More Dirty Tricks Of The Dictatorship On The Eve Of The CELAC Summit / Angel Santiesteban

Among my papers they found an issue of Encounter Magazine and one of Cuban Hispanic; they seized them because they appear to be against the Regime, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and they took a text from Amnesty International what explains who they are, what they do, and what are the rights of the citizens of the world. They took everything as if they were loaded down a lot of plutonium.

The detailed search was carried out by Major Joaquin – alias “the bogeyman” – and twelve officers who accompanied him. Then Major Cobas was responsible, along with two other officers, to communicate with me and he suspended my pass. I just smiled. They are like morons who insist on being brilliant.

I am here for a falsified crime, what does it matter that they now invent a disciplinary infraction — we stared at each other — anyway, I told him, this doesn’t hurt me either.

– I’m happy for you, he said.

– You are my reason for being – I already said at the door.

– And you, ours.

We looked at each other and he stayed seated behind the desk with all the arrogance that totalitarianism gives them.

It is no secret that the real reason for this search is to not allow me to walk the streets on the eve of the CELAC (Community of Latin American States) Summit, a meeting the leaders and their delegations will attend regardless of the continued repression of the dissidence and persecution of those who dare to think differently, and therefore, the incarcerated.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton Prison settlement. January 2014

Translated by: Shane J. Cassidy

14 January 2014

Eviction from Tenement in Vedado / Yoel Espinosa Medrano

HAVANA, Cuba January 15 of 2014 , Yoel Espinosa Medrano / www.cubanet.org.- An illegal eviction of several families took case with the storming of a tenement, took place Wednesday morning in Vedado, Havana.

Several dozen police supported by two patrol cars that closed the street to vehicular and pedestrian traffic on 17th Street, between L and M, Vedado. A brigade of workers from the Housing agency put the belongings of the residents in two trucks parked in the street.

Two men and two women were arrested for confronting the police.

According to residents of the area, months ago the former tenants were evacuated to other places by the Housing due to the imminent danger of collapse of the tenement.

One lady said the occupants had received several notices to leave the tenement.

As of this time there is still a military deployment at the building.

Yoel Espinosa Medrano, Cubanet, 15 January 2014

Puzzling Raul Castro in Santiago / Luis Cino Alvarez

HAVANA, Cuba, January, http://www.cubanet.org – General Raul Castro’s speeches are becoming increasingly puzzling. One does not know if he is playing at being Chinese, or playing Russian Roulette.  Before, at least, he used to save us the fright, by letting us know when he was going to make a joke. Now not even that.

It’s not that he was being a ventriloquist, but his speech this past January first in Cespedes Park in Santiago de Cuba, more than his harangues of seven years ago, when he assumed power, seemed like those of Fidel Castro.

The general president assured us that the Revolution continues the same as when it triumphed 55 years ago, with no other commitment than to the people.

And one does not know how to understand this, because if that which some still call “the Revolution” broke its commitment some time ago to anyone, it was precisely to the people, abandoned to their luck in this save yourself if you can… if you are of the elite. continue reading

The commitment will be to Fidel Castro, and the historical leadership, that supra-institutional meritocracy, to the generals, to the orthodoxy, but to the people?

What is the commitment to the people by a government whose methods for updating the economic model, however much they may deny it, increasingly resemble the shock therapy of savage capitalism that came disguised as whatever, without capital or markets, and what is worse, without political freedoms nor the right to say boo?

What commitment is it by a government that, thinking only of its revenues, takes black market prices as the standard and declares illegal the survival mechanisms of an increasingly destitute people?

Of what value are the promises of a petty blackmail system that beats a retreat, that slowly and painfully dissolves in the hot air of the Guidelines of the Sixth Congress?

What does it have to do with the people, the sloppy capitalism of a State as mercantile as that of the absolute monarchies that we faced?

This speech by the general-president, in which he advances backwards, reminded me of the “call” to the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party that the army general made when he was Number Two, in March 1990. Then we understood little and badly. When finally the bloody congress was held, in October 1991, it was all exactly contrary to what was expected. And now we know the consequences.

