14ymedio – Page 254 – Translating Cuba

Organoponics and Food Self-sufficiency in Cuba

14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, 10 December 2021 — The insistence of the communist Cuban regime in promoting urban, suburban and family agriculture as a way of achieving food sovereignty is now past a joke. Because it is one thing to amuse yourself in communist conclaves with these types of proposals which take you nowhere. There are darker motives, of that there is no doubt. But something else entirely is their idea of growing pumpkins or taros in parks or gardens, in flower pots, or raising pigs in your back yard; that is a solution to absolutely nothing.

In every country in the world, for considerations of hygiene, coexistence with other people, and social organisation, this kind of practice has been forbidden since the middle of the last century. That this is what they want to do in Cuba, to put something on the table for lunch, or one meal a day, gives you an idea of how little the communist leaders understand, and how little they know about agriculture and stock breeding. To set out on a headlong flight on a matter this important is totally irresponsible.

In this blog, we have several times discussed the proposals which this “national group of urban, suburban and family agriculture” has come up with. The group is the organisation set up by Raúl Castro himself to advance these activities, and which, according to the state newspaper Granma, has just carried out its umpteenth tour, apparently number 90, and, also “through all parts of the country,” in order to “assess the production of vegetables using organoponic technology,” in parks, gardens, yards and flowerpots. No more, no less.

It isn’t surprising that there is a shortage of food in Cuba when a government bets on this kind of production model instead of focussing on more important things. We get the impression we are clearly seeing the death throes of the communist social model when they do this sort of thing. And never more clearly than in products so specific and in so much demand from the Cuban people as vegetable production using organoponic technology. Its like a nightmare, and one of the worst.

Why do we say that urban, suburban and family agriculture can’t solve the food problem in Cuba? continue reading

First of all , because it is a short run production model producing small quantities, just enough for a family’s own consumption, or at most for the people in a couple of streets, and on this basis, unable to resolve a problem which affects most of the society.

The Cuban agricultural sector, instead of producing in smaller spaces, needs to achieve increasing output to scale where it gets to the minimum point on the unit cost curve, with efficient technology, or, to put it into simple terms, growing things on land areas sufficient for what it wants to harvest. Vegetables, for example, require parcels of land of a certain size in order to grow things at the best prices.

Communist ideology’s rejection of wealth is a political obstacle to land distribution which, in other countries, like Vietnam, has been the solution to agricultural shortages.

Secondly, in contrast to what the communist leaders say, this programme is unsustainable, and, on the contrary, is high-risk. We have referred to sanitary conditions, but we have to pay attention to the processes and techniques used in production. To revert to obsolete and unproductive methods is hardly sustainable, calling for higher input than in efficient land plot sizes.

To bring agricultural activity near to urban areas where people are pursuing their lives, entails social risks. For example, crop irrigation; where does the water come from? Perhaps from everyone’s drinking water supply? This is unsustainable, and wasteful, which will end badly. Also one could mention use of fertilisers and plant protection products, which can be applied to organoponics in urban gardens, next to roses or daisies. All very pretty, but dangerous.

Thirdly, and most importantly, no-one can expect any kind of food self-sufficiency, despite Granma saying that they “have stabilised production.” If we want to talk about statistics, the ONEI (National Statistics & Information Office) confirms that during 2021 (January to September period) vegetable production, including all varieties, has experienced a reduction of 214 thousand tons compared with the same period the previous year, that is 8.5% less, so that Cubans had less supply than in 2020, which was already a bad year. Less to choose from all the time.

Granma itself acknowledges, citing an expert in this programme attempting to cultivate taros in public gardens, that the levels of production achieved “are insufficient in most of the subprogrammes.” And, it has to be said, they will continue to be.

This “national group of urban, suburban, and family agriculture” can continue visiting every area in Cuba, and coming up with slogans in all of them, in order to carry on with its tours the following year. At the end of the day, going around like that at least does not get in the way of the work of the farmworkers working their furrows, who are the ones who are really committed to food self-sufficiency in the country, but who are impeded by the government with all sorts of obstacles and intrusions.

Without any doubt, this model of garden agriculture will not increase agricultural productivity, nor assist food self-sufficiency, and certainly not local resilience and sustainability. It is a foolish dream from the past, like when Fidel Castro in the middle of the “Special Period,” gave Cuban families chickens from the state farms to raise in their own homes, just to entertain people who had nothing to do, but will never produce more food nor sort out any kind of self-sufficiency.

The Cuban communist regime needs to understand that if it wants to provide a food supply to the people in this country, it needs to start by forgetting about 30 pounds per capita of agricultural products in their projects, or about worn-out experiments like organoponics, and let Cuban farmers decide what to produce, how much to produce, at what prices, and, above all, free to do it where they think convenient, and employing the area of land they wish, not what has been leased out by the local communists, Organoponics won’t appear anywhere. And won’t destroy the few gardens surviving in parks, accentuate the general destruction of the urban landscapes, or produce infections of back yards, and flower pots, with weeds, insects, and also cause sanitary and social problems.

Translated by GH

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The Official Press Invents an Intense Storm to Explain the Loss of Shrimp at Tunas de Zaza

The official press reports that the company managed to recover roughly one and a half tons of shrimp. (Escambray)

14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Havana, December 8, 2021 — Two days after an article appeared in 14ymedio on the breach of a holding pond, the official press responded with an improbable explanation for the “escape” of roughly fifteen tons of shrimp intended for export from an aquatic farm in Tunas de Zaza, a town in Sancti Spiritus province.

