14ymedio

Airbnb, The Cuban Experience / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 February 2017 — Rustic, elegant or family friendly. These are the preferred accommodations offered by Airbnb in Cuba. The hosts, for their part, prefer serious customers who pay well, but above all value the ability to directly manage their rental, two years after the huge international private rental platform opened its services in Cuba.

“There is nothing like Airbnb,” said Jorge Ignacio Guillén, a student of economics who rents out a house in the town of Soroa, Artemisa. Surrounded by lush vegetation, orchids and birds native to the area, the accommodation is described as “rustic” and in direct contact with nature. continue reading

The young man helps his family manage the home’s profile on the California website specializing in vacation rentals. Guillén signed up a year ago and his family’s house is now is one of the more than 4,000 rental options that Airbnb claims exist on the island.

Airbnb listings in Cuba range from exclusive mansions with pool that can cost up to $1,000 a night depending on the number of rooms, to single rooms with a bed or bunk for about 10 dollars

The San Francisco-based company, created nine years ago, expanded its services to Cuba in April 2015, just months after the announcement of the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana.

The offerings on the island range from the most luxurious to the simplest. From exclusive mansions with pools that can cost up to $1,000 a night depending on the number of rooms, to single rooms with a bed or bunk for about 10 dollars*. Hot running water, coffee upon awakening or a minibar are some of the options to choose from.

Of the more than 535,000 self-employed workers in the country at the end of 2016, at least 34,000 dedicate themselves to renting homes, rooms and spaces. An unknown number offer a house or a room “under the table,” without a state license and without paying taxes.

On the island, entrepreneurs need to obtain a rental license, in accordance with the regulations on self-employment implemented in the mid-1990s. Owners of registered rentals must pay license fees and taxes deducted from personal income. These vary depending on the location of the property, the square footage allocated to the rental, and the occupancy numbers.

Airbnb registration is simple. The first step is to fill out a detailed form about the accommodation you are offering and the guests you wish to host. Within a few minutes you will receive an email welcoming you to the platform. The last step is to attract customers, who will rate the accommodation through the company’s website.

The Guillén family has wanted to do everything legally to be able to take advantage of the growth in tourism. Last year, the number of foreign visitors reached 4 million, 6% more than the 3.7 million visitors initially forecast, according to the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur).

Most of the rooms offered on Airbnb are located in Havana, but other destinations such as Trinidad, Viñales, Santiago de Cuba and Matanzas are gaining prominence. The Cuban market stands out as the fastest growing in the history of the company.

Guillén learned about the service through a friend outside the island and as soon as he had the opportunity to connect to the internet he posted his advertisement. “From then to now business improved a great deal and we are finding a lot more customers,” he tells 14ymedio. Also, the new customers “are much better, more serious and more respectful,” and “they pay more,” he summarizes.

The family is offering “a simple country house,” and puts its guests in touch with a guide service and horseback riding. After the reservation, all the information is shared via email, the most fragile part of the operation due to the low connectivity to the internet still experienced in Cuba.

House being prepared for rent on Airbnb by Jorge Ignacio Guillén in Soroa (14ymedio)

Rebeca Monzó, a craftswoman and blogger who has a room for rent on Airbnb, complains of the difficulties involved in managing the service without internet access. Although an email account on the government Nauta service has alleviated the problem, responding immediately when she receives a reservation message is complicated.

Monzó, who has made clear her preference for “stable, professional and retired couples,” will receive her first customer in February, “a Mexican filmmaker who is coming with his wife.” For this coming March she already has another confirmed reservation.

The increase in the number of days of occupation per year is one of the advantages for local entrepreneurs who have joined Airbnb. Guillen confesses that although he still has “much to learn about the management of the platform,” he does manage, through it, to “maintain a good number of reservations.”

After the difficulties of eight years of construction to get their property ready in Soroa, a beautiful natural area, the young man’s family is reaping the fruits of their labors. However, they recognize that the most difficult thing continues to be “always having on hand the necessary supplies to meet basic needs,” because “there still is no wholesale market in the country.”

In Monzó’s Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, “almost everyone who rents to tourists has signed up for the service. The customer pays from their own country directly to Airbnb,” and then “they send an Airbnb representative to the house who brings the money in cash,” she says. It is the same formula frequently used by Cubans abroad to send remittances to family on the island.

But for Monzó, the business is far from a source of great profits. “When I signed up, I wasn’t thinking about being able to buy a yacht. I was just thinking I’d like to have a well-stocked refrigerator.”

*Translator’s note: Looking at the listings on Airbnb’s site as of today, single room rental rates (two guests) appear to be concentrated in the range of about $25-$35 (with many that are more and less than that). A professional employed by the state in Cuba earns roughly $40 a month; physicians earn roughly $60 a month.

More Than 50% Of Cuba’s Political Prisoners Belong To UNPACU, According To Human Rights Group / 14ymedio

Police search during the arrest of Karina Gálvez, in Pinar del Río. (Coexistence)

14ymedio, Havana, 6 February 2017 – A report released this Monday by the National Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) counts 478 arbitrary arrests against dissidents throughout the island during the month of January. The text states that during the past month, there were 20 arrests more than in December 2016.

The independent body documents “12 cases of physical aggression and 11 cases of harassment” of opponents, a situation that is part of the “policy of intimidating repression” that “has prevailed in Cuba for nearly six decades.”

The CCDHRN affirms that the Ladies in White movement continues to be a priority target of political repression, although the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) also is a particular target of “the arbitrary arrests and destructive raids against its members.” continue reading

UNPACU, an opposition organization with a strong presence in the east of the country, has been the victim of “plundering of their means of work (laptops , cameras, mobile phones, etc.).” These police acts have been carried out “with a great deal of political hatred,” the Commission points out.

The report conveys the concern of the CCDHRN on “the situation in prison of Dr. Eduardo Cardet, general coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement, who has just been adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.”

For ordinary prisoners, “material conditions and abuse continue to worsen” in the nearly two hundred prisons and prison camps on the island

The concern extends to the “arbitrary detention for several days, of Karina Galvez,” a member of the editorial board of the magazine Coexistence, accused of the crime of tax evasion and now awaiting trial. The economist was released on bail on January 17 after six days of detention.

The Commission states that “the number of politically motivated prisoners in Cuba is still over 100, of which 55 are active members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba.” For ordinary prisoners, “material conditions and abuse continue to worsen” in the nearly two hundred prisons and prison camps on the island.

