The intoxicated children were taken from the municipality of Jovellanos to the Eliseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital. (Capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2022 — Five children from Matanzas suffered poisoning this Monday that caused respiratory problems. The children were transferred to the Eliseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital in that city, and four were discharged on Tuesday afternoon, Periódico Girón published on its Facebook wall.
“There is still one girl who suffers from bronchial asthma. Her state of health is positive and without any complications, but it is necessary to keep her under observation for a little longer,” according to the director of the institution, José Hernández Hernández.
The children, from the municipality of Jovellanos, according to the local media, “entered with the diagnosis of obstruction of the respiratory tract.” The official Cubadebate site published that the minors had “ingested some strong chemical,” but without detailing the substance or the place of the incident, which caused numerous questions on social networks.
“Airway obstruction is not the same as inflammation or bronchospasm or spasm of the glottis due to inhalation or aspiration of toxic substances,” stressed Alberto Roque, who studied at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Havana. “Finally, which toxins? Who was responsible? Was it accidental or intentional?” continue reading
Calixto Rodríguez Machado commented: “The truth is that the information is crooked, crooked. Are they from the same family or from different homes? Was it at school or another institution? What substance did they take or inhale, should we assume it was chlorine?”
The Cubadebate note does not answer any of these questions and limits itself to collecting the symptoms produced by intoxication with certain chemicals, “among which chlorine is included, difficulty breathing (inhalation), inflammation of the throat, pulmonary edema, sore throat, pain or burning in the nose, eyes, ears, lips or tongue, burns in the digestive tract, abdominal pain, vomiting, burns, irritation and hypotension (low blood pressure).”
In addition, the official website recommends, as a parent, to keep “chemical products out of the reach of children” and “do not mix chlorine products with other cleaning substances, acids, vinegar, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia.”
Hours later, the hospital staff specified that “the children, between five and nine years old, were playing in the Horacio Rodríguez neighborhood when they decided to play the dangerous ’game’ of who could resist chlorine inhalation longer with a found bottle, which caused shortness of breath, as a result of which they were taken to our institution.”
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14ymedio, Havana, 26 March 2022 — Brigadier General Rafael Moracén Limonta died this Friday in Cuba at the age of 83, according to the official press, which did not give details about the cause of his death. The soldier served as a naval and air attaché in Angola and also participated in the conflicts in Syria in the 1970s.
Moracén was born in 1939 in Palma Soriano, then Oriente province, and at the age of 18 he became part of the forces of the Third Eastern Front under the command of Juan Almeida, where he was nicknamed Quitafusil. Starting in 1959, with the coming to power of Fidel Castro, he joined the Armed Forces and in 1965 he traveled for military training in the Congo.
With a false Angolan identification, he crossed the border with that country to support the Movement for the Liberation of Angola, and also collaborated in the training of soldiers. In 1967 he returned to Cuba and he left six years later for Syria to become involved in the Yom Kippur War against Israel.
Shortly after, he would return to Angola where he would be a key player in the Cuban regime’s military support for Agostinho Neto until his death in 1979, and then for José Eduardo dos Santos. In 1982 he returned to Cuba, but he would later return to Angolan territory in 1995 as military, naval and air attaché, a position he held for three years. continue reading
He was also a founder of the Cuban Communist Party, a delegate to the first, second, fourth and fifth congresses of the organization and a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power in the first and second legislatures. When he died, he was part of the Association of Combatants.
Moracén’s ashes will be exhibited this Monday at the Veterans’ Pantheon of the Colon Necropolis in Havana, where they will remain until they are transferred to the Third Front Mausoleum.
His death is added to a long list of high-ranking soldiers who have died in recent months in Cuba. Between July and October of last year alone, up to 17 died, all belonging to the historical generation. The first large group of deaths occurred in July, precisely after the protests on the 11th. Generals Agustín Peña, barely 57 years old, Marcelo Verdecia Perdomo, Rubén Martínez Puente, Manuel Eduardo Lastres Pacheco, Armando Choy Rodríguez, and Commander Gilberto Antonio Cardero Sánchez all perished in that month.
In August Arnoldo Ferrer Martínez, Reserve Division General Félix Baranda Columbié and Santiago Lorenzo Hernández Cáceres joined the list and in September Eladio Julián Fernández Cívico, who was in charge of GeoCuba, also joined the Reserve Colonel Eugenio Suárez Pérez and retired FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces) Colonel Eduardo Morejón Estévez, a veteran of war conflicts in Africa and Asia.
The month of October also left numerous deaths, including that of Manuel de Jesús Rey Soberón, José Ramón Silva Berroa, Brigadier General Diego Cobas Sanz, Manuel Fernández Falcó at the age of 85 and, finally, Alejandro Ferrás Pellicer, one of the last assailants of the Moncada barracks, who was already 99 years old.
Even though all but one of them were united by their advanced age and the deaths occurred at the peak of covid, there was no lack of speculation, sometimes fueled by the official press itself, which was sparing in the information on the reasons for the deaths and hid other details.
