Translating Cuba

Sick People Who Believe in ‘Free Health Care’ Wait Months for Treatment in Cienfuegos, Cuba

“It doesn’t matter if you make an appointment, because the doctors’ friends and family members have preference”

Patients crowd for hours at the hospital waiting to be seen. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 4 October 2024 — Cienfuegos/In the Dr. Gustavo Aldereguía Lima hospital in Cienfuegos the word “patient” has taken on a new definition. Amid corridors flooded with people and without enough healthcare workers to deal with the sick, the wait for a simple consultation can take several hours.
“My father, who helped build this place, has serious eye problems. More than a year ago he was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes and, since then, we are on a waiting list of patients who need to undergo surgery,” explains Nancy, who went to the center with the old man at 7:00 am this Friday and, four hours later, he still had not been able to enter the consultation room.

The woman knows very well why, at the Gustavo Aldereguía Hospital and at any other health center on the island, patients treated “through the proper channels” take so long to be diagnosed. “It is an open secret. It doesn’t matter if you make an appointment, because the doctors’ friends and relatives have preference,” he says.

Consultations are held on the second and third floors, where access is difficult for the disabled. / 14ymedio

“Ahead of us have entered, without being called from the list, those who can afford to give the doctors bags with all kinds of products. The ophthalmologists themselves come looking for them to attend to them quickly. But I’m not leaving here today without setting the exact date for my dad’s operation. It doesn’t matter if they tell me that the equipment is continue reading

broken or the operating room is out of order,” says Nancy with determination.

In the Cienfuegos hospital, which is a general and teaching hospital, outpatient consultations are held on the second and third floors, making access difficult for people with physical disabilities. “Since the elevator was broken, I had to ask two men to lift me, wheelchair included. The dermatologist who treats me hasn’t arrived yet so the day will be long,” says Dionisio, an elderly man who had both his legs amputated due to diabetes.

Since last June, the Cienfuegos native has been trying to get a doctor’s appointment to check a rash accompanied by skin depigmentation. “All the steps I took were in vain, including those I took through the association of the disabled to which I belong. I had no choice but to present myself without any recommendation other than my nationality, since the health system should be free and with quality for all Cubans. I hope I can have it treated before it’s too late,” he emphasizes.

Dionisio is aware that his treatment will be far from easy in the midst of the country’s crisis.

Dionisio is aware that his treatment will be far from easy in the midst of the country’s crisis. “To begin with, it will be a challenge to get good care because from me they are not going to get more than a “Thank you.” Then, there is the situation with the lack of medications. The doctor gives the prescription and you have to get the medicine however you can. Not to mention that the skin creams are not available. What are the options for those of us who have no family to send us drugs from abroad, nor do we have enough money to buy them in the informal market,” he asks.

Nancy, who has already wasted the entire morning in the waiting room, notices one of the ophthalmologists in a room attending to inpatients and hurries to question him. “Many people here saw the doctor without waiting for him to come to the consultation. This is an every-person-for-themselves situation, so necessity forces consideration for others to the side, unfortunately.” Taking her father by the arm, the woman is certain it is useless to continue in the outpatient clinic waiting for a miracle that will surely not happen, but the doctor’s answer brings her back to reality. “Madam, I consult in three hospitals and I only come here on Fridays. I have a lot of people to attend to in front of you.”

Translated by LAR

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Cuba’s Textile Industry Is Dressing Children and Soldiers in Uniforms Made from Discarded Curtains

A worker shortage, obsolete technology and power outages hamper production

Another obstacle facing the industry is the technological obsolescence of its factories. / Invasor

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2024 — On Saturday, state-run media released new data on the decline of the island’s textile industry. An article published in “Invasor” reports that, last August, school uniform sales were impacted not only by a shortage of raw materials but also by a shortage of workers at garment factories, technological obsolescence and the ongoing power outages plaguing the country.

The report was particularly critical of the situation facing factories in Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus that produce both school and military uniforms. Faced with a lack of funding, the have had to “get creative.”

To keep operating, Unidades Empresariales de Base (UEB), Trébol Productions in Ciego de Ávila and Cumbre Productions in Sancti Spíritus have started buying scraps of old fabric from the state-owned Servisa company. This includes anything that can be converted — whether it be old sheets, towels or tattered curtains discarded by the island’s tourism industry — into new articles of clothing for Cuba’s soldiers and school children. continue reading

The report was particularly critical of the situation facing factories in Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus that produce both school and military uniforms. Faced with a lack of funding, they have had to “get creative”

“Neither Trébol nor Cumbre has the authority or the hard currency to buy supplies. The lack of a fabric makes it impossible to negotiate with clients who are looking for uniform suppliers. These same clients have started turning to private-sector entities,” complains Trébol’s director, Maikel Abreu García.

In anticipation of the start of the 2024-2025 school year last August, the Ministry of Domestic Trade acknowledged that the shortage of fabric would force the government to regulate sales by grade level. 14ymedio found that, in practice, the process ended up looking more like the sale of package deals of basic necessities, known as “combos”in Cuban stores. Using their IDs, parents had to add their names to a list at stores and then wait before being served, assuming there was any available clothing for their children at all.

The island’s clothing and textile factories are a far cry from what they were several decades ago. In the 1980s they were in good health. Three decades later, they look desolate. Most of them do not even have half the staff they need to operate.

The island’s clothing and textile factories are a far cry from what they were several decades ago

Aggravating the crisis are low salaries. In contrast to what they can make working as independent contractors, or from offering their services to a private company, seamstresses employed by the state barely make enough to survive. This has led, in large part, to an exodus of workers from Cuba’s factory floors, a situation which has been getting worse for about ten years according to industry sources, as state media reported.

“This new opportunity (for private companies) has created strong competition, especially in the sale of uniforms, due to contracts with hospitality companies operating in tourist destinations like Jardines del Rey,” Abreu García explained.

In the early 1980s, before Trébol was an independent company, it was part of a larger operation based in Camagüey. Back then, its factories were packed with fabrics and seamstresses. “There were more than 500 in the entire province,” recalled Aida Torres Carmenate, an economic management specialist at the company. At that time, when the former Soviet Union was still sending money and resources to the island, she was one of those seamstresses.

Aggravating the crisis are low salaries. Seamstresses employed by the state barely make enough to survive

Another obstacle facing the industry is the obsolete technology of its factories. When machinery breaks down, staff must repair it as best they can. Some of the equipment has been in operation for decades, with little or no regular maintainance. The factories, which also lack the necessary spare parts and tools, have to be inventive, relying on hand-made parts to make repairs.

The country’s ongoing power outages are also affecting the industry. At Trébol, an entire factory that operated in Ciro Redondo was shut down after authorities decided to remove the electric transformer in order to replace a broken one serving Ciego de Ávila’s residential areas. “Electricity is the raw material we need most right now,” its director told “Invasor” with some degree irony. But fabric, the industry’s most basic raw material, is at least as scarce, if not more so, as electricity.

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Where ‘Invasor’ Sees a Debacle, Cuban President Díaz-Canel Perceives ‘Food Sovereignty’ in Ciego de Ávila

Despite the red numbers in agricultural production – milk and meat – the president is bursting with optimism

The president ignored the “negative” approach of Julio Heriberto Gómez Casanova, secretary of the Party in the province / Presidency of Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2024 — With a language that seems copied from a business self-help manual, Miguel Díaz-Canel presented in Ciego de Ávila his “premise for success”: “transform thinking and do it quickly.” The president chose the least suitable topic to illustrate his theory – food – and, despite the figures that the official press has been providing for weeks, he claimed that the province’s food “is in the fields.”

Díaz-Canel did not spare maxims and recipes for triumph, saying that Ciego de Ávila could be the province destined to demonstrate that Cuba can reach “food sovereignty” very soon. The reality – as evidenced by Invasor, one of the regime’s most critical newspapers – is something else.

