14ymedio

Cuba Must Import More than 500,000 Tons of Rice this Year

14ymedio, Madrid, 22 February 2022 — In the recent donations arriving in Cuba, there is no lack of one product: rice. The most recent shipment of this type was 300 tons purchased in Colombia by the Chinese company Yutong and destined for Havana. A drop in the middle of the ocean, since the island needs 700,000 tons of rice per year and this year it expects to harvest only 180,000, according to a report published in the State newspaper Granma that analyzes the problems in obtaining a product that is basic in the national diet, culturally and nutritionally.

Cubans have already learned the amount necessary to cover the demand for the basic basket and social consumption, but not even in its wildest dreams is the Island in a position to even reach half of that. The best recent historical year was 2018, when 304,000 tons were produced, but by 2019 there was a sharp drop, with 246,700 tons. With the pandemic the free fall accelerated, with 162,965 tons in 2020 and about 120,000 in 2021.

If the forecasts of the Ministry of Commerce were to be achieved this year, one could almost speak of a milestone, and the aspiration of the national rice program, which targets 600,000 tons to be contributed by the Cuban industry in 2030 — 86% of the annual demand — would be quite a miracle.

With such national production data, Cuba has no choice but to import, but this is not an easy task either. According to the deputy prime minister and head of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, in the international market rice has gone from 468 dollars a ton in 2019 to 633 dollars today. It would cost Cuba more than 316 million dollars to import the 500,000 tons of rice it needs to meet domestic demand this year. continue reading

“For the Cuban family, this complex economic context implies having to continue to deal with the tensions generated by not having the availability of unrationed rice on the open market,” warns the official press.

Antonio Rodríguez Mojena, president of a cooperative belonging to the José Manuel Capote Sosa company, in Granma province, and interviewed for the occasion, believes that the 63 measures approved by the Government last April to improve agricultural production have been useful but still very insufficient, since the high cost of soil preparation, the use of machinery and the prices of inputs and services have harmed the sector.

“Profits are low, which does not compensate for the sacrifice of a campaign, nor does it encourage us to continue growing in areas. On the other hand, it can also become a breeding ground for the illicit sale of part of the harvest,” he adds.

Maikel Suárez Torres, director of industry of the state company, explains that, although they met the forecasts for meat, milk, fruit and charcoal, the year closed with 20 million in losses due the production of rice.

The purchase price to the producers rose and at the same time the state subsidy for grain was lowered, which generated very bad results. “If we take into account that the sale price of rice is centralized and that the industry also assumes 10% of the payment for impurities in the grain, together with the increase in the price of electricity and expenses for fuel, inputs and workers’ wages, the result is that the more rice we sell, the more losses we have as a company,” he explains.

The text of the official newspaper of the Communist Party softens the fateful data by putting forward the story of a producer from Río Cauto, Granma province, who claims to have emerged successfully from a disastrous campaign. The farmer, Antonio González Guerra, argues that it is necessary to know how to take advantage of the new government policies, although his case seems more like an exception than the rule, as evidenced by the data in the report.

“The policy must be grounded. There are the 63 measures and the will of the country’s top leadership to comply with them, but the challenge is to ensure that what is stipulated in the papers becomes a reality in the productive bases,” he says.

Next, the problems of the sector are detailed, among which they cite the mismanagement of some companies. “It cannot be that for a company to comply with the payment to its workers or avoid losses, the alternative is to raise four, five or more times the price of the bad service that it already provided to the producer. In the end, it is the crop that bears with that inefficiency that increases costs and affects yield per hectare,” says González Guerra.

The State will allocate 447 million pesos to the cultivation of rice for this campaign, but even with that it will not reach a quarter of what the country needs.

In addition, the donated rice does not entirely satisfy Cuban consumers. As a general rule, the product that arrives by this route is of low quality, with many broken grains and a ’sticky’ quality, a characteristic that is not appreciated on Cuban tables where the shelled composition is preferred, essential to make the Moors and Christians, Island’s typical rice dish — known as ’Moors and Christians’ — the other component of which, beans, is also scarce.

The increase in the price of substitutes such as taro, cassava and sweet potatoes, together with the drop in the presence of potatoes in the markets, have contributed to increasing demand and the price of rice, which at the end of last year came close to 100 pesos a pound, an amount not seen since the crisis of the 1990s. Now, in traditional rice-growing territories such as Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, the grain remains above 50 pesos a pound in the markets.

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Silence in Front of the Russian and Ukrainian Embassies in Cuba, Separated by 400 Meters

Diplomatic headquarters of Ukraine located on Fifth Avenue, in the municipality of Playa, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 February 2022 — “No to war” and “Fascist Putin” are some of the cries that are chanted on this day in front of Russian embassies around the world to condemn the invasion of Ukraine that began at dawn this Thursday. This is not the case in Havana. The area around the emblematic diplomatic headquarters look deserted, nobody with a loudspeaker or a poster, nobody condemning the war that has begun.