The text states that the Government “continues to use prisoners as semi-skilled labor in various jobs for commercial purposes,” including “the production of charcoal for export, mainly to Europe and the United States of America,” referring to the recent shipment of charcoal made from the invasive marabou week to the United States.

Last year the CCDHRN documented a total of 9,940 arbitrary arrests, a figure that “places the Government of Cuba in the first place in all of Latin America” with regards to arrests of this type, according to a report by the independent organization.

Black Gold / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

The liter of gas that in an official establishment costs 1 CUC here has a price of 15 CUP, 40% less. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 6 February 2017 — In a dark corner along the national highway, with no lights to identify it, the connoisseurs of the secret enter an unpaved road. A few minutes earlier they had called from their cell phone asking if there were any ripe papayas. They park in the middle of a banana grove and open the fuel cap.

In the middle of nowhere, a barefoot, shirtless man carries a plastic jerrycan and with the help of a funnel fills the gas tank of an unlicensed taxi, that runs between Cienfuegos and Havana. It all happens in silence, barely uttering a word.

The scene repeats at different points along Cuba’s roads. These “gas stations” are not announced in the yellow pages of the phone book, nor do they appear on the on-line ad site, Revolico. They are the clandestine suppliers of fuel that comes from the state warehouses, especially those dedicated to agricultural uses. continue reading

A liter of gas, which in an official establishment costs 1 Cuban convertible peso (roughly $1 US), here has a price of 15 Cuban pesos (CUP), some 40% less. The cheapest that can be found is 12 CUP, and, very exceptionally and only between friends, 10 CUP. Gone are the times when a liter could be had for 8. The rise in prices was due to a drastic reduction in the quotas the state delivers to farms and cooperatives after Venezuela reduced the supply of hydrocarbons it sends to the island.

The rise in prices was due to a drastic reduction in the quotas the state delivers to farms and cooperatives after Venezuela reduced the supply of hydrocarbons it sends to the island.

The so-called black gold has the power in this country to become even darker in the “irregular” market. In official events they have declared that there are municipalities where, for months, the state gas stations have not sold a single liter of fuel, even though private vehicles continue to circulate without serious problems.

In the middle of last year, the authorities imposed price caps for private transport in the capital and other areas of the city, but the drivers have found several tricks to evade the restrictions. A good part of them circulate with fuel bought in the informal market. If they had to buy their fuel at the state gas stations their fares would go through the room and be unaffordable to the passengers, but an invisible hand is in charge of getting around the government’s measures.

“I come from the street, but I did not want to stay there,” says ‘El Sexto’ / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Danilo Maldonado (El Sexto) after his release from prison. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 3 February 2017 — The uniform haircut imposed upon entering the Combinado del Este prison contrasts with the stains of fresh paint on the shoes of the super tall man, who stands nearly 6’5″. Danilo Maldonado Machado, known as ‘El Sexto’ (The Sixth), a graffiti artist and human rights activist in Cuba, embodies the antithesis of the New Man forged by the Revolution.

After being imprisoned for 55 days for painting graffiti on a wall of the Habana Libre hotel, Maldonado was released on 21 January. He is currently visiting Miami to promote his art and to thank the Cuban community there for their support.

His life has not been easy. He was born in 1983 and grew up in the years of the Special Period when the Soviet subsidies ended and the island was plunged into misery. Originally from Camaguey, he had to share a roof in Havana with another family and take on the weight of a home without a father. continue reading

His art is street art. He never went to an academy. As a child he tried but was rejected for being “very small”

“In those years I was selling milk caramels in the neighborhood to help my mother get by,” he recalls.

“Sometimes we did not even have fifty cents to buy milk. The rebellion against poverty and oppression began at that time.”

His art is street art. He never went to an academy. As a child he tried but was rejected for being “very small.” Leonel, a teacher in the House of Culture in his neighborhood, took him under his wing and showed him the first strokes.

“From there I wanted to get out what I had inside, but I did not know how,” he says.

The first time that Maldonado went to prison was due to a robbery at a warehouse on a Cuban Army tank base. At that time he was serving his compulsory military service. He was sentenced to six years in prison. The prison experience changed him “forever.”

“Prison is a place where you find many types of people, with different cultures and points of view. Learning to live among them, to live together, is one of the great lessons that experience left me with,” he says.

His artistic name, El Sexto (The Sixth) occurred to him in the midst of the Cuban government’s campaign to bring back “The Cuban Five” – spies imprisoned in the U.S.

In prison he also learned that respect is not gained through violence but “with principles and with acting in the right way of.”

Maldonado does not hide that he had a troubled past.

“I have been involved in many things in my life that have made me what I am. I do not come from a monastery. I come from the street but that is not where I wanted to stay,” he answers when asked about the campaign against him pushed by bloggers working for the Cuban government who accuse him of being addicted to drugs.

“People change, they have the right to do it. I do not like even the smell of drinking,” adds the artist.

His artistic name, El Sexto (the Sixth), came in the midst of the campaign by the Cuban government to bring back the five Wasp Network spies imprisoned in the United States, who were known in Cuba as “The Five Heroes.”

He called himself “The Sixth Hero,” who represented the voice of the Cuban people, “the hostage” of the dictatorship, according to Maldonado.

Maldonado has been arrested three times for political reasons

“They (the Government) put them on television, like they are part of your family. I want people to know the message of freedom and to open their eyes. So I understood I had to come to them with a message that was sarcastic and that everyone could understand,” he says.

“You cross out my things, I cross out yours,” he wrote, about the stupid black spots that officialdom uses to try to hide graffit in the capital. In addition, he distributed leaflets with subservise phrases and invited the whole world to be free and happy.

“I am doing my work: being free. I would like others to see that it is possible to be free and to break with the government,” he says when asked about his role in Cuban culture.

Maldonado has been arrested three times for political reasons. In 2014 he attempted to stage a street performance titled Animal Farm. He proposed to release two pigs in Havana’s Central Park. On the backs of piglets, which were painted green, the names of the Cuban rulers were also painted: Fidel on one piglet and Raúl on the other.

The idea was that whoever captured the piglets could keep them as a prize. It was easy to imagine what the winners would do with them. The daring act, which never came to fruition, cost him ten months’ imprisonment in the Valle Grande prison.

