14ymedio

Mexican Agencies Take Advantage of Cubans and Double the Cost of Tickets

Aerial image of migrants, including Cubans, in the Tapachula ecological park. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 28 September 2023 — Travel agencies in Tapachula (Chiapas) are doubling the cost of tickets for Cubans who want to fly to Mexico City or the U.S. border. This was reported to 14ymedio by Yumara, a 29-year-old Cuban who was processed by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) for the “complementary protection” document that guarantees her stay in Mexico while requesting an asylum appointment for the United States through the CBP One application.

Yumara tried to buy a ticket at Tapachula International Airport, but Migration agents warned her that “it wasn’t allowed,” without showing her any official document. On the outskirts of the air terminal, she was offered a ticket to Tijuana (Baja California) for 16,000 pesos. “You arrive directly at the border to follow your procedure,” they told her. For a ticket to Mexico City, she was charged 15,000 pesos.

“What are these people thinking? I don’t have the money for this; I will try to go by land to Mexico City and from there to the border,” says Yumara, who knows of many Cubans, Venezuelans and Colombians who have paid the extra cost of the ticket sold by the travel agencies.

José Estrada, of the local agency Aerotur, argues that the increase in ticket price is due to the high demand caused by migrants. He also denies that the immigration authorities prevent them from boarding the flights. “They warn them that if they don’t have a transit permit, they can’t fly,” he says. continue reading

He insists on the extra cost of the tickets and points out that Volaris has flights from 7,000 pesos and Aeromexico from 9,000. “Nobody forces them to resort to an agency.”

Estrada says that 70% of the flights are occupied by migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti, and the remaining 30% are Mexicans. Yumara says there are no Haitians buying tickets. “He is lying. They live on the street, and most of them are washing clothes or cleaning to have one meal a day. I don’t see them having to pay 15,000 pesos for a ticket.”

Volaris aircraft at Tapachula International Airport. (El Orbe)

Alfredo Gálvez Sánchez, from the Vuela travel agency, accepts that the cost of a ticket to Mexico City, which at the beginning of the year was 4,000 pesos, has risen to 15,000 pesos. “This is because people who arrive at the agencies want to fly the next day, and you have to look for seats among the airlines.”

According to figures from the IWA, the demand for tickets is 1,200 per day.

The new migratory wave in Tapachula has caused a shortage of eggs, bread, rice and beans, warn shelter directors and activists in the region, who demand the intervention of the Government. “In supermarkets, sugar has already doubled in price, between 33 and 40 pesos (1.8 dollars and 2.28 dollars) for 2.2 pounds,” the director of the Todo Por Ellos shelter, Lorenza Reyes Núñez, said in an interview with EFE.

The activist complained that the Mexican authorities “do nothing” to stop the migratory flow and leave all the work to Comar, which has collapsed due to the arrival of thousands of foreigners daily in recent weeks.

Tapachula has been the scene this month of stampedes of thousands of migrants seeking an asylum appointment in Comar, demonstrations in the offices of the National Institute of Migration and undocumented people sleeping on the streets.

Dani Rorube, a migrant from Cuba, said that they are dissatisfied with the lack of issuance of transit documents, so they will set up a caravan to leave Tapachula. “We have gone to Migration, from Migration they send us to Comar, and they have us by the hairs, as the Cubans say. Everyone wants to walk, go in a caravan or with a coyote, but it’s a lot of money.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Instead of Studying Themselves, Hundreds of Young Cubans Are Recruited To Alleviate the Deficit of Teachers

Students of Teaching will mainly cover primary and secondary education. (Invasor)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 October 2023 — With a deficit of about 634 teachers in all openings, the General Directorate of Education (DGE) of Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, has decided to interrupt the study cycle of hundreds of pedagogy students to incorporate them into schools. However, the 394 who have been recruited to date will barely be able to fill half of the vacant positions.

Days before the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, in August, the official newspaper Invasor reported on the terrible situation of teachers in the province. Of 7,116 positions, only 6,482 were covered. To alleviate the deficit, the DGE has incorporated 113 students from the top of the class at Raúl Corrales Fornos pedagogical school, and 141 from the Rafael Morales González school in Morón, two of the municipalities most affected by the absence of teachers.

Gilmé Sánchez, a member of the DGE, announced that 140 young people who have already graduated from teaching and are currently completing their Compulsory Military Service would also be added.

The students who, as the newspaper headlines, “are already in the classrooms,” are in their fourth year and will work mainly with primary and secondary education, which has the greatest deficit of teachers. They will also be exempted from their own studies from Monday through Thursday, and only on Fridays will they have to attend classes. continue reading

According to the DGE, the subjects that will be given the most coverage are Chemistry and Mathematics

According to the DGE, the subjects that will be given the most coverage are Chemistry and Mathematics. On the contrary, those who study to be English teachers will not have to teach classes and will be able to dedicate themselves to their career.

The authorities did not specify what type of remuneration will be given to young people and whether it will be less than or equal to that of the rest of the teachers in the schools, but they did clarify that, due to the situation with empty teaching places, they are expected to contonue to teach in the same schools once they graduate.

As the official press itself has pointed out, the measure is “no more than a respite” because, in addition to the fact that they will not be able to cover all the places, the real problem lies in why the teachers leave.

Data offered by Invasor reveal that this year 97% of the 562 pedagogical careers offered in the province were covered, something that the authorities did not delay in celebrating. However, more important than this figure is the number that ends up really graduating without abandoning their career or leaving the country.

According to the statistics of the province for the previous year, the retention of students for the first year was only 80.8%, and for the entire career, 60%. It is worth clarifying that these numbers do not include the percentage of graduates who don’t work as teachers or who, after a few years, leave the sector in search of better salaries.

The DGE says that in Ciego de Ávila, as in the rest of the Island, measures have been implemented to retain teachers such as the payment of wages per hour of work

The DGE says that in Ciego de Ávila, as in the rest of the Island, measures have been implemented to retain teachers such as the payment of wages per hour of work. However, the “improvements” have not had much effect. Currently, the territories most affected by the lack of teachers are Havana, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey and Ciego de Ávila itself.

