Author: 14ymedio

The users perceive the new structure, under cooperative management, as a response the high fares charged by private operators, rates that the official media has called an “abuse on the population.” The Rutero drivers charge 15 Cuban pesos for the full route and 5 for intermediate sections.

The Rutero drivers charge 15 Cuban pesos for the full route and 5 for intermediate sections compared to 20 and 10 charged by the private drivers

The conflict between the State and the self-employed drivers has experienced tense moments in recent months. Last February, the capital authorities imposed flat rates on private taxi drivers’ journeys. The decision was a brake on the law of supply and demand that has governed the private transportation of passengers since it was authorized in the mid-1990s.

The boteros responded by refusing to serve intermediate stops and carrying only passengers who made the complete trip. Although they lack an independent union, something prohibited by law, they closed ranks and decreased the number of customers they served, to pressure local authorities to withdraw the controls.

The result was an increase in the waiting time for transport and the overwhelming of the bus stops by the avalanche of customers who could no longer travel in the private fixed-route shared taxis, called almendrónes after the almond-shape of the classic American cars commonly used in the service. For weeks, Habaneros have felt as if the most difficult days of the Special Period of the 90’s were coming back.

Now the taxi drivers are trying to alleviate that situation, with a management structure halfway between private and state.

As of January there were 397 private cooperatives on the island, active in food, personal and technical services. The state has promoted this kind of economic management since 2012, but is still in the experimental phase.

“This isn’t fair,” comments Rafael Vidal, a private driver who does not look favorably on the new service. “Those who drive these cars do not have to worry about breakdowns or getting parts, because they have a workshop with all the spare parts and several mechanics at their disposal,” protests the driver.

For Vidal, “the competition is unfair” because “the drivers do not pay for the fuel, and although I have no evidence, I can assure you that the traffic police will not come down on them like they do us”

For Vidal, “the competition is unfair” because “the drivers do not pay for the fuel, and although I have no evidence, I can assure you that the traffic police will not come down on them like they do us.” One of the most repeated complaints among private drivers is the harassment of inspectors and police officers, sometimes in the form of extortion with demands for money.

Sitting at the wheel of one of the yellow cars with a black roof that the new cooperative operates, Reinier is pleased to be part of the initiative. Previously he rendered his services through the state-owned company Cubataxi and confirmed that getting fuel is no longer a problem in his new job. “My Lada is the only one with a new engine and that is why it uses oil. Yesterday I consumed 18 liters in seven roundtrips,” he says.

The cuts in the oil supply to the state sector keeps the drivers on edge. Of the more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day that Cuba received during the years when Hugo Chavez ruled Venezuela, the supply dropped to 87,000 in 2016, and now does not exceed 55,000, according to several analysts.

The drop in fuel imports has affected the informal gasoline market and raised prices, one of the reasons that led the private drivers to increase their fares.

Reinier believes that it is too early to “assert that there are advantages” with the Rutero taxis, or whether they really relieve the transport situation in the capital. He confirms that he must give all his proceeds to the cooperative daily. “If I deposit 1,050 Cuban pesos every day, I am guaranteed a monthly salary of 800 CUP.” If he exceeds that amount he gets a bonus, and if he falls short there is a deduction.

This Monday, several of the Rutero drivers were not able to meet the standard, according to Reinier. “I did it, but I have tremendous pain in my back from the nine hours I was driving,” he explains to 14ymedio.

The new service covers the route of the P-14 bus from six in the morning until eight at night. The first section starts on 272^nd Street in La Lisa municipality and runs to the beginning of Marianao; the second concludes at Avenida 26 in the Plaza district, and the last one ends at Fraternity Park.

Another driver, who preferred not to give his name, explained that it is not very clear what happens when someone rides the last 100 meters of the first leg and gets off in the first block of the second. “You could be charged 10 CUP because you crossed the border, but that is up to the driver’s consideration,” he speculates.

The Rutero drivers have a significant limitation: they can only accept Cuban pesos, the national currency, in a country where the convertible peso has become the strong currency that actually runs the economy. The drivers justify the decision because “the cooperative keeps the accounts in CUP to measure the completion of the daily minimum.”

