14ymedio

Cuba Promotes Homeopathy, Which Is Considered Junk Science In Spain

Homeopathy, which works only by placebo effect, has been used and promoted in Cuba, while it is fading in Europe, including in countries where it has been very popular.

14ymedio, Havana/Madrid, 7 April 2020 — A homeopathy debate is in its infant stage in Cuba. But arguments grew more intense last weekend after Francisco Durán, national director of the Public Health Ministry’s Sanitation and Epidemiology Department, announced the availabaility of PrevengHo-Vir, a homeopathic preventive product to strengthen defenses against the coronavirus. He also warned that the product “does not prevent infection, nor eliminate the need for protective measures” such as hand-washing and social distancing.

In a press conference, the doctor said that the product — which patients take under the tongue — helps to prevent various illnesses such as influenza, the common cold, dengue and emerging viral contagions. “Organized distribution throughout the population is planned,” Durán specified.

Initially, the product will be provided via the primary care system to the elderly and to those in the at-risk category, and later to the rest of the population. The medication, manufactured by state-owned BioCubaFarma, is a hydro-alcohol solution “with homeopathic plant, mineral, animal and biological strains,” said Diadelis Ramírez, a researcher at the Center for State Control of Medication Quality (Cecmed). continue reading

The officials stated that “scientific journals have been published in which this has a demonstrated effect,” but they did not provide details. Cuban medical schools and the public health systrm have promoted homeopathy for decades. They explain it partly as a response to the medication shortage. The official press has not given any space to those who openly criticize this practice. And most Cubans have not had access to sources that reject homeopathy as junk science.

This not the first time that Cuban officials resort to a kind of product that, as Durán said, is “very innocuous.” These fake remedies were deployed against cholera outbreaks on the island in 2012 and 2013.

The debate has surfaced on social media and has drawn attention to events in a country with which Cuba maintains close ties — a country that has staked out a position on the other side, and which has been leading a European fight against homeopathy for the past two years. That country is Spain.

Spain has tried several times to regulate homeopathy, in line with a European directive of 2001. But the country never came as close as it did in May, 2018, when Dolors Montserrat of the Partido Popular, then the Health, Social Services and Equality Minister, approved an order that allowed pharmacies to sell homeopathic remedies as medications, although a report by the ministry admitted that these products did not cure ailments. The entire political opposition, including the Ciudadanos party (liberal, a PP partner in several autonomous and local administrations), raised an outcry.

“The very term, ’homeopathic medication,’ is self-contradicting,” Teresa Giménez, a Ciudadanos member of the European Parliament, told the minister. “A medication has to have some effect on an illness, and homeopathy defines itself correctly as a product that is so diluted as to be innocuous.”

The Cochrane Library, an online collection of medical databases, has just published its seventh study contradicting homeopathy. It was the latest of an endless series of refutations of a pseudo-therapy born in Germany more than 200 years ago. Created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann, the method is based on the dilution of natural substances into infinitesmally small doses. Medical literature has concluded that its only property is the placebo effect.

The Spanish government that took office in 2018 includes two active opponents of homepathy. One of them, Science Minister Pedro Duque, the first Spanish astronaut, explained his position bluntly last year: “It is clear, from current regulations, that you can’t tell a pharmacy not to sell candy. There’s no problem putting homeopathy in the same category as candy.”

In 2016, the University of Barcelona canceled its homeopathy master’s degree program “for lack of scientific basis” And two years ago, all Spanish universities — acting on their own, not by governmental decree — canceled homeopathy studies. Only private organizations offer any courses in the subject.

The war against homeopathy came to Brussels in September, 2017, when the Spanish government urged the EU to change its legislation, a measure that had never been taken at that level. Spain condemned the fact that “there have been cases of cancer patients dying after giving up scientifically based treatment for homeopathic products.” Current regulations were a “health risk” to citizens, the Spanish government said.

The homeopathic industry has been growing. And, organized into strong lobbying groups, it has been earning millions, billing more than 60 million euros a year in Spain, with tax-exempt status, as if its products were medications. The exemption is based on the sole certainty that homeopathic products are not harmful. However, danger arises when a patient stops taking a medication under the belief that homeopathy can replace it. In 2017, a child in Italy died after being treated homeopathically for an ear infection.

In recent years, various European countries have taken the same path. The United Kingdom stopped financing homeopathy in its public health system in 2018. France will withdraw public subsidies of these products in 2021. Currently, the French public health system reimburses 30 percent of the cost of some 1,200 homeopathic products. That support represents nearly 127 million euros taken from the national budget, and from taxpayers’ pockets. Meanwhile, here in Cuba, the government itself manufactures and promotes these products.

Translated by Peter Katel

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Venezuela, a Fertile Field for the Chinese Virus

The sectors most affected by social distancing and quarantine are those that depend on contact between persons, like commerce, transport, and services. (EFE)

14ymedio, Miguel Henrique Otero, Madrid, April 12, 2020 — Just this past week, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) has put into circulation number one of a special report dedicated to the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 in the region.

It’s a disturbing document: starting with evaluating the direct effects on health systems and the indirect effects on supply and demand, it suggests the imminence of enormous negative effects, in the short term (unemployment, decreasing income and salaries, growth of poverty and extreme poverty, negative effects in the health systems, among them, the extremely grave inequality of access), as well as the medium and long term (downward economic growth, reduction of investment, bankruptcy of businesses, deterioration of productive capacities and more).

Cepal warns with stark clarity: “distancing generally implies the deceleration of production or even its total paralysis.”

After making a useful and summary tour of the global economic trends, on reviewing the perspective of the region, Cepal warns that the contraction of the regional GDP could reach 3% or 4%, and could even be worse. continue reading

The document notes five “external channels of transmission:” decrease in economic activities of commercial partners, fall in prices of basic products (the example of oil is the most visible of all), disruption of supply chains, drop in the tourism industry (which is also, for countries like France, Italy, Spain, and England, extremely costly), and the growth of “risk aversion and worsening of worldwide financial conditions.”

It adds a fundamental issue: that the sectors most affected by social distancing and quarantine, those that depend on contacts between persons, like commerce, transport, and services of a distinct nature — generate 64% of formal employment.

Issues like the limited levels of Internet access, the precariousness of healthcare systems, the multiple failures of educational systems, the disproportionate percentages of informal employment, the extensive sectors of the population who live in poverty and extreme poverty, the high levels of social vulnerability, and many others, are elements that form a scenario of vulnerability, for the possible damage that COVID-19 could cause (only alleviated by the fact that the majority of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean is made up of children and young people), as well as for the negative economic and social effects.

