14ymedio

A Private Business in Cuba Buys Sugar from its Customers to Make its Chocolates

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 23 December 2021 — A sign with the phrase: “We buy sugar,” caught the attention of all the customers who came to the Bombonera Kakao chocolate shop located on the well-heeled 12th street between 23rd and 25th, in Vedado this Thursday. The quality of the products this private business has meant that not a few Havanans go to the establishment ready to buy their merchandise, especially around Christmas and on Valentine’s Day.

Located in the midst of state businesses that take payment in foreign currency, Kakao exhibits a varied range of products derived from chocolate, despite the fact that it has its main raw material, another of the most used ingredients in its elaborations, sugar, is scarce to the point that it has forced the owners to put the sign on the door.

The island’s shortage of supplies not only hits Cubans with fewer resources, but also causes havoc in the self-employed sector, where many have found it necessary to resort to unusual supply methods — most of them illegal — in order to manage the raw materials necessary for their business.

It is a curious thing for many of those searching for the crystals, to find the unusual request to purchase. In the absence of a stable supply that the State must guarantee to the self-employed in the wholesale stores, the same clients who access their business end up being the potential suppliers.

Iván, a young man who came to the establishment in search of the exquisite chocolates and chocolate figurines offered there, was impressed when the clerk explained: “We don’t have any sugar left and we haven’t been able to get it. Luckily we have continue reading

chocolate, although if you realize it we have been forced to raise prices a little because every day everything is more expensive.”

After choosing some of the smaller chocolates, Iván promised to return to buy one of the Christmas offerings. “They are a little out of reach of my pocket, but at home we will treat ourselves at the end of the year with one of those chocolates,” he said to the seller while pointing to a figure of Santa Claus and another of a Christmas tree, with a price of 1,300 and 1,000 pesos, respectively.

The shortage that the island is experiencing also causes havoc in the self-employed sector. (14ymedio)

“We will be open throughout the end of the year, including the 31st, it all depends on whether we get the blissful sugar,” was the merchant’s reply.

Anabel is another of Kakao’s regulars. “Whenever I can I go and treat myself, and on February 14 I am a fixture there,” she tells 14ymedio. A friend who was browsing the stores that only take payment in dollars in search of soda to accompany the Christmas dinner, saw the sign in the chocolate shop and called her to tell her.

“If you want chocolates, run here because these people have run out of sugar and they will close at any moment,” the friend told her, to which Anabel replied: “I put my boots on, I’m going to bring them 10 pounds of white sugar that I had saved for emergencies and I’m going to exchange them for an expensive chocolate.”

National sugar production is going from bad to worse. According to official figures, last year the country was only able to provide 416,000 tons of the product for national consumption, since it has committed to China the annual sale of 400,000 tons. The Island consumes annually between 600,000 and 700,000 tons.

Last July, the state sugar group Azcuba announced that the 2020-2021 harvest was “one of the worst in the history of Cuba”, meeting only 66% of the planned target of 1.2 million tons.

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The 11J Prisoners Detained for Shouting Freedom in Cuba

Since the end of November, the 11 July detainees are being tried in different cities on the Island. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2021 — They did not belong to any opposition organization within the island nor, as the official media claimed in a foreseeable smear campaign, were they instigated by the “enemy” from outside. Simply, together with thousands of compatriots in dozens of cities throughout the island, they decided to go out into the streets infected by the images from San Antonio de los Baños that, that July 11, spread like wildfire on social networks.

“We are not afraid,” “we want freedom,” “we are more,” “down with the dictatorship” and “homeland and life” were some of the cries that sounded in those spontaneous demonstrations. The first jug of cold water for those events, unpublished in 62 years – the antecedent is the Maleconazo in 1994, but only in Central Havana – was the declaration of the president Miguel Díaz-Canel that same afternoon: “The combat order is given.”

The internet blackout established by the state telecommunications company Etecsa, at the service of the State, that day and the following days, generated confusion about the balance of the repression. At first, non-governmental organizations counted more than 5,000 detainees. Ultimately, there was one dead, Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, shot in the back by a policeman in the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera, in Arroyo Naranjo, on July 12. continue reading

Cubalex, the legal advisory group that accompanies the relatives of the prisoners, registers a total of 1,314 people detained those days, although it says that its list presents a “sub-registry.” Of these, at least 696 are in detention centers. Of the 570 released, many are awaiting trial on bail or in house arrest. A total of 140 people face charges of sedition.

Among those arrested are also opponents and former prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, such as José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro.

Since the end of November, the 11J detainees have been being processed in different cities of the Island. The fiscal requests range between 6 and 15 years of deprivation of liberty, for alleged crimes such as resistance, attack, public disorder, instigation to commit a crime or disrespect.

