Author: Iván García

Danilo, an illegal hard-currency speculator, has had a busy week. “I buy dollars, euros and convertible pesos. But after the government announced it would move to a single currency, I am without funds,” he says from a centrally located Havana boulevard.

Some of the CADECA currency exchanges have closed early because they did not have enough “chavitos“  to carry out transactions in convertible pesos, the stronger of Cuba’s two currencies.

Although the regime is trying to ward off panic by issuing an official statement indicating that the measures to be implemented will have no effect on savings, there were long lines to be found at branches of Banco Metroplitano.

“In only five hours fourteen customers closed their hard-currency accounts at the bank where I work” said an employee. The news comes as no surprise to one segment of the population.

An avalanche of rumors in mid-August about a possible devaluation of the convertible Cuban peso, or CUC, led hundreds of people to exchange their Cuban pesos, or CUPs, for hard currency.

“Two months ago I withdrew all the chavitos from my bank account and bought pesos. It isn’t clear how currency unification will be implemented but rumors are that, before it disappears, the convertible peso will be gradually devalued,” says a self-employed worker.

In Cuba rumors are often more credible than information found in the state-run media. Eusebio, an economist, believes the dual-currency system leads to distortions in prices, accounting practices and domestic commercial transactions.

“Many local businesses are profitable because they sell their merchandise in convertible pesos. For example, domestically produced mayonnaise sells for between 3.0 and 5.5 CUC, or roughly 75 to 132 CUP. Once currency unification occurs, this disparity will disappear and inflated prices, which result from the stronger currency, will have to be adjusted. Nothing will be solved by replacing the chavito with the Cuban peso if stores maintain rigid price structures in CUC or CUP. The real price of rationed rice is not 20 centavos a pound, nor is 800 CUC — or 20,000 CUP — the real price for a plasma screen TV. Currency unification will be complicated. Businesses will be affected and could suffer losses,” he claims.

Some chain stores are already selling products in pesos tied to the exchange rate of the convertible peso. Magaly, a high school teacher, does not believe this will solve anything. “If a large segment of the population cannot afford to pay 25 chavitos for food, they won’t have 625 pesos for it either,” she notes.

An official with a state agency asks for patience. “The salaries of employees who work in profitable industries which generate income in hard-currency (such as tourism, healthcare, Cubana de Aviación or ETECSA*) will begin earning salaries based on the new paradigm relatively soon. Their buying power will be increased. It will be healthy for the consumer as well as for society to re-emphasize the value of work. The inverted pyramid, where professionals earn salaries lower than that of a garbage collector, will gradually change,” though he did not provide details.

The convoluted announcement published in Granma raises more questions than it answers. People hope that by year’s end the guidelines for creating a single currency will begin to take effect.

When Fidel Castro made it legal to possess dollars on June 26, 1993, the Cuban peso and the U.S. dollar went into circulation. In May 2004 the United States fined the Swiss bank UBS for violating the embargo and for having “laundered” almost four billion dollars destined for Cuba. Fidel Castro was furious. Six months later, in November 2004, the dollar was replaced with the convertible peso. But for Castro it was not enough to remove the dollar from circulation. In March 2005 he imposed an 18% surcharge on dollars sent to the island.

When his brother Raul came to power in 2006, the goal became to attract more greenbacks, so he reduced the surcharge on the dollar to 10%. In spite of this undue financial burden, high food prices in hard-currency retail stores and slow turnover of hundreds of inventory items in state-run stores, the volume of remittances from family members overseas has grown phenomenally.

In the year 2000 the country brought in 986 million dollars in remittances. By 2013 it had grown to 2.6 billion. It is estimated to surpass 2.8 billion in 2013. This does not include almost three billion additional dollars in the form of food, clothing, cell phone account payments, household appliances and medications that enter the country through “mules” and travel agencies based in Florida.

A casual poll of twenty or so Havana residents, who these days argue passionately over the ramifications of currency unification, suggests that the main problems will continue to be poverty-level salaries and excessive regulation in an inefficient system.