The provincial directorates of Education have also begun to make use of the Educando por Amor [Educating for Love] contingent, composed of more than 6,000 university students from all over the Island. The measure has been made effective in Las Tunas (where 700 teachers were missing), in Villa Clara, with the incorporation of 384 university students in the schools, and in Sancti Spíritus with 50 and Holguín with 52, among others.

So far, the authorities, busy praising the loyalty to the Revolution of these young people, do not seem to worry about the impact that this deviation of study time can have on university students, about the quality of the education provided by students who havenot graduated, or about the fact that some do not even pursue a pedagogical career.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Costa Rica Declares a State of Emergency Due to the Avalanche of Migrants, Many of Them Cubans

Migrants in a shelter in Paso Canoas, Costa Rica. (EFE/Marcelino Rosario)

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 September 2023 — Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves declared a state of national emergency due to the high number of migrants passing through the Central American nation. “The number of people who arrive exceeds the institutional support available to serve them,” said Deputy Minister of the Presidency Jorge Rodríguez, at a press conference on Tuesday, together with Chaves, who announced the measure.

Rodríguez explained that so far in September more than 60,000 people have crossed through Paso Canoas, on the border with Panama, mostly Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians. “All that this generates in terms of demand for services, waste disposal and mobility, is a huge pressure on the community,” he continued.

The Costa Rican authorities explain that the declaration of emergency, which provides the Government with special powers, will make it possible to provide resources to the affected communities, in addition to guaranteeing the migrants “safe transit.”

According to official data, from the beginning of the year until September 23, more than 390,000 migrants had crossed the dangerous Darién Jungle, which separates Colombia from Panama. This is the highest figure ever recorded and far exceeds the 248,000 people who crossed in 2022. continue reading

The president warned that he ordered the Ministry of Security “to take a firm stance against anyone who perceives the goodness of Costa Rica as a manifestation of weakness

The flow through Costa Rica, the next country after Panama traveling this route, has tripled in recent months, from 900 migrants per day in June to almost 2,700 in August.

When announcing the state of emergency, the Costa Rican president also warned that he ordered the Ministry of Security “to take a firm stance against anyone who perceives the goodness of Costa Rica as a manifestation of weakness” and that “deportation processes have already begun to return migrants.”

His Government made the decision a week after they arrested 25 migrants on the southern border, after a confrontation with police trying to avoid street sales in the area, which generated riots and controversy in the country.

The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Wednesday an “unprecedented” increase in the transit of migrants through the region and called on the governments of Central America and Mexico to collaborate to address humanitarian needs.

Costa Rica experienced a similar moment of crisis in 2015, when thousands of Cubans were trapped on its northern border, in the face of Nicaragua’s refusal to let them pass. On that occasion, the Government of then-President Luis Guillermo Solís decided not to extend more transit visas to Cubans, due to the region’s refusal to seek a solution to the problem.

However, there have been several efforts of the Central American country in these years to deal with the passage of migrants on their way to the United States, such as making it easier for Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans to stay in the country with a special category of asylum.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Pemex Denies it Is Sending Donations to Havana Despite the Presence of a Cuban Oil Tanker in Veracruz

The ’Primula’ (here in Santiago de Cuba) is one of the ships involved in the transshipment operations of Venezuelan oil in the bay of Nipe (Holguín). (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 October 2023 — Octavio Romero, general director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), denied on Monday that the state monopoly has donated crude oil to Cuba, four days after it was revealed that the United States canceled a multimillion dollar credit to the oil company in August, precisely because it had exported fuel to the Island.

“Petróleos Mexicanos has not made any fuel donation to any foreign government. I’m not lying,” Romero said in the Mexican Congress when asked about the issue by a deputy, according to the newspaper El Economista.

The official did not mention the shipments made by the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Cuban ports, 2.8 million barrels of oil so far this year – worth about 200 million dollars – according to calculations by the Energy Institute of the University of Texas, nor whether he has charged Cuba for them.

Much less did he refer to the fact that, precisely this Monday, the Cuban-flagged ship Vilma was still in the port of Pajaritos, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where it has been for more than a week according to ship geolocation platforms. The tanker, say the specialists consulted by El Economista, is loading 400,000 barrels of crude oil for export to the Island. continue reading

Last Thursday, former Mexican diplomat Agustín Gutiérrez Canet revealed in his Milenio column, from financial sources in Washington, that the Bank of Exports and Imports of the United States (Exim) had canceled a credit to Pemex worth 800 million dollars, after getting knowledge of the donation of more than one million barrels of oil to Cuba between June and July, valued at 77 million dollars.

The tanker, the specialists say, is carrying 400,000 barrels of crude oil for export to the Island

The bank agreed at that time, apparently at the express request of Pemex according to the article, to keep it silent, and the oil company withdrew the request for the credit without explanation, as stated in the record.

When the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, told Bloomberg last month that Mexico should start charging Cuba for oil to avoid sanctions, analysts interpreted that to mean the country could not afford to give away millions of barrels at the current price of crude oil, since it was in a deep economic crisis.

However, the revelations about the cancellation of the credit showed that the measure was not preventive, but a reaction to the sanction.

Despite the fuel crisis that does not subside, Cuba continues to receive oil not only from Mexico but also from other allies, mainly Venezuela and Russia. Thus, Caracas sent in September, according to Reuters data, one of the highest amounts recorded since 2016: a total of 86,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, fuel oil, diesel and gasoline, although a part of it arrived in Cuba during the first week of October.

The figure far exceeded the 65,000 bpd in August and was more than double that of January, the month with the least Venezuelan fuel received in the year, 40,000 bpd.

The tanker Petion is unloading in Cienfuegos, and in the Bay of Nipe (Holguín) three ships (Primula, Marianna and Equality) participate in the oil transhipment operations that the Sandino brings from Venezuela, according to the information provided by the expert of the Energy Institute of the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón.

When it lost its storage capacity in Matanzas due to the Supertanker Base fire, Cuba had to transfer the oil that arrived to other ships and then distribute it in several ports on the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Heberto Trades a Ram for a Suitcase to Leave Cuba With His Family

The family will embark on a migratory route that will take them from Brazil to the southern border of the United States. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 10 October 2023 — His entire life has passed between two Cuban territories: the current province of Artemisa and the city of Havana. But this October Heberto, his wife and his little daughter will make the leap to another geography. The family will embark on a migratory route that will take them from Brazil to the southern border of the United States. “This is what we have resolved,” he says, hardly giving importance to the thousands of kilometers that separate the point of entry to South America and the final goal.

