14ymedio – Page 192 – Translating Cuba

Cuban Political Prisoner, Otero Alcantara, is Moved to a ‘Shuttered Cell and Held in Solitary Confinement’ in Guanajay Prison

The San Isidro Movement holds the Cuban government responsible for Alcántara’s physical and mental wellbeing. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, August 5, 2022–Cuban opponent, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who is being held in the maximum security prison of Guanajay, has been transferred to a “shuttered cell and held in solitary confinement,” according to a statement published by the San Isidro Movement (MSI).

During a family visit, Alcántara denounced that after determining his situation to be “risky,” the police proceeded to remove him from the cell where he was being held, which he shared with other prisoners. One of those prisoners, who is serving a 51-year prison sentence, had been instructed by State Security “to assault Luis Manuel,” according to another MSI report from July 21.

The “harassment” and “provocations” that Alcántara endured were the reason for his transfer, which occurred four days before the family visit, the activist himself explained. The statement adds that the artist has contracted dengue fever, “as have other prisoners,” and suffers from frequent “cramping in his hands and feet,” and has not received adequate medical attention.

The MSI adds that Alcántara has been subjected to physical and psychological violence not only by some of the prisoners, but also by prison agents themselves. A few days ago the artist was deprived of his drawing materials and has not been allowed to receive correspondence from activists and friends such as Katherine Bisquet, Coco Fusco or Anamely Ramos.

The San Isidro Movement concludes its statement by holding the Cuban government responsible for Alcántara’s physical and mental wellbeing, and describing the repression to which he has been subject as “the only tool the regime has to try to intimidate and coerce Cuban opponents.”

According to statements by curator Claudia Genlui on July 21st, the artist lacks any stability in jail and his situation changes constantly. Until his transfer to a communal cell, and enduring harassment by one of the other inmates, Alcántara was being punished and “unable to even access sunlight.” continue reading

That transfer was in reprisal for the hunger strike he started on July 4th. “It is evident how State Security tries to provoke a conflict in which Luis Manuel would be affected,” Genlui stated on that occasion.

Even if Alcántara tries not to confront the guards or the inmate who harasses him, the repression has increased. “His is not in a [penal] camp, he is suffering, he is subjected to torture, and his life is in danger,” added the curator.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo, founders and members of MSI were arrested last year and were tried ten months later. They received five- and nine-year prison sentences, respectively.

State Security offered both of them freedom in exchange for abandoning the country. However, Castillo as well as Alcántara declared that “leaving Cuba, as exiles, bereft of everything, is not an option.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Opponent Guillermo Farinas Returns Home After a Short Arrest

Guillermo Fariñas, leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Front, is one of the best-known Cuban opponents at the international level. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 6 August 2022 — Cuban opponent Guillermo Fariñas remained under arrest this Friday for several hours, according information from his family speaking to EFE.

Fariñas’s mother, Alicia Hernández, confirmed by phone that her son was released, after he was stopped by the police who were waiting for him nearby when he left his house. “They handcuffed him and took him away in a patrol car,” she explained.

Hernández attributed the arrest to the anniversary of the 1994 protest known as the Maleconazo.

That day, hundreds of dissatisfied people took to the streets of Havana to protest and then President Fidel Castro, now deceased, appeared to speak with some of them in front of the well-known Deauville hotel.

These were the largest protests that the country had experienced in decades, and since then were only surpassed by the protests Cuba registered on July 11, 2021.

Fariñas, 60, who has suffered multiple short duration arrests in recent continue reading

decades — was awarded the 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament.

The leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Front, Fariñas is one of the best-known Cuban opponents at the international level, particularly for his numerous hunger strikes against the Cuban system, since the first one he carried out in 1995.

The longest strike dates back to 2003, when he fasted for 14 months, and the 25th took place in 2016 and lasted 54 days to ask the government to end the repression against dissidents.

The Government of Cuba considers dissidents “counterrevolutionaries” and “mercenaries” at the service of the interests of the United States and denies that it has political prisoners in its jails.

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With Signs of ‘Freedom’ and ‘Christ, My Guide’, 108 Cuban Rafters Arrive in Florida in Two Days

On Thursday morning, 31 Cuban rafters were reported by the U.S. Border Patrol. (Twitter/@USBPChiefMIP)

14ymedio, Havana, 5 August 2022 — The exodus of Cuban rafters to the United States seems to have no limits. In just two days, on August 3 and 4, 108 people from the island made landfall in the Florida keys. The Border Patrol recorded the 12 boats in which the Cubans arrived, most of them fishermen’s boats and rustic boats, with signs of “Freedom” and “Christ, my guide.”

Several agents arrested the migrants, who were taken into custody, according to Walter Slosar, head of the border police force, on Twitter. On Thursday morning, 31 rafters arrived aboard three fishing boats, with five individuals arriving at Playa Sombrero, in Marathon, 15 at Isla Valores, in Cayos Bajos, and another 11 at Cayo Largo.

The spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s office, Adam Linhardt, indicated that this flow of rafters responds to the worsening of the humanitarian crisis on the island, with an intensification of repression and the economic crisis, which includes an increase in the cost of living, the devaluation of the Cuban peso and an increase in uncertainty about the future of the country.

On Wednesday, Officer Slosar reported the arrival of 25 rafters in a wooden boat lined with a tarpaulin, which they had adapted the engine of a vehicle that was refueled with two small drums, and in which oars were also found.

The group, coming from Artemis, was made up of three men and two women, who were placed in federal custody after a health examination. That same day, 20 more people arrived in two more rafts.

Faced with the number of landings, the Rescue Evangelical Church, based in Hialeah, used the study rooms it had available on its premises to provide shelter to the rafters. Thanks to the donations received by Pastor David Monduy, leader of the church, the dormitories have been provided with mobile showers, and other signs of support for Cubans are planned, according to Local 10 News.

Coast Guard data indicate that since October 1, 2021, crews have intercepted 3,739 Cubans.

The Cuban government insists on demanding that the Washington Administration comply with the migration agreements signed between the two countries. It attributes the increase in illegal migration to the United continue reading

States to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which allows island nationals to apply for permanent residence in the United States after a year and one day of staying in that country. In reality, not everyone who manages to cross U.S. borders can apply this regulation.

In an attempt to prevent the exodus of Cubans, Lieutenant Mario Gil of the U.S. Coast Guard invited “families and friends to encourage their loved ones to seek a safe and legal path to the United States.”

Three Cuban rafters, who were sighted five miles from Isla Pérez in the Gulf of Mexico, were rescued by the Navy.

The Cuban exodus is also carried out by other means and is subject to many penalties. On Thursday, a fishing vessel sighted a raft with several people five miles from Pérez Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, a fact that they immediately reported to the Mexican Navy. Three of the rafters had signs of dehydration and hadn’t eaten in two days. The group was handed over to Mexico’s National Institute of Migration.

