14ymedio – Page 275 – Translating Cuba

Official Data on Covid Deaths in Cuba are ‘Imprecise’ Admits the Minister of Health

A doctor from Cienfuegos told ’14ymedio’ that 36 deaths occurred in his hospital, but only four cases had a positive test. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 2021 — Chaos in hospitals, in cemeteries and, now, in the numbers of deaths from covid-19 in Cuba. The Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, has admitted that the official data are “imprecise” in statements this Wednesday to Invasor, the provincial newspaper of Ciego de Ávila. The high official recognizes that the statistics only enter the deceased who have a positive PCR at the time of death and this is not always carried out or, simply, the result does not arrive in time.

On the other hand, the same article points out, in the Antonio Luaces hospital those who have tested positive in the rapid test or have symptoms compatible with the disease are being reported as deceased by coronavirus, in addition to those who have died from after effects after negative test results.

According to the official gazette, with the inclusion of these cases, the statistics “rise,” although the testimony rather adds confusion to being admitted from a hospital center that does not follow the Ministry’s protocol, which sows doubt about how deaths are accounted for in each center.

This Tuesday, a doctor from Cienfuego s told 14ymedio that 36 deaths occurred in his hospital, but only four cases had a positive test, so the official notification was four.

Last week, complaints also came from Guantánamo, where Ihosvany Fernández, director of Communal Services in Guantánamo, acknowledged that the funeral service is overwhelmed and they have been forced to use two Etecsa (phone company) vans and two Commerce trucks to transport bodies. continue reading

“On August 4 we worked with 67 [deceased], on the 3rd with 61 and on the first day of August with 80,” of the latter 69 were in the city. The official data published by the Ministry of Public Health for these two days gave, respectively, 9 and 8 deaths in Guantánamo, instead of the 67 and 80 managed by the Communal Services, and registered a national total of 93 and 98 deaths for those same dates.

The page that analyzes the data of the Ministry of Public Health has been idle for days and has been updated twice in the last month when it used to be updated daily. “Due to the fact that the way of reporting the deceased by the Minsap was changed, we will be making some changes in the project and, therefore, we will not update, for a few days. We will soon be up to date again. We apologize for the inconvenience,” says the website.

The rapid expansion of capacities in cemeteries, the shortage of hearses and the data provided by so many Cubans on dead relatives or acquaintances all gives an idea that the death figures should be higher than those officially reported.

The way of counting deaths from coronavirus has been controversial in most countries of the world, since very different criteria have been followed. In Europe, where the first wave caught unexpectedly and overwhelmed the systems, each country counted in its own way: France only added those who died in hospitals, Spain did not include those who died in nursing homes without a test, Italy those who had negative PCR and Germany was late incorporating them based on the data set, among other examples. Added to this chaos was the testing shortage in March 2020.

However, little by little, most of these countries have brought the figures closer to reality, with the incorporation of tens of thousands of people in the official records some time later, and also using the statistics of excess mortality over previous years.

The comments of the Cuban Minister of Health suggest that the authorities have realized that they cannot maintain an optimistic discourse when images multiply — even in the official provincial press — of collapsed hospitals and cemeteries.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘Last Night 36 Patients Died in Cienfuegos Hospital’ Laments a Cuban Doctor

The number of staff in Cienfuegos hospitals have been reduced by almost half. (Perlavision)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2021 — “The Cienfuegos hospital continues to have an oxygen deficit. The helicopters of the Primetime News on Cuban Television are something symbolic for the need that exists,” a doctor from the province, which has replaced Ciego de Ávila as the province with the highest positive rate of covid on the island, tells this newspaper.

“In recent days 32, 34 patients have died. Last night 36 patients died, of which only 4 had a positive PCR at the time of death. They are the only ones registered as dead by coronavirus, but in reality the other 32 were post-covid patients and they don’t count them,” says the source.

The doctor adds that in the province there are generally one or two deaths of pregnant women a year, but in the last four days there has been a daily death. “That gives an idea of the crisis we are experiencing,” he explains, while reproaching the government for trying to pretend to continue reading

have everything under control, making it difficult for humanitarian aid to arrive.

However, the provincial press continues to move the pieces. A few days ago the Ciego de Ávila newspaper confirmed the lack of oxygen and the precarious situation in the area, and now it is September 5, the official Cienfuegos newspaper, which speaks of an “unprecedented scenario” in an article titled Covid-19 in Cienfuegos: The truth on the Table.

The newspaper denounces the fact that diagnostic tests are lacking, PCRs pile up without results, there is poor management of cases in primary care according to their risk, and that people end up in serious condition in hospitals due to the lack of screening. Added to this is the lack of medicinal oxygen — despite the incorporation of the Armed Forces and Russia into production — and the shortage of medicines and medical supplies.

To all this is added, the newspaper continues, that what the Government promised does not always arrive. “I must tell you that there are problems with food, that in not a few cases breakfast has been eaten late and lunch appears in the afternoon. It also happens that after discharge people have to wait up to three and four hours for transportation,” denounces a citizen.

September 5 also addresses one of the most serious problems, the lack of healthcare personnel. According to the newspaper, of the 701 doctors in the province, 446 are working. Most of those absent are in the care of children and relatives, but many others have tested positive for covid-19.

“There are reports of low medical coverage in isolation centers, this affects the quality of care for patients and represents an overload for the healthcare personnel who work in these spaces (…) In a visit to the Carlos Roloff vocational pre-university, from Cumanayagua, there were 250 people admitted and there were only two doctors to attend that universe,” details Félix Duarte Ortega, of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

The newspaper reports that the “political authorities of Cienfuegos recognized the effort of those who work in hospitals and isolation centers, in clinics and polyclinics. Those who do not give up despite the thousand and one difficulties that are experienced today.” The strategy is part of the pro-government dynamic of recent days, which tries to soften the conflict created by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero when he blamed doctors, specifically from Cienfuegos, for the violations of protocols that promote the spread of covid-19.

The rebellion of the doctors has grown since that day, both among the usual critics of the regime and in those who believe in it but watched the spectacle of being blamed for managing the disease when they have to fight in the front line against it devoid of resources, and in a framework of war medicine.

“The medical personnel exist and are sacrificing themselves, what does not exist are the means. Many of us believe that they are subjecting us to genocide. While the people die they are watching the doctors to see what they say, if they are in favor or not of the Revolution,” denounces the doctor from Cienfuegos.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel has been tweeting praises to healthcare personnel for three days in an attempt to redirect the situation. On Sunday, when the clamor of the health workers spread through the networks calling for the resignation of Marrero, he said, with little luck: “Today the groups in which we go through life are more visible, according to José Martí: On the one hand those who love and create. And on the other, those who hate and destroy. The former do not lie or slander or defame, they do not hate. They are saving lives. The others cannot with that light.”

A day later, he rectified the divisive message with another that only had a positive tone: “What we have seen the most in this time is the patriotism of our people, the Healthcare personnel, the scientists, of all those involved in the millimeter-level oxygen operation, people who are working full time in complex situations. Thank you all! ” That same day, the official press vindicated the doctors with an article titled At the foot of the patient, the hero who does not serve enemy campaigns, which once again separated the like-minded from the critics.