Nor is there a single Cuban offering messages of support in front of the Ukrainian diplomatic headquarters, on Fifth Avenue, about four hundred meters from the Russian one. Located in an area where almost all the houses are embassies or state institutions, a highly guarded place with few neighbors, the house was totally closed this Thursday and nobody was seen around, not even the guards.

The reaction in countries like Poland, the United States, Germany, Spain and France was immediate, hundreds of citizens took to the streets early in the morning asking Vladimir Putin to put an end to the attacks. Some exiled Cubans were present at the protest at the Russian embassies in Madrid and Paris. A hundred Ukrainians gathered there since morning. Something similar happened at the consulate of that country in Barcelona.

The same scene was repeated at the gates of the Russian Embassy in Rome, where the demonstrators had banners denouncing the military action and Vladimir Putin, promoter of the war.

Also in Prague and other Czech cities a series of demonstrations have taken place in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to show support for Ukraine and, in addition, another one was announced for this Friday in Wenceslas Square with the slogan: enough war in Ukraine.

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Cuban Opponent, Silverio Portal, is Released from Prison After Completing His Sentence

The opponent filmed a video along with his wife, Lucinda González, in which he thanked all those who have been supporting him during this time.

14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2022–Activist Silverio Portal, leader of Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID), was released on Monday after fully serving his four-year prison sentence for contempt and public disorder.

“This is the letter, releasing me from the little prison, to the big prison. Homeland, life, and liberty,” wrote Portal on his Facebook profile along with an image of the document certifying his release from jail.

The opponent filmed a video along with his wife, Lucinda González, in which he thanked all those who have been supporting him during this time. “Silverio and I know we’ve never been alone. Only thanks to you have we triumphed,” said González.

Document that certifies the release for completion of the sentence of Silverio Portal. (SP)

“This shock now, going out into the street and seeing how things are is making me a bit nervous,” added the opponent, who seemed happy to be home, although he announced that what he most desires is “freedom for the Cuban people.”

“We only want life, homeland and liberty, that is our motto since July 11th,” insisted González, to which Portal added being dismayed by the number of people imprisoned since last summer’s anti-government protests. continue reading

The 73-year-old activist was sentenced to four years in jail in 2018 for the alleged crimes of public disorder and contempt, charges frequently used by authorities to incarcerate opponents.

A short time after going to prison, he suffered a stroke which left one side of his face paralyzed and required medical treatment for two cerebral hemorrhages, the result of his high blood pressure.

In mid-2020, Portal experienced partial loss of vision, apparently caused by a beating he received from the prison guards.

The opponent has been one of the political prisoners who has received the most international support recently. At least 150 opponents signed a letter in his favor demanding his release and the UN, the European Parliament, the Inter-american Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International, in addition to the governments of countries such as that of the United States, demanded his immediate release.

On December 1, 2020, Portal received an “extracriminal pass” due to his health condition, which allowed him to return home; however, exactly one year later he was sent back to prison to complete his sentence, as expected, although the opposition considered it punishment for declaring his intentions to participate in the Civic March for Change called by Archipiélago for November 15th. He completed his sentence on February 19th.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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OZT, the Three Letters that Became a Nightmare for the Cuban Regime

A book of condolences for the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, at the headquarters of the Ladies in White on Neptuno Street, in Havana, in February 2010. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 23 February 2022 — In times when everything goes very fast and every minute a new topic of debate or conflict arises on the social networks, it is sometimes difficult to imagine that twelve years ago three letters created the first viral hashtag on Twitter that came out of Cuba. Then, the initials of the name of Orlando Zapata Tamayo won the pulse of official censorship, repression and the computer police.

That 23^rd of February 2010, when the opponent died, after a long hunger strike in prison, the use of digital platforms was in its infancy on this island. The few of us who used the Bluebird’s platform did so blindly, sending phrases through text-only messages (SMS). We could not see if they were finally published, read the answers given by other Internet users or know the final scope of those characters.

Despite all the obstacles, in a few days we managed to get the outrage over the dissident’s death into the world’s news, parliamentary and civic agendas. Politicians, deputies, artists and priests demanded an official response to the injustice of a man languishing for more than 80 days in a prison, without tasting food, under the cruel gaze of his guards.

The hashtag #OZT became a nightmare for a Cuban regime that deployed its militants on the networks to try to silence that cry. Right after that moment, the Plaza of the Revolution undertook the massive creation of online soldiers, popularly known as clarias (catfish). But for at least a few hours, those most dispossessed of resources and technology won the game of dissemination. continue reading

Now, despite the high prices charged by the State telecommunications company Etecsa, and the common connection failures, more than seven million* Cubans have a mobile phone line and more than five million connect to the web through their cell phones. In the virtual square, Cuban civil society has one of the few places to meet and express itself, although in recent years criminal punishments and fines for issuing dissenting opinions have multiplied.

