14ymedio

“My People Will Never Allow any Kind of Injustice to be Done to Me”

Yomil believes that ‘De Cuba Soy’ is the most important song in his life because he is committed to a just cause, even putting part of his career at risk. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, Luz Escobar, 31 August 2021 — It’s not so long since the reggaetoner Roberto Hidalgo Puentes, known as Yomil, distanced himself from politics and asked that artists be left alone, but it’s been an eternity. The death of his colleague in the duet, El Dany, changed everything forever and now he not only claims justice to clarify the negligence that cost his “brother” his life, but he also takes to the streets of Havana shouting “freedom,” as he did on July 11^th with thousands of other protesters. Now, with his song De Cuba Soy, he has once again placed himself in the spotlight and speaks openly with 14ymedio about his commitment to democracy.

Escobar. You presented De Cuba Soy stating that it was “the most important issue” of your career, why do you see it that way?

Yomil. I believe that when an artist joins the just cause knowing that he may lose everything he has fought for, the work surpasses all successes. It is the greatest contribution I can make to my people.

Escobar.The video is risky, starting with the choice of the director who was controversial within [Cuba’s] institutions, and continuing with its aesthetics, which is quite unusual. How did this collaboration with Yimit Ramírez come about? Was he aware of the risks involved?

Yomil. I started a friendship with Yimit some time ago. I saw his work and it interested me, I take a lot of risks when working with talented filmmakers and he was not going to be the exception. I knew I would do something tough, knowing how important this topic is to my life, and I just let him create and go free, but I never thought he was going to impress me so much. I’m very proud of the result and his creativity, that’s why I respect him a lot.

“I knew I would do something tough, knowing how important this topic is to my life, and I just let him create and go free, but I never thought it would impress me so much. I am very proud of the result”

Escobar.It has been less than a week since the song and the video were released and it has already received attacks and threats from the official press and cultural institutions. Did you expect it? Do you have support around you?

Yomil. Of course, I knew that this was going to happen when I saw how they have acted with other artists who have manifested themselves in the same line. I knew they were going to threaten, offend and defame me, that’s not news to anyone. But on the part of my team continue reading

, they have known how I think for a long time, so that did not take them by surprise either; and as for the public I am more than satisfied with the reaction and support. I am very happy because I know that since I was at zero hour with my people, my people will never abandon me or allow some kind of injustice to be committed against me. That’s what keeps me calm, because if not, things would be very different.

Escobar.Other artists who have openly assumed their critical vision towards the Government are imprisoned today, such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Castillo or Hamlet Lavastida. Are you afraid of finding yourself in a situation like that?

Yomil. I believe that I have not crossed any limits, since I am an artist and I have the right to be free in my work. Since I decided to risk everything, I am psychologically prepared for the worst, but I think the government is idiotic in reacting to some things and very smart about others. If something like this happens to me, they know that young people follow me and are capable of doing anything for their favorite artists. The proof of that was the loss of my brother Dany, when the people, spontaneously and without any convocation, went out to bid farewell to him in different provinces and cities around the world. Something like this had never happened in the country and I think the Government realized the great level of appeal that Yomil and El Dany had in Cuban society, so I don’t think they will make unexpected decisions that make their situation worse. There could be another July 11^th, 12^th, 13^th, 14^th and they know it. So I think they will leave it at that.

“The Government is idiotic in reacting to some things and very smart about others. If something like this happens to me, they know that young people follow me and are capable of doing anything for their favorite artists”

Escobar.Speaking of El Dany, at one point in the song you refer to him and the need for justice to be done, to what do you think the lack of answers about what happened in the hospital that day is due?

Yomil. It was medical negligence, and the treatment they gave him was a total lack of respect, since only they know the measures they took with the nurse who was on duty that morning. That’s why, because of the respect and brotherhood that I have towards Daniel, I will always ask for justice, because if that had happened to the son of any high-ranking leader in this country, believe me, they would imprison the whole country, but they looked the other way when it came to my brother, and that hurts and offends.

Escobar.On July 11^th, you took to the streets together with those who were demonstrating against the Government. Did your vision of Cuba change from the political and social point of view then?

Yomil. I think that my vision on the social political issue of my country changed since I began to travel and worry about the serious problems we are experiencing, noticing that the Government has a hard time accepting different points of view and criticism, when I go out on the streets of my Havana and see how it deteriorates more every day, when arriving at any province and seeing how suspended in time it continues to be, when seeing the way the Government acts in the face of the thousands of problems that exist due to its mismanagement, when seeing how disconnected they are from reality, and so on. There are many things that I have seen, I have lived and I have learned. When one is acquiring maturity and knowledge, one must contribute his grain of sand to try to accelerate that process of change that my country is sorely lacking. I live here and I know that the most precious thing human beings have is time and that Cuba is in no condition to lose it, on the contrary, it is time to recover it, because there is only one life.

“I live here and I know that the most precious thing that human beings have is time and that Cuba is in no condition to lose it, on the contrary, it is time to recover it, because there is only one life”

Escobar.Yomil and El Dany sang the song Música Vital with several Cuban artists who today remain silent in the face of the repression that took place on July 11^th. How do you feel about that?

Yomil. I don’t really know, because I haven’t seen any of them making any statement against me, but I did have a meeting last Saturday with the president of the Institute of Music. They summoned me at 10 am at my company to explain the reason for my song and I explained all the reasons in a meeting that lasted more than two hours. She told me that, on the part of the institution, nothing was going to happen, but that she would wait for the response of several artists from the union who were supposedly outraged, since they are committed to socialism. I respect their position always and when they respect mine, and depending on their answer, they will have mine too. I think they are not prepared to put up with being told a few truths (laughs), but so far, these are just speculations, so let’s wait and see.

Escobar. What do you visualize when you think of “a change” for Cuba?

Yomil. I see Cuba being State with the rule of law, where ordinary Cubans are the highest authority, where there is no abuse of power, repression or censorship for thinking differently, where dialogue is accepted as a way to solve problems, because I think that the first thing we have to have is a change of mentality and make it an open country, not only of the so-called “revolutionaries” who, for me, have nothing of revolutionaries. It must become a country of everyone and for everyone, also for those Cubans who had to leave it, many risking and losing their lives in order to have a better future, who had to start a life from scratch in a foreign country to help their families and have a dignified life. I want my country to be one of the best in the world and I tell you with total confidence that it can be done, as long as everything that needs to be changed is changed.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Polish Officials Prevent a Cuban Family From Crossing the Border With Belarus

“They were very violent,” said the Cuban who spoke with the Belarusian authorities. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, August 31, 2021 — A family of five Cubans, including a minor, was returned to Belarus at gunpoint on Monday by Polish border guards. The migrants were trying to cross into Poland and request asylum, they stated.