On the other hand, the Central American “bridge” continues to be one of the most frequent ways to get to the United States. The official figures offered by Honduras record the passage of 44,000 people, most of them from the island, who were fined $200.

On Thursday, the official newspaper La Gaceta announced that the Honduran government published a legislative decree that exempts migrants from the payment of this fine, which applied to any migrant who entered through unauthorized border points and to whom article 104, paragraph 1, of the Migration and Aliens Law was applied.

With this suspension, the Migration Institute of Honduras also ordered that necessary humanitarian assistance be offered to migrants passing through, in addition to identifying international protection needs for those groups that are in a vulnerable situation, such as women, children, LGBTIQ+ communities and the elderly.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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There Was No Show on the First Day of Cuba’s New Exchange Rate Initiative

A line outside a currency exchange (Cadeca) in 2016, amid rumors of a reduction in the value of the Cuban convertible peso (CUC), which no longer exists. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elias Amor Bravo, Economist, 6 August 2022 — The regime’s state press was surprised to see that the first day of the new measure of foreign exchange buying by the State “passed calmly and as planned.” What did they think was going to happen? Perhaps they had imagined one of those shows that the communists like so much, with hordes of desperate citizens trying to sell their dollars or euros for whatever they could, or that at some point, even, a conflict would take place between the state entities that offer the exchange because they weren’t prepared. Anything in order to change the focus. It shouldn’t be forgotten that this exchange initiative comes at a time when Cuba is in total crisis. So no. There was no show. The measure, according to the minister who keeps pounding it in, is nothing more than “an important step in the purpose of establishing an exchange market to buy and sell foreign currency legally” to foreign visitors, the population and non-state economic actors. It was just one more day in which everything was absolutely normal on the city streets.

So the Cuban communists were left without the show and the first steps of the communist state as a buyer of foreign currency, including the US dollar in cash, of course with an exchange rate higher than that offered in the informal market, which had no reaction and, as expected, remained calm, operating efficiently as always and providing services to those who requested them.

The show was left for another occasion. Basically, because no matter how hard the authorities insist on dressing up a simple measure of authorizing currency exchanges as something relevant, it isn’t, and, best of all, this service has already been provided on a regular basis for a year and a half by people who have taken over the role of the financial system, at a time when it completely abandoned its function.

The directors of Economic Policies and Institutional Information and Communication of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) can say whatever they want and waste time with communication campaigns in the state press to try to convince people that Economy and Planning Minister Alejandro Gil’s measure “is an important step in the purpose of establishing an exchange market to buy and sell foreign currency legally to foreign visitors, the population and non-state economic actors.” It’s a waste of time, because continue reading

Cubans who need foreign exchange know where and how to get it without having to resort to the state.

So this first day of the process of exchanging currencies to the new rate with the 1×120 dollar has been normal, and it has passed without pain or glory, with the population going to carry out their currency exchange operations for cash in CUP, cash deposits on magnetic cards in CUP and cash withdrawals in CUP from foreign exchange accounts, as well as transfers from foreign currency accounts to accounts in CUP, all without large crowds or stridency despite the fact that all operations had to be carried out at windows. Everything is very quiet, and yes, by paying commissions in the form of a commercial margin that, in the informal market, many recalled, are not usually charged or are not so high.

The official press referred to the fact that the cash in Cuban pesos available in bank branches and exchange offices to meet exchanges was barely used, despite the fact that the regime had made strenuous efforts to guarantee the conditions and availability of cash in Cuban pesos in response to the advertised foreign exchange purchase service. Which, if you think carefully, is another miscalculation, because what Cubans are looking for are dollars and not Cuban pesos, which happens to be the weak currency, so that those who have dollars keep them, except in exceptional cases, waiting for their value to rise, which it will. The banks and chains were really empty this first day and will continue to be so until the sale is announced, and then we will see.

The exchange rate of 1×120 didn’t attract dollar owners. Perhaps because it isn’t the rate they deem appropriate (it stays at 110 with the commissions), or because the information from the informal market and social networks tells them that in the not-too- distant future they can achieve rates of 140 and 160. Some ads in the independent digital press already establish this rate for exchanges on credit.

The peso comes out very strong with this rate of 120, and once again, the regime will deny the obvious to Cubans, as in the Ordering Task* when it launched the 1×24 rate. It’s a shame, no matter where you look, that the regime is cornered in its exchange rate policy by a free and efficient market of supply and demand, which Cubans use satisfactorily and which is expected to continue to function, despite the veiled warnings of Minister Gil.

With no show to present to the state media, and with Cubans reserving the dollars for when the peso drops lower, the initiative of Minister Gil, who has given so much to talk about, starts off on the wrong foot, and we know what that means for the communists. They are like children who protest and make a lot of noise until they have the toy they crave, but once they get it, they forget about it and leave it in a corner of the attic. The same thing can happen here, and it would be for the best. Let them forget about the state exchange market, and let economic freedom and the informal market work. Cubans and everyone else would appreciate it.

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Are Allowed to Bring in Preserved Meats and Pasteurized Milk from Thirteen Countries

The regulation also establishes a list of prohibited products. (Customs)

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, August 3, 2022 — Cubans will be allowed to bring home canned meats and ultrapasteurized milk from as many as thirteen countries according to regulations made public on Tuesday by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The news was reported by government media outlets, which cited a memo by the ministry announcing a “relaxation” of “sanitary regulations.”

Though no mention was made regarding when the regulations are to take effect, the memo stated that “recognized retail brands” of beef, pork and poultry from Spain, Portugal, Italy, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay will be allowed into the country.

The regulations also apply to the importation of cured meats. In the case of ultrapasteurized, and evaporated milk, as well as lacto-based desserts, there are no restrictions regarding the country of origin.

The same applies to canned seafood, powdered milk and aged, pasteurized cheese.

The regulations also specify what items may not be brought into the country. These include all products derived from skeletal animals; unpasteurized milk and products derived from it; fresh, frozen and dehydrated meats; salads, with or without eggs; viscera; and prepared or partially cooked food products.

The regulations have been greeted with skepticism by consumers. Some complain that the new rules are long overdue while others argue that the practice has been going on for a long time. “Is it for commercial purposes? Then that would be a change,” quips a Cubadebate reader. continue reading

The measures were announced shortly after the publication of a resolution establishing “rules for non-commercial imports by individual persons.”

Individuals will be allowed to bring in up to five mobile phones (the previous limit was two), two electrical generators and two electrical motorcycles, or a third such motorcycle if it arrives as a cargo shipment.

Import duties will also be reduced from 100% to 30% while weight limits will be increased from ten to twenty kilograms. Additionally, the tariff on imported goods will be reduced from twenty dollars per kilo to ten per kilo.

In a recent speech to parliament, economics minister Alejandro Gil emphasized that these measures apply only to goods intended for “personal use, not of a commercial nature.” In other words, the new regulations do not allow businesses to resell those products to the public.

