seen on the facade of the building. Housing took up the upper floor; a loan and jewelry business occupied the lower floor. In the 1940s, the building housed the Cuban branch of Remington Rand, an American company that manufactured sewing machines and typewriters, and imported a wide range of office supplies.

Nationalized by the state after the Cuban revolution, the striking building had had several uses — these included the headquarters of the Comittees for the Defense of the Revolution and a library — until the roof collapsed in 1999.

The area is known for its nightlife — bars such as Cumbaking, 212 and V&S are located here — and as a hotbed of fistfights, drug dealing and prostitution / 14ymedio

The announcement posted jointly by the municipal government and AECID on the official website indicates that proposals must include a separate budget, in Cuban pesos, for each of the building facades on both sides of the street.

Similarly, they point out that restoration of facades must include “all required actions such as carpentry, lighting, ironwork and any others needed to restore the facades to their original state.”

The construction period for each facade may not excede four months “from the delivery of the client’s letter of authorization letter to the bidder.”

According to a AECID document signed on June 30, 2021, the agency foresees a total of seven such projects on the Island at a cost of of 3.5 million euros

The Galiano Street restoration project, sponsored by AECID, is nothing new. State media announced it with great fanfare back in late 2022, even reviving the thoroughfare’s old name: Avenida de Italia. The goal, as reported at the time, was to convert the area into “an innovative urban district and a reference for the principles of the circular economy, digital culture and creativity and the enhancement of products from supply chains.”

On Thursday, the same day the competition was announced, the street was also referred to by its old name on the website of the Information Technology Fair, which is taking place in Havana. State media reported a plan to install “broadband telecommunications infrastructure using fiber optic cables along three kilometers of Galiano Street — from Reina Street to the Malecón — for the benefit of 109 properties, with an average of twelve customers per property.”

According to a AECID document signed on June 30, 2021, the agency foresees a total of seven such projects on the Island at a cost of of 3.5 million euros.

AECID’s budget for what was billed as a “comprehensive revitalization of Galiano Street, preserving its urban and architectural values and enhancing its commercial, recreational and cultural character” was originally 312,000 euros, with a May 2023 completion date. Neither the Spanish agency nor its Cuban partner has provided an explanation for the delay in plans.

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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.

Arrests Continue for the March 17 Protests in Santiago de Cuba

The two most recent detainees for their links to the 17J protests in Santiago de Cuba are father and son. Yosmany Mayeta Labrada / Facebookddd

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 25 March 2024 — Almost a week after the protests that took several hundred people to the streets in Santiago de Cuba, on Saturday the authorities arrested 18-year-old, Cristian Kindelán, for having participated in the marches of the Carretera del Morro.

According to the Santiago journalist Yosmani Mayeta Labrada, who lives in the United States, the boy was removed from his house and taken to the Police Unit known as “El Palacete.” He was later transferred to the “operations and torture center” in the Altos de Versailles neighborhood.

The young man’s father, Asdrúbal Kindelán Garbey, was arrested a few hours later in the same center, after going there with several relatives to make a report on Facebook about the situation.

Teresa Garbey, Asdrubal’s mother and Cristian’s grandmother, sent a message on her social networks about the situation. In it she explains that her grandson was arrested for having appeared in a video of the protests and when she asked the agent, whom she identifies as “Major Oscar” and as the one responsible for the case, he told her, “with tremendous disrespect continue reading

that he did not have to give an explanation.” At this, the young man’s father Asdrúbal, annoyed, reprimanded the agent, which in turn caused his arrest.

“It seems that we are in the times of a dictatorship, where people disappear without any explanation, something our commander fought so much against”

“It seems that we are in the times of a dictatorship, where people disappear without giving any explanation, something which our commander fought so much against,” the woman wrote. “It seems that they want to erase all their ideas and bury their legacy in the past. I make this publication to call for the reflection of the officers of this Revolution and their new rulers. This is nothing more than a way to repress people and break them, and I wonder what they fought for and lost so many lives for only to destroy that legacy. I only ask the authorities of this country to reflect on that. I don’t sayPatria y vida’* [Homeland and life], I say ’patria y muerte’ [homeland and death].”

Her statement in defense of the regime motivated an angry response on-line from Mayeta, who wrote “I strongly ask all my followers to share this publication, because if this lady, mother and grandmother does not raise her voice for her own family and continues to support the dictatorship, I, as a Cuban from Santiago and a fighter for the freedom of Cuba and a lover of freedom, will do it.”

This weekend, the Prisoners Defenders organization said that those arrested on March 17 total 38, although the amount could be much higher.

The organization, based in Spain, pointed out that it is very difficult to obtain a final figure due to the lack of official data and the reluctance of many people to give an account of their situation, especially those who have only received a fine or a precautionary measure.

By provinces, Holguín, with 13, had the most arrests, while in Santiago de Cuba there were 12, in Havana four, in Cienfuegos two and in Artemisa three. Six of the total have now been released.

Meanwhile, Justicia 11J counted 13 detainees in total, although two of them have now been released.

*Translator’s note: “Homeland and Life” was the motto for the demonstrations of 11 July 2021, meant to contrast with the regime’s motto of “Homeland and Death.”

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.

Over Three Feet of Water Entered the Occupied Tenements at Galiano and Virtudes From the Rain and Hail

The vents lead onto the street, but also to several garbage containers, whose stench gets worse with the rain / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Espinosa, Havana, March 23, 2024 — The only natural light that residents enjoy in the tenements [“citadel” in Spanish] at Galiano and Virtudes in Havana comes from the vents at street level. However, those same openings allowed the penetration of the water that flooded the basement under an abandoned pharmacy, where several families with children live.

Storms like those that hit the west of the Island this weekend are fatal for a natural environment that is strained and in which people live in deplorable conditions. The vents lead onto the street, but also to several garbage containers the stench of which gets worse with the rain.