One of the emblematic companies of the province, La Cuba – which the president visited during his trip – ended 2022 with losses of 70 million pesos. In 2023, its profits were just 7.4 million, “insufficient in the face of a very complex panorama,” the newspaper stressed. Despite the “burden of results,” La Cuba earned the right to be the venue for Agricultural Workers’ Day thanks to a plebeian product, the sweet potato, which was cultivated on 2,694 hectares, with another 500 planned. continue reading

Launching La Cuba is a “long-term task,” but Díaz-Canel seems to see numerous results already

Launching La Cuba is a “long-term task,” admits Invasor, but Díaz-Canel seems to see numerous results already. “What does it take to multiply this experience?” he said. “La Cuba shows us that there are ways out.”

“Contrary” to what was said by the president, Invasor reported that Julio Heriberto Gómez Casanova, secretary of the Communist Party in the province, exposed the “lack of fulfillment for rural crops”; in particular, bananas, cassava, malanga and the sweet potato itself. “It is obvious that the plans do not meet the population’s needs,” and that “the indicators for milk and, even more so for meat, remain in the red.”

In addition, Gómez Casanova reported the “unsatisfactory results of aquaculture” in the 47 ponds of the province, although he welcomed the progress with respect to the management of his predecessor, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, promoted to Secretary of the Party in Havana: last year there were only five ponds in Ciego de Ávila.

The harvest is still another headache. “The situation is quite bitter,” said Maury Pereira, a member of the provincial bureau, without fear of making a pun. There is only “one acceptable solution”: the beginning, “soon,” of molasses production in the Enrique Varona de Chambas company, paralyzed for five years.

The seriousness of the food situation in the province had been anticipated a few days ago during a “preparatory” visit by Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca. The “high-level entourage” left so overwhelmed by the difficulties that their only advice was to “produce more.” In Invasor’s devastating report about the visit it was also clear that Tapia Fonseca, like Díaz-Canel, concentrated on the few positive pieces of news: the discreet increase in banana production and the producers’ promises for the winter.

This Friday, Díaz-Canel turned a deaf ear to the approach and asked to “banish the philosophy of complaining about what you do not have.” He invited them, rather, to look at how well the “growth of the militancy (of the Party membership) and the grassroots organizations” is going. But Gómez Casanova also had negative observations about that: there are numerous “deactivations” of cadres – a sector decimated by the requests from a multitude of leaders to participate in the United States Humanitarian Parole program – and difficulties in filling their positions, in particular from the Union of Young Communists, “which has the greatest number of desertions.”

For ‘Cubadebate,’ less pessimistic than ‘Invasor’ when it comes to covering the visit, Ciego de Ávila could not be doing better

For Cubadebate, less pessimistic than Invasor when it comes to covering the visit, Ciego de Ávila could not be doing better. “Good things are being done for Cuba,” although “the importing mentality has closed our horizons.” Despite the numbers provided by Invasor and the complaints of the leaders, the digital newspaper states that there are “tangible achievements in such important aspects as militancy and food production.”

After his trip – which continues this weekend to other provinces – it was clear that the president did not go to Ciego de Ávila to solve problems or to draw up plans, but to receive “a portrait” of the situation from an entourage of photographers. And that, without a doubt, was what he got.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With Fewer Than 40% of Buses in Service, the Transport Situation in Cuba is a Source of ‘Anxiety’

Bohemia magazine points out that of the 1,000 State buses, 397 are unusable, and 230 are under repair or without fuel

For officials, the causes of the debacle are always the same: the blockade, lack of fuel and deterioration of the vehicles. / Bohemia

14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2024 — Traveling is a nightmare in Cuba, but few official media translate the problem into numbers. Bohemia did it this Friday, publishing devastating figures after an interview with the head of the National Bus Company, Aidel Linares. Of the 1,000 buses owned by the entity, only 603 work. There are actually 128 that are leased, so that makes only 475. To top it off, between breakdowns and lack of fuel, about 230 remain in the terminals.

A country that can have 245 buses a day on the roads, in addition to the 128 leased ones, can only describe its situation – and so Bohemia does – as a source of “anxiety.”

Precise in the numbers, Linares gets lost when it comes to assigning guilt and does not allude even once to Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the charismatic Minister of Transport who has earned some popularity on social networks denouncing the problems of the sector, but without stating what he will do about it. For his subordinate, the causes of the debacle are the usual: the blockade*, lack of fuel and deterioration of the vehicles.

According to Linares, about 9,500 people travel on State interprovincial buses every day. Five years ago, when the situation was nothing to be continue reading

celebrated either, 17,500 were transported. In addition, the company faces a radical decrease in its routes. Now it has only 114 active routes, when years ago it operated 409.

According to Linares, the country’s priority is to never miss routes that are backbones, such as Havana-Batabanó, Pinar del Río-Santiago de Cuba and, by rail, the train from the western capital to the eastern one.

According to Linares, the country’s priority is never to miss routes that are backbones

Bohemia illustrates the situation with several testimonies. One is Roberto’s, 63 years old, who must travel 800 kilometers from Havana to Santiago de Cuba to see his daughter and grandchildren. The case is typical, but it has complicated life for the man, who has been watching for weeks how the tickets escape him every day in the Tulipán and Factor agency, in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.

Nor has Roberto had luck with the Viajando (Traveling) application, difficult to handle for young people and impossible for people his age. Bohemia explains that the collapse of Viajando is due to the lack of capacity of national servers, excessive demand and problems when paying and finalizing the procedure.

The Viajero Company – which manages the application – has ignored customer suggestions, says Bohemia. It has been asked to “market the tickets in a staggered manner, at different times, separating routes of greater and lower demand, and types of transport” — in vain. Rodríguez Dávila has complained about the situation but has not pressured Viajando either.

For several months, another problem has worried customers: buses that circulate with empty seats, pass by the stops and keep going. “When the bus goes by, doesn’t the GPS detect it?” protests Michel, one of the passengers interviewed by the magazine. There is, obviously, “complicity with the checkers and shift bosses,” which is the best evidence that there is “a criminal group in charge of the already diminished ticket reservation system.”

Even dead people buy tickets, according to Bohemia. Those dedicated to the business of reselling them have started using the identities of deceased people to access a ticket, a piece of information that Rodríguez Dávila had already revealed during the recent ordinary sessions of Parliament.

This situation led the State to call for a “crusade against resellers,” which has borne little fruit. The solution that will be implemented, in the words of Rodríguez Dávila, is to urge the population to take out their Single Citizen Card, but – adds Bohemia – “in the opinion of various customers, this excessive security is frustrating.”

“The blackouts also hit us,” Linares explained. “If we are taking a punch, little or nothing can be done until the electricity is restored.” The percentage of punctuality has fallen, from 99% to 88%, a more than dubious figure in a country where no vehicle leaves or arrives on time at the terminal. Many times the problem is a breakdown “in a remote place.” The usual repair time is three hours. “We often fail to comply,” admits the manager.

At times like this, people get nervous, no matter if they are standing under the sun on the road or waiting in the terminal

At times like this, people get nervous, no matter if they are standing under the sun on the road or waiting in the terminal. “A few days ago we delayed an exit for 45 minutes, Havana-Matanzas, because the bus coming from Pinar del Río was delayed, and five people were on their way to board it. Some understood, but there was a lot of discomfort,” says Linares.

The Union of Railways of Cuba, for its part, says it has experienced “a remarkable advance” in its service, because it has resurrected several routes that were given up for lost. Investments from France and the promise of Russian money have somewhat oxygenated the sector. However, “it’s not enough,” the officials insist.

The biggest problem is the duration of the journey, which on its longest routes sometimes reaches 20 hours without the train being in a good enough condition to go that far. In some of them, after many years of operation, “not even a simple light bulb has been changed since they arrived in the country .”

But vehicles and their deterioration are only part of the problem. The other is the condition of the roads and railways. In Santiago de Cuba, the State newspaper Granma boasted this Friday that 80,000 tons of asphalt have been spread on the streets of the province since 2023. However, there are still “thousands of kilometers in bad condition, and many are totally eroded and impassable.”

