Author: Juan Juan Almeida

Certainly every time Cuba’s nonagenarian former president appears on television or in the national press, it becomes an international news event, with his name and image splash across world headlines. But on the island it has the opposite effect, one of saturation and annoyance.

It is unrealistic to think that Adidas is popular on the island because Fidel Castro wears its label. This ignores the fact that, until 2012, the German brand was the official sponsor of the Cuban National Olympic Committee and equipped all its athletes with clothes used in both training and competition.

It is for this reason that all of Cuba’s top leaders, not just Fidel, sport the German brand. The stores run by the Ministry of the Interior, especially those managed by the presidential security service, are always fully stocked with clothing and footwear by Adidas. And until a very recent and much-talked-about corruption scandal, sweatshops run by an arm of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation were turning out unauthorized and obviously fake versions of Adidas merchandise.

It is hard now to remember that the Cuban judo athlete Daima Beltral, who moved us to tears at the time, was wearing an Adidas tracksuit when she was awarded silver medals at the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004). That at the IAAF World Championships in Budapest on March 14, 1989 Javier Sotomayor set a new world record of 2.43 meters in the high jump wearing Adidas shorts and sweat shirt. And when the track and field athlete Dayron Robles and the wrestler Mijain Lopez became the only Cubans to win Olympic medals in Beijing in 2008, they were both wearing Adidas.

This, and not the tedious image of an old, worn-out dictator, were some of the emotional moments that on a subliminal level set the Adidas brand apart from all other sportswear labels in Cubans’ minds.

The interim president of Brazil, Michel Temer, publicly stated that his government does not intend to get rid of the Cuban medical program “More Doctors,” which was established by Rousseff’s government. Such assertions only demonstrate that the acting president is unaware of the surprise Cuba’s shifty ideologues have in store for him.

Perhaps he will learn the hard way that, for the island’s government, the medical missions are more than just a charitable undertaking and a very profitable enterprise. The are above all instruments of pressure that are one aspect of an aggressive foreign policy.

A commission made up of members of the Communist party, the government, the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) and local officials are touring the island of San Antonio de Maisi to brief staff at every hospital on plans for removing all Cuban health care workers from Brazil and Venezuela at a designated time and returning them to Cuba.

This action has two objectives. One is to forestall more doctors from deserting. The other and more important one is to strike a timely political blow by withdrawing the services of Cuban doctors in remote and impoverished areas.

In conversations with staff, this itinerant commission reported that Cuba receives significant subsidies by leasing out its professionals’ services as part of various overseas health care programs. But it now plans to amortize its economic losses by backing out of its agreements with Venezuela and Brazil.

Cuba is fashionable and there will always be places in the world with a profound need for health care workers. Thus the idea is to redirect Cuban medical cooperation to other countries and gradually increase health care access on the island. But not to Cubans. On April 3 the minister of health, Lina O. Pedraza Rodriquez, signed Resolution 145/2016 which allows doctors to collect up to five percent of the fees billed to foreign tourists.

Concurrently, MINSAP has released more than 200,000 dollars from the hard currency reserve on orders from the Central Committee to launch a big ad campaign that includes an untold number of printed flyers for distribution through privately owned rental homes, hotels, travel agencies (both inside and outside the island), the official Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Cuban diplomatic missions abroad and MINSAP affiliated facilities, including hospitals. It is intended to promote and sell a range of health care services that the country offers.

At the time the obvious question was, “What could be so irritating as to reduce the blood flow of someone capable of not only leading a firing squad without the slightest remorse but of also justifying it?”

Now after much effort, some payouts and access to high-level sources, the enigma has begun to take shape. As I previously noted, it is almost impossible to believe that the theft of secret material was not the result of a cyber attack. It was a calculated, premeditated act, paid for by a Canadian businessman. Though he is not now in Cuba, he is being pressured by Cuban authorities to not release or sell the information to a foreign intelligence agency. Though he himself is not currently in the country, the businessman, whose name I do not know, is being cruelly coerced because, among other things, members of his family still live on the island and are not being allowed to leave.

According to one of source, “the information is so secret that, if it came to light, it would be extremely damaging to Cuba and its leaders. It is more serious than the Number One and Number Two Cases of 1989. Never in the entire history of MININT or the former DIER (Department of Army Investigations) has such valuable information been stolen.”