According to an article in the local newspaper Escambray, which was later reposted on Cubadebate, the incident was precipitated by intense storms which caused a failure in one of the ponds used by the state-owned Cultizaza company to farm shrimp. “The water in the damn overflowed and, with it, a large portion of its growing biomass,” the article states.

Cultizaza’s director, Luis Orlando Rodriguez, is quoted in the article as saying, “We were able to recover about a ton and a half of the crustacean after the precipitous loss of water from the upper end of the dam.” However, neither local weather reports nor meteorological websites indicate there was any heavy rainfall on either the day of the incident or on previous days in the coastal Caribbean town.

This is confirmed by several area residents, one of them a man named Rafael, who tells 14ymedio that there had only been light rainfall, “with no water running through the streets,” in recent days.

“It takes at least three days of heavy rains before a pond will overflow,” explains Rafael, “and no water was getting into the ponds. Not from a river or continue reading

from any other source. They are only fed with seawater. If there had actually been that much rain, it wouldn’t have been the ponds that were inundated. It would have been the town of Tunas de Zaza because it’s at a very low elevation.”

A company employee who prefers to remain anonymous told 14ymedio on Tuesday that the walls of the giant reservoirs where the shrimp are grown are very thin and have not been properly maintained for a long time. “They emptied the pond from one side and the pressure from five feet of water caused the walls to blow out. When two adjoining ponds are full, they balance each other out. But as one of them was being emptied, it couldn’t withstand the pressure from the one alongside it” she explains.

Responding to pleas from company employees, dozens of residents rushed to the site and gathered up all the shrimp they could before they could spoil. At the time of the spill, the shrimp had been ready for harvest. “A lot of people were even putting them in their pockets,” said Yisel, one of the lucky volunteers.

In his statements to Escambray, Rodriguez insisted that his workers “showed up immediately” and “worked together to collect the animals, which were about to be harvested, so damage was minimal.” He also pointed out that, after being alerted, dozens of local volunteers showed up at the site to help recover some of the shrimp.

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Cuban Customs Extends Free Entry of Foods and Other Products for Six Months

Cuban customs authorized these types of imports on an exceptional basis in July. (Courtesy)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 December 2021 — The unlimited importation of food, hygiene products and medicines is extended for another half year in Cuba. The measure was approved last July, just three days after the outbreak of the anti-government protests of 11J (11 July) and was scheduled to expire on December 31, but it is extended until June 30, 2022 for the time being, as confirmed by the General Customs of the Republic (AGR) this Wednesday.

The regulation provides for non-commercial importation “with no import value limit and free of payment of tariffs” and, according to the authorities, “has had a favorable impact on the population and passengers who arrived in the country.”

The shortage of food, hygiene products and medicines, although chronic in Cuba, visibly worsened starting in 2020, when the pandemic forced border closures around the world. Until then, the market was informally nourished by ’mules’ who traveled to countries such as Panama or Mexico to stock up on these items, which were difficult to find in Cuba, and who resold them upon arrival.

The existence of this parallel market was an escape valve for the population that, despite being forced to pay sometimes very high prices, was able to find products which were difficult, if not impossible, to find in state stores, even those taking payment only in foreign currency. continue reading

The cancellation of flights and limitations on mobility left the population largely unsupplied and that frustration coupled with the lack of freedom, caused thousands of people to take to the streets on July 11.

The government’s response was to authorize these tax-exempt imports “on an exceptional basis” and as separate cargo from luggage, but nothing has improved since then despite the fact that the borders have been reopening.

According to the Government, the extension is due to the impact of the covid-19, but also, and looking ahead, to the fact that “the persistent limitations in the offers of these products is motivated, among other causes, by the intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the Government of the United States.”

The AGR also reported that the tariff benefits related to the importation by state entities of the same products and, also, of the inputs or raw materials that they bring for private businesses, are extended until the same date of the end of June.

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Andy Garcia’s Lawyer Confirms His Transfer to Guamajal Prison in Villa Clara

Andy García Lorenzo’s family members went to the prison to ask about the activist. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, December 8, 2021 — On Tuesday, Cuban political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo, detained following the protests on July 11th (11J), received a visit from his lawyer at the Guamajal prison in Villa Clara, where he had been transferred last week from La Pendiente prison in that same province. The young man’s family had presented a habeas corpus petition before the People’s Provincial Tribunal last Monday to request information about “his physical and psychological condition” after losing touch with the activist.

“The lawyer was able to see him. He was there for a bit over an hour with Andy,” the young man’s sister, Roxana García, told 14ymedio. “We still do not have details about why he was transferred but he [the lawyer] told us he was well. He sent us word that he was neither mistreated nor beaten. All we know is that he was transferred to Guamajal and that we will be able to see him this Friday, which is visitation day.”

Family members still have no news about a trial date and stated that García Lorenzo did not participate in the protests some of the prisoners in La Pendiente prison staged a few days ago. From that prison, several sources had denounced to his family that an unknown number of prisoners were transferred and their whereabouts were unknown, a situation which was denounced by several human rights activists and Archipiélago.

García Lorenzo is accused of “public disorder” and “contempt” following his participation in the protests of 11J and for which the prosecutor’s office is seeking seven years in prison.

