Saily González Leaves Archipielago and Calls to Accelerate the Fights for Rights in Cuba

Santa Clara businesswoman Saily González. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2021 — The businesswoman Saily González, one of the most active coordinators of the Archipíelago group since its creation, announced this Sunday that she is leaving the Cuban opposition platform. She was joined this Monday by activist Magdiel Jorge Castro.

“Today I am leaving Archipíelago, the most important undertaking to which I have contributed in my life and the human group that has been and is the most fraternal to me,” González wrote in a tweet. The reason, she continued, is that her world “goes at 48 frames per second and logic makes the Archipíelago walk at 24.” And she asked: “Do not look for more reasons that aren’t there.”

In a Facebook post, she clarified: “No, gentlemen, I am not leaving the country,” after arguing: “We have the common goal of conquering all rights for all Cubans, of ensuring that we can all contribute to our country, and the fronts on which I fight will never be exclusive, as the Archipíelago is not. This makes us sisters, and I am aslo a sister of everyone who thinks this way.”

González, also known as “Saily de Amarillo” for the small eponymous business she opened in Santa Clara in the hotel sector, has been one of the most visible heads of Archipíelago since the group called the march on November 15, finally frustrated by the threats and repression of State Security. continue reading

On 15November(15 N), an angry and violent mob prevented the young woman from leaving her house , and she limited herself to following the two instructions agreed upon by Archipíelago: to applause at three in the afternoon and to hang out white sheets. Days later, and as she had announced, she left with a flower in her hand and broadcast the walk by video, which ended by placing the flower at the foot of the statue of Antonio Maceo in Santa Clara.

After the regime disrupted the Civic March for Change through threats, acts of repudiation and militarization of the cities, Archipíelago called for the peaceful protests to continue until November 27. However, since the arrival in Spain, on November 17, of the most visible figure on the platform, Yunior García Aguilera, the group has been dismembered.

This Sunday, Twitter user Magdiel Jorge Castro, who has lived in Bolivia for two years, also announced his departure. “Today I leave Archipíelago, grateful for these intense months with such brave people,” he wrote on his Twitter account, where he has more than 26,000 followers. “The road to democracy is long and rugged but the end deserves every possible sacrifice. There are more than 600 political prisoners and a dictatorship to overthrow. It is time to unite.”

Castro, born in the province of Holguín in 1994, has been the promoter of several virtual campaigns to denounce the repression against Cuban activists and journalists. The young man has a degree in Microbiology and in recent weeks he has denounced several attacks by the Cuban official press against him for his activism on social networks.

He and González join other “desertions” from the Archipíelago in just a few days. On Friday, lawyer Fernando Almeyda resigned as one of the platform’s coordinators. By way of explanation, he said that “the political nuance of the platform and its coordinators, although I am sure that they benefit the Cuban cause, is moving away from my ideas, my way of thinking and my political position.”

In addition, the jurist was critical of Yunior García Aguilera’s “agenda,” “which does not respond to the objectives and purposes of the Archipíelago and over which the members have no real control.”

Before González and Almeyda, the group had already suffered notable losses. One of them was that of Daniela Rojo, who last Wednesday announced her resignation as coordinator of the platform. The young woman from Guanabacoa, mother of two young children, who was kidnapped by the political police on November 12 and spent five days in a house of the Ministry of the Interior under the custody of several agents, presented her decision as based on “personal and family problems.”

And another exit, earlier, was that of Professor Leonardo Fernández Otaño, also a moderator of the platform, who confessed, like Almeyda, not to share “a group of political actions carried out by Yunior García Aguilera since his departure from Cuba.”

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Cuban Opponent Silverio Portal Returns to Prison After Parole for Health Reasons

Silverio Portal must serve the remaining four months of his prison sentence. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2021 — The activist Silverio Portal, leader of Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID), entered prison yesterday to serve the four months that remain in his sentence after having spent a year at home with an extra-penal license that was granted to him for health reasons.

“Our brother Silverio Portal Contreras, leader of the CID, is currently detained in prison 1580, San Miguel del Padrón municipality, Havana, by order of State Security and officials from this same place have revoked his case,” according to Lady in White Laura Labrada Pollán, speaking this Tuesday.

Portal’s return to prison was anticipated since last October when the authorities alleged the expiration of the measure he obtained on 1 December 2020 due to his state of health, although the opponent himself believed it was a punishment for his declared intentions to participate in the Civic March for Change called by Archipíelago for 15N (15 November).

Portal, in fact, managed to break out of the surveillance and march on November 15 and deposit a white flower in front of a bust of Martí, although at that moment he already had in hand the revocation of the extra-penal measure. “Silverio Portal Contreras chooses Liberty. Homeland, Life and Liberty!” he said in the video he posted on his Facebook profile to document his action. continue reading

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

Shortly after entering prison, he suffered a thrombosis that paralyzed one side of his face and had to be treated for two strokes, derived from his hypertension problems.

In addition, in mid-2020 the activist suffered partial loss of vision, apparently caused by a beating by prison guards.

“I hold Diaz Canel and the DSE responsible for what may happen to such a patriot, worthy and brave brother. I ask the world to raise our voices for Silverio Portal Contreras and for all political prisoners,” Labrada Pollán asked yesterday.

