14ymedio

Health Crisis Forces the Suspension of Cuban Parliament Session

With the pandemic, the more than 600 deputies have had to work virtually. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 June 2021 — The health crisis due to Covid-19 in Cuba continues to add records and has also changed the political rhythm of the country. The session of the People’s Power Assembly, which had been called for mid-July, was suspended this Monday after the unstoppable increase in infections.

Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the Parliament, decided to annul the convocation of the Seventh Regular Period of Sessions due to “the complex epidemiological situation” of “the last days” and the measures approved to counteract the increase in cases.

Ordinarily the Assembly meets twice a year at the end of each semester for a maximum term of three days. Prior to the parliamentary meeting, the different permanent committees meet. With the pandemic, the more than 600 deputies have had to work virtually, although some face-to-face hearings have been held. continue reading

One of those meetings took place at the end of May to demand the “lifting of the blockade,” during which Yuri Valdés, deputy director of the Finlay Institute, acknowledged that there are insufficient doses of the vaccines that the country develops and blamed the United States for this. “It must be said that we have not vaccinated more Cubans because we have not had the resources to make more vaccines, let the world be clear,” said the official.

July, which was presented as the month of the more than 3,000 patients in a day, returns to report a maximum number of infections on Tuesday with 3,591, for a cumulative of 210,913 cases since the pandemic began in March of last year. There have been 1,387 deaths, 15 of them in the last day, informed the Ministry of Public Health.

The provinces that reflect the worst numbers this Tuesday are: Matanzas (874), Havana (591), Santiago de Cuba (340), Camagüey (269) and Ciego de Ávila (230). In addition, in some of these the health systems are showing signs of collapse.

Several complaints on social networks exposed the overburdening of Matanzas hospitals to the point that the official press, after several days, had to report on the situation. The authorities assured that they will double the number of intensive care beds after recognizing that one of the main problems in the territory is “the quality of patient care,” in the words of Deputy Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca. The official urged an increase in the number of isolation centers and a “comprehensive” improvement in their conditions.

In that same province, a large number of imported cases are reported. More than 150 Russians who arrived in the country in the last ten days, and they have expressed their outrage on social networks for being “imprisoned” in their hotels in Varadero. Some have warned other potential travelers to “think about it a hundred times” before arranging a vacation on the island, in addition to lamenting the little support from their country’s consular officials.

In Camagüey, the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Provincial University Hospital also collapsed at the end of last month and photos of patients lying on the floor of the health center circulated on social media. In addition, as reported by ADN Cuba, the clinical laboratories where the PCR tests are carried out also exceeded their maximum capacity for tests.

The country is experiencing a phase of community transmission of the disease with 20,307 active cases, of whom 70 are in critical condition and 120 serious. Of those reported this Tuesday, 562 are pediatric patients, 34 of whom are less than a year old, including 15 infants under six months.

In the last two weeks, Public Health has registered 40,439 locally transmitted cases and 1,109 imported.

____________

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.

Import of $3,000 in Locks and Hinges Seen as an Accomplishment in Cuba

Locks and hinges are so scarce that they are almost unobtainable in Cuban hardware stores. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 July 2021 — A carpenter in Guantanamo is, so far, the only self-employed tradesman who has been able to import supplies for his own business. Imports by private individuals have only been allowed in Cuba since August. All such transactions must be done in dollars, however, and with state-owned companies acting as middlemen.

A provincial state-run newspaper, Venceremos, reported the news without identifying the carpenter, who “preferred to remain anonymous,” nor did it offer information about any other self-employed workers importing supplies.

The article indicated that the carpenter “is among the Cubans who have received imported goods as part of Cuba’s strategy that allows state companies, in this case Copextel, to offer export and import services to non-state management entities.” continue reading

The paper cites Valmis Romero, an official of Copextel, who says the imported goods — worth more than $3,000 — are standard key locks and stainless steel hinges used in doors and windows. The items are so scarce as to be almost a unobtainable in Cuban hardware stores.

Romero adds that there for plans for “private sector workers to sell finished products through showrooms on the company’s website.” The website URL printed in article, www.toc guantánamo.enzona.net, was misspelled.

The article notes that the carpenter’s supplier is a Spanish company based in Mexico, which distributes tools for heavy industry under the brand name Urrea, adding, “The materials they sell are designed with quality, precision and durability.”

Romero explains that the import process begins with the customer selecting a product and the quantity, after which “he is provided economical and high-quality options.” Full payment must be made in advance in freely convertible foreign currency, which can be done through the Tranfersmovil app or with a transfer to Copextel from an overseas bank account.

The article notes that the company is also facilitating imports of carpentry equipment, photographic materials, artists supplies such as paper and glue, and welding equipment.”

This is the first official press statement regarding imports by private individuals since last March, when Latin Press announced that Coptextel offices in Ciego de Avila would begin importing items for self-employed workers as part of a strategy to jumpstart the national economy.

There are no reports in the article, however, of privately owned cafes and restaurants ordering items used in take-out meals such cardboard pizza boxes, termopacks or paper napkins.

Before pandemic-related restrictions were imposed on commercial flights, items like these regularly travelled in the luggage of so-called ‘mules’, who supplied a wide network of local businesses. From disposable glasses to paper towels to wooden straws, airline passengers provided a steady supply that is now greatly diminished, forcing private business owners to appeal to state-owned companies in order to import them.