Many years have passed, and he who was Number Two now is Number One. And it is not good for a ruler to miss so many opportunities.

luicino2012@gmail.com, Cubanet, January 6, 2014

Translated by mlk.

The Law of Those Who Vote With Their Feet / Jose Hugo Fernandez

HAVANA, Cuba, 14 January 2014.www.cubanet.org  – It’s often said that the elimination of the White Card — as the government-issued travel permit was known — has been one of the most significant among the reforms undertaken in Cuba during the dynasty of Castro II. I don’t believe there are a lot of reasons to discuss it. Things are more or less significant according to one’s values, and it’s natural that everyone values them according to their own criteria and interests that influence their circumstances.

In any case, far from being something to be proud of, I find it shameful that the most significant achievement by a government is to abolish a medieval edict, imposed and maintained for decades by its own system of power, when it would have been a museum piece in any other country in the world.

The opposition

Since this patch was applied, we recognize the benefits it has brought us so far. For the opponents of the regime, controversies aside, it paved the way for them to be able to clarify their thinking before the world. Whether they’ve done it well or poorly, or simply squandered the opportunity, is entirely their own concern. For intellectuals and artists it has undeniably gone well, especially for those who have the means or the sponsors to cover the costs. And it has also gone well for people who, with help from abroad, decided to explore the labor markets and the possibilities of settling in the United States, Latin America or Europe. continue reading

Thanks to the Castro II Dynasty’s we were allowed to travel more or less freely, and it also allowed, more or less, the temporary or permanent return of those who left the Island years ago, and has improved, more or less, the ties among the Cuban family, so dispersed and fractured thanks to politics. And the measure was useful, until recently, in supporting some enterprising countrymen in bringing from abroad clothes and other products missing here, to market them outside the inane and bloodsucking State-owned stores.

What this immigration and travel reform has meant for the rest of the population, which the majority, remains to be seen; these are people without resources and without relatives or associates abroad, workers, students, ordinary employed and unemployed, too many of them blacks, people on the margin, for the most part needy.

Since I don’t trust the results of surveys carried out in Cuba, where governmental secrecy and repression mean that anyone can make up the testimony of people whose identities and photographs they’re not obliged to publish, I chose to undertake my own quasi-survey among ordinary people living in the Havana municipalities of Centro Habana, Plaza and La Lisa. So, taking into account beforehand the logical distrust of my readers, allow me to offer some opinions collected through informal chats, on the street and in the homes of  friends and acquaintances.

Young people

For example, among the young people I asked (about 40), there were two typical attitudes that prevailed: those who answered with some nonsense, such as “it fits,” or “it works, it works,” (mid-level students, generally), and those who see the measure as something positive, although they’re worried looking to the near future, that the immigration process cannot be paid for in national currency (Cuban pesos) and that the prices charge aren’t affordable given the real possibilities of most people.

Housewives consulted (58) almost all agreed that immigration and travel reform is low on their list of priorities, compared to other measures, such as the widening of opportunities for self-employment, or like the simple (?!) fact that for the first time in 50 years bread is being sold of the ration book, and it’s better although more expensive than rationed bread, and the bakeries have better hours.

All of them praised the elimination of the White Car. And many said, plaintively, that now the barriers to travel are the embassies of other countries, ignoring, or at least not aware, that the denials of visas is due to the fears of those governments before possible waves of migrating Cubans, which is equally the fault of our dictatorial and impoverishing regime, which people want to flee en masses, especial young people, although not only them.

The right to return

Slightly more than 60 women and men who appeared to be roughly working age, offered substantial opinions, the biggest group in my quasi-survey.

The most common was that as long as it does not resolve or at least alleviate the terrible economic crisis that affects most people, the importance of immigration and travel reform will always be relative. They insisted that everyone sees it as a good measure, but there are few who are directly affected by it. Even those who see it as an option, aren’t interested in it except as another variant of the economic struggle, because the Cuban people are deeply lacking in a culture of tourism.

