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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 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
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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.
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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
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
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.
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The containers arrive at their final destination with some of the cargo missing. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, 21 June 2021 — Four robberies in recent weeks of imported cooking oil intended for delivery to Sancti Spiritus — another six were from containers destined for Villa Clara — has set off alarm bells in the two central provinces’ government offices. The product is in short supply in stores and its price on the underground market has risen sharply, making it an attractive target for thieves, resellers and speculators.
14ymedio received reports that dozens of liters of oil had gone missing from shipping containers while being transferred from the port of Mariel. Thefts like these always follow a consistent pattern: the containers arrive at their final destination with some of the cargo missing, though never enough to be readily noticed.
“So far, the robberies have occurred only when soybean oil is being transported. I have not seen this happening with any other type of oil. We’re not talking about large quantities being stolen because the containers carry up to 140 boxes, with 12 liters in each,” a source close to the case, who prefers to remain anonymous, explained to 14ymedio. continue reading
“All the containers have GPS and the drivers report making stops at the 200 and 250-kilometer marks on the National Highway, in other words between Matanzas, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara,” the source adds. Along this stretch, drivers make stops at the many houses offering food or at state-owned restaurants knows as Conejitos.
“The drivers theorize that thieves open the trucks’ doors while the vehicles are on the highway and remove the boxes of oil,” he says.
The source, who worked for years handling these types of administrative procedures, finds this explanation implausible. There are only three links in the transportation and security chain: the Mariel port personnel who dispatch the oil, the truck driver and the person who receives the merchandise in at its final destination.
The oil being transported to the country’s central provinces carries the label Ecasol, which belongs to a Havana-based company that bottles imported oil. In this case, the oil came from Brazil with the label already applied.
Due to shortages over the past year, vegetable oil shipments have become almost clandestine. “No one trusts the companies in charge of moving it from place to place because too many workers are involved, so it all has to be done under a cloak of total secrecy.”
The one-liter bottles of vegetable oil ultimately end up in local stores where, just a year ago, sales were unrestricted. They can now be bought only with a ration card. Cooking oil, along with detergent and bath soap, are among the most popular and scarce consumer products in Cuba.
“Whoever is stealing the oil already knows what’s in the container,” asserts the source. “These trucks have two-layers of protection: a plastic seal [on the box] and a seal on the bottle that is plastic on the outside and metal on the inside. You need a pair of heavy-duty scissors to open the second seal.”
The source points out that breaking through a truck’s security barriers while the vehicle is in motion “is no easy task, especially if you’re talking about a forty-foot container with no room behind it to sit down.” Another reason for skepticism is the small quantities involved, almost always around forty boxes, though in one of the Santa Clara robberies, fifty-six were stolen. A run-of-the-mill thief “would not risk it for such a small amount. He’d have to steal half the container. And he could even be injured if the driver found out.”
On June 9, seventeen boxes were reported missing from container #TITU991435-0, “the equivalent of 204 plastic bottles of oil,” according to a document filed by a representatives from a group Sancti Spiritus companies whose job it is to confirm whether or not orders are complete upon arrival. The document cites broken seals and quantities not matching those indicated on the shipping manifest.
Vegetable oil is widely used in Cuban kitchens, especially sunflower, soybean and corn oils. It serves as a substitute for lard, which has become increasingly scarce due to a shortage of animal feed.
The country economic crisis and the rise in prices since last January have made the product unaffordable for many. In the eastern provinces a liter of oil goes for about 350 pesos but the price is likely to rise even more due to the shutdown of production plant in Santiago de Cuba, one of the sources supplying the underground market.
Last week the price of a pound of lard reached a new high of 90 pesos in the city of Cienfuegos. The increase was due, in large measure, to the scarcity of oil, which has forced many families to seek out other sources of fat to cook the country’s traditional dishes that include fried foods, sauces and sofritos.
Cubans have once again resorted to frying chicken skin to render out the fat, mixing mineral oil — widely used in industrial processes — with animal fat, and using other cooking methods such as boiling, sautéing and steaming. However, many are still trying to buy oil on the underground market and even from thieves who steal it somewhere between the port and the neighborhood stores.
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The residents of the “Mister Joe’s tenement,” in Calzada del Cerro, put their furniture and appliances outside after their houses were flooded. (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, 29 June 2021 — A group of women went out to protest Monday afternoon at Calzada del Cerro, in Havana, after their homes were completely flooded by the heavy rains of the day. The photograph of three of them stopping traffic on the avenue with their furniture and refrigerators quickly spread through social networks.