El Sexto has been imprisoned for joining the Ladies in White in their Sunday protest marches to demand the release of political prisoners

The conditions in the Cuban prisons, the dirt, the bad food and the degrading treatment to the inmates were documented by him in a diary. In addition, the artist was able to take photographs that he clandestinely sneaked out of Valle Grande to support his complaints.

Art and his activism go hand in hand. Sometimes both activities are scandalous.

“There are people who accuse me of calling the flag a ‘rag’ or reproach me for a work of art made with the bust of José Martí. For me what is truly sacred is human life, above any other symbol created by society. I believe in life and in respect for it,” says Maldonado.

El Sexto has been imprisoned for joining the Ladies in White in their Sunday protest marches to demand the release of political prisoners, and has been part of the ‘We All March’ campaign.

Laura Pollán, the deceased leader of the Ladies in White and Oswaldo Payá, the deceased leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, are tattooed on his skin, along with a petition for the release of Leopoldo López, a Venezuelan politician currently a political prisoner in that country.

In 2015, Danilo Maldonado received the Vaclav Havel Prize, for “creative dissent, the display of courage and creativity to challenge injustice and live in truth”

“I am worried about the situation of political prisoners in Cuba, Eduardo Cardet and many others,” he says. He is also trying to sensitize the international community to the drama of thousands of Cubans who were stranded in Latin America following Barack Obama’s repeal of the wet foot/dry foot policy, shortly before he left office.

“These are our brothers, we should unite to help them. As long as we Cubans do not join together, we will not change the situation of our country,” he laments.

In 2015, Danilo Maldonado received the Vaclav Havel Prize, awarded to people “who participate in creative dissent, display courage and creativity to challenge injustice and live in truth.”

Currently, El Sexto is preparing an art exhibition in the United States. He also plans to travel to Geneva to talk about human rights in Cuba and plans to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum.

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This article is part of an agreement between 14ymedio and the Nuevo Herald.

Video Room Fits in a Container / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Santiago de Cuba, 31 January 2017 — The movie theater with cushy chairs, carpets and a purring projector is a thing of the past. Now, the films are broadcast on huge flat-screen TVs or inside a container for the transportation of goods, such as the one located on San Miguel Street at Victoriano Garzón Avenue in Santiago de Cuba.

At the end of last year, this metal box was set up as 3D movie theater, operated by the state. The improvised place started out as the butt of jokes about the high temperatures in structure under the summer sun, but now its showings play to a full room, due in part to the few recreational options that characterize the nightlife of the area. continue reading

A worker at the Provincial Film Center, who preferred anonymity, commented to the media that the aim of the initiative is to displace the private movie rooms

Marcos Luis Rondin Castro, a worker at the peculiar installation, told Tele Turquino that the plan is to make the container mobile to “bring the new technologies to places where the conditions for these type of projections do not yet exist.” However, the “dark box” still can’t be moved in the absence of a rolling base that the state needs to construct.

The container offers five daily showings, two for children and three for adults over 16 years. The high demand for the service is also due to its proximity to some of the city’s 18-story apartment buildings, where hundreds of families live. The improvised venue has a capacity for 24 spectators at a price of 10 Cuban pesos (roughly 40¢ US).

In November 2013 Raul Castro’s government ordered the closure of the private and popular movie rooms managed by self-employed worker

A worker at the Provincial Film Center, who requested anonymity, told 14ymedio that the aim of the initiative is to displace the private movie rooms. Although these premises were closed down by the state more than three years ago, there are still some operating illegally.

Yoanis Maceira Robert, administrator of the 3D Room, explained to this newspaper that the people of Santiago were “accustomed to the video rooms that were built in different locations that no longer exist,” which is why he hopes that the rolling cinema will be received with enthusiasm.

In November of 2013 the government of Raúl Castro ordered the closure of the private and popular movie rooms managed by self-employed workers. The entrepreneurs ran the movie rooms under a license to operate recreational equipment, but the authorities then prohibited these operations.

Government Invites Doctors Who Fled To Return To Cuba / 14ymedio

A group of Cuban doctors stranded in Colombia protests about the delay in US visas. (Archive)

14ymedio, Miami, 3 February 2017 — The Ministry of Public Health released a statement Thursday in the official newspaper Granma to reiterate the willingness of Cuban authorities to take back health professionals who have “defected” from medical missions abroad.

The announcement comes three weeks after the outgoing U.S. president, Barack Obama, eliminated the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program. This initiative, established during the Bush administration in 2006, facilitated the arrival in the United States of more than 8,000 Cuban doctors who were in other countries. continue reading

In 2014 the Cuban government, for the first time, offered health professionals who had defected, or tried to, a chance to rejoin the national system

“This kind of offering is not new,” said Yisel, a comprehensive general practitioner who left the island in 2015 via Ecuador. “The national health system has run out of workers because of the way they exploited us.” She currently resides in Miami.

Cuban health personnel who have taken advantage of the US Cuban Medical Professional Parole program

In 2014 the Cuban government, for the first time, offered health professionals who had defected a chance to rejoin the national system. The following year, Granma published an extensive article where medical personnel were guaranteed a similar job location to what they had before leaving the country.

“Including those victims of the deceptive and vulgar practice of brain-drain,” said the Communist Party organ at that time.

“Nobody wants to return because what they offer is the same thing that we had,” explains the doctor.

Wages were raised in March 2014. Today, doctors in Cuba earn $60 a month. However, after the massive export of health services, professionals who remain on the island have to work double shifts in hospitals and working conditions have significantly worsened.

The Cuban government has been heavily criticized in international forums for the conditions under which it contracts for its medical staff

“The international medical collaboration that Cuba provides has as its principles volunteerism and the integral attention to the needs of the personnel inside and outside the country,” explains the official note. In addition, it adds that those who work abroad “are guaranteed a stipend, health care, food, accommodation and air and land transportation.”

The Cuban government has been heavily criticized in international forums for the conditions under which it signs agreements to contract for the employment of its medical staff. Most of the earnings, which the authorities acknowledged amounted to $8.2 billion in 2014, remain in the hands of the Cuban state.

According to the note published by the official press, there are three types of collaboration agreements: “one in which Cuba assumes the expenses, another where it shares them with the receiving country and the third in which they are paid.”

The note does not mention the twenty Cuban health professionals who are in immigration limbo in Colombia after escaping medical missions

The Ministry of Health explains that the resources obtained from the work of the doctors are used to support the national health system and offset the expenses of Cuban solidarity missions.

