March 2023 – Page 7 – Translating Cuba

New Technology Professionals in Cuba at the Service of the State and Socialism

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 9 March 2023 — The tentacles of the Cuban communist regime extend to all areas of the economy and society. There is no space in Cuba that is not penetrated and controlled by the model devised by the so-called revolution. SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], for example, must be authorized by a political decision of the Ministry of Economy before advancing legally and administratively. Now, during the closing of the second general assembly of the Union of Computer Scientists of Cuba, Mayra Arevich, the Minister of Communications did the same with the group of computer professionals in the Union of Computer Scientists of Cuba, an entity of 7,000 members, among the youngest Cubans on the Island.

The ministry invaded the association’s jurisdiction, such as increasing membership or continuing alliances to support the management of territorial governments. This “accompaniment” of the ministry aims to control the organization of computer scientists, and it enters such specific areas as the training of members and citizens, in order to achieve “greater impacts on digital transformation.”

The minister even dared to point out what kinds of projects the organization should promote, and cited, for example, the 2022 Cuban Digital Agenda encouraging the training of local development agents, a kind of reissued “literacy campaign” that confirms that Fidel Castro’s grandchildren continue to deploy the same crazy initiatives as their grandfather. Then, they complain about the ’blockade’ [US Embargo] to justify the overall unproductivity of the system, but this is a good example: stay in your lane.

And all this interventionist apparatus of the ministry on the organization of computer scientists makes sense for the regime, to the extent that it contributes to promoting the digital government project. It is affirmed that, with this, it is possible to give greater opportunities to the citizenry in the development of a digital society. And here comes something amazing, because those opportunities must be based on the “construction of socialism and the fight against inequalities,” such as the digital divide. continue reading

The Castro regime mixes concepts in this way that are unrelated to each other: digitization, knowledge and socialism. Three legs for a table that will necessarily wobble, from the first moment.

It occurs to me that fighting the digital divide from Cuban socialism has a downside; that is, instead of developing the most advanced and innovative skills that exist in the field of new technologies, it is intended to extend literacy in basic skills, as was done in 1960; that is, to teach the four rules [Input, Processing, Storage and Output] and then, with the propaganda of the state press, tell everyone that In Cuba there are no digital breaches. And the bad thing about all this is that they believe it.

In reality, the Union of Computer Scientists has little to do to get out from under the clutches of the regime. And like the vast majority of organizations that barely survive in the Castro regime — I’m thinking of the ANAP [National Association of Small Farmers] — it will continue to play the same game of “support and commitment to continue supporting the revolutionary government in the process of digital transformation of society within socialism,” as recognized by Febles Estrada, president of the Union, before President Díaz-Canel, at the closing of the assembly of the organization at the Palacio de Convenciones.

That’s what the regime wants. Organizations aligned with their objectives to meet political goals that later end up being forgotten or openly violated. Everything else, which is really necessary, such as the professional and cultural growth of the members of the organization, takes a back seat. Obeying, from unity, is essential so that conflicts do not occur. It is not surprising that the assembly of computer scientists talked about voting together on March 26. I’m afraid that from now on we’re going to talk about this even at dinner.

At the same event, Díaz-Canel highlighted the importance of supporting the concept of the development of a digital society and knowledge. It must be evaluated positively, if we take into account that two or three years ago the concepts of computerization and digitization were confused, confirming a notable delay of the regime leadership on the subject of new technologies. It seems that they have been brought up to date, but the distance that Cuba maintains with respect to the technological challenges of the fourth industrial revolution is still remarkable.

And what would be the alternative for a really beneficial Union of Computer Scientists for Cuban society?

Let’s get to it with a few brief brushstrokes. Of course, computer professionals and new technologies are a source of creation for entrepreneurial projects that can generate business opportunities, not only in the present, but in the future.

The professional field of digitization services is advancing in all sectors in all countries and could pose opportunities for openness to foreign investment. The creation of startups of this type of services on the Island could serve to accumulate enough critical mass to generate more business projects, not only in the field of video games, but also in cybersecurity, the digitization of physical spaces, or telemedicine and the care of the elderly, among other things.

It would be a matter of betting on an international projection of the sector that would allow foreign capital to access concrete opportunities within the Island without state interference, at the same time that Cuban professionals are provided with exchanges with the outside world to advance in the creation of joint business projects.

In terms of training and qualification, we must also bet on the most advanced technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, intensifying exchanges with world-leading training centers. In short, the development of the sector should be coupled with a progressive consolidation of digital services in the economy, of course actively fighting against the digital divide and raising the level of the Cuban population and society, facilitated by initiatives for the structural transformation of the economy.

Have we seen anyone who in any of these initiatives needs a ministry or a government behind it for something? Not at all. This sector, that of new technologies, started in many countries in the garages of homes in the suburbs and with little capital. Talent is key, and in Cuba it exists. Unfortunately, the communist regime is not in favor of that kind of work. Its objectives do not go beyond mere alliances with Cuban civil society organizations, or with institutions such as the World Institute for Software Quality and Linux (free operating system), in addition to helping territorial development and little else. It’s an agenda for professionals of new technologies in Cuba controlled by the State and at the service of socialism.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Writer Xavier Carbonell Presents His Novel ‘Time’s Castaway’ in Madrid

The writer Xavier Carbonell and editor Luis Rafael Hernández in the Juan Rulfo bookshop in Madrid this Tuesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 8 March 2023 – Xavier Carbonell (born in Camajuaní, Villa Clara, Cuba in 1995) is spurred on by the desire to distance himself from the most common themes of other living Cuban writers (the pain of being exiled from a place, the misery of being in another place) and aims, above all, for excellence in the use of language. And it’s precisely this which his second novel, Time’s Castaway (published in Spain by Verbum), has in common with his first, The End of the Game (del Viento; winner of the City of Salamanca prize) — although they are very different novels (one a detective novel, the other an adventure).