Portal has been one of the political prisoners who has received the most international support in recent times. At least 150 opponents signed a letter in his favor calling for his release, and the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International, as well as some governments such as the United States, demanded his immediate release. Now he will have to spend almost four months in Prison 1580 to finish his sentence.

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The Families of Four Cuban Political Prisoners in Santa Clara Demand to See Their Children

The family of Andy García Lorenzo, one of those detained on July 11th, with a sign asking for the release of the young man from Santa Clara. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 4, 2021 — The whereabouts of Andy García Lorenzo, José Miguel Gómez Monteja, Liván Hernández Salazar y Carlos Michael, detained in Santa Clara for participating in the peaceful protests on July 11th (11J), are unknown.

“They were transferred to an unknown location without providing information to their immediate family,” denounced Archipiélago in a statement on Friday, noting that this occurred “in the context of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s visit yesterday to Santa Clara.”

Andy García’s family placed, on the rooftop of their home in Santa Clara, a sign demanding freedom for the political prisoner. “We hold the State Security responsible for whatever physical or psychological harm my brother or any other prisoner suffers,” denounced Roxana García, Andy’s sister, this Friday in a brief video.

“They must tell us where he is, why they transferred him, what were the reasons,” demands the young lady, who along with other members of the family led a protest on November 15th (15N) outside their house, which was met with a prolonged, state-sponsored act of repudiation.

Andy García’s mother also demanded a response regarding the whereabouts of her son. “You took my emotional peace but you took my fear, you are rats, cowards, this sign will not be removed from this house,” she assured. “I demand to see my son, as a mother they cannot deny me that right, I will not be silenced.” continue reading

Recently, Roxana García and her husband, Jonatan López, launched an initiative to support families of the July 11th political prisoners in Santa Clara. The project, also supported by activist and Archipiélago member Saily González, seeks to help defray the cost of the food taken to jail at each visit.

“There are many prisoners who have never received a ’sack’ as it is referred to in the prison,” explained González in a Facebook video. “This is not just about the food they might receive, but also about the support from people outside, from their family and friends.”

For the young lady, it’s important to remember that “those people have been jailed since July 11th” because “they were the ones that went out to face the consequences.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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South African Parliamentarians Ask for Information About the Beating of Students in Cuba

The moment when a PNR agent grabs a South African student by the neck at the University of Villa Clara. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2021 — South Africa continues unhurriedly waiting for explanations from the Villa Clara University authorities after the incident that occurred last November in which several young medical students from their country were beaten by the Cuban police when they were holding a party that got out of control.

Sibongiseni Dhlomo, South African Deputy Minister of Health, intervened this Tuesday in Cape Town before a commission of the National Council of Provinces (upper house of Parliament), where he was asked about the investigation he had announced a few days after the event. The politician said that his government is still waiting for an explanation, but alleged that the students were demanding one from him.

“The students were beaten up by the police on campus during a birthday party that was supposed to start at 7:00 p.m., but it finally started at 9:00 p.m. and lasted until the wee hours of the morning. It is not yet known who called the police, but the students say the officers asked them to turn the music down because it was too loud at that hour,” he said.

According to Dhlomo, the Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences reported the incident to the provincial leadership, which has established a commission to investigate the matter. “We will await the results. We will meet with the attaché in Cuba this week,” he said. continue reading

The event came to light thanks to a video shared in a massive way to denounce the exaggerated violence with which the National Revolutionary Police put down the party in the Santa Clara shelter where it took place.

“Walk, come on, upstairs!” the police said to the young people. “Record video, record video!” an English voice was heard saying.

After the controversy generated by the images that showed the excessive force of the Cuban police, the South African Ministry of Health assured that it would investigate what happened after confirming that those beaten were citizens of their country. However, they apparently trust the Cuban side to find out what happened.

On Tuesday, South African parliamentarians asked Dhlomo what his government had done to ensure the safety of South African students abroad, but his answer made no reference to it.

Dhlomo had made controversial statements last month, when he asked that the “sensationalist” video of the beaten fellows not continued to be shared. The official warned that its dissemination had “the potential to harm the families of the students and the diplomatic relations between the governments of South Africa and Cuba.”

Relations between the two countries have been very fruitful since the time of Nelson Mandela, although they have continued with their successors in office, all members of the hitherto unbeatable African National Congress party, which in the last elections began to take their toll on cases of known corruption these years, something that was noticed in the loss of votes despite maintaining the victory.

This same week, Cuba and South Africa renewed their cooperation agreement in the management of water resources and the supply of water, by virtue of which Cuban engineers advise those of South Africa to improve the maintenance and management of water supply and sanitation infrastructures. especially in rural areas and other disadvantaged communities.

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Washington and Latin America

Soon Ana Belén Montes will leave prison, but she will have left her perfidious work very well done. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 5 December 2021 — It is like the “never-ending story.” A circular nightmare.

Havana, summer of 1959. I remember a person who was very sure that US President Ike Eisenhower, in the middle of the Cold War, “would never allow the consolidation of a Soviet base 90 miles off the coast of the United States.” The person was a veteran of that “forgotten war” in which more than thirty thousand Americans died.

 The reasoning was impeccable. A few years earlier, between 1950 and 1953, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman, the US Armed Forces had gone to fight on the Korean peninsula, a poor and dusty country, thousands of miles away, supposedly under an order from the recently created United Nations. The real purpose was to prevent China – the Communist world – from having another victory and conquering another country.

