14ymedio

The Post-Hurricane Landscape

14ymedio, Eliás Amor Bravo, 30 September 2022 — It is not clear that getting everyone to pitch in is what is needed, or the most efficient way to restore normalcy in the aftermath of a hurricane. Though there are more appropriate ways of dealing with natural disasters, Cuba’s communist regime still prefers to rely on what it calls “popular mobilization.” Let’s hope they don’t live to regret it.

The work of recovery is complicated and requires training, not to mention that not all disasters are created equal. Having self-employed workers and those in the private sector sign up to do collective labor hardly seems like the right solution either. The more time they spend doing this, the less time they have to get their businesses up and running.

This collectivist approach to disaster recovery is a trait that sets Cuba’s communist regime apart from all other countries in the world. It is unclear whether this is a result of totalitarian ideology, which informs all government decisions, or just one approach for getting things back to normal. The effects of previous hurricanes are well-known. The collectivist formula involves an uncertain future in which every effort, such as cleaning up the streets, must be carried out by work crews from different organizations and directed by means of ideological slogans rather than competent leadership.

Let’s start at the beginning. It does seem logical that Pinar del Rio, the most province most severely impacted by Hurricane Ian’s high winds, should receive direct aid in the form of resources from the central government. Other provinces are expected to get aid from international organizations, small and medium-sized companies and countries such as Mexico and Venezuela. Whatever it takes. But the temporary nature of recovery work and the improvisational nature of the process make this impossible. continue reading

Clearly, in these moments of uncertainty, President Diaz-Canel seems more comfortable with the “general mobilization” approach, having passed it along, according to the communist party newspaper Granma, to senior leaders of the western provinces and to the Isle of Youth special municipal district, which have been impacted to a somewhat greater degree by the tropical storm. The question is: What will he say when, in a month or two, things are no better? Most likely we will see this sooner rather than later, especially in housing.

In response, the minister of construction told Granma, “Trucks from different locations around the country are headed to Pinar del Rio with cement in bulk and in bags, different types of roofing, wood, wire rods and nails.” The aim is to speed up reconstruction. Let’s hope they get there. No doubt these materials are necessary but a house requires much more than nails and cement. And many of us fear that the level of organization and efficiency required for this task are not present in communist Cuba.

Though officials might be trying to speed up home reconstruction by getting materials where they are needed as soon as possible, things are often not so easy or straightforward. It takes time, especially when things are soaked by rain. Diaz-Canel is quoted in Granma as saying, “[Regarding] the subject of housing in Pinar del Rio, we have to work with urgency now, first because of the magnitude of the damage, and second because it is one of the provinces where we still have to restore houses damaged in previous hurricanes.” This is the issue. The current state of housing, ravaged by similar disasters in previous years, needs more than quick fixes. More will have to be done. Meanwhile, specialized manpower, small and medium-sized private businesses and self-employed workers are in short supply.

Some Pinar del Rio residents who lost everything in this latest storm have spent the last six hurricanes in makeshift structures, without ever being able to move into a decent home. In fact, officials acknowledge that “these temporary facilities are the first to collapse from high winds.” Then why are we building them and dedicating resources to something that does not work?

Granma also announced containers of food and cleaning supplies were being shipped to the province. Even the ration system has been streamlined to distribute scarce supplies of chicken, sausage, rice, dried beans, cooking oil, potatoes and other foods. It is yet to be seen how much of the nation’s food supply will be lost to electrical power outages, not only in the western parts of the country but throughout the island. So far, no figures have been made available.

The newspaper also reported the arrival of the first electrical work crews from Mexico, who have come to provide technical assistance. Are there no such professionals in Cuba? It seems the 72,000 meters of cable and 7,000 insulators to be used to restore the electrical system, which were damaged by Hurricane Ian’s strong winds, are of more interest to the regime than to the Mexican workers. The system is in free fall and, so far, there is no indication that a Venezuelan shipment of 300,000 bags of food, 52 electrical transformers or 22,500 square meters of roofing material have helped. One gets the impression that, given the magnitude of the damage, this is little more than a drop in the ocean.

In any case, Cuba continues to rely on “collective mass mobilization” for its recovery efforts. Though previous experience has shown this approach to be, on balance, a failure, the communist regime has not replaced it a specialized, professional organization to deal with disasters. This is long overdue. Storms will keep coming, and improvisation and populism are not good ways for dealing with them.

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The IACHR Asks to Visit Cuba to Review the Situation of the Ladies in White

Berta Soler, leader of the opposition women’s movement Ladies in White. (EFE/Giorgio Viera)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, 1 October 2022 — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requested this Friday that Cuba approve a visit to the country to review the situation of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), to which the agency granted precautionary measures almost ten years ago.

The Cuban government, the IACHR alleges in a resolution, has not delivered to the organization a response that “indicates that it has been taking measures to protect the rights” of the members of the group. This is the first time that the IACHR has asked Cuba for a visit in person within the framework of precautionary measures.

The Ladies in White collective, made up of relatives of dissidents imprisoned by the government, has been subjected to harassment, death threats, house searches and arrests by state agents since the protection mechanism was granted in 2013, according to the document.

The IACHR explains that it has requested information from the Cuban state about the situation of the group at least four times in the last ten years and has not received a response, so it asks to “assess the situation of the beneficiaries” with a visit in person. continue reading

The commission’s request is disclosed almost two weeks after the opposition group’s leader, Berta Soler, was arrested — and released hours later — by State Security agents during the fourteenth arrest on the Sunday marches held by the women so far this year.

The Ladies in White, who founded the group in 2003, decided to march again on Sundays, after the pause imposed by the pandemic, to demand the release of the detainees in the mass protests that the Island experienced in July last year.