The reports are troubling. It is said that there are documents implicating European intellectuals, American academics and businesspeople, and even a former president of Panama. There is also talk of a list of names of Cubans who have been forcibly “disappeared,” of covert activities carried out overseas, of regional destabilization operations, of money laundering, of the sale of Venezuelan and Panamanian visas, of the government approving trafficking operations under the more attractive guise of humanitarian aid to separated families, and of significant investments by Cuban leaders in Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico and Venezuela. 

A lot can be discerned about the robbery but not very much about the names. Internal control, intelligence, counterintelligence, military counterintelligence and CIM (Defense and National Security Commission) officials are using disinformation to obscure the identity of the Canadian businessman, the number of disgruntled military men involved in the sale of information, and the names of the colonels and general who led the operation and who remain in custody.

See:

MININT Confronts What Could Be Its Worst Challenge: Information Theft / Juan Juan Almeida

The Weighty Legacy of ‘Furry’ / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar

https://translatingcuba.com/sadistic-extravagant-and-kleptomaniac-general-gondin-juan-juan-almeida-cuba/

One very recent example happens to be talk of the town: Patricia Nuñez, an anchor on the educational channel and the current fiancée of Antonio Castro Soto del Valle, son of Fidel Castro. She recently made her debut as manager of a new Desigual store in the shopping mall of the Hotel Comodoro in Miramar.

Fashion is the new obsession among Cuba’s elite. But not even close ties to Cuba’s monarchs are enough to improve the bottom line of these luxury clothing brands. Having a presence in Cuba can certainly be an added plus, albeit a costly one. Economically speaking, the thrill of being on the island mainly results in huge and continuous losses.

The government’s unpaid bills are piling up in the accounting books of these retail companies. But that is not the main reason these stores are suffering. It is due to their employees who — with a work ethic that includes criminality (specifically, handling stolen goods) — make steady money tax-free while dealing a body blow to their own employers.

Another issue is that, generally speaking, what is being sold in stores like those in the Hotel Comodoro are knock-offs imported by merchants who circumvent Cuban custom regulations, or who sell merchandise produced clandestinely by seamstresses — with or without self-employment licenses — who attach fake labels made by local artisans.

These include blouses, skirts, shirts, leggings and pants. Anything that can be purchased for a price of between five to seven convertible pesos is sold as “the real thing” at one-hundred times the original price. As a result, the legitimate stores lose while these shopkeepers win.

It is for this reason that Cuba’s well-to-do have not been seduced into buying this stuff. They have no interest in the Hotel Comodoro shopping mall.

What interests them are places like New York’s Fifth Avenue, London’s Bond Street, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Tverskaya Street in Moscow, Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Wangfujing in Beijing, Avenue Montaigne in Paris, Via Monte Napoleone in Milán, P.C Hooftstraat in Amsterdam and Madrid’s Serrano Street.

Why? Because for them, as well as for those who talk so much about sacrifice and revolution, the shopping experience at these places far exceeds the average earthling’s retail expectations, whether they live inside or outside of Cuba.

But there are fireflies who carry on in the darkness, like a friend of mine, who is an official in the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). I would like to share an email he just sent but, given his ample political, military, intellectual and popular appeal, he prefers to remain anonymous. I have not changed so much as a comma:

“April 16, 2016 will mark the start of the Cuban Communist Party Congress in Havana. Numerically it is the seventh but alphanumerically it is the last. Seven is a magical number in Egypt while it has an anal connotation in charades and in the Cuban vernacular. This is where we are. At the end of communism’s digestive tract. What emerges from this congress will be nothing more than a nebulous and fetid outgrowth.

“Unlike previous events, this one two distinguishing characteristics: an excess of secrecy and extemporization. No one seem able to answer two questions directly. What will be discussed in these sessions and why now? We can only speculate. And since speculation is the spice of politics, here we go.

“Political journalists and some observers both inside and outside the opposition are asking themselves if some ‘logical changes’ in Cuba’s direction are being devised. Vocal opponents and silent opponents, staunch supporters and timid supporters, and those of all political stripes expect nothing of the sort. These supposed logical changes, the necessary reforms, require a mental flexibility that Raul Castro and his cronies do not have. To confuse the undeniable skill that Cuba’s leaders have shown in holding onto power as a sign of Realpolitik would be a mistake.

