Arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997, the foreigner was accused of placing six explosive devices
Archive photo of Raúl Ernesto Cruz León / EFE
14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Salvadoran Raúl Ernesto Cruz León was released this Monday in Cuba, where he served a 30-year prison sentence for carrying out terrorist attacks against tourist facilities on the island, official media reported. “Today, after serving his sentence, Cruz León has been released, demonstrating that Cuba respects its laws and guarantees justice, even for those who have committed serious crimes,” said a statement published in Cubadebate.
The article notes that Cruz León, “was arrested, tried and sentenced to death in Cuba. However, in an act of coherence and humanity, the Cuban legal system commuted his sentence to 30 years in prison.” In addition, the statement points out that his release, after serving his sentence, “is an example of the fairness of the Cuban legal system, which applies the laws impartially and consistently.”
However, it adds: “We cannot forget that the intellectual authors of these terrorist acts, who planned and financed the attacks, have lived and died in the United States without facing justice.”
It also states that Cuba “has faced terrorism with firmness and respect for legality, investigating and sanctioning those responsible for criminal actions that have caused pain and loss to its citizens and visitors.” The note reiterates that the United States “has allowed the intellectual authors and financiers of these terrorist attacks to live free and unpunished in Miami.” In that sense, it points to Luis Posada Carriles, who died “without being tried for his crimes,” and to “other promoters of terrorism against the Island who continue to enjoy impunity on US territory.” continue reading
Posada Carriles acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA
Cruz León was arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997 and accused of placing six explosive devices between July and September of that year in the hotels Nacional, Capri, Copacabana, Tritón, Chateau-Miramar and the well-known restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio, all in Havana.
One of those bombs caused the death of Italian businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32, and injured seven other people.
In the trial held in 1999, Cruz León was found guilty of the crime of “continuous terrorism” and sentenced to death after proving that he was sent to the island for those purposes by the anti-Castro organization Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA), based in Miami, and by the Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who died in 2018 in that city of Florida.
Posada Carriles, a former CIA collaborator, acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA.
In 2010, the People’s Supreme Court of the Island decided to replace the original sanction imposed on Cruz León with that of 30 years of deprivation of liberty, at the conclusion of his appeal of the death penalty.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Not even the ice cream shop employees know when it will reopen its doors.
Inside, only a few foreigners, loaded with cameras and lenses, stroll around and take pictures / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 December 2024 — Nobody knows when Coppelia will reopen. Cuba’s most famous ice cream parlor, located on the emblematic corner of 23rd and L, in El Vedado, has been closed for months. “The cathedral of ice cream is dead,” was the verdict of a Havana resident when, on Thursday morning, she saw only two employees reluctantly selling cookies.
To 14ymedio’s questions, the workers answered, holding their treats and seated at one of the many entrances of the centrally located establishment: “There is no ice cream and we don’t know when there will be any.”
As the passers-by who walk around the ice cream parlor remind themselves, “Nothing has been sold there since Hurricane Rafael struck,” last November 6.
The crooked sign at the entrance, and the fallen tree trunks and poles, augur that Coppelia’s bad season continues until further notice. / Juan Diego Rodríguez
A month later, at the beginning of December, the Coppelia ice cream factory on Rancho Boyeros Avenue gave the final blow to production after running out of ammonia to refrigerate the product.
The chains that, placed from one fence to another at the entrance, have been blocking the entrance to Coppelia for weeks, are not the only ones that draw the attention of Havana residents. “They also removed the huge continue reading
awnings where the tables were placed for customers to sit and there are many fallen trees.” Even the craftsmen who used to sell their items in front of the establishment have disappeared. “They dismantled all that and we don’t know if the vendors will return, ” another Havana woman admits.
Inside the utopian revolutionary ice cream parlor – created with the idea of giving Cubans a taste of the most exclusive flavors – only a few foreigners, loaded with cameras and lenses, walk around and take pictures after getting the workers’ approval. The crooked sign at the entrance, evoking the legs of a ballerina, and the fallen poles in its gardens, seem to announce the inevitable: after several crises and temporary closures in recent years, Coppelia has finally hit rock bottom.
Translated by LAR
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Sergio Ortega is the son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro at political events.
Sergio Ortega had some privileges on the Island, such as his vacations in the Varadero Hotels. / Adults Only Hotel Los Cactus
14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — Sports commentator Sergio Ortega of Tele Rebelde has left Cuba. The reporter and his family arrived this Sunday at Miami International Airport. According to journalist Henry Morales, they plan to settle “in South Florida,” where 1.1 million Cubans reside.
The abandonment of Ortega, son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro in political events, caused surprise. As the page La Tijera on Facebook recalls, the communicator “had certain privileges on the Island, such as his vacations in the hotels of Varadero,” whose images he himself spread on social networks, and “other facilities that the rest of his colleagues in the guild could not enjoy.”
Ortega, 67, has not commented on his departure, which could be via humanitarian parole – which has allowed the entry of more than 110,000 compatriots since January 2023 – or through a family reunification visa. In any case, his departure is part of the unstoppable migratory wave, driven by economic and social deterioration, blackouts, and lack of healthcare in Cuba.
A hydraulic engineer by profession, Ortega broke into the Cuban media in 1994. The Coco station – where his father worked – in Havana, gave him his first opportunity in sports announcing. Throughout a career of 30 years, he ventured into the narration of basketball, volleyball and soccer matches, continue reading
among other disciplines. Alongside Renier González, he covered World Cups and Olympic Games.
More than this trajectory, however, he is known by fans for his blunders and his narratives about Cuban athletes who competed under another flag. In the World Cup Brazil 2014, for example, he said, “What a cannon shot!” about a kick by Englishman Raheem Sterling that hit one side of the goal post defended by the Italian Salvatore Sirigu. Seconds later he recognized his mistake: “Ay, if it had gone in, my God!”
