The special representative of the European Union (EU) for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore met with Cuban PresidentMiguel Díaz-Canel. (Revolution Studies)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 25 November 2023 — The repression of dissent, the violation of political rights and the situation of prisoners sentenced for the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) were the main complaints from Cuban civil society to the delegation of the European Union (EU) who visited the country this Thursday and Friday.
In addition to Gilmore’s official meetings, in which he met with representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Justice, the EU diplomat’s agenda included interviews with relatives of prisoners, independent journalists, LGBT activists and critical intellectuals.
Professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández told EFE “I found him impressed with what he saw. If you will, alarmed. Hopefully he has positioned himself well,” she said, after having had a telephone conversation with Gilmore because she could not travel to Havana due to a medical condition. continue reading
“I found him impressed with what he saw. If you will, alarmed. Hopefully he has positioned himself well”
This Marxist historian and editor, who defends “socialist ideas” and is against the blockade (embargo), will be tried next Tuesday for an alleged crime of disobedience. López could be sentenced to one year in prison.
López Hernández told Gilmore that her case is due to her “deep criticism of the single-party system,” “the State ideology,” the Government’s constitutional breaches, “the repressive attitude” of the authorities and “the control of the economy by the military. “This is inexcusable for this Government,” she said.
She also denounced that Cuba is “a factory of new prisoners” and that we should not limit ourselves to asking for the release of people currently in prison, but rather “understand that the system generates these reactions.”
The ’11J’ prisoners were, according to Gilmore himself, a “predominant” topic in his institutional conversations. On Friday afternoon he met for two hours with about five relatives.
One of them, who spoke on condition of his anonymity, told EFE that the meeting was very positive and that they found him to be “receptive” and “moved” by the complaints made to him. The relative also emphsized that going to the European embassy was not an easy task, because there were State Security agents to prevent his passage.
“It was good, very good. (He was) very receptive, wonderful. And at all times he told us that everything is being done is for the freedom of political prisoners,” summarized this relative, who claims that Gilmore referred at all times to those imprisoned as “political prisoners.”
“(He told us) that he really wanted to see the family members in person and listen to them. I told him about the torture, about everything. He understood us and hugged us,” he concluded.
The Island is currently suffering a “humanitarian crisis” and it is “timely” for the Cuban Government to have “a powerful interlocutor”
Journalist Maykel González Vivero, who also met with the European diplomat, highlighted to EFE that Gilmore “took special interest in the political prisoners.” “I told him that I had arrived in Cuba at a particularly paradoxical time. On the one hand, since the approval of the 2019 Constitution, the country recognized more citizens’ rights than ever before. However, in these same years, the Government also had violated the human rights of a greater number of people,” he said.
He argued that the Island is currently suffering a “humanitarian crisis” and that it is “timely” for the Cuban Government to have “a powerful interlocutor” to talk about human rights. “We need to keep the doors to the world open,” he said.
In several conversations, the case of Luis Barrios Díaz, a 36-year-old prisoner convicted of participating in the 11 July protests and who died last Sunday, was addressed. According to family, friends and NGOs, the young man died from a respiratory condition that he allegedly developed in prison and that was not adequately treated.
Activists and NGOs have reiterated in recent days their criticism of the Cuban Government regarding Gilmore’s visit and some have insisted on the need for the European diplomat to visit Cuban prisons, something that has not happened.
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The sign on this building says ‘blood bank’, but in Havana the term could just as well refer a currency bank, with its crowd of tired discouraged people waiting for ‘change’, or at least a cash transfusion. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, November 25, 2023 — Bancarización* (banking reform) in Cuba is becoming a one-act comedy for those who are bored with the low quality of the script and the cast that participates. Almost half a year after the approval of Resolution 111 of the Central Bank of Cuba, the conclusion that can be reached is that the process goes on as usual, without order or agreement, and the attempts of the leaders to cover it with a certain order fall on deaf ears. It’s like a second edition of the disaster of the Ordering Task,** but this time stumbling over the same stone. Incomprehensible. Take a look at what was said on State TV’s Roundtable program by Joaquín Alonso, president of the Bank, and his subordinates Julio Pérez, general director of Payment Systems of the Bank, and the vice president, Alberto Quiñones.
It should be emphasized that for any spectator who followed this edition of Randy Alonso’s primetime program, it is most likely that in the end he had more doubts and concerns than at the beginning. All the participants skirted around the issue, and none dared to recognize the obvious: a new failure of the communist regime is just around the corner.
And the first to contribute to the confusion was Joaquín Alonso, when he said that in Cuba there is talk of how to “bancarizar operations, instead of accessing the banking service, because all the actors of the economy already have full access to banking services,” which, he said in a surprising way, “makes us different from other nations.” Of course, saying that and saying nothing is the same thing, because Randy didn’t ask the question he should have asked right away: so why do Cubans continue to use cash in their usual transactions?
“All the actors of the economy already have full access to banking services,” which, he said in a surprising way, “makes us different from other nations.”
It goes without saying that none of the participants said anything like that. They dedicated themselves to citing the strong investments in technological equipment and point-of-sale terminals, which are then not taken advantage of, highlighting that “with the available resources, the colleagues of Etecsa, Enzona and the banking system have linked to each other, and we have the possibility of continuing to make progress in the bancarización of transactions.” But again, why do Cubans use cash and flee from the banks? It’s the same as tourism: why are they building hotel rooms if they are left empty?
The president of the Bank then said one of the things that attracted the most attention, that one reason it’s necessary to develop bancarización is in the high cost of cash. Yes, you have heard correctly: the president of the Bank said that “using banknotes means importing paper, inks, maintaining the equipment; then you have to transport them, distribute them, count them; and with about 10 uses in the economy they deteriorate, and then you have to destroy the banknotes and produce them again. It is a permanent cost in all banking operations, and it requires a large workforce, equipment and energy consumption.”
Unbelievable but true. Cuba has problems producing banknotes for its monetary system. Have you ever heard of a single country in the world that claims to have this problem? Of course not. It doesn’t exist. Only in Cuba. Now relax, because the farce had just begun.
Unbelievable but true. Cuba has problems producing banknotes for its monetary system. Have you ever heard of a single country in the world that claims to have this problem? Of course not. It doesn’t exist. Only in Cuba. Now relax, because the farce had just begun. <– leave here and also make a ’quote’
The president of the Bank then said that “among the factors that lead to the increase in the price of transactions is the growth and emergence of new economic actors; there are more and more entities to attend to and more monetary circulation. At the same time, more economic actors involve a greater number of people who go to the bank to deposit and withdraw cash, which also makes banking operations more expensive.” In the absence of blaming the embargo/blockade, they now blame the new economic actors.
Another blunder, because in reality the cause of the increase in monetary circulation is not a small and barely marginal private sector that fights against state power to open spaces, but a deficit of the uncontrolled state sector that has to be financed with sovereign bonds that eliminate the liquidity of the banks and put them at the service of a state that only squanders the money in expenses. Of course no one said this, but it’s the reality.
