14ymedio

US Closes Office In Charge Of Migratory Affairs In Havana

In the picture, the embassy of the United States in Havana. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, December 11, 2018 — The United States has announced the total closure, from December 10, of its office in charge of migratory affairs in Havana. The functions of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be assumed by its office in Mexico, according to a statement from that agency of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.

Additionally, the US State Department will assume some of the services that USCIS previously provided in the Cuban capital, in the zone of the Embassy building that is popularly known on the Island as “the American consulate.”

The text, published today, announces the changes that will come into effect starting now and the situation regarding certain procedures. continue reading

“Visa services at the Embassy of the United States in Havana have been almost completely suspended since November of 2017 due to a reduction of personnel as a result of the attacks affecting the health of the employees of the Embassy of the United States in Havana,” explained USCIS in the statement.

The decision jeopardizes US permanent residents who, during a trip to the Island, lose their green cards or their reintry permits to the United States, because as of now they will have to complete the process outside of Cuba.

Applications for asylum and refuge in the United States Embassy are also suspended and Cubans who wish to have recourse to the Cuban Family Reunification Program will also have to travel abroad.

The office will be in contact in the upcoming days with asylum applicants whose applications are already in progress to provide more detail on the new procedures.

USCIS has provided a telephone number (011 53 (7) 839-4100) for those who want more information about their applications on the Island and announced that in the next few hours they will offer more information on the agency’s website.

Although since November of 2017 the US Embassy in Havana had stopped the majority of its visa processing services, it was still processing some procedures such as in emergency cases of US citizens who had lost their passports on the Island, in addition to the visas of Cuban diplomats and a few activists who were planning to travel to that country to study or to participate in events.

The consulate building, which also housed two documentation centers that offered internet access to the public, passed from being a place with a great hustle and bustle of visa applicants to remaining practically empty. Of the businesses in the area that depended on offering bathrooms, food, bag check, and help filling out visa forms online, the majority have closed in the last year.

The days in which John Kerry raised the flag to reopen the United States embassy a few yards away from Havana’s Malecón are long gone. The diplomats have lost almost all contact with the opposition groups and a service of sending news via email from the place’s press office is barely kept up.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Cuba Only Has Enough Flour for the Rationed Bread

Line to buy regulated bread that is being sold by rationing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, December 11, 2018 — The breakdown of mills and the lack of cash flow that Cuba is experiencing have combined to exacerbate the shortage of flour, as was confirmed this Monday by the Minister of the Food Industry, Iris Quiñones Rojas. The small amount of the product that remains on the Island is destined “practically only to guarantee bread for the regulated family basket.”

The head of the sector participated in the Roundtable TV program in a context of growing complaints from consumers and private businesses about the lack of the product in the network of stores all over the Island. Since a few weeks ago the lack of flour has worsened and many products that include this ingredient have stopped being sold.

Quiñones attributed the absence of this raw material to the poor state of the mills meant to process wheat on the Island and explained that since the beginning of the year “the country had to use financial resources that hadn’t been anticipated in the plan in order to import 30,000 tons of flour,” due to a failure to fulfill 70,000 tons from the national plan. continue reading

Until now, the only repair parts that have arrived on the Island have been those for the mill in Santiago de Cuba, whose maintenance work is being done without halting the industry to avoid worse harm. However, the Santiago mill doesn’t have the capacity to supply the entire eastern zone of the country and needs the support of the one in Cienfuegos, which is greatly deteriorated and still hasn’t received its spare parts.

Quiñones recognized that recent days have seen “the most tense moments of the entire year when it comes to the supply” of this ingredient, a situation that has forced business to paralyze a group of other productions, especially in the Cuban Bread Chain, which supplies state-owned stores with sweets and breads to be freely attainable all over the country.

Since the beginning of November flour hasn’t been sold in the country’s stores and it has been difficult to buy, in the state-controlled sector as well as in the private, products like bread, cookies, or sweets. The shortage has shot up prices of flour on the informal market, where it rose from 5 CUP (Cuban pesos) to 25 CUP per pound in the last month. Even so, it’s difficult to find.

This weekend various private business establishments that sell bread were displaying a sign saying “There is no bread” on their counters.

The owner of a private bakery on Calle Tulipán, in Nuevo Vedado, was explaining to her customers this Sunday that it would be the last day of the year that she would open to the public until waiting to see if things got better in January.

The self-employed women explains that she has received almost nothing for the past few weeks and that none of her suppliers “wants to risk himself” by making bread, sweets, or cookies even if they have a reserve of flour because the inspectors “are following them” to see where they got it from.

“They told me that a bag of flour is at a thousand pesos right now on the street,” she says. But in addition to the risk that one assumes to get the product in an illegal manner, she maintains that “it doesn’t support the business… I’m closing and that’s it, because selling meringues and candies, all that brings is loss,” insists the woman while she closes with a padlock the grille of the establishment before leaving.

The cry of a bread vendor in the San Leopoldo neighborhood in Havana used to be heard every afternoon, until a few days ago many private businesses that work with flour have closed up due to the scarcity of the raw material. Those who have managed to keep selling have fewer products and the fear that their reserves will run out before the end of the year, according to testimonies gathered by 14ymedio.

Lorent, a private pizzeria in La Timba, closed due to the lack of flour and now for repairs. (14ymedio)

In La Timba, a low-income area very close to the Plaza of the Revolution, the pizzeria Loren has been closed for three weeks because of the lack of flour. The owners have taken advantage of it to do some repairs in the place and paint the facade, but worries over the future of the business is souring the close of 2018 for them.

Various private restaurants with a menu based on Italian dishes, especially pizza, cannelloni, and lasagna, have also reduced their offerings. The biggest and busiest are still open, but their owners can’t be sure how much longer they will be able to remain open.

In the Havana restaurant Ring Pizza del Vedado they have opted to not offer cannelloni because they prefer to use the flour they have left for making pizzas, which “has a bigger market,” as an employee explained to this newspaper.