A particularly dramatic case is that of Yoan de la Cruz, the first to broadcast the protests live via networks from San Antonio de los Baños. For him, they are asking for 8 years in prison.

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Silvio Rodriguez, in Ambiguity Until the End

The Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez during his concert at the Wizink Center in Madrid, last October. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2021 – The singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez recognized this year, for the first time, that Cuba “could be” a dictatorship. He did not do so on his blog, Segunda Cita – where he makes room for different but monotonous voices, all pro-government – but in a Chilean magazine, Culto, in an interview that was later reproduced by the official media Cubadebate.

In it, he also said that there are “orthodox sectors of the Cuban Government that have obstructed changes,” although he released the designated president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, from being a part of this, saying he understands the “need to break a certain inertia” and that is why he approved certain laws.

At the same time, and in a regular speech, he pointed to the United States as the origin of the island’s ills: “They have been suffocating Cuba for more than 60 years, attacking it, slandering it, and when it defends itself, it is a dictatorship. It may be so. That they have forced it to be so to some extent. Who forced it? The greatest dictatorship on the planet: that of selfishness, that of money, that which does not believe in love but in usury.” continue reading

“Down with the blockade,” Rodríguez declared twice in the massive concert that he gave at the beginning of October in Madrid, at which fifty Cuban exiles demonstrated in the capital of Spain.

After the July 11 protests in Cuba, the singer-songwriter accepted requested to talk from Yunior García Aguilera, from which he left with the promise to intercede for “the prisoners who were not violent.” The playwright even spoke of a future joint “project” that would be made public “in due course” and that “could serve as the beginning of a truly plural, inclusive, civic, respectful and broad debate.”

For a moment, it seemed that Silvio Rodríguez would follow the path of other formerly pro-government colleagues, such as Pablo Milanés, Leo Brouwer or Chucho Valdés , and would say enough to the repression exerted by the regime against those who seek change on the island. But For now, there are no signs of it.

On December 16, he was awarded the National Community Culture Award, which Rodríguez received at the headquarters of the “sociocultural project” Cabildo Cuasicuaba, in Los Sitio, Centro Habana. Very close to there, that same day, with his back to the usual official acts of complacency and propaganda, a passerby died when the wall of a house in ruins fell on him.

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Agent Fernando, a Cuban Doctor at the Service of State Security

The Cuban regime took this doctor out of the closet to discredit Yunior García. (Screen capture)

We know the agent Fernando — whose real name is Carlos Leonardo Vázquez González, a doctor by profession — as a mock nemesis of Yunior García Aguilera. The Cuban regime took this doctor out of the closet at the beginning of November to discredit the playwright and the visible face of the Archipiélago, whom he had met in a workshop in Madrid that promoted democracy in Cuba.

Revealing his status as a spy at the service of the regime was a necessary gesture to present García Aguilera as a person trained in what the Government calls “soft coups” and which consists of organizing peaceful protests to overthrow the Government.

The task assigned 25 years ago to Vázquez González was to infiltrate the opposition to gain their trust, something he achieved thanks to his profession as a doctor, even managing to be at Oswaldo Payá’s funeral, along with Guillermo Coco Fariñas.

Before his trip to Spain to participate in the Saint Louis University workshop, agent Fernando visited Fidel Castro’s grave to swear to him to “defend the Revolution to the last consequences,” according to what he told the state newspaper Granma, which dedicated a comprehensive eulogy to him once his identity was revealed.

Reinaldo Escobar, editor-in-chief of 14ymedio, also participated in those seminars on democracy in Cuba, and witnessed the strange attitude of the spy, very insistent when approaching former Spanish president Felipe González, to whom he gave a box of cigars, but very quiet in his participation. García Aguilera also said he remembered him and wished he might be “a better doctor than an undercover agent.”

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Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara: One Year Harassed by Cuban State Security

Otero Alcántara was declared a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2021 — Before being arrested on July 11 , without having had time to participate in the protests that day, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), had long been subjected to permanent harassment by the political police.

Specifically, since November 26, 2020, when State Security evicted more than a dozen activists quartered for freedom from number 955 of Damas Street , in Old Havana, the artist’s home and headquarters of the MSI. by rapper Denis Solís (today, by the way, in forced exile in Serbia). From there he left on a stretcher, after several days on a hunger and thirst strike.

The artist did not spend a day without State Security surveillance since then, but he never stopped participating in different initiatives, for example the launch, in March, of a platform called, like the song, Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life).

