“The State Fears The People Getting Rich” / 14ymedio, Sol Garcia Basulto

Onel Vara Fernández has a license to make and sell items for the home, in Camagüey. (14ymedio)
Onel Vara Fernández has a license to make and sell items for the home, in Camagüey. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Sol Garcia Batista, Camaguey, 19 November 2016 – With an incredible facility with recycled metals and plastics, Onel Vara Fernandez holds a license as a producer and seller of articles for the home* in Camaguey. For the last 22 years, this tenacious entrepreneur has engaged in high and low skilled work, working for himself in Cuba, an experience he shares with the readers of 14ymedio.

14ymedio: How do you recall the reintroduction of the private sector in the 1990s?

Onel Vara Fernández: The self-employed worker, or independent worker as it should be called, has already been around for 22 years, starting in November of 1994 with six types of trades. I am the founder of working on my own account, when I took out a license and started working as an artisan.

14ymedio: Are workers who choose this type of non-state work well looked upon? continue reading

OVF: At the beginning, an independent worker was seen as a dissident, an opponent. They gave us the name of “Merolicos” after a character in a [Mexican] telenovela from that time. At that time everything that was outside the state was viewed badly because with the triumph of the Revolution here, everything disappeared, even the shoeshine boys**. But I have been a person who never had a desire to leave the country, on the contrary, I have preferred to stay here and to continue to defend it. To me, the idea is to better it, not to criticize the government.

14ymedio: What types of articles do you produce.

OVF: Almost everything used in a house, from electrical boxes and spare parts from different appliances, such as washing machine agitators and pullies and even spools of thread.

14ymedio: Did you receive training for this work?

OVF: My work has nothing to do with what I studied, I was a technician in a machine shop. However, everything I use for my work I make myself, from the tools and molds to the machines to shape plastics or rewind cable reels, all in a general sense, I do it not only because I need to, but I like to make things.

14ymedio: What role does independent work play in Cuban today?

OVF: A high percentage of society lives off their own work. In addition to the official worker, the helpers benefit from it, those who sell the product, and their families, children, and the elderly.

14ymedio: Do you think the State appropriately values the work of the self-employed?

OVF: The State could be more appreciative of the work of entrepreneurs. I have seen electrical boxes made outside the country, stamped with “Made in Italy.” These electrical boxes come from the State warehouses and agencies, the State imports them but they’re no different from the ones I make. Why go to another country to find these products, if there are independent workers producing this type of item? We do it with the same quality and the with recycled plastic, which is more ecological and economical. But the State fears the people getting rich.

14ymedio: Do you think the category* “producer-seller of useful household articles” really defines your occupation?

OVF: The term with which they define me doesn’t seem right. I consider myself more of a goldsmith, that is the profession that includes manual labor. Before, we paid 100 pesos for a license to be an artisan that includes almost everything you can make and sell, but now you need about five licenses to do the same thing, because that way the National Office of Tax Administration (ONAT) gets more money. It allows the inspectors to have greater control over the worker. But the State fears people getting rich.

14ymedio: What role will the private sector play in the development fo the country?

OVF: The future of this country is in independent workers, because despite being persecuted by inspectors, we are less within the reach of the State and it restricts production, even in its own companies. But the independent worker is not in their hands. I can work however I want, with whatever raw materials and when I want, this gives me a wider margin for creativity.

We are also more aware of the needs of the people. This is a point in our favor because the State is distant from others, isolate, but the independent worker knows what they can sell, because it is what they themselves need, their family, their neighbor, the people they know.

14ymedio: And how does the US embargo affect your work?

OVF: The blockade is a political strategy that the leaders of this country use to justify everything bad they do. They caused the blockade to become law when they shot down the American [Brothers to the Rescue] planes in 1992. They did it precisely for that reason, to have an external enemy to blame. However, the blockade has benefitted the self-employed workers. Thanks to it Cuba has not experienced the consumer society and so it has developed the independent worker.

In developed countries people use things and then throw them away. Here we have learned to live thirty years with a Russian washing machine. When it breaks an independent worker is the one who has the parts. We have learned to engineer it and that makes us stronger. When an independent worker can develop their industry everyone wins. Now all that’s lacking is that they let us do it and it has nothing to do with the United States blockade.

Translator’s note:

*Cuba has a limited list of allowed lines of work for which people can get licenses to work independently. This is one of them.

** Fidel Castro moved quickly to nationalize major industries and foreign-owned business, and finally, in 1968 in the so-called Revolutionary Offensive, eliminated all private enterprise, taking over “mom and pop” businesses and, notably, even shoeshine boxes.

Lorena: A Little Pioneer / 14ymedio, Leandro Cansino

Cuban school kids
Cuban school kids (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Leandro Cansino, Stockholm, Sweden, 19 November 2016 – Lorena just turned five. How exciting is the first day of school! She spent days looking at her red and white uniform, perfectly ironed and ready for the princess to wear on her first day of classes. Now it’s Monday and last night Lorena could barely sleep from excitement, she eats her humble breakfast, but it doesn’t matter, her mind is focused on her first day of school. She is so lucky, she got Ana for her teacher, the one with the best reputation in the area, both for her professionalism and also for her tenderness in teaching. It seems one of those day where everything is rose-colored.

How sweet Lorena is. She sits right in the middle of the classroom, her little angel’s feel don’t reach the floor, she jiggles her legs from happiness, looking all around at her little classmates, some that she knows and others new to her, but she smiles at everyone, her happy face is welcoming, and, what luck, on the wall to her right is a picture of Camilo Cienfuegos with his impressive beard and smile. Lorena couldn’t be any happier! continue reading

The months pass and Lorena now knows what vowels and consonants are, and has learned how to divide words into syllables and even how to mix primary colors and draw a beautiful sun. She is smart and accepts any challenge, asks if she doesn’t know something, has no fear of being wrong, and is responsible for the mural in the classroom where there is only room for a verse by José Martí that her mother helped her write holding the pencil. She doesn’t even have to look having memorized it and can recite them all and when she does she does it from the heart. She is brilliant, it’s a blessing.