Minister Quiñones predicted that the situation would start to improve before the end of the year. “We are working intensely, all the personnel of the milling industry and of the business group, to make sure that normalcy returns,” she pointed out this Monday.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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A Torrential Downpour Causes Floods in Central Havana and Cerro Areas

14ymedio, Havana, December 10, 2018 — A torrential downpour on Sunday afternoon caused floods in zones of Central Havana and Cerro, in Havana. Many residents of the Los Sitios neighborhood were forced to evacuate furniture, electrical appliances, and put the rest of their belongings where they would be safe faced with the advance of the waters, according to reports from residents in the area.

The most affected areas were around Calles Subirana, Árbol Seco, and the vicinity of Santo Tomás. Strong floods were also reported on roads like Amenidad and the vicinity of Manglar, in addition to the rest of the other low zones close to the sports area of Pontón.

“There wasn’t time for anything, the water started to rise suddenly and when we realized it, it was already up to our knees,” Niuris María, a resident of Calle Subirana who had to evacuate along with her two children to the house of some neighbors who live in a high area, recounted via telephone. “We were able to lift the refrigerator onto a table, but our mattresses have gotten wet,” she laments.

When night fell in the neighborhood, the residents of the flooded zones were still bringing furniture and other belongings outside to save them from the waters. “No one has come around here yet and the downpour stopped two hours ago,” complained a young man who along with various friends published photos of the floods on social networks.

“No patrol car, no rescue, nothing,” lamented another young man in a video on YouTube which showed the street behind him covered by water and the residents in the area carrying armchairs and other belongings. The Internet user described how many families suffered losses “of appliances and of everything.”

The residents of this low-lying zone, accustomed to downpours filling the streets with water, have built all types of barriers to keep the water from entering the houses. The majority of those who live on the ground floor have raised the bottom frame of the door and created a small staircase to access the home.

“The water passed over the wall quickly because it rained a lot in very little time,” explains Mario Ricardo, a retiree who lives in the vicinity of Calle Santo Tomás, in one of the zones most affected by the downpour, to 14ymedio. “Since it started to rain we realized that this Sunday we weren’t going to be able to sleep.”

In the early morning, the waters still hadn’t receded from everything and the most affected were waiting for the sun to come out so they could put their belongings out to dry. “This Monday my two children will not be able to go to school because all the clothing got wet and the youngest has a test,” commented another resident to this newspaper. “We hope that it doesn’t rain again in the next few hours so we can recover part of what is wet.”

For this Monday the Meteorology Institute predicted clouds in the western region with some showers and rain, mainly in areas of the northern coast.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Four Cuban Doctors Ask for Help Getting Refuge in Brazil

The Cuban doctors who have decided to stay in Brazil are being helped by the Order of Lawyers of that country. (O Tempo)

14ymedio, Havana, December 9, 20180 — Four Cuban doctors who were caring for the population of Nova Odessa, a municipality in the state of Sao Paulo, have asked for refuge in Brazil, according to the newspaper O Tempo. The professionals, who were working in the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) program, did not obey the call to return to the Island and now are considered “deserters” by Cuba’s Ministry of Health.

The president of the local section of the Order of Lawyers of Brazil (OAB), Alessandre Pimentel, laments that the Cuban doctors who have decided to remain in the country have stayed without the support of the mayors’ offices where they worked and now are knocking on the doors of his organization to ask for help.

“Some cities did farewell dinners for the Cubans, said that they were going to support them, but have turned their backs on those who stayed here,” he explains. “Even those who have started families can’t practice their profession because they are not being readmitted into the More Doctors program and they don’t even have a work permit to try another occupation.” continue reading

Of the eight Cubans who served at the Basic Health Units (UBS) of Nova Odessa, five decided to stay in Brazil, but only one married and regularized her immigration situation. So that they would not be considered illegal, OAB processed the requests for refuge of the other four to the Federal Police in Piracicaba (SP).

“If they are returned to Cuba, they will suffer reprisals,” assures Pimentel. The lawyer also recalls that the Island’s Government punishes the medical collaborators who decide to abandon a mission with an eight year ban on their entering Cuba, and categorizes them as “deserters.”

Liseti Aguilera, one of the Cuban refuge seekers, explains that she wants to revalidate the qualification as a doctor that she obtained in Cuba and work in basic care in Brazil. “I have come with the the greatest good will and I found a friend in the Brazilian people, I really want to stay, but I need work until I can take the examination.”

Suleidys González, another of the Cuban doctors who has decided to remain in the giant South American country, said that she will not return to the Island because of the bonds she managed to establish with the patients she cared for in Nova Odessa. “We are almost like family,” she explains.

In a statement, the town of Nova Odessa informed that they had supplied transportation and escort to the five doctors who have already requested permission to work. The mayor Benjamín Vieira commented that he was in contact with the Ministry of External Relations to discuss the case.

In other cities in the same state of Sao Paulo, the Cubans who married and decided to stay in the country also faced problems. “We are being discriminated against,” insists the doctor Lissete Quiñones. The health professional, based in San Miguel Arcángel, complains that for the open spaces in More Doctors they are prioritizing “Brazilians who were educated abroad and excluding us.”

In November the Cuban Government announced its decision to withdraw its more than 8,300 healthcare collaborators from the More Doctors program, in response to the demands of Brazil’s president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro.

The Cubans only received 30% of their salary in Brazil and the rest went to authorities in Havana, which Bolsonaro considered “inacceptable.” The rightwing leader also insisted that the doctors pass exams to revalidate their qualifications in that nation.

Last week in Miami four Cuban doctors sued the Panamerican Organization of Health (OPS), which they accuse of having facilitated the “network of human trafficking” and “slavery” that, they believe, was behind the More Doctors program in Brazil.

“There is an international organization (OPS), affiliated with the United Nations, that turned into the principal force permitting Cuba to export its citizens to perform slave labor in a foreign country,” declared the lawyer Samuel J. Dubbin during a press conference.

