Nicolás Maduro says that the crisis on the Island is due to the US embargo
Caracas has significantly decreased oil shipments to Havana in the last year / EFE
14ymedio/EFE, Havana/Caracas, 19 October 2024 — The Government of Venezuela called on the international community on Friday to mobilize in support of Cuba, in view of the national blackout that the Island is experiencing, a situation for which Caracas holds the United States and its policy of economic sanctions responsible. Venezuela “expresses its absolute solidarity and unconditional support to the sister republic of Cuba, while facing the cyclical energy contingency, the product of the cruel intensification of the economic war and financial and energy persecution by the US Government,” Nicolás Maduro’s Executive said in a statement.
In his opinion, the “illegal blockade against the Cuban people” seeks “the application of a collective punishment, which represents a crime against humanity.” “Venezuela supports all the efforts heroically made by the people of Cuba as well as its president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to mitigate the impacts of the criminal unilateral coercive measures,” the letter reiterates.
In this sense, Caracas ratified that Cuba “has the full support” of the Venezuelan Government to face this situation and overcome it, while calling on other countries to support the island nation at this time. “Venezuela urges the international community, especially the Latin American and Caribbean, to mobilize in support of Cuba and absolutely condemn the infamous unilateral list of countries that supposedly support terrorism, facts that are undoubtedly the main cause of the effects Cuba suffers today,” the statement concludes.
Havana’s historical ally did not make a single mention of the regular oil shipments it sends to the Island as part of the agreements signed between Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. In September, the latest available data, Caracas sent about 22,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to Cuba, a considerable drop compared to 33,700 bpd in June and even 28,000 bpd in April. continue reading
The historical ally of Havana did not make a single mention of the regular oil shipments it sends to the Island
At that time, Maduro accused “an account called Anonymous” of “the extreme right, anti-Venezuelan,” which “works directly with the CIA,” of having sabotaged the national electricity system. The president did not offer details of the “attack,” but a few days later, a major power cut occurred in the country again. That, along with breakdowns suffered by the equipment, explains Reuters, forced them to postpone improvements for several more days, which ended up having an impact on fuel shipments.
The fall in the supply of Venezuelan crude oil coincides with the worsening of the energy crisis in Cuba, an argument supported by the expert of the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón, as he explained this Friday to Martí Noticias. “I know, from my sources, that Venezuela told Cuba that it would prioritize oil shipments to (the Spanish) Repsol and (the American) Chevron, which pay in cash, and that is what they need. […] They told Cuba to stand in line,” he explains. As for the aid from Russia and Mexico to Havana, the first has not quite materialized, and the second has decreased, says Piñón.
This Friday, after hours of “zero national energy coverage,” the Cuban Government announced that the National Energy System had a second “total disconnection,” making it clear that Cubans will spend more hours without electricity.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Residents know that the meager pound of protein doesn’t go far, but the temptation to make a soup or fry some thighs is greater than their disappointment at the small amount.
Local residents lined up early to buy meat from the neighborhood butcher shop. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 15 October 2024 — “You take some skin, some bones and a little ice and suddenly you’ve got a pound.” That is the exact amount of chicken that the ration book, which governs food distribution on the island with an iron fist, says each Cuban is supposed to get. Families in Havana’s Luyanó district have not received the allotted amount for months. Even so, government officials claim that the hindquarters that were delivered Monday night to the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Sacred Heart of Jesus) butcher shop under a persistent drizzle were October’s supply.
“For a long time, you could only buy chicken for children or the elderly. Now, finally, pregnant women and everyone else can get it. But they say it’s only for October. It’s best not to count on getting the last two months’ quota,” says Rosario, a resigned local resident. Nevertheless, she and twenty or so neighbors lined up early to buy what they could.
The news that thighs and drumsticks had arrived spread quickly through Luyanó. “Even the local representative mentioned it on the WhatsApp group where she posts information. And every now and then you could hear someone shout, ‘The chicken has arrived,’” says Rosario.
The news that thighs and drumsticks had arrived spread quickly through Luyanó
Everyone here knows the meager protein ration does not go very far but the temptation to make a soup out of it or fry up some thighs is stronger than the disappointment at the small amount. “Besides the fact that it is almost never available, the rationed chicken is not enough for anything. I myself continue reading
always have to buy it on the black market because it’s the easiest and cheapest meat to get. I never rely on the butcher shop to have it. But if it does, I’ll buy it because it only costs 20 pesos,” adds Rosario.
Sagrado Corazón — it is still known by its original name rather than La Esquina (The Corner), the one given it after the revolution — opened unusually early on Monday. As soon as the chicken arrived at its doorstep at around six in the morning, the meat market began serving the first customers who showed up looking for their pound of poultry.
The shop with the two-word name also serves a dual purpose. After an employee at a nearby store fell from grace and the roof collapsed at Sagrado Corazón’s original location, the business ended up taking on two roles. “Government officials wanted to make it a combination grocery store and butcher shop. And since that suited the grocery store manager, who would have more products to sell, he didn’t complain. Also, the manager of one of the stores was a drunkard and people were lining up at the other to look at the sky through the hole in the roof,” says Rosario.
The shop with the two-word name also serves a dual purpose
“It was the manager of Sagrado Corazón himself who renovated the store, painted it and, I think, even pays the security guards who work outside. From time to time, products that you can’t buy with the ration book show up on the sales counter and no one knows where they came from. The guy with the know-how always finds a way to do business,” Rosario says.
On Tuesday, a street vendor has set up a stall outside El Sagrado Corazón to take shelter from the rain. “I’m going to buy a handful of his plantains, make a “fufu”* with them and have it with the chicken,” says Rosario in a rapacious tone. By noon, neighborhood residents were still to gathering at the entrance, ignoring the store’s posted closing time. “We have to take advantage of this opportunity while we can. After this batch, there might not be any more chicken till next year.”
*Translator’s note: A dish of boiled, mashed plantains
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Shortly before 8:00 AM Cuba still remained in the darkness. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, October 19, 2024 — By Saturday it will be 24 hours since a massive power outage gripped Cuba on Friday morning. Meanwhile, getting the nation’s power grid back up and running seems to be moving slowly. 14ymedio was able to confirm that electricity was restored to a few isolated facilities in Havana such as hospitals. However, the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) reported that, as of 6:15 AM, the entire power grid in the west of the country was down again. Of the 650 megawatts that were restored by early morning, 350 were later lost to a system malfunction.
The sound of the canon being fired from the San Carlos de La Cabaña Fortress at 9:00 PM marked the beginning of another dark night in the capital. At no point in the day could smoke be seen rising from the giant fuel-powered Turkish generator floating in the harbor, an unequivocal sign that there would be no electricity anytime soon. Not everyone was in the dark, however. Some private businesses remained open thanks to backup generators. Yet as hospitals were struggling to get by, several government offices were wasting energy.
Such was the case with the local Communist Party headquarters on the night of October 18 in Versalles, a town in Matanzas province, which managed to keep its outdoor lighting, illuminated sign and nearby street lamps turned on. continue reading
By dawn, power had been restored to areas near Old Havana and the bay but they quickly lost it again. / 14ymedio
After a quiet night at 14ymedio’s editorial offices in Nuevo Vedado, there was still no electricity in the morning. By dawn, it was clear that power had temporarily been restored to some areas near Old Havana and the bay but, shortly thereafter, they lost it again. As it turned out, the cold front that has caused heavy rains and flooding in recent days did bring some relief from the heat to Havana’s residents, who were unable to turn on their fans or air conditioners. In fact, several residents decided to heed the warnings of their more experienced neighbors and unplugged all their home appliances to prevent them from catching fire in the event of a sudden power surge.