So this measure, in the end, comes to be seen as the law of those who vote with their feet. Meanwhile, those who choose to live here, or those who are left with no other remedy, even if they got the money required to travel, would need to use it to solve more pressing problems: food, housing, small businesses…

Both these latter as well as the bulk of the other respondents, spoke positively of the right of return (for those who traveled or those living abroad) as another of the most positive elements of reform. Meanwhile, only three — all elderly — said they did not agree with the measure because, according to them, it favors the regime much more than the people. And five of my respondents (two women and three men, one of them young) dismissed it out of hand, saying that the poor didn’t need to travel, they need to eat, clothe themselves, have a home and a job that allows them to live without jumping through hoops.

In summary, there were just over 150 opinions, informally collected among ordinary people, neither professionals, artists nor dissidents. And although it’s well known that 100 swallows do not a summer make in a city of two million, they may serve to give a hint of popular opinion on this matter. If the result is not sufficient or credible, what can I do. I am also bounded by my circumstances, so I could barely make use of the chance to describe the landscape with the traces of paint from a broad brush.

For the rest, whether or not this is the most significant reform of the Castro II Dynasty, I believe that it will go down in history, if not for the law that released us from our state as hostages of the regime, at least as something that slightly improved our status, making us hostages with a legal avenue for escape.

 José Hugo Fernández, Cubanet, 14 January 2014

Note: Books by the author may be found at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DYC1R0

The Opposition’s Paranoia / Angel Santiesteban

In the Cuban dissidence the nervousness is because a State Security spy is stalking us. This constant fear accompanies Human Rights activists, as if it weren’t enough to  concern ourselves with bearing up under and healing from the beatings, being confined in putrid dungeons with malefactors of all stripes, and the psychological torture, being spied on by everyone around us and being suspicious of everyone who approaches us.

This mistrust between the dissidence is the major work of counterintelligence to create divisions, resentments and fears.

One way or another, who within the opposition hasn’t been labeled an “agent”? In fact, it has become a major pastime among its members, even making the phrase “it seems suspicious to me” commonplace.

The terror of being betrayed is a sickness that hits deep and the list of the suspicious, on many occasions, reaches into the family itself; or from the Internet, some faceless comment tries to make you drop out from the dissidence. And from then on, the remote possibility starts to swell like a snowball. continue reading

Presumably, those who sow this suspicion without proof are fulfilling a pact with the “devil,” meaning, of course, the dictatorship; or they seek to sidetrack an ascent within the ranks not convenient for their personal ambitions.

Of course, some hallucinate, not realizing that sometimes greed converts the totalitarian hounds, until at times, they are unwittingly complicit, and an enemy of themselves, and our democratic dreams.  In the future, whatever reality will be better than the present, however many power struggles exist. That’s my incentive.  I assume that forming part of democracy is accepting those competing interests, and supporting this however disagreeable it is. But now is not the time. There has to be a squeeze so that the wind that rages makes us more difficult to shake.

In my personal practice, with regards to suspected informants, I resolved long ago with great ease not to concern myself with informers. I simply accepted that they have their work and I will continue with mine. I came to the conclusion that I have nothing to hide. The beatings and the dungeons I’ve suffered have been for demonstrating my criticisms against the government in my blog. So I infer that they are torturing me to shut me up, to censor me, so my thoughts are public knowledge.

In this case, as with majority of the opponents, the “snitches” don’t report anything more than the meeting plans, possible demonstrations, which in these cases leads us to be selective in who is invited in order to be able to do it; but for the rest, everything is open: we want full freedom to choose leaders who get the most votes in participatory elections, and then to be able to criticize them if they don’t fulfill their obligations and campaign promises.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

Lawton Prison Settlement. January 2014.

13 January 2014

The New Cuban Rich / Ivan Garcia

Plaza de la Catedral, festooned for the Year End Grand Dinner and which some new Cuban rich must have attended. *See below for dinner menu.