Lorena’s mother, Betty, is a housewife and very particular about her home. She suffers from a cocktail of slow and painful illnesses that don’t allow her to work, but she has no unemployment insurance because as long as she’s been alive, it has never existed. Still, she is very well educated, she likes to plant flowers and develop new gradening techniques. Her garden is the envy of the neighborhood.

What to say about Pablo, Lorena’s father and Betty’s happy husband. They have spent many years together and he never abandoned them despite his wife’s infirmities. Pablo, or Paco as he’s called in the neighborhood, is a family man, lord of his castle. He is an industrial engineer, although long ago he took the proud title down from his wall because he was fired from his company for believing that freedom of expression and the Communist Party went hand in hand; those books tricked him. Paul is in a league of his own, he is a living encyclopedia, but no one will hire him because he is infected with incurable ideological problems.

His new industry is a 28-inch Chinese bicycle designed to perfection to sell handmade brooms, mops and brushes. He is not a beefy guy with tough hands and always relied on the power of his pencil and ruler, but now the wounds and calluses are becoming apparent. Still, Pablo is a fighter, he has only one goal: the future of his family, at any cost, without looking back.

Lorena has been in school for some time and she adapted easily and has passed her grade with excellent marks worthy of eternal applause. She is very focused on her studies, everything interests her, and even in the boring Cuban History classes she imagines the battles in the fields of the island, defending the sanctified land from the enemy invader.

Lorena passes almost unnoticed, but her shoes are broken and it as if she suddenly wants to talk and she sees the holes on both sides showing the color of her socks, with the damn holes getting bigger every day. She no longer wants to go out to recess, much less kick the ball, she’s afraid the shoes will completely fall apart and shame her. In the classroom she doesn’t wriggle happily like before, swinging her feet, and although she knows the answers to the arithmetic problems she doesn’t want to go to the board, but Camilo still smiles that smile of the peaceful captain and she finds solace for now.

Lorena doesn’t say anything to her parents, she knows they noticed weeks ago and knows that for now there are no chances of retiring the shoes. She remembers her Papá getting home almost after dark some days back, on his bicycle under a tremendous downpour, totally soaked, poor Paco. Betty almost cavalierly tossed him a towel and prepared a delicious coffee for him. From his damp wallet Paco took out a notice of a ridiculously astronomical fine imposed for not having a receipt for the purchase of the rusty wire that he wraps his brooms with. The fine is the equivalent of what he earned in six months working as an engineer. Lorena doesn’t understand that the people who imposed that fine on her dad were the same ones who defended the poor workers of the enslaving enemy oppressor.

Ana is such a nice person she understand everything that happens to her students without even asking. All the parents come to collect their children in the afternoon and she can interact with them a bit, understand the situation of Lorena and her family, but she has no power to help, and tries to hide her own tears because she is so caring and feels as if the students were her own children.

Lorena asks herself a lot of questions, but she understands nothing and knows that there are grown-up things, but she can’t help noticing how Rita, her little friend with the long braids and plastic barrettes adorning her head comes to school with a different pair of beautiful shoes every day, and a bright blue backpack that says ‘Disney’ on it, with a package of crayons whose colors are a mystery because the names of them are not written in Spanish.

It’s curious, because Rita’s mother is criticized by many in conversations she has overheard for giving hugs and kisses to men of unknown nationalities, and even making phone calls on a phone that belongs only to her and has no wires. Everyone is amazed and, although they criticize her behind her back, they all respect and even smile at her.

Lorena now wonders whether she is really living in the golden age, or if she read the book wrong because she doesn’t know how to read correctly. Everything happens around her, except the broken shoes, which look as if they will be with her for a long time to come.

Amnesty International Calls For “Urgent Action” to Support Cubalex /14ymedio, Miami

The State Security raid on Cubalex (Cubalex)
The State Security raid on Cubalex (Cubalex)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Miami, 19 November 2016 –The non-governmental organization Amnesty International (AI) called on Friday to take “urgent action” to protect members of Cubalex, an NGO not recognized by the Cuban government against which there has been a resurgence of actions.

“Since September, the Cuban authorities have intimidated members of Cubalex, which provides free advice in Havana on legal matters and human rights,” AI said, detailing the raid on the organization’s headquarters where they confiscated laptops and documents,” according the Cubalex director Lartiza Diversent. continue reading

AI also mentioned the humiliating treatment of the security forces, including forcing at least one woman to disrobe. In addition, the Havana Provincial Prosecutor gave notice that Cubalex is under investigation regarding taxes.

AI also detailed the testimonies of two members of Cubalex who were summoned for interrogations, which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. The authorities have also summoned people who have taken advantage of the legal advice offered by Cubalex.

“The director of Cubalex [Diversent] reported that in her recent travels she had been detained and interrogated several times at the airport. She believes that her home, which is used as a base for the activities of Cubalex, is under surveillance,” says the AI appeal.

The international organization calls on people to show solidarity with the members of Cubalex, by writing letters, email, faxes or tweets, to different Cuban officials on the island and abroad.

AI aims to sensitize international public opinion in order to allow members of Cubalex “and all other lawyers and human rights activists” to operate freely without harassment and intimidation.

Amnestey International also urges that the criminal justice system not be used abusively, nor that civil litigation be used to attack or harass human rights activists;

It calls for ensuring a safe and supportive environment in which it is possible to defend and promote human rights without fear of retribution, retaliation or intimidation.

The Power and Paladares*, an Ambiguous Relationship / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya

Paladar Don Quijote, on centrally located Calle 23 in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood (14ymedio)
Paladar Don Quijote, on centrally located Calle 23 in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 16 November 2016 — Rarely does the official press offer journalistic work of any interest, so a report that was published a few days ago is greatly appreciated. The work was published following controls recently directed by the Government to a total of 32 private restaurants in Havana (“Private Restaurants in the Capital Control and Success, in that Order?” by Yudy Castro Morales), a piece that reflects, in an unusually objective manner, some of the limitations that hinder the performance of private restaurants in Havana.

