New Crisis of Castroism: Old Dust, New Mud / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

Jeovany Jiminez Vega, 21 March 2024 — The messes keep on coming for that scoundrel Diaz-Canel since he assumed his role as the dummy in the window and we can’t see any end to what looks like karma for some very bad past life. Little has changed in Cuba since the historic protests that in July 2021 [commonly referred to as ’11J’] shook more than fifty cities across the island; little has changed except that today we are hungrier, inflation has increased dramatically, we are much poorer and we suffer longer and longer blackouts; In other words, we live in a country that is exponentially more unhappy and insecure, going through the saddest moments of its history, for all of which last weekend tens of thousands of jaded Cubans had the patriotic idea of once again taking to the streets.

But unlike in 2021, these protests were accompanied by storm signals much more threatening for the dictatorship; this time, there was a more disturbing background noise accompanying them which, even though hidden, confirm the most fearsome nightmare of the regime: in addition to its usual perennial quagmires – perpetual shortages, the abysmal quality of all basic services including health, education, transportation and all communal services, followed by a long further list – today the dictatorship will have to deal for the first time, at least publicly, with the dark winds of disloyalty, a variable that Castroism never had to consider at their current level, not counting the Ochoa case – because it was generally understood that this was always in full knowledge of Fidel and Raul Castro, which cannot be interpreted as a real insubordination.

That’s how bad things are at the Biran estate [birthplace of the Castro brothers]. It so happens that during the last few weeks it has partially turned out that a group of officers of different ranks of the Cuban army were detained or are under investigation – including General Leopoldo Cintra Frias, ex-Minister of the Armed Forces and until now a historical stalwart of the regime – for having distributed, and communicated repeatedly through satellite phones capable of evading Big Brother’s control, which is extremely serious and in Castro’s jargon can only be understood as an act of high treason, something very serious and which may end up keeping the autocrats in Havana awake at night. continue reading

Of course, the official press, trying to cover up the scandal, rushed to deny the detention of the former minister, but the fact that a group of high-ranking officers, most of them active with various positions in the chain of command – with troops and weapons under direct command- are whispering behind the back of the hierarchy is something unprecedented that is already very relevant and serious, and cannot be concealed by the Castro establishment, above all because it clearly questions the leadership of the high command, calls into question the myth of blind obedience to its outdated ideals and leaves its allegedly infallible counterintelligence with its pants down.

This situation has a very simple human explanation. In a society where poverty is so deep-rooted, real privileges are reserved only for the high command and leaders of the upper echelons, while the middle-ranking military officers must make do with crumbs and chicken skin at the end of the month, which they must perceive as outrageous, even though this may seem a luxury in contrast with the even more appalling poverty of the common people. Well, now this unpredictable iceberg may have entered a collision course against this ship without a captain at the bow, which is drifting aimlessly, without leadership or port of destination.

Now, on the other hand, it cannot be a coincidence that just now the corruption scandal involving Alejandro Gil, former Minister of Economy along with dozens of minor figures is breaking out. This happens after several months of repeated public denunciations through dozens of alternative media – independent press and Cuban youtubers, hundreds of blogs and social networks – and that it is precisely now, just when those murky waters within the military officialdom are stirring, that Gil’s defenestration takes place?

What at another time could be taken as yet another of the cyclical purges of Castroism, the sacrifice of a typical scapegoat that seeks to focus on a nobody the anger of millions of Cubans subjected to bloody shock policies, today’s move must be read as an obvious tactic. So far so ugly for the photo, but fatally for Castroism, it is in the middle of this tasteless move that tens of thousands of Cubans, fed up with so much misery, hunger and blackouts decided to take to the streets in what were the largest demonstrations – but not the only ones – in Cuba since 2011.

This was not in the plans of the Biran clan and it definitely complicates the picture because it happened at the most inopportune moment, when those in Havana are breaking records of unpopularity and suffer a total discredit at the international level, when they can no longer find any creditor to swindle even under the ground, with an economy in absolute ruin and a literally chaotic social situation, all of which makes up what Rubiera [Cuban meteorologist, specialist in hurricanes] would have called a perfect storm for Castroism.

This is undoubtedly the most delicate and difficult moment for the dictatorship since the mass protests of 11J, to distract national and world attention and so hide the hottest potato on the table, a typical smokescreen that tries to cover up the unmentionable terror of the leadership in the face of the most serious evidence: that a part of its officialdom has conspired in something that clearly and from any angle smells like a plan for a coup d’état! !??

So far so ugly for the photo, but, fatally for Castroism, it is in the middle of this tasteless move that tens of thousands of Cubans, fed up with so much misery, hunger and blackouts decided to take to the streets in what were the largest demonstrations – but not the only ones – in Cuba since 2011. This was not in the plans of the Biran clan and it definitely complicates the picture because it happened at the most inopportune moment, when those in Havana are breaking records of unpopularity and are suffering a total discredit on the international level, when they can no longer find any creditor to swindle even under the ground, with an economy in absolute ruin and a literally chaotic social situation, all of which makes up what meteorologist Rubiera would have called a perfect storm for Castroism. This is undoubtedly the most delicate and difficult moment for the dictatorship since the mass protests of 11J.

It is at this point that we have to regret the absence of a cohesive opposition with a strong and convincing leadership, capable of effectively channeling popular anger in the face of so much injustice, with clear proposals, with a realistic previously announced action program, which, when the time comes, will take the flood of the people towards the reconquest of power, without improvisation but without hesitation, until this political mafia that today tries to silence us with a couple of pounds of rice and four bits of skin taken from some military unit, which is highly offensive and clearly a mockery by these immoral pieces of shit.

But if the regime has been good at anything, it has been at disuniting us and extinguishing public spirit. After subjecting several generations of millions of Cubans to the fiercest indoctrination, this is how they have us, asking for bread and light, as if freedom no longer calls for more than that. It hurt to hear that crowd shouting “electricity and food!” when if you save your breath and listen harder you can hear it shout “Liberty Damn it!!!!” or “Down with dictatorship!!!!!”

I know that this is all more complicated than it seems and that it is easier to write about it here than to shout it in the streets, but if after the brutal repression suffered on 11 July, my people dared to go out into the streets again with their faces uncovered to shout before the incredulous eyes of the repressors not only “electricity and food” but also “Freedom” and “Homeland and Life“, the world would realise the extent of our desperation.

This crowd of ragged people who took to the streets knows that more than a thousand political prisoners are today serving long sentences in Castro’s prisons, that among them the majority are 11 July prisoners – including dozens of minors and young people whose sentences exceed their own age – and they have not forgotten the unpunished beatings with which the “revolutionaries” – that is the bunch of assholes who, under the leadership of Diaz-Ratbag, repressed their own people – defended these same streets just in order to guard the Biran estate.

In the end, social engineering works and more than sixty years of terror have taken their toll on us; all that dust has produced this mud. In the absence of a civic front which sticks together and of a proposal to be taken up by society – which does not mean that such a proposal does not exist – we had to be satisfied with social catharsis, with walking through the streets putting our hearts and souls into it, in a cry which is just, but chaotic, lashing out like headless chickens and without precise objectives, without a hill or a center of power to conquer, without a concrete program for the future clutched in our fist to endorse our cry of anger with a proposal for a free country.