According to the National Office of Statistics and Information the average salary in Cuba is about 466 pesos or some 20 dollars a month. In spite of lukewarm economic reform efforts, agriculture has yet to take off and industry needs something more than good intentions to be efficient.

Cuba imports everything from fruit for the tourist industry to toothbrushes for sale to the public. No one believes for a moment that the doing away with the dual-currency system will improve his or her quality of life. Rather, it will represent the beginning of a new set of challenges.

Iván García

Photo: Diario de las Americas

*Translator’s note: The state-owned telecommunications company.

29 October 2013

From 1962-1970 the suicide rate on the island ranged between 10.5 and 12.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Back in the 80s, the rate of self-destruction among Cubans exceeded 21 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the PanAmerican Health Organization, Cuba has the highest suicide rate in the hemisphere, with 18.1 per 100,000 population, followed by Uruguay (15.9).

Figures from the Ministry of Public Health tell us that for every 2000 patients seen in GPs’ offices, at least one commits suicide during the first two years of being seen, 10 attempt suicide each year and about 50 are suicidal.

It is rare that in a neighborhood for its residents not to know dramatic anecdotes of suicide. From an old man hanging himself naked in his home or a young woman who burns herself up, to politicians loyal to the regime who committed suicide by shooting themselves, as did Eddy Sunol, Osvaldo Dorticós and Haydee Santamaria.

In 1964, after Fidel Castro dismissed him as Minister of Labor and accused him of corruption, the commander Augusto Martinez Sanchez, then at 41, attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He never returned to public life. In 2010 they allowed him to visit his eldest son in Miami. He died in Havana on February 2, 2013, at age 90.

In June, the independent attorney Veizant Boloy wrote in Cubanet that “suicide was the cause of death of at least 5 people between April and May 2013 in the municipality of Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba.” The most common methods were hanging, jumping into space from a high place, catching fire, poisoning with drugs and gun shots, “mainly young men who are forced, against their will, to do their military service.”

Several interviewees told Boloy that the situation the eastern provinces found themselves in after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, which left more than 100,000 houses partially or totally destroyed, has been one of the causes of the increase in non-natural deaths in Palma Soriano.

Also in June 2013, but in Havana, independent journalist Carlos Ríos reported the suicide of the former police captain Romerico Berenguer, 69, who hanged himself at his home in Santos Suarez. The motive  would have been that after four decades of service in the Interior Ministry, they retired him with 211 pesos per month ($9). Later they increased his pension to 300 pesos ($12), but it still wasn’t enough to live on. Ríos finished his Cubanet note clarifying that in less than a year, in that same block, there had been three more suicides, all men over 60.

In Mujeres (Women), a revolutionary rag, in a report published in October in Worldcrunch, Felina, one of the interviewees, told the journalist, “Last week a friend of mine burned herself up. She was a whore, like me. Her daughter said that she was watching television and suddenly her mother kissed her and went to the bathroom. She came out running, burning like a live torch. I think about suicide every day. But I don’t like to suffer. If I do it, I’m going to jump off the balcony.

After these terrifying tales, one question comes to mind: if the official media assures us that Cuba is perceived as the greatest paradise for workers, why is the suicide rate so high?

A medical specialist consulted said that the causes of suicide are varied. “From the persistent economic crisis and the lack of prospects, to mental breakdown. Many young people don’t see any prospects for their lives. They don’t persevere when they face their professional future. Personal problems overwhelm them. The same thing happens with adults and the elderly when there has been a family, political or social breakdown. There have been months when I’ve seen up to 20 cases of potential suicides.”

Suicide is a global phenomenon. It is the second cause of death after traffic accidents. Not even the experts agree on the causes that push an apparently sane person to self-destruct. In his book Anatomy of Melancholia, Robert Burton (1577-1640) defined suicide as an expression of a severe depressive state. Pierre de Boismont, in 1856, tried to be more exact: “The suicide is wretchedly unhappy or crazy.”