That is, according to this argument, people leave jobs in state banks because the work is boring, with no expectation of improvement and poorly paid. In other words, it’s the opposite of what happens with banks in the rest of the world.
But the president of the Bank continued and said that “to the above is added a distortion in the salaries of people who work in the state sector in relation to workers in the non-state sector. The bank is not one of the entities that pays the most in salaries and profits, so we have had a significant decapitalization in our workforce, and the employees are affected.” That is, according to this argument, people leave jobs in state banks because the work is boring, with no expectation of improvement and poorly paid. In other words, it’s the opposite of what happens with banks in the rest of the world.
And not content with the ridiculous comments he had already made at this point in the program, the president of the Bank took another leap into the void to say that “two contradictory aspects then come together: we increase wages, and every day more employees leave. Despite the empowerment we have given employees by raising their salaries, establishing indicators of payment by results, we have only 84% of our staff left.” How unfortunate. And of course, where there is more concentration of economic activity and population is where that 84% suffers the most. Nothing to see or say, not a practical solution.
Just the eternally repeated message that “we will continue to face that problem from the Central Bank and, above all, from the Metropolitan Bank. We will continue to identify what to do so that people will go less to a bank to get cash. One of the lines of action in that sense is bancarización, which has been happening gradually for some years.” Unbelievable.
Next he wanted to explain why it was necessary to accelerate bancarizaciónfrom last August. He said that “since before 2020, transactions and the use of electronic means of payment had been growing. In the pandemic period, home operations also increased, and electronic commerce was enhanced. In 2022 there was still a growth in bancarización transactions, but now in 2023, after the pandemic, there has been a relaxation in all those mechanisms, and we went back, from 78% in the payment matrix of these operations, to 75%.”
Where is the centrally planned economy that is unable to foresee behavior as simple as this?
And he concluded by pointing out that “from August to date, after the approval of Resolution 111, those operations have been growing at a monthly rate of 0.6%; and we expect to close the year with a growth of almost 30% in operations through electronic payment channels.” Where is the centrally planned economy that is unable to foresee behavior as simple as this?
However, the president acknowledged at this point that “the tendency to withhold cash in the hands of the population is maintained, above all, by a group of non-state economic actors.” And in this regard he added that “the cash that is kept out of the bank continues to grow, and this is a harmful phenomenon for the economy, because it causes an increase in prices.” In other words, on the one hand, electronic operations increase, but on the other, cash transactions are maintained. Where exactly are we? How is it possible for all this to happen in an economy that barely grows by 1.8% and is practically stagnant?
“They need to create certain scenarios in the economy so that the new actors can fully develop, without the need to retain cash; a phenomenon related to the reduction of offers and the increase in actors itself.” Have you understood anything? Not me.
Well, in reality, they don’t know, because the president of the Bank said at the time that “they need to create certain scenarios in the economy so that the new actors can fully develop, without the need to retain cash; a phenomenon related to the reduction of offers and the increase in actors itself.” Have you understood anything? Not me. What scenarios must be created in the economy for the development of cashless actors? Let him explain it.
And of course, having arrived at this point and with a threatening tone, he said that “cash withholding is not always due to lawful needs. For example, it is done to access foreign currency, since the State cannot offer a foreign exchange market, because the country’s economy has a deficit in that sense.” The question is why the state does not undertake the reform of the foreign exchange market and maintains the absurd status quo.
In addition, he accused the use of cash as a factor that does not allow the banking system to increase the loan fund necessary to leverage and finance the economy of the private and state sectors. That is, the president of the Bank seeks more liquidity for the state deficit, and he asked for clarity in the transactions. Maybe he should start with his own.
He then asked people to deposit money into their accounts and assured them that “bank secrecy is one of the inalienable principles of the system,” when Cubans of several generations know that this is not the case. As if the population had money left over to deposit in banks and also had some interest in electronic payments in shops. More than one spectator had to turn off the program at this point.
Afterwards, Julio Pérez, general director of the Bank’s Payment Systems, said that one of the commitments is to reconcile the work done in recent months with all economic entities, so that they can see their main ally in the bank. And Alberto Quiñones, vice president of the Bank, said that the premise of bancarización contains a gradual creation of conditions, and accelerated progress happens when those conditions are created.
In relation to Point of Sale (POS) Terminals, he said that they are working, and he encouraged their use mainly in TRD and Cimex stores. In this sense, he pointed out the work of Fincimex and REDSA in sustaining the network of POS and ATMs in the country. A lot of emphasis on the means, but never on the results: that’s the model.
Finally, there was talk of the Caja Extra service, the creation of bank cards linked to salary payrolls and bank accounts to collect taxes from private actors, whom he accused of withholding cash for an alleged practice of price differentiation depending on the payment channel, which he described as an illegality that the population cannot accept.
And in this regard, he insisted that economic actors must have the QR Code of the business available, “and not the staff, who therefore do not receive the bonus percentage for the use of payment gateways.” And for the same reason, he pointed out that “the population cannot be required to pay in foreign currency, except for the stores in MLC***.” In fact, it was confirmed that on January 2, “the business that does not have the conditions created for the population to pay through electronic gateways will not be able to provide services.” Not a good idea.
Translator’s notes
*Bancarización is a term used in Cuba and other Latin American countries. All economic transactions are made by debit card, including cash withdrawals and the payment of salaries. The term does not have a counterpart in English so the Spanish term is used throughout this translation.
** The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) 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.
***”Stores in MLC” only accept payment in hard currency, and are also the primary ‘physical’ stores in the country that sell anything beyond the most basic items, outside the informal/black market.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Entrance of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital in Bayamo. (Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital)
14ymedio, Havana, 26 November 2023 — Urologist Aldo Luis Zamora Varona denounced the “injustice” against six of his colleagues who the authorities charged with “negligence” two years ago when they “tried to save the life” of an accident victim in the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes General Hospital, in Bayamo, but did not succeed. They are Rafael José Sánchez Vázquez, Yoandra Quesada Labrada, Elizabeth Silvera, William Pérez Ramírez, Henrry Rosales Pompa and Ristian Solano.
Meanwhile, the exiled doctor Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre, who highlighted the arbitrariness against his colleagues, announced that no sentence has yet been handed down against the doctors for whom the Prosecutor’s Office is requesting sentences of 2 and 3 years in prison. However, “they are being treated like criminals, they are being harassed, they are not allowed to leave their homes.” This Saturday, he detailed that the evidence presented by Bayamo Public Health was “refuted,” so “it will be at least 15 business days until the sentence is given.”
Meanwhile Zamora Varona blamed the Cuban Government, the local authorities and the provincial Health Directorate for making the doctors work in “the worst conditions ever seen, even in the poorest country in the world.” He stressed that they use them and then put them in prison. “They are not able to recognize that they are the only ones to blame for these deaths.