His family members have demanded the activist’s release on several occasions. On November 15 they stood outside of their front door, dressed in white, as a way of responding to the call for the Civic March launched by Archipiélago. Furthermore, they have created a support network for political prisoners and a Help Group which has begun to receive and distribute donations among prisoners. continue reading

“This group was created with the objective of providing economic assistance, through the so-called sacks of food and other initiatives, to political prisoners in communist regime jails for the 11J protests,” states the information describing the initiative on Facebook. “Today these guys are subjected to abandonment by the dictatorial Government. Let’s try to make their days less difficult under these conditions until our country is free.”

In a conversation with this daily, Roxana García explained that “we’ve already collected quite a bit of money,” and that, although at the beginning, they did not have much contact with family members of prisoners, they’ve been able to advance their objectives.

On the other hand, on Tuesday, we learned that the trial for Luis Robles Elizastigui, “the young man with the placard” asking for freedom along San Rafael Boulevard in Havana a year ago, will take place on December 16th.

His brother, Landy Fernández Elizastigui, told 14ymedio his mother received the news in a call from an official from the Provincial Tribunal fo Havana. Fernández stated that Robles has been in jail for a year and that, according to his investigative file, the prosecutor accuses him of “enemy propaganda” and “resistance” and seeks six years in prison.

Luis Robles is the father of a young boy who recently turned two. His trial was scheduled for July 16th, but was postponed due to the 11J protests. The activist has denounced from jail that he has been tortured and mistreated; he was declared a prisoner of conscience this year by the NGO Prisoners Defenders.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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‘To Those Who Want to Divide Us, Let’s Not Give Them the Pleasure,’ Archipielago Coordinators Ask

Some of the signatories of the “declaration of permanence” of Archipíelago. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 10 December 2021 — The Cuban civic platform Archipíelago published this Friday a “declaration of permanence” signed by its coordinators as a result of the resignation in recent days of several of its members.

“It’s hard to reinvent oneself every day in the middle of governmental hostility and anguish of a sick society; bring consensus to the diverse voices of those who have decided who inhabit this project, and maintain at all costs the plurality and democracy,” the collective wrote on their social networks. Archipíelago organized the Civic March for Change of November 15 (15N), which finally could not be carried out due to the repression of the Cuban Government .

The activists insist on pointing out that they remain committed to “fighting together to achieve a Cuba with rights for all people…No one said it would be easy or that we would achieve our goals in a short time; no one has promised paradise.”

In its call for unity, the platform claimed that the future of the Island “cannot be left in the hands of one group, once again, but that we will have to build it among all and for all, without exclusions or privileges,” therefore they make it clear that “freedom will not be achieved by an individual or a group, but by the participation of a citizenry aware that change is in their hands.” continue reading

When sharing the statement, the group included the opinion of several coordinators, such as the Holguin writer Zulema Gutiérrez, who called on the group to continue working: “To those who want to divide us, let’s not give them the pleasure. There are still prisoners, there is one bloody Cuba, hungry people, people who do not know that they have the right to have rights. We are going to lift ourselves.” In addition, she requested that “this be the last day of truce and internal pain because there is a lot of pain in all of Cuba, and we must continue.”

Miryorly García Prieto, editor and also member of the 27N group, called for unity among her colleagues and was hopeful: “I know that one day this Revolution of Affections will triumph, it will overcome the political mistakes that we make, because we will not be so good in politics, perhaps, but solidarity and truth accompany us, and that will be enough.”

“If before I had millions of reasons to risk everything for Cuba, now there are more,” said playwright Yunior García Aguilera, one of the most prominent promoters of the Archipiélago, today in Madrid, who made it clear that “whatever they say,” he is staying on the platform he calls his “Parliament of frank and diverse voices.”

“New dynamics are coming in this process of transformation and reconstruction,” said Yahíma Díaz, a psychologist by profession and resident of Pinar del Río, adding that the group tries “to re-signify our history with a whole host of thoughts, feelings and, above all, that hope that makes us feel alive.”

The Holguin doctor Manuel Guerra, another of the coordinators and who along with many of his colleagues has suffered harassment and repression by the regime after announcing the 15N march, pointed out that they have two options: “Intimidate us and hope for a miracle, or take the bull by the horns and not yield a millimeter until we achieve our objectives, until we see our majestic Archipiélago free, sovereign, prosperous and radiant.”

After García Aguilera left for Spain, several members of the platform announced that they were leaving the organization. Among the most recent are Saily González, who was one of the most prominent coordinators, and the dissident Magdiel Jorge Castro.

When announcing her decision, González pointed out that she was departing from the most important undertaking that she contributed to in her life, “the human group that has been and is the most fraternal to me,” and as justification she said that her world “walks at 48 frames per second and logic makes Archipíelago walk at 24.”

Also leaving the group were the lawyer Fernando Almeyda, activist Daniela Rojo and professor Leonardo Fernández Otaño, who confessed, like Almeyda, he did not share “a group of political actions carried out by Yunior García Aguilera since his departure from Cuba.”

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The Cuban Calendar Has Been Filled With Days of Human Rights

Several police officers arrest a man who is demonstrating in Havana, on July 11. (EFE / Ernesto Mastrascusa)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 10 December 2021 — Whatever happened to that student who vehemently justified the act of repudiation against activists in a Lawton park on 10 December 1998? For a week, that teenager and her fierce classmates were portrayed as the young face of revolutionary intransigence and even bragged about breaking a camera belonging to the foreign press.

Almost a quarter of a century later, probably many of those who participated in that repressive day have already emigrated, or have become disillusioned with the system, or are currently surviving thanks to corrupt practices. But the regime that used them as shock troops remains willing to take over Human Rights Day, to not allow public demands from citizens, and to violently crush those who dare to take to the streets to demand freedom for political prisoners.

