14ymedio

Cuba Will Lack Dental Amalgam Until Mid-March

14ymedio, Havana, 28 February 2019 — Karla’s mother has been looking for a solution for her daughter’s tooth for days. After visiting three offices, without success, she has turned to the black market to buy dental amalgam to be used this Thursday to fill the gap in her daughter’s mouth. The material, an imported product, is missing in Havana and several cities of the Island, according to sources confirmed to this newspaper by the Ministry of Public Health.

“The amalgam is an imported product and we have problems these days because we have not received a new supply,” a worker at the 19 de Abril Polyclinic explained to this newspaper. “What we are doing at the moment is putting a temporary patch on patients who have already had part of the dental work done, to prevent food from getting into the hole.”

In several calls and visits made by 14ymedio to other dental offices in different Havana municipalities, the same situation is repeated. “We are not putting in fillings, until further notice,” explained an employee of a San Miguel del Padrón Polyclinic. “We have been told that the supply should begin to be restored by mid-March and that we must avoid starting new treatments until then.” continue reading

In the premises of dentists in the cities of Santa Clara, Camagüey and Sancti Spíritus the problem is repeated, according to several testimonies collected by this newspaper. “Here they have told us that there is no money to buy that kind of product outside and that we have to wait because the country is going through a hard time,” explains Yuraimis, a resident of the Sancti Spiritus capital city.

“There isn’t any in the offices but if you go to the street they sell it to you,” Karla’s mother tells 14ymedio. “She couldn’t go on this way because they’ve changed the patch three times and she’s in pain.” The woman is anxious to avoid her daughter “losing the tooth.”

“I paid 10 CUC for a little bit of amalgam, which is enough to fill the tooth,” she explains. She will go back to the same clinic on Thursday, bringing the amalgam and “asking the dentist to put it in,” a common practice in the Cuban health system, where patients often buy supplies in the informal market, ranging from gauze to even blood transfusions to guarantee treatment.

In Cuba, in most dentistry treatments amalgam is used, not resin or porcelain for dental restoration processes. Amalgam is a mixture of mercury, silver, tin and copper. Although it is considered stronger and more durable than resin, for aesthetic reasons many prefer the latter which is better matched to the color of the tooth.

The amalgam has also been highly criticized for its toxicity to the patient, to the professionals who handle it and to the environment. Due to the extensive cremation of corpses, mercury gases may often end up in the atmosphere.

In Cuba almost all dental treatment is in the hands of the State; private services are only provided by dentists who graduated before 1959, of which there are very few active due to their advanced age. Those who maintain private offices must import their products and raw materials in personal luggage or through family and friends.

At the end of last year, the Minister of Finance and Planning, Lina Peraza, announced that in 2019 expenses in Public Health and Education will represent 51% of the national budget; 38,711 million pesos are allocated to these areas, a growth of 2% compared to 2018.

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Between Innocence and Hypocrisy

Alejandro Gil’s film won the audience award at the Havana Film Festival.

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, 28 February 2019 — On the same day that the constitutional referendum was held, the busiest circuit of Havana cinemas announced the film “Innocence,” by the Cuban director Alejandro Gil. In the last edition of the Havana Film Festival, it received the award given by the public.

In those same movie theaters, 28 years ago, while the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party was getting underway in Santiago de Cuba, appearing on the marquees was the disturbing title “Last Images of the Shipwreck,” written and directed by Eliseo Subiela, which received the Gran Coral Award in 1999.

Superstition and symbolism aside, the titles of these films substitutes in the opposition’s imagination for the absence of protest posters which have been gagged by censorship. A subjective reading of an (unintended) subliminal message. continue reading

The capricious hand of chance warned in 1991 of the presumed collapse that awaited us in the Special Period and now, this 24th of February 2019, it stressed that peculiarity of human behavior that justifies the commission of errors and facilitates the work of the victimizers.

Shortly after exercising his right to vote, Mr. Miguel Diaz-Canel, president of the Councils of State and of Ministers, offered statements to the press. When asked what he thought the results of the referendum would be, he replied: “I am optimistic, more than optimistic I am sure (…) People cannot be so hypocritical, so many good people cannot be wrong…”

He could have said that people cannot be so ignorant, or so right-wing or so blind. But he chose hypocrisy because that was his hidden fear; that all those public demonstrations of unrestricted support that he had observed in his travels around the country were the result of the double standard that feeds on opportunism, of the fakery that engenders fear.

Looking at the results of the referendum, the official ones, because there are no others, this humble editor is surprised by how many people can be so hypocritical and stick to Yes while wanting to say No. Because one thing is known, there are many who pretend to agree with “this” but, with the exception of the odd infiltrator, among the unhappy no one feigns his political position. All hypocrites are on the same side.

If anyone needs an example of this categorical affirmation it is enough to remember that in the referendum that put the 1976 Constitution into effect only a little more than 50,000 voters marked No on their ballot, and four years later, during the stampede of the Mariel Boatlift, more than 120,000 Cubans decided to physically abandon the national project proclaimed by that Constitution. It is true that in that exodus there were minors, too young to have voted, as it is also true that not all those who refused to approve the Constitution were among those who climbed aboard a ship.

A pending issue of social research, a piece of data that may never be known with certainty, is how many hypocrites voted Yes in February of 1976, especially since the 1980 Mariel exodus was followed by the 1994 rafters crisis, and more recently by the migratory flood of Cubans who crossed Central America heading north.

Academics find it difficult when they introduce the variable that, in addition to faking it, there have been conversions, and in that case it must be noted that these only occur in one direction, the one that passes from a belief in utopia to disappointment.

Among the more than 700,000 who voted No and the million who abstained, surely there are no hypocrites, although there must be many converts. It would be unfair and also inaccurate to believe that the more than 6,800,000 who ratified the new Constitution are a party of fakers.

There remains innocence, mixing the folly of those who do not want their arms twisted with the naivete of those who lack information or opinions other than those that come from official sources. Those who never heard an argument to reject the new Constitution suffer from a serious political stroke. They are innocent.

Hopefully, the story will not be repeated, hopefully there will not be another migratory hemorrhage as a result of the new “revolutionary consolidation” expressed in the institutionalization of the dictatorship.