The More Doctors program was created in 2013 by then-president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) with the aim of guaranteeing assistance in the most remote and humble regions of Brazil, now that the Brazilian doctors prefer to practice in the large urban centers.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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Fahrenheit 349

The work of independent artist Nornardo Perea about Decree 349. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 9 December 2018 — We have Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) to thanks for the novel Fahrenheit 451 (published in 1953) that tells the story of Guy Montag, a fireman whose job is to burn books considered ‘uncomfortable’ by the government. Such an atrocity was only possible because there was a powerful commission in charge of dictating what was right and what was not.

One of the main disputes that has prompted the enactment of Decree 349 in Cuba is precisely the creation of a “fire department” which, under the definition of an “authorized authority” or “inspector,” has the power to “immediately suspend the performance or projection in question” as expressed in Article 5.2 of this regulation.

On the Roundtable program aired on Cuban television last Friday, the members of a team made up of Alpidio Alonso, minister of culture, deputy minister Fernando Rojas; Lesbia Vent-Dumois, president of the Association of Plastic Artists of the Cuban Writers and Artists Union, and Rafael González Muñoz, president of the Hermanos Saíz Association, made an effort to show that those who did not accept the Decree were confused, had doubts or had not read it well. At no time did they use the verb “to disagree.” continue reading

The Roundtable once again maintained its traditional method of not inviting to the “debate” to those who think differently from the government. Divergent opinions were maliciously ridiculed by the panelists with the hackneyed device of reducing the arguments of the absent opponents to an absurdity.

For example, Fernando Rojas denied that artists had to ask for permission to exhibit their work although among the violations described in the decree is mentioned “he who as an individual artist or acting on behalf of the group to which he belongs, provides artistic services without the authorization of the appropriate [government] entity.”

Rojas also stated that it was false to say that the text of the regulation established the obligation to be a member of an institution and added that “in no passage of the Decree is that said, and I have the impression that this has to do with a subsequent manipulation to allege that the decree is addressed to the amateur.”

Here Rojas ignored that although the Decree does not explicitly state the obligation of the artist to be linked to an institution, it sanctions “someone who provides artistic services without being authorized to perform artistic work in a position or artistic occupation.”

The alleged suspicion that the Decree is directed against the amateur artist does not belong to the group of concerns expressed by its critics who have expressed concern about how it will affect independent artists who, while professionals, do not “belong” to any state institution.

In relation to the conduct of the inspectors, Fernando Rojas warned that “this action will always be preceded by a collective reflection of an analysis of the institutions with the participation of the creators, it will not be something imposed or improvised,” a statement which denies the power explicitly granted to these inspectors to “immediately” suspend a show or presentation.

It was repeated to the point of exhaustion that the Decree was not directed against the creators or against the act of creation, but rather it regulated the distribution and commercialization of art in public spaces. This argument recalls the statement of the then all-powerful Carlos Lage in Geneva in May 2002, where he said that Cubans had “total freedom of thought,” but without mentioning the limitations of freedom of expression.

In a country where almost all of the publishing houses, galleries, theaters and cinemas are in the hands of the State, it is a joke in bad taste to confirm the “freedom of artistic creation” while reinforcing the locks that limit the diffusion of what is created.

Censorship is masked by good intentions. It is presented as essentially a crusade against bullying, bad taste, vulgarity and manifestations that encourage violence or that incite discrimination based on gender, race, disability or sexual preferences.

But in “the fine print” where it lists the contents that should not be disseminated by the audiovisual media, it includes the statement “any other that violates the legal provisions that regulate the normal development of our society in cultural matters,” and among the behaviors which a legal or natural person should not incur, it includes the commercialization of books “with contents that are harmful to ethical and cultural values.”

Minister Alonso was decisive when he said that “the enemies of the Revolution have wanted to present the Decree as an instrument for censorship,” but neither he nor any of the Roundtable panelists had the essential transparency, honesty or courage to mention the names of Tania Bruguera, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Yanelys Núñez, Michel Matos and Amaury Pacheco, who led the protests.

If the method of reducing to absurdity the arguments of the other side were used against the defenders of Decree 349, it could be said that it is fortunate that it has not been implemented in the past, because if so, a good part of our cultural production would have to be revised inquisitorially.

Painter Carlos Enríquez’s The Abduction of the Mulatto Women would not be exhibited in the museum due to its sexist, racist and gender violence-promoting work; Abela could never have published his cartoons of El Bobo because they would be interpreted as a mockery of disability; nor Guayabero his ¡ni hablar!, for its songs full of allusions with double meaning and implicit vulgarity; from Benny Moré, as an intruder, they would have confiscated the instruments of his Banda Gigante; and even the untouchable national poet Nicolás Guillén would be censored for his “negro bembón.”

In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist becomes a defender of books when he encounters some beautiful verses. When it comes time to select and train the inspectors for the Decree 349 “fire department,” ministry officials will face the following dilemma: If they do not supply them with the culture required to perform as critics they will do a sloppy job, but if they come to possess the necessary sensitivity and information to do their jobs, then they will be tolerant with the creators and that can be dangerous.

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Ventana 14

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, 10 December 2018 – This Monday, December 10, Human Rights Day, I have begun the transmission of Ventana 14 (Window 14) from Havana. Ventana 14 is a reporting space through the services of Facebook Live. My purpose is to comment on the news and the most important topics of each day, especially those issues that will also be touched on in the pages of the newspaper 14ymedio. It will be like a brief sip of coffee: intense and at times bitter, but necessary.

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For Second Day, Taxis Circulate Empty in Havana

The drivers say in the left lanes of the streets, away from the sidewalks, where the customers wait. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2018 — “I’m going to the hospital, I have high blood pressure,” “I’m on my way to pick up some customers,” “my wife called me because she has a pain,” were some of the justifications given this Friday by the drivers of shared fixed-route taxis when a inspector stopped them for circulating empty. The conflict with the Government continued on Saturday in Havana, on the second day of the driver’s strike.

For 48 hours the most populated city in the country has been the scene of an unusual work stoppage, led by the drivers of almendrones — as the classic 1950s American cars are called, after their “almond” shape — vehicles that are vital for the transport of passengers. The protest is attempting to kill a package of regulations that went into effect on December 7 that imposes strict controls on the sector. continue reading

Mandatory routes, greater supervision over the purchase of fuel, affiliation with a particular pick up point, and the requirement to have a bank account to acquire spare parts, gasoline or diesel, in addition to maintaining a deposit corresponding to the payment of two months’ license fees, are some of the rules of the new legislation that have caused the current malaise.