However, on 1 January 2023, the Cuban government will begin the 63rd year of its uninterrupted stay in power, exercising its most stubborn “anti-Yankee” attitude, without “Uncle Sam” appearing to care at all.

Why this indifference to Havana and its tense hatred against “the Americans”? For different reasons, among them, the tireless work of Cuban intelligence.

Ana Belén Montes, a Puerto Rican, was the highest-ranking spy, but not the only one, planted by “the Cubans” in the United States Defense Intelligence Agency. Her first contacts with Havana occurred in 1984, 17 years before she was arrested and accused of espionage, ten days after 11 September 2001. continue reading

She was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison plus five years of close surveillance, although theoretically she will spend them in her home. Her two siblings – Tito and Lucy, male and female – work loyally for the FBI. Montes will soon be released from prison, but she would have left her perfidious work very well done.

Indeed. Ana Belén Montes became the main analyst on Cuban issues for that institution for a great number of years. Her job consisted of coordinating from the Pentagon the vision between the different intelligence sections on the Cuban revolution, but her secret mission, agreed to with Havana, was to minimize the risk to Cuban communism and convince Washington of the convenience of lifting the embargo against the Island.

Fidel Castro didn’t like the arrival of Gorbachev at the Kremlin (1985). He came to think that Gorbachev was a CIA agent. “He can’t be such an idiot,” he said back then. He prepared for the worst. He met with the Brazilian trade unionist Lula da Silva. Brazil was a giant country, and the leader of the metallurgists union could support him with the “Workers Party.” Fidel Castro convinced him to support the Sao Paulo Forum. It was a kind of ‘International’ of the Latin American left that included the most violent organizations, such as the FARC and 47 other groups, which met in Sao Paulo in July 1990.

Faced with Mikhail Gorbachev’s strategy of “liberating Russia from the weight of the Soviet Union,” Fidel, who never did the math, didn’t care that the USSR was ruined on the way. His goal was fighting and defeating the United States, his particular war since he confessed to his secretary and lover Celia Sánchez his leitmotif in a handwritten letter dated June 5, 1958, in the middle of the Sierra Maestra.

Gorbachev’s strategic vision was evident in two matters that were very important to Fidel: he was notified, very discreetly, that Moscow would not continue to pay for the presence of Cubans in Africa, and the USSR sent a message to the Sandinista Front that it would not continue financing the war against the “Contra.” Gorbachev urged them to go to free elections against Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, something that Fidel strongly discouraged.

It seemed that communism was collapsing, but the Cuban regime showed that perseverance pays great results, even when its objectives were not the same ones that the USSR advocated – ending private property.

In 1990-1991 it seemed that Latin America had returned to the fold of democracy and development. Chile had separated from Augusto Pinochet, but not from its commitment to the market. But it didn’t happen like that: in 1994 Fidel invited Hugo Chávez, an unknown Venezuelan coup leader who had just been released from prison and had less than 2% popular support. At the end of 1998 he was elected President, guided by the Cuban political operators, and the return of chaos began.

In 2006 Evo Morales was elected in Bolivia. In 2007, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. In 2019 many young Chileans rebelled against the market, destroying many symbols of their recent successes. At the end of 2021, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya was elected in Honduras. She will control the government; her husband, Daniel Ortega will take power.

As I said, it’s like “the never-ending story.” A circular nightmare. There is no remedy.
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A Fair ‘For the News’ Outside the Carlos III Plaza in Havana

The sales area was cordoned off, consisting of several tents located in the area’s portals. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 December 2021 — This Saturday a trade fair paralyzed traffic on the avenue in front of Carlos III Plaza in Havana. With the participation of several CIMEX(Cuban Export-Import Corporation) branches, and after more than two years since this type of event was not organized in the shopping complex, the sale began in the morning amid complaints from the population and an abundant police presence.

The available products varied: oil, shampoo, deodorant, canned soft drinks, compote, among other products. The problem was in the quantity available, very little, giving the impression that it would soon be exhausted. Some merchandise which has practically disappeared or there are just small stocks o sale in stores in national currency, such as children’s articles, were being sold at high prices. A small backpack cost 495 CUP while some board games cost around 400.

The line extended several blocks from the place and was heavily guarded by numerous members of the police and the prevention department of the Armed Forces.Also notable in the vicinity were plainclothes officers who carefully observed everything that happened in the surroundings. .

The sales area was cordoned off and consisted of several tents located in the portals of the area, access was controlled by law enforcement officers who collected identity cards from people before they entered. continue reading

The products for sale varied, there was oil, shampoo, deodorant, canned soft drinks, compote among other products, the problem was the quantity available. (14ymedio)

Long delay, crowds at the entrance, the line advanced very slowly, a scenario that caused complaints as the hours passed and many lost hope of being able to buy anything. “This fair is only for the news, they sell little things to advertise, but this line is not moving and there are few products, we probably can’t buy anything,” commented a woman in line when she saw that the police were taking too long to organize it.