Hopefully we do not have to look deeply for the subliminal messages hinted at by the films that are being announced in the first-run theaters.

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Cuba Will Welcome Home Doctors Who Remained In Brazil After the End of the Mais Medicos Program

Cuban doctors who were part of the Mais Médicos program left Brazil via Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport in Brasilia. (EFE / File)

EFE, via 14ymedio, 13 February 2019 — Cuba is willing to let Cuban doctors who decided to stay in Brazil after the end of the Mais Medicos program come home again. Cuban authorities withdrew from the program at the end of last year, telling doctors who decided to stay in Brazil that they would not be allowed to visit the island for eight years.

Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) affirmed that it is in a position to receive Cuban doctors, “including those who decided not to return at the conclusion of their mission” in Brazil and to offer them employment in the national health system, according to a statement disclosed by state media.

“Our Embassy and consulates in Brazil are ready to support their return, providing them with the required documentation and assisting them in whatever they need,” he said. continue reading

Minsap said that it recently became known that the Mais Médicos program was definitively canceled by the government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

In this regard, it says that Brazil has not fulfilled its promise to offer employment to Cuban doctors who chose not to return to Cuba at the end of their mission, as well as some others who formed families with Brazilian citizens and who “honorably fulfilled” their commitment to Cuban public health and to the Brazilian people.

The statement also accuses the “historical adversaries of the Cuban Revolution and the enemies of its public health system” of taking advantage of this situation and of lobbying in the United States to resuscitate “old programs of brain theft,” such as the Parole Program that allowed Cuban health professionals to leave international postings and easily emigrate to the United States.

The declaration also notes that on December 14 it was announced that Cuban health workers would not continue participating in the Mais Médicos program in Brazil.

That decision took place as a result of statements by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who described the island’s professionals as “slaves” of a “dictatorship,” and he also questioned their qualifications.

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health then explained that it decided to withdraw its doctors due to the “threatening and derogatory” statements of Bolsonaro, who proposed “unacceptable” modifications to the program that went beyond the agreements with the collaborators, established through the Pan American Health Organization.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said last December that when his government decided not to continue with the Mais Médicos program, 8,471 collaborators were in Brazil, of whom 7,635 had completed their mission, and 836 doctors had not yet returned to the island.

The participation of Cuban doctors in the Mais Médicos project began in 2013 under the mandate of then Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party (PT), with the aim of guaranteeing health care to isolated communities in the Amazon, in the urban favelas and in other poor areas of the South American country.

According to Minsap data, in the five years of work in the program, nearly 20,000 Cuban employees provided care to more than 113,350 million patients in more than 3,600 municipalities and Cubans constituted 80% of all doctors participating in the initiative.

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With Lie Detectors Instead Of Ballot Boxes, It Would Be Very Different Story

A group of people waiting to vote on the constitutional referendum. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 27 February 2019 — Almost two and a half million Cubans refused to support a constitutional project that perpetuates the condition of the country as a private fiefdom of group that has ruled its people with an iron fist for six decades. And there would have been many more, if the police had not repressed the opposition campaigning for a NO vote, if they had not exercised intimidation over the voters and over volunteer observers who had the courage to watch the vote counting, and, finally, if they had not delayed, without any justification and very suspiciously, the announcement of the results.

However, despite all these irregularities, this number of citizens who did not approve the proposal, and that the oppressors could not hide, clearly shows, in my opinion, two things: the existence of a not insignificant share of the population that disagrees with the current situation in the country, which, even if it is a minority, because of its sheer size cannot be ignored, not only by the rest of the population, but also by world public opinion, and it is a share whose rights must be respected. And, on the other hand, it shows a growing advance in awareness, not so much in all the people, as in a generation born when this sexagenarian dictatorship had already entrenched itself in power. continue reading

They can no longer say, speaking categorically, that the people of Cuba support what they call “Revolution,” as they did up until now, when their support at the polls exceeded 90%. The ‘others’ whom they labeled “anti-patriotic,” now make up almost a third of the people. Starting now, if they want to be precise, they would have to recognize, consistent with official data provided by themselves, that part of the people do not support them.

And this story does not end yet; later we will see who are the people who are truly “anti-patriotic.” Because if we talk about the majority who did support them by marking YES, they did so out of fear, because of that psychotic condition they’ve been infected with from above: the incoherence between thinking, speaking and acting.

Because if there were lie detectors in the polling places instead of ballot boxes, it would be a whole different story. The main chains around the people, they carry inside themselves. It is necessary to break them. What is missing among almost everyone in this electorate who voted Yes, is not an awareness of the illegitimacy and fateful operation of this regime – which almost everyone is already convinced of – but the willingness to change.

If, under a dictatorship, the citizens cease to idolize the rulers, if they stop believing in the invincibility of the oppressors, if they believe they can reach a better future, if they stop fearing that the power will excommunicate and repress them, if they perceive that they could prosper a lot better than they do from receiving the gifts of the oppressors, and if they become aware of their rights and perceive themselves as free people, that single conviction will set them free, because they will begin to act as such, and then there will be no tanks or armed squads that can stop them.

The governed have the ability to make the rulers change their way of ruling, because those who rule need those who obey and no one governs without the consent of the governed. If they stop obeying, they stop ruling. If the ruler is on one road and the governed are on another, governability is lost and the ruler is forced to rectify the course.

Who doesn’t remember when, despite the fact that paladares (private restaurants) and the US dollar were prohibited during the Special Period, there was a paladar in every neighborhood and a great share of the people had dollars, and the government was forced to legalize them? But if the rulers cling to their whims, the response will be non-compliance, and just like there are not enough prisons to arrest millions of people, the ruler no longer rules and the ruled become the ruler.

Thus, the oppressed can conquer freedom without hatred or violence. Because “the powerless,” united, are more powerful than the power.

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Military Aircraft Crashes Near Guira de Melena

14ymedio, Havana, February 26th, 2019 — Residents from the Güira de Melena municipality, Artemisa Province, witnessed a “mid-air explosion” on Tuesday morning, according to the information posted on Facebook by Artemisa’s newspaper. “Around 11 am, there were reports of sightings of an aircraft on fire and two pilots ejecting from it with parachutes.”