The author introduced the new book on Tuesday, at a presentation in Madrid in the Juan Rulfo bookshop. “The castaway never knows where he’s going but he’s very keen to survive or live as best he can. He doesn’t live with anxiety. The castaway’s attitude is the opposite of an exile’s because the castaway continually adapts to circumstances”.

Carbonell didn’t refer only to this novel, but he does define it as “a journey from the present into the island’s past”. In it, the protagonist, effectively a castaway, travels the Island geographically, but also historically”, towards the East, ironically emulating the journey of Fidel Castro’s ashes, which in its time was the inverse of the “Caravan of Liberty” of 1959.

He also talked about life. The image of a castaway is agreeable to him and it’s not by chance that his column in 14ymedio is called Castaways.

The novels that he writes, and the process of writing them, are, he confessed at the event, “little refuges” from circumstances: “a way of expressing oneself in code about the present”.

Actually, he first conceived of Time’s Castaway three years ago in India, where he’d travelled to spend six months studying, thanks to his work with the association Signis de comunicadores católicos. But at the end of the programme the sudden arrival of the pandemic left him stranded there. “What could I write about Cuba that didn’t just repeat either the usual creative option of exile nor the insular obsession with misery?”, he asked himself. The result was this novel, which, he assures us, was written in one great surge — inside a week. continue reading

The book’s editor Luis Rafael Hernández, there on the platform with the author, praised the “linguistic achievement” of the novel, which, in his words, “without being avant-garde, pays much homage to the avant-garde”, and he mentioned Alejo Carpentier and José Lezama Lima, in that regard.

When they received the novel at Verbum, he explained, “it felt to us like we needed to go for an author who was ambitious and who was doing something different and well crafted”.

The writer and literary critic Roberto González Echevarría undoubtedly agrees with him. From Yale University he has written a lavish prologue whose initial statements offer a strong foretaste for the reader: “The short novel that the reader has in their hands is the result of a flight of imagination of such high originality as has rarely been seen in Cuban literature, either recently, or indeed ever. This may sound overblown but I want to prepare the reader for a surprise as enjoyable as it is unexpected, a true aesthetic pleasure. Nothing of what has been published recently by Cuban or Latin American writers predisposes us for the dazzling originality of Time’s Castaway, the work of a young writer whom we are only just beginning to get to know”.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Cuba Will Host the Third Cycle of Peace Talks Between Colombia and the ELN

The members of the second cycle of negotiations of the Peace Dialogues Table between the Government of Colombia and the ELN pose for an official photograph in Mexico. (EFE/Jose Mendez)

EFE/14ymedio, Mexico, 8 March 2023 — Cuba will be the host country of the third phase of the Peace Talks Table between the Government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN), both parties reported this Wednesday, just a few days after the end of the current cycle that has been held in Mexico City since mid-February.

“The peace delegations of the Colombian government and the ELN deeply thank the Cuban government and its people for the unconditional willingness and fundamental support that, for more than four decades, they have given to peace building efforts in Colombia,” said a joint communiqué, which does not specify a date for the start of talks in Cuba.

They announced that “the third cycle will begin after a pause after the closing of the sessions that are currently taking place in Mexico City and that have produced substantial advances in the agenda of the conversations.”

During the talks in the Mexican capital, the key point has been to work to reach an agreement for a ceasefire by both parties, but mechanisms for the participation of society in the construction of peace have also been discussed. continue reading

It is expected that this Friday the delegations of the Government of Colombia and the ELN guerrilla forces will release a joint communiqué at the end of the cycle in Mexico City where they will present the achievements.

In an interview with EFE last Friday, the ELN’s chief negotiator, Pablo Beltrán, stressed that “confidence levels” had risen between both parties, but he was cautious about agreeing to a bilateral ceasefire.

“We aspire that in this cycle in Mexico we can at least mend the essence of the ceasefire. Not just an agreement, but the idea that each party puts on the table what the essential elements are and to come to a first package of consensus about that,” Beltrán said.

The Colombian government’s negotiations with the ELN began in 2017 in Quito, during the government of Juan Manuel Santos, and in 2018 they were transferred to Havana.

After the ELN’s attack against the cadet school in Bogotá in 2019, which left 22 dead and 68 injured , the Colombian government asked Cuba to hand over the negotiators, but the island invoked diplomatic protocols to not comply with that request.

Negotiations resumed in Caracas in 2022 under the auspices of Cuba, Norway and Venezuela as guarantor countries.

Mexico, together with Venezuela, Chile, Norway and Brazil are guarantors of the peace talks, while Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and Spain act as accompanying countries.

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In Cuba, Rising Prices and a Falling Peso Lead to Growing Popularity of Bill Counting Machines

A money counter, still in its original packaging, with its shiny “teeth” and new buttons, costs more than one that has been recycled, or surreptitiously removed from a bank. (Facebook/Máquinas contadoras de dinero)

14ymedio, Havana, March 10, 2023 — Pablo, a Mexican businessman with an invitation to the Cuban Habano Cigar Festival, got more than he bargained for during his first trip to the island. Ready to enjoy a luxurious, weeklong vacation, Creole cuisine and the world’s best cigars, he boarded the plane with more than 2,000 dollars stashed in his wallet. Upon arriving in Havana, he headed to the airport’s currency exchange office, handed over all his cash, and got back wads and wads of Cuban pesos. His pockets are still feeling the pain.

“I needed a bag to carry it all,” he tells 14ymedio, still exhausted from his Cuban adventure. Pablo flew to the island with three friends and checked into a hostel at which he had, fortunately, already made a reservation.

Famished, they set out in search of a privately owned restaurant in Old Havana. What they found was a disconnect between the “mountain of cash” they had been given at the airport and the restaurant’s shockingly high prices. “When I took out a wad of bills to pay the tab,” he recalls, “the waiter raised his eyebrows and came back with a counting machine.”

To the Mexican tourists’ surprise, money counting machines have become increasingly common in Cuba. “There are lots of them for sale,” the hostel’s owner told them upon their return. continue reading

Rising prices combined with a falling peso and a shortage of large denomination bills have contributed to the rising popularity of these machines, which are listed for sale on the island’s online classified ad sites.