Weeks earlier, the State press monopoly had made mention of certain irregularities that had been detected in the sector, such as violations in urban planning regulations, illegalities in procedures for the sale of homes, “the importation of goods for commercial purposes,” tax evasion and violation of established limits related to activities for which licenses were issued.

The unprejudiced use of terms as demonized as “private restaurants,” “business” and “prosperity,, among others, is surprising

Indirectly, it also suggested that some of these establishments had become “scenarios for the dispensing of drugs, pimping and prostitution,” as well as for money laundering, which collaterally constitutes tacit acknowledgement of the proliferation of unspeakable evils within the impeccable socialist culture.

All of this, in addition to the closure of numerous restaurants and cafés and the suspension of the issuing of new licenses for this type of self-employment business created a climate of uncertainty about the fate of the private restaurant industry, popularly known as paladares*.

This uncertainty is now beginning to dissipate, at least partially, when the most official newspaper of Cuba not only deals with the results of the mentioned inspection in the capital, but disseminates critical testimony and demands from several owners of some of Havana’s privately owned restaurants.

The absence of revolutionary slogans and of political-ideological allusions of the kind that usually overload articles in the official press is another unusual feature of the article, and equally surprising is the unprejudiced use of terms as demonized as “private restaurants,” “business” and “prosperity,” among others.

Some insightful rumors considered that the official strategy consisted in selecting certain prestigious restaurants and offering them legal advantages in exchange for adhering to certain norms

In fact, problems detected by the State audit during inspections do not, in themselves, constitute a novelty: closing schedule violations, direct hiring of performers that liven up some private locations –without going through a State Agency where they are required to be registered – problems with employees’ contracts, noise pollution, illegal merchandise, smuggling and the crime of receiving stolen goods are real and well-known transgressions, in both the private and the State sector.

For that reason, some insightful rumors considered that the official strategy consisted in selecting certain renowned restaurants and offering them legal advantages in exchange for adhering to certain norms and commitments with sectors of the State entrepreneurship. The State-Godfather protects those who are loyal to it, in its best Mafioso style.

Should this rumor be true, it would not be anything new. It is popularly spoken of – though obviously unverifiable – that the owners of some of the most successful paladares have some kind of link with the power authorities and have enjoyed official tolerance in exchange for political compliance, whether fake or not.

The ideological commitment/control mechanism is (also) a longstanding practice in the gastronomic sector. During the decades of the 70’s and 80’s, restaurant, bar and cafeteria management – all of them State-owned – were very coveted jobs, since they were consistent and secure sources of illicit proceeds from the smuggling of products diverted from the official network and resold at premium prices in the black market.

Whoever has not lived in a society accentuated by shortages and subjected to a ration card to acquire their sustenance may not understand the enormous economic power that is derived from the management of foodstuffs.

So significant were the gains in the gastronomic industry that the Upscale Restaurant Enterprise in the capital gave those jobs to “team-players” of the Communist party and to intermediate leaders with a proven historical track record of loyalty to the system.

So significant were the gains in the gastronomic industry and so coveted the management jobs at prestigious restaurants, such as El Polinesio, La Torre, El Conejito, el Mandarín, Las Bulerías, Montecatini, among many others – some of the famed restaurants as well as many others – that the Upscale Restaurant Enterprise in the capital gave those jobs to “team-players” of the Communist party and to intermediate leaders with a proven historical track record of loyalty to the system.

This clientele-centered procedure created a sort of undercover middle class, whose advantages over the working class were based on their ability to access consumer goods and services that were just not available to the latter, in the same way that the standards of living and the ability of the current private owners of the most successful paladares are far beyond the possibilities of the vast majority of Cubans.

The difference between those State administrators of yesteryear and the current owners is that the former dealt with public goods, since private property was banned then, and the latter operate with private capital, but the common denominator among them is that the power — which arbitrarily dispenses approvals, punishment or pardons — controls and manipulates them from the point of view of their dependence on improprieties in following the laws in order to thrive, on both sides.

Thus, the prosperity of the ‘Private Manager’ depends, to date, on his ability to misappropriate State assets entrusted to him without being discovered, while the success of the ‘Private Owner’ depends on his ability to violate the law, be it accessing the underground market to acquire the goods that he needs or through the evasion of taxes and other regulations.

The prosperity of the ‘Private Manager’ depends, to date, on his ability to misappropriate State assets entrusted to him without being discovered, while the success of the ‘Private Owner’ depends on his ability to violate the law

But what is really novel in the journalistic report in this case is that it has given space to the voices of the presumed victims in the Government press — the ever-demeaned private owners, or “entrepreneurs” — and that these voices have expressed themselves so critically and so freely about the multiple constraints imposed by the State system that regulates self-employment.

Included among the major constraints that were listed are the lack of wholesale markets and the insufficient supply of the retail networks, the unfeasibility of joining importing entities in order to acquire consumables and equipment that are lacking in retail networks, the express prohibition for the private sector to import products that are not commercialized in the State entities, among them, certain types of alcoholic drinks that are in high demand, the restriction of allowed seating (50 chairs in total, whether under a cafeteria or a restaurant license) which “negatively affects the business,” especially those that provide services to the official tourist agencies which, on occasion, in the face of the great demand and the limits on authorized seats, push the license-holders to violate those limitations.

Criticisms were even directed at State and cooperative management nightspots, described by owners of paladares as deficient in “not offering quality services,” which makes one think that perhaps soon, and in light of the growing wave of tourists, this kind of establishment, which at the moment is exclusively State owned, might become privately owned.

What is really novel of the journalistic report in this case is that it has given space to the voices of the presumed victims in the Government press and that these voices have expressed themselves so critically

“We are willing to pay the established taxes (…) but we want profitable businesses,” stated an owner, implicitly demonstrating the financial capacity that the elite in the industry has attained.

But, in addition, the report allows us to perceive certain nuances that make a small but significant difference, in a journalism that is habitually flat and uncritical. There is a case, for example, of an owner who, as a taxpayer, demanded to know more about the fate of the taxes he pays the State, something that was considered a heresy until recently.

