14ymedio

Cuba Will Subsidize Unprofitable State Companies After Monetary Unification

Marino Murillo Jorge, known as “the czar of reforms” on the island, reiterated that the Cuban peso (CUP) will be the currency that will circulate after monetary reform. (Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2020 — The elimination of the country’s dual currency is delayed, according to the latest statements by Cuban leaders who are at the forefront of the so-called “regulatory task.” In the Roundtable TV program on Tuesday the issue was addressed but without giving details about the date on which the monetary unification will be made or what the exchange rate will be for the currency taken out of circulation.

Marino Murillo Jorge, head of the Commission for the Implementation of the Guidelines and known as “the czar of reforms” on the Island, reiterated that the Cuban peso (CUP) will be the currency that will circulate and reiterated on several occasions that the end of the monetary duality will not eliminate the problems of the national economy which “has structural problems.” The Cuban convertible peso (CUC) will be taken out of circulation.

In addition, he warned that the government will temporarily subsidize some of the state-owned companies that will face losses to avoid the fall in employment and guarantee the production of basic goods. The existence of various exchange rates between the two currencies has so far made it difficult to know the real state of the accounting of state-owned companies and experts consider that with the reform, a good number of companies that are now apparently solvent will be operating in the red.

Amid growing popular expectations about the start of the process, Murillo commented that the unification will probably take place on the first day of a month but without specifying which month, he did not even say whether it will happen this year. “One day you wake up and the Central Bank of Cuba says that the CUC no longer circulates and from that moment you have only one currency.”

Regarding the circulation of the CUC, Murillo indicated that there will be a period of around six months for people to exchange the currency or spend it. “Do what you understand most appropriate until the State collects them all,” he said, adding that, if in that period there are signs that the currency continues to circulate, there will be an analysis of whether or not to extend the expected time.

“Those who have CUC, be calm, it will have value, it is an official money of Cuba and no one is going to lose the value of the CUC or the 24 current pesos (CUP). If the exchange rate was 20 pesos, or at the time they are collected they are exchanged for 24 pesos, they will be paid at the value of the current exchange rate,” he argued.

Murillo also indicated that the base salary is going to rise 4.9 times, social security pensions five times and “social assistance will increase depending on the number of vulnerable groups that have to be helped.” The aspiration, he affirmed, is that all “employees are in better conditions than where they started from.”

The official also referred to the risk of inflation. All wholesale prices will rise because the value of imported products will increase, said the official, adding that there will be a devaluation of the peso “seeking competitiveness.”

“Price growth is synonymous with inflation and we are talking about wholesale prices. The issue is how long it takes for the increase in wholesale prices to be reflected in retail prices, and this is called the devaluation pass-through process.” This moment, as indicated, may take several months, but “it comes.”

Regarding the type of change that will be implemented, he did not make any suggestion: “For that we have to wait a little more, so nobody in the world says, in due course everything will be said, although today we will say more than we have said other times.”

“Applying exchange rates leads to devaluation, and anywhere in the world leads to adjustments. It puts pressure on the business system,” he said. He called again to “be more efficient at work and it must be done so that the economy moves naturally.”

Murillo asserted that a “very administrative” guide to the economy has to be made, referring to the price system that does not “give clear signals to producers, and it is not that we are saying that Cuba is going to a market economy, but the market exists independently of our will, and the producers must receive signals from that market.”

Alejandro Gil, the Minister of Economy and also a guest on the Roundtable program, took advantage of the television space to call the population to optimism. “This is not a setback, this is to encourage us,” he stressed, while ensuring that the monetary unification will change the lives of Cubans in a positive way, without giving details, or how and when it will occur.

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“I didn’t even have time to take my wallet, so I was left with nothing”

The collapse of a building on Lucena and San Rafael streets, in Centro Habana, leaves several families homeless. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 October 2020 — A deafening screech, like metal bending, was the signal received by the residents of a three-story building on Lucena Street, between San Miguel and San Rafael, in Centro Habana, before their home collapsed, leaving them without nothing.

“It was around 3:30 in the morning. A neighbor who was watching television at that time began to warn everyone, alerted by the noise of the building that was giving way and gradually cracking, which allowed everyone to get out,” a resident told this newspaper.

“The dog began to bark very excitedly and no one knew what was happening to him,” says another resident of the property who, after seeing his pet’s nervous reaction, decided to go outside carrying him. “I didn’t even have time to pick up my wallet, so I was left with nothing.”

Neighbors living near the building also told 14ymedio that they felt a deafening noise “like metal bending” that allowed people to run and wake up other residents. “When they came out, at that very moment, it fell.”

According to a neighbor who still has not gotten over the scare, the rear part of the property and the entire interior collapsed: “The doors of a store on the ground floor came off and were left outside.”

At a corner near the collapse, in front of the community medical office, the inhabitants who escaped the collapse crowd together. “I suppose they are taking their blood pressure,” commented someone who was passing by.