This Saturday, after the downpour, which also brought hail to several municipalities in Havana, residents removed water from their homes with buckets. Desperate, they asked the State for a suction pump to draw out the water, which is more than three feet deep. continue reading

This Saturday, after the downpour and the flooding, the residents had to use buckets to remove the water / 14ymedio

The pharmacy above the tenements has been closed for ten years, but the residents say that is no reason to relocate them: “There is no danger of collapse,” they have been told, despite the fact that the bricks of the pharmacy’s facade barely support the building’s arches.

One of the side effects of the storm has been, precisely, the collapses of weak and abandoned structures such as the one that, in the Matanzas neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo, collapsed this Friday. The building, located on San Juan de Dios Street, fell with a big “rumble” at 10:00 pm, according to what the neighbors told the official press. Many said that they had tired of warning the authorities about the danger. “What they warned about finally happened,” said one of the interviewees.

Storms like those that hit the west of the Island this weekend are fatal for an environment that, by nature, is rarefied / 14ymedio

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 Creole Mojo Falters With the Rise in Price of Garlic in Cuba

A street vendor of garlic / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, March 24, 2024 — Yucca with creole mojo, tamales with a good portion of sofrito on top and the marinade for meat. In each there is an ingredient that leads and surpasses in importance to all the others: garlic. Cuban cuisine basically smells like the aromatic condiment that accompanies a good part of everyday recipes.

However, ensuring that garlic cloves end up next to the black beans or the boiled malangas is becoming more and more difficult for the pocketbooks of Cuban families. Traditionally sold in the form of bulbs, cloves or strings, garlic is one of this year’s products that has experienced a greater price increase in the agromarkets that 14ymedio monitors every week.

At the beginning of January, on Plaza Boulevard in the city of Sancti Spíritus, a string of garlic reached 1,000 Cuban pesos, and this season’s offer for bulbs and cloves barely appeared on social platforms. “We can’t sell untied garlic because it’s not profitable,” said a seller from a well-known agromarket last January when this newspaper questioned why customers had to buy a complete string of 50 small bulbs. continue reading

“Almost everything was seasoned with the popular bulb, and it was also used in herbal teas for many ailments and in skin plasters”

“I put a small bulb in the garlic juicer and there’s plenty of space,” complained a buyer. “It’s not worth peeling because the cloves are so puny that it takes a lot of work; it’s better to crush them all together and use them like that to at least give some flavor to the food.” This is the method to “not give up eating with some garlic.”

‘Paro Nacional’ (National Strike) Is El Funky’s New Song for the Resistance in Cuba, Is Launched in Miami

“Everyone go on strike! Down with the dictatorship,” says a citizen of the Island in the video clip of El Funky’s new song / Screen capture

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 20 March 2024 — This Wednesday in Miami, the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC) presented the new song by Eliexer Márquez “El Funky”, Paro Nacional (National Strike), as part of a series of initiatives in support of the resistance in Cuba.

Composed of 54 groups inside and outside the Island, the coalition reported a march this Sunday in Miami, which will start from the Bahía de Cochinos Monument and will conclude at the House of the Cuban Political Prisoner, under the slogans “Support the people of Cuba,” “End the Castro dictatorship” and “Support the National Strike.”

At an event held at the House of the Cuban Political Prisoner, the ARC presented the video of the song.

El Funky is one of the creators of the song Patria y Vida, the anthem of the 11 July 2021 protests in Cuba and winner of the Latin Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Urban Song in 2021.

“We ask the international community, the European Union (EU) and Canada to stop financing the Castro regime,” Orlando Gutiérrez, coordinator of the ARC, told EFE

“We ask the international community, the European Union (EU) and Canada to stop financing the Castro regime,” Orlando Gutiérrez, coordinator of the ARC, told EFE.

Gutiérrez expressed the unconditional support of the ARC for the “Cuban people in the streets for a real change” in Cuba, a change that can only take place, he said, “with the exit from power and the illegalization of the Communist Party and the departure from the Island of the Castro family.”

In the video calling for a national strike in Cuba, several citizens express their indignation from the Island.

“Not a minute more on your knees, Cuba will be free, National Strike,” several voices over the video clip repeat, before the artist sings: “There is no government that resists or that endures that pressure, what Cuba needs is a strike.”

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.

After an Exodus of Auditors, Governmental Corruption Goes Unchecked in Ciego de Avila Province

The meeting was led by Gladys Bejerano Portela (center), Comptroller General of the Republic of Cuba

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 19 March 2024 — Last year, Ciego de Ávila had only 99 of the 172 trained government employees needed to conduct financial audits in the province. The reduction in personnel, who are tasked with preventing theft and the diversion of resources at state companies, was the hot topic at the annual meeting to discuss the work of the provincial government’s auditing system according to an article published on Monday in Invasor, the province’s official Communist Party newspaper.

The article cited low graduation rates in mid-level accounting programs, poor working conditions and meager salaries as the causes of a “marked tendency toward depression” among accountants. It made no mention, however, of the unprecedented exodus that has been draining the Island of all types of workers in recent year, nor of the widespread rejection of accounting as an occupation in a country where the diversion of resources is a way of life of many public-sector employees.

The news comes amid a disastrous situation the government is facing in the agriculture, food manufacturing and tourism sectors. “The Gran Caribe hotel group has no database auditors at its five Jardines del Rey resort hotels. Only Emprestur and Palmares have in-house auditors at all,” reports Invasor. continue reading

The news comes amid a disastrous situation the government is facing in the agriculture, food manufacturing and tourism sectors

Of the 121 audits Ciego de Avila carried out in 2023, thirty found incidents the article described as “deficient” and three it described as “bad.” The result was a loss of 97,603,548 pesos in economic damages, the cost of which amounted to 1,746,000 pesos. Invasor noted that, “once again,” the largest number of financial irregularities was in the retail and food service sectors. In several cases, the article points out, the managers justified their actions by saying that the missing money was returned.

As the article points out, actions leading to economic losses in the millions is nothing new. In fact, they are rising dramatically. The figure for 2020 came to more than 5,000,000 pesos. Two years later, Ciego de Ávila auditors revealed that losses amounted to 71,500,000 pesos.

