14ymedio – Page 218 – Translating Cuba

Motherhood Dropped in Cuba in the Pandemic, But Less So Among Teens

The authorities recall that more teenage pregnancies occur in more marginal environments. (14ymedio)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 13 April 2022 — Adolescent motherhood in Cuba has decreased in the last two years –marked by the pandemic — however the fall was at a much slower rate than among all other age groups, and therefore now represents a greater percentage of mothers in the country (17%), according to a study by the Center for Demographic Studies of the University of Havana.

From 2019 to 2020, pregnancies — both interruptions and births — per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19, decreased. The pregnancy rate was 123.4 and fell by around 9% compared to 2019, when this indicator stood at 136.8, details the study, cited by state media.

For the deputy director of the Center for Demographic Studies (Cedem), Matilde Molina, this decline could be explained by the confinement and closure of recreational centers, schools and other socialization spaces, according to an article in Cubadebate.

This situation led to “fewer unions and marriages, less frequent sexual relations, fewer sexual initiations and greater family control over girls’ leisure time and their contact with people outside the home,” the expert pointed out. continue reading

“In 2019 births to mothers between 15 and 19 years old represented 16.7% of the country’s total births, but in 2020 that figure rose to 17% and in 2021 to 17.1%,” she detailed.

The article also refers to reports from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) program in Cuba, which refer to the highest indicators of early pregnancies in the provinces of Camagüey, Las Tunas, Holguín and Granma, with 51.5 births per 1,000 women under 20 years of age, in 2020.

The sociologist and professor at the University of Havana, Reina Fleites, pointed out during a conference on Children, Adolescents and Youth – recently held in Havana – that early motherhood occurs more among mixed-race and black adolescents, living in rural environments, not engaged in study or work, and living in low-income housing and in precarious conditions.

“Many adolescents choose a ’maternity project’ based on the belief that this can be a way of migrating, improving their well-being, getting out of poverty or leaving their family of origin, some even believe they can achieve independence,” said Fleitas.

During April of this year, the third National Fertility Survey is being carried out in Cuba, whose main objectives are to update information on demographic, socioeconomic and cultural factors and the motivations and circumstances that play a role in the reproductive decisions of men and women, including adolescents.

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Cuba: The Majority Dilemma

International Workers’ Day March in Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 12 April 2022 — The majority demanded Pontius Pilate crucify Christ. The majority of Germans, in the times of Hitler, acclaimed the Führer. The majority of Cubans, at some point, shouted “Firing Squad” and “Get out.” This civic immaturity creates Peter Pan societies, which refuse to grow up and hold onto Never Never Land. The immature society sighs for the bad boy, is attracted by the charismatic lunatic who ends up becoming Batman’s Joker. The world has seen more than one Joker wear a presidential sash and fry his country’s democracy in his own vanity while the masses applaud.

In marketing (and, of course, in politics), the bandwagon effect or the drag effect are often discussed. In it, people can be observed doing and believing certain things, based on the fact that many other people believe and do the same. As more people follow something, more want to hop on the bus.

I’ve always obsessed over the word equilibrium. I resist continuing to view reality through the screen of the old Russian television I had as a child. Krim-218* Syndrome makes us see everything in black and white, without nuances. Our parents’ generation felt panic if they were out of line, in a Cuba marked by uniforms. The Revolution imposed the weight of its own opinions, forcing us to repeat the same slogans, converting civil society en masse, into a committee.

The dogma became irrevocable. Those who managed to escape to other shores soon espoused the contrarian discourse, also in a nearly unanimous way. Those who until the previous day called the dictator “Fidel,” even while flaying him (in hushed voices), now began to call him “Castro.” The sad thing is that at times, deep down, opposing positions end up resembling each other. continue reading

Majorities almost never lead real change. It is painful to discover that in the last war for our independence more Cubans fought on the side of the Spanish than the side of the Mambises [rebels]. At the end of the struggle, the Liberation Army had 40,000 members. And many of those joined in the last months, when Spain was practically defeated and the United States intervened in the conflict. In contrast, on the Spanish side, there were 80,000 creoles from the Island, including volunteers and relief soldiers. The majority who greeted Máximo Gómez, when he entered Havana, with hands raised high, had done almost nothing for independence.

The bearded men of the Castro’s Sierra Maestra didn’t receive massive support either, as described in their history books. The assault on the Moncada barracks was a chaotic failure which was met with varied criticism from the same forces that opposed Batista. They were called adventure-seekers and irresponsible. The Chilean daily El Siglo, of a communist bent, even suggested that the assault had been organized by the CIA. Nor could they count on the majority during the frustrated general strike on April 9, 1958. However, a few months later, all of Havana went out to greet the new caudillo with triumphant euphoria.

On the 11th of July 2021, it became clear that the regime has already lost popular support. They’ve had to use repression and fear to halt the protests. Social media is a hotbed of criticism against the ruling class. The apparatus does not dare conduct the “elections” that should have taken place in November to select new “delegates” and have used the pandemic as an excuse. They don’t even dare to reveal the results of the surveys conducted discretely by the Party offices. The State newspaper Granma published an article on April 8th where they recognize they are a minority and speak of “turning off the lights of El Morro”*.

Democracy is not, and should not be, a dictatorship of the majority. The democratic ideal is based on consensus, debates, real participation, transparency, freedom to be a part of or oppose something, adherence to human rights, legality, justice, representation, citizen sovereignty, respect for minorities and the individual. Populism which aspires to dominate the rest while taking advantage of the frustrations, prejudices or the vengeful spirit of the masses always ends in tyranny.

Hopefully, we Cubans will be capable of breaking the vicious cycle. Hopefully, we will overcome the anthropological damage caused by so much propaganda, so much Never Never, so much Krim-218. Hopefully we will be capable of building a plural Cuba, which won’t fall victim to the majority dilemma again.