In a morning news update on Cuban television, which continues broadcasting even though few can watch it, officials explained that every province, except Artemisa, have managed to restart generating stations and isolated power plants in order to provide electricity to nearby diesel-powered electrical plants, which need at least some energy to start up again. The Energás plants in Boca de Jaruco and Puerto Escondido, which supply Varadero and parts of the capital, had been operating since the afternoon. One unit of the Santa Cruz del Norte plant in Mayabeque and three units of the Mariel plant in Artemisa were scheduled to be restarted at dawn.
Lights as the local Communist Party headquarters in Versalles, a town in Matanzas province, managed to keep its outdoor lighting, illuminated sign and nearby streetlamp turned on all night. / 14ymedio
The floating Turkish generator managed to get power to Renté plant in Santiago de Cuba, though officials have not yet confirmed if it is working or not. The Felton plant in Holguín and the Tenth of October plant in Camagüey were also expecting a partial restoration by late evening. Only two Moa units are operating.
When asked about the massive power outage, Lázaro Guerra, director of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said he could not guarantee that the electrical grid would be fully operational by Sunday but hoped that “important advances” could be made on Saturday.
Currently, only three Havana hospitals — Calixto García, Central Havana Pediatric and Enrique Cabrera (National) — have electricity. Power has also been partially restored to some neighborhoods such as Altahabana in the Boyeros district (5,100 customers) and Cojímar and others in the Regla district (3,700 and 3,000 respectively).
A journalist for state media, Lázaro Manuel, also reported that, in Pinar del Río, power had been restored to city hospitals and central commercial areas of Mantua, Sandino and Palacios.
Except for Artemisa, every province has managed to provide some of the energy needed to restart diesel-fueled power plants. / Cubadebate
As for the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, whose sudden failure caused the collapse of the country’s entire power grid, officials have only said that repairs there have been completed and that they are trying to restart it. One day before the “total disconnection,” UNE officials warned that, after operating all summer, the plant needed to be shut down for maintenance. All indications are that the plant failed before that could happen.
Faced with the uncertainty that has gripped the entire country, government leaders are resorting to the usual appeals for people to pitch in and promises that everything will return to normal, though without indicating exactly when that might happen. “I repeat — and this is what you [the electrical workers] are proposing — no one will rest until we fully restore the system. And we will work with all the precision, with all the dedication and with all the perseverance [needed] to do so,” said Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel yesterday afternoon to senior officials from the Cuban Communist Party and the Ministry of Energy and Mines, who met in a room that had both power an air conditioning.
As expected, the president blamed the U.S. embargo for the situation, stating that the blackout is “yet another demonstration of all the problems that the blockade is causing us.” Claiming that he was not trying to give a long, tedious answer, he added, “Sometimes people say, no, that it is due to inefficiency, that they want to annoy people.” Scattered among the president’s complaints were clues about the current energy situation. “First, we do not have the fuel we need. Also, we have not been able to conduct the needed repairs. And all of that is due to the [hard] currency situation, currency that we do not have because of financial persecution, and the fuel that we do not have because of the energy persecution. It is the blockade. It is because of the intensified blockade of these times,” he concluded.
He asked the public for the usual “understanding of the situation, of the complexity of the moment we are experiencing.” Without going into too much detail about the magnitude of his words, he also said, “Even when we get out of this situation, of the total ’disconnection’ that we had, we will still be in this emergency [situation], which will vary depending on the results of a series of efforts that we have made [to secure] financing and available fuel.”
Díaz-Canel explained that, even after the island’s power grid is restored, Cuba will still face power cuts, for which he tried to avoid taking responsibility. “It is a tense, complex situation that is not solely dependent on the wishes being expressed or the desire to resolve this situation,” he said. “It also has to do with objective problems of fuel availability, financing availability and availability of electrical generating capacity at this time.”
“It’s a tense, complex situation that is not solely dependent on the wishes being expressed”
With regard to transport, the minister of that portfolio, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, reported that airports are operational thanks to their generators but there have been problems in maintaining the movement of inter-provincial trains and buses due to the fuel shortage. In the capital, where the situation is less uncertain than in other provinces, 125 micro-buses will be running on Saturday out of the 243 normally in operation, along with 74 of the 150 electric tricycles, said Rodríguez Dávila.
An employee at Havana’s José Martí International Airport told 14ymedio that, although the air terminal has, so far, been able to rely on its own generator, airport officials believe they will run out of fuel by 11:00 AM on Sunday. “If they don’t give us the go-ahead [to refuel the generators] now, we will have to close the place down,” he said. He also noted that Cubana de Aviación has scheduled a Saturday flight for the presidential IL96 aircraft. While he dares not speculate as to why, one idea seems tempting to him. “I hope they take off and leave all this behind. If they do abandon the country, it will happen like this, in the middle of a massive blackout, so that no one finds out.”
Even the U.S. Embassy in Havana issued a statement asking its citizens on the island to take extreme precautions. “Today, Cuba’s entire power grid was shut down due to the failure of one of the country’s main power plants. It is not yet known when power will be restored. Emergency services are expected to continue to operate but U.S. citizens in Cuba, or those planning to travel there, should take precautions. Internet and cell phone service outages are also reported,” the embassy posted on X.
According to a Havana airport employee, the air terminal only has enough fuel to last till Sunday morning
Cubans have known something is going on since Prime Minister Manuel Marrero appeared on Cuban television Thursday night. In his speech, which lasted less than an hour, he announced that the government had decided to “paralyze the economy in order to guarantee a minimum level of electrical service.”
The information had been previously released by the UNE, which issued a statement indicating that “non-vital services that generate energy costs” would be suspended. These include educational activities at all levels from Friday to Sunday. Additionally, cultural activities, discos, recreation centers and “other activities that generate high concentrations of people” would be suspended, both in state and private sectors.
Only vital facilities such as hospitals and food production operations will remain while essential workers will remain at their jobs.
Meanwhile, the director of the country’s state owned oil company, CUPET, explained that a ship loaded with fuel oil, “which the country purchased with extraordinary effort, arrived on the 9th [of October]. However, this coincided with the arrival of bad weather and it was not able to dock in Matanzas until the 14th.” The ship in question, which the director did not name, is the Equality, a vessel registered in Tanzania. It is one of the ships the country uses to transport cargo, in this case fuel, between between Cuban ports.
References to the construction of solar-energy farms and plans to eliminate fossil fuel dependency fell on deaf ears now that Cubans find themselves in complete darkness and without a viable short-term solution.
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The minister explained the causes of the debacle in the sector: “lack of tires, batteries, parts and spare parts, lubricants, oil and special liquids”
s of August, not even half of the planned number of passengers had been transported in Santiago de Cuba
14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2024 — It was just a matter of time before Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the “Minister of Facebook,” reported on how the total blackout in which the Island is immersed has fatally injured Cuban transport. The “contingency of the electricity system” – the usual euphemism with which the official press insists on describing the massive energy debacle – has been disastrous for the whole country, but especially, the official reported, for the eastern provinces.
The train and bus routes that connect Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Bayamo, Manzanillo and Guantánamo with Havana – a transport network that has been showing signs of exhaustion for at least eight months – have been severely affected by the lack of fuel. Therefore, in the face of the most recent blackout, they face “complex conditions due to various operational aspects, related to fuel supply,” according to Rodríguez himself, but this is only the icing on the cake.
The situation within the provinces is even worse. In Santiago de Cuba, the provincial transport company, since the first half of the year, has fulfilled only 45.7% of its plan for the period, which translates into less than half of the passengers it had planned to transport.
