14ymedio

Russia Suggests to Cuba More Support for Small Businesses and Less Currency Control

14ymedio, Havana, 31 March 2023 — Putin’s adviser has a plan for Cuba that specifically involves ending the “strict control” over currency exchange. The consequence of this disastrous government policy is “the low profitability of companies, the deficit of commodities” and the black market, according to Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council, as the Russian news agency Sputnik reported on Thursday.

In an interview with Sputnik, Titov reveals some details already intuited in previous meetings and statements, such as that Russian economists have proposed to the regime to develop small and medium-sized enterprises, known as mipymes [SMEs] in Cuba, fundamentally through a fiscal reform that lets the informal economy emerge.

“Economic reform can and should be promoted by small and medium-sized enterprises. In Cuba, SMEs are equivalent to private companies, since the state controls all strategic areas,” Titov told Sputnik. continue reading

Currently, the adviser to the Kremlin adviser — and, for practical purposes, also the Havana regime — said that the private sector contributes 7% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 11% of the tax revenues, in addition to employing a quarter of the country’s workers (1,600,000 according to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor, compared to 3,160,000 linked to the state sector).

“They face many problems: the difficulty of accessing credit, high taxes, problems with the rate of return due to the prices of some goods, which are fixed by directives, and the price of other goods, limited by low wages in the public sector. In many ways, Cuban SMEs are in the shadows,” Titov emphasizes.

The expert believes that making the tax system more flexible can help the private sector emerge and give the expected results, which are none other than an increase in the production of food and basic products, but he recommends that it not be carried out in a crazy way, unlike how it happened, in his opinion, in his country.

“Unlike the ’shock therapy’ that took place in Russia, the transition to a free price formation in Cuba must be carried out gradually, and it has to be well prepared,” the counselor adds.

In January of this year, Cuba and Russia agreed to create an Economic Transformation Center during a meeting between Titov and Miguel Díaz-Canel. The objective, according to the Russian agency Interfax, was to prepare “economic transformations in Cuba based on the development of private enterprise.”

This idea was described from the Cuba Siglo XXI center of ideas, based in Miami, as an attempt to go from a “model with a nationalized economy” to the “Russian mafia market” scheme.

To date, the SMEs that have been created in Cuba total 7,325. However, the government’s claim to prioritize food production companies has been surpassed by reality, and in practice, according to the latest data, only 15.3% are dedicated to it, being surpassed by locals or food stores, which exceed 19% of the total. On the other hand, the service sector is confirmed as a leader, with 45% of SMEs, while the category “other productions” remains at 21%.

All this, despite the fact that the state has controlled not only the sectors that were going to have preference for activity, but who was given the authorization, with the result of a multitude of businesses in the hands of relatives and friends of senior officials, as well as foreign businessmen well-linked to the regime.

Earlier this week, Titov also announced two new projects with Cuba in Moscow. The first, the creation of Rusmarket, a joint venture of food, chemicals and other household items with the Cuban state-owned Cimex whose contract is in the process of being signed. The second is yet to be specified, but there was talk of a hotel for the exclusive use of Russians, arguing that Russian tourism is returning to the Island, a fact belied by all the official data.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Local Development Won’t Happen under Communist Collectivist Rules

In the La Época mini-industry, the machines for bagging the produce and for bottling have never worked. Photo: Ronald Suarez Rivas

Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 28 March 2023 — Local development projects are untenable in Cuba’s communist economy. They need a foundation and a substrate. What are we talking about? Much has been written about local development as a tool for spurring economic activity. Essentially, it is a complex process, a result of local initiative, whose objective is to direct and deploy a region’s resources to a designated business project, with special consideration given to the those living in the area.

This definition is broad enough to indicate that, in general, local development is not working in Cuba’s communist regime. The problem is that these projects rely exclusively on collective initiatives, which should play only a small roll in local development, when what is needed is private initiative. Once again, Cuban communists copy what other countries do but copy it badly.

That is why, thirteen years after the launch of the first development projects on the island — these were part of an attempt to “update” the Cuban economic model — the results leave much to be desired. Many projects have been implemented but, on balance, the results are disappointing.

An article in the state newspaper Granma looks closely at the results of one such project — La Época, a mini-industry in Consolación del Sur, a town in Pinar del Rio — that began operations four years ago but has not been successful. continue reading

Its failure is a result of all the usual problems: a shortage of raw materials, new technology that was not a good fit, production levels that did not justify the amount of capital being invested, all of which has allegedly brought operations to a halt. The energy shortage, for example, led to blackouts, which led to shutting off the plant’s furnace, which led to shutting down the automated machines that were supposed to bottle and package items such as fruits, vegetables, jams and mayonnaise, which the foreign specialists in charge could not get to work.

Initially, there was clear interest in the project given the very precarious conditions of the old plant, whose operations were unproductive and inefficient. The thought was that, with modernization, it could provide food to the local population and even to the province. But that is not what happened.

As the Granma article points out, and I quote, “The reality could not be more different and today the small Pinar del Rio factory is, if anything, an unfortunate example of something that did not have to happen.” In fact, the most obvious example of failure lies in the fact that, of the twenty-seven employees on the payroll, only five currently remain at La Época, while the rest have been transferred to other units due to the lack of things for them to do.

Granma questions the decisions of the management team, who wanted to build a factory without having first found a reliable source of raw materials to keep things running smoothly, an oversight that is not unique to La Época. But this is not just a management issue. What happened to this company is a good example of the consequences of central planning and of the hierarchical structure that plagues the Cuban economy on all fronts, including local development.

The Granma article also looks at reasons behind the failures of other local development projects in Pinar del Rio, such as the carpentry shop that opened in La Palma in 2010. Equipped with up-to-date furniture-making equipment, it was the first local development project in Vueltabajo. It was unable to reach its production goals because the agency that promoted the project failed to secure an allotment of wood.