This year, they hope to have 27,400 tons of asphalt, a notable decrease compared to 2023. The neighbors in the periphery of Santiago have protested, because the authorities only repair the historic center and have forgotten about “the interior neighborhoods.” There are many “limitations” and “complaints,” says Granma, which promises – with the usual enthusiasm – a “moncadista”** assault” on the most battered streets of Santiago. Better times will come, promises the Communist Party newspaper, in 2025.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Translator’s notes:

*There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

**A reference to the failed attack on the Moncada army barracks, led by Fidel Castro in 1953.

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A Second ‘Mission’ of 12 Cuban Doctors Arrives in Dominica

The group is made up of specialists, nurses and technicians

Health workers were received at Douglas-Charles International Airport / Minrex

14ymedio, Havana, October 13, 2024 — As if the departure of 5,000 Cuban doctors to Mexico in the midst of the health crisis on the Island were not enough, the regime continues to export health workers to the region. This Friday, a “contingent” of 12 specialists arrived in Dominica, the Cuban Embassy in the Caribbean country announced. A month earlier, in September, another group of Cubans, whose number is unknown, landed in Roseau.

The official reception took place at Douglas-Charles International Airport and was attended by the Cuban ambassador, Miguel Fraga and the chief medical officer of Dominica, Lynora Fevrier Drigo, who praised the presence of health workers and recalled his years of medical training in Cuba.

“The group of Cuban collaborators is composed of specialists, nurses and technicians, who will be distributed in various health centers throughout the island. Their work will be key in strengthening primary care and other essential medical services,” adds the statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry. continue reading

Fraga, for his part, alluded to the cooperation between Havana and Roseau in “crucial” moments

Fraga, for his part, alluded to the cooperation between Havana and Roseau in “crucial” moments. “The mission of our collaborators is clear: to improve the quality of life and health of the people of Dominica. We fully trust that they will achieve this with the dedication and professionalism that characterize Cuban doctors.”

The news, with a marked tone of protocol, could not be more brief. The secrecy surrounding the sending of doctors to Dominica highlights the regime’s intention to avoid further criticism of its “medical missions,” which have been pointed out on numerous occasions by international organizations as tools of labor exploitation and an example of modern slavery.

No details are known about the group of doctors who arrived in Dominica in September. Composed of specialists in intensive care, general medicine, neonatology, obstetrics, radiography, laboratory, electromedicine and nursing, the contingent was received by the Dominican Minister of Health, Cassanni Laville. Then, Fraga, also present, added that the medical collaboration between the two countries has been longstanding since the 1990s, and that Cuba has graduated 130 doctors from Dominica in its universities.

No details have been given about the group of doctors who arrived in Dominica in September

Havana, however, found a mine of unparalleled benefits in the Mexico of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose Administration hired 5,000 Cuban health workers to supposedly send them to rural areas. According to data published by the local press, the Government pays each foreign doctor more than 5,000 dollars in salary and stipends.

The amount of the total payments that Mexico has made to the Island since the hiring of health workers began a few years ago is unknown, but some data that have come to light offer an estimate. As part of three agreements signed between July 2022 and 2023, Cuba received $25.4 million for just 610 doctors.

The Mexican medical union has also complained on several occasions that the hiring of foreigners, who are offered better salaries and benefits, is detrimental to national professionals. However, it is unlikely that the situation will improve for them because, since her victory in the elections, the newly invested president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has promised that she will continue López Obrador’s agreements with Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘There Is Gas but No Electricity To Pump It’: The Drama of the Service Centers in Havana

All Cubans, without exception, have graduated as electrical engineers, more by necessity than by vocation

This Saturday, although there was gasoline, a power cut forced sales to be suspended / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, October 12, 2024 — Popular discomfort can be measured in decibels in Cuba. The collective cry that erupts immediately when the blackout hits has been increasing in volume and now takes longer to subside. This morning, a roar ran through Infanta Street, in Downtown Havana, from the corner of San Rafael to the vicinity of Zanja. The sound of indignation reached the vehicles waiting to fill up with fuel at the nearby service center. This Saturday, although there was gasoline to dispatch, a power cut forced sales to be suspended.

“Here when it’s not one thing, it’s another: when Juana (who puts order in the line) is not missing then her sister is missing,” roared a customer with neck veins about to burst who had marked his spot in line “before the sun rose” to refuel and make a trip to the province for “a family reunion.” Behind the steering wheel of each car, a story of urgency and despair was heard. “I have to put something in the tank yes, yes, because in my house there is nothing to eat and I live by moving merchandise,” commented the owner of a small van that offers his services to several stores in freely convertible currency.

In the midst of the murmur of dissatisfaction there came worse news. “The Electric Union says that the deficit is again above 1,200 megawatts today,” warned the driver of a Lada with a faded red color due to the passage of time and the lack of retouching. With that figure, very similar to that of recent weeks, those who were waiting to buy fuel understood what would happen. “We know when the blackout began but not when it will end,” said another who had pushed, along with his son, the old familiar Moskvitch until he was in line. continue reading

Every Cuban can recite by heart the names of the most important thermoelectric plants in the country

An improvised workshop on boilers, generators and the generation capacity of the National Energy System then began. Every Cuban can recite by heart the names of the most important thermoelectric plants in the country and predict what impact a hundred kilowatts will have on the already very high national deficit. The people have passed an accelerated course in turbines, valves, fuel transfer from ships, generating plants and consumption during peak hours. All, without exception, have graduated as electrical engineers, obliged more by necessity than by vocation.

Above the heads of the improvised gathering on Infanta Street, the blue sky barely had a few clouds this morning. “There is no smoke from the patanas, so today they have not been able to turn them on either,” concluded one of the drivers, pointing up. The patanas — Turkish floating power plants — anchored in Havana Bay, have been able to operate only at night during the last few days due to the lack of fuel to stay on all day. “Last night the noise was deafening throughout Luyanó,” said another frustrated customer, who decided to sit on the sidewalk waiting for the power to return. “So much noise for nothing,” he sighed.

A few meters away, the traffic light at the intersection with San Lázaro Avenue did not have electricity either, and cars ventured to cross without order or traffic police to direct them. The blackout also brings out a wild side of people, returns them in part to the caves, to those times when gas stations did not exist, thermoelectric plants were not even invented and fire was the only source of light that accompanied a human being in the middle of darkness.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba, Fewer Teachers and More Indoctrination in Schools / Iván García

Photo: From the ceremony for the start of the 2024-2025 school year in Santa Clara. Taken from Radio Sancti Spiritu

Iván García, Desde La Habana, 10 October 2024 — As always on the island, the official story is far removed from reality. A secondary school methodologist in a Havana municipality says that in meetings with senior officials from the Ministry of Education, political slogans predominated in an attempt to camouflage the disaster in the planning of the 2024-2025 school year.

“Whatever our level of seniority, we Cuban civil servants are manipulated by the communist party, which tells us what has to be done. It’s all a stage and we are the actors. At first you try to rebel. But then you see that you can’t change anything. You have two options: either you bend to the system or the system devours you. I chose to bend. Colouring reality, telling lies and looking for ways to make a profit from my position. I give informal help sessions, and charge 400 pesos for each class. It’s unethical, but most teachers do it.”

In the opinion of the methodologist, Education Minister Naima Trujillo Barreto, “is an official with dyed blonde hair who, when the directors complain, appeals to revolutionary principles, to creativity and sticking her ear to the ground, the same discourse as Díaz-Canel and his entourage. She, like her comrades in the party, must be told what they want to hear. At that meeting, problems were downplayed. Statistics on the teacher shortage, the number of schools repaired and the narrative that the so-called Third Improvement of the Education System is going well was sold to the public.”

On Tuesday 27 August, the minister and her court attended the Round Table, a doctrinaire programme of political fiction that distorts the harsh reality faced by Cubans. In front of the television cameras, Trujillo Barreto pointed out that a tour of the country had identified many problems that would be dealt with over the next few days, but “there is a lot of commitment and deep interpretation of all the issues worked on in the national seminars. Many people are working hard in the territories and are committed to ensuring that the course is as successful as we can make it,” said the minister to the flattering smile of Randy Alonso, a submissive state journalist.