The official media reported deaths, sometimes on the date of death, sometimes days later, sometimes revealing the cause (which in some cases was officially covid but in others not) and other times vague. In addition, some were paid a public tribute while others went unnoticed.
In particular, the July deaths aroused the greatest suspicion, as the bodies of the first five deceased generals were immediately cremated without honors.
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Armando Añel, author of the book “Secret Diary of the Cuban Revolution — Romances, crimes, intrigues and infidelities.” (Facebook).
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 26 March 2022 — “Exposing Castroism not only as a dictatorial system and as a regime, but also as a family,” is the purpose of the exiled Cuban journalist and editor in the US, Armando Añel, with his recently published “Secret Diary of the Revolution Cuban: Romances, crimes, intrigues and infidelities.”
Armando Añel, also the director of the publishing house Neo Club Ediciones, describes this book as “a work to coordinate everything scattered” about Fidel Castro and his family and “summarize” it.
“The idea for the book began years ago with a commission for a biography of Fidel Castro, starting with his father (Ángel Castro). I had already written three chapters when the project fell apart,” Añel explained in a statement to EFE.
“There are independent sources, other official ones, one source is even Raúl (Castro) directly, in the reports on the microfraction (dissident movement at the beginning of the revolution), which appeared published in the official press,” he details.
“Secret Diary of the Cuban Revolution: Romances, Crimes, Intrigues and Infidelities” (Neo Club Ediciones, 2022) chronologically links the historical moments of the Cuban Revolution with little-known passages from the private life of Fidel Castro. continue reading
Although apparently “everything” was said and written, collating the sources, contrasting them and incorporating new ones, offers another dimension of the man who marked the days of a country for more than 60 years.
One of the sources used by Añel is the memoir “The Hidden Life of Fidel Castro” by Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, who was a bodyguard for the leader of the revolution between 1977 and 1994 and died in Miami in 2015.
“I would say that of all that has been published about Fidel Castro and his family in 63 years, Sánchez is the one who has reached the most depth on the subject of intimacy, and the Castros do not forgive that, not just Fidel,” comments Anel.
In the book he dedicates space to the deaths in “strange circumstances” of people such as General José Abrahantes, ousted during the well-known “Ochoa case,” or the Venezuelan military officer Raúl Isaías Baduel, who “replaced Chávez and was betrayed by Fidel.”
Separate chapters are dedicated to the deaths of Camilo Cienfuegos, Fidel Castro’s right arm and popular commander at the beginning of the revolution, and of the opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, which occurred 53 years apart.
A childhood episode that Fidel Castro told the Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet is one of the things that has most caught Añel’s attention during his task of soaking up information.
The leader of the revolution accused a primary school teacher, Eufrasia Feliú, of stealing the money that his father sent him to go on vacation.
“The first official repudiation rally of Castroism against dissidence occurs with this teacher. Ramón and Fidel Castro lay in ambush outside the teacher’s house and start stoning her. It shocked me a lot when I read it, and told by him,” he remarks.
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The activist Yoandris Gutiérrez Vargas, one of those prosecuted in Bayamo for the July 11 demonstrations. (Facebook)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 26 March 2022 — On Friday, the organization Amnesty International (AI) asked to enter Cuba to follow the trials against the demonstrators accused of the anti-government protests of last July 11.
In a statement, AI reported that it has also asked the Cuban government to let in other human rights observers to follow up on the trials.
The London-based organization called the proceedings “unjust” and “opaque.”
“The Cuban authorities have continued their campaign of criminalization with the sole purpose of reestablishing the culture of fear,” Erika Guevara Rosas, director of AI for the Americas, criticized in the document.
Since December, trials of July 11 (11J) protesters have been taking place in Cuba, with hundreds of defendants. Several NGOs – as AI is doing now – have denounced lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and very high penalties.
According to the NGOs Justicia 11J and Cubalex, a total of 1,442 people have been detained in relation to the protests. Of these, at least 756 remain in detention centers. continue reading
On the other hand, Prisoners Defenders points out that at least 842 people were in prison on the island at the end of 2021 for political reasons, mostly for the events of 11J.
The Cuban Attorney General’s Office reported that 790 people have been prosecuted for the July 11 protests, of which 55 are between 16 and 17 years old.
The defendants, investigated mainly for sedition and theft, were accused of “serious disturbances and acts of vandalism, with the purpose of destabilizing public order, collective security and citizen tranquility,” according to the Supreme Court.
According to Amnesty International, these types of accusations serve to “squelch dissent.”
The NGO also noted that Cuba is the only country on the American continent where it is not allowed to enter.
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The long prison sentences that the Cuban courts have been imposing on the July 11th (11J) protesters in Havana are taking their toll on the courts’ public image, even there, where they preserve it. That some people from the ruling party’s orbit, among whom is troubadour of the Revolution, Silvio Rodríguez, who has publicly criticized the sentences, has encouraged the regime to start a campaign to justify the sentences.