Instead we must endure in the midst of nausea that Diaz-Ratbag and his Umbertico Lopez planting their faces on TV to accuse imperialism and its “mercenaries” for the thousandth time as the cause of all this rage that again, at least for the time being, we will have to swallow.

Translated by GH 

The Children Are Baptized and One Week Later They Leave, Complains the Catholic Church in Cuba

The anointing of the sick is the only sacrament that is increasing, another reflection of the demographic situation on the island

The priests do not offer official figures for baptized people on the Island. / Reynaldo La O /Havana Times

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, July 24, 2024 — The Catholic priest Ariel Suárez, secretary of the Cuban Episcopal Conference – and, in practice, its spokesman – said during an interview in Spain that in a parish like his, the sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity in Havana, 300 children can be baptized every month. The figure is not impossible, although optimistic, in a country weighed down by migratory stampede and low birth rate, according to the religious authorities of several Cuban dioceses interviewed by 14ymedio. In the parishes of the most important cities of Matanzas – Varadero, Cárdenas and Matanzas – they are far from that number, according to a source from their bishopric: about 15 children a month in Cárdenas and about 20 per priest, if he has to attend several parishes.

In Camajuaní, where several years ago dozens of children were baptized every Saturday, the current number is between 4 or 6 children each month. A member of the diocesan administration of Santa Clara explains to this newspaper that it is normal for families “to baptize the children and then leave the country one week later.”

In Camajuaní, where several years ago dozens of children were baptized every Saturday, the current number is between 4 or 6 children every month

Apparently, he says, they believe that the ritual provides some kind of protection or luck during the trip, or they have the superstition that it will facilitate the exit procedures. As for the data offered by Suárez, he says, “it could be real for that parish, because it is a sanctuary in the middle of Central Havana, although it seems too high.” continue reading

“In each diocese there are sacramental statistics. They are done every year. It must be borne in mind that each parish in Cuba is very different. In the city of Santa Clara, for example, the number of baptisms in a sanctuary like Buenviaje or in the cathedral is not the same as in the churches of La Pastora and Carmen,” he explains.

The decline in rituals is not only for baptisms: “There are few births, fewer baptisms, a lot of emigration, fewer confirmations – another sacrament -and there are also fewer religious marriages,” he summarizes. There is only an abundance of what is known as the “anointing of the sick” – formerly called extreme unction – because the “old people are left behind.”

In the archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba – where mountain communities abound – a source in the archdiocese tells 14ymedio that priests do not usually compile monthly statistics, only an annual figure that he did not reveal. He admitted, of course, that it tends to decrease. “People are attending Church because they are desperate,” he explains. “Many of the baptisms are just a number.”

During his interview, Suárez sounded amazed that “after so many years, of a social system that promulgated atheism with such force” and given the current circumstances, baptisms continue to be held in Cuba. “The parents of those children are young,” he added, and “they do not have a Christian foundation,” but – despite the indoctrination of the regime – they do not look at the Catholic Church with “hostility or indifference.”

The priest said he was aware of the migratory crisis, in which “Cubans of all ages leave, not only young people. Of course, the departure of young people is felt more in a nation, because they are supposed to be the ones who have projects and dreams for the future of a country and of the Church itself,” he said.

“People are attending Church because they are desperate,” he explains. “Many of the baptisms are just a number”

In addition, he made it clear that the Church in Cuba considers itself “vulnerable,” and he listed what, in his opinion, it has to lose: the “small but significant” education centers, nursing homes and care spaces for the sick, the elderly and the alcoholics.

In a context of extreme coldness in Church-State relations, Suárez has become a spokesman for an increasingly lethargic Episcopal Conference. Cuban bishops have not published a joint document that contains criticism of the Government or descriptions of the country’s situation for months. Last April, Suárez – interviewed by the American network NBC – again reminded the authorities that the Church was ready to have a conversation about the freedom of political prisoners.

In the protests of last March 17 – and in the previous ones – Suárez said that the pain “turned into a scream,” which was “listened to” and “accepted” by “all the authorities of the country.” At least everyone has agreed to consider that the cry reflected anguish, reflected despair, and that it was obviously asking for a different situation from what was being experienced,” he said, referring to the demonstrations in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

A source from the archdiocese of Havana told this newspaper that what Suárez expressed “is a subtle message” that the bishops send to the regime to say that the Church can mediate “despite the sorrows.” However, he acknowledged that “at the diocesan level, the tension with the Party’s Religious Affairs Offices is worse than ever.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Sancti Spíritus Authorities Ramp Up the Pressure To Fill the Seats for the July 26 Ceremonies

Plaza de la Revolución Mayor General Serafín Sánchez Valdivia de Sancti Spíritus, this Wednesday / Escambray

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, July 24, 2024 — “Not a hand raised,” is how the attendees at a meeting of an entity linked to the Ministry of Agriculture in the city of Sancti Spíritus reacted on Monday when its directors inquired about the willingness to participate in the official event on July 26. The justifications for evading the commitment ranged from the obligation to care for children and the elderly to anxiety over the Oropouche virus.

“We were summoned to the auditorium to organize everything this Friday,” an employee who prefers to remain anonymous tells 14ymedio. “They told us that our company had been assigned ten chairs for the event, and they read us some organizational details, such as that you have to be in the Plaza [Mayor General Serafín Sánchez Valdivia] at one in the morning, and you can’t carry anything in your hands – no bags, no backpacks or water bottles.”

After reading the requirements, the managers of the company inquired about the willingness of the workers to attend, but the first response was “silence, not a sound; people were just looking at the floor.” The Ministry worker explains that the leaders of the Communist Party and the Union then began to summon the employees one by one, but they all had a justification for not participating.

“There are people who have small children and can’t leave them alone, and I also have co-workers who care for elderly parents and, although they have family who can help, can’t come that early in the morning,” he tells this newspaper. “Others said they had just gotten over Covid or Oropouche and can’t be outside at dawn.” continue reading

“Others said they had just gotten over Covid or Oropouche and can’t be outside at dawn”

The practice of going to the celebration very early, when the sun is just coming up, is the official act of remembrance for the assault on the Moncada barracks, on 26 July 1953. This was encouraged by Raúl Castro after assuming power in August 2006, when the convalescence of his brother, Fidel Castro, was announced. The rigors of the summer heat and the advanced age of many of the officials participating in the commemoration influenced that decision.

Over the years, the time to arrive has also been advanced due to the security protocols that surround an event attended by the highest leaders of the Communist Party, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament. After the massive popular protests of 11 July 2021, those controls became stricter, and the presence of metal detectors at access points has also been added.

The concept of the event has also changed significantly over time. The massive standing rallies have given way to a smaller number of seated audiences. State entities, educational centers and the military sector receive quotas to join the commemoration, with the prior commitment of each participant, and transport is included if they live far away and are on the list when they arrive.

“There will be a reserve group on the library staircase in case some of those who said they were coming don’t show up,” says a cooperative member from the Taguasco area who is among those summoned in that municipality. “There is a lot of discomfort around here, and people have not shown too much enthusiasm about signing up to go,” he admits.

“There is talk of about farm-by-farm inspections to find out what has happened with the crops.”

The annoyance of the Taguasco farmers, as in the rest of the province, comes from the behavior of the state-owned Acopio, which in recent weeks has lowered the purchase price for several agricultural products. Among the most affected are corn, pumpkin and sweet potato, whose deliveries to the State have also fallen significantly. “There is talk of farm-by-farm inspections to find out what has happened to the crops,” he says.

