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Cuban Playwright Carlos Celdran’s Play About an ‘Intimate, Hidden and Transgressive’ Jose Marti Arrives in Miami

Scene from the play ’Hierro’ [Iron], by Carlos Celdrán, with actors Caleb Casas and Rachel Pastor. (EFE/Arca Images)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Ana Mengotti, Miami, 27 July 2023 – The Cuban playwright Carlos Celdrán, 2016 National Prizewinner for Theatre in his own country and currently resident in Spain, presents his play Hierro in Miami – a work centred on the Cuban war of independence hero José Martí (1853-1895), different from his “edited” biography but not demythologised.

“I’m not attempting to dismantle or criticise Martí, I love Martí. Hierro comes from a love for and identification with him; what I’m trying to do is present his human contradictions in order to understand him better”, Celdrán tells EFE, in the Miami Dade County Auditorium where the play, produced by Arca Images, has its U.S premiere next Thursday.

Hierro, is the title of a poem by Martí, Cuba’s “apostle and martyr”. Martí was a poet and essayist and the play centres on Martí’s private life, which has “not been seen on the stage nor is it discussed in school” – the life of a “great” but “ordinary” man who argues with his wife and even faces up to a possible affair.

Everything that takes place in the play happened in the United States, where Martí lived in exile, apart from interspersed scenes of journeys to other countries – from the beginning of the 1880’s until his return to Cuba in 1895, the year he was killed in combat, fighting against the Spanish military.

Celdrán first premiered this play in Havana in 2020 but performances were interrupted by the Covid pandemic. When Arca Images suggested he take it to Miami he didn’t think twice. continue reading

In the cast, headed by Caleb Casas, Daniel Romero, Claudia Valdés and Rachel Pastor, there are a number of actors from the original Cuban production.

Asked by EFE whether he thought that the Cubans in Miami and those on the island felt the same about Martí he said that the hero continues to be a unifying force. “I think that Marti’s ideology touches all Cubans wherever they are and whatever ideology they have”, he said, and remembers that Martí proposed a republic in which all Cubans would have a place, wherever they were and whatever politics they had.

In Hierro we shall see an “unedited and hidden” Martí, as previously his official biography has been “laundered and edited”, he says.

Though Hierro is performed in Spanish, English speaking audiences will also be able to enjoy the play, through simultaneous translation via wireless headphones.

This is not the first time that Celdrán (who founded Argos Teatro in Cuba in 1996 and has produced his own plays as well as those by Brecht, Beckett, Ibsen, Strindberg and other classical playwrights) has presented work in Miami.

His award winning play Diez millones [Ten Million] was also performed in this city, as well as in other U.S cities, whilst the playwright still lived in Cuba.

Now he is based in Madrid, where he has already presented another of his works, Discurso de agradecimiento [Expression of Gratitude], and is trying to make his mark in a city which, he says, is these days an “international theatre capital”.

The grandson of Spanish grandparents and a Spanish national, Celdrán is trying “not to move away” from his hallmark theatrical style. “What I try to do is work from the human perspective, but there is always a political and social backdrop”, he says.

He is working on a text that may possibly be performed next year in Miami and Spain – a country in which there are, he says, “a lot of stereotypical views” about Cuba, as well as extreme views about the revolution and the daily life of Cubans.

“Spanish people always have either a utopian view of Cuba or a critical one”, says Celdrán, who says that what interests him is that there is “empathy from the audience towards the characters”.

Stereotypes, says the playwright – “the first one would be the island of love, of good sex – they have prejudiced us a lot”.

I show the soul of the Cuban people, I fight against that obvious stereotype and sometimes people are surprised because they expect Cuba to be comical, to be lightweight, to be friendly”, he stresses.

Speaking of recent times in his country, he says that “it’s not easy making theatre in Cuba”, and not only because of the lack of economic resources.

“You’re always in a complicated dialogue with what’s censurable, with the limits of what you can say. And you evade it, you get over it, you go a little further in order to make theatre where you can escape from that confrontation”, he concludes.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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An Immense Line Outside Jalisco Park Marks its Reopening Day in Havana

Jalisco Park, at the corner of 23 and 18 in El Vedado, reopened this Saturday with dozens of families trying to enter. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 29, 2023 — “We are going to spend hours here to get in,” grumbled a grandmother with two grandchildren who, before nine in the morning this Saturday, was in the long line to enter the Jalisco Park, in Havana’s El Vedado district.

Finally, the recreational center – which went from state to private management – opened its doors after months of repairs and after its planned reopening, scheduled for July 26, was frustrated.<

Entire families, parents with children and large groups swelled the line that far exceeded the number of people that could fit in the premises, located at the corner of 23rd and 18th streets. “We got in line at seven and that is why we are among the first but now a school bus arrived with a lot of kids. There are more people here than in line at the Plaza de Carlos III market,” a father with seven-year-old twins told 14ymedio .

A huge puddle of sewage covered part of the street around the corner and was the focus of parental warnings. “Dayron, be careful, don’t step foot in there, that water is filthy!” a mother yelled at a restless child who was jumping from the sidewalk trying to reach the area of asphalt that was dry. A mask ended up floating in the puddle a few minutes later.

The crying of several children, tired by the wait and the heat that was already beginning, was part of the soundtrack around Jalisco. On the other side of the fence that surrounds the park, the new inflatable attractions were ready early and a group of employees, all dressed completely in black, organized the last details before the first group of customers entered. continue reading

“I hope the power doesn’t go out because those devices need to have the air compressor turned on for them to work, if the power goes out everything is messed up,” feared a grandfather who was accompanying his granddaughter. “Shee hasn’t been able to go anywhere so far on vacation because everything is too far or too expensive, this is the first outing we’ve done since school ended,” he explained to this newspaper.