There has also been a proliferation of clashes, bickering, sterile fights between people who seek the same thing: a free and democratic country. That confluence of 12 years ago, around just three letters and a deceased body, seems like a thing of the past. And yet, part of these possibilities that we have today arose on a Tuesday when we learned that a man had stopped breathing. The San Isidro Movement, 27N [27 November] and the social explosion of 11J [11 July] were also born from a Cuban who refused to eat anything until he died.

*Translator’s note: Cuba’s on-Island population is 11.3+ million.

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Cuban Government Restores the Accreditations of three EFE Journalists

The recovery of the accreditations comes at a time of great journalistic interest on the Island. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 22 February 2022 — On Monday, the Cuban authorities restored the accreditations — withdrawn last November — of three journalists from the EFE team on the island, a decisive step towards the normalization of the journalistic activity of the Spanish agency in the country.

The International Press Center (CPI) took this step after a meeting in Havana between its main officials and a delegation from the Spanish public media.

The Cuban authorities also assured that in the next few days the press visa of the new delegate of the EFE office in Havana, which had been requested in September, will be processed.

In addition, the Cuban authorities indicated that they will approve the credentials of the new editorial coordinator as soon as the agency provides him with the necessary documentation. continue reading

When these two press visas are delivered, EFE will recover the reporting capacity it had at the beginning of last year, with seven active journalists (delegate, three editors, two photographers and a cameraman).

On November 13, the Cuban authorities withdrew the accreditations of five journalists from the agency and restored two the following day.

The recovery of the accreditations comes at a time of great journalistic interest on the Island, which is carrying out an unprecedented process of popular consultation of its Family Code, a legislative reform that includes, among other novelties, the recognition of same-sex marriage.

The country is also going through difficult times due to the economic crisis, aggravated by the tightening of US economic sanctions, the pandemic and the poor results of macroeconomic management.

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Two Jurists Harassed by State Security Leave Cuba

Cuban Activist Fernando Almeyda is in Belgrade, Serbia. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2022 — Cuban activist Fernando Almeyda joined this weekend the list of dissidents who are leaving the island. After requesting a humanitarian visa from Spain, which was not granted, the former Archipiélago coordinator decided to go to Serbia, a country that currently does not require a visa for Cubans, although his intention does not seem to be to remain in the Balkan country, according to an interview published by Cubanet on Monday.

Almeyda, who participated in the July 11 protests and later joined the Archipiélago collective — which he left after Yunior García Aguilera’s abrupt departure from Cuba — argues that he never had any real intention of developing his professional career on the island and that since he graduated as a lawyer he wanted to go into exile so as not to be part of the system. The activist emphasizes that his job position led him to a lack of money, which at the same time delayed his departure.

His final departure comes now, because, he states, he has been suffering repression, harassment, persecution and threats from the State Security for months. “I was very afraid, an atrocious fear, and I even tried to find a way to flee and seek asylum, but always after 15N [November 15], never before,” he explains. What happened with the Marcha Cívica por el Cambio (Civic March for Change) and the arrests that took place led him to speed up his procedures and initiate the application for a humanitarian visa to Spain in December, a document that is granted only in cases of emergency and which was denied.

Almeyda decided to travel to Europe, with a flight to Belgrade, where he does not plan to apply for asylum, but rather for temporary residence, which indicates that his intention is to travel to another destination, probably Spain. continue reading

The opposition leader also explains in the interview how he came to activism through the San Isidro Movement, to which he attributes the ability to break with the classic forms of opposition in Cuba, which until 2018, he says, were things of political parties “sometimes tending to extremism and opposed to each other. The exile was divorced from the Cuban reality and Cubans did not even know what was being said or did not even care.”

The lawyer then gives an account of the events that followed the police raid on the MSI headquarters, the protest of 27 November and the spontaneous demonstrations in July, in which he participated, even receiving a stoning. At that time, he says, he was already in the crosshairs of State Security.

Almeyda maintains that since he took the initiative to leave Cuba, he has been in “semi-clandestine status,” although he did not hide completely and he attended some public activities.

To Almeyda’s departure should be added that of another jurist, Julio Antonio Fernández Estrada, whose destination is unknown so far. Professor at the University of Havana in 2016, the lawyer was expelled for his texts critical of power, and was currently collaborating with several independent press media.

“Today he left Cuba, where he was not allowed to work for years, a great friend, one of the best people I know and an intellectual who sacrificed his career for his civism. Good luck wherever you go dear Julio Antonio Fernandez Estrada. Cuba does not lose you because it will always be in your thoughts and in your heart”, commented historian Alina Bárbara López Hernández.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Nobody Wants to Rent a House to the Mother of a Man Convicted for 11 July Protests in Sancti Spiritus

In the image, Luisa María Milanés Valdés, mother of Alexander Fábregas Milanés, arrested on July 11. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2022 — Luisa María Milanés Valdés, mother of Alexander Fábregas Milanés, arrested on July 11, denounces that pressure from State Security made her lose the rental where she lived with her daughter and two grandchildren in the city of Sancti Spíritus. The woman herself must leave her home in the next few hours and no one seems willing to rent her a new space.