Another example is the paint factory in the provincial capital’s industrial zone. While it did manage to turn out a high-quality product, the operation was ultimately unsustainable. The article also mentions the example of a jewelry studio in Consolación del Sur. Launched ten years ago as a local development project to make belts, purses, wallets and other leather goods, it went bankrupt long ago because it could not get raw materials. Then there is the old guayabera factory in the town of Los Palacios. The facility was operating at full capacity from the moment it opened, handling big orders like the one for 14,000 garments, including pants and shirts, for the workers at the Mariel Special Development Zone. Now, it’s all just a memory.

All these projects failed for reasons such as inadequate planning, shortage of raw materials, systematic failure to stick with a plan, difficulty importing equipment and supplies, and loss of markets. In reality, they confirm that collective and state enterprises ultimately do not amount to anything and end up dying of success.

A director from the provincial government’s development office has no problem acknowledging that all the projects, which from the beginning depended on some imported element, had to close. He states, “In commercial terms, they are projects that failed, and they were all involved in local light industry or food services.” And of course, since everyone else invested all the money and assumed all the risk, he is not bothered by this.

It is then that Granma asks, How is it possible for there to be so many failures in one province, which, “paradoxically, has accumulated twenty years’ experience in the field of local development? As the old saying goes, in the blacksmith’s house, there’s only a wooden knife.” And so it goes.

To address these issues, the communist regime has come up with a strategy for decentralizing this year’s budget. The hope is that this will substantially change the way things are done by giving localities a tool that would allow them to plan development “on the basis of previously conceived actions.” Is this the long-awaited solution localities have been been hoping for? Will it serve to guarantee local development?

In numerical terms, there is no shortage of projects on the books. It seems 347 development initiatives have been proposed in Pinar del Rio, which translates to a whopping 250 project ideas that have resulted in 78 local development projects. One would think at least some should be successful. But not necessarily. In the thirteen years of the program’s existence, Pinar del Rio has completed only twenty-two projects, one of them being La Época, which has clearly been a failure.

The difference that exists between possibilities identified by bureaucrats and the realities on the ground leads to two possible conclusions: either planning is badly done or it’s not worth promoting economic activity. Or perhaps both.

Local development needs solvent private initiative to achieve success. Making it soley reliant on collectivist proposals leads to failure. Insuring that investments of time and resources are made efficiently is best done through private initiative. Without a doubt. To avoid disaster and make local development a tool for bettering the lives of Cuba’s citizens, it is essential to involve the private sector. The state must give up its role in this area, the sooner the better.

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Official Silence on Electoral Abstention Data in Havana and Santiago De Cuba

“More than 78%” of voter participation was registered by the authorities in Sancti Spíritus, almost the same as in Villa Clara, 78.08%. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 March 2023 — The suspicions raised in the Cuban population by the 76% participation number in the parliamentary elections on March 26, as reported by the Government, do not make a dent in the provincial official press, which pulls out all the stops and registers even more participation.

Thus, as read in Invasor, Ciego de Ávila breaks the record, with an attendance at the polls to elect its 23 deputies for the National Assembly of People’s Power of more than 86%.

The province of Matanzas follows closely, with a record — always according to official figures — of “more than 83.86%” of the electoral roll. For the regional newspaper of Artemisa, the figure of 81.15% is compared to “the heroic moncadista [attack on the Moncada barracks] feat of seven decades ago.”

In Pinar del Río, officialdom reports an 80.93% participation, and in Camagüey, 79.51%. “More than 78%” registered in Sancti Spíritus, almost the same as in Villa Clara, 78.08%.

The province of Granma limited itself to replicating the national figure of 75.92% attendance to report that its 34 deputies were elected.

Unlike these provinces, the highly populated provinces of Mayabeque, Cienfuegos, Holguín and Guantánamo haven’t released their figures. But the most eloquent silence is that of the two main regions of the country, Havana and Santiago de Cuba, which have not yet given specific results. continue reading

Meanwhile, the two main national official media, Granma and Juventud Rebelde, have been out of service since the early hours of this Monday.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who had described the elections as a “revolutionary victory,” expressed himself on social networks about the results. “Despite the draconian US measures, despite the fierce campaign and the calls for abstention, Cuba won,” he wrote via Twitter, specifying the official figures.

“There are numbers that say more than words: 70.92% of participation and 72.10% UNITED VOTE [sic], in the midst of so many difficulties, is a clean home run,” he said in baseball language, just a week after the defeat of the Cuban team against the U.S. team in the semifinals of the World Classic in Miami.

Citizen distrust is based on the observation of the polling stations, almost empty throughout the day on Sunday. And after the closing of the polls, officials did not put the preliminary results in each establishment on the doors. “Is there a site or place where you can check the results at the provincial and municipality level, even at the electoral college level?” asked a Cubadebate user on Monday.

Another reader answers: “You can go to your municipal assembly to find out, in addition you could be there at the time of counting in your electoral college, because, by law, anyone can participate and observe if they want.”

One of the complaints of the international organizations against these elections is, precisely, that the regime did not allow the presence of independent observers, and even more, it harassed the activists who announced that they would monitor the polling places.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The US Coast Guard Returns 83 Cuban Rafters in Four Days

The US Coast Guard prevents a group of rafters from disembarking in Florida. (Twitter/@USCGSoutheast)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 March 2023 — The United States Coast Guard continues to repatriate Cuban rafters who are intercepted on the high seas. This Tuesday, 29 nationals of the Island were returned. The agency insisted that “they work 24 hours a day to prevent people from disembarking illegally in the United States.”

According to official data, since October 2022, the crossing of 6,107 Cubans has been stopped, which almost equals the 6,182 rafters of the previous fiscal year.

The US authorities indicated that, despite the fact that since January the White House and the Department of Homeland Security announced new legal avenues to enter the United States, the number of rafters detained on the high seas and illegal landings in Florida continue.