Witnesses said “there were no casualties or injured.” However, there is no information available about the two crewmen.

An official source from the area, contacted via telephone, told us the aircraft involved was a MiG-23 and confirmed it crashed near the town “La Cachimba.” continue reading

In April 2017, in the same province, an AN-26 air force plane crashed against La Pimienta Hill, in the Candelaria Municipality, leaving military crewmen dead.

A video posted by the YouTube channel Conexion Cubanos shows the moment when a group of farmers working in the area and some neighbors run towards a smoke column. On the ground the remains of an aircraft on fire can be clearly seen, and the moment when the firefighters arrive and start to put the flames out with water hoses. The model/type of aircraft cannot be clearly seen. Seconds after, a chopper circling around brings in 3 armed soldiers. Before the video ends, a voice can be heard yelling:”If I see any cell phone on, I will confiscate it.”

The images show the aircraft crashed right next to the structure of an abandoned warehouse without a roof, in what used to be a state managed farming operation. These types of derelict structures are frequently seen in the valley of Güira de Melena, an agricultural area where, in the past, the government also tried to develop cattle and poultry operations.

Last year, a commercial aircraft operated by Cubana de Aviación crashed shortly after take off at José Martí International Airport in Havana. One hundred and twelve died in the crash, including the entire crew. The official report with the causes of the crash of the plane, leased from the Mexican company Global Air, have not been yet published

At the end of 2018, Russia announced a loan of more than 38 million euros to Cuba, earmarked to purchase military equipment. After a meeting between Miguel Díaz-Canel and Vladímir Putin in Moscow, the Kremlin said it was planning to award a loan to Havana to acquire airplanes, helicopters and armored vehicles, among other things.

During the midday newscast, that airs between 1 – 2 pm on the main official TV channel, there was no mention of the incident.

Translated by: Mailyn S. Cappuccio

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Cuban Exile in Miami Urges a Declaration of ‘Void’ for the Constitutional Referendum in Cuba

Rosa María Payá criticizes the referendum, saying that the “constitutional text directly violates the most basic rules of democracy.” (@RosaMariaPaya)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Miami, February 25, 2019 — Opposition and Cuban exile organizations called on the international community today to declare the process of constitutional reform in Cuba invalid and to ignore the official results of the “fraudulent” referendum of Sunday.

Rosa María Payá, the leader of the Cuba Decides movement, told EFE that the process has been “flawed since the beginning,” and she denounced the increase in repression and intimidation of civil society during the voting held this Sunday on the island.

She said that at least “nine people are missing and a hundred detained,” and dozens of opponents were beaten during a day that also lacked “national and international observation.” continue reading

The activist considers the process in which more than 7,000,000 Cubans went to the polls this Sunday to decide on a new constitution “illegitimate” and said that it doesn’t modify the Communist political system.

Cuba Decides and other exile groups in Miami, among them the Movimiento Democracia, denounced the constitutional referendum as an “imposition” of the ex-President and leader of the governing Communist Party of Cuba (the only legal party), Raúl Castro.

In this sense, they urge the international community, including the democratic governments of the region and the European Union to follow the Organization of American States (OAS) in disavowing “whatever result” the constitutional process produces.

The Secretary-General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, said today that it “does not recognize the acts and institutions” created by the new constitution in Cuba.

Opponents and exiles say that the referendum originates from a commission formed by the Communist Party and members of the National Assembly, “none of whom were chosen in free, just and plural elections.”

During a news conference, attended by Miami Mayor, Francis Suárez, the Cuban exile groups complained that the “constitutional text is designed to guarantee the perpetuity in power” of the Cuban Communist Party.

Payá also stated that the “constitutional text directly violates the most basic rules of democracy” and threatens with the “use of arms” Cubans who “want to change the system it defines.”

The activist said that on the island there is also a sense of nervousness over the crisis of political legitimacy in Venezuela facing president Nicolas Maduros and that it contributed to the repression this Sunday.

The day was marked by “the lack of transparency and verbal and physical violence against members of civil society and the opposition by repressive forces and, in many cases, the electoral authorities,” said Cuba Decides.

In addition, Payá condemned the raids on homes, the absence of conditions for a secret vote and propaganda in favor of the official option in polling places, among other irregularities.

According to official Cuban data, of the more than 8 million voters registered, more than 7.5 million (81.5%) had already voted one hour before the polls closed on Sunday.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Observers Criticize Delay in Announcement of Referendum Results

The OCDH had 170 observers, deployed in 12 of the 16 provinces of the country. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, February 25, 2019 — After election day Cuba returned to its routine this Monday and the majority of the population shows no signs of interest in the “preliminary” results of the referendum on the Constitution that will be announced starting at 3:00pm by the National Electoral Commission (CEN).

The improvements in transportation that characterized the days leading up to the referendum ended as quickly as they had arrived. The signs for Yes to the new Constitution remain, omnipresent, in stores, state offices, buses, and billboards.

“I only hope that now the propaganda on television lessens a little, because we’ve had a few days in which it’s been impossible to sit and watch a program without something coming out about the referendum,” sighs Rebeca, a Havana resident of 36 who says she didn’t vote in the process. “I preferred to go to the beach because the day was really nice.” continue reading

In Santiago de Cuba, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, denounced the police cordon around the opposition organization’s headquarters and the arrest of several of its members. The ex-political prisoner reported on social media about the violent detention of opposition figures, some of whom were left by police on the highway*, far from voting centers.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), headquartered in Madrid, has denounced the delay of the CEN in publishing the preliminary results of the process. “More than 16 hours after the closing of the polling places, the official data of participation and the results are still not known,” the organization laments in a press release.

The OCDH believes that it is “the same line of lack of transparency that has predominated in the performance of the Cuban government throughout the entire process.” The independent organization lists irregularities during the voting such as “the manipulation of the electoral register, the use of pencils” in place of pens to mark the ballots, and the absence of international observers, among others.

“It makes us even more suspicious of what the Government will have done in the darkness of the early morning,” adds the press release. “According to the data received so far, the sum of the rejections (votes for No, blank ballots, null votes, and abstentions) would surpass 30% of the electoral register, with an upward trend,” it assures.

the information is based “on acts of vote counting facilitated by electoral observers, OCDH collaborators, and reliable citizens, who in the midst of a climate of vigilance and repression were able to exercise protection of the vote,” specifies the text.