Translator’s notes:
*Krim-218: A reference to Cuban state television, which much of the country watched on Soviet Krim-218 model black-and-white TVs.
**El Morro is the iconic lighthouse at the entrance to Havana Bay, and ’will the last one…. turn off the lights’ is an iconic phrase used around the world in similar circumstances.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Southwest Airlines Triples its Flights Between Fort Lauderdale and Havana

Southwest Airlines has the second highest number of flights between Havana and Fort Lauderdale, in Florida. (SA)

14ymedio, Havana, 13 April 2022 — The low-cost US Southwest Airlines will increase its flights to Cuba from Florida starting in May, according to a statement from the company.

In the case of the route between Havana and Fort Lauderdale, the flights are tripled, going from one to three daily. In addition, one more flight will be added to the daily service between the Cuban capital and Tampa on Saturdays.

“The airline’s service, offering authorized trips between the United States and Cuba, is available to more Southwest customers,” the company said in its statement.

Southwest Airlines requested permission to operate in Cuba when commercial flights were authorized in 2016 under President Barack Obama. The airline then began to fly to Varadero and Santa Clara in addition to the capital. continue reading

In 2017, with Donald Trump as president of the United States, the bubble of flights to Cuba began to burst. First because of the saturation of the market, but also because the travel measures were becoming more restrictive.

In June 2017, Southwest chose to reduce routes and concentrate its flights in Havana, suspending those to beach tourist destinations.

“Our decision to interrupt the other flights to Cuba comes after an in-depth analysis of our performance for several months, which confirmed that there is no clear path to ensure the sustainability of the service to those markets,” said Steve Goldberg, a company manager in Florida said at the time.

In February of this year, the company resumed its operations to Cuba after the break during the pandemic and is the second airline, after Jet Blue, flying between the cities of Havana and Fort Lauderdale.

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As of October, Cuba Has Stopped Accepting Deportees From the US

Cuban citizens are deported from the United States, in a file photograph. (EFE/Alejandro Ernesto)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, 13 April 2022 — The Government of Cuba has not accepted the arrival of citizens deported by the United States immigration authorities for months, a spokesman for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) told Efe on Wednesday.

So far in fiscal year 2022 (that is, since last October), Cuba has not accepted any deportation of Cubans by ICE through commercial or charter flights from US territory.

During this time, only 20 Cubans have voluntarily returned to the island from the United States.

For comparison, between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021, ICE deported 95 Cubans.

According to figures from the US immigration agency, there are currently approximately 40,050 Cuban citizens pending deportation from the United States to Cuba after receiving the final order from a judge.

Cuba’s refusal to accept deportations comes amid an increase in the number of Cuban migrants trying to reach the United States irregularly through a route that starts in Central America and crosses the Straits of Florida.

Data from the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) indicate that in the last five months a total of 47,331 Cubans entered the North American country irregularly. In February alone, 16,557 entries were registered. continue reading

The Government of Cuba blames the United States for the increase in the irregular migratory flow and has accused it of failing to comply with the agreements on the matter.

However, on April 5, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said he was willing to talk with his “adversary” the United States, despite the historical differences between the two nations.

“We don’t need confrontation to exist either, as some fools think,” Diaz-Canel wrote on Twitter, quoting a phrase from former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Both countries began a rapprochement in 2015, known as a “thaw,” during Barack Obama’s last term (2009-2017), but it was reversed with the administration of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021).

Trump tightened the economic sanctions against the Island and paralyzed a large part of the measures taken by his Democratic predecessor.

Upon his arrival at the White House in January 2021, US President Joe Biden said he would review Trump’s policies.

However, Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, stated last November that “circumstances changed” in Cuba policy after the July 11 protests, which were repressed by the authorities.

That day, thousands of Cubans spontaneously took to the streets to demand more freedoms and political change in protests that resulted in hundreds of people arrested.

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Raul Castro’s Ex-Son-in-Law Will Supervise the New Pricing Policy in Cuban Pesos

Prices of basic products such as chicken, edible oils and ground beef remain controlled in Cuba. (Cubandebate)

14ymedio, Madrid, 13 April 2022 — Stores in Cuba that take payment in the national currency — Cuban pesos — will be able to set the prices of the products they sell according to a resolution of March 30 published in the Official Gazette this Tuesday. Chain store bosses will now have the power to decide the prices of the items they have available, with the exception of a group of products considered essential, such as edible oils, chicken thighs and drumsticks, and ground poultry and beef.

The new provision indicates that these measures will be carried out under the supervision of the president of the Business Administration Group (Gaesa), who will inform “this Ministry about the results obtained from the decentralization process, at the end of 2022.” Gaesa is the military conglomerate that owns several chains of stores that only accept payment in hard currency, which is directed by General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, the former son-in-law of Raúl Castro and a strongman of the regime.

The group of products with controlled pricing also includes domestically produced hygiene and cleaning items of an economical line, such as toilet and bath soap, detergents, toothpaste, deodorants and cleaning cloths. Havana Club rum is also a protected product.

The rule indicates that, when setting prices, “current general principles are taken into account, with a comprehensive evaluation of costs and expenses with criteria of rationality and efficiency, as well as the correlation with market benchmarks.”

The authorities have called this measure “decentralization of powers to the business system,” while the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal has described it as ‘Ordering Task* 2.0’. The economist considers it “a risky bet, with no explanation of its economic rationale” and believes that this future “microeconomic price flexibility” can “provoke macroeconomic instability.” continue reading

According to Monreal, the decision seems to be based on the fact that there will be a positive effect of profitability on investment, instead of a negative effect on aggregate demand due to the reduction in real income, which can make the complex situation worse, since that there is a full conviction that prices are going to rise, in the current context of high costs for production due to the increase in the cost of raw materials, imports and freight, among other things.

The first reactions to the news, published by the official media Prensa Latina and Cubadebate, could not have been worse. There is a panic among the population that prices are going to increase immediately and they fear that businesses will raise prices trying to obtain higher profits.