They are not as ostentatious as the new Russian rich who buy compulsively and empty the shelves of Marbella. Nor do their lifestyle and expenses have to do with a Qatar millionaire who for pure pleasure buys a bankrupt European soccer club.

The new Cuban rich have a different stripe and behavior. “There are several castes. There are the life-long privileged: ministers, managers of healthy businesses or generals who have exchanged the olive-green uniform for a crisp white guayabera. They may eat shrimp and drink Spanish red wine,” says an ex-official.

In his opinion, it is a very special class. “It is accessed by family genes, loyalty or sycophancy. But it is an exclusive preserve. Depending on their rank, these revolutionary burghers may have a yacht or even a Hummer.”

A person who knows about power says they usually go to Ibiza or Cancun on vacation. “They are above the law and the Constitution. By divine decree, they can have cable antennas, internet at home and several cars. They don’t need to turn off the air conditioning to save energy, and when the dollar was prohibited, the supposed enemy’s banknotes were in their wallets.” continue reading

There were and still are other kinds of “rich.” People call them “flowerpots.” It is a colorful fauna of petty thieves with white collars who swipe a few million pesos and abound in various levels of government ministries.

“They carry the party card for convenience or pull you into a lecture replete with revolutionary slogans. This caste has learned how to spin the system,” says a lady who was a servant in the home of a manager.

Common and ordinary Cubans know that they ride in State cars, with gasoline from the State and that they steal from the State. That they invest in family businesses. And under the mattress they keep dollars and euros, among other currencies. “The most intelligent defect on an official trip and with stolen money set up a discreet business in Florida,” asserts the ex-official.

The man on the street also knows that the number of private entrepreneurs who are earning quite a bit in their businesses is rising. Also, that in Cuba there exist the “body smugglers.” People who have always lived on the margin of the law. Selling drugs, brand name clothes, pirated perfumes, houses or cars.

And with the money saved, the ’body smugglers’ open a cafeteria or rent rooms to foreign tourists for 30 dollars a night. Other privileged people are the rich “de flay,” that is, “the Cubans who thanks to remittances sent by relatives in Miami, who in order to sustain the way of life of these bloodsuckers, often have two jobs,” says a retired teacher.

They all, from the olive-green caste to the rich “de flay,” demonstrate the difference from that vast majority of the population that eats a hot meal once a day and relieves the heat with a Chinese fan.

The new rich can afford the luxury of dining three times a week in a private restaurant and paying 150 CUC for a set menu at the Plaza de la Catedral in order to eat delicacies and await the new year listening to Isaac Delgado.

Some envy them. But, in general, Cubans accept the new rules of the game. They see well that their neighbor may have a business, make money and stay at a Varadero hotel.

And that the State may sell cars and permit you to travel abroad. They applaud the elimination of the absurd double currency and ask for better salaries, with the hope that someday they too might eat in expensive restaurants or visit Cayo Coco.

What people reproach is the hypocrisy of the regime’s leaders. That they speak in the name of the poor while they live and dine like the new rich from Russia. That’s why, when many Cubans see Raul Castro, it seems to them that they are observing Vladimir Putin. Maybe it is an optical illusion.

*Dinner Menu — In 2012 the set menu cost 100 CUC per person (about $110 US), but in 2013 the business Habaguanex raised it to 150 CUC, a worker’s salary for seven and a half months. What was offered on the menu would have filled the stomachs of the residents of any block from Central Havana, Marianao, Arroyo Naranjo or San Miguel del Padron.

Welcome cocktail: Creole mojito or San Francisco (without alcohol). Large chef’s assortment plate: mixed salad of fillet of beef, fired pork bun a la Camagueyana, marinade of three cheeses and cured ham crepes. First plate: main: Tower of turkey and glazed fruits, green and black olives over marinated vegetables. Main plate: Center cut beef tenderloin with extra virgin olive oil, plum and rosemary sauce and Crianza Cabernet wine. Side dish: Creamed potatoes.