But if this is the menacing prospective that the study of trends produces for the region, it is valid to ask, for the state of things in Venezuela — now only comparable, according to experts’ criteria, to the historic situation of misery in Haiti — as well as the available resources of the country destroyed by Chávez and Maduro, what to do to confront a pandemic that has been capable of putting in jeopardy the best healthcare systems in the world, like those of Spain, the United Kingdom, and some regions of the United States.

The results of the National Survey of the Impact of COVID-19, done by the National Commission of Health Experts to Confront the Coronavirus Pandemic, created by the interim president, Juan Guaidó, are terrifying. Simply terrifying.

I note several figures which report on the reality suffered by millions of families all throughout Venezuelan territory: 87.7% do not receive reliable electricity service, but rather the opposite with frequent failures, surges and drops and powers. Something else: almost 3% of the population receives no electricity service.

Almost 18% of homes are victims of what, right now, is much more than a failure of service: it can be considered a crime against life. I refer to the lack, for prolonged periods of time, of potable water, the most essential of resources necessary for combating contagions. But there is more: another 75.1% receive water in an irregular manner and, more importantly, water of low quality.

And what to say of public transit, which half of the citizens absolutely lack, and the other half has access to one that is costly, negative, and irregular? What to say, at this time in Venezuelan life, on the threshold of an epidemic that can have disastrous consequences, that ours is a country without fuel, that the Latin American nation that was the paradigm for its oil industry, and that had a capacity in place to produce a million and a half barrels of fuel every day, can today barely supply fuel to less than 1% of the population, and that its refineries are almost totally paralyzed?

And I still must note an inescapable reality: the situation of the hospitals, where doctors, paramedics, and health workers are absolutely exposed, without resources to protect themselves, as defenseless as their patients, who come to the health centers that have no water, nor constant electricity, nor medical technology, nor equipment, nor supplies of any kind, nor medicine, nor gloves, nor masks, nor body protection, nothing.

If to this whole panorama we add that the Maduro regime’s only response is detaining and persecuting political leaders of the democratic opposition and journalists, for the fact of reporting and denouncing what is happening, then the scenario that could ensue in Venezuela could be simply devastating. And that, because essentially, Maduro and those who surround him are drastically accelerating it: the even greater decimation of the Venezuelan citizenry.

Editors’ note: Luis Henrique Otero is director of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional.

Translated by: Sheilagh Herrera

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"We Are Going to Get in Line, But They Have to Stock the Shelves," Demand the Customers

Everyone in the long line has a piece of cloth on their face, but few keep the required distance. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 April 2020 — “I’m not leaving here until I buy something,” said a woman in a categorical tone outside a Havana store. The official announcement that as of Saturday commercial centers would be closed and public transport cancelled unleashed an avalanche of buyers trying to get food ahead of time, in the midst of a Good Friday marked more by anxiety than spiritual retreat.

“It doesn’t matter if it is ground meat, hamburger or chicken, but I have to get out of here with something in my hands, because in my house there is nothing to eat,” the lady repeated when uncertainty ran through the line. “No, no one knows, they have not yet opened and nobody knows what is inside,” one man explained to the curious who were passing by asking what products were for sale at this store in El Cerro. continue reading

The confusion marked a whole day that, since 2014, has been a holiday in Cuba; after the visit of Pope Pope Benedict XVI to the Island, the authorities decreed Good Friday a holiday. The tradition of spending the day with family has been recovering little by little after decades of strict atheism, but given the advance of the coronavirus, people have preferred to seek basic products.

The unease, the crowds and even the fights were not exclusive to the most populated neighborhoods of the Cuban capital. Even in the quiet of Nuevo Vedado, in the Plaza of the Revolution municipality, a line stretched out in front of each store, a scene that is not unusual on the Island but that, in recent weeks, has become even more common.

Faced with the call of the authorities to maintain discipline in the ranks, avoid physical contact and not fall into alarmism, the response of many Cubans has been to demand a better supply in the network of state stores, so that the shortages won’t trigger anxiety and an “each man for himself” atmosphere. But the national economy is far from being able to satisfy that demand.

In a curve of Tulipán street a tumult was set off this Friday while a policeman tried ineffectually to keep a distance of one and a half meters between the customers. (14ymedio)

In a curve of Tulipán street, next to 26th avenue, a tumult was set off this Friday while a policeman tried ineffectually to keep a distance of one and a half meters between customers. “This is not going to be the same relaxed approach as yesterday; they have to separate even if the line streteches to Boyeros,” said the officer, pointing to the next avenue more than 300 meters from the site.

“We are going to stand in line but they have to stock the shelves,” shouted a man in a blue sports cap with “Cuba” printed on it, responding to the police. “We can get to a meter and a half, wear the facemasks, not scream, not riot, but what is the use if when we manage to get inside there is nothing,” he added. “People are like this because they don’t know what they are going to eat tomorrow.”

“Right now you cannot make purchases to last for a month because in the stores everything is rationed to two products per person. They tell us to stay home but every three days you have to take the street,” Eduardo Antonio told 14ymedio, after having arrived to stand in line at six in the morning.

“The stores are bare, this line here is to buy chicken but it has not yet arrived. The clerk says that they are waiting for the truck that supplies it, but itcould come at noon or at three in the afternoon,” added the man, speaking at half past nine in the morning. Everyone in the long line has a piece of cloth on their faces, but few keep their distance.

A market employee explained to this newspaper that they were only planning to open to the public once the chicken arrived. “Today, only meat will be sold,” he warned anxious buyers, a decision that generated widespread discomfort for customers, especially those who were looking for canned preserves, pasta or cereals.

“I just want to buy vinegar and mayonnaise, why won’t they sell me what I need when I’ve been in this line for hours,” one woman demanded. The employee just managed to shrug. “Right now, when the chicken arrives, they could sell the other products they have there, but no, here we are always going to extremes, it is not easy,” said the customers.

A few meters from the store, an agricultural market sold tomatoes, onions, chili peppers, mangoes, beans, and bananas. (14ymedio)

A few meters from the store, an agricultural market sold tomatoes, onions, chili peppers, mangoes, beans, and bananas. With a line of only eight people, the place has closed its platform for selling meat products more than a week ago because the cost of a pound of pork has exploded with the pandemic and the imposition of prices caps a year ago prevents producers from selling their merchandise at higher rates.

“They will never see me in that line for the chicken,” says a young woman who waits to get some vegetables. “I prefer to eat rice with vegetables and a plate of beans rather than waste five hours of my life in one of those lines and get sick.” Before entering the store, each buyer must wash their hands with a mixture of water and chlorine.

