14ymedio – Page 139 – Translating Cuba

Cuba: Theft and Slaughter of Cattle Grows More Than 70 Percent in One Year in Las Tunas

During the past year there was a “notable increase” in crimes against livestock; in 2022 there were 5,305 events. (Newspaper 26)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 January 2023 — The theft and slaughter of cattle in the province of Las Tunas reached historical figures at the end of 2022, with an increase of 71% in cases compared to 2021. These facts, added to the loss of productivity due to lack of water and food for the animals, affected the production of meat and milk, according to an article published this Sunday by Newspaper 26 .

The provincial newspaper indicates that during the past year there was a “notable increase” in crimes against large livestock — such as theft, illegal slaughter or robbery with violence — which at the end of 2022 totaled 5,305 events. This meant an increase of 2,207 cases compared to the 3,098 reported in 2021, and two times more than in 2020, when there were 2,394.

The municipalities of Las Tunas, Jobabo and Majibacoa concentrated most of the crimes, which frequently occurred due to the lack of care by private or state owners, according to information shared during a meeting between producers and authorities from the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to the article, the private sector suffered more cases of cattle thefts because it concentrates 80% of the province’s bovine mass, especially equine cattle that are easier to move and are used for various production or consumption purposes. “Activity that deteriorates several productive indicators such as the collection of milk and beef, with its consequent impact on the nutrition of children and pregnant women, fundamentally,” the newspaper says.

Official data shows that the crimes did not stop, despite the fact that in August 2022 the Cuban government approved new sanctions to prevent irregularities in the breeding and trade of cattle, which entails fines of up to 20,000 pesos. continue reading

In this regard, in the meeting with the producers it was highlighted that the farmers’ surveillance brigades do not work, in addition to the fact that huntsmen are needed in the dairy farms and there are several failures in the infrastructure, such as poorly constructed fences. There is also not enough security in the pens where the cows feed, which are infested with weeds, so it is common to see the animals loose on the tracks and in pastures.

Manuel Pérez Gallego, member of the Central Committee and first secretary of the Communist Party in Las Tunas, promised that the security forces will increase surveillance in the neighborhoods, as well as develop activities for the development of the sector, which in 2022 decreased by 4,400 heads of cattle due to “mismanagement and insufficient availability of water and food.”

At the meeting, the producers denounced that the modus operandi of the gangs of thieves is based on reaching the farms with threats to the ranchers and their families, and they commit the crimes with “total impunity.”

This happened in Cienfuegos this week with the murder of Yordany Díaz, a producer from Juraguá, from the Cienfuegos municipality of Abreus, who confronted a gang of thieves that was dismembering a cow that had been killed on his property. According to the neighbors, the man was “vilely beheaded” by the criminals, according to Alejo Bermúdez reporting on social networks.

In the midst of an economic crisis and scarcity, the theft of cattle has skyrocketed in recent years by groups that then sell the meat on the black market, at prices impossible for the majority of Cubans. Although the Government usually blames the producers for not monitoring their farms, the farmers claim that the uniformed officers do not provide security either and do not follow up on various cases of complaints.

The black market for beef is the final destination for many of these stolen cows, despite the fact that in 2021, and for the first time in decades, the Cuban authorities authorized ranchers to slaughter their cattle and market the meat and other derivatives. The measure sought to encourage livestock production and reduce illegal slaughter, often perpetrated by the owners themselves, but three years after this easing, animal theft has not been stopped.

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Cuban Court Revokes House Arrest of Troubadour Fernando Becquer, Who Goes to Prison

His recent stumbling block when publishing two songs on networks has finally cost Fernando Bécquer imprisonment. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2023 — The Cuban singer-songwriter Fernando Bécquer has been confined in a penitentiary center, according to a statement published this Thursday by the People’s Provincial Court of Havana. The singer-songwriter was serving a penalty of “3 years and 4 months of limitation of freedom” (household) for sexual abuse.

According to the statement, Bécquer “recently committed serious acts that flagrantly and notoriously fail to comply with the requirements of good conduct and respect for the rules of social coexistence” to which he was obliged and “had been previously warned.” For this reason, the Popular Municipal Court of Centro Habana, on January 10, issued a new resolution in which it established that the troubadour “will comply with the sanction imposed in an internal regime in a penitentiary establishment.”

The change in sentence was also reported this Thursday by the official affiliate Qva en Directo, which, with the testimony of “neighbors” of the building where the troubadour lives, confirmed that the sanction had been “reconsidered” and Bécquer was transferred to a “prison center.”

A day earlier, the activist Marta María Ramírez demanded transparency in the case by posting on Twitter that “several sources point” to the “imprisonment” of Bécquer on January 10 “after violating feminists in networks, in breach of the sentence.”

The Bécquer case began last December 2021, when the independent magazine El Estornudo published a report with testimonies from five young people who accused the musician, in a very detailed way, of different episodes of abuse between 10 and 20 years ago. continue reading

The singer-songwriter, known for his affinity with the regime and for his multiple connections with the artists closest to power, denied the accusations at that time and described them as “slander.” “I don’t believe in anything, I believe in the Revolution,” he insisted at the end of a concert in Havana. Months later, some thirty women joined the complaints with their testimonies.