This concept was later refined by Sigmund Freud from the point of view of psychoanalysis, defining it as a manifestation of the soul induced by the context or of the individual. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his work The Suicide (1897) notes that suicides are individual phenomena essentially responding to social causes. If we give credence to these arguments, suicide is a social fact.

It’s clear that economic, personal, romantic, family or health crises often become the trigger that sets off a suicide. The Cuban government, which is proud of its achievements in social, educational or health matters, finds it difficult to digest how the frustration of a segment of the population leads them to want to end their existence.

Behind the statistics of suicides on the island are hidden stories of people who for one reason or another, consider sacrificing themselves to evade the uncertain future, broken families or a life of weakly applauding the cheats.

The regime handles the suicide statistics with tweezers. They have become a state secret.

20 October 2013

An autocracy’s efficiency can be measured by, among other things, its immutable capacity for controlling information. Everything passes through an ideological filter. Some guys sitting in an air-conditioned office minutely evaluating it to determine what people can see, hear or read.

Books, records, news, novels, films and television programs must be approved by the Cuban Communist Party’s censor. Anything the regime has not approved can be considered illegal.

Granma, Juventud Rebelde, Trabajadores and all the other party organs must play the same tune. Everything is planned. Very little is left to chance.

Once the order from on high goes out, docile reporters must write about the economic crisis in Europe, the lack of social discipline on the island or the private middle men who are blamed for the high price of agricultural products.

Fidel Castro has always said that the Cuban press serves as one of the weapons of the revolution, one it does not hesitate to use. And while you can find examples of good reporting and sharp social commentary, it is never of a heatedly controversial or political nature.

The most talented official journalists play in the minor leagues. They are not highly visible. Obedience takes precedence. The local press — a synonym for mediocrity — is designed to misinform. The color of its style manual is olive green.

Fidel Castro used to stride through a secret passageway that connected his office in the Palace of the Revolution to that of the director of the newspaper Granma a few yards away. It allowed him to review news stories or change a layout.

It is said that he personally wrote its most inflammatory editorials. Unless an official journalist has been accredited by the communist party, a government minister might not respond to his phone call or might even hang up on him. Officials and institutions — if you can call them that — bury information and statistics. Raúl Castro would like to turn the this situation around.

Awhile back, some provincial media outlets, local broadcasters and TV talk shows initiated a discreet and very cautious form of tropical glasnost. One can now read crime reports, sports writers criticizing the policies of INDER,* and one daring reporter accusing a state agency of bureaucratic foot-dragging.

While it is good thing that the national press is beginning to reflect the opinions of the average Cuban, it’s a bit too little, too late. By our count a handful of men and women began to write in the mid-1990s about the side of Cuba that the regime was trying to hide.

Almost all of us were empirical journalists, educated by daily life. Twenty or so — I was one of them — had the good fortune to attend workshops led by the poet and journalist Raúl Rivero. We were reasonably well-educated and had an enormous desire to learn and get ahead.

Journalism for us meant going out and looking for news in the neighborhood and in the ranks of the dissidents. It meant reporting daily using old typewriters and, because there were no computers, filing our stories by phone.

As in every aspect of life, there are independent journalists who are good, average and poor. And people who think clearly but write badly. Whether good or bad, they go on reporting on areas of national life that the official media ignores.

The credibility of independent journalists has grown since 1995. Their points of view and social critiques have influenced opinions outside the island. The regime knows this, which is why it is begun trying to compete without mentioning its competitor.

It is independent journalism that has caused official journalism to rethink its role and forced its reporters to go out into the street.

It is not a battle for information. Completely independent journalists are swimming against the current; their reports will never be published in state-run newspapers. Their colleagues — independent journalist licensed by the state — are monitored, harassed or accused of alleged crimes.

This is because there is a gag law which allows a reporter working outside the control of the state to be sentenced to more than twenty years in prison. The official press operates on an uneven playing field. Nevertheless, it is losing to the competition.

Photo: Cover of the first issue of a magazine that has remained a symbol of alternative journalism and that in the mid-1990s gave independent journalists their start. The regime allowed only two issues to be circulated. It blamed their publication on Raúl Rivero y Ricardo González Alfonso, who were later convicted and sentenced to jail. From “Remembering the Revista de Cuba.”