Between March 17 and 24, the Coast Guard reported the repatriation and transfer of 82 migrants who tried to reach the United States on four rustic crafts. Of this group, 15 rafters, without specifying their nationality, were transferred to the Bahamas, and three more remain in custody. continue reading

The other 64 of Cuban origin were returned to the Island last Friday on the ship Bernard Webber. Captain Robert Kinsey, of Coast Guard District Seven, said in a statement that in the last five months “15 people have died by taking unnecessary risks” on their crossing of the Florida Straits aboard boats “not suitable for sailing without security equipment.”

#WeeklyWrapUp Illegal maritime migration is never an option. @USCG crews will rescue & repatriate anyone attempting the dangerous ventures, and our partners are out in force to interdict or apprehend others. Check out our stats for the past week: pic.twitter.com/xZkn9AXHnr

— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) March 24, 2023

Reference was made to the rescue, last Tuesday, of 28 rafters who were adrift, 10 of them in the water. Two of these migrants had to be hospitalized and one disappeared.

The U.S. Coast Guard reiterated that detained rafters are provided with medical assistance, food and are returned to their country of origin, in addition to the fact that they will not be eligible for the humanitarian parole program.

Meanwhile, in Florida this Wednesday there were protests against two bills, SB 1718 and HB 1617, presented by Republicans Blaise Ingoglia and Kiyan Michael, which seek to “severely restrict” the movement of irregular immigrants within the state, as well as track their information in hospitals.

One of them, SB 1718, is under discussion in the Senate Substitute Committee, while the other, HB 1617, is in the Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives.

Similar legislation enacted in Georgia and Alabama more than 10 years ago was declared unconstitutional by an appeals court, recalled the SPLC Action Fund, which defines itself as an organization that “works with communities to dismantle white supremacy.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The ‘Commercialization’ of Cuban Universities

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 29 March 2023 — The latest news that comes to us from the Island, amazing as it may seem, is of public universities engaging in private business. Post-Castroism wants universities to compete with companies — state and non-state — to earn money by selling the services that have previously been financed through the state budget, and to get into an “every-man-for-himself-situation” that no one knows how to get out of, if they can.

There will be fierce competition among organizations that have little profit, and it’s enough to make one tremble. In short, Cuban communists want universities to look for commercial formulas. They will soon do the same with the private sale of the “achievements of the revolution.” The regime is not holding up and needs resources and, above all, foreign currency from anywhere. There is no time, and placing a value on the activity of universities is a controversial step. Are we facing a covert privatization? Let’s see.

The formula devised consists of creating a state small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) to, they say, complement budget management and support the financial development of the university. This is the case of the University of Granma (UDG), in the province of that name. It won’t be the last.

The measure, according to the state press, is inspired by some alleged “transformations made in the management model of the Cuban government based on science and technological innovation (obligatory doctoral thesis earned by Díaz-Canel) that have allowed the country’s universities to create business parks and company interfaces to transfer their research results to the country’s economic-productive system, with the purpose of contributing to promoting the development of the nation. But of course from parks and interfaces to competitive companies, there is a long way to go, and the void is just below. continue reading

The Ministry of Higher Education, which is behind this initiative, has begun to promote “new economic forms of management aimed at generating income for higher-education institutions and thereby expanding the link between universities, companies and other entities of the territories, in order to articulate and strengthen local development programs and municipal autonomy.”

Are they kidding?

Well, it looks like it’s going to happen and, not only that, quickly. When communist leaders want to, they can promote changes in reality as owners of all the nation’s productive capital. In this case, a state SME has been created at the University of Granma, the third of its kind in the country belonging to the sector, with the name ‘Innovaudg’, whose main purpose is “the selling of professional, scientific and technical services to natural and legal persons.”

This is full-fledged subcontracting, which makes available to this SME a proposal of commercial value that has previously been generated with the public resources that Cubans contribute to the state budget. A private business for a public offer, which is supposed to belong to everyone. Contradictions and even illegalities are already beginning.

If the university SME financed with its own resources the professional, scientific and technical services that are going to be sold to society, there would be nothing to object to. However, the problem is the origin. That professors or research fellows, who receive a salary from the state for their products and services, participate in a private company for their commercial sale, is at least questionable and opens a space that should deserve a little more attention, because it borders on the misuse of public resources, which have a legal, administrative and political responsibility.

However, Cuban communists have stepped on the accelerator in this area, and they want the University of Granma to manage its services through the SME, while the employees receive their salaries from the university. At the moment, the SME has five professionals based on the UDG campus in Bayamo, but, according to the state press, it will have highly competent staff from the university itself, who will be hired as a workforce through multi-employment. That is, not only does it use state personnel, but the SME also takes advantage of the facilities, equipment and means that are supposed to be financed by the state.

The university SME projects all kinds of services, including accounting, bookkeeping and management consulting, as well as activities to support agriculture, post-harvest, and seed treatment for propagation. A real hodgepodge of offers where one can earn pesos or foreign currency. And as if that were not enough, it contemplates the realization of “professional improvement actions, the organization of conventions and commercial exhibitions, the rental of physical spaces, machinery and equipment, among other things.” A whole privileged university business will compete, evidently, with other entities and economic actors that do not have the advantage of selling what is produced with public salaries. Something doesn’t sound right here, and sooner or later, it will blow up.

The SME has studied its relationship with the university “from the financial point of view, and it has designed an agreement with the university that foresees the contribution of 50% of the profits in national currency and 60% of the income in foreign currency to the university’s self-financing account, which will allow it to use the money not only for its current expenses, but also for future investments, both technological, constructive or otherwise.” And it adds that “in accordance with the development of business and the liquidity capacity available, capital contributions can be made that include technologies or assets. That relationship is bilateral; that is, similar shares can be received from the university.”

