March 2023 – Page 10 – Translating Cuba

The Embargo/Blockade and Cuba’s Cigar Festival

Havana. Source: Cuba Before Castro – Odalys Ruiz

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 28 February 2023 — For all those who do not believe the story of the embargo/blockade and who are bored with all the pitiful complaints by the Cuban communist leaders, I recommend a visit to the 23rd edition of the Cigar Festival that is being held in Havana. It has nothing to do with an embargoed country. Quite the contrary. In addition, business is going smoothly.

At a press conference, data were offered from the productive and commercial monopoly consortium of Cuban tobacco, the so-called Habanos SA, the golden retirement of Murillo,* which generated revenues in 2022 of 545 million dollars, 2% more than the previous year.

The multinational extension of the regime’s monopoly corporation is spectacular, since it has 4,769 specialized points of sale (157 Habano, 17 Cohiba Atmosphere, 587 Habanos Terrace, 2,744 Habanos Point and 1,264 Habanos Specialist), with a growth of 10% more than in 2021. Who would have thought? Despite the campaigns, Cuban tobacco consumption continues to increase. The festival has invited 140 specialized journalists from 20 countries around the world. Who said that the Castro government doesn’t know about marketing?

Someone could misinterpret this initial tone, but it’s not my intention. The point is that anywhere Cuba has a competitive product in world markets, which sells well, at good prices, which catches investors and tobacco smokers who come to enjoy cigarettes and order their purchases, the ’blockade’ simply does not exist. It’s not even mentioned. I looked in the communist state press that covers the Havana event to see if there was any statement against the embargo/blockade by the leaders who attended. Nothing. Don’t even bother looking. It’s something for Cuba’s high society, in the most stale style of millionaires and speculators. Let them enjoy themselves, Murillo included. continue reading

The state press pursued Díaz Canel and Murillo at the inauguration in the Cuban capital of the twenty-third cigar festival that, in order to spare no expense, will go on until next Saturday, March 4. A week to enjoy, at the expense of Habanos SA and the regime, the excellence of the best product of the Island since colonial times.

Along with white gold [sugar], Cuba was internationally recognized for the quality of its tobacco from the first tobacco planters of my beloved and never forgotten Santiago de las Vegas, a municipality that stood up to the cigar stores of the metropolis, to the painstaking growers of the Vuelta Bajo region in Pinar del Río. The cigar business has survived the revolution amazingly well, and there it continues, on its feet, demonstrating what Cuba can and could do in many other areas of commerce.

So in the most triumphant tone one can imagine and with the whining far away, Díaz Canel and Murillo dedicated themselves to public relations, and at the press conference at the Palacio de Convenciones, they recreated themselves with the economic results of the Habanos SA monopoly and presented the company’s management balance sheet for 2022 with great fanfare. Some discovered a Murillo who was much more relaxed than in the time of the Ordering Task.** It’s what the elite do far from the spotlight.

As it is not an embargoed, blockaded, or besieged nation, there at the press conference the world was informed from Cuba that Spain, France, Germany, China and Switzerland were the five main markets for the cigars last year. How good it would have been to include the United States. The leaders limited themselves to saying that only the order of the nations had changed with respect to 2021. Not a reference to the northern neighbor. Neither good nor bad.

Among the activities of the festival, in addition to the visit of businessmen and tycoons from half the world, who arrive in their private jets to the besieged Island and stay in the new hotels with astronomical prices, visits to Habana factories and tobacco plantations were scheduled in the western province of Pinar del Río as the state press says, and I admit, “internationally recognized as the land of the best tobacco in the world.”

Also in that framework of a besieged and embargoed nation, the state monopoly presented the novelties of the event, basically the launches of the Montecristo Open, Bolívar New Gold Medal and Master Line (banded) products. Innovation continues to be a fundamental element of the creativity of Cuban tobacco merchants, which makes you wonder what this sector could be like if there were no communist economic model governing the destinies of the economy and the nation.

Malmierca, minister of foreign trade and foreign investment, also walked through the festival and ended up destroying the argument of the embargo/blockade by reporting at the press conference that the fair has 2,000 attendees from 110 countries, 250 exhibitors from 10 other countries and 6,459 square feet of exhibition space. Figures like these would not be possible in an embargoed country.

Malmierca welcomed exhibitors from Italy, Hungary, Spain, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Ecuador and China, including Cuban exhibitors. Of the 70 stands at the fair, 59 are Cuban, who, as Malmierca said, “show the varied offers of our country in the field of crafts, cultural and musical production, fashion, tourism, gastronomy and also everything related to cigars.”

Malmierca pointed out that “this trade fair will be an ideal framework for technical and commercial exchanges between companies, suppliers and the public that will be able to have access to the exhibition,” but those exchanges will be only for certain companies, basically the state ones, those that live within the regime.

I wish that the exchanges would serve Cuban private companies, guided by the motive of profit and profitability, but the regime’s internal blockade is another thing, the worst of all.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Translator’s notes:

*Marino Murillo is the Former Minister of Economy and Planning.
**The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
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Mexico Continues to Arrest Cubans with Humanitarian ‘Parole’ and Lock Them Up in Immigration Centers

Yudith Mandina, Roberto Mario and Roberto Montero have been detained in Mexico since February 16. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Mexico, 27 February 2023 — Cubans Yudith Mandina, Roberto Montero and their son Roberto Mario have been detained at the Acayucan immigration station (Veracruz) since February 16. According to a relative, Niurka Almeida, they were taken off the bus in which they were traveling despite having proof of U.S. humanitarian parole. “There is no reason for their arrest,” he said.

Almeida told Telemundo51 that his relatives were unable to board a flight from Cancun to the U.S. due to “an inconvenience in the issuance of their travel authorization.” To resolve this situation, they traveled by bus to the headquarters of the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, but on the way were taken off the bus by Migration agents without being told the reason.