A strong operation around the site of the collapse extended for several blocks. (14ymedio)

The long faces reflect the feeling of the group that they have lost everything and don’t even know where they will sleep at night. A crying man sitting on the sidewalk is part of the sad scene of those who, in the best of cases, will have to go to one of the overcrowded shelters in the city, where the average waiting time to move into a house exceeds ten years.

Others will go to the home to a relative while they finish processing the news that they no longer have a home of their own. Some neighbors take the opportunity to try to recover a brick that has fallen on the street after the collapse, and the former residents ask the police to prevent anyone from entering so that they do not steal their belongings that might have been saved after the collapse.

In the blocks the lead into the site, the securing of the site with yellow tape and the deployment of about twenty agents to prevent access are striking.

The area, which had only just begun to pick up its pace after the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, has several highly affluent state businesses such as bakeries, a pizzeria and other stores. This Wednesday some of them have remained closed as they are in the area cordoned off by the police.

The collapse of this Wednesday is located a few yards from the building on the corner of Belascoaín and San Miguel where last July a worker from the Communales company died when part of a wall fell on him while he was sweeping the street. “This area is in very bad condition, buildings have not been rehabilitated here for a long time,” says a resident.

Sites of building collapses in Havana in 2020 so far.

Centro Habana, lacking the colonial beauty of Old Havana or the modern buildings of El Vedado, has for decades been a municipality characterized by the high presence of tenements, infrastructure problems, overcrowding and a high population density. Many of its buildings are from the early 20th century and have not received repairs for more than fifty years, not even paint on their facades.

At the end of September, 14ymedio also reported the collapse of a multifamily building on Amargura Street, between Aguacate and Compostela, in Old Havana, in which a 74-year-old woman lost her life.

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After Six Years, Cuba’s Port of Mariel Continues to Move Little Cargo

A celebration at the Mariel Special Development Zone container terminal of the handling of a total of two million TEUs (20-Foot Container Units) since the creation of the enclave. (ZEDM)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2020 — The Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) reported this Wednesday through its website that its container terminal has handled two million TEUs since its inauguration in January 2014 (the unit of measurement in maritime transport that is equivalent to one 20 foot container).

“A new milestone,” the official press said, detailing what was achieved in six years, ZEDM’s own record, says the station, dedicated to health workers, especially the Cuban brigades that fight against Covid -19 on the Island and in other latitudes of the world.”

However, the achievement is blurred when the figure is compared with those of neighboring countries. In just two years, for example, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica have each processed more than two million TEUs, for example, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). continue reading

There are no international comparisons in the official note, which states that the result “is part of the contribution made by the terminal in Cuba’s modernization and economic development project” and that the ZEDM provides “a first-class productive and logistics platform, that facilitates a higher level of national production, reduces import costs, boosts growth, creates jobs and facilitates foreign direct investment.”

The historical maximum of investments in the Special Zone occurred in 2018, at more than 481 million dollars. According to official data, the total figure for the whole five year period is 2.166 billion dollars in investments, far from the initial forecast of 2.5 billion dollars annually.

The industrial enclave, created in November 2013, occupies an area of 465.4 square kilometers in a point of strategic importance for maritime traffic due to its geographical location around one of the main ports on the north coast of Cuba.

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There is No Local Origin Coffee in Cuba, Not Even in Hard Currency

Cuban coffee continues to be exported while the director of Cafe-Cuba admits that it is not for internal consumption. (Overcome)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 October 2020 — In recent weeks, coffee has become one of the most sought-after products — unsuccessfully — by consumers throughout the Island, who stand in long lines when the product reaches the stores but who, now, cannot obtain the bean even in the informal market.

The absence is so apparent that the official press addressed the issue this Friday with an interview with Antonio Alemán Blanco, general director of the Cuba-Café Company. The official unequivocally admitted that the supply will not be able to satisfy the demand, at least until the end of the year.

“You ask me for data, but there is a reality, coffee is not available and we cannot increase the supply now. I explain it simply: we are not in a position to satisfy current demand,” he said emphatically to Cubadebate. continue reading

Alemán attributes the rise in demand to the pandemic, which has forced tens of thousands of Cubans to spend more time at home, which has affected the forecasts for demand. “The plan that we draw up as a company, even with all the objective limitations we have, could be met until the end of September. I believe that social isolation has led to people drinking more coffee and this has triggered demand.”

Cuba-Café produces four brands of coffee for the domestic market, although the product is sold only in hard currency: Turquino, Serrano, El Arriero and Regil. But the director knows that as soon as it reaches the stores it is sold out in a heartbeat. Although Alemán does not give specific figures, he places the decline in production at 10%, which is the equivalent of “several tons.”

“So we have not had the opportunity to replenish the market to supply a demand that under normal conditions, we could,” he insists. The official, although he admits that this is not an excuse, does not miss an opportunity to point out the impact of the US embargo, which in his opinion makes it impossible to import the raw materials necessary for the preparation of the product, including the packaging.

Alemán has said that the government currently focused on meeting the need to supply coffee to the rationed market, which accounts for 85% of the company’s total production. La Torrefactora de Cabaiguan produces 49 tons of grain for the ration stores, which is processed a month in advance. Thus, he assures that the supply scheduled for November is ready.