An “in situ” visit by the IACHR must be approved by the Cuban government, which has not allowed the agency to enter the country so far. The last time the commission was in a country was in January 2020, in Chile, as a result of the social explosion in the nation. In the same year, the IACHR tried to visit Venezuela, an ally of Cuba, but the government of President Nicolás Maduro banned the commission from entering the country.

Cuba is not part of the Organization of American States, having been expelled from the organization in 1962.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Dollar Reaches 198 Pesos in the Informal Market, an Historic Record

Economists warn that the dollar will soon exceed the threshold of 200 Cuban pesos. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 1 October 2022 — The exchange rate in the informal market in Cuba is about to break the psychological barrier of 200 Cuban pesos (CUP) per dollar, and without expectations that the national currency will stop depreciating, according to economists consulted by EFE.

This exchange rate is the highest in the Island’s recent past. Even in the so-called Special Period of the 1990s — after the fall of the Soviet bloc — this price was not reached.

The informal market, the most important on the Island, is where many people stock up on dollars before leaving in the current wave of migration. Since October 2021, more than 180,000 Cubans have arrived in the United States, a record number.

Two weeks ago, an official press release predicted that the dollar would exceed the level of 200 pesos and pointed out that “you don’t need to be a guru” to infer that the migratory stampede would further depreciate the national currency as the demand for dollars grows.

“It is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Cuban Pavel Vidal Alejandro, associate professor at the Javeriana University of Cali (Colombia), in an interview with EFE. “There’s a total lack of credibility in the Cuban peso, and there are no monetary policies to reverse the situation,” he adds. continue reading

Although the depreciation was already evident since 2021 — the year in which the largest economic reform in recent years, known as the Ordering Task*, came into force — the plummeting of the peso actually originated this August.

Just a year ago, the dollar was at 65 pesos in the informal market. Ten months later, on August 1, at 115 pesos. Just two months later, on October 1, it depreciated almost 80 more, up to the 198 pesos marked this Saturday by the index published daily by the independent media El Toque.

This newspaper found on several excursions that the dollars were running out soon, and the hard currencies began to rise like foam on the black market. After the entry into force of the rule, Cubans made long lines to acquire the greenback at the exchange houses (Cadecas), where there was even a deployment of state security.

At the beginning of August, the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil, announced that the State would buy foreign currency from natural persons, a measure designed to attract foreign currency in a scenario of crisis in tourism, which collapsed with the COVID pandemic.

Gil specified that the purchase would be based on an exchange rate five times higher than the official one — from 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) to the dollar, established in the Ordering Task — at levels similar to those of the informal market at the time (around 120 CUP).

Twenty days later, Gil made another announcement: the Government would also sell foreign currency, although with limitations. The objective, he explained, was to strengthen the peso and displace the buying and selling of dollars on the street.

The experts consulted agree in describing the measure as erroneous, which showed the fragility of the State in the face of the informal market. Since then, the peso has fallen dramatically.

“The State became one more applicant and a competitor (for hard currency)” that couldn’t win the game against bidders with better prices, economist Tamarys Lien Bahamonde tells EFE.

Also, Cuban economist Elías Amor shares the diagnosis and adds: “At the time they set the new rate, the agents (on the street) increased the value to maintain their customers, and that’s normal. It’s called competition.”

Amor considers that one of the root problems was to place the rate at 24 to 1 in the Ordering Task: “That rate was pulled out like the rabbit from the hat.”

“It was a miscalculation from the beginning, and one the Central Bank of Cuba couldn’t support with hard currency as high as had been established,” he says.

The implementation of the limited official foreign exchange market dragged down a currency that had been losing weight in the daily lives of Cubans, who have also seen a stable safe-haven value in the dollar, experts point out.

But above all, analysts warn of an increasingly normalized phenomenon in the country: the social division between those who have foreign currency and those who do not.

Bahamonde recalled that not all problems can be attributed to the foreign exchange market implemented by the Government. The economist stressed the role of the controversial stores that charge in foreign currency – known as stores in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), which opened in 2019 and are occupying more and more space in the retail market every day.

“The Cuban peso must be left as the main currency of the country. There is a dilemma: to end or not with the MLC (and stop accessing foreign currency) to save the peso,” Bahamonde adds.

Another alarm signal is the amount of pesos in circulation, because the increase favors inflation, another of the current problems of the Cuban economy.

The increase in prices was officially 13.40% in the first half of the year, although independent analysts have placed it above 100%.

The three experts agreed that the dollar will continue to increase in the short term. “Surely (the rate will reach) 300, especially by the end of the year,” Amor said.

Vidal, on the other hand, did not give an exact figure but made it clear that “200 will not be the limit.” Bahamonde was more cautious and limited himself to pointing out that he sees “no possibility of containment of the rise in the exchange rate.”

*The “Ordering Task” is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana Already Stinks of Rot

Ruined food and garbage have been piling up for almost 100 hours since the widespread blackout began in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 1 October 2022 — The Internet continues to be cut off in a large part of Havana after the protests yesterday afternoon and evening. To the cry of Freedom! and Turn On The power! People came out in the Playa municipality and other areas of the Cuban capital.

We are still without electricity, and it will soon be 100 hours without power. Our building smells rotten, from the food that was spoiled without refrigeration, from the garbage that older people on the highest floors cannot go down to throw away, and from the system itself that stinks like a corpse even though it continues to resist burial.
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Hurricane Ian Brought Down Almost All of Cuba’s Tobacco Warehouses in San Juan y Martinez

One of the many tobacco sheds that fell in San Juan and Martínez, Pinar del Río, after Ian’s passage. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 September 2022 — The tobacco disaster in the municipality of San Juan y Martínez, in Pinar del Río, leaves alarming figures. As of Wednesday, 151 of Tabacuba’s 155 tobacco storage sheds had totally collapsed. They store the leaf that is grown in the locality, considered the tobacco mecca of the world, and which serves as raw material for the production of cigars.