Variety of rolls and breadsticks accompanied by pate with cheese flavored with basil and pimento. Desserts: Cheesecake and guava with candied apple and coffee caramel sauce. Assortment of Spanish nougats and good luck grapes. Brews: Cuban coffee and varieties of tea.

Beverages of your choice all night: Mineral water, fruit juices, soft drinks and national beers, white, rose, red and sparkling wines, anejo rum, whiskey and from Cuban mixology, Mojito, Cuba Libre, Cubata and Habana Especial. Also: Mixed grill of pork, turkey and roasted vegetables, creole stew with red mangrove, three kinds of paella (shrimp, rabbit or vegetable) and grand cake flambe with cognac. As amusement, a Magnum of champagne opened with a saber.

Ivan Garcia

Translated by mlk.

11 January 2014

Opponents Beaten For Supporting Strike of Self-Employed / CID, Elena Yesmi

Olga y Yoel
Oscar Elias Biscet, Ricardo Medina, Olga LIlia Gonzalez, Enrique Martinez, Yoel Fonseca Machado

Santa Clara, 14 January 2014 – CID activists Yoel Fonseca Machado and Olga Lilia Gonzalez Barroso, said they were beaten and arrested by police officers, while trying to support a strike self-employed workers tried to carry out in 14 January in Santa Clara.

The police officers gave Yoel a strong blow to the head and he lost consciousness. Olga Lila also had bruises and abrasions on her body; she said they were places in a cell at the 3rd Police Station.

The activists explained that went to Barcelona Street between Cuba Street and Paseo de la Paz, at the request of some self-employed that were to be deprived of the site where they had been selling things for several years.

Yoel Machado Fonseca and Olga Lilia Gonzalez Barroso, liveat number 161 A Toscano Street, between Martí and San Vicente in Santa Clara, and are members of the Independent and  Democratic Cuba Party (CID ).

Marks left by handcuffs on Olga Lilia Gonzalez
Marks left by handcuffs on Olga Lilia Gonzalez

By Elena Yesmi, 14 January 2014

2014: Death Before Birth / Victor Ariel Gonzalez

HAVANA, Cuba, January, www.cubanet.org — Doorways where until a few days ago all kinds of clothes and shoes were for sale are now empty. All the usual stalls are closed. It is a return to the recent past, confirmation that the economic openings are not as open, but quite the opposite: they narrow.

The state of opinion on the streets of Havana is negative. Skeptics have multiplied and pessimism is heard in normal conversations. A taxi driver who was driving an old American car, in the dark December nights, predicted to this reporter what the new year would be from his vision at that time. According to him, he’d never seen such a dark end of year, perhaps not even such an infamous December 31, 1994, when a cigar box cost 120 pesos (the entire pay, let’s say, of a secretary).

The man apparently was not mistaken in his forecast that 2014 would be fatal. The first thing that happened is that an important branch of trade is dead. There will be no stalls where the poorest buyers can go looking for something to wear. People are angry, as the Cuban population usually is without any spontaneous social event occurring. continue reading

Taxes will rise this year. They fixed route taxi drivers (popularly known as “boatmen”) must now pay 1000 pesos basic tax instead of the 700 paid to the State. That money does not count in the affidavit that must be paid periodically and is an additional charge. If on top of that the price of fuel continues to rise, as has happened in recent years, it is expected that the fares also shoot up.

Meanwhile, the bus stops appear full at all times. Transport is scarce, as always, and the cars that have recently been put on sale in State dealerships are at ridiculous prices. What Cuban could spend, for one of them, 200,000 in CUCs, about the same as $200,000 USD, or 4 million 800 thousand Cuban pesos? However, senior regime officials have said that the motor vehicles profits will be invested in public transport. What does not fit within their mysterious calculations is that sales volumes are too low, judging from the official price .