An Internet user considered that Sergio Ortega was “the worst thing about the World Cup” in Brazil 2014. “We have bad commentators; they are also partial, which doesn’t go over very well,” said a reader in a Cubadebate article. Cuban sports announcers deserve “expulsion from Cuban TV,” he stressed.
His false goals were common. He celebrated an alleged score by Real Madrid striker Eden Hazard against RB Leipzig. “Real Madrid’s superb collective goal,” he narrated. “Goal at (minute) 80: they were tied and now secures first place in the Champions League group (European club tournament).” The ball never entered the goal.
Ortega was also very loud after he fell asleep during a broadcast, then woke up and invented a soccer play.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Lack of food and cold are no worse than the lack of hope for the most vulnerable these days
Religious institutions and associations put on recitals and encourage cultural activities, but the poor of Matanzas aren’t up for partying. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Matanzas 24 December 2024 – “I sleep wherever I can” is the ’calling card’ of Emilio, one of the beggars who trawl through Matanzas after sunset looking for a shop doorway in which to bed down. A quiet man, he asks for 20 pesos as a condition of talking to us. “I’ll buy a coffee with this”, he says, putting the note in his pocket. “It was quite cold last night and it got very uncomfortable towards dawn”.
His worst enemy is a cold weather front. “When one of those arrives I think I’m going to die”, he says. “So far it hasn’t happened. I try to keep going. I sell stuff that I find in people’s refuse, and if I can’t find anything I just beg for something to eat”.
His base for the moment has been the area around Matanzas Cathedral. The two yellowish towers of the old church shield him against the light. “They say that before Christmas they are going to have a dinner and there’ll be a crate of food”, he says, pointing towards the church door. “I’ve been invited. After that, who knows what’ll happen”.
As in other dioceses on the island, the bishoprics and parishes usually organise initiatives for the city’s beggars, at which Cáritas (the international support agency of the Catholic Church) distributes food and clothing. They also put on recitals and encourage cultural activities, but the poor of Matanzas, Emilio admits, aren’t up for partying.
It’s enough just to take a stroll around the centre of Matanzas or around the cathedral to see that the number of beggars has grown. / 14ymedio
It’s enough just to take a stroll around the centre of Matanzas or around the cathedral to see that the number of beggars has grown. With his bits of junk and improvised sales displays, his mission is to “find a few pesos to get through the day”, as Emilio puts it.
For Jorge, who has suffered from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for years (a degenerative illness which gives rise to progressive muscular paralysis and is ultimately fatal) the kindness of strangers is indispensable. When he needs breakfast he goes to the dining room at the Kairós centre, continue reading
which is an institution run by the Baptist church. From time to time he also attends other religious centres.
It’s enough just to take a stroll around the centre of Matanzas or around the cathedral to see that the number of beggars has grown. / 14ymedio
“Not even adding that one to my coupon book is enough to get me to the end of the month”, he says, sorrowfully. With his physical condition “every mouthful counts”. Every minute too.
Matanzas (’massacre’) lives up to its name – a name which, according to legend, came from the slaughter of a group of Spaniards by indigenous people in 1510. And life is hard not only for its citizens but for its animals too. Just like during the Special Period [after the fall of the Soviet Union] the rumour now is that when there’s nothing to eat, people have to go out hunting for cats, or dogs.
Nor is it unusual to find beggars living off families’ discarded food scraps (frequently used to make “sancocho” pork stew), collecting them to use as raw material whenever they can. You can also often see them at the city’s refuse tip “diving” amongst the rubbish to fill up a bag with old tin cans or scrap metal. Sometimes you’ll even see the families themselves doing this kind of scavenging – including the children.
In the city, the beggars’ worst enemy is a cold weather front. / 14ymedio
Living like this finishes you off in the end. Carmela knows this well enough. By trade a “seller of mousetraps and other useful items”, he suffers from untreated ulcers on one of his feet, which was injured in an accident. He has worn the same clothing for years, and his hands, full of calluses, are testimony to his way of life.
Carmelo used to be a delivery man. Riding on his work tricycle – a very creole artifact – he would deliver whatever his customers ordered from him. But after his accident he had to find another way to make a living. Now he sells what he can find, and if “things get bad” he goes to the notorious Calle del Medio to beg.
He says he doesn’t like going to the charity canteens. This New Year’s Eve he plans only to shut himself up in his tiny single room. The silence inside the little cubicle – without any visitors – is the closest thing he’ll have for a party.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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This year that ends, Castroism has lost a good part of the little popular support it had left and will limp into January. Unfortunately, so will Cubans.
Cuba has suffered very prolonged power cuts in 2024 / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — 2024 has been the most difficult year that Cubans have lived in this century. Everything that could go wrong became worse in these last twelve months. The economic crisis, inflation, the deterioration of basic services, insecurity and the migratory exodus have marked the passage of days on the Island. This has been a time of darkness, not only because of the constant blackouts and the three total collapses of the national energy system, but also because not a single ray of hope has shone.
While in the streets there was talk of collapse, the official discourse defined the situation as a “complex” scenario. As the number and volume of voices calling for economic openness grew, regulations were raining down from the Government to put rigid limits on the private sector and stop the development of private companies. While on social networks, in the long lines in front of ATMs and at family tables consensus was reached on the urgency of a political change, official propaganda insisted on continuity.
As the months went by, the faces of Cubans became longer, their cheekbones more prominent and the circles under their eyes darker
As the months went by, the faces of the Cubans became longer, their cheekbones more prominent and the circles under their eyes darker, but before the news cameras the Communist Party leaders became plumper and pinker, their necks thicker and their waists more difficult to contain by belts and buttons. The divorce between Cuban reality and the group in power became impossible to hide. That pronounced fracture was evidenced not only through body weight, but, especially, through words.