It doesn’t stop there, because UDG took advantage of the inter-institutional relations already established between the university and the business sector of the province, as well as with the government and other entities, so it will be able to carry out the process of commercial identification of the demands and needs existing in the territory. In addition, UDG has integrated, according to the state press, “in parallel, the already existing agreements of business opportunities that promote the implementation of the results of science and technology in the business, governmental and budgeted spheres, and in actors of the economy constituted as natural persons, while the free access of professionals in the state sector to postgraduate courses and other actions of improvement and training is not limited.”

UDG has had a strong start and already has its first contract with the Agroindustrial Grain Company, the largest rice producer in the country, by providing services and advice to strengthen the economic growth of the entity, through a feasibility study to diagnose which of its basic business units had the conditions to become a state SME.

Behind these approaches, the application of science and innovation in production processes is again detected (again, Díaz-Canel’s doctoral thesis). The University of Granma continues to advance this entrepreneurial initiative. As one might suppose, UDG defends and justifies itself by saying that there has not been the same impact on all sectors and entities of the Cuban economy, “because not all companies in the territories identify the business options offered by these new policies, and they are still waiting for guidance from higher agencies.”

Universities that create state SMEs to market their products and services and ultimately make money can introduce controversial elements into the weak Cuban economy that distort competition between economic actors and will end up subtracting market opportunities for private and even state initiatives. Something doesn’t work in this accounting, and at some point it will fall apart.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Moscow to Finance a Havana Wholesale Store and Promote a Hotel Exclusively for Russians

President Miguel Díaz-Canel with Russian official Boris Titov at a January meeting in Havana. (Presidencia)

14ymedio, Madrid, March 28, 2023 — Relations between Havana and Moscow continue to strengthen as evidenced by the announcement in Moscow on Tuesday of new business ventures on the island. The first and most fleshed-out is a joint venture with the state company Cimex that has already been approved by the Cuban government.

“Many Russian manufacturers are interested in promoting their products in Cuba. We are hoping a new trading company will serve as a consolidated wholesale importer and will be able to independently determine prices in the Caribbean nation’s retail market,” said Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council and a trusted Kremlin adviser.

After meeting with Cuban ambassador Julio Garmendía on Tuesday, Titov indicated that Moscow is hoping to quickly sign a contract that would provide “the solution to complex logistical problems such as transporting Russian merchandise and acquiring insurance coverage,” two issues that have complicated the country’s foreign trade since it was hit with international sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The announcement, which was reported in Cuba by the Prensa Latina news agency, contains few details. The two sides also want to expand their cooperation in the tourism sector and are considering, Titov said, the construction of a hotel for the exclusive use of Russians. The project is based the assumption that the number of Russian vacationers visiting the island will return to previous levels, something that the latest data clearly indicates is not happening. continue reading

Figures from the National Office of Statistics and Information indicate 6,632 Russians visited the country in 2022, 54.7% less than in 2021. Furthermore, Russians were the only group of foreigner visitors whose numbers declined in the first two months of 2023, falling from 35,871 travelers in January and February 2022 – the sanctions began at the end of that month – to 20,589 in the same period this year.

The number of Russian visitors was already declining before the war complicated the situation. By November 2021 the Dominican Republic had poached a good part of Cuba’s tourist trade. In September, the month the island reopened for tourism, 8,019 visitors arrived in the country. Meanwhile, the number of visitors from Russia to its Caribbean neighbor was 21,387.

The closure of European air space forced Russian carriers to suspend flights to Cuba until October 2022, when Nordwind Airlines announced it would resume service to the island along a route over the north pole.

Though Cuba has managed to lure back some tourists, the effort has not been easy. Just two weeks ago, the Russian news agency Sputnik announced that Cuban banks would begin accepting Mir, a payment system akin to Visa or Mastercard that was launched by the Kremlin in 2016 to get around potential economic sanctions. A few days later it was reported that Mir card holders could take money out of Cuban ATMs.

Cuba and Russia have drawn closer to each other out of necessity. The once extremely close relations they enjoyed during the Soviet era cooled under perestroika. They had been recovering during the 2017 crisis in Venezuela, which forced them to look for other trading partners, but things really took off after the start of the war in Ukraine.

In 2020 Moscow was forced to cancel several planned investments on the island due to “breaches of contract by the Cuban side,” as Russian officials explained. Cuba needs enormous sums of money and, though Russia knows the island is not a good credit risk, economic sanctions have created a new environment which requires finding new markets and new allies.

In January, Titov himself met with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel in Havana, where they agreed to the creation of center to transform the Cuban economy “through private business.” To some in the Cuban exile community, this sounds like a scheme similar the one used by the old Soviet oligarchs, who ultimately took control of numerous state-owned enterprises.

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Cuban Regime To Release the Political Prisoner Real Suarez, in Prison Since 1994

Two relatives of Real Suárez plan to come to pick him up and then take him to the family home in Matanzas. (America TeVé/Screen capture/YouTube)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 29 March 2023 — The political prisoner Humberto Eladio Real Suárez– condemned for disembarking in Cuba in 1994 in an armed anti-government expedition from the United States — will be released this Thursday having served his time in prison, according to family members who spoke with EFE on Wednesday.

The authorities have informed Real’s family that he can be picked up at 9:00 AM local time at Agüica prison in Matanzas. Real, age 54, has served 28 years and 5 months of the 30 years he was sentenced to. Two relatives plan to come to pick him up and then take him to the family home in Matanzas.

The prisoner’s mother, Graciela Suárez Díaz, explained to EFE that the Cuban authorities have urged Real to appear the day after his release at the local Migration offices to regularize his situation in the country.

Real’s objective, and hers, added Súarez, is to migrate to the United States as soon as possible, where a large number of his relatives reside, including Real’s brother and his daughter.

For crimes against state security and murder, Real was first sentenced to death, a sentence that was commuted in 2010 by the Supreme Court of Cuba to 30 years in prison.

Real was arrested in October 1994, at the age of 26, after disembarking in Cuba from the US in an armed expedition in which a civilian died.

He was subsequently convicted of the crimes of “acts against State Security,” “murder” and “discharge of firearms against a certain person.”