____________

If It Weren’t For The Mango

Empty pallets in the EJT (Youth Labor Army) market on 17 and K streets in El Vedado (Havana, Cuba). (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 6 July 2021 — Of all the horrors experienced in Cuba during the crisis of the 90s, there was one that was announced as a possibility but that did not materialize: the dreaded Option Zero, in which the country would be totally shut down due to lack of fuel, families would be relocated to camps, and the collective pot would become the sole supplier of the little food that we would put into our mouths.

In my adolescence, I imagined a future of skeletal people around a campfire where water with some scraps was boiling, while the loudspeakers continued transmitting the speeches of the leader, a picture of health, with his calls for the sacrifices of others. Fortunately, before reaching that scenario, in the worst style of Cambodia under Pol Pot, a timid economic opening took place that saved us from the community soup pot. The fears did not stop with the flexibility measures, but were just temporarily put on hold.

This Tuesday morning, I toured various markets in Havana. The practically empty stands and the long faces of the customers brought those fears back to me. Are we on the brink of Option Zero? “At least we have the mangoes,” a neighbor replied when I shared my concerns. With the summer and the arrival of the rains, the trees are loaded with that fruit that “Castroism has not managed to destroy,” added the man. continue reading

However, the mango season lasts only a few weeks. After the last fruits fall from their branches, with what are we going to fill the hole left by those slices, yellow and sweet, that we now put on the plate? I fear that the humanitarian crisis that has been circling us for months is here. Every day that passes without the authorities recognizing the severity of the collapse is lives that are lost, and not only because of a resurgence of Covid-19, which the regime has let get out of hand, but because of the lack of nutrients and medicines.

These are moments to put aside arrogance and political pride and to ask for urgent international aid, to stop making up headlines and to put an end to the tactic of inflating the statistics of national production. The countdown has begun and we barely have the time for the last mangoes hanging from the bushes to ripen.

____________

Customers in Cuba Desperate Over Problems with Banco Metropolitano ATMs

Several people in Havana trying to withdraw money from three ATMs that belong to the Metropolitan Bank. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 July 2021 — The abrupt suspension of the electronic operations of the Banco Metropolitans (Banmet), in Havana, has caused outrage among customers, who have gone to the automatic teller machines (ATM) in search of cash and have not been successful.

“I went to get money at the ATM in Ayestarán on May 19 and all three of them are out of bills. I come to the one at the Ministry of Communications and when I make the withdrawal, they deduct the balance but they do not give me the cash,” a resident tells 14ymedio from the Plaza de la Revolución municipality.

In a note issued this Wednesday, Banmet assured that “maintenance work and improvements in the technological infrastructure associated with electronic banking” would be carried out, from 9:00 pm on Saturday to 6:00 am on Sunday, July 4th. The repairs will affect the services that operate with magnetic cards issued by that bank, he said. continue reading

However, several complaints reached the 14ymedio newsroom, which on Thursday was able to verify that the interruptions in the service began much earlier than announced.

After the ATM discounted the balance of the Plaza de la Revolución customer’s magnetic card, he decided to go to the Aranguren bank to seek guidance. “When I arrive, it says on the door: ‘Closed by covid!’,” The man adds indignantly.

On the other hand, a young customer who approached the Ayestarán and Conill ATM on Thursday after trying to withdraw cash in several bank branches, gave up before the huge line that awaited him. “I’m not going to stand in that enormous line, I’m going to borrow from a friend until these people [the bank] solve the problem. This country is getting worse and worse,” he said irritably.

In a call made by this newspaper to the Banmet telephone bank to inquire if the maintenance could be extended beyond what was foreseen, an operator explained that she could not “assure anything” after 6 am next Sunday.

“Let’s hope that the service will be restored early Sunday. While the work lasts, neither ATMs nor Transfermóvil nor anything, all the cards will be temporarily disabled,” the operator said bluntly.

In recent months, Cuban banks have faced several technical problems. The Metropolitano bank, on April 6, transferred one million CUC to an account of a young businesswoman. Later in a statement, Banmet insisted that it was “an error” in a technical process “as part of the measures within the Ordering Task*.”

In that month a dozen Cubans shared the same experience on their social networks: an unexpected balance in their accounts. In at least five cases it was the same figure, one million CUC.

At the beginning of March, 14ymedio echoed a technical problem that had affected the balance of the accounts in national currency and foreign currency of the customers of Banco de Crédito y Comercio (Bandec) and Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA), which operate Transfermóvil and EnZona applications in various provinces of the country.

On that occasion, several users reported having lost part of their savings, while others received surprising amounts of money. The official response was a brief message on Twitter that alluded to “some difficulties” in the network payment services due to “technical problems” in the Transfermóvil app.

The alternative to the ATM, could be the window of the bank branch. In Havana there are 90 branches of the Banco Metropolitano, but with the peak of COVID-19 infections, this service and the hours have been reduced. In addition, on weekends most of these stores are closed, which causes more lines in front of ATMs.

*Translator’s note: The so-called ‘Ordering Task’ (Tarea ordenamiento) 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.

____________

Cuban Province of Cienfuegos Closes to Contain Covid: Beaches, Recreational Centers, Transport

The residents of Cienfuegos will have to think hard about what to do in their free time since beaches, rivers and recreational centers are closed. (5 de Septiembre)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2021 — The diffuse new measures announced by the authorities last Tuesday, to contain the contagion of Covid-19, begin to take shape. The Minister of Health, Ángel Portal Miranda, warned that each territory would make its own decisions based on its needs and situation, although the working group at the national level would be the reference.

In Cienfuegos, working hours will end at 2 pm, although residents will have to think hard about what to do in their free time since the beaches, rivers and recreational centers are completely closed. These measures come into force this Friday and are part of a package of 16 regulations enunciated by the minister in his speech to reality.