“Bill counting machine for 260 dollars, with ultraviolet counterfeit detector,” reads one futurist-sounding ad. “Brand-new machine, still in the box. Be the first to use it,” reads another, which is accompanied by a video.

Its spinning wheels emit a clear, efficient sound as the faces of Calixto Garcia or Carlos Manuel de Cespedes zip through the the mechanical counter and a digital screen displays the total. “It never fails,” claims one ad.

Other, more sophisticated sellers do not focus on the price but look for the most flattering angles from which to photograph the device. A counter in its original box, with shiny “teeth” and new buttons, costs more than one that has been recycled, or surreptitiously removed from a bank. Every transaction in Cuba requires a large amount of cash, another consequence of the infrequent use of credit cards and other forms of virtual payments. “I bought eight of the big machines and didn’t pay more than $200 apiece,” admits one wealthy private business owner.

Inflation has dashed the dreams of tourists like Pablo, who thought he could have a luxurious vacation for a reasonable price but had to settle for the low-cost version. He and his friends did manage to buy a few cigars at the Habano Festival but, by the time they got there, he was already disgusted and in a bad mood.

“I thought it had a very elitist air,” he says, remembering how officials, dressed in suits or guayaberas, strutted through the convention center with thick cigars in their mouths, accompanied by their bodyguards.

“Worst of all was the closing night event. President Díaz-Canel and other government officials were there, all dressed up,” he says. The climax came when it was it was time to auction the humidors, the cedar boxes used for storing the cigars. One had been signed by the president, for which one buyer paid a whopping 4.2 million dollars. “Or so they said,” adds a dubious Pablo, who found something strange about the transaction, wondering whether the Chinese or Russian millionaire who bought the piece even existed. “It had to be another ruse,” he figured, chastened by his experience at the airport.

He returned to Mexico disheartened, unable to get the sound of the counting machines he heard in every restaurant out of his head. “My friends and I decided we’d try to trade the cigars we bought for non-Cuban ones,” he says. “It won’t be easy but the whole experience left us disgusted. Like the song says, I won’t be going back.”

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US Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Lift Cuban Trade Embargo

U.S. businesses would derive significant benefits from exporting grains such as wheat and rice. (Cubadebate)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, March 7, 2023 — On Monday a group of Democratic and Republican senators introduced legislation that would lift the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba and create new opportunities for American businesses.

The draft legislation, which was introduced in the Senate during the last legislative session but has yet to move forward, is being sponsored by Democrats Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Dennis Murphy along with Republicans Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall.

Klobuchar’s office issued a press release stating that the proposed legislation would eliminate legal barriers preventing Americans from doing business in Cuba but would keep in place laws that address human rights or property claims against the Cuban government.

The statement indicates that Klobuchar believes that putting an end “once and for all” to the six-decade-long U.S. trade embargo on Cuba would turn a page on “a failed policy of isolation” while simultaneously generating new economic opportunities.

Warren added, “This legislation takes important steps to remove barriers for U.S. trade and relations between our two countries and moves us in the right direction by increasing economic opportunities for Americans and the Cuban people.” continue reading

The legislators note that Cuba relies on agricultural imports to feed its eleven million citizens and foreign visitors.

According to the press release, the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that, if trade restrictions were lifted, exports of products such as wheat, rice and soybeans could increase 166% in 5 years to a total of 800 million dollars.

Under current rules, Cuba must pay in cash, and in advance, for products it imports from the United States. Additionally, because it is not a member of the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, the island does not have access to foreign credit. This, along with failure to pay its foreign debt, limits access to other types of credit.

The amount the island nation paid its northern neighbor for agricultural supplies and food products in 2022 totaled 328.5 million dollars, a 7.7% increase from the 304.7 million reported in 2021, according to the US-Cuba Economic and Trade Council.

Chicken is the island’s top food import. In 2021 it spent 295 million dollars on it, a figure 5.6% higher than the 280 million dollars it spent the previous year.

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Cuba Bought More and Cheaper Chicken From the United States, But the Price for the Consumer Hasn’t Gone Down

Chicken imported from the United States is less expensive for the first time since last May. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 9 March 2023 — In January, 29,412 tons of chicken arrived in Cuba from the United States, 11% more than in December, and yet the consumer must go look for it in foreign exchange stores or in the informal market. The same goes for the price: the Cuban state took advantage of a fall in the cost of the product in the international market and spent 26% less in January than in December for a greater amount of meat, while the price to the public is still skyrocketing.

In the last month of 2022, a kilo of chicken cost $1.26, and in January it dropped to $0.93. The bird returns to prices that have not been seen since May 2022, when it was marketed for $0.91. In that month, an upward spiral began that reached its peak in October, with a cost of $1.29.

The decrease allowed Cuba to spend 27.2 million dollars in the first month of the year, instead of the 33 million dollars it invested a month prior, for the importation of 26,460 tons of chicken.

“We will have to wait to confirm if this was a temporary interruption in the trend,” says Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who publishes and analyzes monthly the statistics for chicken, the product that the Cuban government buys the most from the U.S., despite its constant accusations about the damage caused by the “blockade.” continue reading

Cuba has exemptions to purchase food products and medicines in the United States, among other things. The condition, which the regime describes as unfair and contrary to international trade rules, is that Cuba must pay in cash, and in advance.

In July 2022, the United States Congress rejected an amendment presented by Democratic legislator Rashida Tlaib that proposed to expand agricultural trade with Cuba and authorize deferred payment for a year. It is not the only movement in Washington aimed at relaxing the restrictions.

This week, a bipartisan project arrived in the Senate, already presented in the same chamber a year ago, which proposed to “eliminate barriers” to American trade with the Island. Its defenders allege that the policy regarding human rights requirements would be maintained but economic opportunities for Americans and the Cuban population would be increased.

The United States International Trade Commission believes that if trade restrictions were lifted, exports of products such as wheat, rice or soy could increase by 166% in five years, to a total of 800 million dollars. However, Cuba’s lack of access to credit and financing as a result of its break with international organizations and its systematic non-payment of its debts leaves doubts about how the Island could deal with the payments.

