February 2017 – Page 4 – Translating Cuba

Trump, Rodiles and the Cuban Opposition / Juan Orlando Perez

Antonio Rodiles speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on December 14, 2016, by McClatchy DC

Juan Orlando Pérez, 1 February 2017, (re-published in Ivan Garcia’s blog on 7 February 2017) — Antonio Rodiles, one of the Cuban government’s most tireless enemies, or at least one of its most eloquent, has said that the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House is “good news for Cuba.”

It is difficult to criticize Rodiles, who every day faces the danger of State Security agents, or his own neighbors, breaking his nose — they have already done this once with exquisite precision — or of being accused of some monstrosity such as contempt of court, assault, incitement to violence or failure to attend Fidel Castro’s funeral, resulting in him being cast into a windowless dungeon without light or justice. continue reading

Every Sunday, Rodiles leaves his house Havana to protest against a government that he considers illegitimate. While not comparable to the battles of Peralejo or Las Guásimas, much less the crossing of the Trocha de Mariel to Majana, this action is one that does require more political and personal courage than all the deputies of the National Assembly together could muster to change a single comma in a decree from Raul Castro’s government, should they even notice a comma misplaced.

Unlike other leaders of the Cuban opposition and most deputies of the National Assembly, Rodiles knows how to speak correctly, in proper Spanish. Perhaps that is why foreign journalists prefer to talk to him rather than to others whom they can barely understand. But what he told the Spanish newspaper El País is dangerous nonsense.

In no way can Trump be “good news” for Cuba when he is so bad for all the other countries of the world, including those whose leaders — Vladimir Putin, Theresa May, Benjamin Netanyahu — selfishly hope to benefit from the ascent of a thug to the presidency of the United States. At least Rodiles does not contend Trump is not a thug.

Rodiles declined to say if Trump’s victory was also good news for the United States. “I don’t want to get into that,” he said flatly. “It’s not my problem.”

Perhaps Rodiles thinks that if personnel at the American Embassy in Havana or at the State Department in Washington hear him criticizing Trump’s character, skills or intentions, even if the criticism is so mild it might almost be considered a kind remark, he will no longer be invited to the embassy or to conferences, congresses and seminars — one takes place every month in Miami, Madrid or Washington — where the participants ardently debate the future of Cuba, condemn Castro’s wickedness and lament Barack Obama’s faintheartedness.

Rodiles’ discretion — his refusal to express an opinion about the domestic issues of another country — is admirable, especially because it stands in contrast to foreign politicians who talk about issues in his own. In late December, Rodiles participated in a panel organized by the right-wing Heritage Foundation in Washington along with two former George W. Bush administration officials: the former under-secretaries of state Roger Noriega and Otto Reich. As reported by Diario de Cuba, he took the opportunity to explain that “the new Administration has the opportunity to reorient US policy towards the human rights and freedom for the Cuban people.”

Noriega and Reich are co-authors of the infamous Helms-Burton Act of 1996. More than a law, it is the list of relentless conditions that the United States would impose on the Cuban government if it were to capitulate, which one can easily imagine these two former officials recommending to the Trump Administration provided someone in the White House still remembers who they are and asks them what to do about Cuba.

Noriega and Reich may express any opinion about Cuba, or about Jupiter, if they so choose. That is their right. No one in Washington is going to end up with a nose out of joint if they do so.

But it is not clear why Rodiles should not in turn be able to say with more or less the same degree of tact what so many other political leaders around the world have said: that Donald Trump’s brand of vicious, racist and ignorant populism is a very serious threat to international security, to the rights of other nations, to Americans’ civil liberties and, of course, to Cuba.

Perhaps Rodiles thinks Trump is as innocuous as Tian Tian, the giant panda at Washington’s National Zoo. If so, he might as well say so. For the moment, Rodiles has refrained from criticizing Trump, though not from criticizing Obama. He believes, as he told El País, that Obama’s legacy in Cuba can be described in two words: indifference and fantasy.

In a video released by the Forum for Human Rights and Freedoms, Rodiles appears next to others celebrating Trump’s victory on November 8 and criticizing Obama’s Cuban strategy.

“It was very frustrating,” explains Rodiles in the video, “to see how the Obama administration was allowing the regime to gain advantage, to gain political advantage, to gain economic advantage, while leaving the Cuban people and their demands on the sidelines.”

He added, “Unfortunately, the legacy of President Obama on Cuba is not positive… His policy has been counterproductive. His policy has led the regime to feel much more secure and to behave more violently.”

It is not clear, however, what exactly Rodiles and his colleagues at the Forum hope Trump will do. “It seems to me that the new administration under President Donald Trump will give much more attention to the Cuban opposition. It will give much more attention to the subject of fundamental rights and freedoms, and the Cuban people will be able to express themselves more openly, though the regime will, of course, do everything possible to prevent that.”

It is likely that on May 20 — if the world lasts until then — a committee of Cuban opposition figures, including perhaps Rodiles himself, will visit the White House, as always happened before Obama, after which the president of the United States might write a Twitter message in jovial Spanglish condemning Raúl Castro and his minions.

But it is unclear how tweets by the lunatic that Americans have chosen as their commander-in-chief are going to get Cubans out onto the streets. Nor is it easy to imagine the Cuban government agreeing to sit down with Rodiles or any other opposition figure just because the president of the United States demands it, even if he makes it a condition of maintaining diplomatic relations; or of continuing to allow Cuban-Americans to send money to their families on the island; or of allowing them visit their relatives whenever they want.

If the members of the Forum for Human Rights and Freedoms believe that these are conditions that the Trump Administration should impose, they should say so clearly and run the risk that Trump or one of his underlings might hear and pay attention to them. An even greater risk is that Cubans might hear them.

It is perfectly legitimate for some members of the Cuban opposition to disapprove of Obama’s policy of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba, at least to the degree that it is possible to normalize something that will never be normal. No one should be surprised that those who would like to see the immediate overthrow of Raúl Castro have no confidence in a plan that acknowledges the unlikelihood that the Cuban government will be overthrown in a domestic revolt.

Raúl has been accepted — with indifference or resignation — as the legitimate president of Cuba by almost all the nations of the world. The plan addresses the political and intellectual weakness of opposition groups, counting instead on the slow but inexorable growth of a new post-Castro civil society that will one day reclaim political and economic rights that Raúl or his successors will never be willing to grant.

It is true this plan pays no particular importance to the Forum for Human Rights and Freedoms, or to other groups with equally florid names, whose members feel they have been abruptly and unceremoniously abandoned by their old patron. But not all opposition groups have judged Obama’s decisions regarding Cuba as negatively as Rodiles and his cohorts.

With bitter pragmatism, others have warned that it is foolish to oppose head-on a policy that is viewed favorably on both sides of the Florida Straits. While it has, of course, benefited the Cuban government, it has also benefitted millions of plain and simple ordinary men and women. If nothing else, it means that, after two short years, Raúl can no longer blame his problems on an enemy ever ready to wipe Cuba off the map in a single, brutal blow.

There was nothing fanciful about Obama’s strategy, though there is in the illusion that the Cuban government would have agreed to sit down with Rodiles and other opposition leaders if Obama had insisted on it. And he will do so if Trump makes that demand with his characteristic coarseness. After so many years and so many body blows, Rodiles still has not met Raúl Castro.

Before falling in line with Trump and conspiring with the most reactionary elements of the new administration — its more conservative faction, in particular, wants to break off the truce between the United States and Cuba — the Cuban opposition should take a few weeks to consider whether it would be wiser to avoid allying itself with those who have come to power with a program that not only causes a great deal of alarm within the international community but which should also disgust any person of integrity, whether one’s integrity be of the right-wing or left-wing kind.