After two days without knowing about the Montero Mandinas, the relative hired an attorney, who secured an injunction to request their release. “Since Friday, we have been trying with the lawyer, but they told him on Sunday that it would take until Monday” before their situation would be defined. “They already know that the parole is real, but nothing happens and they are still imprisoned.”

A source from the immigration station told 14ymedio that the Cubans “are not detained” and that the “internment” in Acayucan is due to the fact that they “do not have a safe-conduct pass,” he said. However he refused to answer why Island nationals who have a U.S. humanitarian permit are being arrested and why it’s necessary for these migrants to have a safe-conduct pass. continue reading

Article 111 of the Migration Law establishes that the National Institute of Migration cannot detain an irregular migrant for more than 15 working days.

On the same day that this family was arrested in Veracruz, more than 355 miles away at the Mexico City International Airport, seven Cubans were forced to get off the plane that made a stopover before flying to the U.S. One of them, Dachel, informed his mother by phone that he and his travel companions Yida and Amehd were arrested and transferred to the station known as Las Agujas.

Mexican agents told Yida that they “didn’t know” about the benefit of parole and weren’t aware of “sponsorship or the flight permit or anything.” During their stay, a lawyer offered to release them in exchange for $5,000, arguing that at least one of the young women had false documents. After four days of uncertainty they were released.

Dachel specified that of the seven detainees, three, who apparently were a family, were taken to another place, and he did not know anything more about them. Luis Ángel Sánchez and Noelvis La O Pereira were also in the group and are still detained in Las Agujas. Both have humanitarian parole and safe-conduct passes.

Luis Ángel’s father, Luciano Sánchez, said that his son is desperate, has been “attacked” and “has a sore throat.” He said that an acquaintance of Noelvis’ family, another detainee, went to Las Agujas, but “they denied him information” because his surnames did not match any of the detainees.

In an attempt to free these Cubans, the relatives have shared videos requesting the intervention of the Government of Mexico, which have so far not been heard.

This Sunday Migration reported the arrest of a bus with 116 migrants on the road from Puebla to Mexico City. Among the detainees were people from Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador. This group was transferred to Acayucan.

In Florida, this Sunday the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 64 rafters to the Island aboard the ship Isaac Mayo. According to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, 2,431 Cubans have already been expelled so far this year.

This new group of irregular migrants – made up of 52 men, 11 women and one minor – were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard at sea and returned to Cuba through the port of Orozco, in the province of Artemisa.

Two of these migrants who returned on Sunday are now subject to an investigation “for being alleged perpetrators of serious criminal acts, which were investigated prior to their departure.”

The majority of the group are residents of the provinces of Havana, Matanzas and Granma, and they have participated in five illegal exits from Cuba. The previous week, the U.S. Government deported another 98 rafters in three returns.

Since last October 1, the Coast Guard crews have arrested more than 5,740 Cubans.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Remittances Can Now be Sent to Cuba from all Western Union Offices in the United States

One of Western Union’s offices in Florida that sent remittances to Cuba in January. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 March 2023 — The U.S. company Western Union announced on Thursday that it is now possible to send remittances to Cuba from any of its U.S. offices. The company, which had carried out a pilot test of transfers to the Island only from Florida, will use the payment channels of the Cuban agency Orbit S.A., which means that Cubans will receive their money in freely convertible currency (MLC) directly in their bank account.

Western Union had launched a test phase last January 4, to evaluate the possibility of extending transactions to the Island from the entire United States. With the mediation of Orbit — an agency based in Havana that allows the Cuban Government to audit remittances and transform them into MLC — Cubans will receive the amount sent loaded onto the currency cards of Banco Popular de Ahorro, Banco de Crédito y Comercio and Banco Metropolitano.

The brief note published in this regard by the official press assures that Orbit “will keep the population informed about the official channels that it is incorporating into its management.” continue reading

According to Cubadebate, Orbit successfully managed remittances from Europe and Canada. It clarifies that Western Union transfers are a “legitimate activity” that has been working for Cuba since 1995. It was stopped when Donald Trump sanctioned the processors Fincimex and AIS for their links with Gaesa, the Cuban military conglomerate then led by Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, Raúl Castro’s son-in-law, who died in 2022.

With the flexibility of the Biden Administration for sending remittances, the company activated its pilot test from supermarkets, pharmacies, small shops, cafes, telephone stores and travel agencies in 65 locations in Florida.

At the beginning of 2023, the president of the North American division of Western Union, Gabriella Fitzgerald, announced “with great pleasure” the reestablishment of service and stated that the funds could arrive on the Island the same day if they were sent before noon.

The readers of Cubadebate found the announcement of Orbit and Western Union ambiguous and demanded more details from both companies. It’s “the same as now,” a reader said with disappointment, alluding to the fact that the cash deposited in the United States would be transformed into MLC as soon as it reached the Island’s bank accounts.

The announcement has also raised suspicions about the usefulness of receiving money in MLC, when stores where that only take payment through the cards face a growing shortage of products.

“The information must be more complete,” demanded the readers, who are also not satisfied with the fact that the cash dollar does not reach Cuban households, as was done in the past. Others, mockingly, affirmed that the news “does not give or take anything away from Cubans, on the contrary.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban State Receives 545 Million Dollars for Cigars While the Producers Are Ruined

Miguel Díaz-Canel was satisfied this Monday at the inauguration of the cigar festival, which has 59 Cuban exhibitors linked to that industry. (Cuba Presidency)

14ymedio, Madrid, February 28, 2023 — The Festival of the Cigar was inaugurated this Monday in the Cuban capital with the presence of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who had the peace of mind of being present at one of the few sectors that can boast good figures in Cuba.