This is a government that is trying to get into global capitalism in the most unfavorable way possible, especially for the population. There are fewer products  “subsidized” each year. Every time they make more rationalizations” in public spending. The dubious tendency to improve economically stops, while hopes for reforms also stop. 2014 was sentenced to death in the speeches of late December and the judgment seems to be running through and through .

Víctor Ariel González, Cubanet, 14 January 2014

This Country Doesn’t Even Produce Tomatoes / Ernesto Garcia Diaz

tomate-300x228HAVANA, Cuba , January www.cubanet.org – The productive uselessness of the regime forces it to import vegetables to meet the demands of international tourism, especially tomatoes. The results of the 2013/2014 tomato harvest does not appear in the press and is barely mentioned by the agricultural authorities, due to the huge losses of private producers, who in previous years saw themselves lose their crops due to lack of marketing and the capacity of the processing capacity.

The tomato is the horticultural product of major economic importance for the country, highly demanded by the population and industry, which transforms it into juices, pastas and other derivatives. But since the current harvest began, prices range between 5 and 10 pesos (national currency) per pound, and no price reductions in the offing. This situation has forced people to drastically reduce consumption.

Although there has been no published information on the crops and the current production results, experts on the subject say that one of the causes of the collapse is related to seed varieties and decreased planting areas, in addition to low levels input delivery to non-state producers and poor disease control, lack of chemicals (pesticides and fungicides), which must be imported. continue reading

The only news coverage on the subject, in the last sixty days, took place on a television program about the industrial processing of fruit and vegetables by the citrus company Ceballos, in the province of Ciego de Avila; and a commentary signed by José Luis Merencio Cautín, in the Granma newspaper announcing the tomato harvest in Caujerí Valley in the province of Guantánamo.

No statistical information has been compiled for 2013, so it will not be published in several months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI). Only through a formal and substantiated request, will they grant access to any kind of information, until the yearbook will be published, and with prior authorization of the competent entity, considering some of the data classified.

According to ONEI itself, in 2007 the tomato crop occupied an area of 57,082 hectares and produced 627,900 tons. From 2010, a sharp decline in production began, until, in 2012, 43,589 hectares were planted and harvested producing no more more than 133,000 tons.

Meanwhile, the dissatisfaction of the population increases, but General President Raul Castro Ruz persists in declaring that, “The Revolution remains the same, without any commitment to anyone, only with the people.”

Ernesto Garcia Diaz, Cubanet, 15 January 2014

Leaving Behind the “Political Trash” / Fernando Damaso

The work of the self-employed, which the authorities are reluctant to delegate by its true name of private work, trying to maintain at all costs the fig leaf of their tropical socialism, with its back and forth, advances and retreats, has represented one option for the survival of thousands of Cubans (according to the latest official figures, 442,000). However, it has had no effect on increasing production, since it is limited to a narrow space in the area of services.

If we take a look inside at the Cuban industrial base, it makes you want to cry, for its technological backwardness and accumulated obsolescence, with little maintenance, poor repairs and primitive adaptations to prolong its operation, but no chance to compete because of the low quality of its diminished production.

The few centralized active sugar mills can’t escape this evil, true industrial dinosaurs, with repeated interruptions from breakdowns during the manufacturing process. Light industry, which in the fifties was modern and productive, has disappeared, and what’s left, also obsolete, is incapable of producing the minimal  necessary for consumption by the population, forcing them to import what’s needed with the consequent expenditures in hard currency. continue reading

If they really want to take steps in the right direction, leading to the solution of the existing problems, they need to be done with the failed ideological squeamishness and seek foreign investment. The country is bankrupt and has no real possibilities of changing its situation, because it lacks the capital to do so.

This investment, without any exceptions, should be secured by a solid legal framework to give investors confidence and protection against the ideological rants, our leaders are so prone to every so often. This investment from abroad, must be accompanied by domestic investment of those Cubans who, despite everything, have been able to collect some small capital.