“We hope that by the end of the year there may already be an improvement and consequently a greater presence of coffee in the hard currency stores. The coffee harvest has begun and our actions are also directed there. It is about increasing production levels; the people and the company need it.”

Alemán asks Cubans to have confidence and adds that the problems will be overcome sooner rather than later. “The final aspiration is the productive chain and an increase in the supply,” he says, although for the moment it is complicated. “I have spoken to you very clearly, and bluntly, even when we make a titanic effort, it is still not going to be possible to achieve the level of inventory that is needed.”

Meanwhile, Cuba continues to export coffee to other countries. Last week, Cimex, the Cuban military conglomerate that distributes one of the most popular brands on the island, Cubita, boasted of having the brand registered “in a hundred countries where it is also marketed.” In addition, it alerted customers to an alleged falsification of the product which is being sold online on Amazon.

Social networks expressed outrage when people saw that a 250-gram package of Cubita costs 3.45 CUC on the island, while a kilo cost 16.35 CUC, equivalent to almost half of the average monthly salary (879 Cuban pesos, approx. $35 US). Meanwhile, it is being sold in other countries at a price up to 30% lower.

Some users reproached the corporation for the fact only Gourmet brand coffee can be found in the island’s stores, a product exported to Cuba by the Spanish food group GM Foods, with Chinese participation. This coffee is made with 70% robusta, from Vietnam and Uganda, and 30% Arabica from Brazil, according what the company told 14ymedio; with no Cuban coffee content, it is one of the cheapest on the market. In contrast, Cubita, which is of much higher quality as it is 100% pure Arabica, is unavailable.

In addition, in the first half of this year, the Asdrúbal López de Guantánamo Coffee Processing Company sold 702 tons of beans to Cubaexport, the highest figure in the last four years.

For this year, a harvest of about 10,000 tons is expected, a little more than the previous year, but well below the production of 60,000 tons registered in 1961, when Cuba supplied the national market and exported its surpluses. The product is one of the great emblems of the island’s identity, along with rum and tobacco.

The coffee grown in eastern Cuba is Arabica and one ton costs almost 8,000 dollars in the international market. According to the information provided to the official press, in 2020 Cuba plans to export 10,000 tons, which corresponds to the entire national production.

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Cuban Prosecutor Asks for 6 to 12 Years for Men who Covered Busts of Jose Marti in Blood

The alleged members of the Clandestinos group, in images broadcast on official television after their arrest. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2020 — The Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Cuba requested sentences of between 6 and 12 years in prison for three opponents who were allegedly members of Clandestinos, a group that earlier this year covered busts of José Martí with pig blood and called to “overthrow the dictatorship,” reported Diario de Cuba.

Panter Rodríguez Baró and Yoel Prieto Tamayo, along with a third detainee, Jorge Ernesto Pérez García, were accused of the crimes of “defamation of institutions and organizations and of heroes and martyrs of a continuing character,” and “damage to cultural heritage assets.”

The public prosecutor’s office of the Plaza of the Revolution municipality requested 12 years in prison for Rodríguez Baró and 10 for Prieto Tamayo. The prosecutor asked for a six-year sentence for Pérez García disseminating the actions of Clandestinos on social networks. continue reading

The fourth detainee, Guillermo Rodríguez Torroella, was released a few months after the government media referred to the events. According to Diario de Cuba, he has an open file for “drug use and trafficking,” as does Rodríguez Baró.

The Clandestinos case captured public attention at the beginning of the year when busts of National Hero José Martí sprinkled with pig’s blood began to appear in Havana. Through social networks, an intense campaign of support was deployed by some activists in exile, until the authorities announced that they had arrested four people involved in the events.

The group had said that the blood on Martí represented the suffering of the Cuban people and their disgust with “the dictatorship.” Another of the actions called by the Clandestinos group was to paint messages against the Government in all provinces, cities and towns, or to do the same on the doors of the houses of the regime’s “informers.”

At the beginning of this month, the Cuban Prisoners Defenders association, in collaboration with the Cuban Center for Human Rights (CCDH), issued an updated list of political prisoners on the island which included Panter Rodríguez Baró and Yoel Prieto Tamayo, who were not shown as affiliated with any organization but identified as alleged members of the Clandestinos group.

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Coffee Exports Leave Cuban Consumers without their Daily Cup

Coffee exports have become a top priority in the Cuban government’s desperate search for hard currency, making it difficult to find in the island’s retail stores. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2020 — Coffee exports have become a top priority in the Cuban government’s desperate quest for hard currency. This has impacted the nation’s consumers, for whom coffee is nowhere to be found.

In the first quarter of this year Cubaexport, a government-owned corporation which sells Cuban food and beverage products on the international market, bought 702 tons from the coffee processing company Café Asdrubal Lopez de Guantanamo, the most it has produced in four years.