In a video shared by the Belarusian Border Guard, the Cubans, standing in the cold and rain, said they were beaten and threatened by the Polish soldiers. “We arrived here [in Belarus] forced by them, threatening us with their weapons, forcing us to jump the border,” said a Cuban who spoke on behalf of the group, also made up of a woman and two young people. The migrant also clarified that they requested political asylum in Poland, and even asked for a doctor to attend to them, but the border guards “did not understand.”

The video shown by the Belarusian authorities included a recording of the Cubans when they were intercepted in the neighboring country. The moment was recorded when the guards opened the door of the vehicle and the migrants, upon being discovered, demanded to see the police while the uniformed men tried to drop off two other foreigners who were also in the car.

In another part of the material, Cubans are heard shouting “human rights” and the girl, between sobs, pleading: “Please don’t hurt me.”

“They were very violent,” said the Cuban continue reading

who spoke with the Belarusian authorities, who also confirmed that they were beaten, their claims were not heard, though he specified that “they did nothing to the girl and the woman.”

The expulsion of the Cuban migrants from Poland, happened almost two months after Belarus president Alexandr Lukashenko, in response to the sanctions of the European Union (EU), said that he was not going to stop the migratory wave toward Poland. It was not been the first time that Lukashenko threatened to open the floodgates to illegal migration to that geographical area in response to political and economic pressure from the EU, reports La Voz de Galicia.

In recent years Russia has become an irregular gateway to Europe for hundreds of Cubans. At present, the Eurasian country does not require a visa for nationals of the Island. Many arrive in Moscow with the intention of emigrating to other countries across borders, often starting with Belarus.

A report from El Diario.es in mid-July stated that one of the busiest routes for Cubans to reach European soil is through the Balkan peninsula. In 2017, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned of the increase in the migratory flow in that area. That year alone, at least 168 refugees were recorded who remained stranded in detention centers in Serbia, faced with difficulties in successfully crossing its border to continue on their way to a European country.

[from Russian] A family of refugees was forcibly taken to the Belarusian border

Translated by Tomás A.

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Pharmaceutical Authorities Say Cuban Vaccines Have Lowered the Mortality Rate in Havana by ‘Six Times’ Without Providing Supporting Data

Vaccination in Cienfuegos is expanding with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. (Dep. Cienfuegos)

14ymedio, Madrid, August 31, 2021 — The lethality of covid-19 has dropped in the four Havana municipalities where vaccination began, according to the biopharmaceutical authorities who appeared on the State television Mesa Redonda (Roundtable) program this Monday, without providing data.

The objective seemed to be to clear the doubts and fears of Cubans about national vaccines against covid-19, an issue that worries a population who now wonder how, despite the progress of the immunization campaign, infections are increasing, deaths are not falling, and foreign vaccines have arrived on the island. But the absolute lack of data, and the absence of any mention of Sinopharm, which is already being injected in Cienfuegos, will not help calm the less trusting.

The Roundtable this Monday thus became an exercise in faith, since none of the graphs showed the segment they were referring to.

Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of BioCubaFarma, as well as the directors of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), Marta Ayala Ávila, and the Finlay Vaccination Institute, Vicente Vérez, wanted to make clear from the beginning of their interventions the difference between efficacy and effectiveness.

The first refers to the results in the trials, which are carried out in healthy and selected people, while the second refers to the real impact, when applied to the general population. Based on this starting point continue reading

, they explained that any vaccine, despite having obtained excellent results in testing, may fail when inoculated in the elderly or people with pre-existing diseases. But the authorities did not offer a single piece of information that would allow us to analyze these variables.

Martínez Díaz recalled that the objective of the vaccine is, above all, to prevent the disease from developing in a serious way since the Delta variant, which spreads at double the speed of the original strain and has a viral load 1,000 times higher, has ruined the plans of many countries to return to normalcy as soon as possible.

“In clinical studies, many of the vaccines, including Cuban vaccines, showed efficacy rates of 100% or close for avoiding death, for lessening severity; a lower percentage (92.8% in Abdala and 91.2% in Soberana) of avoiding the disease, and a little lower to avoid transmission,” said the president of BioCubaFarma, who recalled that all were developed for less harmful strains and have had to review their data after Delta arrived. “Pfizer has reported that its effectiveness has been reduced by 39% in relation to infection, for example,” said Martínez, without revealing, once again, the data of the national vaccines.

“What happened at the beginning of July? The more contagious delta variant began to circulate in Havana, and the number of cases increased. Unvaccinated people began to get sick and, to a lesser extent, the vaccinated,” said the president of BioCubaFarma. How many in each case? That he didn’t say.

Those present wanted to highlight the decrease in lethality and infections in Havana, particularly in the four municipalities that began vaccination first, but they hardly gave their word as a guarantee. The comparative graph of the Island with Havana indicates the improvement of the capital, as well as the other line that aggregates without differentiating the four pioneers — Regla, La Habana del Este, Guanabacoa, and San Miguel del Padrón.

A brief analysis of the few official data available in this regard shows a mixed result. The page on which these figures have been turned for months allows us to compare the contagions of covid-19 by Havana municipalities. Any of the first four to initiate immunization has, indeed, much fewer infections than Diez de Octubre, one of the last two. But all of them show figures similar to those of the other bottom municipality, Marianao. Although there are more variables, including sociodemographic ones, that could influence this, they are unknown.

In any case, Cubans have almost completely stopped trusting official data. The shortage of PCR tests and the delays that backup their processing complicate having an estimate of the sick and even the deceased, as revealed by the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, to Invasor, the provincial newspaper of Ciego de Ávila, two weeks ago.

Beyond the capital, where despite having a huge number of people vaccinated with the full cycle there is still no public data (“we’ve only had eight weeks to measure effectiveness,” said Martínez Díaz by way of apology). The official also stressed that it is being studied in Matanzas and in other municipalities where time has passed after vaccination and “the results are positive.” But he didn’t give a number.

About Abdala, Ayala said that more than five million people have received one dose, four and a half million the second dose and more than three and a half million the third: a total of 13.6 million vaccines administered. “Neutralization is more intense with the Alpha and Beta variant, and with the Delta there is even an important level of neutralization, although that is where it is reduced, an issue that has also been reported for most of the vaccines that are approved worldwide” said the director of the GIGB without enlightening the public with any figures.

The vaccine, however, scored somewhat this Monday, when it received the favorable technical opinion of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) of Mexico. The experts were in favor of giving Abdala authorization for emergency use, a step prior to reviewing the data by expert personnel from the Sanitary Authorization Commission (CAS).

The Roundtable also spoke of the Mambisa — an intranasal needle-free vaccine — the forgotten candidate which, according to the official, shows “encouraging results.” And in this case there was a figure, 78.8% of those vaccinated in phase I had an immune response.

There were also more details about the study carried out on inoculating minors with Sovereign. If the data offered by Vicente Vérez, from the IFV, are true, the efficacy prospects are better than in adults. In adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, almost 93% responded adequately with two doses of Sovereign 02 and only 7% remained below the required levels. As for children from 3 to 11 years old, less than 1% did not respond, “and that is very good news,” said Vérez Bencomo.