However, farmers are among those who will attend the commemoration, and “beginning at midnight they must meet at a certain point to get a ride.” A transport organized by the cooperative will allow them to go to Sancti Spíritus and “visit the family after it’s all over.” With the critical situation that transport is experiencing due to the lack of fuel, any ride “is welcome,” but he does not have many expectations.

The farmer doesn’t expect the speakers to say anything important about the economy. For decades, the July 26 celebration was the stage chosen by Fidel Castro to communicate the measures with the greatest impact on Cuban society, such as the dollarization of the economy in 1993. In the midst of the current crisis and the mass exodus, however, no surprises are expected next Friday in Sancti Spíritus.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Health and Education Workers Are Among the Lowest Paid in Cuba

The private sector is growing to the detriment of state-owned companies, which have ceased to be the economic engine

Education is the fourth lowest paid sector on the Island, at just 3,932 pesos per month / Invasor

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, July 24, 2024 — Despite the obstinacy of the authorities in qualifying the socialist enterprise as the “main mover of the Cuban economy,” the data are stubborn: the only sector in which employment is growing is the private sector. In 2023, there were 13% fewer public workers than in 2020 (from 3,094,300 to 2,688,400), while in the non-state sector there were 4.4% more (from 1,549,300 to 1,618,500). In total, the workforce decreased by 7.2% in the last three years, from a total of 4,643,700 workers to 4,306,900.

The improvement is attributable to the MSMEs, since cooperatives decrease by 7.5%, and within the private businesses, self-employment also decreased, representing almost half, which is a 4% decrease compared to four years ago. The workers of these companies in 2023 numbered a little more than 548,000, which was the year they increased by 16%, three percentage points more than for 2021 and 2022.

The data, published in the employment and wages section of the 2023 Yearbook of the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), make it clear that the loss of workers in the state sector is much higher than the decrease in the number of people who work in Cuba. And it is not surprising if we look at the average monthly salaries, which are dramatic. continue reading

In 2023, there were 13% fewer public workers than in 2020 (from 3,094,300 to 2,688,400)

In 2023, a Cuban worker earned an average of 4,648 pesos a month, less than what three kilos of powdered milk costs today with the capped prices, or seven kilos of chicken meat. Cuban economist Omar Everleny Pérez estimated last March that the cost of a monthly shopping basket in Cuba, with a selection of 17 basic products in moderate quantities at the prices recorded by ONEI, was around 10,000 pesos.

The situation is more serious if you take into account that the data include joint ventures, where workers earn much more than in state-owned companies. This is, in all likelihood, one of the factors that pushes wages up the most if it is distinguished by sectors. The highest is that of mines and quarries, which pay 7,717 pesos on average. Considering that many of these employees earn more through the joint venture with Canadian Sherritt, it is to be expected that others will not want to work for the State, where they would receive a miserable salary.

The second sector in the table (7,041 pesos), supply workers (water, gas and electricity) benefit – some of them – from being hired by the Cuban-Canadian Energas joint venture. As for electricity, the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) promises salaries of up to 9,000 and 12,000 pesos, confirmed by 14ymedio, during a job fair organized by the state company, desperate to hire staff to solve one of the most serious problems for the stability of the Government: the blackouts.

Next come construction employees (6,260 pesos), business and real estate services (6,102), financial negotiating (5,926), fishing (5,842) and science (5,739). We have to go through various other activities to reach the lower area of the table, which begins with health workers.

The situation is more serious if we take into account that the data include joint ventures, where workers earn much more than in state-owned companies

The most honored employment on the Island, with a recognized international prestige, pays tiny salaries, with an average of 4,222 pesos, which is incomprehensible even taking into account that the sector includes doctors, in addition to assistants and social services personnel. There are only four worst-paid activities: commerce (the leader, with 3,760 pesos per month), municipal (3,813), culture and sports (3,961) and the other jewel in the crown, education, the fourth worst-paid sector on the Island, with just 3,932 pesos, which buys little more than, for example, a single five-pound pork loin.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the staff of hotels and restaurants, in which so much money is invested, barely earn 4,564 pesos per month, although those who are in contact with foreign tourists live mostly from tips.

The demographic issue is not trivial either. By age, it is alarming to note that 50% of the total number of workers are in the 40 to 59 age group. These are 2,150,200 employees out of the 4,306,900 total, but to this are added those included in the group of ages 30 to 39, which are 23.7% (1,022,700). Meanwhile, young people (from 20 to 29) account for a small 15%, little more than those over 60 (10%). The remaining 1.3% is for the almost 40,000 young people aged 17 to 20, figures that confirm the aging of the Cuban workforce.

Consequently, public spending on pensions in 2023 amounted to 38,604,900,000 pesos, of which almost 37 billion were received for reasons of age, disability or death (95.7%), 7,000,000 for partial disability and 1,656,100,000 for maternity (4.3%).

Also noteworthy is the fact that the staff of hotels and restaurants, in which so much money is invested, barely earn 4,564 pesos a month

Despite the fall in population — last Friday the Government acknowledged a population of fewer than 10 million at the end of 2023 — the number of social security beneficiaries has increased by more than 5% compared to 2020. According to the Cuban demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos, who has carried out an independent study that lowers the Cuban population to 8.62 million people, between 2022 and 2023 alone, the Island lost 18% of its inhabitants. However, according to ONEI, there are 3% more pension beneficiaries, the umpteenth figure consistent with the migration of young people.

In addition, the workers who leave Cuba to look for decent wages must contribute to the maintenance of the 1.57 million pensioners of the Island, since the average amount of this benefit is only 2,075 pesos, barely enough for one kilo of detergent with the capped prices.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Writer Says He Now Has a More Poetic View of Life

“Life in Cuba is such that, if you have money, you virtually have no problems. But if you don’t have money, you’re screwed,” says the author.

Cuban author Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, interviewed in Havana / EFE

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Palop, Havana, July 13, 2024 — Cuban author Pedro Juan Gutiérrez explains in an interview that his anger is gone and he has entered a new, happier, more poetic stage as is evident in his new book, Mecánica Popular [Popular Mechanic].  Now 74-years-old, the author of  Trilogía sucia de La Habana [Dirty Havana Trilogy] and Animal Tropical [Tropical Animal] claims he has given up cynicism, anger, alcohol and rage. He now embraces Buddhism, stoicism and — in literature — poetic language and character development.

His latest book, recently published in Spain, is a collection of seventeen short stories set in Cuba in the 1950s and 1960s. Short, seemingly superficial works with deeper meanings, snapshots whose moral message the reader must fill in. And all with a clearly autobiographical component.

Gutiérrez happened to come across some old issues of the magazine Mecánica popular [Popular Mechanic], which he says taught him how to read and draw. Finding them, he says, was like “opening a door to memory.” That discovery led to this intimate, sometimes even mysterious book, which contrasts with the crude existentialism of the work that made him famous in the 1990s.