The exile group Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), based in Miami, celebrated in a statement the possible release of this “valiant Cuban” and denounced that during his time in prison he was subjected “to countless mistreatment and tortures.”

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The Elections Over, Trash Again Piles Up in the Streets of Cuba

Garbage piles up in the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 March 2023 — The cleaning in the streets of Havana did not last long. One day before the elections to the National Assembly of People’s Power last Sunday, a battalion of state workers collected the filth that usually accumulates on the corners due to the lack of means of all kinds.

It’s barely Wednesday and the garbage is already limitless. On Espada street on the corner with Callejón de Hamel, in Centro Habana, the waste not only overflows three containers, but also spreads over the ground across more than twice the space occupied by those containers. “You can see that the voting is over,” an old woman murmured sarcastically as she passed in front of it, covering her mouth and nose and crossing the sidewalk.

The “operation” prior to the opening of the polls – whose official results are viewed with suspicion by the citizens who observed the almost empty polling stations throughout that day – was repeated in different cities throughout the Island, and included food sales in parks and squares and the absence of power cuts.

Three days after what some international organizations have called the “most irregular” elections in the history of Cuba, garbage, shortages and blackouts return.

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The Cuban Baseball Federation Will Demand 10 Million Dollars From Yariel Rodriguez

After breaking with the Chunichi Dragons, Yariel Rodríguez is in the Dominican Republic seeking an agreement with the Major Leagues. (Dragons of Chunichi)

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 March 2023 — The reaction of the Cuban sports authorities to Yariel Rodríguez Yordi’s breakup with his Japanese team, Dragones de Chunichi, and the Cuban Baseball Federation itself (FCB) has not been long in coming. The organization will avail itself of a clause in the baseball player’s contract to demand 10 million dollars from the athlete.

In a statement released to the official press, the FCB alleges that its demands are those set forth in the agreement. “The athlete acknowledges and accepts that the fulfillment of this contract begins from the moment he leaves Cuba for Japan and ends on his return to Cuba. He also accepts that in case of breach of the contract on his part without justified cause, at the discretion of the Federation, he may not be hired by any other club or third parties without the express authorization of the Federation,” reads the baseball player’s contract.

According to the FCB, the text also made it clear that “in case of abandonment the FCB will require the figure of 10 million dollars for damages,” and the sports organization will demand the relevant “rights and responsibilities.”

In its statement, the FCB regrets the decision taken by the athlete, who according to journalist Francys Romero is in the Dominican Republic “seeking to be hired by some team from the Major Leagues” of the US. In Romero’s opinion, this “contradicts the efforts made for Yariel to develop in a high-level league like the Japanese one, and from there to support the Cuban national team.” continue reading

For the organization, his act “constitutes a serious failure to what was agreed for the period 2023-2024 between the Dragons, the athlete” and the Federation itself, which acted as his representative in the agreement.

Rodríguez was one of the players recognized by the Communist Party after being part of Team Asere, which achieved a fourth place in the World Classic, a great position if one takes into account that something similar has not been achieved for almost 20 years.

Francys Romero, who reported yesterday on the departure of the pitcher, stressed that “he will not be subject to the restrictions of international firms because he has been in international baseball for over 25 years and six seasons.” The reporter also noted that there are several players who have left the FCB after signing for Japanese teams.

“The organizations of the Professional League of Japan know that signing a Cuban through the Federation is always risky,” he continued. Rodríguez was preceded by pitchers Héctor Mendoza and Andy Rodríguez, and outfielders Adolis García and Oscar Colás.

The athlete, originally from Camagüey, was part of the list of the top 10 prospects of the World Baseball Classic, according to Baseball America, so Romero predicts that Rodríguez “will get a multi-year agreement for a figure in the millions,” and that “it would be in the range of 50 million dollars for five or six years.”

The specialized publication Swing Completo has also highlighted that “his talent and conditions could lead him to find an excellent agreement,” so the fine for failing to meet his commitment would not hurt the player.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The War Over the Expropriated Brands in Cuba Extends to Beer

Born in Miami 56 years ago to Cuban parents, Portuondo considers himself to be the heir to the tradition and history of the Cuban brewery. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, Jorge I. Pérez, 29 March 2023 — Cuban-American businessman Manny Portuondo was missing something when he inaugurated La Tropical brewery in Miami two years ago, a replica of the one that existed in Cuba with the same name: its most popular beer, Cristal, which in April will begin to be sold as Tropi Crystal, La Auténtica.

“It’s the authentic one, and we put the history of the beer on the label: ‘Made in 1928 by La Tropical brewery in Havana and now in Miami by its founders’,” Portuondo tells EFE.

The businessman says this while holding a can of Tropi Crystal, which lost the Latin “i” in the middle of the “war” to recover the brands that existed before the Revolution, which began with rum.

Born in Miami 56 years ago to Cuban parents, Portuondo considers himself to be the heir to the tradition and the history of the Cuban brewery La Tropical, which dates back to 1888.

He is the great-great-grandson of Federico Kohly, who sold the land to the Blanco-Herrera family so that, in 1888, he could build a brewery on the banks of the Almendares River. continue reading

The brewery was constructed with colorful gardens, several party rooms, a baseball field and even a castle, at the same time as Park Güell in Barcelona,” according to historian Yaneli Leal del Ojo, author of the book Los Jardines de la Tropical [Tropical Gardens].

Two years ago and after 25 years of research, including a trip to the Island, Portuondo inaugurated La Tropical de Miami, in the bohemian neighborhood of Wynwood.

Then he launched the oldest brand in the portfolio, the Tropical La Original, but he did not have the clear and refreshing Cristal registered in the United States.

“I like to do things well, and legally,” says this “lover of history, gardening and brewing.”

The can of Tropi Crystal La Auténtica, which comes to the US market on April 4, says on its back label, “Enjoy the refreshing and authentic flavor of Miami’s favorite beer.”