The Cuban opposition would do well to maintain a relative independence from the United States, a benevolent gift from Obama, and if they are so inclined, to keep their distance from an administration which, in two short weeks, has led its country to the brink of a pernicious political and perhaps constitutional crisis.

That is unless one sees nothing particularly reprehensible in what Trump says and does, or believe that his vandalism is justified because he got ten thousand votes more in Michigan and fifteen thousand more votes in Wisconsin than Hillary Clinton. It would be very bad news if opportunism led a segment of the Cuban population, even a very small one, to become pro-Trump out of foolhardiness, ignorance, a misguided sense of self-preservation or, even worse, by a genuine ideological affinity with a government that resembles a social democratic Nixon, Reagan or Bush administration.

But even more troubling is the Cuban opposition’s hope that the United States, Barack Obama or Donald Trump and not the island’s plain and simple ordinary men and women might grant them the right to discuss Cuba’s future with Raúl Castro or whatever petty tyrant happens to come after. Trump will just disappoint them. And should he fall, which is likely to happen, he will drag with him all those who have not taken great care or had the decency to maintain a safe distance.

Juan Orlando Pérez

Published in El Estornudo on February 1, 2017 under the title “Bad News.”

Birthrate Is Not Just a Matter of Resources / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

Mothers who return to work after 18 weeks of maternity leave will receive, in addition to 100% of their salary, an extra provision of 60% of their pay. (Priscila Mora)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 15 February 2017 — Concerned about low birthrates, this month the Government has launched a campaign focused on fertility and a package of measures to stimulate births of two or more children per woman.

Since 1978 fertility rates have declined throughout the Island, dropping below population replacement levels. By 2050, the country will rank 9^th in the world for elderly population. The aging demographics will exacerbate the lack of economically active people.

The new regulations to stimulate birth, made widely known by the paper Gaceta Oficial (Offical Gazzette), are composed of two decrees and four resolutions. These measures include the paid participation of family members in the childrearing process. continue reading

“Now my mother will be able to stay home with my daughter while I go to work,” says Sahily Cuevas, mother of a four-month-old baby and an employee of a Cooperative of Credits and Services in the municipality of Güira, Artemisa.

The discount of 50% on subsidized childcare rates for parents of two or more children can help “the poorest families,” especially in rural areas.

The grandmother, employed in the State Gastronomic Network, will receive 60% of her salary as a social benefit, a benefit that up until February was only available to the father of the child. It is true, however, that this payment is equivalent to $11, the price of three packs of disposable diapers.

The majority of women surveyed point to lack of resources as the main cause for postponement or interruption of a pregnancy. In the period between 2006-2013, birth rates rose from 1.39 children per woman to 1.71, but that figure should reach a minimum of 2.1 to get out of the red zone.

“I would not dare have a second child,” exclaims Tahimí, 27, resident of Aguada de Pasajeros. “The list of necessities to have a baby is so long that the extra money will be like a drop in the ocean, it will serve very little use.”

The women believes that the 50% discount on subsidized childcare rates for parents of two or more children can help “the poorest families,” especially in rural areas. With the third child the family will become exempt from payment, a benefit extending to couples that have multiple deliveries at once.

Returning to work after giving birth has also received new stimuli. Mothers who return to work after 18 weeks of maternity leave will receive, in addition to 100% of their salary, an extra provision of 60% of their pay, from three months to one year after giving birth.

The private sector, with more than half a million employees in the country, has also received a reduction in monthly taxes for self-employed workers with two or more children under 17 years old. But the labor demands in private businesses leave little room for women to take a more extended family leave.

“I would not leave from here because they would replace me and this is my family’s livelihood,” comments an employee of La Mimosa, a restaurant in Chinatown in Havana. “There is a lot of competition and getting pregnant is the same as being left out,” adds the employee, who chose to remain anonymous.

Maipú, 21, has had four abortions. The first two with the technique of menstrual regulation performed on an outpatient basis that does not require anesthesia. For the last two she entered an operating room where they used the technique of scraping, known as curettage. The young woman refuses to have children at the moment.

“I live with my parents and my grandparents, as well as my two brothers,” she says to 14ymedio. Housing problems are the main cause for postponing motherhood, but she also has her eyes set on emigrating.

The director of the Center of Population and Development studies believes that “social processes like female emancipation” also influence in the decision to push back maternity.

In recent years, without publicly announcing it, the Ministry of Public Health has restricted abortions. “Now the requirements to receive an abortion are stricter,” says a nurse of the Obstetrical Gynecological Hospital, Ramón González Coro. The employee believes that “it is difficult to complete all the paperwork in time for a menstrual regulation technique or an abortion.”

However, the informal market has also flourished in that field. Maipú paid 50 CUC for her last abortion. “I did not have much time because I was already at 12 weeks,” she recounts. She spent the equivalent of a doctor’s monthly salary. There was no record of her procedure on her medical record.

The director of the Center of Population and Development Studies, Juan Carlos Alfonso, has tempered the weight of the economic crisis and immigration in the rejection of pregnancies maintained by Cuban women. For the specialist, “social processes like female emancipation “also influence in the decision to push back maternity.

A 2009 fertility survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (ONEI) found that 21% of women aged 15-54 had experienced at least one pregnancy that ended in intentional abortions. Eighty percent of the population reported having used contraception.

“Obtaining one visa is not the same as obtaining two,” affirms Maipú in a pragmatic tone. However, she acknowledges that she has always wanted to “be a mother and have many children running around the house.”

Translated by Chavely Garcia.

Extortions, Kidnappings And Limbo: Daily Life Of Cubans Stranded In Mexico / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 14 February 2017 — Hundreds of Cubans were stranded in Mexico after the Obama administration ended the wet-foot/dry-foot policy that favored Cuban’s immigration to the United States, but for the 90 who are detained at the 21^st Century Migrant Station in Tapachula, and for their relatives in the United States, the American dream has become a nightmare of extortion and disappearances. A hope against all hope.

“For weeks a person has been calling us to ask for money if we want to see our families again,” says the mother of one of those stranded who asked not to be identified to protect her son. continue reading

The woman, who lives in Miami, recounts how within half an hour of receiving a call from her son from the Migration Station the phone started to ring from different numbers in Mexico.

The voice on the other side of the device identified himself as “lawyer Padilla.” She said, “He tried to learn the names of our family members and told us he could help get them out of there for a sum of money.”

To Yuniel, stranded in southern Mexico, those responsible for these calls are the agents themselves from Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM).

“We all know that the migration officials have some way of knowing the numbers of the people we call in the United States. Somehow, they figure out the numbers and then take advantage of that to extort the families,” he says

The telephones set up for international calls at the Migration Station are public, but at least three relatives of different migrants consulted by this newspaper affirmed that they had received calls in which people calling themselves officials asked them for money for the freedom of the Cubans.

“We are afraid for their fate, they are in the hands of mafiosos. Last week three Cubans ‘disappeared’ from the same prison. As of today, we haven’t heard anything from them,” says the mother of a Cuban migrant.

An IMF official confirmed to 14ymedio that there are currently 90 Cubans at the 2st Century Migration Station. Of these, 59 asked for protection before a judge and 23 asked for refuge from the Mexican authorities. The remaining eight are awaiting the decision of the Cuban embassy in that country. If Havana recognizes their citizenship, under migratory agreements between the two countries they must be deported back to Cuba.

With regards to the absence, since last Wednesday, of three Cubans (Armando Daniel Tejeda, Daniel Benet Báez and Yosvany Leyva Velázquez) the official said that it was an escape, which is why they are not considered missing. So far the relatives of the Cubans do not know the whereabouts of these migrants.