“I now have a more poetic view of life. I am happier. I have learned how to better control my personal life

“I now have a more poetic view of life. I am happier. I have learned how to better control my personal life and that is reflected in what you write, in everything you do,” he says. He says that life is about stages and that, since turning sixty, he has adopted “a philosophy of poetry, contemplation, and meditation.” The contrast with his past — both personal and literary — is evident. “Fortunately, that phase is over,” he confesses. continue reading

“When I wrote the five books of the Central Havana series — Trilogía sucia Dirty Trilogy, El rey de La Habana [The King of Havana], Animal Tropical [Tropical Animal], El insaciable hombre araña [The Insatiable Spider-Man], and Carne de perro [Dog Meat] — I was filled with rage. I was a little aggressive and was also drinking a lot. . . Like my entire generation, I had committed myself to a political experiment that was going down, that was taking on water,” he recalls.

The 1990s were a dramatic decade in Cuba. The collapse of the Soviet bloc brought on the Special Period, which was marked by serious food shortages and prolonged blackouts from which the country has never fully recovered. That brutal time, says Gutiérrez, led him to create work that he likens to hitting the reader in the head with a machete. “This is what is happening to me and I am very disappointed, very angry and feel very deceived,” he says.

Gutiérrez believes the current situation is very different despite the fact that Cuba once again finds itself in a “totally catastrophic” situation, plagued by uncertainty and with no ready solutions. “Life in Cuba now is such that, if you have money, you have virtually no problems. But if you don’t have money, you’re screwed,” says the author.

Despite the changes, he has always opted for “poetic democracy”

Despite the changes, he has always opted for “poetic democracy,” a concept that boils down to doing whatever he wants to do without regard for established norms. He says it is how he has always lived his life: individually, with a certain sense of irresponsibility. “I believe that an artist, that a writer, should be a little irresponsible with material life, with everyday life, with daily life. Only then do you have total freedom to create as broadly as possible,” he explains.

At this point, he says he is extraordinarily grateful for the “intense” life he has had to live, though it has not always having been easy. “Life in Cuba has been a great adventure, sometimes a terrible adventure, but also a challenge. My life – I am not judging my generation nor am I speaking in general – has been one of continuous challenge. Difficult situations turn life into a constant challenge,” he says.

Regarding future projects, the writer says he does not have the energy to take on a new novel. Yes, he is working on a memoir of sorts but it is not organized chronologically. He already tried that during the pandemic and it turned out to be a “brick.” Instead, it will be series of “capsules,” which he says may prove “interesting.”

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

Voting With Our Feet, Emigration as a Gesture of Rejection of the Cuban Model

By the end of the 21st century, there will be nearly half as many people in Cuba as now.

A group of Cubans on their journey to the United States / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 24 July 2024 — They could not hide it any longer. The almost empty streets on weekends, the classrooms that are running out of students and the packed airport lounges spoke for themselves. Last week the National Assembly had to recognize what we all knew: the resident population on the Island does not exceed 10 million people, a drop of 10.1% compared to the residents in 2020.

The number could be even more alarming given that many of those who have emigrated in recent months are still considered residents of the country. The age and professional training of those leaving also represents a hard blow to the Island’s aging and professionally devalued labor force. In the main sectors there is a lack of engineers, doctors, teachers and specialists, who cannot be replaced in the short or medium term.

It is ever more common to go to a hospital and find out that the surgeon has emigrated under the Humanitarian Parole Program that the United States implemented since the beginning of last year, or to learn first-hand about the number of vacant positions in the Cuban Electric Union because many of its technicians have become naturalized Spaniards through that country’s Democratic Memory Law. The same situation is repeated in universities, industries, scientific centers and hotels. continue reading

In addition to the exodus, the low birth rate has also been a factor in the population decline, marked in part by the decision of many young couples to wait to leave the island to start a family

In addition to the exodus, the low birth rate has also been a factor in the population decline, marked in part by the decision of many young couples to wait to leave the island to start a family. According to an independent study carried out by the renowned Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos, made public by the EFE agency, the Cuban population is currently 8.62 million people. This number seems closer to the reality shown by homes and public spaces that are increasingly emptied of the beings that gave them life and meaning.

In  the same sessions of Parliament where the demographic decline was reported, the list of disasters, failures and the negative data of the national economy was presented. For those who followed along from home the boring meetings of deputies who do not question any minister and always vote unanimously for any legislation that “comes down” from the top of power, that litany of hardships was translated into that scathing phrase: “we have to leave here and the sooner the better.”

No parliamentarian or official has managed to inspire any semblance of hope that the country will improve in the coming months or years. None of the regulations approved by the Assembly indicate that Cuba will embark on a path of economic and political openness that will help alleviate the crisis and provide its citizens with a more dignified existence. Instead, the top leaders of the Communist Party once again brandished the worn-out rhetoric of the enemy, threatened stricter use of the judicial apparatus, and attacked micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that have allowed them to be carried away by the law of supply and demand in the prices of the products they sell.

It is not surprising then that in the coming weeks and months the number of emigrants will continue to grow and numerous entrepreneurs will close their businesses

All  the signals sent by Parliament were of greater control, of maintaining the socialist state enterprise as the main nucleus of the Cuban economy, and of zero ideological tolerance. It is not surprising then that in the coming weeks and months the number of emigrants will continue to grow and numerous entrepreneurs will close their businesses, pack their bags and leave, taking their talents elsewhere. They cannot convince a population to stay in a country adrift.

By the end of the 21st century, there will be only 5,577,280 Cubans living in the country, almost half as many as now, according to a UN demographic outlook report. The lack of development prospects and the political stubbornness of a few could lead us to that point.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on DW and is reproduced under license from the author.
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‘In Cuba, the Only Ones Left Are Those Without Family, Without Resources and Without Possibilities’

Many elderly Cubans survive by reselling any type of product / B. Atkinson

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 22 July 2024 — Josefa was a master cigar roller her whole life in Cienfuegos. Old and black, the Cienfueguera knows that she takes on more than she can, since her niece, her only family, emigrated two years ago. “She constantly was saying that she wanted to leave and in the end, she sold her little place and went to Nicaragua,” she says.

The niece didn’t help her very much, but she kept her company and gave her something to eat when she could. Two years ago, Josefa also had more energy to do “a little work.” Now she is dedicated to reselling what she finds in the garbage dumps or on some corner that can be of use.

Josefa can also be seen sitting in the doorways in front of the Prado. Like her, several men and women of different ages have “taken” the central area of the city, and there they ask for alms, sell what they can and even spend the night on the benches and sidewalks. Beyond the loneliness, the common trait between the old cigar roller and those who accompany her on her way is old age and hunger.

Beyond the loneliness, the common trait between the old cigar roller and those who accompany her on her way is old age and hunger

“My family lived in Santa Isabel de las Lajas. In 1958 we were very poor, but there was always a plate of food to give to someone. Now, however, I have to take what appears when it appears,” confesses the woman, who says her years in the cigar factory, the workers union and being on duty in the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) were a waste of time. “People sacrificed a lot to comply, and in the end it was useless.” continue reading

Ten million people live in Cuba, or a little less, as the authorities reported this week. The country has not completed a census for more than a decade, but the tired and old faces of the Island, who have seen the youngest run off and scatter, do not go unnoticed. There are about 10 million people left who have turned the desire to leave into one more need, among the many they experience from day to day.

Humberto’s situation is similar to that of Josefa. A few months ago, of his three grandchildren, the only one left in Cuba ended up leaving for the US under the Humanitarian Parole program. A few years earlier, his own brother left for Mexico, and now his son is preparing the paperwork for Spanish citizenship. “It’s one loss after another. And those of us who have nowhere to go, or are too old to go anywhere, are being left behind,” he acknowledges.