Admission to the park for adults costs 50 pesos per person, while children are free. (14ymedio)

After 9:05 am, the doors of Jalisco Park had not opened and people continued to arrive. Several shared taxis stopped near the park and practically all the passengers got out and went to the line. “If this doesn’t end in a fight today it will be a miracle,” predicted a young woman with a two-year-old child in her arms.

Sitting on the sidewalk curb some children sheltered from the sun that was already beginning to sting and waited to enter Jalisco. Most of these minors did not know the previous format of the recreation center with attractions such as a horse merry-go-round, a small roller coaster, some boats that circled in a tiny pond and a star or Ferris wheel.

Through the gate and the fence, now freshly painted in bright colors, several children kept looking at the new games decorated with motifs of the popular children’s character Elpidio Valdés. Around 9:20 in the morning the first group finally passed and an employee photographed the first girl who entered the gate. By that time the line was already made up of more than 200 people.

“Smoking is prohibited in the park so as not to affect the inflatable devices!” Another employee clarified to everyone who was entering. The first customers managed to get through in an orderly fashion, thanks to security staff organizing the front of the line, though towards the middle and end the line seemed more like a disorganized mound than a line.

A bus with children on board tried to enter the park, but due to overcrowding at the entrance, it ended up leaving. (14ymedio)

Wearing an orange pullover, one of the heads of the private cooperative that manages Jalisco Park went to the line and asked for discipline within the premises. The man detailed the mechanism to access the attractions. Upon entering, you must buy some plastic tokens. A green one allows you to get a package of popcorn, a blue one for the inflatables and the red one for the more complex attractions, such as an electric bull and some tiny carousels.

The school bus ended up leaving with all its passengers, frustrated by the wait and aware that “today there is no getting in,” according to the mother of one of the children who came in the vehicle from another Havana municipality.

By 10:00 in the morning, the line had grown so long outside Jalisco Park that it crossed the street and reached the wall of the Colón Cemetery. Sitting or leaning on the projections of the wall of the necropolis, several parents with their children waited to access the newly opened park, the only children’s recreation center for several kilometers around.

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Germany Requires Cubans to Have a Transit Visa to Curb Illegal Immigration

The Embassy isists that the only way to leave the transit zone of German airports is with a Schengen visa. (Facebook/German Embassy in Havana)

14ymedio, Havana, July 29, 2023 — The German Embassy in Havana reported that as of this Saturday, Cubans who wish to travel to a third country through an airport in German territory must have a transit visa. Citizens of the Island who meet certain conditions will be exempt from the measure, aimed at reducing the risk of illegal migration to the country and already in full force.

Cubans who have a relative who is a citizen of a State of the European Union may pass without a transit visa through the international transit area of any German airport, says the Embassy.

Similarly, those who have a valid Schengen visa, a national visa – issued by any of the Schengen member states – for a long-term stay or some other “stay document” to travel to those countries, may also pass.

Those who have a visa granted by the United States, Canada and Japan, and those who have a permit to stay in the United States, Canada, Japan, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino may dispense with the document, the embassy adds. Members of aircraft crews from signatory States of the Chicago Convention on civil aviation, and Cuban diplomats, will not be required to have one either.

The Embassy insists that the only way to leave the transit area of German airports – or to go from one terminal to another – is with a Schengen visa. In addition, it “strongly” recommends gathering sufficient information about the trip to avoid scams in agencies and misunderstandings at the German airport to which you are traveling. continue reading

The Cuban citizen who wishes to request the document must do so through the Embassy website, which will assign the user a turn. However, they warn that “the demand for such turns is very high” and that there is little chance that the document will be on time if it is not requested six months in advance.

Among the documents to present, once the date of the appointment is assigned, are the visa application form, a current passport photo and the Cuban passport – valid for at least three more months after the return date – and a copy of it. In addition, 80 euros must be paid in cash for the procedure, or 40 if the document is for a child between six and eight years of age.

In addition, the applicant will have to demonstrate that he will travel to another country after his stopover in Germany and provide data “from which the intention of not entering the jurisdiction of the Member States” of the Schengen area can be judged, and that ensure the “consistency of the planned travel route.”

On July 23, the German newspaper Bild revealed that the number of Cubans who requested asylum in Germany was eight times greater during the first half of this year, compared to the same period in 2022.

“The number of asylum applications from Cuban nationals this year, as of July 2, 2023, has risen compared to the same period last year from 73 to 607,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior confirmed to the newspaper.

According to the medium, Cubans use a mechanism that consists of buying a plane ticket to a destination for which they do not need a visa, for example Belgrade or Dubai, with a stopover in the German city of Frankfurt. There, where transit passengers do not need a visa, they appear before the Police and request asylum.

In 2022, 302 Cubans who mainly used this transit privilege to request asylum were identified. He added that “not even half” of these Cubans follow the regular route, that is, they do not appear at the corresponding center of the migration office “after expressing their desire for asylum before the federal police” at the airport and the registration of their data.

“It is unacceptable that the Schengen border code can be undermined by a simple trick, that is, with a transit flight. The right of asylum and Schengen rights must be urgently reviewed,” demanded the head of the union of the German policeman, Heiko Teggatz, speaking to Bild .

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Cuba Receives 58 Migrants Deported from the US, for a Total of 4,183 From Different Countries in 2023

The returned Cubans were received by the authorities in the port of Orozco, Bahía Honda (Artemisa). (@minint_cuba)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 29 June 2023 — On Friday, Cuba received a total of 58 nationals deported by the United States Coast Guard (USCG), for a total of 4,183 returns from different countries so far in 2023.

The deported Cubans – 49 men and nine women – participated in “three illegal exits from the country and were intercepted at sea,” according to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior. The deported Cubans were received by the island’s authorities in the port of Orozco (Bahía Honda, western province of Artemisa).