Rodríguez ventured to explain the causes of the debacle in the sector: “the lack of tires, batteries, parts and spare parts, lubricants, oil and special liquids for the sustainability of the fleets. On the other hand, only 56.1% of the fuel planned for the first eight months of the year has been available. The above aggravates the working conditions, organization and quality of services.” continue reading
“The figures from Granma province are even more serious than those of Santiago de Cuba,” the minister also said on his social networks
“The figures from Granma province are even more serious than those of Santiago de Cuba,” the minister also said on his social networks. The numbers support that sad panorama in the province, where the company failed to comply with the provincial plan by 76.4% and operates only 7.7% of the bus fleet, which received only 21.9% of the fuel that corresponded to it in that period.
The “alternative” vehicles, such as electric tricycles – allegedly prepared to overcome the fuel shortage – have not been an efficient solution in Granma province either. Despite the fact that the authorities, including Rodríguez Dávila himself, have promoted them as the solution to all the mobility problems of the Island, the service is not well organized. It is insufficient, of low quality and unable to help the Island recover from the general blackout.
The situation resembles those of other eastern provinces such as Holguín, where at the end of August, only 37.7% of the trips originally scheduled had been made.
The data show a compliance of 17.3% in the case of urban buses, 56.9% for interurban buses, 30.9% for public transport and 45.1% for rural buses. “The province has assets of just over 50% its buses, which have less than a third of the fuel planned for the eight months of the year,” the minister said.
In Guantánamo, the data are almost identical to those of the other provinces. Less than half of the passengers were carried, only 44% of the vehicles are still in operation, and the fuel allocation was barely one-fifth of what was needed.
Rodríguez Dávila introduces in his reports phrases such as, “Behind the complex situation of transport in each territory there are very sharp financial and resource limitations”; “It is not something that can be solved in only one visit”; and, “It is possible to reverse all this” – hoping to appease public opinion. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to explain to Cubans why, in the midst of a general blackout, only planes continue to operate, flying in and out of in the country.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Taken in Camajuaní in 2023, published in El Estornuso in April 2023
Iván García, 22 August 2024 — At half past two in the morning, the blackout. Luciano opened the last drawer of the wardrobe, took a piece of cardboard and went to the room where his 8-year-old son was sleeping. His wife was already cooling him with a fan. The mosquitoes buzzed like aeroplanes in his ears. An hour later, the boy burst into tears because of the heat. She brought him water and started to tell him children’s stories in an attempt to calm him down.
Luciano, his mother, his wife and his son live in a dilapidated building in the municipality of Sandino, some 220 kilometres west of Havana. They live a hard life, like most Cubans. They have no relatives abroad to send them dollars. Luciano’s family comes from a village in the mountainous Escambray region of the former Las Villas province.
“My parents owned a small farm where, in addition to growing coffee, they kept pigs, sheep and chickens. The authorities accused my father of helping guerrilla groups fighting against the government and sentenced him to twelve years in prison. They confiscated everything from him and forcibly transferred my mother, alone, to a captive village in the municipality of Sandino. My father was released from prison after serving half of his sentence, he died twenty years ago,” says Luciano, who was born in Pinar del Río.
“I remember my mother working as a tobacco picker and collector. She is 86 now and suffers from osteoarthritis and urinary incontinence. I earn my living as a day labourer growing rice and crops. In the good months my salary is 8,000 to 10,000 pesos, but that money isn’t enough to feed four people. That’s why I go fishing in the lagoon, where there are plenty of trout, some I take home, the others I sell”, says Luciano and explains that the problem is not only food, but also the shortage of drinking water, which only comes every forty days. continue reading
“Every two days I have to carry dozens of buckets of water from a turbine two kilometres away to the third floor of the building where we live. Several neighbours go in a cart and make two or three trips. A miserable life. In their free time, the men pass the time with cockfighting or a group of friends drinking a couple of bottles of rum and relieving their frustrations. In these villages there is no future. The younger people go off to the city or they emigrate. We are left, the oldest assholes, who never try to do anything to change our destiny.”
His flat is in urgent need of a lick of paint. There are dark patches on some parts of the ceiling due to damp caused by leaks from broken pipes. The termites have shattered the Miami-style windows. The most valuable object is an old Haier refrigerator, that the dictator Fidel Castro bought for a knock-down price in China when he implemented the so-called ’energy revolution’ in 2006, which was supposed to save the country’s electricity. Eighteen years later, the fridge is hardly working. The gaskets of the equipment have come loose and Luciano’s solution was to screw a crude metal clip on the door that allows the fridge to be opened and shut.
The furniture in the flat is ancient. The television set, with a 21-inch screen, has cathode ray tubes. In the kitchen hang two slotted spoons, two cast-iron pans, and a rice cooker that has lost its enamel. The three beds in the two rooms need to be replaced, as do the mattresses. “When the old woman urinates, as we don’t have disposable pads, we have to carry the mattress up to the roof of the building to dry it out in the sun. And when the water crisis hits, we relieve ourselves in nylon bags, which we then dump in the fields.
Luciano believes that in 2014 they were still eating well, by Cuban nutritional standards. “We had bread with tortillas and coffee with milk for breakfast and what was left over from dinner for lunch. We ate pork frequently, fish, chicken and sometimes beef, which I bought under the counter and a pound cost 25 or 30 pesos. Nowadays, a pound of beef is not less than 1,200 pesos. We couldn’t go to a hotel in Varadero, but we had breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. Now we can only eat once a day.
According to a study carried out last July by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, extreme poverty on the island is close to 90 percent of the population. According to surveys by the Food Monitor Program, Cuban families currently spend almost all of their income on food, whether they have a low or a good income, whether they receive dollars or not. Nutrient deficits, lack of food hygiene, and the stress associated with food insecurity are “is having adverse consequences for the health of Cubans,” the organisation says.
Likewise, the “phenomenon of hidden hunger”, used by the FAO to describe prolonged undernourishment, is “very common in Cuban society”, which consumes more carbohydrates and sugars while going without fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat and dairy products, which has led to high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and gastritis, among other ailments, said Food Monitor.
But it is not only food that is missing in Cuba. Basic services such as electricity, liquefied gas and public transport hardly work. Blackouts outside Havana often last eight to ten hours a day, or more. The shortage of medicines is more than 65 percent. Rubbish piles up for days in the streets, especially in the capital, which is dirtier and more abandoned than cities in other provinces. Due to breaks in the aqueduct, 50 per cent of the drinking water that is distributed does not reach homes or is lost through leaks. Hospitals are a mess. Patients must bring disposable syringes and cotton wool, among other supplies. And if you want good care, you need to give money or gifts to the doctors and nurses.
“The water supply cycles in the neighbourhoods of Holguín exceed 55 days,” says Yoss from Holguín. From Santiago de Cuba, Rudy says that in several areas of that city they have been without drinking water for more than 60 days. “The houses are full of containers. Those who have dollars build huge cisterns. For lack of water, despite the tremendous heat, there are people who bathe every two days. It’s as if they were in a war.
Many Cubans see no way out of the country’s structural crisis. For Luciano, from Pinar del Río, there are three options: “Emigrate, continue to put up with it or take to the streets to protest. Either we put on our trousers, like the Venezuelans, or this government starves us to death”.
In Holguín, hospitals are in the dark, and anguish is growing before the arrival of Hurricane Oscar
There are mile-long lines to buy propane to cook food before it rots in the refrigerators
The situation has escaped the hands of the authorities / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Mercedes García/Miguel García, Sancti Spíritus/Holguín, 20 October 2024 — When Olimpia saw last Friday that her entire neighborhood in Sancti Spíritus was in a blackout, she thought that the episode was just one more of the many they have been having for weeks, when the daily deficit of the Electric Union did not fall below 1,000 megawatts. It was not until a neighbor uttered the words “total disconnection” that her concern skyrocketed. In the last two days, her block only recovered service once, this Sunday morning, only to lose it again soon after.