A few meters away, there is another long line in front of a small store. In the midst of the noise, a scream is heard. “Get out of the way, a foreigner is going to leave, I don’t know how that man got in here,” repeats an employee, while in line there are those who roll their eyes and some run away*. An opportunity that others take advantage of to enter the market, where in the fridges there is only turkey hash from Canada.

*Translator’s note: Foreigners are particularly suspect as possible carriers of Covid-19, as the first known case in Cuba was a tourist.

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Venezuelan Oil en Route to Cuba

According to Borges, these are the four ships that left the dock at Amuay in Venezuela loaded with gas-oil for Cuba (Twitter)

14ymedio, Miguel Henrique Otero, Madrid, April 6,2020 — This past 29th of March four oil tankers sailed from the refinery “Complejo Refinador de Amuay”, located on the Paraguaná Peninsula in Falcón state, Venezuela, heading toward three Cuban ports, Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago. These were carrying several types of petroleum, gas-oil in particular. According to shipping documents that were leaked from Petróleos de Venezuela, the load amounted to 380,000 barrels. It is highly probably that in reality the volume of the export will surpass 500,000 barrels.

The practice of under-invoicing allows officials of both countries to come away with gains going directly to their own pockets. As in absolutely all the areas of activity of the Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro regimes, corruption operates against the essential interests of Venezuelan society, and in this case, those of Cuban society as well.

The information, which has not received the attention it deserves due to the torrent of news caused by the pandemic, has raised a legitimate scandal. Many of us wonder how it’s possible that a backward country with extreme suffering, much of which is generated by scarcity of fuel, could export the same to another country. This fact recalls the policies of Stalin between the years 1932 and 1933 when millions of peasants, especially in the Ukraine, died of hunger while the communists exported grain and squandered fortunes in propaganda campaigns that lauded “the most nutritious wheat in the world.” continue reading

Although we have no information concerning the possible economic value of the transaction — whether the fuel was donated or sold at negligable price — what we do know is that this fuel will not be alleviating Cuban individuals or families. Rather, it will serve to enrich even more the power that crushes Cubans and will open wider the breach between those who have access to the system of communist privileges and those who do not. And it will above all fuel the vehicles and electric plants of officials and police who live in bastions of privilege.

This shipment is no gesture of solidarity, nor is its end political — even though it represents a defiance of the blockade. It simply is a business transaction between corrupt, mafioso powers for mutual benefit. The matter comes down to this — one criminal band sending arms to another. For this is the purpose of the shipment: To send the Castro regime a resource, a weapon of domination over the entire Cuban society.

Over the past two decades, the subsidies for sale and delivery of fuel to Cuba have amounted to between 46 and 54 billion dollars, according to various estimates. One must add to this another 12 billion dollars which have been delivered to the Castro regime via other mechanisms such as donations, agreements without real consideration, extraordinary items, travel expenses (airline tickets, allowances, dining expenses), contracts for supposed services, payment for agricultural products which never arrived at Venezuela, and so on.

Venezuela paid the Cuban regime for agricultural products that could not be produced at home which were bought on the international market and which arrived in Venezuela at outlandish prices. Many times these operations with Venezuelan petroleum have been exposed: The Castro regime received petroleum at prices of 40% or 50% below cost and then resold it at international market prices. Indeed, many vessels marked “Petroleum for Cuba” sailed directly from Venezuela to ports in other countries which had arranged for them in equally opaque deals.

What was the destination of these resources that Chávez and Maduro delivered to the Castro regime? In what projects were they invested? Did they benefit in some way the Cuban society? No! The extensive and chronic poverty has not changed in the least. Conditions of widespread hunger, of scarcity without relief, of permanent and irreversible deterioration of all infrastructures, of insecurity in all levels of private and public life all have persisted and intensified.

In fact, the news of the four tankers sent to Cuba should serve to make us bring together in one bundle the fundamentals underpinning this matter:

Petroleum has been not only the great tool to consolidate the regime of Chávez-Maduro and crush Venezuelan society, but also has been the weapon with which the Castro regime has galvanized and hardened its sinister power over every nook and corner of the Cuban nation; the underwriting of the arsenal with which the democratic opposition of Nicaragua was crushed; the checkbook with which the votes of small nations were bought in order to thwart the judgments of the Organization of American States against Human Rights violations; the well-spring of millions and millions of dollars which have benefitted the Kirchners, the Lula da Silvas, the Evo Moraleses, the Rodríguez Zapateros, and the many others who appear to be warriors of social causes or promotors of dialogue, when they are no less than vicious recipients of dwindling income from Venezuelan petroleum.

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The World Was Not and Will Not Be a Filthy Place

“Soon there will be medicines to fight the pandemic and vaccines to prevent it,” says Carlos A. Montaner. (EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 10 April 2020 — Henry Kissinger says that “the world will never be the same after the coronavirus.” He assumes that the pandemic will forever alter the world order. I don’t think so. The truth is that the world is constantly changing. Every generation change clothing, music, ideas, things, but the substance is still there.

The Internet or artificial intelligence have done more than Covid-19 to transform reality. We never wake up in a world similar to that of the day before. It is like the “river of Heraclitus”: we do not bathe twice in the same river. The waters are different. Civilization is different, although the proximity prevents us from perceiving it, in the same way that the trees hide the forest from us.

Civilization continues through other ways. We do not entirely cancel the background. Hippocrates and Galen were present until the 19th century. Aristotle still has some validity. Greek tragedies and Roman comedies are still alive. This is just a hurdle. A great hurdle, but we know how to avoid it since the English doctor Edward Jenner invented the vaccine in 1796, and at the end of the 19th century Louis Pasteur systematized its preparation. The discussion revolves around when we return to normal. The Swedes are going to open the restaurants soon. They will be followed by hotels, cinemas and party halls. continue reading

Who remembers the anguish caused by the pandemic of the misnamed “Spanish Flu”? It killed between 50 to 100 million people from 1917 to 1920. In the United States it even affected President Woodrow Wilson, but it opened the door to the “roaring twenties”, the splendid and noisy twenties, that ended in the “Black Tuesday” in October 1929, when the Wall Street Stock Market plummeted, the starting point of the Great Depression. During that pandemic, only in Spain 300,000 people died, and even King Alfonso XIII, great-grandfather of the current Felipe VI, was infected.

When the AIDS virus affected thousands of people in the 1980s and 1990s, and took the lives of good writers like Reinaldo Arenas (and probably Julio Cortázar), or outstanding actors like Rock Hudson, it seemed that the end of the world was near, but pharmacology solved the problem and turned the terrible evil into a chronic disease. Almost 30 years ago, Magic Johnson, the basketball player, surrounded by his wife and his lawyer, said that he had contracted AIDS. It seemed like a farewell. Fortunately, it was not. He is still huge and robust. Science saved him.