Yesterday, Tuesday, the campaign continued, with an image on the cover with the faces of doctors and nurses in the article entitled Let’s think about them and take care of ourselves. “Gratitude for the titanic feat assumed by our Health workers in this battle against covid-19 also requires, now more than ever, our responsibility,” says the official newspaper, on this occasion, taking care to refer to the ’rebels.’

Ernesto Haber Santos, a doctor at the Saturnino Lora Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, has rejected, through Facebook, the government’s campaign called Put your heart in it, with a view to once again winning the favor of his star workers for decades.

“We work with the little we have and the hardest we can. Tired, leaving our family and putting it at risk. But one is not willing to publicly assume reality, it is better to look for a culprit, and from what I see, everyone is worth it. We have plenty, we are leaving it it the ground, and at the rate we are going we will have to continue leaving it until who knows when,” he said.

The doctor asks the Government to accept that the situation has reached the limit and to accept help. “The covid-19 overcame us, overcame the United States, Spain and Vietnam,” claims the doctor, who asks the authorities to rectify and recognize the excellence of the countr’s health workers or, on the contrary, to say if they are graduating untrained people and “pride in our medical power is a delusion.”

____________

A Danger for Pedestrians and Vehicles at Carlos III Center

A post located in Carlos III, between Ayestarán and Requena, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. (Collage)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 20 August 2021 — Havana is falling apart. No matter how much that phrase is pronounced among Cubans and especially by those from the capital, it will not be enough, given the serious infrastructure problems that are seen in every corner of a city that is home to more than two million inhabitants.

This is the case at Carlos III — a four-story shopping mall — between Ayestarán and Requena, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, right across from the veterinary clinic. The public lighting in the area has problems with the poles and streetlights.

Some of the supporting poles, such as the one captured by the 14ymedio lens, are a danger to pedestrians and vehicles. They lack a rigid support at their base, they are bent, almost to the point of falling onto the public street. continue reading

The most recent repair of streetlights on the capital’s roads was focused only on a part of the Malecón from Maceo Park to Paseo del Prado. In addition, according to the Office of the Historian of Havana, the Martí Park and the lights located at the entrance of the Bahía Tunnel were going to be included.

While other areas of the capital continue with deteriorated public lighting such as in the Plaza municipality, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel went to the La Güinera Popular Council, in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality, without taking into account a resurgence of covid cases that does not decline.

According to the official press, the president went to the place on Friday “to speak with the authorities, local actors and the population about the process of transformation that is being undertaken in the community.”

In a first stage, work is being done on “urbanization, asphalt, bridge repair, hydraulic and sanitary infrastructure, roads, housing connections,” according to information published in the official Twitter account of the Cuban presidency.

In exactly that area, one of the most depressed areas of Havana, Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was shot and killed by policeman during the protests that began on July 11 (11J).

After learning of the death of Laurencio Tejeda, the Government has used La Güinera for its regular political propaganda and has sent several officials. “They wanted to rob our neighborhood,” Díaz-Canel said this Friday from the community. The Government also affirmed that the “actions to improve the infrastructure” are carried out with the support of the community and various entities.

____________

US Plan to Offer Internet In Cuba Forces Etecsa to Lower Prices

The new prices for phone service are still out of reach for Cubans who receive a monthly minimum wage of 2,100 Cuban pesos. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 2021 — The Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) announced this Thursday a rate cut and launched new mobile web browsing packages, an action that reflects the regime’s concern about Washington’s movements to bring free internet access to Cuba.

In this context, Etecsa has announced some cosmetic changes. With the legend: “+MB X Less price” they published on their networks the renewal of their 14 GB LTE package that previously cost 1,125 Cuban pesos (CUP) and which will now offer 16 GB for 950 CUP. The changes, which took effect this Thursday, are also reflected in the combos that include web browsing, phone calls and SMS (texting).

The Basic Plan will cost 125 CUP, and will now include 800 MB, 20 minutes of phone calls and 20 SMS; the Medium Plan will cost 250 CUP for 2 GB, 30 minutes of phone calls and 40 SMS, and the Extra Plan 500 CUP for 4.5 GB, 75 minutes and 80 SMS. continue reading

The new packages come at a time when customers have been forcefully demanding a flat rate, so Etecsa is far from meeting the demands of its users. Until now, this package is offered only to private workers, and at still very high prices.

The discounts now announced are still very far from the pockets of people who receive the monthly minimum wage, which is 2,100 Cuban pesos, although there are offers of combined packages. As of August 1 there have been adjustments in the costs of SMS within Cuba, set at 1 peso, and an hour of international navigation hour costs 12.50 for customers with permanent accounts.

It is worth noting that the Cubans are losing interest in SMS as it has been the target of Government controls, surveillance and censorship of text messages where several terms and words have been blocked from being sent. As a result, Cubans are using SMS less and preferring to take refuge in safer services such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.

The Cuban government is trying to avoid Washington’s initiative with all the weapons at its disposal. And proof of this is that the Cuban authorities have denounced the initiative to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for considering it “a frank violation of sovereignty and national security,” as revealed this Tuesday on the State Roundtable television program, by the vice minister of Communications Wilfredo González.

Cubans were first able to use the internet on mobile devises as of December 2018. The island was the last country in the region to allow its citizens to surf the internet through their cell phones.

At the end of 2018, President Miguel Díaz-Canel allowed the sale of the first navigation plans including data. Cubans were able to buy their first cell lines in 2008, after the reforms promoted by former president Raúl Castro.

____________

‘I Was Desperate to Get Off That Island, Which to Me Seemed Like a Disaster Ruled by a Demon’

Writer and actor Jorge Luis Camacho during an interview last May with Radio France International. (Capture)

14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, August 15, 2021 — Jorge Luis Camacho was born in 1956 in Cardenas, Matanzas province. As he recalls, the Cuban flag — “an annexationist flag” which incorporated a star from the flag of the United States —was raised there for the first time. For forty years he has been a resident of Paris, where he has worked mainly as an actor and screenwriter.

Now he has written his second novel, the saga Cuban Symphony, composed in three parts: Allegro ma non troppo, Tempo Marziale and Da Capo. He tells 14ymedio that he was trying to examine the odd phenomenon of Castroism: “A dictatorship that took over in less than two years but which cannot be dislodged, even today.” The overriding desire to write it, he says, came from an organic necessity that forced him to imagine, in a diffuse and subtle way, the end of the regime.

In this interview he reads some passages from the ending: “Some predict that a popular uprising will sweep away everything in Cuba, others that the economic disaster will force the regime to negotiate with the opposition. What nobody imagines is that Cuba will stay the same.”

Yaiza Santos. Writing Allegro ma non troppo relies on a lot of historical documentation, which is cited at the end. For the story of the main family, who lost their sugar refinery after the Revolution, were you inspired by someone you knew, by some personal experience?