This Friday, Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party published a piece, which, despite being titled Victimizing the Victimizers is the Enemy’s Strategy, is not included in the opinion section, which defends the thesis that people judged for the acts of July 11th “put the stability of the nation at risk.”
The article begins with three brief testimonies of people allegedly attacked in the maelstrom of the demonstrations, two of them, police officers from Havana, who were involved in the altercations. Two others are public officials who, according to Granma, were carrying out tasks related to the pandemic, although they were not injured in that context but rather for “defending the material assets of the people.”
The text also mentions the alleged attack on the Cárdenas hospital, of which there is no graphic testimony, only the statements of several people to Cuban television
One of them, Reynaldo Rosado Roselló, head of logistics at the University of Informatics Sciences and who suffered a wound to the forehead, reported in July that the events occurred when he went with several colleagues to the area of the disturbances, although Granma infers that the demonstrators were the ones who appeared before institutions that housed patients.
The article also mentions the alleged attack on the Cárdenas hospital, for which there is no graphic testimony, only the statements of several people on Cuban television.
According to the Granma note, on July 11th, “violence, disorder and vandalism prevailed” and they accuse “the enemies of the Revolution” of trying to “portray the Cuban people’s demands as just.” Although the article admits that there was a lot of discontent among the population, it argues that the people who peacefully expressed their discomfort withdrew when they saw that “that unbridled mob had no sincere demand, but rather responded to external interests that were not at all beneficial to the people.” continue reading
The ruling party defends itself by insisting that the people who have been severely penalized were violent and looters, not political prisoners
The ruling party defends itself by insisting that the people who have been severely penalized were violent and looters, not political prisoners. However, the highest sentences in the case of Havana recently, or in Holguín last month, have not been for those who were accused of committing violent acts, but for sedition.
This is one of the most serious type of crime in the legal codes of every country, because it involves standing up against the government in order to overthrow it. But the demonstrations against the authorities in democratic countries, in which slogans and insults are shouted against the leaders who are held responsible for the problems of the population, are part of freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate. In the event that they result in some act of vandalism or violence, the fine or penalty for that act is applied but the protester is not accused of sedition, as has happened in Cuba in these processes.
However, the Granma note insists: “Impunity, when order and citizens’ peace are at stake, is something that we will never allow, because no one is above the law in Cuba.”
The article emphasizes that the protesters actions were instigated from abroad, which aggravates the situation
The article emphasizes that the protesters actions were instigated from abroad, which aggravates the situation. “Those who provoked such acts, who incited chaos, were in many cases far from Cuba, calmly and coldly observing the result of their actions and, of course, counting the dollars they received as payment,” the newspaper says, before emphasizing that Cubans decide their destiny in their own way “with creativity, with depth of thought, with peace, with love and commitment… Anyone who thinks that it can be otherwise is guilty of being naive,” it warns.
The article is an extension of the podcast published hours earlier by Cubadebate in which statements by alleged witnesses and victims of the “violent acts that cannot be denied” are inserted. The prolific dissemination of audios of those who corroborate the government’s version is striking, compared to the absolute absence of those who deny it. In that program, they also show notable annoyance with the Spanish newspaper El País, which published an editorial this Thursday against the 11J trials entitled “Ruined Lives in Cuba.”
The interviewees do not explain that what bothers them is the journalistic approach but, curiously, that the newspaper is dealing with a topic that is outside its borders “given all the problems Spain has.” This same Friday, Cubadebate highlights the million deaths from Covid-19 in the US and the marches in Serbia on the anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.
The interviewees do not explain that what bothers them is the informative treatment but, curiously, that the newspaper is dealing with a topic that is outside its borders “given all the problems Spain has”
The program also dedicates several minutes to accusing the United States of hypocrisy for asking Cubans on their social networks not to risk traveling illegally to the country, while the country fails to comply with immigration agreements, leaving those who intend to leave the country without the legal channels to do so. Adding that, of course, that people leave for economic reasons, “which they try to say is political exile.”
The message is in line with the umpteenth statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Thursday, highlighting that Cubans are traveling to Guyana to access US consular services in that country, because of the lack of measures aimed at reactivating services in Havana.
To counteract the effect of intellectuals, inside and outside of Cuba, critics of the 11J sentences, whose discontent was reflected in their Manifesto Against Silence, for justice, signed by more than 40 personalities from, among other fields, the cinema, the press and literature. The Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the Hermanos Saíz Association have published their own articles.
“We can discuss any opinion about our reality, and we do so with total freedom. But we do not accept the maneuver of only using concerns to serve as an instrument for the enemies of the Homeland”
In it, they accuse the signatories of the Manifesto – “of different origins, of dissimilar professional results, most of them residing outside of Cuba” – of assuming the representation of Cuba’s intelligentsia, which, immediately afterwards, they attribute to themselves.
What they describe as a pamphlet turns out to be, in their opinion, “a condensed falsification in a few lines, without a hint of serious analysis” of the “riots of July 11th and 12th“, and they ignore “the embargo and the external aggression.”.