Last Tuesday, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) denounced the singer-songwriter for the misogyny of the lyrics of two songs that he published on his networks. The official organization then considered that the lyrics of the songs are “disrespectful, highly violent against Cuban women” and pointed out that these types of actions “are intolerable and must be denounced and punished for constituting hate messages.”

The FMC, by expressly naming the troubadour, considered that the songs are not only evidence of the machismo that persists in society, but that they constitute a “mockery of justice” coming from a man who has been found “guilty of sexual violence.” However, at the moment when the complaints of the abuses began to come to light, the mass organization issued a message of support to those affected without citing the musician and said that “guiding and accompanying the women in each process has been a priority.”

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A Depressed Employee Among Empty Shelves, a Reflection of Cuba’s Misfortune

The Pan-American Store at Boyeros and Camagüey, in Havana, this Monday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 16 January 2023 — A few years ago, through one of those entertaining TED conferences that spread like wildfire on social networks, Barry Schwartz popularized the expression “the paradox of choice” which can be summed up as follows: choosing between too many options produces paralysis and dissatisfaction, which can cause a kind of very negative stress in modern industrial societies.

None of this will happen to the customers of the Panamericana store on Rancho Boyeros and Camagüey avenues, in Havana, where the shelves looked almost completely empty this Monday.

“How come it’s like this!” a surprised customer remarked — one of the very few in the store which requires payment in freely convertible currency (MLC). An employee responded, sighing with resignation: “Do you see how it is? The last time there was a more or less decent assortment here was in December and we’ve been like this ever since.” continue reading

On the shelves there were hardly any very expensive products that people do not usually buy, such as beef that is unaffordable to the average Cuban, or Christmas munchies at 16 MLC, or the occasional wrinkled and expensive package of beans.

Gone are those images of the establishment in which the refrigerators looked full and the lines at the door stretched four blocks. That was in July 2020, just after the Government announced the sale of food and toilets in MLC, a measure harshly criticized by the population, a large part of which does not have access to foreign currency.

Although a year later the same market, one of the largest in the capital along with Cuatro Caminos, in Centro Habana, and 3rd and 70th, in the municipality of Playa, was in crisis due to shortages, it cannot be compared to its present state. .

“There’s nothing, this is stripped, let’s go,” a couple commented among themselves.

To explain the “paradox of choice” there are scientific studies that speak, for example, of the damage of an “overload of alternatives” in the brain if there are many options to choose from. Thanks to the Revolution, the Cubans’ brains are safe.

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‘If You Go to Cuba, Don’t Get Your Hopes Up Too Much,’ Canadian Tourists are Warned

The Canadian market is one of the main sources of income for the sector at a time when the country is in an economic recession. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 12 January 2023 — Some 160 passengers landed this Wednesday in Varadero from Canada with the low-cost airline Swoop, which inaugurated its routes from Toronto to the Island. The news has been reported with optimism in the official press, which aspires to recover the market that has attracted the most tourists in recent decades, but it comes just one day after a consumer organization from the Canada recommended not having very high expectations when traveling to Cuba on vacation.

All inclusive in Cuba: don’t get your hopes up, is the title of the article published Tuesday by Protegez-vous, an association belonging to International Consumer Research and Testing whose members investigate and advise consumers on all kinds of goods and services. In it, they ask those who choose to spend their vacations on the Island to be aware that they must choose five-star hotels if they are looking for the quality they would get for a four-star hotel in Mexico or the Dominican Republic, although even that option does not guarantee that they will find it.

“If a person tells me that eating well is a priority for them, I don’t recommend Cuba,” Annie-France Lambert, from the Voyages Simon Pelletier agency, told the association. The specialist explains to her compatriots that the bulk of the tourists that the island received were Russians and Canadians, but with the plummeting of Russian clients after the war in Ukraine, the lack of income is evident in food services, even in the best hotels.

“With tourist income in Cuba cut by almost half, there is a direct impact on the quality of services and food,” she says. “There won’t necessarily be any seafood and you may be without wine, alcohol or soft drinks for a few days,” Lambert continues. Her recommendation is not to expect the great luxuries you’ll find in other Caribbean destinations if you don’t pay “a great price.” continue reading

The article also warns of how complicated it can be to get the money refunded if the client is not satisfied. “Unless the travel agent has omitted or misrepresented some information, the consumer doesn’t have much recourse,” says Moscou Côté, president of the Quebec Association of Travel Agents (AAVQ) and manager of the Voyages Constellation agency.

To request compensation, it is necessary to demonstrate that the services do not correspond to what was promised verbally or in the written contract. “For example, a client could not ask for compensation for considering that the food served was not good if they had been warned before their trip of its poor quality.”

Lambert also details that the compensation by the agency is proportional in case of agreement. “If, for example, we told the client that there was a seafood restaurant and there was not, we compensate the damage at its fair value, that is, one meal of 21 in a stay of one week,” she explains. The compensation can be in cash or on a future trip, although if the parties do not agree, it will be necessary to file a claim in court.