Of course, these are wispy and sparse signals, but they forecast the possible evolution of private capital, though reduced to an elite sector that, despite its fragility, begins to feel independent and to consider itself useful and necessary for the survival of an obsolete and unproductive system in crisis.

Of course, official responses to the claims of private owners have not been published. No one knows for sure how much was “allowed” or how audacious this infrequent journalistic report and these demands really are. At the moment, it is worth paying close attention to the direction of private Havana restaurants. Let’s not forget the old saying: “God writes straight with twisted lines.”

*Translator’s note: Paladar (plural: paladares) (Portuguese and Spanish for “palate”) used in that sense in the Spanish speaking world, however in Cuba, it is used exclusively to refer to restaurants run by the self-employed. Mostly family-run businesses, paladares are fundamentally engaged to serve as a counterpart to State-run restaurants for tourists seeking a more vivid interaction with Cuban reality, and looking for homemade Cuban food.

The term in popular usage has its origin in the Brazilian soap opera Vale Tudo”, broadcast in Cuba in the early 1990s. Paladar was the name of the chain of restaurants. The airing of that soap opera coincided in time with the first issue of licenses for the self-employed in Cuba, so popular culture gave this name to the then-new type of establishments.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Cubans’ Route To The United States Passes Through Remote Guyana / 14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez

Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Guyana. (Youtube)
Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Guyana. (Youtube)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, 15 November 2016 – He doesn’t yet know how to find Guyana on a map, but he proudly shows off a plane reservation from Havana to Panama City and finally to Georgetown. Samuel, a fictitious name to avoid reprisals, was counting the hours this Saturday before boarding his plane to the small nation, a new port of entry for Cubans on their route to the United States.

With the visa restrictions imposed by Ecuador since the end of last year, the routes islanders must follow to emigrate have been redefined. The lax entry regulations, which don’t require visas from Cubans, have made Guyana a first step on the long route of thousands of miles during which emigrants pass through at least seven countries.

“I sold everything, the apartment I inherited from my mother, my home appliances and my almost new motorbike,” Samuel told 14ymedio at José Martí International Airport. With the money, he managed to buy a ticket to the South American country, some 840 dollars round trip, although he says it will be a journey with no return.

“They explained everything to me,” says this young Holguin native. “Several friends have already taken the same route and gotten to Miami,” although they also warned him that it is “a long and complicated journey, where anything could happen.”

The line at the counter of Panama’s Copa Airlines is full of people like Samuel. A couple kissing intensely on Saturday, before the man checked his suitcases bound for Georgetown. A few yards away, Samuel bent nervously, again and again, looking over his hotel booking.

“I will not be staying in this place but I need a reservation to avoid problems when entering Guyana” he explains. As soon as he lands he will contact Ney, a Mexican woman with a Uruguayan cellphone number who will put him in contact with the coyotes who will guide him through the first part of the journey.

“I have to pay $6,000, little by little, but they guarantee I will be at the United States border before the end of November,” he says. He does not know anyone in Guyana and does not want to think about the idea of having to stay in that country. “I do not speak a word of English and I’ve had enough of little countries like my own,” he jokes, as he approaches his turn at the Copa Airlines counter.

He is carrying a suitcase that weighs almost nothing. “I have nothing, what I didn’t sell I gave away.” His only possessions of any worth are a smart phone, a watch and about 8,000 dollars that remain after getting rid of all his property in a hurry. “With this I have to get to Miami because I don’t have even a single cent more,” he says.

Samuel carries contact numbers for Paulo and Adele, a small family business that operates a bus route between Guyana and Brazil. “A cousin gave me these numbers in case I change my mind and he wants me to go to Rio de Janeiro, where he runs a gym.”

Samuel has a degree in physical culture and he believes he can have a future “in some fitnessss center because there are so many of those in Florida,” he says, pronouncing the word with a very long, almost ridiculous, “S” sound, but he is also willing “to lay bricks doing construction work in the hot sun.”

After a couple of years working as a physical education teacher, the young man is ready to “conquer the world” if he can. For now, his challenges are more modest: to get to the Cheddi Jagan Airport in Georgetown and convince the immigration agent that he’s a tourist planning to sightsee and shop, to avoid being deported.

“I will just grab my suitcase and rush to the first taxi that passes by.” The airport is more than 25 miles from the city, but Samuel predicts that he will be laughing the whole time because he will be “over there, far from this shit.”

Each day about fifty Cubans depart from Terminal 3 of Havana’s International Airport heading to Guyana, according to an employee of Copa Airlines. The numbers could skyrocket if people fear that the Passport and Visa Service of that country will be closed to islanders, as happened with Ecuador.

The victory of Donald Trump is also an incentive for emigration, with the expectations that the Cuban Adjustment Act will be repealed. “It’s now or never,” says Samuel, with ticket in hand. The young man steps toward the immigration booth, where an official will affix the stamp to leave the country. That clicking sound on the paper will be his shot to take off.

New Cuban Parliament Site Inaugurated Without Pomp / 14ymedio

The nation's capitol building has again become the headquarters of the Cuban National Assembly, although restoration work is not yet completed. (14ymedio)
The nation’s capitol building has again become the headquarters of the Cuban National Assembly, although restoration work is not yet completed. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, 17 November 2017 – The inauguration of the National Capitol building as the headquarters of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power was treated with a minor notice on the second page of the Communist Party newspaper Granma, with the central focus being the presence, at the site, of Tran Dai Quang, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The president of the Cuban parliament, Esteban Lazo Hernandez, solemnly declared that this Wednesday was “an historic day for us,” and explained to the Asian delegation how the National Assembly works. Eusebio Leal then led a tour of the restored areas.

The inauguration lacked pomp or a formal prior notice. Nor it was attended by all the deputies, nor was the ceremony broadcast live on national television.

Outside the re-inaugurated dome, scaffolding continues to fill the scene, while construction dust and noise leaves no doubt that the most emblematic building of the Republican era is not yet ready to properly receive the parliament of socialism.