The evidence presented by Bayamo Public Health was “refuted,” so “it will be at least 15 business days until the sentence is given.”
Zamora Varona, a renowned specialist with experience in medical missions in Africa and Ecuador, said that on the day of the events, the shortcomings in the hospital were evident when a nurse named Yaquelín, who attended a patient who died in surgery, came out to ask him to “find” a probe because “there is not even that in the hospital,” since the man needed it. He gave her the one that he had. Minutes later, the same nurse came out asking for a urology specialist, because when she placed the probe, “blood came out in large quantities mixed with urine.” continue reading
Upon noticing that it was an emergency, Zamora Varona entered the surgery room and verified that it was a “kidney trauma” and that “the left kidney was split in half.” Upon verifying that the contralateral kidney was in perfect condition, he immediately proceeded to extract the damaged kidney, but then “a storm” began: “There were no clamps suitable for clamping the kidney vessels, there was no such instrument on the surgical tray,” he denounced.
The doctor had to use a kelly clamp. “Any urologist who is reading this knows that it is nonsense. But to make the removal of the kidney that compromised the life of the young patient much more difficult, there was not even a (non-reabsorbable) suture in the room to ligate the renal pedicle and I had “I had to send them to search through papers and other things that I brought in a small folder that I used to use and there they found a single suture of that type.”
If he had not acted at that moment, the patient, the urologist indicated, “would surely have died in the operating room due to lack of the supplies essential to save lives.” The specialist demanded freedom for the six doctors. “They are innocent and I ask that the true culprits be prosecuted.”
The specialist stressed that given the shortages in hospitals, relatives of patients have had to look for missing supplies on the black market, spending up to 40,000 pesos to obtain them.
The patient’s mother works in the Bayamo Prosecutor’s Office and “is the one who has placed the most emphasis on proving that it was due to medical negligence,” exiled doctor Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre said on his social networks. He identified Lainis Briscuyet, a law firm official, as the person in charge of “moving the pieces in the dictatorship’s legal system to put the six doctors in prison.”
The patient’s mother works in the Bayamo Prosecutor’s Office and “It is the one that has placed the most emphasis on proving that it was due to medical negligence,” exiled doctor Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre said on his social networks
During an episode of the State TV Roundtable program at the end of October, the First Deputy Minister of Public Health, Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández, and the Deputy Minister for Medical Assistance, Reinol García Moreiro, admitted that “there are problems with diagnostic means such as ultrasounds, x-rays and endoscopies,” and that consultations and surgeries have fallen, but that “in Cuba no health service is going to be closed to the people.”
“The country is going through a complex financial situation, which undoubtedly has a negative impact on the Health system, which is reflected today in medical assistance, with deficits in a group of material resources for the processes. This issue is the center of attention of the Ministry of Public Health,” said Cruz Hernández.
Manuel, a health worker from Havana, confirmed to 14ymedio that nearly 400 doctors’ offices in the capital are without family doctors.
Meanwhile, a gynecologist stated that AFB tests are not being performed to detect active tuberculosis, there are no reagents to diagnose cases of syphilis, nor benzathine penicillin, which is the medication usually used to treat this disease, which is very dangerous if not are kept under control. In addition, early diagnosis tests for cervical cancer, which were routinely performed from the age of 25, are suspended in the capital and other provinces.
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In the old thermoelectric plant, built by a North American company in the 1950s and closed in 2001, people live under the persecution of being destitute. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 25 November 2023 — The abandoned site of the Frank País thermoelectric plant, a mass located in the vicinity of Havana Bay, could serve as the setting for an apocalyptic film. However, a rusty armchair next to a turbine, two recently used buckets, and lines hung with clothes, are signs that several families live inside the building – presided over by a colossal map of Cuba and a globe.
“Around 50 people, more or less,” estimates Jorge, a 67-year-old retiree who used to work – like most of those who live in Frank País – for the capital’s Electric Company. “There are 18 houses,” he adds, alluding to the headquarters cubicles converted into homes. Without privacy or the usual conditions, of course, but at least, he claims, they have a space.
A rusty armchair next to a turbine and some buckets are signs that several families live inside the building. (14ymedio)
In the old thermoelectric plant, built by a North American company in the 1950s and closed in 2001, people live under the persecution of being destitute. “We don’t have a ration book or water, although we do pay for the electricity,” says Jorge. The entire area is precarious. To get to the Frank País plant you have to follow a route that starts from the Casablanca pier, on the other side of Havana bay. The desolate faces of those who reside in the flimsy wooden houses, on both sides of the road, give the measure of the area’s misery.
“This building is still property of the Electric Company,” Jorge clarifies. “Neither the Government nor Housing have wanted to ’take it on’.” This absence of authority to complain to has caused the families’ situation to remain in limbo. They have been waiting for a response for more than 20 years, when the authorities allowed them to occupy the plant, which had been left inactive during the Special Period in the 1990s, after operating for several years as an electrical substation.
The absence of an authority to complain to has caused the situation of families to remain in limbo. (14ymedio)
Frank País now belongs to the jurisdiction of the Electric Company of San José de las Lajas, the main municipality of Mayabeque. “But they don’t care and they are not going to take care of us,” warns Jorge, who is concerned about the gigantic aluminum sheets that serve as the roof of the facility. “They are a danger,” he adds, unlike the structure of the plant, which remains firm “because the Americans built it.” Although it should not be neglected, since the building “was completed by Che.”
Among all the residents of Frank País, only Jorge is willing to talk to 14ymedio. The others dodge any questions and first demand “permission from the Electric Company” that authorizes them to offer statements or appear in photographs. They all have the same problems, Jorge laments: “Leaks, mosquitoes, dirt. This here is a disaster.”
Next to the faded map of Cuba, there is a slogan that defines life in Frank País: “One hundred years of struggle.” (14ymedio)
Unlike other precarious properties in Havana, the Government has never tried to evict them. “Here we were all workers at the Electric Company, or family members,” Jorge emphasizes. However, the obstacles to receiving the food quota through the rationing system are insurmountable. The retiree considers it a relief that, after much asking, they have given him a “card for the ’module’,” his small monthly food allowance.
Crime and misery have hardened the residents of the plant, who have welded iron bars over the cubicle doors. The most reliable example is offered by Jorge: “When there is a cyclone, no one cares anymore. What are we going to do?” The roof eaten away by saltpeter, the lack of maintenance of the building and the absence of basic habitability conditions are a daily danger to life. Next to the faded map of Cuba, there is a slogan that defines life in Frank País: “One hundred years of struggle.”