“They went out to the street because the tenement was flooded again and everything got wet,” a neighbor in the area told 14ymedio. The women are residents of a tenement known as “el solar de Míster Joe,” after the name of a cafeteria at the entrance, located on Calzada del Cerro, between Auditor and San Pablo.
The women’s protest was broken up by the police, who immediately appeared at the scene, both on motorcycles and in patrol cars. However, according to one of the videos that circulated on the networks, the neighbors and some passers-by supported them when the officers intervened. continue reading
Later, trucks from the state company Aguas de La Habana (Havana Water Company) and the sanitation brigade arrived in the area to empty the building’s water tanks that had been filled with dirty water. Several members of the corps of social workers, dressed in green shirts, also showed up, staying in the area for at least an hour.
By seven in the evening, this newspaper was able to verify that the women had left and only some furniture and electrical appliances remained at the entrance to the site.
El Cerro has several low-lying areas that flood whenever there is rain, and residents have unsuccessfully demanded better a better sewer system from the provincial government. When solutions have been applied, they have been to solve the emergency, never the root of the problem.
In fact, it is not the first time that the residents of this tenement have come out to protest. In December 2018, they also took their furniture out onto the streets after suffering material losses due to the floods.
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A shared question: How much longer do we have to wait? (14ymedio)
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, 29 June 2021 — The Cubans who inhabit the island receive hope from two sources. From the spheres of power they assure them that everything is under control, that the difficulties are transitory and that the country will not only come to the fore, but that it has not renounced development. On the other hand, it is announced that the end is near and it is almost proclaimed that the present generation will experience the transition to democracy.
The new forecasts on daily life issued by the official media are signs that the dynamics of deterioration no longer comes from stagnation but from regression. The need to present the ration book to buy groceries and cleaning products in stores not governed by the rationing system is just a sign. The fact that in Cuba it is difficult to acquire rum, cigars and coffee is evidence. Not to mention sugar, pork, or beer.
The symptoms of the disaster that foresee a collapse are manifested in the insolent repression that doesn’t hesitate to arrest an artist like Hamlet Lavastida, perhaps as a defiant response to the warnings of the European Parliament or as a demonstration of the fear they have of the new opposition currents. continue reading
It is not the first time that the country’s economic figures have hit rock bottom, nor is it the first time that the bosses have come under the pressure of sanctions. Nor is it new that the compulsion to emigrate finds new shortcuts as irrefutable proof of discontent. But neither is the spark lit to detonate the social explosion, nor do the differences in high places indicate that a fracture is approaching.
Neither the resurrection nor the final collapse are seen on the horizon of events. Every time I hear people say that “hope is the last thing to be lost,” I wonder if perhaps, because we have lost everything, we only have the last resort of hope.
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14ymedio, Havana, June 27, 2021 — Residents of the “rubber company building” decided to take further action to draw attention to the deterioration of their building. One resident recorded a video this week that shows water running down walls and her neighbors criticizing inaction from officials. After dozens of complaints to authorities, the official response to their plight has been, “There is no cement in this country.”
The two-story building, which has five apartments on each floor, was built in 1997 to house employees of the Conrado Piña Rubber Company. Located in the Lotería neighborhood of Havana’s Cotorro district, the building has had almost no maintenance for more than two decades.
After years of filing appeals and complaints with numerous state agencies, this week the building’s residents turned to 14ymedio. To illustrate the problem, Marlene Hernández — one of the building’s residents — also created a videotape showing a very badly damaged roof, rainwater seeping into apartments, mold and flooded floors. continue reading
In the video Hernández, who has a law degree from the University of Havana, interviews several of her neighbors, who describe the daily challenges they face as a result of the building’s poor condition. These challenges are especially difficult in the summer months, when rainstorms are more frequent. Ketty, one of the building’s residents, puts it bluntly: “I haven’t been able to sleep because my throat is sore from all the humidity and mold. It’s terrible.”
The woman, who lives with her 10-year-old daughter, describes the situation in her apartment: “There are a lot of leaks. In the bathroom the water comes in through the light fixtures.” She says she has complained “to everyone” and has gone through “all official channels.” The response she has consistently received is that there is no cement. “My daughter cries a lot because she’s worried the roof will fall in.”
Another apartment in precarious condition belongs to 74-year-old Sergio Pedroso. “I live surrounded by water. I’ve lost everything. I live like a dog.” He explains that he does not have the freely convertible currency required to buy cement at the stores that carry it. “I don’t even have enough to buy food,” he says.