Motivated by the island’s food crisis as well as last year’s anti-government protests, the government has temporarily lifted tariffs on food and medicine. This measure has not escaped criticism, however, because the change will only benefit those Cubans who have relatives overseas or who have the resources to travel abroad.

Prior to 2021, many Cubans turned to so-called mules, whom they paid to bring back consumer goods from overseas packed in their luggage.

The rules were relaxed after the July 11, 2021 (’11J’) protests. The first extension was approved in December. The most recent measures took effect in May and will remain in force until December 2022.

The current rules on what an individual can bring into the country are a complex system of points and peso limits which imposes tariffs on excess items packed in an individual’s suitcase. In the case of medications, for example, a traveller is allowed to bring in up to ten kilograms duty-free.

With the goal of reducing the country’s dependence on food from overseas — Cuba imports roughly 80% of what it consumes – in May the government adopted a food sovereignty law intended to increase agricultural production. Experts doubt, however, that the new law rule will be enough to make a difference.

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Ten Dollars and Five Banks Later: a Cuban’s Dilemma in Selling His Foreign Currency

Like a monetary Eusebio Leal, I continued walking Havana up to Belascoaín and was received at the bank on the corner of Zanja by a distracted guard who didn’t even look up from his cell phone. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 August 2022 — I took to the streets of Havana with ten dollars in my pocket. A sweaty, fought-for bill, a miniature fortune in the country of bank surprises. I wasn’t forgetting the words of the Minister of Economy, serene as an executioner between the president of the Central Bank and the affirmative Randy Alonso [note: director of the State TV Roundtable program].

Wearing a tie and smartly dressed, Minister Alejandro Gil promised to exchange each of my dollars for 120 pesos, or something like that, because there would be a bite from the commission. I started walking towards Infanta wondering how many dollars Gil himself would sell, a man who claims to be always “in the concrete” and for whom “there are no magic recipes” when it comes to economics.

I arrived at the Cadeca currency exchange on Infanta, and I didn’t see any of the “talented young people” and the “professors of the academy” who enlightened the minister on managing this measure. I was greeted by a uniformed mulatto, older, who wore his uniform impeccably. “You saw the Roundtable yesterday, didn’t you?” he asked me kindly.

I answered yes and instantly the clerk appeared, nervous as a fire ant, and said to me: “Did you bring your identity card?” I couldn’t help but smile. So did Gil not only intend to open the banks as mousetraps to capture foreign currency, but also to learn who has dollars and how many they are willing to sell?

“I left it, compañera,” I said, and kept walking through Central Havana, willing to find out what other secret rules Alejandro Gil’s game would have in its first hours of operation. continue reading

I arrived at the Cadeca currency exchange on Infanta, and I didn’t see any of the “talented young people” and the “professors of the academy” who enlightened the minister on managing this measure. (14ymedio)

He who makes the law makes the trap, as the saying goes. However, here everything is slippery, dark and doesn’t obey logical rules, I thought, as I went up Infanta to another bank. It was deserted: a few workers, fugitives from their posts during working hours, so as not to subject themselves to longer lines in the afternoon.

“Who is last in line* to exchange?” I asked them. They looked up, overwhelmed by the heat and boredom, and pointed to the door of the establishment. “The system isn’t working yet,” they informed me inside.

Like a monetary Eusebio Leal, I continued walking Havana up to Belascoaín and was received at the bank on the corner of Zanja by a distracted guard who didn’t even look up from his cell phone. “There is no one to exchange,” the guy explained, “because there is no connection. The system is down, you understand?”

I looked at the line in front of the ATMs, which were working perfectly, and I found the excuse very strange. They depend on the same network. The Central Bank of Cuba hasn’t been able to guarantee a serious and effective structure for exchanging currency, even when they feign “despair” and “anger” in the face of the U.S. embargo, the usual apology for incompetence.

“Come in, come on, exchange!” one of the office workers from another bank in Belascoaín appealed to me. As a preliminary step to a financial wound, so much enthusiasm seemed dangerous. “Has anyone come to exchange yet?” I asked cautiously.

No,” the woman admitted, “but there is no problem. You know what these things are like at first. The system still doesn’t work well; we have to try it. So you will be the first brave man, come on!” “Wait a minute,” I said, and I saved myself by shooting out of there like a rocket.

Finally, at the bank on Galiano Street, I found several people lining up to exchange. The employee at the door, a portent of economic misinformation, assured us that the exact exchange rate for the euro was 121 pesos, when in reality it stays at 119 and a few cents after paying the commission.

In the line, the story was already famous about clueless customers who, when extracting Cuban pesos with their European Visa card at the ATM, received 24 Cuban pesos for every euro and not at the new rate. It was useless for them to complain. A foolish boy arrived asking how much he would have to pay for a dollar. “No, mi amor,” clarified the bank guard, “they are the only ones who can buy. And they will sell . . . when they tell us.”

It was deserted: a few workers, fugitives from their posts during working hours, so as not to subject themselves to longer lines in the afternoon. (14ymedio)

It’s almost noon, and Gil’s invention hasn’t convinced me, so I give up my place in Galiano’s line. Nor does it seem like a good deal for other Cubans. The minister has already imagined us in long lines to rid ourselves of foreign currency and destroy, with the same shot, the informal market.

I open my phone and consult the WhatsApp groups of buying and selling dollars, food, medicines and everything else. Contrary to Gil’s predictions, no one pays too much attention to the prodigious measure. Obviously, the exchange rate of the dollar is already exceeding that decreed by the government.

I note the contact for a boy who promises 150 pesos for every dollar. In the same group, someone says that they prefer to sell their dollars at 90 pesos rather than give them to the government. Since yesterday, both the euro and other freely convertible currency have been following the upward course of the U.S. currency, the favorite of the Council of Ministers.

I take my $10 bill out of my pocket and look at it almost fondly. What a job it will be for Alejandro Gil, the brilliant magician of the Cuban economy, to take dollars away from a Cuban.

*Translator’s note: When Cubans join a line they do so by asking “who’s last,” and in this way the line maintains its order without individuals having to stand exactly in place, in a line that might last hours.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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From the ‘Maleconazo’ of 1994 to the ’11J’ Protests of 2021, the Mutation of Cuban Civic Genes

The popular uprising known as El Maleconazo began on Avenida del Puerto and many people joined along the Havana Malecon. (Karel Poort)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 5 August 2022 — Shirtless and with protruding ribs, this is how the protesters on 5 August 1994 took the Havana coastline during the Maleconazo. The few photos that have been released of that day show faces with sharp cheekbones and a desperate look. From that uprising, continuing to July 11 of last year, Cubans learned several civic lessons and adopted new methods of protest, but the regime, also, has surpassed itself in repression.