Authoritarian regimes know that they can always find people willing to attack others, they are skilled in handling base human passions, but the truth is that the reluctance of Cubans to respond to official calls to “confront the enemy” is noticeable. Although there are some who pose for photos with a club in hand or pretend to shoot an opponent without even knowing how to position the rifle, the vast majority avoid becoming involved in the oppressive machinery.

If a few decades ago that girl dressed in her school uniform strutted on television about having disbanded an opposition march with screams and blows, today her children could be among those who are dragging their feet when they are taken from school to a “false fair,” in a park where previously a call was launched to protest the lack of freedoms. Her enthusiasm was cooled by reality; their apathy is a form of rebellion. continue reading

Despite the little impetus of its followers, officialdom continues to deploy its old propaganda and police machinery on this day that commemorates the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the now distant year 1948. The approach ranges from trying to appropriate the concept by flooding the press with the supposed social achievements of the system and hijacking the hashtags on social networks, to the crudest practices of arrest, hate rallies, and cutting off the phone lines of opponents.

But the almanac has become a problem for Castroism. If before it had to concentrate its greater efforts of surveillance and control around the day of human rights, now it has dates all over the place. The popular protests of July 11 showed that Cubans have been gaining in civic awareness to the same extent that they have also accumulated social unrest. The militarization to prevent the Civic March of November 15 added another mark to the calendar.

The Plaza of the Revolution has to live each day with the same shock provoked on this December Day a few years ago. In each of the 24 hours, from sunrise to sunset, it is permanently engaging in the exhausting strategy of stifling focal points of disagreement, avoiding riots, frightening potential protesters, convincing allies that the Communist Party has an eternity ahead of it at the helm of the nation, diverting resources from the national budget to strengthen its political police and praying… yes, praying, that people do not take to the streets again.

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Cuban Activist Guillermo Fariñas is Detained and Taken Against His Will to a Hospital

Guillermo Fariñas was taken against his will to Arnaldo Milián Hospital, denounced his daughter. (@haisa_fainas)

14ymedio, Havana, December 9, 2021 — Minutes before he was to give a telephone interview to Actualidad Radio on Thursday, Cuban State Security detained Guillermo Fariñas, coordinator of the United Antitotalitarian Forum. “People from State Security came dressed as nurses,” denounced the activist’s mother, Alicia Hernández, before that same media outlet.

Fariñas’s detention occurred right after he and Berta Soler, both recognized with the European Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, delivered letters to the European Union’s (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and to the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. In these, they accused the EU of abandonment over the situation in Cuba and, furthermore, threatened to return their awards.

“The Sakharov Prize should be a commitment of all parties to never use diplomatic silence in the face of human rights violations and, even less so, in the face of crimes against humanity,” they detailed in their missives.

Thursday, after several hours without knowing the Cuban activist’s whereabouts, his daughter Haisa Fariñas located him at the “Pulmonology unit, bed 1 of Arnaldo Milián Hospital.” A place where, she stated, “he is being held against his will.”

The young lady used her social media to denounce that Fariñas has been “kidnapped” by State Security for “opposing the Castro regime.” The dissident was complying with continue reading

bed rest as recommended by doctors following his release from the hospital arrest to which he was subjected ahead of the march on 15N — organized by the online platform Archipiélago — which was thwarted.

Regarding Fariñas’s detention, the Cuban business owner and activist Manuel Milanés alerted that this method of detention is the same was used by the regime “on 15N, anticipating that tomorrow is December 10th, Human Rights Day.” He stated that the dissident ” is not sick.” The detention, he because, is because “it is no longer sufficient to have him under surveillance 24/7. They must kidnap him to prevent him from demonstrating.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Official Fairs Return to Cuban Parks to Confront Human Rights Day

Students in Trillo Park this December 9 in the afternoon. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 9 December 2021 — The protests of July and the call for the Civic March on 15N (15 November) have made the Cuban regime nervous. It is enough for a group of activists to propose a demonstration for officialdom to redouble the police presence, stage a fair in the place and mobilize dozens of members of the State Security. If, in addition, the event is planned for Human Rights Day, the unease of the Government multiplies.

A day in advance, from this Thursday several Havana parks have been taken over by students who do not understand very well what they are commemorating. In the squares you can see improvised tents with food stalls and revolutionary music at full volume. The calculated event will last until December 10 to cover any possible act of civic vindication.

“The teacher told us that today and tomorrow we had to counteract the possible marches in the parks,” says Joan, a student who is in the eighth grade at a basic high school in Centro Habana. “They gave us an early dismissal so we could attend the activities.”

Although at first the teacher explained to Joan and his classmates that they were going to carry out “exploration and camping activities, as they do on camping trips”, what Joan and his classmates found in La Normal park, in Manglar Street, was “a tent and music recorded at full volume.” continue reading

In the squares there are improvised tents with food stands and revolutionary music at full volume. (14ymedio)

“They were also setting up an improvised stage where someone will surely play later,” explained the 14-year-old, who also noted the insistence from the directors of his school that the students remain in the park. “We started to play soccer and those of us who had a mobile phone connected to the Wi-Fi network, until I got tired and snuck home.”

The same scene is repeated in other parks in the capital, where a strong presence of young people dressed in the school uniforms of various levels can be observed. “There is a circus in Trillo Park today,” an elderly resident of Centro Habana told 14ymedio. “They tell me that in Central Park and the one in front of the Design Institute, there have also been tents since yesterday with sales of bread and other products that have been missing, plus the characteristic show with revolutionary background music,” he said.