Among the priorities for the new school year, according to the regime’s aides-de-camp, is a programme of “cultural decolonisation, learning history (Castro’s version) as well as the development of language skills, innovation and digital culture”. Dennis, a computer teacher, smiles when asked about education in the country. “For some time now, government institutions have been competing to see who can tell the biggest lie. You continue reading

can’t talk about innovation and digital culture when schools in Cuba don’t have access to the internet, except for universities, and its use is rationed, and computer classes are suspended because the equipment is from the year dot and most of it is broken or doesn’t work”.

A pre-university teacher explains what the ‘cultural decolonisation and history learning’ programme is all about. “We were given a seminar as part of the course. The authorities consider that there is a regression in the teaching of history to children and young people. They claim that the use of social media, watching US serials and films, promotes a ‘hegemonic cultural discourse that distorts revolutionary values’. Imagine standing up in a classroom and talking such nonsense that nobody believes, when most students have plans or dreams of emigrating. They don’t see that it’s ridiculous.”

A primary school teacher comments that the education directors in his municipality, “proposed to us that among the activities to encourage love for the revolution and its leaders, we should organise visits to the local museum and the Fidel Castro Centre, which is located in Vedado. These people live in Narnia. They don’t know that the municipal museum has been closed for two years. And how am I going to get dozens of children to Vedado with no transport in the capital? Unless the Ministry of Education provides buses to take us there and back. These are things they say to make themselves look good to the government, but they know that they can’t be done in current conditions in the country.”

An education official notes that “the official version of the new school year is totally out of touch with reality. In the municipality where I work, only ten percent of the schools have been repaired. Almost all of them have closed toilets, almost none of them have water, and a large part of the school furniture is in a bad state. A very serious problem is the lack of teachers. According to the Ministry of Education, there is a shortage of 24,000 teachers on the island. It is probably many more than that. Half of the teachers do not have teaching qualifications. Some are professionals who are hired to teach at the primary, secondary and pre-university levels.”

“Others are ‘instant teachers,’ as they are called, because they are pulled out of their training in the second or third year of their degree. There are cases of teachers who finish a class shift in one school and have to walk a kilometre to another school to teach because there is no teacher for a certain subject. Due to the shortage, recruitment rules have been relaxed. I have had to rehire people who for various reasons have been expelled from education. In addition to this disaster, school supplies are not complete. We have not received the new books. They say they will arrive before the end of the year. They said the same thing last year and they never arrived,” says the official.

When you talk to relatives of pupils at all levels of education, the list of complaints is long. Reinier, the father of two primary school children, says that this year, his children are due a new uniform, “but they haven’t arrived at the shop. I have had to spend 5,000 pesos on four shirts and 10,000 pesos on four pairs of trousers, 15,000 pesos in total. And my salary as an accountant in a company is 6,400,000 pesos. Thanks to my brother who lives in Miami I was able to buy the uniforms. He also sent me tennis shoes, backpacks and school supplies. I can’t complain.”

But many parents in Cuba do not have relatives abroad. This is the case with Sonia, who admits to being extremely stressed. “My daughter is a pre-university student, I have no relatives in the US and I had to scrape together the money to buy her a mobile phone, a bag and a decent pair of trainers, because the boys made fun of her shoes in school and she had a complex. Not to mention that I have to give her money to buy something to eat when she gets out of school. And I have to pay 200 or 300 pesos for a tutor, because some teachers aren’t very good. Then the school has the nerve to ask parents for ‘help’, whether it’s detergent to clean the classrooms or let’s raise money and buy a fan so the kids don’t get so hot.”

But the issue that parents are most unhappy about is the regime’s intention to have students work for a fortnight in agriculture or fixing tiles and monuments. Diario Las Américas asked eleven families if they would allow their children to do it. All eleven answered No.

“It’s no longer enough for them to indoctrinate in schools, talking about Fidel and telling their version of history. Now they want to go back to the fateful schools in the countryside, where children were separated from their parents, working for free in agricultural work. That era is over. Times have changed,” said Maritza, a housewife and mother of two secondary school students.

In Cuba, education is supposed to be free. Luisa, grandmother of a grandson in fifth grade, thinks it’s quite expensive. “What with buying two uniforms, a pair of tennis shoes, a backpack, a lunch box, pencils, notebooks and pens, I’ve already spent 250 dollars. In a country where there is nothing, students want to go to school in Adidas or Nike tennis shoes. The schools look like catwalks. Luckily my daughter, my grandson’s mother, sends me dollars from the US for these expenses and to prepare good snacks for him.”

A pesar de tener un nivel de vida un poco mejor, Luisa reconoce que es muy deprimente la vida actual de los cubanos. “En los barrios apenas ves muchachos jugando en las calles. Y han aumentado los niños, como mi nieto, que sus madres han emigrado y son cuidados por sus abuelos». Dentro de un tiempo, los progenitores sacarán del país a sus hijos. Y en Cuba solo quedarán los más viejos.

Despite having a slightly better standard of living, Luisa acknowledges that life in Cuba today is very depressing. “In the neighbourhoods, you hardly see any children playing in the streets. And there are more children, like my grandson, whose mothers have emigrated and who are cared for by their grandparents. In time, parents will take their children out of the country. And only the old people will remain in Cuba.

Translated by GH

Cuba’s Record Number of 226 Graduates in Communication Will Revive the ‘Battle of Ideas’

The Cuban regime needs to reinforce its news media, diminished by emigration

This is not the first time that the Cuban government has placed its hopes on young professionals / UH

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2024 — In 2020, when the Communication Law that came into force this month was a remote objective of the Cuban legislature, the 226 young people who graduated this Friday had just entered the Faculty of Communication of the University of Havana. Four years later, they have graduated and are given a mission: to be “protagonists for the integral transformation of the press” and the “implementation” of the new law.

The recent graduates will be sent to official media and institutions decimated by the migratory exodus and the march in search of more lucrative jobs, generally in MSMEs. Cubadebate and Granma have given abundant signals about this crisis and have been launching recruitment campaigns for years. They now have put their hopes on the new batch, who must complete two to three years of social service.

The university graduates in Information Sciences are prepared to be librarians and archive managers. Journalism and Communication graduates will take up careers where indoctrination and “political-ideological preparation” play a primary role. In fact, to further guarantee the loyalty of the candidates, women who aspire to be journalists will have to go through military service, a requirement that already exists for men.

They are a “generation,” emphasized Televisión Cubana, who gave importance to becoming “integral vanguards”

They are a “generation,” emphasized Televisión Cubana, who gave importance to becoming “integral vanguards”; that is, who stood out for their political fervor as well as their academic achievement. This “effort” was recognized at the ceremony. It is, in addition, the “largest graduating continue reading

class,” not only for the year but also in the history of the Faculty of Communication.

The ceremony was held in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana and was chaired by the Dean of the Faculty, Ariel Terrero, and the President of the Institute of Information and Social Communication, Alfonso Noya. Noya’s presence is significant, since the entity he directs, recently created, emerged after the dissolution of the stagnant Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).

The ICRT, once all-powerful, had the last word on all the content that passed through Cuban Television and responded directly to the Communist Party. It was current Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel who eliminated it, in August 2021, and gave the new Institute the task of “conducting and controlling the Social Communication Policy of the State and the Cuban Government”

A month earlier, the ICRT had failed to contain the impact of the 11 July 2021 protests, and an official journalist, Ana Teresa Badía, had been one of the voices of the regime in pointing out the fiasco. “It could be repeated painfully on July 11 if the ICRT does not communicate better, and I say this with tremendous pain, but it is the truth, and not telling the truth would be an dishonest act on my part,” she warned at the time.

Another note of loyalty to the regime was the presentation of singer Annie Garcés

Along with the head of the Ministry of Truth – the sinister epithet, based on George Orwell’s novel 1984, which not a few Cubans then gave to the Institute – there were several senior officials of the Party. Among them were Liuba Moreno, an official of the Ideological Department, and Liliana Mateu, general secretary of the Party at the University. Another note of loyalty to the regime was the presentation of the singer Annie Garcés, author of countless propaganda pieces and praise for the regime.