Two of the returned citizens were on probation serving criminal sanctions at the time of leaving the country and will be put before the corresponding courts for the revocation of that benefit.

Cuba and the US have a bilateral agreement so that all migrants who arrive by sea are returned to the island.

As of last November those arriving by air are also subject to return. Both countries agreed to resume deportation flights for “inadmissible” people held at the border with Mexico.

Returns by air between Cuba and the US had been suspended since December 2020.

During the current fiscal year, which began on 1 October 2022, more than 6,800 Cubans have been intercepted by the USCG on trips to the Florida coast.

The United States government announced this Friday that it will accept asylum requests from nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who are already in Mexico waiting to cross into US territory, in an attempt to clear the border on the Mexican side.

To apply for asylum in the United States, a person must show that they face persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a specific social or ethnic group.

Another program created by the administration of Democrat Joe Biden allows nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply for an immigration permit to enter the United States, but it only applies to those who arrive in the United States by plane and who have a sponsor who can prove they qualify, and who will help them in their adaptation to the country.

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New Economic Actors in Cuba

Puesto de Buenas Vibras [Good Vibes Post], a private business, at the Linea Cultural Station Fair, in El Vedado. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, July 29, 2023 — I have rarely addressed Cuban economic issues or those of any other country, but upon receiving my fellow prisoner and friend Juan José Estrada a statement from the Vice Minister of the Food Industry of Cuba, Midalys Naranjo Blanco, I have no choice but to venture into one of the great failures of Castroism.

The official stated that the Cuban seas did not have enough fish to feed the population, a sovereign nonsense that shows the stupidity of those who hold power in Cuba, never because of competition, but because of their unrestricted submission to totalitarianism, distinguishing themselves among all of them, Miguel Díaz -Canel.

I share the vision of many friends that the most capable assets of the regime have always worked in two ministries, the Police and the Armed Forces, and it cannot be denied also in Foreign Affairs, but this is a unit of the branch that directs the repressive forces.

It must be remembered that, despite the corruption that existed in Cuba and with all the money that Fulgencio Batista and the hierarchs of his regime allegedly stole, in 1958 our country ranked third in Latin American reserves of gold, dollars and convertible securities. Gold: with 373 million dollars was only below Venezuela (1,050 million) and Brazil (465 million); and sixth place in the continent in gross national income, 2,834 billion for a population of 6.6 million inhabitants.

It is worth noting that contrary to what is currently happening, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in calorie consumption, Cuba was only behind Argentina with 2,730 calories per person. In 1957, the FAO itself highlighted that Cuba was the largest exporter of agricultural products in Latin America in proportion to its population. Today it imports a large amount of food, including from the United States, 328 million dollars, and this, with the embargo.

True, we did not live in a paradise, nor in the hell of the present, but we were the third country in the region, in 1958, with the most number of telephones, newspapers and cars per 1,000 inhabitants. continue reading

I recently read that the dictatorship, through the State-run Cubatramite [literally “Cuba paperwork”] agency, is promoting MSMEs ( micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises), as Estrada affirms, “a socialist invention to save the economy that they themselves sank when they abolished private companies,” particularly small businesses, including the most insignificant, creating countless government companies that confused the population while still having fun, such as the famous Ecochinche, the Consolidated Company of bedbugs.

Let’s remember, including the blind, who did not want to see the disaster, in 1968 all self-employment was prohibited. Even the shoe repairer, the traditional scissors sharpener and the home-based barber, was eradicated, on pain of going to prison.

They must remember, especially the Castroites of the time, that on March 13, 1968, the government expropriated 11,878 bodegas, 8,101 restaurants, including street frita stalls — which sold the Cuban hamburger — 4,544 mechanics shops, 3,345 carpentry shops, 6,653 laundries, and an endless list of small businesses passed to the State.

The confiscation and closure of the 3,198 bars was the only time I saw the drunk on the block upset with the dictatorship, the one who most vehemently calling for an execution, and it was because his favorite bar, El Hatuey, had been closed. Overnight it was politically incorrect to have a drink.

Those entrepreneurs, or as they say today, better still, with pure Castroite language, “new economic actors,” had their assets confiscated regardless of whether the workplace was in their own home.

I clarify that the seizures would have been many more, but the inventory of small businesses had been reduced, among other reasons because people who were sentenced to prison for political reasons, had all their assets confiscated, however modest they were. And I am not mentioning the large companies that had disappeared from the economy several years earlier.

In short, Fidel Castro and his henchmen, in one of those many crazy nights, robbed 55,636 MSMEs that were on the Island, all Cuban properties, most of which were staffed by family and friends, employing more than two million people.

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The Cuban Regime Prohibits Boxer Robeisy Ramirez From Using the Cuban Anthem and Flag in Japan

Cuban boxer Robeisy “El Tren” [“The Train”] Ramírez escaped in 2018. (Twitter/@RobeisyRamirez)

14ymedio, Havana, 24 July 2023 — Cuban boxer Robeisy “The Train” Ramírez will not be able to appear in his fight in Japan this Tuesday with the anthem of the country that gave birth to him and from which he fled in 2018. According to the athlete himself on his social networks, the Cuban embassy in Japan contacted the television station that will broadcast the event, which will take place at Ariake Arena in Tokyo and in which The Train will defend his World Boxing Organization title of featherweight against the Japanese Satoshi Shimizu; the embassy prohibited his use of the national anthem. It is, says the boxer, “a vile attempt at intimidation.”

“I’m a free man,” cried Ramírez, double Olympic champion (London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016), who says that they offered him the U.S. anthem or none at all. “I’m not going to enter with the U.S. anthem,” replied the boxer, annoyed, who couldn’t believe that the Asian promoter accepted the imposition. “If I don’t enter with the one from Cuba, I enter without an anthem. It’s my homeland; what a lack of respect!”