“I haven’t had my little cup of coffee for days. I can’t even find it at the religious centers. A neighbor had been selling it to me by the tablespoonful for three pesos, or twenty for the small can, but she hasn’t had any for over a month. And of course it wasn’t pure coffee,” said a resident of Santiago de Cuba who, like thousands of other Cubans, complains about the current shortage. continue reading

The Guantanamo-based processor will continue its sales of ground coffee, as well as cocoa, to overseas buyers until November. In an interview with the state-owned newspaper Venceremos, the company’s director, Osmel de la Cruz Cala, said that enough beans have already been delivered to the its processing plant to meet more than 80% of its production needs.

The director also stated that the company will be acquiring equipment that will allow it to to offer “roasted and ground coffee in different formats to high-end hotels before taking it to other countries.”

“Right now I have a very small amount of ground coffee that my niece bought at hard currency store. It comes from Spain. It’s outrageous that this is happening in a country that grows so much coffee. Hard to believe but true,” lamented the Santiago resident. She was referring to Bee Hive, a Spanish brand sold at her local hard currency stores.

At the beginning of September police in the province carried out a sting operation, seizing more than two tons of coffee, which were found in two state-owned trucks. On the same day, the local press announced the start of coffee season in the region, which is the nation’s largest producer.

It is projected that the country will produce 10,000 tons this year, slightly more than last year but well below the 60,000 tons produced in 1961, when Cuba was able to meet domestic consumer demand and export a surplus. The product is one of the great emblems of the island’s identity, along with rum and tobacco.

A ton of arabica beans, the kind grown in eastern Cuba, goes for $8,000 on the international market. According to published accounts in the official press, the government projected it would sell 10,000 tons in 2020.

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In Ecuador, Cubans Protest in Front of Consulate Over Costs to Extend Stay

Consulate of Cuba in Quito, Ecuador. (Google Maps)

14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 13 October 2020 — The announcement of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Sunday, regarding Cubans or foreigners residing on the island to extend their stay abroad until October 12, 2021 without losing the right to return, came with a condition that was not reported and that has outraged the expatriate community: the cost of the process.

The price depends on the country where they are located. In any territory of the European Union, for example, the application costs 25 euros, plus 40 euros for each month that you want to extend your stay between this October 12th and the following year, that is, 480 euros for the whole year. In addition, if the procedure is carried out by a third person, you have to pay another 25 euros.

But those who are in the United States bear the worst burden: 20 dollars per application, plus 150 dollars for each month of extension (1,800 for the whole year) and another 20 if the interested party does not present it directly. continue reading

In Ecuador, the Cuban community organized a “sit-in” for Tuesday in front of the Cuban consulate in Quito to protest the fees. “I learned that to extend my residence I have to pay 40 dollars per month. It is unfair, it is not my fault that Cuba and the world had to close their borders, it is an abuse. Why do I have to pay so much money if I have sufficient time to enter Cuba?” a Cuban who resides in the Andean country told this newspaper.

With the hashtags #EliminenPrórrogas (Eliminate Exension [fees]), #LosDerechosNoExpiran (Rights Don’t Expire), #SomosCubanosDePorVida (We Are Cubans for Life) and #ReformaMigratoriaYa (Reform Migation Now), they also ask “to have an effective consular representation for all members of our community.”

The indignation is greater for having learned the news informally; many hear it through audios that circulate among the community where the consul supposedly refers to the costs.

This is how Hiram H. Castro, a Havanan who is studying for a doctorate at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador, found out. “In my case, November 2 marks my 24 months and the José Martí airport is still closed. I cannot travel or buy a ticket in those uncertain circumstances. The question is: should I still pay 40 dollars for each month that passes without being able to travel to Cuba?” he laments in a group that brings together Cubans in that country.

Another woman, a mother from Villa Clara, insists that this new provision does not benefit her at all: “On the contrary, I had my trip prepared for July, because I have a five-year-old girl who is here with me, and I planned my trip to last a month, but because of the coronavirus everything fell apart.”

“I’ve spent several months without working and had to pay for everything, I ran out of money. Now I have to save again for another trip, but my Cuban residence has already expired and I have no money for that extension. And I am the one who supports my mother in Cuba. I mean, I can’t go enter as a tourist and that’s it. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to lose my residence rights, but I don’t have money either,” she told 14ymedio desperately.

The amounts that Cubans have to pay for consular procedures have always been the subject of criticism and complaints. From the price of the passport, one of the most expensive in the world, and its extensions, to the confirmations of university degrees, which cost around 1,200 dollars, something that migrants describe as “a whole business” set up by the Government of the Island to squeeze their pockets.

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The Artist Tania Bruguera Suffers an Act of Repudiation and Insults in Havana

Bruguera was trying to access the street where the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement is located. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 13 October 2020 — The artist and activist Tania Bruguera was the object of an “act of repudiation” this Monday in Havana, when several people surrounded, insulted and harassed her until she left the Old Havana neighborhood she was trying to access.

“Bitch,” “mercenary,” “filthy” and “get out of here” were some of the expletives launched against Bruguera by a group of about twenty people who later shouted “Fidel, Fidel,” according to a video released shortly afterwards on social media.