Shortly after, on April 25, Otero Alcántara went on hunger and thirst strike again to demand that his rights be respected, after a month of police siege of his home. The activist also demanded the return of his artistic works or compensation for those that were destroyed by the political police.

After several days of fasting, in the early morning of May 2, he was taken from his home against his will and taken to the Calixto García hospital, where he remained for almost a month with hardly any outside continue reading

communication and without explanations from the State, which leaked videos of his retention to try to discredit him.

Meanwhile, on April 30, when they held a protest in favor of Otero Alcántara in the central Obispo street of Havana, Mary Karla Ares, Thais Mailén Franco, Félix Modesto, Inti Soto, Nancy Vera, Yuisan Cancio, Luis were arrested. Ángel Cuza and Esteban Rodríguez, all accused of “disturbing public order.” Of them, Rodríguez, Soto and Cuza remain in prison and Ares, Franco and Cancio are under house arrest.

Otero Alcántara was declared a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, which together with other international organizations, has urged President Miguel Díaz-Canel to release him “immediately and unconditionally.”

The artist is in the maximum security prison of Guanajay, Artemisa, where he has also carried out hunger strikes, accused of public disorder, instigation to commit a crime and contempt.

Although he shares a case with Maykel Castillo Osorbo, imprisoned in May, Otero Alcántara was arrested on June 11 , as were several of the main figures of the Cuban dissidence, such as Félix Navarro, of the Democratic Action Unit Table, and José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, who has denounced physical and psychological torture.

Despite the Government’s attempts to negotiate his freedom in exchange for leaving the country — as happened with Hamlet Lavastida, who headed to Europe with Katherine Bisquet after being released from prison — Otero Alcántara has made it clear, through the art curator Claudia Genlui Hidalgo , who “will not accept exile as an option under any circumstances.” The San Isidro lighthouse has not been turned off in prison.

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Luis Robles, the ‘Young Man With the Placard’

Robles was arrested on December 4, 2020, for protesting in Havana. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 December 2021 — Luis Robles Elizastigui turned 29 on December 2 at Combinado del Este, a maximum security prison, two days before the first anniversary of his arrest. His crime: holding up a placard on the central Boulevard of San Rafael in Havana that read: “Freedom, no more repression, #FreeDenis” (referring to rapper Denis Solís, sentenced to eight months in prison in a summary trial and today exiled in Serbia).

The images of his solitary demonstration, disseminated on social networks, were immortalized, two months later, in the video clip for Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life). At the same time, the images are only incriminating evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office in the trial, held on December 16 in Marianao, Havana, in which he was prosecuted for enemy resistance and propaganda.

In the video, however, it is observed that he did not struggle with the agents who detained him, nor was there any reference to any enemy on his poster, and that the passers-by who surrounded him tried to defend him from the police.

A graduate in Computer Science and with a son, readers learned more about Luis Robles thanks to his brother, Landy Fernández Elizastigui, who became the communication channel of the “young man with the placard” with the outside world. Fernández has not stopped denouncing the mistreatment Robles has received in prison and, despite threats from State Security, he is not afraid to defend his brother publicly.

In an interview with 14ymedio, Fernández said that his brother “has always thought differently about the regime.” We were able to verify this in a video of Luis Robles recorded a few days before his protest and disseminated by the family last July, when the authorities, due to the 11J demonstrations, had already suspended the trial of the boy sine die.

In it, Robles called for “a change in the system,” since communism, “a destroyer of souls,” he said, had turned Cuba into “a true hell”…This generation is not willing to continue bearing it,” he said. “This is our time and we have to take advantage of it.”

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Lines as an Instrument of Social Control

In the lines, the lives of young and old pass by, and they have begun to bring their own seats to wait on the street. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2021 — If there was a collective, massive and omnipresent “organization” throughout 2021 in Cuba, it is the line. It is not that it is a novelty, but neither the failed “Ordering Task”, in force since the first day of the year, nor the end of the harsh mobility restrictions due to the pandemic have reduced the problem of shortages, shortages and, consequently, the crowds that form in front of the shops.

Lines for bread, lines for frozen chicken, lines for cheese and jams. Lines in stores that take payments in Cuban pesos or in foreign currency. Hours and hours of lining up, in short, to buy anything: potatoes , intimates, medicines, ice cream, preserves, gasoline, toys, shoes, appliances and even plastic bags.