“The owner of the house told us that we had to leave on February 19 and although we have looked for another space to rent, people first tell us yes but then they give us the long haul, they don’t answer or they back down and tell us they no longer can,” the woman who sees the political police after these refusals tells 14ymedio

Milanés’ son, 32, was arrested for broadcasting on social networks his call to take to the streets of Sancti Spíritus to accompany the protests that took place in other Cuban provinces during that day. Nine days later he was sentenced to nine months in prison for the crime of “incitement to commit a crime.”

Now, in addition to the separation from her son she is facing the pressures and threats from State Security, which is maneuvering so that the 58-year-old woman loses her job in a hospital for children with mental disabilities. The reprisals have already materialized, in her opinion, with the difficulties in finding a rental house.

“I could go anywhere because I’m an adult, but my grandchildren are two and a half years old, the girl, and the youngest is only a year and a few months old.” Milanés assures that “there is a lot of economic need and everyone needs money, so it is not rational that first they assure me that they are going to rent to me and then they change their mind.” continue reading

“I’m on the street, I have nowhere to go,” explains the woman, who already has all her belongings collected and in the next few hours she must leave the house in the Colón neighborhood of that city, and could end up in the street. “I’ve been renting for more than two years and it’s only now, with my son in prison, that I’m starting to have these problems.”

“The owners of the houses do not confess to me that the State Security went to visit them to scare them, but I know that is the case because I feel that they are lying to me when they tell me that they are no longer interested in renting to me,” she laments. “You can see the fear on their faces, as if they had been given a scare.”

The woman has previously denounced the lack of solidarity she has felt in Sancti Spíritus towards her cause and the fear of approaching her shown by her neighbors after the arrest of Alexander Fábregas. Unlike Havana and Santa Clara, where the families of those arrested on 11J have created support groups, in Sancti Spíritus province the panorama is different.

Milanés hopes that her son will be released on April 6, the day he completes his sentence, although he warns that “before he had was going to be paroled on November 30, he had it approved, and suddenly they said they had to wait for confirmation that came from Havana and they didn’t give it to him.”

Pressures against homeowners who rent to dissidents or independent journalists are becoming more frequent in Cuba. Last January, the strong threats from State Security forced the independent journalist Yadiris Fuentes to leave the house where she had lived since June 2021. The owner of the house was warned by the political police that if he did not evict her, he could be fined, or even lose the property because it was an illegal rental.

Previously, the CubaNet news portal contributor Camila Acosta had suffered similar pressures and had to move repeatedly from due to the fear of the owners renting to a person heavily guarded by the police.

That scenario served as motivation for a group of independent Cuban journalists to launch the Casa Palanca campaign , with the aim of raising funds to acquire a property. However, the initiative, broadcast by the Verkami platform, failed to raise the necessary amount and the money was returned to the contributors.

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The Broken Dream Of A Cuban Who Sold Everything To ‘Escape This Country’s Disaster’

The situation in front of the Costa Rican embassy in Havana made the consul go out to calm things down. (Capture)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 22 February 2022 — “The protest was dissolved in a ‘peaceful way’: there was no aggression or use of force, but there was a total refusal for us to remain there.” Eliécer, 34, is one of the Cubans who demonstrated this Monday in front of the Costa Rican consulate in Havana after the announcement by this nation that it would require a transit visa for travelers en route to a third country. “There were horses, policemen, guards, repressive forces,” he describes, and as this newspaper found.

Eliécer worked as a tour guide until, in 2017, he had a run-in with a police officer. Since then, his life became one of constant pressure. “The networks began to control me, to summon me, to visit me, they prohibited me from doing my job,” he tells 14ymedio. “Given my refusal to accept any blackmail, my life and that of my family became a constant uncertainty and I made the decision to leave.”

The way would be, of course, Nicaragua, which last November decreed it was “visa free” for Cubans. To do this, Eliécer sold all his belongings, including his motorcycle, his air conditioner, his automatic washing machine and, the most painful for him, a T-shirt collection, which he treasured like precious stones. “It may sound laughable, but to me it’s not,” he apologizes.

The young man bought his ticket on January 29, through a manager, for Copa Airlines and Avianca, for a journey lasting a total of 32 hours and making three stops between Havana and Managua: Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador. He paid $3,600 for it. continue reading

Although Costa Rica announced the transit visa requirement last Thursday, Eliécer found out over the weekend, “inoperative days in terms of paperwork.” The young man regrets that to request this immigration document, the Costa Rican authorities “ask for a number of ridiculous requirements, because we are not even going to enter their national territory.” For example, a bank account statement, which he was only able to obtain this Monday, and a criminal record certificate, which he learned upon arrival at the diplomatic headquarters would be useless if it was not legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The people who had withdrawn their money to change dollars were in a limbo,” he explains, “because they had no way to prove economic solvency.”

All this caused discomfort in the crowd gathered on Fifth Avenue, between 66th and 68th, in Miramar. The situation made the consul go out to calm things down, says Eliécer. “He gave a rather vague and justifying answer that it was not the responsibility of the consulate or even the Government of Costa Rica, but of Migration,” he details, and protests: “Obviously they are arguing about responsibility. Those gathered there only demanded “that everyone who obtained a ticket before this regulation would be allowed to fly with a special permit, or they would simply arrange the visa for us as soon as possible,” but their requests were ignored. “They replied that it was impossible, because they had to process that as a consulate formality that has its own time parameters.”

Once the crowd had dispersed and a whole surveillance deployment was launched around the embassy, no official came out again, despite the fact that there are public hours open in the afternoon. “The Sepsa guards, the consulate security guards, talked to us and they simply told us that the person who was supposed to deal with us would not come out, that we should come back the next day.” In addition, they were warned: “In order for them to prepare, cancel those flights, because they won’t have time.”

They also stopped answering the phone. “They have a number available to serve the people, but it wasn’t working,” says the young man. “I made 37 consecutive calls to see if it was a busy issue, but no, I never got through. Other people also tried and couldn’t; the phone was busy all the time.”

In the case of Eliécer, this cancellation is complicated by the attitude of the airlines. Copa, he says, would return the amount paid for the route it covered (Havana-Panama-Costa Rica) with a penalty of 200 dollars, but Avianca, which covered Costa Rica-El Salvador-Managua, would not refund anything. “Avianca brazenly steals our money and doesn’t even show its face,” he denounces. “When you cancel, you lose all the money.”

Still, his situation was not the worst, he says. “There was a car at the protest with people from Sancti Spíritus who had left their house at four in the morning to get here early. Those people, of course, had to return to their province without a solution,” he narrates. “There were older people, children, people from various municipalities, people who were very annoyed and others who were upset because it was all a robbery.”

The demand, he insists, is very simple: “That they let us fly, because there are many people who have sold their houses, their lives, in order to escape from this disaster of a country and basically there are many who right now are without a single thing of any kind.”

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‘With the Veto Against Anamely Ramos, the Message is Very Clear: No Cuban is Safe’

Anamely Ramos is curator and member of the San Isidro Movement. (Twitter/@MarioJPenton)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 16 February 2022 — Experts consulted by 14ymedio have found no precedent for the government to have vetoed the entry of a Cuban citizen residing in Cuba, as happened this Wednesday with the art curator and activist Anamely Ramos, who was unable to board her American Airlines flight bound for Havana.

The director of the Miami airport, with whom Ramos met after expressing her intention to stay at the terminal if she was not allowed to travel to Cuba, assured the media gathered at the scene that it is the first time he has encountered such a case.

Lawyer Eloy Viera recalls, in statements to 14ymedio, that other Cubans went through a similar situation, but the “particularity” in this case is that Anamely Ramos “has not lost her rights, because she has not been outside of Cuba for more than 24 months.”

Cuban law establishes that if a national remains outside the country continuously for more than two years, he loses his residence and, with it, he also loses his rights, such as voting or medical assistance. Many émigrés have been prevented from entering the country for this reason. continue reading

“I’ll go to a public place and will camp out, because I don’t have a home right now, I don’t have a country. I’m not going to anyone’s house who wants to take me in, nor do I want to ask for asylum”

However, the case of Anamely Ramos is different, since she has not lost her rights. The decision to veto her entry in Cuba is clearly a “repressive” act that sends “a very clear political message: no Cuban is safe and, once she leaves, her return to Cuba can be prevented.”

“There is a rupture in what has happened with Anamely,” he argues, because “she has no other place to legally regularize herself and her only legal foothold was Cuba. Even so, they decided to deny her entry.”

In this regard, the lawyer mentions the case of the activist Lidier Hernández Sotolongo, a Cuban resident in Uruguay, who was not prevented from entering, but who was regulated once he was in Cuba. And precisely, he points out, “one of the arguments used by officials in that case was that legal Cuban residents could not be prevented from entering but they could be prevented from leaving.”

After a meeting with Miami airport authorities and with American Airlines employees, Ramos reiterated that her interest was to stay at the airport to “apply pressure.” However, the director himself warned her that this was not allowed and accompanied her to a meeting with immigration authorities.

“They have treated me very well,” the activist acknowledged in a direct broadcast. “I’ll go to a public place and will camp out, because I don’t have a home right now, I don’t have a country. I’m not going to anyone’s house who wants to take me in, nor do I want to ask for asylum.”

In a live broadcast on her Facebook profile, she explained that the airline did not specify the reasons why the regime had denied her entry, and that they simply told her that “there is a protocol with Cuba and with all the countries of the world” that they “have to abide by.”

The fact that Ramos complied with all the legal and health requirements to re-enter Cuba suggests that the Cuban government activated Article 24 of the Migration Law. This limits the entry into the national territory to “every person” who, among other activities that are considered illegal, organizes, stimulates, carries out or participates in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State.”