Invasor points out that one of the causes for these losses is failure to meet contractual obligations, from exceeding fuel consumption standards to spending more than was budgeted.

In spite of all the troubles auditors in Ciego de Ávila face, those who work in the Ministry of Construction actually enjoy what they describe as good working conditions. Fidel Contreras, head of the audit department at the Construction and Assembly Company, said his four employees were provided with laptops and motorbikes to facilitate their work.

The solutions proposed by the comptroller’s office to increase the number of auditors do not seem very promising. The short-term plan is to expand career opportunities in auditing starting in September and, in the meantime, to offer training courses to graduates of technical-professional education programs and involve students in “prevention and control actions as part of pre-professional practice.”

The solutions proposed by the comptroller’s office to increase the number of auditors do not seem very promising

One of the first decisions that Raúl Castro made after formally assuming power in 2008, after his brother Fidel stepped aside for health reasons, was to create the post of Comptroller General of the Republic. The bureau and its provinicial subsidiaries quickly accumulated oversight power. Every November, it conducts a review of state-run businesses and publishes the results.

Over the years, however, this annual exercise has lost steam while its reports became slimmer and contained fewer details. The Comptroller’s Office is also receiving less attention from the state media while the prominence of Comptroller General Gladys María Bejarano’s prominence at public events and government meetings has decreased significantly.

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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.

Thousands of Cubans Are Left Without Electricity After Friday’s Rain and Hail Storms

Another phenomenon that accompanied the storms were gusts of wind up to 47 miles per hour / Mario J. Pentón

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 23 March 2024 — The rain and hail that hit western Cuba this Friday left 120,000 users without power in Havana alone, as reported on Saturday morning by Lázaro Guerra, technical director of the Unión Eléctrica (UNE). The rest of the western provinces also suffered serious effects, although the worst was in four municipalities in Havana: El Cotorro, San Miguel, Arroyo Naranjo and Boyeros.

In addition, 13,679 customers are without electricity in Pinar del Río, 54,787 in Artemisa, 43,808 in Mayabeque and 38,000 in Matanzas. Guerra said that they have summoned technical brigades from the central provinces to help in the repair of the electricity network of the most damaged areas.

A series of clouds with rain and thunderstorms, whose passage between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm was reported by the Institute of Meteorology this Friday, also brought hailstorms in the western towns of Honda Bay, Guanajay, Mariel, Bauta and several municipalities in the capital. The images of the hail, which according to the official press reached the size of “a one-peso coin,” circulated widely on social networks. continue reading

Hailstone in the Havana municipality of El Cotorro / 14ymedio

On Friday, State reporter Lázaro Manuel Alonso published some videos of the ravages that the storm was causing in Havana. The images showed the difficult advance of several vehicles on a flooded and rainy road, in addition to mounds of hail accumulated in the streets and courtyards of several houses in the Reparto Eléctrico, La Güinera and Punta Brava neighborhoods. In addition, the Luyanó River overflowed its banks, and traffic was stopped on the Via Blanca.

This is what 52nd and 99th streets looked like this Saturday, in Lotería, a municipality of Cotorro / Courtesy

The Caribbean Channel reported that several individuals who had been trapped in their vehicles during the flooding had to be rescued by firefighters. “Sources from the place confirm that the cars were swept away by the flood, while neighbors in the area had to evacuate,” they explained on social networks.

Overflowing rash bins hit by the downpour, on Calle Valle in Havana / 14ymedio

Another phenomenon that accompanied the rains were gusts of wind up to 47 miles per hour, in addition to “floods in low-lying and poorly drained areas,” according to the Institute. It also warned that the western region will continue to be cloudy on Saturday, with showers and thunderstorms becoming milder at night. The center of the country will be cloudy, with rain and thunderstorms, while the east will have few clouds and isolated rain showers.

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.

In Cuba, Private Opticians Have Displaced the State Workshops That Are Totally Unstocked

Opticians carry out the few repairs they can with what they have at hand

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 23 March 2024 — The statements to the official press by Gilda Tápanes, administrator of the State optical company of Calle del Medio, in Matanzas, leave little doubt about her opinion of the private optical companies that overshadow the State ones. “Our clientele has been stolen,” she says, despite the fact that her service “is very cheap.” However, the testimony of other managers, opticians and clients interviewed by Girón makes it clear that the State workshops have had nothing to offer since 2020, when they received their last batch of lenses and frames.

In the supposed “competition” that Tápanes describes, the understocked State opticians have lost the lead. While the 13 provincial workshops lack “arms, screws, terminals, lenses and frames,” private companies like SuperVision, which received an enthusiastic report last June, offer “all possible services.”

With a small reception area and a young staff,” the official newspaper says, “SuperVision continues receiving customers and has plans to expand to other municipalities. They work with “security and confidence,” insists Girón, and although it doesn’t necessarily support them, the conclusion is that “the private ventures are the ones that today sustain the production of eyeglasses in Matanzas.” continue reading

The properties exhibit empty showcases that force customers to buy in private companies like SuperVisión/Girón

In just 10 days, SuperVision – for a price ranging from 5,500 pesos to  10,000 – gets the appropriate lens and frame with the help of the Office of the Conservator of Matanzas, which facilitates imports.

In just 10 days, SuperVision – for a price ranging from 5,500 pesos to 10,000 – gets the appropriate lenses and frames with the help of the Office of the Conservator of Matanzas, which facilitates imports

Getting glasses through the State, characterized by”precariousness,” is “a headache,” says Girón. This was the case for Gabriel Rodríguez, from Matanzas, interviewed by the newspaper, whose son has a serious impairment in his eyesight and needed special lenses.

The State workshops, he said, “have practically nothing. Even for repairs, spare parts are scarce, not to mention their manufacture. The shortage is widespread and includes frames and lenses; in our case, there was no way to get glasses with the depth of vision the child required.”

The optician had no materials, but he knew of an “unlicensed” workshop that could “guarantee a good job” for 16,000 pesos, plus the cost of the frames. Rodríguez ended up in a private company, and the glasses for his son cost him 12,000 pesos. However, his odyssey didn’t end there. When he went to check at the pediatric hospital that the gradation of the lenses was correct, the number did not match the prescription. They company tried to reassure him: “The hospital machine is not calibrated and gives errors.” Rodríguez didn’t know who to believe.