Terrero, who gave a final speech, told the students that the panorama is “challenging,” and we must “honor our country” by being useful to the official press. Some students have already done so since they graduated in this career. Several presenters of the propaganda program Con Filo, in addition to the members of several provincial newsrooms, worked there as students.

It is not the first time that the Cuban Government has put its hopes on young professionals, soldiers in the “Battle of Ideas.” The brigades of art instructors, social workers and emerging teachers, today diminished and inactive, have a common factor: high ideological demand and poor education. Lacking experience and preparation, and burdened by indoctrination, many ended up deserting or leaving Cuba.

The new journalists and communicators begin their working life, in addition, with an assigned enemy: the independent press. However, the new Communication Law barely affects that independent press, whose work is illegal in a country that does not recognize basic freedoms. It is already penalized by previous laws, including the Constitution.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Cienfuegos’ Imago Shopping Center Does Not Even Have Water

Shelves are empty at the hard-currency stores managed by the military-run CIMEX corporation.

The Imago Shopping Center is yet another example of the failure of Cuba’s hard-currency stores. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 9 October 2024 — “I’m on my break now. I came here hoping to buy a beverage of some kind as a pick-me-up but the staff at Cafe Cubita told me they don’t even have drinking water,” complains Laura, an intensive care doctor at the Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital, who has had nothing to eat or drink for the last three hours of her very strenuous shift.

The Imago Shopping Center, located on Fifth of September Avenue, sits in a prime location, ideal for attracting customers. Nevertheless, it suffers from a problem common to these stores: a widespread shortage of merchandise.

Initially set up to sell home appliances and electrical equipment, MLC* stores were supposed to generate income for the government in the form of hard currency, which had been flowing to Panama and Mexico along with the mules who travelled there en masse in order to buy consumer goods for resale on the island. Two years later, in the middle of the pandemic, the regime decided to broaden their scope to include groceries and cleaning supplies. The decision generated so much public outrage that, among the demands of the San Isidro Movement, was the elimination of this policy.

“The ones in charge are not interested in making money. They have to be totally incompetent to keep running things like this”

The stores are managed by CIMEX and TRD, retail conglomerates run by GAESA, a business consortium under the control of the Cuban military. According to signatories to a petition demanding their closure, the emergence of MLCs has led to segregation and exclusion due to their prohibitively high prices. The stores also require customers to pay for continue reading

merchandise with a currency to which not everyone had access. The former economics minister — the recently fired Alejandro Gil Fernández — publicly claimed that, while not desirable, the situation was necessary to solve the island’s hard-currency crisis, that it would curb inflation and that it would be temporary. As it turns out, the stores have lasted longer than Gil Fernández’ term in office, though they are no longer a solution even for those with the deepest pockets.

“It’s hard to believe they can’t even sell you a sandwich,” continues Laura. “The ones in charge are not interested in making money. They have to be totally incompetent to keep running things like this.” She notes that customer service is also bad, that the air conditioning system is not working properly — allowing the stifling hot air from the street to enter the building through the front doors — and that the cafe’s level of cleanliness leaves much to be desired.

“It’s outrageous that there’s no service at all in this place and yet they pay employees for giving customers poor service, which is all they do,” she complains. The tables and chairs at the cafe’s front door are occupied by people passing through, who sit there for a few minutes to consume items they have bought someplace else.

People sit at the center’s outdoor tables, eating food they have bought elsewhere. / 14ymedio

The cafe is not the only business in terminal condition. Inside the retail complex, which is managed by CIMEX, is a business called El Rápido. A sign on the door announces it is “open 24 hours” but, paradoxically, it is closed to the public.

“When my grandson saw a game table, he wanted to go in of course. I had to explain to him that, in reality, you can’t go in because there’s nothing to buy,” says Gustavo, a resident of Palmira who is passing through the city. “He then asked me if the workers there were liars. What was I supposed to say?” he asks.

To top it off, Gustavo says he saw one of the cafe’s employees sitting on a of a chair outside the cafe selling packs of cigarettes to an acquaintance. “Who knows how many businesses here force their workers to sell things ’under the table’ because they cannot survive on the wages they’re being paid. It’s a shame the place is so neglected, that it’s run by a company that doesn’t provide the necessary resources to keep it operating,” he says.

One of the few places that does seem to be doing well is a store that sells jams, groceries and even meats. The line of customers outside gives the impression that, finally, here is a place with things to sell when, it fact, it is the store’s small size that explains the artificially large crowd size.

“Everything is crammed into a few square meters in a very unattractive way and the prices are the same as in most stores of this type. Then there is the rudeness of the employees. They act as though they’re doing us a favor rather just doing their job,” says Diana, a nursing student.

In terms of customer service, her experience could not have been worse. “I had to leave the line several times because the woman in charge of the bag check supposedly had to step out for a moment. She took so long that a line formed, with people waiting just to pick up their things or put them away,” complains Diana. “Unfortunately, it seems mistreating customers is the common denominator in all these places, with inefficiency being the main cause of all the erratic behavior. It shows a total lack of respect for the consumer who, to add insult to injury, is paying very high prices for their merchandise.”

A line outside the only business that has things to sell gives the impression that it is doing well when, in fact, it is only an indication of the store’s small size. / 14ymedio

Furthermore, no one understands why, if this store has food and drinks to sell, the center’s food service establishments lack provisions. “Why doesn’t CIMEX guarantee them a stable supply of products to boost sales and take advantage of the influx of customers?” asks one of them.

One of the few places that seems to be doing well is a store that sells jams, groceries and even meats. The line of customers outside gives the impression that, finally, here is a place with things to sell when, in fact, it is the store’s small size that explains the artificially large crowd size.

When price controls on six essential products took effect in July, thousands of Cubans raised their voices to ask a question that as truthful as it was ironic: “Why didn’t they also cap prices at the MLC stores?” The answer was obvious, and it is not just about who owns these stores. It is because their shelves are empty.

*Translator’s note: Spanish-language abbreviation for “moneda libremente convertible,” or freely convertible currency, typically dollars and euros.

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The ‘Amarillos’ Have Emigrated, Making Transport Even More Complicated in Camajuaní

“You can spend an hour here without a single car passing,” says Ana, who studies medicine in Santa Clara / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní, 9 October 2024 — It’s six in the morning, and at the bus stop in front of the Camajuaní Terminal – one of the busiest, next to that of the extinct Maceo cinema – there is no room for one more person. It has been like this for years, but the transport crisis raises the level of burden a little more every day. As the sun advances, the environment heats up.

The place has its characteristic smell – a mixture of urine, excrement and rotten garbage – but those who have to pass through there daily have lost, or almost lost, their sensitivity. The stop is one of the favorite corners for beggars to defecate, and there is no shortage of night owls far from home, who also arrive to take care of their needs.

At eight, when the sun begins to burn – there is no truce even in the last months of the year – those who can do so crowd under the small roof of the shelter to escape from the heat or, these days, from the rain. Those who can’t enter find another strategic point – a nearby tree, which will complicate the race to get on the bus, if it happens to arrive.

Those who can’t enter the shelter find another strategic point – a nearby tree, which will complicate the race to get on the bus / 14ymedio

There is no shortage of solitary “botellerros” — ‘hitchhikers’ — doctors who display their white coats, pregnant women and the elderly are considered entitled. They prefer to try their luck a few meters beyond the crowd, in case the car of an acquaintance takes pity on them. Few brake, because as soon as someone is picked up, four or five other people will struggle to enter the vehicle, sometimes without the driver’s consent. continue reading

The bus stop is on Independencia Street, which the people of Camajuaní still call – as in the 19th century – Real Street. Officially, the avenue is only a section of the circuit that connects Santa Clara with Camajuaní, Remedios, Caibarién and the Cayería Norte, a tourist corridor where the white buses of the State Gaviota never stop, knowing the situation.

When a mandatory stop is made, tourists look out curiously through the dark windows. The cameras rise behind the glass, and from the stop you can almost hear the click: Cuban poverty is also a tourist attraction.