This article establishes other assumptions, such as “National Defense and Security reasons” or “being declared undesirable or expelled.”

“Cuba’s border has to continue to be in Cuba,” she said. “It cannot be at the American Airlines gate, that is inadmissible”

This Cuban norm violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Article 13, which recognizes the right “to move freely and choose one’s residence in the territory of a State” and “to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country.”

For Viera, Article 24 is a mechanism “that increases the administrative discretion the regime” has, when deciding “without the need to substantiate or notify” the affected person. “The fundamental problem with this is that the decision is made behind people’s backs. They only find out if they are about to board a plane to Cuba. They are overseas without the administrative authorities having notified them through a resolution or a document that they could use at a later date in a judicial environment,” he added.

In addition, he believes that it is “outrageous from any legal point of view” even from the way the article is written. “The term used is ‘undesirable.’ Who wishes that a person may access Cuba, who is that authority, under what criteria?” questions Viera, who assures that this way of formulating “what it does is favor arbitrariness and the discretionary, and generate defenselessness in the person who suffers it and has no way to fight it.”

In statements to the press gathered at the international terminal, Ramos denounced the attitude of the airline. “Cuba’s border has to continue to be in Cuba,” he said. “It cannot be located at the American Airlines gate. That’s inadmissible.”

This Wednesday afternoon, Ramos left the airport and explained that, according to the regulations, “nobody can stay who is not going to board a plane” and American Airlines maintains its decision not to let her board a flight to Cuba. “I will continue the protest in a public space, in front of the Versailles [restaurant]. This is to be continued. My demand continues to be that my #RightToReturn be respected.”

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Four People Hospitalized After the Collapse of Part of a Building Under Repair in Cardenas, Cuba

The slab under construction collapsed, trapping several people, four of whom had to be hospitalized. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 21 February 2022 — 14ymedio, Havana, 21 February 2022 — At least 21 workers were injured, four of them seriously, in the city of Cárdenas (Matanzas) when a cement slab under construction collapsed. The accident occurred around one o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday at Genes 562 between Calzada and Coronel Verdugo, according to Yumurí public TV.

The most seriously injured were taken to the Julio Aristegui Villamir hospital after being rescued from the rubble.

The director of the medical center, Luis Enrique Bone Cobos, indicated around 8 pm that all of them were progressing satisfactorily, three of them being reported for care without complications and the remaining pending discharge after observation confirmed that he was in optimal condition.

The authorities are investigating the causes of the accident, which is still unknown, although it is believed that there was a failure in the structures that were supposed to support the slab under construction.

Although details about how the events unfolded are also unknown, everything indicates that the work tasks were carried out in a dwelling and that the “workers” were actually a brigade of volunteers who helped with the work. continue reading

On September 27, Cubiza engineer Miguel Díaz Sistachs died in an accident at work, when he was trying to place a flagpole in the Plaza Cívica José Martí de Marianao (Havana) for the celebrations for the 61st anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs). The case came to light when it was published by 14ymedio, since the company tried to hide it and pressured the family not to give information to the independent press.

A month later, the state company, in an act in which the former spy Gerardo Hernández was present, paid tribute to the deceased “fallen in the line of duty.”

In 2020, one person died and 26 were injured in a traffic accident between a Kato de Cubiza crane and a public transport bus that served the Santiago de Cuba-Baconao route.

One of the worst years for victims of work accidents in Cuba was 2016, when up to September there were 79 work accidents that left 89 dead. Barely a year later the number was reduced to 44 events with 51 deaths. In 2020, when activity was lower due to the pandemic, there were 32 fatal accidents with 33 deaths and 14 deaths on the road.

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Message to the Recruit who Watches Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara

You will tell me that I should have addressed this letter to those who imprisoned my friend and to those who resist releasing him. (Photomontage)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 20 February 2022

Dear Luisma:

The last time we spoke on the phone, I suggested that you organize a gallery with your works under the title The Day After. I felt that you liked the idea, so I took advantage and said obliquely (as if I wasn’t implying that you should abandon your second hunger strike): “For that you need to survive.”

I have little to add now lest I hurt you, which is why I prefer, on day 93 of this diary, to address directly those who have you imprisoned.

Havana, Sunday, February 20, 2022

To the recruit Pérez

From the tall sentry box that you often occupy at a corner of the perimeter wall, you can see the beautiful landscape of a plain interrupted by timid hills. You carry a rifle. Your mission is to monitor and you are authorized to shoot anyone who leaves or enters without permission from that maximum security penitentiary.

For six months there has been an uncomfortable prisoner in the Guanajay jail. Your bosses have warned you that no one can talk to that man. Recently, a colleague of yours was interrogated and warned by military counter-intelligence because the brother of his girlfriend is an independent journalist. They found out from a photo that the girl uploaded to her Facebook profile.