“We can discuss any opinion about our reality, and we do so with total freedom. But we do not accept the maneuver of using fair concerns to serve as an instrument for the enemies of the Homeland. They are not interested in the poor, nor do they intend, in any way, to solve the problems that affect the conditions of their material and spiritual life,” the article concludes.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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La Crema sings to the stampede of Cubans leaving the Island. (Screen capture)
14ymedio, Havana, 21 March 2022 — It hasn’t been a month since reggaeton singer La Crema wrote lyrics to the stampede of Cubans through Nicaragua and he already has a new song about the unstoppable wave of emigration that the Island is experiencing. The explanation, for the popular artist, is very simple: “The prices go up, while others fill their bellies.”
Luis Alberto Vicet Vives, the real name of the artist, released Se van [They leave] this Friday on his social networks, his most recent musical theme about the Cuban migratory phenomenon. In the video clip, comical images of people packing suitcases alternate with those of airplanes taking off and landing. The rapper appears in a large part of the video singing and dancing in an airport terminal simulated with the chroma key technique.
“They leave in search of opportunities, those who can sell their properties leave,” the musician sings. Among the causes of the mass departure, he cites criminal acts and “outbursts,” although above all he refers to the increase in the cost of living.
“The prices in the store triple like magic. We are living in Cuba with the prices of Dubai,” he says ironically at another time. In addition, La Crema considers that it is the only way to succeed in life. “Many people who have left already have their company. What you will have in the yuma [USA] you will never have in Cuba,” he points out.
This Tuesday, the US Department of Customs and Border Protection confirmed that 16,657 Cubans arrived in the country illegally in one month. Since October 2021, and in the last five months, the number has risen to 47,431, of which the vast majority, 46,752, made it through Mexican border points. continue reading
Every week, the US Coast Guard intercepts Cubans in boats in operations that the governments of both countries consider very dangerous. However, those who make the decision to emigrate prefer to ignore the warnings and risk their lives crossing the sea (or borders, in the case of those who leave by land) rather than live in the current conditions on the Island.
“They’re leaving because they’re going crazy here and at the rate we’re going, Cuba is going to be empty,” the artist sings.
The avalanche of emigrants, after two years with the borders shielded by the pandemic, also coincides with a worsening of the economic crisis, which includes a rise in the cost of living, the devaluation of the peso and an increase in uncertainty about the future financial state of the country in the short and medium term.
In addition, repression has intensified and some who protested against the government on July 11, more for economic than political reasons, have ended up suffering the consequences of complaining to the authorities, who are ready to interpret any criticism as an attack on the system.
But not only opponents flee; those who have been state spokespersons have also found a refuge in their escape to express themselves freely, such is the case of Radio Rebelde announcer and television presenter Alejandro Quintana Morales, who arrived this week in the United States, “a country where, at last, I can feel free,” he wrote on his Facebook profile.
Previously, and amid criticism, the journalist and official Cuban television presenter Yunior Smith revealed that he was on the southern border of the United States, trying to request political asylum, after having criticized, in his programs, Washington’s policies towards Havana, while praising the Cuban regime.
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Part of the police operation surrounding the house of reporter Luz Escobar. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana, 25 March 2022 — This Friday, several activists and independent journalists in Cuba have a strong police guard around their home.
The 14ymedio reporter Luz Escobar denounced that there is an officer dressed in civilian clothes in the lobby of her building accompanied by a uniformed woman from the Ministry of the Interior, a police officer on the 5th floor and three others on the ground floor of the building, standing next to a patrol car. They were greeted by about four agents not wearing the uniform of State Security.
“What’s going on?” the journalist asked in her networks, counting about four police cars outside her home. She would obtain an explanation hours later from a neighbor, who complained about being singled out for attacking the patrol that the reporter has on a daily basis on the ground floor of her house. “That is why that immense operation with officers that I denounced on my networks arrived,” Escobar added.
“Right now, we are prisoners in the house, all of us, two children, an elderly woman, until when, that is called abuse,” lamented Maray Picallo on her Facebook wall, explaining: “They say that, from my apartment, a bottle and two eggs fell from above on the patrol car that was under the building, they would not let me go out to take my 8-year-old son’s lunch to him at school, we are detained, I had to go crying, and then an officer took me as if I were a criminal to the school to pick up the boy.” continue reading
The woman said that four officers assured her that they saw the bottle fall. “How is it possible!” she cried. “As they are not going to let us leave the house, I go as far as I have to go, my father-in-law has high blood pressure because of them, and two police officers stand in front of my husband’s workplace making inquiries.”
In addition to Escobar, also under heavy surveillance on the same day are Camila Acosta, Boris González Arenas, Lourdes Esquivel Vieyto, Lázaro Rolando Kesser Barrueto, Zaqueo Báez, Ismael Reñi and Camila Rodríguez, as reported by the latter on her Facebook wall.