*Translator’s note: Acronym for The National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation.

17 October 2013

Although you can fly coach from Miami to Havana in less than forty-five minutes, the customs duties and price of an airline ticket are enough to give you a heart attack.

For Cuban residents living in Florida, it is probably cheaper to travel to Europe than to visit their relatives. The Castro regime has a secret weapon against the embargo that the United States imposed on the island in 1962.

The answer has been to milk Cuban exiles scattered across half the world, particularly those living on the other shore. Without fanfare, the Castro regime has created a formidable industry out of the sweat and sacrifice of emigres.

At the end of the 1970s, the inefficient Cuban economy squandered billions of rubles, fuel and material resources from the former USSR. A good part of this flow of money was set aside for Fidel Castro’s favorite project: destabilizing governments on the American continent and Africa through subversion.

His hidden agenda was to create an alliance of third-world countries that would stand up to “Yankee imperialism.”  This strategy cost a lot of money.

In the beginning, hard currency was obtained through raids on banks and sequestration of million-dollar companies on the part of pro-Castro groups in America. And it was kept in accounts managed by the Cuban government.

Another form of getting Gringo dollars was turning to the world market to sell part of the petroleum that the USSR had sent to Cuba.  But it wasn’t enough. Subversion is pricey.

It was then that leaders in Havana gave a sidelong glance to the north.  In southern Florida lay an opulent treasure. Hard-working Cubans had triumphed thanks to democracy, economic freedom and personal creativity.

A new strategy was devised.  The dollars of those formerly classified as “worms” by the regime now were needed to open accounts in hard-currency personally managed by the sole commander. Evoking “family reunification” in 1978 they established flights so that the Cuban community in the United States could visit their poor relatives on the island.

Castro didn’t care much about family.  It was a matter of business. Years before, writing a card to a parent or sibling residing in the “empire” was almost a crime and more than a few lost their jobs. At the time, it was also a crime to be Catholic, to listen to the Beatles or to wear jeans.

The ideological pirouette of the regime in cozying up to Cubans living in Florida was not a strategy born out of good will or remorse. Not at all. It was delicate handiwork to establish a channel for dollars to flow into the island.

Fidel Castro always had a peculiar philosophy. He considered the United States embargo illegal. Therefore, any way to make a mockery of it was a good option.

When Cuban emigres visited their country in the early 1980s, dollars were exchanged in the airport at one-to-one for pesos. A visitor had to spend money to stay at least three nights in a hotel, even though his family could put him up. A network of exclusive stores was created using dollars and tourist attractions which sold clothes, personal hygiene products and household appliances for the price of gold.

As an alternative, the government simultaneously opened up commercial outlets which exchanged gold and silver jewelry, fine china and paintings by renowned artists for stereo equipment, color televisions and Russian automobiles. When Soviet communism said “adiós,” the Caribbean autocrats strengthened their policies of bridge-building to attract remittances from Cuban exiles.

By 1993 Cubans were allowed to hold dollars legally. At the same time the dual-currency system began operating. There was the CUC or convertible peso, which had considerable buying power, and the Cuban peso, which was significantly devalued.

In the meantime a huge industry was set up in the midst of Florida’s exile community. Agents of the Castro government swarmed through Miami and Tampa picking up cheap merchandise, video games, electronics, computers and cell phone rechargers to sell on the island.

Extortionate-rate commissions were charged. Certainly, Cuban immigrants enjoyed a unique privilege: when they arrived on United States’ soil, they were automatically granted legal residency.

But at the same time they are the only immigrants in the world who have to pay outlandish fees to send money and packages home, to make long-distance phone calls and to reunite with their families.

A Cuban pays on average at least $1,000 to hug his relatives at the Havana airport. The Cuban Interest Section in Washington–the Cuban government’s quasi-embassy in DC–charges $375 for a passport. To renew it six years later costs another $375.