The fighter is grateful that the U.S. opened its doors for him to continue his career but explains that he will not use the American anthem, because “its not what I represent.” In professional fights, the organizers use the hymns of the country from which the fighters originate, although it is not mandatory. On the Cuban Boxing Facebook page, he stressed that “what bothers me the most is that in Japan there are 12 or 15 lackeys and fat people living life who don’t care what the average Cuban is going through, literally living from what his family outside sends him.”

🚨indignación total. Compartan este vídeo por todos lados, que el mundo vea todo lo que hace la dictadura castrista y el sistema comunista. El boxeador cubano @RobeisyRamirez este próximo 25 de julio tendrá una pelea para defender su título mundial en Japón, el régimen castro… pic.twitter.com/tVFRoI2uRC

— Marcel (@Marcel_305) July 24, 2023

Total indignation. Share this video everywhere, let the world see everything that the Castro dictatorship and the communist system are doing. The Cuban boxer @RobeisyRamirez this coming July 25 will have a fight to defend his world title in Japan, the Castro regime… pic.twitter.com/tVFRoI2uRC — Marcel (@Marcel_305) July 24, 2023. The athlete, a native of Cienfuegos, attacked the regime, which, he says, has been pursuing him since he decided, five years ago, to make a career outside the Island. “They demanded that I not use the Cuban flag on my uniform or anywhere else.”

The 26-year-old boxer warned that far from “shutting me up” with this type of intimidation, “they have motivated me more to achieve success and continue to raise my voice and cry out for the freedom of my homeland. Now more than ever, Homeland and Life!“ continue reading

The young man’s coach, Ismael Salas, also joined the protests after the official boycott: “That is a lack of respect from the Cuban Embassy. I say this so everyone can understand what communism is and why I’m against all those communists.”

For his part, the collaborator of Pelota Cuba USA, Yordano Carmona, described as “incredible” that the “tentacles of the Cuban dictatorship” reach all the way to Asia.

Ramírez says that in 2018 he made his best decision. At that time he wanted to leave “so I wouldn’t remain an amateur, but the main reason for my decision was all the problems that happened with the managers of boxing and INDER [National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation], who created them, but every day they got worse,” he told Play-Off Magazine. “All I had left was to leave or go back to Cienfuegos to survive as I could.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Pool Where Cuban Olympic Swimmers Trained Is Now a Garbage Dump

The president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power argued that local authorities can do little because the property is in the hands of Emprestur. (Ahora!)

14ymedio, Havana, 27 July 2023 — The Olympic pool in Gibara, Holguín, has long since left its golden years behind as a training center for Cuban athletes who competed in international events. The lack of maintenance and the passage of two hurricanes have left the facilities in such a state that even the official press echoes it. Today the place is a “macro garbage dump,” in the words of the provincial newspaper Ahora! in a report published this Tuesday.

The text describes the “stumbling blocks” that, for more than 50 years, have affected the Waldimiro Arcos Riera pool, inaugurated in the late 1970s. Located in the vicinity of the Holguin coast, initially it only had stakes embedded in the sea that formed a quadrilateral. These precarious conditions did not prevent Cuban athletes from training and obtaining good results in international events.

According to the newspaper, it was not until 1979 that the facility gained its “Olympic” status, after the local residents themselves carried out “volunteer work” to build the pool. Gibara was already in the middle of a drinking water supply crisis, so the pool remained empty.

Andrés Ricardo Rivas, president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power, argued that the local authorities can do little because the property is in the hands of Emprestur, which is dedicated to the construction of tourism facilities, and they will be in charge of rehabilitating the facilities. He did not say why there is no communication with the state company nor what plans it has to reactivate the swimming center. continue reading

Among the professional swimmers who have trained in the pool are Rafael Leyva, national and Central American champion with the butterfly and free-style technique; Oscar Periche Cardet, goalkeeper of the Cuban national water polo team for more than 20 years and participant in four Olympics; and Juan José Soler González, national swimming runner-up.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike considerably damaged the facilities, but the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) financed its repair using materials with greater resistance to salt water and a pumping system directly from the sea.

In addition to recovering its initial function of sports training, the investment provided for the creation of conditions for the pool to be used by people with disabilities and by children. A significant part of the investment was allocated to lighting the pool, so that it could also be used at night.

The complex was again destroyed in 2017, when Hurricane Irma, category 5, devastated much of the Holguin coast. Since then, the authorities have done nothing more for the pool, and it ended up becoming a garbage dump that, the newspaper acknowledges, “affects the environment and the neighbors.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Scarcity and Crime, Today’s ‘Moncada to Attack’ in Cuba, According to President Diaz-Canel

Díaz-Canel resorted to an old political trick and took advantage of the dawn light to begin his speech. (Cuba debate)

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 26 July 2023 — Miguel Díaz-Canel’s speech at the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, delivered this Wednesday morning, focused on two points: lamenting the “physical disappearance of the historic generation” that stormed the barracks – although he had Raúl Castro and Ramiro Valdés in front of him – and the anguish of the Cuban rulers, who suffer firsthand from “another Moncada”: inflation and crime on the Island.

The event, which commemorates the 70th anniversary of the rebel attack on two important military enclaves in the former province of Oriente during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, began at five in the morning on July 26th. The Government spared no resources for the tribute, which began with a play of lights on the façade of the barracks recreating – with notable historical inaccuracy – the frontal shooting of the assailants until the building was symbolically collapsed.

Starting from the “ruins” of Moncada, the voice of Fidel Castro and various signs alluded to the “problems” of the Republic. When the show ended, which included congas and declamations, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, José Ramón Monteagudo, noted that the city had complied with the request of Raúl Castro, who in one of his speeches had called for “beautification days” to make Santiago a “beautiful and hygienic” city.