From Santa Clara, Saily González replied to Rodríguez’s post: “I have been under surveillance for two weeks that is invisible to me and they ask everyone who comes to my house, when they leave here, for their ID, take pictures of them and tell them, in case they don’t know it, that I am a ’contra.’ He identifies himself as Agent Guevara. I personally haven’t seen them.”
“What’s going on?” asked the journalist on her networks, counting about four police cars outside the ground floor of her home. (14ymedio)
“There are no apparent pretexts for this repressive action. We must be alert to any escalation,” protested Manuel Cuesta Morúa when reporting the police harassment of González Arenas, spokesperson for the Democratic Action Unity Table and a member of @CubaTransition.
The operations around the houses have also coincided with the interruption of the web browsing service, which several reporters and activists have denounced. As of this Thursday, the Internet connection from mobile phones was affected by a presumed electrical failure, and several clients of the state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, complain of the service not being restored.
The problem is more widespread in some areas of Havana, such as the vicinity of the Plaza de Cuatro Caminos, where hundreds of people gathered yesterday in a long line to buy food. The crowd led to an extensive police operation due to the authorities’ fear of a popular revolt in a densely populated area of Havana.
Esto por la salida del fondo del edificio. Ahora, por la salida del frente hay dos carros del Minint y otra pareja de policías. ¿Qué está pasando? pic.twitter.com/rhFdUIZmvK
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Miguel Camacho and his father, Rolando, left the island in February and Rolando was killed in a traffic accident in Managua. (Collage)
14ymedio, Havana, 25 March 2022 — “I’m going to fulfill what I promised you,” was the message Cuban baseball player Miguel Camacho wrote to his father when confirming his arrival in the United States on Thursday. Rolando ’Roly’ Camacho died on the journey on February 7, in a traffic accident on the Pan-American highway, near the municipality of Tipitapa and near the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, in Managua, Nicaragua.
Roly was the pitching coach in Mayabeque and had left the Island at the beginning of February in the company of his son, who has the abilities to seek an opportunity in the Major Leagues. On the way to the US, they arrived in Managua and boarded a vehicle headed for the municipality of Jalapa, near the border with Honduras, according to the news site TN8.
“A speeding truck crossed into the lane and was crashed against the car where he was traveling. The alleged culprit fled,” posted the friend of the athletes, Nelson De La Rosa Rodríguez. “Migue was with him. Thank God he was not physically injured, but he is emotionally devastated.” continue reading
Seventeen days after the tragedy, Miguel Camacho fulfilled his goal of reaching the United States and thanked his father for his teachings. “You created a warrior. Those who never surrender.”
Already in the United States, “Camacho will seek to sign a professional contract and fulfill his father’s legacy,” says journalist Francys Romero, recalling that the player “played in four National Series with the Hurricanes of Mayabeque.” And, on the Mayabeque teams Facebook wall, “Los Hurricanes” posted a space to wish the 22-year-old baseball player success.
This Thursday it was confirmed that the players who left the island in November 2021, Darlin Jimenez and Gustavo Urgellés , “are already in Mexico,” according to Romero, “they had a two-month stay in Russia before joining Brian Chi.”
Jímenez posted an offensive line of .329/.390/.471, six doubles, two triples and five RBIs in the 60th National Series with Granma. “This performance pushed him to be included in Cuba’s pre-roster for the U-23 World Cup in Mexico in October,” the communicator said. “Urgellés is a catcher who joined Cuban teams in children’s categories and later participated in the U-15 Pan American Games in Mexico.”
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This photograph of López’s departure from Cuba was published by Alaydin Cabrera, the migrant’s cousin . (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 24 March 2022 — The Cuban Elián López Cabrera was intercepted this Wednesday by the US Coast Guard just 15 miles from Islamorada, Florida, riding a windsurf board.
“Urgent. Islamorada Station rescued a man on a windsurf board on Wednesday, approximately 15 miles south of Islamorada. He was transferred to Emergency Medical Services in a high level of care condition. He was wearing a life jacket, had a GPS and cell phones,” the Coast Guard reported on its Twitter account.
López was trying to reach the United States in hopes of receiving medical treatment, according to his relatives. The Cuban was operated on for colon cancer, they revealed to the Univisión channel.
The US Coast Guard intercepted the Cuban 15 miles from Islamorada. (@USCGSoutheast)
López was a diving instructor in Varadero for more than 27 years, according to a professional profile on networks.
Alaydin Cabrera, the migrant’s cousin, posted on social networks an image of her cousin accompanied by a message in which she asks for help after stating that he arrived dehydrated after the journey.
“His current condition is quite complex because he is the only diver in Cuba with a colostomy for life and he has no resources to survive in Cuba, where his life is becoming more and more difficult. He decided to go out to sea to seek help. If he is deported they are throwing a sick young man into the hardships of a system that cannot address his current state,” her text says.
Cabrera also published a photograph of López’s departure from Cuba.
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Lisbet Machado, 28, was murdered on March 14. (Facebook)
14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2022 — The Cuban Women’s Network has denounced this Tuesday the murder of a woman, allegedly at the hands of her partner, four days ago in Cárdenas, Matanzas. The young woman, whose name has not been provided, was 24 years old and died after being shot by a hunting shotgun, which pierced her lungs. Although she arrived at the hospital alive, an operation could not save her life, the collective’s tweet states.