The same will happen to us. Soon there will be tests to find out if one has or had the virus. Soon there will be medicines to fight the pandemic and vaccines to prevent it. When? In the next days, weeks or months. We don’t know the exact date. But we know that some of the best heads on the planet are behind those efforts. Some think of the glory and others of the benefits. Most move due to both. Even rivalry is a great spur. Louis Pasteur cannot be explained without Robert Koch, or Jonas Salk without Albert Sabin. Or vice versa.

Will there be anything positive from this pandemic? Journalist Andrés Oppenheimer said that this misfortune would serve to accelerate distance learning. I suspect he is right. It is the way to make universities cheaper. But there is much more: the tendency to work from home will increase, a tendency that had been happening for at least three decades, when her majesty Internet began to reign, and companies began to “outsource” their creative processes.

In the spiritual field we have the experience. Tango musician Enrique Santos Discépolo believed that “the world was and will be a filthy place.” He was wrong. It is not a small thing to know that a microscopic enemy can shake our entire species, but it is comforting to know that the answer is global. All against the virus and the virus against all. It’s good to see Israel, Eurasia and the American Continent, from Canada to Patagonia, in the same trench. We have to shout it: Long live globalization! Death to the absurd nationalism!

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Cuban Ministry Is “At The Service Of The Coronavirus”

“In the service of the coronavirus,” the sentence says, with – to make matters worse — its unforgivable misprint.

14ymedio, Havana, 9 April 2020 — With each official event or prominent date, it is common to see government vehicles on Cuban streets that have a “Via” pass attached to the windshield. This gives them the right to circulate without restrictions during events such as May Day parades, as well as during emergency situations caused by hurricanes or during carnivals. Now Covid-19 has readjusted the priorities and the signs they display mention the pandemic, but without changing the structure of the sentence.

“Via,” it says in large letters on a piece of paper pasted to the window of a car belonging to the Ministry of Internal Commerce (Mincin) which, on Thursday morning, distributed instructions to various food service venues in the Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution municipality. But underneath the three-letter word, a very disturbing written phrase appeared: “At the service of the coronavirus,” the sentence says, making matters worse with its unforgivable misprint.

“They are at the service of the coronavirus instead of being at the service of the population,” joked a resident near Tulipán Street, who found that the state’s cafe in the area has not sold alcoholic beverages to the public since Thursday. “My daughter is 15 years old today and I had been dreaming about this party for years*. We decided to just have a family meal and I came to get some cold ones for the adults,” he said.

The last time there was a dry law in Cuba was after the death of Fidel Castro in November 2016. This Wednesday, the Cuban authorities announced that the sale of beer and rum for consumption in state premises was canceled, but they left the door open for purchases to take home. “Today we have been directed not to sell anything with alcohol, not even to take away,” explains an employee of a bar on the corner of Factor Street on Thursday. “They collected everything: the rum, the brandy and the vodka.”

*Translator’s note: A girl’s 15^th birthday is a major life event in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America, ideally celebrated with great fanfare.

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Fights and Domestic Violence Soar During Quarantine in Cuba

Family coexistence and interpersonal relationships are strained these days with the measures adopted against Covid-19. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, Marcelo Hernández, 8 April 2020 — He’s been sitting in the park all morning. Although being at home is the best thing to do to prevent the spread of Covid-19, for 24-year-old Yunior, it’s a nightmare to have to stay in the Los Sitio apartment where he lives with three brothers, an alcoholic father and his grandmother. “Every day there is a different fight,” laments the young man.

The coexistence forced by confinement due to the coronavirus is not that easy to cope with for all families. In addition to the housing conditions, which are already difficult in Cuba due to the overcrowding and poor conditions of a large number of properties, there are also family conflicts that arise from forcibly spending more time together.

The problem is universal. Recently the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, called for measures to be taken to face “a shocking global spike in domestic violence” against women and girls which has occurred in recent weeks, due to the confinements decreed in the face of the pandemic in most countries. continue reading

“We know that confinements and quarantines are essential to reduce Covid-19. But they can cause women to be trapped with abusive partners,” said the UN official.

Mileydis, 46, her name changed for this story, has experienced it firsthand. This week she ended up at the Zanja Street Police Station because her husband beat her to the point of cutting her skull. The trigger for the fight was that “he wanted to see one channel on television and the children wanted to see another,” she recalls.

After the screaming, the blows came and the launch of a chair caused an injury that required six stitches. Upon leaving the nearest emergency room, she went to file the complaint. “When I arrived, the police at the entrance to the station told me that it seemed that someone had been ’throwing powders’ on the houses because cases like mine had been arriving all day.”

“When I leave for work these things do not happen because I am away for many hours but now you have to be looking at each other’s face all the time,” laments Mileydis, one of the few women who dares to file a complaint in Cuba, where male violence is not considered aggravating nor is there a specific law on it. “Very few complaints are registered and they are not classified by the gender of the victim,” explains lawyer Laritza Diversent.

In general, when women go to the police station to make complaints about violence, the agents hinder the process with the argument that it will be the word of one against the other, according to a report by Cubalex, the legal advice center directed by Diversent.

But there is another type of domestic violence. The sociologist Elaine Acosta warns that “it is carried out particularly on the most vulnerable groups: women, children — girls and boys — and the elderly.”

“The precarious living conditions of many homes, multi-generational coexistence, added to the stress of loss of income, situations of poverty, the excessive concerns, among others, have an impact on the increase in abuse and domestic violence,” acknowledges a researcher at the Cuban Research Institute, at Florida International University.

Although official statistics in Cuba on elder abuse are scarce and there are few studies on the subject, Acosta recalls that “the last National Survey on the Aging of the Population (2017) reported that 11% of people over 60 consulted, said they have been victims of situations of abuse by their cohabitants or those responsible for their care.”

Claribel, an 81-year-old woman who lives with her daughter and grandson under the same roof, lives on Salud Street in Central Havana. Before the pandemic, the old woman went out to do some shopping and talk to the neighbors, but since the first case of Covid-19 was detected on the Island, her daughter has not allowed her to go through the door to avoid the contagion.

“All the time they spend yelling at poor Claribel,” a nearby neighbor tells this newspaper. “They shout at her from the time she gets up until she goes to bed, because the house is very small and they are bothered by everything the old woman does. If she turns on the radio it bothers them, if she starts sewing it bothers them and we are afraid that they will end up hitting her.”

Until now, Claribel’s daughter worked Monday through Friday and the grandson was at school. “That family didn’t meet, but since they are all there under the same roof all day, it has become a madhouse,” explains the neighbor. “Even the family doctor had to intervene because the other day Claribel’s blood pressure went up amidst such screaming.”