Bruguera — known for her political performances and for having participated in events at the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, among others — was trying to access the street where the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement is located.

The act of repudiation against Tania Bruguera in the San Isidro neighborhood. This was published on the official Prensa Latina site under a profile with the face of Karl Marx and under the name of Mario Valdés. Listen to the civility of what the crowd is shouting at Tania. — Rolando Nápoles (@RNapoles) October 12, 2020 continue reading

The members of the San Isidro group, which advocates freedom of expression in the country, have denounced having been the subject of continuous arbitrary detentions and harassment by State Security in the last year and a half.

Last Saturday, commemorating the start of the independence wars in Cuba, almost a score of independent activists, artists and journalists, including Bruguera and members of the San Isidro Movement, were detained for several hours.

The group had planned a Concert for Freedom at its headquarters, and on the occasion of the anniversary released a “statement against police violence in Cuba” in which it denounced that its headquarters had been subjected to “a strong siege” for days. None of the planned events came to fruition.

On that same day, the art curator Anamely Ramos and the writer Katherine Bisquet also suffered an act of repudiation at the doors of the former’s house, where several women intimidated them with shouts and prevented Ramos from leaving and Bisquet, who was going to visit her, from entering. Both were detained for a few hours.

The incidents, widely reported on social networks with videos of the most tense moments, provoked criticism from many Internet users on the Island.

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Tenth of October: The Cry of San Isidro

Surveillance at the homes of independent activists, artists and journalists began on the eve of October 10. (Facebook / Héctor Luis Valdés)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 11 October 2020 — On October 10, a group of young Cuban activists and artists who identify as the San Isidro Movement attempted a civic action that included a concert and the presentation of posters that alluded to the need for changes in Cuba.

Starting the day before, the political police made full use of their considerable resources to prevent what in their opinion was a “counterrevolutionary provocation.” As a result, there were dozens of arbitrary arrests and many activists were prevented from leaving their homes.

In one of these repressive actions, a State Security official who identifies himself as Major Denis warned the independent journalist Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho that he would not allow him to leave the house and threatened him with fines and prohibitions, saying: “We will not let you cover the news of the uproar in San Isidro.” continue reading

Thanks to the obvious synonymy, this official definition excuses me from the complaints of those who find it disrespectful to call what the repressors thought was a riot the “Cry of San Isidro.”

On 25 May 1809, the Bolivians gave their Cry of Chuquisaca to proclaim independence, and since then — and perhaps before — it became a habit to name the libertarian demands in this way, by the name of the site where the historic event occurred, along with the date or the name of the leader.

Probably when Carlos Manuel de Céspedes chose the town of Yara to carry out the first fight for independence, on 10 October 1868, he did not suspect that his action would be baptized with that name, nor did he foresee that this would be his first military defeat.

On the other hand, saving the distances, the organizers of the event at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement perhaps foresaw that the political police would prevent it from taking place by appealing, not only to their active troops, but also to government sympathizers who would carry out an act of repudiation, emulating that paramilitary formation called the Volunteer Corps which, after the uprising of 1868, was in charge of “maintaining peace, order and discipline, at whatever price necessary” in the insurgent villages.

Demands for freedom are often given more value when done “with weapons in hand.” But he who is willing to die for an ideal is also determined to kill to achieve his purposes. The nobility of this challenge endowed with words and songs is that the risks that are run far outweigh the eventual damage that could be caused.

What happened this 10th of October has changed the history of the San Isidro neighborhood and its homonymous street.

From now on, the tour guides will have to answer other questions and give new explanations on that walk called “La Ruta de San Isidro,” which begins on Avenida del Puerto, right where the remains of the old Havana Wall remain.

It will no longer be enough to indicate the old colonial and neoclassical mansions, art galleries, bars and restaurants, or to show those who dance an improvised rumba. It will not be enough to point out that Miguelito Valdés, Mister Babalú, was born here, nor that, when passing in front of number 176, the legend of Yarini, the most famous pimp in Cuba, is told.

Now, when passing in front of the Museum of Dissidence, from where the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara called this peaceful protest, it will be necessary to say, still in a low voice but one day loudly: “The Cry of San Isidro happened here” and the story will have to be told.

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Don’t Count on Me

Statue of Christopher Columbus vandalized in Miami. (Miami-Dade Police Department)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 12 October 2020 — Today, October 12, is a day that has several names: Day of the Race*, Hispanic Day,* and Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity. Each designation feels beautiful and laudable to me. That journey in 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in this part of the world, defined human civilization as we know it, changed the way we visually represent the planet and shaped the culture of millions of people.

Currently, there are movements and trends that question, criticize or extol that moment. All must have a voice in the polyphonic chorus that we have become. But, this little person that is me took a degree in Hispanic Philology twenty years ago, a profession that I could not have had if the intrepid Columbus had not thought that he could reach “The Indies” by heading the prow of his ships towards this part of the “Oceana Sea.”