Cuba’s TV Broadcasters Appear in Military Uniforms / 14ymedio

Froilan Arencibia, like other Cuban television announcers, wore a military uniform for the occasion. (14ymedio)
Froilan Arencibia, like other Cuban television announcers, wore a military uniform for the occasion. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana 17 November 2016 – A stunning military deployment, from Wednesday to Friday, is taking place in Cuba. And in the midst of this 2016 Strategic Bulwark Exercise, a military maneuver that prepares “the troops and the people to confront different enemy actions,” the presenters on the national television news have dressed for the occasion in military uniforms.

The precise date of the training exercise was announced one day after the presidential election in the United States, a coincidence that has not gone unnoticed by many. The authorities have emphasized the “invulnerability” of Cuba in the face of aggressions, but in this edition that have called out “American imperialism” as the principle danger.

To the three days devoted to the Strategic Bulwark will be added November 19 and 20, which will be “National Days of Defense.”

“Serious And Decent Worker Seeking Employment” / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata

 Jehovah's Witness Hall in Havana. (Courtesy)
Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Havana. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, 17 November 2016 — Discriminated against for decades, Cuba’s Jehovah’s Witnesses just opened an employment agency that focuses on the “honesty and decency” of its people. The database “is an opportunity to advertise the skills that the brothers have in different professions and trades,” says Tamara Sanchez, one of the managers.

As a “private initiative,” although it is linked to the religious community, she describes the new project as one to connect the private sector with “serious and decent” workers. Close relationships within the congregation are a plus for the rapid transmission of information.

“When I look for a job with the state and they realize that I am Jehovah’s Witness they see me as a weirdo,” said Mario Francisco. “I was not a Pioneer [in elementary school] and did not wear the neckerchief,” he recalls. continue reading

The young man works in the private sector as a caregiver for the elderly. He considers that job opportunities through the agency could be “a way to erase prejudice.” He notes that he only works with families who share his beliefs because he feels “more respected.”

“Please, if you are not a witness, do not call to register (…), although we do not doubt that you are an honest person, we can not accept your registration,” clarify the managers of the employment exchange. The project is focused only on those who “find it very difficult to get work in these critical times.”

The Cuban government’s relationship with Jehovah’s Witnesses has been tense since the coming to power of Fidel Castro. Many were interned in the Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP) camps that operated on the island between 1965 and 1968 – along with other religious believers, homosexuals and political dissidents – while others were driven underground and into exile.

The official animosity continues today, but some years ago the authorities issued permits for the congregation’s meeting halls to open. “We are allowed to meet but there is no public recognition that we exist, that we are here and we are not criminals or bad people,” says the nurse.

The stigma is felt strongly in teaching and working life. “There is not a single Jehovah’s Witness who is the manager of a hotel, a hard-currency store manager or a state official,” says Mario Francisco. In his opinion, this group is still seen as “unreliable” for certain positions.

The latest report on Religious Freedom in the World (2014), released by the United States Department of State, reveals that the Cuban authorities continue to monitor the activities of religious groups on the island. Among the hardest hit are the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Although the Constitution, in force on the island since 1976, enacts that “the State recognizes, respects and guarantees religious freedom,” the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party staunchly monitors construction permits for new houses of worship.

Excessive controls have strengthened the informal networks that serve the Witnesses to spread their beliefs from door to door, to help each other in case of need and to warn each other of dangers. They have now extended these networks to the job search.

Through a phone call, a text message or an e-mail sent to the organizers of the new employment agency, applicants submit their professional skills and contact details. The project has two databases, one public and one private.

The public information can be read on classified site such as Revolico and others circulate in the Weekly Packet. There are more than twenty occupations included and they include everything from plumbing to cooking, cleaning, medicine and jewelry making.

“Often someone would ask us for a serious, honest and responsible worker for a job and we didn’t have ways to identify the brother who would be ideal for the position,” the promoters explain. The list will favor those who until now have been adversely affected by prejudice.

“The witnesses who are contacted for a possible job will be duly questioned about their beliefs and their faithfulness in the service of the Lord,” they clarify. A test that Mario Francisco deems necessary. “When people ask me for my religious beliefs, it is usually to not give me the job… but in this case I will answer the question without fear.”

Cuban Regime Can Sleep Peacefully / 14ymedio, Luis Tornes Aguililla

The elected US president, Donald Trump, Raul Castro and Barack Obama. (Social networks montage)
The elected US president, Donald Trump, Raul Castro and Barack Obama. (Social networks montage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luis Tornes Aguililla, Bordeaux France, 14 November 2016 – Trump plus Cuba, let us say, will not even be a low intensity conflict. Rather, Cuba is this place where those who manage La Pasta thanks to tourist activity along with other perks must have arrived, at this point, at a de facto commitment to the current system in that part of the world, a commitment that surely includes maintaining the normal activity of a peanut seller with its miserable street-vendor-capitalism until the time comes when death overcomes him in bed without having to render accounts to the Pol Pot Plan or anything like that. This is what happens when the enemy doesn’t have oil, gas or rare metals.

And I am reminded of a story from an old Frenchman who, in 1944, saw an armored division of the US Army pass in front of German soldiers who only wanted to surrender. The old man told me that the Germans were waving wildly to the Americans who continued on their way without acknowledging them. In the end, tired of wanting to surrender, the Germans presented themselves to the mayor of a neighboring village and remained there about a month until the US command did them the favor of going to look for trucks. They were enemies, but conquered and insignificant. continue reading

One of the responses to the financial crisis of 1929 envisioned by President Herbert Hoover’s administration was the repatriation to the United States of all the American funds contributed to Germany and indirectly to Europe to help them recover from the ravages of World War One. There was talk of 14 billion dollars repatriated, which led to an unsustainable economic and social reality in a Germany militarily occupied, under the vindictive Treaty of Versailles. Germans reacted to Hoover’s financial operation with xenophobic, racist and exclusionary opposition, a kind of “short circuited” life that progressively plunged them into the abyss of the Second World War. Since then, Americans have learned to control the hornets’ nests, so Trump will be soft on Cuba.