On Sunday’s events, the OCDH pointed out low voter turnout, especially in Holguín, Camagüey, Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Havana, and Pinar del Río, contrary to the assertions of the CEN, which announced that 74.09% had cast their votes as of 2:00 pm.

The raid on activist centers, arrests, and lack of privacy to cast a vote also weighed down the process. “In Artemisa, it’s reported that members of polling stations visit old people in their homes and pressure them to vote for Yes,” pointed out the organization in one of its reports published the day of the vote.

The OCDH had 170 observers, deployed in 12 of the 16 provinces of the country. The observers have carried out a systematic monitoring of the different phases of the election day and their work “seeks to corroborate that the process fulfills national electoral norms (Law Number 37) and with the minimum international standards.”

Several 14ymedio reporters also participated in the ballot counting. Among the voting centers visited was that on Lombillo street, between Factor and Estancia, a 12-story building in the Plaza of the Revolution municipality. In this building of district 72 live mainly workers from the Ministry of Transport and of the Provincial Court.

The electoral register of this polling place varied throughout the day until arriving at 498, because 112 new voters were added, the majority national guests of the nearby hotel Tulipán. Of the total voters 429 (86.14%) voted, abstentions reached 13.86%. No was marked on 25 ballots (5.83%) and there were 4 blank ballots (0.93%). Yes was marked 400 times and obtained 93.24% of the valid votes but only 80.32% of the electoral register of this polling place.

“This is a community highly integrated into the Revolution and we have many Communist Party activists,” explained María de los Ángeles, a retiree who lives in the building. “Since they built this building we have been like a family and now we have come to give complete support to that Constitution because it guarantees the existence of the homeland.”

A few blocks from this place, in the Nuevo Vedado area near 26th Street, where the residents enjoy a greater purchasing power, Yes got a less inflated majority, with barely 70.14% of the electoral register.

The big houses where some of the relatives of the accused in 1989’s Cause Number 1 live. Cause Number 1 was a case in which several generals and high-ranking military officers were executed or condemned to long sentences for their supposed link with narcotrafficking, had their doors and windows closed this Sunday, as this newspaper verified.

“Here people are really unhappy with the economic situation,” commented a resident under condition of anonymity. “In this neighborhood, five years ago we had at least ten private restaurants, and now there are only three left because they have suffocated them with the taxes,” he laments.

In the two polling places for District 82 in La Timba, a low-income neighborhood near the Plaza of the Revolution, Yes obtained 71.6% of the electoral register, a similar support to the district of Nuevo Vedado, but abstentions were even greater with 19.1%.

*Translator’s note: It is a common police practice, in Cuba, to pick up dissidents and instead of taking them to a police station and formally detaining them, to simply drive them far from their homes and leave them on a deserted country road.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Apathy in the Streets and Unease in the Cuban Government

Antonio, a habanero who lives on the street, says that he has “nothing to lose. I’m going to vote No.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana / Camagüey | 23 February 2019 — Clown performances promoting a Yes vote on the referendum, long lines to buy food and a general apathy about voting on the new constitution shape the scene on Saturday in Cuba, a few hours before the polling places open, where government officials have more at stake than a new charter.

From early in the morning families have been lining up at the Coppelia ice cream parlor and people are crowding into the agricultural markets. The cinemas and theaters are running their usual programs, but the countdown for the vote this Sunday has increased police patrols in the streets, with uniformed troops and members of State Security.

In the cafeteria of the Hotel Tulipán, in Nuevo Vedado, a clown encourages the toddlers with statements about the Constitution. “Raise your hands, children, if you’re going to wake up early tomorrow,” says the blue clown, played by the actor, Noel Torriente, in a show called Children also vote for the fatherland. continue reading

In the Hotel Tulipán, the blue clown puts on a show called Children also vote for the fatherland. (14ymedio)

A man of 36 years who offers guide services to tourists on the outskirts of the Plaza de la Revolución doesn’t seem very enthusiastic and adds that the new constitution won’t do much to put “beans on my table”. He is one among many who believe that the referendum has nothing to do with their own interests.

In the Market at 17th and K, in Vedado, there are carrots and beets, but the longest line is for pork, even though the price per pound is more than a worker earns in a day. The seller screams “No photographs!” when he sees a reporter approach; his kiosk is papered with posters for a Yes vote.

The pork seller screams “No photographs!” when he sees a reporter approach. (14ymedio)

Nearby, in the doorway of the bus terminal, Miguel sells newspapers and believes that the correct thing to do is to go and vote, because he considers it “important for the country. In the assemblies everyone expresses their opinion and now you have to go and ratify,” the old man of 80 years adds.

Esperanza, a school employee, doesn’t share his opinion. “Everyone should vote No, to see the Government’s reaction.” She has already decided to reject the constitutional text but hasn’t told her colleagues and friends because she “doesn’t want to lose my job” or be marked as a “counterrevolutionary”.

Outside the Immigration and Naturalization office on calle 17 in Vedado, people barely interact to avoid any critical opinion aborting their trip abroad. The Yes propaganda is everywhere, and one joke assures that “after February 24, passports will be cheaper,” which they all pretend not to hear.

Outside Coppelia, Antonio takes in the sun. Homeless, missing a shoe and with years of living on the street, he says that he is registered to vote in Playa. “I have nothing to lose. I’m going to vote No.” He says this categorically while the passersby move away.

In Camagüey, the authorities have increased the presence of civil police, especially around the long food lines. (*14ymedio*)

Hundreds of kilometers from the capital, in the streets of Camagüey, the residents are more interested in the shortage of food than in the constitutional referendum. This Saturday, there are also a larger number of police and members of State Security, dressed in civilian clothing but identifiable by their Suzuki motorcycles, traditionally used by the political police.

“Every day more products disappear,” comments Ariel Almansa, a young entrepreneur who waits in line at DiTú on 12 Plantas del Avenida Finlay, to buy two packages of chicken, a product that has been absent in previous days. Among the merchandise that has disappeared, he enumerates “oil, eggs, deodorant and condoms.”