In 1998, a similar mobilization of high school students and members of the Union of Young Communists congregating in Butari Park, in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, ended with them attacking several activists who had chosen the place for a peaceful demonstration during the day for Human Rights.

The incident included blows against the cameras of the foreign press, one of which was significantly damaged. One of the correspondents’ microphones was stolen by the mob and several dissidents were detained in the days before and during December 10 itself. After that the opposition figure Óscar Elías Biscet launched a call to march in that square

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Jonathan Torres’ Mother Will Start a Hunger Strike in a Church to Demand His Release

Bárbara Farrat Guillén with her son Jonathan Torres Farrat who was arrested on August 13. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 December 2021 — Bárbara Farrat Guillén, mother of Jonathan Torres Farrat, one of the young people imprisoned by the protests on July 11 (11J) in Havana, has carried out two 24-hour fasts and confirmed to 14ymedio that she will start a hunger and thirst strike together to the father of her son in demand for his release.

“The strike will start on the 11th [December] because the 10th is my son’s visit and I need to tell him the decision I made and to say goodbye to him since I don’t know what will happen,” Farrat Guillén wrote this Monday in his Facebook profile, announcing that he will make his protest publicly in a church, yet without specifying which, “so that everyone can see that it is real and they can come and support us.”

The young man, who turned 17 that same Sunday, July 11 and is asthmatic in addition to suffering from heart disease, was not arrested immediately, but a month later, on August 13, when he was identified in two videos seized by the police.

“I need to get my son out of jail. This whole process is not only affecting him, but also the whole family, even his son, just one month and ten days old,” Farrat Guillén told this newspaper in anguish.

In the videos that the police presented to accuse Jonathan Torres, Farrat Guillén told Radio and Television Martí, her son is observed with a stick and also that picking up a stone and throwing it. For this reason, they accuse him of “attack,” “public disorder” and “propagation of an epidemic.” However, so far neither the young man nor his family have been shown the prosecutor’s request. continue reading

“It is true that my son appears in a video throwing a stone but it was because there were hundreds of policemen attacking them [the protesters],” said Farrat Guillén in an interview with CiberCuba, in which she also assures that before arriving at the “evidence” that he accused her son, the investigator showed her numerous images “in which the officers are seen throwing stones” at those who were protesting that Sunday.

“Here [in the municipality of Diez de Octubre] there were shots. I know my neighbors who had gunshot wounds,” said the mother before asking: “What justice can there be in this country than for [throwing] a stone – because you are defending yourself, because you are an equal human being — they put you in prison and they are accusing you of a lot of crimes?”

The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Havana has denied so far, as Farrat Guillén confirmed to this newspaper, six changes of precautionary measures for her son, who has been in the jail for Young Men of the West for almost four months.

In Cuba, criminal responsibility is enforceable from 16 years of age. For people over 16 years of age and under 18, the minimum and maximum limits of penalties can be reduced by up to half, and with respect to those aged 18 to 20, up to a third.

Some 40 minors were detained after July 11 , despite the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, assured that there were no prisoners of those ages in Cuban prisons. At present, according to a registry kept by the Cubalex Legal Information Center , 14 adolescents remain imprisoned.

Farrat Guillén told 14ymedio that she has felt supported by other mothers of the minors who are still in prison after 11J. Although there is currently no coordinated action, she announced that in the coming days several family members will demonstrate publicly to demand the release of their children.

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The Families of Cuban Political Prisoners Will Speak Live on December 10

Andy García Lorenzo’s family is one of the most active champions of the cause for the liberation of those incarcerated from 11J. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 9 December 2021 — A group of Cuban activists and influencers will broadcast live and simultaneously this Friday, International Human Rights Day, the event “The families of political prisoners in Cuba speak.”

The meeting, organized at the request of the family of Andy García Lorenzo, detained after the July 11 protests in Santa Clara and recently transferred to the Guamajal prison, Villa Clara, will take place at 2 pm local time.

The idea, explains the sister of the young prisoner, Roxana García, to 14ymedio “is to make a direct broadcast in which all the families that want to can join, to speak, to express what they feel, to report whatever they want, all the violations that they are being committed against our families.”

According to the businesswoman Saily González, one of the participants through her networks, the live will continue uninterrupted until all the relatives who wish to participate and tell about their experience are interviewed.

To do this, they will also use CubaSpaces, which already broadcast on Twitter what happened on the island during November 14 and 15, when State Security thwarted the Civic March for Change organized by the Archipíelago platform.

In addition, the organizers say, there will also be “intermediate sections” for the participation of “other national and international initiatives to support Cuban political prisoners and their families.” continue reading

So far, the event will be broadcast on González’s profile on Facebook and the YouTube channels of the Andy García family, the director Ian Padrón, Eliécer Ávila, Luis Dener, Guena Rod and La Familia Pérez.

Other artists, such as Claudia Valdés and Yotuel Romero, have also offered their support to publicize the broadcast.

Andy García Lorenzo’s family is one of the most active champions of the cause for the liberation of those incarcerated from 11J. A few days ago, they placed a poster on the roof of their house in Santa Clara demanding the freedom of the political prisoner, and on November 15 they staged a protest in front of the door of their house that was answered with a prolonged act of repudiation .

“Everything we are doing with Andy is very important to us,” says Roxana García. “We are letting him know that as long as he has us as a family and as long as he is still in detention, we are not going to leave him alone.”