The note does not mention the twenty Cuban health professionals who are in immigration limbo in Colombia after escaping medical missions without knowing about the suspension of the CMPP.

Currently, more than 50,000 Cuban health workers are spread across 60 countries in missions mandated by the Government

Hundreds more awaited the processing of their refugee applications in other countries and await an American US visa in precarious conditions.

Currently, more than 50,000 Cuban health workers are spread across 60 countries in missions mandated by the Government.

Cuba Does Not Need US Investment To Develop Its Economy / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos

No one explains why the abundant income from tourism, among other sectors, does not allow improvement in domestic investment. (EFE)

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Miami, 2 February 2017 – A previous article addressed the economic policy of the current Cuban government to hinder the private economy – forbidding investment from Cubans on the island and abroad – and favoring foreign investment, mainly from the United States, which could lead Cuba to a situation of virtual annexation to the United States. Meanwhile it appears that allowing free investment, and allowing employers to hire workers directly, versus requiring them to contract only through the state, is something that the state-socialist system is not willing to accept.

But, does it have to be like this to develop the country? Does Cuba have to depend on US and foreign investment in general?

My clear answer is no. Cuba does need investment and the international market for its development, but it does not have to rely on US investments or foreign capital to develop its economy. continue reading

An analysis of four basic elements suggests that Cuba could solve its investment needs without having to turn to US or foreign capital in general, as the government, official Cuban economists and others suggest, who do not imagine the island anything but subject to the US.

1. Due to the lack of transparency in the government’s economic data it is unknown what is or could be invested, how much is squandered in the bureaucratic treasury at all levels, how much is wasted in the bad paternalistic-populist democracy, or where that money goes. There is such a lack of transparency about the investments and payments of the nation, no one explains what so much money from taxes of all kinds, remittances, the sale of medical and professional services abroad, or tourism, is spent on, and the national investment is so low.

A change from the current hyper-centralization to democratic control of revenues and budgets should shed light on the existence of the enormous amount of capital currently being wasted

A change from the current hyper-centralization to democratic control of revenues and budgets should shed light on the existence of the enormous amount of capital currently wasted that could increase the amount to be invested from the nation’s own resources. We are thinking about the necessary reduction in the Armed Forces, the apparatus of State Security, the enormous services abroad, the big bureaucracy lazing around in all the ministries and their provincial and municipal branches, the outreach and propaganda apparatus, and the costs of the system of organizations of the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” How much money could be freed up for investments through these reductions?

2. There are enormous fortunes within Cuba that do not display their possibilities due to the current limitations and their fears of being audited. If the inviolability of private capital and property were guaranteed by law and clear relations of free trade were established, this internal capital could be developed, private banks could be generated to facilitate loans to private entrepreneurs and associates, to import the means and resources necessary for internal development and economic movements and associations could strengthen their opportunities. There are imprecise calculations of the thousands of millions of dollars, Cuban convertible pesos, Cuban pesos, stored in banks and mattresses awaiting changes in Cuba.

3. According to different sources, Cuba is receiving between three and five billion dollars a year from remittances, sent back to the island by Cubans abroad. Much of that revenue is being invested in private businesses and another part in using the services they generate. So there is a positive predisposition in the diaspora to support micro-enterprises with micro-investments. If conditions were established in Cuba for the development of free enterprise, this small capital could grow enormously, multiply and expand in a few years.

4. There is a great deal of capital in the hands of Cuban Americans in the United States, a part of which they would be willing to invest in Cuba if a new system of laws, in a State of law, guaranteed private property and free markets, independent of a future analysis of nationalization and compensation*. Because of their Cuban origin, and for some because of their historic ties with specific production sectors on the island, they would be in better conditions than any foreign capital to engage in the Cuban economy and push its development. They bring capital, techniques, knowledge, markets and transportation systems.

The interaction of these four factors would enable a self-sufficient economy, which should not be confused with the absurdity of an autarchic economy

Thus, by simply facilitating the internally accumulated Cuban capital, reorganizing that of the government, and favoring that of emigrants – large, medium and small – with full guarantees, Cuba could receive a large injection of capital of national origin, capable of changing the economic landscape in a few years.

It would not be necessary to have investment from the United States or from other foreign countries. There would be no dependence on American capital. It would not be necessary to be virtually annexed to the United States. Cuba would trade with the United States like the rest of the Caribbean, the American continent and the world.

The interaction of these four factors would enable a self-sufficient economy, capable of generating, itself, the means and resources to resolve the needs of the population with domestic products, exchanged or acquired in the international market. This should not be confused with the absurdity of an autarchic economy that tries to survive without an external market.

How to do this will be the subject of another article.

*Translator’s note: “Nationalization and compensation” refers to the nationalization of private businesses and property in the early days of the Revolution, and the demands on the part of some for compensation for what was taken from them.

Colombia Sugar Mill, A Giant That Is Slow To Wake Up / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

The sugar mill town of Colombia in Las Tunas. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 February 2017 — Colombia’s sugar mill whistle sounded again at the end of January, like a giant awakened from a seven-year-long lethargy. The residents in the area breathed a sign of relief: the driving force behind the local economy seems to be the sugar mill, but technical and organizational problems have delayed its start.

The directors of the colossus announced three weeks ago that everything was ready for the industry to join the current harvest. The local press announced the start for 25 January, but the lack of some parts and other setbacks have prevented meeting that target. The peasants of the surrounding area fear that their mill will be shut down again, plunging the town into somnolence.

The sugar industry defined almost three centuries in our national life, and was the island’s main economic base, determining our language, our customs and even our identity, strongly tied to the sugar plantation and the mill. But what looked like a rising sector suffered severe reversals in the last two decades.

But all that is ancient history. Sugar production began to slide down the slope of failure. (14ymedio)

In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country was faced with the reality of an inefficient agroindustry, with a great technological obsolescence and an international market where the national product was worth less and less.

The peasants in the environs are afraid that their ingenuity will remain standing again, plunging the village into drowsiness

The cuts reached as far as the Colombia sugar mill, which because of its importance in production many believed would never turn off its boilers. Rogelio, 40-years-old and a neighbor of the mill, recalls how in the past, as late afternoon fell, a parade of “ragged men with machetes in their hands, tired and covered with ashes from the cane burning, passed in front of my house.”

He states that “every day at six-thirty in the afternoon the bagasse (the cane waste) filling the air forces us to close doors and windows” and that it was always “accompanied by the mill whistle” that could be heard throughout the town.