“This congress is part of Raul Castro’s master plan. It is the next step towards the ultimate goal. To retirement. The most important matter at this event will be trying to deal with the tricky matter that socialist governments throughout the world have had to confront: the problem of succession. It is one aspect of his conspiratorial nature. He is trying to pick the gerontocracy’s successors, people with no political base, some of whom are the result of blatant nepotism. Many of them are already in place. They are the dull, shadowy figures who repeat the same old ideas that no one of their generation in Cuba believes anymore. A straightforward public rollout of these people would have led to even more discontent and disappointment in society.

“The other reason for this mysterious project is the immediate future. The general idea is to  maintain the status quo. In other words, to try to consolidate state capitalism and to capitalize on a five-decades-long hold on power. This has very little attraction for the Cuban people and would further deepen the gap that separates them from the current regime. Cuban leaders are smart enough to know that this project cannot be discussed in public because it would contribute to an increase in social unease.

“All this fits perfectly with the issue of the timing of the congress. You cannot impose new leaders and unpopular policies without suffering the consequences. It takes patience and spit, and the first glob is the congress. Before [Raul’s] permanent retirement after the general elections there will be four sessions of the National Assembly in which to implement the succession.”

It was an outstanding speech: direct, clear and inspiring. He captivated us when he said, “ I can’t force you to agree, but you should know what I think. I believe that every person should be equal under the law. Every child deserves the dignity that comes with education, and health care and food on the table and a roof over their heads. I believe citizens should be free to speak their mind without fear, to organize and to criticize their government, and to protest peacefully, and that the rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions of people who exercise those rights. I believe that every person should have the freedom to practice their faith peacefully and publicly. And, yes, I believe voters should be able to choose their governments in free and democratic elections.”

He later sweetened the sentiment with classic and well-known references to Cuban culture like ropa vieja, Celia Cruz, exile and Our Lady of Charity.

Cubans like myself — those who were born and grew up with the revolution and long expected an invasion by strong, blond Americans in camouflage fatigues, brandishing guns in one hand — were amazed. I do not know if that is the right word. But within one minute of his reference to one of Jose Marti’s most beautiful and famous poems, “Cultivo una rosa blanca,” this skinny little guy — with charisma to spare — demolished the myth that for years had been fabricated, inculcated and exported by our leaders.

Obama seduced. He clearly scored with his visit to Havana but, like it or not, so did Raul Castro. A few days before the start of the VII Cuban Communist Party Conference on April 16 and months before his long anticipated retirement in February 2018, a U.S. president visited the island without Cuba’s leader having to make a single concession.

I understand that an abundance of passion can cloud one’s vision. We have imagined an oasis where there is only desert. This is called a mirage.

At no point did I see Raul Castro looking uncomfortable, as some of my countrymen have claimed.

I believe that his arrogant response to the requisite (and anticipated) question on political prisoners was a very bad move by the Cuban president to stall for time. But at this point in the tournament, even a few seconds count. His cynical closing shot — “give me the list and I will release them” — made it very clear that “on the plantation, he is in charge.”

Rather than an out-of-control dictator, what I saw was really an octogenarian clown with hearing problems. It was the same situation during Obama’s speech at the theater. Assuming they were following the rules of protocol, the president hosting the event would have known in advance what his guest would say.

A close friend of mine says his sources in Cuba have told him that the former commander-in-chief is upset with Raul over Obama’s visit. I don’t buy it. If the ex-omnipresent one is complaining, he must be because no one has changed his Pampers. This development is one he had long hoped for, especially after an unfortunate event during a visit to Europe for a funeral.

Acknowledged for his incomparable skill at managing crises, albeit immodestly, Fidel Castro would have used the attacks in Brussels to his advantage. To gain attention, he would have declared three days of mourning in solidarity with the Belgian victims, discredited Obama’s meeting with Cuban dissidents, suspended the baseball game with the American team when it looked like the Cubans would lose and stolen the show. In this way he would have diminished the significance of the president’s visit to “his island.”

“In politics, it is all about production values, like the Rolling Stone’s outdated concert.

The only person with whom he can cooperate to guarantee some sort of immunity is His Holiness the Pope.

Unlike in journalism, what is important in politics is what you don’t see.

Let’s take a look at recent events. In the past year the president of France, the prime minister of Italy, the president of Austria and now Barack Obama have passed through Havana. In the midst of all the comings and goings of important and elegant visitors, the Paris Club wrote off part of Cuba’s external debt.