The old woman’s daughter feels alone with her responsibility for her mother’s care and very tense with the whole situation. Until the end of March, she paid a lady to take care of her mother for several hours a day, but now the woman has not come any more for fear of catching the coronavirus, so all the household chores, the cooking and the care of the old woman have fallen on her shoulders.

In Cuba, “about 68% of the people who provide care for the elderly are women and the majority are over 50 years old,” says sociologist Elaine Acosta. This burden will involve “episodes of increased emotional and physical stress. In these circumstances, the type of care they can provide can be seriously affected.”

Mileydis has decided to take her children and go to her mother’s house to wait for the pandemic to pass. “I don’t want to go back to my house because with my husband there all day this is not going to end well, if the coronavirus doesn’t kill me he will kill me.”

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Doctor at Havana’s Calixto Garcia Hospital is Critically Ill with Coronavirus

The official account for the day is as follows: 457 confirmed, 1,732 admitted, 12 deceased and 27 recovered. (Europa Press)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 April 2020 — A doctor from Calixto García Hospital, in Havana, has been admitted in a “critical condition” with Covid-19 to the Luis Díaz Soto military hospital, according to an official report released this Wednesday. The report does not indicate the profession of the patient and merely points out that he is a 42-year-old Cuban citizen who “had contact with a traveler from Lombardy, Italy.”

According to sources consulted by 14ymedio at the Calixto García hospital, he is a doctor from Cárdenas with the initials C.J.D. and works in the Intermediate Care Unit (UCIM). Those same sources denounce the serious deficiencies in the protection materials for health personnel and the lack of control of those infected admitted to various institutions.

The official report indicates that the patient presents “acute respiratory distress and is reported in critical condition.” Patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are unable to breathe on their own and require the assistance of a respirator. continue reading

After maintaining absolute silence about the health personnel affected by the coronavirus, the authorities have finally recognized this Wednesday that there are now 25 health professionals who have tested positive for Covid-19, including 14 doctors and 8 nurses. As for the general population, the official account for the day is as follows: 457 confirmed, 1,732 admitted, 12 deceased and 27 recovered.

“It is evident that we are experiencing an in-hospital outbreak,” says one of the medical sources at Calixto García. “Even the director is isolated, we have had positive cases in the hospital but the doctors have not carried out the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. There is no special protocol for doctors at this hospital, we end up just like everyone else.”

He complains about the enormous workload. “I have 31 patients, I have not slept in 26 hours. So I had to go talk to the epidemiologist because 11 patients came with inflammatory lesions that came out in the lung plates but no transfer. Here there are no [appropriate] conditions, we are all together in a small room with no air, no distance between us, half a meter. There cannot be cases with respiratory symptoms in this hospital, there has to be a hospital for that.”

Last week alarms also went off at the Fajardo hospital in El Vedado when a patient tested positive for the virus after being hospitalized for several days. According to the established protocol, anyone with suspicious symptoms should be immediately isolated and referred to a center dedicated to the treatment of Covid-19. As a result of that incident, on the night of 30 March 38 Fajardo employees were referred to an isolation zone for testing.

As confirmed by this newspaper an employee of Fajardo whose test was negative, five of the 38 workers tested positive for Covid-19. “The following Thursday and Friday, the rapid tests were carried out on all the hospital staff and luckily no one else tested positive. We are all upset that the managers authorized the admission of three patients despite the fact that we insisted that they were suspicious cases, and one of them died later,” he explains. “We found out afterwards that they had contact with a relative who came from Spain but they did not say so at the beginning.”

This week seven employees of the Calixto García Hospital tested positive, including the chief of angiology, several nurses and a cleaning assistant. “The situation is not just here in my hospital. One of the deceased was a kitchen assistant in the González Coro maternal hospital. I have learned of cases in the National Hospital, in Emergencies, and in the 26th Clinic.

There is no infrastructure to support an increase in cases in Cuba, says the same medical source. “There are no means of protection, we only have one pair of gloves, one facemask and one gown when in fact we should change every so often.” A donation from China, which delivered 200,000 face masks and 2,000 disposable suits on Monday, among other things, could ease the situation somewhat.

Since his isolation at the Higher School for State Cadres, near the National Zoo, the doctor from Fajardo recounts the conditions in which he has been for a week. “Most of us, as in my case, are alone in a room, we are all health workers, doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and administrative employees. We all had contacts in one way or another with the deceased patient or his relatives.”

He says that the five colleagues who tested positive were taken to the Salvador Allende hospital, known as Covadonga, in El Cerro, which is one of the centers prepared to receive suspicious cases. “They are medicating them there, they are given Kaletra (Lopinavir + Ritonavir), Hydroxychloroquine and Interferon.”

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Spain Rules Out Hiring Cuban Doctors, According to ’El Mundo’

Spain is beginning to get the contagion under control after almost 20 days of confinement, although the death numbers remain high. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 3 April 2020 — The Spanish government has ruled out contracting for Cuban doctors to reinforce its healthcare system in the face of the Coronavirus, according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo on Friday. Nor do they contemplate purchasing the Cuban-made antiviral Interferon Alfa-2B, which is being used as a Covid-19 treatment in some countries.

According to the Madrid newspaper, sources close to the presidency indicate that President Pedro Sánchez wants to avoid any action that could be interpreted as a political nod to Cuba and bring more criticism from the opposition.

In recent days, several autonomous communities, including Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, have asked the Foreign Ministry to promote the hiring of Cuban doctors. continue reading

The autonomous regions control their own healthcare systems (although during the state of alarm decreed on March 15 in Spain, workers are under the command of the ministry), so each one is trying to organize its resources to reinforce itself in the face of the pandemic , but it is the function of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out these contracts or to enable non-EU foreign professionals to work in the country.

This Monday, the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, said in an appearance that he appreciated the offer of other countries but ruled out resorting to them because they have already hired at the national level. “At the moment we have not activated them, if necessary we would,” he admitted so as not to completely close the door.

In Spain, 7,915 professionals (including retirees, students and professionals without positions) have been brought on to reinforce the healthcare system in the face of the crisis, which totals 117,710 infected people this Friday, 10,935 dead, 56,637 hospitalized and 30,513 recovered. In recent days, strict containment measures have begun to be reflected in the contagion data, smoothing the curve, but the pressure is now shifting to hospitals. Those affected in a moderate to severe way usually enter about eight days after becoming infected, the critical phase, if it occurs, is reached at two weeks and, in the worst cases, death comes at three weeks.