That femicide became known a few hours after another, which occurred on March 14 in Havana, was learned of. The 28-year-old victim’s name was Lisbet Machado and she lived in the municipality of Playa. The alleged murderer, who committed suicide after the attack, had been a partner of the young woman and the father of one of her children, according to information provided by the feminist publication Alas Tensas.
Some sources consulted said that the man, known as Pedro, showed up at the victim’s house to see his son and, on opening the door, cut the woman’s throat. Then the man cut his own throat.
“They had to call the firefighters and the police because they couldn’t open the house, and they took the girl out, but she arrived at the hospital dead,” said witnesses to the events who affirm that the victim’s eldest son, from another relationship, witnessed the murder. continue reading
With these two, Alas Tensas has verified six femicides so far this year, those of Mailén Guerra García, Mislaidis Carmenate, Darlín García, and a 21-year-old girl in San Luis, Santiago de Cuba, whose name is not verified.
In 2021, the same publication recorded 36 murders of women, of which 29 were committed by partners or former partners. In 2020, the figure was 32, although it is impossible to verify if the number has increased or if the problem is more becoming visible since there are independent organizations that keep count, since the Government does not have a public registry of this type of murder and, for the moment, the creation of a Sexist Violence Law is moving slowly and is not expected to be available until at least 2026.
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The planned donation sparked a strong controversy in the country. (The South African)
EFE (via 14ymedio), Pretoria, 22 March 2022 — On Tuesday, a South African Court ordered a stop to the donation of 50 million rands (3.25 million dollars) that the Government of President Cyril Ramaphosa was going to make to Cuba, according to the plaintiffs that acted against that initiative.
The decision was adopted by Gauteng High Court Judge Brenda Neukircher after the Afrikaner pressure group Afriforum denounced the Executive’s plans and asked the courts for an urgent order to paralyze it.
Neukircher’s measure does not cancel the plans, but leaves them “on hold” until the courts have decided on the complaint.
“We are very pleased that we managed to stop this illegal and scandalous donation,” Reiner Duvenage, Afriforum’s strategy coordinator, said in a statement.
The Afrikaner lobby was “optimistic” about the future of their complaint and promised to “continue to fight wasteful and excessive spending that squanders taxpayers’ money.” continue reading
The planned donation had been arranged by the South African Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation and came from its African Renaissance and International Cooperation Fund.
“South Africa responded to the call for humanitarian assistance in the context of reciprocity and historical friendship and solidarity with Cuba, which was established through the sacrifices of Cuba during our struggle for freedom,” said Naledi Pandor, head of that portfolio, in a written response on the matter to the main South African opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.
For Afriforum as well as for dozens of civil organizations and opposition groups, the news of the donation to Cuba — which was announced at the beginning of February — intended to alleviate hunger on the Island, represents a negligence toward the needs of the African country itself, that has not yet managed to overcome the crisis of the pandemic and that suffers from deep problems of inequality, unemployment and poverty.
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Exemptions to the U.S. trade embargo allow for aid in the form of food, medicine and medical equipment to be sent to “private citizens and religious groups.” (EFE)
14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2022 — The United States “is clearing the way” for increased food exports to Cuba.” The U.S. embassy in Havana made the announcement in a tweet in which it also stated that agricultural products worth almost 300 million dollars were exported to Cuba in 2021.
“The Cuban people face a scarcity of food, medicine and other daily essentials,” wrote Brian A. Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. “Through prioritized licenses and exports the U.S. government has and will continue to provide these life-giving needs for the Cuban people,” he added.
Another and broader statement issued by the embassy notes that the embargo on Cuba allows exemptions for “private citizens and religious groups” which include shipments of “food, medicine and medical equipment that the Cuban people desperately need during a historic crisis.”
Besides food and medicine, the U.S. also “routinely” allows exports of telecommunication items “to improve communication to, from and among the Cuban people provided they do not go to prohibited Cuban officials or high-ranking members of the Cuban Communist Party,” the statement explains.
Likewise, the Biden Administration says that the U.S. State Department is working with NGOs and private-sector companies to “accelerate the export of basic goods and medical equipment such as syringes, personal protective equipment and much-needed food.” It adds that the State Department , together with the Department of Transportation, has granted approval for two private charter airlines to deliver more than 2.7 tons of aid to cities throughout Cuba.
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Customers hoping to get containers filled with fuel. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Havana/Madrid, 23 March 2022 — Despite the fact that the Havana authorities prohibited the sale of fuel in containers on Wednesday, some Cupet service stations ignore it and, without making much effort to go unnoticed, offer the service to customers.
According to this newspaper, the employees arrange the hose so that it seems that they are filling the vehicle’s tank, when in fact they are dispensing into plastic containers through the windows or inside the trunks.