The director of the IFV had more in his hand than anyone else to talk about the inoculation in Cienfuegos with the Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, which has aroused not a little skepticism both among those who believe that it shows the scarce effectiveness of the Cuban vaccine and among those who think that if it is was going to “renounce, even in part, sovereignty” it could have been done earlier to buy time. However, Vérez made an exit in this regard and it occurred to him, on the contrary, to relate Soberana Plus with others, adding more amazement to the matter.

“Soberana Plus was designed as a booster for vaccination with Soberana 02 and it is planned to use it as a booster of other existing vaccines, such as Sputnik and AstraZeneca, in some international studies that are being done. The sites with which we are collaborating are interested in the ability of Soberana Plus to strengthen immunity, taking into account that it is very safe,” he said.

As for the international recognition of vaccines, and beyond the positive news for Abdala, things are going slowly. Vérez Bencomo said that on August 30, the phase I study in convalescents for Soberana 02 was accepted in one of the Lancet family journals (The Lancet Regional Health-Americas), while Martínez Díaz recalled that Cecmed, as a regulatory authority, is the entity that authorizes or not the emergency use, and not the World Health Organization (WHO), whose mission is to recognize vaccines.

“Soon we want to have a virtual meeting with the WHO representation to show the results and start talking about the recognition process and make our results transparent with them,” he said.

If the authorities have these positive data, perhaps the WHO can see what Cubans still do not know.

Translated by Tomas A.

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Cuba is Depopulated, and the Regime Looks the Other Way

Cuba schoolchildren at a daily assembly repeating: “Pioneers for Communism, we will be like Che!”

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 30 August 2021 — There is no worse way to escape from problems than to not face them. The State newspaper Granma published an article entitled “The problem is not that the population ages, but that it decreases” which, among other things, highlights the fact that, as of 1978, the fertility on the island has not covered the replacement rate of the population. Without fertility it is impossible for the population of a country to grow. Do they realize that now?

The fact that Cuban women of childbearing age do not have immediate plans for motherhood is something that should concern communist leaders, because it involves serious present and future risks. In this blog we have denounced it on numerous occasions. Cubans reject paternity and/or maternity: in the absence of migration, Cuba depopulates.

The alarm signals sounded at the end of 2020 because the population was reduced, as fewer people were born than those who died, according to official information from the ONEI (National Office of Statistics). The drama is served. The Cuban population is moving away from the trends registered in recent decades, while the migratory balance is negative and life expectancy grows again, not accounting for the negative influence of the victims of Covid-19.

If a journalist asked Cuban President Díaz-Canel for an assessment of this situation, which brings with it numerous problems for the country’s potential growth, it is most likely that he would launch a harsh criticism of the US embargo (and call it a ’blockade’) of the United States, without assuming direct responsibility for his government.

The fall in fertility has much to do with the lack of future expectations of Cubans, especially the youngest, and the notable distrust continue reading

that exists in broad sectors of society about the possibility of living a future of well-being and quality of life. In short, a better future for the children.

This idea reduces the number of children of a couple. Whoever tries to compare this demographic behavior of Cuba with that which existed before 1959 is lying. It is true that Cuban fertility had undergone significant changes towards modernity at the beginning of the 20th century, but in no case were the results as gloomy and pessimistic as the current ones. Cubans of the 1950s had two or three children, and they ensured the replacement of the population. Furthermore, Cuba in those decades had one of the highest in-migration balances in Latin America.

In 2021, Cuba faces high mortality and very low fertility, with data never before known in history and in other countries that have been more successful in their population policies. At the same time, these changes are fueled by continuous and increasing economic failures of the communist social model, a general impoverishment of the population, the supply crisis in most sectors, and the bankruptcy of the interventionist state, incapable of stimulating population growth.

Experts who affirm that Cuba is in an advanced stage of the second demographic transition justify their argument by saying that it presents fertility and mortality indicators similar to those of developed countries in Europe. They are simply wrong or do not want to acknowledge the harsh reality of the problem they face. Cuba cannot be compared to Norway, Denmark, Italy or Spain. Nothing to see there. If the socioeconomic conditions of the different countries are taken into account, it is evident that the Cuban problem is different.

The same specialists allege that the causes of the demographic decline in Cuba respond to the economic and housing situations, the sociocultural pattern, the social and economic characteristics of the country in each moment, external and internal migration, high divorce rates and individual socioeconomic problems. But with this, it cannot be explained why there are cases of young couples, with good jobs, their own home, family independence, and they do not want to have children. The matter is complicated and obliges one to avoid superficialities.

What has failed? Everything. There is not a single economic, social, legal, cultural, social aspect, or ethical values, that indicate that in Cuba the situation can be reversed, not even by hypocritically blaming women for the drop in fertility. This is a problem that is difficult to fix, which will require great collective efforts to overcome as the population deficits will accumulate in the coming years.

And if society does not have anchors to solve a problem of this magnitude, which is becoming more and more entangled, the attitude of the communist government of putting its head under the ground waiting for it to fix itself does not work. The ostrich tactic may end up creating more problems on the horizon for years to come.

In particular, family policies in Cuba, based on an enormous intrusion of the state into family and individual life, have been an absolute failure, and the process of economic and social destruction on the island has taken care of the rest.

The drop in fertility in Cuba is the most visible result of the failure of the regime’s public actions. Worse still is to imagine the impossible, and from there to fall into the most absolute of the ridiculous.

For example, Granma’s phrase that “low fertility is also a combined effect of a society with high levels of sexual and reproductive health and access to contraception, which recognizes equal rights and opportunities for people, it represents an achievement that is still pending in many countries in our region.

If burying one’s head in the sand is serious, it is even more so to act irresponsibly and recklessly in a matter of great economic and social impact, with effects on future generations. What seems evident is that those who have the responsibility of achieving a successful country, with an economy capable of integrating everyone’s wishes, are unable to face the demographic challenge, and have thrown in the towel, thinking that over time it is possible that everything will change and the current status quo be overcome.

The regime is unable to understand that its policies to support the population, interventionist, interfering, controlling and intrusive, simply do not work. They believe that what they do is enough, and they don’t want to acknowledge the disaster.

But to believe that this is fixed by prioritizing the provision of subsidies to mothers with three or more children under 12 years of age for the construction or rehabilitation of houses is a big mistake. Or that this policy can be better developed from the provinces and not with a national vision, or that it depends on the state of housing, or the attention of the Ministry of Public Health to infertile couples, etc. etc. what they do is squander resources from a depleted state budget.

And what is worse, resources that are not evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in achieving the objectives.

The problem is that within a year the situation will have worsened, and the regime will continue to “evaluate and analyze issues related to demographic dynamics as an aspect to prioritize for the economic and social development of the nation, as well as compliance with the care program to this vital matter.” But that time has already come to an end, and we must act. Another failure in sight.