Díaz-Canel resorted to an old political trick and took advantage of the dawn light to begin his speech. He mentioned the Christian apostle Santiago, patron saint of the city, who came to “dress as a mambí” during the independence wars, and the Virgin of Charity, in whose El Cobre sanctuary Antonio Maceo was baptized. continue reading

The Cuban Television cameras tried to offer a solemn profile of the president, who expressed himself with diction errors and voice breaks, as is usual in his public interventions.

“As long as we do not reach a decent degree of prosperity for Cubans, we will have a Moncada to assault,” he summarized, after alluding to the vicious circle that produced the increase in the price of basic necessities and the wave of crime that is sweeping the island.

As expected, Díaz-Canel blamed the problems in Cuba on the United States, which, in addition to the blockade, is determined to organize campaigns “to prevent foreign investment and foreign trade.” In addition, he accused Washington of leading “a pursuit of fuel supplies” to the island, through whose ports numerous oil tankers move, about which Havana does not offer the slightest information.

He spoke little about Fidel Castro, of whom he limited himself to saying that, while his brother was fighting in the Audiencia building, he “ordered the withdrawal.”

Raúl Castro did not go up to the rostrum or receive ovations. Together with a nonagenarian Ramiro Valdés, the soldier did not leave his seat until the end of the event. (ACN)

The rest of his speech was dedicated to Díaz-Canel allowing himself to be applauded by various groups of foreign visitors such as the Pastors for Peace – whose leader, Gail Walker, was present at the even t- the Puerto Rican independence group Juan Rius Rivera, the Caravan of Brazil and several “brigades” of young Belgians and Germans who traveled to the Island for the commemoration.

This time, Raúl Castro did not go up to the rostrum or receive ovations. Together with a nonagenarian Ramiro Valdés, the soldier did not leave his seat until the end of the act and the cameras captured an expressionless face, which in no way resembles that of the 22-year-old who was captured seven decades ago, after the failure of the assault .

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Portugal Will Contract for 200 to 300 Latin American Doctors and Says Their Rights Will be Respected

The medical brigades are one of the main sources of foreign currency for the Cuban government, despite being frequently pointed to as systems of forced labor. (EFE)

EFE/14ymedio, Lisbon, July 26, 2023 — The Portuguese government plans to hire between 200 and 300 doctors from different Latin American countries to perform functions in health centers and ensures that all the rights of professionals will be respected.

The Portuguese Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, confirmed these contracts today in an appearance in Parliament, where he clarified that the doctors contracted for will not only be from Cuba, as local media had previously published.

They will also come from Colombia and other countries that have the capacity to export healthcare workers, said the head of Health, who explained that their academic training will be recognized by a Portuguese university and they will enroll in the Portuguese College of Physicians.

Pizarro went to Parliament at the request of the Liberal Initiative, which wanted to question the minister about the hiring of Cuban professionals, since this party alleges that they work abroad in “slavery” conditions, through a Cuban state company that only gives them a part of the salary they receive from the Portuguese State. continue reading

“There are hundreds of companies of this type that operate in Portugal,” replied the minister, who pointed out that the Portuguese State will remunerate foreign doctors the same as Portuguese ones, but admitted that the Government does not control what these companies pay professionals.

And he assured that “human rights will be scrupulously respected.”

During Miguel Díaz-Canel’s visit to Portugal in mid-July, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, had revealed his interest in hiring Cuban doctors after verifying the work that one of these contingents is doing in Italy. Initially, the service would be exercised for a period of three years.

According to the Portuguese outlet Jornal de Noticias , Rebelo de Sousa explained that the Cubans would collect their money without intervention from the Havana regime. The president said he had asked Cuba for a “different agreement than usual” to also pay those hired directly*. Supposedly, he managed to get the Cuban government to accept it, although the exact terms of the agreement are still unknown.

In addition, the Portuguese Government has already started procedures for these professionals to join the public system as soon as possible, taking into account the various steps that foreigners must go through outside the territory of the European Union before being considered fit.

To be authorized, doctors who come from third countries must undergo several tests, not only in medicine, but also in Portuguese, for example.

It is not the first time that Portugal has resorted to Cuban healthcare workers; in 2009 it welcomed 58 to reinforce the public network in the regions of Ribatejo (center), Alentejo and Algarve (south).

Some sources from the Portuguese Ministry of Health, consulted by the EFE news agency, indicated that the hiring of foreign health professionals is “complementary and transitory” and its objective is “to contribute to the adequate provision of human resources and response capacity” of the National Health Service.

In this sense, “joint work is underway between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.”

According to the data provided by the portfolio, the Portuguese public system had 1,270 foreign doctors in 2022. Local media, for their part, reported that the total number of foreign health workers registered with the College of Physicians was 4,503.

Health is one of the sectors that has caused the most complaints in the last year, marked by a crisis in emergencies, especially in maternity and obstetrics, due to the lack of resources. Faced with pressure from the sector, the Portuguese Government has found an alternative in health contingents.

For the Cuban government, medical brigades sent abroad are one of the main sources of foreign currency for the, despite being frequently pointed to as systems of forced labor by international organizations such as Human Rights Watch or Prisoners Defenders. The United States also included Cuba in the list of countries that violate human rights.

The Cuban government has also been accused of using the contingents to maintain its influence in allied countries, such as Mexico, Italy, Qatar, Brazil, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) calculated that, in 2021, the Cuban State collected 4.349 billion dollars for the export of health services to foreign governments.

In contrast, on the island, health services are deteriorating, not only due to a lack of health professionals, but also due to the shortage of basic medicines, which the government in Havana attributes to financing problems and the international supply of raw materials. On the other hand, infrastructure modernization investments are focused on tourist complexes, the bet to activate the compressed economy, while complaints about the precarious conditions in hospitals are increasingly frequent on social networks.