Eighty-seven years later, we are living with the consequences of another global crisis, that of April 2008 which, far from a systemic credit crisis is more akin to a new phase of financial capitalism, something unexpectedly huge that the American electorate base just interpreted in its way by seating Donald Trump as president of the United States, where drugs, the undocumented and widespread insecurity are the visible part of the problem, while the underlying reality is the precariousness in which millions of Americans find themselves in places like West Virginia and in remote places like Orderville (Utah), where I had the opportunity to speak this year with a married couple of unemployed civil engineers selling stones for lack of work.

Today, real or latent peripheral conflicts in Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan, whose apparent causes are the need for affirmation of a cultural or ethnic identity, have deep causes whose roots lie in the strategic interests of the great powers. The Cuban regime can sleep peacefully.

UNPACU Member Arcelio Molina Rafael Leyva Dies in Fall / 14ymedio

Rafael Molina Arcelio Leyva, known as 'Chely', promoted UNPACU’s presence on-line. (Youtube)
Rafael Molina Arcelio Leyva, known as ‘Chely’, promoted UNPACU’s presence on-line. (Youtube)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2016 – The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) Arcelio Molina Rafael Leyva, known as ‘Chely’, 53, died early on Tuesday after falling from the roof of his home in Havana’s Playa district. This morning an intense police operation surrounded the opponent’s house to investigate the causes of his death, according to UNPACU’s leader, Jose Daniel Ferrer, speaking to 14ymedio.

“Chely deserves a special commemoration page,” the dissident leader told this newspaper, “it is to him that we owe a lot of the audiovisual we have developed.” The activist joined UNPACU in mid-November 2011 and worked in the editing and publication of the videos on the organization’s Youtube channel.

Molina Leyva’s home was the UNPACU’s headquarters for western Cuba, and he was responsible for attention to political prisoners.

By decision of the family, his body will be cremated.

Cuba Pardons 787 Prisoners In Response To Pope’s Call for Mercy / 14ymedio

Map of prisons in Cuba prepared by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.
Map of prisons in Cuba prepared by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2016 – On Tuesday, Cuba’s council of state announced pardons for 787 prisoners “in response to the call from Pope Francis to the heads of state in the Holy Year of Mercy,” according to the official newspaper Granma.

Those benefitting from the pardon were selected based on “the characteristics of the events for which they were sanctioned, behavior while serving their time and the time remaining in their sentence,” said the announcement.

Humanitarian reasons also weighed in the decision, including in the release “women, youth, the sick and other categories.”

Excluded from the pardon were those sentenced “for crimes of murder, manslaughter, corruption of minors, rape, drug trafficking and other extremely dangerous acts.”

In September of last year the government of Raul Castro pardoned 3,522 prisoners to mark the visit of Pope Francis to the island. The decision was welcomed by the dissident organizations, although several opposition leaders warned the government continues to jail Cubans for political reasons.

In Cuban Piñata, Military Picks Up Five-Star Hotels / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

A man tries to contain the crowd that wants to enter the Fair of Havana. (14ymedio)
A man tries to contain the crowd that wants to enter the Fair of Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 9 November 2016 – The control exercised by the Cuban military over a sector as critical as tourism was common knowledge. However, the recent International Fair of Havana (FIHAV 2016) uncovered that the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) is not satisfied with a piece of the cake, they want the whole thing.

In contracts for hotel administration and marketing alone, of the 80 proposals Cuba presented in the last week as a part of the Portfolio of opportunities for foreign investment, 41 belong to the Gaviota SA group, owned by the FAR. But it is not only in numbers that the military takes most of the market, it is also in quality: 37 of the Gaviota proposals are 5-star hotels located on the most desirable plots on the island, in the midst of the greatest tourist boom in decades. continue reading

In total, Gaviota, which belongs to the Armed Forces Business Administration Group (GAE), is offering 18,768 rooms, the majority of them with a five-star or five-star-plus rating, compared to the 5,782 for Gran Caribe and 3,838 for Islazul, which depend on the Ministry of Tourism. A single night in one of Gaviota’s five star hotels ranges from 100 to 140 Cuban convertible pesos (roughly the same in dollars).

In the last two years the number of rooms and hotels with five-star ratings that Gaviota manages has not stopped growing.

“We are witnessing a slow-motion piñata that the Obama Administration is encouraging,” says Sebastian Arcos, a professor at the Cuban Research Institute of Florida International University (FIU).

For Arcos, the trade fair has made clear that the interest of Raul Castro’s government is not to solve the nation’s need for growth, “but its own oligarchic interests.”

“The Cuban economy has been militarized since the eighties and this fair confirms it,” he adds.

The International Fair of Havana is held every year in November. Since 2014 the Cuban government has been presenting a portfolio of opportunities to convince investors to do business with the island. This year the proposals have been on the order of 9.5 billion dollars.

The latest portfolio offers 395 projects gathered in 14 economic lines, among which Cuba prioritizes tourism, agri-food and energy. The document has 69 more initiatives than in 2015 and 149 more than in 2014.

Everleny Perez, one of the defenders in Cuba of the Raulista reforms, who was expelled from the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy last April, says that basically the Fair was “more of the same.”

“Where are the 325 Cuban products exhibited? Where are they sold?” asked the doctor of economics who also questioned Cuba’s capacity to produce for a foreign importer, taking into account the difficulties in accessing raw materials in the Cuban market.

For Pérez, the absence of a real liquidity capacity on the part of Cuban companies hinders the negotiation process. “Foreigners exhibit products, but Cubans have no cash to buy them,” he says.

Cuban companies receive allocations in dollars from the Government for their transactions. These do not necessarily correspond to the profits of the company and limit its ability to buy.

Another important element, the economist says, is the number of proposals that have passed from one year to the next without finding investors.

The system of employment, whereby foreign companies contract directly with Cuban government employment agencies for workers, not with the workers themselves, is one of the brakes. The system discourages investors because they have to pay a high cost for labor, only about a third of which is paid to the workers with two-thirds retained by the Cuban government.