The shortage has increased the popular malaise, a discontent that could be reflected in the ballot boxes in a rejection of the new Constitution. “I’m going to vote No because this has become unsustainable,” another client who waits in the food line tells 14ymedio. “It’s not that I reject the Constitution; it’s that this can’t continue,” she adds.

In Camagüey, the authorities have increased the presence of civil police, especially around the long food lines. “They say they’re here to avoid fighting and that now the cooking oil has been delivered,” explains Damaris Marín outside a market in the Montecarlos area.

The reappearance of the product hasn’t passed unnoticed, and many think it’s an electoral maneuver for the referendum on Sunday. “Now a little chicken and oil appear in some shops because they want us to vote Yes tomorrow,” says a woman at the bus stop on Route 19.

In these last weeks, officials have used all the resources at their disposal to promote ratification of the constitutional text. The residents in Camagüey were surprised these last days when groups of kids, with school uniforms and during school hours, ran through the streets leaving propaganda in favor of a Yes vote under doors.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Ortega’s Paramilitaries Are More Lethal Than Those of Venezuela

Ortega’s paramilitaries in Masaya. (Carlos Herrera)

14ymedio, Wilfredo Miranda Aburta, Managua | February 18, 2019 — Giancarlo Fiorella, a Venezuelan and author of the Bellingcat investigation detailing the paramilitaries’ arsenal during the Ortega massacre, is surprised by the level of collusion between the paramilitaries and the police in their lethal operations, something which, he insists, he hasn’t seen in Venezuela.

“As a point of comparison, the level of cooperaction between paramilitaries and police is higher than in Venezuela. In Venezuela, the Chavista groups don’t have this type of arms, and it isn’t clearly seen that they collaborate closely with the police,” explained Fiorella in an interview with the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro on the TV program Esta Noche.

The analysis he carried out shows the deployment of at least seven types of weapons of war employed, and also suggests that the Police Tactics and Arms for Intervention and Rescue (TAPIR) unit was involved in the massacre. continue reading

Bellingcat is a portal dedicated to carrying out journalistic investigations from open sources. To analyze the paramilitary arsenal, Bellingcat was based on different videos of the repression, the final report of the Independent Group of International Experts (GIEI), and the investigation of Confidencial, “They fire with precision: to kill!,” a piece that won the 2018 King of Spain Iberoamerican Journalism Prize.

Fiorella is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Center of Criminology of the University of Toronto, in Canada, and previously published another revealing investigation on the execution of the rebel Venezuelan pilot Óscar Pérez at the hands of Chavista security forces.

“The groups in Venezuela have a greater proportion of civilians or of individuals that have no connection with the State, like the paramilitary groups in Nicaragua. The chief of police said that many of them were police officers who were in secret operations,” explained the journalist.

Bellingcat focuses on two of the most brutal episodes of paramiltary repression: the attack on the UNAN-Managua and the church of Divine Mercy on July 13, and the taking of Masaya on July 17 and 18.

From a detailed analysis of video and photographic proof, Bellingcat identifies a deployment of military rifles used by the paramilitaries: AK-74, Dragunov sniper rifles, PKM machine guns, and M16 rifles. They also found Remington 700 rifles, Jericho 941 pistols, and magazines of Soviet-model drum bullets with capacity of up to 75 bullets.

A few weeks ago, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published an interview with the first commissioner and police chief, Francisco Díaz, who assured that the paramilitaries were, in the majority, professional police carrying out covert operations. The rest, he said, were “volunteer police.” The statements of the relative by marriage of the presidential Ortega-Murillo couple left clear the responsibility of the institution in the worst massacre committed since after the war in Nicaragua. The casualty toll is at least 325 confirmed dead and thousands of wounded, in accordance with international human rights bodies.

In the videos analyzed by this investigation, it was found that paramilitaries used MOTOTRBO brand radio communicators (like the DP4800, XPR 7000, and Tait TP8100 series). “These radios are sold for commercial and industrial use, and there is evidence that suggests that the TAPIR unit of the National Police has used similar radios in the past, as can be seen in these videos,” affirms Bellingcat.

“One of the videos shows the close connection between the Nicaraguan Police and the paramilitaries. At minute 1:40 in the video, a man in a black uniform appears. The word Police is written in white on his back. At minute 1:50, the man turns around and begins to walk. When he does so, a patch on his right sleeve becomes briefly visible. The patch seems to be that of the TAPIR unit of the National Police,” specifies Bellingcat, in a video on the massacre of Masaya. “The patch of the man in the Police uniform in the video (left) seems to be that of the TAPIR unit of the National Police,” it sustains.

Fiorella explained that in the two pieces of evidence there is participation of uniformed agents. The attacks on Masaya and the UNAN-Managua are being referred to. After seeking open-source information, Fiorella found in YouTube videos that the TAPIR unit was using similar radios to those of the paramilitaries who massacred the UNAN students.

“In Venezuela, although there is participation of armed groups in the repression of protests, the number of dead has never reached what was seen in Nicaragua. The arms aren’t even of the same caliber. Normally, in Venezuela they only have pistols. There are cases of bigger weapons, but not like has been seen in Nicaragua,” said Fiorella.

“The Confidencial investigation offers even more evidence that the government of President Ortega is resolved to put a stop to the demonstrations by any means. The indiscriminate use of arms in the hands of paramilitary groups and of the Police meant that the type of wounds discovered by Confidencial were not only possible, but practically inevitable,” concludes Bellingcat.

According to Fiorella, the findings of his investigation squares with everything that was already known and was established by bodies like Amnesty International and the Independent Group of International Experts (GIEI), who worked with sources in Nicaragua, proving that the paramilitary groups who operated during the repression were working very closely with police squads.

“This is evidenced in the weapons used. Weapons of war, as the study has highlighted. We can say that the paramilitaries, probably, shared weapons with the police forces of the State of Nicaragua,” emphasized Fiorella.