While those who gathered 28 years ago rushed to Havana’s main avenue, desperate to board any ship that would take them off the Island, those of the summer of 2021 were looking not to escape, but to stand up to a system that has condemned them to material misery and the lack of freedoms. The scant cohesion in that earlier outburst, in the middle of the Special Period, has little in common with the compact groups, setting the pace with slogans of freedom and heading towards key points in the cities that were seen on 11 July 2021, the protests now called ’11J’.

In the earlier action, the Malecón wall functioned as a mousetrap between the protesters and the shock troops, dressed in civilian clothes, launched by Castroism against those ragged and hungry people; but a year ago the “organism” of popular protest was already sufficiently evolved to spread through central squares, in front of the institutions of power and travel through streets where new voices were added.

In the Maleconazo, the ruling party tried to avoid at all costs the images of uniformed men repressing, hence the cunning idea of using construction workers and plainclothes police to arrest the protesters, crack their heads with bars, or terrify them with stones. However, the magnitude of 11J was responded to with special troops who were seen deploying countless anti-riot devices that the regime had been buying for years.

The extension of both events also differentiates them to a great degree. In the almost three decades that separate one demonstration and another, the indignation overflowed from an area in the Cuban capital to more than forty points on the island. It was no longer a local event, but a national tremor. Civic genes had mutated enough to know that massiveness and simultaneity were vital. New technologies contributed considerably to the capacity to call out protestors and to document it live and in real time. The Havana residents of the Maleconazo did not even know the depth of their action until years later, with the dissemination of images and testimonies.

But the repressive balance grew. The 11J protests have left at least one dead, more than a thousand violently arrested and hundreds sentenced to prison terms that, in some cases, reach three decades. The DNA of the dictatorship continue reading

was also transformed. During this time it was organizing in a calculated and cold way to crush its own people if they happened to take to the streets. It invested millions in the equipment of terror, perfected its political police, bought sophisticated gadgets to monitor communications, and further trained its judges and prosecutors to complete the job of muzzling the popular voice.

On 5 August 1994, when the protest had already dissolved and the Malecón was a “safe zone” for the political catwalk, only then did Fidel Castro, dressed in his olive green uniform, arrive to listen to the cheers of the counter-demonstrators who he himself had sent there. Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel starred in an even more ridiculous scene when a bottle was thrown at him from a rooftop in San Antonio de los Baños that Sunday a year ago when he tried to mimic the previous march of Castro and his henchmen. Fearing a greater rejection, the engineer ran to hide in the Government Palace, from where he pronounced what will forever be his worst and most famous phrase: “The combat order is given.”

But beyond the differences and notable changes between some protesters and others, there are common lines that unite ’11J’ and its father, the Maleconazo. The exhaustion of the people, the inability of the political-economic model to provide a dignified life, the overcoming of personal fear for the common good, and the desire for democratic change on the Island, these are the identity chromosomes of both moments. The creature that is gestating with both experiences will be more sophisticated and powerful. Let us hope it will also be the final one.

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The Cuban Minister of Economy Declares War on the Informal Exchange Market. Who Will Win?

Today the Central Bank of Cuba began to buy foreign currency at a new exchange rate. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, 4 August 2022 — Finally, what was promised has been fulfilled. On July 21, Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil announced in the National Assembly a set of measures that, in his opinion, “within socialism will serve to strengthen the economy.” And yesterday, on State television’s Roundtable program, together with the president of the Central Bank of Cuba, he confirmed one of the measures that had aroused the most interest, the implementation of an exchange market for the purchase and sale of foreign currency to the population with an “economically grounded exchange rate and where we can work with all currencies, including dollars in cash.”

In the words of the minister, “it’s expected that one of the main benefits will be the possibility for Cubans and travelers to be able to exchange currencies at a more attractive exchange rate and not have to go to an illegal market.” The minister has declared war on the informal exchange market. Who will win?

There’s no doubt that there is interest in knowing how this new foreign exchange market is going to be launched, with what exchange rate, and what effects the measure will have on the battered Cuban economy.

After explaining the differences between the secondary currency allocation scheme (implemented last May for food and manufacturing) and the foreign exchange market that is now intended to be launched, the minister gave the scoop of the night, announcing that today, August 4, mark this date, the foreign exchange market will begin to operate, at the official exchange rate of 1:120 in the upper band of the informal market. A devaluation of the peso with the dollar of 400%.

At the moment, the state exchange market starts with the purchase of foreign currency by the State, including the cash dollar. Later, the sale of foreign currency will begin, but it won’t be immediate. The minister acknowledged that work is still being done to create the conditions to do so later at points of the Cadeca exchanges, banks and airports.

Gil believes that the purchase of foreign currency at a higher exchange rate will mean an incentive to sell foreign currency to the State, in what can be understood as the regime’s decision to liquidate the informal market that has been operating since last year. It won’t be easy, and he will soon discover that in an economy there is room for everyone, and that those who focus their activity on meeting the needs of others manage to survive, even in difficult and dark times. continue reading

So the communist regime wants to do this immediately with the exchange business of the informal market, and for this, it has decided to allow the purchase of dollars in cash, although it still doesn’t authorize the placement of those dollars on a card in MLC [freely convertible currency] due to its impact on greater purchasing power that cannot be met under the current conditions. The minister doesn’t have them all with him. And of course, as it couldn’t be otherwise, the blame is on the ’blockade’ [i.e., the embargo] imposed by the United States, which he described as “an anomaly in the financial functioning of the country that has not moved a millimeter and doesn’t allow taking that step that would be favorable for the population.”

There is so much distrust posed by these measures, that Gil warned that the entry into operation of the foreign exchange market this Thursday will not affect the business system, where the 1×24 exchange rate is maintained, so that “the imports that enter do so with that rate, as well as the exports that are generated in the country.”

Señora Wilson, president of the Central Bank of Cuba, also present at the Roundtable, reported that rules have been established that facilitate the implementation of exchange market measures through the repeal of decrees 17 and 37 of 2021, and 62 of 2022, since they established a single exchange rate to operate in the national economy, and the publication of a new one, 63, which will allow different exchange rates to be established.

Based on this legal framework, Resolutions 126, relating to the issuance of several exchange rates, and 127, which establishes the purchase of foreign currency by the banking system, which is going to be implemented first, are issued. Specifically, the latter resolution establishes that banks and non-bank financial institutions will not accept US dollars in cash from natural and legal persons for deposits in bank accounts but only for purchase, justifying this decision by maintaining the conditions of the ’blockade’ and the difficulties in operating with dollars and exporting them in foreign trade operations.

Less optimistic than the minister, she acknowledged that “this foreign exchange market will not solve the problems of the domestic economy. The foundations must exist, for which we are working on new measures to provide the country with foreign exchange and the goods and services that lead to economic stability. This will allow us to go to the final objective, which is to establish a single exchange rate that allows balance in the economy and where the national currency is the currency with which everyone wants to do business.”