The lines usually form in the early morning, but sometimes even days earlier. The excitement of Cubans to the “mark” their place in a line when long “disappeared” products are “brought out” — the line has its own jargon, it is only comparable to disappointment when the items for sale run out prematurely. continue reading

The Cuban government does not improve production, but it does improve the methods of controlling what it calls coleros and hoarders. Of course, it does not always go well for them and, as happened a few weeks ago with a line to buy frozen chicken, a tángana (brawl) breaks out. Sometimes, as happened with cigarettes or washing machines in Sancti Spíritus, the crowd even becomes violent, but the authorities always prevent the blood from reaching the river.

The Cuban day has no more hours than to stand in line. In the line, the lives of young and old pass by, and they have begun to bring their own seats to wait in the street. In the line there is no time for anything else. The line, another form of social control and repression in Cuba.

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Confusion Around the Sedition Trials of the 15 La Guinera Protestors in Cuba

A group of protesters in Havana during the protests on July 11, 2021. (Marcos Evora)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 December 2021 — Great concern reigned this Thursday among the relatives of the 15 July 12th protesters in La Güinera, regarding the sentences of 12 to 30 years requested by the Prosecutor’s Office for the crime of sedition. According to the mothers interviewed by 14ymedio, the Havana court where the trial was held between December 14 and 16 has verbally ratified the prosecution’s requests, without delivering any brief. On the other hand, legal sources assure that the sentences have not yet been communicated.

The protest in La Güinera, which began around four in the afternoon on Monday the 12th, was a replica of the popular protests that shocked the entire country on Sunday, July 11.

In an attempt to clarify the confusing situation created by the lack of transparency of Justice, this newspaper has contacted the group Justicia 11J [Justice 11July], which works on arrests for political reasons in Cuba and compiles, with all possible rigor, exhaustive information on the trials. This platform, which works closely with the Cubalex legal information center, is not aware that the court has delivered its judgments in the La Güinera case.

The situation is the same with the lawyer Eloy Viera, who states that “what is legally established in these cases is that the sentences are not offered verbally but days later in writing… What we can assure so far is that the trials were held and the defendants await the document that legally determines the sanction they must comply with,” he said.

The excessive requests of the Prosecutor’s Office contrast with the impunity accorded so far to Police Second Lieutenant Yoennis Pelegrín Hernández, who shot Diubis Laurencio Tejeda in the back on July 12 when he was participating in the La Güinera demonstration. The authorities opened an investigation more than two months ago and, although it was leaked that the agent would be tried for murder and injuries, no continue reading

more has been known about the case.

On the other hand, for Dayron Martín Rodríguez and Miguel Páez Estiven, both 25 years old, the Prosecutor’s Office requests a sentence of 30 years in prison. For José Luis Sánchez Tito, 22 years in prison, and 20 years for Alexander Guillermo Martínez Amoroso (age 25), Lázaro Zamora González (age 20), Frank Aldama Rodríguez (age 20) Alexis Sosa Ruiz (age 20), Dianyi Liriano Fuentes (age 20) and Orlando Carvajal Cabrera, just 19 years old.

In addition, the requested penalties are 18 years for Elier Padrón Romero, Marlon Brando Díaz Oliva and Jesús Enrique Vázquez Cabrera, 15 years for Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez and 12 years for Leoalys de la Caridad Valera Vázquez, who arrived in court handcuffed despite being seven months pregnant.

The relatives of the prisoners have denounced the lack of guarantees, as well as the fact that only one relative was allowed to enter for each defendant, while the police presence was very strong and visible.

The court was made up of soldiers from the National Directorate of Jails and Prisons in Vedado, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality and, according to the families, the defendants were interrupted on numerous occasions when they testified, while their lawyers were very limited in their work.

According to the Justicia 11J and Cubalex platform, there were 1,314 detainees during the 11 July protests, of which at least 696 remain in prisons while 570 have already been released and others are awaiting trial under a pre-trial measure of home detention or freedom under bail.

The first cases were summarily resolved, many times with fines, but those accused of more serious crimes, ongoing in recent weeks, are receiving penalties ranging from eight to 30 years. Some speculate that the Government will grant an amnesty to some of the 11J protestors jailed in order to improve their image, and even some relatives have already requested it by letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The document was delivered this Monday to the State Council’s Office of Attention to the Population, with more than 150 signatures, including that of a group of friends who support the detainees. The text requests an amnesty, pardon or dismissal for the hundreds of political prisoners detained in those days of the summer and calls for Díaz-Canel “a gesture of height” that puts an end to the suffering of families when they are separated from their loved ones .