In 2022, the figure paid by Cuba to the United States for purchases of agricultural inputs and food products reached a record 328.5 million dollars, an increase of 7.7% from the 304.7 million reported in 2021, according to the US-Cuba Economic and Commercial Council.

In 2022, the Island invested $295 million just to buy chicken from the United States, compared to $279.1 million in 2021. The figure has doubled since 2020, when the State spent $143.7 million, although that year it bought the least amount. Among the reasons is the rise in price of the product in international markets, which in 2022 was widespread.

The statistics of the Latin American Chicken Institute, which show a comparison of prices for the three main world exporters (United States, Brazil and the European Union), show the simultaneous rise that occurred in 2022, when the crisis in Ukraine and the increase in maritime transport costs began to push up prices.

The Cuban people have gone from aspiring to put pork on their table to dreaming of getting a piece of chicken, and they complain about having to spend long hours in line to get the meat, while they can hardly afford it in the informal market.

On the on-line site Revolico.com, the price of a chicken of approximately two kilos (4.4 pounds) is sold for an average of 1,500 pesos, approximately 12 dollars, more than half the minimum monthly wage in Cuba; or about $8.50 USD if Cuban pesos are changed on the foreign exchange black market. In any event, the consumer pays many times more for a kilo of chicken than the import price paid by the Cuban State.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Banco Central de Cuba Made in China

Along with the name, the Central Bank of Cuba, the notices say: “Made in China.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 9 March 2023 — One day there appeared a significant number of ATMs around Tulipán Street, in the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado. The nearby market of the Youth Labor Army, which attracts not only local residents but also buyers from other municipalities due to its lower prices and the availability of wholesale purchases, made them necessary.

In addition to Tulipán Street itself, there were more ATMs on the ground floor of the Ministry of Transport and in the Metropolitan Bank on Conill Street, and still more at a Cadeca, an exchange house, which in its time changed the now non-existent Cuban convertible pesos.

All these machines were deteriorating, broken down and, therefore, disappearing, without the authorities doing anything to replace them. To such an extent that the neighbors of Nuevo Vedado have to travel to other neighborhoods such as El Vedado, Centro Habana or even Old Havana to withdraw cash.

These days, people have been surprised to see signs announcing the reinstallation of ATMs on Tulipán Street. Along with the name, the Central Bank of Cuba, the papers say: “Made in China.” People do not know, because the end of the work has not been announced, when these machines will be ready, but, for the moment, they smile suspiciously at the paper sign.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘The Idea is to Leave, Once Outside We’ll see,’ Say Cubans on Their Way to Managua

14ymedio, Mexico, 9 March 2023 — “Passengers who do not have a passport, stay seated.” That phrase, which on any other flight would sound strange, is already routine for the Aeroméxico flights between Havana and Mexico City that end in Managua. Cubans continue to use that route to get to the United States.

Between hugs and tears, Dayuris and Julio said goodbye to their families this Wednesday before heading to the migration check-in area of terminal 3 of José Martí International Airport. After passing the controls and approaching gate 13, where in a couple of hours the boarding for Aeromexico flight AM 052 would begin, the couple felt that they had completed “half the journey.”

“My sister filled out all the forms to obtain humanitarian parole in the United States, but it is delayed and we prefer to wait for the response in Mexico,” Dayuris says. “We have a cousin in Monterrey who has offered us his house, and maybe we can also regularize ourselves to work while we wait for the papers to go to Miami.”

After the entry into force last January of a new program that offers up to 30,000 monthly permits for Cuban, Nicaraguan, Haitian and Venezuelan citizens to enter the United States, the number of travelers from Cuba who take the so-called “volcano route” through Managua has decreased significantly. continue reading

However, there are still people interested in leaving the Island who take advantage of the flexibility that Daniel Ortega’s regime offers to Cubans, who don’t need a visa to visit Nicaragua. Some don’t want to continue waiting in Cuba, and others fear that something will happen to complicate their departure. The truth is that “tickets are still being sold as Havana-Mexico City-Managua,” an airline employee acknowledges to this newspaper.

Unlike a few months ago, when most of the travelers who boarded the Aeromexico flight were going to Nicaragua with a stopover in Mexico City, now Cuban migrants on the flight are intermingled with Russian, Canadian and European tourists who, after a stay on the Island, are heading north.

The difference between these passengers is that while foreign tourists disembark at Benito Juárez Airport, Cuban migrants must remain inside the plane until it takes off again, this time for Managua. They also have to hand over their passports at the time of boarding the flight, a measure that has been in force since last October 30, when Aeromexico resumed its flights to Havana.

Then, Aereomexico’s representatives reported that it was essential for travelers with a final destination in Managua to buy the round-trip ticket without connecting to other airlines, since they would be allowed to transfer to an aircraft other than their company’s at the Mexico City airport. Almost five months later, the mechanism remains intact.

Dayuris and Julio’s travel document was removed by airline employees before getting on the plane. “We are calling passengers to the final destination Mexico City for boarding. Passengers who don’t have a visa must wait to be called,” an airline employee repeated several times in the boarding hall of the Havana airport. A dozen people stayed apart until the rest of the passengers got on the plane.

“Then they took away our passports and gave us a number to recover them in Managua,” says Julio. In the Nicaraguan capital, a “guide” awaits them who will take them to a modest hotel, and the day after their arrival they have “arranged a transport” that will take them to the border with Honduras. “If everything goes well, next week we will be with our cousin in Monterrey,” he speculates. “The idea is to leave; once outside we’ll see.”

On the same flight as the couple, there was also a retired teacher with two sons in Miami who want her to “get as close as possible to the border” south of the United States; a father with his son who “in July is old enough to enter military service and must be taken out of Cuba as soon as possible,” and two sisters from Güira de Melena in Artemisa who claim to “have a contract to dance” in Ciudad Juárez until they gather the money to get to Houston, where an aunt lives.