From the Maceo cinema – where the other important artery of the town, General Naya, ends – to the terminal, a small hill descends, which allows travelers to see the red silhouette of a Transmetro bus from afar. Everyone tenses their muscles. It’s time to run. A frequent strategy of drivers is to stop a few meters beyond the stop. The crowd races, and the line forms in order of agility. There is no shortage of blows, elbows, pushes.

When there is no luck, the bus passes by and the travelers, between looks and expressions of absolute despair, observe how it passes the cemetery towards Santa Clara. They will try again.

In the group there are all kinds of people, from students who travel daily to the Central University of Las Villas – just over 20 kilometers from the town – to farmers who live in Santa Fe, Carmita, Vega Alta, Los Paragüitas or the University neighborhood. For many, these names are their daily stations of the cross.

Few brake, because as soon as someone is picked up, four or five other people will struggle to get in the car / 14ymedio

“You can spend an hour here without a single car passing,” says Ana, who studies medicine in Santa Clara. For her, completing the stretch to the ring road of the provincial capital is just the beginning. Then she will have to figure out how to get to the school, another overwhelming segment of the journey. With a little luck, the bus will arrive at the hospital area, but that will not completely solve her problem.

“Things have become very difficult. Many days I don’t get to my classes on time,” she says. Is it better to get a bed in a dorm? Ana thinks – like hundreds of Camajuaní students – that it’s not. The terrible state of the residence, the bad food and the difficult living conditions make it preferable to return home every day, despite the transport situation. Sometimes, she points out, she has to take a taxi to return, and she must prepare to spend.

Many travelers miss the “amarillos” — the “yellows” — individuals in yellow vests — the official “fishermen” of buses and State cars, who flagged down the drivers and forced them to stop.* Their work was far from ideal, since many were lazy and easily distracted by talking to acquaintances without spending time watching the traffic. But they did something. Their absence is the umpteenth effect of the migratory exodus and the search for other jobs, as they have apparently left the country in droves.

For Érika, a Camajuaní nurse employed in Santa Clara, what bothers her most about the situation is not only the wait but also the effect of the crisis on her pocketbook. “With current rates, I sometimes spend more than half of my salary on transportation. I’ve thought about quitting work,” she says. Her daily tour involves getting up before dawn and waiting at the stop, where “it’s a miracle to get a place on the first try.”

Not infrequently the shared ride becomes an “everyone for himself” event, even among acquaintances. It happened recently, Ana says, when the father of a friend – who works at the Party School and has, of course, a car – stopped to pick her up. “We had to leave a colleague behind because there was no room for anyone else,” she says.

The Camajuaní stop – which still has very expensive taxis and electric tricycles outside – is just one station on the arduous path of travelers, perhaps not even the worst. The Santa Clara Los Flamboyanes stop in the hospital area is more crowded, or the demolished intermunicipal terminal, which for more than a year has not seen the emblematic Girón circulating that connected both localities. At night, the wrecked bus had a cabaret name: the Queen of the Night.

Now, each trip translates into numbers: 150 pesos if it is done in a private truck, 250 to Caibarién; 20 pesos in state buses; and 500 pesos if a private vehicle is boarded, a figure that can be doubled if you go to the end of the Caibarien line. It doesn’t matter how much money the traveler has in his pocket: the bill, at the end of the month, doesn’t leave much.

*Translator’s note: It is (or was) supposedly mandatory for government vehicles to stop and fill empty seats, and this was enforced by the ‘amarillos’ in their yellow vests.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Sugar Crisis in Cuba: Hard To Find, Expensive and Puts ‘MSMEs’ out of Business

A pound of sugar sells for up to 500 pesos in private stores

A pound of sugar sells for 400 pesos in an ‘MSME’ (private store) at 10 de Octubre and Santa Catalina, in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2024 — Sugar is once again scarce in Cuba. Its distribution in the rationed market has delays of months and has not reached all the provinces. A small amount can be obtained in private stores for up to 500 pesos a pound.

Thus, the popular phrase that shows the traditional importance of this product for the Island – “without sugar there is no country” – sounds like a macabre joke. Roberto, a resident of Santiago de Cuba, tells 14ymedio, “Here we put sugar in everything, even if it’s not healthy. When you don’t have anything to eat, you can put it on bread or prepare a glass of sugar water.”

However, obtaining it in the current crisis is not easy. “Where I live, for example, you can’t find it. You have to look somewhere else,” he says. After making a pilgrimage through the city, Roberto found a pound of sugar at 400 pesos: “Very expensive.”

The shortage has repercussions not only for consumers, but also for small businesses.

“The candy store in our neighborhood has not been able to reopen because of the high price of sugar”

Maribel, a resident of Nuevo Vedado, in Havana, witnessed a few weeks ago the closure of a private business in her neighborhood due to lack of sugar: “The candy store in our neighborhood has not been able to reopen because continue reading

of the high price of sugar. It was a MSME [private store], but it is already in liquidation. It’s a shame, because its owner, a woman in her 50s, employed at least two young people in the area who now have no income.”

According to the habanera, “people who complained about how expensive the sweets were in that MSME now sigh when they pass by, because it was the only pastry, cake and cupcake business for several blocks around.”

On social networks, Internet users also ask desperately if someone is selling the product at affordable prices, either for the children’s snack or to make a dessert that appeases hunger. “I’ve been trying to find sugar for days, whether white or brown. In the MSMEs near home they sell a kilogram for 950 pesos,” says a user on Facebook, who nostalgically remembers “the country of sugar cane, in the times when even a milordo (sweetened water) was often breakfast, snack and dessert.”

In addition to the high prices, there are failures in distribution through the rationed market, which in recent months has not been fully stocked. In fact, some provinces received barely a part of the food that makes up the subsidized basic basket.

In addition to the high prices are the failures in distribution through the rationed market, which in recent months has not been fully stocked

A kilogram of sugar is now more than two dollars on some Internet sites that sell products to emigrants for their relatives on the Island. At the informal exchange rate, the price is equivalent to 350 pesos a pound. With that, Maribel says, it was impossible for the candy store in her neighborhood to stay on its feet: “The lack of sugar buried it.”

A similar disappearance of the product was reported by 14ymedio in November last year. The emblematic Coppelia ice cream parlor, in the heart of El Vedado in Havana, closed because there was no “milk or sugar” in the factory that supplies it.

The natural medicine industry has also been a victim of the collapse of sugarcane production. Among the problems for generating these medications is not just a lack of some plants. Up to 15 imported raw materials are needed, in addition to alcohol – to extract the active metabolites of plants – and sugar, basic for the production of syrups.

Likewise, Cuban rum makers fear that this year the production of the drink will be diminished by the failure of last season’s harvest and the foreseeable fiasco of the current one. Executives of the export brands – Havana Club, Ron Santiago and Ron Vigía – point out that “the blow is felt” in the industry because of the shortage of sugar.”

Now Cuba has been forced to import much of the sugar needed for the population and is unable to comply with export contracts

Traditionally, Cuba consumed 700,000 tons of sugar and exported the rest, but with current production, the panorama has changed radically. Now Cuba has been forced to import much of the sugar it needs for its population and is unable to comply with export contracts.

Since at least 2020, each sugar harvest carried out on the Island is listed as the worst of the last 100 years. The amount projected for 2024-2025 is not yet known, but the authorities expect production to exceed the 350,000 tons of sugar obtained in 2023, a figure barely greater than half of what was produced in the same period (600,000 tons) by the Republic of Mauritius, an island of 2,040 square kilometers east of Africa that is 50 times smaller than Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Sends 23 Cuban Doctors to a Hospital Still Under Construction

Image of the back of the community hospital of Vícam Switch, in Sonora / Facebook/ Meganoticias Sur de Sonora

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 8 October 8, 2024 — A group of 23 Cuban doctors have been providing care since October 2 in a half-finished hospital in the municipality of Guaymas, state of Sonora (Mexico). At the same time as the consultations, the doctors have to endure the sounds of construction, and a pharmacy that provides an incomplete catalog of medications. A broken promise is behind the work, for which 26,014,316 dollars were invested, designed to serve 47,000 inhabitants of the Yaqui tribe, an indigenous community in the region.