*Translator’s note: The common arrangement to date has been for foreign governments to pay the Cuban government directly for each worker, and from this the Cuban government pays each worker only a portion of the total — in some cases as little as 10% — and retains the rest.

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Habana Libre Hotel Recovers its Sign, Battered and With an Incomplete Background

The structure that supports the recognizable letters, lowercase and blue, is not finished and is missing panels. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Four years after having barely six letters, the sign on the roof of the Habana Libre hotel, located on the vital corner of L and 23, in El Vedado, is once again complete.

The sign went from “bana Libre” to “na Libre” and from there to “a Libre” in 2019, before the covid-19 pandemic.

The authorities have not announced its restoration, but neither have they given explanations in all this time in which Havanans have seen the emblematic sign crumble, like a metaphor for the Island.

The old Hilton, destined to be one of the most luxurious on the continent, opened its doors in 1958 and was the enclave from where Fidel Castro ruled the country during the first years of the Revolution. Nationalized two years after its inauguration, the building, with 27 floors and an initial investment of 28 million dollars, has gradually languished until it reached a debacle that touched its adjacent premises, both the cafeteria and the candy store.

The recent arrangement, moreover, has not been complete, since the structure that supports the recognizable letters, in lowercase and blue, is not finished and is missing panels. A passerby who this Wednesday noticed the change at the top of the establishment, managed to comment: “Tremendous bungle, as always in this country.”

Nationalized two years after its inauguration, the 27-story building has gradually languished until it reached its current debacle. (14ymedio)

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Cuba: The 26th of July of History and Propaganda

It stands to reason that all the attackers who died did so believing that the action was an effort to restore the Constitution and all liberties. (Archive)

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 26 July 2023 — On this anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks on 26 July 1953, it is logical to assume that the official statements and the government press conform to the guidelines drawn up by the Communist Party of Cuba, the supreme institution of the nation. Foreign admirers, almost without exception, will accept them as irrefutable truths, and in Cuban universities anyone who dares to ask uncomfortable questions will risk his university career and his freedom.

But in the forbidden books of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Carlos Franqui, Reinaldo Arenas, Luis Aguilar León and other banned intellectuals, the Cubans of the future will discover another reality. And the Cubans on the Island who today manage to read some of these clandestine texts, or a copy of History will absolve me written by Fidel Castro during his years in prison, will glimpse myths, half lies, mysteries and falsehoods.

Totalitarian regimes write and rewrite history: they eliminate dates, events, names, photographs, letters… It is a sad reality that George Orwell masterfully described in Animal Farm, that other book outlawed in the former Soviet Union and its European satellites, and today highly dangerous in Cuba, China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam.

But let us go back to that fateful summer morning when the young soldiers were dozing soundly, recovering from the carnival festivities in that barracks in Santiago, the second most important city on the island. The Moncada barracks were more than 800 kilometers away. from then military dictator Fulgencio Batista, who was in Varadero.

What was the reason for that assault? What did those young people, mostly from Pinar del Río, who trusted Fidel, and until a few hours before and knew nothing about the danger they were going to face, intend to achieve? continue reading

Of the nearly 134 attackers – plus the other 28 who on the same day attacked the barracks in Bayamo – 68 died that day and the following, during the “hunt” in the mountains, 48 escaped and managed to hide, 32 received sentences from seven months to 15 years in prison and 19 were found not guilty. Many of the soldiers of the army of Santiago who were killed, were young recruits, as young as 16.

It is logical to think that all the attackers who died did so believing that the action was an effort to restore the Constitution and all freedoms, including multi-party elections, separation of powers, a rule of law and a press that did not fear Batista’s periodic censorship. There are more than a thousand political prisoners in Cuba. now, for asking exactly those same things.

The 26th of July 1953 is far from the official version.

In those days, the future top leader claimed not to be a communist, insisting that his ideals were strictly democratic. For example, in Washington, on April 19, 1959, before the North American Association of Newspaper Editors, Fidel said: “I am not a communist, nor do the communists have the strength to be decisive in my country.” A few weeks later, on May 8, the newspaper Revolución published the following statements: “I don’t know how to speak… Can anyone think that they covered up dark designs, that we have ever lied to the people? Why this determination to accuse our Revolution of what it is not? If our ideas were communist, we would say so here.”

Regarding the nature of republican Cuba, in his defense before the court that sentenced him to 15 years in prison – of which he served 22 months – Fidel said: “There was a Republic. It had its Constitution, its laws, its liberties; president, congress, courts; everyone could meet, associate, speak, and write with complete freedom. The government did not satisfy the people, but the people could change it and it only took a few days to do so. There was a public opinion, respected and abided by , and all the problems of collective interest were discussed freely. There were political parties, doctrinal hours on the radio, controversial television programs, public events, and the people throbbed with enthusiasm. (…) That people had suffered a lot, and if not it was happy, it wanted to be had a right to be. It had been deceived many times, and it looked back with real terror. it wanted a change, an improvement, an advance, and it saw it near. All its hope was in the future.”

On this 26th of July, what better way to honor the Cubans who died that day, 70 years ago, than to reflect on those words. God willing that many Cubans remember that message from Fidel, including opponents on the island and in the diaspora, and the bishops, members of the Assembly of Popular Power, the Armed Forces, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), the Council of Ministers and publishers of the state newspaper Granma. For the good of Cuba and of all Cubans.

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Reopening of Havana’s Jalisco Park Postponed Without Explanation

The entrance to Jalisco Park now looks freshly painted in bright colors. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Showing sadness in the children and anger in the parents, the faces of the Havanans who approached Jalisco Park this Wednesday, at the corner of 23 and 18 in El Vedado, spoke for themselves when they saw it closed. The authorities had been announcing days with hype and cymbals for the July 26 the reopening of the emblematic park, which will be privately managed from now on .