“The whole night all of Sancti Spíritus was in the dark,” explains the woman, who has seen the city transform into a ghost town in a few hours. “People only go out to buy food, but there is not even that. Many have lost all the food they had because without a refrigerator it begins to rot. The bread that is mainly supplied by private bakeries also suddenly disappeared,” she says.
Olimpia explains that the bread from the bodega (ration store) continues to arrive, but – she highlights – those places have not been spared from the consequences of the general blackout. “Since there is no current, they are selling all the rationed chicken that came in for the ration quota until it runs out in all the bodegas. It’s one small piece of chicken thigh, but people buy it even if they have to cook it right away so it doesn’t spoil.”
Olimpia, like other Cubans, saw her parents and grandparents “resolve” with what they could to overcome any situation. The inventiveness she received by inheritance, however, did not prepare her for a situation like the present one, she says. “People are going crazy watching what they eat, how they cook. Gas lines have become impossible. They suspended the tickets in the on-line application because, since there is no connection, there is no way to know if it was your turn. Only the physical line works. I signed up and have a number close to 700,” she says. continue reading
The bodegas have started selling the rationed chicken to prevent it from spoiling / 14ymedio
The alternatives in these days of uncertainty, she says, are few: “In several places they sold some broth for eight pesos.” In practice, Cubans have had to manage as they can. “This morning I was able to charge my generator and am using it only for the fridge, so that my meat doesn’t spoil. Otherwise, I stay in the dark,” she states.
Olimpia has been able to communicate very little with her family, which she finds – as she explains – as uninformed as she is. “The radio works occasionally. This morning I was able to listen to it for three or four hours, but the news gave little information, and the only useful thing they said is that in this area, at least until Wednesday, there will be no electricty.” The internet connection, she continues, has also been “terrible” these days. “The cell phone continues to show 3G or 4G, but in reality you can’t send messages or make calls. The information that people have is what they hear from the neighbor, who in turn heard it from someone else.”
The movement of the authorities also does not give any indication that there will be changes soon. “There is an orientation for workplaces that they cannot turn on the generators, and those who turn them on out of necessity cannot turn on air conditioners or computers. Only the essentials. The transport is not working either. There is only one bus going around in the mornings, but there are almost no people on the streets.”
One thing, however, has caught Olympia’s attention these last few days: “The military is running around like crazy ants.” “There are policemen and agents everywhere, especially those in green uniforms that say Operational Guard. I don’t know what they are doing, but they are mobilized,” explains the woman, who saw an army vehicle pick up two neighbors from her block. “The wife of one of them told me that she has not yet heard from him,” she adds.
In Holguín, Manuel has seen the same symptoms of the crisis. Refrigerators full of spoiled meals, the stench of garbage accumulated for days, the scarcity of water that begins to hit families and, to top it off, the arrival of Hurricane Oscar this Sunday that keeps the people distressed by the scarce resources they have and the little information they receive.
Many people have spent up to 12 hours in line to buy something / 14ymedio
“I had to go out to a field on the outskirts of the city to be able to contact my family. I got as close as I could to an antenna, and although the connection was bad, I was able to call. However, all the numbers I dialed were off or out of the coverage area,” Manuel explains .
The situation in the provincial capital, he summarizes, is “as everywhere”: dark. “I talked to my 70-year-old grandmother, who lives in the San Rafael neighborhood, and she told me that she had to cook with wood,” says Manuel, who explains that in recent hours the residents in the city have bought out the propane tanks to stock up before the effects of Oscar are felt in the province. “The lines are miles-long, with hundreds of customers waiting to buy. There are people who got in line at two or three in the morning, and after 12 hours they are still there,” he says.
A visit with his sick mother in the Lucía Iñiguez Surgical Clinical Hospital allowed him to see a side of the crisis that he would never have imagined. “Everywhere they say that electricity has been prioritized to hospitals, but when I entered all the doctors were giving consultations in the dark,” he recalls.
The tension, he explains, could be felt in the corridors, where even the doctors and nurses openly expressed their discontent. “I passed by a consultation and listened to a doctor, very frustrated because there is no staff even to perform operations. At the moment they are only attending to emergencies, but the situation worsens as the cases accumulate,” says Manuel, who heard the health worker complain about the lack of resources. “He said that he recently had to give a patient a list of everything he had to get to have an operation, from syringes and catheters to antibiotics and topical anesthesia,” he adds.
I also heard two nurses complain that Public Health does not give them time off because many people have left. There is a lack of staff in the internal pharmacy, in the operating rooms, in the specialist consultations,” he lists, saying that, at first glance, you can see that “the hospital is almost empty.”
The situation has escaped the hands of the authorities, who do not even efficiently reach the population to explain the collapse of the SEN or the arrival of Hurricane Oscar. And the confluence of the two worries Cubans. “Since they reported this disaster at the national level, people are very upset,” reflects Olimpia, who soon abandons the theme and returns to reality: “What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Deodorant, toothpaste and other basic necessities are available only in private stores and shops that take foreign currency
Sellers increase their prices and “take advantage of the problem” with toiletries / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 19 October 2024 — Anyone who wishes to purchase personal hygiene products in Cienfuegos at a reasonable price will have to travel the whole city without the guarantee of obtaining what they are looking for. Deodorant, toothpaste and other basic necessities have disappeared from state establishments. When they are found, they are displayed on private business tables and shelves at prices unattainable for the majority of the population. Wearing perfume, therefore, has become a luxury that few allow themselves.
“Buying a deodorant in a store in MLC (freely convertible currency) is simply impossible,” complains Irene, a Cienfueguera in her 40s. “The few times they put it out, it’s quickly monopolized by merchants who then resell it at a minimum price of 800 pesos.” This Monday morning, she says, she walked all over the Paseo del Prado and saw them priced at up to 2,500 pesos. “In my house there are four people, and between my husband and me we earn only 7,000 pesos per month. I get like the Cockroach Martina,* with the difference that with that money we can’t buy anything,” she adds.
According to this mother – she has two sons – the shortage of this type of article is more pressing in rural areas. There, she says, private merchants raise prices more and “take advantage of the problem. While in the city of Cienfuegos a common soap costs 160 pesos, in Palmira it can be worth 200 or 250, depending on the seller. The saddest thing is that this is our only option. Whoever depends on the ’basic family basket’ [from the rationing system] in Cienfuegos cannot bathe.”
Michel, owner of a restaurant, says that he allocates no less than 5,000 pesos a month just for toiletries
For his part, Michel, owner of a restaurant, says that he allocates no less than 5,000 pesos a month just for toiletries. “I’ve always liked to put on cologne after bathing. Touring the points of sale on the boulevard, the cheapest price is around 1,500 pesos, and in the Eureka store, for example, continue reading
the most affordable is 7 MLC,” he says. “I wonder how people who don’t receive financial aid from abroad and those who receive the miserable salary that the Cuban government pays to its workers can buy these things.”
This self-employed person says, however, that some time ago it was relatively easy to buy soap and detergent at private businesses, to name just two products. However, with the most recent government measures, these items have also been lost from these establishments. “Along the Calzada de Dolores you could find what was necessary, and there was even variety. Today it is a tremendous headache to get the essentials to keep the house clean and, in my case, also the business,” emphasizes Michel.
In the private shops on San Carlos Street, toothpaste costs between 1,300 and 2,000 pesos / 14ymedio
In the private shops that are located along San Carlos Street, toothpaste can be found for a price between 1,300 and 2,000 pesos, depending on the brand and the quality of the product. “I don’t buy a tube of toothpaste every month, but the mere purchase is almost a family sacrifice,” says Annia, who just bought the item in a private store. “There is no alternative but to save as much as possible, because it is not an optional product: it directly affects health.”