The company, Habanos S.A., took the opportunity to show its 2022 revenues, which improved by 2% over the previous year, and totaled 545 million dollars. At today’s exchange that would be 578 million dollars, ten million more than in 2021. Last year, revenues had already grown by 15% compared to 2020, which shows the good health of a product designed exclusively for the foreign sector.

According to the information offered by the company, Spain, France, Germany, China and Switzerland are Habano’s main buyers and consolidate the European market as the first recipient, with 53.7%. It is followed by the Asia-Pacific region, with 19.3%, America (15.3%) and Africa and the Middle East (11.7%).

“These results are the reflection of the perfect combination between the passion that all of us who make up this wonderful Habano business feel and the strength of our brands, which puts the finishing touch on the unique tobacco that grows in this land and that offers unparalleled moments and experiences to fans around the world,” said its presidents Luis Sánchez-Harguindey Pardo de Vera and Maritza Carrillo González, whose appointment took place just a week ago. continue reading

The managers held a press conference on Monday in which they presented all kinds of details about the brands, products and points of sale in the world, which already amount to 4,769, almost 10% more than in 2021. They also commented on the main activities of the fair.

At the inauguration was the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, who explained that there are 250 exhibitors from 10 countries (Italy, Hungary, Spain, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Ecuador and China) in the 6,458 square feet of the exhibition.

“This trade fair will be an ideal framework for technical and commercial exchanges between companies, suppliers and the public who will be able to have access to the exhibition,” Malmierca said. The minister added that 59 of the 70 stalls at the fair are Cuban and show “the varied offer of our country in the field of crafts, cultural and musical production, fashion, tourism, gastronomy and everything related to cigars.”

But the news was not received with the same enthusiasm by the population. None of the readers of the official press who have commented on the information so far has celebrated the figures, and the vast majority ask that the income be used for the needs of Cubans.

“I would like a percentage of that money to be allocated to the purchase of medicines,” one user asks. “How many everyday problems of ordinary Cubans could be solved with that income?” another continues.

Another reader wonders about the real benefits once the expenses are deducted – “What were the expenses they incurred? That’s what says how profitable it is, economically speaking” – and one more wonders if there are more beneficiaries than the State: “The result is income less expenses. We will have to see what it is and if we don’t have to share part with a foreign partner. It is a ‘Anonymous Company.’ Who is it?”

There are also those who are concerned about the impact on health of tobacco consumption and a user who welcomes with prudent optimism a news that he considers good, but without falling into complacency. “Whatever profits the country is welcome, but don’t forget that we are an underdeveloped country, with a poor economy and also blockaded, and all sectors need oxygen,” he claims.

Among the readers, one points out in disbelief that this is the “more-than-justified moment to compensate tobacco producers in Pinar del Río for their losses in the hurricane.”

Hurricane Ian’s passage in September 2022 devastated 90% of the tobacco warehouses in Pinar del Río, where the leaf is obtained for the prestigious cigars. Tobacco producers told the foreign press that it may take “between eight and ten years” for the province, which produces 65% of the country’s tobacco, to recover.

The Cuban economist residing in Spain, Elías Amor, has analyzed in his blog Cubaeconomía the data and the Festival, which he considers “an event of Castro’s high society, in the most stale style of millionaires and speculators.” The expert points out as a miracle that the tobacco industry has “survived the Revolution” and emphasizes that this demonstrates “what Cuba can and could do in many other areas of trade.”

However, he believes that none of this will benefit the population. “I wish that the exchanges would serve Cuban private companies, guided by the motive of profit and profitability, but the internal blockade of the regime is something else. The worst of all possible things.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘We Young People Have to Leave the Deception That is Cuba,’ Says a Camagueyan Acccepted in the US

Oilime Esquivel spent several days at the US border in Matamoros. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 March 2023 — On one side of the Rio Grande, dozens of migrants set up an improvised camp from where they wait for a response to the request they made through the CBP One digital platform. Among them was Oilime Esquivel, who had arrived in the US only a few hours earlier when he applied for asylum.

“We young people have to leave the deception that is Cuba”, says this native of Camagüey to “Young people have to get out of the deception that is Cuba,” says this native of Camagüey speaking on video to Ricardo Quintana, a journalist for Radio and Television Marti. “Necessity forces us… Imagine that in Cuba you may have a family member to help you, but you have nowhere to buy food. There isn’t any,” he laments.

Esquivel left the Island and undertook the journey as thousands have done, on foot through Guyana. His route took him through Brazil, Uruguay, the Darién, the dangerous border between Panama and Colombia, where 45,727 irregular migrants have crossed to North America so far in 2023, according to official Panamanian figures.

“Migration in Cuba is not going to stop, it will always exist,” laments Esquivel from inside his “house,” a blanket, some sheets with nylon and cardboard that are held up with tree branches. “In winter it is terrible. You make your sacrifice but everything is for the well-being of the family,” he says, because on the Island “you just can’t go on.” continue reading

Emigrating “is what we can do and now that we are young we can leave the deception of Cuba,” says Oilime while showing the cans of food that they have given him in the churches: “Thanks to this I am eating.” In bags there are some shoes and clothes. Esquivel says that in Tapachula, there are many Cubans waiting for a permit to reach the southern border of the United States.

Others, such as Yudith Mandina, Roberto Montero and their son Roberto Mario remain detained at the Acayucan immigration station, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, despite having humanitarian parole from the US. Two others also have US permission and a Mexican safe-conduct, Luis Ángel Sánchez and Noelvis La O Pereira, and are in Las Agujas. Luis Ángel’s father, Luciano Sánchez, denounced that they demand 5,000 dollars each for their release

Meanwhile, as of Wednesday, Costa Rica has available the Temporary Special Category for Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, for those who have the refugee process pending and those who were denied it. With this, people “will be able to carry out any paid work activity on their own account or dependency relationship, as well as being able to leave the country at the time they decide,” highlights the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration of the Central American country.