At the plummet of the rationed market, countless statements from ministers and officials came out claiming that no one would be left helpless. While the streets were filled with beggars and children asking for money or food, propaganda directed its spotlights towards poverty in liberal democracies. When the doors and windows were opened to the Kremlin’s continue reading
interference on the Island, the tone on the supposed sovereignty of the country was raised. Instead of listening to the crying of mothers watching their children leave through Central America, the official press preferred to place the microphone on the voice of others displaced by distant conflicts. Faced with the increase in crime, the regime’s spokesmen pointed out incidents on American and European streets.
Two diametrically different countries lived in Cuba this year. On the one hand, the empty pharmacies and hospitals with hardly any medical staff; on the other, the one that exports health workers anywhere in the world and boasts of its novel drugs. The number of femicides exceeded 50 murders throughout 2024, but the Federation of Cuban Women boasted of the low incidence of sexist violence on the Island.
If there was something that was planned to improve, this year it was ruined even more
Despite the hundreds of political prisoners who are still locked up in prisons, Havana pretended to show respect for human rights before international organizations, judged other countries that did not pay it ideological homage and gave a lecture on the benefits of its prison system. In November alone, seven prisoners died behind bars for situations that point to the responsibility or complicity of their jailers.
The economic projection was not accomplished by even one decimal point. If there was something that was planned to improve, this year it was ruined even more. Food production continued to collapse, and farmers responded with fewer deliveries despite the pressures of the state monopoly Acopio. The fields became unsafe spaces where animal slaughterers and thieves didn’t let the rural population sleep. The industry almost disappeared, and the numbers of tourists fell below those of the previous year, for the first time since the pandemic.
If the previous Christmas we thought we had hit rock bottom, this shows that our assessment was naive. This December it seems that there is absolutely nothing to celebrate, but there are reasons to harbor a modest optimism: the Cuban dictatorship will enter 2025 very weakened. To the financial and productive crisis must be added the galloping decrease in support within the sectors that, until recently, blindly defended it. This year that ends, Castroism has lost a good part of the little popular support it had left and will limp into January. Unfortunately, so will Cubans.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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It is alleged that doses of the synthetic drug known as ‘químico’ are being sold on the online platform Revolico
Several Cuban soldiers in an operation on the Malecón of Havana, in November 2021. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 29 December 2024 — A theme prevailed over the vortex of rumors in Cuba in November and defined the tone of the comments: total blackouts. Everything, from the alleged militarization of cities to information about protests – confirmed in some cases – had darkness as a backdrop. The intermittencies of the internet connection contributed to the representation of the crisis being even more exorbitant and alarming.
An old myth – that the authorities energetically favor Havana and despise the eastern region – circulated again as an argument for an alleged cruelty against Santiago de Cuba and the surrounding provinces. According to several rumors, electricity returned to the capital faster, to avoid the risk of protests, while in the east the police acted with a heavy hand and more blackouts against the populations that demonstrated.
It was also said that the center, and not only the east, suffered the repression of the Government to “save” Havana. In Santa Clara, for example, it was pointed out that there were only two circuits with power after the total blackouts: the one corresponding to the neighborhood of El Condado – where the neighbors, many of them illegally installed in the marginal areas, usually protest violently – and in which the house of the first secretary of the Communist Party in the province is located. continue reading
According to several rumors, the electricity returned to the capital faster, to avoid the risk of protests, while in the east the Police acted with a heavy hand
There were gestures of protest throughout the country, according to rumors. Users reported a graffiti on Cristo de Camagüey Street, between Santa Catalina and Bembeta. The poster said: “Down with communism. The people are tired.” Another sign of discontent was the alleged theft of rails from the Colón-Matanzas railway line, on which several trains have been derailed for months.
Along with the total Island-wide blackout, the passage of two cyclones and the occurrence of several earthquakes fueled the discomfort of Cubans. In the midst of the crisis, it was reported that the telephone lines provided by the National Institute of Meteorology to inform the population collapsed. Others claimed that the blackout and the ravages of both hurricanes caused the disconnection.
Cuba has not lacked international aid in recent weeks, but, according to rumors, the Government uses it to benefit a select few, especially hierarchs and owners of MSMEs related to the regime. The same happens, it is claimed, with hospital resources, which are distributed to the medical institutions of the Army and not to Public Health. As for the food, donated by several United Nations agencies for soup kitchens, it ends up on the tables of the leaders.
The same happens with hospital resources, which are distributed to the medical institutions of the Army and not to Public Health
The life of prisoners in Cuban prisons continues to be the subject of rumors that, due to the isolation suffered by many prisoners, usually cannot be confirmed. Prisoner Nelson Caballero Díaz was brutally beaten by guards in the cells of Villa María Luisa – the State Security barracks in Camagüey – according to several complaints. After the beating, he was incommunicado and for several weeks his family has not heard anything about him. De Caballero is said to have two small children and his doctors have issued him several certificates accrediting that he has been beaten.
Another inmate, also in Camagüey, commented that his hands were amputated and that the Ministry of the Interior turned a deaf ear to his constant requests for medical assistance. Finally, there was talk of the death of a prisoner in Ariza prison, in Cienfuegos, after being beaten by seven policemen.
The information about violent events of which the Police rarely offer an official version also follow. In Camagüey, according to several users, a man who was looking after a house was killed to steal the valuables of the property. The case of an 18-year-old who assaulted a Basic High School student, took her phone at knife point and fled was reported. He was arrested by the people before the delay of the police.
Minors are involved in some of these events. Two boys are accused of breaking into an apartment in Santiago de Cuba. After being discovered and fleeing, the neighbors themselves managed to catch up with them. According to a neighbor, “the boys were closing the door of the apartment since the oldest warned them that people were not going to be in the house today. Quickly the neighbors heard the noise and went out.” The police put both children in custody.
Some rumors point to an alleged legalization of narcotics in Cuba by Miguel Díaz-Canel, given the ineffectiveness of the police to control traffic
Rumors have multiplied about el químico* [the chemical], the fashionable drug in Cuba, as well as videos of people under its influence. Some rumors point to an alleged legalization of narcotics in Cuba by Miguel Díaz-Canel, given the ineffectiveness of the police to control trafficking. Some doses of el químico, it is said, have come to be sold on the online sales platform Revolico.
Many Cubans have no doubt that the system is giving multiple signs of crisis and future restructuring, for the sake of their survival. According to a rumor, the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, is in prison for having revealed the magnitude of the network of illegal businesses he protected. De Marrero, who appeared in several photos with an arm in plaster and a sling, was said to have been beaten by some soldier – probably Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, El Cangrejo [the Crab], grandson and bodyguard of Raúl Castro – for mistakes in his management.
Reality has denied that Marrero has fallen from grace. This month, in front of Parliament, it was his turn – under the attentive gaze of Raúl Castro – to make an act of contrition over the country’s multisectoral debacle.
*Translator’s note: ‘El químico‘ is a synthetic drug based on cannabis laced with other substances and is said to be highly dangerous and addictive.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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There are people who have never stopped blaming the United States for the failures and mistakes of Cuban totalitarianism
Perhaps, the most conspicuous of those sin-eaters* is President Barack Obama / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 29 December 2024 — It is not new that US politicians and officials believe that they are responsible for all the evils suffered by others, as can be seen in a recent letter that former diplomats and National Security officials addressed to President Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris, in relation to Cuba.
The United States has its own “sin-eaters“: people who, through ritual meals, free individuals who have recently died or are close to death from their sins. Perhaps the most conspicuous of these is President Barack Obama, who re-established relations with Cuba without demanding changes on the Island.
In my opinion, the letter should have been addressed to the dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel, since they recognize that it is the Government of Cuba itself that has created “insufficient and incoherent political reforms that have largely caused this crisis.” However, the sin-eater aspect of the letter appears when they claim that “the current policy of the United States has exacerbated the difficulties of Cubans.”
There are people who have never stopped blaming the United States for the failures and mistakes of Cuban totalitarianism, stating that the embargo and US policies forced Fidel Castro to be hostile to this country. They ignore that the Cuban system has concluded 66 years with political prisoners and a people immersed in misery for the failed policies of the regime, and not for real or alleged foreign aggressions. continue reading
I remember reading the opinions of compatriots who blamed the US for having led Castro to ally with the Soviet Union
Even more, I remember reading the opinions of compatriots who blamed the US for having led Fidel Castro to ally with the Soviet Union. They ignore that on June 5, 1958, he wrote to Celia Sánchez: “When I saw the rockets they threw at Mario’s house, I have sworn to myself that the Americans will pay dearly for what they are doing. When this war is over, a much longer and bigger war will begin for me: the war I’m going to wage against them. I realize that this is going to be my true destiny. Fidel.”
The petition also requests that Cuba be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, ignoring that the Cuban government, for more than six and a half decades, has systematically supported the violent groups that have tried to destroy democracies in their own countries.
Finally, they very discreetly ask that the White House be the savior of tyranny by increasing humanitarian aid and simplifying the rules for Cuban citizens to access the US financial system.
They are well informed about the critical situation of Cubans, but apparently they prefer to ignore who is responsible for the situation they describe by saying: “The country’s energy network is failing, child malnutrition is increasing, basic services are deteriorating, and most Cubans have lost hope, precipitating the largest exodus of migrants from Cuba in its history.”
Many of those who signed this document are former officials of the government of Barack Obama
Many of those who signed this document are former officials of the government of Barack Obama, such as former ambassador to Cuba Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who denies that the Obama-era thaw has been a failure, without presenting evidence of its success. Vice President Harris said in 2020 that the embargo policy only helps supporters of confrontation, ignoring that the ones who have promoted confrontation are the rulers of Cuba, from the Castro brothers to the hand-picked dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.
I ask those who signed, do not play into the game of the enemies of democracy. A license that allows United States citizens to invest in Cuban companies will not change the situation of Cubans for the better. Spaniards and Canadians have made large investments in Cuba without the Island prospering. Finally, the Cuban state under Castro’s totalitarianism was failing long before some of you voted for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Protected by the authorities, the Grand Master began to take action against those who demanded his immediate resignation.
The attention the crisis received was another weapon of the Grand Master against his enemies. / Grand Lodge of Cuba/FB
14ymedio, Havana,27 December 2024 — No ingredient was missing from the drama that Cuban Masons have been involved in for almost ten months this year. The scandal, last January, over the theft of 19,000 dollars from the top – and safest – floor of the Grand Lodge building in Havana, led to a whirlwind of accusations and pronouncements that plunged the order into disrepute. The man whom all the fingers were pointed at was the Grand Master himself: Mario Urquía Carreño.
Even today it is not clear why the money, which belonged to the Llansó Masonic Asylum, was subjected to such irregular transactions among the high officials who were supposed to guard it. Urquía Carreño, who initially assumed responsibility – although not guilt – for the theft, entrenched himself in office and found an unexpected ally: the Ministry of Justice.
Protected by the authorities, the Grand Master began to take action against those who demanded his immediate resignation. Cuban Masons, historically intolerant of all forms of authoritarianism, counterattacked using the fraternity’s legal tools. During a meeting in March, he was expelled from the premises with cries of “Get out, thief!” Humiliated by his adversaries, but shrewd and well advised, Urquía Carreño demonstrated that his opponents had not followed the rules correctly and, with an endorsement from the Ministry of Justice, he was reinstated in his office. continue reading
Another variable was added to the equation: the independent press. The attention that the crisis received was another of the Grand Master’s weapons against his enemies: he accused them of revealing Masonic matters to the layman. The irony of the argument was that both State Security and some of its propaganda channels – especially the so-called Cuban Warrior – were tearing their hair out at such a lack of respect for the order.
When the situation could not be more surreal, Caridad Diego, the regime’s chief for religious affairs, intervened.