“We needed a large suitcase and a small one,” he says. “With the big one we are going to leave with our daughter’s things packed, but it’s possible that along the way we will have to commit to just the little one because we will have to cross complicated areas.” A seller of cheese, guava pods and yogurt, Heberto has been traveling for years from his native Alquízar to the area around the train terminal on Tulipán Street to offer his products. In that same area he closed a deal this week: a large suitcase for a sheep.

“A former customer had the suitcase and needed the meat, so in a few minutes we settled it,” he details. “Then he told me that if I got him a large, well-cured cheese, he could also give me in exchange one of those carry-on bags that go in the cabin of the plane.” One gains food at a time of inflation and rising costs of basic products, the other gets a good pair of solid suitcases — plus “with wheels” — that will help him in his efforts to emigrate. continue reading

The neighborhood around the small station, however, loses one of its most reliable merchants. For two decades, Heberto has cultivated a loyal clientele that values his merchandise. His catalog has undergone variations over the years but has never been interrupted “except during the pandemic,” he clarifies. “There was a time when I also dedicated myself to selling cremitas de leche (condensed milk fudge), but that is no longer possible because there are fewer cows in my area.”

“Then tilapia gave me a lot of business, but that also fell out of favor because there is no food to feed the fish in the dams.” Pork was one of his star items, until “the guajiros of Alquízar slaughtered the pigs because they had no food to give them and the people who raise them now do it for family consumption.” In recent times, he rounded out his list with some fruits, okra, some Creole rice and the occasional piece of mutton. The exact product that, this time, has been turned into the suitcases that will help him fulfill his dream of “leaving this country as soon as possible.”

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Praising What I Do Not Have

“The Kitchen,” Fernando Botero, 1994, Antioquía Museum, Medellín, Colombia.

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, October 8, 2023 — The engineer Silvia Gomez Fariñas has done more to hasten the collapse of Cuban communism than any dissident. Her work does not appear in the pages of some independent newspaper but in the most reddish and conscientious newspaper on the island. Therefore, it stands to reason that its director, Randy Alonso — seemingly the regime’s censor and trumpeteer — must be a secret benefactor of freedom. I think it’s time to help these co-conspirators come out of their ideological closet but not before sending in helicopters or boats to insure a successful rescue.

Why else, in a country whose daily bread is hunger, would someone take the risk of writing a food column? Between Díaz-Canel’s rants and the historic spiritualism sessions of Fidel’s, Raul’s, Leal’s and Sara Gonzalez’ speeches, Gomez Fariñas stirs the reader’s spirits with a weekly column on theoretical cuisine.

I say “theoretical” because nowhere else but in a mythological market, an imaginary corner store, a fictional inn or an invisible town square could one get the ingredients that Fariñas lists in her column “Taste and Tradition”. The ploy is as subversive as it is brilliant. By inoculating against the desire for what one does not have (oysters, prawns, snappers) and identifying the culprits (pot-bellied leaders), hunger is activated and protests are triggered. It’s a well-known fact that nothing is more frenzied and fearless than a hungry mob. continue reading

The ploy is as subversive as it is brilliant. By inoculating against the desire for what one does not have and identifying the culprits, hunger is activated and protests are triggered

Kudos to Gomez Fariñas, and to her patron Alonso, for coming up with this strategy, which could prove useful to Venezuelan, Russian and North Korean dissidents as well. To give the reader a better idea of the effectiveness of this approach, allow me to describe several lines of attack that, thanks to her column, cemented my opinion and radicalized my views of the regime. I should clarify that I, in my clumsiness and gluttony, did not at first understand her flawless technique.

I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when I read her October 2018 article about lobsters, specifically those prepared by Gilberto Smith — Meyer Lansky’s Cuban chef — with garlic, guaguao chile, thyme and mustard. “A little more, please,” the gangster is said to have said, licking his fingers. (Though I no longer have any reason to believe Gomez Fariñas is on our side, I can easily imagine her cooking that same lobster for Díaz-Canel and the president applauding like an eager seal, asking for more. Like Lansky.)

Gomez Fariñas did not endear me to her on that November morning when she explained how to prepare rabo encendido, literally “flaming tail.” I will spare you the jokes about the name of the dish – hunger and humor don’t mix – which required not only an oxtail but also olives, raisins, capers and chorizo. That’s when I started having doubts. Could she be sending a coded message? Was she suggesting that we, like the tail, were the least worthy part of the cow? Not to mention it being the appendage closest to the animal, the thing that shoos away the flies. Was it time for us to set out in search of freedom? What makes perfect sense to me now seemed delusional back then. Hunger blinds us.

Gomez Fariñas carried out operations that left her badly exposed. We could interpret this as a cry for help, that she wanted us to rescue her

2021 was a bad year for Gomez Fariñas. The successive poultry recipes she was required to write — so many that the chicken began showing up in our dreams, like the avian oracles of ancient Roman — did not diminish her dignity or her patriotic vocation. She found a way to energize her readers. If I she had to talk about chicken, then she would use it as an opportunity to remind people of other ingredients that were hard to find. So we got articles about chicken curry, chicken in pineapple cream, honey chicken thighs, chicken Caesar, chicken with ginger, chicken fritters.

I see that, in her recent articles, Gomez Fariñas has carried out operations that have left her badly exposed. We could interpret this as a cry for help, that she wants us to rescue her. Her latest recipe – corn meal, ear of corn, sweet tamales and green tamales – amounts to a not very subtle protest. “No matter what a Cuban likes to eat, he likes to eat the best version possible,” she writes. “But whether it be good or bad, what he really cares about is quantity, of feeling sated. He likes to feel that pleasant sense of satisfaction, of fullness.” The secret police must be at her doorstep now.

I call upon readers, patriots, those concerned about the fate of a true Cuban woman and anyone with a good appetite to pool their resources and extract Gomez Fariñas… and Alonso, too, if he’ll fit in the car. Otherwise, Cuban gastronomy – which everyone knows is the nation’s most noble and beleagured species – will remain under the spell of 17th-century Spanish-Cuban poet Silvestre de Balboa who, fondly recalling a meal that featured tortoise meat, wrote, “I praise it though I do not have it.”