The only workers who will continue to carry out their tasks will be those linked to production and services. Transportation, both public and private, between rural and urban areas is suspended, and the activities of the cultural sector are limited “to an extreme degree” in the month of July. continue reading

Another measure of great impact is the closure of establishments: markets, hard currency stores, ration stores, service stations and liquefied gas points will open only until 3 pm, as will state-run and private restaurants, banks and any government procedures or “unnecessary” meetings.

It is also expected that entry and exit controls in the province established at seven access points will be strengthened.

In Matanzas, where national tourism for the island’s main spa has already been suspended, the regulatory package establishes up to 56 points . These include a curfew between eight at night and five in the morning and a prohibition against leaving the territory, except in the case of emergencies, deaths or leaving the country.

The National Revolutionary Police (PNR) will reinforce surveillance at this time and any driver who violates the restriction without authorization or “objective justification” will be taken to a police station and his badge and documentation will be withdrawn, “independent of the fine and administrative measure.”

Regarding transport, in addition to limiting the licensing procedures, the number of standing passengers on the buses is restricted to 15 people and mobility will be controlled to the maximum. Both this restriction and the curfew exempt not only vehicles that fulfill an essential service, but also those that carry the registration of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, and diplomatic plates, or serve for the transfer of foreigners.

To rent a car, individuals must request a special permit.

In addition, the Provincial Labor Directorate requested that Health personnel admit those who test positive for the virus within 24 hours and that they treat “one hundred percent of the contacts” at home. “In the case of not being able to admit all the suspected and confirmed cases to centers, individuals will be followed by doctors in the patients’ homes,” says the official press, which also reports an increase in beds in health centers.

Another instruction is to comply with the schedule, which is not detailed, “of the health intervention in risk groups and territories with the candidate vaccine Abdala.”

They also include in the new medical protocol the transfer of patients who have post-covid complications but test negative for the virus “to the non-covid hospital network.”

Other measures are already known, such as the fight against coleros and hoarders and the promotion of fines for those who violate the rules and, in addition, promises that it remains to be seen that the provincial government can fulfill, such as “increasing” home services in the Family Attention System “at no cost to the beneficiary,” “complete” personnel “that today is lacking to assist all vulnerable beneficiaries,” “increase the production of the processing centers” and “achieve that the units that function as restaurants and meal sites prepare meals every day.”

____________

One of the Pioneers of Cuban Rap, ‘Malcom Justicia’, Died in Havana

Malcoms Junco Duffay, ‘Malcom Justicia’, died this Thursday in Havana, due to cardiac arrest. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2021 — The rapper and music producer Malcoms Junco Duffay, ’Malcom Justicia’, died this Thursday in Havana due to cardiac arrest, according to journalist Michel Hernández on his Facebook profile. A pioneer of rap in Cuba, Junco died, Hernández explains, after “facing difficult situations in his family environment.”

The journalist notes in his post that the musician developed one of the “most outstanding careers within the hip hop and underground movement” on the Island, he was the producer of the “iconic album” Sentimientos desafinados [Out-of-tune Feelings] and recorded one of the first Cuban phonograms that included rap themes.

“He also investigated the evolution of rap in Cuba and published volumes that contributed significantly to shedding light on a cultural scene that has remained practically anonymous,” says Hernández, who concludes: “Today, Cuban rappers have united in grief for the loss of one of their brothers in the cause, an artist who gave himself to rap and assumed its philosophy as a way of life.” continue reading

Junco Duffay studied music at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory and devoted himself to the study and production of Cuban music. For his book CONTAR EL RAP: Antología de Rap y Hip Hop cubanos, written together with the musicologist Grisel Hernández, he received the Special Prize for Musicological Research and the Cubadisco Prize, both in 2019, in the hip hop category.

The Cuban Institute of Music and the Cuban Rap Agency mourned the death of the rapper in their networks and offered their condolences to his family and friends.

“Today is a very sad day. Malcoms Junco Duffay is gone, one of the most cheerful and meaningful people I have ever met. Good trip brother. Cuban hip hop will continue to raise its voice, too, to remember you,” producer Claudia Expósito wrote on her Facebook profile after hearing the news.

____________

Cuban Activist Virgilio Mantilla Released After Seven Months in Jail

The activist Virgilio Mantilla Arango during his demonstration supporting the members of the San Isidro Movement. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 July 2021 — Activist Virgilio Mantilla Arango was released this Sunday after serving a seven-month prison sentence for the alleged crime of hoarding food, as confirmed to 14ymedio by the Lady in White Leticia Ramos Herrería. The opponent was arrested on December 7 after publicly expressing his solidarity with the San Isidro Movement (MSI).

On social media, several activists reported the release of Mantilla Arango, founding leader of the Camagüeyana Human Rights Unit. For Ramos Herrería it is “the best news of all in these difficult times,” and he celebrated that the activist is already “at his home in Céspedes,” in the province of Camagüey.

The reporter for ADN Cuba, Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, also said on his Facebook account that he was happy that Mantilla is already at liberty and noted: “He was jailed for giving his full support to the San Isidro Movement last November, when that group of young people were on a hunger and thirst strike at the headquarters of the movement in Havana.” continue reading

During Mantilla’s stay in prison, several activists denounced last March that he had been put in a punishment cell in the Kilo-9 prison when he returned from a hospital where he spent 13 days ill with covid-19. The complaints noted that Mantilla was denied medical attention despite his delicate state of health.