“Another measure that instead of curbing inflation and favoring the population, favors the profitability of companies, already very high given the sales in the discriminatory stores in MLC [freely convertible currency]. Let’s see the prices they set now, obviously instead of lowering prices, they will rise like everything that has been left to the discretion of business groups, in a scenario of almost zero retail competition,” warns a reader who managed to capture the attention of a Ministry spokesman who responded to him:

“The decentralization process of powers for the approval of prices is aimed at strengthening the powers of the business system. (…) The increase in prices in the international market and the complexity for our country of accessing financing for acquisitions, with additional increases in freight costs. Companies cannot make arbitrary use of these powers, but must apply principles and procedures that allow them to cover marketing costs and expenses. Certainly, the process demands supervision and control that allows the identification of deviations, violations and rectifying them opportunely.”

Although concern is visible in the majority of comments responding to the news, there is also an important sector that seems disillusioned and makes fun of the repercussions that a measure like this can have at a time when stores in national currency are conspicuous by their absence and they lack any product whose price can be liberalized. The scarcity of products available in this context is a determining factor, since prices will go up according to scarcity.

“Please, it makes me laugh. Which are the stores in pesos that sell these items here in Mayabeque? Another measure very unpopular, against the working people, who already with their miserable salaries can [buy] less, and now every boss is going to set prices that are a gain for them,” replied one commentator. Another user, on Twitter, summarized the idea: “Calm down, in national currency they don’t even sell shit in this country, there are no problems.”

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = the [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes 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 others.

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Hemingway Has Been Left Alone in the Floridita in Havana

This Monday, on the outskirts of Floridita in Havana, sun and abandonment compete. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 12 April 2022 — Two Floriditas and zero tourists. Both the emblematic bar in Havana and its copy in the Varadero resort are without customers to keep company with the bronze statue of Ernest Hemingway leaning on the bar of his favorite place. In front of the first there was only one convertible and two cocotaxis this Monday, where before there were dozens of buses and a hornet’s nest of Cubans hunting tourists.

Outside the premises the sun and the absence of people competed, while the rest of the businesses in the area remained empty or closed. The place, famous for its daiquirís, tries to return to its old glory years, with little success.

In the historic center of the capital this morning it was also possible to walk several blocks without encountering tourists along the way. Some private businesses in the Plaza Vieja remained with their tables empty under the sun, their employees promoted the premises, but only Cubans passed by along with some fellow countrymen who, due to their dress and physical appearance, one might confuse with those looking for business opportunities on the street.

“I’m Cuban, you’re not going to earn much today with me,” a man told a promoter who showed him a restaurant menu offering “good prices… If I sit here eating with the money to bring food home, my wife kills me.”

Cuba, which reopened its borders in the middle of November after the closure forced by the pandemic, prioritizes the tourism sector. This is its second largest item of gross domestic product (GDP) and its third largest source of foreign currency, behind the sale of medical services and remittances. continue reading

The state tourism sector expects to end this year with 84,906 rooms. And despite the restrictions due to the coronavirus, the lack of tourists and the shortage of supplies for construction throughout the country, the Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (Gaesa), a military conglomerate, has not stopped its huge projects.

One of them, being built at 25 and K in El Vedado, is a luxury hotel that is projected as “the tallest of its kind in Havana,” aiming to reach 42 floors and 500 feet high.

The Government, which has not modified its plans due to the impact of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, continues to aspire to the 2.5 million tourists it had planned for 2022, just over half of the number that arrived in 2019. Since then tourism has been unable to recover, even relatively speaking. The Dominican Republic, which reopened just a month before Cuba, has already returned to even slightly higher numbers than it had before covid-19.

The agony is such that Varadero experiences a previously inexplicable emptiness. Foreigners do not arrive, Cubans have no money and establishments are not supplied.

This explains why even the wasteland around the Floridita in Havana is small compared to the desert of clients that can be seen in its twin in Varadero, the peninsula that until recently monopolized a good part of the island’s visitors and lately barely survived with the arrival of Russian tourists, who are now no longer coming because of the war in Ukraine.

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Cuban Doctors Kidnapped in Kenya and Still Missing After Three years, Despite the ‘Indefatigable Efforts’ of Diaz-Canel

Cuban doctors Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández were kidnapped in April 2019 in Kenya. (Collage)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 12 April 2022 — Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, affirmed this Tuesday that efforts to return to the country of the two doctors kidnapped for three years in Kenya continue “tirelessly,” though their whereabouts are still unknown.

“Today marks three years since the kidnapping of our doctors Assel and Landy. We continue tirelessly to make arrangements for their safe return to the Homeland with their families,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Surgeon Landy Rodríguez and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera were captured in the Kenyan city of Mandera (northeast), on the border with Somalia, and then taken to the latter country by alleged members of the Somali jihadist group Al Shabab.

On April 12, 2019, they were traveling, as usual, in a convoy to the Mandera hospital, protected by armed escorts, when they were intercepted after a shootout in which one of the police officers responsible for their security died.

The man who worked as a driver for both was sentenced at the end of last March to life imprisonment. According to local press reports, Issack Ibrein Robow, a Somali, was found guilty of kidnapping, aiding in a terrorist act and fraudulently obtaining an identity card. continue reading

Herrera and Rodríguez were part of a contingent of a hundred Cuban professionals who arrived in Kenya in 2018 as part of a bilateral agreement to improve access to specialized health services in that African country.

The governments of Cuba, Kenya and Somalia say that since the doctors were captured they have been making joint efforts to achieve their release.

In May 2019, traditional leaders from Kenya and Somalia who traveled to the Al Shabab-controlled region of Jubaland in Somalia to negotiate on behalf of the doctors, reported seeing the doctors providing medical assistance to the local population. According to the mediators, the kidnappers even demanded a reward of 1.5 million dollars as a condition for their release, the Kenyan press reported at the time.

Every time there is a contact in this regard with those countries, the Cuban authorities usually disclose it, although in a concise way and without specific details about the efforts.