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The Cuban Liberal Union Elects Professor Eduardo Zayas-Bazán as its New President

Throughout his life as an exile, Zayas-Bazán has dedicated himself to teaching languages at universities in the United States. (Memory of Nations)

14ymedio, Havana, September 29, 2023 — Cuban professor Eduardo Zayas-Bazán, exiled in the United States since 1960 and author of numerous books, was named this Thursday as the new president of the Cuban Liberal Union, founded by Carlos Alberto Montaner in 1990.

Born in Camagüey in 1935, into an important Cuban family to which José Martí’s wife, Carmen, and the republican politician Eduardo Zayas-Bazán y Recio also belonged, the career of the new president was detailed in a statement made public this Thursday by the Executive Committee of the organization, which is a member of Liberal International. Zayas-Bazán graduated in Law from the University of Havana and, after the triumph of Fidel Castro’s Revolution, he left the Island.

In 1961, age 26, he served as a frogman during the Bay of Pigs invasion and was wounded and captured by Castro’s forces. He was later imprisoned in the Castillo del Príncipe – one of the colonial fortresses of Havana – until the US Government paid his ransom along with that of 59 other prisoners in need of medical attention. continue reading

Throughout his life as an exile, Zayas-Bazán has dedicated himself to teaching languages at universities in the United States, and taught for 31 years at East Tennessee State University, of which he is now professor emeritus. He has also received numerous awards for his foray into the field of languages, including the Martel Award from the Sigma Delta Pi honorary society – awarded every three years to distinguished language teachers – and the Jacqueline Elliot Award from the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association.

In addition, he has published more than 18 books as an editor, author and translator, including El pez volador [The Flying Fish], a historical novel published in 2007, and Mi vida [My Life], his autobiography published in 2021. Many of his writings also address themes related to teaching languages or culture.

The Cuban Liberal Union is part of Liberal International, an international grouping of liberal parties from around the world based in London, England. The organization was founded in 1947 in Oxford and promotes the formation of a society based on personal freedoms, human rights and social justice. Founded by the recently deceased Carlos Alberto Montaner, the Union has been chaired by the doctor and politician Antonio Guedes (2010-2015), the writer Miguel Sales (2015-2020) and the economist Elías Amor Bravo (2020-2023), whom Zayas-Bazán succeeds.

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Children at a School in Luyano Go without Lunch Due to the Theft of Rice and Eggs

The Republic of Costa Rica Primary School on Herrera Street in Havana’s Luyanó neighborhood. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, October 8, 2023 — The principal of the Republic of Costa Rica Primary School, located on Herrera Street in Havana’s Luyanó neighborhood, will have to pay tens of thousands of pesos out of her salary to cover what police estimate to be the cost of eggs and rice that disappeared from the facility last weekend.

According to an employee at the school, who prefers not to give her name, six bags of rice and an unknown quantity of eggs intended for student lunches were reported stolen on Monday morning.

The employee reports that the police immediately showed up at the scene and were told by several people in positions of responsibility at the school that thieves had taken the items by passing them through a window. Upon inspection, however, the officers found the window to be too small.

Suspecting it could have been an inside job, they immediately took the principal away for questioning. continue reading

“Since neither the rice nor the eggs were anywhere to be found, they applied the law of material liability and fined the warehouse manager,” she explains, referring to the rule that governs actions by officials in charge of protecting property. “I don’t know the value of the eggs, but the value of the rice was 24,000 pesos,” she added

The 79-year-old school custodian was also subject to disciplinarian actions: a 500-peso fine and the loss of his job. “Just imagine, an old man. He could have been sleeping like a child and not heard anything,” says the employee in sympathy.

Everything at the school seemed to be back to normal on Thursday except for the fact that the children had neither rice nor eggs for lunch. Both are among the food items that have seen the most dramatic price increases in recent months.

The price of eggs is particularly shocking, selling for as much as 3,000 pesos a carton on the black market. Buying a dozen in the United States and sending them to Cuba costs around seven dollars plus the cost of shipping.

As of July, the price of rice had risen 47% over the previous six months.

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Melia Is Congratulated for Its Respect for the Environment in an Area of Cuba Destroyed by Tourism

Meliá Las Dunas hotel complex, in Cayo Santa María, Villa Clara. (Meliá Las Dunas)

14ymedio, Madrid, September 26, 2023 — The Spanish hotel company Meliá received favorable attention from the official Cuban press on Monday. Reproducing a statement from the company itself on the occasion of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, on September 16, the Prensa Latina agency highlighted that “several of the facilities” of the chain on the Island “are free of harmful substances” for the atmosphere.

This is the case of the Meliá Internacional Varadero, Meliá Varadero and Meliá Las Américas, in the Matanzas peninsula, and Meliá Buenavista, Meliá Cayo Santa María and Sol Cayo Santa María, in Villa Clara. All of them, the article mentions, received the corresponding recognition from the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

The “new certifications” continue, joining those already held by the Paradisus Los Cayos and Meliá Las Dunas hotels, in Cayo Santa María; Sol Varadero Beach, in Matanzas, and Sol Río de Luna y Mares, on the north coast of Holguín. continue reading

“It is curious that the Government speaks in these terms, when it has always done very little to protect the environment of the large hotels of the Keys”

The official agency, in three complimentary paragraphs, insist on the same idea: that Meliá has a corporate strategy for the protection of the environment.

“It is curious that the Government speaks in these terms, when it has always done very little to protect the environment of the large hotels of the Keys,” says a specialist who collaborated in the late 90s and early 2000s with the Institute of Ecology and Systematics so that the construction of tourist infrastructure in the Keys of Ciego de Ávila and those of Villa Clara did not affect the environment as the others were doing.

For example, says the same specialist, who requests anonymity, “there was a small team that went to Cayo Guillermo and discovered that the construction of a local airport had devastated not only an archaeological site of the Siboney Indians, but also the entire area where the flamingos
nested.” After “a lot of noise and a report,” the specialists managed to get the Academy of Sciences to press for legislation on archaeological and natural heritage. “It even earned those involved a stimulus of 40 CUC [Cuban Convertible pesos, a currency no longer used], but like so many things in this country, it was just a piece of paper. The heritage continues to be destroyed.”

In just under three months, a new Law for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage will come into force on the Island, with the aim of strengthening the preservation of protected sites. “It will be another decree that will not be complied with,” the specialist predicts. “Since the construction of the first causeway – an artificial road erected on stones to connect the island and the beaches of Los Cayos – there have been teams and more teams of scientists, sent by the commissions in collusion with those who direct the construction projects. Lots of reports have been written with numerous recommendations, just for the fun of it.

In just under three months, precisely, a new Law for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage will come into force on the Island

He gives as an example the first causeway to Cayo Santa María: “A well-known botanist complained that the construction rules to maintain the marine flow from one side of the road to the other, through ducts beneath the causeway, were not being complied with. By violating this, the salinity of the sea on the coast of the Ciego de Ávila area increased, harming the mangroves and all the life that depended on it, including the fishing economy. In the town of Punta Alegre, it even affected the fishing cooperative.”

On top of this, he concludes, the violation of these rules not only generates “very big expenses because the road is always under repair,” but it is also “very dangerous”: “Once we got a downpour going over the causeway, and we had to stop the car because we thought we would end up overturned in the water, something that has happened to a few drivers.”

He also dedicated an official press release in Punta Alegre, in Ciego de Ávila, on Monday. Specifically, a group of 30 pink flamingos were “rehabilitated” in the mangrove thanks to the “international project” Coastal Resilience, which has the “accompaniment” of the United Nations development program in Cuba and funding from the European Union through the “Global Alliance for Climate Change Plus.”

According to Invasor, the ecosystem had been damaged not by tourism but by Hurricane Irma, in 2017. “Look,” says the same source. “The poor flamingos that were in Cayo Santa María and Cayo Las Brujas have been disappearing. They migrate and no longer return because the hotels and the constant repair of the causeway are displacing them and killing their food.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime Mobilizes Its Allies To Give Credibility to the ‘Attack’ Against Its Embassy

Demonstration of sympathizers of the Cuban regime this Monday, in front of the Cuban embassy in Washington, USA. (EFE/ Octavio Guzmán)

14ymedio, Madrid, September 26, 2023 — A slogan runs this Tuesday through the official Cuban press and accounts related to the regime following the alleged attack, on Sunday, of the Island Embassy in Washington with two Molotov cocktails: #NoAlTerrorismo. Although the United States called the event “unacceptable” and prefers not to speculate while an investigation is being carried out, both the Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel and its allies describe it as a “terrorist act.”

On Monday afternoon, about 30 people, summoned by the National Networks on Cuba group, demonstrated in front of the diplomatic headquarters, located on a street that will soon bear the name of Oswaldo Payá, to demand the US authorities to remove the Island from the list of states that support terrorism.

Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera and the diplomats did not participate in the demonstration, says the Spanish agency EFE, which certifies that the participants were, for the most part, U.S. citizens. continue reading

Moscow also demands that Washington “unconditionally guarantee the security of the diplomatic missions of foreign states located in its territory

For its part, Russia not only “strongly” condemns the alleged attack on Tuesday, but even asks the United States “not to let it go unpunished, and that those responsible for its organization suffer severe sanctions” after a “quick and thorough” investigation, according to EFE from statements issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Moscow also demands that Washington “unconditionally guarantee the security of the diplomatic missions of foreign states located in its territory in strict accordance with international obligations” and has taken the opportunity to defend Havana, with which it maintains increasingly close relations, remembering that it is not the first “crime committed against the
Cuban mission in Washington, which unfortunately, occurs in the context of an atmosphere of threats against the Government of the Isle of Freedom, which continue to be cultivated in the United States.”

The Government of Honduras, headed by Xiomara Castro, has also expressed its “solidarity” with “the brother people” of Cuba, while condemning what it called a “criminal fact.” In the same vein, the chavista Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alba) said that the “Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations establishes the obligation of the receiving State to respect and protect the premises of the diplomatic mission.”

Other voices in defense of the regime’s point of view given in different official media are the Union of Cuban Residents in Argentina, a group of Cubans in Germany, the Popular Vanguard Party of Costa Rica, the Martian Association of Cubans Living in Panama and the Syrian Association of graduates in Cuba.

All of them remember, as did Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, that Sunday was the “second violent attack on the diplomatic headquarters in Washington since April 2020,” when an individual fired an assault rifle at the headquarters.

The Proyecto Inventario platform demanded that the Cuban government publish the videos of the “alleged impact”

For those events, the Cuban Alexander Alazo Baró was arrested and charged with shooting with firearms in a violent act, violently attacking an official with a deadly weapon and damaging the property of a foreign government in the United States and possession of weapons.

The penalty foreseen for those crimes was 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000; however, the last that was heard about the attacker in 2022 was that he was in a correctional facility awaiting a ruling on his mental state. Alazo, according to acquaintances, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived obsessed with the idea that State Security was after him.

Meanwhile, there are many suspicions aroused by the event, for which the alleged attacker had to launch homemade projectiles from the street over the high fence of the Cuban delegation and avoid two columns, before they landed in the corner of one of the windows on the ground floor. The Proyecto Inventario platform demanded that the Cuban government publish the videos of the “alleged impact,” showing the places on the facade of the building where three security cameras are located.

The organization also denounced the dissemination of false images from a news story about France in 2018, published at the time by the Russian agency Sputnik, in the propaganda disseminated by the media related to the regime.

Several users on networks, on the other hand, questioned the facts when they saw the true photos, published by Ambassador Torres herself on her X account (Twitter), in which the papers inside one of the explosive bottles were not burned. “What damage can there be if he didn’t set that cocktail on fire?” asked one user. “The papers are intact. They just threw away the bottle with the papers to pose for the photo. Don’t they realize it?” Another replied sarcastically: “They couldn’t burn them because the matches hadn’t arrived at the bodega (ration store).”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Electricity and Gas Services Go From Bad to Worse

Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, during a visit to the Cienfuegos thermoelectric plant. (CanalCaribe)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 1 October 2023 — Not many days ago, Cuba’s Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, announced the great success of drilling a third gas well that would allow the joint venture Energas to increase electricity generation. The state press welcomed the information as if it were the solution that all Cubans were expecting.

This year two wells had already been drilled, in the months of May and June, to provide 14,125,867 cubic feet of gas and thereby increase electricity generation. In those months, 330 MW of power were not available due to lack of fuel, and before this, the electricity moved between 250 and 260 MW.

De la O Levy then announced, surprisingly, that Energás would begin a mandatory maintenance process, which had been delayed since May, so that the plant in question could go into operation on October 3, with higher generation power thanks to the third well.

And here comes something eye-catching. A few days later, the state press reported that there would be an immediate impact on the manufactured gas service in Havana, because the maintenance work at the Energas production plant would cause a decrease in the volume of natural gas that is supplied to the capital from 9:00 pm on Sunday, October 1 until 6:00 am on Tuesday, October 3. So one is broken; one is disconnected, and the third well is at rock-bottom. continue reading

The service impact, which could be partial or total but wasn’t clarified, would be felt in the municipalities of Plaza de la Revolución, Cerro, Old Havana, Central Havana, 10 de Octubre, Playa and Marianao.

Citizens don’t know what to say. On the one hand, they have a minister who announces more gas supply, and on the other, the directors of the entity responsible for the service who, as a result of the maintenance work, decide to reduce it. A few weeks ago, similar work in the Refrigeration Section of Energas began on September 20 and produced a bad smell of gas in numerous areas of the capital that alarmed the population.

So despite the drilling of a third well and the construction of a 13-mile pipeline whose valves are closed, residents in Havana will have to settle for cuts in the gas supply.

Nobody understands how these setbacks can occur in something as standardized as continuously providing electricity service to consumers. Apparently, the strategy followed since February to increase the hours of planned maintenance, in order to recover power and not have to make repairs, is partly responsible for the breakdown in the service.

Nor have new investments that should guarantee the stability of the electricity service served to increase consumption. So the fuel supply and the technical status of thermoelectric plants continue to be the vectors that distance the Castro electricity sector from any solution to the serious problems.

And of course, since there is no way to solve the energy crisis that grips the country, the minister attributes to the U.S. economic blockade the sole responsibility for an energy policy that responds to the terrible design of the communist economic model, inadequate to meet the needs, which exerts a key influence on the normal functioning of the entire country.

The company suggests that the completion of the repair work will allow greater reliability in the distribution of natural gas to the production plants of the Manufactured Gas Company, but consumers hardly believe these arguments, because the same problems of supply and blackouts continue.

This is the day-to-day of Castroism. The propaganda and demagogy of the regime on the one hand announce new wells that will solve all the problems and on the other, facts without solutions. Cubans are aware of the dynamics of these events, and after almost two long years of poor service, they have lost all hope.

The daily reports about the service published in the state press as warnings of what cannot be avoided are unique in the world. There is no other country in which citizens have this type of terrible service and are also informed by the government of the distribution of consumption.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba and Honduras, the Latin American Countries With the Most Children Displaced by Climate Events

Leymida Chávez’s family has been waiting for a solution for almost ten years for her house in Palma Soriano, one of the 7,000 that are still half-demolished after the passage of Hurricane Sandy. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Panama City, 7 October 2023 — Cuba and Honduras are the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the most children uprooted due to climate-related dangers, in a region where floods and storms caused the displacement of 2.3 million minors and adolescents between 2016 and 2021, UNICEF said on Friday.

“Every day, floods, landslides and hurricanes are uprooting more and more children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Unicef’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille.

The report “Children Displaced by Climate Change” says that between 2016 and 2021 in the region, “Cuba and Honduras recorded the highest number of children and adolescents displaced due to climate-related hazards in absolute numbers,” with 670,000 and 370,000, respectively.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of minors and adolescents displaced in those six years by floods and storms rises to 2.3 million, according to the report of the United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF. continue reading

Worldwide, these phenomena caused the forced displacement of 40.9 million children in the same period

Worldwide, those phenomena caused the forced displacement of 40.9 million children in the same period, mainly in China and the Philippines.

In these circumstances, “children and adolescents not only lose their homes, but also their access to education, health, water and protection,” Conille stressed.

In the coming decades, “this worrying trend will only accelerate, giving rise to a generation of ’climate migrant children and adolescents’ throughout the region,” said the regional director of UNICEF.

In the next 30 years it is expected that in Latin America and the Caribbean floods alone will displace 4.6 million children, the report indicates, although it warns that “due to the increase in the frequency and severity of meteorological phenomena as a result of climate change, the real figures will almost certainly be higher.”

In Brazil, the document mentions, floods and storms could displace 1.5 million children and adolescents in the next 30 years

In Brazil, the document mentions, floods and storms could displace 1.5 million children and adolescents in the next 30 years, and in Mexico, up to 672,000.

In this context, UNICEF urged governments, the private sector and donors to protect minors and adolescents by ensuring that essential services, including education and health, “can respond to shocks, are easy to move and include most people, such as those who are already uprooted.”

The UN body asked to prepare children and young people to live in a world of climate crisis, “by improving their capacity for adaptation and resilience and encouraging their participation in the search for inclusive solutions.”

That is why UNICEF also urged to give priority to children and young people, “including those who have already been uprooted, in action and financing in the field of disasters and climate, in humanitarian and development policy, and in investments to prepare for a future that is already here.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Other Side of Cuba: Luxury, Drugs, Expensive Alcohol for ‘Well-Off People’

Behind the bar, with dark glasses and a cocktail shaker in his hand, the bartender prepares everyone’s favorite drink. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Nelson García/Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 8 October 2023 — The atmosphere is electrifying, and the music is very loud. Everyone knows him and wants to know – both in Havana and outside Cuba – the coordinates for the most exclusive bar in Cuba: Mío and Tuyo (Mine and Yours). Prostitution, drugs, the best alcohol and the best cigars – multiple rumors surround the administration of the premises. It is claimed that the owner, Elio Ahumada, is a close friend of Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, alias El Cangrejo (The Crab), Raúl Castro’s grandson and bodyguard. Allegedly armored by the regime, Ahumada has a slogan on social networks: “Speak comment, defame.” The gossip can only give publicity.

Located in Miramar, on 5B and 42nd streets of the municipality of Playa, the white fence of Mío y Tuyo, in addition to the security personnel who guard it, makes one thing clear: not just anybody can get in. It’s commonly said that only the “beautiful people” go there – with the intention of spending “the best nights in Havana” – but also the wealthiest, the one who dresses best and the one who has the most contacts, in addition to having transportation to return home in the early hours of the morning.

Behind the bar, with dark glasses and a cocktail shaker in his hand, the bartender prepares everyone’s favorite drink. Some are known, like a mojito, and some are far-fetched, like a social-climbing coyote. There are no limits, and the radiant bottles behind him attest to this: for whiskey, Johnnie Walker – blue label, one of the most expensive – Ballantine’s and Chivas Regal; for vodka, Grey Goose Magnum and Belvedere; for rum, wonders from one shore to another.

Those who prefer to smoke have a special patio and comfortable benches. There are also three exclusive VIP areas: to the left and right of the entrance door, and another at the back of the lounge. Many have gotten drunk at these tables, to which Ahumada’s Instagram attests, everyone from Rihanna to Gente de Zona, from Alexander Abreu to Isaac Delgado and continue reading

Paulo FG. Sandro Castro, Fidel Castro’s grandson, is also seen often. From time to time, security guards let in someone “poor”: it’s a strategy, some say, so that no one accuses its owner of practicing social apartheid.

Las jineteras del Tuyo y Mío cuentan con entrada libre y un “espacio” bien delimitado en el salón. (14ymedio) — The jineteras (hookers, or prostitutes) of Mío y Tuyo have free admission and a well-defined “space” in the lounge. (14ymedio)

What is the secret of Mío y Tuyo? What guarantees its continuous supply, its survival as a business, in the midst of a devastating economic crisis? Who protects Elio Ahumada? The “friend” in the dome who is most often pointed out is the famous grandson, who has been photographed more than once in the bar in the company of several young women. However, nothing – except the operation at full speed of the establishment – can show the link.

“Elio is a personal friend of El Cangrejo,” Omar, a former security employee of Mío y Tuyo, tells 14ymedio. “He earns his slice of money in exchange for sponsoring the place. He enjoys the open bar and all the free services provided, in addition to being able to organize private parties.” For Omar, the strategy is clear: “The Crab is the real owner; Elio is just a facade.”

Mary, a young woman who used to clean the bar, says that it’s a cover for the regime’s “dirty business.” “More than once I saw people using cocaine in the bathrooms,” she says. “When I told the management, they turned a deaf ear for a while. Shortly after, Elio himself told me that he would dispense with my services.”

To the alleged businesses of sale and consumption of drugs is added, according to observations in the bar and the comments of former employees, an orderly system of prostitution

To the alleged businesses of sale and consumption of drugs is added, according to observations in the bar and comments of former employees, an orderly system of prostitution. The young women entrench themselves in the VIP areas and wait for the arrival of potential customers: foreign businessmen, wealthy Cubans and members of the leadership who usually themselves show up with several women.

The jineteras (hookers, or prostitutes) of Mío y Tuyo have free admission and a well-defined “space” in the lounge. When they manage to “hook” a client – whom they monitor and select from the VIP platforms – they take him to the dance floor. Although they often go in groups – in case the client can pay for an orgy – there are also “independent” ones, who must then give a commission to the administrators.

The security guards preserve order among the “girls” of the bar and the “independents.” There can be no conflict in the facilities, and that’s why they are so scrupulous about who enters and who stays out. No one knows who may be behind the surveillance cameras. After all, another motto of Elio Ahumada, which seems like a private joke among friends, is that the luxurious bar is “more yours than mine.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Government Wants to Fix and Manage ‘Distortions’ in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

After meeting with Cuban jurists, Marrero spoke with a delegation of administrative managers from Spain. (X/Manuel Marrero)

14ymedio, Havana, 7 October 2023 — Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero confirmed on Friday that a government commission is working on new legislation for small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). In a meeting with 470 attorneys, consultants and legal advisors, he said that the goal of the regulation is to fix and manage “distortions” that have arisen as new economic players have gained prominence in the economy.

A possible change in the rules of the game would affect not only Cuban businesspeople but also Cuban-Americans interested in opening businesses on the island. Diplomatic sources have been anticipating changes since President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s recent visit to New York. The Nuevo Herald reports that officials are “contemplating and working on” legislation that would facilitate investments by Cuban-Americans and allow them to own MSMEs registered in Cuba.

Marrero was not alluding to the transformations that Diaz-Canel promised would provide new business opportunities during his New York visit. Instead, he used the meeting to warn that the government’s decision to promote MSMEs did not represent a step backwards. There would, however, be limits. He indicated that, although there was consensus among officials on new business development, the priority would continue to be “the socialist, state-run company.” continue reading

The prime minister indicated that one issue left to be decided was the level of approval the new companies would need and the time required to get it

He added that part of the legislation would deal with “updating the list of prohibited activities,” which at the moment includes work as dissimilar as creating labor unions, manufacturing sugar and tobacco products, and practicing independent journalism. The prime minister also indicated that one issue left to be decided was the level of approval the new companies would need and the time required to get it.

Marrero addressed the jurists during the Third National Symposium on Legal Advice and Business Law, informing them that, as the MSME law is being implemented, they will be responsible for ensuring that it is complied with to the letter. He also announced the creation of two new and as yet unspecified institutions to “serve” the self-employed and various state-run businesses.

Regarding the latter, he again reiterated that the government is obliged to protect the “socialist, state-run enterprise,” as the Cuban constitution “expressly” stipulates.

Marrero later met with a commission from the General Council of Spanish Administrative Management Schools, headed by its president, Jesús Santiago Ollero. State media was tight-lipped about what was discussed at the meeting. Ollero, who said he was in Cuba to meet with the country’s justice minister and the National Organization of Collective Law Firms, praised the digital transformation of the island’s civil registries and other institutions.

Marrero reiterated that the government is obliged to protect the “socialist, state-run enterprise,” as the Cuban constitution expressly stipulates

He added that Spain would support Havana by providing technical cooperation to develop information sofware, though he provided no details. He praised the “political will” of the Cuban government to facilitate legal procedures without mentioning the ongoing obstacles that Cubans face in obtaining any type of official document. The press did not reveal whether Marrero and Ollero discussed the Spanish experience in the management and administration of MSMEs.