Getting glasses from the State, characterized by “precariousness,” is “a headache” / Girón

Pedro Tanquero Riaño, provincial director of the Pharmacy and Optics Company, admits that there is no solution to the problem. “There is no financing or resources,” he says. The workshops “have been shut down for about four years because of raw materials and spare parts that it has not been possible to obtain, because everything is bought in dollars and optical services in the world are expensive,” he alleges.

Girón ends the article by blaming, of course, the U.S. blockade and saying that, despite the “voracious demands of the market” that prevail in Matanzas, at some point the State will have to start charging for glasses, even though free healthcare was “one of the greatest achievements of the Cuban social system.”

Meanwhile, for most Cubans in Matanzas, who see the prices of private companies going through the roof but will pay anything when a child is involved, they have a dilemma: “They must choose between eating or improving the child’s vision.”

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.

Ciego De Avila, Cuba, Extends the Sugar Harvest Until May Due to the Lack of Fuel

The Ciro Redondo sugar mill was not able to take part in the harvest this year and remains shut down.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2024 — Forced to extend the harvest until March due to ’non-compliance’ — i.e. the failure to meet the goals of the sugar plan — nothing can help the Ecuador sugar mill in Ciego de Ávila. Now it is “the lack of the essential fuel,” according to the official press this Friday, that delays the ’campaign’, aimed at the province’s own consumption. Last Tuesday it still had not exceeded 45% of the production plan, with just 3,732 tons of sugar milled.

The Ecuador mill began working in January, but with significant delays in the planting and constant breakdowns of machinery, and even with the support of the Ciro Redondo workers the deadline could not be met.

“The poor dividends in the sugar mills are joined by delays in the planting, since in the first two months of 2024 only 43% of the fuel necessary for these needs was received,” says the local media, Invasor. continue reading

Now, in order to “comply with the plan for sugar,” both the Ecuador and the Primero de Enero mills, also in Ciego de Ávila, must again extend the campaign until April and May, respectively, “as long as the usual rains of that season don’t prevent the work.”

“The poor dividends of the sugar mills are joined by arrears in the planting of the cane

Of the three sugar mills, only Primero de Enero is fulfilling the forecast for the campaign and has so far delivered 1,769 tons of sugar.

As for the Ciro Redondo sugar mill, whose entry into the harvest is an unattainable goal even for workers in the sector, it remains in a “prolonged industrial silence, waiting for the incorporation of the adjoining bioelectric plant,” on whose energy it depends.

About to finish the campaign, the province has only 16% of the planned sugar, and, according to the media, “the material deficiencies that hinder the progress of manufacturing operations” are the main cause. The measures promoted in the sector so far “depend on the will of the labor groups and managers in the Ecuador mill,” who cannot stop the industry debacle on their own.

Before the extension of the harvest until April was announced, the workers of the mill had already predicted in February the disaster for sugar in the province. “The most hard-core predict that it will be the smallest production in more than a century of the mill’s existence,” Invasor said at the time.

The news is no better in other provinces. According to the official newspaper El Artemiseño, the 30 de Noviembre sugar mill of that province, “responsible for the manufacture of sugar corresponding to the basic basket of the provinces of Artemisa and Pinar del Río” — sold through the rationing system — as of Wednesday had produced 8% of the expected volume of sugar, about 746 tons.

“Broken harvesting machines, automotive and rail transport equipment, as well as the fuel deficit, also conspire against the development of the crop

According to Joselín Barrios Álvarez, director of the mill, the 30 de Noviembre mill could not even join the first weeks of the harvest due to a “fault in one of the three boilers,” a problem that is still “in the process of being solved,” and which they hope to have repaired by the end of this month. “As a result, we owe all the unprocessed sugar at that time. However, we plan to complete without problem the pending quantities for the basic basket of March: 1,001 tons for Pinar del Río and 934 for Artemisa,” Barrios explained.

“Broken harvesting machines, automotive and rail transport equipment, as well as the fuel deficit, also conspire against the development of the harvest, executed in a scenario of resource and financing limitations,” summarized El Artemiseño.

The manager, who acknowledges that “they are behind” but promises that the sugar mill will “be up to date,” said that he is working on “increasing the transport of cane to the mill from the reorganization of the harvest, adjusting to the available transport.” However, as in the Ecuador mill, there is little more that workers can do to revive the depressed sugar sector.

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.

At Least Six Arrested for Protesting Against the Blackouts in Holguin, Cuba

Elsa Elisa Solís Barrera and Lea Velázquez Ochoa are the two women who have been detained.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, Miguel García, 23 March 2024 — At least six people were arrested in the town of San Andrés, in Holguín, after demonstrating on March 8. They are charged with the crimes of contempt and public disorder, according to sources close to the accused.

According to Martí Noticias, four of the detainees spent several days “incommunicado” in the State Security barracks in the people’s council of Pedernales, in the provincial capital. Since last Thursday, they have been waiting in another prison for the results of the police investigation into the protest.

Among the detainees are two women – both imprisoned in the provincial prison – who have been identified as Elsa Elisa Solís Barrera and Lea Velázquez Ochoa. Of the rest, two are imprisoned in the CubaSí prison – Yunior Barrera and Yulier Ramírez – and two others, Reinier Reimón Peña and Warnel Ricardo, are still in the State Security prison.

Elsa Solís’ mother and Yunior Barrera’s sister, Blanca María Barrera, told Martí Noticias that the authorities “have not explained anything” about the situation of the detainees. The woman, sick with worry, regretted not only the arrest of her daughter, but the fact that her 48-year-old brother is far from his children, “two minor children with intellectual disabilities.” continue reading

The authorities “have not explained anything” about the situation of the detainees  

The Holguin activist Dámaso Fernández offered details about another prisoner, Lea Velázquez, who was fined 5,000 pesos. “On Monday, March 11, they confiscated her cell phone and told her that she would be notified. When she went to get the phone, they detained her,” Fernández explained.