Within that restricted access area, several incidents occurred between the uniformed men and some people who tried to go out to the rope that delimited the place to look for money. “Return the money,” the policeman ordered a woman. “She’s my sister, she brought me money because I can’t buy everything I want,” she explained. “Give it back now,” replied the policeman in a threatening tone. The woman finally returned the money and, after a heated discussion, several uniformed officers detained her to a patrol car.

This newspaper was able to verify that there was no strict observance of compliance with pandemic-prevention measures there, some people lowered their masks to speak or smoke and the distance between the those in the middle of the crowd was not fulfilled.

In Carlos III there have been other fairs of this type in the past, although never with such an influx of the public, nor in the middle of a surveillance operation as large as the one deployed  in the area this Saturday.

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In Havana, an ‘All for a Hundred’ Market… and More

San Rafael Market, in Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana , 4 December 2021 — Castile melon, Chinese plum and even mangoes. The supply in the private market at 19th and B streets, in Havana’s Vedado district, has increased in recent weeks, as Christmas approaches. However, most buyers see this entire burgeoning variety as a mirage, because they cannot afford the high prices of the products.

“This market should be renamed and called ’all for one hundred’,” says a woman sarcastically at the entrance to the busy store. “A 4-pound piece of papaya costs 100 pesos, half a melon 100, a mango 100,” and she cries out: “A mango! Where are we going to stop?”

In this agricultural market, which some ironically call “the boutique” not so much for its assortment, greater than in other places, as for its prices. The prices of pork, at 195 pesos per pound, and some vegetables, such as carrots and beets, at 50 pesos per pound.

The outlook for the state-run 17th and K market was not much better as, although the products cost slightly less, there were only eight or nine for sale. In the case of onions, there was not even a difference with a private trade: in both places the price was 75 pesos per pound. “The onion here should cost less,” says one customer as he meticulously chooses small, medium-quality tomatoes. “Only in the case of the red onion the price is lower, and the lower quality tomato costs 40 when the individuals have it at 50. It does not make a big difference.” continue reading

In other small squares of Centro Habana visited by this newspaper, the situation was repeated: in San Rafael a pound of eggplant reached 40 pesos on Thursday, and the plantain, 7 pesos per unit. “Those days of drinking eggplant water for cholesterol are over,” says an old woman. “Two of the smallest eggplants can cost up to 60 pesos. What else can a retiree buy here other than sweet potato and pumpkin (at 10 pesos per pound)?”

The cost of all this, Cubans on the street agree, went through the roof with the Ordering Task*. Before these measures, in force for almost a year, you could find pork steak at 35 pesos per pound. “At most 50,” says a neighbor from Centro Habana. “I’ve never eaten a pork steak from January to now, and I don’t buy tomatoes either. If that’s me, and I’m not poor, how is it for the ordinary Cuban?”

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = The [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and others.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

At Christmas, the Pork on Cuban Tables Will Come From the United States, and the Beans from Mexico

The Cuban pig lacks flavor because of the animal’s poor diet. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 2 December 2021 — Pork legs from the United States, Spanish milk and Mexican beans. At the tables of Cuban families, imported products outnumber the number and quality of the few foods that come out of the nation’s fields and industries. Simply writing “imported” next to an offer to makes customers feel more confident and seduced.

“My sister bought me the plantain tostones from a place that brings them frozen from the United States,” says a 45-year-old from Havana. “Luckily she sent them to me, because here there are no longer large plantains that are used to make good tostones, and with this I am guarantee to have at least one fried food for Christmas.”

In the same digital site that sells the frozen product, one can also buy fried ripe plantains, ready to warm up in the pan and serve. “One grew up believing that the banana was something from here, we even made fun of those clichés that they saw us as people who were always eating bananas, and now we have to bring them from abroad.”

Where the needle of preferences points more strongly to what is imported over the national is in sausages and meat products. The nosedive in pork production, the ups and downs of livestock, which has not quite raised its head despite the most recent flexibilities in the sector, and the deep mistrust of diners reinforce this trend. continue reading

“Pork takes on the flavor of the food you give the animal,” says El Pana, a pig producer from Alquízar, in Artemisa, whom 14ymedio has tracked since he started in the sector until he ended up, last year, dismantling his corrals, tired of not getting feed and affected by the entry restrictions to Havana due to the pandemic.

“When I was able to get fishmeal and the animal spent its fattening time eating that, then you threw a steak in the pan and it seemed that it was frying claria,” he says. “People have lost their reference and don’t even remember what pork tastes like, but I’ve been in this business for many years and I know when a pig ate garbage and when they gave it something else.”

“In the fat and meat of the animal a lot of what it has eaten accumulates, as soon as you cut a leg or a shoulder blade, you can notice it by the tone of the upper. Imagine when you put it to cook, all that smell comes out and fills the house. I cannot sell what I myself would not eat, and here feeding a pig correctly is impossible.”

In El Pana’s opinion, this is one of the motivations for opting for the imported product. “You realize that they are younger pigs, because they managed to reach the weight for slaughter in the time it should be and not like it happens here that, as it does not have feed, tie passes and the animal is still skinny. You can’t kill that way.”

“Not to mention chicken, it’s been a long time since almost everything has come from abroad,” acknowledges the producer. “Here in the area surrounding Alquízar we had several poultry farms, there is nothing left of that. Even the roofs and fences have been stolen little by little.”