However, just on Tuesday night, Tribuna de La Habana reproduced an “informative note” saying that the reopening was postponed to Saturday the 29th at nine in the morning. The text did not offer any reason, despite including as a source Alexander Manent Espinosa, administrator of the Beijing non-agricultural cooperative that will manage the recreational complex “in the lease modality.”

With such short notice and in a little-read publication, dozens of families found out at the gates of the place this Wednesday, the second holiday of the week dedicated to commemorating the frustrated assault on the Moncada barracks.

There was only one child roaming the park, apparently the son of one of the employees or the owners. (14ymedio)

“Papi, it’s not open, what are we going to do, let’s go,” a father told his son patiently as he let himself be dragged by the hand. continue reading

In a worse situation was a young mother who arrived with her child from Guanabacoa, overcoming the serious shortage of transportation. “I’ve had a tremendous amount of work to get here and now I don’t know what I’m going to do with the little one, everything here is a lie,” lamented the woman, who tried to comfort her son, remorsefully. Another passerby suggested that she take him to the Coppelia ice cream parlor. “Yeah, man, the line when I passed there was endless,” she told him.

Both the gate and the fence of Jalisco Park now look freshly painted, in bright colors. From the outside, one could see the new games that the park will have, decorated with motifs of the popular children’s character Elpidio Valdés, but deflated, as were all the other stopped mechanical attractions. There was only one child roaming the place, apparently the son of one of the employees or the owners.

Several workers were setting up some tables in the back, where the food services area will be. (14ymedio)

Several workers were setting up some tables in the back, where the food services area will be. Here, the official press announced, there will be an ice cream parlor and a cafeteria, where “you can taste everything from light foods such as sandwiches and picadera (cheese balls, croquettes), to fried chicken, pizza and spaghetti.”

In its note, Tribuna de La Habana also reported that access to the park alone will cost 50 pesos per person, whether adult or child, and that at the same box office people will have to purchase tickets to ride the attractions, at 30 pesos each. except for those called the Bull, the Surfboard, and the Eurobungee, which will cost 50 pesos each.

In addition, there will be various shows on weekends, including “the presentation of the children’s theater company La Colmenita.”

“I’ve had a tremendous amount of work to get here,” lamented a woman who arrived with her son from Guanabacoa. (14ymedio)

None of that is yet reality. For now, the only happy person in the immediate vicinity was the owner of the ice cream parlor across the street, who, seeing the crowd, opened despite it being a mandatory rest day.

“We’ll see on Saturday, because everything is like that here, they announce an opening day and it’s never the day they announce,” a grandmother with her two granddaughters was complaining as they walked away from the park.

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Cuban Opponent Otero Alcantara Confirms he Lifted His Hunger Strike After Weeks Incommunicado

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara in a file image. (EFE)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, July 26, 2023 — Cuban opponent Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, in prison since 2021, lifted the hunger and thirst strike that began on July 6, sources close to the artist confirmed this Tuesday.

Otero Alcántara himself confirmed the news to his relatives through a telephone call from the Guanajay prison, where he is serving the sentence imposed on him in 2022 for the crimes of outrage against national symbols, public disorder and contempt.

It was the first time that the artist had communicated with his loved ones since July 6, which had caused concern about his state of health.

The art curator Yanelys Núñez told Diario de Cuba that, in her call, Otero Alcántara told her that he had been eating again for days, but that he still did not feel well physically or mentally .

“They were difficult days because he felt that his body was spiraling out of control with the strike,” said Núñez, who added that the opponent is already together with the other prisoners.

This is the sixth strike by the leader of the San Isidro Movement, who has been imprisoned since 11 July 2021 (11J), when he tried to join the anti-government protests that broke out that day in the country, the largest in decades.

In a previous protest, in April 2021, Otero Alcántara, 35, spent more than five days on a hunger and thirst strike, for which he was admitted to a Havana hospital.

Time Magazine included him among the 100 most influential people of 2021, while Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.

In an interview with EFE published this Sunday, the art curator Claudia Genlui spoke about the conditions in which Otero Alcántara lives in prison. “There are days when he is in a better mood and there are days when it is difficult to accept this whole situation, especially when it is known that he is innocent,” said the activist.

In addition, she denounced the “constant psychological pressure” suffered by the opponent by State Security and the added “health problems” he suffers from prison conditions.

“Luis is a very strong person. He has incredible resistance and that keeps him afloat. He clings to art a lot, he is always creating,” he said.

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If Cuba and the Cubans Aren’t Doing Well, ‘It’s Not the Fault of Tourists,’ a Spanish ‘Influencer’ Defends Herself

Some Cuban “influencers” have strongly criticized the visit of young Spaniards to Cuba, accusing them of “romanticizing a dictatorship.” (Facebook/Enjoy Travel Group)

14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2023 — The Spaniard Marina Rivera, who was one of the more than twenty influencers who arrived in Cuba this July to promote tourism, invited by the travel agency Enjoy Travel Group, published a video on her Tik Tok profile on Wednesday to respond to the accusations of “white-washing the dictatorship” by many of her followers and Cuban content creators.

“I didn’t think this would be necessary, but let’s talk about Cuba,” the influencer begins her three-minute video in which she exposes, above all, that both she, the rest of the group and her agency had not been paid for the trip that was made to promote the recently inaugurated Barcelona-Havana flight. “We weren’t paid a euro for anything. They just invited us on the trip,” she says.

Rivera also explains that she is not to blame for the socioeconomic and political situations of the countries she visits and that many have a lack of “freedoms and rights and have horrible political situations, but that is not the fault of tourists.”