Jorge Luis Camacho. No. the history of Cuba is filled with such people. It isn’t necessary to listen to someone who has lived through it. When I wrote Symphony, I found someone, Nicolas Gutierrez, whom I thank in the book. His story is virtually the same as Julio’s. But I didn’t want to have direct contact with a family that would expect me to respect certain rules. I wanted to invent the characters, which gave me the freedom to do what I wanted. If history is very present, it’s because there was a moment when it seemed to me that reality was so rich that fiction alone could not continue reading

reflect it. History and fiction complement each other.

Yaiza Santos. One of the most remarkable things about the first volume, which coincides precisely with first year after the triumph of the Revolution, are those historical asides at the end of each chapter. Seeing them together is impressive: the restoration of the death penalty, the executions, the abolition of the separation of powers, the nationalizations… It was all very obvious from the beginning and yet many were enthralled with Cuban Revolution, a phenomenon that to some extent exists to this day. How do you explain this?

Jorge Luis Camacho. Frankly, I have no explanation for this. I think one of the things driving it, for example, is that some Europeans have a kind of love-hate relationship with the United States for reasons that I don’t quite understand but which are real. But I don’t think that explains the whole phenomenon. I like to say that communism, or the communist left, is a non-theistic religion. The left is waiting for a messiah and every time one comes along, they say, “Ah, this is the one.” First it was Lenin, then Stalin, followed by Mao, then Fidel came, then Chavez… then they all failed.

But the messianic left doesn’t care. They will love the next one just the same. I think it has something to do with Christianity. Even though very few communist leftists would believe me if I said they were religious, they are. Look at what just happened in Peru. It’s surprising that, just at the moment when Venezuela is a disaster, when Cuba is a disaster, people voted for a communist, who is open about it. And in six months we will see everything that he has destroyed.

Look at what just happened in Peru. It’s surprising that, just at the moment when Venezuela is a disaster, when Cuba is a disaster, people voted for communist.

Yaiza Santos. It seems metaphorical that you have a character in the book named Libertad [meaning liberty, or freedom], for Libertad Lamarque, who suffers from cancer.

Jorge Luis Camacho. Libertad’s cancer is the cancer of liberty in Cuba, with Batista and the rest. Even though Cuba had a constitution that outlawed capital punishment, it still had a lot of problems. Libertad’s illness worsens as liberty in Cuba gradually disappears.

Yaiza Santos. I was referring to a broader metaphor. Freedom is very fragile and contains within it a dark well capable of generating its own destruction. There is another character named Cohen, who says: “It is typical for autocracies to promise things that society has not achieved by itself, and only tyrannies can create the illusion of obtaining them.”

Jorge Luis Camacho. It’s not an accident that his name is Cohen. Getting back to Libertad and what she represents, if you notice in the first scene there is a crazy lady who throws herself in front of the car and says, “Liberty, liberty, don’t abandon me!” This could also be the response of uneducated people, who don’t have a compass and who throw themselves at anything, as has now happened now with the Peruvians.

Yaiza Santos. Part I manages to be suspenseful even though we know how it ends. What does the reader find in the other two volumes?

Jorge Luis Camacho. Part II takes place during the 1960s, after the new regime comes to power. That’s why it’s called Tempo Marziale. All three parts have Italian titles because they’re musical. And it’s called Cuban Symphony because it’s also a story about frustration.

Julio had wanted to be a musician but couldn’t because he’s the only one left in the family capable of getting its sugar refinery back. What’s beautiful in the end is that his son, who is a musician, wrote a short symphony when was 12 years old for his father and uncle when they were at Playa Girón, at the Bay of Pigs. [By the way] it’s not not called that because it has something to do with pigs; it’s because there are some very cute little tricolor fish that live in those waters. His son becomes a professional musician, expands the symphony and performs it on the day Julio is giving a speech at the family’s rebuilt factory, which obviously represents the country.

I don’t describe how freedom comes about but rather imply that it happens due to a social disaster that everyone could foresee. What’s curious is that the book was published in June and, less than a month later, the protests of July 11 occurred. The main character in my story is called Julio [July] and the chant that was repeated most often during those protests — “Libertad” — is the name of his mother. I feel like a magician [laughs].

If I made that joke, I’d end up prison for ten years. Now he’s saying this in front of me because we’re all together

Yaiza Santos. How did you leave Cuba for France? Had you already rejected the Revolution or did that come later?

Jorge Luis Camacho. I was always against the Revolution. I never had any appreciation for that system, despite the fact that I was raised by my older sister — my mother, like Julio’s, died of cancer when I was six years old — whose husband admired the Revolution and even became a party member. I had already been expelled from the Higher Institute of the Arts in Havana, allegedly for political reasons.

I was desperate to get off that island, which to me seemed like a disaster ruled by a demon. I didn’t believe anything he said. I have an anecdote about that. I was participating in a series sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When I got to the theater, I realized it was an event in honor of the army. The theater looked like a field of beans, everyone dressed in green, a horror.

Raul Castro was there and I heard him telling counterrevolutionary stories about how he explained to his mother what communism was. He told her, “Mama, we now own a banana orchard because this is socialism. When we no longer own a banana orchard, that will be communism.”

I thought, “These people must be kidding me. And taking my life away.” I thought that if I made a joke, I’d end up prison for ten years. Now he’s saying this in front of me because we’re all together, eating things that I had never seen in my life except in the movies. That confirmed my intuitions. I left Cuba with a lot of… I don’t like to use the word hate but, yes, I hated them.

I also left for love. I was hopelessly in love with a woman who was half French. She was the daughter of an impoverished baroness who had become a dancer at the Moulin Rouge and had married a Cuban dancer.

Yaiza Santos. How is your relationship with other Cubans living in Paris? Do you feel part of the Cuban exile community in France?

Jorge Luis Camacho. Yes and no. Because I lived and work as though I were French. I am clearly the only founder of the French screenwriter’s guild whose native language is not French. I knew Cubans in France but I was not actively involved in that world. I was also not very politically active at that time.

French governments, both of the left and the right, have a kind of admiration, no matter how ridiculous that might seem, for Fidel Castro.

Yaiza Santos. What attitudes have you found among the French towards Cuba?

Jorge Luis Camacho. Well, I’ve known some French people who were as anti-Castro as I, to the point that I thought that they were working for the French secret service. For the most part, French governments of both the left and the right have a kind of admiration, no matter how ridiculous that might seem, for Fidel Castro.

It’s surprising but right here in Paris, in the gay district, you see guys wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. Here was a homophobe, an absolute murderer, and yet there are people who believe he’s a symbol of freedom. France, both the people and the government, is not anti-Castro. Fidel Castro was welcomed with great fanfare by Mitterrand. Then Hollande welcomed the lesser but no less diabolical tyrant Raul, and many intellectuals attended the banquet that the president gave for the dictator.

Yaiza Santos. Would you go back to Cuba?