Each one paid a figure close to $2,000 for the round trip, a return ticket that everyone hopes they won’t have to use. With a tiny package of salted peanuts, all the food distributed by the airline employees on the way between Havana and Managua, they embark on a migratory journey that provides more doubts than certainties.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gaesa Used the ‘Small Business’ Law to End the Competition of Cuban Entrepreneurs

The controversial Fress private cafeteria, located in the state-owned Plaza de Carlos III. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 7 March 2023 — The Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (Gaesa), the all-powerful conglomerate belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces, has been deliberately drowning the private sector in Cuba since 2016, and the SME law (micro, small and medium enterprises), promulgated in 2021, is only a “false opening” to attract foreign investment and facilitate a new rapprochement with the United States, a “thaw 2.0.”.

Those are the main conclusions of a report made public this Monday by the organization Cuba Siglo 21 [Cuba 21st Century], signed by the Cuban economist and consultant Emilio Morales, founder of the Havana Consulting Group, and made with the help of the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit and independent journalists of the Island.

With the title “Entrepreneurship in Cuba Suffocated by Gaesa,” the research shows how, after the economic opening began on the Island in 2011, when Fidel Castro had withdrawn from power and his brother Raúl governed, the private sector had an unprecedented boom between 2013 and 2016.

It was at that time, even in the midst of the thaw between Cuba and the United States headed by President Barack Obama, that Gaesa, then chaired by Raúl Castro’s former son-in-law, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja — who died in Havana on July 1, 2022 — began what the Miami-based organization calls a “ruthless offensive” to “stop the largest citizen entrepreneurship movement that had occurred in recent decades.”

“The power and strength achieved by the movement of entrepreneurs, born in the heat of the reforms implemented in 2011, and the impact of the thaw were so strong, that even with the limitations allowed, in the period 2010-2016 there was a real boom in the non-state sector throughout the Island, which gave rise to a powerful middle class,” says the text. It pointed out that “the market showed the creation and consolidation of a very successful business structure made up of thousands of businesses in various modalities, most of them with their own brand.”

Thus, the report continues, Gaesa “began to resent the strong competition coming from the entrepreneurial sector,” for example in tourism. In just seven years, the lodging capacity of private individuals grew 268% compared to the “poor growth” of 3% of the state sector. “The CEO of Gaesa [López-Calleja] understood that the situation was getting out of control in an accelerated way, so this movement of citizen entrepreneurship had to be stopped categorically.” continue reading

Beginning in 2016, the document recalls, “no more licenses were issued to people for self-employment. The creation of new non-agricultural cooperatives (CNAs) was also stopped, even eliminating several of them and limiting the scope of action for those that remained.” In the following years, the regime continued to impose penalties on the private sector, decreasing the number of methods of self-employment and restricting the maximum wage, which could not exceed more than three times the minimum wage. Business licenses would be limited to a single activity per entrepreneur, and restaurant owners could operate in only one province or taxes would increase.

“Under these conditions, entrepreneurs saw the possibility of investing in their own country exhausted, so a strong movement began to export capital and go outside to look for new investment opportunities abroad,” the report details. “At the same time, the business of buying merchandise abroad to resell it in the informal market increases. This meant that the volume of dollars that left the country from the hand of the entrepreneurs was higher than the volume that the Government attracted as foreign investment.”

The devaluation of the Cuban convertible peso (CUC), which began to be quoted in the informal market at 50 pesos, caused people to prefer to buy the CUC “on the left” rather than at the exchange houses or banks, where they gave 25 pesos per CUC. This, the document asserts, “brought heavy losses for Gaesa, by exhausting the inventories of its stores faster and collecting CUCs and not dollars,” and it “meant that they ran out of liquidity to pay their debts with suppliers, many of whom would no longer sell to the Island.”

Faced with this reality, in the second half of 2019, Miguel Díaz-Canel announced two measures that, “far from achieving the effect of alleviating the country’s financial crisis, quickly led it towards an inflationary wave”: a wage increase without productive support, and price controls in both the state and private sectors. And the text continues: “This situation put the country at the gates of an inflationary powder keg.”

To combat the problem, the State did nothing but start a process of dollarization of the economy that exacerbated the problems even more. The COVID-19 pandemic, which the Cuban government is constantly using along with the US blockade to justify the crisis, only put the “headstone” on the island’s economy, in the words of the report.

Number of “new economic actors” in Cuba: SMEs [Small and Medium Enterprises], CNAs [Non-Agricultural Cooperatives] and PDLs [Projects of Local Development] approved, as of January 2023. (Cuba 21)

Why create a new category of entrepreneurs, SMEs, instead of consolidating businesses that already had a license for self-employment, “allowing them to exercise the right to register their businesses as property with legal personality, to export and import directly and even to receive investments from the United States since being genuinely private and autonomous of the State they could be exempted from the Helms Burton Act”? asks the report. “Very simple,” it answers: “With SMEs, there is no desire to strengthen the private entrepreneur but to artificially create a middle class dependent on Gaesa, whose ’owners’ are chosen from among less fortunate relatives of the oligarchs, retired repressors and members of the rapid response paramilitary brigades.” An opening, in short, more like Russia than Vietnam or even China.

This would create a kind of entrepreneurial middle class, “with the discreet capital of the oligarchy and its phantom companies,” the dossier argues, that Cuba’s own “agents of influence” in the United States would try to promote and sell to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department as “legitimate private account holders and entrepreneurs” to allow them commercial, financial and credit transactions with the United States and the European Union. In this regard, they give as an example the mysterious financial company Orbit, which is already working with Western Union on the resumption of remittances to Cuba.

The strength of the arguments in Morales’ report lies in the data. The 6,161 SMEs registered on the Island at the beginning of 2023 represent only 1% of the number of entrepreneurs in 2016.