“It says that because we are no longer in Cuba. So, this beer is for all the exiles, all the Cuban emigrants who have had to come here since 1959 to make a new life. This beer represents the pride of all of us,” he says.

The Cristal beer that is sold in Cuba is made by the Bucanero brewery, whose factory is in the province of Holguín, and for Portuondo, it is not the authentic one.

“It can only be authentic if it is in the hands of those who created it in 1928, our family and the Blanco-Herrera family, who founded La Tropical and were in charge of managing the brewery until 1960, when the Cuban government took it at gunpoint,” he said.

Portuondo constructed gardens in La Tropical de Miami that are full of symbolism, like the two murals: one represents a “free” tocororo (the Cuban Trogon, Cuba’s national bird) outside an iron roundabout that acts as a cage and another by the artist Rigo Leonart, dedicated to the 11 July 2021 (’11J’) protests on the Island.

“The historical portfolio of La Tropical in Cuba consisted of three main brands of beer and a brand of malt. The beers are La Tropical La Original, which is the brand we launched two years ago and can now be found in more than 700 points of sale in South Florida; the Tropical 50 La Negra, from 1938; and I was missing the Cristal, which was the most popular,” he says.

The Portuondo label has the three royal palms, the original typography and the green, red and white colors of the Cristal, but there is a notable change with the Greek Y.

“We won the Tropi Crystal registration in the United States, where the Cristal brand cannot be sold with an “i” (Latin) because that registration belongs to a Peruvian brewery. We keep the logo and the association with La Tropical, which was the one at the beginning.”

“The recipe is the same, made in a more modern way with automated equipment. In Cuba they call it ’the favorite of Cuba’ and we call it ’the favorite in Miami,’” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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People Who Fall in Love With Their Typewriters

Guillermo Cabrero Infante, with his cat, Offenbach, and his typewriter. In the background, the headless swordsman that the writer brought with him from Havana (Pinterest)

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, March 26, 2023 – A trade or a profession leaves its marks on the body. A scar, a cut, bags under the eyes behind the spectacles or broken ribs. A language of pain, written into the skin and bones, and also into the memory. Many carpenters have damaged thumbs, a builder never gets the cement dust off his hands; so a writer finds himself bent over, sitting silently at his desk when he can’t find the right words.

Everything eventually becomes eclipsed, and decays, apart from the eyes, which remain undefeated — as Hemingway said of his fisherman — but not sight itself, to which blindness does come sooner or later. This slow transformation which comes from facing up to life, from overcoming it and owning it, does not come to one without some sense of pride. Along with the wounds and markings of any profession come experience, skill, and, finally, mastery of the job. If one is awake enough and not too clumsy, perhaps one can quit, having left behind — whether faintly or profoundly, it doesn’t matter — a footprint, a sign of having been there.

One notices one’s own wearing out, the tiredness and age of one’s own body, but rarely does one feel sorry for the machine that enabled the work. What one achieves is usually the result of a tension between man and instrument. The saw in the hand, the back under the bales, eye against the language.

I’m interested in the ‘sentimental relationship’, shall we say, between machine and operator. The affection one can feel for the tools in a workshop or even a shaving razor. The esteem in which the soldier holds his rifle — which he oils, cleans and looks after — and the photographer his camera. This relationship surpasses the merely instrumental and reaches the point in which a ballpoint pen, a fishing net or a cobbler’s knife becomes the very requirement for success. continue reading

I remember how Carlos Fuentes’ fingers were completely crooked — later I discovered this trait in other novelists — through the pressure required to type on a typewriter. His joints, overworked over long sentences, looked like half moons, commas. The typing had deformed them — a fate which modern keyboards have saved us from.

Nevertheless, along with this sophistication we lose a universe of metaphors and mutual understandings. I think I read that Cabrera Infante hung on until the last moment to his diligent Smith-Corona. This fondness for the shiny tooth-levered machine had its equivalent in the plunging-necklined, seductive, Vivian Smith-Corona in Three Sad Tigers — the woman who was “the very embodiment of a typewriter — but one of those kept behind glass with a sign saying ‘do not touch’. It’s not for sale, no one’ll buy them, no one uses them. They’re just for show”.

The relationship that Reinaldo Arenas had with his typewriter was a turbulent one, almost erotic. “She was just an old iron Underwood but for me she was a magical instrument”. He describes how he would sit in front of her like a performer, a pianist who brought together “gigantic waves that covered pages and pages without a single full-stop, and which were very special”. He had to weld the machine to a desk to stop resentful spies and lovers from stealing it. Thanks to this he managed to maintain the rhythm of his writing over several years, although later he had to use notebooks and loose sheets of paper — written with difficulty, before night set in — which were later either confiscated or destroyed.

Far away from the roughness of Havana, where Arenas hid himself, and based in a Paris office, Severo Sarduy took his Olivetti Lettera 32 to get it modified: he desperately needed the letter “ñ”. Also, he bought the blackest ribbon he could find in the stationery shops – ones that left the most stains. “I have this obsession”, he said, “my hands end up looking like a motor mechanic’s – and I love it”.

(Perhaps from off the roller of this very same Olivetti came the letter which Sarduy sent to Arenas, on behalf of Editions du Seuil, to tell him that the publisher had no room for new works and that they were rejecting his manuscript for A Celestine Monk Before the Dawn.)

For my part, although I have always liked the typewriter as an artifact, I only used a child’s one, a badly-oiled Royal, with a green case, on which my grandfather used to type his pharmacist’s prescriptions. I wrote my first short stories on it, almost by chance, like the proverbial chimpanzee. It delivered for me a fascination for the artifact and I learned its language — tab key, lever, bell, space bar, rods and frame — before it was condemned in the house as obsolete, and it disappeared.