The government has responded to the strike by reinforcing the state bus routes with new vehicles, but the sidewalks are still full of people who signal to passing taxis, with little or no results.

“They told many taxi drivers that they were going to confiscate their cars if they did not work, so we decided to drive but not pick up fares,” says Yunior, a 24-year-old driver who was inspected by two policemen in the vicinity of El Curita Park in Central Havana on Friday. “They wanted to take me to the station but I told them I was going to look for a cake for my daughter’s birthday and that’s why I could not carry passengers,” he tells 14ymedio.

Supposed family illnesses, emergencies that force the driver to return home, errands that can not be postponed and even an alleged technical breakdown that requires going to the garage, are other justifications used by drivers when the police or inspectors questioned them about circulating without passengers.

On the main avenues of the city the volume of private taxis has been unusually low in the last 48 hours and many of those who moved through the streets did so in the left lane, away from the sidewalks. Desperate would-be riders have had to choose to walk or take crowded buses.

Other drivers prefer less confrontational methods and have continued in service but under their own rules. Some drivers only pick up passengers on pre-arranged trips that are not on regular routes. The secondary streets, where it is rare to see these shared taxis due to the poor state of the roads, have seen higher volumes of the vehicles in the last few days.

“I can not risk losing my license because this is what feeds my family, but I’m moving around El Cerro and avoiding the larger streets,” says Augusto, another driver who joined the strike in his own way. “I’m just driving two or three hours a day and although it’s a big economic hit for my pocket, it’s the least I can do for the others who are doing the strike one hundred percent.”

Rafael Alba, a taxi driver who was arrested last Wednesday and who was warned by the police that they would confiscate his vehicle if he did not go to work, woke up in the early morning of December 7 with a police patrol in front of his house to verify that he would head out to pick up passengers. This newspaper has not been able to communicate with him again, because his phone is “off or outside the coverage area.”

“It’s hard, but today it’s affecting them and tomorrow it can be us,” says Julio Marrero, a 52-year-old engineer who works in the private sector in his own photocopy business. “I have had to walk long stretches because there is no transport, but the drivers are in their right to strike because if they do not do it, next year they will get worse,” he says.

Hundreds of inspectors and policemen, some dressed in civilian clothes, have been deployed throughout the capital, especially in the vicinity of the pick-up points where the almendrones usually begin their route. However, the current legislation does not require self-employed drivers to carry passengers as long as they are on the streets.

Despite the solidarity of many, some customers are annoyed that the strike is happening on very sensitive dates in December when transportation is needed to collect supplies for end-of-year celebrations. “It is good that they protest but the most affected are the citizens because the Government does not manage to reinforce urban transport enough so that Havana is not operating at half strength, as it is now,” a retired woman complained this Saturday, claiming she had waited “two hours” at a stop near G and 23 streets in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.

Laura, from Santiago de Las Vegas, said that she had waited 30 minutes and the cars passed empty and didn’t stop. “When they do stop they tell you they’re not going to take you,” she said.

Another of the drivers’ “tricks” is to transport other drivers or members of their family. They take turns to act as drivers and passengers and “meet the letter of the law.”

“They’re seen to be carrying someone so they don’t go by completely empty, but even with all the backseats empty, they don’t take you,” Laura added.

The call for a strike, popularly known as El Trancón (The Big Traffic Jam), was broadcast among private taxi drivers in Havana and other provinces in the country days before the date the controversial package of measures went into effect. The drivers are demanding freedom of movement, the right to work throughout the country, access to a wholesale market, the right to import parts, and permission to have independent unions, among other demands.

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Cuban Government Puts the Brakes on Full Implementation of Decree 349, Proposing it be Gradual

Deputy Minister Fernando Rojas said that those who oppose the Decree want to present it as “an act of censorship” (EFE / Archivo)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2018 — The Cuban government has decided to stop the full implementation of Decree 349, a few days after it also backed off on fully implementing a package of measures to control the private sector. On Cuban TV’s Roundtable program this Friday, Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso, announced that the unpopular Decree 349 will only be applied in a “consensus” and “gradual” manner.

Alonso blamed the controversy generated by the decree, which would regulate artistic expression, to problems of interpretation and defended the need to put an end to “vulgarity, bad taste, intrusion and mediocrity.” However, he acknowledged that the Decree, which went into effect on December 7, still does not regulate “certain areas of art promotion and cultural services that currently have no legal standing.”

The minister responded to the flood of criticism that Decree 349 has provoked, but avoided naming the artists who have staged numerous protests outside the Ministry of Culture, such as Tania Bruguera and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, or others who have expressed their discontent in social networks, including the well-known actor Luis Alberto García. continue reading

None of the voices that have opposed the regulation were present on the television program, which featured Fernando Rojas, Vice Minister of Culture; Rafael González Muñoz, president of the Hermanos Saíz Association; and Lesbia Vent-Dumois, president of the Association of Plastic Artists of the government-run Cuban Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC), who argued in favor of implementing the measure.

Rojas said that “the enemies of the Revolution want to present Decree 349 as an act of censorship” and Rafael González Muñoz mentioned the criticisms “published in the blog Segunda Cita,” but without mentioning its author, the troubadour Silvio Rodríguez, a figure strongly allied to the official ideology who, in recent months, has been launching criticisms of the management of Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Decree 349 has caused an earthquake in the island’s artistic community, where independent and alternative spaces have grown in recent years. In a country where there is an increasing number of recording studios in private homes, private premises that hire musicians or comedians directly, and producers of audiovisuals outside government institutions, the regulations constitute a return to the times of greater centralism.

The measure establishes that atists must be linked to cultural entities under government control and, only then, can they obtain the necessary permits to present their work in spaces open to the public, such as private galleries. To ensure that it is applied, the Ministry of Culture enlists a group of inspectors who can close an exhibition or end a concert if they consider that it is not part of the cultural policy of the Revolution.