Editors’ note: this text was published by the Nicaraguan digital outlet Confidencial, which has authorized us to reproduce it.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Intrusive Little Pioneers, Pressures and Pencils

In many of the polling places posters have also been visible supporting the official campaign for a Yes vote, with photos of Fidel and Raúl Castro or calls to preserve the Revolution. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 February 2019 — Pressures to vote Yes, lack of privacy and the refusal to let voters to use a ballpoint pen to mark their ballots, instead of the “official” pencil, are some of the irregularities that have been reported to 14ymedio during the constitutional referendum that is taking place this Sunday in Cuba.

“When I went to vote in the cubicle, the president of the polling station asked a pioneer [elementary school student] to accompany me,” an anonymous architect living in Centro Habana in the vicinity of the Malecon told this newspaper. “The girl went into the booth with me and told me that if I wanted to vote for the homeland I had to check Yes.”

After much insistence, the woman managed to remain alone on the booth and exercise her right to vote with privacy, but she reports that “evading the pressure was difficult” and that she felt that “everything was prepared to avoid a No vote.” continue reading

The current Electoral Law establishes that the authorities must ensure that “the booths have the required conditions to ensure the secrecy of the vote,” while schoolchildren, the uniformed little pioneers, must remain by the ballot box to be witnesses to the moment in which the ballot is placed through the slot.

However, more than twenty reports arrived at the newsroom of this newspaper giving accounts of cubicles without doors or curtains and people loitering around the voters as they voted. There were also reports of an “overreaching” performance by the pioneers with regards to the privacy of the voters.

Another complaint is that people are not allowed to use a ballpoint pen to exercise their vote with an indelible ink that prevents the later erasure of the ballot, a suspicion that many voters have. “I took a pen to the polling place in Trinidad where I voted, because I’m traveling outside Havana,” writes a reader of this newspaper that brought a pen to exercise the vote.

“They told me that if I voted with a pen I was going to cancel the ballot,” she said. “In any event, I marked next to the No with the pen but now I’m worried about whether my vote will be valid or not.”

Recently, the independent media El Toque published 10 tips for Cuban voters and recommended the “indelible vote” noting “that’s what the pens are for and not the pencils commonly found in Cuban polling stations.” Article 114 of the Electoral Law establishes that ballots are declared null and void where “the will of the voter cannot be determined.” It is never said that a pencil should be used and that ballpoint pens are prohibited.

In the town of Placetas, several residents also complained of pressures to go to vote, with members of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution knocking on their doors so that “nobody stays home.” The vote in Cuba is not obligatory but many fear sending a social signal if they do not go to the polls.

In many polling places posters have also been visible with the official campaign for Yes, with photos of Fidel and Raúl Castro, or calls to preserve the Revolution and socialism.

As of 9:00 am this Sunday, 2,690,419 voters had voted, 30.64% of the total registration, according to María Esther Bacallao, secretary of the National Electoral Commission.

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Polling Stations Open for Referendum on New Constitution

With voter turn out low, polling stations opened on Sunday (14ymedio).

14ymedio, Havana, 24 February 2019 — Starting at seven in the morning this Sunday, more than 25,000 polling stations opened for Cubans to vote in the referendum on the new Constitution. On a warm morning in which official nervousness can be felt in the wide police presence in the streets, more than 8 million Cubans are summoned to the polls.

The polling stations will remain open until 6:00 p.m., and special polling stations in hospitals, airports and bus stations have also been set up. Within the first minutes of the openings, there was still little attendance, as 14ymedio was able to verify in a tour of more than twenty polling places.

In Havana, the daily routine continued despite the fact that the process engages more than 1.6 million people in the city. Agricultural markets showed long lines to buy food in a city that has seen increases in the shortages of several products in recent weeks. continue reading

Throughout the country, 25,348 polling stations have been set up, according to data from the National Electoral Commission, 7.6% of them located in private homes. The process excludes people who are serving a sentence in prison and those who are on parole, such as the former prisoners of the Black Spring who still remain on the island.

Prior to this Sunday, the authorities opened 122 election stations in 130 countries, but only Cuban diplomats and professionals who are serving on official missions could participate. The large community of emigrants from the island was excluded from the process, an exclusion that generated a flood of criticism towards the Plaza of the Revolution.

The voters who are in the national territory have before them this Sunday a ballot with one box for Yes and another for No and the question “Do you ratify the new Constitution of the Republic?” The final draft of the new Constitution has 229 articles, 11 titles, two special provisions, 13 transitory and two final, and was approved last December by the National Assembly.

Children guard the ballot boxes, as in every election in Cuba (14ymedio).

The new Constitution maintains the control of the Communist Party over the most important decisions in the country and describes it as “the leading force of society.” In its preamble it consecrates communism as the goal to look forward to and in its Article 4 it says that “the citizens have the right to fight by all the means, including an armed fight, (…) against anything that tries to demolish the political order.”

Among the steps of progress of the constitutional text in comparison with the Constitution of 1976, is that it recognizes private property, accepts foreign investment as necessary, establishes the figures of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, and sets a limit of two consecutive presidential terms.

However, in the process of developing the text, the article that opened the door to same-sex marriage was eliminated and the constitution states that fundamental means of communication cannot be privately owned.

The government has deployed an intense campaign for a Yes vote, using the national media, billboards, signs on buses and campaigns in schools. In contrast, a part of the citizenry has called for the rejection of the Constitution through the slogans #yovotono (I’m Voting No) or #yonovoto (I’m Not Voting) but without being able to access the channels of mass communications.

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Scrutiny and Repudiation, Chronicle of an Election Observer

Nothing else interrupted the counting, with 400 votes for Yes, 25 for No and 4 blank ballots, a woman stood a few inches from my ear and shouted with all her might “Long live the Revolution.”

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 24 February 2019 — I chose the place at random. A polling place in my neighborhood where I could attend, as an observer, the process of counting the votes. It was about six o’clock in the evening when I went to the entrance of the building, a twelve-story concrete block located on Lombillo Street. The voting was about to end and I waited outside, talking on the phone with a friend and finalizing some details about work.

The evening was warm and a reddish sun glimmered through the windows of the entrance. The count began. They asked me if I lived there as a requirement to observe. According to the current Electoral Law, any citizen can be present at the counting anywhere in the national territory, regardless of how near or far it is from their home. So I invoked the legislation, showed my identity card, wrote down my information and they emptied the ballot box on the table.