Marina Rivera also compared the Cuban regime to the Franco dictatorship: “In Spain we had 40 years of dictatorship, and some of us lived from tourism. It’s exactly the same in Cuba. People live from tourism. And thanks to all those tourists who came to Spain during the dictatorship, a lot of people were able to eat. We wanted to do the same thing through tourism to Cuba.”

“We enjoyed the Island and left money in local businesses,” concludes Rivera, who said that the group of influencers had distributed medicines, water, sweets and money among the people of Havana, and added: “We were not going to say this because we did it in a disinterested way. For example, the Twin Melody gave away 400 euros in cash to the street children.” continue reading

Some Cuban influencers, such as Claudia Tropiezos and Royniel2, have strongly criticized the visit of young Spaniards to Cuba, accusing them of “romanticizing a dictatorship.” They were joined by the Cuban Dina Star, who has lived in Madrid for two years, who, after publishing a video on the subject on YouTube, was invited to the Spanish program Todo es Mentira [It’s All a Lie]. This same program witnessed, during the July 2021 protests, how Cuban State Security arrived at the YouTuber’s residence in Havana to take her to the Zapata and C station while she broadcast live.

Diego Moreno, executive director of the talent agency Nickname, which represents the influencers who traveled to Cuba, was also invited to the program, broadcast on July 18.

Moreno explained that the influencers were invited by the travel agency Enjoy Travel Group, based in Barcelona, which had also previously hired them to promote air routes to countries such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic and the Maldives. He also said that none of the influencers “has received one single cent.” He admitted, however, that all costs of lodging, transportation, food and events were covered by the tour operator agency that, as part of the contract, demanded a non-defamation clause. Outside of that paragraph — which is very common in promotional contracts, according to the director — “there was no limitation of any kind.”

The representative also recalled that many of the Cubans with whom they had contact on the Island were grateful for their visit and for the fact that they were promoting the country as a paradise destination. “The people who are in Miami are the ones who are criticizing and trying not to promote tourism.”

Faced with Moreno’s version, the Cuban influencer argued that she did not doubt that people would receive them gratefully. “If you spend the money in a private restaurant or if you record videos of the people who dance from sunup to sundown on stilts, they will thank you with a smile from ear to ear,” she replied while explaining that the real problem was in promoting tourism that does not benefit the common Cuban. “Promote a natural tourism; don’t go to five-star hotels built by the Government. Go to private homes, soak up the real Cuban culture and not the one they show you,” the young Cuban concluded.

In an attempt to placate the debate, Nickname’s representative commented that the influencers were inexperienced young people who had come to confuse Ernesto Guevara’s monument in the Plaza de la Revolución with an image of Diego Armando Maradona. “I think the influencers aren’t really that ignorant, because one of them offered to look for ways to help people in Cuba,” was Dina Star’s response.

Both representatives of the agency and the influencers themselves have explained that it is not the job of these young people to show the political situations or the shortcomings of any country because they are not journalists, who are required to be truthful and responsible with the content they disseminate.

Translated by Regina Avany

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In Order To Keep Functioning, Cuban Factories Are Using Oil Residue

The Cienfuegos Petroleum Refinery sends the oil sludge to the cement factory for use as fuel. (@CanalCaribeCuba)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 July 2023 — The energy crisis that turns Cubans upside down has also forced state industries to look for alternatives to keep their boilers operating. This is the case of the Cienfuegos Cement factory, which uses oil sludge residue obtained from the oil refinery in this province, the largest in Cuba.

The general manager of the company, Irenaldo Pérez, explained to Prensa Latina this weekend that the provincial refinery transfers the waste resulting from the production of liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, diesel, turbo fuel and fuel to the cement plant.

The official said that this waste can also be used in smelters and sugar mills — large consumers of fuel — which, precisely because of the widespread shortage on the Island, have had to stop their production lines repeatedly. Without detailing the volume of the sludge obtained from the oil plant, the official news agency assures that its use reduces the “considerable dependence on imported fuel” while compensating its environmental footprint by eliminating potential sources of pollution.

Cuba shows slow progress in the diversification of its power generation matrix, which is highly dependent on crude oil. The Government promised in 2014 that renewable generation — which at that time accounted for 4.3% — would represent 24% of the installed capacity by 2030, but by the beginning of 2022 it had barely reached 5%. continue reading

In addition to the energy crisis, Cuban families are facing greater interruptions in drinking water service. The provincial newspaper Periódico 26 acknowledged on Monday that Las Tunas shows one of the biggest delays on the Island in terms of the installation of the most effective equipment for water supply. In the province, 146 stations were expected to enter operations in October of this year, but the meager results to date — only 22 have done so — warn that this goal will not be met.

Of the few facilities, not all are in operation, warned Óscar Carralero, director of the Provincial Aqueduct and Sewerage Company of the province. The official explained that three of the new stations already have electrical problems due to control failures, and two cannot be activated because the networks have not received maintenance for years or are not available due to theft.

Therefore, the manager recognizes, they do not yet represent “improvements in the community,” which maintained the “dream of receiving water in the short or medium term in a stable way.”

In its report, Periódico 26 points out that several stations with a capacity of 10 kilowatts are being installed in remote areas with a small population, where families had reported that the pumping devices had been broken “years ago” and they could only receive water from tanker trucks.

However, the work is not progressing given the shortage of materials to make the assemblies for solar panels, said Marco Antonio Sánchez, a specialist of the Provincial Directorate of Aqueduct and Sewerage. They also don’t have enough fuel or means of transport to take the supplies to remote areas.

“We feel a little alone,” complained Sánchez, who explained that the authorities are committed to projects, but at the time of finalizing the assembly, they lack resources that depend on other industries. “Advancing like this is more complex,” he said.

The newspaper, however, is optimistic that, once the 146 stations are installed, there will be a savings of 73,000 kilowatts of electricity, and an improvement in water service for 11% of the households in the province.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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