But all that is ancient history. Sugar production began to slide down the slope failure. In June last year, Noel Casañas Lugo, vice president of the Azcuba Sugar Group, acknowledged that the production of the last harvest only reached 80% of the predicted plan and remained below the 1.6 million tonnes of sugar achieved in 2015.

Vandalism affected part of the technology and the mill also lost skilled labor. (14ymedio)

Colombia is one of the four main urban centers of the province of Las Tunas and the mill began to operate in 1916. The large wooden houses built on stilts hark back to that time, as do the memories that the families pass on by word of mouth about the power of a machinery that did not stop grinding up the cane in every harvest.

The knowledge acquired in long hours of labor was transferred between generations without the involvement of any schools and the whole town revolved around the mill. It beat to the rhythm of the chimney and seemed to languish between the harvests.

The sugar industry defined almost three centuries in the national life. (14ymedio)

The Las Tunas mill was selected for its productive results as a “pilot model” to integrate into the Business Improvement plan at the end of the last century. But even that did not save it from an abrupt closure at the beginning of this millennium. Its workers, then, were given the most difficult task, one for which they were the least prepared: to stop producing sugar.

The peasants and workers tried to mitigate the situation by sowing potatoes and tobacco where before there had been cane, but the majority were unemployed. The town paused. There were neither rows of ash-covered workers nor bagasse floating in the air … and much less economic prosperity.

In 2011, the Ministry of Sugar was weakened and the new Azcuba Sugar Group was created, subordinated to the State Council. But the new institution has not been able to revitalize the sector, which is also affected by low wages, technical difficulties and the exodus of people from the countryside to urban centers.

In the last month qualified technicians have come from other provinces to readjust the framework of the industrial complex. Every time an anxious neighbor asks about the date when work will be resumed, the response is spare and imprecise: “next week.”

Colombia is one of the four main urban centers of the province of Las Tunas and the mill began operating in 1916. (14ymedio)

To meet its production forecasts, the province of Las Tunas depends on Colombia joining in the harvest, along with the Antonio Guiteras mill, which is not experiencing its best moment, and Majibacoa, which has managed to maintain a stable crop, according to a recent report from the local press.

The 17,462 tonnes of sugar called for in the plan is a challenge for an industry that has suffered such a long-term stoppage, along with vandalism of the technology and also the loss of skilled workers. Administrators have mobilized veteran workers and ensure that “all key posts of the sugar mill are covered,” according to statements to the press by Elido Suarez Nunez, head of industrial maintenance.

The town seems to be living in a carnival. Like in one of those popular festivals where it is not known if at the end of the night a colorful and friendly giant will appear surrounded by lights and sounds, or instead there will be a return to darkness and boredom.

“I Did Not Enter This House Through The Window” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Every night when Bisaida Azahares Correa goes to bed and looks at the ceiling, she is afraid that when the sun comes up she will have leave the house where she lives with her two children. This dwelling in the Siboney neighborhood is her only chance of not ending up sleeping on the street, but its walls are also the source of her major headaches.

The phrase “forced extraction” makes this well-spoken and straight-talking woman shudder. The first time she read those two words together was six months after her husband, Dr. Nelson Cabrera Quesada, left on a medical mission to Saudi Arabia. Since then her life has been turned upside down.

Life in the converted garage revolves around the impending eviction. A situation that contrasts with the large mansions and opulent chalets – where life seems almost bucolic – that surround the modest home of the family. continue reading

Analysts estimate that the country has a deficit of 600,000 homes, but in the last decade housing construction has fallen by 20%

A few yards away, the presence of bodyguards betrays the place where Mariela Castro lives, the daughter of the Cuban president. Nearby is also the spacious home of Armando Hart, former Minister of Culture. All are Bisaida’s neighbors, but they are not aware of the drama that defines the life of this almost 50-year-old woman.

The Cuban authorities have recognized that the housing problem is the primary social need in Cuba. Analysts estimate that the country has a deficit of 600,000 homes, but in the last decade housing construction has fallen by 20%.

In the midst of this situation, the so-called “forced removals” of those who have occupied an abandoned state “shed,” a property closed for years due to the emigration of its owner, or who have erected a house on vacant land, are frequent. But Bisaida’s case is different.

An official notification recently ordered the family to leave the property because it is owned by the University of Medical Sciences. The woman vehemently questions that statement. She says that in 2005 she settled in the house with her husband and their children to care for the doctor’s grandmother.

After the death of the lady, the couple did everything possible to regularize the situation of the house that had been given to Cabrera Quesada’s grandfather in 1979 when he worked as an administrator in the department of International Relations at the university. After living there three years, the teacher won the right to have the property separated from the institution and turned over to her

Among the worst moments Bisaida remembers is the day they showed her husband a document that declares they are illegal occupants

The law recognizes that “at the end of a housing claim” after a tenant lives there for 15 years, “the municipal Housing Directorates issue a Resolution-Title of Property in favor of the persons with the right and who agree to pay the total in 180 monthly payments.” In this case, the family says they have settled the debt with the bank.

However, the twists and turns of the bureaucracy made the legal transfer into the hands of the family impossible. The grandfather ended up retiring and emigrating to the United States, although his wife remained as the principal resident of the house until her death. Since then the family has repeatedly tried to obtain the housing papers, but they have only received threats.

Among the worst moments Bisaida remembers is the day they showed her husband a document that declares they are illegal occupants. They were given fifteen days to leave the house. Although the doctor wrote letters of complaint “to all levels,” the answer to his claim can be summed up in two intimidating words: “no place.”

The woman, who is recovering from breast and uterine cancer, says her husband “has not had the support of any of the ministries involved in his case nor of the University.”

They fear that once outside the house the authorities take advantage to block the access or place an official seal on the door

“All I want is justice, my husband’s grandparents lived here for decades and we’ve been here twelve years,” complains Bisaida. She is not demanding a gift or violating the law for her own pleasure. She only wants the house to be passed on as personal property, as stipulated in Resolution No. V-002/2014 of the Minister of Construction, Regulation of Linked Homes and Basic Means.

Their situation forces them to live virtually locked up.

“We are afraid to leave,” the woman laments. They fear that once outside the house the authorities will take advantage to block access or place an official seal on the door.

“I did not enter this house through the window,” says Bisaida. She shows the address that appears on her identity card and that matches letter by letter with the location of the small garage.