Although the mobilization of resources and the reorganization is providing a relative respite, the country still lives under severe stress on its hospital which has led several regional presidents to indicate to the government their interest in accepting the Cuban proposals. But the reluctance of the central administration is reflected in statements such as those of Ximo Puig, president of the Valencian Community (of President Pedro Sánchez’s party), who admitted that he does not want “any kind of contraindication or conflict.”

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), which governs in coalition with Podemos (the radical left), fears that any collaboration with Cuba will become ammunition for the opposition, which has been criticizing the government’s management for days, not only of the pandemic, but also of the economic and social support measures aimed at alleviating the consequences.

The government’s refusal applies to Cuban doctors already living in Spain who, weeks ago, opened a petition to request approval to be incorporated into the National Health System to support it in the face of the coronavirus. The National Health System maintains that it has promoted the hiring of some 200 foreign professionals, a quota that these Cubans can be a part of if they meet the requirements demanded of everyone else.

Spain is working on its own vaccine. The Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque, said this Thursday that “there is still the possibility that the vaccine will be discovered in Spain” and explained that a team from the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB) has very advanced work and “probably before end of April there will be a first world-wide vaccine candidate with complete virus,” to start animal testing.

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Day 19 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba: ‘Weekly Packet’, Video Games and Movies as a Refuge in Quarantine

In the midst of the pandemic’s advance, informal content distribution networks are the only ones growing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 8 April 2020 — Glued to the screen all day, that’s how a neighbor of my building has decided to spend the quarantine. With face-to-face classes suspended, the young university student fulfills the old dream of doing nothing but watching TV series and enjoying video games. The family lets him be at ease, “if he is entertained he eats less,” his mother tells me by phone.

In the midst of the advance of the pandemic, informal content distribution networks are the only ones growing, on an Island where food is increasingly lacking and the economic situation is bottoming out. Despite the closure of private cafes and restaurants throughout the city, the “weekly packet” with its compendium of audiovisuals continues to come out religiously every week.

Piracy reaches impressive levels and what premiered on Netflix yesterday will be on the black market tomorrow. Even the challenge that circulates on social networks to recommend several movies to watch during confinement, has become a reality on this Island where friends call each other to suggest titles, comment on a performance or issue a criticism of a film. continue reading

There is everything. Materials to make one laugh, to escape the stress of the pandemic and even to learn about historical events or social dramas. The imperative of many is to avoid turning on the official television that addresses the coronavirus with the same rhetoric of the confrontation that until recently they used to talk about the United States or the dissidents.

“Combat,” “win,” “battle,” “trench,” are some of the words that officials repeat in front of the microphone. So much strain has led many people in my neighborhood to only turn on the national channels when the Ministry of Public Health is going to announce the daily update: today’s figures are 12 deceased, 457 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,732 people confined for observation in the country.

Those who can afford a web browsing package from their mobile, alternate movies and video games with occasional dives into social networks, while trying to save every megabyte because the state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, has not offered any price reductions for connections from cell phones during daytime.

There is a rare tranquility on Twitter. The network of the little blue bird. Where before, for each account of an independent citizen, there were thousands of anonymous profiles that repeated pro-government slogans and launched attacks against critical voices, now the cyberclarias (‘cybercatfish’ or official trolls ) have almost disappeared. With classes suspended at the University of Computer Science and at many state job centers, the “revolutionary” momentum has deflated.

I confess that it is a little boring not to see that avalanche of “handsome men” (thugs) on the Internet, who hide behind a false photo, a manufactured name and access to the subsidized website that they must pay for – part – by engaging in acts of repudiation in the virtual village. To me, who has been stalked by these combative tweeters with special viciousness for 12 years, this absence seems to me as speakers that had been blasting into my window were suddenly turned off.

To remember them, and to exorcise them, I have bought a folder of documentaries on the black market that addresses the Great Chinese Firewall and the strict censorship of the Beijing regime on the publications its citizens post on the networks. I spent hours looking at several of them and yes, as my neighbor would say, while I was glued to the screen I skipped lunch and almost forgot about food. Tomorrow I repeat… to save food.

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Cuban Government Reverses Plan for Total Closure of Havana’s El Carmelo Neighborhood

The updated official information emphasized that “the residents of El Carmelo must remain at home, except for those who do essential work outside.” (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 April 2020 — While residents in the El Carmelo neighborhood in Havana were preparing this Friday for strict isolation of the area, local authorities reversed the initial plan and decided not to fully apply a quarantine that originally included a requirement for passes to enter and leave the area.

The measure announced by the capital’s government on Thursday regarding the isolation of the neighborhood has been softened after fear spread among the residents of a possible worsening of access to basic supplies, at a time when the country is suffering from a food shortage.

The president of Havana’s Provincial Defense Council, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, calmed the spirits and provided new details on the ways in which the isolation will be carried out. Safe-conduct passes will only be implemented if positive cases are found to have increased after inquiries that are being carried out house by house, the official said. continue reading

El Carmelo, located in the central district of El Vedado and with a population of more than 29,000 inhabitants, is also an area with many houses that rent rooms to tourists, and numerous private restaurants and leisure spaces. These factors may have influenced its becoming the place with the highest number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Cuban capital, according to Tribuna de La Habana.

Torres Iríbar said that since eight o’clock on Friday night social isolation measures have increased, but that more stringent measures that would be considered quarantine have not yet been applied. At first, there was talk of installing “four to six” entrances and exits through which public transport buses could not pass. But this measure was revoked.

“Last night it looked like they were going to close the neighborhood, they brought metal fences in several trucks and deployed a large number of police officers. Then, at around seven-thirty they retreated on that,” a resident of the area told 14ymedio. “They explained that they are no longer going to limit entry and exit, that they are going to leave it to people’s consciousness.”

According to this resident, Friday was a day when the entire neighborhood took to the streets to stock up on food and basic necessities. “In less than four hours I stood in three lines, one to buy food, another to buy vegetables and another to buy soaps and shampoo which weren’t in any other store.”

The troubadour Ray Fernández, a resident of the neighborhood, improvised some verses in which he reflects the concern for food and suggests to the authorities that they offer the population the resources destined for hotels. “We are not asking for songs / We are not being selfish / But now that there are no tourists / Give the people the shrimp / Send cheeses and hams,” the singer-songwriter posted on his Facebook account.

The updated official information emphasized that, “the residents of El Carmelo must remain at home, except for those who carry out essential work outside. It was clarified that all basic services in commerce, food services, the food industry and drinking water, collection of urban waste, offers from CIMEX, Tiendas Caribe and Palmares are guaranteed.” A bank, ATMs and mail will also continue to operate.

In addition, the disinfection of the bus stops that are located in that area has been arranged. According to a note published this Saturday in the state newspaper Granma, social isolation will also extend to the Cerro municipality “taking into account the appearance of several confirmed cases of Covid-19.”