Something similar happens in livestock. The stores that only accept payment in freely convertible currency (MLC) and the digital sites that offer their merchandise for the emigrants to feed their families on the Island are full of cuts of beef coming mostly from Spain and Uruguay. An inquiry in one of those portals about the possibility of buying national meat yielded a brief answer: “We do not offer Cuban beef. It does not meet the quality requirements.”

In the same message, the customer was offered the possibility of buying a package of “chopped veal meat, ideal for skewers” or a tray of “ground beef fillet,” imported from Spain. Another “cheaper” option is “a kilogram of totally Iberian beef skirt.” Crossing the Atlantic seems to add more symbolic value to the merchandise.

While in many countries there is an increase in movements favorable to local commerce, which favors local products, in Cuba consumers are opting for imported food. Local consumption is barely concentrated in some produce, seasonal fruits and vegetables, but with the rise in prices in recent months, sometimes a canned or frozen product is cheaper.

“A pound of beans is above 90 pesos when you can find it,” says Victor Manuel, a retiree who frequently visits the agricultural market on San Rafael Street in Havana. “To give it flavor, I have to buy just a little chorizo ​​or bacon, as well as add onion, garlic and other seasonings. When I take out an account, a fabada — bean stew — for my wife and for me comes out at more than 180 or 200 pesos.”

“My son, who lives in Miami, buys me cans of Asturian bean stew through stores and on the internet, which cost less than four dollars each. My wife and I eat with two without going back and forth to the agri-market and without so much mess with the pressure cooker. Cheaper and it has nothing to envy compared to what I could do in my kitchen with what little there is.”

“Before, at Christmas, almost everything that was eaten was from here, though perhaps the nougat or cider came from elsewhere, but now the table looks like the United Nations,” jokes Víctor Manuel. “What does not come from Mexico, comes from New Zealand. Crazy.”

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Cuba: Archipielago Coordinator Resigns Due to Political Disagreement

 

The lawyer Fernando Almeyda has been, since its foundation, one of the most visible heads of the Archipíelago platform. (Facebook)

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14ymedio, Havana, 4 December 2021 — The lawyer Fernando Almeyda resigned this Friday as one the coordinators of the Archipiélago group. “Assuming this role implies a responsibility, which in the face of the latest events and decisions of the group I cannot assume,” he explained in a post published on his Facebook profile, in which he also claimed: “The political nuance of the platform and its coordinators, although I am sure that they benefit the Cuban cause, it is moving away from my ideas, my way of thinking and my political position.”

This does not mean, the jurist clarifies, that he departs from “the fight” and assures that he will continue “as one more island in the Archipiélago, as one more follower of this project.”

“The Archipiélago’s struggle represents one more force (not the only one) based on a greater good: justice, freedom, democracy and well-being for the Cuban people,” he concludes in his text. “I owe myself to that fight, and to all the projects and actors who share that vision.”

Asked by 14ymedio what he meant by “the political nuance of the platform,” Almeyda gave as an example “all the interviews that Yunior [García Aguilera] has given, whom I admire and respect, but whose dialectic as a leader I disagree with,” as well as that “on behalf of the Archipíelago, positions, ideas and alliances have been proposed that have not been brought to consensus” and that continue reading

“many of the things that have been decided by the majority are not followed, due to minority dissent, or it doesn’t represent the consensus by the veto of one or two people “.

On the first, he added: “I can also quote you the configuration of an agenda of Yunior that does not respond to the objectives and purposes of the Archipelago and over which the members have no real control.”

After the surprise arrival in Spain of Yunior García Aguilera and his wife, Dayana Prieto, on November 17, the platform has experienced not only harassment and repression by State Security, but also notable desertions within the group .

One of them was that of Daniela Rojo, who last Wednesday announced her resignation as coordinator of the platform. The young woman from Guanabacoa, mother of two young children, who was kidnapped by the political police on November 12 and spent five days in a house of the Ministry of the Interior under the custody of several agents, argued her decision on “personal and family problems.”

Before her, professor Leonardo Fernández Otaño, also a moderator of the platform , had publicly announced his departure from Archipielago , and confessed, like Almeyda, to not sharing “a group of political actions carried out by Yunior García Aguilera since his departure from Cuba.”

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An Architect Comments on the ‘Excesses’ Committed in the Construction of the Fidel Castro Center

“I remember when they finished the little interior paths of the house, that they had the pallets of pavers lying there, and boom, the solution was to remove the little grass separator from the Linea street divider.,” says the specialist consulted. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 December 2021 — The amount of investment made by the Cuban Government in the brand new Fidel Castro Ruz Center, in Havana’s Vedado district, whose works were in charge of the Office of the Historian of Havana (OHCH), is a mystery that has no signs of being revealed. “And even if it does come out, it will be very opaque, the final number will never come out,” a young architect with knowledge of the subject and who prefers anonymity tells 14ymedio.

However, the professional is sure of something: “There were excesses.” As an example, he says that “they spent a lot on paving stones that later they didn’t use and they had to find where to put them.” That was the origin, he says, of the cobblestones with which they paved a part of the gardens of Avenida de los Presidentes, also known as Calle G, the central Calle Línea and other places, such as Calle A in several of its sections.

“All those paving stones came from there,” says the architect. “I remember when they finished the little interior paths of the house, that they had the pallets of pavers lying there, and boom, the solution was to remove the little grass separator from the Linea street divider.”