The activist said that on the day of the protest, a group of residents in San Andrés took to the streets “asking for freedom, banging on pots and pans and forming a crowd in the park.” Other relatives spoke to Martí Noticias but, according to the media, they asked that their statements not be published for fear of State Security reprisals.

The long blackouts and shortages that the Island is suffering sent Cubans into the street to protest in Santiago de Cuba on March 17. Since then, according to the count of the NGO Prisoners Defenders (PD), a total of 32 Cubans in nine provinces have been “detained, fined and prosecuted.” Only six of them have regained their freedom. The list of prisoners “increases every day at a considerable rate, and many victims (the majority) do not report, especially if they are given a fine or a home confinement precautionary measure, so we think that throughout the country there could have been around a hundred arrests,” warns this organization based in Madrid.

In Holguín, about 13 people were arrested on March 17, and in Cienfuegos and Artemisa, respectively, two citizens were arrested. In Havana there were four detainees and at least one each in the provinces of Granma, Guantánamo, Villa Clara and Matanzas, says PD. However, the NGO warns, given that several detainees in the protests were released with a fine and do not want to be exposed to more serious measures, the number of detainees could be estimated at 100 throughout the country.

In Holguín, about 13 people were arrested on March 17, and in Cienfuegos and Artemisa, respectively, two citizens were arrested   

Before that date, smaller demonstrations were confirmed by the independent press in several provinces of the country. One of them was the solo protest of Eric Luis Acea Quevedo, 24, who caused damage to an official car in Cienfuegos and who will have to pay more than 300,000 pesos to the State, as sources close to the young man told Martí Noticias. “First they wanted to accuse him of an attack but now they say that he will have to pay a lot of money to the Government and wait for trial in prison,” said a person from Cienfuegos who asked not to be identified.

Acea will have to pay 136,066 pesos for damage to the front windshield, 54,000 for the rear windshield, 44,610 for the door windows, and 73,100 for the labor, body work and paint: more than 300,000 pesos in total. The young man attacked the car with a machete on March 12 in front of Communist Party headquarters in Cienfueguos and was instantly arrested by the Police.

Popular discontent with the long blackouts is at the origin of several gestures of protest against State property. Throwing rocks at windows, cacerolazos (banging on pots and pans) and an increase in police surveillance are increasingly frequent in the areas that suffer the worst part of the energy crisis, as reported previously by 14ymedio.

Popular discontent with the long blackouts is at the origin of several gestures of protest against State property  

Holguín is one of the provinces where long blackouts occur, which can last up to 15 hours in a single day. A resident of the popular council of Alcides Pino told this newspaper that, since the power outages began, “the ’incidents’ to express discontent happen practically every day. They haven’t spilled into the street, but there’s no shortage of cacerolazos when the power is off. Discontent is widespread.”

As for the foreign-currency stores, the neighbor says that the authorities have not stood idly by. “They are putting police officers and red berets (state security) at night to guard them to prevent people from breaking the windows. It’s not the first time that this has happened in Holguín,” he says.

Alarm has been raised in Havana, where the Government insists on blaming the United States for the demonstrations of discontent and has unleashed a flood of propaganda that comes from Miguel Díaz-Canel himself.

The president premiered this week on State TV’s new program Desde la Presidencia (From the Presidency), a kind of Cuban Aló Presidente,* in which he crushed the official explanation for the demonstrations: “As long as there is a blockade, as long as there is a worsening blockade and the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that supposedly support terrorism, we have every sovereign right to blame the Government of the United States.”

*Translator’s note: Aló Presidente was a Venezuelan talk show that featured then president Hugo Chávez.

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.

Cuba Celebrates Trophies for Two Baseball Players, While Another Two Leave the Island

Cuba’s Under-15 national team said goodbye to the Boca Chica 2024 tournament with two wins and three losses

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2024 — Two days after Cuba’s Under-15 baseball team failed in the Dominican Republic by not winning a ticket to a baseball World Cup for the first time in its history, Prensa Latina published the recognition of Frank Frías Castro, from Bayamo, as the best designated batter, and Cristian Oscar Lías, from Holguín, as the best outfielder of the tournament.

The report is limited to pointing out that the Island’s national team achieved two victories against Peru and Guatemala and suffered three defeats against Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Nicaragua, so the Cuban team “found it impossible to move to the final round.” The same lukewarm headlines were offered in the official media Cubadebate and Jit, without an analysis of the failure in the Boca Chica 2024 tournament.

Under-15 players Frank Frías Castro and Cristian Oscar Lías were recognized in the Dominican Republic / Prensa Latina

In addition to the poor results in youth tournaments, which include failure in the U-15 World Cup, Cuba has been left out of the tournaments in the categories of 12, 18 and 23 years old. There is also a growing exodus of athletes, not only among the 18-year-old prospects, but also among the younger players. As of Thursday, Samuel Palencia and Liusban Sánchez are no longer in the country. Both were part of the Bayamo team in the Little League 2023. “Although one would think that these 13-year-old boys represented the new future of a lacerated baseball in Cuba, their parents had other ideas,” stressed journalist Francys Romero on the Beísbol FR! site. continue reading

With the departure of Palencia and Sánchez, there are now four members of the Little League teams who have emigrated. The other two are Luis Enrique Gurriel, cousin of the baseball players Lourdes Jr. and Yuli Gurriel, and Luis Aparicio.

Palencia arrived in the United States with his family through the humanitarian parole implemented in January 2023. Romero remembers the boy’s performance as a pitcher against Australia in the Little League 2023, when he recorded 13 strikeouts in 5 innings.

Cuban youths continue to leave the Island, the latest being Samuel Palencia and Liusban Sánchez / Francys Romero/ Facebook]

Humanitarian parole has been the way out for several Cuban baseball players. The former baseball player and manager, Yorelvis Charles, used it last November. Since August, Pitcher Saydel Peña Gómez has been established in Los Angeles. The former manager of the Cuban team and the Ciego de Ávila national team, Roger Machado, confirmed his arrival in June.