When Life Is In The Hands Of Human Traffickers

Terminal 3 in Jose Marti International Airport in Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 4 February 2017 – The wifi signal barely crosses the glass. The wireless network at José Martí International Airport only covers the boarding area. But a woman presses her whole body against the opaque window that separates the travelers’ area to communicate with human traffickers who are holding her daughter in Mexico.

For half any hour the lady reveals her despair. “I don’t have that much money, if I had it I would send it right now,” she prays through IMO. The videochat is cut several times by the poor quality of the connection On the other side, the voice of a man repeats, without backing off, “Three hundred dollars so she can return on Tuesday.”

The woman wipes her tears and unsuccessfully asks for a reduction. Nearby, a maid who cleans the bathroom passes by, idly dragging a cart with cleaning supplies. A customs official walks by, absorbed, and pretends he is not listening to the disturbing request projected from the screen of the phone, “Don’t kill her, don’t kill her.” continue reading

For half any hour the lady reveals her despair. “I don’t have that much money, if I had it I would send it right now,” she prays through IMO

The scene happens in a place crowded with people, most of whom are passengers about to board a transatlantic flight, or a new commercial route to the United States, and there are also the family members and friends who have come to see them off. No one shows any sign of hearing the drama developing a few feet away.

A tourist tosses back a beer just as the woman is asking the man for half an hour to “collect the money.” She starts the race against the clock. She calls several contacts from her IMO address book, but the first four, at least, don’t answer. On the fifth try, a shrill voice on the other end says, “Hello.”

“I need a huge favor, you can’t say no,” the lady stammers. But the head that can be seen on the screen shakes from side to side. “Are you crazy? And if after you pay this money they don’t let her go?” asks the voice. The tension makes the hand holding the phone start to tremble and her granddaughter, who has accompanied her, helps her hold on to it.

Several more calls and the money is not forthcoming. Finally a serious voice says yes, he can lend the money if the woman will pay it back “in two installments” to his sister in Havana. The mother agrees, promises she can “repay every cent,” although it sounds like a formula to get out of a bind. The man believes her.

Now they must arrange the details. The victim doesn’t have a bank account but the mother will send information about “how to send the money.” This is how the kidnappers get paid. Only then will they allow her to fly from Cancun to Havana, or at least that is what they promise.

Several more calls and the money is not forthcoming. Finally a serious voice says yes, he can lend the money if the woman will pay in back “in two installments” to his sister in Havana

In the middle of last year the Mexican authorities shut down a network trafficking in undocumented people from Cuba that operated in this tourist area in the Mexican state of Qunitana Roo. The end of the “wet foot/dry foot” policy this January has left many migrants in the hands of the coyotes, who don’t hesitate to turn to extortion to make up for the reduction in the flow of Cubans and, as a result, their loss of earnings.

The wifi signal is lost altogether, but the mother is feeling relieved. “She was in a large group, about 20 people,” she tells her granddaughter. A simple calculation allows us to know how much the captors will earn on “freeing” all those they are holding.

Nothing ends with the delivery of the money. “She is going to want to go again,” concludes the mother, the instant she hangs up from the last videochat. “I can’t stand it here, I can’t” she repeats, while walking toward the escalator filled with smiling and tanned tourists.

Guanabo, the new ‘Costa del Sol’ / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

House for sale in Guanabo, La Habana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 31 January 2017 – With an indigenous name and sands full of memories, Guanabo is the beach east of Havana that in recent months has experienced a quiet transformation. Many repatriated Cubans, foreign residents on the island, and local entrepreneurs have bought homes just a few yards from the sea to revive this Costa del Sol in decline.

José Antonio, 53, has his own real estate company, and operates under a self-employment license as a “manager of home buying and selling.” Despite the fact that the housing sector is going through complicated times due to the increase of official controls, Jose Antonio, who lived in Germany for a decade, has never known a better time.

“There is great demand in this area,” he told 14ymedio. In the 90’s he spent a vacation with his family in a wooden house very close to the sand. “I realized there was a lot of potential, because the owners did not have the money to repair their homes and create the international standards to rent them.” continue reading

Life in distant Europe helped this entrepreneur understand “what buyers are looking for”

The next thing Jose Antonio did was to begin the paperwork for repatriation, then he bought a house near the well-known Los Caballitos park and invested in it until it was “rental ready.” In those years it served as a bridge for European friends who wanted to spend long periods on the beach or buy the house of their dreams by the sea.

“When I decided to get into the real estate business, I already had a lot of contacts in the area and people trusted me.” This Monday, the real estate agent showed a couple, made up of a Havanan and a Milanese, a house overlooking the beach in the most commercial area of Guanabo.

“Entryway, living room, dining room, one bathroom, two bedrooms, patio in front and behind for 70,000 dollars,” José Antonio explains. However, his most effective argument has nothing to do with square meters or technical conditions. “This is Cuba’s Gold Coast,” he assures clients. “Now is the time to buy at auction prices, later it will cost a fortune.”

Life in distant Europe helped this entrepreneur understand “what buyers are looking for.” Most of his clients are retired with contacts in the Island who want to buy through a national intermediary, a hazardous operation that often does not end well. “Life is risk and many are willing to venture,” says the agent.

But not everything is golden in Guanabo. The town is the Cinderella of the three most important beaches that make up the east coast of Havana

José Antonio has also had several clients of Cuban origin who returned to the country after the immigration reform of 2013. Cuba’s ambassador to Washington, José Ramón Cabañas, stated last November that from the beginning of 2015 until now, some 13,000 nationals with residency in the United States returned to the country.

For about $120,000 the real estate agent has just closed the sale of a property with swimming pool. The new owners have begun to restore it to settle in the Island with their respective pensions accumulated as migrants in Austria. “Such a house would have cost them a million in Europe or the United States,” says José Antonio.

But not everything is golden in Guanabo. The town is the Cinderella of the three most important beaches that make up the east coast of Havana. While Santa María shows its white sands and Boca Ciega maintains the blue of its waters, the town where José Antonio resides has deteriorated rapidly in recent years.

“At the end of the day most of them are looking for the sun and that’s what we have here, of the best quality”

“We residents are trying to unite to repair the sidewalks,” says Pepín, born in the town and who has never wanted to move to another place. Most of the streets in the town have not been repaired for decades and the sewage situation is catastrophic. The drainage of the urban area ends in the sea and mixes with the waters where bathers swim.