Despite three years since the appearance of the first portfolio of opportunities, projects such as a light car factory in Mariel, which would allow the manufacture of “a minimum” of 10,000 units, fail to pass from desire to reality.

“There are several obstacles to investment in Cuba, one of them is the slow pace of negotiations, which requires approval of the Council of Ministers or the State Council. How is it possible that a year later they have only laid the cornerstones of two factories in Mariel,” Perez asks, referring to the Mariel Special Development Zone and the Brascuba project of 100 million dollars as well as the Unilever project of 35 million.

Since the 2014 Law on Foreign Investment came into force, Cuba has approved 83 projects of around 1.3 billion dollars, a very distant figure from the 2.5 billion annually that the country needs to emerge from its economic coma; this year the country is not expected to reach a 1% growth rate in gross domestic product.

In the Mariel Special Development Zone just 19 projects are approved, of which only seven are in operation and none represents the large investments that were expected.

To Everleny Perez, “the country needs to return to the economic dynamics of changes that supposedly led to the coming to power of Raul Castro.”

For Sebastian Arcos, meanwhile, tomorrow will come to the Cuban economy through integration with the United States.

“That Cuba is less than an hour’s flight from the US cannot be changed by anyone, not even Fidel Castro. In the recognition of this natural market is the future of the island,” said Arcos.

Trump’s Promised Deportations Could Affect 35,000 Cubans in the US / 14ymedio, Mario Penton

Cuban citizens being deported from Ecuador. "Bombero" - firefighter, in this case a medic. (Ecuador Interior Ministry)
Cuban citizens being deported from Ecuador. “Bombero” = firefighter, in this case a paramedic. (Ecuador Interior Ministry)

14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 14 November 2016 – On Sunday, Donald Trump promised to repatriate up to three million undocumented immigrants who have had legal problems, to their countries of origin. This group includes 34,525 Cubans who have a deportation order for committing crimes and misdemeanors in the United States, along with thousands of others now in the legal process.

That figure may even be conservative, in the opinion of Wilfredo Allen, attorney and specialist in immigration issues. “In South Florida there are many Cubans. Every day we have new cases of convicted people who have a deportation order. In reality, nobody knows how many there are because the deportations don’t take place in the absence of an agreement with Cuba, but there are many more than 35,000.” continue reading

The vast majority of Cubans with deportation orders are awaiting an immigration agreement between the two countries to be returned to their country of origin, something that not even the administration of President Barack Obama has achieved.

Cuba, along with China, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Somalia, is one of the countries considered “recalcitrant” by the Department of Homeland Security in rejecting the return of its deported citizens. The president-elect himself noted, in a campaign rally in Phoenix in September, that up to 23 countries refuse to accept the return of their citizens expelled by the United States. “That will not happen to me,” said the then candidate without explaining how he would force the measure.

The Immigration and Nationality Act requires the State Department to cancel the visas of immigrants and tourists to these countries, but in practice it has only happened once, according to The New York Times. Allen considers it plausible that this is the mechanism that Trump will use as leverage.

“In the end, the injured party will be the Cuban government. If it maintains its position not to accept the deportees, a conflict could be established with the current administration. If they accept it, it comes to thousands of people who need to be reintegrated in the society, which involves a considerable effort and resources, which would have consequences on domestic politics,” he explains.

If the Trump administration opts for this measure, thousands of people would be affected. In 2014 alone, 54,286 Cubans received tourist visas to visit the United States, not counting the 20,000 emigrant visas awarded by the American embassy in Havana.

In 2014 Maria Luisa Suarez received a multiple-entry visa valid for five years, to visit her brother in Miami. Although she had planned to make the trip just for family reasons, the opportunity to bring goods to the island has multiplied her trips to the United States, and she now makes a living on this clandestine trade that sustains the Cuban economy. Once a year she takes advantage of the measure that allows Cuban citizens to pay taxes on imports in local currency (rather than in hard currency) and in the rest of her travels she manages to evade the controls, bringing everything from lighter parts to shoes, coffee and clothes.

Suarez makes one or two trips a month. In addition to buying cheap in Miami and reselling in Cuba, she is part of a network that sends remittances to the island “without charging a penny.” She explains she receives remittances from people’s families in the United States in dollars, and when she arrives in Cuba she pays the families in Cuban convertible pesos (CUC), which allows her to compete with Cadeca, the chain the Cuban government maintains on the island to “collect” hard currency.

“With Trump now, this is going to be difficult,” she says fearfully.

A Cuban-American businessman with investments in Cuba explained, on condition of anonymity, that he does not believe that he will be able to continue his business under Trump. “These migratory movements are by agreement of both countries, but Cuba has made it known it does not want those people,” he says.

“If Trump did this it would lead to an extreme situation in Cuba. The country needs the United States now more than ever. In conversations far from the microphones, Cuban officials acknowledge it,” he adds.

The Cuban-American Juan Chamizo doesn’t think things will end in a disaster. He manages the Vedado Social Club, a project that promotes intercultural exchanges between the two countries. “Trump is a president who doesn’t come from politics, he comes from business and he knows how business works,” he says.

For Chamizo, responsible for concerts such as those of the musician Carlos Varela in Miami, the cultural exchange “is something that benefits both parties.”

“This way Cuba has been more exposed to the world and the people have seen what American culture is. I do not think Trump’s policy will change that,” he added. For the manager, economic interests will eventually prevail.

Lorenzo Palomares, a constitutional lawyer and active supporter of Donald Trump in South Florida, believes, however, that Trump’s threat is serious. “I feel fabulous that they will be deported,” he says.

“Cuba takes the spies when they’re discovered, but it won’t take the Medicaid thieves or the drug traffickers. Permanent residence is subject to good behavior. If you violate the laws you have to go back to your country,” he adds.

Palomares also agrees with the president-elect about the possibility of eliminating the Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy, which Trump called “unfair” last February, in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times during his campaign.