“Betancourt, the president of the cooperative, says that we can not become a Cadeca (currency exchange),” Reinier says, laughing.

According to several drivers interviewed, for now the contract is in force for three months and many expect that “when they adjust it” they will lower the daily quota

According to several drivers interviewed, for now the contract is in force for three months and many expect that “when they adjust it” they will lower the daily quota. There is a sense among them of being part of an experiment open to modifications at any time.

The outsides of the cars are painted with the identification of the cooperative, and inside the cars there is passenger information about their rights and established prices. In addition, the telephone number 18820 is displayed for complaints and claims.

Customers agree that there should be no illusions. “It would be a miracle if it lasts for a year,” says a young woman to an official journalist who, at the stop at Fraternity Park, put a microphone through the window to survey the passengers.

A woman seated next to her limits herself to approval of the new prices. “Comparing it with the private taxis it is better, but it is still expensive. A few years ago, when the taxis had a meter, you could travel through Havana for 5 pesos and for 15 pesos you could travel to another province,” she concludes.

The most interesting topics for Azor are those that have to do with “the economy, politics, culture and daily life” in the country. She finds the comments in the discussion area essential “for the right to free expression.” However, she regrets the “deficit of the culture of debate in [the comments] sent by State Security” to boycott the medium.

In this site the setbacks have been many, as have the gratifications from updating the site, providing a constant flow of information to our readers, and maintaining high quality standards of reporting in the articles published on this page.

Looking ahead three years, the Cuban emigre expects to see 14ymedio developing “more depth in its analysis,” because “the disinformation” exercised by the Cuban government “cannot last” much longer. Azor is extremely critical of the official press and accuses it of misinforming and disseminating “such a biased view of the world” that it can go so far as to “the reverse” of reality.

“ReyLI” comments that “the topics that interest me most are those related to Cuba and Venezuela” and he believes that commenters on the site “should use fewer bad words and generally follow the rules of the site, which are not always met by eliminating comments.” The reader appreciates the existence of this information portal.

“Gatovolador” visits 14ymedio because he finds it “very complete with regard to the news coming from the Island, its dissidence and the government’s great failures.” He would be interested in finding more articles “on universal geography, the discoveries in this field and also in the field of health,” although he acknowledges that the newspaper already dedicates space to these topics.

He also agrees with other readers that “lately confrontations and responses are taking place” in the comment area. Discussions in which there is “disrespect” from “people of the left in their crazy quest to put an end to 14ymedio.” A situation that he believes is based on a strategy to cause “other readers to lose interest and withdraw” from the site.

“I would like to see this newspaper be for sale in all the island’s news kiosks” so that it can be read by all Cubans, he says. The reader congratulates the collaborators and editors of the newspaper and hopes that on “21 May 2018 we can meet again.”

“Jesusnavacuba” has become a regular commenter on this newspaper because he wants to be aware of “the political discussion, to know the strategies” of the managers of this digital site and “to see how they react to the issues of the progressive world.” The reader thinks that the newspaper shows “great ideological flaws with regards to community issues.”

“I would like to see this newspaper sold in all the island’s news kiosks” so that it can be read by all Cubans

The reader, a resident of the United States, is especially interested in the issues “that flood us here and there, those that are reflected in Cuba as a copy of what happens here in the USA and as a practice in the rest of the world.” He criticizes that editors “are not interested in moderating” comments when language is violent, vulgar and offensive, however he believes the discussions are the “steam engine” of the site.

“Discrimination, threats to people’s lives and the apologies for crimes flood the forum,” Jesusnavacuba complains. A scenario that implies that site administrators “prefer active traffic” and sacrifice “quality and professionalism” to obtain it.

In three years, the reader projects that this journal will evolve towards “a new form of private journalism.”

Luis Vigo, a frequent visitor of the page, sees in 14ymedio a space where he can keep “connected with the Cuban reality” and “debate and exchange ideas and opinions with other readers.” He is particularly interested in “news and current issues, both nationally and internationally.”