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The New and Stealthy Omicron is Already Present in Most of Cuba

The Ministry of Health asked to maintain the use of the mask on the Island. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 April 2022 — The stealthy variant of ómicron, BA.2, was confirmed in at least ten provinces of Cuba according to the director of epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, Francisco Durán, who proposed this Monday at his weekly press conference to continue with protection measures.

This strain, which as of March has been predominant in Europe, Asia and the United States, is more contagious than the original omicron variant, although the covid-19 it causes is even less serious.

The daily report of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) does not specify in which ten provinces the new strain was found, but it indicated that as of April 11, 342 new localized infections and 2,367 active cases were registered on the island.

In total, there are 6,089 hospitalized patients and another 3,672 Cubans with suspected disease. The report adds that the provinces with the most positive cases for covid-19 in one day are Mayabeque, Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey.

Regarding the deaths, those in charge of health on the Island report 8,519 deaths from covid-19, and in the last week there were four deaths, as of Saturday. continue reading

On March 30, President Miguel Díaz-Canel called for extreme sanitary measures to prevent a new wave of infections, since government scientists predicted, despite the immunization campaign, a progressive increase in confirmed cases and hospitalizations. , according to the official newspaper Granma.

Days later, the Ministry of Public Health announced that as of April 6 it would no longer be necessary for international travelers to present PCR results, an antigen test or a vaccination card to enter the Island.

Despite this, the use of a mask is still mandatory, and “random screening” is maintained.

The authorities report that more than 10.6 million Cubans, in a population of approximately 11.5 million, have at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine and more than nine million have already received the second and third doses.

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Musician Sentenced to Six Years for July 11th (11J) Brands ISA Officials as ‘Ass Kissers’

Musician Abel González Lescay was sentenced to six years in prison for 11J. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, April 12, 2022–The University Council of the Universidad de las Artes (ISA) has branded an open letter shared by a group called #FreeAbelLescay as “campaigns that intend to discredit the Revolution.” The group seeks to revoke the sentence of musician Abel González Lescay, a musical composition student at ISA who was sentenced to six years in prison for his participation in the July 11th protests in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.

The state institution believes the campaigns intend to “appeal to the empathies of students and professors, simplifying the events for which Lescay was penalized,” and, in addition, they insist that the “existing judicial system in the country is unknown, since his case is under review by the People’s Supreme Court.”

ISA confirmed that, “promoted by the press and political operatives,” these campaigns intend to “manipulate the transparency of the trials that resulted from the events of July 11, 2021,” in which, they said, there were representatives of the institution who “attended the oral trial” and “can vouch for adherence to consitutional guarantees.”

The musician has thanked the institution for the support it provided and for not being “the most repressive part of the dictatorship”, but invites ISA as well as the University of Havana to take interest in what the sanction documents say. Those who attended the trial “may discover lies like those of a detective game. The others will read a literary text so absurd as to cause us to be, as we say, empingue*.

Lescay adds that he does not know of a single campaign that intends to discredit “what they call the Revolution, disrespecting Castillian” and classifies the authors of the institution’s statement “shameless” and “ass kissers,” even though they may have done so with “good intentions.” continue reading

Abel Lescay was arrested at home–from where he was removed naked–on July 12th and was tortured and threatened with death for six days, according to his testimony. After being released on July 18th, “complex” days followed, he recalls. “What occurs in jail is ugly, and then in the street you remain poisoned for some time.”

On various occasions the musician has said that he had never had problems at ISA and that prior to beginning the current school year he went to speak to the dean, who referred to him as “a talented student” and offered psychological support to recover from the impact of the days he spent in jail.

For Lescay, who was tried on January 26th, the Prosecutor sought seven years in jail for public disorder, aggravated contempt of a continuous nature and contempt of a basic figure of a continuous nature; he was free while he awaited his sentencing. Finally, the total sentence was six years, four for “aggravated contempt,” two for “public disorder” and one for “contempt of a basic figure.”

The ISA’s University Student Federation (FEU) had published on April 8th a declaration to “alert” on the use of several students’ names in the letter which, according to them, was modified after it had been circulating at the instutition, “saying that the convicted student had been tried for ’simply rapping on a public street’.”

“This will not affect the public integrity of our students, but rather, it manipulates and unscrupulously uses their name and image to further the interests of feeding a political campaign around the judicial proceedings related to July 11th,” said FEU, who also alleged that the use of several names “were obtained to speak to the sensibilities” of young people.

After the sentence was published, dozens of citizens came to the musician’s defense on social media and some of them created a movement #FreeAbelLescay, which on April 6th published a letter addressed to Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel and other Cuban leaders, in which they request the revocation of the penalty.

On Monday, the movement issued a statement in which it denounced the pressure exerted on several student signatories of the letter. “We know there have been secret meetings with faculty members of the Superior Art Institute, in addition to pressures and threats of expulsion.” The note adds that any student or individual who “voluntarily decided to support this civic initiative,” is free to support it or request that their data be removed from it.

*Translator’s note: An obscenity, without a clear counterpart in English, that suggests ’enraged.’

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Nicaragua, From Guerrilla Sanctuary to Migratory Springboard for Cubans

Augusto César Sandino International Airport, in Managua, Nicaragua. (Twitter/@NonoBaBri)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 11 April 2022 — In my primary school there was a girl who bragged that her father was on a mission in Nicaragua. She appeared one day with a sophisticated bag to carry her snack and on another day with some brightly colored hair clips that the military adviser had sent her from Managua. In my child’s mind, that country was a place of olive-green uniforms and bustling markets, the destination of revolutionaries chosen to fight and buy trinkets.

The father of that girl returned a couple of years later loaded with suitcases and boxes. They moved to a more affluent neighborhood and one day I saw him on television during a medal ceremony. That man probably did not see a combat by a long shot, but he introduced himself saying “I was on a mission in Nicaragua” and it was more than enough to open doors and dazzle those who had never left the Island.