This Cienfuguera confesses that she must juggle to keep her clothes well washed, and having shampoo and hair conditioner is practically a whim: “We have been plunged into horrifying misery. People, in addition to being hungry, are neglected and dirty, experiencing extreme needs that threaten the quality of life and existence itself. Misery has even crept into our skin, and it will be very difficult to eliminate it.”
*Translator’s note: A story told to children about a cockroach that finds a penny and doesn’t know where to spend it.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Ferrer (left) and Navarro (right), were imprisoned during Cuba’s Black Spring in 2003. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Peter Corzo, Miami, 20 October 2024 — The prison systems of the Castro-Chavez regimes are particularly cruel and merciless. They establish such miserable conditions of survival that people subsist thanks to unbending moral values and the unbreakable brotherhood generated by perpetually lurking death.
Food is precarious, medical care is non-existent and, even worse, selective. The sick are treated based on instructions given by an official who is governed by political patrons, not by the health of the patient. Overcrowding is the rule, never the exception, and family visits are subject to the whims of a henchman, who arbitrarily suspends them, in addition to the innumerable difficulties for the family to provide goods or visit the inmate.
In these countries there are prisons that epitomize the extreme evil of the regime, without the rest of the dungeons being five-star hotels.
Food is precarious, medical care is non-existent and, even worse, selective
In Nicaragua, the Chipote fortress is by far the most frightening; in Venezuela this miserable honor corresponds to the Helicoide; Bolivia is not far behind with colonial prisons; and in Cuba there continue reading
are many incarceration centers that can be considered antechambers of hell, in addition to being perhaps the country with the most prisons and political prisoners in the world, relative to its size and population.
In the prisons of each and every one of these countries there are prisoners who symbolize the cause that brought them to prison. People of absolute dedication and unfading courage, always ready for extreme sacrifice, like Armando Sosa Fortuny, who died in prison after having served 43 years in two stages, a death that looms over other patriots like Ernesto Borges, who served 26 years in prison last July, and Miguel Diaz Bouza, who completed his 30-year prison sentence on October 15 and remains behind bars.
In these 65 years of Castroism, more than half a million prisoners have passed through Cuban prisons, and have been behind bars for between one day and 30 years. In addition, many prisons have been distinguished as the most cruel and sadistic, among them the Castillo de San Severino, La Cabaña, Puerto Boniato, Guanajay, the National Prison on the Isle of Pines, Siete y Medio and Kilo Siete, while some prisoners have been examples of resistance and capacity for sacrifice, among others, Cari Roque, Pedro Luis Boitel, Mario Chanes de Armas, Roberto Martin Pérez and Amado Rodríguez.
There are currently at least two political prisoners, among a host of men and women in prison, who in my opinion symbolize everyone’s commitment to freedom and civil rights.
In Cuba, there are many prisons that can be considered antechambers of hell
José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, two opponents of totalitarianism who were imprisoned during the Cuban Black Spring in 2003 and released in 2011, refused to go into exile, despite being aware that they would return to prison because they would never give up on their efforts to free Cuba and Cubans from totalitarianism.
Ferrer, who was last arrested on 11 July 2021, tried to take part in the civic protests that took place across the island, and has since suffered continued ill-treatment by the regime. His family denounces the abuses he suffers, in particular the extreme isolation to which he is systematically subjected as part of Raúl Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel’s plan to “bury him alive.” Again, in recent days, his wife was prevented from visiting him with their children.
Félix Navarro is in the gloomy prison of Agüica, in the province of Matanzas, a prison that has had a very bad reputation since the 1970s, due to the abusive henchmen and the diabolical conditions of its facilities.
Navarro, leader of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy and vice president of the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba, was also sentenced to nine years in prison for the 2021 national protests. Since last June, he has not received medication for the chronic illness he suffers from, a common practice of Castro’s henchmen working in the prison system.
Navarro and Ferrer should not be forgotten. To paraphrase a song by Albita Rodríguez: “They have the honor of having been born in Cuba and loving the freedom crushed by the Castros and their hitmen.”
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Despair is growing after almost 30 hours without electricity, which could last much longer
A truck parked this Saturday morning in front of the Miguel Enríquez hospital, in Havana, sells candles and cookies at exorbitant prices / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 19 October 2024 — The prelude to the total blackout was, for Magaly, very similar to a horror movie. The TV screen lost intensity, the fans began to move the blades in slow motion, and the refrigerator’s surge protector – whose red light turns on the alarm of any Cuban home – went off. The woman, retired in Santa Clara and a veteran of the Special Period, launched her “protocol” to save food.
Months of intense blackouts have prepared her for any scenario. Without wasting time, she took half a dozen bottles – real “blocks” of ice – from the freezer and placed them in the main compartment. “This keeps the cold in a little, but even if the door isn’t opened, the food will eventually spoil,” she explains.
The first to succumb are the vegetables and fruits. The meat lasts a little longer, but after several days it follows the same path. Cooked beans and stews do not survive very well. “I lost a papaya, in addition to a couple of jars of beans and cucumbers pickled in vinegar. Now I have to start sorting and throwing things away,” she says.
Classifying means arranging food in chronological order, according to its expiration date
Classifying means arranging the food in chronological order, according to its expiration date. Throwing it away means losing resources and money in a country where food, in itself expensive, borders on the prohibitive in times of disaster. And, for Magaly, the “total disconnection” announced this Friday by the Ministry of Energy and Mines is a national catastrophe, like a hurricane.
In fact, the atmosphere on the streets of the city is similar to when a hurricane is expected: a swarm of people in front of each food stall, huge lines in front of stores, prices that go up as the hours go by. “The bag of cookies that cost you 250 pesos yesterday costs 270 today,” says a woman. “Not everyone can afford it. In the private stores that sell food, this Friday, because of the blackout, neither ham nor croquettes could be delivered. There is a lack of supply for everything and a lot of demand.” continue reading
The WhatsApp groups for the bodegas (ration stores) have become fashionable, where the administrator alerts people when “two little pounds of rice” or “anything” has arrived.” At midnight a message appeared in the chat: “Please, the milk for children has just arrived. Be considerate.” Magalys translates: the bodega wants them to go as quickly as possible because the milk was about to spoil. At two in the morning, other bodegas in Santa Clara sent similar messages to their customers.
The early morning was hard. Children were crying in every neighborhood; telephones – the only source of escape for many – couldn’t be charged; and flashlights ran out of battery. “It’s hopeless,” says Magaly. “At least the night was cool.”
“People who have a freezer with food are trying not to open it to see if it can keep cold”
With almost 30 hours of blackout in the municipality of Colón, Jorge, a teacher at a local high school, sees that the food in his refrigerator is on its last legs. “We had to cook everything,” he says. “We lit a charcoal burner in the doorway – it’s raining on the patio – and we threw on a piece of liver. It was the only thing left and it wasn’t going to last much longer.” In the absence of gas and electricity, the old wood stoves have shown that, unfortunately, they are not objects of the past.
Jorge has not had electricity since Friday morning; Susana, a resident of Remedios, Villa Clara, has been in a blackout since Thursday night. “People who have a freezer with food are trying not to open it to see if it can keep cold,” he says, “but those of us who only have a refrigerator already had to eat what we had left.”
This Friday, Susana and her family dismantled a package of chicken whose “shelf life” they planned to extend for a longer time. They took the pieces and cooked them on charcoal. “We invited the neighbors next door, who also had to finish off some tamales. They do spoil very quickly.”