Those consulted for the article also explain how to cancel the trip, something that will only be allowed if you have insurance or a clause that allows it. If not, it is possible to exchange it for a more expensive destination, specifies Côté.

Lambert for her part recommends that, for those who persist in going to Cuba despite the warnings, it is best to be realistic: “Go without having too many expectations, the disappointments will be less. That is what we usually say!”

Swoop’s new flights seem to stray slightly from scenarios like these. The airline does not force you to buy a complete travel package, with hotel and other expenses included, so it makes it easier to go to rental houses or other options, although the recommendations for consumers would be, in this case, even more necessary, since access to a certain quality of food or other elements is complicated.

Swoop Airlines will fly three times a week to Varadero from Toronto, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and is the 16th company to choose the Juan Gualberto Gómez airport. A few weeks ago, the authorities blamed the bad tourism figures this year – which until December totaled just over 1.3 million travelers compared to the 1.7 then expected and the 2.5 projected at the beginning of the year – on delays of the airlines to return to the Island, although the flights have been taking place for a year now, after the worst of the pandemic.

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Cuban Bakers’ Challenge: Making Bread from Low-Quality Yeast and Flour

“Making bread is not like frying an egg. It requires time because the production process relies on technology.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2023 — Bread bakers in Sancti Spiritus must plan for blackouts and, though wood-fired ovens would solve their problems, they do not see this as a realistic option and are more inclined towards solar panels. This was made clear by an article in the state-run newspaper Escambray about the poor quality of bread in the province, a recurring issue that producers attribute to months of prolonged power outages which have hampered production.

Though the worst of the crisis seems to be over for now, the article’s final paragraph alludes to another, future crisis. “There is the possibility that weather events could occur that would cause a total or partial disruption of electrical power in our province,” says Manuel Hung Varela, deputy technical director of the Provincial Food Company.

He believes renewable energy in the form of solar panels could help bakeries maintain a consistent level of production. “This should be the plan going forward because going back to wood-fired ovens is not the solution for the type of high-volume bread production that our company is currently planning for,” he concludes.

Because of its geographic location, Sancti Spiritus is not particularly susceptible to phenomena such as hurricanes, so one assumes he is referring to a different type of electrical disaster. This infers protection against another seemingly endless energy crisis. continue reading

Hung Varela indicates that electricity is essential not only for baking but also for kneading. At companies like his, where bread is produced in volume, kneading by hand is not feasible. “Bread production involves three basic steps: making the dough, letting the dough rise and finally baking it. A wood-fired oven could solve the [baking] problem because it would not use electricity. However, the first two steps would be complicated. The dough would have to be made by hand, which only works if you’re talking about small amounts of bread, not when bread must be produced in large quantities. As for the rising, this is also a difficult without electricity,” he points out.

Bread producers believe the worst of the 2022 electrical crisis is behind them. During that period the province experienced planned blackouts that were scheduled to last four to six hours but which in reality went from more ten to a record fourteen hours. Lines of disgruntled customers queuing for bread grew dramatically as production became nearly impossible,

“Making bread is not like frying an egg. It requires time because the production process relies on technology,” production specialist Danay Arruez tells the newspaper.

Yuslén Oliva Gomez, deputy director of production at one a provincial food company, does not shy away from the question about the quality of raw materials. As she explains, Cuban flour is not ideal if the goal is to produce a quality product.

“To make a good bread, you need a hard or semi-hard flour with a gluten content above 25%. Flours, like the domestically produced ones we usually get, are 20% or 18%. These do not produce a high-quality bread. Yeasts are living microorganisms. These are also sometimes of pour quality so the bread doesn’t rise, doesn’t expand, doesn’t grow in volume. It remains flat and looks bad,” she explains.

She rejects the use of flour made from yucca or rice because they result in bad bread. She points out, however, that there are standards that dictate precisely how much of these can be added as “extenders” and with which breads have been made with very good results. The same applies to oil, which does not have an significant impact on flavor. The root of the problem, she insists, is the poor quality of yeast and wheat flour. Then there is the condition of the ovens.

“Most of the ovens in our bakeries are electric. Ovens with twelve electrical resistors are operating on only six or eight. And what we used to be able to bake in twelve minutes now takes thirty-six,” she complains. There is also the problem of heat being distributed unevenly, resulting in loafs in which some parts are raw while others are overbaked.

Ovens, which have been overused for twenty years, were designed to bake 12,500 loaves but currently handle more than twice that. And there are no spare parts.

Nevertheless, she says that things could be worse, noting that other provinces have gone without bread for periods up to four days while Sancti Spiritus has gone without for only two. She also adds that quality has recently improved though individual loaves can sometimes weigh less, which is not legally allowed. “Although the bread’s weight can be one indicator of quality, it will still be be bad if the flour is no good. But it still has to be 80 grams.” Bigger is still better.

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With Sellers but No Buyers, Prices Plummet in Cuba’s Housing Market

In the current real estate climate, prices are falling and homes remain on the market longer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 11 January 2023 — “Business has dried up,” 52-year old Victor Manuel Soto says categorically. Soto closed his real estate office in Cuba, packed his bags, left for Nicaragua and then headed to the southern U.S. border, which he recently crossed. “Almost no one is buying houses. Out of every ten properties I sold, nine belonged to owners desperate to sell.”