Not only would I not have been able to graduate in this language, but my own existence would have been compromised because my ancestors crossed the Atlantic — long after the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María — from a place quite close to the one from where the “craziest of sailors, sanest of founders” set sail. To top it all, I share my life with a descendant of this Island’s native Taíno people and my son looks like the Guamá cacique, with shorter hair and a modern shirt. continue reading

In my house, every day, multiple cultures meet. Nobody is startled or surprised. Nobody wants to deny or exterminate anyone. Pale hands share with coppery ones. Sometimes in his dreams he is a behique from those early times, while lying next to him I am walking El Camino de Santiago in my familial Spain; he prefers the cold water of the rivers where his ancestors bathed, and I – every so often – feel the salty breeze like the one that must have touched the visage of Rodrigo de Triana; he dreams of caves and I of the surprise of a humid forest that explodes for the first time in smells and colors in front of my face.

Let no one count on me to ride the time machine and prevent Columbus from reaching this hemisphere. I know and I recognize the pain that was derived from that moment, the deaths, the submission and the suffering; but I also know the lights, the poetry born from the collision, the love between bodies so different, the children born from the mixture, the telluric force generated. No, I will not travel back to October 12, 1492 to prevent Columbus from disembarking, because it would be killing my current friends, cutting off the life of my offspring in advance, cutting off my family tree and missing this language that is my life. Don’t count on me.

*Translator’s note: Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) is the term commonly used in some Latin America countries for what is called Columbus Day in the United States; others call it Día de la Hispanidad, among the many names in use in different places.

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The Birth of a Definition: The Historic Generation

Raúl Castro is still the first secretary of the PCC and, if his endurance continues, he will remain so until April of 2021. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 4 October 2020 — This October 3^rd marked the 55^th anniversary of the creation of the first Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. The selection of this hundred people followed a scrutiny that only allowed those who had had some participation in the uprising against the previous dictatorship to be promoted, as long as they showed absolute loyalty to Fidel Castro and embraced, even if just in appearance, the Marxist-Leninist ideology.

What is referred to today as “the historic generation of the revolution” got its credentials that day.

If someone were to ask what requirements are needed to appear as a registered member of that generation, no one will probably know how to give a categorical answer, whether he is an academic, a former combatant or a member of the Party. It is a nebulous definition in which a few names are clear and others are not. But the truth is that, although not all out of the 100 chosen carry that label — sometimes simplified as “historic ones” — all who pride themselves on deserving it appear on that list. continue reading

Fidel Castro mentioned in public for the first time the idea of creating a unitary entity that would bring together the forces that had fought against the Batista tyranny.

In his speech to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks, delivered on July 26, 1961 in the Sports City in Santiago de Cuba, Fidel Castro mentioned for the first time in public the idea of creating a unitary entity that would bring together the forces who had fought against the Batista tyranny: The July 26 Movement, the Revolutionary Directorate and the Popular Socialist Party.

With this decision, other groups were left out of the distribution of power, including the so-called “Triple A,” a derivation of the Authentic Party led by the ousted president Carlos Prío Socarrás, and with it, all those who tried to find a peaceful way out of the Batista dictatorship.

With the entities chosen by Castro, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) were founded as a preliminary basis for the creation of a closer political group.

Barely two months after the speech in Santiago de Cuba, the process of dissolution of the involved entities began, but it was not until March 8, 1962 that the National Directorate of the ORI was presented with 24 members of the three mentioned organizations.

On March 26, after an acute crisis that year, Fidel Castro decided not to wait any longer and turned the ORI into the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba (PURSC) and, incidentally, placed himself at the head of the new entity. On October 3, 1965, its name was changed to the current Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), and only then was its first Central Committee introduced.

With this decision, other groups were left out of the distribution of power, among them the so-called “Triple A,, a derivation of the Authentic Party led by the ousted president Carlos Prío Socarrás

Strictly from an age point of view, this generation generally includes those born between 1915 and 1940. But the oldest on the list was a member of the former Popular Socialist Party, Juan Marinello, now deceased, who was born in 1898; while the youngest ones were a group of five combatants from the Sierra Maestra born after 1940, whose only active survivor is now General Leopoldo Cintra Frías.

Of that list of 100 founders of the Central Committee, only eight men remain active, 65% have died, the rest are in obscure retirement or have been ousted. There are at least twenty names that don’t even have a file in Ecured, “the Cuban Wikipedia.”

Of the eight active ones, only four maintain real power: Raúl Castro, who is still the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, who, if nature helps him will continue to do so until the eighth Party Congress is held on April, 2021, when he will be two months away from turning 90; the second in command in this organization is José Ramón Machado Ventura, who this October will become a nonagenarian; Leopoldo Cintra Frías, current Minister of the Armed Forces, who is only nine months away from turning 80, and Ramiro Valdés, vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers, who at 88 years of age is in enviable physical shape.

On October 3rd, 1965 the current name of the Cuban Communist Party was adopted and only then was its first Central Committee presented. (Archive)

The remaining four active, but with very little decision-making power, are Guillermo García Frías (b. 1928), director of the National Company for the Protection of Flora and Fauna; Major General Ramón Pardo Guerra (b. 1932), chief of the National Civil Defense General Staff; Julio Camacho Aguilera (b. 1924), who serves as Director of the Office for the Fundamental Development of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, and Enrique Lusson, who is a member of parliament.