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South African Opposition Asks for Suspension of 12.3 Million Dollar Payment to Cuba

Relations between Cuba and South Africa have been peppered in recent years by several scandals. (The South African)

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 August 2021 — The leader of the South African opposition party Democratic Alliance, Kobus Marais, has demanded that the government stop the payment of 12.3 million dollars pending to Cuba for the illegal acquisition of interferon alfa-2b in April 2020. The total amount of the sale was $14.7 million, although it was initially estimated at $17 million.

Last week, the new South African Defense Minister, Thandi Modise, warned the Army that “heads will roll” over the controversial import. The case was uncovered in the African country in November 2020, when it was learned that the South African Armed Forces invested large amounts of money buying the drug from Cuba at the beginning of the pandemic, when they believed that the country was suffering from a biological war.

The drug regulatory body Sahpra did not want to buy the Cuban product because it had not been shown to be suitable for the treatment of covid-19, but the Army acquired it using its powers in case of chemical and bacteriological warfare, arguing that it could protect their soldiers.

After months of controversy and investigation to try to purge responsibilities with little success, the position of the new minister continue reading

has been appreciated by the Democratic Alliance, but they also consider it insufficient and ask that the contract be terminated and the pending payment canceled.

According to Marais, the contract cannot continue to exist, as the ministry has invalidated it due to flagrant violations, including failure to consult Sahpra on the efficacy of the drug, as well as violation of government procurement laws and import regulations from South Africa as there is no evidence as to whether a Treasury and Trade and Industry exemption was sought for the exclusive purchase of the drug.

The opposition leader demands immediate measures, since Defense Secretary Gladys Kudjoe revealed that the Government of Cuba is pressing for the missing amount to be paid.

Despite her position, Minister Modise believes that South Africa’s relationship with Havana should not be damaged just because Defense acted outside the law, but Alianza Democrática believes that not paying an illegal contract does not have to imply a diplomatic breakdown.

“The Department of Defense and Cuba should not have entered into a pharmaceutical drug supply agreement without a certificate of approval from Sahpra,” says Marais, who once again calls into question the validity of interferon in the treatment of COVID-19.

Interferon alfa-2b, manufactured by the state company BioCubaFarma, is used in the treatment of viral infections and was used by China at the beginning of the pandemic in combination with other drugs, but there is still no scientific consensus on its usefulness and there are studies that consider it appropriate, versus others who point out that it can aggravate the disease.

The compound, which Cuba tried to promote since the pandemic arrived, was created in the 1980s and interferes with viral multiplication by creating an inhibition mechanism in the first level of response of the organism.

Alianza Democrática also calls for all officials involved in the case to be charged for their actions. “Not only must heads roll for those who were involved in this appalling abuse of public resources, but they must also be held accountable,” he demanded.

Good relations between Cuba and South Africa began with the rise to power of Nelson Mandela and have continued seamlessly with his successors, Thabo Mbeki (1999-2008), Jacob Zuma (2008-2018) and the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, but the controversies have not stopped, especially in the last two years.

The irregular purchase of interferon has been joined by the hiring of Cuban engineers to cooperate with the Department of Water and Sanitation, denounced by the unions in the sector, since there are professionals in the country without jobs in a country with unemployment rates above 30%, while staff are recruited who are not licensed to practice in South Africa and must be supervised by a licensed national.

In addition, last July, the South African teachers union complained that specialists from the island hired by the Department of Basic Education to train South African teachers earn almost $56,000 annually, a figure much higher than the salary of locals.

There are also exchanges of South African medical students in Cuba that have been problematic, especially this year, when the students protested that they had little to eat, as a result of the shortages on the island and the ’Ordering Task’*.

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento, the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ 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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Dozens of Cubans are Scammed by Mexican Officials in Cancun

The scammers’ organization operated from the regional headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cancun. (Luces del Siglo)

14ymedio, Havana, August 22, 2021 — Dozens of Cubans have been scammed by a network that offered advice for naturalization in Mexico. The organization operated from the regional headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cancun and, according to the documentation published by the newspaper Luces del Siglo, was directed by Víctor Hugo Sulub Chi, an official who works as a Program and Project Supervisor in the federal delegation of the agency in Quintana Roo.

Foreigners, mostly Cubans, were asked for 5,000 Mexican pesos ($250) for each document that was allegedly issued by the National Security Commission of the Secretariat of Governance (Interior) to guarantee that they had no criminal record, one of the necessary papers for the process of obtaining permanent residence.

When these documents were detected as false, the authorities canceled the applications, but the scammed people were also put at risk: even though they did not know about the scam, they could be accused of trying to falsify official documentation.

The Mexican newspaper interviewed two Cubans affected by the network, who explained the modus operandi. One of them, a doctor from Camaguey, said that he had paid 10,000 pesos for the processing of “federal criminal records” for his mother and himself. Although this procedure continue reading

can only be initiated by the interested party or their closest relatives, the victims were asked for a copy of their passport, residence sheet, and birth certificate, along with the money.

Later, the network gave the migrants the documentation so they could present their request for a letter of naturalization, but this went unanswered.

“He told me that this procedure was only done in Mexico City, and he offered to help me complete the procedure, since he told me that he would go to a meeting in Mexico City and that he could go to arrange and collect them. He asked me to deposit 5,000 pesos with him,” says the other person interviewed, a Cuban nurse who later met with the official to collect what had been agreed on.

“I never distrusted the arrangement carried out by Víctor Hugo Sulub Chi. He had my complete confidence because as a public servant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I thought it was part of the advice he provided me in his capacity as an official. I never thought or guessed that the procedure he offered me was illegal,” she says.

According to the testimony of the victims, they were asked to be patient, and that if they received an email, they should not open it but notify the official. In addition, they were offered the name of a lawyer who would tell them what to do in case of problems, but most of them suspected that they were being deceived and chose not to contact him.

In the article, Luces del Siglo warns that these practices are common and circulate frequently through social media, as was recently proven by a Facebook account, on which illegal services were offered.

The page, with the name “Expert Translator Monterrey, Official Translations,” advertised: “Are you a foreigner going to naturalize and you lack the Certificate of Criminal History in Federal Matters? We can handle it! Don’t spend money on air fare, hotel, taxi, and food to go to Mexico City. We’ll handle the procedure and deliver the legal requirements to you. Get informed or visit us or send us an email.”

Translated by Tomás A.

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Sergio Perez, Psychiatrist Who Harshly Criticized the Cuban Regime, Has Died

Pérez resigned from the Cuban Society of Psychiatry due to the lack of institutional transparency. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, August 29, 2021 — This Sunday morning, the psychiatrist and founder of the World Network of Suicidiologists, Sergio Pérez, died of covid-19. His death was reported by Dr. Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre, who was expelled from the polyclinic of Bayamo for being “counterrevolutionary.”