After prohibiting individuals from buying or selling their homes for decades, the government finally legalized such sales in late 2011. In a country where 85% of homes are privately owned, Soto and his wife suddenly saw that managing real estate transactions could be a gold mine. “My wife left her job as an accountant at a state-owned company, I left my position at the Ministry of Tourism and we began setting up our own business.”

At first they only posted houses for sale on classified ad sites dedicated to buyers’ specific interests, assuring sellers they would post their listings only on the most important digital platforms. “Later we put together a web of contacts and were able to offer a more comprehensive service, such as taking care of the required paperwork, following all the legal procedures but doing it much more quickly.

But four years ago Soto noticed that his income had started to decline dramatically. “We had fewer and fewer people who wanted to buy. Most of our clients were coming to us because they wanted to sell and wanted to do it quickly,” he says. “Currently, supply exceeds demand. Or to put it more simply, there are many houses for sale but few interested buyers.” continue reading

In the current real estate climate, prices are falling and homes remain on the market longer, with successive price reductions and sellers offering to include appliances and furniture at no extra cost. “Most of the people I knew who were in the real estate business have closed up shop and have gone into other lines of work.”

Falling prices have forced many real estate agents to quit. “A few years ago the average price per room in Havana was between 10,000 and 12,000 dollars. A three-bedroom apartment, for example, could go for $30,000 to $36,000 depending on location and building condition,” says Nicia, a self-employed real estate agent who is still active in the business.

In 2013, two years after home sales were legalized, the emerging real estate market saw 80,000 transactions according to data from the Mercantile Property and Heritage Registry, an agency of the Ministry of Justice. All indications were that the number of sales would continue to grow, or would at least remain stable.

“Now we’re seeing three and four-bedroom homes going for less than $25,000 because the owners are eager to sell to get the money they need to emigrate. And for agents or brokers, when prices get this low, we lose the ability to make money ,” she laments.

“At the peak, around 2015 or 2016, when prices were high because it had become legal to buy and sell homes in Cuba, real estate agents were making good money. But that bubble burst. Now you have to work ten times as hard to earn a buck and even then it’s not easy,” she says. “A few years ago we had a lot of foreign clients buying homes through friends or loved ones in Cuba. Now that’s happening less and less.

Nicia recalls that in March 2016, when Barack Obama visited the island, she managed to close six sales in just one month, two of them involving Cuban-American or European buyers. “There was this idea that the country would be opening up and that it was time to buy property here. But that enthusiasm has been waning. Right now, I have two houses for sale: a pair of houses that I sold just last year.”

“To sell a home, you have to find ways to entice buyers. A low price is one way but so is a house in move-in condition, or one that’s already furnished,” she points out. “The few clients I have now are looking to buy because they managed to downsize and want a place that doesn’t need any work.”

Nicia herself believes her days as a real estate agent are numbered. “I’m trying to get together the money I need to move to Spain with my two children. All three of us have Spanish citizenship but we still need a bit of money so we can start a new life there.” She is turning her business over to a cousin but, as she says, “it’s not worth very much now because the market has tanked.”

’It’s also a headache because it’s a complicated business. Many of the first licensed real estate agents were forced to shut down. I have colleagues who ended up in court for charging the client a commission.” Though the practice is illegal, buyers typically pay realtors between 10% and 25% of the total sale price.

“The tax increase on home sales was also a big blow to us,” Nicia acknowledges.” Initially, the tax rate was set at 4% for buyers’ asset or inheritance transfers and the same for sellers’ personal income. But in 2017 it went up. Now it’s determined by the house’s characteristics, such as its location and size.”

“With higher taxes, the collapse of the market itself, too few buyers and sellers who want to be paid in dollars, which they then send overseas, we’re earning less and less. Though they won’t admit it publicly, the only realtors who are surviving are those with connections to people in government or to foreigners who can afford to wait for the market to improve.

Some of these real estate startups have come up with strategies to attract buyers such as an “auction” in which the house is listed at price that can change in an online bid. Among them is Lucas Inmobiliarias, which has a large portfolio of single-family homes, mansions and farms with prices that, in most cases, exceed $100,000. So far, however, no buyer has submitted a bid on any of the four properties currently being auctioned on the company’s website.

There is no shortage of listings on the company’s website. Page after page contains photos of spacious buildings, gardens with leafy trees and even swimming pools inviting viewers to take a dip. But every month the listings reappear, accompanied each time with a price reduction. A house in upscale Miramar, which won an architectural design prize in the 1950s, was posted on the site two years ago and is still for sale.

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Havana, Without the Sunshine’s ‘Make-Up’

The man had to drain the pathway because the water “is very cold” and it’s already starting to rise higher and take away the two rubbish bins near his house. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 January 2023 — There was a warning of its arrival ever since the early hours of Saturday. From dawn onwards the gusts of wind and the cold drizzle marked the first day in 2023 in which Habaneros could be sure that a little bit of winter had indeed arrived. On the seafront avenue Malecón, the traffic continued to circulate towards the zone closest to Calle Paseo; however, in El Vedado the ingress of seawater forced the closure to traffic.