The captain of the Alazanes, Carlos Benítez, entered the United States last May. On the other hand, Liusban Sánchez, another young player, settled in the Dominican Republic. He was the third baseman and shortstop for Bayamo. Francys Romero points out that the player has good stature for his age, in addition to being athletic and a left-handed hitter.

The statistics also record casualties in the last Cuba U-12 team. Mario Serra, Kendry Abreu, Gabriel Tito Mustelier and Yondel Sajoni Cárdenas emigrated from that team.

The debacle takes place in the U-15, with the departure of 19 out of 20 players who represented the Island in the World Cup held in Mexico in 2022, where they won the silver medal. In 2023, more than 100 players emigrated from Cuba, in all categories and ages.

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.

‘Provacateurs’ Are Taking Advantage of Cubans’ Unrest Over Blackouts, Charges State TV’s Round Table Program

The situation is such that blackouts have been scheduled even in Havana. / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 19 March 2024 — At 3:54 in the afternoon this Monday, the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant was synchronized with the National Electric System and, if all goes well, in the next few hours it will be able to contribute 280 megawatts (MW), said the Minister of Energy and Minas, Vicente de la O Levy. Added to this will be the arrival of a ship with fuel in the middle of the week that will allow generating capacity to be increased. But, as the saying goes, joy is short-lived in a poor man’s home and, in the best of cases, Cubans will be able to feel the relief for just two weeks, as noted on State TV’s Round Table program last night.

On officialdom’s TV program yesterday, host Randy Alonso brought together three other journalists notable for their loyalty to the Government – ​​Arleen Rodríguez Derivet, Oliver Zamora and Bárbara Betancourt – to analyze the protests of recent days in various areas of the country, with populations in Santiago de Cuba , Granma and Matanzas in the lead.

Alonso’s focus was clear in the title of the episode — The United States, the Miami mafia and the anti-Cuban campaigns — and conveyed the official line of what happened: the population is tired of the blackouts caused by the US blockade and comes out to complain peacefully, although people in Florida sought to instigate “an attempted remake of 11 July” — a day of nationwide protests in 2021 –which did not occur. The cries of “freedom” and “homeland and life” that were heard in the protests were deemed to be slogans uttered by those who “tried to give it a political nuance,” “provocators who luckily were nullified by the people’s own actions and by the rapid response from the leaders,” they argued. This followed the same lines as the State newspaper Granma, which headlined this Tuesday on its cover: New attempt at a soft coup against Cuba. The lords of chaos were left wanting. continue reading

“The population is tired of the blackouts caused by the blockade and comes out to complain peacefully, although Florida seeks to instigate ‘an attempted remake of July 11,’ which did not occur”

Beyond the extensive rhetoric, the meeting offered some news, starting with the announcement of how soon the relief of the blackouts will take place and continuing with the plausible explanation that a ship – the Eco Fleet – coming from Tunisia and loaded with some 39,000 tons of diesel has been a few miles from the port of Havana for a month without being able to unload.

“How many ships have not reached the Cuban coast, looking at us from the high seas and they have not been able to arrive because we do not have the money to pay for it or they have been sanctioned. There has been the case of some who have arrived and said: ’Look, I can’t touch land’ and they have had to go and buy the ship, 20 million that perhaps the country had earmarked for the purchase of raw materials for the blood pressure people and that there is not enough to complete the purchase of the [items included in the rationing system’s] basic basket,” said Zamora.

The four analysts addressed the energy situation, praising that the 400 MW the country had before the Revolution has tripled – and ignoring the fact that electricity needs have multiplied compared to 60 years ago – and lamenting the damage US sanctions on Venezuelan oil have caused, although they were relaxed at the end of 2022 and will only be resumed in April if Chavismo does not rectify its violation of the Barbados agreements.

However, the journalists admitted that it is logical that the unrest would lead the population to the streets. “You have to be in a blackout that lasts more than two or three hours, some are lasting more than 10 hours, you have to be under that feeling in the middle of the heat.” “There is obviously irritation, because the issue of the blackout is always multipilied.” “It impacts water, it impacts food, it impacts various issues,” they acknowledged.

“There is obviously irritation, because the issue of the blackouts is always multiplied, it impacts water, it impacts food, it impacts various issues”

The key, they agreed, is pedagogy. “On January 1, Raúl said: ’With the population we can’t get tired of explaining and we have to be very patient because there really is an overwhelming situation that everyone shares and understands,’” they noted.

Hence the presence of the secretary of the Communist Party of Santiago, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, perched on a rooftop “attending to a group of dissatisfiers” and the strange case of Cubadebate reporting on the protests almost in real time, although in its own way. “The press in our country has to have a greater capacity to respond to make known what is happening and, above all, to block the path to slander and lies,” Betancourt demanded.

Alonso intervened to affirm that they have “wanted to manipulate, to even talk about repression,” but “they have not been able to raise the drama that they wanted to present,” he said, entering forcefully into the naming of who is to blame.

The second half of the program was dedicated to talking about the responsibility of the United States for the situation of hunger and need that Cubans are experiencing. The argument of the 1960 Mallory memorandum to overthrow Castroism – now aggravated by the accusation of sponsoring terrorism or imposing a visa on Europeans traveling to the Island – was cited as a historical reference, and it was deplored that American politicians denounced the misery of the people. Cuban that they provoke. “I suffocate you, I suffocate you and then I accuse you of doing nothing,” Zamora said.

The participants at the Round Table pointed out that the United States, drop by drop, has been creating “a structural deficiency from which, as the decades pass, it becomes more difficult to escape.” “They want the history of Haiti to be repeated (…) because the French charged them with the audacity of having rebelled as they want to do to us: the audacity of being independent,” Rodríguez Derivet cried, before going into particular details. He said of Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar that she has no brain, he called Senator Bob Menéndez elemental and Randy Malcon, from Gente de Zona, and the influencer Alexander Otaola, were accused of promoting riots and spreading lies.