In a globalized world to try to live in isolation, let alone nursed by others, is a sovereign insanity. Cuba’s attempt to do it, something that will happen sooner rather than later, should be undertaken showing responsibility and maturity. Here slogans and sentimental speeches abound, recalling past glories, real or fictitious. Reality sets in and, consistent with its rules and demands, it should act. Everything else is pure political trash.

13 January 2014

We Are Nothing / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Finally he’s left alone.

Bent over, his perfect Greek profile now that of a vulture.

There is some classic wisdom in the raptor species. Something of nobility in the adaptive gesture of eating carrion.

He’s not even remotely senile, as his enemies from the antipodes claim.

He is simply alone, in an irreconcilable world, surrounded by reminiscent faces. Traces of totalitarianism.

All around him, everyone understands the scene perfectly. They smile at him with pity. Take photos with impunity. They believe themselves privileged to attend the latest anecdotes of the Revolution. Also there is, notably, some impatience, or maybe nervousness. They know the Revolution will end with this hesitant body.

Meanwhile, we gaze ghoulishly at the vacant eyes of the Minimum Leader, the Companion in Chief, who no longer holds any dictatorial job, and, barely able to touch objects with an index finger, soon will no longer murder even something as innocent as a baby. After having imposed so much barbarity as a strategy of eternal governance, Fidel is now living in Braille. His death will be tactile. The Cuban rite of extreme unction will come to him on his spotted skin, perhaps at the hands of the Cardinal.

The senile, in any case, are us. Who allow him this saintly solitude, backs to the recognizable world, surrounded by repressors in an exquisite state of futurity, already ready to compromise our future in a new totalitarianism about to be designed.

10 January 2014

Colome Ibarra’s Son “Visits” a Freelance Journalist / Frank Correa

Restaurant belonging to the son of Cuba's Interior Minister
Restaurant belonging to the son of Cuba’s Interior Minister. Photo by author.

HAVANA, Cuba , January 14, 2014, Frank Correa / www.cubanet.org.- On Monday afternoon freelance journalist Leon Padron Azcuy was visited at his home, 860 25th Street, between A and B streets in Vedado, by José Raúl Colome, son of Army Corps General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, Minister of the Interior, on the occasion of an article published in Cubanet on this family’s properties and its ownership of the Starbien restaurant on 19th Street.

According to what José Raúl Colomé told the journalist, the General is very upset with what is reflected in the article and promised to handle the matter personally .

Colomé’s son protested to Padrón Azcuy because, he said, this information had damaged him, to which the reporter replied, on the contrary, now the audience’s desire to taste the delicious dishes had been increased by the promotion.

Although he suspected State Security would visit him at any moment, given the news, the reporter never thought he would be visited in his home by the protagonist of the article.

Frank Correa, Cubanet, 14 January 2014

Colome Ibarra, Alias Furry, the Enriched General / Leon Padron Azcuy

HAVANA, Cuba, January 8, 2014. www.cubanet.org – The Cuban Military’s upper echelons are enriched with multiple businesses right in the faces of Cuban citizens. In the block between B, C, 29 and Zapata streets, Army Corps General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, popularly known as “Furry,” exhibits part of his family patrimony which is booming.

The minister gave his son José Raúl Colome a beautiful two-story house here to use — as do other residents of that area — to rent to foreigners. José Raúl also owns the STAR BIEN restaurant, one of the most patronized by Havana’s elite.

Located at No. 205 29th between B and C, this restaurant was recently renovated to become a jewel of the capital’s culinary establishments, competing in price and quality with the best restaurants in the hotel sector of the capital.

According to some sources who preferred anonymity, the site was acquired behind the scenes, and adding the costs of restoration, equipment, atmosphere, service and decor, the property is valued at no less than 100,000 CUC (about $110k US). continue reading

It has an excellent economic management based an admirable job of marketing and promotion, having priority in the plans of Havanatur and Cubatur (two tourism companies run by the Cuban military) over prestigious restaurants and private establishments such as La Guarida and Gringo Viejo, to cite just two examples.