“The water’s rising fast”, a local resident complains. The man had to drain the pathway because the water “is very cold” and it’s already starting to rise higher and take away the two rubbish bins near his house. The flooding is bad news for someone who spends hours waiting in a nearby shop to buy the sausages and picadillo [ground meat]that had finally arrived after weeks of delay.

A grey Havana with winds and temperatures below 20C is much less frequently photographed and written about than when there are blue skies and the sea’s like a millpond — which is how it’s seen in the paintings sold to tourists and in all the travel agents’ publicity photos. Talking of cold fronts: sometimes you might see pictures of the waves which crash over the sea wall of the Malecón or of the sea’s assault against the Morro lighthouse, but much less often will you see pictures of the murkiness that sticks to the city — a city where these cold fronts have switched off the colours.

The cracks in the walls seem wider, the holes in the roads deeper, and the people smaller, dressed in overcoats several sizes too big or in threadbare jackets. When the mercury falls, the city takes on a certain sincerity, because without the sun’s “make-up”, all of its shadows begin to emerge.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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In Cuba, ‘There Isn’t Any’, Period.

“There isn’t any”, it read. And that was it. No explanation, and no telephone number to ring. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 January 2023 — In Havana it’s normal to find signs all over the place, offering articles or services. Written by hand, more often than not with spelling errors on an old scrap of cardboard with stains on it — from which one deduces it’s at the end of its useful life — these signs announce all those things which are difficult to find in the state-run shops. The most common one is for the sale of ice, but also many other things — as long as it doesn’t lead to problems with the authorities — from mouse poison to apartments, from plumbing services to fumigation.

One of these signs, attached to a balcony in the Havana district of Cayo Hueso, caught the attention. “There isn’t any”, it read. And that was it. No explanation, and no telephone number to ring. “There isn’t any”, as if that covered just about anything and everything, encapsulating in one brief phrase the entire state of the country. There isn’t any gas, there isn’t any bread, there isn’t any chicken, there isn’t any sugar, there isn’t any ham, there isn’t any transport, there isn’t any freedom. In Cuba, there isn’t any. Period.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Bringing in Cuban Teachers is ‘Ideological Interference’ Denounces the Honduran Opposition

Cuba replicates in Honduras its Yo Sí Creo literacy program, criticized by the opposition for political interference. (Education secretary)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2023 — The National Party of Honduras (PNH) described the hiring of 123 Cuban professionals in Education by the Government of Xiomara Castro as ideological interference. The opposition denounced that the objectives are “doubtful” and questioned the lack of transparency in the disclosure of the terms of the contracts.

The Honduran government signed a three-year agreement with the Cuban Ministry of Education on December 27 to “refound” the educational system of the Central American country. In a statement by the PNH bench, published on January 5, it was pointed out that this alliance is “opaque, not very transparent and with dubious pedagogical objectives.”

The bench questioned why the Cuban teachers will travel to the 298 municipalities, if the Honduran Ministry of Education assures that the professionals will only “advise” the ministerial cabinet. “This is illogical,” it clarified, at the time that it insisted that the doubts of different sectors of society “are obvious.” “There are many demands from Latin American countries about Cuba’s political and ideological presence on the continent, which uses health and education as a pretext for its purposes,” it added.

For the opposition party, there are enough pedagogues and teachers “with enormous experience” who can support the Ministry of Education to promote an efficient program to eradicate illiteracy, which affects 12% of the Honduran population. Also questioned was the fact that the Honduran government has not disclosed the profiles of Cuban professionals on its transparency portal when there is a history of “shady agreements” between the “dictatorial and repressive regime” of Havana in countries of the region, such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil. continue reading

In its position, it concluded that the “Honduran people must be alert to stop Cuba’s interference.” “The 40 million (lempiras, equivalent to 1.6 million dollars) that the Government says will be allocated to pay the Island for the teachers should be an investment in hiring national teachers and repairing the educational infrastructure.”

The Tegucigalpa authorities have defended the agreement arguing that [Cuba’s] is one of the “best” educational systems in the world and that it will allow Honduras to achieve an equal one, “universal, inclusive, participatory, secular and scientific,” according to a promotional video published on government networks after the signing of the memorandum.

Before this agreement, Cuba and Honduras had another agreement to advise the national literacy plan, known as “Yo Sí Puedo” [Yes I can], which generated a wave of criticism from the opposition. The Honduran Vice Minister of Education, Edwin Hernández, insisted in August 2022 that the Cuban professionals will not give classes and will only dedicate themselves to developing the program, whose beginnings date back to the administration of former President Manuel Zelaya.

With the coming to power of Xiomara Castro, Zelaya’s wife, there were new rapprochements between her government and Cuba. In July 2022, a memorandum of understanding was signed to strengthen bilateral relations between the two nations, which opens the doors to “traveling on new paths” of collaboration in the fields of science, technology, literacy, and the exchange of scholarships, the Honduran Minister of Foreign Relations, Eduardo Enrique Reina said at the time.