At one point, a young man arrived with a white envelope that seemed to be carrying some ballots. I thought it was votes from people with mobility problems, old people or other voters who had not been able to come to the premises. I asked the origin of the documents and right there detonated the ill-will. A man, who was not at the counting table, started shouting at me that I had no right to inquire about that and that I had asked “the wrong question.” continue reading

I responded by saying that he was not part of the Electoral Board and that the question I had raised had to be answered by those who were a part of it. The tension in the air could have been cut with a knife. One of those who reviewed the votes couldn’t control the unceasing trembling of his hands, and “a neighbor” located at the other end of the table kept taking pictures of me. Then another man approached me, wearing a striped sweater and with a mustache.

“Come with me outside,” he told me. I flatly refused, because I knew that as long as I was in the polling place I was, at least, a little more protected. “I do not go outside with strangers,” I snapped. Then came another who “rubbed” my arms in a show of confidence but started pulling me towards the door and I told him to stop touching me. Then, they told me that I had to stay “as far away from the table as possible.” I shut up and waited while the process went on.

Nothing else interrupted the counting, with 400 votes for Yes, 25 for No and 4 blank ballots, a woman stood a few inches from my ear and shouted with all her might “Long live the Revolution.” Thus the true act of repudiation was detonated, a choreography that I know so well that I had anticipated it with certainty.

I refused to sign the act as an observer because during the entire time I was there I felt harassed, threatened and not respected in my right to witness the counting. I perceived that they wanted to make me pay dearly for having dared to attend.

I left the premises, with a score of people shouting at my back. The slogans were repeated, they cheered the process, they accused me of not loving my country and a group of children joined the hullabaloo without really knowing why they were there. A woman dressed in white, a practitioner of Santeria, was confused with a Lady in White and also received some insults.

The man who filmed, disciplined, did not stop holding the phone in front of my face, so I took advantage of “the coverage” to claim my right and reject the Constitution. The shouts continued; an egg – perhaps thrown from a balcony – fell near one of my shoes. The sun was now completely hidden. Election day ended and some of those who had repudiated me crossed the sidewalk to buy some beers in a cafe across from the building.

I had just lived an unforgettable experience as a citizen, voter and journalist.

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Cuban Authorities Threaten a Baptist Pastor for Preaching Against the New Constitution

The Baptist pastor Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas called on the faithful of his congregation to oppose the new Constitution. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2019 – The Communist Party of Cuba categorized the Baptist pastor Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas a “counterrevolutionary” for a sermon in which the pastor called on the faithful of his congregation to oppose the new Constitution that will be submitted to a referendum this February 24.

Sonia García García, an official of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, telephoned Dariel Llanes, president of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, to inform him that Hernández Armas “going forward will not be treated as a pastor but as a counterrevolutionary. ”

The complaint was shown on his Facebook profile by Hernández Armas himself, secretary general of the Baptist Convention, and confirmed to this newspaper by Llanes. This newspaper tried to communicate by telephone with the Office of Religious Affairs but García was not “available” for press inquiries. continue reading

“The official demonstrated outrage at my message last Sunday, when I spoke to the church, with over 200 brothers gathered, that it is a Christian duty to vote NO on the new Constitution,” the pastor wrote.

According to the text, the official told the president of the Baptist Convention that she “does not understand” how it is possible that Hernández Armas occupies positions of responsibility in the organization.

“I have been categorized as a counterrevolutionary since 2004, when leading the church of Yaguajay we recovered the temple and the pastoral house in a story that’s too long to tell, but in which the Government was for years an accomplice of its thieves and then stole the bordering land”, adds Hernández Armas.

According to the pastor, it’s about persecution for his religious beliefs and the friendship he has with Pastor Mario Félix Lleonart and Oscar Elías Biscet, well-known opposition leaders.

The Baptist Convention of Western Cuba was one of the evangelical churches that appealed to the Government to prevent the approval of the controversial Article 68 of the constitutional project on equality of marriage.

In the document, subscribed by the Evangelical League of Cuba, the Baptist Conventions of the West and East, as well as the Methodist Church and the Evangelical Assembly of God Church, it was affirmed that “gender ideology” has no relation whatsoever with Cuban culture “nor with the historical leaders of the Revolution.”

The Commission that drafted the constitutional reform was in charge of substantially modifying the article due to the supposed majority rejection that it received during public consultations. To generate consensus, the Commission announced that an amendment to the Family Code should be ratified by another referendum within two years.

“We are living a very delicate situation in Cuba right now. They (the Communist Party) are very angry, they have put pressure on religious communities to support this constitutional project, but if we do that, we are going against our faith,” a high representative of the Evangelical Church on the island who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals against his organization told this newspaper.

“In Cuba there are still many people with dignity who love this country and God. We will be firm in following Christ even if we are persecuted for it,” he added.

The Christian, Evangelical and Catholic Churches have openly manifested their opposition to the constitutional referendum, as have LGBT groups, opponents and human rights activists.

A recent message from the Catholic Conference of Bishops laments “the exclusion” in the constitutional text “of other forms of full realization of the human being different from those of socialism and communism.”

According to the bishops, “a Christian cannot be forced to submit to a conception of reality that does not correspond to his human conscience enlightened by faith.”

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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Several Opponents Arrested Protesting Against the New Constitution in Havana

Opponents Antonio Rodiles and Ángel Moya were arrested after staging a protest this Saturday in downtown Havana. (Captura)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 February 2019 — Opponents Antonio Rodiles and Ángel Moya were arrested after staging a protest in downtown Havana against the constitutional referendum that will be held Sunday.

Moya and Rodiles walked down Galiano Street and were followed by dozens of people who recorded the protest with their cell phones, without participating in it, while others came up to them with official slogans. The activist Maikel Herrera, of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), joined the opposition and was also arrested, as confirmed to this newspaper by the organization’s leader, José Daniel Ferrer. continue reading

Ángel Moya, Antonio Rodiles, other activists and people mobilized by Galiano, Havana in protest against the dictatorship.pic.twitter.com/4j3g2HG6tD

– José Daniel Ferrer (@jdanielferrer) February 23, 2019

Ferrer was the first to transmit the video of the protest through his Twitter account, where activists are seen shouting “freedom” and “enough of the manipulation.” Moya was released shortly after, while Rodiles and Herrera remain detained. In the vicinity of the Capitol, an indeterminate group of Unpacu militants was arrested by the police when they tried to join the protest.