In some places the air stinks with the debris running through the trenches. “A few years ago this was a beach for families, especially with children, but now they prefer to go to other more beautiful areas,” adds Pepín.

However, for José Antonio this type of problems “is transitory.” In a few years and “when this is filled with people with money, families will invest in repairs,” he says. “In the end, most of them are looking for the sun, and that’s what we have here of the best quality, with no gaps.”

An Audit Reveals Millions In Losses In Havana Businesses / 14ymedio

The island currently has a total of 397 non-agricultural cooperatives. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2017 — The latest audit carried out by Cuba’s Office to the Comptroller revealed losses of more than 90 million Cuban and more than 51 million Cuban convertible pesos in public enterprises and non-agricultural cooperatives in Havana, a situation that contributes to the failure to meet economic plans in the state sector, according to Miriam Marbán González, the chief comptroller for the capital.

The results of the Eleventh National Assessment of internal control, which were presented Tuesday at a press conference at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, show a disturbing picture for the Cuban economy because of poor management efficiency and lack of integrity in planning. continue reading

The main objective of the analysis, carried out between 31 October and 9 December 2016, was the decentralization of administrative decision-making, the operation of non-agricultural cooperatives and the application of systems of payment for results.

In Havana, 67 inspections were carried out in which 301 auditors had to confront “the lack of reliability of the primary documentation or the lack thereof.”

The inspection detected “ineffectiveness in information mechanisms, the existence of some individualistic behaviors, lack of foresight and vigilance and little cooperative culture”

Non-agricultural cooperatives also revealed worrying results for this form of business management that has been expanding since its adoption in 2012. The inspection detected “ineffectiveness in information mechanisms, the existence of some individualistic behaviors, lack of foresight and surveillance and little cooperative culture.” The island currently has a total of 397 of these companies, mainly linked to food, personal and technical services.

In total, the Comptroller’s Office has examined 346 economic entities throughout the country, with the exception of Guantánamo Province, which was excluded because of economic damages caused by Hurricane Matthew.

The results of the assessments in the provinces of Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Villa Clara and Holguín have also been alarming. In this last province, the Comptroller General of the Republic, Gladys María Bejerano, was blunt: “If there is no organization, discipline and control, it is impossible to achieve the prosperous and sustainable development that we have set ourselves.”

The state, which seeks to stop, with these controls, the administrative disorder that prevails in the business sector of the island, has been attacked especially against idle inventories, criminal acts and corruption.

The national report could be presented mid-year at the next session of the National Assembly.

The José Martí Memorial Viewpoint Reopens To The Public With A New Elevator / 14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada

The view from the Jose Marti Memorial tower in Havana

14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labradea, Havana, 2 February 2017 — After three years of being closed to the public, the viewpoint of the José Martí Memorial in the Plaza of the Revolution reopened its doors on Wednesday. The highest point in Havana has been out or service for domestic and foreign visitors since the elevator broke after more than five decades of use.

Only a small group of invited guests and press were allowed access to the reopening, despite the fact that from the early hours more than a dozen people waited to ascend to the top of the tower, which occasioned annoyance and complaints. continue reading

People who waited to enter at the reopening were not able to. (14ymedio)

The access to the viewpoint, some 460 feet above sea level and with a 30-mile view, was finally restored asof 1 February, after several days of testing of the new elevator.

The pilot test was not announced in the national press, which only released the date on Wednesday, to “not detract significance to the symbolic reopening”

Ana María Troya Ávila, in charge of the public relations for the monument, told 14ymedio that the service is in “high demand.” She added, “In just seven days this place welcomed around 3,000 visitors, both Cubans and foreigners.”

The pilot test was not announced in the national press, which only released Wednesday date, so as “not to detract from the significance of the symbolic reopening,” she said. One element that contributed to the annoyance of those waiting outside who were not allowed to enter.

One Spanish tourist said she was outraged by the constant bureaucracy of the island. “They keep us waiting for hours and in the end don’t open it,” she protested. Cubans just shake their heads. “We are used to this, the foreigners just have to adapt,” says an old man to calm tempers.

The incident, however, did not diminish the enthusiasm of the employees who made the inaugural tour with an unusual joy. “From this high site you can see points of extreme importance of our capital that distinguishes us in any part of the world”, detailed Troya Ávila.

According to Jorge Estany Ramírez, administrator of the memorial and the person in charge of the process of buying and assembling the elevator, the supplier of the equipment has been the Spanish company Electra Vitoria. “Its speed is six feet per second and is among the fastest in the city right now.” He also highlighted the hard work in the installation and adjustment process that began in early 2016 and has lasted until this January.

“The repair was complicated, because a major change was made, the entire elevator system was replaced from the machinery to the counterweight, so it was a year of hard work that involved not only the change of the old structure, but the need for other repairs that came up during the assembly and in the years that no service was provided,” said Estany Ramírez.

“For us this reopening represents a profit from the economic point of view , because it is a benefit that raises a lot of money and the income is soaring”

One important fact that Troya Ávila wanted to emphasize is the compass of the winds that is inlaid in the floor of the viewpoint, showing the distances between the Memorial and the six provinces at the moment of the construction of the monument and some capitals of the world, and also the significant places related to the life of José Martí.

“For us this reopening represents a benefit from the economic point of view, because it is a that raises a lot of money and the income when we provide these services are soaring and favors us,” said the official.

The Venetian ceramic murals, which are the work of the Cuban Enrique Caravia, in addition to all the images of the floor will be restored in cooperation with the Office of the Historian of the City. The managers of the place plan for the work to be carried out without affecting the access of the visitors.

The José Martí Memorial is open to the public from Monday to Saturday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm and offers a full tour for 8 Cuban pesos (CUP -roughly $0.32 US) for residents on the Island or 6 CUP if they only want to access the lookout point. Foreigners must pay 5 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC – roughly $5.00 US) and 3 CUC for the same services.

Dozens Of Cuban Doctors Stranded In Colombia Will Travel To The United States / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 2 February 2017 — Dozens of Cuban doctors stranded in Colombia are preparing to travel to the United States on Monday after receiving a visa as part of the recently repealed Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program.

The doctors will be the first to reach North American soil after the end of the program that, every year, sheltered every year hundreds of health professionals who escaped from Cuban medical missions abroad.