“As of the 20th of this month, 4,110 tons of tobacco had been collected. Another 157 were in the hands of 67 producers, and the current state of that harvest is not exactly known,” Yosvany López González, the manager of Tabacuba’s analysis department in San Juan y Martínez, told the official press.

The official explained that in the Tabacuba warehouses there was a total of 5,681 tons, including this year’s harvest, the last season’s, in the process of production, and one that is finished. In addition, the Empresa Rama has 152 tons.

Of the 27 warehouses that were reviewed, 15 are completely destroyed, seven have a damaged roof and there are two that have partially collapsed. In addition, the town’s 38 curing houses are on the ground, and, of the 28 curing sheds, half fell completely and the other half partially. There are also five fermentation chambers in San Juan and Martínez to improve the dry tobacco: all of them have a broken roof. continue reading

More numbers for the horror: Of the 1,792 curing sheds that belong to producers, 1,739 collapsed, and 8,400 parcels of land have been lost.

“You have to build thatch roofs as soon as possible and transfer the tobacco there,” said the official, who has prioritized the rescue of the product as soon as possible.

The tobacco disaster joins the general state of the province, whose damage was evaluated this Thursday at a meeting, which warned that 100% of the area is without electricity, with the exception of the homes that had generators. The Electric Union of Cuba already has at least 520 workers in Pinar del Río from different areas of the Island to support the reconstruction of the lines.

The linemen of Cienfuegos are working on the repair of two damaged circuits in a well near La Coloma, which is not working like many others due to the lack of electricity. Those who arrived from Sancti Spíritus, on the other hand, continue with the breakdowns of the Abel Santamaría Cuadrado and León Cuervo Rubio hospitals. In addition, other arrivals from Villa Clara work on the connection of Consolación del Sur with the Paso Real substation, in Los Palacios.

At the meeting it was also reported that generators would be used to supply polyclinics, hospitals, well pumps and bakeries, in addition to watertrucks, known as pipas, to distribute water among the population.

The list of damage is endless in the province, which was hit by Hurricane Ian this Tuesday at 3:30 in the morning with winds of more than 125 miles per hour. As of yesterday afternoon, almost 2,953 people were still evacuated, most of them in the homes of family and friends, with the exception of 778 who are in state centers.

Schools and health centers have also suffered their own damage. There are 425 educational facilities affected, of which 396 are schools. The official press says that the provincial Directorate of Education is among the most affected, along with nine municipal directorates, eight municipal warehouses, six “palaces” of pioneers and five camps.

Medical offices and polyclinics in all the municipalities have suffered damage, in addition to other losses in the Third Congress hospital and a nursing home.

Of businesses, 164 have total roof collapses, 136 have partial ones, 18 were completely destroyed, and there were 19 collapses of doors and windows. In addition, the wall of the Corojo swimming pool in San Luis fell down completely, and there is damage to seven funeral homes, two cigar factories, two canteens and three cemeteries.

Communications with Pinar del Río are almost impossible. From the editorial offices of 14ymedio, we have tried to contact, through mobile and fixed telephones, our collaborators in the province without managing to, to date. However, users on social networks warn that the images shown in the official press don’t reflect the extent of the disaster in the area.

Relatives of residents of La Coloma have been asking for more information about the real extent of the tragedy for days and say that there are few videos broadcast by Tele Pinar that really show the rubble and the flooded homes reported by their families.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diaz-Canel is Booed in Batabano and Cuban Television Calls the Visit a ‘Summit Moment’

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel in Batabanó, Mayabeque, in a photo broadcast on national television. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, September 30, 2022 — In a display of populism, Miguel Díaz-Canel toured the towns most affected by Hurricane Ian in the west of the island. Dressed in military garb, Televisión Nacional dispensed with his titles of president and first secretary of the Party, and introduced him as the Chief of the National Defense Council.

The photographers did the rest. Each snapshot aims to compare Díaz-Canel and Fidel Castro, which still excites elderly combatants and tries cast a little credibility on the figurehead hand-picked as president.

During his visit on Thursday to the municipality of Batabanó, in Mayabeque, one of those most affected by the floods, Díaz-Canel and his entourage had to continue on their way. “He is surrounded,” shouts a woman from the crowd that blocks the passage of the Civil Defense’s luxury vehicles, “and they don’t let the people speak.” “Walk so you can see,” they yell at him, calling the Ministry of the Interior agents who push people “brazen” and “snitches.”

“They mock the people” and then “they adorn him on the news,” concludes the same woman, who captures the moment with her phone, while the cars drive away from the center of Batabanó at full speed. continue reading

Hours later, the Noticiero Estelar [Stellar News] reported a “dialogue with the neighbors” of Batabanó, which meant a “summit moment.” “Díaz-Canel visited every corner where the population requested his presence to express their concerns,” said journalist Talía González.

In the images, protected by his bodyguard, he is seen hugging local officials, also in military dress, and greeting several families, who respond by repeating slogans and “long live the Revolution.” Díaz-Canel said he was very concerned about the “Batabanó issue” and about the people who lost their homes during the floods.

“We are making more progress,” he assured the residents, amid collapsed buildings, overflowing ditches and trees uprooted by the cyclone. “The things that are lacking here are also lacking in other parts of the country,” he snapped, “every day you have to chip away at the problems.”

“But here there are people here who have lost everything,” interrupted a woman, to which Díaz-Canel impassively responded with a litany of “uplifting” measures that the government had taken in the face of the hurricane. “We are guaranteeing the issue of mattresses,” he said with annoyance, “because the most important thing is for people to sleep on a mattress.”