The Miami-based Center for a Free Cuba, led by Frank Calzón, labeled Mantilla a political prisoner. The organization called on the international community at that time to join the demands of the government with the aim of pressuring them to provide information on the opponent. “The case of Mantilla Arango is a clear example of these practices that violate human rights on the part of the Havana regime,” he denounced.
____________

State Security Surrounds the Homes of Several Artists and Cuts Their Phone Service

The artist Tania Bruguera had her landline and mobile phone service cut off and she has a surveillance operation surrounding her home. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 1 July 2021 — The homes of several artists and members of 27N are surrounded by police operations this Thursday. Tania Bruguera, Carolina Barrero, Katherine Bisquet and Camila Lobón denounced the police fences on their social networks and warned that a greater number of State Security agents and officers participate than on previous occasions.

“There are many uniformed agents down there, they are more than those who normally come and sometimes they hide where I cannot see them but there they are,” Bruguera told 14ymedio

The art historian Yamilka Lafita denounced to this newspaper the morning arrest of Barrero: “I was with her here at her house, we were under siege and with the phones cut off. At a moment when Carolina went down to pick up a message from her father, they arrested her. The neighbors say they are preparing to do a search, but they have not yet come to say what they want.” continue reading

After Lafita told what happened with Barrero, it has not been possible to contact her again. Some of her friends fear that she may have been detained. A neighbor explained to Sansón that after Barrero’s arrest she saw Lafita come down from the building accompanied by “an agent,” from the political police, and then other officers entered the house, which had been left open.

Bruguera, Bisquet and Lobón also have had their phone lines cut off, as have Sansón and the curator Solveig Font.

Both the cut offs of phone service and the arrests and State Security operations occurred after some of these artists went to Villa Marista last Sunday to inquire about Hamlet Lavastida’s situation.

The artist was arrested on June 26 after the end of the required isolation period for all Cubans who enter the Island from abroad, in one of the centers authorized by the Government. Lavastida returned to Cuba on June 21, upon concluding his residency at the Berlin gallery Künstlerhaus Bethanien. His arrest has sparked a great wave of solidarity among his colleagues inside and outside the country.

On the other hand, this Thursday, a group of artists and intellectuals signed a letter demanding that the Cuban government release Lavastida and withdraw the accusation of “instigation to commit a crime” for which he is being investigated. In less than 24 hours, more than 120 colleagues and other personalities from different creative fields such as journalism, cinema, theater and the visual arts joined the effort.

The text denounces that Lavastida has done nothing more than “exercise his constitutional right to express his ideas” and participate in “non-violent civic protests.”

The letter, published on the Facebook page of November 27, calls on “colleagues in art and culture” to “join Hamlet Lavastida and demand that the Cuban authorities, the President of the Republic, the Council of Ministers and the prosecutor in his case, to drop all charges immediately.”

Among the signatories are the artists Tania Bruguera, Katherine Bisquet, Camila Lobón, Celia González, Lázaro Saavedra, Leandro Feal, José Manuel Mesías, Julio Llopiz-Casal, Lester Álvarez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The curators Gerardo Mosquera and Solveig Font, the filmmakers Heidi Hassan, Miguel Coyula and Carlos Quintela, as well as the journalists Mario Luis Reyes and Carlos Manuel Álvarez, among others, also joined.

“We refuse to be silent or distance ourselves from a persecuted comrade, knowing that at any moment any of us could fall into the same condition. (…) None of us is free until we are all free!”

From Miami, the collector Jorge Pérez, founder and president of Related Group, also denounced the arrest of the artist Hamlet Lavastida in an open letter, which the writer Wendy Guerra shared on her Facebook profile. In the text, he condemned the repression and censorship, and also demanded freedom for political prisoners in Cuba.

____________

Authorities Close Santiago de Cuba Due to Increase in Covid Deaths

For the first time on the island there are more than 10,000 active cases of Covid, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health. (El Chago-Santiago de Cuba / Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 June 2021 — With the announcement this Friday of a new record of daily coronavirus infections, 2,464 in the last day, just 48 hours after registering 2,055 cases, the closure of several areas of the country was also reported. Deaths due to the disease were ten.

Havana, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, did not report the highest number of infections in one day, a place occupied by Matanzas and Camagüey with 452 and 421, respectively. The Cuban capital ranked third with 391 cases, followed by Pinar del Río (178), Sancti Spíritus (139) and Santiago de Cuba (136).

In this last city, as of Saturday and for the next 15 days, the authorities decided to prohibit the entry and exit of people, with the exception of international travelers, the severely ill, and relatives of the deceased. In addition, a curfew is maintained from 8 pm to 5 am and emergency services in hospitals and polyclinics are suspended. continue reading

The health authorities explained that in Santiago de Cuba, due to the circulation in recent weeks of the strains from the United Kingdom, South Africa and California, mortality has increased. In the last seven days alone, 16 people have died.

Another of the provinces closing several of its municipalities is Artemisa, where, as of Wednesday, people are forbidden from entering and leaving. According to the local press, that territory has a high number of infections and an increase in new cases is estimated. In one of the municipalities, Bauta, residents are forbidden to travel to Havana. Only people with permits from the authorities attesting to health problems, specialized consultations, or work, are allowed to go.

In Matanzas, a group of measures was also approved, among which are the suspension of transport, except for people who work in the pandemic, health emergencies and food distribution. They also decided to limit medical care, since only emergency cases and oncology, hemodialysis and pediatric patients will be attended to.

In Havana, where a curfew is maintained from 9 pm to 5 am, the incidence rate has decreased in June, with an average daily case number of 394, lower than the May figure, which was 603. However, against this background, local authorities recognize that it is necessary to “increase the detection of positive patient contacts, intensify investigations, and make timely intakes.”