“There will be more than 20 of us who will fly on Monday, because another flight planned for Friday was suspended,” explains Maikel Palacios by telephone from Bogota. continue reading

The health worker, who spent six months in Colombia after escaping from the Cuban medical mission in Venezuela, says he lives in “an atmosphere of hope among the hundreds of physicians stranded in that country.”

“The news that comes to us from Miami is encouraging. Solidarity Without Borders has been interested in our case,” he explains.

“We are worried about more than 20 professionals who escaped the mission before the program was eliminated and now they have no way to reach the United States and cannot return to Cuba”

Solidarity Without Borders is a non-governmental organization created by Cuban doctors who fled the countries to which the Cuban Government had sent them. Its purpose is to help colleagues, once they arrive in the United States to revalidate their titles and integrate into that country’s medical system.

According to Palacios, dozens of visas have been issued since last January when former President Barack Obama, in a surprise move, gave in to the old request of the government of Raul Castro and repealed the program created by George Bush in 2006.

The export of health personnel generated income for Cuba ion the order of US $8.2 billion in 2014.

In the ten years of existence of the CMPP more than 8,000 doctors and health personnel escaped to the United States.

“We are worried about more than 20 professionals who escaped the mission before the program was eliminated and now they have no way to reach the United States and cannot return to Cuba,” Palacios explains.

Personnel who leave medical missions are prohibited from returning to Cuba for eight years and are considered “deserters” by the Cuban authorities.

Rural Women: Between Furrow And Domestic Labors / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata

Idalmis is one of many Cuban women who dedicate 71% of their working hours to unpaid domestic work. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Alquizar (Artemisa), 30 January 2017 –In Alquízar the red earth covers everything with a reddish layer. To Gladys Montero that crimson powder gets into the wrinkles of the face. “I come from the deep field,” she warns. In Cuba, 21% of women live in rural areas, wake up when the rooster crows and make their lives at the rhythm marked by the crops.

Formerly praised as a “loving guajira,” drawn in a bucolic environment or photographed with her starving children, the peasant woman no longer resembles any of these stereotypes. However, her peculiarities are scarcely heard today amidst the bustle of urban centers and macho prejudices. continue reading

Gladys is close to turning 70 and carries the memories of her childhood as “fresh as a lettuce.” As a child, she helped her parents to plant “corn, beans and squash.” She only finished the eighth grade, although she detects with a glance whether a furrow was planted with dedication or sloppily.

The female workforce in the agricultural sector represents 19.2% of the total of its workers and only 17.3% of the management positions in these areas are occupied by them

Although in 2013 more than 142,300 women worked in the fields of the island, in the popular imagination these tasks remain “a thing of men.” The female workforce in the agricultural sector represents 19.2% of the total workers and only 17.3% of the management positions in this area are occupied by them.

Inside the houses the picture is totally different. 56% of rural women are engaged in household chores. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture indicate that for every 100 men with stable employment in the countryside, there are scarcely 30 women.

As a young woman, Gladys also cut cane, hard work that is scary even for many men. “I gave birth to my first child very young and shortly after the second one came,” she recalls. When the children grew up, her mother became ill and she took care of her until the end of her days.

The majority of her neighbors and relatives have gone through a similar situation. Hundreds of miles from the village of Artemisa, where Gladys lives, Rosa María also lives a life in front of the fire in Florida, Camagüey. “There are nights when I go to bed, everything hurts and my feet are very swollen.”

The main problems that both must overcome each day are linked to the energy source with which they process food, the water supply, domestic violence and economic difficulties. None have a hobby, they hardly participate in social activities nor have they gone to the movies in the last ten years.

The qualitative study, Fifty Voices And Faces Of Cuban Peasant Leaders, sponsored by OXFAM-Canada and the Government of Andalusia, revealed that the empowerment of rural women is failing on the overload of domestic responsibilities and childcare, along with insufficient technical preparation and sexist stereotypes, among other factors.

For every 100 hours of men’s work, women perform 120, most of them simultaneous activities

Across the country, females devote 71% of their working hours to unpaid domestic work, according to a 2002 Time Use Survey. For every 100 hours of men’s work, women perform 120, most of them simultaneous activities. A situation that is aggravated in the towns and villages.

Specialist Mavis Álvarez Licea believes that “a still significant majority of rural men behave with a strong hegemonic masculinity.” While women “are still subjected to male power, perhaps not in the same degree and condition as their predecessors but, overtly or openly, they are repressed and discriminated against.”

Gladys Montero only finished eighth grade, although she detects with a glance when a furrow was planted with dedication. (14ymediate)

The case of Teresa González is different. From the age of 17 she began to keep the accounts at the José Antonio Echevarría credit and service cooperative at Artemisa. Today she holds the presidency. “I spent the day doing the accounts and at first the men who were in the field thought that this was not work,” she recalls. Over time she has made everyone respect her work.

In 2008, the government of Raúl Castro implemented a series of measures to revive agricultural production. Among them was the delivery of idle land in a form of leasing known as usufruct, under Decrees-Laws 259 and 300, but according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, four years after the start of the process, of the 171,237 beneficiaries, only 9.5% were women.

Men continue to have property control over agricultural resources such as land, water, inputs and credits, and make most of the decisions. Of women, only 12,102 are landowners, for 11% of all landowners.

Men continue to have property control over agricultural resources such as land, water, inputs and credits, and make most of the decisions. Women represent only 11% of landowners

The Cuban authorities favor the figures comparing the situation between men and women in terms of access to health, education, employment and administrative positions. But little is published about the gender wage differences and the contrasts of opportunities, especially those linked to regional location.

In the middle of a furrow where she picks tomatoes, Marisol says she always has something to do. “After this comes the harvesting of garlic that pays better,” she tells 14ymedio. Her husband prefers to have her “in the house all day polishing on the floor,” but economic constraints have forced him to accept that she works in agriculture.

At her side, under the inclement sun, is Mirta, who, every day after completing the tasks of reaping and arriving at her modest house, carries the water from a nearby irrigation channel to bathe, wash clothes and cook. “We do not have a television because the current comes to us from a ‘clothesline’ (an informal wire run off someone else’s line) and the voltage is very low.”

She has not been able to convince her children to stay in that house surrounded by fields and pigsties. Her son decided to remain in the military when he finished his military service and her daughter married a man who “took her to Havana.”

_______

Editorial Note: This report was made with the support of Howard G Buffet Fund for Women Journalists of the International Women’s Media Foundation.

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