He said of Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar that she has no brain, he called Senator Bob Menéndez elemental and Randy Malcon, from Gente de Zona, and the ‘influencer’ Alexander Otaola, were accused of promoting riots and spreading lies

He also highlighted the accusation they made of choosing Sunday as a day to incite rebellion “because people are resting at home,” as on 11 July 2021. “When the Cuban family is on their weekend, that is when they launch to their pack to generate a series of things, because effectively if you say to me: ’Get out into the street, because they are taking the oil, they are feeding themselves’…”

On the Round Table there was also talk of alleged harassment on networks through rumors. “We have seen that they talk about purges in the Government, of military conspiracy (…) like when they were involved in violence for a while: ’don’t go out on the street because they will kill you, because they will assault you.’ It was all a lie, but they repeat it and repeat it,” they argued. In their opinion, there are people who try to stand out every time “two or three cats come out in a city to protest” and there are even those who go to those protests and see that they are not taking place.

There was also time, in the long hour dedicated to diverting attention, to vindicate the achievements in “social assistance”, which they tried to defend – they argued – against all odds. “There is American chicken in Cuba, yes indeed paid for in cash,” said Rodríguez Derivet to underline the demands for exemptions to the embargo.

“They talk about the Castro Government because of the obsession that they couldn’t beat Fidel, that they couldn’t beat Raúl. They have to continue calling Castro everything that happens while the Revolution exists,” he added.

Despite everything, the news of the day for those involved was, and so they said, the victory of Vladimir Putin in an election without effective competition “with more than 80% of the votes.” “There were provocations, there were incidents, there were even hacker attacks. However, everything has happened calmly,” Alonso said almost at the beginning of the program. In Moscow Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ricardo Cabrisas signed five memorandums of understanding yesterday between BioCubaFarma and several companies in Russia for the clinical development and registration of medicines. Hence it was noted that “Vladimir Putin’s victory is a very important event.”

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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.

Diaz-Canel Inaugurates a Cuban-style ‘Hello President’ Program

Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, were interviewed by journalist Arleen Rodríguez Derivet / Screen capture

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 22 March 2024 — “A big movement is beginning, like the one that was made in the Energy Revolution,” Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy announced in the first edition of the program Desde la Presidencia, a kind of Cuban “Hello President,” with Miguel Díaz-Canel as host and held from the Palace of the Revolution. The central theme of the inauguration of the program was, of course, the energy situation in the country and the protests of March 17.

There were, therefore, two fundamental axes. Regarding energy, some data was offered on the state of the deficit and possible solutions in the short and medium term; regarding the other axis, the demonstrations, in which, according to the president, there were “people who chanted counterrevolutionary slogans, some approached the commission of events with certain vandalism, some contempt, some disrespect for the authorities, especially because there is a lot of media pressure.”

These incidents, said the president, involved about 500 people in El Cobre, about “300 or 400” in Santiago de Cuba and “around 100 in the other place” – Bayamo, as can be deduced from the list he recited seconds ago about the locations – although he limited the counterrevolutionaries to around 10 or 12 people, a figure that coincides with the number of detainees that the NGO Justicia 11J was able to document. continue reading

Díaz-Canel wanted to put the data into perspective and stressed that the eastern capital has more than a million inhabitants

Díaz-Canel wanted to put the data into perspective and stressed that the eastern capital has more than a million inhabitants, although both he and his minister present said they understood “the discontent,” derived from an accumulation of food shortages and long blackouts. “The energy issue is a crosscutting issue in our economy,” granted De La O Levy, due to repercussions that transcend the lack of electricity itself and that involve the inability to pump of water and, therefore, its supply, and all industries, as well as food and medicine.

The leaders, interviewed by journalist Arleen Rodríguez Derivet, summarized the origin of the problem as “energy persecution,” which prevents access to fuel that must be imported. “Cuban fuel is not enough for all of us,” said the minister, who put the national crude oil that was produced in times of the Soviet Union at one million tons of national crude compared to the 12 million that were received from Moscow, for a total consumption of 13 (in reality, Havana resold a part of the oil given away by Moscow on the international market).

“Today we are consuming eight million tons of fuel and producing three. We have to go look for five million tons of fuel in the international market and the cost for that is very high” (he did not refer to the crude oil that Venezuela and Mexico give away to Cuba).

To solve it, the most important thing is the conversion to solar announced last Wednesday by De la O himself, consisting of two contracts with Chinese companies that will install about six solar parks per province, three in a first phase in May 2025 and another three the same month of 2028. In total, they must contribute 2,000 megawatts (MW), of which 1,000 would be available next year and the minister considered this a new energy revolution.

De la O also spoke about the purchases and arrivals of fuel, with information provided in dribs and drabs due to “energy persecution.” “Every time something is done publicly, there is persecution, there are many examples. You participated,” he indicated, pointing to the journalist, “as part of a delegation, in negotiations that failed because they were made public. They called the press and everything was ruined. It was a stable supply,” he lamented. The next few days there will be, he said, more “stability, because a whole group of efforts that have been made with sister countries have begun to bear fruit.”

Both the president and, especially, the minister spoke about the operation of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas

Both the president and, especially, the minister spoke about the operation of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, which after an up and down last Tuesday seems to be working as well as its 35 years allow, and they tried to argue the extension of electricity cuts, which keep part of the population in the dark, and to a greater extent in the east. But the argument used by De la O when comparing the Island with worse situations around the world did not help much with understanding.

“Very few countries in the world have the level of electrification that Cuba has, that is to say: why is there a blackout? Because I have a generation deficit, but there is a blackout because you were never born without electricity,” he said, and elaborated that there are States with millions of people without power lines and others – which he expressly said he did not want to mention – where privatization makes electricity unaffordable.

The long presentation hinted at some hope in an improvement in the energy situation, which will leave the population in doubt, after that announcement in May 2022 in which Díaz-Canel stated the blackouts would end that same month, and it was only the beginning fromofthe abyss. However, the president relied on this announced relief to start his diatribe against the United States. The authorities’ argument is that the protest was promoted on March 17 because it was known that on the 18th of March the Guiteras power plant would synchronize and an improvement would begin. “The time for the spark was running out,” he said.