An airline ticket from Florida goes for a little over $440. When the plane lands in Cuba, the visitor had better be ready to open his wallet. The Cuban Customs Service has a long list of duties on a wide variety of items — from $10 for a fan to $400 for a computer.

And he has to pay $5 for every pound of luggage over the proscribed limit. In general this fee is collected by the airlines, not at the airport. Cuban exiles are among the few peoples of the world who have to have a passport to visit their own country. And in the event they are vocal opponents of the regime, they lose their right to even enter the country.

Much has been said about the US embargo. Every year UN delegates vote overwhelmingly to abolish it.

Most of the population as well as a majority of dissidents are also overwhelmingly in favor of lifting the economic and trade embargo. They believe the Castro brothers use it as a pretext for maintaining the political status quo.

The embargo, however, is riddled with holes. When the authorities or their relatives so desire, they can obtain a Hummer, a bottle of Jack Daniels or the latest generation of antibiotics from a third country or even from the United States itself. In Cuban hard-currency stores you can buy anything from a Coca Cola to an HP printer.

But our compatriots in exile must deal with an “embargo” that is not discussed either at the United Nations or by the world’s press. They often must pay too much for any service or any aid they send to their relatives in Cuba. The only crime they committed was that one day they decided to leave the Communist madhouse.

Iván García

 Photo: Cuban and American flags for sale. From www.cipamericas.org

15 October 2013

In spite of the absence of giants from track and field like the Kenyan David Rudisha, the Jamaican Yohan Blake, the Cuban Dayron Robles and the Croat Blanka Vlasic, the Track and Field World Championships which took place August 10 to 18, was not a disaster.

Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown were banned from competition for having used controlled substances. Although they weren’t world-class athletes, the times and scores were significant.

And when headline names compete like Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, LaShawn Merritt or athletes in the style of Yelena Isinbayeva, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce or the runners from the depths of Kenya and Ethiopia, there is a guaranteed show.

It’s a pity that the Muscovites weren’t enthused by this distinguished group of giants.  Or they’re not interested in track and field, the tickets were sold at astronomical prices, or they preferred to stay in their dachas during these hot August days.

Of the 14 editions of the Track and Field World Championships, it was the least attended by the public.  The International Federation of Track and Field should take note.  And set aside shady deals lacking in transparency when it’s time to designate a host site.

Super sized athletes like to compete with full stands.  And the notable empty spaces in the gigantic Luzhniki stadium demonstrated that not everything is done with voluminous wallets, juicy commissions and extra-curricular lobbying.

Russia, which hopes to recuperate its lost greatness, bet on launching an offensive on all fronts.  From their platform in the Security Commission of the United Nations, to throwing the house out the window and grabbing first class sports events.  The new type of dictatorship invented by Vladimir Putin, with repression of dissidents and homosexuals through laws or simply busting them with sticks, he initiated a media offensive to wash its totalitarian face.

They will be a host site for the Winter Olympic Games (Sochi, 2014) and the next World Swimming Championships (Kazan, 2015).  And they are discussing a place for the Summer Olympics of 2020.  Only the myopia or corruption that envelops the maximum agencies for global sports, gets around the fact that a country that doesn’t respect democratic play should never be host to world events.

But back to the point. Despite the frigidity of the spectators, on the sports side, Moscow 2013 was a success.  In nearly all the competition events better times and season records were achieved.

In the case of those who competed from our island, this is a pending subject. For years now Cuban athletes, with exception of Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Yipsi Moreno y Omar Cisneros, haven’t gotten the best results in their most important events.  We have to check the methods, something is wrong with the technique and strategies.  The best marks are obtained in the first few months of the year.