With regards to the accusations against the INM officials, the representative of the Mexican government made it clear that “they are lies.” According to her, the immigration agents do not even have guns or clubs.

“They (the Cubans) are very desperate. We aren’t trying to justify ourselves, but we believe that is the cause. ”

“Two of them had sought refuge and one was waiting for the legal process. Both of them escaped and the corresponding authorities were given notice.”

It was the migrants themselves in the 21^st Century center who discovered that three Cubans were missing and, given the silence of the authorities, they began a protest that was brutally repressed, according to those stranded. The police and the Mexican army participated in putting down the revolt.

“They were beaten, their blankets and mattresses were taken away, forcing them to sleep in cement bunks. They are being watched and held as if they were criminals,” the migrant’s mother told the newspaper.

“My son may disappear, just as those have disappeared,” she adds.

Last week a group of eleven Cubans was kidnapped by a criminal gang and later released under conditions not made clear in Reynosa, northern Mexico.

Corruption prevails in Tapachula, according to the testimony of Yuniel, one of the stranded, who has been waiting for more than a month for a safe conduct to continue to the north of Mexico.

“Receiving money from abroad is impossible without mediations,” explains the migrant. If you do not have the corresponding visa, the transfers made by Western Union carry a charge from locals who are awarded a commission of 5% for the transaction.

The hope that Trump will reinstate the wet-foot/dry-foot policy or declare an amnesty for stranded Cubans is increasingly remote, according to Yuniel, even though that the number of Cubans arriving in Mexico from Central America “has taken a nosedive.”

“All that’s left for me is to surrender to the authorities and ask for political asylum. I have nothing to lose because I have lost everything,” he says.

Some relatives in the United States who have contracted legal services in Tapachula to avoid the repatriation of the stranded complain of the slowness of the processes and even of scams.

“The attorney José Roberto Escobar Ross allegedly filed an protection petition for our relatives not to be repatriated to Cuba, and demanded the payment of $120. To this day, they are still being detained,” says the girlfriend in Miami of one of those held in Tapachula, Karla Ramírez.

Escobar, via telephone, explained that he has in his hands the 59 protection orders for Cubans and that he is doing his best to get them released as soon as possible.

“The judge gave Migration three days to solve the case of the Cubans but until now we see no response, they haven’t even been released,” he said.

The INM official made clear that there will be no releases until the legal proceeding has been held and a judge determines the fate of the Cubans.

“It is not the fault of the INM that they are detained. By law, these people cannot be released until the trial is held.” It costs Mexico to for these people to be there, to feed them, to care for them and so on.”

In the case of Cubans who asked for refuge, the National Commission for Refugee Assistance is responsible for analyzing their cases.

For Ramírez, the girlfriend of one of the detainees, this is a maneuver: “They are trying to delay their release as much as possible so that they have no choice but to return to Cuba or they run out of money. It’s a hell for us Cubans.”

Two Dates in the Second Month / Fernando Dámaso

Fernando Damaso, 14 February 2017 — February, for Cubans of the so-called third age, presents two important dates: The Day of Lovers (the 14th), and the Grito de Baire (Cry of Baire — the 24th).

On the first, re-baptized as the Day of Love years ago, gifts were exchanged only between lovers, with the prevailing image being hearts pierced by Cupid’s arrows. Today it has a more general character, and I believe it has lost much of its original identity.

In a recent spot on national television about its celebration, first a couple of lovers appeared, and then an elderly couple, followed by a pregnant woman with a man rubbing her belly, and in the end, dragged by the hair, an image of Che and Fidel. I accept this “romantic broth,” but reject the final image as absurd and manipulative. continue reading

The 24th, harking back to events of 1895, was a patriotic remembrance with an abundance of Cuban flags and official commemorations in schools, rendering homage to the beginning of the War of Independence organized by Jose Marti and other illustrious patriots.

This day, over time, has lost its importance, while other less important ones have replaced it and are now celebrated with overwhelming propaganda. It seems like the so-called “new patriots” are considered superior to the founding fathers of the Cuban nation, which is disrespectful and totally false.

This process of historical dismantling has been carried out with the younger generations, which have been and are manipulated in the interest of satisfying overflowing egos and above all, and ironically, “in the interest of the Fatherland.”

It is essential to look critically at our historical calendar, from which events and figures that totally expendable and lacking the merits to remain on it should be removed, but to accomplish this courage and dignity are required, something that some of our historians and social communicators lack.

World’s Harley-Lovers Gather in Varadero / 14ymedio, Regina Coyula

Participants wear vests that identify the owner’s name and country, in addition to the countries where they have been with their motorcycles. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Regina Coyula, Havana, 14 February 2017 – This last weekend colorful festivities marked the 6^th National Harley Davidson Meeting in Varadero in Cuba’s Matanzas province. Lovers of these powerful and visually attractive motorcycles attracted the curiosity of many tourists who were surprised by the peculiarity of the event.

Sponsored by the Cuban section of the Latin American Motorcycle Association (LAMA), the meeting was also attended by owners of other makes such as Indian, Triumph, Honda and Yamaha. Members have formed a strong community that helps in case of traffic accidents, or simply meets to talk and share their passion for motorcycles. continue reading

Numerous Harley-lovers from different parts of the world also met in Varadero to support their Cuban counterparts. Identifiable by their names and the flags of their country of origin on their vests, it was easy to distinguish members from Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, the USA, Germany and Croatia, who often were able to understand each other only through the passion that unites them.

One of the most exciting activities was the visit to Cheita in the city of Matanzas, to the home of a 107-year-old Harley enthusiast who had the strength to briefly peer out his door and enjoy seeing the street filled with motorcycles and the curious who came to see what all the commotion was about.

The attendees enjoyed the different competitions, such as one that tested the ability to ride most slowly without putting one’s feet on the ground, or another that tested riding through a serpentine course without touching the obstacles.

Others, more entertaining, involved a co-pilot, such as one biting a hotdog hanging from the bike in movement, or another called “straw in the bottle” which had to be accomplished without stopping or putting one’s feet down. There were also prizes for the bike that came from farthest away, the best repaired bike, or the most personalized chopper.

In all the competitions it was notable that the oldest motorcycle, a 1936 Flathead model, ran through its paces on Cuba’s roads, and in the hands of its experienced owner won several skills tests, including those for slow riding and stability.

Saturday did not come to an end without the usual concert open to the public with the popular David Blanco. The artist, also a Harley aficionado, satisfied his followers with a thrilling three-hour concert, very in tune with the spirit of the meeting, where he presented everything from classics of international rock to an arrangement of the emblematic Yo Soy El Punto Cubano.

On Sunday at noon, the motorcycle brigade departed from the park where the event was held to a point near the Varadero Marina. Once there, the official photo of this year’s meeting was taken.

In this edition an increase in the number of participants was perceptible, although neither the event nor the association have the appropriate tools of dissemination, beyond their official web pages. A proper promotion could help to promote this exceptional annual meeting in Cuba, on whose roads circulate true objects of desire for any collector in the world.

Books Banned at Cuba’s Book Fair / Cubanet, Roberto Quinones

How Night Fell, Huber Matos – banned in Cuba

Cubanet, Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces, Guantanamo, 10 February 2017 – The Havana International Book fair and its provincial offshoots would be more important events if there were debates where all Cuban intellectuals could participate without exclusions. But they are walled prosceniums where there is only room for writers who never raise their voices against any internal injustices. The discriminated and persecuted find solidarity in other parts of the world; here, no.