List of the 15 inmates of La Güinera, with the age of each one and the years in prison requested by the Prosecutor’s Office:

Dayron Martín Rodríguez (age 25 / 30 years in prison)

Miguel Páez Estiven (age 25 / 30 years in prison)

José Luis Sánchez Tito (age 20 / 22 years in prison)

Frank Aldama Rodríguez (age 20 / 22 years in prison)

Alexander Guillermo Martínez Amoroso (age 25 / 20 years in prison)

Lázaro Zamora González (age 20 / 20 years in prison)

Alexis Sosa Ruiz (age 25 / 20 years in prison)

Dianyi Liriano Fuentes (age 20 / 20 years in prison)

Orlando Carvajal Cabrera (age 19 / 20 years in prison)

Marlon Brando Díaz Oliva (age 20 / 18 years in prison)

Elier Padrón Romero (age 25 / 15 years in prison)

Jesús Enrique Vázquez Cabrera (age 20 / 18 years in prison)

Karen Vázquez Pérez (age 18 / 15 years in prison)

Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez (age 20 / 15 years in prison)

Leoalys de la Caridad Valera Vázquez (age 20 / 12 years in prison)

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Spain Sold Cuba Anti-Riot Equipment in the First Half of 2021

Police forces detain protesters during the July 2021 protests in Cuba. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 December 2021 — Spain sold anti-riot equipment to Cuba in the first half of 2021 for an amount of 350,000 euros, according to a recent report presented to the Spanish Congress in Madrid by the Secretary of State for Commerce.

Although the authorization of the export to Havana was made before the massive protests that occurred on July 11 on the island, the document does not explain if the shipment arrived before that date or if the delivery was suspended for fear that it would be used to suppress peaceful demonstrations, according to El País.

The Spanish newspaper also specifies that the consummated sales between January and June include Albania with a purchase of 78,948 euros, but in that period, in addition to Cuba, the list of authorized operations that were carried out included the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at 4.6 million euros; Togo, at 306,150 and Tunisia, with 111,000.

Other Latin American countries that received police and military equipment from Spain in 2021 were Peru and Colombia, the latter with imports worth 59,645,534 euros. Among the materials imported by the Colombian Defense Ministry were bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles and aircraft, according to the newspaper Público.

It is not the first time that Madrid has sold defense equipment to Havana. In 2014, a report by the defunct Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness recorded an export of 3,170,228 euros to the Island, which included, among other equipment, “gas masks” and “armored suits.” continue reading

For years, one of Cuba’s main allies in the military-technical sphere has been Russia. According to its Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigú, in statements from last June, the Eurasian country renewed its military commitment to the island in response to Havana’s request to Moscow for “supplies of more modern armaments.”.

According to the minister, both Cuba and its other two allies, Venezuela and Nicaragua, also requested military preparation for their armies in the face of the possibility that they would have to face “a complicated situation” without giving more details of what this referred to.

“Historically we have established alliances with Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and other countries. For many years they have resisted various forms of pressure, including the threat of the open use of military force,” the minister said, adding that “never before has it been like now, with so much support needed from Russia.”

In November 2018, during a visit by Miguel Díaz-Canel to Moscow, the government of Vladimir Putin announced that it planned to grant Havana a credit worth 38 million euros to buy weapons. According to the Russian press, Cuba was interested in receiving a loan to acquire Russian weapons, from airplanes to helicopters and armored vehicles.

The Kremlin reported then that its minister was going to travel to the island to discuss military cooperation and the possible purchase of Russian weapons by Havana.

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Cubans: “Give Us a Piece of Meat for New Year’s Instead of a Bottle of Rum”

The inflation resulting from the so-called Ordering Task has caused many Cubans to go out and sell whatever they have on hand. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 23 December 2021 -“There is rum and cigarettes,” an old man proclaims as he walks from one corner to another on Reina de La Habana street. “Rum at 600 and cigarettes at 100,” he details to a passerby who approaches, interested.

“That rum is not homemade, is it?” Asks the young man. “Oh no! It’s from the ration book at the bodega (ration store), and I am selling it to see if I can make it to the end of the year,” the seller replies. In portals and corners of the capital, the same scene is repeated: retirees who try to get some money from the sale of this alcoholic drink acquired “by the ration book” and highly sought after on the Island these days in the absence of beers or ciders. And the same with cigarettes.

The “regulated” distribution includes, per person, one bottle of rum in a one and a half liter plastic bottle priced at 132 pesos, and four boxes of strong H. Upmann brand cigarettes, at 17.50 pesos each. Under the table, products are resold at five times their cost.