It is the first time on the island that there are more than 10,000 active cases of the disease, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health. 36,671 people are admitted to hospitals and isolation centers: there are 10,367 active cases — of which 60 are critical and 102 serious — and 7,957 with suspicious symptoms and the rest under surveillance.

Public Health indicated this Friday that the total number of Covid-19 cases on the Island since the beginning of the pandemic, is 177,253, while total deaths is 1,219.

____________

Almost 11,000 Cubans Have Accessed Mexican Migration Offices Since January

Cuba ranked fifth out of 169 countries registered, after Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia and the United States. (INM)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 24 June 2021 — Between January of this year and to date in June, a total of 10,995 Cubans have gone to the offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM) of Mexico to process the paperwork for their legal stay in the country or to renew their residency.

Cuba ranked fifth among the 169 registered countries, after Venezuela (17,330), Honduras (13,555), Colombia (13,101) and the United States (11,314), the INM said in a statement . Most of the procedures were processed in Mexico City, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Nuevo León, Jalisco and Baja California.

The figures have been provided thanks to the New Migration Procedures Management Model, “which contemplates the use of biometric data” and other technological changes that have reduced “from 20 days to a period of no more than 24 hours the resolution of 19 of the main immigration procedures of the institution.” continue reading

Among the main requests made by migrants, in addition to renewal of the resident card, are the regularization of the migratory situation for humanitarian reasons, issuance of migratory documents, changes from temporary to permanent resident status and notification of change of domicile.

In just the first five months of this year, according to the most recent data from the National Refugee Commission (Comar), 3,769 Cubans requested asylum in the country. Although not all those who initiate this process go to an INM office to apply for a visa for humanitarian reasons, and at least 1,444 nationals of the Island were recognized as refugees in that period.

Many Cubans who arrive in the city of Tapachula, on the southern Mexican border, request refuge at the Comar office. When they obtain the first documents which they must bring to the Migration offices to manage their humanitarian visa, they prefer to continue traveling to the north of the country to cross to US soil and request asylum.

In the last six months of last year, when the new INM procedure model began to be implemented, the 8,258 Cubans who went to the offices were only surpassed by 14,344 beneficiaries from Venezuela and 9,472 from Colombia.

This Wednesday, Mexico deported 89 Cubans (20 women and 69 men) to the island, who “did not prove their regular” status in the country, the INM reported. The migrants were detained in the states of Chiapas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Yucatán.

The deportation of the new group of Cubans coincides with a virtual meeting on Migratory and Consular Affairs held between the two countries on June 17, where they reviewed “cooperation actions to combat human trafficking and illegal trafficking of travelers,” according to a communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Island.

____________

What Denigrates the Cuban Peso the Most?

The government has created a system in which Cubans live segregated lives based on the currency they possess. (Capture)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchéz, Havana, 2 July 2021 — Before he was arrested and taken to the State Security barracks in Havana, the artist Hamlet Lavastida had been accused by government voices of promoting the writing of phrases on the Cuban peso (CUP) bills circulating on the island. Now, locked in Villa Marista, investigators seek to turn these incriminations into a crime that puts him behind bars. But, the indictment limps at several points, some legal, others ethical and many monetary.

The national currency, those banknotes that bear the faces of various heroes of independence, have long been systematically tainted by the very authorities that issue them. The peso was dishonored when it was condemned more than a quarter of a century ago to be second-rate money, which was not used to buy in the well-stocked stores, popularly known as shopping malls, which were opened in the midst of the crisis. A coin that is stained by its little value and that condemned to misery whoever carried it in their pockets.

I remember seeing workers in shabby clothes approach a market cash register and not be able to pay for the merchandise they were carrying. “This is in dollars,” the clerk would say almost reluctantly. Our money was not used at that time to contract for a mobile phone line, pay for a night in a hotel or buy a ticket for a trip abroad. They humiliated the Cuban peso so much that taking those bills out of one’s pocket is still more a source of shame than pride. continue reading

It is enough to read the three letters CUP to know that what we will receive in return will be impaired service, a lot of abuse of the customer, and low quality merchandise. Our every-day peso has been disdained by the Central Bank of Cuba, which created a more colorful and powerful emulator, which for more than 25 years overshadowed what should have been the country’s main currency. The so-called chavitos – Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) – were a greater offense to the national currency than any phrase, even an expletive, that an indignant citizen might stamp on their watermark.

Lavastida’s idea of writing 27N, next to the face of José Martí, is not what tarnishes or insults paper money. It has been the terrible management of the economy, the official historical disregard for the Cuban peso, the segregation between those who can access the stores that take payment only in freely convertible currency – where prices are expressed in US dollars – and those who only have CUP, along with the little signs that say “payment exclusively with Visa or Mastercard” – at the gates of certain state offices – those who have smeared blood and shit on every bill that circulates on this Island. This, indeed, is an outrage, a tremendous crime.

____________

Dozens of Cubans Demonstrate in Front of the UN to Demand Freedom for Political Prisoners

Among others, journalist Carlos Manuel Álvarez, teacher Omara Ruíz Urquiola and artists Luis Eligio D Omni, Javier Caso and Kizzy Macías participated in the protest. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 June 2021 — A group of Cubans demonstrated this Wednesday in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York to demand freedom for political prisoners, while the General Assembly prepared to vote on the annual resolution against the United States embargo on the Island. It received the support of 184 countries, the US and Israel voted against it and there were three abstentions: Colombia, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.