In the summer of 2020, several of these works raised a cloud of dust on social networks between architects and ordinary Havanans, by eliminating the characteristic green of those streets and replacing them with the gray of concrete. continue reading

So much so that the authorities had to come out to give explanations. The official version given at the time was that the replacement was made for “pedestrian safety” and thus removed “some dirt from the earth and grass on the street.”

The architect consulted by this newspaper also details that the Department of Rehabilitation and Heritage Conservation of the OHCH, directed by Norma Pérez-Trujillo, is the same group that is carrying out the restoration of the Santa Clara convent and that it will be in charge, soon, of the restoration in the Palace of the Revolution.

For “interior design and paneling,” he refers, they hired the services of private sector workers.

He says that all the landscaping of the Fidel Castro Ruz Center, as well as the proposal of trees and vegetation, was carried out by the specialists of the Botanical Garden. “The flower beds are very beautiful, in the style of the original El Vedado,” he says. “The trees that they put up respect the heights and other necessary characteristics, such as not giving off resins or that their leaves, fruits and seeds can damage the pavement. It is a pleasure to walk through there, if it were not for the aura that the building has as such,” he says sarcastically.

The Center was inaugurated last Thursday with a play by a children’s group and with the presence of Cuban government staff, along with Nicolás Maduro and Raúl Castro.

Although he specifically refused to answer a question about the cost of the opulent work posed by the international press, the head of Preservation of the Documentary Heritage of the Palace of the Revolution, Alberto Albariño, only said that a good part of the investment was covered with “donations received from other countries,” without detailing which, and that for that reason it did not involve a great expense for the State.

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‘Che’ Guevara, One-Eyed Through a Window

The facade of the house, located on Infanta Street in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 December 2021 — The face of Ernesto Che Guevara painted on the ground floor of a building on the centrally located Infanta Street in Havana has been left one-eyed by a window. The need of the residents of the house — located on one of the most important arteries of the capital, which connects Centro Habana and Cerro, but also one of the most degraded by time and government laziness — to open the wall of the facade in search for breeze, sunlight, living space, has been stronger than respect for one of the official images of the regime.

Above the ideology forced for more than six decades, pragmatism, the housing needs, always pressing in an increasingly deteriorated city, prevails. The creation of one, two, three windows has beaten the old slogans.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

From the Combinado del Este, Luis Robles Confirms That He is Still Imprisoned in Cuba

“The news had been published on the networks that I had taken refuge in Colombia, and that is a lie, and I want people to know that I am still in prison,” says Luis Robles. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 December 2021 — Luis Robles Elizastigui has again denounced that he is a victim of psychological and physical torture in prison. Activist Ángel Moya issued a call on Thursday for the “young man with the banner,” in which he asserts that Robles is still in the Combinado del Este, the maximum security prison in Havana.

Specifically, in “building three, in the north room, company 3406,” and he expresses with indignation: “The news had been published on the networks that I had taken refuge in Colombia, and that is a lie, and I want people to know that I am still in prison and I want the opposition to know it.”

“I am close to completing one year and I have not yet been tried, they have not told me anything, I do not know what they plan to do with me,” says the young man, who has been detained since 4 December 2020, when he peacefully demonstrated on the San Rafael boulevard in the capital with a poster calling for an end to the repression and the release of rapper Denis Solís .

He explains that he had a difficult few months in prison because he “had the police on top of him” all the time. “I received psychological torture from them, they chained me for no reason, for pleasure, just for speaking with the opposition they gave me a punishment cell, to prevent me from communicating with them.”

The punishment he refers to is “a system of handcuffs they call beads, and that tie hands, feet and waist, then they would leave me in a room for hours and if I sat down they would go and stand me up again.” In addition, “they have stripped me naked in front of other prisoners and that is very degrading.” continue reading

The complaints made by him previously, he says, have caused him to be sent to the punishment cell about five times. “The last two times I was there it was precisely for making complaints against the violation of human rights here inside the prison and the last time they had me without food for more than three days and they did not allow my sack to pass with my food.”

Similarly, he complains that inside the prison “there are many snitches” and because of them he has had “problems” with the police. You must take care of everything you speak and with whom you speak because there are common prisoners who, in exchange for some benefit, collude with the jailers and “tell them everything one talks or does and with whom.”

Before this call to Ángel Moya, Robles’ communication with the outside world was through his brother, Landy Fernández Elizastigui, but for a few months, he has been reluctant to speak to the independent press, because every time he does, they punish his brother.

However, Fernández tells this newspaper that this Wednesday he was able to visit Robles and that he did so accompanied by his son, who is just two years old. “He was very happy to see us and hug his child,” he says.

Last October, the Provincial Court of Havana for the fourth time denied Robles a change in the precautionary measure that keeps him in prison without trial. The oral hearing was originally set for July 16, but was suspended as a result of the July 11 protests and a new date has not yet been announced.

That same month, the United Nations issued an opinion in which it considers the case of Robles — as well as that of Solís, released in July and today in asylum in Serbia — as arbitrary detention and asks the Cuban government not only for his immediate release but also for compensation. “and other types of reparation, in accordance with international law” to the activists.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Repression of 11 July Decisive in a ‘Pause’ in the Review of US Policy Toward Cuba

Police officers arrest protesters in front of the Cuban capitol in Havana on June 11. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 3 December 2021 –Joe Biden’s intentions to partially modify US policy toward Cuba were frozen by the July 11 crackdown, Juan González, director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, revealed in an interview with NBC News.