In that year, Cuba Siglo 21 points out, there were more than 500,000 Cubans with a self-employed work license, which in total generated more than 3 billion dollars. The debacle was progressive: “The obstruction to the reforms in 2016 removed some 80,000 self-employed people from the market. Subsequently, the pandemic and the monetary Ordering Task* caused more than 139,000 entrepreneurs to hand over their licenses or close their businesses. The country has lost two-thirds of this labor force because the State, which now boasts of creating SMEs that do not represent even 1% of those businesses, has since applied deliberate policies to repress them through prosecutors and police (the most successful often ended up in jail). A considerable part has emigrated, convinced that there is no future in Cuba.”

Against the possibility of what it calls “thaw 2.0,” the report also alleges that the Obama Administration’s rapprochement with the Island only benefited the “oligarchy” of the regime when 42 billion dollars of its foreign debt was forgiven, allowing them to obtain new lines of credit, increasing the tourist flow, using resources to build hotels and acquiring military equipment for repression.

“Pretending to draw up a policy of engagement with the aim of empowering the Cuban people and trying to promote a private sector that does not exist is to reiterate the errors of the first thaw,” says Cuba Siglo 21, because “concessions were made without reclaiming those that should have materialized, first or in parallel, on the Cuban side.”

The report concludes: “If the Cuban dictatorship on the Island and the Cuban exiles in the world have proven anything, it’s that without freedom there is no progress.”

*The Ordering Task [Tarea Ordenamiento]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.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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So Far in 2023, Cuba has Received 2,724 Migrants Returned from Several Countries

The crew of Cutter Paul Clark repatriated 26 Cubans to Cabañas, Cuba this Friday. (@USCGSoutheast)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 11 March 2023 — Cuba has received a total of 2,724 irregular migrants returned by several countries in the region so far this year, including a group of 26 delivered this Friday by the United States Coast Guard Service, Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (Minint) reported.

The last migrants deported by the US authorities — 23 men and three women — bring the total to 1,944 rafters deported to the Island in some twenty U.S. Coast Guard operations that intercepted them at sea after their illegal departure from Cuba.

In recent weeks, other groups of irregular migrants were returned to Cuba by the governments of Mexico, the Bahamas and the United States (41).

The Cuban government affirms that it maintains its commitment “to regular, safe and orderly migration” and insists on “the danger and life-threatening conditions represented by illegal departures from the country by sea.”

In the case of the United States, since last October 1 — which marks the beginning of the current fiscal year — the crews of the U.S. Coast Guard have intercepted more than 5,740 Cubans, a high figure compared to previous years.

At the beginning of 2023, the Washington implemented a policy to welcome 30,000 monthly migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.

In parallel, the United States will immediately expel, to Mexico, undocumented migrants from those countries who try to cross the southern border to the U.S. in an irregular manner.

Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from U.S. territory.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Sancti Spiritus to Distribute Flavor-Enhanced Soy Milk Due to Cattle Shortage

Cuban milk production has fallen dramatically in the last twenty-one years and is no longer enough to satisfy demand. (Invasor)

14ymedio, Havana, March 9, 2023 — The Rio Zaza Dairy Products Company in Sancti Spiritus province has temporarily suspended deliveries of milk for medical diets, with an exception granted for children and pregnant women, due to low production resulting from an ongoing drought. Alberto Cañizares Rodriguez, director of the state-owned company, told the regional newspaper Escambray it will instead provide flavor-enhanced milk.

Cañizares Rodriguez says there is not enough milk to meet demand due to the company’s low production levels. For now, the restriction will only apply to the city of Sancti Spiritus. Consumers on special diets in the rest of the province will still receive their normal ration of milk directly from the producer.

Cañizares Rodriguez hinted at a crisis in February when he acknowledged that milk supply in the province was “intermittent” due to delays in deliveries from farmers and a shortage of ammonia, which is used in refrigeration. At the time, he signaled that the situation would worsen in the next two months due to dry weather.

This year, Cuba has been dealing with a severe drought, which has hampered agricultural production and fanned fires in forests and pasture land. On top of low production, the island has not been able to import the powdered milk it needs to ensure continuation of its feeding program. As a result, the director added, the company cannot guarantee distribution of the 4,500 liters the city of Sancti Spirtus needs.

To cover the shortfall, he said the company has begun producing flavor-enhanced soy milk, which families can get through their local Ministry of Commerce distribution stations. Some unrationed soy milk will also be available for sale, for a higher price, at government-run stores. continue reading

Neighborhood stores that sell rationed goods have already begun adopting the measure. For example, a sign in La Revoltosa indicates it will begin selling milk for children and pregnant women on Tuesday, March 7. Meanwhile, flavored milk will be distributed on the days covered by the medical diet.

People with family members who suffer from diabetes, or who are on medication to control it, have described the decision as lunacy. “My neighbor told me she wouldn’t drink the milk if it had sugar in it. I told her, ’You’d better drink it because, if you don’t, you’ll die of hunger.’ It’s that simple,” wrote Elizabeth Herrera Rodriguez in a social media post.

Due to a water shortage, the production of soy yogurt has also been interrupted. The product is intended for consumption by children ages seven to thirteen. It is also included in a Cuban family’s monthly allotment of basic foodstuffs and can be purchased at stores that offer greater availability but at higher prices. Cañizares Rodríguez acknowledged that access to water is a critical issue. Without access to liquid milk, the only things the company can produce are soy-based derivatives, which requires it to pipe water into its processing plant.

According to Escambray, Sancti Spiritus is the only province that, “through thick and thin,” has been able to maintain milk production. Meanwhile, the rest of the country has, for months, had difficulty providing enough rationed goods for distribution.

State production of cow’s milk plummeted 95.2% from 1989 to 2020 while output by private producers grew 105.9%. That is not enough, however, to compensate for the plunge in overall domestic supply. In the last twenty-one years, the country went from producing 1.12 million tons of milk a year to just 455,300, a drop of 59.3%.

In addition to the drought, the livestock sector is also being affected by the theft of cattle by gangs who have even murdered some producers.