The young woman is aware that “the trials will soon be held,” but they are very clear about something: “No matter how long a prison sentence they ask for my brother, as long as he is deprived of his freedom, I am not going to shut up. Not me, not my parents, not my entire family.”

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Coffee in Cuba? Not Even in the Dollar Stores

Cubita coffee could only be found at a high price and in beans. There was no trace of the ground. (Networks)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 December 2021 — Two days before the end of the month of November, Pedro went to buy coffee at the bodega [ration store], but was very upset when they told him there was none. “No, there is no coffee now, you have to wait for it to come back in,” the clerk explained as he handed back the ration book.

The Havanan was not satisfied with the explanation, but shrugged and started looking for coffee elsewhere. Last month something similar had happened with the sugar, which he could not buy either because, they told him, “it got wet,” although he knew well that there were no leaks in that establishment and that it had not rained those days.

Pedro remembered that in the Sorpresas store, located in the Plaza Carlos III shopping center, they sell coffee in foreign currency. On one occasion he went there for an emergency and bought a couple of small packages for $1.75, so he decided to use the magnetic card of a freely convertible currency (MLC) account in which he keeps some savings in foreign currency, thanks to the remittances that his emigrated daughter sends to him.

The store window displays large packages of Cubita at $14.65, a fairly high price for the retiree, but he still decides to enter the establishment. To his surprise, there is no line, a rarity in this busy center, and the saleswoman is distracted playing on her mobile phone. continue reading

“Grandpa, that coffee is in beans. We haven’t had any ground for days,” says the employee to the disappointed customer. “Now what do I do? I have nowhere to grind the beans, a machine for that nowadays is like a museum object,” Pedro laments. The young woman suggests that he go to the Gran Manzana hotel, where there is a shop dedicated to nationally produced coffee. “Let’s see if you’re lucky …”, she says when they say goodbye.

The journey continues, and Pedro, already eager to find coffee, takes a taxi to Old Havana. But when he arrives at the hotel and sees the store without lines, he fears the worst. “Sir, we don’t have coffee in any format and apparently this situation is going to last a long time,” says the worker.

Pedro, who was thinking of spending money and spending extra money to get his favorite drink, then realizes that the prospect is even worse and he will have to resort to the informal market to get imported coffee, which today is sold at exorbitant prices.

The Cuba-Café Company warned this Tuesday of delays in the arrivals of imports and in the deliveries of the businesses that process the beans, which has harmed “the retail distribution of ’mixed’ coffee* for the family basket.”

The company assured that the December coffee will be sold in its month, because an improvement was already noticeable and, for the next day 25, it is hoping that the problem has been solved. But Pedro had to invest 600 pesos this Wednesday in a 10-ounce (284-gram) package purchased at Revolico, while it remains to be seen if the coffee that was missing in November will be delivered to the warehouses or if Cubans without foreign currency can be put to their lips to a cup of Cuban coffee.

*Translator’s note: “Mixed” coffee includes non-coffee ingredients, for example ground peas.

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"Los Sin Derechos" [Those Without Rights], First-Person Testimonials from Cuban Dissidents

The documentary ’Los sin Derechos’ portrays numerous cases of repression and torture. (Screen capture)

EFE, via 14ymedio, Jorge I. Pérez, Miami, December 9, 2021 — The documentary “Los Sin Derechos” [Those Without Rights], “an irrefutable denouncement” against the Cuban regime told by about twenty dissidents, including an activist who was subjected to simulated execution, debuts in Miami for international Human Rights Day.

Directed and edited by filmmaker Daniel Urdanivia, Los sin derechos intertwines archival images, such as those of executions from the early years of the so-called Cuban Revolution, with testimonials from different time periods.

The first to appear is Ricardo Bofill, founder in 1976 of the Cuban Pro Human Rights Committee (CCPDH), who died in Miami in 2019.

“In many countries human rights are violated, the difference in Cuba is that (…) it is carried out from an institutional angle; it is part of the laws,” begins Bofill in the film.

Following Bofill, about twenty writers, journalists and former political prisoners offer their testimonials of why they were taken to prison and how they were treated by their jailers.

One of them is Annete Escandón, admitted to a psychiatric hospital where, as she tells it, they gave her electroshocks “in a very recent C-section wound.”

“It was necessary to collect, in a graphic manner, the testimonials of people who have suffered the violations of their rights as citizens,” Pedro Corzo, the documentary’s producer and founder in 1999 of the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory Against Totalitarianism, tells Efe.

“They represent different social strata and different generations, not biological as much as political,” expanded Corzo, also a journalist.

The showing of Los sin derechos, which lasts over an hour and includes some images filmed on mobile phones, will be shown on Thursday, the eve of Human Rights Day, during an event in memory of Ricardo Bofill. It is one of the 15 documentaries created by the institute.

For 78-year-old Corzo, who was “jailed for eight years for assault against State Security,” Bofill “provided context and concept to the reality of human rights violations in Cuba.”

“He was capable of synthesizing the idea and sharing it,” he said about the dissident who Amnesty International adopted as a prisoner of conscience in 1985.

In an open letter written in 1986, Bofill said: “We do not have anything to do with the CIA. We do not participate in violent acts. We have no weapons besides our word. And we will use it while we have a breath of life remaining.”

For Corzo, the toughest testimonial, for the cruelty it contained, is that of Gloria Argudín, “a very brave, older woman”, who suffered a simulated execution.

“I met a man who was subjected to simulated execution eight times, and he said it was one of the most cruel experiences one could have,” comments the producer.