So it is not news – nor will be – that these uncomfortable writers are excluded from debates and even the Fair itself, if they do not fit the established molds for “docile wage earners of official thought,” a phrase from the Argentine guerrilla with a happy trigger finger and fierce hatreds. continue reading

Beyond the characteristics of the Fair, where there are more people eating and getting drunk than buying books and participating in cultural activities, I want to dwell on the intolerance of Cuban publishing policy.

“We do not tell the people to believe, we say read”

This phrase is from Fidel Castro and belongs to the earliest days of his totalitarian state. When the National Printing Company of Cuba issued a massive printing of “Don Quixote,” our country inaugurated a luminous time for culture by making available to readers, at very cheap prices, innumerable classics of universal literature. That effort, which is maintained, was and is praiseworthy, although it has also been marked by prohibitions and notorious absences.

Disciplines such as Philosophy, Sociology, Law, Politics and History did not receive the same attention as literature, and today, after 58 years of Castroism, authors and works of international prestige still have not yet been published because the censors are the ones who decide what we can read, and what is published must be consistent with the policy imposed by the regime. To this is added the justification that Cuba cannot pay copyright fees to the affected writers.

Among these, are the Chileans Roberto Bolaño and Isabel Allende, while Nobel laureates Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa, have been published very little, although perhaps the exclusion of the latter is due to his criticism of Castroism. Gabriele D’Annunzio, Aldous Huxley, Milan Kundera, Boris Pasternak and Alexander Solzhenitsin also appear in the waiting circle. William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury,” Robert Musil’s “The Man Without Attributes” and Vasili Grossman’s “Life and Destiny” have also not been published and still unknown in Cuban are Karl May, Enid Blyton, Albert Camus and Heinrich von Kleist while other authors are being re-published to exhaustion. And don’t even talk about contemporary European and American literature. I am writing from my declining memory, for if I consulted a book on the history of universal literature, the list would be immense.

Authors and texts with a strong democratic vocation remain unpublished here, although historical developments have proved them right. Within that extensive group are Simone Weil, Nikola Tesla and Wendell Berry. After little tirades made in 1960, not published again in Cuba are “The Great Scam” by Eudocio Ravines, “Anatomy of a Myth” by Arthur Koestler and “The New Class” by Milovan Djilas.

The New Class, Milovan Djilas – Banned in Cuba

An extraordinary book, “The Man in Search of Sense” by Viktor Frankl, remains unpublished. The list is joined by Erich Fromm, Ortega y Gasset and even socialists such as Leon Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci and Ernst Fischer. To this we can add “Thirteen days” by Robert Kennedy, “Gabo And Fidel, The Landscape Of A Friendship,” by Ángel Esteban and Stéphanie Panichelli and “God Entered Havana” by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. “The End of History and the Last Man,” published in Spanish by Planeta 25 years ago remains beyond the reach of Cubans and only last year, more than forty years after its initial publication, “The Great Transformation” by Karl Polanyi was published and that topped those of universal literature by Ferdydurke and Witold Gombrowicz, while Borges remains almost unheard of.

Cuban authors who have written objective analyzes of Castroism or unauthorized memoirs are also blacklisted. I can cite here Carlos Franqui, Dariel Alarcon the “Benigno” of Che’s guerilla), Juan F. Benemelis with “The Secret Wars of Fidel Castro,” Juan Clark with his extraordinary book “Cuba: Myth and Reality,” Norberto Fuentes with “Sweet Cuban Warriors” and Commander Huber Matos with “How Night Fell.” Antonio Benítez Rojo, Zoé Valdés, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Reinaldo Arenas, Manuel Granados remain proscribed along with Eliseo Alberto Diego, with the great majority of Cubans not knowing his shocking testimony “Report Against Myself.”

That these books and authors are not published belies the much vaunted tolerance for diversity that the main representatives of the regime claim to the unsuspecting and others who are always ready to believe them. And saying that these books are not published because they can’t pay the authors for the copyright is a half-truth.

If they didn’t print so many insignificant books and allocated resources to truly relevant works, the panorama would be different. The bland books do not make you think and their destination is on the dusty shelves of bookstores, or their pages torn out to make cones to sell peanuts in, or to use for personal cleansing. The significant books are always dangerous and that is well known by the censors.

Lack Of Packaging And Containers Reinforces Ingenuity Of Cuba’s Recyclers / EFE, 14ymedio

Plastic bags drying on a clothesline after being washed for reuse. (CC)

EFE (Via 14ymedio), Havana, 9 February 2017 — In Cuba, take-away pizza is eaten on piece of paper, people go to the market with their own bags, and rum bottles are reincarnated as sauce containers. It is not that the country has an admirable environmental awareness, but that there is a perpetual lack of packaging and containers that sharpens the island ingenuity.

By necessity, recycling has become a daily habit for Cubans, who never forget to grab a jaba (bag) when they leave home, and even wash and dry them to reuse until they are nothing but shreds.

“A Cuban is composed of head, trunk, limbs and jabita,” quipped a comedian in a celebrated monologue that became popular in the Caribbean country two decades ago. continue reading

This pressing demand explains the success of PACGRAF at the International Fair celebrated this week in Havana “with the aim of generating new business opportunities and working with the main buyers and distributors for the production of packaging in Cuba,” according to its organizers.

Nearly 50 companies from eleven countries have attended the event to try to promote a sector that the Vice Minister of Industries, José Álvarez, considered during his inauguration as “strategic to guaranteeing economic development and especially boosting the pharmaceutical, agro-food and tourism industries.”

The lack of packaging and containers is another face of Cuba’s daily shortages, attributable to several factors depending on who is asking: the official response is the United States trade embargo on the island is responsible, while ordinary citizens blame the state apparatus for its lack of foresight.

The Cuban government has invested more than 40 million dollars in packaging, paper and cardboard, in the last three years, said the director of Packaging and Containers of the Ministry of Industry, Juana Iris Herrera, who anticipated a new investment to produce more carbdoard boxes.

Some packaging and containers are so complicated to get through normal channels that they have become coveted objects of desire. Among them, the large cardboard boxes used in international moves, which in Cuba have the value of a war trophy.

Another example is the square pizza boxes. Some fortunate private restaurants have found alternative “supply” routes and even have them customized – and many charge for them at about 50 cents a box – but in other places the calculations fail and they are suddenly without packaging.

“If there are no boxes, if they want pizza to take away, they have to bring a plate,” explains the waitress of a private pizzeria in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar.

Cans that drinks come in are cut in half to serve as containers for flans and other delicacies sold in street stalls, and in the farm markets rum bottles have a second life as containers for honey or spicy sauces.

“Cubans are sick of (addicted to) the bags,” says Ruben Valladares, a freelancer who has been working for the last five years at the PACGRAF fair.

The company, which like so many entrepreneurs started as a precarious and “rustic” home-based business, today supplies several state-owned companies, numerous private businesses and even has become a peculiar exponent of the thaw with the US through an alliance with Commonwealth Packaging Company, a firm from the neighboring country that wanted to bet on Cuba.

“The first packaging, a new relationship” is the slogan of this joint venture.

Another company present at the fair is the Spanish Siepla, which sells machines with technology to make plastic containers such as bottles, decanters and jars.

“The needs of the country are immense, there is a lot of demand,” says the sales manager of the firm, Josep Puig.

Bottles for soap, deodorant containers or containers for jam and honey are some of the products that can be made with these machines, a plethora of containers that will have a long life in Cuba, the country where nothing is thrown out.