The years passed and this week I learned that the grandson of that “proletarian internationalist” has just left Cuba through the Nicaraguan route. Unlike his grandfather, the young man had to amass dollar after dollar to pay the high sum that they now ask for a ticket to “the country of volcanoes.” He spent a couple of nights in a hotel and the next morning the coyote was waiting for him to guide him on the first leg of his route north.

He stopped only at a market in Managua to buy some food and a phone card, he avoided anyone in uniformed as much as he could, and when he crossed the border with Honduras he wrote to his mother: “first step achieved.” The land that provoked so many anecdotes, which he heard at the family table, was only a springboard to get closer to his dream of living in the United States. The nation that his grandfather proudly pointed out on a map and that the troubadours mentioned in their combative lyrics, barely passed through the retina of the young man obsessed with other latitudes.

In about 40 years the meaning of the name Nicaragua took a 360 degree turn in Cuba. If in the 1970s and 1980s that country seemed like the comrade that, in this hemisphere, was going to follow with its own imprint the footprint traced by the Cuban model, today it is seen as a country of passage from which it is necessary to leave at full speed. Daniel Ortega, then painted by official propaganda as a progressive and rebellious young man, is now a dandruff-covered dictator from whom his own citizens are fleeing.

“The borders kiss each other and start burning,” a Cuban singer-songwriter repeated at the time. And yes, they continue kissing but not to expand any revolutionary flame, nor for the North American “eagle” to take flight elsewhere, but to put land between Cubans and the country where they were born but in which they do not see themselves growing or aging.

Nicaragua has become synonymous with flight. For the grandchildren of those Cuban soldiers who accumulated merits and merchandise in Managua, the name of Augusto César Sandino is only that of the airport where they land after escaping from this Island.

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A Young Cuban Woman Spent Nine Months in Jail for Yelling on July 11th and No One Apologizes for her Abusive Arrest

Lázara Karenia González is sentenced to three years of “correctional labor without internment”. (Facebook/Kirenia Wilhelm Benitez)

14ymedio, Havana, April 9, 2022–Lázara Karenia González, arrested for participating in the peaceful protests on July 11th (11J) in Cárdenas, Matanzas, was released on Friday after receiving her sentence of three years of “correctional labor without internment.” Thus, she will be able to remain outside of prison while serving her term of labor.

During the trial against protesters in that city, which took place on March 15th, the Prosecutor sought eight years in jail for the 28-year old, the only woman among the defendants.

As stated by activist Salomé García Bacallao of Justicia 11J, which compiles all the information about those arrested around that time and provides family support, González’s sisters, Kenia Chirino and Kirenia Wilhelm Benítez, “have not stopped denouncing, despite fear of reprisals.”

García Bacallao expressed her desire to “have contributed to her release” through her work, which included editing an article written by Orelvys Cabrera about González’s arrest “for a series published in Hypermedia Magazine, which includes videos collected by Inventario.”

Following his 37-day detention, the journalist fled to Russia and recently arrived in the U.S. He stated that he was “by Lázara Karenia’s side the entire time, without knowing it” and that he saw “how they arrested her… I recorded the arrest, her participation in the protest. She always remained peaceful, shouting the slogans we all did, ’Díaz-Canel motherfucker’, ’homeland and life’, ’freedom’, ’we are not afraid’, ’get out of power’.” continue reading

Those videos are proof of the violent arrest she suffered. Kenia Chirino has explained that on July 11th, her sister, Lázara Karenia was insulted by a woman from the other side of the street, “You are a ’gusana’ [worm]*, you are a ’gusana’ [worm], because look, with those clothes!”

On several social media publications, Chirino has stated that her sister is innocent and she was only defending herself, “But why do you speak to me like that? I don’t even know you. I haven’t done anything to you,” she said to the woman who was yelling at her. And at no time was there any physical aggression between them.

Activists and those close to González assure, in contrast, that the young woman was beaten by police and by a young woman named Nayelis Corrio, who used “a prohibited martial arts technique.”

Thus, García Bacallao concludes “Lázara Karenia is innocent and deserves absolution” and states that “the Cuban dictatorship has not offered any reparation for the damages they caused her, nor for the mistreatment she suffered. None of the state agents who participated in her arrest have been held accountable for the serious abuses they committed, despite having been identified.” On the contrary, she denounces, “they are presented as victims.”

*Translator’s note: The term gusano/gusana — meaning worm or maggot — is a derogatory first applied by Fidel Castro to ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and those who wanted to leave Cuba.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Doctor Asks His Followers for Help to Finance His Departure From the Country

Pupo has been unemployed since the end of 2020. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 12 April 2022 — “I made this decision to leave Cuba several months ago because I am aware that here it will be very difficult for me to practice my profession in a hospital,” says Alexander Raúl Pupo Casas, a protesting doctor who this week has publicly announced his desire to emigrate from the island.

“I was hoping that something would happen that would prevent me from having to leave my country. I like living here, not under this regime, but I like my country and I had to take some time to come to the conclusion of emigrating.”

Pupo has been unemployed since the end of 2020, shortly after, due to pressure, he announced his resignation from a position at the Ernesto Guevara hospital in Las Tunas, where he was doing his residency in Neurosurgery.

The young doctor’s problems began as a result of a publication critical of the Cuban government: “Where are the values of our people, where is the Cuban rebellion, how long will we continue to silently endure being blackmailed to our faces?” he wrote at that time.

Shortly after, the doctor announced that he had been expelled from the hostel where he was staying and was anonymously accused of “instigating disorder and creating destabilizing campaigns and states of opinion of the institutional and civil order.” He was unable to continue his Neurosurgery specialty.

He tried to make a living by copying audiovisual materials onto USB sticks and external hard drives, but that didn’t work either. “They visited the owner of the house where I doing that work, at his workplace, and threatened him. So I was able to save my medical degree but I survive thanks to donations from friends and followers.”

“Sometimes I have to use ingenuity to survive but I have not had to commit a crime to achieve it,” he says. The future as a migrant is unknown, although he knows that in order to practice as a doctor again he will have to make an effort, but “working in other occupations would be an honor.”