In conversation with 14ymedio Moya explained that his arrest lasted about two hours and that both he and Rodiles were taken to the Zanja unit. “They issued me a warning for disorderly conduct and a fine of 4,000 pesos for dirtying public ornaments,” he said. He also stated that he saw Rodiles in a dark cell before leaving the unit and that he has not yet been released.

The former political prisoner Ángel Moya and Antonio Rodiles are in favor of boycotting the constitutional referendum and not participating in a process that they have described as a “farce”. Other organizations on the island have asked Cubans to go to the polls and vote NO to send a strong message to the executive Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The Government has deployed a campaign for the YES vote through its monopoly on the media and its domination of the public spaces. Several NO activists and referendum observers have been threatened with jail if they campaign and more than 100 Unpacu members are holding a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary raids and arrests.

The Government finds itself in a delicate situation with its main ally and benefactor, Venezuela, plunged in a deep crisis. Nicolás Maduro, a key figure in the alliance with Cuba, is not recognized as president by more than fifty countries and a change in Miraflores Palace could trigger a crisis like the one of the ’90s — a time that Fidel Castro called “The Special Period in Time of Peace” — when the Island lost its privileged trade status with the Soviet Union.

This Friday the Baptist minister Carlos Sebastián Hernández Armas denounced that the Communist Party had threatened to withdraw his status as pastor for preaching against the new Constitution. Hernandez had called on faithful of his congregation to vote NO in the referendum.

Cuban police on Friday arrested Roberto Veliz Torres, minister of the Assemblies of God in the town of Los Benítez, in the municipality of Palma Soriano. According to a denunciation of the faithful of his Church, Veliz had called all Christians to vote NO because, he says, the Constitution that the Government wants to impose is not compatible with the Christian faith.

The Christian, Catholic and Evangelical churches have demonstrated a strong rejection of the new Constitution, which leaves the power of the Communist Party intact and introduces small changes such as the approval of private property.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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Surveys in Cuba: What Do Cubans Think?

A man exercises his right to vote in the elections to for the National Assembly of People’s Power in Havana. (File EFE)

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 23 February 2019 — CubaData has surveyed Cuban society. It has asked people about the new Constitution that will be voted on in the referendum on February 24. According to the sample, 42.4% will say Yes, 41.6% will opt for the No and 16% will not vote. It is a “technical draw,” but the No votes, plus those who will not vote, account for 57.6% of the electoral rolls, despite the fact that the No supporters have been denied access to radio, television or national written media, in the middle of a fierce campaign of intimidation, threats, beatings and arrests.

Defending a No vote is equivalent to “treason to the fatherland.” Among others, Guillermo Toledo, from Puerto Rico, director of the Cuban National Meeting, and Rosa Maria Payá, from everywhere, in charge of Cuba Decides, have been able to “sneak in” working very hard for the few slots in the social networks that Cuban State Security has not managed to close. To this is added the indefatigable work of the dissidents: there are more than 100 Cubans on hunger strike in support of No vote, led by José Daniel Ferrer, a legendary dissident who has suffered constant condemnations and beatings.

CubaData is a company associated with the Diario de Cuba, a good digital newspaper published in Madrid. It is presided over by journalist Pablo Díaz and co-directer Salvi Pascual, a university professor and great computer expert. The survey was conducted a few days before the referendum. They asked 1,000 Cubans throughout the country. The results are compatible with the simple observation of the Cuban disaster and with what happened in the Eastern European nations subjected to communism. continue reading

After all, Cubans are the same as other human beings. Sixty years of failures, unfulfilled promises and conspicuous deterioration, make a dent in the perceptions of any society. You have to be profoundly idiotic to maintain illusions in an inflexible system directed exclusively by the Communist Party, without counterweights or independent evaluations, despite the horror stories of an island subject to the whims of trying to grow coffee on rocky outcrops, immense dairy cows from the stage of Soviet gigantism, or the plan for sweet dwarf cows that each family would keep in their living room to stock up on milk when the communist world collapsed.

This is not the first time that a reliable survey has been carried out in Cuba. At the end of 2014, the engineer Joaquín Pérez-Rodríguez, head of The Campol Group, and, today also president of the Pedro Arrupe Institute, set out to find out what Cubans on the Island wanted. With with the help of several mathematicians and sociologists, he managed to carry out an unofficial evaluation which showed that 82% of people between 18 and 49 years were “not satisfied” with the economic system that exists in Cuba. The percentage of dissatisfaction fell to 71% in those over 50. He relates it, very descriptively, in his book La voz cubana (The Cuban Voice).

These differences in the preferences between “young” and “old,” or between “urban” and “rural” populations, are typical of any society. Young people believe in the future, want to succeed, travel abroad, break out, be entrepreneurs. The old are more conservative, they tend to fear changes. A government that has completed 60 years in absolute control of society has necessarily suffered tremendous waste and has no emotional connection with its contemporaries.

It doesn’t surprise me, then, what José Gabriel Barrenechea says from Cuba, that in Havana the No vote is backed by the youth. He affirms this in his article What will happen this Sunday in Cuba? Although I also share his pessimism about the final results: “I have no doubt that, in any case, there will be electoral fraud.” And then he explains how and why: “In the Municipal Commissions data will be altered by orders of the first municipal secretaries, so as not to look bad before their superior authorities […] Nobody wants to lose the ’little benefits’ attached to any important position in Cuba, supposedly socialist.”

Another writer, who prefers not to give his name for fear of reprisals, explains to me how some people who totally reject the system will vote Yes: it is the custom of the double standard typical of totalitarian societies. They are painfully accustomed to the dissonance between what they believe, what they say and what they do. The inertia generated by 60 years of one-party government also prevails. In the elections the vote is always what the Government indicates. I remember a candidate from the end of the Franco regime in Spain, in the first half of the seventies, who had a sincere and candid way of asking for a vote: “Vote for me. What more can he give you?”

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