It would be logical to think that all this is the result of some great negotiation, especially since we know that the Paris Club does not give away four billion dollars without some kind of agreement.

Tourism in Cuba has grown by more than 20%. Havana is filled with visitors while both profits and remittances are increasing. Clearly, there is a lot of money coming into the country yet the streets are disgusting, street lamps are non-existent, stores go unstocked and people are broken.

Where is all this money going?

A good part is being siphoned off to create a large fund to support the royal family and its retinue of bodyguards in retirement.

The well-publicized battle against corruption allows the general to consolidate the funds into a single treasure chest while at the same time eliminating a certain number of “corrupt” individuals whom he could not trust.

Based on information they had, these individuals accused officials of dishonesty. They had either followed the trail of misappropriated funds or knew where they were ultimately being directed. Rather than being corrupt officials, they became the incarcerated elite.

Such was the case of Thomas Lorenzo, former director of credit card sales at BICSA, a man whose crime was never larceny. His transgression lay in the way he handled information, which is perhaps why he ended up dying in prison.

Another portion of the money is being used to pay creditors and, by paying, gain their confidence and  protection. Russia, China and the Paris Club shelled out because there were demonstrations of an intent to pay and those actions warranted debt forgiveness.

The next person to visit Havana will be the recently elected president of Argentina, who has already warned his country that he will also commute part of the debt.

The strategy is effective but dangerous. It is very similar to the one used Nicolae Ceausescu before he was shot. He tightened Romania’s belt in an effort to begin paying down the country’s debts but his timing was bad. Misery had overtaken the country. It was 1989, the winds of freedom were blowing and the rest is history.

The only thing the general’s ingenious plan lacks is a successor capable of keeping him away from those like me who are always lurking. It should someone who is a loyal apprentice but not, in my opinion, his son. Or Miguel Diaz-Canel. No doubt we will begin to get some idea in the coming days after new appointments are announced during the upcoming VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Raul Castro did not lead the delegation greeting this important visitor upon his arrival in Cuba. Instead we saw Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla and other lesser government officials in his place. I am not saying this is a serious breach of diplomatic protocol, but in fact it is a rather vulgar response given all the efforts at reconciliation made by the United States.

Obama laid a wreath at the monument to Cuba’s national hero, Jose Marti. Afterwards, it was also very odd to see Prince Alejandro at the first meeting between the two heads-of-state in place of any of the country’s vice-presidents.

While these types of actions may not follow protocol, they can be explained. At the moment the Cuban government is facing a less than full-blown state of emergency. It is in a state of mobilization, a state of war in a time of peace, and not because of the rarity of a visit by an American president. Not at all. It is because things back at the palace are not going well. The post of interior minister is vacant because the recently appointed Carlos Fernandez Gondin was involuntarily removed from office under suspicious circumstances.

Given the current situation and in compliance with some bogus article not found in the nation’s constitution, the country now finds itself under the control of the Commission for Defense and National Security, directed by none of other than the prince, Alejandro Castro.

Though Obama arrives in Havana on March 20, arbitrary arrests continue and we see only the most minimal progress on the issue of human rights and respect for basic liberties.

Although many of our fellow citizens do not want to acknowledge it, or do not understand it, one thing is clear: The agenda of the President of the United States extends far beyond the borders of one island.

Fifty-years of conflict have produced no significant results, so Washington and Havana have decided to stop being each other’s worst enemies and to become respectful neighbors instead.

I do not know why they could not see it before. It has been a constant throughout history. The Greeks and Romans were always inventing new and ingenious ways to gain influence with their rivals.

Confrontation only works when there is a lot to be gained. Perhaps that is why a few hours before his arrival surveys indicate that Barack Obama is more popular on the  streets of Havana than George Clooney.

In fact, Raul Castro is not pleased by all the enthusiasm surrounding his visitor.

His press kit has always been divided into two parts. One is aimed at Cuba and Cubans. The other is aimed at his principal target audience, international public opinion, which has involved garnering favorable newspaper and magazine headlines for one’s own benefit.

With more than 2,400 arrests in the first months of this year, the rhetoric that Cuba and Cubans hear remains an eternal constant: We will change, we will continue to repress, we have the power, the country is my ranch and its businesses are run by my soldiers, the Yanks won’t even put up a fight.