The Government of Mexico, under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, granted a gift to Cuba with the hiring of doctors. At first it was said that they would be sent to the area of the Montaña de Guerrero, but in the eagerness to locate the Cuban specialists, against whom the national union and the opposition have raised their voices, they have been placed in hospitals in rural areas, and now even in clinics under construction, such as the one in the Yaqui area.

Several workers are observed in the background of the community hospital of Vícam Switch, in Sonora / Facebook / Meganoticias Sur de Sonora

“Governor Alfonso Durazo promised that the hospital would be finished in September. In addition, it would have an operating room and 28 beds,” a source told 14ymedio. Cuban doctors, along with nine Mexican doctors, offer consultations in internal medicine, ophthalmology, ear nose and throat diseases, pediatrics and gynecology, in addition to traditional medicine, according to Alejandro Burboa Luzanilla, director of the medical unit. continue reading

Consultations and other services are done while the hospital is being built, but in the media, the authorities show a different reality. “Everything has been done halfway. Smiling authorities appear in the videos, but everything is a facade,” adds the official.

The project includes two operating rooms, 30 beds, an emergency room, a shelter, pharmacy, X-rays and laboratory, but it does not advance at the pace that the authorities would like. “There are medications in the pharmacy, but some of the shelves are empty.” According to the hospital, the pharmacy has 98% of what is needed, including “antidiabetics, antidepressants and antibiotics.”

According to the official, the Yaquis must adapt to the Cubans, who “speak very fast and are little understood, although the Yaquis are grateful that they are in the region and are guided by the prescriptions they give them.” Official data indicate that in five days, doctors attended to more than 200 patients with diabetes, hypertension and digestive problems, even in the midst of the construction work.

Also, the Cuban specialists – the last ones arrived at the end of September – do not live near the hospital, as they should. “Apparently they still don’t have a house set up for them, so every day they are taken by official transport to cover the morning and afternoon shifts; there are no night shifts,” he said.

The authorities have assured that the work will be completed in December; in the meantime, the doctors will have to adapt and offer their services in the midst of the construction.

Regarding the per diem of Cuban doctors, at the beginning of October it was revealed that the Government of Mexico pays 5,188 dollars a month for salaries, transportation, food and lodging for each of the 3,101 specialists hired from Cuba to offer services in rural areas.

The governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo, in the community hospital of Vícam Switch / Facebook / Alfonso Durazo

This Tuesday, the arrival at the Imss-Bienestar unit of Tlaltenango, in the state of Zacatecas, of a geriatrician, gastroenterologist and family doctor was made official. Mayor Francisco Delgado Miramontes said that the specialists will begin to consult next week. The coordinator of the unit, Felipe Arreola Torres, said that with the arrival of the specialists, for the first time, it is guaranteed that there will be a doctor in each of the 484 health units.

Another group with 51 Cuban specialists was sent to the state of Hidalgo last Saturday, who were distributed to treat patients in 25 health units located in 16 municipalities of the state.

The arrival of these specialists is part of the agreement between the Government of Mexico and that of Cuba, through Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos S.A. de C.V., a Cuban company internationally accused of human trafficking. For the 610 Cuban doctors sent between July 2022 and 2023, it pocketed 23,227,156 euros.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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After Two Months at 320 Cuban Pesos, the Dollar Begins To Rise on the Informal Market

Among the causes of the momentary exchange rate paralysis are the “disincentives to the growth of imports from the private sector

Informal currency purchase stands at the La Cuevita market, in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, October 11, 2024 — The exchange rate from the peso to the dollar on the informal market has set a record of stability during September and the first days of October. The Observatory of Coins and Finance of Cuba (OMFi), directed by the Cuban economist residing in Colombia, Pavel Vidal, states that the dollar was at 320 pesos for 59 days in a row, an unprecedented duration since this type of operation was recorded.

This Saturday will be a week since the exchange rate began to rise, very slowly, first to 322 and, from this Wednesday, to 323 pesos per dollar. The OMFi is, however, cautious, and although it contemplates another increase, the forecast is more discreet, with 326 to 339 pesos per dollar, an increase of between 1.5% and 4.4%.

“The signs of equilibrium persist,” says the report, which recalls, like the previous one, that it is not the first time there has been a pause. “However, this time a new mark of 59 days without variations is established, from August 4 to October 1, 2024. In 2021, the TRMI [exchange rate] had remained unchanged for 57 days, and in 2022 for 56 days.” The same as last month, the economist insists that periods of calm have always been preceded by others of instability. The dollar reached almost 400 pesos in May, to the point that the Government accused El Toque of manipulating the exchange rate with the aim of bringing it to 500 on July 11, to force a social explosion coinciding with the anniversary of the largest demonstrations against the Regime, in 2021. continue reading

The Government has approved several measures to put the brakes on foreign purchases by private individuals

Among the causes of the momentary paralysis of the exchange rate in the parallel market, the report mentions the “disincentives to the growth of imports for the private sector.” The Government has approved several measures that can stop foreign purchases by private companies, such as capping the prices of six products considered basic necessities, and greater control over the main activity of MSMEs, but there are also others announced that keep the sector on guard.

In December, the authorities announced that the tax on imports of raw materials would go up by 50% to promote national production, while purchases of finished products would be penalized in the same amount. Although for now the rule applies only to tobacco and alcohol – presumably because of the fear of scarcity that the changes would produce – private businesses are not calm.

The increase in persecution of cash operations – for going against the government’s electronic payments policy – also appears in the OMFi report, which states that there are Cubans moving to the cryptocurrency market, with data on the rapid increase in the differential between the peso and the USDT (a cryptocurrency also known as Tether).

The OMFi report comes in the context of the dramatic economic crisis affecting Cuba, including the collapse of tourism. According to the text, the number of international visitors decreased by 3.5% at the end of August, compared to 2023, and is only 52% of those who arrived in the same period of 2019. “We would have to go back to 2002 (after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York) to have an eighth month with these levels, nothing more and nothing less than 22 years ago,” it explains.

In addition, even more serious, the report indicates that the number of rooms has doubled on the Island since that moment, and the investment (in tourism) does not stop.

Furthermore, for the OMFi, the lack of fuel is evidence of “the persistent financial problems and reflects the limits of the compensation that can be expected from allied countries”

It also emphasizes the decisive importance of the lack of energy on the economy, not to mention the quality of life of citizens. The document doubts the possibilities of the solar parks that are being built, at least for the moment, since at the end of the year, at best, only about 400 megawatts (MW) will be available, an insufficient amount given the deficits of more than 1,000 MW of the last month.

Furthermore, for the OMFi, the lack of fuel is evidence of “the persistent financial problems and reflects the limits of the compensation that can be expected from allied countries.”

The accumulated annual inflation, which is officially more than 19%, is barely 1.1% lower than for the same period in 2023, which does not detract from the severity of the panorama. “Prices grow less rapidly, but on an already very high level, along with incomes that remain lagging behind for a considerable part of the population.”

The report also reviews the negative fiscal deficit data (18% of GDP), the high issuance of currency (an error, according to most economists in an inflationary panorama), the fall in the value of the peso and a reduction in imports that threatens to restrict the precarious supply. In addition, the section closes with a revealing fact: the United States has surpassed Spain as a supplier to Cuba and is now second, behind China.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Take Out Their Charcoal Stoves, Relics of the Special Period

Power cuts and fuel shortages make life more miserable for families every day

Demand for the stoves has skyrocketed, even on online sales sites / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Mercedes García, Sancti Spiritus, 6 Ocotber 2024 — It is nighttime and – it is almost a truism when it comes to Cuba – there is a blackout. If a family wants to eat early, it is best to get going before the sun goes down. Those lucky enough to have an open patio will have less work to do and the stench of smoke and soot will not permeate the walls of the house. Those who are not lucky enough will have to set up the stove, with all the fanfare that it brings, on the counter. And resign themselves.

The design may vary – as the “veterans” of the Special Period know well, they were cautious and never got rid of them – but the principle is the same: a metal plate on the bottom or slab to contain the embers; an iron support; the stove itself, with its grate so that the fire can breathe; and the coal, true black gold now that there is no fuel.

It takes a lot of patience and practice not to burn yourself. A minimum of alcohol or gasoline is needed to light the embers, and if there are no matches, the procedure is even more cumbersome. At home, children stare at the flames in a daze. The flames crackle in the darkness under the cauldron. For adults, overwhelmed by the heat twice over – the tropical heat and that of the stove – it is a sad reminder that, in Cuba, even misery is recycled.

It takes a lot of patience and training to not burn yourself

Cooking with charcoal is one of the most degrading methods for Cuban families, not only because of the dirt and cumbersome process, but because it involves new expenses and more lines. The demand for stoves has skyrocketed, even on online sales sites. Not all homes have kept the iron utensils and there are young couples who are “initiating” themselves in the use of charcoal.

Pedro, a 32-year-old father in Sancti Spíritus, is desperately looking for a sack. When he went by bicycle to the place where he knew they were selling it, he found the gate closed and a sign: “There is a dog. And it bites.” He went closer, however, and saw another, smaller sign: “Tomorrow continue reading

afternoon.”

“I knocked on the door anyway to see if they would help me,” Pedro told 14ymedio. One of the employees opened the door. “We are closed,” he said, “and there is a line. When the coal arrives, people go nuts.” If he manages to catch it, it will cost him between 1,000 and 1,200 pesos a sack.

The charcoal they sell is of the third kind. On the international market, Cuba has made a good profit from its first-class marabou charcoal: it is used abroad for barbecues in the summer. Pedro has seen them on the internet: oval-shaped or rectangular smokers, in which juicy steaks and hamburgers are placed, meats that will never make it to his family’s cooker.

The design of each burner may vary, but the principle is the same. / 14ymedio

“Everyone here has rediscovered coal since the gas ran out,” he laments, bicycle in hand and heading to another post.

Pedro, at least, now has his stove. If he had to get a new one, it could cost up to 5,000 pesos. That was the price Ana, a housewife from Camagüey, paid for hers. Four twisted rebars serve as legs for the stand.

Towards the middle of the structure, a metal square collects the ashes and pieces that fall from the grill. He got a deep-bottomed burner, he says: “It can fit more coal.” Although that also has its drawbacks. It may increase the “power” of the cooking, but it will consume more wood.

Ana expects her grill, which is made of iron, to last longer than the modest aluminum burners that many Cubans are buying. They look shiny, but the strength and durability of the metal is not the same as older ones, she says. New ones without a stand cost around 1,800 pesos. They are not very deep either.

When it’s time to eat, Cuba is once again filled with small clouds of smoke in the courtyards. It is a time machine heading to the Special Period. The storage rooms, where for decades Cubans accumulated hundreds of bits of junk that they considered useless, are gradually emptied. The streetlights, the oil lamps, the little dynamo radios and the wood stoves return. And with them, sadness.

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In Four Years, Cuba Lost 62 Percent of Its Chickens and 72 Percent of Its Pigs

The Minister of Agriculture paints a much more dire picture than that of 2023, for which he still offers no solutions

The number of breeding pigs has increased from 96,000 to 26,000 in four years. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 October 2024 — Until very recently, the most recent catastrophic official data available on chicken egg production was for 2023. It was known that Cuba went from producing five million units in 2020 to 2.2 million in 2023. The intervention of the Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez Brito yesterday on television to explain the food situation on the Island shows that the well has no bottom. “Now, when we feed the mass that we have, 1,200,000 are produced, and at the moment it is less than 200,000,” he said, a figure consistent with the number of animals. Four years ago there were eight million hens in the country. Now there are only three, five million less.

The third example was rice. The minister said that there is capacity to plant some 200,000 hectares of the product. “But this year we have not surpassed the areas of specialized rice farms, which are approximately 60,000 hectares. It is very difficult to produce under these conditions,” he admitted.

These numbers could lead to the resignation of any political leader, but what economist Pedro Monreal predicted, moments before the start of State TV’s Roundtable program, happened. “The crisis began before the pandemic and agricultural policy has been unable to resolve it, but the absence of statistics for 2023, added to the usual low self-criticism of the ministry, seem to predict a new round of complaints, justifications and promises,” he wrote in X. His comments were illustrated by a spectacular graph of the food collapse since 2013 that indicates that only root vegetables maintain the level of that year, while the rest have been reduced, in some cases – such as citrus fruits – even by more than 75%. continue reading

Evolution of agricultural production in the last decade according to official data / Pedro Monreal

The economist was not wrong. Pérez Brito has no solution for the imminent food disaster affecting the country. He spoke of the tightening of the blockade*, which worsens access to financing, and an alleged international economic crisis to which he attributes higher prices for raw materials and transport. He also spoke of the fuel shortage – today people work on the Island with 10% less than before, he said – and what it entails, as well as the old machinery. He indicated that there is only 7% irrigation, and spoke about the aging of the workers, aggravated by the mass exodus that is reducing the population.

The minister then said that it was not a question of justifications, but of explaining the situation in order to find solutions, but he did not offer any solutions in the hour and a half of the program. Despite the mention of “offering more incentives to people to return to the countryside,” Pérez Brito did not make a single proposal for this nor did he point to the slightest change that the sector needs. On the contrary, he outlined all the mechanisms that exist and which – it is deduced – should be enough.

He pointed out that “institutionally, there are the necessary policies and legal norms that allow the advancement and organization of food production in the territories,” despite the stubbornness of the data he had presented and which he acknowledged when he said that “in 2024, most of the plans have not been fulfilled.” And although he pointed out that root vegetables – such as cassava and plantain – have better indicators, he was blunt: “We are not going to achieve what is needed.”

One of the objectives of the Minister of Agriculture’s presence was to talk about the agricultural census, which has been carried out since March and is now 66% complete. Inspectors have detected more than 100,000 irregularities, of which 60,000 are related to problems with improvements, at least 40% of which is having built houses on spaces that were previously dedicated to production. A few weeks ago the Government approved a law to legalize the existing homes – in view of the disaster that it would be to dismantle them – and to put a stop, in a decisive manner, to new illegalities in building.

The census has revealed that there are only 440,754 producers in the country – not enough to feed the island – of which 140,000 (32%) have less than one hectare, effectively for self-consumption, as the official pointed out.

The census has shown that there are only 440,754 producers in the country – not enough to feed the island – of which 140,000 (32%) have less than one hectare, effectively for self-consumption

Among the penalties, more than 9,600 usufruct leases have been cancelled due to non-compliance, contracts have been terminated and more than 172,000,000 pesos in fines have been applied. The minister assured that theft and illegal slaughter of cattle have a fundamental influence on production, although he did not provide data, and said that the greatest violations are the under-reporting of animals with regards to births, illegal sales, animals without markings and undocumented deaths or absences.

The discussion brought to light some other interesting data, such as the shortage of fertilizers after “four or five” years of no imports, except for the tobacco program or potatoes. As for rice, whose cultivation Pérez Brito discussed several times, there are two types of production on the Island: extensive, in rice fields and with all the technology – “today we have it very depressed” – and popular, which barely amounts to 36,000 hectares and, although it is mostly for self-consumption, “it can help.”

Pérez Brito spent time explaining to the TV audience the structure of the ministry and the number of companies and cooperatives that manage agricultural production, but interest in the program had already been lost due to the lack of proposals and the absence of the aforementioned incentives to attract people to the countryside. The end was the confirmation that, according to the authorities, everything is done by them.

“Our country has approved policies for land that no one else has, such as lending it free of charge for planting,” “We are granting cooperatives greater autonomy in their management,” “In Cuba, the destination of our production is guaranteed, but we have to produce more,” “We must continue to invest in the export of our production, so that this export can also finance the acquisition of inputs,” “We must continue working with foreign investment and collaborative projects, as well as linking with non-state forms of management.” This string of statements suggests that the country’s leaders do everything right and that the poor results are due to others.

*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

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