In the lower left corner, the Frank País Electric Plant, across the city and the bay of Havana. (Secret Nature)
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“Mold is invading Europe,” a woman sarcastically comments, as she looks in horror at the black stains on the ceiling. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 November 2023 — After being closed for several years due to the pandemic, the state restaurant Europa, on Obispo Street, reopened its doors in Havana. The establishment, however, looks different from how its customers remember it: the menu has shrunk, the service is careless and the prices – as is now common in the historic center of the city – are impossible to pay.
A dozen diners fail to fill the 20 tables at the Europa. From a corner, and without being able to dissipate the heat, a fan scares away, as far as it can, the flies, while some tourists half-heartedly snack on some squares of cheese.
“Mold is invading Europe,” a woman sarcastically comments, as she looks in horror at the black stains on the ceiling. Her companion – who already predicted that the food would not have much charm – distastefully shreds some fish steaks. “The menu said fish with vegetables, but the vegetables never arrived,” she complains. continue reading
“It’s a widespread problem, all state restaurants are like this,” asserts another customer
The women’s conversation exhibits tones of discomfort and they criticize the crude decoration, “with two fried spaghetti,” of the dish, whose garnish of rice they suspect is “stolen from the bodega [ration store]” due to the number of broken grains. “There is no one who will eat this fish, with the amount of bones it has. They didn’t even remove the scales properly and it comes covered in fat,” they snort.
At the door, a wooden blackboard scares away visitors with the Europa menu: ropavieja [shredded beef – but literally ‘old clothes’] at 375 pesos, pork slices at 775, fish steaks at 945, lobster tail at 1,180, whole lobster at 1,390 and rice – which must be paid for separately – 100 pesos.
From one of the central tables, a man questions the waiter about the “lack of details.” The glass with the juice, he assures, has been brought to him cracked and, as for the napkins, they have not even bothered to put out a paper one. The employee’s response is definitive: “Excuse me, but we don’t have any.”
The disappointment of having lunch at Europa is evident among most diners. Unfortunately, those who leave as quickly as they can criticize, it is not the only “decadent” establishment found on the streets of the capital. “It’s a widespread problem, all state restaurants are like this,” says another customer. “It seems that they abandon them on purpose, so that the private sector ends up taking them over.”
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The alleged death of a pregnant woman, while giving birth at home, shocked Cubans. The episode, of which no details were known, sparked a debate about the institutional situation of the island’s maternity wards. (Juventud Rebelde)
14ymedio/Yucabyte, Havana , 22 “Why do memes harm the Revolution?” The question, written on the blackboard of a Cuban school, gives the measure of the regime’s suspicion towards the rumors that circulate on social networks, whose common factor is the deterioration of life on the Island and the upsurge in violence. 14ymedio and Yucabyte confirmed this in October, when numerous users questioned the celebration of a luxurious White Dinner, while complaints about drug use, deaths due to medical negligence and shortages proliferated.
The alleged death of a pregnant woman, while giving birth at home, shocked Cubans. The episode, of which no details were known, sparked a debate about the institutional situation of the island’s maternity hospitals, the precarious conditions in which pregnant women are maintained, and an alleged regulation that requires “allocating resources to patients with the greatest hope of life.”
In this sense, several users claimed to know of other cases in which the patient was left to die – “by order of the Ministry of Public Health” – to reuse or resell the supplies to the highest bidder. This crisis also has a correlation in pharmacies, which are short of supplies unless the interested party disburses the correct amount directly to the apothecary. In the informal market, on the other hand, state-made medicines – in addition to foreign ones – are available at outrageous prices. continue reading
A group of users has detected an increase in drug consumption and has transmitted images of people supposedly in crisis due to an overdose
A group of users has detected an increase in drug consumption and has transmitted images of people supposedly in crisis due to an overdose. This was the case of a young man who was recorded while convulsing, and although the cause of his attack is not clear, numerous commentators suggested that he had been intoxicated with fentanyl, although it was also attributed to cocaine or a synthetic drug that in Cuba is known simply as the “chemist.”
The fact that the Public Health crisis has gotten out of control has been the cause – according to various rumors and testimonies collected by the independent press – of hundreds of professionals choosing to abandon the sector. During the month, a call for a general strike by doctors and pharmacists circulated on several platforms, which in theory would be supported by the Free Cuban Medical Guild, an organization of exiled health workers.
The long blackouts and the stories of those who suffer them on the Island make up a very large group of rumors. Those who bear the brunt are the residents in the rural areas of the central and eastern provinces, who have denounced time and again that the “energy contingency” decreed by the Government is in no way temporary. Blackouts lasting between six and twelve hours are here to stay, say the less optimistic, and there is no “technical explanation” that justifies the power cuts. This month, several users described as “physical torture” the impossibility of cooking, turning on lights at night, or having means to scare away mosquitoes both in the fields and in the cities of the Island.
The crisis has reached such a climate of tension that numerous rumors speculate about an alleged “escape plan” for the Castros
The crisis has reached such a climate of tension that numerous rumors speculate about an alleged “escape plan” for the Castros and other families at the top of the regime. According to statements attributed to a former high-ranking military official, there is an airport in Cayo Largo del Sur with several helicopters and planes that will transport the family to Canada, whose Government will offer passports for their resettlement in Europe. They will travel on Sunwing airlines, says the rumor, which also alludes to other alternative plans to leave the country when the regime falls.
However, there do not seem to be any signs of emergency signs at the highest levels, quite the opposite. The celebration – with the consent and participation of the regime – of the White Dinner, an international event with logistical demands that Cuba, users insist, could not afford in the midst of the current crisis. The assumption that the event was managed by Miguel Díaz-Canel’s wife, Lis Cuesta, has made her the target of numerous criticisms.
Judging by the criticism of the expensive and extravagant life of Cuesta and other members of the ruling clans, often in a joking tone, the question on the blackboard in the primary classroom has an affirmative answer: memes do “harm” the regime, and a great deal.
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Armed with walkie-talkies, security agents control access to both properties. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Nelson García and Olea Gallardo, Havana, 22 November 2023 — Judging from the buildings at 202 Obispo Street and 653 Cuba Street in Old Havana, one would never guess it has been sixty-five years since the Cuban revolution. Neat and tidy, with smooth walls and new paint, the buildings — recently renovated with Saudi money — contrast with the surrounding buildings, which remain on the brink of collapse.
Local officials were present at the inauguration ceremony on Saturday, which marked the the 504th anniversary of the city’s founding. The state-run press covered the event with its usual fanfare.
Tribuna de la Habana reported that the reconstruction was carried out by the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana with help from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD). The eleven renovated homes at 653 Cuba Street – the former Palace of the Marquis of the Royal Proclamation – and another thirteen at 202 Obispo Street are to be occupied by “families who were facing difficult housing situations.”
It seems, however, that the apartments, described by the newspaper as “renovated and very comfortable,” are not being occupied by people of modest means. “No way,” said a local resident on Wednesday who has been observing the comings and goings. “What few families like that there are were very carefully chosen.” Security agents armed with walkie-talkies control access to both buildings.