Currently, the only options for buying cement are on the underground market, where it goes for more than 1,000 pesos a bag, and at hard currency stores, where it costs $100 and is in short supply. It has not been seen at peso stores since 2018 and is rationed at state-run markets, where only flood victims may buy it.
The cement shortage has not been an issue for the Cuban government, however, which continues building multiple luxury hotels on the island. It is also erecting an enormous concrete flag in front of the American embassy in Havana, on the so-called Anti-Imperialist Platform.
In the seven-minute video, Marlene Hernández describes life in her own apartment, with a floor full of water, plastic sheets covering the furniture and a sofa where three people sleep to escape the constant dripping. The water-stained walls behind her serves as a backdrop.”We’ve been writing for five years, to housing authorities, to the National Assembly, to the Council of State and even to the Communist Party.”
“The replies have been laughable,” she says before launching into a desperate plea for help. “If the authorities are watching this video, let’s hope they find a solution instead of just coming up with excuses.”
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Residents have been complaining since 2016, when “a little thread of water” first appeared, indicating there was a leak in the roof. Water now inundates both the top and the bottom floors, especially during the rainy month of June.
Residents wrote to the Council of State, to various housing agencies, to the police, to the National Assembly and to official media organizations but none of them offered a solution. They then posted something on Facebook and, finally, someone agreed to answer questions from 14ymedio. continue reading
When construction began on the building, it was the era of the “National Program for Low Consumption of Resources and Energy.” This project by the National Institute of Housing and Energy was an attempt to address the decline in Cuban housing construction after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. It was the end of tall buildings, of pre-fab structures, of slip-formed concrete and all the various types of construction that required large investments.
This program was a product of the Special Period. The cruel joke at the time was that the dwellings built under this program were “low-cost houses for people of little importance.” Nevertheless, they continued to be allocated based on how many labor and social merits a potential resident had earned. In the case of two-story flats, an apartment was not the property of the tenant but rather what was known as a “basic medium,” which meant the company was no longer responsible for maintenance once it handed over the properties.
Things started getting worse at the twenty-year mark, when residents of a half-medium could “disengage” themselves from the company and assume ownership of the property. But a leaky roof does not happen by accident. It can be traced back to the type of construction, the quality of the materials, improper installation or poor maintenance.
The two-story “rubber building” was built in the 1990s to house employees of the Conrado Piña Rubber Company.
Residents describe how, in 1997, a work crew came to install the underlay for a waterproof membrane but never installed the membrane itself, which would have protected the roof. When the sun hit the thin surface of the underlay, it began to crack and water accumulated underneath it.
The building’s roof today.(14ymedio)
“We had to remove it ourselves because it only made the problem worse,” says Marlene Hernández, who lives in apartment #6, the first one on the top floor. And she has an another complaint: The roof does not have gutters, so rainwater runs down at a slight incline to its low point, which happens to be over her unit. “If they had let it slope to the edge of the roof, everything would be different, at least for me.”
Hernández has repeatedly posted her complaints on social media sites along with desperate calls for help. Several of her neighbors have joined the pleas on her Facebook page, including Ketty Quesada. “This is unbearable,” she writes. “Are they waiting for the roof to fall in?
The daughter of a neighbor on the floor below Hernández goes further: “I thought Cuba doesn’t abandon its own. Well, prove it with actions before it’s too late and something unfortunate happens.” She notes that the two-story building houses “workers and retirees who have contributed a lot to the Revolution.” She wonders, “Is this how they are repaid?”
So far the site has been visited by three specialists: two from the city agency in charge of housing and another from the community architect. All confirm that the problems are real but note that it is not in their power to fix them.
The consultants report that joints in the roof slabs need to be reinforced with P 350 cement. Agencies that could carry out the work, however, do not currently have this material on hand. The little cement that does come on the market from time to time goes to retail stores whose merchandise can only be purchased with debit cards linked to hard currency bank accounts, which the residents of this two-story apartment building do not have.
The issue of housing is the most intractable problem Cubans face. Finding another patron like the Soviet Union, which subsidized the Cuban state for thirty years, is not an option. Alternative solutions which relied on locally produced materials, do-it-yourself labor, and low-cost construction have only succeeded in degrading the urban environment.
Looking ahead, many hope that one day the forces of productivity will be unleashed and private companies will take over management of the building sector. What is preventing that from happening now are the limitations imposed by the state, which will not even authorize the creation of small and medium-sized housing construction companies.
While the waters find their level, one area in which construction activity is increasing, especially in the capital, is hotels. There is no shortage of tools or materials there. To guarantee quality, even the workers are even imported.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