“Near dawn they took me, barefoot. They placed me in front of the hole, with a machine gun they pointed at me and said, ’if you don’t talk we will kill you.’ I told them, ’kill me, it seems unreal you were born of a woman,’ narrates Argudín into the camera.

“She, who we expect will attend the showing, is one of the first women who took up arms against the Castro dictatorship in the Escambray,” says the producer.

José Ignacio (Pepín) Rivero, the director of Diario de la Marina, which was confiscated, narrates how the rebels “broke the copper cylinders that would be placed on the printing presses.”

“The first type of censorship was the media: to tell horrors to those whose opinion was against the revolution,” comments Rivero, who died in exile.

Rolando Cartaya, a former journalist for Juventud Rebelde, the daily created by Fidel Castro in 1965, told Efe that the documentary “bears a renewed validity these days.”

“The Cuban Government, discredited by the violent repression of July 11th, once again unleashed mobs organized by the political police against this generation of young people who laugh in its face,” comments Cartaya, who “paid” two years in prison for denouncing the “acts of repudiation” organized by the State in 1980.

“I wrote a letter denouncing the vestiges of fascism of that time. A traitor turned it in. I was summoned to the newspaper and from there they took me to Havana’s Central Park where colleagues and friends hung a sign and beat me,” recalled Cartaya, another interviewee in the documentary, from Miami.

According to a report by Prisoners Defenders shared this past Tuesday, 805 political prisoners and convicts in Cuba have made its list in the past 12 months. The NGO based in Spain has been able to confirm that 562 cases are related to the repression of July 11th in Cuba.

Corzo, who has produced other historical documentaries such as Zapata vive [Zapata Lives] and Boitel, muriendo a plazos [Boitel, Dying in Installments], insisted that “the historical memory does not involve working with relics nor with third-party accounts, but rather with the direct experiences of people.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Cuban Government Disqualifies a Doctor for His Criticisms of the Healthcare System

Dr. Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre (making the “L for Libertad” gesture) expressed his ideas on his social networks leading the health authorities to accuse him of “moral damage to the sector” and to withdrew his qualifications. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 23 November 2021 — Retaliation against anyone who expresses themselves on social networks against Cuba’s current healthcare system continues. This Tuesday, a resolution signed by the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, “disqualifies from the exercise of [his] profession” Dr. Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre. “The arbitrariness and denigration continue” just because “I want a change and to see a free Cuba,” the doctor denounced.

In the notification, the health authorities argue that the doctor is “responsible for disseminating criteria and opinions that undermine the prestige and principles of the healthcare system and its professionals, exposing irregularities in his view, in the healthcare system, which he was not able to channel first through the corresponding levels for the sake of a timely solution.” This form of airing of “deficiencies,, affirm the authorities, caused a “moral damage to the sector.”

The notice adds that this type of conduct, in addition to representing “serious violations of work discipline,” is considered “contrary to ideological principles” and is established in article 25 of the Internal Disciplinary Regulation.

Just last April 26, Figueredo was “expelled” from his workplace. According to the resolution of the health authorities, he caused “moral damage to the sector” by denouncing on his social networks the deficient care in hospitals due to the shortage of medicines and clinical supplies and the mistreatment suffered by doctors in missions in Venezuela. continue reading

In a post, the specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine and resident in Urology detailed the points made which indicate that his way of thinking was the reason for the sanction. He recalled that in Cuba “we have been exposing everything that is badly done for 62 years and no solution has been found because for the dictatorship the problems that exist are simply because there is an embargo.”

To the non-material damage referred to again in the notification, for allegedly “manipulating” the information, the doctor with 15 years in the profession responds: “There is the evidence, they can come to the hospitals that are falling apart.”

He points out that the real reason for the shortage of supplies in work centers is the “negligence” of national leadership and that “instead of buying ambulances they buy cars for tourism and instead of fixing hospitals they build hotels. That is the real cause, not a blockade.”

Figueredo sees his disqualification as “one more strategy to get the dissidents out of the way and force them to leave the country.” At the same time, he admits that he is “afraid” because “they are going to put me in prison, they are going to give me 30 years simply for wanting a change.” The harassment is such that he is thinking about exile. “You have to leave now so as not to cry, because it is an impotence that I have inside.”

Figueredo notes that other doctors, have also Manuel Guerra, have also been violated for wanting a better Cuba. Guerra, who is part of the coordinating team of the Archipíelago Platform, was expelled on October 20 from his workplace for ideological reasons.

Guerra was one of the doctors who responded to Prime Minister Manuel Marrero when last August he accused the health personnel of doing a poor job, which allegedly provoked constant complaints from patients. “Marrero, how much indignation! How can he blame us doctors for his nonsense!” He wrote.

Figueredo also made reference to the original Holguín doctor Alexander Raúl Pupo Casas, fired for expressing his opinion on the political situation on the island. For this reason the authorities of the Ernesto Guevara hospital in Las Tunas removed him from his service at the end last September. The specialist was prevented from continuing his postgraduate degree in Neurosurgery.

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Shrimp Farming in Cuba: ‘Many People Came and Took Shrimp Even in Their Pockets’

Cultizaza Company, located in Tunas de Zaza, Sancti Spíritus. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 7 December 2021 — Dozens of people flocked to the Cultizaza facilities in Sancti Spíritus on Monday to collect the shrimp that escaped from a burst tank. “Many people came and took shrimp even in their pockets,” says Yisel, a neighbor of Tunas de Zaza, where the state company develops the cultivation of this crustacean, in a large area and mainly for export.