Of course, to sweep the house you have to switch the furniture.  The work of the Cuban Federation of Track and Field is awfully bad.  This was confirmed by a source that would rather stay anonymous:

“You can’t obtain big results when the attention to the athletes is shameful.  You could make an extensive list of the athletes that have left the country or simply have stopped competing due to lack of support from the authorities.  It is an authentic cartel of the immoral.  Corrupt to no end.  Look at the Panamerican Stadium where the stars of track and field train; it is a shame.  The gymnasium is disgusting.  The boards are not working; the food and the working conditions are deplorable.  Yargelis Savigne, Aliecer Urrutia and others have decreased their performance due to the lack of support and training.  The best Cuban trainer, Santiago Antunez, had to retire.  The Commissioner Jorge Luis Sanchez is a straw-man.  It is the despotic Alberto Juantorena is who pulls the strings of track and field in Cuba.  If they aren’t charged with corruption or fired, in a few years we won’t have any great athletes.  The material and talent are there, but there is lack of direction in accord with the new times that shine.”

Three years ago, the pole vaulter Lazaro Borges, in second place at Daegu 2011, and Yarisley Silva who won bronze in Moscow 2013, didn’t even have a pole vault to train or compete.  If they hadn’t had high-caliber results, today they would be completely unknown athletes.  The mentality of the Cuban government has always been “put the cart before the horse.”

If athletes don’t show results, there is no guarantee of physical or monetary resources.  This sewer of bandits that the island track and field federation has become is the genesis of the poor showing at the world competition in Moscow.

Is the second worse result since 1987.  Now we are in 23rd place with two bronze medals and one silver.  This is not a matter of medals.  I repeat, the majority of the athletes didn’t achieve their best marks of the year or their personal bests in the tournaments.

The complacency of the official press and the mendacity of the leaders will attempt to cover the sun with one finger.  But something must be done if we want to come back to first places; and that something can’t be done the way that the unpopular Alberto Juantorena is doing with jewels of the track like Dayron Robles.

The sports authorities of the island need to “really” look at their calendars.  We are living in the 21st century.  If they don’t change strategies, with their absurd rules and silly speeches they will bury what little is left of Cuban sport.

Changing topics; Jamaica stole the speed show.  They took six gold medals.  What happened to Usain was to be expected.  He is unrivaled; he comes from a different galaxy.  Seriously, they should take into consideration to retire him with honors and keep the videos of his performances for future generations of runners.

It can’t be fun to compete against yourself; that’s why I saw, a very serious Bolt.  If new rivals don’t emerge the guy will get bored.  He won, but he lacked the Caribbean and reggae spark.  With the gold of the 4×100 relay, Bolt will surpass athletes like “Pato” Johnson and Carl Lewis in their number of medals.  Until proved differently, he is the greatest runner in history.

From his same country Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce is not too far behind.  She started better than anyone else and surpassed the three American runners.  In speed, Jamaicans have a dynasty; ones leave and new ones show up.  In the short runs Jamaica runs against Jamaica.

Another one that imprinted his name in Gothic letters was Mo Farah.  Running is his natural state.  He did double in 5 and 10 thousand meters.  He has a final sprint that any 400 meter runner would envy.  He’s not only a pride to the world but for Cuba too.  His trainer, Alberto Salazar is Cuban.

Watching experts like Salazar or Ivan Pedroso, who train the world champion in the triple jump, the French Teddy Tamgho — who marked 18.04 on the August 18th Moscow afternoon, the best in the last 15 years — we can see what can be done when you have the drive and resources to display the athletes’ qualities.

Russia showed its condition of host and took the first place among countries.  Isinbayeva showed her grandiosity despite certain statements made to the press.

The Cuban delegation showed a display of new blood like Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Omas Cisneros and Yarisley Silva.  One must be careful with some of the ages of the cadets and youths that competed in Moscow.  This wasn’t their world championship but it served its purpose.

The sickness at the heart of track and field in Cuba is the same as the regime, it is systemic.  Is not due to lack of talent; but rather due to the rules of the game.

Photo: With his silver medal, Pedro Pablo Pichardo (born Santiago de Cuba, 1993) gave Latin America its sixth medal in Moscow 2013. Pichardo was beaten by Frenchman Teddy Tamgho, who since 2011 has been coached by the Cuban Ivan Pedroso, quadruple world long jump champion and Olympic gold in Sydney 2000.

 Ivan Garcia

19 August 2013