Humberto has thought about doing the same as his son and preparing citizenship papers with him, but one thought stops him: “What is Tony going to do with an old man in Spain or anywhere? In those countries, if you can’t work, you’re a hindrance. It’s better to wait until he does well and can invite me to visit him, if I haven’t died,” he confesses.

“In those countries, if you can’t work, you’re a hindrance. It’s better to wait until he does well and can invite me to visit him, if I haven’t died”

Tony, his son, “is a very good industrial engineer,” says the Cienfueguero. “He graduated with honors and has worked all his life in that profession, but now there is no industry and the salaries aren’t enough. His two daughters also went to Miami. What does he have left here?” he asks.

Humberto and Josefa have seen relatives, neighbors and co-workers disappear over the years. “In Cuba there has always been migration, but never as great as now,” adds Josefa, whose neighbors, a family of six, emigrated last month. “One day I didn’t see them anymore, and when I asked another neighbor she told me they had left with the parole, the six of them!” she recalls.

There are few people left on the Island and more and more homeless. “Whoever has a good profession is looking for a scholarship or a job; whoever has money buys a ticket to Nicaragua, and anyone who has a family also leaves sooner or later. Here there are only left people without family, without resources and without possibilities. And the desperation of knowing that everyone is leaving except you also worries those of us who remain,” Humberto adds. “Without children, without youth or talents, this will soon be an Island of miserable old people.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Independent Journalist Carlos Michel Morales Is Sentenced to Eight Months of House Arrest

Two hunger strikes have left the activist’s weight at 39 kilos (86 pounds), according to nearby sources

Images of Carlos Michael Morales after returning home, where he is under house arrest. / Facebook / La Tijera]

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 23 July 2024 — Independent journalist and political prisoner Carlos Michael Morales has been sentenced to eight months of house arrest in a trial that was finally held on Monday, July 22. The activist, who has carried out two hunger strikes in protest against his situation, has made public several images in which one can see the physical deterioration he suffered during that time. The Facebook profile La Tijera affirms that his current weight is just 39 kilos (86 pounds).

Morales spent two years and 10 months in prison for demonstrating on 11 July 2021 in the anti-government protests in Caibarién, Villa Clara. After his release, last March, he was arrested again on May 4 for an alleged crime of disobedience.

The order says that Morales was summoned on two occasions for an interview, on April 3 and 15, but attended neither of them, claiming that they had technical defects. Despite the fact that the authorities admitted rulings in that regard, Morales remained in prison. In addition, his lawyer requested a habeas corpus that was not accepted. continue reading

The order of the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that Morales was investigated for “executing counterrevolutionary actions” in general, and in particular for “making false allegations against the main leaders”

The order of the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that Morales was investigated for “executing counterrevolutionary actions” in general, and in particular for “making false complaints against the main Cuban leaders from his Facebook account.”

While waiting for the resolution of the habeas corpus, Morales began a first hunger strike that made him feel discomfort in his chest, so he asked for medical assistance that was denied. According to his relatives, the head of the unit hit him, and he had to be transferred to a hospital.

On June 19, the independent journalist began another hunger strike that he ended when he learned of the date scheduled for his trial, initially on July 19. According to Baptist pastor Mario Félix Lleonart, Morales gave the news from the prison room of the Provincial Hospital of Villa Clara.

The doctor told him at that time, according to Lleonart, that he would not authorize him to attend the trial in the state he was in, but that, due to the many “irregularities and violations” of the process, he wanted to give Morales “the opportunity to attend because he is hoping to be released.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Is Experiencing a ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ and Is Approaching ‘Implosion’ According to Demographer Albizu-Campos

The loss of almost two million inhabitants since 2022 places the Island in “refugee crisis” figures

Migrants walking on a road in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas. / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Palop, Havana, July 22, 2024 — The prestigious Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos warns in an interview with EFE that statistics about his country show it to be an “unreformable” system in the midst of a “humanitarian crisis” that is progressively approaching “implosion.” Albizu-Campos, who has just concluded a study that estimates that Cuba lost 18% of its population between 2022 and 2023, mainly due to migration, sees warning signs in many other indicators, such as the increase in child poverty, the rise in maternal mortality, the fall in life expectancy and the upturn in pregnancies among adolescents.

“There is an emergency situation that is beyond a health emergency, it is a humanitarian crisis,” says this expert, who believes that the situation “is serious and is getting closer to the point of implosion.”

“There is an emergency situation that is beyond a health emergency, it is a humanitarian crisis”

In the opinion of this expert from the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue (CCRD), the loss of almost two million inhabitants since 2022, out of a population of 10.5 million, places the Island in “refugee crisis” figures.

Last Friday, Juan Carlos Alfonso, first deputy head of the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), acknowledged that between 2020 and 2023 there was a 10% drop in the number of residents on the Island and that “fewer than 10 million” people currently live here. continue reading

The pandemic, the tightening of the U.S. sanctions and failed economic and monetary policies in recent years have aggravated the structural problems of the Cuban economy, generating shortages of basics (food, medicines, fuel), daily blackouts, galloping inflation and an unprecedented migratory exodus.

“The insistence on reforming the unreformable has eroded the metabolism of the system and is taking it to a point of no return,” concludes Albizu-Campos, who believes that “the model is its own obstacle.”

This context includes a fall in life expectancy of seven years between 2011 and 2021, and the recent data published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which points out that 42% of children between 0 and 5 years old in Cuba suffer from severe or moderate food poverty, both forms of malnutrition.

He also points out that maternal mortality has rebounded to the levels of 1935-1940, that adolescent pregnancies currently account for 18% of the total – after the reduction at the beginning of the century – and that infant mortality, which fell below 4 per thousand between 2013 and 2018, now exceeds 7 per thousand.

“The insistence on reforming the irreformable has eroded the metabolism of the system and is leading it to a point of no return

Albizu-Campos emphasizes the widening of the gap in different indicators (child mortality, life expectancy, income) between whites and non-whites, especially blacks, reversing the advances of the first decades after the triumph of the Revolution.

This year Albizu-Campos published a study in graphic form with researcher Sergio Díaz-Briquets for the International University of Florida under the title Systemic Failure and Demographic Consequences: The Perfect Storm of Cuba.

The expert shows Cuba in a “polycrisis,” a cascade of crises that overlap and act in a combined way” which casts Cuba as the country that has fallen back the most in the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The Island went from 51st place in 2007 to 73rd ten years later, an abrupt fall that continued to sharpen in recent years to place it currently in 85th place on this list.

“We are still in the high (HDI) band, but we were approaching the very high band. Now the band we are approaching is the middle one,” says Albizu-Campos, who estimates that “if current conditions” are maintained, Cuba could fall into that area in “between five and ten years.”

The Island went from 51st place in 2007 to 73rd ten years later, an abrupt fall that continued to become acute in recent years

He also foresees other challenges for the coming years. On the one hand, the economic departure from the country of 1.79 million people between 2022 and 2023 had a clear socioeconomic profile: 57% women, 77% between 15 and 59 years old with a certain economic capacity. Most are in “working and reproductive age,” and that, he adds, “has an impact.”

It is predicted that it will also be combined with the retirement in the coming years of the largest generation in Cuba, which will increase the pressure on public accounts, which will have to spend more on pensions when there are already difficulties and large deficits accumulate.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Innocence of the Cuban Deputies

They have been unanimously raising their hands to approve everything the Government proposes for almost half a century.