“I haven’t been able to work here for more than two years. I don’t have family abroad and I’m appealing to my supporters. I don’t have property in Cuba to finance my departure from the country.” His communication this week asks for help to cover travel expenses. “Buy the ticket and leave the country, that’s what I need,” summarizes his goal.

“In Cuba there is a lot of fear, also justified due to the repression and the lack of law. We doctors know well what a dictatorship is because we live in authoritarian structures within the hospitals themselves. My colleagues have let me know of their solidarity, but the fear has kept many away from me. Though I haven’t felt alone.”

“I can only think that perhaps they could demand more regarding the rights of their patients and themselves,” he stresses. “I don’t blame them because it’s a credible and justified fear. There hasn’t been a single Cuban authority that has come out in defense of my rights.”

The exodus of health professionals is noticeable. “Very few here want to work but we have no other choice. We are slaves and we are prevented from leaving the country.” He had been regulated — the government’s term for those forbidden to leave the country — but the ban on his traveling abroad was recently lifted.

“Recently a gynecologist colleague from Holguín told me that an entire team of her specialty had emigrated. If this continues in a short time, Cuba is going to have a shortage of professionals. All this due to the disrespect that the Cuban regime has towards its doctors.”

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‘El Gato de Cuba’ Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Contempt

The Cuban ’influencer’ was arrested for “having made fun of Miguel Díaz-Canel in his last direct broadcasts.” (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 April 2022 — Yoandi Montiel Hernández, the ’influencer’ known as El Gato de Cuba, was sentenced to two years in prison for the crime of contempt, according to the opposition figure Osmay Pérez, who added that there is a possibility that the comedian will be released in the next three or five months.

“In today’s trial (Thursday, April 7), the Prosecutor’s Office asked for five years in prison for Yoandi Montiel, el Gato de Cuba, and the lawyers and the Prosecutor’s Office reached an agreement and gave him two years in prison,” Osmay said in a video posted on Youtube.

Montiel was arrested on April 12, 2021, at his home, where an operation from the Ministry of the Interior and some 20 police officers arrived. So far, he has been detained for about 11 months according to Osmay Pérez.

The regime opponent pointed out that the trial was scheduled for April 5th, and then it was postponed for Friday the 8th, but without warning the oral hearing was held this Thursday.

According to what his father, Lázaro Montiel, told Diario de Cuba El Gato was arrested for “having made fun of Miguel Díaz-Canel in his last direct broadcasts.” His mother has said that she only told “the truth.”

At the beginning of his detention, he was taken to the Villa Marista prison and in May of last year he was transferred to the Valle Grande prison, where he awaited his trial.

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In Addition to Chicken, US Farmers Want to Sell Wheat, Corn, Beans, Milk and Beer to Cuba

The Cubans ask to focus on increasing national production. (EFE)

14ymedio, Madrid, 7 April 2022 — The Cuba-US Agricultural Conference closed this Thursday with the request of US producers to expand trade “without the policies that hinder it,” according to one of them, Douglas Keesling, an agricultural businessman and representative of the Kansas State Farm Coalition.

Among the 25 members of the US group are producers, businessmen from different states and unions that harvest wheat, corn, beans, milk, rice, chicken, and other products, as well as exporters of beer and other beverages.

Since Wednesday, the US delegation has participated in the III Conference where they discussed with farmers from the Island the possibilities of sharing experiences and increasing trade.

The vice president of the Wheat Association of the North American country, Dalton Henry, said that among American agricultural businessmen there is “a lot of interest in getting closer to Cuban farmers” during a press conference before the end of his stay in the Cuban capital.

“We are hopeful that we can expand trade as other organizations in the US advocate for improved bilateral relations,” he said.

The businessman commented that “there is substantial trade between the two countries, especially in the agricultural sector and that trade takes place despite all the challenges.”

The US Department of Agriculture indicated that only in 2021 the United States doubled its chicken exports to Cuba, which amounted to 253 million dollars. This February, Cuba imported 31,212 tons of chicken from the neighboring country, the third highest figure in recent decades and 33% more than the previous month. continue reading

Keesling noted that the US exports more than 50% of the food it produces. And he considered that trade between his country and the Island would be “mutually beneficial” and said that he feels “optimistic.”

The North American businessmen and farmers also stated that the Cuban market is “very important” for them due to the proximity between the two countries, which is “key” for the commercialization of their products, and they trusted in the possibility of carrying out exchanges with Cuban scientists from the sector like they have done with other countries.

They said that they had the opportunity to visit the farms of Cuban farmers in the western provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque and that they would like to receive them in the United States to show them how they use technologies in their productions.

The day before, Miguel Díaz-Canel made a new nod to the United States, a few hours after invoking a phrase by Fidel Castro to appeal for dialogue. “We have come here to improve our relations and also to end the embargo,” said the president, before the coalition made up of a hundred state agricultural organizations, corporations and producers from both countries conspired against US sanctions since 2018.

The Cuban president stressed the importance of the neighboring country’s agricultural sector “contributing what it can at such a complex time… We can learn a lot from you about the application of technology and the development of production methods that, we know, are very efficient,” he said in his speech at the Palace of the Revolution.

Paul Johnson, president of the Coalition, stated that both parties have “common objectives that allow them to achieve common results,” in response to Díaz-Canel, who insisted that “there is potential to forge paths and bridges together.”

US farmers said Wednesday they would like to sell more wheat and other farm products to the island, but the embargo makes it difficult for them.

“We’re paralyzed because of this embargo. We can’t even compete on equal terms with other providers around the world, because they can offer credit… that means a lot,” Johnson said.

The president of the Coalition insisted that they must find a way to “eliminate barriers.” The Reuters agency indicated that farmers affirm that the proximity of the United States and Cuba (about 90 miles), could cut shipping prices compared to products imported from Europe and other points.