“The medical sciences in Cuba and in the world have just lost one of the greatest psychiatrists who ever lived,” he said, and asked that the news be released. “It’s the only thing I ask, as another doctor is buried in the dark because of his ideology.”

The doctor’s death adds to the official statistics of the Ministry of Health, which has registered 5,144 deaths since the start of the pandemic, and 640,438 positive cases from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This Sunday 77 deaths and 6,277 new infections were reported.

Pérez used social networks as a channel to express his critical stance about the Cuban government. “The worst enemies of any government are its corrupt, inept, indolent, and demagogic officials,” he said in a post on August 17.

He was always blunt in his comments, such as when he rebutted Miguel Díaz-Canel’s words continue reading

about putting “heart to Cuba,” which the physician considered a “poetic and manipulative style.”

“Cuba must be given freedom, equality, and fraternity. Cuba must be given food, medicine, decent housing, potable water, good roads, transportation; refrigerators and fans at reasonable prices, because in a hot country they are necessities, not luxuries. Cuba must be given hope and well-being.”

Last May, Pérez resigned from the Cuban Society of Psychiatry in solidarity with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was detained for 29 days at the Calixto García hospital without being able to communicate with his friends, and was only seen by means of heavily-edited videos disseminated by State Security. The doctor asked the authorities to explain what was happening with the artist.

Even before being admitted to intensive care at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Hospital, in Bayamo, Granma province, Pérez lamented that “in Cuba the most there is, is “there isn’t,” alluding to the shortage and chronic lack of resources.

In 2016, before the visit of then U.S. President Barack Obama to the Island, the psychiatrist sent a forceful message to the Cuban regime, saying: “A country is going badly when a prostitute has more freedom than a physician.”

After being denied permission to leave the country on several occasions to participate in international events in his specialty, he predicted that his situation would not change, and he would continue “professionally isolated, controlled, and scrutinized by Cuba’s Ministry of Health.”

Translated by Tomás A.

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Cuban Government’s Silence is Prolonged in Response to the Request to Authorize Humanitarian Flights From the U.S.

Skyway Enterprises had been planning 20 shipments to Havana from July 22 to September 28. (Skyway Enterprises/Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 August 2021 — Cuban authorities have not yet authorized the landing on the island of cargo airlines from the United States with humanitarian aid despite the fact that the island is experiencing a collapse in its healthcare system and despite the voices that are clamoring for a humanitarian airlift to bring resources to families and hospitals.

In mid-August, local media in Florida reported that a group of U.S. executives had requested permission from the government of the island a month ago, but that Havana had not yet responded. A silence that has lasted until now.

“So far we do not have permits to land on the island, which the Cuban government must give,” Rey Gonzalez, an executive of IBC Airways, explained to Cubanet last Thursday. “We are not flying to Cuba because we do not have those permits. Once we have those documents to land in the country then we can work with local agencies to send humanitarian aid. But so far we don’t have that.”

It was in early July when cargo airlines IBC Airways and Skyway Enterprises obtained temporary authorization from continue reading

the U.S. Department of Transportation to travel to the island with humanitarian cargo. The permit, which will be in effect until November 30 and was made public on August 13, includes charter flights “for emergency medical purposes, search and rescue, and other travel deemed to be in the interest of the United States.”

In Miami, organizations such as Solidarity Without Borders (Solidaridad sin Fronteras, SSF), have been dedicated to collecting humanitarian aid. Dr. Julio César Alfonso, president of the NGO, told América TeVé that since the announcement was made, they have not stopped receiving donations, but the arrival of medicines, food and supplies to Cuban homes has slowed down.

SSF also presented last week the web page of its program of “direct assistance” to healthcare professionals on the island, with the aim of sending medicines and medical material, which will function as the main link for aid. They also intend to “coordinate different humanitarian assistance operations directly with all the health professionals in Cuba who voluntarily decide to join our support network,” said Alfonso.

While they continue to collect donations, the IBC Airways executive affirms that at the moment it is not known if the Cuban government intends to grant the permits to the airlines. “Unfortunately, we can’t do anything until Cuba grants those landing permits, and there is no information on when or if they will authorize them,” Gonzalez explained.

IBC Airways requested to fly twice a week to Havana until November. The airline reported that it will carry diplomatic mail and 7,500 pounds of humanitarian aid on each flight, in coordination with the CubaMax agency.

Like IBC Airways, Skyway Enterprises is authorized to operate flights to Havana, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba and Matanzas. The latter company had scheduled 20 shipments to Havana from July 22 to September 28, after which date it will be able to fly only twice a week to the Cuban capital.

In August of last year, the Trump Administration suspended private charter flights to Cuba as part of a package of sanctions against the island’s government. “The Castro regime uses tourism and travel revenue to fund its abuses and interference in Venezuela,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on his Twitter account at the time, announcing the decision. “Dictators cannot be allowed to benefit from U.S. travel,” he added.

Two months later, the U.S. government vetoed the takeoff of two cargo flights to Cuba that, according to Skyway Enterprises and IBC Airways, were for “humanitarian” purposes and did not fall under the exceptions for the suspension of air connections between the two countries.

The Department of Transportation consulted with the State Department on the procedure to be followed and finally the U.S. Executive concluded that the flights “would not be in the interest of U.S. foreign policy.”

Cuba’s response was swift. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the ban on humanitarian cargo flights as “a ruthless act.” “The Trump administration is stepping up the punishment of Cuban families in both countries right up until now,” he lamented in a message on Twitter.

The silence of the Cuban government is surprising at a time when the country is facing a strong resurgence of the pandemic, aggravated by the lack of oxygen, medicine and doctors, overcrowded hospitals and collapsed funeral services.

In social networks and independent media, photos and videos are circulating showing the deplorable conditions of many hospitals and the complaints of the doctors themselves about the lack of supplies to do their work.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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Fear of Blackouts Triggers Interest in Electric Generators in Cuba

In the centrally located shopping center Plaza de Carlos III, this type of device has just landed in one of the stores that only accepts payment in foreign currency. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 August 2021 — Electric generators have become the latest object of desire for Cubans. Private businesses, tourist rental houses and domestic spaces increasingly need these devices in the midst of constant blackouts.

“With the neighbors on the ground floor we bought a generator, small but that helps us, if the power goes out, we can keep the entrance hall lit, turn on a couple of fans and the occasional light bulb inside the house but, without exaggerating, is is not enough” 14ymedio hears from Verónica Echavarría, a resident of a two-story building in the Havana neighborhood of La Víbora.

The equipment, purchased on the black market, cost more than $600, which the emigrant children of both families helped to pay for. “When we bought the generator there were only private offers from people who travel and bring them, but they have told me that they are already putting them on the shelves in the stores, although I think the prices are very high,” says Echavarría.

In the centrally located Plaza de Carlos III, this type of device has just landed in one of the stores that only accepts payment in foreign currency. On Tuesday, some customers asked about the power of two coveted Westinghouse appliances, a brand that Cubans remember from the refrigerators of the first half of the last century, which continue to operate in many homes. continue reading

The models are the iGen4500 [4,500 maximum watts] for the value of $ 2,355 and the iGen4200 that costs $1,565, figures well above what is paid for similar devices in other countries in the region, such as Panama, the Dominican Republic or Mexico; a price that scared off potential buyers.

Portable, running on gasoline, on wheels and quite quiet, these Westinghouse models could be the perfect solution to face power outages in Cuba, especially during the summer months, when the heat forces people to use their fans more frequently. But the price is an insurmountable obstacle, a detail that has not escaped the sellers of the informal market.

“I offer a simpler and more compact range, which allows you to turn on only the basics in a house: some lamps, a fan and to charge mobile phones, but which does not provide for air conditioners or refrigerators,” Ismael, a 34-year-old merchant, tells this newspaper. For years, Ismael has specialized in the import of these devices. “There are several of us who travel frequently to Mexico and we bring them,” he explains.

“Although they are more modest equipment, they are easier to sell, because few people have the money for something more powerful. Private business owners are the most frequent customers, but right now they have little interest because most are closed or only offering services from home,” adds Ismael. “People are looking for something small, that makes little noise but that prevents them from spending the whole night sweating because there is no current.”

“They are very expensive, but I would give what I don’t have for one of these,” says a customer in Plaza Carlos III who lives in San Antonio de los Baños, where the July 11 protests began. “If there is something in my life that makes me indignant and annoys me, it is being without electricity in the house.”

One of the main triggers of the July 11th demonstrations in the town were the very long power cuts that occurred in recent weeks. After that protest, the situation has hardly improved. “The matter is not easy,” laments the frustrated buyer, who is curious about the arrival of a brand of American origin on the island “despite the embargo.”

The Westinghouse iGen4200 is sold on Cuban classifieds sites for just over $ 1,000, half a thousand less than in state stores, but “it is complicated equipment and it is better to have the import or official purchase papers very clear.” , recognizes the owner of a food service in Miramar that recently acquired two of these devices to be able to guarantee the preservation of food and the work of the kitchen during the blackouts.

“I can’t afford to be buying anything under the table because if they make a record of me and I don’t have the papers, I lose everything: the generator and even the business,” he warns. “So in the end I bought it through the official path to avoid any headaches in the future,” hoping that in a short time “prices will fall or new offers of solar panels that have a lower cost will enter the market.”

“But in the meantime, I prefer to have the backup that this is, and that serves me for my work and for my family. They are strong devices and if they are taken care of they can last many years.”

Recently, the Cuban authorities relaxed customs regulations for the importation of solar panels and other devices that generate energy from sources parallel to hydrocarbons. But, the presence of these devices on the black market is still minimal and some solar heaters for the self-employed have barely arrived in official stores.

At the moment, fuel generators are accompanied by “new problems,” he acknowledges. “They cannot be kept inside the house because of the smell they emit, and although they say they are silent, the noise they make is annoying.” Putting them outside is risking them “being taken away, so I had to create a mechanism that looks like the Alcatraz jail so they don’t steal them.”

The cost of the two devices, plus the enclosure to care for them, amounts to more than $5,000. “If you add to that what I spend on fuel each month, in order to recoup this investment, I’m going to have to spend years selling pizzas and food combos. If I don’t figure it out, I’ll have to get rid of them later.”

Ernesto, 29, a resident of Cienfuegos, also aspires to have a generator to be able to support his business linked to cryptocurrencies. “I am going to have to buy a device, because having electricity is essential for my business.”

Skillful with technologies and internet searches, Ernesto has not escaped that these same models can be bought for half or three-quarters of their price in other Latin American countries or in the United States.

“Why do they cost so much here?” he wonders indignantly, although he has no choice but to pay what they ask in stores foreign currency stores or on the black market. An electric generator is not a luxury on the Island of Blackouts.

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Cuba: Despite Strict Containment Measures, the Pandemic Rages in Pinar del Rio

The province registers seven deaths in the last day, in addition to seven patients in critical condition and eight serious. (Ronald Suárez / Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 August 2021 — “There is a line of crosses that extends every day and nobody knows how far it will go,” cultural promoter Ronald Suárez posted on his Facebook account, along with several photos of the Pinar del Río cemetery. In the cemetery you can see the accelerated resurgence in covid-19 that afflicts that Cuban province.

This Monday, the people of Pinar del Río confirmed what they had been dreading for days. With 2,042 cases detected the previous day, the province has been at the forefront of infections on the Island, even surpassing the numbers of much more populated provinces such as Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey, Holguín and Havana, where the outbreaks have been worrisome.

In the city of Pinar del Río, the number reaches more than a thousand positive patients, despite the fact that the provincial capital has undergone the strictest and most prolonged measures of those implemented throughout the country, to try to contain the pandemic from the first cases detected on the island in March of last year. Among the provisions, notable are that only essential workers are allowed to leave their homes; opening hours have been reduced in state stores; and provincial borders are closed.

In the entire province there are currently 6,560 confirmed active cases, a figure that strains the precarious infrastructure of one of the poorest territories in the country. Five out of every 100 people from Pinar del Río “have contracted the disease since the beginning of the epidemic” and 14,275 in the last 15 days, Suárez pointed out. “An outrage for a territory with just 580,000 inhabitants.”

The province registered seven deaths in the last day, in addition to continue reading

seven critically ill and eight seriously ill patients, including two pregnant women under 30 years of age. The day before, explains Suárez, the territory had “five fewer criticals and the same number of serious ones. In other words, there are people who died in a matter of hours, without ever appearing in the counts. The disease did not give them time.”

Before Francisco Durán García, National Director of Epidemiology, broadcast today’s report on television, it was already known that “the news for Pinar del Río would not be good, for the times that from my balcony we saw the hearse pass by on the way to the León Cuervo Rubio hospital, “wrote Suárez.

However, the leads in the principal local media Guerrilla hardly seemed to be aware of the situation this Monday. The main news spaces were dedicated to the anniversary of the Federation of Cuban Women, talking about foreign investment in Cuba, and denouncing an illegal exit attempt that ended with the confiscation of a speedboat.

At full speed, the authorities have had to set up new confinement centers. In the municipality of La Palma, the Liberato Domingo Azcuy school has become a makeshift hospital to house 31 children with symptoms of covid-19, and this Sunday 35 health workers from Pinar del Río from the Henry Reeve brigade returned from Matanzas, to face the outbreak of infections in that province.

At full speed, the authorities have had to set up new confinement centers. In the municipality of La Palma, the Liberato Domingo Azcuy school has become a makeshift hospital to house 31 children with symptoms of covid-19, and this Sunday 35 health workers from Pinar del Río from the Henry Reeve brigade returned from Matanzas who had traveled to face the outbreak of infections in that province.