The protest that took place near the UN building was attended by, among others, journalist Carlos Manuel Álvarez, professor Omara Ruíz Urquiola and artists Luis Eligio D Omni, Javier Caso and Kizzy Macías. “We are demanding that all political prisoners be released, that human rights and civic freedom be recognized. These are requirements to achieve a democratic country and to represent all Cubans, wherever they are,” said Cuban Tomás Castellanos during a live broadcast that the magazine El Estornudo aired from that location.

“We have decided today to give visibility to all Cubans who have expressed, in one way or another, their way of thinking that differs of course from the dictatorial Government line and who have paid the consequences for it,” he added. continue reading

The writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez used a reproduction of the Garotte Vil that artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara used to handcuff himself, in solidarity with the leader of the San Isidro Movement. Later, several of the protesters also approached the seat, where they were immobilized by the neck while their hands were handcuffed behind their back.

“The way in which we are here, projecting ourselves towards New York City, is neither gratuitous nor exaggerated,” said the writer in another of the broadcasts. “This is the faithful representation of how people live in Cuba. Cubans live with their hands tied and with a kind of club around their neck and subjugated by a regime that does not respect civil or individual rights.”

In the demonstration, the participants waved Cuban flags and a unique version of the national pennant, the work of Cuban artist Julio Llópiz-Casal. (14ymedio)

Other participants covered their heads with a paper box with the images of political prisoners such as Maykel Castillo Osorbo, Yuisán Cancio Vera, Luis Ángel Cuba Alfonso, Thais Mailén Franco Benítez, Esteban Lázaro Rodríguez López, Inti Soto Romero, Yeilis Torres Cruz and Adrián Coroneaux Stevens.

In the demonstration, participants waved Cuban flags and a unique version of the national pennant in blue, black and white, the work of Cuban artist Julio Llópiz-Casal and entitled Cuban flag for the spilled milk.

“The three blue stripes represent the three skies that protect the three Cuban social classes that we Cubans know very well: sky of the rich, sky of the poor and sky of the untouchables (rich or poor),” the artist explains in a manifesto that accompanies the piece. “The two black stripes represent the impurity of national ideals when they are sullied, manipulated, frustrated or contaminated with mediocrity, selfishness and lack of love towards Cuba. The lonely brown star represents the false sovereignty of the country when its destiny is determined by external interests and those of a handful of Cubans, “to which he adds that the white triangle” represents spilled milk: the mistakes made by Cubans in the name of their freedom, whether it was due to naivety or pride, resignation or fear.”.And he concludes: “Cuba is a state of mind. We are going to give Cuba a reason to feel good.”

Speaking to 14ymedio, the artist, who lives in Cuba, said that “we Cubans, who feel that the Island lives under an autocracy which sacrifices and violates the most elementary rights in the name of conserving its place in power, we don’t have much more than to perform symbolic gestures. A peaceful demonstration in the streets of Cuba and this protest at the UN headquarters are just that.”

While this was happening in New York, several artists woke up in Havana under State Security surveillance. Tania Bruguera, Carolina Barrero, Katherine Bisquet and Camila Lobón reported early in the morning that police officers were guarding their homes to prevent them from going out.

At the end of the protest, the participants moved in front of the Cuban Mission to the UN, where they stayed for several minutes and from a truck with three screens, they transmitted images of the repression in Cuba while shouting “freedom,” “homeland and life,” “down with the dictatorship,” among other slogans against the Government. Then they went out in a caravan throughout the city” so that everyone could get the message that there is a dictatorship in Cuba,” artist Douglas Arguelles Cruz explained in a live broadcast.

Translated by Norma Whiting
____________

Varadero Workers Alarmed over Russian Tourist not Wearing Masks

Russian tourists in Varadero in April. (Sputnik/Miguel Fernandez Martinez)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, June 28, 2021 — “Every day it’s a fight to get them to put on a mask but they refuse. The say they’re vaccinated,” says a hotel bartender in Varadero, who is worried by the behavior of Russian guests there. They are among the few tourists Cuba has seen since the decision was made to cautiously reopen the resort town. “I’m afraid to go home because all day I’m around people who are ignoring the security measures.”

There has been a steady stream of Russian visitors to Varadero since direct flights from Moscow began in April. At the time, the Cuban tourism conglomerate Gaviota wanted to promote the reopening with a simple message: “After many months, we can come together again, thanks to hygienic and public health protocols.”

But in practice, visitors are largely ignoring the guidelines.”You have to practically fight with them to get them to wear a mask. Even if we insist, they still don’t put it on. They get upset even when we just say something to them,” adds the bartender, who prefers to remain anonymous. “The ones who don’t get react badly, tell you that they’ve already been vaccinated. But the vaccine doesn’t prevent us from getting infected.” continue reading

According to official statistics released in early June, fewer than fifteen million Russians — a little more than 10% of the population — has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Another three million have received one dose.

Russia was the first country to approve a Covid vaccine: Sputnik V. It was approved in August before phase 3 trials had been conducted, along with other government approved vaccines: EpiVacCorona (October 2020), CoviVac (February 2021) and Sputnik Light (last month).

International experts view these pharmaceuticals with caution. Though Moscow claims Sputnik has a 97.6% efficacy rate, this has not been confirmed through independent clinical trials. Simultaneously, none of the vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency or the World Health Organization.

The employee claims that a significant number of hotel workers have not received the full dose of Cuba’s own trial vaccines. “The risk of getting sick is high. And we can’t even say that the fear is offset by economic benefits because Russian tourists are here on ’all inclusive’ packages and they almost never leave tips.