In those fantasies that arise from boredom during your shifts on guard duty, you have imagined that a commando is advancing along the road that intends to rescue the accursed prisoner; sometimes they are Yankee marines with their war paraphernalia, other times a gang of criminals and sometimes you imagine that what is coming is a motley group of “very strange people,” as you have been warned that they are the friends of the abominated prisoner. continue reading

You have the impression that Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is not an artist, among other things because you have never seen him on television nor did they tell you about him at school. You identify him as a dangerous man, very dangerous, endowed with a super power that not even an Xman has, consisting of persuading people who approach him.

If you had read El Perfume, a novel written in 1984 by Patrick Süskind, perhaps you would compare the power of Luisma, as his friends call him, with that possessed by Jean Baptiste Grenouille, who turned those who wanted to celebrate his execution in a public square into participants in a massive orgy.

But that character was evil and killed to magnify his power. Your prisoner captivates with his kindness.

Nobody is going to rescue that prisoner in a suicidal action. The people who would give their lives for him are dancers, painters, sculptors, poets, musicians, journalists, art curators, poster designers. They would give their lives for him, but they are not capable of killing anyone. That makes them rare.

The bullets from your rifle are useless against what these people shoot.

Postscript:

You will tell me that I should have addressed this letter to those who imprisoned my friend and to those who are resisting his release, but in that case I would be tempted to insult very powerful people and that is a crime in Cuba.

#DiarioParaLuisma día 93

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The Domestic Potato is More Expensive in Cuba Than the One Produced With Imported Seed

In the informal market they can ask 450 pesos for 6 pounds of potatoes. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, February 21, 2022 — The price of potatoes has doubled in Cuba as a result of higher production costs, authorities insist. The tuber goes from costing 3 pesos per pound of the fresh product to 5 pesos, and a new price is created for the refrigerated potato, which will be 6 pesos.

A resolution published last Saturday in the Official Gazette establishes the new price for the collection and retail sale of potatoes harvested with domestic seed at 9,196.2 cents per ton, equivalent to 423 pesos per quintal (220 pounds). The potato harvested with imported seed stands at 7,152.46 pesos per ton, or 329 pesos per quintal.

According to the Provincial Government of Havana, the price rises due to the increase in the cost of agricultural inputs that the producers take on, in addition to the increase in labor costs per employee. Regarding the creation of the new price category for refrigerated potatoes, the authorities explained that the State budgets had to assume the expense to keep the product preserved last year and that this “is not possible to maintain under current conditions.”

“The potato is a demanding crop that, to achieve adequate yields, requires the application of imported fertilizers and pesticides, so its production is carried out under complex conditions,” says the official newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, which resorts to using the US embargo and the pandemic to justify the increase. continue reading

The newspaper indicates that for this February the sale and distribution of 2 pounds of fresh potatoes is approved, in a rationed manner and recorded in the ration book.

Potato production has fallen notably in recent years on the island. In 1996, Cuba exported the tuber, which had been rationed for years, after reaching a production record of 348,000 tons. In 2010, its sale was even liberalized and potatoes were sold in the unrationed market, but in 2015 the harvest stood at 123,000 tons and the Government had to import to meet demand, which led to rationing it later, in 2017.

This decrease in production has been reflected in the ’under the counter’ sales of the product, which was sold at 2 and 3 CUC (Cuban convertible pesos) for 5 pounds in the informal market. Currently, they are asking up to 450 pesos for 6 pounds.

Since the pandemic began, the situation has worsened even more and the lines to buy potatoes exceed the hours available in the day, generating riots and disputes.

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Fire Forces the Evacuation of Bus Stop in Havana

The fire occurred very close to the bus stop at 3rd and 70th in the municipality of Playa. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 22 February 2022 — A fire in the exterior area of a building next to the 3rd and 70th bus stop in the Havana municipality of Playa occurred on Monday afternoon without causing major damage. he fire occurred very close to the 3rd and 70th bus stop in the municipality of Playa. (14ymedio)

Three police patrols arrived at the scene within minutes of the fire spreading through the brush, but the agents could do little after the wind fueled the fire and interfered with nearby people’s ability to breathe due to the intense smoke that was released from the flames.

“But why so many police? Why don’t the firefighters come?” wondered a woman trying unsuccessfully to hail a taxi in the intense heat and smoke.

continue reading

“It’s because they’re nervous because this morning it got hotter than that fire,” replied a young man who was waiting for the bus on route P1, clearly alluding to the protest that took place hours before, and a few meters from there, in front of the Costa Rican Embassy where hundreds of Cubans requested an expeditious transit visa to the Central American country.

After about 20 minutes the firefighters arrived, almost when the fire was going out. They vacated the bus stop and began pumping water over the still smoldering coals, while people at the stop joked about the fuss they made by coming to the site.

“They arrive when it’s all over,” said a slush vendor sarcastically.