But the pandemic is not the only problem for the people of Pinar del Río. The shortage of basic products has taken a toll in a population that has been required, for months, to present a “mobility credential” to be able to buy the few products that arrive in a rationed way and in dribs and drabs to the province.

The problems in the water supply and the power cuts also affect a region where, strikingly, there were hardly any popular protests on July 11 when the demonstrations spread throughout the island.

“In Viñales we are desperate because of the problems we have with water and this, despite the fact that there are many positive people,” explains Lucía Escalante, by telephone from the place that until just over a year ago was a vibrant tourist center and now is going through a deep crisis. “We had to call the delegate from outside the polyclinic and complain because even in the clinic there was no water to wash the sick hands.”

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Beggars Proliferate on the Streets of Havana

Some beggars captured by the lens of 14ymedio in Havana, asking for handouts or rummaging through garbage. (Collage)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, August 29, 2021 — The most invisible victims of the collapse of the national economy are the homeless. Although beggars have always been part of the usual landscape on the streets of Havana, their presence in doorways, parks, plazas and vacant lots has grown in recent times, and their survival has become more difficult every day.

“It’s difficult for us to care for these people who are assigned to our medical post. Many are elderly who don’t have relatives, nor receive care from any parallel institution and, in reality, what they need is to be admitted in-house for better care of their health,” Yaneysi Ríos, a doctor at a medical office in the capital, tells 14ymedio.

Most of the beggars are usually older adults or people with a mental illness, who lost their homes and families. They are concentrated in Old Havana, Plaza de la Revolución, and Centro Habana, places where they have become accustomed to wandering in search of some coins, which they most often find among the tourists. If a few years ago it was most common to see them sitting in doorways waiting for some money, now they can be seen rummaging through garbage cans in search of food scraps. continue reading

The authorities are most likely to remember them when some VIP or international leader passes through the streets with his caravan of vehicles, or when a major event is held. But with mobility restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic, many of these activities have decreased.

Havanans still remember the visit of Barack Obama in 2016, when brigades from the Ministry of Public Health proceeded to intern the city’s beggars in healthcare facilities to remove them from the public thoroughfares.

With Pope Francis’s first visit to the island in 2015, the retouchings of façades and the relocations of the homeless were so intense along the road that the procession would follow from the airport, that people ironically renamed the route the “Via Sacra” (Italian for “sacred way”).

During the decades from the 60s to the 80s, the so-called “lazy law” was in force in Cuba, which penalized those who neither studied nor worked. Citizens who were prosecuted for this crime were forced to accept a job, generally in agricultural work, street cleaning, and other occupations that the majority rejected because it was hard work for low pay.

With the arrival of the crisis of the 90s and the appearance of a budding private sector, the State could no longer guarantee a job for each person of working age and the legislation was repealed. Which is the reason, according to officialdom, that homelessness on the streets has increased.

Translated by Tomás A.

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Cuban Soprano Gladys Puig has Died in Havana

Puig began her studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Havana, known today by the name Amadeo Roldán. (Ubail Zamora)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, August 19, 2021 — During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the prestigious Cuban opera singer Gladys Puig died in Havana at the age of 88 after a long fight against Alzheimer’s, close friends of the artist confirmed to 14ymedio. “For a year a person had been caring for her in her house, because she was previously in a nursing home,” said one of the sources.

Her wake is being held this Thursday morning at the Bernardo Garcia de Zanja y Belascoaín funeral home, in Centro Habana. Friends of the artist point out to this newspaper that the official cultural institutions have not sent “even a single wreath” of flowers.

In tribute to the artist, the tenor Bernardo Lichilín performed the Ave Maria at the funeral home. “My humble prayer to Our Dear Gladys Puig” he wrote when sharing a video about the moment on social media.

A teacher of several generations, the artist was born in the capital on November 26, 1932 into a family of musicians, among whom her father, the conductor Cheo Belén Puig, stands out.

She began her studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Havana, known today by the name Amadeo Roldán. Her first singing teacher was soprano Zoila Gálvez, but she later perfected her technique in Italy with continue reading

maestro Napoleone Annovazzi.

Puig’s professional debut took place at the Musical Theater, with the Gonzalo Roig Lyric Theater under the direction of Héctor Quintero. In January 1958 she performed the Cuba premier of the work El Tabardo, by Giacomo Puccini, with the Grupo Experimental de Ópera. In those years she joined the Pro Arte Musical cast in works such as The Secret Marriage by Cimarosa, Manon by Massenet, and she also participated in the first presentation in Cuba of Puccini’s Sor Angélica.

In 1961 she premiered in Cuba Giancarlo Menotti’s comic opera Amelia Goes to the Dance, playing the title role. That same year she participated in the opera seasons with the pieces Doña Francisquita and Cecilia Valdés, composed by Gonzalo Roig.

The soprano was the founder of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba, created on November 11, 1962, a project in which she developed a wide repertoire of operas, operettas and zarzuelas, almost always in leading roles. She is remembered for her participation in titles such as: The Merry Widow, Luisa Fernanda, María la O, Cecilia Valdes, Lola Cruz, and The Slave.

“Today a great one set out on an eternal journey. Having had the joy of sharing with her in her last stage work, as the old woman Alcina, was a luxury and a tribute that the Lyric Theater offered her for having given so much glory to her country. Beautiful woman, humble, professional, teacher,” wrote professor and countertenor Ubail Zamora on her Facebook profile.

“Always elegant, she was an example to everyone of how to stay beautiful despite the years. You leave us, but you will always be part of the Lyric Theater of Cuba, and wherever you go, a round of applause will sound as the best gift for the great artist, the teacher, and above all, the person we had the pleasure of knowing,” added her colleague from the Camerata Vocale Sine Nomine.

Translated by Tomás A.

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The Battle for Cuba

They are very young, almost children, those who have led the demonstrations that have exposed to the world the horror that Cuba is experiencing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Vicente Echerri, New York, 23 August 2021 — We are living in the aftermath of what happened in Cuba on July 11, when thousands of people, in more than forty cities and towns of the country, came out to protest against an asphyxiating dictatorship and to demand the freedom that they have lacked for more than 60 years.

At last, those of us who have waited so long from the other shore, we have seen a glimpse of dignity and rebellion that we can only contemplate with love and respect. They have just carried out what we could not, did not want or did not dare to do, perhaps because it was not our time. A sentence of cowardice or of timidity weighs on us, or perhaps against us, the lack of an opportunity was imposed. Some will say that perhaps now everything is easier: the monster of then is no more than a toothless and famished beast.

The latter in no way diminishes the heroic will: starving people have clamored for “freedom,” not for food; the unsatisfied values of the spirit have been the priority in the mouths of the protesters and that single invocation redeems them, rescues their humanity subjugated and debased by so many years of despotic power.

The spontaneous action of that day should not be considered as an inexplicable and unusual outburst, but as the natural consequence of the exercise of an outrageous oppression that has been stripped of arguments and values: a pure tyranny that has nothing to argue to cling to power more than a legend full of holes.

The Cuban Revolution is a huge fraud to which continue reading

several generations sacrificed their future and their dreams. Those of us who have never been seduced by their evil charm cannot help but grieve for those who, naively, bet on an idiotic and criminal utopia that would claim their souls without offering them more than a yoke in exchange.

Now is the time for stark disenchantment. They are very young, almost children, those who have led the demonstrations that have exposed to the world the horror that Cuba is experiencing without any propaganda helping to mask it.

They are the forced offshoots of a spurious order that go out to claim the identity of the citizen that has been stolen from them, and they do it as best they can, with the elementary arguments they have, with the simple resources they have and with those who want to show their frustration and their deep anger, their rejection of a tyrannical state that offers them nothing but servitude.

For that courage they have confronted the repressive apparatus with which tyrannies always respond to demands for freedom and justice: sticks and shots from orchestrated hitmen, arrests and intimidations, against them and their families.

The protagonists of these street acts have also affirmed that they are not afraid and have already begun to show it. The day of the 11th of July is called to be the ceremonial salvo of the battle of a people for their rights, a conflict that could become arduous and bloody.

It is for us Cubans who live in exile, in this struggle, the role of the aggressive rearguard: to become a sounding board for those who expose their freedom and their lives in front of the gang of thugs that kidnapped our country, and to get the world to understand the reason for their cause — which is ours — and to show solidarity with it.

The author is a Cuban writer residing in the United States.

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China’s Sinopharm Vaccine Arrives in Cuba to Accelerate the Immunization Process

There is “availability and guarantee for the doses required in a population considered small like Cienfuegos.” (Primate Vision)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2021 — In a twist that contradicts all previous statements by the Cuban authorities about the country’s self-sufficiency in immunization, this Sunday the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine will begin to be administered to 400,000 residents of the province of Cienfuegos who are 19 and older.

Vicente Vérez Bencomo, general director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), explained that the immunization will include two doses of Sinopharm and a booster dose of Soberana Plus. Public Health “redefined” new “vaccination strategy” in order to “protect faster the population,” reported on its website Radio City Sea.

The Chinese vaccine “has been recommended by the World Health Organization,” it has an efficacy of 79% and there is “availability and guarantee for the doses required in a population considered small like that of Cienfuegos,” justified Vérez.

For Amílcar Pérez-Riverol, a Cuban virologist based in Brazil, the island “has fallen far short of its initial projections for mass vaccination.” In an analysis published this Saturday, the scientist stated that the health authorities had planned to immunize 70% of the population with the three doses of Soberana 02 and Abdala, however, at the end of this month, the figure is “2.5 times lower.’’ continue reading

Pérez-Riverol explained that the problems come from previous months, such as July, where the projection of 33.5% was not met, not even “considering the percentage of the population that has received at least one dose of the vaccines.” The virologist said that although it was announced that “production” of Soberana is resumed and that this month there could be millions of doses, the crisis is happening today, indeed, yesterday. No tomorrow.”

“It seems clear to me that the decision to apply the Sinopharm vaccine in Cienfuegos is associated with limitations in the availability of doses of Cuban vaccines and the urgency caused by the explosion of cases,” he said.

This Friday the State newspaper Granma published that Cuba “is in a position to produce 10 million doses of the anticovid-19 Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus vaccines” developed by the Finlay Institute. As reported by the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) “the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (IFA) is ready to carry out the production of these immunogens.”

Verez said that Cienfuegos will probably be the first province to vaccinate almost the entire adult and pediatric population at the same time, since adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age in the provincial capital will also be immunized with two doses of Sovereign 02 and one of Soberana Plus.

For his part, Yury Valdés Balbin, deputy director of the IFV, said that the objective is to bring the province to “a peak position of optimal immune response” and assured that not many regions of the world “can have the luxury that will now be afforded Cienfuegos, to be able to apply mass vaccination to its population.”

At the beginning of August, when Ciego de Ávila registered a peak of covid-19 infections, several complaints arrived at the 14ymedio Newsroom from people who said they wanted to be immunized with a Chinese vaccine. The information came from a meeting of the temporary working group for the pandemic in which, according to one of the participants, the option of immunizing Ciego de Avila with the foreign antidote was mentioned.

Since then, readers have directly asked journalists from Invasor, the local newspaper, about the alleged vaccination with Sinovac or another of the Chinese vaccines, and demanded transparent information and, although no explanation was given, they were not denied the rumor.

“You can be sure that the moment we have that information we will publish it. What we cannot do is publish unconfirmed or official information,” a newspaper editor replied to those who were asked to clarify what they considered an “open secret.”

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Cuba: Ciego de Avila Prepares 6,000 More Niches in a New Cemetery

Ciego de Avila Cemetery Project (Invasor)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 August 2021 — Ciego de Ávila is preparing the construction of 2,600 niches immediately of the total of 6,000 that will be erected in the new cemetery of the city. The cemetery began to be prepared days ago, as published on Tuesday by the provincial newspaper Invasor.

Milagros Ruiz Heredia, director of the Ciego de Ávila Design and Engineering Company, responsible for the project, said that the future cemetery is in an area near the incinerator.

The project, as detailed by one of the technicians, will have a central park, a pantheon for combatants with a ceremonial plaza, areas for pantheons for entities and institutions, another for vaults, niches, ossuaries and columbariums, a crematorium for boxes and waste, and an incinerator for bone remains.

In addition, a parking lot and a main building with a lobby, offices and other dependencies are planned outside. continue reading

The specialists told Invasor that prefabricated technology will be used, something they attributed to an intention to prioritize minimalism, although speed and price could also be behind the decision.

A month ago, authorities also reported the expansion of the existing cemetery, with the hasty construction of 150 niches, just as it was made public, and work to add 350 more. The initial plan was to complete the work with a total of 2,000 niches and 900 ossuaries.

The people of Ciego de Avila have been denouncing the collapse of funeral services for weeks with the peak of covid-19 that affects the province. In Ciego de Ávila, the incidence at two weeks is 2,217.3 per 100,000 inhabitants and there are even municipalities such as Chambas in which a rate of 3,611 per 100,000 have been reached, when the World Health Organization considers any number above 100 cases per 100,000 people is a very high risk.

Despite this context, the authorities have argued that both the expansion of the cemetery and the construction of the new cemetery in the city of Ciego de Ávila were planned for a long time, but it is difficult for residents to believe that a planned work is causing so many problems — such as the bad smells and unhealthiness that the first one has caused — and they believe that it is work that has been accelerated by a pandemic that has exceeded any forecast.

Some of the readers of Invasor wonder if it would not be better to build another hospital, including the missing pediatric one, to better serve health and avoid so many deaths.

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