“After July 11, we pressed the pause button,” said the senior official, who considers the date of the anti-government protests a before and after. “Even the Cuban Americans who were in favor of the compromise said: ‘We have to wait, pay attention to this moment and see how to move forward from here’.”

Biden’s adviser attributed this pause to the US president’s “strong commitment to human rights and democracy… He is not one of those who thinks that change will come by simply letting things go.”

That July 11, when the Government of Cuba suspended communications on the island to try to prevent the circulation of information, Washington promised to study how to provide free internet to Cubans, an announcement that was technically almost impossible to comply with, as experts in their day already warned and Juan González admitted in an interview with NBC News. continue reading

“There is no really technical and easy solution, nor is there the technology to have internet connectivity, so we should focus on circumventing censorship,” he said after ensuring that the US Administration has invested a large amount of time studying the possibilities.

During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris pledged to reverse some measures adopted by Donald Trump with respect to Cuba, including the lifting of limits on travel and remittances.

Although the Plaza de la Revolución expected a restart of the thaw, the commitment did not go beyond that, but not only has it not materialized, but some new sanctions have been added against specific individuals, such as the suspension of visas for nine Cuban officials after the repression of November 15.

González was asked about the realization of the election commitments, but the official was vague in his answers and again resorted to the phrase that the US Government has repeated most often in relation to the Island. “We are analyzing all the politics,” the official insisted, adding that, according to Washington, “it is a regime that is afraid of granting greater rights and even of starting a debate.”

Regarding remittances, the official said that they are studying “innovative options” to guarantee that the money sent to the island by Cubans’ relatives does not fall into the hands of the military.

“How can we use remittances to support citizens without [the regime] benefiting from this? Much of the focus is on sanctioning people,” he said.

In addition, he advanced that they hope to resume normalized consular activity at the Embassy in Havana, but without giving deadlines. Cubans must apply for their visas in Guyana since the staff in Havana was reduced in 2017 due to the appearance of numerous diplomats affected by the “Havana syndrome.”

González also stated without giving more details that Washington and Havana have had “private” conversations about shipments of vaccines, oxygen and healthcare materials related to the pandemic, thus denying the accusations of the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

An Irreverent Tour of the Temple Dedicated to the God of the Cuban Revolution

Main facade of the luxurious Fidel Castro Ruz Center, in Havana. (Fidel Castro Ruz Center)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 December 2021 — The police have found a homeless person huddled at the corner of Paseo Avenue and 11th Street in Havana’s Vedado. “Please give me something to buy a pizza, I’m hungry,” insists the woman, speaking to the visitors of the brand new Fidel Castro Ruz Center, living testimony of the failure of the story told in the museum behind the high wall where opulence reigns and and the annoying things are left out.

“They have put in a few million here,” a young woman whispered to her companion this week, when a 14ymedio reporter walked the corridors of this temple-like place dedicated to the god of the Cuban Revolution.

The cost of the monumental work is unknown, since the head of Preservation of the Documentary Heritage of the Palace of the Revolution, Alberto Albariño, refused to answer that question in a guided visit of the international press. The official preferred to say that a good part of the investment was covered with “donations that were received from other countries,” which he did not specify either, and that for that reason it has not represented a great expense for the State.

Exuberance reigns from the very entrance, with a garden that houses more than 11,000 plants brought from all over the country, but also from outside. Among them are those that form a forest like Birán, Castro’s cradle; trees of the Sierra Maestra, where his insurrection against Batista began; and a sample of his latest eccentricities, moringa, a protein plant to which he obsessively devoted himself in his later years. In addition, there are Venezuelan trees — perhaps part of a donation from Caracas — and rocks brought from the mouths of the La Plata and Carpintero rivers shape a waterfall that falls into a small pond full of tropical fish.

In the middle of this orchard, the jeep that Castro used in the Sierra Maestra appears. “It was driven here, the difficult thing was to put it inside,” says the essential guide that accompanies visitors through the Center. “This next room is designed for the little ones. So they play didactic games while they admire Fidel’s jeep,” the guide adds, pointing to the adjoining space. continue reading

“In reality it is a museum with a name of something else, you come to know Fidel from the time he was a child until his physical loss,” the guide to the Fidel Castro Ruz Center says as soon as the tour begins. (14ymedio)

The Center, was inaugurated last Thursday in the presence of the Cuban government staff, in addition to Nicolás Maduro and Raúl Castro, and began receiving scheduled visits a day later and, although it is open to the general public and admission is free, many of the visiting groups that coincided with 14ymedio’s visit were made up of officials and members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

“Actually it is a museum with a name of something else, you come to know Fidel from the time he was a child until his physical loss,” says the guide as soon as they begin and after the visitors have completed the usual protocol for entering a museum, including security screening of belongings and a metal detector. In addition, one must provide an identification document from which the personal data is recorded in a book.

Televisions, interactive, touch and smart screens are distributed in each of the nine rooms that the mansion houses. (Cubadebate)

The mansion, which dates back to the last decade of the 19th century and belonged to a captain from the 1895 war, is under guard by guards in polished shoes, dark suits, and ear rings. They shadow the visitors, aided by dozens of state-of-the-art cameras.