The export of professional services – above all, doctors and teachers – is the main source of foreign currency for the Government in Havana, which has been the subject of numerous complaints from international organizations for appropriating most of the wages of its aid workers sent abroad.

The most recent data on the international missions of Cuban teachers dates from 2013, when there were 2,326 teachers placed in different countries. The largest group was in Venezuela, with 423, followed by Equatorial Guinea, with 221, and Angola, with 219.

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Cuba: State Employees in Holgun Don’t Receive Their Salaries Due to a Lack of Money in the Banks

Among the most affected are the employees of Education and Public Health. (Municipal Directorate of Education of Holguín)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 13 January 2023 — State workers in the province of Holguín are experiencing delays in the collection of their monthly salaries. Among the most affected are the employees of Education and Public Health who have not been able to receive their salaries due to lack of cash in the banks, according to testimonies collected by 14ymedio.

“Several state companies have not been able to get the money,” laments an employee linked to the Ministry of Internal Commerce in the city of Holguín. “When my company’s economics officer contacted the bank, they told him that at the moment the payment cannot be made because they do not have enough cash.”

“This is a very sensitive time of the year because we have just come out of all the Christmas celebrations and people are short,” acknowledges the employee. “People spent what they had and what they did not have to try to guarantee dinner on December 31 and now the news comes that the payments are going to take time. How are we going to hold out until the money arrives?”

Some workers have suggested that their salary be put on their magnetic card, associated with a bank account where the salary is deposited, in order to be able to carry out at least electronic operations such as paying for electricity or others for which it is not necessary to withdraw cash, but the proposal has not received a positive response.

“You cannot pay in cash or with a deposit on the card because in any case if they go to the bank they will not be able to extract that money. We have to wait for the Banco de Crédito y Comercio (Bandec) to notify us that we already have the deposit to start pay the payroll,” emphasizes the accountant of a Credit and Service Cooperative in Holguin, also affected by the lack of money. continue reading

According to her account, up to now the civilian workers of the Armed Forces and also of other official dependencies have been able to be paid, but the most serious problems are the personnel of Education and other ministries that have a large volume of workers and who pay them at the same time. “In those sectors, there are those who should have been paid at the end of last year and still haven’t been able to,” she asserts.

Some state workers have had better luck, such as those from Telecristal, the local telecentre, who managed to collect their salaries, but “it was almost a stroke of luck,” admits an employee of the institution who preferred anonymity. “I was able to be paid, but my husband, who works in another company of the Ministry of Agriculture, has been put off for days.”

Some state agencies in the province have been able to access the salaries of their workers, as is the case of Tabacuba, whose payments were made around January 4. The payment dates vary between entities and especially if they are permanent workers, by contract or by agreement.

The lack of cash is not a something new and the Banco de Crédito y Comercio itself was forced to report, half a year ago, that it had run out of Cuban pesos to load into ATMs in some cities in eastern Cuba.

At that time, the Bandec authorities attributed the problem to the lack of high denomination bills and excused themselves, among other reasons, for the “coincidence of salary payments” in almost all the companies in the eastern part of the country.

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New Houses in a Ruined Neighbourhood for Victims of the Hotel Saratoga Explosion

The new houses for victims of the Hotel Saratoga explosion stand out among their surroundings. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 12 January 2023 – The residents who lived in the buildings at Zulueta 508 and 512 adjacent to the Hotel Saratoga have gone from having one of the best views in the capital to a view of the ruins which surround their new homes. After the tragedy on 6 May 2022, which caused them to lose their homes when the historical luxury building exploded due to a gas leak, those affected are now going to have a roof over their heads again, but the good news ends there.

On Avenida de España, better known as Calle Vives, between the streets of Carmen and Figuras, there are eight new houses which have been given to some of the victims of the Saratoga explosion, in which 47 people lost their lives. According to the official press, the buildings are “almost ready” and their new occupiers “may help in the finalisation of electrical details”.

Tribuna de La Habana published the news on Wednesday, detailing that in the houses they have used a system of ’formwork’ known as FORSA, for which they use precast concrete, and there’s a cistern for guaranteeing the water supply. “This Wednesday marks another day for demonstrating that with constancy, organisation and control, any target can be reached”, concludes the extremely short article, surrounded by close-up photos of the new buildings.

But you only need to zoom out a little bit to see the future occupants’ new reality. The surrounding houses are on the point of collapse, if they haven’t collapsed already, and there’s a stench which fills the streets of a district which, despite being in Old Havana, lacks any attractive features and hardly any tourists venture there. continue reading

Whereas before, they only needed to step outside of their homes to find themselves just a few metres from the restored Capitolio, the Brotherhood Park, the main taxi rank in the city, or the shops on Calle Monte and the restored areas around the hotels near to Central Park — now, their surroundings are much less pleasant.

As a street which takes you to Havana’s Central Railway Station, Calle Vives once had its fashionable heyday, due particularly to a constant flow of rail travellers and merchandise. However, with the passage of time this area suffered a deterioration of its building stock — via a decline in the Island’s rail system — and a disdain shown to it by plans for restoration of the Historic Centre, which have left this part of the city forgotten.

Now more of a neighbourhood with a bad reputation, Atarés lies among some of the the least valued districts of Old Havana, and not only because of its wrecked buildings and its potholed streets and its puddles of sewage water, but also because of its frequent problems in the water supply, which forces many residents to bring water in from other areas.

On one corner, a man selling chopos hesitates when a buyer asks him if they’re over-spicy. “Doesn’t matter — the customer concludes — I’ll have to eat them anyway, ’cause I don’t have anything else”. All the passers-by are residents of this forgotten corner of Havana, where the poverty feels even worse when compared to the more privileged area from where its new neighbours are about to arrive.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Garbage Collection in Cuba: From Creative Resistance to Desperate Patch

“Many containers have lost their hitch and we had to get working to solve it because otherwise it would be more work for us.” (14 and a half)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 January 2022 — The rattle of the Community Services trucks has people climbing sidewalks to make way for the giant. Two men get out and push a garbage container cracked on its sides. Among flies and shouts, customers waiting to shop at the Plaza de Carlos III see the garbage bin rise, embraced by an improvised cloth band and drop the waste inside the truck. “Tremendous invention!” ironically exclaims one. “That is the creative resistance that [Cuban president] Díaz-Canel is talking about,” another mocks.

The trick is more desperate than artifice. “Many containers have lost their coupling and we had to get up to do something because otherwise it would be more work for us,” laments one of the workers from the State company who carries one of these bands in case he needs them. “Without this, part of the garbage would fall on top of us when we lift the container or we would have to use shovels to throw it into the truck. Nobody wants to work in these conditions, but it is what it is.”

For decades, Cuban authorities have boasted of the achievements of the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers (ANIR), an entity that seeks to inventively solve the problems of supplying spare parts. But behind the praise, when an employee replaces an imported gear with one made on a domestic lathe or repairs complex foreign machinery with wire and old tubes, there is more desperation than ingenuity. continue reading

“First we had to invent a soyuz (coupler) to be able to use the garbage trucks donated by Japan with these containers because they were not compatible”

“First we had to invent a Soyuz (coupler) to be able to use the garbage trucks donated by Japan with these containers because they were not compatible,” Walfrido, a former garbage collection truck driver, explained to 14ymedio. Last April, the state worker was blunt when he defined the “little blue ones”: “They are not just bad, they are very bad.” After a few months, the original Soyuz was useless because, in most cases, the latching mechanism of the tanks broke.

When the azulitos (little blue ones) began to appear on Havana street corners a few years ago, they had that air of novelty that had many believing that the garbage problem in the Cuban capital was going to be solved. But the poor quality of these waste bins soon began to be noticed and was fatally combined with the looting that their less colorful cousins have always been subject to but have also ended up torn to pieces or disappeared in the streets of the Island.

“The pay is low, the salary is not enough for hardly anything and the working conditions are very difficult, but if the daily norm is not met then they are paid much less,” Walfrido details. “Now these bands have been devised, tomorrow we will have to use something else, and the day will come when the garbage will be collected all over Havana with a bulldozer if things continue like this,” he laments. While the “creativity” is provided by the Communal Services employees, the challenge falls onto the residents of the city, who will have to live with more mountains of waste.

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Prisoners Defenders Reports More Than 11,000 Cubans are in Prison for ‘Pre-criminal’ Convictions

Every year, says the organization, an average of 3,850 people are sentenced from 1 to 4 years in prison for pre-criminal dangerousness. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 12 January 2023 — More than 11,000 people in Cuba have “pre-criminal” convictions, that is, punishment without having committed any crime, nor even attempted one. It is one of the data points that stands out from the latest report by the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD), made public this Thursday and which, once again, confirms the deplorable state of human rights on the Island.

Those thousands of convicts – “the vast majority of them are young and black,” emphasizes the Madrid-based NGO – are convicted based on article 72 of the Penal Code, in force until November, which provides for penalties “for conduct that is observed in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality.” This, denounces PD, survives in the new Criminal Code, in force since December 1, in article 434: “The competent authority of the Ministry of the Interior can officially warn anyone who repeatedly performs actions that make them prone to committing crimes or break the social and constitutional order.”

Every year, says the organization, an average of 3,850 people are sentenced to from 1 to 4 years in prison for this cause. “The mere report by the police authorities indicating ’inappropriate conduct’ allows, without any crime, summary imprisonment year after year for immediate decisions and without possible defense,” the report asserted.

The NGO registers 29 new political prisoners, “mainly in the protests that take place throughout the country, but also due to the persecution of their social networks and positions disaffected with the criminal regime in Havana.” With these, the total number of prisoners of conscience, as of the last day of 2022, was 1,057. Six came off of that list in December, some after fully served the sanction imposed, and others, for having fled the country during their prosecution. continue reading

Prisoners Defenders laments that 36 minors (31 males and 5 females) are still on the list, who are either still serving their sentence (27) or are being criminally prosecuted (9). The figure does not include “many other children” who have already left the list for having fully served their sentences, clarifies the NGO.

Prisoners Defenders dedicates space to the unstoppable exodus, “the largest recorded in the entire modern history of Cuba,” with “between 225,000 and 300,000 Cubans (close to 3% of the population in 12 months)” who have fled to different countries of the world, the vast majority of them to the United States.

The report also criticizes the regime for its “criminal alliances”: “Lacking the ideological or moral support to justify raids and barbarities against human rights, international relations and the search for illegal income lead Cuba to inevitably strengthen the bloc’s dependence on the world’s totalitarians, now led by several countries, including Russia and Iran”.

Equally, it dedicates words to the “high personalities and references of the Spanish left,” such as the artists Joaquín Sabina or Joan Manuel Serrat, who have criticized the Government of Havana in recent months, as “some of the many symptoms of ideological dismantling of a regime that has lost all ideological or moral credibility for the true European and world left.”

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A Student is in Serious Condition After the Collapse of a Wall Mural in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 10 January 2023 — Pre-university [high school] students Javier Enrique Pino Burgos and Manuel Enrique Cancio Amador have been hospitalized since January 6, after a wall mural collapsed in Sancti Spíritus and fell on top of them. Both of them, like another young man who was also injured, were taken by surprise by the incident while they were waiting for the Freedom Caravan to pass, which recreates Fidel Castro’s journey to Havana in 1959.

Cancio Amador, who suffered “multiple vertebral and lumbar fractures,” is in “serious condition,” informed the doctor Darelsy Balsaín Mencía, director of the José Martí Pérez Provincial Teaching Pediatric Hospital, speaking to the official Escambray newspaper.

Because Cancio Amador required specialized care due to the multiple trauma’s he presented, he was taken and admitted to the José Luis Miranda Provincial Teaching Pediatric Hospital in Santa Clara. Balsaín explained that the patient underwent a “nuclear magnetic resonance of the lumbosacral spine” and “traumatic herniated discs” were detected.

Due to the “fracture of the L-3 and L-5 vertebrae” presented by the student, Dr. Balsaín mentioned that in the coming weeks the Neurosurgery service of the Villa Clara Pediatric Hospital will re-evaluate the patient for possible surgical intervention.

Pino Burgos, the other injured student, had an exposed fracture of his left tibia. His extremity was immobilized with a plaster cast and “he remains admitted to the Pediatric Hospital in Sancti Spiritus, currently under care,” the doctor stressed. continue reading

Lázaro Emmanuel Cabrera Pérez, the third injured party, had a concussion, but his evolution was favorable and last Saturday he was discharged.

#The provincial director of Education in Sancti Spíritus, Andrei Armas Bravo, mentioned that the injured are tenth grade students of the Honorato del Castillo Urban Pre-University. According to his account, “a group leaned against a mural by plastic artist Alexander Hernández Chang, which is embedded in the wall and made of concrete, bricks and other heavy materials, and it collapsed.”

The director’s statement was questioned by an on-line commenter identified as Annia, who said that surely the wall was “glued with saliva because they stole the cement” and lamented the impunity towards the authorities: “Nothing is wrong with those responsible. It’s incredible.”

At the end of September of last year, the engineer Miguel Díaz Sistachs died in an accident when he was trying to place a flagpole in the José Martí Civic Square in Marianao (Havana) for the celebrations for the 61st anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).

That same month, the Guantánamo Provincial Directorate of Education confirmed the death of the girl Magalis Vázquez Gómez, a second grade student at the Amador Martínez Wilson elementary school, in the municipality of El Salvador. The Education directors argued that the minor was “hit by a signboard” during “recess hours.”

In January 2020, the girls María Karla Fuentes, Lisnavy Valdés Rodríguez and Rocío García Nápoles, about 11 years old, who were studying in primary school at the Quintín Banderas center, died after a balcony collapsed in Old Havana, between Vives and Revillagigedo streets, from the Jesus Maria neighborhood.

Neighbors of the place commented that the back of the building had begun to be demolished, but the area was not marked as would have been necessary to avoid situations like this.

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From 23 January Cuba will Require all Tourists to Complete a Digital Registration

Check-in desks at José Martí International Airport in Havana (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 12 January 2023 — Cuba will require all travellers to fill out an online form from the end of January (which will include personal and health related information) up to 48 hours before travelling, authorities on the Island announced on Thursday.

The measure was published on Thursday in the Gaceta Oficial and it will come into force from one minute past midnight on 23 January. The announcement had been made in a press conference by Rita María García, director of Aerial Transport and International Relations at the Cuban Institute for Civil Aviation.

The registration will be made on the “D’Viajeros” platform, which has been working in a test phase and which has so far been used by 1.7 million travellers.

The previous option of filing in a paper form on arrival at the airport will no longer be available. continue reading

“The filling out of forms in advance will minimise physical contact and shorten a traveller’s time in the epidemiological surveillance queue/line, which will help to avoid bottlenecks”, said Carmelo Trujillo, head of Sanitary Control at the Ministry of Public Health.

Once the form has been completed, including information about possible contacts with Covid-19 infection, the platform will generate a QR code which will be required to be shown at check-in of the airport of departure, as well as in Cuba on arrival.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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