The artists see in these powers a political underpinning, disguised as a fight against vulgarity, and one that could start a witch hunt against uncomfortable and creative works that openly criticize the ruling party.

Article 2.1 of the Decree lists among the offenses that will be penalized that of providing “artistic services without being authorized to perform artistic work in a position or artistic occupation.” A point that Rojas nuanced this Friday, when he stressed that it is not a battle against amateur artists and that it is not mandatory to stay in a state institution.

During the program, there were interviews with the troubadour Heidi Igualada, with Digna Guerra, director of the National Choir of Cuba, and with the actor Fernando Hechavarría, but none of them criticized the Decree. Fernando Medrano, a choreographer from Camagüey, added that the regulations were conceived to confront “uncouthness, vulgarity and bad taste.”

All the guests of the program alluded to misunderstandings and misrepresentations that had fomented the dissatisfaction around the regulation, and Lesbia Vent-Dumois detailed that with the Decree “knowing how to read is knowing how to interpret,” which meant that “they could not read.” The official criticized the critics of the measure as “ignorant” and “ill informed.”

For his part, the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the most well-known faces against the regulations, believes that Friday’s official statements are intended to “dampen the commotion raised by the campaign against the Decree among artists.” It is a strategy “to divide the campaign, but the campaign will continue.”

“From the legal point of view, what matters is the Decree and not what a minister who can be dismissed tomorrow says,” the artist said. “Once again legality in this country is ignored,” and he lamented that several artists “were manipulated” in the interviews that were broadcast on the Roundtable program.

Decree 349 details up to 19 “contraventions” or violations of the law, including organizing concerts, recitals or exhibitions without the authorization of the Government or divulging audiovisual or culturalcontent that is violent, pornographic, discriminatory or offensive towards national symbols.

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Fire Breaks Out in Havana’s San Carlos de la Cabana Fortress

A reporter from the Cuban News Agency published an image of the smoke coming from La Cabaña. (ACN)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 December 2018 — A fire that occurred on the afternoon of Sunday at the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, located at the entrance to Havana Bay, resulted in no loss of human life, nor interruptions to the program of the International Handicraft Fair (Fiart 2018 ), as confirmed by the official press.

The incident was reported by several internet users who published images of a huge column of smoke that came out of the fortress on social networks. The flames came from one of the theaters and protocol offices of the fort, where events such as talks, exhibitions and book presentations are frequently held. continue reading

The fire broke out in one of the theaters and in the protocol offices of the fortress. (14ymedio)

Ernesto López, commercial director of the Historical-Military Museum Complex, of which the fortress is part, informed the Cuban News Agency that the damages that occurred in the Nicolás Guillén room and the nearby offices did not stop Fiart’s activities, and “they do not compromise the International Book Fair,” scheduled for February 2019.

People who were in the building at the time the fire started were evacuated and no one was injured by the flames or smoke, Lopez said. No other area of the fortress was damaged, while in the area of the fire the magnitude of the damage is still being quantified.

The traffic in the vicinity of the fort, where the traditional ceremony of firing the cannon takes place at nine o’clock every night, was restored in the afternoon hours.

Fiart 2018 opened its doors to the public last Tuesday and will continue until December 21; this year it enjoys the participation of 19 countries, with about 90 stands, plus about 220 stands for Cuban artisans.

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And The Day Arrived…

There is no shortage of those who see the arrival of the Internet as a way of diverting attention from the serious problems that Cuba is going through. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 7 December 2018 – There is always room for pessimism, because it worms its way in from all sides. After six decades of unmet promises, many Cubans were skeptical about the coming of web navigation on mobile phones and, in part, they are right after so many years of delay at the hands of the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (Etecsa). It is normal that the enthusiasm has “cooled.”

One more “bucket of cold water” on the joy is the high prices the State telecommunications monopoly has imposed on its data packages which, as of Thursday, have been marketed to the cellular network’s customers. Paying between 25% and 100% of the average monthly salary for plans that cover between 600 megabytes and 4 gigabytes is too much.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of those who see the arrival of the Internet as a way of diverting attention from the serious problems that the country is currently facing, with a bankrupt economy, a private sector that is troubled by the regulatory measures that are going into effect on 7 December, and authorities unable to lay out a plan for the future, as if it’s not constrained by the rigid articles of a Constitution that have been cooked up by those “up there.” continue reading

However, even though all the pessimists and skeptics have good reason to be cautious about this new form of connectivity, it would be much more powerful and effective to assess the potential that is opening up before us as citizens. This is not a crumb that has been thrown at us, but the victory of a demand long yearned-for, one earned by our “sweat.”

More than a decade ago, when I opened my blog Generation Y, those of us who used the few cybercafes on the island, opened the first digital blogs and dared to create accounts on Twitter, were immediately labeled as “cybermercenaries.” Those were the days when the web was presented in the official press as a tool created by the CIA and Cuba’s outdated military called for “taming the wild colt of the Internet.”

On the other hand, from the opposition, we bloggers were seen as “kids” who had it easy because we wrote from our keyboards and were going to change the Island tweet by tweet, duped by the idea that with a phone in our hands we could stop the blows of the repressors or put the Plaza of the Revolution in check. Nor was there any lack of those who labeled us “agents of State Security” simply because they “let” us write on the web.

Time has passed and we have won. Now, without any self-criticism, most of the ministers have a Twitter account, president Miguel Diaz-Canel fills his timeline on the network of the little blue bird with slogans, and Etecsa, the technological arm of the repression, has had to open up mobile navigation services after several resounding failures and a flood of complaints from its customers.

All the dissidents I know have a cell phone, YouTube accounts have become an effective way to report human rights violations, and numerous independent media have emerged in the country with a journalistic quality and rigor that force the official press to report things ranging from an armed assault in a school to the ravages of dengue fever. The skeptics of yesteryear ended up joining the new technologies.

Now, although no doubt a good part of the money the inefficient Etecsa will raise with the navigation service will be used to buy uniforms for the police and to feed the officials who plan the surveillance of the opposition and activists, we will also win. There is no doubt. Because the step they have taken this December will have a much greater cost to them than all the dollars they might pocket.