In Camajuaní, a few kilometers from Remedios, Carmen, a housewife, could not save the milk or the little rice she had reserved. “Everything I had frozen was lost a while ago. Anything with bones – like chicken – I made yesterday; I’ll cook the rest today. At this rate, everything will have to be cooked.”
Wood fires are flaring up throughout Cuba, not only to save food but to have some light and a place to crowd around and talk. Without phones or radios to inform themselves, people are feeling uncomfortable and given to venting. An increasingly accentuated anger has filled the place. This Friday, Magalys was afraid that “something big” could happen.
The Government has announced some measures so that people “have food and some vital products”
The Government has announced some measures so that people “have food and some vital products.” In Cienfuegos, says the State newspaper Granma, a “comprehensive agricultural fair” is being prepared for all municipalities.
Meanwhile, in Havana, a truck parked this Saturday morning in front of the Miguel Enríquez hospital. The line did not take long to form, but the “reinforcements” to weather the storm are minimal: cookies at 1,300 pesos and a package of candles – made in Cuba – at 750. A woman’s reaction to the anti-blackout kit says it all: “Is this what they send us? What am I going to pay for it with?”
Checking the local news pages, such as the CMHW in Villa Clara or the bulletins of the Electric Union itself, provides a good inventory of curses to hurl at the regime. The complaints range from personal insults to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and requests for his resignation to jokes: “We should send a letter to the Space Station,” says a reader, “explaining to them that they are not going to see Cuba at night in the next few days.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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’Cubadebate’ mentions without further details the “mistakes made” by Jaime Ernesto Chiang
In the center, Chiang Vega, and on the right, Cruz Reyes, in a photo with Manuel Pérez Gallego, member of the Central Committee / Trabajadores
14ymedio, Havana, October 19, 2024 — Jaime Ernesto Chiang Vega, the man who told Parliament in 2023 that Las Tunas – the province under his command – was “ungovernable,” was dismissed this Saturday by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in the middle of the energy debacle. With him went his deputy governor, Ernesto Cruz, who sent the president a “resignation request” after “incurring violations in the exercise of his responsibilities.”
While the whole country suffers a second day without electricity, Cubadebate reserved a place on its front page to report that Díaz-Canel, “making use of the powers conferred on him,” dismissed both politicians and informed the Provincial Council.
The statement alludes to the “mistakes made” by Chiang that caused his removal, but Cubadebate does not say a word about the failures attributed to him. In the case of his deputy governor, the “process of revocation of office” came “from above.” Chiang is replaced by Eduardo Walter Cuelí, current coordinator of Programs and Objectives of the provincial government, the next on the promotion ladder in Las Tunas.
The lack of transparency and the strange circumstances in which both dismissals occurred have been noticed by users on Cubadebate’s Facebook page – not just on its website. “Why did they replace him? Where’s the Communication Law that says you have to tell the truth about everything and not censor?” complained user Rogelio Loyola. continue reading
“We are still waiting to hear about the mistakes of the Minister of Economy”
Another, knowing that the Government rarely gives information about the “mistakes” of its officials, said: “We are still waiting to hear about the mistakes of the Minister of Economy,” referring to Alejandro Gil, whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Last April, the governor of Cienfuegos, Alexandre Corona, also “resigned” from his position after “recognizing mistakes” committed during his four years of administration. These exits are added to the unusual number of changes of political figures in Cuba, both at the regional level within the Communist Party and in several ministries of the country.
A year ago, all the governors were voted in for five-year terms, but for various reasons these provinces have had to seek replacements in advance. In these cases, the delegates vote on the governors proposed made by the country’s president, and so far there have only been majority ratifications. Thus, the so-called “movements of the cadres” accumulate on the Island, ranging from the dismissal of the first provincial secretaries of the Party to ministers.
In December 2023, Chiang appeared before the National Assembly to account for the situation in Las Tunas, one of the provinces that had done the worst that year. His speech, which he delivered with a serious face and a thick report in his hand, ended up summarizing the “situation of ungovernability and disobedience in the population,” which he attributed to the “enemies of the Revolution.”
Chiang intended to exonerate his administration from the alarming figures that he himself provided: 34 entities that did not comply with their plans due to “lack of demand, rigor and responsibility on the part of some cadres”; 1,481 million pesos missing from his total net sales plan; “deficient collection management”; “chains of nonpayments”; “insufficient economic and financial administration”; and, in short, an expenditure of 185 million pesos more than the state budget allowed, 3.511 billion.
“Between El Chino and El Gallego they went from bad to worse for the working people”
Their solution to obtain money was to use force. Their “confronting crime” campaign, which resulted in some 8,488 “control actions” to collect overdue fines and detect irregularities, gave the State 15,531 million pesos. Judging by this Saturday’s announcement, it was not enough.
Among the people of Las Tunas, neither Chiang nor his deputy governor – nicknamed El Gallego (the Spaniard) and El Millonario (the Millionaire) – had a good reputation. A resident of the provincial capital tells this newspaper that both politicians ignored government management and concentrated on protecting several owners of private businesses that had “monopolized the sale of food.” “Chiang is just a scapegoat,” he adds, “but it’s true that between El Chino and El Gallego they went from bad to worse for the working people.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The opponent thus denied the statement of the Government of Nicolás Maduro, who had said shortly before that the former deputy “fled the country to Spain”
Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado / Facebook
EFE (14ymedio), Caracas, October 17, 2024 — María Corina Machado denied the statements of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who said on Wednesday that the opposition leader had fled the country to Spain. “Venezuelans know that I’m here in Venezuela. The people know it and Nicolás Maduro also knows it. Maduro’s government is desperate to know where I am, and I’m not going to give them that pleasure,” the opponent said in an interview with the EVTV channel.
The Venezuelan government had said that Machado “fled the country to Spain,” where the standard-bearer of the opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, considered the winner of the last presidential elections on July 28 by the Spanish Congress of Deputies, is exiled.
In a televised event, Maduro – proclaimed re-elected by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council – said that “la sayona” – as he usually refers in a derogatory way to Machado – “also left” the country and “fled” to “a very good bar in Spain.”
“I’m here with the Venezuelans, here, obviously protecting myself and taking care of myself because I’m not going to give them the pleasure of knowing where I am,” Machado told EVTV without specifying if she was guarded in a diplomatic headquarters within the country. continue reading
Although Nicolás Maduro did not mention the name of the opponent in his statements, the Minister of Communication, Freddy Ñáñez, said on Telegram that, according to the president, “María Corina Machado fled the country to Spain.”
Specifically, Maduro said: “I have a secret for you, but I don’t know, do you know how to keep a secret? (…) Who likes gossip? (…) It turns out that the old man [in reference to González Urrutia] left a month ago, (…) and the “La Sayona” also left, fled, fled, (…) finally left, to a very good bar there in Spain, (…) she went there. Please don’t tell this to anyone.”
“I’m here with the Venezuelans, here, obviously protecting myself and taking care of myself because I’m not going to give them the pleasure of knowing where I am”
La Sayona is a woman who, according to Venezuelan legend, appears in the form of a ghost and punishes unfaithful men.
Last Monday, Maduro, without giving names or direct references, said that “she” had left the country, despite the fact that she has been banned from leaving the national territory since June 2014.
“Don’t tell anyone, she left the country, my sources tell me that she fled (…) they are cowards, they are good at sending messages of hatred and intolerance, but she left, she took her Gucci suitcases and left,” he said again, without pronouncing her name.
González Urrutia, leader of the main opposition coalition, the Democratic United Platform, arrived in Madrid on September 8, after requesting asylum due to the political and judicial “persecution” that he suffered in his country after the elections.
After the opponent’s departure, Machado, who claims to be in “hiding” for fear of her “life” and “freedom,” reiterated that she will continue to fight from Venezuela, while González Urrutia will do so “from outside.”