Neat and tidy, with smooth walls and new paint, the buidings — recently renovated with Saudi money — contrast with the surrounding buildings, which remain on the brink of collapse.
Inside, all is luxurious, pristine and quiet. “You think they’re going to give these homes to someone who isn’t shouting ’Viva Fidel’?” the woman asks rhetorically. “These are not for average people.”
As Tribuna de La Habana reported, the FSD also financed the Havana Aquarium, located in the city’s historic center. That project was also managed the Office of the Historian, which had become its own power center under the command of the late Eusebio Leal until the Cuban armed forces took it over after his death and depleted its resources.
What the newspaper did not say is that this same fund also financed the grandiose Fidel Castro Ruz Center, which opened in Havana’s Vedado district in late 2021. At the time, a source from the Office of the Historian confessed, “The money was supposed to be for housing but some of it was used for the center and for the Capitol restoration as well.”
Inside, all is luxurious, pristine and quiet. “You think they’re going to give these homes to someone who isn’t shouting ’Viva Fidel’?” (14ymedio)
In 2017 the SFD loaned Cuba 26.6 million dollars for the Office of the Historian’s building restoration and social welfare program which, officially, was supposed to help alleviate Havana’s ongoing housing crisis.
14ymedio has learned through unofficial sources that another the project made possible by the SFD is the Práctico del Puerto building, which has views of the Plaza de Armas, the Royal Military Fortress and Havana Bay.
Of Práctico del Puerto’s former residents, who were evicted at the start of construction, only one — Francisco Muñoz — has returned. Neighborhood residents claim that the apartments, which enjoy a spectacular view of Havana Bay, went to employees of the Ministry of Health.
Thirteen units have been “allocated” at 202 Obispo Street. (14ymedio)
Muñoz told 14ymedio in late 2021 that he was able to return to his former home in late 2021 because he spent “eight years living in front of the building, inside a container, without moving.” He also had help from Eusebio Leal, with whom he worked for twelve years as construction manager at the the Office of the Historian. “At one point a military officer even came to evict me and [Leal] came to my defense with a copy of the law in his hand,” he said at the time. As for his former neighbors, “there were people here who went to the shelter and weren’t able to return. I hear there’s a married couple still living at the shelter.”
The SFD began operations in 1975 and has as its principal objective the financing of projects in developing countries. It has approved loans to Cuba for projects related to rehabilitating hydraulic networks (122 million dollars in 2016), improving the Camagüey sewage system (40 million dollars in 2014), overhauling Havana’s water system (30 million in 2013) and acquiring medical equipment for maternity care centers (in 2010).
Of Práctico del Puerto’s former residents, who were evicted at the start of construction, only one has returned.
In 2013 the island signed an agreement to send Cuban doctors to Saudia Arabia in exchange for 10,000 dollars a month per doctor, of which each individual physician receives only 1,000 dollars in compensation.
The Prensa Latina news agency reported that Ricardo Cabrisas, the minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, paid a visit to Saudi Arabia in October to “review” the state of bilateral relations. It appears they are as strong as ever.
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Several out-of-the-way corners in Luyano are still dominated by gigantic garbage dumps. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 November 2023 — In Luyanó the word has spread. If the mountains of garbage are reported in the independent media, it is very likely that Community Services will arrive shortly afterwards to collect them. The equation is clear: call a reporter to take photos and testimonies and, within 24 hours, fuel for the waste hauling trucks will magically appear.
Residents near the corner of Melones and Luyanó avenue put the formula into practice. Last Thursday they contacted 14ymedio and on Friday the huge garbage dump that had been growing in the place for weeks had already disappeared. However, a few yards away, on another street that has not appeared in the news, waste covers the sidewalk and more than half of the road, preventing the passage of vehicles.
“Come and report on the garbage!” cried a neighbor this Friday afternoon who, from her window, saw a journalist from this newspaper approaching the place. “A child who does not cry does not suck; he who does not report them gets the flies in his throat,” warned the woman who lives very close to the corner of Enna and Guasabacoa, converted into “the Cayo Cruz of the neighborhood (Havana’s most famous garbage dump).” continue reading
Overturned containers and mountains of waste dominate everywhere. (14ymedio)
While the “king of garbage dumps” at Rodríguez and Reforma was documented by the independent press and reduced almost to a 10th of its size by the Community Services, shortly after its publication on the internet, while other nearby streets and avenues have not experienced the same outcome. The overturned containers, the pile of plastic bags that have been broken by the sun, the wind and the fangs of stray dogs, dominate everywhere.
The smell of filth gets so deep into the houses of Luyanó that people try to keep the doors and windows closed so that it doesn’t fill everything. “My grandson is newborn and we have him in the last room, with a curtain and everything in front of the door so that this stench doesn’t spread to him,” says another resident near the corner of Infanzón and Juan Alonso. Adults, for their part, seem to have taken on the “aromas.” “Here people already smell like that, we smell like garbage and they treat us like garbage.”
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Cuba has no choice but bancarización* (banking reform) Alonso said, because making paper money is an expensive process, and Cuba does not have the resources for this. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, November 24, 2023 — The balance sheet for bancarización* (banking reform) four months after its implementation, is not optimistic: The micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are increasingly suspicious of electronic payment methods and continue to “retain cash.” The shortage of banknotes is still at its peak, and the Island’s banks are suffering a growing stampede of their staff. These are some of the conclusions that emerge from the appearance this Thursday on State TV’s Roundtable program of the minds behind this process.
“Every day more cashiers leave,” said the Minister-President of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Joaquín Alonso Vázquez. Without attributing it to emigration – outside the Island or to other jobs – the leader explained that the lack of workers was a hard blow to bank reform, because it affects the key point for the circulation and control of the money.
It was useless, Alonso said, to raise the salaries of employees, who were also paid “for good results.”
Escorted by the general director of Payment Systems of the BCC, Julio Pérez Álvarez, and by the vice president, Alberto Quiñones, Alonso focused his talk on celebrating that Cuba has “advanced towards bancarización,” despite the fact that it did not have “strong investments in technological equipment” nor enough “point-of-sale terminals.” Condemned to work with old equipment – “because we are hindered from accessing new technologies,” he said, alluding to the U.S. embargo – the BCC had a single resource available: “innovation.” continue reading
The official assured that “all actors in the economy now have full access to banking services – an element that differentiates us from other nations,” he said proudly, but the MSMEs continue to have multiple reservations and prefer to manage their operations in cash.
Cuba has no choice but bancarización, Alonso said, because making paper money is an expensive process, and Cuba does not have the resources for this. “Using banknotes means importing the paper, the inks and maintaining the equipment. After they are issued you have to transport them, distribute them, count them, and after 10 or so uses they deteriorate. Then you have to destroy the banknotes and produce them again. It is a permanent cost in all banking operations, and it requires a large workforce, equipment and energy consumption,” he explained.