According to Cubadebate, 85% of the damages in Mayabeque are concentrated in Batabanó, Melena del Sur and San Nicolás, due to flooding and crop damage. Díaz-Canel also toured the dilapidated Ernesto Guevara thermoelectric plant in Santa Cruz del Norte, which despite the promises of its technicians, is unable to provide enough energy to the National Electric System.

As the hours go by, it becomes more impossible for the government to keep the population satisfied and without protesting. Three days of electrical instability, failing telephone and internet services, shortages, and the impossibility of preserving foods that require refrigeration, are already triggering demonstrations in various parts of the country.

Protests and barricades in the Havana municipalities of El Cerro, Arroyo Naranjo, San Miguel del Padrón, in addition to cacerolazos [beating on pots and pans] in the provinces, such as those in Holguín, have launched a new wave of social informality.

Some public figures have expressed, also on social media, their desperation and their demand for political change in the country. This was the case of actor Ulyk Anello, sanctioned by Cuban Television in July for granting an interview to an independent journalist and placing a white rose on his Facebook profile; he lashed out at Díaz-Canel during a livestream on Instagram.

“Resign already,” said the artist, “where are the millions that were donated to you to repair the thermoelectric plants?” “Just leave already,” insisted Anello, who bemoaned that his family’s food was spoiling after three days without electricity.

The government response has been, once again, the threat of repression. Throughout the day yesterday, several vehicles of the Special Troops and the Armed Forces, in addition to patrol cars, have driven through the streets of the capital to intimidate Cubans.

In the midst of an energy crisis, the Editorial Office of 14ymedio recorded how the Ministry of the Armed Forces building, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, remained with all its lights on Thursday night. Such waste, in a building usually dark at this time, suggests not only a display of power by the military leadership, but also a sign that they are paying attention so as to repress any possible protest.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Technicians are Trying to Restore Electricity in Cuba, at ‘Total Zero’ Since Last Night

In the middle of the blackout, the illuminated windows of the Habana Libre hotel and the wasted power in the construction of Tower K stand out, at dawn this Wednesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 September 2022 — In the midst of absolute darkness on the Island, Cuban Television, in a special report at midnight this Wednesday, updated information about the general blackout, from which only citizens who had electric generators were spared. The technical director of the Electric Union, Lázaro Guerra, explained that the thermal power plants Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton, and 10 de Octubre, in Nuevitas now had started up, and he postponed a new report until 7:30 this morning, but the tone was not excessively optimistic.

The engineer explained again, in terms that were too technical for the population, the progress to solve the absence of electricity generation that was triggered last night, when the system was fractured “in the western, center and eastern links” and decompensated to the point of generating “total zero.”

Guerra explained that in order to recover the National Electrical System, each of the three systems must be restored separately to finally unite them. In this sense, the eastern area had already improved at midnight, but “every time it was integrated, the opposite happened in the western one.” The specialist explained that with the distributed generation (generators and other small sources of energy), there began to be enough voltage to start Felton 1 and Nuevitas, and he predicted that electricity could soon return to that region. continue reading

In the central area, the situation is also relatively encouraging, since the combined-cycle plant in Varadero managed to start. But the problem is in the west, the area most damaged by Hurricane Ian, where there are breakdowns due to the strong winds and rains left by the storm.

“The process is going to be more complex, because you have to recertify the circuits that were overloaded and restore the load in parallel,” Guerra explained. According to him, in the western region, work would be done all morning to try to get the Tallapiedra power plants, in Havana; Máximo Gómez, in Artemisa; and Santa Cruz, in Mayabeque, up and running as soon as possible.

“Mariel is complicated, because of the wind and water, and you have to heat the whole plant. It should be incorporated tomorrow at some point,” said the Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte, who also spoke and didn’t have good news for that region.

“We have tested some circuits and the engines have been fired. We haven’t had many results in Havana; every time we manage to have an engine in service and connect it with the load, the circuits shut down, so we have to check every now and then,” the minister said.

However, both agreed that on Wednesday all the power plants should be able to start, although it remains to be seen if the entire network can be stabilized.

“When we have a system in the three regions, we will be able to synchronize everything,” Guerra said. “The fundamental thing is to get to the large thermoelectric plants to begin the start-up process,” Arronte said.

The start-up process for the thermoelectric plants is being carried out with distributed generation, which, although scarce, speeds up the process, according to experts. That information allowed the journalist to make an invocation. “This was the idea of the unforgettable commander-in-chief Fidel Castro Ruz, put once again in this very complex situation,” he reflected aloud, passing the microphone to the engineer, who ignored the comment and continued with the technical details.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Hurricane Ian in Cuba: Does Anyone Know What They’re Going to Do With the Donations?

A man showing his food that rotted after the power went out in all of Cuba. Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 30 September 32022 — Analysts have been surprised that the Cuban communist regime has not openly asked for international aid to compensate for the disaster caused by Hurricane Ian. However, the regime has rushed to disclose information about the bank accounts authorized to receive emergency donations to Cuba that individuals want to make. They are always looking for fresh and anonymous money, and then they do with it what they like.

In addition, even in receiving help from abroad they are communists faithful to their ideological principles, and they put forward the failed economic rules of this doctrine, such as the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the only one authorized on the Island to publicize the information on the accounts for the sending of funds to the Island, which, I stress, are then processed in a generic way.

This exclusivity of the regime in the collection and receipt of money has already been seen on previous occasions and seeks to close the way to non-profit entities, which in these situations are usually especially active. Diversity is not accepted in Cuba. To receive donations for the affected people after the passage of Hurricane Ian, only the two Minrex emergency accounts are valid. Take it or leave it. continue reading

In case there’s any doubt about it, the first of the accounts, as reported by the official newspaper Granma, was opened by the Ministry of Foreign Trade at the International Financial Bank under the name Emergency Donations. The account number is 03000, and the Swift code is BFIC.

The second account is at the International Bank of Commerce under the name Donations-Cuba. Its number is 0407610, and the Swift code is BIDC.

Through these two accounts, the regime aspires to raise aid funds that, in any case, will then be allocated to other priorities. They did it before, and there is no reason for them not to do it again.

Three deaths and severe losses in tobacco, food crops, communication routes and housing are a disastrous balance, to which is added the lack of power at the national level. The problems are growing, but someone in the regime has decided not to ask the world for money, but to publish the account numbers in two banks so that generous and sensitive souls can send their donations to the Island. I doubt that the European communist parties and their publicly funded associations will turn over aid to the regime. As always, the money will mostly come from Miami.

The economic estimates of the damage aren’t yet known, and without having that figure, undoubtedly distressing, the regime has decided to open its hand to see who pays and how much. It thanked the offer of help from Mexican President López Obrador and Venezuelan President Maduro, the only ones who have said something so far. The private entities on the Island will not have the same luck. Self-employed workers or land tenants who have lost their small businesses will hardly be able to apply for aid funds. The regime will not allow it. And, of course, the associative movement of the Island, essential at this time, will be removed from any action to receive funds.

If the communist regime worked otherwise, it would have a golden opportunity to demonstrate its transparency, continuously reporting on the money obtained from donations and, above all, the destination. There would be people who wouldn’t believe what they say, but it would be a positive step in showing transparency and clarity. They won’t do it. No one demands that they do. We won’t know how much money is received, nor how it is used. The model doesn’t work.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Cuba, Electricity is Gradually Returning to the Areas Near Hospitals

First lights in Havana at dawn this Thursday as seen from the editorial office of this newspaper. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 September 29, 2022 — The 14ymedio newsroom woke up in the dark for the second day in a row this Thursday. From the windows on the 14th floor of the building you could see small areas in the municipalities of Cerro and Old Havana with light, but none in Playa and El Vedado.

Taking advantage of the darkness, state workers rushed this Wednesday to erase the graffiti that appeared on a facade of Prado and Neptune that read “Díaz-Canel, singao” [motherfucker]! A few miles away, the lights were on in the tower of the Plaza de la Revolución.

The lights turned on little by little in the areas that have a hospital nearby, classified as priorities by the government. The first publication of the morning made by the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) on its social networks showed several workers lifting a pole next to a hospital in Pinar del Río.

The situation of the UNE remains precarious. According to its latest report, the east of the country is beginning to improve with the start of block 1 of the Felton thermoelectric plant and block 6 of the Nuevitas power plant. In the western area, progress is being made with the restart of the Mariel, Tallapiedra and Santa Cruz plants, while hundreds of brigades from different provinces are working to repair the damaged lines. continue reading

The activation of the Matanzas power plant has allowed the light to come on, although not with 100% coverage, according to the UNE, in the provinces of Holguín and Las Tunas to a great extent, and in Camagüey and Santiago in a less widespread way. The forecast is that once the eastern and western regions have been repaired and the circuits certified, the interconnection can begin advancing towards the center of the Island, and the entire national network will be connected in the course of the day.

But the UNE also says that it must balance the load generation to calculate the amount and its distribution. “Before [hurricane] Ian we didn’t have enough generation capacity and that hasn’t changed. We have to analyze the coverage, which will not be 100% when it’s restored,” they warn.

The experiences that come through social networks speak for themselves. The precariousness of the infrastructure, after Ian’s onslaught, has left the national electricity capacity at a minimum, and citizens no longer know if power will return, whether due to the collapse of the network or because a blackout is scheduled in their area.

A Cuban woman from La Vigía in the province of Camagüey claimed that they spent 30 hours without power, and finally, in the early hours of the morning, they received two hours of light, but it went off again, and they already had spent more than five hours in the dark. In the same province, in the town of Minas, customers complained that they had been without power for 48 hours.

The discomfort reaches Holguín, where the population exploded last night in a demonstration. “In my area we went more than 30 hours without power,” a woman tells 14ymedio. “I heard the neighborhood near me banging on pots and pans; you could hear that cacerolazo from far away. A while later they were silent. I don’t know where the protests went, but in my neighborhood there was a lot of banging,” she says.

The protest began around 8 p.m., but most of the neighbors couldn’t record it due to lack of a charge on their mobile phones. In spite of everything, some videos reached social networks. “Then we saw a patrol and engines pass by,” continues the resident of Holguín, who lives near a hospital, and around 9:30 in the morning the power finally arrived. “I don’t know how long it will last,” she says with resignation.

Despite not being one of the provinces hit by the hurricane, some people from Holguín say that they spent more than 35 hours without light until this morning, when they began to receive power. “What’s happening on the Island is really distressing, with the fear that the piece of meat you saved in your refrigerator for the children will be spoiled. Everything is very, very sad, and hopeless,” lamented another woman.

In Jagüey and Jatibonico, both in Sancti Spíritus, residents woke up again without an iota of power. It was the same in Placetas, Villa Clara, and in Quivicán, Mayabeque. Even from Santiago de Cuba, which the storm didn’t hit, complaints arrive from UNE customers who have been without electricity since the early hours of Tuesday.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime Cuts Internet Access to Prevent New Protests

The demonstrations in Cerro and Arroyo Naranjo joined forces in the evening at San Francisco de Paula in San Miguel del Padrón. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 September 2022 — The Cuban regime cut off access to the Internet on Thursday night after the protests continued in some parts of Havana. The demonstrations of Cerro and Arroyo Naranjo joined forces in the evening at San Francisco de Paula, in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón.

Mainly women and young people sat down on a street in San Francisco de Paula and banged on pots and pans, protesting the lack of power, which has been missing since the collapse of the National Electricity System after the passage of Hurricane Ian.

Residents of the capital confirm to 14ymedio that the government has militarized many streets, such as the main avenues of Centro Habana. A [citizen-erected] barricade is also reported in Calzada del Cerro and Boyeros, where “they are throwing sticks and stones” a source close to the police said. Some uniformed men have alerted drivers to be careful if they go to that part of the capital.

The intersection of Calzada del Cerro and Boyeros Avenue is one of the busiest in Havana. In addition, Boyeros is one of the main access roads for the Plaza de la Revolución complex, where the headquarters of the Cuban Presidency and Government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party are located. It’s an area that is always guarded.

Click on the blue bird to see video in this tweet.

continue reading

In the afternoon, hundreds of people had also taken to the streets to protest peacefully in the Calzada del Cerro, where they prevented the passage of vehicles, and in some neighborhoods of the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.

Before the Internet blackout, users on social networks were able to share from Cuba some videos and photos that registered the mobilization of repressive forces in various parts of the country, as happened after the protests of July 11, 2021. Some military vehicles sounded the horn to attract attention along with the sirens of the police patrols that were part of the motorcade.

“We want light, we want light,” chanted the clapping crowd, gathered in Cerro, between San Pablo and Auditor, as can be seen in videos disseminated on social networks. Several vehicles of the National Revolutionary Police guarded them, without intervening.

A witness from the crowd, a local resident, assures this newspaper that immediately, a crane appeared to replace a light pole that had fallen. “People have already learned that to solve the problems you have to protest,” this source argues.

However, after 6:00 pm, another resident of that area of the capital confirmed to 14ymedio that a part of the road remained closed because of the protests: “The demonstration continues but we still don’t have power.” Traffic remains rerouted.

In the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, in neighborhoods such as Párraga and La Palma, there were also protests. Several users on social networks shared videos and photos of what was happening, along with hashtags such as #BastaYaDeMentiras [Enough Already with the Lies] #DíazCanelSingao [Díaz-Canel Motherfucker] and #PatriayVida [Homeland and Life].

Click on the blue bird to see video in this tweet.

In all the materials shared on social networks, many women and mothers are seen, carrying on their shoulders the suffering from the lack of electricity, with the elderly and children in their care.

A photograph taken in La Palma shows two huge rows of police patrols on each side of a road. “Remember: the blockade is from the PCC [Cuban Communist Party]. There is no electricity, there is no oil, there is no food, but there are resources to repress,” the Cuban journalist based in Mexico, José Raúl Gallego, posted when sharing the photo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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This Year Cuba Received Only 44.5 Percent of the Tourists Who Arrived Before the Pandemic

It’s expected that it will be impossible for Cuba to reach the 2.5 million tourists anticipated for this year. (Mintur/Archive)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 September 2022 — Tourism activity, one of the main sources of hard currency in the Cuban economy, hasn’t managed to recover even half of the international visits recorded before the pandemic. Between January and August of this year, Cuba received 1,390,000 tourists, barely 44.5% of the total recorded in the same period of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Cuban government presents as a triumph that the arrivals of travelers in August represent a growth of 556.1%, compared to the 251,178 recorded in the first eight months of 2021, when much of the world, including Cuba, was subject to severe restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

In this way, the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI) confirms that the flow of international tourism remains well below the 3,120,000 travelers registered in the first eight months of 2019. continue reading

In August 2022 alone, Cuba received 136,565 tourists, a decrease of 15,915 compared to the 152,480 registered in July. The gap is greater compared to the same month of 2019, when 971,456 arrived on the Island; that is, only 27.72% more than two years ago.

In the face of this, competitors of the Island, such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic, have considerably recovered their numbers prior to the pandemic. The Mexican government reports that the arrival of international tourists from January to June totaled 30.9 million visitors, an advance of 65% of the 48 million it registered in 2019. With more up-to-date figures, the Dominican authorities record that as of August of this year, 5,60,000 foreign travelers arrived, with a positive variation of 27% compared to two years ago.

The data show that, so far, the Government’s strategies are advancing at a slow pace to reactivate a key industry in the economic dynamics of the island. One of the goals is to attract investments in the gastronomy sector.

“Our Creole food is a great strength,” said the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, on September 12, when he inaugurated the XII Varadero Gourmet International Festival, a speech that generated discomfort among Cubans, who suffer from a profound food shortage.

Cuba also seeks to stop being a destination with only beaches and become an ecotourism option, a concept that gained momentum after the confinement. Although to achieve it “we still have to improve in many things,” Marrero acknowledged at an international nature tourism meeting held in Havana on September 21.

The most important group of international travelers is Canadians (30.7%), followed by Cubans abroad (21.8%). With lower participation, are the United States (6.2%), Spain (5.6%), Russia (3.9%) and Germany (3.5%).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: The Economic Consequences of Hurricane Ian (Part 2)

Tobacco harvested in Cuba, during the drying process. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Elias Amor Bravo, 29 October 2022 — Now the state press is describing in detail the “desolate panorama that the most violent meteorological phenomenon to hit Vueltabajo in the last 14 years has left in its wake.” That is, they even dare to grant the hurricane this honor by its strength and its devastating effect on human lives and material objects.

And just as on his previous visit to Vueltabajo, Díaz-Canel once again showed his concern about the damage caused to tobacco, the main exportable item of Cuban agriculture. Food production obviously takes a back seat, and although it’s not reported, it will be greatly affected, especially the seasonal harvests.

The alarming concern of the leaders for tobacco has brought in Marino Murillo, who after the failure of the Ordering Task,* was rewarded with the position of President of the Tabacuba business group. This man seems to be chasing disaster wherever he puts his nose. First, with the national economy in serious crisis since the Ordering Task, and now, with tobacco.

His message to Díaz-Canel has been worrying, and he said that “intensive work is being done to try to save the leaves from previous crops that were in the warehouses, selected and stripped [from the stems], and other deposits, and despite the measures taken for their protection, they got wet.” We are very afraid that all will be lost, millions of dollars in exports of a product that, in addition, has agreements with numerous international distributors who won’t be happy with the lack of merchandise. continue reading

As if that weren’t enough, Murillo said that “the situation of the natural and controlled curing warehouses** is also very serious,” and in one sentence he tried to summarize the effects on the essential infrastructure for the quality of tobacco in strategic municipalities such as Pinar del Río, San Juan y Martínez and San Luis. Specifically, he said, “We didn’t have a single warehouse left standing. Even the newest ones were taken away by the hurricane.”

What a panorama is now opening up for the leaders! As Murillo reported, “in the case of the controlled curing warehouses, work is being done on collecting equipment in order to reuse it, but construction is more complex and expensive and thus will take more time.” More time? How much? Six months, one year? And compliance with international contracts, huh? Where is tobacco going to come from? How can you manage things in such an irresponsible way? Who will pay for the defaults?

We are very afraid that everything will end up being lost, and they won’t say anything when the disaster happens. On the other hand, to meet the needs of the planting for the 2022-2023 campaign, which should begin October 20, Murillo reported that “about 6,000 controlled-curing warehouses will have to be rebuilt in a matter of a few months.” A task defined as “duly arduous for the province, because the many workers needed for the recovery of the tobacco also have damage to their homes.”

This lack of personnel to meet the needs will be be solved, according to Murillo, “by attracting brigades of carpenters from other territories.” And he took advantage of the situation, in passing, to recognize that “we need to look for more robust designs so that this type of construction is more durable and won’t have to be rebuilt every time we’re affected by a hurricane.” Oh, so just now he realizes it? They have had 63 years to do this, which should be enough. The question is always the same: What have they done in these 63 years?

Apart from the loss of tobacco stocks, the passage of the hurricane has caused damage to homes, infrastructure, crops, roads and water systems — nothing new when it comes to tropical hurricanes. However, on this occasion it caused a dreaded national blackout that continues to be the origin of social protests throughout the country, which have led the regime to bring out the “black wasps,” the elite repressive forces.

Cubans see with concern that after more than 48 hours without electricity, their scarce frozen food is lost, and they fear they won’t be able to find it again. The lack of electricity affects the daily lives of everyone — workers, companies, students, housewives, retirees. The whole country is in a general blackout, but the state press takes every opportunity to sell a message of illusion that exists only in the minds of the journalists who write the reports.

Cubans know that “we’re not going to get out of this easily.” At the moment, the damage assessments continue to give initial results, which are very tentative, as happened with the rescue of the raw material stored in a facility of the tobacco collective V-13-26, in San Luis.

The situation is more serious for families who have lost everything and know that they will have to line up to receive some accommodation, which will take time. The state of housing in Cuba is so alarming that these losses caused by hurricanes pile up, and people have no choice but to wait patiently. The first estimates indicate that in San Luis “about 85% of the housing stock has been affected by the hurricane.” It’s difficult to recover what was lost.

Meanwhile, the regime is preparing to receive foreign aid from its partners, Maduro and López Obrador. It’s strange that other countries such as Spain, France, England, and even some Caribbean neighbors, as on previous occasions, haven’t been equally generous. It doesn’t seem that any aid is going to arrive, so the Cuban communists have given instructions for support brigades from other parts of the Island to leave their territories and contribute to the recovery in different sectors, such as electricity and communications.

Instead of having efficient ways to handle emergency situations, as in other countries, which even create specialized army units to face these crises, Díaz-Canel’s solution, as a good communist, is “popular mobilization,” and on this occasion he has pronounced the word “revolution” more than previously, as if the umbilical cord that ties him to this process had been filled with blood.

It’s a sore subject, this revolution that Díaz Canel talks about and begs for help. It can do little for Cuba and the Cubans, because it’s exhausted, obsolete and, as we are seeing, unable to cope with the consequences of a hurricane. This revolution, as has already been proven, doesn’t serve to solve the two urgent problems at the moment: housing and food, or to generate electricity in a normal way.

In the end, as Granma recognizes, “Ian hasn’t been the most intense meteorological phenomenon that has ever crossed through Vueltabajo, but its slow-moving route over the most populated area of the province, along with its winds of more than 125 miles per hour, place it among the most destructive.” One firm opinion and the other soft, so as not to be wrong when the newspaper archives are revised.

The revolution won’t be able to erase the traces of this disaster, and Pinar del Río will have to rise by its own means. It will get little or no help from the regime.

Translator’s notes:

**Tobacco leaves are “cured” or dried to define their color and quality. In Cuba, this is done by hanging the leaves in a “barn,” or warehouse, and can take four to eight weeks.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba: The Economic Consequences of Hurricane Ian (Part 1)

Justo García Hernández working in his tobacco field. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 28 September 2022 — At the moment, there is no doubt that the most worrisome news for Cubans is the damage caused by the passage of Hurricane Ian through Pinar del Río. With its proverbial propagandist efficacy, the official newspaper Granma has referred to the consequences in the important region of Vueltabajo, where a hasty meeting of Cuban President Diaz-Canel has been held with the highest authorities.

Apparently, Díaz-Canel must have been concerned about the state of the area and the fact that an assessment of the damage hadn’t yet been carried out and the operation of the procedures offices hadn’t been established for the allocation of resources needed for recovery. Are there no defined protocols in these situations that have to be improvised every time there is a hurricane? Why is Díaz-Canel walking around Vueltabajo when he should be in his office in Havana coordinating the aid, if any? Cubans are less and less accustomed to these propaganda exercises, and in this case they see only unexplained delays, because at the moment there is nothing that points to greater speed.

Díaz-Canel, seeing the state of the Havana-to-Pinar del Río highway, with large amounts of debris and trees on the road, pointed out the need to clear it as soon as possible, using “the communal forces,” together with those of other agencies, since it’s a strategic route for sending aid. As if “the communal forces” that have lost everything or almost everything don’t have to first deal with their own problems. How many bulldozers are needed for that job, and, above all, how many does the regime have for it? continue reading

In a snowfall scenario, the snow removal machines, pushed by tractors of private agents, arrive and solve everything with salt. Why does Díaz-Canel think that this problem can be solved by resorting once again to the inefficient collectivism of “communal forces”? Is it that in the communist regime there are no agencies in the budgeted sector that dedicate themselves to these activities in a professional way? They insist that it will be enough with several “brigades” from Havana and Mayabeque mobilized for these operations, but we are very afraid that things will go on for a long time.

On the other hand, it seems that there is a serious hygiene problem, and, therefore, to support the sanitation work, Díaz-Canel will have resources from the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Azcuba Business Group. With all the hurricanes that have passed through Cuba in 63 years, there should be an emergency force in the army, equipped with the means and competitive training to face this type of scenario. I hope they don’t turn to the young recruits again, as in they did in the case of the recent fire at the Matanzas supertanker base.

But that said, what really mattered to Díaz-Canel was to find out what happened to the more than 33,400 tons of tobacco from previous crops that were still in the drying sheds and warehouses, and he indicated he would be visiting the main producers of the leaf in the area to provide them with support. Careful: That’s money, and, almost certainly, it’s already committed.

Tobacco continues to be one of the main products of Cuban foreign trade, and losing that harvest could be a real misfortune for the foreign currency it provides and which the regime so longs for in order to fill the state coffers. Fortunately, the hurricane has passed at a time when the tobacco production cycle is in the seed phase, although it will almost certainly have damaged the fields, which will have to be prepared again. This will entail extra costs for producers who, in the absence of private insurance or government support, will have to pay for it out of their own pockets.

Granma has recognized that Ian’s passage over the municipalities that make up the Vueltabajo tobacco massif, in which there are more than 7,900 natural (dry) curing sheds made of board and light covering, has caused serious harm to the infrastructure of the principal export of Cuban agriculture. And once again, the only thing that emerges from the news is that we will have to wait to know the extent of the economic damage.

Díaz-Canel has encountered more problems, such as the supply of water to the population and the eternal blackouts, and for this reason, he asked Granma to “raise spirits and recover again from all the building collapses.” Accompanied at the meeting of several ministers, according to Granma, he also received a detailed explanation of the actions that will be taken for an alleged return to normality in the shortest possible time.

Ian’s passage through Cuba has once again highlighted the fragility of the communist economic model that exists in the country, in the face of this manifestation of nature. No one has the slightest doubt that the traces of this hurricane will take a long time to be erased. It doesn’t occur to anyone, except Díaz-Canel, to call on “a popular mobilization to support the collection of debris, recover the organoponics and promote short-cycle crops that provide food in the shortest possible time.” The people aren’t interested in these things. He instills more discouragement with this disorder, and, above all, he should take into account the warning of Sunday’s referendum: the Cuban people have said “enough”!

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Voices in Cuba: ‘Turn on the Power!’

Long before Hurricane Ian struck, power outages in Cuba were frequent. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 30 September 2022 — Yesterday, Thursday, in the afternoon and at night, several popular protests shook Havana with the cries of “Turn on the power!” and “Freedom!” There are still large areas without electricity, as is the case in our neighborhood, which will soon mark 72 hours without electricity.

Web browsing from mobile phones was cut off last night to prevent us from seeing the images of the demonstrations and right now internet access remains very precarious.

The food shortage situation is very complicated and the winds of Hurricane Ian have fueled inflation, especially in the prices of basic products such as bread, eggs and vegetables.

Social unrest, acid criticism of the dismal performance of state entities and the demand for change have also increased significantly. People can’t take it anymore. Hopefully this outrage translates into a liberation movement and not more people fleeing the Island, as sadly has happened in similar cases.

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In Search of Lost Power, Cubans Recharge Their Phones in Hospitals and Hotels

Almost a hundred people were waiting to connect their mobile phones to the electricity at the Inglaterra hotel. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 September 2022 — One of the main urgencies of Cubans this Wednesday, after the passage of Hurricane Ian, which has devastated the western end of the island and has caused the collapse of the already precarious national electrical system, is to get electricity by any means.

In Havana, the crowds in the corridors of hospitals, such as Calixto García or Hermanos Ameijeiras, whose current was maintained thanks to generators, were striking. People were not there to visit sick relatives but to connect their phones and keep them working.

Similarly, almost a hundred people gathered at the entrance of the building adjacent to the Inglaterra Hotel, in Centro Habana, with their cell phones connected to numerous extensions. These, in turn, were connected by means of a flip-flop to the electricty of the hotel, which has also continued to work with its own generators.

As the minutes passed, those waiting began to get nervous. “This doesn’t work. They say it’s free, but the solutions of socialism are always problematic,” a young man was heard saying as he gave up waiting for his turn in the long line.

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