When the situation could not be more surreal, Caridad Diego, the regime’s chief for religious affairs, a person experienced in dialoguing with the fraternity, intervened. In a meeting with a group of Masons, the Communist Party official ordered the cell phones to be confiscated from the attendees and confessed that she “knew nothing of what was happening.” She urged, however, for a return to the fold of the Ministry of Justice, which is essential for the Grand Lodge to remain legal in the country.
In August, Urquía Carreño capitulated “for the good of the institution” and resigned from office. There had been months of extreme tension and schism, in practice, with the Supreme Council for the 33rd Degree – the second most important Masonic institution in Cuba – and with its leader, José Ramón Viñas, his antagonist. He had left Freemasonry on the brink of institutional abyss and one step away from losing the recognition, and therefore the financing, of Masons from other countries. Cuban emigrants in Florida already considered him an agent of counterintelligence.
A month later, in another equally unexpected move, the former Grand Master was arrested at the police station in Zanja y Dragones. He seemed to have lost the favor of his former protectors and his Masonic status was in question. Since then, it is unknown what has become of him.
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The shabbily dressed old man leaned the container over the sidewalk and used a long wrench as lever.
An older man in shabby clothes laid the blue plastic container on the sidewalk and inserted a long key between the metal support and the base, like a lever / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 December 2024 – What possible domestic use can a wheel from a garbage bin have? The enigma is difficult to solve in a country overwhelmed by multiple needs, but the answer, judging by the wave of robberies that has crippled more than a few garbage containers in Havana, must exist. Local authorities have denounced the situation. To no avail. The dismantler – or the gang, as some speculate – is still at large.
The operation, however, is not carried out clandestinely or at dawn. Anyone who walks through the streets of Havana can, in broad daylight, witness how a bin is stripped of its four wheels. A reporter from 14ymedio witnessed how an older man, shabbily dressed, laid the blue plastic container on the sidewalk and inserted a long key between the metal support and the base, as a lever.
It only takes a little muscle – although, to be honest, the old man is pure skin and bones – for the wheel to come loose and fall into a bucket. Passersby hear the dull thud of it falling, but no one bats an eye. When someone else “makes the decision,” the law of the street dictates that they keep quiet and keep walking. No one knows how much that wheel is worth when the old man sells it to a customer to build a wheelbarrow that will be used to carry water or other products, but everyone understands that his “beans” depend on it. continue reading
It should not be forgotten that when a wheeled container overflows onto the street, it reveals that it is not only humans who are interested in waste.
The Cuban crisis has generated a whole catalogue of “garbage people”: divers who fish for recyclable junk and often food; scavengers who go hunting for historic plaques, park benches and any piece of metal within reach; businesspeople who know what use to give to the most unusual pieces – like the wheels of the container – and to whom it is best to sell them; and beggars whose world is garbage, because they depend on it daily to eat, dress and breathe.
For them, Havana’s garbage has layers, geography, chronological order, flora and fauna. It should not be forgotten that when a container without wheels overflows onto the street, it reveals that it is not only humans who are interested in waste. Dogs, cats, rats and even birds stop by to look for what they need.
In daily contact with this world, the workers of the Communal Services also suffer from the “hobbling” of the trash bins. This Saturday, three employees were trying to move an empty container. The maneuver could not have been more laborious. As if glued to the asphalt, the hulk filled with waste remained motionless.
No one in Havana remembers the old cha-cha-chá that best describes it, sung in Cuba long ago – ironically – by the Mexican duo Hermanos Castro: “Hide, because here comes the garbage! Hide, gentleman, because they’re taking what’s good for nothing.”
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Her list of achievements includes 40 other gold medals won at the Paralympic Games, World Championships for the Blind, Parapanamerican Games, World Championships and several Grand Prix.
The Santiago native has had to overcome limitations, ailments, injuries, as well as “training countless times while enduring pain.” / Calixto N. Llanes
14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2024 — Omara Durand is a legend of Cuban para-athletics. The official media has given her the epithet of goat Greatest Of All Time). No one disputes that she is the greatest of all time. She won Paris 2024 with gold medals in the 100-meter dash by stopping the clock at 11.81 seconds, and she also did it in the 400 meters (53.59 seconds) and in the 200 meters (23.62 seconds) in the T12 category for people with visual disabilities.
Durand, who said goodbye with a kiss on the track at the Stade de France on 7 September, also won the treble in the 100m, 200m and 400m at the Paralympics in London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, for a total of 11 gold medals. Her record includes 30 other gold medals won at world championships for the blind, Parapanamericans, world championships for the disabled and several Grand Prix.
The athlete, who lives in the Chicharrones neighborhood in Santiago de Cuba, decided to retire in the French capital as she wanted: “the best female athlete in the history of the Paralympic movement.”
Between nostalgia and tears, the multi-champion, who has done nothing but run since she was seven years old and has put the Island on the top of the podium, acknowledged that she has “reached her finish line” at “the time to say enough” and put an end to the sacrifices. The Santiago native continue reading
has had to overcome limitations, ailments, injuries, as well as “training countless times enduring pain.” Among her first objectives is to undergo eye surgery.
The athlete has shown that the word disability does not exist as an obstacle. “A human being gets to where he wants, as long as he sets his mind to it.”
Durand’s strength was vital in her recovery from the 2019 World Championships in Doha. The parathlete swept the 100-meter events in 11.48 seconds, the 200 meters in a new record of 23.03 seconds and the 400 meters in 53.05 seconds. However, she came out “destroyed” and ended up in an operating room. Although she recovered and returned to the track, she has confessed that this was the moment that led her to make the decision to say goodbye in Paris 2024.
Although the island claims that sports for the disabled are an exemplary topic, the reality is that, as in all disciplines, there are limitations. The sprinter has suffered on more than one occasion from a lack of resources to attend international events such as the Diamond League for people with disabilities.
“We need to make more progress,” Durand said in an interview with the SEMlac Cuba website. “We have to focus on doing many things so that sports for people with disabilities in Cuba are diverse, so that more sports can be practiced, and more Paralympic games can be taken to multidisciplinary games, but this requires a lot of willingness and a lot of work.”