With the growth of the private sector, there is more money in circulation, and “more economic actors involve a greater number of people who go to the bank to deposit and withdraw cash
In addition, with the growth of the private sector, there is more money in circulation, and “more economic actors involve a greater number of people who go to the bank to deposit and withdraw cash.”
The BCC also warned of an important “distortion”: with inflation, private individuals are raising pay for their workers – and therefore demanding more cash – while the state sector continues to pay the same, including to the bank employees themselves. This situation, already serious in Havana, precipitates the resignation of workers, for whom the meager “wage boost” that the BCC can afford is insufficient.
The numbers, the manager alleged, give him some hope about the future of banking. Since the pandemic, electronic transactions tended to increase naturally in Cuba. However, in 2023 – when inflation got out of control – the use by Cubans of electronic platforms declined by 78%. That decline forced the BCC to act; hence, they launched an “acceleration” of the measure in August.
However, “the cash that remains outside the bank continues to grow, and it is a harmful phenomenon for the economy, because it affects price growth,” Alonso said. He criticized the MSMEs that retain cash “not always for lawful needs” but to use it for the purchase and sale of foreign currency, “which the State cannot offer.”
However, “the cash that remains outside the bank continues to grow, and it is a harmful phenomenon for the economy, because it affects price growth,” Alonso said. He criticized the MSMEs that retain cash “not always for lawful needs” but to use it for the purchase and sale of foreign currency, “which the State cannot offer.”
Without cash in the banks, Alonso warned, there will be no loans to “leverage” the private sector either. The best thing, he said, “is to deposit the money in the accounts” and trust that the BCC does not monitor anyone and has as an “inalienable principle” not to violate “bank secrecy.”
Private individuals should view the bank as their “main ally,” added Julio Pérez Álvarez, although his colleague, Quiñones, acknowledged that the BCC itself is responsible for several deficiencies. It failed, according to the vice president, in “awareness, communication, approach to customers, entities and organizations.” In many branches, employees did not know how to explain the process and made the operation complicated.
So far, bancarización works in an acceptable way only in Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Holguín and Santiago. In the other provinces – and in the countryside – it is still a pending matter. To give a glimpse of the situation, Escambray interviewed 765 readers in Sancti Spíritus. To the question of whether the MSMEs “have accepted” bancarización, only 7% answered yes, 35% answered no, and 59% admitted that some businesses do, but most did not.
*Translator’s note: “Bancarización” is a term used to describe banking reform in Cuba and other Latin American countries. All economic transactions would be made by debit card, including cash withdrawals and the payment of salaries. The term does not have a counterpart in English so the Spanish term is used throughout this translation.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Some of the women who protested this Friday in front of the Ministry of Public Health. (Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 24 November 2023 — A dozen mothers of minors with chronic and difficult-to-treat illnesses demanded this Friday, in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Health in Havana, better quality medical care for their children, chanting: “No more communism, we want a solution.” Some of the women – including those from Pinar del Río and Mayabeque – were arrested before they could demonstrate on the corner of 23 and N, according to activist Diasniurka Salcedo Verdecia, who reported the protest in a direct Facebook broadcast.
“We are demanding that there be a better quality of life for all these vulnerable children who are not cared for by the dictatorship. All these children are dying because of a dictatorship,” Salcedo claimed on behalf of the mothers.
After being questioned by an official who identified himself as Fernando, a worker at the Ministry, Salcedo demanded that, before any negotiation, the Police allow the release of the detained mothers. The women, she explained, were traveling in a vehicle that was intercepted at the corner of 23 and M, one block before reaching the place of the protest. “If we’re not doing anything wrong, why are they arresting the mothers who were on the other corner?” she asked. continue reading
The only thing I ask for is a humanitarian visa. I want to get Damir out of Cuba. In Cuba there is no solution for Damir. My son lives with a protective helmet because he has a hole in his head
The women who did manage to reach the ministerial headquarters also refused to enter the interior of the building to “be attended to,” as requested by Fernando, an official, until the detainees were present.
One of the mothers who took part in the protest said that Frida, who intended to attend the demonstration, “has two policemen outside her house and they won’t let her out.”
The women also reported Internet cuts and telephone problems that prevented them from broadcasting the demonstration through other channels, in addition to Salcedo’s. This is the case of the mother of Geobel Damir Ortiz Ramírez, age 9, a resident in San Miguel del Padrón, for whom she claims a humanitarian visa that would allow him to be treated abroad.
#SOSCuba Una decena de madres de menores con enfermedades crónicas o de difícil tratamiento exigieron este viernes, frente a la sede del Ministerio de Salud Pública en La Habana, una atención médica de mejor calidad para sus hijos https://t.co/CEOSLMicdwpic.twitter.com/JHa7XRsjuy
“The only thing I ask for is a humanitarian visa. I want to get Damir out of Cuba. In Cuba there is no solution for Damir. My son lives with a protective helmet because he has a hole in his head,” the woman said while showing her son to the camera. As she explained, the minor has a brain tumor that spans from his right eye to the posterior area of his head and “is opening his skull,” she said.
Another woman presented a photo of her daughter, who has been waiting for an esophageal transplant for five years. “My daughter has been without a medical diet for two years, even though she can’t eat by mouth, because the pediatrician says she doesn’t meet the requirements. We also don’t have the supplies to help her,” she said. This woman also requested a humanitarian visa so that her daughter could “be cared for, have a good diet and have surgery.”
Salcedo also conveyed the moment when “a man with a red jacket” arrested her husband, who was also part of the protest in the vicinity of the ministry. “See, they’re taking my husband. That’s how they act; this is a dictatorship. I’m not going to move from here,” she asserted.
I have eight children and a bad housing situation. I have appealed to all the institutions, but they bounce me around from here to there
Seconds later, another mother arrived, from Mayabeque, with seven of her eight children. “I have eight children and a bad housing situation. I have appealed to all the institutions, but they bounce me around from here to there. We also need food,” she lamented.
The presence of the protest on social networks was cut short. Shortly after the live broadcast ended, Salcedo posted on her Facebook profile that she was no longer able to transmit. Since then, the situation of women in front of the ministry has been uncertain.
A video posted on the social network X by Yamila La Hija de Maceo, showed a caravan of motorcycles and state cars. According to the activist, they were State Security vehicles heading to the Ministry of Public Health. She didn’t offer more details.
Despite this situation and the multiple complaints against the Cuban health system on social networks, an article published this Friday in the official newspaper Escambray celebrated the story of Andrew, a boy from Sancti Spíritus who was about to lose a leg after being run over by a water truck. The speed with which, according to the newspaper, the doctors acted, saved the child’s life and demonstrated the professionalism of the system, which works, like everything on the Island, “thanks to the Revolution” and despite the U.S. blockade.
The Public Health crisis in Cuba, a country where patients are required to provide the supplies they need for the slightest treatment, has reached a critical point in recent months. The training of new health workers, indispensable to guarantee relief in a context of an unstoppable exodus of professionals, is also progressing poorly.