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Hundreds of Cubans Protest in Front of the Costa Rican Consulate in Havana

Those gathered in the vicinity of the Costa Rican consulate demanded that transit visas be granted expeditiously or that they be allowed to fly without one. (Capture)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 22 February 2022 — Hundreds of people gathered this Monday outside the Costa Rican Embassy in Miramar, Havana, demanding a “response” to their request for a transit permit through San José to Managua. The police broke up the protest and the area is currently under strict surveillance.

Those gathered in the vicinity of the consulate, located on Fifth Avenue, between 66th and 68th, in Miramar, demanded that the permits be granted expeditiously or that they be allowed to fly without one. Some spent the night there since the early hours, sitting on cardboard on the sidewalk and in other nearby areas.

The police operation around the diplomatic headquarters was reinforced throughout the morning with uniformed officers and police cars. This newspaper was able to verify, in the afternoon, the presence of a large number of police officers, buses to transport the protesters and a lot of surveillance to avoid anyone taking photos or videos in the surroundings.

The command post with police forces and special troops of Black Berets is located in the National Aquarium, a few meters from the Costa Rican consulate. A public transport driver confirmed to 14ymedio that the transfer of the protesters in buses congested traffic on Third Street.

“What we want is that they respect the people who purchased tickets before the new law was applied,” one of those protesting this morning lamented through a video recording. On the perimeter fence of the consulate, a poster explained how to request the new permit through a letter addressed to the consul. continue reading

Last Thursday, the Costa Rican Migration Directorate announced that starting this Monday they would require a transit visa from Cuban travelers who made a stopover at Costa Rican airports en route to a third country.

The command post with police forces and special troops of Black Berets is located in the National Aquarium, a few meters from the Costa Rican consulate. (14ymedio)

The agency explained that the objective of this measure is “to ensure that the different airlines bound for Europe and the United States can transport these foreigners safely.” The resolution not only affects Cubans, but also Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

“Changes in migration policy worldwide have caused differences in the dynamics of mobility of these nationalities, through the different air, land and sea borders” and, therefore, “other countries have adopted the visa application,” argued the Costa Rican immigration authorities.

On Monday, Costa Rican media featured the case of a Cuban couple stranded for 15 days in the transit area of the San José airport. They remain there, in “inhuman conditions,” Yulmis Acosta, sister of the affected woman, told TeleDiario, waiting to be granted refuge.

According to this relative, the responsibility for the migrants is transferred between Migration and the airline. “It is not known who is taking care of them,” declares Acosta, who details that they are guarded by six police officers who insist that they are private, and do not work for the company or to the State.

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Murder of a Young Woman Shock’s Rio Cauto Community in Cuba’s Granma Province

Yaite Balmaceda Cano, murdered in Río Cauto, province of Granma. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2022 — Yaite Balmaceda Cano, a young woman of 27, was murdered by a man whom she had reported to the police in Río Cauto, province of Granma, where she lived. The events were made public by Alexander Verdecia Rodríguez, coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba in that town and former political prisoner, on his Facebook wall.

The woman, the mother of two children — a boy and a girl — told Verdecia days before she died that she had just accused “the man with whom she was having problems, that is, the man who [later] murdered her,” and that the police told her that “they were going to give her a restraining order agaisnt him.”

“Yaite lived near where I live,” Verdecia wrote. “A few months and days before being murdered, she had been the victim of beatings and threats by the young man who murdered her.” The activist denounces that the local police “had knowledge” not only of this but of the attempted rape by the same aggressor of a young woman from his neighborhood.

“The police of the Río Cauto municipality and the Prosecutor’s Office are also responsible to a certain extent for Yaite’s death, for not having taken some timely and drastic measure against her aggressor,” Verdecia claimed. “In other words, they were negligent in carrying out their work.”

The alleged murderer still has not yet been arrested by the police, a relative of the victim confirmed to 14ymedio. continue reading

This would be the third known femicide in Cuba so far this year, after the murders of Misladis Carmenates Hidalgo in Camagüey on January 6, and Mailén Guerra García in Villa Clara on January 2.

Jorge Del Rio Balmaceda posted an image of Yaite on his networks with the message: “The light in your eyes went out, you are with your dear Mother.” Relatives reacted to the publication and sent condolences to the young mother’s parents, known as Rodolfo and Ana. One of the comments confirmed that she was “violently murdered.”

Héctor Salermo de la Cruz expressed his annoyance at the lack of security. “It is very sad to lose a loved one, but when this loss is due to violence, it hurts much more,” he added: “Rest in peace and your loved ones will never forget you.”

The Cuban State recognizes gender violence in the new Constitution (2019), but does not classify femicide as a crime in the Penal Code. Cuban law establishes that the crimes of injury, coercion or threat are not investigated by the authorities if there is no complaint from the victim or, in case of disability, a guardian.

The closest allusion to femicide appears in article 264.1, which recognizes as murder “the homicide produced between relatives or spouses of marriages formalized or not.”

The most recent official statistics on gender-based violence date from 2016 and show that 26.7% of women between the ages of 15 and 74 suffered some type of violence in their partner relationship in the 12 months prior to the study.

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