Even the cleaning staff, who do not interact directly with the guests, are frightened. “I see them in the halls not wearing masks, singing and talking loudly. I hold my breath when I pass them but that’s not really protecting me,” complains a maid from Cayo Coco, in Ciego de Avila province, another popular tourist destination.

However, it is in Varadero where the situation is most problematic. The city is located in Matanzas, the province where the public health emergency is suddenly the most acute. With more than 500 new Covid-19 cases reported on Monday, the region has become the focus of health officials’ concerns.

The Minister of Public Health, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, made an emergency visit to the province and met with local officials on Sunday “to analyze the complex epidemiological situation” in the region to evaluate “heightening measures to confront the pandemic” according to Twitter messages posted by health authorities.

But while the posts acknowledge an increase in infections, no reference is made to a possible link between the rising infection rate and the influx of tourists in Varadero, much less to role Russian visitors might be playing in this surge.

“Close the airport and stop letting tourists in,” writes Paulina Roques, a resident of nearby Cardenas. In a social media post last weekend, she complains, “Economic interests are taking precedence over the health risks that come with this reopening.” In a comment, another writer asks, “Will it be worth it, or will we ultimately spend more curing the sick than we earn off these tourists?”

Since June, more than 4,000 Russian visitors have been arriving daily in Varadero after the Russian carrier Aeroflot began direct flights from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and Juan Gualberto Gomez Airport in Matanzas.

Aeroflot uses Boeing’s 777-300ER planes, which carry more than 500 passengers, for its three weekly flights. It partners with Azur Air, NordWind and Royal Flight, which began connections between Russia and its main Cuban tourist destination.

British and German tourists had been coming to Varadero in previous months but virulent waves of coronavirus in both countries led authorities to restrict or prohibit travel overseas. Russia is now Cuba’s greatest hope. Russian and Chinese tourism is the only market that is growing. Canada still accounts for the largest number of visitors but the European market is declining.

From January 2019 to January 2020, the Russian market grew 48.4%. Experts believe Cuba is poised to become a top tourist destination for Russian vacationers because it is cheaper than the Maldives, its main competitor, and the UAE.

“That’s excellent news. We believe tourism to Cuba could grow 250% based on the number of seats available on planes flying there. There’s a lot of interest from airlines,” said Juan Carlos Escalona Pellicer, the tourism adviser at the Cuban Embassy in Moscow.

____________

‘In Cuba Your Mind Cannot Advance Because You Are Focused on Your Survival’

Journalist Náyare Menoyo, director of the documentary ‘Leonardo Padura, a Squalid and Moving Story’, which won her the King of Spain International Journalism Award. (EFE / Zipi)

14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 20 June 2021 — Náyare Menoyo (Baracoa, 1995) created Leonardo Padura, A Squalid and Moving Story as a graduation project from the University of Havana, where she studied Journalism. She did it, she tells this newspaper, “alone, alone, alone,” with a camera her faculty lent her and the help of her cameraman friend, who did the work for free.

The documentary, premiered out of competition at the Havana Film Festival in 2019, has just received one of the King of Spain International Journalism Awards, the Television Award, among whose recipients is also Don Quixote, won by another Cuban, Carlos Manuel Álvarez, director of the independent magazine El Estornudo.

“It has the value of being a television piece presented by the Havana School of Communication in which things are said that cannot be said in Cuba,” the jury said in its ruling. “It is a work with limitations that reflects remarkable height and elegance.”

Menoyo, who lives in Madrid and will be starting a Master’s degree at the Complutense University in the fall, spoke with 14ymedio about the award and her projects.

14ymedio. How did you approach Padura to make the documentary?

Menoyo. I first encountered Padura as a writer, because I started reading his books, and the more I read, the more I liked them. Later, studying journalism, despite the fact that he is a writer who has little visibility within the Cuban State media, the professors always set him as an example, not of a good writer but of a good journalist, and recommended many of his texts.

About halfway through the run, we put together a magazine as a final project on emigration, the subject and the issue we were presenting, and it occurred to me that we could interview Padura, because the film Return to Ithaca was being aired, for which he was a screenwriter. That was my first personal approach.

Padura is not on television. If it is announced that an interview is going to be broadcast, ultimately on the day that it is going to be shown it is not aired. They state there were technical difficulties, the show was lost… continue reading

I searched the Etecsa phone listings and called him. I apologized for calling him at home but I had no other way to contact him. With tremendous Cubanness, he responded that I should not worry, that it was OK, that he worked at home, where he met with people and that I should come over. He was granting me the interview.

From there, my career continued and I discovered that I really liked television, so I said: I’m going to graduate with a documentary and it’s going to be about Padura, because this is the only time I would be able to do a documentary about this writer and decide as many things as possible I want to say about him. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do it at any other time in Cuba, much less when I finished at the university, when I would have to do my social service commitment. I was not going to be able to.

It also made me very angry that a sector of the people who direct Cuban culture were so unsympathetic towards him. Despite there being the Padura National Prize for Literature, and despite his being a world-renowned writer, his books are rarely taken to the Book Fair, his presentations are not scheduled, and it is almost impossible to find any of his books in bookstores. Padura is not on television. If it is announced that an interview is going to be broadcast, ultimately the day that it is going to be shown it is not aired. They state there were technical difficulties or that the show was lost… Fifty thousand stories. My contribution was to make his work visible.

I also wanted, more than presenting the award-winning writer, to make a documentary with a biographical cut, to bring him closer to those readers who know him and who know who he is but who are not able to see him anywhere.