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A Desperate Cuban Regime Hopes to Soften Up the U.S. through Vatican Mediation

Sean Patrick O’Malley and Beniamino Stella recently visited Havana to hold confidential talks with the government on the release of political prisoners. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 March 2023 — The Cubans detained after the 11 July 2021 (11J) protests are Havana’s only bargaining chip in its gambit to improve relations with Washington. Facing a severe and widespred economic crisis, the government is hoping for a diplomatic thaw that has yet to begin. Allowing the detainees to resettle in Spain, with the Vatican acting as intermediary, is the only thing that might accelerate the process.

“The problem is that Cuba is less and less willing to compromise and the international political climate is not the same as it was twenty years ago,” an annonymous source close to the negotiations told 14ymedio. He believes the regime wants to rely on the strategy it used with the seventy-five dissidents arrested in 2003 during in the so-called Black Spring. After being released several years later, most left the island under pressure.

The regime’s success depends on the process being a speedy one. However, it is dealing with two negotiators who can easily afford to wait: the Catholic church, which is intentionally forestalling any decision, and the U.S. government, which must take into account the opinions of Cuban-American voters in Florida before making any move.

“When Biden won the 2020 presidential election, members of his administration — especially the supporters of former president Barack Obama, who are very influential in the State Department — understood they could not follow same the plan for improving relations with Cuba as the last Democratic administration. Once they had successfully implemented that plan, which included remittances, contacts between businesspeople and more benefits for the island, the Cuban regime felt reinvigorated. Then came the July 11 protests.” says the source.

The demonstrations brought everything to a halt and then the Trump administration reversed course. Relations with Havana stalled as the government became increasingly repressive and hard-line with the protest marchers.

Pope Francis saw the 2014 plans to restore diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington fall apart. “Then, with the death of Cardinal Jaime Ortega,* who caught the attention of the whole world, there was no strong leadership with the capacity for dialogue within the Cuban Bishops Conference. The Pope has had to turn to Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston and Beniamino Stella to act as intermediaries. Both have recently visited Havana to hold confidential talks with the government on the release of political prisoners,” he points out.

The Cuban government wants the Vatican to give its blessing to a new raprochement with the U.S. and is counting on support from a good number of American politicians and businesspeople.

In its bid for Francis’ approval — the pope’s sympathy for the regime is no secret — Cuban officials have launched a campaign to canonize Felix Varela, a Catholic priest and one of the nation’s founding fathers. “That’s why a meeting with Stella was hastily called at the University of Havana,” claims the source. “With [President] Diaz-Canel present, it served the purpose of overshadowing the cardinal’s meeting with the Catholic cultural figures at the old San Carlos seminary.”

Stella’s diplomatic skills were on display during a press conference after his visit when he let it be known publicly that the subject of the political prisoners had been on the table. “The reason Diaz-Canel and the regime’s higher-ups were interested in Stella’s visit was clear: they wanted to politically mislead the church and, once again, the pope.”

The church’s canonization process is notoriously slow, however, and any effort to officially make Varela the first Cuban saint could take decades. The government in Havana cannot wait that long. The U.S. holds presidential elections in barely a year and a half, after which the entire international situation could change. Besides, Varela’s canonization would not be enough to earn the United States’ sympathy or speed up dialogue.

“They need a spectacular gesture, something like freeing the prisoners,” says the source. The experts agree. “The Biden White House is not paying much attention to Cuba,” says Ric Herrero, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a Washington-based organization which supports the policy of rapprochement with the Island. “They are almost entirely consumed with the war in Ukraine and the deteriorating relations with China.”

Herrero believes Havana needs to take some concrete action that would “grab the attention of the decision-makers in the Oval Office.” Freeing the July 11 prisoners could be thing that reminds the White House of the importance of Cuban affairs, he told NBC News.

Social and political figures in both countries have increasingly relied on cultural events as a tool for improving bilateral relations. The singer Tonya Boyd-Cannon visited Havana last January and, shortly thereafter, so did filmmaker Dawn Porter, with the support of the Cuban Ministry of Culture. The well-known jazz musician Ted Nash also performed in the island’s capital thanks to the involvement of state institutions.

A unnamed spokesperson for the State Department told NBC, “Cultural programs are a longstanding, integral part of our public diplomacy activities and are designed to connect directly with the Cuban people.”

However, the “major obstacle” to normalized relations, as Benjamin Ziff, the charge d’affaires of the US Embassy in Havana, points out, remains the incarceration of the almost 800 protesters arrested on the island in 2021 and 2022.

The Vatican and the US are not the only parties working towards the prisoners’ release. As happened with the dissidents in 2003, Spain has reportedly offered to take in prisoners who want to leave the country.

“Spain wants to play a role in the negotiation because there are many Spanish businesspeople with interests in Cuba. Many of them have been financially ruined trying to do business in Cuba but the ’big guys’ such Meliá and Iberostar always land on their feet. The directors of these companies have, by now, lost hope that the Cuba’s regime will collapse under a wave of foreign tourism, which its dictatorial rulers themselves promoted. Now they just want to be there, doing business, when and if the transition comes.”

But the Cuban government will not find salvation in Spain or China, much less Russia. Only the United States can provide that, claims the source. “It has to be stated publicly that the Cuban dictatorship is desperate for contact with Washington. If a presidential candidate with a harder stance on Cuba wins the 2024 election — someone like Ron DeSantis, the current governor of Florida — or if there is a demonstration of public discontent similar to July 11, everything will collapse on top of them.”

*Translator’s note: Influential archbishop of Havana until his death in 2019.

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Traffic Light Power Failure Causes Accident in Havana

Both drivers – each over sixty years old – emerged unhurt but extremely nervous. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 March 2023 – A traffic accident in Havana on Tuesday left two people with light injuries: the drivers of cars which collided at the intersection of Calle 17 and Avenida de los Presidentes (Calle G) on El Vedado.

During a power cut — and consequent loss of traffic light functionality — one of the drivers, travelling on Calle G in a white VW hit an orange Fiat 126 travelling towards calle 17 and ended up on its side in the middle of the road. Both drivers – each over sixty years old — emerged unhurt but extremely nervous.

As reported to this paper the driver of the orange vehicle was bleeding as he hung onto his spectacles and the other driver of the white car was limping. The former was helped by a nurse — a friend of the family. The other — from Ciego de Ávila — was just on his way back from the nearby Heart Surgery and Cardiology institute — from a meeting where they had reviewed his recent open heart surgery.

The little orange Fiat 126 which was travelling on Calle 17 and ended up on its side. (14ymedio)

Both parties had additional problems though: The Fiat driver, faces the problem of getting replacement parts for a car that was first imported to the island in times of business with Eastern European communist countries. The driver from Ciego de Ávila couldn’t even get home because of the lack of available public transport.

“It was the power-cut’s fault”, said one of the rubberneckers at the scene. “But the drivers themselves were a bit negligent — one of them for not respecting the right of way on Calle G and the other for not driving slowly enough and stopping”.

“The main cause was the power cut”, said one of the rubberneckers at the scene, “but the drivers themselves were also to blame”. (14ymedio)

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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‘The Blackouts are Taking Off Again’ Throughout Cuba

Unit 2 of the Matanzas thermoelectric plant, Antonio Guiteras, is also out of service. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 March 2023 — Heat begins to squeeze the inhabitants of the Island, and the demand for energy grows faster than the generation recovers. This Tuesday, many Cubans choked on their breakfasts when Cuban television announced power cuts of up to seven hours in some parts of the Island.

“Yesterday in Sancti Spíritus they turned off the electricity around 5 in the afternoon and turned it on around 8:30. The blackouts are taking off,” says the 14ymedio correspondent in the province, which is already enduring the first prolonged cuts.

A little later, the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) disseminated on its social networks the summary of yesterday’s activity, confirming 7 p.m. as the worst moment of the day, when there was a deficit of 541 MW. The company also published its generation forecast for today, when a deficit of 23% of electricity is expected in the evening, the time of highest consumption. The company expects an electricity generation capacity of 2,277 megawatts (MW) and a maximum demand of 2,860 MW.

In total, 237 MW of the generation produced in the thermoelectric plants are missing, since the following are out of service: unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez, in Mariel (Artemisa); unit 3 of the Ernesto Guevara, in Santa Cruz (Mayabeque); unit 2 of the Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas; unit 5 of Diez de Octubre, in Nuevitas (Camagüey); Unit 2 of Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton (Holguín); and unit 5 of Antonio Maceo, called Renté, in Santiago de Cuba. continue reading

They are joined by three units under maintenance, one in Cienfuegos and two in the Renté plant, in addition to the deficiencies in the distributed generation. As for the generation, 933 MW do not work and 322 MW are under maintenance. In that context, the 20 MW provided by the Puerto Escondido unit and the 70 MW of the Renté plant, whose unit 5 enters at peak time, fall short.

Despite the lack of expectations that citizens already have in the face of the Government’s promises, some customers regret having believed the words of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, who proposed a maintenance program aimed at repairing the thermoelectric plants that would began in January, when the climate is cooler and therefore favorable, and end in May, to tackle the warm weather when demand skyrockets.

In January, the minister announced that with this plan the power cuts weren’t going to disappear, but they would be for only one or two hours compared to 14 to 16 hours last summer, when an unprecedented crisis led to a multitude of protests in different parts of the country. However, already in February, blackout periods began to be extended to three and four hours.

“And we thought that at this point the situation was going to be resolved with scheduled maintenance,” complains a disappointed user on the UNE networks.

Between February 13 and 22, from the center to the east of Cuba, there were four large blackouts that left half the Island in the dark, fueling the fears of the population and the feeling of grievance among the inhabitants of that area, who feel discriminated against. All the Turkish floating power plants that contribute to electricity generation are located in the west.

The authorities of the sector said that one floating plant was going to be sent to Santiago de Cuba to minimize the problem, since the location of all of them in Havana — due to the greater presence of companies and concentration of population — was catastrophic for the east of the Island, but the inhabitants continue to feel affected and report that the floating plant still hasn’t arrived.

“The party started again, to suffer with the Apagón [blackout] orchestra giving their annoying concerts all over Cuba. The same never-ending story,” a client bitterly quipped, in a play on words that recalls the traditional Aragon orchestra. Another is already ahead of the fear that exists on the Island: “I’m just saying that the heat is coming and they are fucking us again with 10 or 12 hours of blackouts.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Than 2,600 Migrants Have Been Returned to Cuba This Year From Several Countries

The number of repatriations from the United States grows by the hundreds almost weekly. (Twitter/Chief Raul Ortiz)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 7 March 2023 — More than 2,600 Cubans who were trying to migrate have been returned to their country from different nations so far this year, the Ministry of the Interior of the Island reported on Monday after including the last 75 returned by the United States.

The United States Coast Guard delivered a group of rafters a day earlier — 54 men, 20 women and a minor, most of them residents in the provinces of Matanzas and Granma — to the Cuban authorities through the Port of Orozco.

These people, without documentation, had participated in six illegal exits from the country by sea and were then intercepted by the US Coast Guard, the note said.

It also specified that with this operation — number 25 of the US Coast Guard Service in 2022 — a total of 1,918 Cuban rafters had been returned.

One of those returned is under detention “for finding himself as an alleged source of serious criminal acts, which were investigated prior to his departure,” it added. continue reading

Last week, other groups of irregular Cuban migrants were deported by the governments of Mexico (22 people), the Bahamas (128) and the United States (41).

The Government of Cuba insists that it maintains its commitment “to regular, safe and orderly migration” and insists on “the danger and life-threatening conditions represented by illegal departures from the country by sea.”

In addition to the Bahamas, Mexico and the United States, so far this year migrants have also been deported to Cuba from the Cayman Islands and the Dominican Republic.

In the case of the United States, since October 1, U.S. Coast Guard crews have intercepted more than 5,740 Cubans, a high figure compared to previous years.

At the beginning of 2023, the Government of Washington implemented a policy to welcome 30,000 monthly migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua. In parallel, it will immediately expel to Mexico migrants from those countries who try to cross its southern border in an irregular way.

Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are sent from U.S. territory.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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