In the early hours of the day, 14ymedio reporters verified that gas stations respected the ban on selling fuel in containers, despite requests from some individuals. However, as the hours passed, the controls began to relax.
The employees arrange the hose so that it seems that they are filling the tank of the vehicle, when in fact they are dispensing in plastic containers inside the trunks. (14ymedio)
It was clear, unlike days before, that there was an absence of police officers guarding the long lines of vehicles. However, a piece of paper posted in all gas stations made it clear: it is forbidden to fill containers.
Two days after lines for fuel began to proliferate in Havana , the capital’s Temporary Work Group attributed the fuel shortage to the breakdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, the largest in Cuba, which no longer served the National Electric System as of Thursday. continue reading
In a note published on Havana Channel, the authorities argue that, as a result of the electricity generation deficit, the use of diesel-powered generators increased. In addition, specialized transport must also make more trips to keep them going, so measures have been taken to “guarantee basic transport services.”
The note indicates that two service stations, Intermitente, in Guanabo, and El Arbolito, in Playa, will provide services exclusively to rental cars for tourism, although those drivers can also go to any other station that has fuel. This newspaper confirmed that in this last Cupet visited this instruction is strictly complied with, despite the pleas of some individuals to sell them gasoline.
This is as far as the explanations in the official press go. This newspaper sounded the alarm about fuel rationing in the capital this Monday, when the only known measure was the official regulation announced for the province of Matanzas. In this case, citizens were warned that only 10 liters of gasoline and 20 liters of diesel will be dispensed in containers and a maximum of 20 liters of gasoline and 40 liters of diesel in the vehicle tank.
In Havana, on the other hand, the quantities seem to be at discretion, since no limits have been officially established. This Tuesday, on a tour of several service stations, the employees told 14ymedio that there was no diesel, while one of them specifically reported the sale of 20 liters of gasoline per vehicle. This Wednesday, however, the “directive” was different: both diesel and gasoline would be dispatched until the tanks were filled, but not in containers.
The “directive” of this Wednesday in Havana is different from that of Tuesday: now both diesel and gasoline will be dispatched until the tanks are filled, but in no way in containers. (14ymedio)
Just like days ago, the lines in front of the service stations are run for miles. In the Cupet station at 31st and 18th, in the municipality of Playa, for example, the line of vehicles reached 42nd street this Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the annoyance is so evident in the long lines these days — in which there are taxi drivers, ordinary citizens, and officials with state cars — and it is also evident in the reactions to the information on Canal Habana.
The report accumulates dozens of comments from people outraged, among other things, by the decision to stop filling containers. “Do you mean that if I run out 2 kilometers from the Cupet, I can’t go with a container to look for fuel? Do I have to push the car 2 kilometers to fill fuel?” lamented a user.
In the Cupet of 31 and 18, in the municipality of Playa, for example, the line of vehicles reached 42nd street this Wednesday. (14ymedio)
Several taxi drivers have criticized the decision that relegates them to the status of rental cars and have claimed the importance of their work in a city where public transport is clearly insufficient for the mobility of more than two million people.
“And the taxis that are linked to the Scientific Centers that work twelve hours, do we have to stand in line for several hours after work? The same happens for those workplaces linked to healthcare. Not to mention when the work is in another province, you need an audience with the provincial governor to authorize 10 liters. Yes, only ten liters 800 km away from the capital,” commented a taxi driver.
“And the taxis that are working on important tasks for the country, such as those of us at the Finlay Institute of Vaccines and CiGB, and with the MINSAP in the fight and prevention of covid and other tasks? Lining up in endless lines, just like those who provide services to tourism in air terminals?” adds another.
Many have lamented that the country never has good news to give and some dare to predict a new “July 11,” in reference to the social outbreak that led last year to the largest demonstrations against the Government in decades.
There are also users who have requested that the tanker cars of the Armed Forces be used, an idea that has generated some ridicule. “No, friend, their reservation is not touched by anything in the world.”
Although several see a medium-term solution. “But the generators don’t work with gasoline or if they do, will it be to store fuel to fill up 50,000 cars for May 1st*?” one asks. And another adds: “Will the problem be solved by May 1? I know, I know the answer.”
*Translator’s note: May 1st, “Labor Day,” is Cuba’s most important national holiday with marches and rallies involving thousands.
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In Havana, nervous glances at cell phones and questions showed people’s anxiety at not having service. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 March 2022 — In Cuba, the telecommunications services of the state monopoly Etecsa stopped working this Thursday morning for about an hour, a problem that the company attributes to an energy failure and that increases uncertainty about the capacity of the Island’s National Electric System.
“Etecsa informs that due to a power failure there has been instability in the voice service, SMS, mobile data, as well as recharges and purchase of packages. At this time, the affected equipment has already been restored, which will allow the services to be restored progressively,” the company explained on its official Twitter account.
The first problems have begun to be noticed in the lack of data connection in Havana, where the newsroom of 14ymedio has kept in touch through text messages.
However, several users on social networks reported the impossibility of making calls or sending SMS texts.