A door from the time precedes another, apparently armored, glass sliding door that protects the air conditioning of the enclosure. The first room on the left, where the honors of the former president are displayed, is decorated replicating the original from more than a century ago. According to the guide, both the furniture and chandeliers as well as the paintings on the walls and other architectural details were restored in detail by managers of the Office of the City Historian.

Suddenly, in the nineteenth-century setting, the 21st century appears and the corridors of the house reveal phrases by Fidel Castro and José Martí in front of the visitor and an interactive painting shows a mosaic that, depending on the point of view, allows one to see the face of Martí or of Fidel. Although a worker at the Center said on television that the museum was built with Castro’s wishes in mind, this transmutation of his face into that of the Apostle contrasts with his declared intention that his image should not be worshiped.

Weapons, backpacks or binoculars used by the Maximum Leader in the Sierra Maestra dot the display, for which the creators have found, in an unusual event, a defect of Castro to expose: boots made by the same shoemaker who made the ones used by the former president in the mountains. “They are number 45 even though the commander wore 43. This is because Fidel had a problem with his right foot that forced him to wear a larger last,” explains the guide.

“At the moment and due to health protocols established by the pandemic, only the Center’s staff can interact with the touch panels,” he adds during part of the tour, “but our goal is for young people and children to make this technology their own and at the same time to take an interest in the life and work of our Commander,” he emphasizes.

The Fidel Castro Ruz Center is receiving scheduled visits and is open to the general public and admission is free. (14ymedio)

Televisions, interactive, touch and smart screens are distributed in each of the nine rooms that the mansion houses. A modern elevator with a panoramic view, but adapted to the architecture of the place, connects the two floors of the Center, and motion sensors that control the playing of multimedia content as the visitor passes complete the media display. But not all the island’s problems can be kept away: an electric shock that occurred a few days ago affected some of the screens and not all of them function normally.

The selection of the items on display has been careful and has avoided showing the setbacks and even the bad company. Going quickly through the fiascos such as those of the Revolutionary Offensive, the failure of the Ten Million Ton Harvest or the social outbreak of August 1994, the Center only shows the victorious side of Castro.

Notable in the exhibition is the absence of many of the people who once shared front pages with the leader is but who were ultimately cast aside. The passages with Carlos Lage, Roberto Robaina and Felipe Pérez Roque have been deleted or conveniently minimized.

The Center is defined as a public institution, destined to disseminate, study and investigate the thought and work of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, but it ends up becoming, no matter how much its creators and employees reject it, a temple dedicated to the worship of Castro.

The names of the rooms give an account of this: the Guerrilla room, to talk about the military Fidel; the Sala La Palabra [Room of the Word], to listen to the eternal speeches of the speaker Fidel; the Solidarity room, to tell about his profitable international campaigns; the Command room, which portrays places from which he directed operations; and even the amphitheater, soberly named “Fidel talks, I need you.”As a culmination, the Fidel is Fidel room, who made his brother cry last Thursday during the inauguration in his own words, in which video clips of people who speak (well) about him or, in the words of the Center, are played, testimonies “of how much he penetrated the soul of the people.”

Notable in the exhibition is the absence of many of the people who once shared front pages with the leader but who were eventually cast aside. (14ymedio)

During the tour made by 14ymedio, one of the visitors asked the guide if there was a cafeteria or space in which to buy something to drink or eat, as is usual in other museums. “For that we anticipated that there would be cafes around the Center. Most are private, have the capacity to serve many people at the same time and offer a good service,” explained the employee.

“Even if it’s water and coffee, they should sell it here, because the journey is long,” insisted another member of the group. “We plan to offer that service later, but nothing more, we do not want this full of people lining up to buy chocolates or bread with ham. Whoever comes needs to do it because they really want to know the life and work of our leader,” replied the guide.

The management of the Center seemed, in that gesture, to have decided to expel the merchants from the temple. But it won’t be like that at all. A 3D printer in the house will make miniature replicas of the Plaza de la Revolución and busts of heroes from the Independence struggles that can be purchased by visitors in the future store in which, however, and complying with the will of the former president, busts of the man who gives the temple its name cannot be bought.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuba: Sitting in the Street to Buy ‘Intimates’ for 50 Pesos and Resell Them for 150

Sanitary pads are almost completely missing from the network of stores in Cuba that accept payment in the national currency. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 2 December 2021 — The long line that gathered this Thursday morning on Galiano Street was swelled by women and men, young and old, despite the fact that the product being sold had a more restricted audience. There, at a small kiosk a few meters from the Teatro América, packages of sanitary pads were being sold for 50 pesos.

The line was long, so several people, in anticipation, brought their own seats from home, something increasingly common among those who wait in front of shops to be able to bring home the basic necessities. Among them, what appeared to be a complete family stood out.

The sale of intimates in the small establishment had not ended when in some windows and doors near the kiosk the resale of the same packages was already observed. Only three times more expensive, at 150 pesos.

The sale of sanitary pads in the network of stores that accept payment in the national currency is practically non-existent. To acquire them, women must go to the black market or foreign exchange stores, in both cases at exorbitant prices.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.