Today, for being lucky enough to have written this novel at this historic, consequential moment — because we’re all waiting to see liberty fully realized — I think so. I think I can play a role. I don’t know what but I will have a roll to play. Even though I have an eighteen-year-old son in France whom I don’t want to be away from, going to Cuba, acting on Cuban television or in Cuban movies… all these are things I dream about. Working for Cuba from France for a new Cuban government would also be something I’d like very much to do. Of course, all of us who live overseas think we have a role to play. I think it’s up to Cuba to decide whether to give us that role or not.

____________

‘Cuadernos Carcelariosa’ Reveals a Series of Stories from Cuban Prisons

Illustration by the Cuban artist Luis Trápaga. (EFE)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Federico Segarra, Madrid, 16 August 2021 — A book lover decides to create a literature and narrative workshop in a Cuban prison nineteen years ago, out of sheer altruism. A few months ago, he met a Spanish editor on a terrace in Havana. This is the genesis of Cuadernos Carcelarios (Prison Notebooks), a collection of biographical experiences of Cuban prisoners that naturally reveal the prison idiosyncrasy on the Island, real and raw stories that pass between drama and humor.

It all comes from Ernesto Arcia and his literature workshop in Combinado del Este, a maximum security penitentiary near Havana. This 39-year-old Cuban, who currently also teaches poetry lessons, has spent almost half his life helping to stimulate the art of reading and writing for prisoners, giving classes to all those who “wish to train,” without distinction.

Through the workshop “many prisoners have been trained for when they are released,” Arcia explains to Efe proudly from the Malecón, hidden from prying ears and looking for a decent internet connection, especially coveted these days in Cuba. “Some discover a hidden appetite for learning and end up in college,” he adds.

The human stories of people with problems and the harsh conditions of Cuban prisons are the main axis of the stories, but for the director continue reading

of Hurón Azul, the Spanish publishing house that published this book last July, Nacho Rodríguez, perhaps “the balance between what you can talk about and what you can’t” in today’s Cuba is the central reason for these.

There is hardly any transparent information about Cuban prisons. It is known that there are 200 prisons on the island. In Belgium, with a population almost exactly the same (11.4 million), there are only 35. In addition, Cuba is the country with the fifth largest prison population in the world in proportion to its inhabitants, according to the World Prison Brief study, of the Institute of Crime and Justice of the University of London 2013. Cuba is one of the few countries where updating the data since then has not been possible.

The illustrations by Luis Trápaga, a Cuban artist living in Havana vividly accompany the stories, but they also provide their own chapter that tells a visual history through drawings, an acid criticism against repression and submission entitled the ’Decalogue from Prison Island.’ “Before, you had to ask for permission to leave Cuba, and it was a kind of jail in that sense,” Trápaga told Efe. And nowadays?

“It has been the artistic piece with which I’ve worked with the greatest freedom (thematic), I have been able to draw whatever I wanted.” However, Luis reveals that “many of my artist friends have problems on the Island” and recalls how he also spent a couple of nights in jail for “attending a performance in the Plaza de la Revolución. That seemed offensive to them.”

For Trápaga, “violence and eroticism among the prisoners (all men) is the common element” of most narratives, where homosexual sex abounds in the stories.

An open eroticism that results in a total uprising against the slogan of “work will make you men,”,a lapidary phrase that welcomed the forced labor camp that Ernesto Che Guevara built in the Guanahacabibes peninsula after the victory of the Revolution in 1959, and that in its beginnings housed Cuban homosexuals, enemies of the State because of their sexual condition.

Another of the stories in the book, details the stay in prison of Pablo, an inmate who was sentenced to 40 years for killing a cow. Cuban writer Jorge Carpio, who edited the prison accounts, explains that this sentence is “hyperbole, but it reflects with humor the severe punishments that prisoners faced for common crimes,” and adds that the penalties for stealing livestock were harsh in the early years of the Cuban revolution.

The only account of a political prisoner is by Ángel Santiesteban, a well-known Cuban writer and dissident. His brother tried to escape from the Island three decades ago, and he was sentenced to fourteen months when he was just 17 years old for not betraying him.

Santiesteban, hiding in a house in the Cuban capital, explains to Efe, anxious about an arrest that he considers imminent due to his participation in the demonstrations of July 11, that his story was written during his long imprisonment on a hunger strike, already from adult and for political reasons: “They mistreated me by giving me a perfidious liquid when I was already on the verge of starvation, and they showed me photos of my son, also detained and tortured.”

The story came out because some prisoners, “friends who gambled it for me” took him out to the streets. And he also denounces that now he only “wants to live, write and create in freedom. Period”

Carlos Montenegro, a pioneer in Cuban prison stories, and whose narration is the first of the stories in the book, written from prison and published in 1929 of the last century, opined: “Think of a country under tyranny, it is a prison.”

____________

The Rebellion of Cuban Doctors Spreads in Holguin With a New Video

23 health workers from Holguín express their complaints in a new video published this Wednesday. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2021 — More than twenty Cuban doctors have denounced the health collapse in a new video and have shown solidarity with their colleagues who, last weekend, broadcast another audiovisual to demand supplies and protest against the criticism of the sector launched by Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero.

On this occasion, and in a video of a little more than four minutes, 23 health workers express their complaints about the lack of medicines, means of protection to work, and oxygen to save the lives of patients, amid a resurgence of cases of Covid-19 that has put the battered health system of the island in check.

“Our patients need help,” warns the resident in angiology and vascular surgery Julio C. Hernández at the beginning of the recording. “We also need help, we do not want more people to continue dying,” adds the doctor in his brief complaint dated, like that of the rest of the doctors who participate in the audiovisual, on August 16.

“We demand that we be treated with respect,” claims internal medicine specialist Reinier Ávalos, who also requires “adequate means of protection to be able to work.” A request expanded by Dr. Jorge L. Báez: “We request more support from health personnel, fewer continue reading

demands, fewer complaints.”

The criticisms of the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, against health personnel have unleashed a storm that comes at the worst moment for the Government. The doctors, whose internationalist missions are the main source of economic resources for the regime, have started a rebellion against the leaders of the country, which is still living under the effects of the July 11 protests.

In the video released this Wednesday, the neurosurgery specialist Linda I. Green asks for “drugs and supplies to provide care for our patients.” Several of the doctors used the comments to speak about the concept of “healthcare collapse,” a definition that the Cuban authorities reject and that they prefer to substitute that of “overstretched hospitals.”

“We see ourselves collapsed at the institutional and national level. We demand supplies to treat our patients with dignity and decorum,” stresses resident Rosell Albertaris, while Óscar E. López takes the opportunity to show his solidarity with colleagues from the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Hospital, from Holguín, who made the first demand video.

Since Marrero accused the Cienfuegos health workers of “neglect” last week and pointed to subjective causes as the main reason for patient complaints, the complaints against the prime minister have spread to several provinces, but have been especially energetic in Holguín, one of the regions most affected by the outbreak of the pandemic.