“Bocoy Rum, sealed from the ration store, 1.5 liters at 700 pesos. Víbora [neighborhood] (I do not deliver), private parties.” Ads like this have filled classified sites and social media. Another Facebook user jokes about the distribution of the drink: “1.5 of rum from the ration store at the end of the year to have the people anesthetized. Too late, carry on.” continue reading

Francisco Silva Herrera, general director of merchandise sales of the Ministry of Internal Trade, declared this Monday that 655,000 boxes were destined to guarantee rum sales. The enthusiasm for the idea of buying a bottle of rum and then being able to resell it did not last long, since the drink is not of good quality

“I have not been able to off load the rum, nobody wants to buy it because everybody already knows that it is bad,” confesses a neighbor in Luyanó. “I’ll see if a miracle happens and I get the ingredients to make a crema de vie [eggnog].”

In any case, the sale of rum on the rationed market once again awakens the ghosts of the Special Period. During the crisis of the 90s, the product, one of the emblems of the national industry, was also sold in a controlled manner for each nuclear family. Eggs or chicken could be missing, but the alcohol arrived on time.

“Why so much rum?” laments another resident of Centro Habana. “If they really want to help, let them give us a piece of meat for the 31st.”

The inflation resulting from the so-called Ordering Task has caused many Cubans to go out to sell what they have on hand, since it is almost the end of the year and many still do not know that they are going to have dinner on December 31st. Not without consequences.

Mario, a resident of Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood, was fined 8,000 pesos this week for selling the cigarettes from his rationed share. The young man had them displayed in the window of his house and the inspector who sanctioned him posed as a shopper.

“There is rum and cigarettes,” proclaim those who sell ’on the left’ near the state outlets. (14ymedio)

“You can’t sell any of the products that are distributed in the ration store,” the official informed him. “Well, I don’t understand it. If I don’t smoke, why can’t I sell them to solve other needs?” Mario dared to answer, who insists that he will demand punishment from the relevant authorities.

Despite the fact that not all Cubans drink alcohol or smoke, everyone will receive this year-end rum and cigarettes that they are not allowed to sell. Meanwhile, the government’s response to the population’s concerns about food shortages and high prices has been the announcement that an additional one pound of chicken and three pounds of rice per person will be distributed.

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In the Absence of Pork, a Ration of Mortadela with Moringa for Cubans at Christmas

“It’s Christmas and the gift to the Cubans is pork sausage with moringa, and very expensive, what lack of respect,” complained a customer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 December 2021 — Before the popular protests of July 11, the fish market on Calle San Lázaro in Centro Habana had had hardly any supplies for months. After the social explosion, the state trade was supplied with lobster, minced meat and snapper, but that is now a thing of the past and the star of the tablet is the mortadella with moringa.

“It is a new experiment and I do not intend to try it, mine job is only to sell it,” said the clerk who managed sales at the store on the corner of Soledad Street this Saturday. The approaching customers looked in amazement and pouted when they read: “Chicken Mortadella with moringa at 150 pesos per kilogram.”

The mere mention of the word “moringa”, a tree highly valued for its properties, immediately reminds Cubans of former president Fidel Castro. In his last years of life, Castro became obsessed with the properties of these plants, which he even praised as “capable of providing well-paid, shady work.” continue reading

“Can’t they sell a simple pork steak?” an angry buyer said indignantly in line at the fish market on Calle San Lázaro in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

Unpleasant in appearance due to its dark color and somewhat lumpy texture, the new sausage did not elicit much enthusiasm from the audience, despite the desperation to take something home. “In the middle of Christmas and the gift to the Cubans is pork sausage with moringa, and very expensive, what a lack of respect,” complained another customer.

The other offers on the list of products available were special chicken mortadella at 120 pesos per kilogram and chicken croquettes at 57. A woman who was looking for what to put inside the bread for her children’s snack was indecisive when choosing which of the unattractive products displayed in the window she was going to take.

“I don’t know if my children are going to eat the one with moringa, I have no idea what it tastes like,” she said aloud, to which a lady in line replied that the vegetable addition didn’t taste like anything. “What I don’t understand is the difference of 30 pesos compared to the special, it seems expensive to me,” added another person who was listening nearby.

Food mixtures have been a constant in Cuban state trade, which frequently “enriches” the ground meat with soy, adds claria meat (of the catfish genus) to sausages, and now makes use of moringa. But customers seem to still prefer the raw material: “Can’t you sell a simple pork steak?” One frustrated shopper raged on that Christmas morning.

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‘Patria y Vida’, The Anthem for Cuban Freedom

The authors and performers of the song ’Patria y Vida’. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 December 2021 — Barely a week had passed since the premiere of the song Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), in February, when these two words began to be used as a slogan by different opponents of the regime, inside and outside of Cuba.