Omara Durand has shown that the word disability does not exist as an obstacle. “We are human beings and a human being gets where he wants, whenever he sets his mind to it.” Although she accepts that along the way she has come across people who “have a disability in their hearts,” she does not limit herself. The place she leaves vacant will be very difficult to fill; today on the Island there is no athlete who will raise her hand; with her retirement, difficult times are coming for Cuban sport.
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’The Horseshoe Colossus’, as he is known, won his fifth Olympic gold medal in Paris 2024 and avoided Cuba’s debacle
Since the defeat in Athens 2004, Lopez has had 21 consecutive victories in the Olympics, 108 points in favor and seven against. / EFE-Miguel Gutiérrez
14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2024 — The best exponent of Greco-Roman wrestling is Cuban. Mijaín López, at age 41 and against the odds, won his fifth consecutive gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after defeating the exiled Yasmani Acosta, who competed for Chile. The feat of the Horseshoe Colossus surpassed that of the Americans Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Alfred Oerter, the Dane Paul Elvstrom and the Japanese Kaori Icho, all with four gold medals.
The French capital also served as the venue for the athlete’s retirement. López did so with a ritual before the astonished gaze of the spectators at the Champ de Mars stadium, in front of the Eiffel Tower. The 130-kilogram human giant took time to walk around the mat, go to the center, kneel and kiss the mat. He took off his boots and left them in the center.
López’s feat on August 6 was a relief for Cuban officialdom. Cuba was ranked 39th in the medal table until then. The island attended the summer competition with 62 athletes in different disciplines, the smallest delegation since Tokyo 1964. In addition, a group of 21 athletes represented other countries and two more were part of the exile team.
The regime has hung on to the athlete’s achievement, as Fidel Castro did in his time with the achievements of the athletics icon Alberto Juantorena and the boxer Teófilo Stevenson.
Cuban sport – including Olympic sports – is collapsing. In Beijing 2008, the island was ranked 19th in the medal table, in London 2012 it was 16th, in Rio de Janeiro 2016 it was 18th, in Tokyo 2020 it was 14th and in the French capital it reached 32nd place with nine medals. However, the debacle has continue reading
not reached Mijaín López. The Communist Party activist and deputy of the National Assembly, who has dedicated several of his conquests to Fidel Castro, took on the fight. Since the defeat in Athens 2004, he has had 21 consecutive victories in the Olympics, 108 points in favor and seven against.
The regime has latched onto the athlete’s achievement, just as Castro did with the achievements of athletics icon Alberto Juantorena, boxer Teófilo Stevenson and the women volleyball players known as the Morenas del Caribe. “You have shown that you have the lineage of a gladiator, a warrior, and also an exemplary Cuban and revolutionary,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told the five-time champion via video call after he set the medal record.
López, who cut his teeth in his native Herradura carrying boxes of fruit and disdained boxing because he preferred hand-to-hand combat, was sent off to applause at the Campo de Marte stadium, although his happiness was overshadowed by a cry of “Patria y Vida” (Homeland and Life) that came from the stands, the anthem of the nationwide protests in Cuba since 11 July 2021. “Esos son unos peste a cu…,” the athlete replied.
Months earlier, at the Bicentenario Cerrillos stadium, during the Santiago de Chile 2023 Pan American Games, the controversial defense of his ideals led Mijaín López to attack Cuban migrant Damián Montes de Oca Iglesias for waving a flag with the legend: “Freedom for Cuba.” The police had to intervene to remove the assaulted person from the scene. Despite the fact that there was a complaint and videos against the athlete, the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case on the grounds of “lack of evidence.”
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On Monte Street, the smell of improvised chicken coops spreads through the nearby houses and gives the neighborhood a certain rural touch
Chickens on a balcony on Monte Street, in Havana, this Friday / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 December 2024 — Cubans have stopped wondering if this crisis is worse than that of the 1990s. The blackouts, food shortages and lack of fuel for public transport during the Special Period — in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of its subsidies to Cuba — have now been surpassed in duration, severity and limitations. The breeding of animals at home like chickens and pigs for eggs and meat has also returned.
On Monte Street, one of the most populated and poor arteries in Havana, no one is surprised anymore if they see a couple of chickens on a balcony, guarded by a cat ready to meow an alert against any attempted robbery. Separated from the abyss by the rusty irons of a fence, the birds look down at the traffic, peck some grains of rice and are unconscious of the casserole that awaits them. The smell of the improvised chicken coop spreads through the nearby houses and gives the neighborhood a certain rural touch.
“We’re back in that time when they sold chicks so you could raise them for food,” remembered a seller of matchboxes, instant glue and other paraphernalia. From her strategic position in a doorway on the central street, the woman knows everyone’s business in the area. “In that house they were raising a pig in the bathroom,” she explains and points to a tiny room, with just a small window to the street, on the first floor. “You could hear it and smell it.” continue reading
“Even if I’m starving, I won’t do that for anything in the world,” said a potential customer
“Even if I’m starving, I won’t do that for anything in the world,” said a potential customer who looked at some shoelaces for sale, asked the price of some plumbing pieces and checked the flavors of the instant soda packages. “My family and I raised a pig 30 years ago and in the end got attached to the animal and couldn’t kill it,” he explains. “It escaped from the bathroom where we had it locked up and went to sleep in our bed. Finally we had to sell the pig to a cousin because we didn’t have the heart to sacrifice it.”