“Let’s not tell any more lies and let’s assume things as they are,” warns Luis Miranda, a resident in anesthesiology and resuscitation, an opinion shared by his colleague Dr. Blanca who adds that “what is happening now is untenable. It is sad and very painful, and I believe that anyone who feels committed to the oath they took should feel the same. “

As part of the responses to Marrero, several personal and collective letters from health workers have also circulated in recent days that point out the problems they must overcome every day to be able to do their work in the midst of collapsed hospitals due to cases of contagion, the lack of medicines and the few protective supplies they have.

This avalanche of critical opinions from a sector considered for decades to be in line with government policies coincides with the approval of strict legislation to control the opinions that are published from the Island on the internet. Under these new regulations, issuing any opinion that damages “the prestige of the country” can be considered a crime.

____________

Be Silent or Complain: The Dilemma of the Relatives of July Protest Detainees

Yunior Villarejo Estévez and Eduardo Manuel Báez arrested for the popular protests last July. (Collage)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 15 August 2021 — The relatives of the protesters arrested on July 11 are debating between a public denunciation or keeping a low profile to avoid further complicating the situation of their relatives, but more and more people are breaking their silence to demand immediate release or to point out irregularities in the judicial process.

“I have not been able to sleep for a month,” said Eduardo Báez, father of 22-year-old Eduardo Manuel Báez, speaking to 14ymedio. The younger Báez was arrested with his girlfriend one day after the demonstrations. She was released with 8,000 pesos as bail but the young computer science teacher is still under arrest. “We have not been able to see him or talk to him,” says the father from Güines, Mayabeque.

“They were accusing him for the crime of public disorder, but also for robbery with force, which is the little poster that they hung from those who, allegedly, participated in the events in the MLC stores, which occurred together with the protests when the people entered against these establishments owned by the army,” he details.

The stores that take payment only in hard currencies were the target of popular fury in several localities, where citizens smashed windows continue reading

and looted shelves. Managed by the Cimex corporation, a military conglomerate that controls large sectors of commerce, these stores have earned social anger for selling food and basic products in foreign currency.

“Because the MLC stores belong to the army,” Báez points out, “it is the military prosecutor’s office that is accusing them,” and adds that they have not even allowed him to hire a lawyer. Last Wednesday the situation became even more complicated for the family when they learned that the young man had tested positive for Covid-19 in a prison in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque.

The name of Báez is one of the hundreds included in the list of detainees and disappeared of the 11 July protests that several activists have written about despite the setbacks: “In Santiago de Cuba aberrant things have happened such as that they have released the person but they have taken their cellphones and those of the their immediate family, so they have not been able to communicate with anyone for days, so that complicates the updating a lot,” reports journalist Ivette Leyva, who has contributed to the preparation of the list of detainees, speaking to 14ymedio.

According to this list, of the total complaints collected, 164 are women and 672 are men. There are still 170 cases that are in the process of verification and there are 168 detainees, while 197 people have been released, although the majority are in home confinement.

Báez is concerned that they are being cruel to his son: “Many people who were in the stores and who had in their possessions items stolen from these establishments, which were then seized, have already been released, even without bail.” Seeing this panorama, he wonders: what is the problem with my son, is there any anger against him?”

“He is not a vandal, he is not a thief, my son only likes to play video games and with computers. He is a man with the mind of a child, a young man full of poverty who only lives on his monthly salary,” he says, expressing pride and pain. “As a father I am desperate,” concludes Báez.

Odalys Estévez, 30-year-old mother of Yunior Villarejo Estévez, has also chosen to denounce the situation of her son, detained on July 11 in Havana. The woman relates that in the summary trial that was carried out on July 20, Villarejo received a 10-month sentence of deprivation of liberty for “public disorder” and is in the Valle Grande prison.

Arrested at the intersection of Reina and Belascoaín streets, in Centro Habana, the young man was beaten during the arrest by State Security agents who took him from the demonstration with violence: “I have the videos. I had hopes that they would release him with a precautionary measure even if it is for house arrest and they did not do it,” says the mother.

“There has not been any kind of consideration, he did nothing. They beat him because he just picked up the phone (…) I can’t take it anymore, I don’t know what I’m going to do, my son is innocent, a tremendous injustice that they have committed with him,” he says.

Others have received better news despite the sad days. This is the case of the relatives of Reyniel Pacheco who recently reported that the young man had already been released.

“Today I want to thank all the people who supported me with the freedom of my brother, they have already released him,” wrote Yani Pacheco, the detainee’s sister, on his Facebook profile. Pacheco was held incommunicado since July 12, when he was arrested, and his whereabouts were unknown for several weeks until, in a call from Quivicán prison, an inmate alerted them of his whereabouts.

A similar case is that of Damián Yacel Hernández Viera, one of the protesters who took to the streets of the Quivicán municipality, Mayabeque province, on July 11. The authorities of that territory notified him that all the judicial charges against him would be withdrawn. Hernández was also returned the 8,000 pesos he’d paid in bail.

Meanwhile, dozens or hundreds of families refuse to speak to the independent press or to report the arrest of a relative. They cling to the idea that maintaining discretion could aid their relative’s speedy release. With their reports, the number of those arrested during that day and the following days could increase considerably.

____________

Cuban Architects Insist They be Allowed to Practice Privately

Don’t young architects deserve to be able to develop their full potential in the country that trained them, the professionals ask themselves. (Geca / Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2021 — Cuban architects continue to insist before the authorities that they be allowed to practice their profession in the private sector, something that is currently forbidden to them as well as to doctors, journalists and lawyers. A letter, signed by various personalities of the union, reiterates the need for a dialogue with the Government to achieve this objective.

The letter, signed by Universo García, Nelson González, Orlando Inclán and Carlos G. Pleyán, is titled, with a certain pessimism, ¿An impossible dialogue? and details that for almost a year several groups of Cuban architects, engineers and urban planners have addressed letters “to the highest authorities in the country,” so far without success in their demands.

The requests have been addressed to Miguel Díaz-Canel and the ministers of Construction, Labor, Economy and Planning and include the proposal of a dialogue that allows the professionals “to explain the convenience and the need to allow independent architectural work.”

The architects are also interested in knowing the reasons why private practice has been prohibited, despite the need for their services in a country with serious housing problems and where many constructions, carried out in recent years, have been marked by improvisation and continue reading

lack of rigor.
“The upcoming reorganization and growth of the non-state sector (either as self-employed workers, as a micro, small and medium-sized company or as a cooperative), as well as the increase in local development projects present a growing demand for urban and architectural projects, already assumed by a considerable group of professionals under the protection of related licenses not suitable for it,” they write.

That is why experts insist on the need for “a flexible legal framework that fully responds to all scales of development and that strengthens the cultural vision of architecture and urbanism, and not the merely constructive one, which is the predominant one today, thus containing the growing emigration of professionals.”

The letter summarizes the demands that have come from more than a hundred architects organized fundamentally into three groups: the Section of Architecture and Heritage of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), the Group of Cuban Studies of Architecture (Geca) and another group around the Pro Arquitectura Initiative.

“The demand has consisted of requesting the authorities to call for a dialogue to debate the current prohibition of the non-state exercise of the architecture and engineering professions, with the aim of knowing their reasons and being able to argue ours,” they detail.