Deputies, during a session / National Assembly

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 23 July 2024 — I should have entitled this commentary “the lack of guilt of the deputies,” so as not to confuse the meaning of innocence with “ignorance.” The deputies of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) are ridiculed by comparing them to a choir of trained seals that only knows how to applaud in exchange for crumbs. They have earned it, for almost half a century raising their hands unanimously to approve everything that the Government presents for their consideration.

The ministers go to the forum of Parliament to present their reports and proposals, knowing that the most daring will engender a discussion about some punctuation mark or propose a synonym more in line with the hidden intentions that the shrewd deputy guesses behind the big print of the law.

The fox that has been placed in the position of guardian of the hen house is not guilty, just as the ice that has been thrown into the oven to heat a broiler is not to blame. Ice and fox are innocent; the fault lies in the selection system and, ultimately, in those who designed the system.

Don’t ever believe that the issue has already been explained too many times. continue reading

To become a deputy in Cuba, not only do you have to travel a hazardous path, but you also have to meet a long list of requirements

To become a deputy in Cuba, you not only have to travel a hazardous path, but you also have to meet a long list of requirements that have nothing to do with the personal growth that everyone proposes.

The candidacy to occupy seats in Parliament is fed by two sources: half of the 471 seats will be filled with constituency delegates; the other, with “prominent personalities from politics, culture, science, sports and society.”

The first is a screening of the more than 15,000 constituency delegates throughout the country. That is, choosing 235 out of 15,000, which gives the Candidacy Commission a negligible margin of error. In the second source the margin is even smaller, because there is no recognized figure that indicates how many people are available for the selection.

It has already been repeated many times that the so-called “diversity” of this National Assembly is reduced to the factors of age, race, occupational profiles and a few brushstrokes of religion or gender, but it is enough to verify that more than 90% of the deputies belong to the Communist Party or to the Union of Young Communists to understand that a train will enter the tunnel under Havana Bay* before a dissident can walk through the doors of Parliament.

They didn’t get to those positions by presenting a program or trying to promote a proposal. They got there through their rigorously scrutinized biography

They didn’t get to those positions by presenting a program or trying to promote a proposal. Their biographies were rigorously scrutinized and verified by the organs of State Security. The docility of those chosen ones had nothing to do with their convictions, but rather with their obedience to the leader. That is the reason why Raúl Castro’s presence is essential, because it is enough to observe how he applauds or nods to know how to vote.

If one day the General is not there, or better, if one day he doesn’t exist and the miracle of a discussion happens, let’s say between Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in which both hold divergent opinions on some essential or even banal issue, it is most likely that the abstentions will abound.

Because the real miracle will happen when they can debate two sides of an issue and two tendencies can emerge that could be considered radical, moderate, conservative or novel, or anything else that can be imagined.

If there is something missing in Cuba, it is the alternative paths outside the dictates of the Communist Party. In 65 years, we have left behind, with no possible return, shortcuts and avenues through which the nation could have advanced.

Right now, faced with the terrifying idea of a future that threatens us, we see a mass of obedient deputies unanimously approving the whim of continuing on the path to the precipice. Can you blame them for their blindness and cowardice? That is why they were placed in that position, that is where their innocence lies.

*Translator’s note: There are no tracks in the tunnel.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Chinese Rice and Venezuelan Sardines Are in the ‘Gift’ Module To Be Distributed in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, on July 26

As usual on this date, the Island receives visitors who bring donations

Cubans will receive two kilograms of rice, one of sugar, one more of pasta and two cans of sardines / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, July 22, 2024 — Spaghetti, sardines, rice and sugar make up the “extra” that the residents of Sancti Spíritus will receive this week. According to the local press, a total of 190,816 food modules will be distributed with these products, a “gift” from the Ministry of Internal Trade for being the host province of the July 26 celebration. The small parcels distributed to the people consist of two kilograms of rice, one of sugar, another of pasta and two cans of sardines. All the food in the packages comes from donations made by friendly countries of the regime such as China and Venezuela, an official employee who has had access to the modules and who asks for anonymity confirmed to 14ymedio.

“The rice is of Chinese origin, very good quality; they grow a lot of it,” she explains. “The sardines, you know, are the little ones that you have to add a thousand things to in order to get rid of the strong taste,” the woman says about the fish brought from Venezuela.

The people fear that some products have expired

Even more than the squalid ration of sardines, this worker fears that the cans are expired. It wouldn’t be the first time, she says: “They don’t have an expiration date anywhere. I looked for it. Formerly, in past modules, I found it, and they were old .” continue reading

Escambray said that the arrival of a total of 48 containers is expected, and once “all the products are completed” the modules will begin to be distributed, “which will happen this week, as expected.” We are already working on assembling the modules and preparing for the distribution so that it reaches the population as quickly as possible,” the director of the Wholesale Food Company in the territory, Eliosbel Martínez Hernández, told the provincial newspaper.

Sancti Spíritus will receive up to 48 containers with food to make up the modules / Yasma Jauriga/Facebook

As usual on this date, the Island receives donations from different pro-Regime organizations around the world. An example is the ton of powdered milk collected in Bolivia for Cuban children as part of the campaign designed by the Solidarity Movement with the Island, under the slogan “your contribution counts,” as published on Saturday by the Prensa Latina agency.

Visitors also arrive and are usually taken on tours of the “sacred sites” of the Revolution

The July 26 celebration also brings visitors, who are taken on tours of the “sacred sites” of the Revolution. This year, for example, the number of Americans who visit Cuba as “friends in solidarity,” like the Venceremos Brigade, reached 103 people, according to figures from the organization itself.

They don’t come empty-handed: they carry donations of all kinds that they have collected for months, ranging from food – such as bags of beans and rice – and medicines, to school supplies like pencils and notebooks.

The Venceremos Brigade arrived in Holguín from Miami this Sunday. Most of them come from California, New York and Florida, where the brigade has more presence, especially in university environments. This year’s group is larger than in 2023, when 71 arrived, or in 2022, when 75 were reported. This type of brigade does not come only from the United States, but also from other parts of the world such as Brazil and Europe.

“They will be conducting exchanges with communities and visiting historic sites to pay tribute to Antonio Maceo and Fidel Castro. They will also be doing community work, which is what characterizes the Venceremos Brigade. Its origins were, precisely, to help the people of Cuba when they needed it most,” Leima Martínez, North American director of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP)*, told the television channel Caribe Alterno.

Following the official script, visitors attribute the Cuban population’s everyday problems – food shortages and blackouts – exclusively to the U.S. blockade**. “I disagree with the blockade and want to witness in my own way how a social system different from the American one works. I hope to meet people from this country and do hard work, to help in what is needed,” Samaiyah Patrick, a young man who makes his first trip to the Island, told the official press.

Translator’s notes: 

*Both the Venceremos Brigade and ICAP are members of the National Network on Cuba, a source of agents of influence for the Regime.

**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.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Attack on Bukele, Donald Trump’s Olympic Gaffe / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

A mistake that could cost Trump millions of votes

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 23 July 2024: We were stunned, stupefied, it was simply incomprehensible. We have just witnessed a monumental political blunder when, on  July 15th, Donald Trump, during the Republican National Convention, attacked incisively and gratuitously the Salvadoran government of Nayik Bukele, accusing it of emptying the prisons of El Salvador to send criminals to the United States, and as if to prove that it had not been a slip of the tongue due to some post-traumatic brain oedema just a few days later, from Michigan, in his first campaign rally after the attack, he retraced his steps and insisted on it with even more viciousness and raised the tone of his jaw-dropping accusation.