With their white plumage, blackened by the soot that rises from the street, the two chickens on the balcony continue to peck stubbornly at the floor and in the cracks of the unpainted facade. “In addition, fattening an animal requires food, and if it’s hard now to get food for humans what is left for them? At least in the 90s you could find something to feed them,” said the man, who in the end leaves without buying anything. Comparisons with current times have ended up turning the 1990s Special Period into a longed-for time for Cubans. Better to avoid parallels.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The high cost of tickets between both nations, around $1,500 per person, discourages travel
Ambassador Hua Xin reported on the measure in a congratulatory message to the regime on the 66th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s triumph in 1959 / Chinese Embassy in Cuba
14ymedio, Havana, December 28, 2024 — The Chinese Embassy in Havana announced this Friday that Cubans who wish to travel to the Asian country will be exempt from paying the fees of the visa procedure from January 1. Payment will be maintained, however, if any procedure at the diplomatic headquarters is urgently requested.
The measure is taken in the midst of a climate of rapprochement and growing economic interest of China, whose citizens, since last May, do not need a visa to enter the Island. It is, according to the embassy, a “New Year’s gift” to Cubans.
The change, however, will probably have very little influence on the number of Cuban travelers to China. Nationals of the Island need to have a transit visa for most airports in Europe and other parts of the world that act as a bridge between Cuba and China. The high cost of tickets between the two nations, which are close to $1,500 per person, also discourages travel.
The change, however, will probably have very little influence on the number of Cuban travelers to China
Ambassador Hua Xin reported on the measure in a congratulatory message to the regime on the 66th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s triumph in 1959. “This year, China and Cuba have witnessed frequent exchanges and fruitful cooperation,” said the diplomat, who highlighted Cuba’s union with the BRICS group of countries as the starting signal to provide more economic aid from Beijing.
He referred to “several important projects,” including the steady shipment of solar panels, guarantors of the “bright future” that Hua Xin predicts for an Island that has concluded another year of energy crisis. “Chinese assistance materials have arrived in batches; photovoltaic parks have been continue reading
built with Chinese help; direct flights between the two countries have resumed; and more and more Chinese tourists are seen on the streets of Havana,” he added.
In his message, which he read in English in a video on his X account, Hua Xin, for his part, gave details about his life in Havana. “I have made many Cuban friends and visited many places. I have been deeply impressed by the hospitality, kindness, diligence and patriotism of the Cuban people.”
Hua Xin, ambassador since last June, has been one of the architects of the growing rapprochement between Beijing and Havana
Hua Xin, ambassador since last June, has been one of the architects of the growing rapprochement between Beijing and Havana. In addition to managing China’s aid to Cuba, he has been interested in participating in the media life of the Island. Earlier this month, he wrote an opinion piece in Cubadebate that contained his diplomatic approach to the country.
For Hua Xin, Cuba must find its place among China’s international allies to contribute to the world’s economic transformation designed by Xi Jinping. “China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers, and they are working together to build a China-Cuba community of shared future,” he wrote. The cooperation is based, he said, on “biotechnology, renewable energy, communications and other fields.”
“China is willing to work with Cuba,” is a phrase that he constantly repeats in his speeches, meetings with the authorities and public messages.
At that time, the minister announced the visa exemption for Cuban citizens with ordinary passports
China will be the guest country, next year, of the 42nd edition of the International Tourism Fair of Cuba (FITCuba), the main event of this sector on the Island. The Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, explained then that the invitation was part of the promotion of relations and tourism between the two countries.
At that time, the minister announced the visa exemption for Cuban citizens with ordinary passports
The greatest evidence of the rapprochement in recent months has been the sending of solr panels from the Chinese company Hangzhou Duojia Technology. Its president, Qiaoming Huang, told Reuters earlier this month that solar panels are “the definitive solution” for the Cuban energy debacle. His argument was indisputable: “In this country there is plenty of sun.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Miguel Coyula and Lynn Cruz talk about their ‘Chronicles of the Absurd’, a film that won awards abroad and was censored in Cuba
Coyula and Cruz with the important award received in Amsterdam. / Jorge Fernández Era/14ymedio
14ymedio, Jorge Fernandez Era, Havana, 28 December 2024 — In a film scene marked by censorship, it has become common for filmmakers to turn to alternative venues to exhibit their films. I went to one of them, the home of director Miguel Coyula and actress Lynn Cruz, to see the documentary Crónicas del absurdo [Chronicles of the Absurd], winner of the Best Film award in the Envision competition, at one of the most important festivals in the world: the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. We talked about the reality that the film draws on that December afternoon.
Jorge Fernandez Era: The Havana Film Festival ended a few days ago. It seems that the event is still “alive.”
Miguel Coyula: I always send my films to Cuban festivals so that there is a record of them being rejected. There are filmmakers who, out of principle, do not do so, but when you are sure of what you are saying, your work should ideally be shown everywhere. The premises of my last four feature films would never have been approved by the ICAIC (Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry). So, the only way to function is to be outside of the institutions.
When there is such a long list of taboo subjects – you cannot make a film where you directly touch on the figure of Fidel, or a corrupt doctor or primary school teacher, or a policeman or soldier – there are filmmakers who believe they are making independent films while making pacts with the ICAIC, where the scripts have to be approved according to Decree 373, which dictates that the content has to be within the “climate of creative freedom continue reading
permitted by the Cuban Revolution.” The institution itself gives you your “independent filmmaker” card.
Independent cinema has to be uncomfortable. It’s not independent because you finance it out of your own pocket. / Jorge Fernández Era/14ymedio
Independent cinema has to be uncomfortable. It is not independent because you finance it out of your own pocket, but because of its content and form.
Lynn Cruz: I had heard that the event was very politicized. The point is not to close doors, not to eliminate spaces, but to use those spaces as a forum. And, as a filmmaker, having a film at the Festival also means having a platform, being able to express your political ideas.
The Festival lives on because it happened, it will continue to happen. What is worrying is the cinema that is made, which wants to fit into those spaces because of the few opportunities filmmakers have to exhibit their works.
Jorge Fernandez Era. Along with the deterioration of the political, economic and social situation of Cubans, the exclusion of different voices is returning. What is the role of the intellectual community, of yourselves, in times like this?