“The debates among readers not only seem valid but necessary to create an awareness of the diversity of opinions for a future Cuba free of dictatorship,” adds Vigo. He imagines that in years to come this will be “a newspaper with much more scope” for nationals both inside and outside the island.

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Editor’s Note:

We would like to hear your views on our work. We invite you to enrich 14ymedio with your suggestions, comments and criticisms.

A note read on the noon edition of the television news reported that President Raul Castro considers these documents as “the most studied, discussed and rediscussed in the history of the Revolution.” The approval of the texts occurs after a long process in which, it is said, more than 1.5 million Cubans participated.

The Plenum agreed to submit to the consideration of the National Assembly the Conceptualization of the Model and the Guidelines, but with regards to the Plan it only proposed to inform the parliamentarians about its approval.

Missing in the document are topics of great interest to the population such as the elimination of rationing system, the permitting of professionals to exercise self-employment in their specialties, or human rights.

The ratification of these programs comes at a difficult time for the country. Last year, the island experienced a 0.9% decrease in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first time since 1995. Stopping this drop and obtaining an increase in GDP is the government’s main economic objective for this year.

The political and economic crisis in Venezuela has caused an abrupt drop in oil imports to the island. Of the 100,000 barrels a day received by Cuba at a subsidized price during the best years of closer ties with Venezulea, analysts estimate that now only less than half as many barrels are arriving.

A Russian oil company has taken on providing an emergency supply and plans to send in the next few months about 250,000 tonnes of oil and diesel to the island where, since last year, the consumption of electricity in state entities has been rationed and cuts have been applied to the fuel supply.

The current scenario directly raised questions about what was established in the Plan for 2030.

The Conceptualization does not reference that the ultimate goal of Cuban socialism is to build the communist society; nor does it mention as a goal the suppression of the exploitation of man by man.

Missing in the document are topics of great interest to the population such as the elimination of rationing system, the permitting of professionals to exercise self-employment in their specialties, or human rights.

To connect with Finalé – and the women of his paintings – dozens of friends and followers of his art came to the imposing building on the Havana Malecon with its caryatids looking out to sea. On the walls, witness to reunions and toasting with a pinch of rum, the feminine forms concentrated on the truly transcendent: love, life, conception and death.

The artist knows well of hugs and distance. Although he frequently participates in exhibitions on the island and maintains Studio Finalé-Art in Vedado, he spends much of his time in Paris. More than once he has had to pack the eroticism and carry it in the suitcase with which he crosses the Atlantic. That is why the maidens of his paintings come a little bit from here, and others from there and many from nowhere.

The painter’s references are diverse, he calls on the Japanese print as well as Egyptian symbols while drawing on expressionism and the very Cuban avant-garde. In painting, as in sexuality, daring is rewarded, his brushes tell us. So in his pictures African masks and mythological allusions appear.

“These pictures belong to my personal collection, they have been with me for a long time, some since the mid 90’s,” Finale tells 14ymedio. He says it is as if he fears that some have forgotten him. They are infinite canvases like wide and fecund sheets: beds without limits.

The curators of the exhibition, Rafael Acosta de Arriba and Yamilé Tabío, have succeeded in compiling those beloved or dreamed of women who haunt the artist. Women who look, lick, hide behind a mask, desire or copulate. Perishable bodies trapped in the immortal sensuality of a brushstroke.

Finalé has ended up creating his own cosmogony, a universe of sensual beings that are born and perish without leaving the cycle of love. A universe caught in a spasm, where the artist takes refuge and allows viewers to enter.

The scenes of lasciviousness and desire are prolonged when, when descending the wide staircase of the Hispanic-American Center, one enters fully into a sensual and impudent Havana. A city that, like the women painted by Finalé, long ago that lost its modesty.

“The blocking is the clearest sign our site is effective,” he adds. “We are trying to make a video tutorial of how it can be accessed despite censorship” and for months “we have had a weekly newsletter that is sent by email.”

The independent movement has been subjected in the last months to strong repression that includes the arrests of its members, police operations around the homes where they meet and a raid on Avila’s house, who is being prosecuted for an alleged crime of “illicit economic activity.”