But what were you thinking, my little Christian? During the attack, did some shrapnel hit your mesopotálamo or did it lodge in your stupid, idiotic brain? How can you think of attacking in such an absurd way the most popular president in the world – literally speaking, in the whole world with all its continents, archipelagos, islets and polar ice caps – and just when all the media attention is focused on you after the July 13th plot? How can you so stupidly lash out against the most coherent politician in this rotten hemisphere? and on top of that, you call him stupid! Someone who, to top it all, has always stood by your side in the midst of the long political persecution they’ve mounted against you! It’s insane.

Well, you should know, Mr Trump, that this “stupid person” is one of the most brilliant examples of ethical verticality in the current world political panorama, not for nothing beatified in the popular imagination inside and outside his country, a “stupid person” who was re-elected and has more than 90% approval among his people. You should definitely have chosen your words better before showing such inexplicable hostility. continue reading

You should know, Mr. Trump, that you came out with that nonsense just when El Salvador is registering historic lows in emigration and thousands of hopeful Salvadorians are seriously considering returning to their country after decades of violence and systemic neglect, precisely because Bukele worked the miracle and locked up tens of thousands of murderers. Attacking the man who subdued those criminal gangs that for decades, long before his first term in office, Mr. Trump, had already spread throughout Central America and reached the west coast of his country, the leader who promised peace and security to his people and more than delivered, was an Olympic mistake that if it goes any further could cost you millions of Latino and non-Latino votes in this final stretch of the campaign.

Today, millions of Latinos are crying out for a ruler like Bukele from countries that continue to impact crime levels in the United States, from which thousands of tons of drugs continue to be exported, including the latest wave of fentanyl that has flooded many American cities with zombies. You should know, Mr. Trump, that while you unjustly accuse Bukele, Mexican and Colombian cartels are penetrating more and more North American neighbourhoods every day, and all kinds of deliveries from the Venezuelan narco-dictatorship continue to arrive.

Mr. Trump, If there is one thing we Latinos have plenty of, it is miserable petty bastards, and wherever you shoot you will hit the target; if you are looking for them, here you have a wide range of culprits: There are the dictatorships of Maduro and Ortega — even the Cuban one that has exported criminals and spies for more than half a century to the USA — and the corrupt populisms of López Obrador and Petro with their dozens of active cartels, unpunished and at ease, among other countries that have never stopped exporting all kinds of scum, but in the midst of this rottenness, among so many wretches on the loose, you fix your attention on Bukele? Really…?!; You cannot be serious, Mr. Trump!!!

To affirm that in El Salvador prisons are being emptied and criminals are being sent to the USA is a fallacy contradicted by the recent visit of Trump Junior to Nayik Bukele, where they treated each other with total cordiality and even talked about closing deals, or that of the Republican congressman for Florida, Matt Gaetz, who from the CECOT jail itself [maximum security penitentiary in El Salvador] has just launched his personal testimony, but if you, Mr. Trump, have proof to the contrary, please let us in on it. You should have informed yourself better before coming out with such nonsense. Now it is time to seriously question whether it was all just a trap that some Democrat Trojan left on your desk with false information to make you look bad in this final stretch of the campaign, because if so, it more than succeeded.

Bear in mind also that this outburst was launched in the midst of the final globalism offensive financed by a Davos clan that has set 2030 as its final delivery date, and in the face of which few, but very worthy, voices in America and Europe are speaking up in resistance, including Bukele with his unyielding defence of traditional values that are now under merciless attack. At a time when the globalists are putting up a monolithic front, this blunder must have sounded like music to their ears.

To sum up, Mr Trump, you have screwed up in the worst possible way and at the worst possible time. Those of us who, on the basis of common sense, have bet on you to stop Democrat cynicism and the consequent destruction of the West, as part of a global destabilisation strategy, hope you will fire the person who misled you on this and issue a sincere apology that the Salvadorian government would doubtless accept with all due humility. But if out of ignorance, ego or arrogance you decide not to do so, I advise you to wash your mouth out and opt for a modest silence the next time you hear the untainted name of Nayik Bukele. It will always be best, for you, I have to tell you.

Translated by GH

Authorities Report Several Breakdowns in the Hydraulic Network, and Havana Has Been Without Water for Weeks

Havana residents have responded angrily with comments on social media and official media, as municipalities have been without water for days.

Images shared by Aguas de La Habana about the repairs to the main pipeline to supply the capital from the South Basin / Collage/Aguas de La Habana

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, July 22, 2024 — A new breakdown in Havana’s hydraulic infrastructure is making the water shortage in the capital catastrophic. As reported by Aguas de La Habana on Monday, an “electrical failure” Sunday night in the high-voltage lines that feed the South Basin supply source caused the pumping to be completely interrupted in a “sudden way,” which caused, in turn, several “battering ram blows” – a sudden increase in pressure – to the main pipe, which then collapsed “in three places.”

The authorities promise that “the brigades for repair and maintenance will work without interruption on the transmission network to repair the breakdowns in the shortest possible time at the source of supply.” However, the people of Havana have responded angrily with comments on social networks and official media, since it is not the only breakdown in the Aguas de La Habana system, and some municipalities have been without water for days.

“I would like to know if the people in Altahabana and Boyeros who receive water from Paso Seco are also affected, because we haven’t received it for five days, and on Telegram they only refer to the impacts on the South Basin,” Manuel Quesada commented on Cubadebate.

“That happened on Sunday the 21st, but I live on 10th Street between 21 and 23rd, El Vedado, and we have been affected by the water supply since last month”

Willian Hernandez Torres sounded desperate: “We need water now. That happened on Sunday the 21st, but I live on 10th Street between 21 and 23rd, El Vedado, and we have been affected by the water supply since last month. Right now I haven’t received water since Saturday, July 13, and the reserves have already run out. I won’t be able to go to work, I have to feed myself, the neighbors can’t help us because they are in the same boat, and the water trucks haven’t come here.” continue reading

There were multiple protests from El Vedado. “I have a 91-year-old woman at home, bedridden, who cannot move, with very affected skin and in dire need of hygiene,” said Alina Ruiz, who indicated her address – between 11 and 13th – and said that she has not had water service for eight days. “We have gone twice to Aguas de La Habana (at 35th and 4th) to ask for a water truck; they put us on a list, but nothing has happened. We are desperate.”

This Sunday the Tribuna de La Habana reported the rupture of “six pieces of equipment” in the South Basin, which causes “difficulties” in the service for La Rampa, the “most vulnerable of all municipalities” because of its 13 districts.

“This failure of the water pipes is typical for several reasons, the main one being the forced halt in the pumping”

According to the same comment, on Saturday the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, and the governor of Havana, Yanet Hernández Pérez, met with managers of Aguas de La Habana to “point out actions” to supply the “precious liquid” to “affected” municipalities, but they prioritized water truck service only for hospitals and polyclinics.

The affected areas, according to Tribuna, are Central Havana, Old Havana, Cerro, Diez de Octubre and Plaza de la Revolución, but also the “west system,” specifically the upper part of La Lisa, Arroyo Arenas, San Agustín and Pocito Palmar.

On Cubadebate, Zeida Peña Santiesteban wrote: “The problem of the water supply is exacerbated every day that passes, and now this has happened. Since November last year in Centro Habana, on Calle Reina between Chávez and Gervasio, in buildings 458, 460, 462, there has been no water, and no one worries about a solution, or at least that is the perception of the inhabitants.” The woman also said that she had gone to the provincial government and the Aguas de La Habana office of Parque Trillo, in vain:

“The solution cannot be to send water trucks as needed but to check and investigate if there’s a problem with some faucet handle or a valve that doesn’t work. If you have to tear up the street, do it and fix the problem. This has nothing to do with any U.S. blockade; it’s the internal blockade and the lack of management of the agencies involved.”

“The solution cannot be to send water trucks when possible but to check and investigate if the problem is some faucet handle or valve that doesn’t work”

Other commentators extended themselves in technical details, such as D’Oro: “This is a typical failure in water pipes, in this case for various reasons, and the main one is the forced stoppage of pumping due to a sudden electrical failure. It’s also a typical fault in the hydraulic pressure system designs, for those who do not know about these issues. It is worth asking: Did the protection systems for these hydraulic processes work? Do they exist? Obviously it is already known that they didn’t work; someone from Aguas de La Habana should explain about the protections for hydraulic systems in the country, because investments, repairs, replacements and other interventions in breakdowns like this cost a lot of money.”

In statements to this newspaper, a resident of La Rampa said that he has been without water service for more than two weeks. With his house for sale and waiting to receive the Humanitarian Parole that will allow him to emigrate to the United States, he says: “I had to change the text of the ad, because before it said that the house was in an area where ‘water is not lacking’ and that is now known to be a lie. No one can say that about any house in this city or in this country.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

The Cuban Regime, a Colossus with Feet of Clay

“All the conspiracies, landings and uprisings, ended with the imprisonment or shooting of almost all the insurgents”

Vaclav Havel, leader of the Czech dissident, said that at any time all those who live in the lie “can be stunned by the force of truth” / Wikimedia Commons

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 21 July 2024 — The Cuban regime has proven to be a portentous giant due to several factors: its three armies that have fought on other continents; a very effective intelligence apparatus modeled on the German Stasi; very well equipped and trained repressive forces; and, as if that were not enough, the control of all the spheres of a totalitarian society.

It is not surprising, therefore, that all the violent actions of their opponents have been defeated: all the conspiracies, landings and uprisings ended with the imprisonment or shooting of almost all the insurgents. But like the supposedly unbeatable hero of ancient Greece, Achilles, whose body had a vulnerable point – his heels – that can actually happen to a regime. It’s a giant with feet of clay.

What is the Achilles heel of the regime? Well, the world where all that impenetrable force has risen is sustained on the basis of lies. It is all a lie. It is not true that the triumph of the Revolution meant freedom for the Cuban people, that it was a revolution for the good of the people. It’s not true that they put and end to the latifundios* and that the lands were divided among the dispossessed peasant, that property titles were given only to those who already owned them as pre-owners and tenants. The latifundios continued to exist, only they ceased to be private and became state-owned, which gave rise to the largest of all landowners in national history: the State.

It survives on the basis of the lie. It is all a lie.

It is not true that all the large and medium-sized companies of the bourgeoisie were expropriated to turn the workers into “owners of the means of production”; rather all were given to bureaucrats appointed by the government leadership, not for their ability but for their political reliability, continue reading

then turned into a new corrupt social class and without any productive interest that, due to its magnitude, could not be controlled by the leadership.

It is not true that the confiscation of all the small properties was carried out against the “small bourgeoisie”; it happened to independent workers, among whom were greengrocers, street vendors and even shoe shiners. It is not true that the physical integrity of those who suffered prison was respected. It is not true that the workers and the people placed their trust in the State and the single party as representatives of their interests, because a referendum was never held to demonstrate it.

The recounting of all the lies, of course, would be very difficult to list in an article like this, but it is important to say that all of them have been constantly repeated in newspapers, magazines, speeches, radio and television programs; in books, school texts and study circles, following the teaching of the great Nazi master in this “art”, Joseph Goebbels: A lie repeated sufficiently over and over again becomes a truth.

But one day that regime began to face a new type of unexpected adversary, more dangerous than all the previous ones, more than the conspirators, invaders and armed insurgents. They were groups of peaceful men and women whose only weapon was the word, who even by imprisonment could not be silenced. Why were they more dangerous? Because they had decided to speak the truth; they attacked the Achilles heel of the regime: the lie.

Vaclav Havel, leader of the Czech dissidence, said that at any moment all those who live in the lie “can be stunned by the force of truth.” And with the strength of the truth one can gain the conscience of citizens, even of those who support the repressors. And if the lies with which it has been maintained collapse, the regime loses the sustenance on which it stood.

If those who raised the empire of lies began their struggles by attacking barracks, now it is about conquering the consciousness of those who entrench themselves in the barracks

So, what is the use of having three well-armed armies, a powerful intelligence apparatus with advanced espionage techniques and trained and well-equipped repressive bodies, if those who wield those weapons, those who handle those techniques and those who have this equipment are human beings whose consciences can be surrendered before the force of the truth? If those who raised the empire of lies began their struggles by attacking barracks, now it is about conquering the conscience of those who entrench themselves in the barracks, without firearms, without killing anyone; on the contrary, only through the clarifying word and the conciliatory embrace.

The German demonstrators who later demolished the Berlin Wall said that they did not want to see the policemen sent to repress them as opponents but to “talk to them so they would be on our side; not curse them for being policemen, but for them to feel part of us, to know that they felt the same and shout the same thing: No to violence! We wanted to attract the opposite side.” In other words, the protesters did not practice physical or verbal violence. Then they blocked the entrance to the headquarters of the Stasi, the State Security of Germany, shouting “No to the violence”! And they even entered it, but the guards didn’t dare shoot because the demonstrators didn’t carry weapons or stones; they only lit candles.

In the demonstrations against the Milosevic dictatorship in Yugoslavia, the young women smiled at the soldiers sent to repress them, with flowers and Serbian flags, and they shouted at them: “You are part of the people! We are all brothers! We are all victims of those who govern!” Attitudes like that influenced the fact that later, when the dictator ordered the soldiers to leave the barracks in the middle of a large demonstration and to repress the demonstrators, they refused to obey him, and that is how the end of the tyranny came about.

Many of those who still support the Cuban regime do so only out of the fear that if it collapses, they will hold it to account for its past, so that general political amnesty must be publicly supported, which means that it would be applied both to those who are imprisoned and to the perpetrators who are not. If, on the contrary, the repressors are threatened with lynching after the fall of the tyranny, they are strengthened, because it is the same as telling them: “Keep repressing and stronger, so that you avoid being lynched.” Martí summed it up like this: “Nothing triumphs against the threatened instinct of self-preservation.”

This does not mean silence and forgetting the blame because we have to learn from the mistakes, but we must not only have the courage to ask for forgiveness but also to forgive. We have to leave resentments in the past, and then, all together, raise the new Cuba. I am not the only one saying this; but the Master [José Martí] himself: “Con todos y para el bien de todos”… “With all and for the good of all.”

*Translator’s note: Large land holdings, especially in Spain, typically worked by slaves.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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