Opposed to the Castroist “homeland or death”, the images extolling the blackness of five artists, some in exile –Yotuel Romero, the duo Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno – and others on the island – Eliexer Márquez El Funky and Maykel Castillo Osorbo — united for the first time, the theme was a tribute to the San Isidro Movement — in the video clip its leader the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara appears, wrapped in the flag that flew at the group’s headquarters when they gathered to demand the release of the rapper Denis Solís – but it also honored other protests, such as that of Luis Robles Elizastigui , the “young man with the placard,” and attacked the blatant dollarization of the economy.

It immediately went viral and, at the same time, put its protagonists in the crosshairs of State Security. The campaign against it included articles in the official press to discredit its creators and even a ridiculous “song war”, but above all it consisted of systematic harassment and repression against participating artists within the country.

On May 18, Osorbo was arrested and on July 11, Otero Alcántara was also; both today remain in maximum security prisons. El Funky had more luck: he was forced into exile in Miami. continue reading

None of this prevented Patria y Vida from accompanying the 11J [July 11] protests and it continued to resound loudly. On November 18, it won the two Latin Grammy Awards for which it was nominated, and on December 8, the lyrics of the song –signed, in addition to the performers, by the Spanish singer and dancer Beatriz Luengo – was immortalized in the Journal of Sessions of the United States Congress.

That day, on the stand, the Florida representative Mario Díaz-Balart highlighted “the importance of a song that has become an anthem for a movement and for so many Cubans who demand freedom on the Island” and demanded “that all political prisoners are released, that basic rights of expression, assembly and belief are respected, and free, fair and multi-party elections are scheduled.”

The announcement by Yotuel Romero and Beatriz Luengo of a documentary that will show the impact of the song on the fight for freedom in Cuba anticipates that the theme will not lose its validity in 2022. Former US President Barack Obama has chosen it as one of his songs of the year.

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Operation Cosmetics: Products Missing From Cuban Markets for Months Reappear

Agricultural markets in Havana suddenly offered special supplies hours before Christmas Eve. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 December 2021 — After a year marked by shortages, in the last days of December the Cuban government has launched an effort to try to erase the image of the empty market stalls. Agricultural markets in Havana experienced a special supply hours before Christmas Eve. Vegetables, legumes, meats and even fruits that had not been seen together for a long time came up for sale.

“The pallets are full and the prices are less exaggerated than in previous days,” said a man at the entrance of one of these premises, who also noted the presence of inspectors from the municipal government. “Sure they come to look on their own account, these days they always sharpen their teeth,” the man whispered.

The strategy, however, was not enough to fill all of Havana’s markets nor to satisfy customers who continue to regret that prices remained very high despite the slight reduction. Others, spoke sarcastically about the evident objective of “making up the scarcity” in the face of “the Christmas photo” and expressed their fears about a twist in the deficit in the coming weeks.

“What I want to know is where all this merchandise was put, surely in January they will be empty again,” commented a lady while reviewing the list displayed in a market in the Cerro municipality. Pineapples, cabbages and tomatoes fail to appease popular unrest in the midst of one of the hardest economic crises of the last half century on the Island.

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The Problem is Not Hunger, but Cubans’ Excessive Appetite, Opines Frei Betto

Meeting in 2014 between Frei Betto and Fidel Castro. (Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2021 — “In Cuba there is no hunger. But the Cubans have a lot of appetite!” affirmed the Brazilian Frei Betto in a recent text published by the State newspaper Granma. In his writing, the theologian and sympathizer of the regime argues that the Government of the Island spends two billion dollars on imported food for the people each year, but ignores such everyday scenes as endless lines and shortages.

The theologian, very close to Fidel Castro, assures that on the island “there are no people living on the streets or beggars” when he asserts that the almost 12 million inhabitants in the country have “access to a basic monthly ’basket’ and to the systems of Health and Education for free.” However, even the official press itself has recognized the existence of homeless Cubans who ask for money to survive.

In his own words, in just two weeks he realized many things, including recognizing the Cuban economy is “fragile.” The letter published in the official media on December 24 and under the title Cuba and our daily bread, was the result of a visit as an advisor to the Government for the Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education program (known as the SAN Plan).

Reactions have not been delayed. “What happened here? Frei Betto visits model farms and not popular stomachs?” asked Cuban opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa after reading the Brazilian’s writing.

“Is it the new version of the geopolitics of hunger that blames the people, and not their governments? If it is true that we have a sweet tooth, then a regime incapable of satisfying us cannot govern us,” added the vice president of the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba on his Twitter account as he shared screenshots of the theologian’s words. continue reading

In his writing, Betto outlined what would be the objectives of this program in Cuba, which coincide with some points that have marked the regime’s agenda for years and have not achieved concrete changes. Among them, he listed as the first “significantly reducing food imports,” a task in which the Government has been involved for decades without being able to raise its head.