The independent movement has been subject in recent months to strong repression that include the arrests of its members,operations around the homes where they meet and a raid on Avila’s house

Officialdom maintains censorship over several dozen critical pages, as well as blogs and opinion sites that shed light on Cuba’s most serious social problems. Among the sites shuttered in this way are 14ymedio and the news portals CubaNet, Diario de Cuba and Martí Noticias, among others.

Until the middle of last year the popular classified ad site Revolico.com also was blocked on the national servers, but in August access to that page was restored.

Cuban authorities have copied the Chinese model of filtering digital sites by their content. A situation that Internet users are struggling to overcome through the use of anonymous proxies, the so-called “virtual private networks” (VPNs), and other tools such as the Android operating system app Psiphon and the Tor browser.

Freedom House recently produced a report in which it identified 66 countries in which it believes that the free right to information is not exercised. Cuba ranked among the top ten, in a list headed by North Korea and Turkmenistan.

In September 2016, 14ymedio published an investigation into censorship of words and phrases in text messaging in the cell phone network. The state monopoly of telecommunications maintains at least fifty blocked terms, among which the name of the organization Somos+ stands out.

Both governments, despite the differences that separate them economically, still have much in common. In April, the Vietnamese regime signed an agreement with Facebook where the social network giant committed to censoring content that violates the laws of the country and erasing accounts that publish “false content” about the authorities.

Very few nationals would spend one minute of their time on-line to find out who was the man of that lonely bust on 26th Street

On the island, meanwhile, the government of Raúl Castro gives access to the network in dribs and drabs through Wi-Fi zones with high navigation prices, censored sites and an unstable service. While Cuba lags with regards to connectivity in cyberspace, Vietnam has more than 45 million users of social networking.

In this world marked by hyperconnectivity, and despite the limitations of access, very few Cubans would spend one minute of their time on-line to find out who was the man of that lonely bust on 26th street. The most they know of him is that he had a reputation for being straightforward, that he wore sandals and that he never imagined the effect that the new technologies were going to have on the system he built.

Izquierdo was detained in the police unit in Los Palacios, a municipality of Pinar del Rio. The vehicle was stopped while driving from the city of Pinar del Rio to the Cuban capital. The driver who drove the car in which Izquierdo traveled was forced to follow a police patrol car until arriving at the station.

Minutes after the detention, Izquierdo was able to make some phone calls to alert others about what was happening and to let them know that his phone might be taken from him at any moment. After talking with several colleagues, they found they could not call his cellphone because it was “off or outside the coverage area.”

Arrests to prevent dissidents from leaving the country are a common practice on the part of State Security. Recently the car carrying the activist Lia Villares was intercepted when she was going to the José Martí International Airport to travel to the United States. An officer forced her to get into a National Revolutionary Police (PNR) patrol and drove her away from the air terminal until her plane took off.

Villares described the “kidnapping” and “forced disappearance” but managed to travel to the United States a day later.

Arrests to prevent dissidents from leaving the country are a common practice on the part of State Security

Previously, other government opponents such as Claudio Fuentes and Ada López have also suffered similar repressive procedures.

The most recent report of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) has denounced this situation. The independent entity reports that Raúl Castro’s government is using “preventive repression in the form of police threats and other systematic intimidating actions” more and more frequently.

“The prohibitions on travel within Cuba or abroad, home searches, arbitrary confiscations of possessions, means of work and money” are among the most frequent practices in the work of State Security against the opposition.

The arrest of Izquierdo is added to the escalating repression against members of the CEC that has intensified in recent months. Several of its promoters have been subject to pressures, warnings and interrogations.

Last January the house of the economist Karina Gálvez was raided by numerous police officers and their personal belongings were retained for weeks. The publisher is being accused of an alleged crime of tax evasion and the police are keeping her house sealed, leaving the family unable to access it.

The Coexistence Studies Center organizes training courses for citizenship and civil society in Cuba. The entity functions independently from the State, the Church and any political group. The magazine of the same name emerged in 2008 and is published bimonthly.