The US embargo on Cuba has exemptions for the purchase of food products, but the US farmers and Cuban authorities consider that the conditions contravene the norms of normal international trade. Among the demands is that of paying in cash and in advance, an anomaly in the international context, but which has not prevented tons of food from arriving monthly in that direction.

Meanwhile, what the Cuban side demanded was to be able to export to raise money and buy other products that cannot be produced on the island. “We don’t want them to give us anything. We want the possibility of selling and buying,” cooperative member Abelardo Alvarez told Reuters.

According to data from the US Congressional Research Service, before 1959 Cuba was the ninth country in the export market for US agricultural products, while today it is below 50th.

The US National Association of State Departments of Agriculture maintains that without the embargo the exchanges would be around one billion dollars per year, compared to the current 250 million.

The readers of the report in Cubadebate, despite being favorable to the end of the sanctions and the increase in exchanges with the United States, interpret the movement as an attempt by the farmers to do export business and demand that efforts be put into national production.

“The only way to get out of the quagmire we are in is to rebuild and make sustainable the disappeared Cuban agricultural industry, first to satisfy internal needs by substituting unnecessary imports and, once this is achieved, to export our surpluses to the world market,” writes a commentator.

“As long as we continue thinking about the blockade and buying and spending those millions that could be allocated to other sectors and not investing to produce it here in the country, we will continue with the same discourse and the same scarcity,” comments another.

From very different positions, the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, commented last Tuesday on the trade statistics between the two countries along the same lines: “Importing chicken meat from one market or another is an option. There are alternatives, but the question that should be answered is, why does Cuba hardly produce chicken meat? Jamaica produces almost all the chicken meat it consumes.

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‘They Want to Get Rich at the Expense of the Pain of Cubans’

There are still dozens of Cubans in Guyana, spending money that is beginning to be unsustainable for their families. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 8 April 2022 — Juan and Ernestina (fictitious names) arrived in Georgetown, Guyana, on March 15 to process their family reunification visas. They had been ’claimed’ by their daughter, Miriela, based in the United States since 2011, who also prefers to remain anonymous because she insists that her parents are “in the hands of a mafia.”

The process — mandatory since the United States Embassy in Cuba suspended services in 2017 after the appearance of diplomats with strange symptoms known as “Havana syndrome” — should have been simple, but it has become a trial of anguish and expense.

Before arriving in Guyana, the couple, who are around 70 years old, had “12 days of anguish,” says their daughter, first because there was no ticket on any airline. “We spent hundreds of dollars calling Copa [Airlines] and they didn’t sell us a ticket because, according to them, they were full until July.” Thanks to a contact, they got a flight with a stopover in Panama, at no less than almost 5,000 dollars each.

A few days after buying that ticket, the Panamanian Embassy in Havana announced that Cubans would need a transit visa to set foot on its territory traveling a third country. Although the decision, which provoked demonstrations for days in the vicinity of the consular headquarters and continues to be a source of protest, mainly affected those who planned to emigrate to the United States irregularly via Nicaragua, it also hit those who, like Juan and Ernestina, had undertaken a legal route. continue reading

Both had the consular interview between March 16 and 30, just the dates for which the immigration authorities forced the rescheduling of tickets , since the transit visa had to be requested 15 days in advance. At the last moment, the option of flying to Guyana via Trinidad and Tobago on Caribbean Airlines came up and they took it. Paying, yes, says Miriela, “another ridiculous price.”

Once in Guyana, the problems were far from diminishing. To begin with, the accommodation was not what they had been promised in the advertisement. “In theory, the hostel is a small house with all the minimum conditions. At first they tell you that they charge 90 dollars a day, but when you arrive, it turns out that they charged 100 a day for an apartment,” says Miriela. Similarly, the price included breakfast, lunch and dinner.

However, the quality and quantity of that “full board” was slight, so her parents had no choice but to go to a market to buy what they needed. With the excuse that the accommodation “is not in a very good area,” Miriela denounces, “they charge them to take them to a market far from there, by taxi.”

However, the serious part came with the clinical exams required by the US Embassy as a requirement to grant the visas. “My parents had the tests exactly 15 days ago and supposedly the results are not there,” says Miriela, who insists that “if you give them 200, 300, 400 dollars, depending on how hard you press them, or if they suppose that you have it, the analyzes appear in a matter of seconds.”

That clinic, International Medical Center, was certainly the subject of a scandal in November 2021, when its owner, Dr. Colin Roach, was murdered, a crime for which two employees were arrested, without their identity being revealed.

Miriela calculates that currently the clinic’s workers are 80% Cuban and the other 20% Guyanese and Venezuelan. For this woman from Sancti Spiritus, it is obvious that the clinic and the hostel are involved in “corruption.”

As an example, she relates how one Saturday from the lodging they offered to go to the medical center to collect the tests. “If the clinic only works from Monday to Friday, does it make any sense that the owner of a hostel, who has no relationship with the patient, shows up at her business with the results of the tests?” Miriela wonders “There is obviously influence peddling and an unequivocal link.”

Cuban Berta García Reyes, who went through the same ordeal of obtaining a family reunification visa a few months earlier, in December, argues that “the flow of people is so great that many Cubans don’t have time to get checked before going to their consular interview, so they are forced to reschedule an additional appointment at the embassy to bring the results of the medical checkup, which can take 10 or 12 days, and after bringing those results to the embassy, you have to wait for them to give them to give you a date to finally pick up your visa.”

This, she explains, “has led people to turn to these corruption mechanisms in clinics to speed up their check-ups and results. And it is common for it to be in hostels where they are told who they should go to to resolve their case.”

García Reyes does not know the sum of money in all cases, but she does know “with certainty” that “there are those who have paid a thousand dollars for an accelerated and valid check-up.”

In her case, her problems began at the consular interview itself, when, to her surprise, she was told that she had to “complete and conclude the medical check-up,” even though she had already had those tests six days earlier. “At the hostel, I found out that they had called from the clinic to let them know that I had to go to the hospital,” says García Reyes.