Addiel Marrón, a Holguin doctor who graduated just a year ago, complained on his Facebook profile on Wednesday that “the sacrifice of six years of study is not worth it.” According to the young man, the emigration of his colleagues and the difficult conditions in which he must work, in addition to the poor salary, make the beginning of his professional career bitter. “The only thing I am proud of is that I was able to give my parents the satisfaction of having graduated and having the knowledge to save a life.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The José Antonio Huelga Stadium in Sancti Spíritus. (Escambray)
14ymedio, Havana, 22 November 2023 – Far from bringing joy to the fans of Gallos de Sancti Spíritus in the baseball Elite League, their score of victories has only created disagreement. If some of the fans do applaud the games of the national sport and say they’re a respite in the middle of the current crisis, others observe with concern that they are always played at night and under floodlights. The choice, for those who are critical of the use of artificial lighting at the José Antonio Huelga stadium, is simple: “It’s better to have power at home than have baseball”.
This Sunday, the official paper Escambray published an article which echoed this debate. Both sides, argued the paper, have good arguments, whether it’s that daytime matches can reduce the players’ performance due to fatigue from the hot sunshine, or, by playing at night they use power which could be put to better use in the homes of local people.
“We’re all having to put up with hours and hours of power cuts whilst the stadium continues to be switched on”, José Daniel tells 14ymedio
“We’re all having to put up with hours and hours of power cuts whilst the stadium continues to be switched on”, José Daniel tells 14ymedio. Daniel, a Spíritus resident, admits the topic has been a source of some disagreement between him and his friends. “I myself don’t like sport, but even if I did and even if I went to the games it would seem to me a nonsense that people can’t cook their food because there’s no electricity whilst in the stadium the lights are all on full”, he argues.
According to data given to Escambray by the executive of Unión Eléctrica and the National Institute of Sport & Physical and Recreational Education (Inder), the total consumption of the lighting, the display screen and the internal services of the José Antonio Huelga stadium over five hours is 2 Megawatts. “That’s the equivalent of the power usage of eight homes over one whole month”, say the officials. continue reading
The provincial newspaper recognises that the data could be seen as the straw that broke the camel’s back but, they insist, the 28,000 spectators who have attended the eight League matches – plus the rest who watched on Television Cubana – balance the scales.
In the street however, there’s a different perspective. “I’ve not heard any positive commentary about the nighttime games. Even those who enjoy them think they should be played during the day”, says José Daniel.
“It’s true that people go to the games when there’s a power cut – they get changed and go to the stadium, but most of them don’t go in. Many of them stay outside because there’s light there and fresh air and you can sit down”, he explains. The rest of the city, he assures us, is switched off, “except for the hospital’s supply, which never loses power”.
The problem is that Sancti Spíritus is in the dark. At night you can only see the stadium and the odd house, because they’ve disconnected the streetlights too
“It’s not just a question of priorities and choosing between the games or the light”, he says. “The problem is that Sancti Spíritus is in the dark. At night you can only see the stadium and the odd house, because they’ve disconnected the streetlights too”.
“I don’t understand how the games can matter so much, or how it can matter so much to attract people when those people don’t want to go out at night for fear of being attacked in a dark street. Would it really be so bad for the players if the games were held in the daytime? Anyway, I’d prefer to have some light”, he asserts.
Escambray, whilst considering the same arguments as José, doesn’t come up with such quite straightforward answers. “The essential structural problems that the games suffer from won’t be solved by a simple change from nighttime to daytime matches”, the paper emphasizes. One solution would be to suspend them until such time as the country enjoys “better times”, but, Escambray admits, “no one knows when that will be”.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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Weightlifter Elizabeth Reyes Entenza won the bronze medal in the last Central American Games. (Jit)
14ymedio, Havana, November 24, 2023 — The burden of escapes continues to hit Cuban sports. The 2022 youth world runner-up and bronze medalist at the Central American Games in weightlifting, Elizabeth Reyes Entenza escaped in Mexico before the Wednesday when she was supposed appear at the Paradero Sports Center to participate in the 192-lb. category in the World Youth Championship.
On November 10, Cuba sent only two representatives to the contest to Guadalajara (Mexico). In addition to the competitor from Cienfuegos, Yorelvis Machado Olivera, from Granma, in the 179-lb. division, on November 19 ended in 13th place.
On the Facebook account of the Cuban Weightlifting Federation last Thursday, an image of the athletes with coach Florencio Miguel López Rodríguez was shared. The escaped weightlifter, according to the sports authorities, represented by commissioner Jorge Luis Barcelán Santa Cruz, was going to “improve on the two silver medals she won in the Youth World Cup” last year.
Reyes Entenza broke away from the Cuban sport days before President Miguel Díaz-Canel met with the Pan American medalists and, in a worn-out continue reading
speech, blamed the U.S. for “causing desertions in the national teams.” Despite this, he said: “Cuban sports is alive; Cuban sports is thriving and continues to be among the best in the world.”
Cuban weightlifters Yorelvis Machado Olivera and Elizabeth Reyes Entenza with their coach Florencio Miguel López. (Facebook/Cuban Weightlifting Federation)
The 20-year-old weightlifter, who in the Pan American Games was in sixth place after lifting 298 pounds, joins the list of 14 athletes who stayed in Chile. Twelve of them have asked for refuge, and 11 already have a temporary visa. The blind swimmer Yunerki Ortega Ponce recently left his training and began the procedures to reside in the South American country.
Reyes Entenza represented for Cuban weightlifting a serious exponent to win medals. In the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games, she won the bronze medal.
Last June, Havana received the best weightlifters from 16 countries, among them athletes from China, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic. Elizabeth Reyes Entenza won the bronze medal with a cumulative of 505 pounds. She was surpassed by the Ecuadorian Dayana Lucía Mina Torres (514 lbs.) and the Chinese Ying-Yuan Lo (518 lbs).
The athlete began to stand out from the age of 18, when at the First Pan American Junior Games in Cali 2021, she won a bronze medal and improved her record.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Installation of a water pump in the El Rincón reservoir, located in Las Tunas. (Facebook/Aqueduct and Sewer Company)
14ymedio, Havana, November 24, 2023 — A week after the authorities promised that the water supply would stabilize in Las Tunas, thousands of residents in the province remain without service this Friday. The installation of a pump – to whose absence the authorities had attributed the shortage – did not improve the situation, and citizens, who no longer trust the promises of local leaders, have filled their social networks with a flood of complaints.
Of a population of more than 500,000 inhabitants, 393,638 people receive water regularly in Las Tunas. Another 100,000, residents of 487 communities, obtain it through tanker trucks, and 6,267 through train delivery. These figures reflect only the residents who have a piping system, and not the hundreds of tuneros who are supplied from their own wells or directly from bodies of water that are not always suitable for consumption.