Each group wrote several letters to the authorities detailing their arguments. They note that in recent months the Ministry of Construction, the National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba (Unaicc) and Uneac received in their institutions various representatives of the union “to listen to their proposals” but “without offering any answer or opening the dialogue in any case.”

They emphasize that recently the Ministry of Construction said, in a meeting with Geca and the president of the Unaicc, that the solution lies in “the formation of state SMEs*,” which raises many questions. For this reason, almost a year later, the claim of these professionals is the same: “open a dialogue to hear the reasons for the ban and present our proposals.”

The signatories of the text indicate that, in recent days, Miguel Díaz-Canel has participated in “a series of exchanges with different interest groups” such as farmers, economists, university students, women and lawyers to speak “about the complex situation in the country and how face it.”

“Why has it not been encouraged to meet and dialogue with architects and engineers? What are the insurmountable difficulties that arise? Do not cities demand the contribution of all for their recovery and, in particular, of architects and urban planners? Don’t young architects deserve to be able to develop their full potential in the country that trained them? What, then, is the appropriate way to achieve this dialogue and reach a consensual solution?”, the architects wonder.

Since the new provisions were published on February 10, many architects have shown their annoyance on social networks and generated intense controversy.

The National Classifier of Economic Activities defines “architectural consulting activities that include building design and drawing of construction plans, urban planning and landscape architecture” and “engineering design that includes projects of civil, hydraulic and traffic engineering, water management projects, electrical and electronic, mechanical, industrial and systems engineering projects, or the management of projects related to construction.”

Independent studios such as Apropia Estudio, Albor Arquitectos or Ad Urbis have been doing their work for years without explicit permission and with the new regulation they went from ’allegation’ to illegality, a situation that makes them more vulnerable and impedes their professional development.

Oniel Díaz Castellanos, co-founder of the Auge consultancy to advise entrepreneurs, believes that the authorities will persevere in error and insist on keeping Architecture within the prohibited activities.

*Translator’s note: SMEs = small and mid-size enterprises.

____________

More Than the Embargo, the Cuban Government is Concerned About the ‘Free Internet’ Offered by the US

Cuba’s Vice Minister of Communications believes that the United States intends to establish a “parallel” internet in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 August 2021 –The Cuban authorities have denounced before the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) the initiative of the US Government to encourage the expansion of the Internet on the island, as revealed this Tuesday in the television program Mesa Redonda, the Vice Minister of Communications Wilfredo González.

“What the United States wants is to provide a parallel internet to our country (…), and we are not really going to allow such interference, because it would be violating not only our Constitution, but also the very preamble of the Constitution of the International Union of Telecommunications (UIT),” said the official, who was commenting on the national television space on the new cybersecurity law with which the Cuban government will pursue the dissemination of any demonstration that it considers “subversive.”

“In recent weeks we have been hearing declared intentions of US government officials to try to provide our country with internet access, which would undoubtedly constitute a frank violation of sovereignty and national security,” he said.

According to González and the Minister of Communications Mayra Arevich Marín, this behavior is contrary not only to Cuban law, but also to international law, since the fundamentals of the constitution of continue reading

the ITU, dependent on the United Nations and on which both Cuba and the United States are members, prohibit the use of technologies to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, and require states to take the necessary measures to prevent interference.

The deputy minister insisted that Washington intends to use technologies for the purpose of social destabilization. “In other words, the United States is using the internet as a weapon of aggression against Cuba as a country. (…) We are in the position of avoiding any type of actions of this type,” said González, after asking himself in what other “country in the world does a parallel internet exist?”

In this context, González accused the US Government of maintaining a double standard policy in the area of new technologies towards Cuba since, in his opinion, it combines the blockade [i.e. embargo] with the incitement to subversion. “If the US were so concerned about favoring free internet, why not remove censorship from more than 60 platforms that we do not have access to?” he asked rhetorically before specifying some of them, among which he cited the program Zoom videochat and the PayPal payment platform. He did not mention, however, that anyone in Cuba can connect with Zoom if they use a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Exactly a week ago the Treasury Department reminded Americans of the exemptions from the embargo and tax benefits for those who act to provide Internet to Cuba. This has become an apparent priority for the White House and the US Congress since the Cuban authorities cut off communications following the July 11 anti-government protests, although its technical feasibility is highly questionable .

Internet service in Cuba was restored days after the demonstrations and works normally, although access to media and portals with critical or oppositional positions, such as Martinoticias, 14ymedio, Cibercuba or Cubanet, is still censored, something that was already happening before the protests .

Last week the United States Senate also approved an amendment that seeks to facilitate free internet access in Cuba, by promoting the creation of a budget fund to promote this “open and uncensored” service.

All this happens at the same time that, this Tuesday, Decree-Law 35 was published, which will penalize “ethical and social damages or incidents of aggression” in social networks, which was approved on April 13.

The participants in the State television Roundtable program defended the new regulations, arguing that more countries have similar laws designed to limit the dissemination of violent content that could generate disturbances, but censorship is only discussed when Cuba does. They were careful to specify that the regulations in those countries do not foresee suspending the internet service to a user for publishing a criticism of the Government.

____________

Challenge to Cuba’s Decree-Law 35

Cuban activists with flowers in their hands in support of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara on April 29, 2021, when the artist had been on a hunger and thirst strike for days. (Esteban Rodríguez / Facebook)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, 18 August 2021 — As I do not have the patience needed to analyze paragraph by paragraph, article by article, the ways in which Decree-Law 35 violates the rights of freedom of expression, I opt for the following challenge.

I formally challenge President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, President of Parliament Esteban Lazo and any minister or official who has the power to legislate to dare to legally prohibit the following presumed manifestations of citizen disagreement:

- Placing a black cloth on the clothesline in protest
- Turning off the lights in the house for one minute every day at 9 p.m.
- Shaving the left side of the mustache (for adult men)
- Shaving the left eyebrow (valid for all genders and ages)
- Planting a sweet potato in the garden
- Carrying a flower, a book, a tree branch in the right hand when walking down the street
- Stopping on public roads for one minute at an agreed time
- Applauding the doctors 30 minutes before the orientation (or 30 minutes after)
- Starting all posts on social media with the same words, for example: “friends,” “what a beautiful day” or “I would like to tell you that …”
If a consensus of citizen protest was achieved and expressed in any of the hypothetical examples above, would those challenged here dare to decree the corresponding prohibitions?

I challenge them to make fools of themselves. Let’s see if they understand once and for all that the need to exercise freedom is as precious as that oxygen that is scarce in hospitals today.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

And Russian Oxygen Arrived to Bail Out the Cuban Government

Díaz-Canel visiting the San Antonio de los Baños plant this Monday. (Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, August 17, 2021 – Authorities have expeditiously alleviated the oxygen problem. It is unknown when oxygen began to be scarce in Cuba, although there are many patients who claim that the situation has been going on for months, but the way in which the state press has reported it to the population minimizes its importance. Just 24 hours after indicating that they had a problem with the supply, the country’s maximum leader visited the military plants that have come to the rescue, with the help of the Russians.