Obviously, it is not a documentary that attacks the Government, it is not a documentary that speaks directly about anything political

14ymedio. You complained bitterly a few days ago that no representative of the Cuban Embassy was present at the awards ceremony and that no official media has sought you out about the award. However, the documentary does not talk about politics at all and, if there is any reference, it is veiled. What explanation can you find for the officials to ignore the documentary and the award?

Menoyo. What can I tell you. It’s nonsense. The stubbornness of some people who run Cuba and that is why things that are so bad and it is difficult for them to change. Obviously, it is not a documentary that attacks the Government, it is not a documentary that speaks directly about anything political. It’s not that I wanted to make the things he says subtle for any reason, but that they came out that way. My goal was not to make a political memorandum, but a personal portrait of Leonardo Padura.

In the Communication Faculty they have a program, transmitted through the Havana Channel, to publish the students’ work when they graduate so it doesn’t remain mere university work, and it includes a prior interview with the director. They interviewed me, we commented on the documentary, everything was good, and it was going to be broadcast to coincide with the news of the award. They announced that it was going to be put on, everyone was waiting, but the documentary did not air. Did anyone call me to explain why the documentary was not shown? No one. Has the documentary been played after three months? It has not. A friend, who was not the person assigned to call me, told me that it had technical failures. A lie, it had no technical flaw, it is pure and hard censorship.

Now, with the award, there are those who say that it may be because Carlos Manuel Álvarez was first, who is a very talented journalist but “has a discourse against the Cuban regime,” but that is also an excuse, that is also a lie. Because when the documentary was mentioned at the Trieste Festival, it didn’t appear in any media either, nor did anyone call me to interview me.

A friend who was not the person assigned to call me, told me that it had technical failures. A lie, it had no technical flaw, it is pure and hard censorship

14ymedio. And what was the reaction when it premiered at the Havana Festival?

Menoyo. Supposedly the documentary was going to be shown only once, not in a competition but at the exhibition. But at the premiere it was full, people had to sit on the floor, there were people who were left outside, and they put it on again. The second time there was Padura and, the same, the room was full, full. In the end we ended up doing three projections. I was very happy. From what I expected when I made the documentary, with the resources that I had, versus what happened, it has been fabulous.

14ymedio. Why did you decide to come to Spain, what are you doing in Madrid, what are your dreams from now on?

Menoyo. It is a complicated question. I am in Spain because the economic situation in Cuba did not satisfy me. In Cuba, one can spend a lifetime working, honestly and hard, and never have a home. Or have five or six jobs and, in the end, have the money, but there is no chicken or oil [to buy]. Wages had risen when I left Cuba, and mine was the equivalent of about 180 euros. But the State paid me in one currency and the food and basic necessities stores only accepted MLC (freely convertible currency). Though I worked on television and had a salary, I could not buy things because the State paid me in Cuban pesos and I did not have relatives living abroad who could send me foreign money.

In Cuba, it is not that you die of hunger, but you do not eat what you need to live and you do not even eat what you want to eat and what you like; it’s what you can. A survival. I didn’t want to live my whole life like that. I used to say: “Well, now my parents are young, but when they get old, how will I support them? How do I give them what they need to live? And professionally, you can always do things that you feel proud of, but those things are accomplished through a lot, a lot of work, a lot of wear and tear, and in the end, you are so tired that you take the wheel and you do the same thing you said you were never going to do again. Because if you have to have five jobs but you are full of worries, that you don’t have the money to pay the rent, that the house is in bad shape, how can you buy a pair of shoes. If you have that in your head, you cannot think. Your mind cannot advance, you cannot focus on a project, because you are focused on your survival.

It seemed to me that Spain was a good country to go because of the culture, because of the language, because if I could do journalism somewhere, it would be here, because of the cultural similarities. I want to work on Spanish Television! [laughs] I want to do the whole migration thing. I don’t want to be in Spain writing for a Cuban medium because it is like being there in the middle of the Atlantic. I want to do journalism but I want to do it in a Spanish medium. That’s where I am.

Translated by Norma Whiting

____________

Vaccine Clinical Trial Reaches Havana’s Children

The trial takes place next to the emergency room of the Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 June 2021 — The faces were long, serious, full of concern, at the Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital, where the trial of the Soberana 02 vaccine — baptized by the authorities as Pediatric Soverana — began on Monday in children ages 3 to 11 years old.

The Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), developer of this antidote, assured the official press that they selected the volunteers after verifying “the safety of the initial injection of the candidate vaccine in 25 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old,” and that a total of 350 children and young people from 3 to 18 years old will be part of the project. They will be administered two doses of Soberana 02 and one of Soberana Plus, with an interval of 28 days.

The first requirement to be eligible, 14ymedio learned in the hospital, is “to be healthy.” After weighing and measuring them, the minors have to be “within the acceptance parameters for the study,” from which it follows that they do not accept children with any sign of malnutrition.

This was confirmed by this newspaper in the waiting room of the medical center where the test is taking place, next to the emergency room: both the children, all white-skinned, and their parents, looked well fed, well dressed and well shod. Among the parents, a soldier from the Ministry of the Interior was notorious.

The study does not accept minors who are not accompanied by both parents. “There can be no parents abroad or traveling or anything,” said a hospital employee. In order for children to participate, they have to sign up at the Juan Manuel Márquez or at the polyclinic in their health area.

As for personal consent, it is only for the “oldest,” from 12 to 16 years old; the little ones depend on the willingness of the parents. In the center they make a list, and if any of the children does not meet the required parameters, they continue in the order of those listed.

The so-called volunteers showed no gesture of happiness.

____________

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: