14ymedio

Havana, As Seen Through Its Overflowing Garbage

On the corner of Industria and Ánimas, in the neighborhood of Colón (Central Havana), the garbage containers are overflowing with waste and debris. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 31 August 2023 — Celia holds her breath every day when she passes by the corner of Industria y Ánimas, in the neighborhood of Colón (Centro Habana). The garbage containers are overflowing with waste and debris. The sidewalk stopped being passable some time ago, and pedestrians mix with the vehicles and taxi-bikes on the street. Rusty metal sheets cover the entrances to the building in front of which the mountain of waste grows.

“Before, when a hurricane was coming, the Communal companies picked up the garbage and cleaned the sewers, but with Idalia they didn’t even show up around here,” complained Celia, while pointing to the row of crammed-full garbage cans. Near them, a huge cargo container of a truck contains construction debris, parts of broken furniture and the garbage generated by a nearby business that sells animals for religious sacrifice.

Despite the ugliness of the scene and the bad smells, people who pass by react normally. Dirt has become so familiar in Havana that the surprising thing is those blocks where cleanliness, painted facades and order contrast with the rest of the city. People seem to have become accustomed to living with the filth due to the inability of the authorities to collect it in time.

Garbage is also the way for many to survive. The dumpster divers search the containers for raw materials to sell, empty perfume bottles to refill to scam some unsuspecting customer, food waste to feed the pigs, pieces of appliances that serve to repair others and even clothes that help protect them from the breeze and humidity during the early hours of the morning. Where some see rubbish, others find their means of sustenance. continue reading

Despite the ugliness of the scene and the bad smells, people who pass by react normally. (14ymedio)

Garbage in Havana is also one of the most obvious ways to measure the state of the economy of the Cuban capital. During the crisis of the 90s, garbage containers had only what could no longer be used for almost anything. Not even pieces of old wood were thrown into the cans, because people used them as firewood to cook. Finding leftover food among the waste was a miracle in what Fidel Castro named the Special Period.

Then, the garbage of Havana began to fill with plastic bags that until then had been considered a status symbol for those who bought in dollar stores. Little by little, with the opening to private businesses, the expansion of markets in convertible pesos and the arrival of more tourists, cans, plastic containers and boxes of electronic devices appeared on the streets.

“The garbage smelled different,” recalls Genaro, 68 years old and a resident a few meters from the corner of Industria and Ánimas. In those years, this habanero and his two sons had a small business collecting empty cans of beer and soda. “There wasn’t the poverty there is now. You could get something from selling in the cans, but it’s not worth it anymore,” he tells 14ymedio. “Even the garbage is in crisis.”

Some stone faces peep out on the facade of the building on the corner in front of the containers. They wear curly wigs that mimic some European headdress, which are totally out of tune with the destroyed balconies, the thresholds without doors and a couple of bushes that have grown on the eaves of the semi-ruined building. From up there they look like the guardians of the waste, the watchmen of the city’s offal.

The dirt also affects entrepreneurs. Lourdes has seen the clientele of her cafeteria in the neighborhood of Colón languish to the same extent that the garbage pile in front of her place grows. “Who is going to want to have a milkshake or eat a pizza with this plague?” she asks. The journey of the neighbors to eradicate the huge garbage pile has taken them from the meetings with the Delegate of People’s Power to “writing letters to the Council of State,” the woman tells this newspaper.

“Who is going to want to have a milkshake or eat a pizza with this plague?” she asks

The result of the complaints has been null. Over the years, the sidewalk around the pile of garbage has disappeared, “because instead of picking it up with the right trucks they bring a bulldozer and scoop it up,” Lourdes says. Water accumulates in the hole left by the heavy machinery, and “a mosquito farm is formed that does not allow us to live.”

Hanging from the ceiling of the cafeteria, Lourdes has put some transparent plastic bags with water that, someone told her, “help to scare away the flies.” But the curious invention doesn’t seem to be working. This Wednesday several insects were perched on the bags and flew down on the food of the few customers who came to buy. The owner’s hand constantly waved a cardboard to ward off the flying intruders, which sometimes went from the waste thrown on the street to the meringue of some small sweets.

At noon, an impeccable white police patrol car passed in front of Lourdes’ house with a camera installed on the roof. With the windows closed and somewhat fogged, revealing the air conditioning inside the vehicle, the uniformed men roamed the streets of a neighborhood where poverty and discontent are the breeding grounds for complaint and protest. The wheels of the car passed over some garbage bags and continued on their way to the next block. And like that, four or five times a day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Despite the Political Prisoners, Cuba Is Running Again for the UN Human Rights Council

The exhibition was inaugurated this Tuesday at United Nations headquarters. (@GerardoPPortal)

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 August 2023 — Starting Tuesday, the main lobby of the United Nations headquarters in New York is hosting an exhibition with a disturbing title: “Cuba, a sustained commitment to human rights for all.” Paintings by the Cuban visual artist Yosvany Martínez alternate with works by other photographers from the Island in an exhibition organized to promote the re-election of Cuba as a member of the Human Rights Council, a mandate that expires on December 31.

“The Cuban people own their own destiny, exercise full power and control over the life of their country, and actively participate in an effective system of socialist democracy and social justice that they support and endorse,” reads the text of the exhibit’s presentation, signed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba and Permanent Representative to the UN, Gerardo Peñalver Portal.

The document aims to highlight the importance of “the protection of human rights and international cooperation” for Cuba’s policies. “With humility, but with an important track record of performance in this sphere, with tangible results enjoyed by our people and internationally recognized,” the message continues, which mentions, as expected, that everything has been achieved “despite a hard blockade of more than 60 years.”

The exhibition contains photographs of Cuban doctors on international missions at a time when the discredit is total

The text continues to gloss over those things that once functioned as promotional pillars of the regime but have now visibly deteriorated; namely, health, education, sports and science. continue reading

To illustrate this, the exhibition contains photographs of Cuban doctors on international missions at a time when the discredit is total and has been denounced by different organizations, including the one that hosts the exhibition, for the exploitation of professionals, who receive only 15% of the salaries that the host countries pay to the Cuban government for them. To this should be added the fact that their documentation is withdrawn to prevent them from traveling; they are forced to show their adherence to the Government, and they are prevented from interacting with the population of the destination countries.

Nor can anything better be said in the case of athletes, whose escapes are counted by several dozen annually; or of the teachers who left their jobs, causing a chronic shortage of teachers in recent years.

Another photograph claims that Cuba has produced three vaccines against COVID-19, although three years later they still haven’t received the endorsement of the World Health Organization for emergency use.

The authorities boast, as can be seen on their posters, of other alleged achievements. One of them is the fight against racism, despite the fact that official surveys systematically show that the black and mulatto populations have worse jobs, worse wages, higher poverty rates and lower institutional representation, among other adversities.

The authorities boast, as can be seen on their posters, of other alleged achievements. One of them is the fight against racism

There is also an apparent protection for people with disabilities that few would subscribe to.

The most striking thing, however, is the poster that proclaims the benefits of the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Law and other reforms that “guarantee due process” in the field of the administration of justice, something difficult to believe about a country that, as a member of the Human Rights Council (the election is for three years and dates back to 2020) imprisoned more than a thousand people for the demonstrations of July 11, 2021, imposing sentences of tens of years on some of them for “sedition.” The illustration that accompanies the text is not far behind and shows a unanimous vote in the National Assembly.

The artists who gave life to the exhibition are “educated entirely by the Revolution, totally free, like all those born after 1959,” adds the presentation text, which continues: “This exhibition reflects our progress in economic, social and cultural rights, in the sphere of political and civil rights.”

Peñalver, who attended the inauguration on Tuesday with Yosvany Martínez, invited the permanent and rotating members of the Council to enjoy the exhibition. “I hope you enjoy it and understand the pride of being Cuban,” the text closes.

Cuba was elected a member of the Council in October 2020 amid the discomfort of many countries that were indignant about its entry, which took place along with that of China and Russia. The members are directly elected every three years by regional quotas – Latin America has eight seats – and they cannot repeat after two consecutive terms, so the Island is trying to win what would be its last short-term opportunity, for 2024-2026.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Hurricane Idalia Leaves Power Cuts and Collapsed Buildings in Western Cuba

La Policía mantiene bajo vigilancia el edificio ubicado en Prado 352, cuyos habitantes han protestado en varias ocasiones, colocando sus objetos en el portal. (14ymedio) — Months ago the partial collapse of this building, whose door was blocked, could be foreseen. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 August 2023 — The two-story building located at number 352 Paseo Del Prado at Virtudes in Havana suffered a partial collapse on Tuesday after the rains caused by Hurricane Idalia. According to 14ymedio, the police have the property under surveillance. The inhabitants protested on several occasions, placing objects in the doorway and sitting there, aware of the precariousness of the building.

Although no deaths were reported and some neighbors were rescued by the Red Cross and firefighters, it has been months since the collapse of the building, whose door was blocked, could be foreseen. Idalia’s passage through western Cuba gave another blow to the battered architectural structures of the capital, in addition to causing power cuts to the electricity service and the Internet.

A collapse of a building was also reported on Esperanza Street, between Florida and Alambique, in the Jesús María neighborhood. A video published by journalist Mario J. Pentón shows how the property, which lost its second floor, was examined by the neighbors themselves, in the absence of the authorities.

The bad weather has left almost 48,000 habaneros without electricity, as reported by the province’s Electric Company, and has caused notable damage to 45 electric circuits. The document also pointed out that “numerous breakdowns” had been detected in the municipalities of Habana del Este, Arroyo Naranjo, Boyeros, Plaza de la Revolución and El Cerro. continue reading

With umbrellas and dodging puddles and potholes, the goal of those who walked the streets was the same: to find food. (14ymedio)

At noon this Tuesday, residents left their homes as the rain subsided. With umbrellas and dodging puddles and potholes, the goal of those who walked the streets was the same: to find food. Although some stalls began to operate in spite of the rain, the shortage – caused by the proximity of Idalia – has led to a new increase in the price of products.

On the sidewalks and in doorways, some have begun to dry out their belongings. Many of the city’s rooftops couldn’t withstand the wind, and water seeped through leaks to damage the interiors of homes.

In addition to building collapses and power outages, the impact of the rains on the garbage dumps in Havana, which the authorities did not bother to clean up before Idalia arrived, has been considerable. “They didn’t pick up the garbage here,” complains a neighbor from Nuevo Vedado, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality. Compared to other years, when the Communal Company cleaned sewers and evacuated waste from the streets, each family is now in charge of doing what they can to protect their lives and property.

Each one took care of his little piece because no trucks or brigades came to help us. “We cleaned the roof because if it falls, the rain will come in on us,” another neighbor of a five-story building in the La Timba area tells this newspaper. “But each one took care of his little piece because no trucks or brigades came to help us,” she said. The winds damaged several light roofs of the neighborhood, which is close to the Council of State and with a very low-income population.

On the coast, images of the tidal waves were widely disseminated on social networks, although the concern of the day was the serious problems with the Internet connection throughout the western part of the Island. Despite the winds and rain, traffic on the Avenida del Malecón remained for a good part of the morning and until afternoon.

The impact of the rains on the Havana garbage dumps, which the authorities did not bother to clean up before Idalia arrived, has been considerable. (14ymedio)

In Pinar del Río, Idalia caused strong storms, with wind gusts of more than 56-59 miles per hour, although they have now dropped to 34-37 mph. The Cuyaguateje River, the main watershed of the province, has overflowed its banks.

“The greatest problems have been with electricity and the Internet connection,” Margot, a resident of the city of Pinar del Río, tells this newspaper. “There have been floods in the area of Mantua and La Coloma. We have found out through a WhatsApp group that we have with several lay people from the Church,” she says.

“The problem is that Idalia arrived at a time when there are still many people in those towns on the outskirts of the city who are still without a roof from Hurricane Ian,” Margot adds. They suffered “some leaks in their homes but nothing serious. The hardest thing has been getting food the last a day or two without having to go out on the street.”

Idalia entered the Island around 9 pm this Monday through Cabo de San Antonio, at the westernmost end of the Island, and although at 3 am this Tuesday the storm was already leaving Cuba, the rains have not stopped. The largest accumulations have occurred in San Juan y Martínez (3.5 inches) and Isabel Rubio (4.2 inches) between 2 and 5 in the morning, and people are holding their breath with the memory of Ian, in September of last year, still fresh.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s Political Prisoners and the People of Ukraine, Winners of the Pedro Luis Boitel 2023 Freedom Prize

A person looks at banners with photos of Cuban prisoners during a press conference in Miami, Florida, on May 16, 2023. (EFE/EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 29 August 2023 — The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), which includes opposition organizations from inside and outside Cuba, announced this Tuesday that the Pedro Luis Boitel 2023 Freedom Prize was awarded to the 137 Cuban political prisoners and the Ukrainian people for defending their sovereignty against “Russian aggression.”

Established in 2001, the Boitel Prize is awarded every year by an international panel to an outstanding figure in the fight for freedom in Cuba or in the world.

The announcement of the winners was made in Kiev as part of the visit of a delegation from the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance and the Hemispheric Front for Freedom to express their solidarity with the cause of Ukrainian freedom and their rejection of “the participation of the Castroite Black Berets in the Russian aggression” against that country.

The award honors the memory of Pedro Luis Boitel, who fought against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and then against the regime of Fidel Castro and died in 1972 after a 53-day hunger strike in a Cuban jail.

According to a statement from ARC, Alexander Merezhko, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Ukrainian Parliament, and MP Maryan Zablotsky participated in the announcement of the Boitel Prize winners. continue reading

“We support political prisoners in Cuba, especially women political prisoners, and we are happy that this year the Boitel award goes to women political prisoners in Cuba. We admire your courage and demand your release,” said Merezhko.

Zablotsky said that Ukrainians know well that communism, “an ideology that should not have existed,” “only leads to repression” and regretted that it persists in Cuba and other countries.

“You should know that we share your pain and your values. And I am sure that freedom always wins over darkness,” added the deputy, according to an ARC statement.

Salvadoran congressman Ricardo Godoy and Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, ARC coordinator, also addressed the announcement.

Gutiérrez recalled that in Kiev’s Maidan square “the recovery of sovereignty by the people of Ukraine began in the critical year of 2014,” with popular demonstrations and the action of the Armed Forces that prevented Russia from dominating Ukraine again and consolidated the democracy of the country.

“Maidan is a cry for freedom and a symbol of freedom for the entire world and it should also be for Cuba. It is in this alliance between the people and the patriotic Armed Forces that the hope for the liberation of Cuba lies,” he stressed.

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The Creative Cuisine of Cuban Grandmothers in the Face of General Scarcity

Cuban cuisine, opulent in other times, now functions with scarce food and improvised recipes. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 29 August 2023 — The walls of Havana creak with the rain and Idalia’s breeze. While the radio predicts that everything is in order, jets of water slip between the tiles and drip, relentless, coating the walls. However, what most worries Aurelia, 61 years old and fond of cooking, is what she is going to eat at home while the storm lasts.

In her building in Centro Habana, several retirees like her tried to equip themselves — with very little luck — so they wouldn’t have to go outside in the rain. The result of the hunt is lean: a pound of ground chicken, a bottle of El Cocinero oil, and rice.

Neighbors trade small amounts of rice, flour or eggs to contribute to the completion of a whole meal

Pedro, one of Aurelia’s old friends, recalled that Cubadebate had a gastronomy section and that it might give them an idea to bite the bullet and invent a banquet. Sabor y Tradición, the column by gourmet cook Silvia Gómez Fariñas, has everyone taking offense against the “official Cuban recipe book”: sausage, guava jelly, beef burger, mango chutney, breaded chicken with peanuts, fried vegetables, etc., not to mention the wacky instructions for the hacked shark, the fish in green sauce and malarrabia.*

“We will have to make do with the creative cuisine of the revolutionary grandmothers,” Aurelia proposes ironically, among the insults of the others to the opulent menu of Cubadebate. Phone in hand, she starts calling other neighbors and “negotiating.” continue reading

Ernesto, who lives on the first floor, will lend her a few handfuls of powdered egg. “Let’s do the same deal as the other day,” Aurelia proposes, reminding him that, in exchange for the egg, he got some croquettes she had prepared. Using the same tactic, a call to her neighbor Sandra guarantees her a small bunch of chives and two or three spices.

The oil begins to get hot, Ernesto prepares a salad, someone else the rice, and Aurelia throws the picadillo into the pot

The kitchen counter begins to look less squalid, and Aurelia gets down to work. At the last minute, a packet of flour appears. “I sold the cigarettes from the bodega [the ration store] and got this a few days ago,” says Pedro. As if she were making an act of contrition, she confessed to her friends that she was saving the flour to make some sweets, but since the eggs are not available through the ration book, it’s better to use them and that’s it. “You only live once,” she concludes, while the downpour continues beating on the windows of the house.

The oil begins to get hot, Ernesto prepares a salad, someone else the rice, and Aurelia throws the picadillo into the pot. Disappointed, she notes the meat shrinking as it makes contact with the metal. Shortly after, already at the table, everyone devours Aurelia’s picadillo with white rice. “It won’t be Cubadebate’s hacked shark, but it is what it is,” she says.

The coffee – a bit watery – rounds off the meal. The weather begins to clear over Havana. Someone opens a window to let the fresh air in, but Aurelia asks that they close it: the neighborhood dump, located a few meters below her window, must be at its peak. She is right, whoever looks out the window will see a horde of flies swarming over the garbage. “With so much trash, it’s best not to talk too much,” she warns. “If you’re not careful, flies will get into your mouth.”

*Translator’s note: Malarrabia (insanity or bad case of hydrophobia) is a typical Cuban dessert made with several fruits and vegetables and syrup.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Tens of Thousands of Cubans on Waiting List to Buy Dollars

The Cadeca branch at 23rd and J streets will allow only fifteen people a day to buy currency. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2023 — Cuba’s official currency exchange, Cadeca, indicated on Sunday that, after being out of commission for three days, the Ticket app will again be taking online reservations for people wanting to buy hard currency at its authorized branches. The waiting list at just one Havana location already exceeds 12,000 people. In other provinces the figure can exceed 23,000.

The platform, which handles a large number of services in Cuba (such as propane gas sales, notaries and civil registration), began having problems on Friday when customers tried to schedule a time to buy foreign currency but were unable to access the waiting list. The sale of foreign currency over those three days, however, continued uninterrupted.

This morning, employees allowed only fifteen people inside the Cadeca at 23rd and J streets in Havana’s Vedado district. From the outside, everything seemed to be in order. However, one of those present reported, “The problem is actually with Ticket.”

“There is a serious problem with the system, and it is that it doesn’t notify you when it’s almost your turn or if you’re in the next group to buy”

According to Reinaldo, more than 10,000 people are on a waiting list at each of the company’s five offices in Havana authorized to sell hard currency. “I signed up in April and I remember that I had to choose a day that I could theoretically go to Cadeca. I chose a date in mid-May, but it was just symbolic. It’s only now, in August, that my number finally got to the top of the list,” he says. continue reading

The long wait is not his only concern, however. For the last two weeks, Reinaldo has gone to the branch at 23rd and J streets, fearing he will miss his turn and have to wait several more months to get the $100 he is legally allowed to buy. “There is a serious problem with their system,” he says. “It doesn’t notify you when it’s almost your turn or if you’re in the next group of customers. You have to go to the Cadeca office and wait for them to announce the list for that day, which is never more than twenty people. If you aren’t on it, you have to come back the next day.”

On the sidewalk in front of the currency exchange office, another young man awaits his turn. He believes the branch has more currency than it is selling: “Even if they had 5,000 dollars or euros, they would only sell to fifteen or twenty people a day.

Cadeca’s website is filled with comments by customers with similar concerns about the company’s management. “This platform, which used to seem like a good solution for workers, barely moves. I signed up on May 12 and there are still 1,026 people ahead of me,” complains a woman who says she is on the waiting list at the Playa branch on 21st and 42nd streets. “If someone needs dollars, they have to turn to the black market because going this route will take five or six months.”

On Monday, the peso-to-dollar exchange rate, which as high as 250 to one last week, fell to 235

In Sancti Spíritus the situation is not much different from that of Havana. 14ymedio was able to confirm that there are more than 23,500 people on this city’s waiting list. A local woman reported that, since she added her name to the list last May, her place in line has barely budged. “Right now there are about 3,700 people ahead of me. At this rate I won’t be able to buy the euros I need until the end of the year. That’s why people end up going to the black market. Even if it’s much more expensive, at least you get things resolved quickly,” she confesses.

On Monday, the peso-to-dollar exchange rate, which as high as 250 to one last week, fell to 235. Meanwhile, the euro, the second most sought-after currency on the island, hovered at 240. This modest drop gave Cubans a modicum of relief, though it is still double the official rate of 120 pesos to the dollar.

The situation has contributed to the worsening financial insecurity of the public, which has been subjected in recent years to constantly shifting economic policies, the devaluation of the currency, the loss of purchasing power and the inability of banks to protect their assets. The government still obsesses over the bancarización* — banking reform — of the country, even though it does not have the infrastructure necessary to support the kind of electronic payment system that the program requires, while ignoring the needs of its citizens, who must resort to the informal market to survive.

Recently, 14ymedio reported on the closure of a Cadeca currency exchange on Obispo Street in Old Havana whose premises are now rented out to a privately owned business. The store, whose windows used to display currency exchange rates, now sells children’s toys. The cause, once again, is the state’s lack of liquidity and the unprecedented collapse of the economy.

*Translator’s note: “Bancarización” is term used in Cuba and other Latin American countries that refers to government efforts to reduce the role of cash through a greater reliance on banks’ digital payment options. The term does not seem to have a counterpart in English so the Spanish term is used throughout this translation.

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In Addition to Deepening Energy Cooperation With Cuba, Russia Will Sell It Meat and Dairy Products

Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines of Cuba. (September 5)

14ymedio/EFE, Moscow, 30 August 2023 — Russia and Cuba will deepen bilateral cooperation, especially in the field of energy, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported today after a meeting held between the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Riabkov, and the Minister of Energy and Mines of the Island, Vicente de la O Levy.

According to the statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry, “during the meeting, which took place in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding inherent in the Russian-Cuban dialogue, the strengthening of bilateral cooperation was addressed, particularly in the field of energy, in the spirit of establishing a strategic alliance.”

Moscow once again recognized Havana by confirming the “consistent position regarding the need for the immediate cessation of the commercial, economic and financial blockade of Cuba by the United States.”

The rest of the Russian industries that were already operating in the country were granted extensions for their operations

Last Tuesday, the Sputnik newscast agency announced the certification of nine Russian livestock companies, for a total of 23, that will be able to operate in Cuba. After inspection by the National Agricultural Health Center of the Island, three pork companies, two dairy and another four of meat products — pork, poultry and beef — will be able to market their continue reading

products in the Cuban market. The rest of the Russian industries that were already operating in the country were granted extensions for their operations.

The traditional relations between Russia and Cuba received a new impetus last May, after both countries endorsed the desire to strengthen the Russian financial and business presence on the Island with exemption from tariffs, land concessions and ties between their banking systems.

One of the most controversial measures was the delivery in usufruct, for 30 years, of land to Russian businessmen who wish to exploit it. The president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council, Boris Titov, then explained that among the concessions were “both the long-term lease of land and the tax-free import of agricultural machinery, the granting of the right to transfer profits in foreign currency and much more.

A high percentage of state land, for example 90%, should be sold to the national private sector

The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal then published on his X account (formerly known as Twitter) a critique of the strategic meaning of the package of measures for the national economy. “If it is about promoting entrepreneurs, then the game should be leveled for nationals,” he said, explaining that national production and support for Cuban entrepreneurs should be favored over foreign investors.

“A high percentage of state land, for example 90%, should be sold to the national private sector — independent owners and companies. In this way, “the private sector would have the possibility of negotiating directly with foreign entrepreneurs about the management of those lands,” rather than the State.

Despite the close political ties, in 2022 the bilateral trade exchange between Moscow and Havana was only 451 million dollars, a figure that the Russians want to improve.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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While Florida Evacuates the Population in the Face of Idalia’s Threat, Cuba Evaluates the Damage

There are still 60,000 homes in Pinar del Río damaged by Hurricane Ian, and now the damage left yesterday by Idalia will have to be added. (Telepinar)

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2023 — Florida remains in suspense before the imminent arrival of Idalia, which will reach the coast of Big Bend as a category 4 hurricane, according to the forecasts of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States. Its fleeting passage through Cuba, even as a tropical storm, left hundreds of thousands of people without power. Cubans are now expecting the tail end of the hurricane, with floods and strong winds along the western coast.

“Now we have to work urgently on electric service, communications and agriculture and prepare safer conditions, because remember that we are still going to have one or two more days of rainfall,” Miguel Díaz-Canel said at a meeting of the Council of Ministers to evaluate the situation of the affected provinces.

The most affected was again Pinar del Río, where Idalia entered and left. Around 8 p.m., the electricity company warned that only 28% of its 235,000 customers had power. The linemen, some of them from other provinces such as Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos, planned to work during the night to recover power in the municipal capitals and, later, the distribution to smaller towns.

The director of Education pointed out that there are 24 damaged schools, and this is not the most serious thing, but there are 125 that have not yet recovered from Ian’s passage in September 2022

The school year should begin next Monday on the Island, but in Pinar del Río the worst is feared. The director of Education pointed out that there are 24 damaged schools, and this is not the most serious thing, but there are 125 that have not yet recovered from Ian’s passage in September 2022. continue reading

Ian was much larger, and there are still 60,000 homes affected in the province, to which must be added those left yesterday by Idalia. There were also 17,652 telephone services and 915 data connections out of service this Tuesday. The damage to agriculture is unknown, especially to tobacco, which, despite preventive measures, is expected to be damaged.

Yamilé Ramos Cordero, first secretary of the Provincial Party Committee in the province, said that the data will not be known until Wednesday, although 20,000 people were evacuated. “The biggest concern is the increased amount of water in the rivers and the forecast that we may have coastal flooding,” she added.

The power situation has been a big problem after the storm. In Artemisa, which did not suffer heavy rains, 80% of users lost electricity at some point, a total of 117,434. “The biggest effects occurred in the electrical service. There were 390 people evacuated, most of them to the homes of family and friends and 11 to the ESBU Guillermo Castillo, authorized for such purposes,” said Luis Felipe Azcuy Curbelo, president of the Municipal Defense Council.

The same thing happened in Havana, although the percentage has been less significant: 47,980 customers were left without power, of which 60% had recovered service around 5 p.m. This Thursday, 20 brigades of linemen from different provinces will arrive to join the 27 in the capital to normalize the situation, with Thursday as the deadline, with the exception of connections, meter counters and the input of current, which will be repaired on Friday.

Another big problem for Havana was the water supply linked to the supply systems, which are electric. There are 53,906 people who don’t have service, according to the assessment of the Provincial Defense Council, and 3,782 were left without water distributed by tanker trucks due to the adverse weather.

On the Isle of Youth there were 4,326 people who lost electricity, and part of the concern has been focused on protecting the poultry, livestock and fishing industries. The companies insist that there have been no problems with the poultry or leaks that have affected the feed, and the boats were covered, while the pigs and sheep were moved to higher ground.

53,906 people have no service, according to the assessment of the Provincial Defense Council, and 3,782 were left without water distributed by tanker trucks

For the next few hours, isolated showers and thunderstorms are expected throughout the Island, with winds of moderate intensity, while Idalia heads towards Florida. The NHC warned in its most recent report about a rapid intensification, which will leave “catastrophic tides and destructive winds” on the north coast of the state this Wednesday, when it will move inland.

“There is going to be a storm surge everywhere in the Big Bend that will have a very important and significant impact on that region, whether the walls of the hurricane hit it or not,” Governor DeSantis warned the population from Tallahassee, the state capital.

The governor of the state (Republican) urged residents to go to evacuation zones, especially if they are in low or coastal areas, or to seek refuge in shelters (up to 50 have been enabled), hotels or homes of friends located in higher and safer places.

“You have to leave now. If you don’t, tomorrow morning will be very unpleasant, and if you decide to stay, the rescuers will not be able to locate you until after the hurricane,” he insisted.

More than 1.6 million people have orders to evacuate their homes in Florida, where Idalia will advance and turn northeast and east-northeast, “approaching the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Three Cuban Players Receive Contracts and Bonuses for More Than $100,000 in the Major Leagues

Left-handed hitter Juan Álvarez was chosen in June by the Arizona Diamondbacks. (@francysromeroFR)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 August 2023 — The name of the Cuban hitter Juan Álvarez began to appear in June in the sports offices of the Diamondbacks of Arizona (USA). This young man, who left the Island in 2022, took advantage of the opportunity and, after a few calls, signed his contract on Monday. According to journalist Francys Romero, the 16-year-old baseball player received a $100,000 bonus.

Álvarez left the Island after finishing the Under-15 National Championship in 2020, where he got 19 assists at home (throwing the ball to a teammate to touch the base or the opposing player). Romero recalls that a scout of the United States Major League teams told Álvarez that he had a “special (fast) swing.”

He is a talented batter who can connect on both sides, the left-handed one being stronger,” Romero reported on his blog Baseball FR! “His physique is remarkable for players his age. He has power, speed and can play in the outfield,” he added.

A native of Isla de la Juventud, the young baseball player thus joins the Cubans Jairo Digón and Cristian López, who are already part of the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the 2022-2023 international period, there are now 28 athletes hired from both minor and major leagues.

The baseball player Juan Álvarez thus joins the Cubans Jairo Digón and Cristian López, who are already part of the Arizona Diamondbacks

Cuban players leave the Island in search of better training conditions and better salaries. The scale of payments dating back to 2020 for players in Cuba depends on their category. A member of the national pre-selection continue reading

who participates in the National Series receives 3,725 Cuban pesos per month (19 dollars); one from the Reserve of the National Pre-Selection and National Series receives 2,400 (12 dollars).

Like Álvarez, pitcher John Valle signed with the New York Mets last July. This 18-year-old, who left the Island in 2021, was chosen in the Draft (recruitment period) of the Major Leagues for amateur players. He can throw a fast ball at 95 mph, which he perfected during his stay at Jefferson High School. This athlete received a bonus of $150,000.

Christian Saéz is another Cuban who, after participating in the Under-12 World Cup (2019), where the representative of the Island got a third place, sought to leave the country, a goal that he achieved in 2021. He was chosen by the St. Louis Cardinals. The signing will be made official on January 15, 2024, during the new international period. The pre-agreement includes a bonus of $150,000.

The escape of Cuban players is constant; between July and August, so far, there have been sixteen. Luis Mario Macías, Fernando Ramos, Jaider Miguel Suárez, Jaider Miguel Suárez, Julio César Pérez, Emmanuel Chapman, Alexander Valiente, Roger Bolaños, Marlon Vega, Yulian Quintana, Yunior Villavicencio, Kevin Arévalo, Alexei Ricardo, Javier Mirabal, Yotuel Ávila and Yasiel González are the names of those who fled.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Regime Brings Out the Heavy Artillery Against El Toque

Informal Market for Hard Currency in Cuba in Real Time (ElToque.com)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 29 August 2023 — It was just what was missing. Faced with the bewilderment caused by a fall in the value of the Cuban peso with respect to all currencies, which pushes the economy into an abyss, the regime takes out of the hat in the state press a theory that explains that the current exchange rate for the peso is dictated by the United States, as a result of what they call “a cooked-up strategy” to strangle the economy of the Cuban family. And they blame the online site el Toque* for this situation. Reading these things in a mandatory way is one thing; believing them and giving them a hand is quite another.

The communists’ obsession with the neighbor of the North, whom they blame for all present, past and future evils, is known. Now making fools of themselves in an unprecedented way, they also blame the “new manipulation tool,” specifically el Toque, for decreasing the value of the Cuban peso. The reality could not be more absurd, but they even justify it by saying that this action takes place “because of the short-term limited availability of Cuban pesos in the country’s banks.” As for assuming their own responsibility, nothing.

Cuban communists can rest assured, there is no war of the enemy in this matter of the peso’s weakness. It’s the result of a series of economic policy errors that, when committed, are widely sanctioned by market forces, even in Stalinist-based economies like the Cuban one.

What mistakes are we talking about that have led us to this situation?

First of all, the Ordering Task.** That jumble of measures was going to be the salvation of the economy, favoring the monetary unification of the CUP [Cuban peso] with the CUC [Cuban convertible peso]. Nobody remembers, but the commitment to a fixed exchange rate system, without a prior continue reading

analysis of the fundamentals, for the peso, with an exchange of 1 CUC for 24 CUP was a serious mistake, because the Central Bank did not have enough reserves to support the national money.

The exchange barely lasted a month. The government closed operations in the Cadecas [currency exchanges], the banks and even in the airport offices. To meet the demand for dollars, offers appeared timidly for exchange in some informal markets that worked in real time, not only with dollars, but with the rest of the hard currencies. Informal markets did not obey, at least at their birth and then with definitive consolidation, a strategy “cooked-up in the United States to strangle the economy of the Cuban family.”

Not at all. They arose precisely for the opposite reason, to meet the population’s need for currency exchange at a time when the communist state was unable to assume this function. The informal market is not about any “new manipulation tool.” Its appearance, consolidation and development was obeyed because of the regime’s political incompetence and the short-term limitations of the availability of cash in the national money in the country’s banks. It was not possible, as was proven from the outset, to bet on a fixed exchange rate system for the newly integrated peso.

Then the informal market traded the peso downwards because it showed an evident weakness in relation to the different currencies as a result of the accelerated deterioration of the economy and the growing demand for hard currency for numerous activities that were developing in the foreign sector. So, in the summer, Minister Gil made a new move and opened an intermediate exchange, with a price of $1 to 120 CUP, also rationed and highly controlled, with physical limits on transactions that were immediately seen by Cubans as unattractive.

As a result, the peso continued to plummet, reaching its lowest price in history. And of course in the face of this scenario of errors, faults and manipulations, the regime uses its spokespersons to affirm that exchanging in the informal market “spreads like a dangerous virus among the people, many of whom succumb to the unpunished and opportunistic offers found on social networks.” Readers of this blog can only imagine what the communists mean by “unpunished and opportunistic offers.”

Well, nothing, something as simple as “If you transfer 30,000 pesos, you can receive 25,000 in cash.” Someone should explain to the communist leaders that if these operations are offered and they have willing customers, it’s because there’s an uncovered need that must be met and for which they have to pay. The communists, unable to understand the rules of accumulation, consider that this “business” creates the kind of unscrupulous speculators who rub their palms together and boast about “making money off the needs of the people.”

And if such a statement is unreal and ridiculous because it does not correspond to objective facts, it’s a leap into the void to blame the citizens who carry out these operations “knowing that they play the game of the economic war financed by our ’concerned’ neighbor of the North.”

Not content with making fools of themselves by denying reality, the communist press, paid for by money from Cubans, charges against the initiative of el Toque, which has been offering daily and high quality information about the exchange rates for the Cuban peso in the informal market. This public service should be offered by the Central Bank of Cuba, which absurdly maintains absolute ignorance of these exchange rates.

Then they talk about evidence of manipulation, when the question is, Who manipulates whom? In reality, el Toque has achieved a remarkable appeal for analysts and the general public, who know that in order to have truthful and accurate information on the price of the peso, the boring articles in Cubadebate are useless. El Toque is the source of information even for the international press, without any need to capitalize on anything, manipulate or defend the interests of the United States in an unreal war that the communists so long for.

For them, el Toque carries out an opportunistic manipulation of the exchange values of the MLC, the dollar and the euro, against the real purchasing power of the family, by offering the real data daily. The heavy artillery against el Toque is alarming and causes fear when they say that “this page of falsehoods, speaking for everything that serves the counterrevolution, is the result of the media articulation ’perfected’ by order of the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, in February 2017, to act in Cuban cyberspace, through the creation of a Special Task Force.”

In discrediting the good work done by el Toque and the service it offers to Cubans, it’s necessary to understand who is the manipulator and opportunist in the matter. Throwing accusations against el Toque, which they falsely compare with another project of Venezuela, The Dollar Today, which has nothing to do with the Cuban initiative, only shows how ridiculous the official communist line is. They’re unable to understand what a successful civil society initiative means, and why el Toque has been gaining followers in increasing number and quality.

As if that were not enough, the regime attributes the weakness of the Cuban peso to “this war of the enemy that does not act head-on, but through its think tanks, pressure groups and financial lobbies, with the support of a well-articulated, well-paid media network affiliated with large media conglomerates and special services, to generate processes of economic destabilization operating from the shadows.”

I can assure you that this blog receives no payments, no rewards, no fees or any emolument. And its objective is not to destabilize anything, operating from the shadows, but to describe in the light of day the aberrations that the communists commit in terms of economic policy and the disaster to which they have led the nation, while we express our concern about what may happen to el Toque.

Translator’s notes:

* El Toque is an independent digital newspaper that provides daily exchange rates for the Cuban peso in all markets, including that of cryptocurrency.

** The Ordering Task is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Oil, a Hidden Issue on the Agenda of the Cuban President’s Visit to Namibia

Cuban President Díaz-Canel chose Namibia, with a promising potential as an oil exporter, for the last stop on his trip through several African countries. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, Havana, 29 August 2023 — Miguel Díaz-Canel closes his visit to Namibia “with a flourish,” headlines the official Cuban press on Tuesday about the tour that the president has just made through several African countries. Cubadebate limits commentary to the symbolic aspect of the trip without mentioning a word about “the great hopes around Namibia’s oil and natural gas potential.”

This quote comes from an exchange between 14ymedio and Professor Jorge Piñón, an academic and specialist in the oil sector at the University of Texas. He believes that Havana has its eyes on the African country, which could soon become another Venezuela.

It was Díaz-Canel’s first visit as head of state to Windhoek, although exchanges between Cuba and Namibia have been constant since the Island contributed to the war in which it gained its independence from South Africa. Travel from one side of the Atlantic to the other has been common for Cuba’s leaders, including former presidents Fidel and Raúl Castro, and cooperation between the two nations has been extensive in health, education, agriculture, sports and, especially, fishing.

Namibia doesn’t plan to achieve oil production until 2029, but the infrastructure is already developing

The coast of Namibia, stretching almost 994 miles, has attracted the attention of several major multinationals. “Shell, Total, GALP, Qatar, Chevron and Exxon have invested heavily in exploration activities in the region and have already discovered reserves of at least 11 billion barrels of light oil and up to 13 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the Orange basin,” the professor adds. continue reading

The results are yet to come, since Namibia is not expected to achieve its first oil production until 2029, but the infrastructure is already developing and may represent a stellar opportunity for the country. According to data from its state hydrocarbon company, Namcor, the nation could be one of the top 15 oil exporters by 2035, and the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita could double in less than a decade.

In April 2021, Namibia and Venezuela held the first meeting about the oil field based on a cooperation agreement signed in 2020. Since then, Caracas has advised the African country in the exploitation of the enormous mass of wealth found in the depths off its coast, while contributing experience in mining.

“Cuba and Namibia have a long and deep political relationship of more than forty years as demonstrated by the recent State visit to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, by Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel,” Piñón says.

Havana has sent doctors on international missions to the country since 1990, a total of 1,194, according to a note from the Ministry of Public Health this Sunday. Currently in the country there is a group of 80 health workers who provide services in eleven of the fourteen Namibian regions and whom Díaz-Canel met during his visit.

According to Piñón, it is possible that Havana will decide to “increase the current number of medical aid workers in Namibia in exchange for oil, increasing a crucial supply for the Cuban economy,” a common practice of the regime, which uses its health personnel as currency, as it also does with its teachers, soldiers and engineers.

Before his passage through Namibia, Díaz-Canel was in Angola, one of the main oil powers of Sub-Saharan Africa

Before his passage through Namibia, Díaz-Canel was in Angola, one of the main oil powers of Sub-Saharan Africa (second on the continent and sixteenth worldwide).

The Cuban president stopped in Mozambique, on the border with South Africa, after attending the BRICS summit. “in his capacity as pro tempore president of the G-77 plus China.” Mozambique, for the moment, is one of the largest exporters of natural gas, especially to Europe, occupying the gap left by Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. But in recent years the world’s major oil companies have also set their sights on Mozambique and are trying to exploit some promising deposits found in the Rovuma basin.

Díaz-Canel already dedicated last winter to trying to solve his fuel problems in Algeria, Turkey, Russia and China, in addition to other economic issues. Now, he has once again spent another winter – the southern one – in the search for a new Venezuela in other latitudes. Upon his return, a tropical storm was waiting for him that was already beginning to leave entire municipalities of the Island without power.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Idalia Causes Storms in Cuba and Becomes a Hurricane As It Approaches Florida

La Coloma, at the western end of Pinar del Río, this Monday. (Telepinar)

- The United States foresees that, when Idalia hits land in Florida, it will be a “dangerously large hurricane.”

14ymedio, Havana, 29 August 2023 — Around 3 am this Tuesday, tropical storm Idalia was now far from Cabo de San Antonio, at the westernmost end of the Island, where it made landfall at 9 pm on Monday, shortly before becoming a hurricane on its path to Florida.

The meteorologist of the Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) José Rubiera explained that the drop in atmospheric pressure was increasing the wind speed and, consequently, intensifying the storm. The agency has recorded gusts of up to 73 miles per hour, where they predict that the eye of the hurricane will soon be formed.

In Pinar del Río, Idalia has caused very strong storms, with wind gusts of more than 56-59 mph per hour, although they have now dropped to 34-47 mph. Winds of between 31-40 mph have also been recorded in the coastal areas of Artemisa and Isla de la Juventud.

Although large accumulations of water have not been reported at the moment, the showers and thunderstorms are continuing and are not expected to stop in the next few hours.

Although large accumulations of water have not been reported at the moment, the showers and thunderstorms are continuing and are not expected to stop in the coming hours — even as Idalia moves away from Cuba — mainly in some towns in Pinar del Río and Artemisa provinces, although the storms could reach the central area of the Island. continue reading

In the low-lying areas of the west and southwest coast, tidal waves have been recorded that caused coastal flooding in Isla de la Juventud, La Bajada (Pinar del Río) and the Surgidero de Batabanó (Mayabeque).

More than 8,000 people have been relocated, particularly in the areas of Bailén and Boca de Galafre (Pinar del Río).

In addition, about 537 tons of tobacco have been protected and another 45 tons collected in warehouses in the pinareño municipality of Minas de Matahambre, according to the Municipal Assembly.

In Havana, gusts of wind and heavy rain keep the municipalities of Guanabacoa and Cojimar without power at the moment.

Idalia, now moving over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, is arriving when it has not even been a year since Ian crossed Pinar del Río in September 2022 as a category 3 hurricane.

Ian caused the death of five people and left considerable material damage to more than 100,000 homes, many of which have not yet been repaired, according to official figures.

It also damaged the supply of drinking water, severely affected agriculture, especially in tobacco cultivation, and led to the total collapse of an already extremely fragile National Electricity System, causing a general blackout on the Island that took days to repair.

Forecast of Idalia’s trajectory in the coming hours. (INSMET)

The arrival of Idalia, now strengthened, is expected in Florida, which has been preparing for the event. Meteorologists from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predict that in the early hours of Wednesday, Idalia will land as “a dangerously large hurricane,” somewhere on the west coast between Tampa Bay and Indian Pass.

Public schools in more than twenty counties will not open on Tuesday and Wednesday as a preventive measure, and the international airports of Tampa and St. Pete-Clearwater will shut down operations.

In the counties of Pasco, Hernando, Duval, Pinellas, Manatee, Taylor, Sarasota, Citrus and Levy, evacuation orders have been issued, and sandbags are being distributed to prevent water from entering homes and commercial premises.

In Tampa, in one of the sandbag distribution centers, an automatic machine was installed for residents to fill their own sacks, a novelty that is the result of the lessons left by Hurricane Ian last year. Authorities expect Idalia to be as strong as Ian, which left 156 dead in the United States.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s State Telecommunications Monopoly Etecsa Sabotages Internet to Force Customers to Pay for Long-Distance Calls

The company’s mismanagement has affected its workers, who complain they do not even have cables to make basic repairs. (14ymedio)

The monopoly’s revenues have plummeted from $807 million in 2020 to $128 million in 2022

14ymedio, Havana, 24 August 2023 — The poor quality of international telecommunication connections in Cuba is an ongoing source of customer frustration. What no one suspected until recently is that this is a deliberate strategy by the state telephone monopoly Etecsa to recoup the income it has lost to free internet calls.

Once seen as the hen that laid the golden egg, Etecsa is now on the verge of bankruptcy. According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), telecommunications, transmission and information supply services generated just 128 million dollars in 2022, a spectacular drop compared to the 807 million it generated two years earlier.

To get out of the financial hole that the internet and currency unification — the so-called ’Ordering Task’* — has gotten it into, Etecsa wants to force its customers to pay up, says Raudel García Bringas, a telecommunications expert who spent three years in a Cuban jail for his professional activities. The problem, he claims, is that Etecsa is the result of a flawed state-centered economic model. “Charging for its services in a highly devalued currency, like the Cuban peso, when it must pay for everything it buys in hard currency is a road to disaster,” he explains.

If the company wants to return to profitability, he adds, it will have to “dollarize” its services

If the company wants to return to profitability, he adds, it will have to “dollarize” its services. “[But then] it will be stuck with the problem of billing customers in a currency in which they do not get paid and which makes life more expensive for a population with very little purchasing power.” continue reading

“To top it all off,” he continues, “selling data packages created a more serious, though unavoidable, problem.” Once platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger began offering telecommunication services over the internet, the market for international calls dried up. In Cuba, where the cost of a one-minute international call is prohibitively expensive, these apps meant huge losses for Etecsa. “Those who thought mobile phone recharging fees would make up for lost income from international calls were wrong,” he says.

Customer complaints about internet connectivity problems continue to plague the company. (14ymedio)

As a kind of countermeasure, the company has tried to sabotage internet-based telecommunication by altering the quality of calls, García claims. “The inability to get online and constantly having to reconnect often makes communication difficult.”

“If Etecsa manages to restrict communication through channels such as WhatsApp and Messenger, or limits the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks — applications that alter the geolocation of a phone and allow access to blocked pages), then it will force people who have become accustomed to communicating daily with their relatives to switch to traditional long-distance telephone calls,” he says.

Customer complaints about poor internet connectivity continue to plague the company. Katia, a 47-year-old Havana resident currently on a shopping trip to Panama, has been trying unsuccessfully for a week to communicate with her husband back home. “The problem is in Cuba. I have no trouble talking to to my sister in Miami from here or to my nieces who live in Spain. We can even have video conferences.” she says.

The company’s mismanagement and its falling earnings have also affected its workers. José Luis, an employee from Camagüey who has been with Etecsa for over a decade, recalls when he first started with the company: “It was a different place. The afternoon snacks were really good, there was air conditioning in all the offices and we had good computers to work with,” he says.

In addition to their salary, employees also receive an “incentive” of 4,000 to 7,000 pesos a month and a small package or two of coffee every three months

Liudmila, a resident of Villa Clara who has been with the company for twenty years, was also there during its golden age. “I remember them giving us a very good personal hygiene package. It had bath and laundry soap, shampoo, perfumes, deodorant, toilet paper, sanitary pads and detergent. At some point that all ended but, since the company was doing well, they began paying us bonuses of 10, 20, even 35 convertible pesos depending on your position in the company.”

In addition to their salary, employees also receive an “incentive” of 4,000 to 7,000 pesos a month and a small package or two of coffee every three months.

Both workers agree, however, that the company is no longer what it used to be. “Now we don’t even have the cables to make a repair when a landline customer calls to report a break,” says Jose Luis.

The mobile phone recharging fees emigrants pay to communicate with their relatives on the island have not been as lucrative as the company had anticipated. (14ymedio)

“Customers are also always coming to our branches very upset, of course, because they’ve bought data packages with extras but they can barely get online,” she explains. “We are not providing a good service, and the employees know it, but most people here just go along with the bosses until they can find something better or until their parole** arrives in the mail.”

Further aggravating Etecsa’s efforts to generate income is the number of people who have decided to emigrate. The mobile phone recharging fees emigrants pay to communicate with family members have not been as lucrative as the company had anticipated. The island’s population has been in decline. And the fact that many of Etecsa’s customers are young people, who also happen to be the age group most likely to emigrate, means the size of its clientele has shrunk considerably.

Etecsa claims it has seven million mobile phone customers but it has never specified if this figure refers to the number of SIM cards it has sold or to actual active users.

“I use the Telegram app for messaging and it alerts me when a number I have in my contacts opens a social network account,” says Osmani. “Lately, I’ve had a lot of scares because I’ve been notified about people who I know don’t live in Cuba anymore or who died during Covid. Etecsa is obviously selling our phone numbers again.”

“Telephone companies all over the world do this,” he notes, “but what strikes me is the number of people who have left the country and that Telegram notifies me that their number is being used again. Rather than growing the size of its customer base, it’s filling the gaps left by those who’ve emigrated.”

Translator’s notes:

*The “Ordering Task” [Tarea Ordenamiento] is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

**The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program allows certain eligible U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to apply for parole for their family members in Cuba. If granted parole, these family members may come to the United States without waiting for their immigrant visas to become available.