In the 12 months of the fiscal year ended September 30, more than 50,000 Cubans arrived in the United States, as confirmed to 14ymedio by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, a state of affairs Palomares finds unacceptable.

“If Cuba wants anything to do with the United States, it had better accept [the return] its citizens,” he says.

 

“I do not want to put on a ‘media show’ “ / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila

Juan Antonio Fernández Estrada, a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana, said he does not want his dismissal to turn into a ‘media show’. (Cubaposible)
Juan Antonio Fernández Estrada, a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana, said he does not want his dismissal to turn into a ‘media show’. (Cubaposible)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Eliecer Avila, 4 November 2016 — How many times have we heard the phrase “I do not want to put on a media show,” especially from people who have been victims of institutional abuse in Cuba? It would seem that there is a generalized notion that publicizing a problem hinders its solution. Is this really true? Not in my experience.

It is true that the mere fact of sharing with public opinion in a determined situation is not an act of magic that exonerates us from any frustration or suffering, but also it is a myth to believe that everything will go better if “nothing comes out on the internet” or in “the press of over there.” continue reading

I have known cases where unscrupulous leaders have trampled the dignity of workers in the most diverse areas without feeling the minimum weight of the law and much less the moral judgment of public opinion, because when abuses are committed under the shelter of silence, the victims suffer double and the victimizers remain unscathed to continue committing their crimes.

As I’m not given to relying on stories that are two old or too distant, I will mention some recent events that reaffirm this false perception. Just a few months ago Omar Everleny Perez was fired from the World Economy Studies Center, at the University of Havana. Aside from information from third parties and some timid comments from the professor himself, the reality is that nothing formal was published about it. Nor was the decision overturned.

Then there was the firing of the Radio Holguin journalist, Jose Ramon Ramirez Pantoja, for publishing the remarks of the deputy director of the Granma newspaper. In this case, also, the journalist himself approached it very timidly and in his close circle, when it came time to call things by their name, although more comments circulated on Facebook than in the previous case. Nor was there any reversal of course, with the final result of the process far worse than one might think.

Last week, this newspaper published an interview with Professor Juan Antonio Fernandez, expelled from the University of Havana, in which he also mentioned this phrase: “I don’t want to make a media show of this.” It’s curious how we have embedded in our hypothalamus that sharing our problems is an act of “ideological weakness,” a “concession to the enemy” or, even worse, a betrayal of who knows who.

But apparently it’s very different when the problem happens to a “comrade” with another country. The exaggerated media coverage by Telesur and other national media in the case of Victor Hugo Morales comes to mind, when his contract was cancelled with an Argentinian television network after it stopped receiving the Kirchnerista check (bribe) after the election of Mauricio Macri as Argentina’s new president.

The headlines in the official press denounced the “abominable censorship” which the militant was supposedly a victim of, who certainly, thanks to this whole campaign, didn’t delay in finding another foxhole. Indeed, that’s one of the good things that happens in more than a few cases: when you have closed one door and others, who share your vision, can cooperate in opening another one even wider.

The phobia that exists among Cubans about telling the media what has happened to them has two key components. One, the fear of reprisals that might be even worse by a system that doesn’t tolerate being accused of anything, and that has control of all the strings to weave the most sophisticated traps. Two, the lack of confidence in national public opinion that has no real weight, nor is it accustomed to pressuring any institution, and much less the government, so that the limited repercussion that a specific case will have overseas and this can come via the antenna, distorted or manipulated.

In any case, I believe there is a legitimate right to make public knowledge what we consider exceeds our limited personal capabilities of self-defense. But this confidence that any of us can have in what exists and what could determine the solidarity of our people, should be cultivated with the rightful exercise of citizen opinion, the responsibility and seriousness of the media and, especially, the strong and effective articulation a broad civil society that covers every corner of the country.

National public opinion should become the protective shell of each fair person and the worst nightmare of those who violate their rights. This public opinion is not an abstract or distant entity: it is you, it is me, it is all of us.

Cuba Will Close 2016 With A Record Number Of Self-Employed / EFE, 14ymedio

Paladares – private restaurants – have been the Cuban self-employment sector hardest hit by recent arrests and closures. (EFE)
Paladares – private restaurants – have been the Cuban self-employment sector hardest hit by recent arrests and closures. (EFE)

14ymedio biggerEFE/via 14ymedio, Havana, 11 November 2016 — The number of self-employed in Cuba totaled 522,855 at the end of September, representing the addition of 15,513 people to the sector in the last six months and an increase of nearly 24,000 compared to the total of 2015, according to data broadcast on state media on Friday.

Self-employment has maintained sustained growth since Raul Castro’s government expanded opportunities for the private sector in 2011, in order to boost the economy of the island and compensate for the phasing out of 500,000 state jobs between that year and 2015. continue reading

In 2012 the self-employed totaled 404,600, a figure which increased the next year to 424,300 and rose at the end of 2014 to 483,400, according to the state-owned newspaper Granma reporting on data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

In mid-2015, Cuba exceeded the milestone of half a million self-employed, and although the figure was reduced to 496,000 months later, the sector grew again in 2016 to the 507,342 workers recorded in May, and increased to 522,855 six months later.

Some 65% of self-employed workers are concentrated in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Camaguey, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba, and 11% of them are dedicated to the restaurant industry, which employs 58,993 people.

In this sector, which includes the most famous paladares – as private restaurants are called – 1,870 were granted licenses this year compared to the 1,650 authorized in 2015 and 1,570 in 2014.

A series of inspections to uncover alleged irregularities in the establishments and the suspension of the issuing of new licenses to paladares in Havana between September and October sparked concern in this sector, one of the most dynamic in the economy of the island, but as of 24 October licenses are again being issued.

Cuban authorities deny that these measures are due to a backtracking in the state policies to open private sector opportunities, and say that their intention is to guarantee that the restaurants comply with the law.

The expansion of private labor is one of the major reforms of the government of Raul Castro to “update” the socialist economic model in Cuba which, as of today, authorizes 200 different work activities in which the self-employed may engage.