Torres Iríbar said that isolation measures would also be evaluated in “the places with the highest incidence in Eastern Havana,” although he did not specify which areas these would be.

So far in Havana there are 427 suspected and 71 diagnosed cases; of these, 19 cases are residents of the Plaza of the Revolution municipality.

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Day 18 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba: In Quarantine and Playing Soccer

Many of those suspected of having Covid-19 are being held at the Hotel Tulipán, in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution municipality. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 7 April 2020 – Years ago in my neighborhood they built a hotel to house patients from the so-called Miracle Mission, but today it houses suspected cases of Covid-19. The building, built in the years of the Venezuelan oil subsidy, had become a place to receive Parliamentary deputies and the athletes of the National Baseball Series.

“Give me the ball!” shouts a shirtless young man from the other side of the fence that leads to Tulipán street, in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution municipality. The ball has crossed the wire fence and fallen a few meters from where I pass with my facemask, on my way to look for bread. “Don’t touch it much!” they tell me, an absurd recommendation.

It is a group of young people, without masks, who move at full speed through the grass that separates the ugly building from the street. They are isolated and live their own quarantine, shouting with an Argentine and Cuban accents, as I manage to discern. On the other side, nothing moves, everything is dead. Ironically, there is more animation within that perimeter where the infected are being held. continue reading

The void around the place has its explanation.

As always when “the little hotel” — as my neighbors call it — is filled with some delegation or official group, the custodians who watch the place let passersby know that they cannot access the store inside, nor the cafe and much less use the paid wifi zone provided by the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa). Without that, the place loses all grace and remains as an ugly mass on the landscape.

The second reason for so much emptiness is that the authorities have decided to close the cafe located across the street, known as El Trencito. The state sales premises are located at the 19 de Noviembre Station, which commemorates that day in 1837 when the first section of the Cuban railway opened for operation. For me, who come from a family of railroad engineers, stokers and machinists, the slow death of the place hurts me.

A decade ago they swept away the private vendors waiting with their fried snacks and sweets for the passengers; then the number of trains decreased and now, finally, they have closed the musty cafe that continued to sell soft drinks, ice cream and drinks to the people of the neighborhood. The current reason, according to neighbors, is that they want to prevent quarantined people from leaving the hotel, crossing the street and trying to buy alcoholic beverages on the other side.

That’s what we call in Cuba throwing out the sofa*. When, in order to solve a small problem, other situations and services that had nothing to do with the difficulty are eliminated. It’s like throwing the whole living room out the window. More or less what is happening in my neighborhood.

So I picked up the ball. I threw it back to the other side of the fence, I wiped my hands with a cloth with alcohol that I take with me on the few incursions that I make to the street right now. I continued to the bakery but it was already closed. I returned home.

When I entered, after taking off my shoes in the hallway and washing my hands, I reviewed the latest official statistics: 11 killed by Covid-19 in Cuba, 396 positive cases and 1,752 admitted. Numbers that, even made up, are deeply alarming.

I still had some flour left and improvised some cookies. Hard, but enough to “entertain” as my grandmother would say. We are fine, much better than those young people I saw playing soccer this morning, but with a question mark over their heads. They are in medical isolation in our neighborhood, we live in a country in permanent quarantine.

*Translator’s note: Briefly, the expression comes from a Cuban joke where a man comes home and finds his wife on the sofa getting it on with another man. His solution? He throws the sofa out the window.

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In Santiago de Cuba They Are Recommending Anamu Tablets to Fight the Pandemic

The shortage of basic products is also forcing people into the streets despite the risks.(Capture)

14ymedio, Havana, April 2020. Even before hot weather starts in Santiago de Cuba, official measures to counter Covid-19 haven’t discouraged residents from going outside. The need to buy food combines with a sense that risks are low, thereby worsening the situation.

Many Santiago residents find it hard to comply with guidance in the local press to not go outside after 7 PM. The Provincial Defense Council’s resolution was announced on April 3, but pedestrians and groups were again taking to the avenues and plazas last weekend.

“People in Santiago aren’t compliant,” Luis Ponce, a young Santiago resident who runs an electrical appliance repair business. “On Saturday, the police had to come out with dogs to get people out of the parks.” In his opinion, the population has not yet accepted the seriousness of the situation. continue reading

Overcrowded housing is one of the key factors that makes Santiago de Cuba a city that lives with its doors open to the outside. “Putting the domino table in front of the house, spending the night sitting on the sidewalk to cool off, letting the kids play in the hallway, that was our life until a little while ago,” says Yampier, a young man in the San Pedrito barrio.

“The only thing to do here for fun at night is to go down to the park or stay in the barrio with your friends, but now the police want us inside the house, but there are eight of us in mine,” he says sadly. “After spending an hour cooped up in my house I can’t take it any more. If it’s not my sister’s little boy crying, it’s my grandmother complaining, or my father drunk.”

“Anamú tablets versus coronavirus,” is the headline in the state-run Sierra Maestra newspaper over a text promoting the pills.

“The situation is very critical,” Nelva Ortega, a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba and a resident of the Altamira neighborhood, tells 14ymedio. “Food is lacking in every one of our homes, because there is a supply shortage.”

“I went out last Sunday and when I was looking for some kind of meat the only thing we found was really expensive ground turkey, and they don’t let you buy more than two packages,” the medical school graduate says. “When there were sausages, which now there aren’t, they only let you buy one package. Chicken, when they had it a few days ago, which led to kilometer-long lines, they only sold you one package.”

Ortega notes that “there were people who had been in line since the day before. At 5 in the afternoon, you can see people in line to buy for the next day. Right now, you can’t find toothpaste in any store, and when soap is for sale you can only buy two.”

A third factor is aggravating the problem of crowds in the streets. Although Santiago de Cuba Province has received major investments in recent years to upgrade the water and sewage system, water delivery is still a problem in many neighborhoods. Distribution cycles have been spread out, and in some areas, water is not being delivered once a week, as it had been.

“The situation is tending to worsen,” said Sierra Maestra, the official newspaper. But the prolonged drought has made increased use of tanker trucks necessary for Santiago residents. Long and closely packed lines in front of the tankers, as people wait to fill up their buckets and containers, create conditions for the spread of Covid-19.

In an effort to lift peoples’ spirits, official media don’t hesitate to promote natural products, such as Anamú, to fight the pandemic. Tablets produced in the Laboratorio Farmacéutico Oriente (Oriente Pharmaceutical Laboratory) stimulate “the body’s production of interferon, an essential protein to fight against different pathogens and viruses, in this case an effective measure against Covid-19,” Sierra Maestra said.