That sentiment, the pain of misplacing those distant objects that had fascinated me for the first time, the impossibility of forgetting images and conversations, are perhaps the hallmarks of my profession — hallmarks which time is leaving me, in order for me to work. Now I work with a smooth and bright keyboard, on what people call [in Spanish] an ordenador [computer] but which I, stubbornly, will always call a computadora – in feminine gender.

But nostalgia is unforgiving. A few weeks ago, in an antique shop, I stumbled upon a shiny Smith-Corona (chrome-plated and with a white cover). Whilst I counted my money I remembered the wonderful Vivian, and the jibe made by Caín: “Who falls in love with a typewriter?” Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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The Governor of Puerto Rico Invites Diaz-Canel To ‘Liberate the Cuban People From Communism’

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel during his speech at the Ibero-American Summit, where he spoke about the independence of Puerto Rico. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

14ymedio, Madrid, 27 March 2023 — Miguel Díaz-Canel’s passage through the Dominican Republic during the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit resulted in a dispute with the Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, who was upset on Saturday night by the Cuban President’s allusion to the independence of that territory associated with the United States.

“We reaffirm the historic commitment to the self-determination and independence of the people of Puerto Rico,” Díaz-Canel said in a speech in which there was also no lack of defense of the absent leaders of Nicaragua and Venezuela, ideological partners of Havana, or support for the recovery of the Malvinas [Falkland Islands] for Argentina.

The words did not sit well with the Puerto Rican governor, and, a few hours later, he showed his discomfort on Facebook. “Last night I was at the inaugural events of the Ibero-American Summit at the invitation of my friend, the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader. I returned to Puerto Rico early this morning and did not participate in the work of the Summit because, as Governor of Puerto Rico, I am not a member of it,” Pierluisi began.

“Although my presence was limited to such activity, I cannot ignore the words of the President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, calling for the independence of Puerto Rico in today’s session,” continued the leader of the New Progressive Party and the Democratic Party of the United States.

After this preamble, Pierluisi defends the current status of Puerto Rico and lashes out at the Cuban president. “Here we believe in democracy, and the desire of the majority of our people in favor of Statehood and Equality under the flag of the United States must be respected.” continue reading

“I recommend that you focus on freeing your own citizens from the yoke of communism, which has only brought poverty and pain to the Cuban people,” he said.

A few hours later, Díaz-Canel went to vote this Sunday at his polling station in Santa Clara where a Puerto Rican journalist from the newspaper Claridad asked him, not about the controversy with Pierluisi, but about the position of the United States against the vote on March 26 to elect the new deputies of the National Assembly. The Cuban president was, as usual, indignant with Washington, to which he attributed a “hostile narrative that is imaginary, slanderous, a fantasy, provocative and untrue.”

The Cuban leader considered that the United States is annoyed that Havana does not follow its dictates as, he let drop, happens in other countries. “We are so sovereign and so independent, so our own… that we do not have to submit to an opinion of the US embassy because for us it does not influence anything that we are doing; we work from our convictions,” he added.

The Cuban press omitted information this Sunday about the dispute, but at midnight on Monday, Prensa Latina did release a statement from the Hostosian National Independence Movement (MINH), a Puerto Rican left-wing and pro-independence organization closely linked to Havana and with little political representation in its own territory. In that text, the MINH reproaches Pierluisi for his words towards Díaz-Canel and is grateful that he attracted attention to “the colonial case of Puerto Rico and its inalienable right to self-determination and independence.”

“Governor Pierluisi should feel embarrassed because Puerto Rico cannot participate in that important event [the Ibero-American Summit], due to its status as a colony of the United States,” says the report, which describes the “unconditionality” of the governor toward the United States as humiliating.

“His pathetic denial of the Caribbean and Latin American condition of our Homeland provokes the contempt and rejection of the governments of independent countries participating in the Summit,” the statement adds, without giving a single example of his assertion.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Regional Media Want Paid Advertising and Less ‘Verticalism’

With this change, “economic support” for the official press will be distributed from the income it receives from the state budget, from allocations for “special treatment” and as a communication company. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 March 2023 — The official press will begin to incorporate advertising in the midst of the economic crisis that Cuba is experiencing, Escambray reported on Monday, and it describes this new stage as an “experiment” in which 15 other state media will also participate. Although the newspaper insists that there will be a change in editorial management, it also says that the press will continue to be governed by the political model of the Revolution.

Escambray says that “sooner rather than later” the possibility of having advertising or including in its business portfolio the elaboration of campaigns and communication plans for legal companies and natural persons will materialize, although it does not specify what type of companies could advertise. Radio Sancti Spíritus will do the same and will have an air-conditioned room and a recording studio for “its potential customers.”

With this change, the “economic support” for the official press will be distributed from the income it receives from the state budget, from allocations for “special treatment” and as a communication company. Until now, the Government has maintained the discourse that advertising in newspapers, radios, television and any official media are practices of capitalist media and associated with the Cuban Republican past.

However, the newspaper wonders if the conditions are now in place for that change, since “the public media system, which worked in another context, is barely on crutches in the 21st century.” continue reading

Despite the fact that the media insists that the change “is a wide open window” and occurs in a context that cries out for a new model of management of the public press, it recognizes that the official media will remain aligned with “Cuban-style socialism,” around the “solid foundations and strong forces” of the Revolution.

The official press is part of the government machinery aimed at extolling the political and economic model, in addition to disseminating its slogans. From time to time, however, the regional media publish relentless reports on the deterioration of the economic and social activity in their territories. Pressured by social networks, the media have also had to deal with issues little addressed by the regime, such as the wave of violence suffered by Cuba and the migratory exodus.

Even so, Escambray considers that the press has been an “essential pillar” in state management, but that the new strategy will try to “remove from its letter and spirit” the “vertical, unidirectional and dusty paradigm of the mass media,” which “fulfilled its mission in another context.”

The article constantly defends the idea that the incorporation of advertising into its content “will enrich” its purposes but also states that this poses “ethical challenges,” such as defining how the media will deal “with a market for goods and services not explored by most Cuban media.”

The new “ideological paradigm” poses another challenge: to regain the credibility of the public media, in a context where the audience has grown for “informal communicative channels” associated with information technology, a clear allusion to social networks.

Nor does the newspaper miss an opportunity to blame the “permanent economic and media hostility of the United States,” which, in its opinion, conditions the press as a mechanism of political control.

Finally, Escambray recognizes that the much-acclaimed “modernization” also involves integrating into digital media, a space that is not taken advantage of “optimally” due to the lack of technological infrastructure and professional knowledge of the collaborators.

The change in the management of the state media is the prelude to the XI Congress of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, which will be held this coming July and where the progress of the model will be discussed. Escambray issues a warning that if these changes do not contribute to raising the “credibility of journalism and social authority… we will not even be halfway on the road to transforming the Cuban press.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Baseball Player Who Left Cuba in 2022 Signs with the Saint Louis Cardinals

Yadiel Batista pitched a no-hitter at the Cándido González de Camagüey stadium in August 2022. (Twitter/@francysromeroFR)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 March 2023 — Cuban baseball player Yadiel Batista made the Major Leagues less than six months after he left the Island. At 18 years old, the player reached an agreement with the Saint Louis Cardinals of the United States. According to journalist Francys Romero, “this Friday he signed the contract” and “received a bonus of $250,000.”

Since he settled in the Dominican Republic, last October, the athlete from Ciego de Ávila was observed by recruiters. At 6’3″ and 189 pounds, Batista’s main quality is a powerful arm; he is capable of throwing the ball at a speed of 88-91 mph.

Before leaving Cuba, on August 3, 2022, this left-handed pitcher won a no hitter at the Cándido González de Camagüey stadium. “This was the sixth no hitter — a game without hits or runs — in Under-23 National Championships since the beginning of these tournaments in 2014. Batista got 7 innings, 4 strikeouts,” Romero published in Baseball FR!

The Cardinals, the same team that hired Randy Arozarena in 2016, “have been scouting Cuban talent lately, especially in the area of pitchers,” the reporter said. continue reading

The news about Batista was given a few days after he received the free agency, necessary for him to sign with a team. After that he underwent physical examinations, which went smoothly. In his process to enroll in a Major League team, he was represented by Edgar Mercedes.

Francys Romero saw him a year ago as “a rotation pitcher” with an impact in the near future in the National Series. “He also has plenty of tools to throw in professional baseball,” wrote the Cuban baseball specialist.

This Thursday, Cuban catcher Alfredo Fadragas was declared a free agent by the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). The 23-year-old left the Island after he was suspended for life from the sport following an unsuccessful escape attempt in Mexico.

“When it seemed that Fadragas’ successful career was inside the darkness of a tunnel, the catcher was able to leave the country for the Dominican Republic,” published Baseball FR! Now Fadragas hopes that the interest of the Major League teams will be realized in a contract.

As part of his career, Fadragas joined the Cuban team in almost all categories: Under-15 World Cup (Mexico) and Under-23 Pan American 2022.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Official Press Criticizes the Managers Who Squander the State’s Money

The Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba, Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, during a visit in 2017 to the steel company Acinox, one of those mentioned by the local press. (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 March 2023 — Of the 63 Cuban state companies that operate in the province of Las Tunas, 25 received million-peso payments from the Government without any productive support. The fact, which the local press unequivocally described as a “scam,” addressed the total expenditure of 29,924,000 pesos [$1,246,830] in January alone and motivated a meeting of local leaders, but the analysis was “not at all rigorous” considering the seriousness of the crime.

It’s not the first time that the province “bleeds” the allocated budget, details the official newspaper Periódico 26. In 2022, the numbers were similar, and the managers of the companies did not have to answer for the contrast between investment and results.

The list of non-compliances is long and involves the most important companies in Las Tunas. Although the newspaper does not provide the production data, it does reveal the amount that each one received. The Poultry Company received 3,551,000 pesos [$147,958]; the Pharmacy and Optics Company, 3,394,800 [$141,450]; the Construction and Assembly Company, 2,534,700 [$105,613]; and the Acinox steel company, which presents itself as “the leading company in Cuba in world exports of products offered by the metal industries,” 2,363,800 [$98,429].

Other companies that paid the salaries of their workers with hardly any profits in January were the Agroforestry, Twisted Tobacco, Acopio, the Wholesaler of Food, Raw Materials, Duralmet and even the Electric Company of Las Tunas. In addition, each of the Commerce companies – and several sugar and agricultural companies – are in the same situation in the municipalities of Manatí, Jesús Menéndez and Amancio.

The worst, complains the report, is not the waste of public money, but the inaction of the directors and their provincial and national supervisors. “Anyone without the required responsibility can make an improper payment of that magnitude, but he immediately has to answer for it,” the newspaper says. However, the reality is different: “The directors of those entities still do not respond with the rigor that the matter entails.” continue reading

The newspaper asks that those responsible be “prosecuted by the competent courts” for squandering the state budget. However, there does not seem to be any will either in the provincial government or in the “cores” that the Communist Party maintains within each company.

“Literally it is not happening,” says Periódico 26, arguing that paying million-peso amounts to unproductive companies is a violation of Resolution 6/2016, the enforcement of the forms of payment in the state sector.

“No control,” “lack of demand” and scams by the boards of directors are some of the characteristics that the report attributes to business management in Las Tunas. “It’s true that there are companies that for various reasons have seen their management limited and their workforce decreasing production, which sometimes becomes almost zero, but it is necessary to find formulas to reorient the work and find other options that sustain wages. And that is rarely done,” it admits.

Without mentioning at any time the US embargo — the preferred excuse of the Cuban media and leaders to justify their inefficiency — the article defines a clear cause for the loss of the almost 30 million pesos destined for Las Tunas in January, but it does not dare to call it by its name: the corruption of businessmen and their impunity before state supervisors.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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