For those beyond the front door, for the world, the message is clear and needs no further clarification: You can be a dictator, you can repress, you can enjoy the earnings generated by properties you have illegally seized from the United States and your reward will be a visit from the president of the United States.

But beyond its swaggering, troglodyte bravura, the Castro leadership is relying on Pepto Bismol.

These days, the island’s government is trying to behave harmoniously, maintaining a demure posture in response to American attempts at reconciliation.

Forced to abandon its long-held image of David against Goliath, it has ordered various faithful lieutenants to inform businesses and ministries — in no uncertain terms — that workers need not abet or attend public events where President Obama will be present.

I was told by an employee at the Cuban Export-Import Corporation, a man who is a current official and former officer in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, “They are telling us is it not important to go and greet Obama, that we can see the events better on television, that everything will be very formal, without a lot of fanfare.”

Message received. Over and out!

Motivated by insolvency and economic uncertainty, the country’s top leaders and their managers have decided to make some changes. The chosen option is to sell the island to the highest bidder. I am talking about bidders of the highest caliber — an essential requirement — who are interested in breaking into the Cuban market. I am not criticizing them. This is how things have been done since the beginning of time, by setting aside one’s principles. It’s called politics.

It is no secret that Cuban leaders are desperately looking for foreign capital to prop up the country’s fragile economy. And with the untimely collapse of its principal ally, Venezuela, Cuba has become very interested in a range of business opportunities.

The government is offering a range of investment options in projects totaling 8.7 billion dollars. But the key component to be auctioned off, on which only the largest American investors can bid, is known as Project Ramon. It involves destroying a small local beach and converting it into an exclusive tourist resort catering to a very few.

This new ecological disaster is being forged in Ramon de Antilla, an undeveloped peninsula of extravagant beauty located in the town of Antilla, north of Holguin. Nineteen kilometers long, it separates two important bodies of water: the Bay of Banes and the Bay of Nipe.

Located very near the idyllic Saetia Key, the site boasts innumerable natural attractions. In addition to beautifying the area and serving as a breeding ground for sparrow hawks, grassquits, red-billed tropicbirds, multi-colored land snails, reptiles and exotic insects, local residents insist that its mangroves and forests also harbor the treasure trove and ghost of the feared English pirate William Hastings.

The economic crisis and expectations for change in Cuban society have led the regime of Raul Castro to open the gate. And with the tax receipts such a mixed-use development could generate, the project’s planners are hoping to attract significant investment, much greater than what went into building the Varadero resort. Project Ramon is so ambitious that the hope is will become Cuba’s biggest tourist draw.

(According to one headline, “Raul Castro’s Grandson Expels a Spanish Investor from Cuba.”) He can do as he likes without suffering any repercussions.

But there is a huge difference between those who have power and those, like him, who only have access to those who have power. And for the record, this is not just a play on words.

Some time ago I wrote a short profile entitled “Raul Castro’s Racist Grandson.” The grandson’s Paris sideshow led some people to ask me, as someone who knows all too well the cloth from which this family is cut, “What will happen in Havana after this fiasco?” Actually, nothing.

Raul Castro’s visit to France, during which some ten agreements were signed and where the Cuban president awarded his French counterpart Cuba’s highest honors, was a response to what François Hollande had effected on the island in May 2015.*

It is worth noting that Cuba’s leaders have an interest in Hollande because they need his help in securing a favorable treaty with France to restructure Cuba’s debts. Beyond exploring the prospect of new business deals, they are trying to signal to those European countries demanding greater individual freedoms and human rights in Cuba that they will have fewer opportunities than France in the new “business-oriented island.”

I will bet that, if the satirical commentary by the Gallic press and its echo on social networks got Raul and Vilma’s grandson riled up and affected relations between the Castro family and France, the French chancellery will have sent a note verbale (a diplomatic communiqué that is actually written rather than verbal) to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations in an effort to downplay the issue.

There are those well-versed in Cuban affairs who insist on placing Raul Guillermo at the forefront of possible successors to the throne of the Castro clan, a herd made up of uneducated, arrogant individuals, who are short on gray matter and ignorant of the most basic principles governing diplomatic norms, protocols and proper behavior.

*Translator’s note: In May 2015 Cuba announced an oil exploration deal with France in the Gulf of Mexico after the French president, François Hollande, made a historic visit to Cuba in which he called on the United States to end its trade embargo on the Communist-run country.