The agency specified that it will review the criminal and police records of the applicants, as an additional requirement to be granted that category.

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Remembering the Cuban Dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Who Died on a Hunger Strike in Prison

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was the first opposition member to die in a Cuban prison due to a hunger strike since 1972, when Pedro Luis Boitel died. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 23 February 2023 — The mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo — a Cuban prisoner of conscience who died in 2010 while on a hunger strike to demand more human conditions of imprisonment — demanded ’justice’ for her son this Thursday, 13 years after his death.

“Thirteen years later, we are fighting here and always asking for justice, always justice, that justice sometimes takes time, but it has to come for those murderers,” said Reina Luisa Tamayo from Kentucky (USA), where she now lives, in a statement to Radio Marti.

The death of Zapata, a 45-year-old bricklayer active in the dissidence, had great international repercussions, since he was officially the first opposition member to die in a Cuban jail due to a hunger strike since 1972, when Pedro Luis Boitel died.

Zapata was detained during the Black Spring of 2003, but was not included in the summary trials of the Group of 75, accused of conspiring with the United States to “undermine the independence and sovereignty” of Cuba. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience at the time.

On December 3, 2009, he stopped eating food to protest against the abuses and he died on February 23, 2010, after 86 days of fasting.

For his mother, one of the Ladies in White, the organization that demonstrates every Sunday in Cuba to demand the release of political prisoners, the death of her son was a “murder.” continue reading

“They murdered him because they could not break him, just as they could not break other brothers like Oswaldo Payá, Harold Cepero, the Lady in White Laura Pollán. Since they could not break him, they murdered him. This suffering has not been easy,” she stressed.

Tamayo told Radio Martí that hhers son was initially charged with contempt, public disorder, and disobedience and was sentenced to three years in prison, after which new charges were imposed. When he died he was facing 36 years in prison, his mother said.

“Thanks to all those who commemorate and always remember my son, Orlando Zapata will always live,” she said.

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The Debate on ‘The Padilla Case’ Was the Main Cuban Cultural Event in February

Covers of the books ’Don’t talk to me about Cuba’, ’Patriots and Traitors in Revolutionary Cuba’ and ’From Red Terror to the Mafia State’, published or translated by Cubans. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 February 2023 — Two events marked the discussions on Cuban literature this February: the Havana International Book Fair and the controversy over the documentary El caso Padilla (2022) [The Padilla Case], by Pavel Giroud. Cuban authors, editors and translators also dealt with issues such as the return to the Island from exile and the Soviet imprint on the current Russian mafia.

Like a “cursed return” is how Grethel Delgado described the story told by her novel Do not talk to me about Cuba (Suburbano). 14ymedio published the first chapter [link is in Spanish]. That return “without any patriotic concept” to “see those she left behind” imprints “very bitter taste” on the narrator, along with regret for having made a too painful a journey to her roots.

The detective novel Asesinato en el Bosque de La Habana (Atlantis) [Murder in the Havana Forest], by Rigoberto Menéndez, deals with the Arab, Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian communities in Cuba in 1940. In the words of its author, the text uses a crime to investigate a “cosmopolitan, plural Havana, inhabited by immigrants from all latitudes.”

With Patriots and Traitors in Revolutionary Cuba 1961-1981 (Pittsburgh Press), published in English, University of Florida professor Lillian Guerra examines “the structures of hegemony and control” with which Fidel Castro secured his power in the early years of the Revolution. To support her reasoning, Guerra points out that since 1959 the dichotomy “patria o muerte” [homeland or death] was imposed on Cuban society, which demarcated the division between the supporters of the regime and those who, since their “betrayal,” were stripped of all social and political weight. continue reading

Many readers have missed a reissue of Fuera del juego (1968) [Out of the Game], by Heberto Padilla, regarding the controversy that numerous intellectuals and artists have sustained over the documentary The Padilla Case. No publisher, on or off the island, has alluded to a possible update of the work to include the impact of Giroud’s film on the current reading of the collection of poems.

The Cuban writer and specialist in Russian literature Jorge Ferrer, resident in Barcelona, announced the publication of the volume Del terror rojo al Estado mafioso (Deusto) [From Red Terror to the Mafioso State*], by Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Popov. The volume, translated from Russian into Spanish by Ferrer, addresses the work of Russia’s special services as part of a “struggle for world domination.”

Also published about the culture of this country was La última artista soviética (Godall) [The Last Soviet Artist], by the Russian painter Victoria Lomasko, with a translation by the Cuban poet and essayist Ernesto Hernández Busto. According to the presentation note of the volume, it is the “involuntary testimony of how the intolerance of a regime can truncate the wishes of this artist and turn her, despite herself, into a symbol of struggle.”

This month, the critic Jorge Luis Arcos was awarded the Franz Kafka Essay Prize for his book El castigo (Relato caleidoscópico) [The Punishment (Kaleidoscopic Story)], a “fundamental contribution,” according to the jury, to the knowledge of the work of the poet Lorenzo García Vega. Another prize winner is the French translation of the novel Los caídos [The Fallen] by the writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez, recipient of the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde 2023, which annually distinguishes the best Caribbean book published in French or Creole.

This February, Cuban readers went to the La Cabaña fortress and other spaces in Havana to participate in the International Book Fair. During the event, which was characterized by the absence of young people and poor editorial offerings, the Literary Criticism prizes were awarded, which was obtained for several books, including El año que nieve, by Rubén Rodríguez, Subsuelos, by Leymen Pérez, and Hierro, by Carlos Celdrán.

The official press itself was critical of the figures offered by the Cuban Book Institute. According to this institution, only 710,455 copies were sold – a quantity that Cubadebate defined as “considerable” – although they did not reveal the number of new titles printed by state publishers. The average cost of each book, it says, was 17 pesos, but the real cost of the books, verified by 14ymedio, was well above that price.

Readers also found very few attractive titles. At none of the stalls was it possible to buy Personas decentes (Tusquets), a crime novel by Leonardo Padura that occupies the best-seller lists in Spain and Latin America, or La niña alemana [The German Girl], the novel by Armando Lucas Correa that as of this month had sold one million copies worldwide.

*Translator’s note: The book is scheduled to be released in English in September 2023.

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Councilors from the Left and the Right in a Spanish City Call for the Release of Cuba’s Political Prisoners

The Plenary of the Santander City Council voted on February 23 in favor of a motion for the Cuban prisoners with zero votes against. (File/EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 March 2023 — The Santander City Council (Cantabria, Spain) unanimously approved on February 23 an institutional declaration in favor of the freedom of Cuban political prisoners and advocating for the fulfillment of Human Rights on the Island.

The motion was approved by 25 votes in favor and one abstention, that of Miguel Saro, representative of the regional party United for Santander and a member of the United Left and the Communist Party.

The declaration was presented at the proposal of the Cuban Association of Santander with the support of the Cuban-Basque Association Demokrazia Kubarentzat, which represents the natives of the Island who reside in these two regions of northern Spain.

The text extols the Cubans residing in Cantabria, whose emigration “has come about due to the lack of freedoms that govern their daily lives in the land where they were born” and for which they are willing to risk their lives.

“The Cuban people live subjected to a military regime of the Single Party, an entity that decides on every citizen, what he is and what it wants him to become. The absence of freedoms, the denial of political pluralism and the permanent violation of human rights is joined by an economic model that causes a chronic shortage of food and medicine,” continues the declaration, which goes on to recite the mismanagement of the pandemic and of a political and social system that shows “in the most emphatic way the inequalities and deficiencies existing in the country.” continue reading

“July 11, 2021 [11J], was embedded in our hearts for feeling the awakening of a people who took to the streets inflamed by material deprivation and lack of freedoms,” says the statement, which continues to point out the repression that has happened to that day and which places the number of “11J” prisoners that the associations counted at 891, with a total of 1,027 prisoners of conscience. In addition, they add, relatives of the prisoners, journalists and intellectuals, see how this violence also extends to them.

The City Council of this city of 172,000 inhabitants says that it cannot remain on the sidelines of the “legitimate demands of a people that continues to demand real changes” and denounces the situation in line with other organizations that it cites, such as the Parliament of Cantabria and the European Parliament, and calls on the Congress of Deputies and the Government of Spain to do the same.

To this end, they call on the Cuban government to raise the bar and to “take firm and determined steps towards democratic and economic opening” and to carry out “the necessary reforms so that citizens can enjoy all the rights and all the liberties.”

“For this, it is necessary to support a peaceful transition to democracy in which all the people of Cuba can freely decide their political future, urge the Government to continue with its policy of dialogue and aid and cooperation, as well as its desire to restore democracy and human rights.”

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Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Criticizes the Human Rights Council, but Seeks Cuba’s Reelection as a Member

Taking as a given his presence in the organization during the next period, he promised the Island would defend a “universal vision, but from the South.” (Minrex)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 March 2023 — On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the United Nations Human Rights Council of caving to the “imperialist interests” of “powerful governments” and accused the Geneva-based organization, of losing “credibility.” The diplomat took advantage of his speech to request, however, Cuba’s reelection as a member of that international organization.

Rodríguez dedicated a good portion of his statement to criticizing U.S. foreign policy toward the Island and said that no State “has the authority” to judge another with regard to human rights, as no one is “exempt from challenges.” He compared the Council to the “extinct Commission on Human Rights” and stated that it “imploded” because it became a “tribunal” to evaluate nations.

Cuba could be reelected as a member of the Council in October for the 2024-2026 period, and several countries, stated the Minister, have offered the Cuban government their “valuable support” in those elections.

Taking as a given his presence in the organization during the next period, he promised the Island would defend a “universal vision, but from the South,” aligned with “the poor, the forgotten and excluded,” so long as its membership is ratified. continue reading

However, the pebble in the Cuban diplomat’s shoe continues to be the U.S., signaled the Minister. The Island will not fold, he said with his usual rhetoric, to those “masters of finance, markets and weapons.” He did not miss an opportunity to express dismay at “the genocidal policy of the blockade” and to enumerate, on the podium, the list of business opportunities with foreign companies that have been blocked by the U.S. sanctions.

Rodríguez was thorough in his listing of the Island’s financial problems, which he attributed, as usual, to the embargo. The United States, he said, is responsible for the “deterioration in consumption and living standards of families,” for “inflation, prices, and salaries,” the food and medicine shortages, and also for the interruptions in electrical services, not to mention “industry, construction, services, commerce, investment, health and education.”

But what really bothers the Minister is the inclusion of Cuba on the “arbitrary list” of state sponsors of terrorism developed by the State Department, on which it remains to this day, awaiting the Biden Administration’s decision on whether or not to maintain it.

On Tuesday, the report, which states the reasons for which the U.S. Government did not remove the Island from the list, was published and although “it does not constitute a new announcement” on what will occur in the future, on Tuesday the Minister as well as the official government press were quick to condemn this “infamous and unfounded” measure of the Ubuted States.

Rodríguez continued his diatribe against the Biden Administration with which Havana is attempting a second diplomatic “thaw,” accusing it of financing “destabilizing and ’regime change’ operations.” He added that the U.S. discredits Cuban doctors and promotes “censorship and manipulation of large social media platforms against Cuba.”

The result, he said, is the emigration of “qualified people and those of working age.” The Minister confirmed that his government insists “firmly and irreversibly” on socialism as an economic and social model, “with a wide majority and active support of the people.” He didn’t mention at the Council that those who peacefully oppose the government suffer surveillance, persecution, arbitrary trials, and high prison penalties in jails where human rights are systematically violated.

During his visit to Geneva, Rodríguez held several meetings with high ranking dignitaries of the United Nations and diplomats from the Island’s allies, such as Venezuela and Vietnam.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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‘You Won’t Be Flying’, and 80 Cubans on Their Way to Nicaragua Remained in Havana

Cubans stranded at Havana’s José Martí airport after they were not allowed to board a Viva Aerobus flight to Managua. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Mexico, 20 February 2023 — A group of around 80 Cubans who were trying to fly to Nicaragua were stranded on Sunday night in Havana’s José Martí International Airport when they were prevented from boarding flight VB-317, operated by Viva Aerobus, to Cancún where they had a layover before continuing to Managua.

“It was last night, on Viva flight 317, Havana-Cancún, which was leaving at 10:35 pm and departed closer to 12 am. All those personnel checked and only those of us who were going directly to Cancún boarded,” José Enrique Castellano, one of the travelers whose final destination was Mexico, confirmed to 14ymedio.

The complaint came to light on Monday via a video shared by Javier Díaz, from Univision 23, during which one of the people stranded says they’ve spent several hours in the airport terminal without receiving service from the airline and without an official response to what occurred. The travelers include small children and people from several provinces throughout the country — Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Havana, and Pinar del Río.

“It is not Viva Aerobus, it’s ’death Aerobus’,” the man said while showing dozens of Cubans sitting and lying inside Terminal 3 of José Martí airport with looks of exhaustion. “This is Cuba, here are the Cubans, look, small children who haven’t had breakfast, haven’t eaten, without water, without a snack… We’ve slept here since last night, on these benches, on the floor.”

After completing the check in, passing through Immigration and Customs, already at the airport border, and after the flight began boarding is when the incident occurred. “There, 150 meters from the plane, they boarded the Cancún flight and when we thought we were boarding, they said, ’You won’t be flying’,” explained the Cuban. continue reading

Airport authorities blamed the travel agencies, said the passenger, but “It’s the airline’s fault because we checked the ticket, that is, it was the passenger list that they must send to Nicaragua for people to enter, which they did not send,” he said. (Before departure, the airlines must send the passenger list to the destination country). “And that is why we are here, Nicaragua did not allow the plane entry and that’s it, nothing happens, the Cubans are discarded here,” he added.

At the beginning of February several travel agencies operating between Mexico and the U.S. announced the return of Viva Aerobus with flights between Havana and Managua and at much lower prices than in 2022. On this occasion, tickets were between $799 and $1,200, depending on the number of bags the passenger was traveling with. The first flight was scheduled for February 12th.

Previously, that same ticket between Cuba and Nicaragua was close to $4,000 and the Mexican airline had flights from several provinces throughout the country, including Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, and Villa Clara. These flights were usually arriving on the Island with very few passengers and were full when departing to Cancún before continuing on to Managua.

On April 8, 2022, the Mexican airline decided to suspend these flights without explanation. “Once again, we state that the charter company and the airline were not involved in this decision which affects everyone and we ask for you understanding in this matter,” clarified the Mexico-based Vagamundos travel agency, at the time, without detailing if it was the result of an agreement between the government of Cuba and the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Days earlier, the governments of Cuba and Mexico had finished the XV round of conversations on the topic of migration where both parties commited to “guarantee the regular, orderly, and safe flow of travelers.” The meeting took place prior to the Mexican President López Obrador’s visit to the Island in May 2022.

The return of the Havana-Managua route in 2023 occurred shortly after the Biden administration put the brakes on the migration of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans with its implementation of humanitarian parole, and the return to Mexico of all migrants of these nationalities who attempt to illegally cross the U.S. southern border.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Woman in Las Tunas Murdered at Work by Her Ex-Partner

Arianny Chávez Puche was 35 years old and had two small children. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2023 — The death of Arianny Chávez Puche marks the fourteenth femicide of the year in Cuba. As confirmed by Cibercuba based on publications by friends and family on social networks, the woman was murdered this Sunday by her ex-partner while she was at the Mártires de Las Tunas Provincial Pediatric Hospital, where she worked as a telephone operator. The man, identified as Orosmán by the independent newspaper source, hanged himself after the crime.

Chávez was 35 years old and had two small children.

The independent platforms Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba [I Do Believe You in Cuba] and Alas Tensas have not yet commented on this event. As of February 19th, there were 13 femicides.

What Yo Sí Te Creo has published is the search alert for Analía Leyanet Carmona Pérez, a 12-year-old girl from La Palma (Arroyo Naranjo, in Havana) who disappeared on February 19th. The platform details that she “has been seen subsequently.” continue reading

“On February 25, she was seen in a cafeteria in Santos Suárez, on Vía Blanca; and on February 26, at 2 pm, she was seen in San Francisco and Cotorro,” details Yo Sí Te Creo on their networks, while pointing out that the minor has “mild intellectual disability” and describing her: “She has curly black hair, like her eyes. She was wearing a top and a long skirt with a flower print (the one in the full-length photo), with a black ribbon in her hair and black sandals.

Before Chávez Puche, a young woman whose name was not revealed and who worked as a security guards at the Roberto Rodríguez hospital was murdered in Morón, Ciego de Ávila. She was waiting at a bus stop when her partner allegedly approached her and shot her with a fishing gun.

Earlier this month, Jeysa Serrano Mojena was murdered in her home, located at kilometer 4 of the Viñales highway, in the province of Pinar del Río. Her brother-in-law is in custody for the murder.

The feminist platforms called a virtual march last week using the hashtags #YoMarcho, #MarchaVirtual8M and #TenemosNombre to show support for the cause through photos, posters, messages and any other mechanism that they consider contributes to giving visibility to the demands for a campaign for a comprehensive law against sexist violence. Such a law does not exist in Cuba.

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Argentina Proposes More Trade with Four Countries, Including Cuba, to Fight Inflation

The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez (right), receives the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, at the beginning of the Celac summit of 2023, in Buenos Aires (Argentina). (EFE/Matías Martín Campaya)

14ymedio, Madrid, February 27, 2023 — Cuba is the unexpected guest at a meeting, on March 17, between the presidents of Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia to create a product exchange mechanism with which they aspire to contain inflation. The possible agreement between four Latin American giants and the stunted Cuban economy has been revealed by Alberto Fernández himself to the Argentine economic newspaper Ámbito.

“López Obrador called me and proposed we launch an agreement with Brazil, Colombia and Cuba, which total most of the region’s GDP, to help us with a problem that is common to all of us, as is inflation,” the president said in exclusive statements to that newspaper.

The Mexican, who received Fernández on February 17, told him about the idea, which should take place next month at this summit. The idea, the Argentine advanced, is to develop a set of “sensitive” products that, if their prices skyrocket, can be imported at a lower value.

The Argentine president gave a concrete example to the newspaper and explained that, if a product such as clothing went up in price alarmingly, one could go to one of the participating countries, such as Brazil, to obtain it at a cheaper value and exchange it for a more affordable one in the country, hers, without going any further. This mechanism, Fernández defined, would be “a kind of clearing,” as commercial clearing systems are known in the economic sphere. continue reading

Alberto Fernández clarifies that, after communicating with López Obrador, he spoke with Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Gustavo Petro, and Miguel Díaz-Canel to share the initiative and the meeting with them. “We also agree that in the meantime the ministers of each country would talk to each other. In my case, I instructed Santiago Cafiero (Chancellor) and Sergio Massa (Minister of Economy) to move forward with that,” he adds.

From Fernández’s words it can be inferred that the idea of adding Cuba came from Mexican president, although it is the Argentine head of state himself who, naturally, includes the Island in the group of countries that contribute most to the Gross Domestic Product to Latin America.

According to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), at the end of 2021, Brazil, with 1.6 trillion dollars in GDP, is the largest economy in Latin America, followed by Mexico, with 1.3 trillion dollars. Argentina (487 billion) and Colombia (314 billion) are much lower, but Chile, left in the middle (with 317 billion), is fourth in the region.

To locate Cuba you have to go to position 27, with 2.05 billion “official dollars” that year, even well below Venezuela, which is at position 12 and without mentioning the possible presence of Nicolás Maduro at the summit. Nor, apparently, is Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, at least to date, invited to the summit. He is theoretically related to this ideological block, although distant in his positions with respect to Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The island does compete strongly for the position of inflationary champion within that group. Although Argentina, which closed 2022 with a 94.8% price increase, seems the absolute winner even against the Island, which reported 39%. However, the informal market indicates that Cuba ended the year with increases of 140%. Far away are Colombia (13%), Brazil (5.7%) and the 7.8% of Mexico, and these figures are not insignificant.

Although Argentina has not experienced an economic situation like the current one for 32 years, the last decades have been extremely unstable for both its own and foreign causes, and the country has alternated great economic growth with bankruptcies so deep that it has been forced to suspend payments and resort to the International Monetary Fund to save itself.

Like most countries, first the pandemic and then the global crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine have worsened the situation, and the measures taken have left the economy with contrasts, both at the macro and micro levels. Despite this, and the balances that the president must make to comply with the IMF in an election year, it is expected that it will be one of the highest growth nations in the region.

Argentina is a large net exporter of raw materials, 70% of its international trade. Cereals and oilseeds account for, in fact, around 50% of their total exports, so Fernández showed great enthusiasm around the new mechanism created by López Obrador. According to the president, the countries called to sign the agreement have a large network of food, energy and manufacturing production and, in addition, will have as an incentive the relief of not being forced to resort to the dollar as an exchange currency.

The trade between Mexico and Argentina has never been particularly active. The Mexican Ministry of Economy placed the country as the 29th largest partner in 2018, only 0.2% of total trade and sixth in the region. Just a year later, in 2019, it fell even more, to 31st place, with 1.562 billion dollars. On the other hand, bilateral trade between Cuba and Argentina currently exceeds 300 million dollars and is mainly based on raw materials and food products. In recent years, discussions have increased to form joint projects, especially in the promotion of agriculture.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Wave of Crime in Cuba Claims the Life of a School Custodian in Santa Clara

Celia Sánchez Manduley Elementary School, in Santa Clara, where the victim worked. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 February 2023 — A man was killed early this Sunday morning in the José Martí neighborhood, on the outskirts of Santa Clara, Villa Clara. Activist Jonatan López identified the deceased as Miguel Contino Moro, one of the security guard of the Celia Sánchez elementary school. According to their version, the killers intended to “steal some televisions,” old computers and “even food” from this school.

López, brother-in-law of political prisoner Andy García and exiled in Germany, added that the fact touches him “closely,” since his family still lives in that neighborhood and he studied in primary school where Contino was a security guard. The security guard “lived alone and was everyone’s friend.” The criminals, the activist said, attacked Contino with “a knife.”

Some readers of López’s report on Facebook commented that the Police carried out a “large deployment of military cars” during Sunday morning in the vicinity of the school. The body, they say, was “unrecognizable” by the “viciousness” of the thieves. Other versions have also circulated about the motive of the murder, including that of an alleged settling of accounts by a relative or acquaintance.

Neither the authorities nor the relatives of Contino have spoken out about it, and the Communist Party newspaper in the province — with its website out of service for months — has also not reported the death on its social networks.

López took advantage of his post to denounce the police inaction in the face of violence that is experienced in the peripheries of many cities on the Island. He mentioned some officers of the Police and State Security who reside in the José Martí department and demanded a more active participation in the preservation of tranquility in the neighborhood. continue reading

In addition, he recalled that when it came to repressing his family and political prisoner Andy García, officers and whistleblowers of Santa Clara — whom he identified as Yamileth and Leandro Sarduy — acted quickly.

The escalation of violence and the increase in crime in Cuba have not stopped in recent months. The official press and the Ministry of the Interior hide most of the cases and only agree to reveal, with very few details, those crimes that have had wide coverage on social networks and that it is no longer possible for them to ignore.

The murder in Jatibonico of Yanquiel Jiménez, a 19-year-old boy who died after being stabbed in the neck, shocked the province of Sancti Spíritus last week. Only after his case was reported on Facebook did the Police offer an official version in the Escambray newspaper.

In the midst of the increase in crime on the Island, the number of victims of femicide is one of the most alarming. With 14 women killed so far this year, according to several independent platforms, and a government that devotes more resources to the repression of opponents than to the security of the streets, Cubans feel increasingly helpless.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Demographic Crossroads: No Young People of Working Age in Sight

Cuba’s population is aging rapidly, and the Island does not have enough young people able to produce. (EFE)

EFE (via) 14ymedio, Laura Becquer, Havana, 26 February 2023 — Cuba faces a crossroads in the midst of one of its biggest economic crises in history: how to recover when its society ages rapidly and does not have enough young people able to produce.

The Island now has the oldest population in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two out of ten Cubans (21.9%) are at least 60 years old, the director of the Center for Demographic Studies of the University of Havana (Cedem), Antonio Ajá, told EFE.

This means that of the 11.1 million Cubans, about 2.4 million exceed the barrier of six decades of life.

The academic emphasizes that this is the result of social policies implemented decades ago that have extended life expectancy (approximately 79 years for both sexes).

However, this brings with it a problem from an economic and social point of view.

“The economically active population that is smaller is a challenge for the social security systems, healthcare and the protection of the elderly,” he said.

Which means that there are more and more elderly and fewer young people of working age to sustain the economic activity of the country. And, in the long run, to finance the pension system. continue reading

Data from the National Office of Statistics and Information show that 99,096 births and 167,645 deaths occurred in 2021.

“Cuba has a demographic behavior similar to that of developed nations (low fertility, high life expectancy), but the difference is that they are countries that receive immigrants and also counteract demographic aging with their economic development,” he said.

Cuban economist Tamarys Bahamonde says that the number of “dependent” people who live on their pensions is increasing on the Island. (Image Capture)

“Dependent” people are also increasing: those who do not produce and live on their pensions after having contributed to the economy, Cuban economist Tamarys Bahamonde explained to EFE.

The retirement age in Cuba is 60 years (women) and 65 years (men) with a minimum monthly pension of 1,528 Cuban pesos (12 dollars at the official exchange rate and the equivalent of $8.70 in the extended informal market).

The loss of young people of productive age is explained, in large part, by the unprecedented migratory exodus that the country is experiencing.

Last year alone, more than 313,000 Cubans were intercepted by the United States at the southern border with Mexico. This represents 3% of Cuba’s total population.

The figure does not include the thousands who went to other destinations such as Mexico, Spain or South America.

This phenomenon was recognized a few days ago by Ángel Luis Ríos, general director of Productive Links of the state sugar agency, Azcuba.

Ríos assured the official newspaper Granma that the sugar mills — another engine of the economy — have a reduced and aged staff due to “the effect of migration,” and that this has translated into a deficit in the harvest.

“Cuba has a negative migratory balance since 1930 that was reinforced beginning in 1959 (when the Revolution triumphed), so it has lost population in full reproductive and productive capacity,” Professor Ajá said.

Internal migration is also negative with “depopulated and aged” rural areas, a “worrying” issue for example when it comes to producing food because there are no people to work the land, according to the expert.

Another reason for the labor flight is the lack of incentives. Cuba’s average salary is about 4,000 Cuban pesos ($32 at the official exchange rate).

The fertility rate in Cuba is 1.4 children per woman, one of the lowest in the region, for which the rate around 1.85 in 2022, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

To maintain the level of replacement in the population, a woman must have two children and one of them must be a girl, explained Ajá, who highlighted that “Cuba has been below that indicator since 1978, with extremely low values in recent years.”

The loss of young people of productive age is explained, in large part, by the unprecedented migratory exodus in Cuba. (EFE)

For Bahamonde, meanwhile, “the very low birth rate has its cause in the economic crises that have been chaotic for society, especially for women because they have the responsibility to take care of the elderly.”

By 2030, elderly Cubans will represent 30% of a population that will not exceed 10 million, according to Professor Ajá.

Among the measures adopted by the Government to address the situation is the construction and maintenance of childcare centers, nursing homes and maternal homes, as well as supporting fertility programs and care for mothers with more than three children.

However, for Bahamonde, “the first thing is to respond to the serious economic situation and then think about the implementation of complementary policies that stimulate the birth rate.”

In the same vein, Ajá considers that “we must work to improve the economy and reflect its growth in increased income for families.”

“That has to be accompanied by policies that benefit the construction of housing, guarantee a solution to the problem of caring for the elderly and children and attract the Cuban population abroad,” added the director of Cedem.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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