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Eternal Summer, Eternal Hell

Detail from the central panel of the triptych ’The Garden of Delights’ (1500-1505), by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, ’The Woods’, Prado museum Madrid.

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 27 August 2023 – It’s been a good year for Reinaldo Arenas. A few moths after re-publishing Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls], Tusquets rescued El mundo alucinante [Hallucinations] and its to be hoped that more of his titles return to the bookshops during the celebrations for 80 years since his birth.

The indifference with which Cubans have come to the party says much about the country that we currently have. But nothing surprises. Arenas was published for the first and only time in Cuba in 1967. His books continue to enter the country secretively, and although false friends, resentful lovers and posthumous saviours continue to embalm him insolently, no censor is ready to give him absolution for the Tétrica Mofeta [When Skunk in a Funk].

He doesn’t need it, of course. Arenas is a religion unto himself, with cosmogony, martyrs and apocalypse. There isn’t anyone authorised to give him peace except himself or his doubles — Reinaldo, Gabriel and the skunk: three distinct mad beings but with one single essence. The workings of his world, as mystical as they are carnal, as private as they are rich in rumour, hitch themselves to two books which give the impression, only too accurate, of having been written by a dead man.

His ferocious autobiography and last novel, El color del verano The Colour of Summer], execute such a meticulous bombardment of Cuba and its foreign province of Miami, that the more than 300 people mentioned in it — being given the courtesy of their names ’deranged’, and at times not even that — must have cut his books into pieces on at least one occasion. Although his memories end up being deformed as fiction, in The Colour of Summer – subtitled New Garden of Delights, like the painting, The Woods – the language is as loose as the very devil’s. continue reading

In the final and most ardent sewer, we have the dictator Fifo, Raúl and his pets – including the Bloody Shark; in heaven, although exposed to shrapnel, there are Lezama, Casal, la Avellaneda, Heredia and Martí. In the queue for the guillotine and with names changed, are: Miguel Barniz, Tomasito la Goyesca, H. Puntilla, Karilda Olivar Lúbrico, Alejo Sholehov, Delfín Proust or the Queen of the Spiders, and – fanning himself there in Paris – Zebro Sardoya. Running around, wandering the streets hunting for recruits or hiding himself down in the drains, are the raving lunatics – although at any point remote, or on the edge: we are all crazy according to Arenas – the Duchess, the Super-satanic, the Queen, the clandestine Fortune teller, the Triple-ugly, Tedevoro, and finally the Funky Skunk.

The story – which begins with the escape of Avellaneda to Miami and ends when the Cubans, as a result of wearing away the island’s platform, remove it and sink into the sea – contains the most bitter declaration that any writer has ever made about his own country: “This is the story of an island where only the most servile and mediocre people have triumphed. An island subjected to an infinite summer, an infinite tyranny and the unanimous exit stampede of its inhabitants, who, whilst praising the island’s marvels, think only of how to escape from it. This is the story of an island that, whilst apparently covering itself in the glitter of official rhetoric, inside it is ripped apart and hopes only for the final explosion”.

The book would be perfect if Cabrera Infante didn’t exist. For the superstitious reader, The Colour of Summer has too many irritating similarities to Cabrera Infante’s Three Sad Tigers. Both are fragmented, godless, both replace and disrupt men, both are keen on lists and tongue twisters, both rewrite history and are obsessed with sex and with humour as a last refuge. Also, like all Cuban novels – from José Martí’s diary, to Paradiso [Paradise, by José Lezama Lima] and Los pasos perdidos [The Lost Steps, by Alejo Carpentier] – it aspires to serve as a general interpretation of the world. And of the Island.

Nevertheless, I read The Colour of Summer in one sitting – in Spain, in August, arid without let up – without allowing myself to be tormented by paranoia. In any case, if Arenas and Cabrera Infante achieved anything it was to give to certain moments in Cuban history a density resulting in something very vivid and traumatic. And – what is even more disconcerting, knowing both writers – neither of them takes a swipe at the other. In fact, Cabrera Infante wrote a moving obituary of Arenas, about “his life as a persecuted, beaten and caged dog, obliged once again to live forever as a fugitive”. I prefer to read his novels as reincarnations of the same mocking spirit that is only possible in that country. Short-sighted tiger or vengeful slut, Cain or Celestino, the summer or hell. Who knows whether in the end they aren’t the same thing.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Diaz-Canel Ends His African Tour in Namibia With a Lot of Pomp and Few Agreements

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel with his counterpart Namibian President Hage Geingob at the festive events of Heroes’ Day. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio, 27 August 2023 — On the last stop of his tour of Africa, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel arrived this Saturday in Namibia, where he participated in the festive events of Heroes’ Day in commemoration of Namibia’s war of independence. The pomp of the reception contrasted with the lack of information about any agreements signed by both parties.

Díaz-Canel landed at noon in Windhoek, the Namibian capital, with his wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza. At the State House he met with his counterpart, Namibian President Hage Geingob, who welcomed him with a military parade and talked about the friendly relations that exist between the Island and Namibia, according to the official press.

Cubadebate points out that the Cuban leader was the special guest at the commemoration, held at the Independence Stadium. Díaz-Canel and Geingob arrived at the scene in a convertible jeep and toured the facilities while greeting the attendees of the ceremony that commemorates the beginning of the war of independence on August 26, 1966.

During his speech, Díaz-Canel recalled that Cuban soldiers shared a “trench” with Namibians during the fight against the People’s Organization of South West Africa (SWAPO) in the “difficult days of the Angolan war.” “Cuba is honored to have supported them. There was no more honorable path to independence” from apartheid, he said.

The president pointed out that the Cubans who fought in the war along with Namibia can “feel satisfied,” because “their sacrifice contributed decisively to the independence of Angola, which gives its children pride, and Cuba forever won the respect and affection of an ally.” continue reading

Díaz-Canel, however, did not mention the Cubans killed in the war, a figure that the ruling party estimates at a little more than 2,000 soldiers killed in African territory. Independent voices question this figure and point to a higher mortality among the more than 350,000 Cubans who participated in those conflicts.

In his speech, the Cuban ruler took the opportunity to refer to the “difficult socio-economic situation” suffered by the Island, derived, according to him, from the economic sanctions of the United States. He thus appreciated the support of the Government of Namibia in the resolutions before the United Nations (UN) against the U.S. blockade.

So far it has not been revealed in the official Cuban press whether Díaz-Canel’s visit resulted in the signing of an economic agreement. During his passage through Angola, Havana and Luanda, he signed an agreement that will allow the installation of Cuban pharmaceutical laboratories in that country, and Angolans will also be able to install one in the Mariel Special Development Zone.

Prensa Latina reported that the Cuban president ratified the “will” to strengthen cooperation and increase efforts in the areas of construction, sports, culture and computing (such as artificial intelligence and robotics). This will happen, the text points out, if Namibia “needs it.”

During the festivities, Díaz-Canel received the Order of the Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis, the highest decoration of Namibia and the same one that in March 2008 was given to Fidel Castro for “his support for the African liberation struggles,” especially the uprising to achieve Namibia’s independence from South Africa.

Prior to his arrival in Windhoek, Díaz-Canel had visited Mozambique and Angola, after attending the summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), held from August 22 to 24 in Johannesburg.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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