Translated by Peter Katel

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Day 17 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba: Whole Families In The Lines To Buy More Products

The trick to buying more than one product is to get in line with family members, something counterproductive in times of coronavirus. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 6 April 2020 — The shouts of a neighbor brought me out of my midmorning stupor, provoked after trying for a whole hour to call one of those customer service phones that rings and rings but nobody answers. “You have to go with your son and husband, because they are giving out two per person!” the lady bellowed from the fifth floor of our building to someone on the 12^th floor.

I peered out for more details. In a neighborhood store they were selling “ground turkey meat” from Canada on Monday. In order to avoid hoarding, the authorities rationed products that until recently were sold freely. But the trick to buying more is to go with family members, something counterproductive in times of coronavirus.

From my balcony I saw them, including the grandmother, leaving to go to the store where the line began to form. A while later a friend, who had marked his place in line since the early morning, called to tell me he was outside another place to buy chicken and invited me to join him. No way, I told him, even Reinaldo has chosen to be a vegetarian these days, in the face of the dangers that lurked in these crowds. continue reading

The situation is very serious. Covid-19 has taken nine lives on this island, while 350 people have tested positive for the disease and 8 patients remain in critical condition while four are seriously ill, according to official data. Said like this, they only seem like numbers, but in reality they are lives abruptly terminated and people who died, in the majority of cases, without being abe to say goodbye to their families.

How many were infected while standing in line? It is difficult to specify, but the today in Cuba the lines are one of the main “risk areas.” The other danger is our own recklessness. The person who is not aware of the danger and continues to move through the streets without a sense of urgency, the one who believes that nothing will happen to him if he doesn’t wash his hands frequently and the one who insists that the consumption of supplements will prevent him from getting sick.

A text with the title “Tablets of Anamu vs coronavirus” promotes the consumption of this product against the pandemic in the government-run ‘Sierra Maestra’ newspaper (Capture)

The Santiago de Cuba government-run newspaper, Sierra Maestra, is one of those that promotes natural supplements to avoid contagion. Under the title “Tablets of Anamu vs coronavirus,” this local medium says that it is “a drug that stimulates the production of interferon in the body, an essential protein to combat the presence of various pathogens such as viruses, in this case effective against Covid-19.”

The most dangerous thing about this information, similar to the announcement of homeopathic drops promoted by the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) to “prevent contagion,, is that it comes from an official source and is endorsed by the almighty State. That someone wants to use these “therapies” as a personal decision is one thing, it is another for them to be promoted as effective in a country where a public debate on their relevance in this case has not been allowed.

Reading, researching and searching for information can prevent us from falling into the clutches of false illusions and supposed miraculous cures. One of the few positive things about this pandemic is that many of my friends and acquaintances have returned to reading, after years when finishing a book was almost impossible due to lack of time and exhaustion at the end of the workday. So, at least, let’s enjoy the books!

Today I returned to the pages of The Language of the Third Reich by Victor Klemperer, a book that takes on special meaning at the moment. My philologist colleague describes in this volume how the fascist regime exalted a rhetoric in which all the products that came out of their industries were shown as “the most modern,” “the most efficient,” “the most powerful.” It immediately reminded me of the headlines in Cuba’s national press these days.

Meanwhile, in the real dimension of life everything is less grandiose but certainly more extraordinary. The pepper seeds I sowed have sprouted on my balcony, the new dog that we picked up from the street has already destroyed her first shoe, and every day that we wake up without breathing problems we celebrate, without triumphalism but with joy.

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Cuba Released Ferrer. It Is Not Enough.

José Ramón Bauza (center) and Rosa María Payá, (second from left.)

14ymedio, José Ramón Bauzá, Brussels , 6 April 2020 — The release of Cuban opposition figure José Daniel Ferrer last Friday was a rare piece of good news, among a stream of bleak reports. Together with three other activists from the Patriotic Union of Cuba, Mr. Ferrer had been illegally detained since last October by Cuban authorities, despite calls for his release.

But this humanitarian gesture should not divert our attention from the true nature of Cuba’s regime, lest we invite the next crackdown on independent civil society. For if Ferrer’s case illustrates one truth is this: whenever the communist regime wants something from the international community, it takes the Cuban people hostage.

After six decades of communist rule and international isolation, Cuba is falling apart. Sadly, this is more than a metaphor. Last January, three young girls died on their way back from school when a derelict building collapsed on them in the touristic heart of Havana. continue reading

The political order too was crumbling in Cuba until the EU threw a lifeline to the regime. With the revolutionary fervour fading from the memory of new generations, the regime was in dire need of legitimation and international support. This help came in the form of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement – PDCA – signed in 2016 between the EU and Cuba.

Since the “common position” adopted in 1996, Brussels made relations with Cuba conditional on regime change. This approach was abandoned in favour of political engagement, hoping that a deepening of ties would persuade the regime to improve its human rights record. The arrest last October of José Daniel Ferrer, on politically motivated charges, showed how misguided this approach was. Emboldened by the legitimisation provided by the EU, and the block’s reluctance to suspend the PDCA even in the face of blatant violations, Cuban authorities have ramped up the repression of independent civil society.

The EU’s response to these breaches of the human rights provisions contained in the PDCA has been bland. For the Spanish and Latin American public, this comes as no surprise, especially since the appointment of Josep Borrell as High Representative. Prior to his role as Europe’s top diplomat, Mr. Borrell served as Foreign Affairs Minister for Spanish socialist PM Pedro Sánchez, whose flirtations with the leftist regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia have been widely criticised. Sanchez’s group in the European Parliament even voted against the November resolution that called for the release of José Daniel Ferrer, and a recent delegation to Cuba led by S&D’s head Iratxe García was criticised for visiting the island while many MEPs continue to be denied entry.

With the release of Mr. Ferrer, many in Brussels and Madrid will try to present this gesture as a sign of changing attitudes in Cuba, wanting to resume business as usual. This would be a serious mistake which will only further the misery of the Cuban people.

Whenever Diaz-Canel wants to divert attention from his regime’s shortcomings, the authorities resort to the imprisonment of opposition figures, just to release them later in a show of goodwill from Havana, and of ‘successful diplomacy’ from Europe. In the meantime, any discussion about the lack of real progress in the island is buried under this vicious cycle of illegal imprisonment, international condemnation and ‘welcomed steps’.

If we are truly committed to promoting the rule of law and human rights in Cuba now is the time to demand further changes in the island, starting with the release of all political prisoners, and the inclusion of independent civil society in the EU-Cuba human rights dialogue. Otherwise, the way to Cuban’s hell will continue to be paved with the EU’s good intentions.

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José Ramón Bauzá is Ciudadano´s Member of the European Parliament. He is on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

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