Lynn Cruz: There is a certain exhaustion. The “sit-in” of intellectuals in front of the Ministry of Culture on November 27, 2020, happened. Then there were the massive protests in July 2021. It is as if everything is condensed in time and happens more quickly. Before, it was more or less every ten years that a group of dissidents would emerge and confront the system. The power does its cleaning, the people leave the country. Unfortunately, nothing lasts.
Miguel Coyula: It happens with filmmakers too: they make their first feature film – it’s a curious country, new artists emerge all the time – and then they leave. You can’t see their trajectory on the Island.
Trying to make your work outside of Cuba is much more complicated. That happened to me when I made Memorias del desarrollo (Memories of Overdevolpment), a film that critically analyzes the Revolution. “I have to film the scenes in Cuba,” I told myself. I discovered from the United States that all the oddities here are fertile ground, ideal material for working on dystopia. We live it every day, in a way that many foreigners cannot understand if they do not spend time living in Cuba. I needed to be in the conflict zone; I did not feel comfortable making a critical film about my country from outside.
The kind of cinema I am interested in making is the kind that goes to the darkest areas of the society in which one has to live.
The kind of cinema I am interested in making is that which goes to the darkest areas of the society in which one has to live. As they say in Elpidio Valdés: “The fire is here.”
Lynn Cruz. Reality is changing: what you saw one way a month ago, you now see in a different way. The country is changing at a dizzying pace, both for the better and for the worse – almost all of it for the worse – but you can’t understand it properly if you’re not there.
Miguel Coyula. In Chronicles of the Absurd there is a quote from [Fidel Castro’s] Words to the Intellectuals – curiously, as in the film, what is preserved is the audio– that is chilling: “The most revolutionary artist would be the one who was willing to sacrifice even his own artistic vocation for the Revolution.” It is terrible.
Jorge Fernandez Era. You have insisted on the clandestine nature of the recordings that support the film. How are you doing with the clandestine nature?
Miguel Coyula: I have always been outside the system. Lynn did work at the ICAIC. That is why in Chronicles of the Absurd I found it much more interesting that she was the protagonist, so that the process of erasing the person from the cultural life of the country could be seen gradually.
The way I film has always been the same, even when I have done so outside of Cuba. My first film, Cucarachas rojas, and Memorias del desarrollo were filmed largely in the United States. For economic reasons I had to make them the same way. It is, as they say, “guerrilla cinema.”
Chronicles of the Absurd, as Orwa Nyrabia, artistic director of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, said, is in some way a chronicle of the ten years we spent making Blue Heart, of many of its obstacles and of what it means to operate outside of institutions.
Lynn Cruz. The underground in Cuba is linked to the black market, and the cinema we make is similar. We are not magicians: we exist because there is a fracture in a society in transition, where what was previously, in theory, “for everyone” is being privatized.
The clandestine in Cuba is linked to the black market, and the cinema we make is similar. / Jorge Fernández Era/14ymedio
In the midst of this economic chaos there is a place for us, otherwise you cannot exist. And clandestineness is not thinking that what we do is not known, but that the conditions exist for this cinema to emerge, and we must try to do it while we can. We do not know what the future of ourselves will be, because we do not know what the future of this country will be.
Miguel Coyula: In Corazón azul [Blue Heart] some actors left the project. You know from the start that if you’re going to spend ten years making a film, it’s not just because people are intimidated by security, but because reality and the interests of those people change.
Lynn Cruz. Chronicles of the Absurd is a dark making of the film Corazón azul, of how all those things were happening while we were filming. In some way it also connects with my book Crónica azul. We had to deal not only with creative and economic obstacles, but also with political persecution. Of course, each person has his or her own way of dealing with that. It is reality that condemns you to politics. Everything, absolutely everything, is politicized, because it is a totalitarian system and, in addition, you are making a film that questions that reality.
Miguel Coyula. The structural idea of Chronicles of the Absurd, in its ten chapters, fluctuates in situations that have to do with the absurd. It is a precept that goes beyond politics, but in the context of Cuba it is impossible to separate it. That explains the quote from Virgilio Piñera at the beginning of the film: “If Kafka had been born in Cuba, he would be a costumbrista* writer.”
According to the media he directs on social networks, it was Constantin himself who informed of his release in a phone call from outside the detention center of the Ministry of the Interior, located in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo. This same December 26, according to a previous publication of La Hora de Cuba, the journalist had been scheduled to have an oral hearing in the Provincial Court of Havana, corresponding to an appeal of habeas corpus filed in his favor by his relatives. Instead of being transferred to trial, however, he was released.
The day before, December 25, the authorities had denied him the transfer to Camagüey, where he lives. Neither Constantin nor La Hora de Cuba has provided more details of what happened this week in El Vivac, from where he has been able to make phone calls. continue reading
Instead of being transferred to trial, however, he was released
In one of them, on Monday, he declared that he dedicated “his Christmas to all the political prisoners of Cuba, without exception,” especially to Félix Navarro, his daughter, Sayli Navarro, and Sissi Abascal. In addition, he thanked the messages of solidarity that have asked for his release on social networks.
That same day, a collaborator of La Hora de Cuba had approached the detention center to find out about Constantin and bring him toiletries, but the authorities refused to provide the visitor with any kind of information and to receive the objects. They said that Constantin would have “the visit” this Thursday, the day he was finally released.
The journalist from Camagüey was arrested last Thursday, on the eve of the “march of the fighting people” organized by Miguel Díaz-Canel in response to Cuba’s maintenance on the US list of countries that sponsor terrorism. That same day he was interrogated by six State Security agents who told him that he would be transferred to Camagüey “according to the availability of fuel from the Ministry of the Interior.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Salvadoran Raúl Ernesto Cruz León was released this Monday in Cuba, where he served a 30-year prison sentence for carrying out terrorist attacks against tourist facilities on the island, official media reported. “Today, after serving his sentence, Cruz León has been released, demonstrating that Cuba respects its laws and guarantees justice, even for those who have committed serious crimes,” said a statement published in Cubadebate.