Of the eight active ones, only four maintain real power: Raúl Castro is still The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba

For the youngest in Cuba, any official who is over 70 years of age can also be considered “historic,” although strictly speaking, it is not appropriate to for him be included in the revolutionary Parnassus of the Historic Generation. Such is the case of characters of some importance and of a certain age, such as Salvador Valdés Mesa (b. 1941), current Vice President of the Republic, who entered the Central Committee of the PCC in its fourth Congress in 1991; Esteban Lazo (b. 1944), current president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, who attained entry to the CC in the first Congress of 1975, as did Ulises Rosales del Toro (b. 1942), who was recently released from his responsibilities as vice president of the Council of Ministers and was appointed director of the Program for Versatile Plants Program.

In addition to the unappealable knowledge of biology, he who belongs in history will be in charge of judging each one for their own actions. Belonging to that generation presumes to assume not only “the glory that has been lived” — as stated in the official speech — but also all the guilt. The new faces that have landed in power, under the motto “we are the continuity,” must know that they also carry those responsibilities. With the same degree of guilt.

They carry on their shoulders the actions of the historic ones.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Packages of ‘Cubita’ Coffee Found in Canada are Fake, While There’s No Cuban Coffee on the Island

Social media users reacted with an avalanche of complaints to Cimex for selling the coffee abroad while stores on the Island have run out of it. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 October 2020 — Coffee, sugar, rum, and tobacco have for decades been emblematic of Cuba, but some of these products have disappeared or must now be imported. Cuban coffee, that star of story and song, is now unavailable in the stores, while its appearance abroad may be a false sighting.

While buying Cubita brand coffee on the Island becomes an almost “mission impossible” — missing as it is from the shelves and priced out of range for most local pockets — social media images abound of supermarkets in the US, Canada, and other countries where packages supposedly of the Cubita brand of Cuban coffee are for sale at very low prices.

These images provoked the indignation of Cuban shoppers because the product is being sold abroad at prices lower than those offered in stores on the Island. While a 250-gram package costs 3.45 CUC (Cuban convertible pesos) and the kilo-size costs 16.35 CUC — the equivalent of almost half the monthly salary (the equivalent in Cuban pesos (CUP) of 35 CUC) — it appears to be sold in other countries at a 30% lower price. continue reading

Cimex, the Cuban military’s conglomerate that distributes the product, boasted this past Monday on Twitter that the original brand “is registered in one hundred countries, where it is in turn marketed.” They did so to alert their clients that for several weeks “the sale of knock-offs and counterfeits being sold online by one of the e-commerce giants has been circulating on social networks.”

The group, while not mentioning Amazon.com by name, recounts that at first they sold the product in “the territory of the United States (Miami)” and that now it is extended to Canada, one of the countries to which the Cuban state-run conglomerate exports Cubita.

The corporation goes on to explain “how to identify genuinely Cuban coffee that is being marketed in Canada” so that the public “is able to recognize the original brand and not be affected by this vile plagiarization.”

Social media users reacted with an avalanche of reproaches to Cimex for selling the coffee abroad while the Island’s own stores have run out of it. “It is incredible that when the MLC (freely convertible currency) stores are inaugurated, there is Spanish coffee. And that Cuban coffee is in Canada. What economy can be sustained this way? The truth is, I do not understand it,” lamented Lucía María in a Tweet.

Indeed, this same week, the only coffee for sale at the Boyeros y Camagüey store in Havana was the Gourmet brand. According to the information on the package, this coffee comes from Spain, a country that does not grow this crop. Also, the type of coffee used, whether arabica — or the lower-quality robusta — is not identified.

This past July, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, in a long report on the future of Cuba’s coffee production, reassured the public that the country plans to increase coffee production to 30,000 tons in 2030 and that it is one of the country’s main export items.

According to the official press, Cuban beans are in high demand because of the aroma of the arabica variety, which is the one grown on this Island. Mostly harvested in the eastern part of the country, arabica is exported at almost $8,000 per ton, mainly to Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. According to the Cuban government’s forecasts, about 10,000 tons were to be exported in 2020.

However, before the current shortage of supplies, Cubita had lost some of its favor among Cubans. Other national brands, such as El Arriero, Serrano, and Caracolillo, are more popular — but just as unattainable during the current crisis.

Translated by Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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All Those Involved in the Rape of a Young Girl in Havana Are Under Arrest

The events occurred in the Havana municipality of El Cotorro. (Capture)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 6 October 2020 — The six men implicated in the rape of a 13-year-old girl in the Havana municipality of Cotorro were detained by the police. The mother of the minor communicated this to 14ymedio, while thanking the newspaper for publishing information about the case.

“I want to thank you for the complaints that came out in the independent press. They are all already imprisoned in the Técnico de Alamar, a police unit that specializes in investigations of murders and rapes,” the woman said.