“The problems with the Internet connection for Mobile Data continue. Right now they do not work. I report from Pinar del Río,” said a user. Another confirmed that it was also happening in Ciego de Ávila. One more tweeted that it was only possible to connect via wi-fi.
In Havana, nervous glances at cell phones and questions showed people’s anxiety at not having service. “Something big must be happening,” said a nurse at the gates of the Calixto García hospital.
Many Cubans have feared that the cutoff was intentional, as happened during the July 11 protests to prevent further information about the demonstrations from circulating. At that time, the Island remained “blind” for three days. continue reading
However, ultimately, and according to the company’s version, the problem is of another type, although no less serious. Last week, with the loss of the National Electric System of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Mariel due to a breakdown, added to the stoppage for works after the fire in the Máximo Gómez plant in Mariel, in Artemisa province, fears began of a new era of great blackouts and energy rationing.
The last week has also been marked by the lack of fuel and rationing of gasoline and diesel in Havana and Matanzas, attributed to power plant failures.
The drop in service also coincides with the international Informatica 2022 event, a convention in which Etecsa intends to set the guidelines for digital transformation in Cuba.
Despite the fact that the company has apologized, users’ spirits have not calmed down, since some of them say that they have been charged for megabytes consumed during a period of time in which they could not connect to anything.
A little over a year ago, in February 2021, there was another outage for technical reasons that left the country without internet as well. At that time there was not even a Wi-Fi or cable connection, and the official pages were offline for at least two hours.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The new ice cream prices have been on the menu board since this week.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 March 2022 — “It doesn’t taste like milk, it tastes like a powder that they give to the elderly on the ration book called lactosoy. That’s the flavor,” complains Ernesto, a Havanan at the gates of Coppelia. A local regular and fan of ice cream, the young man went to the popular ice cream parlor for the first time since the price increase on Thursday, but his discomfort could not have been greater.
After paying 90 pesos for two five-ball ’salads’, his conclusion was that it was made with soy milk, a product that, in addition to his disliking it, “it dislikes me.” He hates those inventions of the Special Period: soy mincemeat, soy burgers and croquettes, even soy yogurt. And now the soy ice cream.
“This ice cream doesn’t have milk. The other day I was here, when they announced that they were going to raise prices and in the end they didn’t, and the ice cream had milk, it was good that day. And now they raise the price and it doesn’t have milk,” he protests.
Last Friday, the capital city’s government announced that Coppelia’s ice cream scoop would have a price of 9 pesos, while Varadero’s ice cream, of lower quality, would be priced at 7. The Internal Trade Business Group indicated that the cost “of fresh milk had risen, which impacts the wholesale costs of industrial production of milk, as is the case of ice cream.”
When customers like Ernesto went to the store on Saturday, located in Havana’s Vedado district, they breathed a sigh of relief to see that the prices were the same and the quality was not inferior. The measure was postponed until Tuesday, according to what the employees told 14ymedio, and this was confirmed today, when this newspaper visited the ice cream parlor again. However, complaints about the taste of the product were the dominant note. continue reading
“I asked the employee if they were adding soy instead of milk and she laughed. I asked the custodian and he told me that they had been adding soy for a while,” insists the customer.
Ernesto’s order of five-scoop ice cream ‘salads’ was not to his liking. After paying 90 pesos, the ice cream tasted like soy. (14ymedio)
This newspaper consulted with the Coppelia worker about the preparation of the product, but she claimed not to know. “I can’t tell you what’s in the ice cream, if it has milk or soy, because here what we do is sell the ice cream. If you want to know what’s in it, you have to call the factory,” she said.
The answer is unusual, since the store is depriving their customers of knowing the composition of a product and exposing them to possible risks if, for example, they have an allergy or intolerance.
At the Complejo Lácteo company, which manufactures Coppelia ice cream, a worker insists that what is being said “on social networks is a lie” and the ice cream has the same formulation as always.
However, since the beginning of the year, several provinces have been alerted to the change in the preparation of Coppelia ice cream and the authorities admitted in a report by Telecubanacán, in Villa Clara, that the change is not a response to a desire to diversify the offer with plant-based milk or eliminate milk with lactose or animal origin, a trend in many European countries.
“The reality is that the ice cream we have right now is not what the population expects, but it has good quality. It is an ice cream made with 50% soy and 50% milk, flavorings and stabilizers. The problem is that consumers are used to ice cream made only with cream, but right now we don’t have that possibility because right now the country doesn’t have enough raw material (milk),” he said.
On that occasion, the official admitted that the price increase was linked to the price of soy milk, more expensive than cow’s milk in general terms. “The price of ice cream is according to the cost of the raw material and that is set through Provincial Finance and really the decision of the cost lists already comes from Havana. It is at the country level.”
But it is forced by the shortage of cow’s milk.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2022 — Five children from Matanzas suffered poisoning this Monday that caused respiratory problems. The children were transferred to the Eliseo Noel Caamaño pediatric hospital in that city, and four were discharged on Tuesday afternoon, Periódico Girón published on its Facebook wall.