As of August 4, people can make the sale through transfers they receive from abroad, through accreditation to an account in national currency. Also by means of freely convertible currency accounts, with request for transfers to CUP (Cuban peso) accounts. Likewise, it can be done in cash.

The national currency will be received through deposits in CUP accounts, so that the margins are more favorable, since that is what they are promoting. Also through the delivery of cash, which will have a less stimulating margin. She added that, due to the situation of the economy, there is a very high demand for cash, but anything that is not issuing more banknotes and favoring electronic transactions will be encouraged. Likewise, she pointed out that these operations will be, for the time being, at the counter, and ATMs will soon be included as an option.

Where will this type of exchange be implemented? It will be in all provinces, in key municipalities, and, to the extent that demand allows, new conditions will be created. The service will also be provided at airports, hotels and tourist centers. The branches where this activity will be carried out will be published on the website of the Central Bank of Cuba.

At this point, the president of the Central Bank indicated that they have “considered the exchange rate of 120 CUP to 1 dollar” and that “this exchange rate is not the equilibrium rate of the economy, it’s the one for the beginning of this market.” The fixed exchange rate system established in the ordering task has passed to a better life.

Commercial banks will be guaranteed a margin for buying and selling, in accordance with an international standard. These margins are aimed at encouraging non-cash transactions and the purchase of non-dollar currencies. Specifically, a range between 2% and 9%. These margins, in the case of the purchase of foreign currency in cash and at airports, improve compared to the previous exchange rate of 1×24. Excessive margins will offer incentives to operate in informal markets that will surely refine the costs of their operations so as not to lose competitiveness.

The trading margin conditions of the operations are harmful. “If you go to the bank tomorrow and sell a euro, the bank would be giving you 119.69 CUP. For the dollar, the margin is 8%. If you sell a dollar to the bank tomorrow, you will receive 110.40 CUP.” The competitive advantage is in transfers from abroad; here the margin for the purchase of the currency will be zero, as well as for purchases or withdrawals of international cards and transfers of foreign currency accounts to CUP at the exchange rate of 1×120. For cash withdrawal through currency accounts, there will be a trading margin of 1%. For currency cash deposits in CUP accounts, it will be 1.5%, and the dollar will have a greater impact.

The president of the Central Bank reiterated that the foreign exchange market starts with the purchase operations, but at a certain time the sale will have to be implemented, because then it wouldn’t be a market. She again pointed out that the objective of the Central Bank is to defend the country’s national currency and try to ensure that all transactions are in that currency. And she recognized that, at the time, there was no choice but to implement a trade in a currency other than the peso, but that must be corrected, because it has brought distortions in the economy.

She concluded by pointing out that, in order to achieve the equilibrium exchange rate that the economy needs, it’s necessary to “produce goods and services that encourage the population to buy in the national currency and discourage the need to acquire freely convertible currency to meet their needs.”

Minister Gil was convinced that the exchange rate chosen, 1×120, offers a “reasonable guarantee so that there’s an incentive to sell the foreign currency to the state and the state can buy it.” All people who have foreign currency “can legally exchange it at an economically based exchange rate, which guarantees a return in national currency that, today, gives it a purchasing power above what those who have a salary receive. This creates a distortion in relative prices.

He also insisted that with this measure the prices of the ’regulated family basket’ (within the rationing system) or the prices of stores in Cuban pesos are not increasing; there is no growth in the price level of the economy at the level of the new exchange rate. And he stressed that “no one can say that he had to increase prices because at the Roundtable they said that they are going to buy dollars at 120 pesos. That has no impact. We are talking about buying foreign currency and giving Cuban pesos in return.”

The minister was convinced that to the extent that foreign currency can be captured, invested in the economy and offers increased in pesos, decisions can be made in the ordering of the markets, increasing offers in national currency. Some of these decisions were cited only in passing, when he referred to the concern about the control of the public deficit and the tax evasion that injects liquid into the economy that heats inflation. The minister’s distrust led him to say that “this isn’t a magical measure. It’s an indispensable measure. It’s a step in which we have to continue moving forward and incorporate the sale,” an argument that reminds us, a lot, of the Ordering Task*.

He recognized that the exchange rate of 1×120 is not equilibrium, nor market; it’s only for buying. When buying and selling operations begin, an exchange rate will be sought that balances supply and demand, and certain limits will have to be placed on the sale. Bad business. If the minister wants to manage and put limits on market action, he will obtain the worst possible result. Achieving the equilibrium exchange rate is the result of the action of supply and demand, with the state keeping its hands off the process.

The minister said that with these measures it’s possible to achieve a society with the greatest possible equity and social justice and mentioned that people who don’t have dollars or euros to sell be given national currency in return. In his opinion, “if the socialist state captures these currencies, they are reinvested in favor of society.” An erroneous conviction of which he has long experience. Finally, he recognized that this measure is taken to “give legality to the foreign exchange market, putting its feet on the ground with an objective vision of reality and looking for ways to capture and channel those currencies according to society.” If instead, he had supported the informal market for its consolidation in the economy, the result would be much better.

He concluded by pointing out that immediate effects cannot be expected. The measures try to address the lack of foreign exchange, look for a mechanism to channel the currency according to offers in national currency and tax the objective of recovering the purchasing power of the Cuban peso. All this is to achieve an economy that operates in national currency in all its transactions and to have the ability to buy from a salary, from income. And by the way, end the informal exchange market, one of the few spaces of economic freedom and efficiency in the Cuban economy. It is another thing for him to understand this.

Editors’ note: This article is reproduced with the permission of its author and was originally published in Cubaeconomía.

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Power Cuts ‘Blackout’ the Best Supplied Markets in Havana

The offers are poor and no one wants to be inside the establishment, in the middle of the power outage scheduled for Vedado from early in the morning. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 August 2022 — “People here are not used to these blackouts,” a woman said aloud when leaving the market on 19th and B on Wednesday. Known in the capital as the food boutique, this store stands out for always being well stocked, especially compared to others found all over the island, but the customer left the place with only two plantains in hand.

The arrival of the blackouts, however, has had a full impact on the market. The offers are poor and no one wants to be inside the establishment, in the middle of the power outage scheduled for Vedado from early in the morning.

“Buy from me, even if it’s half a melon, mi vida, I already want to leave,” a saleswoman, fan in hand, implored a customer who was passing by her stand. “I’m suffering from this heat, and my bursitis makes matters worse,” she lamented.

In the busy square yesterday you could barely find half a kilo of tomatoes for 200 pesos, Chinese plums at 60 and carrots or beets for 80 pesos a pound.

At noon, many stalls were already closed. The sellers preferred not to continue enduring the heat in the midst of the lack of electricity and left, but people kept arriving trying to get something, despite the high prices. The fear that when the electricity service was restored there would be nothing left overcame their little desire to be there. continue reading

The sellers of the informal market didn’t swarm around the place yesterday either. “I have milk, hot dogs, picadillo, even lobster.” The whispers that don’t stop normally weren’t heard this Wednesday.

A merchant announced sarcastically as he picked up his cassava and malangas: “Get your solidarity here, I’m leaving.”

“But compañero, don’t you think solidarity is necessary?” another asked him ironically. “Of course, of course, solidarity. But I am like this revolution, which has said enough and needs to go,” he replied, exploding like a bomb, while behind his back there was tremendous laughter.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Respond to the Blackouts in Bayamo with Protests, Mockery and Posters

They have barely been able to cover the posters with slogans and messages against the Government and the president with a couple of brushstrokes, like this one on Avenida de los Mártires, in Bayamo. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Bayamo, 4 August 2022 — Things are changing in Cuba and not only in the capital. The residents of Bayamo, in modest Granma Province, no longer remain silent in the face of blackouts and openly challenge the authorities.

Last Tuesday, a group of people gathered at the Altar of the Heroes, next to the monument that marks the place of the first open-air cemetery in America, and cried out against the long power cuts.

Two people passed by on a motorcycle in front of a state company and one of them, megaphone in hand, shouted: “Díaz-Canel, singao!”* before the eyes of a group of people who burst into laughter. A colonel from the Ministry of the Interior, who was present, demanded that witnesses confront the two rebels, but this only managed to increase the laughter.

On Monday night, in the Bayamés neighborhood of Camilo Cienfuegos, a group of people, in front of the patrol cars that guarded the streets, shouted “Viva Díaz-Canel,” “Viva la Revolución,” in a way that mocked those responsible for the energy situation. A few hours earlier, another protest with people banging on pots and pans had taken place in Mabay, a rural area of Bayamo, where shouts were heard of “the people, united, will never be defeated.”** continue reading

Discomfort is growing in a population where power outages exceed 10 and 14 hours, programmed in two and three cycles of blackouts during each day this summer. Posters with slogans and messages against the Government and the president are evident even in broad daylight, and they have barely been able to cover them with a couple of brush strokes of fresh paint.

The explanations of the Electrical Union are no longer of any use to the population, who don’t understand why they must endure so many hours without electricity. “But Felton [power plant] generates for [the State newspaper] Granma?” asked a neighbor of the province when the newspaper La Demajagua announced more cuts due to the loss of the thermoelectric plant, which contributes 500 MW to the system but has two units in constant breakdown. “And don’t tell me that it’s a national system because, if so, the people of Havana will also have 14 hours of blackout per day. And my congratulations to those who have earned that respect.”

For this Thursday, the Electrical Union has announced a deficit of 618 MW. Demand will be around 2,900 MW at its maximum, and the availability is barely 2,352 MW.

The Mariel thermoelectric plant has three damaged units, which is in addition to the two of Felton, the four of Nuevitas, the six of Renté and the only one of Otto Parellada. In addition, there is another unit under maintenance in Cienfuegos, and, due to a problem in the Energas Varadero steam turbine, more MW are out of generation.

Finally, we must add the problems of distributed generation, where 1,115 MW are missing due to breakdowns and almost 500 MW due to maintenance.

“The truth is that there is tremendous disorder, every day he reads the same story, only the numbers and thermoelectric plants change,” a user responded to the Electric Union statement. Meanwhile, others continue to insist on taking the drama with humor: “Did they patch up the Felton thermoelectric plant with children’s modeling clay?”

Translator’s notes:

*Cuban slang for “motherfucker,” “asshole” or “bastard.” Part of the appeal of this particular insult is that it rhymes with Diaz-Canel.

**A slogan of the Chilean Unidad Popular party of leftist President Salvador Allende.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Situation of Dengue Fever in Cuba is ‘Complex’ and Will be More Complicated in August, Acknowledges Public Health

Corridor of the Pepe Portilla Children’s Hospital in Pinar del Río. (Archive/Juan Carlos Fernández)

14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2022 — In the last week, dengue fever infections in Cuba increased by 35.5% compared to the previous week, and the prediction is for the same with the advance of August, due to “vacation, rain and intense heat, which makes the situation very complex.”

By the end of July, dengue had already spread to 11 Cuban provinces, according to the Ministry of Public Health. However, the most affected territories are Isla de la Juventud, Havana, Guantánamo, Camagüey and Holguín.

“There are serious problems with environmental management that today is also taxed with the multiplication of outbreaks throughout the territory,” said Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda, referring to the garbage in the streets, in a meeting with the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel. His report was transmitted on State TV Noon News, on August 3, and the minister asked for work on this matter “knowing the limitations that exist.”

At the same meeting, he asked that crowds should be avoided in hospitals and that reserve centers should receive more patients with alarming symptoms of the disease caused by the Aedes Aegyptis mosquito.

Last week alone, Cuba detected more cases of the disease than in the entire first half of the year, 4,776 cases between July 17 and 23. That week, 10,590 tests were carried out, and the positivity rate was 45.1%. continue reading

Hospitals have increased space to receive more admissions due to dengue in recent weeks, such as the Mario Muñoz Monroy hospital, in Colón, Matanzas, which went from having two beds to 80 beds.

Health workers insist that the population must do everything possible to protect themselves, because there are no insecticides such as abate or diesel to fumigate every six days, as established in the protocols. These limitations, coupled with the summer heat and the long hours of blackouts, are leading to the proliferation of a disease that had remained in the background during COVID but now has regained strength.

Recently, a doctor told 14ymedio that healthcare workers are alarmed by the increase in cases of severe dengue fever because “it’s not usual. In previous epidemics, perhaps approximately 1% of cases had warning signs (those that warn you that the patient is not evolving well), but now it’s more than 30%.”

The Ministry of Public Health warned of the symptoms of the disease: abdominal pain, vomiting, irritability, drowsiness, swelling or edema and bleeding, and said that four serotypes of dengue are circulating on the island, “which means that it’s possible to get infected four times*,” says the announcement, sent through Telegram.

*Translator’s note: Infection with any serotype of dengue fever generally results in future immunity, but only to that serotype. Severe cases of the disease are most common when a person who has been infected in the past is infected again, but with a different serotype.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Against the Ropes, the Cuban Government Announces the Purchase of Dollars in Cash at 120 pesos

Cadeca’s offices became essential in Cuba from the second half of the 1990s. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2022 — In the midst of the deepest economic crisis in two decades, the Cuban government announced the purchase of dollars in cash at 120 pesos starting on Thursday. “We are going to start with the purchase of foreign currency, of all currencies including the dollar, in cash, at a higher rate than today’s exchange rate,” Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández said on State television’s Roundtable program on Wednesday.

Dollars in cash can only be sold in Cadeca (exchange houses) and banks, but the deposit of dollars in freely convertible currency (MLC) accounts still continues without effect, the President of the Central Bank of Cuba, Marta Sabina Wilson González emphasized on the program, adding that the measure is aimed at natural persons and private-sector actors.

“This type of exchange isn’t the type of balanced exchange rate of the economy,” Wilson González said, insisting that the new rate “isn’t static but will move in function with the market.”

Gil clarified that for the moment, foreign currency won’t be sold to the population and that this new exchange rate “isn’t going to happen immediately.” He said the measure aims to guarantee “an incentive” for people to sell foreign currency to the State.

The Government is recognizing that a professional can barely earn a hundred dollars a month for a full day’s work

This new exchange rate for foreign currencies will be not only for cash but will also include foreign exchange transfers from abroad and deposits that are in MLC (freely convertible currency) accounts, Wilson González said.

The sale of foreign currency, according to Gil, “is a missing piece in the gear, in the mechanism of the economy,” which “in a very slight, very gradual way begins to show signs of recovery.”

Among the justifications for starting the purchase of foreign currency, Gil referred to the informal exchange market that is capturing the currencies that enter the country because of the high price at which they are sold. continue reading

“The success is that you have a level of supply in national currency that generates an incentive for people who own foreign currency or receive it from abroad or international travelers,” said the Minister of Economy, noting that they intend, with the exchange in pesos proposed by the State, for people to “have a level of consumption in the country.”

This Wednesday in the informal market on the island, a US dollar sold at 115 pesos, the euro at 119 and the MLC, a digital currency invented by the Government for stores that that take payment for food and household appliances, at 118. For months, currencies have exceeded 100 pesos in this type of exchange.

The biggest damage from this Wednesday’s announcement is to the salaries of state workers, who don’t have access to hard currency. With this rate, the Government is recognizing that a professional can barely earn a hundred dollars a month for a full day’s work.

Without prior notice, on May 20, 2021, Cuban airports stopped selling foreign currency. The news was announced by Cadeca in a message disseminated through its social networks a few hours before the measure went into force.

The state entity maintained that the low influx of tourists with the pandemic has caused a “significant deficit” of foreign exchange, and that to date it has been able to operate within the established limits, but the lack of liquidity has reached an unsustainable extreme.

The rest of the linked establishments and the banks — both sectors of state monopolies — were not selling dollars or any other hard currency long before, due to the lack of liquidity in the country, which is going through its worst crisis in three decades.

On June 21 of last year, the Government “temporarily” suspended the acceptance of bank cash deposits in US dollars. It then specified that the measure was due to “the obstacles” imposed by “the US economic blockade” and that the domestic banking system couldn’t deposit abroad the dollars it collects on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) Attempt to Revitalize Themselves Amid the Crisis in Cuba

In the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, residents reacted to the announcement with more annoyance than enthusiasm (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 3 August 2022 — The economic and social situation in Cuba serves as the pulse for a country going downhill while the regime, rather than opting for reforms and immediate solutions, bets on greater control and vigilance, as it has done historically. In several zones of the capital, they have announced an “assembly for the revitalization and strengthening of the CDR (Committees in Defense of the Revolution).”

Faced with dozens of protests arising throughout the island in the last several days due to the long-lasting blackouts, the government seeks to regain, in neighborhoods, the control it has lost. CDR officials delivered summons for the meeting which mention that the participation of CDR members “is very important,” however many residents say they will not attend to listen to the same old speeches.

In the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, residents reacted to the announcement with more annoyance than enthusiasm. “In this building, one elevator operates between 11 am and 1 pm,” one of the residents of the 12-story building on Santa Ana street lamented on Wednesday. “The water pump can’t be used during that time and neither can electricity in the common areas,” he adds.

“That affects several self-employed people who rent space on the ground floor of these buildings. They pay their electric bill on time, but because they are in common areas, they can’t provide services during those hours,” explained the resident of that zone to 14ymedio. “That measure is causing a lot of unrest so I can’t imagine that many people will lend themselves to reactivating the CDR.”

The collapse of the National Electric System will not be resolved for the time being and the protests will continue. “People do not want justifications nor explanations, they want electricity so they can eat and escape the unbearable heat,” stated another neighbor in Nuevo Vedado.

The CDR are used constantly by the government to camouflage the Rapid Response Brigades they use to insert State Security agents to repress the people, opponents, dissidents and the independent press. Some of their most criticized activities are the acts of repudiation which started out strong in the 70s and 80s and have currently resumed as part of campaigns to discredit opponents and independent artists.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Relatives of ’11J’ (July 11th) Prisoners Detained in Havana Accused of Public Disorder

A group of relatives of the 11J prisoners was arrested this Monday for asking for their release before the Cathedral of Havana. In the photo they make the sign of “L for Libertad (Freedom).” (Marta Perdomo)

14ymedio, Havana, 2 August 2022 — The relatives of the 11J (11 July 2021) prisoners detained this Monday outside the Cathedral of Havana are accused of public disorder. After midnight, the niece of one of the detainees confirmed that all the women had already been released.

Liset Fonseca, mother of Roberto Pérez Fonseca; Marta Perdomo, mother of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo; Ailex Marcano, mother of Ángel Jesús Véliz Marcano; Saily Nuñez, wife of Maikel Puig Bergolla; and Delanis Álvarez, wife of Duniesky Ruiz; all left the provisional detention center known as Vivac, in Calabazar, in the Havana municipality of Boyeros, after paying a fine of 7,000 pesos.

Meanwhile, Wilber Aguilar, father of Walnier Luis Aguilar, is still under arrest, although they will be released this Tuesday; along with Luis Rodríguez, husband of Angélica Garrido. The latter, who did not appear in the first report of detainees, was unaccounted for for several hours, according to the Justice 11J organization.

In addition, the activist Leonardo Romero Negrín approached the police unit to inquire about the situation and was also briefly arrested, although he was released moments later without charge.

“Peaceful public protest is a human right contemplated in the Cuban Constitution,” claimed Justice 11J, which attended the families this Monday and has called for the attention of the international community and the press to firmly oppose the punishment of peaceful demonstrations of discontent.

The arrests took place at 2 in the afternoon on Monday when the group of relatives of prisoners met at the door of the Cathedral – although they were scheduled to do so before the Capitol and changed their minds due to the strong police presence – carrying a sign and demanding the release of their children and husbands, all of them sentenced to prison terms ranging between eight and 23 years for demonstrating on July 11, 2021. continue reading

The small group shouted “freedom” and “patria y vida” (homeland and life) when they were summoned by several agents who approached those present to ask for their documentation and, finally, took them into custody.

The protest coincided with those that have been sweeping the island in recent weeks due to blackouts and power outages, which are wearing out the patience of Cubans in a malaise that seems to increase every day.

At least a hundred people took to the streets in the Altamira Popular Council, in Santiago de Cuba, after about 10 hours without electricity. It was the most resounding of the protests on Monday, but the the sounds of the people banging on pots and pans broke out different parts of the island and videos of Consolación del Sur, in Pinar del Río, circulated; Antilla , in Holguin; Mabay, in Bayamo (Granma province) – where the cry “the people united will never be defeated” was heard; and in Trinidad, in Sancti Spíritus.

Over the weekend there was another protest in Nuevitas, Camagüey, coinciding with the failure of a block of the municipal thermoelectric plant, which had just been synchronized with the national energy system. Similar protests occurred in Bauta, Artemisa; the Central Australia community, in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas; and the Covadonga neighborhood in the municipality of Aguada de Pasajeros in Cienfuegos.

In the midst of this situation, at 1 in the afternoon there was a breakdown in Havana that “provoked a strong oscillation in the National Electric System” and the loss of three mobile generation units, those of Mariel, Tallapiedra and Regla. In addition, the Energas Jaruco units were also disconnected, causing an unforeseen deficit of 312 MW in addition to the announced deficit of more than 400 MW.

July has been marked, ultimately, by a multitude of protests: 263 of them according to the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts, which highlights from these cacerolazos [banging of pots and pans] in the darkness in which they occur due to blackouts, a scenario that also gives some protection to Cubans, fearful of the kind of repression that followed the demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J).

According to the NGO, 71.4% of these protests are caused by economic and social problems, while 28.6% are politically motivated. “The imbalance between the two reflects the general crisis that in Cuba has turned so-called daily life into daily death,” the report states.

The observatory considers that the national crisis is marked by the collapse of the energy system, the health and sanitation problems caused by dengue fever and the lack of medicines, and the rampant inflation suffered by the Island.

“The government’s inability to justify the national disaster continues to cause fissures in the state apparatus itself,” warns the Observatory, which considers the provincial press reports pointing to poor health or economic indicators to be a sign of this weakness. In addition, at the international level, the regime’s support for Russia, the text maintains, worsens the external perception of it.

“The rulers continue to avoid the transformation of the system that blocks the solution [to the problems]. In July it was shown that terror no longer paralyzes Cubans,” the report concludes.

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Entertaining People with Popular Control: The Castro Regime Has No Remedy

State agricultural markets in Sancti Spíritus look almost empty. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 2 August 2022 — With all that is going wrong in Cuba, the state press doesn’t miss an opportunity to transmit a false sense of normality that, far from being confirmed, leads to thinking just the opposite.

Constantly in the Castro regime, there is talk of “people’s power” everywhere, without anyone knowing very well what it means. It’s not just any realization. There’s enough for a doctoral thesis, like that of Cuban President Díaz-Canel’s on science and innovation. For this reason, someone at the State newspaper Granma has wondered if popular control, that is, the power of the people, works as a direct expression of socialist democracy in Cuba. But what power of the people are they talking about?

They allude to the old constitutional pipe dream, which even has a law, Law No. 132/2019, on the organization and operation of the municipal assemblies of People’s Power and the people’s councils that establish how “the people can exercise control and build the country’s model.” Let’s see if we understand anything.

In the State newspaper Granma they want to answer a disturbing question: how can Cubans who don’t hold a political or governmental position, from the base, in the community, access and use their power to contribute to transforming reality? It’s difficult. See if you haven’t the video that runs through social networks in which an angry [Prime Minister Manuel] Marrero* is observed before a violent outburst from a revolutionary grandfather, who could well be taking a nap, and who nevertheless lashes out at another communist militant who complains that in 35 years no one has done anything to solve a problem. continue reading

And, of course, like everything in Cuba, if you want to understand something, you have to go to the Law, which with its 210 articles and eight chapters establishes the structure, functions and prerogatives of each of the components of the so-called “people’s power,” which, as Granma points out, “is manifested daily in the actions of the delegates and voters as the foundation of the Cuban political system.”

Precisely, one of the most important changes to Law No. 132 was the right of members of the people’s councils to carry out controls on local production and service entities, as a “potential regulatory mechanism against illegalities and violations that usually occur in state and non-state institutions,” involving the citizen himself as an engine of the changes he needs around him.

Granma reviews the experiences on this topic: Are the controls effective? What results have they had? How can they improve?

Popular controls are welcomed by the communist organization as a tool to respond to the demands of the people, an idea that is here to stay. Delegates ensure the proper functioning of the entities that operate in their constituencies, but what Chapter VII of Law 132 proposes is to involve people more in transforming their environment.

So, although previously only delegates participated in the so-called control and audit, anyone who can contribute “to evaluate, show, suggest and thoroughly review the administrative work of public and private entities, even more so if they have been pointed out by the vox populi, are now invited.

Every month, three popular control exercises are carried out, which are approved at the end of the year so as not to leave any area or sector without going through the filter of citizens and analyzing topics such as water supply, the situation of schools, grocery stores and medical offices, the sale of liquefied gas, the production of bread, the marketing of agricultural products and the so-called coleros. Hey, did anyone hear blackouts? It’s incredible.

The communists are exultant. Every time a control is announced, service specialists, retirees, community leaders and anyone who wishes are incorporated into the group, forming a conga line with a complicated rhythm, which ends up being deadly for some state and non-state entities, when the report is prepared with positive and negative signs and a plan of measures is required in response. Those responsible, as one can imagine, have little desire to continue.

Therefore, when agencies fall behind with the requested response, and others don’t immediately adopt the suggested decisions, some other, tougher measures are taken. In some cases, the focus is on the workers of the institutions under control, in a clear exercise of bridging those responsible for them, which leads to a further deterioration of the situation. Popular controls add fire to conflicts where the problem could be fixed with a little good will. You can see the Castro inspiration behind all this.

What is the communist regime looking for with these controls? Perhaps that the grocery stores are painted, renovated; that the culture of commerce wins, as Granma says. Let’s see: if there is nothing to sell and the grocery stores are empty, all the rest remains. That’s where popular control should begin if it wants to be of any use. There is the impression that the regime wants to fuss over popular controls to keep people entertained, away from the main concerns about blackouts, inflation or lack of food. If this is the case, it’s not strange that they talk about achieving even greater systems of controls, because according to them, credibility can be lost, and in this case, there is even the authority to request support from the president of the Municipal Assembly.

One can now imagine that all this is another waste of time within the day-to-day life of Cubans. Granma recognizes the problems that these controllers of people’s power have when certain entities located in the municipal council cannot be controlled because the scope of their work is provincial, and, in these cases, alleged negligence cannot be punished. Or the need they say to review the communication mechanisms, because, although the opinion of the delegates is that most people know when, how and where the controls are carried out, practice shows that this is not the case.

That is why, to finish filling the agenda, the leaders say that it’s necessary to take more advantage of traditional socialization methods (meetings, offices with voters), or to create new ones (social media channels or groups, informal opinion leaders) so that more people know and participate in these demonstrations of popular power. They have no remedy.

*Translator’s note: Marrero blamed doctors and other healthcare workers in Cienfuegos for the handling of the pandemic (in 2021)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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