The future of small businesses in Cuba is unclear and remains subject to the shifting opinions of the government, which has consistently said they will be subject to oversight by authorities. Despite the obstacles, the rise of MSMEs now seems to have been inevitable. This has led to controversies about whether or not they are a ploy by the regime to place like-minded businesspeople at the head of a sham private sector.

That is the opinion of the Madrid-based organization Cuba Siglo 21 (21st Century Cuba), which has said that Washington should not provide financial support to owners of MSMEs on the island, arguing this would “only prolong the agony of the Cuban people.” For its part, the Christian Democratic Party views Havana’s new economic flexibility with suspicion. It warns, “Both the credits themselves and the potential opportunities [for Cuban businesspeople] to open bank accounts in the United States are limited and will only benefit a select group of people near the pinnacles of power.”

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The Emirates, a Springboard for Ordinary Cubans and a Potential Patron for Havana

Tickets to Dubai are expensive because the journey is very long, with layovers. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana/Madrid, October 3, 2023 — Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuba’s minister in charge of begging for foreign exchange, oil and debt renegotiation for the benefit of the Havana regime, began on Monday a working visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country that exempts Cubans from visas and is becoming a springboard for those fleeing the Island.

Officially, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment traveled to that federation of emirates, on the shore of the Persian Gulf, to thank the local authorities “for the funds provided to various social projects in Cuba.”

The delegation, made up of several officials of the Island and their Emirati counterparts, will “review the state of trade, financial and cooperation relations in various spheres (…) to materialize the will expressed by both Governments to raise the ties of cooperation to the same level of the excellent political-diplomatic relations they have maintained during the last 20 years.”

The vagueness of the statement makes one suspect that Cabrisas, once again, is on a mission to search for and capture financial and oil aid to alleviate the disastrous situation of the Cuban economy. continue reading

The vagueness of the statement suggests that Cabrisas, once again, is on a mission to search for and capture financial and oil aid

In line with this visit, 14ymedio has contacted some of the Cubans living in Dubai, the main city in the Emirates. Dayana, a 35-year-old journalist from Cienfuegos who emigrated to Dubai in 2022 with her family and then traveled to Spain, explains that, despite not knowing what she was going to find upon her arrival, she and her husband – both employees at the University of Cienfuegos – decided to move with their children to the UAE due to the difficult economic situation on the Island. The simplicity of processing the visa – in a matter of days – and the opportunity to be legalized quickly, were key factors when choosing the country to which they would emigrate.

The problem, she says, “is that you have to have an account abroad or a friend who can pay for this procedure, because it can’t be done from the Cuban banks. Likewise, you have to buy basic travel insurance, which is also done online, and you need to pay for it from abroad.”

The family gathered the money to pay for the visas (169 dollars plus travel insurance of 99 dollars) and the plane tickets, whose price was around 1,300 dollars, more or less the price paid for a flight to Nicaragua. “The tickets are expensive because the journey is very long, and there is always a stopover somewhere. So you have to make sure that the country of call is also free of visas or apply for a transit visa,” she explains. Among the countries most frequently used for transit are Turkey, Russia and Germany.

The tourist visa with which you arrive in Dubai is only for 60 days, but it can be extended, and it is time that, according to Dayana, emigrants take advantage of to get a job and have their employer manage their residence or apply for it themselves. “A lot of work is done in all sectors of tourism as a cook, clerk, receptionist, musician, event organizer, dancer,” she says. Also, finding a job can be easier if you know some other language, because “speaking English or, in the best of cases, Arabic, opens many doors.”

The tourist visa with which you arrive in Dubai is only for 60 days but can be extended, and it is time that, according to Dayana, emigrants take advantage of to get a job

“You can get to the country now with an employment contract, which means that the contracting company usually pays the travel expenses and health insurance; in addition, in many cases they help with the rent. But this is not common,” she says.

Javier, a habanero who worked as a tour guide in Cuba, was lucky that the 360 Agency, a company that connects employees from around the world with companies in the Middle East, recommended him to a hotel in Dubai.

“After several interviews I was hired with all the expenses paid, including my departure from Cuba,” says Javier, who also explains that his wife, whose expenses were not covered by the company, managed to get hers paid through Dubai Hispano, a company that is in charge of processing this type of situation.

The former tour guide, who has the advantage of speaking English, recognizes that opportunities are not the same for everyone who arrives in Dubai. “I know a couple of Cubans who arrived without knowing English and found work taking care of houses rented by a Colombian. She cleans, and he maintains and assists customers in general,” he said, explaining that the UAE is not only a popular destination among Cubans but also among many Latin Americans.

You have to have a very good salary to be able to pay for a school (even if it is the cheapest of all) and much more to afford good health insurance. Nothing is free

“The good thing here is that you arrive and you are already a person when you enter the airport. You don’t spend months without papers or sweating because the mail from the Embassy doesn’t arrive,” he says. “The processes to legalize you here in Dubai are extremely simple. This is because it is the Government’s intention that certain positions be occupied by foreigners.”

As for the cost of living, “rent is one of the biggest expenses and depends on the site,” and prices start at $500 for a small apartment, up to a more comfortable two-bedroom apartment for $1,000. “With tourist status it is not difficult to get something, but it will always be more expensive because you can’t have it for a long time. After being a resident you can opt for a long-term contract, which allows you to pay a little less,” says Dayana, who arrived with two children aged 8 and 10, who had to enroll in a private school, since there is no public education.

“You have to have a very good salary to be able to pay for a school (even if it is the cheapest of all) and much more to afford good health insurance. Nothing is free,” she says. Annually, the most affordable schools in Dubai charge more than $1,000 per student. The most expensive can be close to $10,000.

“The standard of living is very expensive, all tourist attractions, shops, services. Except for the food, if you know where to buy, of course. There are very cheap markets and others that are extremely expensive,” enumerates the journalist, who says that in Emirati society, especially one as varied as that of Dubai, very different lifestyles coexist.

“The culture is totally different, the way of life, of communicating, dressing, eating, interacting in society. It is a contradictory city, with a lot of consumerism, extremely modern and technological, but at the same time with an ancient mentality trying to adapt to the 21st century. Very patriarchal, capitalist, regulatory and authoritarian.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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