Also, on September 30, the former deputy, in her speech of thanks by videoconference after having won the Václav Havel Human Rights Award, reiterated that she will “continue to fight alongside the Venezuelan people.”
The executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, on Wednesday called Machado a “fraud” and a “dead mosquito,”* whom she accused of asking for sanctions and at the same time speaking in favor of wage increases for workers, who were, according to the official, “severely affected” by those foreign measures.
Machado expressed her “deep admiration and affection” for the educators, who, despite “hunger wages,” have “remained at the forefront of this struggle, with an infinite dedication
“Who has asked for the blockade against Venezuela? Leopoldo López, Julio Borges, Juan Guaidó, María Corina Machado, who then sounds like a dead mosquito* and causes tremendous damage to Venezuela and still today asks for more sanctions, (…) she then, every day, makes videos (saying): ’dear workers, I am with you, workers, and now we are going to fight for Venezuela and for your conditions,’” Rodríguez said.
She insisted that Machado, “whoring for the United States Government, calls for sanctions and a blockade against Venezuela.” The also Minister of Oil called the former deputy and other opponents “tremendous fakes.”
Rodríguez also said that the workers have been in the “vanguard” of the “active resistance against the criminal blockade imposed by Washington with the support of Western countries” and “the call made by the extremists and fascists in Venezuela,” referring to anti-Chavista leaders.
The vice president charged against Machado a few days after the opponent expressed her “deep admiration and affection” for the educators, who, despite “hunger wages,” have “remained at the forefront of this struggle, with an infinite dedication,” according to the former deputy.
*Translator’s note: Or “dead gnat.” In Venezuelan slang this means someone who is trying to act innocent when they’re not.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The data was released by Congressman Hernán Cadavid in a report denouncing the “toxic leadership” of the president
The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro / Europa Press
14ymedio, Madrid, October 16, 2024 — The Colombian Government of Gustavo Petro has made more than 70 trips to Cuba and Venezuela in two years without revealing, in many of those cases, the reasons. The data was released by congressman Hernán Cadavid, of the Democratic Center opposition party, in a report on his social networks, in which he denounces the president’s “toxic leadership.”
In his report, Cadavid points out the “governability crisis” and “instability” within the Executive, through which “more than 124 deputy ministers have passed since August 7.” This is one of the causes of “the very low budget execution and the very high inefficiency” of the current Administration in Colombia.
Cadavid also states that the highest officials of the Executive have traveled abroad more than 855 times, including 50 trips to Venezuela and 21 to Cuba. “What is their purpose with those dictatorships?” the politician wonders in a video on X. He also says that he made 123 formal requests in order access the information; even so, the reasons for many of those trips are unknown.
Cadavid points out the “governability crisis” and the “instability” within the Executive, through which “more than 124 deputy ministers have passed since August 7”
Most of them have been carried out by the Colombian president himself, by the vice president, Francia Márquez, by members of the Ministry of Commerce and the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace. continue reading
Petro’s trips to Cuba have been known because of the peace talks with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), in which Havana acts as a mediator. This is also one of the reasons, according to Blu Radio, why the Colombian president has traveled to Venezuela; for example, in January and November of last year.
On the other hand, Petro has tried to mediate in the crisis in Venezuela after the presidential elections, in which Nicolás Maduro proclaimed himself a winner and which have been denounced as fraud by the opposition and much of the international community. Last month, the Colombian president said that neither his country nor Brazil would recognize Maduro’s victory if the detailed polling place results of the July 28 elections are not presented.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The report points to the case of Mayelín Rodríguez, who was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for “interviewing and broadcasting videos about two girls beaten by agents of the Ministry of the Interior.”
The document points out that “the dictatorship tries to manipulate civil society, especially the limited and battered independent journalism” / 14ymedio
EFE (via 14ymedio), Córdoba (Argentina), 18 October 2024 — A report presented at the 80th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), still pending approval, denounces the recent increase in the “offensive” against unofficial journalism in Cuba through “psychological harassment,” arrests of journalists and summons from State Security.
“The umpteenth offensive against independent journalism (in Cuba) has been unleashed in September in the form of summons, preceded by different measures of psychological harassment by the authorities,” says the report presented at the meeting that is taking place these days in Córdoba (Argentina).
The document points out that “as before every new election in the United States, the dictatorship tries to hobble civil society, especially the limited and battered independent journalism.”
It denounces the case of Mayelín Rodríguez, who was sentenced in May to 15 years in prison for “interviewing and transmitting videos about two girls beaten by agents of the Ministry of the Interior” during a protest against the blackouts in Nuevitas. continue reading
The IAPA, founded in 1943, also mentions in its report that the Cuban digital media El Toque, based in Florida, was the subject of a “discredit campaign by the government propaganda apparatus” that blames it for being behind the depreciation of the Cuban peso against the dollar and the euro in the informal market.
El Toque reports daily on the value of the Cuban currency based on the buying and selling offers published on social networks.
“The umpteenth offensive against independent journalism has been unleashed in September in the form of summons, preceded by different measures of psychological harassment by the authorities”
While the dollar is currently listed at 325 Cuban pesos according to this media, which has become a benchmark for the street and economists, the official exchange rate is still fixed at one dollar for 24 pesos (for legal entities) and one dollar for 120 pesos (for individuals).
The document also denounces the arrests, assaults and interrogations of unofficial journalists such as Camila Acosta, José Luis Tan and Julio Aleaga, as well as the closure of the digital music magazine Magazine Am/Pm due to “harassment by State Security.”
The IAPA report on Cuba also criticizes the Social Communication Law, which came into force in early October, because it “strengthens the repression of press freedom.”
The aforementioned regulation, the first of its kind in Cuba in 70 years, ignores the unofficial press, allows commercial advertising for the first time since the triumph of the revolution, sanctions the political alignment of authorized media and regulates digital phenomena (including influencers), among other issues.
The law has been harshly criticized by NGOs and media outside the State orbit, who argue that it censors content contrary to the official narrative and leaves independent digital newspapers adrift.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A private business in Havana. Taken from El Toque.
Iván García, 26 August 2024 — Three years ago, in the summer of 2021, just a month after thousands of Cubans took to the streets to shout for freedom, the grey-haired ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, handpicked by dictator Raúl Castro to run the country, authorised the opening of small and medium-sized businesses on the island. It was a measure that had been “studied” for ten years with the typical eagerness of communist regimes, where urgency is an unknown concept.
Yoel, 56, was not taken by surprise by the ’new regulations for economic actors’ announced on 19 August and due to come into force a month later, on 19 September. He always knew that a private entrepreneur is a presumed criminal in the eyes of the government. “Those of us who live in Cuba learned to negotiate to survive in the midst of scarcity,” he says, driving a second-hand Toyota Corola.
“From when I was a child in my house, people used to buy food and clothes on the black market. It was the most normal thing in the world. Hands up anyone who didn’t buy a cheap pair of jeans, a litre of oil or five pounds of beef “under the counter”. When there wasn’t a shortage of bread, there was a shortage of butter. People learned to live by their wits’. Nobody asks where what they are buying came from. They guess. And from a State Security officer to the neighbourhood informer, they are forced to resort to illegalities in order to survive. There are thousands of laws to prohibit and control offences. But nobody takes any notice of them. It’s an unwritten understanding between government and society. They let you do it until they think you’ve crossed the line. Then media campaigns are unleashed against illegalities and police raids and summary prosecutions of those operating in the private sector begin.
“In these 65 years we have been humiliated with various labels: outlaws, hucksters, or leaches on the backs of poor people. Some of these traders have been imprisoned, others have emigrated or have taken a step back until the dust settles. It’s a merry-go-round that repeats itself over and over again”. In his opinion, there is a revolving door on the island where people move from legality to the underground with astonishing ease. He gives an example. “When I was 17, I used to buy dollars, which was illegal and if you were caught you could be sentenced to four years in prison. With those ’illegal dollars’, an Angolan partner bought me clothes in shops for continue reading
foreign technicians, which I then resold on the street.
“I have collected money for the bolita (illegal lottery) and sold beer and bread and steak. Like many Cubans, I have done everything, trying to live as well as possible. When in 1993 they authorised self-employment, I had some money saved up thanks to those little tricks. There is a myth that most of the businesses that emerged in the country were opened with dollars sent by family members living in the United States. In some cases this was true, in others it was not. Many ’bisnes’ in the depths of rural Cuba have been financed with money earned from the sale of food, clothes or construction materials on the black market.
According to Yoel, “these attacks on MSMEs and the self-employed were to be expected. You would have to be very naïve to believe that a government that is anti-capitalist is going to let private businesses prosper. They allow them because the system has broken down. Private business is an umbrella under which these scoundrels protect themselves. They accept us, but with the boot on our backs, a lot of regulations, very high taxes, an army of inspectors who inspect you and when they feel like it, they put you in jail”.
“Opening a business allows you to earn money and live without the crumbs from the state. Most of us are double bookkeepers and under-declare when paying taxes. It’s a war. They screw you with decrees, threats and lies. And we pretend to comply, but then we do whatever we want. When they order businesses to stop, people know what to do. Either they get out of Cuba or they continue to do the same thing informally. Since the emergence of self-employment in 1993, everything has been a government bluff. The private sector is designed for survival, not to make lots of money. These openings serve as international propaganda to sell themselves as reformers.
“We are labelled as entrepreneurs out there. But almost none of us have studied business administration or marketing techniques. In my case, I was a go-getter who worked my way up to owning several businesses. If I see that things are getting hot, I will know that it is time to get on the plane. But behind me, other ’entrepreneurs’ will emerge. Until the system, which is incapable of generating wealth, changes, that will be the the way it goes,” says Yoel.
The owner of two small stores in the old part of Havana, a guy who knows his way around the sewers of the corrupt local bureaucracy, thinks that “it is likely that the government will try to clamp down on MSMEs. This campaign is aimed primarily at autonomous private businesses, which compete against MSMEs run by front men for high-ranking government officials or retired military officers. The reason is simple: they are more efficient and have developed a network of suppliers that works.
“The state, used to receiving dollars from exports, tourism, sales in foreign currency shops and the banking system, thought that we would not be a problem, not least because we could not access foreign currency. But we have been creative. The sales cycles are faster. We have accounts in foreign banks. And to replenish our supplies, we buy dollars on the street at the informal market price. The state-owned companies can’t compete with us even on a tilted playing field” says the entrepreneur.
Dunia, a hairdresser, agrees that “the new regulations are a declaration of war on the private sector. Some will leave the country or shut up shop. Others will start working under the counter. Every Cuban knows that to live in any comfort we have to fend for ourselves. The state can’t even guarantee the seven pounds of rice it provides through the ration card. The government should concern itself with dealing with poverty, not fighting the people who create wealth.
An official of the ONAT, the institution that governs private labour, revealed to Diario Las Américas that the regime’s intention “in addition to more rigorous supervision of the non-state sector, is to recover the two billion that the banking system has stopped receiving. From now on, priority will be given to the opening of state-owned MSMEs. (Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises). Especially in the commerce sector and in companies that are at a standstill or generate losses for the state. There is the intention that political and mass organisations, such as CDR (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) and FMC (Federation of Cuban Women), can open MIPYMES that allow them to finance themselves with small shops in the neighbourhood, as well as private stores, where they can sell food and confectionery at lower prices.
Gustavo, an economist, considers that “these new measures show that the government is living in a surreal world. This interference in private property, the idea that MSMEs should be chained to bankrupt state-owned companies and the earmarking of a voluntary reserve to finance vulnerable sectors is a crazy project. And it will fail. No entrepreneur is going to allow the authorities to use his or her capital to finance Cuba’s failed economic model. For entrepreneurs to use the inefficient national banking system for their purchases abroad is nonsense. For the state to implement MSMEs is absurd. It doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.
The government is well aware of this. Its strategy is to supplant autonomous MSMEs with entities under the control of relatives and government officials. It was already happening. Now the mask has definitely come off.
The storm did not stop the Havana residents who, driven by necessity, went out in search of food and medicine.
Puddles of rainwater have made some streets impassable. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 October 2024 — It has been raining almost continuously in Havana for three days. Several neighborhoods have seen flooding and, with the failure of the country’s entire electric grid on Friday, the situation is becoming increasingly uncertain. Officials have issued several orders in the last twenty-four hours to clean up the city and prevent water from accumulating. Havana residents have taken to the streets out of necessity to buy food and medicine without paying much attention to the storm.
According to the latest report from the Meteorological Institute, the island was hit with a stationary cold front from the west on Wednesday. This, along with the formation of a tropical wave south of Cuba that could become a cyclone in the next forty-eight hours, means the island is looking at a high probability of storms and showers. So far, rain gauges indicate the heaviest rainfall has been in Caibarién (in Villa Clara province), with 6.5 inches; Bainoa (in Mayabeque province), with 5.3 inches; and Bahía Honda, (in Artemisa province), with 3.7 inches.
Havana is not on the list of cities with the heaviest rainfall but there have been ongoing reports of strong storms in the capital for the last three days, weakening walls and columns. A social media post on Friday contained images of the collapse of a colonial-era house on the corner of Muralla and Aguilar streets in Old Havana. Photos show a tree close to the building that had fallen due to strong wind and rains, destroying part of the exterior. continue reading
Havana residents waiting in line to buy medicine. / 14ymedio
Another report from “Escambray,” the official state media outlet of Sancti Spíritus province, contained photos taken by local residents on Thursday in numerous areas of the provincial capital, including the Bay Tunnel, where authorities can be seen walking through ankle-deep water.
Measures announced on the same day by Havana’s local government, however, were of little use. People and vehicles continue to ply the flooded streets while storm drains, which were scheduled to be cleaned, were mostly clogged with trash that the rain washed away from the many piles of garbage to be found throughout the city.
During a tour through Havana’s Tenth of October district on Thursday, 14ymedio visited Concha Street, where the Miguel Enríquez Hospital (known by local residents as “La Benéfica”) is located. A day earlier the area had been completely inundated. Water levels there reached a considerable height, entering the homes of local residents.
Debris carried down the street by rainwaters settles on street posts and clogs storm drains. / 14ymedio
There were signs of the heavy rains in the district, where water ran down the street leaving plastic bags and tree branches caught along posts and street curbs. Puddles could be seen in most of the streets, making some impassable. Good Samaritans removed the garbage that was blocking some drains, which were slow to digest the accumulated water.
Though Cubans have always feared storms, along with the resulting wind and rain, they fear hunger and illness even more.
On Friday, when the energy situation finally could not get any worse, authorities announced the power grid had failed and ordered the cessation of all non-essential activities. Yet the rain continues to fall in Havana and Cubans don’t know what to do.
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14ymedio/EFE, Havana/Caracas, 19 October 2024 — The Government of Venezuela called on the international community on Friday to mobilize in support of Cuba, in view of the national blackout that the Island is experiencing, a situation for which Caracas holds the United States and its policy of economic sanctions responsible. Venezuela “expresses its absolute solidarity and unconditional support to the sister republic of Cuba, while facing the cyclical energy contingency, the product of the cruel intensification of the economic war and financial and energy persecution by the US Government,” Nicolás Maduro’s Executive said in a statement.