On Monday, Miguel Díaz-Canel showed up to walk through the oxygen factory of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), located at the San Antonio de los Baños Air Base. According to the State newspaper Granma, the two Army plants have been providing support for “a few days” to the Industrial Gases of Cuba company, which produces medicinal oxygen. A broken part in its Havana factory (which puts out 95% of the country’s supply) left the one in Santiago de Cuba (responsible for the remaining 5%) alone in a task that has now become a matter of life or death.

These two plants have been joined by a third, donated and built by the Russians in just half a day at the same military base. “Having put it into operation gives us another guarantee and helps a lot,” said the Cuban president, after interacting with “those who have made possible the heroism of continue reading

putting it into operation in record time,” in the words of the official press.

Lieutenant Colonel Boris Portuondo Tartabull, head of Gas and Electricity in the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, said that the new equipment was similar to the two that were already in place and was installed “in little more than twelve hours of arduous work after it arrived in Cuba around two in the afternoon last Sunday.” That is, shortly before the population was informed that oxygen was in short supply.

After its start-up in the early hours of this Monday, it increased production capacity to 360 cylinders every 24 hours, in three work shifts, says Granma.

Díaz-Canel approached the runway of the air base where official propaganda recorded the videos broadcast on Monday, with the soldiers transporting oxygen to provinces such as Pinar del Río, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara, and dedicated himself to encouraging the troops. “’Your work has been decisive,’ he told them, while proudly patting the shoulder of one of the crew,” reads the official text.

The presidential tour continued through the Industrial Gases of Cuba plant, where he observed the work of those who fill the oxygen cylinders distributed in the area of the capital and other nearby provinces, which is currently carried out in 24-hour shifts.

The official press did not refer to the breakdown that supposedly affected this plant and caused the interruption of the supply of medicinal oxygen, precisely when demand was at its highest point in hospitals for Covid patients.

The afternoon was dedicated by the president to other issues, such as visiting two businesses that are about to become SMEs*, and tweeting praise those who work in the fight against the pandemic, a new task that the president seems to have set himself since his prime minister charged healthcare workers with allegedly violating protocols, thereby contributing to the spread of Covid-19.

The authorities’ fear of the anger of the professionals is palpable. Regardless of their ideology, for days they have been expressing their distress at these words coming at a time when they face a pandemic with a shortage of personnel and means, so for the last three days Díaz-Canel has been trying to appease them through dispatches, with uneven success.

“What we have noticed the most in this time is the patriotism of our people, of the Healthcare personnel, of the scientists, of all those involved in Operation Millimeter of Oxygen, people who are working full time in complex situations. Thanks to all!” said the president last night on twitter.

The official newspaper of the Communist Party reinforces the task in a text entitled “At the foot of the patient, the hero who does not serve in enemy campaigns,” which it dedicates to pay tribute to the healthcare workers who face the pandemic without complaining.

“We are talking about those heroes, not about the ones that new enemy campaigns manipulate for their convenience, now exalting them as ’victims’, or putting them at the center of fabricated protests over the conditions in which the country faces Covid-19, and wanting to make them spokespersons of their anti-Cuban offensive, the same doctors and nurses they called slaves . . . Our heroes, the real ones, have names and many hours of sleeplessness,” says the note, which will not help placate those who, by explaining what in their opinion is being done wrong, has caused them to no longer be “real heroes.”

*Translator’s note: SME = Small/Medium size Enterprise

Translated by Tomás A.

____________

Cuba’s ‘Healthcare Collapse is Not the Doctors’ Fault’, Professionals Respond to Marrero

Doctors have also denounced the poor working conditions and “the mistreatment of the leadership” that they suffer every day. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 August 2021 — More than twenty doctors have responded to Prime Minister Manuel Marrero who pointed to “abuse and neglect” as the main causes of patient complaints in Cuba. In a video released this Saturday, health workers have also denounced the poor working conditions and “the mistreatment of the leadership” that they suffer every day.

In a visit to Cienfuegos last week, Marrero assured that most of the complaints from the population about the Public Health system derive from “subjective causes” and listed “abuse, neglect” as the main causes. His words have generated a deep malaise in a sector that has been in check for more than a year due to the pandemic and the lack of resources.

As part of the response to Marrero, several personal and collective letters from health workers have circulated in recent days that point out the problems that they must overcome every day to be able to do their work in the midst of collapsed hospitals due to cases of contagion, the lack of medicines and the few protection measures they have.

“The health collapse that is being experienced at the moment is not the fault of the doctors,” says Dr. Alejandro Eduardo Forés Arafet in a video continue reading

released on Saturday. Forés is head of the intensive therapy ward of the “Vladimir Ilich Lenin” hospital in the city of Holguín, one of the health centers most currently affected by the resurgence in Covid-19 cases on the Island.

Forés not only demands “justice” for those who are “giving everything to save lives every day in this country,” but he stands up to the authorities demanding better working conditions: “I demand means of protection, resources and supplies”, a request that has been heard from the mouths of patients for months, but for a few weeks it has also been heard publicly in the voice of medical personnel.

Along the same lines as Forés, there are several testimonies from students, recent graduates and doctors. “I want to denounce the mistreatment we receive from the leadership and the authorities. In reality, we doctors are the ones who support this country,” adds Claudia Julieth Consuegra Leyva, a third-year resident of general surgery at the same hospital.

The sequence of critical opinions about Marrero’s words marks a historical precedent in a sector that for decades has been shown to be related to government policies and as one of the crown jewels of official propaganda on the island. A few years ago, The health workers were the first to enjoy a salary increase and for decades they have accessed trips abroad through missions in other countries.

Among the complainants is also Manuel Guerra, former resident in the specialty of gynecology and obstetrics, a training that he had to abandon due to pressure from State Security due to his criticism of the Government on social networks; he currently works in the municipal hospital Nicodemus Regalado from Buenaventura, Holguín. “I publicly denounce what was said by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero,” saya the young man.

“He tried to blame the doctors for the current situation,” laments Guerra, at a time when social networks have been filled with videos in which patients and relatives show the interior of many collapsed hospitals on the island, with the corridors full of stretchers, people crying out for oxygen and healthcare workers warning of the lack of drugs to treat them.

For Marilyn Marrero Agüero, Marrero’s unfortunate statements attempting to blame the health workers and calls for “containment in the face of what our leaders say.” Along with the other colleagues who recorded the video, the young woman demands the necessary means and supplies to be able to face the pandemic.

Fearing reprisals for the statements, doctor Rafael Alejandro Fuentes Sánchez, a specialist in general surgery, comments: “I am making this video as I prepare to go out and fight for Cuba, to go out and demand respect for the medical union. We are afraid, But we are not afraid of the pandemic, we are afraid of the Government. “

The doctor adds that they fear what the authorities may do and how they will interpret “the fact that we go out to demand our full right and the right of the people to continue receiving quality medical care.”

