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Cubans Subjected to Animal Behavior While Waiting in Line

A fight in a line while waiting to buy food in Managua, Arroyo Naranjo, where pregnant Ayamey González Valdés, dressed in blue, can be observed (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2022 — Rumors started to spread, as has happened in recent months in Cuba, from some images published on social networks on Saturday. According to word of mouth, a pregnant woman miscarried her baby after a beating in a dispute between citizens and police in Managua, in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.

The next day, official accounts and pages related to the regime rushed to deny the falsehood: the woman had not had a miscarriage and she was in good health. In a video shared by the official Mauro Torres, it is observed, in effect, how the pregnant woman, identified as Ayamey González Valdés, faints after a violent argument between several people. Later, the Police squad carried her out in their arms.

What those sources in support of the Cuban government did not say is, on the one hand, that the agents, after getting into a fight in a food line, ceaselessly beat several young people that were present. On the other hand, they also ignore the real drama: a system that reduces its people to behave in an almost animalistic way in order to buy food.

The regime prefers to put on a brave face for having “saved” the pregnant woman. Ayamey González Valdés, according to the Municipal Health Directorate of Arroyo Naranjo Twitter account, “was evaluated at the Enrique Cabrera Hospital. An ultrasound was performed, the fetus has good vitality, with a normal heartbeat and the mother’s placenta is intact. While she was being examined, her mother arrived, who was able to listen to the heartbeat of her future grandson’s heart.”

Depending on the sensitivity of the product being sold and how long the people have been waiting for it to become available, some clashes can be more aggressive

La cola* [the line], one of the oldest Cuban institutions linked to the chronic shortages the island has experienced for decades, has been transforming in recent years. The pandemic moved many of these lines away from stores’ main entrance, as a strategy to have more control over customer access, but the end of many health restrictions did not end this practice. continue reading

Now, the lines to buy food continue to form several yards away from the store, in a park, a square or a street, where consumers organize themselves and wait for hours until they are called, in groups of five or ten, to enter the store. This distance fuels suspicions of mismanagement by employees and is also used by those who do not want to wait so long and try to sneak in.

The fights are so frequent that many believe that there is no Cuban line without anger or shoving. Depending on the sensitivity of the product being sold and how long the people have been waiting for it to become available, some clashes can be more aggressive. Lines for frozen chicken, vegetable oil and baby diapers are among the busiest, but punches and bumps can also happen as dozens of people wait to buy hot dogs or bath soap.

No one knows for sure how much time the average Cuban spends standing in lines each week, but as the crisis has deepened, leisure time has become shorter. If the nights belonged to the family in the past, for watching television or going on a recreational outing, now many families start to prepare from the night before to start to form a line that might allow them to buy food the next day.

*Translator’s note: La cola literally translates as “the tail,” refers to a line.

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The U.S. Congress Refuses to Let Cuba Purchase Food on Credit

In 2021, the United States doubled its chicken exports to Cuba, which amounted to 253 million dollars. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 July 2022 — On Wednesday, the United States Congress rejected, by 260 votes to 163, an amendment presented by Democratic legislator Rashida Tlaib that proposed expanding agricultural trade with Cuba and authorizing deferred payment for a year.

Republican Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart celebrated the defeat of the measure and said that he won’t support initiatives that seek to make unilateral concessions to the Cuban government, which he called a “brutal and anti-American regime.” He added that while “hundreds of political prisoners are still in prison, we cannot reduce the pressure on a regime that uses its income to further oppress the Cuban people.”

Last Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lower House of the United States issued a statement explaining Amendment 137, which aimed to facilitate the export of food and agricultural products to the island.

In the statement, Congressmen Gregory Meeks and Jim McGovern supported the amendment. “This common sense legislation, which has been supported by both sides and by agricultural groups throughout the country for more than a decade, would create thousands of agricultural jobs in the United States while providing desperately needed food at a lower cost to the Cuban people.”

Both legislators argued that the economic crisis facing the island is what forces thousands of Cubans to stand in line for food and leave for the southern border of the United States. “This amendment would help alleviate the economic burden by suspending U.S. agricultural export regulations and extending credit to Cuban food buyers for a year.”

However, they didn’t explain that food and medicine are exempt from the U.S. embargo. Among the demands is that Cuba has to pay in cash up front, an anomaly in the international context, but one which hasn’t prevented tons of food from arriving monthly on the island. continue reading

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated that the U.S. doubled its chicken exports to Cuba, which amounted to $253 million.

Last April, a group of U.S. farmers participated in the Third Agricultural Conference in Havana, where they discussed the possibility of increasing trade and selling, in addition to chicken, wheat, corn, beans, milk and beer, but affirmed that the embargo was an obstacle.

After the conference, the Cuban side claimed the right to export to raise money and buy other products that cannot be produced on the island. “We don’t want them to give us anything. We want the possibility to buy and sell,” said the cooperative member, Abelardo Alvarez.

According to data from the United States Congressional Research Service, before 1959 Cuba was the ninth country in the export market for U.S. agricultural products, while today it is below 50th. In addition, the island also sold products to its northern neighbor.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture of the United States maintains that without the embargo, exchanges would be around $1 billion per year, compared to the current $250 million.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Cuban Deputy Regrets That All Hotel Stores Accept Payment Only in Hard Currency

Hotel Grand Aston Havana, built in 2022 by Gaesa on the Malecón. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2022 — Cuba’s Minister of Tourism is sticking to his forecast and maintains once again that the target of 2.5 million foreign travelers will be met this year. Although in the first six months of the year, the island received only 682,297, the Cuban authorities are determined that geometric progression cannot be applied and that, since growth has been exponential in recent months, the goal will be achieved.

“For the July-October period, 1,105,000 visitors are expected to arrive,” said Juan Carlos García Granda, head of the branch, on Wednesday at the meeting of the Commission for Attention to Services, where parliamentarians analyze the different sectors as a preliminary step to the ninth ordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power.

Despite optimism, the meeting brought to light some problems in the tourism sector, on which the Cuban Government has placed all its hope for the future.

“The most important problems are road signs, currency exchange and car rental. In some places there was dissatisfaction with hygiene in the municipalities and with the infrastructure of roads, buildings and cities,” said García Granda, who also admitted that transport and workers’ uniforms are scarce.

The worst thing, however, is the lack of variety in food and drink, something that occurs every day in the daily life of citizens but that, in the case of tourism, should be on the fast track by extending contracts that would “favor the acquisition of resources.”

In the middle of the session, a deputy, José Castañeda, drew attention to the serious disadvantage that in hotels all stores accept only freely convertible currency (MLC), “which is a problem with the national market.” continue reading

García Granda placed the rooms on the island at 78,862, with Havana, Matanzas and Villa Clara in the lead. The minister said that travelers value the destination Cuba despite all the inconveniences, suggesting that the investment seems appropriate to him, but contrary to what it may seem, it is still little.

“In this year, 1,049 rooms have been recovered out of the 5,167 planned until December,” added the official, who estimated the number of rooms that are not in order at 13.2%, even though during the wide stoppage of the pandemic an investment plan was implemented to update the situation.

The perception of Cubans, even among those closest to the ruling party, theorized by different economists, is that the Cuban authorities are investing wildly in hotel facilities and tourism while the country falls apart. However, García Granda categorically said at Wednesday’s meeting that the pace is proportional since, even, “the growth of tourists has always been higher than that of rooms since the 1990s.”

When calculating, the minister chose 2019 compared to 1990, and stated that the growth of visitors was 9.1%, while that of rooms was 4.9%. In 2022, the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal argued that even if the long-awaited 2.5 million international visitors were reached, there would be a little more than half of Cuba’s hotel rooms left over. “69 tourists rotating per room in 2018 compared to 32 in 2022. It would seem rational to adopt a ’pause’ in hotel investment. There are other priorities,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Honduras and Cuba Sign a Memorandum to Strengthen Their Bilateral Relationship

The Honduran diplomat pointed out that the memorandum of understanding will serve for the peoples of Honduras and Cuba to persevere in strengthening ties of closeness and solidarity. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Tegucigalpa, 19 July 2022 — The Governments of Honduras and Cuba signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations, an official source reported on Monday in Tegucigalpa.

The memorandum was signed on Sunday by the Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eduardo Enrique Reina, and the Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Strategic Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, along with the Cuban ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Juan Roberto Loforte, the Presidential House said in a statement.

“This memorandum opens up to us the possibility of going through new paths of collaboration in science and technology, literacy programs and scholarship exchange, among others,” Reina said.

“Cuba has a lot to teach in the field of health and public education, because it has obtained universally recognized achievements in these fields, and I hope that this valuable acquisition will be a fundamental ingredient in this new stage that begins,” he added.

The Honduran diplomat pointed out that the memorandum of understanding will serve for the peoples of Honduras and Cuba to persevere in strengthening ties of closeness and solidarity, as well as mutual understanding, the statement adds.

Reina also expressed the solidarity of the Honduran Government, chaired by Xiomara Castro, in the face of the economic blockade “of which the island has been a victim,” in addition to “continuing to raise its voice to condemn interference and intervention in the self-determination of the Cuban people and in the internal affairs of Havana.” continue reading

The Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Strategic Investment indicated that the signing of the memorandum “represents the rebirth and strengthening of the bonds of brotherhood, solidarity and cooperation between Honduras and Cuba.”

Malmierca recalled that his country has supported the people of Honduras in areas such as health and education through medical brigades and literacy campaigns.

“Nothing says more about solidarity and friendship between our peoples than the presence of our Cuban doctors in Honduras,” he said.

The senior Cuban official said that the program of cooperation in health matters between the two countries was “truncated by the coup d’état” of June 28, 2009 against the then-president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, who is now an advisor to Xiomara Castro, his wife.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘I Buy Food!’ The Desperate Cry That Went Unanswered in Havana

This Tuesday morning the thick voice of a town crier rang around our building. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 20 July 2022 — Proclamations recorded and broadcast through loudspeakers are part of the musical band of the Cuban reality of this century. In our neighborhood, a wide variety of them are heard every day, ranging from the already classic “Ice cream sandwiches!” through “I fix mattresses!” to the surprising “I buy empty shampoo bottles!” To these we can add that the current economic crisis is giving birth to its own oral announcements.

This Tuesday morning a thick voice swept through the surroundings of our building. “I buy food!” the man repeated for long minutes as he walked around the block. In other times, the noise from nearby Boyeros Avenue might not have allowed us to hear it from the higher floors of this rough concrete block, but the lack of fuel has reduced the traffic and its constant hubbub, so that announcement was heard “clarito clarito” [loud and clear]. “I buy food!” slipped through the blinds and the balconies.

For half an hour, that peculiar crier moved from the nearby train tracks to the mountain of garbage that has been growing for weeks on the corner of Estancia and Santa Ana. He made a stop at the nearest twelve-story building, repeated his shouts a few yards from the wide parking lot of the Ministry of Agriculture, approached those who were lining up for the rationed products at the bodega, and finally the desperate notice faded little by little as the man headed towards Tulipán Street.

During that time, no one responded to his cries. No neighbor looked out over the balcony to tell him, like others who shout their merchandise or his services, to wait for him to come down right now to sell him some bread, a bag of potatoes or a liter of yogurt. They didn’t even tell him to shut up from the apartments where they were trying to get a baby to fall asleep or where a grandmother was nodding off on the balcony. Nor did the “hardened” militants of the Communist Party show up to combat that phrase, which was more rebellious than any opposition slogan.

“I buy food!” he repeated, and the silence of the neighborhood spoke without uttering a word. From the silence that came out of the houses a clear answer could be extracted: “We don’t have any!”

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‘If You Lock Yourself In Your House, You Die of Heat and, If You Open the Windows, Mosquitoes Kill You’

Cuba has been producing less than 40% of its electricity generation capacity since May. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2022 — Cuba faced one of its worst days of electricity deficit on Wednesday due to the increase in demand. The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) has announced an availability of 2,499 MW, very insufficient due to the need for 3,000 MW planned for today on the island. In previous weeks, the shortage translated into 12% to 18%, due to the demand of about 2,500 MW, but today it reaches 24%.

The state company also points out that yesterday the maximum impact was 694 megawatts, at 9:00 p.m., but that there were blackouts throughout the day.

The deficit and blackouts continue due to the breakdowns reported in three units of the Mariel thermoelectric power plant, two other units out of service due to damage to the Nuevitas thermoelectric power plant and one more in the Felton and Renté thermoelectric power plants.

Although blackouts have been common in Cuba for decades, in the last two years the situation has been aggravated by the pressing economic crisis, which has worsened the chances of maintaining and repairing the old thermoelectric plants. The last few weeks are further testing the patience of Cubans, especially outside Havana, where power outages are lasting for many hours.

“If you stay at home you die of the heat, and if you open the doors and windows the mosquitoes kill you,” complained a man about last Tuesday’s night blackouts. It’s difficult to rest because of the summer heat on the island, where temperatures exceed 97F degrees. continue reading

Summer rains and lack of fumigation have also caused mosquitos to multiply throughout the country, aggravated in the early hours of the morning by the fact that you can’t turn on the fan or close the windows to enjoy the air conditioning.

Last Monday, the Trotskyist Communists Collective complained that the authorities limit electricity cuts in Havana as much as possible and impose “long blackouts in the rest of the provinces of the country, mainly in regions where the protests of July 11 [2021] didn’t take place, or at least were weak.” On a daily basis, the brief statement of the UNE states that “all measures to restrict consumption in the state sector are implemented.”

But these restrictions and blackouts have led, in other places, to night protests such as those that occurred in Los Palacios, Pinar del Río, where the weariness of the population was demonstrated in the middle of a power outage through slogans such as the already known “Put on the power, goddamnit!” to the sound of banging on pots and pans.

The phrase was heard for the first time during another demonstration by the residents of the Camagüey University campus who had been without water and electricity for days.

The situation of blackouts and lack of electrical energy worsened after the fire at the Lidio Ramón Pérez Thermoelectric power plant, in Felton, located in Holguín, last Saturday that caused severe damage.

During the last days of May, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that the electricity situation would improve by the end of June. However, the deadline was met with new difficulties and more blackouts. The president postponed the “solution” until the end of this month.

Power outages were one of the factors that fueled social discontent last year in Cuba and led to the outbreak of ’11J’ (11 July 2021). Now, they are repeated throughout the island, along with the discomfort they cause in the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Remains on the U.S. Blacklist for Human Trafficking

Cuba is among 11 countries that present “a documented policy or pattern of human trafficking,” such as “trafficking in government-funded programs” and “forced labor in medical services.” (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 July 2022 — The United States Government once again includes Cuba, for the fourth consecutive year, on its list of countries that don’t comply with international standards regarding human trafficking.

In its latest report on the subject, published on Tuesday by the State Department, the Island is among 11 countries that present “a documented policy or pattern of human trafficking,” such as “trafficking in government-funded programs” and “forced labor in medical services,” in clear allusion to internationalist missions, which have been denounced by international organizations.

In addition to Cuba, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, Eritrea, Burma and Turkmenistan are also listed as nations where it is the State itself that participates in human trafficking.

In general, the island is on the list of 22 blacklisted countries that don’t comply with the “minimum standards” set by the United Nations against human trafficking — mainly the Palermo Protocols — and that are also not making significant efforts to comply with them. continue reading

Belarus is on the list for the first time, with the United States saying that the government of Alexander Lukashenko “orchestrated an immigration crisis on its borders with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland,” encouraging irregular migrants to cross without addressing possible indicators of human trafficking.

Countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, China and Vietnam are also listed. Regarding the regime of Nicolás Maduro, the United States emphasizes that “it continued to provide support and maintained a permissive environment to non-state armed groups that recruited and used child soldiers for armed conflict and collaborated in sex trafficking and forced labor while operating with impunity.”

As for Cuba, which first entered the list in 2019, the document admits that, “despite the lack of significant efforts,” the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel has taken “some steps” to address human trafficking, such as “the investigation, prosecution and conviction of traffickers.” However, it emphasizes that during 2022 there was a “government policy or pattern of profit” of workers’ export programs “with strong indications” of forced labor.

On this point, Washington specifically mentions Cuban medical brigades in other countries and says that Havana “continued to deploy Cuban workers in foreign countries using deceptive and coercive tactics” and without addressing “labor violations and trafficking crimes.”

In addition, it mentions “the growing number of allegations” by NGOs, former participants in these missions and foreign governments about the alleged involvement of Cuban officials in these “abuses.”

Thus, as organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Prisoners Defenders have denounced, the United States accuses Cuba of not informing the participants in these programs about the terms of their contracts, which varied from country to country; of confiscating their passports, professional accreditations and salaries; and threatening health professionals and their families if they abandoned those missions.

With regard to Nicaragua, the report says that Daniel Ortega’s government has “minimized” the seriousness of this phenomenon, despite having also carried out “some measures” to address it, such as “the prosecution and conviction of four human traffickers for sexual exploitation.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Cuban Baseball Players are Suspended for Life for an Escape Attempt in Mexico

The Cuban Baseball Federation announced on Tuesday the sanctions of Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Ávalos. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 July 2022 — The Cuban Baseball Federation “suspended for life from all sports activity” baseball players Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Ávalos. They are punished, says journalist Yordano Carmona, for having abandoned the team that participated in the Pan American Under-23 Championship in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Fadraga and Ávalos saw their escape attempt frustrated last June, due to the collaboration of the Mexican authorities who located and detained them. The arrest of the young people generated criticism; Amnesty International’s Director for the Americas, Erika Guevara, demanded an explanation from the Secretariat of Public Security of the state of Aguascalientes for not providing protection to the two Cuban athletes.

Also, Cuban baseball players Javier Carabeo and Yulián Quintana were also sanctioned. In their case, they will not be able to play on the island for two years. According to journalist Francys Romero, they were punished for “an unproven attempt to leave the hotel where they were staying in Aguascalientes (Mexico) during the Under-23 world cup last June.”

The journalist questioned the disciplinary measure leaked to him by a source, because the athletes were used until the end of the tournament by manager Eriel Sánchez. “If so, it must be denounced. It makes no sense for two players who are going to face a penalty to continue playing in the tournament.”

The Under-23 world cup was a terrible sporting disaster for Cuba. The bleeding of players was a constant; of 24 athletes who traveled to Mexico, only 12 returned. And the Cuban authorities found no other recourse than to blame the United States for encouraging the emigration of its talent. continue reading

Romero points out that we are facing a “discrepancy.” This is because Carabeo’s performance in the contest was outstanding. He was “the most distinguished batter in Cuba for hitting three home runs, the first time that a baseball player hits three in a world cup.”

Quintana, on the other hand, was the fastest pitcher. “He is a talented pitcher,” said the U.S.-based reporter. Among the audience were people who measured his speed with the help of gadgets.

While Carabeo and Quintana get the punishment of a year and some days after having committed an indiscipline, Yuddiel González, who abandoned the team at the Ramada hotel in Aguascalientes, was not sanctioned. This young man from Avila returned to Cuba and last May took advantage of his stay in Mayabeque to leave the island on a boat.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Concern Among Doctors About the Increase in Severe Cases of Dengue Fever in Cuba

This Tuesday, in Havana neighborhoods such as Nuevo Vedado, the fumigation smoke was noticeable. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2022 — The spread of dengue fever in Cuba in recent weeks has forced the Government to approve a reinforcement plan against the disease. According to official figures, provided by the Ministry of Public Health, if the incidence rate in April was 12.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, in June it reached 46.3, something that the Deputy Minister of Health, Carilda Peña García, referred to as “intense transmission.”

Between April and June, 21,505 locations of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits the disease, were detected on the island, more than in the same period last year.

Although last week the rate dropped to 2,791 cases of dengue per 100,000 inhabitants, doctors and ordinary citizens confirm that the situation is serious.

“We are alarmed,” an internist at the Manuel Fajardo hospital in Havana tells this newspaper. “What we are seeing this year is not usual.” He refers to the number of patients who are developing severe dengue or hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal, and says, “In previous epidemics, perhaps approximately 10% of cases had warning signs (those that alert you that the patient is not progressing well), but now it is more than 30%.” continue reading

The doctor explains that the dengue virus has four serotypes or four variants: “When you get infected with a serotype, it gives you immunity for that serotype in the long term and for the others in the short term. But if after three months you get infected with a different serotype, chances are that you will have a serious form.”

At their meeting on Tuesday, the health authorities did not refer to dengue hemorrhagic fever, which in recent days has claimed the lives of adults and children. The Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, did report that 32 patients have been admitted to intensive care, 29 of them in serious condition and 3 in critical condition.

At the end of last week, again according to official figures, there was transmission of the virus in eight provinces (Pinar del Río, Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Holguín and Guantánamo), “in 16 municipalities and 23 health areas.”

Regarding the variants of the virus, Portal Miranda reported that serotype 1 was detected in the provinces of Havana, Camagüey and Las Tunas; serotype 2, in Havana, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus and Camagüey, and serotype 3, in Havana and Camagüey, the two provinces that present the most worrying situation.

What the minister also didn’t say is that there is a lack of reagents in health centers, essential in this disease, the internist warns 14ymedio, “to evaluate clotting.”

Juan Carlos, a young resident of Central Havana who, feeling bad, went to Manuel Fajardo and couldn’t have the necessary exams, suffered from body aches. They sent him home with the recommendation to rest. Two days later he returned, with a pain in his abdomen that was unbearable. So they did the tests and admitted him. The diagnosis: dengue with alarming symptoms. “The question is if a couple of days ago there would have been reagents for my blood tests, maybe they would have acted in time,” laments Juan Carlos.

The truth is that because it is a virus, little can be done in the face of dengue other than hydration and rest. At best, you can take medications like acetaminophen for pain and fever.

The plan approved on Tuesday focuses on the fight against the vector that transmits the disease, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which caused 11,551 outbreaks in 71 municipalities classified as high risk.

Among the 20 measures included in the document, are “intensifying biological treatment with fish in large water tanks,” carrying out “antivecctorial actions in abandoned premises,” reviewing and treating “one hundred percent of elevated tanks” and carrying out “intra-domiciliary adult treatment by fumigating.

On Tuesday, in neighborhoods such as Nuevo Vedado, fumigation fumes were noticeable.

The doctor at the Manuel Fajardo hospital, like many other colleagues, is pessimistic: “The problem is general, and there is no solution in the medium term.”

To top it all off, the growth in COVID-19 cases on the island has caused the health authorities to return to different measures to prevent contagion. The most notorious is the mandatory use of a masks on transportation and in children’s daycare centers.

In addition, the Government says that the second booster vaccination for Covid will be given to Cubans between the ages of 19 and 49, and the first to children between 2 and 11 years old, with the national antidotes Sovereign or Abdala, which have not yet been approved by the World Health Organization.

The calamitous state of the old jewel in the crown of Castro propaganda is completed with the information provided this Tuesday by BioCubaFarma: there is a deficit of basic medicines of almost 40%.

The vice president of the state pharmaceutical company, Tania Urquiza Rodríguez, reported at a press conference that there has been a “complex situation” since 2021, and alleged that “most of the funding was dedicated to the fight against COVID and for the development and production of vaccines.”

She also blamed the U.S. embargo on Cuba, without mentioning that it allows the purchase of medicines as well as food, as long as they are paid in cash in advance, and that the country could also buy the active ingredients in countries such as China or India, with which the island has free trade.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Powdered Milk for Children Arrives at Havana Ration Store with Cockroaches

Powdered milk with a cockroach bought by Rosalba Toledo in Centro Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2022 — Consumers who purchase from the ration market at the bodega on Barcelona street between Águila and Amistad in Centro Habana have been in for a bitter surprise this week. Powdered milk intended for children under seven years of age has arrived at the establishment contaminated with cockroaches. After several days of delay in the receipt of the product, some clients denounce the presence of these insects and the lack of hygiene in the handling of the precious dairy product.

Rosalba Toledo was one of those affected by the problem. “I went to look for milk for my ten-month-old daughter and I found cockroaches mixed with the powder,” this mother from Havana told 14ymedio. “When I complained they told me that this is how all the bags were. I then went to the municipal government of Centro Habana on Reina street and they recommended that I go to the office of the Ministry of Internal Trade on Carlos III Avenue.”

“The director attended me there,” adds Toledo. “She was concerned, but the problem is greater than her concern because everything indicates that the milk is contaminated from the supply warehouse.” Toledo now has the dilemma of whether to return the milk powder, hoping that when they re-supply she can buy her daughter’s quota without the addition of cockroaches, but the instability in the supply source makes her doubt it.

For Lianet de Milián there is no doubt that what happened is based on the fact that “the authorities do not care” about the final state of the food that reaches homes. “Later they bluster that the ‘basic basket’ is available and the milk they give to the children is guaranteed,” criticizes the woman.

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Cuba, Protests Against Totalitarianism

Protesters in Santiago de Cuba, on July 11, 2021. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 17 July 2022 — The protests of July 11, 2021 were a glorious feat for all of us who reject the Castro totalitarian regime.

That bravery, to a certain extent, neutralized the criticisms issued by some about what they describe as the extreme passivity of the Cuban people in the face of an iron dictatorship — an unpleasant saying, but one that reflects a real perception of what is happening on the island.

Without pretending to justify what must be criticized, the cowardice and apathy of many, we should brandish the epic courage of men and women who have never stopped confronting Castro totalitarianism.

Many have been martyrs in this bloody process and even more so the political prisoners who have served years behind bars in these more than six decades, including the large number of young people trained under the Castro regime who populate prisons for refusing to submit to tyranny.

It’s true that for so many years there have been few protests, but it’s an irrefutable truth that the more closed the regimes of force are, the more difficult it is to oppose them, and a totalitarian regime like the Cuban one, which has been able to establish strict social and police control, doesn’t cede space but must be taken away, which has a high human cost as history has shown.

The average Cuban, apparently, has concluded that it’s better to conspire to overthrow the regime than to participate in a media demonstration, because it’s as criminal to the Castro authorities to take to the streets demanding freedom as it is to participate in a plot to overthrow the tyranny. Other dictatorships brutally beat protesters and imprison them for hours; on the island of the Castros, the beating is joined by long years of sentences to be served under subhuman conditions. continue reading

Young people in prison for participating in barely-known protests or in other high-profile protests are in the same condition as artists who, through their creations, manifest dissent and freedom of opinion.

The first anniversary of the protests of July 11, 2021, lead us to remember some of the popular demonstrations against Castroism, many of them forgotten by the long years that have passed and whose protagonists have mostly left for eternity.

Lost in the mists of time is the protest organized by mothers, wives and daughters, in January or February 1959, to demand an end to the shootings.

In February 1960, discontent with communist penetration into universities materialized with a protest organized by students in the Central Park of Havana, on the occasion of the visit to Cuba by the Soviet Deputy Prime Minister, Anastás Mikoyan. In October, the students demonstrated again in Santa Clara, against the execution of five captured guerrillas, including the president of the FEU of Las Villas, Porfirio Ramírez Ruiz. That same year, the electricity sector carried out a massive march in the capital rejecting the regime’s measures against workers.

In 1961, the provinces of Oriente and Camagüey were the scene of student protests against communism and, in September of that same year, parishioners and Catholic organizations organized a procession in the church of La Caridad, in Havana, which had been banned by the authorities. However, the religious walk occurred with exclamations of “Long live Christ the King,” “Cuba Yes, Russia No.” The authorities reacted violently and shot dead the young Arnaldo Socorro.

In June and July 1962, the cities of Cárdenas and Perico, in Matanzas, were shaken by large protests, and in Cárdenas the regime took out tanks to repress it, a legacy that had its climax in the great protests of July 11 of last year, with its sad aftermath of numerous wounded and hundreds of prisoners, many minors.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the Government, the Problem of Light is ‘Complex’; For Cubans It’s Unbearable

Turkey has so far sent five floating generating plants that are strengthening the system. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 July 2022 — The fire in unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez plant in Felton (Mayarí) has been “a hard blow” for the Cuban electrical system, and repairing it “will not be a quick process. It will take us at least more than a year to recover that boiler and put the machine into generation,” warned Edier Guzmán Pacheco, technical director of the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE), on national television on Monday.

The technician appeared with the Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz, head of the most unstable sector at the moment on the island, who spoke last night to give explanations to a population fed up with the situation — generated by the endless blackouts and power outages — that for the official is “complex and tense, but has a solution, which is not immediate, but gradual.”

Arronte recalled that Felton 2 has a high generating capacity (about 255 MW per hour) that has been lost since the accident, of which he gave details last night. The unit, which had been subjected to maintenance and entered the system at the beginning of July, suffered a “fracture in a fuel return pipe of the burners, causing significant damage to one of the four main columns of the boiler,” which put an end to the forecasts that the Government had made, since even the reserves were lost.

Guzmán Pacheco explained that the maintenance work on the unit lasted a month longer than expected. When finally, and after several more inconveniences, it was going to come into operation, they shut down the boiler to change the gas. At that time, one of the elbows of the pipe failed, and the fuel spilled on the boiler, which was turned off but still hot, resulting in a big fire.

Although the firefighters managed to control it in 15 minutes, the intensity of the fire was great. “The flame had a direct impact on one of the columns that supports the structure of the entire boiler, which failed to move on the vertical axis more than a meter, causing the movement of all the columns of the boiler.” It could have been even worse, the official explained, and the boiler could have collapsed, but the risks persist, since the structure is damaged and could still fall. continue reading

The technician explained that there are parts of the boiler, such as air heaters or fans, that aren’t damaged, but the situation is being evaluated to determine the consequences and how long it will take to recover.

More dedicated to the political side, Minister Arronte Cruz reviewed the well-known data, such as that the reserves are non-existent, that the national system operates at less than 40% of its capacity — with an availability of around 2,500 MW of the 6,558 MW installed; that the plants should have been retired years ago and that the country must invest large amounts of money in energy because “the blockade” forces them to bring the fuel from further away, the value of which is not included in the 250 million dollars per year that the system costs to maintain.

“The last ships we have been able to acquire cost around 64 or 67 million dollars and bring about 40,000 tons, which are enough for a maximum of 10 days of consumption in the country. It costs us almost 30% more, because we have to bring it from distant markets,” he said. Last Thursday, a shipment of 700,000 barrels of Russian fuel arrived on the island, although this is not the fuel used in power plants. The minister did not mention the free oil that has been received from Venezuela for more than 20 years and that, although in dwindling amounts, still reaches the island.

Electricity generating plants were also discussed on State TV’s Roundtable program, not to mention that it was Fidel Castro’s idea to develop this program during the years of the so-called energy revolution. The director, Arles Luna Leiva, gave plenty of technical details about the system, which consists of 1,334 MW in diesel, of which only 560 are obtained per day (944 groups in 154 power plants), and 1,272 MW in fuel that generates just 300 MW (507 groups in 35 power plants). There are 752 groups out of service for different reasons, ranging from breaks to lack of maintenance.

“In the distributed generation there are no projections of foreign investment at the moment,” the official said. Turkey has so far sent five floating generating plants that are strengthening the system, but the deficiency is so great that the problems are not solved with the approximately 15 MW provided by each of these structures.

Cuban energy managers said last night that they were concerned about the long hours without electricity that Cubans spend, although they again asked the population for savings and sacrifice and insisted that they maintain a constant communication policy to try to affect the lives of citizens as little as possible, even at this time of year when, they said, the climate considerably affects electrical structures, causing more breakdowns than expected.

They said that’s what happened in Los Palacios last Thursday, when the four- or five-hour cuts in electricity planned in the municipality were joined by a break as a result of a storm. Users, as reflected in the multiple comments on the news of the electricity deficit, claim that the provinces, where power outages are longer, are being punished to the extreme. That claim was reflected in a statement from the Trotskyist group, Communists of Cuba, which stated on Friday that the restrictions are in place where the population expressed less discontent on July 11 (11J) of last year, such as in Pinar del Río, where there were no demonstrations.

In the program, the specialists offered a detailed schedule of how maintenance and repair actions will be carried out that should lead to energy recovery, but a dialogue between two readers of Cubadebate this Sunday reflected with great precision the problem of the country’s energy system and in much fewer words than those used yesterday by officials.

“And what happened again to Felton 1?” one asked. To which another replied: “The same thing that happens to someone who never goes to the doctor and has a problem. It’s cured and another one comes up.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Uruguay Denies Refuge to Cubans, Allegedly for Economic Reasons

Cubans in Uruguay in 2020, in a demonstration in support of Lidier Hernández Sotolongo, who had been banned from leaving Cuba. (Facebook/Archive)

14ymedio, Havana, July 14, 2022 — Only three Cubans obtained refugee status in Uruguay during the first six months of this year. In that period, as published Wednesday by the Montevideo Portal newspaper, the Refugee Commission (CORE) of the South American country denied 89 applications for refuge, of which 82 were from Cubans, who are the most rejected national group with 85% of the total.

The reason for granting asylum to so few nationals of the island, sources from the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry allege to the local media, is the argument that the applicants give in their applications: “What they say in the interview is that it’s for economic reasons, and economic reasons are not reasons that justify refuge.”

The Uruguayan authorities thus ignore not only the scarcity and permanent crisis to which the island is subjected by an economic system that doesn’t work, but also the political persecution of those who disagree with the Cuban government, which increased with the repression of the anti-government demonstrations of 11J (July 11th) last year.

Venezuelans, however and strikingly, are accepted in Uruguay almost in their entirety. According to CORE data, since 2019, asylum has been granted to all Venezuelan nationals who have applied for it except two. From January 1 to May 31, 2022, they were one hundred percent of the applicants, a total of 83.

According to Montevideo Portal, the Refugee Commission has a high demand for refugee applications that could be around 10,000, which it can’t cover.

With Uruguayan law, Right to Refuge and Refugees, which the publication cites, the process of requesting refuge and resolution can take up to four years. continue reading

Under international standards, the administrative process of refuge must be efficient and adaptable, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), but in practice it involves cumbersome and lengthy procedures.

In contrast to Uruguay, for example, the Spanish Refugee Aid Commission accepted only 10.5% of asylum applications in 2021. It adds that this percentage is an increase compared to 5% the previous year. It also clarifies that for the previous year’s asylum applications, those requests from countries such as Mali, which had been rejected previously, were favorably resolved.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Russian Oil Tanker Arrives in Cuba with 700,000 Barrels of Fuel

The Russian tanker “Suvorovsky Prospect” (Maritime Optima/Lennart Rydberg)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 July 2022 — In the midst of the harsh sanctions imposed by the West on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and the deep energy crisis that Cuba is experiencing, a Russian tanker loaded with fuel arrived on the island on Thursday.

According to Reuters, the oil tanker Suvorovsky Prospect, with the flag of Liberia, arrived at the port of Matanzas with about 700,000 barrels of fuel, loaded in the Russian port of Ust-Luga. The tanker brings supplies for Cuban power plants and gives Russia “a way out for products rejected by the West,” the British agency explains in its note.

The cargo has a value of about 70 million dollars according to the current price of the product on the market, and the ship is owned by a unit of the main Russian shipping conglomerate Sovcomflot, according to the Equasis maritime database.

Sovcomflot is under British, Canadian and American sanctions, and its fleet lost insurance backed by Western companies as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which now has gone on for almost five months. Europe and the United Kingdom are moving forward, Reuters says, towards an embargo on imports of Russian crude oil, scheduled for the end of this year.

The Russian oil tanker alleviates a desperate situation on the island, where fuel shortages are experienced in the main cities. In Havana, the official press reports every day on the availability of products at the gas stations the capital. continue reading

Most of the oil that reaches Cuba comes from Venezuela, which, according to Reuters, sent 66,400 barrels per day to the island in June.

In May, exports collapsed due to the changes introduced by the state-owned PDVSA, which requires prepayment for cargo as a result of the non-payment of some buyers. In May, the amounts that arrived in Cuba, which doesn’t pay the charges for the agreements with Venezuela, weren’t made public, but in April it was 32,000 barrels per day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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United States Approves Dozens of American Airlines Flights Between Miami and Five Cuban Cities

A flight of the US company American Airlines during a commercial trip to Cuba. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 14 July 2022 — On Wednesday, the United States approved the request of American Airlines to resume flights to five destinations in Cuba. The measure involves the return of the airline to the routes that connect Miami with Santa Clara, Varadero, Holguín, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba.

American Airlines indicated that, starting in November, there will be two daily flights to Santa Clara and one a day to each of the remaining airports.

Currently, the company maintains six daily flights between Miami and Havana, a schedule that resumed in December 2021, after the reopening of the airspace closed due to the pandemic.

The return of the American Airlines flights was accompanied by several controversies; one of the most recent was the surcharge for the second suitcase. Until May, the second suitcase was charged at $40; now it is charged $65. The charge for the first suitcase, however, was lowered from $50 to $30.

In addition, the number of suitcases allowed if the origin is Cuba is limited to two free ones which, upon return, cost $200. Passengers were very upset with this measure, since travelers from other countries are allowed, for the same price, to take four. continue reading

The company’s return to the island was also marked by the increased price of its tickets, which amounted — in these complicated times — to almost a thousand dollars. In mid-January, the cost was approximately halved and, although it coincided with the start of the low season, US media claimed that the emptiness of the planes were a decisive factor in taking this measure.

American Airlines travel was interrupted in 2019, when the Trump Administration approved the ban on U.S. airlines from flying to eight international airports in Cuba outside Havana.

In June of this year, the Biden administration announced that it was reestablishing the affected commercial flights “with immediate effect.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken maintained that the measure was “in support of the Cuban people and in the interests of U.S. foreign policy.”

In addition to American Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest also fly to the Cuban capital.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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