In every corner of Cuba they are exposed, in every town there is someone with a phone connected to internet, fingers ready to report an injustice, denounce a corrupt official, through the reality that differs so much from that reported in the official media. People who will have access to another type of information, far beyond the boring pages of the official newspaper Granma.

I can imagine that, in a short time, some part of communications between Cubans will be traveling encrypted by the internet, chat forums will offer those rooms of debate that we lack in the physical world, and State Security will be forced to develop new techniques of surveillance, new methods to keep track of millions of Cubans in cyberspace.

The private economy will also benefit. Businesses, online purchases, home deliveries will be enhanced with this new service and even if they do not manage to rescue the country from the deep crisis it is in, it will probably ease the lives of thousands of families. Knowledge, distance-learning, and participation in forums will also come to our lives on a daily basis, little by little.

The process will be long, but we have started down a path and it depends on us if we want to see it as a trap, or if we start to explore it with the aim of taking advantage of it so that it brings us closer to freedom.

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"If You Join the Strike, We’ll Confiscate Your Car"

The “boatmen” (private shared-taxi drivers) drove empty through the central Calle 23 in Havana and didn’t stop for passengers, as a sign of protest. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, December 7, 2018 — The Government has pressured private shared-taxi* drivers in Havana not to join a transport strike this Friday in protest of measures that seek to regulate the self-employed sector. The police have threatened to confiscate the vehicles of those drivers who don’t go out to work.

The tension increased among the boteros (literally ‘boatmen’ as private shared-taxi drivers are called) in recent weeks as it was getting close to December 7, when the set of policies begins to take effect. The rules regulate aspects like the purchase of fuel, the routes, and the handling of money, with the requirement to have a bank account in the country.

The uneasiness of the drivers in face of these controls has led them to push various protest initiatives. One of them has been a call to a strike, popularly called El Trancón — “The Great Traffic Jam” — which has been spread among private taxi drivers in Havana and other provinces in the country, to begin this Friday. continue reading

The government has responded by visiting the leaders of the initiative, arresting some, and threatening the boteros with legal repercussions if they join the strike. Rafael Alba, driver of an almendrón** (pre-1959 era car), who works transporting passengers in Havana, spent almost 24 hours detained in a police station for that reason.

“They told me that if it occurred to me not to go out to work this Friday, they would confiscate my car,” he tells 14ymedio. Alba was interrogated during his arrest about the origin of the call to “The Great Traffic Jam,” with which the drivers are demanding freedom of movement, right to work in the entire country, access to a wholesale market, ability to import parts, and permission to have independent unions, among other demands.

“Now I have a police car in front of my house to check if I go out to work or not,” claims the driver, whose family depends financially on his work. A vehicle like his, made in the 1950s and with successive repairs and adaptations, is valued on the informal market at about 40,000 CUC (roughly $40,000 USD).

Since Thursday morning police operations were notable at the taxi ranks where these drivers regularly come together and along the routes that they travel most frequently. “The city is full of police and guards dressed in civilian clothing controlling all the almendrones that are driving around empty and don’t stop,” a resident of San Miguel del Padrón tells this newspaper. In the downtown park El Curita, in Central Havana, since yesterday afternoon, the presence of police cars and officials was notable, as were State Security agents.

The few cars that passed by were empty and didn’t stop for people who signaled to them. (14ymedio)

Another driver, Ramón, 56, who works on the route between La Víbora and El Vedado, also fears losing his old Ford with seats to transport nine people on each trip. “This Thursday various inspectors came to the vicinity of the Mónaco cinema to warn us that they were going to take measures against those of us who join the strike.”

“They have put all kinds of pressures on us, and they have also promised us that in the next few weeks they will relax the rules a little, but the people don’t believe them because once the measures go into effect, what guarantee do we have that they are going to be thrown out?” questions the driver.

The popular unease led the incumbent of the Ministry of Transport to appear on Thursday evening on the official TV Roundtable program,along with other functionaries from the sector. Adel Yzquierdo Rodríguez avoided referring to the strike of private boteros and dedicated the greater part of his appearance to speaking about the presumptive measures that are approaching for national transport.

Yzquierdo Rodríguez assured that before the year ends, 400 12-seater microbuses will arrive on the island and 90 buses that will add to passenger transport. The official also assured that 80 buses that were in a poor state have been repaired in the capital.

National transport is going through a profound crisis that began after the collapse of the Soviet Union, at the end of the last century, but has had moments of improvement like the years in which the government of Hugo Chávez sent around 110,000 barrels of petroleum to the Island each day, a part of which were destined for resale on the international market.

With the hardships that the Cuban economy is currently going through, one of the first signs of deterioration has been the elimination of public transport routes, the reduction in the number of available buses, and the continuous breakdowns due to lack of spare parts.

Private drivers have taken advantage of the void left by the state system and currently are an essential sector for moving Cubans from one place to another on any part of the Island. From horse-drawn carriages, to the old pre-Revolution almendrones of the last century, to the more modern and climate-controlled vehicles, self-employed taxis are vital for the Island not to become paralyzed.

Cars went in the left lane instead of the right, where they usually wait for passengers. (14ymedio)

However, the minister of Transport detailed that in the first obligatory inspection that these vehicles were submitted to all over the country to obtain the technical circulation certification, only 32% of the cars inspected passed, although currently that figure has risen to 62%.

The vice minister of Transport, Marta Oramas, added that until the end of November 2,167 licenses had been taken away from private taxi drivers because of the bad conditions of their cars, out of a total of 6,119 private title-holders.

During the Roundtable broadcast none of the invited officials advanced the possibility of softening the regulations of the set of policies or of a possible moratorium. Nor did they permit a representative from the private sector to speak.

Translator’s notes:

*The vehicles operate in fixed-route shared service, picking up and dropping off passengers who stand along the route and flag them down.

**The word “almendrón” refers to the ’almond’ shape of the classic American cars commonly used in this service.

Translated by: Sheilagh Carey

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban Government Yields to Pressures from Self-Employed and Keeps the Right to Hold Multiple Licenses

Private sellers are controlled by the police to prevent their offerings from competing with state stores. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2018 — The Cuban government has yielded to the pressures and unrest that have been incubating in Cuban streets for weeks, since new measures were announced to impose new controls over the private sector. In an unusual gesture, the authorities have softened some aspects of the rules that regulate self-employment after a barrage of popular criticism.

On Wednesday afternoon, on official TV’s Roundtable program, the Minister of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), Margarita González Fernández, said that ‘natural persons’ may be authorized to exercise more than one activity, provided that they “comply with the regulations for the exercise” of this form of management.

The decision contrasts with the regulations that were set to go into effect this Friday limiting self-employment to a single license per person. This decision had generated widespread criticism, especially in the areas of food services, room rentals and other occupations where entrepreneurs carry out multiple activities related to the services they offer. continue reading

Two legal norms, published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette Extraordinary No. 77, had introduced this and other modifications in the decrees.

Despite this evident step back, González Fernández insisted that “there is no setback” and called on the self-employed to act in an “environment of legality, discipline and order.” The decision of this flexibilization “starts from the principle that there should be no differences between the state and non-state sectors, and in the first, multiple employment activities are allowed,” explained the minister.

The complaints have been rising since the measures to “reorder self-employment” were announced. (14ymedio)

Another flexibilization has been to remove the limit of 50 seats in food service establishments such as snack bars, restaurants, bars and recreation facilities. The “maximum” number of tables and chairs will be decided by the characteristics of the premises. The measure is being taken after the pressures of a sector with large numbers of employees and high levels of investment, especially in restaurants more focused on foreign tourism.

Self-employed workers will no longer have to deposit three monthly tax payments in the account they are required to have in a state bank. That number is reduced to two installments for license holders in the six activities in which they are obliged to do so. In the activity defined as baker-bakery, the sale of non-alcoholic beverages is now also included.

The minister acknowledged that the crackdown announced last July and known as El Paquetazo, caused “unrest and unfavorable opinion,” although she blamed the rejection on a misinterpretation of the regulations.

She did not, however, detail whether changes will be made in the next few days in the measures that will be applied to the transport sector, where there is great discontent because drivers are unhappy that they can not choose routes and customers, negotiate rates and charge higher fares.

With these amendments, Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government loses its first pushback against the citizenship and finds itself facing an unparalleled precedent around a restrictive measure dictated by the executive. The current flexibilities have been taken after the authorities held meetings with self-employed workers to explain the regulations. Those meetings were dominated by complaints and negative comments.

The step back happens a little less than 48 hours since the beginning of several protest initiatives organized from the private sector, especially among those providing private transportation services. A call for a strike, popularly called El Trancón (The Great Traffic Jam), had been broadcast among private taxi drivers from Havana and other provinces in the country, to begin this Friday.

With the slogan “Drivers’ Strike,” a document 14ymedio has access to lists the demands of a strategic sector for passenger mobility in a country where public transport is going through a deep crisis. “Freedom of movement, having the right to work throughout the country, a wholesale market, the possibility of importing parts and permission to have independent unions,” are some of the demands of the self-employed.

At the end of October, 588,000 people in Cuba were self-employed, 13% of the country’s workforce.

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Alleged Murderer of Two Women in Cienfuegos Commits Suicide

A strong police presence accompanied the buriel of the alleged murdered of two women in Cienfuegos (Justo Mora)

14ymedio, Justo Mora / Mario J. Pentón, Cienfuegos/Miami, 5 December 2018 — Rafael Garcia, alleged perpetrator of the double femicide that shook Cienfuegos last May, committed suicide on the eve of his trial, scheduled for Wednesday, several sources close to the family confirmed to 14ymedio.

The tension was thick in the air in the morning hours in the vicinity of the funeral home in the city where Garcia’s body was being prepared for burial. Policemen, relatives, friends and dozens of onlookers filled the crowded Prado Street.

“He hanged himself because he was sorry for what he did and did not want to see the faces of the relatives of the victims, he called his family from prison to tell them that he could not live there,” a neighbor of Garcia told this newspaper. continue reading

Last May, Tomasa Causse Fabat, a 64-year-old nurse, and her daughter Daylín Najarro Causse, 36, died of knife wounds inflicted by García, the younger woman’s former husband and the elder woman’s former son-in-law.

According to residents of the neighborhood of San Lazaro, where the events took place, around noon on the day of the murders Causse Fabat began shouting outside her home. Seeing her bleeding, a neighbor came to help. At that moment the daughter crossed the street and took refuge in another house to escape her ex-husband who was chasing her with a knife. He had already stabbed her multiple times in the womb. The assailant pursued her there and continued stabbing her. Then he cut her throat before the terrified eyes of the witnesses.

Causse Fabat died a few hours later in the same room where she had served as a nurse.

Najarro Causse had been married to the man that all the witnesses identified as her murderer and with whom she had a five-year-old girl. At the time of her death, she was three months pregnant by another partner.

Adrián Najarro, son and brother of the victims, told 14ymedio that Garcia’s death “does not give the family peace.”

“All this has been very hard for me, first because justice could not be done and it has stirred up the memory of everything that I experienced with my mother and my sister, and then because my niece is now also orphaned of a father,” he added.

García had been detained for alleged lascivious touching of his daughter and had just completed a year in prison when he committed the crime, explained Najarro.

“The girl herself said that her father abused her, but since they did not find evidence, they only sentenced him to one year and six months in prison for a misdemeanor, something like exhibitionism,” lamented the relatives of the victims in a previous conversation with 14ymedio.

The girl has been living in the east of the country, to get away from the tragedy, said Najarro.

The trial against Rafael García was cancelled due to his death, but the official press has not yet reported the news.

Last year Cienfuegos was the scene of several crimes that shook the 150,000 inhabitants of the city. In February, Luis Santacruz Labrada, 23, died at the hands of a minor.

In October 2017 the young Leidy Maura Pacheco Mur, aged 18, was raped by three men who later killed her. The trial was held amid extraordinary security measures and two of the murderers were sentenced to life imprisonment and a third to 30 years in prison.