Although it is a “restricted area”, the employees themselves notified the people in the vicinity so that the product would not spoil, which was ready to be harvested.

Some 50 or 60 people arrived, according to witnesses to the event, who joined the workers in collecting the escaping shrimp. “The problem is that it is not that close to the town. Those who came were men who had something to carry it with or bicycles,” says Rafael, one of the locals who was lucky enough to hear the news. “But people came from El Salado and even from Guasimal,” some 20 kilometers from the coast.

Neither the official press nor company officials have spoken about the incident. A worker who requests anonymity says that although Cultizaza tried to recover the maximum amount of product, “between 15 and 20 tons may have been lost.”

He also says that the retaining walls of the gigantic reservoirs where the crustacean is cultivated are very thin and “have been in operation for a long time without maintenance.” “They emptied the pond next door and the pressure of a meter and a half high burst them,” he explains. “When two contiguous tanks are full they are compensated, but they emptied the one next to it, it could not hold.”

In any case, he says, sabotage is not ruled out as a line of investigation. continue reading

One of the ponds of the Cultizaza company in Tunas de Zaza. (Escambray)

“The conditions do not exist to store all that shrimp scattered like that out of the blue,” says another source, familiar with the company.

Anyway, Cultizaza has been in crisis for a long time. Last year, with the passage of Hurricane Eta, the problems of the shrimp farm became evident. Then, the authorities rushed to report that, although the cyclone did not cause damage to the infrastructure of the facilities, the development of the species would be affected “due to the turbidity of the water with which the ponds are supplied.”

The problems, local workers confessed to this newspaper, came from afar and were deeper: in the absence of balanced feed, the fish farm made use of the little that is produced in the province, the tilapia, previously turned into dust. With two disastrous consequences: that “the shrimp don’t not grow at a good rate and also the consumers do not receive the tilapia.”

Last September, the authorities announced with their usual pomp the expansion of the shrimp farm, informing that they would enable 10 hectares of land until then in disuse to dedicate them to intensive shrimp farming, which allows a greater number of animals per square meter to be fattened.

This technique, according to what the director of Cultizaza himself, Luis Orlando Rodríguez, told the official press, has not been developed in this place “for more than 20 years.”

“It didn’t go that well,” says another worker from the shrimp farm. “They made two ponds, rearranged, improved, but nothing new.”

However, Rodríguez had stated that this year “the first ponds will be ready” and that in 2022 they would recover “another 15 hectares also destined for intensive development, which would be added to the 345 that are currently in operation.”

The official said that the new work areas would have “imported equipment,” and that next March they would be producing “about 250 tons in two production cycles,” despite the fact that in 2021 crustacean farming has only reached 62% of the plan expected, due to “low water quality,” and lack of “material and energy resources.”

What is a fact is that workers and neighbors of Cultizaza will have, in the absence of pork, seafood by the end of the year. “We are going to spend a week eating enchilado de camarones,” Yisel concludes sarcastically.

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Two Hooded Men Beat an Independent Journalist in Her Home

Páez, is the director of the independent media ‘El Majadero de Artemisa’. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2021 — The independent journalist Mabel Páez was attacked on Tuesday night by two unknown men who entered her home at 8:30 pm, shortly after her 19-year-old son left the building. Páez, director of the community media outlet of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press (Iclep), El Majadero* de Artemisa, said that the subjects entered the front door of her house and began to beat her without a word.

“I came to realize when they were already on top of me, with caps on, I couldn’t identify them. I have a split eyebrow, a split lip inside, other blows to the face, a big one on a rib,” she told this daily by phone.

“They didn’t take anything from the house, they hardly spoke. When they finished beating me, the only thing they told me was that this was the first warning they were giving me. After that I felt a motorcycle was leaving,” she added.

The reporter explains that when she arrived at the hospital there was a policeman who entered the consultation room with her and recalls that at no time did he ask her what was wrong. “He just waited for the doctor to finish treating me and when he wrote out the injury certificate he took it from his hand. I told him I needed to take photos of that document and he said no, he knew why I wanted that photo and he took it.” continue reading

Outside of the consultation room, Páez was able to see the police deliver the certificate to “another man who was dressed in civilian clothes.” According to her testimony, the subject told her that the best thing she could do, “for the good of all,” was to go home to rest.

The reporter holds the Cuban political police responsible for the violence of which she was a victim and for anything that may happen to her and her son in the future.

“I have no enemies. I cannot think of anything other than that those who entered my house and beat me are from State Security or are people sent by them,” said Páez in statements to Iclep.

Despite the pain in her ribs, she explains that at the hospital they could not do X-rays to rule out a fracture because they did not have the required material to do X-rays and they injected her with an analgesic to relieve the pain.

The beating of the journalist occurred just two days after police forces showed up at her home in search of Iclep’s executive director, Alberto Corzo. Two members of the State Security showed up this Sunday at Páez’s house without a court order and entered by force explaining that Corzo was there, something that, she says, was totally false.

On that occasion, Páez denounced that the agents pushed her and that they stood guard on her all day to prevent her and her son from going out into the street.

Between November 13 and 16, as a result of the call for the Civic March for Change that Archipíelago convened for the 15th, she also had a police cordon at her home to prevent her from going out to practice her profession as a reporter.

The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press condemned the island’s regime “for the systematic abuses against independent journalists” and demanded justice “for all communicators who are currently languishing in Cuban prisons, as well as for those who are under a precautionary measure of house arrest.”

*Fool
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