Fire Heavily Damages Shop In Havana’s Chinatown / 14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada

14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, Havana, 13 February 2017 – A Sunday fire heavily damaged the Panamerican Rayo Fair shop, in Havana’s Chinatown. The premises, located a few yards from the central corner of Zanja and Dragones, caught fire about one in the afternoon and it took the fire brigade more than three hours to smother the flames. The fire was put out without loss of human life or injuries.

The fire spread rapidly, consuming seven departments within the store, among those home appliances, perfumes, furs, clothing, basketry, boutique and cafeteria. continue reading

Yudith Gonzalez, a worker in the store, attributes the fire to “a short circuit in a power outlet on one of the wooden walls.” In statements to 14ymedio, the clerk regretted that when the first flames were noticed and the store evacuated she did not take her personal belongings or salvage merchandise.

A resident of 116 Rayo Street, who explained that “smoke covered the whole area,” watched from his balcony as the “shop windows exploded sending pieces out into the street.”

Given the high residential density of this area of Central Havana and the commercial character of Chinatown, the firefighters had to cordon off the perimeter and convince numerous onlookers to keep their distance. After three and a half hours’ work, the fire was put out.

Several high-ranking officials from the Ministry of the Interior and directors of the Cimex Corporation, to which the shopping center belongs, came to the area. The experts began to investigate the precise causes of the fire.

From nearby buildings, numerous neighbors decided to film the flames with their cellphones, a practice increasingly common among Cubans. The closeness of the building to the Fe del Valle Park wifi connection zone, meant that many of the images were uploaded to social networks within hours.

A young man who was recording nearby commented to this paper that he saw the smoke from La Cabaña Fort, where he had been visiting the Book Fair. “I came to see what happened because I was afraid something had happened to my house,” said the young man, who lives in a poorly maintained building on San Nicolas Street, a few yards from fire.

After putting out the flames, the firefighters began to evacuate the area and fill the street with items ranging from burned up washing machines to other home appliances blackened by the smoke. At dusk Zanja Avenue was reopened although access to that stretch of Rayo Street remains blocked.

Private Taxi Drivers Close Ranks Against Fixed Prices Charged By The State / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

Transportation crisis in Havana is aggravated by the “semi-strike” of private taxis. (14ymedio)

Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 12 February 2017 – “Take me, I’ll pay you double,” implores a woman to a taxi driver on the main route of Prado y Neptuno. The car is empty, but the driver does not stop to those hailing his taxi, even while showing money in their hands. Imposed fixed prices on private transport have unleashed a silent battle on the streets of Havana.

Since last Wednesday capital authorities have applied a new scale of fixed rates on the routes of private taxis, a decision that reinforced an end to the law of supply and demand, which regulated the private transport since its authorization in the mid 1990s. Last year the authorities decreed set fares, but the drivers found a way to get around them and the state came back with a second round of controls last week. continue reading

Private transport drivers reacted by eliminating intermediate stops or by opting to pick up only passengers going the full route. Despite not relying on an independent union, they have closed ranks and reduced the number of clients they transport in order to pressure local authorities to take a step back.

Since last Wednesday capital authorities have applied fixed rates on the routes of private taxis.

“It has not been necessary for drivers to agree on taking these measure because we all know that accepting this means worse measures to come,” assures Leo Ramírez, one of the private taxis whose route runs between downtown and the neighborhood La Víbora. Driver of a 1957 Chevrolet, this man says the government is “waging war” on them.

Like most of his colleagues who transport passengers within the city, for the past three days Ramírez only accepts riders going the full route. “Most of the time I ride around with no passengers and I have lost a lot of money,” he says to 14ymedio. He claims, “if the measure is not reversed I will turn in my license.”

At the end of 2016, Cuba had more than 535,000 private or non-state workers, the largest figure recorded since 2010, according to data from the Ministry of Work and Social Security (MTSS). Of these, about 54,350 work in the transport of cargo and passengers and are popularly know as boteros (boatmen).

The situation has put the mobility of Havana in check, a city with over 2 million people and a public transport system facing a deficit of vehicles.

In July 2016, the Council of Provincial Administration published Agreement 185, setting maximum fares for the routes of the popular almendrones*, or private taxis. At that time, established rates were for the most important routes, but the drivers resorted to breaking the trips into segments and charging per segment.

Tatiana Viera, vice-president of the Council, explained on national television that behind that decision was “a series of violations that occurred between the months of September and October.” Consequently, “in order to continue to protect the public,” they decided on the new “measures for shorter trips.”

The official explains that private taxis transport workers, students and even “teachers, who with their salary and hard work cannot afford transportation at those prices.” Viera pointed out that “it is our state and moral duty to continue protecting these customers,” even though she classified the almendrones as “complementary transport.”

The situation has put the mobility of Havana in check, a city with over 2 million people and a public transport system facing a deficit of vehicles.

“The problem is not prices, but wages,” says Yampier, a taxi driver on the route from the area of the Capitol to the municipality of Marianao. According to this self-employed driver, “our cars are always full, which means there are people who can afford our prices.” However, he considers that presently, they are all affected by the new measures.

A retiree who tried to take a taxi this Saturday to Santiago de la Vegas from El Curita park, showed more optimism. “There was no one who could pay those prices, which makes me glad the State intervened,” she commented to 14ymedio. She went outside with the newspaper stating the new rates to “show (the drivers) if they tried to take advantage of her.”

The sanctions for those who do not conform to the new rates range from a fine to the confiscation of the vehicle. “Our inspectors are already on the streets” dressed in “blue jackets,” warns Viera and adds, “They are accompanied by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR).”

The sanctions for those who do not conform to the new rates range from a fine to the confiscation of the vehicle.

Carlos Manuel, known as the Mule, is self-employed in construction and lives in the Martí neighborhood. Every day he takes at least two private taxis to get to the house where he is building a bathroom and a kitchen. “When I heard the news I felt happy because I was going to pay half of what I was paying last Thursday,” he commented to this newspaper.

However, as the days pass, the Mule explains that these new measures have actually “affected me a lot.” Now, “I have to go to where the route starts to hop on a taxi,” he retells. So, “I pay more because I have to go on a longer route now.”

This construction worker is also concerned that “this type of decision by the State will trickle down into other professions.” In his case, he is afraid that “one day they might announce fixed rates for the placement of a square meter of tiles or the installation of sanitary fixtures,” a situation which he would be “deeply affected” by.

*Translator’s note: “Almendrones” means “almonds” – from the shape of the classic American cars often used to provide this service.

Translated by Chavely Garcia.

“Those Who Do Not Help the Victims of Castro-ism Are Complicit in the Oppression,” says Rocio Monasterio / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Video not subtitled: Rocio Monasterio talks about her dreams for Cuba in Miami

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 11 February 2017 – Rocio Monasterio, a Cuban living in Spain who became popular after starring in a televised debate at the end of November in which she confronted Castro supporters about the legacy of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, gave a talk Friday in Miami about her ideological platform and her aspirations for Cuba’s future.

This 43-year old Cuban with parents from Cienfuegos and a member of the (conservative) Vox Party in Spain defends the family and liberty as supreme values. She is a passionate speaker who strongly criticizes the Cuban government and condemns those politicians disposed to dialogue with Havana.

“Cuba raised a big wall in 1959. Since then night fell on the country, the search for liberty was interrupted. Unfortunately, 60 years later, Cubans are still in the shadows and we don’t see a light that illuminates our homeland. All those who live in Cuba are imprisoned,” she said before emphasizing, “When we see a brother imprisoned we have to do everything possible to help him.” continue reading

An architect by profession, Monasterio decided to go into politics as a result of the loss of values that, in her judgement, Spanish society has experienced. She joined Vox as a way of giving voice to hundreds of Spaniards who do not agree with the relaxation of policies by the Popular Party, currently in power, an organization to which she delivered her vote every year but about which she is singularly critical.