Díaz-Canel was clear when given the opportunity to respond to “why he insists on holding Washington responsible.” “What is the lie that Cuba is telling about that? As long as there is a blockade, as long as there is a tightened blockade and as long as there is the inclusion of Cuba in a list of countries that supposedly support terrorism, we have every sovereign right to blame the United States Government,” he cried.

The speech was lengthy, although not very new. The northern neighbor was accused of wanting to impose a capitalist and neoliberal model, of being irritated at not being able to subdue “a Revolution that is not subordinated to it,” and of not accepting “our democracy, which is much better and more democratic than theirs.”

Díaz-Canel was offended by the accusations made against his Government, among which he mentioned the one made by several congressmen “who committed the infamy of using a lie, by saying that we had supposedly murdered a counterrevolutionary in Cuba,” in reference to rumors about the situation of José Daniel Ferrer, who has been detained since July 2021 and held incommunicado in recent months.

The Cuban leader also did not like that there was talk of repression in the protests, which he considers magnified. “Weren’t there protests in other places in the world that Sunday? Let’s not forget when in a Latin American country university students went out to protest in the streets and were repressed by shooting rubber pellets that left many blind,” he said about the marches in Chile in 2019. “Let’s not forget how demonstrations are repressed in certain European countries, or let’s not forget police repression and police brutality in the face of demonstrations in the United States,” he continued.

From there, he said, “they start talking about political prisoners, after the political prisoners they start saying that there is ungovernability and that it is a failed State and after that they start talking about regime change, a complete falsehood. (…). Why don’t they sit down with the Cuban Government at a negotiating table to talk about all the issues? Why do they persist in blockading us? Why do they persist in infamy and lies?”

The discourse was extensive and showed the path of where this new program, lasting just over an hour, can go

The discourse was extensive and showed the path of where this new program of just over an hour in length can go. The attendees themselves, who praised the work of the officials who show their faces – as, in their opinion, the secretary of the Communist Party of Santiago, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, did on March 17 – mentioned the importance of fighting the ideological battle for which, without a doubt, the “communicative space” is a part.

This work of ideological strengthening will have to be carried out, above all, they said, when the conditions are met to introduce all the economic measures announced by Manuel Marrero in December, among which – if it is finally fulfilled – the end of the universal notebook. Predictably, then the revolts will be even greater. “But here we are, defending Fidel’s convictions, the aspirations that Fidel had of how the Revolution should bring a better situation to our people, a situation of emancipation, development, equality and social justice.”

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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.

Russian Tourists Soften the Disaster of Cuba’s High Season

A group of Russian tourists at the Jardines del Rey International Airport. / Mash/Capture/Telegram

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 22 March 2024 — Little by little, the plan for Russian tourism to grow is having an effect. International visitors coming from the friendly country this February were on the verge of reaching the number of Cubans residing abroad, according to data published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), after having even surpassed that number in January. The figure for February is 21,574, slightly below the 22,272 of the previous month.

So far this year, Russian tourists already number 43,864, compared to the 46,080 Cubans residing outside the Island and, if this continues, the expectations detailed last week by the Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, could be exceeded. García stated that the Government “does not give up the objective of Russians occupying one of the first three places among foreign visitors to the country.” He also said that they hope to exceed 200,000 Russian tourists in the current year, an unambitious calculation, since in 2023 184,800 arrived.

In both 2018 and 2019 the number of tourists received was greater than 451,000, 68% more than last February

In general terms, it was not a bad month for the sector, which received 268,201 international travelers, slightly more than what is considered the best month of the year, January, when 259,808 arrived. The number represents 39,133 more tourists than in February of last year, some 17% more. The problem, again, comes when compared to pre-pandemic levels. continue reading

In February 2020, a month before the worst of the pandemic broke out and the airspace of almost the entire world was closed and international tourism was hit hard, Cuba received just over 401,000 foreign visitors, 50% more compared to the arrivals in the same month of 2024. However, in both 2018 and 2019 the number of tourists received was greater than 451,000, 68% more than last February.

While the majority of neighboring countries (such as the Dominican Republic and Mexico) and other international competitors with a sun and beach profile (such as Spain) have already far exceeded the data they had before the outbreak of Covid-19, the Island still lagging behind. In January, the Government announced the goal of 3.23 million international travelers by 2024 – far from the 2.4 million achieved in 2023, when it had planned to reach 3.5. It then argued that the failure in the sector is the fault of the United States which has turned tourism into a political weapon against Cuba.

Officialdom maintains that the restrictions introduced by Donald Trump in 2017, the travel alerts, the closure of consular services and the new conditions for travelers from the European Union, for whom Washington now requires a visa if they have visited Cuba, work against the Island. To this they add the drop in flights, whose recovery is gradual, and cruises, and they barely focus on the fact that the shortage of supplies inside and outside the hotels and the lack of electricity lead many tourists to choose other destinations to the detriment of the Island.

Canadians continue to lead the list of visitors, as usual and despite the alert that the Ottawa Government issued in October due to the shortages of food and medicine. In in the first two months of 2024 there are already 261,016 Canadian visitors, of which 133,844 came in February (up from 127,172 the previous month). And Americans, the fourth most frequent visitors, just behind the Russians, amounted to 28,288 in these two months, despite the travel restrictions they face.

On the opposite side, another country with an upward trend is Mexico, and is the country growing the most after Russia

European countries remain far below pre-pandemic years. With about 13,000 visitors each, Germany and France remain at last year’s level, while the number of British (12,057 compared to 13,597 the previous year), Italians (8,733 compared to 11,374) and Spanish (8,710 compared to 10,615).

On the opposite side, another country with an upward trend is Mexico, which is the fastest growing after Russia. So far this year, there are already 8,850 Mexicans who have traveled to Cuba, compared to 6,834 in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the Government does not give up on its strategy of strengthening tourism through construction, a path unjustified by hotel occupancy figures, which reveal that last year three out of every four rooms were left empty.

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