At the clinic, the doctor told her that “a shadow” had been observed on the X-ray image and she diagnosed her with “cystic fibrosis,” and that she should therefore undergo a sputum test “for suspicion of tuberculosis.” There were also other Cubans there whose plates also turned out to be “suspicious,” the woman narrates, “and they had to undergo the same sputum analysis. In some cases they were asthmatic people, and there were also those with COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]. They informed us that they had to follow the protocol, that is, the sputum test to rule out tuberculosis in all cases.”

All this was very alarming for García Reyes, because the results of the sputum test took between six and eight weeks, which, of course, delayed the time until she would be reunited with her daughter in the United States, but, above all, it made it made the whole process more expensive. “She had to continue to cover my lodging and food expenses – which until then was 45 dollars a day and, by having to extend the accommodation, they lowered it to 35 dollars a day – as well as other additional expenses, for transportation and telephone,” says Bertha.

Added to the anxiety produced by all this was one more concern: “Cubans always feel fear, especially when we are in the process of entering the United States and we believe that they can deport us for anything.”

So at first she went along with it, but it didn’t last long. “As the days went by, I felt I had to do something. We Cubans who were in that situation ended up connecting through the networks. I knew about cases that were in Guyana even before me, since the first week of December, and I also knew that the last sputum test for previous cases had been done on November 11, when the reagent ran out [to process the sputum sample].”

At that time, they concluded that “either the doctors at the clinic were incompetent, incapable of establishing an accurate diagnosis and proceeding accordingly, or else behind everything there was a business involving the clinic and the owners of the hostels, which benefited from the extension of the Cubans’ stay in Guyana.”

The rumor was that the clinic “accepted bribes in exchange for repeating X-rays or changing the results of medical examinations from those who were willing to pay for it.” Meanwhile, hostels were “keeping all their rooms occupied at full capacity.”

García Reyes alludes to the fact that the consular headquarters is fully aware of the situation. “We shared in the hostels with all the other Cubans, who arrived and left with their perfect medical results, those who, if we had tuberculosis, would have brought the disease to the United States. That clearly indicated to us that the medical personnel and even the embassy officials knew that we were not actually sick, so they were not even the least bit concerned or interested in resolving the situation.”

However, each time they pointed this out to officials, they were told that they were just “following protocol.”

“Many of us think that the rumors that began to spread in February (officially confirmed in March) about the restart of the consular services of the US Embassy in Havana were in some way influencing an increase in corruption among the medical centers in charge of doing exams for immigrants and the hostels where they stay, urging them to make the most of it while Cubans continue to be forced to do the paperwork in Guyana,” García Reyes details.

The wheel “began to unlock” for her after her statements to various US media, such as América TeVé and Telemundo, which publicized the problem. From there, congressmen like Marco Rubio also began to demand solutions for the Cubans stranded in Georgetown.

After Berta’s complaint to US television stations, and although without referring to the complaints, the Embassy authorized an additional doctor, Dr. Arya Devi Karyampudi, from St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital, to perform medical examinations on visa applicants.

Until then, and since Colin Roach’s murder, only Dr. Yonnette Roach had been staffing the International Medical Center. She was the one who saw Juan and Ernestina.

In this regard, Miriela continues to express her doubts about the responsibility of the United States Embassy: “If they are rescheduling most of the appointments because they are showing up without the documents, isn’t it obvious that something is happening with the clinic? What are they going to do about it?”

On March 22, without referring to the complaints, the US consular section in Guyana added two other doctors: Zulfikar Bux, from St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital, and Dev Persaud, from the Midway Specialty Care Center.

The delays, in any case, are not new, and for this reason last December the United States announced the increase in personnel at its diplomatic headquarters in Georgetown.

With not much success. Laments like those of Juan, Ernestina and Berta multiply in the Facebook group “Cubans united for family reunification,” many of them pointing directly to the consular headquarters as being responsible for the situation.

“You have to denounce these people, those from the embassy are in a plot with the hostels so that you have to spend more time here,” says Justo Toledo Luis. “When you go to the interview they ask you what hostel you are stayig in. Nobody leaves here in less than a month.”

Nierys Bermúdez refers to the owners of the hostels as “fraudsters,” charging guests $300 to “resolve” their medical check-up. “They want to get rich at the expense of Cubans’ pain, it’s too much,” she says, in the same vein as Zurileydis Domínguez Vichot: “What I think is that, as always, they make a lucrative deal off of our suffering.”

The criticism in the Facebook group has turned into praise, thanks and blessings since, this Wednesday, when the United States Embassy announced that it will resume processing in Havana the IR-5 category visas, which recognizes parents who are being claimed by US citizens.

In spite of everything, the diplomatic headquarters in Cuba insisted again that next month’s will be a “limited” resumption, which means that the Embassy in Georgetown “will continue to be the main place of processing for the majority of Cuban immigrant visa applicants.”

In addition, the embassy warned that applicants who have been notified before April 1, 2022 that their case is ready to be processed, will continue to be required to fly to Guyana. Those who have been notified after that date will have their interview scheduled in Havana.

“Given the limitations of their resources,” they added, they are not accepting “transfer requests from applicants.” They also do not have “an exact date” for when the diplomatic headquarters “will begin to process the full range of visa services for immigrants and non-immigrants,” but they assured that they will continue to provide “essential services to US citizens and a limited processing of emergency visas for nonimmigrants.”

For Berta García Reyes, the process was “without a doubt, the worst and most stressful experience” of her life, the cost of which “has been countless humiliations, mistreatment, indifference, contempt, helplessness, abandonment, anguish, to such an extent that some wanted to return to Cuba and wait for a new date.”

There are still dozens of Cubans in Guyana, spending money that is beginning to be unsustainable for their families. Miriela and her husband have spent 14,000 dollars, not counting the tickets from Guyana to the US. “And the old man’s interview is on April 22. Calculate how many dollars an average family needs for this process,” she laments with this newspaper. “Coming illegally to this country is cheaper than leaving through legal channels.”

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