Just to mention a recent example, in the last two decades, Cuba practically ceased to be a sugar-producing country, but it did not develop another industry of similar magnitude that would allow it to generate foreign exchange. That is why, for many experts, the current crisis on the island is related to structural problems: “The rigidity and distorted and inefficient character of the Cuban economy,” suggested economist Ernesto Hernández-Catá, a former professor at John Hopkins University (Baltimore).

Another objective that Betto listed for the SAN Plan and that is related to the first, is “to increase local food production, valuing family, urban and suburban agriculture,” another action addressed by the Government in its speeches without achieving transformations of any kind.

Among the latest policies, in April of this year 63 measures were approved that sought to increase agricultural production in the country, stimulate farmers and marketing. However, six months later, the livestock sector reported low milk production that was due to the failure of the government’s promises, including non-payment to producers.

Betto also indicated as goals “to carry out a broad nutrition education campaign” and “to carry out intensive communication on the SAN Plan.” All the objectives are expected to bear “fruit” in “the next four or five years,” he said, with the approval of Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel with whom he held several meetings and who considers the project “urgent and essential.”

On the other hand, he took time to criticize the eating habits of Cubans and advised that some “can be perfectly changed.” One example he gave was “the preference for wheat bread, an imported cereal,” he stressed.

As a substitute for wheat flour, Betto proposed making cassava, corn and “coconut flour” breads.

But it didn’t all did not stop there, he also had his proposal for meat, a product that not everyone will be able to buy this Christmas due to its high prices and the little that appears in the markets: “And meat can give a greater place to the consumption of beans, lentils , spinach, peanuts, soybeans and avocado, rich in protein,” he advised. “Although the island does not have many dairy cattle, the new generations are already getting used to soy milk and yogurt.”

The words of the Dominican have reminded many of the book Fidel and Religion, Conversations with Frei Betto, edited from a long interview conducted in 1985. In the volume, Castro explains his recipe for cooking lobsters and how to prepare coffee with milk to which he added a pinch of salt to give a special “touch.” At that time, shellfish was something unthinkable on the table of Cuban families and milk was rationed and supplied on to children under seven years of age.

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Archipielago: Yunior Garcia, Saily Gonzalez, Daniela Rojo, David Martinez

The activists Yunior García (top left), Daniela Rojo (bottom left), Saily González (top right) and David Martínez (bottom right). (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2021 — In the second half of the year, a group turned the Cuban reality upside down, the Archipiélago platform, which was placed under the global spotlight after less than a year of its creation. The Cuban authorities had just announced with great fanfare the reopening of the country for November 15, when this group decided to make a formal call, in most Cuban provinces, for demonstrations to demand the freedom of the prisoners and a national dialogue to resolve the differences between all Cubans. What was unusual about the proposal was its resort to legal channels to authorize the march, which would expose the regime if it was prohibited.

Since that day, the most visible faces of this collective, founded after November 27, 2020 (27N) by the playwright Yunior García Aguilera, have become more and more known inside and outside of Cuba. The government itself was the one who placed the spotlight on them through almost daily personal attacks after torpedoing the first date requested by the Archipiélago, November 20, by calling for that date to be National Defense Day.

Archipiélago decided, in an collective manner, to move the date to November 15, at which time the authorities changed their strategy and went on to an intimidating attack. All the signatories of the march requests or supporters of the platform and even people who had simply clicked on the ‘like’ button in their social media posts were warned by police officers or prosecutors of the possible crimes they would incur if they demonstrated on 15N.

The pressure from the authorities and the shock troops launched by the Government took effect, causing people continue reading

such as the businesswoman from Villa Clara Saily González, the Guanabacoa activist Daniela Rojo, and the Cienfuegos activist David Martínez, who had led Archipiélago, to be repudiated and cornered in their homes, not to mention that on 15N the regime deployed all its artillery to keep the activists locked up in their homes.

The most visible head of the movement, Yunior García, was harassed for weeks by the state media and the police even told him which prison he would go to if he persisted in his attempt to march. The playwright moved his idea forward by one day and announced that he would walk alone dressed in white with a rose, but he could not even set foot outside his house, besieged by officialdom through the bars of his window.

The situation ended when three days later it was learned that the activist had traveled to Madrid , convinced that on the island he would be silenced and locked up between the four walls of his home or a prison. This decision, very controversial, was received by his colleagues in different ways, but it was a before and after in the life of the movement. A movement that, this last month of the year, having been raised to world fame, has been broken with the abandonment of several of its best known members. Despite everything, Archipíelago aspires to continue fighting.

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