According to her own account, the mother was contacted by the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex), directed by Mariela Castro. “She, Mariela, contacted me through her secretary, because she had found out about the case through social networks,” she says. “They told me they were going to support me because justice has to be done and they shouldn’t be out on the street.” continue reading

As she herself told this newspaper, after reporting the incident to the police, the authorities arrested three of the accused and released them a few hours later. She also said that she never received the results of the tests performed on her daughter by Forensic Medicine. “My daughter felt a great relief to know that they are all prisoners, and so did I,” says the mother.

In the statements she gave a few days ago, the woman reported that of the six men now detained, five participated directly in the attack and a sixth “stood watching.”

She also said that her daughter was infected with a bacteria during the attack and had to undergo a treatment with antibiotics and that she has also needed psychological help. “To be calm and be able to sleep, she has to take Librium for everything those criminals did to her,” she lamented.

The Penal Code establishes penalties of seven to 15 years deprivation of liberty for those found guilty of the rape of a victim over 12 and under 14 years old.

Sexual abuse against minors grew in Cuba by 24% between 2016 and May 2019, as confirmed by a government report on human trafficking, which also states that every four hours a minor in Cuba suffers a sexual crime. In the last of the years analyzed, from June 2018 to May 2019, sexual crimes against children totaled 2,350.

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Western Union Improves the Exchange Rate for the Dollar in Cuba

Western Union does not allow the sending of dollars to Cuba, but in its latest statement it does not rule out that it may occur. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 October 2020 — Western Union, a US company, dropped the exchange rate between the dollar and the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) by 2%, according to El Nuevo Herald.

“We have made a correction in the exchange rate for money transfers from the United States to Cuba and from now on for each dollar sent 0.99 CUC will be paid,” said a company spokeswoman, who specified that the exchange rate varied from 0.97 at 0.99 CUC per dollar since last September 24.

Sending $100 to Cuba via Western Union from the US actually costs about $114, including commissions and shipping charges from the mobile app. In return, Cubans on the island received 100 CUC. Now, they will get 101.01 CUC. Details on rates are on the company’s blog .

Since the introduction of the Cuban Government’s new economic measures, especially the elimination of the 10% tax on the dollar and the expansion of its use for the purchase of food and personal hygiene and cleaning products, many voices have asked Western Union to allow the sending of remittances in the US currency, something the company has now opened the door to.

“Western Union is exploring all possible options to provide safe and reliable money transfer services for customers, including payment in dollars. At this stage, payment in dollars is not available,” the company says on its blog, where it is also clarified that the change in the exchange rate is not related to the Cuban government’s eventual abandonment of the Cuban convertible peso.

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Thousands of Cubans Continue to Seek Refuge on Mexico’s Southern Border

Cuban migrants in a shelter on the border of Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua. (EFE)

14ymedio, Mexico, 5 October 2020 — Cubans continue to enter Mexico from the south despite the closure of the borders of the Central American countries due to the pandemic. So far this year, 4,174 have already requested asylum, according to the latest data published by the National Commission for Refugees (Comar).

As of last month, 27,666 people had entered as refugees and Cuba ranked third by country after Honduras (9,296) and Haiti (4,241). However, since 2013 only 1,082 Cuban applications have been approved.

One example is the municipality of Tenosique, in the state of Tabasco, where there are hundreds of Cubans waiting for their petitions to be resolved by Comar, which has rejected 90% of the requests in that city, as highlighted in a ContraRéplica report. continue reading

“There is an obvious delay and bureaucracy that has kept them stranded for several months, with no response to their asylum requests,” said Fernando Santiago Canché, the head of Asistencia Humanitaria del Albergue La 72 (The 72 Humanitarian Assistance Shelter). Some Cubans stay there, while others remain in housing rented in overcrowded conditions, until they achieve immigration status.

In mid-2016, the Mexican government signed a memorandum of understanding with the island that contemplates the repatriation of Cubans who enter the country illegally and are accepted by Havana. Since Barack Obama’s Administration ended the “wet foot/dry foot” policy, many Cubans have applied for refugee status as a way to legalize their situation.

In 2019, some 8,708 Cubans requested political asylum in Mexico, and almost all of the requests were received by the Comar delegation in the city of Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas.

It is in this city, on the border with Guatemala, where the greatest number of procedures are carried out. And it is in this area where the federal government had deployed hundreds of police and immigration agents in recent days to control the passage of the caravan that left Honduras last week and was finally dissolved.

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, congratulated himself for the migrants making that decision. “Both the Honduran and Guatemalan governments helped to convince these immigrants that there are no sanitary conditions and that they had to act differently,” the president said last Monday.

López Obrador considered that the intervention from Mexico “helped a lot.” He said, “Especially the warning that there could be political interests, because it is not by chance that a caravan is organized when we are less than a month away from the elections in the United States.”

Hundreds of Cubans remain stranded in several Central American countries and have not been able to continue to the United States due to the health situation. In Costa Rica, at the end of August the Government transferred a group of 225 Cubans who lived in terrible conditions on the border with Nicaragua to a camp in the canton of La Cruz, in Guanacaste province.

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