Meanwhile Havana collapses

Every night tourist buses can be observed at STAR BIEN, which is also surrounded by a long line of the luxury cars owned by the diplomatic corps accredited in Havana, or by well-known artists, athletes and other figured who frequently go there to eat the delicious menu items.

Some residents who found employment at this place, when interviewed, avoided commenting for fear of losing their salary which is obviously higher than in State-owned restaurants. However one of watchmen at Colomé’s properties, whose name I omit for his safety even though he no longer works there, dared to tell me, “It’s humiliating to see that most of the businesses of ordinary Cubans closed or never prospered, because of the weight of the limitations they faced, while the military’s businesses bloom like daisies.”

While a significant number of houses collapse like soldiers in a war, General Colomé’s family, always loyal to the dictatorship, owns several luxury properties, in addition to those mentioned. They also own a comfortable apartment in the building on 705 B Street between 29th and Zapata, a gift from José Raúl to his mother, where the children of the elite communists are taught English and which is sometimes used for holiday accommodations.

It’s a travesty that these generals of Communist Cuba have divvied up our land like a piñata, while leaving for the starving people the rotten slogan: Socialism or Death.

Leon Padron Azcuy, Cubanet, 10 January 2014

Leonpadron10@gmail.com

Legacies of Castroism: The Destruction of the Sugar Industry / CID, Victor Ariel Gonzalez

On December 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes liberated the slaves of his sugar center La Demajagua and invited them to join him in the fight for Cuban’s independence. The Cry of Yara was the beginning of the 10 Years’ War.  These are the ruins of Demajagua.

The great capitals of the Cuban economy were forged within the sugar industry.  This last one and all its surrounding areas constituted a basic feature of the country’s culture, of its identity.  The formation of the Cuban nation is closely linked to sugar production in that it served to form a Creole aristocracy, which with the passage of time was differentiated from the Spanish mother country, still holder of political power on the island even while in the economic sphere it began to lag behind her thriving colony. continue reading

Such was the Cuban economic boom that the railroad arrived here before it did in Spain. And although perhaps core values were still lacking in the insular society, obviously the necessary base of capital equity was created in order to emerge as an independent nation.

Cuba become on of the world’s principal sugar producers, and certainly one of the Latin American nations with the greatest density of railways.  The industry was so strong that it survived devastating wars (rebel military campaigns razed sugar fields in order to destroy the Cuban economy as part of the Spanish empire) and later flourished when it declared itself a republic.  In short, there were centuries of development that preceded the million-dollar harvests of the 50’s during the 20th century, which were the most profitable reported in the country’s whole history. With the Revolution which shook all the country’s institutions in 1959 came the death sentence for the sugar industry which took some decades to execute.  The centralized economy was the principal obstacle against which Cuba’s widest productive line had to fight, making this latter a loser.

A fundamental part of this period is the Messianic nature of Fidel Castro who, without knowing enough about anything — except what is necessary for maintaining absolute power — proposed fantastical projects such as the “10 Million Ton Harvest ” which turned into a spectacular failure: not even 9 of the 10 million tons of sugar initially proposed were reached; besides, the price in the world market fell, and the cost of production was immense, converting the Harvest of the 70’ (as it is also known) into one of the most inefficient of all time.

All that happened later resulted in the closure of almost all the sugar refineries at the national level, which was concluded at the beginning of the present century. Meanwhile, thousands of workers were fired, many communities turned into ghost towns and sugar for consumption began to be imported.

It only took 50 years to dismantle a 100-year old industry, Cuba’s largest. As a contradiction, the price of sugar in the world market has risen during recent years, as has the price of products derived from it.

Regrettably, the case in question has not been a lone example of the destructive legacy of Castro-ism. One need only go out onto the city streets to see the decay that covers everything. The Cuban economy is nothing on the world level, and the misery cannot become worse as it has permeated the soul of the Cuban nation.

By Victor Ariel Gonzalez

Source:  Bloqueo informativo al pueblo cubano, suplemento de La Nueva República

Translated by mlk.

12 January 2014