“It is extraordinary that a Hispanic Cuban can speak to Cuban Americans in Miami. We are united by the Hispanic phenomenon,” she said.

About those who opt for investment in Cuba in order to foster an emerging middle class that in the future will be able to demand political changes, Monasterio asserts that those politicians and businessmen are “soothing their conscience for collaborating with the regime.”

“It is being shown that investment in Cuba is nothing more than supporting Castro-ism,” she adds.

As an alternative to totalitarianism, Monasterio proposes Hispanic values.

“We have inherited from Spain the Christian values that are society’s foundation: equality, defense of freedom, right to life, belief in the individual and in his individual responsibility, also the family as a fundamental value of society. All this is this based in freedom,” she said.

One point that she emphasized was the relationship between the European Union, above all Spain, and the Cuban Government. For the Hispanic Cuban, the credibility of the institutions and the parties that negotiate with Raul Castro are in jeopardy.

“In the collective imagination of Spain, Cuba is the most beloved. The relationship of both countries is that of brotherhood,” said Monasterio. Nevertheless, she characterized as “a great betrayal” the normalization of relations without a single word about human rights violations on the Island.

“Those today who do not help the victims of Castro-ism are accomplices in the oppression and contribute to the perpetuation of night in Cuba, a night that has already lasted too many years,” she added.

The architect conceives her battle as not only against communism but against all kinds of totalitarianism, which according to her is being exported from Cuba to Spain and Latin American countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

“Totalitarianism is not only the lack of freedom, but also the elimination of the individual. All contrary to our values,” she says.

She also admitted that she fights hard against gender politics and is radically opposed to homosexual marriage:

“I don’t meddle in civil unions between people who have another view of sexuality, but that is not matrimony. Matrimony is between a man and a woman,” she says.

For Monasterio, gender ideology is “another big dictatorship of our time.” She condemns Spanish education in this sense.

“We are subjected, once again, to determined ideologues who come from big institutions. Gender ideology is contrary to the family and our values,” she said.

To oppose the proposed education in gender ideology values, Monasterio’s party proposed a platform for freedoms that defends the right of parents to educate their children according to their values.

About her dispute with “the defenders of the indefensible, that is, Castro-ism, Monasterio reminded that the Castro brothers came to Cuban government promising equality,” but what they have done is to equalize everyone “in misery and oppression.”

“A Castro military elite controls Cubans and makes them ignore freedom.”

According to Monasterio, the Cuban diaspora confronts three big responsibilities: the obligation to denounce what Castro-ism means before those who truly do not know what it is; to be effective in the use of a new discourse and new tools for telling and transmitting the values of our culture; and to create a new iconography. “We have to pass to the next generations the commitment to fight for the freedom of our land.”

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Faith Arrives to the Rhythm of Reggaeton / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Members of La Union: Left to right: Osmel (Mr Jacke), Misael (Dj Misa), Ramiro (Pucio) and Randoll (El Escogido). (14ymedio)

Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 February 2017 – Sexists, hard and streetsmart, such are the lyrics of most reggaeton songs that are heard everywhere. Topics that speak about jealousy and rivalries, but that can also convey very different messages. Under the name La Unión (the Union), a group of young artists spread the Christian faith to the rhythm of this urban genre so popular in Cuba.

The group, founded in 2013, promotes their songs and videos through the Weekly Packet in the folder titled “Christian section.” A musical work that stands out in the Cuban panorama by combining two elements that seem opposed: religion and reggaeton.

Willing to break down those prejudices, Ramiro (Pucio), Osmel (Mr. Jacke), Randoll (El Escogido), and Misael (DJ Misa), compose and sing for a new generation of listeners born with this millennium. A generation accustomed to choosing a la carte the audiovisual materials they consume and who are very familiar with flash drives, Zapya and smart phones. continue reading

In times of vertigo in the exchange of content, the members of the Union release their songs under the label Kingdom Records, a handcrafted studio installed in the house of DJ Misa, in the Alamar neighborhood. In that zone of ugly buildings and good musicians, rap and hip-hop reigned in earlier decades.

In public performances of the Union, women dancing with lewd movements, twerking style, are not seen and the group members do not wear heavy gold chains around their necks. Even so the places where they perform are packed and fans sing along to the lyrics, which praise values such as solidarity and friendship.

In public performances of La Union, women dancing with lewd movements, twerking style, are not seen and the group members do not wear heavy gold chains around their necks.

In a conversation with 14ymedio during a promotional tour around La India, in Old Havana, the director of the group, DJ Misa, said that from the beginning they wanted to “take the message of Jesus to the Island’s youngest listeners” and they thought it “perfect” to use urban music “as a strategy” because “that is what is mostly heard in the streets.”

Currently, the DJ Misa is immersed in a whirlwind of preparations for a concert the group will perform on February 17 in the central venue Riviera. The launching of a new video clip also fills him with pride, although reaching the point they have now arrived at has not come easily.

The beginnings of the Union were not exempt from “some obstacles,” comments DJ Misa, because few people dared to “mix Christian music with reggaeton.” However, they found acceptance within the island’s millennials and the pastor of the Methodist Church of Alamar, Daniel Marín, who supported them unconditionally.

A recent survey of young Cubans found that their idols range from soccer players, like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, to reggaeton singers, like Yomil, El Chacal and el Príncipe, who are overwhelmingly popular among those under 30 years old.

In this context, Christian musicians count on an audience interested in rhythms representing reality. But it is also an audience accustomed to the ruggedness of many reggaeton songs, which praise sexism, promiscuity and frivolity. These are the themes heard in bars, cafeterias, and taxis and even during morning assemblies in Cuban schools.

Christian musicians count on an audience interested in rhythms representing reality. But it is also an audience accustomed to the ruggedness of many reggaeton songs, which praise sexism, promiscuity and frivolity.

DJ Misa explains the support they have also received from other pastors. He says it is because many young people “who are in church but no longer very interested and about to leave,” after listening to their music return with more joy. Although he laments that due to lack of resources they can only do two or three concerts a year.

Both performances and video clips are self produced and financed, says the artist, who complains “there are still no companies that promote Christian music.” Nevertheless, they have managed to perform various concerts and in August of last year filled the venue Avenida.

The young man’s production ability was self-taught, and he counts on spreading his music through social networks, such as Facebook and YouTube.

He does not discard that the Union will be televised and is thinking about presenting his next music video, Jesus Fanatic, at next year’s Lucas Awards. DJ Misa is convinced that his audiovisuals “have the same quality as the ones presented” and show a “very professional appearance.”

As they reach the small screen, these young musicians are achieving a special place in the national urban music, a place where the heavy terrain of reggaeton manages to gain spirituality and compromise.

Translated by Chavely Garcia

Measuring Hopelessness / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Those who believe that the closing of a one door to emigration will act like the snap of the fingers to awaken a society whose civic conscience is hypnotized are mistaken (Archive photo)

El Pais/14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez,12 February 2017 — Statistics are deceiving. They only reflect measurable values, tangible realities. International agencies cram us with numbers that measure development, life expectancy or educational attainment, but seldom succeed in grading dissatisfaction, fear, and discouragement. Frequently in their reports they describe a Latin America and its inhabitants encased in a fog of digits.

This year the region will have weak growth of 1.3%, according to forecasts by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). A data point that barely manages to transmit the scope of lives that will be ruined by the region’s sluggish progress. Unfinished projects and a long string of social dramas will be accentuated in many of these countries in the coming months. The breeding ground from which populism springs.

However, the major drama remains the lack of horizons for millions of people on this side of the planet continue reading

A Haitian who risks crossing the jungle of Panama’s Darien Gap to reach the United States is driven not only by the miserable conditions of life in her country, the destruction left by natural phenomena or the repeated epidemics that cost thousands of lives. The most powerful engine that moves her is hopelessness, the conviction that in her own country she will never have new opportunities.

Seeing no end to violence pushes other Central Americans to escape their countries. In several of these nations gangs have become an enthroned evil, corruption has corroded the internal scaffolding of institutions and politicians go from one scandal to the next. Discouragement then prompts a response quite different from that generated by indignation. While the latter may push people to rebel, the former pushes them to escape.

Meanwhile, on this Caribbean island, millions of human beings ruminate over their own disappointment. For decades Cubans fled because of political persecution, economic problems and weariness. Until 12 January 2017, that generalized choking sensation had a relief valve called the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, but President Barack Obama closed it a few days before finishing his second term.

The most staunch critics of that migratory privilege say that it encouraged desertions and illegal exits. Some people also criticized its unjust character in that it benefitted and offered entitlements to people who were not escaping war, genocide or a natural disaster. They forget, among these arguments, that discouragement also deserves to be taken into account and computed in any formula that tries to decipher the massive flight that affects a nation.

A similar error has been committed by agencies such as the FAO, UNHCR or ECLAC, all of which specialize in measuring parameters such as the number of daily calories ingested, the effect of climate change on human displacements, or the percentage decrease in a nation’s GDP. Their reports and statements never evaluate the energy that accumulates under frustration, the weight of disappointment or the impotence reflected in every migration.

When more than three generations of individuals have lived under a political and economic system that does not evolve or progress, there is a conviction among them that this situation is eternal and immutable. They no longer see any horizon and the idea that nothing can be done to change the status quo becomes rooted in their minds. By now, many of those born in Cuba after January 1959 have grown up with the conviction that everything had already been done by others who preceded them.

That explains why a young man who had recently slept under a roof in Havana, who had access to a limited but adequate amount of food through the rationed market and who spent his long free hours on a park bench, launched himself into the sea on a raft, at the mercy of the winds and sharks. The lack of prospects is also behind the large number of migrants from the island, in recent years, who have ended up in the hands of human traffickers in Colombia, Panama or Mexico.

Washington not only cut an escape path, but the White House’s decision ended up deepening the depression that comes from the chronic absence of dreams that characterizes our country. The Cuban Adjustment Act, enacted in 1966, is still in effect for those who can prove they are politically persecuted, but the most widespread feeling among potential migrants is that they have lost a last chance to reach a future.

However, this undermining of illusion has little chance of being transformed into rebellion. The theory of the social pressure cooker and the idea that Obama closed the escape valve so that the fire of internal austerity and repression will make it explode is a nice metaphor; but it misses several key ingredients, among them the resignation that overcomes individuals subjected to realities that appear unchangeable.

The belief that nothing can be done and nothing will change continues to be the principle stimulus, in these areas, to lift one’s anchor and depart for any other corner of the planet. The pot will not explode with a sea of people in the streets bringing down Raul Castro’s government while singing hymns on that dreamed of “D-Day” that so many are tired of waiting for.

Those who believe that the closing of a one door to emigration will act like the snap of the fingers to awaken a society whose civic conscience is hypnotized are mistaken. The cancellation of this policy of benefits in the United States is not enough to create citizens here at home.

A new bureaucratic barrier is a small thing to those who believe that they have reached their own glass ceiling and that in their homeland they have nothing left to do. This quiet conviction will never appear in tables, bar charts or schemes with which specialists will explain the causes of exodus and displacement. But ignorance of it means the specialists will never understand such a prolonged escape.

Far from the reports and statistics that everyone wants to explain, hopelessness will take Cuban migrants to other places, re-orient their route to new destinations. In distant latitudes, communities will flourish that will dine on their usual dish of rice and beans and continue to say the word “chico” before many of their phrases. They will be the ones who will let drop small tear when they see on a map that long and narrow land where they had their roots, but in which they could never bear fruit.

Editorial Note: This text was published this Sunday, February 12 in the newspaper El País.

Informers Approved by the Cuban Government / Iván García

CDR Billboard: In Every Neighborhood, CDR 8th Congress. United, Vigilant and Fighting

Ivan Garcia, 10 February 2017 — Seven years ago, when the roar of the winds of a hurricane devastated Havana and the water filtered through the unglazed living room door of Lisvan, a private worker living in an apartment of blackened walls which urgently needed comprehensive repairs, his housing conditions did not interest the snitches on the block where he lives.

“When I began to be successful in my business and I could renovate the apartment, from doing the electrical system, plumbing, new flooring, painting the rooms to putting grills on the windows and the balcony, the complaints began. What is, in any other country, a source of pride that a citizen can leave his poverty behind and improve his quality of life, is, in Cuba, something that, for more than a few neighbours, arouses both resentment and envy so that it leads them to make anonymous denunciations”, says Lisvan. continue reading

So many years of social control by the regime has transformed some Cubans into hung-up people with double standards. “And shameless too,” adds Lisvan. And he tells me that “two years ago, when I was putting in a new floor, my wife brought me the ceramic tiles in a truck from her work, authorized by her boss. But a neighbor, now in a wheelchair and almost blind, called the DTI to denounce me, accusing me of trafficking in construction materials.”

Luckily, Lisvan had the documents for the tiles, bought in convertible pesos at a state “hard currency collection store” — as such establishments are formally called. But the complaint led to them taking away the car his wife was driving. In the last few days, while he was having railings put across his balcony, to guard against robberies, a neighbor called Servilio complained to the Housing Office that he was altering the façade of the building, and to the electric company for allegedly using the public electricity supply. Lisvan ended by telling me that “It all backfired on him, because everything was in order, and the inspectors involved gave me the phone number of the complainant, who, being a coward, had done it anonymously.”

According to Fernando, a police instructor, anonymous complaints are common in the investigation department where he works. “Thanks to these allegations we started to embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in the United States.

“People report anything — a party that seems lavish, someone who bought beef on the black market or a person who drinks beer every day and doesn’t work. It’s crazy. Snitching in Cuba is sometimes taken to extremes.”

When you ask him what is behind the reports, he avoids the question.

“Because of envy or just a habit of denouncing. These people are almost always resentful and frustrated and tend to be hard up and short of lots of things. And not infrequently the complainant also commits illegal acts,” admits the police instructor.

Carlos, a sociologist, believes that large scale reporting, as has happened for decades in Cuba, is a good subject for specialist study. “But lately, with widespread apathy because of the inefficiency of the system, the long drawn-out economic crisis and the lack of economic and political freedoms, as compared to the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, informing has decreased.”

And he adds. “It’s true that in the beginning the Revolution was the source of law. But it also smashed to pieces deep-rooted traditions and social norms. Fidel Castro justified launching the practice of informing on people by reference to Yankee Imperialism, class enemies, and as a way of protecting the Revolution.”

In Cuba, the CDR (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) are the basis of collective vigilance in the blocks and neighborhoods of 168 municipalities on the island. Those same committees provide information to the State Security Department about dissidents, that elevates unfounded gossip and marital infidelities to the category of ‘secret reports’.

“In the 21st century, when inequalities have increased, the most diehard Fidelistas, who are still to be found in blocks and neighborhoods, continue with their complaints. It’s a mixture of several things, from base instincts to failure to adapt to new circumstances. It will take years for this dreadful habit to disappear,” concludes the Havana sociologist.