We spent weeks carrying water from a well; thank God it’s there, but the neighborhood has itchy skin
“We spent weeks carrying water from a well; thank God it’s there, but the neighborhood has itchy skin. Not to mention where you have to look for drinking and cooking water,” complained a neighbor this Thursday on the Facebook profile of the provincial Aqueducto company. continue reading
Those affected say the situation has become unbearable, and so they have let those responsible know. When Acueducto recently announced the installation of the new pump in El Rincón, which would supposedly improve the situation, customers responded sarcastically: “Improve? We’ll see if at least water arrives, because it’s been failing for months. Hopefully they put it on Saturday mornings, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we won’t have to wait for it. And I’m not going to mention the quality.”
Another client complained about the reliability of the company. “On Monday there was water on Buena Vista Street and if you got it, you had to pay 3,000 pesos. Of course, although I don’t have service, I still have to pay for it. This only happens in Cuba,” he said.
After being repaired in Havana, one of the motors in the water treatment plant was installed, and this allowed an increase in the pumping from 70 to 85 gallons per second. Also in the El Rincón reservoir, which supplies water to 160,000 inhabitants of Las Tunas, a new pump relieved the old one in October, after it exceeded its capacity of 20 million cubic meters.
The new machinery can expand the flow up to 132 gallons per second, but the low processing capacity of the water treatment plant prevents it. “The necessary 132 will not be reached, because everything is decided in the water treatment plant, and there it is not possible to increase power at this minute,” Oscar Carralero Suárez, director of Aqueducto in Las Tunas, told Granma this Friday.
The authorities’ reports to the official press reveal that even if the water pumps are repaired, Aqueducto’s capacity is insufficient
The authorities’ reports to the official press reveal that even if the water pumps are repaired, Aqueducto’s capacity is insufficient to provide service to all those affected. Exceeding 75% of the water levels of the reservoirs in the province, only Cayojo has operated regularly throughout the year; but being the smallest, its pumping capacity is just 19 gallons per second.
El Rincón, on the other hand, although it can reach 132 gallons per second, this year has seen its power reduced to 50%, and “in the case of Piedra Hueca, which had been working reliably with 45 gallons per second, today does not exceed 26, due to problems with the pumping equipment,” said Aqueducto’s director.
The only option for Las Tunas, the authorities recognize, is to “modify existing equipment,” including pumps, water treatment plants and water pipes, something that is being evaluated by a National Commission but, for the moment, is only an expectation.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cubans in line to check in on an Air Century flight at José Martí International Airport. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Mexico, November 24, 2023 — Several airlines connecting Cuba with Nicaragua began suspending their charter flights three days after the U.S. announced penalties for airlines that cover that route. A source from a Miami-based travel agency, which markets tickets between the Island and the Central American country, confirmed to 14ymedio this Friday that for the moment, the only airlines connecting the two nations are Conviasa and Aruba Airlines, while Air Century and Sky High canceled all operations that were scheduled for the coming months.
Representatives of Air Century reaffirmed to Telemundo 51 that this company will no longer fly the commercial route, widely used by migrants from the Island to make the crossing to the southern border of the United States.
On Tuesday, the State Department explained that charter airlines have been selling tickets at “extortionate” prices to those who use Nicaragua as a route to access Mexico’s northern border.
“My world fell apart today. They already canceled my flight twice, and this time it was for real”
The penalty consists of the ineligibility for a visa to the U.S. of “owners, executives and/or senior officials of companies that offer charter flights to Nicaragua” protected by the Immigration and Nationality Act, which establishes that people who carry out activities sanctioned by the U.S. Government cannot enter the country. continue reading
Air Century, according to the source who works at a Miami travel agency, “is organizing a few rescue flights to get people out who were going to fly from Cuba in the few days left of November.”
“My world fell apart today. They already canceled my flight twice, and this time it was for real,” a Cuban resident on the Island who intended to travel with Air Century soon, told Telemundo 51. Her flight was canceled in the middle of this week. The woman’s only hope was to be transferred by the agency where she bought the ticket to another airline.
Days before the Biden Administration announced the visa restriction for the operators of these flights, two U.S. officials warned that the measure was being prepared. One of them was Eric Jacobstein, deputy undersecretary of the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, who said that the Government was “aware of these reports about an increase in charter flights arriving in Nicaragua from several countries, and we believe that no one should take advantage of the desperation of vulnerable migrants.”
Between 2021 and 2023, more than 425,000 Cubans arrived at the southern border of Mexico, on their way to the United States. The route through Nicaragua has facilitated the avoidance of an even worse route, the one that involved crossing the Darién jungle, between Colombia and Panama, which many took in the previous migration crisis of 2015.
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.
“Look how the garbage ate up the sidewalk,” say those who can now see the foundations of the house, after Community Services ’scraped’ the street. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, November 24, 2023 — The residents of Luyanó could not believe their eyes this Friday morning: the mammoth garbage dumps that had been accumulating for weeks in various corners of the Havana – and that only a day ago has been reported by 14ymedio reported – had disappeared as if by magic.
The four containers on the corner of Melones and the Luyanó road, sunk this Thursday in a sea of waste, are now lined up and clean. With the plague at an acceptable level – although the stench of several weeks does not go away overnight – the worker at the Cuban Post Office kiosk could afford to come to work without closing the window tightly.
The “royal garbage dump” of Luyanó, at Rodríguez and Reforma, was reduced to a minor category: where there was once a powerful landfill, now there is a humble garbage dump, although the leones [lions] – employees recruited by Communal Services for their garbage trucks – left the containers battered and lying on the sidewalk. continue reading
“How afraid they are of the internet,” says a neighbor, alluding to the warning that circulated days ago on a Facebook group of residents in the Havana neighborhood
But not everything is coming up roses in Luyanó, “Cuba’s garbage capital,” as its neighbors described it, resignedly. On Thursday, the corner of Luyanó and Luco was full of papers, cans and puddles of waste, and now what was hidden under several layers of filth has been revealed. “Look how the garbage ate up the sidewalk,” say those who can see the foundations of the house, after Community Services “scraped” the street.
“How afraid they are of the internet,” says a neighbor, alluding to the warning that circulated days ago in a Facebook group of residents in the Havana neighborhood. “Luyanó is going to become a giant bonfire,” they warned, if the Government did not collect the garbage soon.
But there is no rest. This Friday, Luyanó woke up face to face with a new unpleasantness: a penetrating smell of gas that runs along the road, moves through the alleys and knocks on the neighbors’ doors. The first complaints are already on the networks, and in the mouths of Havana residents: “When it’s not one thing, it’s another.”
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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.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 25 November 2023 — The repression of dissent, the violation of political rights and the situation of prisoners sentenced for the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) were the main complaints from Cuban civil society to the delegation of the European Union (EU) who visited the country this Thursday and Friday.