The Cuban government does not publish official figures on violent acts on the island and crimes are rarely addressed by the official press. Mariela Castro, daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro and president of the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex), said in January this year that there were no femicides in Cuba and that this was an “achievement of the Revolution” led by her father and her uncle in 1959.

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Mariela Castro’s ‘Security’ Expels Cuban Reporters From a Conference in Spain

Photo from an earlier occasion showing Mariela Castro offending a journalist from HispanoPost who approached her in Madrid. (Screenshot, HispanoPost)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2018 — Three correspondents from the independent press CiberCuba were expelled from a public building in Valencia, Spain, by the security chief of Mariela Castro, daughter of former Cuban ruler Raul Castro.

The journalists arrived at the October Cultural Center, a building subsidized by the Spanish State, with the intention of covering a conference session on Cuba, Socialism and Diversity, which was to be given by the director of the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex).

According to Luis Manuel Mazorra, director of CiberCuba, his site’s journalists were expelled from the event by Mariela Castro’s chief of security, who ordered them to leave. continue reading

“When we were expelled from the meeting room, we went to the cafeteria of the building, from where we would not have access to the session but at least we could take some photos of Mariela Castro upon her arrival,” Mazorra said.

But Cuban agents followed them and aggressively photographed them, while defending the Cuban political system and criticizing that of Spain. Subsequently, Mazorra called the Spanish authorities, who supported the journalists.

“They had to restrain Castro’s security chief, and the police explained that under Spanish law they had no right to expel us from the conference or take photos with the intention to intimidate,” the journalist explained.

He also added that “the most ironic thing about this is that Castro went to Valencia to talk about diversity,” and the Cuban authorities showed their “bullshit attitudes.” Those attending the conference were mostly members of organizations that support the Cuban revolution.

“We think it is inadmissible for something like this to happen in Spain, and this city can not open its arms to this type of event,” he said.

Before the conference, Mariela Castro had met with Joan Ribó, mayor of Valencia and a sympathizer of the Latin American left.

Last week Mariela Castro made headlines after the viral dissemination of several photos of her at a dinner where there was lobster , a luxury almost impossible for ordinary Cubans to even imagine. Among the activists of the LGBTI community with her at the dinner was the Spanish singer Pastora Soler, who was then forced to cancel a concert in Miami because of the outrage caused by the photos.

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"December Is a Complicated Month and If You Go Out to Report You Will End Up In a Police Station"

State Security encircles the Ladies in White from Thursday through Sunday each week, but this time they extended it more than usual. (Martinoticias.com/Archivo)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 December 2018 — December has started badly for a good part of the island’s civil society. Police operations, arbitrary arrests, a siege of activist homes and multiple threats against members of civil society have been constant in the first four days of this month that had already started with a warning. One of the reporters of this newspaper was warned that if he approached to cover “the provocations of the opposition” he would be arrested. “You know December is a complicated month and if you go out to report you’ll end up in a police station,” the agent said during the interrogation to which one of the members of the 14ymedio team was subjected.

The warning was made on the first Monday of the month with the arrest of several artists who are carrying out a campaign against Decree 349 and who had convened, by using on-line networks, a “peaceful sit-in” in front of the Ministry of Culture to demand a dialogue with the institution and the repeal of the new legislation. Other actors of the independent civil society have organized events around the process of constitutional reform and are also preparing activities directed at showing the repression on the occasion of the celebration of Human Rights Day on December 10th. continue reading

Among those who have denounced the harassment, ratcheted up these days, is Ángel Moya, former political prisoner of the group of 75, from the so-called “Black Spring” in 2013, who told this newspaper that as of Monday afternoon the operation deployed by State Security since last Thursday still remained in place.

State Security organizes a police siege every week, from Thursday through Sunday, around the headquarters of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) women’s movement to prevent the human rights activists from “arriving at Sunday Mass and participating in the campaign ’Todos Marchamos’ (We All March) for the freedom of political prisoners.” This week, the operation was extended beyond the norm, according to Moya’s testimony, who added that there were police patrols and State Security officers on Porvenir Avenue.

Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, a member of the Committee for Racial Integration (CIR), was also arrested on Monday while leaving his home by one of the officers who had surrounded his home since Sunday afternoon. Madrazo Luna was taken in a patrol to the Zapata and C police station and, shortly thereafter, driven to another station in the Playa municipality, where an officer who identified himself as Alejandro, second in command of the 21st, told him they were not going to allow the activities that his organization had planned throughout the week.

“In the morning I went down to open the door for a friend and to go out to buy bread, and the officer tells me that nobody can leave or come in. I told him that the only thing he could do was detain me, because I was not going to be imprisoned in my own house,” he recounted.

The activist pointed out that, in addition, he was warned that they would maintain “the same rigor against provocative activities that threaten public safety” financed with “money from the enemy.”

Moreover, the daughter of the historian and political scientist Enix Berrio Sardá, Ingrid, denounced this Monday to 14ymedio her father’s disappearance and asserted having no information of his whereabouts for several hours.

This Tuesday, the intellectual recounted that he was detained and held in solitary confinement in Picota and Villa Marista jails. “They detained me on the street at two in the afternoon, they kept me isolated and made me wait from midnight until five o’clock in the morning in a very cold room. Then the interrogation began, first linking me to the campaign against decree 349, under terrible conditions, it was torture; and then to the private transportation strike. At six in the morning the interrogation ended and at nine o’clock they released me. They are tense because of the level of conviction of the people involved in these matters,” he affirmed.

Berrio Sardá was one of the guests invited to the presentation of Por Cuba at Madrazo Luna’s house, where a presentation on the current process of the constitutional reform was to be held.

In Camagüey province, Henry Constantin also endured arrest for more than three hours on Monday. The journalist and editor of the magazine La Hora de Cuba (Cuba’s Hour) was arrested in the street and taken to a police station for no specific reason. “They gave me a warning notice, they said due to spreading false news, and they warned me that I would not be able to do anything else because they would not allow it,” Constantin told the newspaper as he left the police unit.

Translated by Wilfredo Díaz Echevarria

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