Diana, an engineer, recalls the time when the State granted a week’s holiday on the beach, a TV, a fan or a coffee. “The ancient squabbles in the union meetings to decide who should get the prizes were a theatrical spectacle. It was embarrassing. Yesterday’s shit gave us today’s smell.”

It is likely that in Cuba, if we bet on democracy and are lucky enough to choose good rulers, we will make progress in economic terms, and the country will start to develop and progress.

But the damage caused to Cuban society by informants, as approved by the olive green autocracy, is anthropological. Recovering a basket of interpersonal values will take time. Perhaps ten years. Or more.

Translated by GH

A Million Dollar Business Run by Fidel Castro’s Son / Juan Juan Almeida

Juan Juan Almeida, 6 February 2017 — Officials, students, athletes, workers, members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, foreign journalists and even tourists. Almost all have been victims of a flagrant, illicit operation authorized by the Cuban government. It is a business that involves millions, one that the Castro family is not inclined to give up: the production and sale of jerseys worn for non-stop campaigns and political marches.

Allow me to cite two examples.The visual common denominator during the series of tributes the Cuban people paid to Fidel Castro between November 29 and December 4 was a cloud of white T-shirts, some of which were printed with the phrase “I am Fidel.” continue reading

Millions of people sporting similar clothing paid their tributes at Havana’s José Martí Memorial, at events in Santiago de Cuba and throughout the tour of the late commandante’s ashes through the island.

The same shirts were seen on January 3 when hundreds of thousands of Havana residents and representatives from the Artemisa and Mayabeque provinces paraded in front of the Plaza of the Revolution during commemorations for the 60th anniversary of the landing of the yacht Granma and Revolutionary Armed Forces Day.

Cuba’s “jersey business” is unquestionably generating millions of dollars.

The Cuban textile industry is engaged in a process of technological revitalization intended to modernize its equipment and expand its capacity.

One beneficiary is the state-owned company Hilatex, which produces and markets towels. Others are companies such as Alquitex, which produces training uniforms for the Armed Forces and Public Health as well as sanitary tissues for expectant mothers.

The Ducal y Boga group is licensed to import fibers, yarns, fabrics made of cotton, polyester and lycra, knitted and woven fabrics, semi-finished articles, threads, clothing accessories, dyes, chemicals, sewing machines, machinery for knitting and other textile-related machinery along with spare parts.

Whether they are commercial in nature or not, all Cuban businesses — and this includes those whose products are handmade — are under a regulatory directive to buy T-shirts from an unnamed producer that nobody wants to talk about.

A source with access to the chain of production of this unique item — one which, like the mathematical constant and irrational number pi, shows up in every government parade and store — informs me that the product is both expensive and of poor quality. Nevertheless, Cuban businesses are obliged to buy them at three dollars per unit, twice its actual cost.

Let’s do a simple calculation. If we multiply $3.00 — the price Cuban companies are forced to pay — by the number of people wearing them in political marches, it is not unreasonable to think that the income generated by this business would be the envy of any number of companies.

In the midst of a major campaign to combat corruption, the question that arises is: Why does everyone turn deaf, dumb and blind when faced with evidence of a national crime?

A Spanish businessman, who struggles with all his might to combat this fraudulent monopoly, notes that he has met with the directors of the retail chains Caracol, TRD and Tiendas Panamericanas.

To all of them he has offered a product of higher quality at a lower price. He has made large scale tender offers and has even complained to the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Cuba yet he has never managed to break into the market.

“The Castros,” says this native of the Iberian peninsula, who asks in a pleading tone that his name not be used — “have a good eye for business and enough power to crush any competitor.”

Fidel Castro’s son Alexis Castro Soto del Valle

Who is behind this hidden lucrative business?

The mystery would seem harder to crack than the formula for Coca-Cola. But dissatisfied men have no tolerance for secrets. The small, unknown factory that produces these textile riches is located in Punto Cero, the Castro family compound, and its operations are, without the slightest doubt, illegal. This is because it relies on unpaid military labor or, more precisely, slaves in battle fatigues.

And, like icing on a cake, we discovered that the person who runs this corrupt and profitable company is Alexis Castro, son of the late Cuban dictator. To be specific, this is a multi-million dollar business whose workplace conditions are without dignity.

Cubans In Ecuador Ask Ecuador’s Next President To End The Medical Missions / 14ymedio, Diana Ramos and Mario Penton

Cubans working in a medical mission to Ecuador. (américatevé.com)

14ymedio, Diana Ramos and Mario Penton, Quito/Miami, 10 February 2017 — A group of Cubans in Ecuador united in the Movement X Cuba (MXC) requested in an open letter to the next present of Ecuador, the end of the medical missions of the Cuban government in the Andean nation.

Doctor and president of the association, Duniel Medina, signed the letter that expresses “concern” over the opinions of some of the presidential candidates that the organization considers “xenophobic and poorly focused,” especially with regards to the presence of Cuban citizens in the country. continue reading

“We believe it is important to release this communication due to the kinds of statements the candidates are making. Many of them believe that Cubans come here to take Ecuadorian jobs and they think we are all employees of the Cuban government,” says Medina in statements made to 14ymedio.

The president of the association signed the letter that expresses “concern” over the opinions of some of the presidential candidates that the organization considers “xenophobic and poorly focused”

Movement for Cuba defines itself as a peaceful organization that seeks change in Cuba. During its short months of existence has created 3 different cells inside of Cuba. It is fundamentally composed of Cubans who migrated to Ecuador but who maintain a close relationship with their country of origin.

The group of Cubans also stays updated on the situation of their undocumented colleagues in Ecuador and has assisted in several ways the hundreds of migrants who asked for an airlift that would allow them to travel safely to Mexico to continue their journey to the United States.

“We are making a call for attention so that they can differentiate between the Cuban doctors and health professionals who live in Ecuador and share the same fate as the Ecuadorian people,” the note adds.

The MXC, representing Cuban doctors and health professionals who migrated from Cuba to Ecuador, is expressing its desire to put an end to the medical agreements signed by President Correa and the Cuban Government “that undermine the employment opportunities of Ecuadorian and foreign citizens who live in Ecuador.”

Some candidates for presidency of the Republic have emphasized the need to eliminate contracts with Cuba and give priority to Ecuadorian doctors.

Cynthia Viteri, one of the candidates, has called for the “recovery” of jobs in public health by Ecuadorians, as has Guillermo Lasso, who in an interview with the newspaper El Universo indicated that the health sector’s priority is “more non-Cuban Ecuadorian doctors.”

The agreement of cooperation with Cuba stipulates that the salary of Cuban professionals is of 2,700 dollars, of which only 800 dollars ends up in the hands of the professionals themselves while the rest stays with the Cuban government.

The Movement condemns this practice: “We advocate that Cuban doctors be free and can decide their future, their country of residence and have the freedom necessary to exercise such a worthy profession.”

“We advocate that Cuban doctors be free and can decide their future, their country of residence and have the freedom necessary to exercise such a worthy profession.”

Hundreds of Cuban doctors took advantage of the free visa that Ecuador provided between 2008 and 2015 to emigrate to that country. Through a relatively easy process, health professionals achieved the accreditation of their qualifications and were integrated into the national health system.

According to official data, in 2015 almost 800 foreign doctors were in Ecuador, the great majority of Cuban nationality.

After the migratory crisis triggered by the thousands of Cubans who were stranded in Central America in 2015, Ecuador reinstated the visa requirement for citizens of the island. It is estimated that Ecuador hosts the third or fourth largest group of Cubans abroad, with a population of over 40,000 Cubans.

Ecuador is immersed in its electoral campaign. On February 19 the country will elect a new president and decide whether to continue with the program of the current president Rafael Correa or to distance itself from the left.