So far, and despite the criticism that accumulates, the prime minister has not given any public response to the healthcare professionals nor has he apologized for the words said in Cienfuegos. However, the first complaints of pressure against the doctors who participated in the video have already appeared. On Sunday morning, the doctor Manuel Guerra denounced reprisals against the doctors. “I make this complaint before they disappear me,” said the doctor in a live broadcast on Facebook. Guerra explained that the students and doctors who gave their testimony for the filming had been called to meetings at their workplaces. “My colleagues are being intimidated right now,” he warned.

Este domingo, el médico Manuel Guerra denunció represalias contra los doctores que grabaron un video en respuesta a las críticas que hizo el primer ministro cubano al gremio sanitario. https://t.co/FgygJ2gq2Q pic.twitter.com/5Vo4Ma1A17

— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) August 15, 2021

____________

With General Ferrer Martinez, Eight Senior Military Offices Have Died in Cuba in a Month

From left to right, top to bottom: Arnoldo Ferrer Martínez; Marcelo Verdecia Perdomo; Santiago Lorenzo Hernández Cáceres; Rubén Martínez Puente; Armando Choy Rodríguez; Agustín Peña; Manuel Eduardo Lastres Pacheco and Gilberto Antonio Cardero Sánchez. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2021 — The Reserve Brigadier General, Arnoldo Ferrer Martínez, died in Cuba at the age of 81, as reported on Monday by the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) in a note broadcast on national television. With the death of Ferrer Martínez, there are eight high-ranking military personnel who have died on the island in less than a month without the cause of death being specified in any of the cases.

Ferrer Martínez was a combatant in column number 1 under the command of Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra and, together with his brother Harold Ferrer Martínez, participated in various actions of the Rebel Army. He was also a member of the Doctor Mario Muñoz Third Front under the orders of Juan Almeida Bosque until 1959.

After that year, he held responsibilities within the FAR as tank company chief, battalion chief and infantry division chief, and head of the Territorial Troop Militia preparation center.

Ferrer Martínez, who was a member of the Communist Party of Cuba, was in command of the General Staff of the province of Havana and Pinar del Río and was sent to fight in Angola. According continue reading

to the State newspaper Granma, he was also the second chief of staff of the Western Army.

“His body was cremated and his ashes deposited in the veterans’ pantheon of the Colón Necropolis where they will remain until their subsequent transfer to the Mario Muñoz Third Front mausoleum in the province of Santiago de Cuba,” the statement details.

When Almeida Bosque died, Ferrer Martínez said that it was a pride to fight alongside a man who had the confidence of Fidel and all the rebels. “He was exceptional, brave, inspired respect and admiration.” He met him in September 1957, when he was just 17 years old, according to what he told the official press.

The most recent death of high-ranking military personnel was last week, when the death of 82-year-old reserve colonel Santiago Lorenzo Hernández Cáceres in Havana became known.

Last July, five generals who were part of the Cuban military leadership also died: Agustín Peña, Marcelo Verdecia Perdomo, Rubén Martínez Puente, Manuel Eduardo Lastres Pacheco and Armando Choy Rodríguez, in addition to the commander of the Rebel Army Gilberto Antonio Cardero Sánchez.

____________

People of Santa Clara, Cuba, Quarantined Until September 2

Quarantine areas will be marked in Santa Clara. (Vanguard)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 August 2021 — With an incidence that exceeds 1,300 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, the Santa Clara authorities have opted for the most drastic measure and imposed on the population the obligation to stay at home, as of this Wednesday, except for those issues that are absolutely essential. Work is also suspended immediately from the same day, until September 2.

The mobility limitation measure for the 220,000 inhabitants of the provincial capital is strict from 1 pm, leaving the morning available to perform those tasks that cannot be postponed. Only health personnel and other workers linked to the fight against the pandemic can be in the streets. For the same reason, it is forbidden to stay in collective spaces, such as parks or sports areas, which will be blocked off for effective control.

With regard to employment, in addition to the companies and entities that contribute directly to the epidemiological situation, the sectors of food production and essential services will continue to work, including energy, aqueducts, communal services, telecommunications and exports. In all of them, however, in-office work is cancelled, although teleworking should be encouraged.

The hours of the stores are restricted from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., leaving only those that sell in continue reading

freely convertible currency for hygiene products and food. The ration stores will remain open longer, from Monday to Saturday from 7 to 12 and with a special schedule (3 to 6 pm) for milk, bread and meat, which is available only on an exceptional basis, although the authorities ask Cubans to resort to courier services.

As for the staple products of Tiendas Caribe and Cimex linked to Bodegas del Comercio, sales will be organized so that on August 21 they can close completely until September 2.

Food services will be targeted to people and areas in isolation, with home deliveries and take-away services prohibited, as is the sale of unrationed cigarettes, beers, rum and coffee, which are now regulated.

The agricultural products will continue to be sold at the established points or mobile carts as modules that will be sold in the communities at home, in addition these combos will also be assembled for those who are isolated.

Retail sales and service activities are paralyzed with the exception of those of food, transporters, locksmiths, bike repairs, mechanics, masons and production of construction materials, which can operate from 12 noon from Monday to Friday. Other sectors with restricted or stratified services and hours are banking and pharmacies.

Another of the most contentious points along with food is transport, where crowds of people gather without the required distance. In this case, the restrictions are maintained, with the paralysis of the state and leaving the non-state one in operation from 5:00 am to 1:00 pm, only for humanitarian issues.

The Santa Clara authorities have warned that there will be a specific number to request private transportation at any time, but this must be for emergencies (for the sick or deceased).

Among the restrictions, it has also been warned that the closure of borders will be rigorous “seeking not to enter the municipality or exit for issues that are not strictly humanitarian and those prioritized in the economy,” although it has not been clarified whether tourism will be part of protected activities.

The measures are taken at a very critical moment of the spread of Covid-19 in the province. The authorities indicated that in Hospital Chambery, Centro, Condado Norte y Sur, Vigía Sandino, Camacho Libertad and José Martí, cases exceed 250 daily and no improvement is expected in the short term. “This leads us and forces us to an increase in rigor,” they argued.

The obligation to stay at home is the most decisive measure used to cut the transmission of the virus in the world and was used with special rigor in several European countries at the beginning of the pandemic. In Spain, the measure lasted for just over two months, with a complete stoppage of face-to-face employment for a week; and in France it has been used intermittently even in 2021.

The usefulness is unquestionable at the epidemiological level because it supposes the cutting of transmission to minimum levels, but its reverse is the blow it supposes for the economy. The members of the European Union had to agree to multimillion-dollar funds to compensate and help cover the closures and losses in many companies, in addition to supporting state plans and allowing unpublished indebtedness to date.

Cuba, however, does not have that cushion, something that has probably influenced the resistance of the authorities to decree these type of measures, which were only applied in Pinar del Río last April and occasionally in a neighborhood of Havana.

A division of opinion is reflected among the people of Santa Clara. Some of them have questioned the measure on social networks, because of the damage it will cause to an already very impoverished population, and among those who approve it, there are those who wonder why it has been necessary to wait for so many deaths to get serious.

____________

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: